“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

You all know how vomitous I feel about the barrage of designer-nee-celebrities (a.k.a. celebrity-turned-designers) that are flooding the already tenuous fashion market. Click on any of these links for a recap of how annoyed this makes me and how unsettling this is for real-live fashion designers. There are just so many open-to-buy dollars from retailers and if they are compelled to purchase from a celebrity-brand, that effects someone else’s bottom line. One plus one equals two. Till now I have been kind to the Olsen Twins, because their collection, The Row, was being well received, they are true on-the-fashion-scene insiders,… Read More »

You probably think that I am going to do into a tirade about yet another celebrity-turned fashion designer, namely Kate Moss, which was just reported in Women’s Wear Daily. This is the next gig for the uber-supermodel. But surprise! Kate Moss is a style icon and she can do whatever she wants, especially design clothes. Or serve as a Design Director. I mean…who doesn’t want to look like Kate? Style and otherwise. Kate Moss is one of the few supermodels that has sustained her career in spite of ugly rumors, ugly truths and ugly boyfriends. But let me get back… Read More »

You see, we do have an altruistic bone in our bodies. It’s not all bitching and moaning about celebrity designers and cheek implants. Not at all. I Mean…What?!? has a long history of supporting great causes and last night was one of those Good Witch nights. No, we did not help to raise 1.4 million dollars for Haiti. Rather we attended the dinner of the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund, honoring the Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Award. A while back I spoke at a panel at The New York Times Center about the future of fashion. That was the precursor event… Read More »

Dear Anna, It is with great joy that I am writing to you this morning after having such a great time at your city-wide…correction…world-wide shopping party last night. I hope you are sipping your coffee and reveling in your success. You know, a lot of people were looking with a crooked eye at this Fashion’s Night Out thing. From the get go…I knew this was gonna be mayjah. I believe the retailers, consumers, well, everyone needs to thank you because when you said “Jump” everyone asked, “How High?” And the higher they jumped, the better off they did. Everywhere I… 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 »

No, I have not yet seen The September Issue yet…film or magazine. I’m going to do the ritual this weekend, see the movie then flip through Vogue. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, I think Anna Wintour is fierce. Anyone from Lauren Wiesberger to Maureen Dowd can say what they want about Anna, but they are simply riding her Oscar de la Renta coattails. Having worked for years in Hollywood, inside the inner sanctum of celebrity, you learn really quickly that “those” people are not what they seem. When I moved to Los Angeles, my goal was to… Read More »

I was just reading on the The Daily Beast about how stylists are being cut from budgets and all other sorts of nonsense. The article was an outtake from a bigger story in The New York Observer pointing out that these “celebrity stylists” are being bypassed as the actual celebrities are going directly to designers. There seems to be less and less patience for these spotlight grabbing stylists such as Rachel Zoe, Phillip Bloch and Stacy London. Well, let me pipe in here and say hold on just one minute. Unless you have been a stylist, you can take these… Read More »