Designers, Gisele Will Refuse To Wear Your Insane Ankle-Breaker High Heels
LatestBalenciaga creative director Nicholas Ghesquière says that when Gisele Bündchen (pictured here in Balenciaga’s seasonal campaign), Amber Valletta, and Carolyn Murphy refused to wear his high heels, he decided to design some flat shoes. We’re picturing some kind of supermodel superdelegate triad descending on the Balenciaga headquarters, and laying down the law for Spring ’11. Ghesquière has always favored elaborate, sky-high heels, but he came to realize the shoes were causing his models pain. “When I saw the show and I saw how [the heel height] makes them very mechanical, I understood sometimes the pain on the feet,” he explains. “It’s old to have those girls walking like that, so I tried to stop that craziness.” Also, Amber, Carolyn, and Gisele, “they said no for high heels. They were not used to walking with heels anymore. Gisele was worried; she would not walk with my heels.” So he made flats. For one season! At its very next runway show, Fall 2011, Balenciaga was back to the 4.5-inchers. “They were a bit too high,” says Ghesquière, before adding, wistfully we imagine, “They were beautiful.” In other news of Nicholas Ghesquière actually taking some of what his models tell him into consideration, the best-selling (and frequently knocked off) Balenciaga “Lariat” motorcycle bag almost never made it into production. Ghesquière was asked to consider producing a couple bags under license, and none of the production prototypes pleased the executives — but one bag made an impression on Balenciaga’s models. “Every girl who was walking [the show], including Kate [Moss] came in and was like, ‘What is that? Is it vintage? Is it something that you found at the flea market?’ I was like ‘No, it’s a handbag that we prototyped but just didn’t produce.’ We didn’t produce it because I think when I showed the prototype to the people who asked me to do it, they weren’t happy with it.” And do you remember those “Sportiletto” plastic multi-colored sandals from 2007? They broke the mold. Literally: Ghesquière says that the molds used to make them exploded more than once during the design process. [WWD]
For those of you who love the look of getting spinach stuck between your teeth, but hate vegetables or eating, temporary tattoos for your teeth are now a Thing that Exists. [Refinery29]
Cindy Crawford wears Louis Vuitton’s leather bustier on the cover of September’s Harper’s Bazaar Singapore. [FGR]
17-year-old Dutch model Annemara Post says of her work, “Most shoots are great but sometimes you just get treated like an object: People will touch you without any warning like to reapply your makeup or fiddle with your hair. There’s no sense of personal space.” She walked for Marc Jacobs last season; Jacobs, like many designers in New York City, doesn’t pay his runway models, so Post ended up with some clothing instead. [WWD]
The model whose image was used on the cover of Vampire Weekend‘s album Contra without her permission has won a settlement from the band and its label. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Kennis had been seeking $2 million in damages. Photographer Todd Brody licensed a 27-year-old Polaroid picture of Ann Kirsten Kennis to the record company for $5,000, but he forged Kennis’ model release form. Brody is now being sued by the label. [Photo District News]
We have Toddlers & Tiaras, the French have “lingerie” for 4-12-year-olds. Seems like a fair trade. [Fashionista]
- Stylist Pat Field was asked a question about David Cameron‘s policies. She replied, “He used to be, you know, good-looking; he looks fat now. He must have put on about 40, 50 pounds, that guy; he looks a mess! And that is not good because he’s supposed to be an example for people. He’s just globbing up food: he’s gotten so fat, it’s really bad.” Then she called him “a blowhard.” A publicist for the brand of fabric-softener Field was supposed to be the “ambassador” for nervously interrupted at that late stage. [Independent]
- Kris Kardashian has a QVC line. [WWD]
- Oprah — who dedicated one of her last-ever talk show episodes to Ralph Lauren — will interview the designer about his life in front of a live audience at Lincoln Center this fall. Ticket proceeds will fund the Ralph Lauren foundation. [WWD]
- See Andrej Pejic, Shala Monroque, China Machado, and Isabella Rossellini and Elettra Wiedemann do their thang at a studio in the Starrett-Lehigh building in this behind-the-scenes video from the New York magazine fall fashion issue cover shoot. [The Cut]
- Glamour magazine has a “mystery shitter” plaguing the office. She shits and doesn’t flush! Laminated stall reminders and “haikus of middling wit” are being deployed to fight the problem. [Gawker]
- Prince Harry and his girlfriend, model Florence Budenell-Brice, have broken up. [Telegraph]
- A former Studio 54 doorman and a former assistant to one of the club’s founders have a new satellite radio show dedicated to talking up the already-legendary night spot. Guests include, then as now, Carolina Herrera, Pat Cleveland, and Stephen Burroughs. Obligatory Andy Warhol name-drop: “Andy used to say that Studio 54 was a dictatorship at the door and a democracy inside — everyone was a star.” [WWD]
- Online discounter Gilt is hawking a resin piggy bank for $329 (plus $65 shipping and handling) — but it’s available from another online retailer for $125. Gilt has also been caught inflating MSRPs to make its discounts appear bigger. [WWD]
- Diana Vreeland is the subject of a new book and a documentary film, which is apparently based on the conversations the Vogue editor had with George Plimpton when he edited her own biography. [WWD]
- Nordstrom is opening a store in Manhattan, but you won’t find the Nordstrom name on the door: the shop, called Treasure & Bond, will donate all of its profits to charity. The store will sell homewares and clothing, fine jewelry and accessories. Anna Wintour helped pick the first group of charitable partners, and Nordstrom — which has long wanted to open a department store in Manhattan — gets another way to glean insight into the local retail market and its customers, along with its Norstrom Rack outlet in Union Square. [WWD, NYTimes]
- Urban Outfitters‘ profits were down just over 20% to $56.7 million in the second quarter, compared with the same period last year. The cuprit: steep discounting that hurt margins, apparently. Same-store sales, a key measure of retail health, were flat at Anthropologie and rose 1% at Free People. Urban Outfitters itself saw same-store sales increase by 18%. [WWD]
- H&M‘s same-store sales for the month of July fell 6% year-on-year. It is the retailer’s third straight month of declining same-store sales. [WWD]