James Penfold

When Julia Restoin-Roitfeld served as Dazed & Confused's guest photo blogger for New York Fashion Week in February, she caught her friend James Penfold in action. Among other talents, this former supermodel speaks Italian and has been known to DJ occasionally using the moniker "The Savoir Faire." Penfold includes an impressive array of clients in his portfolio, among them are DKNY, Burberry, Giorgio Armani, and CK Jeans. Julia captioned her photo above saying, "At the Purple Magazine dinner at Soho House with my friend James Penfold (former model and upcoming DJ. He will be performing at the Last Magazine [founded by Julia's former boyfriend Magnus Berger] party this Thursday). My friends and I are debating about his new signature look, black smudge eyeliner. So should man makeup come back as a trend? I personally quite like it!" What do you think, man makeup or no? I'd like to see how Vladimir looks in smoky eyes, it so becomes the female members of his family as well as his friend James... Heh, in the last photo even his tshirt is wearing man makeup.

James Penfold photograph by Julia Restoin-Roitfeld © 2009 Waddell Limited
Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld and James Penfold photograph © 2009 Patrick McMullan
Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, James Penfold, Paola Kudacki photograph © 2009 Patrick McMullan

Keegan Singh

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld counts Keegan Singh among her friends and colleagues; the talented pair have the good fortune to put their heads together on interesting projects as well as fabulous parties. Chosen as one of Paper's Beautiful People for 2009, Singh works as a freelance stylist and contributes to Vogue, Purple, and V Man. Though Singh did not go to school for fashion, he was lucky enough to break into the business of being a stylist by assisting Tabitha Simmons and Katie Grand and learning from them. His live-in boyfriend is jewelry designer Eddie Borgo. In fact, Julia and Keegan just collaborated on the poster shown below, a limited-edition print that will be complimentary with purchase of Borgo's jewelry line while supplies last. Keegan acted as stylist and Julia as art director for the poster (obviously). Note that Keegan is wearing a bracelet designed by Borgo in the photo above.

Last season, Julia and Keegan had the chance to work together on Rock & Republic's campaign which featured Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld with Malgosia Bela. When asked for her thoughts on casting her brother for the campaign, Julia replied, "Everything was very professional. And part of the reason we cast Vladimir, in fact, was that the campaign seemed to call for a real guy, and not a model. I mean, that was my pitch—the previous campaigns weren't embodying the strength of the brand's name, and its products, and I felt like it was important to express a rock 'attitude,' in an authentic way, rather than do something like, oh, here's a bunch of guys pretending to be a band and fake-playing the guitar. When I think 'rock attitude,' I think confidence, I think strength; the choice of model reflects that. You have to be yourself, not someone playing a role."

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and Keegan Singh photograph courtesy of Park Avenue Peerage.
Eddie Borgo limited-edition poster image courtesy of The New York Times Company.
Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld and Malgosia Bela advertisement courtesy of Rock & Republic.