The Problems with Non-Pants

2 May

121128-yoga-pants-hmed.380;380;7;70;0[1]I’m no fashion guru or trend-master, but I know the difference between pants and non-pants, which seems to be a hard concept for some people.   There once was a time, which may be hard to remember, when pajama pants were trendy to wear to school. But that was seventh grade:  side ponytails and multicolored braces were trendy then too.

 It’s a disgrace to the wearer and society when you can spot an adult wearing Hello Kitty fleece pajama pants to the mall on a Saturday afternoon.  I’m sorry, but if you are old enough to buy lingerie at Victoria’s Secret, you are also old enough to pick yourself out of bed and put real pants on.  I get it.  We all have our scrub days when we aren’t feeling well or just feeling fat (maybe it’s a girl thing).  But that is why, on the seventh day, God created yoga pants. 

Yoga pants are completely acceptable to wear in public and as comfortable as pajama pants.  So please, take the phone out of your waste band and strip the yoga pants before you look even trashier than you already do.

The lovely cousin of yoga pants is the legging.  Leggings are not pants either!  Wearing a tiny little V-neck shirt that doesn’t even cover the waistband is unacceptable.  I am not one to tell people what to wear but come on—your leggings are not bringing all the boys to the yard. 

 If you think you have a nice booty, then show it off in a fine pair of jeans.  Other than that, buy an oversize sweater and cover your derriere, because no one wants to see it in your near-transparent leggings.  And don’t even get me started on white leggings…woof.  There will never be a time or place for those, not even after Memorial Day.  So everybody, I hope I made my point clear.  Go out and find a favorite pair of yoga pants, and save them for the days your feelin’ like a scrub, because pajama pants and leggings will just never be acceptable. 

–Lindsay Nunnery

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Global Speak – Be the Change

30 Apr Be Social Change LIM College

The Global Speak event, held at LIM College’s Maxwell Hall, turned out to be a very intimate and eye opening experience. For those who were not able to come to this event, I can assure you that it was very moving and inspiring.

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From TV to Book to TV Again, Project Runway & No Wire Hangers

24 Apr

Alyssa & Elia MellYou may add Eila Mell to your ever-growing list of interesting “fashion people.” Mell is journalist who has written for Marie Claire, Zink Magazine, The Huffington Post and The New York Times among many publications.  I was lucky enough to get a few minutes one-on-one to interview her about her new book, Project Runway: The Show that Changed Fashion. 

The book has an unusually large number, and variety, of sources. Mell interviewed more than fifty fashion influencers and experts in order to write it. She took care to include voices from the business as well as the design sector of the industry, a strong point of interest for students of fashion.  

 Mell told me that a special attraction of the project was to work again with the designer Viktor Luna, a long-time friend—and that she loved to wear the chic apparel he makes specially for her.  The two are also developing a new TV show, No Wire Hangers, that will offer a behind the scenes look at the fashion industry.

I was curious about Mell’s choice to write a book about a TV show, since television and digital media are already effective ways to reach a mass audience.  She told me about her love of reading—with an actual book in hand. The enduring physical nature of a book was another advantage, compared to the relatively ephemeral nature of a TV show.  But don’t worry.  An e-book will also be available. 

The central point the book makes about the enormous influence that Project Runway has had rings true. There has been lively discussion in the industry about the pros and cons of various media and their affect on fashion.  But Project Runway certainly had an influence on me. I remember watching it in high school.  Tim Gunn and the determined designers really may have contributed to my development of a serious interest in fashion.  Project Runway also brought student applications flowing into Parsons and FIT, and gave recognition to an impressive number of aspiring designers.  Mell put it frankly:  “Project Runway, for many, made it an option to have a career in fashion.”

–Alyssa Coscarelli

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Jaime Bartholomai interviews a Project Runway star

24 Apr

Last Friday at the National Arts Club, I interviewed Viktor Luna from Season 9 of Project Runway.  Watching the show convinced me that Luna is one of the most talented of its designers. The occasion for our interview was a launch event for Eila Mell’s book, Project Runway: the Show that Changed Fashion. In person, Luna is modest, sincere and approachable.

Jaime with Viktor LunaHe said that one of his goals in collections is to convey the “mystic quality every person has, that dark sensual part deep within that never gets released.”

It was a pleasure to talk with a designer whose real-life presence is as down-to-earth as his persona on the show. 

Luna  added that Tim Gunn had truly been a mentor to him by offering advice about how to push his projects forward.  That appreciation, and Luna’s sincere  discussion of his work, were refreshing. 

His final note to me about what aspiring fashion and business students should consider was to say, “We always doubt ourselves. You have to love what you do. I find myself wondering why I do fashion. It is so hard, but I love it. Even if it looks like you are going nowhere, never give up. Life is too short not to enjoy it and make the best of it.”

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Macy’s 39th Annual Flower Show: The Painted Garden

18 Apr

Over spring break, I headed to Macy’s Herald Square location to check out the retailers 39th annual flower show. The Painted Garden transported visitors to Middle Asia. When I first stepped inside the tent, a room filled with flowers and a decorative life sized elephant greeted me in celebration of Indian culture. Jewel tones and lively colors covered the room along with walls painted in a traditional Asian manner. When I passed through the archway into the next area, fountains surrounded by beautiful, vibrant flowers filled the space. The environment, inspired by several also included sacks of spices and carts stacked with foods, bangles, Buddhas, brooms and gold accessories.

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Aside from the tent, the Macy’s flower show included the retailer’s legendary window displays. LIM Professor and Director of Windows and Visual Merchandising for Macy’s Paul Olszewski supervised the creation of the displays. The windows utilized two important visual elements–images and text. Each window display highlighted a different type of flower. Playful text was also used in the windows to explain the meaning of the flowers that were used. The show was definitely a hit, with crowds taking photos both of the windows and the displays inside the tent. These beautiful, unique flowers were a reassurance that Spring is here at last. The show ran through April 7.

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–Bianca Bartolo

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J. Crew’s 2013 Runway Show

9 Apr

New York Fashion Week has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the amazing designs for the Fall and Winter Seasons of 2013 are no longer resonating. The fashion elite, such as Oscar de la Renta and Jason Wu, are always shows to look out for. However, this year there was once again some excitement about brands that perhaps are not typically considered high end: for instance, J. Crew.
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J. Crew has become a household name for some, and many consumers, from students to business people, are becoming more familiar with the brand. The Fall and Winter collection for 2013 was J. Crew’s third appearance at Fashion Week, and despite its “mainstream” status, the brand is getting a lot of attention in fashion circles. A-List celebrities were seen at the presentation on February 12th, including Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour.

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J. Crew is known for colorful prints and classic cuts. Both women and men can thank Creative Director Jenna Lyons for the brand’s fun and unique prints. Different patterns are often mixed and matched together in one outfit. This has become J. Crew’s signature look. One example of J. Crew’s perfect pattern making is a neon-green diamond patterned top and a black-and-white striped pencil skirt. As cliché as it may sound, the phrase “expect the unexpected,” has never been more true when it comes to J. Crew.

–Mary Styka

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Let “#TBT” Inspire You

14 Mar

tbt pic 1Pop quiz: What is “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something?”

This is only one of many existing definitions of inspiration.

So ask yourself: what inspires me? What influences me to choose that powder blue silk blouse over the black ruffle button down? Is it a celebrity, a magazine, that random girl on the street with great style? When put into perspective everything is an inspiration — everything including that “#TBT.”

If you are an Instagram user, you know what I mean. If there is inconsistency in what to expect every week, instagramers can always rely on Throwback Thursday, where users post old or outdated pictures of themselves and their friends.

Believe it or not, those pictures of you 15 years ago when your mom used to dress you can impact your creativity today. No, you aren’t wearing the same bright pink floral top with matching leggings, but that doesn’t mean to say you won’t feel like wearing pink today. Or what about those pictures that you put of your mom and dad 30 years ago; hasn’t some of the same fashion circulated back into today’s fashion? After seeing that picture of your mom in leggings and neon colors inspired by the movie Flashdance, you suddenly have the urge to throw on a pair of leggings for comfort. 

Fashion is more than just wearing the current trends or the newest item in your wardrobe. We have to adapt ourselves to the hipster state-of-mind: art is everywhere, fashion is everywhere, inspiration is everything.

Photos — Top Left: My aunt and her father in the ’70s. Below, Left to Right: Jenny Packham RTW Spring 2013, Charlotte Ronson RTW Spring 2013,Chanel RTW Spring 2013  (Photo Credit:Kati Nescher for VIVA)

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–Giannina Chavez

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Paola Vasquez interviews Long Tran

13 Mar Long Tran F13

Avant -garde fashion designer Long Tran introduced his new collection “Anonymous” during New York Fashion Week at The Artist’s Space gallery in Soho. I had the privilege of sitting back and embracing the 13-piece fashion collection revealed to the excited audience of fashion bloggers, magazine editors and stylists. “Goth” and “dark” are your first impression of the collection — with a big wow factor. Tran’s innovative use of  leather, lace, wool, geometric shapes and engineered fabrics left the audience in awe. Tran is a Vietnamese designer who takes inspiration from animals, abstractions, exotic plants and ancient temples. I had the opportunity to sit down with him after his remarkable show and ask him a few questions.

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Open Facades on the Rise

12 Mar

visual merchandising 1If you walk down Fifth Avenue these days, you will notice a significant trend in visual merchandising: open facades. Retailers are now allowing consumers to take a look inside through glass windows that can take up the entire front of a store. The strategy allows natural light into the retail space, and as a result, merchandise and displays can now be seen from across a street or a block away, attracting more customers. We may first have seen this in Apple’s retail stores, but now retailers on Fifth Avenue such as Uniqlo, Juicy Couture, H&M and Joe Fresh are using open façades to their advantage.

Open facades help customers understand who the retailer is, what their aesthetic is, and what type of merchandise they carry. They are also a great way to utilize space for window displays. Juicy Couture is a great example of this, because the retailer uses the whole front of their store to create displays, whether with sticker decals or mannequins. Don’t be surprised if you begin seeing more and more open facades on the city streets–it is an effective, inclusive strategy and definitely a growing trend in visual merchandising.

–Bianca Bartolo

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Does ‘country of origin’ always reflect quality?

11 Mar

prato-street-sign1“These aren’t real. They’re very nice, but they’re not real, sorry. Real Ray Bans are made in Italy.”

The object in question was my prescription pair of Ray Ban glasses.

While she did have a good hypothesis, in reality, Ray Bans are owned by the world’s largest luxury eyewear group, Luxottica, who makes Ray Bans, Persols, Oakleys, and manufacturers a number of designer prescription glasses. According to its public Web site, Luxottica owns eight manufacturing plants, two of which are in China. Further salvaging the modicum of fashion credibility that I have, I bought my Luxottica Ray Bans in a Luxottica retail space, LensCrafters.

Getting to the point: who cares where my perfectly authentic Ray Bans are made? Why would it be difficult for some to believe that Ray Bans could be made in China?

Is this a question of quality? Because most frames these days are made from plastic compounds that take manufacturing machinery to produce. It’s a biased assumption to think the Italian pushing a button to fill a caste with plastic is any more skilled at pushing buttons than his Chinese equivalent.

Let’s generalize for a second and think of merchandise aside from glasses. As consumers, we tend to attach value to European craft. A J. Crew style guide happily boasts when one of its products is made in Italy, but shows no such affection for the rest of its merchandise made in China or America.

Is this idea of quality attached to Europe’s longstanding history in fashion? Well, it is time we considere the extent to which this is just history. When we’re sold a product from France, do we know if the merchandise was made by a skilled artisan with ancestry in textile manufacturing or some failed farmer who took up a middle-wage job to make ends meet? Even more devastating, how do we know our garments from Italy aren’t being made by immigrant Chinese laborers?

Even if European labor is what it’s cracked up to be, sometimes there are other places that can make certain items better. For example, Miuccia Prada, owner of the Italian high fashion brand of her name, has decided that some garments under Prada will now be made in other countries of the world. While traditionally all Prada products have been made in Italy, Prada deems itself to be sourcing from international artisans that will make certain products better or culturally truthful to the garment’s history. I have no qualms admitting that Italy, or Europe as a whole, has the capacity to make quality garments that are congruent with the value implied by their retail price. However, I think even Miuccia seems to agree with me that the country of origin is no ultimate arbiter of quality.

–Nicholas Young

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