other than the emperor himself.

Who didn’t want to be in that girl gang of models comin’ at ya with their Instagram-ready dresses paired with badass hockey tube socks, dripping with feathers and rhinestones and brandished with a bracelet that spelled out “PRADA.” As each model went past, with each ensemble more alluring and heavily embellished than the next, it did  cheap hermes bagdawn on me that there was likely to be a face-off between the various editors, It girls, and bloggers who can afford to get in on the showpieces. Which look were they going to bag? And who would be the first to have it shot by Tommy Ton or Phil Oh on the “streets?” During Milan Fashion Week, Stella Jean — a resident of Rome — is set to show at the 550-seat Teatro Armani, the first womenswear

designer so honoured, other than the emperor himself.Rather, she is a woman of 34, mother of two and a former model (although she disliked all but the fittings and watching the designers at work). She launched her eponymous label in Rome in 2011, but far from being an overnight success, she twice failed to even qualify for the talent competition “Who Is On Next,” supported by Vogue Italia as part of the Alta Roma schedule. It was third-time luck when she finally qualified, then won. Alta Roma’s elegant talent scout Simonetta Gianfelici helped to turn things around for Stella Jean, advising her to “be more sincere; do something that belongs only to you.” Stella Jean (her surname, though she doesn’t use it professionally, is Novarino) is half-Italian and half-Haitian. “I had struggled to find my identity,” she says. “I found it through my work. I put my two worlds together and found fashion was looking for that.” She calls her unique vision “Wax & Stripes” —

the latter for a father who hailed from industrial Turin and the former “for the black side of me, the black roots of the Caribbean islands.” Certainly, the first thing that attracts the ey The show Hermes kelly 32is scheduled to start at 10.30am start on Saturday, September 21st, which, while sandwiched nicely in the calendar between Emporio Armani on Friday and Giorgio Armani on Monday, pits it against a considerable challenger. Saturday morning during Milan Fashion Week is, you see, the sacred time for “shoe appointments,” a euphemism for shopping. Yet the buzz around “the new Stella” is such that the front-row set are confirming attendance in Via Bergognone rather than Via Monte Napoleone. It was Instagram-friendly to put it mildly. A few re-see photos on my own Instagram feed garnered more “likes” than any of the other shows that Milan has had to offer thus far. Sure, you could chalk that up to the power of Prada, but spring 2014 was such a surface and eye-candy driven collection (think: Rainbow Brite and Sanrio mixed together) that it seemed primed for today’s “Look at Me” generation.