Shoplifting Is On The Rise, Thank God

By Jenna Sauers  |  June 27, 2011 | 4:45pm
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Shoplifting is increasing, and this is good news for the economy, apparently! Last year, shoplifting cost the retail sector $37 billion, up from $33.5 billion in 2009. Because employee theft is the most common form of shoplifting, the fact that workers are increasingly inclined to exercise the good ol’ five-finger discount indicates that we are no longer living in complete, perpetual terror of losing our fucking hellacious minimum-wage retail jobs. When folks are clinging to their 15 hours a week of split-shifts cleaning up poop at Target, that is when we as a nation and as an economy are in Big Trouble, you see. [CNN Money]

Sex-ay actress Eva Mendes is sick to sexy death of being so damn sssssssssssexy all the sexy time. “I actually prefer to be Team Cute. Can I switch? Cute is way better,” she said at a launch party for her Thierry Mugler Angel perfume campaign. (Last week, a perfume industry executive attributed Mendes’ campaign to the fact that although she is very sexy, “she is not threatening.” This makes her test well with focus groups, because obviously there’s nothing women like less than a woman who’s just too sexy.) “I’d rather be on Team Cute, because I think it’s harder to be cute than sexy. You know what it’s like? Every time someone pays you that compliment of being cute or adorable, that feels like a real compliment, because being hot is all smoke and mirrors at some point. I think it takes more personality to be cute, so that’s a deeper compliment.” [The Cut]

We would like to be writing an item about Heidi Klum‘s just-announced jewelry collection for QVC — apparently it goes on sale in September — but we are completely and totally distracted by how freaking gorgeous she is in this apparently unretouched photo from the press preview. [WWD]

The same company that put a photo of an Hermès Birkin on a tote bag has done a version with a Miu Miu purse. [Refinery29]

  • Kate Moss lost her engagement ring at the Glastonbury music festival while watching her fiancé Jamie Hince‘s band The Kills perform. She spent two hours rooting through the mud with friends looking for the ring, which is allegedly worth $28,000, before she found it. It had been in her handbag the whole time. [Sun]
  • Because nobody knows whom Moss has chosen to design her wedding dress, British Vogue asked three designers to speak about the dress hypothetically. Only one, Alice Temperley, actually answered the question (she’d like to see her in something “bohemian.”) Bruce Oldfield just talked about himself (“…I have done some very nice icons though: Queen Rania of Jordan, Sam Cameron…”), and Diane von Furstenberg said, “I’m not big on wedding dresses. But I would give her a bottle of my new perfume.” [Vogue UK]
  • Kate Moss’s wedding — shot by Mario Testino, natch — will make the cover of Vogue‘s September issue. Vanity Fair‘s betting on Lindsay Lohan for its September issue. [P6]
  • Meanwhile, August’s Vogue cover is going to Sarah Jessica Parker, who has a film to promote and, at 46, is suitable by Vogue‘s lights to front its “Age” issue. This is juicy: “If she sounds like a safe choice, that’s because we hear she was not Vogue‘s first. They had plans to shoot someone else for August but had to find a replacement at the last minute and Parker was their best option.” Who could that be? [Fashionista]
  • Naomi Campbell and Natalia Vodianova are among the stars of Givenchy’s fall campaign. The photos aren’t out yet, but apparently each model was shot individually, while roaring at the camera. Roaring. So hot for fall. [WWD]
  • Vodianova has at last confirmed that she and her husband Justin Portman are separated and divorcing. (Rumors of a separation have circulated for well over a year, but her agency had denied any marital troubles as recently as April.) Vodianova told a reporter of the divorce, “It’s really sad. It has been a while. We didn’t want to talk about it. We still don’t. Our children are very much aware of it. It’s OK. We’re still in a very sensitive position right now, and trying to do things as amicably as possible, so I wouldn’t want to talk about it at all. I don’t think I ever will want to, because it’s strictly between my husband and me.” She also confirmed that she is in love with someone new, but wouldn’t say whom. She was photographed having a long lunch with Aleksander Pesko, a Russian financier, two months ago. (Weirdly — or perhaps not, maybe they are just friends! — Vodianova put the paparazzi shots on her official Facebook page.) Pesko tried to hide his face from the photographers. [ES]
  • Lily Cole, fresh from graduating with top marks from Cambridge, has signed on to play an undisclosed role in the film Snow White And The Huntsman. Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart will play the Evil Stepmother and Snow White, respectively, and The Hurt Locker‘s Sam Spruell is also attached. The story concerns a huntsman who defies the Evil Stepmother’s orders to kill Snow White in the woods, and instead trains her to fight. [CM]
  • Jessica Stam is now a Huffington Post columnist. Imbibe of her wisdom, friends: “In a quote from Lao Tzu that I read in another publication I receive, this quote resonated with me as it speaks to the very principles I strive to govern my life by because it also addresses this very tradeoff I just alluded to. ‘In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be present.’ ‘Being present’ at the dinner table is a crucial moment in everyday life as most of us are staring into a screen, or a mobile phone or a camera for most of our awake hours. Next time you are in a meeting, or sitting down to dinner — politely request that everyone turn off their phones and put them in the middle of the table in a big bowl.” Stam, we love you, but if anyone took our iPhone we would cut a bitch. [HuffPo]
  • John Galliano will never work for any LVMH brand again. After the Times‘ Cathy Horyn reported Friday on on-the-record conversations she’d had with various anonymous sources within Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy about the potential for John Galliano to return to his eponymous label — a prospect that was rated, by these anonymous sources, as not impossible — LVMH chief Bernard Arnault gave Horyn something for attribution. And it is definitive: “He will not be working for LVMH.” Ever. Meanwhile, Christian Dior C.E.O. Sidney Toledano said there had been concerns about Galliano’s erratic behavior, and his dependency on prescription drugs and alcohol, for years. “There were concerns, and we warned him officially. I’ve talked to the lawyers for years.” Galliano was fired from Dior and from Galliano (which is 92% owned by LVMH) after a public series of profane anti-Semitic and racist tirades, one of which was filmed. Galliano’s trial for hate speech concluded last week. A verdict is expected in September. [On The Runway]
  • Bill Gaytten, Galliano’s longtime assistant, has officially been named his successor as creative director of the John Galliano label. Gaytten will also oversee the production of Christian Dior’s couture collection, which will be unveiled next month. [NYTimes]
  • Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien nabbed an exclusive interview with Joe Galliano, John Galliano’s “brother.” He wore a variety of weird hats. “I still maintain that he’s totally innocent,” Joe exclaimed. “He’s a misunderstood angel, he was led astray by his chemical dependency. He’s as pure as a dove made of butterflies!” [Team Coco]
  • Only about 1% of footwear sold in the U.S. is manufactured here. But there are signs domestic production could be rising, at least relative to its current levels (and let’s face it, it’s not like at 1% things could actually fall much farther): “In China, labor rates have shot up, and [the country’s] own domestic market is heating up, so factories have focused on that domestic, higher-margin business,” says a member of a footwear industry group. “When you couple that with higher material costs — leather has almost doubled in the past year — people are desperately looking for other markets in Asia and [elsewhere]. [In this hemisphere], you have the speed to market and proximity.” [WWD]
  • Male models in skirts are a men’s fashion week fixture. Here’s Suzy Menkes’ 1200 words. [IHT]
  • A three-star Michelin chef reviews the food at Lanvin: “The muffin was good, it was moist. You can tell it’s been baked this morning and not something that has been reheated.” [WWD]
  • Hussein Chalayan and Tom Ford were apparently in discussions to start some kind of a line together — it’s not clear from this interview exactly what. But when the negotiations broke down, in 2001, Chalayan was devastated: “We met up a few times in posh restaurants. They started a business plan, but then dropped me a like a hot potato and started talking to McQueen and Stella [McCartney]. I was devastated. Tom doesn’t even know that. It really killed me. He told me I was too avant-garde.” Chalayan says it’s not easy being ahead of the curve. “I explored so many ideas and people weren’t ready for them. Then, later, some else does it and people are ready and they buy into it. You feel like a lemon.” Hussein Chalayan sounds like he needs a hug. We would hug you, Hussein Chalayan! We love you and your bubble dress and your table skirt. [Vogue UK]
  • Hmmm. Tom Ford on reproduction: “If I have children, no one will know about it until the child is born. And no one will ever see the child because I certainly wouldn’t use it as a press tool. If I have a child, you’ll see and notice that I had a child. Maybe you’ll see it when it’s 18, but I will keep it out of the spotlight. I wouldn’t use it as a press tool, as some people I know, have, recently.” [Time Out Hong Kong, via The Cut]
  • Friends threw Stefano Tonchi and his husband David Maupin a (very well-timed, as it turns out, with New York’s marriage equality vote on Friday night) baby shower this weekend. The couple is expecting twins via a surrogate in August. Tory Burch, Ingrid Sischy, Sandy Brant, and Alexander Vreeland were among the guests. Congratulations to all. [P6]
  • Looks like Carine Roitfeld — whom no designer invited to a spring fashion show, allegedly on the instructions of Roitfeld’s Vogue Paris successor and former friend, Emmanuelle Alt — finagled a way to get into the couture: she’s the star of a W magazine story. Women’s Wear Daily reports on the concept, such as it is: “she’ll be impersonating a client — from the front row through to fittings — for a fashion feature in an upcoming issue of W magazine. Rumor has it Paolo Roversi will shoot the high-fashion hijinks.” [WWD]
  • Do you live in one of 91 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and South America? Well, as of today, Bloomingdales.com and Macys.com will take your online order. [WWD]
  • The leading beauty industry pressure group, the Personal Care Product Council, is “very concerned” about a newly introduced bill that would strengthen ingredient labeling laws, mandate safety testing, and require disclosure of certain manufacturing practices. Under the bill, the FDA would also have the power to outlaw the use of unsafe ingredients and demand recalls of dishonestly labelled or unsafe products. Obviously, those are all terrible impositions on the American public’s God-given freedom to buy cosmetics and perfumes that are secretly full of carcinogens. [WWD]
  • Louis Vuitton opened a new factory in France on Friday. It adds 70 production jobs to the brand’s French workforce, which includes around 3,500 leather workers. This article uncritically showcases Louis Vuitton’s preferred narrative, which is of a large but lean company, always at or near the limitations of its own production capacity, making only the most exclusive products: “Last year, Vuitton was running so low on inventory that it closed its French stores early in the day,” blah blah blah. But there is one nugget of news: Louis Vuitton is said to be “considering” launching a perfume. But the company “says it would sell a perfume only in its own stores, instead of in the department stores and perfumery chains.” [WSJ]
  • Furla, which traditionally makes handbags which we think of as “really bloody expensive,” ($500) will start making handbags in the more lucrative “completely ridiculously unaffordable” category ($1200-$1900). The new bags will sell exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue. [WWD]

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