fashion

Tom Ford Needs Money

Andrew Belonsky · 09/22/09 09:18PM

Tom Ford's post-Gucci career goes on. In addition to directing the film adaptation of A Single Man, the designer has been building his eponymous fashion house. But now he needs an extra $50 million to turn dreams into reality. [Reuters]

Tom Ford Looks to Expand

cityfile · 09/22/09 07:01PM

Tom Ford is expanding. (Or hoping to, at least.) The designer is reportedly looking to raise $50 million in financing to expand into womenswear. [Reuters]
• Rents along Fifth Avenue have been falling, of course. But the situation appears to be particularly bleak at the empty shopping mall (or "retail collection") at the Plaza Hotel. [Bloomberg, NYP]
• The downside of diffusion: According to a new survey, consumers say luxury products are too accessible these days and have become a commodity. [WWD]

The Fashion Set Moves to London

cityfile · 09/21/09 07:02PM

• London Fashion Week kicked into high gear over the weekend. Given LFW is celebrating its 25th anniversary and a handful of designers who have been absent in recent years have returned, it's shaping up to be London's biggest year yet. Further proof of LFW's resurgence: Vogue editrix Anna Wintour (seen here fumbling with her BlackBerry) is attending the shows following a two-year hiatus. [Telegraph, LAT, NYT, Guardian]
• While many top NY-based fashion editors are turning up to the shows in London, many mags are saving cash by divvying up editors between the shows in London, Milan, and Paris. Or by making them stay at cheaper hotels. [WWD]
• More highlights and reviews from LFW's first few days. [NYT, NYT, Pipeline]

Confessions of a Fashion Week Party Monster

Gabriel Snyder · 09/18/09 11:02AM

Fashion Week just OD'd. But I'm comforted by the fact that its sexy corpse will rise again to do another skeleton dance on the catwalk, seduce the style-obsessed among us, and throw up at an after-party at Indochine.

Five Minutes With Beverly Johnson

cityfile · 09/17/09 08:23AM

Douglas Hannant previewed his spring collection in the Terrace Room of the Plaza on Monday night, which is located just upstairs from the designer's brand new, Geoffrey Bradfield-designed boutique. Given Hannant's popularity with the Upper East Side moneyed set, a long list of society fixtures turned up to pay tribute to Hannant, including Tinsley Mortimer, Cece Cord, Bettina Zilkha, Jennifer Creel, Annie Churchill, Alexandra Lebenthal, Gillian Hearst, and Valesca Guerrand-Hermès. Roving party reporter Douglas Marshall caught up with Beverly Johnson, legendary model and the first African-African woman to appear on the cover of Vogue, to ask her about the modeling biz today and Tyra Banks.

Fashion Week Recap

cityfile · 09/16/09 06:57PM

You'll find a recap of the last 24 hours or so of Fashion Week after the jump.

Ashley Dupre Does Fashion Week, Switches Sides

cityfile · 09/16/09 08:56AM

At Fashion Week back in February, Ashley Dupre sat in the front row at Yigal Azrouel's show. He didn't want her back this time around. But she made other arrangements to make sure she gets noticed this Fashion Week. She's now modeling, apparently. Dupre walked the runway for designer Bahar Shahpar's "eco-friendly" line yesterday afternoon. And whatever self-image issues she has (and she has many), set the girl down in the dysfunctional world of fashion and she manages to come off as healthy: "It was nice to see a model with a slightly more normal, a.k.a. curvy, body type." [Ecouterre via Gawker]

Fashion Week Recap

cityfile · 09/15/09 07:02PM

You'll find a recap of the last 24 hours or so of Fashion Week after the jump.

Dani Stahl Will Take the Stairs, Thank You

cityfile · 09/15/09 03:31PM

Stacey Bendet showed off her Alice + Olivia collection for Spring 2010 on Saturday evening in a raw gallery space in the meatpacking district. (How raw? So raw that wooden boards had to be placed over the metal grates on the floors so that a socialite or celeb in 7-inch heels wouldn't be maimed at the show.) The all-female French rock band Plastiscines performed; the crowd included the likes of Lindsay Lohan, Jared Leto, Nicky Hilton, Mena Suvari, Shenae Grimes, Kristin Cavallari, AnnaLynne McCord, and Tinsley Mortimer. Party-hopping reporter Douglas Marshall struck up a conversation with Nylon style director and girl-about-town Dani Stahl, Nylon publisher Jaclynn Jarrett, and Eleanor Ylvisaker, a co-founder of Earnest Sewn and the denim brand's former PR queen.

Fashion Week's Unsung Heroes

cityfile · 09/14/09 03:30PM

Fashion Week heaps tons of attention on designers (who design the clothes), editors (who ostensibly review them), and the actresses and socialites who attend the shows (and serve as front row decoration). One group that gets precious little attention during the industry's biggest event of the year: the photographers who document it all and take the millions of photos that circulate around the world. They're often ill-tempered, unkempt, and pushy, sure. But you probably would be, too, if you had to crouch down all day next to 300 of your peers and snap picture after picture of a never-ending stream of stick-thin models. Another pic of these unsung heroes of Fashion Week below.

Fashion Week Takes a Turn For the Creepy

cityfile · 09/11/09 03:03PM

Lizzie Grubman appears to have landed a hot new PR client: Vince Shlomi, the man better known as Vince the ShamWow guy (and someone who, like Lizzie, has faced his share of high-profile legal trouble in the past: As you may recall, Vince was arrested earlier this year for beating up a hooker in a Miami hotel room.) Over the summer, Shlomi said he was planning to branch out with a swimwear line, which probably explains why he attended Fashion Week shows both yesterday and today accompanied by Grubman (and managed to leer at the models on the runway both times). But if anyone can redeem the dishrag/blender huckster and ex-Scientologist and turn him into a hot ticket on fashion scene, it's probably Grubman! A couple of additional photos of Lizzie and her new BFF (and a special bonus!) below.