11 things you didn't know about Marc Jacobs until now

(from fashionista.com)

. He’s only worn jeans three times in the past two years.

2. Speaking of pants, Marc’s famous kilt was the result of a bad mood in the office. He was feeling uninspired and told his assistant Casey to go to Barneys and buy him a pair of funny pants to cheer him up. Thus the Comme des Garçons kilt streak commenced.

3. While at Perry Ellis he hired his best friend from Parsons, Tracy Reese, and other Parsons grad Tom Ford to design for the label. Tom and Marc together is every American’s dream, right?

4. The greatest American designer according to Marc? Ralph Lauren.

5. But Yves Saint Laurent’s his design hero.

6. The company started at 113 Spring Street with one pattern maker and two sewers. All three are still with the brand today.

7. Juergen Teller shot Marc’s very first ad, of Kim Gordon on stage in a Marc Jacobs dress styled by Venetia Scott. So not much has changed there.

8. The common thread between Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton is collaboration. Marc stressed the talent and passion of designers he works with at both brands, and that the end result is not a manifestation of his own vision, but the vision of each member of the creative team. Very different from the dictatorship Tom Ford describes, no?

9. The major difference is between MJ and LV is Marc’s personal conceptions of New York and Paris. Marc Jacobs is about New York, and Marc always needs to create a logical, credible collection for the brand. Paris, however, “is like a cartoon,” so Vuitton is always about flaunting what you have and suspending logic.

10. On the casting at his AW10 Louis Vuitton Show, Marc says it wasn’t about age, race, size, or shape. Instead Marc says, “iconic women are always Vuitton.” He worked with Katie Grand to pick out icons, and even lamented the lack of Daria and Isabeli saying, “we wanted them, but they were booked for other things.” Could you even imagine Isabeli pouring over a Vuitton corset? It’s almost too incredible.

11. All the design on all Marc Jacobs products is in house. That means every t-shirt, headband, necklace, glove, tsotchke you find at the Stuff by Marc Jacobs store on Bleeker was designed by the Marc Jacobs creative team.

reselling of used panties

WHAT?! This is so disturbing and gross! watch the video on cocoperez.com of the undercover story.

http://cocoperez.com/2010-03-03-retailers-are-selling-used-panties

legal and illegal counterfeits

Did you know that in Paris and Italy one roaming the streets with a fake bag can get arrested and fined? For some of you, you might think that's crazy. But the truth is, counterfeit bags ARE a crime. They support human trafficking, child labor, drug cartels, in some cases terrorism, and much more. They mess up the economy because the tax revenues are not being circulated back to the designer and economy. So basically you're effing up the economy and screwing the fashion designer.

Well that shouldn't be new to you, since I blogged about it awhile ago. However, I never knew that fashion copycats cough cough Forever21 cough could get away with making knock offs in the USA.

According to Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman (Counterfeit experts and law professors)

American law does not protect most fashion designs. Copyright law views fashion designs not primarily as

artistic works, but rather as “useful articles,” and useful things are not granted copyright protection. This rule reflects the fact that useful things are supposed to be the domain of patent law. But clothing designs virtually never qualify for patent protection, because they are almost never “novel” – i.e., truly new – in the way patent law requires.

Ohh American fashion...