fashions-night-out

Fashion's Night Out: The Day After

cityfile · 09/11/09 02:00AM

Fashion's Night Out went down last night. Did you take part in the "largest single shopping event in the city's history" and actually do some shopping? Or did you just marvel at the spectacle of it all: Anna Wintour, Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, and Kate Hudson stepping foot inside a Macy's in Queens; Justin Timberlake greeting fans at Saks; Charlize Theron putting in an appearance at Dior; Oscar de la Renta belting out a few tunes with Sarah Jessica Parker, Barbara Walters and Bette Midler; the Olsen twins bartending at Bergdorf, not far from where Posh Spice was signing t-shirts and Padma Lakshmi was judging a cook-off. (And on and on and on.)

Proof Anna Wintour Was a Club-Hopping High School Hipster

Brian Moylan · 09/08/09 11:32AM

Did Anna Wintour ever strike you as the type who was a precocious teenager, hanging out in the "discotheques" of mod 1960s London? Suspicions confirmed! We have a copy of a nightlife review a 17-year-old Wintour wrote in 1966.

Is the Worst Over?

cityfile · 08/31/09 07:20PM

• Some luxury fashion companies think (or are hoping, at least) that the recession has "bottomed out," and the tide is "slowly turning." Let's hope so! [WWD]
• Related: Saks is hoping to now "wean wealthy customers from discounts" and "re-educate" them to pay full-price again. Good luck! [NYP]
• How are fashion mags hoping to remain relevant during the turbulent times? By hitching their titles to TV shows, naturally. Not that the strategy always pays off as editors might have hoped, as Elle (Stylista) and Marie Claire (Running in Heels) have discovered. [AdWeek]
• Homelessness is now "having a fashion moment." Make a note of it. [Cut]

The Olsens Get Respect; The Other Side of André

cityfile · 08/27/09 07:06PM

• When you first heard the Olsen twins were breaking into fashion, you had a good laugh, didn't you? Well, it's been a few years since then and now "their success in a field as competitive as fashion is impossible to deny," says an enthusiastic Cathy Horyn today. Of course, it hasn't hurt that they're super-famous and worth a gazillion dollars either. [NYT]
• Things you didn't know about Vogue's André Leon Talley: He's partial to Juice Couture shorts at home, loves Uggs ("it's a cozy shoe"), and says The Golden Girls is his fave show on TV. [TONY]

Anna Disappoints; The September Issue Backlash

cityfile · 08/26/09 07:40PM

• The Carolina Herrera dress that Anna Wintour wore on Dave Letterman's show this week? She wore it to the CFDA Awards back in June. Uh oh! [Stylelist]
Zac Posen is the latest designer to bid goodbye to Bryant Park this Fashion Week. He'll be staging his show at The Altman Building instead. [WWD]
• Another good thing about the recession: There are fewer crappy catalogs getting stuffed in your mailbox. [AP]
The September Issue doesn't open in theaters until Friday, but it seems some people (above) are already sick of all the publicity. [NYShitty]

Fashion's Night Out: The Commercial

cityfile · 08/26/09 10:40AM

Because the fashion industry really, really wants you start shopping again, it's pulling out all the stops for Fashion's Night Out, the hyped-up retail pep rally scheduled for September 10. The latest PR offensive: A TV commercial featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, Isaac Mizrahi, Diddy, Tory Burch, Lazaro Hernandez, Ashley Olsen, and a whole bunch of others—all jam-packed into a spot that's less than a minute long. If you watch the commercial—and you can do so above—make sure you're paying attention at the 0:30 mark. It's not every day that you get to see Anna Wintour come off as a giddy schoolgirl.

The September Issue Makes Its Debut

cityfile · 08/20/09 07:03PM

• The September Issue debuted at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday night and the fashion set turned out en masse, not surprisingly. Just a few bits from the big event: Anna Wintour couldn't stop talking up Fashion's Night Out; Thakoon gushed that Anna is now "bigger than Madonna"; the film's unlikely star, Grace Coddington, emphasized that she really never wanted to take part in it; everyone ignored Tom Florio; Diddy claimed Anna as his fashion "godmother"; and Marc Jacobs, who insisted on putting on a French accent when speaking to reporters, argued that contrary to what most people think, Anna's really very "maternal and caring."
• Speaking of Jacobs, rumor has it his wedding to Lorenzo Martone will go down this weekend in Provincetown. And his big Fashion Week after-party, which was canceled last year, will return this fall.

Marc's Big Day, Runway's Return, Fashion's Night Out

cityfile · 08/17/09 07:21PM

Marc Jacobs' wedding to Lorenzo Martone, which the designer says will happen "soon," is going to have a ridiculously exclusive guest list. Not a single friend or family member will be getting an invite, since it's just going to be the two of them. [Cut]
Project Runway finally returns to the air on Thursday evening. So will the Lifetime iteration be the same show you remember from its run on Bravo? Not so much, it seems. [NYDN]
• Meanwhile, Nina Garcia will be making an appearance this fall on the new CW series, The Beautiful Life. [FWD]
• The website and schedule for Fashion's Night Out is now online. The retail pep rally, which goes down on Sept. 10, will include Anna Wintour and Michael Kors signing t-shirts at a Macy's in Queens, believe it or not.

A Lawsuit For Lauren, The End of Escada

cityfile · 08/13/09 07:26PM

• Polo Ralph Lauren has been hit with a lawsuit for stamping the word "lifeguard" on clothing without permission. Another company is claiming it trademarked the word years ago. [NYP]
• As expected, Escada filed for bankruptcy protection in a German court today. [Bloomberg]
• Is Bravo renewing The Fashion Show for a second season? That's unclear for the time being. [Cut]
Tory Burch and Georgina Chapman are making cameos on the next season of Gossip Girl. [WWD]
• Now that visiting a tanning a salon is tantamount to sucking on asbestos or consuming toxic nuclear waste, is "pale the new tan"? [NYT]

Bee Shaffer Will Do What She Pleases

cityfile · 08/11/09 07:07PM

Bee Shaffer says she has no plans to follow in mom Anna Wintour's footsteps. "I really don't want to work in fashion. It's just not for me. I respect her, obviously, but it's just a really weird industry." She concludes by saying that people who think fashion is life are lame and she'd much rather become a lawyer, thank you very much. [Fox News]
• Charlize Theron appears on the cover of Vogue's September issue. It also touts the fact it's 584 pages, though that's down last year's 798 pages. [Cut]
• Be careful if you spend your days walking around in flip-flops. If you're not, you could pick up a deadly germ and if you happen to cut your foot, the germ will enter your bloodstream and kill you. Enjoy the rest of summer. [NYDN]

The Heist in Cannes, The Plan For Fashion's Night Out

cityfile · 07/14/09 07:50PM

• A notorious group of "gem raiders" hit the Cartier in Cannes yesterday and made off with more than $20 million in merchandise. What probably should have been a tip-off that something was amiss: the robbers were all clad in Hawaiian shirts. [Telegraph, Sun]
• Balmain may be getting into the handbag biz. [WWD]
• Big things are planned for Fashion's Night Out, the extravaganza that takes place this September and is designed to get people shopping again. Anna Wintour's brainchild will "involve a cornucopia of in-store events, from parties to personal appearances by designers and celebrities, live music, fashion shows, freebies, charity tie-ins, and extended shopping hours." [WWD]