Fashion bloggers can have large online followings that give them a lot of influence, which is why many are simply called ”influencers.” It’s why brands often pay them to wear—and be photographed—in their clothes. Several of Vogue’s editors have clearly had enough of that.
Cam Newton wears many hats. The Carolina Panthers quarterback is not only the NFL’s reigning MVP, he’s also on a mission to make his league the most stylish in the US.
The fashion industry is in a state of flux. Department stores are suffering. So are mid-tier clothing retailers. Fast fashion and social media are speeding up the entire industry, and many luxury labels are scrambling to make the clothes they show on the runway available as quickly as possible. The way clothes are made, marketed, and distributed is changing in response to consumers’ frenzied appetite for instant shopping gratification.
NFL players seem to be routinely named in scandals that range from the embarrassing to the criminal. USA Today actually keeps a database of the American football league’s players who have been arrested. Even so, Colin Kaepernick is the most disliked player in the league, according to a poll by E-Poll Marketing Research of 1,100 Americans who were demographically representative of the US population.
“Plus-size” is essentially a meaningless term in the US. In a scathing piece for the Washington Post, Project Runway host Tim Gunn recently pointed out that the average American woman is between a size 16 and 18, according to research from Washington State University. The definition of “plus” varies by brand, but often it starts around size 16, making the average American woman part of a special category in the eyes of many retailers.
Fashion is full of boomerangs—those items or styles that, having once shrunk into the distance, suddenly swing back around to return in force. At London Fashion Week, which just ended, a puffy-sleeve boomerang came whizzing back from a great distance this season.
Awards shows aren’t just big moments for nominees. At the 2000 Grammy awards, Jennifer Lopez wore a green Versace dress that plunged well south of her navel. So many people searched for pictures of her and her dress that it led Google to create image search.
The first-ever fashion show held by the five-year-old New York sneaker shop Kith doubled as a victory lap. The Sep. 13 event featured 90 models, men and women, dressed in the brand’s line of sporty streetwear—but it was also a party, featuring rap performances by Mase and The Lox, and celebrity guests such as models Jourdan Dunn and Bella Hadid. A$AP Rocky and JaRule played the after party, held like the main show in Samsung’s “experiential playground” in New York, called Samsung 837. (Kith also created custom designed Samsung Gear S3 watchfaces for the collection.) Outside, a crowd of fans waited to get in like they would at a club or concert.
If there’s one industry in the US changing corporate dress codes, especially among men, it’s technology. Apple’s late founder, Steve Jobs, in his uniform of jeans and a black turtleneck, helped reimagine what a CEO should look like. Today, the exemplar of Silicon-Valley casual has become Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is so synonymous with gray t-shirts that someone created a website last April Fool’s day advertising a fake Zuckerberg line for H&M.
What has fashion got to do with politics? At New York Fashion Week yesterday (Sept. 11), Carol Lim and Humberto Leon of Opening Ceremony made the case that they meet in our identities. That is, our clothes are one way we express who we are, and that freedom of expression is possible because we demand it through the political process.
Reshma Qureshi’s walk down the runway at New York Fashion Week was brief, but her path there was unspeakably difficult. In May 2014, Qureshi and her sister, Gulshan, were attacked in Allahabad in northern India by Gulshan’s estranged husband and two others, in revenge for Gulshan taking their son. When Qureshi fought to protect her sister, the men turned on her and poured concentrated sulfuric acid on her face. The horrific assault permanently disfigured her. She lost sight in one eye as a result, and has endured a long process of treatment and surgeries.
It’s hard to know sometimes if Kanye West’s inflated self-importance is real or not. It’s easy to brush off song lyrics where he compares himself to Jesus, but what about other times, like when he calls himself the “most important living artist?” Is that vision of himself genuine or part of the performance?
At a packed Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco today (Sept. 7), Apple announced its latest array mobile devices, including two new iPhones, an updated Apple Watch, and a new set of wireless headphones called AirPods.
At its big event in San Francisco on Sept. 7, Apple unveiled a new product in collaboration with the world’s biggest sporting brand, Nike.
US president Barack Obama, former NBA star Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and several others have already publicly come to the defense of Colin Kaepernick. You can add a growing number of fans to the list of those supporting the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who has roused controversy by repeatedly refusing to stand for the US national anthem before games to protest racial injustice and police brutality toward black Americans.
As the planet keeps warming, more and more people are turning to air conditioning to fight the heat. That’s already putting a major strain on energy resources. But a team of scientists is working on a new option to keep comfortable in sweltering conditions.
As Quartz’s fashion reporter, I write a lot about sustainability. Between pesticides required to grow raw materials for clothes and toxic chemicals used to dye and finish them, fashion is a major polluter—and that includes men’s clothing as much as women’s.
Since its founding in 1895 by Alessandro Berluti, a shoemaker from a tiny Italian port town who found a clientele in fin-de-siècle Paris, Berluti has built a reputation for exacting quality. Like suit brand Brioni, it became a staple among well-heeled men, such as John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra. Under the guidance of CEO Antoine Arnault, in 2012 the brand branched out into a full menswear line, including suits, to complement its high-end shoes.
The new perfume ad by the luxury brand Kenzo starts with all the genre’s most notoriously terrible clichés: Here we have the beautiful woman in a fancy dress, the lavish setting, and the desire to escape.
Many celebrities showed up. Several sang. But MTV’s Video Music Awards belonged to Beyoncé and Rihanna last night (Aug. 28).
Izzy doesn’t wear jeans. The 8-year-old New Yorker prefers stretchy leggings, but they can’t be too tight, they can’t have annoying seams, and they must be made of something soft, not rough or itchy. Oh, and they can’t be too loose, either. ”When it’s loose it also feels weird,” says Izzy, short for Isadora.
As the world’s most popular search engine, Google has a decent idea of what people look to buy. In a couple of new posts to its “Think With Google” site, which provides insight for digital marketers, it put its analytical prowess to work examining what people are wearing and what’s trending as kids head back to school. The results reflect what you’ve probably noticed by walking around, and what you’re likely to see more of in the months ahead.
You’d hardly expect swimwear to be central to the ”battle of cultures” between France and Islam, as French Prime Minister Manuel Valls described it. Yet the burkini, a full-body covering swimsuit, has become its focal point after more than a dozen towns along France’s coast have now banned the garment. Officially, the burkini conflicts with France’s secularism, but other reasons have come up. “The burkini is not a new range of swimwear, a fashion,” Valls has said. “It is the expression of a political project, a counter-society, based notably on the enslavement of women.”
Designer Sonia Rykiel, known for her easy striped knits and unconstrained designs, has died at 86 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
