Archive for December 2010

Entertainment

Sarah Jessica Parker Knew Halston Would Get Flack For Hiring Her, and More From Her January Cover Story in Elle

Gorgeous Sarah Jessica Parker lights up the cover of January’s Elle magazine with a new interview about her infant twins and landing the top job at Halston.

“It took me a long time to say yes,” she said of being offered the position of president and chief creative officer at Halston and Halston Heritage. “I kept saying, ‘You understand, by offering this you are going to be criticized?’”

“I said, ‘Please know this now: I will never do this for a title. I will never dip in and out of this. I’ll do it like everything else I’ve ever done. I’ll be involved down to the splitting of the atom.’”

However, she admits there has been a learning curve. “I might not have the language; I can’t always tell you the exact blend of a fabric, but I figure it out,” she said.

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  • Jo Piazza for Stylelist
  • Thursday, Dec 2, 2010 / 2:10 PM
  • 9 Comments
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Tim Gunn on Man-Jeggings, No More Menswear For Haider Ackermann, & Alexa Chung’s Vintage Adventures

Conan and Tim Gunn on Majeggings: Tim Gunn was on Conan O’Brien last night and the host asked Gunn what he thought about man jeggings. His response? “Men don’t wear jeggings!” {Racked}

Has The Royal Wedding Dress Designer Already Been Chosen? Rumors are floating around that Kate Middleton has chosen the designer who will make her wedding dress. According to the bookmakers, Bruce Oldfield, who dressed Princess Diana, will be designing the royal gown. {Catwalk Queen}

Proenza’s Web-Exclusive Accessories: Proenza Schouler’s has released a web-exclusive mochila tote and wallet available for purchase only on their e-commerce site. The totes and wallets come in an array of colors and are reasonably priced. (Lauren already scooped up the teal wallet.) {Teen Vogue}

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Beauty

This Week in Skincare News: A Luxury Classic Turns 30 & A New Upstart Is Born

This week in beauty was all about devising a high/low anti-aging routine.

First up was a trip to Trump SoHo, where beauty writers and editors were invited to an intimate gathering, which consisted of sticking our hands into some fermenting rice. This is the origin of the magical Pitera, the secret ingredient at the heart of SK-II skin care products.

SK-II was born in 1980 in Japan after someone noticed that the hands of sake workers looked much younger than their faces. Years of research finally revealed that it was because of a metabolite produced by yeast fermentation; it’s a by-product of sake manufacturing. This particular liquid, later branded “Pitera,” is a nutrient rich fluid of vitamins, minerals, organic acids, and amino acids.

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Entertainment

Lady Dior’s Latest Video

By Lauren Sherman Thursday, Dec 2, 2010 / 12:30 PM

Hedwig and the Angry Inch‘s John Cameron Mitchell directed the fourth installment of the Lady Dior saga, starring Marion Cotillard. Here’s a sneak peek:

Caption This

Caption This: Uma Chugs from Her Louboutin

By Leah Chernikoff Thursday, Dec 2, 2010 / 11:57 AM


A Louboutin makes a very good champagne flute. (How’s that for Louboutin devotion, Blake?) Uma Thurman toasts director Quentin Tarantino at his Friars Club roast yesterday in NYC.
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Virginia Smith to Barneys?

Barneys New York CEO Mark Lee wants a fashion director after all.

Following Monday’s news that store veteran Julie Gilhart would be leaving the company, WWD reports that Lee is said to be searching for a fashion director. His two top candidates? Lane Crawford’s Sarah Rutson and Vogue‘s Virginia Smith.

Both choices makes sense, Rutson more so. But the woman who transformed Lane Crawford into a serious fashion player has been living in Hong Kong for the 15 years. Will she want to transplant herself to New York?

Smith, who is the fashion market/accessories director at Vogue, might not have a retail background, but she certainly has the eye Lee is looking for. While Barneys needs to maintain its edge, it also needs to offer a broader range of product. Remember, Barneys’ main problem–from an investor’s standpoint–is that it’s not selling enough clothes.

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Beauty

Dior Launches New Beauty Site, Offers E-Commerce and Interactive Features (Directed by Sofia Coppola!)

Dior.com’s beauty section just got a high tech make-over. It’s slicker, more interactive, and you can now purchase Dior products there (gift set, anyone?)

Some highlights?

Coppola Direction: There’s an interactive pop-up book, and you can watch the Sofia Coppola-directed Miss Dior Cherie commercial. The “making of” clip is arguably cuter than the actual commercial–though the commercial is pretty darn cute.

Auction: Dior is holding an auction on site now through December 15 with some truly over the top prizes including a Dior-inspired trip to Paris (whatever that means it can’t be bad), a private makeover by a Dior show artist, and a trip to St. Maarten to visit the Dior institute. 100% of proceeds benefit Look Good…Feel Better, a charity that helps people who are undergoing treatment for cancer, and the American Cancer Society.

Make-up Tutorials: There are how-to videos for many of the products and tips for how to choose colors. There’s even a feature in the Dior Addict lip gloss tab under “What’s New” that allows you to upload a picture of your outfit and it will help you choose what color to wear. (I’ve been wearing Black-Tie Plum a lot lately).

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Parties

Last Night’s Party: P.S. We Made Things With Erica Domesek and Kate Spade New York

Last night we were honored to join our DIY guru Erica Domesek of P.S. I Made This to fete her new book at the Kate Spade New York store in SoHo.

But since it’s Erica, she of the golden glue gun, this wasn’t your ordinary schmooze and have some drinks and eat some mini hotdogs type book party (though there were mini hotdogs and they were delicious). She put us to work. We, along with Design Sponge’s Grace Bonney, Andrew Mukamal, Lonny Magazine‘s Michelle Adams, and Style Republic Magazine‘s Brittany Law, were tasked with DIY-ing one of Kate Spade New York’s signature black leather London Totes. Sharpie and crafting site I Love To Create generously supplied us all with tons of great art supplies.

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  • Leah Chernikoff and Lauren Sherman
  • Wednesday, Dec 1, 2010 / 7:35 PM
  • 1 Comment
People & Parties

Brian Atwood Cried and Blake Lively Owned up to Her Louboutin Obsession at Last Night’s Footwear News Achievement Awards

Blake Lively loves her some Christian Louboutin. Last night, celebrities, designers and buyers gathered at MoMa for the Footwear News Achievement Awards, which the host, Fairchild Fashion Group’s Michael Atmore, described as “a tiny bit of Golden Globes…You never know what’s going to happen.”

Honorees included Charlotte Olympia for Emerging Talent, Ivanka Trump for Launch of the Year, Toms Shoes and Vibram for Brands of the Year, Brian Atwood for Designer of the Year, and finally, Christian Louboutin for Person of the Year.

Jessica Alba, who presented Blake Mycoskie’s award for Toms, jumped on the suit trend in Dolce & Gabbana; Ivanka Trump is gorgeous and came off quite smart and business-minded; Charlotte Dellal looked amazing as usual and buddied up with Olivia Palermo. The sweetest moment was Brian Atwood’s mom Yolanda presenting his award and him tearing up during his acceptance. However, the most memorable part of the evening was easily Blake Lively’s ridiculously rapturous and glowing introduction to Christian Louboutin.

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Reviews

Club Monaco Gets it Right for Summer 2011

Yesterday afternoon, I escaped the rain momentarily to check out what Club Monaco has in store for next summer (which can’t come soon enough). The light, beachy wears almost made me forget about the terrible weather outside and I left wanting to go on vacation–which is exactly what Club Monaco’s designer did to get inspired.

For the second time, Club Monaco did a special “beach boutique” collection, for which the designer found inspiration on a trip to St. Bart’s. Basically, it’s an all-white (very on trend) collection of cute beach cover ups, plus this really amazing, simple long white tank dress that would look as appropriate at the beach as it would at a cocktail party. There were also a range of great imported hand woven straw totes.

The early summer collections, which will be out in April and May, include a lot of things you’d expect from Club Monaco, a few things you wouldn’t and several things I loved. Occupying the first category were sequined tanks and dresses, lightweight knits and tees. Overall, there was less embellishment than I expected, which was a good thing. The brand is definitely stepping up their cool factor (as in their Carol Han-approved, Garance-shot, cool girl-modeled Fall lookbook). There was a lot of cream and nude, with pops of very light neon green. There were adorable scalloped-edge shorts, long pleated skirts, light peach-colored cardigans and white and navy horizontal striped shirts that somehow didn’t look redundant.

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One Step Closer (But Not There Yet): Design Protection Bill Passes Senate Judiciary Committee

This morning brought news that the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the “Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act,” a bill introduced three months ago by New York Senator Charles E. Schumer to provide “very limited intellectual property protection to the most original design,” WWD is reporting.

If all goes well, and the bill passes the Senate and the House and becomes a law, designers will, for the first time, be able to file for copyright protection for their patterns and designs. As it stands now, copyright statute only offers protection for trademarks (like Chanel)–which can include specific prints–but not for actual cut-and-sewn patterns. When we asked Susan Scafidi, intellectual property attorney and director of Fordham’s Fashion Law Institute, to break down the implications of the bill should it pass into law she told us it could: a) protect a new design for three years after it’s been put into production, b) spur creativity in mass retail, and c) stop designers–peers–from knocking each other off.

Of course, that’s a very big “if.”

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Streetwalker

Street Style: Sarah Loves an Australian Christmas

Name: Sarah

Age: 24

Occupation: Model

Agency: Ford

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas in Australia in the Summer

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