“Is it vintage?” Poppy Delevingne asked, looking at the Art Deco-style black enamel-and-pavé-crystal ring on my middle finger.  “Was it your grandmother’s?” I shook my head.  We were nearing the entrance to the Richard Chai show during New York Fashion Week, and I only had moments to explain.  “Nope, Grayce by Molly Sims for HSN.”  On assignment, I’d been wearing Sims’s pieces throughout Fashion Week to great response.

Delevingne’s comment is no surprise considering the Kentucky-bred Sims has an eye for antique jewelry inspired by early gifts from her mother, often finds from local estate auctions and flea markets. “When I started modeling, I couldn’t afford the dresses I wanted, but I had the most amazing jewelry from my mom’s collection,” Sims said. (Case in point: the $25 crystal-and-gold-mesh collar she wore to last year’s opening of the Met Opera.) Now, the 36-year-old actress presents a collection of costume jewelry made from the likes of woven metal mesh, rhinestone-covered ball charms, and glass-pearl strands—all under $100—debuting November 13.

Shown above: Unforgettable Knot Necklace, $89.95; available for purchase on hsn.com

—Stephanie LaCava

I love Jimmy Choos. I really do. There is more sex appeal sculpted into the heel of a Jimmy Choo than almost any other heel I can think of—and there are some serious contenders: Louboutin, Zanotti, Paciotti—but my evening is instantly transformed when I slide on, buckle up, or climb atop a pair for a night out.

The pair that I am lusting after right now have been dubbed the Loop, $975 (jimmychoo.com). I can’t decide which grabs me more—the patent leather or the punk-rock-collage motif: I feel like as soon as I fasten the straps I will be immediately transported to Sid Vicious’s debut with the Sex Pistols at London’s Screen on the Green Cinema in April 1977. With the eighties redux in overload, I am relieved to finally be revisiting a new decade.

These Loop heels are from the Project PEP capsule collection, which will be released worldwide this Wednesday. The wonderful thing about Project PEP is that 25 percent of the proceeds of net sales will be donated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which will pass it on to the Simelela Rape Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. Vogue will be hosting New York’s Project PEP launch party on Wednesday at the Jimmy Choo flagship on Madison and Sixty-third Street and Madison Avenue. Alexandra Richards will be deejaying, and I will be tapping my Loops to “God Save the Queen.” 

Nicholas King just got back from a trip to Asia to find some new materials for his jewelry. While he makes everything in Britain—in east London, to be precise, not far from his studio—he’s always on the look out for some different thing he can use. Up till now, he has been working with studs, diamanté, sequins. Clearly he’s not the first jeweler to be using these, but here is where he is startlingly original: He suspends his embellishments in transparent resin. What results are these monumental pieces of compelling and original effect. It’s like you’re looking at a studded wristlet or diamanté bracelet that has been encased in a portable vitrine; as if some ancient relic from, oh, I don’t know, a party at the Hotel Griffou were dug up in 2087 and preserved as some kind of wearable cultural artifact.

In fact, that idea of past, present, and future, and the interplay between tradition and modernity, are what King has been thinking a lot about recently. Because when I say new materials, the truth is that he has actually been recently hunting for old things to incorporate into his work. King has started experimenting with jewelry that is “more romantic. I want to take things that are regarded as being soft—lace, embroideries, and vintage fabrics—and encase them in something hard.” Except easier said than done, it seems. There have been all sorts of technical challenges that he has had to struggle with because of the heat of the resin before it sets, which means that he has to make sure the silk doesn’t disintegrate, or that antique strass stones don’t lose their sparkle. Continue reading ›

Last night, Frédéric Fekkai, and Vogue’s Sally Singer and Lisa Love hosted the third—and final—challenge in the 2009 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund at the Chateau Marmont in LA. Thus far, our fearless final ten were asked to present a selection from their line in front of the judges, create a brand-new piece inspired by Google and now, finally, to present a full-fledged fashion show—with a twist. 

Instead of presenting down a runway inside a tent, a group show was hosted in the garden, and everyone was commenting on how much more personality came through with this approach. It didn’t hurt that the usually dark Chateau itself was brilliantly brightened up thanks to Lisa Love’s suggestion of covering all the chairs with white slipcovers. Marcy Medina from Women’s Wear Daily said how enjoyable it was to see the clothes and accessories from this perspective and Katherine Ross agreed, adding there was no fashion politics— no one minded if they were in the second row in the inventive space. Continue reading ›

These days it seems that everywhere I look, I see lingerie. Bras ruffled and reserved from Balenciaga, Miu Miu, and Louis Vuitton are in stores now, while Prada and Dolce & Gabbana showed shorts as brief as bloomers on their recent spring runways, to say nothing of John Galliano’s couture collection for Christian Dior, where models wearing long skirts with silk-satin brassieres captured the rarely seen glamour of a woman in the midst of getting dressed. There’s no denying it: Fashion is obsessed with underwear at the moment. Which is why there seemed no better time than now for me to hop a plane to Paris for a peek at one of the city’s best-loved lingerie (and swim) collections: Eres. 

Eres headquarters is in an industrial glass-ceilinged tower on Boulevard Voltaire in the city’s Eleventh Arrondissement. On the day of the company’s collection presentation, models in Pop-color swimsuits, with matching bathing caps, and the prettiest lingerie and loungewear are positioned on square, Mondrian-colored platforms in the studio’s neon-lit central courtyard. It’s here that I meet Valérie Delafosse, the house’s artistic director, who, during her three years at Eres, has taken the line’s exquisite lingerie and turned what was once a woman’s secret luxury into a real style-defining accessory. She’s done this, in part, by championing underwear as outerwear long before it became la mode. “I like to use colors that are not so specific to lingerie—colors from nature, colors with gray in them, for example—and fabrics that are unexpected,” she tells me, pointing to a pair of deep-ocean-blue crepe-de-Chine tap shorts. “See, they’re stone-washed, not so precious, and dark. You can wear them to brunch with a Petit Bateau T-shirt and flats.” (Delafosse also applies the same fabric-swapping strategy to swimwear. This winter, for example, she embellished suits with strips of satin evoking YSL-esque tuxedo dressing.) Continue reading ›

Two hundred assorted plastic beetles now live in my armoire, underneath the drawer that holds my collection of antique beetle jewelry—you can see a few of my pieces here. It’s an odd obsession, born of an even odder story.  These toy-shop specimens arrived at my apartment over the summer in two large cardboard boxes that looked suspiciously like contraband. “What did you order this time?” my boyfriend asked, knowing the perils of my Internet shopping. “Nothing,” I lied, running off into the bedroom to liberate my beetles. I needed to make sure I had the perfect plastic model for the piece I’d commissioned from friend and jewelry designer Pamela Love. Everyone has an accessory obsession; mine just happens to have six legs. 

This past August, I decided I needed new beetles to wear, created by a modern jeweler of the moment. (Dean Harris’s beetle-wing pieces already hold a special place in my heart.) Knowing of Love’s menagerie of cast creatures, I asked her to make a pendant and two cuffs. It was her first truly custom, personal commission, though my sensibility mirrored that of those who love her bird-claw bracelets. “They’re tough and a little scary, but when you cast them in different metals they become strong and beautiful, “ she says. “From ancient Egypt to the rise of Art Nouveau, people have been using bugs in jewelry,” Love adds, distilling the larger historic fascination. “It’s a trend that keeps emerging: to turn them into something beautiful and delicate.” Continue reading ›

Ran up to Barneys today, where for two hours Alex Wang was having a trunk show with his spring collection. Waiters passed out mini Clif bars and Vitaminwater (fitting for a collection with a touch of athleticism) while shoppers placed their orders. “I started with Barneys,” Alex told me, meaning it was the first department store to buy his collection. “So I love being back here. And it’s great to meet customers and see their range and explain the clothes to them.” Today’s best sellers? The sleeveless utility jacket that started Alex’s show, his see-through striped metallic pullover, and the red-and-white-striped, hole-y rugby sweater. But get this: Barneys has a waiting list of over 400 dying to get their hands on one of his Rocco bags (the ones that have studs all over their undersides). “Some girls have even put themselves on lists in multiple cities,” said an incredulous Alex. Not to worry. In just a few days (November 1 to be exact), you can look to buy the Rocco on alexanderwang.com. We’re not making any promises, but it’s worth a shot!

—Florence Kane

How Dafne Balatsos, designer of these deliciously gothic bags that carry a distinct whiff of danger, came to live in Los Angeles makes for a pretty straightforward story. The Bay Area native had studied fashion at Parsons in New York and Paris before moving to L.A. because of the lure of Hollywood—plus, as she says, “I wasn’t really typical Seventh Avenue material.” Yet it’s why she stayed that provides the compelling part of the narrative. “Well, it’s not the obvious things about Los Angeles that made me stay,” she says, laughing. “There are so many dark corners in this city.” Balatsos spends a lot of her time with artists, especially when she, her husband, and two-year-old son, August, head off to the high desert. “There are all these different layers of humanity there—locals, the military, and people making art. It’s a place that’s wicked, and dark, and humorous.” Continue reading ›

Right now, there is a ranking out there on the Internet for the models who walked the most spring 2010 shows, and Tao Okamoto, who graced 58 runways, makes the top five. And what’s Okamoto’s secret to coping with that punishing schedule? A bath every night, she says, regardless of the time her day finishes, and one with a liberal sprinkling of bath salts; she likes the sake-scented ones she bought back home in Tokyo. Okamoto has been in New York since January and is loving living here. It’s not just that the city is the epicenter of the modeling world; she can indulge in her favorite pastime: watching Broadway musicals. She just saw The Little Mermaid and still laments the closing of Hairspray. And like most Tokyoites, she loves karaoke, though, no, she doesn’t belt out a show tune when she takes the mike.

Continue reading ›

Ladies and Gentleman—mark your calendars!

 New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Vogue, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and NYC & Company made the long-awaited, much-anticipated announcement that Fashion’s Night Out will return to New York City (and the world) on September 9, 2010. 

This year we really want to get everyone involved–whether it is through shopping, selling, hosting, volunteering, donating or just coming out to show your support. So, how can you get started? First things first, register today at FashionsNightOut.com—and be the first to know.