$1 Million Worth of Fake Gucci and Louis Vuitton Bags Seized in Miami — The Fashion Law Thousands of counterfeit handbags were seized by federal officers at Miami’s seaport earlier this month in a shipment from China. The 2,300 counterfeit Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags, which have an estimated value in excess of $1 million, were found in 20 cartons that were not declared in a shipment of 825 cartons of clothes, shoes, trousers and handbags. This marks one of the largest seizures this year at the Miami Seaport. Customs and Border Protection officials say a recent review confirmed there were 1,200 fake Gucci handbags and 1,195 Louis Vuitton handbags in the container. Investigators began examining cartons containing the handbags after noting that they were not declared on any import documents. Last month, U.S. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, U.S. What is a counterfeit?
Are Unpaid Internships Acceptable in Fashion? — The Fashion Law NEW YORK, United States — Forget fringe. Accepting an unpaid internship and then suing after its completion for unpaid wages and overtime compensation is the newest movement in fashion and, as it turns out, Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen’s award-winning brand, The Row, is right on trend. The 29-year-old twins, who took home their second Council of Fashion Designers of America Award this year, are the most recent designers to be sued in connection with an unpaid internship. According to plaintiff Shahista Lalani’s complaint, which was filed this month in New York state court, she worked for The Row for four months in 2012. Read more on Business of Fashion.
I Didn't Wear Makeup To New York Fashion Week & This Is What Happened | Bustle Twice a year, sartorial enthusiasts, celebrities, celebrity-seekers, and the press join together on the streets of Manhattan for New York Fashion Week. Despite living in NYC throughout college and again as a now-working-20-something, and despite the fact that my clothes addiction is worse than my Reese's Peanut Butter Cup addiction, I've never really been into it. NYFW has always seemed like a couture-focused, beauty standard-enforcing, elitist bubble of designers, models, and guests whose outfits cost the equivalent of six months rent in Bushwick or aspiring designers, models, and guests lingering outside runway locations in their most OTT outfits waiting to get street styled. It certainly never felt like a place you could go sans makeup or done-up hair to, unless you fancy yourself a glutton for punishment. Personally, I rarely leave the house without makeup on. The thing about Fashion Week, however, is that most people will usually ignore you. Images: Marie Southard Ospina
Jeremy Corbyn wins Labour leadership contest and vows "fightback" - BBC News Jeremy Corbyn has promised to lead a Labour "fightback" after being elected the party's new leader by a landslide. The veteran left-winger got almost 60% of more than 400,000 votes cast, trouncing his rivals Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall. He immediately faced an exodus of shadow cabinet members - but senior figures including Ed Miliband urged the party's MPs to get behind him. Mr Corbyn was a 200-1 outsider when the three-month contest began. But he was swept to victory on a wave of enthusiasm for his anti-austerity message and promise to scrap Britain's nuclear weapons and renationalise the railways and major utilities. Revisit the day's reaction to Mr Corbyn's victory He told BBC News he had been a "bit surprised" by the scale of his victory but his campaign had showed "politics can change and we have changed it". 'Jez we did' He will now select his shadow cabinet. And on Saturday night, he emailed party members asking them to submit questions the weekly exchange.
Zara Was Just Sued for $40M for Discriminating Against Employees — The Fashion Law Every fashion law follower should pay close attention to the trajectory of Miller v. Zara USA, Inc. Ian Jack Miller is the former General Counsel of Zara USA, Inc. Zara is the flagship-clothing brand for Inditex Group, which offers catwalk-inspired looks at low prices. Miller argues in court documents that because he was not a member of Zara’s preferred demographic – straight, Spanish, and Christian – he was discriminated against and subject to a hostile work environment. Miller built the Zara USA, Inc. legal department from its inception. Beginning in early 2014, Miller complained on multiple occasions to Inditex Group’s highest-ranking legal officer, Javier Monteoliva, that he was being harassed and discriminated against. On March 2, 2015, Monteoliva communicated to Miller that his continued employment at Zara was in jeopardy. “As I said many times, the fashion world, its system, can be disturbing,” observed Azzedine Alaia.
Dress codes: can there be a productive relationship between politics and fashion? Is Margaret Atwood a feminist? That’s what I’m trying to work out during our lamentably brief time together squished around a table in the back of a promotional booth at a comics convention in California. Obviously, you might roll your eyes, Have you read The Handmaid’s Tale? But what many of them forget is that Atwood, who is now 76, grew up on the cusp between first and second wave feminism, a time when women were fighting for tangible goals such control over their reproductive rights rather than the right to publish nude selfies without criticism. This becomes evident when I ask her whether she ever considered making the super-heroic protagonist of her latest work, a graphic novel called Angel Catbird about a (male) scientist who gets spliced in an accident with both a cat and an owl, a woman, especially in light of recent criticism that there aren’t enough comics aimed at girls? “I, as a female person, don’t have any trouble reading Moby Dick.
Labour MP Jess Phillips: I Told Diane Abbott To F*ck Off During Feminism Row Labour MP Jess Phillips told Diane Abbott to “fuck off” during a heated row about a lack of women in the top shadow cabinet jobs, The Huffington Post UK can reveal. The Birmingham Yardley MP clashed with Ms Abbott at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday, after it emerged the four top jobs in Mr Corbyn’s team had gone to men. As well as Mr Corbyn as leader, Andy Burnham is Shadow Home Secretary, Hilary Benn in Shadow Foreign Secretary and John McDonnell is Shadow Chancellor. Ms Abbott accused Ms Phillips of asking a “sanctimonious” question, and told her “you’re not the only feminist in the PLP.” Mr Corbyn looked on in silence as the two MPs argued. Talking to The Huffington Post UK, Ms Phillips, who despite being elected in May has already earned a reputation for being one of the most outspoken MPs, said: “I roundly told her to fuck off.” When asked what Ms Abbott did after that suggestion, Ms Phillips replied: “She fucked off.” Labour MP Jess Phillips
UK Plus Size Fashion Week Founder, Rianne Ward, On Why We Should Embrace The Term 'Plus Size' There's a lot of debate about whether the fashion industry should ditch the term "plus-size", but one woman firmly behind keeping it alive is Rianne Ward. Ward is committed to making the fashion industry more inclusive and diverse, but for her the only way to change it is from within - and this involves not only talking the industry's talk, but walking its walk. "'Plus-size' is the term the industry uses and we should embrace it," she tells HuffPost UK Lifestyle. "I have no problem with the term. That's why she's launched , UK Plus Size Fashion Week (UKPSFW), which runs from 11-13 September, the week prior to the official London Fashion Week. UK Plus Size Fashion Week runs from 11-13 September Ward hopes the event's timing, central London location and professionalism will help establish plus size fashion as a "serious" player within the industry. The event builds on British Plus Size Fashion Week, an event Ward co-founded in 2013. "I've always been big," she tells HuffPost UK Lifestyle.
untitled Exploring “Fashion & Politics” at the FIT The rich robes of kings and queens, their extravagant headwear and their accessories and jewels represented “status clothes”, a way to show people how powerful they were. When political propaganda didn’t formally exist, human beings used sartorial propaganda to promote themselves. Little by little as the decades and centuries passed, fashion and politics established indissoluble links one with the other. An interesting exhibition at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology tries to explore how fashion and politics influenced each other over 200 years. “Fashion & Politics” doesn’t actually relate to the focus on political ideologies and social values as expressed through fashion, but it has more to do with the maneuverings of participants in the political arena, the exhibition co-curators Jennifer Farley & Melissa Marra highlight. Dazed Digital: What inspired this exhibition and how long have you been researching it? DD: Which are your favourite items in this exhibition and why?
The Politics of Fashion | Leigh McAlea This blog is part of a month-long focus around sustainable fashion across HuffPost UK Style and Lifestyle. Here we aim to champion some of the emerging names in fashion and shine a light on the truth about the impact our appetite for fast fashion has around the world. Despite raised awareness of conditions in the industry through devastating events like the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, consumer desire for fast fashion - currently around £44billion pounds worth in the UK annually - trumps ethics. At the site of the Rana Plaza collapse where Rubi holds a photograph of her children who died in the factory disaster ©Leigh McAlea Why is this? At TRAID, we facilitate change through clothes reuse, education and by funding global projects to improve and change conditions in the garment industry. One of TRAID’s charity shops, in Dalston, London, our alternative to the high street. See the makers: farmers, machinists, embroiders, packers ©Leigh McAlea
Fashion Politics: Fashion as a Voice for Change? The UK’s General Election is fast approaching. In the build up to 7th May, we’ll be discussing fashion and politics – two subjects some people may not expect to hear in the same sentence. We’re going to be thinking style AND substance, to talk about what role fashion can play in politics and why fashion matters. We’ll also be giving tips for the fashion conscious and politically conscious about voting and how to get involved in the issues which matter to you. ‘I Stood Up’, the Centre for Sustainable Fashion and students from LCF talk fashion and politics at the House of Lords. It’s time to consider: how can fashion be a force to better in all of our lives – from the wearer to the producer? Only last month, the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF) placed the spotlight on fashion’s ability to be a voice for change with ‘I Stood Up’. Anna Fitzpatrick from the CSF told us about the event and what it inspired:
untitled 'Nude' isn't the same for all women Photo: Handout Crayola changed the name of its 'flesh' crayon to 'peach' back in 1962 - but Google "lingerie" in 2014 and you'll find the name "nude" still overwhelmingly refers to light-peachy-beige. So a simple thing like wearing a white shirt to work isn't simple for a woman whose nude isn't "nude." Do you wear white, and know it'll show? Or a close-as-you-can-get beige or brown - and know it will still show? Nubian Skin, a new London-based lingerie/hosiery business that has just opened online, is creating quite the splash with its answer: four shades of lingerie and hosiery that range from a golden caramel to a deep brown with just a hint of rose. Maybe even cooler? Advertisement Other shades are Berry, the darkest, and Cafe au Lait, the lightest. Hassan told British website Black Ballad she had worked in investment banking and finance before launching this company, at age 30: "When wearing clothes, especially in a professional environment, a large proportion of women's tops are sheer.