It Boy of the Month: Derek Blasberg

We know that this is a bit of a diversion from the usual monthly post, however, we decided to switch it up a bit this month.  With fashion month in full force we couldn't ignore one of the fixtures at all of the shows.  And hey, we can't discriminate just because Blasberg is a boy...

Who he is: Derek Blasberg was born in St. Louis Missouri in 1982.  After high school he moved to New York City to study Dramatic Literature and Journalism at New York University, where he graduated with honors in 2004.

What he does:  His first job was working as an assistant at American Vogue.  He is now the Senior Fashion News and Special Projects Editor at V and VMAN Magazines and is a frequent contributing editor to style.com.  He has written pieces for  several of the international editions of Vogue magazine and he also routinely writes for additional publications,  such as Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, 10magazine and the London Sunday Times. Of greatest note to us, he edited Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's book “Influence,” in 2008 (one of our favorite fashion books).  His first book will be published  in April of 2010; “Classy”is a collection of humorous essays and illustrations aimed at young women.  This book's purpose is to teach young women how to be classy ladies.  We can't wait to get our hands on this one...


Why we love him: There are so many reasons they may be too much to list here.  His sassy writing, his impeccable use of words, his magnificent eye for style, and just his all around personality have completely won us over.  This guy is in the middle of every social circle that everyone wants to be in.  He's best friends with models, hangs out with designers, and parties with some of fashion's leading ladies.  Let's just say he sat front row at the following AW 10 shows (to name a few): Alexander Wang, Proenza, DVF, Rodarte, Max Azria,

On his style:  With Blasberg there is never a dull moment.  His tie choices are always entertaining, and his love for prints makes every outfit of his stand out.  He has a preppy style that includes many three piece suits, boat shoes, fantastic blazers and of course, interesting ties.  The outfits that he puts together are definitely front row worthy.

Follow Blasberg on twitter here.

Photos from style.com

Tavi in Rodarte

Love this picture so much, we just had to share.

Burberry Prorsum AW 10

We want almost every piece of outerwear in this collection.  Above are our favorites.

Photo: Marcio Madeira / FirstView.com from style.com

Matthew Williamson AW 10, London Fashion Week

 Matthew Williamson has been one of our favorite designers from day one. We really enjoyed this show. The first look caught us off gaurd, since it is so far from his typical style, but he brought it back to his signature look with the second bright, draped, one shoulder dress.

We won't go into details about what we like about his style.  We have done that here before.  We will just say that we love Williamson's stuff, because it doesn't make us think too hard.  It is easy to love, without having to over analyze what decade he was trying to channel, or what inspiration caused him to create what body style etc.  We have designers that we appreciate that from, but from Matthew, we just see and we love.

Nicholas Kirkwood for Rodarte AW 10

Tommy Ton, of course has the up close pics on JakandJil.

Obsessed doesn't even begin to describe...

Obsessed: Miroslava Duma at NYFW

photo by Tommy Ton for Style.com

Photos from Fashionista , taken by Jeremy Kost

3.1 Phillip Lim AW 10

We have alot of thoughts on this show.  So prepare yourself.

First, we will start by saying Phillip Lim has always been one of our favorites (him and the Proenza boys).  We loved him before we loved Alexander Wang, and we still feel that his stuff is a touch above Wangs (please don't judge).  We are infatuated by his remarkable dresses with perfect tailoring and inspired style.  The construction and fit are always impeccable and we can always count on his pieces to make us feel lady-like but fashion forward at the same time.

We found Lim's focus on outerwear in this collection intriguing.  He did the outerwear pieces quite well, with a black trimmed shearling and tweed jacket and a few collarless numbers trimmed with black silk.  The slouchy sweaters and tops quickly caught our attention, as did the black suede trousers in his second look.  We think that almost everything was done impeccably, except for, our beloved dresses.  We were waiting for Lim to show his dresses for fall, since the day that we saw Resort (and the creme lace one that we loved so much).  However, in this show, they fell short.  The dresses seemed to be haphazardly put together and were a sharp contrast to the strong structure of the pants and jackets.

So overall we think the show was fine, but Lim, you really owe us some fantastic dresses next season.  Until then, we will wait, with bated breath.....

Here are our three favorite looks

Proenza Schouler AW 10

We fell in love with every aspect of this show. Here are our favorite looks.

What we have been waiting for: The Row A/W 10

For their first actual show at New York Fashion Week, the Olsen girls debuted a simple, minimalist collection that included only the colors, black, white and navy.  They, of course, don't like for it to be called minimalist, so style.com has appropriately called it "utterly simple and anonymously chic".  Although they only used three colors, the show was far from boring.  The range in fabric choices was interesting, from a mesh like black fabric, to matte blue python, and there was also a good amount of leather.  The pieces were elegant, but simple and the whole collection was quite wearable.  The girls said backstage that they "wanted to do something low-key and straight to the point".  That, we would say, they did very well.  We will be anxiously awaiting these items to hit Barneys....

NYFW A/W 10 Day 6

Derek Lam:  Backstage before the show he said "Hasn't everybody at one point or another had the fantasy of being a cowboy? A cowgirl?" His inspiration from the American West was quite visible in the fringe, blanket embroidery and cowboy hats, but the use of leather and the structure of the pieces added in a more urban vibe.  We fell in love with a few of the jackets, which made us turn our nose up at the 80 degree weather in LA.  Overall this show was great and we were very pleased.

Rodarte: We have looked over this collection a great deal and we have found that although we absolutely love it, it is one that only these two girls could pull off.  The girls said that they based this collection off of the idea of sleep walking (there is a story behind this having to do with exploring their Mexican roots).  The pieces had a random quality about them, different swatches of fabric paired together and draped in different directions to create an extremely asymmetrical garment.  The knits were in true Rodarte form, many different types and colors of yarn strung together in the most unexplainable manner.  The girls did well, and although the collection has quite an "odd" feel, we think it is so perfectly them.  Oh, and we love the lace tights.

Vera Wang: The shapes in this collection were pretty simple, but they were not without Wang's special touches.  From gorgeous long black gloves, to unexpected sequins and interesting trim choices, Wang made each piece a treasure in itself.  Seeing as we are in the dress business, we couldn't get enough of this collection.  Each piece is so intricately superb we couldn't take our eyes off of them.

NYFW A/W 10 Day 3

Thoughts on the day...

Alexander Wang was a bit dissapointing to us.  We loved the cutout looks he went for and a few of the dresses, but for the most part the show was unexciting and so typical of him.  The makeup was scary, it made Sasha even look like she was dying....and the hair made the models look like they hadn't showered in months.  We get that Wang loves grunge, and we love him for that.  But for the love of god, his shows are getting depressing.

ADAM, we always love.  His styles are always so wearable and pretty, we constantly find ourselves wanting to steal some of the runway looks and wear them immediately.  His fall looks were cozy, but still feminine with chunky sweaters and scarves.  He rounded out the collection with some of his signature dresses that we actually really want to wear, like tonight.

Altuzarra was amazing, Style.com defined it as "fierce" and that word describes it perfectly.  Think lots of leather, bodies with sharp angles, and alot of black.  We are pretty sure that half of the collection was out of Cat woman's closet.  Overall, we loved it.

NYFW A/W 10 Day 2

Highlights from today:

Cynthia Rowley, (who, by the way, is selling her fall styles as soon as they go down the runway) showed a collection full of prints and textures and interesting pieces.  The body styles in her collection were full of volume and detail, from billowy skirts with bubble hems to ruched dresses complimented with fringe and feathers.  This show caught our eye because so many of the pieces were different than what we have seen before and they really seemed to have an imagination behind them.  Rowley described the collection as the "chic-monster-girl collection."

Jason Wu tried to show his scope as a designer with his fall collection, sending items down the runway that were far different than his typical short cocktail dresses.  He said that the inspiration behind his collection was based on Irving Penn himself.  His pieces, similarly to Rowleys, were heavy on the prints and textures, and were a nice break from many designers affinity for bleak colors and boring silhouettes.

And Preen, well Preen was just amazing.  They definitely took it to the next level. We loved every piece.

Photos: Marcio Madiera for style.com

Erin Wasson x RVCA

We just got the pictures of this show.  Her signature style of bohemian, casual cool is clearly present in these styles.  Even though the pieces aren't the most interesting that we will see this fashion week, we love the effortless styles presented, and are sure that each of her looks are things that we would love to wear everyday.  The neutral palette and thin, stringy hair braids remind us of why we love Erin Wasson, oh so much.

Pictures from nylonmag.com

NYFW A/W 10 Day 1

Okay, we know fashion week technically started yesterday....but today really feels like the first day. So that is what we are calling it.

A few notes on the day in general, that made it very different from fashion weeks before: Obviously a sadness clouded over the events of the day, editors and friends seemed to be in complete shock with the McQueen news.  The snow and cold kept a lot of fashion photographers from crowding Bryant Park, thus making the number far fewer than usual.  Also, the events are even more spread out this time around.  The tents have become a bit more commercialized for their last participation in NYFW and presentations are scattered in different locations.  Okay, now that we have all of that out of the way.  Let's move on to today's shows.

BCBG played it safe with Lubov saying that they kept the recession in mind and therefore focused on the customer more than the designers fantasy, which kept the designs practical.    Gwen Stefani had to make some last minute changes in her L.A.M.B show since half of her collection got delayed in transit due to snow (including making a vest out of belts).  Richard Chai Love creeped us out a bit, to be honest.  People may say it was amazing, but it had us feeling like we were caught in a psych ward somewhere.  The hats in Vena Cava caught us off guard, but we loved the fur and some of the interestingly shaped black dresses.  Oh, and Ports 1961, we loved.  The structure of each garment was fabulous and we were pleasantly surprised by the femininity of the pieces.

Now if you made it to the end of our day 1 novel, here are our favorites of the day.  Hopefully tomorrow we can keep it more concise, although doubtful.

Photos: Marcio Madeira / FirstView.com

Alexander McQueen, you will be missed.

Today the fashion industry lost such an amazing talent.  McQueen was always one of our favorite designers, one of our greatest inspirations, and the show that we looked forward to the most each season.  Our hearts broke a bit today with the news that McQueen died today, at the young age of 40.  As fashion month begins, we are sure we will be hearing an outpouring of kind, adoring words from his friends, colleagues and fans.

Style.com has done a great compilation of quotes about McQueen so far.  Click here to see kind words about McQueen from Cathy Horyn, Stella McCartney and more.

Also, the Times has done a nice piece on their tracking of his career here.

McQueen paved the way for many young designers and truly brought a unique, creative aspect to design.  For that we will always be grateful.

NY Fashion Week: The Show Must Go On

Despite the fact that a snowstorm is wreaking  havoc on New York City, fashion week will go on as planned.

A few presentations from today are postponed until tomorrow, but for the most part there won't be any changes (except for a bigger coat check, more car services, and someone shoveling snow, hopefully not an assistant).  It will be quite interesting to see the top editor's outfit choices in this weather, rain boots instead of studded louboutins? We will just have to wait for Tommy Ton and Scott Schuman's photos to see.

On the schedule tomorrow, of interest: BCBG,  Richard Chai, Ports 1961, Vena Cava, Daniel Voscovic and Erin Wasson + RVCA.  Favorites to come tomorrow!

picture: Kurt Wilberding for WSJ

Things we love: Daniel Vosovic

Yes, we borrowed this from Fashionista.  This makes us fall even more in love with Daniel. 
1. He has cats
2. He mentions Emanuelle Alt
3. He wants to make himself proud of what he as accomplished.

Ahhh, can we meet him already?

Also, we can't get enough of Fashionista's pre fashion week madlibs.   Check them out here.

Fashionista Gives Suggested Rules for Fashion Week

Last week we wrote about Fashionista's fashion week myths.  This week Fashionista continued on this theme by writing a few rules that all fashion week goers should follow.  It is a very nicely written way of telling those who just want to crash the party, to go away, or at least act respectful.  Our favorite quotes from the article, “Hundreds of hours, and plenty of blood, sweat and tears go into producing a fashion show…so just remember that for most of us, Fashion Week is a business - not a party.” and another, "Just because we got wasted together at a fashion party doesn’t mean I have to invite you to shows."

Check it out here.  It is pretty informative.

Photo:  Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Kell on Earth: We Love

We have been in such a work haze lately, that we didn't even realize that Kelly Cutrone's new show aired Monday night on Bravo (or maybe we were just too tuned in to The Bachelor....) Anyways, thanks to Hulu , we got to check out the premiere yesterday.

We must say, we were quite impressed. The show seems much more "real" than The Hills or The City. The drama is more about the job, than about who is dating who, and overall it depicts a way more accurate view of the fashion industry. It is interesting to see that Kelly has a daughter, that she has a work/live loft and that she doesn't always wear all black. Most interesting to us was how smart of a businesswoman Kelly truly is. Her harsh demeanor and sometimes, cutting words are just a large part of trying to get the job done perfecty. Kelly really respects and appreciates her clients, therefore she really does do the best job she can. It is inspiring to watch her in action. We also are quite intrigued by her cross dressing assistant Andrew. Pretty sure we will be tuning into this one weekly.

Check out the site on bravo here. Follow Kelly on twitter here.

Also, Kelly will be in LA tomorrow night at 7 pm, signing her new book at the Borders in Westwood.

Are you a model in the Los Angeles Area??

Our good friends at USC based lifestyle magazine, Vantage are looking for two females and one male with previous modeling experience for their February 20th photo shoot.  If you are interested send a headshot to vantagemagazineUSC@gmail.com.  They are great people to work with, and it is a good way to get your gorgeous faces out there.

NYFW: Will you be at Milk Studios or Bryant Park?

The NYFW competition begins....

Kim Kardashian is showing her line for Bebe at Bryant Park which just gives Milk even more ammunition to be the number one spot to show collections.  This showing (along with a QVC showing) takes credibility away from the tents at Bryant Park.  Also take note that Milks line up has increased to 32 shows this season, over last seasons 25 shows.  The meat packing district location will now include Jeremey Scott, McQ by Alexander Mcqueen and Vena Caca.  These lines will join Proenza, Temperley London and many others who showed at Milk last season.

Milk also just announced that Surf Lodge, the popular Montauk bar and restraunt will be hosting a small pop-up restaraunt on Sunday of the shows.  Seating will be extremely limited, only 40 people can dine at once to be exact.  We think this will up the exclusivity and allure of Milk Studios.

Which of the two locations do you think will be more successful?

Want, Need, Have to Have this Dress

We can't stop thinking about Lea Michele's Grammy dress by Romona Keveza.  We know it wasn't as intricately designed as other fashion choices, but this dress is to die for.  It is especially fantastic in the navy color.  We want this one, very badly.