HALSTON UPDATE: Could Halston be nixing plans to hire a marquee name to replace Marco Zanini? According to sources, the company is opting to move ahead with the in-place design team creating the collections — at least for the foreseeable future. The decision is said to have come after executives at the company met with several designers including Roland Mouret. As reported, Zanini left the company after just one runway outing. However, Zanini is said to have conceived the spring collection, which will be presented at the Museum of Modern Art next Tuesday.
MELLON’S NEW LIFE: Matthew Mellon is moving on. The banking heir, man-about-town and entrepreneur has a new fiancée — and is launching yet another fashion business. Mellon has joined forces with his new bride-to-be, designer Nicole Hanley, to introduce Hanley-Mellon, a clothing line that will launch for spring 2009. “It’s a mix of Chloé, YSL and bohemian chic,” Mellon told WWD. The line will be produced in Hong Kong, with price points ranging from $500 to $1,000. It will be sold initially through Hanley’s store on 73rd Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan. Mellon and Hanley have hired former Chanel and Fendi designer Adam Drawas to design a capsule collection, which will debut at New York Fashion Week at the St. Regis Hotel, and a week later in London. Meanwhile, Mellon’s cashmere label, Degrees of Freedom, which he started with his former fiancée Noelle Reno, is stocked at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Harvey Nichols and Harrods in London. It will also be sold through Hanley’s store. Mellon said he and Hanley met two years ago at a wedding and began seeing each other in April. Mellon and Reno split earlier this year and Reno has since left the company.
MIFFED MARZOTTO: Not everybody was pleased with Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” screened at the Venice Film Festival last week. Matteo Marzotto, former chairman of the brand, voiced his displeasure at how he was portrayed as the bean-counting materialist in the movie. “The fact that [apparel manufacturer] Marzotto took control of the Valentino brand when it was deeply in the red was blatantly omitted from the film,” said Marzotto. “There is no mention of how we turned the company around and sold it [to Permira] so advantageously for everyone. I am just made to look as the heartless industrialist,” lamented Marzotto, adding that most of his remarks were starkly edited in post-production. At one point in the movie, Valentino’s longtime business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti, even states that “Matteo Marzotto doesn’t count,” referring to his power of reining in the couturier’s expenditures.
G-STAR TAPS TWO: Dutch denim brand G-Star has tapped actors Alan Cumming and Heather Graham to curate the first edition of the brand’s G-Star Raw Nights art show in New York. The event will take place following the G-Star runway show at the Park Avenue Armory on Sept. 11. G-Star’s Raw Nights events are centered around interactive art installations that have been curated by the likes of Dennis Hopper. Previous events have taken place in Los Angeles and Tokyo. For the New York event, the brand has also partnered with the United Nations Millennium Campaign to raise awareness of the Millennium Development Goals, which seek to end global poverty by 2015. It is the first event in a new long-term relationship between G-Star and the U.N. Millennium Campaign.
OOH LA LA L.A.?: Kiki de Montparnasse, the luxury lingerie boutique on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, counts Mary-Kate Olsen and Selma Blair as fans during regular business hours, but it has also become an after-hours spot of late, playing host to a slew of ultraprivate events. Stylist Rachel Zoe recently held her starlet-studded birthday party there, and so have actresses Zoe Saldana, Debra Messing and twins Charlotte and Samantha Ronson. Some are intimate affairs, such as Messing’s Dolce-catered, 20-person dinner party featuring a “sexpert,” while others are more raucous, such as Kate Sumner and Anita Patrickson’s games night party, or Robin Thicke’s midnight dance party. Word is the boudoir-themed boutique will also play host to a reception for Keira Knightley’s sumptuous new film “The Duchess.”
MOUNT EVEREST: London’s Mount Street is alive with the sound of fashion. Word has it Lanvin will open a women’s boutique there next spring, following the opening of a men’s store on Savile Row this fall. Indies Rick Owens and Wunderkind are also headed to the street this November, marking their first retail endeavors in the city, nestled next to the Marc Jacobs and Balenciaga stores. Other new additions to the area, meanwhile, will include men’s footwear brand Harry’s of London, which will open on nearby South Audley Street in September, while Dunhill’s store and gentleman’s club concept, Home of Alfred Dunhill, will open in September on Davies Street.
LOGIN
* Required