It's Like This and Like That

Over the past month of mainly keeping my nose to the grindstone, interviewing buyers, retailers and trend setters for various articles and reports, stuff came up that I thought was noteworthy, but I didn't have time to write about. So here is a random snapshot of fashion shit that stuck in my brain:

Item one: Everyone LOVES Dave Ortiz, co-owner of Dave's Quality Meat. I don't know what his power is to hypnotize the masses, but any time his name came up in a conversation or I was looking for someone to get a quote from, it was all Dave, Dave, Dave. Lol--And I must admit, having met the man and spoken to him on several occasions, I too am part of the Dave's fan club. In fact, Dave could probably give some advice to some other Downtown New York sneaker boutiques, which might want to rethink their customer service strategies. More than a couple folks said they found shopping in those stores an unpleasant experience. My suggestion? Put up velvet ropes at your entry way so you can make sure that only cool people get in your store. Then maybe the staff won't have to feel so resentful about serving the people who are responsible for PAYING THEIR SALARY.

Item two: A year or so ago I got into an online debate with someone about the worthiness of New York Time's style section. I realized later that my whole defense was built around Bill Cunningham's street photography, which I still think is the best of the best, but does anyone open up that section on Sunday and wonder if "Pulse" columnist Ellen Tien could be ANY blander on a week-to-week basis?

Item three: I finally saw "The Devil Wears Prada," and like many others, mostly enjoyed the non-stop fashion show. It made me reappreciate just how beautiful true couture garments can be when compared with even the best ready-to-wear. And on that note I love Nigel's speech on fashion as wearable art--so true. And yes, the other assistant, Emily, was fantastic--loved her makeup, but I thought her bitchiness was over the top. We never once saw a reason why Andy Sachs, the lead character, would give her the gift she did. Both me and my friend KiKi disliked the decision Andy made in the end. Girlfriend clearly didn't have the stomach to get her grind on! And boyfriend annoyed me--he liked her in a size six (how progressive!) and so-called frumpy clothes, but was put off by her dedication to a plum job? But they should celebrate that he becomes virtually unavailable to her to advance HIS career? Oh well, what did I expect? For Hollywood to suddenly turn its formula for punishing successful women on its head?



Item four: Finish Line's catalog (see above image) arrived in the mail a couple weeks back and I like what I saw. As you can see, Misha Barton (who I'm not crazy about, but oh well, I'm hardly Ked's target demographic) is on the cover, wearing the Ked's line she endorses. This may not seem like a big deal to many, but it actually is. It's a big shift away from performance-based footwear for the chain and an attempt to address changing athletic footwear trends, especially for the female customer, who became less enamored with chains like Finish Line when she stopping buying Nike Shox. Rather than ride out the store and wait for peformance athletic to come back in style, the Finish Line has chosen to take a proactive stance and chase some fashion. I don't know how it's going to work out, but I think it's great that this company is giving it a go and it's great to see a big company with a lot on the line take a chance like this.

And I think that's it, folks, I feel like I'm forgetting something, but, lol, that feeling is basically a constant in my life so I'm just gonna ignore it as usual!