RELATED Before They Were Socialites - Part 3 Who is the babyfaced girl on the left who doesn't look like she could hurt a fly? __________________________________________________
WELCOME to Crain's Forty Under 40 class of 2009. Despite the tough economy, Crain's has once again identified a diverse group of New Yorkers who have excelled in their respective fields, from fashion to TV to the world of nonprofits.
Catherine Moellering, 37 Best & Co., President WHEN Catherine Moellering’s parents agreed to pay for her to attend Harvard University, they hoped she might become a doctor or lawyer, or at least an investment banker.
Looking back, Ms. Moellering says, her folks should have known she would end up in retail. As a child, while her siblings were building spaceships out of Legos, she was using the blocks to construct a credit card imprint machine so she could play Store.
After college, Ms. Moellering rose through the retail ranks swiftly. Her first post was in the Bloomingdales' management training program in New York City, working in the men’s neckwear department. After Bloomie’s, she moved to San Francisco to work for the Gap on a fledgling project called Old Navy, staying long enough to watch it go from about 15 locations to 585.
In 2001, she joined Liz Claiborne Inc. to hone her management skills. There, she helped oversee a handful of brands, including then-white-hot DKNY, and served under the tutelage of retail all-stars like Angela Ahrendts, now the chief of Burberry.
“She’s bright [and] intellectually curious,” says Paul Charron, former chief executive of Liz Claiborne. “I think she is going to be influential on the New York stage for a long time to come.”
In her latest role, Ms. Moellering became president of posh childrenswear maker Best & Co. last year, just in time for the collapse in retail spending. The luxury line, a 130-year-old company, had already been losing money for years $10 million in 2007 alone. To stanch the bleeding, she pared the company’s vendor list to 20 from 300 and launched a wholesale division to lure less-affluent customers to the brand.
“I just fell in love with it,” Ms. Moellering says. Though sales last year were just over $10 million, she predicts big things for the company. “I think this is a $100 million brand.”
Jonah Staw, 33 Miss Matched Inc., Chief executive WHEN Jonah Staw goes to work in the morning, he gets to sit at a desk made of a bunk bed and drink chocolate root beer from his office’s new soda fountain.
“I realized I’d be most successful if I tap-danced on the table instead of being a conservative businessman,” says the co-founder of the LittleMissMatched brand of socks and accessories.
He’s always had an entrepreneurial spirit. At age 8, Mr. Staw started his own postcard company, drawing birdlike images on special paper to sell at local bookstores in Berkeley, Calif.
“As an 8-year-old, you’re rolling in dough if you can buy an extra pack of Now and Later candy,” he says.
After an early career as an architect he designed and built his own dream house and a stint at design firm Frog, Mr. Staw launched Miss Matched in 2004.
The quirky sock company has since expanded to pajamas and bedroom furniture and has an upcoming apparel line for tweens. Last year, revenue jumped 28% from 2007, to $32 million, and Mr. Staw says e-commerce sales grew 80%. The brand is carried at Macy’s, FAO Schwarz, Bed Bath & Beyond and at 3,000 specialty shops.
But that’s not the endgame. Despite the recession’s chilling effect on retail, Mr. Staw plans to open a store in Grand Central Terminal this spring and is searching for another location. The expansion is part of a business plan underwritten by private equity firm Catterton Partners.
“People get a good idea but are afraid to go forward on it,” says Doreen Lorenzo, chief executive of Frog and a former colleague of Mr. Staw’s. “Jonah left Frog to start this business, and that takes a lot of guts.”
Ed Rosenfeld, 33 Steve Madden Ltd., Chairman and chief executive MICHIGAN native Ed Rosenfeld has been immersed in retail his whole life. Dinner table conversation while he was growing up revolved around the family business, specialty department store Jacobson’s, where he worked cleaning the bathrooms and operating the cash register. Just after graduating from Amherst College, he moved to New York and worked as a retail investment banker for Peter J. Solomon Co.
When he wanted a change, he didn’t stray from his roots. Last year, he took the helm of footwear and accessories giant Steven Madden Ltd.
“I got tired of advising clients. I wanted to make decisions and actually live with them,” he says.
Heading a $457 million retailer during one of the worst periods in shopping history has certainly given Mr. Rosenfeld reason to make decisions.
The firm is distributing new bargain labels at J.C. Penney and Walmart to appeal to strapped consumers and has teamed with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on a high-end shoe line that will hit shelves of retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue next month.
Though Mr. Rosenfeld could have used an easier first year, he has helped Madden weather the current economic storm better than most fashion firms. Same-store sales dipped only 0.5% for the fourth quarter, even as many other retailers have seen double-digit declines. In 2008, revenue grew 6%, though earnings dropped 21%.
Steve Madden, who founded the company nearly 20 years ago, says he relies on Mr. Rosenfeld’s steadiness.
“When things are unbelievable, he doesn’t jump up and down, and when things are bad, he does not panic,” says the footwear designer, comparing Mr. Rosenfeld’s calm to a “warm bath.” __________________________________________________
LINK You're a Douchebag Accept it: your upscale lifestyle plants you squarely within the doucheoisie. [EXCERPT] THERE'S a fine line—a harrowingly fine one—between being the guy who sneeringly points out That Guy in public and actually being That Guy yourself. I am not, of course, suggesting that I’m anywhere near being a douchebag on the order of, say, bad-boy heir Brandon “Firecrotch” Davis. But a run-of-the-mill, everyday douchebag? Maybe sometimes. Possibly semi-often. The point is, the burgeoning class of people constantly calling other people douchebags are almost certainly members of the doucheoisie themselves. It’s the perfect insult for our times, because the insulter can congratulate himself for being provocative, slightly outré, a little extra nasty. But when it comes to wielding a word that originated on the playground, playground logic reigns: It takes one to know one. [...]
BOOK A MERGER has taken place between Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea's books Depraved English and Insulting English. The result? Depraved and Insulting English. "Some of the entries are lascivious," the authors say, "some revolting, and others derogatory. A few are all of these things." This book will provide blissful browsing for anyone who ever got a fourth-grade thrill from looking up naughty words in the dictionary or, later, felt a frisson of pleasure from using obscure but racy words that few others understood. Many of the terms here--such as coprolagnia, cypripareunia, hybristophiliac, peotillomian, and sacofricosis--sound downright illicit. More intriguing are the words that sound perfectly acceptable, like blissom, feist, and plooky. But watch out for the plooky fellow who lets out a feist when he blissoms; he's actually a pimply guy who farts silently while copulating with ewes. Eeew. -Amazon.com __________________________________________________
NEW POST Sylvie Guillem __________________________________________________
CC and I stopped by the new shopping complex in Don Mills. The outdoor mall is gleaming, sterile, pale in its colour scheme and not someplace where I'd choose to hang out for the "atmosphere", which it sorely lacks. Still, shopping is the objective here and on that front it delivers with recognizable brand name retailers like McEwan (below), Anthropologie (below), Michael Kors (link below), Aldo, Aritzia, Banana Republic, BCBG Max Azria, Browns, Calvin Klein Underwear, Coach, Eddie Bauer, Guess?, Mendocino, Mexx, Tabi, Tommy Hilfiger and Town Shoes. If I ever do come back, it'll be for the gorgeous McEwan, which is the only store here that doesn't have an outlet located minutes from where I live.
Michael Kors is Now Open! This week, the new 1,800-sq.-ft. Michael Kors store opened at Shops at Don Mills. It is the company’s third store in the Greater Toronto Area and its sixth store in all of Canada. blogTO review I was skeptical about The Shops as well, but it is surprisingly walkable. There are a few small lots and "street" parking which gives the illusion of a quaint neighbourhood (emphasis on illusion: this is a nice idea, but feels forced). Spacing review I have mixed feelings about Shops at Don Mills...There’s something vaguely Disneyish about the place, almost something out of the Truman Show.
McEWAN Specialty vinegars, I think
Some sort of seasoning...maybe dried flower petals?
ANTHROPOLOGIE I tried on the blue dress on that mannequin and it just wasn't me. As it turns out, I'm not an Anthropologie girl, but I do like taking pics of their pretty displays: everywhere you look there's a wonderfully colourful pile, row or stack just begging to be rifled through.
ALLIANCE The lobby of Alliance's new home on King St. W.; they also share the building with a mining company.
I had a job interview here for the position of a personal asistant, which sadly - or gladly - I didn't get. It sounded like an easy gig at first, but in actuality the job involved a lot more than fetching coffee - as in long hours, detailed work and cranky bosses. In other words, not my cuppa.
Alliance's actual office space looks nothing like its building's quietly elegant, minimalist lobby. Think flourescent lighting, gray carpeting, 3-sided cubicles and movie posters everywhere.
Wave "hi"!
MORTON'S Dinner with Mr. Movie at Morton's. I had to get a pic of this kitschy-cute sleeping pig oil lamp, as well as...
...this adorable card holder; I wanted to swipe it but I restrained myself.
I believe Mr. Movie made his "O" face when he tried one of these scallops wrapped in bacon. They were divine.
YORKVILLE AVE. This is - by far - the ugliest painting I've ever seen. And yes, that's our CN Tower in the foreground__Impressions Art Gallery
Teatro Verde all decked out for Halloween
Y5
MANULIFE CENTRE Girls' Night Out wine__LCBO One of three new marketing-driven Girls’ Night Out wines. Not to deny the gals their own wine (or a good time), but where’s the Boys’ Night In vino? This is a simple, cinnamon-spiced, apple pie–flavoured chardonnay. A touch sweet, even confected. Good to very good length. Price: $12.95 Type: White Varietal: Chardonnay Vintage: 2007 Region: Lake Erie North Shore [TorontoLife.com]
Looks like the Guggenheim on the cover__publ. Masterworks?__Indigo Books
If I ever pay $20 for a fashion magazine, it better have photography of this calibre.
On a side note, a recent controversial French Vogue editorial has brought the term "blackface" back into the spotlight when really, I just wish it would die, along with the image of Aunt Jemima and the word nigger. I believe some words and images ought to stay in the past until they dissolve completely from our collective social memory.
Having said that, if I'm going to consider a thoughtful, photographic depiction of racial identity, I prefer it look something like this.
Here, the model isn't immitating or caricaturing another race, but rather masking herself with another colour in such a way that you still see her. In fact, many layers of interpretation can be derived from this photo: Is it about racial identity? Dark vs. light aspects of her soul? Hiding from reality? Or as her outfit seems to imply, is she merely acting the fool, like a clown or court jester? [via]
SHOPPERS DRUG MART Janet looks great on the cover. Lord knows, her surgeons are worth every penny.
Loud gurgling and cackling sounds made my skin crawl, and when I looked around the corner there was this automated witch retailing for about $240. Her hips swivelled and her head wobbled as she stirred her cauldron and one guy nearby couldn't stop laughing and staring at her.
Cheezy "Get Well" greeting card
SCREEN TIME Shark Tank is the new American version of the original Japanese series, Dragons' Den, and it's produced by Mark Burnett of Survivor fame.
Robert Herjavec, also of the Canadian Dragons' Den version, plays "good cop" shark to...
..."bad cop" shark Kevin O'Leary, another Canadian Dragon. Kevin adds a scintillating touch of evil to the panel. One example of his many foot-in-mouth quotes: There's never a better time to upsell than when a family is stricken with grief...that's why the funeral business is so great.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY (1999 w / Ashley Judd, Tommy Lee Jones & Bruce Greenwood) Plot: Framed for murder, a woman seeks revenge. How long were you and Angie fucking before you decided to get rid of me?
Uhh...
KILLING ME SOFTLY (2002 w / Heather Graham & Joseph Fiennes) I finally broke the seal on Killing Me Softly, the $5 DVD I bought across the street a couple of months ago. Seen above is Heather Graham as Alice, an American living in London. On her way to work, Alice exchanges glances with...
...Adam (Joseph Fiennes), a mysterious mountaineer. A few hours later, as is the case with all hot strangers who bump into each other on busy streets, they end up...
A surprisingly erotic bondage sex scene... Adam: Do you trust me? Alice: Yes.
I won't give away the ending as I'm sure there's a dusty copy lying at the bottom of every rummage bin in every DVD store on the planet. Wait a minute...here it is. If it costs more than $5 then it's too damn much because Oscar material this isn't. Nonetheless, I was kept engaged until the end probably more because of Joseph's hot body and big brown eyes than Heather's acting "ability", which between the blank stares and mute nods, had me convinced she was borderline mentally challenged.
AND FINALLY... Yes, that's a storm cloud outside my window. The "storm", however, was more of a 2 minute spit up.
Fashion Design
Mini Cardboard Mounted Bison__$11.99
$19.99
Ice Invaders ice tray__$9.99
The Cindy dress__$67.99
Dress Like an Egyptian__$72.99
Industrious dress__$119.99
Wool You Be Mine bolero__$64.99
$39.99
Bark Reynolds fetch toy__$12.99
Hello, Gorgeous pocket mirror__$6.99
Safety Misinformation passport wallet__sold out ($22.99)
Vintage Ella evening bag__sold out ($39.99)
Robo Coco
WHEN Catherine Moellering’s parents agreed to pay for her to attend Harvard University, they hoped she might become a doctor or lawyer, or at least an investment banker.
WHEN Jonah Staw goes to work in the morning, he gets to sit at a desk made of a bunk bed and drink chocolate root beer from his office’s new soda fountain.
MICHIGAN native Ed Rosenfeld has been immersed in retail his whole life. Dinner table conversation while he was growing up revolved around the family business, specialty department store Jacobson’s, where he worked cleaning the bathrooms and operating the cash register. Just after graduating from Amherst College, he moved to New York and worked as a retail investment banker for Peter J. Solomon Co.
You're a Douchebag
A MERGER has taken place between Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea's books Depraved English and Insulting English. The result? Depraved and Insulting English. "Some of the entries are lascivious," the authors say, "some revolting, and others derogatory. A few are all of these things." This book will provide blissful browsing for anyone who ever got a fourth-grade thrill from looking up naughty words in the dictionary or, later, felt a frisson of pleasure from using obscure but racy words that few others understood. Many of the terms here--such as coprolagnia, cypripareunia, hybristophiliac, peotillomian, and sacofricosis--sound downright illicit. More intriguing are the words that sound perfectly acceptable, like blissom, feist, and plooky. But watch out for the plooky fellow who lets out a feist when he blissoms; he's actually a pimply guy who farts silently while copulating with ewes. Eeew. -Amazon.com
[flickr.com]
Specialty vinegars, I think
Some sort of seasoning...maybe dried flower petals?
I love fancy tea tins
I could eat every single one of these
Can't beat chocolate in tubes
Decadent white chocolate cake topping
I tried on the blue dress on that mannequin and it just wasn't me. As it turns out, I'm not an Anthropologie girl, but I do like taking pics of their pretty displays: everywhere you look there's a wonderfully colourful pile, row or stack just begging to be rifled through.
.jpg)
Shoes Gallery Calendar 2010__Bata Shoe Museum
Virtual Shoe Museum
The lobby of Alliance's new home on King St. W.; they also share the building with a mining company.
I had a job interview here for the position of a personal asistant, which sadly - or gladly - I didn't get. It sounded like an easy gig at first, but in actuality the job involved a lot more than fetching coffee - as in long hours, detailed work and cranky bosses. In other words, not my cuppa.
Alliance's actual office space looks nothing like its building's quietly elegant, minimalist lobby. Think flourescent lighting, gray carpeting, 3-sided cubicles and movie posters everywhere.
Wave "hi"!
Dinner with Mr. Movie at Morton's. I had to get a pic of this kitschy-cute sleeping pig oil lamp, as well as...
...this adorable card holder; I wanted to swipe it but I restrained myself.
I believe Mr. Movie made his "O" face when he tried one of these scallops wrapped in bacon. They were divine.
This is - by far - the ugliest painting I've ever seen. And yes, that's our CN Tower in the foreground__Impressions Art Gallery
Teatro Verde all decked out for Halloween
Y5
Girls' Night Out wine__LCBO
One of three new marketing-driven Girls’ Night Out wines. Not to deny the gals their own wine (or a good time), but where’s the Boys’ Night In vino? This is a simple, cinnamon-spiced, apple pie–flavoured chardonnay. A touch sweet, even confected. Good to very good length.
Looks like the Guggenheim on the cover__publ. Masterworks?__Indigo Books
Lovely Nanking vase featured inside
noi.se__Indigo Books
If I ever pay $20 for a fashion magazine, it better have photography of this calibre.
On a side note, a recent controversial French Vogue editorial has brought the term "blackface" back into the spotlight when really, I just wish it would die, along with the image of Aunt Jemima and the word nigger. I believe some words and images ought to stay in the past until they dissolve completely from our collective social memory.
Janet looks great on the cover. Lord knows, her surgeons are worth every penny.
Loud gurgling and cackling sounds made my skin crawl, and when I looked around the corner there was this automated witch retailing for about $240. Her hips swivelled and her head wobbled as she stirred her cauldron and one guy nearby couldn't stop laughing and staring at her..jpg)
Cheezy "Get Well" greeting card
Shark Tank is the new American version of the original Japanese series, Dragons' Den, and it's produced by Mark Burnett of Survivor fame.
Robert Herjavec, also of the Canadian Dragons' Den version, plays "good cop" shark to...
..."bad cop" shark Kevin O'Leary, another Canadian Dragon.
How long were you and Angie fucking before you decided to get rid of me?
Uhh...
I finally broke the seal on Killing Me Softly, the $5 DVD I bought across the street a couple of months ago. Seen above is Heather Graham as Alice, an American living in London. On her way to work, Alice exchanges glances with...
...Adam (Joseph Fiennes), a mysterious mountaineer. A few hours later, as is the case with all hot strangers who bump into each other on busy streets, they end up...
...fucking. Not entirely implausible!
Natascha McElhone (the hotter blonde, IMO) plays Adam's sister.
A surprisingly erotic bondage sex scene...
Yes, that's a storm cloud outside my window. The "storm", however, was more of a 2 minute spit up.
