In Focus Look out – it’s Girl Panic!

Upstairs in the lobby, the paint is barely dry on the Savoy Hotel’s £220m renovation. An aroma of polish, neatly laundered staff and freshly laid carpet pervades. But descend a couple of flights and it’s the Nineties again: five supermodels, Dolce & Gabbana, Duran Duran, hairspray, crimping tongs, guy-liner, skinny trousers and cheek-sucking. Helena Christensen is having her hair done. Naomi Campbell chats with Eva Herzigova. Yasmin Le Bon, still sensational at 46, is lying on the floor. Cindy Crawford manages to smoulder while playing Scrabble on her iPad.


This supermodel summit has been masterminded by the combined efforts of Duran Duran, director Jonas Åkerlund and Swarovski in order to shoot the band’s new ‘Girl Panic!’ video. The concept is that models replace the group. ‘I’m Roger,’ says Helena to camera. ‘And I play drums in one of the coolest bands in the world.’ Naomi is on lead vocals, Eva on keyboards, Cindy on John Taylor’s bass and Yasmin on lead guitar. The actual band, meanwhile, have walk-on parts as bellhops, chauffeurs and journalists, and the Dolce & Gabbana boys are doing the styling.


It quickly becomes evident that this stellar assemblage is turning out to be a fashion moment. And Nick Rhodes is loving every minute of it. ‘We’ve been involved in elaborate projects before,’ he says. ‘But this has been like working on some intricate military maneuver [manoeuvre].‘

I follow Simon Le Bon into the ballroom – a huge white space with a circular stage at its centre. The drum kit, keyboard and even the amps are white. A vast, shimmering white curtain of Swarovski crystals serves as a backdrop, while a team of Swarovski technicians unwrap Fabien Baron’s ‘Dead or Alive’ skulls and, tweezers in hand, busy themselves applying 700 crystals to Naomi’s microphone. The band has taken such a liking to the crystal-studded guitar straps, they’ll use them on their next world tour.

There is something about the Mark Ronson-produced ‘Girl Panic!’, with its skittish drum intro, disco bass, choppy guitars, swirling synth and the fact it has the word ‘girls’ in the title that is classic Duran Duran. The opening chords boom forth. Åkerlund’s camera sweeps past. Naomi takes the mic and mimes the lyrics word-perfect, apparently born to be a frontman. Rhodes, watching the action on a monitor, can’t stop smiling. ‘Sparkle and models,’ he says. ‘It’s what we’re all about.’