Several years ago, Angelina Jolie became the face of St. John clothing and promoted their line for awhile.  This should be really old news, but all of a sudden St. John are running their mouth off about Angelina and basically saying they dumped her for being more of a big deal than their boring clothes designed for Ladies Who Lunch.  From People:

While Angelina Jolie hasn’t appeared in an ad for St. John for some time, the luxury knitwear company is speaking out on the absence of her famous face from their campaign. The label’s chief executive officer Glenn McMahon tells WWD, “[Jolie] overshadowed the brand. We wanted to make a clean break from actresses and steer away from blondes and cleanse the palette.” So while other luxury brands have hired the likes of Madonna, Emma Watson, Eva Mendes and others to star in their upcoming spring/summer 2010 campaigns, St. John turned to red-headed model Karen Elson, a decision McMahon sees as a step in the right direction for the brand. “We needed to show a modern point of view of St. John,” he says. “We have evolved.” And according to the label’s website, executive vice president of design for St. John, George Sharp, who also directed the new ads, views Karen as the “epitome of the modern day woman…the St. John woman… strong, confident, sensual and approachable with effortless glamour.”

St. John had a three year contract with Angelina Jolie which began in 2005 and ended in the summer of 2008, so their business relationship has been over and done with for a year and a half and should really have no bearing on whatever the hell the company’s doing now.  It sounds to me like the St. John CEO is either bitter and vengeful or is an attention whore trying to squeeze the last drop of blood from his boring-ass company’s tenuous connection to one of the most famous women in the world.

Besides, the folks at St. John are delusional if they think they have a “modern point of view” or that they’ve “evolved” because while they make relatively nice things, they don’t exactly trend young.  Their stuff is tasteful and conservative, and doesn’t get anywhere near edgy or fashion forward.  My grandmother liked St. John, but she was old and now she’s dead.  Actually, the only people I’ve ever met in real life who wore their clothes were all at least 55 years old, so if St. John had a lick of damn sense they’d get someone like Helen Mirren or Susan Sarandon to advertise their line.

Karen Elson for the St. John spring 2010 campaign:

Some of Angelina Jolie’s old ads for St. John: