Archive for September 2010

New Site Style Trek is “Facebook Meets Net-A-Porter For Emerging Designers”

Style Trek, a new hybrid e-commerce and social networking site, launched this week. Founder Cecilia Pagkalinawan, who previously helped market and launch ecommerce for Burberry, Frette and La Perla, describes the site as “Facebook meets Net-A-Porter for emerging designers.”

The site currently features collections from 20 designers across the globe, and the plan is to add more designers in the coming months. To call them all “emerging” designers would be a bit misleading though. Some, like Nicole Noselli and Daphne Gutierrez who design Bruce, are better described as “re-emerging”–their line Bruce picked up a CFDA award back in 2001, they took a break for a while, and now they’re back. Mexican design duo Rafa Cuevas and Roberto Sanchez’s line Teamo (as in “te amo”) is big in Mexico but they’re looking to reach consumers in the states. Pagkalinawan finds designers through tips from industry insiders. Buyers pass along designers they like but can’t stock because they’re either too small or they’ve already reached capacity for their contemporary floors. Hopefully, they find a home on Style Trek.

While most ecommerce sites simply curate merchadise, Style Trek aims to allow shoppers and designers to communicate and engage with one another. Designers have profile pages so consumers get a better sense of the personality behind the product. Consumers can become “Style Trekkers” and create their own profiles to connect with other shoppers and designers, and “like” products, which allows Style Trek to track trends and adjust inventory accordingly.

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Janie Bryant MOD Live on QVC Tonight at 10pm

I’m sure many of our loyal readers were missing this week’s Mad Men Style Recap, but due to the demands of fashion week, I missed the episode and still haven’t watched it. This just means that Sunday’s recap will be twice as nice.

To compensate for the lack of Mad Men during fashion week, I sat down with Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant at the QVC pop-up store. Janie was promoting her aptly titled QVC line, Janie Bryant MOD, and had been perkily signing tees and chatting up loyal fans.

Janie’s QVC line is just everything I’d hoped it would be: Tons of faux leopard in the form of hats, capelets, and bags, charming necklaces that do double duty with detachable brooches, and stunning nail polish colors. Inspired by the ’50s and ’60s, vintage Vogues, and the timelessness of true movie stars, the collection has the elegant touches every modern girl’s wardrobe needs.

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Entertainment

1 Question for The Rachel Zoe Project

We’re busy with fashion week so I apologize for this late and super abridged RZ recap. But this was really my main question after zipping through the episode:

1. Who serves a Thanksgiving-style turkey at a Seder? I know every family does it different, but I’ve never seen turkey at Passover. Maybe it’s a Rosenzweig tradition? I’m partial to gefilte fish (not kidding), but to each their own.

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Fashion Week

Trendspotting: Greenery

By Elizabeth Jaime Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010 / 6:00 PM

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Reviews

The Twentyten Is Insane, In The Best Possible Way

I’ve seen a lot of shows this week, mostly established designers with a known aesthetic. I’m always excited to see what they produce, but that element of surprise isn’t always there. The Twentyten is a relatively new label, but I suspect name recognition won’t be a problem for them much longer.

Jeff Dodd, David J. Krause, and Nina Zilka are the designers behind the label, and they all met as students in the Pratt Institute’s fashion design program. The name is a reference to their graduation year. This is their fourth collection together, and their first as members of the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation.

The Incubator’s mission is to “link sustainability to enterprise.” The Twentyten designers are the first fashion designers to be members (the Incubator is for all design disciplines.) They don’t get financial support, but they get invaluable services such as assistance with business plans and exhibition space, like the open sunny loft overlooking the Hudson where they displayed their wares. The designers make everything locally in NY’s Garment Center, and several of their pieces are made from scrap leather and organic bamboo.

When I read the inspiration for the collection, I was slightly worried that this was going to be a beautiful yet unwearable, artsy mess. The collection was based on a “fictional female character and her descent into madness.” (Quite appropriate for the last few days of fashion week.)

What I saw when I walked in, however, was an utterly hip and wearable collection of tops, pants, and dresses. The vibe is definitely downtown, but I live uptown and I wanted a good chunk of this collection.

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Fashion Week Parties

Last Night’s Other Parties: Creatures of Comfort and Style.com

We didn’t make it to the Dazed party at Don Hill’s last night (although we heard a bunch of people got arrested, so maybe that’s a good thing), but we did manage to stop by the Creatures of Comfort New York store launch on Mulberry Street and Style.com‘s 10th anniversary bash, which was taking place just a couple of blocks away.

Creatures of Comfort, a Los Angeles-based brick and mortar store, label, and online shopping destination for Rachel Comey and VPL-lovers across the country, is opening up shop in New York. Owner Jade Lai hosted a party in her expansive new space last night, and tons of our favorite designers were there: Tiffany Tuttle, Comey, Peter Jensen, Victoria Bartlett, Daphne Javitch, and plenty more. And of course Lai around, not only touting her new storefront, but also her INCREDIBLE in-house collection, which both Leah and I melted over. It’s gently priced–in the $150-$350 range–and everything is a mix and match of silk cropped blouses, tie-waist dresses, and loose blazers. Most was made from a delicate crepe, with some cotton mixed in. And the color palette? Seafoam, terra cotta, white, periwinkle…everything we want for spring.

After fawning over the clothes, we chatted with our Carroll Gardens contingency–Izzy from RackedNY, Adele from Epaulet, and Jen from Bird. South Brooklyn is the best.

But soon it was time to head to Lafayette for Style.com‘s 10th anniversary party.

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Fashion Week Parties

Last Night’s Party: Florence and the Machine at Mulberry

At the Mulberry party on Soho House’s roof, Florence and the Machine played an acoustic set (her voice, a guitar and a harp) for about 200 lucky onlookers, most of whom (all but about 50 of us) were idiot fashion fools talking throughout the set.

They played six songs, ending with Dog Days, and calling designer Emma Hill on stage twice to thank her.

Kelly Osborne and Alexa Chung celebullied their way to the front of the intimate show.

All in all, great show, potentially ruined by loud celebutards, and their wispy accouterments.

Click through for more photos from last night’s fete.

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  • Fashionista Staff
  • Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010 / 3:30 PM
  • 5 Comments
Fashion Week

Mulberry Spring 2011: Not Your Typical Garden Variety

Inspired the by the Secret Garden, Mulberry’s Spring 2011 presentation was filled with flowers, puppies, and a soundtrack of chirping birds. Seriously. Click through for some lovely images.

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Fashion Week

Rad Hourani’s Welcome Repeat

Rad Hourani’s press materials boast of his “asexual, aseasonal, and atemporal vision,” which I can’t argue with. But with his spring/summer collection, there really isn’t much point in arguing: It’s black and white—you’re either on board or you’re not.

Once again, Hourani has shown us a bleak, but beautiful future; stark, genderless and cold as ice.

His impossibly minimalist looks, the definition of clean lines, all leather leggings, deconstructed shirts and jackets, skintight bombers, vests, and architectural knits that cut a steep streamlined silhouette.

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  • John Ortved
  • Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010 / 2:00 PM
  • 2 Comments
Fashion Week

Alice+Olivia+Glitter+Tavi

I was reasonably sure when I walked into the Alice + Olivia presentation that I wouldn’t be seeing much white minimalism. I was correct. Gold glitter covered every surface, and Stacey Bendet was dressed in a silver twinkling bolero, black sparkly beaded dress, and bejeweled hair piece. Even her eyelids were glittery. I got to chat with her for a few minutes, feeling quite bland in my black and grey ensemble. Thank goodness my earrings were sparkly.

Fashionista: So tell me about the collection:
Stacey Bendet: The whole concept of the show was supposed to be this sort of timeless travel. The feel is a mix of ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and I wanted everything to be mixed and matched in a way that it all felt fresh, but each piece you’re not sure when it came from. It’s very cool and detailed and classic, and I want you to be able to pick it up and wear it ten years from now.

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Tim Gunn’s Latest Victim, Brad on Taylor and Tom Ford’s Crashers

Tim Gunn Hates Everyone, and Doesn’t Hide It: Granted, everything he says is usually spot on. Gunn just shot an episode of Gossip Girl and had some not-so-nice things to say about Taylor Momsen, including: “She was pathetic, she couldn’t remember her lines, and she didn’t even have that many. I thought to myself ‘why are we all being held hostage by this brat?’” {E! Online}

Brad Goreski, on the other hand, had nicer things to say about a former co-worker named Taylor. He spoke of Ms. Jacobson’s split from the company (which happened a really long time ago, but people are still about it): “I hear she’s doing really really well and I think that’s great. I wish her all the luck in the world.” {Hollywood Life}

Obama Gets Bush’s Approval: That would be Michelle Obama, who has the style approval of former first niece Lauren Bush. Bush attended Carolina Herrera’s show and said of Mrs. O, “I think [her sense of style] is great, I think it’s wonderful that she’s supporting young designers I think that’s very cool.” {Daily News}

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H&M Offers Exclusive Lanvin Video To Most Popular Fashion Blogger

Here’s an interesting marketing trick, courtesy of H&M. This morning, we received a pitch from the fast fashion retailer regarding a new blogger contest that they’re implementing.

Instead of offering one or a couple outlets special access to the Lanvin Hearts H&M video campaign, the Swedish label wants bloggers to install a widget on their site, asking readers to vote for for their blog. In return, the blog with the most votes will get exclusive access to the the video campaign. It won’t run on YouTube or on H&M or any other websites–just on the blog. That should result in a ton of traffic for the winner.

The contest begins today and and ends October 7. You can visit H&M’s Facebook page to sign up. Will you put your url in the hat?

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