Text, Vivian G. Kelly
Images of Jungle Gurl, Christian Audigier, Richard Spiegel
Runway Images, Corina Lecca, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Newsgroup
Date &Time: Saturday, July 19, 2008, early evening
Place: Backstage at the Raleigh pool and at the Miami Convention Center
Due to a 6-hour delay on the way into Miami International Airport, we spent our time working in the AA Admiral’s Lounge back in New York’s LaGuardia Airport instead of attending the Diesel show as planned. A few days later, after chatting with one of the guys at the beach who works as a surf instructor and who happened to have modeled in the show, we checked out Corina Lecca’s footage. We’d spotted Supermodel MAY ANDERSON at the official kick-off party at the Raleigh pool that same evening but wished she’d been walking some of the shows later in the week. It may be 3 years since we saw her at Miami Swim, but she looked even better at the Diesel show this past week!
The CHRISTIAN AUDIGIER “Meet and Greet” was another one we missed, as we were on-duty working backstage at Red Carter. We did however run into Christian who was on his way backstage. Even though he was the man of the hour, he wasn’t too busy to pose for a photo with us. We spent some more of our down time admiring some of the Mercedes-Benz cars on display. Although we missed the Ed Hardy show, we sympathized with Mr. Audigier, from a designer’s point of view, and the consensus was you didn’t have to see the show to know what it would be like. Christian Audigier rose to fame as head designer of Van Dutch early this decade and became even more famous in his current positions as Creative Director of Ed Hardy and his own Christian Audiegier signature line. When we sat down over cocktails and watched the video the next day, sure enough, there were tattoos and flash, but that’s what Ed Hardy fans want. To Mr. Audigier’s credit he delivered and he’ll probably sell a lot of suits, just like he’s sold countless bling encrusted ballcaps for over $100, as we discovered when we explored the Christian Audigier boutique on Lincoln Road a few days later. Mr. Audigier’s a smart marketer, and is riding the surge of his lines’ popularity. The his and her fragrances available seemingly at every major department store from Bon Ton to Macy’s should perform well.
To read more about the Ed Hardy fragrances, please read LYRA MAG contributor, Marke Behnke’s review we posted earlier this month.
www.edhardyshop.com
JUNGLE GURL
While visiting the Gottex and Gideon Oberson booths so ably run by NY based ATELIER PR’s LOU AND MICHELE IACOVELLI, we stopped by to visit with JUNGLE GUR, a resource we discovered in Mikey Koffman’s THE GALLERY LA SHOWROOM on a visit to the showroom in June.
Designer NATALIE GOLONKA’S “One of a kind bikinis constructed from recycled vintage garments” made an impression on us back then and we loved how she contributed to the eco movement by simply recycling vintage fabrics, something we’d like to see more of. Natalie’s been busy since then, and has started a celebrity initiative, which is bound to get her on a lot more radar screens. Face it; a celebrity wearing your designs helps sales, 99% of the time.
Natalie is now offering adorable baby and little girl recycled vintage bikinis, just like Mom’s. In addition, if the $100+ price tags for the original Jungle Gurl bikinis you can get at Fred Segal are a little too pricey, not to worry, Natalie’s got you covered. She’s taken some of her best-selling vintage designs and manufactured them in larger quantities so you too can be wearing Jungle Gurl to the pool for well under $100.
We hope to spot images on the Internet soon of Nicole Richie and her baby wearing adorable matched Jungle Gurl bikinis.
To see more of the Jungle Gurl collection, visit
www.junglegurl.com