“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

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 »

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 »

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 »

Gee, tell me something that I couldn’t have told you over a year ago when the Halston land grab was originally getting under way. Women’s Wear Daily reports that Sarah Jessica Parker and Harvey Weinstein are out at Halston. Why isn’t anyone saying, “Why were they in, in the first place?” The celebrity fashion designer phenomenon was in full boom right after the economy tanked and by 2010, there were more celebrities hawking schmattas then members of the CFDA. My guess is that all it takes are two lame seasons and the proof is in the pudding. Sure, there will… Read More »

Welcome to a world where truth and justice is actually the American way. I started this site shortly after the 2008 economic boom, as in ka-boom. The manifesto has always been about finding truth and humor in a world obsessed with fashion, celebrity and politics. I Mean…What?!? is a daily reportage on what’s not quite right in the world. IMW has become the insider’s go-to resource to get a humorous take on the truth, the Emperor’s New Clothes, celebrity fashion designers, and the other absurdities that plague our pop culture landscape. Finding humor in a world filled with dolts and… Read More »

Manifesto I Mean…What?!? – Finding Truth and Humor in a World Obsessed With Fashion, Celebrity and Sometimes Politics – is a daily reportage on what’s not quite right in the worlds of fashion, entertainment, politics, celebrities…well…pretty much every category on Earth. The website has become the insider’s go-to resource to get a humorous take on the truth, the Emperor’s New Clothes, celebrity fashion designers, and the other absurdities that plague our pop culture landscape. As a purveyor of pop culture, the great hope is building a community of people who want to be honest, stop being politically correct, say what’s… Read More »

If you thought Star Jones’ circus of a wedding to Al Whatsisname was annoying, hold on to your uber-sponsored hats. The cross-promotional wedding of the century is about to unfold, so stock up on your Dramamine, ’cause a fierce case of nausea is about to ensue. Unlike the wedding of the century last month between Prince William and Kate Middleton, the pending nuptials between Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries will surely reek of C and D list celebrities, lots of flat-ironed hair and enough loose curl extensions to last a lifetime. Needless to say, there will be a run on… Read More »