The World Is Chanel's Billboard
Latest- Chanel is apparently turning the Musée D’Orsay in Paris into a giant, sparkly, 2,890 square foot billboard for No. 5 perfume. We hope the museum is being rewarded handsomely for its services as a host for corporate messaging. [WWD]
- Breaking: We have now hit the reset button and returned our economy to the year 2007. U.S. consumer holiday spending this year not only outweighed holiday spending in 2008 (Recession!) and 2009 (Still recession!), it slightly outstripped 2007’s holiday spending. Overall holiday spending rose, year-on-year, by 5.5%, but apparel spending rose by 11.2%, and jewelry sales were up 8.4%. Sales in the luxury category grew 6.7%. “In the face of 10 percent unemployment and persistent housing woes, the American consumer has single-handedly picked himself off the mat, brushed his troubles off and strapped the U.S. economy on his back,” says one analyst. [NYTimes]
- However, on the East Coast, the Snowpocalypse hurt retail numbers on Sunday and Monday. [WWD]
- Pregnant Miranda Kerr might pop any day now, according to the Post. Her parents have flown to L.A. from Australia to witness the happy event. [P6]
- Lacoste has dropped its longtime “groups of models jumping for no reason” ad campaign theme in favor of new ads, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, that might best be described as “models standing around one by one.” [WWD]
- Watch out, Yale. Cassius Clay, Kanye West‘s “personal stylist and creative consultant” is returning to the ivy fold after just one semester helping the bling’d one match his socks. Clay says he’s still figuring out his personal and philosophical approaches to style. “I haven’t decided whether enthusiastic matching or dramatic juxtaposition is more contrived — or if that self-awareness is necessarily a bad thing — but both are to be respected for the thought that goes into them. Comfort is indulgent and ultimately forgettable.” Also, when he was ten, he shirked his school dress code: “Dissatisfied with the informality of khakis, I adopted a personal uniform of exclusively white turtlenecks, grey flannel trousers, and black & white spectator shoes. I look back on it now as a dedicated engagement with minimalism (and self-caricature). Occasionally on weekends at home I would pretend to be a pharaoh with amulet and scepter.” [Opening Ceremony]
- Now that Issa has the Kate Middleton stamp of approval (and before attention of the world’s fashion media wanes), Daniela Issa Helayel plans to open six stores in Brazil, relaunch her business into the U.S., expand into e-commerce, and start a kids’ collection called Baby Issa. “And we’re on the lookout for licenses,” says the C.E.O. [WWD]
- Isaac Mizrahi‘s Sundays sound fun: “A lot of TV viewing goes on weekends, I’m sorry to say. Sunday is the most amorphous day of the week. I could spend the entire afternoon in bed watching the Food Network and living vicariously through Paula Deen.” And, the famous insomniac continues, “Sunday is a Xanax night for me.” [NYTimes]
- Scott Devon, who made bajillions in frozen garlic bread at Cole’s Quality Foods, has founded a fashion line (areas of specialty: Denim and “demi-couture,” heavy on the leather and sequins) and opened a store. This should end well. [WWD]
- When you are Jay-Z, and you spend so long buying gifts for your wife at Hermès on Christmas Eve that you run into your scheduled lunch, the restaurant delivers food for you to the Hermès store. [P6]
- In other news of stars’ last-minute shopping habits, Elton John bought $30k worth of cashmere bathrobes on Christmas Eve, then apologized for holding up the line. [P6]
- Eileen Fisher was converted to natural fibers when she wore a polyester dress to a wedding, “and thought I’d get cancer; I was sort of creeped out.” [WWD]
- Dita Von Teese Tweeted a preview picture from her upcoming book about cosmetics. [@DitaVonTeese]
- This is just a joke now, right? That same gold Balmain dress scored another cover — this time, Vogue Turkey is the culprit. [Design Scene]
- Olivia Palermo, whom you may recognize from that MTV reality show about that girl from that other MTV reality show who launched a clothing line, is set to become that girl from that other MTV reality show who launches a clothing line (with a reality show). It’s called Palermo’s Reality Ouroboros and it looks…riveting. [Racked]
- Jezebel pal Marisa Meltzer has an excellent review of Diana Vreeland‘s recently republished 1980 book, Allure: “Vreeland was dead serious about clothes — she called the bikini the ‘most important thing since the atom bomb‘ — but she nonetheless managed to talk about fashion in a way that appreciated and celebrated its frivolity. Had she not died in 1989, she would have made a fantastic blogger; she loved nothing more than broadcasting a contrarian opinion (she embraced both retouching and plastic surgery on the grounds that she had always adored artifice).” [Slate]
- Mario Testino will be fêted this spring at a Museo del Barrio gala. [WWD]
- If acknowledging the reality of fast-approaching New York fashion week doesn’t make you feel instantly drained (or make you break out in — what, are those hives? Oh Jesus, it’s starting again…), here’s some news: Fashionista published a very, very, very early version of the schedule. [Fashionista]
- Brazilian model Fernanda Motta is launching a jeans line with the Brazilian brand John John. [WWD]
- If you’re not in Singapore to see the Valentino retrospective, the Wall Street Journal has pics. [WSJ]
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