fashionologie

Robin Givhan Leaves Washington Post After 15 Years for Tina Brown's Newsweek and The Daily Beast

fashionologie — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 12:06:47 PST

>> Robin Givhan, a 15-year Washington Post veteran and fashion editor who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2006, is leaving the paper to join Tina Brown's Newsweek and The Daily Beast as a special correspondent for style and culture. She will continue to be based in DC and begins her new position on Jan. 10.

"I obviously didn't make the decision to leave quickly or without a lot of soul-searching," Givhan told WWD. "I've been a sniffling, blubbering wreck for the last few days. The Post has been an unbelievable place to work. But I think it was time for me to have a new adventure, and Tina's vision of what Newsweek can be is incredibly enticing and, I think, spot-on."

fashionologie — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:02:13 PDT

>> INSIDER WIRE -For those still with jobs, there's a lot of shuffling taking place. Ingrid Sischy and Sandy Brant have just been named international editors at Russian Vogue and Vogue Deutsch; Robin Givhan of The Washington Post is relocating to DC from New York to cover Michelle Obama - she'll continue a fashion-focused weekly column; and Teen Vogue senior fashion editor Aya Kanai is moving to LA. [Hint, WWD, Papermag, Aya T. Kanai Twitter]

John Galliano Previously Refused to Seek Help for Alcohol Issues; Saks Pulls His Men's Collection from Stores

fashionologie — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:06:28 PDT

>> John Galliano is now spending time in rehab in Arizona after he was persuaded to go for alcohol problems. According to the Washington Post, he had been having issues for a while now: "In recent months, according to sources, Galliano had been in a depressive state, his drinking increased voluminously and his work habits became increasingly erratic. Friends and colleagues reportedly urged him to seek help, but he refused. No one staged an intervention."

As for how his designs are faring, retailers are still placing orders. Galliano's spokesman said, "It's business as usual." And Dior reported the same. At Neiman Marcus, fashion director Ken Downing says: "We do not carry Galliano, but we carry Dior and we will continue to do so. Was Galliano's behavior acceptable? No. But we haven't had the sense that the collection itself has been tainted. We came to the European shows to buy clothes that will be in the store in six months, and we haven't lost that focus. It's our business."

At Saks, meanwhile, a rep for the store says that Galliano's Dior collections will remain on sale, but "John Galliano's men's collection, of which we had a small presentation, is no longer on the floor of our New York store."

The industry has generally chided Galliano for his comments, but few have come out as Isaac Mizrahi (who is Jewish) did last night, expressing what Galliano did as unforgivable: "I don’t think he’ll work again. I hope not. I hope he doesn’t work again . . . I guess I’m the wrong one to talk to, because I never really liked sort of what he did so much. I liked better what [Alexander] McQueen did. I liked better what Vivienne Westwood did. So now I don’t like it, and he’s a Jew hater? I was like, buh-bye."

And will the downfall of Galliano and the suicide of McQueen - and even the reticence of Tom Ford to take the big stage again like he once did at Gucci - usher in a new type of fashion designer? The Washington Post points out: "Today, only a handful of star artistic-directors-for-hire remains at the helm of big luxury brands, including [Marc] Jacobs at Vuitton and [Karl] Lagerfeld at Chanel. Instead, fashion executives are hiring young, unknown and inexpensive designers with shorter contracts and a business background to churn out big-selling products season after season, and are reaping the fame and fortune for themselves."

What Did Anna Wintour Do For Thanksgiving?

fashionologie — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:58:23 PST

>> No Thanksgiving break for Anna Wintour: on Thanksgiving morning, she was spotted being shown around the Shanghai Museum. Wintour also made a stop by Vogue China's offices last week, and spoke with Vogue China's editor Angelica Cheung and Vogue's Mark Holgate and Sylvana Soto-Ward at a forum held at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

There, she noted: "China is becoming an increasingly important market. Everywhere you go there is this great drumroll that started five years ago of ‘what do you think about China?’ We decided it was time to make our own visit and to form our own opinions. In a way, American brands are a bit behind coming to China compared to the European brands, and I wanted to encourage them all to visit and open stores here."

On a Eastern influence-related note, Wintour recently told The Washington Post: "Right now, it seems as though we are experiencing a wave of Asian models, and while there is certainly a strong African American presence with Joan Smalls, Jourdan Dunn and Chanel Iman, sadly we don't see as many African American models as we could." (Though it's worth noting that Jourdan Dunn is British and Joan Smalls is Puerto Rican.)

And it sounds like at her Beijing talk, Wintour brought her sense of humor with - when an audience member asked her about The Devil Wears Prada, she apparently replied that she "found the movie highly entertaining and it’s true, of course, that I beat all my assistants, lock them in a cupboard and don’t pay them!”

Francisco Costa Wants to Do Street Casting at Calvin Klein; Maria Cornejo Thinks the Press "Kills Things Before They Happen"

fashionologie — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:27:51 PDT

>> Francisco Costa, Maria Cornejo, and Yoehlee Teng touched on everything from model casting to celebrity dressing to eco fashion last Thursday night at the Cooper-Hewitt museum in New York as part of the “Voices in American Fashion” panel, moderated by The Washington Post's Robin Givhan.

Costa, who is known for his unique show casting, voiced one vision for a Calvin Klein show that he hasn't yet fulfilled - street casting. "I wish to be able to just go into the streets and just start going. As a concept, I would love to do that someday."

Cornejo rebutted: "I have to say, the first show I did in New York, I did have all real people, only one model, and it bombed. The editors do not want to see the clothes on real women. It's more exciting for them [to see the clothes on models]. They want to be able to say: 'Oh, I shot her last week.'"

Both designers agree, however, when it comes to using young models »

Ashley Olsen, Robin Givhan, and Isaac Mizrahi Talk Skinny Models, Celebrity Designers, and Runway Diversity

fashionologie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:51:36 PDT

>> Last night at the 92nd Street Y in New York, Ashley Olsen, the Washington Post's Robin Givhan, and Isaac Mizrahi gathered to chat with Glamour's Cindi Leive about the "Future of Fashion." Ashley, dressed in a long dress - a production sample from The Row - told Glamour backstage: "I'm actually not very comfortable with public speaking, and that was something I told myself I'd work on - getting out more and doing some public speaking."

Her "number one teammate," sister Mary-Kate, and boyfriend Justin Bartha were in the audience to cheer her on as she doled out tidbits like The Row's clients are an average age of 50, she thinks girls with small budgets who want to be fashionable should shop vintage, and she loves her Toms shoes: "So comfortable." Isaac Mizrahi helped keep the tone light - at one point, he took of his shoes to show off his toes, painted a "day-glo pumpkin" color, but the panel did delve into some heavy topics.

The highlights »

fashionologie — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:29:10 PST

>> BLOWING THE COVER -There's still no news on Michelle Obama attending Fashion Week, but it's finally been confirmed that she's appearing on the March 2009 cover of Vogue - in magenta Jason Wu, no less. Inside, her two of her other favorites from her own wardrobe - Narciso Rodriguez and J.Crew - get play. The two portraits were, as suspected, taken by Annie Leibovitz at the Hay-Adams Hotel in January - no pictures are out until tomorrow, but the Washington Post has plenty of descriptory detail. [WashPo, Fashionista]

UPDATE: The cover! [Style.com]

*image: source

Stylista Starts Off Tonight With Less Than a Bang

fashionologie — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:04:16 PDT

>> Elle's first major foray into TV - aside from a long-running but now defunct Project Runway sponsorship - premieres tonight, and the reviews are in. Fashion news director Anne Slowey has restyled herself from a reasonable person to someone more cold-hearted, working in an obviously staged Elle office. For the so-called reality show Stylista is supposed to be, there are an awful lot of facades going on, but one thing is real - the critics have spoken, and while there are no caustic words, the general feeling seems to be apathy: "Oh, another reality show? Ho-hum."

The Washington Post:

Stylista is - what is the phrase? - like a little tick that you want to flick off, but it's no worse than other reality games that have come before and will come after. It celebrates and elevates life's most trivial drivel, but if that were a crime, reality television would quickly go the way of the crooked quiz shows of the '50s.

"It is exactly the same as every other gimme-a-job reality show . . ." »