Madonna is still a style icon

PARIS – When spiritually-reborn “Material Girl” Madonna hits the stage in the world’s couture capital, style gurus are likely to be out in force to appraise exactly what she’s wearing.

Faithful to her reputation as global fashionista icon, Madonna, who recently changed her name to Esther after converting to Kabbalah, has called on the top names in fashion to design the costumes for her current “Re-Invention” world tour – Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Stella McCartney etc. In Paris, where she was originally due to play two nights, 15 000 tickets sold out in only 30 minutes for the opening show and organisers added two concerts.Her four concerts are totally sold out, with some holders offering seats on the Internet for sums of 200 euros up.But then Madonna, now 46, has been wowing crowds and setting fashion trends for two decades, from raunchy sex-symbol to hippie-style earth-mother.Big names such as Prada or Dolce and Gabbana have cashed in on her name, as have little known designers such as Belgian Olivier Theyskens, who first won fame when she turned out for the Oscars sporting one of his creations.Stella McCartney, one of her friends, designed the once-in-a-lifetime dress for her wedding with Guy Ritchie, which was both a good deed and a good plug.In 1990 for her Blond Ambition Tour she turned Jean-Paul Gaultier into a household name because of his conicle-cupped corset.Houses that succeed in getting Madonna – or even better Madonna plus daughter Lourdes – into the front row for their catwalk collections, such as Gaultier or Versace, know the paparazzi will fly into a frenzy, ensuring plenty of media footage for the label.”She remains a strong fashion icon because she’s got a real fashion culture and knows what she wants,” Patrick Cabasset, deputy editor of fashion magazine L’Official, told AFP.”She’s a chameleon with as much feeling for her image as someone like (designer) Jean-Paul Gaultier or (photographer/video artist) Jean-Baptiste Mondino”, he added.”If you were to give her a mark for either just being or keeping up appearances, you’d give her 100 percent for keeping up appearances.She’s first and foremost just image, despite the fact that nowadays she wants to show she has soul by writing children’s books and taking up spirituality.”- Nampa-AFPIn Paris, where she was originally due to play two nights, 15 000 tickets sold out in only 30 minutes for the opening show and organisers added two concerts.Her four concerts are totally sold out, with some holders offering seats on the Internet for sums of 200 euros up.But then Madonna, now 46, has been wowing crowds and setting fashion trends for two decades, from raunchy sex-symbol to hippie-style earth-mother.Big names such as Prada or Dolce and Gabbana have cashed in on her name, as have little known designers such as Belgian Olivier Theyskens, who first won fame when she turned out for the Oscars sporting one of his creations.Stella McCartney, one of her friends, designed the once-in-a-lifetime dress for her wedding with Guy Ritchie, which was both a good deed and a good plug.In 1990 for her Blond Ambition Tour she turned Jean-Paul Gaultier into a household name because of his conicle-cupped corset.Houses that succeed in getting Madonna – or even better Madonna plus daughter Lourdes – into the front row for their catwalk collections, such as Gaultier or Versace, know the paparazzi will fly into a frenzy, ensuring plenty of media footage for the label.”She remains a strong fashion icon because she’s got a real fashion culture and knows what she wants,” Patrick Cabasset, deputy editor of fashion magazine L’Official, told AFP.”She’s a chameleon with as much feeling for her image as someone like (designer) Jean-Paul Gaultier or (photographer/video artist) Jean-Baptiste Mondino”, he added.”If you were to give her a mark for either just being or keeping up appearances, you’d give her 100 percent for keeping up appearances.She’s first and foremost just image, despite the fact that nowadays she wants to show she has soul by writing children’s books and taking up spirituality.”- Nampa-AFP