FASHION Magazine

View some of Oscar de la Renta’s most memorable moments Name an American fashion icon and chances are she wore Oscar de la Renta: Jacqueline Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, CZ Guest, Oprah, Sarah Jessica Parker. The core clientele of the designer, who died yesterday at his Connecticut home at age 82, were the ladies of Manhattan’s […]

The post Remembering Oscar de la Renta appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

See some of our favourite Gossip Girl fashion moments »

Now that the one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite has been revealed, it’s time to mourn the loss of one of the most fashionable shows on television. Since 2007, Gossip Girl has been spreading rumours, sending out blasts, and hiding behind her his computer until the shocking finale yesterday.

Despite the social sabotage, twisting plotlines and the never-ending bad luck that was bestowed upon the Upper East Siders, Gossip Girl has become known for the fashion. From Blair Waldorf’s affinity for headpieces (headbands in high school, fascinators when dating a Prince) to Serena van der Woodsen’s love of not wearing pants and showing a lot of cleavage, there have been some seriously defining moments for the television show and the generation of its many fans. We’ve watched the characters ditch their uniforms and embrace wearing custom Vera Wang, Marchesa and Zuhair Murad as their lives spin out of control again, and again. And we can’t deny that we’ve enjoyed every moment of it. We’ve watched as the fashion industry embraced the show in return, with cameo roles throughout the seasons played by Rachel Zoe, Tory Burch, Alexa Chung and more.

View some of Manolo Blahnik’s iconic sketches »

After an almost 40-year career in fashion, Manolo Blahnik is set to receive a special award from the British Fashion Council next week.

The highly influential footwear designer will receive the Outstanding Achievement Award at this year’s British Fashion Awards to be held next Tuesday, November 27. The award, which is the most significant of the evening, recognizes a designer who throughout their career has made an important impact on the fashion industry around the world. In the past, the award— voted for by a panel of leading industry journalists and retailers—has previously been given to the likes of Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood.

About receiving the award Blahnik said, “To be recognized for doing something I love is really wonderful.”

Manolo Blahnik is definitely no stranger to award and acclaim. At the British Fashion Awards, he has been named Accessory Designer of the Year three times throughout his career, and in 2007 was awarded the prestigious title of Commander of the British Empire for his work in the British fashion industry. His work was also recognized by the Design Museum in London with a 2003 retrospective of his work and numerous sketches that he uses to begin his design process.

His influence and signature aesthetic have made his shoes one of the most sought after brands in the world, and have been worn by everyone from Michelle Obama to Rihanna, and were of course famously favoured by Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. Blahnik’s shoes have been commonly recognized in the fashion world by first name only—“Manolos”—which has made his name synonymous with high-end footwear and luxury around the world for decades.

To be perfectly honest, we kind of fell off the Glee wagon last season, mostly because Lea Michele’s character started to get just a tad too annoying. But after Ryan Murphy revealed earlier this month that none other than Sarah Jessica Parker would be guest starring on the show for its fourth season, we’re definitely back on board.

With summer wedding season well underway, the not-so-little sartorial dilemma of what to wear on one of life’s most momentous occasions probably has a bride or two stressing. While our Style Panel has already found solutions for unique wedding-guest styling, brides, grooms and bridesmaids need not worry – we have some modern styling tips from […]

The post The fashionable wedding: Tips for brides, bridesmaids and even the groom on how to up the style ante on your big day appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Years upon years of watching Sex and the City have etched Manolo Blahnik’s eponymous shoe line into our female collective unconscious, largely thanks to Carrie’s fanatical obsession with the Spanish designer’s heels, which gave his designs an almost myth-like status. Given all this adulation, Blahnik’s opinions about shoemaking and fashion fanatics are a bit surprising. […]

The post Quotable: This shoemaker thinks women who wear uncomfortable shoes are stupid appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

All girls (and some boys) growing up in the ‘90s will unabashedly admit that back in the day, we lived and breathed the Spice Girls. We knew all their songs, we learned how to pull off a questionable but convincing British accent and we definitely coveted every single one of their outfits. So news that we might be able to get our hands on Scary’s original leopard-print catsuit or Sporty’s many tracksuits in a charity auction gala has us way too excited. Proceeds from the auctioned off items, which will be sold at a gala event later this year, will go to Save the Children and Children in Need.

Welcome to our weekly recap of Girls, the new show from HBO that media are touting as Sex and the City for Millennials. It’s likely journalists just like to compare things that share numbers, like New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys had five guys singing to teenage girls, because while Sex and the City and Girls both take a concerted look at the lives of four women living in New York City, that is where the similarities awkwardly pause. Girls is mostly concerned with Hannah, who is 24, works in publishing and lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn like a current-day Emily Gould. Hannah lives with her gallerist bestie Marnie. There’s also their friend Jessa, who has just arrived back in the city from some kind of spiritual quest/pearl shucking/bazaar shopping expedition and is living with her earnest, velour-tracksuit-wearing cousin Shoshanna.

Like any girl in her early twenties, post-college or no, these ladies have problems of the guy/work/family/friend variety, so let’s see how they go about solving them, or more likely, making them worse. Each week we’ll take a look at the two main problems affecting the Girls and how they go about trying to find a solution. Ten years older than the Girls, and having lived through her fair share of humiliations, your recapper will also weigh in on whether these problems are just rest stops on the road to better character or psyche damaging pile-ups that will follow them the rest of their days.

Mo’ (or less) money mo’ problems »

I will start with an admission: I am a terrific failure at online dating. It’s not that I’m a Luddite when it comes to cyber-communication; I grew up on the cusp of the generation that came of (dating) age during the digital era. Yet somehow, meeting someone online reduces me to the level of awkward small talk at a wedding with an elderly uncle: “Where do you live?” “Is it nice there?” (Uncomfortable pause.) “What do you like to eat?” And the perils of online communication don’t disappear after the first few dates: A guy I was seeing ignored my Facebook friend request until I retracted it, embarrassed; an ex-boyfriend abruptly untagged himself from every photo we appeared in together. The internet, for all its Google Pluses, has created plenty of minuses in my love life.

For everyone who cried when the original Sex and the City came to a close, and it continued to be bastardized by not one but TWO over-the-top blockbusters, it looks like the torture story is not over yet. The CW has ordered a pilot of the Sex and the City prequel, The Carrie Diaries.

The Kelly, the PS1, the Speedy: It bags have become so major over the years, that they scarcely even need a designer name attached! We discuss the appeal at length in our Winter 2012 issue, but today, we’re putting these bags to the test: in the battle of It bag supremacy, which comes out on top?

View our top 10 »
Vote for your favourite »

Since yesterday’s sad news about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ passing, it seems everyone has been mourning the loss in some shape and form (a tribute song blasted from your iPod? A sad phone call placed from your iPhone? A sad collage made on your iPad? The possibilities are endless). While it may not be as clear a fashion connection as the loss of Alexander McQueen, we got to thinking about the numerous ways the industry has changed because of Apple inventions. Here are five: