STREET STYLE: BROOKLYN

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The Next Target Designer Is: Jason Wu

Be sure to check back and see the rest of the collection as well as the date it hits stores. After all, he has designed dresses exclusively for the first lady...Retweet this button on every post blogger

A Sneek Peak at the Missoni for Target Collection...

The fashion industry has been on fire for weeks, excuse me, months about the new collection debuting in the fall by Italian power house and family, Missoni. Margherita is the cool girl around town, heir to the family fortune, and face of the brand, so there is no doubt about it that she had a serious say in the creation from beginning to end. Check out my favorite looks below and stay tuned for more updates on the line...

A look for in house pool parties and cruising through college hallways.

Cosmetic bags, train cases, and make up bags, oh my...

These two are my personal favorites and perfect for many occasions in a young woman's life.

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Check Out the Anna Sui for Target Collection

Anna Sui has signed a deal with Target to design a limited edition collection that will be in stores and online for purchase September 13 until October 17. It was inspired by hottest television series to be viewed by today's high school and college set, Gossip Girl. Look for nearly twenty looks all inspired by a specific character. Blair, Jenny, and Serena just to name a few must be honored in some way. I know that I would be. I hope there will also be some accessories available.



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Anna Sui

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Target Corp. is hoping a dash of Anna Sui’s downtown New York style will lure thrifty consumers.

As the discount retailer pushes to bring designer names to the masses, Sui will be the second participant in Target’s Designer Collaborations series.

Bowing on Sept. 13 on target.com and in about 250 select stores across the U.S., Anna Sui for Target will be available through Oct. 17.

The Designer Collaborations program features more established talents — Alexander McQueen was the inaugural designer — than the up-and-comers of Target’s Go International.

The new program also has an unusual conceit: designers draw inspiration from a collaborative partner, muse or creative element. Sui chose the four main female characters on the CW’s hit show “Gossip Girl.”

Sui, this year’s winner of the CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, has estimated annual sales of $20 million at wholesale, 14 global fragrance and cosmetics licenses and a 42-store franchise in China, Japan, Taiwan and Kuwait.

“I have always been a fan of designer partnerships with mass retailers,” Sui told WWD exclusively. “I think it is a great way to bring fashion to everyone. I love Go International and was intrigued with Target’s new take on designer partnerships. It’s a fresh approach. I was able to select a muse or source of creative inspiration to focus the collection around. It is an exciting challenge to try and interpret my aesthetic into a mass-produced product with a specific inspirational source as the focus.”

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Target’s Go International initiative is sold in nearly all the chain’s stores and focuses on young or emerging designers. Names the retailer has featured in the past include Luella Bartley, Proenza Schouler, Behnaz Sarafpour, Rogan and Richard Chai. Industry sources have estimated the Go International program does more than $100 million in annual sales.

Despite initiatives like Go International, Target has never recaptured the fashion momentum it had when Isaac Mizrahi was doing an exclusive line for the retailer. In the last year or so, the Minneapolis-based chain has lost ground to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as its comparable-store sales growth has slowed in the tough economy and it has been perceived as being more expensive than its rival.

Bill Dreher, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said Designer Collaborations could be just the vehicle Target needs to regain momentum in the apparel area.

“Go International brings in designers that most people haven’t heard of,” Dreher said. “For the most part, it doesn’t have the broader audience appeal of Target’s historic successes like Isaac Mizrahi, Mossimo and Merona.”

So far, Target’s Designer Collaborations choices have both been well known among fashion consumers, Dreher said. “Go International is really for the hard-core dedicated ‘Sex and the City’ type of customer,” he added. “Anna Sui is a very big deal. She’s available at Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom and all over the Internet. These are sort of hotter designers. They’re not sunsetting like Isaac Mizrahi [was when he first was signed].” The collaborative element further serves to broaden the audience of Designer Collaborations. ‘“Gossip Girl’ is very mainstream,” said Dreher. “Not only will it attract Anna Sui clientele, but ‘Gossip Girl’ fans. It’s going to appeal to a wide range of 15- to 34-year-olds. I love the cobranding of it and I love it that it’s names we’ve heard of. It covers a lot of bases.”

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While the names might be more well-established in the Designer Collections program, a Target spokesman said the design is “meant to push the fashion envelope for Target. We are looking for designers who are edgy and bring something unique to the floor pad and share our vision. The idea of Go International is similar but a little different. There are [Go] collections that tend to be more fashion forward. [Alexander] McQueen was really pushing the envelope even further for Target.”

McQueen chose as his muse Leila Moss, the lead singer of British band The Duke Spirit for the collection he launched in March. “We’ll find that both younger and older shoppers will dip into the collection,” a Target spokesman said at that launch. “One of the goals of Designer Collaborations and the heavy marketing push we have is to attract shoppers to our stores, including consumers who don’t shop our stores on a regular basis. We want to increase frequency and encourage first-time shoppers to Target.”

This is not Sui’s first retail partnership, however. “We’ve been working with Anthropologie on special dress and sportswear programs for about two years,” she said.

Sui’s designs are infused with her rock ’n’ roll devotion and current cultural obsessions. The four main female “Gossip Girl” characters have worn her clothing on the show. “When I was in Asia last year, all the young girls kept asking me about the different locations in New York City where the characters from ‘Gossip Girl’ live,” she said. “I liked the idea of creating a collection reflective of each characters’ style, sensibility and unique approach to fashion. By combining the elements of art, city, spirit, punk and glamour, we created a collection that exudes New York City fashion.” Sui used materials such as metallic jacquards, herringbone, silk and chiffon and detailing with tulle, lace and sequins.

“Target was very respectful of my craft,” Sui said. “They want the product to be completely Anna Sui. If you maintain quality, partnering with a mass retailer will only help you. What I, and other designers who partner with mass retailers, hope to gain is stronger name recognition and simply more people wearing our designs. In this economy, I am really fortunate to be able to offer the fashion-eager public affordable, yet high design.

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No Need to Be Royalty to Wear Luella

Luella Bartley is one of my favorite English designers. Her work is always fun, interesting, and light hearted every season. For her upcoming Spring 2009 collection she took her inspiration from the royal family and created a juxtaposition of frills, lace, and tweeds finished with net veils, pearl chain handbags, and tulle veils. Remember her GO International! Collection for Target a few years back? Those plaid, strapless, bubble hemmed dresses were lovely. Check out the video below.




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Alaxander and Target Sitting In a Tree...

Earlier this month it was released that Alexander McQueen will be selling a small collection for Target as part of the discount chain's fashion initiative called Designer Collaborations. Liela Moss is his muse, stating that, “We use icons in British music, and she stood out. She’s a great-looking girl and has a personal style. It fell into the idea of the New York underground music scene. It was more the atmosphere she portrays.”

The collection will debut in March 2009. Expect to see a muted color palette of black, white, gray and tan with accents of cobalt blue and bright pink. Studs and mesh give items an edge. There are studded jeans, shorts and denim jackets with asymmetrical closures, short tuxedo jackets and matching shorts, dresses in a blue and white painterly fabric, a one-shoulder dress in a gray-and-black zigzag pattern with a thick black belt, and a T-shirt with the image of Moss. The designer’s favorite pieces in the line include “the pink and black pieces and the little prom dresses.”


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