RollingRack.net

Off The Gaydar

 

photo courtesy People.com

Interesting tidbit from Jezebel writer Tracie Egan via her own blog, "One D at a Time." In a post about why she doesn't (but probably should) fear competition from CocoPerez, Perez Hilton's new lady fashion site, she goes off on gays for "creating" tent dresses (dress pictured above):

"I think that gay men are actually the most to blame for many of the problems in the fashion industry, like the absence of womanly curves on the runway, and the hideous, figure-assaulting trend that is the tent dress, which no women who have tits, and no straight men who have an appreciation for tits, have any use for."

What do you think?

--Gary M.

 

The Center of the Fashion Universe: New York?.... Nope!

It's definitely the city that never sleeps and the closest to my heart but New York City has been dethroned as the #1 fashion capital in the world.  At least according to Global Language Monitor trend-tracking survey. Milan has done a leap frog over NYC sending the Big Apple to second place for the first time in five years. For the top 30 fashion capitals Keep reading....

--Gary M.

First Lady Fashions

I was just turned on to Mrs O, a clever interesting site dedicated to the fashions of our new First Lady, Michelle Obama. Below the First Family arrives in Russia today. Watch the tricky url though if you're typing it into a browser, it's mrs-o.org.

--Gary Montgomery

Photo by Stringer / AFP / Getty 

Events Calendar, January 28-30, 2009

January 28
Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Berlin, Berlin, Germany (photo courtesy Mercedes Benz Fashion Week) . For more info visit Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Berlin

Paris Fashion Week:
12:30 PM - Elie Saab Spring/Summer 2009 Haute Couture Collection, Palais de Tokyo, 13 avenue du Président Wilson, Paris 16e
2:30 PM - Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2009 Haute Couture Collection, 325 rue Saint-Martin, Paris 3e

7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Russell James Book Launch, Stephen Weiss Studio, 711 Greenwich Street, NYC

January 29

Sophia Eugene/Christopher Deane Sample Sale, 37 Cornelia Street (between Bleecker St. and W. 4th St), NYC, 12pm-7pm.

January 30

Pret A Porter Paris Papp
International show for women's ready-to-wear and young designers fashion. The leading fashion event's 100th session is a must for fashion professionals and a meeting place for designers, brands, influencers, journalists, buyers and trendy-setters. For more info visit www.pretparis.com

Guilty-free Pleasures

When fashion takes a chunk out of your wallet, you hope for some piece of mind in return. Rolling Rack member Emily Winter extols the virtues of GarmentsWithoutGuilt.com.

Sri Lanka Apparel - Garments Without Guilt offers that piece of mind... sort of. The group has recently garnered attention and acclaim as the top factory inspection agency in the world. Its aim... exult child labor and discrimination from Sri Lanken garment factories, and ensure that each factory employee is paid a living wage. Sri Lanken factories adjust their standards to earn a Garments Without Guilt certificate, which makes them more desirable to labor-conscious designers and retailers.

But when you're half dressed, tugging on a zipper in a tiny fitting room, one shoe on, one halfway into the next stall and you finally slip into that seasonally inappropriate shirt, there's no way to tell who made the garment and how much they were paid. If you want to know, you've got to do your research--find out what factory the brand's clothes are produced in, then check the Garments Without Guilt website to see if it's certified (and if it's not, it could be certified by another reputable source, so you'd have to google it).

Perhaps the future of labor-positive fashion will more directly reward concerned shoppers with immediate information. But for now, Garments Without Guilt is a helpful start.

Hip Inspiration

Rack member Boris Chang Jr. recommends LOOkBOOK.nu. 

LOOKBOOK.nu is an international social experiment in style. It touts itself as a source for fashion inspiration from real people from around the world. It was inspired by street fashion blogs like the Sartorialist as well as "What are you wearing today?" forum threads across the internet.

Sweet on the Street

Fashhh.com shows what the "cool" kids are wearing all across the world...

I was just recently turned onto this site www.fashhh.com. It's great if you want to check out fashion trends on the streets all over the world. Plus you get to rate their style. Beware it can be quite addictive.

Gary
Founder/President, Rolling Rack Fashion & Apparel Industry Networking Group

Spotlight: Rack member Boris Chang Jr.

Boris Chang Jr. fills us in on how he got his start, his take on fashion trends, Charlize Theron and ...the Gucci runway show?

I got my start in apparel just because my mother was in the industry and the excitement of urban fashion and hanging out with hot supermodels gave me the juice I needed to translate my graphic background into something more tangible and interactive with daily life. Ok, I wanted to make cool stuff people wear!

I started off interning at Triple 5 Soul and would later do some freelance for companies such as A|X, Sean John, Live Mechanics, Nike, and smaller upcoming underground companies (just to name drop wink wink*). I'm a full time apparel graphics designer for Puma Int'l, in North America, which would answer "why would you move from NYC to Boston?"

To get paid! ...And to gain a new perspective and skill set in a growing sportswear industry that  transcends what a lot of smaller more urban/lifestyle companies are capable of doing. There are its perks and its limitations for working for a large corporation (as I'm sure all of you in the industry know) but for the most part you get a better perspective of how a well established infrastructure works, and how a company with a long heritage has evolved its product, consumer base, and overall marketing strategies to keep up in today's fashion forward role. One key thing that's nice is the sports/lifestyle element that keeps us from being a "streetwear" or high fashion company. We pay attention to performance and function while taking our inspirations from all other niches to create desirable (or try to) merchandise.

So what's hot in fashion? You see the Gucci Runway show?! Classic! It seems like everyone one wants to start a tshirt company or label these days.  For a while Ive seen high fashion designers take inspiration from the underground fashion movement! The irony! You go to the major fashion cities of the world and you will find that what defines fashion isn't so much what's on runway, but how the savvy/trendies mix and match vintage, what they have already own, and spice it up with something they found on sale at H&M. That's what keeps the trend cycle moving, the designer's inspired, and style constantly redefined. But the high waisted denim has to go. It looked good on mom by chance, but that's because she didn't have a choice.

And what can I say about fashion in general?! It's the gift and the curse? A cut-throat industry of designers, salespeople, marketers, merchandisers, colorers (is that a word?), and pretentious individuals somehow allows me to say there's nothing I'd rather be married to! Except Charlize Theron. She's hot.

About Boris Chang Jr.: Boris is a native New Yorker. He graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 with a BFA in Graphic Design. He is currently a Apparel Graphics Designer for Puma International and is working on his website iheartboris.com.