While the FCC worries itself over product placement on television programs, who is worrying itself over the product placement in literature? Sorry: “literature.” A quick look at the latest crop of chick lit finds itself, much like Sex and the City’s title track, obsessed with designer labels. Brand names pop up all over the place, in Lauren Weisberger’s Chasing Harry Winston, Kristen Kemp’s Breakfast at Bloomingdale’s, Bringing Home the Birkin, and Sunday at Tiffany’s. This is sad because while at one time you could already guess the plotlines of these books — girl meets dreamy guy, gabs about dreamy guy with her girl friends, sleeps with dreamy guy, discusses pros and cons of being with dreamy guy — you now already know which fashion labels their authors are whoring themselves out to. [NYT]
Marc Jacobs, the reborn Louis Vuitton designer who has a thing for playboys and press, is a perfect fit in Provincetown, Mass., the East Coast’s gay mecca where he has opened a store. “As you can imagine, when Marc by Marc opened last summer, some Ptown regulars grumbled that it was too snooty for this salty, sexy town and would dilute the charming local flavor. But anyone with a speck of taste would choose the place any day over that irritating Black Dog store down the street.” [NYT]
In between gossiping about Madonna’s marriage woes and the possibility that she was mounting Alex Rodriguez complete with riding crop, you may have noticed that the soi-disant Queen of Reinvention is looking pretty bland lately. Sure, her theme for Hard Candy is boxer/fighter/angry lass, but the girl is wearing track suits, boring tees, and children in the public square.
The woman once known for reshaping her image era by era is sliding into her half-century age mark not with a bang, but a bland fashion apogee that’s not a statement. It’s a question mark.
Is this the most we can expect from a middle aged popstar? CONTINUED »
Former New York Times science writer and current Santa Fe Review blogger George Johnson, who set up a live webcam feed of the lot neighboring his home — which just so happened to be where Tom Ford was building his new house in the Santa Fe area — is the victim of a burglary, where $7,000 of equipment, including “a brand-new Apple Mac Pro computer, two display monitors, two digital cameras, a digital recorder, an iPod, a cell phone, two older monitors, a copy machine and, perhaps worst of all, his backup hard drive and backup power supply” was nabbed while he and his wife slept downstairs. Oh, and the webcam aimed at Ford’s house. Johnson plans to replace it, with insurance money.
With more than $20 million in debt still yet to be paid off, Hillary Clinton will do anything to get supporters to throw money at her campaign, even though her campaign’s only purpose right now is to, uh, pay off her debts.
Barack Obama is doing his part, asking supporters to send her a cheque. Now, Hillary has moved on to gimmicks.
In exchange for sending a $50 contribution sent her way, Clinton will ship you one of these “limited edition” tees. The gender-ambiguous silhouette there at the bottom? A subtle reminder that pantsuits work for any body type. [Swamp]
Project Runway judge and catchphrase coiner Tim Gunn on lady style of the presidential campaign:
Michelle Obama
“From a fashion viewpoint, Michelle Obama looks so comfortable and relaxed in her style and her fashion, and she exudes that. She has a presence that gives you confidence in her.”
Cindy McCain
“Cindy McCain looks like someone has twisted her pony tail into a knot and tried to give her a face lift.”
There are two ways to present A Guide to Spotting Fake Louis Vuitton Bags. In the first scenario, an author might offer tips to fashion insiders who like nothing more than to point out the pitiful girl who slung a Canal Street knockoff over her shoulder and thought she’d get away with it. In the second scenario, it’s the buyers of such fake goods who get the service-y treatment, with a how-to on how to spot fake Vuitton goods before buying them. This is one of those guides. But, uh, word to the wise? If you find yourself in a place — and that includes eBay — where you even have to question whether the bag you’re buying might be fake, well, then it is.
Though Gossip Girl is in re-runs and will not return to The CW until Sept. 1, the show’s cast is spending the summer shooting the episodes you’re going to concern yourselves with when season two appears this fall. In a brilliant twist of newspegs, this allows the show to be fair game on the culture beat year-round, which explains how articles like this one — about how the show influences the fashions that tween, teen, and twentysomething girls are buyings — get printed. That what S, B, or little Jenny wear impacts what young girls are wearing, and what the stores they shop at will be stocking, it of little surprise; designer Stefani Greenspan, who creates the Priorities line sold at Macy’s, Dillard’s and Bloomingdale’s, says GG “definitely” influenced her collection of “trim blazers lined in men’s tie fabric, oversized cardigans and ruffled plaid shirts with gold buttons.”
The real Gossip Girl twist is that while designers are paying tidy sums to The CW to get their duds on the show’s characters for some heavy hitting product placement, it’s the incessant paparazzi coverage of the show — with cameras following them all over Manhattan and the Hamptons — that’s impacting its “trend-ability.” CONTINUED »
The label A.P.C., whose clothes often rival Jil Sander for their slim fit, is coming out with a new line of overpriced denim called “Butler Worn Out.” The jeans, which feature a distressed, worn-out look, are named in part not for their look — which is usually achieved using sandpaper or some factory device — but the way their look is achieved: by having somebody else wear the jeans before you. You’ll even know the name of just who walked around in your pair before you, because the person’s name will be written inside the pants. We know these type of jeans by another name: used. [HS]
The money, which often isn’t as much as one might think, that recording artists make off of their music these days is enough to make the average person very happy, but not quite enough to fund the crazy, extravagant lifestyles that they like to publicly flaunt. Hence, the ubiquitous clothing lines, colognes, footwear lines, and other branding deals. In recent days there have been a flurry of such deals, from high brow to low brow.
Don’t expect to see many black models at Paris Fashion Week. Top designers, who are doing some preemptive damage control, say so themselves. They blame the agencies, which they say have a limited selection of models and color and an overwhelming number of Eastern Europeans.
Harper’s Bazaar is v. v. excited about the new fragrance from Estée Laude, Sensuous. So excited that they’ve booked Gwenyth Paltrow, the face of Sensuous, for the cover (considered a major get!) and dedicated 40 – four zero – pages to Paltrow as well as Elizabeth Hurley, Carolyn Murphy and Hilary Rhoda, who also, in their off time, collect fees as the faces of Sensuous. Critics might say that there’s some sordid pay-for-play advertising/editorial deal going on at Bazaar, but that’s nonsense! After all, do you see an ad from Estee Lauder in the magazine? Nooooo! And the magazine said in a statement, “Like many magazines, we often feature celebrities to coincide with their beauty and fashion launches.” Obviously, “coincide” does not refer to some outlandish sponsorship deal set up by the publisher, but a pure editorial decision that gives readers what they want: beautiful women in a magazine. CONTINUED »
Christian Audigier, the ridiculous fashion “designer” who prints cursive letters in gold colors on hideous T-shirts, and the guy who pays Michael Jackson to show up at his birthday party (Britney Spears came free), is opening his own nightclub in Las Vegas, aptly titled Christian Audigier The Nightclub. It is, and we believe you’ll agree, the most grotesquely themed nightspot Vegas has ever seen, and you know how much weight that statement carries. Look at this crap, below. CONTINUED »
Suddenly, after several years of being at the bottom of the fashion heap, black models are back on top. In a big way. Not only are they exclusively populating the pages of this month’s super-hyped Vogue Italia, Wintour & Co. also begrudgingly gave them some attention. At Milan’s Men’s Fashion Week, the designers of Dsquared used a group of models, led by Tyson Beckford, made up almost entirely of black men. And rumor has it that Lanvin’s show next week has an “all-ethnic lineup.”
“24-year old beauty and Victoria’s Secret model Karolina Kurkova is being criticized over her appearance in recent days at Sao Paulo Fashion Week, especially after a runway appearance in a bikini.One Brazilian paper blasted her back fat and cellulite, as did other outlets. The impetus for the stories were two still photos taken at the Cia Maritima fashion show at the end of last week.”
Editorial Director
