It's a bit of a joke that straight guys are into "hot girl-on-girl action," but what's new is the burgeoning industry of "M/M romances," erotic novels about gay men written by and for straight women. What's that about?
• When you first heard the Olsen twins were breaking into fashion, you had a good laugh, didn't you? Well, it's been a few years since then and now "their success in a field as competitive as fashion is impossible to deny," says an enthusiastic Cathy Horyn today. Of course, it hasn't hurt that they're super-famous and worth a gazillion dollars either. [NYT]
• Things you didn't know about Vogue's André Leon Talley: He's partial to Juice Couture shorts at home, loves Uggs ("it's a cozy shoe"), and says The Golden Girls is his fave show on TV. [TONY]
Efforts to turn Vogue into Vogue: Proletariat continue at full speed. They're now making serious attempts to cater to the fatties and unfamous. Their latest? How to get Normals into awesome exclusive restaurants they otherwise wouldn't normally get into.
• Polo Ralph Lauren has been hit with a lawsuit for stamping the word "lifeguard" on clothing without permission. Another company is claiming it trademarked the word years ago. [NYP]
• As expected, Escada filed for bankruptcy protection in a German court today. [Bloomberg]
• Is Bravo renewing The Fashion Show for a second season? That's unclear for the time being. [Cut]
• Tory Burch and Georgina Chapman are making cameos on the next season of Gossip Girl. [WWD]
• Now that visiting a tanning a salon is tantamount to sucking on asbestos or consuming toxic nuclear waste, is "pale the new tan"? [NYT]
• Cintra Wilson is not impressed with the NYC's very first JCPenney: "Why would this perennially square department store bother to reanimate itself in Manhattan—in the sleekest, scariest fashion city in America—during a hair-raising economic downturn, without taking the opportunity to vigorously rebrand itself?" Making matters worse, she says even the mannequins are obese: "It's like a headless wax museum devoted entirely to the cast of Roseanne." [NYT]
• Contrary to recent rumors, Kanye West is not interning at the Gap. [FWD]
• It looks like Escada is the latest fashion house to go bust. [Bloomberg]
• Anna Wintour will appear on Dave Letterman's show on August 24. (Set your DVR!) In other Anna-related news (and despite recent budget cuts at Condé Nast), the Vogue editrix will be making the trip to London Fashion Week.
♦ The Marc Jacobs bribery scandal has finally been resolved. Earlier this year, it was alleged that an employee of the Armory was paid off so that Jacobs' company could secure the venue for runway shows. Now the company has paid $1 million to settle the matter. In happier news, Jacobs says he's eager to make an honest man of his boyfriend Lorenzo Martone: "If I can get him to marry me, I would." [NYP, The Cut]
♦ The Scientologist wears Miu Miu? Katie Holmes is rumored to the new face of Prada's hipper, younger sister. [Fashionologie]
♦ Miuccia Prada's non-sartorial items are diversifying at a dizzying pace: Here's a handy guide to Prada's phones, trinkets, and even cars. [SassyBella]
♦ Isaac Mizrahi went on Leonard Lopate's radio show yesterday to offer advice on how to be stylish during a recession. His counter-intuitive tips? Go to expensive hairdressers, buy expensive shoes, and "never buy anything that's on sale." [The Moment, WNYC]
♦ Suri Cruise has a pair of one-off, custom-made red Roger Vivier pumps, even though the brand doesn't do children's shoes. Somehow, we have a feeling that no amount of shoes will reduce the therapy in her future. [People]
♦ The fact that Kate Moss rarely does interviews or goes on TV is looking like a wise move considering her appearance on British TV last night, for all the excitement, pretty much blows her mystique. [Fashionologie]
♦ Designer/actress/Parisian it-girl Lou Doillon talks to WWD about her more intellectual projects, like her stage debut tonight in Samuel Beckett's The Image at the Alliance Française. [WWD]
♦ Can this week get any more catastrophic? Top Shop's opening is now pushed back till March. [WWD]
♦ Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's label The Row is going to start doing men's clothes. [WWD]
♦ We take it all back: Naomi Campbell did her bit for charity last night with her London Fashion For Relief show, which raised money for The White Ribbon Alliance fund to promote safe childbirth. [Marie Claire UK]
In the future, Andy Warhol once said, "All department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores." This has already happened: see the Prada store on Broadway, the former location of the Guggenheim Museum's SoHo branch. It's also occurred at Christian Louboutin, the French purveyor of $900 classic fuck-me pumps, the NYT's Thursday Styles section reveals. Here, the shoes are displayed fetishistically in cases, with red carpet and mirrors... yet, they are not available.
New York Times Critical Shopper stand-in Cintra Wilson takes a look at Phi, the Soho clothier that "showcases the artistry of the meticulously trained Norwegian designer Andreas Melbostad." Then it gets less penetrable: A reader dared us to translate the piece's most harrowing paragraph.
WARNING: The clip you about to watch is EXTREMELY disturbing. Novelist, Salon contributor and occasional Gawker commenter Cintra Wilson just made her video debut, reading her Dregulator, uh, column to a stunned and anxious nation. It's hard to take, but hard to look away. Cintra's like the new Amanda Congdon, as played by Cloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein. Cintra, honey, they have pills for this stuff now.
