Sweden vs Finland Mens hockey, which I attended last night. I love watching the goalies do the splits.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven’t been able to put much time into Searching for Style in the past few days. I am keeping up my catwalk reports, but haven’t had much time to post. I have visitors here for the Olympics, have been going to some events, including a couple of good hockey matches, and I’ve had some family problems which has meant I’ve been spending time visiting the hospital.

I’ve got some drafts I am working on, so check in tomorrow for some new non-catwalk content, including my response to an extremely rude yet hilarious comment about my Cassette Playa post. I haven’t approved the comment yet, as I haven’t had time to write a response, but watch this space. I have been called many nasty things in my time, but “brain dead idiot” is a first (and I don’t think it accurately describes me…)

I have posted a reading list on my homepage, so my readers can see some of the blogs I read. There is nothing that revolutionary on there… so I would be happy for anyone to recommend any really amazing blogs I should be reading. The list is short, and will grow, but I didn’t want to just put every single blog I think is good on there (that would be thousands), I wanted to put the ones that are very important to me (OK, I have just lost credibility because Go Fug Yourself is on there. But it is SO funny.) These are ones I read on a daily or at least twice-weekly basis. I am currently testing some more. By testing I mean, I subscribe to the RSS feed and if I’m not excited to read at least 50% of the blog posts, I cancel my subscription, and just visit them occasionally.

Feel free to send over recommendations…

See the Searching for Style Reading List on the right side of the homepage.

Image source.

Today is the first day of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. I am not particularly thrilled about these games, but there is nothing I can do now but try and have some fun. New York fashion week also started yesterday, and I will be doing my Love and Loathe for some of the catwalk shows, the ones I think are important. Despite being busy with Olympics, and visitors from Sweden, and all of the fashion shows, I still fully intend on posting some regular blog content.

If you’d like to read a bit about the Olympics fashion, you can check out my VERY generic coverage of Olympic style on Examiner. I also did an article about some very cool athlete and consumer gear for the latest issue of View2. If you’d like to know my thoughts on the rather disgusting sponsorship deals, read this interesting article on Business of Fashion, and check out my long-winded comment on the bottom. I also contributed to this Urban Junkies Vancouver Guide, sponsored by Oakley.

In the meantime, here are some fun Olympics images.

These images of Team USA wearing special edition Rodarte knitwear, shot by Ryan McGinley for The New York Times Magazine are pretty cool.

Jeret (Speedy) Peterson, Freestyle Skier (Aerials)

Johnny Weir, Figure Skater

Rachael Flatt, Figure Skater

Emily Cook, Freestyle Skier (Aerials)

Some creative anti-Olympics images…

Image source.

Image source.

And here is a genius logo from the anti-Olympics camp. Is it a middle finger? Or is it a phallic symbol? (Thanks to Jocelyn and Andrew for that!)

Sometimes I read news about the fashion industry that truly send shivers down my spine… and today was another one of these moments. I thought of waiting until later to hear if these rumors were denied, but then I thought it would give me the opportunity to discuss one of my favourite brands ever, and one of my least-favourite TV shows, which I want to feature anyway, so here I go.

Womens Wear Daily, and The Cut have both announced rumors that Sarah Jessica Parker may take on an advising role at Halston, similar to the role that Lindsey Lohan took at Ungaro. Now, considering the utter and complete failure that was the first collection by Lohan at Ungaro, wouldn’t brands hesitate about repeating this “celebrity” advisor concept? Plus, SJP at Halston???? She wears fluffy skirts, not fabulous, streamlined jersey dresses, she has big curly hair, not slicked-back buns, she wears girly, overdone shoes, not statement, strong accessories. She is so wrong for that brand.

A little background on Halston…

Roy Halston was a American designer who came to fame in the late fifties and early sixties, starting as a miliner and then becoming famous for his minimal, jersey dresses. Here are a few photos from one of my Halston books.

Halston, like Helmut Newton, are one of my first reference points for creative research when I am designing. I love his work.

He is known for dressing women like Jacqueline Kennedy, Bianca Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, and Liza Minnelli. He was also a regular at the famous Studio 54 nightclub, and would be known to turn up with a gaggle of women looking fabulous and wearing Halston. These women were referred to as the Halstonettes, and he was one of the first designers to openly use the concept of a brand ambassador, which is now something used by many large fashion brands (Daslu, the famous luxury store in Sao Paolo uses Dasluzettes to promote their store, they are beautiful Brazilian women who go to all the good parties wearing Daslu clothing. If you want to read more about the best luxury store in Brazil, scroll down to the bottom of this article.)

Remember this famous Gucci dress by Tom Ford? Inspired by Halston. Image source.

Anyway, Halston was relaunched for the umpteenth time a few seasons ago, but this time with a “super team” behind it, that included the smarts of Tamara Mellon from Jimmy Choo, the cash from film mogul Harvey Weinstein, and the, uhhh, ideas (?) of stylist Rachel Zoe. The collection did not do very well, neither did the second one, so they got rid of Rachel and the head designer, did one collection with their in-house design team, and hired Marios Schwab to come in as the new creative director. We are all awaiting Marios’ first Halston collection, to be presented in February, with feverish anticipation…He is an Austrian-Greek St Martins graduate young designer based in London that makes pretty beautiful dresses.

Halstons first relaunched collection that didn’t do so well…

Images from Style.com

Some of Marios Schwab’s designs:

Images from Style.com.

Now, why, when you have the fashion world at the edge of their seat anticipating the first Halston by Marios Schwab collection, would you then try and throw Sarah Jessica Parker into the mix? Why? It sounds ridiculous, she isn’t very Halston, she certainly isn’t very Marios Schwab, and she is not a fashion designer of any sort.

I am going to save my Sex and the City rant for another day, since they are releasing their next movie in the summer, and I am sure I will have a lot to say about that. I personally found the series a bit predictable, the characters were annoying, and I just wasn’t a fan (sorry…I know its about fashion and Manolos, but it just didn’t do it for me.) I did enjoy some of the conversations between the four women, and I think their outfits were worth checking out, but I find SJP to be pretty irritating. But I am not wasting energy saying mean things about her, its not worth it. She looks good for her age, wears some pretty interesting clothing, and his quite respectable, so good for her. But she isn’t worthy of Halston.

How can this

work with this.

Sarah Jessica Parker images source.

It can’t. Please god let this be a rumour that doesn’t come true, for Marios’ sake (it must feel pretty crap if you just got a new job, and before you even proved yourself, they hire someone to “help you”),  for Sarah’s sake (she is bound to make a fool of herself, and you need to be really tall, thin, and angular to pull off Halston jersey dresses) and for Halston’s sake. I have every confidence that Marios can do Halston, but its gonna be a lot of work, and he needs our support. But not  Sarah Jessica’s Parker’s help. She should stick to flouncy skirts and pretty colours and curly hair…

—- UPDATE —-

The rumors are true (according to WWD), SJP is taking on an “advisory” role for Halston Heritage. This is a very bad start to the day.

—- SECOND UPDATE —-

It seems to be confirmed that SJP will be involved in the Halston Heritage collection, which is the Halston diffusion line focused on re-launching some pieces form the Halston archives. She won’t have anything to do with the line  Marios is working on, but still. It is wrong.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I need to start moderating my comments on the blog. I have started getting way too many spam comments (which is a good thing, as it means the blog is getting noticed. So a special thanks to all my readers for their support!)

I think you all know where to buy Viagra if you need it, so from now on, I am going to have to approve comments, which means there might be a slight delay from the time you write a comment to the time it is posted. Once I have approved a comment from you, your next comments will go up automatically (until the spammers figure that out too.)