American conversations on race tend to cluster around singular events: The Emancipation Proclamation, Brown vs. The Board of Education, the election of Barack Obama. They become historical signposts used to demonstrate how race—here black vs. white—has progressed in the country. Robin Givhan’s book The Battle of…
You're not imagining it: American men from sea to shining sea, o'er amber waves of grain, have embraced slim-cut pants. Jeans are perpetually skinny; suit bottoms look like pixie-stick wrappers; tux bottoms are strangling gonads right there on the red carpet, in full view of TV cameras.
The new James Bond 007 fragrance debuts at Harrods next month, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise, and release of the 23rd Bond film, Skyfall (which hits theaters in the US in November). Because nothing says "secret spy" like having your agency code number on a fragrance bottle. So,…
Tyra Banks' YA novel Modelland just débuted at number 2 on the New York Times' best-seller list, children's chapter books section. You can read an excerpt — this is the story with the protagonist named Tookie De La Creme, remember — here. [NewNowNext]
Amanda Hess offers this compendium of Pulitzer-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan's underminery. "Kagan's version of middle-age seems stuck in a time warp, back when 50-something did not mean Kim Cattrall or Sharon Stone, Cougar Town or Sex and the City."
Cathy Horyn is not sorry for what she wrote about Snooki. Nor does she feel particularly bad for Tommy Hilfiger, Alexander Wang, Giorgio Armani, or any of the other people whose collections and/or fashion sense she has publicly critiqued.
So much of the African American experience is stashed in basements and attics. So writes fashion journalist Robin Givhan in her recent article about the Black Fashion Museum Collection's move to the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
It's not often that the Senate chamber talks fashion criticism, but yesterday, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar was sufficiently irritated by Robin Givhan's Washington Post piece to chastise her for her Kagan critique. Meanwhile, Givhan is defending herself.
Another major staging of political theater, another opportunity for the Washington Post's Robin Givhan to offend with her fashion close readings. This weekend: Elena Kagan. Bonus: Givhan's existential angst about why "serious" people — especially in Washington — hate fashion.
The increasing visibility of models like Crystal Renn, Tara Lynn, and Ashley Graham isn't just a fluke: Each is represented by Gary Dakin, a man who's been trying to re-make the plus-size modeling industry for over a decade.
"The fashion industry sent a commendably eclectic array of models down the New York runways this month. The women were more diverse in ethnicity, age and size," writes Robin Givhan. She must have watched a different season than we did.
Now that Alexander McQueen is dead, the question of his legacy — and the ultimate meaning of his work — remains. Did the designer who put models in cages, and whose shows referenced rape and violence, respect women? Interpretations vary.
