Fashion Art: 2011

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Summer Style | Sweater Weather?

Maybe it’s the temporary dip in temperature, or the imminent threat of hurricane Irene along the Northeast. Or, maybe women are just looking for an excuse to wear the gorgeous texture-heavy fall sweaters that recently arrived in stores. The actress Anne Hathaway pairs a needlepoint-like pattern with a pink tee and conceptual cargos, while Rachel Bilson goes cozy in a nubby cable with baggier boyfriend jeans and Claudia Schiffer takes a leaner approach with leggings and over-the-knee boots.

Summer Style | Sweater Weather?

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Summer Style | Beach Blondes

With the summer solstice upon us, gals all across the world are looking for new ways to beat the heat. We couldn’t think of three girls blending whimsy, elegance and a relaxed attitude better than Kate Bosworth (in Richard Nicoll), Kirsten Dunst (in vintage) and Lauren Santo Domingo (in Proenza Schouler). These three know how to keep their cool.

Summer Style | Beach Blondes

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Summer Style | Camp Couture

With the 4th of July approaching, we went searching for girls who make the great outdoors seem as chic as a runway. Whether you prefer Alexa Chung’s rock glamazon look, a boho babe à la Gwyneth Paltrow or Lily Donaldson’s jeans and a tee, celebrate your fashion independence! One woman, one vote.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Designer Loses Bid to Protect Signature Shoes

The signature red soles on Christian Louboutin high heels, so famous they inspired a song by Jennifer Lopez and made countless cameos on "Sex and the City," could one day show up on shoes sold at Payless.

A judge declined on Wednesday to grant a preliminary injunction requested by Christian Louboutin against Yves Saint Laurent, which was accused of trademark infringement for shoes that featured red soles similar to those of Louboutin's. The decision not only cleared the way for Saint Laurent to continue producing its shoes, but also seemed to give coverage to other shoe manufacturers that may want to add a scarlet underpinning to theirs.

Judge Victor Marrero of Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that the trademark Louboutin obtained in 2008 for its "lacquered red soles" — on shoes that can sell for more than $1,000 a pair — was "overly broad" and most likely not protectable.

"Because in the fashion industry color serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition," Judge Marrero ruled, "the court finds that Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove that its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection, even if it has gained enough protection in the market to have secondary meaning."

The lawsuit was filed over four shoes in the Yves Saint Laurent Cruise 2011 collection: the Tribute, Taboo, Palais and Woodstock models.

A YSL shoe.Ysl.comA YSL shoe.

The court seemed to want to give Mr. Louboutin his due, however, describing in great detail the impact the French designer, who has been profiled in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, has had on fashion.

"When Hollywood starlets cross red carpets and high-fashion models strut down runways, and heads turn and eyes drop to the celebrities’ feet, lacquered red outsoles on high-heeled black shoes flaunt a glamorous statement that pops out all at once," the ruling stated. "For those in the know, cognitive bulbs instantly flash to associate: ‘Louboutin.’"

But recognition aside, the court ruled that allowing Louboutin to claim that scarlet sole as its own would have been like forbidding Monet from using a specific shade of blue in his Water Lilies series because Picasso had been there first with paintings from his Blue Period.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Summer Style | Buttoned Down

With Paris in the throes of couture, fashion fanatics expect extravagance on and off the runways. And while designers are delivering an abundance of glamour, the front-row look couldn’t be simpler- without a trace of the Balenciaga, Chanel and Celine ensembles we’ve come to expect from the fashion flock. Instead, we’re seeing a lot of slouchy Oxford shirts and plain, tailored trousers. Does this trio of taste makers — French Vogue’s editor in chief, Emmanuelle Alt, the model Caroline De Maigret and the heiress Bianca Brandolini d’Adda — portend a new austerity? And will it linger into fall? Or is it just simply too hot to dress up?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Summer Styles | Sirens

The hazy and humid days of summer are upon us, and it seems many are coming down with a case of scarlet fever. Rather than run around in barely there ensembles, women are wearing clothes that get attention for their vivid color. The English television presenter Fearne Cotton keeps things casual in cheery off-shades, while the actress Charlotte Poutrel goes glamorous and the model Karolina Kurkova dazzles in floor-length silk. The heat is on.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Summer Styles | On Point

It’s only a matter of weeks before the fall collections — and the polka dots that dominate so many of them — start arriving in stores. As if cued to announce the trend officially, women all over are wearing flirty, black and white versions of it. The actress Sarah Carter wears a mini with cap sleeves, while the starlet Malin Ackerman looks effortless in all white and the model Coco Rocha toughens up a sweetheart silhouette with biker boots. Clearly, we’re not the only ones connecting the dots.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Summer Styles | Great Lengths

We have yet to see separates make a significant comeback, even though we’re a month into summer. Maxi dresses with allover prints and simple silhouettes are everywhere, and women are opting to wear them most often with shoes that disappear behind the longer hemlines. The actress Halle Berry, with her daughter Nahla, pairs a graphic ikat with a fringed bag and barely there sandals, while the breakout star of the summer, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, puts a casual spin on wallpaper print and the “Gossip Girl” actress Jessica Szohr accessorizes a strapless with long gold chains.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Dress Codes in New York Clubs: Will This Get Me In?

GENTLEMEN who prefer Ed Hardy shirts, those dragon-happy hallmarks of “Jersey Shore” chic, will not be getting into the Mulberry Project, the subterranean speakeasy cocktail lounge in Little Italy, any time soon. If you prefer your dress shirts colorful and boldly striped, don’t bother with the club Provocateur, in the meatpacking district. Baggy, low-slung jeans your style? Lots of East Village bars may be O.K. with that, but there will be no Continental for you tonight.

Dress codes have long been the secret language of New York City night life; fluency can mean the difference between an epic night out and a humiliating kick to the curb. “There’s nothing that dresses a room like a crowd,” said Ian Parms, an owner of the Mulberry Project. “The ambience of the experience is the people around you, so it’s important for us to keep those people fashion-forward and eclectic and interesting and engaging.”

Beyond being inherently snobbish, such selectivity has invited charges of racism. In December, the New York City Commission on Human Rights opened an investigation (still in progress) into the Continental, a sports bar in the East Village on Third Avenue, for its “no baggy jeans or bling” policy, which civil rights groups called a barely concealed ploy to keep out blacks. Trigger Smith, the owner of the Continental, denied that he was trying to exclude people of a certain race. “It just so happens that more minorities wear these” kinds of clothes, he told The New York Times in January. “There isn’t a racist bone in my body.” One reason some may have found the Continental’s policy hard to swallow is the bar’s otherwise obvious lack of interest in fashion. On a typical Saturday night, the Continental’s mixture of frat boys and barflies sports an unironic mélange of ripped blue jeans, grubby backpacks, baseball hats and sneakers. (And for what it’s worth, the crowd was about 30 percent black on a visit in April.)

But Mr. Smith’s defense illuminates a truth about dress codes at even the most exclusive velvet-roped clubs: they are frequently intended to keep out a certain type of person. The clothes themselves are secondary.

Michael Satsky, proprietor of Provocateur, at the Gansevoort Hotel (but now on a brief summer hiatus), admitted that he strived to keep his bar free of the randy bridge-and-tunnel boys who prowl the neighborhood on weekends. Luckily for him, they apparently self-identify through their shirts.

“We do not do plaid, and we don’t do stripes,” he said. The ideal Provocateur guest “doesn’t have to wear crazy stripes on his shirt to draw attention to himself.” (Plaid was just fine, however, at the closing night of Beige in the East Village a few months ago, where nearly every fashionable gay man who showed up seemed to be clad in a gingham shirt.)

Mr. Satsky suggests that his male patrons wear “a blazer, a solid button-down or a solid sweater.” For women, shoes are key. “Minimum five-inch heel,” he said. “Christians are our favorite,” he added, referring not to the faithful but to Christian Louboutin, the designer known for his red soles. Jimmy Choo and Christian Dior are also welcome. If the crowd in Provocateur on any given night is a gauge, being European, gorgeous and at least 5-foot-10 is good, too.

An injunction against flannel, shorts and other typical brunch fashions helps convey the message that the sparklers-and-champagne bacchanal known as the Day and Night Brunch, which until June was held at the Plaza, is for socialites and financiers, not hotel guests in search of French toast, said Daniel Koch, who runs the weekly party with his twin brother, Derek.

“You get guys in from L.A., they think a brunch is a brunch,” Mr. Koch said. “We have to say, ‘Look, dude, this isn’t what you think it is.’ You can’t rock a T-shirt here unless you’re a rock star.”