- Khloe Kardashian, her late, lamented red hair, and a mask apparently made of plastic packing straps and a packet of studs from the nearest Michaels star on the cover of NY skate shop Yellow Rat Bastard‘s in-store mag, YRB. [Racked]
- Barely clad Armani emissaries Megan Fox and Rafael Nadal will be coming to billboards and bus shelters near you. [WWD]
- Word on the street is that Tom Ford is looking for financing to expand his business. So far, Ford has been self-financed. Last year, the designer sold an Andy Warhol painting he owned for over $3 million, which he funneled into the launch of his women’s wear line. [TI]
- Lady Gaga contributed to the show notes for her friend/stylist Nicola Formichetti‘s first Thierry Mugler men’s wear show, now renamed just “Mugler.” She wrote: “Blood pumps through Nicola’s veins like perfume and cigarettes. His brain throbs with misfit royalty, glamour as punk survival, attitude as liberation, style as revolution.” Last weekend, our heads were throbbing with misfit royalty when we woke up, but we took an Advil and later felt fine. [On The Runway]
- Calvin Klein‘s boyfriend is turning 21. And Klein is throwing him a biiiiig party. [P6]
- Gwen Stefani‘s first L’Oréal commercial exists. [BellaSugar]
- Robin Givhan liked Michelle Obama‘s red Alexander McQueen state dinner dress. At least, we think. Here’s what Givhan laid on us: “In choosing a dress from Alexander McQueen, Mrs. Obama championed the cause of artisan design, the legacy of bespoke tailoring, and the staggering creativity that can be nurtured in the frock trade when it is at its best. The sleeveless dress, with its asymmetrical neckline, was created by a house that represents the designer imagination at its most indulgent and devilish. And in wearing the gown to honor China, a country that many view with disdain for its abundance of cheap labor, counterfeit products, and poor labor practices, Mrs. Obama seemed to be recognizing the country’s inevitable place in the fashion cycle and giving it its due.” So, China represents labor abuses and lack of respect for intellectual property, and by wearing a non-Chinese designer dress, Michelle Obama…flattered China? Put China in its place? Gave those poor Easterners something to look up to? What kind of reasoning is this? It is perhaps worth noting that at the last state dinner, which honored the Indian P.M. and his wife, Obama wore a dress by an Indian-American designer — Naeem Khan. [TDB]
- Anna Wintour took one question — well, one question and one follow-up — before the state dinner last night. It went like this: REPORTER: Who are you most interested in talking to tonight? WINTOUR: The Chinese Premier. REPORTER: What will you ask him? WINTOUR: Will he invest some money in Chinese fashion? [Styleite]
- Designers are taking to the web to craft “content” that is editorial-seeming but entirely brand-directed. (Think every designer blog, ever, basically — whether supposedly written by the designer him or herself about his or her daily life, or whether more far-ranging in its scope.) Women’s Wear Daily calls this “edvertorial,” because apparently the old standby “advertorial” wasn’t specific enough for a medium, the web, where so much of this stuff bleeds together already. A lot of these ventures can be benign or even useful — Prabal Gurung‘s blog runs some great stuff, including lots of original content — but only so long as everyone remembers to consider the source and the motivation for publishing anything at all. [WWD]
- On convertible clothing: “You can wear this as a poncho, a dress, a kimono or a hooded cape. See, when you go to Iraq, it becomes a burqa!” Bravo TV’s Calvin Tran, ladies and gentlemen. [NYTimes]
- H&M has a new designer collaboration launching in stores his April. And unlike the last one, nothing costs $250. Swedish Hasbeens, the cultish, nerdy, hipster-preferred wooden-soled leather shoes produced a line of three styles to be sold at H&M for $59.95-$69.95. [H&M]
- Julianne Hough, Taraji P. Henson, Gayle King, Dania Ramirez, Eva Amurri, and Giuliana Rancic will all be walking in the Heart’s Truth Red Dress fashion show at New York fashion week, which raises…money? or “awareness” or something, for heart disease. We can only imagine Rancic going around backstage, exclaiming over how “OMG skinny!!!1!” everyone is. [P6]
- Fashion field trip! Designers including Francisco Costa of Calvin Klein, Tory Burch, Nicole Miller, and Marcus Wainwright of Rag & Bone joined Oscar de la Renta and Hamish Bowles for a walk-through of the excellent Cristóbal Balenciaga exhibition Bowles curated. When the show opened, we wondered if the exhibit would have any traceable influence on the fall collections — that still remains to be seen, but designers certainly are taking notice. [NYTimes]
- Bowles: “At age six, Balenciaga cut his first coat — for his cat. The cat kept moving and he got frustrated, which is, perhaps, why he always thought about moveability and comfort in his designs later on.” [Style.com]
- Breaking: Hamish Bowles is going to shave his moustache. Repeat — Bowlesian upper-lip exposure is considered imminent. Prepare accordingly. [WWD]
- The Post has noticed a few celebrities are wearing long, simply cut, casual-looking dresses from Jil Sander‘s latest collection to red carpet events. (Tilda Swinton wore Jil at the Golden Globes.) [NYPost]
- Black Swan is nominated for an Oscar in costume design, but Rodarte won’t be eligible to win it. Why not? Well, for one thing, Rodarte didn’t actually design all the costumes — though Kate and Laura Mulleavy did do Natalie Portman‘s gorgeous tutus, the costume designer for the film is Amy Westcott. Also, the designers didn’t negotiate credits in their initial contract, and weren’t initially members of the costume designers guild (though they are now). [Fashionologie]
- You can see the Mulleavies, along with Black Swan‘s production designer, talk about their work in a Swarovski-sponsored behind-the-scenes video. There’s that edvertorial again. [YouTube]
- Model/student/fashion blogger Lily Kwong, who sometimes works with her cousin, Joseph Altuzarra, co-created and starred in a fashion shoot for T. For a setting, Kwong and photographer Elle Murchiachyk chose ad exec/porn campaigner Cindy Gallop‘s apartment. Awesome. [T]
- Elle editor Joe Zee‘s reality show premieres on March 29. [Fashionologie]
- Nick Knight shot designer Gareth Pugh in an embrace with his nude boyfriend, and all we can say is — wow. Photo kinda SFW because of strategic posing/lighting. [SHOWstudio]
- Diesel is backing away from its horrible “Be Stupid” ad campaign. Spring’s ads are all about “Diesel Island,” a mythical place populated by models — “think Lost but with nicer clothes and no polar bears,” explains one of the brand’s execs. [WWD]
- J. Crew expects its same-store sales to fall by a percentage in the mid-single-digits during the coming quarter. [WWD]
- Apparently, there are Internet fetish communities for people who really, really like puffer jackets. (See rule 34.) [Vice]
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