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Posts for January 26, 2009

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 5:26 PM
  • Eff the Recession

Luxury Companies Continue Rolling Out $43K Suits and Other Ridiculously Priced Stuff

Courtesy of Neiman Marcus

Courtesy of Neiman MarcusPhoto: A Brioni suit that only costs about $5,000.

Brioni just launched a line of suits that cost as much as $43,000. Brioni's chief executive noted the economic timing was "not fortunate" but figured at least they're showing customers they stick to "high-quality initiatives." And they've even managed to sell 30 of the suits! That's because — revelation time — really rich people are still really rich. While demand for luxury goods by brands like Louis Vuitton ("aspirational") or Coach ("accessible") is expected to fall 3 to 7 percent in 2009, demand in the highest end of the luxury market should hold steady. The Wall Street Journal reports:


Rich people are "constrained by guilt." »

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 5:15 PM
  • Beauty Marks

Everyone Wore Updos at the SAG Awards; Prince Inspires Nail Polish

Eva Longoria-Parker at the SAGs.

Eva Longoria-Parker at the SAGs.Photo: Getty Images

HAIR
• The big-hair trend at the SAG Awards: Updos. Eva Longoria-Parker, Angelina Jolie, and Kate Winslet all wore them. Yawn. [Glamour]

NAILS
• Deborah Lippmann's spring collection includes a new shimmer violet shade called Purple Rain, inspired by Prince. It's the same shade models wore in Zac Posen's last show. [All Lacquered Up]

MAKEUP
• The Oscar nominees in the Best Makeup category are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army . So, two comic books with Brad Pitt. It's anyone's game. [BellaSugar]

• Behold, eleven more looks from the International Center of Photography's "Weird Beauty" exhibit. Love. [NY Times]

• Givenchy's new spring makeup collection is quite spring-y. One shadow palette contains pastel hues like mint, rose, canary, and peach. [Beauty Anonymous]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 4:30 PM
  • Eff the Recession

Never Fear, the Couture Shows Will Be Just As Fabulous As Ever

Christian Dior Couture, spring 2009

Christian Dior Couture, spring 2009Photo: Imaxtree

The couture shows started in Paris today. The three-day-long parade of fashion's most fabulous, blatantly exorbitant clothes is a terribly ironic event for These Economic Times. You might think that couture, like every other part of the fashion industry, would be braced for the credit crunch; that designers would downsize their visions for newly sobered fashion sensibilities; that the wealthiest fashionistas are so ashamed of showing the outside world how rich they are they've decided to skip the couture shows this season. Well friends, we couldn't be more delighted to tell you that you'd be wrong. As you can see above in John Galliano's spring 2009 Christian Dior couture collection, designers aren't holding anything back.

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  • Posted 1/26/09 at 3:45 PM
  • Ins and Outs

Fashion Director Michael Fink Is Out at Saks

We've just learned that Michael Fink, Vice President and Women’s Fashion Director at Saks, left the company on January 15. Saks released the following statement:

His departure is the result of a corporate restructuring of the organization in response to the current economic climate. We are very grateful to him for his invaluable contributions to our organization and wish him well in the future.


Saks sure is doing a lot of corporate restructuring these days. Ten days ago the company announced it would cut 1,100 jobs among a slew of other cost reductions. We wonder if Saks is looking for someone to take the fall for all the money they're losing, and Fink happens to be that person. In any case, we feel bad for him but — forgive the Carrie Bradshaw jargon here — can't help but wonder who's next?


  • Posted 1/26/09 at 3:00 PM
  • Campaign Trail

Pamela Anderson's New Vivienne Westwood Campaign Is Out

Pamela Anderson's New Vivienne Westwood Campaign Is Out

Photo: Courtesy of Vivienne Westwood

Of all the spring 2009 campaigns, we were perhaps most excited to see Vivienne Westwood's. (Madonna, we still love you. Katie, we're coming around.) Not because it stars Pamela Anderson and was shot at her Malibu trailer, but because Vivienne and her husband Andreas Kronthaler also star in the ads. The images, shot by Juergen Teller, just leaked on Les Mads. These shots are two of our favorites, because we think Vivienne sells her brand just as well as, if not better than, any fake-breasted-blond actress–slash–model–slash–other–stuff who happens to own a trailer. But you can see more of Pam's solo shots, starring those breasts, over at Les Mads.

Werbekampagne: Pamela Anderson für Vivienne Westwood [Les Mads via Fashionista]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 2:20 PM
  • On the Red Carpet

Color Wins on the SAG Awards Red Carpet

Color Wins on the SAG Awards Red Carpet

The red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards was an eye-popping explosion of color. Bright ensembles paraded down one after another, from Eva Longoria-Parker's peachy coral Jenny Packham gown to Freida Pinto's periwinkle draped dress by Marchesa. Royal blue stood out on Kate Winslet in Narciso Rodriguez and Marcia Cross in Carolina Herrera. Christina Applegate wore kelly green Emanuel Ungaro, Marisa Tomei chose golden yellow Elie Saab, and Evan Rachel Wood selected deep teal Monique Lhuillier. Of course, the basic blacks were bound to show up last night on Susan Sarandon, January Jones, and Robin Wright Penn. Even Angelina, queen of the black, wrapped herself in Max Azria's muted shade of sapphire. For more colorful looks from the SAG Awards, click ahead.

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 1:38 PM
  • Ricci Watch

Breaking: Olivier Theyskens Out at Nina Ricci?!

Olivier Theyskens at his spring 2009 show.

Olivier Theyskens at his spring 2009 show.Photo: Imaxtree

Grazia is reporting Olivier Theyskens has officially left Nina Ricci. Or at least that's the word on the front row of the couture shows, which are going on in Paris right now. Rumors that he might leave have been swirling for weeks. Both the designer and Puig president Mario Grauso tried to quiet gossip about design differences between Puig and Theyskens less than two weeks ago. But apparently Theyskens's latest collection for the house wasn't selling. Nina Ricci is yet to confirm that Theyskens is really out. But if it's true, what on earth is Ricci going to show at Paris Fashion Week, which is just weeks away? And where, oh where, will Theyskens go?

BREAKING: Olivier Theyskens leaves Nina Ricci [Grazia]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 1:10 PM
  • Inaugur-nation!
DVF on Inauguration day.
Diane Von Furstenberg Takes Layering to a Whole New Level

This is a picture of Diane Von Furstenberg on Inauguration Day. In a diary of her trip to D.C. for the festivities, where she ran around with Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley, she writes she wore leggings, multiple sweaters, her ski suit, a vest, a jacket, a fur hat, and big boots. When she went to a party at Maureen Dowd's house,Talley helped her select a beaded cocktail dress with feathers at the bottom. She thought Maureen looked sexy and calls the party "a real Hollywood/Washington power nexus." But: "Afterwards I feel bad for Maureen: there were so many people, her house must be completely destroyed." [FT]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 12:25 PM
  • Crimes of Fashion

Fashion Scandal Strikes Lipstick Jungle

Fashion Scandal Strikes Lipstick Jungle

Photo: Courtesy of NBC

Fashion houses often send celebrities, magazines, and TV shows pieces with the understanding they'll be sent back when the receiving party is done with them. Maybe the items won't be used other than for gleeful private preening in the fashion closet, but at least they go back wrapped in plastic in pristine condition. We're guessing Lipstick Jungle stage manager Arthur Moreira wasn't familiar with this fashion-borrowing etiquette, because he was just arrested for allegedly plundering the show's fashion closet and selling the items online. Designer Sylvia Toledano's employees got wind of his scam when they found several items they had lent to Lipstick on eBay. The police, clearly realizing the severity of these crimes and the bad name it could give to fashion borrowers everywhere, set up a full-blown sting operation to catch Moreira that involved buying the stolen items at his apartment. Items stolen included sequined mosaic clutches, an Oscar de la Renta snakeskin bag, and Gucci coats. This is why only the strongest souls should work in fashion — the goods entice all of us, yet we must remember shame always outlasts temptation.

Stage manager accused of theft from 'Lipstick Jungle' [CNN]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 11:40 AM
  • Eff the Recession
His Fordulessness
Tom Ford Launches $990 Jeans

Well you didn't expect denim by the man who makes $9,000 fur boots to cost less, did you? Tom Ford's new jeans, which retail for $990, are hitting stores now. They're made from raw-looking pre-washed Japanese selvage denim and won't shrink or shed indigo on any of your favorite undershirts. It's the least they could do for nearly $1k, after all. Better still, the front button is 18-karat gold plated, and the pockets are lined with fine silk. Of course, they also come with an intrinsic invaluable wealth of pocket/button-related pickup lines. [WWD]

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  • Posted 1/26/09 at 10:55 AM
  • Fall 2009

Will LVMH Scoop Up Gareth Pugh?

Gareth Pugh, fall 2009.

Gareth Pugh, fall 2009.Photo: Imaxtree

London-born design wunderkind Gareth Pugh presented his first menswear collection in Paris last night to a downpour of praise. With LVMH chief Bernard Arnault's daughter Delphine Arnault as an unexpected guest, the Pugh buzz only heightened. As the heiress to the head of one of the world's biggest fashion conglomerates, Delphine doesn't trot out to see young designers often. Sure, she sat next to Karl Lagerfeld at the Dior Homme show, but she doesn't trudge around Paris in the rain and wait for shows by 27-year-olds to start an hour late. (Kind of like you wouldn't have expected to see Madonna at, say, a Santogold concert last year.) But trudge out she did, calling the collection "beautiful, amazing" as she pushed through the crowd to congratulate Pugh backstage.

The Telegraph's Hilary Alexander notes the collection "left fashion critics decidedly short on superlatives." Pugh told her he wanted to create the kind of things he would wear and wanted to see in stores, describing it as "wet" but "not wet in a sort of rebirth kind of way, but more of like an oily, dirty, more polluted kind of way." So will LVMH scoop up Pugh to, as Alexander writes, "reignite a moribund menswear market"? We hope so because we find Pugh's shows among the most exciting each season, and we'd love to see what he'd do with LVMH's hearty funds (some are speculating he'll be tapped for Dior Homme). Whatever happens, we're glad Beyoncé and Jay-Z can wear Pugh together now. Wouldn't they look so sweet?

Could London's avant garde Gareth Pugh be in the LVMH sights? [Telegraph]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 10:05 AM
  • Loose Threads

Hart Schaffner Marx Files Chapter 11; Ad Pages Down 22 Percent

Rick Owens, fall 2009. No hugs allowed!

Rick Owens, fall 2009. No hugs allowed!Photo: Getty Images

• Hart Schaffner Marx, Barack Obama's favorite suit maker, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Lest Obama go nude, business operations will continue as the company undergoes reorganization. [WWD]

• Ad pages in fashion magazines fell an average of 22 percent in the first quarter. Vogue's were down 28 percent while Allure's were down 35 percent. [WWD]

• Suzy Menkes on Rick Owens's first menswear show: "Against a soaring soundtrack from 'Salome,' his models walked out as if acolytes of some quiet cult, hair shaven at the front, clothes in dark monastic layers and occasionally gilded horns circling the neck." [IHT]

• LVMH chief Bernard Arnault and PPR chief François Pinault had a secret lunch in France last week at the invitation of Belgian billionaire Albert Frères. French people are dying to know what they talked about. [WWD]

• Duro Olowu is pulling out of London Fashion Week. He'll show his collection through private appointments. [British Vogue]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 09:25 AM
  • Rumor Mill
Did Anna Wintour Start the Retirement Rumors About Herself?
Did Anna Wintour Start the Retirement Rumors About Herself?

A possible explanation for all the rumors about Anna Wintour smattered across blogs and gossip pages for the last two months has surfaced. The reports about her possible retirement and consideration for a position in Obama's White House are reportedly part of a "devious whisper campaign" in relation to tense negotiations with Si Newhouse over the renewal of her Condé Nast contract. The theory goes like this: Wintour started by planting an item in "Page Six" about her retirement. Condé Nast struck back by planting a rumor that Newhouse had met with French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld. Then Anna started the rumor about the Obama appointment to show Newhouse she had other, better options than Vogue. So this may have all been her own doing! God we love her. [Cityfile]

  • Posted 1/26/09 at 09:00 AM
  • Fashion Calendar

Events and Sales: 40 Percent Off Fred Leighton; 50 Percent Off Paul Smith

EVENTS
• Get a free manicure or eyebrow wax with your next cut or color at Blow the New York Blow Dry Bar. Through February. 342 W. 14th St., nr. Ninth Ave. (212-989-6282); 843 Lexington Ave., nr. 64th St. (212-452-0246). Call for an appointment.

SALES
STARTING TODAY
• Estate and antique jewelry, such as brooches, earrings, and necklaces, are 40 percent off at Fred Leighton. Through 2/16. 773 Madison Ave., at 66th St. (212-288-1872); Mon.–Sat. (10–6), Sun. (closed).

• Take 50 percent off all fall stock at Paul Smith. A wool peacoat is $415 (originally $830), and ankle boots are $220 (originally $435). 108 Fifth Ave., at 16th St. (212-627-9770); 142 Greene St., nr. Prince St. (646-613-3060). Call for hours.

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