- Valentino ex-chairman Matteo Marzotti has bought the house of Vionnet. Madeleine Vionnet invented the bias cut in 1922, making John Galliano’s life immeasurably easier. Let’s hope this revival is more Balenciaga and less Halston. [WWD]
- Wow, guys! A Hollywood entertainer likes Obama. No way was Justin Timberlake voting for that other guy. [WWD]
- New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn, who has her history with Armani, invited the designer to be a fashion week guest writer on her blog. (“He will go down in history as the man who taught Hollywood how to dress” seems like a weak introduction in light of their troubled relationship, but however these two want to air-kiss and make up is their business, I suppose.) So far, Armani is here to tell us that we Americans overcook our pasta, tolerate poor service in restaurants too frequently, and, when he went to a nightclub, “I noticed that the crowd was dressed in a rather basic way.” [The Moment]
- Mais non! Carine Roitfeld says the rumor she’s starting a teen French Vogue is false. [The Cut]
- L’Oreal’s profits for 2008 fell 26.6% on the previous year’s, or some $2.87 billion. [WWD]
- Perhaps not coincidentally, the company — formerly one of the biggest Academy Award advertisers — isn’t running a single spot during this year’s ceremony. [NY Post]
- Laura Ashley company founder Bernard Ashley died at age 82. He had a seat on the company board until 1998, but the Ashely family cut its ties with the business in 2001. [USA Today]
- The company announced yesterday that its profits for this year would fall by more than 50%, and shares fell 14%. [Financial Times]
- Lindsay Lohan has also heard about this thing called The Economy and she thinks it wants her to produce cut-rate leggings. Something which she, purveyor of doubleplusgood quality legwear, refuses to do! “I’m not going to compromise my line and what I do for girls to wear on their legs for what the price is and what’s going on in the economy,” she said at a fashion week party. Soldier on, you pretty, pretty girl. [The Cut]
- Oh, isn’t that considerate. Spanx would like everyone to know everything about its super-special relationship with Kate Winslet. Including the kind of underwear she had on for the Golden Globes. [WWD]
- Heidi Klum stars as fashion superhero the Kluminator in a web series called Spiked Heel where she has to save global designer fashion from a gay man with a ray gun and an inexplicable hatred of fabulousness. Coco Rocha is also in it. I don’t know what this is, but it’s hilarious. [Modelinia]
- Tim Gunn would like a word with Meryl Streep. “The message she’s sending is, I’m too smart for this and it doesn’t matter to me what I’m wearing. I want to say to her that it should matter to you,” says Gunn. Given Streep’s curious red carpet habit of looking like your bachelorette aunt who lives in Berkeley and believes in the power of crystals, I’m with Tim on this one. [E! Online]
- Designer Maria Cornejo has some righteous barnstorming feminist caterwauling ire over sky-high heels. “It’s boys dressing women. I’m sorry — they don’t have to wear the fucking shoes. It’s quite abusive. Because, you know what? We have to run around and walk, and nobody has a chauffeur waiting for them outside. And it really pisses me off and makes me really angry because it’s that boys thing about making women into victims. You know, it’s not nice.” I completely agree, but for the fact that a lot of women designers — Cornejo excepted — also style their runway looks with giant heels. Cough Prada cough. [The Cut]
- The Gap is going to open some stores, operated by franchisees, in Israel. [WWD]
- Things aren’t looking good for Marc Ecko. The company closed its showroom and warehouse on 20th St. and 6th Ave. earlier this month, and has just broken its lease on the three-storey commercial space that was to become its Times Square flagship. Ecko had been paying rent on the Times Square location for 4.5 years but never opened a store. [Racked]
- There can only be one Afghanistan’s next top model! The central Asian country is going to do its own version of a competitive modeling TV show. Contestants include men and women, and the judges are a fitness expert, a film director, and a fashion designer. [Yahoo News]
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