December 5, 2009
A couple months ago, I posted news on Christian LaCroix (click here to read old post) and the troubles behind this label. LaCroix has been one of the many Fashion houses that have felt the recession real hard this year. Apparently the fashion house is in even bigger trouble, and culturally France will be losing one of its emblems of French fashion and culture. In my last post, I mentioned that the minister of culture of France had planned to save Christian LaCroix, but this plan seemed to be far from being realized. Apparently, Christian LaCroix will be going through licensing and will be limited to only producing scarfs, few other accessorizes, and special wedding dresses/gowns, and probably will be sold through other fashion retail departments, not yet sure which ones, but I’m guessing in Paris, it may be at Gallery Lafayette (which is sort of like a Nordstrom in the US). It’s unfortunate for Christian LaCroix, but perhaps the Fashion line did not catch up to the changing trends amongst consumers and did not try to be more appealing to younger consumers. The designer is known to make elaborate pieces that are not always easy to wear, perhaps the era of producing successful shows of just Haute Couture like in the 1980’s/90’s has passed; business/sales has become just as important as art in Fashion today. This might also explain why LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) decided to sell Christain LaCroix a while back, because it was not making enough money…. So at this point, it looks like we might just say Adieu to LaCroix.
Click here on NYMAG, to read more on this story in New York Magazine online (see how NYMag chose an interesting picture of the designer, quite a sad face….)
November 24, 2009
So today, I went to the Louis Vuitton USA site and saw their recent campaign, and I must say it is quite niceeee. It is right on time for the holidays, and it does put you in the mood for the season. However, it is not too Christmas-ish. It is a good balance of fantasy land, christmas season feel, and vibrant colors. The campaign has a section for each of the 6 tales they have created, which actually makes the website a lot more interesting and a lot more interactive than usual. Each section for each tale, is very inviting and touches on the childlike feelings we all carry and have around the Christmas season. If you are a LV fan, I suggest you check out the website by clicking here. It looks like this campaign might be very successful and LV is very confident that their end of the year sales will be growing because of the holiday season, you can check out an article by Reuters if you want to read more about the business side of things with LV this end of year. Otherwise Go to the LV website and check it out if you haven’t yet…
October 25, 2009
I have recently fallen in love with Rachel Roy’s designs, and I am so happy that they (specifically the Rachel Rachel Roy collection) are still available at Macy’s, because I have not had the chance to try them on and see how they would look on me. I usually have an issue fitting things around my hips, so we will see. But I have a feeling that they will look great. Roy is very beautiful and yet appears to be quite a strong person, and her designs seem to really reflect who she is. In other words, you can easily take a quick look at her and her designs, and see that the designs are like an extension of herself. Also, she wears her designs quite often, and always looks very ladylike. Ok enough with the “she’s beautiful” speech. Plus, Rachel Roy is also involved in charitable work especially with orphans in Africa, and who wouldn’t find that great?!
Many of her pieces would complete a woman’s wardrobe, and give them ‘versatile and special every day to evening’ looks. Her younger looks are also very interesting, which is why someone like me would really be attracted to them. She also has done recent work with graffiti on her designs including outerwear, shoes, and bags.
She recently had a sweepstake of $1000 worth of Rachel Roy designs plus a chance of being styled by her…. I did not win (boo hoooo) how sad but then again there were about 2000 entries. But I encourage anyone to check out her line, and if you have twitter follow her she has pretty interesting posts. Check out her line online at rachelroy.com for prices and shopping online.
Rachel Roy at Cinema Society Screening Event. (RRR Sweater and Blouse)
Rachel Roy and Estelle at one of her Fashion event (NY)
RRR Fall 24 hour dress $99
RRR fall Blazer Dress $129
RRR Fall $149
RRR Fall Vest $79
RRR Fall Chain/dress $89
RRR Fall $89
RRR Fall
RRR Limited Edition Graffiti
RRR Fall Jewelry
October 18, 2009
I recently stumbled upon two interesting articles, that both talked about women and size; the two words most women in the world today have problems dealing with when put together. Some of us have some horrible history with the word ’size’ while others perhaps have had a nicer time with it, but in today’s world women are becoming more and more conscious about the “SIZE” they are rather than their health. We have all heard expressions such as Size 10 is the new Size 14 or Size 6 is the new Size 10, and yes they are decreased because the focus has been about downsizing as much as possible. With fashion becoming even more a part of many women’s lives today, many women have been working hard to fit into the clothes they dream of wearing. On TV we are bombarded with Pills A to Z which are supposedly capable of slimming you down in a month or even two weeks. While this is going on in the world, it is interesting to see that many people have spoken out about the mind saturation with images of perfection (Photoshop images really!!) that has taken over the media. Glamour magazine for instance in their last issue, featured an article “These Bodies are Beautiful at Every Size” with plus size models, famous plus sized models I should say, to emphasize their efforts to show more average sized women in the media. They believe that women and people in general are tired of seeing abnormally skinny women represent what beauty means, and would like to see more average women strutting the covers and commercials airing around us by the media. With high fashion there is still a stigma as Glamour puts it, in making clothes that are sizes 14 for instance; even though women at that size would pay much more to have great quality clothes that fit them well, in fact it is an aesthetic decision made by the high fashion houses rather than a business decision, glamour states. Glamour also talks about the problem with sample sizes during shootings, meaning plus size models are usually not chosen to shoot because sample sized fashion clothing come in very small sizes that would just not fit an averaged sized woman; additionally a plus size model is really not plus size in our understanding, a model that is bigger than a size 4 might be pushed in the plus size model category especially when she is bigger than a size 6. I have to say Tyra banks is probably the only ex-Supermodel that embraced her body changes to do more lingerie for Victoria Secret, to doing America’s Next Top model and so on. You can check out a video detailing her choices on her online magazine here, then again she might just be intelligent and business savvy and almost an exception to the rule.
Below you can check out some of the models (Crystal Renn, Amy Lemons, Ashley Graham, Kate Dillon, Anansa Sims, Jennie Runk, and Lizzie Miller) that featured this article and chose to accept their natural size and natural body changes rather than fit into the demanded size-zero (these photos are not from the glamour article):
- Crystal Renn
- Kate Dillon
- Anansa Sims
On the other side, I just read an article featuring Designer/Creative Director for Chanel Karl Lagerfeld’s comments on the current objections women are having with very slim or skinny models. He is quoted to have stated that people prefer to look at skinny models (ie. size 0) and those that do not are “fat mummies’ and overweight women who do not want to be reminded of how overweight they are. This came out of his reactions to a German magazine editor who elevated the issue and encouraged recent auditions to feature “normal” sized women in the magazine rather than skinny models. According Lagerfeld, the debate of the skinny model has become a cliche. It is interesting to see his reaction being directed in this way, since he is also known to have lost a lot of weight and drastically changing his physical appearance, you would think he would be more sensitive to the debate. But to each is own. What we know is that it is becoming more and more of an issue, and when you have fashion personalities like British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman appealing to major fashion houses to stop the “size-zero” model culture, it is a sign that things are more likely to change quickly today and that perhaps the future of fashion will have more ‘normal’ sized women. Crossing my fingers 
- karl Lagerfeld
- Model wears a Karl creation/Image From Guardian.co.uk
October 18, 2009
(Picture by James Alexander Harding)
After my last post on Boston Fashion Week and my attendance to a fashion show “The Perfect Muse” by an upcoming Boston designer, Gregory Fritz LaPlanche (Click here to see post), I had the chance to meet with him thanks to one of my classmate who managed to get in touch with him. It was very exciting to see that he was willing to meet with us since he agreed to let me join them. So we went to a popular restaurant on Newbury street in Boston to have a late lunch and chat a little bit. I have to say that Gregory LaPlanche seemed very humble, and it was easy to notice this about him because he is so easy to talk to and he also exudes a very generous spirit. Although he did correct me at one point since I did mention in my initial post that he was really shy at his fashion show, and insisted that he is not really shy but rather he is more reserved and usually tends to avoid the “shi shi”, which is a french expression for the fuss and pretense that is sometimes found in the fashion world and in fashion shows. It was also easy to see that he is grounded and very much driven; he enjoys life and is very close to his family. He also spoke about his love for traveling since his early years in his native home of Haiti, to Miami, Paris, Spain, Italy, a couple of places in South America. He loves traveling so much that he finds it hard to settle in one place or one city for a very long time, in fact he feels that he has yet to find a city where he truly feels “at home”. Gregory’s inspiration comes from many places, but for the last particular show he held, he wanted to depict that a woman’s beauty can not be categorized in one way or one size, height, color, or face structure or hair color. But that a woman’s beauty can be see in different people who may not necessarily look like your typical high fashion model; this explains why he chose a wide and diverse range of models for his show.
Gregory also talked about his journey to becoming a designer/artist. After changing from a concentration in medical studies to an art/design/architectural concentration, and also after driving every week from Boston to New York in order to finish his art degree, you can tell that behind his humble/generous character, Gregory is a designer that knows what he wants and fights to get it. In fact, one of his wishes is to make Boston a renowned fashion and art city. Boston is known for its first class education and academic culture, but many artists in Boston do not get enough limelight and recognition for their work. It was admirable to see that his goals went beyond just producing art and designs for himself, but to help construct and elevate the art/design culture in Boston.
Not only does he design, he also paints, and his upcoming art exhibition will be held in February (the location is not confirmed yet), but this event as he mentioned is going to be free, and a continuation of his fight to bring more recognition to what artists and designers are doing in Boston even if it means not charging at all. So we wish him the best in his future endeavors, and do look out for the next post on his Art Exhibition in February 2010.
Tah Tah 
