Jezebel: van cleef & arpels

Karl Thinks Feminists Are "Ugly"; Posh Spice Gives Up On Armani

Jenna — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:30:00 EDT

For the September issue of Harper's Bazaar, the magazine interviewed Karl Lagerfeld, speaking as Coco Chanel. In character, the Grand Teuton shared such idiotic reflections as: "I was never a feminist because I was never ugly enough for that." [FWD]

A very painterly, Frenchified image of 90s supe Linda Evangelista made the grade as John Galliano's fall campaign. [SassyBella]
On Sunday, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C., hosted an exhibition of the Indonesian batik textiles collected by President Obama's mother, Anne Dunham, during her years in the country. There were traditional Indonesian dance and music performances, and fashion shows from two Indonesian designers. [WWD]
Victoria Beckham has decided not to renew her contract with Emporio Armani, apparently because she wants to concentrate on her dress line. [UK Vogue]
Spice Girls svengali Simon Fuller has acquired a 51% stake in Storm, the London model agency that represents such top names as Kate Moss, Jourdan Dunn, Eva Herzigova, and Lily Cole. [Telegraph]
This fall is going to be an exciting time for designer fast-fashion lines. Unrolling next season at a chain near you: Jimmy Choo for H&M, Stella McCartney for Gap Kids, Anna Sui for Target, Christopher Kane for TopShop, Adam Lippes for Mango, and, uh, Lauren Conrad for Kohl's. [TS]
Add to that list Jil Sander's hotly anticipated +J line for Uniqlo, which will begin hitting stores in October. The 140-piece collection is believed to start at around $25. [Fashionologie]
Stars like Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Emeril Lagasse, and Martha Stewart are promoting Macy's "Come Together" program, a special night of dinner parties intended to inspire charitable giving. Americans are asked to host a special dinner in their homes, and solicit donations to Feeding America, in lieu of any gifts for the host. Macy's will match those donations until enough money has been raised to serve 10 million meals to poor families this fall and winter. You can register a dinner party or get new information at Come Together. [People]
Are you a man? Are you really, really ridiculously good-looking? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a Calvin Klein underwear model? Do you live in one of nine European countries? In that case, you might be in luck: to launch a new underwear line, Calvin Klein is holding a model search. Jamie Dornan will be one of the judges. [WWD]
"She's like, 'What about Maximilian? Bruno? Sebastian? Hector? Guido?' I always tell her I'll put it on my list." Karolina Kurkova's Slovak mother sure does have interesting taste in baby boy names. [USAToday]
Donald Fisher, the Gap founder, and his wife Doris spent the last 50 years collecting art by such eminent figures as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alexander Calder. But San Francisco preservationists have nixed the Fishers' plans to build a museum in the Presidio, a historic military base inside the city. The Fishers would prefer to keep the priceless collection in San Francisco, perhaps at the De Young or at the SFMOMA, but after the rejection of their standalone museum idea, other art museums are actively wooing the couple. [LATimes]
Australian Merino lambs are routinely mulesed — that is, they have the skin around their buttocks cut off, often without anaesthetic, to prevent a disease called flystrike, which occurs when flies lay maggots in the folds of the lambs' skin, and those maggots then commence eating the animals' flesh. Although flystrike is horrifying, many animal rights activists are even more aghast at the mulesing, and with Australian farmers now announcing that they will fail to meet an agreed-upon 2010 deadline for ending the practice, some top fashion chains are discussing a ban on Australian merino wool. In which case, might I suggest New Zealand merino as an alternative? New Zealand is already phasing out mulesing. [Guardian]
Heidi Klum had to close her five-year-old jewelry line because of a trademark infringement lawsuit from Van Cleef & Arpels, who objected to her use of its signature clover design. "We stopped because we had a lawsuit with Van Cleef & Arpels — they wanted to have the clover, even though our designs had never matched," said the supermodel. "I think when you're a small company, which we are, we're not a Van Cleef — they have a thousand lawyers. I'm a small fry next to that." [LATimes]
Imagine the delicate hell of being a parts model: "Most people can walk away from work when they're done with a job, but parts models can't, because [our parts] have to be flawless. I moisturize 20 to 30 times a day, and wear gloves 90 percent of the time," says hand model Ashley Covington. [CNN]
Coach C.E.O. Lew Frankfort, who has been with the company for 30 years, extended his contract until 2013. [Crain's]
Paula Dorf cosmetics is bankrupt. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owing more than 50 creditors a total of $3.9 million. [Crain's]
K Swiss lost $11.5 million in the second quarter of this year. Last year, they made a $26.4 million profit in the same period. [WWD]
Astoundingly, high-end children's clothing is also suffering in this economy. A Connecticut store that sold $995 Peter Som girls' dresses close its doors this summer, and companies are dialing back their kids lines. [WSJ]
A new strategy in the open question of how, and whom, to sue over the online trade in counterfeit luxury goods: after the failure to get auction sites like eBay held accountable — L'Oréal lost its multi-million-dollar suit, and Steve Madden had to drop its lawsuit just last week — Gucci has hit upon suing the credit card processing companies. The lawsuit accuses the companies of facilitating the sale of fake purses, and names the companies "full partners in those counterfeiting activities." Gucci has already wrangled a $5.2 million settlement from the Laurette Company, which runs the website TheBagAddiction.com, where counterfeit bags were often sold, and the credit card processing companies are those companies which worked closely with Laurette. [Reuters]

ELLE Nutjob Anne Slowey Soon To Be A TV Star

Jennifer — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:30:00 EST

Remember the news about the new reality show in which Tyra Banks pits a group of young women against one another to compete for a job at a fashion magazine? Well, it looks like the ladymag in question is ELLE and creative director Joe Zee and fashion news director/calorie restrictor Anne Slowey are going to be judges. Having worked with these people, allow me to just say this is going to make for good television. [WWD, 2nd item]
The Danish Fashion Institute is putting up signs throughout Copenhagen that read "Eating Is the New Black" and "The Weight of Your Worth Is Not Measured in Kilos." First person to wrangle us one gets a pony! [WWD, sub req'd]
Victoria's Secret has named Victoria Beckham the sexiest mom of 2008. We're seriously doubtful about the credibility of this list, though, as it also named Ryan Seacrest as having the sexiest smile. [Sassybella]

David Beckham wearing the naked Victoria Beckham Marc Jacobs shirt! [Chic Report]
ELLE's Nina Garcia offers this following advice to the masses, "Don't be a fashion victim. Be true to yourself and get your own personal style and look." She uttered these pearls of wisdom, mind you, while shilling for the new pink Blackberry Pearl on Tuesday night. Exactly. [Fashion Week Daily]
The fashions at Wal-Mart: Supposedly getting "cooler." [WWD, sub req'd]
Intimates designer Josie Natori now has a ready-to-wear line. It is called (what else?) Natorious. [WWD, sub req'd]
Imitation of Christ designer/prepster-turned-hipster/Wes Anderson main squeeze Tara Subkoff has paired with Bebe to do a capsule collection for them. Ooooh, pleaaase call it the Imitation of Christ Bebe Jesus line!! [WWD, sub req'd]
Moschino has a new diffusion line called Love Moschino. Only it's not exactly new. It's just Moschino Jeans, renamed. Moschino Jeans, incidentally, used to be named Love Moschino. Follow? [Vogue UK]
We do not approve of Van Cleef & Arpels and Earnest Sewn collaborating on blinged-out jeans. Ew. [Fashion Week Daily]
For those of you always asking how you get a smoky eye, here ya go. [BellaSugar]

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]