Fashion Industry Reconsiders Its Contempt For Victoria Beckham

By Jenna Sauers  |  November 29, 2011 | 7:05pm
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The British Fashion Awards were last night, and while the big winner was Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, who took home Designer of the Year, the more surprising news is that industry bigwigs signalled their increasing acceptance of celebrity-designer-WAG-Spice-Girl hyphenate ne plus ultra Victoria Beckham by giving her the Designer Brand Award. (Fashion’s establishment is rarely receptive to famous folks who get an inkling they’d like to design; editors who apparently can’t tell the difference between a runway show and a 9th grade lunch table snickered and eye-rolled at one of Beckham’s shows this year.) Beckham reportedly cried when she took the stage. She then said, “I’m sorry, I’m so rubbish,” and thanked her husband and her “team” profusely. Meanwhile, in the public vote for British Style Icon, Alexa Chung beat out Kate Middleton (who was initially passed over for the shortlist, and then added a day later, after the media noticed the slight). “This is for girls who dress like awkward boys,” said Chung. Presenter Kate Hudson recalled feeling “like the coolest, hippest girl in the world” when she wore Stella McCartney to the Oscars in 2001. The next morning, hungover and still Oscar-less, Hudson turned on her TV and learned “I’d made every worst-dressed list known to mankind. Later I called Stella — and we laughed our asses off.” Above is Beckham, Eva Longoria in one of Beckham’s dresses, and Hudson in the offending Stella McCartney. [@HilaryAlexander, WWD]

Chloe Moretz wears barrettes (rhyme!) on the new cover of Jalouse. [Models.com]

Karlie Kloss, whose naked ass recently graced the Dior runway and whose disco-ball-covered ass enlivened the Victoria’s Secret show (airing tonight, sigh), shows off some side-ass (is that a thing? it is now!) on the new Vogue Italia. [Fashionista]

Vogue Turkey put Jacquelyn Jablonski on its December cover. [DS]

But our favorite of today’s new covers has to be Magdalena Frackowiack on the front of Vogue Latin America. [FGR]

H&M has announced that its next designer collaboration — after Versace for H&M‘s spring collection reaches stores in the early new year — will be with the covetable Italian brand Marni. There appear to be some cute signature Marni prints, and some very nice wooden-heeled shoes. It will be at 260 stores in March. [WWD]

If you believe this random poster on Fashin who didn’t provide a source for the image, this is manufactured indie singer Lana Del Ray in a Prada campaign. UPDATE: As we suspected, it’s a fake. The image is from a spread in Wonderland magazine. [Fashin]

  • Daphne Guinness had no comment yesterday about Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev’s controversial sponsorship of her show at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Leviev is a major player in the Angolan and Namibian diamond industries, and his companies have been accused of rape, torture, union-busting, and murder by local human-rights organizations. Leviev, who is heavily invested in real estate in the U.S. and Russia, also builds illegal settlements in the West Bank. FIT said it is “pursuing the matter very actively” after peace and human-rights groups drew attention to the exhibition sponsorship in an open letter yesterday. A spokesperson for Leviev did not return Women’s Wear Daily‘s calls. [WWD]
  • Multibillionaire Ronald Lauder, the Estée Lauder heir, is a patron of the arts. And, like virtually every ultrarich person in America who is smart and well-advised enough to take advantage of the various loopholes available to the 0.000001%, he is a barely legal tax cheat. #OccupyTheNeueGalerie [NYTimes]
  • Black Friday weekend had record retail revenue this year, and so-called “Cyber Monday” didn’t do too badly, either: yesterday, consumers spent 33% more online than they did on the same day one year ago. (Last year’s take was $1.03 billion, which was itself an all-time record for single-day online sales.) EBay saw mobile payment traffic on PayPal top last year’s by 514% by 11 a.m. yesterday, and retailers are saying that sales were up year-on-year by double-digit percentages. [WSJ, WWD]
  • Dubious rumor of the day: an anonymous source tells Star that “very few” stylists want to work with Kristen Stewart, because she “doesn’t want to look good.” Says the source, “She has grubby nails, ratty sneakers, and a bad attitude.” [Daily Mail]
  • Orla Kiely will launch a collaboration with Uniqlo for 2012. [WSJ]
  • Christian Siriano‘s lawyers say the lawsuit filed by his former management agency (which alleges that Siriano has failed to pay it royalties on his Payless shoe collaboration, which deal it says it negotiated) is without merit. [The Cut]
  • Some actor named Felicity Jones is now a face of Dolce & Gabbana cosmetics. [WWD]
  • Vivienne Westwood has donated £1 million to Cool Earth, an organization that fights logging in developing countries with a view to slowing climate change. The designer says that governments have been too slow to address climate change, and that direct action is needed. “I took as much as I could afford from my company,” she says. [Telegraph]
  • After three high-profile departures, including of the acting president and the CFO, American Apparel was short a board member. So the company has named William Mauer, a Canadian lawyer, to its board. [WWD]
  • Fashionista asked former Vogue Russia, current Interview Russia and Germany editor Aliona Doletskaya nine questions. Sadly, “What’s the deal with your second husband’s suspicious death when he was the Russian ambassador to Botswana?” isn’t among them. But if you want to know whether she watches reality TV, by all means, click on. [Fashionista]
  • Naturally, Dior has made a limited-edition eyeshadow in honor of Art Basel Miami. [BS]
  • We knew fashion loved nuns, but we didn’t know nuns loved fashion. Artist Julia Sherman and JF & Son are collaborating on new uniforms for an order of Anglican nuns in Virginia. Non-vocational folk can also buy the clothes. [NYObs]
  • Fashion blind item: “Which younger brother of an infamous socialite appears in a hardcore gay sex tape that’s making the rounds in the male modeling world?” Barron, is that you? [P6]
  • Rent the Runway CEO Jenn Hyman is now a columnist for Fashionista, where she will write about fashion and entrepreneurship. Hyman says that writing a business plan is nearly always a waste of time. And she says that in one of her first business meetings, the head of a “very important designer brand” told her, “Jenn, I know you’re new to this industry so I want to tell you something very important. Your nails are RUDE and inappropriate.” (Hyman says she had a “three-day-old manicure” with “a few chips.”) If you want to put your Harvard Business School degree to good use getting judged on your nails, fashion sounds tops. [Fashionista]
  • During the first three quarters of the year, Prada — which is now a publicly traded company — reports that its net profits rose by 75% over the same period last year, to $385.2 million. Overall sales were up by 25%. [WWD]
  • At Tiffany’s, profits during the third quarter shot up by 63%, to $89.7 million, beating analysts’ expectations. [WWD]
  • Neiman Marcus nearly doubled its profits for the quarter just ended, raking in $48.4 million (compared with $25.7 million during the same period last year). And it’s even sold some of this year’s holiday “fantasy” gifts. The $125,000 custom library from Assouline, which included a set of bookcases and 250 books, has found one taker. Five people have ponied up for $5,000 Johnny Walker tasting parties. And ten of the $395,000 Ferraris Neiman advertised have sold. Guess that means the $1 million his-and-hers dancing fountains are still available. [WWD]
  • And now, a moment with model scout and former agent Michael Flutie. Flutie has a new reality show to promote, so naturally he name-dropped a big, if random, star in an interview — Paris Jackson. Flutie says he wrote to Michael Jackson’s daughter and told her he would love to make her a model. “If you want to talk about this, there’s an incredible opportunity and I would be very selective.” He hasn’t heard back. Flutie also made sure to mention Cindy Crawford, whom he once represented. What was Cindy’s deal, Michael?
  • “Cindy really took high school very seriously. She didn’t want to leave school, although American Vogue was calling and saying, ‘We want you to work with Irving Penn.’ She was like, ‘I’m not available.'”
  • [The Daily]

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