Happy Halloween Fashionistas

Happy Halloween skanks and hoes! What? Was that rude? Considering the costume options floating around out there, that is apparently what costume manufactures believe the women of America to be. So, when did Halloween become an excuse for grown women (or even teenagers) to run around the streets looking like two dollar hookers? Are US women that lacking in creativity, that all we can come up with is a “sexy” version of a traditional costume? Sexy nurse, sexy witch, sexy cat, even sexy nun, is that really the best we can do? Despite the lines out the door at Ricky’s, we’d like to believe that our readers, being creative fashionistas, have far better costume ideas. We’d love to hear from you. What are you dressing up as this Halloween? Was it a DIY or a store bought? What has been your all time favorite costume?

Recently, we saw that one of our favorite bloggers, Jessica Schroeder from What I Wore has been posting a wonderful series of her past Halloween costumes. You must check them out as they are wonderful examples of what the creative mind can do. From Karl Lagerfeld, to Frida Kahlo, to Little Edie Beale, Jessica has done an outstanding job. Her costumes are also a fantastic inspiration for those of you who need last minute, affordable, ideas that can be made from clothes in your own closet. Whatever you decide to go with we wish you a happy Halloween, from 39^th and Broadway!

Update ** We just realized that the lovely Jennine from The Coveted, has her Halloween series up, that you must check out for a ton of DYI costume ideas. Besides some great looks, she has this hilarious quote regarding the slutification of Halloween costumes, “not that there is anything wrong with being slutty (whatever that means) but looking slutty? That’s where I draw the line.”

Fashionista’s Sex Diary

Flickr image via Johan Larsson

Ever wonder what goes on behind the bedroom doors of your neighbors and coworkers? Well, thanks to New York Magazine, you can find out! For better or worse, NY Mag has all the dirty details on what New Yorkers are doing between the sheets. On their website they post a feature called, “Sex Diaries“. There, a variety of anonymous New Yorkers agree to share, blow by blow (pun intended), their sexual activity over a handful of days. The diarists range in age, ethnic group, income level, and relationship status. They give a fascinating and often X-rated look into their personal lives.

Well, we found one in particular quite entertaining titled, “The Fashion Freelancer on the Prowl.” Here is her description from NY Mag, “Once a week, Daily Intel looks behind doors left slightly ajar. This week, the Fashion Freelancer on the Prowl; 31, female, Park Slope, straight, in an open relationship that probably shouldn’t be open.” Without getting too graphic for our little blog, we’ll say, from random strangers to vibrators this girl gets a lot of action and has a particularly erotic subway ride. To read all the juicy details (and you know you want to) please click here to read her seven day sex diary.

We can’t help but wonder who this girl is, do we know her? Is she a co-worker? Does she read this blog? If the answer to this last question is yes, we would love to hear from you. Also, what fashion company is she working at were she doesn’t have to be to work until 10:00 am?

When you read her diary link, don’t forget to check out some of the 90+ comments left for her, they are as fascinating as the diary itself. After one commenter posted this “Not to be age-ist, but she’s getting WAY busier than any of the 31-year-olds I know. Girl’s a man-eater.” There was a ton of refuting responses and we couldn’t help but laugh at this one, “Sorry to hit a nerve with the age-ist comment. Bear in mind 30 in Chicago years is 55 in New York ones.” So enjoy this bit of this insider scoop and feel free to let us know, do our readers have as steamy a sex life as this Fashion Freelancer?

When Design Becomes Big Business

For many aspiring fashion designers their dream often includes, starting a small label and watching it flourish. But, how large do you really want your “small” business to become? Many prefer to keep their brands small, tight, and controllable, while others take the, “go big or go home” perspective. And of course, what constitutes a designer being labeled a success? Well, there really is no right answer for what success is in the fashion industry.

Perhaps this is the reason why the recent Marc Ecko news struck a cord with us. Ecko is a large presence in the Garment Center, owning clothing lines like Rocawear, Mossimo, and Joe Boxer. To some Ecko could be deemed more successful than an indie label sold only at local boutiques. At the same time, Ecko is a drop in the bucket compared to giant conglomerates like LVMH and Federated. Ecko sales are estimated to be at around 1.5 billion and has 750 employees in NYC alone. However, Marc began his business small, by selling just t-shirts in the 80’s, which then became the Ecko brand about a decade later. Certainly he followed the, “go big or go home” mentality.

While there is much discussion in the blogesphere regarding starting a fashion line and the struggles of small indie designers; there is little on what happens after. If a designer/entrepreneur like Marc Ecko makes it big, what’s next? Well, many successful growing companies end up going public, licensing out the majority of their product, or simply getting bought out. There are pros and cons to all these situations. For Ecko, lavish spending styles, management issues, and a poor economy have forced Marc to sell off a majority stake of his company. The Iconix Group has bought a 51% share in the Ecko brand taking control of the company while keeping Marc on as Chief Creative Officer.

So we had to wonder, would this be considered a failure on Marc’s part? We think not. Had he stayed small, just selling his Ecko logo t-shirts, that would have been a failure. Clearly he had more vision then that and brands like Rocawear would never have been developed. Bottom line, Marc Ecko has accomplished more then most designers and fashion entrepreneurs could dream. At 37 with 63 million in cash and 90 million in financing from Iconix, he could retire or start a whole new brand if he wanted. We think he agrees since he told the NY Post, “I’ve had a crazy, wild ride. I’ve done a lot of things that have been naive. I’ll take my lumps for a lot of things that, in retrospect, were a little indulgent. Life happens. I don’t regret any of it.”