Fashion’s Night Out Take 2

As many of you remember last fall Anna Wintour and the CFDA made history by launching the global fashion event, Fashion’s Night Out.

Well, this September Fashion’s Night Out is coming back bigger and better then ever. Not only will it be a borough wide shopping event at all your local retailers, but there will also be some new and exciting elements this year. One addition will be the hosting of New York’s largest fashion show ever at Lincoln Center. With over 200 top models and 1500 VIP guests, it’s the place to be this fall. Another brilliant addition to FNO will happen thanks to CBS, they are preparing a documentary and filming all the behind the scenes action. According to FNO the film will, “Look beyond the glamour to the real-life implications at stake, on the individuals working in all parts of the industry, from sales people to design staff, for whom the vibrancy of the fashion business is a question of economic survival.”

Don’t know about you, but we are beyond giddy to see how this year’s Fashion’s Night Out comes together. September cannot get here soon enough!

Lauren Conrad, Take Two

Lauren Conrad, (and actually all The Hills cast past and present) have thankfully been off our radar for a while now. But we felt we had to speak up once more. As many of you may recall LC tried to launch her own fashion line not too far back, with disastrous results. Well, it seems it’s round two for our favorite celebutaunte. After her own “designer” line failed, she teamed up with Kohl’s to create an affordable new collection. As much as we despised her previous line for its trashy, sub-par student quality, and overpriced items, we have to say we don’t hate on the Kohl’s line. While certainly not innovative or high-end designs,( nor anything we would wear) it is actually perfectly adorable for the average Kohl’s customer. Not to mention the quality actually looks better then her previous “upscale” collection.

Now, we have a sneaking suspicion as to why this line will likely be more successful. Why? Because LC simply has nothing to do with it. In essence she has just licensed her name out (like a million celebrities before her) and has given up all pretenses that she’s an actual fashion designer. From what we can tell, it seems this line was designed by NYC/Hong Kong based manufacture Li & Fung, nowhere near The Hills. For those who don’t know Li & Fung is one of NYC’s (and the world’s) largest apparel companies with dozens of brands and licensees like, Calvin Klein, Disney, Hurley, Talbots, Roots, Gant, Billabong, Rocawerar, Liz Claiborne, Nickelodeon, Oxford and more. So no doubt there are teams of designers responsible for making this Kohl’s line what it is and LC is not one of them.

By the way, would you like to be Lauren Conrad? Yes? Really, would you? Because it looks as though that job title is currently open. We recently found this job ad for the position. Here is the basic info:

Company Name: Kohl’s Corporation

Job Title: Designer – Lauren Conrad

Location: New York, NY

Profession: Fashion Designer

Job Description:

· Fully responsible for entire product design process to include color, print, fabric & trim research, concept board creation, sketching, and fit as pertains to styling.?· Responsible for researching global markets in order to identify new trends, fabrics, techniques, etc.?· Actively participate in the conceptual development of product lines (i.e. sells ideas / concepts and convince others to adopt a course of action).?· Provide recommendations regarding seasonal themes, new concepts, etc.?· Provide insight regarding style and fit of product during presentation.?· Ensure that product is consistent with market trends as well as business strategy.?· Provide direction for color ways on stripes, plaids and prints.?Responsible for fabric and trim direction / selection.?· Meet with vendors for sourcing of fabric and trim; meet independently with vendors for design inspiration.?· Work with technical designer to ensure objective packages are accurate and complete.?· Develop within the parameters of the line plan.?· Responsible for seasonal presentations to merchants.?· May provide direction to Trend Team and Designer Team to identify viable trends for area of responsibility and to share creative ideas.?· Recruits, hires, and develops assistant-level; provides inspiration and motivation.

Company Name: Kohl’s Corporation
Job Title: Designer – Lauren Conrad
Location: New York, NY
Profession: Fashion Designer

Job Description:

• Fully responsible for entire product design process to include color, print, fabric & trim research, concept board creation, sketching, and fit as pertains to styling
• Responsible for researching global markets in order to identify new trends, fabrics, techniques, etc.
• Actively participate in the conceptual development of product lines (i.e. sells ideas / concepts and convince others to adopt a course of action)
• Provide recommendations regarding seasonal themes, new concepts, etc.
• Provide insight regarding style and fit of product during presentation.
• Ensure that product is consistent with market trends as well as business strategy.
• Provide direction for color ways on stripes, plaids and prints.?Responsible for fabric and trim direction / selection.
• Meet with vendors for sourcing of fabric and trim; meet independently with vendors for design inspiration.
• Work with technical designer to ensure objective packages are accurate and complete.
• Develop within the parameters of the line plan.
• Responsible for seasonal presentations to merchants.
• May provide direction to Trend Team and Designer Team to identify viable trends for area of responsibility and to share creative ideas.
• Recruits, hires, and develops assistant-level; provides inspiration and motivation.

Yeah, sure LC, you’re the “designer”. Why even pretend anymore? It is getting really sad when celebs do the talk show circuit to promote “their” designs, when it is so clear they had nothing to do with it. Come on, you are not fooling anyone!

M.I.A. vs. Lynn Hirschberg, Part Two: Audio Recordings and French Fries

A few days after responding to a scathing profile by Lynn Hirschberg by posting the writer’s phone number on Twitter, M.I.A. is once again taking aim.

This weekend, on her record label’s website, the pop star released a couple of low-quality audio snippets of the interview, one of which gave a bit of context to a quote where Maya — M.I.A’s real name — waxes revolutionary while nibbling on an expensive snack.

Here’s the quote:

“I kind of want to be an outsider,” she said, eating a truffle-flavored French fry. “I don’t want to make the same music, sing about the same stuff, talk about the same things. If that makes me a terrorist, then I’m a terrorist.”

As profile-writing goes, it’s subtle and kinda brilliant. Problem is, the recordings, titled “War Crimes and French Fries” and “Here’s the Truff,” reveal that Hirschberg sort of pushed the fries on a poor, unsuspecting Maya, promising that The New York Times would be footing the bill and urging she should get whatever she wants. It’s now clear that Lynn was REALLY into getting the fries.

While the episode should be sort of embarrassing for Hirschberg, who is moving on to become Editor At Large at W Magazine, it doesn’t exactly vindicate Maya. In the rather long profile, titled “M.I.A.’s Agitprop Pop,” Hirschberg gives us plenty of reason to not buy wholly into the M.I.A. persona. Throughout the course of the piece, Hirschberg suggests Maya is exploiting an incendiary political sitation in her native Sri Lanka to benefit her celebrity and a luxe life in Los Angeles.

Avoiding these sorts of contradictions has long been a problem for pop artists and celebrities who have used political causes as their material. The story’s cover line alludes to “M.I.A’s Radical-Chic Rap,” a reference to an awesome essay by Tom Wolfe that savaged the 1970s-era contradictions of the Black Panthers and its coterie of wealthy white supporters like Leonard Bernstein and Barbara Walters. (Here’s a link to the piece.)

For her part, Hirschberg has responded by refusing to change phone number, now exposed to the Twitterverse.

Finally, here’s Maya’s take on the fashion world:

“I am so tired of stylists,” Maya said. “They are ruining individual style. If Patti Smith was starting now or Debbie Harry, the stylists would try to dress them, to change them. Their style would be lost.” Maya, who was wearing jeans made out of denim that had been quilted into a tribal pattern and a loose crocheted top in red, wanted the Hermione de Paula girls to incorporate her ideas with their existing designs that she had seen on their Web site. “They have a jumpsuit that I like,” Maya said. “But instead of using their fabric, I want them to use a fabric that’s made from a document I found.”