The New York Observer » Irina Aleksander

Jigga’s Don Draper: The Man Behind the Advertising Onslaught for Jay-Z’s Memoir

For the past month, David Droga has been waking up to a daily email from a team of 20 creative people and producers outlining when and where pages from Jay-Z's memoir Decoded, out this week from Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, would show up around major cities. Mr. Droga's elaborate marketing campaign Read More

Cool Kids for Sale! A Downtown Agency Is Turning the Scion-ist Lifestyle Into a Job

Two weeks ago, at the Bowery Hotel, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, the younger half-sibling of the artistically diverse Ronson family, described what can happen nowadays to kids like herself who don't have professional representation.

"I had done this collaboration with a major clothing company," she began. "And the person they hired to do the casting tried to Read More

Blow vs. Crowe: Two Bios Resurrect Isabella Blow

The book jackets of Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow (HarperCollins) and Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion (St. Martin's Press), two rival biographies of the fashion editor, both to be released on Nov. 9, tease with a nearly identical sentiment: In 2007, the fashion world woke up to news that its most Read More

Today in Fashion: Kate’s Last Topshop; The Debut of Lanvin for H&M

Kate Moss unveiled her last collection for Topshop last night, which arrived at the New York store this morning. [WWD]

Mayor Bloomberg has announced a six-part fashion initiative to strengthen the city's fashion industry in the wake of the massive growth of online retailers. [The Daily]

A lookbook of the Lanvin for H&M Read More

Today in Fashion: Elbaz for H&M; Gilt Starting Its Own Line?

Gilt, the online retailer, has been interviewing designers around town to explore the possibility of launching its own fashion line. [WWD]

Designing a line for H&M felt, for Lanvin's Alber Elbaz, as if he were "living in a palace and opened some doors and said, 'Have tea with me, taste the food.'" [Read More

Today in Fashion: Melling Burke Promoted; Snooki’s Pickle Costume

Vogue senior market editor Meredith Melling Burke has been promoted to fashion market editor at Vogue.com in edition to her duties at the magazine. [WWD]

Teen blogger Tavi wrote a screenplay about mutants that has been made into a short film by filmmaker Alia Raza, starring Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, the daughter of French Vogue editor Read More

Today in Fashion: Lam Designs for eBay; Blow Biopic in the Works

Derek Lam has signed on to create a ready-to-wear collection for eBay that will be unveiled during New York Fashion Week in February. [WWD]

Next year, Target will re-release the best of their 17 designer collaborations featuring looks from Luella Bartley, Proenza Schouler, Libertine, and others. [Racked]

Nordstrom is opening a store on Read More

Moonshiners: The Editor, the Architect and the Bottle

"So you just yeasted?" David Haskell, a features editor at New York magazine, asked a young man in a blue T-shirt named Simon, who was sitting in a vinyl chair by an industrial window in Bushwick.

Simon, a recent Bennington graduate who makes video art, and who has black hair and a thick mustache, said Read More

Today in Fashion: Vodianova Lands Movie Role; Times Records Street Style

Natalia Vodianova has been given the lead role in a film version of Albert Cohen's 1968 novel Belle du Seigneur, opposite Jonathan Rhys Myers. [Vogue UK]

The Local, a New York Times blog, has begun doing street style videos. Says Lewis the hipster: "This is a vintage Wrangler jean shirt." [The Local]

A Read More

Today in Fashion: Anne Slowey Gives Birth; Daphne Guinness is Sued

Elle's fashion news director Anne Slowey gave birth to a baby girl yesterday. Her name is Afton Florabelle Lawson Fairey. [The Daily]

Karim Samii, a hedge fund executive who lives below Daphne Guinness in the Stanhope Hotel on Fifth Avenue, is suing the socialite for taking too many baths and flooding their apartment with Read More

Today in Fashion: Jack and Lazaro Chop Trees; Zac Posen’s Mom Resigns

Proenza Schouler designers Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCullough chop down trees and tend to their cows, goats, sheep and chickens at the property they bought in the Berkshires last year. [The Cut]

Zac Posen's mother and chair of his company, Susan Posen, announced she would be leaving the company. [The Daily]

Cintra Wilson Read More

Justin Timberlake, Movie Star

Late last month, at the opening night reception for the New York Film Festival's premiere of The Social Network, a young woman in jeans and an oversize cardigan, an average-looking brunette, elbowed her way past actor Kevin Spacey, past director Darren Aronofsky, past a barricade of handlers that had formed around the young stars of Read More

Today in Fashion: DVF Gets Political; Julia Frakes in Gap Ads

The Gap's first-ever Chinese ad campaign features the petit, blond Julia Frakes. [Refinery 29]

Diane von Furstenberg left last night's fundraiser with Michelle Obama at Donna Karan's home early to attend another fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal. Russell Simmons left early to go to yoga. [WWD]

Here is a preview of Read More

D.C. Socialites Declare War on Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama will arrive in New York today for a private Democratic fund-raiser at the Upper West Side home of fashion designer Donna Karan and then head to Broadway's St. James Theater where actress Sarah Jessica Parker will serve as her host. It all sounds lovely. Ms. Obama will likely be in the same room Read More

Today in Fashion: Scrawny Man is Out; D&G’s Tax Problems

The male ideal in fashion and advertising has returned to a more traditional masculine look: "The twink thing seems over," said Jim Nelson, the editor of GQ. [Times Styles]

The tax evasion investigation into Dolce & Gabbana has been finalized, but charges could still be brought against them and other employees of the company. Read More