“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

OK kiddies. Gather round. Uncle Abe is going to tell you a story. It’s a fairy tale…because clearly, plenty of fairies are involved in this story. It is the story known as Madrid Fashion Week. Yes, some of this story is very scary. Like a horror movie. And other parts are really funny…because scary and funny make for a good story. Now, there not much else left for me to say because this is a picture-book story. So…once upon a time…in a land far away…there was a land called Spain. Spain is known for many things, like hot Latin men,… Read More »

World Wide Fashion Week. That’s what we are in right now. Soon the fashion editors will feel like they are in that movie from the 60’s. “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium”. The poor dears. Gallivanting to and fro…London, Paris, Milan, New York. Oh, their aching feet. After a seemingly interesting and mild New York Fashion Week, the next stop is London, currently celebrating 25 years of quirky nonsense…sprinkled with a few good designers. In 1984, George Orwell’s dystopia, as predicted, was under way. Today we increasingly experience shades of this nightmare world. The thing is, London has a… Read More »

On the first day of Fashion Week (my true love gave to me….nah…doesn’t work) my trusting correspondent Johnna Escobedo went to the tents in search of an I Mean…What?!? moment. Now, this was the first time that I was trusting someone with such a monumental task. But, in the end…I knew my Johnna well enough to know that she would not disappoint.… Read More »

“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” Somehow, that signature quote from the soap opera Days of Our Lives came to mind this morning as I was looking at the last few bits of this season’s men’s shows. It feels like time stood still this week with excitement everywhere…and yet…nowhere. It was like watching a soap opera, no? There was so much anticipation leading up to this week. Yes, Fashion’s Night Out kicked off the week with a bang but there were serious questions hovering over our heads. Was the ailing economy going to be… Read More »

As I started reading Tim Blanks‘ review of the Thom Browne collection on men.style.com, I thought I must have landed in the Fashion Twilight Zone. Having read the Women’s Wear Daily review and judging for myself based on the images, I thought, “What is Tim drinking backstage…Thom Browne Kool-Aid?” There is little to say. WWD wrote, “The clothes were ridiculous.” Whereas Tim Blanks says things like, “Browne’s clothes felt refreshed, confident, and as upbeat as the soundtrack of Beatles songs.” Or how’s this, “He just loves polka dots and Darth Vader.” Fotz. You judge for yourself. This is a bi-polar… Read More »

Yes, the I Mean…What?!? fashion coverage is important to get out as it is news, but surely when I noticed the many style faux pas on the MTV Video Music Awards Red Carpet, I had to share this newsflash. Especially with some of the doozies I’ve noted. Part of what is so wrong with our world is that the youth centered awards shows have become a low-rent, tacky shit show. How do we expect to get back to a more genteel time, when the barometer of what is appropriate is so low? It’s why I’ve been saying, “The end of… Read More »

Yesterday was uneventful as far as Manzies go. The women’s collections are in full bloom. Alexander Wang, Jason Wu, Charlotte Ronson, William Rast, Rag and Bone, these are the collections with all the heat. That said, there was little if anything interesting going on in menswear. And when I say uninteresting, I don’t lie. I am still trying to figure out why Lacoste does a fashion show. I’d imagine their retailers would buy that in the showroom, and clearly, if they were in the 21st century, with a basic collection like that, they could handle their seasonal order and reorder… Read More »

Just when I thought that my Manzie Reports were getting read by all the right people, being viewed on all the right laptops, iPhones and Blackberries, comes the reality that I am not fully doing my job. I know that the Manzie Report has been a source of laughter and hysteria by many of the industry’s top taste-makers, creatives and editors. But clearly, there are several stylists and fashion designers that must be deleting the IMW Manzie Report and clicking to CocoPerez.com. Big mistake girl. He is not going to steer you in the right direction. Perez will just feature… Read More »

A few weeks ago I did a piece on the “End-of-Summer Stomach Ache” and now…sadly…summer is really over. Today’s headlines in Women’s Wear Daily speak to the stomach ache designers are feeling while they approach the worst economic market since the Great Depression. How is that for an Imodium Moment? While reading through the article, something stuck in my craw that I wanted to talk about. In addition to the many elements that made our economy crumble, I firmly believe that the fashion designers who made those Target, K-Mart and other down-market deals, did not do themselves or their peers… Read More »

Here we go again. Just what we need, another celebrity cum laude fashion designer. Enter Katie Holmes. When will the world learn that “celebrity designer” is an oxymoron. Yes, there are designers that by sheer virtue of their brilliance and craft become celebrities…and rightfully so. Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, you know who belongs on that list. And it’s really not that long a list either, if you ask me. Sure there are a lot of “designers” who are really good, and a slew who think they are brilliant. They are just over-glorified dress makers. For them,… Read More »