“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Just when John Galliano thought it was safe to go back in the (fashion) water, rather get out from drowning under water, comes The Galliano Conundrum-Par Deux. The Galliano Conundrum started that fateful day two years ago when John was drowning his sorrows in a pub in Le Marais when his barrage of hateful anti-Semitic comments came spewing out of his mouth like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Galliano looking and sounding like a tragic mess was caught on camera saying shit like “I Love Hitler”, a seminal moment that changed his life on a dime, like a crippling car… Read More »

You can cram 200 fashion shows into a week between uptown and down, but in the end, very few of these shows really matter. Sure, everyone should be able to start a business and flourish, and Lord knows I am an emerging designer-aholic. But what makes New York Fashion Week exciting and gives it that international sizzle, are the designers like Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera. Why Nicki Minaj was front and center at these elegant shows is more about ploy that plausibility. I guess the old guard needs as much smoke and mirrors as they can get… Read More »

UPDATE March 8, 2011: It’s official: black IS back! Don’t believe me? Check out the dark mood at Chanel. We all know that Karl Lagerfeld rules the fashion roost worldwide. So, if Karl says “Black uber alles” then so it is. And, from the looks of his somewhat over stuffed collection, black is here and hopefully to stay. When I say overstuffed, I mean the quilted, unflattering jumpsuits that will never live on the streets, but just in the magazines. For now, I am reveling in Black Power! March 7, 2011: For the past few seasons, fashion editors have been… Read More »

What started out as a great way to connect college students has turned into a key marketing strategy for many industries…most notably…fashion. When you think that a bunch of beer keggers were the original sought out members of this non-elite community, one can’t fathom how that changed to the point where now, so many fashion designers are retooling their public relations efforts to reach their audience through such a down-market channel. Most of the people trolling Facebook would otherwise be shunned. You too can be a member of the Chanel or the Oscar de la Renta fan club. The thing… Read More »

Whenever people make a point that something is au courant, they say “Bla Bla is the new black”. Isaac Mizrahi thinks “Competition is the new black” (in an effort to promote The Fashion Show on Bravo) and Queer Eye guy Carson Kressley, once declared “Gay is the new black,” (well, perhaps it was in the late 70’s, but definitely not when his show was happening. If anything “gay became the new annoying”). The phrase originated in 1983 when Gianfranco Ferre referred to his somber collection in the LA Times that, “Grey is the new black”. We can agree on one… Read More »

The expression “politically correct” or “political correctness” can be traced back to 1920s Germany, when communist academia sought to impose their views on students. The term became more frequently used in the 1960s and 1970s by suburban bleeding-heart liberals, feminists and progressives who were intent on impacting the media, while leaving an emotional imprint on the Baby Boomer generation. … Read More »

Hedi Slimane vs. Cathy Horyn “Let’s get ready to rumble!” Yikes, talk about “In this Corner”. That silly Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey dust up comes off like two kittens playing compared to the battle royale between Hedi Slimane of Saint Laurent Paris versus Cathy Horyn, The New York Times fashion critic. I mean… brew-haha, only no one is laughing. What has bubbled up to a fever pitch between the fashion designer and the critic is beyond beyond. Let me preface this with, I am a huge Cathy Horyn fan and though she might be getting bad press these days… Read More »

What do Nicki Minaj (again) and Chloe Sevigny and LeAnn Rimes and Snooki and Parker Posey and and and.… Read More »

Kobe Bryant did the unthinkable. In a moment of heated passion and utter annoyance at a play on a basketball court, he spewed the two words that no homosexual likes to hear. This quickly became GLAAD’s call to arms, rainbow flag in hand, crying (with tears) foul. There was a time that simply the F-word was taboo extraordinaire on the courts with penalties mounting as the inner city kids were taking over the sport. This recent Kobe-Gate multiplies the drama times two because when he screamed F**cking Fa**ot, he was not just whistling Dixie. It was a double entendre and… Read More »

Oy, talk about a flap…and I mean the flapping mouth of Douglas Hannant regarding his (possibly) out of context statement about Michelle Obama, “Everyone compares her to Jackie O–she is not the next Jackie O.” Naturally, these words were met with gasps. No one in the fashion industry is allowed to say anything bad about the First Lady. Oscar de la Renta took a little heat when he dished Michelle for her wardrobe choice when meeting Queen Elizabeth II, “You don’t go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater.” The issue here is not what Douglas said or Oscar, and I… Read More »