- Eva Mendes wore a Snuggie at a party for Flaunt magazine. [P6]
- According to one study, the luxury sector is projected to grow everywhere in the world this year, with the exception of Japan. [Independent]
- The Pratt Institute has summarily disinvited the press from its “Free and open to the public” evening with Anna Wintour. [WWD]
- “The silk drapey pant is the new skinny pant — it’s comfortable, flattering and looks great paired with heels,” says Ashley Olsen. We beg to differ. [InStyle]
- Zac Posen, designer for Target, goes to an actual Target: “I like very good things, but I’m trying to enjoy this.” [NYMag]
- Also released by Target last Friday, albeit with somewhat less fanfare, were designer collaborations with Cynthia Vincent and Eugenia Kim. [Nitrolicious]
- Alexa Chung, who designed a line for J. Crew‘s Madewell, was nonetheless hired as a celebrity DJ for an Ann Taylor Loft presentation last week. Not that she wanted to talk to the press about it: she waved a reporter away, before allegedly saying, “I need more drinks.” [P6]
- Azzedine Alaïa: “There’s a fatigue in fashion, i think. Designer fashion is different now. Designers cannot create so many collections — cruise and pre-fall, accessories — when normally two-a-year is more than sufficient. A designer simply cannot invent something new every two months or so. It takes six months of research and work to build a new silhouette.” This is logic we don’t quite follow: if two months is an impossibly short time to create a new silhouette, why is six months any better? But what we really wonder is why Alaïa ought to be considered an authority on “new” silhouettes at all, since his work has never betrayed creating them as an interest. Alaïa works from the same idealized shape he always has, every season — which is not a criticism of his work, just an observation that doing what you know, doing it consistently and well, and making both a name for yourself and a living is possible, even in fashion. [Fashionista]
- Lauren Hutton: “The only thing I’ve done that I wasn’t proud of doing was Slim Fast. But I did lose 10 pounds with it. I had gotten up to 140, which is huge for someone who spent all their life at 116. But you can only do it as a crash diet.” [LATimes]
- Artist Terence Koh added some extra Japanese to Lady Gaga‘s white Birkin. Anyone got a translation? [Fashionista]
- Ungaro is looking for a new designer. Starlets with a fondness for heart-shaped glitter pasties need not apply, and the future of Spanish designer Estrella Archs, whose solo debut collection was panned almost as harshly as the one she collaborated on with Lindsay Lohan, is unknown. Owner of the troubled company Asim Abdullah was spotted having lunch in Paris with Giles Deacon, which could mean that the Brit is in the running for the gig. Or it could have just been a friendly meal. [WWD]
- Patricia Field, on costume designing for Ugly Betty: “I enjoyed it, it was great. I was satisfied with it, it’s over.” [The Cut]
- The U.S. ban on cultivating hemp — a non-THC-containing, un-smoke-worthy relative of the marijuana plant — is allowing China to get a jump on growing the plant for the international textile industry. Hemp is less water-intensive than cotton, and fabric milled from it has anti-microbial and anti-UV qualities. [LATimes]
- DKNY just entered into a sponsorship deal with the New York Yankees, so Donna Karan went to hang out with the team and attend their game on Friday. We saved ourselves for the Mets on Saturday, who uncharacteristically won! Only took them seven hours and 20 God-damned innings. [WWD]
- Although you wouldn’t think him a fashion sage, whoever writes Nicolas Sarkozy‘s speeches pretty much nails Ralph Lauren‘s aesthetic: “The chic of New England, the Indians of Santa Fe and the glamour of Hollywood.” Perhaps he had his wife look it over. [NYTimes]
- British chain New Look sells a pair of black Christian Louboutin knock-offs with a 3.5″ heel. No big surprise there — except that these are offered in children’s sizes, down to size 1, the average size of 8-year-old girls. [Guardian]
- And Katie Price is planning the launch of a baby clothes collection. [Mirror]
- Uniqlo is adding a second U.S. store — but it will, like the first, be in Manhattan. [WWD]
- Vanity sizing is an issue in the U.K., too. Even though the country has national sizing standards, they are non-binding. [ToL]
- The unpronounceable Icelandic volcano has grounded Giorgio Armani, and delayed the opening of his insane new luxury hotel in the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai. [Vogue UK]
- Daisy Lowe and her mother, Pearl, really do sound like they have a great, if unusual, relationship. “I have lost so many friends to fame. Most famous people become so self-obsessed — it’s me, me, me, me and ME,” is just one of Pearl’s choice quotes. [Daily Mail]
- Mango so convincingly knocked off Phillip Lim that we, too, briefly wondered if Scarlett Johansson was wearing the real thing in this ad. [Fashionista]
- Hudson Jeans flew BryanBoy to New York to tweet about their campaign shoot, with Mario Sorrenti and Georgia Jagger. [SB]
- British designer Henry Holland organizes his shirts by sleeve length. [ToL]
- High heel “expert” Camilla Morton is trotting out the tired, and thoroughly incorrect, theory that heel heights are linked to bad economic times. “It’s empowering to have a bit of frivolity on our feet,” she says. [UPI]
- Anonymous sources say that L’Occitane is planning to sell a 25% stake in a Hong Kong IPO. The company is said to hope to generate up to $707 million via the sale. [BW]
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