Last night the Pratt Institute, one of the amazing design schools we are lucky to have here in NYC (well, technically it’s in Brooklyn) held its annual graduating student fashion show. Pratt counts a lot of fashion industry insiders as friends, and this year gave Fern Mallis the “Pratt Institute Fashion Industry Lifetime Achievement Award,” Read more →
Former Project Runway contestants always seem to try to distance themselves from the show after they go out into the world on their own. Christian Siriano has been dealing with Project Runway demons for years, and Rami Kashou, who was on the show twice (and most recently ousted on the Project Runway All-Stars season) told us: “But it’s a game show, it’s nothing more to me. It’s produced.” And according to fashion industry insiders, if you want a career as a fashion designer, you’d best distance yourself from reality TV fashion, too.
When we first heard that Fern Mallis, who ran New York Fashion Week at IMG for almost a decade, was launching a jewelry line on QVC, our initial reaction, we must admit, was: really? Mallis is a fixture in the New York fashion scene, having gone on to host a series of talks with fashion icons at the 92nd St. Y as well as a SiriusXM radio show called “Fashion Insiders With Fern Mallis” after she left IMG. While Mallis obviously knows the fashion biz in New York inside and out, we never suspected she was into making fashion. But she is.
Mallis has just announced that she’ll be launching a jewelry collection for QVC called Fern Finds: by Fern Mallis, which she’ll hawk live during New York Fashion Week (obvi), starting on Friday, February 10 at 10pm (EST). We chatted with the former Fashion Week head honcho to find out just what inspired this move to design, whose style she looks up to, and which of her fashion friends she consulted with before starting her line.
Looks like New York will be the first to cave in the stand off over the international fashion week schedule.
CFDA pres Diane von Furstenberg has acquiesced to stick-in-the mud Mario Boselli, the president of the Camera Nazionale della Moda in Milan, saying New York will “bite the bullet” and move its dates earlier in exchange for a formal agreement going forward, the New York Times is reporting. “We have to protect the industry,” she said. “To give jobs is the No. 1 responsibility for anyone today, and that’s what we have to realize.”
Legendary fashion designer Calvin Klein was the subject of the first installment of the “Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis” series at 92 Street Y last night. A packed room of Klein’s friends and enthusiasts–including pal Anna Wintour (who Klein gave a shout-out to during the discussion)–enthusiastically gathered to watch the Fashion Week guru moderate a candid discussion with the iconic American designer in one of his very rare public speaking appearances. Klein, who founded the Calvin Klein fashion label in 1968 and sold it in 2003 to Phillips-Van Heusen (Francisco Costa is the creative director now), is known for his minimalist aesthetic, successful licensing endeavors with denim, fragrance, and undies, and his totally boundary-pushing advertising campaigns which introduced Brooke Shields, Kate Moss, and the glamazon-era crushing “waif” revolution to the world.
Throughout the one-hour discussion Klein gamely answered questions both from Mallis and the audience. Here are some highlights from the evening, including the reason he chose Kate Moss and his thoughts about addiction in the fashion world:
By now, most of you are probably sick of familiar with New York and Milan’s squabble over Fashion Week dates. While there’s no solution in sight–and both sides seem equally stubborn in their position–former CFDA head and founder of New York fashion week Fern Mallis thinks that eventually a compromise will be found.
The industry big wig told The Wall Street Journal, “If I put my money on it and guess, I think maybe they will get together and move New York up a few days.” And that’s not small talk, considering Mallis is still an important consultant for the industry event.
Between heightened security, including a row of cop cars lining Columbus Street in front of Lincoln Center, and moments of silence to remember lives lost, the 10 year anniversary of September 11 was clearly at the forefront of everyone’s mind today. The shows still went on, so we caught up with fashion insiders and show-goers to find out how they were commemorating and coping with the fated day. Here’s how the fashion community and celebrities are responding to the tragedy:
Fern Mallis: “The first year we moved shows to London because nobody could cope with it. I canceled everything after Liz Lange’s show and was running around the tents telling people they had to clear the venue and stop what they were doing and tell people what happened. After the first season or two, we realized you can’t not go on. They win if we all stop doing everything that we do.”
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Lincoln Center’s Director of Fashion: “There was a moment of silence for each time the planes hit here at Lincoln Center and many designers have donated to the 9/11 fund. But it’s a big business for NYC so the show has to go on, but with vigilance and remembrance.”
Less than a day after Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week head honcho Fern Mallis announced she was leaving to head up her own consulting firm, parent company IMG sent out an email blast detailing its plans for holding next season’s shows at Lincoln Center. While we couldn’t spy anything groundbreaking in the release, here’s what was of Read more →
Fern Mallis, founder and lead orchestrator of Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week, is leaving the event’s production company, IMG, to launch her own consulting firm. This is a big deal. Mallis is directly responsible for the establishment of New York Fashion Week in 1993 as we know it today. At that time, she was Read more →
MAC & Milk are upping their game, more indie designers are showing than ever before and Mercedes Benz will say goodbye to Bryant Park before landing in Lincoln Center. New York Fashion Week is bigger than it’s ever been. Will it get even bigger? For Fern Mallis and her team at IMG, the company that Read more →
On Monday night at 9 pm (EST), HBO will debut the documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags that takes a look at the history of New York’s Garment District. From the clips we just watched, it looks to be incredibly educational and interesting. As someone who has only worked on the editorial side, the Read more →
The first solid details on the tentatively titled MAC at Milk shows we’ve been talking about since the cosmetics company decided to end its partnership with IMG leaving Maybelline to jump in as the official makeup sponsor at Bryant Park. And the initial list of designers signed on for events at Milk Studios is very, Read more →
