New York Magazine

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Anna Wintour, Michael Kors, and Natalia Vodianova Discussed Eating Disorders in Boston
3/23/10 at 12:50 PM

Though Anna Wintour attends the CFDA's panel talks on model health and body image in the fashion industry, held in New York every season before Fashion Week, she doesn't speak on them. But last night — in Boston, at Harvard Business School — she spoke about eating disorders on a panel with Michael Kors and Natalia Vodianova. Nearly 1,000 people went to hear them speak at the event, which raised $150,000 for the Harris Center, an eating-disorder clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital. From the Boston Globe:
“The models were so frightened of recrimination and that they wouldn’t be booked for shoots or shows that they didn’t want to talk about what everybody knew was going on,’’ Wintour said in an interview before the panel discussion. “Creating guidelines within the industry to know what to do when they see a girl with a problem was an important first step. What we’ve been doing with discussions like this one is making sure that the message gets out there to everyone.’’

Michael Kors pledged to no longer work with models under the age of 16, hoping to keep what he called the industry's "army of children" from proliferating.

“I think super-young girls used to be the exception,’’ Kors said at a reception before the panel discussion. “There’s always been a Twiggy, or a model who is very young. But they were few and far between. Now, they’re completely common. That’s something I see as a huge problem.’’

Vodianova said many models probably develop eating disorders because they're so young.
“Their sense of self-worth is handed over to a bunch of people who don’t care about their self-esteem,’’ she said.

But youth is on the way out, according to Kors.
“The fashion industry is starting to address real women again,’’ Kors said, prompting applause from the audience. “Adults are in vogue. What a shock. This show season really was about the return of the adult in every city. . . . The emphasis in fashion is shifting toward an emphasis on real women who are women, not girls. The reality is that women who buy designer clothes are 30-plus. The visual has to match the reality. Girls dressed up in their mother’s clothes? Guess what, it’s not attractive.’’

That said, we still saw plenty of very young, very thin girls on the fall runways. Those models are still landing plenty of ad campaigns, as well. It will surely take another season or three to see if fashion's embrace of womanhood will stick around for a little while.
But what does seem to be catching on is Boston, where many seminal fashion events have occurred recently. It's home to the bathtub where Gisele had her baby, Gisele calls herself a "Bostonian," the CEO of Macy's went there to talk about Beyoncé, and now Anna Wintour has gone to talk about eating disorders, one of the most fascinating things she could talk about. Is Boston having a fashion moment? Perhaps. But Gisele did say she didn't leave her apartment there for six weeks: "Too cold."
At fashion forum, Kors unveils new age limit [Boston Globe]

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Stefano Tonchi IN at W
3/23/10 at 12:09 PM

T magazine editor Stefano Tonchi has been named editor-in-chief of W magazine. The announcement was made to T staffers just after 11:30 this morning. Tonchi's successor at T has not been named. Tonchi starts at W April 12.
TONCHI IS IN! Finally! [FWD]
Update 12:49 p.m.: A source at W tells us that the staff there just learned of Tonchi's appointment in a meeting. Tomorrow Tonchi is supposed to go to the W office to meet the staff. Some are excited, but other are just hoping to hang on to their jobs.

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• Gisele Bündchen is heading to Brazil for her twin sister's wedding with her 3-month-old son, Benjamin, in tow. Look for them at the airport! [Just Jared]
• Donna Karan's advice to an aspiring designer: "Work in retail first. It’s how I learned." [WWD]
• Dree Hemingway appears in her first self-styled spread in the spring 2010 issue of i-D, set at her great-grandfather Ernest Hemingway's home. [Fashionologie]
• Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte are designing costumes for Black Swan, an upcoming film starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as competing ballerinas. [WWD]

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Alexander McQueen to Launch $52 Manties
3/24/10 at 6:00 PM

Before committing suicide last month, Alexander McQueen had begun work on a line of men's underwear, slated to hit stores in June. The licensing deal for the manties is set to expand to include Savile Row–inspired pajamas, "military-flavored loungewear," and swimwear to launch in the summer of next year. Prices range from $52.50 for boxers to up to $555 for silk jammies. [WWD]

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Security Averts a Catfight in the Hermès Line
3/25/10 at 11:05 AM

The annual spring Hermès sale is in full swing, and tensions are high. The lines have been soul-crushingly long — yesterday's wait time was up to three hours. "You'll notice a lot of bitchface," a Racked reporter commented, amusingly. "People do not seem happy." Yesterday, a shouting match broke out when a pregnant woman attempted to cut the line.
When a security guard was called over to settle the dispute — it takes chutzpah to yell at a pregnant woman, but standing around for two hours will do that to a person — she said she left the line earlier to go home and take a nap. They eventually let her in, but only after the disgruntled women she attempted to sneak in front of.
If you have the time and resolve to brave the line, you'll find leather goods, shoes, handbags, jewelry, and ready-to-wear for 40 to 70 percent off. Though much of the merch is still priced in the thousands, scarves are $225 and small bags and wallets start at around $400.

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Who Looks Better Sweaty and Writhing: Eva Mendes or Lara Stone?
3/25/10 at 11:40 AM

Rumors are circulating that Lara Stone will replace Eva Mendes in Calvin Klein's Collection and Jeans ads. Mendes is the current face of Calvin Klein Jeans, and she does a damn good job if you ask us. Hose her down with baby oil and she can arch her back and fake an orgasm like it's no one's business. The shots of her with Jamie Dornan are likewise effing hot. So, we would be sad to see her go, but Lara is effing hot and amazing herself. A Calvin spokeswoman didn't deny or confirm the rumors in WWD, but if they hired Lara that could bring a new, less sweaty direction to the campaign. Nonetheless, the question of who can work the baby oil better feels worth pondering this Thursday morning.

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Coco Rocha to Wed in a Castle in France
3/26/10 at 12:30 PM

After confirming that Zac Posen is designing her bridal gown, the 21-year-old model told Elle Canada that she'll marry in the same French castle where fiancé James Conran proposed. Zac Posen gown plus French castle: Coco really is a pretty, pretty princess. [Fashionologie]

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Karl Lagerfeld’s New Coke Campaign
4/5/10 at 10:35 AM

Coco Rocha and Baptiste Giabiconi star in an ad campaign for Coca-Cola Light, shot by Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld's silhouette is on the bottle. [Design Scene]

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Close Friends Shocked by Alexander McQueen’s Suicide
4/5/10 at 09:45 AM

Though Alexander McQueen had reached many emotional low points in his career, his closest friends never would have suspected to receive word on February 11 that the designer had hanged himself in his London flat. Trino Verkade, his first employee, and Sarah Burton, his only design assistant, headed to his apartment after receiving a hysterical call from his housekeeper, picking up his close friend Shaun Leane along the way. Leane had known McQueen for twenty years, and spent many nights out drinking with him, where an idea for a collection would be born as a sketch on a bar mat.

Personally, Mr. Leane didn’t believe that Mr. McQueen was dead at age 40, and in that way, though goodness knows he had seen the hurts pile up at his friend’s door. It wasn’t any wonder he always moved to another house after a breakup, Mr. Leane said later.

... He told Ms. Verkade and Ms. Burton that the Spanish-speaking housekeeper must have been misheard. “It’s just a scare. He’s going to be all right.”

Those hurts included the death of his dear friend Isabella Blow, who killed herself in 2007, and that of his mother, who passed away on February 2. After Blow's death, rumors surfaced that he had betrayed her; years later he would burst into tears while filming an interview for a documentary about her life. Meanwhile, his mom was the earliest, most fervent supporter of his career, while his father and brothers "just didn’t understand what he was getting into," Leane says.

Considering everything — his focus on work, the pleasure trips conducted while his mother was ill and the fact that Mr. McQueen had a history of being emotionally low and beyond reach — staying at home in his flat the week after her death didn’t seem to warrant unusual concern. Mr. McQueen was grieving — he told Mr. Leane that he couldn’t bear to see his mother buried. Her funeral was on Friday, Feb. 12, in East London. He had also recently learned that one of his dogs, the oldest, Minter, which he had from Hoxton, was sick with cancer. His friends were in daily contact. Mr. Leane told him, “We’ll get through this together.” And he seemed to.

Leane believes McQueen couldn't deal with his mother's death. When Horyn interviewed the designer last summer, the topic of therapy came up.

Friends said he refused or shrugged off several attempts to get him to seek psychiatric help. (“God, I don’t think a therapist could handle me,” he said when I raised the topic.)

Mr. Leane said, “Lee always believed he could do anything on his own.” He recalled being thrilled when Mr. McQueen decided to quit smoking and go to a clinic. “He called me literally once he got outside and I said, ‘How did it go?’ And he went, ‘Well, I’m having a cigarette.’ I said, ‘Lee, but you’ve got to give it a chance.’ And he said: ‘Oh, it’s a load of rubbish. Come on, are we going to have a drink?’ And off we’d be, back to square one again.”

Close friend Daphne Guinness was also blindsided by his suicide. She had seen him in October following his spectacular spring 2010 show, and said she "had never seen him happier." She added, "I really thought he had turned a lot of corners."

Alexander McQueen’s Final Bow [NYT]