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Public School’s Chow and Osborne: Moonlighting No More

Public School is back in session — during fashion week, that is. On Sunday, Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne will return to the calendar from a high-profile hiatus during which they showed off-season, in deference to their second job.
In May 2015, the designers were famously enlisted by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to head up design at DKNY. Heirs to Donna Karan and Jane Chung, the partners were recruited on the strength of the uber cool brand they launched with men’s wear in 2008, all street-smart, aspirational New York attitude. Having grown up as style-savvy kids in New York, they felt a certain affinity for DKNY. As co-creative directors, they would shepherd the brand into a new era of relevance while soaking up knowledge from one of the world’s great luxury groups that they could apply to their own, still nascent business.
We’ve all heard of the best-laid plans. Little more than a year after Osborne and Chow arrived at DKNY, G-III’s Morris Goldfarb bought Donna Karan International from LVMH in a move that took everyone by surprise, including the designers. Not surprisingly, G-III’s plans for DKNY were very different from those of LVMH, and in December the designers left company.
The

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First Lady Melania Trump Chooses Michael Kors Ensemble for Flight to Mar-a-Lago

FLYING SOLO: Like President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump is bombarded by opinions — spoken, shouted, insinuated and whispered — but her independent streak and designer wardrobe remain. En route to Palm Beach Friday afternoon with her husband and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and his wife Akie, FLOTUS boarded Air Force One wearing white wide-legged Michael Kors pants, a black button-front blouse and a black wool coat.
Earlier in the day, the First Lady, who spends the weekdays in Manhattan so that her son Barron can attend school, arrived in Washington, D.C., in time to greet the Abes. But Japan’s First Lady was on her own, visiting Gallaudet University and later in the day attending a National Cherry Blossom Festival committee meeting at the Japanese Embassy, according to a CNN report. It is more customary for First Ladies to keep the wives of visiting dignitaries company during their visits. But as many American voters and international observers can attest to, the Trump White House is not exactly predictable.
Case in point: the first couple’s wining-and-dining weekend plans for the Abes will be centered at Mar-a-Lago. Before the President and Japan’s Prime Minister tee off for a round of golf on Saturday, the first couple was

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Bridget Foley’s Diary: Marc Jacobs Talks Runway Communication and Control

“I was anxious to talk rather than write a couple of quick answers.”
So said Marc Jacobs earlier this week regarding a request for his input for a piece on “New York in Transition.”
Jacobs is as stalwart a creator as there is in fashion, and as such, was unlikely to take lightly questions along the lines of, “What’s the point of the show?” At this moment of individual and communal reevaluation of “The Collections” Goliath, he is both contemplative and proactive, a joint condition he described in some detail.
He started the conversation with a premise not unlike an academic thesis. “The show is an expression of a thought or an idea about clothes, about a spirit, about a mood. It’s not a presentation of showroom clothes,” he said.
Twenty or so minutes later, he’d touched on his design process, Prince, theater etiquette, a stunning Chanel couture dress (and the girl who wore it), as well as his primary theme — a designer’s right to control the circumstances in which his audience experiences his show.

Jacobs’ Spring 2009 show.
Peter Foley/EPA/REX/Shutterstock

Jacobs views the runway as a conduit for communication beyond merely a show of what will be on the racks next season. “It’s an esoteric

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A Model Front Row at Jason Wu

There was no shortage of models at Jason Wu’s 10th anniversary runway show at the St. Regis Hotel on Friday evening. In addition to the lineup of ladies donning his latest collection on the runway, Amber Valletta, Adriana Lima, Constance Jablonski, Diane Kruger, Emily Ratajkowski and Liu Wen showed up to show their support for the designer from the front row.
“I shot [Wu’s] campaign a few years ago, and we developed a friendship,” explained Lima, clad in a hot pink satiny gown and black leather jacket, which she later shed, leading to some oohing and aahing from the photographer pit. “I wanted to be here to support and celebrate his 10th anniversary, watching from the other side.” The other side being, of course, watching the runway, not walking it. “You know, I really respect the girls, especially today after the crazy blizzard, to be here,” she added. “It’s not an easy life, you know; they work very hard, so I really appreciate them.”
“Since I first started modeling, Jason was really supportive of me,” said Wen, who appears on the April cover of American Vogue alongside Ashley Graham. “This is my fourth time sitting front row to watch the show. Today

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Tod’s Unveils Second Store in Miami

DOUBLING UP: Tod’s is twice as nice in Miami, its sole U.S. city with two stores. The Italian brand wanted to follow up its longtime Bal Harbour, Fla., boutique with something special for its new location in the Miami Design District. The neighborhood provided an obvious art platform, expressed through mobile wall panels that connect to form a 60-foot projection screen for art videos, as well as a partnership with the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach by sponsoring its 2016 gala and cohosting an opening party with its board members on Feb. 9.
The occasion also exhibited commissioned works for sale by local artist Cristina Lei Rodriguez. An abstract digital print on silver metallic fabric stretched like a canvas titled “Moonscape,” and “Crystalized,” a series of three sculptures whose clusters of hexagons in mirrored, orange glass and digitally printed surfaces resemble molecules, are on view through Feb. 20.
“It wasn’t as important that Cristina is based here as that she straddles both the art and design worlds, which deepened the connection to the brand and this site-specific project,” said Silvia Karman Cubiña, executive director and chief curator for the Bass, of the artist’s use of fabric, texture, materials and colors

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Mitchells CEO Shares the 5 Timeless Pieces that Need to be in Your Wardrobe