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subscribe to style file blog via RSSMade Gives Us More To “Like”
February 8, 2012 9:00 am
Made Fashion Week (originally MAC & Milk) held what could be regarded as a “breakfast of champions” yesterday at Milk Gallery, where bloggers gathered for the unveiling of an innovative mobile app that broadcasts runway images in real time, with available features that make it easy to “like” an individual look, take notes, or e-mail or tweet it, all while the model is walking down the catwalk. “With this app, there’s no more need to hurriedly scribble notes on pen and paper,” Mazdack Rassi, creative director of Milk Group and co-founder of Made, told Style.com as we tested out the app using iPads and smart phones to a video projection of a fashion show.
The downloadable app uses Sonic Notify’s technology to match each image to soundless audio signals that will work exclusively during the Made shows and presentations (taking place at Milk Studios and the Standard Hotel), which include Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, Erin Fetherston, Peter Som, and Patrick Ervell. This also means that if you happen to be stuck in a taxi and are unable to attend the show, you can launch the app via the Livestream video broadcast of each show, which syncs to the Made Fashion Week app. Fashion week just got a little bit easier.
tags: Livestream.com, MAC & Milk, Made Fashion Week, Mazdack Rassi, Sonic Notify
Work Hard, Play Hard
February 7, 2012 5:27 pm
“We call Jenne [Lombardo] the fashion fairy godmother—she’s amazing at putting creative people together,” said Nomia designer Yara Flinn last night at the W Union Square, where the hotel group was hosting its Fashion Next bash for Flinn and the rest of the designers in the program. Lombardo, W’s global fashion director and host for the evening, was on hand, along with the likes of Waris Ahluwalia and DJ Chelsea Leyland.
“Talent will only get you so far in this industry,” Lombardo told Style.com. “You also need a strong sense of business. We help them with that extra boost,” she explained of the program, which supports emerging designers. This week, they will host presentations for Fashion Next labels Suzanne Rae, Nomia, Haus Alkire, and Rochambeau. Bibhu Mohapatra, also a participant in the program, is set to stage his first runway show next week. “I’m ready to see things come to life,” he said. “We just did the second round of castings and I’m really excited—we have some beautiful girls walking the runway.”
As for post-show plans? The designers agreed market sales are first on the agenda, but that doesn’t mean all work and no play. “I’ll steal away to my little house upstate,” revealed Mohapatra. Meanwhile, Lombardo waxed pragmatic about fashion week’s parade of parties. “Every night we let loose and every morning we go to work,” she deadpanned. “It’s a high-stress, maximum-impact job, but you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt.”
tags: Bibhu Mohapatra, Chelsea Leyland, Haus Alkire, Jenne Lombardo, Nomia, Rochambeau, Suzanne Rae, W Fashion Next, Waris Ahluwalia, Yara Flinn
A Healthy Breakfast
February 7, 2012 3:39 pm
On the ride up to the seventh floor of the Museum of Arts and Design today, Arianna Huffington and Maria Cornejo chatted on the need for coffee and other morning matters. It was half past 8 a.m. after all, and Huffington was a panel member for the CFDA Health Initiative’s “A Well-Balanced Life” discussion. (The news magnate was joined by other busy ladies: Elettra Wiedemann, Monique Péan, Karolina Kurkova, and moderator Alina Cho, who brightened the room in a sunny yellow print frock.) The conversation covered practical tips. Huffington, for one, sang the praises of getting a full night’s sleep. “For me, there is nothing more healing,” she told the audience that included Francisco Costa, Joseph Altuzarra, Prabal Gurung, and Olivier Theyskens. She also touched on something she nattily called “GPS for the soul,” which includes activities that keep people centered (read: weekend yoga). Wiedemann, meanwhile, recommended self-development, such as enrolling in graduate classes. And Péan, a former Wall Street banker turned jewelry designer, advised carrying on-the-go protein during fashion week.
With focus turning to the show season and tough casting decisions, the mood veered in a more serious direction. Kurkova related the pressures models face with body weight and image. In her successful career, she has dealt with health issues, she said, and teared up when mentioning her husband’s devout support throughout that rough patch. Huffington talked about her youngest daughter Isabella, who battled an eating disorder at age 12. But if there was one takeaway from the morning go-around, it was that mentors help light the way. Wiedemann said her father was her rock. For example, when she had to wear a back brace as a young teen (”it was real-life Romy and Michele,” she said), he steered her toward swimming. He was also a former model and he met her mother, Isabella Rossellini, on the set of a Calvin Klein shoot. To which Wiedemann cheered to Costa, “Thanks, Francisco!”
tags: Alina Cho, Arianna Huffington, CFDA, CFDA Health Initiative's "A Well-Balanced Life", Elettra Wiedemann, Francisco Costa, Isabella Rossellini, Joseph Altuzarra, Karolina Kurkova, Maria Cornejo, Monique Pean, Olivier Theyskens, Prabal Gurung
Fashion Week, Turned Up To 11
February 6, 2012 4:37 pm
Every New York fashion week is filled with its fair share of memorable performances, both at shows and at the host of after-parties. This week should be no exception. On Thursday night, the Citizens Band, spearheaded by Karen Elson and Sarah Sophie Flicker, is set to turn Milk Studios into a sexy boudoir for their burlesque-style performance in Erickson Beamon’s “Deca-Dance” presentation. (They will, of course, be wearing Erickson Beamon pieces.) Following the cabaret show, Lissy Trullie, Cleo Le-Tan (sister of designer Olympia Le-Tan), Venus XX, and rap group Wu-Tang Clan are each doing a set at Milk for the MADE and Lexus Launch Event. If that’s not enough to make your night, the Kills’ Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince (a.k.a. Mr. Moss) will be rocking out at the Standard’s Boom Boom Room—we’re told it’s their last performance for a long time before they go back to the studio to work on their next album. On Friday night, the Ting Tings and Santigold (who fronted Alexander Wang’s T ad campaign for Fall ‘11) will be on hand to put on a show (Ting Tings) and DJ (Santigold) at The Box for a Glamour party. The following day, Style.com has learned that actress and singer Alia Shawkat, familiar to many from her starring role in the much-missed sitcom Arrested Development, will be singing during Rachel Antonoff’s presentation at Drive In Studios.
tags: Alia Shawkat, Alison Mosshart, Cleo Le-Tan, Erickson Beamon, Jamie Hince, Karen Elson, Lissy Trullie, Rachel Antonoff, Santigold, Sarah Sophie Flicker, The Citizens Band, The Kills, the Ting Tings, Venus XX, Wu-Tang Clan
Dragon Tattoo Leaves Its Mark On Stockholm Fashion Week
February 3, 2012 6:00 pm
It was Stockholm’s unlikely style icon Lisbeth Salander, or rather the first actress to bring her to life in the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film series, Noomi Rapace (pictured), who kicked off the city’s fashion week Monday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Rapace attended shows throughout the week, and on Tuesday night, at the just-opened Burberry store, she told us she had just come from the Dagmar show, where Salander was cited as an inspiration (the modernist artist Sigrid Hjerten was the other) for the collection. The three Dagmar sisters are known for their knitwear, but this show brought their label to a new level. For every sweater in a deep plum, there were long silk dresses with high slits secured by zips, and right after the cream chunky Aran knit came a top and track-style pants in a black velvet devoré animal print that made everyone lean forward for a closer look. It appeared again on a dress and alongside the lace-effect knit patterns on a couple of short dresses at the end—Dagmar was the highlight of the day, if not the week. More than one editor placed a personal order after the show—we overheard one of them saying, “I want to be a Dagmar girl” at the end of the presentation.
The rest of the week flew by, perhaps a sign that when casual cool is your brand’s DNA, a full-on show may be a stretch. Then again, you could drive everyone to a hangar space outside the city and show bras on top of cutoff tees (à la Cheap Monday) or throw balloons, confetti, and winking models high-fiving each other on the runway (like Odd Molly), but perhaps that’s not advisable without a heavy dose of Meadham Kirchhoff irony. Jewelry designer Maria Nilsdotter put on a small presentation at the Story hotel for her Swedish folk tale-inspired collection of silver pieces with spikes, and Ida Sjöstedt showed her hand-stitched gowns in the Clock Suite of the Berns Hotel. These more intimate spaces turned out some of the most promising offerings. With that, Stockholm fashion week closed Wednesday night, as temperatures dropped to -13 degrees C (8 degrees F), just in time for everyone to hop over to Copenhagen to begin a new round of shows.
tags: Berns Hotel, Burberry, Cheap Monday, Copenhagen, dagmar, Maria Nilsdotter, Meadham Kirchhoff i, Noomi Rapace, Odd Molly, Sigrid Hjerten, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Winery’s Winners
February 1, 2012 6:00 pm
The early bird catches the worm—that saying was certainly appropriate this morning when, before rush hour, a crowd of industry insiders flocked to the Museum of Arts and Design for breakfast to fête the winners of the 11th annual Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation awards. The birds? Designers Tim Coppens, Sunhee Moon’s Sunhee Huang, Titania Inglis, Eighteenth’s Alexa Galler, Haus Alkire’s Julie Haus and Jason Alkire, Correll Correll’s Vera and Daphne Correll, and Dezso’s Sara Beltran. The proverbial worm? $25,000 grants to fund their Fall presentations at New York fashion week, starting next Thursday.
“This is not something I would typically do on a Wednesday morning,” mused Coppens, who launched his menswear collection in April. “I was surprised to win, but it feels really good.” The judges, including former Barneys fashion director Julie Gilhart, Gilt Man’s Josh Peskowitz, and Paper’s Kim Hastreiter, were all on hand to congratulate the recipients. “We all know how hard it is to get a solid footing in this business,” Peskowitz told Style.com. “This industry requires new people to be able to put forth new ideas, and having this award ensures that process continues.” Meanwhile, retail guru Gilhart bestowed some words of wisdom to the newly coronated designers. “Show up and bring something different to the table,” she advised. Adding, “This is not an award that is about lights, camera, action—it takes time.”
That is certainly true for industry veteran Huang, who has been working on her collection for the past 15 years. “I started crying when I heard the news,” Huang admitted. “I tried to launch the line several times, but it was difficult financially. This is the third time and I feel like it’s the start of my career.”
tags: Alexa Galler, Ecco Domani, Josh Peskowitz, Julie Gilhart, Julie Haus and Jason Alkire, Kim Hastreiter, Museum of Arts and Design, Sara Beltran, Sunhee Huang, Tim Coppens, Titania Inglis, Vera and Daphne Correll
Happily Eco After
January 30, 2012 4:21 pm
Amsterdam’s Green Fashion Competition had already bagged a celebrity champion in the form of supermodel-activist Lonneke Engel. But the event, now a capstone of the city’s fashion week festivities, took its credentials to the next level Friday, when it welcomed the future queen of the Netherlands to the front row.
Flanked by burly security types, Princess Máxima drew audible gasps of admiration as she took to her vantage point in the Westergasfabriek (Amsterdam’s answer to Bryant Park) dressed in a brown sequined skirt from the Fall 2011 demi-couture collection of Dutch designer Jan Taminiau, a man whose avant-garde creations are more commonly seen on pop princesses like Lady Gaga.
Apart from the occasional appreciative whisper in the ear of Minister Maxime Verhagen of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs (which provides the €40,000 prize pot), Máxima didn’t say much during the hour-long show. But a backstage chat with the winners revealed that the former investment banker-turned-princess, who married heir apparent Prince Willem-Alexander in 2002, was right on the money when it came to predicting the evening’s outcome.
Carlien Helmink of Studio JUX, the fair-trade brand that scooped first prize for its chic collection of Nepalese-produced dresses, said, “She [Princess Màxima] was so enthusiastic and even told us that she had expected the jury to choose us as winner.” New Yorker Carrie Parry, who won the Category Two prize for most promising start-up, was also impressed. “Having a real princess witness the unveiling of your designs is pretty much a fairy tale, isn’t it?”
tags: Amsterdam Green Fashion Competition, Carlien Helmink, Jan Taminiau, Olcay Gulsen, Princess M�xima, Westergasfabriek
The Cat Is Out of the Bag
January 27, 2012 10:00 am
If the elbow-to-elbow lines at the Jason Wu for Target party was any indication, the retailer’s latest high-low collaboration, set to hit shelves on February 5, will be tough to keep in stock. Wu and Target took over Skylight Soho last night and converted it into a whimsical Parisian street scene with a Ladurée macaron station, fully stocked café bar, circulating mini croque madames, and, of course, a boutique stocking the affordable designs (think: polka blouses with jaunty ties and pleated skirts for strolling the Seine). While the likes of Blake Lively, Chloë Moretz, and Harley Viera-Newton jostled for the size smalls, Wu circulated in a trim black-on-black suit. “It’s been amazing to come up with a concept and to have it executed like this,” he said, marveling at the sheer scale of the party and collaboration. “I’ve really enjoyed the process,” he added. “I mean, I’ve now filmed my first commercial and there’s the billboards!”
And the cheeky black cat in the campaign? “I’m a cat person; I have two at home,” Wu explained. ”And I like that the black cat is mysterious and a bit naughty.” Nearby, Kate Young stopped to congratulate the young designer, as did Jaime King, who was in town from L.A. for a few days. By 10:30 p.m. the crowd thickened around the stage, where French electropop band Yelle played a set. Judging by the number of editors in the room bopping their heads, with their Wu merchandise in one hand and a cocktail in the other, it felt like a fashion week warm-up.
tags: Blake Lively, Chloe Moretz, Jaime King, Jason Wu, Target, Yelle
Shining Stars
January 26, 2012 5:21 pm
“At least it’s not snowing this year” was a phrase heard repeatedly at Fashion Group International’s 15th Annual Rising Star Awards luncheon, held today at Cipriani 42nd Street. There were several FGI veterans in attendance, including Catherine Malandrino and past winners Thom Browne, Christopher Coleman, and Monica Rich Kosann (all three were also presenters today), who could remember prior years when the event was held on an especially chilly day. For the Rising Star nominees, however, it was a day full of firsts.
“I have been nominated for a few awards and not ever been in this situation,” Simon Spurr said, sounding quite surprised, as he collected his menswear award from Browne. “Obviously, this one is very special because, well, it’s my first one.” Before Nonoo designer Misha Nonoo picked up her womenswear award (she and Wes Gordon both won in the category in a tie), Nonoo joked, “If I end up having to give a speech, I am not nervous—I just had three bellinis,” she said. “Plus, they e-mailed us last night saying we absolutely had to keep our speeches under one minute.”
She might not have been nervous, but keynote speakers Isabel and Ruben Toledo were feeling the heat before they spoke (maybe that’s because they had more than 60 seconds to talk). “You know, we don’t do this [give speeches] for a living,” Ruben told Style.com as he snagged a bite of cake before heading to the stage. Meanwhile, his wife had lost her appetite for the moment. “I can’t eat now, but when I get back, I hope this steak is still waiting for me.” They had no reason to fret—they had plenty of wise words to offer the group. “When you have no budget, you learn to create out of thin air. Pragmatism becomes your best friend and you learn to do very much with very little,” Isabel said. “Whatever you love about what you do, keep on doing it. Don’t lose sight of that, no matter how hard things get.”
tags: Catherine Malandrino, Christopher Coleman, Fashion Group International Rising Star Award, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Misha Nonoo, Thom Browne, Wes Gordon
Oscar Nominations Announced
January 24, 2012 12:10 pm
At last, this year’s Academy Award nominations were announced, and there were certainly a few surprises. The Artist, as expected, is a top contender, but it’s Martin Scorsese’s Hugo that earned the most nods, with 11 nominations compared to the silent film’s ten. Rooney Mara made the Best Actress cut for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but big contenders like Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Charlize Theron (Young Adult) did not. And although Ryan Gosling earned high praise for his work in Drive and The Ides of March, he was left off the Oscars list all together. To see the full list, visit Oscar.go.com.
BEST PICTURE
The Artist, Thomas Langmann, producer
The Descendants, Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor, producers
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Scott Rudin, producer
The Help, Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, and Michael Barnathan, producers
Hugo, Graham King and Martin Scorsese, producers
Midnight in Paris, Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, producers
Moneyball, Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, and Brad Pitt, producers
The Tree of Life, Nominees to be determined
War Horse, Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, producers
LEAD ACTOR
Demián Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
LEAD ACTRESS
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Read the rest of this entry >
tags: Academy Awards, Charlize Theron, Golden Globes, Hugo, Martin Scorsese, Rooney Mara, The Artist, Tilda Swinton
