TRUE RELIGION – THE JEANS CO. THAT BECAME AN EMPIRE

TEXT, VIVIAN G. KELLY
Runway Images, Dan & Corinna Lecca


Time & Place: Mid-July at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim week,
In the tents at the Raleigh

While we were there for the purpose of covering swim, CEO and Head Designer, JEFFREY LUBBELL gave us pause. It’s rare that a company has the fortune to be headed up by an individual who is: glamorous, a good designer, has a strong a vision, and can talk knowledgeably about the numbers.
Admittedly, we had to mentally kick ourselves to avoid falling into the temptation of pegging T.R. “just another LA jeans company”. That was BEFORE we spoke with Mr. Lubell backstage ½ an hour before the True Religion Swim show went off.

BACKSTAGE WITH CEO AND FOUNDER JEFFREY LUBELL –
FE: What’s True Religion all about?

JEFFREY LUBELL: My inspiration is the seventies, the [Grateful] Dead. I’m living in that time.

FE: What are some of your products’ biggest selling points?

J. LUBELL: Our aesthetic is reflected in the fit, the comfort, the fabric, and the styling.


FE: You’re really a big business. How many stores do you have?

JL: WE have around 200 stores. We’re a publicly traded company. Wall Street has guidance for us to have 67 stores by year-end.

A STRONG RETAIL BET/ON THE FLOOR
We did some investigating and turns out T.R. has held up pretty well in what amounts to a financial tsunami in the retail sector these last 24 month.[see chart].
The sales associate manning the groovy SUBURBAN COUTURE boutique in Ridgefield, CT stated that she and her “very curvy” Mother both have found “a perfect fit” and only wear T.R. jeans. [No, the store carries quite a few lines other than T. R. so we didn’t view this as a sales ploy – at all.]
At Saks Fifth Avenue in Stamford, CT, there were some T.R. lace front jeans on the sales rack, but we dare you to mention any brand that HASN’T been on sale [other than Chanel or Louis Vuitton – maybe].
Our last stop – Macy’s, at the Danbury Fair Mall [CT]. We hit the fragrance counter, sampled T.R. men’s and women’s and purchased the men’s roll on deodorant. Cost, $15 for 2.75 oz. The woody fragrance brought back memories of s our friends’ cooler than cool older college brothers on their way out to a round of parties, as we looked on wishing we were @ 5 years older.

To read more about this brand, visit the official website, www.truereligionbrandjeans.com

HELEN FICALORA AND HER FINE JEWELRY – a designer whose creations inspire beauty, love and peace

TEXT, VIVIAN G. KELLY

“I AM NOT A TREND DESIGNER” is one of the first things fine jewelry designer HELEN FICALORA tells us on a phone call following our visit to her Soho boutique.

BACKGROUND – GETTING THERE
Helen’s story is an example of some women’s ability to successfully multitask and successfully create, run and grow a business.
Helen’s a Montauk native, whose routine includes helping run her family's Montauk beach resort while shuttling back and forth between her home in Olympia, Washington, and Montauk. Somehow, in the past 10 years she's developed a highly successful fine jewelry line, which began as a mail order business out of her Olympia home.
The process began when she took some jewelry making courses in high school, and started making her own sterling pieces for herself. Eventually friends started asking her to make them some and a business was born. She kept slowly growing the business all the while running the business aspect of the line and homeschooling her two children.

THE ALPHABET JEWELRY
When she first started making the alphabet jewelry [@ 2002-3], she had them in a pink plastic cup in her desk at the Montauk Inn. They weren’t on display in the case in the shop; the charms were an insider thing. People would get off planes and say, “I saw my friend wearing one. I want one of those, can you make me one – now?” She’d oblige and whip one up. Then, the editorial started hitting and the charms became a "must-have" item that made the company a regular in fashion editorials and on TV and film sets.

THE PRODUCT MIX
Her signature is yellow gold with a muted/matte finish. She’s been offering the shorter more practical 16” chains long before they became the fashionable length.
There’s much more to the Helen Ficalora line than charms. One of the 1st designs was the gold angel, and some other sophisticated and eclectic designs including ring bands. Says Helen, “I made the ring as the wedding ring I couldn’t find. The alphabet disks came later. In 2003 the editorial started hitting and the disks were propelled because of the collections that came before. They filled a need for personalization at the same time as the monogram trend. That’s funny because I’m not a trend designer.”

TIMING CAN BE TIMELESS

In Helen’s case, timing was important but her intent was to design the perfect pedant that you can wear all the time – “something that becomes a personalized signature piece and becomes a part of you”.

OUR CONVERSATION WITH HELEN FILLED IN SOME BLANKS WE HAD REGARDING THE COLLECTION.

FE: WHICH OF YOUR PIECES DO YOU WEAR?

HELEN: The small hoop earrings with diamond disks on my ears.
On my neck, a pile! There’s the family necklace – charm paves, heart with roses on 16” chain, a diamond necklace, and a Montauk daisy on chain.
On one arm, I’ve got 10 bracelets [actually 13 – but they’re really thin].
On the other arm I wear yellow and rose gold bangles.
On my hands: A pansy ring with diamonds and a ring with my husband’s and kids’ birthstones on it, a lion with diamond, in his mouth, and a signet.


FE: P/S TELL US SOME MORE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS MODEL.
HELEN: My whole business has been built by the kindness of others. People who went to see me when I was in Washington, people wore it into the City and helped promote HELEN FICALORA by wearing it. Others pay attention to stylish people.

H.F. is about good energy; it’s grown organically, people like to gift it.
Once someone got it as a gift, they wanted to share the experience, whether they’re in their twenties, thirties, forties or fifties. I’ll have women saying to me,
“I’m turning 50, I love this piece for myself, and I want all my girlfriends to have one too.”

FE: WHAT”S THE FUN PART OF YOUR BUSINESS?
HELEN: creating your own individual jewelry pieces. No one has my necklace, it’s unique to me and is about me as yours is about you.


FE: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY YOUR MISSION STATEMENT IS?

HELEN: to create signature designs to inspire beauty, love and peace.

FE: WHAT’S ONE OF THE STRONGEST POINTS OF YOUR JEWELRY?

HELEN: My jewelry is wearable. My 16” necklaces make the jewelry more wearable, something you want to sleep in, do yoga in, jog in.

FE: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR PRICEPOINTS?

HELEN: Alphabet charms:
$115, plain alphabet charm – solid gold.
$450 for the pave
$185 for 1-diamond
$195 - $295 – for the gold hoops with diamond disk


FE: After visiting the NY store, it’s obvious you do much more than alphabet disks.

HELEN: I love the hammered gold large ring - “the big gold ring”. It’s tapered for mobility, and one of my all-time favorite pieces. I wear it every day.

FE: WHAT DO YOU HAVE THAT’S ON THE HIGH END?

HELEN: The pink sapphire beads with the gold lion head and diamond in the mouth.
These tend to be around $1800, this is the kind of collection you build.
There are some rings around $7,000, but they’re not in all the stores.


FE: YOU’VE GOT QUITE A FEW STORES NOW. HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON THE LOCATIONS YOU HAVE?
HELEN: Opening the stores has been about bringing the jewelry to the people. I realized that when a woman drove all the way from Nassau to Montauk just to look at some rings. That’s when I opened the New York store, but that was years after I started with a few orders I filled in Olympia from my kitchen table.

FE: YOUR NY STORE MANAGER, ANDREA, MENTIONED THAT YOU HAVE A PALM BEACH STORE NOW.

HELEN: I love Palm Beach; I discovered it 2 years ago. My customers down there like the paves, and the horsey people from Wellington come to shop, and so do people from Orlando even!



FE: TV & MOVIES HAVE BEEN GOOD TO YOU. YOU HAVE AN IMPRESSIVE # OF CREDITS. WHAT ARE SOME OUR READERS MIGHT HAVE SPOTTED?

HELEN: You’ve seen the jewelry “When In Rome” Kristen Bell, on Kathryn Heigel and Malin Ackerman in “27 Dresses”, on Sandra Bullock on “The Proposal”.
Tina wears it on “30 Rock,” and so does Mariska Hargitay on “SVU”.
Blake Lively’s been a fan forever and wears it on “Gossip Girl” as well as personally.
It’s also on characters in “The Royal Pains”.

FE: DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR YOUNG DESIGNERS?
HELEN:I financed this from my own personal cash flow. Think on your feet, and be resourceful. It’s also about how you measure your success. I never looked at the bank account part of things. I LOVE jewelry, it makes me happy, it’s like a meditative kind of thing for me.


FE: TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEXT PROJECT.

HELEN: I’m working on an engagement ring to complement the rest of the collection.
I’ve done stuff with rose cuts [diamonds], I love them, as well as the eighties’ side cut stone that ‘s cool, it’s old fashioned and has that old European style with facets all around. A diamond is like wearing a rainbow maker.



THE HELEN FICALORA BOUTIQUES

The boutiques have an appealing intimate jewelry box-like feeling. As always, the story’s in the details: the signature magenta color, mahogany floors, Madrona wood, glass-topped display cabinets, gold gilt mirrors, and chandeliers with soft pink shades.

STORE LOCATIONS

NEW YORK:
Helen Ficalora
21 Cleveland Place
Soho
New York
NY 10012
Tel: 212-219-3700


BEVERLY HILLS:
Helen Ficalora
9632 Little Santa Monica Blvd
Beverly Hills
CA 90210
Tel: 310-777-0098

PALM BEACH:
Helen Ficalora
240 Worth Avenue
5A
Palm Beach
FL 33480
Tel: 561-833-2100

CHICAGO:
Helen Ficalora
2014 N Halsted
Chicago
IL 60614
Tel: 773-883-2014

For Mail order:
Tel: 877-754-2676
Address: p.o. box 6316

For additional information, visit the official website,
www.helenficalora.com

PHOTO CREDITS
Portrait of Helen Ficalora by Julie Skarratt,
Julie Skarratt Photography, Inc.
www.julieskarratt.com
Images of the collection, courtesy of Helen Ficalora.

JILLICIOUS Cosmetics’ NEW LOOK

Text, Vivian G. Kelly
Portrait of Jillian, Richard Spiegel

JILLIAN ALTIT, the brains behind this little line is a makeup artist with 15 years experience. She’s a former Bobbi Brown protégé and like her famous former boss, she’s got plenty of celebrity clients: Gabriella Union, and Jennifer Garner to name just a few.
In an article that was syndicated in the
Knight Ridder Newspaper chain, writer Madeleine Marr wrote,
“If you want ... Jennifer Garner's lips: Jillicious has its own version of the increasingly popular lip plumpers that increase blood flow. Bada Bing Tinglers ($12.50), nonsticky flavored and scented balms that do the thickening with menthol. The downside to most of them is that they tingle AND burn. One even gave us a rash on the inside of our lips.
Happily, Bada Bing Tinglers let you have the Garner/Jolie lips MINUS the pain.

We met Jillian at the Press Lounge at the Ritz Carlton, just down the block from the Raleigh, during Mercedes-Benz Miami Swim Week. We walked into the plush lounge around 2p.m, to escape the 100+ degree heat. We were more than happy to plop down in a chair and let Jillian do her magic and to hear about her line.
Jillian gave us a few tips as she expertly applied it on us.
1. “You won’t need breath mints with this. Bada Bing leaves you with a cool feeling AND freshens your breath.”
2. “Start with a neutral colored lip liner, as close to the contour you were born with. Put the balm to the center of top and bottom lip, not all over.”

JILLICIOUS is a micro line, which like the wildly successful BENEFIT line, only got the key elements in it. In other words, just the items you’d carry in your purse. We road tested the BADA BING TINGLERS– for fresh breath and that patent leather-like wet look you usually only see in beauty photo editorials in foreign Vogues.

REVAMP in the works
Jillicious is going green AND Jillian’s she lowering the price point as a response to the economy. Seems everyone’s doing the same in this rocky economy. Unless your brand is called Hermes or Vuitton, you’d be smart to do the same.

ROAD TEST –
Jillian used Marshmallow highlighter and khaki shadow and liner and Lemon twist lip-gloss.
HOW IT PERFORMED: 10pm check – the eyes stayed put – eye shadow and eyeliner both. The lip-gloss needed reapplications, but not as often as our usual Chanel and Aveda glosses.
A FEW LAST WORDS: While we liked the shiny shadow [new for us] it didn’t come off easily with the usual makeup remover pads we used.
*We called Jillian the next day to report how we liked the line. She suggested using an OIL-based remover – baby oil or Vaseline would work too.

THE VERDICT: With the glitter, shine, Green initiative, and reasonable price points, we see this line playing very nicely to a young crowd – from Tweens up through College Students. It’s not a bad sector to play to being that this age group always seems to have some extra spending $ in their Coach pocketbooks.

WHERE TO GET IT
The website is currently under construction to reflect Jillian’w new eco initiative. In the meantime, for more information and to purchase some pieces, contact
info@jillicious.com
The website address is: www.jillicious.com

QUIKSILVER Women – Reinvention Gone Right

Text, Vivian G. Kelly
Images of Quiksilver girls, courtesy of LaForce & Stevens Public Relations
Images of Times Square store, VGK

Brands are all about “living the life”, whether it’s of a New England prepster [Abercrombie & Fitch], Cali Boys & Girls [Hollister] or the surf and skate lifestyle [QUIKSILVER].

Each has associated to it its own unique culture that resonates with its followers.
WATCH the video and if this is you, then QUIKSILVER is where you should be headed to pick-up your fall ’09 wardrobe.
Quiksilver has a mega store in NYC’s Times Square. While it’s certainly “an experience”, with surfboards and videos galore, remember, we’re selling clothes here. We took a hard look at the clothes, and the price points. In a nutshell, the offerings include skinny jeans with strategic tears in quite a few colors, plenty of silkscreen tees and hooded cardis and sweatshirts. While you won’t be finding cashmere here, you will find a moderate price point. The cream acrylic zip hoodie is in the high fifties as opposed to one at Ralph Lauren in cashmere, which would have you adding a zero, at the very least.

A NEW ATTITUDE!
We love a reinvention, especially one that works. Quiksilver is a smart retailer – they’re interested in really getting to know their customer. In fact, they went as far as shopping the closets of some of the girls to see how they’re putting their looks together. As you can see the girls have put their unique spin on the clothes, just like a good fashion stylist would. We’re giving a thumbs up to the new, more interesting looks this retailer has in store for us this fall.

MORE INFO & WHERE TO GET IT

For more information on “Getting Dressed with Quiksilver check out QSW blog [there are some videos on it] at:
http://womens.quiksilver.com/qsw-blog/

To purchase Quiksilver Women’s view their e-commerce site at:
www.womens.quiksilver.com

ED HARDY’S EDIBLE BIKINI AND THE 2010 SWIM COLLECTION AT THE RALEIGH

Text, Vivian G. Kelly
Image at Sushi Samba and Makeup For Ever Backstage, Richard Spiegel
The big question is, “Is the bloom off the Hardy tattoo rose?
We started the day with Ed Hardy, with an 8:30a.m. wake-up call asking us to remember to be at SUSHI SAMBA on Lincoln Drive at 10:30am to attend the press preview of the unveiling of the Ed Hardy edible bikini. A young Farrah Fawcett look-alike sported the Carmen Miranda fruit salad concoction shaped into a string bikini. Although CHRISTIAN AUDIGIER is the Creative Director for the umbrella Ed Hardy brand, Swim Creative
Director, Fawn Arthur of Sea & Sun Swimwear, and Corporate Pastry Chef, Sergio Navarro of SUSHISAMBA restaurants, were responsible for “Miami’s first edible bikini”. In the salad were beets, blueberries and banana leaves.

It was a replica of the 2010 “Trellis” suit, inspired by the urban streets and influenced by Japan, Brazil and Peru.
The early morning unveiling was a tease for that evening’s (7 p.m. – Ed Hardy’s Swimwear Fashion Show at the Raleigh Hotel /Cabaña Grande).

ABOUT SUSHISAMBA
Location:
600 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, Florida.
The Menu: inventive fare that unites precise Japanese technique, bold Brazilian flavors and traditional Peruvian culinary traditions on one plate.
For more information, visit www.sushisamba.com

THE ED HARDY SWIMWEAR FASHION SHOW
TIME& PLACE: @ 7:00p.m., at the Raleigh Hotel /Cabaña Grande

Hours later, we sat in the tents waiting in the club like atmosphere with celebrity DJ IRIE spinning away. The models walking the show added to the party atmosphere by encouraging the crowd to get rowdy, which they were more than happy to do, from start to finish.
RUSK and MAKEUP FOREVER did a great job styling the hair – eighties inspired Mohawks with plenty of backcombing and heavily lined eyes and some metallic shadows that matched the suits.
As expected, styles were scant and there were lots of prints and plenty of logos thrown around on what little fabric there was. By contrast, the men wore oversized board shorts that don’t require a model’s physique. It wouldn’t be Ed Hardy without sculls and overblown roses and a generous sprinkling of bling. The award for most distinctive suit goes to the metallic black bikini with red hearts and the Hardy-ism“love kills” splashed across it. For some added bling, there were ample amounts of accessories - huge patent leather cuffs, thick gold chains and shoulder length feather earrings. The most elegant suit was the black and gold cut out one piece with a giant gold lame crown splashed on the front.
A SUGGESTION FOR NEXT TIME – The scarves were a good start, but we’d like to see a few cover-ups to go with the suits and a little more editing of the line.
ABOUT ED HARDY SWIMWEAR
Created by French designer Christian Audigier, Ed Hardy is distributed by Sea and Sun, the premier manufacturer of women's designer swimwear. The name Ed Hardy is a well-known brand amongst celebrities from around the world including Madonna, Shakira, Janet Jackson, David Beckham, Eva Longoria, Kim Kardashian, Jessica Alba, Christina Milian and Hillary Swank. The collection includes swimwear (retail $86-$250), beach towels, surfboards and boogie boards.
For more information please visit www.edhardyswimwear.com

THE GOTTEX SHOW – GIDEON OBERSON’S LAST COLLECTION

Text, Vivian G. Kelly

Catalogue images, courtesy of Atelier Public Relations

TIME & PLACE
Friday, July 18, 2009, @7p.m. at the Raleigh Pool
Saturday, July 18, 2009, @ 2pm at the Miami Convention Center

CHANGING OF THE GUARD
The SEA CORPORATION [Swim Experts Alliance] is the umbrella Company for many brands including GOTTEX.
We met the new designer, MOLLY GRAD, whose appointment to Design Director at Gottex made news at WWD on June 18th. She has a little breathing room, as GIDEON OBERSON had to produce one more collection before exiting “to pursue other interests”. Gideon is the Karl Lagerfeld of Swimwear and we will miss his gorgeous suits and dramatic cover-ups.


We met MOLLY over drinks the night before the Gottex show at a table by the Raleigh pool in between shows. Also at the table were DONALD J. PLINER, LISA PLINER and LOU IACOVELLI, Co-owner of the NYC based boutique PR firm, ATELIER PR. The Pliners' empire is another longtime Atelier client
Molly’s designs will debut on the New York runways.
STAY TUNED for our pre-show interview coverage with Molly in August.
Gideon willbe a hard act to follow, but we’re looking forward to the new direction Molly will be taking the brand in.


THE NEXT DAY – THE SHOW HIGHLIGHTS @ THE CONVENTION CENTER
Although our focus was directed to the GOTTEX brand, there were some nice prints in the PROFILE by GOTTEX brand. The black grouping was strong if you’re looking for a well constructed one piece. The blurred brown giraffe prints are a good addition to your swim closet if you don’t have any skin prints in your closet.
THE COVER UPS are hard to beat – any suit you choose has a cover-up that looks perfect with it and is part of the reason that a Gottex suit is more of an OUTFIT than just another swimsuit.
THE COST $ : In the low $200’s which is on par with may other top of the line swim companies.

Gideon showed some hot wave prints and a twist front bandeau bikini that was spot-on in mimicking the RTW trend for neon brights Marc Jacobs set ½ a year ago at his acclaimed fall 2009 show.
Solid suits tend to show better but when it comes to prints, Gideon doesn’t miss a step. If you’re more oriented to graphics, have a look at the digital multi-colored graphics print.
BEST IN SHOW: the Reflections 1001 grouping in multi. The open caftan and embroidered one shoulder maillot were great as was the high neck cut out suit in the Paradise 1004 grouping and the Golden City 1022 grouping that had a strong Greek Antiquities feeling to it right in synch with the ongoing trend for Roman Gladiator sandals.
REAL WOMEN/REAL SUITS
While we love the skimpy tangas and bikinis we usually see, there’s the comfort factor to consider. At Gottex, there’s always full seat coverage that manages not to look dowdy. Even the more daring suits with illusion work have coverage in all the right places.

MARA HOFFMAN – the dark horse of fashion whose moment is coming

DATE: Early August, pre-NY Fashion Week

Text, Vivian G Kelly
Images, courtesy of Dan & Corinna Lecca

We’re on our 2nd of probably 6 issues of The Fashion Calendar devoted to the upcoming NY Fashion Week – the spring 2010 collections.
All told, we’ll probably attend between 50 – 80 shows and presentations in the course of the 10-day event.
One of the designers we’re most looking forward to seeing is MARA HOFFMAN. She’s not “a big name” as in she’s not insanely wealthy like a Ralph Lauren or impossibly cool like Marc Jacobs with powerhouse KCD Public Relations running the show and doing their all to preserve the air of exclusivity that surrounds all of Marc’s shows.
SO, what IS it about Mara Hoffman? The answer is simple – she’s a good designer. This fact dawned on us as we sat in her RTW presentation a year ago. We liked the spring 2009 collection but didn't catch the fall 2009 show, losing patience with the musical chairs game that seemed to be going on in the tent. In other words, there were around 8 chairs for something like 20+ editors circling about like vultures. Being that there were 2 other presentations taking place in that time slot, we walked out and hopped the subway over to something else out in the Forbidden Zone.
This season, though, our attitude towards this show isn’t as cavalier. What changed our minds was the slam bang SWIM SHOW Mara showed during Mercedes-Benz Miami Swim week. It was hands down the best show of the week – easily. We were already aboard the fan wagon but a visit to the DASH boutique on 8th and Washington sealed the deal. The Kardashian sisters’ offerings were varied, trending to the young and sexy, in keeping with their Miami and LA clientele. Most memorable were the outfits that jumped out at us during our 20 minute visit. Our associate, RICHARD SPIEGEL, from www.thefashiontribune.com agreed with us that the Mara pieces were not only the best in store, they were also reasonably priced.


MORE ABOUT MARA
Mara Hoffman is a New York fashion designer who launched her line, Mara Hoffman, in 2000. She’s a grad of the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and Parsons School of Design in New York City. Ms. Hoffman early collections featured hand-dyed couture pieces. Her current collections concentrate heavily on original silk prints inspired from nature, world travel and fantasy.
THE CELEBRITY FACTOR
Celebrity fans include Kate Hudson, Nelly Furtado, Nicole Richie, Mischa Barton, and Drew Barrymore.



WHERE TO BUY

At top retailers worldwide, including L'Eclaireur in Paris, Henri Bendel in New York City, DASH, Miami, and Holt Renfrew in Canada

For more information, visit www.marahoffman.com

DuMi Lingerie founder Amber Taylor Gets rid of your JEAN ANXIETY! BISHOP of 7th’s MUST have Jean/trousers – the perfect pant

Text, Vivian G. Kelly

WHAT: DuMi shape wear lingerie and Bishop of Seventh's expands into RTW

JEAN ANXIETY
We’ve ALL had a fat jean moment, regardless of whether we’re a size 14 or 2. There’s not a fashion-conscious person alive who hasn’t anxiously asked, “ Do I look fat in these jeans?” at least ONCE in their life.

DuMi founder Amber Taylor is smart enough to know that we want to have it all. We want to eat the Tiramisu, AND wear our new Bishop of Seventh jeans, and look as close to a supermodel as we can. Who doesn't?
MORE ABOUT DuMi SHAPE WEAR
Taylor has introduced a line of shape wear that includes panties, camis, and tanks, designed to sculpt and shape problem areas without creating new ones. The word, “shape wear” usually connotes something boring looking in basic black. At DuMi, you’ve got some options, including naughty nude, brazen black, or luscious leopard print, and styles inspired by the design team’s favorite lingerie looks.

ENDNOTE
You don’t have to be “a big girl” to wear shape wear. Svelte celebs such as Gwyneth Paltrow wear Spanx to Red Carpet events when she has to look absolutely perfect. Who knows? Maybe she’ll be sporting a leopard DuMi brief under her next Red Carpet gown.

For additional Information, contact CECE FEINBERG PUBLIC RELATIONS
t. 212.939.7265 f. 212.531.6125
www.fashionfeinest.blogspot.com

BACK TO BISHOP OF 7TH
Before you heave a sigh and think, “Oh ANOTHER jeans line??” have a look and better still, try a pair on. These are dressier than jeans, but don’t have the stuffiness of “trousers”. If you don’t think you’re slim enough to wear them, start with a pair of DuMi’s and then try the Bishops on.
Designers, Chachi Prasad and Karam Kim have street cred, they’re Seventh Avenue vets and know what their target market is looking for. In fact, they’ve gotten enough of a positive response over these last difficult few years that they’re now moving to launch its full collection of men and women’s ready-wear for fall 2009. Even during these tough times, the folks at Bishop of 7th remain a philanthropic organization making positive impacts on the state of the environment and mankind. Bishop supports EarthRights International, an organization that believes in “the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment.” A percentage of sales go directly to this organization.

SO, WHO’S WEARING IT?
Like it or not, this is always the $64,000 question in our media obsessed society. The list is impressive, and growing.
ON THE LIST: Carrie Underwood, Anna Lynn McCord,
Mary J. Blige, Kate Bosworth, Ashley Judd, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, Gabrielle Union and Courtney Cox.
Additional info@ www.bishopofseventh.com
For sales information, contact MK Sportswear at
213.623.3526.

Photo Credits
Images of DuMi, courtesy of Cece Feinberg Public Relations
Images of Bishop of Seventh, courtesy of a-Line M

GRACE JONES AT THE HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM

Text, Vivian G. Kelly

TIME & PLACE: Thursday night, July 30th
@ the Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, NYC


It’s music, it’s pop, it’s fashion, no…it’s ART – It’s the one and only inimitable Grace Jones.

We were thrilled to be attending the Grace concert, which was woefully underpublicized [shame on you agents and promoters for missing out on this platinum opportunity!] With icons dying off right and left [and in the proverbial threes]
- Michael, Farrah. Billy [Mayes] we want to catch them all before it’s too late.

SHOW DAY
Stars aren’t really expected to be on time [one of the perks of stardom]. The doors opened at 6:30p.m., and thanks to an attendee who had friends in the band, we found out that Grace wouldn’t be going on before 9p.m.

SHOWTIME!
We were squarely in the middle of the standing floor seating, squashed between a drag Grace wanna-be and boys born way after 1981 when Grace ruled the music scene in downtown NY who had recently discovered her. WE were in the same boat, unlike many of our friends; we had NOT seen her at the Palladium in the eighties in the early years.

FASHION FANTASY –She emerged on stage, singing, “This is Life”, in a black and white shroud – impossible to see the face or body – yet. She’s a rock/pop star, and like a Queen, she accepted the crowd’s screams of adoration – no smile. We had the first of many fashion moments that evening, admiring the handiwork of costume designer Eiko Ishioka’s handiwork. The Japanese costume designer’s credits include Oscar-winning costume designer, known for her work in stage, screen, advertising, and print media. She won a 1992 Academy Award for costume design for Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and costumes for Cirque de Soleil.

FUN FACT
Total number of costume changes in 1 ½ hours [no break!] ELEVEN, each more fantastic than the one before.

OF SPECIAL NOTE
Grace is a woman who loves her milliner; that is she loves a good hat and knows HOW to wear them. There was a white patent gladiator helmet, a silver bowler hat, and a hat that looked vaguely Viking-like.

ROCKING THE BODY
You all want to know and that was the first question out of our friends’ mouths – “was she in shape?”
The answer, “yes!”. She looked as if she’d stepped out of a time capsule with her face and body intact, looking pretty much as she did in her eighties hey day.
The reality is that she’s known for taking extraordinarily good care of herself – no drinking, no smoking, etc. Add to that some dieting and maybe even a trip to the plastic surgeon. Even if that’s true, who cares? She’s set up a challenge for Madonna now, who looks wonderful at 50. Grace is 11 years older and still hot.

EIGHTIES FUN
Although the stage wasn’t huge, Grace packed in all the fun extras we loved back in the day. There was the wind fan, the laser lights, and the video screen showing MTV/VH-1 clips in the background.

BEST MOMENT – when Grace partnered up for some ballroom dancing with a tuxedo clad dummy and foxtrotted to “La Vie En Rose”. In between cracking jokes, such as “I’m 5,000 years old!” she also told the crowd that Director Roman Polanski asked her to use the song for his film.
If you didn’t make the New York on LA shows, you may have to content yourself with tracks on your ipod, it’s unlikely she’ll be performing again soon.