Alexandra Ilyashov

Can the virus survive via mail? How are delivery people staying safe?

In a matter of days, the outbreak of the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have changed nearly every aspect of daily life. As the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. surges, federal, state, and city mandates about what kinds of businesses can continue to operate have changed dramatically from hour to hour.

Social distancing and working from home (for those fortunate enough to be in industries where that’s even possible) are the new normal — and apparently, so is online shopping. Some have turned to shopping as a welcome distraction from these tumultuous times, or as a means of supporting small businesses that are already hurting. Other shoppers are sending packages to a loved ones, and some people are simply bored. But if you're adding to your digital cart and, more importantly, clicking “buy," you may have worried about whether the virus can spread through the mail, as well as how the people producing and packaging orders, as well as the mail carriers delivering them, are staying safe and healthy.

We've spoken to experts to answer your most pressing questions.

Can the virus live on my mail or packages?

According to the CDC, there is a “very low risk” of the coronavirus spreading through mail that is “shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures.”

“There should be less concern over infections from items that are shipped over [the course of multiple] days; most infections occur through droplets as when someone sneezes or coughs, and in most cases, you need a large viral load to be infected,” explains Dr. Frederick Davis, associate chair of the emergency department at LIJ (Long Island Jewish Medical Center), a New York area hospital. “The highest risk of transmission is usually within the first few minutes and decreases more over time, as most virus particles will begin to degrade once outside a living host.”

Dr. Niket Sonpal, an NYC-based internist and gastroenterologist and adjunct Professor at Touro College, points to a recent study analyzing how long the virus is able to live on steel, plastic, and cardboard. Though it can live for up to 24 hours on cardboard, “this was under ideal lab conditions, not ambient real-world temperatures,” Sonpal explains. “There have been no reported cases linked to shipments of merchandise.”

It’s ultimately a personal, not medically necessary, choice to take additional safety steps when opening your latest Amazon or Everlane buy. “If you need to be more precautious for your own tranquility, you can take other measures like wearing disposable gloves when opening mail and throwing away envelopes and packaging,” Sonpal says, especially if you are in contact with more vulnerable individuals. “I am of the mindset that concern and caution are valid, especially if you live or care for someone with a chronic condition or who is elderly.”

Though the risk is relatively low that a mail carrier “just coughed or sneezed on your mail right before handing it to you” — the most probable scenario of transmission of the coronavirus via mail — Sonpal says, “to play it safe, give up old habits like holding your mail in your mouth while you fumble for your keys, or ripping a package open with your teeth; don't place your face close to your mail or package, and once you have opened what's inside, clean your hands with sanitizer.”

Continue reading on Instyle.

If there was ever a fitting time to embrace the housedress, this housebound moment is it. “I’m not sure any other attire would feel so appropriate,” says Lauren Mechling, writer and @thecloglife creator. “In normal times, they are easy, forgiving, and an instant conveyor of ‘effortless chic,’” and these “uniquely shapeless days” call for appropriately shapeless attire, she adds.

Rachel Syme, a staff writer at The New Yorker who chronicled her poignant caftan journey back in 2014, says the garment “really is one of those things you can put on and really feel different. You can be whoever you want under there!” There’s also an empowering element to reclaiming the kind of comfortable, loose silhouettes previously maligned: “I remember the idea that women who wore shapeless garments somehow had let themselves go — which I don’t think is the case, but I also think that the demonizing of ‘letting yourself go’ is something we need to start pulling back on, especially right now,” Syme says.

Ahead, stylish writers, stylists, influencers, and a former costume designer share their favorite housedresses, caftans, and other billowy dresses that will make a sweltering summer largely spent at home a little more bearable.

Continue reading on New York Magazine.

The red carpet, with its legions of glam squads, has become a multimillion-dollar industry. What happens when trophies are doled out remotely?

With awards season looming, thousands of hairdressers, manicurists, makeup artists, and fashion stylists are scrambling to figure out how they’ll make their high-wattage clients shine at unconventional ceremonies during the COVID-19 pandemic. September’s Emmys will be a virtual affair, taped over multiple nights in various locations instead of streaming live from one big event. Other shows are likely to follow suit, while the Oscars have been pushed back from February to April in the hope that a traditional ceremony will be possible by then. Those in the beauty and fashion business are eager to get back to work primping stars to accept trophies. After all, the red-carpet hoopla of awards season brings in $130 million in revenue per year.

But getting glam will be decidedly less glamorous these days. “Celebrities will still get dressed. They will still need to wear a dress and jewelry and all that, so it will happen in some capacity,” says jewelry designer Deborah Pagani, who has lent her gems to Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, and Shailene Woodley. “There’s just too much at stake and too much money that’s derived from these events.” Hair teams and self-tanning professionals each rake in upward of $10,000 per person, per event. The average day rate for a stylist’s service is $6,000 per client.

While the shows will go on, prepping for them will be vastly different. Nail artist Mazz Hanna, who has worked with Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, and Greta Gerwig, notes that a staggered schedule—rather than a chaotic all-hands-on-deck setup with hair, makeup, and nail pros working on a star simultaneously—will become the new norm. She now plans to do a client’s nails the night before a big event, since manis and pedis, unlike a face full of makeup, look the same even after a night’s sleep. “It’s not what we’re used to,” laments Hanna, “but you sort of adapt.”

Read the full story on Los Angeles Magazine.

As 2018 comes to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on the fashion trends that have dominated catwalks and, subsequently, our closets over the past year. From accessorizing with hands-free fanny packs to tailoring your look with yoked and pearl-button-trimmed shirts (pairing nicely with obsessive Westworld watching), some of the year’s biggest trends have fascinating, often surprising histories that go back much further than the last decade or two.

Whether it’s a European skier essential or an ancient Egyptian textile, the origins of this year’s go-to pieces offer lots to learn and ponder. Ahead, the engrossing backstories of six key trends of 2018.

Fanny packs

The pint-size purse, slung across the waist, has come a long way in recent years, with glitzy versions cropping up everywhere — from Gucci and Balenciaga to fast-fashion go-tos like Zara, all a far cry from the slightly dowdy staple of frumpy tourists everywhere. The fanny pack (known across the pond as a bum bag, because “fanny” is off-color British slang for vagina) gets its name from the way the belted bag hangs on the hips, above the butt, aka “fanny.”

The bag’s roots are a bit murky: The prevailing tale is that an Australian woman, Melba Stone, invented it in 1962, with kangaroo pouches as the possible inspiration. However, a 1954 Sports Illustrated gift guide (yes, those existed more than six decades ago) apparently included a leather fanny pack intended for athletic types, including cross-country skiers, cyclists, hikers and equestrians. In the ’70s, the fanny pack gained popularity with European skiers as a highly practical way to haul a lunch while hitting the slopes.

The item’s most recent trendy heyday was in the 1980s, following the ’90s, when they were used by ravers as a prime spot for stowing drugs at EDM festivals; they popped up again in the mid- to late aughts as ironic sorority gear, emblazoned with Greek letters and worn strictly to concerts, tailgaters and ’80s theme parties.

But the advent of the fanny pack came way before the late 20th century, with origins that can be traced to an elaborately detailed, waistband-slung bag dubbed a chatelaine, which is believed to date back to the Middle Ages and was popular in 15th-century France, as well as Edwardian and Victorian eras in Britain, circa the late 1800s to early 1900s. Another iteration of the fanny pack in the 19th century: Native Americans’ buffalo pouches, worn on the waist to stash essentials while hunting and gathering.

There are a slew of other, often whimsical global terms for the fanny pack: It’s dubbed a belly bag in Germany, a banana bag in France, Gee Bags in Ireland and a kidney bag in Spain, and in Italy it’s referred to as a marsupio (as in marsupial mammals, like kangaroos). Whether the trend is utterly silly or unexpectedly chic, its practicality factor is tough to deny.

Continue reading on Yahoo.

Personal style is far-from superficial, as psychologist-turned-blogger CHRISTIE FERRARI proves with her Insta explorations of the complex connections among our brains, moods, and closets.

Originally published in the Daily Front Row Magazine, February 2020.

Stella McCartney has made some trailblazing decisions throughout her career. She launched her eponymous fashion label back in 2001, in partnership with the major French fashion conglomerate Kering, at age 29, coming off a stint as creative director at Chloé (which she got only two years after she graduated from the prestigious London design school Central Saint Martins design college). In the 17 years since, McCartney has built an expansive, acclaimed lifestyle brand—one that’s been consistently innovative, particularly when it comes to sustainability and ethical practices. And soon it will be completely her own empire to run.

Last week the British designer announced she will buy back Kering’s 50 percent share of her brand. “It is the right moment to acquire the full control of the company bearing my name…. I look forward to the next chapter of my life and what this brand and our team can achieve in the future." Stella McCartney (the brand) said in a statement.

That’s a big deal, for a variety of reasons—and one that has significant implications (and, maybe, offers major inspiration) for other female designers and executives.

“I can’t remember in my career a brand owned by LVMH, Kering, or one of the big luxury houses that was bought back by the designer,” explains Fern Mallis, the fashion consultant who created New York Fashion Week and hosts the Fashion Icons interview series at New York’s 92Y. “It’s great opportunity to fully own her name and her business. The timing, in this climate right now, makes a strong statement for women. What she’s doing at this moment in time, when women are stepping up, taking charge, and speaking out; bravo to her.”

By having full ownership of her label, McCartney could double down on certain tenets of her business that are important to her—the obvious one being vegetarian-friendly design. The designer is a lifelong vegetarian, and doesn’t use real leather, fur, or feathers in her collections, instead developing alternatives like her “fur-free fur” (unveiled in 2015) and “skin-free skin” (an alternative to leather, debuted in 2016).

“Stella’s DNA is rooted in sustainability, and this 100 percent control gives her the power to focus on this, and make her own design and business decisions,” says Hywel Davies, Central Saint Martins’ program director.

McCartney has had certain advantages throughout her career: She’s Central Saint Martins educated, which opens up a pretty extensive fashion network; she’s also the daughter of a Beatle. (As to a report that Paul McCartney helped finance this deal, a brand spokesperson told Business of Fashion that he has “never been involved in the business.”) However, people who have started their fashion brands can attest to a series of challenges that are pretty universal—as Leanne Mai-ly Hilgar of the vegan brand Vaute explains: “The founder of a fashion apparel brand cannot scale, except very slowly, without an operations partner who has working capital to create inventory, so the options become: build a big brand and have a portion of control, versus keep your brand small and grow slowly and organically and have full control, with smaller impact.” If you do go with the former, it can be pretty difficult—and very expensive—to buy them out down the line. “Most designers don't have the option of buying out their partner like Stella,” she says.

It’s important to note that, beyond a famous last name and a posh fashion education, McCartney had some very unusual circumstances working in her favor—like the fact that, back in 2001, the designer fought for an even 50-50 split ownership with Kering when she was launching her brand, as opposed to giving the conglomerate 51 percent. (This important distinction came as a piece of savvy advice from her uncle and lawyer John Eastman.) She’s also had a special clause in her contract with Kering, allowing her the option to repurchase the luxury powerhouse’s stake with a deadline of March 31, 2018.

Now that McCartney will successfully be taking over complete control of her brand, could this set a path to follow for other female designers who might find themselves in similar situations?

Read the full article on Glamour.

Everlane, the beloved direct-to-consumer retailer that underscores its radical transparency with pricing and manufacturing, tends to know precisely which polished basics its loyal customers are (or soon will be) hankering for: When the seven-year-old e-comm-focused brand launches a new product, quick sell-outs and wait list soon follow. (When Everlane debuted denim with three styles in 2017, there was a 45,478-person wait list…on launch day.) Its Work Pant, unveiled at the beginning of 2018, is no exception.

On January 25 Everlane rolled out the $50 trousers (traditional retail price: $100) in regular and ankle lengths, in a few muted colors, like navy, gray, and dark green. Just one day later the humble, pretty plain office-apropos pants were out of stock and had racked up a pretty insane wait list—12,000 people deep. And while restocks usually happen within a few weeks, the Work Pant took four full months to slowly trickle back to its website. It reappeared in late May.

The initial design objective was “to create a slim pant that was comfortable and looked tailored enough to wear to work,” explains Kelli Dugan, Everlane's head of merchandising. The design team sampled two different fabrics and spent over a year working toward the best possible fit, she explains, and even focus-grouped the style before producing it. “We held a 30-person fit clinic to understand how the pant fit on different sizes and shapes,” she says. “The result was a pant made with a comfortable four-way stretch with a flattering high waist, side zip, and a leg-lengthening back seam detail.”

Lots of Everlane launches grab attention—why was this particular one so colossally popular? “I think our customer really saw the versatility and high value of a simple, clean work pant at a $50 price point,” Dugan says. “It's something they can feel comfortable and polished wearing every day.” The Work Pant is also cheaper than the brand’s most popular jeans, its $68 midrise skinny ankle style and its $78 kick crop version. It’s also super flexible: “We really wanted a fabric that had a good amount of stretch, but had enough weight to hold you in in all the right places, so we went with a four-way stretch cotton,” according to Dugan. “The fabric gives the pant a matte, clean finish, which feels sleek enough for work.”

The Work Pant has been constantly in low stock across colors and sizes over the past two months, with occasional inventory refreshes. At its New York City location, a salesperson shared that the product has consistently been one of the store’s best-selling items, even in the middle of a seemingly extra-humid summer. It’s also had a longer lag time between its debut and regularly programmed restocks, which the brand attributes to not realizing just how big a hit it’d created. “We did not anticipate the crazy demand for the pant and had to work with the factory very closely on this restock,” Dugan explains. Also, “the Work Pant is actually made at the same factory as our popular Wide Leg Crop, so we had to balance out production of both to make sure we had enough as we enter fall,” she adds, nodding to the manufacturing transparency the company touts.

The hype surrounding Everlane’s Work Pant is real. Does it live up to it, though? In a bid to find out, I test-drove a pair to see if I could indeed be wowed by a generally unremarkable closet standard.

Continue reading on Glamour.

Thanks to talents like Nian Fish, Stefan Beckman and Alexandre de Betak, the best runway shows become performance art. Here, they tell us about their favorite things

Nian Fish

Months of work culminating in less than 10 minutes of performance: The fleeting quality of runway shows is what motivates NYC–based Nian Fish, 68, who has created presentations for designers like Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, Thom Browne, Victoria Beckham and Tory Burch, over a career that has included an 18-year stint at PR and events firm KCD. “I have a philosophy of impermanence in life, which comes from my Buddhist practice,” Fish explains. Born in Kobe, Japan, to a Chinese-Japanese mother and an American father, Fish lived all over the world as a child, eventually settling in New York. After majoring in English and art in college, Fish was working for stylists Paul Cavaco and Kezia Keeble in the late ’70s when she got her break: styling a Richard Avedon–lensed Dior campaign. “In those days, when you were a stylist, you literally did everything,” she recalls. Her role model is her mother: “She was No. 19 in the sweatshops of Chinatown, and she moved her way up to becoming quality control,” Fish says. “Recently I realized, that’s what I do: I’m quality control.”

1. What’s a great recent discovery? Photographer and filmmaker Carter Smith’s secluded cottages, on Bailey Island, Maine.

2. What’s your favorite film? The Deer Hunter. It’s the best antiwar film ever made.

Continue reading on The Wall Street Journal.

If it feels like you scrolled through every possible wedding gimmick in your Instagram feed this summer, it’s time to start thinking globally for inspiration. Ahead, local bridal-magazine editors share what’s hot in weddings from their various corners of the world, including hiking to the altar in Los Angeles, Renaissance–esque dresses in Milan, Afropunk bridal attire in Johannesburg, and much more.

Melbourne: Flammable Photo Ops

“Couples are holding colored flares and smoke bombs during their portrait sessions. We first noticed flares four years ago, when Aussie photographer Janneke Storm shot the Vegas wedding of the couple behind blogger agency Sticks and Stones; they soon popped up in Australia and New Zealand weddings. While these can make for some beautifully moody images, we can’t help but wonder if, in 50 years’ time, couples will look back on these photos and think, ‘What the heck were we doing standing in the middle of a field, holding a flare gun on our wedding day?’ ” —Sophie Lord, publisher, Hello May

Glasgow: Dogs in Kilts

“We’ve seen a steep rise in pets taking an important role in nuptials. We rarely get pitches for real-life wedding stories without the family dog as ring bearer or the couple’s cat seen with the bridal party. The wedding industry here has latched on to the trend: There are now wedding pet-sitting companies, florists who make an extra flower crown for your pooch, and designers doing mini-kilts and bow ties for dogs. My husband and I had our family’s little terrier kitted out in a kilt and bow tie for our own big day.” —Rosie Patrick, features writer, Tie the Knot Scotland

Los Angeles: Hiking to the Altar

“Couples in fashion, advertising, and marketing are camping in places like Ojai. The friends get tents; the bride and groom stay in a lodge. Everyone’s out under the stars, doing karaoke and eating organic, clean meals — like grilled meats and veggies with yogurt and cilantro. It’s grungy, since you’re waking up in the dirt and putting on a dress for the ceremony. Baby wipes come in handy.” —Sarah Dubbeldam, CEO and editor-in-chief, Darling

Continue reading on The Cut.

I’m in the process of a thorough audit of my sandals, for an unsexy reason I can’t continue to ignore: I’ve had some foot issues in recent months (frequent but erratic toe and ball-of-foot pain; seemingly flatter arches on my already flat feet; aching Achilles tendon) that require serious support and comfort. I’m lucky that “ugly shoes” have been a thing for a couple years now—to the point that designer Christopher Kane is out here collaborating with Z-Coil, one of the original (and maybe kind of cool?) orthopedic brands.

There's been a slightly existential facet to critically taking stock of my footwear: It’s made me feel like my body is unraveling or faltering, sooner than I’d like or expect. It’s forced me to examine the complicated relationship between aging and fashion...from the ground up, literally. I know I must make some major changes, footwear-wise, ASAP to avoid (or at least minimize) potential decades of pain. For guidance on how to overhaul my shoe collection, I spoke to folks with expert intel on how to find the most comfortable, supportive kicks and inserts out there: from a foot and ankle surgeon to women double my age with decades’ more experience with this quest. Here are a few things I’ve learned.

Don’t wait for foot or leg pain to arrive to get serious about supportive shoes. Jason Bergmann, owner of Natural Balance Orthotics, a Chicago-area custom orthotics company, says that the most common complaints he addresses with patients are heel pain, metatarsalgia, and various types of lower-leg issues. “Now people walk into our office and they have some knowledge; they understand that wearing high heels is bad—and also flip-flops are no good, where 10 years ago, that wasn't the case,” he says, noting that he’s seeing a younger demographic frequenting his family’s practice. "Your 50s or 60s is often when you start to have real foot issues, and now [those patients’] kids come in.”

You don’t necessarily have to toss all your not-so-supportive shoes. “I think there's a lot of false myths on shoe wear and foot condition,” Ettore Vulcano, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon specializing in foot and ankle issues at Mount Sinai in New York City. For example, heels may “accelerate the bunions and make them feel worse, but they don't cause the bunion; if you develop a bunion, you will have probably developed it, regardless of what type of shoe you’ve worn in your lifetime.” Getting realistic—and strategic—about when and where you wear your comfiest, most foot-pleasing kicks is key.

But some shoes are better than others. Flip-flops, heels, thin-soled sneakers, and ultra-flat sandals with thin soles and no arch support are some of the worst summery shoe options when it comes to podiatric health, according to experts. “You're putting a tremendous amount of stress onto the foot, with very little shock absorption,” Vulcano says of shoes with flimsy, ultra-bendy midsoles. Even if they don’t cause pain right now, they can later, says Bergmann: “Over time, we'll see that cause damage to the foot—when you're young you can kind of get away with it, but over many years of wearing that type of footwear, you’ll see they can cause damage.”

There are a few design features to look out for in footwear. A style with “just a little bit of a heel inclination” can be incredibly comfy, per Vulcano: A thicker sole means increased shock absorption, but the heel height and incline from heel to the arch/rest of the foot has to be modest for the addition of a heel to actually help, not hurt, your feet. (He recommends around one inch of height difference between the heels and toes, and no more than two inches of height.) Stabilizing straps are also important—there isn’t a particular strap design or material that’s the absolute best, but secure construction and chafe-free material are two guidelines to buy by. Bergmann says to look for straps that are seam-free, to avoid blisters.

Continue reading on Glamour.

For Days, a new basics T-shirt brand, could be the future of fashion.

Kristy Caylor found herself at the helm of the sustainable fashion movement in 2010 when she helped launched the ethical luxury label Maiyet. But even as her new brand blazed a trail, the pioneering entrepreneur often found herself returning to a lingering question: What happens next? What are we doing to ensure ethical standards for clothes after we’re done wearing them?

“I sold things to the Real Real and Buffalo Exchange, and I gave things to my friends, yet I was still left with a pile of crap: stained T-shirts, single socks, which would certainly not be part of the sharing economy,” says Caylor. “I could donate them, but 85 percent of donations go into landfills. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if these clothes were in my life in a way that allowed me to have access to use them and then know they’ll be recycled?’”

That’s the idea behind Caylor’s next big venture, the subscription service For Days, which offers monthly memberships starting at $12 for unlimited access to organic T-shirts and tank tops at $4 a piece. The basics are made in Los Angeles, and offered in 12 styles for women and 10 styles for men, with four to five colors for each. When a shirt is stained, ripped, or worn out, members receive a fresh replacement tee; then, they send the old one back in the same packaging for recycling.

“It’s a new model for commerce, and it’s about time,” Caylor says. “The basics market really hadn’t evolved in 100 years, yet these are products that actually wear out.”

Continue reading on the Robb Report.

Don't put Baby in a bathing suit corner, y'all.

My flight to Mallorca, Spain, was departing in less than 12 hours, and there I was, hunched over my suitcase, damning all my swimsuits straight to hell. They looked tired, worn down, and they fit poorly after repeat uses and washes. My three-day wardrobe was basically squared away, rolled into neat little clothing burritos Marie Kondo would have been proud of. Everything was all set...except for my swim styles. Why can’t I wear something else in the water?! my sleepy, late-night brain asked. And, hey, yeah—why TF couldn’t I?

With just hours to go till boarding my flight, I didn’t have the time—nor the mental (emotional?) energy—to deal with frustrating bikini shopping in fluorescent-lit fitting rooms. And no matter how fast Amazon Prime is, any online order I placed would never come quickly enough. So I decided not to bring a single “real” bathing suit.

Instead, I brought a black Knix bodysuit and cobbled together an activewear look (short bike shorts and a Lululemon workout tank with built-in bra) that I felt comfortable wearing and could pass for swimwear. As I zipped up my suitcase and hustled to the airport, I vaguely wondered if these stand-ins would take forever to dry or feel hot and suffocating. Also, um, what if the three hook-and-eye closures on the bodysuit’s crotch suddenly flew open?

Spoiler alert: That did not happen.

Read the full article on Cosmopolitan.

Ever since the dawn of athleisure, the apparel market has been dominated by stretchy fabrics and varying levels of compression. Same goes for my closet. This isn't just for workouts: These days I’m wearing snazzy sports bras in lieu of underwires at any hour of the day and fancy leggings instead of denim. The allure of comfortable, forgiving clothes has been impossible to resist, to the point that it’s strained my relationship with the most tried-and-true wardrobe staples.

My jeans have taken the hardest hit. Who in their right mind would wriggle into stiff selvage denim and zero-stretch vintage 501s when leggings—which do so much more than hold me during Downward Dogs and Spin classes—exist? I recently realized there is, in fact, a magical, happy medium between jeans and leggings. No, it’s not jeggings…but it has been right in front of my eyes this whole time, just not marketed to me. Two words: maternity jeans.

This utterly genius category of pants combines the best parts of jeans (the look, the feel) with those of leggings (spandex-packed goodness, support, stretch). The paneling in maternity jeans—their main draw, really—is designed to support and expand for a baby bump, but it’s just as wonderful a feature if your stomach and hips shift-shape more than any other body parts, be it due to weight gain, fluctuation, or bloating.

The prospect of wearing maternity jeans—despite most certainly not being or trying to become pregnant right now—first dawned on me this fall, as the temperatures began to drop. Pants and full-length leggings became necessary, but my aversion to tights meant dresses and skirts were out of the question. I’m fortunate that my remote-working profession renders leggings acceptable for, say, 70 percent of occasions—but for the rest I needed “real pants.” What I couldn’t bear the thought of, though, was the angry-looking red marks I would get along the seams and waistband of the dark-wash skinny-ish jeans I had on rotation. Also annoying: My thighs are muscular, and I tend to hold weight around the stomach and hips, so I have to constantly hike up my denim to ensure that my butt and stomach stay fully covered. That’s never an issue with a snug pair of leggings—or bottoms with a comfortable elastic waistband, for that matter.

Well, that’s precisely what makes maternity jeans, well, maternity jeans. So I decided I would try, because, honestly, who would be the wiser? Plus, jeans that stay comfortable and continue to fit during weight fluctuations seemed like a relief and a practical investment to my closet. If these miracle pants are designed to support and accommodate a growing belly and, with it, the average 30-pound weight gain pregnancy tacks on, I figured they could handle my 10-pound (or so) weight fluctuations with aplomb.

Continue reading on Glamour.

Over the past few years, bralettes and good-looking sports bras have practically upended the lingerie market, and while there are nice-looking options for larger breasts (size D and up), you may be wondering: do any of these wireless bras deliver legitimate support?

To find the best wireless bras for larger breasts, we talked to a few experts, from lingerie store owners to merchandise managers. One thing to remember: A well-fitted band is essential, emphasizes Danielle Iserlis, marketing associate at Journelle. “Contrary to popular belief, 80 percent of support comes from the band, not the straps,” she says. Below, seven women on the best wire-free bras around.

The best wireless bra

Jenette Goldstein, owner of the Los Angeles store Jenette Bras, is a big fan of Fortnight’s stealthily strong mesh options. “Fortnight is a small, woman-owned company in Toronto, crafting high-quality wireless bras in-house since long before the current ‘bralette’ marketing trend,” says Goldstein. “They employ every technical trick in the book — architectural seaming, power mesh, reinforced panels — to compensate for the lack of underwire. Our clients have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of support they get from the Luna.” Gina Marinelli, a freelance writer and editor, is also a big fan of the Luna style from Fortnight. “I love the superwide band, which provides a comfortable fit and extra underboob support,” she explains.

Fortnight’s longline styles come in more than ten sizes, ranging from 30DD-36DD and 32F-34F, an anomaly in the bralette space, where XS-L (or possibly XL, if you’re lucky) is the norm. “Anything with that extra-longline effect with no wire is going to be a winner for larger sizes, because it adds extra support and coverage,” says Rebecca Lee, general manager and assistant buyer at Azaleas, an underthings store in New York.

The best soft-cup wireless bras

Marten, from Nordstrom, suggests styles from Lively, the direct-to-consumer brand founded by a Victoria’s Secret alum. The brand makes “a few fantastic wireless options” for the well-endowed, per Marten, and they’re affordably priced at $35 each.

Continue reading on New York Magazine.

In our new series, we'll share the stories of fit models, past and present, who will divulge the fascinating minutiae of this little-known but very integral (and well-paid) line of work.

Working very much behind-the-scenes and without cameras documenting the process, fit modeling is an invisible but invaluable segment of the fashion industry. Each Friday in the coming weeks, we'll share the stories of eight fit models, past and present, who will divulge the fascinating minutiae of this little-known but very integral (and well-paid) line of work. Next up: Model, mom and Darling magazine editor Sarah Dubbeldam. You can read the rest of the models' testimonials here.

Read Volume 1, Volume 2 , Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, and Volume 8 on Fashionista.

It Bags tend to be exorbitant status symbols—often logo-laden and from iconic fashion houses with names like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Céline. Typically, they're considered “investment pieces” that climb well into triple-digit price tag territory, or even past the $1,000 mark. On rare occasions, though, an accessory that’s devoid of some pedigreed designer name and logo, a style in the (relatively) more affordable $100 to $300 range, suddenly becomes ubiquitous in stylish circles. Such was the case with the two-toned Herve Chapelier nylon totes of the late nineties and early aughts; now, in the age of Instagram, it’s Cult Gaia’s Ark bag.

A half-circle constructed of open-weave bamboo, the design was conceived in 2014, but took a full two years to really blow up your feed, and maybe even your IRL social circles, according to Cult Gaia's founder, Jasmin Larian. The Ark was the very first bag she ever created, in fact, and the brand itself came about "by accident," in her words. All pretty unusual circumstances leading to an It Bag’s ascent.

“My mom was a fashion designer and I was surrounded with design and creativity my whole life, so I always knew I wanted to have my own line,” Larian explains. She studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, and when she was wrapping up her senior year, she sketched out a full ready-to-wear collection of dresses and gowns—and, at the same time, whipped up some flower crowns for fun (FIT is located right next to the city's Flower District, after all), as well as head scarves using vintage fabrics she’d been collecting over the years. “That picked up really by accident, and everyone wanted to flower crowns and headscarves,” Larian recalls. A friend of hers encouraged her to focus on the unique, whimsical accessories she’d created more or less on a whim, since the demand was clearly there, so she launched a website to sell the headpieces while she was a couple months away from graduating college.

Larian landed on the name Cult Gaia for her budding business—Gaia is the goddess of Mother Earth and the daughter of chaos. “For me, chaos is a creative force: I think everything beautiful in the world is made of chaos,” she explains. As for the "Cult" moniker, it’s a bit aspirational (and a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts): “Every great brand is cultlike, in attracting like-minded people.”

The success of her earliest, almost accidental signature headpieces had to do with branding and elevating a simple concept: “We were the first to brand the flower crown; I didn’t invent the flower crown, I didn’t reinvent the wheel, but I was the first to do it as a really beautiful, handmade, luxury piece," she says. Though the Ark bag was still a ways off, “that’s when I think the Cult Gaia brand’s DNA was solidified: creating pieces that are elegant, classic, really attention-grabbing, and a little out of the ordinary."

Larian introduced the first-ever Ark bag in 2013, but back then, “it just didn’t take off! So I was kind of like, ‘OK, next’” she says. She decided, instead, to focus on flower crowns and turbans. She didn’t completely scrap the Ark bag, though, quietly promoting it by sending it to friends and family to wear, nor did she try to design another handbag that might hit it bigger than the Ark.

Sales started to pick up steam “after sending to a few friendly [messages] on Instagram—it was when people saw how to style it, which is really what Instagram is about,” Larian says. She can’t pinpoint one particular moment or celeb spotting that changed everything, though the brand did have a few in 2016, including Jessica Alba. “Instagram started picking up and being a real thing, and we were ahead of that, posting photos of the flower crowns, and then we started doing that with the Ark bag. It was the perfect storm.”

Continue reading on Glamour.

You’re pregnant! Congrats—now you’re trying to figure out how to deal with your closet for the next nine months. Of course, the best maternity fashion is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. There are plenty of ways to approach maternity wear (whether that means sourcing an entirely new wardrobe or cobbling together maternity outfits from what you already own), but more than anything, it's an opportunity to break all sorts of supposed style “rules” (though you obviously can—and should—be eschewing old-school fashion edicts whenever, with or without a growing bump). Who better to provide some candid and actually helpful advice for dressing for your pregnancy than the incredibly stylish fashion editors and bloggers who have done so already?

For some of these women, the realities of maternity style were far from the fantasies of dressing while expecting: “I always envisioned that when I was pregnant, I’d wear cute tight dresses, heels, bikinis that embraced the bump—the way celebrities dress when they are pregnant,” recalls Victoria Sanchez Lincoln, fashion consultant, stylist, and former fashion director at Real Simple and In Style. “But when I was pregnant, I had a huge belly, swollen feet, and ankles—just overall everything was enlarged, and not in a good way…. That’s when I realized I needed to dress my new body shape.” For others, the items that ended up being on constant loop during those nine months were total wild cards: “My Alaïa leggings I bought at a vintage shop were my essential during pregnancy,” says Karla Martinez de Salas, editor-in-chief of Vogue Mexico and Vogue Latin America.

We asked 11 of our favorites about their essential purchases (and the utterly unnecessary ones), the layering tricks and unexpected hero pieces they relied on while expecting, and the personal style revelations they had that have impacted how they get dressed today. Ahead, read their takeaways on the deeply personal, sometimes arduous, occasionally pleasurable challenge that is the best maternity fashion.

Consider shopping very sparingly—and at leisure.

“Buy nothing for as long as possible, and wear what you have until the last possible moment,” suggests Stella Bugbee, president and editor in chief of New York magazine's The Cut. “Then buy things slowly. Your body changes so much each month, so buy one or two pairs of pants that fit for a bit, then go up a size as needed. Also, stretchy undies are a must.”

For those clothes you’ll likely be wearing for less than a year—and might never want to see again postbaby—search for deals via affordable maternity brands or marked-down designer threads. “I only needed to buy a few maternity basics that I combined with my regular clothing: I bought maternity leggings, tops, bras, and easy dresses,” says Sanchez Lincoln. “I always searched for sales at maternity destinations or online flash sales, and shopped the Old Navy and Target maternity lines.”

If you’re making a big-ticket fashion purchase while pregnant, consider choosing something you can (and will want to) wear for the long haul. “I bought just a few key pieces and wore them over and over,” says Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, founder of Romy and The Bunnies and the blog Less Is More. “You don’t want to spend too much on things that you won’t even be able to look at when the baby is here. If you want to make yourself happy, invest in a nice bag that you can keep for years but dress up your bump with [now].”

One thing not to skimp on, according to blogger, stylist, and creater of RadSwan, Freddie Harrel? Underwear. “Buy bras—good ones!—and jeans and trousers with elastic bands, which are lifesavers.”

Continue reading on Glamour.

The idea of "brandless luxury"—luxury products without a designer tag—is starting to gain steam. And it might change the way you shop.

A designer-quality bag, without the exorbitant designer price? That’s the sexy premise of Italic, a direct-to-consumer brand that offers luxury pieces—think leather bags and jackets, cashmere, and eyewear—from the same factories that make products for companies like Celine, Givenchy, Gucci, Miu Miu, Burberry, and Prada. One key difference: None of Italic’s products will have those fancy designer labels. Genius idea? Or could they be ripping off some of the world’s most coveted brands?

Italic, which launched in November, requires a $120 annual membership fee, which the company says allows it to keep inventory relatively limited and the prices of its products low. (A designer-grade tote will cost you $250, versus four figures, for instance.) As of mid-January, Italic had more than 150,000 members and people on the wait list combined, according to founder Jeremy Cai. (He declined to share revenue or sales figures; when one of our testers tried to sign up for membership, she was accepted within about a day and the fee was waived because, the site said, she got in “early.”)

While the company’s website prominently displays the names of luxury brands it shares factories with, Cai says they absolutely do not make knock-offs. In other words, they may be able to stay out of legal danger. (Luxury companies may still have a case if their trademarks are misused, or used in a way that creates confusion for customers, experts told Glamour.)

Italic’s handbag designs are classic in terms of shape (lots of totes and bucket bags) and color (always popular options like black, red, and cream; no prints or pastels yet). The company also offers bedding (from the same people that make sheets for the Ritz-Carlton), and plans to roll out beauty and skin products (from the factories used by Dior and Chanel) soon. So the question is: How much is a luxury label worth to you?

Continue reading on Glamour.

Whether or not athleisure continues to be (or even still is) a thing, I unabashedly love activewear. I wear it as much as I possibly can. I probably spend 65% of my life in various permutations of sports bras, leggings, performance tanks, and, come summer, skorts or bike shorts. I love the idea of clothing that can actually impact how my body feels, not just looks—whether it’s a buttery dress for sensitive skin and eczema sufferers that’s soft, smooth-seamed, and tag-free, or a killer moisture-wicking fabric that quickly, thoroughly sops up sweat, making clothes feel lighter and more breathable.

So I was intrigued—and very skeptical—when I learned about IFGfit, a brand taking it one step further and claiming it can help improve posture, relieve neck tension, and improve breathing…with sports bras. My initial reaction: Wait, what?!

Thanks to chronic hunching over my laptop and phone, my posture is less than stellar. I’ve had a nagging neck pain for months that just won’t quit, probably due to lugging a laptop constantly on one shoulder, and/or side-sleeping with scrunched-up shoulders. I experienced breathing and wheezing issues (diagnosed as asthma) for the first time this year. So I was curious to at least try IFGfit and see what it was about.

Stephen Liu, M.D., the brand’s founder and CEO, came up with the concept—of clothes that improve wellness, posture, and breathing without restraining straps or braces—while his mother was battling cancer. He was underwhelmed by the “severe lack of smart activewear that could boost well-being and recovery” and also look stylish, and so he set out to fill that niche himself.

IFGfit launched in mid-2018 after several years of testing 50-plus prototypes on a wide range of people across professions, ages, and physical conditions in order to get the right balance of technical (a stretchy mesh inner layer with strategically placed tension to mimic straps or braces) and aesthetic (an outer layer concealing all the posture-improving magic inside). Liu even got the technology for the bras, tees, leggings, and shorts, called PPR, patented and registered at the FDA as a medical device.

All of IFGfit’s products are made with the company's Invisible Anti-Slouch technology, which “instantly brings both shoulder blades closer to the spine and in symmetry,” Liu says. It adjusts the body’s biomechanics so “the shoulders are back, the muscles of the lower spine are activated, the neck and shoulder muscles are relaxed, and the rib cage is expanded, mimicking the bridge position in yoga,” which, according to Liu, helps deepen “diaphragm breathing and make you feel taller through spinal extension.”

Continue reading on Glamour.

The prom has endured as a meaningful teenhood tradition for decades: It’s a hotly anticipated toast to high school, playing a pivotal part of basically any teen flick worth its salt (not to mention how pivotal it can be IRL too).

But the true roots of prom — short for “promenade” — are as a rite of passage, debuting at Northeast colleges such as Harvard University and Amherst College in the mid- to late 19th century, as relatively simple farewell dances for graduating classes. The practice skewed younger in the decade that followed, emerging as a teen tradition at high schools by the 1940s. Proms are held at some Canadian high schools, and they have also caught on to a lesser extent — and with a younger demographic — in the past decade or so in the U.K., although it hasn’t expanded much farther globally.

Proms are just one type of coming-of-age ceremony, along with quinceañeras, bar/bat mitzvahs, Catholic communions and confirmations, debutante balls, and weddings. All these rites of passage, and the carefully chosen clothes that are worn on these special occasions, have stuck around. But the prom dress differs from most rite-of-passage fashion traditions: It’s nonsecular, and not tied to any particular ethnicity, and, thus, it’s more universal.

It’s also the rare coming-of-age garment that can, and often does, telegraph a teen girl’s burgeoning sexuality, as sociologist Amy Best explores in her 2000 book, Prom Night: Youth, Schools, and Popular Culture. “The prom dress is critically important to this invention of a sexual self,” Best writes, detailing how she overheard some of the girls she interviewed describing their fathers’ “utter discomfort” upon seeing their risqué getups for the big night, which provide proof “that the girls had succeeded in transforming themselves.”

Read the full article on Yahoo.

The most literal idea of a modest swimsuit is associated with its most conservative silhouette: the burkini. It became a global conversation in 2016, when Halima Aden wore it during the swimsuit portion of her history-making pageant appearance and when France briefly banned it. But the category—and its demographic—is much broader and nuanced. Orthodox Jewish or Christian women might seek covered-up styles too, as can other shoppers who, regardless of religious or cultural background, want added sun protection or aren't comfortable subscribing to the idea that wearing a swimsuit means baring an excess of skin.

“There’s a total demand,” says modest-fashion blogger Sobi Masood. “It’s not the most glamorous thing to wear more clothes on the beach—when you’re wet, the last thing you want to do is be fixing around all the material that you’re wearing. It’s really tricky. And there are not that many brands out there.”

The options are so lackluster that Maria Alia, a modest-fashion influencer, model, and creative multihyphenate of Palestinian and Puerto Rican descent, says she’d rather not wear traditional modest swimsuits at all: “My first choice would be to go to a beach where I don’t have to wear modest swimwear, where I can literally wear actual [nonmodest] swimwear, but if you’re in a public place where there’s other people around and you choose to dress modestly, that’s not an option. It’s not the most comfortable—that’s the reality of it.”

Continue reading on Glamour.

Here's how to make sure you're buying a better pair of blues.

Jeans are the consummate wardrobe workhorse, an indispensable staple found (usually in multiples) in practically every person’s closet. They’re also one of the fashion industry’s worst offenders of environmental damage. Manufacturing those beloved blues uses massive amounts of water. While the figures vary slightly depending on whom you ask, it takes 998.8 gallons of water to produce one pair of jeans (the equivalent of three days of water usage for a U.S. household) according to Levi’s. Brands like Reformation and Warp + Weft place it even higher, at 1,500 gallons per pair. Either way, it’s a hell of a lot of a precious, rapidly dwindling natural resource sucked up by a single pair of pants.

And the denim-making process has been tricky to evolve because it’s “an extremely complex, opaque supply chain, with five suppliers, and the brand’s often not playing a role beyond just being a buyer,” explains Katrin Ley, managing director of Fashion for Good, an organization working to make fashion more sustainable. “So creating change on, for instance, dyeing and finishing, that’s your second or third [step of the supply chain], and it’s often harder to directly connect with.” In other words, the brands have been able to wash their hands of whatever goes on in the process. Thankfully, some companies are making significant efforts to curb water waste (while addressing energy use and chemical pollution) — saving the planet, and the world’s favorite textile, in one fell swoop.

What’s so bad about denim?

The H2O-guzzling damages of your jeans begin with the fabric itself. “Cotton is just a very thirsty plant,” says Ley, adding that growing the plant alone accounts for 68 percent of denim’s total water footprint (and consumers laundering their own jeans make up 23 percent). Timo Rissanen, assistant professor of fashion design and sustainability at Parsons, who holds a PhD in zero waste fashion design and has co-authored two books about fashion and sustainability, says the farming methods (pesticides, fertilizers), even location and water source impact how eco-unfriendly cotton growing can be. But, Ley adds, even “compared to other cotton products, denim is very water intensive.” For instance, a cotton T-shirt needs 713 gallons of water to produce.

One difference in denim is the finishing, explains Emma Scarf, an analyst at Fashion for Good. “It’s fashionable these days to have a very soft, vintage-look denim rather than raw denim, so much denim goes through an acid wash, stone wash, or mill wash,” all of which are “very water-intensive” processes. For example vat-dyeing, which is the process traditionally used to apply indigo color to the fiber, has to be done three to four times for that delicious shade of blue to stick.

Continue reading on Instyle.

I've always viewed athleisure as a guilty pleasure. The term’s first usage dates back three decades (who knew?), but it’s truly become inescapable the past few years — and, as of 2016, it’sMerriam-Webster-official. Though I honestly love leggings and sports bras, I've only deemed them appropriate for actual workouts, lazy weekends, and, a bit sheepishly, traveling (what up, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). But athleisure is about wearing clothing once relegated strictly to the gym everywhere. And in the past few years, there's been evidence that more people are wearing more athleisure, more often: WSJ reported the market isestimated to increase by 50% — to a whopping $100 billion — by 2020. It's set itself up to be the most versatile clothing category — so I decided to put it to the test. What if I only wore workout apparel for 31 days straight?

At least I knew it wouldn't be hard to find. You’ll see spiffed-up gym clothes everywhere while shopping nowadays: Brands like Tory Burch, Cynthia Rowley, and Zara have created activewear collections recently. New retailers focused on high-end, hard-to-find workout brands, such as Bandier and Carbon38, have emerged. British brand Sweaty Betty hasaggressive stateside growth plans for its luxe leggings (with prices that eclipse Lululemon’s), while Gap Inc. has been betting big on its workout brand, Athleta. Celebrities have gotten in on the action, too — Beyonce’s got Ivy Park; Kate Hudson is behind (the much more controversial) Fabletics. Every sportswear behemoth has dabbled in designer pair-ups, too, like Stella McCartney for Adidas, Riccardo Tisci’s collab with Nike, and Under Armour’s forthcoming pair-up with Tim Coppens. (And, though she’s not a designer, let’s not forget Rihanna’s hit Fenty linefor Puma.) 

As I started planning, I was struck by how pricey it can be to wear workout clothes constantly. Granted, it doesn’t have to be: Forever 21, Gap, and Target’s C9 Champion line carry affordable, stylish workout clothes. And I was generously lent or given numerous pieces for the purpose of this story, which I mixed in with items I already owned. But damn, athleisure gets expensive: The full tally of my month of athleisure threads comes to $3,451.04.

There were social challenges to this experiment, too. My month in athleisure included two birthday parties, one filled with fashion people I didn’t want to look like a complete schlub around; a Hamptons weekend with a friend’s family; a reunion with my boyfriend’s large extended clan; office team cocktails; plenty of work breakfasts, dinners, and drinks; and extensive apartment-hunting. 

Read the full story on Refinery29. 

The Scandinavian brand has been around since 2000 but in recent seasons has dominated the closets of some of the coolest women—#GanniGirls, as they're known on Instagram—around. Here's how it happened.

Flip through street-style photos from basically any Fashion Week, and you’ll start to notice seemingly everyone is wearing the same few things. Ever ogled that bizarrely brilliant poufy-sleeve plaid maxidress, or perhaps this green polka-dot wrap number? Or maybe you’ve fawned over this fuzzy, chunky color-blocked sweater, a distinctive player in 2018’s ongoing parade of rainbow knits? Guess what: They’re all made by the same brand—Ganni.

In recent years the Scandinavian label has reached international ubiquity, all while maintaining a relatively accessible price point. (Basics hover around $200, versus $500 to $600 per piece for comparable “contemporary” labels.) But its story begins back in 2000, as a side hustle of Frans Truelsen’s, a Copenhagen-based gallerist. Nine years later he would bring in Nicolaj Reffstrup and his wife, Ditte, to manage the business and creative, respectively. That’s really when Ganni began its ascent.

Ditte, a former fashion buyer, first got involved by helping Truelsen design some shoes, at a time when Ganni was bringing in less than one million euros annually, according to the now creative director. “It was really nothing—Frans designed a couple of cashmere sweaters, some T-shirts,” she recalls of Ganni’s earliest days. Nicolaj, now the brand’s CEO, adds: “It was not coherent, not a fashion collection, really. It was just Frans doing what he thought would be cool, one-off products.”

What made Ditte want to be involved with the growing brand was a desire to create a different type of Scandinavian style: “Every time I was out traveling, it really annoyed me that people thought that being Scandinavian meant either you were very androgynous or very bohemian, and I couldn’t really recognize myself, my friends, or the girls I’m inspired by in that at all…. I thought there was a ‘Scandi 2.0’ style that the world hadn’t seen yet.”

From the beginning the price range has been set to be relatively affordable. (Accessories start at $20, and nothing in the collection is over $1,000.) “We just did what we felt was right, a fairly honest price point,” Nicolaj says. “Democratic fashion is a concept that reflects very well the society we live in and way we think and act. You wouldn’t get an average Danish customer to pay $600 or $800 dollars for a basic dress, as is usual for contemporary brands in the U.S…. In return, we get very high sell-throughs.”

Read the full article on Glamour.

The ultimate objective of a fashion show is to sell clothes. Aside from making beautiful things and celebrating creativity, at the end of the day, fashion is a massive business: Annually, the fashion industry generates over a trillion dollars in sales globally (and nearly $370 billion in the U.S. alone). But capitalism and greed rarely, if ever, crop up as themes in designers' new collections. Leave it to Pyer Moss's designer, Kerby Jean-Raymond, to tackle those heady topics explicitly in his spring 2017 collection. 

Read the full story on Refinery29.

Few clothing items usher in summer quite like a perfectly worn-in, frayed, and ripped pair of denim shorts. Some call them jorts (aka jean shorts), while others might prefer “cutoffs.” They’re a 21st century festival staple and a street-style favorite, with price tags that span the gamut from a couple bucks for some vintage Levi’s dug up in a thrift store, to roughly $1K for this Valentino pair, embroidered with butterflies.

But, before there were jorts, there were jeans. It’s nearly impossible to imagine a world or closet without denim, yet the durable, universally beloved garment only dates back to late 19th century, when Levi Strauss (along with a tailor, Jacob Davis) invented “waist overalls” in 1873, named for where the style starts on the body, compared to the full-body overalls of the past.

Read the full article on Yahoo.

Becoming an Ivy League-educated doctor was Eugenia Kim’s calling but a freak accident during her freshman year of college prompted her to ditch the med school plans for magazine publishing. Then, thanks to a particularly bad DIY haircut, Eugenia’s hat-making hobby became a viable career path. Two decades later, Eugenia has amassed celebrity fans like Beyoncé, Britney, and Christina, and added shoe and bag collections to the mix. Here’s how Eugenia ended up designing — and thriving in — millinery, thanks to a lot of chutzpah and a very open mind.

Click here to read the full story on Cosmopolitan.com. 

School uniforms are a daily reality for many students at countless institutions around the world. So are dutifully enforced dress codes, which dictate what is and isn't kosher to wear to class without prescribing specific items. Uniforms and dress codes certainly aren't new aspects of the scholarly experience, but the value of policing kids' and teens' wardrobe choices has come under fire a lot in the past year. Considering all this controversy over "appropriate" attire in academia, is it really necessary or worthwhile for schools to continue calling the shots fashion-wise in 2016? 

Some schools have mandated longer skirts for female students, while others have even sent students homefor having supposedly too-short skirts and overly snug pants. Then, there are students who've fought back against uniform mandates, whether bybending gender norms and creating petitions to affect change or wearing scarlet letters in protest. 

Not all news about fashion's role in academia is bad news, though. Some institutions have progressively adoptedgender-neutral uniform rules. Schools in traditionally conservative cultures are even are moving away from policies that rigidly adhere to the gender binary to ensure LGBT students are more comfortable in the classroom.

It's a really polarizing topic, to put it lightly. We scoured around for a range of perspectives about the joys and frustrations that result from having a uniform or dress code. Ahead, 15 people sound off on being told what you can and can't wear to class, whether they spent their formative years attired according to a uniform, grappled with adhering to a nebulous dress code — or, in some cases, actually wish they'd had guidelines for getting dressed each morning.

Read the full story on Refinery29. 

Thanks to shows like Glow, featuring ’80s fitness fashion, not to mention the general, “Let’s get physical” vibe influencing boutique exercise studios right now, retro activewear is having a moment. And the piece peaking in popularity this summer has to be the bodysuit. Adding to its current cool factor? Celebs like Khloe Kardashian donning slinky styles on social media.

Whether you’re looking to keep up with her, or are just interested in streamlining your early morning scrambles for workout threads, the bodysuit’s got you covered. (Literally.) It’s now in the same league of wardrobe essentials as the perfect white tee, according to Stephanie Dardenne, director of merchandising for the luxury e-tailer Carbon38. She credits former Kardashian-Jenner stylist Monica Rose and fitness mogul Tracy Anderson—along with Beyoncé and the Hadid sisters—for helping usher in the bodysuit’s redux.

Click here to read the full story on Well+Good. 

For the uninitiated, Outdoor Voices is focused on “freeing fitness from performance and not being so serious” about activewear, according to founder Tyler Haney, who launched the line two years ago in Austin. “‘Doing Things’ is a super non-prescriptive, inclusive, and approachable idea,” and having a day (and a hashtag) devoted to the phrase is about “seeing how people use our clothes, instead of telling them how to,” Haney said. 

Read the full story. 
 

Even if you don’t know Kendra Scott’s name, you've probably seen the Austin-based designer’s creations. The stones steal the show on these mostly under-$100 fashion jewelry pieces that err on the chunkier side, rather than delicate, dental-floss-thin, Catbird-esque bands and layering chains. Scott makes the epitome of “statement earrings" — but when those statement earrings are in the ballpark of $65 a pair, like this best-selling style, they’re not the sort of pieces you have to relegate to weddings and the swishiest of occasions. This is fancy jewelry that doesn’t have to be worn like fancy jewelry — costume jewelry pricing for stuff that isn’t, well, all that costume-y. 

The conceit seems to be resonating: the brand raked in $160 million in sales in the 2015 fiscal year, up from $74.8 million in 2014. Sales are up from $1.7 million in 2010 — Scott’s business increased nearly 10,000% in five years and, at its current run rate, is poised to make $220 million this year. While Scott’s is not a complete rags-to-riches story, it’s got quite an aspirational American dream-chasing ring to it. The incredibly bubbly, blonde, Wisconsin-bred designer and CEO started her eponymous brand in 2002 with just $500, three months after giving birth to her first son, peddling her designs in a tea box to boutique owners. 

Read the full story on Refinery29. 

I have a decently sized collection of jeans. But even though my pants drawer is filled with 15 or so pairs, only one and a half pairs truly fits – in a way that looks good and feels fucking great. The others, right now, are too big, and donothing for me. They’re not roomy enough to be boyfriend jeans or chic mom jeans; they don’t look model off duty-ish. They get baggy and stretched out by lunchtime. They just look…uninspired, ill-fitting, haphazard. But they say something about what I’ve held onto: a forgiving, weight-fluctuation-friendly selection of pairs in larger sizes, once better-looking on a larger me. And what I’ve allowed myself to let go of: jeans that I, at some point, stopped being able to wriggle into. Jeans that likely could’ve fit me really well now – if only I’d kept them.

There’s basically a closet that fits me today, and former closets that fit me at past weights, all occupying the same hangers. My weight has fluctuated in the ballpark of 25 pounds since 2010. It’s been pretty consistent, on the lower end of that range, the past three years, mostly thanks to some exercising tweaks (lots of walking and so much Zumba, because it’s fucking joyous), but I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for that unexpected double-digit weight gain. Can these closets coexist peacefully, without making me feel crazy?

Read the full story on Refinery29. 

Like a limited-edition capsule collection—or prized concert tee (think sold-out sensations like Justin Bieber’s Purpose pieces or Kanye West’s Life Of Pablo items)—the private clothing labels of certain boutique fitness brands have become a status symbol all their own—even for people who’ve never worked out there.

“Before, clients would take a class, then buy merch; now, customers walk in to buy [something] they saw on Instagram—and then try a class for the first time,” says Sarah Levey, co-founder of Y7, the buzzy, hip hop-driven hot yoga studio in New York City and Los Angeles. “People are proud to be living a healthy lifestyle and want to make a statement in what they wear—and fitness studios foster communities.”

The designs for the brand’s workout wear, which ranges from $60 shorts to $250 bomber jackets, are inspired by the same beats that bump from its playlists. “Hip-hop concerts inspire the experience we create at Y7, from the class to the apparel,” Levey explains. “Our class is the show, our instructors are artists—and our merchandise plays off this concert-esque environment.”

Anything emblazoned with the studio’s signature Namaste Hands motif is pretty much guaranteed to move faster than the flows of its vinyasa sequences. “Praying hands are a reoccurring symbol in yoga and hip-hop culture that resonate with our audience,” explains the yogi. Tanks and leggings covered with phrases like “Money Cash Flows” and “A Tribe Called Sweat” lure new customers in via social media. “We’ve seen Y7’s Instagram presence drive significantly more foot traffic to the studios,” Levey says.

And music plays a big part in creating the vibe at the nearby New York Pilates, too. (Creative director Brion Isaacs, who runs the company with his wife, Heather Andersen, chalks up the studio’s aesthetic to his past life as a drummer and DJ—plus his father’s career as a fashion designer.)

“I took a lot of cues from him in terms of spotting trends before they catch on,” Isaacs says. “Heather and I wanted to make items we’d actually wear—we took inspiration from vintage t-shirts, concert posters, and artwork.” The couple used it to create small batches of the types of tees, tanks, and sweatshirts ($30–$80) you’d pick up from a merch table at one of NYC’s iconic rock venues. “Everyone from Emma Roberts and St. Vincent to Pilates instructors and students from Australia and Russia,” have purchased a piece from their private label, he says.

Click here to read the full story on Well+Good. 

ICYMI, Selena Gomez has been spotted in veritable hit parade of amazing looks recently. (Don't worry, we were keeping close tabs on her excellent ensembles, here.) The star was only spotted at one show this time around, although you'd think she was hitting the front-row circuit all week long, because of her consistently on-point outfit. But she reserved the honor for Coach — which makes a lot of sense, considering the star joined forces with the brand back in December. She'll be starring in forthcoming ad campaigns, working with the house's charitable arm, the Coach Foundation, and designing a special bag with Coach's creative director, Stuart Vevers. 

Once we were a safe distance away from the end of New York Fashion Week, we rang up Gomez after the Coach show to discuss the virtues of a great top-handle bag, what she listens to when getting decked out for a red carpet, and her secret-sauce combo for looking amazing when you feel kind of crappy. (Spoiler: Like all things trendy, it involves a choker.) Also, sentimental packrats out there, you'll be comforted to know that Gomez, too, has a hard time letting go of stuff in her closet — especially when it comes to her first-ever "pricy" purchase.

Read the full story on Refinery29.

The handbag market is a pretty crowded corner of the fashion industry to truly make a mark: It's populated with O.G. It bags by, say, Gucci or Louis Vuitton, that's immediately identifiable by familiar logos, and the occasional, stealthily-appearing newcomer (hey there, Mansur Gavriel) that's suddenly slung on the shoulders of seemingly every fashion editor and street style star. But what's it like to transition from working behind the scenes for other designers, to taking a stab at running your own show? Just ask accessories designer Gretchen Maull, who debuted her label, GG Maull, last year.

She started her career as a studio assistant at Proenza Schouler in 2006, back when the luxury label was just four years old, and it's where she first realized she wanted to have her own line. Stints at brands like Missoni and Oscar de la Renta followed; she then joined the accessories design team at Calvin Klein, helping conceive a diffusion line (Calvin Klein White) from scratch, down to the hardware. After cutting her teeth on "Made In Italy" design for contemporary and luxury names, Maull wanted to get experience on a more mass brand with production based in China. It was also a label her teen self (and, likely, yours too) would appreciate: Juicy Couture. That job, coupled by a family incident that jolted Maull's career goals into perspective (more on that later) led the Bay Area native to get moving on her own brand, ASAP.

Some serendipitously-salvaged leftovers from her Juicy gig were Maull's starter stock for GG Maull, an accessories line designed in NYC and produced at a factory in Italy that works with major luxury names like Dolce & Gabbana and Prada. The brand, which is currently carried at boutiques like Intermix (with some department store stockists on the horizon) has been a labor of love. Starting an accessories company from scratch means doing everything from hustling for celebrity cameos to taking an emergency trip to Italy (where she works with a team she dubs her surrogate "famiglia") when there's a hiccup in production. Ahead, Maull shows us the process of creating and cultivating a luxury handbag label from the ground up.

Read the full article on Refinery29.

Wedding-dress trends change subtly from year to year, and over the years there have been plenty of distinctive, decade-defining sartorial touches (looking at you, ’80s-era shoulder pads and peplum). Click through to check out 50 years’ worth of iconic, celebrity-vetted looks worn to walk down the aisle.

Continue reading on Cosmopolitan.

What happens if you fall between “straight”-size clothes and “plus”-size clothes? Alexandra Ilyashov explains.

Originally published in Cosmopolitan magazine, May 2019.

Over the last three decades, Michael Kors has become an industry unto himself-but in the last five years, his empire has turned into a block-buster American success story. That’s thanks in no small part to MICHAEL Michael Kors, his item-driven line, which has brought the designer’s glam take on classic sportswear to the chic masses since 2004. The Daily popped by Kors’ office for the scoop on his shiny new Rockefeller Center digs, life as a newlywed, and much more.

Originally published in The Daily Front Row magazine, September 2011.

No trendy platforms for this EIC: She’s spent the better part of a decade in just two of Monsieur Blahnik’s styles. What’s it all about?

Originally published in The Daily Front Row magazine, February 2011.