Fairy Tale Comes True
If there was ever a fairy tale for fashion designers it’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” And if there was ever a designer who acts like an emperor, it’s Karl Lagerfeld. So it makes sense that he’s illustrating a new version of the Hans Christian Andersen tale for Atlantic Monthly press. Lagerfeld’s fashion empire now reaches from Paris--where he creates Chanel, Chloe and his own collection--to Milan, where he styles the Fendi line. But his book illustrations look most like his own 18th-Century inspired label. The fictional emperor wears King Louis redingotes with deep cuffs, white shirts with jabots that flutter like little flags at the neckline, and plumed tricorn hats. Funny, lately so do Lagerfeld’s fashion models. Vogue is signed up to run an early excerpt. The book is due out in December.
* THE GUM MARKET: Until recently, only top-level officials wore Western fashions in the former Soviet Union. Case in point--at a 1989 Soviet summit, anchor Tom Brokaw gave Mikhail Gorbachev a pair of Joe Boxer underwear (from the company’s Surf Russia Collection), which the former Russian leader is said to wear under those ill-fitting gray suits. Now GUM, the Red Square’s version of the Beverly Center, has picked Botany 500 to be its official American tailored-clothing supplier. Elena Ivanova of Business Services Inc., the firm responsible for privatizing GUM, says Botany 500 will have a free-standing store in the mall as early as September.
* TIME TRAVELS: Not even John Cameron Swayze could have predicted that Timex watches would one day go where no watch has gone before. Susie Watson, a company spokesperson, says Timex has signed a 5-year licensing agreement with Paramount Pictures to market and distribute Star Trek watches. At least one of the four watches, a digital model, will have a “sophisticated, aerodynamic design” thanks to the company’s industrial design director. John Houlihan was a member of the GM design team who developed the boat-tailed Buick Riviera, an early ‘70s model with pointed rear end. The $25 to $35 watches are at the Broadway and May Co.
* THE GIRLS OF SUMMER: Katie Couric and Faith Daniels are just two of the NBC on-air personalities who will get a new wardrobe of designer clothes for their Summer Olympics gig. Anne Klein II will be outfitting the “Today” show duo, as well as co-anchors Hannah Storm and Gayle Gardner. Reporter Beth Ruyak and gymnastic analyst Elfi Schlegel will wear A Line Anne Klein (the third-string Klein collection). A total of 45 outfits for the anchor closet have been assembled from the spring and summer collections. And, yes, after the lights go out in Barcelona they get to keep their Olympic outfits.
