When I read this news, the thrifty hobgoblin in me nearly fainted. What will I do for my Target fix now? Oh I know, revel in the fact that Jonathan Saunders may be the next GO designer.

Fashionista.com is reporting somewhat ominously that Top Shop is coming to the United States, in New York no less. With the arrival of Uniqlo and H&M much earlier, one has to wonder if they can bring anything new to the table. Our international editor at iPapier, Tenisha, would be the first to sing Top Shop’s praises. My personal understanding is she keeps a Top Shop photo album consisting of photos from the first time she wears her Top Shop clothing. I could just be making that up, and in fact I am. But if they are coming, it bodes well for the New York shopping scene. Which is effing fabulous anyway.

It’s not as if this would be some sort of secret and we wouldn’t already know it’s on the way, but the San Jose Mercury news (via the Associated Press) officially confirms Victoria Beckham’s book is coming to the states. In it, she dishes her beauty tips, fashion tips and her love of high-heels among many other tidbits. The book is scheduled to come out this November. The article also alludes to the fact that Posh/Beckham/Spice is no stranger to successful books, last year she merely held a book while being photographed and it immediately became a best seller. Ok… it doesn’t say all of that, but it might as well.

link to story

[tags]Posh Spice, David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, fashion, style[/tags]

This time last week I was remarking how Michael Vobracht really came into his own at Bill Blass creating a resurgence of sort in the line’s fortunes. I lamented his departure to walk the earth and find himself. His reasoning for leaving was that he wanted to create art and pursue his own work. That was Bill Blass’ loss at the time. The rumblings were going on for awhile now as to who would replace him and the who became Peter Som for the women’s line and Michael Bastion for the men’s line. Vogue UK reported that Peter Som has officially been tapped to head the design efforts at the company.

For his own imprint this Fall, Som showed that he was adept at layering and creating texture while at the same time moving away from the sugary sweet looks that dominated past collections. There is a distinct difference between what you see from Volbracht and Som. I expect this difference to show up at fashion week, quoted from the same Vogue article Som states that

“…My current focus is to evolve and modernise the brand by incorporating my own aesthetic, while staying true to Mr Blass’ vision and legacy.”

Vollbracht seemed less worried about staying in tune with Blass is vision and more with laying a different direction.

Here’s a link to Peter Som’s fall line at Style.com. This could theoretically be a preview of what’s to come at Bill Blass.

Today we launch a new fashion blog. (we actually launched the pre-beta version last week) It covers a lot of the fashion that we simply don’t have the space to cover here on Papierblog. A lot goes on here in the states and it’s hard to cram that into one blog. So we launch iPapier. iPapier covers everything outside of the states in fashion that we’re dying to know about. Most of it is in English, but you may find a French post in there every now and again as it is our co-founder’s native tongue. You’ll find coverage of street fashion, random musings and fashion weeks that may not be in the main stream (meaning Paris, London, Milan) but are becoming ever more relevant.

We start coverage this week with Hong Kong Fashion week and get rolling on Amsterdam and Berlin fashion week, next week. Editors Tenisha Anderson and Marquita Harris bring you all the words and descriptions while photographer Anne-Marie Michel and her team brings us back photos at the various fashion weeks and on the streets. Bookmark it (http://ipapier.papierdoll.net) and wish us luck!