In a situation that is becoming more and more absurd by the minute, there’s a new twist in the great Cathy Horyn/Oscar de la Renta beef of 2012: Horyn’s boyfriend Art Ortenberg has now weighed in.
Just to re-cap what’s been happening in case you missed it:
Before I left for my first ever London fashion week I asked Susie Lau for her list of designers to watch. Canadian-born, Central Saint Martins alum Thomas Tait was at the top of the list. And after seeing his spring show, set at an outdoor graffiti covered skate park by the Thames, I can see why.
Now Lady Gaga is taking sides in Oscar de la Renta’s beef with Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn.
Not surprising when you consider that she dedicated her whole column in the September 2011 issue of V to pontificating about Horyn and what she called “Extreme Critic Fundamentalism.”
This week Grazia Daily runs an exclusive look at a day in the life of the muse, mascot and Twitter celeb Choupette Lagerfeld. Oh, and his pet, Karl. The 40 (yes, 40!) shots come from Karl’s personal collection and are purrr-etty comprehensive. Choupette is also on the cover of the new issue. Fame whore. {Grazia Daily}
The good news keeps flowing in for the Emmy-nominated Lea Michelle. The Candie’s spokesmodel just snagged a $1 million contract to be the face of L’Oreal. {New York Post}
Now that former Marie Claire EIC Joanna Coles is getting comfortable in her new gig at Cosmopolitan it seems she’s looking for some company from her old friends. Coles has reportedly poached Marie Claire executive editor Joyce Chang and entertainment editor Dana Stern to join her at Cosmo. {Page Six}
Both parties weigh in on the open letter that shook New York Fashion Week.
In what may be this week’s juciest, most dramatic piece of news, Oscar de la Renta wrote an open letter responding to Horyn’s harsh criticism of him and it was printed in today’s WWD.
Update: Horyn has responded.
Looks like Ryan Lochte may have nabbed himself a different kind of award-winning gal: Miss USA. Still, we haven’t lost hope that he’s going to wake up and realize Nora is the true love of his life. {DailyNews}
In honor of the 11th anniversary of 9/11 here is a video of the fashion community’s reactions, including interviews just two months after the attacks with the likes of Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Donna Karan. {Stylelist}
Doutzen Kroes says her body is “close” to fit enough for the Victoria’s Secret show in December. She’s apparently planning on honing it into impossible perfection by cutting out carbs and sugar. {Page Six}
Mitt Romney’s recently-appointed running mate Paul Ryan’s sartorial choices are the subject of more than just casual GChat discussions. They’re the subject of a substantial New York Times article by the notoriously difficult to please Cathy Horyn. And she’s just as tough on Ryan’s jacket choice as she was on Kanye West’s debut collection, or Read more →
While you might think celebrities can, simply by being celebrities, get their hands on whatever they want to wear, it’s comforting to know that it’s not always the case–especially with couture.
In an interesting piece in yesterday’s New York Times, Cathy Horyn looks back on the latest couture collections and tries to determine what separates couture from ready to wear, what makes it special–questions that seemed especially difficult to answer this season with the debut of Raf Simons’ streamlined and modern “New New Look” for Dior.
Horyn spoke to Karl Lagerfeld, who explained that couture is “not a red-carpet opportunity…
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but here are 552 used by the fash pack to characterize Simons’s very hotly anticipated debut at Dior. While not everyone felt his first-ever couture collection was an unqualified success (hey there, Suze?), critical consensus was that this New New Look set the bar pretty high, and possibly Read more →
In advance of Comme des Garcons‘ Rei Kawakubo receiving the CFDA’s International Award this Monday (she’ll accept the award in absentia), Cathy Horyn’s written a great, justifiably hagiographic profile about the reclusive and enigmatic designer in today’s New York Times. “No living designer with the exception of Azzedine Alaïa is held in higher esteem by her peers, and none has enriched our spirit in so many original and confounding ways,” she writes. That’s high praise from Cathy Horyn. Also, true.
Kawakubo has a cult following–for evidence see this charming Style.com piece about Comme devotees. And remember when Tavi Gevinson famously rapped about her?
Horyn really gets to the core of why Kawakubo has garnered this cult following and why she is so compelling. “If Karl Lagerfeld is the leading talk artist of fashion, Ms. Kawakubo is the Mona Lisa,” she writes. “She makes no effort to reveal her meanings, though at times she explains her methods.” She asked her about her design method and reprinted her lengthy emailed answer in full because, “[i]t says everything, and it could not be said better.” Here it is (and for everyone who thought her last collection was about flat fashion in the Internet age, you thought wrong):
We’re on a bit of a girl power streak lately. We already told you about our favorite ladies who possess both style and substance, and influential female designers; now, we present you with our choices for the most influential women in fashion right now. CNN just put out a list of the “10 Women Who Read more →
