It was announced today that “Fashion’s Night Out” – the Anna Wintour initiative that happened on September 10 2009 to bring customers back into stores – will be back next year. It’s scheduled for September 9, 2010, already. Mayor Bloomberg in NY announced it raised foot traffic by fifty percent that night in all of New York’s five buroughs. A key focus for 2010 will be to attract new participants in addition to the more than 800 stores that took part in this year’s event and to provide a boost to the overall economy. Next year’s event will again be marked by events and promotions across City stores featuring some of the fashion and retail
industries top designers and leaders. “We were absolutely bowled over by the response to Fashion’s Night Out. (more…)

If you read Fashionrules.com, you’re probably familiar with the fashion boardgame of the same name, Fashionrules. It’s a sort of chicer, much more sophisticated, better-looking “Trivial Pursuit” or “Monopoly” that includes 1500 questions in five categories: Glam (beauty), Divas (models, celebs, fashionistas), In Print (magazines, ad campaigns, photographers), Stylemakers (designers of clothing, accessories, jewelry, and stores), and Fashionista (the really hard inside questions). Essentially, it’s a fun romp through both modern fashion and celebrity, and the history of stores, models, Oscar fashion, lipstick, shoes – everything you always wanted to know about fashion! It’s great for fashion insiders, but it’s also fun for anyone above the age of 8, because you can test your fashion mettle and learn a lot, too. It’s a great game to bring to a party. And with its purple, black and pink board, it’s got all the colors of the fall season, so it looks chic on your coffee table. And God knows, it’s a great Christmas present (only four months away from today). Anyone who watches “Project Runway,” saw “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” or who is dying to see “The September Issue” will be an instant fan. Well, now the game is about to get really big – literally. New York’s Bergdorf Goodman, in conjunction with the big Fashion’s Night Out event on September 10th, is building the game out to life size: and it will be played live that night, from 8 to 9pm, with teamleaders Andre Leon Talley from Vogue, stylist and tv host Robert Verdi, Bergdorf’s own Linda Fargo, and the ever fabulous Donna Karan leading the crowd through game squares, putting giant scissors and sunglass pieces into lifesize shopping bags, as they move around the board. We are tickled fuschia (the color of the season), and can’t wait to share our enthusiasm for the game with New York fashionistas! Also – as they say on Bravo, “Watch What Happens!” Whom in THIS crowd is going to have to the most fashion knowledge? It could get VERY cutthroat on the first floor of BG! Designer handbags could be flying! Not to mention the fur!

Fashionrules the boardgame will be on sale at Bergdorf Goodman and this fall, and we’re thrilled to be involved in Vogue and Bergdorf’s fashion initiative, and will be reporting to you on September 11 from New York about all the fashion, quotes and fun we pick up that night!

As if you didn’t know Fashion’s Night Out on September 10th was serious – seeing Anna Wintour speak about it on Letterman on Monday night – and the coordination of events in NY at Bergdorf Goodman (which Fashionrules is a big part of!), Barneys, Juicy Couture (Vogue’s Hamish Bowles will sing Noel Coward songs!), the Carolina Herrera Boutique in NY (fashion photog Larry Fink will meet crowds), at Judith Leiber in NY, etc – Anna Wintour has gotten together with a few of her fashionable friends: Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashley Olsen, Donna Karan, Vera Wang, P. Diddy, Isaac Mizrahi, and DVF herself – to make this cute PSA (fashionsnightout.com) to get people to come out and shop. We love the t shirt they’re all wearing, and intend to buy one, and Anna’s is very awesome, because it goes with her skirt, and it looks like she’s wearing a Fashion’s Night Out dress! We don’t often see fashion people doing PSA’s and commercials, so this is very fun – more fun than Project Runway, actually!!!!!! Check it out here:

The L.A. Times ran a fascinating piece today about a Manhattan hair colorist to the wealthy named James Whitmore. Whitmore spent years at the hair salon at Bergdorf Goodman, and has now moved to Pierre Michel salon in NY, after his rich rich super rich clients told him they don’t want to walk into Bergdorf’s anymore because the jewelry counter makes them crazy – and they’ve all lost so much money with Bernie Madoff, they can’t shop anymore.

We’ve all read that Ruth Madoff can’t get her roots done at Bergdorf’s anymore, they won’t take her, for fear of alienating their other clients. Whitmore, the piece, says he’ll do Ruth’s roots – only to realize that her husband ruined so many of his clients, he can’t do it.

It’s an amazing story about how hairdressers to the rich are dealing with what the L.A. Times calls “stocks and blondes.”

You may have read that Anna Wintour of Vogue, along with NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Vera Wang, and Terry Lundgren of Macy’s have created what they call “A Fashion Stimulus Package” – since we all know stores are having a terrible time right now. Wintour has set up something called “Fashion’s Night Out” for September tenth – not just in NY, but in Europe, and all over America – including Los Angeles. This means that stores in NY and across the country will be open till 11 pm that night (which is technically the first night of NY Fashion week spring 2010), and as you can see in our picture, Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta are also on board. Stores will have amazing events, celebs, models, champagne, musical performances – it’s going to be really fun, and of course, the fall clothes will be in the stores by then. We know Neiman Marcus in LA and Topanga will BOTH have great events, and Bergdorf Goodman in NY will have a giant Vogue event, hosted by Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley.
AND – look for Fashionrules to show up at some of these major events. More details forthcoming later on, but save the date NOW – September 10, 2009. You’ll want to be shopping that night, even if it means just buying a lipstick. –

Merle Ginsberg

You bet your sweet bootie it is! And they are NOT second hand! Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman have commissioned Monsieur Blahnik – whose shoes usually start at $800 a pair – to create $395 dollar Manolo flats for fall for their specific stores. They will be ballerina flats, in grey, burgundy and leopard suede – and be bet they sell out FAST.

We’re excited. Low priced low heeled Manolo’s? Is it Christmas in September?

We knew it was bad out there – but not this bad. Sergio Rossi, Italian maker of fabulous heels, bags and boots, is not only leaving our fair shores from Melrose Place in L.A. at the beginning of 2009 – they are closing all of their freestanding stores in the United States. Yes, that’s what we said – and the Melrose Place store just opened a year ago, with a splashy opening hosted by Salma Hayek, filled with celebs, stylists, and editors in amazing shoes. Well, the shoe bubble is bursting in a particularly painful way for this Italian brand.

That means the brand’s Madison Avenue Manhattan emporium, as well, and its Hawaii retail locales. But this doesn’t mean the shoes are going completely bye-bye – I mean, what would Carrie Bradshaw say?? They will still be wholesaled in department stores. The company isn’t commenting on whether this is a brand strategy to deal with the economy – but it clearly is. Apparently, the brand will still attempt to keep an L.A. office to dress celebrities, and shoppers who go to Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman will still be able to find those stunningly staggering stilettos. If you can afford to go anywhere in them. – Merle Ginsberg

Jason Wu’s Spring 2009 Collection pops off the page like a pastiche of popsicles: pink lemonade, melon, sweet lemon, and mango all mixed with each other like Jason Wu’s if she hooked up with Marni. The clothes are a little bit lady, a little preppy, and a little bit cool urban girl – it all depends on how you wear them, with motorcycle boots or with Ferragamos. While many on Seventh Avenue are calling the 26 year old Wu the heir apparent to Oscar de la Renta or Carolina Herrera in that his clothes are perfect for Park Avenue Princesses – they also work, in a more pared-down form, on actresses such as Lucy Liu, January Jones and Kate Mara, who all hosted him at an event at Satine Boutique this week. Fashion Rules got to have lunch with the man at Joans on Third, to pick his brain about style, LA and LA vs NY, our favorite subjects.  Merle Ginsberg

FASHION RULES: How much time have you spent in Los Angeles?

JASON WU: I’ve been here a few times to visit friends, but this is my first work trip. I love coming here. I find it so relaxing – which sounds so weird to people who live here! But you really need a break from New York. Coming here helps me think. And of course, it’s 32 degrees in New York right now.

FASHION RULES: Your spring collection is full of cashmere t-shirts and somewhat dressy dresses – and your known for knits. How do you adjust with all that wool when the LA market is all about light clothes – particularly this fall?

JASON WU: Well, I’m doing a capsule collection of Fall 2009 for Satine, that will be exclusive to them. That’s what coming out here has done for me – I had conversations with Jeannie and Virginia of Satine and we came up with that idea. Neiman Marcus will get the regular fall 09 delivery, and I think their customer is a travelling person, so they will want the warmer pieces too.

FASHION RULES: You’ve got it down with your L.A. retail situation: Satine for the Hollywood and East Hollywood cool crowd, and Neimans for the west side soccer moms.

JASON WU: It’s much like what we have in Manhattan: we’re in Bergdorf’s uptown, and Jeffery downtown. I like having fewer stores and working very closely with them.

FASHION RULES: What have your LA activities been since you got here?

JASON WU: Jeannie from Satine is going to take me vintage shopping. But surprisingly enough, it’s not the vintage clothes I’m after. I want to buy furniture like the furniture they have in Satine. Do you know what that costs in NY? I think ABC Carpet comes out here and goes to the Rose Bowl, paints the stuff, and amps up the price five times. I want to ship some stuff back and re-do it. But also, I’m a foodie – so I’ve been eating my way through L.A. Last night, we went to Palihouse. I’m loving the Mac and Cheese here at Joan’s. The food here is more wholesome than NY, and so much less expensive. And yet, no one eats!! Look at all these skinny girls!

FASHION RULES: I guess the girls in NY are not this skinny.

JASON WU: Well, they’re covered in clothes most of the time, so you can’t tell. I’m constantly amazed at how well the magazine editors dress in NY – it’s insane!! They are ALWAYS dressed – it blows me away. But there are still some tacky people in NY – they tend to congregate around Herald Square.

FASHION RULES: Well, there are plenty of tacky people in LA – but they wear less clothes, so maybe it’s harder to tell.

JASON WU: I notice there are a lot of tatoos out here.

FASHION RULES: Did you have fun at the cocktail party Satine threw for you the other night?

JASON WU: China Chow, Lucy Liu, January Jones, Kate Mara – these girls are SO chic. It was s sweet of them to come out, and so fun to see them in my clothes. You don’t get to mix with a lot of actresses in NY, and the style of dressing is really so different there – no one ever gets that casual. All the accessories here are completely different – and the jewelry is so much funkier here. In the end, I guess LA is pretty body conscious – which must cause the not-eating. Well, I eat everything!

FASHION RULES: But you’re wildly thin, and Asian, to boot! It’s not like there are too many overweight Asians.

JASON WU: It’s actually all changing – and there are starting to be some. It’s because of the different way people in Japan and China are eating now. We’re just shipped to Satine’s new Japan store in Tokyo, and I can’t wait to spend some time there. I grew up in Taiwan, moved to Vancouver, then Massachusetts, then NY. This year, I got to go to Sydney. I’m so into travelling that now my clothes are designed with the idea that clothes need to travel easily. In fact, coming here with the spring collection, we got to test drive the clothes – and when we arrived, they hadn’t wrinkled! It’s a very good sign!

FASHION RULES: What other stores are you in outside of NY and LA in the US?

JASON WU: I’ve discovered that there is one great store in every city. I do some of my best business in Kansas City! We’re in Louis in Boston, Susan in San Francisco, and Ikram in Chicago – we’re very well represented.

FASHION RULES: Is it true that the colors of your spring collection were inspired by – COOKIES??

JASON WU: Oh, yes! I love macarons – the cookies from La Duree in Paris – well, now they have them at Payard in NY, and I am going on the hunt for them in Los Angeles – apparently, the Little Next Door has them. I love the ones like rose, lavender, pistachio – and their colors are so great. So when we shot the collection for the January Elle, I told them to pull the macarons and use them on the set – and they did!!!!!!! It’s very sweet!!!