Will you buy dresses that are $8.98 or less?

(A dress designed (and worn) by Sarah Jessica Parker and sold at Steve & Barry’s for $8.98.)

This is possibly the world’s cheapest dress. According to NY Times, Steve & Barry’s will be offering all the celebrity fashion for $8.98 or less.

Steve & Barry’s, for the uninitiated, is to fashion what Tower once was to music. Steve & Barry’s is manna, a store that sells stylish celebrity-branded clothes at prices that are absurdly inexpensive, lower than those at Old Navy, H & M or Forever 21, undercutting even Wal-Mart by as much as half.

At its 264 barnlike stores in malls across the country, including the perpetually mobbed one at the Manhattan Mall in Midtown, Steve & Barry’s offers an assortment of flowery sundresses designed by Sarah Jessica Parker ($8.98), heart-printed hoodies by the Nickelodeon alumna Amanda Bynes ($8.98) and basketball shoes by the New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury ($8.98). Lines at the registers are often 20 deep.

The question on everyone’s lips: How do they make a decent dress or a jacket, with sleeves, or a pair of functioning shoes for $8.98?

Mr. Shore and Mr. Prevor, dressed in chinos and rumpled shirts, frequently described the company as “the Google of fashion” and rattled off several ways they had devised to make a high-quality product at the low prices. The clothes appear to be well made — several of the Bitten dresses, made in India, were lined, and the strapless dress Ms. Parker wore is constructed with an internal elastic band to hold it up. And the basketball shoes appear sturdy, although they are made with fake leather (well, so are Stella McCartney’s).

Steve & Barry’s saves big, for example, by opening stores in underperforming malls, where the owners are more likely to negotiate rents and offer other incentives; by building its own bare-bones store displays; by maintaining only a small public relations office in Manhattan; and by manufacturing in countries like China, India, Madagascar and more than 20 others, including the United States.

hough the prices will raise concerns that the clothes are made in sweatshop factories that underpay or otherwise exploit workers, Mr. Shore and Mr. Prevor said absolutely not. Howard Schacter, the company’s chief partnership officer, said Steve & Barry’s monitors its subcontractors carefully and demands ethical business practices. The key to its low prices, he said, is a razor-slim profit margin.

So would I buy? Heck ya, if we had Steve & Barry’s here in Canada.

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Emily Blunt

I adore Emily Blunt, who I think totally made the movie Devil Wears Prada. These are such gorgeous photos of her in NY Times, love the milky skin, green eyes and reddish brown hair. And the Miu Miu dress she’s wearing in the third picture is to DIE-for.

Her interview, The Americanization of Emily was so much fun to read. She made me laugh

Did you have any interaction with Julia Roberts, who was also in the film [Charlie Wilson's War]?
Sadly, no. When I was around 10, rather inappropriately, I watched ‘‘Pretty Woman.’’ I remember asking my grandmother what Julia Roberts was showing Richard Gere. They were brightly colored, and I thought they were sweets. ‘‘That’s a condom,’’ my grandmother said. I went, ‘‘Oh right, oh right.’’ I had no idea what she was talking about.

Why do the Americans hold the British in such high esteem?
Because they think we’re all related to Shakespeare.

Really, yellow is not a flattering color?

I always enjoy The Guardian’s article The Measure on what’s hot and what’s not right now. Not that I completely agree with it every time.

Going up

The Prada bag An easier way of wearing all those drawings than on a dress all over your body. Tilda has one, y’know

Black suit, white shirt Dressed-up menswear this summer is all about the Obama look

Soap on a rope As redesigned by Tom Ford, ergo good

Power Plate Like doing sit-ups on a washing machine in spin cycle. So weird, it’s gotta work

Men in suits Leaving aside the sexism and psychosis respectively, we are really enjoying the boys in Mad Men and Dirty Sexy Money

Miley Cyrus So wrong she’s so right. We heart. Big time

Lipster.com A truly quality website, joining netaporter and jezebel on our favourites bar

Going down

Pixie haircuts Don’t listen to the style mags. These look good on only two groups of people: models and pixies

Kate Moss’s holiday snaps Photographed licking your boyfriend’s neck outside a Parisian cafe? Even ours aren’t that tacky

Wearing yellow Dispatch from the changing rooms: banana yellow may be fashionable again, but it hasn’t got any more flattering

Shoe heels The teapot-esque ones from Prada? The nonexistent ones from Marc Jacobs? Makes us miss the good old days when one just had to choose between chunky or stilettos

Samantha Ronson It upsets us we even know of this person’s existence

Um…about the yellow color, I like yellow and I think it looks flattering on me, granted I don’t do it head-to-toe. I find this Catherine Malandrino Burnout Dress ($545) totally adorable.

By the way, tomorrow I will have a new contest for you, my darlings.  It’s going to be something fabulous that you will love

Comme des Garçons for H&M

Comme des Garçons autumn/winter 07/08 (left) and spring/summer 2008 collections

The Japanese fashion brand, Comme des Garçons, one of the most avant garde in the world, founded by Rei Kawakubo, is to join forces with the high street chain, H&M. This collaboration has come as such a surprise to the fashin world. I think this one will be the most interesting one yet since all the designers and celebries of previous collaborations are definitely much more mainstream. Kawakubo will design a women’s and a men’s collection, as well as a capsule range of pieces for children. Also included will be an exclusive unisex fragrance and accessories. The collection will be launched in November. Can’t wait to see it.

(Source: telegraph.co.uk)

She’s so fair

My favorite NYC socialite girl, and Dior beauty ambassador, Tinsley Mortimer, is on the cover of Page Six Magazine. Dior Beauty is launching their Ultra-Gloss Reflect in Tinsley Pink, a color created by Tinsley, and a portion of the product’s sales will be donated to her charity of choice, Operation Smile. I can’t wait to try the lip gloss. I find her so fascinating.

(Via http://parkavepeerage.com)

Love this quote

From hand-me-downs to charity shop treasures, five recycling fans explain why second-hand clothes are never out of fashion in Observer. My favorite tip:

Lose the pretence

‘It’s not vintage, it’s second hand, OK?’

Love it! Which reminds me that I haven’t stopped by my local consignment shops in a long time.

Air kiss like a pro

Us Canadians have our own fashion week this week — Fall 2008 edition of L’Oreal Fashion Week kicks off today in Toronto. You know when fashion people gather, there’s going to be a LOT of air kisses. Toronto Star’s David Graham prepares you if you end up mingling with fashion people.

With an estimated 25,000 people attending 35 fashion shows over four days, Toronto is expected to collapse into an international, air-kissing love fest. Russian designer Max Chernitov shows today. (Give him three kisses.) Elio Fiorucci of the famous Italian Fiorucci brand is the guest speaker at a Holt Renfrew cocktail party tonight. (Give him two – right then left.) And students from four Milanese fashion schools will present a show – Talenti Moda Milano – tomorrow at 4 p.m. (They’ll also want two.) With thousands of fashion players and pretenders attending runway premieres, raucous after-parties and tasteful lunches, the complex and sweetly superficial air kiss is the week’s official greeting, like it or not.

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Scarlett and Natalie

Check out stunning The Sister Act spread of Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman in April issue of W, both dressed head-to-toe in Miu Miu, silk dresses and silk collars and cuffs! I especially love Natalie’s makeup, dark eyes, strong eyebrows and nude lips. I can’t wait to see the movie!

(Source: wmagazine.com)

Coco Chanel’s apartment

Celia Walden of Telegraph brings us a rare look of Coco Chanel’s time-locked Paris apartment.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s private apartment, at 31 rue Cambon, Paris, is a source of wonder that has been preserved exactly as the designer left it when she died in 1971. It is closed to the public but, after months of supplication, the fashion house granted me a rare visit.

The building, bought by Chanel in 1920, still houses the ground-floor shop, the haute couture workrooms in the attic (where 100 seamstresses still work entirely by hand), and what is now Karl Lagerfeld’s study. Among the labyrinth of rooms, half-way up the Art Deco stairs that run like a spine through the 18th century building, is the apartment, which Coco called her “nest”.

It was in these three small rooms that Coco transformed women’s wardrobes. Here, she dreamed up “the new uniform of modern women”, as French Vogue christened it (she dispensed with restrictive corsets and fabrics, favouring more relaxed and practical designs), and numerous classics that still enchant today - the little black dresses, two-tone pumps, bouclé suits and quilted shoulder bags.

After Coco died in her sleep at the age of 87, the brand - and rue Cambon - languished until 1983, when Lagerfeld was hired by the Wertheimers (who own Chanel) to rejuvenate it. On the day of my visit, Lagerfeld is tearing around Paris preparing for this week’s ready-to-wear shows. But inside Coco’s apartment there is a mausoleum-like tranquillity. I am not surprised to hear that Lagerfeld often drops in to seek inspiration.

An anteroom, cloistered in Chinese lacquered screens engraved with camellias - Chanel’s favourite flower - welcomes me into her baroque world. Two statues of black slaves direct me into her sitting room, and I’m dazzled by the gilded statues beside the marble fireplace; the extravagant Louis XV desk scattered with fortune tellers’ cards; and the enormous chandelier bearing her entwined initials.

Beige, black and white - Chanel’s preferred colours - dominate the decor but the apartment is the antithesis of her pared-down aesthetic. Here the whimsy she suppressed in the name of sophistication is aired without restraint.

Continue to read.

(Source: telegraph.co.uk)

How to become Paris’ BFF

When I heard about Paris Hilton’s genius of an idea of looking for a new pal for a reality TV show, I thought what a ludicrous joke it was. But apparently it’s true. My favorite Toronto Star columnist Vinay Menon came up with a simple 10-point guide to succeeding as Paris Hilton’s BFF that had me laughing my head off. Here’s some mid-workday humor for you

1. STAYING IN TOUCH

Then go find an agent.

(Source: thestar.com)

Betsey’s pink home

Look how fabulously pink Betsey Johnson’s home is. Love it! She’s such a girl’s girl, wouldn’t you just want to go over there and play? This just might give me some ideas for decorating my own place.

(Source: Elle Decoration UK, fashionweekdaily.com)

Not your usual fashion guide

I was laughing out loud when I was reading The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman’s guide on Looking Good. It’s definitely not your average run of the mills fashion guide. She covers things from boots, cleavages, sunglasses, to various overly-used cliched fashion phrases like “homage”, “inspiration”, and “experimentation is key”. Whether you agree with her or not, it is a hilarious piece of reading.

Fashion that girls get and boys don’t

The prime example of this is patterns. You see a patterned dress and think, golly, isn’t that summer dress with an old Liberty print rather fabulously kitsch, with its connotations of England of yore? He thinks, how about that? I never noticed how much she resembles my grandmother’s sofa. Ditto with wedges: you’re thinking, kinda cool in a 50s pin-up kinda way; he’s thinking, hmmm, orthopaedic shoes. Prom skirts - how fun and they make my legs look thin, versus why is she dressed like the mother in Back To The Future? And so the list goes on: tunic dresses, empire lines, cocoon and egg-shaped skirts and dresses, anything with superfluous buckles and bows, handbags the size of TV sets.

…

Trenchcoats

The trenchcoat, like the pencil skirt, little black dress and “a proper handbag”, is one of those items fashion magazines always say one simply has to own as part of one’s grown-up, basic wardrobe, but actually just makes you feel as if you’re trying to pretend you’re in some terrible French film. The fact is, like the pencil skirt, the trenchcoat doesn’t suit all that many women. It’s a coat - but not very warm. It’s for outdoor wear - but shows up dirt like billyo. It’s a similar colour to a lot of women’s skin tone - which will just make you look jaundiced. And yet, on it lingers, haunting the pages of fashion magazines like an old smell of cabbage in a dead relative’s flat.

…

Fashion speak

· Homage is a conveniently trussed-up word for ‘blatant copy’ and can be used without the niggling fear of litigation. It has a soothing sheen of intellectualism, as though one is suggesting the designer in question spent long, noble hours in some dusty library.

· Inspiration, often used to denote the desperate recourse of a designer who has still not come up with any ideas two weeks before the collection is due. Off they hie to their teenage music obsession, a cinematic hero of old currently enjoying a bit of a renaissance or painting in some heavily publicised exhibition - and copy the bejesus out of it.

· Invest gives an aura of gravity to an undeniably frivolous pursuit, implying, say, that getting another Whistles party dress is on a par with prudently buying stocks.

· This season’s essential or must have is the baseline of fashion writing. And, really, one’s response can only be, bossy, bossy, bossy! Fashion people love a good imperative; it helps trample over any bleating objections to a…#8239;£1,500 handbag with a handle made from the bone of a woolly mammoth and stitching from the hair of an albino virgin.

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Style-world’s new power elite

This picture can’t be real. Radar magazine thinks “Teen Vogue intern Lauren should be fetching coffee. Instead, the reality starlet is a budding designer with her eye on Anna Wintour’s job.” If you were asked who would have the audacity/ability to take AW’s job, Lauren Conrad would be the last one on anyone’s mind. But apparently L.C. has a lot more power in fashion than we thought. Radar ranks her number one in its Fashion’s New Power Posse list.

“We really do get the icons we deserve. In 1968, it was Jackie Kennedy. Fast-forward to 2008 and our aspirational logic has imploded, thanks to a 22-year-old former surf groupie whose mind-numbingly banal—and yet, strangely fascinating!—life as a Teen Vogue intern is cataloged on The Hills, MTV’s most lucrative invention since the music video. Through the power of basic cable, the coffee-fetching ingenue has been catapulted to instafame. Rumor has it that LC so upstaged her bosses that they’re trying to stuff the front-row genie back in the bottle, severing their ties with the reality series. But Conrad, said to be landing at a new glossy this year, is unstoppable. Millions of tweens believe passionately in her fairy tale, and they all get allowances. The Lauren Conrad Collection launched in September 2007, featuring a 10-piece line of camera-ready dresses best accessorized with a caramel tan and a blank stare. Roll your eyes, but Conrad, in her pearls, headbands, and empire-waisted floaty dresses, is the mild-mannered muse of the moment.”

Read who else is on the list here

Looking like a lady

NY Times thinks judging from the recent pre-fall shows, the direction that fashion’s taking is The Newly Uptight, conservative and good tailoring. Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs are among the designers going that way. “In collections for fall that American designers plan to present starting on Friday, when another Fashion Week begins in New York, many will jettison the baby-doll dresses, the thigh-high skirts and the disco boots of the spirited Warhol years — touchstones of recent seasons — in favor of a meticulously tailored look that evokes the White House years of Jacqueline Kennedy.

“That moment resonates with a lot of people and how they want to live,” said Michael Kors, whose runway show on Wednesday will cater to the fantasy. “There is not a minidress to be found, not a platform shoe in sight. And ‘suit’ is not going to be a dirty word.”

His show and others’ are expected to pay homage to a period, the late ’50s and early ’60s, that was, in retrospect, an interlude of prosperity and stability, one enriched by material comforts as substantial as a Steuben crystal cocktail shaker.”

I personally love this look. As I’m becoming more mature (*chuckles*), I would like to dress more like a lady than a girl. I’m working on that.

Mrs. Loel Guinness and Mrs. Winston Guest upheld the proprieties of the 1950s with rigorously simple sheaths.

A RETREAT Period echoes have resurfaced in recent seasons, and will most likely make an impact in the fall. Poised for a comeback are skirt suits, bouffant skirts and sheaths like those in “Mad Men.”

An advertisement from the 1950s.

Vogue.

Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton.

Michael Kors.

(Source: nytimes.com)

Costello Tagliapietra - their meaty paws and delicate dresses

If you haven’t heard of a designer duo Robert Tagliapietra and Jeffrey Costello and their label Costello Tagliapietra, don’t be surprised. I didn’t either until I read about them in this article in NY Post. They don’t look like fashion designers, do they? It’s funny how we always have pre-conceived images in our minds how fashion designers should look when in truth that has no bearing in their ability to make beautiful clothes. Costello Tagliapietra’s dresses are truly exquisite and elegant, and they are made by two guys who look like lumberjacks. Even Costello says, “I still don’t understand how we do these delicate dresses with such meaty paws.” The writer of the article and various fashion insiders wonder why they aren’t more famous, after all they were disvered by Vogue, beloved by Madonna, displayed at the Met. The boys themselves don’t know why. However, I’m sure their huge success will soon arrive.

“Their current intern - coincidentally, they say - looks exactly like they do: a burly, bearded young man in jeans, a flannel shirt and suspenders, more rustic lumberjack than refined couturier.” Don’t you just love that?

(Source: nypost.com)