QUIET AS IT’S KEPT: STYLE RADAR

FASHION EDITORJune 6, 2013

QUIET AS IT’S KEPT…What’s on the radar of the dynamic New York fashion-stylist team, THE STYLEMONSTERS?

Too HOT to be Haute…

Maybe it’s NYC’s skyrocketing temperatures that have our style coda all up in arms, but it has been hard for us (of all people) to concentrate on fashion when the barometer- at 93 degrees and rising- is telling us that we should be stripped bare of clothes, but here we go…

Now, we love the idea of egalitarian access to fashion- in magazines, online blogs and the like, as well as on television. However, between the hosts, personalities and self-appointed fashion arbiters featured on E! Channel’s “Fashion Police”, Bravo-TV’s “Fashion Queens” and NBC’s “Fashion Star”, we’ve become painfully aware that there are distinct differences between being a Fashion Stylist, being someone who is Fashion Style- ish, and being a Fashion Style MISS, and sometimes the three end up in the same room (we’ll leave it to you to decide which is which). We won’t do a “who wore it better”, a “fash-hole of the week”, or a “best dressed” list, but as the temperatures in New York have elevated the hum of our air conditioners out of their 8-month slumber, here are the things that have raised our fashion eyebrows this time around…it’s time for “Quiet As Its Kept- The Hot HAUTE edition…

1- Quiet as Its Kept…Its Lacroix, darling…and its FABULOUS- Again!!!

Like the rest of the global fashion clan, we were really excited to hear that venerated Paris design house Schiaparelli has chosen legendary couturier Christian Lacroix to re-launch their label for the Paris couture shows in July! It will be the first runway show for LaCroix in 4 years (since his label went bankrupt), Schiaparelli has not shown since the 1950s. Its great to see Lacroix make a turn back toward high-fashion, as recent years have seen him designing costumes for opera and theatre productions, a furniture line as well as fragrance. We haven’t been this excited to see a change in fashion reigns of a house since Marc Jacobs took over Louis Vuitton as their creative director in 1997.

To keep us on the edge of our seats with anticipation each year, however, Schiaparelli will feature a new guest designer every year. Many folks would like to see if uber-talented John Galliano can strike gold twice, having revived the house of Dior before his racially-charged descent into madness in a Paris patisserie and subsequent firing. We LOVE the idea of talented designers stepping in to take over older, established/worshipped (if not currently relevant) fashion houses. Quiet as Its Kept, We’d like to see Haider Ackermann revive the 80’s fashion house of Montana (one of our FAVORITE designers), since it seems- as of late- that Ackermann has been, shall we say, “gentlyinfluenced” by Claude Montana’s famous silhouette for his last few collections…

2- Quiet As Its Kept…Some of y’all are focusing on the WRONG Knowles sister…

There is no question that Beyonce Knowles–Carter, who has sang her way from being a Single Lady to a Girl that runs the world to (now) a Grown Woman is BEYOND!!!! However, since we are talking about fashion, its baby sis Solange that takes the cake. She has been giving us serious fashion for years, occupying the fashion space between fashion icon Julia Sarr– Jamois (fashion editor at Wonderland magazine), 70’s funk singer Betty Davis (former wife to Miles) and 80’s pop diva Jody Watley with her seemingly innate ability to always be ahead of the sartorial curve.

We have always known that Solange was headed toward becoming if not an eccentric, non-categorizable music artist then definitely fashion royalty. She cemented that feeling last week during the Cannes Film Festival, where she showed up (and showed OUT!) in a beautifully-diaphanous Stephane Rolland couture dress.

Quiet As Its Kept, Solange Knowles is MAJOR…

3- Quiet As Its Kept, The Tax Man Cometh for Dolce & Gabbana…

It doesn’t matter who you are: a gangster (Al Capone), a billionaire real-estate and hotel magnate with a mean streak (Leona Helmsley), an action-film star with hundreds of millions in box-office receipts (Wesley Snipes), a rap impresario-slash-music producer (Swizz Beats), a prolific female rapper with an iconic debut album (Lauryn Hill), or the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul (Mary J. Blige), the old adage is true; there is nothing certain in life except death and taxes. However, there are reports in the fashion atmosphere that a certain designing dynamic duo might not have gotten that memo. It seems that decades after paying their fashion dues, there are those in the Italian government who think that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana haven’t paid their monetary dues. Not since Naomi Campbell strutted her well-heeled self into a grimy New York sanitation garage to clean floors as part of her community service has the fashion cognoscenti seen one (or two) of their revered community this close to flirting with imprisonment. After being cleared of tax evasion back in 2007 (the case was dismissed), both designers are now being charged again with tax evasion (to the tune of $400 million) as a result of the 2004 sale of the Dolce&Gabbana and D&G brands to the Luxembourg-based holding company Gado Srl (which is alleged by Italian tax police to be, essentially, a tax shelter). Prosecutors are going after a jail sentence of 2.5 years for the duo and their general director. D&G’s defense team will make closing arguments on June 12th…Quiet As Its Kept, we would be shocked if D&G weren’t celebrating their own independence by July 4^th, right along with their legions of American customers…

4- Quiet As Its Kept, Gaultier shouldn’t be “Sari” for his Spring 2013 Haute Couture Show…

There’s no arguing that Jean Paul Gaultier‘s Spring/Summer 2013 India-inspired Haute Couture collection was especially beautiful. He paired wonderfully-crafted dresses and gowns with exquisitely vibrant Indian Saris (a customary garb worn by Indian woman); woven dresses in tribal prints reminiscent of the scorching Indian desert were paired with wooden wedges that screamed luxury, and (just so you remember that its Gaultier), he revived the iconic cone bras made famous by his collaboration with Madonna.

While it was indeed a fashion home-run based on the wearability factor, it was also especially smart, seeing that India’s luxury market is estimated to be at $60 billion and growing (just behind the $75 billion in the US luxury market). High net-worth individuals has increased in India by 200%, so Gaultier stands to make some serious rupees, as he has joined other lux brands such as Burberry, Jimmy Choo and Canali who have set up shop in the new fashion frontier of New Delhi. Missoni will also launch in India soon.

Quiet As Its Kept, it would behoove you public relations mavens to learn a few of the 455 languages spoken in India…just saying…

5- Quiet As Its Kept, Who WOULDN”T want to spend eternity at Bergdorf’s???

While it only takes a phone call or an email to get us to come to a fashion show (or a Sunday afternoon tea dance!), it takes a LOTto convince us to drag ourselves to a Loew’s or Ziegfield’s (or City Cinema) to watch a movie that will inevitably be on cable in a few months thereafter. However, in this case, Netflix be damned! All of you fashion folks need to get to the nearest theatre to preview the new docu-film (which really doubles as a 1.5 hour commercial), “Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s”.

Ever since Barbra Streisand spent the night at Bergdorf Goodman cavorting through couture while belting out show tunes in her “My name is Barbra” television special back in the 1960’s, many a fashion fiend has fantasized about making the mother of all haute retail outlets their resting place in the hereafter. Quiet As Its Kept, we’re glad someone put these visual fantasies on film…