KCD

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Rinko Kikuchi, Aubrey Plaza, Patricia Clarkson, and Gemma Arterton star in Miu Miu's short film It's Getting Late, which will be screened at the Venice Film Festival. The film is the fourth chapter in the label's "Women's Tales" series and was directed by Massy Tadjedin. [Fashionologie Inbox]
  

• Carolyn Murphy stars on the cover of Vogue Italia's September issue, for which Steven Meisel photographed her in a room full of masks. [The Fashion Spot]
  

• President Obama has come under fire for sitting down for a Q&A with Glamour editor in chief Cindi Leive. One commentator said the interview would "open him up to fair criticism that he is avoiding the sharper questions others would pose to him — especially from the press corps during press conferences." [The Financial Times]
  

• Karl Lagerfeld's second exclusive collection for Net-a-Porter will reach the retailer's website on Wednesday. [Vogue UK]
  

• Chanel has paired scented body creams with the 13 fragrances from its Les Exclusifs collection, which will appear in stores and online beginning in September. [Fashion Etc.]
  

• Zahia Dehar, the 20-year-old French lingerie designer, will show her line at New York Fashion Week. [Fashionista]
  

• Public relations and consulting firm KCD will stage digital fashion shows for See by Chloé, Pierre Balmain, and Prabal Gurung's ICB during New York Fashion Week. [WWD]

>> These stories and more — here, in our daily news roundup.

>> Between Alexander McQueen committing suicide last year, John Galliano's drunken, anti-Semitic outburst, and Christophe Decarnin being sidelined for depression treatments, many are starting to wonder if the fashion industry and its current pressures — particularly the demand for more and more collections, released faster and faster — are to blame for designers spinning out of control. Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors, and more address the issue:

Karl Lagerfeld: “I see designing, running a company, like a high-level athletic activity. I don’t want to hear anything about the fragility or any of those things. If an athlete is too fragile to run, he cannot run. And this is exactly the same. You don’t accept this kind of business if you’re too much of an artist. I believe in discipline, so I’m not the right person to cry about weakness and things like this, but maybe I’m not human.”

Marc Jacobs: “You don’t think bank tellers have problems? You don’t think people in the middle of the suburbs have problems? Blaming is such a complete waste. I mean, it’s so pointless. To say, you know, my mother was absent and therefore I ran amok, it’s ridiculous. It’s a self-destructive nature, it’s a mental, physical and a kind of spiritual malady . . . people who are happy and healthy and spiritually well don’t do things to hurt themselves.”

Yves Saint Laurent's longtime business partner Pierre Berge: “I have a lot more sympathy for people who have to take the train to work every day. What a load of nonsense! No, no, no. Designers are artisans who are extremely privileged to have a poetic profession. They are not artists. We have to stop saying that they are.”

Marc Jacobs's longtime business partner Robert Duffy: “You cannot blame the industry. The majority of actors are not drug addicts, the majority of designers are not drug addicts.”

Theory founder Andrew Rosen: “I don’t see fashion as an industry being ahead of the world in terms of this issue. It’s a devastating and unfortunate condition that happens in every walk of life. It doesn’t make it better or OK, it’s a devastating illness to all those around it. Drug addiction, and addiction in general, is unfortunately part of society today. Maybe because we’re so close to our industry, we feel it more. Whenever it happens, it’s horrible.”

Michael Kors: "No question . . . I mean, I forget what season I’m in sometimes. I think every designer in today’s world, I don’t care whether you’re a designer who makes clothes that are phantasmagorical or very pragmatic, you have to figure out something that can ground you and bring you back. Whatever it is, if you go to the gym too much or you travel too much, you’ve got to have time to escape. I always tell everyone the crazy conversation I’ve had forever with actors, if they do two films in a row, and they’ve lived these characters and they’re on the set away from their friends and family, but then they take a year off. What are designers supposed to say? 'I’m tired. I’m not doing fall. Wear last year’s clothes, and maybe get some new nail polish.' It’s endless."

Photographer Mert Alas: “I’m the kind of person that I live under pressure, but I enjoy the pressure, so it very much relates to your own personality. Of course we’re all under pressure. The bus driver is under pressure. But, you know, it’s how you come out of it. If you can make good fun with it, pressure can be enjoyable.”

New York Times's Cathy Horyn: "For designers already at big houses, the pressures must reach absurd levels . . . Many people in professional and creative fields are under intense pressure, but for designers that pressure is manifested on the runway. The problem goes beyond having to produce multiple collections a year; it’s the nearly brutalizing feeling that something new and relevant must be communicated each season."

Co-President of PR firm KCD Ed Filipowski: “As a publicist, I have also taken on many times the role of ‘fashion therapist’ to my clients. Globalization, digitalization — the speed and scope of our work — has added a tremendous amount of pressure not only to the creative field but everyone in this industry. I would venture to say we are all doing at least twice as much work twice as fast as we were five years ago.”

>> Since her collection's inception, Victoria Beckham has hosted her fashion show presentations in intimate settings, narrating each look. Same goes for L'Wren Scott, who has for many seasons kept her presentations intimate enough to simultaneously serve a lunch. And over a year ago, Marc Jacobs downsized his fashion show invites from 1,400 to 500. But after Tom Ford trumpeted the merits of an intimate show last fashion week, some think a change toward smaller shows is in the air.

“He [Ford] shook up the industry,” said Paul Wilmot, a fashion publicist whose firm handles the Oscar de la Renta and Bill Blass shows. “And if somebody says they weren’t influenced, that would be a lie.” James Laforce, who handles shows like Vena Cava, notes: “I’ve heard plenty of people saying, ‘Let’s do a Tom Ford kind of thing.’ They are asking themselves, ‘Is more really more, or is more watering down our influence?’” And KCD's Ed Filipowski, who produces shows for Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, and Jacobs, agrees: “Intimate is a word that’s definitely in the air."

It's true: a spokesman for IMG, which produces the Lincoln Center shows, says that there has been an increased demand for the smaller Lincoln Center venues like the Box, at 250 seats, and the Studio, which seats 500.

Altuzarra has invited a third fewer guests than last season — less than 300. “In this day and age when there are so many shows, everything gets so much coverage through live streaming, Twitter and the blogs,” Coline Choay, the label's director of publicity and marketing, notes. “You want to make the live show experience special . . . Intimacy, exclusivity and a chance to see the clothes: those are our priorities. We like exposure, but we want a more controlled exposure.”

However, in some cases, the move to intimacy could be a more amenable front for financial constraints. Publicist Vanessa von Bismarck, who handles shows for the likes of Edun, Erin Fetherston, and Suno, says that financial pressures caused some of her clients to go for a smaller production: "They just don’t have the money to put on a big show.” And as Filipowski pointed out: “In reality, we’re not seeing big changes in the size of the shows.”

Yohji Yamamoto will not show its Spring 2010 men's collection during Fashion Week in Paris. 

This year's CFDA Swarovski Award nominees will be toasted in a series of short films produced by KCD. 

The 17 year-old DKNY billboard in Soho is finally gone and will soon to be replaced by a billboard from Hollister. 

In 2006, Talbots bought J. Jill for $517 million and now the company is now selling J. Jill to Golden Gate Capital for $75 million. 

>> INSIDER WIRE —It may be over for Olivier Theyskens at Nina Ricci, but fashion is not over him — apparently, upon being told yesterday's collection was his last for the label, Anna Wintour's response was, "How could you do this to me??"  Meanwhile, Pierre Rougier, founder of PR Consulting and Ed Filipowski, co-president of KCD, were surprise front row guests, adding fire to rumors that Olivier may soon have a namesake line.  [A Shaded View on Fashion, FWD]
*image: source

>> In February, it was announced that Marc Jacobs was being investigated for allegedly bribing a New York state employee.  It came to light that Jacobs might have been paying and gifting the employee to secure his traditional fashion show spot, the Armory, which he had an exclusive deal with to keep other designers from showing there during Fashion Week.

Today, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says Jacobs's company, Marc Jacobs International, has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement; Neither Jacobs nor his company will face formal charges in the scandal.  As part of the settlement, Marc has agreed to retain a private monitoring agency for two years that will review operations and report to the attorney general.

No word on whether Marc Jacobs's show producers, KCD, who were also being investigated as the intermediaries between Jacobs and the state employee, will also have to settle.
*image: source

>> Since we're going to be seeing a lot more of Kelly Cutrone — thanks, The Hills! — The New York Observer graciously served us up a little backstory on the People's Revolution founder and tooth-gnashing power publicist.

First, the mini-bio — it's quite a whirlwind.  She lives with her 6-year-old daughter, Ava, an Argentinian male model named Demian (who she's not dating), and a 7-year-old girl who is the the granddaughter of a former boyfriend.  She was married to her first husband, pop artist and Warhol affiliate Ronnie Cutrone, briefly in her early twenties (she's 42 now), and then seven or so years ago met Ava's father, an Italian in Paris, only shortly after leaving her second husband, an actor.  She promptly left Ava's father three months into her pregnancy, and has been dating music producer Jimmy Boyle for some years now.   

She left her first PR firm, Cutrone & Weinberg, in her late twenties because she wasn't happy and decided to become a tarot card reader on Venice Beach for a year and a half.  As for where she is today, People's Revolution reps 46 clients, including Longchamp, Yigal Azrouel, Vivienne Westwood, and Sass & Bide.  Kelly's happy with where the company is at, and curates her clients based on those she thinks deserve "a voice."

I wouldn’t want 80 percent of [powerhouse fashion firm and rival] KCD’s roster.  I would never rep Versace, I can’t stand her, I think she makes disgusting clothes. Calvin [Klein] is like, snore!  Who wears Calvin Klein?  I’m not dissing him. I think he’s built an amazing, respectable business, but I would never want to work for Calvin Klein, ever.

Oh, and good thing Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port aren't Kelly's assistants — althought it might make for better drama — she works until 1 or 2 am during fashion week, midnight many other months, and doesn’t allow her two assistants to leave before she does.

*image: source