Jezebel: london fog

Victoria's Secret's Diamond Bra, Now With More Diamonds; Eva & Tony Do London Fog

Jenna — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:30:00 EDT

Marisa Miller has earned the most coveted position of all the Victoria's Secret runway girls: Wearer Of The Diamond-Studded Bra. Her equipment costs $3 million. "It's surprisingly comfortable," says Miller. Sure looks it. [People]

Sir Paul Smith would love it "if fashion shows died out completely." The 63-year-old British designer explains, shows are "pure, self-indulgent theatre. How many girls were there this year in horns or neck braces with bare breasts? It wouldn't matter if they didn't take it all so seriously, but the fashion world is a dangerous, superficial and fickle place." [Telegraph]
Although the press sometimes jumps all over Anna Wintour for repeating her outfits, it's something she does all the time, and will continue to do, because who wears clothes once, for God's sake? "I usually wear the same dress twenty times. I think it's always fun to have something new, but it doesn't mean that everything you already have in your closet has to be thrown out, you know? Recycle." [The Cut]
The USAToday and W did the hard work of "parsing" Amelia Earhart's style. You know her, she's that woman famous for...wearing pants. [USAToday]
Donatella Versace tells a Vogue reader who says she would buy clothes in larger sizes, if Versace made them, that "I certainly wouldn't want to do a plus-size line, as I have no problem with women of any size wearing my clothes. I guess some styles lend themselves to being scaled up, while some others just don't work." Versace's own daughter, Allegra, has struggled with anorexia. [Style.com]
Donatella hosted a party for the Whitney, and a lot of celebrities came. (Since when are Lindsay Lohan and Taylor Momsen "just-wanna-have-fun blondes"?) Also in attendance at what was, you know, an art benefit were Chuck Close and Ellsworth Kelly. [Style.com]
Meanwhile, that equally tanned and fashionable Italian female, Gucci creative director Frida Giannini, is headed to Yonkers today to cut the ribbon with Mary J. Blige on something called the Mary J. Blige Center for Women. [P6]
Somebody should tell Mark Ronson that what he has designed for Gucci is not in fact a sneaker, but a boat shoe. The eyelets give it away. [Hypebeast]
Karl Lagerfeld is heading to Argentina. Lest you think it's to enjoy some steak and a nice Malbec, know this: "I only go to places if I have a professional reason. I'm not a tourist." He'll be shooting Freja Beha Erichsen, Baptiste GIabiconi, and Claudia Schiffer in the next Chanel campaign — what, no Lara Stone? — and researching a book about Argentine architecture. [WWD]
London Fog's holiday ad campaign features Tony Parker and Eva Longoria. There's got to be a Mad Men joke here somewhere. [People]
Meanwhile, John Galliano himself has revealed that the spring Dior campaign will star Karlie Kloss. [WWD]
Grace Kelly and Cartier are each getting stars on the Walk of Style on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. [HoustonChronicle]
Angelina Jolie is apparently in talks with Ridley Scott to star in a film about the 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci. [Variety]
Tom Ford, the man Maurizio had hired to revitalize the brand, says he will do women's wear again. Just as soon as he can get financing. [WWD]
The Times' Critical Shopper, Cintra Wilson, went to Ann Taylor. She didn't expect to like it, but then: "Clothing companies, when they panic, tend to go rococo. They get flashier, busier and more disposable by slapping on bigger logos and more useless bows and frippery. Ann Taylor must be commended for choosing less clutter and better details that aren't always: the finished seams inside a little faille opera jacket; the velvet ribbon inside the waist of a peplum coat; the Italian three-season wool." [NYTimes]
Iconix Brand Group, the company behind everything from Candie's to Badgley Mischka, has been fined $250,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for violating certain provisions of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act when it collected information during some of its promotions last year. [Crain's]
Burberry is suing the U.K.-based pet supply store Pets At Home for using a checked fabric the company says is too similar to its own. Pets At Home, which has 250 stores, has pulled the offending products, but the dispute is ongoing. Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey told the New Yorker earlier this year about suing a pet store that advertised a dog cushion "in the famous Burberry check." [Guardian]
Maybe the answer is that Burberry should make like Mulberry, and do its own line of pet clothes. [FWD]
More details about the city's planned fashion incubator in the garment district have emerged: New York will subsidize 12 slots in a 10,000 sq. ft. space, reducing the rent from $2,900 to $1,500 a month. The designers, who are being selected right now, will also have access to mentoring and support from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. It's not for students fresh out of school: every designer must have already been in business for at least a year, and employ a staff (even if that staff is volunteer). What a wonderful use for a vacant showroom floor. [NYTimes]
Australian denim brand Ksubi is going to do a lower-priced line with the department store David Jones. And possibly another one with Topshop. [Sassybella]
Anhropologie is extending its reach across the Atlantic. Its first European store opens on Friday in London. [WWD]

Fran Does Skin Care; Unretouched Shots Of Gisele Emerge

Jenna — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:20:00 EDT

Fran Drescher is launching a skincare line — called FranBrand — this fall on HSN. The products are organic and paraben-free, because, as Drescher puts it, "Women are schmearing stuff on their décolleté, wondering why we're all getting breast cancer..."

"...Once you wake up and smell the coffee, it's hard to go back to sleep. So I'm sounding the alarm." Drescher, a survivor of uterine cancer, founded the organization Cancer Schmancer. (And she also taught us to love Loehmann's.) [The Cut]
As we learned yesterday, London Fog confirmed Gisele Bundchen's pregnancy by the roundabout way of announcing it had airbrushed her 5-6 month belly out of its latest campaign "to protect her privacy." But the outerwear brand also released a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot, which includes footage of the raw, unretouched shots as they appear on the computer monitor. A side-by-side comparison reveals exactly what London Fog thought wouldn't move units this fall. [SassyBella]
Bar Refaeli is allegedly seeing Israeli multi-millionaire Teddy Sagi. Sagi owns a company that makes software for Internet gambling sites, and the nicest thing the Daily Mail can say about him is that he "has a lovely smile." The supermodel's relationship with Leonardo Di Caprio ended earlier this year. [Daily Mail]
Liya Kebede addressed the UN Secretary-General's Forum on the topic of maternal health. Writes the supermodel, "In times of economic crisis, it is tempting to turn inward, to ignore or postpone the problems of the outside world and focus on ourselves. But, if we hope to thrive once again, we must realize that there are no outside problems in today's interwoven, globalized world. Each mother who dies leaves behind a devastated family and weakened community that will eventually, somehow, affect each of us. Each mother who dies deepens the financial and social strain on our world and puts economic recovery further away. Mothers are our best stimulus package because they invest in their families and in our collective future." [HuffPo]
SassyBella unearthed footage of Karen Mulder hosting an E! special in 1999. The Dutch model encounters a new girl, who, when she introduces herself, turns out to be an 18-year-old Adriana Lima. [SassyBella]
The first pictures of Rad by Rad Hourani, the Canadian designer's diffusion line, are looking pretty good, at least for those who were already fans of Hourani's unisex, pared-down rocker aesthetic. "This is exactly the same thing," as his main line, Hourani confirmed. Only instead of costing thousands of dollars it costs hundreds. We need more of this. [WWD]
The writer of the sometimes entertaining, sometimes savage, always fascinating fashion blog The Emperor's Old Clothes has revealed himself — as New York designer Eric Gaskins. Gaskins, after 22 years in business, was this week forced to close his doors because of the economy. [NYTimes]
And in September, Daphne Guinness is releasing a signature scent with Comme des Garçons. Only unlike most celebrity perfumes lines, this is actually the distinctive fragrance Guinness has, herself, been mixing for years. "I'll be in airports or in a taxi and the driver will say, ‘What are you wearing?'" reports the heiress. [WWD]
Designer Hussein Chalayan is "weirded out" by models with clothing lines, like Kate Moss, Amber Valetta, Erin Wasson, and Elle MacPherson: "If you have a really strong sense of style and people want to aspire to being like you, I can understand that. But if you really are doing it just because you think of yourself as a brand and you haven't had the training and you know nothing about clothes, it kind of demeans all the training that designers have had." Chalayan thought Kate Moss's line for Topshop was a poor effort. "I don't think it represented her, and I didn't think she worked hard enough. I even told her to her face." How did la Moss respond? "She said, ‘Oh, I'm just trying to do a light thing; I'm not trying to do anything serious.' But I said, ‘That's not the point.'" [WWD]
In which case, add Jessica Stam to the list of models who've raised Chalayan's ire. The Canadian just announced a collaboration with Rag & Bone. [Style.com]
Vogue's Lauren Santo Domingo, on being told her boss Anna Wintour had worn flats to a party in the Hamptons: "I wonder if that means we can wear flats to the office now?" [The Cut]
Fashion blind item: "Which fantastical designer has a new man? She's ditched her long term fiance for an artist with prime real estate." We're with the commenters on this: signs point to Erin Fetherston, who hasn't been photographed in public with her longtime fiancé, Hedi Ferjani, since late April. [Fashionista]
Ali Wise, the Dolce & Gabbana publicist who was arrested for hacking into the voicemail of a woman who was dating Wise's ex boyfriend, is no longer a Dolce & Gabbana employee. Which must seem like the least of her problems: Wise is facing felony charges of computer trespass and eavesdropping. [WWD]
A well-written parsing of W magazine's cover story on model Lara Stone: "The fashion industry — and, in turn, the fashion media — have such a warped concept of slimness that a model like Lara Stone is so much larger than her contemporaries that they feel the need to explain her presence. If Stone's body is such an outlier, what does that say about the rest of us? Worse, the magazine saw fit to issue the disclaimer that Stone 'is, it should be noted, a very lithe five foot ten.' Why, yes, do note that! As if there's the slightest chance someone is going to look at these photos and think Stone needs to, like, slow down on the Cheetos." [GlossedOver]
Lagardère, the French publishing company that owns Hachette Filipacchi Media, which owns the U.S. edition of Elle magazine, has denied that it is in talks to sell the title to rival Hearst, as had been reported in yesterday's New York Post. [WWD]
Scott Nylund, Beyoncé's design director, comes from Owatonna, Minnesota. Which is where you can see an exhibit that spans his earliest childhood sketches of women in dresses, to his college fashion collection, to his creations for Beyoncé. [StarTrib]
Freja Beha Erichsen says Karl Lagerfeld's house in Vermont — which recently served as the setting for the fall Chanel campaign she starred in with Heidi Mount — is a serious farm. With horses and chickens and — spitting llamas. Erichsen also praised Chanel for providing food backstage at its runway shows, which a lot of brands don't manage to do. [W]
Fashion Meets Finance, the terrible event for douchebags and gold-diggers, is back. It's happening August 6th in — where else? — Murray Hill. [FMF]
Will Ferrell has a Nike sneaker coming out in Japan. It's inspired by Anchorman's Ron Burgundy, that lovable asshole we met, uh, five years ago. [HighSnobiety]
Timberland lost $19.2 million in the last quarter, a worse-than-expected result that came off the back of a 14% drop in sales, to $179.7 million. [WWD]
Shiseido was even worse off — its profits declined 57.8%. [WWD]
Likewise Hugo Boss, which lost $21.17 million in the last quarter. [WWD]
Bare Escentuals profits also slid 20% in the same period. [WWD]
Competitor Avon's profits fell 64.3% on revenues that shrank by 9.7%. Revlon's sales fell 12.2%, and its total profits declined to just $200,000, from $19.9 million one year earlier. [WWD]
Bucking this downward trend is Tod's — the Italian leather brand reported a 3.4% increase in sales for this first six months of this year. [WWD]
Ann Taylor wants to cut $30 to $40 million in costs by "right-sizing" its organization. No word yet on the number of people who will be laid off. [WWD]
Three members of a multi-million-dollar New York counterfeiting ring received prison sentences, and a fourth was sentenced to probation by a federal judge. Michael Chu, the group's leader, was in 2005 ordered to pay $7 million in damages stemming from an unrelated counterfeiting case involving North Face jackets. This time, Chu, who imported fake Nike, Chanel and Burberry products, was sentenced to prison for just over 8 years. [WWD]

Gisele Loses Baby Bump Thanks To London Fog

Jenna — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:30:00 EDT

This is what Gisele Bundchen looks like, pregnant — only not, because London Fog retouched her stomach flat again. Is this the world's first prenatal airbrushing? [WWD]

Oh man, how weird must it be to have your boyfriend of years dump you the day before your birthday, and then still have to go through with the launch of a perfume called "Fancy Love." Which you have to make public appearances for, and see your own face on the ads of. Jessica Simpson, this is just not your week. [People]
Marc Jacobs Homewares. It's happening. (And it's already 50% off.) [FWD]
Matryoshkas may be getting rarer in real life, but they're popping up increasingly on the runway. [Telegraph]
Christian Lacroix met with the French minister of culture yesterday. [WWD]
Our favorite Obama volunteer, British top model Jacquetta Wheeler, has been more than keeping up her blog entries for British Vogue. Sometimes she posts two entries a day — overachiever. Wheeler writes about backing her car into a pillar, getting downgraded to economy on a paid business-class ticket and then sitting on the tarmac for two hours, and experiencing the scene at the Jane Hotel Bar. That last stop prompted Wheeler to reflect, "I realized that, although great to visit, I have left that life behind me, and am quite ok about it! Bring me a pint and some oysters and my Notting Hill pals at the Cow any day of the week." [Vogue UK]
The DKNY jeans campaign that Scott Schuman was shooting during the Topshop SoHo opening day madness is out. It stars Gracie Carvalho, Sophie Srej, and, uh, this Hilary Duff girl, you may know her? [WWD]
Alexa Chung was also in one ad, but apparently only the British publications noticed that. We think she looks great. [Elle UK]
And there are also some more fall campaign shots from Lindsay Lohan's new Fornarina campaign. [GlamChic]
Lagardère, the French media company that owns, among many others, the Elle and Marie Claire titles — though in the U.S., Marie Claire is published by Hearst, under a long-term licensing agreement with Lagardère — is said to be in talks with Hearst about selling off American Elle as well. Elle, which earlier this year surpassed longtime rival Vogue in advertising pages, has an estimated worth of $200 million. Hearst's entire profits for last year were only $225 million. [NYPost]
Guess? co-founder Georges Marciano, who is planning a bid for the governorship of California, has just been ordered to pay $370 million in damages to five former employees whom he defamed. Marciano was excluded from the week-long trial by the judge because he persistently skipped pre-trial deposition hearings. His former employees testified their reputations were ruined after Marciano publicly accused them of stealing his e-mails and plotting to sell pieces of his art collection. [LATimes]
Massimiliano Giornetti, the menswear designer for Ferragamo, will now design the Italian house's womenswear as well. Giornetti is replacing Christina Ortiz, who seems to have been fired after just two years for making clothes that were a little too sex-ay. [WWD]
The Telegraph has been running an unusual number of wholly uncritical Chanel ~~advertisements~~articles lately. To whit: "Why I Love My Chanel — Four Fashionistas Reveal The Moment They Fell In Love With Chanel." Barf. [Telegraph]
Allegra Hicks, who had to shutter her business last fall, is back in the saddle with a new investor. [WWD]
Moises de la Renta, on his new fashion label, MDLR: "My aspiration is to show people almost a beautiful and glorious gloom-that it's OK to be melancholy. I want to speak for the lady in the corner of the club, you know what I mean?" Which club, exactly? "You've ever been to the Roxy in 1985?" No, Moises, but something tells us neither have you, since you were born in 1984. [Blackbook]
Michael Fink, the former vice-president and women's wear director of Saks, has a new position: Dean of the Savannah College of Art and Design's Fashion School. May all of the 1,100 people Saks laid off in January bounce back so well. [WWD]

Lauren Conrad's Hotly-Anticipated Clothing Line. At Last.

Jennifer — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:15:00 EDT

It is with just a twinge of resignation that we give to you....[sigh] images from Lauren Conrad's clothing collection. [FabSugar]
Designer Philip Lim says that he frequently finds inspiration from "[p]rivate moments in the restroom. It's all about that intimacy that allows you to reflect." Uh, we thought the restroom was for tapping your feet three times and cruising for anonymous sodomy but, okay. [The Fashion Informer]
Portfolio fashion blogger/Jezebel obsession Lauren Goldstein Crowe finally got the budget to have a real photo taken of her for Portfolio.com. [Portfolio.com]

Wal-Mart and Ocean Pacific inked a really confusing deal we think means Ocean Pacific has no soul. [WWD, sub req'd]
Tommy Hilfiger's new book, coming out in November, chronicles images that represent "Iconic America." Because he's an icon of pitiful American Ralph Lauren envy. [WWD, sub req'd]
Oh this one is going to be good: Burberry is suing megabrand holder Iconix, saying that their London Fog has usurped Burberry's signature check. Love. It. [WWD, sub req'd]
Fuck Kate Moss: We want Preen for Topshop. Baaaaad. [Vogue UK]
Lulu Guinness is making limited edition rubber duckies to benefit cancer research. Natch! [Vogue UK]
Lord & Taylor's parent company, NRDC Equity Partners, might be doing the money tango with designer Peter Som. If this happens, this would make for a strange and rare situation wherein a retailer would be investing directly in a label. And what makes this even more intriguing? Lord & Taylor doesn't even carry Peter Som. Hmmm. [WSJ]
Tweezers, with lights in them! Whoah. [People]