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subscribe to style file blog via RSSOn Our Radar: Oscar De La Renta Silk Flower Dress
November 9, 2009
I know some people don’t like to dress their toddlers like grown-ups, but it’s almost impossible not to love this floral baby dress from Oscar de la Renta, a miniature version of one of Oscar’s Resort 2009 pieces. While it’s expensive, $100 from each dress sold goes to benefit the Children’s Defense Fund, and though your daughter will grow out of it in no time at all, you can always keep it in the family. Take it from Mom; vintage ODLR never goes out of style.
$290, available at Oscar de la Renta, NYC, (212) 288-5810, at the end of the November.
tags: Oscar de la Renta
Yea, Nay, Or Eh: Mendes Misses A Button
November 9, 2009
What happens when a noted Latina siren tries on the uniform of a celebrated Latina designer? Eva Mendes put her spin on the trademark look of Carolina Herrera (the envy-inducing crisp-and-chic tailored white dress shirt and polished black slacks she wears for every runway bow) for the NYC premiere of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Mendes is undeniably smokin’, but we sort of wish she’d shown some Herrera-esque restraint and left a little more to the imagination. Ingenuity is always welcome on the red carpet—cocktail dresses can get so snoozy—but this look could have benefited from a clever support system. What do you think of Mendes’ sophisticated attempt? Leave your comments below.
Update: Mendes is wearing a white shirt and a ruched taffeta skirt from Donna Karan’s pre-spring 2010 collection, but, either way, we still think she needs a bra.
tags: Carolina Herrera, Eva Mendes
Moises’ Youth Group, Boys In Skirts, And More…
November 9, 2009
Moises de la Renta,
The New York Times has discovered Rent the Runway, and they’ve visited the office. As you might expect, the twentysomething founders wear cocktail dresses to work. [NYT]
Hmm, wonder where Marc Jacobs would stand on the “can a boy wear a skirt to school” debate? Survey says… [NYT]
Technically savvy, social network-loving, British luxury brand aficionados, there’s now a Web site just for you: Burberry’s Art of the Trench. Sign yourself and your coat up today. [Racked]
Prepare for a red-carpet death match. Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Kidman have signed on as costars in The Danish Girl, with Kidman playing a post-op transsexual and Paltrow her supportive wife. We know press junkets are a long way off, but we’re looking forward to the Valentino and L’Wren Scott showdowns. [EW]
tags: Burberry, Gwyneth Paltrow, L'Wren Scott, Marc Jacobs, Moises de la Renta, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino
Thakoon Has A Fine New Job
November 9, 2009
After the end of his contract with Hogan, Thakoon Panichgul wasn’t looking for another extracurricular activity. “The [signature] line is expanding, and I really just wanted to focus on the collection and on Addition, which is also growing really quickly,” said the designer today on the phone from his Lafayette Street studio. Still, Panichgul accepted a meeting with Toshikazu Tajima, a former LVMH executive who is now the CEO of Japanese fine jeweler Tasaki, during the mad rush of prepping his Spring 2010 show. “He had been following my career and brand for a while,” explained Panichgul. “There’s a sensibility here that he loved—feminine but subversive.” Last week, they finalized the details, making Panichgul the new creative director of Tasaki, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of pearls (it’s where Mikimoto gets theirs). “I’ve always loved fine jewelry,” said the designer. “It’s a hidden luxury. Right away when we met, I already had ideas.” Panichgul’s new role involves designing a collection for the company’s topmost tier as well as overseeing everything that comes down its pipeline. The first collection of Thakoon for Tasaki will be unveiled in February at the reopening of the company’s five-story flagship in Ginza. This is actually a pretty active news week for the designer. He’s headed tonight to Zurich as one of the six nominees for the prestigious Swiss Textiles Award ceremony on Thursday. And he made a sort of informal announcement about an expansion into menswear prompted by the launch of his men’s cardigan collaboration for Aloha Rag. For the moment, it’s a hazy notion somewhere down the line, but Panichgul did confirm that when it does happen, Thakoon men’s would be designer, not contemporary. “I think there’s room up there,” he said. “[Men] will buy when it’s quality.”
tags: Hogan, Thakoon Panichgul
Revel Yell
November 9, 2009
It’s not over yet, but let’s make it official: 2009 was the year of the party. The recession is just no match for the fashion world’s insatiable appetite for champers, celebrity DJs (hello, Jesus), and so-hot-right-now hotel bars. To document the trend, we pored over our own party pages and thousands more photos on Patrick McMullan. Yes, searching the Web for pics of Stavros Niarchos with his shirt half off is hard work, but somebody had to do it. The list we whittled down after much debate (maybe next year, Courtney Love) represents the tippy top of our most tireless party people—from perennial scenester Karl Lagerfeld to newcomer Shala Monroque. Click for a slideshow of our selects, and let us know if there’s anyone we forgot. To qualify for inclusion in next year’s night owl roundup, please apply at the Standard.
tags: Courtney Love, Karl Lagerfeld, Shala Monroque, Stavros Niarchos
If It’s Haute Enough For Salma…
November 9, 2009
When buying vintage, provenance is important. Which is why this 1980’s black Chanel ball gown is sure to be one of the first items to go today at the special Decades and Decadestwo sale on HauteLook. An early Karl Lagerfeld creation for the French fashion house, the tulle and satin L.B.D. “is fit for a princess, and glam enough for a movie star, too,” Decades owner Cameron Silver told us. He should know; he sold it to Salma Hayek, who wore it three years ago last month to the 21st Annual American Cinematheque Award celebration in Los Angeles. She sold it back, and it’s now part of a two-day online sale curated by Silver and featuring a collection of little black dresses by the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Chloe, and Nina Ricci.
www.hautelook.com.
tags: Chanel, Chloe, Karl Lagerfeld, Nina Ricci, Salma Hayek, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent
From Rags To Riches
November 6, 2009
They may have earned their New York cred—and become, in the process, Yanks fans to boot—but Rag & Bone’s David Neville and Marcus Wainwright are English boys at heart. “There is a kind of anonymity being here that I really relish,” says Neville, who described his childhood as “classic English boarding school” at a dinner on native soil last night. “When we first landed in America, we wound up in the Midwest, where people would ask us to speak just so they could hear our accents. We certainly don’t get that here in London.”
The duo was in town to celebrate the line’s being picked up by Liberty of London, whose head buyer, Ed Burstell, called it an emblem of “downtown cool.” Guests like Poppy Delevingne and Liberty’s CEO, Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye, listened intently as Neville described the odyssey of the brand, including an explanation of how they arrived at their name. ” ‘Rag and Bone’ basically means a peddler selling odds and ends,” says Neville, who often has to explain it in the U.S., where the expression isn’t much used. “We felt that pretty much described us in the beginning.”
No one would accuse them of being rag peddlers now. Toasted by Liberty with a sumptuous five-course dinner—complete with fine wines and liveried waiters—the boys were feeling flush, too. Guests left with the mother of all goody bags: a scented candle (lovely), a cashmere snood, and a Rag gift certificate for a whopping £500. If word of that generosity gets out, they won’t stay anonymous on this side of the Atlantic for long.
tags: David Neville, Marcus Wainwright, Poppy Delevingne, Rag & Bone
Yea, Nay, Or Eh: Katy Perry At The 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards
November 6, 2009
Katy Perry’s one star who inspires some pretty heated style debates. She may have kissed a girl and liked it, but for fashion choices, she tends to leave people either hot or cold. At the MTV Europe Music Awards last night (the EMAs, to cognoscenti), Perry rocked 12 different outfits—including some of the best of Spring 2010, from Viktor & Rolf’s showstopping hacksaw ball gown to a prim and pretty floral Marchesa stunner—but the one we’re stuck on is her bustier-and-shorts combo, which picks up the season’s omnipresent lingerie trend in Perry’s usual take-no-prisoners style. Frankly, we’re more nay than yea on this. Yes, it’s young and fun, but it feels calculated to shock. (And the less said about the geometric pyramids jutting off the bottoms, the better.) What do you think—should barely-there go everywhere, or is this one style best left in the boudoir?
tags: Katy Perry, Marchesa, Vikto & Rolf
Prada Enters The Book Business
November 6, 2009
Just don’t call it a retrospective. That was the message at the Prada store in Soho today, as a new book documenting the world of Prada was unveiled to members of the press. Formally launched at an event earlier this week at the Prada store in Milan, PRADA was conceived and edited by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli in collaboration with designers Michael Rock and Sung Joong Kim of New York City design firm 2×4. Rock, who was on hand for the event this morning, explained that the book’s 708 pages can be broken up into two separate investigations, Inside and Outside. The Inside sections of the book trace Prada’s history, document the design and production process, and catalog the product Prada has introduced in the years since Miuccia Prada took over the company’s helm. (There are 3,885 thumbnail photos of the “looks” at Prada runway shows since 1987; bring your own magnifying glass.) The Outside section of PRADA, meanwhile, covers Prada’s various engagements with the worlds of commerce and culture, including stills from videos such as Trembled Blossoms, documentation of projects such as the Prada Transformer in South Korea and Double Club in London, photos of Prada on the red carpet and on the street, and even descriptions by eBay sellers of the Prada objets they are putting up for auction. The book also gives much love, naturally, to Rem Koolhaas, revealing the ruminations on the meaning of “luxury” that led to the launch of the Prada “epicenter” stores. Mediating the Inside and Outside sections is a chronology of Prada campaigns—images from every womenswear and menswear campaign from 1987 to the present. Prada COO Sebastian Suhl, offering remarks on the book this morning, said that the book’s focus on Prada’s accomplishments over the past 30 years does not make the book a retrospective, or a summing up; rather, he said, when you look at all that’s been done, “you see how much can be done.” “This book,” Suhl underscored, “is about the future.” At present, PRADA is available at Prada stores worldwide and via www.prada.com.
tags: Miuccia Prada, Patrizio Bertelli, Prada
The Fashion Set Fêtes Precious
November 6, 2009
This year’s little movie that could is shaping up to be Precious, the inspirational tale of a supremely disadvantaged teenager in eighties Harlem. The curious crowd that dropped by last night’s Cinema Society screening for a preview included Donna Karan, Agyness Deyn, and Tommy Hilfiger, the evening’s sponsor.
Sure, it’s a big deal now. But before the game-changer known as Oprah, who signed on as executive producer after the indie film’s Sundance triumph, the fate of Precious was less than certain. “I didn’t know if it would just end up on Netflix, with us having the premiere at my mother’s house,” cast member Paula Patton said before the screening, which took place at the Crosby Street Hotel. She was in a buoyant mood, despite a dress that looked just about ready to pop. “It’s too tight to find out, but we’re pretty sure it’s Tadashi Shoji,” Patton joked.
Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, and (in a bravura turn that’s surprised just about everyone) Mo’Nique round out the cast. Although none of them came by last night, the film’s breakout star, Gabby Sidibe, cruised through the after-party, and Colin Powell (not exactly a regular at movie premieres) made a surprise visit. What does it mean when a little movie comes with so many big names? “It means the movie better show and prove,” offered Terrence Howard. Judging from the responsive audience last night, this one is doing both.
tags: Agyness Deyn, and Tommy Hilfiger, Colin Powell, Donna Karan, Gabby Sidibe, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, Oprah, Tadashi Shoji
