“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Missoni has taken over the airwaves. The overwhelming marketing of the Missoni-Target collection has made me dizzy, perhaps optical illusions and fashion should not go hand in hand. This weekend at a friends house, I used the Missoni (collection) bath towels, which did not dry my hands. The paper thin towels moved the water droplets around but did not fully absorb. Granted, the stripes and colors were fun to look at, but if a towel does not act like a towel then I take issue. The Spring ’12 collection went down the Milan runway and from the looks of things,… Read More »

  It’s touching that Michael Kors is married and living happily ever after on television and sometimes in Africa, too. For someone who has upped the ante on his bitchy comments this season on Project Runway, I sure would love to hear what a bunch of Parsons students would have to say about his 30th Anniversary Collection. Does he has a farm in Africa, or was that Meryl Streep in Out of Africa? We do know it was not Barack Obama. With all that tie-dye going on, it reminds me of my sister’s baby onesie business, Baby Steps.… Read More »

Get out your mothballs ladies (and those few men) for Spring has sprung and the Little Black Dress is nowhere to be found. Lord knows there are plenty of printed dresses and surely it is safe to say that white is the new black. (Both in fashion AND politics, sadly.) But if you are one who believes in the power of the L.B.D., then you need to move off Fashion-Main Street for a bit and hide. Be sure to keep your tasteful, always appropriate, L.B.D. in a plastic zippered, hanging bag with mothballs until it is safe to come back… Read More »

Style.com quoted someone that was walking out of the J. Crew presentation saying, “Best show of New York fashion week.” Naturally they did not attach a person’s name with such a ridiculous remark. When the Gap, Banana Republic and J. Crew position themselves as a viable brand to take a slot during fashion week (New York, Paris whatever) they contribute to the watering down of Fashion Weeks in general. I get it, you want that press and attention. And surely it is a smart move. But sucking the wind out of the room, or the market, might be advantageous in… 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 »

Forget about the bold prints and new looser silhouettes. The biggest surprise statement out of New York Fashion Week for Spring ’12 is that you do not have to do anything to your hair any more. Nope. The new beauty regime is shower, towel dry, jump into your frock, plop on a bit of under eye cream and off you go. Wet hair is all over the runways. Not sure if the story they are trying to sell us on is “effortless beauty” but whenever I see girls in the morning running to work with their hair wet, I think,… Read More »

Spring ’12 is shaping up to be the war of the print worlds. How is a buyer to determine which print will sell better than another? It is a daunting task to decide which blown out floral will be the better choice. As if with two fashion show venues, The Tents @ Lincoln Center & Made (Milk), coupled with the endless other indie fashion show locations, then you have the challenge of determining what to buy. I gotta hand it to the buyers who have to navigate that kaleidoscope of color coupled with no taxis and feeling like you might… Read More »

Designers are known to have big egos. Not only do I know this first hand, but they will be the first ones to admit it themselves. Hello Michael Kors. The fact remains, it takes a big ego to decide that this dress is the new must-have or that skirt length is the only length this season, you get the drift. It also takes a big ego tho throw some things down a runway that there is no chance in hell that a retailer would buy it, let alone that a socialista would wear it… besides the hired model. Ogling the… Read More »

Don’t get me wrong, I have been a cheerleader for Fashion’s Night Out since the day it was first announced over three years ago. In fact, we rallied retailers that first year as there were plenty of skeptics. Naturally, Anna Wintour prevailed. The 3rd Annual Fashion’s Night Out was a zoo, especially down in the Meatpacking District. So zoo-like, that it was unpleasant in certain spots, with lines to get into stores, blaring dueling DJ’s in the streets and plastic cups strewn on the ground, like a bad weekend street fair. The street activities need some curating, benchmarks, something, because… Read More »

With the new, improved I Mean…What?!? look, we are expanding our content to feature emerging designers and charities, which in some cases is the same thing. In the coming weeks we will also start a section called I Mean What’s Cooking?!? featuring recipes from all sorts of groovy people. Surely you will continue to receive your daily dose of what’s not quite right in the world of fashion, celebrity and politics, but I wanted to let you know what is in store for the coming season as I Mean What begins its next phase. For now, I’d like to draw your… Read More »