My friend Al Radley died at age 94 on Valentine’s Day, and London won’t be the same for me without a visit with him. I first met Al at his home there in March 2005, following an introduction by our mutual friend Cameron Silver, the founder of the Los Angeles vintage store Decades. Cameron knew…
rip-offs
Another Miley VMAs Controversy: Discount Universe
Nicki Minaj isn’t the only one with a beef after Miley Cyrus’s MTV Video Music Awards hosting gig. When Miley ended Sunday’s show with a performance of her new song, “Dooo It!,” I got all excited about the costumes. View image | gettyimages.com I was positive the big eyes and sequins were the distinctive work…
Balmain Vs Nasty Gal; Billboard Music Awards
This story is giving me LIFE, as the kids say today! On Sunday, Taylor Swift wore a white, cut-out jumpsuit to the Billboard Music Awards, and retailer Nasty Gal proudly claimed credit for it, as one does when a celebrity wears one’s designs. View image | gettyimages.com Too bad it wasn’t a Nasty Gal piece…
Thank You to the Peeps at Nasty Gal
Good news for the alert customers/readers who recently tipped me off to some knockoffs of my swear rings! The peeps at e-commerce retailer Nasty Gal have followed in the footsteps of Patricia Field and pulled a copy of my swear rings from their website. It seemed to be the same product Patricia Field got from…
My Word-Necklace Style Is Catching On!
Gorgeous blogger and concerned citizen Kate of Twisted Skirt tweeted me a clip from the magazine Grazia, showing a word necklace by DKNY. I was intrigued to see that the style of word necklace I added to my line in 2012 is catching on in the big leagues. I started with this necklace in June…
I Love My Peeps
I’m trying to clean up my computer desktop, which is almost as messy as my real desktop, and that’s saying a lot. I just like to keep files there (on the computer) for easy access. Screencaps are among the things that pile up. I laughed out loud when I saw this screencapped tweet from gorgeous…
Rihanna, River Island and Topshop
Rihanna announced her second collection for high-street retailer River Island yesterday. It features lots of camouflage in both traditional green/khaki and black/gray/white. (I hope Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, sees this. Steele and I were recently talking about the lifespan of the camo-print trend.)…
WWD Updates the Rihanna v. Topshop Story
Today’s WWD has an update on last week’s reports that Rihanna is suing a Topshop supplier for using her image on a t-shirt without permission. Topshop and Rihanna’s lawyers declined to comment, as did River Island, the Topshop competitor with whom Rihanna is officially collaborating. The article does say that even though the U.K. has…
Forever 21 and Topshop Are Amusing
Fast-fashion retailer Forever 21 has been widely accused of selling knockoffs of other designers’ work and blaming its suppliers for the copying. In a 2011 Bloomberg Businessweek story called “Forever 21’s Fast (and Loose) Fashion Empire,” Susan Berfield wrote: “Starting in about 2004, the Changs decided to create different brands to appeal to slightly more…
Beyoncé, Kerli, Inspiration and Imitation
I first saw the singer Kerli at Lollapalooza in 2011, and I was very taken by her sound and her alien/anime/Lolita look. I downloaded her music that night and I’ve kept an eye on her ever since so I was very interested when, this Monday, she posted two photos on Facebook. One was Beyoncé striking…