fashionologie

Spring 2010 New York Fashion Week: Ralph Lauren Expands to Three Shows; Two Designers Dare to Overlap with Fashion's Night Out

fashionologie — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:39:01 -0700

>> New York Fashion Week is still over a month away, but Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week just released its official calendar today and the Fashion Calendar - which shows all of the shows not included in the Bryant Park festivities - has appeared online, so we can get an idea of what will be going down in that crazy time period between Sept. 9 and Sept. 17.

Despite the industry's economic doldrums, a few designers are adding an extra show for Spring 2010 - Ralph Lauren is upgrading from two showings to three in his usual morning-of-the-last-day spot; Phillip Lim is following in close friend Richard Chai's footsteps, doing a two separate shows this season, one for men's and one for women's, rather than combining them like he usually does; and Thom Browne, who chose to show his Fall 2009 collection in Florence instead of at New York Fashion Week, is back on the schedule with not one but two shows.

Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld is hosting an event again »

fashionologie — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:36:12 -0800

>> IN PRODUCTION -Last night, Doo.Ri launched her 12-piece lower-priced secondary line, Under.Ligne, full of her trademark draped jersey with some leather pieces mixed in. The line has been a year in the making and hits stores in July. For now, it only comes in gray, black, and white, but she plans on rotating to new colors every season. [Style File, Elle News, Fashionista]

Thakoon Addition: First Look

fashionologie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:34:18 -0800

>> Thakoon Panichgul is one of a few designers working on line expansions - Doo-Ri Chung and Jason Wu included - and Thakoon Addition is his product. The line, which is not diffusion but rather supplementary, focuses on some of the designer's most popular designs and is at the same price point as his runway clothes. As the designer explains it:

Primarily, I see Thakoon Addition as a place to store ideas. In any given season, I’ve got ideas flying around that don’t fit what I’m planning for the runway, but belong somewhere. Now I don’t have to abandon that stuff. And Thakoon Addition can be a home for recurring pieces as well; looks my customers want from me, consistently. Now, maybe I’ll have a chance to experiment more, but at heart I like to make wearable clothes.

The collection, which hits stores May 15, is full of the designer's name-making prints, including florals and leopard, plus dresses and a couple of skirtsuits.
*image: source

Michael Kors, Coco Rocha Uncover Fashion's Nasty Habits at CFDA Health Event

fashionologie — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:45:21 -0700

>> At last night's CFDA-hosted "Beauty of Health" discussion, Michael Kors, Coco Rocha, and casting agent James Scully all stepped up to the plate to address the waning weights of models.

Kors threw in a designer's perspective, suggesting that his peers should "stay away from child-size clothes unless [they're] designing for children," and pointing out that when designers offer such small sample sizes and celebrities starve themselves to fit into them, their super-skinny aesthetic has a far-reaching impact on the general female population. He also advised agents to only send the most suitable girls to castings: “Sending a girl when there's little chance of her being booked throws a 16-year-old into a tizzy. The odds of a girl being booked for my show and Rick Owens’s are slim.”

Next up to the podium was Coco Rocha, who just like Natalia Vodianova and Ali Michael before her, admitted that the job comes with some very unhealthy habits. Two years ago, she weighed 108 pounds (at 5'10"), and yet people were stilling telling her "you need to lose more weight. The look this year is anorexic. We don't want you to be anorexic, we just want you to look it." Even crazier, an agent once advised her to throw up after meals.

Eventually, she submitted to the pressure. "Last season I took diuretic pills. Once I took so many on an empty stomach that I was doubled over for hours. That's the last time I ever did something so terrible to my body." She asked designers to provide healthier food at their shows — "No one wants to be caught with that photo 'Model Eats Cake'" — and to make their fit models, and therefore their sample sizes, bigger — models are humiliated when zippers won't zip up at castings.

Finally, casting agent James Scully advised insiders to consider the weight of their words. "Let's stop treating models like greyhounds we plan to shoot after a race. We have to remember we are dealing with real people who have real feelings."

Francisco Costa, Georgina Chapman, Keren Craig, Donna Karan, Richard Chai, Marcus Wainwright, David Neville, Derek Lam, Doo-Ri Chung, Diane von Furstenberg, Phillip Lim, and Anna Wintour, plus several other Vogue editors, were all in attendance at the event — which leaves quite a few American designers unaccounted for. But as Michael Kors pointed out, designers aren't the only people responsible. "The next one we need to do is about skinny people who work in fashion: editors, buyers, stylists. That’s called ‘Why Does This Sample Fit Me?”

*images: source

Will the CFDA's Health Discussion Tonight Make a Difference?

fashionologie — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:42:12 -0700

>> Tonight is the night the CFDA convenes to hear president Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, and Coco Rocha wax philosophical on "The Beauty of Health: How the fashion industry can make a difference."

The event's expected attendees "include Donna Karan, Francisco Costa, Nicole Miller, Tory Burch, Doo-Ri Chung, Amanda Brooks and Michael Vollbracht." I hope that's only a smattering of who actually attends, considering the lengthy list of CFDA members, because if it's not, how does the CFDA ever expect to make any headway when no one's ready to make a change?

*images: source

Despite a Death in the Family, the CFDA Awards March On

fashionologie — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:05:38 -0700

>> While the "fashion Oscars" are a time for celebration, this year, many attendees had another recent event on their minds - the recently deceased Yves Saint Laurent. In tribute, Diane von Furstenberg wore vintage YSL, Naomi Campbell donned Fall 2008 Saint Laurent, and Ashley Olsen riffed on Le Smoking in her Calvin Klein suit.

As expected, models and designers turned out in droves - Erin Wasson, still in leg cast, was by Alexander Wang's side, and Francisco Costa celebrated his Womenswear win by hugging Eva Mendes tight.

For more of the comings and goings, be sure to check out the gallery below.
*images: source