American Apparel saved!

Oh joy. American Apparel has been saved from bankruptcy thanks to their lenders, Lion Capital. You can read about it here. As is quoted from the article, American Apparel isn't out of the woods yet, they still have to get shoppers to buy into their weird, ugly, over-priced fashions.

"The company must turn a pre-tax profit of $20 million over the 12 months ending January 31, and by September 2013 must rake in $80 million."

So we'll have to see if the shoppers respond and step in financially to help save American Apparel. I would do my part and buy this gorgeous multi-layered petticoat. I have seen this $75 jem at the store and I love it because the fabric is really soft and not picky like other petticoats can be.

Check your nailpolish for bad chemicals!

Not a huge surprise but nailpolish has some pretty nasty chemicals in it. Some worse than others. So which are the worst. The big three no-no's for nailpolish ingredients are: Formaldehyde, Toluene and DBP (Dibutyl Phthalate). According to safeproducts.org, these ingredients all score 10 on their hazard scale. In September 2006, several makers agreed to remove these ingredients from their nailpolish but it is still being used by some. So check the teeny-tiny label on the back!

Also another thing to think of is disposing your old nail polishes. I know all girls have at least one old dried up bottle (and it's probably shimmery pink)! In a lot of jurisdictions, nailpolish is considered hazardous waste. This ehow link has some good alternative options if you can't make it to a local waste treatment facility.

As for the fun side of nailpolishes, check out JOE nailpolish at Loblaws or Real Canadian Superstore. They're of great quality (one coat can sometimes be enough), $4 each or 3 for $10 and the colours are great!

I love nailpolish. And I also love how trends result in the invention of new words. The word is this case is: GREIGE. Inspired by Lady Gaga's Vanity Fair cover, I bought a bottle of greige and I never looked back. The greige I am wearing is Commander in Chic by Sally Hansen.

Hopefully "greige" makes it into the Oxford dictionary. But let's hope that "jeggings" do not!

American Apparel

Last week I noticed an article in the National Post on the front page that American Apparel is nearing bankruptcy. The author of the article and retail professionals suggested that the brand needs to revamp itself in order to survive. I was very interested in this news  as I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with American Apparel.

My relationship started before the first American Apparel store opened in my hometown of Ottawa, Ontario. As a fresh faced fashion school grad I definitely applied and was so excited to get a call for an interview! As much as I can remember (as this was eons ago) the interview was fairly normal until the end when they (two hipster girls) told me they would need to take a Polaroid of me so that “they can remember who I am.” Really huh? You can’t remember me by the words you write down? It wouldn’t have anything to do with how I look, would it? Anyways, I felt like I was at a casting call. But it really didn’t surprise me because after all, in the fashion business IMAGE IS EVERYTHING. Although if your image is totally confusing and all over the place, it doesn’t work.


American Apparel (AA) started with two basic fundamental ideas. That they would sell basics (tees and underwear) and that they would manufacture those in the U.S.A  But you can only market your company as selling basics in the U.S. for so long. So what did they do? They asked their models to take off their pants and spread their legs.

Ok fine, so AA decided to go with provocative marketing. But sexy provocative can only go so far before it’s not provocative anymore. So what’s the next step? Woody Allen as a Rabbi of course!

You know what else is provocative? Lawsuits! And lots of ‘em!

So maybe after all the sexual harassment lawsuits, Dov Charney (founder of AA and recipient of said lawsuits) might have decided to not focus so much on nude models but on the fashion instead! UGLY FASHION! Because I mean, who doesn’t want to buy harem pants, high-waisted pleated pants and shiny disco dresses at about 80 bux a pop!?

Apparently not enough people. SHOCKING!

Also mentioned in the National Post article was AA’s new image approach to help save them from bankruptcy. So for some reason they went with PREPPY! Oh yes, now you can have your very own AA piqué polos and Oxford style long-sleeve button up!

So anyways, in conclusion is my advice to AA:

• Take a page from Gap. About 5 years ago, after years of bad sales, The Gap was in trouble. I believe they realized that selling basics only goes so far. The Gap re-shuffled their management and designers and seem to be back on track.
• Fire whoever thought harem pants were a good idea.
• You make too much shit. Streamline! You don’t need to sell nail polish, shirts for dogs, towels, water bottles and so on...
• Put your image on the backburner for a bit and focus on making quality, attractive and fashion-forward clothing!

In conclusion to my conclusion, you shoulda hired me bitches!
Love,
L.A.M.M.

Payless Fall Designers

God knows that I love affordable chains such as H&M and Target for combining forces with top designers so the middle-class can afford great designed pieces! So you know I thanked the Lord when I read that Isabel Toledo and Christian Siriano would be the newest designers to be designing for Payless.

For those who don't know, Isabel Toledo is a designer who has been around for decades but recently came into the spotlight as the designer responsible for Michelle Obama's yellow shift dress that she wore for the Inaugural ceremony.

Isabel Toledo retrospective at FIT (image from papermag.com)

Other than a ghastly black patent yellow rubber soled disaster (seen below), the other shoe designs embodies the class and elegance that Isabel puts forth in her clothing designs.

Isabel Toledo for Payless

Isabel Toledo for Payless

Isabel Toledo for Payless

I was also excited to hear that Christian Siriano would be designing. Christian is the winner of Project Runway season 4 and his win was definitely deserved! His first collection out of reality tv was an all black offering of hard coats and sleek & chic dresses. I was hoping the Payless collection would be a bit more young and edgy although Payless usually plays it pretty safe.

Christian V Siriano Fall 2010

Christian Siriano for Payless

Christian Siriano for Payless

Check back tomorrow for my thoughts on American Apparel and their recent downward spiral into bankruptcy!

Retro Cosmo!

This could have been one of the Cosmo magazines I had wrote about earlier. So apparently this is what I wanted to wear when I was like 9 years old. Not much has changed!

Your first impression of me

Hello Internets! We have had quite the one-sided relationship for a while. But no more! I will tell you how I feel weekly about things I am interested in like fashion news, fashion magazine critiques, stuff I buy and stuff I look at... You should be interested in reading these things internets because I have 28 years of experience in these issues (yes issues). And yes, 28. Ok maybe more like 25. Let me explain...

Since I could draw, I started drawing princess dresses which included embellishments such as bows, ribbons and sometimes outlandish things like candles! The dresses looked more like birthday cakes. In the stores I was also somewhat of a fashion maven. Of course the final decision came from Mommy. And we have never agreed on this issue. I remember a smart little dress I liked. Kind of looked like a little girl version of a secretary or librarian. But it was DRY CLEAN ONLY. Three words that makes my Mother scream in agony.

Fast foward about 10 years to the day my Aunt introduced me to fashion or women's magazines. I remember her giving me a Cosmopolitan one day. I didn't quite care about the "how to own your man in bed" articles but the pictures of amazing clothes I had never seen until that day mesmerized me. I had found what it meant to fantasize about what one day I could one day buy and wear. Although that was the early 90s and I haven't bought a skin-tight bright pink mini dress yet.

From that day and through my teens I have been obssessed with fashion magazines. The addiction began with YM. I believe it was Young & Modern? Anyways, I remember I would stop at the Mac's Milk before school and peruse the magazine racks for new fashion mags. If I saw what looked like a new YM peeking through the other whatever magazines, my heart raced a little.

This addiction carried though from High School to College where I took fashion merchandising. This meant I was REQUIRED to buy fashion mags. I was somewhat content you could say. I used these mags to finish school projects. So reading and looking through the pages was studying.

And now today... I don't buy as many magazines because I am a little bit wiser to the fashion world. I don't quite care today as much about trends or "top ten things i should buy this fall". I make my own fashion rules. Coming from different inspirations of course. But this comes more today from some star idols, my friends and the streets.

Nowadays when I buy a magazine, it's more for the eye candy. And the critiques. And this is wear this blogs comes in!

I would say that 90% of fashion today is ugly bullshit. Ugly fashion thanks to the likes of stores such as American Apparel where ugly fashion is good fashion.

And fashion magazines arne't what they used to be. Another reason I don't buy them as much is because they are BORING. Vogue has lost it's edge. The new September issue has a ho-hum picture of Halle Berry. Sure she's pretty and she has worn some amazing stuff but the cover is pretty much just of her face and shoulders and she's smiling. There is nothing interesting about it. It's just a pretty picture of some actress who doesn't really do anything interesting.

But there should still be some good about fashion. So that's where I come on. I am going to sift out the bores from the new and exciting based on what i think!

So that's it internets. I hope this new two-sided relationship lasts. I hope i don't mess it up and you leave me. Because internets, i love you.

Love,
L.A.M.M.