“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

It has been a while since commenting on the bastardization of the term Fashion Week. Couple years ago, they seemed to be popping up in every God knows where and forsaken location on Earth. Reading back from older IMW posts, I found an entry which included a plan to put an end to all of them besides New York, London, Milan and Paris. Guess my plan never was activated because I just discovered another one… El Paseo Fashion Week. Where is that you ask? It just does not matter because it needs to stop now. Look, I understand that a… Read More »

You all know what I think about celebrity turned fashion designers by now. If not, you have been living under a rock. To refresh, my basic belief is that actors/actresses and reality stars should not think just because they like fashion, that they should throw themselves into the already  saturated market and leave the industry alone. It is the rare celebrity that successfully makes the transition, such as the Olsen Twins with their dynasty. Granted Sofia Vergara might be making a boat load of cash with her Attention: K-Mart Shoppers leopard numbers, but making money is not the only gauge… Read More »

Just when you thought it was safe to come out from under the falling dead celebrity fashion collections—I mean where is Zooey Deschanel‘s crap, Katie Homes’ nonsense and Sarah Jessica Parker for Halston—comes the worst bit of fashion news yet. Gossip Girl, that Shakespearean television show is getting its own fashion collection. Yes, this is true. Now we will have to live through the painful process of extensive cross-marketing between retailers and a list of television shows-turned-fashion designers. I cannot wait to see what Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC and Bravo have in store for us. As you may know, the… Read More »

Not a day goes by that someone who simply has no business in the fashion business gets into the business of fashion. Today’s nonsensical entry into the schmatta business is the New York Knicks‘ 6 foot 10 inch forward, Amar’e Stoudemire. Surely you remember him from last season’s fashion week when Anna Wintour had him sit next to her and Hamish Bowles at the Tommy Hilfiger show. Now there was a trinella if I ever saw one. Word is that Amar’e and Rachel Roy are teaming up to design a women’s collection for Macy’s. Would somebody please stick a fork… Read More »

What do Selma Blair, Christina Ricci, Kelly Rowland, Sean Lennon, Robin Thicke, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Helena Christensen, Miike Snow, DJ Cassidy, Ali Hewson, Harley Viera Newton, Mia Morretti have in common? Fashion’s Night Out in the Meatpacking District, which we have sub-named…Fashion Lives Downtown. Say what you want about Fashion’s Night Out, that Anna is only doing this for Vogue, or that Jews in Borough Park are mortified because it falls on Rosh Hashanah, or that this is about drinking and not shopping, but Fashion’s Night Out is like The (Fabulous) Blob and literally engulfing all of Manhattan. Yes, I… Read More »

You know you have hit the big top when a fragrance bears your name, or your pet’s name, or your favorite childhood memory’s name of some such nonsense. You all know my aversion to celebrity fashion designers. Now I am officially adding celebrity schtoonk-meisters to the list of things that make me say fotz or “ewww”. Let me start by mentioning my favorite exception to this parade, none other than Dame Elizabeth Taylor. When Elizabeth created White Diamonds, she was pretty much out of the movie business, still  gorgeous and well…friggen Liz Taylor. Don’t even try to put Sarah Jessica… Read More »

I just was reading through the list on fashionista.com about what fashion brands will pay to sit front row during New York Fashion Week. What a crock of hooey. Let me start by saying that part of my business is orchestrating front row talent for assorted companies and none of what they are reporting is true. What I think fashionista.com did was call a slew of garden variety talent agents and received generic quotes. One thing you learn about casting a front row is…never call agents. They love throwing out ridiculous nilly-willy high prices. And that does not even get… Read More »

Word is out that Anna Wintour is kicking up the heat on Fashion’s Night Out and pitching the networks for a Victoria’s Secret-type televised special for CBS. The show would include a huge, grand-scale fashion show filmed at Lincoln Center, which would also serve as the official kick-off to the new home of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, which is being moved uptown in September. That should create enough drama, cat fights and gridlock to choke a horse. No one is looking forward to moving the tents uptown to the Big Apple Circus tents except Anna and her underling Stephanie Winston… Read More »

Oh man. Will the celebrity-turned-designer cycle ever stop? Or at least slow down? Everyday this week, Women’s Wear Daily has reported YET another celebrity-designer collaboration, which is beginning to make my skin crawl. Must every actress try her hand at designing (and I use that term loosely here) a capsule collection? The only capsule I am interested is one that can be washed down with fluids and alter my reality. But the new reality world of celebrity designers is like living in Bizarro World. We now have Sarah Jessica Parker heading up the Halston legacy (click link for yesterday’s IMW… Read More »

As I lay here gazing at the geese swimming on the lake in upstate New York, rethinking my life, it’s meaning, my daily agenda, to the energy I put out to my clients and most importantly, to I MEAN..WHAT?!?, I was struck at the news flash about the upcoming “celebrity fashion” collection. What a buzz kill. Bebe, a clothing company that I still don’t quite get, hired the lovely Kardashian girls to do a capsule collection. Yes, that’s right. The sheer volume of red carpet traipsing these gals have done qualifies them as fashion designers…through osmosis…to Bebe anyway.… Read More »