At the Glamour Women of the Year awards, J. Crew‘s Jenna Lyons thanked her girlfriend, jewelry executive Courtney Crangi, by name during her acceptance speech. This was Lyons’ first public acknowledgement of the relationship since she split from her husband last year. “Nothing worth having is easy,” said Lyons in her speech, before thanking her son, Beckett, “for reminding me that the world revolves around him every day,” and “Courtney, who has shown me new love.” Coming out of the closet at an awards show: so hot ever since Jodie did it. [Fashionista]
Proenza Schouler is also exploring Web art in this new video (like, most recently, Rihanna, Azealia Banks, and Prada). [Fashionista]
This is awesome: Nick Knight shot female “athletes, artists, lovers” who he thought embodied the idea of physical power for V‘s “Girl Power” issue. [The Cut]
- Jennifer Lawrence met Anna Wintour at a party and as soon as the editor had left, she exclaimed, “I just met Miranda Priestly!” [P6]
- Nina Garcia has been promoted to creative director of Marie Claire. [@HearstCorp]
- Raf Simons says that while he “respects” John Galliano‘s skills, he does not think his approach to fashion design is “relevant” anymore:
- “I have so much respect for John [Galliano]‘s technical skill and the fantasy, it’s just something that I don’t find relevant now, especially when it restricts a woman, because in every other area they have so much freedom.“
- [Vogue Australia, via Fashionista]
- The winner of this year’s Vogue/Council of Fashion Designers of America Fashion Fund Awards — the competition that has helped launch the careers of Joseph Altuzarra, Alexander Wang, Sophie Theallet, and Proenza Schouler — is Greg Chait of the Elder Statesman. The runners-up are Tabitha Simmons and Jennifer Meyer Maguire of Jennifer Meyer. The emerging brands who were chosen this year to compete for the $300,000 (for the winner) and $100,000 (for each of the runners up) business-development grants were Suno, Wes Gordon, A.L.C., Assembly New York, Giulietta, Illesteva, and Jennifer Fisher. [WWD]
- Burberry‘s Christopher Bailey delivered a speech at the event where the winners were announced and related this anecdote about Donna Karan:
- “When I was at the Royal College of Art I met this incredible person: Donna Karan. She completely seduced me with the way she sees the world. She stripped naked within about three minutes of meeting, and tried on all my things. That was one of my first big wake up calls to how nutty — and how brilliant this industry is.”
- [Racked]
- Taking note of the weird attention paid Anne Hathaway‘s Les Misérables starvation diet in her new Vogue profile, including the mention that the actress subsisted on “squares of dried oatmeal paste” during filming, Fashionista set about a) figuring out what dried oatmeal paste is and b) making some. Conclusion: oatmeal and water baked in the oven does not taste good, and nor is it particularly nutritious or healthy. Let’s hope pasting does not become the new juicing. [Fashionista]
- Harry Winston bought a diamond mine. Obviously. [WWD]
- Lacquerous, a monthly use-and-mail-’em-back subscription service for nail polish, sounds like a great way to pick up nail fungus from a stranger. [Racked]
- Chanel is holding its métiers d’art show in Scotland’s Linlithgow Castle. [Telegraph]
- American Apparel had another shitty quarter despite strong gains in same-store sales. The company’s net loss grew to $18.5 million, from $7 million during the same period last year. Sales were up 15.1%, to $162.2 million, and same-store sales rose a healthy 20%. [WWD]
- Shoe designer Charles Philip is suing the Gap for allegedly copying his designs. Perhaps helping Philip’s case is the fact that Gap named the shoes in question things like the ‘Phillip Moccasin Slipper’ and the ‘Phillip Slipper.’ [P6]
- Abercrombie & Fitch had a good quarter despite a concerning drop in same-store sales. During the quarter just ended, profits rose year-on-year by 40.5%, to $71.5 million. Sales rose 8.7%, to $1.17 billion, but same-store sales fell 3%. [WWD]
- Ermenegildo Zegna is perhaps the first European luxury brand to explore the retail potential of Africa in a systematic kind of way. Zegna is opening stores in Lagos, Nigeria; Luanda, Angola; and Alexandria, Egypt. It already operates stores in Cairo and Casablanca, and is evaluating locations in Libya, Kenya, and Algeria. Competitors LVMH and PPR have so far been slow to enter the retail market in African countries. [IHT]
- Saks Fifth Avenue has cut its guidance for the fourth quarter because of the impact of Hurricane Sandy on its sales. [WWD]
- Salvatore Ferragamo‘s net profits rose year-on-year by 8.1%, to $108.4 million. [WWD]
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