Jezebel: the black balloon

Mary-Kate Olsen To Emerge From Hole For Fashion

Jennifer — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:30:00 EST

M-K Olsen is supposedly venturing out of her Salinger-esque hiding to attend the Giambattista Valli show today. [Fashion Week Daily]
Too bad, because also in MK news: she is writing a book! With Ashley, about (what else?!) her inimitable style. We assume this means she'll also go on the road promoting it, as opposed to hiding it away to be unearthed at her death with her bottles of pills and thousands of empty Venti Starbucks cups. [Sassybella]
Meanwhile, Giambattista Valli is a fan of Obama. [Fashion Week Daily]
Erin Fetherston: The movie. Starring Zooey Deschanel and Kirsten Dunst. Based on Romeo & Juliet. We're, er, skeptical. [Nylon]
Designer logos made with cocaine. [NY Mag]

Kat Von D (of LA Ink fame) is doing a cosmetics line for Sephora, which will be in stores in May. [Sephora's Beauty & the Blog via BellaSugar]
How did model Gemma Ward prepare for her role in the film The Black Balloon? "I...listened to '90s music (i.e. MC Hammer)." [Chic Report]
"We got here early because this party is usually messy," Julia Restoin-Roitfeld on the Balenciaga afterparty. Ew. [WWD, 1st item]
M.I.A is starring alongside Karen O, Joan Jett, Billy Idol and other in the new ad campaign for Converse. But it's cool because Converse is owned by Nike now. [Chic Report]
What the fuck? Norma Kamali for Wal-Mart?! And it's going to be licensed through Cherokee?! [WWD, sub req'd]
Oh yay: model Coco Rocha to try acting. [WWD, 3rd item]
Pepe Jeans wants to be the brand that denim whores run to instead of the so-called "premium" denim brands. [WWD, sub req'd]
Limited Brands' profits are down by a whopping 11.6% this quarter. That ain't good. [WWD, sub req'd]
The funnel-neck: It's back. Oy. [WWD, sub req'd]
Why don't models brush their hair? I assume because they are like me: Lazy. [BellaSugar]
Oh no: The cold is killing the pashmina goats! [Reuters]

Giorgio Armani Insults Anna Wintour To Her Face

Jennifer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:30:00 EST

Georgio Armani is co-chairing a dinner to celebrate a Vogue-sponsored Costume Institute exhibit called "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy." Which is why he gave a press conference during which he professed to be "indifferent" to Anna Wintour while standing next to her. We assume he'll be too dead to make it to dinner. [NY Mag]
Then again: the shocking new garment industry tell-all Gomorrah says Italian fashion is really just the Mafia so maybe Georgio knows what he's doing. [WWD, sub req'd]
Model Gemma Ward's film debut The Black Balloon takes top prize at he Berlin Festival. [Sassybella]

I grow increasingly obsessed with Victoria Beckham and Marc Jacobs as each new ad starring Posh as the face of MJ's Spring 2008 collection is revealed. Vicks as a naughty dark angel? Love. [Chic Report]
Project Runway bitch slap! Chris Marc says Christian Siriano is going to be designing for K-Mart soon enough. [AdAge]
Eva Herzigova: Doesn't need a swimwear line now that she has a son. "[The line] was my little baby. But since I have my own now, it's really hard to follow... Unless I get a license deal, I don't think I'll do it." See ladies, if your career is as pointless/lucrative as modeling and celebrity guest design, you don't have to feel any guilt about giving it up to have babies! [WWD, 3rd item]
Hayden Panettierre is the new face of Candie's footwear. [Sassybella]
Ooh la la! Former Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane is going to be shooting the haute couture collections for French Vogue. [WWD, 4th item]
15-year old Russian designer Kira Plastinina on who she hopes to see in her designs, "I like Paris, I like Vanessa Hudgens, I like the High School Musical girls, and Rihanna. I love Rihanna." [Chic Report]
Yves Saint Laurent is once again pretending that advertising is political activism. [Vogue UK]
A line of body shapers called Yummie Tummie. [WWD, sub req'd]
The British fashion industry is blaming its second-tier status in the fashion world on the absence of enough factories to produce its wares. Uh...because Jakarta and Dhaka are totally the new fashion capitals. [Reuters] [WWD, sub req'd]

"Next Top Model" Jaslene Gonzalez Smiles With Her Eyes, Books Job

Jennifer — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:00:00 EST

ANTM cycle 8 winner Jaslene Gonzalez: Now the face of Lot29. What? A Top Model winner actually booked a job after wrapping the show? [WWD, sub req'd]
Yes, still more on model Gemma Ward's film debut in The Black Balloon: Her character's name is Jackie. Jackie helps her boyfriend learn to accept his brother's autism. Also, Ward will be starring in another movie coming out this year, a thriller titled The Strangers which co-stars Liv Tyler. [WWD, 1st item]
The new Versace fragrance is supposed to smell lke Donatella and its bottle is supposed to look like a Versace dress. We assume this means it actually smells like cocaine and cigarettes. [BellaSugar]
Video! Marc Jacobs interviews Jennifer Jason Leigh, still has blue hair. [MySpace]

More proof that everything is better in Japan: a machine washable suit will be introduced early next year. [USA Today]
Alyona Akhmadullina, 29, is the biggest up-and-coming designer in Russia. Seeing that fashion is obsessed with all things Russian right now, expect to see her become fetishized and exploited in no time at all! [WWD, sub req'd]
Three women in Birmingham, England were hospitalized after collapsing while waiting for a store to open after Christmas so they could score the big deals. [BBC]
A la Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi, Ferragamo is also having a big ol' par-tay in China this year. [WWD, 3rd item]
The dollar sucks against the pound right now, which means British fashion isn't selling so well stateside. Boo hoo, Stella McCartney. [WWD, sub req'd]
Britain's Accessory Designer of the Year Tom Binns aspires to make women look trashier. [Vogue UK]
Ew: Long pointy finger nails scare us. Do not want. [BellaSugar]
Mazel Tov Karl Lagerfeld: Our favorite Krazy Kraut celebrates his 25th anniversary of designing Chanel in 2008. [Sassybella]
Memo to all those celebrities shilling fragrances: The fragrance industry's sales are slipping. [WSJ]
Fuck coffee: Fashion labels are going fair trade, too. [Times of London]
The late Queen Mum was quite the soothsayer: bitching and moaning over the course of 80 years that fashion was too damn expensive. [Telegraph]

Will Posh Spice Guest-Judge The Project Runway Season Finale? Cliffhanger!

Jennifer — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:30:34 EST

Please, baby Jesus, all we want for Christmas is for the rumors that Victoria Beckham will be the guest judge on the season finale of Project Runway to be true! [Rush & Molloy]
The Dynamite Hosts are a gang of chiseled male models the fashion set has been booking like crazy to saunter around half-naked at their parties. Even Miuccia Prada has hired them. Yay, every baby step towards the day objectification of men reaches parity with objectification of women! Or um... [Vogue UK]
Van Cleef & Arpels is suing Heidi Klum for ripping off their four-leaf clover jewelry designs for the jewelry line she sells on QVC, as if anyone who wears a Van Cleef clover even stands the chance of crossing paths with the wearer of a QVC clover, and also as if the four-leaf clover is some crazily innovative design element to employ. [Sassybella]

Model Gemma Ward's feature film debut in The Black Balloon to premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Apparently she's good. But is she good enough to warrant the 96 other stories we have read about "OMG a model manages to not suck in a movie" prior to this one? Nein. [Sassybella]
"Retail visionary" and Kuwaiti royal Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah guest-blogs on the new New York Times blog "The Moment" about how no luxury brand would take him seriously when he was first starting out because apparently they were under the impression Kuwait was still the kind of place you had to get around on camel but then they realized the United States is the kind of place you have to get around on foreign oil and that oil was not getting cheaper so they needed to sell more merchandise and he seemed to have the money for it. It's a really inspiring story on so many levels. [NYTimes]
Designer Shelley Steffe says her new handbag collection is "evolved from a garment." She better be careful dropping the e-word or her bags will surely soon be banned south of the Mason-Dixon line. [The Fashion Informer]
Accessories designer Jesse Randall: Loves shopping at Target! (Us too!) Accessories designer Jesse Randall: Has a diffusion line coming out at Target next week. (Not us too.) Coincidence? Hmmm. [GlamChic]
Just in case you were tempted, dousing yourself in glitter for the holidays is not a flattering look. [LATimes]

Did Paris Swipe An Ensemble From The Victoria's Secret Show?

Jennifer — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:00:00 EST

Paris Hilton showed up at the Victoria's Secret fashion show earlier this month and demanded to be cast in the show, according to model Miranda Kerr. And then — and here's where it gets really classy — she stole an outfit from the show to wear herself. [Sassybella]
On being asked who designed the dress she wore to a party for actor Ewan MacGregor's new book, Helena Bonham Carter replied, "I can't remember, I can't remember anything." [WWD, 9th item]
Venus Williams is inspired "as an athlete and as a designer" by Madonna. [WSJ]
Model Gemma Ward: "surprisingly impressive" in her acting debut. [Sassybella]

Adidas is partnering with Diesel to do a denim line, because what the world needs now is... that's right! Another denim line. [Vogue UK]
Fresh from their H&M collection, Viktor & Rolf are designing a line of luggage for Samsonite. [IHT]
Pierre Hardy for Gap shoes: Coming stateside soon! [WWD, 4th item]
Model Natalia Vodianova and a bunch of "celebrities" we've never heard of are designing t-shirts for the Buddhist Punk label to benefit Al Gore's The Climate Project. And I guess it's understandable for Al to be tired of winning awards and ready to just party with models for once, but seriously, I am tired of the whole "designing" T-shirts for charity trend. [Vogue UK]
Steve and Barry's is really (really!) a helluva lot more than just the place to buy Sarah Jessica Parker's "Bitten" line. Did you know they bought 3.5 million square feet of retails space in U.S. malls last year? We're not even sure what 3.5 million square feet looks like. [Business Week]
Topshop is going to China! OMG just like this cycle's contestants on America's Next Top Model! We hope to see Heather at the first store opening. [Reuters]