Forever 21 Backs Off On Blogger Lawsuit

The blogger behind WTForever21.com is back. After the California fast-fashion giant whose wares she parodies online repeatedly threatened to sue her for allegedly diluting its brand and trademarks, Rachel Kane and her lawyers decided to turn Forever 21‘s game on its head: rather than observe the company’s cease-and-desist deadline, they issued Forever 21 a deadline by which to sue them. That date passed without the company making good on its threats — or in fact making any further comment at all: a Forever 21 spokesperson who initially agreed to answer our questions about its ridiculous attempt at a SLAPP subsequently ghosted — and so WTForever21.com has gotten back down to business making fun of ill-fitting rompers and unfortunate ’90s-revival regalia. Which in our opinion is as it should be. [WTForever21]

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Paz de la Huerta, whom our brother site Gawker noticed has a habit of matching her lipstick to her ensemble, denies the evidence before our very eyes: “The whole thing is ridiculous,” she told a reporter who asked about the matching, which has become known in certain circles as “Pulling a Paz.” “It has nothing to do with the color of my clothing,” de la Huerta lied. [Fashionista]

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Prince Harry is dating someone new: 25-year-old lingerie and commercial model Florence Budenell-Bruce. She used to date a race car driver, has a degree in art history from the University of Bristol, and is a descendant of the seventh Earl of Cardigan. Also, her face is on the box of this Remington flat iron. [WWD, Racked]

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Victoria Beckham is launching a secondary line. It’s going to be cheaper than her main collection, but not that cheap: dresses will retail for $550-$900. “We had to do something,” says someone whom Women’s Wear Daily calls the company’s “de facto C.E.O.”, “or we’d be a niche brand forever.” [WWD]

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Christian Louboutin made a pair of eight-inch stilettos for a charity auction. Victoria Beckham has already tried to wear them. [Daily Mail]

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Michael Kors says winning the Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award last year was a lightbulb moment because it gave him “the confidence to say, ‘Oh, that’s very Michael Kors.’…I was like, ‘Wait a second, wow, oh, my God.’ This lightbulb went off, and I was like, ‘It’s okay to use yourself as an adjective.’” [HB]

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• The Federal Trade Commission has prohibited Nivea from claiming in its ads that its Silhouette cream will, via a mysterious “Bio-Slim Complex,” make a user lose weight. This led the chairman of the FTC to make the following puns: “The real skinny on weight loss is that no cream is going to help you fit into your jeans.” [WWD]
• Here’s a behind-the-scenes video from the set of Tilda Swinton‘s next Pringle of Scotland campaign. [Fashionista]
• The Roots are going to be in John Varvatos‘ fall ads. [WWD]
• Nigel Barker hates it when Tyra Banks steals the dessert off his plate. “Here’s the worst thing she does: She’ll say, ‘I’m not eating dessert,’ and then say, ‘But what are you getting for dessert?’ and then, of course, she eats my dessert.” He also drinks at the America’s Next Top Model judges’ table. “You need to drink to get through it!” [The Cut]
• Alessandra Facchinetti, who designed for and was fired by Gucci and Valentino, is back after a three-year industry hiatus. She will design a new line called Uniqueness, with backing from one of the co-founders of the Italian brand Pinko. [WWD]
• Anthony Vaccarello has won the 2011 ANDAM prize, which rewards emerging designers in France with a €200,000 purse. Yiqing Yin won second place, worth €60,000. [WWD]
• Being Betsey Johnson‘s assistant sounds…interesting. The job mainly involves stopping her from eating too much shrimp cocktail — “so she won’t get mercury poisoning again,” the assistant explains — and keeping Johnson in “traveling music,” which is what she calls champagne. “There’s also ‘funny coffee‘ which is when we put champagne in coffee mugs and sit at the table in the showroom, instead of drinking out of champagne flutes.” Johnson is forgetful: “She’s been pretty good about keeping track of her phone lately, but she does have this one credit card that she lost a total of 56 times.” [FWD]
• California passed a law to collect sales tax on online purchases, even ones where someone in California buys something from someone or some company located outside the state. (Previously, only businesses that maintain premises in a state had to collect sales taxes.) Overstock.com says it will cut ties with the state; Amazon had made a similar threat prior to the bill’s passage. [WWD]
• Michael Kowalski, the C.E.O. of Tiffany’s, has been paid $22.2 million this year. [WWD]