The Oscars. I know, you guys: Heath Ledger, Kate Winslet, Slumdog Millionaire, blah, blah, blah. But! While the actually event may be wiped clean of any drama or suspense, the behind-the-scenes business is still riveting. The Daily Beast has a fascinating (if a little jumbled) article about the stylists who control the carpets (you know, those red ones?): Cristina Ehrlich, Jen Rade, Rachel Zoe, and Estee Stanley. There are too many juicy bits to round up here, so read the whole thing. It reminds me of the 90 seconds of television (captured here in an unembeddable video—Thanks, Jezebel!) during which Jennifer Garner and her Oscar dramz of 08 won my heart.
The fashion industry publication WWD got The Onion treatment yesterday: Somebody put together a high-production spoof called Worldwide Women's Wear Daily, or WWWWD.
Ok, haha:
You can download the whole PDF here, but the real highlight (for me, obvs) is a story about how Little Miss Suri Cruise is America's fashion ICON.
Sorry to go totally overboard on the S.C. front this week, but this is important stuff—and by this I mean my opinion being validated.
Viktor & Rolf designed luggage for Samsonite, and I love it. I'm a sucker for jazzy travel gear that clearly wouldn't survive one trip around the baggage carousel—as in, when I was 15, I was desperado for a Roxy roller. For the time being, this V&R business is available at the new, improved Colette website (not that it's even vaguely affordable, mind you).
This week, K and I checked out Confessions of a Shopaholic. To call the movie good would be beyond generous: It's two redeeming characteristics were that Isla Fisher (like Amy Adams) can make any obnoxious character significantly less annoying and a good chunk of the film was shot in our 'hood (which K would acknowledge by squeezing my arm excitedly...ha). But while the film is no classic, it does achieve a certain amount of value when you consider its message. Many criticized its release, pulling the whole, "A movie about shopping?! In this economic climate?!" Actually, though, it's a movie about debt. When you exit the dark theater, you want to pay off your credit card, not rush to Barney's—a wave of emotion that is helped along by the fact that the clothes in the movie are AWFUL (way more Ab Fab than even The Devil Wears Prada).
Many people assume the film’s release is terrible timing. If they only knew the truth: Becky does not shop so much as lie, cheat and scheme to keep her secret from being detected. As a comical allegory for the last 15 years, when fashion-mad consumerism, among several other things, drove the world’s economy to new heights, the film stirs up prickly issues about the complex interplay of women, fashion, spending and identity.
And as a panicked Becky (who works as a financial journalist, no less) conceals her mounting debt and dreams of a magical bailout, the story has a painfully familiar ring. Frothy as it is, “Confessions of a Shopaholic” glorifies overshopping about as much as “Trainspotting” glamorized heroin.
“I think it’s amazing timing!” said Madeleine Wickham, alias Sophie Kinsella, who wrote the original novel 10 years ago. In New York for the film’s premiere last week, she agreed to have lunch—and do a little shopping—at what might be Becky’s mother ship: Bergdorf Goodman.
“This story is about someone who has too much credit thrust upon her too young, and she goes out and gets loads of lovely shiny things, then she goes bust and has to deal with it,” Ms. Wickham said. “If we’re not all going through that now... ” She trailed off. “We’re all Becky Bloomwood.”
It took me until 2008 to realize that writing things on the internet doesn't (necessarily) make you the most annoying person in the universe. Then my friend had a dream that I had a blog where I posted a photo of myself in an orange sequined dress. Hot.
