September 2010

The Artisan Series: Liz Zorn (Part 2)

September 30, 2010

The one aspect of Liz Zorn’s personality that I find the most revealing of her overall character is her Take No Prisoners attitude when it comes to her work. Dedicated, focused and with the zealotry of an entire cavalry at dawn, Zorn is committed to breaking the glass wall that presently separates “perfumery” from “art”. [...]

Read the full article →

Mandy Aftel & Andy Tauer: Letters to a Fellow Perfumer (ep. 1)

September 28, 2010

*PREFACE: I was contacted a few weeks ago by Andy Tauer with the idea that he and Mandy Aftel could publicly share an ongoing exchange with interested readers as to how two established yet thoroughly independent perfumers might approach common obstacles and solve creative problems in the process of crafting works from the same starting [...]

Read the full article →

The Luxury & Fashion Biz: 09/24/10 (From Fashion Week to Fashion Week, Chanel gets aggressive, and Prices are set to rise)

September 24, 2010

1.) So we hopped from New York Fashion Week (NYFW) to London Fashion Week (LFW) and now we’re in the midst of Milan Fashion Week (MFW), which will then be followed by Paris Fashion Week (PFW). Yeah, I know, it all happens so fast it may as well be a blur. NYFW played it so [...]

Read the full article →

The Artisan Series: Liz Zorn (Part 1)

September 21, 2010

I arrived a little late (fashionably late, maybe?) to the Liz Zorn party, nudged in her direction by a trusted reader in August of 2008, though the Ohio-based indie perfumer has been making waves as a full-fledged member of the DIY crowd since 2007. Perfume, however, wasn’t Zorn’s original stake in the creative-arts territory. She’s [...]

Read the full article →

The Luxury & Fashion Biz: 09/17/2010 (Ford vs. Fast Fashion, Blass tries again, New York Fashion Week)

September 17, 2010

So this past week, the buzz has been all about New York Fashion Week and the Spring/Summer 2011 collections (or “NYFW/SS2011″ for weary lifestyle journalists suffering from the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome) with its hectic swirl of teenage models stalking down runways, celebrities perched in front rows and posing for paparazzi, while style bloggers [...]

Read the full article →

The Artisan Series: Betsy Bensen (Part 2)

September 15, 2010

Being your own business owner, accountant, manager and sole employee can be an overwhelming proposition. All the decisions to be made, you have to make yourself; all the responsibility for success or failure rests on your own shoulders; and every day you have to wake up, look in the mirror and find the boss staring [...]

Read the full article →

Aftelier: Long-Distance Bespoke Fragrance Service (Part 2)

September 12, 2010

Almost a month ago, I wrote about all-natural luxury perfumer Mandy Aftel’s custom fragrance service and how she had volunteered to let me see what the process was like for a long-distance client — someone who maybe lived too far away and so couldn’t travel to her Aftelier studio (Aftelier = Aftel +

Read the full article →

The Luxury & Fashion Biz: How Serious is the Fashion Industry’s Disconnect from Reality?

September 10, 2010

Forbes blog writer Melik Kaylan published a pointed criticism yesterday of the fashion industry’s manic “Rah Rah Look at Me!” hyping of itself to promote tonight’s Fashion’s Night Out events plus the upcoming global fashion week schedules kicking off in New York. In the article, titled, “What Decade Are They Living In?“, Kaylan posits that [...]

Read the full article →

The Artisan Series: Betsy Bensen (Part 1)

September 8, 2010

When people talk of fantastic contemporary handcrafted works of startling beauty and incredible value, they’re often referring to exquisite (and “exquisite” is about the only appropriate description in this regard) pieces of jewelry by the likes of Joel Arthur Rosenthal (dubbed “the Faberge of our time” by Diane Von Furstenberg), Cartier, Bulgari and Buccellati, works [...]

Read the full article →

Saddleback Leather: New and Improved (Part 2)

September 6, 2010

The word “artisan” to describe consumer brands has lately become as ubiquitous in PR copy as the word “luxury” — it’s gotten to the point where you can’t swing a faux-mink wrap in a crowded e-shop without hitting one or the other, if not both. For instance, I ran across a recent article that used [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries