FASHION Magazine

By Randi Bergman and Meredith Gillies

2012 has been quite the year. We’ve waited for Carly Rae Jepsen’s phone to ring since what feels like forever, we developed major girl crushes on Girls director/writer, Lena Dunham, and we felt like we’d never be as cool as Azealia Banks. Jepsen, Banks and Dunham may have rocked our worlds this year, but in the world of fashion, important things that have gone down too. There have been soaring highs, crashing lows, and shocking changes for celebrities, designers and even journalists.

Designer shifts at Balenciaga and Dior that are just a sampling of what seems like an endless list of fashion shakeups that went down over the past 12 months including Stefano Pilati and Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent, YSL becoming simple Saint Laurent Paris and more. And speaking of shakeups, Kristen Stewart’s rise from a teen queen to a heartbreaking fragrance face has been epic to say the least. So let’s look back, reflect, and count down together the events that made 2012 so real.

See our list of 2012’s top influencers »

View selections from the Joe Fresh Fall 2012 shoe collection »

Since its launch in 2006, Joe Fresh has been on a whirlwind across Canada (and since late last year, the US) providing women with fashion-forward clothing at super affordable prices. And the store has hit the mark again for fall with their newly expanded shoe department.

The store is no stranger to selling shoes, but the expanded area within the brand’s freestanding boutique locations means for greater selection. And for us that means we have to clear room in our closets, as these shoes are on our must-have list already. With over 70 different styles available and multiple colours to choose from in each, you can expect to see (more) Joe Fresh on the feet of many fashionable ladies this fall.

If there’s one thing that can be said about One Million Moms, an anti-gay (or “pro-family”) group, it’s that they’re anything but appeasable. In fact, they’re going for third time lucky by taking another swing at JC Penney, a retailer that has very openly supported the LGBT community by prominently featuring them in ad campaigns.

The most recent reason for OMM’s wrath is a Father’s Day campaign the retailer ran, which featured two adorable children playing with not one, but two of their dads. OMM’s complaints about the dads are in the same strain as their attack on the retailer’s Mother’s Day campaign, which featured a lesbian couple.

Copper Smith and Todd Koch, the Texas-based dads featured in the recently released ad, took the high road, with Koch telling WFAA-TV, “I think it just shows that people don’t really think everything quite through…they make rush judgments on certain things without really understanding the full picture.”

The anti-gay Facebook group first bashed JC Penney after the retailer announced they’d be featuring Ellen DeGeneres as its new spokesperson. We don’t know how anyone could have a problem with DeGeneres (the animal welfare support, the dancing, the generosity… she’s beyond lovable!), but OMM did.

“Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families,” the group wrote on its Facebook website, which has since been taken down. “DeGeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store. The majority of JC Penney shoppers will be offended and choose to no longer shop there.”

Aside from OMM’s fixation on JC Penney, they also threatened to boycott Toys ‘R’ Us after the toy giant sold an Archie comic that featured a gay wedding. (Kudos to Archie CEO Jon Goldwater for this amazing response: “Everything we do is built around love. Love, inclusion, friendship and family. This issue is an extension of that.”)

There’s actually an interesting twist to the whole story: it seems that despite their best efforts, One Million Moms (which is actually more like 220,000 strong) has actually been playing right into JC Penney’s hands. The retailer’s numbers have significantly gone up following the initial controversy over DeGeneres, and have steadily risen despite the OMM backlash.

What do you think: is OMM simply exercising their right to expression or are they crossing into hateful territory?

Conservative group One Million Moms has a bone to pick with JC Penney and its decision to hire Ellen DeGeneres as the department store’s spokesperson.

The disapproving anti-gay group writes on their website, “Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families” and goes on to claim “DeGeneres is not a true representation of the type of families that shop at their store.”

However not everyone on the group’s Facebook page seems as troubled by JC Penney’s decision. Comments in support of DeGeneres include: “Being gay is only a part of who she is […] she is modest in her dress and behaviour.”

Sanrio (who blessed the world with Hello Kitty & co.) has teamed up with Dr. Martens to celebrate the Japanese brand’s fiftieth. The line of signature eight-hole boots will be decked out with the best of Sanrio–a perfect consolation for kawaii (i.e. cuteness) fans who cried over the Takashi Murakami + Louis Vuitton price tags. [I want-I got]

Rumours of a collaboration between Coach and (wait for it) JC Penney are circulating after Coach CEO mentioned it would be a possibility. The line won’t won’t technically be Coach–the  accessories will be sold under a different name. [WWD]