blogger-phobia

"i hate to see my stuff in stores! i don't know why, it's weird, i know, but i just really hate it. even stores i love like barney's in new york - i can't look!"
- christopher kane


christopher kane on bloggers: "it's a bit mad, isn't it? it feels like it's happened all of a sudden and at some shows this season the front row was just all bloggers. i think it will die down though, and people know what they are doing. no one who wants to read a serious review of a show is going to look at what a 14 year old thinks. but it has become more critical; people can say what they want about anyone on a blog without consequences and that's quite scary. there are real repercussions for a designer if a photo of something is leaked by a blog; it can be copied in a fortnight and that can really harm a business. you have to be much more careful now."

belle du jour

"wore a victoria beckham dress for the first time yesterday - the derizet in black - and good lord, is that thing figure magic. not sure if it's worth the pricetag, but if anyone has a spare grand around and happens to be feeling generous.... a pair of red louboutins wouldn't go amiss either...."

- belle du jour

dr brooke magnanti (aka belle du jour) on no longer being anonymous: "looking back over my diaries is sometimes embarrassing, sometimes hilarious (often unintentionally so). after a page or two i'm right back there – living in london, keeping up a double life, with all the effort that entails.... which is just too difficult to do long-term. i suppose i always thought that the part of my life i wrote about would fade away, that i could stick it in a box and move on. totally separate it from the ‘real me’. what it took me years to realise is that while i've changed a lot since writing these diaries – my life has moved on so much, in part thanks to the things that happened then – belle will always be a part of me. she doesn't belong in a little box, but as a fully acknowledged side of a real person. the non-belle part of my life isn't the only ‘real’ bit, it’s ALL real. belle and the person who wrote her had been apart too long. i had to bring them back together. so a perfect storm of feelings and circumstances drew me out of hiding. and do you know what? it feels so much better on this side. not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people i care about. to be able to defend what my experience of sex work is like to all the sceptics and doubters. anonymity had a purpose then – it will always have a reason to exist, for writers whose work is too damaging or too controversial to put their names on. but for me, it became important to acknowledge that aspect of my life and my personality to the world at large. i am a woman. i lived in london. i was a call girl. the people, the places, the actions and feelings are as true now as they were then, and i stand behind every word with pride. thank you for reading and following my adventures. love, belle."

luella ceases trading

"i refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. tuna fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock."

- barbara grizzuti

luella bartley on her label's cease in trading due to club 21's decision not to invest further: "this is a very disappointing situation for everyone involved with the brand…. i very much appreciate the support that vsq [club 21's subsidiary] has given me, but it is upsetting not to be able to protect jobs in this difficult economic climate. we have a number of options open to us, and are considering these over the coming months."

artistic direction?

"i am happy being able to play roles with people my age because once you do something really mature there is no turning back."

- lindsay lohan

emanuel ungaro on lindsay lohan's first catwalk collection with his namesake brand which was unveiled in paris in october and subsequently panned by the international fashion press: "lindsay lohan's collaboration was a disaster. i am furious but i can't do anything about it. that happens to a lot of designers. we were the creators and patrons, responsible for the creation and destiny of our houses. but when we gave up our houses, we gave up our souls."

believe in your product

"i know that you believe you understand what you think i said, but i'm not sure you realise that what you heard is not what i meant."

- robert mccloskey

vitamin guys drinking vitamin water. believe in yourself, believe in your product. way to go, guys.

michelle on work and babies

"i've already got the script. i've read a bit of it but i still don't know if i'll have any romantic scenes with jackie [chan]."

- michelle reis

former miss hong kong, michelle reis, was extremely gracious in answering the prying questions of the press after the ed hardy event at prive tonight. on family life and her in-laws: "they always encourage me to put career first. for instance, if we are having dinner and i have to leave early because i have a work commitment, they never give me pressure. i am very blessed to have such understanding in-laws who offer me such professional freedom. they do not expect me to have children either. if kids come, then that would be great, but since they have grand and great-grand children already, they are not too bothered. i am very lucky and do not live the life of a 'tai-tai' as you all perceive."

finally, someone said it

"and to be fair to the fashion industry: it may be struggling, but so far, no government has had to bail it out."

- robin givhan, the washington post, 18 october 2009, yes, thin's in, but why is that a surprise?

robin givhan: "it's always a bit discombobulating when people raise their voices in anger because they've gotten wind that some designers are making and selling $25,000 dresses.  after all, it's not as if the existence of a dress that costs as much as a car negates the availability of cute $25 frocks at target.  and it isn't as though edicts have been issued that all women must now dress like one of the superheroes on  balenciaga's runway.  for personal and sometimes tortured reasons -- i can't have it so no one else can! -- observers declare that they just don't understand the attraction of these strange and expensive clothes.  that would be a fair argument if those same complainers had lashed out at people who spend thousands of dollars on redskins season tickets, vintage wines, first-edition books or mid-life crisis cars.  but those industries don't stir nearly as much ire from people who are uninterested in them.  everyone has a passion that is lost on others." hear, hear!!

manolo sick of sex link

"new shoes cure the blues."

- fiona t

carrie and mr big complete and leave their civil ceremony wedding in sex and the city (the movie)

the royal blue satin pump that carrie ended up wearing to her wedding (pictured above) designed by manolo blahnik especially for the movie

67 year old manolo blahnik

manolo blahnik on the effect sex and the city (both the series and the movie) has had on him professionally and personally: "well, we had a very good year last year, thanks to those stupid satin shoes [which carrie wore at the end of the movie]. that shoe saved our company. (but) if people talk to me about sex and the city, i get sick. the taxi drivers recognise me now. it becomes too much and i don't feel comfortable. i have never wanted to be a celebrity designer."

miuccia prada

"i liked it. it made the show more interesting."

- miuccia prada on the two models who fell strutting her ss09 catwalk

on leaving her outfit choices for high-profile events to the last minute: "it’s important that you feel right, so i use an instinct at the last moment. what i think is unbearable is to wear something that we don’t feel comfortable in. it’s completely, totally psychological. one dress you felt so happy in for that day and that occasion, you put it on in another moment and all the magic is completely disappeared. there is a very tricky relationship between the occasion and your mind at that moment."

Hüseyin Çağlayan

"i don't think it represented her, and I didn't think she worked hard enough. i even told her to her face."

- hussein chalayan on kate moss and her topshop collections

on being called "avant garde": "i hate that term. it's a real hindrance because i don't think it expresses what we're about. it makes it sound like we can't appeal to people or something, and it's absolutely rubbish."

on models turning designer: "if you have a really strong sense of style and people want to aspire to being like you, i can understand that. but if you really are doing it just because you think of yourself as a brand and you haven't had the training and you know nothing about clothes, it kind of demeans all the training designers have had."