Photo By: Kyle Ericksen

1) Nicole Miller Collection’s cotton and elastane jumpsuit. Frye boots; belt from Barbara Flood’s Closet.

2) Halston’s metallic polyester and viscose jumpsuit. Frye boots; Ranjana Khan necklace; Badgley Mischka cuff.

3) Rachel Roy New York’s polyester matte crepe jumpsuit. Vintage boots.

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Steven Madden Inks Deal for Olsenboye

by CAROLINE TELL

Distributed exclusively at J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Olsenboye targets the junior market and offers denim, bottoms, tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, jackets, handbags and shoes retailing from $20 to $50. Olsenboye accessories will be available in select Penney’s stores and on jcp.com starting for the holiday season, with a full launch set for spring. 

“We believe that Olsenboye will be an excellent addition to our growing portfolio of footwear and accessories brands,” said Edward Rosenfeld, chairman and chief executive officer of Madden.

Shoe styles by Olsenboye include colorful suede flats and casual canvas sneakers. Handbags come in slouched shapes as well as smaller bucket bags and feature acid wash and plaid prints. 

In addition to Olsenboye, Steve Madden is the footwear and accessories licensee for such brands as Fabulosity, Elizabeth and James and Betsey Johnson.

 

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Mums the Word at Bergdorfs

by WWD Staff

Bergdorf Goodman’s third floor was transformed into Indochine on Thursday night to celebrate a new book chronicling the downtown eatery’s 25 years in business. 

Co-host Narciso Rodriguez, who’s held several fashion week parties at the restaurant, reminisced about his favorite spot. “Some of the best times that I’ve had in New York have been there,” he said. “I opened the book and it was such nostalgia. It was so sentimental. My friends and peers, it was fabulous.” 

But when asked to elaborate about any wild nights in particular, Rodriguez was unsurprisingly mum. “They were very fun,” he said. “But, like everybody else, I can’t tell you about them.”

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Lance Armstrong in SoHo: Bike Night

by WWD Staff

On Friday night, Lance Armstrong opened the new Nike-sponsored Stages exhibit at Deitch Projects in SoHo, which benefits the cyclist’s foundation. For the show, several New York-based artists created works inspired by the signature yellow hue associated with Armstrong’s LiveStrong initiative.

Ed Ruscha contributed a goldenrod painting that read “Vital to the Core” and Tom Sachs pimped out a cruiser bike with bottles of Cuervo and called it “Lance’s Tequila Bike for Girls.” It turns out the cyclist is an avid contemporary collector (or so says gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, since Armstrong declined to talk about the show or his charity). “He has works by a number of these artists,” Deitch said. “There is a parallel between what he does and what artists do, pushing themselves to the limit and surpassing themselves.”

Deitch was pleased with the magnitude of the works on display, some of which were valued at $700,000. “There is no group more generous than artists,” he said. “It’s the nature of what they do, they share their work with the public. I see this as the start of something important.”

Click here to view the slideshow

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School Ties… MAC Taps Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga… Patti and Robert…

by WWD Staff

SCHOOL TIES: “It was a different world back then,” Tara Maurice said about the period following her graduation from Otis College of Art and Design in 1988. “It wasn’t an e-mail world. You moved to New York, and you felt like you were all by yourself. And I probably didn’t understand the power of social networking.” Maurice, whose design career includes stints at Coach, Isaac Mizrahi and J. Crew, took advantage of the Otis alumni reception at John Varvatos’ showroom in New York on Thursday night to reconnect with other New York-based alumni. Although Otis is in Los Angeles, the college boasts a strong syndicate of New York-based alumni. Steve McSween, vice president of design for Sean John, graduated from Otis in 1994 and said he is always willing to be a guiding hand for freshly graduated students. Kirk Von Heifner and Marcus LeBlanc, associate designers at John Varvatos and 2006 graduates of Otis, said they got to know Varvatos when they participated in his Design Mentorship project at Otis during their senior year. As she greeted her former students, Rosemary Brantley, founding Fashion Design Chair at Otis, said, “I never had children. This room is full of my New York babies, and they all take care of each other.”

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN: Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga have been named the latest faces of the MAC AIDS Fund. The newest campaign, dubbed “From Our Lips,” will break on Feb. 25. MAC Viva Glam Gaga Lipstick and Viva Glam Cyndi Lipstick, $14 each, will launch in North America on March 18 and globally throughout the month, with 100 percent of the proceeds being donated to the MAC AIDS Fund. The MAC AIDS Fund has invested more than $150 million to organizations in more than 67 countries since its founding in 1994.

BY THE BOOK: The ever-prolific artist, photographer and performer Patti Smith has just put the finishing touches on a book about her early days with Robert Mapplethorpe. The pair lived together while he was at Pratt, later called The Chelsea Hotel home and remained friends after their relationship dissolved. Due out in December under a HarperCollins imprint, “Just Kids” covers their “youthful rebellion” from 1967 to 1975, a tale Smith promised Mapplethorpe she would write before he died in 1989. Smith, who received a Pratt Legends award Thursday night from Edward Mapplethorpe, Robert’s brother, said she still has an ongoing conversation, so to speak, with the late artist, as she does with all of the people she loves and has lost.

Pratt, meanwhile, raised $400,000 for student scholarships at last week’s Legends dinner.

SHOP GIRLS: FrostFrench, the ready-to-wear label designed by Sadie Frost and Jemima French, is moving ahead with its next chapter. Next week, the label will unveil a boutique on Noel Street in London’s Soho. The store, designed to have a boudoir feel with wooden floors, pink walls and pictures of the designers on display, will carry the duo’s entire line. The space comes in addition to FrostFrench’s existing store in Islington, North London. Last year the label took a change in direction after Frost and French regained creative control of the business. Frost and French said they had restructured the business and opened the Soho store “with the help of new private investment.” The Soho store will launch with a party November 10, while the label’s online store, frostfrench.com, will relaunch later this year