February 2011
Justin Bieber Gets a Haircut, John Travolta Goes Bald at the Beach
In today’s breaking men’s hair news, taking a few inches off seems to be the new trend.
AT&T iPhones Beat Verizon On Speed, Verizon iPhones Beat AT&T On Sales – Barely
Remember the life altering release of the iPhone on Verizon? It seems that it hasn’t altered as many lives as expected.
According to Wired, data from the Speedtest.net iPhone app shows that AT&T iPhone data transfer rates were roughly 2 times faster than those of the Verizon iPhone. When it comes to sales of that Verizon iPhone, it’s still attractive to new buyers but not in the overwhelming numbers many anticipated.
Nordstrom Acquires Hautelook for $270 Million: What It Means for Department Stores and Discounts
While Gilt and Groupon may be top of mind in their categories, here’s another reminder that some very profitable things are happening with brands who have marketshare, even if they don’t lead in mindshare: Hautelook, the flash sales site which launched in December 2007, was just acuiqred by Nordstrom for $270 million.
Tory Burch Delivers ’70s-Inspired Fluidity for Fall 2011
Get ready to retire your skinny jeans and say hello to a fresh fall style this year. Last weekend Signature9 had the please of attending Tory Burch’s Fall 2011 runway show as part of New York Fashion Week, and the designer delivered a ‘70s style collection with looks for work, weekends and night.
Diet Pepsi Style Studio Fails to Impress, but Diet Coke Should Still Watch Out
This weekend Signature9 attended Diet Pepsi’s Style Studio event in SoHo as part of New York Fashion week, and we have to say we were a bit disappointed with the whole thing. The night promised to include designs by Jonathan Adler, a Diet Pepsi “Skinny Bar†and most importantly a window display by Barneys’ Simon Doonan, who was recently moved from being their creative director to “creative ambassador at large.â€
Gawker Network’s Redesign Is Killing Traffic to All But Two Sites
We placed our bets on Gawker as a possibility for the next blog network to be acquired, and founder Nick Denton placed his money on a new redesign that was supposed to take the 9 sites that make up the network beyond the blog. At least for now, Denton is losing his bet.
IMG May Have Lincoln Center, but MAC & Milk Have the Internet
The big fashion venue news last season was IMG moving New York Fashion Week from the tents at Bryant Park to more upscale, uptown Lincoln Center. While fashion editors and bloggers were developing the playbook for navigating the new location, MAC and Milk Studios have been making their play for unofficial venue of the fashion new school.
It’s not just the designers with the dressed down cool aesthetic like Alexander Wang, or rising stars like Sophie Theallet though; the open embrace of the fashion tech set is a large part of how the fashion week schedule at Milk Studio has risen to take on the tents.
Why Isn’t There More Model Size Diversity On the Runways? Ask the Agencies
We weren’t sure that it was entirely necessary for Jean-Paul Gaultier to broadcast his use of models with varied body types in his last runway show, but it looks like the grand gestures are necessary for certain segments of the fashion industry.
Sketchy Issues: Inditex and Hermes Take Opposite Sides On Derivative Illustration Rights
Usage of photos found online is an oft debated issue: in 2007 there was the case of Flickr user Alison Chang, who found herself an unwitting model in a Virgin Mobile Australia advertising campaign; the Independent, a popular UK newspaper, ran into problems with Peter Zabulis when they failed to secure permission to feature a photo Zabulis took of snow. More recently, there’s the case of the Associated Press vs. Shepherd Fairey. Though the lawsuit was dropped in January of this year, plenty of issues remain surrounding the usage of photos in derivative works.
Now, two of fashion’s largest companies find themselves facing those questions.