You Go, Swirl Dress

You hardly need encouragement when you wear this partially lined, aqua and pink paisley-print dress by Moon Collection because its abundant details give you all the confidence you need! Look closely at its print, and you'll see that its paisleys are actually in the form of flowering bud and leaf clusters, nonchalantly posing as treasured vintage patterns. Its yoke is constructed of embroidered netting, which lines its A-line skirt's bottom hem as well, and you'll appreciate its pure cotton fabric, cloud white fabric-covered buttons, and tie self-belt. When you wear it with navy tights, wicker-lined wedges, and gemstone stud earrings, you'll emanate the phrase that drew you to this frock in the first place

Let It All Pinstripe Dress

Life is about embracing experiences and welcoming change for the better! When you wear this charming, navy and smoke pinstripe dress by Jack by BB Dakota, you'll feel ready for anything! Its structured cutout straps are lined with scalloped, crocheted lace which extends around its peek-a-boo crocheted back and functional, exposed back zipper, creating an interesting mixture of textures and features among its otherwise classic dress cut. Try pairing this pure cotton, fully lined lovely with a thin, buckled belt just above its slightly gathered waistline, wooden hoop earrings, and worn-in cowboy boots when you want to invite life in with a welcoming hello

Featured Performer Dress

Now, the one you've all been waiting for! We'd like to welcome to the stage, the hand-beaded and petal-dotted LBD that everyone's talking about! It's no wonder! Just look at how it masters looking classic and boasting modern features at the very same time. Its wrap-front skirt is layered with crisscrossing panels, which add edge to its pencil-shaped bottom, while its sheer, beaded shoulders and three-dimensional petal embellishments evoke enchantment along its rounded V-neck top. Zip the side of this fully lined dress, and pair it with deep burgundy tights, patent peep-toes, and a beaded wristlet for a look worthy of donning during the main act

Singing the Blooms Dress

With this adorable-as-a-giggle dress bringing rays of feel-good style into your world, there’s no way you feel down whenever it's around! Mixing the best of retro wear with the finest of modern-day sensibilities, this delightful dress boasts a strapless, yellow pastel bodice atop a shimmery, bubblegum chiffon-overlay skirt, the both of which are covered in an ebullient array of embroidery-edged flowers with free-floating petals. Dazzle this frock with silver accessories, velvet heels, and a netted-veil fascinator to spread joy from your life to others

Jill of All Trades Dress in VP

As a modern woman, you're more than proficient in all that you do. Now, all you need is a dress to proclaim it! Shout your audacity from the rooftop with this jade frock! Its graceful cowl neck, beautiful belted waist, and sweet side pockets will provide the perfect statement for any forward-thinking fashionista! We especially love the contrast of the black patent belt against the deep, blue-green background of this dress! To show everyone what you are made of, pair with patent leather pointed-toe shoes, sheer black tights, and a determined attitude

Tumbled Stones Dress

Like river rocks made smooth and zen by the rush of water, you'll have a calming appearance in this sleeveless dress! Covered in a dapple of rich brown, absorbing black, and slate and fog grey, this pintuck-yoked, slightly sheer frock will fill you with a peaceful feeling. Swap its sash tie for a tall shimmery belt, lace canvas flats on over sheer socks, and scatter gold accessories at your extremities to created a polished look of poise

Amethyst Heel

As with the gemstones you collect and cherish, you also have a penchant for breathtakingly beautiful shoes. These peep toe pumps, from designer favorite Seychelles, radiate bright style with their adorable, retro-inspired d'Orsay silhouette and green wedge heel. The textured, mint fabric upper and coordinating polka dot-printed bow are just a few facets of this shoe's beauty. When paired with nubby ankle socks, a flirty buffalo plaid dress, golden accessories, and a ribbon headband, these shoes will surely render your look priceless.

Urban Expedition Wedge

t's not often you have the opportunity to hop the train and spend the whole day browsing about the city, so when you do, you like to dress up. For today's trip to the skyscrapers, you decided to wear a tea-length black skirt, an oversized knit top, a few long-chained pendants, and the crowning joy of your outfit - these vegan-friendly, café-au-lait wedges! Ultra chic, these peep toe wedges shout avant-garde style with their scrunched vamp and ankle-wrap tie. Looking as good as you do in these shoes and their companion pieces, you can catwalk down the sidewalk with well-justified confidence!

Flash of Foliage Tunic

Like a gleam of light glinting off of a dew-covered branch, this sequined chiffon tunic simply sparkles. This floaty frock, boasting a leaf-patterned neckline and hem, will have you prancing like a woodland creature as you enter the annals of style. Wear it with noir knit stockings, round-toe rosy heels, and a structured blazer for an ensemble that combines old-fashioned elegance with modern-day chic.

Everyday Embellishments Tee

here's no denying it, you're a T-shirt and jeans sort of gal. But hey, that doesn't mean you're lacking a sharp sense of style. With its super soft knit construction and sewn-on collar of ribbon and mesh adornments, this incredibly unique top is a perfect candidate for your closet. At heart, it's a basic white tee with a scoop neck and short sleeves, but the lively addition of a hodgepodge of crafty decorations in a variety of colors makes this one standout piece. Step out of your norm and don this darling with a pleated cotton skirt, frilly ankle socks, and shiny flats for an ensemble that's comfy, casual, and chic, to boot

Resplendent Romper

 As easygoing as playing in the park, this striped cotton romper is a gorgeous garment for chasing the clouds away! With its sleeveless, V-neck shape, generous front pockets for ticket stubs and love notes, and drawstring waist that's a 'cinch' to secure, the romper of your dreams is right in front of your eyes. Slip it over a pair of opaque grey stockings, pull on a nubby cardi and lace-up flats, and you'll be ready for cartwheels in no time!

True Love Watch

Take one look at this sweet accessory, and your palms will inevitably sweat, your heart will skip a beat, and your stomach may cultivate a few frisky butterflies. Yes, it's love, and when it comes to this cool watch, it's easy to see why. Attached to the white leather band of this timepiece is a golden, textural heart. A heart-shaped watch is set into the metal, giving this fab accessory some serious functionality. Wear with a plain white T and jeans or a fancy, sequined frock. You'll fall in love with this purchase each and every time you don its beauty.

Terrific Terrapin Necklace

This too cool turtle isn't shy - he's just waiting to be added to your next elegant ensemble! Featuring geometric detailing and heart-shaped cutouts on its belly, this nifty necklace looks great with a simple white tee and skinnies, or lying against the bodice of a boho maxi dress. Bring this jaunty piece of jewelry into your collection for a chic conversation piece!

Beyonce at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards

A glowing Beyonce attended last night’s 53rd annual Grammy awards wearing a alluring black sequined blazer and black sequin shorts, accessorized by $1,370 Christian Louboutin Double Platform Python Pumps: She added a long silver necklace as an accent.
Get her look for a splurge or a steal with these items:

Alexander McQueen, RIP

The news that Alexander McQueen has killed himself is particularly devastating because it always felt to me like he’d be the last man standing. He was restless, but so pragmatic with it I assumed he had what it took to endure the extreme situations he placed himself in. He was also an arch romantic with a pessimistic streak. It produced some of the most beautiful, shocking images in the history of fashion, but it’s a state of mind that can lead to endless disappointments. The death of McQueen’s mother last week would have validated his pessimism. It would undoubtedly have taken away his most vital support. It’s awful to imagine him trying—and failing—to cope, and one can only hope that, if he was looking for peace, he found it. For everyone left behind, there will eventually be consolation, however scant right now, in a body of work whose power will never die.

Hail, Odd Fellow

Marlon Gobel is a former assistant of Thom Browne’s who shares some of his old boss’ interests: namely, in mid-century American archetypes of masculinity, and the way a generous application of glitter or velvet can upend them. His line is still small—a testament, he said after his show at the Park Avenue Armory Thursday, to “what one guy, his boyfriend, and his intern can do”—and available only at Bergdorf Goodman. But judging from the influential attendees in the audience (a full coterie from Barneys among them), that could change.

If it does, Gobel’s collection, which often veers close to the precious, may need to shift a bit, too. Gobel’s taste for full-tilt luxury (his is the first men’s show for which Christian Louboutin contributed a full assortment of glittered and bell-bedecked shoes) may make sales a challenge. His trouser-cut, wide-wale cords, offered here in a rainbow of colors, were the retail takeaway. For spectacle, there were velvet blazers hand-painted with ocean or forest scenes, cashmere and mohair jackets that sparkled, a Fair Isle featuring unicorns.

Gobel was inspired, he said, by the fraternal orders that flourished in America in the nineteenth century, and he offered his own dandily sartorial members-only club, complete with fezes. His show notes mentioned its centuries-old predecessors: the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was one. That could’ve been the title of this whole collection, frankly. But an Odd Fellow on his own can get to feeling lonesome, and fraternity is a noble goal. Today’s odd and flashy fellows deserve their couturier, too. Here he is, boys.

Westwood Begins

Vivienne Westwood is the latest designer to heed the call of L.A. The designer has just opened her first U.S. flagship, located on a prime stretch of Melrose Avenue—a three-story, 10,000-square-foot retail space, designed by Westwood and her CEO for America, Cristiano Minchio, inspired by gilded Parisian hotels. It will also house the brand’s first U.S. showroom. Having quietly opened its doors on Friday, at the outset of Grammy weekend and just two weeks shy of the Academy Awards, Minchio confirmed that “being here [in L.A.], we are now positioned to work with even more celebrities than we already do. It’s why Los Angeles as a market is so important for us right now.” (Last night, the label scored a Grammy coup: Glee star Dianna Agron wore Westwood’s Gold Label.)

Taking up the first half of the eco-friendly space is the accessible Anglomania collection, which has expanded to meet the renewed interest in the brand. The MAN range also occupies a sizable chunk of real estate, accentuated by European stone and brass details. Also on hand are Westwood’s signatures: accessories including the iconic pirate boots, tartan plaids, the Red Label, and her corseted Gold Label dresses that sit poised for their red-carpet turn.

The SoCal location may seem a bit unexpected for the international brand, which doesn’t yet have an NYC outpost, but the choice was obvious for the It-Brit label. Los Angeles is “halfway between London and Shanghai, which are the two major centers of our business. We will get to New York, too, but we wanted to start out in the U.S. here,” Minchio says. Expect a strategic rollout of more U.S. locations to come.

In France We’re Pretty Naughty—We’re Not A Prude Population”

Talk about an eye-catching window display. Last night, at the opening party for Agent Provocateur’s new Madison Avenue boutique, lingerie-clad models were gyrating wildly and working their way up and down a stripper pole. More than a few passersby stopped to watch and take photos. We even spotted a school bus slowing down.

“Today, when we were rehearsing, we had traffic stopped on Madison. We had police cars outside,” said the brand’s creative director, Sarah Shotton. Turns out New York’s Finest was just doing a friendly check-in. “They came in and shook the doorman’s hand. They said he had the best job in the world. So I think they’ll be looking after us,” Shotton concluded.

The brand will be hoping for the same warm welcome in Los Angeles, where it opens a store on Rodeo Drive store on Thursday. That means more eyes on the racy new film the brand shot with Josephine de la Baume, which features the French beauty enticing an unseen voyeur in bra and panties.

“It made me think of Rear Window, and there’s something very French New Wave about it,” explained de la Baume, who was circulating in a sheer tulle dress from the label’s Soirée collection. “In France we’re pretty naughty—we’re not a prude population.” Meanwhile, around her, dancers in cowboy leather swung their nipple tassels and pulled bananas out of their holsters.

How The Band Cookie Crumbles

Can Scott Sternberg ever be normal? Answer: No. Trust the Band of Outsiders designer to eschew the hip, hard-to-get-into spots when he throws a party to celebrate his first runway show on Saturday night, and instead decamp to Zaitzeff Burgers, a homey, perpetually under-attended joint in the East Village. Kirsten Dunst (above, with Sternberg), Aziz Ansari, Humberto Leon, Carol Lim, David Chang, and Dick Page joined Sternberg and his team for burgers and fries, not to mention beers and Dewar’s, and talk turned (as it must, when Sternberg is around) to cookies. Exhibit B, in the ongoing non-normalness of Scott Sternberg: The lemony cookies on the seats at the Band of Outsiders show. They were called Lemon Tree Huggers, which must be shorthand for the Best Cookie Ever. Sternberg recruited Momofuku Milk Bar pastry chef Christina Tosi, who previously contributed a Thai spiced cookie to his Fashion’s Night Out concession stand one September not long ago, to whip up an exclusive confection. “You will never eat that cookie again,” said Sternberg, sounding rather Heraclitus-like. “It existed only for the show.” Sternberg went on to note that Tosi’s cookie was subject to the same exacting scrutiny as the clothes in the new Band, Boy and Girl collections. “There was a lot of debate over the size of the cookie,” he recalled. “I thought they should be normal size. Some people thought a normal-size cookie at a fashion might be a little, you know, gauche. We finally agreed on a 3/4 scale.” Speaking on behalf of the BOO show attendees: Had we known we’d never taste that cookie again, the additional 1/4 would have been welcome.

J.Lo’s L.A. Lunch

Not all the fashion action is happening at Lincoln Center and Milk Studios this week. Yesterday, Gucci’s Frida Giannini was honored at UNICEF’s inaugural Women of Compassion Luncheon in L.A. before a crowd that included Camilla Belle, Mary J. Blige, and lensman Patrick Demarchelier.

Jennifer Lopez, now starring in the ads for Gucci’s children’s collection alongside twins Max and Emme, was on hand to present the designer with her award. “We actually met when I was about to pop, maybe two weeks before I gave birth at the big Malawi fundraiser she did with Madonna,” Lopez (left, with Giannini) told Style.com. “Every child in the world, in essence, could be yours,” she went on. “It makes you want to do things and work toward helping in any way you can, in every way you can.”

Giannini, for her part, will stay in town for the Grammys—no word on who she’s dressing, but she’s in fittings for most of the day today. After that it’s back to Milan. With less than two weeks before her Fall show, she dropped some hints about her impending collection. “You will see an explosion of color, which is very unusual for a Fall collection.”

Alexander Wang Is GQ’s Best New Menswear Designer In America

It seems Wang can do no wrong. Alexander Wang, who dipped a toe in the waters of menswear with his T collection for men, was named the winner of GQ’s annual Best New Menswear Designer in America award, which comes with a mentorship with Dockers, Bloomingdale’s, and the magazine’s editors, and the opportunity to design a piece for a limited-edition Dockers capsule collection. All six nominated labels (T by Alexander Wang, Gant by Michael Bastian, Patrik Ervell, Warriors of Radness, Miller’s Oath, and Riviera Club) were fêted at a bash, in New York last night where—before the winner was even announced—GQ creative director Jim Moore took a moment to single out Wang as someone he envisioned growing in the men’s business. “He was doing T-shirts and hoodies, and when we approached him, he said, ‘Don’t you think it’s a little bit early on?’ ” Moore recalled. “I said no, I think you have the potential to be a great American menswear designer. It pushed him to expand his categories.” Alexander Wang and Dockers in the same sentence—sounds like an expansion to us.

Prabal Gurung’s Fashion Week

In the lead-up to New York fashion week, designers go through hundreds of behind-the-scenes preparations to arrive at the completed show. This NYFW, we’ve sweet-talked a few of them into giving us an exclusive peek behind the curtain as they cast, score, style, and ready their presentations. Next up: Prabal Gurung.“It’s all about the details—the perfect draping and fit is crucial to each and every piece. I had [patternmaker] Nicolas Caito come in and work his brilliance. And the blush pink color of this dress…well, kind of makes me blush!” Read the rest of this entry >

Tory Burch’s Fashion Week Diary

In the lead-up to New York fashion week, designers go through hundreds of behind-the-scenes preparations to arrive at the completed show. This NYFW, we’ve sweet-talked a few of them into giving us an exclusive peek behind the curtain as they cast, score, style, and ready their presentations. First up: Tory Burch. 

Vena Cava’s New Accessory

Among the hats, shades, and shoes that hit the Vena Cava catwalk tomorrow, there’s one VC-designed accessory you won’t see: a condom. But Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, whose Fall collection debuts tomorrow, can check prophylactic creation off their bucket lists; they’re the latest designers to collaborate with Proper Attire, the company that each season taps a designer or label to create its packaging. For their three boxes, Mayock and Buhai created hand-drawn, conversational prints, like those they feature in their collections. One box features euphemisms for sex; another, euphemisms for condoms; a third, the famous “No Glove, No Love.”

“We just thought it would be so cool to have condom packaging that was not so serious—that wasn’t any kind of sleek, slick-looking box. It’s just not how we approach design in general,” Mayock said from their studio the day before the show. “We wanted to use our hand-drawn prints that we’re known for, but also to make packaging that would be a conversation starter,” Buhai added. If you want to start conversations, you’ve got to supply the words. Here are two more: Planned Parenthood, which benefits from the sale of every pack at locations like select Thompson Hotels, Opening Ceremony, and the Museum of Contemporary Art store in Los Angeles.

Prabal: The Preview

This Saturday, Prabal Gurung presents his latest collection at Lincoln Center. The celeb-adored designer is collaborating with Swarovski for crystal-embellished frocks and tops, and he’s debuting a preview of the glittering pieces exclusively on Style.com (above). The season, Gurung says, “draws on romantic styles seen throughout Victorian times with a slightly savage, street-wise edge.” Gurung is only one of the beneficiaries of Swarovski’s crystal largesse this fashion week, as part of its long-running collaboration program. Other designers will be announced in the days to come.

And for more from Prabal, check back with us later in the week, when he’ll share his fashion week prep diary in the lead-up to his show.

On Point And En Pointe For Fall

The weekend before the kickoff of New York fashion week, up-and-coming jewelry designer Bliss Lau threw a small dinner to toast her Fall ‘11 collection of feudally inspired chain and leather body jewelry—or “sensual armor,” as she calls it. (She often takes design inspiration from the arms and armor wing of the Met.) “I like the idea of covering the body,” Lau says of her long, draped pieces. “It’s the suggestion of clothing.”

Sunday night, that suggestion was being made by a troupe of six ballerinas, each modeling a piece, who dipped before guests to a somber Philip Glass soundtrack. Lau’s fellow jewelry designer, Bijules’ Jules Kim—herself wearing a Bliss Lau “Kill Joy” vest—looked on approvingly. “Every season, designers want new ways to display their goods,” Kim said, “and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on models standing against a wall. Dancers are emotive.”

The emotions they stirred were a bit different from those felt at sports bars all over town, as the Packers bested the Steelers, but Lau’s guests didn’t seem to mind. “Thank God we live in New York,” opined Michelle Harper, in a Rudi Gernreich top and vintage white mink vest. “You can Super Bowl Sunday all you want and eat like a million chicken wings—or you can have oysters with caviar and ballerinas prancing about you.”

The Future of Fashion, Part Seven: Carine Roitfeld

In this ongoing series, Style.com’s editor in chief, Dirk Standen, talks to a number of leading industry figures about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the fashion business.


“This is my new office,” Carine Roitfeld jokes when I meet her in the lobby of the Carlyle on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It is less than a week since she officially vacated her throne as editor in chief of Paris Vogue, and in this darkly lit grand hotel, it’s tempting to see Roitfeld, with her gray fur jacket and Russian roots, as a glamorous aristocrat in sudden exile. It’s an exile that will be short-lived, no doubt. She has already exerted an unmistakable influence on fashion, not once but twice: first with the porno-chic aesthetic she co-authored in the nineties as a stylist for Mario Testino and Tom Ford, then of Gucci; later, with her provocative, photo-driven, decade-long tenure at Vogue. Now everyone is speculating about her next act.


The moment we slide into a booth and Roitfeld removes a pair of Tom Ford sunglasses the size of saucers, a different woman emerges: talkative, immensely charming, unafraid to appear vulnerable, yet also fiercely determined. I barely have a chance to turn on my tape recorder before she is off and running on a variety of subjects: her mysterious departure from Vogue, the need to promote young talent, and dinners à trois with Riccardo Tisci and Karl Lagerfeld.


You were saying?
It’s strange for me to come back here to New York during the fashion show season and not to be the editor in chief of French Vogue. Of course, I’ve done it before when I was just a freelancer, but ten years is a long time. It’s like 20 times I came here for the shows, and suddenly I’m not the editor in chief. That’s a custom, so it’s hard to now be a freelance editor. But it’s exciting, too.


You’re skipping the circus this time?
I’m not going to the shows. Maybe I will see some friends at previews, but mostly I’ve come for the amfAR gala on Wednesday. I’m a big supporter of amfAR. And my son is giving an exhibition on Thursday. And I have to finish my book for Rizzoli. I’m very late, so it’s my last days to finish it. It’s supposed to come out September or maybe October of this year. So I have a lot of appointments. I’m quite busy.


The book is a look back at your career?
It’s a bit like that. I never like to go back, so to go back to a picture you did 20 years ago, it’s almost like going to a shrink. It’s a lot of emotion…Most of the pictures are the ones I did with Mario Testino…It’s mostly dedicated to Mario, that book.


Does one shoot stand out in your memory?
There are different ones, of course. I had a very good period where I was working at French Glamour and I was working for The Face. The “butcher” shoot with Eva Herzigova and those sort of stories. They’re memorable stories, and you say why? Maybe because it’s not just about fashion. It’s because it’s a moment of the time.


You’ve been working on the book with [editor] Olivier Zahm and [art director] Alex Wiederin?
Always I like to have trouble. It’s not easy to have two big personalities like Olivier Zahm and Alex Wiederin working together, with me in the middle. But I know “star wars.” I spent a lot of time between Tom Ford and Mario Testino, so I learned how to deal with it.


Speaking of Tom Ford, people are curious if you’re going to work together again.
No, no, I’m not going to work with Tom. That was ten years ago. If I look back at my CV, when I was freelance, I worked mostly ten years with Tom Ford at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. And after [that] I stopped and it was ten years at French Vogue. Now it’s a new decade and I don’t want to be doing what I was doing ten years ago. Of course, Tom is my friend and if he asks me what I think, I will answer. But I will not go and stay one week before the show and work with him.


What did you think of the super-exclusive show he did in New York?
I think it was very smart of him, just 100 journalists in his shop, and he was talking about each model and he had a sense of humor, so you see a lot of people laughing, which is fun…He did totally the contrary of everyone else and he made a big buzz, a big excitement. I think it was good not to see the [clothes] afterwards immediately on the blogs. For the editors, you feel more VIP, and it makes the buzz bigger and everyone knows about the Tom Ford collection. And really nothing came out. It was very controlled. Tom is a very controlled person, so he controlled everything…And his genius is to make the girls even more beautiful than they already are. It’s his talent. One of the girls was my daughter, and when she came out, I was anxious for her, but I thought, my gosh, she had never been so beautiful…I don’t know what he’s going to do for the next one.

Alber Elbaz

As we enter a new decade, the fashion business, like the rest of the world, is encountering significant economic and technological change. In this series, Style.com’s editor in chief, Dirk Standen, talks to a number of leading industry figures about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

When Alber Elbaz phoned me from Paris, it was 8 p.m. there. The end of a long workday? No, he said, he was planning on spending a couple more hours in the studio after we finished. The word poetic invariably attaches itself to descriptions of the clothes Elbaz designs for Lanvin, but you get the feeling that behind the famous floppy bow tie, there is a hard-won sense of resolve. During our conversation, somewhat condensed here, he spoke frankly about the problems the industry faces, his observations frequently punctuated by bursts of humor.

I’ve been asking everyone this question, but I’m particularly interested in your perspective as a designer. What role does a fashion show still play in delivering your message?
It’s almost like asking someone what is the role of a table if you want to serve dinner. Of course you can have some dinner in bed and you can have it also on a plate and just on the floor, but I think that when you put it on the table, it’s the most pragmatic. There are certain things that I guess are essential and this is one of them.

There’s been a lot of talk about doing shows on film, but it sounds like the live experience and a live audience are still very important to you.
Maybe I’m kind of an old fashioned guy, I don’t know. I think that if you want to pass emotion you have to write a letter. Emotions do not pass in SMS or in e-mail. I think that you have to be there, you have to feel it…I know that now with Facebook, some people tell me, “Oh, I have 700 friends.” Another person tells me, “I have 3,000 friends.” And I tell them I have only two friends. So now who has more friends? They do or I do? And how do you actually value it, by number or quality? I believe that we have to go forward and I believe that we have to go with change, but there are certain things that are beautiful to leave as they are. And fashion is not always about what’s new, it’s also about what’s good. And I think if you need to see what’s good, you have to be there.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been, but I’ve been surprised by how passionate people are about this. Buyers, critics, designers, they all still feel that, despite the overscheduling, live fashion shows are important.
I think the problem is that we all feel we have too many of those. I think this is the major problem that we are all feeling and experiencing. And I always say that doing a collection is almost like writing a book or making a movie, and I don’t know any other industry that can produce six movies a year by the same director. That’s the thing. You cannot write six books a year. You cannot produce six movies. You can’t do six collections a year. And I think this is actually what is making fashion be the way it is today. I know a lot of people complain that there is not enough change and that fashion in the past was much more creative than today, and I think a big part of this phenomenon is that we don’t have the time to think, we don’t have the time to project, we don’t have the time to digest. I’m not talking about, like, “Oh, we need to travel for inspiration,” because I do in fact believe that the best traveling you do is from your couch while you eat potato chips. But I think we just need the time to think and to look at it again and to have another perspective.

When I go out sometimes to this kind of fashion event and I see other designers, I see that one of them has a pain in the back and the other one has a migraine and the third one is exhausted, because we are going through this process that is endless. And I think that today editors are feeling the same way, because they have to travel the world season after season and just see and write the reviews in a taxi where they don’t have the time to think about it. Whatever you see today is maybe not what you really feel tomorrow. You just have to see and shoot. And I think buyers are going through the same thing, because there was a time when they used to be staying also in the store, not just looking at computers and numbers. When you go to the doctor, you don’t want the doctor to look only at the computer, you want the doctor to look at you. And I think the buyers used to be also on the floor, looking at the customer, seeing the merchandise and how it works on the floor or doesn’t. And today they are just traveling from one collection to another, from a pre-collection in New York to a pre-collection in Paris, and it’s endless. And I do feel there is this kind of extreme fatigue that everyone is talking about and there is a need for a change.

I hear everything you’re saying, but do you really think it’s possible that there could be a change?
I think it’s possible. The only way it will be possible is if we all work together…Somehow if we do work together with the magazines and with the stores, we can make changes. I would be totally pessimistic if I did not believe in change. We are in an industry that is the industry of change. I mean, we are changing from season to season, but we cannot change the system? We cannot change the formula? No, I think we can. It’s a matter of time, it’s a matter of initiative and courage, for that one person to reunite all of us and say, you know what, let’s do it differently, let’s go back to enjoying fashion. Almost every designer I know says, “Alber, this is the only thing I know how to do.” I feel myself I’m pretty clumsy. I don’t know how to do computers. I don’t drive. If I didn’t know how to do fashion, I think I would be homeless. So the fact is that I do know how to do it and I do love it. I just want to enjoy it a little bit more.

What’s the balance between refining the signature of the house each season and doing something new? It seems to me there’s tremendous pressure now to do something completely new every time.
You know I [said to] my partner a few months ago, “I have a question.” He said, “What is it?” I said, “Do you think we’re still cool.” And he said, “Alber, we were never cool.” And you know what? I prefer being relevant to being cool, because if you’re cool, you’re also cold the next day. So it’s more about being relevant. The one thing that always scares me is to be like the Miss America of the moment, because next year there is a new Miss America.

You worked for Geoffrey Beene for a number of years. Could a designer like that, who worked a little bit outside the system, refining his signatures, exist today?
I think a good designer can exist everywhere and anywhere and all the time. It’s all about being good, and I think that our job basically is to make women and men look good. That’s all. It’s a job. I’m not coming in the morning and trying to be hype and cool and to go to parties to promote myself. If someone invites me to a party and I end up going, it’s not because I’m trying to do PR for my clothes. I want to go and enjoy myself and I want to have great food and I want to have good company. That’s what I’m looking for in those parties. I’m not looking for promotion for a dress because the dress can promote herself. So working also for all these years with Geoffrey Beene and working with Yves Saint Laurent, I had two of the best designers of the twentieth century that were my teachers, my mentors. And what I learned from both of them is that it’s not just about being cool, it’s about coming to work day after day. You come in the morning and you stay late at night and you come weekends and you work. You just come to work. It’s a job. It’s a major job to help men and women look beautiful.

The Yves Saint Laurent job didn’t end that happily for you, and you’ve been at other fashion houses before you had this wonderful run at Lanvin. Is there anything you’ve learned from your past experiences?
From every place or everything you do, you learn what to do and also you learn what not to do…I would not change anything if you would ask me. I would still go through the experience I went through. I learned a lot from it. I went through a certain experience that wasn’t easy, but guess what? Nothing is easy anyway, so I’m fine with that.

You’re very involved in fabric research, using new fabrics. Is that an area where developments in technology have made things more interesting than in the past?
When I started at Lanvin eight years ago, I remember going to Lyons and asking to see some of the fabrics, and I saw these amazing, amazing failles and duchesse satins, but they were very rigid…So I asked the owner if he could maybe stonewash them or do some different treatment to make them less [rigid], and he told me that I’m actually destroying his industry, that I’m not respecting the tradition. But at the same time he did take a few yards of fabric and made a try, and I made the piece. And a few months later, when he saw the order, he didn’t accuse me of destroying the industry; he was actually thanking me for keeping the industry alive.

By the same token some companies tell you, “Oh my God, this is such a modern fabric.” And I’m for modernity, I’m feeling more like someone who works in a laboratory than an atelier, so I say, “OK, let me see what a modern fabric is.” But if that modern fabric cannot be cut because the fabric is so nervous, if the fibers are so sharp that you cannot cut it and you have to sew a paper on every piece of fabric, this is not modern…The whole idea is to find this kind of harmony between newness and tradition, between yesterday and today. It’s not just about being modern and high-tech and going forward. In order to go forward you have to have some base, you have to come from somewhere.

You know, we do fabrics four times a year. We finish the show on Friday, and I am in the showroom on Saturday and Sunday, and Monday morning I start with the fabrics, because it takes the fabric manufacturer about two to three months to deliver. So in order for me to have them ready for my new pre-collection, I have to do it the day after the show. And you know what? The last thing I want to do the day after the show is to look at fabrics, but I have to do it.

Everyone I’ve spoken to says the designer has the hardest job.
I think so. And Miss America.

Presumably you have to have a successful accessories business to survive these days.
Definitely. But you have to have everything successful. You know, we are an independent company, so we’re not part of a group. We’re not in this luxury [conglomerate] where we can say, “Daddy, help us and move us forward.” We have to produce in order to have a salary for the people who work for us. This is the pressure I feel season after season when I sketch. When I have this one week I take to sketch, I sit in my apartment and I try to sketch, and all I think about is the people that are working there, that I have to do a good job in order for them to have a salary. And that’s a huge pressure, season after season. And in a way I think that a big part of my work is for the people who work with me. These are the people who are realizing my dream. These are the people who are there in good days and bad days. And I feel sometimes like a conductor with a troupe, but sometimes I feel like the pianist, and sometimes I’m also the piano. But this is what the designer’s life is all about.

You’re not shielded from the commercial side? You look at the sales figures.
I check the sales every morning, every morning, every morning. It’s not that I work on commission and I want to see how much I’m going to get tonight. It’s not about that. But I need to know if I’m doing something right. When I came back to fashion after thinking that I’m going to [give it up] after Saint Laurent, I decided at the time that I’m only going to work with people I love and I only want to do things I love. Because in my past, some of the pieces that I thought were the worst turned out to be the best sellers. And these are those moments that you ask yourself, “Are you losing it, Alber? Or is it bizarre that everything you hate is a best seller?” So I decided that I’m not going to do it anymore. I’m only going to do clothes that I love and I’m going to do that with people that I enjoy working with. And that changed in a way the strategy of my way of working at Lanvin. I worked it differently. I made it differently. And I think that for me commercial is not a bad word. Commercial is not the word that has to be said only by CEOs. It has to be something that is maybe the essence of design, because design has some sort of art in it and creation, but it’s also some object that you have to use. There is also this pragmatic end to it. It has be something that you kind of dream about but also think about, so in a way it has to come from your heart and your brain at the same time. You know, a dress without a zipper, even if it’s gorgeous, if there is no zip, you cannot get in.

Lanvin’s collaboration with [Swedish denim company] Acne was well received. Would you consider a collaboration with one of the fast-fashion retailers?
Not for the moment. I haven’t thought of it.

Is there anything luxury fashion can learn from fast fashion?
The interesting thing is that luxury houses, a lot of the time, are companies that have this heritage. And the high street companies are almost working like start-ups. The one thing I find quite fascinating is that in art, in music, all this, if you, God forbid, copy a line from a book or you use some sort of ideas from a video clip of a musician, you are going to be sued for the rest of your life. In fashion I have the feeling that everything goes, that everybody can take it and use it like it’s theirs. And sometimes I have to tell you that I sit and work in the studio days and nights and weekends on an idea, and then a week or a month or two months after the show I see it everywhere, and I don’t know if I have to be happy about it or sad. I guess I decided not to look and wear, like, thick sunglasses in purple and red, so when people ask me, did you see, I say I don’t speak English.

You don’t tweet or blog yourself. In general, have those new forms of expression affected fashion in a good or bad way?
I think it’s part of life. You cannot critique it. It’s not about me sitting here and complaining about things. It’s not. I see it and it’s great…It’s part of this generation. It’s almost like asking if all these reality shows like American Idol are good or bad. Of course there is a great element there. It brings the dream to a part of society that could never have it…At the same time, I feel that the star system is not the reality, so even if you call it a reality show, in a way it’s not at all the reality. Because it’s not overnight that you become a singer. It’s not overnight that you become a star fashion designer. It’s a lot of time, of devotion, of hard work. You know, you can buy silicone, you can buy plastic, you can buy surgery. The only thing you cannot buy is muscles, because in order to have muscles you have to work hard, devote your life to it. This is the one thing that people still cannot buy. I think also in our own métier, it’s not about finishing school and starting your own business, running to become the new thing. I think you have to give the time to learn, to understand, to do some work, and then you move forward.

Talking about instant successes, have you followed the rise of the fashion bloggers?
I have to tell you, I love bloggers. And I’m not telling you that because I’m [trying to] bribe them. Every morning I wake up and I see the blogs. There is something very innocent. There is something very honest. You can say, OK, they didn’t have the experience of seeing things. But again it’s another medium. That’s their opinion and it’s interesting to see how politically incorrect they are. Of course, when they say, “Oh my God, I love it,” I’m extremely happy. And when they say, “Oh my God, it’s a piece of shit,” I hate it…We are living in an instant society, so everything has to be quick and everything has to be big and everything has to be now. And I think this is also a reflection of society, so it’s not something that we can sit and judge and say, well, I think it’s right or I think it’s wrong. It’s the reflection, the mirror of our society, and [the same applies] to what we are doing. We are being accused that some models are anorexic, but we as fashion designers cannot be blamed, because you know, when I talk to women around the world, rich and poor and young and old and intellectual and not, what they want to be is skinny. You ask them, what is your dream? It’s to be skinny. That’s all they want, so this is something that’s happening in the world. And you know what? Me, as a designer that is not exactly skinny, all I want is comfortable clothes. All I want is beautiful. I mean, I like gray hair, I love wrinkles. But this is me. That’s why our logo is the mother and the daughter. I always feel that I have the ability or I have the luxury to design for younger and for older and for skinnier and less skinny. I feel more versatile about it.

Do you think that our obsession with beauty and celebrity might change?
I think it’s two different things. There is an obsession with beauty, and if there’s an obsession with beauty, I want to be there, because I’m obsessed with beauty, but beauty in my own eye…But now when you talk about celebrity, that’s another issue. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t read all those celebrity magazines on airplanes. I mean, everyone I know does that, so we’re all fascinated with that. It’s kind of like the dream of the twenty-first or the twentieth century…But there I have another issue. I feel that some celebrities think that because they are famous, they can do fashion. Imagine if I want to be now a dancer. Trust me, I can’t. I can’t jump. I can’t even limp from one point to another. I feel that there is this kind of confusion. Everybody wants to do everything, everybody needs to do everything, and everybody feels that he can. And I’m still feeling that a dancer should dance and a chef should cook and a singer should sing and a designer of clothes should do clothes. Because the moment we try to do everything for ourselves, we’re becoming very mediocre in what we do, and we don’t go to extremes and we don’t touch excellence. And I prefer to touch excellence.

How important is it for a celebrity to wear one of your dresses, from a business point of view?
Listen, it’s great. Also, it’s a very narcissistic issue. It’s almost like a good review. You wake up in the morning the day after the show, you’re half dead, and there is someone somewhere who likes your work, and you’re like, oh my God, so I’m not that bad. When you see a celebrity that looks good wearing your clothes? To tell you that it doesn’t affect me, I would be a liar. Of course it’s good, and when they look great, it’s fabulous, and when they don’t, then you want to kill yourself…But we never went into the system of celebrities, of turning it into a business and paying people to wear our clothes. I always told our PR department, don’t you ever call people and ask them to come. Let’s wait and see who wants to come to us.

All in all, are you feeling optimistic or pessimistic right now?
Definitely optimistic. Definitely optimistic. But maybe you caught me on a good evening. Maybe if you called me tomorrow I would tell you that, Dirk, it is the worst day, I am so pessimistic. There are days when I’m feeling very pessimistic, I have to be honest. There are good days and bad days. There are easy ones and there are difficult ones…I mean, it’s our choice to be pessimistic or optimistic, and I want to believe I can be optimistic in order to make a change and a positive one, rather than just sit here and nag and complain and get crazy. No, that’s not my story…I think changes are OK, changes are part of life. I think that things that are perfect are dead. I don’t believe in that sense in perfection, because whenever it’s perfect, it means that it’s not moving and it’s not going anywhere. The fact that you wake up the day after the show and you look at all you have done the day before and you’re like, oh my God, this was bad—this is the one thing that drives you to start a new day and to start all over again. Because if you think that it’s all great, you’ll be maybe in the Bahamas with a martini or whatever.

It’s very rare that you get a bad review.
Oh, don’t worry, Dirk, I get my share.

I have to ask you this. I’m sure you’ve seen all the rumors that you were taking over for Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel…
Oh, let’s not even go there. Let’s not even go there. It didn’t happen. It’s not happening. I mean, I respect Karl and I love his work and think he is doing a fabulous job, and I adore him as a person and as a designer. He’s there and I’m at Lanvin and this is it. You see, this is the bad thing about the newness, this kind of industry of rumors.

Fair enough. Is there anything we didn’t cover that you’d like to talk about?
Let’s talk about Barbara Walters.

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