Steven Kolb

All the bits fit to print here, in our daily news roundup.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Steven Kolb is officially off the market. The CFDA CEO married producer Jay Inkpen at New York's City Hall on Thursday. [Page Six]
  

• Going over the fiscal cliff could have an impact on what designers show during Fashion Week. [Fashionista]
  

• A New York court on Thursday issued a final order confirming that Christian Louboutin's lawsuit against Yves Saint Laurent is over. [WWD]
  

• Prices for Target and Neiman Marcus's holiday collaboration with the CFDA have been cut to 50 percent off. [HuffPost Style]
  

• J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler responded to a New York Times opinion piece calling the retailer's holiday shopping "mundane and problematic." [Styleite]

Source: Instagram User StevenKolb

>> The CFDA has decided to move from its current location in the Garment District to a new residence in downtown Manhattan, leaving some New York designers none too pleased. "We are extremely disappointed by the CFDA's decision to leave the Garment Center," said Nanette LePore, whose husband, Bob Savage, has been a staunch proponent of the Save the Garment Center campaign. "We only hope this does not signal the end of their previous support for New York City manufacturing and emerging American designers."

For its part, the CFDA has stressed that the decision has nothing to do with a lack of support for the Garment District, a neighborhood the CFDA has always championed. "We are not abandoning anything," The CFDA's chief executive officer, Steven Kolb, told WWD. "We considered buildings in the Garment District significantly in our search. The criteria by which we were finding space was ultimately based not on neighborhood, but what the best space for a functioning office for the CFDA was." Kolb went on to say that the Council had outgrown its current space, adding "we are busting out of the seams."

CFDA President Diane von Furstenberg echoed the sentiment: "We needed a very large space so we can have board meetings and clinics there. We found a great space with a great deal, and that's that. We looked for a long time." Von Furstenberg added that she will always think of the CFDA as "the soul of the Garment District."

The CFDA has signed a 10-year lease at its new location at Bleecker Street and Broadway, with plans to move this Summer.
Above: the CFDA's Steven Kolb and Diane von Furstenberg. Getty

>> The Spring 2013 Fashion Week date dispute finally seems to be settling down. In order to accommodate Milan's recent push for an earlier schedule, New York and London have agreed to shift the dates of their own Sept. 2012 shows. New York Fashion Week will now take place Sept. 6 through 13, with London following from Sept. 14 to 18.

"We've been back and forth on this. People are anxious and need to know the dates. There's no value for the cities to compete. In the spirit of working together, London and New York are in agreement that we will go in the earlier period, but with the hope that the four cities will come out of this confusion and work together to plan future show weeks. We need to begin to look at the fashion season not as individual fashion weeks, but very much as a global business," The CFDA's Steven Kolb, explained.

Spring 2013 Milan Fashion Week will take place Sept. 18 to 25, with Paris starting Sept. 25 and finishing the season October 2.

>> Just before last season, CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg encouraged designers to forego hiring models under 16; however, after her show last season, von Furstenberg discovered that she had hired 15-year-old Hailey Clauson to walk, and subsequently issued an apology.

This season, von Furstenberg and the CFDA are taking preventative measures further, recommending that models produce a valid ID on the show day, ensuring that they are a minimum of 16 years old. “The casting agents for the Diane von Furstenberg show will be doing this and we encourage others to do the same,” the letter which von Furstenberg and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb sent out yesterday, stated. It also noted that all top model agencies had pledged not to send models under 16 for shows.

Von Furstenberg is not the only major New York designer who has had issues with model-age confusion. Michael Kors tells Lauren Hutton in the new issue of Interview: "I still think it’s weird when models come in on go-sees. I don’t understand how anyone can think that a model is a mannequin. I like to think of them as just women ... When they come in, I’m always like, 'Where are you from? Tell me about your life.' That’s the first thing I say. We were laughing, though, because two seasons ago, I said, 'You know what? These girls we’re seeing are too young. They are children.' It’s silly ... I said two years ago, 'No models under 16.' Well, of course, right after I said that, we started seeing all of these girls from Eastern Europe, and every girl who’d walk in, you’d say, 'Hi. What’s your name?' And she’d be like, 'I’m Svetlana.' I’m like, 'Svetlana, where are you from?' 'Ukraine.' 'Svetlana, how old are you?' '16.' Next girl walks in — she’s from Eastern Europe and 16. Next one? Eastern European and 16. I was like, 'Was there a bus?' But I still think it’s a tricky thing because no matter how beautiful you might be at 15 or 16, the simple truth is that you haven’t lived enough to really know how to project anything in a photograph. It’s like a kind of blank beauty."

>> The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund judging committee — which this year includes Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, Vogue's Mark Holgate, Jeffrey Kalinsky of Jeffrey and Nordstrom, CFDA executive director Steven Kolb, Reed Krakoff, Andrew Rosen, Diane von Furstenberg, Jenna Lyons, and Anna Wintour — have determined the 2011 finalists. They are:

AA, Antonio Azzuolo
Altuzarra, Joseph Altuzarra
Carlos Campos, Carlos Campos
Creatures of the Wind, Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters
Cushnie Et Ochs, Michelle Ochs and Carly Cushnie
Finn Jewelry, Soraya Silchenstedt
Fenton/Fallon, Dana Lorenz
Ohne Titel, Alexa Adams and Flora Gill
Pamela Love
Suno, Max Osterweis and Erin Beatty

Joseph Altuzarra and Pamela Love are repeat finalists from last year, and Ohne Titel was a finalist in 2009. The winner and two runners-up will be announced Nov. 14.

>> CFDA, New York City Join to Subsidize Fashion Incubator for Emerging Designers —On Monday, New York City's Bloomberg administration announced that it will be subsidizing rent for a 10,000 square foot fashion incubator space; emerging designers will compete for twelve spaces in a showroom building in the garment district, with rent coming in at only $1,500 instead of the current $2,900 market price for a comparable space.  The new tenants will be selected through a competition; winners will be announced in December and move-in — with a lease lasting two years — is expected in February. The applicants must be "working designers," according to CFDA executive director Steven Kolb, who have been in the business for a year and a half, employ a staff, and have both media attention and orders from top retailers. The CFDA also plans on giving the selected designers educational and industry support. [NYTimes City Room]

>> INSIDER WIRE —Late last month, a group of designers, including Narciso Rodriguez, Maria Cornejo, Jason Wu, and Thakoon Panichgul, took a trip to Washington, DC accompanied by CFDA executive director Steven Kolb to lobby for an anti-piracy bill to stop mass retailers from knocking off their ideas.  But when Rick Owens was recently asked if he cares that his look is being rampantly copied, his reply? "No-oo. I guess it's a compliment." [Guardian]