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Where are the America Next Top Model winners? We often ask this question and with the exception of Yaya Dacosta, Fatima Said, Chantel Jones, Aminat Ayinde, Reina Heim, Brittany Kline, and Lisa Jackson, sightings of ANTM’s alums are few and far between.
Well, add Cycle 9 winner Whitney Thompson to the lists of ANTM former contestants who is back on the radar. Whitney Thompson recently landed a campaign with British plus-size lingerie brand Panache Lingerie’s new Sculptress line, a fun, flattering collection offered in cup sizes ranging from D to J and band sizes ranging from 36 to 46.
“I feel feminine and sexy when I wear the pieces, which is important for me and other curvy women. It’s about time we had a collection like this for the real woman,” says Thompson.
With this campaign, Thompson proves that there is life after ANTM.
LVMH Likes Them Young
Young designers rule; well, at least they do at some of LVMH’s luxury brands. In recent months, LVMH has acquired two young fledgling brand, Nicholas Kirkwood and J.W. Anderson. LVMH last week also appointed Anderson, known for his urban androgynous style, as creative director of its Spanish luxury handbag brand Loewe. And LVMH has recently invested in young French fashion label Maxime Simoens.
With LVMH grabbing up so many talented young designers and burgeoning brands, competition among fashion holding companies is getting very tight. “We also considered investing in them [Nicholas Kirkwood and J.W. Anderson] but we never expected LVMH to move so quickly,” Rosso told Reuters before the Margiela show at Paris Fashion Week. “What groups like LVMH are doing, is preventing young designers like Anderson from working for somebody else,” contends Renzo Rosso, founder of Diesel.
Schiaparelli’s New Boss
There is a new boss in town and it is at the iconic House of Schiaparelli. Marco Zanini, formerly of Rochas, has been hired as the new creative director of Schiaparelli.
Schiaparelli has been on the hunt for a creative director since May 2012. Christian Lacroix presented a capsule collection for the iconic fashion house in July.
Zanini will present his first collection for the brand during Couture Week in Paris in January. “Schiaparelli symbolizes the capacity to think and create in a different way. My wish is to make this mythical house live again,” says Zanini.
—William S. Gooch
Will it ever end, you know what I am talking about; fashion’s infatuation with celebrities and pop music icons? Well, if high-end retail store Barneys has any say, it will not end soon, evidenced in Barneys’ new partnership with hip-hop mogul Jay Z for a 2013 holiday fashion campaign.
Remember when your parents told you that you are only as good as your word? Well, it seems that South African designer David Tlale did not heed that advice when he failed to pay People’s Revolution owner and maven Kelly Cutrone for services rendered.
I’ve got a secret, I’ve got a secret. Well, maybe it’s not that much of secret. Still, everyone likes to get the one up on someone else. And true to form, Fashion Reverie gives its readers an early purview into some of the looks for spring/summer 2014.
After five seasons, The Rachel Zoe Project is over!! With ratings dropping 40% this past season, Bravo has decided to pull the plug on the once highly rated show which debuted in 2008.
Donatella Versace’s life following the death or her brother will be dramatized in a made-for-TV movie on the Lifetime Channel. House of Versace will star Gina Gershon as Donnatella, Enrico Colantomi as Versace, Colm Feore as the older brother Santo, and Raquel Welch as the siblings’ Aunt Lucia.
It appears that John Galliano has been a clandestine designer-in-residence at Oscar de la Renta. De la Renta recently supported Galliano on the morning talk show CBS This Morning. But, it seems de la Renta’s support is far more than just talk, according to WWD.
Tapping into Sub-Saharan Africa’s middle class Estée, Lauder has plans to expand its presence in the region by promoting two of its most lucrative brands, Clinique and MAC. There appears to be a demand for luxury cosmetics by the region’s middle class. “”Our target consumer is the emerging middle class, the established middle class and that affluent African consumer who’s probably extremely well-traveled and very brand savvy,” says Sue Fox, Estee Lauder’s managing director of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Anna Wintour on reality television, no, not possible; think again. Condé Nast is producing the reality-based The Fashion Fund, which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the process by which the Council of Fashion Designers (CFDA) chooses the annual winner of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award.
