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First Look: Patrik Ervell’s Debut Womenswear Collection

Patrik Ervell‘s has been a name to watch since he launched his eponymous menswear line in Spring 2008. His shows draw a hip who’s who kind of crowd, he’s stocked at all the right places (Barneys, Opening Ceremony, Creatures of Comfort), and he was a CFDA nominee for best menswear designer this past year. Men swoon over his clothes and girls do, too apparently. He told The Cut earlier this year, “at our online store, 20 percent of our customers are women.” So designing womenswear was the logical next step. His first capsule collection for women will land in stores and online this month.

“I’ve always had a lot of girls buying my menswear so it felt like a very natural step to take,” Ervell told us. “I think my girl might sometimes dabble in menswear pieces but the new collection also has a serious women’s component too.”

So what was different about designing for women?

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Leighton Meester Talks Fashion and Life After Gossip Girl (She Wants to Garden) at Roger Vivier’s Cocktail Party

Last night storied French footwear label Roger Vivier threw a cocktail party at their Upper East side store to celebrate their fall winter “Uptown-Downtown” collection as well as limited edition collection “Rendez-Vous.” Creative director Bruno Frisoni’s creations for the brand–particularly the “Rendez-Vous” collection which he described as “Rock! Think Keith Richards”–nearly outshone all the fashion starlets who turned out to sip champagne and shoe-drool. Leighton Meester was there, and so were industry darlings Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Marie Amelie Sauve, Hamish Bowles, Hanne Gabe Odiele, Emily Weiss and Leandra Medine. Plus Alexandra Richards was DJing. Needless to say, it was a very chic event.

We caught Meester, who looked lovely in sequined J.Mendel, Vivier accessories and Bulgari jewels, staring distractedly at some studded Vivier boots so we seized the moment to check in with the Gossip Girl star.

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Want to Look Like Lisbeth Salander? H&M Announces New Collaboration with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Designer collaborations with H&M are commonplace and even expected now. But collections based on fictional characters? Not so much, until now. Lisbeth Salander, the edgy, troubled, goth protagonist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has inspired a new capsule collection, WWD is reporting.

Trish Summerville, the costume designer for the US movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (she also outfitted the Black Eyed Peas, No Doubt, Ricky Martin and Janet Jackson on their tours), designed the 30-piece collection, which will be a part of the Swedish retailer’s Divided line. For H&M, the collection was a no-brainer.

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More Versace for H&M: The Full Ad Campaign (Featuring Abbey Lee Wearing Nothing But a Pillow) and Men’s Look Book

By Leah Chernikoff Thursday, Oct 20, 2011 / 12:15 PM

We already gave you a look at the awesomeness that is the full Versace for H&M collection but if you can’t get enough, there’s more. Here’s the men’s look book as well as the full ad campaign, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, styled by Joe McKenna, and featuring models Sasha Pivovarova, Lindsey Wixson, Daphne Groeneveld and Abbey Lee Kershaw–all the Versace blonds. We especially like the one of Abbey Lee with a fake panther. RAWR.

As for the men’s collection, it will take a very confident special man to pull off a skin tight palm tree printed tee or a magenta suit. We would like to meet this man.

Click through to see all of it.
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Here It Is: Versace for H&M, the Complete Collection

We’ve been teased with lots of leaked campaign images for the Versace for H&M collection, but now–finally–the whole collection has been revealed–Vogue UK had it up early today. It will hit stores on November 17, so start making your list now.

Prices will range from $17.95 for crazily-printed men’s undies, to $299 for Anna Dello Russo‘s studded leather dress, according to WWD. The other dresses range from $149 to $249, and accessories like a silk purse will set you back $199. Expensive for H&M, but cheap for Versace, which is the whole point of these collabs, isn’t it? There are even some homeware items, like pillows and throw blankets.

Click through to see the entire collection.

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Steven Tyler Shops His Daughter’s Closet, Once Wore One of Liv’s Shirts Backwards for a Month

The fashionably flamboyant and legendary Aerosmith frontman (or American Idol judge who is not Jennifer Lopez to those born after 1990) Steven Tyler kicked off the launch of the exclusive-to-Macy’s Andrew Charles line this past Friday, with an appearance for roughly 300 avid fans at the Herald Square flagship.

Tyler serves as the muse for the Andy Hilfiger-designed Macy’s exclusive men’s and women’s wear Andrew Charles line, as well as the aptly-named “Rock Scarf” collection. Considering the frontman’s penchant for wearing the flowy neckpieces on his person and tying multiples onto his mic stand, Rock Scarf is pretty much a no-brainer. Tyler also stars with his 22-year old daughter Chelsea in the ad campaign.

We caught up with the man of the hour–wearing enough bracelets on each forearm to be the life of a Man Repeller-approved Arm Party and sporting DIY nail art (i.e., hand-drawn black vertical Sharpie-lines on each nail)–to get his take on music-meets-fashion.

“I’m androgynous,” declares the “Dude Looks Like a Lady” singer. “I’ve just got more female energy. I like that flowing and nurturing and I’m a songwriter, so I’m into form and fashion and how it all goes together. Always have been, so it’s just perfect.” Not quite sure if he’d consider wearing a Versace pencil skirt to meet the Queen of England, but we did hear this rumor about him gleaning wardrobe ideas from daughter Liv Tyler’s designer-filled closet.

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  • Fawnia Soo Hoo
  • Monday, Oct 17, 2011 / 4:15 PM
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James Franco Is the Poster Boy for Gucci’s New Bespoke Service

By Hayley Phelan Monday, Oct 17, 2011 / 11:30 AM


After earning his masters degree, acting in major blockbusters, penning short stories, and directing and producing critically acclaimed short films, James Franco has finally gone back to harvesting his foremost talent: Being really, really, ridiculously good looking.

Franco is starring in Gucci‘s new campaign for their just-launched bespoke service. Shot by Nathaniel Goldberg at the huge Roman film studio Cinecittà, the campaign is called “All The World’s a Stage,” and as you can see, it features a squinty-eyed (but still completely hot) James Franco posing nonchalantly at what looks like a movie set.

“James has an innate ability to fuse classic elegance with contemporary style and interpret formalwear in an individual way,” Gucci creative director Frida Giannini said in a release.
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Carine Roitfeld Weighs In On Marc Jacobs Going to Dior

It’s been a week since Paris Fashion Week ended, and at least that long since we’ve heard any rumors about a Dior successor. Well, we still don’t know a darned thing, but a fashion heavyweight, in the form of Carine Roitfeld, just gave her vote of approval to Marc Jacobs.

Vogue UK caught up with Carine at a book signing for Irreverent yesterday, and caught her in a chatty mood. She told the glossy, “He understands the company, how it works and how to work with them. He’s been given the shoulders to do the Dior job already. He’s never done couture though, so I’d be really excited to see him do couture for Dior. He’s a very smart person. If Marc gets the job, I won’t miss a single show.” (Obviously Dior would become the hottest ticket in town.)

And what about if someone else gets the job?

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Here Are the Top Ten Fashion Brands That Are Conquering the Digital Realm (Plus the Brands That Aren’t and Should Be)

Fashion has been notoriously slow to take to the online world (particularly on the editorial side), but some brands are really getting it right. A smart digital strategy can translate to brand awareness, and ultimately, lots of sales.

L2‘s Digital IQ Index took this concept to the next level and released its third annual report card assessing brands’ “digital IQ.” The ratings they give range from Genius to Feeble. Digital strategy is often uneven, and this can hurt a brand. Per the report: “Although 94 percent of brands in the Index have a presence on Facebook, one in five brands still lacks e-commerce capability.” How annoying is it to try to buy something online, only to discover you actually have to leave your home? That kind of thing really matters to consumers these days.

So who’s excelling online and who needs a lot of help? Here’s the top ten list:

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Cambridge Satchel Company: The Inspiring Story Behind Fashion Month’s Most Affordable ‘It-Bag’

If you looked at street style blogs from fashion month (and we’re guessing you did), you surely noticed those fluorescent old school style satchels hanging from many a fashionable shoulder. You also might know that they’re from the Cambridge Satchel Company, and retail for under $135. An It-bag that’s actually within our means? We had to have one and we had to know more.

We found out that Julie Deane is the lady behind the Cambridge Satchel Company. She had no previous design experience before starting the company just under five years ago with only £600. This past year profits reached £2.2 million and next year the company stands to make between £10 and £15 million (that’s up to over $23 million).

So how did Deane do it? We hopped on the phone with her to find out. Hers is a true success story, born, of all reasons, out of the desire to remove her six-year-old daughter from a school where she was being bullied. She tells us about her motivation for starting the company, being knocked off by her own manufacturers (she’s pursuing legal action), and what’s up next for Cambridge Satchel (hint: think clutches).

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  • Leah Chernikoff and Steff Yotka
  • Wednesday, Oct 12, 2011 / 6:00 PM
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Fashion Week

Maiyet, a Label With a Social Conscience, Debuts at Paris Fashion Week

The fashion industry isn’t generally concerned with social justice or making the world a better place. Just making it prettier. But new label Maiyet aims to do both.

Maiyet, which is named for the Egyptian goddess of truth and harmony, is the brainchild of South African human rights lawyer Paul van Zyl and industry vet Kristy Caylor (she was most recently the president of Band of Outsiders). “Part of this idea was to try to find a way of restoring prosperity to communities which had been through hard times,” van Zyl said. “So the idea was to find artisans who have this very rare skill and to elevate that into something beautiful and to allow them to derive greater value from their craft and to return the prosperity to them.”

What that means is that Maiyet partners with artisans in communities in India, Colombia, Kenya and Indonesia (to name a few countries) and works their craft into design elements of the line. “We take their skill set and do the design work ourselves and harness that skill set into their looks,” Caylor said. Maiyet then works with these artisans to develop their crafts over time and bring value back to the community–no plundering here. To find these artisans, Caylor and van Zyl took 25 international trips over six months. “We scoured the earth from places we both wanted to work with from a social perspective but also from a product perspective,” Caylor said.

And the end product?

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Behind the Scenes with Liya Kebede at the Shoot for Lem Lem’s Resort Look Book

Earlier this month, I got the chance to escape the craziness that is the fashion schedule and kick it with Liya Kebede down in Montauk where she was shooting her latest look book for her line Lem Lem. And it was hard not to feel like I’d really escaped the city, seeing as how the set–Chandelier Creative’s Montauk surf shack–was festooned with ten blow-up swans who were enjoying the ocean view along with the models.

It was the perfect setting for a collection grounded in easy, beachy woven pieces–the look we’ve come to know and love from Lem Lem. This season, though, Kebede had more in mind than just the beach: “Now we’re making it more city with little shorts and dresses.”

Lem Lem was established to save weaving artisan enclaves in Kebede’s native Ethiopia–but has since become a fashion industry favorite, even nabbing one of J.Crew’s coveted “In Good Company” partnerships.

Still, at its heart, Lem Lem is all about empowering the Ethiopian artisans it in employs.

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  • Misty White Sidell
  • Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011 / 4:45 PM
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