FASHION Magazine

Jason Wu finally met the First Lady yesterday. Michelle Obama and the designer were at the Smithsonian Institution for the induction of the First Lady’s inauguration dress. [Vogue UK]

Our Twitter feed was buzzing yesterday with LG Fashion Week‘s latest news.  The event has yet another new stomping ground after their warehouse venue for the upcoming season apparently fell through. There are no details yet but we can tell you that the new venue is the Allstream Centre at Exhibition Place. [@NathAt and @geekigirl]

Lindsay Lohan was a no-show this morning at the Ungaro show in Paris. The details are still hazy but we’re gulping down the juicy gossip: WWD has reported that Lilo does still hold the title of artistic director, while chairman Asim Abdullah reported backstage that she was not involved in the Fall 2010 collection. To be continued. [Telegraph]

We don’t discuss the federal budget too much here on FASHION Diaries. In fact, this is probably a first: The 2010 budget, announced Friday by finance minister Jim Flaherty, includes the elimination of import duties—that had sometimes been up to 14 per cent—on raw materials used to manufacture apparel. [@NOWLifestyle]

Rumours of Gareth Pugh taking on the role of Creative Director at Alexander McQueen can be put to rest. A statement from the designer’s PR said this morning, “Further to speculative reports, Gareth Pugh is not in discussions with Gucci Group about a creative director role at Alexander McQueen.” [Vogue UK]

Phoebe Philo’s second ready-to-wear outing for Celine was full of sleek navy, plum and moss-coloured pieces. Dresses and jackets had low-slung leather patch pockets. Standout pieces were leather and sheepskin cocoon coats, cutaway jackets and shirts, blouses with trailing scarves, and a pair of clustered-sequin pieces. Click the images below to read up on Viktor […]

The post Paris: Sleek navy at Celine, piling on layers at Viktor & Rolf, fabric fusion at Costume, and more appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

A private funeral service for Alexander McQueen will be held today in London. A spokeswoman for the label said that a public memorial for the designer will take place later this year, and that right now the label is focussing on their Paris show in March. [The Cut]

Milan fashion week begins today and starts with a bang: Prada has announced that they’ll be streaming their show live. Go to prada.com at 1 p.m. EST to watch the show live. [Vogue UK]

H&M is launching an organic skin care line, hitting stores in April. In typical H&M style, no product is priced over US$8! [Stylelist]

Josephus Thimister, who preceded Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, has come out of hibernation. The designer presented a faux blood-spattered collection to mixed reviews at Couture Week on Sunday. [Fashionologie]

Grazia Daily was (publicly) miffed after having to watch the Christian Dior show through blogger Tavi’s enormous headpiece. [Grazia]

Alessandro Dell’Acqua is coming back to the runway after losing his line (and the rights to use his name) earlier this year. The Italian is presenting his new line, No. 21, at Milan Fashion Week in February. [WWD]

Does anything prove the dominance of shorts this spring than their appearance on the runway at Couture Week? At the Chanel show this morning short suits made their way down the runway in shimmering dark grey, cream, lemon yellow, pastel pink, and light blue.

News of Yohji Yamamoto quickly and quietly closing his two New York stores last night left people wondering what lay ahead for the designer. It is now being reported that the closure of the NYC stores is just a part of a bigger ripple effect, with stores closing all over the globe. [Racked]

The big true or false question that invaded the fashion world yesterday–will Sarah Jessica Parker be taking on a role at Halston–is true. Halston has not yet disclosed what exactly SJP will be doing, but it will be interesting to watch how the fashion icon will work her style in to the brand. [Vogue UK]

Some of the items in Lindsay Lohan’s 6126 clothing line look rather familiar to a couple of designers. Black Milk Clothing’s James Lillis and designer Jen Kao both say Lohan copied their designs. The company disputes this, naturally. [WWD]

But wait! It is apparently LiLo who’s had her designs lifted. [Stylecaster]

A NY Times report surfaced yesterday that H&M in New York’s Herald Square had been mutilating and dumping unsold clothing. H&M responded, saying “We are committed 100 percent to make sure this practice is not happening anywhere else, as it is not our standard practice.” It’s worth noting that H&M is listed as a donor to Windfall, a Canadian new clothing bank. [NYTimes, Racked, Windfall]

How is it possible that Karl Lagerfeld has so much free time on his hands? Aside from designing his own line and the multitude of Chanel collections, it seems like every other day the man releases some ancillary project. Does he never sleep? Anyway, today’s announcement comes in the form of a princess doll created […]

The post Baby’s first Lagerfeld: The Kaiser designs a doll appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Stealing is wrong, but Lara Stone and Baptiste Giabiconi make it look so right. Karl Lagerfeld’s black and white short film ‘Vol de Jour’ shows the two on a Chanel shoplifting spree, decked out head-to-foot in the designs. Even their getaway vehicle is luxurious—a Chanel motorcycle. [Grazia]

Video after the jump.

Chanel’s Paris-Shanghai collection opened with a video–an imagined alternate history where Coco Chanel takes her first trip to China. In a potentially controversial move, Karl Lagerfeld styled his actors, including models Freja Beha Erichsen and Baptiste Giabiconi, as Chinese characters in yellowface. Lagerfeld defended his decision because of its homage to old films like The Good Earth and Madame Butterfly where European actors played Asian characters, saying, “People around the world like to dress up as different nationalities.” [WWD]

Famed fashion photographer Sam Haskins, who launched his book Fashion Etcetera at Milk Studios earlier this year, died last week at the age of 83. Haskins had suffered two strokes this year, which set him into a depression that led to his suicide.  [WWD]

Karl Lagerfeld gave a SpongeBob SquarePants doll a makeover for a Paris fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund. The figurine was outfitted in the image of his maker, with Uncle Karl’s signature dark shades and fingerless gloves. [WWD]

Christian Lacroix is in dire straights again. The Ajman sheikh Hassan Bin Ali al-Naimi, who was set to buy the bankrupt fashion house, failed to close the deal in time. The court will decide how to move forward tomorrow—either accepting the current owner Falic group’s restructuring plan or extending the deadline to allow for potential billionaire buyers to pop up. [The Cut]