So, Pam Hogg (whose website I will not link, for I am not worthy) has gone and stabbed a knife through beloved star blogger Susie Bubble’s heart.

Here’s the story: Susie falls in love with Hogg’s catsuits - which, in my opinion, looks like a cross between an elementary school’s swim team gear and what the characters of Star Trek might wear for a “Disco” theme party - and writes about them on her blog. She then drops by the store one day with her boyf/sister/and sister’s boyf in tow to ogle. Sister’s boyf and Susie try on a couple of the catsuits and proceed to take goofy pictures, which she then posts on her blog. Pam Hogg’s people caught wind of it, and after a flurry of email exchanges, basically demanded Susie to remove that post, because she was “bad publicity” and made her feel like “I had no right to wear that catsuit and not deemed worthy to go into her store or touch her clothes”.

What Hogg and her people have failed to comprehend is how much of an online presence Susie has. Her blog registers a daily hit count of at least 10,000, and, I quote, “Susie Bubble, whose blog Style Bubble is fast joining The Sartorialist and Diane Pernet’s A Shaded View On Fashion as every fashionista’s essential bedtime read”.  By putting Susie in the same segment of the Venn diagram as Scott Schuman and Diane Pernet is saying a lot - all 3 have got their fingers stuck in various creative pies. In fact, if the Hogg people would care to do some research, they should know that Susie is not even just a regular blogger; she has a day job, and a credible one too - Commissioning Editor of Dazed Digital. Safe to assume her blogging cred helped nab her that job.

So by ungraciously putting Susie down like that, the Hogg people have successfully shown how out of touch they are with today’s web-fed audience, many of whom are possible customers of the Hogg store (but not anymore). Eschewing the stamp of approval from one of the most prodigious bloggers in favour of inane ’slebs like the Geldofs shows what kind of a brand they aspire to be. The internet backlash will only serve to crystallise the negative opinions of the brand.

It is a given these days, that the internet is a primary source of information for many, and bloggers are a force to be reckoned with. If the fashion houses don’t recognise that, and treat bloggers with such blatant disdain, well, let’s just say that negative word-of-mouth spreads like wildfire around here.

And to end of this post, here are some amazing pictures taken of Susie by the Metro paper, showing a regular girl with a passion for fashion who has made it big (in my terms, anyway), and who is destined for even greater things.

Source: Style Bubble

So, the biggest news in fashion today is that the house of Christian Lacroix has filed for bankruptcy. Which comes as a rather big shock, because (1) the Lacroix exhibition at the National Museum is still on-going and my friends are going tomorrow, and (2) I just saw a selective capsule of his S/S09 haute couture collection during the recent Audi Fashion Festival! So this all seems rather sudden. timeliness and proximity-wise.

The hardest hit on Lacroix’s wallet, however, are not the stratospherically-priced haute couture pieces, but the ready-to-wear sales, which had dropped by 35 per cent. Losses for 2008 were about US$14 million. I suppose this is hardly surprising. The uber-wealthy will always be  safe and snug in their safety nets, always ready to finance an ailing economy with their spendthrift habits. The clientele for the more affordable RTW pieces are no doubt feeling the pinch on their wallets. and perhaps choosing to spend at H&M instead.

The F/W09 couture show should still be going ahead, albeit on a smaller scale, but let’s hope someone sees the bigger picture and buys Lacroix out of this misery. The world would be a sadder place if his fantastical creations no longer grace fashion week.

In other news, Veronique Branquinho has also closed shop. The Belgian designer is forced to close her eponymous label due to (what else?) the recession. She will now focus on her role as the new artistic director of Belgian leather goods brand Delvaux and will continue teaching as a professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Tis a sad day for fashion. It makes me wonder how everyone else is really doing, when a fashion great and an established designer both throw in the towel on the same day.

Source: www.nitrolicious.com

Anna Wintour’s 60 mins with CBS Morley Safer. All FashNetizens are abuzzed with this. This is an interview that’s going down in history - second only to Martin Bashir’s interview with Michael Jackon. Ok, some will beg to differ.

The steel in her gaze is scary. I can see why she wears sunglasses all the time now - it really is quite considerate (I’ll hate to be on the other side of those sunglasses.) As Safer pointed out: “…She has a look that says “I’m the boss, and you’re boring.” … the fear that grips at you.

Morley Safer’s commentary is hilarious, spoken throughout with a curl in the lip, he sounds like the voice-over on America’s Most Wanted. Oh well, I suppose.

In the video, Safer suggests that Nicholas Ghesquire is a grovelling syncophatic, and Gareth Pugh (with pals at front row), a walking Rocky Horror Show. It’s an indignity that I’m sure the fashion world is up-in arms-about. How dare he.

Anna Wintour is a heroic figure. Anyone who commands such reverance and fear is a modern day super hero. Doesn’t matter these days whether you’re a hero or villian - Both are equally well-received. It’s Post-modern comic.

I’m sure plans for an Anna Wintour video game are being planned as we speak…

Nitro:licious has the the full interview video in 6 sets here.

From Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, protoganist Ellen Olenska asked: “Is fashion such a serious consideration?” To which Newland Archer replied: “Among those who have nothing more serious to consider.”

How dare he, the dog.

Then The Cut reported this - “Coming Soon: The Fashion Week Video Game“. A video game based on the going-ons of Fashion Week is going to be launched next year. This is clearly a serious game with hefty realism- It’s created between game developer 505, global fashion week producers IMG, Makeup guru Pat McGrath and fashion insider Noel Gordon. No doubt, long-suffering IMG needed to vent (so clever to be making money out of it too!) And Pat.. where does she find the time?! According to the The Cut, the game will “include ‘World-class industry gurus’, models and celebrities’.

What’s the fashion game if not for the industry players and front row pawns? The game absolutely must have all the requisite famous first-nam-ers -  Anna, Carine, Andre, Suzy, Karl, Marc, Giselle, Kanye et al … these are staples. Seasonal folks and everyone else will just make the game very expensive to upgrade every season with the who’s it and who’s not.

Oh yes, fashion’s a serious consideration and spectacle - enough that a video game can be made out of it. All the most successful movies have one. Loves it. XOXO.

Just when you thought the world had enough of green washing, you hear about luxury group PPR’s huge enviromental film project. PPR lent financial muscle ($10 million Euros) to Home, a film directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and distributed by Luc Besson. The film is entirely made up of a succession of aerial footages shot in over 50 countries and incites its audiences to be aware and environmentally vigilant. As official sponsor of the film, PPR’s involvement ensures alot of people will get to see this groundbreaking film for free (according to PPR CEO Francois-Henri Pinault in the release notes). It’s due to be release silmultaneously in 50 countries on World Environment Day, 5th June 09.

Other nice things that have come out of PPR’s involvement include these fashion-greens - Alexander McQueen, YSL, Boucheron, and Sergio Rossi are all contributing to the Home project with limited edition pieces. Profits will be donated to www.goodplanet.org.

Alexander McQueen: A scarf with a manipulated photographic image of earth morphed into a skull.

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