Bergdorf Goodman – Signature9

Fashion’s Night Out: The Top 10 Events for Celeb Seekers

YM Ousley — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 23:43:16 +0000

Last year we covered Fashion’s Night Out from Paris, where we caught up with Carine Roitfeld, to London and New York. Each city was an overall success in terms of bringing out the shoppers, but the feel of each event was distinctly different. The Paris Fashion Celebration Night focused exclusively on the high end merchants along the Triangle D’Or (Golden Triangle – the area along Avenue Montaigne, George V and Champs-ElysÃ©es). Roitfeld made it clear that small and luxe was more in keeping with Paris Vogue’s reader, and this year has the same list of merchants. Aside from Vogue editors, who are fashion stars in their own right, there weren’t many big names tied to the events.

Allowing the clothes to be the stars of the evening certainly has its merits, but we’d be lying if we didn’t admit that we’re pretty excited about the madness that will surely accompany the more inclusive New York event. In Paris, there was champagne, cotton candy and chocolate fondue depending on which store you stopped at, but New York promises to pull out all the stops: celebrities, designers and shopping specials to go along with your champagne.

Still, everyone has a different shopping personality. An Olsen twin and throngs of fans waiting for an opportunity to meet their favorite designer might be a dream shopping trip for some, and an absolute nightmare for others. With that in mind, we’ve gone through the hundreds of events on the Fashion’s Night Out website so far and narrowed them down to the top 10 events by shopping personality. Today, we take a look at the must-attend events for those who like a bit of celebrity with their shopping. In the coming days, we’ll cover events for those who prefer something more low key, downtown style, fashion, fashion and more fashion and the girl who just wants to have fun.

The Starlet

Big and flashy is how you roll. If anyone asks “who are you wearing?” you’ve got a list of famous names on the tip of your tongue. Celebrities, designers and hundreds of adoring fans? You couldn’t come up with a better shopping scenario.

ASOS.com

Who: Singer VV Brown and 90210 actress Shenae Grimes

What: A pop-up store and block party for Teen Vogue

Where: West Village, 10014 (right around the corner from Anna)

Barney’s

Who: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Daphne Guiness, Alexander Wang, the Mulleavy sisters (Rodarte), Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough (Proenza Schouler), Island Records founder Chris Blackwell

What: More meet and greets than you can shake a stick at, ping-pong, musical chairs and karaoke among other activities.

Where: 660 Madison Ave

Bergdorf Goodman

Who: Mary J. Blige, Nicole Richie, designer turned Hollywood producer Tom Ford, Victoria Beckham, Tinsley Mortimer, Olympic fencer Tim Morehouse, Georgina Bloomberg, First Lady favorite Jason Wu, Bryan Boy, Hamish Bowles, Robert Verdi, Thom Browne, Mark Badgley and James Mischka (Badgley Mischka) and Trish Mc Evoy among others.

What: A makeup artist competition, catwalk show and karaoke. And Tom Ford. Honestly, we’d have this on our “must attend list” if it were watching Tom Ford fill out spreadsheets.

Where: 754 5th Ave. (at 58th Street)

Billionaire Boys Club / Ice Cream

Who: Reclusive producer/entertainer Pharell Williams, who isn’t one to make lots of public appearances.

What: A meet and greet, plus special items from the collection available only on September 10th.

Where: 456 West Broadway

Bloomingdale’s

Who: Michael Kors, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, Lancome spokesmodels Elettra Wiedemann and Arlenis Sosa

What: Karaoke, tango lessons, cooking demos and a casino night

Where: 1000 3rd Ave.

Destination Maternity

Who: Model and Project Runway host Heidi Klum

What: A retrospective of maternity wear from the 1950s through today. If there’s anyone who knows about looking good when pregnant, it’s definitely the model mother of 4. Retro snacks and mocktails will also be available.

Where: 28 East 57th St.

Henri Bendel

Who: The City star Olivia Palermo, model Erin Wasson, the Fabulous Beekman Boys and possibly Kaiser Karl (though it’s not entirely clear from the description if Lagerfeld will be in attendance, or merely the designer behind a special collection for Swarovski)

What: Astrology readings (at a fee, which will go to charity), a demo of the Lustr iPhone shopping app and jewelry launches.

Where: 712 5th Ave.

Jeffrey New York

Who: Christina Ricci, L’Wren Scott (designer and girlfriend of Mick Jagger), Jason Wu, Nicholas Kirkwood

What: A denim event and menswear trunk show, limited edition Proenza Schouler messenger bags.

Where: 449 West 14th St.

Lord & Taylor

Who: Noted fashion photographer, and America’s Next Top Model judge Nigel Barker, New York Jets cheerleaders for the guys, Shoshanna Gruss, Lloyd Boston

What: A “Wheel of Fashion” and prize draws on each floor, meet and greets, salsa dancing and even dating advice if your retail therapy is inspired by romance.

Where: 424 5th Ave.

Macy’s Herald Square

Who: Joss Stone, Kimora Lee Simmons, TRAIN, Rachel Roy, Jessica Stam, celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson

What: a Gucci fragrance launch, meet and greets, a lookbook shoot, Tommy Hilfiger tailgate party and live music performances

Where: 151 West 34th St.

Save or Splurge? Premium Denim from the Olsen Twins’ Label

Nicole Hulley — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:10:19 +0000

Over the last few months we have seen major fluctuations in the fashion retail market, with many labels finding the tough economic times too much to handle, forcing the ones who’ve been able to survive to lower prices or offer more mass market merchandise.

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen’s line, Elizabeth and James is rising to the occasion with a new 70’s inspired collection of denim under the name Textile. The jeans will retail between $235 and $245 at Intermix, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. {The Cut}

Like many other celebs (think Nicole Richie), The Olsen twins are finding success in their personal retail ventures and are now working to expand their multi-million dollar empire to incorporate the new collection.

In the fall, the Olsens will offer a full lifestyle collection for Textile. â€œWeâ€re talking about the favorite things you want to wear with your jeans, like the ultimate flannel shirt.Â Elizabeth and James is a name the customers really relate to, to give them this other piece of their wardrobe, with the same brand, is an easy connect.â€ {Denimology}

We applaud the tenacity, but with denim lead brands like Rock & Republic filing for bankruptcy, and others like Chip & Pepper moving to licensing for survival, we’re not so sure if people are ready to move back to spending on denim with premium prices just yet.

Where the Wealthy Shop Online [Infographics]

YM Ousley — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:57:35 +0000

In terms of volume online, Macy’s attracts more visitors earning $100,000+ than higher end department stores Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus combined (Anna Wintour’s Fashion’s Night Out appearance at Macy’s last year suddenly makes sense).Â Though they probably aren’t the first name you’d associate with designer fashion, there are a massive number of people who match designer fashion’s ideal customer visiting Macy’s website each month. In fact, mid-range department stores, like Kohl’s and JC Penney, are reaching more affluent shoppers online than their luxury focused counterparts, such as Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s and Saks.

Want to know where the wealthy shop online in the UK? Visit Signature9 UK for a look at the UK shopping sites popular with high earners.

It’s impossible to break out apparel shoppers for department store sites (many of which also sell home and garden items), so it should be noted than not every visitor browsing macys.com is there for clothing, beauty or jewelry items. But even if half of the visitors are there for dresses instead of dishes, Macy’s is attracting one of the largest (and richest) online shopping audiences.

Our data is from Google’s Ad Planner, which only offers visitor and demographic information going back one year. We can’t say if the economy has played a role in shifting online shopping preferences, but presently, wealthy online shoppers aren’t visiting luxury destinations in the same volume as they visit e-commerce sites with mid-level pricing. A possible silver lining for sites specializing in luxury sales: while they may not get the same volume of traffic, it’s quite possible that high end e-commerce sites earn more per sale and visitor.

Of the top 20 apparel e-commerce sites attracting the largest number of wealthy online shoppers, 6 (30%) are sites specializing in discount sales. Gilt and Rue La La are neck and neck for the title of the invitation sale site with the wealthiest visitors. Allowing for a small sampling error, the two sites could even reach the same number of wealthy visitors. The advantage, however, goes to Gilt Groupe, who attracts a combined 1.2 million visitors across the main Gilt site, and recently launched sister (and brother) sites Gilt Fuse and Gilt Man. Combined, Gilt Groupe attracts more visitors earning $100,000 or more than any other online only e-commerce apparel site besides Zappos. Pretty impressive for a company that’s not even 3 years old.

When it comes to visitors earning $100k or more per year, invitation sale sites may not have as many visitors as department stores, but as a percentage of visitors, a sizable portion are in this desirable online shopper demographic.

Infographics may be copied or reproduced online with a live, followed link to this page. Please contact us for high-resolution images suitable for print.

This Just In: Have Your Cake

Rachelle Robinett — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:47:34 +0000

Marc Jacobâ€s taste for Louis Vuitton and Karlâ€s for Chanel were as sweet as could be. Ombre aquamarine, lavender and bubblegum pink abounded. Fingers, feet and Afros featured playful tassels, baubles and kiddie accessories galore. Remember Candy Land as you prepare to ring in spring.

Louis Vuitton

Chanel

Sherbet shades, subtle shimmer and plenty of potential for layering over sheer hose a la Chanel. Elizabeth and James Japonais Shift Dress, $395 from Shopbop.

Refresh the ubiquitous leather-wrapped wrist look via cotton candy color and mother of pearl charms. Ra Creations bracelet, $70 at Shopbop.

Styled right it can pass for rock-candy luxe.Captured Flower Ring, $4.80 from Forever21.

A classic trench with a ruffled skirt, in a dreamy hue (plus epaulettes!) â€“ this jacket satisfies every sweet tooth. Ruffle-Bottom Jacket, $695 from Burberry at Bergdorf Goodman.

A spot of spring for your head (hair), heart (lapel) or hobo (you got it). Chanel turquoise raffia brooch, $299.99 at Bluefly.