Insider: 'idol' Fashion... Royal Wedding Frontrunners

SHOW STOPPERS “American Idol” stylists Soyon An and Miles Siggins are putting fashion center stage on the hit show this season. The duo told Insider they make the most of the weekly $400 shopping budget allotted to each contestant. “We keep it resourceful, but stylish,” said An, who has costumed the female singers for the past three years. Siggins, an “Idol” vet since season two, works with the male contestants and said he’s been known to splurge on kicks. “If they’re going to wear a blazer, T-shirt and jeans, we can pull from our stock and use the $400 for a killer pair of boots,” he explained.

 

While the stylists might have to occasionally cut corners, An said highlighting each contestant’s personality is critical. “The key element is making sure their individual style is still there,” she said. “You don’t want to lose yourself in this process.” Take Pia Toscano. Before going home on April 7, the songstress hit a few high notes, notably in Christian Louboutin pumps (at top right). “We blew the budget [on them], and she had to pay out of pocket for the rest,” An said. “She really gets fashion.” Here, An and Siggins sound off about styling the remaining contestants.

 

How important are shoes to the overall look? MS: Sometimes you’re inspired by a pair of shoes and build the whole outfit around it. Stefano Langone is obsessed with shoes. Once he wanted to wear white, green and black sneakers, so we had to make sure we found a shirt to match.

SA: [Personal] style is important to each look, and shoes are all about personality. Lauren Alaina’s signature look is a dress with cowboy boots [above, left]. She’s 16 and [is comfortable] in a boot with a little heel.

 

What brands make regular stage appearances? MS: Aldo has been good to us. Casey Abrams wears the same two pairs of boots for every performance and the results show. James Durbin wears their boots, too, but we customize his with studs so they’re more off kilter. Jacob Lusk [above, right] does well with Aldo [dress] shoes because they are wide enough, and also [there’s] a great range of styles.

SA: Chinese Laundry is bringing its A-game this season with a lot of metal work and colors. Bebe has great sexy heels, and I love Aldo for wedges or simple nude booties.

 

What styles are best for the performances? MS: I like shoes that look worn in, [and] I want the guys to be comfortable. We do a lot of vintage for Scotty McCreery with his cowboy boots. There’s nothing worse than a painful shoe.

SA: I want them to look amazing when they walk on stage. Haley Reinhart is not the tallest person, so nude shoes keep her looking long and lean.

The Limited Expands In The Dfw Metroplex To Satisfy Loyal Consumers’ Confident Sense Of Style

FRISCO, Texas, June 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Women of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex now have access to more of the modern, impeccably tailored, on-trend designs offered by The Limited with the official opening of the Stonebriar Centre Mall store location. There are six other stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex including NorthPark Center, Galleria, Vista Ridge Mall and Collin Creek Mall.

The Gap: Filling The Void After Patrick Robinson's Departure

The Gap Inc. is ready to take over the world, if only it could get over its identity crisis.

The largest specialty retailer in the world has plans to make major expansions in Europe and Asia, but it can’t seem to find any solid footing for the merchandise that populates the Gap brand of stores.

In recent years, Gap seemed to be on a high after spending a fortune to tout its then-new designer, Patrick Robinson, hired four years ago to add some spice to the clothes carried at the 1,430 Gap stores internationally. Within months, billboards blasted news of Robinson’s first creation: the 1969 blue jean, which was stylish but reasonably priced at around $69. Then came the little black pant, à la Audrey Hepburn style.

But in early May, Gap abruptly cut Robinson loose and sent out word it was looking for a new designer to nudge the San Francisco retailer and its Gap merchandise in the right direction, whatever that may be.

“Gap has lost its way,” said Jeff Van Sinderen, a retail analyst for financial-services company B. Riley & Co. “They have tried different strategies that have confused the customers.” Van Sinderen does not officially track the retailer, but for anyone studying American fashion, Gap’s influence looms large. It was the first retailer to turn basics such as T-shirts and jeans into a massive vertical retail business, paving the way for other companies as diverse as American Apparel, James Perse and Aeropostale.

Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry analyst at The NPD Group, said that in this era, consumers have changed dramatically, which makes it difficult to be a multiple-store chain and be nimble. “They have to find ways to be nimble. They have to be more patient, more relevant and more connected,” he said. “The challenge is that they have to find the right balance between the core business and the innovation side of the equation. Finding the base product as well as the forward product will give them the leg up on the competition. They also can’t change their formula; they must stick to it.”

He noted there have been a thousand good ideas that have sifted through the company’s creative staff—maybe not at the right time and with the right people—but perhaps it’s time to revisit those ideas. “Don’t be so quick to abandon everything,” he said. “Sometimes, every couple of years, you need to cleanse and go to the bottom of what works and what doesn’t. You need to rebalance the formula.”

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Man Repeller Collaborates With Del Toro

The Man Repeller is attracting collaborators, including emerging brand Del Toro Shoes.

Leandra Medine, the fashion writer behind the Man Repeller blog, has teamed up with other labels, including Gryphon, for which she recently created a trench coat, but the limited-edition smoking slipper with Del Toro is her only footwear collab so far.

“This is [my] first for feet,” Medine said in an email to Footwear News from Paris, where she had just arrived after hitting the runway shows in New York. “I like to call myself a shoe collector, so I would love to continue and seek out more opportunities in the fabulous world of footwear.”

The Man Repeller collaboration is the Miami-based Del Toro brand’s second for women’s footwear. It also worked with Tibi for three fall ’11 black velvet slippers embroidered with cats and aliens, retailing at $365 per pair.

Del Toro, founded in 2006 by childhood friends Matthew Chevallard, Nathanial Wish and James Bohannon, started with a focus on men’s but recently has branched out into women’s footwear.

Del Toro President Chevallard said the company also moved its production from Spain to Italy and began wholesale six months ago, allowing the label to expand both its styles and retail reach. Del Toro is now available at several independent retailers, along with high-end boutiques such as Scoop and American Rag, and the brand will soon be offered on Saks Fifth Avenue’s website, said Chevalard.

The $325 Del Toro by Man Repeller style, however, will be available in very limited quantities — only 50 pairs — and will be offered solely through Del Toro’s website, starting on Nov. 15.

Medine described the style as “a basic loafer with metallic flamingos on them. I am known to call my readers ‘fancy flamingos,’ so the design seemed appropriate. They are totally rad.”

San Francisco’s Union Street Goldsmith Is Now Using Metals From A Scs Certified Green Company

San Francisco, CA (Vocus/PRWEB) May 24, 2011 Union Street Goldsmith uses 100 percent recycled metal from Hoover & Strong, a certified green company by the SCS.

Bruce Weber Talks

The famously shy photographer talks to Lisa Armstrong about his latest project for Moncler.

BY Lisa Armstrong | 26 September 2011

Bruce Weber's Moncler film Photo: Moncler

How do you make an arresting image of a ski jacket? Is a nine-year-old model different, temperamentally speaking, from a 19-year-old model? Do dogs have empathy and does Bruce Weber actually talk?

All these questions and more were addressed on Sunday in the private theatre of an abandoned palazzo in the the middle of Milan where the famously private Weber discussed (tentatively at first) Don't Steal The Jacket , a 24 minute film which is about to hit the internet. Directed by Weber, it stars 28 children, sundry dogs and a soundtrack from Radical Something, a West Coast rocky band with a Tom Cruise look-alike guitarist.

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For the record, the legendary photographer does talk, but reluctantly. "I've always been shy and that's partly why I chose a life behind the lens. I like people to look at my work and hopefully it speaks for itself." And don't ask him what the film is about. The press release suggested it blurs the boundaries between muscials, dreams, thrillers and adventures. Weber says that as with Let's Get Lost , the 1988 biopic he directed about turbulent jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, "It's just about having an experience".

The film will be broken into small, YouTube-able chunks, and Moncler, which doesn't throw its lavish budgets around without due consideration, is clearly anticipating that the Weber filmic "experience" will further position the brand as the outerwear of choice for an aspirationally artistic fashion consumer as well as the usual jet-setters who wear it to pose on the pistes.

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Asked why he chose to make life ten times harder for himself by breaking the two commands of showbiz by working with children and animals, Weber explained. "It's strange in a way, because i don't have any kids. But my favourite relative was my Uncle Arthur who was constantly teased by the rest of the family for his child-like view of life. As a child, people were always trying to photograph and film me because it's a way for a shy person to find themselves. "

Weber has worked with children for more than three decades - first at Ralph Lauren. "I'd photograph them as ten year-olds, then 20 year-olds, then 30 year-olds and they became like family. Hopefully I'll be taking pictures of the children in Don't Steal The Jacket for the rest of my life."

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But 28 on a shoot, including one seven-year-old moonwalker? "All I can say is that my hat goes off to all those parents out there," he said wryly. And the hounds? "It's always pretty difficult shooting dogs, as I tend to pick ones that aren't particularly trained. But I have six of them myself, so i'm drawn to that challenge.

So perhaps dogs, children, humour and a Weber-rian take on nature are the key to making those jackets stand out? (If Weber's previous Moncler campaign starring dogs wearing down jackets didn't stop you in your tracks, you have problems). "The wonderful thing about doing anything is communication - and injecting some fun and fantasy. So much of fashion, or anything really, is pretty serious today and this is a nice way of being a kid."