18 posts tagged "Jessica Alba"
The Recent Rush of Plush Velvet
Nothing adds a royal touch quite like velvet, and we’ve noticed plenty of it in the recent pre-fall, Haute Couture, and even menswear collections. At Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton whipped up an ecclesiastical draped robe in cardinal red, while Stella McCartney, Rochas’ Marco Zanini, and Peter Copping at Nina Ricci were among the designers who incorporated the fabric into eveningwear. Christopher Kane, for his part, took the material in a more casual direction with a cool biker jacket. Velvet is getting play in the real world, too. Jessica Alba turned up to the Dior Haute Couture show this week wearing a sumptuous black topcoat, while Joséphine de la Baume gave off a witchy vibe in a crushed-velvet number at the Amy Winehouse Foundation Ball.
CLICK FOR A SLIDESHOW of our favorite velvet looks.
Alba Accessorizes —Toasting Narciso Rodriguez’s New Collection At Barneys
Barneys invited editors to Fred’s yesterday to celebrate its exclusive launch of Narciso Rodriguez’s accessories with the designer and his longtime pal Jessica Alba. Wearing a strappy, form-fitting dress from his Resort collection, she waxed nostalgic about the many occasions she’s donned her friend’s design. “The thing that’s crazy about his clothes,” she said, “is every time I zip it up it fits like a glove. Whether I’m at a studio or at home, I’m like, ‘oh, ok, it was made for me, awesome.’ I feel sexy, sophisticated, tough —everything that I want to feel as a woman.” And how does she like the new bags and shoes? “They’re so rad. I mean, why did he just give this to us now?” That’s where Rodriguez jumped in. “Finding the right partners, it takes a hand to make that shoe,” he said, gesturing at Alba’s pointy-toed pump with folded suede detail. “We got together a really great team to do it right. You know I like to do things once or not do it all. We previewed to Jessica early on and she was grabbing everything. That’s always a good indication.” So is the fact that after the lobster salad lunch, several editors headed down to the store’s new shoe floor before going back to the office.
Lucky In L.A.
“Bloggers have changed the fashion industry.” So opined Lucky editor in chief Brandon Holley, and that’s the guiding wisdom behind her magazine’s FABB Fashion and Beauty Blogger conference. The third annual conference took place yesterday, but for the first time, Holley chose L.A. as its home. “There’s a really neat intersection between fashion, bloggers, and celebrity; L.A. is kind of the center,” she explained. Proving her point were the the panelists set to speak: L.A.-based bloggers including WhoWhatWear’s Katherine Power and HelloGiggles’ Sophia Rossi; online-savvy celebrities like Jessica Alba (pictured), Cat Deeley, and Elizabeth Banks; fashion businesspeople like J Brand’s Jeff Rudes; and Hollywood insiders such as Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant and Easy A screenwriter Will Gluck.
How did the day’s speakers see the change that blogs have wrought? Celebrity stylist-turned-A.L.C. designer Andrea Lieberman suggested that they’ve brought the stars down-to-earth—and in so doing, made them relatable to millions. Casual shots of celebrities on their off-hours, tirelessly chronicled by celeb-focused blogs, have “as much of an impact on fashion and style and image as the red carpet does.”
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On Our Radar: Matt Bernson
Since launching his namesake accessories label in 2005, New York-based designer Matt Bernson has racked up an impressive following—Gisele Bündchen, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Jessica Alba included. They and the rest of his growing fan base will be happy to hear that his chic, affordable line of shoes and bags is now available at the label’s first flagship, a 2,200-square-foot shop now open in Tribeca. Bernson and Joshua Pulver, Kate Spade’s architect of choice, decorated the space with custom and vintage furnishings and filled it with pieces from the new collection, which range from the puff leather T-strap Matteo heel to the downtown-cool Gitanes smoking slipper in pastel patent leather. Bernson even dabbled in the season’s sporty trend with the thin-stacked Shelby wedge made of perforated leather (pictured).
Matt Bernson is now open at 20 Harrison St., NYC, (212) 941-7634. Prices range from $134 to $218.
Girls’ Night Out
“Every woman in the fashion business has a girl crush on DVF,” Tina Brown said of her co-host Friday night at the United Nations, where she and the designer were holding the third annual DVF Awards honoring extraordinary women. “I even thought I would rename myself Tina von Brown for a while,” she said jokingly to the audience.
But the night was not about DVF or Brown (though both are extraordinary), so Brown turned the mic over to the award presenters, including actresses Debra Winger and Jessica Alba, who were handing off the Anh Duong–designed statues to the likes of Oprah and Jaycee Dugard. “I think there’s a lot of social movements out there, but very few are effective,” Alba, who was presenting to Rio-based “grafiteira” Pamela Castro, told Style.com before the ceremony got started. “She [Castro] has found a way to really touch people. She educates women through her art—it’s very sexy and provocative, but also heartbreaking.”
The evening came to a grand crescendo when Oprah took the stage. “No matter how many margaritas I’ve had, I always make to at least one knee to pray every single day,” she told the audience, attributing her great philanthropic work to higher powers. “Everything that comes from me comes from something that’s bigger than me.” Before handing the inspiration award to Dugard, she said, “When I saw Jaycee’s interview with Diane Sawyer, I kept thinking of myself at 11 years old, on the way to school, and abducted, snatched, taken, and held prisoner for 18 years. Just take that in for a moment.” By the time Oprah closed out her speech, a good portion of the audience was in tears. “It’s my honor tonight to present the inspiration award, and I don’t even know if inspiration is a big enough word to encompass what Jaycee means to me and so many other victims of sexual violence, but she is exceptional as a woman and as a human being.”