Liz Claiborne Inc. has hired celebrity designer Isaac Mizrahi to work on the Spring 2009 line of women's clothing. Claiborne, the fashion retail giant who, like most of its competition, has watched its accounting ledger bleed more than it would like, hopes adding Mizrahi's name will help them get out of a rut that has the company pulling in half what the dollars they earned less than a decade ago ($1.2 billion in 2000) and "barely break(ing) even."
So they went for change. So desperate to shake things up, Liz Claiborne (the company, as opposed to Liz Claiborne Inc., which owns the Liz Claiborne brand as well as several others) didn't even care that Mizrahi's deal with Target, though over with, precludes him from publicizing his new gig until after the new year. Perhaps they also didn't take into account that Mizrahi's name has become synonymous not with his expired signature line of clothing, but with Target's "cheap-chic" clothes that have mass appeal. Like Vera Wang, he's completely saturated his brand — for the low end.
And though Mizrahi can't even talk about the Claiborne deal publicly, he does have Claiborne duties, which involves unveiling his creations at a media event next month, and taking embargoes to the extreme: CONTINUED »
• Campbell Brown announces her pregnancy on Sunday's Weekend Today. ABC's Good Morning America to respond with a two-hour special in which Diane Sawyer weeps openly, and announces that her "biological clock is ticking."
• Rupert Murdoch is on the brink of closing deal with the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, he's not yet on the brink of getting the requisite Dow Jones' board/Bancroft family approval.
• Things that drive newspaper readers crazy include wet papers, grammatical errors and cartoons that are too pretentious to be funny.
• Microsoft pays well-known tech bloggers to recite its slogan, continues to shun notion that attractive people (or celebrities!) occasionally use their products.
If you've been to any fancy book parties lately, then you likely already know exactly how these things work. There's typically an over-stressed author, an under-utilized open bar, an abundance of untouched hors d'oeuvres trays, and a clusterfuck of publicity-hungry "friends," who haven't read the book (and have no intention of doing so) but have nothing but praise and backhanded compliments for the author.
Case in point, Isaac Mizrahi.
Craving frivolity over seriousness, The Transom approached designer Isaac Mizrahi, who saw a ready muse in Ms. Brown. “We have to figure out what she could make at Target,” he said, “because I think she could do really well in that store …. I’ll tell you something, she’s like a role model for me right now because she’s so thin. I mean, not that she was ever big, but you know she’s kind of at that crucial moment, where she could go one way or the other and she kind of looks amazing. So that’s a real inspiration for all of us.”
Naturally, Brown didn't help matters by shifting the attention to her choice of wardrobe.
I'm as much a part of New York as the rats…I never wanted to live anywhere else. But I'm in my forties now and starting to think, 'Are you really going to stay in the same place your entire life?'
I have my dog, my Yankees, my friends. I love the continuity I have in New York…It's so Sesame Street, so happy tenement! I keep expecting a puppet to jump out of a garbage can.
–Isaac Mizrahi [via CNN}
Is Rachel Ray's magazine not fully meeting your need to leaf through obnoxious B-List lifestyle bull? Well, step right up, Isaac Mizrahi. That's right, now that Mizrahi has grabbed enough celeb tit and launched his Target line for chubby girls, he introduces Isaac's Style Book.
In a world of crashing magazines, Mizrahi apparently thinks his mag will hold up. Then again, it will be free and passed out in department, so, there's really no actual competition in that category. Except the Macy's catalog. So, ff you can hold down the vomit long enough, we'll tell you what you'll find inside the pub.
Isaac’s Style Book will “investigate the meaning—and idiosyncrasies—behind fashion, cooking, travel, home decor and any of the subjects one associates with the word lifestyle," according to a news release. It also will offer how-to and do-it-yourself articles.
In the DIY fashion section, there will be an "essay" on making your own jeans and a piece on what a bitch dinner parties can be. Basically, it's all about how you don't need nice new clothes or friends. You have Isaac, your new $19.99 chunky belt from target, and the new Jessica Simpson CD. What more could you possibly need?
Target Designer Mizrah Launches Style Mag [Folio]
Isaac's New Gig [Fashion Week Daily]
• Nobody should hold bloggers to any standards of any kind. [CBS]
• From celeb stalking to blog stalking? This shit is getting extremely out of hand. [NYC Bloggers]
• Andrew Krucoff, forced to make his own fun, spends his birthday week punking the Gawks. [Young Manhattanite]
• Ryan Seacrest, don't hold your breath. Larry King isn't dying just yet. [NYP]
• Want to pick an ASME nominated brain? Now's your chance to catch The Atlantic's "ideas tour." [Ad Age]
• Who better to start a fashion and lifestyle magazine, with no idea where its going, than Isaac Mizrahi? [WWD]
• Nick Lachey has a new girlfriend. Finally, someone who can relate to his D-List level. [Star]
• Paris Hilton turns down Playboy. She’s too busy with colonics and her film career to pose naked. [Sun]
• Ok, lines we understand, but Kate Moss reading? That’s pushing it. [Mirror]
• In true frat boy style, Chris Heinz is totally psyched about the Steelers going to the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah, and he’s engaged. [Page Six]
• Since he doesn't want to sleep with any of these women, Isaac Mizrahi grabbing Scarlett Johansson’s boobs and feeling up Teri Hatcher’s stomach isn’t that big of a deal. [People]
• How fascinating is the great Friends reunion debate? The cast should just go for it — could anything really kill Jennifer Aniston’s career any more than Rumor Has It? [Female First via HuffPo, AH]
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