The Daily Telegraph on Sunday published an article by writer Melissa Hoyer about Australian designer Josh Goot going downmarket. The Australians seem to be up in arms about their golden boy designer selling out to Target. I don’t blame them. Here’s what Goot apparently did. He created derivative pieces of his full designer line that sells at higher end prices for Target in Australia that naturally sells at mass market price points and now the customers that paid full price are really pissed. Furthermore, the intelligentsia (using the term as loosely as possible) of the fashion world are railing against the practice of going downmarket for a big payday in the first place. Where were they when Stella McCartney did the same thing? Oh I know, they were sycophantically praising her for bringing her pieces to the masses.

I digress.

Some quotes in the piece are really hard on Goot regarding the reverse bait and switch:

Australian publisher (of Vogue and GQ Grant Pearce) told the Telelgraph,

“Yes, it makes designer fashion accessible to the whole market, but it does dilute the designer’s value of their existing brand, Getting a fledgling, if not currently of-the-moment designer to do a one-off collection is a current fad but I fear it can be detrimental to their long-term success”

I wonder if fledgling designers will begin questioning the leap downmarket going forward?

We finally got around to updating the Parsons student fashion show photo gallery and it was worth the wait. I guess the thing that struck me the most and writer Colette Smith who attended agreed was that the designs seem to have a certain degree of polish not evident in most student fashion shows attended. While there were a good handful of pieces that needed work, for the most part, the designers seemed knowledgeable about form, fit and function. Take a look at the galleries here.

I read almost all of the posts this week (have to read the rest this weekend). It was definitely an up week in fashion blogging. Some of the more interesting posts include designer laptop bags on the cheap, a new sneaker designer, Diane Von Furstenberg spring dresses and much more. Take a look:

Coquette
Coquette falls in love with the prints and patterns of Diane von Furstenberg’s spring dresses.

Ebelle5
eBelle5 discovers 5 Designer Laptop Bags at an affordable price.

FASHIONTRIBES
Fashiontribes dives in & finds the Top 10 Glamour Girl swimsuits for splashy poolside lounging, Hollywood starlet style.

Girlawhirl
Earrings from Gem make Girlawhirl feel like she’s on vacation every time she wears them

KRiSTOPHER DUKES
YSL Tribute shoe is the perfect platform for Kristopher to preach on.

LA STORY
LA STORY muses about taking her iPOD on the run– with IMainGO!

My Fashion Life
My Fashion Life asks that you take a stand against the disaster that is Paris & Nicole on the cover of Harpers!

Second City Style
Second City Style ’s Must-Haves (and Must-Not-Haves) for Summer 2007 is a Must-Read!

SheFinds
Celebrity “It” Bags: Which Is Your Fave?

StyleBakery.com
StyleBakery.com tested over 40 products to come up with their list of Top 10 Sunless Tanners, plus they offer [10 Goof-Proof Tips for Getting the Perfect Faux Tan]

Styleaholics
Discover hot new sneaker line Jezign!

Stylebites
Stripper shoes or top dollar chaussures? Stylebites looks into the case of the catwalk trend!

Stylehive
Escape with Stylehive to only one of seven astronomic hotels worldwide, Nuestro Hotel’s Elqui Domos, where you can stay in a private dome stargazing with the complimentary telescope.

The Jewelry Weblog
With all the graduates out there right now, don’t forget to give them a little something special. The Jewelry Weblog says that message jewelry, in fact, is a great way to show and tell how much you care.

I’m writing this because you need to understand that hairstylist Dennis Bailey unleashed, is an animal. He can do amazing things to your hair, if you let him. The photo below shows his work in abstract, but when you tell him what you want it ends up looking a thousand times better than what was planned. He understands your hair better than you do. I walked into his salon yesterday (after trying to get an appointment for 3 weeks) and told him I wanted to go short for the summer, think Victoria Beckham, he ended up doing this short layered look that’s more than trendy, it fits my face, my style, my personality. And so I’ll stop shilling for Dennis and plug his website because it may seem as if he is paying me to say these things; but there’s nothing like a good haircut and sometimes you want to yell it to the world.

And if you’re coming to our party tonight (the rsvp list is closed btw…sorry), you will see what I am talking about. His salon #is 212-662-5014 and his email is dabartsnyc@verizon.net. Tell him I sent you so I can get a discount.

photography Reka Nyari
styling Johanna Laracuente
hair styling Dennis Bailey
makeup Yisell Santos

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