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Bill Cunningham, the legendary Times street-style and nightlife photographer, was hit by an S.U.V. outside the Reed Krakoff show yesterday afternoon. Cunningham, who is in his mid-80s, was reportedly uninjured, and continued shooting. The former milliner and beloved presence at fashion week was the subject of last year's excellent documentary, Bill Cunningham New York. [@misternewton] More »
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It's strange that on the occasion of her Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition cover, so much of the coverage of model Kate Upton has centered around her weight. The always-reliable organ of controversy the New York Post has a scary article about how last year, Upton's friends had to stage "an intervention" about her weight gain and "scare her straight," because there is nothing scarier than a swimsuit model with a few rolls of flesh: More »
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Council of Fashion Designers of America chief executive Steven Kolb says he is "disappointed" that Ford models reneged on its pledge to not put girls under 16 forward for runway work. He says that although the CFDA would "of course not" punish any designer member who used underaged models in a show, but that the organization does give designers a little talking-to. "In the instances where we might see a girl under 16, we'll let the designer know that," said Kolb. "A lot of times the designer doesn't know." [Fashionista] More »
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Marc Jacobs president Robert Duffy says his life has changed drastically since he and his husband Alex Cespedes adopted their daughter Victoria. He was home on a Friday night just days before the Marc Jacobs show, for one thing. Victoria, who will have the option of knowing her birth mother in later life if she so chooses (the couple opted for an open, domestic adoption, which took a year to arrange), is now six months old. Marc is her godfather. "Our biggest fight was that she was getting really heavy," says Duffy. "I'd say, ‘She is being overfed.' He'd say, ‘No she's not, all babies are fat.' Then I took her to the park one day and had her on a swing, and this lady said to me, ‘Why don't you let your baby walk?' I said that she can't walk yet and she was like, ‘Oh, I am so sorry.' The lady thought she was two years old. I came home and was like, ‘Alex, she is eating too much.'" They consulted her pediatrician and stopped feeding Victoria milk at night. "I keep saying childhood obesity starts in infancy, and Alex says, ‘So does anorexia.'" [WWD] More »
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The Telegraph newspaper has issued a rare apology and full retraction of an earlier article. The reason? The newspaper claimed that Michelle Obama had had an Agent Provocateur store in Manhattan closed down during business hours so that she could go on a $50,000 lingerie shopping spree in privacy. Also with Obama at this event was a high-spending Qatari princess. The story seemed fishy — Agent Provocateur released a statement saying it never commented publicly on its high-profile customers, and the White House issued a flat denial — but with this retraction comes an acknowledgement that the whole shopping trip described by the Telegraph was actually a complete fiction. "We would like to make clear that the 'shopping spree' involving Her Highness Sheikha Moza and Michelle Obama that we referred to in fact never occurred," writes the editors of the paper. "We apologise for the distress and embarrassment this article caused." [Telegraph] More »
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Fashion week isn't just about pretty dresses and champagne: it's also about long hours for the people who work it. And some of those workers are children. The Times is reporting on the Council of Fashion Designers of America's efforts to ensure all models who work New York Fashion Week are over 16 years old. Last season, at least two agencies — Ford and Women — flouted those guidelines, and models aged 14 and 15 walked for a number of top designers, including Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch, BCBG, and DKNY. Ford, despite pledging to honor the CFDA age guidelines, has apparently not changed its practices this season: More »
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And if you're a ladymag, that's a problem. The entire magazine industry saw a circulation slump in the second half of 2011, with newsstand sales declining by 10% on average. But many ladymags fared worse: Elle was down over 18%, year-on-year, InStyle fell by over 14%, and Allure declined by over 13%. Glamour, Marie Claire, and W were down by 10%, 9%, and 7%, respectively. The "winners" in this dismal six months were Vogueand Lucky , which still saw their newsstand sales fall by 5% each. Aside from terrible cover lines, stories that underestimate the intelligence of their readers, and predictable fashion spreads that present an extremely narrow idea of female beauty, what's wrong with today's ladymags? [WWD] More »
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I was just "talking" with Dodai about what to do for a Rag Trade lede. "Dodai," I said. "Karl Lagerfeld said some krazy shit again!" More »
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A grumpy-looking Gisele Bündchen endured heckling from Giants fans as she left the VIP area at the Super Bowl stadium last night, following her husband Tom Brady's team's loss. Bündchen did not respond as men shouted "Eli rules!" and "Eli owns your husband!" But when the supermodel reached the elevator bank, she was caught on video saying, "You have to catch the ball when you're supposed to catch the ball. My husband cannot fucking throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times." [The Insider] More »
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Linda Evangelista is on the cover of the new LOVE — and inside, the supermodel talks about that child support lawsuit she filed against luxury chief (and husband of Salma Hayek) François-Henri Pinault. Evangelista had never previously revealed the identity of her 4-year-old son's father, but says that Pinault's total refusal to pay her any child support forced her to sue him, and therefore publicly reveal his identity. She says she otherwise never would have brought her son into it. "I need to protect him," she says. "I never, ever used my son for publicity. He'll have his say one day if he wants it. He'll have the last word. He has time to defend himself." Pinault, who conceived a child with his then-girlfriend Hayek around the same time Evangelista's son was born, told People that he "recognized" the child. Evangelista is seeking $46,000 a month in child support; François-Henri Pinault, the head of PPR, reportedly has a personal fortune of $11.5 billion. [Vogue UK] More »
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A former Harper's Bazaar intern is suing the Hearst corporation for failing to pay her. The intern, who is seeking to make the lawsuit a class action, argues that because she worked full time but was not paid, Hearst violated minimum-wage laws. Everyone knows unpaid internships, or internships offered in exchange for college credit, are common in the media (and, for that matter, in fashion, public relations, and a good many other fields besides). Unpaid internships are legal, but only if they are the equivalent of educational training — unpaid interns are not supposed to perform the duties of entry-level employees, and the employer is not supposed to derive any benefit from an unpaid intern's labor. The lawsuit argues, More »
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The Cut has side-by-side comparisons of unretouched paparazzi shots from a recent Victoria's Secret shoot featuring Candice Swanepoel — and the airbrushed versions that ran in the chain's catalog. While the swimsuits are different, indicating these were from different shoots, what allows for comparison is that the posing is virtually identical (that swimsuit modeling relies heavily on the same three poses should be news to nobody who's ever taken a gander at VS's advertising). Is anyone even slightly surprised that Swanepoel looks great without the help of Photoshop? The changes Victoria's Secret does make — erasing the crease that occurs when a human body bends sharply at the waist, for example — mostly just serve to make the final image look uncanny. [The Cut] More »
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Gird yourselves for the arrival of the youngest installment of the Kardashian Klan: Kendall and Kylie Jenner seem to have scored the new cover of Teen Vogue. Representative line: More »
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Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte have listed their favorite episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, whom they call "one of the most powerful female characters ever developed." Included are Season 2's "Passion," and "Becoming" (the one where she kills Angel), Season 3's "Consequences" and "Prom," Season 4's silent episode "Hush," Season 6's sing-along "Once More, With Feeling," and Season 7's "Conversations With Dead People." The Mulleavy sisters write that, "Before she was 'chosen' to be a slayer, Buffy Summers was a typical teenage girl with average ambitions. She seemed like the ditzy blonde that is usually murdered alone in the alleyway." That difference between her appearance and her abilities is, they say, one of the greatest things about the cult show. "She was asked to save the world in every episode. She lost her mother, her life (a few times), and those nearest to her. She was almost always selfless, and always fast with a quip. She was always the person to root for." What's your favorite episode? [Rookie] More »
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Beth Ditto — who is known for applying her own makeup with great precision — is launching a limited-duration collaboration with MAC. This actually makes total sense, given the singer's interest in makeup comes off as genuine, and that she's talked in interviews about how she loves to do her friends' makeup. And how awesome is that promo shot? The collection will be in stores this June. [WWD] More »
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Tim Gunn opened up about his personal life on the new show he's co-hosting, The Revolution. He says that he's celibate — and happy. "I haven't had sex in 29 years," said the designer mentor and former Parsons dean. "Do I feel like less of a person because of it? No." Gunn says that an "intense" relationship that ended abruptly led him to give up sex. With tears in his eyes, Gunn said of his former partner, "He was impatient with my sexual performance." He characterized his celibate life as "perfectly fulfilled," and said, "I'm happy to be healthy and alive, frankly." Gunn has written and spoken about his personal life before, though never in such detail. In a touching 2011 essay for the Daily Beast, Gunn described the end of a nine-year relationship — "The only real relationship I've ever had" — and how he felt no twinges of love or infatuation for a whole decade after the breakup. Then, in 1992, he met someone he calls Daniel. For work, Gunn was traveling frequently to Asia at the time. More »
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Macy's is suing Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for breach of contract, following the announcement that the Martha Stewart brand of homewares would be sold exclusively at J.C. Penney following the expiration of her current exclusive Macy's contract. The Macy's deal was set to expire this year, freeing Martha to shill muffin tins and bath mats at Penney's starting in 2013, but Macy's claims its contract allows them the option to renew for another five years. Macy's sure seems sad it lost its shiny toy, but we're team Martha on this one. Stewart may be 70, but we're in no doubt she could still cut a bitch. And smilingly dispose of the body in four handsome, home-y, and ecologically aware ways, if necessary. [WWD] More »
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Women's Wear Daily has a story today about the trend for "extreme" lingerie, which seems to mainly mean "extremely expensive." (Hello Swarovski crystal bodysuits, gold star pasties, and $4,000 pricetags.) References to bondage in fashion are hardly new — Claude Montana, anyone? — but the ability to charge more money for crotchless panties is something brands welcome. Apparently, when Kirsty Hume became the face of Agent Provocateur in 2010, this bondage-inspired cut-out bra and panty outfit she wore in the campaign sold out "instantly," says the company, which led it to start pushing the trend. [WWD] More »
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Everything you never wanted to know about ex-Real Housewife Cindy Barshop's fox fur temporary merkin, but were too appalled to ask, is now revealed. Basically, Barshop's salon waxes a woman, shaves an appropriate quantity of fur off a piece of fox hide, and glues the blunt ends of the fur to the client's skin. "It's a special glue," says Barshop. The whole thing adds $140 to the cost of a wax, and lasts about three or four days. Barshop's salon can also stick some feathers down there for an additional $110. Festive! And you'd better believe she's personally tested every one of the elaborate topiary procedures that she sells to customers. We are left with just one remaining, and sadly unanswered question: how does one bathe? [The Cut] More »
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Here is Lara Stone's latest Calvin Klein ad, sure to inspire pearl-clutch-y local news stories across the nation once it hits billboards and bus shelters. Can you imagine! Calvin Klein is clearly using sex to sell its jeans and underwear. At least there are no hidden messages this time — that we can tell. [WWD] More »
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Old Navy is preparing to defend the $20 million lawsuit filed by Kim Kardashian, who alleges that the chain tarnished her reputation by using a lookalike model in an advertising campaign. Old Navy's legal strategy? What reputation! Parent company Gap Inc.'s lead lawyer, Louis Petrich, wants to make the value of Kim's endorsement a key plank of his case. Hint: Old Navy does not think that value is very high. And Petrich is seeking documents that seem calculated to cause the maximum embarrassment to the Kardashian Korporation. More »
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Prada did something unusual for its men's wear show: it stocked the cast with famous actors. Willem Defoe, Jamie Bell, Adrien Brody, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Emile Hirsch, and Garrett Hedlund all walked around modeling Miuccia Prada's latest collection of snobby, bemedaled clothes for playboys. The Times rated them as models, and opined that Hedlund More »
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Meet Anais Gallagher, the 11-year-old daughter of former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher and Meg Matthews. Anais is a model, <a href="http://www.selectmodel.com/portfolio.aspx?modelid=556989&subid=9258&mainsubid=9258&sexid=2&alpha=ad&link=Women&slink=SneakPreviewsigned with Select in London. This very nice black-and-white photo of her was taken by Mario Testino; her mother shared it on Twitter. The Telegraph is already comparing her to Kate Moss. And we thought Lottie Moss was young. Maybe Anaïs can pick up some work for her uncle's fashion label? [Telegraph] More »
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Former Marie Claire editor, favorite subject of street-style photographers the world over, and newly named artistic director of online high-end shopping site Moda Operandi Taylor Tomasi Hill has been caught red-handed doing something very un-high-end: copying designer fashions. For the new collection Tomasi Hill "designed" for Hong Kong-based department store Lane Crawford, it appears she knocked off a Marc by Marc Jacobs dress from 2008. And as if that weren't enough, Tomasi Hill also copied a blue striped Comme des Garçons shirt — a Comme des Garçons shirt she just happens to have been photographed wearing, by the Sartorialist, in 2009. This is far from the first time a non-designer has been caught knocking off her own clothes for a namesake line — Rachel Zoe, Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan, and Rachel Bilson have been documented doing the same — but it is a bit unusual that Tomasi Hill copied things that are practically brand new. The smarter knock-off artist always copies vintage things; it's harder to get caught, and there's always the defense that you were just bringing back into style (albeit uncredited) something that hadn't been in stores for decades. [Elle, Fashionista] More »
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It's well-known that sex-tips serializer, boinking bible, periodical of promiscuity, Cosmopolitan magazine sends out one, very toned-down, cover to advertisers, while another, significantly racier, cover goes to the newsstand — but playing spot-the-difference with 17-year-old Dakota Fanning's new cover is still fun. "Feel Close After A Fight" magically drops its panties to become "His Best Sex Ever." While one cover promises "Spring Clothes, Hair, Nails!" — all Things, Advertisers, Sell! — the other boasts "Too Naughty To Say Here! But You Have To Try This Sex Trick." "Women and Danger: This Decision Could Cost You Your Life," interestingly, is considered both newsstand- and advertiser-appropriate. [NYObs] More »
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There are more details today on the arrest of Italian garment magnate Tonino Perna, who once ran IT Holding, a former apparel industry giant that collapsed in 2008: More »
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Anna Wintour is apparently pulling strings to get fashion brands to design merchandise for Barack Obama's reelection. Under Wintour's program, called Runway to Win, goods from 22 designers including t-shirts, totes, and scarves will go on sale online this Thursday. Wintour has been a prominent Democratic fundraiser, and has hosted fêtes for Obama at her house. Runway to Win is modeled on a similar 2008 program organized by Wintour, called Runway to Change. But four years later, kind of like Obama's disappointed Democratic base at large, apparently not everyone was so very keen to get on board: More »
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In news that will surprise absolutely nobody who has ever tried to buy anything anywhere in Paris, a survey of shoppers found that the Champs-Elysées rates 22nd out of 30 great world shopping streets for customer service. Many people reported that sales assistants at the luxury stores that line the boulevard showed irritation at being asked to serve customers. Imagine! New York's Fifth Avenue, however, did even worse: it came 26th. The best place to shop in the world, if you've got the money? In news that will surprise absolutely nobody who's ever bought anything in Singapore, it's Orchard Road. [WWD] More »
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One year after the release of Black Swan, both Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis are faces of Dior: Mila just scored the Miss Dior handbag campaign, and Natalie remained the face of Miss Dior Cherie perfume after the house fired John Galliano for being a big racist baby. Kunis replaces does not actually replace Marion Cotillard, who is the face of the Lady Dior. Dior says it plans a similarly long-term association with Kunis as it has enjoyed with Cotillard. [Telegraph] More »
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The always refreshingly plainspoken Tim Gunn says something that probably no plus-size woman in America would disagree with: that the apparel market woefully underserves them. "Have you seen most of the plus-size sections out there? It's horrifying. Whoever's designing for plus-size doesn't get it. The entire garment needs to be reconceived. You can't just take a size 8 and make it larger," says Gunn, the former head of the fashion design program at Parsons. "I've been talking to designers, but only a half-dozen make an effort. Most say, 'I don't want a woman who's a size 10 or 11 wearing my clothes.' Well, shame on you! It's not realistic. We need to address real women with real needs. At Parsons, we had fit models that ranged in size from 2 to 10. We've got to reconceive clothes for all sizes." Gunn says that he's even thought of starting his own clothing line, just because he'd like to stick it to designers who don't want to dress women of all sizes, and he wants to "be a part of the solution." [Marie Claire] More »
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Rachel McAdams is on the new cover of Glamour, whose writer got to be the one to give McAdams the news that her ex, Ryan Gosling, now casts a long shadow on Tumblr: More »
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Alessandra Ambrosio says that she was worried she might not be able to do the Victoria's Secret show if the company knew she was eight weeks pregnant. "When I first found out I was pregnant I thought, 'Oh my gosh I don't think I'm going to be able to walk on the show,' and I didn't tell anybody so no one knew at the show that I was pregnant," she says. "A week before, I told my booker I don't think I'm going to be able to fit into the clothes because I gained a few pounds already, but we were just quiet." Apparently, she was nervous enough about it that she worked out and dieted before the show: "I cut all the sugars and sweets 10 days before and I got my trainer — the one I usually get — and we were doing lots of glutes and arms and back exercises." The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has described pregnancy discrimination as the fastest-growing kind of workplace discrimination — and as independent contractors, models have even less protection from pregnancy discrimination than the majority of American women who are classified as employees. [Us] More »
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E! is reporting that not one, but two Victoria's Secret models were pregnant when they walked in the show. Lily Aldridge is, according to a "source," expecting her first child with husband/that dude from Kings of Leon, Caleb Followill. Aldridge is said to be about three months along; yesterday, Alessandra Ambrosio announced that she is four months pregnant with her second child. The rumor hasn't been confirmed by Aldridge and Followill. But think about it: if you have a lucrative lingerie contract to keep, timing your period of parturiency to the brand's big, televised show just makes sense. If you're one or two months along in November when the show tapes, then you won't be "showing," but you will have all that pregnant-lady cleavage. And when you pop out the kid in June or July, you could have as long as five months to snap back into the kind of physical shape required to continue promoting tacky, overpriced lingerie made by children in sweatshops for the benefit of the Limited Brands corporation. It's the American way. [E!] More »
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Alessandra Ambrosio has confirmed she is four months into her second pregnancy. For those of you who can count, that means that yes, she was already pregnant (about eight weeks) when she walked the Victoria's Secret show. Imagine! Two months along and still ambulant! Us magazine seems very, very impressed that Ambrosio was still skinny, too. They must think that's some kind of record. [Us] More »
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2011 is already over in magazine-land, where January '12 issues are filling up newsstand shelves. This allows us to ask, and answer, the hard questions, like: did people buy a catastrophic number of magazines with Kim Kardashian's face on them this year, or just a distressingly high one? And what's the deal with Sarah Jessica Parker, anyway? SJP proved a reliable cover subject on Elle, Vogue, and Marie Claire, earning each magazine its second- or third-bestseller of the year. Kim Kardashian had Glamour and Cosmopolitan's bestsellers, but on the front of Harper's Bazaar, Self, and Lucky, Kim's face elicited only average sales. Women's Wear Daily reports that "a source said that her January 2012 Glamour cover with sisters Khloé and Kourtney is on track to fall below 400,000 sales — a really poor performance." Peering into the American id by way of magazine-buying habits has its interesting findings: people like Mark Sanchez more than they do Derek Jeter. They don't like Reese Witherspoon, but they do like Gwyneth Paltrow — just not on the cover of Bon Appetit. Heidi Klum did well, and so did Mila Kunis, who delivered 15% above-average sales for W and 10% above-average for Cosmopolitan. But people hate Justin Timberlake on a cover: with Mila, he had the fourth-best Elle of the year, but alone, he was Esquire's worst seller. Also unwanted on magazine covers in 2011: Justin Bieber. Nobody bought Bieber's Vanity Fair — it was the third-worst selling issue not only of the year, but of editor Graydon Carter's entire tenure — and his Rolling Stone sold 5% below average. Maybe all of those Beliebers who buy up multiple copies of his albums should show a little love to their local newsagent? And Lady Gaga had both the third-best and the third-worst Harper's Bazaar issues of the year (May being best and October being worst). Either people were all like, 'Wait, we just got a Harper's Bazaar with this lady's face on it, what gives?' or they prefer Gaga with makeup and weird facial prosthetics. (Her October cover was au naturel.) [WWD] More »
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You might find the allegations of worker mistreatment at the factories that produce several of the Kardashian family's numerous clothing and accessories licenses horrifying, disgusting, or even sadly unsurprising. Kris Jenner has a different word: Libelous. The Kardashians have called Star magazine's claims that child labor and forced labor are taking place at Chinese factories that make Kardashian tchotchkes baseless, and have sued the magazine. Also on the sue list is the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, which was one of Star's sources in its investigation. IGLHR director Charles Kernaghan said — on TMZ, natch — that his organization had already been investigating factories that manufacture for the Kardashian brands when Star called, but admitted that he personally had not visited the factories in question and seen the conditions first-hand. "We haven't finished our research," said Kernaghan, "but what I'm saying is that with every research campaign we have done in China, you always come up with nasty sweatshop conditions." The Kardashians claim they have people who "patrol" the factories their licensees contract with to ensure safe working conditions. [TMZ] More »
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Derek Lam has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Ivanka Trump after discovering her footwear line is selling a $150 sandal that is virtually identical to one the designer made for $780. We haven't seen a knock-off this good in a long time: we're struggling to identify any noticeable differences in the stitching, the number of snakeskin straps on the heel, the arrangement of the leather straps over the toe, the shape of the wedge heel, or any other detail of the design. They even copied the "seam" in the wood-grain print. The company C.E.O. calls it a "perfect copy." It was discovered when a Derek Lam designer was shopping online, and stumbled upon the Ivanka Trump shoe. "It's such an investment to make a shoe," explained the C.E.O. "We had to protest this." Ivanka Trump and the footwear licensee, Marc Fisher, had no comment. [WWD] More »
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There is a real-life Edina Monsoon, you guys, and her name is Lynne Franks. Franks was a notorious player in London's fashion P.R. industry in the '80s and '90s, and was friends with Jennifer Saunders, who based the character of Eddie on her. Franks seems to own the whole Absolutely Fabulous thing — she titled her '97 memoir Absolutely Now and says she loves the series, which is coming back for three more episodes this winter — but has one quibble: "I like to think that my taste in clothing was marginally better than Christian Lacroix," she says. "But the show was pretty spot on, actually." Katherine Hamnett, a designer Franks once represented, described meeting her as being "like an avalanche hitting you." Franks was legendary for her parties ("It was the most genius party — very aristo-posh English — with transvestites"), her power, her insane outfits (she wore a dirndl and orange-and-purple hair to Studio 54 — while eight months pregnant), her drug and alcohol use (she once passed out in a bowl of onion soup at 5 a.m.), and her neglectful parenting. When she quit P.R. in the early '90s, she became a Buddhist. Now she dotes on a Labrador-Jack Russell cross called Noodle, runs a women-only business club she founded, and basically, Lynne Franks is our hero. In her honor, let's re-watch the "Is it a bee?" bit. Lynne Franks, we raise our Bolli-Stolis in your general direction. [WWD] More »
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According to reports, Anna Wintour's team has been calling in some samples in U.S. sizes 14 and 16 — an event so unusual in our age of miniature celebrities that it merits a mention in today's Women's Wear Daily. Certain (unnamed) designers have been asked to create special outfits so Vogue will have plenty of cover options — and the word is that all the effort is for a cover that will feature Adele. This would be for Vogue's March issue, the spring fashion issue. This is newsworthy for a couple of reasons: one, it's been four years since Vogue featured a plus-size woman on its cover (Jennifer Hudson in 2007) and two, Vogue isn't even putting Adele on the Shape issue cover, it's apparently giving her a "real" cover. (Conventional ladymag wisdom is that March is the second most important issue of the year after September — which is a huge vote of confidence on the part of Vogue in Adele's salability.) It's been a good year for Adele, vocal cord issues aside: 21 is the top-selling album of the year, and she's nabbed six Grammy nominations, in addition to covers of U.S. Cosmopolitan, British Vogue, and The Gentlewoman. [WWD] More »
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Marc Jacobs is profiled by Jonathan Van Meter in the new Vogue. The designer says he hasn't spoken to his mother, Judy, or his two siblings, for more than two decades. The reason? They "don't get along very well." He also doesn't speak to his father — who used to be Joan Rivers' agent, isn't that interesting? — for the more prosaic reason that his father died when Marc was 6 years old. Jacobs tells Van Meter: More »
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