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Although the Louboutin versus YSL case concluded a few months ago, the battle of the red soles is not even close to being over. Christian Louboutin sued Yves Saint Laurent over YSL use of red soles on a few of their heels for the YSL resort collection. To refresh yourself on the issue, check out our past article covering the topic here. The courtroom battle rested on the argument that Christian Louboutin trademarked his red sole shoes in 2008. However, the judge for the case favored with Yves Saint Laurent, as he does not believe that a color can be trademarked as it is an aesthetic factor. In turn, Louboutin’s lawyers have appealed the ruling and are awaiting a court date. The company is going to do everything they can to protect the one aspect that sets them apart from all other high-end shoe designers – the red sole. More recently, the case has peered its high fashion head back into the news and this time with another high-end company determined to protect their color specific recognition.
Tiffany & Co. is now realizing if Louboutin’s lawyers cannot proceed with a successful appeal, their company may be next. For as long as anyone can remember, Tiffany & Co. is known for their delicate, robin’s egg blue boxes and bags, besides the diamonds and silver that are placed in those legendary boxes and bags of course. Due to this possible issue, Tiffany & Co. have filed a legal brief today to support Louboutin’s lawyers. This legal brief has also been referred to as an amicus curiae. Amicus curiae translates to literally mean ‘a friend of the court’ in Latin. It is essentially a procedure performed by a party not involved in the court case to provide support and information. However, the information given is then left to the court’s decision on whether or not it will be used to determine the ruling of the case. The amicus curiae of this case is gravitating toward the capability to trademark a color. Tiffany & Co. are doing all they can at the time. As the possibility for Tiffany & Co. to lose their color trademark is rather slim, maybe this effort will sway YSL to drop the red on their soles.
Reality shows are now becoming the most watched television shows, and the ultimate caddy and always dramatic is…Real Housewives. As some may instantly think of Basketball Wives, Real Housewives (of whichever city) came first, and most definitely has created the most drama over the longest period of time. We have met so many of the girls in Orange County, CA, are currently in the midst of losing and changing friends in New Jersey, and New York has produced a few spin-offs. However, the New York City Housewives have brought a little extra to the table. Initially, Bethany (then-cast member was no wife but just a friend) got great publicity for her drink line, Skinny Girl, which was somewhat of a good thing in creating a low-calorie collection of mostly drinks. Since then, fellow New York City Housewife, Kelly has done some great things as well. If your memory serves correct, you would recall that Bethany and Kelly did not get along; actually Kelly didn’t get along with too many woman on the show. Fortunately, she has overcome that and is now doing better things with her life than starting fights with other middle-aged woman. Kelly is now proud to be the owner of Kelly by Kelly Killoren Bensimon. Her company is producing shoes (Yay!). She will begin with her first line to debut in springtime and they will strictly be ballet flats. The flats will come in all different colors and prints. The major thing about this collection is (1) they are going to be very affordable, as Kelly puts it, “I want to make it super chic but incredibly affordable because I feel like why can’t fashion be democratic?” And (2) these shoes will benefit Breast Cancer Research! (How awesome!) A pair of shoes will run you a mere $39.99 and $3.00 from each sale will go to Breast Cancer Research. Finally, something you can afford and it helps a great cause!!
“The reason I am doing this is because I’m the mother of two girls, if I can put my name out there on something creative and help generate money to find a cure for this disease then I’m going to do it. I’ve seen the courage and I’ve seen the hope and I’ve seen amazing women persevere through such horrible situations. It’s really exciting to be able to help in any way.” Kelly says about her new venture. “This is the start of a bigger Kelly collection…This is my first huge milestone and I’m hoping to bring all this great product and be able to be as charitable as possible on the largest scale possible. That’s my goal. That’s what I want.”
What a great thing Kelly is doing. My opinion of her is changing for the better. I hope she sticks with the charity and keeps the ladies on her good-side.
Karl Lagerfeld is one of the biggest names in fashion. If you didn’t know the man or the name, Macy*s would have changed that when Karl Lagerfeld and Macy*s combined forces for their collaboration collection from earlier this year. The collection featured some chic, rather professional looking dresses. Well, Karl is at it again. Karl Lagerfeld is going to be releasing a new line called Karl. This collection will of course be based off of Lagerfeld’s traditional color scheme of black and white. However, this collection will be aimed at a younger target audience. His Macy*s collaboration collection was intended towards ‘the working woman,’ women between the ages of late twenties to mid forties. This new Karl collection however, is aimed at a younger audience. The words ‘rocker’ and ‘street’ have even been floating around, which is slightly out of Karl Lagerfeld’s usual box.
The Karl collection is planned to launch in January 2012. The line will be exclusively sold on Net-A-Porter.com and by February 2012 the line will be available for sale on Karl’s website, karllagerfeld.com. The collection is being priced between $95 up to $450. As it is sometimes very odd for a designer to leave their comfort zone, Karl Lagerfeld has made a very smart decision in reaching out to more clientele. Speaking on the subject, Lagerfeld said, “I just want not too expensive clothes that people may like and perhaps want to wear. That was my concept for a long time, but my business partners in the past wanted to be like Chanel or Fendi without putting behind what is needed to be like that … Now I am feeling we are ready for the right job — the way to do things right in a modern, unusual way.”
The Karl collection will consist of one-hundred pieces. As mentioned before, the collection will have a rocker-chic vibe, as well as appealing to women in their late teens to early twenties. In doing so, this line will contain young materials like denim and leather. Women’s Wear Daily took the liberty to describe some of the pieces describing the line as, “silvery jeans and Perfecto-style vests to an elegant black cocktail dress with a plunging back, some of them accessorized a la Karl with fingerless gloves and detachable, demonstrative collars.”
A major part of this collection is the way it will be sold; exclusively online. Peir Paolo Righi, Karl president said, “The masstige venture is designed to be primarily Web-based, as the designer is convinced it’s the main way to connect and communicate with today’s young generation.”
Pretty good idea if you ask me.
Well, it’s Friday! We have made it through the week and if you’re not daydreaming about where to go out this weekend and what to wear, you’re wondering what is going to keep you occupied on the dreaded Sunday evening. Of course you could always flip to HBO – however, in this economy that may not be a possibility – and admire the 1920’s fashions on Boardwalk Empire, but I have a better idea for Sunday night TV time. Keeping with pleasing the eyes, on a fashion level, why not tune in to Tom Ford’s documentary. Yes, it has finally happened, the man who does an interview once in a blue moon now has a whole documentary about him, following him, and seeing the production of his Spring 2011 runway collection.
This amazing moment in fashion will be airing this Sunday night, October 23rd, 2011 at 8 p.m. And of course, the one woman in the world that could get Tom Ford to be more personal than he ever has before would be… Oprah Winfrey. The documentary premiers on Oprah’s network, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). It is part of a series of documentaries called Visionaries. Mr. Ford’s documentary is entitled, TOM FORD: Visionaries. OWN selected Tom Ford because they believe “Tom Ford embodies the idea of what a creative visionary is. His taste and his creations, from his clothing to his filmmaking, is so specific and beautiful. He knows precisely what he wants, and when you see something he has created, it’s unmistakably his.” And as most are unconscious to the fact that Tom is also a filmmaker, most also don’t know the fashion world came pretty close to losing Tom Ford. Tom had once worked for Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci but had left the high-end designers and fashion for film. Mr. Ford dabbled in film and Director of his own documentary, Michael Bonfiglio will confirm that. However, luckily for fashionistas, our wonderful Mr. Ford came back to us and in return has made a film for and about him. Talking of the film and Tom Ford, Bonfiglio said, “I think the most memorable thing, actually, was when I finally showed Tom a rough cut of the film. I flew to Los Angeles to show it to him, and I was very nervous. Given how particular he is about his work — and especially because he’s a filmmaker — I was anticipating leaving the screening with ten pages of notes about things he wanted changed. We screened it at a hotel, and he brought one of his colleagues to watch it with us. I sat a little bit behind him, so I could see his reactions as he watched — and about 10 minutes in, I could tell he was pleased. When it was over, he had a big smile on his face, told me he loved it, and essentially had no notes — aesthetic or otherwise.”
I can’t wait for Sunday!!
It seems rumors of Christian Dior’s fall from grace have been greatly exaggerated. Despite the less-than-kind words many a fashion critic has directed at Dior’s post-Galliano runway shows, now under the control of Galliano’s former collaborator Bill Gaytten, the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words still rings true and picture painted by Dior’s third quarter earnings report which was released earlier this week is a pretty one indeed. Despite the sudden loss of their creative director and the wave of bad press that followed Christian Dior has posted a 21 percent increase in revenue over the past nine months.
The fashion world’s reaction to Dior’s rosy sales report has been muted thus far, with most bloggers and critics pointing to the old adage of “no publicity is bad publicity” as an explanation for climbing revenues amid sinking reviews. However a brave few, such as Vanessa Friedman of Financial Times Material Culture blog have dared to address the writing that is clearly on the wall. Just because the designers, editors, owners and models that populate the fashion world act like its the case, doesn’t mean that the eyes of the world are always on them. Perhaps it could be that most consumers didn’t follow the Galliano story with much interest, if they followed it at all. Or perhaps the real truth is that the average shopper, whether buying Dior, DKNY or anything in between, is so far removed from the politics and posturing that has come to define the fashion world that maybe the opinions of critics (gasp!) don’t really matter to them.
Now we’re not suggesting that everyone throw caution to this wind and begin ignoring critics and editors alike, if the critique of your work is uniformly bad, or good, there is usually a reason. But let’s just say that when you are a label as big as Christian Dior, its going to take more then a few off runway showings and some bad reviews to change the minds of a world wide army of consumers who have come to love your product.
Remember how way back in the day, like when our grandparents were young, people used to get dressed up to travel, especially on a plane flight. Well maybe you can’t remember per say, but you know you have heard stories from family and have seen older movies where people are adorned in their Sunday’s best to sit in a not-as-comfy-as you-had-hoped- airplane seat. From all the paparazzi that stakes out LAX and JFK airports, we have learned that unfortunately that trend has been long forgotten; Cameron Diaz is spotted in leggings and an oversized sweater, Jennifer Aniston in baggy jeans (probably boyfriend, Justin Theroux’s denim) and sunglasses. One celebrity however – who also loves her sunglasses – doesn’t believe in dressing down, or so we thought. Anna Wintour is always dressed like she is ready for the runway in the top fashions, and rightfully so (also pretty obvious), but on her trip from New York City to Los Angeles it has been reported that she wasn’t actually dressed to the T for the whole trip. Ms. Wintour was indeed photographed by the relentless paparazzi in New York City and Los Angeles, and appeared in the same Louis Vuitton dress, comfortably paired with her illustrious sunnies (For those of you who don’t appreciate Rachel Zoe’s “fashion language,” this means sunglasses). Now, nothing seems yet, right? Besides photographs it was reported that Anna Wintour changed her outfit while on her plane. Since we know she departed and arrived in the same look, what’s the deal with the mile-high wardrobe change? Well, instead of looking like everyone else, because clearly Anna Wintour is not everyone else, Anna got comfy once the cameras were gone. A passenger on the plane with Ms. Wintour said she left her seat in the Louis Vuitton dress and came back to her seat shortly after in J brand jeans (only high-end denim for the Vogue staff) and “a cute top.” Then again, nearing their arrival in Los Angeles, Ms. Wintour once again made a bathroom trip and this time sat back down in her Louis Vuitton dress. Once Anna and her team made it to baggage claim, the conveyer belt was stopped for Anna’s Louis Vuitton luggage to be picked up by a member of her staff. To but the icing in the cake her luggage was even the first to come out.
It was reported by People Style Watch yesterday that Ashley Greene, of Twilight fame, will be the new face of DKNY Jeans for their spring 2012 campaign. Ms. Green, who was catapulted to celebrity status in 2008 after being cast in the role Alice Cullen in the super-popular Twilight saga, has already made it obvious that her talents do not stop with acting. Last summer she entered the spotlight in the beauty industry as the face of cosmetic’s brand Mark, where she used her acting chops to give interested consumers a behind the scenes look at a cosmetics photo shoot complete with some style tips from the pros. Now with spring 2012 just around the corner Ms. Greene will appear at the center of a DKNY ad campaign shot by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin which we can expect to see images for in the near future.
“I’ve always loved Donna Karan’s creations,” Greene stated in a press release responding to DKNY’s announcement. “To be a part of the brands’ message is incredibly exciting because it feels like such an organic fit. It’s easy to talk about how these clothes work for my lifestyle, whether I’m in New York, L.A. or traveling for work.”
Ashley’s rise toward star status was nearly derailed less then a year after the first Twilight movie was released when she became the center of a scandal involving nude photographs that had been taken of her prior to her status as a popular young actress. However she handled the embarrassing issue and heightened media scrutiny with intelligence and a maturity that was not only beyond her age but seems to be beyond the grasp of many young Hollywood stars in the 21st century. Since then she has displayed keen interest in controlling her image and has shown defined personal taste and elegant style on red carpets throughout the United States and Europe.
Whether or not the red carpet has prepared her for the rigors of the modeling and advertising worlds has yet to be seen but Ms. Green is definitely a young actress worth watching over the next few years.
Talk about a bad birthday. Imagine, not receiving a present on your birthday, but instead having to give everything away. Well, heiress to the L’Oreal fortune, Ms. Liliane Bettencourt of France has fell victim to this terrible birthday present. Liliane Bettencourt turned 89 years old, a birthday worth celebrating if you ask me, and all she gets is a court placing her under the guardianship of her grandson. Sounds a little odd, right? Well, the heiress is a little more than just that, Ms. Bettencourt is in fact the wealthiest woman in France, making her worth over twenty-three and a half…wait for it…Billion dollars! This woman is truly worth a fortune. The family issues are coming from the fact that it had been uncovered that Liliane Bettencourt was giving away money. Now with over twenty-three billion in the bank one would think, what’s the big deal? Indecently, this scenario was a huge deal. Liliane Bettencourt gave over a billion Euros away in supposed gifts to a photographer. Said photographer is Francois-Marie Banier, and claims the gifts weren’t just cold hard cash but consisted of artwork, insurance, and other various items (no two news sites seem to be in agreement over how the estimated “give-away” total reached over a billion). The trial was brought to court by Ms. Liliane Bettencourt’s daughter, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers. After discovering the ‘miss-placed’ money issues her mother was having with their family’s assets, Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers took her mother to court, and ten-months ago things appeared to come to an end. However, the issue re-emerged and this time Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers has made it a guardianship issue – which includes guardianship over the family’s fortune. Concluding their trial on the basis of guardianship, it has been ruled that “Liliane Bettencourt is too ill with dementia to control her family fortune and placed her under the guardianship of her 25-year-old grandson, Jean-Victor Meyers (son of Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers). It has been said that Liliane is not satisfied and her lawyers will be pursuing another court date as they are prepared for “nuclear war” with Ms. Bettencourt-Meyers.
All summer long style mags, bloggers and fashonistas everywhere have been speculating how Kate Middleton’s Alexander McQueen wedding gown would influence bridal fashion for 2012. Now that we are half way through Bridal Fashion Week the consensus within the fashion industry is that the Sarah Burton designed gown didn’t have the revolutionizing effect that so many predicted. However we must say, just because it hasn’t been imitated or updated by every designer and their mother doesn’t mean that Kate’s gown failed to have an impact on the bridal industry.
First it must be noted that there has already been a fair share of knock-offs, rip-offs or homages, whatever you want to call them based around Ms. Burton’s design. It would also be hard to argue that a large increase in gowns with partial or full sleeves didn’t have something to do with the sleeves on the McQueen piece that Kate wore on her walk down the aisle at Westminster which was viewed by millions around the globe. Yet what is most interesting is that the now infamous McQueen dress seems to have influenced many designers to go to great lengths just to avoid being compared to it.
First was Vera Wang with her witchcraft themed show that featured not one, but seven black wedding gowns. While the pieces were exquisitely crafted, which is what we all expect from Vera Wang, (or at least what we expect when she isn’t knocking herself off at David’s Bridal) it remains to been seen whether they will pass the test as wedding gowns or if they will be passed over by brides and instead just be remembered for what many already see them as: elegant black ball gowns. Say what you will about them, you can’t say that Kate’s gown had much of an influence there.
Next up was Marchesa’s Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig who presented gowns full of underwater imagery like sea-shell cups and thick wavy trains which seemed intended to counter-act the desire to compare to McQueen that would have otherwise been raised by some of the embroidered sections and sleeves that were also present. Love them or hate them there is no denying that this is yet another collection that has taken a marked departure from the bridal norm.
So perhaps all these odd and experimental approaches we are seeing are in fact the influence that many had predicted the McQueen gown would wield. Rather than trying to improve upon the traditional bridal design which many would say Sarah Burton brought close to perfection, it seems as if most designers have taken this as their cue to reach for new heights of innovation and daring in their bridal designs. Call us crazy, but if that doesn’t sound like a revolution, then we don’t know what does.
Remember a few months back when we reported that Aerosmith front man, Steven Tyler, is merging into fashion with his collaborative collection Andrew Charles. The collaboration is with Andy Hilfiger will be exclusively sold at Macy*s. The fashions are based on Tyler’s wacky, eclectic style. Steven Tyler was even quoted describing his collection as, “That freak style I wear on stage you can buy now at Macy’s.”
If you want to refresh yourself on the original article click here.
The release of the line was this past weekend, Friday, October 14th, 2011. Macy*s celebrated the launch in their Herald Square, New York City location with Steven Tyler. Tyler was adorned in a few pieces from the collection, along with his two daughters, Mia and Chelsea. The three parts of the Tyler family put themselves up for display in Macy*s New York City window as a living, breathing, posing advertisement. Steven’s younger daughter, Chelsea is also featured in the ads for Andrew Charles.
Steven Tyler told Fashionista (a fashion website/blog), “I’m androgynous… I’ve just got more female energy. I like that flowing and nurturing and I’m a songwriter, so I’m into form and fashion and how it all goes together. Always have been, so it’s just perfect.” In the spirit of his daughters’ participation, Steven continued to tell a family story about “raiding” His other daughter Liv’s closet, “What happened was, I was living at Liv’s apartment for a month working on the book two Decembers ago, I went through her closet and I found this crazy shirt. Loved it, put it on, wore it for a month. And then I found out the front was supposed to be the back, but who cares! It was Liv’s shirt and it looks great.”
If it wasn’t already obvious, Tyler is a goofy and eclectic guy, but he has his own sense of style and has the opportunity to display it for his music fans and now the fashion world can enjoy his style. Stop into Macy*s if you want a funky patterned top, bottom, or even coat. And don’t worry, Steven isn’t quitting his job on American Idol, and actually, is also getting ready for a tour with Aerosmith.
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