Fashionista

How to Make It in Fashion: June 21, Dream Hotel Downtown, New York

Jo Piazza

Friday April 19th, 2013

Coachella Fashion Mistakes I’ve Made So You Don’t Have To
Fashion Is Fun

Coachella Fashion Mistakes I’ve Made So You Don’t Have To

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That’s right, Coachella’s not over yet. So we asked our contributor Jo Piazza to share some hard lessons she’s learned at Coachellas past.

It’s the place where the good and the bad meet the beautifully boho and the shamefully shiftless. Rocking out to Vampire Weekend and Jurassic Five while soaking up the sun seems to naturally lend itself to a style best described as homeless spring breaker or slutty Pocahontas.

We understand. You look at pictures of Kate Bosworth and Katy Perry running about Indio without shoes or pants and you think, “I can be that free.”

You can’t. I thought I could be that free. You know what it gave me: Two broken toes, a fanny pack tan line, a fight with Paris Hilton and a rash.

Follow my sage advice and don’t let your last weekend at Coachella be a disaster, fashion or otherwise.

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Published at 7:23 PM

Monday March 25th, 2013

How Icelandic Designers Are Empowering Women
Fashion Week

How Icelandic Designers Are Empowering Women

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Maybe it’s the fact that their tiny island country was the first in the world to have a woman president (Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who served from 1980-1996) or maybe it’s the new necessity that everyone, women and men alike, channel their strengths and entrepreneurial spirit in the aftermath of the 2008 economic meltdown. Maybe Viking women are simply badass.

Whatever the reason, Icelandic designers are keen to use the power of fashion to empower the modern Icelandic woman and to make sure that that empowered woman looks phenomenal as she helps to rebuild the country.

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Published at 6:05 PM

Thursday March 21st, 2013

Monday February 18th, 2013

Thursday September 13th, 2012

Wednesday August 29th, 2012

Wednesday April 4th, 2012

Slow Fashion Movement Picks Up Speed in Iceland
Collection

Slow Fashion Movement Picks Up Speed in Iceland

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Many things have slowed down in Iceland since the island economy collapsed in 2008. Fashion is not one of those things, I learned at this weekend’s Reykjavik Fashion Festival. Still, two women are taking it slow, embracing the “slow fashion movement” to be exact, and trying to instill integrity, honesty and respect into design. Their show had one of the most talked about shows and collections at the RFF.

When I first heard that the house of Ella was a proponent of “slow fashion” I immediately asked, “what is slow fashion?” Is it like slow food? Small-scale, sustainable, high quality? Designer Katrin Maria Karadottir and Creative director and founder Elinros Lindal explained to me that that’s exactly what it is.

They walked me through their movement like grownups explaining something complex (algebra, fusion, the Kardashians) to a child. At the end of our chat I came to see that slow fashion (and slow things in general in the hands of women like Elinros and Katrin could be the future of Iceland’s economic prosperity.

Fashionista: What exactly does slow fashion mean here in Iceland?

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Published at 5:23 PM

Tuesday April 3rd, 2012

Seen On the Runway at Iceland Fashion Week: Hunger Games-Chic, Xanadu Schtick
Fashion Week

Seen On the Runway at Iceland Fashion Week: Hunger Games-Chic, Xanadu Schtick

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Reykjavik–These Icelanders sure know how to put on a show.

I was mere minutes into the Reykjavik Fashion Festival when I realized I might be watching a simulated snuff film while seated in the subterranean parking garage of the city’s Harpa Opera House where the week’s first show, Mundi, was taking place. The short flick featured a post-apocalyptic gang of well-dressed hooligans in bold patterned wool knits riding rough shod over the Icelandic highlands on the stocky yet self-assured Icelandic horse (a Viking breed that you mustn’t call a pony lest you upset the locals). At their destination they electrocute a man using energy from the country’s indigenous hot springs (so eco, so green, so wrong).

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Published at 4:15 PM

Monday April 2nd, 2012

Friday January 13th, 2012

Fashion MacGyver: When the Airline Loses Your Bags at Midnight, Wal-Mart to the Rescue
Fashion Is Fun

Fashion MacGyver: When the Airline Loses Your Bags at Midnight, Wal-Mart to the Rescue

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Celebrity journalist extraordinaire Jo Piazza is on the road promoting her first book, Celebrity Inc.: How Famous People Make Money. Here is her hilarious, inspiring tale of finding a camera-ready outfit for a morning news show after her luggage had been lost at midnight…in Orlando. It was too good not to share.

I never check luggage unless physically coerced. But that is what happened to me as I boarded a small plane to travel to Orlando, Florida this week to do a series of early morning appearances on the show The Daily Buzz to promote my book Celebrity Inc.: How Famous People Make Money. As the tarmac Nazi pried my Vera Bradley tote filled with two beautiful television ready dresses, perfectly paired shoes and the only makeup I know how to apply to make myself look like a human on television I had a sinking feeling that things would go sideways.

They did.

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Published at 4:30 PM