Fashionista

How to Make It in Fashion: June 21, Dream Hotel Downtown, New York

Monday December 5th, 2011

14 Designer Versions of the ‘Ugly’ Christmas Sweater
Shopping

14 Designer Versions of the ‘Ugly’ Christmas Sweater

Taking fuddy duddy, traditionally American things and turning them into high fashion seems to be a budding trend. (See: Glamping.) The latest target of the luxury fashion world’s makeover is everyone’s favorite holiday tradition: The Christmas Sweater.

Somewhere between classy (as defined by Derek Blasberg) and campy (as defined by Corky St. Clair) is this list of Christmas sweaters from big name designers like Stella McCartney and Marc Jacobs. It’s the best new mix of high and low, plus you’ll probably wear these Christmas sweaters again, as opposed to the one your mom made you with yarn and a hot glue gun. (Sorry, Mom!)

Check out the festive options available for Christmas and get in the holiday spirit!

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Published at 6:32 PM

Thursday September 15th, 2011

Fashion News Roundup: Amy Winehouse’s Final Video, Topman Calls Women Dogs and Changes in Mag Mastheads
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Amy Winehouse’s Final Video, Topman Calls Women Dogs and Changes in Mag Mastheads

Hannelli Mustaparta Stars In Net-A-Porter’s Fall Ads: The stylish blogger joins Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Atlanta de Cadenet and Shala Monroque for the sale site’s “real people” campaign. {WWD}

Editorial Musical Chairs: Fact: WWD reports that Chris Dixon, design director for New York mag, is going to Vanity Fair. Rumors: Brides VP and publisher Carolyn Kremins might go to another Condé mag and EIC Millie Martini Bratten might exit the company, while Lucky VP and publisher Michelle Myers might be ousted by Bill Wackermann, their executive VP who also heads Glamour, W, Bon Appétit and Details. {WWD}

Models Don’t Really Make Much Money: A former model speaks out about the inconsistent pay and difficulties faced by unknown models who don’t land Victoria’s Secret contracts or Vogue spreads. {NY Times}

From Runway to Rack–How Department Store Exclusives Happen: Big retailers usually ask designers for exclusive colors or cuts from their runway looks– here’s how they make their wares stand out. {WSJ}

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Published at 1:15 PM

Thursday August 25th, 2011

Last Night’s Party: Band of Outsiders Screens Meatballs in a Cemetery, Joel Madden Is ‘Creeped Out’
Parties

Last Night’s Party: Band of Outsiders Screens Meatballs in a Cemetery, Joel Madden Is ‘Creeped Out’

LOS ANGELES–The famed Hollywood Forever cemetery played host to quite the quintessential all-American hipster summer soiree on Wednesday night as cool kids Joel Madden, Andrew Garfield, Sarah Silverman, Jenny Lewis, Scott Sternberg, George Kotsiopoulos and more gathered to fete Band of Outsiders, Net-a-Porter and Mr. Porter.

To set the tone, plenty of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, RC Cola and warm weather fare (meatball sandwiches, potato chips, macaroni salad and more) were served up to the stylish crowd of industry insiders mingling amongst tombstones and morbid memorial sites.

“The cemetery totally creeps me out, but I came anyway to support the brand,” laughed Madden, carrying his personal picnic basket while scouting out a supreme spot on the grounds to watch the screening of the classic 1979 film Meatballs, starring Bill Murray. “They have been doing basic before anyone else. Now basic is actually very big, but Band of Outsiders was years ahead. They just do it right.”

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Published at 6:30 PM

Friday August 5th, 2011

New Column Alert: Follow a Former Fashion Editor to Business School!
Fashion Careers

New Column Alert: Follow a Former Fashion Editor to Business School!

Hello there and welcome to Business Casual, a new monthly column following my jarring and (hopefully!) exciting transition from working as a fashion writer in NYC to attending business school at MIT Sloan. I wanted to write this column because some fashion friends have expressed an interest in swallowing the grad school pill themselves and tumbling down this crazy rabbit hole. But coming from this industry, it can be tricky to know where to begin. My hope is to fill in those blanks. Please hit me up in the comments with any of your questions. From deciding to go to business school to getting accepted is a long and annoying process, but you can get through it.

First, a little about me, so we’re not strangers…

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Published at 5:00 PM

Monday April 25th, 2011

Design a Collage for Prabal Gurung and Win a Cashmere Piece From His Spring Collection
Fashion Is Fun

Design a Collage for Prabal Gurung and Win a Cashmere Piece From His Spring Collection

Net-a-Porter is now Prabal Gurung’s exclusive online retailer, and to celebrate, Prabal wants to give you some free clothes.

But you’re going to have to work for it. Whether you fancy yourself a rock star on Polyvore or a budding stylist (or just, you know, like free designer clothes), head over to Prabal’s blog.

They want you to create a look using one of the two color-blocked cashmere pieces featured there as the centerpiece. Using accessories from spring 2011 runways–they can be from anywhere–design a collage and submit it by May 16. They’ll display their three favorite looks on the blog, and then choose the winner at the end of May.

We’d like to suggest avoiding using this look, since it’s been done already:

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Published at 4:30 PM

Wednesday March 30th, 2011

Fashion News Roundup: Alexa Chung’s New Modeling Gig, Liam Gallagher Slams Jay-Z’s Fashion Line, and Johnny Weir Makes T-Shirts For Japan
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Alexa Chung’s New Modeling Gig, Liam Gallagher Slams Jay-Z’s Fashion Line, and Johnny Weir Makes T-Shirts For Japan

Alexa Chung Models Tennis Shoes: Italian footwear label Superga is celebrating their 100th birthday this year and they’ve chosen it-girl Alexa Chung to be the face of their centennial campaign. Chung also helped with the styling. {The Telegraph}

Killer Looks: The Kills’s singer Allison Mosshart is British Vogue.com’s “Today I’m Wearing” girl for the month of April. {Vogue.com UK}

Net-a-Porter’s Green Runway: Karolina Kurkova, Jessica Stam, and Coco Rocha all walked the runway last night at Christie’s as part of Net-a-Porter’s “Runway to Green” event to raise money for environmental charities. Lots of fancy fashion people were there. {Style.com}

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Published at 1:33 PM

Tuesday February 22nd, 2011

Fashion News Roundup: Bieber Gets a Haircut, More Royal Wedding Dress Details, and Brad Goreski Designs a Toothbrush
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Bieber Gets a Haircut, More Royal Wedding Dress Details, and Brad Goreski Designs a Toothbrush

CK One Goes Digital for its Spring Ads: This epic ad campaign for the newly anointed life style brand was directed by Steven Meisel, and features Abbey Lee Kershaw, Pixie Geldolf, and Lara Stone among a slew of other big names. The group is shown using social media and dancing around in minimal amounts of clothing. The campaign is the largest digital initiative in CK’s history and launches March 1st. {WWD, subscription required}

Joe Zee Hits the Bunny Slopes (In Dolce & Gabbana, Of Course): Can this man get any more fabulous and adorable? We vote no, especially after watching this hilarious video of the Elle Creative Director learning to ski with a bunch of kiddies. {Elle}

Brad Goreski Makes Brushing Your Teeth More Fashion: Brushing ones teeth is not the most glamorous of activities, but Brad Goreski is trying change that. The stylist has designed a toothbrush for Reach along with interior designers Tom Delavan and Celerie Kimble. {StyleCaster}

Anna Wintour Gives Her Stamp of Approval to Christopher’s Kane J Brand Line: The editor also gushes that she is a “huge fan” of the British designer. We can already tell that this collaboration is going to be good. {Telegraph}

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Published at 2:15 PM

Thursday February 10th, 2011

Alexa Chung Covers Net-a-Porter’s New Print Magazine
e-commerce

Alexa Chung Covers Net-a-Porter’s New Print Magazine

Alexa Chung looks ravishing in red Erdem on the cover of Net-a-Porter‘s new print magazine. According to a post on the Fashion Spot, the glossy will be available to purchase on Net-a-Porter.com beginning next week.

Net-a-Porter was pretty much the first site to successfully incorporate editorial into their e-commerce platform. (Although they’ve scaled back on the amount of editorial over the years.) What do you think of this reverse strategy?

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Published at 2:27 PM

Monday January 31st, 2011

Tuesday January 18th, 2011

This Morning’s Fashion Biz News: J.Crew Almost Settled, Burberry and Richemont Leap Again, and Escada Gets Bar-ed
The Business

This Morning’s Fashion Biz News: J.Crew Almost Settled, Burberry and Richemont Leap Again, and Escada Gets Bar-ed

The financial markets in the US were closed yesterday, which in turn made things in Europe–as well as behind-the-scenes here–much more exciting.

The most critical news: J.Crew is close to settling a lawsuit regarding its takeover. Some public shareholders felt that J.Crew’s Mickey Drexler accepted an offer for the company that was too low–$2.86 billion–and they want to be compensated. Those shareholders will receive $10 million for settling, and J.Crew will entertain other potential offers until February 15. (Although Reuters is reporting that there haven’t been any rival bids, which means the deal is likely to go through next month.)

Over in Britain, the morning’s big stories are Burberry and Net-a-Porter.

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Published at 11:44 AM

Saturday January 15th, 2011

What Should You Wear on a Fashion Industry Interview?
Fashion Careers

What Should You Wear on a Fashion Industry Interview?

A reader recently emailed us asking what she should wear to an upcoming interview with a prominent New York fashion designer. “Do you think you could help me with some suggestions?” she said.

Of course we could, but first, we wanted to ask a few of our industry favorites what they think one should wear to a fashion interview. Because it really is different than interviewing for a job at a law firm–or even an advertising agency.

Matthew Hunt, the publicity director at Exposure US (who’s worked everywhere from Gucci to Burberry to Ford Models), says it best:

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Published at 12:06 PM

Friday December 3rd, 2010

The Best Places to Shop for Fashion Online
Shopping

The Best Places to Shop for Fashion Online

It’s the holiday season, which means trolling the internet in search of perfect gifts for your friends and family. But despite the mission, we always end up buying for ourselves, too.

To put together a list of the best places to shop for fashion online, we considered breadth and quality of product, easy navigation, customer service, and overall look and feel of each site. We did not include flash sales sites, as it’s difficult to judge something on product when that aspect changes daily. And we didn’t rank these stores, because every site is so different. What’s your favorite place to shop online?

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Published at 4:34 PM