Tom Ford has issued a series of commandments for being a modern gentleman, and he comes down hard against shorts and flip-flops on men: “Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.” When it comes to flip-flops in the city, the advice applies both to men and women, but I’ve seen more than a couple boys pull off a pair of polished shorts (Tom Ford must not be a leg man). Most of the designer’s other maxims apply to women just as well as they apply to men (not being “pretentious or racist or sexist or judg[ing] people by their background” has just as much to do with being a decent person as it does with being a modern gentleman), but things get sticky when it comes to manners: “I always open doors for women, I carry their coat, I make sure that they’re walking on the inside of the street. Stand up when people arrive at and leave the dinner table.” Personally, I don’t mind walking on the outside of the street: New York’s horse-and-buggy days are long gone, and curb-side companionship seems like a pretty archaic ritual. That being said, I’ll fall in love with anyone that holds the door open for me and I’d marry you if you held my coat. [AnOther]
Emma Watson and Alberta Ferretti‘s eco-friendly capsule, Pure Threads, is now available on the Italian designer’s website. The five available pieces are pretty pricey, ranging from £220 for a pair of dark denim shorts with lace applique to £700 for an embroidered black dress, although a portion of the proceeds will go to People Tree Charity. As for the clothing itself, though, there’s lots of lace and embroidery and flowy white fabric (all good things), it just isn’t impressive: Watson and Ferretti were inspired by Jane Birkin, but none of the pieces have the tongue-in-cheek sophistication that truly made Birkin a style star. [MillionLooks]
Models and celebs have taken to the web to issue corrections to reported pieces and rumors that threaten their reputations. Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Sienna Miller, Dasha Zhukova have all logged in to ICorrect to set the record straight. Even though most of the corrections are Twitter-related (they should just get a Twitter so that they can Tweet that they don’t have a Twitter), Naomi Campbell has responded to a claim against her by The Sun, regarding an alleged comment she made about FIFA, and Tommy Hilfiger has asserted that he’s really, definitely not a racist (if you don’t believe him, he urges you to ask Oprah. See? He’s definitely not a racist if he’s friends with a black person.) Membership at iCorrect is $1,000 annually for individuals, and $5,000 for corporations. [FabSugar UK]
Jane Pratt, the former editor of Sassy and Jane magazines is about to launch two new websites for women. The first, JanePratt.com, will be targeted towards “fortysomething women that don’t feel fortysomething,” and will try to carve a niche somewhere between Cosmopolitan and Jezebel. Pratt is working with Tavi Gevinson on the second site, a voice-driven online magazine for teenage girls. Since Sassy has been a long-time cult favorite, revered by a generation of young women for its witty and honest approach to adolescence, and because wunderkind Tavi has (deservedly) soared to the top of the fashion blogger food chain despite her youth (the “Style Rookie” was born in 1997), speculation about both projects is at a fever pitch. Most of the skeptism regarding the two projects revolves around Pratt, a polarizing figure: several pieces of journalism, including the book How Sassy Changed My Life, documented how the editor abandoned the headstrong and frank point-of-view that made Sassy a success for a love affair with celebrity and self-obsession. Pratt’s choice to lend her name to her new project does little to convince observers that she’s abandoned her notorious narcissism and preoccupation with fame. [WWD]
Below, a clip from “The Lost Girls,” a Daria episode spoofing Jane Pratt:
