Alber Elbaz, the Lanvin designer who never met a floppy bowtie he didn’t like, confirmed on Friday that he’s creating a collection for H&M, arriving in some 200 locations on November 23 (via WWD). Though Elbaz is likely not the sorta guy who will ever paw through a bin of $12.99 ring-neck T-shirts at the store with slurpee in hand, the collab is certainly one of the most intriguing to come out of H&M. Be on the lookout for the collection in a web video to be released on Nov. 2. Until then, here’s Elbaz discussing the project, assuring Lanvinites that it’s “not a project about dress for less. I think that I loved the idea that H&M was going luxury, rather than Lanvin is going public.” —Krista Jennings
We can’t exactly say there’s a dearth of good menswear purveyors in L.A. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t mind seeing Odin New Yorkopen up a fourth location, say, somewhere in the 323 instead of Tribeca. If anything for closer proximity to their new scents.
Last year co-owners Paul Birardi and Eddy Chai teamed up with a grooming expert team to create Odin EDT, a small collection of experiential fragrances. Armed with three unique scents — all inspired by exotic destinations — the amber-colored liquids made a splash with trendsetting boutiques around the world, including Colette, Louis Boston and Browns in London.
The newest addition to the series is 04 Petrana, inspired by the Jordanian desert. It features notes of deep purple cassis and pink pepper combined with black iris, Jordan’s national flower. If the names of these scents fail to automatically trigger your olfactoral neurons, think rich, freshly blooming flowers, balanced with wild orris root, musk and earthy vetiver for a masculine finish.
Even if Birardi and Chai never launch Odin Melrose or Odin Echo Park, all four scents are now available at Studio BeautyMix at Fred Segal in Santa Monica. —Sydney Pfaff
Depressing scenes litter our world. This is one of them, if on a much smaller scale: A framed, autographed poster of Vendela from the 1993 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Cover, going to the highest bidder at a Westwood yard sale last week. If you have an older brother named Greg likely now in his mid-thirties, chances are this poster was somewhere on his bedroom wall.
But after our admittedly childish snickering, we wondered what Vendela is up to these days. Surely this was one of the most iconic model shots of the 1990s. Unfortunately we can’t find all that much on her, like, post-1999. Though IMDB says she was a guest host on an episode of ANTM in 2008 featuring Benny Ninja’s super-crazy pose-off challenges. Guess we missed that one.
Photographer and frequent SSLA contributor Kiino Villand scored some priceless backstage footage for So You Think You Can Dance for Emmy Magazine’s Insider’s View. Watching the behind-the-scenes prep and nerves is perhaps even more entertaining than the show itself. Bueno trabajo, Kiino!
If the financial news cycle is any indication, the death knell ringeth for American Apparel. Or at least a potential bankruptcy knell, that is (what is a knell, anyway?) which can only mean bad news for its downtown L.A. workforce. American Apparel’s second-quarter earnings report has yet to see the light of day (a prelim report did not include all-important net income and earnings per share), compelling the New York Stock Exchange to send a Monday letter warning Charney and Co. that they’ll face possible delisting if they don’t get their ducks in a row by November 15.
Writers everywhere are busy penning snarky obituaries. Justifiable glee? Not really. A lost job is a lost job, no matter how pervy the man in the corner office may be. And while most American Apparel ads still give us the bodily reflex one usually experiences while passing a medium-to-large kidney stone, we haven’t forgotten the company’s pro-immigration reform and pro-gay rights platforms, as evidenced by these T-shirts. Self-serving statements, perhaps. But better than none at all. Plenty of competitors are too busy churning out comparable product in South Asian sweatshops to take a similar stand.
Somehow I see Details editors deriding the cheap, sweatshoppy messenger bag look in a what-not-to-wear feature in the first issue you receive — along with sporting over-it Wayfarers, Ed Hardy T-shirts and Dad jeans.
Is this really a draw for a new subscriber? People are dying to feel charitable these days, however disingenuous the impulse. So why not donate the cost of production/export from China involved with this throwaway free item to Gulf oil spill clean-up efforts? (Or maybe to the Vogue/CFDA fund if you’re more fashionably inclined.) I’d re-subscribe. Probably. — Paul Dexter
Say what you will about the state of the Los Angeles Times. At least it doesn’t hyper-document what new parenting trend is taking Mandeville Canyon by storm.
The New York Times insists the Next Big Thing for city residents (or at least those in the West 80s) is for parents to insist on bilingual babysitters, who speak anything but English to their doughy offspring. (Side note: I laughed out loud after overhearing one Westside dad at Starbucks a few days ago talking about the opposite dilemma. He was concerned that his son was spending so much time with the nanny and thus was acquiring a faint Guatemalan accent to certain English words.)
A Spanish speaker myself, I’m all for bilingualism/multiculturalism/United Colors of Benetton etc. Apparently that’s no longer enough, however. “Once you are trilingual,” one parent said in the story, “your brain can break down new languages that make it so much easier to learn your fourth, fifth and sixth languages.” Yes, how else can you expect your child to get into the Dalton School without fluency in Finnish? I also learned from the piece that there’s actually a book entitled “The Manhattan Family Guide to Private Schools” (Sandra Tsing Loh’s L.A. version of the guide is far more entertaining and probably just as effective).
True, parents here are often equally obsessed with getting their kids into the Center for Early Education or Harvard-Westlake. But how about we all take a step back and focus on other vital issues of child socio-development as well—starting with kindness and compassion, perhaps? Let them practice their subjunctive French verb conjuction while planting a tree or raising money for Pakistani flood victims. —Krista Jennings
You don’t have to be Stevie Nicks to appreciate Cleobella’s “Gypsy Jewels,” a fantastic addition to the label’s already swoon-worthy handbags.
The new collection of jewelry is handmade and eco-chic (think reclaimed materials that still come across as effortless and beautiful). A favorite piece from the collection is this brass armband with beautiful turquoise gem accents. Add this piece of bohemian and gypsy inspired piece to truly pull together your boho/eco look. (And hat’s off to Cleobella designer Angela O’Brien for her consistently brilliant designs.) — Nicole Hayden
Fashionista has the details on what happens when a cosmetics company’s seeming cultural ignorance ends up railroading its new product ventures (this after one mega retailer’s corporate hernia this summer after it donated money to antigay interests, as we recently wrote about).
M·A·C , in its fall 2010 makeup collaboration with pride-of-Pasadena Rodarte, decided to pull the plug ona frosty pink polish dubbed Juarez—you know, the place where hundreds (if not thousands) of women, many working in maquiladoras, have disappeared over the past decade, later to be found brutally murdered.
“Why would M·A·C and Rodarte — which are both hip, with-it brands — name their nail polishes so tastelessly?” asked blogger Jessica Wakeman of Frisky. Even if they were donating the proceeds to justice for Juarez victims’ families (and I haven’t read that they are), it’s a weird way to raise awareness about violence against women. What’s next, a lipstick called Bergen-Belsen?”
M·A·C responded by promising to donate some proceeds of the collection to a women’s anti-violence non-profit; then it offered an apology; then it announced that the collection is no more.
In a statement, M·A·C says the decision will not impact its previously-stated commitments to supporting advocacy work in the border town.
M·A·C ‘s statement:
Out of respect for the people of Mexico, the women and girls of Juarez and their families, as well as our M·A·C Mexican staff and colleagues, M·A·C has made the decision not to ship the M·A·C Rodarte limited edition makeup collection. This decision will have no impact on M·A·C’s commitment to donate all of its projected global profits from this collection to local and international groups that work to improve the lives of the women and girls of Juarez. We are currently conducting due diligence to ensure we donate to organizations with a proven record of directly supporting the women and girls of Juarez.
M·A·C and Rodarte are deeply and sincerely sorry and we apologize to everyone we offended. We have listened very closely to the feedback of concerned global citizens. We are doing our very best to right this wrong. The essence of M·A·C is to give back and care for the community and Rodarte is committed to using creativity for positive social change. We are grateful for the opportunity to use what we have learned to raise awareness on this important issue.
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