“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

There are millions of opinions about Fashion’s Night Out and half of them belong to me. My client, the Meatpacking District, was agog with festivities, in the streets, in the stores, the energy was palpable from the second the clock struck 6PM. It was like New Year’s Eve came early…only with shopping. Did you buy something? I did. Everyone that participated in Fashion Lives Downtown did a fantastic job and this new found retail holiday needs to happen every month. Maybe not with such a fervor and expense. But Fashion’s Night Out needs to be monthly. Period. Retailers needs more… Read More »

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t Dita Von Teese start out as a stripper….excuse me…burlesque performance artist? Don’t get me wrong, I think she is fascinating, beautiful, intriguing, beguiling, bewitched, bothered and bewildered. Surely she is a one-of-a-kind, that is for sure, and her iconic stature is undeniable. But, stripper plenty. So you can imagine my shock and awe at the recent revelation that Dita is considering designing a line of clothing. Clothes designed to be taken off, I guess. Must everyone who achieves any level of celebrity automatically design a line of clothing? I am beginning… 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 »

Look, I think Sarah Jessica Parker is great. Who does not love Sex and the City and who does not think her willingness to wear ridiculous hats makes her even more sympathetic…to the cause of fashion uber alles. But, today, Women’s Wear Daily is reporting the SJP is going to take an active role at the Halston Heritage Collection…whatever that is. Seriously, Halston must be turning in his grave. From Randolph Duke to the Rachel Zoe nonsense, to the current Marco Zanini, who will surely be overshadowed by SJP. I don’t know, perhaps Harvey Weinstein and Tamara Mellon should just… Read More »

Anyone who is anyone that reads I Mean…What?!? knows my opinion on the fashion phenomenon called World Fashion Week. New to town? Let me explain. Just about every city on Earth except Peoria, Illinois, ‘has been’ hosting their version of a Fashion Week. Sure, we all are obsessed with New York, Paris, Milan and London…Tokyo even. But this year, there seems to be an epidemic of Fashion Weeks spreading like the H1Ni Virus. I have reported on Los Angeles Fashion Week, Madrid Fashion Week, Lakme Fashion Week, New Zealand Fashion Week, Pakistan Fashion Week, Arabia Fashion Week, Dubai Fashion Week,… 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 »

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 »

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 »

Of the many newly established “holidays”, Earth Day is the little holiday that could. Yes, it has accomplished tons of global awareness since 1970, when it started, as a way to instill fear that the end of the world is nigh. Since then, the Earth Global Network successfully promotes the consciousness that we must all do our part to save the world. And hopefully meet Leonardo DiCaprio in the process. However, the term “Green” has become so overused, it’s almost passe. Even Vanity Fair has stopped doing their “green issue”, currently featuring Giselle Bunchen on the cover, Miss Green herself…as… Read More »

Uch, such pressure. I was reading an artcle in Women’s Wear Daily about the top U.S. designers response to being snubbed by Michelle Obama. Now, granted, I think her Jason Wu and Thakoon obsession is not that warranted, but it’s really cool of her on some level. What level, I’m not sure, but a level. And I see the point that Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang and Carolina Herrera make. Oscar was even bold enough to say, “You don’t go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater.” Oh, no, you didn’t. Good for him, though. What does he… Read More »