Not too shabby, guys!
The Daily Mail asked men of different ages to dress their significant others. Click here to see how the men did, and what the women thought of their new looks.
Teaser: One woman's response, "I want to cry... I wouldn’t be caught dead dressed like this."
In an effort to show support for the recent earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, Fashion Girls for Japan will host a special two-day designer sample sale to benefit Japan Society’s Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, the Red Cross and the NYC’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fundto be held at the Bowery Terrace in The Bowery Hotel on Saturday April 2, 11am-7pm and Sunday April 3, 11am to 5pm. 100% of the proceeds from the sales will go towards disaster relief efforts.
More than 60 New York-based designers have come together– including Alexander Wang, Altuzzara, Derek Lam, Diane von Furstenberg, Doo Ri, Proenza Schouler, Thakoon, VPL, Zero Maria Cornejo and several accessories designers– and pledged to donate ‘one rolling rack’ of their clothing for this charity event. All items will be offered at 50% or more off the retail price.
Along with Kikka Hanazawa (President of VPL) and Tomoko Ogura (Fashion Director Women’s Co-op at Barneys New York), Fashion Girls for Japan was initially conceived by Kyoko Kageyama (3.1 Philip Lim), who was in Japan when the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011. With volunteers from Japanese-American fashion community, the generous donations of New York designers, and special support from fashion consultant Julie Gilhart, these members of the American fashion industry aim to aid and rebuild hope for their Japanese colleagues and customers through this special “60+ Designers/60+ Rolling Racks” event.
Photographer and style blogger Ari Seth Cohen celebrates New York City's stylish elderly population. In this clip, he features some rather sound advice from fashionistas in their golden years. Check it out. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O-gD6WgEqNU]
Quote from New York Magazine's interview with Christian Louboutin, famed designer of towering, red-soled heels:
“I hate the whole concept of the clog!” Louboutin said. “It’s fake, it’s ugly, and it’s not even comfortable!” He continued, “And I hate the whole concept of comfort! It’s like when people say, ‘Well, we’re not really in love, but we’re in a comfortable relationship.’ You’re abandoning a lot of ideas when you are too into comfort. ‘Comfy’—that’s one of the worst words! I just picture a woman feeling bad, with a big bottle of alcohol, really puffy. It’s really depressing, but she likes her life because she has comfortable clogs."
You GO, Christian! Down with hideous comfort clogs, sir!
Vainstyle.com - In case you missed the live stream of one of the biggest announcements in fashion, The Council of Fashion Designers have shared the nominees and honorees for the 2011 CFDA Fashion Awards in a presentation by Diane Von Furstenberg and Steven Kolb, CFDA executive director.
“There is no other event that puts the spotlight on American fashion like The CFDA Fashion Awards,” said Kolb. “We look forward to once again honoring the best and brightest talent working today. Winning a CFDA Fashion Award is the highest and one of the most coveted honors one can receive in our industry.” Those who can bask in their glory for already having won honorary awards include:
Marc Jacobs: The Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, named for the fiercely independent, four-time CFDA Fashion Award winner
Arthur Elgort: The CFDA Board of Directors Special Tribute in honor of his impact on photography and fashion.
Lady Gaga: The Fashion Icon Award for being a fashion revolutionary impacting style today.
Hilary Alexander of The Telegraph: The Media Award, given in honor of Eugenia Sheppard, the influential journalist who revolutionized fashion reporting with her reports in the New York City Herald Tribune
Hal Rubenstein of In Style: The Founders Award, given in honor of CFDA founder Eleanor Lambert who is widely credited with putting American fashion on the map.
Phoebe Philo for Celine: The International Award for making an outstanding creative contribution to the world of fashion.
The CFDA and its 370 womenswear, menswear, accessory and jewelry designers maintain that “this year’s nominees reflect the depth of accomplishment of American fashion and acknowledges the pervasive influence that a new generation of talent is having on the industry while also celebrating the masters of design.” The nominations go to American designers or to designers whose business is headquartered in the U.S. who have made the most outstanding contribution to and has influenced the direction of the respective categories with their Spring and Fall 2011 collections.
The nominees for Womenswear Designer of the Year Award Alexander Wang Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler Marc Jacobs
The Menswear Designer of the Year nominees are: Michael Bastian Patrik Ervell Simon Spurr
For Accessory Designer of the Year Award the nominees are:Alexander Wang Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler Reed Krakoff
Nominees for the Swarovski Award for Womenswear are: Joseph Altuzarra Ashley Olsen & Mary-Kate Olsen Prabal Gurung
The nominees for the Swarovski Award for Menswear are: Alexander Wang Phillip Lim Robert Geller
For the Swarovski Award for Accessory Design, the nominees are: Alejandro Ingelmo Eddie Borgo Jason Wu Pamela Love
The Swarovski Awards were established to recognize and support the talent and creativity of the next generation of American designers. The recipients in each category will receive generous financial support from Swarovski as well as access to the company’s crystal resources. “We are particularly proud of each designer nominated for a Swarovski Award,” said Nadja Swarovski, Vice President of International Communications & Creative Director. “They are the perfect example of emerging American design talent and have displayed a keen sense for the future of fashion.”
The 2011 CFDA Fashion Awards winners will be announced at the annual gala on June 6 at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Be sure to check back for the winners!
Click here to read the original story on Vainstyle.com.
It's spring, and you know what that means: Boho-chic! Time to rock fabulous togs with bohemian and hippie influences. I got my boho on over the weekend, when I visited the studio of jewelry designer, Kamille Crowley.
Fell in love with this Chinese turquoise bracelet
I wore these incredible vintage boots I scored in NYC.
Viva luxe bohemian looks!
Gossip Girl Blake Lively has accomplished a huge personal goal: She's the new face of Chanel's Mademoiselle handbag line.
“I had other opportunities and I would say, ‘Thank you so much, but I am holding out for Chanel,’” Lively told the New York Times. “That’s who I want to be the face of. And people would say, ‘Well, that’s unrealistic, they only hire Europeans,’ and I said: ‘Well, how great. I’ll be the first then.’”
The actress was personally chosen by Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel's head designer and creative director, who deemed her "an American dream girl." He shot all the campaign photographs himself at Chanel's Paris headquarters.
Lively's Chanel Mademoiselle ads will appear in April in magazines everywhere.
Reports are surfacing that Kate Middleton's wedding dress for her über-fab royal marriage to Prince William will be designed by Sarah Burton of the Alexander McQueen house.
Burton, 36, who worked with McQueen for 14 years before stepping in as creative director at the legendary fashion house after McQueen's suicide last year, is denying the reports. Royal tradition, however, dictates that bridal gown designers are bound to secrecy.
We'll seeeeee.
I'm sitting here watching Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times for the umpteenth time. It's so damn inspiring. I admire the hell out of him. His speech positively floors me. He chooses every word carefully and perfectly. We should all be so aware.
These two YSL quotes are currently battling for Most Fabulous:
"The word 'elegance' is as outmoded as 'haute couture'. It's a seductive woman who dresses to appeal to men. The word 'seduction' has replaced the word 'elegance'. It's a certain way of living, not of dressing."
"We must never confuse elegance with snobbery."
I've been racking my brain for days over something quite ridiculous, but potentially accurate. OK, so, watching that Galliano rant on YouTube gave me the distinct feeling that I'd seen something like it before.
It just came to me: The Burke Dennings character from The Exorcist. Remember? He was the director of Chris MacNeil's Georgetown movie shoot. He shows up at her house party, gets super-obnoxious drunk and launches into a drunken verbal assault on the elderly house manager, Karl.
The dialogue:
Burke Dennings: Tell me, was it public relations you did for the Gestapo or community relations? Karl: I'm Swiss! Burke Dennings: Oh, of course. And you never went bowling with Goebbels before either, I suppose? Nazi bastard. Cunting Hun! Bloody damn butchering Nazi pig!
So, ya' follow me here? I could be way off, but I'll let you be the judge. Sure, the Jew is the one hurling the insults this time, but it's the drunk/big nose/Nazi thing that causes me to call similarity. Whaddya think?
John Galliano = Burke Dennings... sort of.
Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel's chief designer, isn't remotely pleased with John Galliano, according to WWD.
“I’m furious, if you want to know. I’m furious that it could happen, because the question is no longer even whether he really said it. The image has gone around the world. It’s a horrible image for fashion, because they think that every designer and everything in fashion is like this,” Lagerfeld said. “This is what makes me crazy in that story."
“The thing is, we are a business world where, especially today, with the Internet, one has to be more careful than ever, especially if you are a publicly known person. You cannot go in the street and be drunk — there are things you cannot do,” he continued. “I’m furious with him because of the harm he did to LVMH and [chairman and ceo] Bernard Arnault, who is a friend, and who supported him more than he supported any other designer in his group, because Dior is his favorite label. It’s as if he had his child hurt.”
Reports are surfacing that Galliano is headed to Arizona rehab center, The Meadows, whose celeb client list includes Donatella Versace, Elton John and Tiger Woods. According to the Addiction Resource Guide, the cost for a 35-day Meadows stay is $33,500.
Dior officially fired John Galliano today.
"I condemn most firmly the statements made by John Galliano, which are a total contradiction with the essential values that have always been defended by the House of Christian Dior," Dior's president and chief executive, Sidney Toledano, said in a statement.
The house first suspended Galliano last week after two women told police that he hurled anti-Semitic slurs at them, which the designer vehemently denied. Then this week, a video from 2010 surfaced, showing Galliano making anti-Semitic remarks to two other women, saying, "People like you ought to be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be f***ing gassed. I love Hitler."
Here's the footage of the 2010 rant.
Warning: Contains views/language that some may find offensive.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GngFQLo8rIY]
Scandal! Dior designer John Galliano is on suspension following claims of an antisemitic rant.
Here's Daily Mail's coverage:
‘John Galliano called me Jewish whore...with ugly eyebrows': Art historian in row with designer tells police he threatened to kill her boyfriend.
British fashion designer John Galliano allegedly grabbed a respected art historian’s hair and called her an ‘ugly, disgusting whore’ with a ‘dirty Jew face’ and no dress sense during an unprovoked attack in a Paris cafe.
Curator Geraldine Bloch, 35, has told officers investigating the alleged assault that the designer, who is close friends with celebrities including Madonna and Kylie Minogue, insulted every aspect of her looks, from her ‘ugly eyebrows’ to her ‘cheap thigh boots’.
During the incident, which has seen Mr Galliano arrested and suspended from his job as chief designer at Christian Dior, Ms Bloch claimed he even threatened to kill her boyfriend, receptionist Philippe Virgitti, 41.
She has claimed Galliano concluded his tirade with: ‘I am the designer John Galliano!’ while striking the trademark ‘rock star’ pose with which he often ends his couture shows.
Details of the alleged incident emerged in French newspaper Le Figaro which claims to have seen police statements taken from the couple.
It came as Mr Galliano launched legal action against Ms Bloch, who is French, and Mr Virgitti, of Asian background, for defamation, after Dior made the decision to suspend him during the police investigation.
The alleged attack took place on Thursday night in La Perle, in the Marais district. There were ‘dozens’ of witnesses to the violence, which started soon after 9pm after Mr Galliano had reportedly drunk the alcoholic equivalent of two bottles of red wine.
Galliano allegedly told her: ‘You’re so ugly I can’t bear looking at you. You’re wearing cheap boots, cheap thigh boots. You’ve got no hair, your eyebrows are ugly, you’re ugly, you’re nothing but a whore.’
Read the rest of the story here.
“Fashion is so close in revealing a person's inner feelings and everybody seems to hate to lay claim to vanity so people tend to push it away. It's really too close to the quick of the soul.” – Stella Blum, Victorian fashion designer
Born in Tehran, Iran and raised in Philadelphia, Behnaz Sarafpour attended NYC’s Parsons School of Design. Her career began with Anne Klein, where she worked under Richard Tyler and Narciso Rodriguez. She launched her label with the fall 2001 season, and has wowed the fashion world with her trademark modern elegance ever since.
Needless to say, the show was fantastic. The clothes were clean and basic—definitely not trend-driven—featuring a primarily neutral palette of taupe, powder blue, slate and black. Notable looks included cozy knit capes, flowing gowns with matchstick-patterned lace bodices, leather and knit city dresses and tailored coats with 60s mod lines. Exquisite!
For NYC Fall Fashion Week 2011 basics, click here.
For photos of the Behnaz Serafpour Fall 2011 show, click here.
To read all about my NYC trip and view photos, click here.
To read Fabü coverage of all of the above, click here.
Kimora Lee Simmons takes us on a guided tour through her walk-in closet, or, as she calls it, "inside my brain." First, peruse the luscious shoes and luxury handbags galore, then take a peek at her fave designer threads.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08KePKnHtWM]
"Go in peace and be fabulous." - KLS
The Tent at Bryant Park is now the Theatre at Lincoln Center, home to the American Ballet Theatre and the Metropolitan Opera House. Last year, the city promised to provide a bigger, fancier location to house the event. Seems they made good on that promise. It's lovely.
Guests enter on a red carpet into the lobby, which is jam-packed with booths, swag and hype. I got suckered into posing at the Mercedes-Benz display. Ian was asked to join me, but he scampered away. Thus, the display model stood in as my date.
No, I'm not wearing a boa. It's a vest. A vest made entirely of oh-so-delicate feathers, courtesy of Ian. Speaking of that friend of mine, feast your eyes on how gorgeous and slender he looked at the show.
A bit blurry, but you get the idea: Hotness.
Here's a shot of one of the press pits. They're reviewing live feed from the shows happening in separate rooms inside the complex.
The Behnaz show was fabulous. See next post for my pics.
Luxury footwear label Jimmy Choo is about to go up for sale.
Following the results of a strategic review, Choo's private equity backers have recommended putting the label up for sale.
According to Reuters, the sale could fetch about $805 million.
