The Latest From Paris: 12-Inch Heels

The 'brash boy' was hailed as a genius for his designs

(NEWSER) - The apparent suicide of 40-year-old British designer Alexander McQueen has stunned the fashion world.

• "I found him about as complex and beguiling as any human,' writes fashion journalist Cathy Horyn in the New York Times . "He was enormously creative and intelligent—and funny and rude and fearless." More than anything, though, he was a "genuinely talented man."

What happened to the Mulleavy sisters' commitment to authenticity?

(NEWSER) - Rodarte, which has become synonymous with handcrafted, authentic, extremely well-made clothes, was the last line Erika Kawalek ever expected to do a Target collection. The looks aren’t bad—some, like the leopard-print dress and blue tulle blouse, are rather nice—“but if you turn off your acquisitiveness for a sec and consider what Rodarte represents, their Target collection is a truly depressing move,” she writes on DoubleX . More»

Designers are tamed by recession fears

(NEWSER) - Thanks to the recession, “disciplined good taste” reigned on the Paris runways this week, leading Bloomingdale’s fashion director to dub the season “terrific, from a commercial point of view, but not so much so that it’s safe and boring.” Guy Trebay begs to differ. “If success is measured by distance traveled, then this has been the Paris season that ran the gamut—as Dorothy Parker once famously sniped about Katharine Hepburn's acting range—from A to B,” he writes in the New York Times. More»

Sure, Lindsay Lohan's collection was dissed—but really, this is how fashion should be

(NEWSER) - Lindsay Lohan’s fashion debut was “widely panned,” which came as “no surprise, of course.” But though “the looks were inelegant, off-trend, and styled with about as much je ne sais quois as a drunk teen let loose inside a Forever 21,” Erika Kawalek writes on DoubleX, “I loved this fashion show.” It brought fashion out of “the province of professional designers” and put it back into women’s hands. More»

Designer wonders why the rest of the industry is still using fur and leather

(NEWSER) - One of fashion’s most famous vegetarians, Stella McCartney talks—a little bit about her rise from “nervous” young designer to successful businesswoman, but mostly about the fashion industry’s lack of eco-consciousness—to the Guardian on the heels of her Paris show. “I think people in fashion are pretty heartless,” she tells Jess Cartner-Morley. “I find it astounding, because fashion is supposed to be about change—I mean, we're supposed to be at the cutting edge!” More»