advanced style

guys! there is amazing news from the fashion industry today....

iris apfel is designing a line of handbags!

this lady is beyond stylish and beyond cool..... if you need some convincing, here's a bit of evidence:

you can read about the bags here and here.

can shoes be next!?

be still my beating heart.....

some shoes

so, many of you may know that i am a freelance shoe designer.

you may remember this project, or maybe this one?

well, here's a design project that i did for someone not named wang!

about a year or so ago, i started working with the brand marais usa. it's run by two great girls, catherine & haley, and i really enjoyed working with them.... so much that we worked together for both the spring 12 line, as well as their fall 12 line.

well, a few weeks ago, the spring line hit their website, and i've spent that amount of time, trying to figure out which styles i want to order.....

you see, most of my career has been spent designing shoes that i either loved but couldn't afford, or were too cheap for me to consider wearing. working with marais usa was one of the first times that i got to design some shoes i both wanted, and could order a couple of pair of.....

so, here's what i'm getting:

i looooooove these mary janes. and i'm not a huge fan of shoes with strap, usually. but i've been waiting months for these to join the army in my closet....

and a pair of neutral wedge sandals....

here's what i wish i was adding to my order:

the same mary janes in a sweeter, springier, girlier version....

and the sandal in much more exciting colors. i love the red color (called "clay"), but have decided that since i finally get to answer the question "oh, did you design the shoes that you're wearing?" in the affirmative, that i'll wear the neutral color a bit more often..... and get to be a big show off much more often!

check out the rest of the marais usa shoes on their website. there are a couple styles that i didn't design, so if you're not into the ones above, maybe you'll find something else more your speed..... ;)

rip offs

to follow up from yesterday's post, i thought i would make clear the difference between a designer being inspired by another designer's work....

and a straight up knock off.

designers being inspired by one another (as we saw yesterday) is nowhere near illegal or even ethically questionable. fashion trends are real, and fashion trends are how designers and retailers make their money.

if see by chloe thinks they can sell and profit from creating a shoe that looks a heck of a lot like a pierre hardy one, there really is nothing wrong with that behavior....

other than the fact that it sort of throws into question the status of a luxury diffusion line's design chops.

but to blatantly steal the work of a designer is another thing all together.....

and it happens more often than you might think. below are two recent examples:

(photos courtesy of new york magazine. click here for the story.)

on the left is the christian louboutin's style "staratata" and on the right a style from jessica simpson's line, called "evangela"

(photo courtesy of nbcnewyork.com. click here for the story.)

and another great example- on the left, derek lam's style "ayami" and a shoe from ivanka trump's line, "cadie"

(both comparisons are style from spring 12. i believe you can find all four of these shoes at retail now. or could, at least, before the media attention.)

there are some subtle differences in the knock offs, to be sure..... but there can be no question that the shoes made under trump and simpson's names were meant to be confused with the original louboutin and lam styles.

both knock offs were sold for a quarter (or less) of the price that the designer version sold for.

you can make up your own mind about the price that a shoe is worth. i'm not going to tell you that you should be spending upwards of $700 on a sandal. there's certainly no need for that.

however, the frustrating thing is that neither jessica simpson or ivanka trump themselves were responsible for these shoes being made. i'm guessing that both of them are customers of luxury designers, personally, and will be mortified to find out that such theft has happened under their names.

both lines of shoes are "designed" and manufactured by large american shoe companies that have purchased the licenses to trump and simpson's names. these companies hire "line builders" to go out and shop the markets to find styles to copy.

the reason that these companies feel ok about doing this is that they actually wind up making more money on these styles than derek lam or christian louboutin ever will.

lam & louboutin probably manufactured approximately 1000 pairs of each of these styles.

the companies responsible for trump & simpson's knock offs probably manufactured approximately 20-30,000 pairs. even with the lower price, it's clear to see who makes a more significant profit.

(especially when you consider the fact that there was NO investment of money into the design and development of these styles. lam & louboutin pay designers and technicians to make these things. trump & lam's business partners go out and buy a pair, and send them off to a factory in china to duplicate. nice & easy!)

in the mind of these large companies, it is well worth the potential lawsuit and lawyers fees to participate in this kind of practice. the legal fees, in fact, are built into the cost of running their businesses.

in fact, the media attention that these "scandals" get is often such good advertising for the knock off styles, that the legal fees are probably offset by the uptick in sales!

sooooo.....

while i might tease a company like see by chloe for not having an original idea, i also might very well go out and buy one of their styles.

what i try really really hard not to do is buy from companies that i know blatantly steal from "real" designers.

i think a lot about these things, because i work in the industry, i am a designer and know designers who are out of work.

i do believe that part of the reason that these talented folks don't have jobs is because the american public doesn't know (or maybe doesn't care?) that mass marketed fashion is produced on the backs of designers who will never make as much money or be as profitable as the folks that are stealing from them.

when i first started typing up this post, i didn't intend for it to be political. but how can it not be?





i'm really inspired by the number of people who are starting to really ask questions about where their food and clothing come from, and what impact their consumer choices have on communities near and far....

so, i guess i am asking- which is more important to you? having a hot pair of shoes that cost $75 and the degradation of air quality in southern china....

 or a pair of $600 shoes that support designers, technicians and artisans in cities like new york?

there are compromises, i think....

coming up next in this series? i'll try to do a little feature on some reasonably prices shoes that are made with less questionable politics.

ok...... there's a good research project for me ;)

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there's a late-breaking addition to this subject!




read it here.

dream machine

last night, i watch this film, which is a fascinating look at industrial design....

karim rashid is in it, and he mentions some of the objects that first caught his interest in design as a kid.

i was instantly reminded of one of those objects, from my own childhood:

the original sony dream machine.

man, i loved that thing..... i wish i'd hung onto it. i'll have to hunt around my parent's place for it, next time i'm there....

i think it would look great next to my bed, now!

lafw? what's lafw?

i love thinking about fashion. i love dissecting the ways in which individuals make style choices, and i love love love to look at fashion trends, and how they differ from place to place.

i often wish there was a bit more intellectual discussion in fashion..... and sometimes i feel really lucky, when real discourse emerges.

it might be considered strange to move to la, in order to be exposed to more of this discourse. certainly, la is not the center of american fashion....

... but in fact, that's exactly why i find it an interesting place to talk about fashion. many of the people working in the industry here have experience elsewhere, and have a great sense of perspective on how things are doing here vs other cities, countries or continents.

fashion moves at a slightly slower paces here, and i find that really refreshing, not the least because it gives us time to talk and think about what we're really doing.

which brings me to to the subject of los angeles fashion week.

did you know that existed?

don't worry, if you didn't..... neither does anyone else! but it does. and it turns out that there is a lot of debate about whether it should.

(photo via wetpaint.com)

i actually think that lafw could become a completely exciting and relevant part of the fashion industry schedule. but it certainly doesn't live up to that standard now.

there's really no room for any "real housewives" on the runway of any self respecting fashion week.

and i think that therein lies the problem. i'm not sure that the a fashion week in la really commands respect.

this is not because there are no respectable brands in this town! brands large and small exist & thrive here - from bcbg, raquel allegra & rodarte to ld tuttle, clare vivier & trovata (which is a short & subjective list) but not one of these brands shows at lafw. why?

because they already have thriving businesses, and have found ways to connect to national & international buyers. the kinds of buyers that don't come to lafw.

why don't these buyers come to lafw? because there's not much new or innovative on the runways.

(photo courtesy of george kim/snapstarlive.com)

why would a buyer come to a multi-label runway show put on by another retailer? what is the point of this kind of show?

successful, relevant fashion weeks are essentially trade shows. the designers put on shows, in order to sell their collections to retail buyers. the public is not invited, and there's no reason the public should be invited.

there are some labels who show real collections, and i've pulled some images of a few of the brands-

skingraft:

(photos courtesy of wwd)

laili lau:

(photos courtesy of wwd)

nami:

(photos courtesy of wwd)

i'm not a fashion critic, and i don't want to go through the exercise of what i think is good and bad.

however, on the whole the collections that are shown at lafw look like second string to nyfw. regardless of personal taste, there are technical aspects of cutting, draping and fitting that are not negotiable in apparel.

which makes the question "how relevant is lafw?" a very viable one. what exactly is the point of hosting a fashion week, if you're not able to show designers who can compete with the other cities that currently have rosters of very exciting and significant brands?

over all, la designers really need to focus on sending out looks that are on par with the shows in new york, paris & milan. the cuts & fits (and styling!) have to be absolutely rock solid, before a look goes down the runway. some of the shows, here are closer to getting there than others.

to my mind, there is no reason that lafw needs to feel like the jv team to nyfw's varsity. there are some incredibly talented designers here in this city.... however, these talented designers won't show their work next to second rate collections, which won't be full respected by the industry...

in the end, the relevance of lafw depends solely on the commitment of the designers not to show anything other than world class collection. it's incredibly hard to edit one's own work, and be highly demanding of yourself and your team. but no one ever said that being successful in fashion is easy.

cities like barcelona, copenhagen and berlin have thriving fashion weeks that do not rely on brands with huge names like new york, paris & milan. however, the work shown at these smaller fashion weeks is not second string.

the designers who represent these smaller markets have a real opportunity to show work that is innovative, exciting and really fresh, because there is usually not as much pressure to be commercial. 

la absolutely deserves to be among these smaller cities in its reputation in the fashion industry.

i am pretty sure that when the majority of designers shown at lafw have really put their heads down, and worked their asses off to show collections that are on par with the rest of the world.... la fashion week will immediately gain relevance on the fashion month calendar.

until then, personally, i don't see much need for it.

 (image courtesy of google image search)

you can read some other thoughts on this subject, if my long-winded exposition hasn't been enough for you:

robin givhan sort of agrees with me, but is maybe a bit more harsh, here.

kpcc (my favorite la radio station) covers the same piece, here. (i especially like the audio bit.)

and the blog los angeles i'm yours gives a bit of an outsider perspective, here.

wu wu wu! it's collab time....

it's true that i'm often disappointed by the design collaborations between mass-market retailers and luxury designers....

there are only a few things from these that have ever made it into my wardrobe, with any staying power... a silk evening trench coat from lanvin x h&m, two pair of sandals from swedish hasbeens x h&m, and a bikini from thakoon x target.

usually the quality of the clothing is just too bad to wear. yes, the styling is usually very good, but who wants to pay $80-150 for a piece of clothing that looks like it's worth about $35? even if the colors are right on, and the silhouette looks decent on a hanger?

however, there are a couple collaborations coming up that i'm feeling semi-confident about....

jason wu for target looks pretty damned adorable, and since these dresses don't look TOO challenging for target to manufacture, i'm hoping that a couple of them will be winners:

(my favorite looks from the collection. you can see them all here.)

ok, at a second glance, that one on the top left looks like it could be a bit of a challenge to target's factories, but the other three look definitely do-able...

the other collaboration that on my anticipatory radar is marni for h&m....

so far, the photos make it hard to tell what to expect, but consuelo castiglioni is such an exciting and fun designer that i've really got my hopes up....

are these pants part of the collection!? i hope so.... i really don't see how h&m could screw those up!

do you think they'll try to do shoes? sigh.... that might wind up to break my heart, to see marni shoes done in polyurethane....

so, the wu is out in just a couple of weeks, and the marni collection in march....

my fingers are crossed that one or both are worth waiting for!

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later breaking update:

they ARE doing shoes! and they're LEATHER.

giant smiley emoticon here.

brilliant

italian vogue nails it:

how awesome, ironic, hilarious and nostalgic is that?

house proud

i can't believe that i've never thought to write a little blog about my good friend, olga.

(photo courtesy of aparat)

olga is an event designer and interior stylist extraordinaire, and i've always been so impressed by her professional work, as well as her own living spaces (one of which you can see, here.)

i wish i had some photos of her current apartment, which i love, and has been the site of many a fun party....

she has designed for a number of publications, including the very much missed domino magazine, and does amazing events....

olga works regularly with cb2, and has just been featured on their website, with some cute ideas for celebrating....

check out her website to see more photos of some of her incredible work.

i can't wait to see what she gets up to next!

(photo by raymond adams, courtesy of aparat)

baubles bangles and.... eh.

do you guys like the jewelry line dannijo?

they've gotten a ton of attention recently, not least of which is because of their friendship and association with the man repeller (whose blog i love).

but i'm just not sure about them.

to me, it kind of looks like a couple of kids got access to some great hardware and stones, and started putting them together like puzzle pieces. the sum being worth less than the parts:

they're not bad looking, but they just look a bit slapped-together, rather than really considerately designed.

do you agree? or am i way off the mark here?

when i went to check out their site, i did find a couple of things that i liked. most notably, these clean, basic, minimal rings:

perhaps this just reflects my interest in more streamlined lines these days, and more architectural accessories?

but i don't know..... i just think maybe these two were happy accidents.

thoughts?

eucalyptus, walnut, oak, jasmin

yesterday, i told you about my fated visit to iko iko, in los angeles.

in addition to meeting kristin, i also had the pleasure of chatting with jasmin shokrian, another designer who happened to be in the store on that same day.

both of these ladies were so helpful to me, and really gave me a great overview on what is going on the world of fashion in l.a. 

jasmin had just returned to her southern california roots, after a number of years in chicago. she was setting up home and shop in her new town, just as i met her.

her spring 12 collection leads me to think that the move has been good....

 

i love the cool-girl look of her clothing. it's all totally wearable, but just interesting and cool enough to make each piece feel special....

i hope i get the chance to run into jasmin again!