ny fashion week 2012 portrait by carl posey

This of course is not the first time you see an image of me - ha! No certainly not, sometimes it seems all I do is having my picture taken...  but seriously, not always are they so cool as this recent portrait created by photographer Carl Posey. This collection has recently been featured in the photographers newsletter.

His eye popping images always have that special extra, uniquely obscure feel. In an era of personal promotion, these images are priceless and can make someone stand apart from the rest, be used for press, advertising and also in online shop banners, on facebook fan pages, newsletters, etc. The commission of a professional photographer is a incomparable valuable investment for an entrepreneur such as myself!

ny fashion week 2011

Everybody is ready for NY Fashion Week!

The Independent Fashion Bloggers Conference at Milk Studios rocked and yesterdays Fashion's Night Out was a blast! I concentrated on the area around Tribeca, I was not crazy enough to head uptown or even attempt to catch a cab, but even in the dark ally's of Gotham City's Downtown it felt like Halloween, except more fashionable of course...

Now it's the second day of shows and Anna Wintour seams to be everywhere, at Roger Federer's US Open matches and always readily perfectly styled in the front row of every fashion show at Lincoln Center or elsewhere... How does she do it??!

André Leon Talley wears Louis.

valentine's a la nyc

...here is my whole raw heart...

Leave it to New York City's club kids to come up with the most unusual Valentine's imagery! Although the club kid days are long gone, Patricia Fields still manages to revive them every year for a night and fill a ball room with drag queens and women in lingerie!

Swiss native nightlife impresario Susan Bartsch was present.

Even if it was only for one night, club kids left their mark this Valentine's day. Happy Valentine's day!

ny fashion week is under way...

...Lincoln Center, New York City, February 11th, 2011...

For the second time at Lincoln Center, the newest in fashion is currently presented. I will personally report from the Skybox on Monday the 14th, so look out for tweets and posts - Enjoy!

karlheinz weinberger does rockabilly

Karlheinz Weinberger, Zurich am Limmatquai, 1962. Courtesy the Estate of Karlheinz Weinberger.

I ring in NY Fashion Week Rockabilly style with this promising exhibit of photographer Karlheinz Weinberger "Intimate Stranger" at the Swiss Institute!

Karlheinz Weinberger, Lone Star Camp, Gossau ZH 1967. Courtesy the Estate of Karlheinz Weinberger.

nyc fashion night out look

Ahhhh, it's been crazy lately in the NYC, especially with Fashion Week underway, it's bustling in the town and everybody is looking his/her best. So the recent Fashion Night Out event left us wishing that this way of celebrating style and fashion would happen more often. Once a year? It's a good start but certainly not enough to get folks back into the stores... Anyway, we had a blast (my favorite stop was Issey Miyake in Tribeca) and Carl is developing his images of that night and we'll be seeing more soon but here is one of myself and my outfit of the night that I really like.

...IdilVice Fashion Night Out NYC, photo by Carl Posey...

We'll also be seeing The Swiss Federal Design Price winner of 2010 Armando Forlin, who is currently in NYC enjoying his 6 months in the Big Apple. How exiting!

sick of fashion?

Yes mam, you can imagine it happens that fashion designers have it up to here (over the head) with fashion. Now is Milan Fashion Week and before it was London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week has not even started. I am just glad New York Fashion Week was first! I was all energetic for it starting out. Saw a great many shows, including my own and mingled at the best parties in town. Lots of inspiration at the end of a season to go right back to the drawing table and start designing Fall 2010!

Over the course of the last 3 weeks I have become a little numb to the fashion news, sorry to say. That feeling will last for a day or two, then I usually snap right back into it! It's that one bad day per year we're all too familiar with. The quick fall after the long high. Melancholy maybe. But holy cow and thanks goodness: My customers don't wait, they want more designs, new designs, freakin' every day! And I love it. I do. I LOVE what I do. I have a dream job.

I guess I just don't understand why everybody has to come up with new collections at the exact same time, thrown at you all in a span of a mere 3 weeks!? It's commerce. I got it. The season clearly calls for us to buy new clothes now, the ones from last season are no longer fashionable.
You know I don't believe in this. I always wear my old classics, that is what personal style is about. It's about not letting anyone dictate what you wear at what time. You decide.

Oh, let me be grateful to you, for just hanging in there with me, while I freely dispose into cyber space what's on my mind, all these scattered thoughts which may or may not make much sense.... Thanks for just going through this little personal evaluation with me!

Anyway - so no - of course we are NOT sick of fashion just yet and I am confident once the last show goes over the runway and the curtains finally close, the lights are turned off, life goes on. We will come up with our own styles and we might buy a new dress or a coat. It's all up to us.

To my customers: Thanks! I adore my customers. Some of them send me pictures of themselves wearing the clothes they bought, sometimes they look great, sometimes not so great, but it's all good. Sometimes they look just stunning!

...karen and artist tyler jordan...

So to end this season on a really great note, here's the shot of Karen, the original hippie chick in the Woodstock Dress (the absolute bestseller of my season) and Tyler Jordan as Jim Morrison! PEACE.


O.K. I am on to Fall 2010!

t magazine party

...carey mulligan gracing the covers of the style issue of t-magazine...

I have been on many rooftops in this city and I certainly appreciate the feeling they evoke: breaths of fresh air and a chance to shake off tension by gazing onto the busy city streets, seemingly never empty of yellow cabs! The rooftop at Standard literally tops everything though. The building is so high and since it is located in the middle of the Meatpacking District on the West side - not known to be a skyscraper neighborhood - you have a unhindered view of the NYC skyline up close. Fantastic! Well and who do you think would reserve this amazing new space in the city during Fashion Week? The New York Times.

After Anna Sui's show at the tents I headed straight down to Standard, where my Swiss friend, music designer, DJ, journalist, design insider, entrepreneur and my former manager Olivier Rohrbach was conveniently staying during his Fashion Week assignment. Tommy Hilfiger is on his plate tomorrow for an interview, the show and dinner. But tonight we are invited to the T Magazine party.

Everybody was there. Suzy Menkes, Terry Richardson, Courtney Love, Simon Donovan, Jonathan Adler, Robin Thicke, Helena Christensen, Carey Mulligan, Jeff Koons, Cecilia Dean, Waris Ahluwalia and so many more. A night to remember.

...carey mulligan checking out the many pictures of herself in T-magazine...

...robin thicke and olivier rohrbach chillin'...

... waris ahluwalia...


...terry richardson with his girl and friends...

...me posing? dancing?...


...i am simply enjoying myself...


...olivier rohrbach...

And I think I do get slightly better at taking bathroom pictures... n'est ce pas?

susie bubble in ny

...susie bubble in ny...

Heyah! I haven't slept tonight, because I was worried - while feeling slightly excited about the prospects of a 20 inch display iMac with a mighty mouse and a brand new keyboard - that I might have to purchase a new computer this morning, after I discovered - upon my return from the Dress Up Soiree, last night - that my laptop was blank, stuck, gone dark - - - Yikes!

Well, I've managed to get it to work again and so the new Mac will have to wait, oh well! Sigh!

O.K. so what was it like last night? Four words: Susie Bubble in NY.
A bit ahead of time, not fashionably late, I was one of the first to enter the back room at 171 East Broadway and I spoted Jennine Tamm, blogger, entrepreneur, creator of Independent Fashion Blogger par excellence, putting the finishing touches to the table center pieces. You'd come to expect a mogul, if you do not already know her quirky, girlie appearance from the pictures on her blog The Coveted.

...jennine tamm of ifb...

I recognized Susie Bubble instantly, by far the most famous panel member here. She thinks that blogging has reached the peak and says that no one knows what the future brings and it will depend on the bloggers who keep creating content. Why was I surprised to hear her thick British accent??! Well, that was an interesting discovery: we are indeed roaming through blog cyber space daily where we have no personal contact at all and only read about a person, while getting insight into their world. Well, with the fact that I heard her voice and am in the know now of her careful choices of words, I've added another dimension to Susie!

When an attendee pointed out that he never had imagined her to have this casual t-shirt style (he had expectations of the style-savvy blogger) - Susie wore a simple vintage t-shirt dress and flats, although she was sporting a frilly bow tie headband with that - she mentioned, as if excusing herself, that she just came from the shows - which in my book would call for dress up - but maybe as an employee of Dazed & Confused, shows are just work and require comfort in order to do the actual work. Anyway, I was not in a great mood my own self to dress up for this dress up soiree - after all we are heading into the 5th night in a row of Fashion Week and I am glad I have a clean outfit! I thought she best would have sticked to her follow up that maybe her take on casual is different from his.

...everybody wanted a picture with ms. bubble and so did i...

Afterward I had some fun in the bathroom, trying to photograph my outfit... without much luck, I should have asked someone to snap it for me...

... anyway - no hard feelings - but I just felt a bit awkward surrounded by all these bloggers in person (aren't we online networkers?) and thought maybe I like them as bloggers more than in person anyway and so I left Chinatown and the smell of it behind me. I take one advice though, I will stay true to myself and keep creating good content. Thanks for a lovely evening Jennine!

fashion week monday

Since the start of Fashion Week last week I have been running around the city constantly, in heels I might add. Like everybody else I kicked off NYFW with "Fashion Night Out", which I thought was really awesome!

I was chatting with Humberto Leon and Erin Wasson at Opening Ceremony, Selima and Larry at Selima Optique and Derek Lam at Derek Lam. Never in my life have I had that much champagne! Free! Vivienne Tam is now following me on Twitter after I twittered about her generous sale that night. Lots and lots of pictures were taken and I will post them as they are being downloaded, once I get a break here!

Yesterday I showed my Spring 2010 Collection to buyers and press at the Tribeca showroom on Franklin Street. We had a blast! Pictures will follow in the next few weeks...

As a fashion designer AND a fashion blogger is is important to me to cover both of the subjects this week, so tonight, I am very thrilled to go to the Dress Up Soiree an event created around independent fashion blogging, which includes a panel discussion about the world of online fashion and where it’s heading. Followed by a party.


There will be today’s most interesting and stylish authorities in online fashion. Susie Bubble is just one of them.

paris fashion week

...paris fashion week attendee...

switzerland illustrated

A short version of the planned article in Schweizer Illustrierte was published last week due to the actuality of the running NY Fashion Week. Go to the e-magazine article!

back to the 80's again?

The week is over and what remains is a lot of impressions. Our sales meetings went well and I am looking forward to a pretty good season ahead. During the shows, good design won the votes and I basically liked everything that was optimistic!

There were a lot of vintage looks on the runways, 80's especially (just have a look at Marc Jacobs collection, or Michael Kors's), the big shoulders, punk hairstyles, club wear, day-glow colors, asymmetrical cuts, etc. The regular Joe's on the street were mostly dressed in decent shades of grey..??! What a contrast! A disconnect maybe?

I thought these 2 bystanders went into the prognosed direction and had a pretty authentic style:



And here a very last impression from the tents...


...see you in 6 months!

ny fashion week

The iron statue of a factory worker manufacturing clothing in the midst of the ever so busy fashion district, reminding us of the humble beginnings and the hard work fashion really is.

You know you don't get the usual fashion coverage here and I hope you like my personal first days round up, as it reads a bit different than many other blogs that tell you the same old BS you may or may not wanna hear.

So, yes - I am convinced you know by now - the beast has come out and you see an immense and quiet perplexing amount of fur. Why in the world...?? It's beyond me. Fur, fur fur, the most ugliest of which. I started taking pictures to report it to you, but I prematurely deleted most of them because I really don't want to cramp up my posts with this stuff. As if someone would have money to buy fur next season...??

Of the commercial shows I saw the Barbie Runway Show and Erin Fetherston, which I loved both. Yesterday I went to Tibi and Narciso Rodriquez, which only really were so so...

I also visited the Digital Moda event, which was held at the top of the 110 building on 40th Street. Gazing out the windows you could see the ever so promising fashion week tents below...


..but in all - I really wanted to say something positive about Yuli Ziv's event - this event was nothing special and it seamed a waist of time talking to the, only somewhat fashionable, crowd. Plus the drinks were really cheap.

...there were animals and fur there too...

So, I quickly made my way downstairs again and headed over to the tents. Where I was greeted by friends and colleagues who were all chatting away waiting in line to see Tibi. I liked the Barbie display:


I mentioned Tibi was not interesting, so I really could not wait to see Narciso. I went to the bar and ordered a Vodka Martini with 3 olives and mixed in with the waiting crowd. One young fashionista had this bag which I thought was fun and fitting for the Obama Zeitgeist:


And I had a quick opportunity to chat with Simon Donovan, the Creative Director of Barneys New York. I told him I was sending him my new catalog next week.

simon donovan of barneys new york waiting to see narciso rodriquez

Then finally after more than 1 hour in line, I snatched my seat at Narciso's.


The photographers are ready too, so let's get on with this show!



My attention span was beginning to stagnate and so I was just looking for a cab! Ah, there is one!


A last look uptown in direction of the ever so lit up Times Square.


And so I survived another day of NY Fashion Week!