In what were quite possibly the most polar-opposite red-carpet reviews of the year, Vogue editor André Leon Talley praised last night’s Oscar fashion for its “sensational sweep of elegant yet hot dresses,” while Times fashion critic Eric Wilson sniffed that “many women were wearing dresses that were, well, as plain and flat as the carpet beneath their feet.”

Among the trends that rustled down the red carpet were nude and neutral-colored gowns with accents of feather and tulle. Talley couldn’t get enough of the trend, as worn by Halle Berry, Hillary Swank, and Hailee Steinfeld (one of his “best-dressed ladies” of the evening, along with Michelle Williams in a “superb column” by Chanel). Wilson, on the other hand, called Williams’s frock a “blahsy white T-shirt dress covered in white beading.”

He was equally unimpressed by what little glitz he did see:

There was a bit of a sparkle trend happening, to the point that some of the gowns looked like they might be more appropriate for competitive ice skating, like Mandy Moore’s gold beaded dress with an illusion neckline, Monique Lhuillier, or Hilary Swank in silver sequins and frothy feathers from Gucci.”

Another trend that made almost as many appearances as Colin Firth’s face was the color red. While Talley applauded Jennifer Lawrence for “looking like the 20-year-old star that she is” in a simple Calvin Klein creation and Sandra Bullock for her “to die for” Vera Wang strapless gown (both in the popular hue), Wilson was much less enthused by the two stars’ picks. He called Lawrence’s dress a “tomato-red Calvin Klein design that looked about as complicated as a one-piece bathing suit” and thought that Bullock “looked a little dated.”

Other disagreements on the fashion front came by way of Amy Adams (Talley: hit; Wilson: miss) and Gwyneth Paltrow (more of the same). The two critics were on the same page with a few things, though: Talley disapproved of Nicole Kidman’s Dior ensemble, noting that her red shoes looked “random”; Wilson thought the dress “looked like the front of a train coming down the red carpet. Look out!” Mila Kunis’s lavender Elie Saab was perhaps too sexy, per both critics, and Natalie Portman’s Rodarte dress looked, well, good. For Talley that meant “elegant,” and for Wilson, “great” — though it’s hard to say exactly how “great” when his lasting impression of Portman was that he “kind of wanted her to work that bump like Snooki does.” This is probably not what the Oscar winner was going for, but hey — a half-compliment from Wilson last night was almost as hard to come by as an Oscar itself.

Plain Jane Glamour Rules the Red Carpet
André Leon Talley on the 2011 Academy Awards Red Carpet

That said, for the non-exact nature of figuring this out, if you don’t want to wait for your fortune it probably comes as no surprise that technology is your best bet and is tied for the lowest average billionaire age (thanks, Facebook billionaires) with metal and mining. So if it’s young money you’re after, pick up a mine or two while you wait for your social network or search engine to catch on. You’ll be making the other billionaires feel like slackers in no time.

That’s not where the biggest money is though. Perhaps surprising to some is that fashion and retail (which includes grocery stores), is the category that accounts for the most cumulative wealth. More than investments, more than finance and more than technology. Selling actual, physical stuff to consumers is still your best bet of making money. Oh, and for those who noticed Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficking leader Joaquin Guzman Loera on the big list (he falls under “logistics”)? {Forbes} Stick to the legal, actual, physical stuff like fashion or food. Not only is the life expectancy better, in the long run so are the profits. You never know though, maybe Loera’s already diversified by blinging out weapons.

Now what if it’s easy (relatively speaking) wealth you’re after? Gaming has relatively few billionaires, and on average they’re kind of old. The amount of competition is comparatively small, most will be retiring in general or retiring to that great casino in the sky, so this is a prime market to go after. How to go after it? Well, that’s up to you and probably a bit of genetic fortune. If you missed out on being born into a dynasty, your next best bet is to marry into one. If that still doesn’t work, there’s always the do-it-yourself model. We’ll give you a few pointers on that once we appear on the list rather than doing the grunt work of analyzing it. Off to the single billionaires list it is then.

How to Make the Forbes Billionaire List: Young, Big & Easy Billions by YM Ousley originally appeared on Signature9

Of all the industries to learn that every company has to become a media company, the fashion industry wouldn’t instinctively leap out as an early adapter. It has been built on telling the consumer what to wear and perpetuating the “art” of design. Anyone who has looked at what clothing designs will become “hot” in the new season can see that they will never fit in those designs unless they skip eating for three month and work out at their local gym daily.

But, in fact, the fashion industry has embraced digital media and is basking in its new, more direct, “relationship” with its customers. It is using digital media to tell a much more interesting story about what it is offering, to take an enhanced version of its traditional “runway” presentation directly to the public, to all their customers to experiment with and customize their products and to learn what their customers are buying and aren’t buying, and why.

Gucci began selling out of it’s own online store nine years ago, but has since make itself a presence on every possible platform, from social networks to apps. In recent years it has devoted microsites to product lines from eye wear to watches. It uses these various touch points to engage their customers in more than just buying.

Gucci began live streaming of its spring 2011 runway show. To give online viewers the full taste of the event, they were told to sign up for virtual tickets for the online even and compete for “VIP” seating through a contest on Facebook. You can even recreate the rejection of not getting great seats!

Users were encourage to upload photos of themselves wearing Gucci glasses on one site and create personalized videos on Facebook using clips of various eye wear models. More than 5,500 videos have been created on the Facebook page, which has more than 3 million friends.

But it’s not all fun and games. It’s sales. Gucci President and CEO Patrizio di Marco told Womens Wear Daily that the newly updated Gucci.com, which draws about 3 million visits a month, “willl become our highest volume store in the world”

Ralph Lauren has been another pioneer into digital media from the fashion world. From the early stages, Polo has been an aggressive player on several fronts, creating multiple sites and apps around specific products and audiences. It’s latest is its first RLX app, which features athletes wearing the RLX line and gives the user a unique understanding of what the clothing is designed to do. The free IPad app uses the device’s compass, GPS and touch screen to help the user play with the “experience” of using the clothes. “This application places the user in the driver’s seat so that they can control the technical functions of the apparel and experience the brand in a way that is visually entertaining,” Polo executive David Lauren told WWD.

Another particularly interesting, and interactive, player has been Cinique’s new IPad Skin Diagnostic Tool for the sales counter, which allows a user to test for foundation and color cosmetics while seeing product information and user reviews of the products. It answers questions individuals skin and produces a personal analysis from consumers, including product recommendations. The device has resulted in an average sales jump of 30% wherever it is installed.

The company is also using its presence in Bloomingdales in NYC to test its new “Smart Bar”, which uses Microsoft’s Surface technology and a new large touch screen embedded in a counter top to identify a product when it is waved overhead and bring up information about that product on the screen. And, Clinique has also created a virtual makeup mirror on its website that allows the user to download a picture of their face, and simulate a product demonstration on that picture. According to Clinique, 50 percent of in-store purchases are influenced by online information.

Perhaps the most interesting technology development in the fashion business comes from Google, who probably employs the least fashionable workforce in the world. Google build Boutiques.com, which tracks consumers shopping behavior. Besides attracting tens of millions of users to hundreds of thousands of online boutiques that have been set up on the site.

What Google has done for the industry is set up a digital listening post. By providing “Designer Analytics,” Google gives the boutique owners a deep dive into the habits of shoppers, telling them not just what they are buying, but why. They are given information about what specific products are “loved” or “hated”, what colors, shapes and patterns are resonating or not. Then there is a totally different, and broader, data set on the consumer trends. Here the designers learn what is happening in the aggregate to all designers, not just themselves. So industry trends in color, shapes and patterns can emerge from the general public.

Besides helping the designers find their audience, Boutiques.com is also designed to help the shopper find what he or she is looking for.

Google describes the service on the site this way:

“Boutiques.com is a personalized shopping experience, brought to you by Google, that lets you find and discover fashion goods through a collection of boutiques curated by taste-makers — celebrities, stylists, designers, and fashion bloggers. Boutiques uses visual technology to help fashionistas discover and shop their look and creates the opportunity for designers to showcase their collections and latest inspirations online.

“Boutiques.com is built on technology developed by our team of fashion experts who work with engineers to “teach” our computer systems to understand various patterns, pairings, and genre definitions. When signed into your account, Boutiques.com learns about your style and preferences and in turn, provides you better results and recommendations over time. Ultimately, Boutiques.com will provide shoppers with a much richer and interactive shopping experience and help drive traffic to retailers’ websites.”

This is a brilliant move on Google’s part to improve the experience of both sellers and buyers in a specific marketplace — fashion — and in doing so create a spot for itself, Google, to build a business as an enabler.

In all of the examples above, technological advances are enabling companies in an industry – in this case fashion — to behave more like media companies in how they communicate their message and interact with their customers. They learn to use communication skills directly instead of indirectly through media and advertising.

In the end, it can improve upon and to some extent, ultimately displace the existing marketplace and its infrastructure, including retailers and traditional marketing outlets and media. It allows the Internet to do what it does best: match buyers and sellers and squeeze middlemen.

The critics were largely impressed with the showing on the Milan runways, from the vivid color palette at Gucci to Jil Sander’s risky silhouettes.

THE HITS:
Fendi
• “The last few Fendi collections have seen Mr. Lagerfeld at his best, offering a level of fashion that is sophisticated and subtle… To be sure, a Fendi fur is an expensive rarity. But no less rare is the sensibility.”

• “A highly conceptual yet thoroughly chic collection…the look had tremendous elan…there was a surrealist quality to this show, where the combinations of unexpected materials had a hallucinatory effect.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “his was one of Fendi’s strongest showings yet, in an escalating series of convincing fashion performances…From prim to pagan and back again, there was an emotional arc here that even the ever-matter-of-fact Lagerfeld couldn’t deny.”

• “Though one expects spectacular from the house of Fendi, this lineup nevertheless amazed…Feminine and practical? Chez Fendi, absolutely.”

• “Individually, each piece was remarkable only in its high quality – but together the look was confidence itself…There was a playfulness to the show…The last look was austere with a suggestion of letting loose: a Lagerfeld woman to a tee.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fendi Fall 2011 Collection

Jil Sander
• “I especially liked that the show set my mind churning, and also had a weird suspense…[the clothes] were completely contemporary, engaging, with a distinct palette…Above all, you had the impression that the talented Mr. Simons was doing exactly what he wanted to do.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “is collection for Jil Sander twisted together extremes as unlikely as the volumes of Cristobal Balenciaga and the body consciousness of downhill racers… gloriously mutant collection.”

• “Challenging clothes — thank God! Because fashion needs challenge…Raf Simons delivered another stunner, one all about cut, shape and zero models — only panache…By working his collection around major volume and bold, Simons is taking a firm stance against mass luxury.”

• “he entire show was a natural step from the last – a wearable way to wear the volume he introduced for the current season…There were some seriously wearable clothes…exaggerated volume that still somehow didn’t look silly.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Jil Sander Fall 2011 Collection

MIXED:
Versace
• “he collection didn’t vibrate with that extra feeling. Still, this was a solid showing of sharp tailoring, with belted coats streaked with gold buttons, and imaginative use of baroque motifs…All in all, the collection had a bossy elegance.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “t the house of Donatella Versace, one can enjoy a racy counterblast of sizzling, faintly fetishistic chic – and be all the better for it… Joe McKenna helped sculpt and filter a very fine Versace collection into a timely, redolent and concise message. Versace really rocked this season. Gianni would have been very proud.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “It was simple and strong, exactly what Donatella wanted…But what might look most seductive to customers next fall is the military influence…These looks were so immediate that they had a curious side effect: The eveningwear that is a Versace mainstay came across as almost an afterthought.”

• “n engaging collection that exuded sleek restraint without scrimping on glamour.”

• ” supremely glossy Versace show…Donatella couldn’t deny us a few megawatt dresses.” [Vogue UK]

• “It wasn’t as aggressively flashy as we’ve come to expect from Donatella in recent seasons, but it packed plenty of attitude…Power dressing, all the way.” [Fashion Week Daily]

See the Complete Versace Fall 2011 Collection

Gucci
• “You can’t argue with the stylishness of Frida Giannini’s collection for Gucci, and why would you? Giannini’s fur-plumped silhouette, soft neck-tie blouses and gauchos are hard to beat. And smeared together, the teal, lilac, emerald green and rust are pretty delicious.”

• “his collection was ultimately a significant success for Giannini. Why? Because she recuperated the glamour of Gucci on her own terms…That said, as a show the event lacked punch. A pretentious soundtrack, formulaic casting, less than judicious hairstyle (most models wore hackneyed, crinkly hair extensions) did not do justice to a powerful collection.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “oming off a Spring season where so many designers were indebted to [the seventies], this collection lacked the shock of the new. Still, you can’t fault the luxe factor of today’s show or the fact that there was so much wantable, wearable fashion on the runway.”

• “On one level, Frida Giannini’s overt ode to Yves Saint Laurent could be seen as a quizzical choice. Yet Giannini made it work, translating some of fashion’s most mined material into a feisty lineup that, while not inventive, was all Gucci in its bravado.”

• “Still super hot glamorous, this was a much more accessible Gucci…The finale of chiffon dresses smothered in petals of contrasting colours suggested that [the Gucci woman] is a romantic soul too – adding a welcome softness to a woman who rarely shows a vulnerable side.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Gucci Fall 2011 Collection

Prada
• “This collection was as clear as if she had spelled it out on the blackboard. Most of the dresses were appealing and coyly seductive… Ultimately, though, it’s a narrow collection, not especially challenging, and the above-the-knee lengths and cute sock-like boots with sparkly pinks would turn a knobby-knee 40-year-old into a dunce.”

• “his was a particularly beautiful collection…Every outfit was startling new – spruce, slick and self-confident…[The sequined dresses] all looked sensational.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “t was hard to take Prada to task for a potential retreat to the elevation of—what would be for most of her customers—unattainable girlishness…But were the girls serpents or mermaids? It was the kind of question that leaves a Prada audience uncertain about spontaneous responses.”

• “If Prada is proposing that women feign innocence and dress like overindulged majorettes, why? Because, just like injectable fillers and core-strengthening classes, a Peter Pan collar helps women deny the ultimately futile notion that we can turn back time? …For fall she did indeed go girlish. But show us the chic woman who couldn’t find a winning coat in this lineup.”

• “Tonight’s clothes were not as radical as at some Prada events…but they were beautiful and wearable and had the Prada unmistakability – and we really, really want them already.” [Vogue UK]

• “For those of you who thought the fur and stripes and monkeys couldn’t be beat: sorry. Miuccia Prada’s breathtaking Fall collection proved, yet again, that her only competition is herself.” [Daily Front Row]

See the Complete Prada Fall 2011 Collection

In what were quite possibly the most polar-opposite red-carpet reviews of the year, Vogue editor André Leon Talley praised last night’s Oscar fashion for its “sensational sweep of elegant yet hot dresses,” while Times fashion critic Eric Wilson sniffed that “many women were wearing dresses that were, well, as plain and flat as the carpet beneath their feet.”

Among the trends that rustled down the red carpet were nude and neutral-colored gowns with accents of feather and tulle. Talley couldn’t get enough of the trend, as worn by Halle Berry, Hillary Swank, and Hailee Steinfeld (one of his “best-dressed ladies” of the evening, along with Michelle Williams in a “superb column” by Chanel). Wilson, on the other hand, called Williams’s frock a “blahsy white T-shirt dress covered in white beading.”

He was equally unimpressed by what little glitz he did see:

There was a bit of a sparkle trend happening, to the point that some of the gowns looked like they might be more appropriate for competitive ice skating, like Mandy Moore’s gold beaded dress with an illusion neckline, Monique Lhuillier, or Hilary Swank in silver sequins and frothy feathers from Gucci.”

Another trend that made almost as many appearances as Colin Firth’s face was the color red. While Talley applauded Jennifer Lawrence for “looking like the 20-year-old star that she is” in a simple Calvin Klein creation and Sandra Bullock for her “to die for” Vera Wang strapless gown (both in the popular hue), Wilson was much less enthused by the two stars’ picks. He called Lawrence’s dress a “tomato-red Calvin Klein design that looked about as complicated as a one-piece bathing suit” and thought that Bullock “looked a little dated.”

Other disagreements on the fashion front came by way of Amy Adams (Talley: hit; Wilson: miss) and Gwyneth Paltrow (more of the same). The two critics were on the same page with a few things, though: Talley disapproved of Nicole Kidman’s Dior ensemble, noting that her red shoes looked “random”; Wilson thought the dress “looked like the front of a train coming down the red carpet. Look out!” Mila Kunis’s lavender Elie Saab was perhaps too sexy, per both critics, and Natalie Portman’s Rodarte dress looked, well, good. For Talley that meant “elegant,” and for Wilson, “great” — though it’s hard to say exactly how “great” when his lasting impression of Portman was that he “kind of wanted her to work that bump like Snooki does.” This is probably not what the Oscar winner was going for, but hey — a half-compliment from Wilson last night was almost as hard to come by as an Oscar itself.

Plain Jane Glamour Rules the Red Carpet
André Leon Talley on the 2011 Academy Awards Red Carpet

That said, for the non-exact nature of figuring this out, if you don’t want to wait for your fortune it probably comes as no surprise that technology is your best bet and is tied for the lowest average billionaire age (thanks, Facebook billionaires) with metal and mining. So if it’s young money you’re after, pick up a mine or two while you wait for your social network or search engine to catch on. You’ll be making the other billionaires feel like slackers in no time.

That’s not where the biggest money is though. Perhaps surprising to some is that fashion and retail (which includes grocery stores), is the category that accounts for the most cumulative wealth. More than investments, more than finance and more than technology. Selling actual, physical stuff to consumers is still your best bet of making money. Oh, and for those who noticed Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficking leader Joaquin Guzman Loera on the big list (he falls under “logistics”)? {Forbes} Stick to the legal, actual, physical stuff like fashion or food. Not only is the life expectancy better, in the long run so are the profits. You never know though, maybe Loera’s already diversified by blinging out weapons.

Now what if it’s easy (relatively speaking) wealth you’re after? Gaming has relatively few billionaires, and on average they’re kind of old. The amount of competition is comparatively small, most will be retiring in general or retiring to that great casino in the sky, so this is a prime market to go after. How to go after it? Well, that’s up to you and probably a bit of genetic fortune. If you missed out on being born into a dynasty, your next best bet is to marry into one. If that still doesn’t work, there’s always the do-it-yourself model. We’ll give you a few pointers on that once we appear on the list rather than doing the grunt work of analyzing it. Off to the single billionaires list it is then.

How to Make the Forbes Billionaire List: Young, Big & Easy Billions by YM Ousley originally appeared on Signature9

James Franco Told Frida Giannini He’s Making A Gucci Film

by Julia Rubin | 5:25 pm, February 19th, 2011

The March issue of Harper’s Bazaar just won’t quit…and it hasn’t even hit newsstands yet. In addition to pieces on Kim and Liz, Prabal and DVF, Daphne and Hillary,  the magazine also features an interview James Franco conducted with his friend Frida Giannini.

The Gucci creative director dished on all sorts of things with the actor/director/soap star/student/overachiever who had this to say about the designer: ”Frida and I have been in sync since we met. I love her work, and she supports mine. Creatively, I know we will always be in line with each other.” (Also, Franco joked that his next project is “making a documentary about you and Gucci.” But we just don’t know if he’s kidding.)

On Gucci’s pragmatism:

JF: When you see the clothes at a fashion show, sometimes they’re more extreme than what you see in the store, right?

FG: Well, not always at Gucci. I believe what we are showing on the catwalk needs to be in the stores. The big stores like in New York or London or Paris, the main flagships, they always have the entire collection–even the extreme pieces. There are people who are waiting for the extreme pieces from the fashion show. We are not the kind of company that thinks, Okay, I’ll do something for the runway, and I’ll make an entire new collection to sell.

FG: Chanel is always doing incredible sets, and they change it every time. We’d rather spend money on other things than make a big, spectacular thing you would see for 10 minutes because we are working for six months on a collection.

On fashion globalism:

JF: So then, because Gucci is all over the world and you’re thinking about people actually wearing these clothes, do you have to think slightly differently for each part of the world?

FG: I never think about it because I think people in the world, from the U.S. to Asia, love Gucci because it’s about aspiration. I don’t think if I made a speciic collection for a Chinese woman, she would be happy. They don’t want something speciic for them. I did a collection that was very Russian, inspired by the artists in Russia in the ’20s and ’30s who left and went to Paris. It performed very well all over the world–except in Russia.

JF: And why, do you think?

FG: I talked to the managers in Russia, and they said they didn’t like the reference to them. So this is an example that was quite strange. Maybe if I make a collection inspired by India, with the colors of India, people in India won’t like it.

On criticism:

JF: I know Harper’s Bazaar is here listening to us, but if you’re criticized heavily in a big fashion magazine, does that have any real effect on sales or what people like?

FG: The first couple of seasons, I was in shock sometimes because I had very mixed reviews, especially because it was right after Tom Ford. Can you imagine the pressure? I am a woman; he is a man. I am Italian; he is American. Very, very different. Now I am much more relaxed; sometimes I receive very bad criticism and read between the lines of the bad reviews.

Sometimes I have thought it was a good suggestion for me because I know that the journalist has a great mind and has much more experience than me. Generally speaking, I’m very open to criticism. I will never say, “I had a bad review from you; I don’t want to meet you anymore.” I believe in what I am doing, and I believe in my ideas, but I think it is very constructive to be open to understanding other thoughts.

[Harper's Bazaar]

Get Styleite directly to your inbox,
on Twitter,
and on Facebook!

Frida Giannini Frida Giannini Gucci Frida Giannini Harper’s Bazaar Gucci Harper’s Bazaar Harper’s Bazaar March 2011 james franco James Franco Frida Giannini James Franco Harper’s Bazaar

• The Cut
  The Michelle Obama Look Book 2011
• The Cut
  Rick Genest Is Not Tattooed Quite Everywhere, But Probably Will Be Someday
• The Cut
  That’s a Very Bright Pink Dress, Kristen Davis
• The Cut
  Riccardo Tisci Took the Givenchy Job So His Mom Could Keep Her House
• The Cut
  The ‘Bloggers Walk’ at Paris Fashion Week ‘Is Now Completely Out of Control’
• The Cut
  Alexander Wang Did Half of an Interview With His Shirt on Backward
• The Cut
  Mario Testino Shot Anna Wintour for the Cover of WSJ. Magazine
• The Cut
  See the Full Keira Knightley Video for Coco Mademoiselle; Sasha Pivovarova Got a Bowl Cut for Korean Vogue
• The Cut
  Tom Ford HAS MORE STUFF TO SAY!!!!!!
• The Cut
  Judy Collinson Has Been Working at Anthropologie for the Past Month
• The Cut
  Slideshow: Tour the New Issue of Melissa Shoes’ Magazine, Plastic Dreams
• The Cut
  Christian Louboutin Hates Bridge Games, the Word Comfy, Clogs
• The Cut
  The Gastineau Girls Went on HSN at 2 a.m. Today to Sell Their Jewelry Line
• The Cut
  Here Is a Car Made Out of a Giant Leather Shoe
• The Cut
  Blake Lively Does Not Plan to Design Her Own Line
• The Cut
  Cathy Horyn: The Galliano Scandal ‘Wore Everyone Down in the End’
• The Cut
  Tomorrow’s Events and Sales: Housing Works Opens a New Store on the UWS; Last Chance on Designer Furniture at Room & Board
• The Cut
  Hedi Slimane Calls Red-Carpet Dressing ‘an Ongoing Tragedy of Cheap Fashion on Cheap Celebrities, Followed by Ubercheap Comments’
• The Cut
  Lady Gaga’s i-D Editorial; Hamish Bowles’s Basketball Game With Amar’e Stoudemire
• The Cut
  Franca Sozzani Blames Facebook and Pro-Anorexia Websites for the Rise of Eating Disorders
• The Cut
  Best Bet: Domestic Construction Mats
• The Cut
  Emmanuelle Alt’s French Vogue to Include a Lot More Clothes, a Lot Fewer Boobs
• The Cut
  Slideshow: The Week in Street Style
• The Cut
  You MUST See Natalia Vodianova’s Fascinator
• The Cut
  First Look: Kathy Lo’s Whimsical New Photo Book, Kiss (X)

We understand you’d like to delete your account. If you delete your account all of your information including your comments, messages, posts, and friends and followers associations will be removed from our system. Please consider the following options before clicking delete.

If you’re concerned about your public identity on site you can change both your username or your display name. Your display name is the name that is publicly visible to other users. Your username is what you login with and is in your profile url. Both can be edited by going to your profile then clicking “Edit Profile.”

If you still wish to completely delete your account, click the Delete Account button below. Your account will be locked, and your information will be wiped from our servers within 30 days.

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

We understand you’d like to delete your account. If you delete your account all of your information including your comments, messages, posts, and friends and followers associations will be removed from our system. Please consider the following options before clicking delete.

If you’re concerned about your public identity on site you can change both your username or your display name. Your display name is the name that is publicly visible to other users. Your username is what you login with and is in your profile url. Both can be edited by going to your profile then clicking “Edit Profile.”

If you still wish to completely delete your account, click the Delete Account button below. Your account will be locked, and your information will be wiped from our servers within 30 days.

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

leave smoking

We understand you’d like to delete your account. If you delete your account all of your information including your comments, messages, posts, and friends and followers associations will be removed from our system. Please consider the following options before clicking delete.

If you’re concerned about your public identity on site you can change both your username or your display name. Your display name is the name that is publicly visible to other users. Your username is what you login with and is in your profile url. Both can be edited by going to your profile then clicking “Edit Profile.”

If you still wish to completely delete your account, click the Delete Account button below. Your account will be locked, and your information will be wiped from our servers within 30 days.

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

We understand you’d like to delete your account. If you delete your account all of your information including your comments, messages, posts, and friends and followers associations will be removed from our system. Please consider the following options before clicking delete.

If you’re concerned about your public identity on site you can change both your username or your display name. Your display name is the name that is publicly visible to other users. Your username is what you login with and is in your profile url. Both can be edited by going to your profile then clicking “Edit Profile.”

If you still wish to completely delete your account, click the Delete Account button below. Your account will be locked, and your information will be wiped from our servers within 30 days.

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

leave smoking

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

On the last leg of the fall shows, reviews have been mixed — critics were often at odds in their takes on the same collection. From Ungaro’s take-no-prisoners temptresses to Givenchy’s “peculiar” panther motif, read what they’ve loved and despised on the Paris runways thus far.

THE HITS:
Chanel
• “he clothes were resolutely contemporary, more masculine than froufrou Chanel… you sensed Mr. Lagerfeld wanting to give Chanel a younger, street attitude. Not so sure about the spree of black, semi-transparent jumpsuits for evening.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel ignited the autumn 2011 fashion season…It was a somber, but perhaps visionary, Chanel show from Mr. Lagerfeld, who seemed to have captured more powerfully than any other designer this turbulent, unsettling fashion moment.”

• “verall, the mood was almost funereal for evening. Chanel’s atelier did wow with some delicate gray leaves on smoky chiffon tops or long delicate lace and fabric flower and feathered columns…the opening looks of jackets worn with loose fitting wide pants immediately made for a new Chanel silhouette that will appeal to a younger audience.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “And a moment it was. While the set unintentionally played to the dark mood still weighing on Paris, its true purpose was a fashion clue: Say au revoir to chichi, ladies!… jackets looked new and savvy…[tweed gowns] were equal part audacity and allure.”

• “Aside from the mesmerizing scenario, the collection’s genius lay in Lagerfeld’s supernatural prescience about the way a lot of young women want to dress now, mixing the street with enough high fashion fantasy to make the result seem rich and strange.”

• “Dramatic in the extreme, it had a serious, post-apocalyptic feel…One quilted, rubberised felt boiler suit was a flash of humour in an otherwise uncharacteristically serious show.” [Vogue UK]

MIXED:
Stella McCartney
• ” is a modern, practical woman who likes her fashion that way too: high style sans fuss, yet with plenty of diversity as suits her moods and needs. If that approach made for a slightly disjoined fall collection, it was one filled with terrific clothes.”

• “t was interesting for Ms. McCartney, who isn’t known for straying far from her brand comfort zone, to take these sexual identities to such extremes…if I had to choose a winner in her show on Monday, I would pick the skillful-looking vamp. In offering that style, Ms. McCartney came out of herself a little.”

• “Good for for taking a leap today, but not every look landed on solid ground… took on proportions that can only be likened to David Byrne in Stop Making Sense mode…[hourglass dresses] more reliably captured the sexy McCartney spirit.”

• “The season’s play on menswear for girls puts Stella in her element…Stella really wants you to WEAR her clothes – but practical and boyish, and recognisable, as she can be, there were new ideas and some seriously sexy dresses going on too…The accessories were as good as ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Stella McCartney Collection.

Ungaro
• “The problem for Giles Deacon at Ungaro is painfully obvious. He doesn’t have a female body or personality in mind when he’s designing. Instead, he has abstract notions of Parisian mistresses and decadence…Mr. Deacon creates a cardboard provocativeness, not much better than a London sex shop…There is just not a guiding vision here.”

• “Deacon’s take on sexy is rigorous and strict, yet done with a couturelike sensibility…these clothes are for take-no-prisoners women who know how to wield a stiletto…Were Deacon’s temptresses tempting? To a large degree, yes, although how that ultralacquered seduction fits into the larger vision at Ungaro remains to be seen. Ditto those exhibitionists-only see-through lace dresses and pants.”

• “he new Ungaro woman is a tough broad…Reinventing a founder’s work isn’t the only way to move a heritage brand into the future, but Deacon’s sexpot doesn’t necessarily look like the way forward either.”

• “hese mistresses work hard and accept only the very best…[sheer dresses and trousers] were only for the perfect of body – but they showed it in the very best light. If you haven’t borrowed anybody’s husband yet, these clothes make it tempting to try.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Ungaro Collection.

Givenchy
• “t’s hard to relate to fashion personally, and maybe it’s because he doesn’t have the skill or the patience to focus on fundamental things, like shapes or how to make fabrics work on the body… Mr. Tisci remains on the surface, forcing ideas but not really changing your eye about clothes.”

• “t felt like a breath of fresh air to attend the latest collection of Givenchy, where sexuality, seduction and suggestiveness were allowed to bloom…There was a marvelous sense of concision about this show…Where before Givenchy shows were more mixed arty affairs, this show sizzled… demandingly clever collection.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• ” fall lineup felt unexpected, striking and, ultimately, a little peculiar…It intrigued even as it sometimes baffled…Subtract the cats and the dominant message was sleek subversion…[but the panthers, baseball caps, and fuzzy glasses] seemed born out of irony.”

• “If confidence counts, he’s got the gig…The laser focus of it all was impressive. You wound up seduced, even if there’s little chance of seeing a real girl in getup…That’s the funny thing about Tisci: He’s got the vision thing, but it’s individual pieces that end up selling.”

• “Usually we expect sophisticated gothic from him, infused with romance and S&M in equal measure – it’s a clever recipe and one that he manages to make completely different every time. This time it was more so than ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Givenchy Collection.

Hermès
• “t was a start…Perhaps the collection suffered from too-muchness, a heaviness, and the bottom half of outfits seemed to impart no sense of style or direction…[But ] with some pruning, it could make a difference with its women’s fashion.”

• “Christophe Lemaire captured the luxe house spirit perfectly…The clothes, meanwhile, were perfectly serene to match — utterly simple and spare….Lemaire managed to bring the focus back to luxury living and beautiful, quality clothes.”

• “The designer’s access to the Hermès ateliers gave his work here a sophisticated polish that was overwhelming in its creamy, styled-to-the-ultra-max-ness…He also managed to impress his own personality on the collection. What was missing, however, was a sense of the effortless, casual luxury. But that’s the sort of thing that comes with time.”

• “It was a warm, rich collection… It’s luxurious and standalone and Lemaire looks like he’s going to be able to keep it that way.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Hermès Collection.

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

On the last leg of the fall shows, reviews have been mixed — critics were often at odds in their takes on the same collection. From Ungaro’s take-no-prisoners temptresses to Givenchy’s “peculiar” panther motif, read what they’ve loved and despised on the Paris runways thus far.

THE HITS:
Chanel
• “he clothes were resolutely contemporary, more masculine than froufrou Chanel… you sensed Mr. Lagerfeld wanting to give Chanel a younger, street attitude. Not so sure about the spree of black, semi-transparent jumpsuits for evening.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel ignited the autumn 2011 fashion season…It was a somber, but perhaps visionary, Chanel show from Mr. Lagerfeld, who seemed to have captured more powerfully than any other designer this turbulent, unsettling fashion moment.”

• “verall, the mood was almost funereal for evening. Chanel’s atelier did wow with some delicate gray leaves on smoky chiffon tops or long delicate lace and fabric flower and feathered columns…the opening looks of jackets worn with loose fitting wide pants immediately made for a new Chanel silhouette that will appeal to a younger audience.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “And a moment it was. While the set unintentionally played to the dark mood still weighing on Paris, its true purpose was a fashion clue: Say au revoir to chichi, ladies!… jackets looked new and savvy…[tweed gowns] were equal part audacity and allure.”

• “Aside from the mesmerizing scenario, the collection’s genius lay in Lagerfeld’s supernatural prescience about the way a lot of young women want to dress now, mixing the street with enough high fashion fantasy to make the result seem rich and strange.”

• “Dramatic in the extreme, it had a serious, post-apocalyptic feel…One quilted, rubberised felt boiler suit was a flash of humour in an otherwise uncharacteristically serious show.” [Vogue UK]

MIXED:
Stella McCartney
• ” is a modern, practical woman who likes her fashion that way too: high style sans fuss, yet with plenty of diversity as suits her moods and needs. If that approach made for a slightly disjoined fall collection, it was one filled with terrific clothes.”

• “t was interesting for Ms. McCartney, who isn’t known for straying far from her brand comfort zone, to take these sexual identities to such extremes…if I had to choose a winner in her show on Monday, I would pick the skillful-looking vamp. In offering that style, Ms. McCartney came out of herself a little.”

• “Good for for taking a leap today, but not every look landed on solid ground… took on proportions that can only be likened to David Byrne in Stop Making Sense mode…[hourglass dresses] more reliably captured the sexy McCartney spirit.”

• “The season’s play on menswear for girls puts Stella in her element…Stella really wants you to WEAR her clothes – but practical and boyish, and recognisable, as she can be, there were new ideas and some seriously sexy dresses going on too…The accessories were as good as ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Stella McCartney Collection.

Ungaro
• “The problem for Giles Deacon at Ungaro is painfully obvious. He doesn’t have a female body or personality in mind when he’s designing. Instead, he has abstract notions of Parisian mistresses and decadence…Mr. Deacon creates a cardboard provocativeness, not much better than a London sex shop…There is just not a guiding vision here.”

• “Deacon’s take on sexy is rigorous and strict, yet done with a couturelike sensibility…these clothes are for take-no-prisoners women who know how to wield a stiletto…Were Deacon’s temptresses tempting? To a large degree, yes, although how that ultralacquered seduction fits into the larger vision at Ungaro remains to be seen. Ditto those exhibitionists-only see-through lace dresses and pants.”

• “he new Ungaro woman is a tough broad…Reinventing a founder’s work isn’t the only way to move a heritage brand into the future, but Deacon’s sexpot doesn’t necessarily look like the way forward either.”

• “hese mistresses work hard and accept only the very best…[sheer dresses and trousers] were only for the perfect of body – but they showed it in the very best light. If you haven’t borrowed anybody’s husband yet, these clothes make it tempting to try.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Ungaro Collection.

Givenchy
• “t’s hard to relate to fashion personally, and maybe it’s because he doesn’t have the skill or the patience to focus on fundamental things, like shapes or how to make fabrics work on the body… Mr. Tisci remains on the surface, forcing ideas but not really changing your eye about clothes.”

• “t felt like a breath of fresh air to attend the latest collection of Givenchy, where sexuality, seduction and suggestiveness were allowed to bloom…There was a marvelous sense of concision about this show…Where before Givenchy shows were more mixed arty affairs, this show sizzled… demandingly clever collection.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• ” fall lineup felt unexpected, striking and, ultimately, a little peculiar…It intrigued even as it sometimes baffled…Subtract the cats and the dominant message was sleek subversion…[but the panthers, baseball caps, and fuzzy glasses] seemed born out of irony.”

• “If confidence counts, he’s got the gig…The laser focus of it all was impressive. You wound up seduced, even if there’s little chance of seeing a real girl in getup…That’s the funny thing about Tisci: He’s got the vision thing, but it’s individual pieces that end up selling.”

• “Usually we expect sophisticated gothic from him, infused with romance and S&M in equal measure – it’s a clever recipe and one that he manages to make completely different every time. This time it was more so than ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Givenchy Collection.

Hermès
• “t was a start…Perhaps the collection suffered from too-muchness, a heaviness, and the bottom half of outfits seemed to impart no sense of style or direction…[But ] with some pruning, it could make a difference with its women’s fashion.”

• “Christophe Lemaire captured the luxe house spirit perfectly…The clothes, meanwhile, were perfectly serene to match — utterly simple and spare….Lemaire managed to bring the focus back to luxury living and beautiful, quality clothes.”

• “The designer’s access to the Hermès ateliers gave his work here a sophisticated polish that was overwhelming in its creamy, styled-to-the-ultra-max-ness…He also managed to impress his own personality on the collection. What was missing, however, was a sense of the effortless, casual luxury. But that’s the sort of thing that comes with time.”

• “It was a warm, rich collection… It’s luxurious and standalone and Lemaire looks like he’s going to be able to keep it that way.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Hermès Collection.

leave smoking

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

The critics were largely impressed with the showing on the Milan runways, from the vivid color palette at Gucci to Jil Sander’s risky silhouettes.

THE HITS:
Fendi
• “The last few Fendi collections have seen Mr. Lagerfeld at his best, offering a level of fashion that is sophisticated and subtle… To be sure, a Fendi fur is an expensive rarity. But no less rare is the sensibility.”

• “A highly conceptual yet thoroughly chic collection…the look had tremendous elan…there was a surrealist quality to this show, where the combinations of unexpected materials had a hallucinatory effect.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “his was one of Fendi’s strongest showings yet, in an escalating series of convincing fashion performances…From prim to pagan and back again, there was an emotional arc here that even the ever-matter-of-fact Lagerfeld couldn’t deny.”

• “Though one expects spectacular from the house of Fendi, this lineup nevertheless amazed…Feminine and practical? Chez Fendi, absolutely.”

• “Individually, each piece was remarkable only in its high quality – but together the look was confidence itself…There was a playfulness to the show…The last look was austere with a suggestion of letting loose: a Lagerfeld woman to a tee.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fendi Fall 2011 Collection

Jil Sander
• “I especially liked that the show set my mind churning, and also had a weird suspense…[the clothes] were completely contemporary, engaging, with a distinct palette…Above all, you had the impression that the talented Mr. Simons was doing exactly what he wanted to do.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “is collection for Jil Sander twisted together extremes as unlikely as the volumes of Cristobal Balenciaga and the body consciousness of downhill racers… gloriously mutant collection.”

• “Challenging clothes — thank God! Because fashion needs challenge…Raf Simons delivered another stunner, one all about cut, shape and zero models — only panache…By working his collection around major volume and bold, Simons is taking a firm stance against mass luxury.”

• “he entire show was a natural step from the last – a wearable way to wear the volume he introduced for the current season…There were some seriously wearable clothes…exaggerated volume that still somehow didn’t look silly.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Jil Sander Fall 2011 Collection

MIXED:
Versace
• “he collection didn’t vibrate with that extra feeling. Still, this was a solid showing of sharp tailoring, with belted coats streaked with gold buttons, and imaginative use of baroque motifs…All in all, the collection had a bossy elegance.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “t the house of Donatella Versace, one can enjoy a racy counterblast of sizzling, faintly fetishistic chic – and be all the better for it… Joe McKenna helped sculpt and filter a very fine Versace collection into a timely, redolent and concise message. Versace really rocked this season. Gianni would have been very proud.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “It was simple and strong, exactly what Donatella wanted…But what might look most seductive to customers next fall is the military influence…These looks were so immediate that they had a curious side effect: The eveningwear that is a Versace mainstay came across as almost an afterthought.”

• “n engaging collection that exuded sleek restraint without scrimping on glamour.”

• ” supremely glossy Versace show…Donatella couldn’t deny us a few megawatt dresses.” [Vogue UK]

• “It wasn’t as aggressively flashy as we’ve come to expect from Donatella in recent seasons, but it packed plenty of attitude…Power dressing, all the way.” [Fashion Week Daily]

See the Complete Versace Fall 2011 Collection

Gucci
• “You can’t argue with the stylishness of Frida Giannini’s collection for Gucci, and why would you? Giannini’s fur-plumped silhouette, soft neck-tie blouses and gauchos are hard to beat. And smeared together, the teal, lilac, emerald green and rust are pretty delicious.”

• “his collection was ultimately a significant success for Giannini. Why? Because she recuperated the glamour of Gucci on her own terms…That said, as a show the event lacked punch. A pretentious soundtrack, formulaic casting, less than judicious hairstyle (most models wore hackneyed, crinkly hair extensions) did not do justice to a powerful collection.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “oming off a Spring season where so many designers were indebted to [the seventies], this collection lacked the shock of the new. Still, you can’t fault the luxe factor of today’s show or the fact that there was so much wantable, wearable fashion on the runway.”

• “On one level, Frida Giannini’s overt ode to Yves Saint Laurent could be seen as a quizzical choice. Yet Giannini made it work, translating some of fashion’s most mined material into a feisty lineup that, while not inventive, was all Gucci in its bravado.”

• “Still super hot glamorous, this was a much more accessible Gucci…The finale of chiffon dresses smothered in petals of contrasting colours suggested that [the Gucci woman] is a romantic soul too – adding a welcome softness to a woman who rarely shows a vulnerable side.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Gucci Fall 2011 Collection

Prada
• “This collection was as clear as if she had spelled it out on the blackboard. Most of the dresses were appealing and coyly seductive… Ultimately, though, it’s a narrow collection, not especially challenging, and the above-the-knee lengths and cute sock-like boots with sparkly pinks would turn a knobby-knee 40-year-old into a dunce.”

• “his was a particularly beautiful collection…Every outfit was startling new – spruce, slick and self-confident…[The sequined dresses] all looked sensational.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “t was hard to take Prada to task for a potential retreat to the elevation of—what would be for most of her customers—unattainable girlishness…But were the girls serpents or mermaids? It was the kind of question that leaves a Prada audience uncertain about spontaneous responses.”

• “If Prada is proposing that women feign innocence and dress like overindulged majorettes, why? Because, just like injectable fillers and core-strengthening classes, a Peter Pan collar helps women deny the ultimately futile notion that we can turn back time? …For fall she did indeed go girlish. But show us the chic woman who couldn’t find a winning coat in this lineup.”

• “Tonight’s clothes were not as radical as at some Prada events…but they were beautiful and wearable and had the Prada unmistakability – and we really, really want them already.” [Vogue UK]

• “For those of you who thought the fur and stripes and monkeys couldn’t be beat: sorry. Miuccia Prada’s breathtaking Fall collection proved, yet again, that her only competition is herself.” [Daily Front Row]

See the Complete Prada Fall 2011 Collection

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

The critics were largely impressed with the showing on the Milan runways, from the vivid color palette at Gucci to Jil Sander’s risky silhouettes.

THE HITS:
Fendi
• “The last few Fendi collections have seen Mr. Lagerfeld at his best, offering a level of fashion that is sophisticated and subtle… To be sure, a Fendi fur is an expensive rarity. But no less rare is the sensibility.”

• “A highly conceptual yet thoroughly chic collection…the look had tremendous elan…there was a surrealist quality to this show, where the combinations of unexpected materials had a hallucinatory effect.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “his was one of Fendi’s strongest showings yet, in an escalating series of convincing fashion performances…From prim to pagan and back again, there was an emotional arc here that even the ever-matter-of-fact Lagerfeld couldn’t deny.”

• “Though one expects spectacular from the house of Fendi, this lineup nevertheless amazed…Feminine and practical? Chez Fendi, absolutely.”

• “Individually, each piece was remarkable only in its high quality – but together the look was confidence itself…There was a playfulness to the show…The last look was austere with a suggestion of letting loose: a Lagerfeld woman to a tee.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fendi Fall 2011 Collection

Jil Sander
• “I especially liked that the show set my mind churning, and also had a weird suspense…[the clothes] were completely contemporary, engaging, with a distinct palette…Above all, you had the impression that the talented Mr. Simons was doing exactly what he wanted to do.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “is collection for Jil Sander twisted together extremes as unlikely as the volumes of Cristobal Balenciaga and the body consciousness of downhill racers… gloriously mutant collection.”

• “Challenging clothes — thank God! Because fashion needs challenge…Raf Simons delivered another stunner, one all about cut, shape and zero models — only panache…By working his collection around major volume and bold, Simons is taking a firm stance against mass luxury.”

• “he entire show was a natural step from the last – a wearable way to wear the volume he introduced for the current season…There were some seriously wearable clothes…exaggerated volume that still somehow didn’t look silly.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Jil Sander Fall 2011 Collection

MIXED:
Versace
• “he collection didn’t vibrate with that extra feeling. Still, this was a solid showing of sharp tailoring, with belted coats streaked with gold buttons, and imaginative use of baroque motifs…All in all, the collection had a bossy elegance.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “t the house of Donatella Versace, one can enjoy a racy counterblast of sizzling, faintly fetishistic chic – and be all the better for it… Joe McKenna helped sculpt and filter a very fine Versace collection into a timely, redolent and concise message. Versace really rocked this season. Gianni would have been very proud.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “It was simple and strong, exactly what Donatella wanted…But what might look most seductive to customers next fall is the military influence…These looks were so immediate that they had a curious side effect: The eveningwear that is a Versace mainstay came across as almost an afterthought.”

• “n engaging collection that exuded sleek restraint without scrimping on glamour.”

• ” supremely glossy Versace show…Donatella couldn’t deny us a few megawatt dresses.” [Vogue UK]

• “It wasn’t as aggressively flashy as we’ve come to expect from Donatella in recent seasons, but it packed plenty of attitude…Power dressing, all the way.” [Fashion Week Daily]

See the Complete Versace Fall 2011 Collection

Gucci
• “You can’t argue with the stylishness of Frida Giannini’s collection for Gucci, and why would you? Giannini’s fur-plumped silhouette, soft neck-tie blouses and gauchos are hard to beat. And smeared together, the teal, lilac, emerald green and rust are pretty delicious.”

• “his collection was ultimately a significant success for Giannini. Why? Because she recuperated the glamour of Gucci on her own terms…That said, as a show the event lacked punch. A pretentious soundtrack, formulaic casting, less than judicious hairstyle (most models wore hackneyed, crinkly hair extensions) did not do justice to a powerful collection.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “oming off a Spring season where so many designers were indebted to [the seventies], this collection lacked the shock of the new. Still, you can’t fault the luxe factor of today’s show or the fact that there was so much wantable, wearable fashion on the runway.”

• “On one level, Frida Giannini’s overt ode to Yves Saint Laurent could be seen as a quizzical choice. Yet Giannini made it work, translating some of fashion’s most mined material into a feisty lineup that, while not inventive, was all Gucci in its bravado.”

• “Still super hot glamorous, this was a much more accessible Gucci…The finale of chiffon dresses smothered in petals of contrasting colours suggested that [the Gucci woman] is a romantic soul too – adding a welcome softness to a woman who rarely shows a vulnerable side.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Gucci Fall 2011 Collection

Prada
• “This collection was as clear as if she had spelled it out on the blackboard. Most of the dresses were appealing and coyly seductive… Ultimately, though, it’s a narrow collection, not especially challenging, and the above-the-knee lengths and cute sock-like boots with sparkly pinks would turn a knobby-knee 40-year-old into a dunce.”

• “his was a particularly beautiful collection…Every outfit was startling new – spruce, slick and self-confident…[The sequined dresses] all looked sensational.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “t was hard to take Prada to task for a potential retreat to the elevation of—what would be for most of her customers—unattainable girlishness…But were the girls serpents or mermaids? It was the kind of question that leaves a Prada audience uncertain about spontaneous responses.”

• “If Prada is proposing that women feign innocence and dress like overindulged majorettes, why? Because, just like injectable fillers and core-strengthening classes, a Peter Pan collar helps women deny the ultimately futile notion that we can turn back time? …For fall she did indeed go girlish. But show us the chic woman who couldn’t find a winning coat in this lineup.”

• “Tonight’s clothes were not as radical as at some Prada events…but they were beautiful and wearable and had the Prada unmistakability – and we really, really want them already.” [Vogue UK]

• “For those of you who thought the fur and stripes and monkeys couldn’t be beat: sorry. Miuccia Prada’s breathtaking Fall collection proved, yet again, that her only competition is herself.” [Daily Front Row]

See the Complete Prada Fall 2011 Collection

leave smoking

On the last leg of the fall shows, reviews have been mixed — critics were often at odds in their takes on the same collection. From Ungaro’s take-no-prisoners temptresses to Givenchy’s “peculiar” panther motif, read what they’ve loved and despised on the Paris runways thus far.

THE HITS:
Chanel
• “he clothes were resolutely contemporary, more masculine than froufrou Chanel… you sensed Mr. Lagerfeld wanting to give Chanel a younger, street attitude. Not so sure about the spree of black, semi-transparent jumpsuits for evening.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel ignited the autumn 2011 fashion season…It was a somber, but perhaps visionary, Chanel show from Mr. Lagerfeld, who seemed to have captured more powerfully than any other designer this turbulent, unsettling fashion moment.”

• “verall, the mood was almost funereal for evening. Chanel’s atelier did wow with some delicate gray leaves on smoky chiffon tops or long delicate lace and fabric flower and feathered columns…the opening looks of jackets worn with loose fitting wide pants immediately made for a new Chanel silhouette that will appeal to a younger audience.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “And a moment it was. While the set unintentionally played to the dark mood still weighing on Paris, its true purpose was a fashion clue: Say au revoir to chichi, ladies!… jackets looked new and savvy…[tweed gowns] were equal part audacity and allure.”

• “Aside from the mesmerizing scenario, the collection’s genius lay in Lagerfeld’s supernatural prescience about the way a lot of young women want to dress now, mixing the street with enough high fashion fantasy to make the result seem rich and strange.”

• “Dramatic in the extreme, it had a serious, post-apocalyptic feel…One quilted, rubberised felt boiler suit was a flash of humour in an otherwise uncharacteristically serious show.” [Vogue UK]

MIXED:
Stella McCartney
• ” is a modern, practical woman who likes her fashion that way too: high style sans fuss, yet with plenty of diversity as suits her moods and needs. If that approach made for a slightly disjoined fall collection, it was one filled with terrific clothes.”

• “t was interesting for Ms. McCartney, who isn’t known for straying far from her brand comfort zone, to take these sexual identities to such extremes…if I had to choose a winner in her show on Monday, I would pick the skillful-looking vamp. In offering that style, Ms. McCartney came out of herself a little.”

• “Good for for taking a leap today, but not every look landed on solid ground… took on proportions that can only be likened to David Byrne in Stop Making Sense mode…[hourglass dresses] more reliably captured the sexy McCartney spirit.”

• “The season’s play on menswear for girls puts Stella in her element…Stella really wants you to WEAR her clothes – but practical and boyish, and recognisable, as she can be, there were new ideas and some seriously sexy dresses going on too…The accessories were as good as ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Stella McCartney Collection.

Ungaro
• “The problem for Giles Deacon at Ungaro is painfully obvious. He doesn’t have a female body or personality in mind when he’s designing. Instead, he has abstract notions of Parisian mistresses and decadence…Mr. Deacon creates a cardboard provocativeness, not much better than a London sex shop…There is just not a guiding vision here.”

• “Deacon’s take on sexy is rigorous and strict, yet done with a couturelike sensibility…these clothes are for take-no-prisoners women who know how to wield a stiletto…Were Deacon’s temptresses tempting? To a large degree, yes, although how that ultralacquered seduction fits into the larger vision at Ungaro remains to be seen. Ditto those exhibitionists-only see-through lace dresses and pants.”

• “he new Ungaro woman is a tough broad…Reinventing a founder’s work isn’t the only way to move a heritage brand into the future, but Deacon’s sexpot doesn’t necessarily look like the way forward either.”

• “hese mistresses work hard and accept only the very best…[sheer dresses and trousers] were only for the perfect of body – but they showed it in the very best light. If you haven’t borrowed anybody’s husband yet, these clothes make it tempting to try.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Ungaro Collection.

Givenchy
• “t’s hard to relate to fashion personally, and maybe it’s because he doesn’t have the skill or the patience to focus on fundamental things, like shapes or how to make fabrics work on the body… Mr. Tisci remains on the surface, forcing ideas but not really changing your eye about clothes.”

• “t felt like a breath of fresh air to attend the latest collection of Givenchy, where sexuality, seduction and suggestiveness were allowed to bloom…There was a marvelous sense of concision about this show…Where before Givenchy shows were more mixed arty affairs, this show sizzled… demandingly clever collection.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• ” fall lineup felt unexpected, striking and, ultimately, a little peculiar…It intrigued even as it sometimes baffled…Subtract the cats and the dominant message was sleek subversion…[but the panthers, baseball caps, and fuzzy glasses] seemed born out of irony.”

• “If confidence counts, he’s got the gig…The laser focus of it all was impressive. You wound up seduced, even if there’s little chance of seeing a real girl in getup…That’s the funny thing about Tisci: He’s got the vision thing, but it’s individual pieces that end up selling.”

• “Usually we expect sophisticated gothic from him, infused with romance and S&M in equal measure – it’s a clever recipe and one that he manages to make completely different every time. This time it was more so than ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Givenchy Collection.

Hermès
• “t was a start…Perhaps the collection suffered from too-muchness, a heaviness, and the bottom half of outfits seemed to impart no sense of style or direction…[But ] with some pruning, it could make a difference with its women’s fashion.”

• “Christophe Lemaire captured the luxe house spirit perfectly…The clothes, meanwhile, were perfectly serene to match — utterly simple and spare….Lemaire managed to bring the focus back to luxury living and beautiful, quality clothes.”

• “The designer’s access to the Hermès ateliers gave his work here a sophisticated polish that was overwhelming in its creamy, styled-to-the-ultra-max-ness…He also managed to impress his own personality on the collection. What was missing, however, was a sense of the effortless, casual luxury. But that’s the sort of thing that comes with time.”

• “It was a warm, rich collection… It’s luxurious and standalone and Lemaire looks like he’s going to be able to keep it that way.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Hermès Collection.

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

On the last leg of the fall shows, reviews have been mixed — critics were often at odds in their takes on the same collection. From Ungaro’s take-no-prisoners temptresses to Givenchy’s “peculiar” panther motif, read what they’ve loved and despised on the Paris runways thus far.

THE HITS:
Chanel
• “he clothes were resolutely contemporary, more masculine than froufrou Chanel… you sensed Mr. Lagerfeld wanting to give Chanel a younger, street attitude. Not so sure about the spree of black, semi-transparent jumpsuits for evening.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• “Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel ignited the autumn 2011 fashion season…It was a somber, but perhaps visionary, Chanel show from Mr. Lagerfeld, who seemed to have captured more powerfully than any other designer this turbulent, unsettling fashion moment.”

• “verall, the mood was almost funereal for evening. Chanel’s atelier did wow with some delicate gray leaves on smoky chiffon tops or long delicate lace and fabric flower and feathered columns…the opening looks of jackets worn with loose fitting wide pants immediately made for a new Chanel silhouette that will appeal to a younger audience.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• “And a moment it was. While the set unintentionally played to the dark mood still weighing on Paris, its true purpose was a fashion clue: Say au revoir to chichi, ladies!… jackets looked new and savvy…[tweed gowns] were equal part audacity and allure.”

• “Aside from the mesmerizing scenario, the collection’s genius lay in Lagerfeld’s supernatural prescience about the way a lot of young women want to dress now, mixing the street with enough high fashion fantasy to make the result seem rich and strange.”

• “Dramatic in the extreme, it had a serious, post-apocalyptic feel…One quilted, rubberised felt boiler suit was a flash of humour in an otherwise uncharacteristically serious show.” [Vogue UK]

MIXED:
Stella McCartney
• ” is a modern, practical woman who likes her fashion that way too: high style sans fuss, yet with plenty of diversity as suits her moods and needs. If that approach made for a slightly disjoined fall collection, it was one filled with terrific clothes.”

• “t was interesting for Ms. McCartney, who isn’t known for straying far from her brand comfort zone, to take these sexual identities to such extremes…if I had to choose a winner in her show on Monday, I would pick the skillful-looking vamp. In offering that style, Ms. McCartney came out of herself a little.”

• “Good for for taking a leap today, but not every look landed on solid ground… took on proportions that can only be likened to David Byrne in Stop Making Sense mode…[hourglass dresses] more reliably captured the sexy McCartney spirit.”

• “The season’s play on menswear for girls puts Stella in her element…Stella really wants you to WEAR her clothes – but practical and boyish, and recognisable, as she can be, there were new ideas and some seriously sexy dresses going on too…The accessories were as good as ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Stella McCartney Collection.

Ungaro
• “The problem for Giles Deacon at Ungaro is painfully obvious. He doesn’t have a female body or personality in mind when he’s designing. Instead, he has abstract notions of Parisian mistresses and decadence…Mr. Deacon creates a cardboard provocativeness, not much better than a London sex shop…There is just not a guiding vision here.”

• “Deacon’s take on sexy is rigorous and strict, yet done with a couturelike sensibility…these clothes are for take-no-prisoners women who know how to wield a stiletto…Were Deacon’s temptresses tempting? To a large degree, yes, although how that ultralacquered seduction fits into the larger vision at Ungaro remains to be seen. Ditto those exhibitionists-only see-through lace dresses and pants.”

• “he new Ungaro woman is a tough broad…Reinventing a founder’s work isn’t the only way to move a heritage brand into the future, but Deacon’s sexpot doesn’t necessarily look like the way forward either.”

• “hese mistresses work hard and accept only the very best…[sheer dresses and trousers] were only for the perfect of body – but they showed it in the very best light. If you haven’t borrowed anybody’s husband yet, these clothes make it tempting to try.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Ungaro Collection.

Givenchy
• “t’s hard to relate to fashion personally, and maybe it’s because he doesn’t have the skill or the patience to focus on fundamental things, like shapes or how to make fabrics work on the body… Mr. Tisci remains on the surface, forcing ideas but not really changing your eye about clothes.”

• “t felt like a breath of fresh air to attend the latest collection of Givenchy, where sexuality, seduction and suggestiveness were allowed to bloom…There was a marvelous sense of concision about this show…Where before Givenchy shows were more mixed arty affairs, this show sizzled… demandingly clever collection.” [Fashion Wire Daily]

• ” fall lineup felt unexpected, striking and, ultimately, a little peculiar…It intrigued even as it sometimes baffled…Subtract the cats and the dominant message was sleek subversion…[but the panthers, baseball caps, and fuzzy glasses] seemed born out of irony.”

• “If confidence counts, he’s got the gig…The laser focus of it all was impressive. You wound up seduced, even if there’s little chance of seeing a real girl in getup…That’s the funny thing about Tisci: He’s got the vision thing, but it’s individual pieces that end up selling.”

• “Usually we expect sophisticated gothic from him, infused with romance and S&M in equal measure – it’s a clever recipe and one that he manages to make completely different every time. This time it was more so than ever.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Givenchy Collection.

Hermès
• “t was a start…Perhaps the collection suffered from too-muchness, a heaviness, and the bottom half of outfits seemed to impart no sense of style or direction…[But ] with some pruning, it could make a difference with its women’s fashion.”

• “Christophe Lemaire captured the luxe house spirit perfectly…The clothes, meanwhile, were perfectly serene to match — utterly simple and spare….Lemaire managed to bring the focus back to luxury living and beautiful, quality clothes.”

• “The designer’s access to the Hermès ateliers gave his work here a sophisticated polish that was overwhelming in its creamy, styled-to-the-ultra-max-ness…He also managed to impress his own personality on the collection. What was missing, however, was a sense of the effortless, casual luxury. But that’s the sort of thing that comes with time.”

• “It was a warm, rich collection… It’s luxurious and standalone and Lemaire looks like he’s going to be able to keep it that way.” [Vogue UK]

See the Complete Fall 2011 Hermès Collection.

Outrage about the size of models on the runway is not new. My own, personal outrage, is not even new. But after seeing the photos in the London Daily Mail Online of models in London Fashion week, and reading Liz Jones so colorfully describe a model so thin she "could grate parmesan" on her hip bones, I could feel the anger inside me seethe.

It is not because I am fat, which, yes, I am. It is because I hated my body even when I was thin — 105 pounds with legs all the way up to my double-Ds and should've been thrilled with my body. But instead I was afraid to wear a bathing suit in Model Central Miami, for I felt my stomach was not flat enough. I remember confessing this to a boy in high school, who took a look at my cleavage and said to me, "Do you really think anyone will be looking at your stomach?"  For three seconds, he made me feel good, but double-Ds weren't what Seventeen magazine were lauding at the time and prom dresses were virtually impossible to find with curves like that, so at 5' 4" and 105, I felt anything but attractive.

But now my anger at an industry that endangers the lives of young women is much, much larger because my daughter was diagnosed at mere months old as failure to thrive — she couldn't suckle at my breast and she couldn't suck from a bottle in order to take in the nutrition she needed. At one point things were so dire she was down to seven ounces of formula a day. Another mother of a failure to thrive baby told me about "infantile anorexia" and I was desperate not to let my daughter grow up always battling food.  It was during this time that a nutritionist taught me how to sneak every calorie possible into every ounce she could get into her tiny mouth, because frustratingly even when she could take in food, her preference was for things with very low calories (baby food green beans = 20 calories). 

Continued on the next page

leave smoking

• The Cut
  Emmanuelle Alt’s French Vogue to Include a Lot More Clothes, a Lot Fewer Boobs
• The Cut
  Slideshow: The Week in Street Style
• The Cut
  You MUST See Natalia Vodianova’s Fascinator
• The Cut
  First Look: Kathy Lo’s Whimsical New Photo Book, Kiss (X)
• The Cut
  A Diverse Model Trio Features in New Estée Lauder Ads; Zooey Deschanel’s New Rimmel Ad Breaks
• The Cut
  Lady Gaga’s Beauty Routine Includes Sleeping in Makeup, Cutting Her Hair When It’s Falling Out
• The Cut
  Video: The Pageant Queen Told to ‘Lay Off the Tacos’
• The Cut
  First Look: The W Exhibits Fashion Illustrations by F.I.T. Faculty
• The Cut
  Lady Gaga Is Not the Most Naked Person on i-D’s Spring Covers
• The Cut
  Michelle Obama Wore Green for St. Patrick’s Day
• The Cut
  This Weekend’s Events and Sales: Meet Jewelry Brand Hoorsenbruhs’s Founders; Last Chance at the Roberta Freymann Sample Sale
• The Cut
  Meet the New Girl: Maud Welzen Misses Eating Dutch Krokets When She’s Away From Home
• The Cut
  Forever 21 to Donate All Online Sales Made Today to Disaster Relief in Japan
• The Cut
  Vanessa Seward Leaves Azzaro
• The Cut
  Male Models Are More ‘Beautiful’ These Days
• The Cut
  Vanessa Seward May Leave Azzaro; Reese Witherspoon Chooses Wedding Dress Designer
• The Cut
  The Secret Life of New Barneys CEO Mark Lee
• The Cut
  Elie Tahari Executive Forced to Work in New Jersey Wants $2 Million for Resulting Mental Anguish
• The Cut
  Best Bet: Yes to Tomatoes Pore Scrub
• The Cut
  The See-Through Charity Fashion Show Dress That Made Prince William Hot for Kate Middleton Sold for $125,853
• The Cut
  Eliza Doolittle Wore a Bustier With Tassels and Dark Denim Hot Pants (No, Really)
• The Cut
  Michelle Obama Dressed Down to Replant the White House Kitchen Garden
• The Cut
  Anja Rubik Covers i-D’s Exhibitionist Issue With a Faux Nose Ring
• The Cut
  Jimmy Choo the Man Seems to Be Looking Into Going Back to Jimmy Choo the Label
• The Cut
  Anna Wintour Contributed to Olivier Zahm’s 400-Page Biography of Carine Roitfeld

James Franco Told Frida Giannini He’s Making A Gucci Film

by Julia Rubin | 5:25 pm, February 19th, 2011

The March issue of Harper’s Bazaar just won’t quit…and it hasn’t even hit newsstands yet. In addition to pieces on Kim and Liz, Prabal and DVF, Daphne and Hillary,  the magazine also features an interview James Franco conducted with his friend Frida Giannini.

The Gucci creative director dished on all sorts of things with the actor/director/soap star/student/overachiever who had this to say about the designer: ”Frida and I have been in sync since we met. I love her work, and she supports mine. Creatively, I know we will always be in line with each other.” (Also, Franco joked that his next project is “making a documentary about you and Gucci.” But we just don’t know if he’s kidding.)

On Gucci’s pragmatism:

JF: When you see the clothes at a fashion show, sometimes they’re more extreme than what you see in the store, right?

FG: Well, not always at Gucci. I believe what we are showing on the catwalk needs to be in the stores. The big stores like in New York or London or Paris, the main flagships, they always have the entire collection–even the extreme pieces. There are people who are waiting for the extreme pieces from the fashion show. We are not the kind of company that thinks, Okay, I’ll do something for the runway, and I’ll make an entire new collection to sell.

FG: Chanel is always doing incredible sets, and they change it every time. We’d rather spend money on other things than make a big, spectacular thing you would see for 10 minutes because we are working for six months on a collection.

On fashion globalism:

JF: So then, because Gucci is all over the world and you’re thinking about people actually wearing these clothes, do you have to think slightly differently for each part of the world?

FG: I never think about it because I think people in the world, from the U.S. to Asia, love Gucci because it’s about aspiration. I don’t think if I made a speciic collection for a Chinese woman, she would be happy. They don’t want something speciic for them. I did a collection that was very Russian, inspired by the artists in Russia in the ’20s and ’30s who left and went to Paris. It performed very well all over the world–except in Russia.

JF: And why, do you think?

FG: I talked to the managers in Russia, and they said they didn’t like the reference to them. So this is an example that was quite strange. Maybe if I make a collection inspired by India, with the colors of India, people in India won’t like it.

On criticism:

JF: I know Harper’s Bazaar is here listening to us, but if you’re criticized heavily in a big fashion magazine, does that have any real effect on sales or what people like?

FG: The first couple of seasons, I was in shock sometimes because I had very mixed reviews, especially because it was right after Tom Ford. Can you imagine the pressure? I am a woman; he is a man. I am Italian; he is American. Very, very different. Now I am much more relaxed; sometimes I receive very bad criticism and read between the lines of the bad reviews.

Sometimes I have thought it was a good suggestion for me because I know that the journalist has a great mind and has much more experience than me. Generally speaking, I’m very open to criticism. I will never say, “I had a bad review from you; I don’t want to meet you anymore.” I believe in what I am doing, and I believe in my ideas, but I think it is very constructive to be open to understanding other thoughts.

[Harper's Bazaar]

Get Styleite directly to your inbox,
on Twitter,
and on Facebook!

Frida Giannini Frida Giannini Gucci Frida Giannini Harper’s Bazaar Gucci Harper’s Bazaar Harper’s Bazaar March 2011 james franco James Franco Frida Giannini James Franco Harper’s Bazaar

“Vulgarity is a very important ingredient in life,” the endlessly quotable Diane Vreeland once opined, and you can’t help but wish that Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa would now and again add a splash of something really tacky to his impeccably conceived garments. His show is classic CK — butterscotch leather dresses, creamy shifts — but the only thing even minimally surprising is that the models’ bare knees are showing, since this has been a season of long lengths and covered legs (sometimes wackily so, as in the striated black affairs at Prabal Gurung, which I loved, but many people hated.)

It’s the 30th anniversary of Michael Kors, and though it is 10 a.m., the stars are aligned — Bette Midler sitting next to Anjelica Huston sitting next to Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones! The clothes include a plethora of cashmere tanks, halters, and catsuits that looked so scrumptious on Patti Hansen back in the day — and here is Hansen herself in the audience. Practically everything is sleeveless, since you are apparently meant to keep warm with one of the many fluffy furs on the runway here — and at a multitude of other catwalks this week, from the Row to Joseph Altuzarra. But will young people embrace these controversial cats, goats, and lambs? Is there a new generation of cool kids out there anxious to don these politically charged garments?

I wear my best vintage reindeer sweater to Ralph Lauren’s show — it’s just the sort of thing his minions snap up as they sweep through flea markets — since I am expecting to see some version of Ralph’s home-on-the-range ersatz-vintage winter dressing. But wrong again. He has exchanged the turquoise jewelry for swinging ropes of jade and red lacquer and cranked up “Little China Girl” (at least it has words, unlike the cacophonous banging and bonging that has assaulted us at so many other shows).

Lauren offers a lesson in what constitutes, at least in his eyes, Chinese-themed dressing, by which he means overwhelmingly black examples that round up all the usual RL evening suspects — tuxedo jackets, etc. — but enhanced with dragon motifs, along with beaded flapper dresses that in this context make you think of Anna May Wong. If this is a naked ploy to corner the Chinese market, Lauren should bear in mind that the prospective customer in Beijing and Shanghai would probably much prefer a Fair Isle cardigan.

You know how sometimes by a miracle you meet someone and the attraction is so immediate, the atmosphere so charged, that you can barely look at the person and have to turn away? This is apparently what has happened between me and Mick Jagger, a man I have been convinced I will marry since I was 12 years old. Mick can barely bring himself to glance in my direction at the L’Wren Scott show, which he attends because Scott is his girlfriend (well, at least for now — it certainly has been a week for Glimmer Twin consorts). Maybe because it is the last day of the New York presentations, but everyone is in a celebratory mood — and not just since the show comes with a free lunch, though that certainly helps. As we eat our chicken pot pies — lots of crusts left untouched on plates in this crowd — a purple brigade, a veritable mauve decade parades in front of us, all trussed up in Scott’s trademark ultranarrow, tailored silhouettes. And if some of the sequined extravaganzas lay on the glimmer with too heavy a hand, who can resist the naughty Goth child bride who closes the show, in a beaded black and gold number, a bit of black veiling askew on her dazed empty head?

Enter the warped geography of Clement Valla, a recent R.I.S.D. MFA graduate who fancies himself a sort of Google Earth preservationist. The artist’s “Postcards from Google Earth, Bridges” series manipulates the software’s alogrithmic mappings as an exploration of human/computer relationships.

“The images are screenshots from Google Earth with basic color adjustments and cropping. I am collecting these new typologies as a means of conservation—as Google Earth improves its 3D models, its terrain, and its satellite imagery, these strange, surrealist depictions of our built environment and its relation to the natural landscape will disappear in favor of better illusionistic imagery. However, I think these strange mappings of the 2-dimensional and the 3-dimensional provide us with fabulous forms that are purely the result of algorithmic processes and not of human aesthetic decision making. They are artifacts worth preserving.”

Valla—intrigued by how contemporary tools of industry and digital technologies can be used to create art—has also outsourced paintings to the Chinese oil paintings industry, where Valla reports 2/3 of the world’s oil paintings are produced cheaply.

In another project, Valla crowdsourced copies of Sol LeWitt drawings using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online labor market. Valla created a custom software which guides human workers through the execution of simple LeWitt forgeries. The workers are paid 5¢ per drawing, which are automatically assembled into a large computer-generated grid.

SOURCE Clement Valla VIA Animal New York

Via Technology Begets Art: Google Earth Gets Trippy on WonderHowTo.

muzica online

James Franco Told Frida Giannini He’s Making A Gucci Film

by Julia Rubin | 5:25 pm, February 19th, 2011

The March issue of Harper’s Bazaar just won’t quit…and it hasn’t even hit newsstands yet. In addition to pieces on Kim and Liz, Prabal and DVF, Daphne and Hillary,  the magazine also features an interview James Franco conducted with his friend Frida Giannini.

The Gucci creative director dished on all sorts of things with the actor/director/soap star/student/overachiever who had this to say about the designer: ”Frida and I have been in sync since we met. I love her work, and she supports mine. Creatively, I know we will always be in line with each other.” (Also, Franco joked that his next project is “making a documentary about you and Gucci.” But we just don’t know if he’s kidding.)

On Gucci’s pragmatism:

JF: When you see the clothes at a fashion show, sometimes they’re more extreme than what you see in the store, right?

FG: Well, not always at Gucci. I believe what we are showing on the catwalk needs to be in the stores. The big stores like in New York or London or Paris, the main flagships, they always have the entire collection–even the extreme pieces. There are people who are waiting for the extreme pieces from the fashion show. We are not the kind of company that thinks, Okay, I’ll do something for the runway, and I’ll make an entire new collection to sell.

FG: Chanel is always doing incredible sets, and they change it every time. We’d rather spend money on other things than make a big, spectacular thing you would see for 10 minutes because we are working for six months on a collection.

On fashion globalism:

JF: So then, because Gucci is all over the world and you’re thinking about people actually wearing these clothes, do you have to think slightly differently for each part of the world?

FG: I never think about it because I think people in the world, from the U.S. to Asia, love Gucci because it’s about aspiration. I don’t think if I made a speciic collection for a Chinese woman, she would be happy. They don’t want something speciic for them. I did a collection that was very Russian, inspired by the artists in Russia in the ’20s and ’30s who left and went to Paris. It performed very well all over the world–except in Russia.

JF: And why, do you think?

FG: I talked to the managers in Russia, and they said they didn’t like the reference to them. So this is an example that was quite strange. Maybe if I make a collection inspired by India, with the colors of India, people in India won’t like it.

On criticism:

JF: I know Harper’s Bazaar is here listening to us, but if you’re criticized heavily in a big fashion magazine, does that have any real effect on sales or what people like?

FG: The first couple of seasons, I was in shock sometimes because I had very mixed reviews, especially because it was right after Tom Ford. Can you imagine the pressure? I am a woman; he is a man. I am Italian; he is American. Very, very different. Now I am much more relaxed; sometimes I receive very bad criticism and read between the lines of the bad reviews.

Sometimes I have thought it was a good suggestion for me because I know that the journalist has a great mind and has much more experience than me. Generally speaking, I’m very open to criticism. I will never say, “I had a bad review from you; I don’t want to meet you anymore.” I believe in what I am doing, and I believe in my ideas, but I think it is very constructive to be open to understanding other thoughts.

[Harper's Bazaar]

Get Styleite directly to your inbox,
on Twitter,
and on Facebook!

Frida Giannini Frida Giannini Gucci Frida Giannini Harper’s Bazaar Gucci Harper’s Bazaar Harper’s Bazaar March 2011 james franco James Franco Frida Giannini James Franco Harper’s Bazaar

That said, for the non-exact nature of figuring this out, if you don’t want to wait for your fortune it probably comes as no surprise that technology is your best bet and is tied for the lowest average billionaire age (thanks, Facebook billionaires) with metal and mining. So if it’s young money you’re after, pick up a mine or two while you wait for your social network or search engine to catch on. You’ll be making the other billionaires feel like slackers in no time.

That’s not where the biggest money is though. Perhaps surprising to some is that fashion and retail (which includes grocery stores), is the category that accounts for the most cumulative wealth. More than investments, more than finance and more than technology. Selling actual, physical stuff to consumers is still your best bet of making money. Oh, and for those who noticed Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficking leader Joaquin Guzman Loera on the big list (he falls under “logistics”)? {Forbes} Stick to the legal, actual, physical stuff like fashion or food. Not only is the life expectancy better, in the long run so are the profits. You never know though, maybe Loera’s already diversified by blinging out weapons.

Now what if it’s easy (relatively speaking) wealth you’re after? Gaming has relatively few billionaires, and on average they’re kind of old. The amount of competition is comparatively small, most will be retiring in general or retiring to that great casino in the sky, so this is a prime market to go after. How to go after it? Well, that’s up to you and probably a bit of genetic fortune. If you missed out on being born into a dynasty, your next best bet is to marry into one. If that still doesn’t work, there’s always the do-it-yourself model. We’ll give you a few pointers on that once we appear on the list rather than doing the grunt work of analyzing it. Off to the single billionaires list it is then.

How to Make the Forbes Billionaire List: Young, Big & Easy Billions by YM Ousley originally appeared on Signature9

Enter the warped geography of Clement Valla, a recent R.I.S.D. MFA graduate who fancies himself a sort of Google Earth preservationist. The artist’s “Postcards from Google Earth, Bridges” series manipulates the software’s alogrithmic mappings as an exploration of human/computer relationships.

“The images are screenshots from Google Earth with basic color adjustments and cropping. I am collecting these new typologies as a means of conservation—as Google Earth improves its 3D models, its terrain, and its satellite imagery, these strange, surrealist depictions of our built environment and its relation to the natural landscape will disappear in favor of better illusionistic imagery. However, I think these strange mappings of the 2-dimensional and the 3-dimensional provide us with fabulous forms that are purely the result of algorithmic processes and not of human aesthetic decision making. They are artifacts worth preserving.”

Valla—intrigued by how contemporary tools of industry and digital technologies can be used to create art—has also outsourced paintings to the Chinese oil paintings industry, where Valla reports 2/3 of the world’s oil paintings are produced cheaply.

In another project, Valla crowdsourced copies of Sol LeWitt drawings using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online labor market. Valla created a custom software which guides human workers through the execution of simple LeWitt forgeries. The workers are paid 5¢ per drawing, which are automatically assembled into a large computer-generated grid.

SOURCE Clement Valla VIA Animal New York

Via Technology Begets Art: Google Earth Gets Trippy on WonderHowTo.

You know how it works: people see unusual product names in inventory systems, and imaginations start running wild. We’d been hearing some pretty crazy things about the rumored Droid X2 for Verizon, only to have those expectations reigned in to a light refresh — and in light of the Droid Bionic’s upcoming launch, a deeply overhauled Droid X launching in roughly the same time frame never made a ton of sense in the first place. On that note, we’ve just been hit with a memo that’s supposedly floating around SCK — the Radio Shack subsidiary responsible for Sam’s Club kiosks — that calls the X2 “a new Droid X version” with a 2GB bundled microSD card replacing the original model’s 16GB… and it’ll sell for the same price.

Now, we’d heard from our sources before that the X2 would be warmed over with a front-facing camera and the same 1.2GHz single-core processor bump that the Chinese version recently received. Nothing in the SCK memo suggests that’s not happening, and the microSD card reduction might mean there’ll be more internal storage space, too. We can hope, right?

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Update: Several folks have written in to point out that the Droid X packages with the smaller microSD cards are already in other retail outlets, so SCK may just be playing catch-up. If so, that’s a horrible choice of name for the inventory system, we’d say. Thanks, everyone!

muzica online

• The Cut
  Emmanuelle Alt’s French Vogue to Include a Lot More Clothes, a Lot Fewer Boobs
• The Cut
  Slideshow: The Week in Street Style
• The Cut
  You MUST See Natalia Vodianova’s Fascinator
• The Cut
  First Look: Kathy Lo’s Whimsical New Photo Book, Kiss (X)
• The Cut
  A Diverse Model Trio Features in New Estée Lauder Ads; Zooey Deschanel’s New Rimmel Ad Breaks
• The Cut
  Lady Gaga’s Beauty Routine Includes Sleeping in Makeup, Cutting Her Hair When It’s Falling Out
• The Cut
  Video: The Pageant Queen Told to ‘Lay Off the Tacos’
• The Cut
  First Look: The W Exhibits Fashion Illustrations by F.I.T. Faculty
• The Cut
  Lady Gaga Is Not the Most Naked Person on i-D’s Spring Covers
• The Cut
  Michelle Obama Wore Green for St. Patrick’s Day
• The Cut
  This Weekend’s Events and Sales: Meet Jewelry Brand Hoorsenbruhs’s Founders; Last Chance at the Roberta Freymann Sample Sale
• The Cut
  Meet the New Girl: Maud Welzen Misses Eating Dutch Krokets When She’s Away From Home
• The Cut
  Forever 21 to Donate All Online Sales Made Today to Disaster Relief in Japan
• The Cut
  Vanessa Seward Leaves Azzaro
• The Cut
  Male Models Are More ‘Beautiful’ These Days
• The Cut
  Vanessa Seward May Leave Azzaro; Reese Witherspoon Chooses Wedding Dress Designer
• The Cut
  The Secret Life of New Barneys CEO Mark Lee
• The Cut
  Elie Tahari Executive Forced to Work in New Jersey Wants $2 Million for Resulting Mental Anguish
• The Cut
  Best Bet: Yes to Tomatoes Pore Scrub
• The Cut
  The See-Through Charity Fashion Show Dress That Made Prince William Hot for Kate Middleton Sold for $125,853
• The Cut
  Eliza Doolittle Wore a Bustier With Tassels and Dark Denim Hot Pants (No, Really)
• The Cut
  Michelle Obama Dressed Down to Replant the White House Kitchen Garden
• The Cut
  Anja Rubik Covers i-D’s Exhibitionist Issue With a Faux Nose Ring
• The Cut
  Jimmy Choo the Man Seems to Be Looking Into Going Back to Jimmy Choo the Label
• The Cut
  Anna Wintour Contributed to Olivier Zahm’s 400-Page Biography of Carine Roitfeld

We missed last season’s show by The Blonds, but we heard that the larger-than-life costumes proved to be everyone’s favorite experience of Fashion Week. So it seemed only fitting that on our way into this year’s event on Wednesday at Milk Studios that the first thing we saw in the elevator queue was the naked derriere of the equally larger-than-life Amanda Lepore. Her naked booty was followed by her naked everything else &#8212 yes, everything else from the waist down &#8212 ­because she was wearing her very sheerest red lingerie. In fact, Lepore’s toes were nearly the only appendage we didn’t get intimately familiar with during that fifteen-second wait, thanks to her glittery closed-toe pumps. Because going full peep-toe with your mesh genital drape would’ve really pushed that envelope straight into the paper shredder.

Once we actually alighted into the venue, we almost ran smack into the now-hirsute Nigel Barker, who looked dapper in a pin-striped suit, but still seemed as though he was wearing an extremely hairy beret. (Please go back to bald, Nigel.) In fact, it was a game of Six Degrees of Tyra Banks up in there: Nigel was joined by his ANTM cohorts J Alexander and Jay Manuel; one of last cycle’s guest judges, Patricia Field, swanned in wearing splattered torn pants and a bomber jacket that appeared to have her name scrawled in gold cursive in the back. Then there was Eve, a cycle four guest star, wearing a black dress and a seriously fierce (and potentially stabby) spiky gold cummerbund. Next to her sat singer Keri Hilson, whose corset top had giant gems affixed to it that rose in two dangerous-looking spikes toward her face. Hilson has not yet been Touched by a Tyra, but her career is still young so we expect she’ll get sucked into the vortex soon enough.

But the most eye-catching sighting for us was singer and reality-TV vixen Aubrey O’Day, clad in an enormous McQueen houndstooth shirt with a red bow affixed, which made her look a bit like a festive Valentine’s Day basket. “I wanted to be Blonds-inspired &#8212 ultra-big, fabulous, a little drag queen-y,” Aubrey said. “This outer exterior you see is one big façade. I was born a drag queen.” Well, we love a drag queen; at any given moment, almost as a rule, they are at least 80 percent more fabulous than we are. But Aubrey said it’s not always easy to dress her inner RuPaul. “My boobs never fit with anything, so if I ever find anything I fit into, I’m excited,” she said. “My boobs are gigantic, so [boob tape] never works. There’s always some slipping, popping, pinching. It’s the worst.”

Good thing that runway portion of the night provided the most fun we’ve had this season. We started our Fashion Week with the garish Richie Rich Variety Hour, and The Blonds felt like what Richie Rich wanted to be, but will never achieve. The guests were more glamorous, the spectacle itself was both well-run and artistically satisfying, and the clothes were a delightful visual feast: glittering wigs in gold, red, green, and blue; fringe and satin in every color; a model wearing a bejeweled rendition of what a Chinese dragon would look like if it were a Rockettes costume; and a slim-fitting pantsuit made entirely of googly eyes. And that’s not even all of it &#8212 we simultaneously wanted the show to continue forever, and felt compelled to apologize to it for not being sufficiently sparkly ourselves. O’Day also endorsed the “go big or go home” philosophy, both at this show and Fashion Week in general. “It’s when you finally get to be outrageous and it’s okay,” she told us. With that attitude, she was certainly in the right place.

See the Complete Fall 2011 Blonds Collection

Having traveled to China, I can tell you that you would rarely (IF EVER!) see a girl walking the street with cleavage hanging out like that unless she was a xiaojie (essentially a call-girl).

However, totally awesome invention, I'd want one! : P

Posted by: Dani | Mar 7, 2011 1:57:15 PM

Yeah, cause that's what we need – more false advertising.

Posted by: Jonathan | Mar 7, 2011 6:19:08 PM

The dangers of Chinese new wealth.
Kind of funny, but dam women are vain!

Posted by: Phil, Ohio | Mar 7, 2011 8:14:08 PM

I just love the Sound effects!

Posted by: ivan – Melbourne Photographer | Mar 7, 2011 10:08:08 PM

Hi I'm from Taiwan.
I know some Chinese,this product costs 46 USD.
it should be translate to shapewear,corset or bodice.
I don't know how China called it,
but in Taiwan,we called it as 馬甲(Ma Jia).

Posted by: tc | Mar 9, 2011 4:20:05 AM

TC, where can you purchase this? What store and do they have an online store as well???

Posted by: KKoala | Mar 11, 2011 3:39:45 AM

sorry
I just saw your response
the link is here
http://www.168mjl.com/watch/product/detail/168mjl_3888.html
but I'm not sure if it could be ordered overseas.

Posted by: tc | Mar 14, 2011 12:13:11 AM

Post a comment

Hanging in each of the two bathrooms are gorgeous chandeliers Maloney found on Etsy, which are handcrafted by Studio Jota out of the Bronx. She says she chose them for their muted tones, explaining it’s hard to find a chandelier that doesn’t use a lot crystal. The beaded fixtures illuminate the intricately patterned, hand-screened wallpaper by Brooklyn’s Flavor Paper studio. The two styles—”Sassy Toile” and “Celestial Dragon”—are in custom colors chosen by the collaborative Mister H design team.

Behind a beaded curtain by Spanish brand Daisy Cake is a tucked away (and most likely VIP) area, that hosts a long cushioned couch and walls bedecked with original photos of classic film noir stars, sourced around eBay and housed in an assortment of random frames.

The lounge is accented by shiny red lanterns designed by NYC-based couture lighting specialist Abyu, which mimic the shape of the quintessential hat worn by working men in China. Adding to the “love nest” feeling is a beautiful bird cage from Barreveld International, an upstate New York outfit that sells vintage pieces to the retail industry.

While many establishments keep their sources a secret, Maloney explains the Morgans Hotel Group likes to promote and show appreciation for people who do their job well and deserve recognition. Mister H officially opens today, and will will be open regularly Tuesday through Saturday from 10pm to 4am.

Rooms at the new Mondrian SoHo hotel start at $309 per night for a Superior room and can be booked online. See more images of Mister H in the gallery below.

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal3-thumb-autox450-26727.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal2-thumb-autox450-26728.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal1-thumb-autox450-26729.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal7-thumb-autox450-26730.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal6-thumb-autox450-26725.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal5-thumb-autox450-26726.jpg

HTC is banking on the success of their inaugural tablet in unprecedented fashion. The tech giant has reportedly ordered one million units for August 2011 availability. According to the Chinese news outlet Commercial Times, the HTC Flyer will be priced around $600, cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Tab but more expensive than the entry level iPad 2 set to debut later this week.

A introductory order of one million units is certainly a good sign for HTC fans hoping to pick up their own Flyer this summer as is the $600 price point. Unfortunately without confirmation from HTC on either the release date or pricing, this information is speculation at best. Track records aside, assuming HTC follows through with an August release and the aforementioned pricing, would you consider the switch to a smaller, 7-inch display? Keeping in mind the Motorola Xoom and Apple iPad 2 should be widely available by the end of March, is August too far down the road to keep you interested in the HTC Flyer? Let us know in the comments.

via DigiTimes

Electricpig Prime Cuts newsletter: sign up now!

• The Cut
  Emmanuelle Alt’s French Vogue to Include a Lot More Clothes, a Lot Fewer Boobs
• The Cut
  Slideshow: The Week in Street Style
• The Cut
  You MUST See Natalia Vodianova’s Fascinator
• The Cut
  First Look: Kathy Lo’s Whimsical New Photo Book, Kiss (X)
• The Cut
  A Diverse Model Trio Features in New Estée Lauder Ads; Zooey Deschanel’s New Rimmel Ad Breaks
• The Cut
  Lady Gaga’s Beauty Routine Includes Sleeping in Makeup, Cutting Her Hair When It’s Falling Out
• The Cut
  Video: The Pageant Queen Told to ‘Lay Off the Tacos’
• The Cut
  First Look: The W Exhibits Fashion Illustrations by F.I.T. Faculty
• The Cut
  Lady Gaga Is Not the Most Naked Person on i-D’s Spring Covers
• The Cut
  Michelle Obama Wore Green for St. Patrick’s Day
• The Cut
  This Weekend’s Events and Sales: Meet Jewelry Brand Hoorsenbruhs’s Founders; Last Chance at the Roberta Freymann Sample Sale
• The Cut
  Meet the New Girl: Maud Welzen Misses Eating Dutch Krokets When She’s Away From Home
• The Cut
  Forever 21 to Donate All Online Sales Made Today to Disaster Relief in Japan
• The Cut
  Vanessa Seward Leaves Azzaro
• The Cut
  Male Models Are More ‘Beautiful’ These Days
• The Cut
  Vanessa Seward May Leave Azzaro; Reese Witherspoon Chooses Wedding Dress Designer
• The Cut
  The Secret Life of New Barneys CEO Mark Lee
• The Cut
  Elie Tahari Executive Forced to Work in New Jersey Wants $2 Million for Resulting Mental Anguish
• The Cut
  Best Bet: Yes to Tomatoes Pore Scrub
• The Cut
  The See-Through Charity Fashion Show Dress That Made Prince William Hot for Kate Middleton Sold for $125,853
• The Cut
  Eliza Doolittle Wore a Bustier With Tassels and Dark Denim Hot Pants (No, Really)
• The Cut
  Michelle Obama Dressed Down to Replant the White House Kitchen Garden
• The Cut
  Anja Rubik Covers i-D’s Exhibitionist Issue With a Faux Nose Ring
• The Cut
  Jimmy Choo the Man Seems to Be Looking Into Going Back to Jimmy Choo the Label
• The Cut
  Anna Wintour Contributed to Olivier Zahm’s 400-Page Biography of Carine Roitfeld

Enter the warped geography of Clement Valla, a recent R.I.S.D. MFA graduate who fancies himself a sort of Google Earth preservationist. The artist’s “Postcards from Google Earth, Bridges” series manipulates the software’s alogrithmic mappings as an exploration of human/computer relationships.

“The images are screenshots from Google Earth with basic color adjustments and cropping. I am collecting these new typologies as a means of conservation—as Google Earth improves its 3D models, its terrain, and its satellite imagery, these strange, surrealist depictions of our built environment and its relation to the natural landscape will disappear in favor of better illusionistic imagery. However, I think these strange mappings of the 2-dimensional and the 3-dimensional provide us with fabulous forms that are purely the result of algorithmic processes and not of human aesthetic decision making. They are artifacts worth preserving.”

Valla—intrigued by how contemporary tools of industry and digital technologies can be used to create art—has also outsourced paintings to the Chinese oil paintings industry, where Valla reports 2/3 of the world’s oil paintings are produced cheaply.

In another project, Valla crowdsourced copies of Sol LeWitt drawings using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online labor market. Valla created a custom software which guides human workers through the execution of simple LeWitt forgeries. The workers are paid 5¢ per drawing, which are automatically assembled into a large computer-generated grid.

SOURCE Clement Valla VIA Animal New York

Via Technology Begets Art: Google Earth Gets Trippy on WonderHowTo.

There are a number of simple, reliable truths in the world. The Earth is round. A compass points north. Nobody but the Chinese buy Buicks and Lexus is the best-selling luxury brand in the United States. Well, hold on to your horses. Lowly old Buick, long seen as the doorstop of the luxury segment, has outsold Lexus two months straight and shows no signs of slowing down.

Our friends at Kicking Tires ground through the sales figures and found that Buick also sold more luxury cars in February than Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Acura. In fact, the only luxury brand that sold more cars in the States in February was BMW, and even then only by 800 units.

What makes Buick’s meteoric rise to the top of its segment even more impressive is the fact that it has done so with just four nameplates: Enclave, LaCrosse, Lucerne and Regal. By way of comparison, Lexus offers nine models in the States.

And lest you think that buyers are choosing Buicks solely because of a value proposition, Kicking Tires notes that average Buick transaction prices have increased by $11,113 since 2003, according to Buick spokesman Nick Richards. Sounds like Buick deserves some real kudos, no?

We suggest you scan over the whole article from Kicking Tires, it’s a very interesting read.

[Source: Kicking Tires]

HTC is banking on the success of their inaugural tablet in unprecedented fashion. The tech giant has reportedly ordered one million units for August 2011 availability. According to the Chinese news outlet Commercial Times, the HTC Flyer will be priced around $600, cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Tab but more expensive than the entry level iPad 2 set to debut later this week.

A introductory order of one million units is certainly a good sign for HTC fans hoping to pick up their own Flyer this summer as is the $600 price point. Unfortunately without confirmation from HTC on either the release date or pricing, this information is speculation at best. Track records aside, assuming HTC follows through with an August release and the aforementioned pricing, would you consider the switch to a smaller, 7-inch display? Keeping in mind the Motorola Xoom and Apple iPad 2 should be widely available by the end of March, is August too far down the road to keep you interested in the HTC Flyer? Let us know in the comments.

via DigiTimes

Electricpig Prime Cuts newsletter: sign up now!

We missed last season’s show by The Blonds, but we heard that the larger-than-life costumes proved to be everyone’s favorite experience of Fashion Week. So it seemed only fitting that on our way into this year’s event on Wednesday at Milk Studios that the first thing we saw in the elevator queue was the naked derriere of the equally larger-than-life Amanda Lepore. Her naked booty was followed by her naked everything else &#8212 yes, everything else from the waist down &#8212 ­because she was wearing her very sheerest red lingerie. In fact, Lepore’s toes were nearly the only appendage we didn’t get intimately familiar with during that fifteen-second wait, thanks to her glittery closed-toe pumps. Because going full peep-toe with your mesh genital drape would’ve really pushed that envelope straight into the paper shredder.

Once we actually alighted into the venue, we almost ran smack into the now-hirsute Nigel Barker, who looked dapper in a pin-striped suit, but still seemed as though he was wearing an extremely hairy beret. (Please go back to bald, Nigel.) In fact, it was a game of Six Degrees of Tyra Banks up in there: Nigel was joined by his ANTM cohorts J Alexander and Jay Manuel; one of last cycle’s guest judges, Patricia Field, swanned in wearing splattered torn pants and a bomber jacket that appeared to have her name scrawled in gold cursive in the back. Then there was Eve, a cycle four guest star, wearing a black dress and a seriously fierce (and potentially stabby) spiky gold cummerbund. Next to her sat singer Keri Hilson, whose corset top had giant gems affixed to it that rose in two dangerous-looking spikes toward her face. Hilson has not yet been Touched by a Tyra, but her career is still young so we expect she’ll get sucked into the vortex soon enough.

But the most eye-catching sighting for us was singer and reality-TV vixen Aubrey O’Day, clad in an enormous McQueen houndstooth shirt with a red bow affixed, which made her look a bit like a festive Valentine’s Day basket. “I wanted to be Blonds-inspired &#8212 ultra-big, fabulous, a little drag queen-y,” Aubrey said. “This outer exterior you see is one big façade. I was born a drag queen.” Well, we love a drag queen; at any given moment, almost as a rule, they are at least 80 percent more fabulous than we are. But Aubrey said it’s not always easy to dress her inner RuPaul. “My boobs never fit with anything, so if I ever find anything I fit into, I’m excited,” she said. “My boobs are gigantic, so [boob tape] never works. There’s always some slipping, popping, pinching. It’s the worst.”

Good thing that runway portion of the night provided the most fun we’ve had this season. We started our Fashion Week with the garish Richie Rich Variety Hour, and The Blonds felt like what Richie Rich wanted to be, but will never achieve. The guests were more glamorous, the spectacle itself was both well-run and artistically satisfying, and the clothes were a delightful visual feast: glittering wigs in gold, red, green, and blue; fringe and satin in every color; a model wearing a bejeweled rendition of what a Chinese dragon would look like if it were a Rockettes costume; and a slim-fitting pantsuit made entirely of googly eyes. And that’s not even all of it &#8212 we simultaneously wanted the show to continue forever, and felt compelled to apologize to it for not being sufficiently sparkly ourselves. O’Day also endorsed the “go big or go home” philosophy, both at this show and Fashion Week in general. “It’s when you finally get to be outrageous and it’s okay,” she told us. With that attitude, she was certainly in the right place.

See the Complete Fall 2011 Blonds Collection

Hanging in each of the two bathrooms are gorgeous chandeliers Maloney found on Etsy, which are handcrafted by Studio Jota out of the Bronx. She says she chose them for their muted tones, explaining it’s hard to find a chandelier that doesn’t use a lot crystal. The beaded fixtures illuminate the intricately patterned, hand-screened wallpaper by Brooklyn’s Flavor Paper studio. The two styles—”Sassy Toile” and “Celestial Dragon”—are in custom colors chosen by the collaborative Mister H design team.

Behind a beaded curtain by Spanish brand Daisy Cake is a tucked away (and most likely VIP) area, that hosts a long cushioned couch and walls bedecked with original photos of classic film noir stars, sourced around eBay and housed in an assortment of random frames.

The lounge is accented by shiny red lanterns designed by NYC-based couture lighting specialist Abyu, which mimic the shape of the quintessential hat worn by working men in China. Adding to the “love nest” feeling is a beautiful bird cage from Barreveld International, an upstate New York outfit that sells vintage pieces to the retail industry.

While many establishments keep their sources a secret, Maloney explains the Morgans Hotel Group likes to promote and show appreciation for people who do their job well and deserve recognition. Mister H officially opens today, and will will be open regularly Tuesday through Saturday from 10pm to 4am.

Rooms at the new Mondrian SoHo hotel start at $309 per night for a Superior room and can be booked online. See more images of Mister H in the gallery below.

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal3-thumb-autox450-26727.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal2-thumb-autox450-26728.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal1-thumb-autox450-26729.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal7-thumb-autox450-26730.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal6-thumb-autox450-26725.jpg

• http://www.coolhunting.com/assets_c/2011/02/misterh-gal5-thumb-autox450-26726.jpg

“Vulgarity is a very important ingredient in life,” the endlessly quotable Diane Vreeland once opined, and you can’t help but wish that Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa would now and again add a splash of something really tacky to his impeccably conceived garments. His show is classic CK — butterscotch leather dresses, creamy shifts — but the only thing even minimally surprising is that the models’ bare knees are showing, since this has been a season of long lengths and covered legs (sometimes wackily so, as in the striated black affairs at Prabal Gurung, which I loved, but many people hated.)

It’s the 30th anniversary of Michael Kors, and though it is 10 a.m., the stars are aligned — Bette Midler sitting next to Anjelica Huston sitting next to Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones! The clothes include a plethora of cashmere tanks, halters, and catsuits that looked so scrumptious on Patti Hansen back in the day — and here is Hansen herself in the audience. Practically everything is sleeveless, since you are apparently meant to keep warm with one of the many fluffy furs on the runway here — and at a multitude of other catwalks this week, from the Row to Joseph Altuzarra. But will young people embrace these controversial cats, goats, and lambs? Is there a new generation of cool kids out there anxious to don these politically charged garments?

I wear my best vintage reindeer sweater to Ralph Lauren’s show — it’s just the sort of thing his minions snap up as they sweep through flea markets — since I am expecting to see some version of Ralph’s home-on-the-range ersatz-vintage winter dressing. But wrong again. He has exchanged the turquoise jewelry for swinging ropes of jade and red lacquer and cranked up “Little China Girl” (at least it has words, unlike the cacophonous banging and bonging that has assaulted us at so many other shows).

Lauren offers a lesson in what constitutes, at least in his eyes, Chinese-themed dressing, by which he means overwhelmingly black examples that round up all the usual RL evening suspects — tuxedo jackets, etc. — but enhanced with dragon motifs, along with beaded flapper dresses that in this context make you think of Anna May Wong. If this is a naked ploy to corner the Chinese market, Lauren should bear in mind that the prospective customer in Beijing and Shanghai would probably much prefer a Fair Isle cardigan.

You know how sometimes by a miracle you meet someone and the attraction is so immediate, the atmosphere so charged, that you can barely look at the person and have to turn away? This is apparently what has happened between me and Mick Jagger, a man I have been convinced I will marry since I was 12 years old. Mick can barely bring himself to glance in my direction at the L’Wren Scott show, which he attends because Scott is his girlfriend (well, at least for now — it certainly has been a week for Glimmer Twin consorts). Maybe because it is the last day of the New York presentations, but everyone is in a celebratory mood — and not just since the show comes with a free lunch, though that certainly helps. As we eat our chicken pot pies — lots of crusts left untouched on plates in this crowd — a purple brigade, a veritable mauve decade parades in front of us, all trussed up in Scott’s trademark ultranarrow, tailored silhouettes. And if some of the sequined extravaganzas lay on the glimmer with too heavy a hand, who can resist the naughty Goth child bride who closes the show, in a beaded black and gold number, a bit of black veiling askew on her dazed empty head?

1. Alexander Wang Draped Chiffon and Twill Dress @ Net-a-porter

2. Jason Wu White Silk Bow Top @ Stylebop

3. Alexander Wang Brena Mini Camera Bag @ Alexander Wang

4. 3.1 Phillip Lim Leather Bomber Jacket @ Net-a-porter

5. Jason Wu Leather Layered Tweed Dress @ Brownsfashion

6. 3.1 Phillip Lim Quilted Leather Shorts @ Brownsfashion

7. 3.1 Phillip Boxy Pullover @ Farfetch

8. Alexander Wang Brenda Shoulder Bag @ Barneys

9. 3.1 Phillip Lim Studded Wristlet @ Net-a-porter

10. Alexander Wang Black Leather Vest @ Farfetch

11. 3.1 Phillip Lim Foldover Crepe Shorts @ Net-a-porter

But there are so many great collections she had done that no one really knows about… So here you all are, two sets of pictures she did for her first collection:

She usually does a set of postcards to accompany her catalogue, and they’re just about the sickest postcards you’ll find anywhere (she’s the model in all of these pictures):

So here’s what she is working on for the near future, I’ll certainly post more updates on her collection and where to buy!

Also, I’ll put up pictures from her FW11 Fashion Show /Campaign ASAP, cause they’re pretty phenomenal as well.

But there are so many great collections she had done that no one really knows about… So here you all are, two sets of pictures she did for her first collection:

She usually does a set of postcards to accompany her catalogue, and they’re just about the sickest postcards you’ll find anywhere (she’s the model in all of these pictures):

So here’s what she is working on for the near future, I’ll certainly post more updates on her collection and where to buy!

Also, I’ll put up pictures from her FW11 Fashion Show /Campaign ASAP, cause they’re pretty phenomenal as well.

Her style is definitely very vintage, and clean and feminine all at the same time.

I always love seeing her new lookbooks, you can always get a good sense of her inspiration.

So not only is she a great designer  but she is also a great model (below). And her good friend Maleonn, the most amazing photographer ever, helps her produce all of her books.

I’ll put up some more of Nio’s catalogue, sketch, fashion show, and other collection pictures in the near future, so check back if you like what she’s doing!

Her style is definitely very vintage, and clean and feminine all at the same time.

I always love seeing her new lookbooks, you can always get a good sense of her inspiration.

So not only is she a great designer  but she is also a great model (below). And her good friend Maleonn, the most amazing photographer ever, helps her produce all of her books.

I’ll put up some more of Nio’s catalogue, sketch, fashion show, and other collection pictures in the near future, so check back if you like what she’s doing!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The clothes are all by Jiang Ling, and many pieces can be considered unisex (another trademark of Jiang Ling). The sunglasses are from designer Zhou Yuan’s brand CHairEYES. The sunglasses are thus designed by a Chinese designer but are all hand-made in Japan and come in great colors like grey and white and great materials like wood. Check out his stuff here: http://www.chaireyes.com/

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I’ve never seen so many stylish people in one place in Shanghai before (definitely not at Fashion Week unfortunately), but it gave me new hope for the future of fashion in China.

These sweaters are definitely Jiang Ling’s trademark, and she has many different derivations in terms of style and color. She played a lot with this motif in her new Spring/Summer 2011 collection, which I’ll post tomorrow.

I love this store, a lot of vintage and art inspired pieces – mainly accessories like purses, jewelry, scarves, etc. but they do have a few pieces of clothing and home accessories like wallpaper, pictures, lights, etc. 

They pitch themselves as a concept store representing designers from the ‘continent’ here in China, but also representing burgeoning local Chinese talent.  I actually got to meet Sandra, one of the owners, one lonely day this Spring after stumbling upon the store while wandering the streets.  She’s so cool looking.  Beautiful girl with a funky sense of style – she was wearing this black sweater with really strong shoulders, a matching fitted black mini, this pinky peach faux rose in her hair all swept up on top of her head, white stockings and black ankle booties.  Her make up matched the faux rose in her hair too.  She use to be a stylist or something and jetted around Europe and Japan for work, but got tired of it and decided to open this boutique with her partner.

I love this store not just for the merchandise, but b/c it’s like a business incubator for small designers.  I’ve always wanted to do something like it for designers and artists…if I had the money to burn.  They actually carry some fairly well known not so well known, European designers – you know, those designers that are not mainstream, but have a strong cult following – like Servane Gaxotte.  This said, you can guess that it’s actually not a cheap, ‘pian yi dian’ store.  It’s quite the opposite.  I love it though and hope it flourishes and brings more smaller, European and Asian designers to a larger audience.

Check it out, it’s even fun to take a gander around b/c everything is so artfully displayed.

Les Lucioles – 203 Jinxian Road, 6513 5110

Su,Yuwen collection

Just a few conversations by mail, I feel that the woman on the other side of the computer is passionate and enjoys her youth and happiness. Su writes jokingly ” I will turn 22 in two weeks and it feels a little scary.” Such a young age, she has already done so much. She has great work experiences and has already had her own collection.  She is still a baby. She has bright future ahead of her. We all feel a little jealous. 

Su,Yuwen collection

She already worked at the top design houses like Alexander McQueen’s women’s wear studio and helped Burberry. She also interned at a Beijing based Haute Couture house Rosa studio two years ago.

Su,Yuwen vs The Victorian style

I really like her collection that is wearable and sleek. Su said the collection was inspired by photos from the Victorian period.  She likes how the Victorian style presented femininity with details and shapes.  When we think about the Victorian fashion, it is all about lace, ruffles and huge bubble skirts. But in Su’s collection, she greatly modernized the Victorian style, instead of using lace and ruffles; she simplified them to straight lines and clean cut. The silhouette is clean and sleek, and doesn’t look complicated like the Victorian style.

She and her stylist Lucia Liu also used a lot of metal accessories to add a toughness and edginess.

Written by Vivian Yuan

Rumor has it that Chinese favorite, Cho Cheng actually based this season’s look off of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s timeless children’s story, The Little Prince, but I’m not seeing it.  To me, it feels more like he heard the 80′s were back and whipped out his Dynasty box set faster that anyone could say Alexis Carrington Colby.

Mister Cheng channels his inner Cher Horowitz this season, courtsey of Getty Images

Now, does that look like a very happy model?  Mister Cheng sent cadre of sour faced ladies down the catwalk in matching blonde Emo Phillips wigs and equally hideous (often matching) outfits.  Regardless of his intentions, I found the wigs downright offensive, and the models totally uninspiring.

Say what you will, I know it seems like an easy job (and I have met many a model who was indeed dumber than a box of rocks), but no matter how tallented a designer may be, his (or her) collection is only as strong as the models who present it, and some of Cheng’s were having trouble with the most fundamental task a model faces — walking in a straight line.  As a result, they looked more like bow-legged ostrich chicks than the Blair’s and Selena’s Cheng had no doubt envisioned.

No great loss, though, as his collection totally missed the mark, recreating rather than reinterpreting the hot looks your grantmother wore to the country club back in 1985.

Cho Cheng wasn't inspired by the 80's so much as he recreated them. Photo by Getty Images

Color: Many in the industry have been known to say that when times are tough, designers fall into two camps: the practical (and sometimes bland), with their wearable, seasonally appropriate colors; And the fantastical (and often visually offensive), with their vibrant pallets of neon escapism.  Cheng definitely falls into the latter.  Although the collection was grounded in white, ivory, black, and gray, Cheng favored pink, teal, and red, occasionally getting carried away with primary green and yellow.  If that weren’t enough, he also dabbled in small houndstooth prints, nubby tweeds, and metallics.  Need I say more?

Silhouette: Cheng really embraced the 80′s, with squared, padded shoulders and angular jackets that hit at the hip (peplums and kick pleats were in full effect).  Skirts were micro mini, either pasted to the thighs or as full on tutus.  For evening, Cheng prefered longer lines, although the emphasis remained at the hips and bust, veering only occasionally for fishtail skirts and giant trains.  And did I mention he’s on a one-man mission to bring back culottes?

Photo by Getty Images

Hates: Normally I would do my “Loves” first, but I’d like there to be something positive left to end on.  Not only did I dislike his collection, I was particularly turned off by two things: the wigs, and the skirts — this picture encompasses both.  First of all, Asian models are totally underrepresented in fashion (I’m pretty sure she’s Asian, but what do you guys think?).  Despite the fact that we make up roughly 1/6 of the world’s population, there aren’t a lot of us who are 5’10″ — it’s not discrimination, it’s just a fact.  So if you’re a proud Asian designer who’s found a beautiful Asian model, what on Earth would posess you to cover her look up by slapping a blonde wig on her?  This applies to all of the girls, really, but I see so many young Asian girls around SF (especially international students), lightening their hair and doing their eyeshaddow just so, and I find it disappointing.  On top of that, Cho Cheng did not design for real women either.  White is a classic color — clean, beautiful, virginal… and ,in the form of tights, hands down the fastest way to make your thighs look even bigger! Pair that with a collection of micro minis and hip pleats and you’ve just made enemies with everyone over a size 6.

Loves: Despite my obvious distaste for the collection, there was one outfit I didn’t mind — a mauve satin number with black detailing and a matching swing coat.  Unfortunately, it was being worn by Wobbles McGee, whose shoes were either two sizes two big, or whose feet may have been made of Jell-O.  No image from Getty on that one, though.  I also honesty loved the music — I understood the jet-setting 70′s lady theme and love songs, I just wish I would have seen a different manifestation on the runway.  Anyway — here, for your viewing pleasure, is Cho Cheng’s playlist.  I think it’s more entertaining than the show itself, but if you simply must watch that, too, you can do so here.

The Rubettes — Sugar Baby Love
The Pipettes — I Love You
Bitter:Sweet — Dirty Laundry
Beter Björn and John’s — Young Folks
Lily Allen — Chinese
Dusty Springfield –I Only Wanna Be With You