- Heidi Klum is turning in her diamond-encrusted bra. After 13 years, she is officially resigning as the head Victoria’s Secret Angel. Angels Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima are reportedly being considered for promotion. [NYDN]
- Björk, on Alexander McQueen: “I felt Lee’s raw connection with nature and birth and death was very refreshing. When I moved to London, being from Iceland, I sometimes found the self-importance in the U.K.’s obsession with the decay of its empire boring, to insist the whole world is dying with them. This urban apocalyptic aesthetic is still a bit overdriving, a bit teenage really…it mostly just reveals its impotency.” [GQ UK]
- Tina Knowles‘ new Miss Tina clothing line for Wal-Mart is all priced at $20-$50 — which means we shudder to think of the conditions of its manufacture. But what’s cool is that it was produced in sizes 0-20 with plans to expand to even more sizes in future seasons. (It’s also photographed on models of various sizes.) Knowles says she insisted on that: “That twas really important to me because the average woman in America is not a 4 or 6. I had a lot of frustration finding clothes that fit me up top. Sometimes I’d get a 12 and it wouldn’t fit up top, so the line was really borne from a frustration about me not being able to find things that fit…I’ve heard complaints from women all over the country that plus size clothes arent sexy enough. You know, I’m a grandma but i don’t want to look like a grandma!” [Glamour]
- More pics here. [TLF]
- Mary J. Blige, she of the record-breaking perfume launch, has a sunglass line hitting stores. The range is priced at $150-$250. [People]
- Nicole Richie made the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. [TLF]
- The editorial inside looks like it involves gardening and sadness. [Quem]
- Jordin Sparks, an Idol of America, now has a perfume. “I looked at some other celebrity fragrances, and they were like $80. Even now, I look at a fragrance that’s $80, and I can’t bring myself to spend that much,” says Sparks. Hers will be available for the special introductory price of $9.50. [WWD]
- Gisele Bündchen and Carolyn Murphy joined a pregnant Miranda Kerr on the Balenciaga runway. [JustJared]
- Cathy Horyn mostly liked the Balenciaga collection for its “boyish attitude” and focus on street wear. However, of Balmain, she noted that the clothes would photograph well, “but punk is now a style cliché. That Balmain is one of the most expensive labels, with a plain undershirt (without holes) costing around $450, makes the notion of a safety-pinned jacket something of a joke — and not even a very clever one.” [On The Runway]
- “This was not intellectual fashion, nor does it pretend to be,” said Women’s Wear Daily. [WWD]
- Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld feels constrained by bourgeois mores: “We have to fight to keep this un-politically correct attitude of French Vogue, but it’s more and more difficult to be able do that. You cannot smoke, you cannot show arms, you cannot show little girls, because everyone now is very anxious not to have problems with the law. Everything we do now is like walking in high heels on the ice, but we keep trying to do it.” This from the woman who gave us smoking mothers, satanism, and La Grande Bouffe? She also says her karaoke song would be “‘You’re So Vain.’ I think in this business, it’s a good song. It’s dedicated to a lot of people.” [On The Runway]
- Fashion photographer Albert Watson has a new book called Unified Fashion Objectives. He names Naomi Campbell his favorite model. “I’ve worked off and on with her since she was 15. And she drives me insane but she’s fabulous.” [WWD]
- “It was one of those fashion parties that felt like another era, when it was possible to enjoy such extravagance without wondering how a designer could possibly be selling enough animal-printed evening gowns and exuberantly distressed denim to afford it all,” wrote Eric Wilson, of Roberto Cavalli‘s $2 million 40th anniversary party. [NYTimes]
- Kylie Minogue sang Cavalli “Happy Birthday,” and then the designer cut a cake with Heidi Klum. [WWD]
- Fashionologie has pictures. [Fashionologie]
- And Jeremy Kost shot video. Warning: Video contains BryanBoy. [The Cut]
- Keli Goff of The Loop 21 takes up the argument that fashion models need a union to assure their health and safety on the job: “In a recent interview about the film [Picture Me] one model recounted being burned by a photographer’s bulb that rendered her unable to work for months yet she had no health insurance and received no worker’s comp and was advised not to cause problems by litigating.” Goff is referring to this interview with the former model Sena Cech. “There are also tales of models being sexually harassed and even raped by prominent men within the industry and being advised not to expose such behavior because it will harm their careers. (It is worth noting that supermodel Stephanie Seymour admits having a sexual relationship with John Casablancas, the former head of Elite, one of the largest modeling agencies in the world, when she was 16 and he was 41.)” [TheLoop21]
- P. Diddy performed in Scotland in a kilt. [The Cut]
- Zac Posen‘s Paris show has not impressed critics. Christina Binkley of the Wall Street Journal writes: “the collection tried too hard to grab attention with boudoir games. Costumey pink feathers streamed from transparent black negligees. Tight ruching up the back of skirts added an unfortunate sort of evening allure.” [WSJ]
- Suzy Menkes: “Zac Posen has a certain idea of Paris in its ooh la la! glory days, bathed in the glow of red plush seats, peopled with coquettes in body-molded outfits fancied up with feathers. Meld that vision with the New York-based designer’s fascination for haute couture, frame it in the gilded ballroom where Yves Saint Laurent showed for so many years — and you have a collection that had a peppy glamour but seemed more of a pastiche than a seductive path to fashion’s new direction.” [IHT]
- Women’s Wear Daily: “Posen did himself no favors by choosing as his venue the spectacular, 19th-century gilded ballroom of the Westin Hotel, formerly the InterContinental, and still synonymous with the couture shows of the late Yves Saint Laurent. This room, and this city, it must be said, expects to see better clothes than what Posen paraded…The collection veered dangerously into tawdry territory, especially when feathers were trapped under mesh, jutting out from hips or splayed over bosoms. The painted-on pants and rampant bodice wrapping took Posen far from the girly glam for which he’s known. In coming to Paris, something was definitely lost in translation.” Wonder if Michael Kors is reading that one aloud in a funny voice? [WWD]
- Cathy Horyn distances herself somewhat from the Posen pile-up: “The clothes showed more finesse and surprise than any he has done in New York in recent seasons. Ombré silk dresses were beautiful; pleated chiffon skirts looked taut and lush; and tweed jackets were a well-done, feather-trimmed homage to Chanel.” [NYTimes]
- The former site of the Takashimaya department store in Manhattan will become…a Forever 21. [Crain’s]
- Stella McCartney‘s profits were up by 17.8% from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009. Strong sales of accessories helped the numbers along. [WWD]
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