Style.com

Hm...Style.com says goodbye to W Magazine. The new W website looks amazing (I like the editor's blog especially and the big colorful spreads). I wonder if Vogue.com will launch too or if it'll just continue as Style.com...

On an unrelated note

I saw this on the New York Times website and said "YES! Definitely!" ...but only because I thought it said "Editorial Job Insecurities."

You can tell where my mind is these days! Looking for a fashion job in this climate is no fun.

Another kind of fakes

“If you actually put it on and wear it, it is different from cotton,” said Dennis Wilson, Lululemon’s founder, chief product designer and board chairman. “That’s my only test of it,” said Mr. Wilson, known as Chip.

There has been a great deal of discussion on blogs and in the mass media lately about copy right infringement when it comes to fashion. Obviously, we as designers and as consumers still care about authenticity and originality (and the bottom line) in terms of design features and other VISIBLE forms of quality and truth.

But how much do we care about performance and functionality as factors in quality? I was thinking about that today as I read this article in the New York Times today about how Lululemon clothes in their VitaSea line actually don't have any seaweed in them (instead of the 24% that's claimed on the government mandated tags). I didn't even know you can make clothes out of seaweed, but that wasn't the point really. I just think it's interesting that no one at the company tested the claims of the manufacturer, there is no one from the government who makes sure the tags don't lie and that companies can't just make whatever claims they want or believe to be true, and the consumer, when asked about it in the article, simply responds:

I couldn’t care less [that it's not made of seaweed] because it is so comfortable.

Isn't it funny? What is the point of buying something for the "feel-good messages" if they AREN'T EVEN TRUE? It's not like I really care if seaweed cotton blends wick moisture better than polyester cotton blends...I just like to get what I pay for...

Is that too much to ask?

Calling all New York design groupies

Loving fashion is about so much more than shopping at sample sales or knowing who celebrities wear to events...

I think the historical, social and personal aspects of fashion theory and the industry of fashion is fascinating as well. That's why you'll find me at at least one (if not more) of these Fashion Talks being hosted by the New York French institute. I think it should be a really great time, and a chance to see the designers behind those frocks we see on Style.com.

Art de Vivre:
Fashion Talks with Pamela Golbin
Discover the creative genius of designers from three legendary French fashion houses as they talk about their work and process.

Anyone going to join me?

A Sign of the Times??

So sad! Now you can pay to intern for free!! Madness.

What does everyone think of this? I mean, it's bad enough that interns (who are fabulous) can't get paid these days, and that you can't get a good magazine job without at least one good internship...and that most internships require school credit (which means you're metaphorically paying to learn at the internship)...but now...it's a prize to intern?? Even if the money goes to charity, this is a sketchy prize!

[Full disclose: I've done over 7 internships throughout my undergraduate and graduate degrees, just because of the nature of the fields I was interested in (fashion design and publishing). Also, I've supervised up to 5 interns at a time, and have hired at least a dozen over the years for various workplaces...and I love my interns (and love having them, if I'm going to be honest).]

Attention fashionistas

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150174510336

I'm selling this Moschino boot lamp on Ebay. I love it, but my husband won't let me put it up in our house. Maybe one of you guys might be interested.

Moschino introduced these really cool lamps in the shape of handbags, boots and lace-up corsets at the Milan furniture fair in April, and this was my favourite of all the shapes. You can read about them here:

http://fashioncrack.com/black/just-how-sexy-can-a-lamp-be-the-moschino-dress-lamp-answers/

Marc Jacobs and Punctuality

What do you think?

I thought that today's article from Women's Wear Daily was fascinating.

"I work my ass off," he said. "I don't take vacations, I don't have homes all over the world, I don't ride horses: I f---ing work for a living. Again, like this idea, you have a family? OK, well that's nice, I don't, and I work. So leave me alone and don't come to the show next time."

This was Marc's comment to WWD, but I am not sure what I feel on the issue. On the one hand, I agree with him about the logistical and production problems with European factories being closed for weeks and weeks in the summer time, and I have actually experienced first hand what it's like in his 72 Spring Street studio in the weeks leading up to a show (NOT pretty). Yet, isn't it HIS choice to do the men's, women's and marc by marc collections? And live in Paris for most of the year to work on Vuitton but keep his namesake lines in Manhattan?

Does anyone else care about this besides me? :)
And what did everyone think of the collection? I have to see the clothes in person I think to really form an educated opinion. Right now, my instinct is a small bit of shock and a large bit of disappointment (I wouldn't spend thousands on those pieces, irony and revolutionary or not). But we'll see how its influence ripples out (or not) across the other collections...

The Fashionista Diaries

This show on Soapnet is hilarious and very, very unrealistic. As someone who has been and will likely again in the future be an assistant at a magazine, these characters have responsibilities more like interns would...

But hey, it's still highly addictive.

And this comment from Bridget from Radar Online is hilarious:

"It's tough, because they're making us work, like, long hours, and we have to answer to people. Plus, we all worked so hard to get to the top of our fields. Having to do this stuff is like starting over."

First of all, she IS an assistant - what did she expect? Long hours are par for the course. And I really doubt that at the age of 24, with her (seemingly limited) intelligence and work ethic that she has ever been at "the top" of ANY field. Ever. Anyway, people at the top of their fields don't quit their day jobs to go on reality show about fashion-industry assistants.

Sigh.
Does anyone else out there watch the show?