Posts with tag fashion designers

We love all of the amazing independent designers out there. In order to find out more about just what makes all of these creative types tick, we present to you an ongoing segment called Indie Designer Interviews.

Meet Shanah Lewis, the designer and one-woman sewing factory behind Little Houses, an adorable line of handmade clothing and accessories.

As we all know, the video game industry has continued to bust its hump trying to grab that ever-elusive fashionista demographic. Pasty-faced gamers with joysticks permanently attached to their hands just aren't cutting it anymore.

In an attempt to draw in the fashion-savvy crowds, Rockstar Games has thrown Karl Lagerfeld into the fourth installment of Grand Theft Auto. Although it would be insanely cool to speed through the streets as silver-haired Lagerfeld, he won't be featured as a character. Instead, he's playing DJ -- you do know he's a DJ, right? -- and taking care of the music for the game.

As much fun as this sounds, it still seems like a bizarre choice. Will Grand Theft Auto players know enough to appreciate Lagerfeld? Will Lagerfeld-lovers be enticed enough to get into the game? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I've got a new designer on my radar thanks to BUST Magazine's most recent email newsletter. Superficial Inc. is a gorgeous line of dresses by designer Lindsey Boland, who has dubbed her creations "unique clothing for free spirits."

I took one peek at her website and was immediately in love. In fact, I had trouble deciding which of her dresses was my favorite: the adorable button sundress, perfect for summer and available in four different color combos or the disco dress, which features an eye-catching graphic embellishment along the empire waistline. The longer I look, the more I find myself lusting over the fuschia disco dress, which retails for $98. This dress could be worn so many different days: play up the disco inspiration at night with bold accessories and heels or go ahead and wear it during the cold winter days by layering it up with knit leggings and boots.

Superficial Inc. is currently based in Chicago, where Lindsey also operates Habit, a boutique dedicated to emerging designers. You can pick up her sassy dresses in person at Habit or online via her website.

We're gearing up for the LA Fashion Week that has unofficially started with some social events this week, and some funfunfun news.

At the end of last week, we received an email stating that Anand Jon, an Indian designer who was scheduled to show his new line of jeans next week during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios, cancelled his show. We didn't know why. Now, we think, we do.

The designer was arrested in LA in connection with a series of alleged sexual assaults dating back to 2004. Apparently, he was arrested on March 6, which is probably why the PR agency that sent the email simply stated that his show was cancelled and that there was no further information.

Bummer. I was kind of interested in seeing the runway show for the designer who has dressed Paris Hilton, Michelle Rodriguez, and has been seen on America's Next Top Model.

With designers like Zac Posen and Proenza Schouler becoming widely recognized names (not only because of Target) and the success of designers through outlets like Project Runway, young designers have high hopes of making it big. One such star who is rising rapidly is Nima Taherzadeh, an Iranian-born designer, who at just 24 years old and fresh out of Parsons School of Design, already has his line in Saks Fifth Avenue. I didn't see of Taherzadeh's available at Saks online, but from the slideshow on Fashion Wire Daily, it's looking like he's one to watch.

[via: FlyPaper]

Sure, you can dig through your drawers looking for that yellowed linen tablecloth you've been using for the last 14 years, the matching napking because they're yellowed, too, and fill in your glassware set with your Niagara Falls coffee mugs because someone breaks a glass every year. Sure. And maybe you'll be serving Thanksgiving dinner on overturned laundry baskets in your living room.

Or, you can go all out, and set your table a la one of the designers whom Neiman Marcus has chosen as inspiration for a gorgeous table setting. These aren't necessarily tablecloths from the Armani Casa Collezione and flatware designed by Calvin Klein. Neiman Marcus simply takes the style of fashion designers Nanette Lepore, St. John, Valentino, and home and interiors designer Jay Strongwater and put together collections of tabletop things that suggest them. I don't normally wear Nanette Lepore because I'm a little bit more of a tomboy when it comes to clothes, but the table, with crumpled linens in rich golden hues and ornate tableware is beautiful.

The man is everywhere -- the runway, bookshelves, even hotels, and now...your CD player. Apparently, Karl Lagerfeld has an obsession with music and "is almost as well-known" for it as he is for fashion and style. According to Style.com, the designer owns "upwards of 70 iPods and needs every gigabyte to hold his collection of over 60,000 CDs." That is a lot of music.

Now Lagerfeld is playing DJ, putting together his favorite tracks on a two-disc CD set called Karl Lagerfeld: Les Musiques Que J'aime. One CD is a mellower "at home" mix, and the second CD is a "fashion show" mix. The CD set is not yet available in the US, but until it makes it way here in November, you can order the CDs through amazon.fr.

"If you want to be a cowboy, you go to Texas," says Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), and if you want to be a fashion designer, you have to be in New York. "That's just the way it is."

But despite this well-known tradition, other US cities are vying for attention from the fashion industry. Fashion Weeks are popping up in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami, and some younger, newer designers are choosing to stay out of New York. Forbes highlights five designers in these cities as well as in New Orleans and Seattle:

• Suzanne Perron - bridal wear designer out of New Orleans with Vera Wang and Carolina Herrera pedigree
• Orlando Espinoza - women's separates and dresses in Chicago
• Colleen Quen - dressed Tyra Banks and Paris Hilton out of San Francisco
• Nicolas Felizola - Venezuelan designer in Miami
• Suzanne Jaberg - her line Suzabelle is out of Seattle

I'm calling them "haute-tels" because they are luxury resort hotels that are being built by fashion designers.

Back in 2004, when Bulgari teamed up with Marriott/Ritz Carlton, there was no connection between fashion and travel, except for designers and models shacking up in fancy hotels on their glamorous globe-trots. But today, everyone from Betsey Johnson to Vera Wang is getting into the hotel and hospitality world. However, according to Forbes, industry analysts are skeptical because not only is the hospitality industry notoriously difficult (as if fashion isn't -- pshaw!), but diluting a specialty luxury brand is risky. Designers, though seem to want exactly that -- expanding their specialty reputation in shoes or leather or ballgowns into a "lifestyle brand."

Here are Forbes' 10 picks for designer hotels:

1. Anouska Hempel has four hotels around the globe: Blakes London, Blakes Amsterdam, The Hempel (London) and Warapuru (Brazil). www.anouskahempeldesign.com
2. Betsey Johnson's Betseyville is on the Pacific coast of Mexico. www.betseyville.com
3. Bulgari Hotels and Resorts are currently in Milan and Bali, with more to open. www.bulgarihotels.com
4. Casual footwear maker Camper has a hotel in Barcelona, Spain near their headquarters. www.camper.es
5. Salvatore Ferregamo has teamed up with luxury hotelier Lungarno Hotels, with the newest property opened above a Ferragamo boutique in Rome. www.lungarnohotels.com
6. In the playground for billionaires, Dubai developer EMAAR has invested $1 billion in Giorgio Armani's Armani Hotels, the first of which will open in Dubai in 2008. www.emaar.com
7. Karl Lagerfeld has re-done a German castle into the Schlosshotel in Grunewald. www.schlosshotelberlin.com
8. K Club in Barbuda, West Indies is the property of Mariuccia Mandelli, the designer behind Krizia. www.kclubbarbuda.com
9. Though she doesn't own the entire hotel, Vera Wang has designed a suite in the Halekulani Resort on Oahu. www.halekulani.com
10. Donatella Versace has built the palatial Palazzo Versace in Australia. www.palazzoversace.com.au.

You might think fashion models don't eat much, if at all, but fashion designers? Now that's a different story.

French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who rarely makes appearances in the US, landed in Manhattan for the opening of his Bergdorf Goodman boutique and to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his line. New York Magazine got a few words with the designer, and when asked what he wanted to do during his 72 hours, Gaultier said " I want to eat a hamburger first. A real big, good hamburger."

A Hamburger Today reports in a postscript that yes, indeed, the designer dined on a burger at the Soho Grand, but did the Frenchman do fries, as well? We don't know.