Madewell

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Reviews

Madewell Spring 2011 Makes Us Happy

Silk button downs. Vintage belts. And short-sleeved army jackets. These are the pieces we want for spring, and sure enough Madewell is offering them up in an irresistible fashion.

“We [topped the skirts] with jackets so it all looked easier,” the brand’s creative director, Kin Ying Lee, told me at this morning’s presentation. The vacation-inspired tees–remnants of those 1970s “Virginia is for Lovers” souvenirs–also made the soft, pretty florals and silks look less precious. Several of the belts used to tie the outfits together were vintage, and will be available in select Madewell stores.

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Fashion Careers

Six Questions for Madewell Creative Director Kin Ying Lee

Madewell, J.Crew‘s sister brand, just gets better and better. And a lot of that has to do with Kin Ying Lee, the label’s creative director. Not only is Kin nice, funny, and cool, she also has amazing personal style. So it’s not surprising that she makes the “Madewell girl” appear effortlessly hip.

I got to spend some time with Kin this summer on Madewell’s road trip–where a bunch of editors visited Montauk to just hang out with the brand’s team–and adored her instantly! Luckily, she was nice enough to answer some questions for Fashionista about her life, her career, and what’s next for Madewell. The brand launched its latest denim style, the High Riser, today, and you can pick it up at their Denim After Dark event, which takes place tonight at select Madewell stores across the country.

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Shopping

World’s Best Clothing Stores: The Fashionista Ranking

Specialty retailers. The high street. Chain stores. The mall. Whatever you want to call them, these are the places that most of us do the majority of our shopping. (I may own a Chanel bag, but my jeans are from Uniqlo.)

Which clothing stores offer the right mix of well-made, gently-priced, well-designed clothes? To rank the world’s best, we tapped our string of correspondents–from Los Angeles to Paris to Tokyo–to tell us which stores they enjoy most. As usual, our methodology is loose, but fair: We factored in fabric and construction quality, price (as it relates to quality), overall desirability, and accessibility to a large audience. And we only considered stores that sell clothes for both men and women. (No discount, department store, or boutique retailers were included.)

Click through for our ten favorites. Which would top your list?

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We Survived Fashion’s Night Out, Here’s What We Saw

Fashion’s Night Out round two is over. Veni, vidi, vici. It was like Halloween for fashion people. (We wish retailers were handing out clothes like candy.) Conquering the chaos of last night was much easier as Fashion’s Night Out provided the Fashionista team with a Volkswagen Jetta so we could jump from Soho where we shopped Alexa Chung’s collection for Madewell (so cute) uptown to Bergdorf’s to wait on line to see Tom Ford, and made a lot of stops in between.

Here’s the best of what we saw last night, and a few highlights from events we wish we’d had time to see. If you braved FNO last night, we want to know, what was the craziest thing you saw or best purchase you made?

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Karlie on the Tube, Gaga’s Short Film and Barbie’s Fashion Week Internship

Karlie on Gossip Girl: We’re not sure which will be a bigger deal, Fashion’s Night Out or the Gossip Girl episode centered around it. In addition to a bunch of designers and Vogue editors, Karlie Kloss will be making an appearance. Reportedly, she is playing herself and delivers a line at a meeting with Eleanor Waldorf and Lily Van Der Woodsen. {Modelinia}

London’s Fashion’s Night Out: Lucky Londoners, your T-shirts are cooler than ours and your FNO will be over before ours begins! Let us know how it goes. Here’s what’s happening on the other side of the pond. {Vogue UK}

Statue of Gaga: Lady Gaga and Marc Jacobs cover V’s New York issue. The V appears to be constructed out of chewed gum and there appears to be an old television and a shopping cart in the background. What does this mean? {Daily Mail

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: More September Covers, Alexa x Madewell, & All About Erdem

Alexa Chung talks Madewell: Get the scoop on Alexa Chung’s collab with Madewell: she sketched, she’s planning to wear flats for fashion week, and her hair is “rubbish.” {Refinery 29}

Maid Marion: Vogue Paris all important September cover revealed! It’s Marion Cotillard looking très dramatique. {Vogue Paris’ Twitter}

Get to Know Erdem: SHOWStudio’s newest fashion interview features floralist Erdem Moralioglu. Be prepared for some extreme close-ups. {SHOWStudio}

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Shopping

Friendship Bracelets Go From Camp To Cool

Friendship bracelets are having an extended moment. They’ve come a long way from my camp cabin, where my friends and I would knot bracelets using our big toes as hooks (I promise it seemed normal).

Vena Cava’s SS 2010 invites were friendship bracelets. Lucky editor Jenny Kang’s line Bracelets by Dad, has graced the wrists of Alexa Chung and Leighton Meester. Lauren is mad for Parisian designer Aurelie Bidermann’s ‘Do Brasil‘ bracelet which knots gold links right in with the colorful embroidery thread. Now J.Crew has partnered with Frieda & Nellie to produce a line of one-of-a-kind friendship bracelets that have rhinestones and metal woven into the embroidery thread.

We wouldn’t mind if our besties gave us any of these.

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6 Things We Love About Madewell’s New Website

Madewell quietly launched its e-commerce site on Friday, and while there’s a brick-and-mortar store just around the corner from our Nolita office, it’s always nice to peruse the goods via our Macs.

Here’s what we love about the site:

1. “Jenna’s Favorites” has been transformed into “Get the Goods.” We love the feature on J.Crew’s website called “Jenna’s Favorites,” where creative director Jenna Lyons cherry picks pieces from the current collection. Madewell does something similar with “Get the Goods,” a collage of cute clothes and accessories mixed with inspirations for the line.

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Alexa Chung for Madewell

When MTV cancelled It’s on With Alexa Chung, everyone wondered: Will the British TV personality stay in New York? And what will she do? Since then, she’s hosted a party for Louis Vuitton and lent her face to Pepe jeans, but her new project will keep her here through the fall, at least. She’s signed [...]

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Mo’ Money Problems

While it turns out The Daily was just stirring up smoke with those false Jean Paul Gaultier rumors – he & Hermès look forward to a long and happy life together – the French house still has major problems. WWD reports their profits have taken a 7% dip in the first half of the year [...]

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Shopping

Madewell Flea Market

Recently I’ve been lamenting the loss of my once stellar flea market skills. And while I vowed to get back in the swing of all things vintage, I am still incredibly grateful to Madewell for making it even easier. The Manhattan and East Hampton stores will be featuring finds from the Brooklyn Flea starting this [...]

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Abercrombie Loses A Limb

Poor Abercrombie’s been having a hell of a time with this whole recession thing. Last winter they refused to cut prices pre-Christmas which led to devastating losses and now, they’ve announced they’re closing Ruehl. A good friend worked at Abercrombie’s Ohio headquarters while Ruehl launched and here’s why, according to her, it bombed: “At first [...]

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