WWD

Photo: findafascinator.com
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Fascinators and Mini Skirts Get Banned from Royal Ascot, J.Crew’s CEO Mickey Drexler Doesn’t Like Shopping Malls, and Taylor Swift’s Frenemy Speaks Now

Fascinators Banned from June’s Royal Ascot: The Royal Ascot in Britain is cracking down on fascinators, cleavage, and, well… crack. A new, more clearly stated dress code is now officially in place for the event in an effort to swing it from chavy to classy: Strapless tops and above-the-knee hems are banned. Fancy fascinators will only be allowed in the grandstand areas; whereas the royal enclosure (aka the big boy seats) will allow only hats and headpieces that cover at least 4″ of the head at the base. Look out for K-Mid sporting the latest fad, hat-hair. {Fashion Foie Gras}

Justin Bieber Goes Brunette: Speaking of Duchess Kate: Clearly the latest casualty of the “Kate Middleton Effect,” baby Biebs has hit the brunette bottle. Now he’ll definitely be taken more seriously as an artist. Definitely. {US Weekly}

Just How Does Sarah Jaxheimer Do It? She has a cool group of friends, her hair is always shiny and awesome, and she dated the boy Taylor Swift crushed on in junior high. Check out Pop Dust’s exclusive and insanely hilarious interview with the elusive Sarah Jax, who may or may not be the mean girl in all of Swifty’s sad songs. {Pop Dust}

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Jimmy Choo coffee holders
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Jimmy Choo Makes Coffee Cup Holders, Jessica Simpson Signs With Weight Watchers While Still Pregnant, and Someone Stole Lindsay Lohan’s Chanel

Jessica Simpson Scores Deal To Lose Her Baby Weight Before She Even Has a Baby: Weight Watchers is paying Jessica Simpson a cool $3 million to lose her baby weight using their weight loss plan. We thought breast-feeding was enough to make you lose it all. No? {Jezebel}

The Free Tote Bag Is the New “It” Bag: We knew it was a good idea to keep all those free totes we’ve accumulated over the years. Use them proudly, because free is apparently the new $2000. (It’s annoying that they don’t have any compartments and pockets, though.) {NYT}

Jimmy Choo Makes Coffee Holders: Need a last minute stocking stuffer for that fancy coffee drinker in your life? They can cover up their Dunkin Donuts cup with this leather Jimmy Choo coffee cup sleeve, which is a mere $125. Just don’t slosh or drip on it, for heaven’s sake. Do you know what Splenda can do to leather? {Pursuitist}

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lindsay-lohan-playboy-cover
Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Liv Tyler Sings for Givenchy, Martha Stewart Sells Part of Her Company to JCPenney in Backdoor Deal, and Lindsay Lohan’s Playboy Cover Leaks

Let Liv Tyler Serenade You, Compliments of Givenchy: The actress is set to make her singing debut to promote the fragrance, Very Irresistable Givenchy. We’re tempted to be wary of a corporate-sponsored jam, but Steven Tyler is her dad. {WWD subscription required }

Mario Lopez Launches Underwear Line: This holiday season, your man deserves underwear with the A.C. Slater stamp of approval. Mario Lopez’s new underwear line RatedM is available on freshpair.com, and will be in Bloomingdale’s stores starting February. The line ranges from causal everyday undies to the ‘Atelier’ line, for those extra special occasions. {WWD subscription required}

Lindsay Lohan Playboy Cover Leaks: Seven days before it’s set to hit newsstands, Lindsay Lohan’s Playboy cover has been leaked on the interwebs. Not that it needed to be. It’s typical Lindsay: blonde hair, fresh lip injections, big hair. And we kinda love that Playboy bunny chair. {Buzzfeed}

Clémence Poésy is G-Star’s Newest Face: The Artist Formerly Known as Fleur Delacoeur is featured in the brand’s Spring 2012 ads, shot by Anton Corbijn {ELLE}

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Fashion Is Fun

In Honor of the US Open, Here’s a Look Back at Fashion’s Love Affair with Tennis

Ever since the US Open began Monday, something very funny has been happening over at WWD. The industry newspaper–dedicated to reporting the comings and goings of the fashion and beauty world–has been talking grand slams and sports stats.

We’ve been noticing tennis-related posts popping up on all sorts of fashion-related sites. In the past few days, NY Times has run a piece dissecting female players’ hairstyles, WWD has reported on Ryan Harrison’s “brat attack”, NOWNESS premiered a dramatic, smoke-filled video starring tennis A-listers taking swings, and Vogue has run several tennis-themed features including a profile on the sports’ newest stars and a look at Maria Sharapova’s fashion cred.

Yes, some of these have been legitimately fashion-related, but it’s still a whole lot more industry buzz than has been given to other sports (Can you imagine a football-related headline on WWD!?)

Let’s take a look at the evolution of the fashion industry’s love affair with tennis.

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Beauty

See the Top 25 of Beauty Inc’s List of the 100 Best Beauty Companies

Every year Beauty Inc ranks the world’s top 100 beauty companies and this morning, the results came in for 2010.

While it’s not exactly a shocker who made the list (L’Oreal, Proctor & Gamble and Chanel all nabbed top spots) it is surprising to note how the overall list has changed since last year. Namely, that total sales have increased–25.1% to be exact–and that, in particular, small firms saw a large amount of growth, with the list’s 100th-ranked company showing a 9.2% increase since 2009. The news is particularly heartening because, in case you haven’t heard, retail isn’t exactly having a good year.

But not everyone was immune to the recent financial crisis: Of the 15 companies that saw a decline in sales, seven were from Japan, where consumer confidence has been in a continual downward spiral.

See the list of the top 25 beauty companies after the jump.

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Can Selling Other Brands’ Stuff Save American Apparel?

According to WWD, American Apparel will now focus on selling third-party merchandise–the latest in the company’s long struggle to stay afloat.

In particular, the brand has plans to reinvigorate it’s accessories department–which currently only account for a small percentage of total sales–by scouting for new, autonomous labels to shill in-store. To that end, Dov Charney and chief business development officer Marty Staff will be visiting trade shows MAGIC and Project later this month (female vendors beware) to suss out what brands they might want to bring into the fold (and what brands are willing). Their footwear department, which the retailer has been steadily growing since launching a few years back, will also benefit from some new additions:

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: See The ANTM All-Stars, Beyoncé Lands Another Cover and Elle Fanning vs. Alexa Chung

Daphne Guinness Gets an Exhibit at The Museum at FIT: Opening on September 16 (when NYFW ends), the exhibit will showcase 100 selections from Guinness’ personal collection in a space designed to look like her Manhattan apartment. If anything could follow McQueen, this is it. Ends January 7. {Racked}

Beyoncé Is A Sexy Feminist On The Cover of Harper’s Bazaar UK: Bey proves that feminism can definitely be hot, although she admits the word itself isn’t and wants to create a new, more appealing label. Her suggestion: “bootylicious”. Yes. {Huffington Post}

Meet The ANTM All-Stars: Hell yeah, I see you Shannon form Cycle 1. Our fave modeling show is bringing back their (second) best of the best for another season later this fall. Practice your smize! {US Weekly}

Gucci Announces Nominees For First “Women In Cinema” Awards: In her second collaboration with the Venice Film Festival, Frida Giannini will award a prize to a woman for outstanding acheivement in film-making on September 2. Nominees come from every part of the film industry, including Tree of Life’s Jessica Chastain. {Telegraph}

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: Prepare For Snooki-Brand Gear, Sophie Theallet for Nine West, and Did the TSA Deem Spiked Louboutins Weapons?

TSA Considers Spiked Loubs “Weapons”: Some guy named Taz Arnold was traveling with his $1,245 Christian Louboutin Rollerboy Spike shoes and according to his twitter account, the TSA deemed them weapons. {Yahoo! Shine}

Get Ready For Snooki the Brand: Snooki–though she recently told the NY Daily News that she prefers to be called Nicole–has hired NY firm SRG Ventures to manage various Snooki-licensed gear to be rolled out over the coming year. Up first? Slippers, jewelry, oversized sunnies, and then possibly denim, sportswear, lingerie, handbags, personal care, beauty products, fragrances, swimwear, bedding and home goods. What about solo cups, Snooks? {NY Post}

WWD Devotes New Section To the Boys: WWD has launched a new section devoted to men’s fashion and style called Mensweek, that will appear in the paper every Thursday. “We wanted to amp up our men’s coverage,” a WWD spokesperson told us, ” looking ahead it’s such an important market and continues to strengthen.” Today’s section features a story that credits the recession with the recent spike in menswear retail and another that ranks quarterbacks (really). {WWD subscription NOT required this time}

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Fashion News Roundup

Fashion News Roundup: That Miu Miu Dress Again, Lauren Shares Her Wedding Planning Expertise and Tom Ford to Guest Edit French Vogue

Really, Elle China? Yep, that Miu Miu dress that has been on the cover of 478329874 magazines this year has landed yet another one. Fei Fei Sun sports the dress in yellow on the cover of Elle China’s December issue. Seriously guys, what is this? {Fashion Gone Rogue}

Lauren Sherman, the Wedding Expert: Our bride-to-be editor has become a veritable expert on the process of planning an affordable wedding in NYC (yes, it is possible!) and has shared her findings with Refinery29. Some examples? Do your own flowers and scour Craigslist for a photog. {Refinery29}

WWWhoops: For some reason, WWD decided to momentarily spill the beans about last night’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner before it was actually announced. They swiftly deleted the scandalous tweet, but it was too late. {@themoment}

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Our Top Ten Favorite Tweets By @NoBtotheS

An anonymous fashion publicist,tweeting under the name @NoBtotheS, is becoming a real industry force.

WWD reported today that the Twitter star’s comment re: Google launching an e-commerce platform might actually be true. (Google’s entrance into the fashion and retail realm should come as no surprise. Their latest efforts include throwing a fashion industry party next week DJed by Becka Diamond and the Misshapes, and launching project GStyle during the summer.)

Anyways, @NoBtotheS, also known as No Bullshit, typically tweets about much less serious topics. In honor of our new hero, we’ve listed her top ten Tweets. Ever.

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The Business

Style.com Joins Fairchild: Will a Pay Wall Follow?

Over the past 10 years, Style.com has become the fashion industry’s resource for runway images.

Now, as its sister site Vogue.com expands, the property is switching teams. It was announced this morning that Style.com would leave Conde Nast Digital for the Fairchild Group, which includes WWD, WWD.com, Footwear News, conferences, Fairchild Books and trade shows. (In March, W magazine moved from Fairchild into Conde Nast’s consumer group.)

The switch makes sense for Style. While it’s still sold as a consumer property, the industry uses its fashion show database as a library. What’s more, several of Style’s staffers–including executive editor Nicole Phelps and writer Meenal Mistry–hail from WWD.

Publisher Gina Sanders insists that the properties will not become intertwined, but we see plenty of opportunities for cross-pollination here. It’s doubtful that a pay wall will come into play, but if it did, we do believe users would pay $25 to $50 per year to access the database.

Our question for you: if Style.com does put up a pay wall, would you pony up?

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anna-candy
Magazines

Editorial Musical Chairs: Candy Pratts Price’s New Gig and More

We have a few significant moves to report on this week. Publicists arranging Fashion Week invites and seating charts, take note.

Candy Pratts Price, who was laid off last year from her position as Style.com’s executive fashion director, was just hired as Vogue.com’s new creative director. The two sites are owned by the same company. Basically, this is just a shuffle that took a really long time to happen.

Nancy MacDonell, another former Style.com editor, has just been hired at AHAlife as a contributing editor. Gilles Bensimon was also just hired by the new lifestyle shopping site as creative director.

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