16 posts tagged "Levi’s"
The King’s Bling
Livia Giuggioli, wife of the future Sir Colin Firth, one-upped herself last night. Her Green Carpet challenge, in which she goes fully sustainably gowned to every awards show—and no movie has provided more opps than The King’s Speech—became the Green-and-Gold Challenge. Her gown was righteous. It was by Southeast London designer Gary Harvey, formerly of Levi’s, who cut it from 11 vintage frocks dating from the start of George VI’s reign. But her jewelry! Her earrings and enormous cocktail ring were forged from not merely fair trade, but fair-trade fair-mined ecological gold, and with fully traceable gems. This was a world first.
Nothing so fancy has ever been so traceable. The Oro Verde gold came from Colombia, via CRED jewelry‘s mine workers’ collective, whose members extract the precious metal by hand, thus avoiding poisons like cyanide and mercury. The diamonds were courtesy of the Liqhobong Women Miners Cooperative in Lesotho, and the 35 carats of aquamarines came from Lundazi, a community mine in Zambia, and were hand-exported to Sri Lanka for cutting before being personally couriered to London for Livia’s selection by conscientious gemologist Guy Clutterbuck. Livia was impressed. “He reminded me of my dad and the stories he shared with me as a kid when he used to travel all over Africa and Saudi Arabia,” she said. “You wonder why there aren’t more characters like him in the world today.”
Livia then selected the stones with Brighton-based jewelry designer Anna Loucah, who also made—out of recycled white gold, ethical rubies and purple spinel, carbon-neutral pearls, and conflict-free black diamonds—her Firth-triumphant Golden Globe suite of bracelet and earrings. This stuff must be lucky.
Kate Sekules is the founder of the haute-cycling swap site www.refashioner.com.
They’ve Been Working On The Railroad
Opening Ceremony and Levi’s joined forces earlier this spring to launch a collection of pastel-hued cords, from cut-off shorts to overshirts, and a perfectly broken-in denim jacket. For the collaboration’s second wave, hitting stores next week, they looked back to Levi’s workwear heritage—and namely, its classic railroad stripe. Here’s your exclusive first look at the new Opening Ceremony 505 jean ($210), in eye-popping, graphic black-and-white stripes, and trucker jacket ($300), which brings together a few colors of denim with a shearling lining and a patch of that same railroad stripe. Look for it at Opening Ceremony, select Levi’s stores, and levis.com by next Friday.
Who’s Up For The British Fashion Awards,
Who Wants Klaus Kinski Front-Row,
Who’s Rethinking Khakis, And More…
The British Fashion Award nominations are in! For designer of the year, Phoebe Philo (pictured) faces off with Christopher Kane and Erdem Moralioglu; for designer brand of the year, it’s Burberry and Mulberry vs. Pringle of Scotland and Victoria Beckham; and for menswear designer of the year, Christopher Bailey, Margaret Howell, Paul Smith, and the Savile Row label E. Tautz. Meanwhile, Nick Knight, Nicola Formichetti, and Rankin are all up for the Isabella Blow award for fashion creator—at least two of whom are Gaga besties. Now who will she root for? [WWD]
Richard Chai, who nabbed the CFDA Swarovski Award for emerging menswear designer last year, has announced he’ll debut his capsule collection for Original Penguin at his runway show this season. [WWD]
Steven Alan’s memories of Dockers center on “a 1970s math professor.” Let’s hope he chooses a different inspiration when he designs a few styles for the historic khaki producer. [NYT]
You probably aren’t washing your jeans as thoroughly and lovingly as Levi’s creative director Carl Chiara. But if you want to start, clear a few hours, a bathtub, and a sachet of potpourri, and follow these 14 or so simple directions. [WSJ]
For the latest issue of Interview, Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquière sits down with legendary editor and style maven Polly Mellen, who’s full of great reminiscences about working in fashion in the era of Vreeland. Vreeland, the late Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue editrix, apparently had navy blue hair—chic! [Interview]
And Hint Mag puts several New York designers to the Mad Libs test. Read on to learn who wants Klaus Kinski in his front row, who wants the naked and blood-spattered cast of True Blood in his, and who aspires to “create a duplicate of himself, and then again and again until the entire world was Scott Sternbergs.” (One guess on that one.) [Hint Mag]
The Season’s Unlikely Style Icon, Fashion Week 2.0, Billy Reid For Levi’s Hits Stores, And More…
The floral dresses. The chunky shoes and woolly socks. The high-piled buns. Looks like another night at the Jane. Also looks like—Elaine Benes?! The NYT assesses the reruns and finds the season’s unlikely style icon. Bizarro! [NYT]
Meet the new, technologically savvier fashion week—one with barcode-reading check-in kiosks, iPad-stored guest lists, Fashion GPS. [WSJ]
The latest Levi’s collaboration, designed by Alabama-based designer Billy Reid, hits stores September 14. Workwear obsessives who just can’t wait can get a first look on Fashion’s Night Out, when Reid heads up north to debut the line at Bloomingdale’s on 59th Street. [Racked]
And beleaguered American Apparel CEO Dov Charney speaks out about the rumors swirling around his company. Could it fail? Well, maybe. “There’s a chance that you get hit by a car. There’s a chance you get a disease. But they are chances,” Charney tells WWD. “But there’s also a likelihood that the [financial] covenant will be worked out, as it has in the past.” Deep-V aficionados, keep those fingers crossed. [WWD]
My Boyfriend’s Back
Levi’s has been churning out 501s—a near perfect example of the denim form, if you ask us—for a century-plus, but that doesn’t make it immune to seasonal trends and variations. At its Fall 2010 preview last night, the San Fran-based label debuted its collection for the season ahead, displaying a new emphasis on tops—in a variety of chambrays, denims, wovens, and chunky knits—and a still-going-strong taste for boyfriend dressing. That’s a concept, especially for jeans, that’s been kicked around plenty in the last year, but the brand made a case for life in it yet. Several styles were slouchy and threadbare, with ultra-distressed patches (clothing maintenance not being your boyfriend’s strong suit, apparently), but our favorite was a boxy, pleated pair (pictured). Pleated jeans have historically been a tough sell for all but the eighties German tourist, but shown with small cuffs, boyish flats, and a thick, marled-wool cardigan, they looked fresh and cute.
As for the Levi’s gal’s boyfriend, if he’s wearing the label’s Fall menswear, he’ll be spending some time down by the docks. A workwear-ish, all-American spirit pervaded the men’s collection, from heavy flannels and dark jeans to a patched denim jacket, but the styled accents were nautical—scratchy rope belts and Bean boots. He could be a contender.