WWD Really Wants To Know Michelle Obama's Dress Size
- Michelle Obama wore French-born Brooklyn-based designer Sophie Theallet to unveil a bust of Sojourner Truth at Emancipation Hall yesterday. Naturally, journalistically, WWD asked the designer to specify the First Lady’s measurements. Theallet declined. [WWD]
- Michael Kors, on the now-solved problem of women becoming socially invisible as they age: “I used to hear women saying, ‘Oh, I hate my arms, I hate my thighs’ when they got older, but now they don’t. They’re in the gym or doing yoga, or getting what they don’t like fixed. Sigourney Weaver‘s 60, Michelle Pfeiffer‘s 50. Michelle Obama is showing older women that you can be serious without looking stiff, and showing younger women that you don’t have to dress like a hoochy mama to be modern. It’s all different. Everyone is refusing to age.” [Times of London]
- Christopher Kane is tackling a wider range of items than ever in his next season’s Topshop range. Expect bags, knitwear, and shoes, in addition to the clothes. [Grazia]
- Fellow Brit Stella McCartney made the Time 100, the only fashion designer represented. Gwyneth Paltrow, her BFF, did the profile. [WWD]
- Vera Wang bedazzled a BlackBerry for a breast cancer charity raffle. Elizabeth Hurley will do the honors. [WWD]
- Now this is a match made in heaven: showmen fashion designers Viktor & Rolf are turning their talents to opera. For a German production of Der Freischütz, the duo made costumes with over a million crystals. That, Vera, is how you do bling. [Elle UK]
- The Payless shoes on Christian Siriano‘s runway back in February were kind of hideous; the ones likely to make it into stores this August are kind of boring. Let’s hope he can even out his aesthetic at some point during his multi-year contract. [Racked]
- Alexa Chung, the British ex-model, moved to New York to further her television career — and was hotly rumored to be exploring options with MTV. That opportunity seems to have come to fruition: Chung will host a daily show on the network, something like TRL, only with Twitter. [Yahoo! News]
- The September Issue Director R.J. Cutler, on how his subject, Anna Wintour, communicates: “It’s mostly in silences, gestures, and the occasional use of language. It’s more than enough and she always gets her way. When she’s not getting her way, she’s happy to speak at greater length. In her work environment, that’s how she communicates with everyone. Some people see the film and say, she seems so closed. She’s a closed gal. That’s who she is. But the times that she does open up in her life are the times that you see her open in the film — when she’s with Bee, when she’s talking about her dad, talking about her siblings. It’s family.” [MakingOf]
- The SoHo Hogan store is closing, and looking for a space uptown. [Racked]
- Australian Fashion Week, like fashion weeks everywhere, was smaller this season than before the recession. There were 15% fewer shows, and two catwalks inside the venue, compared to last August’s three. Fewer buyers attended, and, barring any case of Aussie economic exceptionalism, the orders they place will prove smaller. Organizers say they expect things will be much better next season, because organizers have to say things like that. At least in public. [Reuters]
- As for the designers who did bother showing, half of them seemed to be phoning in 80s nostalgia and Balmain shoulderpads, and one, Ant!podium, well, they really, really like Beth Ditto. So they found a proudly non-model-sized tattooed artist named Tokio Pink to walk in their show. Such is their commitment to diversity. [News.com.au]
- Max Azria, on the other hand, isn’t predicting any great improvement in business conditions during the rest of this year. [WWD]
- Jones Apparel Group, owner of the brands Anne Klein, Nine West, and Jones New York, handily beat analysts’ expectations in their quarterly profit announcement. Although revenue still fell 9%, Jones shares rose 10% in response to the good news. [Reuters]
- Prada‘s profits fell 22% in 2008. [WWD]
- The opening of Forever 21‘s first store in Japan was a bit of a madhouse, apparently. It isn’t hard to imagine why. [WWD]
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