Here Is Beyoncé's New Single, Featured in an H&M Ad
LatestObviously, you want to click through a slideshow of Debbie Harry‘s old photos where she talks about the clothes she wore and the memories they contain. On early punk:
“Our clothes were tattered and used up. It was a time when economics ruled what I was wearing. I just had to make do. So sometimes being in that situation, things happen that are really magical if you just sort of go for it. I think that really was the beginning of deconstruction. You couldn’t buy anything like that then.”
[DuJour]
Karlie Kloss wears Saint Laurent Paris on the cover of Vogue Japan. [FGR]
Naomi Campbell is on the cover of the new Vogue Brazil. [Glossynewsstand]
Topshop is selling Mom jeans. Literally: this high-waisted, relaxed fit, tapered cut is called the “Mom.” [Fashionista]
• A building that housed several apparel factories in Bangladesh has collapsed, and more than 100 workers are feared dead. At least 1,000 are injured. The building housed four factories where over 2,500 garment workers, mostly young women, were making clothing for Benetton, Mango, Primark, C&A, Wal-Mart, and other retailers. This is the second major industrial incident in the country in less than six months — last November, a fire at a factory that manufactured clothing for brands including Wal-Mart and H&M killed 112 workers. Bangladesh has one of the lowest minimum wages for garment workers in the world — $37/month. Union organizers have been intimidated and killed in the country in recent months, and the apparel and textiles industry is by far the largest sector of the economy. According to survivors, cracks appeared in the building on Tuesday, but managers told the staff to report to work on Wednesday. That was when the collapse occurred. Reports Women’s Wear Daily:
“It’s unbelievable that brands still refuse to sign a binding agreement with unions and labor groups to stop these unsafe working conditions from existing. Tragedy after tragedy shows that corporate-controlled monitoring is completely inadequate,” said Tessel Pauli, a [Clean Clothes Campaign] staffer. “Right now the families of the victims are grieving and the community is in shock. But they, and the hundreds injured in the collapse, are without income and without support. Immediate relief and long-term compensation must be provided by the brands who were sourcing from these factories, and responsibility taken for their lack of action to prevent this happening.”The CCC called on brands to sign on to the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement immediately. The CCC, together with local and global unions and labor rights organizations, has developed a sector-wide program for action that includes independent building inspections, worker-rights training, public disclosure and a review of safety standards. The agreement has already been signed by PVH Corp. and German retailer Tchibo and needs two more companies to agree for it to be activated. The labor signatories are now calling on all major brands sourcing in the industry to sign on to the initiative in order to ensure its rapid implementation.
• New School students seem divided about the prospect of disgraced Christian Dior designer John Galliano teaching an exclusive, three-day master class at their fashion school, Parsons. “I feel he has a lot to teach. But the New School has such a history with Jewish studies and Jewish professors, it’s a little contradictory. I don’t know what went on when administrators were discussing it,” says Amanda Law, a junior. Law was likely referring to the university’s decision in 1933 to found a graduate school as a haven for Jewish German scholars who had to flee the Nazi regime. Other New School students are, shall we say, more forgiving. “We all say stupid shit while drunk. We’ve all made Jew jokes,” says senior Corinne Hay. Hey, Corinne! Good luck in life now that your Google is indelibly associated with the quote, “We’ve all made Jew jokes.” [NYDN]
• Meanwhile, a Change.org petition purportedly from a Parsons student is calling on the school to rescind Galliano’s appointment. “It doesn’t matter if its for three months or three days, hiring someone who has made such horrific comments shows that the school values Galliano over their entire Jewish student body,” reads the petition, which currently has 286 signatures. “We do not want money from our tuition going to this kind of person. We feel like we’ve been slapped in the face by our school. There should be no room for this kind of person as a staff member on the faculty at Parsons.”
• Lauren Hutton is reportedly working on a memoir. Awesome. [P6]
• Kylie Bisutti, who modeled in her teens, gave it up, then in 2009 entered an open search for a Victoria’s Secret Angel and won, eventually stopped modeling swimwear and lingerie because she felt it conflicted with her religious beliefs. Bisutti, who is a born-again Christian, even turned down the Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition. As a teen:
I had photographers and male models hitting on me constantly. Once, a photographer actually pushed me up against the wall and tried to kiss me.
And while I was still going to church and consulting my Bible, I was so desperate to succeed in the business that I complied when my agent told me, “All models have a topless shot.” I was only 16 when I posed for mine.
Then, after the VS business and some unpleasant shoots for FHM and Maxim, she came to question her career path:
Two years after I won the Angel Search, I realized I didn’t want to model anything that sold sex. At the time, a Victoria’s Secret lingerie show was airing on TV, and I was looking at Twitter and saw loads of tweets from women comparing themselves to the impossible image of the models.
It made me think back to earlier in my modeling career, when my 8-year-old cousin was watching me put on makeup and said to me, “I’m going to throw up my food so I look like you.”
Bisutti now has a Christian clothing line and a book deal. [NYPost]
• J.C. Penney needs money. It lost nearly one billion dollars last year, and expects to burn through another billion this quarter. The struggling retailer is investigating selling stock, debt, or real estate to raise cash. [WWD]