Results tagged “fashion”

Earlier this year a reader spotted a tourist group coming off the Bedford Avenue L in Williamsburg. So it shouldn't come as too much of a shock that there's now a course at FIT called "Williamsburg, The New Style Frontier." Or at least, there was on October 24th.

Move over Tiffany! After Disney swooped in with precious princess bridal dresses a few years ago, now the house that Mickey built is offering diamond engagement rings inspired by the "Disney princesses," like Cinderella, Snow White, Prince Jasmine, and Belle.

       

Earlier today Snuggie and Fashion Week collided, as the sleeved blankets took the runway at the Snuggie fall 2009/winter 2010 collection show. The invite read that it would "showcase the latest colors, fabrics and patterns" and feature "the sexiest looks in blanket-wear," for not only adults, but kids and canines as well. (Sadly, it doesn't look like the SnugWow was featured.)

At the West Indian American Day Parade, it's no surprise to see colorful costumes—and Mayor Bloomberg (sort of) fit right in, wearing a pink sweater under his blue "Mayor" sash. The NY Times explains why Bloomberg took Kay Thompson's advice to "Think Pink": "When he is in a parade, the mayor typically chooses clothing that reflects a color in the flag of the group that is marching. (One Sunday, he led the annual Salute to Israel parade up Fifth Avenue wearing blue, jumped into his S.U.V. to travel 50 blocks back downtown, and emerged in a yellow sweater to march on Madison Avenue in the Philippine Independence Day Parade.) But because immigrants from some 18 nations wave their homeland colors at the West Indian Day Parade, the mayor wanted to avoid playing favorites, and wore the only color that does not appear in any of their flags." The Times adds, "Last Sunday, during services at a storefront church in the Bronx, he wore an eye-catching purple dress shirt and matching lavender socks." Hey, isn't purple for Lent? Well, at least he wasn't wearing his shorts to church.

You may not have been invited to sit cross-legged in the front row of Ungaro, but that doesn't mean that you can't put a little fashion in your week.

Fashion Week is right around the corner, again, but months afterl the couture is cleared the fashion world will be something for the average man: Victoria's Secret Angels. The winged ones haven't brought their annual "fashion" show here for four years, and The Daily News reports that "runway regulars Marisa Miller and Alessandra Ambrosio, broke the news on the CBS Early Show" yesterday that they would be returning—with Miller stating that New York is exactly "where it belongs." If your front row invite gets lost in the mail, the show airs on CBS in December. Angel Heidi Klum is set to have a baby in October, and told People that "The birth will be very, very close to when the show is. I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk in my underwear quite that fast! We’ll see." Meanwhile, another angel, Adriana Lima (pictured) is due in December, and says she won't be part of the show unless she can hide under a Santa outfit.

Bronx Judge Joseph Dawson is fed up with the overly casual attire worn by defendants in his courtroom, and he's putting lawyers on notice that their clients need to class it up. On Monday he schooled a man for wearing shorts and a T-shirt, explaining, "I'm not saying you have to wear a suit. You don't. Just wear something appropriate." And he berated lawyer Edward McGowan: "Your client comes up in a T-shirt and sweatpants, chewing gum? This court deserves more respect than that." The fashion lesson sent defendant Mirabel Aquino—who was awaiting her drug-case sentencing in purple shorts, a tank top and gold flip-flops—scrambling to the ladies room to swap outfits with her better-dressed sister. After the quick change, she got five years' probation, and her lawyer admits, "In the Bronx, things can get a bit lackadaisical." But is judge Dawson demanding too haute couture from indigent defendants? A lawyer with the nonprofit Bronx Defenders tells the Daily News, "All of our clients are poor. What may be the best clothes they have might be considered by others to be disrespectful to the court."

Is your femoral cutaneous nerve feeling tingly? Is the side of your thigh numb? Are you wearing skinny jeans? Incase you weren't scaremongered enough by the Wall Street Journal piece, Dr. Jennifer Ashton stopped by the CBS Early Show to make "fashion victim" jokes and warn of the health concerns over skinny jeans that are too tight on the legs and groin.

       

Last night the CFDA Fashion Awards took place at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The Daily News reports that Michelle Obama was honored—designer and council President Diane von Furstenberg said of the First Lady, "Her meteoric rise in the world of fashion has echoed her husband in the world of politics." Obama, via a taped message, addressed attendees saying, "On behalf of women everywhere, I want to thank you for making fashion liberating, inspiring, but most of all, fun."

     

"We have to make bicycling fun and elegant, which it is not yet in New York!" declares Renaud Dutreil, a big shot at luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. Dutreil rides a bike to his office on East 57th Street almost every day, and he thinks more people would do likewise if there was only a fashion alternative to the dominant DIY style of ripped jeans, tattoos, and Bushwick-bound butt cleavage.

              

Last night the rich, famous, recession-proof and beautiful came together under the roof of the Met for the annual Costume Institute Ball, in celebration of the museum's new exhibit called Model as Muse. While last year the theme was superhero, this year's was supermodel, and Style has a thorough rundown of the glamorous night (that the NY Post thought was more Zoolander-inspired). The evening wasn't without some drama, of course, the NY Times reports that designer Azzedine Alaïa wasn't included in the exhibit, so some of his muses, like Naomi Campbell, refused to attend. There were still plenty of best and worst dressed to gawk at, however.

                     

Yesterday Topshop slightly opened up their doors, but today was the big reveal. While you were working hard for your money, other people who don't have to work for money waited in line for hours to get into the first U.S. outpost of British retailer. Kate Moss opened the store, alongside owner Philip Green, and last night the two took a little tour, which included a stop at the racks holding the model's own designs.

The British are coming! Surely you've heard of Topshop (and Topman) by now, it's like H&M but with 100% more Kate Moss (in fact, she'll be helping to officially open their flagship U.S. store tomorrow at 11 a.m.). We stopped by their 25,000 square foot Broadway outpost for a press peek earlier today, but it seems the store is a bit camera shy. We did manage to grab a shot when the door cracked open however, and as you can see, the shop is heavily adorned in sunflowers. Interesting.

The Times Square Alliance and the Fashion Center Business Improvement District are holding court in the Port Authority transportation hub starting May 1st, Crain's reports, and they're inviting you to join them. The duo will lease 2,500-square-feet of ground-floor retail space, that has been vacant for 5 years, to emerging fashion designers and artists. Their talented tenants will have to cover some costs, of course, including electric and air conditioning, but the BID will cover the rent, which is just $1. The lease will last 6 months, but it's expected to be extended for a few years, and the BID president is hoping to eventually "bring in a local designer from TV’s Project Runway" (Kenley Penley?!). Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, says they "want people who haven’t thought about Eighth Avenue in a long time to take a fresh look at it and to recognize that there’s all this potential business."

W Magazine strays from its normal high fashion looks and points the camera at hip(ster) couture, namely the Depression Era threads being paraded all around town. The mag notes, "at least young New Yorkers are going down in (historically appropriate) style. In Williamsburg and the Lower East Side, the resurgence of feathers, vests and newsboy caps are a fashionable response to the plummeting Dow." But these old-timey signifiers have been around for well over a year now—does this mean the hipsters knew just how bad this recession thing would get and were subliminally warning us through their curly mustaches and buttoned vests? Somebody check how many hipsters cashed in their stock options before Bear Stearns! And while admiring their vaguely Depression Era-ensembles, keep in mind that the bars you see these kids in are pouring $10 to $15 cocktails. The real folks feeling this recession are probably just huffing, with the kind of facial hair that comes from having sold all their razors as scrap.

Fashion designer Jason Wu's world turned upside down last week when First Lady Michelle Obama selected his white chiffon design as her Inaugural gown. Wu, who is just 26, told the NY Times that he wasn't quite sure if she was really wearing his dress at first, but then, "I was over the moon. I know I am an unusual choice for a first lady. I didn’t think it was my turn yet.” The Times' details his interest in fashion from a young age (his mother would drive him to bridal stores so he could sketch!) and, when asked to submit inaugural dress designs, how he was told "it had to sparkle." Also: "He was not paid for that dress or two more colorful designs he submitted later, he said, but made them with the understanding that if Mrs. Obama should end up wearing one, the dress would be donated to the Smithsonian Institution." For more First Lady fashion fun, check out the chat between Washington Post style writer Robin Givhan and WaPo readers.

While Inauguration excitement is focused in D.C., there's plenty of smiling in New York—especially for fashion designers Isabel Toledo and Jason Wu. Toledo designed Michelle Obama's first First Lady ensemble, a "lemongrass yellow" coat and dress in Swiss wool lace worn during the swearing-in and parade, while Wu's ivory silk chiffon and organza gown was selected as the First Lady's Inaugural gown. The two designers appeared on the Today show this morning and they still seemed stunned and emotional about their creations being part of the historic day.

     

At last! Not just the first song that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama danced to, but now we have seen the First Lady's much-anticipated inaugural gown. The white gown, designed by Taipei-born, New York-based designer Jason Wu, has a full, slightly trailing skirt with, as the AP reports, "a strap across her right shoulder, a ruched bodice, fluffy appliques and sparkly beading." The President, in white tie, approved, asking the crowd at the Neighborhood Ball, "How good-looking is my wife?"

First Lady Michelle Obama, who must save the American fashion industry (at least, according to the NY Times), did not disappoint with her first outfit of her husband's administration: She wore a "lemongrass yellow" Isabel Toledo dress and coat with teal green Jimmy Choo kitten heels and olive green J.Crew gloves. Toledo, a New York designer who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba when she was eight, didn't know that Obama picked her outfit until watching the TV and told the Times that 13 people worked on clothes—"Chinese ladies, Polish ladies, Spanish ladies"—and added, “We’re all grateful for this opportunity, and we don’t even have a PR person!” As for Obama daughters—Sasha in pink and orange and Malia in blue and black— they were wearing clothes made exclusively by J.Crew's Crewcuts girls' line; those outfits and coats will be available this fall.

The Brooklyn Museum has become nothing more than a storage closet for its "storied couture clothing collection," but now the Brooklyn Paper explains the "cash-strapped" institution is "unloading" the 105-year-old cache to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The BMA, which hadn't displayed the clothing since 1991, won't receive any money, but it's saving some, since it will no longer pay for the storage and care. The Met, with its funding (not to mention 10 times the BMA's visitors) can mount a proper exhibition of what's being called "one of the world’s best collections of American fashion" (the NY Times reported that its "largely assembled from the closets of grand ladies of Brooklyn and Manhattan"). The paper also notes that while the "Met’s Costume Institute will own, curate and preserve the pieces, the two museums will collaborate on a bi-borough costume show in 2010."

Steve & Barry's, the cheap clothing retailer that offered inexpensive fashions from celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Bynes and Stephon Marbury, filed for bankruptcy for the second time in three months. Steve & Barry's, whose bankruptcy filing said it had no "prospects for continued financing of their business," will start liquidating and closing its 177 stores. Newsday reports that a group of employees who were laid off on Monday are suing because the company did not give them the required 60-day notice. Back in July, the Long Island-based company came under scrutiny during its financial troubles; it did receive a $163 million lifeline to restructure but the current economic situation was unforgiving.

Don't go thinking all the fashion talk about the Obamas is geared towards Michelle, Barack has also been getting his fair share of critique since before he even won the election--Tim Gunn approved his style back in June.

                    

The 11th annual New York Chocolate Show is taking over the huge Pier 94 space at West 55th Street this weekend, and the serotonin surge started last night with a colorful "Super-Hero" chocolate fashion show. Almost everything you see the models wearing here is edible, and the sweet threads will be displayed on mannequins until Sunday or until someone breaks past security and eats them, whichever comes first. But take it from us; security is tight!

Based on financial disclosure records, Politico reports that the Republican National Committee apparently spent over $150,000 to "clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August." Some of the expenses: $49,425.74 in Saks Fifth Avenue bills in St. Louis and New York; $75,062.63 at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis; $789.72 at Barney’s New York; $5,102.71 at Bloomingdale’s in New York; and $4,716.49 in hair and makeup.

Meet Mathias Guerrand-Hermes: Polo player, heir to the French fashion house Hermès, petulant crotch-grabber. The 36-year-old socialite is in the papers today after being arraigned in Brooklyn federal court over a nasty incident aboard an Air France flight from Paris to JFK on Tuesday. Prosecutors say it all started when Guerrand-Hermes—loaded on booze and the pain medication Propofan—began pestering a female passenger in first class. When her husband told him to step off, Guerrand-Hermes, who was perched on the lady's armrest, simply moved in closer.

Lindsay Lohan has a fashion line that's about to launch, and it's all about leggings. She updated her blog today with the announcement that her line, 6126 (named after Marilyn Monroe's birthday), would be officially launched at a celebration at Henri Bendel's tonight in New York. And you're all invited. About those leggings...she says: "Our holiday collection is pretty eclectic from gold zippers to leather detailing, to buttery soft cashmere. I hope you enjoy the collection as much as I enjoyed making it." Just picture it, sitting around the crackling fire with your family during the holidays wearing your gold-zippered leggings. The price won't be cheap, that particular style will run you about $123, but the most expensive pair come complete with knee pads [insert joke here]. Gotta give her credit though, she notes that at tonight's event "a percentage of all sales from 6126 [will go] to Ovarian Cancer Research, a cause very close to my heart." Put on your best leggings and head to Henri Bendel at 6 p.m. tonight if you want to be a part of this historic event.

The NY Times today has a profile about Lolitas, a fashion subculture of young women that began in Japan and has been appearing around New York of late. Lolitas seem to alternate between dressing overly innocent with bright pastel dresses and bows in their hair and then dangerous, taking on a more goth appearance, a clash reminiscent of the "kinderwhore" look sported by many 90s female punk bands in America. A handful of Lolitas talk to the Times about their eccentric style, celebrating it as being both rebellious and modest, where "the childhood fantasy of Alice in Wonderland seems to collide full force with the Addams Family." If the Times' gallery has you thirsting for more demonstrations of the Lolita style, there are always plenty of examples direct from the source where it originated on the streets of Japan in Fruits Magazine.

Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon has stepped off stage and into the world of clothing design, starting a label called Mirror/Dash (named after her and Thurston Moore's side project) with friends Melina Wansbrough and Jeffery Monteiro, the NY Times reports. The musician told the paper, “There’s a need for clothes for cool moms,” and her first piece is a limited edition military-inspired wool jacket. If you want one of the 50 made, you'll have to be a size 2 through 8, and be willing to fork over $415...a price one might consider if she were marketing whatever it is that makes her and husband Thurston keep their youthful looks. Earlier this month Gordon showed her support of a fellow designer when Sonic Youth played a Marc Jacobs show during Fashion Week.

The critical darling 1960s ad agency drama Mad Men and its "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" fashion inspires a NY Times look at what passes for advertising agency style these days. Boutique ad agency Droga5 CEO Andrew Essex sums it up: “Today, it’s the man in the artisanal T-shirt, selvaged denim with holes in them and really expensive vintage sneakers from a small boutique in Japan. The personalities haven’t changed that much, just the accouterments, like carefully harvested facial hair. Our agency people dress like well-paid teenagers, but that teenager may be 38.” Yes, and Peggy Olsen never left Don Draper a note letting him know she was getting a tattoo tomorrow.

The NY Times' Eric Wilson analyzes the opening ceremony outfits and gives low marks to the U.S.'s Ralph Lauren-designed get-up, for appearing "poorly made" and not being that distinctive. Wilson also hated the Canadian (baseball caps, messenger bags) and Russian outfits (weird smock), and liked the French (seersucker jacket, nice sneakers) and Spanish (bold red suits) ones. Wilson's favorite were Australia's blue "degrade pattern" nylon jackets, saying the designer has their "finger on the pulse of what's happening now." Actually, Australian designer Prue Acton faced controversy for insisting Australia's flag colors--green and gold--were unworkable and making such casual outfits. Well, everyone's a critic--check out Project Rungay on the U.S. outfits.