Just in time for NY Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011, Tommy Hilfilger by Assouline Books

By Laura Medina

On New York's Fashion's Night Out this Friday, September 10th, the man of the hour is going to be fete'd at Assouline Publishing-Tommy Hilfilger.

If you want to be ambiguous, you can Mr. Hilfilger popularized the All-Americana look but if you want to be precise, he gave the Upper-crust American Preppy Style some street cred by adjusting the tailoring then injecting it with the emerging hip-hop movement.

He made it diversified.

Now, Assouline is going to toast him as the man of the night. What is better than a person personify Urban Americana than Tommy Hilfilger.

This hefty tome explored Tommy when he first sold hippy rock n' roll clothes to the man we now know today for making conservative classics like striped polos and chinos hip with an edge.

A great encapsulation of a career, a company, and man.

Los Angeles' Fashion's Night Out, City Sanctioned Fashion Frenzy

The city's fashion dignitaries: Marc Blaskovits, Randolph Duke, Vogue's West Coast Editor, Lisa Love, Kevan Hall, and Ron Robinson of Fred Segal's Apothia flank Mayor Villaraigosa.

It all started with a simple letter by Abbot Kinney Court, independent merchant, Garrett Light.

He simply asked the Mayor, why with all the abundance of fashion designers, talent, and merchants, why Los Angeles can't have a Fashion's Night Out like Manhattan where they are celebrated and acknowledged since the city's local fashion industry is a $5.7 Billion dollar economy.

His simple but straight-forward letter had the Mayor thinking which lead to a study explaining the economic impact of the local fashion industry has on the city and the potential in raising additional revenue in a tax-weary town.

This is when he decided that the city need to jump on board Fashion's Night Out.

Randolph Duke, Lisa Love, and Kevan Hall.

The Chair of Neighborhood Commissioners was looking at the figures, then realized with the amount of world class fashion talent, brands, and designers being promoted and support out to the world and a populace of 4.4 million citizens, why get these millions of locals to locally shop and patronize their local fashion businesses to raise funds for longer library hours, more cops on the streets, and more recreations and parks?

Fashion's Night Out grew into a year-round initative, ShopLA.

Leading LA fashion dignitaries supporting Mayor Villaraigosa.

As an admitted Beverly Center shopper while his daughter is an avid Fred Segal on Melrose fan, the Mayor immediately recognizes the importance of not only supporting local fashion talent but the even bigger importance of showing the world that Los Angeles is a major fashion player that is emerging as an equal partner to Manhattan's prominence in international world-class fashion.

By hitching civic duty onto orignally was a Manhattan-only fashion booster for the average citizen to participate in New York Fashion Week, Los Angele's Fashion's Night Out this Friday, September 10th is not just a fund-raiser for the city but a major coming-out for Los Angeles' fashion community to prove to the world that they are a major fashion force to be reckon with.

As for Garrett Light, he and his fellow Abbot Kinney neighbors and colleagues are just over-whelmed with glee and pride. That their funky but cool neighborhood is what sparked this whole endeavor.

The local Manhattan-only endeavor of Fashion's Night Out initated by Anna Wintour and the Council of Fashion Designers of American has grown into a global phenomenon where Los Angeles, London, and Paris are throwing their own Fashion's Night Out. A bonanza of high caliber fashion trying to out-style each other as the reigning fashion capitals.

The year-around offspring of LA's Fashion's Night Out, www.shoplacity.com.

To raise funds without taxation, the Mayor wants to put fun back into shopping while proving to the world that the City of Angels is a fashion destination, just like it's East Coast counterpart, New York.

Friday, September 10th is the night when Los Angeles steps out of New York's shadow and into the fashion spotlight.

The Beverly Center is the central hub where everything starts and radiates. Joined by Will. I. Am of the Black Eye Peas, the Mayor with a cadre of celebrities who call Los Angeles home, will join him in setting off Fashion's Night Out. With free parking at Beverly Center from 4pm to 10pm and the first 300 to get a free tee-shirt, the citizens of Los Angeles can join in the celebration because it is for them and by them.

All three floors of the mall will throw major fashion shows but they are not the only ones to do that.

Abbot Kinney will have a medieval fashion festival with local girl, Angelica Huston will serve margaritas. There will be a ferris wheel and a carnival on Rodeo Drive. West Hollywood style stalwart, Fred Segal on Melrose, had celebrated Fashion's Night Out before the mayor and now, they are one of the major hubs of the night. Also on Melrose Avenue, G-Raw will hold an international chess competition. The Cynthia Rowley truck will make a pit stop in front of California Market in Downtown Garment District. Actor Danny Masterson open his Confederacy shop in Los Feliz with his celebrity pals entertaining you.

300 retailers, large and small, mainstream and indie, spread out across Downtown's Garment District, Los Feliz, West Hollywood's West Third Street and Melrose Avenue, Century City Mall, Topanga Mall, to Venice's Abbot Kinney will throw swags, cupcake galore, ocean of cocktails, fashion shows and art performances to booster civic duty. Celebrity, hottie DJs aplenty.

How to get about and out then back? Easy. Free DASH buses at the Beverly Center will carry you to any of the above neighborhoods then back.

Since you can easily ring up $25 in buying eggs, milk, and bread at the supermarket, for that now miniscule amount, that $25 receipt from the 300 retailers, whether it be lipstick, mask, trinket, or a vial of serum or a top, is your ticket to Rodeo Drive Ferris Wheel and a free entrance to two of SBE's hottest nightclubs, XIV on Sunset Boulevard and Industry on La Cienega Avenue.

If you want a comprehensive guide for Friday, September 10th, please go to

www.fnolosangeles.lacity.org listing and describing each and every activity that night.

Now, everyone can party like a fashionista!

Mayor Villaraigosa brings LA Fashion Week at the Beverly Center, today at 1pm

By Laura Medina

Today at the Beverly Center, this afternoon at 1pm on the La Cienaga Parking Ramp , Mayor Villaraigosa will officially announce the commence of Los Angeles Fashion's Night Out on September 10th at 5pm and Shop LA to celebrate the worldwide recognition of the city's billion-dollar fashion industry and support homegrown talent with worldwide influence.

At this official press conference, he will unveil the official billboard and poster of LA Fashion's Night Out, which is above, position at the mall's entrance on La Cienage Boulevard.

This is the official public announcement of the 300 participating retailers throwing a bonanza of parties, give-aways, fashion shows, and performances by prominent designers and artists being aided by their celebrity friends and family with free parking and free DASH Bus transportation from, to, and back at the Beverly Center on September 10th.

At the end of the night, attendees, locals and visitors, gain free entrance to XIV and Industry by SBE when they retain their $25 receipt from shopping at the 300 retailers, ranging from Abbot Kinney through Downtown Los Angeles.

Then tomorrow, he will focus on Shop LA, a year-around initiative where locals are encouraged to support the local talent and businesses within the greater city of Los Angeles.

A dollar from every ten dollars in sales tax revenue will support neighborhood libraries, public safety, park and recreation, and animal shelters.

If you want catch the Mayor in action, see him in action at 1pm at the Beverly Center today.

LA Fashion's Night Out. The City shows the love to Homegrown Style.

Last year, the City of Los Angeles did not officially participate in Fashion's Night Out but influential retailer, Fred Segal, did throw out the red carpet and klieg lights for it. The prepetually trendy retailer was one of the city's first to show local but big fashion some love the city followed suit.

However, this year and in two weeks time, Friday, September Tenth, Fashion's Night Out will be celebrated nationwide event where both New York and Los Angeles are going to be shining beacons of American fashion.

For Los Angeles, more than ever, it will showcased the city's $5.7 billion dollars apparel industry from the city's 5,000 fashion lines stationed in the greater Los Angeles area, proving to the world that the City of Angels is a major industry player, $33 billion dollars regionally. It is not just a one-note industry town.

Cynthia Ruiz, heads Mayor Villaraigosa's Public Works Board but unofficially, she is his liaison for the city's fashion industry for the past four years. Due to the major figures above, the Mayor does take the local fashion industry very seriously. Sequentially, he wants the city to show some Los Angeles love to the industry.

What initially started out as a purely Manhattan collaboration between Vogue Magazine, Mayor Bloomberg's office, and QVC, has ignited a nationwide celebration where each participating city celebrates its homegrown fashion industry and talents.

Various area leads or neighborhood representatives from the city's trendiest districts, from Bohemian Cool Abbot Kinney in Venice, Westside LA's Century City Mall to paparazzi-starlet central Robertson Boulevard to downtown's Garment District to even Pasadena, are throwing a total of 300 stores and boutiques will throw happenings, events, parties, and activities on one, single night of September 10th between 6pm to 10pm.

The central hub for all these will be the Beverly Center Mall where Mayor Villaraigosa and confirmed celebrity, Will I Am of the Black Eye Peas, will commence the official opening ceremony at 5pm on Friday, September 10th.

Joining them will be the designer, Randolph Duke, MTV's Rob Dyrdrek, Sara Rue, Stephanie Rue, Stephanie Pratt, Kevan Hall, Pauley Perrette, Louis Verdad, and many more to come.

All three floors of the mall will have fashion shows.

The first three hundred shoppers/attendees will get the official Fashion's Night Out tee-shirts and free parking between 4pm and 10pm.

Vogue's West Coast editor, Lisa Love, will host Macy's "Denim Rock" fashion while Bloomingdale's will throw Men Suiting Night, and another show on Sixth Floor Center Court.

From there, the attendees can board free DASH buses that will take them to and from Abbot Kinney, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood's Melrose Avenue and West Third Street, Los Feliz, Westfield Topanga in the Valley and Downtown to the three hundred stores celebrating Fashion's Night Out.

If people spend, at least, $25 at the one of the three hundred participating retailers in any of these neighborhoods and keep the receipt, the City of Los Angeles will show the love by opening the doors to SBE's hottest nighclubs, Industry at 643 North La Cienega Boulevard and XIV on 8117 Sunset Boulevard where they can party like a fashionista/supermodel from 10:30pm into the wee hours of 2:00am.

Think of Fashion's Night Out as a really cool and fun scavenger hunt where people, locals and tourists, have the chance to explore the different styles reflecting the city's micro-cultures in these eight, wide-ranging neighborhoods that have been displayed in popular magazines, television shows, and the media through out the world.

This isn't just a mere shopping extravaganza but a showcase of the major trends that have influence the world in contemporary fashion and streetwear, proving Los Angeles is the sister major player to the more recognizable New York.

Among the twenty-two events occuring in the Melrose Avenue District will be the venerable purveyor of cool, Fred Segal, will throw a shoe party for Vivienne Westwood and Melissa, a Dan Eldon gallery, Jeff Rudes of J. Brand, New York's Jean Shop, Monrow, and Spirit Hoods will offer styling sessions. The surfing crew from Quicksilver will be there. Sjobeck crew from Malibu will have photobooth and numerous local and hip jewelry designers will be there to entertain and inform.

G-Raw Denim will hosts DJs and drinks and the RAW World Chess Challenge.

The gentlemen outfitter for the more established rocker, John Varvatos will have to be announced musical performances, Casa Nobel drinks, hors d'oeuvres and valet, an exhibit and book signing by Robert Knight. His works are available with a $300 purchase.

The art gallery/fashion boutiques, FOUR, will split itself into four gallery spaces: Casual Hipster to the beach; Trendaholic dancing away in a club; the Power Player in the office; and Haute Headliner is in the penthouse.

Tarina Tarantino and Rudy's Barbershop are doing major DJ sets. Tarina will offer makeup lessions from her current Fall line while Rudy's will give away swag bags when people spend a certain amount-keep the receipt for the nightclubs.

For folks living out in the Valley, Westfield Topanga Mall will have 47 participating retailers. Twenty-one will hand out refreshments. Fourteen are providing gifts with purchase. Five offer percentage discount. Another five will have entertainment.

West Third Street's highlight is Hillary Rush doing a fashion show with Crumbs Cupcake, gifts with purchases from LA Made, free Miss Marissa perfume, and debuting the new RUSH REID handbag line.

Abbot Kinney's Bohemian Exchange will magicially transform into a Midsummer Night's Dream
of ethereal fashion shows and exotic processions. A festival with Elvish and Faerie dancers, performers, musicians, magicians at Ascended Living Spa while feasting on PatisseRaw and Magic Cookie Lady cookies. Guests can buy Venetian masks to join in the fantasy.

Confederacy in Los Feliz will have signings and photo-ops with celebrities, smorgasbord of designer trunk shows while imbibing in cocktails and appetizers as the DJs spin tunes. Folks will get to meet Los Feliz's artists.

The Cynthia Rowley "Shop on Wheels" Truck will land on Ninth Street in the Garment District, in front of California Mart.

These are the galaxy of fashion highlights radiating all over the City of Angels on Friday, September 10th.

There is everything for everyone. Finally, Los Angeles shows some acknowledgement and recognition and most importantly, respect to a homegrown industry is that also a fashion capital to be reckon with.

Cynthia Rowley Fall 2010, Lighter Side of Lady Gaga

The next stop for Cynthia Rowley in Sunset Junction/Silver Lake on September 2.

The Cynthia Rowley Truck is setting Southern California ablaze.

Right now, this weekend, Revolve Clothing Boutique on 8452 Melrose Ave., tucked away in Taste Restaurant's parking lot.

An ideal spot for the truck to park and party with margaritas, assorted cocktails and a DJ.

It landed yesterday and it will be there today and Sunday from 12pm to 5pm then it is onto 3801 Sunset Blvd. and as one of the many highlights, it'll park right front of California Mart on Ninth Street during Los Angele's Fashion Night Out.

Like they said, Cynthia Rowley "Shop on Wheels" comes to you, wherever you are in greater Los Angeles.

Cynthia Rowley girls modeling the hottest pieces from Fall 2010 Collection.

If today at Revolve or in Sunset Junction or at Cal Mart in downtown's Garment District, you will get a taste of Ms. Rowley's current Fall 2010 collection, homage to Lady Gaga's "Little Monsters."

Her girls call this Ms. Rowley's exploration of the dark side of beauty, a break from the conventional and the predictable.

Not the monsters of Old Hollywood like Frankenstein or Dracula but more like the adorable and quirky but loveable Seasame Street monsters or characters like Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Big Bird.

Other than the current hot palette of rich purple, classic black, deep navy blue in lightweight tulle and chiffon, Rowley added trims, from these cute monsters, black lace, ostrich feathers dipped in ombre gray, blue, and black. The body, torso, and legs wrapped in deep violet grosgrain satin ribbons in camisole tops, cocktail dresses, and really cool trousers. Due to the bia-weaved nature of the grosgrain ribbons, they cannot help wrap around the curves without giving a hint of peek-a-boo cutouts on the waist, hips, and legs.

Suggestive not slutty. Tantalizing not trashy.

With Ms. Rowley delving in the "dark side," her current collection is fun and funky.

Borrowing from Lady Gaga, the rainbow-hued fringes to the neckline over a sheer black top, better to show off your dance movement.

The deep Ocean Blue grosgrain ribbon trousers and rich purple ribbon top.

Working with bias-weaved nature of the ribbons, Ms. Rowley discovered the naughty but nice peek-a-boos at the knee caps and the hips.

Giving us a light-hearted look at darkness while giving us a give at the joints for easier movement.

If the intent was a wearable version of Lady Gaga's theaterical gear, what resulted was something fun and funky, hip casual, contemporary with a serious color palette.

Seriously cool for Lower East Side/Chelsea bars and nightclubs but funky enough for West Hollywood/Hollywood hot spots.

Another highlight was the spangled and sequined bloomers, when worn, gives a graciful, draped appearance of an ultra mini-skirt. Again, a suggestion of sexiness when the construction is actually modest. Many a girl went "GaGa" over it.

The Cynthia Rowley Truck will pop over all over town, leading up to Los Angeles Fashion's Night Out. The kind folks at the Mayor's Press Conference mention it is one of the highlights during the festivities. Catch while you can!

UNVOGUE & VH1 Save the Music Foundation

By Laura Medina

This Monday, on August 30, 2010, from 8pm to 11pm at the Verlaine on 110 Rivington St., online magazine, UNVOGUE Magazine with VH1 will throw a celebrity charity event and auction for Save The Music Foundation.

The celebrities, so far, are Russell Simmons, DJ Cassidy, Nicki Minaj, Swizz Beatz, Kelly Rowland, and Shontelle.

These are some of the more high-profile auctions to be bid on, a visit to the set of VAMPS, a meet and greet with The Jonas Brothers and Joan Jett at a music festival.

UNVOGUE Magazine has joined forces with VH1 Save The Music Foundation in order to help restore instrumental music education in America's public schools, and raise awareness about the importance of music as part of each child's complete education.

UNVOGUE has partnered with Charityfolks.com to begin the celebrity auction of Aerial7 headphones specially autographed by some of today's leading recording artist, with one hundred percent of the proceeds going to the VH1 Save The Music Foundation.

The auction will run from August 18th to September 1st, with hopes of raising ten thousand dollars for the foundation.

Matte, Dry, & Refined Sunscreen, Powder, & Retinol Cloths

Matte for Men Sunscreen SPF 25 to dry up the skin.

Lee Jacobs is a married young man with a flair for fashion, working in the fashion and beauty business whose sleek bald head was burning in the Arizona sun.

Piqued and frustrated by the lack of quality sunscreen and sunblock that are too sticky, too gluey, and too thick, using his beauty industry knowledge, he concocted a batch of sunscreen that is dry to the touch without dehydrating the delicate skin of the scalp and ear lobes.

Matte for Men is for guys like him, burning and sweating underneath the desert and summer sun. Protection from the rays and a relief to the skin.

The oatmeal in the formula soaks up the sweat and oil. The ensulizole and octinoxate shields the skin from the sun. Aloe Leaf, green tea, and grape seed fortifies the skin cells with antioxidants.

Its powder dry texture on the skin was such a hit that wives, sisters, moms, and girlfriends are stealing it for themselves.

Not bad since Lee made sure it's fragrance-free and clean enough to be unisex despite the brand's name.

Regardless of the name, Man Body, both genders fell in love with his follow-up for the sweat-stricken, the corn starch, baking soda, and aloe enriched, talc-free body powder with a clean, unisex scent.

Retinol and Vitamin A enriched Complete Cleasing Cloths.

Knowing men like him are constantly in demand, Lee was looking for a complete skincare routine in one swipe. He doused his pre-moistened cleansing wipes with retinol, vitamin A, and collagen in alcohol-free tissues. Less need for carrying tubes and bottles of serum and cream, they're all in one wipe.

No wonder women fell in love with this line.