Archive for October 2010

Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: The Rise and Fall of The Hipster, Tracking Down Those Gap Wedges and Ally Hilfiger to Design

Investigating The Hipster: High-brow literary journal n+1‘s investigation of the rise and fall of the Hipster started with a panel at The New School and has culminated in a text entitled “What Was the Hipster?: A Sociological Investigation.” You can purchase it here for $10. {The Moment}

Wedding Bandz: Katy Perry and Russell Brand are married now. Katy wore Elie Saab and the wedding gift bags included custom “Katy” and “Russell” Silly Bandz. {Styleite}

A Gap in Inventory: Leave it to Racked to track down the highly anticipated Pierre Hardy for Gap wedges. Unfortunately, the results of their NYC findings were pretty dismal. Apparently, Fifth Avenue and 54th Street only received five pairs (all of which are probably gone by now). Times Square had “a few sizes” and 34th street had nothing. All stores are hopefully awaiting more shipments. {Racked NY}

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Kitson Countersues Nicole Richie’s Clothing Line, Claims Richie Bailed On An Appearance Worth $500K. Is Richie Worth It?

Kitson, every pop tart’s favorite LA boutique, has filed a countersuit against Majestic Mills, the manufacturer of Nicole Richie’s Winter Kate line, WWD is reporting. In the suit, Kitson claims that because Majestic Mills dropped the ball on getting Richie to appear at the launch party for Winter Kate and House of Harlow 1960 shoes, the store was “deprived of profits in excess of $500,000.”

Richie’s manufacturer, Majestic Mills, filed the initial suit against Kiston in August claiming that the retailer owed $225,000 worth of merchandise.

What’s striking about this increasingly messy legal battle, is Kitson’s claim that one Nicole Richie appearance is worth $500K. Could that be right? Sure, she’s got cute hair and cute babies and dresses cute sometimes, but $500K? That seems like a lot. Maybe not, though.

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Fashion Careers

Our Student Correspondent Reports From Teen Vogue‘s Fashion University

This past weekend, Teen Vogue invited Zac Posen, Erin Fetherson, Jenna Lyons, Charlotte Ronson, Rachel Roy, and Jason Wu–among others–to speak at its annual Fashion University in New York City. As a high school senior, I was one of the lucky attendants. Here’s what went down:

The weekend kicked off with a Juicy Couture shopping event at the label’s flagship store on 5th Ave. Budding fashionistas lined up around the block and were welcomed inside by male models walking around, offering tasty treats. Indie band The Downtown Fiction performed for a packed store.

The next morning, a camel-donned Anna Wintour gave the opening address, detailing the ups and downs of her career. Everyone in the audience appeared surprised by how honest she was of her mistakes. Wintour gave the impression of having genuine passion for developing new young talent in the industry. She called the fashion world the most charitable industry saying, “No one else gives back their time, money, or ideas like us. There is no competitiveness or back biting.” Her final piece of advice was “Do your time to succeed; you have to start at the bottom to make it to the top.”

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  • Emily Snyder
  • Tuesday, Oct 26, 2010 / 11:00 AM
  • 3 Comments
Parties

Five Style Tips From BCBGeneration Creative Director Joyce Azria

LOS ANGELES–BCBGeneration, the sister brand to BCBG aimed at a younger, hipper audience, celebrated the grand opening of its first LA boutique at the Century City mall on Sunday afternoon.

The brightly lit store reflects the energetic, savvy vibe of the brand, something that creative director, Joyce Azria says was their main goal in designing the free-standing boutiques. “Our vision for the store was to design something really uplifting and bright. It’s a feel good brand at the end of the day, so we wanted something that illuminates people, so there’s a lot of light, and a lot of white.”

The latest collection includes great nighttime options (we spied a ton of sequins), neutral basics like slouchy sweaters, and in keeping with the BCBG spirit, killer cocktail dresses and stand-out accessories. In particular, we thought the word bracelets featuring popular ’90s phrases like “dude,” “psych” and “righteous” were pretty awesome.

Proving to be the true embodiment of the brand, Azria was on hand all afternoon greeting fans and doling out styling advice. We picked her brain for the top five tips she thinks every girl should know right now:

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  • Natalie Yost
  • Tuesday, Oct 26, 2010 / 10:00 AM
  • 0 Comments
Magazines

The Revenge of the Smallest: How Crush Fanzine Bucks the Publishing Trends

Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.

The images projected onto a tan brick wall on the back of New York’s 48th Street Holiday Inn showed a blond guy wearing a dark blue cotton jumpsuit, mopping the floor of what seemed like a manufacturing building. It wasn’t a preview for a new movie release. It was surely not a commercial for the latest detergent or all-powerful mops.

Instead, it was a screening of the short film “Romance Language” by Jarrah Gurrie. The movie centers around an encounter between a blue collar office cleaner and his female counterpart during a late night work shift. Without exchanging any words due to language differences, he shares his meals with her.

The blond guy playing the cleaner is model Travis Lee Hanson. And the people gather on the roof watching him were there to celebrate Crush Fanzine’s Obsession # 5: Travis Lee Hanson.

Unlike any other publication, CrushFanzine’s entire issue–there have been five thus far–focuses on one subject. Travis is the newest topic; others have included actress Charlotte Rampling and model Arthur (who starred in the first issue.) It’s not about fashion as in: “a report on what’s new this season.” It’s about fashion as it’s seen through the eyes of an individual. Above all, it’s about the pleasure and the enjoyment a print product can have on its readers.

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  • Long Nguyen
  • Monday, Oct 25, 2010 / 7:00 PM
  • 0 Comments
Adventures in Copyright

Adventures in Copyright: ’70s Style Silk-Screened Swimsuits

Both Black Milk and We Are Handsome started in 2009 so we’re not quite sure who is inspiring whom here (and really both lines are drawing inspiration from 70s silk-screened tees). Black Milk started with leggings in 2009 and have since started making swimwear. Australian label We Are Handsome are solely swim. You be the judge.

Black Milk has been getting buzz these days for their more nerd-chic one-pieces, some of which have Star Wars fanatics geeking out. Take a look.

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Sales

Racked Dealfeed: Scoop, Zachary’s Smile, and Blu Dot

Scoop
Deal: Additional markdowns of up to 50% to 70% at this extended sale
When/Where: Through Sunday, October 31. Mon—Wed 11am—7pm, Thurs—Sat 11am—8pm, Sun 11am—6pm. 875 Washington St at 14th Street (212-633-6539)

Zachary’s Smile
Deal: An attic sale on vintage priced from $10 to $30, plus a $5 section and a Halloween section with nothing priced over $48. Vintage and costume jewelry range from $2 to $10; footwear and accessories $5 to $20.
When/Where: Saturday, October 23 to Sunday, November 7. Mon—Fri 1pm—8pm, Sat noon—8pm, Sun 8am—7pm. 303 Mulberry St between Bleecker and Houston Sts

Blu Dot
Deal: 20% off all of Blu Dot’s friendly modern furniture for 20 days
When/Where: Wednesday, October 20 through November 8. Mon—Sat 11am—7pm, Sun noon—6pm. 140 Wooster St between Houston and Prince Sts (212-780-9058)

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Shopping

World’s Best Clothing Stores: The Fashionista Ranking

Specialty retailers. The high street. Chain stores. The mall. Whatever you want to call them, these are the places that most of us do the majority of our shopping. (I may own a Chanel bag, but my jeans are from Uniqlo.)

Which clothing stores offer the right mix of well-made, gently-priced, well-designed clothes? To rank the world’s best, we tapped our string of correspondents–from Los Angeles to Paris to Tokyo–to tell us which stores they enjoy most. As usual, our methodology is loose, but fair: We factored in fabric and construction quality, price (as it relates to quality), overall desirability, and accessibility to a large audience. And we only considered stores that sell clothes for both men and women. (No discount, department store, or boutique retailers were included.)

Click through for our ten favorites. Which would top your list?

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Tracy Feith Still M.I.A., Owes Over $200K To Landlords

Six months ago, Lauren noticed that Michelle Obama-anointed designer Tracy Feith seemed to have disappeared. The surfer-cum-designer known for his bright floral prints became a household name after Mrs. O wore one of his dresses twice, followed by a successful collaboration with Target. But despite the first lady’s proven ability to move the fashion market, Feith is in serious trouble.

The designer’s brick-and-mortar stores in New York and Los Angeles have closed, his website is down, and today the Daily News is reporting that he owes over $200,000 to landlords in NYC and Montauk. His former landlords are, understandably, pretty pissed. Feith’s Manhattan landlord’s lawyer told the News, “It is shameful that a popular and successful designer has shunned his most basic business obligation by failing to pay rent for his retail store.” But Feith and his business partner Susan Winget are nowhere to be found. Once fixtures in Montauk, they were conspicuously absent this year. We’ve reached out to Winget for comment but haven’t heard back.

Feith had been consulting for Calypso, and we hoped he had held onto the gig as a source of much-needed income, but a rep from Calypso told us that while Feith had worked for the brand a while ago, it was only for about two months. Feith reportedly made $550K for his Target lines. Where did the money go?

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Entertainment

Whitney Port Confirms That The City is Over

It looks like we knew about The City‘s demise long before star Whitney Port did.

Racked reports the actress/designer admitted this morning on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show that “it doesn’t really look like we’re doing it anymore.”

We’re disappointed for the show’s fans, although we’re sure they’ll find solace in Lauren Conrad‘s MTV reality show, which documents the making of her clothing empire.

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Streetwalker

Street Style: Thommy Rocks Vintage Richard Tyler

Name: Thommy

Age: 24

Occupation: Works for Mathew Williamson

What is your favorite thing in the stores? A fully sequined long-sleeved dress.

How would you describe your style? Downtown meets work appropriate.

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Olivier Theyskens Named Creative Director at Theory, A Look at Kate Moss’s Last Topshop Collection & Kelly Osbourne’s Clothing Line

Olivier Theyskens Lands at Theory: Theyskens charmed the fashion world with his designs for Nina Ricci and Rochas, and now he’ll be designing for the business-chic masses as Theory’s new artistic director. This is in addition to his Theyskens for Theory collaboration line for Spring 2011. Not exactly what we expected from the Victorian/Goth-inspired designer, but hey, a job’s a job and this seems like a good one. {WWD subscription required}

A Look at Moss’s Last Collection For Topshop: After 14 collections for Topshop, Kate Moss’s winter collection will be her last. T‘s got a video featuring the collection, which is set to hit stores November 2nd. {T Magazine}

Naomi Campbell Says EIC Was Fired for Putting Her on the Cover: Last year, Naomi Campbell claimed that the advertising industry was using the recession as an excuse to skimp on diversity. Now Campbell has come forward to say that the editor-in-chief of an Australian magazine was fired for putting her on the cover. {Telegraph UK}

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