Bill Targets Designer Knockoffs

Designer was first woman to found Fortune 500 company

(NEWSER) - Designer Liz Claiborne, whose styles aimed at career women revolutionized everyday fashion sense in America and brought feminine new looks to the workplace, is dead at 78. She was the first woman founder of a Fortune 500 company. Claiborne died Tuesday in New York, after a lengthy battle with bone cancer. More»

Italian was known as the "architect of fashion"

(NEWSER) - Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre died in Milan yesterday of a brain hemorrhage, at age 62. Ferre became the top designer for Parisian fashion powerhouse Christian Dior, an honor almost exclusively reserved for French designers, in 1989. He left Dior in 1996 to build his own lines, which became some of the most critically successful in the world. More»

Narciso Rodriguez averts bankruptcy with Claiborne deal

(NEWSER) - Narciso Rodriguez, the designer of sexy minimalist frocks like Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's wedding dress, is one of the darlings of the close-knit fashion community. And it's a good thing: When Rodriguez faced bankruptcy last fall, instead of shuttering his studio he called Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Anna Wintour and Jessica Seinfeld. More»

Paris, Milan top Forbes list

(NEWSER) - Weighing everything from fashion to architecture to street life, Forbes rates the 10 most stylish cities in the world. The best of the best:

• It doesn’t get any more chic than Paris
• Milan: “flashy” fashion and cool contemporary design
• New York: a shopping spree from Brooklyn to 5th Avenue
• Rome: La Dolce Vita still says it all

Trendy, casual designers are edging out the stalwarts

(NEWSER) - Women of all ages are springing for trendier clothes from newer labels, and the fashion industry is scrambling to keep up, the Wall Street Journal reports. The fastest growing segment of the industry is small risk-taking labels that have elevated casual pieces like jeans, t-shirts and cotton dresses to edgy fashion statements. More»