Second City Style Fashion Blog - Style, Luxury, Beauty & Shopping

WTF Was She Thinking? Bad Celebrity Style, Cannes Edition.

Celebs sometimes look silly... even in France.

Lily Allen

Comment: We're not a huge fan of Lily blonde, but more importantly, this halter does nothing to flatter her figure. This is a case of a pretty girl in a dress that makes her dumpy.

She Was Thinking: A little black dress is always chic, right? (Wrong.)

Juliette Lewis

Comment: Just because you have reinvented yourself as a rocker doesn't mean you can expose your panties to the world.

She Was Thinking: A little black dress is always chic, right? (Wrong...still.)

Amira Casar

Comment: We know that bows are in, but combined with the checkerboard, sequined skirt, it's just costume-y overkill. Reminds us of the Mad Hatter from Alice In Wonderland.

She Was Thinking: Anyone for a tea party?

Julianne Moore

Comment: Wow, there's so much going on with this dress, we can't even get started. Flowers, feathers, rhinestones... oh, my! It's dumbfounding. We're speechless. We can't even comment.

She Was Thinking: This dress will make a statement?

We Are Thinking: This dress will make us braindead.

Natalie Portman

Comment: She's so beautiful that she almost pulls off these short pants anyway, but we can't get the images of AC/DC's guitarist out of our head...

A striking resemblance, no?

She Was Thinking: YOU SHOOK ME ALL! NIGHT! LONG!

Anytime we can compare Natalie Portman to Angus Young... we are happy. Thank you, Cannes Film Festival!

- Hayley Wells

Photos: WireImage.com

Fashion Flash. People in the Know Slam "The Hills".

To be fair, The Hills is a mildly entertaining TV Show to some people. The L.A. glitz and glam and the attractive people starring in the semi-real drama make for a kaleidoscope effect. It's eye-catching, lacks any substance, and yet it has a lot of people entranced.

The offshoot of which is... celebrity clothing lines. Lauren Conrad is pretty, people want to look like her, so its no surprise she has merchandise with her name stamped on it. From a money-making standpoint, it's a pretty sound business plan; it's Jessica Simpson post-Newlyweds come again. And actually, as SCS has pointed out before, LC's somewhat sub-par designs are age appropriate and relatively demure compared to what some twentysomethings in L.A. are wearing. Which brings us to Heidi Montag's new line, Heidiwood. Following the debut of the Lauren Conrad Collection's Paris-themed second season, which some critics responded to by saying they thought the models might be styled with berets and baguettes, Heidi used her hometown to inspire similarly simple-minded looks. Miss Montag won't make you shell out a fortune for her items, but according to the Fug Girls at the New York Magazine, who took the clothes for an embarrassing real-life test drive, you're getting what you pay for. In a nutshell, "No self-respecting grown woman should allow herself to be seen in these garments."

The Fug Girls aren't the only fashionistas giving Heidi and Lauren a hard time. The Prince of Fierce himself, Christian Siriano, summarily slammed them in Life&Style Magazine- "I mean, it's fun and flirty and young, but they're not innovators. None of them will ever be an innovative designer. Buyers and editors are looking for longevity, and hopefully they will see that in me." Even though Siriano was somewhat charitable with the "fun and flirty" admission, I think he gave a true and harsh criticism by saying the girls can't be innovative. What's he's really saying is that they simply aren't designers, and he hit the nail on the head. The ladies aren't exactly busting any molds and probably won't be around that long.

Ultimately, we can't blame Lauren and Heidi for cashing in while they can, but we can blame people for paying to wear their styles. Personally, I wouldn't trust the fashion sense of anyone who so cavalierly ruined an Alberta Ferretti dress by wearing it out to a Parisian night club and then leaving it on top of a hot curling iron. Did that bother anyone else in the first episode of this season? Come ON, Lauren! Oh well, it was probably scripted anyway.

-Hayley Wells

Congrats Chicago! The City Now Has the Highest Sales Tax in the U.S!

Wow. Here is something to be proud of...Chicago will now to be known for, having the highest total sales taxes of any major U.S. city. Congratulations! That should really help the retail industry and tourism!

The Cook County Board voted Saturday to double the county sales tax to 1.75%. When added to the city's sales tax, the county' increase has the cumulative effect of setting a 10.25% sales tax on goods bought in Chicago.

In layman's terms that means when the county rate increase takes effect in November, someone buying $100 worth of merchandise in Chicago will pay $110.25.

Conversely, the sales tax rates in New York and Los Angeles are below 8.5%. The next highest rate in the country is in Memphis, Tenn., at 9.25 percent.

Not that anyone has ever accused Chicago of being corrupt before (ahem), the tax increase is expected to add about $426 million annually to county coffers. The money is meant to close a projected $234 million deficit (um, how did that happen in the first place?). The budget is also designed to create more than 1,000 new county jobs.

``By passing this budget, the board has breathed life into this county government,'' Board President Todd Stroger said. The budget passed on a 10-7 vote. Those who opposed the increase say reform, not revenue, should have been priority No. 1.

This makes a great case to a) elect a new county board president (preferably one that doesn't suck); b) shop anywhere but Chicago; and c) push for some tax-free shopping weekends like they have in New York!

``The real elephant in the room is the waste and bloat and bureaucracy here in the county.'' said Timothy Schneider, a county commissioner.

He said a mouthful!

Sources: The Chicago Tribune & Guardian.uk.com

Bad Idea. Gucci 'I Fug NY Bag'

We shouldn't have to explain why this bag is a very bad idea. However, Gucci needs to explain how/why it created something so...UGLY! This bag screams...tacky. We first saw the ad plastered on the back of a WWD during NY Fashion Week and thought it must be a joke. It isn't. You can actually buy this atrocity at Gucci. The bag was designed by Frida Gianni in honor of Gucci's Fifth Avenue megastore. What an honor to completely rip off the NY ad campaign. Very original.

We are counting the days the street vendors in NYC start knocking these off...like Goyard hideousness. It doesn't matter if you are from NYC or not, don't carry this bag...it's not cool. No really.

Save your $770!

Buyer Beware. Are You Really Paying More Green For Green? Second City Style Fashion Blog

Lululemon Athletica says its clothing is comprised of 24% seaweed fiber. Tests show, that isn't correct. Not by a long shot. The company, which went public in July, has been performing well thanks to the popularity of its costly yoga and other workout clothes, which are made with unusual materials, including bamboo, silver, charcoal, coconut and soybeans.

One of Lululemon's lines, VitaSea, the company says it is made with seaweed. The fabric, according to product tags, “releases marine amino acids, minerals and vitamins into the skin upon contact with moisture.” It is supposed to reduce stress and provides anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, hydrating and detoxifying benefits.

There is one problem with Lululemon's VitaSea claims, however. Some of them may not be true.

The New York Times conducted a laboratory test of a Lululemon shirt made of VitaSea (labeled as being made of 70% cotton, 6% spandex and 24% of the seaweed fiber), and reviewed a similar test performed at another lab. Guess what?  Both concluded there was no significant difference in mineral levels between the VitaSea fabric and regular cotton T-shirts.

In other words, the labs found no evidence of seaweed in the Lululemon clothing.

This wouldn't be so disturbing if the price were the same for a regular cotton tee. When told about the findings, Lululemon’s founder said he could not dispute them. “If you actually put it on and wear it, it is different from cotton,” said Dennis Wilson, Lululemon’s founder, chief product designer and board chairman. “That’s my only test of it.”

The tests raise obvious questions about Lululemon’s marketing and ethics. Especially since consumers generally pay more for high-tech sportswear, and companies like Lululemon are trying to capitalize on interest in organic materials.

“Consumers expect and trust companies to be honest with them,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League, a nonprofit organization and advocate for consumers. Well maybe not in Canada (the company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia).

SeaCell is owned by a German company called Smartfiber. Smartfiber provides scientific documents on its Web site about the effects of the SeaCell fibers, but it also says on its site that SeaCell assumes no liability for that information’s accuracy.

Mr. Wilson's excuse? "The company probably did not have enough money to test the material back when it started using it 18 months ago." However, isn't it the responsibility of the companies to test all of their products? At the end of the day, it's Lululemon's name on reputation on the line. That's just bad business...

Read NYT's: 'Seaweed' Clothing Has None, Tests Show

Fashion Show Update. As We Predicted! Chicago Social's Fashion Show Rouse. Second City Style Fashion Blog

Back on April 3, 2007 Second City Style dished about the Chicago Social 'Dangerous Liasons' April fashion show in the post "Dangerous Liaisons Fashion Show That Was Dangerously Devoid of Press."

We predicted (correctly) that CS would use this event as another one of it's society social events and post photos (months later) of the people at the show and not of the designers and their fashions, thereby making the show a total waste of designer time and energy. Not that we have a problem with society events (we don't), however...six Chicago designers show-cased their Fall '07 collections Lara Miller, Vika Brown, Marlena Maree, Michelle Tan, Orlando Espinoza and Shane Gabier and guess how many published photos there were of the fashion show? One. Yep, uno.

Take a look for yourself:

Congratulations VIKA! You were the lucky winner!

Chicago Social ought to be ashamed. They wasted an opportunity not only to do something outside of their proverbial box, but to help promote local design talent. If I were one of these designers...I would be more than a little annoyed.

- Lauren Dimet, Editor-in-Chief