FASHION EDITORIAL

by AMORE LITTRELL-FELLINI

“Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world.” – Diana Vreeland

Diana Vreeland’s famous quote “Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world, made no distinction between fashion apparel and fashion media. Nor do we. In this issue of FASHION ALERT, we highlight a few brands that are employing media to release us from the banal. Be it Rebecca Minkoff’s use of the Fashion GIF to animate her Spring 2013 Resort Lookbook, to James Franco’s short films for 7 For All Mankind (to Levi’s forthcoming magazine on Flipboard, to Emporio Armani’s playlist on Spotify), brands are becoming evermore creative in their use of media to create an “experience” and entreat a loyal following of customers. Still, one may wonder: Do these efforts veer too far from “fashion” and into “media”? Put another way, shouldn’t Franco be showing the jeans more? Not necessarily. As ninety-oneyear-old legendary fashion icon, Iris Apfel, will tell you “Fashion is not just fashion,” and in this 24/7 global fashion market, it is not enough to be just about “the jeans.” Brands have got to ENTERTAIN. The Eye Must Travel...

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by AMORE LITTRELL-FELLINI

In life, three things are certain:

Death, Taxes, and Leather will

always be trending.

But the biggest trend of all - most noticeable in the Spring/Summer 2013 Ready-To-Wear collections presented during Fashion Week in NYC, London, Milan and Paris - is the one least mentioned: the anti-trend. What else could be deduced from the trend sprawl which took us from “Delft Blue” (Tadashi Shoji) to “Rainbow Metallic” (Burberry) to “Feminine Samurai” (Prada) to... “Postage Stamps” (Mary Katrantzou), and so on?

If such a variety of “trends” walk the runway can they be called “trends”? In this TREND ISSUE of FASHION ALERT we talk to the would-be trend suitors: the Stylist, the Designer, Forecasters, and YOU about trends and their significance today. What we find is that it is not so much the death of the trend as it is the birth of trend independence. In this Brave New Fashion World, the only trend allegiance required is the one you conjure yourself. And, as the Fashion Snoops’ Trend Report (sneak peek below) will attest, the options are many. Peplum anyone?

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by AMORE LITTRELL-FELLINI

“One late summer night, I was thinking…” invariably begins the tale of a brainstorm, a wild hair that could revolutionize everything. In the fashion industry, examples of such superlative imagination abound. Coach Bill “Nike” Bowerman grabbed a waffle iron, Sara “Spanx” Blakely took scissors to control top pantyhose, and one late summer night in 2009, British architect of bridges, Julian hakes, put down his mojito (the beverage), grabbed his foot, tracing paper and a scalpel.

The resultant drawing of a bridge-less shoe with a curvature resembling a lime peel, became an overnight viral sensation and a reality just three weeks ago when it became available for purchase online. This is the viral power of creativity. Be it born of frustration or inspiration, or the fine line therein, creativity is the impetus that can solve everything and excite everyone.

“I never thought I’d get into shoes,” says Julian Hakes. And not unlike the poetically fluid and seemingly cosmically- engineered Mojito shoe, so begins the tale of how Mr. Hakes, an architect of bridges, “got into shoes”.

“I think it is impossible to separate design from the culture you are in,” says Julian embarking into his story from his vacation home in the south of France. Sporting a white t-shirt, white shorts and white flip flops, he’s just enjoyed a barbecue with his family and his kids are playing. He is readying for business trips that will include MAGIC trade show in Las Vegas in less than a week. In his own words, he’s “chilling out on the beach”. And, no, he’s not drinking a mojito. He’s drinking a Pimms.

“You see a movie, take a walk, read a book, hear something on the radio - all are socially and culturally conditioning,” continues Hakes. “There are lots of different ideas all the time, and sometimes things kind of stick. Those things influence you in a certain way, so all those things come together. I guess there is also quite a lot of being in the right place right time.”

By way of saying “right place, right time,” Julian is saying that the idea for the Mojito shoe did not come in a sudden flash after drinking a mojito. The concept took serpentine shape - literally - over the span of perhaps 10 years, the last three in testing.

His first “departure” into shoes, as Hakes called it, took place in 2003. His wife was not only in the “right place” - she was just around the corner. United Nude, the brand founded by a Dutch architect, was launching with a shoe and had a design studio just steps away from Hakes’ studio. They were having their sample sale. Hakes’ wife returned home with the Möbius shoe. ”My wife bought quite a lot of their shoes,” confesses Julian. The shoe not only proved auspicious for United Nude - their brand is now sold in over 40 countries - it made an impression on Julian.

“I had just designed a Mobius bridge in Bristol (going into construction this year). At the same time, someone in Amsterdam had designed a Mobius movie house “but I didn’t know about any of those things at the time.” This is just an example of things around you and how you pull things out of the air for making different products. “I knew people had tried to make shoes with gaps but haven’t solved problems. So I started thinking about process.”

The Process

In 2003, designing with “real fluidity and form, and singularity of design was only possible with the CAD,” says Hakes. In other words, the very hallmark of Hakes’ design sensibility could only be sketched, not built.

Fast forward to 2009.

“I was in my studio in London. All the office doors were open, the ground floor door was open. The team had gone home and I made a few mojitos. It was one of those moments. I thought, I should try it, see what happens. I don't know what it was that possessed me to pick up the tracing paper. I got a marker and a scalpel, which is dangerous (after mojitos). (So dangerous, in fact, he could have been saying moji-toes if not careful.) It was like having a big bandage around my foot. That's how many classically trained shoemakers design prototypes. That's how many lasts are made but for me it was just the material available."

"I spent 10 years designing buildings and bridges all over the world that required some poetic sculptural piece of engineering,” says Hakes. “Bridge design work is always quite fluid. It's an expression of focused play of structure with an emphasis on fluidity and a single expression of line which gives something efficiency and poetry of shape. Every bridge I've ever designed - always site specific - if you remove it from that part of the city - it doesn't mean the same thing. It's the same thing with the Mojito shoe. Without the foot, the shape wouldn't exist. So it was designed around and for the foot. This is not as designers would do.

They would select shape and form and apply aesthetic afterwards. Architects design the same way: first triangles and geometry and then consider function and materials.”

“I ask myself,“ says Hakes, “First, what does it have to do, then what do we have to make it from? I wasn’t thinking who is going to buy it, just ‘let’s see if this works’. I knew I had to be able to make it in an efficient way. Materials had to be efficient. So it wasn’t just about things to decorate it with. I take aminimal approach, which is not to say I reject decoration. I think it has a very important function but decoration needs a framework and foundation.”

Hakes wasn’t the first to attempt a bridgeless shoe. He knows from extensive research that many attempted but says, “No one had solved it (the issue of support) with a band coming around to the front of the shoe. When you look at footprint in sand, there is no load going to middle part of foot,” pointing out that required foot support is less a foregone conclusion and more a matter of logistics.

The Mojito Hits the Viral Motherlode

“Friday after we put it (early concept images of the Mojito) on a design blog (Dezeen.com), I received a call from the site’s editor saying it had “gone viral” and I should google my name.” He did and was prompted to “buy Julian Hakes designed footwear?” A few hours later, more than 100,000 viewed it on Gizmodo.com. By Monday, Hakes got a call from a well known model asking for it. “We said to ourselves that we need make this happen if it’s caught people’s attention that quickly,” said Hakes. Press agencies called from around the world, and Forbes Asia picked up story. “After that we did nothing (to get press),” added Hakes. Instead they created low resolution graphics that only bloggers used. “It wasn’t planned but felt right. We loved that the message was being spread through underground, not mainstream.”

They weren't ready for mainstream then but now they are. Two weeks ago, the shoe became commercially available on Cloggs.uk.co.

Next up

Hakes is working around 4 to 5 designs and still soaking up the 3-year process of the Mojito. “I know we've got to let this first one out but there are so many more ideas that I want to bring out. “ And he’s hearing a lot of ”what next?” and “which celebrity?” But Hakes says he’s not sure he wants to go after celebrities. “I almost prefer getting fifteen people on Facebook. Let those people wear it. those are the people who've been there from the start. I don't want to have to sit down what celebrity is the right one is to wear my shoe. If those people online first liked it, then they are the right people to wear it.”

“One of my starting points for this has been to make ”democratic couture” -the idea that something could be seen on catwalk and celebrities not able to get it but a regular customer who could normally never afford it, would be able to get it. It opens up access. To me great design, shouldn't cost more. It should cost less because it’s more efficient, more sustainable, fun, beautiful - and that's because you are thinking about the problem.

And boy has he thought about the problem. And solved it. We personally can’t wait for the Pimms Shoe.

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Published in Fashion Alert, Creative Issue August

by AMORE LITTRELL-FELLINI

How innovative can a button company be? You would be surprised.

Cited by the New York Times in 2002 as "the nation's largest maker of buttons - an old but little-known giant of the garment industry," Emsig Manufacturing is no ordinary button maker. Suffice to say that you don’t get to be a 4th generation American company – something only 9/10 of 1% of companies in America achieve – and have a place in the annals of Supreme Court Cases and in the very bedrock of the New Jersey Turnpike – without some creative thinking. And of course, there is Emsig’s longstanding “innovative” business strategy since 1928: To produce the highest quality products for their customers.

“Emsig” is the surname of a family that lived in Austria for over 400 years. In 1928, Max Emsig, a 44-year-old tinsmith who immigrated to the US in the early 1900’s, started doing business under “Emsig Manufacturing”. Innovation began in earnest immediately. Between 1928 and 1949, Emsig had produced many firsts among buttons, from the first enameled steel work shirt buttons to fire-retardant and colorfast melamine resins, as well as the world’s first sew-through shank button and automatic shank button feeder. Always acutely responsive to the times, they introduced buttons made 100% from recycled materials, and a bio-tech button that resists viral and bacterial organisms in 2009.

But, as innovative as they were in terms of manufacturing and their “quality strategy,” it is Emsig’s pivotal place as a landmark – literally and judicially – in American history that affords this button maker legendary status and a spot on our most innovative list.

SUPREME COURT: EMSIG v. PRICE FIXING

“When Roosevelt was President,” says Larry Jacobs, the president & chief executive officer of Emsig, “there was a law that limited what price you could sell for. You had to sell at a fixed price.” And so begins one of two stories that Jacbos will share from his Made in USA booth at the MAGIC trade show in Las Vegas last August. Jacobs, who will be 80 in February, married into the business of his wife’s family (Emsig), and by the time he is done telling two stories, one will never look at the New Jersey Turnpike in the same way again.

The “fixed price law” that Jacobs was speaking of, was instituted by Roosevelt as a “national remedy” during the Depression. In 1934, the law was challenged by Leo Nebbia, the owner of a New York grocery store. At this point in time, almost 20 million Americans depended on federal relief, and New York’s milk-control board had fixed the lawful price of milk at nine cents a quart. Nebbia, however, sold two quarts of milk and a 5-cent loaf of bread for 18 cents and was found guilty of violating pricing regulations and fined five dollars. Nebbia challenged the conviction, arguing that the statute and order violated the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the state of New York could regulate (set and/or otherwise control) the price of milk for dairy farmers, dealers, and retailers. Nebbia lost. Justice Owen Roberts wrote the majority opinion, upholding the New York law; declaring that a state may regulate any business whatever way, “when the public good requires it.”

Like Nebbia, Emsig would go on to challenge the law. “We needed money for payroll,” says Jacobs, “so we went out and sold buttons for a lower price,” says Jacobs. By doing so, Emsig found themselves sued by one of their competitors, Colt Firearms.

“Colt Firearms made buttons, and they also made plastic handles of the same sort for guns but they were a button competitor of ours,” says Jacobs. “We didn’t have lawyers and couldn’t afford them but we found someone we knew who had two sons who were lawyers and they took this as a class action lawsuit, and they brought it to the Supreme Court. Roosevelt lost,” continued Jacobs, “because our concept was, basically, that the buttons are our goods and we can give it away, throw it away, and sell it any price we want. Roosevelt, who was a very good President, was upset and tried to pack the Supreme Court which he couldn’t do. And now Colt is big in guns and we still make buttons.”

SEW BUTTONS ON YOUR TURNPIKE

A few years later, in 1940, Emsig began supplying buttons to the military. “The Government approached the company and said ‘Make buttons for the Russian Army,’” says Jacobs.

“Now, those buttons were shipped out on Liberty ships and the German submarines sunk most of those ships and most of those ships had a couple of cartons of our buttons. So now the war is over and we’ve got these buttons still left over from what the government bought and we asked the government, “What do you want us to do with them?” And they said, “Well, we are funding parts of the New Jersey Turnpike. If you ship them there, we can put them in the base underneath the cement.” Jacobs continues, “Now the reason I’m saying this, is that in the thousand years when they dig up the turnpike, no one is going to know how those buttons got there…”

Today, Emsig continues to make buttons from factories in Connecticut, India and China, and remains a supplier for the U.S. government. The class action suit is now discussed in law schools and textbooks. And the New Jersey Turnpike? Already considered iconic from all the heavy pop culture references in film, books and music, it is now the “most buttoned-up Turnpike in the World”. In 1000 years, we expect the expression “Sew Buttons on Your Turnpike” will be sweeping the nation, eventually replacing “Sew Buttons On Your Underwear” as the not-so- popular-anymore expression.

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Published in Fashion Alert, Innovation Issue #6 November

by AMORE LITTRELL-FELLINI

When a company as trailblazing as Columbia Sportswear – which, for the record, has 233 patent families to its name, a legendary founder (Gert Boyle) known as “One Tough Mother,” and staff members who wear lab coats – touts their latest innovation as a “gamechanger”… you know they mean business.

To their titillating point, what could be more industry-transforming than the introduction of apparel that makes sweat a renewable resource? That may be apparel’s answer to global warming? That puts polyester in the corner? (Ok, that last one may be wishful thinking.)

And so the company historically known for “keeping you warm” introduces something a bit cooler: Omni-Freeze® ZERO. Researched for 2 years, the breakthrough, sweat-activated cooling technology is poised to make its appearance in 40 apparel and footwear styles in Spring 2013. The multi-patented fabrication consists of tiny but visible blue rings that contain a special cooling polymer. When exposed to sweat or moisture, the rings swell (similar to goose bumps) and yield an instant and sustained cooling effect as long as moisture is present.

“On the scale of 0 to 10 on the game-changer scale, it’s an 8.5,” says Michael “Woody” Blackford, the VP of Global Innovation (read: Chief White Lab Coat). “Reason to me, is a simple thing: In the history of humans and clothing we always thought of it as something to put on to get warm, and now we’re putting it on to getcool.” This is our third attempt. We’re getting better.”

Woody may have gotten his nickname for his storytelling likeness to Woody Harrelson’s character on the TV show “Cheers”, but he is not kidding. Whereas earlier versions of their cooling apparel made technological headway, they were not as cool (read: cold) nor as sustainable as Omni-Freeze® ZERO. As one beta tester of Omni-Freeze® ZERO reported, after running in the hills of South Africa, “To my amazement I was actually cooler with the shirt on than I was with it off.”

Omni-Freeze® ZERO is the result of doing exactly what Columbia Sportswear champions with its tagline, “Trying stuff since 1938.” When they coined this tagline 2010, it was not just a newfound catchy phrase conceived by some Ad man. “Trying Stuff” has been the mantra of the company since it was founded.

“One of the very first fishing vests ever made,” says Scott Trepanier, Sr. Manager of PR & Promotions for Columbia Sportswear, “was this idea of this interchange jacket – a bugaboo jacket – a shell you could zip into the liner. A 3-in-1 jacket. No one had done that before. They would just put a jacket over a jacket. So the idea of trying and seeing what sticks has always been in the brand DNA. Design and Technology innovation is about trying stuff out. “We know we’re going to fail but we still try.”

In the case of Omni-Freeze® ZERO, had Woody not “tried stuff,” well beyond conventional apparel industry wisdom, the discovery, and arguably the most innovative application of a polymer since polyester - might never have happened.

So how was the new polymer discovered?

While we had visions of “the discovery” occurring in the company's “white coat room” – aka the PIT (Performance Innovation Team) room – where a dozen or so geniuses across multidisciplines assemble amid apparel scraps and scientific paraphernalia to “try stuff” so that they may develop the next revolutionary consumer solutions for the company’s brand portfolio, it did not initially happen that way.

THE DISCOVERY

It was 2010, just two years into releasing their first cooling apparel collection, Omni-Freeze. On this day Woody was not in a lab coat nor in the PIT room. He was at the bi-annual Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. “Someone wanted to pull me aside to demonstrate a waterproofing membrane but then told me that the membrane was not waterproof in fact, but really breatheable,” says Woody. “I’m like ‘Oh, that’s likely to be a difficult sell.” Woody explains that a breatheable fabric that’s not waterproof leaves you no where. “Most knit fabrics – mesh, for example, are pretty breatheable.”

“But I tried to play with it, because I was curious, because I would love to see a membrane LEAK. So I put the water through it. In the back of my mind I was always sort of scouting for (better) cooling technology so when the water dripped through it, I said, “wow that feels cold.”Woody didn’t know it then, but he had stumbled onto something he would later call, yes, “game-changing.” In the ensuing days the conversation at Columbia Sportswear changed from “Whoa, cool science experiment” to “How can we make this something you can wear?”

Woody followed up with the supplier to investigate and test the properties further with measurements and thermal imaging. Thereafter he concluded, “Hey, this could work.” Woody then showed the company the details of the property they were unaware of: that the polymer, in its aqueous state was an endothermic material that was able to lower the temperature of water while in it. “Of all the endothermic compounds, this is at the top of the list, says Woody.

An exclusive contract with the supplier was forged. “We didn’t buy it as membrane,” says Woody, “but as a polymer. And their material wasn’t the only part of the solution. We have our own fabrication and design patents – so it’s a combination.”

Woody, who joined Columbia Sportswear in 2005 as a Senior Apparel Designer and was promoted to Design Director of Men’s Apparel & Equipment in 2006, came into his new role two years ago. “It’s a super fun role,” says Woody. “It brings together a lot of disciplines: Science, engineering, and pure creative. I have no science training. But in the modern world you’re allowed to learn whatever you want, you know just Google it. He adds, “We are trying to create solutions to keep people warm, dry, cool and protected. We want to be the best in the world on that and we spend all day thinking about that. Slowly, through trial and a “connected develop strategy” in which we reach out to other industries, and take advantage of their technologies to help develop for our industry, we find our materials. Sometimes we find a material by having our ideas open-sourced, sometimes we find them internally. Omni-Heat REFLECTIVE is one of my patents, for example.”

“Omni-Freeze® ZERO is an entirely new approach,” said Mick McCormick, executive vice president, “and unlike anything the industry has ever seen. Historically, outdoor and athletic brands have looked at sweating as a problem…something to be wicked away with so-called ‘technical,’ decades-old polyester fabrics. We see sweat as a renewable resource that will allow athletes, outdoor enthusiasts or anyone that spends time in hot, humid conditions to sweat smarter, staying more comfortable.”

Woody adds, “We’ve certainly redefined our definition of outdoor which was very focused on keeping you dry but to me there’s another issue. It’s not just cold or wet, it’s getting hot. We haven’t really addressed it and it seemed natural to me to be as good at that. It is warming and 95% of us live where it’s warm so the potential market is probably bigger overall and it has so many applications. It’s not just for the typical outdoor user (hiker). It could include construction worker, someone working inside of hot building.”

“One of my favorite stories,” begins Woody, true to his nickname, “is about a guy who did a write-up about Omni- Freeze® ZERO pre-launch and called it ‘Cool is Cool’. He lives in Florida and inspects roofs and gets into attics. He wrote that ‘This is the hottest place on earth – something like 150 degrees Fahrenheit - and when I get back down from the attic, I’m a waterfall (of sweat) and it’s embarrassing. I bought your shirt and now when I come down from attic there’s no waterfall.’”

Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Woody admits that he likes to wear the white lab coats when running experiments. “People seem to like it when we are doing presentations. They seem to pay attention.” Woody finds it somewhat comical. “They listen to me more when I have the lab coat. People don’t ignore the man in lab coat.” When asked what his 11-year-old daughter thinks of the white jacket, he says, “She seems to listen to me more when I’m wearing it too.”

It appears he is wearing the lab coat a LOT. The technology innovations of Columbia Sportswear are so plentiful that there is a drop down menu on the website devoted just to exploring these technologies and their applications. With this much use, we suspect Woody might want to make the white lab coat with Omni-Freeze® ZERO.

by AMORE LITTRELL-FELLINI

For the insatiable shoe fetish and art collector, here is the gift that keeps giving: Pop Art high-heeled shoes – for the wall.

Described as “screaming sex” and “whimsical” by the artist himself, the high-heeled illustrations by Mark

Schwartz – a Roger Vivier-apprenticed, Andy Warhol-endorsed, Julliard-trained (for drums and percussion, of course) – are fantastical, geometrical abstractions of high fashion shoes in vibrant watercolors and drippy inks. Effused with the jaunty esprit of Jackson Pollack and Warhol, sexy stilettos are forever immortalized. Schwartz has completed over 500 paintings in 20 years, and spent the last 30 years designing shoes for Christian Lacroix, Gucci, Barney’s, Bergdorf Goodman, and private labels. Today, his “high heeled art” – inspired by Christian Louboutins, Manolo Blahniks, Walter Steiger and Vivier – retails between $300 to $3000.

This is the unlikely career of a Julliard-trained drummer who – thankfully - didn’t go into TV. We’ll explain…

How The Drummer Got into Shoes

Banging on drums since the age of six, Mark Schwartz was admitted to Julliard in the late ‘70s where he continued his musicianship in drums and percussion. Upon graduation, he, naturally, went to work in sales at a Madison Avenue shoe store. Soon after, he traded up in shoes and location when he “fell into a job” with Roger Vivier, the iconic French designer and creator of the Stiletto. “I got very lucky. I knew a couple of people associated with him,” says Mark.

Fortuitous indeed, for up to this point, Schwartz’s entire life’s collection of sketch notebooks consisted of cars and motorcycles doodling. Read: No Shoes. And now he was to be Vivier’s assistant working from an office a bit more uptown on Madison Avenue.

“I always did have an art interest but I never ever pursued,” says Mark. “I never ever even thought about drawing a shoe or anything fashion related. He (Vivier) was the one who got me sketching and drawing.”

After six years with Vivier, in which Mark would fondly recalls many late nights finding Vivier asleep face down on the desk with pencil in hand in the middle of a sketch, Mark felt the preternatural urge to start his own eponymous shoe line - but not before the Warhol seed of pop shoe art would be planted (some four years earlier).

It was 1984 and Vivier had invited his friend And Warhol to the office to meet Schwartz. “At that time I was really having fun with shoes with doodling and sketching and painting,” says Mark, “and Andy liked to do the same thing so he pointed me in the right direction. I didn’t know it at the time but it would have a profound effect on me doing it later.”

Warhol was, according to Schwartz, “pushing Interview magazine” at the time. “Andy used to come to my office with about a dozen Interview magazines in hand he was very proud of the publication. It was his baby,” says Schwartz.

Warhol had founded the publication, nicknamed “The Crystal Ball of Pop” in 1969. At these times, Andy would make his way around to Mark’s desk. “Andy loved to watch and observe (my drawings) but he never gave me actual (artistic) guidance, he just commented on my drawings and paintings. He was big on observation. That, for me, was enough. He would say, ‘I love the color or the shape you are using here, make it more you, make it more fun!!’ That was his way!”

Warhol must have indeed seen the artistic merits of Schwartz’s work because only five years earlier, in the June 1977 issue of Interview Magazine, encouraging artists was, apparently, not his way. Then, when asked what advice he would give to a young person who wants to become an artist, Andy replied, “I'd just tell them not to be one. They should get into photography or television or something like that.” Fortunately for shoe lovers, Mark never veered into TV. And in Mr. Warhol’s defense, he simply thought art less likely to be profitable.

“When I spent time with Andy,” says Schwartz, “he was very supportive but back then I didn't take it seriously. It (Andy’s encouraging words) really didn't hit me until till much later.”

By “later,” Mark means the mid-nineties when he opened his own store in Soho. Not only would Mark sell his “Mark Schwartz” shoes for the feet but find an equally admiring clientele for his shoes for the wall, which, at the time, he wasn’t selling.

“When I opened the store, we had a lot of bare walls and I had some 15 framed pieces of my illustrations. I had a decorator and she said, ‘You have all these paintings that you did. Why aren't you putting these on the wall?’ And so we had them put up. I didn't price them. I had no intention of selling. I had mostly just given stuff to friends at this point.”

But then one day, a woman came in and bought a pair of shoes and said, “I'd love to buy that painting of the shoe on the wall as well.”

“No,” said Schwartz, “because if I sell it to you, I'll have to paint another shoe.” When she offered $300, he sold her the high-heeled shoe in a black frame.

Mark now gets a lot of repeat customers from around the world. He has a licensing deal for shirts with handbags due out next year. “I do a lot of commission work for clients who will call with their favorite pair of shoes and want something fun, like a collage or something,” says Schwartz. “I’m always looking for different ways to present the shoe. The process is similar to design – just trial and error, a creative flow… paper and pen and paint and go… and have fun.”

Have fun. These are the Warhol (and Schwartz) words to live and paint shoes by.

For more about Mark Schwartz and his work, visit his site here.

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Published in Fashion Alert, Holiday Issue #7 December

by AMORE LITTRELL-FELLINI

By melding minerals and metals into handcrafted curios, jewelry designer Angela Monaco makes Concrete Polish, the company she founded in 2009, a trove of chimeric treasures.

So inspired are the resulting rings and pendant necklaces that appear chiseled from the gilded, crystal- encrusted coffers of a primitive but decadent “Future” - that we can’t help but envision the fictional archaeological expedition:

Monaco, daring an inspired archaeological dig at night, alone, wearing biker boots – hiker boots would be too obvious a choice for her - carves out crystals and unearths molten rock from geodic formations. Later, back at her studio along Historic Jeweler’s Row in Philadelphia, she changes into over-the-knee Louboutins boots before firing up her metalsmithing blowtorch. After shoring up amalgamations of crystals under searing 18k gold, her mission is complete: she has produced the final amulet for her 2012 Carbon Future Collection*. She unwinds with a home brew of Apple Cider and a Cinnamon sprig or something stronger.

Well it could have happened that way.

Monaco, who studied metal-smithing at the Maryland Institute College of Art, has had a love of crystals since childhood. Her mother had decorated their house with them and Monaco, shall we say, “felt the power.” Years later, Angela evolved that imagery to an arguably “higher power” by marrying the sculptural qualities of crystals to the drippings of metals. And so, the aptly named Concrete Polish was born.

Monaco’s heirloom-quality jewelry is a revelation of contradictions in design and materials and point-of-view: Primitive yet modern. Tactile yet sensual. Edgy yet Delicate. Sinister yet ethereal. Enigmatic yet Defined. We love that the surface is complicated, mysterious, and of the earth – just like us.

This duality is not lost on the stylists for Pretty Little Things. The show’s characters, Emily, played by Shay Mitchell) and Hanna (played by Ashley Benson) are wearing the Silver Quartz Necklace (aired 10/16/12) and the Serpent Bangle and Split Crystal Ring (on 1/8/13) respectively. This is tactile glamour at it’s best. A few of our favorites: 1. Meteor Necklace from the Carbon Future Collection* ($170 retail) 2. Pineapple Cluster Ring ($160 to $260) 3. Butterfly Skeleton Ring ($155 to $230) 4. Quartz ring – Inspired by “raw crystal growth” the crystals are casted in bronze and plated in 18k gold, called “daring, rough but refined”. ($160 - $240) 5. Pyrite Crystal Necklace ($155 to $230) 6. Tourmaline Cluster Necklace ($135 to $155) To shop, click on Concrete Polish

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Published in Fashion Alert, Holiday Issue #7 December

What does a man whose footwear designs have grossed $1 billion worldwide do next? The answer: start his own school.

D'Wayne Edwards is one of those American Dream stories paid forward. Defying his own well-intentioned "set-your- sights-to-match-your-community-stereotype" high school teachers who recommended he go into the military upon graduation, Edwards instead listened to his encouraging mother and forged his own path from the low income community of Inglewood, California to footwear design director for the Jordan brand, a division of Nike Inc., where he was for the past 11 years until leaving in April of this year.

Edwards illustrious 23-year career began auspiciously at age 19 when he was a temp file clerk at L.A. Gear, and, more importantly, a daily contributor to the company suggestion box. This habit would eventually get him called into Robert Greenberg’s office, the then-CEO.

“OK, kid, whaddya want?” asked Greenberg from behind his desk which was topped off with more than 180 of Edwards’ shoe designs.

"I want to be a shoe designer,” said Edwards. In fact, it had been his dream since age 11. Within four years, at age 23, Edwards became L.A. Gear’s head designer. In 1992, he followed Greenberg to Skechers. While Greenberg remains Skechers CEO to this day,

Edwards left in 2000 to take a job as a senior footwear designer with Nike in Portland, Oregon.

More than 30 patents, and 500 styles later – created for many of today’s premier athletes, including Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter - Edwards found that of all the accomplishments, it was mentoring kids that he says “stuck with him.”

“I started getting more enjoyment from seeing a kid that I mentored from high school, get a job.” By this time, Edwards had mentored 40 kids since he was 24 years old. “So I said, OK I want to do this because it’s a lot more gratifying. This is the way I was when I was young. So I had this idea and thought let me try it.

The Idea: PENSOLE

“The idea was to create the first footwear design school in the U.S. that, I would hire from as a design director and that other people would actually want to go to,” says Edwards.

“Because I was a design director (of the Jordan brand), I would see 400 portfolios every year from kids trying to get jobs, and I just saw the lack of skills that the schools were teaching.

These kids were spending all this money on these design schools but they were not really leaving with solid work to get them employed. So for me I thought well I’ve always had the idea, let me put it down on paper.”

And so a pilot program was born. Named after the Number 2 pencil, the instrument that Edwards credits with “designing his life,” Pensole Academy was conceived in 2010. Like all things Edwards had put down on paper, it was a winning idea.

“Pensole is the school I wish I could have attended,” says Edwards. “I teach the way you work. It’s called “learn by doing. That’s how I learned so this is how I teach.”

In Oregon, a state that is regarded as the footwear capital of the world, (Oregon was responsible for more footwear patents than any other between 1990 and 2010), Pensole is a veritable “master class” in footwear design.

“We do condensed programs where a kid can come to me for three weeks and get the same amount of work as they would get in 16 weeks a semester at a regular school. So they work like it’s an internship - working 12 to 14 hours every day, no excuses for anything. This is a job interview. I have over 35 students working professionally at companies that include Nike, Stride Rite, Under Armour, Adidas, New Balance and JORDAN.”

The opportunities for Pensole students in terms of training and networking have been endless. This past August at MAGIC, ten Pensole Academy students vied for the 2012 PENSOLE FUTURE OF FOOTWEAR by FN PLATFORM. In this unprecedented contest hosted by FN Platform, North America’s most comprehensive footwear market, the students showcased their designs and were judged by noted industry experts and attendees. From this, five Pensole students won the chance to have their designs sold nationwide on Zappos.

Asked then if he had any plans to take Pensole to other cities, Edwards gave a hint of things to come. “I’m actually working with Two Ten Footwear Foundation in Boston. I’m going to do programs in Boston and then here in downtown Las Vegas working with the Stitch Factory.”

SHOEPEOPLE HELPING SHOEPEOPLE:

Two Ten & Pensole Join Hands for Footwear

True to his word, it was recently announced that starting next year, Pensole will begin teaching footwear design courses in the Boston area in collaboration with Two Ten, a nonprofit firm for seventy-three years, whose tagline is “shoepeople helping shoepeople.”

Back when shoe salesmen were making $60 a week in 1939 in Boston, then the shoe manufacturing center of America, Two Ten originated in the form of a Wednesday – aka “Leather Day” – hat collection among employed shoe salesman. The money raised would go to help footwear brethren that had fallen on hard times. Despite being competitors in the industry, when it came to their community, they were united. And shoepeople were their community.

As a kickoff to the partnership, Two Ten and Pensole have also joined forces to produce the “Two Ten Shoecase”, a chance for 10 amateur designers to win a scholarship to complete Pensole’s 4-week program in Portland, Oregon. Moreover, two hundred students will be selected to take the course online. All 210 students will have their work on display in

February at FN PLATFORM at MAGIC.

“This is a huge game changer for us, and we’re very excited about the possibilities,” said Two Ten President Neal Newman about this venture that targets newcomers to the shoe business instead of the pros. “Every year, we’ll be creating a pool of new talent with Pensole that will be an asset to the entire industry.”

To that end, Two Ten donated more than $700,000 in scholarship money for 2012 and plans to multiply that amount in 2013.

“Right now Two Ten focuses heavily on people already working in the footwear industry, and I work with people before they become professionals,” said D’Wayne Edwards. “It’s a great opportunity to educate students on what Two Ten is all about because this program aligns perfectly with its mission of helping shoe people. For me it’s a dream come true to see [Pensole] happening and come to life,” continues Edwards who has also personally provided scholarships to worthy students.

Had it not been for his mother, who passed away in 1993, and her message of “Believe” as encapsulated on a greeting card she gave him when he was young (a copy of which, he carries to this day), he might not be one of those shoepeople helping shoepeople. But he did “Believe” and his one-of-a-kind school is fast becoming a chosen model for many communities, such that we may see many more cities battle to be shoe capital of America.

“My Mother gave me the card during the same week that my high school guidance counselor told me to give up on being a footwear designer, Reebok telling me I was too young to work for them and the 1 year anniversary of my older Brother’s (who taught me how to be a better artist) death. Not a good week. It cost about .25 cents but it is the most valuable item I own. I thought I lost it once and I was sick (seriously ill) for a few days only to find out my wife put it away for me. It has been put away ever since.”

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TEROX is the first injection-molded footwear produced in the USA in over 25 years.

The new shoe on the block (pronounced “Tear-ux”) is the manifestation of one family’s 100-year-old American dream that began with the son of a cobbler, Francisco Azzarito, the moment he arrived Ellis Island.

Why not just build footwear in America?

“Yes, why not?” asked Rocco Azzarito Jr. a mere two years ago seemingly out of the blue.

By then, Azzarito had been importing high quality footwear from overseas for five years under the name of RYN USA LLC. So where did the self-described “spontaneous” epiphany to manufacture shoes in the USA originate?

Ninety-years earlier in the Spring of 1920, Francisco Azzarito, Rocco Jr.’s grandfather, landed on Ellis Island.

It could be said that the epiphany was first his. Sixteen years old and the son of a cobbler, Francisco came to America yearning to build more fashionable shoes. With no knowledge of the English language or American culture, Francisco settled in Brooklyn, New York and soon after changing his name to Frank (because he wanted to be a “real” American), he went to work at the I. Miller Shoe Company factory.

Five years before Frank had arrived in America, Israel Miller, a Polish immigrant who got his start in designing bespoke shoes for the New York theatre performers, upgraded to a larger shoe store space at 1554 Broadway, an old brownstone just north of 46th Street. By 1926, Miller had added the building next door and completed a remodeling by Architect Louis H. Friedland. Frank would eventually become foreman of this now landmark building that has “The Show Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated to Beauty in Footwear” chiseled into the masonry complete with a TGIF’s at street level. Frank later became superintendent of the Fern Shoe Company in Los Angeles, California until his retirement.

The next generation of Azzaritos continued to follow in Frank’s footwear footsteps. His eldest son Rocco Sr. worked for the Barbour Leather Company, C.H. Baker in California, and went on to open numerous successful retail footwear stores. And then came along Rocco Jr. and ‘lo, Frank’s epiphany of 1920 became Rocco’s epiphany of 2010. Terox International was officially launched on July 4, 2012 into 120 stores across the country and the dream of making shoes in America became a reality.

“My Grandfather, Frank Azzarito, is truly the spirit that has moved us to rekindle the dream that America is a place where you an build footwear," declared Rocco Jr., CEO of Terox International. "Our mission is to build great footwear and to be part of restoring the American footwear infrastructure.”

The name “Terox” is the combination of the two co-founders names: Rocco Jr. and Terry Stillman. Stillman, like Frank, was living and working in Europe (albeit as an American expatriate), and came back to America for the opportunity to fulfill this dream.

“The easiest thing to do would have been to produce Terox sandals in Asia,” said Rocco Jr..

"The injection molding machinery is already there, the plants are ready to produce them and production could begin as soon as we deliver the molds.” But, the lure of “What Made in America Feels Like,” – now Terox’s slogan – was evidently irresistible. Despite the lack of footwear production infrastructure – which both founders cite as their main challenge in the United States –they imported and built the machines and tooling they needed, and hired and trained factory workers. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Terox sandals are made at a family-owned plant in Buford, Georgia, the very last plant of its kind in the United States that can make this type of footwear.

The upside (besides the availability of shoes that are precision-engineered for anatomical comfort and durability) is that by making footwear in the USA, Terox has been able to reduce their carbon footprint, sharpen their just-in-time delivery, speed up reaction time to the marketplace and become a part of supporting American industry and restoring American jobs. The company plans to introduce several styles of their next-generation elasto-polymer blended comfort footwear in the years to come, all made domestically, and eagerly looks forward to the next epiphany: What about Foggia? To have Terox sold in Foggia, Italy, Frank’s birthplace, would be bellissimo. It's certain that the next generation of Azzaritos are poised for the endeavor. Rocco Jr.'s son, Aaron (pictured right) is Terox's Marketing Director.

So that's what MADE IN AMERICA feels like.

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After much anticipation across the globe, the wedding gown of the century was finally unveiled and it was a vision of modern British splendor with a certain je ne sais quoi: a lace from the renown 127-year-old French company Sophie Hallette.

As the only “non-British” threads in a gown made for British royalty and by British fashion royalty (Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen), Sophie Hallette reaffirms its reputation as the world’s reference on the highest quality of lacemaking.

“Everyone from the factory floor to the designers was thrilled when the news spread that our lace was on Kate Middleton’s dress,” said Romain Lescroart, CEO of Sophie Hallette, the family-run business based in Caudry, France since 1887. “Our laces have adorned haute couture creations and luxury goods all over the world, but this marks a crowning achievement in our history from which we draw great pride.”

The Sophie Hallette lace chosen by Burton under the auspices of Middleton herself, is an exclusive model designed in 1958 and was manufactured on artisanal looms that are more than 100 years old. The roses, daffodils and shamrocks of the particularly dainty floral motif were cut out from the original lace and hand-sewn onto the silk tulle of the décolleté, sleeves and train of the royal gown by the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace, using a Carrickmacross lace-making technique, which originates from 1820’s Ireland. Made of white and ivory satin gazar, the gown overall was designed to emulate an opening flower and featured a lace adorned bodice inspired by Victorian corsetry – a classic McQueen reference, a plunging neckline, long sleeves, and a train of more than nine cascading feet.

Sophie Hallette Announces “The Duchess of Cambridge Lace”

“By choosing Sophie Hallette, the newest member of the British Monarchy made a symbolic and reverential nod to the time-honored tradition of lace-making and the result was a gown befitting a modern princess,” said Lescoart. “So it is my great privilege to announce today that in honor of the Duchess, we are renaming this Sophie Hallette lace to “The Duchess of Cambridge Lace”.

Whether it is a fashion designer or bride-to-be that hereto requests “The Duchess of Cambridge Lace” (or “The Kate Lace” as its already known to fashion insiders), the resulting creation will bear an exclusive Sophie Hallette hangtag warranting it to be the exclusive “Duchess of Cambride” lace, the lace befitting a future queen.

Also Wearing Sophie Hallette: Weddings Guests of the Royal Couple

While all eyes were on Middleton in her “Kate Lace,” others in the Monarchy were also wearing Sophie Hallette: Eugénie of York wore a Vivienne Westwood top encrusted with hand-painted Sophie Hallette lace, and the wife of Willem-Alexander of Holland wore a beige tailleur made entirely of Sophie Hallette lace.

About Sophie Hallette

Based in Caudry, France and family-run for three generations since its founding in 1887, Sophie Hallette sets the world standard for high-quality lace craftsmanship. Manufactured respecting traditional methods on Leavers looms more than 100 years old and maintained by craftsmen whose know-how is unique in the world, Sophie Hallette laces are a staple of the most famous brands in haute couture and luxury goods including: Modern Trousseau, Vera Wang, Carolina Herrera, Oscar de la Renta, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Chloe, Zac Posen, Versace, Dolce Gabbana, Paul Smith, Phillip Lim, Jason Wu, Ralph Lauren, Valentino, Erdem, Antonio Marras, Brioni, and Elie Saab among others.

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Internationally Renown Designer Introduces “Cherry Blossom”

Taking the exalted Japanese flower, Cherry Blossom, as her muse, designer Claire Pettibone unveiled her 2010 couture bridal collection on the runway at Buddakan NYC.

In a soft and effervescent palette of snow white, metallic silver and gold with accents of pale pink and Empire Red, “Cherry Blossom” is a luminous vision of purity and exotic innocence.

Elaborate embroideries and tactile embellishments reminiscent of mystical florals appear in SAKURA with its velvet scroll motif, MADAME BUTTERFLY with its radiant gold leaves and PETALS IN THE WIND with its blooming white cherry blossoms and silver vines. Light sprinklings of iridescent sequins, crystals and pearls lend a shimmer for an overall wondrous effect.

Silhouettes in light and free-flowing romantic styles include mystical modern fusions: A-line paired with modified kimono bodice and sleeves, a sheath with mandarin collar. Sublime elements such as wraparound lace overlays, bubble hems, and a Watteau train add to the dream.

Pettibone, who is known around the world for her signature romantic and vintage inspired gowns, is also a master of “back appeal”. Illusion backs in tulle appear lush with precious detailing of jeweled bow clasps, scalloped laced edging and silk covered buttons, and ornately embroidered keyhole backs.

“I enjoyed exploring the rich history and symbolism of Asian cultures to discover precious details for this collection. Through my research, I was struck by a sense of Innocence and Purity, a soft sweetness. As always, my goal is to conceive a timeless expression of beauty that transcends the age in which we live and helps to create a magical day for the bride. In a world sometimes overwhelmed by challenges, a wedding is a celebration of joy and love, a promise of hope for the future… a much needed reminder of all that is precious and wondrous. The more we see and discover, we find the lines between cultures have become blurred, and Beauty is universal. “