So Flaunt magazine and Le Baron had the genius idea to throw a Guantanamo-themed Coachella party called ‘New Guantanamo,’ featuring “playful torture.”
Sounds like an excellent politically correct time, right? Flaunt still thinks so.
But apparently the event’s sponsors were not informed of the party’s controversial name–and they’re none to pleased about it.
One of the biggest fashion topics of discussion this year (and the past few years) was American Apparel and its controversy-laden founder and CEO Dov Charney. Since January, Dov and his company have been through a lot. On the controversy end, they’ve showed pubes and boobs in their steadfastly NSFW ad campaigns, faced several very public sexual harassment accusations, held a plus-size modeling competition with a messy outcome and lost an employee to an industrial knitting machine, to name a few of the stories we can recall. In terms of business, they’ve come within inches of bankruptcy, received a $15 million cash injection from a group of Canadian investors, and announced a few efforts to get back on track like launching denim, selling through eBay and Bloomingdale’s and offering third-party merchandise.
While we’ve all heard about AA’s downtown L.A. factory, great wages, and vertically integrated business model, we’re still left with questions about why they’ve struggled so much and what really goes on inside that company–many of which are finally answered in an in-depth piece in the latest issue of fashion glossy Flaunt. Matthew Bedard visited Charney both in Toronto for a company event and AA’s L.A. digs and sheds a light on the company’s most prevalent issues, including the sexual harassment allegations, financial problems and new plans, manufacturing in the U.S. and more. Click through for the most interesting things we learned (and the most incendiary things Charney said).
Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.
Just a few minutes past midnight last night Alice Cooper took the stage and performed his perennial hit “School’s Out,” released in 1972. This was just moments after ZZ Top sang “Foxy Lady.” Darling Stilettos did the CBGB Ramones classics “Blitzkrieg Pop,” and Donovan Leitch–with Camp Freddy and Perry Farrell–closed the show with the Jane Addiction classic “The Mountain Song.” And that’s only a partial line up of the rockers that came out to perform in celebration of the launch of Original Moonshine and the tenth anniversary of John Varvatos’ menswear collection at the former CBGB space on Bowery, now Varvatos’ store selling his main, USA and Converse collections. Rock & Roll, whiskey and fashion.
Designer fashion requires a narrative–a way of telling a story or relating a lifestyle that the clothes are mere accoutrements. For Mr. Varvatos, it’s his early affection for rock music that has provided the blood that has flowed through his work since launching his first collection for fall 2000. In his office it’s hard to locate a book on fashion, but the piles on his long coffee table include The Illustrated Biography of Bob Dylan, Rock Record 7, CBGB: Decade of Graffiti History and Punk, Made in the U.K – The Music Attitude 1977-1983, Who Shot Rock & Roll, and Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: A View of Other Windows. And off course a tome on The Doors, just to name a few. In reconnecting with his adolescent obsession with rock music Mr. Varvatos gives the brand a soul, or what we call “fashion.”
Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.
There’s always a birthday to celebrate in Fashion Land. Two years ago it was the big 4-0 for Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, with an extravaganza on the High Line and a show/dinner on Central Park lawn, respectively. This fall marks the 25th year of Donna Karan and Tommy Hilfiger as well as the 40th year for Roberto Cavalli. And there’s sure to be plenty of events fêting these designers come Fashion Month.
Dolce & Gabbana also celebrated a birthday in 2010–the 20th year of its menswear line.
I’ll always remember that day in January 1990, in the old showroom at Via Santa Cecilia, that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana presented their first men’s collection, just five years after they had launched their womenswear label. I had started to work for Dolce & Gabbana in New York a year and a half earlier. In those days, I was the only employee. It was my first job in the fashion industry.
Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.
It was just another mid-August weekend, when most New Yorkers seek refuge in the Hamptons, Fire Island or upstate along the Hudson, where the sea, sun and cool breeze surely beat the persistent humidity. Yet for the city’s basketball fans, Manhattan was the place to be these past few days.
That’s because the Global Community Cup visited New York. A bit like the World Cup of basketball, GCC held games at Madison Square Garden–the USA team played France and China played Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden.
Next the GCC will head to Madrid, where the USA will take on Spain.
But what’s this got to do with fashion?
The new issue of Flaunt hits newsstands Monday, and while most copies will be covered with Kristen Stewart, a smaller run will feature Stephanie Seymour Inside, Long Nguyen interviews Azzedine Alaïa in his studio in Paris. The designer cooks and talks about his childhood, École des Beaux-arts and his time with Guy Laroche. He says Read more →
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If you, like us, are obsessed with magazines, welcome to phase one of the best project ever. A friend just sent us a link to Premier Issues, a site that’s taken it upon itself to scan in debut covers of all the magazines they can get their hands on. They have obvious ones like LOVE, Read more →
