Possible 2012 Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin was pretty upset over the Vogue photo shoot leak that she posed for. Sarah Palin apparently had a negative experience modeling for the iconic franchise that is Vogue. Going back to 2007,  Sean Parnell, who would later succeed her as Alaska Governor, sent an email to her saying: “Sandy and I were watching TV and the Channel 2 news tease is about the Vogue shoot. I didn’t realise that was public!!” Sarah Palin replied to the e-mail by saying, “Crud! It wasn’t supposed to be public – and then I was asked about it this morning…someone talked.”

Sarah Palin asked one of her aides if she could smooth things over with Vogue Magazine. She wrote, “Lawren from Vogue, wrote a real nice note of thanks… but also apologized if the shoot was such a negative experience as they read about in the press. She said ‘they’ were shocked to read the negative coverage of the experience.” She went on to say “I jotted her a quick note back saying it was awesome and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but if you could call her/them and reiterate that it was an honour to get to participate in this, maybe that could un-dosome damage. Thanks.”

CDFA Fashion Icon and singer Lady Gaga made quite the mistake when she called US Vogue editor Anna Wintour a ‘bitch’ via text message. This is the second time that Lady Gaga has had a negative experience with Anna Wintour. The first was when Lady Gaga was asked to perform at a Vogue gala under the provision that she was to be polite and not swear. Once on stage she said “Anna, I will do my f**king best!”. Lady Gaga’s mouth just seems to be getting her into more and more trouble.

Anna Wintour sent Lady Gaga a text message that said ‘We’re so excited to tell you that you won the CFDA Fashion Icon Award.’ Gaga supposedly thought that it was her friend Anna Treblin, who is also her stylist assistant. Going under the false assumption that is was the other Anna, Gaga replied, ‘Yes bitch we did it.’ Anna replied to that text message ‘How lovely, and we will all be waiting to see what you will wear.” Eventually Lady Gaga put two and two together realized that she was texting the wrong Anna. Oops! Lets hope for Lady Gaga’s sake this is the last little fashion mistake she makes!

Fresh from having three of her dresses featured in “Sex and the City 2,” Joanna Mastroianni keeps the momentum going with her Spring 2011 collection presented at the designer’s Manhattan atelier September 16, 2010.

Mastroianni delves into her latest muse-as-motif, Clarice Cliff, an English potter whose career spanned most of the 20th century. The cheerful patterns, in vibrant colors, with bold outlines have inspired Mastroianni to create modern, architectural silhouettes with three-dimensional texture to further their initial organic appeal. The simplicity of the then ground-breaking geometrics and abstracts, seamlessly carries over into flirty, chic clothes and accessories.

The pottery’s collage effect works well with Mastroianni’s signature, mixed-media treatments combining embroidery, patent leather and more. Based on a palette of sunshine yellow, tangerine, chartreuse, lapis and black and white. Some sculpted shapes reference the Sixties to satisfy our current fascination with midcentury modern aesthetics escalated by “Mad Men.”

Standalone accessories such as capes, handbags and belts expand into jewelry this season. The small collection’s bold styles with loads of color, stones and thread work pay homage to rock and roll.

The house of Joanna Mastroianni has built an elegant following. Her unique designs and accessories have attracted Hollywood’s elite. From Eva Langoria, Beyonce, Padma Lakshmi, Alicia Keys, Carol Alt, Mary Kate Olsen, and Molly Simms.

Joanna”s collections have been featured editorially in many publications, including WWD, Vogue, vanity Fair, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, and Ebony. The have also been seen at the Academy, Tony and Grammy awards.

Fashion needs your help!  On the first night of New York Fashion Week, Fashion and Art come together for a night of glamour and cool shopping with the advent of “VOGUE FASHION’S NIGHT OUT” in New York City.  Coordinated by the U.S. and international editions of Vogue, the Big Apple joins its sister fashion capitals around the world— From London to Paris, from Moscow to Mumbai, from Beijing to Milan –in a global initiative to promote retail, restore consumer confidence, and celebrate fashion.

COSTUME NATIONAL is a proud participant of “Vogue Fashion’s Night Out.”  Come explore our exquisite new SoHo space and take in the exciting visual art of Shinique Smith, from the Yvon Lambert Gallery, who will intrigue shoppers with an art installation brought in exclusively for this very important shopping event. Costume National Creative Director, Ennio Capasa, has always supported contemporary creativity in all its expressions: from art, to cinema to design. In addition, the boutique, along with other participating retailers, will remain open late until 11 p.m., to help maximize shopping time and stimulate purchases.

In addition, shoppers can pick-up special T-shirts created by the CFDA at the Costume National boutique for this shopping event.  Your purchase of a “Fashion Night Out” tee will benefit the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center.  For more information, visit www.fashionsnightout.com.

COSTUME NATIONAL & SHINIQUE SMITH FOR THE YVON LAMBERT GALLERY, in conjunction with American Vogue, NYC & Company, the City of New York, AMEX, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)

Thursday, September 10, 2009 6pm -11pm

Costume National Boutique Located at 160 Mercer Street, SoHo, New York

About Shinique Smith

Shinique Smith, represented by the Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris and New York,  is an American artist who brings the anonymous aspects of life to the forefront, examining her own footing within the world. Her latest work, “Ten Times Myself,” a series of paintings and sculptures inspired from song lyrics, is a self-imposed call to be bolder and to go from one to ten without remorse. Infusing an ardent style owed to Abstract Expressionism and Japanese Calligraphy, Smith’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally at venues including the National  Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the New Museum, New York; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; PS 1 Contemporary Arts Center, New York; and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado.

When it rains, it pours is as the saying goes. At almost any point in any large fashion magazine, you could find huge ads and many of them. For example in the 2007 September issue of vogue, that weighed in at an astounding 4 pounds, 9 ounces, out of the 840 pages in the magazine, 727 of them were ads. Vogue said that that number dropped by 36% to only a mere 429 pages. So why the steep decline? Well it is a culmination of a few things, but mostly just the three elephants in the room; free marketing, cheap marketing and the economic downturn. With all the money lost in the stock market and everything else, the big fashion companies that spend a ton of money on those big fancy ads we all love, have either been cutting back or cutting out.

So now, without those big extensive ads, what are these huge companies doing to compensate? They, like many others, are utilizing the full capability of social networking sites like twitter, youtube, facebook, mixx, etc. They are using the free ad space that is there by creating fan pages blogs, etc and buying up digital ad space. Almost any large website you go on you will see the banner ads down the side and across the top. “These are advertisers where luxury and perfection and style is first and foremost. The Web experience was pretty cluttered. Now that there are bigger screens on desks, hi-def, beautiful video in real time, iPhone apps that look beautiful, the aesthetics have gotten to a place they are interested in,” says Drew Schutte, senior vice president and chief revenue officer for Condé Nast Digital, which is trying to boost the number of ad packages it sells that include both print ads and digital ads. Is this the future for ads in regards to fashion, or ads in general. With the decline in print, and the incline in digital media outlets, it seems it may be so.

For any body who is or wants to be a fashionista, we are all aware of Vogue’s legendary September Issue. This is the Coup De Gra of Fashion, the high light issue of the year for Vogue and Fashion Magazines everywhere. Well, now the process, work, and hours that go into making this famed issue is now going to be on the silver screen. Titled The September Issue, the movie takes an indepth look with unparalled coverage of Anna Wintour and her iconic magazine, more specifically The September Issue. I, as well as many others, will be looking very forward to seeing this movie, which is being released on August 28th. See you at the theatre! Click Here to see a preview!

The construction for the 3.1 Phillip Lim started way before it’s 3 o’clock call time. With a 3-hour break at the tent between his and Micheal Kors’s show everyone waited with abated breath for what the stellar Mr. Lim would pull out of his box of tricks. Yet when I entered my jaw still dropped to the floor I was so impressed. A huge stage was set up with bright lights overhead and the Lissy Trullie band playing. Models were pale faced with very close cropped bobs, perhaps Lim was looking to please Anna Wintour even more? The collection was dark and mysterious and all together fabulous. The palate was mostly black with a little beige and some colored pieces thrown in.

Without a doubt the strongest part of the collection was his amazing array of coats- nearly every look had one, each with their own look and style; some cropped blazers, some furs, some snake-skin rain coats and more. The collection was a feast for the eyes, however I couldn’t stop myself from drooling over the amazing Christian Louboutins parade down the runway.