Julia Haart, chief executive officer and chief creative officer of Elite World, which bills itself as the “largest modeling agency on the planet,” has spent her career designing shoes, lingerie and apparel that empowers women without sacrificing comfort. Nor does Haart believe that sexy and strong are mutually exclusive.

Julia Haart, right at the E. 1972 runway show. 

The designer prior to joining Elite World was the architect of a ready-to-wear collection for La Perla with built-in support, a fusion of lingerie and fashion, sharply tailored pieces with the complex construction worthy of a building engineer, and worn by Kendall Jenner and Naomi Campbell.
Diversity, another of Haart’s passions, was on display at E. 1972, the inaugural global fashion brand Haart designed for Elite World. “The runway was 18 to 38 [years old]. I’m giving the talent the tools to create their own brands,” she told WWD Saturday minutes after the show ended. Named after the year of Elite’s founding, E. 1972 doesn’t utilize sizes, rather, Haart is using body-scanning technology to eschew traditional sizing, making the line available to all body shapes and sizes. Consumers can order made-to-measure at e1972.com or at E. 1972’s international ateliers for a personalized fitting.
The global modeling

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The Force is strong with this one. (We had to.)

“Cheer” stars Gabi Butler and Lexi Brumback made their New York Fashion Week debut at the Brandon Maxwell show on Saturday night, thanks to Instagram.
Before taking to their seats in the front row at the American Museum of Natural History, the Navarro College cheerleaders, who shot to mainstream notoriety following the wildly popular Netflix documentary’s debut, were escorted through the backstage area by members of the Instagram team, who were capturing content every step of the way.
But reporters who spotted the instantly-recognizable Butler and Brumback, clad in their signature black-and-red sparkly uniforms — “couture” creations by Rebel Athletic — were told by Instagram that they’d have to adhere to certain conditions if they wanted to conduct an interview.
Instagram employees told reporters that while they could video Butler and Brumback walking backstage, they would not be permitted to conduct a video interview. Then, those who did wish to conduct traditional interviews were told they could not publish the interviews until nearly a week later, on Friday, February 14 — essentially, an embargo.
The reason for this, an Instagram employee said, is that “Instagram brought them [Butler and Brumback]” to the show and the platform wanted to be the first to share content.
Celebrity

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Romeo Hunte has always considered Tommy Hilfiger a mentor, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Brooklyn, N.Y.-born designer turned to his idol as inspiration for his fall collection.
The graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology launched his women’s line in 2014 and expanded into a full men’s ready-to-wear collection in 2018. His street chic collection has been embraced by celebrities including Beyoncé and Victor Cruz.
At his show this weekend, Hunte will be channeling Hilfiger by integrating archival looks and fabrics used by the designer over the years into his own brand.
As Hunte described it: “Tommy Hilfiger has produced some of the world’s most timeless pieces that are still relevant [today]. For me, being able to integrate some of those capsule looks with my cut-and-sew methods, merging the narratives of both brands, means everything. Reconstructing pieces that are already assembled was [also] a contribution to support sustainable fashion.”
Hilfiger weighed in with his thoughts as well. “The next generation of American designers are looking at the fashion industry and building their collections in a whole new way. It’s been a pleasure to mentor Romeo as he’s evolved his approach and point of view — he reminds me of myself

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Rebecca Minkoff is trying on children’s clothes. 
The company, which sells women’s ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories, is releasing its first children’s collection just in time for New York Fashion Week. It also marks the brand’s first attempt at sustainable apparel. 
Uri Minkoff, who cofounded the brand with his sister Rebecca in 2005, told WWD, “There’s a lot of talk on how fashion impacts the environment, as well as supply chain, as well as artificial intelligence, and we felt like this was a really great and sound system to be able to become leaders in this whole space and as part of this conversation. And we’re really excited that we’re able to put all those pieces together and launch it, especially during our 15-year anniversary.”

A look from Rebecca Minkoff’s Little Minkoff collection. 
Courtesy

The 20-piece unisex collection includes dresses, pants, shirts, skirts, a jumpsuit and a take on the brand’s signature leather moto jacket — but made from jersey. 
“We wanted to match some of the main themes in the women’s ready-to-wear, but also let some of these items stand alone,” Rebecca Minkoff explained. 
Prices range from $28 for a T-shirt to $78 for jackets and comes in children’s sizes four to 12. The collection will be

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The renovations alone are estimated to have cost $85 million.

Delivered to Dr. Lawrence Caplin, the hypercar headlines the 2020 Philadelphia Auto Show.

Reza Mohtashami’s latest Brutalist concept brings together the natural and unnatural.

The days leading up to New York Fashion Week are typically a hotbed of activity in studios across New York, designers refining their clothes and distilling the range down to that perfect runway message.
But on Monday, despite the approach of his first full-scale show this morning, at the restaurant Veronika, there was nothing going on at Adam Lippes’ temporary studio on lower Broadway. Nothing that required his oversight, anyway. No castings, no fittings, no sartorial tweaking.
That’s because Lippes wasn’t around. He was 380 miles away in Fort Erie, Ontario, making good on a long-ago, teenaged vow to act as a pallbearer for the gardener of his family’s vacation house.
Lippes hadn’t seen Walker Dekker since 2003, at Lippes’ mother’s funeral, and was surprised by a November call from the man’s nephew, who’d found him on Google: “My uncle would love to hear from you.” Lippes intended to call, but got busy as one does, and didn’t. The nephew got in touch again in mid-January. About two weeks later, on a Sunday, Lippes picked up the phone and reconnected with the man to whom his younger self had been so close. “Remember our vow,” Dekker said. The following Wednesday, he was dead.
Lippes

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