When something big happens at a company, like a fashion house hiring a new head designer, they’ll announce the news in a press release. Or, if you’re Matthieu Blazy, you can just jump the gun by updating your LinkedIn profile. Although Blazy’s new job hadn’t been publicly announced yet, he has already changed his LinkedIn profile to indicate he’s the new head designer for Maison Martin Margiela. Felicitations, Matthieu! Now let’s hope you don’t get fired for letting the news slip.
Tag Archive for 'fashion'
Former Christian Dior designer John Galliano was fired from his post earlier this year when video emerged of Galliano making anti-Semitic remarks in a Paris cafe. Now, Galliano is on trial in France (making such comments is illegal there). Among his rebuttals? He says that following the death of his personal assistant and confidant Steven Robinson in 2007, his life began to fall apart. Like many creative people, Galliano counted on having someone between him and the money people at Dior, and that person was Robinson. In his defense, Galliano says that he became depressed after Robinson’s death and that having to deal directly with business people started to stress him out, eventually driving him to drink.
Here’s the thing: when I was an assistant, my boss relied on me heavily. He didn’t know how to dial a telephone or turn on a computer without my help. But when I quit, he didn’t go on a bender or start hurling anti-Semitic comments at other people. He just hired another assistant. I understand that Galliano and his assistant were also close friends, and that dealing with a loss like that cannot be easy. But if Galliano was just such a special snowflake that any interaction with non-creatives made him stressed, he should have hired someone else to fulfill the assistant part of Robinson’s job. And anti-Semitism is not an appropriate way to deal with grief. Get some therapy. Take time off from your job to clear your head. Go on antidepressants. But making racist comments isn’t okay, even when you’re dealing with pain. And, just like a million other bosses, John Galliano is blaming everything on his assistant.
… and the results are pretty spectacular. Hat tip: Rebecca Rose.
Best celebrity sighting ever: [Former French Vogue editor in chief/rumored Anna Wintour nemesis] Carine Roitfeld walking down the street in Paris. She was wearing insanely high heels, walking like she had a hunchback, and was flanked by two Asian assistants who were both chattering in French a mile a minute. Even though her posture freaked me out, I still adore her!
- Submitted by Marie
Fashion Week just wrapped up here in New York. Some shows, like Rodarte, got great reviews. And some shows, like Zac Posen, did not. But lest you think the person who designed the clothes had anything to do with the show’s negative reviews, you should remember that it is always the assistant’s fault. According to Page Six:
Insiders say Posen’s executive assistant, who also managed the designer’s p.r. for the past few months, quit a week before the show. Then his casting director walked out three days beforehand. Insiders described Posen’s show as “disorganized,” with some VIPs, including Claire Danes and Kristin Cavallari, not having seat assignments.
Birds of a feather stick together – especially when both feathers are bosses with a reputation for assistant abuse. This week is Fashion Week, and Vogue editor Anna “The Devil Wears Prada” Wintour has nothing but nice things to say about Naomi “Cell Phone Tosser” Campbell. In response to claims that Campbell was a diva (shock!) during prep for Fashion Week, Wintour said, “Naomi was on time, professional and a joy to work with.”
Yeah, you two have no incentive to protect each other. Nope.
Not every relationship works out – whether that’s husband/wife, parent/child, or boss/employee. But when that relationship dissolves in public, it’s even messier than a regular breakup. Lately, I’ve been watching as stylist to the stars and reality show centerpiece Rachel Zoe has used the fashion media to trash her former assistant, Taylor Jacobson (pictured at left in happier days), who was fired at the end of the last season of The Rachel Zoe Project. Anyone who watched the show saw the obvious tension between Taylor, who’d worked for Zoe some time, and Brad, the second assistant who was hired just as the reality show kicked off. Taylor hoped that hiring Brad meant she’d be promoted into a more managerial position or taking on additional responsibility, but that didn’t really pan out. Naturally, Taylor was frustrated by what she saw as stasis.
Zoe told WWD that “I hired Brad, this little angel, and then Taylor just went in for the kill. And I, like, did not see that coming. I always knew what she was capable of, but who knew that was going to happen with the camera?” Not content to let the mean-bitter-Taylor-picks-on-poor-adorable-angel-Brad storyline rest, Page Six ran an item claiming that Taylor had stolen clothes from her boss. I’ll quote Zoe herself (also from the WWD interview) when she talks about what Taylor’s up to now: “I don’t care what she does.” I also don’t care what Taylor does, but I do care about the fact that Zoe, who I previously respected as an entrepreneur, is talking shit about a former employee in the press. Taylor, to her credit, has barely made a peep. In fact, I didn’t know where she was working until the WWD article mentioned her new job (it’s for a denim company called Kasil).
Is it right to steal clothes? No. It is right to pick on an employee just because you don’t like them, even if you are just taking out your own issues on them? No. And is it right for the boss, the person with the power and the influence, to publicly talk shit about a former employee? No. Rachel Zoe is not some random woman scorned – she is a well known figure in the fashion world who works with celebrities, has tremendous clout, and makes a lot of money. When she goes after Taylor, she looks like she’s kicking someone who is already down. It may be that every single thing she says about Taylor is true, but I don’t care. She’s saying these things in order to promote her reality show and get more people to watch it, and I find that tacky. It would be another thing if Taylor applied for a job somewhere and someone called Zoe to ask whether they should hire her – you’re allowed to say “No, I would not recommend hiring her because she did X and Y when she worked for me” to someone else in the industry if they call about a job reference. But to give interviews to fashion industry publications trashing a former employee, even if you’re 100 percent in the right, just comes off as gross and uneccessary. Zoe has already won: she’s the one who is famous, has a TV show, and gets paid a lot of money to help celebrities pick out clothes. Continuing to smear Taylor is the equivalent of Patti LuPone using a public platform to insult a community theater actor.
I’m sure that Zoe, as she says, is just out to “set the record straight.” The record wasn’t crooked in the first place. However, the new season of The Rachel Zoe Project starts in August. I’m certain that’s totally a coincidence.
Cross-posted at The Gloss
A new study says that both men and women put more effort into getting dressed on Mondays than they do the rest of the week. Women reportedly spend an average of 76 minutes getting dressed and made up on Mondays, a number which declines steadily each day of the week. As for dudes? They take 28 minutes on Monday, 14 on Tuesday, and 11 each of the other days of the week. Some possible theories of mine:
- On Monday, you’re really effing tired, so it takes you twice as long to do the same things. Like, you spend 10 minutes putting on eye makeup instead of five because you’re cloudy-headed and not as focused. Throughout the week, you get sharper.
- I suspect there’s a correlation between looking better on Mondays and having more important meetings with higher-ups on Mondays. My old boss always scheduled shit at 10 AM on Mondays and then spent the rest of the week being a useless douche.
- If you went shopping over the weekend and bought something new, you want to wear it as soon as possible. That means Monday.
- During the week, you go out and get drunk. Then you might oversleep the next morning and less time to get ready.
- Mondays are a hard day because they’re when you have to get back into “work mode.” So you didn’t plan what to wear the night before or put your makeup out in a place where you could just grab it instead of digging around in your medicine cabinet.
Do you agree that you spend more time getting ready on Monday, or do you think this survey is out of whack? Tell me what you think!
