Say Goodbye: D&G Is Discontinued
LatestDolce & Gabbana is discontinuing its lower-priced D&G line. The spring collection, just shown in Milan, will be the brand’s last. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana say that they have long looked to Chanel, with its one brand, as an example for business. D&G’s many licenses, including perfumes and eyewear, will gradually be phased out. The closure of D&G had been rumored as far back as this March. At the time, retailers expressed surprise. One said, “I don’t understand, because D&G is a line that makes €400 million [$531 million], it’s young and flexible and it’s doing really well. It’s a lot to ask retailers. In my case, for example, I don’t carry the signature line, but I’ve never missed a season with D&G.” [WWD]
In contrast: for the first time in years, Versace will hold a fashion show for its diffusion brand Versus, which is designed by Donatella Versace and Christopher Kane. Versace relaunched the line five seasons ago, and has recently taken Versus production in-house. [WWD]
Nars held a contest on its website where people could upload photos of themselves replicating makeup looks by François Nars. Users then voted for their favorites, and would you guess who won? A gay boy from Amarillo, Texas, named Kale Teter. That’s him in one of his winning looks on the right. Teter wins makeup, and a position on the Nars team at next February’s New York fashion week. Congratulations! [BS]
$230 Kermit sweaters for hipsters are a thing that now exists. [OC]
Designer couple Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra show off their workroom and closet in this piece (there’s video!). “The East Village of the ’80s provided the perfect space for their ‘gay prep tribe identities’ to emerge. ‘I love the early ’80s,’ Jeffrey says. ‘That, to me, is when I came of age.’ For him, there is something ‘elegant and beautiful about the seediness of the time,’ when they were living out of Keith Haring‘s old apartment, passing Anne Bass in the middle of the night with armfuls of leather jackets as she left Ramrod picking things out of garbage cans. Characters lined up outside club doors had monumental style; once, Jeffrey recalls, he saw ’80s fixture Sally Randall working the door at Palladium — and refusing to let Andy Warhol in, he says, ‘because he was wearing beige.'” [StyleLikeU]
- So much depends upon an Ethiopian-born hotelier glazed with millions of dollars beside the blonde movie star. Well, another of the mysteries of walking liability issue Lindsay Lohan‘s fashion week — these mysteries were, in case you weren’t keeping track, The Mystery of Why She Was There, The Mystery of Who That Piratical-Looking Dude Who Sat Next To Her At Cynthia Rowley Was, The Mystery of The Woman Who Was Bleeding Profusely At Her Party, and the Mystery of How She Got Into Marc Jacobs’ After-Party Even Though She Was Banned Because At A Party The Night Before She Threw A Glass At A Photographer That Instead Hit A Waitress And Then That Woman Started Bleeding Profusely — has been solved. We knew that the intervention of Dream Downtown hotel owner Vikram Chatwal had helped LiLo (and fellow waning starlet Misha Barton!) penetrate the inner sanctum that is the Marc Jacobs after-party, which was held at the Dream, despite multiple “security checkpoints” (Jesus, is this fashion week or the freaking Gaza Strip?) having been established to prevent her entry. Now, an item in Page Six about Lindsay allegedly being rude to Chatwal’s wife (she made what’s being described as “a sour face right out of Mean Girls,” you guys — she’s still got it!) contains this throwaway line: “Chatwal flew Lohan to town before Fashion Week on his jet.” So that is the Mystery of Why She Was There, answered. Or at least, How. (Is there anyone among us who really knows Why?) Maybe Chatwal can now fly her somewhere far, far away, where there are no photographers and no designers and no glasses and no cocaine. [P6]
- Pregnancé made two public appearances to fête her third perfume, Pulse: one at the Dream Downtown hotel (that place again!) and another at a Macy’s store. [WWD]
- There’s a rumor that Rooney Mara will be on the cover of November’s Vogue. [Fashionista]
- Kanye West turned up to designer Katie Eary‘s fashion show, wordlessly confirming that Eary is working on his own fashion line, which is set to walk next week in Paris. Elle reports that, “For the boys, she put forward gold gator-embossed leather jackets and wicker fishing baskets that made surprisingly convincing propositions as the new urban carry-alls.” Baskets that proposition their wearers! That is novel. West wasn’t talking to the press (what else is new?), but backstage, Eary confirmed the collaboration and said, “I absolutely love working with him. He’s such a dedicated designer.” [Elle]
- 17-year-old model Lindsey Wixson demonstrates how to shoot a pistol in this video by Aurelia Donaldson, the sister of model Lily Donaldson. [Telegraph]
- And Bill Wasik wept: “To mark the French launch of her fragrance Diane, exclusive to Sephora, Diane von Furstenberg and the retailer will stage a flash mob on the Champs-Elysées on Oct. 5. More than 100 dancers and Sephora employees will strut their stuff outside the flagship store garbed in DVF’s iconic wrap dress to evoke the designer’s ethos: ‘Be the woman you want to be.'” [WWD]
- Cathy Horyn, on Prada’s spring collection: “As usual, she applied irony to overly sweet gestures like flowers, lacy tops, and mother-of-the-bride coats over accordion pleat silk skirts. As props in the show, she had a few brightly colored sports cars in molded Styrofoam, as well as dresses and coats in zany car prints. The heels of sling-back shoes were in the shape of flame decals, like those on hot rods. Men are a little obsessed about beautiful cars and women, so Ms. Prada seemed to be referring to the objectification of women. ‘Does a woman feel obliged to be sweet’ in society, she asked, ‘or is it a choice?'” [On The Runway]
- Tyra Banks says she’s been approached by a producer about adapting her sci-fi fashion YA novel, Modelland, as a film. [AP]
- Daphne Guinness‘ new favorite designer is a man from Illinois called Hogan McLaughlin. They met on Twitter. McLaughlin has no formal training in fashion, art or design, but is an ex-professional dancer who knows “how clothes have to move on a body.” He made a coat for Guinness that is meant to look like “plasma rising.” His clothes cost $1,000-$30,000. [WWD]
- And now, a moment with Anna Dello Russo, at a dinner for Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton (at which discussion of Marc Jacobs’ potential move to Christian Dior was unwelcome):
- Ms. Dello Russo discreetly pushed her ravioli onto a neighbor’s plate and passed her pears down the table.
“Dinners, no good,” she said, in what can only be described as the lifestyle choice of someone who is committed to wearing transparent pants. “Dancing, good.” - [On The Runway]