What timing! Right after my post about how sample sizes, by definition, don’t fit the vast majority of people right off the rack, Tia from The Quest for “it” posted about the sample sale I had with my designing friend Zang Toi last month. Conveniently, she took a picture of Zang personally altering a red-cashmere dress sample on me. I’m so bad! I should be selling at these events, not buying, but Zang is impossible to resist.
That's black lace on the side. Courtesy The Quest for "it"
That’s SiSi, Zang’s assistant, in the left corner of the photo. She was taking notes about the alterations.
This is typical of my experience with Zang’s samples. I can often get myself into them, but I can’t flounce out the door that second. In fact, Zang has offered to loan me samples for events but I can’t take him up on it because the samples don’t fit me as is. We do lots of alterations when I am buying: taking in, letting out, hemming lengths, shortening sleeves, removing sleeves, reshaping necklines and so on. The initial fit of the sample depends on the shape of the model who wore it on the runway. Do all of you know about model fittings? Gorgeous blogger Tricia of Fashion Herald, who has walked in fashion shows, brought that up yesterday in the comments, noting, “Not even models will fit all runway and showroom samples, which is why there are fittings before shows.”
The tightest Zang sample I ever put on — I couldn’t zip it, walk in it or breathe in it — had been altered for an actress. She was much thinner than any of the models, so if she’s trying to be “model-thin,” she’s doing it wrong. As for my new dress, Zang took it in at the bust, let it out at the waist, and tapered it all the way down. Even if some of you are my height, weight and dress size, the dress might not fit you because it’s tailored specifically for me. So don’t ask to borrow it! I hope to wear it to Zang’s show during Fashion Week if the weather is cool enough for cashmere.
Did you know the world revolved around voluptuous Mad Men star Christina Hendricks? Neither did I! Fortunately, I read New York Magazine’s The Cut blog, which alerted me to the fact via a story about Hendricks that ran in the The Daily Record of Scotland. The Record quoted her as saying:
“People have been saying some nice, wonderful things about me. Yet not one designer in town will loan me a dress. They only lend out a size 0 or 2. So I’m still struggling for someone to give me a darn dress.”
Christina Hendricks in character. Courtesy AMC.
Wait a minute. I’ve been out of school a long time but I seem to recall that the earth revolves around the sun and not an actress. So I better explain why a pretty, talented lady like Hendricks (who wore Zac Posen to the Emmys on Sunday) can’t always get the loaner dress of her dreams. It’s not size-ism, despite what the Hendricks quote implies. It’s logistics.
The designers only have small sizes available because sample sizes are made to fit runway models. And here I will acknowledge that, yes, models are taller, thinner and more beautiful than the typical person. It’s part of the job requirement. Learn to deal with it. The world doesn’t revolve around you and your insecurities whether you’re an actress or an accountant. Not only will there always be people that are taller, thinner and more beautiful than you, there will be people who are younger, more experienced, smarter, more charming, better connected and/or — unless you are billionaire Carlos Slim — wealthier. That’s reality.
Anyway, the runway samples are made to fit models who show off the clothes to store buyers and fashion editors, enabling the designers to get orders and press. Look up “sample” in any dictionary. It’s defined as “a portion, piece, or segment that is representative of a whole. An entity that is representative of a class; a specimen.” The samples represent the styles that may then be ordered in a variety of sizes.
People who happen to be model-sized or close can borrow the samples that represent the style. Lucky for them. Not so lucky for the rest of us including Hendricks, whose measurements, according to The Record, are 39D-30-39. But is the fact that she’s out of luck so awful? (I’m out of luck as well. Samples are too tall for a 5’4″ woman.) For the hell of it, let’s suppose that all designers decided to make all runway samples 39D-30-39 and only hired models of that size. That would still exclude the majority of people. Some of us would be smaller, some of us would be larger. We have to accept the fact that we are not all the same size and never will be. (For more on the challenges of sizing, read this New York Times Magazine story and the many excellent posts that Kathleen Fasanella of Fashion-Incubator has done on the topic.)
Then, you might be wondering, why don’t designers make a range of sample sizes? Refer back to the definition of “sample.” It defeats the purpose of making a specimen or representation if you’re making the entire line. Why should designers invest enormous amounts of time and money to make 12 versions (that number assumes they’d do U.S. sizes 0 – 22, and doesn’t take into account differences in height) of each style, including styles that might never be ordered by stores. And this would all be just in case Christina Hendricks wants to borrow one for free?
Hendricks on the cover of New York Magazine this year.
Let’s look at how this would work with jewelry. A good sample size for a ring is a 6. It’s an average size that’s likely to fit at least one finger on many women, so a customer can get an idea of what the ring would look like once it is made in her size. Most (but not all) of my female customers fall between a 5 and an 8 when it comes to ring sizes. I do rings in quarter sizes, so to cover sizes 5 through 8 — while discriminating against my poor 4 3/4 and 8 1/4 ladies — I would have to do 13 sizes of each style in order to have a ring ready to go for nearly anyone who walks in the door. That could easily cost me $100,000 per style. Ridiculous! That’s why I just do a single ring for people to view and order in their own size.
I would love to get a ring on Christina Hendricks. If she tries on my gold-and-diamond Borgia poison ring in sample size 6 and it fits her, I’d be glad to loan it to her for an evening. I haven’t seen a single episode of Mad Men, but I liked her two-episode arc on Firefly, so why not?
Borgia poison ring shown open and closed. Click to shop.
If the sample doesn’t fit her, I’d be delighted to custom-make a ring in her size. Of course, she’d have to pay for that. If I started making free rings for everyone who wanted them, I’d go broke in less time than it is taking me to write this post. Duh! Everyone wants free stuff! Meanwhile, contrary to popular belief, having a dress/purse/ring seen on a celebrity doesn’t always translate to big sales. Press is good for overall brand recognition, but there are times it doesn’t move a single unit. If you’re not going to be compensated for your work by the customer AND the customer isn’t guaranteed to generate sales, does it seem like a smart idea to start making special things and giving them away to every person who thinks the world revolves around him or her? If common sense isn’t providing the answer to you right now, you might want to reread my posts Get Smart (About Manufacturing) and Get Smart (About Custom Work) about the costs of production.
Remember, I’m just talking about sample sizes and loaners here. If Christina’s complaint was, “I walk into stores and they don’t have my size,” I wouldn’t be writing anything like this because that is a legitimate complaint and entirely different from the sample size issue. I’m not saying that women of a certain size shouldn’t have access to great clothes. They should. Support the designers who do offer a wide range of sizes! My designing friend Zang Toi has customers of all sizes and ages. They choose from his tiny runway samples and he makes their pieces to order. Stacy Lomman of taffetadarlings took the unusual step of pre-selling her samples in order to raise money for her first show via Kickstarter (you can still contribute here). She’s currently fitting the dresses to the models. After, she’ll resize the dresses to fit the people who bought them. A few dresses will have to be made from scratch, costing her extra money. But, if her models were 39D-30-39, the same thing would be happening. Repeat after me until you learn it by heart: one size does not fit all, bitches!
What could Christina Hendricks do to get around her free dress problem? I’d recommend that she stops worrying about freebies and instead becomes a valued paying customer. Any designer is more inclined to whip up special pieces for reasonable prices for customers with good track records. It’s great to have a working relationship with a designer, as my customers can attest, and I’d say the same of buying clothes from Zang and Stacy. It’s not as if the free-dress phenomenon (which I’m not against because, as I said, it is good for branding) is an ancient tradition that must be respected. My Facebook friend Jeffrey, a fashion-industry veteran, notes, “I sold many dresses to many of the Dynasty and Dallas girls way back when —and yeah we gave them a deal but it was by no means free.” Gorgeous blogger Madeleine of In New York Paris Tomorrow, another retailing vet, says, “Sad days for indie shops: we used to SELL these things, and the shoes and the bag and the jewels. Still trying to understand the Swag Parties for the Emmys etc … and … we didn’t give deals (although friends could borrow our own pieces).”
Finally, for those who can afford it, buying is every bit as glamorous than borrowing, if not more so. As Jeffrey points out, “Elizabeth Taylor wore her own jewelry, her own clothes, had no stylist and was still every inch a star.”
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton at the Oscars in 1970. Burton bought her the 69-carat diamond she's wearing.
Christina is probably closer than any other actress today to having Liz-style va-va-voom, and I enjoy seeing her on the red carpet. I hope she continues to find plenty of gorgeous dresses to wear, even if they’re not always free.
Remember, y’all, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, in which one pair of jeans magically fits four girls although they have completely different measurements, is fiction! In real life, one size does not fit all. It doesn’t matter if a sample is a 0 or a 14 — it still won’t work for everyone. That’s the simple truth, not a personal attack. We’re living in a world without magic: no unicorns, good witches or supernatural denim. But, hey, at least we have Antoine Dodson and Sam Waterston’s eyebrows. What!? Those things seem magical to me!
UPDATED TO ADD: I like the cartoon here. It reminds me of some of the issues I raised above.
Baskin-Robbins brought back my favorite ’70s ice-cream flavor, Pink Bubblegum, for the month of August. My goal this weekend was to get a scoop before it was too late.
Goal achieved!
That is one craving I will never have again. Did this stuff always taste so bad? Damn! I still ate the whole scoop even though I cringed at every bite. (My attitude towards food is like the old joke: “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible … and such small portions.”) I felt so queasy after the ice cream that I couldn’t work up the enthusiasm to take an outfit picture, so you’ll have to settle for a picture of the exact same outfit in 2009: the vintage Ungaro dress, the gold Louis Vuitton shoes and my Gloriana necklace.
Blame Baskin-Robbins!
The front-page story in WWD today is “Advertisers Go Social: Brand-Blogger Linkups Marketings’ New Rage.” Gorgeous blogger Jennine (of The Coveted and Independent Fashion Bloggers) is quoted extensively in the article. I’m glad the story highlighted Jennine’s “IFB Fair Compensation Manifesto” and her criticism of the Coach Poppy ad campaign, in which 334 bloggers were convinced to put Coach branding all over their blogs for free. Jennine has been a leader in helping bloggers understand that they need to get paid properly for advertising like any other media outlet does, rather than acting like total brand hos in return for a little free merch. She told WWD:
“We don’t want blogging to evolve into this thing where bloggers are so starstruck by brands that they lose all objectivity — then they’re not the great thing people came to them for in the first place. Freebies may be OK, but we can’t just work for freebies and try to pass off promotional things as editorial content because it’s not fair to the readers, ourselves or the companies.”
You know what else isn’t fair? I didn’t get a photo credit in this story! The stunning photo of Jennine that WWD snagged from her blog was taken by me.
My photo of Jennine, scanned from WWD. Woot!
Admittedly, Jennine ran back and forth setting up the shot herself, then stuck the camera in my hand and told me to press the button, but I think I did a pretty good job of that.
Speaking of companies and branding issues, I recently got an offer that was easy to refuse. Sears has hired itself a stylist named Francesca Mills to shill for its new shoe website. Marketing Daily says:
“The retailer hopes its microsite, hosted by fashion stylist Francesca Mills, will blend the feeling of blogs, social media and commerce with more engaging — and even useful — commentary. For example, a well-known mom blogger runs down the ins and outs of back-to-school shoe shopping.”
Sears apparently thought its shoes and my limited-edition fine jewelry were a match made in heaven, so I got an email from the company exclaiming that, “We would love to start new a relationship with you!” The offer didn’t seem to involve any money, just “… sneak peeks and content every other week prior to its release. These will include up to date video and lookbook content so you can review it first and spread the word. You’ll be first to hear about contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways from Sears.”
I would have just deleted this mess without responding except for this bit of hilarity:
“We’ve been following your amazing fashion advice on your blog, and we think it’s great! You are always on top of the latest trends at the best prices and you understand your audience well. I absolutely LOVE your letter rings. I just bought ‘NYC’ for a friend of mine.”
As those of you who have been reading my blog regularly know, the NYC rings are exclusively available for pre-order on Kickstarter. Three* sets have been pre-ordered by my regular customers, none of whom work for Sears. I replied:
“How exciting to find that you’re a fan of my NYC rings! But I’m concerned that your order didn’t go through, seeing as they’re only available in one place and I don’t see your purchase reflected. If you want to try again, please click here.”
As you might have guessed, I didn’t get a reply or a ring order. Sears doesn’t think my participation in its branding campaign is worth the $315 a set of rings costs. The most I’m worth is, apparently, the chance to learn about a giveaway of God-knows-what. As enticing as that opportunity is, I’m going to have to pass on it because I’m not stupid. But thanks for thinking of me, y’all!
Those of you who really want to buy the NYC rings can click here. Plenty of other jewelry is available too. Your orders/pre-orders will help me pay for manufacturing three new ring styles overseas. I’ve passed my initial fundraising goal of $7,000, but that only covered two ring styles: OMG and LOLZ. I’ve since added NYC to the mix and that means I need to raise at least another $3,000 to cover what’s now a $10,000 factory minimum. The rings won’t come till late in the fall, so think ahead and order them as holiday gifts! To learn more about why I need to manufacture overseas and why it costs so much to make relatively inexpensive goods, read this post from January.
Click to order NYC. GaGa rings are not for sale.
*Only one pre-order for the NYC rings is reflected on Kickstarter because people who have ordered several different items can’t select multiple rewards on the Kickstarter page. I keep track of those orders behind the scenes.
Nautica invited a group of fashion bloggers for cocktails and a boat ride last night. Just what I’d been waiting for! A second chance to wear my new Castelbajac sailor outfit.
Click to see the first wearing of this outfit.
Gorgeous bloggers Midtown Girl, Jordana, Julia and Tricia were amused to see me dressed in costume.
Photo by non-blogging friend Melissa.
What Wendy Wore
Top: Castelbajac (2010)
Pants: Castelbajac (2010)
Watch: Hermès (2002)
Ring: My own Edburga poison ring with blue topaz
Unseen shoes: Alaia
It’s always nice to see this lady close up.
Holla!
But the most exciting part about Chelsea Piers, where we embarked, is Silver Screen Studios. Guess what’s filmed there?
Click to read some safety tips I gleaned from Law & Order.
I have yet another Castelbajac sailor piece to wear. If you have a boat, invite me out!
Back in March, while explaining the work that goes into creating custom designs, I mentioned that I spent an hour on the phone with one guy discussing how he was going to propose to his girlfriend. Time to tell the whole tale and introduce you to John Muggenborg. He’s one of my talented product photographers, so you’ve seen his work all over my website and blog. You can see more of it on his website. John also contributed to my Kickstarter campaign for new ring designs, so I owe him a big thanks for that.
When John was getting ready to propose to his beloved Olivia, he brought the dramz to engagement-ring shopping. You see, Olivia is an industrial designer at Henri Bendel. She’s also worked with legendary ceramicist Eva Zeisel. Obviously, any designer is going to be very particular about something that’s going to be on her finger every day. But whenever John lured her into a jewelry store to get an idea about what she wanted, Olivia wouldn’t drop any hints. Despite that, he was determined to propose with ring in hand. I went through the whole checklist I mentioned in that custom-work post to try to get an idea of her style: her height, her coloring, her job, her hobbies, her other jewelry. After exhaustive study, John selected a classic, round, brilliant-cut diamond as the centerpiece for Olivia’s ring. That was the easy part. Now how to set the stone? I thought Olivia might like the sleek, modern look of a bezel setting, which is my preference too. But it’s less traditional for a diamond than a prong setting and therefore a riskier choice. There was no way for John to figure out what she would prefer — unless he asked her. I discussed this issue in my recent post on engagement-ring redesigns:
“I prefer that the woman becomes involved with the design. If she’s not personally meeting with me because the man is trying to maintain some element of surprise, I want him to come in with pictures she has torn out and/or specifics she has written down. My attitude is: let’s be adults. You two have presumably discussed your lives together. You should be able to discuss your ring options. Seriously, ladies, you wouldn’t have a man surprise you with a wedding gown that you only wear once, so why should he make a decision on an item you’re going to wear every day for the rest of your lives together? The fairy-tale moment of the surprise proposal is going to be ruined anyway if he opens the box to reveal something you hate.”
I tried to convince John to either ask Olivia outright about the ring before proposing or propose without the ring in order to avoid the Aidan-picks-an-ugly-ring-for-Carrie scenario. (Nine years ago, MrB and I managed to get engaged without an on-bended-knee proposal or ready-made ring, so I have proof that it works!) But John was absolutely determined to whip out a surprise ring, like Prince Charming whipping out a glass slipper. He asked about putting the stone in a temporary setting. Normally, I’m against temporary “presentation” settings because of two issues:
- You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
- Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.
I learned about Issue No. 1 from Head & Shoulders commercials.
John put a hell of a lot of time into picking out a high-quality stone. Why detract from his choice by placing that stone in a made-in-China setting and creating a first impression of “That’s not the ring I dreamed of. Doesn’t he know anything about me?” Of course, because of Issue No. 2, the Mars/Venus communication problem, the typical woman doesn’t voice this first impression aloud. She imagines that her man put serious thought into choosing that setting. Even if he says, “You can change it if you want,” she so believes that the setting is emotionally symbolic that she insists on keeping it. Here’s a reality check, ladies! The typical straight guy has no idea what to get you. He picks the safest option and hopes for the best. He’s not emotionally invested in the ring setting, only in your happiness. If you tell him that you don’t like the ring, he’ll be bummed that he guessed wrong, but ultimately relieved when you have something you love. There’s no need to keep an A+ stone in a C- setting for decades … until you come to me for a redesign, at which point, your hubby says, “You should have told me 20 years ago! ”
As much as I like redesigning rings, I’d rather get them right the first time. But I figured I could safely make an exception to the “no temporary settings” rule because Olivia is a designer. I felt 99% sure she wouldn’t be shy about expressing her aesthetic preferences. I set John’s diamond in a standard, 14K white gold, four-prong setting and checked in with John one last time to make sure he wasn’t going to propose via JumboTron at a sporting event. I will give you a temporary setting if I have to, but I will NOT condone a JumboTron proposal. I have to draw the line somewhere.
John and Olivia took a lovely Easter-time trip to the Bahamas. That Bahamian Easter Bunny is fancy. Look what he left for Olivia!
The ring was hidden in a plastic egg. Photo by John Muggenborg
The temporary setting goes swimming. Photo by John Muggenborg
The temporary setting drinks some coffee. Photo by John Muggenborg
Olivia and John. She said yes! Photo by John Muggenborg
As hoped, Olivia was eager to create a ring that was more her style. She even sent me a technical drawing! Talk about making my job easy. She opted for a bezel setting — woot! my initial guess — and switched from 14K white gold to 18K yellow gold.
The final version of Olivia's ring. Photo by John Muggenborg.
I love this look, but more importantly Olivia does. She sent me the kind of email that I like to get:
“Thank you so much for helping create the ring of my dreams! It’s perfect & exactly what I always wanted. I’ve only had it for 2 days, but I feel like I will live with it forever, and still love it as much as I do now. Thank you, thank you- you did a GREAT job!
P.S. – I have already received tons of compliments! My friends especially say- it’s so ME.”
As for John, he successfully carried off the surprising, memorable, JumboTron-free proposal of his dreams. I look forward to the excitement of doing all of his anniversary, Christmas and Valentine’s Day jewelry.
Meanwhile, I’m working on an engagement ring for another gorgeous lady who happens to have a design background. Her fiance and I started it based on some preferences she’d tentatively shared. Then her guy decided to skip the surprise and check in with her. Lucky he did! What she has in mind now is unlike anything I’ve done for an engagement ring before, though it’s inspired by one my other designs. We would never, ever have guessed. I can’t wait to do something completely unique for her, knowing that it’s 100% what she wants. Stay tuned to see it … one of these days. Hey, I have to wait till the proposal to share these things!
READ MY OTHER POSTS ON CUSTOM-MADE ENGAGEMENT RINGS
The dragonfly ring
Two wild and crazy ring redesigns
Simple and elegant Asscher-cut stone
UPDATED TO ADD: After reading this post, John sent me a link to this video of a failed JumboTron proposal at a Rangers game. Here are two more sporting-event proposal rejections, not involving JumboTrons.
- Rejected proposal on basketball court.
- Rejected proposal at a baseball game.
Independent Fashion Bloggers is kicking off New York Fashion Week with a day of seminars on September 9. If you’re a blogger, an ex-blogger, a would-be blogger or just blog-curious, you need to go to this event. Find out why — and what Madonna’s biceps have to do with it — by reading my post on IFB’s blog.
What I wore at February's IFB event.
In 2007, I wrote about my search for attractive rain boots and my high-school-era dislike of duck shoes. If only these over-the-knee, high-heeled duck boots by Tommy Hilfiger had been available back in the day.
Available soon at Tommy Hilfiger.
While I’m in the “if only” mode … if only Sergio Rossi made these over-the-knee rain boots with heels!
Sergio Rossi over-the-knee rain boot from Bergdorf Goodman.
You’d see me doing rain dances on sunny days this fall.
I used to have a tie-dyed cashmere sweater. It made me look like a rainbow had thrown up on me. Only one tiny photo of it exists.
With Gigi the dog in 2003.
I got rid of the sweater long ago, but I thought of it as soon as I saw these shoes by Nicholas Kirkwood for Erdem.
$1,195 at Saks. Click to shop.
If I had the sweater and the shoes, I’d go to Pop-Tarts World in Times Square for some Pop-Tart sushi.
Pop-Tart sushi photo from Serious Eats. Click for a review.
Then I really would vomit a rainbow, but at least I’d be dressed to hide it.
On Monday, gorgeous designer/blogger Stacy of taffetadarlings was over at my place cutting patterns for her new dress designs while I put price tags on my jewelry ahead of my sample sale. (You can still contribute money to Stacy’s September fashion show via Kickstarter; lots of expenses need to be covered. Lighting is big bucks, as we just found out.) While we were working, Gigi the dog had a violent and extended sneezing fit. She looked terrible: one eye was squinty, one was wide open, her tongue was hanging out the side of her mouth and she seemed dazed. As the sneezes continued, Stacy and I started to fear she was having a seizure so it didn’t seem appropriate to whip out a camera and take her picture. However, after the sneezing stopped, and Gigi righted herself and wandered off to the kitchen to inspect Henry the dog‘s food bowl as if nothing had happened, we regretted the lack of a photo. So here is my artistic impression of Gigi’s sneezing attack. Stacy tells me it’s an excellent likeness!
My work of art.
You can see for yourself by comparing it to this photo of a non-sneezing Gigi taken years ago.
Gigi and me, back in the day.
Next career: courtroom sketch artist!
