“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

In all my thousand years on Earth, I have not felt such a palpable energy about Paris Fashion Week. With Lanvin so breathtaking, Rick Owens beyond cool and Balenciaga so interesting, I am green with envy at the editors sitting front row at the upcoming Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior shows. Relegated to sitting behind my desk like many sad bloggers, I can at least rejoice at the heralded return to the glory days of Paris fashion. There was a time when New York Fashion Week stole a bit of the thunder, when celebrities were not ruining the front… 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 »

Merle Ginsberg (Editor-in-Cheif, fashionrules.com) and I continue our cross continental SKYPE dialogue and compare notes on the CFDA Awards. MERLE: Shall we start with worst dressed? ABE: Is there a better place to start? How about the Olsen Twins? MERLE: Dumpster chic. ABE: I saw this fantastic video look book that The Row did on style.com, it featured nothing like those schmattas. They are such fashion icons….why I don’t know…but they are and they never get the red carpet down. MERLE: They are too young and too thin, to hide under all this fabric at a black tie. I also… Read More »

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 »