Chanel’s PR working overtime?

I saw several blog posts about Chanel’s “Le Vernis Black Velvet” nail polish. It is a gorgeous color, and if you go to Chanel’s Makeup page, the model is wearing the nail polish. It is PERFECT for Fall!! It looks absolutely gorgeous, and Chanel is minting money off of it. It costs $25!! Essie bottles usually do not cost more than $6, and this is $25 for a small bottle of nail polish! No wonder Chanel’s PR team is on it – they can clearly pay for the team!

I first came across the color on nymag.com. Blogdorf Goodman has also written about it, but the nail polish in their photos is messy and looks terrible.

Recent studies show an increase in the sale of nail polishes. Due to recession, people did not go to mani-pedi places as frequently and preferred to do it at home, which increased the sale of nail polishes. Essie and Opi are the most commonly seen nail polishes in salons. A few months back, Essie was acquired by L’Oreal. Sephora has come out with its own collection in partnership with Opi, and you can get very tiny bottles from Sephora.

In Spring, Chanel came out with the Jade nail polish which became a top seller. Its insane because people were selling it on eBay for $100!! It’s so contradictory! Sales of nail polishes increased because people cut down on salon visits, and there were some who were willing to pay $100 for a small bottle of nail polish! Really, Jade was not that good. You could easily replace it with MAC’s green color with 3 coats.

Anyway, I am off to buy the Chanel Black Velvet nail polish because I really really like it. This will be the most expensive nail polish I have ever owned. It better stay fresh for at least one year or so.

Read Full Post »

Top fashion blogs

Every year I review top fashion blogs to understand the inns and outs of the industry, and which bloggers we should partner with. Here is a comprehensive list. I think the list is by Imran Ahmed, although it does not specify. Imran Ahmen is the Editor of an influential fashion blog the Business of Fashion and Luxury Society. He gave a session at the WWD Social Media summit in NY that I attended. A smart guy who graduated from Harvard Uni. He gave some key insights into how to reach bloggers, the challenges they face with the volume of communication they receive, and the best way to catch bloggers’ attention.

On a regular basis it is very difficult to read all key fashion blogs. Go Fug Yourself is my favorite blog – it used to be #1, but it is #6 on this list. The Budget Fashionista is a good blog for best deals. So many blogs write about “seen in the city”, celebrities, and high fashion, but this one focuses on budget styles and deals. Fab Sugar focuses primarily on celebrities, and its sister-site ShopStyle is an affiliate and performs extremely well. The site is well geared for SEO and shows up on the first page of Google for most fashion categories.

I met bloggers from The Budget Fashionista, Coutorture, and Nitrolicious, among others, when they came for our “sneak peek” event. I have seen key blogs link to Nitrolicious, and the blogger left her full-time job sometime in 2008 to attend events and blog full-time.

I love the name “Blogdorf Goodman” – its just so clever! Bergdorf Goodman should pay that blogger a lot of money and take ownership of the blog – or better still hire the blogger – its just too perfect a name to pass up. BTW if you type in http://www.blogdorfgoodman.com, it redirects to Bergdorf Goodman – again clever on BG’s part.

My favorite source of fashion news is Nymag.com. I subscribe to their emails and read them religiously. I don’t visit the site, just click through emails. It is a great source of information on the fashion industry, models, magazine gossip, and all the ins and outs.

Read Full Post »

Jumpsuits everywhere

Remember when I blogged about jumpsuits? Now this overgrown toddler trend is everywhere! Who brought this trend back? Models don’t look as bad, and neither did my co-worker who wore one today, but I am not changing my mind about this. Why oh why would you want to wear one of these? What if you wanted to pee – so uncomfortable. And what about the odds and ends of the body – they would show while walking and sitting. FYI if Gwyneth Paltrow, skinny as she is can’t carry it, nobody can.

I came across an article on jumpsuits that made me have to talk about them again. The YSL one looks dowdy and dull. Stella McCartney’s take makes the model look broad at the top and skinny at the bottom – not flattering at all. Where does the jacket end and pant begin? Zero + Maria is okay, but so shapeless down from the waist. Issa is not bad, but imagine the gathering of the flowing fabric around the thighs giving it an unflattering look. Maje looks skinny skinny skinny… Helmut Lang is also shapeless right at the start of the hips. Spiegel is actually not bad, while Target is so old fashioned and 80’s that the fad is best left dead. New York & Company, well, I am not going to say anything bad about my company… if you have to buy a jumpsuit buy it from my company. Seriously, you won’t regret it because the prices are so low that they accommodate all fashion mistakes that one is likely to make during the fadshion phase in one’s life. At least you will make fashion mistakes on a budget 🙂

Read Full Post »