loose threads

Erin Wasson Hearts J.Crew; Pretzel Chips Kills Anorexia Ads

Christian Siriano was the victim of a Craigslist scam. Posters claiming to represent the designer put out ads looking for models for a bogus catalogue. [Fashionista]

• Pretzel Chips replaced the ads in New York that read, “You can never be too thin,” and apologized for releasing them in the first place. [Gawker]

• Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren was dining with Martha Stewart at Rao’s when Home Depot board member Ken Langone told Stewart, “We are selling so much of your product.” Lundgren, offended, said: “No, we are selling more than you!” Stewart was all, “Boys, please!” [Page Six/NYP]

Joseph Altuzarra on sexiness: “A lot of my pieces are about easy seductiveness and accessibility in terms of showing skin. I’ve been speaking to a lot of women in their forties and fifties and they want to look sexy — I think it’s quite a new thing and at the moment, there isn’t a lot out there for them. Seductiveness isn’t just for girls in their twenties anymore.” [Vogue UK]

Dorothea Barth Jorgensen launched a personal photography blog called Displaced Bones. A comment on modeling, perhaps? [Modelinia]

• Saudi Princess Maha al-Sudairi hired fashion consultant Malcolm Harris to help her and her family invest in luxury brands, including Tory Burch, Yigal Azrouël, Narciso Rodriguez, Alexander Wang, and Phillip Lim. “The idea is to use fashion to bridge the cultural gap,” said Harris. [Page Six/NYP]

• Erin Wasson on modeling for J.Crew: “When you just look at their stuff on a rack, you’re like ‘Oh, it’s preppy, it’s kind of like whatever,’ but they have this really dope way of styling the shit out of it that makes you just want it. I love that they’ll take four T-shirts and layer them on top of each other and create dimension. I don’t work with them often because I try to keep a balance of high-fashion and commercial stuff, but at the end of the day, what people don’t realize, is that we’re all fucking trying to pay our bills. So if J.Crew is on the horn and they’re like, ‘Hey, we want you to shoot,’ you’re like, ‘Fuck yeah, I’ll do it.’ It’s a great brand.” [Fab Sugar]

Victoria Beckham is reportedly partnering with Katie Hillier on a line of handbags. [Vogue UK]

Cynthia Rowley just rolled out a line of seriously girly flower-covered tools. [Nylon]

• Meredith Melling-Burke will reportedly make an appearance alongside Hamish Bowles and Lauren Santo Domingo on Gossip Girl’s September 20 Fashion’s Night Out–themed episode. Fashionista]

• Condé Nast is opening a chain of restaurants branded after Condé magazines. [Gawker]

Yigal Azrouël is introducing a line of footwear this fall. [Style File/Style]

• Russell Simmons and his ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons held a garage sale earlier this week, where they sold $20 leopard-print doggie beds and $20,000 brass lion statues previously owned by Gianni Versace [Racked NY]

• Sister models, one plus-size (Laura Wells) and one model-size (Courtney Wells), were photographed together in a spread for Australian Cosmopolitan’s August issue. [HuffPo]

Ralph Lauren on being in “phase two” of Polo’s expansion, which involves more mansions on Madison Avenue: “Twenty-five years ago, I opened the [Rhinelander] mansion … I am now building another mansion opposite that mansion, which is amazing in the fashion business.” [WWD]

• Yesterday, Senator Charles E. Schumer introduced a bill called the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. Cathy Horyn explains: “The proposed legislation provides very limited intellectual property protection to the most original design. A designer who claims that his work has been copied must show that his design provides ‘a unique, distinguishable, non-trivial and non-utilitarian variation over prior designs.’ And it must be proven by the designer that the copy is ‘substantially identical’ to the original so as to be mistaken for it. The bill would cover all fashion designs, including products like handbags, belts and sunglasses, for a three-year period from the time the item is seen in public — on a runway, say. Factors than can’t be used in determining the uniqueness of a design are color, patterns and a graphic element. In other words, the bar is extremely high to determine what qualifies as a unique and distinguishable fashion design. And the burden is on the innovative designer.” [On the Runway/NYT]

Erin Wasson Hearts J.Crew; Pretzel Chips Kills Anorexia Ads