Jezebel: sophie theallet

Eva Longoria Wants You To Buy The Perfume She's Allergic To; Anna Sui For ANTM

Jenna — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST

Eva Longoria's perfume ad is a total Photoshop of Horrors. "I have always been somewhat allergic to all perfumes," admitted the actress. The scent was produced with the Falic Group, the company that recently shuttered Christian Lacroix. Priorities. [WWD]

Phi, the edgy, six-year-old New York-based label, is closing its doors due to the recession. The spring collection shown at fashion week in September will not go into production; the pre-spring collection that just shipped will be Phi's last. Founder Susan Dell is the wife of tech billionaire Michael Dell; it's perhaps a little odd that she didn't want to reinvest to keep the widely acclaimed company afloat. Thirty-five employees learned they were losing their jobs yesterday; the C.E.O. says there will be a warehouse sale in January. [WWD]
P. Diddy even gave Madame Tussaud's a bottle of his "I Am King" cologne with which to douse his new wax figure, for verisimilitude. [Spoiled Pretty]
The four stars of Sex And The City will each get their own cover of Marie Claire, but that's absolutely not because they can't stand to be in one room together. [NYDN]
A New Zealand fashion blogger who was invited to the America's Next Top Model Cycle 14 finale runway show — which took place last week in Auckland — but didn't go posted a shot of the invitation. Turns out Anna Sui is the featured designer. [IsaacLikes]
"She already has a great handbag collection. She has a mirrored Fendi bag. And she'll say things like, 'I'm not going to wear that any more.' She has really good style as well. She knows what she likes and I can't force her to wear anything she doesn't, which is annoying sometimes. But now I rarely go shopping without her. She tells me what she doesn't like or she'll say: 'Mummy, you look nice' or 'that dress is amazing!' She's got it." Kate Moss, on daughter Lila Grace, 7. [Company via Daily Express]
Agyness Deyn maybe made out with a dude at a club during Saturday night's snowstorm. Hot. [P6]
"Giving back" is one way to characterize guest judging Project Runway, Catherine Malandrino. "I can give good advice and be an inspiration for the next generation. I think everyone in life needs direction and models." [HoustonChronicle]
Thakoon Panichgul unveiled his first jewelry collection for the Japanese pearl brand Tasaki. It features lots of big pearls on rods. Prices range from about $6,000 to just under $40,000. [WWD]
CFDA Award winner Sophie Théallet — whose dresses Michelle Obama has worn on more than one occasion — followed a traditional route into the industry, working for well over a decade in Paris and New York for established designers before founding her own label. (It became faddish during the 2000s to proclaim your design vision to the world immediately upon graduation from fashion school, à la Proenza Schouler, or even after dropping out, à la Alex Wang.) Jean-Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaïa were among her employers. "Gaultier taught me to stop at nothing and Alaia gave a taste for rigor," says Théallet, now based in Brooklyn. [Telegraph]
Vivienne Westwood's wallpaper collection features her signature loud prints. [Vogue UK]
A Racked tipster thinks this "Italian Appeal" store has a logo that looks too similar to the American Apparel trademark. We don't quite see it. [Racked]
Karl Lagerfeld designed a doll with a spectacularly ugly dress, and a life-sized matching dress for little girls. They cost $315 and $1,190, respectively. Part of the proceeds will go to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's charity. [WWD]
In ten years of operation, online discounter Bluefly.com has never turned a profit. For the quarter ended September 30, its sales fell 14% on the same period last year, despite overall rising online sales this year. It is receiving a $15 million investment from Rho Ventures, and is reducing its inventory. [WWD]

Sarah Palin Gets Fleeced; Roberto Cavalli Enjoys "Primitive" Africa

Jenna — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:20:00 EST

Laura Ingraham is auctioning Sarah Palin's fleece from her Going Rogue cover. Let's take up a collection and shoot a real Going Vogue. [Facebook]
Givenchy was the winning bidder for Audrey Hepburn's How To Steal A Million LBD. [WWD]

Sir Elton John is selling — completely fabulous, no doubt — designer clothes from his wardrobe for the benefit of his AIDS foundation. Prices start at £10. [Vogue UK]
Michelle Obama wore Calvin Klein collection in Oslo. [WWD]
Antonio Berardi is too cool to collaborate with Lady Gaga. "I was approached to design a clothing range with Lady Gaga but I knocked it back because I wasn't interested in someone whose music is meaningless," says the Italian-born designer. This, from a man who designed heel-less heels? [SN]
"Women have many lives in a day, and I try to do the best I can to accommodate that. If I have a meeting at my son's school, I don't want to look like a total fashion freak. I think, ‘Could I wear this to Trader Joe's?'" Ever sensible, that Maria Cornejo. [WWD]
Isaac Mizrahi is returning as the Narrator in the Guggenheim's holiday production of Peter and the Wolf. [NYP]
Could Taylor Lautner be the latest face of Armani? [InTouch]
Roberto Cavalli, when not lending his name to opulent Dubai nightclubs with black crystal floors, apparently likes to jet off to Africa and take pictures. Now he wants nothing more than to exhibit them, he told Martha Stewart, and the Daily, yesterday. "I love shooting primitive and simple things," explained Cavalli. You know. Primitive. Like Africa. [Vogue UK]
P. Diddy visited the New York Stock Exchange for a party celebrating AOL's re-listing as a separate company from TimeWarner, and was apparently inundated with requests for fashion advice from finance chaps. [NYDN]
A The Sartorialist clothing line and a The Sartorialist television show are just two of the many projects Scott Schuman is discussing presently. [Pedestrian]
Versace's spring shoes are insane. Normally the shoes that actually enter production are watered-down versions of the sky-high runway clodhoppers; these look like they're one and the same. [TheLifeFiles]
Jil Sander's second +J collection for Uniqlo will hit stores January 14. In the meantime, here are a few pictures. [Nitrolicious]
Alexa Chung's MTV show, It's On With Alexa Chung, will end after its season finale on December 17. The network plans to "revamp" the show's format for next January; MTV has already shortened it from one hour to 30 minutes, and experimented with the timeslot. Chung's contract with the company runs through early next year. [Variety]
At worst, Chung can console herself with the knowledge that she has inspired a Mulberry bag of her very own. The Alexa is a twist on the company's popular Bayswater, and starts at £695. [Elle UK]
Yesterday, we linked to a Daily Mail story that stated Mulberry's sales had jumped 16% in the six months to September 30. Well, we ought to have known better than to trust that rag for financial news: although profits at the company rose 16%, sales rose a whopping 39%. [Vogue UK]
Mango opened its first store in Iraq. [FWD]
"I get my best ideas when I'm in the bath in the morning or when I'm driving," says accessories designer Lulu Guinness. [WWD]
Lily Cole, on modeling versus acting: "I look at myself differently. I think in magazines I don't have very much control. If a picture of me is great, then great. If it's not so good, it's not my fault. I have less control in that situation. That is one of the things that I like about acting: I do have a lot more control over what I'm doing and more responsibility." [Interview]
As part of her Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund award, Sophie Théallet will be mentored by none other than Oscar de la Renta. [WWD]

Michelle's Jewelry, Zac's Lower-Priced Line, & Claudia's Cashmere

Jenna — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST

Michelle Trachtenberg is designing a line of jewelry for Coach's Poppy brand. Expect "colorful crystals." [WWD]
Zac Posen is doing a lower-priced line, Z Spoke, which will be available exclusively through Saks Fifth Avenue come spring. It starts at $78:

And it's a marked departure from his evening wear-heavy main line. "It's not Zac-for-less, it's not the little sister collection at all," says the designer. "The dresses — that's something I can do with my eyes closed. This is about a new identity." Hopefully that new identity includes solvency, given Posen, subject to continued rumors about his company's financial status, was forced to lay off staff recently. [WWD]
Why is Cintra Wilson reviewing the Fifth Avenue Armani store now? That opened months ago. And it was extensively covered and reviewed in the Times back then. [NYTimes]
Sophie Theallet's friend and longtime supporter Rupert Everett is happy she won the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Award. Theallet is going to collaborate again with Manolo Blahnik on her runway show footwear for next February, and this time, some styles will be available in stores. [WWD]
Some "legendary" male models we've never heard of (OK, male models we have heard of comprise exactly Tyson Beckford and that guy who was in Calvin Klein ads before he played Samantha's boyfriend on Sex And The City) are in this month's VMAN. [Independent]
Claudia Schiffer has been thinking more about that clothing line she mooted a week or so back. "I have no definite first product in mind, but I would love to do cashmere. It's something I wear all the time myself, but I'd love to do something a bit more price-friendly. Plus a lot of cashmere lines are very classic and timeless, while I'd want to do it a bit more fashion. Or I could imagine doing handbags." You know. Cashmere. Or handbags. [WWD]
If you need a fresh reason to hate the fashion industry this morning, how about an over-privileged under-informed 17-year-old heaping scorn on Luella's closure, and bragging about how she has, like, a ton of Lacroix — in the garage? Jane Aldridge probably kisses her Vogue portrait before going to bed each night. Right after inclining her head to say her prayers to Anna. [Fashionista]
Vivienne Westwood says of the same closure, "It's very sad, but English fashion will survive, and be stronger." [Style.com]
A four-day auction of the last contents of Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent's home has begun in Paris. Everything from the chandeliers to the pots and pans is for sale, some 1,185 objects in all. [Breitbart]
Lanvin has attracted a minority investor. An unnamed entity, believed to be a European family, has bought a 12.5% stake in the business, for an estimated tens of millions of Euros. Last year, sales at Lanvin rose 29%. [WWD]
Apparently it takes £230 worth of creams to look like Jane Birkin, along with Clarins and Dr. Hauschka makeup. And we always thought her so low maintenance and carefree. [Daily Mail]
Birkin's daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg may be the face of the new Balenciaga perfume, but that won't stop Olivier Zahm from photographing the bottle between the breasts of a topless mannequin. Stay classy, Olivier! [FWD]
John Bartlett, the recently fired men's wear designer for Liz Claiborne, has announced a collaboration with Alex Carleton of Rogues Gallery. RG/JB will launch in December at John Bartlett's Greenwich Village store, and will include a handcrafted leather log carrier and bankers' envelopes. Sounds practical. [WWD]
Porsche is bringing back Yoko Ono's favorite sunglasses. [Luxist]
A Gap store in Vancouver turned itself upside down to sell shoppers on a new kind of reward program called, for some reason, Sprize. They hung all the mannequins from the ceiling and turned the signage upside-down, but what you really need to know is this: Sprize reimburses you the cost difference automatically if merchandise you buy full-price later goes on sale. It's like everything you ever buy will be on sale. And it's not in the U.S. yet why??? [BrandFreak]
Rosita and Tai Missoni seem like an adorable old couple. [Scotsman]
Expect Burberry handbags, shoes and belts, as well as children's wear, in the near future. [Reuters]
In coordination with something called cryptically "more trees," Louis Vuitton is paying 10 million yen (about $112,000) to reforest a 104-hectare area of land in Japan, to be known as the Louis Vuitton Forest. (Insert your own where-handbags-grow-on-trees joke.) [Japan Tourism]

Sophie Théallet Wins 200K; Lindsay Not Doing Jewelry Line

Jenna — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST

Designer Sophie Théallet has won the $200,000 Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Award. "Thank you for making my American dreams come true," said she. [Style.com]
Skating at an outdoor rink in London, Lily Cole knocked over a small child. [Daily Mail]

Adriana Lima and Marko Jaric have announced the birth of their baby daughter, Valentina. With Heidi Klum's and Karolina Kurkova's babies, that makes three Victoria's Secret newborns, so far. (Gisele Bundchen is due in December — like Jourdan Dunn, who isn't a Victoria's Secret girl but is a damn awesome model.) So, in about 15 years, maybe we should expect an invasion of new models with perfect pedigrees. [People]
Here are the first pictures of Comme des Garçons' Beatles collaboration line. We are still not sure why this exists. [Racked]
Says Rihanna: "In the past few months I've done a lot of research in the fashion world because I wanted to work with a bunch of designers that are kinda underground, people who aren't the obvious...My style is very edgy, very daring. I like to take risks — I hate to do the obvious." [Grazia]
Pascal Mouawad, who yesterday Lindsay Lohan claimed to be working with on a jewelry line, is today unequivocal: "This is not happening." Sorry, LiLo. [WWD]
Kate Moss's fourth fragrance, Vintage, is not, we repeat not, coming to the United States. [People]
Chanel Iman says her one-day "internship" at Teen Vogue "wasn't really planned. I was going in for my fitting for the Teen Vogue cover. I just started helping around the office, organizing the closet. It led from one hour to the next, then it was my fitting and that stopped and I started interning again. I'm a girl that loves to keep busy no matter what it is, being paid or not." Real interns tend to do more than just fill the downtime between fittings — and they also tend to prefer getting paid to not. [NYDN]
Gemma Ward, in an e-mail to an Australian newspaper, clarified that she has not quit modeling, and that she expects to return to modeling and acting next year. Her mother, meanwhile, says the Aussie supermodel is considering studying drama at Yale. [SB]
Marc Jacobs, on the differences between Paris and New York: "I'm most at home in New York. I have so many friends and such a large creative community that I feel I'm a part of here. So my work in New York is very influenced by my personal relationships and what I'm doing, and what the people on my team are doing, while Paris is a bit of a bubble, a fantasy. It's almost like I'm pretending to be a designer in Paris. I just think, ‘What would a French designer do?'" [WWD]
Vivienne Westwood held her spring Anglomania show in a carpark outside a Selfridges in London. [Telegraph]
Didn't spikes and studs on footwear reach saturation point sometime last winter? Our tolerance is certainly pricked. [The Cut]
Adidas has announced that in conjunction with Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, it will manufacture shoes for the developing world in Bangladesh. The target price for the final product, which Adidas is making without profit? €1, or about $1.50 at current exchange rates. [Telegraph]
In our mixed-up, topsy-turvy modern world, why not buy spring clothes in November? Phoebe Philo's debut collection for Céline is already on sale, in a customized space at Dover Street Market. [Independent]
Donna Karan would not approve. She thinks shopping for clothes during the season they are intended to be worn makes a certain kind of sense, because otherwise those clothes go on sale during the season they are intended to be worn, which from her perspective is much worse. "We're not talking to the consumer, we're talking to ourselves," says the designer. "When it's cold out, let's warm the customer. When it's hot out, let's be able to the cool the customer. This isn't nuclear science. Don't deliver fall clothes until back-to-school — do you remember that old logo, back-to-school? — [in] September, when the leaves start to change. Now the leaves are changing, but our seasons are changing because we're already shipping resort." [WWD]
Prada's book party was probably the most fashionable book party, ever. [People]
Miuccia Prada: "When people think of fashion, they prefer to see the crazy side, the clichéd side, and actually I think that is wrong. Fashion is an important part of a woman's life. It's a question of aesthetics and that is in no way stupid or superficial." Also: those black nylon bags Prada became famous for in the 90s cost more than comparable leather ones because it took her three years to "learn how to work with" nylon, OK? [Independent]
Stella McCartney says she has felt uncomfortable with the notion of working in fashion, too. "I was a bit embarrassed by the word ‘fashion,'" she said at a summit on luxury hosted by Women's Wear Daily; McCartney calls herself "an infiltrator" of the industry. Working without animal products has caused its own set of problems: when Tom Ford, then at Gucci, initially approached McCartney about her becoming part of the company, he said her working without fur would be no problem, but when she replied that she also works without leather, "his face just went white and his jaw dropped to the ground." And then there's the expense: "t costs us up to 70 percent more to make a pair of shoes than any other brand - we take that on the chin; we don't mark it up for the customer. Coming into the States, we have nearly a 30 percent import duty for nonleather goods, which I think of as kind of medieval." Fifty million animals are killed for leather production every year. [WWD]
Nintendo DS has a game called Style Savvy, in which you play a store manager helping customers find outfits that suit their style and their budgets. (Nintendo: now preparing children for retail drudgery!) Charlotte Ronson's fall 2009 collection is included as an optional download. [SB]
Renaud Dutreil, the chairman of LVMH's U.S. arm, bicycles to work every day. [WWD]
The Gap has come under fire from a Christian group that accuses it of failing to use the word "Christmas" in its holiday advertising and mailings. The Los Angeles Times points out the many layers of hypocrisy present in this argument — and the fact that the Gap, in addition to selling Christmas-themed merchandise, does mention Christmas in its holiday TV spot. [LATimes]
So Oakley has some top-secret cadre of sunglass engineers who are encouraged to come up with the most technologically advanced sunglasses you have never imagined, with cost no object. This is why $4,000 carbon-fiber sunglasses exist. (Unfortunately, they are still ugly.) [BW]
Evidently Vanity Fair needs some pageviews. So they went to the drawing board and came back with...sexy pictures of supermodels. That'll work. [VF]
Burberry reported a 24% decline in its profits for the six months to September 30, compared with the same period last year. This was better than expected. [WSJ]
Meanwhile, Saks enjoyed a profit during the third quarter. Surprise profits must be the best kind of profits. [TS]
The "Kardashian KCollection," which the sisters K put together for Virgins, Saints and Angels, is reportedly "inspired by their Armenian heritage." Their forebears seem to have liked spikes. A lot. [Racked]

Charlotte To Star In New Perfume Ad; Rihanna Nabs Italian Vogue?

TatianaTheAnonymousModel — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:30:00 EDT

Nicolas Ghesquière picked the intolerably cool Charlotte Gainsbourg to advertise Balenciaga's perfume. Ghesquière calls his friend "one of the most inspiring girls in the world." Gainsbourg said, "I was secretly hoping to be the face of Nicolas' first perfume." [WWD]

Sources are saying Rihanna has an editorial, shot by Steven Klein, in Italian Vogue's September issue. [Fashionologie]
Julia Restoin-Roitfelt, French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld's daughter, is the face of a new perfume by Jil Sander. [NowSmellThis]
Hold onto your quirky hats, everybody! There's going to be a new hour-long television drama set in the New York fashion world. Because it's going to star a lady, it'll be just like the new Sex And The City! Isn't that exciting? [Variety]
The ten finalists in this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund are: Flora Gill and Alexa Adams of Ohne Titel; Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin; Patrik Ervell, Sophie Theallet, Waris Ahluwalia of House of Waris, Wayne Lee of Wayne, George Esquivel of Esquivel Shoes, Gary Graham, Monique Péan, and Simon Spurr of Spurr. Congratulations to them all! The winners of the six-year-old cash and mentorship award will be announced on November 16; past honorees include Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang, and Doo-Ri Chung. [WWD]
Doo-Ri Chung is just one of many designers whose business has been hurt by the economic downturn. Chung is owed more than $60,000 by the owners of Jake, a small, independent Chicago boutique. Specialty retailers have been among the hardest-hit in the whole retail sector, but the two men behind Jake, Jim Wetzel and Lance Lawson, actually managed to reorganize their company when it went bankrupt, and continue on as employees of a new entity, the Jake Retail Group. Except that Jake Retail Group did not assume liability for any of the store's debts — meaning that Chung, plus other young designers like Brian Réyes, Tina Lutz and Marsha Patmos of Lutz & Patmos, and Emma Fletcher of Lyell, are out tens of thousands of dollars each for clothes they made and shipped, and Jake sold, but which haven't been paid for. [NYTimes]
Lyle Lodwick, brother of fameballer Jakob, is a male model. He says that male models take their jobs less seriously than women models do — which is generally true — but also that women models are, naturally, bitchier. "I've heard horror stories of girls putting needles in a girl's shoes so when she's on the runway she'll fall over." Lodwick: Whichever sweet model lady told you that is pulling your leg. [TDB]
Ossie Clark, the iconic British label that was briefly revived by private investors, is closing again. [WWD]
The occasion of Berlin designer Patrick Mohr's recent homelessness-themed collection, where he had homeless people walk his runway caked in mud, is used to peg a list of other politically edgy collections of varying levels of success — like John Galliano's own Spring 2000 homelessness-themed couture work, Rei Kawakubo's 1995 Comme des Garçons collection that looked like concentration camp victim uniforms, and Karl Lagerfeld's 1994 appropriation of verses from the Koran. Somehow, the list ends with nary a mention of Miguel Adrover's 2001 MeetEast collection, which was so widely panned it drove the talented designer out of business. [TDB]
Alber Elbaz: ""The people I chose to run my new store in London are nice. I cannot work with bitches, I can't, I can't. Maybe I am too sensitive, I get blocked. There are some people who don't give a damn. With me, I find that if there is no energy flowing or no connection, I can't think. Talent is amazing - I love it, appreciate it. I respect talent a lot. But if you ask me, ‘Talent and bitch, or less talent and good?' I'll go with less talent." [MyFashionLife]
New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo caught the firm behind the "Lifestyle Lift" cosmetic surgery procedure posting fake customer reviews and testimonials on the Internet — and won a $300,000 settlement for the astroturfing. [Clickz]
U.K. lingerie maker Intimas is in bankruptcy administration. Around 200 jobs are at risk. [ToL]
Liz Claiborne, which has been struggling in the recession, renewed its C.E.O. William McComb's contract, but didn't give him a raise — just a bigger bonus. [WSJ]
That story about how Crocs are going bust is getting written again, this time kind of artlessly. [WaPo]
In the second quarter, net income at Joe's Jeans fell 17.8%, on a same-store sales decline of 4.3% [WWD]
Chemists have traditionally been unable to produce fabrics that are reliably water-repellent when doused with hot, instead of cold, water. Which is why the development of a hydrophobic fabric coating that can repel hot water is potentially exciting news. Scientists think it could have applications in protective clothing, for instance for people who are at risk of scalding burns. [NS]

You Know, That Type

Sadie — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:30:00 EDT

Rupert Everett on meeting designer Sophie Theallet: '"Sophie had this jet black hair, white skin, and quivering cleavage"...he was "reminded of the French resistance," the type to "hide tons of Jews under their bed."' [The Daily Beast]

WWD Really Wants To Know Michelle Obama's Dress Size

TatianaTheAnonymousModel — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:30:00 EDT

Michelle Obama wore French-born Brooklyn-based designer Sophie Theallet to unveil a bust of Sojourner Truth at Emancipation Hall yesterday. Naturally, journalistically, WWD asked the designer to specify the First Lady's measurements. Theallet declined. [WWD]

Michael Kors, on the now-solved problem of women becoming socially invisible as they age: "I used to hear women saying, ‘Oh, I hate my arms, I hate my thighs' when they got older, but now they don't. They're in the gym or doing yoga, or getting what they don't like fixed. Sigourney Weaver's 60, Michelle Pfeiffer's 50. Michelle Obama is showing older women that you can be serious without looking stiff, and showing younger women that you don't have to dress like a hoochy mama to be modern. It's all different. Everyone is refusing to age." [Times of London]
Christopher Kane is tackling a wider range of items than ever in his next season's Topshop range. Expect bags, knitwear, and shoes, in addition to the clothes. [Grazia]
Fellow Brit Stella McCartney made the Time 100, the only fashion designer represented. Gwyneth Paltrow, her BFF, did the profile. [WWD]
Vera Wang bedazzled a BlackBerry for a breast cancer charity raffle. Elizabeth Hurley will do the honors. [WWD]
Now this is a match made in heaven: showmen fashion designers Viktor & Rolf are turning their talents to opera. For a German production of Der Freischütz, the duo made costumes with over a million crystals. That, Vera, is how you do bling. [Elle UK]
The Payless shoes on Christian Siriano's runway back in February were kind of hideous; the ones likely to make it into stores this August are kind of boring. Let's hope he can even out his aesthetic at some point during his multi-year contract. [Racked]
Alexa Chung, the British ex-model, moved to New York to further her television career — and was hotly rumored to be exploring options with MTV. That opportunity seems to have come to fruition: Chung will host a daily show on the network, something like TRL, only with Twitter. [Yahoo! News]
The September Issue Director R.J. Cutler, on how his subject, Anna Wintour, communicates: "It's mostly in silences, gestures, and the occasional use of language. It's more than enough and she always gets her way. When she's not getting her way, she's happy to speak at greater length. In her work environment, that's how she communicates with everyone. Some people see the film and say, she seems so closed. She's a closed gal. That's who she is. But the times that she does open up in her life are the times that you see her open in the film — when she's with Bee, when she's talking about her dad, talking about her siblings. It's family." [MakingOf]
The SoHo Hogan store is closing, and looking for a space uptown. [Racked]
Australian Fashion Week, like fashion weeks everywhere, was smaller this season than before the recession. There were 15% fewer shows, and two catwalks inside the venue, compared to last August's three. Fewer buyers attended, and, barring any case of Aussie economic exceptionalism, the orders they place will prove smaller. Organizers say they expect things will be much better next season, because organizers have to say things like that. At least in public. [Reuters]
As for the designers who did bother showing, half of them seemed to be phoning in 80s nostalgia and Balmain shoulderpads, and one, Ant!podium, well, they really, really like Beth Ditto. So they found a proudly non-model-sized tattooed artist named Tokio Pink to walk in their show. Such is their commitment to diversity. [News.com.au]
Max Azria, on the other hand, isn't predicting any great improvement in business conditions during the rest of this year. [WWD]
Jones Apparel Group, owner of the brands Anne Klein, Nine West, and Jones New York, handily beat analysts' expectations in their quarterly profit announcement. Although revenue still fell 9%, Jones shares rose 10% in response to the good news. [Reuters]
Prada's profits fell 22% in 2008. [WWD]
The opening of Forever 21's first store in Japan was a bit of a madhouse, apparently. It isn't hard to imagine why. [WWD]

Naomi Campbell Is Late To Feed The Needy

Sadie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:30:00 EDT

Naomi Campbell's started her latest round of amends, this time a stint in a soup kitchen for assaulting a cop. Apparently she was ten minutes late. [The Mirror]
No one will either confirm or deny that Ellen is a new Cover Girl. [AdAge]
Nastia Liukin thrown in with the sharks. "Ms. Liukin was excited—giddy, almost—but perhaps also a tad intimidated. Dressed in a marbled, off-white bubble dress, Ms. Liukin had attended her first Fashion Week show, Peter Som’s spring 2009 collection, just that morning." [Observer]

The "Ocampo" is the hot item in Sudanese fashion right now, There's been such a run on the tob, a traditional sari-like garment, that it's become impossible to find. "The real lure is the brand name—after Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor who has charged Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir with war crimes." [Deep Glamour]
Alice Dellal is in the midst of a coke scandal. But more to the point, she's rocking punk chic! [Elle]
As previously noted, Ed Norton's gonna be the face — wrist? — of Breil for the next two years. Here are the ads! [Oh No They Didn't]
The charmed life: Carlos de Souza's It boy career. [Observer]
Leah Buechley breaks the glass ceilng of the high-tech materials world. "In the several years since she first sewed a circuit board to a T-shirt, the 31-year-old University of Colorado computer-science researcher has done a lot to bring gender equality to the world of do-it-yourself." [Forbes]
Wondering what the hell inspired the trippy Rodarte show? "Skeletons, Donnie Darko, and Space Opera." [Elle]
This woman knows how to make an exit: Romeo Gigli's designer quits just in time for the Milan shows. [Reuters]
The much-anticipated Louis Vuitton-Comme des Garcons bag, sported by sullen Japanese teens. [The Life Files]
Victoria Beckham: close, but no cigar? "Beckham's dresses appear both curiously wearable and really rather fetching. Primly foxy, kitted out with all manner of tailoring trompe-l'oeil, they will be available in sizes 6-14. Victoria apparently had in mind Nigella Lawson and Dame Helen Mirren by way of muses. The adjectives being bandied between air kisses were "beautiful", "classy" and "desirable". Be that as it may, the consensus regarding Brand Beckham remains a hearty "Thanks, but no thanks"." [Telegraph]
Looks like chasing Harry Winston's worthwhile; the company's way, way up. [WSJ]
Faux-fur Converse chucks. 'Nuff said. [The Life Files]
Obviously a terrible idea: "With no catwalk in sight, nine sharply dressed models climbed up a ladder and plunged into a large tank of water in Australia's first public underwater fashion shoot, delighting tourists and passers-by in Sydney's picturesque Circular Quay." [Reuters]
Dita Von Teese for Wonderbra: "I took all the best bits of the most beautiful vintage lingerie I have collected over the years to make this...But I made sure it was all really comfortable too, which vintage lingerie can't really claim to be." [Telegraph]