Get your Spanx on
I leave Feb. 1 for New York’s Fashion Week, a week-long extravaganza of clothes and celebrities.
While there, I’m going to see what’s new in the world of Spanx. No, Spanx will not be on the runway — well, maybe they will, but not in a formal presentation.
The Spanx folks will be previewing their fall collection though. Trust me, there’s more to Spanx than the original Power Panty.
I don’t know about you, but Spanx are my friend. Oprah’s, too.
Anyway, I’m wondering if anyone has any questions about Spanx that I can toss out to the people in the know there. Who knows, maybe even founder Sara Blakely will peek in.
So, if you’re a fan or would like to see Spanx introduce a new product or anything else that’s on your mind, leave me a comment and I’ll pass it along. I’ll use the answers in a blog or column.
Liz Claiborne targets Isaac
Say it isn’t so Isaac.
That’s the cry heard round the country when news that fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, who endeared himself to millions of women with his cheap-chic collection at Target, is headed to Liz Claiborne to revamp the struggling brand.
Mizrahi teamed with Target five years ago and led the parade as the retailer added more names to its stable of designers and became the place to shop for luxury pieces at mainstream prices.
His success triggered a change in the fashion industry’s thinking that designer collections at the mass market level would dilute the value of a brand. Following Mizrahi’s lead, Nicole Miller partnered with J.C. Penney in 2005 and last year Vera Wang debuted her Simply Vera Wang collection at Kohl’s.
Certainly the Liz Claiborne brand needs help. It no longer is the label women turn to when they need new work or play clothes.
What it does continue to have is brand recognition. After Liz Claiborne died last year, women called to find out what would happen to the company. What they didn’t realize was that Claiborne left in 1989.
Here’s hoping Isaac Mizrahi can help rejuvenate the once favored brand. Too bad he had to leave Target behind. Replacing him will be difficult.
The good news: His collections will be in Target stores until the end of this year. Then we can all sit back and wait until first collection for Liz Claiborne lands in stores in spring 2009.
Victoria Beckham, meet Mr. Blackwell
Victoria Beckham’s perch at the top of Mr. Blackwell’s worst-dressed list got me to wondering if her style has changed in recent years.
I’m guessing she spends more money on clothes than when she was best known as Posh Spice of the Spice Girls. Then again, we all know that big bucks can’t always buy great style.
I glanced at some pictures of her in our archive, and I really didn’t see much of a change. She still likes tight dresses, preferably strapless or with a deep V neck. Most of the dresses are short. Really short.
And it seems like she’s always striking a serious pose. She never looks relaxed, rarely smiles.
Her hairstyle and color seem to change more than anything else.
Last September, she attended the Oscar de la Renta fashion show in New York City. I wonder what Mr. de la Renta, who delivers some of the most beautiful, stylish clothes on the planet, thinks about Mr. Blackwell’s selection.
While Blackwell says his annual list is done in fun to encourage fashion consciousness, his words sound otherwise.
“Forget the fashion spice, wearing a skirt would suffice! In one skinny-mini monstrosity after another, pouty Posh can really wreck-em,” he said in a statement.
Ouch. That hurts more than a cheap pair of pointed-toe, spike-heel pumps.
This isn’t Victoria’s first slam from Blackwell. He listed the Spice Girls as No. 1 in his 1998 worst-dressed list, deriding the group as “the only spices on the planet that have no taste.”
Along with Victoria Beckham, this year’s Top 10 worst-dressed included Amy Winehouse, Mary-Kate Olsen, Fergie, Kelly Clarkson, Eva Green, Avril Lavigne, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Alison Arngrim.
