Ladies who Brunch but can't Lunch

I am sure working in NYC you find yourself eating your lunch at your desk while working away more likely then not. So, if you can't make it out at lunch why not steal a glamourous moment for yourself and have breakfast with fellow fashionistas at Bendel's. A fashion fix before 10am sounds pretty good to me!

Montreal and Toronto store windows

I took a trip recently to Canada for work and saw several store windows I really liked. I thought I would share two...

"Je veux" is French for "I want". I wish my arms could hold that many shirts at one time. It would make shopping so much easier...


Check out the Barbies' heads! How original!

As everyone knows, I love Karl Lagerfeld. A recent issue of WWD had some great quotes from his introduction at Harold Koda at the Fashion Group International's Night of Stars. I have posted some of the best below...

• "There is a strange and invisible borderline when fashion is not only fashion, but becomes the most evident and most easily visible expression of an area."


• "Fashion as history is beyond fashion, and it is not only limited to clothes."


• "The face of fashion is now in the hands of a small group of big companies and they often own several important and influential fashion brands. They also help to make is possible for museums to stage important shows."


• "Fashion is today also about big shows like Hollywood productions. In the past, designers made fashion history by dressing people who had a real life in those clothes. We should learn a lot from that. Red carpet (another invention of our times) helps to distort fashion by giving it a fake and too glamorous face."


• "A new fashion can appear having the same origins in inspiration and admiration in the past of fashion. The danger is for us designers to be too exposed to the seduction of the past."


• "It is difficult to work our your own vision of fashion without being haunted by the beauty of the work of the people before us -even if they were also not immune to all kinds of influences and inspirations to achieve a strong vision and unique style."

Andre Leon Talley

Andre Leon Talley and Anna Wintour

photo by Greg Kessler on Style.com

Vogue editor-at-large, Andre Leon Talley, recently talked to fashion students of the Art Institute of Philadelphia about his career. He made 6 points that students as well as current professionals can learn from…

1) “Remember where you came from and how important that is, and that will sustain you.”

2) “Always be curious and do your research.”

3) “Travel and find beauty and style where you go.”

4) “Practice good manners.”

5) “Fetch coffee if you have to.” (This is referring to the time he worked for Andy Warhol and only made $50 a week, lived at the YMCA, and was introduced to the world through that job.)

6) “Find a mentor.” Talley counts Diana Vreeland as his first big mentor and Anna Wintour as his current mentor.

Fashion and Salsa

LIM College will now be sponsoring free monthly salsa lessons for anyone in the fashion industry. There will be FREE wine, food, salsa, and men (yes, free men). Come meet and reconnect with others in the fashion industry. Check out pics from the last event...

The Black Issue

After visiting 4 international magazine stores, 1 reprint, and $15.95 later, I finally got my hands on the most wanted fashion magazine ever. Italian Vogue's Black Issue. Editor Franca Sozzani and photographer Steven Meisel capture some of the world's hottest models; such as Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn, and Liya Kebede in this powerful issue.

The 4 different covers...

More pics from the issue...

Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent photographed by Irving Penn

"I have said before that the most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy" -Yves Saint Laurent 1978

Purple Haze

Versace

Versace Resort 2009

Christian Dior

There is a purple obsession for this fall.

The color purple has been associated with royalty since the Roman times when the Roman Emperors and Imperial family wore purple to symbolize the god Jupiter. The color is also associated with wealth since purple dye was one of the most expensive dyes to make. It was made by squeezing shellfish that produced a dye called Tyrian Purple.

Purple today is still associated with wealth and power but also with passion, sophistication, luxury, magic, and mystery. A perfect characterization of the fall season.

Forward Thinking with Promostyl

The jazziest trend forecaster of them all, Andrea Praet, from Promostyl, gave a Fall/Winter 2009 trend presentation on Tuesday, June 24th, at LIM College’s Fashionopolis. The presentation showcased the four themes of the fall 2009 season: Collector, Bionic, Big Bang, and Care. The four themes were further highlighted by the 10 Influences (lifestyle trends) and Shapes (general trends for all markets) of the season. Andrea shares with us here the Style Guide that Promostyl sends exclusively to their clients.

Andrea Praet

Trend Consultant
Promostyl
1375 Broadway, 3rd Fl
NY, NY 10018

T. 646-201-4850

Andrea@promostylamericas.com

Lessons of a Lipstick Queen

Interesting Read...

Poppy King’s, “Lessons of a Lipstick Queen: Finding and Developing the Great Ideas that Can Change Your Life” is a how-to book on running a small company. King successfully started her own lipstick company at 18 when she realized that the perfect matte lipstick did not exist. This realization turned into a multi-million dollar company. King shows the reader how one’s wishes can create some of the best and most motivating ideas. Her successes, trials, tribulations are shared in this book along with pointers for the entrepreneurially inclined.

http://www.lipstickqueen.com/

Is fashion getting too fast?

Chanel Resort
Oscar de la Renta Resort

Prada Resort

I was reading the WWD today and the issue was filled with articles on the recent resort collections. Resort, which use to be a small infusion of sunny cruise wear at retail stores, is now becoming a major season in its own. Designers have now staged several large scale fashion shows for this season; Karl Lagerfield having shown Chanel’s resort collection at NYC’s Grand Central, Santa Monica California in an airport hanger, and just recently at the Raleigh hotel in Miami. Oscar de la Renta has done 3 extremely formal (i.e. expensive) shows at the Park Avenue church. Whether designers are presenting cruise in different cities they have a market in, or their home city, designers are more cramped for time with exhaustive production schedules then ever before. We no longer just have the fall and spring shows anymore. We have pre-fall, fall, and spring resort. Not to mention that many designer lines now have diffusion lines and some designers still maintain their couture lines. How is it all done? With such a demanding turnaround time, how do designers ensure the best representation of their line is shown? The best quality, ideas, image, and uniquely innovative designs wear their labels. I do not understand how creativity can flourish under a timer. How does one put so many deadlines on the creative process?

One can also argue that the additional shows and the amount of new designers entering the industry each year are raising the creative bar. It is forcing designers and brands to truly define their image and the niche they fill in the oversaturated market place to make a statement. This increased amount of shows and competition is also pushing companies to increase the amount of marketing and production dollars that go into a show. With the amount of money some conglomerate fashion houses have to spend on fashion show productions, new designers without financial backers can not compete.

What are your thoughts on this? Is fashion becoming too fast and hurting creativity? Or is it raising the creative bar?