Celebrities and the fashion elite were out in full force the other night to fete designer Giorgio Armani and the opening of his new Fifth Avenue Armani boutique.
More pics after the jump.

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In this week’s Styles, The New York Times looks into the changes that smaller fashion labels are making this season as the recession continues to hit all areas of pop culture.
With fashion week right around the corner, smaller labels are making tough choices about where to place resources and how to survive the tough economic climate that is being experienced.

In the days before Fashion Week, which begins Feb. 13, a similar story has been playing out in showrooms around the city, as designers adapt to a new reality, one in which talking about new clothes means talking about the new economy. You could sense the dread at a meeting last month between show producers and newspaper reporters to discuss the recession’s impact on Fashion Week, when Paul Wilmot, a leading industry publicist, said, “We need to come up with talking points!” He already knows the question: Who can afford these clothes?

This question that had been asked more tongue in cheek in past years, but this year sounds unusually disarming.
Whereas in past seasons designer’s had carte blanche to let their imagination dance on the catwalks in the form of show pieces, this season is shaping up to be more somber.
Indeed, later in the article Daniel Silver, one half of the industry lauded Duckie Brown label, seems to give answer to the aforementioned question.

“We cannot afford to make clothing that people cannot afford to pay for,” he said.

link: Small Fashion Labels Go Into Survival Mode in These Hard Times - NYTimes.com

Oy!

First Carmen Marc Valvo and Betsey Johnson decide not to show in the tents and now we can add another prominent name to that growing list.

Vera Wang has chosen to forego an expensive runway show in February at the Bryant Park tents. Instead Ms. Wang will host a low key presentation at her Soho boutique.

“We feel that the intimacy of a smaller venue will be the perfect backdrop for the collection and is an appropriate statement for the times,” Ms. Wang said in a statement.

Aaarrgghhh!!!! We’re starting to fear in any designers will show but the Wall Street Journal reports that show organizer extraordinaire IMG Fashion, anticipates a full schedule of shows in February”.

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Due to the economic climate as well as internal melees, the house of Bill Blass is history.

Nearly a decade after Bill Blass retired from Seventh Avenue, the company that bears his name is closing, with many of its remaining staff expected to leave this week. According to current and former designers who have carried on the collection in recent years, the company will close its showroom at 550 Seventh Avenue and eliminate about 30 remaining jobs there as early as Friday.

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So Kanye West has supposedly been wanting to intern for a fashion house to learn the ropes. And guess what? Complex.com has a hypthetical run-down of Kanye West’s first day on the job.

9:45 AM

• Kanye asked to copy and collate a 5-page memo entitled “New Corporate Travel/Expense Procedures” for his boss’ assistant.

10:23 AM

• Kanye satisfactorily finishes assignment (after 15-minute break to send Don C out to pick up Louis Vuitton Band-Aids for his paper cut).

10:25 AM

• Kanye sends out second company-wide, subject-only email: “THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR MAKING MY FIRST COPYING ASSIGNMENT NUMBER ONE IN THIS COMPANY’S HISTORY, EVER!!!! I SENT A COPY OF MY COPIES TO MY BOY FROM THE A AND HE SAYS THE STAPLES ARE PERFECT!!! THIS IS A COPYING AND STAPLING JOB NOBODY CAN FRONT ON!!! I’VE BEEN HEARING THAT STREET NIGGAS THAT HAD CONVERTED TO ELECTRONIC CORRESPONDENCE ONLY ARE GOING BACK TO PAPER ON THE STRENGTH OF MY JOB! IT REMINDS ME OF MY FIRST ASSIGNMENT WHEN EVERYBODY SAID I COULDN’T GET THE COFFEE ORDER RIGHT!!! ME AND THE CANON IMAGEPRESS C1 ARE GONE CHANGE THE DOCUMENT REPRODUCTION GAME FOREVER!!!

10:27 AM

• Kanye called into the boss’ office for “brief chat” about company email protocol.

11:01 AM

• Kanye asked to compile a dossier of “recent fashion-forward looks.”

11:02 AM

• Kanye completes assignment.

11:04 AM

• ‘Ye asked to compile a dossier of “recent fashion-forward looks, not including pictures of yourself or Pharrell.”

Read the rest here.

Barbie may be turning 50 next year, but she isn’t quite ready to trade in her fancy footwear for orthopedic shoes.

Christian Louboutin is designing pumps in iconic Barbie Pantone 219 Pink, which will make their debut at the special runway show that Mattel Inc. is staging during New York fashion week next February.

Fifty as-yet-undisclosed designers will produce Barbie-inspired outfits for the runway, and each of the 50 models will be wearing the pink Louboutins at the show.

“I guess I always had a little ‘girlie side’ who liked Barbie,” Louboutin said. “Barbie needs to wear great

shoes because every girl needs to wear great shoes.”

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Here’s a list of dates for the upcoming IMG produced fashion weeks for the first part of 2009.

JANUARY 2009

The Earth Awards, an EcoStyle event (New York)

January 12

Milan Fashion Week – Moda Uomo

January 17-21

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin

January 28-February 1

FEBRUARY 2009

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (New York)

February 13-20

Milan Fashion Week – Moda Donna

February 25-March 4

Swim Fashion Week at Sanctuary Cove (Gold Coast, Australia)

February 25-28

MARCH 2009

Lakme Fashion Week (Mumbai)

March 21-25

Fashion Week Mexico (Mexico City)

March 23-27

Moscow Fashion Week presented by VISA

March 25-30

APRIL 2009

Rosemount Australian Fashion Week Spring/Summer Collections (Sydney)

April 27-May 1

JUNE 2009

Milan Fashion Week – Moda Uomo

June 20-24

JULY 2009

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim (Miami, FL)

July 15-19

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin

July 16-19

The Golden Globe nominees were announced this morning and that means the red carpets and battle of the gowns is right around the corner on January 11, 2009!

Who’ll be best dressed, who’ll be worst dressed? Who knows. We’ll find out soon enough, but for now we have a list of the second most important decision that night…the nominees themselves!

A full list of the nominees is after the jump:

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Rock & Roll Religion, manufacturer of the English Laundry men’s apparel brand, has announced the execution of an exclusive license agreement with HOT ROD Magazine, the world’s top hot rodding and performance automotive magazine and a publication of Source Interlink Media, LLC. This new licensing agreement for HOT ROD The Clothing Collection enables Rock & Roll Religion to incorporate HOT ROD classic designs and decades of images into a complete line for men, women and juniors.

“We’ve done so well over the last five years with the rock and roll lifestyle, and HOT ROD® is a natural extension of that genre,” said Christopher Wicks, designer and owner of Rock & Roll Religion. “The HOT ROD® brand is iconic, and creating a line of apparel featuring such beloved images from the past 60 years is an exciting venture.”

Sean Holzman, president of Source Interlink Media’s Enterprise Division, states, “Rock & Roll Religion and Christopher Wicks have a proven track record of consistently delivering products of the utmost quality. Licensing the HOT ROD brand to create this new line of apparel is a decision supported by our desire to consistently partner with premiere companies to continue building and marketing our brand effectively.”

HOT ROD The Clothing Collection designs blend Wicks’ notoriously rock and roll inspired pieces with the nostalgic hot rod lifestyle in this apparel collaboration. The collection will make its debut at MAGIC in February 2009. Highlights include HOT ROD inspired tees, tanks, knits, wovens and jackets with a target distribution to major department stores and specialty stores. With the consistent success and mass appeal of both entities, the line is anticipated to be available to consumers across the globe.

“We would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for this one: Anna Wintour and Ralph Lauren. The fabulous fashionistas both arrived on the early side — 12:30 — and were still deep in conversation after much of the dining room had departed. Now that we’ve been assured by Si Newhouse that Anna’s safe at the top of Vogue’s masthead, we have to wonder why the pair looked downright anguished. We watching in fascination as the pair leaned over the table with their foreheads practically touching as Ralph propped his head up with his hands and rubbed his eyes. Tough times for the titan? We can’t imagine…”

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