Archive for September 2010

Entertainment

The Turtle is the New Smize and Other Lessons Learned At Breakfast With Tyra And Andre Leon Talley

America’s Next Top Model Cycle 15, the high fashion cycle, Tyra Banks and Andre Leon Talley treated editors to a lovely breakfast at Marea in midtown and sat down to chat with us candidly over scrambled eggs and the most delicious pecan sticky buns. (They also looked amazing–Tyra was in clingy gray McQueen shift, ALT was in Prada and Lacoste.)

You might think Tyra and Andre would be an intimidating pair (at least I did), but they are more like a comedy team. And we learned some valuable, hilarious, lessons from them.

Lesson One: Turtle before you smize.
The smize is undeniably important–cycle after cycle of Top Model hopefuls aspire to get it right, and few do. But before you smize, turtle. This goes for models and non models alike. Tyra demonstrated that when a photo is being taken of you head-on you must jut your face out, like a turtle, and the results will be amazing. Most people have a tendency to lean back and smile, which creates extra chins. The turtle thins our your face, and the camera will capture your best self instead your self with three chins. Just don’t get caught doing the turtle on a profile shot. Because then you’ll just look like a turtle.

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Gap Goes Upscale With a Valentino Collaboration

Gap and Pierre Hardy just works. Gap and Valentino? We’re not so sure. The world’s biggest specialty retailer is teaming up with the historic fashion house to create a capsule collection, which will be available in a few of its European stores. (The US flagships are not scheduled to receive a shipment, unfortunately.) The partnership was formed to celebrate the opening of the new Gap stores in Milan and Rome. The launch will take place in November at the retailer’s new Milan flagship, but pieces will also be available at Colette, Dover Street Market, and Gap’s London flagship.

I was living in London when Gap did something similar with Roland Mouret and I will say that the results were impressive. And of course no one can forget Phoebe Philo’s “European collection” for the brand. But Mouret’s dresses are structured and Philo’s a minimalist–those looks were slightly easier to recreate in a knit than a silky blouse or ruffly frock, which is what the new Valentino team is best known for. It’ll be interesting to see what they turn out.

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Fashion Is Fun

Pre-Fashion Week Mad-Libs: Sachin + Babi for Ankasa

By Dhani Mau Wednesday, Sep 8, 2010 / 6:00 PM

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YSL’s New Manifesto Hits New York on September 14

Get excited: YSL’s Fall/Winter 2010-2011 Manifesto is about to launch right here in New York. The publication, along with a Stefano Pilati-designed tote, will be distributed on city streets this coming Tuesday, September 14. It’ll be passed around the rest of the world–meaning Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Beirut–on Saturday, September 18.

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Fashion Careers

Sally’s Styling Seminary: Setting up a Styling Business

This week I’m writing about something you might think is boring, but, like a workout regimen, it’s a necessary evil: Setting up a stylist’s business.

I am a total geek and love working on the business side of my styling practice, but I know most stylists want to be creative and not even think about the biz operations. At the end of the day, being a successful stylist means being the CEO of your own company. Several of the best stylists I have met are incredibly business savvy.

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Fashion Careers

How’d You Get So Far? Gayle Dizon’s Honest Answer to Succeeding in Fashion

If you’ve been to a big show at New York Fashion Week, you know Gayle Dizon’s work. She’s the powerhouse behind Dizon, Inc., a 10-year-old event production company that organizes shows for the likes of Proenza Schouler, ADAM, and Thakoon. She also happens to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in the industry. People that work with her/have worked with her have nothing but good things to say–and that’s a true test of success.

Gayle was gracious enough to answer our standard questions on how to succeed in fashion. We hope you learn something–we sure did!

How did you get started?

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Streetwalker

Street Style: Justice is on Dali Time

Name: Justice

Age: 23

Occupation: Musician

What kind of music do you play? Electronic, psychedelic

What are the most prominent colors in your wardrobe? Black and gold

What is your current favorite song? “The Six Train” by Pink Stallone

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Entertainment

10 Questions for The Rachel Zoe Project

1. Hey Brad, Rodger, can I have the rest of your pasta?

2. How do you communicate with Italian designers when you can’t speak Italian? Kiss, kiss. Breathless utterance about how ah-mazing their collection was. Ciao ciao. Beyond.

3. Could we see more fashion porn in every episode please? Loved the footage of the Milan shows.

4. When can Johnny Weir join the cast? I want to see him do excited claps every episode.

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Events

Last Night’s Parties: Jessica Simpson Stomps, Kate Spade Twirls

Before and after Fashion’s Night Out: The Show, I made my way to the night’s two biggest events: The launch of Jessica Simpson’s denim collection and the Kate Spade/Elizabeth Arden-hosted dinner to celebrate the launch of the brand’s new fragrance, Twirl.

Simpson’s soiree was a lively party in her apparel label’s showroom, DJed by brother-in-law Pete Wentz and featuring Simpson and friends show off the jeans, as well as some Spring 2011 offerings. The snacks were good–mini everything, from grilled cheese to hamburgers to BLTs–and the atmosphere was bright and buzzy. Simpson’s friends, including CaCee Cobb (who we’re particularly fond of because she’s married to Donald Faison, aka Murray from Clueless) scooted around the room in their new clothes. In reality, there were few actually examining at the wares–most onlookers seemed to want to get a good view of Simpson’s bod rather than her jeans. But I’ll say that there were some lovely shoes in the mix–particularly a pair of brown heeled hiking boots. Simpson’s shoe collection–when she’s not knocking off other labels–is really great. There–I’m admitting it!

I soon moved on to FNO: The Show, which you can read about here. Then it was time to head down to Tribeca, where the Kate Spade gals were clinking champagne at the Smyth Hotel’s Plein Sud in honor of Twirl, a new fragrance produced in conjunction with Elizabeth Arden.

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Carey’s Charming Vogue Cover, Tavi’s Styling Gig and More

We were right again. We were pretty excited about this and it’s definitely our favorite Vogue cover in a while; maybe just because we love Carey so much and that Chanel couture number is refreshingly edgy for the American glossy. The shoot was styled by Grace Coddington and shot by Peter Lindbergh. {Catwalk Queen}

The “New” Chanel Iman: Chanel Iman, who at 19 years old is well on her way to becoming a household name, is ready to change and evolve. With fashion week imminent, the runway fixture and Victoria’s Secret model has just signed with IMG after seven months with Supreme. “It’s the celebration of a new me,” she says. {Daily Front Row}

Tavi Styles at Fashion Week: Tavi continues to be unstoppable. Part of Alice & Olivia’s presentation will be styled by the 14 year old blogger. Designer Stacey Bendet calls her “one of the most original people in fashion right now.” {Elle.com}

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Magazines

Breaking: Brandon Holley Has Been Named Editor of Lucky

Nice bomb to drop the day before Fashion Week.

Former ElleGIRL and Jane editor-in-chief Brandon Holley has been named editor of Lucky. She will succeed Kim France, reports WWD.

Most recently, Holley was content director at Yahoo! Shine, the portal’s channel for women.

Holley is a good fit for Lucky, which houses plenty of former Jane and Sassy staffers, including creative director Andrea Linett. While the copy is minimal and fairly sterile, the market pages and designer profiles are the dream of a certain type of editor. The clothes, products, and accessories–from brands like Mayle and Lyell to Rebecca Minkoff–are things these women would actually wear. And Holley fits into that mold–slightly indie, but not snobby.

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