Scott Schuman says the fashion students in New York could learn a few things from their London counterparts when it comes to Fashion Week.
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"Every time I come back, I like London a little bit more," Schuman told us in between shows during London Fashion Week. "I like the youngness of it — people really seem to like fashion here; they're excited about it. I'm a little disappointed that in New York the FIT kids and the Parsons kids don't bring the same enthusiasm. They don't try to sneak into shows. I don't know why the kids aren't trying to sneak into shows?
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"A lot of people say, 'Well, what do you think about all the young bloggers that go and stand outside the shows?' and I think the thing that's nice is that people feel they can go to the shows, and if they have a camera, they can take pictures and they can feel like they're part of the fashion world. Before, it was too intimidating. Now you can go and feel like you're part of it — whether you're a blogger or not. It's like going to a baseball game: you can go and watch the game. Most people can't get into the show, but now I think people feel like they can come here and take pictures and just hang out. So I think it's a good thing to make fashion feel not so separated from everyone — but yeah, I think the kids in New York could pick it up more. I think the information is too easy for them to get and it's easy here, too, but I don't know what it is."
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Schuman also shared with us the virtues of traveling light during fashion month. "You know, when you travel as much I do, you really learn how not to need anything. Because things are going to break. You're going to forget your cashmere sweater — you're going to lose this thing. I used to want to go to Starbucks in the cities, and even that, it's just better if you don't need anything. The more you need something, the more difficult it is when it doesn't work out and the more upset it makes it you. I used to have essentials. Now I can live without my cashmere sweater, I can without my . . . It's not like we're going to Ethiopia. I can get whatever I need right here."
Posts for September 16th 2012
Cathy Horyn: Oscar de la Renta's WWD Ad Was "a Little Over-the-Top"

Cathy Horyn told us the full-page ad Oscar de la Renta placed in WWD responding to her critique of his Spring 2013 collection — in which she refers to him as a "hot dog" — was the result of one big misunderstanding.
"I used the term in a professional context, as someone showing off his tricks, like a surfer," Horyn said in an email. "I thought an ad was a little over-the-top."
Hotdogging was coined as a surfing term in the '50s and generally described surfing "for flash rather than function." De la Renta's collection had plenty of flash: graffiti embroidery snaked over a lace suit jacket and dress, little cloth-covered beads hung from strings on a cardigan and a full ball gown, and the fluttery effect of one cocktail frock was created by sewing individually cut white flowers with red piping all over a strapless white A-line dress.
The designer's response to Horyn's critique was a little less flowery. The open letter reads in part, "I respect and accept criticism because in many ways it does help us develop; I try to make my work better each time. What I do not accept is when criticism is personal. If you have the right to call me a hot dog why do I not have the right to call you a stale 3-day old hamburger? My advice to you is to abstain from personal criticism. Professionals criticize the clothes, not the people."
Horyn's original critique said, "Mr. de la Renta is far more a hot dog than an éminence grise of American fashion. He opened his lively show on Tuesday with a red latex pencil skirt, a sleek ivory wool pantsuit and dairymaid lace. . . . It was wonderfully cantankerous, a good bit of window-dressing for the gooey stuff that followed."
She may have intended to be positive, but this isn't the first time that Horyn's criticism has gotten her in hot water with designers. Giorgio Armani banned Horyn from his shows in 2008, complaining in a letter to her editor about the "unnecessarily sarcastic comments" on his friends and family at his Spring 2008 couture show and saying that he "rarely found positive remarks" in Horyn's reviews. She's also been banned from shows by Dolce & Gabbana, Helmut Lang, and Carolina Herrera.
In 2010, Horyn wrote quite plainly that Alexander Wang "is not a great designer," but she was still seated at his show the next season.
We've reached out to representatives for Oscar de la Renta for a comment on Horyn's clarification and will update this post when we hear from them. For now, the original full-page ad below.

Our London Fashion Week Diary: Day 2
Day two of London Fashion Week was just as fun as the first, with plenty of action to boot. At the Topshop venue we spotted some of our favorite fashion fixtures getting ready to take in the Unique show — Anna Dello Russo, Leigh Lezark, Susie Bubble, Garance Doré — and made it backstage after the show just in time to see Jourdan Dunn and Cara Delevingne running off to their next shows. We also chatted with Topshop creative director Kate Phelan, checked out the Spring 2013 beauty boards, and explored the piles of postshow makeup scattered everywhere.
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Next it was off to the gorgeous Grand Connaught Rooms to catch the Temperley show, where we spied singer Delilah and one of our favorite Brit street-style stars, Laura Bailey, posing for a hoard of Fashion Week paparazzi. Click through to peek at all that — and more — here, in day two of our London Fashion Week photo diary.
Mary Katrantzou Spring 2013
One of the most anticipated — and definitely the most crowded — shows so far this London Fashion Week had to be that of Mary Katrantzou. Her legions of fans packed into the Topshop Show Space on Sunday like sardines, cameras in hand, just to catch a glimpse of what the Athens-born prints master had concocted for Spring 2013.
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And they were not disappointed. Stamps and banknotes were Katrantzou's focal points this season and, wow, what a statement they made. Printed on crisp white fabrics, woven onto brocade, and stamped onto denim (via a collaboration with Current/Elliott), the designer swirled and mirrored a dazzling array of motifs taken from kroner, drachmas, Deutsche marks, British pounds, and postal stamps culled from around the world.
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But prints this intriguing must be handled with care, and this is where Katrantzou shows her greatest strength. On sharply tailored silhouettes like straight-lined trousers, A-line skirts, and tent dresses (some of which were manipulated by flattering folds and pleats), the prints were allowed to shine just as much as the garments themselves — and neither was overwhelming. In fact, each pattern was so well placed and well thought out that the overall effect was graphic, crisp, and actually quite flattering.
Jonathan Saunders Spring 2013
Jonathan Saunders was feeling highly iridescent for Spring 2013. He opened with a bevy of shiny pencil skirts, tanks, and sporty zip-up jackets that were blindingly original. Once the shine factor made its impact, Saunders shifted his focus to less in-your-face pieces: oversize trench coats, dotted dresses, blazers, wrap pencil skirts, colorblock dresses, and striped skirt suits. Coming full circle, at the end of the catwalk presentation, the designer finished strong with more shine in the form of sequined pencil skirts, cardigans, and '20s-style dresses.
Acne Spring 2013
Jonny Johansson and the design team at Acne announced their mission statement for Spring 2013 with slogan t-shirts that separated the show into three sections: "MUSIC," "NEW," and "COLLAGE."
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Music can be a big source of inspiration for any designer, but the show notes at Acne made it clear that it's one of this house's most important influences. The new clothes were a pastiche of country Western elements — Yosemite Sam was overheard on the soundtrack at one point — mixed with patchwork-leather answers to racing silks and sophisticated takes on some of the season's most important trends. An unfinished cotton duster, for example, got an equally unfinished piece of crocodile skin as a lapel and was worn by a model wearing two straw cowboy hats stacked on top of each other. Later on in the show, black and white stripes appeared on off-the-shoulder shirts and skirts that skimmed the ground. This collection folded in a lot of long skirts — some of which appeared strapped to the models' hips with leather belts — which are just as appropriate for the city as they were for the Wild West.
Paul Smith Spring 2013
Paul Smith took us on quite the versatile style journey for Spring 2013. He showed pieces ranging from preppy to sporty to androgynous to ultrafeminine. In the preppy department, the designer tucked button-down blouses — buttoned up all the way to the neck — into high-waist trousers. Colorblock suits with cropped pants screamed sporty, while flowy dresses with V-necks or sheer pleats exuded feminine glamour. Sheer-sleeve blazers stood out, as did a gray-and-white colorblock blazer, printed blouses, and a few quirky striped jackets and leggings toward the the end of the show.
Antipodium Spring 2013
For Spring 2013, Antipodium creative director Geoffrey J. Finch had fembots and futurism on the brain. Everything he sent down the catwalk — power suits, retro dresses, sporty jackets, pencil skirts, contrast-collar blouses — featured an off-kilter twist that was still highly wearable. Menswear-inspired blazers and leather jackets were turned into capes, pencil skirts featured feminine oversize bows (complete with zip pouches) at the waistline, retro dresses turned futuristic via a silver mirrored hue, and sports jackets looked modern in tech fabrics and colorblock.
Watch It Live: Mary Katrantzou Spring 2013
Mary Katrantzou's Spring 2013 show starts at 2 p.m. EDT/ 7 p.m GMT. See it all happen in real time — right here!
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Temperley London Spring 2013
"I had visions of a late 1950s couture model or a young Sophia Loren, but also modernizing the Temperley Woman, making her uncomplicated and effortlessly beautiful," Alice Temperley said of the collection she offered for Temperley London's Spring 2013. To that end, this was a lineup that hit all the expected Temperley high notes — femininity, romance, embellishment — but was also filled with a surprising sense of playfulness and a focus on separates that felt fresh for the brand.
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New Look silhouettes (super-full skirts, nipped waists, collarless jackets) were cut in gauzy fabrics like chiffon and organza, while colors ranged from robin's egg blue to cherry red and aqua. Bold peekaboo stripes, Moorish tile-inspired geometric prints, and lattice-like embroidery added a hint of sensuality and exoticism. "I wanted to maintain a balance between refined elegance and modernity," the designer explained.




