j'adore COCO DU JOUR

7 For All New Yorkers!

2008-08-15T15:14:00.007-04:00

Seven for All Mankind flagship, the brand's first New York store, opened its doors for the very first time on August 8th. Situated in Soho at 394 West Broadway (right next to Miss Sixty — ooh, competition!), the bright, clean 3,000-square-foot space occupies the old home of Smith & Hawken. When wandering around inside, we spotted plenty of flares (Seven isn’t pushing the skinny jeans nowadays, it would seem) and outerwear galore, including a brown leather motorcycle jacket for men and a shimmery beige trench coat for women. The store is also home to Seven's children's denim and their line of leather bags, which range from $200 to $1,000.

But this isn’t just any old denim-dealer heaven: The space will also function as a revolving art gallery. Though the sprawling white walls are currently in their naked state, they will soon be overtaken by artist Tim Mantoani's 20-by-24-inch Polaroids in the store's first exhibit, "Behind Photographs." Art and commerce — they definitely get the neighborhood.

New Yorkers would do well to prepare themselves for more: The denim dealers already have their eye on the Flatiron district, Upper East Side, and Upper West Side for their next three retail destinations.

—Kristi Garced for NYMag

These Wangs Were Made For Walking

2008-08-06T18:38:00.004-04:00

Alexander Wang is finally launching into shoes and a diffusion line for spring 2009, both of which are, dare we say, affordable. Wang, whose fall show was one of the hottest tickets last season (goooo stocking runs!), is launching just five styles of shoes for his first collection, priced at $125 to $250. The shoes, which he mentioned back in May, will include open-toed platforms with a sky-high heel and thong to "make it more provocative," Wang told WWD. There's also a perforated-leather bootie and a heel with fringe around the ankle. And hot on the heels (har har) of a successful Uniqlo pairing — really do love the $60 black dress — Wang's got a new lower-priced label in the works, which is actually a line of tees, starting at $28 wholesale for a tank top and $40 for a T-shirt dress. Called T by Alexander Wang, it includes twelve styles in colors like white, gray, lavender, chartreuse, and cerulean. Wang told WWD, “Necklines are stretched and armholes are strategically lowered so that it looks worn in … It’s like sleeping in a T-shirt and then wearing it the next day. It’s not this crisp little T out of the dryer. It’s draped and kind of wilted." We can't remember the last time we felt excited about T-shirts, but lo — now we are.
Meanwhile, Wang's sales have increased 40 percent since last year, and he knows the pressure's on for his spring show. In a departure from his fall grunge look, his new collection will offer an "athletic–meets–Miami Vice" vibe, according to WWD. Hmmm, we can't remember the last time (if ever) we felt excited by Miami Vice, either. But again, Wang makes it happen.

Source

Concrete Runway: Lé Street C'est Chic

2008-07-21T16:10:00.005-04:00

ADETAYO FAJEMISIN

Midtown South

20th St. and 5th Ave.

June 2, 2008

OCCUPATION: Fashion Stylist

FAVORITE STORE(s) IN NYC: H&M, Gucci, Zara

COAT: Thrift Store

TOP/ BOTTOM: Value Village

SHADES: Bottega Veneta

TIE: Upscale Boutique

SHOES/ BAG: Off Broadway / Bloomingdales (D-Squared)

Credit: WunderBloc

Shot By:
Helena Kubicka De Braganca

Concrete Runway: Lé Street C'est Chic ... CLASSIC

2008-06-01T03:33:00.004-04:00

MALACHY OTTARA

NoLita

Prince and Mott St.

May 13, 2008

OCCUPATION: Publicist

FAVORITE STORE(s) IN NYC: Lafco NY, Santa Maria Novella

TOP: Whim

BOTTOM: H&M

SHOES: Gucci

BAG: Prada

Credit: WunderBloc

New Haute Spot: HARLEM

2008-05-25T02:02:00.004-04:00

In the self-aggrandizing nature of fashion speak, the term “emerging designer market” is often employed to mask what to the average mind would be called a “crafts fair,” where the only key to entry is a hot glue gun and a sack of beads.
But if you happened to be among the 500 or so people checking out a temporary market last weekend at the Magic Johnson Theater in Harlem, you might have concluded, correctly, that the neighborhood has arrived as a fashion destination.
In the last year, Dane Huggins moved his popular shoe store, Head Over Heels, from Fort Greene in Brooklyn to 270 St. Nicholas Avenue at West 124th Street. Aissatou Ndao-Fiteni, a designer, opened a boutique called Aysa, at 2310 Seventh Avenue at West 136th Street; it sells a mix of modern and traditional African fashions and witty handbags.
And Michelle Gittens and Enyinne Owunwanne, after leaving jobs in the financial industry, have started a Harlem-based collection called Seasoned to Perfection, which repurposes vintage clothing into new styles. All were represented at the weekend market.
“There’s a lot of great Harlem businesses that people don’t know about,” said Ms. Gittens, who had worked for Lehman Brothers in real estate finance for five years before enrolling at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Ms. Gittens, in a belted vintage gray dress, and Ms. Owunwanne, wearing jeans she had altered with an orange tie at the back, organized the market to draw attention to what is happening in Harlem, as well as to spotlight designers from Brooklyn and New Jersey. They are planning another market in July. (For updates, visit uptownedm.com.)
Nearly all of the 40 companies selling designs on Saturday, and the 20 that had anything left to sell by Sunday, had an original concept. There was, for instance, Chalay, a T-shirt line with styles suited to the city’s cultural pride parades, with messages like “Puerto Rican for the Weekend.” And Brooklyn’s Cut It Out! Apparel, offered T-shirt dresses, cut up at the neckline and hem, printed with messages meant to empower women. One was a succinct call to arms: “My name is not Shorty!”

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Annual Costume Institute Gala

2008-05-11T01:15:00.003-04:00

Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic

2008-03-20T00:58:00.006-04:00

MONIKA PEKALA

SOHO

Prince and Mercer St.

March 3, 2008.

OCCUPATION: Fit / Commercial Print Model

FAVORITE STORE(s) IN NYC: Intermix

COAT: Stephens

TOP: Patrizia Pepe

BOTTOM: Paige Jeans

SHOES: Patrizia Pepe

BAG: Gucci

Credit: Wunderbloc

Snap THIS!

2008-03-11T15:15:00.005-04:00

The best thing about pictures are, they capture still shots of life. Whether they're posed or candid moments, they stick with you forever. When I was surfacing the web this morning, as I do every other day after I check my e-mail, I stumbled upon this site called MethodIzaz. It's a photography site that specializes in candid photos of everyday people. When you go on the site, you can see some examples (like the one to the left) capturing everyday people doing everyday things at initimate moments of the day; whether it's strolling through the streets with your beau, doing some retail therapy with your girlfriends or sharing a quiet dialogue with the city. If you love the artistic quality that's captured through the lens (like I did), then you can fill out a form at the bottom of the page asking for your name, description of yourself, you know etc. etc. I'm telling you now, packages start at $150. To some, that might be a little steep but just remember this quote, which the site uses to describe it's artistry, "... the photographs will allow you to remember these moments later in life."

Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic

2008-02-26T14:49:00.004-05:00

NICOLE MARTIN

SOHO
Spring and Mercer St.
February 15,2008.

OCCUPATION: Wardrobe Stylist / Yoga Teacher

COAT: My Auntie Donna (Vintage)

BOTTOM: American Apparel

HAT: Gap

SHOES: Freelance (Barneys)

BAG: Louis Vuitton

Credit: Wunderbloc

Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic

2008-02-20T13:28:00.010-05:00

MICHELLE & LOUISE

SOHO

Prince and Crosby St.

February 9, 2008

OCCUPATION: Fashion Designer / Student

FAVORITE STORE(s) IN NYC: Seven New York

COAT(s): Top Gun / Red Homme (Korea)

TOP(s): Karl Lagerfeld / Helmut Lang

BOTTOM(s): H&M

HAT/SCARF: H&M / Ebay

SHOES/BAG(s): Zara/Steve Madden // Dries Van Noten/Vintage

Credit: Wunderbloc

Benjamin Bixby: A "New" Look For the Man In Your Life

2008-02-19T14:29:00.005-05:00

André Benjamin (a.k.a. André 3000) likes short shorts. Short basketball shorts, that is, the kind players wore back in the seventies, the kind that end perilously high up the thigh, the kind that Kobe Bryant recently said made him feel “violated” after the Lakers played a half in throwback uniforms. Benjamin pulls off the look with some flair in Semi-Pro, the latest sports-themed comedy to roll off Will Ferrell’s assembly line. He plays the inventor of the alley-oop, and “by the time we started filming, the shorts were like a second skin to me,” he says. “It seems like you can cut through the air a little bit better in them.”
Not only is Benjamin unafraid to show a little skin—“If you’re tough, and you don’t give a shit, the seventies were so cool,” he says—he’s also something of a sports-uniform historian. “If you look at old football pictures,” he says, “the jerseys were hanging, the sleeves were dangling, but now everything is tucked and tailored.”
Such images, drawn from college football circa 1935, inspired his new clothing line, Benjamin Bixby, thanks to a documentary he stumbled across on TV one night. Consisting of 70 pieces, the line is currently self-funded (he’s looking for a partner) and, he hopes, will be at Barneys in the fall. Benjamin is a fashion autodidact: He has taken advice from Anna Wintour (who invited him to a Met gala), he has sketched the clothes himself, he has been to Italian factories and Parisian textile fairs. (And by the way, if you’re missing his primary career: He’s also working on a solo album for the fall.)
That mix of application and instinct carries over to his personal style. It takes a certain serenity to rock the resplendent Bixby outfit he recently wore to a Fashion Week party: wide-brimmed fedora, green waistcoat, buttery brown leather riding boots (“vintage”) that pushed his pants up, jodhpur style. He looked more like a wealthy, eccentric caballero than a thirties jock toff, but then, he wants the line to tell stories. Benjamin Bixby, he says, “is a character who’s kind of like your uncle, or your granddad, and he has a closet full of experiences and clothes, and he’s been around the world.”
It’s tempting to call Benjamin a dandy, but the word doesn’t quite go far enough—he’s more experimental than that. He’s worn pretty much everything during his OutKast career, from garish plaid to polka-dotted bow ties to pimp furs to turbans to leopard hats to military gear to golfwear.
But as he grows older—“In the hip-hop world, 32 is like being an uncle”—he’s returning to his classical roots. Other Benjamin Bixby pieces, like a pink sweater with a giant emblazoned B, continue a long-standing hip-hop fascination with preppy style that includes the nineties appropriation of Tommy Hilfiger and Phat Farm’s urban take on Ralph Lauren. Growing up in Atlanta, Benjamin was part of a “prep crew” at school with noted butler Fonzworth Bentley. “It was all about being a prep. It was about ties and saddle shoes and Guess overalls and stuff like that.”
Tearing pages out of magazines as a kid left Benjamin with a reverence for English style: He fetishizes “timeless” clothes, name-checks old-school brands like Turnbull & Asser, and calls his own style “classic spontaneity” or “rebel gentleman.” What this means, in effect, is doing a little remix. Here, he’s wearing a Façonnable shirt with Polo khakis and a tie from his new line worn as a belt. “There has to be something inventive about it,” he says. “But not so inventive that it’s a turnoff. So that some of the greats, like Beau Brummell or the Duke of Windsor, would nod and say, ‘Well done.’ Those guys killed it.” Now, that’s hip-hop.

Credit: Ben Williams

Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic

2008-02-14T23:53:00.007-05:00

ALI MADIGAN

SOHO

Houston and Crosby St.

January 31, 2008

OCCUPATION: Artist / Fashion Designer

COAT: Miss Sixty

TOP: Urban Outfitters

BOTTOM: Thrift Store

SHADES/SCARF: Thrift Store / Gift from Friend

SHOES: Thrift Store

BAG: Gucci

Credit: Wunderbloc

Concrete Runway: The Off-Ramp Report

2008-02-14T01:15:00.009-05:00

Whenever fashion week rolls around, there are a few things you can be certain to see. One... collections ranging from far-fetched to repeated offenses from young and veteran designers. Two... celebrity sightings from the front rows and parties of your favorite designers/fashion shows. Then three... New Yorkers doing what we do best… dressing. And no one captures the magic quite like Scott Schuman, the sartorialist and Pete Miszuk. With their cameras in tow, they encapsulate fashionistas strutting effortlessly and stylishly through the streets of NYC; portraying them or rather their fashions as works of art. They showcase the real style statements that swagger through the boulevards of this concrete jungle.

Michael Kors Fall 2008

2008-02-08T16:01:00.002-05:00

Mr. Manhattan strikes again...

channeling Hitchcock's leading ladies for Fall 08.

Oscar de la Renta Fall 2008

2008-02-07T15:17:00.001-05:00

Max Azria Fall 2008

2008-02-07T12:06:00.004-05:00

Max Azria was all over the tents this fashion week. Besides his namesake line, which can be seen in the above slideshow, he lends his brilliance to BCBG as well as Herve Leger. Below are a few pieces from Herve Leger Fall 2008 and Max Azria BCBG Fall 2008.

...

Tracy Reese Fall 2008

2008-02-05T02:50:00.001-05:00

Diane Von Furstenberg Fall 2008

2008-02-05T02:15:00.002-05:00

FOREIGN AFFAIR

...by way of Berlin, Shanghai & Manhattan...

Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic...

2008-01-29T13:39:00.001-05:00

KOLA ALEX-ONI

SOHO
Spring and Broadway
January 8, 2008

OCCUPATION: Student

FAV STORE(s) IN NYC: H&M, Hell's Kitchen Flea Market

COAT: H&M

TOP: H&M

BOTTOM: Friend's Mom

SHOES: Thrift store

BAG: Home Depot

"Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic" is a segment I decided to do as an homeage to Street-STYLE. It was only right to do so because, how many have you been stopped or stopped someone in their path for the reason simply that they caught your eye with their way of style. Whether it was an article of clothing worn differently than the norm, like a scarf or a tool bag worn as an handbag, or a whole outfit that could move mountains compared to what's classic. Each piece showcases a fashionista's individuality and artistry basically doing just that. The pics I've showcased so far are pulled from one of my favorite sites, Wunderbloc. I haven't been lucky enough to snap any trendinistas with MY own camera yet, but I'm pretty sure I will as soon as I get my camera out the shop. Until then, I'll turn to the net to see what they have to offer.

Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic...

2008-01-20T00:44:00.001-05:00

BEAGY ZIELINSKI

SOHO

Prince & Wooster St.

December 31, 2007.

OCCUPATION: Fashion Stylist

FAVORITE STORE(s) IN NYC: Barbara Bui, Intermix, Fisch For The Hip NYC

COAT: Barbara Bui

BOTTOM: Sass & Bide

SHADES/ SCARF: Vintage/ Intermix

BAG: Fendi

SHOES: Michael Kors

Credit: WunderBloc

Concrete Runway: Le Street C'est Chic... RIHANNA

2007-10-04T14:53:00.001-04:00

Rih Rih and her cinnamon-colored companion, DJ, was spotted yesterday, 10/3, leaving Stella McCartney's boutique in New York. She was a vision of ease and effortless style in a pair of chic, high-waisted trousers and gray glossy patent leather platforms. She was dressed simply enough, I guess you could say, for a shopping trip but damn if she didn't look ready for a meeting or a lunch date. That's the key to good styling ... you look ready for anything.

Style knows No Season

2007-08-17T13:30:00.001-04:00

I'm a summer baby but hate the heat. The rush hour pungance of New York City's strap-hangers does not excite me... at all. But I do enjoy how golden the city gets when the sun slips away and those lazy, sexy nights when the air is just right. But other than that, I'm counting down the days until fall. With summer just hours out the door, could you believe we're still sizzling in it's essence? The dog days of August are not only uncomfortable but can be a style challenge... IF you let it be. I mean with trying to embrace the forthcoming of fall and trying to beat the heat with your summer finds, it could be rather challenging. But Ms. Kerry Washington doesn't seem to have that problem. In this pic, she played with the idea of embracing both seasons. Her choice (which was a very fashionable one) of donning a shape fit for the last days of summer and deep hues that scream Fall, proves that true style can never be challenged.

The transition is EASY!

2006-01-03T12:39:00.001-05:00

This has been a long lasting question for many seasons to come... "How do I go from day to night?" With such an easy answer, ladies find it hard to accomplish. Well, I'm going to tell you... so listen up. Your basic backdrops are limitless. Dark denim, WOW-ing colors, punching shoes, eye-catching accessories and a cute, stress-free 'do are just some options. With these essentials, you'll have no problems. A simple blouse, sweater, or vest(menswear inspired) can dance you into night and bestow a vogue assertion that says, "I follow no rules but my own. I create MY options..."

Beauty Report: Also, the makeup should be glowing and very rich. It’s about luminescence, that’s all. The lids, the eyes, the skin is shimmering. It might sound redundant but... less make-up= more attention. Let the natural "you" do the talking... from day through night!

Mix & Match... it's OK!

2005-12-31T15:04:00.001-05:00

Fall's uniform is not limited to dark, rich or mute tones. And it's definitely not numbered to solids. You can wear light colors also. And you can definitely wear prints. Not just wear them, but mix them. Don't get me wrong, I love colors like mustards, emeralds, rubies, etc. but I also adore winter whites, icy blues, creamy tans and silky beiges. Sometimes, wearing soft colors can make you feel pure; more happy. Just as jewel tones and/or rich colors can make you feel sexy, almost attention-demanded. And as far as mixing prints... give it a try. As long as your garments are tailored and structured, you look demure, yet risk taking. Perfect shoes, stylish accessories... you create your options.