Lina S
Kellen Hofer
Weronika Kumanek
Austin Levine
Mikko Puttonen
One of the most talked about fashion moments of Coachella's first weekend didn't belong to Pharrell, Beyoncé, or Jay Z. Kid Cudi had that honor when the rapper stepped on stage in an athletic red crop top with cutoff jean shorts, exposed BAPE briefs, and a gold bolo tie necklace, no less, providing the Internet with days of fodder. Some got angry, others were just confused, and a few went as far as to predict that Cudi's provocative top is destined to spark a trend.
Those in the latter group aren't far off. Crop tops for men have been gaining steam on the runway over the past few years. Just as the midriff-baring top went high fashion for women—receiving an update from designers like Proenza Schouler, Prada, and Topshop—younger eccentrics and established brands alike are reimagining it for men. Four years ago in Milan, flamboyant label Frankie Morello showed two versions of the abs-flashing top, one graphic tee reminiscent of Wham!'s namesake crop top and a knitted take that left less to the imagination. That same year, Calvin Klein sent out cutoff outerwear and cropped T-shirts stamped with the brand's name. Copenhagen maximalist Astrid Andersen followed suit the next year with her own cheeky cropped muscle tee. Since Andersen started experimenting with it more over the past two seasons, other designers like Hood by Air, J.W. Anderson, and Sibling have been chiming in with their own renditions, taking the crop top from the Muscle Beach days to the catwalk.
Immhoveralls'm in an overalls phase lately. I have one navy pair in heavy cotton from Joseph that I purchased many years ago, and they have a very "grown-up," polished look to them.
Lots of girls have been wearing them in denim lately—a look I also want to try. Browsing through Veda's collection, I came across this leather version. I wondered for a moment if I'm too old to pull them off, but my cbamd.com colleagues tell me I'm not.
I think I can trust them, but either way, I'm a risk taker, so I'm definitely giving them a shot.
Continuing her ongoing royal tour, Kate Middleton donned a vivid yellow Spring '14 Roksanda Ilincic dress during an appearance at Sydney's Royal Opera House today.
While addressing a crowd, Middleton revealed that Prince William told her the dress makes her look like "a banana." Poor form, Wills. A few days ago, he also reportedly criticized the Duchess's emerald Erdem coat for being "too bright."
Considering that Prince William has basically worn a variation of the same tired navy-suit-and-red-tie ensemble every day throughout the tour, he should probably lay off. And seeing as Kate was recently dubbed "normcore," I also think that, if only for the purpose of being cheeky (or even better, stylistically exciting), Kate should test the waters with a few wild getups.
How about some Fall '14 Moschino? Or, if she wanted to embrace the Brits, Meadham Kirchhoff's latest looks would be a bold choice. Do it to it, Kate, and show the Prince who's boss—sartorially speaking.
Earlier today, Gap Inc. announced the newest addition to its executive team at Banana Republic: New York-based designer Marissa Webb. In her role as creative director and executive vice president of design, Webb—who spent more than a decade at J.Crew before launching her eponymous label—will guide Banana Republic's overall creative direction, as well as lead global product design for the men's, women's, and accessories departments. She will report to Jack Calhoun, the global president.
Over the past few seasons, Webb has become known for her high-low, edgy-tomboy sensibility (she did help craft that signature "J.Crew look," after all), so we're curious to see how she mixes things up at the mass retailer. "I'm thrilled to be joining the extremely passionate, talented design and creative teams at Banana Republic," she said. "The brand has such a beautiful history, which I truly admire. This is an amazing opportunity for me to combine my unique vision with a brand that has such a strong legacy."
Gap Inc. also intends to join M Webb LLC's minority investors by investing in Webb's label, which is available in more than thirty stores around the world. Calhoun will work as a strategic partner for Webb and will help her further develop her business.
Webb's first collection for Banana Republic is expected to hit stores in the summer of 2015.
This morning, Adriana Lima announced that the next Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will be held in London. "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is the biggest fashion event in the world," she said during the press conference, which took place at the Victoria's Secret Bond Street store. Lima was accompanied by fellow Angel Candice Swanepoel and Ed Razek, the company's chief marketing officer, who said the brand has wanted to show in London since 1998.
The show will be held at Earls Court Exhibition Centre on December 2. But the real question on everyone's mind is: Will the royal family be in attendance?
"Sometimes a Westerner will say to channel the thirties or forties during a photo shoot," says New York-based model Xiao Wen Ju. "I want to tell them what China was up to then…it would terrify them!" She's referring, of course, to the violent upheaval of a 3,000-year-old dynastic system, civil war, Japanese aggression, and Communist rule that characterized much of China's past century.
Modeling—and fashion at large—are relatively new phenomena in modern China. It wasn't even until 1979 that the country saw its first-ever fashion show when Pierre Cardin presented twelve French models to a bureaucratic, Mao-suit-clad crowd at Beijing's Cultural Palace of Minorities. Today, roughly thirty-five years later, the greater China region has grown to become the world's second-largest luxury goods market and boasts a ferocious appetite that's largely dictating the terms of a $300 billion industry.
In the last decade, however, one contingent of girls—excuse me, women—has inadvertently become de facto cultural ambassadresses who are softly wielding their influence in meaningful ways. They are the industry's leading Chinese models, including Du Juan, Liu Wen, Xiao Wen Ju, Xi Mengyao (or Ming Xi), Sui He, Wang Xiao, Fei Fei Sun, and Shu Pei Qin, among others, and they are introducing new notions of beauty back home in the East while simultaneously breaking racial stereotypes in the West.
It was the trailblazing Shanghai beauty Du Juan who paved the way. Following her big break—being featured on Vogue China and Paris Vogue covers in the fall of 2005—she participated in the four big fashion weeks of New York, London, Milan, and Paris. "I remember being the only Asian model at Chanel's Spring 2006 Couture show," she recounts. "So many backstage photographers would ask me if I was from Japan or Korea. When I would tell them that I was from China, I felt so proud."
Tonight at Coachella, H&M announced that its next designer collaboration will be with Alexander Wang. Wang is the first American designer to partner with H&M in the ten years the company has been doing these capsule collections, and at 30, he's the youngest. Stella McCartney was 34 when she teamed up with the Swedish fast-fashion chain in 2005. Karl Lagerfeld, Versace, Lanvin, and Isabel Marant number among H&M's previous designer collaborators. The announcement was made at a party hosted by Alexander Wang and H&M, where Major Lazer, Just Blaze (Jay Z's tour DJ), and Iggy Azalea performed. Invites went out to two separate events hosted by each brand; when guests arrived at the venue (a local youth center) via two separate entrances, they realized the parties were, in fact, one.
"We've always liked Alexander's designs," explained H&M's creative advisor, Margareta van den Bosch. "He's very contemporary. It's very young, but it's also things that can be worn by any age because of his influences in tailoring and sport. He's very much today." Wang, for his part, said he was honored to have been chosen, not only because he's the first American, but also because it's the tenth anniversary. "The idea of collaborations isn't new anymore, they've been done from all angles," he began. "When they approached me, I wanted to do something different. It will be a new take on a lifestyle offering. It's a little early [to talk about it], but it's a completely new take on how they do collaborations." Wang also expressed relief that the news is finally being made public. "It's been hard keeping it hush-hush and confidential. I've never had to work on something where I've not been able to share it with my team. Now I can finally work on it openly."
Wang will design collections for women and men. They will be sold in 250 H&M stores worldwide, and online starting November 6, 2014.
Thank the rock-and-roll style gods for Alexis Krauss, front woman of noisy pop duo Sleigh Bells, whose sartorial-slaying style is greatly appreciated in the current sea of zanily dressed pop starlets with a penchant for trend-hopping. There's the sea punk, the ratchet realness, the ghetto gothic, the lovelorn old Hollywood damsel in distress. Then there's—sartorial sigh—the normcore. But with three Sleigh Bells' albums under her studded belt, Krauss continues to keep it real with the classic rock-and-roll duds. She's doing something very right, and we're not just talking about Sleigh Bells' inescapable bangers soundtracking Spring Breakers, The Bling Ring, and HBO's Girls.
The Brooklyn-based band plays Coachella for the third time starting this weekend (Saturday at 9:10 p.m. PST between Lorde and Pharrell, to be exact), which will find Krauss hair-whipping (and probably crowd-surfing) whilst belting it out.
cbamd.com caught up with the former schoolteacher before she headed over to the festival. She spilled about her thoughts on the (oftentimes unfortunate) Coachella fashion norm, her dreams of working with Alexander Wang and meeting Pharrell, and her style evolution: her suburban alt-kid-meets-pop-diva high school style; her corporate, crocs-heavy schoolteacher style; and her (of course) current killer style as a punky princess.
I'm so proud of my fellow Brazilian countrywoman Barbara Casasola. She is a Brazilian-born, London-based, Central Saint Martins alumnus who worked at Lanvin, See by Chloé, and Roberto Cavalli before launching her own line. Casasola's aesthetic is simple and sophisticated.
Her pieces are always superfeminine and cut with clean lines that accentuate the woman's body. This color-block pleated skirt is what I want to wear every day this spring—flowy in rich shades of fuchsia and orange, one of my favorite color combos.
As the fashion industry grows increasingly reliant on digital platforms and social media, the Internet is becoming more fashion-savvy. Case in point: Yahoo's appointment of Bobbi Brown as editor in chief of its online beauty magazine—the latest in a series of high-profile hires (including Katie Couric and Matt Bai) targeted at ramping up Yahoo's original news and lifestyle content.
Reportedly, Yahoo will make several other related announcements later this week. No doubt Yahoo president and CEO Marissa Mayer has been involved in this shift of focus. Recruiting Brown, however, has brought about necessary examination of the journalistic ethics involved here. Will Yahoo place restrictions on Brown promoting her own products? While that matter has yet to be determined, it's safe to say that the line between editorial and advertising will only get blurrier.
Yahoo isn't the only Web titan campaigning for a well-heeled audience. Amazon has been raising its fashion profile by offering a more high-end designer selection (not to mention curating its style site like a magazine). Intel is doing a "smart bracelet" in collaboration with Opening Ceremony. Meanwhile, Apple has a buzzy (and very expensive) iWatch far into development, in addition to championing the new ASAP54 app, which is like "Shazam for fashion." The format looks a lot like Instagram, with users posting inspirational pictures to their feed, which a team of stylists reinterprets, and then makes related shoppable suggestions. So it seems Yahoo's move is just further proof that Fashion and Tech have reached the next level in their promising relationship.