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Designer Dish Live Discusses Kitten Heels, Facelifts and Layering with Isaac Mizrahi and Charlotte Ronson

by cferer on February 24, 2011

Vidicom’s studios rocked with Isaac Mizrahi and Charlotte Ronson during DESIGNER DISH LIVE, the first live Skype chat with fashion designers broadcast on Ustream and PopSugar, http://www.ustream.tv/designerdishlive.
Skypers asked Charlotte and Isaac everything from advice on plastic surgery to layering techniques. The best was Isaac’s convo with a stymied Skper who he asked, “Have you had work?” (see the VIDEO for yourself below).

Isaac’s advice is always right on…he says, “legs are the last to go so always emphasize those gams when you can.” Some other “I” wisdoms include, “Tattoos are so 90′s.” He’s also a real believer of not looking like you tried hard to put yourself together. (I think it was Babe Paley who said that). And former New York Times fashion editor, Bernadine Morris, used to always quote her “always take one accessory off before you walk out of the house.” Isaac’s 2011 version, “DONT TRY TOO HARD…TOO MANY ACCESSOIRES…TOO MUCH MAKE-UP ADDS 10 YEARS.”

I love how he told one Skyper that partially shaved heads are his fashion no-no because it makes people look ill. His must have accessory is “the kitten heel.” Of course, now that we have all bought those clunkers, the fashion pendulum is now swinging back to dainty and so fem-fem.

I personally love Charlotte Ronson whom I have known since she was 5. Her shows are always family affairs because that is the way she was raised. Who knew the same family closeness I witnessed at those Rosh Hashanah dinners years ago hosted by Charlotte’s mom, Ann Jones, would evolve into hipster heaven? Charlotte makes every fashion show a family affair with her sisters Annabelle and Samantha acting as muses from modeling to spinning music. The real sweetness in her personality came out with her Jay-Z story. After Jay-Z gave her a shout out in one of his songs, she says, “You can’t send a rapper flowers, so I designed him a sweatshirt.”

The Designer Dish Live Skype audience scored some great fashion advice from this “grunge meets urban street” London-born comer. Layering is her signature and she advised one Skyper to “keep it light”. I get it…keep it sheer and
as weightless as possible to get the ultimate in layered looks.

We wish her lots of luck as her Shanghai store has just opened next to the mega-popular Apple Store.

Warren and the Girls: A Fashion Week Prelude

by cferer on September 16, 2009

Okay, I admit it, I ducked out of the first 24 hours of fashion week to join a slightly different group of, let’s say, upscale women, at the Fortune 500 Women’s Conference. This illustrious group of CEOs, journalists, the Meg Whitmans of the world, NGO heads, and all-around wise women were told by no less than Warren Buffet that the economy is in sputter mode, and maybe, just maybe, it will snap back in about three years.

Christy Ferer & Warren Buffet

For the most part it was a well-dressed, well-heeled crowd. Well, except for the girls from Google, in their Boyfriend Jeans and oversized shirts (call it the new cyber-chic for the young IT crowd). Comfortingly, there were still lots of Louboutins mixed in with Walmart looks. Enter Dottie Mattison, SVP and GM of Walmart Apparel, who runs the store’s multi-billion dollar fashion division. She was looking very smart in very high, very fringe-flapped Christians, mixed with some Walmart accent pieces. The ultimate in high/low.

Dottie reports that Walmart’s fashion biz is better than ever. That’s irony for you.

Onto the red eye, and back to Bryant Park, and that’s when it hit. The sponsors, the crowds, the models, the endless vogue-ing, the fashion parade, the waves of media surrounding these 53 runway shows that account for, maybe, 10 percent of all U.S. fashion sales. And here’s the ironic bit: Walmart hasn’t had a show in the country’s fashion capital in two years, and yet the shop sells more fashion than anyone else in the biz.

I ease back into Fashionista mode at Michael Kors runway show, where I sit next to an editor from Nylon wearing a Philip Lim sequined vest (very nice), over ripped denim tights (uh, what?), and laden down with oxidized metal chains (her own design).

Dani S. is also mixing high/low and is a walking testament to the longevity of designer fashion.

So is Donna Karan with her draping. Tory Burch with her edgy preppiness. And so is Michael Kors who is slicing his double face wool pieces everywhere with windows of open slits creating architectural masterpieces.

The designer labels sold in these tents this season won’t match the sales of Walmart’s but they continue as the laboratory for all things style in this country. Under the fashion tent there is room and future for these designers as well as Walmart’s Sponge Bob Square Pants.