There was some enlightening reading in the New York Times this weekend. If you missed it, check out the cover story of the New York Times Magazine: “Our Feel-Good War on Breast Cancer,” by Peggy Orenstein, about how “awareness” (including mammograms and all kinds of pink shit sold in October) hasn’t decreased breast-cancer deaths. I’ve…
rip-offs
Thank You to the Peeps at Patricia Field
I’m happy to say that the very apologetic and gracious peeps at Patricia Field have pulled the copy of my swear rings from the website after a chat with my gorgeous publicist, Sakita Holley. READ MY PREVIOUS POST ON THE KNOCKOFF RINGS. As I expected, the Patricia Field team had unwittingly purchased the pieces from…
A Familiar Sight at Patricia Field
UPDATE OCTOBER 17, 2012: I’m currently trying to trace back the knockoff rings to the original wholesaler because, as I suspected, Patricia Field’s team bought the design from another source. Patricia Field has removed the rings from its website. I figured the Topshop copy of my signature swear rings would open the floodgates for more…
Get Smart (About $4,000 Suits and $10,000 Rings)
I’ve written plenty about the classic small-business issue of economy of scale: the high cost of producing low quantity (and the even higher cost of producing low quality without a way to distribute the goods). My Huffington Post story, “The Agony and Ecstasy of Small Business,” offers the most concise explanation, but you can get…
OMG! I’m Such a Trendsetter!
Because I’m a gracious bitch, I want to congratulate my friends at Topshop and DCK Concessions for getting props for their clever three-ring OMG set. I think that is such a cute jewelry concept! In fact, I’ve thought so since 2010, when I introduced my own OMG rings. My sterling-silver, limited-edition rings cost $300 for…
Making a Long Story Longer: Update on Topshop, Swear Rings
In the past week, I received a number of emails and tweets from gorgeous readers who are concerned about my situation with Topshop, so I realized I should give you an update. But first I’m going to go way back to the beginning for the sake of those of you who don’t know the story,…
London Bloggers, the Queen and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Cobbler
Tomorrow is the 4th of July. Normally, I’d be packing to go to London to visit my peeps there. Then I’d go on to Paris for Bastille Day. But my summer travel got pushed up to June this year. I didn’t have time to blog about the trip as it was happening because I spent…
Topshop Drama Drags On; Letter Rings for Sale
Topshop has announced a new designer collaboration. Not with me, sillies! Instead, the U.K.-based fast-fashion chain struck a deal with 27-year-old British designer J.W. Anderson. Apparently, he’s an up-and-comer, but he’s certainly not a Margiela, Lagerfeld or Versace as far as name recognition goes. The latter three designers/design houses have all worked with H&M, a…
More F@#!-ing Fun With Topshop
Remember my WENDYB by Wendy Brandes sterling-silver swear rings, which I started selling in 2008? Remember how Topshop recently created a “Punctuation Ring Pack”? After a whole lot of you took to Twitter to comment on the Topshop’s design’s similarity to my rings — and my PR person placed a call to Topshop — Topshop…
I’m SMH at Topshop’s Version of My Swear Rings
The sterling-silver swear-ring set from my WENDYB by Wendy Brandes line has been one of my most popular designs since I introduced it at a designer friend’s runway show in 2008. Word and letter jewelry has been around for ages, and I’m not the first designer to do “Fuck” jewelry. I’ve said myself that there’s nothing…