Jezebel: the fashionista diaries

Bridget Helene—she of The Fashionista...

Slut Machine — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:45:00 EST

Bridget Helene—she of The Fashionista Diaries fame and one time assistant at Mandie Erickson's Seventh House PR—might just be the most successful reality TV personality in her chosen field. Fashionista is reporting that Helene was recently temping full-time in Vogue's fashion department, after a "chance meeting at Conde Nast with Anna Wintour." (WTF?) She couldn't stay on though, since Conde needs to find spots for the recently unemployed House and Garden staffers, but she might have a chance at being placed at one of the company's other fashion titles. [Fashionista]

Mandie Erickson In 'Page Six Magazine': The Female Dog Gets Her Day

Tracie — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:00:00 EST

Imagine our absolute delight when we saw that this week's Page Six Magazine had a big, juicy profile on our favorite evil "mentor" Mandie Erickson from The Fashionista Diaries. Oh, and it's a good one, too! The headline asks, "Is This the Most Hated Woman in New York?" Well, judging by the piece, writer Maureen Callahan sure as shit doesn't like her. She calls out Mandie for lying about her age (she says she's 29, but really she's 32), how bullshit it is that she criticizes her employees' personal style until they cry ("[Mandie] wears no makeup and an array of unremarkable black dresses"), and brings up Mandie's mysteriously-shriveled left hand "which seems to have suffered some kind of permanent injury, but when asked about it she replies, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'"

But her gimpy hand isn't her only handicap. Mandie — once a victim of grade school bullying, who even had a pair of her Guess? jeans flushed down the toilet — "draws no through line between being bullied as a child and the almost reflexive tendency she has to belittle others—what she calls 'constructive criticism.'" Which, actually, we love because it makes it so much more fun and guiltless to hate her. Ooh, and Jezebel got a shout out in the piece, too!

Her tendency to grimace, sneer and eye-roll led to many unappealing facial expressions freee-ramed on Web sites like Jezebel, whose editors dubbed her "C—t Face."

Seriously, it was our pleasure to take those screen grabs. And Christ, if Mandie Erickson isn't a cartoonishly evil. So you know what we had to do. Below are quotes straight from the horse's mouth.

But our favorite quote of the whole damn thing came from Mandie's Kabbalah teacher Ruth Rosenberg, who didn't watch the show. "I don't think Mandie is that [way]. And if she is, she shouldn't be."

Mandie Erickson Designs Clothes But Doesn't Want Us To Know About It

Tracie — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:00:00 EST

Remember Mandie Erickson, the PR mentor/reality show villain/cunt face from The Fashionista Diaries? Well, apparently her talents are not limited to being horrible at interpersonal communication while working in public relations and making others feel bad about themselves as a way to mask her own insecurity. She also designs clothes! We're probably like the only people in the world obsessed with her, so we were so pissed at ourselves for not knowing about this earlier. Howevs, keeping her clothing line a secret was all part of her master plan. In an interview with Grandlife, she said:

Only a few people know about it. I'm really embarrassed when I'm with someone wearing a dress, and everyone knows where it's from. All of a sudden with fashion, you can go to H&M, and fashion savvy people hone in on the same pieces.

Wow, people must be beating down her door to hire her as a publicist with that unique "don't get the word out there" strategy she has. After the jump, photos of her line.

Honestly, while these pieces aren't genius or particularly inspiring, they aren't bad at all. The line, called Sweet Robin, ranges from $200 - $400 an item and is available at Scoop, Barney's and shopbop, where they also sell, gasp!, Juicy Couture. We guess she's friends with Chloë Sevigny, because there are some pieces named after her, and according to Mandie's designer bio on shopbob, she designed the clothes with her friends in mind:

As owner of Seventh House PR, Mandie Erickson requires a wardrobe that's both versatile and chic. She began Sweet Robin with the desire to dress herself and her friends in clothing that stands up to the latest high-end trends but doesn't break the bank.

The best though is this comment she made in her Grandlife interview, that really encapsulates everything we love to hate about her, backhanded compliment and all:

Everyone thinks my friends are perfect. But every girl has something she doesn't like about her body.

Hmm...we wonder if she's going to sell right-hand gloves only next.

A LITTLE BIRD CALLED "ROBIN" [Grandlife]

Today's New York Observer runs an interview...

Tracie — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:45:00 EDT

Today's New York Observer runs an interview with our favorite reality TV underminer, Bridget Helene, the Seventh House PR assistant from The Fashionista Diaries. Bridget discusses her career goals (she wants to work at Vogue), public urination, and even mentions Cunt Face! ("Mandie Erickson, she, like, loves me.") Bridget also expresses how much she enjoyed her stint as a reality star, saying, "I thought it was much more fun than having a real job. It was like being babied, it was like being pampered all the time. It was like, 'I want an iced coffee,' and one appears." [NY Observer]

'The Fashionista Diaries': Mandie Erickson, We Miss You Already

Tracie — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:00:00 EDT

Last night was the finale of The Fashionista Diaries. Of the six kids, only two — Rachel and Janjay — were offered permanent positions at their jobs. But we were happiest for Laurie, the Seventh House assistant who was told to stop eating by Social Life magazine editor Devora Rose, and to stop wearing Gucci mules by Mandie "Cunt Face" Erickson. Why? Because she learned to just laugh off Mandie's cuntiness. It appeared that CF was prepared to offer both Bridget and Laurie jobs at Seventh House, but both girls didn't want to work with her. LOL! Anyway, to be completely honest, we are going to miss watching CF each week. Now we're going to have to stalk her in real life. JK!

'The Fashionista Diaries': Bridget Wets Her Pants

Tracie — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:30:00 EDT

Even though Mandie Erickson hasn't had too much camera time over the past two episodes of The Fashionista Diaries (CF, come back to us!), she's still managed to keep up a spirit of cuntiness through the inane tasks she assigns to Seventh House assistants Bridget and Laurie. It's a perfectly acceptable chore to have to stuff and seal envelopes, but they wouldn't let the girls use wet sponges or paper towels, and instead made them lick each one. After a while, the girls got goofy on the glue and Laurie made some funny faces that made Bridget literally pee her pants (and the floor). And right by the samples, no less! Granted, if Laurie made that terrifying face at us, we'd probs excrete a lot more than just pee.

'The Fashionista Diaries': Whites Learn That Blacks Get Darker When Exposed To Sunlight

Tracie — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:30:00 EDT

On last night's episode of The Fashionista Diaries, the kids spent the weekend in the Hamptons, and we got to see more of Connecticut-native Tina's cultural experience with African Americans. She didn't know that black people could get darker in the sun, and apparently didn't know that they'd be interested in non-black people, sexually. We can't wait for next week, when we get to see Mandie in action again. It was a little dull without her around. Oh, and if you'd like to see a picture of her clutching a baby, click here (scroll down).

'The Fashionista Diaries': Mandie Erickson Is Still Acting All Cunty

Tracie — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sometimes we feel bad that we continually call Seventh House PR "mentor" Mandie Erickson a "Cunt Face" — until we watch the show another week and she continues to behave like one. Seriously, the bitch does not let up! Unfortch, there was no blow up from Laurie over the Gucci shoe incident from last week. We don't know what happened with that. But CF moved on from criticizing the girls' shoes to the criticizing the girls' dresses. Apparently, she doesn't like prints! We've never seen her in anything but black dresses. Unflattering black dresses. Tim Gunn would not approve of her hemlines.

Mandie "Cunt Face" Erickson: To Know Her Is To Loathe Her

Tracie — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:00:00 EDT

Ever since we began our coverage of The Fashionista Diaries and our obsession with Seventh House's Mandie "Cunt Face" Erickson, we've gotten quite a few emails and tips from readers who know her personally and really fucking hate her guts. Like a lot. One reader, who referred to CF as "evil and disgusting," told us that the term "Mandie Erickson" is part of the vernacular of PR types in NYC, as in: "Oh my God, she was like, Mandie Erickson bad." Someone else mentioned that CF "stares through" people if she doesn't need them for something. Another reader gave us some of the juiciest goss on her yet!

We have no idea how true the following info is, but the person who tipped us off on this insisted upon its accuracy. Apparently there's may be something wrong with one of CF's hands? Our tipster said, "She's really, really great at hiding it. So good, in fact, that a lot of people have never even noticed it. She always has the hand covered with her coat or has it in her lap, or is always holding something." Huh, like Bob Dole.

But here's what we love the most: You know how CF was all uppity about people being from outer boroughs? Bitch ain't even from Manhattan originally! She's from Michigan!

'The Fashionista Diaries': Nicole Leaves, Mandie Smirks

Tracie — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

We used to feel for The Fashionista Diaries Nicole for having to deal with her boss Mandie "Cunt Face" Erickson's mockery of her clothing and hometown, but this week she really pissed us off for actually expecting to find people working in PR who are "real" and not "fake." More importantly, we're pissed that she made Bridget and CF seem logical. However, we do have to commend Nicole for stepping up her game in bitch sophistication: She blindsided CF at her evaluation by resigning before she could be fired. Sigh. We're going to miss this storyline a whole lot, but we have the whole Jane magazine drama ahead. Yay!

Mandie "Cunt Face" Erickson Didn't Always Talk Like That

Tracie — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:00:00 EDT

How psyched are you for tonight's episode of Fashionista Diaries? The New York Times ran Ginia Bellafante's review of the show today that included this gem

When writing about fashion for this newspaper some years ago, I had occasional dealings with [Mandie] Erickson. Though always efficient and pleasant, she stood out in my memory because she once speculated that the impact of a designer's show would be "devastational."

Ginia takes a shot at Cunt Face's intelligence/education:

I couldn't watch "The Fashionista Diaries" without envisioning Ms. Erickson in a different kind of reality show, one, say, in which she had to compete with a dozen graduates from Swarthmore and Yale for an internship at Random House or Bear Stearns.

And while we totally get where she's coming from, we actually have the inside scoop on CF's educational background and fashion accent (faccent?) from someone who knew her back in the day...

From a very reliable source:

[Mandie] went to Rudolph Steiner High School, which is a tiny school (like 10 kids per grade) on the Upper East Side for gifted and artsy (and rich) kids. I don't remember her having that awful "melk" accent/Patty-and-Selma voice combo though. That must have been cultivated over many years.

We're going to be discussing tonight's episode here tomorrow, natch.

Can a Girl From Queens Catch the Glamour Bug? [The New York Times]

'The Fashionista Diaries': No Friend To Queens

Tracie — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:19:00 EDT

Okay, so Fashionista Diaries is officially awesome. Remember Nicole, the Seventh House assistant who went AWOL last week? She's back and has revealed that working in PR is causing stress-induced vomiting. Yeah, Mandie "Cunt Face" Erickson sort of makes us sick to our stomachs, too! Oh, and in last night's episode we were also treated to Emma Snowdon-Jones, the, ahem, maturing socialite who still makes the rounds on the younger girl circuit. We didn't know much about her before other than the time she asked Radar reporter Sarah Horne "whether she swallowed." (We're not sure if that's in reference to bulimia or blow jobs.) Anyway, Emma kept calling Bridget a monkey, but to be fair, the girl is Monchichi-esque. Click on the player above to watch, and after the jump, check out Kristian Laliberte and other stuff we noticed lurking in the background on last night's episode.

Here's PR socialite Kristian Lalilberte trying to gossip. Apparently he's friends with Seventh House assistant, Bridget the Monchichi. We commend him for his pinky finger control while holding the glass. We knew it must've been tough for him.

So they were at something called The White Party Benefit for Suicide Prevention, which by the looks of it, would actually make us want to kill ourselves if we'd been there. But hey, it turns out we knew an attendee! There's Neel Shah, former Gawker intern, current Assistant Editor at Radar, who was once in the running to be that boy blogger at Glamour. He was actually there for work. (On a side note, some of us are putting together a Friends With Benefits Benefit and Neel is invited.)

You would've missed it if you blinked, but here are NYC band the Virgins doing sound check at the New York Observer party that Cunt Face handled PR for. That's Donald Cumming (best name!) on the left and Wade Somethingorother on the right. They're also totally invited to the Friends With Benefits Benefit.

Okay, we know that she gets enough crap from Bridget and Cunt Face, but we can't help pointing out the glamour shot in Nicole's home in which she's wearing a white feather boa.

Earlier: The Fashionista Diaries: Stylish, Shallow & Full of Skinny Bitches
'The Fashionista Diaries': More To Hate!
Related:
A Privileged Life: Celebrating WASP Style [Gawker]

'The Fashionista Diaries': More To Hate!

Tracie — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:00:00 EDT

You guys wanted it, so here it is—a Stephanie Trong clip-reel from Wednesday night's episode of The Fashionista Diaries. Whereas Seven House PR mentor Mandie "Cunt Face" Erickson deals with the assistants by alternating between verbal mockery and ostracism, Stephanie Trong, the former executive editor of Jane, utilizes the far more subtle tactics of bitchy verbal intonation, body language, and facial expressions. Enjoy/cringe!

Earlier: newVideoPlayer("fashionista_gawker.flv", 475, 376);

'Every summer, thousands of hopefuls apply for assistant positions. The chances of landing them are slim. And finding the perfect fit? Even slimmer.'

That's the voice-over for the intro of The Fashionista Diaries, the new reality show from the creators of The Hills that debuted last night on SoapNet. The show revolves around six assistants trying to make it in the fashion industry and assigned to three different companies: Flirt Cosmetics, Seven House PR, and Jane magazine (R.I.P.). The girls at Flirt are capable and boring. The girl assigned to Jane is the most likable. The second Jane assistant is Andrew, who says he got into fashion to meet girls. Except, he has sculpted eyebrows. (You do the math). The best part of the show, however, is the interplay between Nicole (the fish-out-of-water, real-life Ugly Betty from Queens) and Bridget (the pretty, thin, privileged socialite), both of whom work at Seven House PR for Mandie Erickson, a woman who really can only be described in two words: Cunt Face. See for yourselves, above.

Style Ditto: Shove Over Lily Allen, Look Who's Coming To 'New Look'!

Jennifer — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:28:32 EDT

"If I could just do one thing for 24 hours it would be [have sex] . . . or sew. Or have sex while sewing. Or sew an outfit to have sex in." So says singer Beth Ditto, which is why the plus-sized Ditto is now collaborating with New Look to become the most unlikely (and kinda awesome!) celebrity clothing endorser yet. [The Sun]
Charlotte Ronson, whose name sounds familiar because she's Lindsay Lohan enabler Samantha Ronson's twin sister, is once again slated for a role in the forthcoming Soapnet reality show The Fashionista Diaries, which will chronicle the ins and outs of the week leading up to New York Fashion Week. If there's a God, Lindsay will be off the wagon by then. [WWD, 2nd item]
"Fashion's over," declares the legendary Hubert de Givenchy. Now what are we supposed to write about? Oh yeah, celebutard nipple slips! [WWD, sub req'd]

Roberto Cavalli is in Paris — not to show couture, but to preview his H&M line to magazine editors. Oh please please please someone report back re garishness, degree of in this line! [WWD, 1st item]
After having posed for Italian Vogue , Gavin Rossdale's love child, 18-year old Daisy Lowe, is rumored to be assuming Kate Moss's soon-to-be-empty knickers as the face of Agent Provocateur. We assume this means that Rossdales's missus, Gwen Stefani, will not be wearing the line anytime soon. [Sky Showbiz]
Too many fashion events, too little time: The 10-year anniversary of Gianni Versace's death is keeping Bottega Veneta away from its slotted showtime as the closing show for the first-ever Berlin Fashion week. [Vogue UK]
Anime movies! Spectator shoes! An entire Rem Koolhaas exhibit around her skirts! So what's up next for renaissance fashion-quirkstress Miuccia Prada? Designing a bar in London with whimsical Belgian sculptor Carsten Holler, naturally. [WWD, 1st item]
Fashion hungry private equity firm Permira hopes to buy out all remaining shares of Valentino through the Italian stock market's regulatory system for an estimated $3.52 billion. Which is probably only a slightly greater figure than the price of a couture Valentino wardrobe. [WWD, sub req'd]
Since leaving his design perch at Dior Homme, Hedi Slimane has taken to designing... furniture? [WWD, 3rd item]