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Lacy

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Unless you have been under a rock for the past couple of months you have heard and watched the horrific stories that are devastating Japan. What I’m really impress with is all the companies and designers that are creating t-shirts to help with the relief. For example Tory Burch and the Gap is donating 100% proceeds to the relief effort. I think this is a great way to help with public out reach.

In the last few years many websites have been popping up selling designer clothing for a fraction of the price. These sites include Ideeli.com, Guiltgroup.com, LuLus.com, RueLaLa.com just to name a few. What I find most interesting about these sites is it give designers a great way to sell their merchandise without selling out to T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. I feel like it keeps the brand’s name in good standing and is still considered luxury. But the downside is you have to be a member, and that also means you could be wait-listed so if you are truly interested sign up right away and start this whole new shopping experience.

  I recently got the opportunity to visit the Van Cleef and Arpels exhibit at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt museum. The exhibit is taking place from February 22 through July 4th, 2011. I thought the entire layout was absolutely breath taking and beautifully thought out.

     My favorite part of the Van Cleef and Arpels exhibit was at the very end, when they showed the pieces that belonged to Princess Grace. She has been an idol of mine since a very young age and just seeing original pieces and knowing the history has made me love her even more.

After reading Deluxe: How luxury lost its Luster, I feel as though my eyes have been exposed to the “real” fashion industry. I enjoyed the beginning of the book because it gave a great history of when fashion houses were pure and unaffected by licenses or deals. They only cared about the quality and craftsmanship of the products they were creating. The book went as far as back as when Marie-Antoinette was Queen and would exceed her clothing budget. I enjoyed how Ms. Thomas explained how Luxury went from being the best of the best to being sold as middle market products. Everyone wanted a piece of Luxury and a lot of people got it. In the book it was exposed that these so call “luxury” brands were being created in factories as a mass market product with the quality of middle market also. Only a few brands stayed true to their name and kept themselves “True Luxury.” I feel as though this book exposed the Fashion industry and its dirty little secrets.