Marc Jacobs Bans Celebrities

By Susie Anderson of LimeLife.com

Celebs won't make $100K from Marc Jacobs

The other day, we reported that some celebrities (like Rihanna) make up to $100,000 just for sitting in the front row at fashion shows during Fashion Week. Well, Marc Jacobs is doing quite the opposite of paying celebrities to attend his fashion shows. He's banning them from attending!

I have a lot of respect for Marc Jacobs for banning celebrities from attending his fashion shows. He obviously knows what's important during Fashion Week and doesn't want anything (or anyone) to take away from the actual fashion in his collections.

According to Jacob's business partner Marc Duffy, a lot has changed over the years. He says, "We're not going to have celebrities. Last season we had two celebrities that showed up. One because Lady Gaga was doing our after-party, and she didn't even make it to her seat because we started the show before she got there. And one was Madonna. She came backstage, and I was like, ‘What do you do with her now?"

Doesn't it just seem like designers must have more important things to focus on during Fashion Week than the crazy celebrities attending their events? At least Madonna has been a model for Louise Vuitton, but it's still not necessary for her to be at the fashion show.

In fact, Madonna hadn't even been invited to the event. Duffy continues, saying, "Because it's not like she was invited. She just called and said she was coming, and we weren't holding the show for her. She just came and that was it." Good for them! I'm sure lots of designers will wait to start the show until celebrities arrive (and I'm sure many arrive late). But Marc Jacobs and his team aren't going to wait around for a celebrity to show up in the audience. Not even for Madonna or Lady Gaga!

While Duffy notes people enjoy seeing celebrities in the crowd, he doesn't want them to take away from the actual show. He says, "There's certain things I can't control, but we used to have all the celebrities and people there, and I think that at that moment in time that's what people loved. It generated so much press and at a certain point it was like, ‘Did anybody actually watch the show?"

I wish more designers would be more concerned with the actual fashions they're showing off rather than the celebrities they're paying to sit in the front row! We don't care what celebrities are at your show; we care what your new collections look like.

Remembering Alexander McQueen

(From Biography Channel UK) Lee McQueen, who would later find fame as fashion visionary Alexander McQueen, was born on 17 March 1969 in London.

The boy destined for a future in high fashion came from a very modest background. His father was a cabbie and Lee McQueen grew up in council house in East London.

By the time he was sixteen, McQueen had decided to devote himself entirely to fashion. He dropped out of school and took an apprenticeship at the Savile Row tailors Anderson and Shepherd. This experience gave him the opportunity to sharpen his technical skills and tailoring, for which he later became famous.

He progressed to Gieves and Hawkes and then to costumiers Angels and Bermans. The variety of his apprenticeships gave him the opportunity to master many different tailoring techniques.

From tailoring on Savile Row, McQueen made the transition to working alongside Koji Tatsuno and at the age of 21 he moved to Milan to work with Romeo Gigli. McQueen completed masters degree in fashion design at the prestigious Central St. Martins College, where he had originally just hoped to be a pattern cutter. His collection, the culmination of his apprenticeships, received keen media attention and firmly established him as a promising young fashion designer.

He then set about making a name for himself. His shows were remarkably theatrical and his brutally sharp style brought him much attention and acclaim.
He also crafted a reputation. McQueen, by virtue of a petulant bad boy image and frequent outbursts, became ‘L’Enfant Terrible’. Attitude in tow, McQueen and his new self-titled label were taking over fashionable London.

He won the British Designer of the Year Award in 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003. In 1997 he was employed by couture house Givenchy and promptly, and impudently, dismissed the label’s founder, Hubert de Givenchy, as ‘irrelevant’. Subsequently, his first Givenchy line bombed.

McQueen, however, was still respected in the fashion world and was allowed a second chance, a great mark of respect in a notoriously unforgiving industry. In 2000 Gucci purchased a controlling interest in the McQueen line. This move ended McQueen’s tumultuous relationship with Givenchy and gave him a greater creative license.

In 2003 McQueen was presented with the International Award by The Council of Fashion Designers of America and also received a CBE. By 2007 he had opened boutiques in cities across the world, including in Las Vegas, New York and Milan. And A list celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman were wearing his creations on red carpets from LA to London.

It was announced on 11 February 2010 that McQueen had been found dead at his Mayfair home. The news came just days after the death of his beloved mother, Joyce.

Lee McQueen will be remembered for introducing us to the “bumster”, for his fabulous tailoring, outrageous style and enormous talent. He is much mourned by the fashion community.