Christian Louboutin has launched a full scale legal battle so designers beware. The designer is going after Jessica Simpson for copyright infringement, stating that her “Evangela” sandals are similar to the “Statarata” model Louboutin launched about two years ago. This writer forgot to wear her glasses today so take a look at the image below and you be the judge.  My message to Jessica Simpson is do your research. Louboutin would sue his own mother for painting her soles red.  If you want to sell knock offs do it like the rest of the counterfeiters, set up a stand in NY or LA.

Louboutin is already positive that e-commerce sites worldwide are selling knockoffs of his iconic red soles.  So he decided to take action by offering customers a way to track down counterfeit shoes with an online platform http://www.stopfakelouboutin.com/en.

The real question here is, do the people purchasing the knock offs for a fraction of the price really think they are buying the real thing?  I’m a writer and the past few years have been getting paid in peanuts so yes I have purchased beautiful Chanel purses on the streets of China Town in NY.  Did I feel someone was pulling the wool over my eyes?  NO, I knew just like everyone else that I was purchasing a $1000 purse for a 100 bucks.  Of course I wish I could afford the real thing but us working stiffs have to get our fashion fix somehow and until Louboutin lowers his prices or I hit the lotto you won’t see me walking around in authentic red sole shoes.

I don’t expect his new counterfeit site to get very many visitors after everyone stops writing about it.

Louboutin puts a message out to his customers:  “Keep in mind that when something is too good to be true, that’s usually what it is worth. Websites selling low low priced Louboutin looking shoes (so called “cheap Louboutin”) are probably not selling the real thing. We make no shoes in Asia. There is no factory in China that can sell legitimate shoes to anyone as we do not use any factories in China,” warns the French maison on its site.”

On March 14th the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) announced it’s nominees and honorees for their 2012 Fashion Awards.  Johnny Depp was among the recipients and the first male in history of the awards to receive The Fashion Icon Award.  This award was given to Depp for his “personal and eclectic sense of style”.  This writer feels giving Depp Icon status is long overdue.  The 2011 Fashion Icon Award went to Lady Gaga for her…well we all know how outrageous her style is.

The Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Tommy Hilfiger.

Here is the full list of CFDA Award nominees:

Womenswear Designer of the Year:

Ashley Olsen & Mary-Kate Olsen for The Row

Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler

Marc Jacobs

Menswear Designer of the Year:

Billy Reid
Patrik Ervell
Simon Spurr

Accessory Designer of the Year:

Alexander Wang
Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza SchoulerReed Krakoff

Swarovski Award for Womenswear:

Chris Peters & Shane Gabier for Creatures of the Wind
Joseph Altuzarra
Max Osterweis & Erin Beatty for Suno

Swarovski Award for Menswear:

Antonio Azzuolo
Phillip Lim
Todd Snyder

Swarovski Award for Accessory Design:

Irene Neuwirth
Pamela Love
Tabitha Simmons

Honory award recipients:

Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, Tommy Hilfiger
Media Award, Scott Schuman & Garance Doré
Fashion Icon Award, Johnny Depp
Founders Award, Andrew Rosen
International Award, Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons

The New York Times‘ Bridget Foley chimed in this week about the Fashion Week scheduling nightmare that’s broken out between international participants New York, London, Milan, and Paris. Ever measured in her opinion, Foley writes of New York’s over-wrought eight day “week:”

We all know that from a creative standpoint many shows — perhaps a full half of the New York schedule — have no reason to exist. That conversation tends to focus on younger types “not yet ready to show.” But putting the onus for the overstuffed days on the upstarts is unfair; there are just as many established companies who show for no apparent reason other than the press they’ll get. Which, in a complicating factor, is not insignificant motivation.

Foley goes on to explain the difficulty with the concept of Fashion Week in general:

That’s the problem with our fashion “weeks.” They — to say nothing of the solar day — were not intended to accommodate 36.75 shows on each of eight days. When the system was established, that volume would have been unthinkable.

Though she raises the possibility of staging “deliberately concurrent shows” so that editing and buying teams would have to split up in order to view them all, Foley acknowledges that solution may cause as many problems as it solves. Still, she has a point; the over-saturated schedule in all the participating cities cannot sustain itself. Behold, Exhibit A, B, and C.

Yesterday, it was revealed that designer Derek Lam accused Ivanka Trump of “blatantly and intentionally” knocking off his popular Ayami Wedge Sandal. Trump’s own “Cadie” wedge sandals look identical to Lam’s, but today, her licensee company, Marc Fisher Footwear, released this statement to WWD in her defense:

“The Lam wedge sandals are of a popular design type that has been used by numerous manufacturers for many decades. There is nothing iconic about the appearance of the Lam sandal. The Ivanka Trump sandals prominently display the Ivanka Trump name, and there can be no confusion as to the source of the Ivanka Trump sandals. Therefore, Marc Fisher Footwear, the licensee of the Ivanka Trump brand, strongly denies Lam’s claims.”

Is the design really so popular that “numerous manufacturers” have used it for decades? I suppose the wedge in general is, sure. But the heel straps in particular seem specific to Lam. Nonetheless, we can surmise from the above statement that neither Trump, nor Marc Fisher Footwear are in any hurry to acquiesce to Lam’s demands- specifically that sales of the shoes be stopped and all accounting records of its sales handed over.

This holiday season, did you drop a pretty penny ordering someone special a gift from Barneys? Surprise! It’s never coming! According to Racked.com, the luxury retailer just announced it’s cancelling its online Christmas orders due to a technical glitch with its fulfillment software.

In an email that went out to online customers yesterday (just three days before Christmas) Barneys explained:

This technical issue posed a significant challenge for our IT department and in turn caused some lengthy delays in responding to both order requests and emails and so I apologize as well for the lateness of this reply.  Rest assured we are working around the clock to repair these errors and ensure that they do not occur again, but nonetheless your order was canceled as we no longer have the inventory to fulfill it.

Have we learned nothing from the Missoni for Target debacle? Apparently not. Well, at least Barneys is really sorry. And second to gift giving, the whole point of the season is to express to those you love that you intended to buy them a gift, but it blew up in your face. If your nearest and dearest still love you afterwards, you know it’s for real. At least that’s how I test all my relationships. Haven’t been disappointed yet!

This year, Marc Jacobs’ former CFO Patrice Lataillade filed a scandalous lawsuit against the label, its president Robert Duffy, and its owner, LVMH, for sexual harrassment, claiming among other things, that Duffy forced him to watch gay porn and other employees to pole dance in his office. The Jacobs label shot back that Lataillade stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company and his lawsuit against it was simply retribution for having been fired for his thievery. This week, the matter was settled- unfortunately behind closed doors.

According to the Associated Press:

Court records show Patrice Lataillade’s case against Marc Jacobs International LLC was officially closed last week after both sides filed papers saying it was over.

A spokeswoman for the company and parent LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton says only the lawsuit was “resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.”

That’s no fun. We were hoping for a lengthy trial, with Duffy’s grossly uncomfortable antics on display, but now we’ll have to settle for “all’s well that end’s well.” What kind of Christmas is that?

Designer Derek Lam has sent reality star and socialite Ivanka Trump a cease and desist letter, asking her stop all sales of her Cadie wedge sandals because they’re a blatant knockoff of Lam’s own Ayami Wedge Sandal. And they are blatant- down to every detail.

Derek Lam's Ayami sandals are on the left, Ivanka Trump's Cadie wedge on the right.

According to WWD:

Lam’s sandals include stitched cuoio welt textured wedge heels with three bands of color, as well as large white stitching tracing the bottom of the stackedheel with rubber soles. The toe piece consists of three solidly colored straps with two lower straps crossing each other, and the ankle-heel strap includes five cylindrical sea snake slingback straps that run over the back of the heel and intertwine with a solid colored ankle strap with a buckle enclosure.

Lam’s attorney’s are insisting that Ivanka Trump Footwear and its licensee Mark Fisher Footwear pull all of the shoes off retail shelves within the next seven days, as well as produce all accounting records of its sales.

Since Prada’s celebrated debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) this summer, stock in the luxury label has dropped 32%, cutting the company’s valuation by $5 billion. According to Bloomberg, analysts blame the end of the luxury boom in the country, which is expected to cut market demand for luxury brands in the coming months by at least 20%.

In recent years, China has become the premier global force in luxury consumption, but the “golden age” for the luxury labels, which was expected to last through the end of this year, has already taken hold as markets cooled and consumers began tightening their belts.

“Chinese shoppers could cut back spending on luxury items in the near term, as the stock markets and the property markets have corrected steeply this year,” said Eddie Lau, head of regional consumer research at Citigroup. “The wealth effect is fading.”

Prada SpA is particularly vulnerable to China’s falling numbers as the label receives 42% of its sales from Asia, and since its debut on the HKSE,  has ignited an aggressive store roll-out strategy in the country. A sluggish market flooded with Prada products, plus high operational costs, and 2012 could prove to be a turning point for the once invincible Italian brand.

Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH, continues to amass more shares of luxury handbag atelier Hermès. This week, he upped his stake from 21.4% to 22.3%. This means LVMH now owns 16% of the Hermes voting rights.

Though it’s long been assumed that Arnault’s endgame was a hostile takeover of Hermès, even his latest acquisition of shares won’t help him. Earlier this year, in an effort to thwart Arnault’s efforts, Hermès’ founding families pooled their majority stocks into a nonlisted holding company, building a fortress of protection against any takeover attempts

For the time being, it seems Arnault is perfectly happy to continue buying shares of the wildly successful label, which lays claims to the iconic Birkin bag and as well as its coveted signature scarves.

Just when we thought it was safe to get back on the runway, the war over next year’s international Fashion Week schedule goes back to clusterfuck status. The debacle started earlier this year when Milan insisted on moving its Fashion Week dates to earlier in the month of September, which meant it would conflict with New York and London. After some extensive arguing back and forth between the cities, and whole lot of finger pointing, we thought the matter was settled. Specifically, the New York team, led by Diane Von Furstenberg, had acquiesced to Milan’s demands and moved its own Fashion Week back to September 6th, allowing London to follow and then Milan, thus avoiding too much of an overlap between cities. In return for New York moving its dates to Labor Day week of next year, it would resume its usual start date of the second Thursday of the month for 2013 and 2014. Because New York would be starting later in the month during those years, all the following cities will show later during those years as well.

The one city that remained quiet during the fracas was Paris. However, they’ve just released their show dates for 2013 and 2014, and it’s clear they won’t abide by the later start date for those years, which begins their Fashion Week on October 2nd. Why? Because these people make clothes damn it, and that takes time. Cutting down on an already frenzied production schedule once clothes have been shown on the catwalks and then ordered by buyers and editors screws them out of revenue.

Didier Grumbach, the president of the Chambre Syndicale, told WWD:

It was perfectly open and clear and very obvious that our members could not accept this…We fall at the end of the calendar. All of the member houses agreed that this would make them very late in taking orders, which in turn would be penalizing for deliveries. It’s an industrial reason you are a manufacturer, you need your orders early.

Who wants to be penalized? It doesn’t make sense. We have had lots of meetings about pushing Paris show dates earlier as many brands really want that.

With Paris refusal to abide by the 2013 and 2014 proposal, its Fashion Week during those years will overlap Milan’s.

And so the controversy continues. In response to Paris’ refusal to play ball, Diane von Furstenberg had this response:

“I don’t understand why Paris completely and totally just ignored what all of us have worked so hard on. I am speechless.”

Worse, now all agreements surrounding the scheduling nightmare seem to be unraveling. Mario Boselli of the Milan contingent explained:

“One thing is sure: it’s unthinkable for Milan and Paris to overlap. We were very clear, we tried to find a solution, but we didn’t succeed. We were going to move if Paris was also moving. As Paris is not moving, we won’t either. Perhaps the only way out would be for the Americans to reduce their fashion week to seven days, as nine days is too long, and start a couple of days after Labor Day.”