Molly Bloom knows style

Meet Carine Roitfeld, editor of French Vogue. Kind of fabulous, kind of scary, but she did put a man in a dress on the cover. It’s the least she could do.

Zip zip zip.

Last night’s Project Runway reunion show hadd more personality than the previous episodes of the season. There’s a great recap over at Jezebel. You should read it. Michael Kors’ laughing jag is spectacular. My favorite moment of the season is when he called crybaby Ricky’s garment during the wrestling challenge a “disco hair-cutting cape.” Hot damn. Also, Chris was robbed.

Excitement! Jovovich-Hawk is designing the next Target GO International collection. I’ve written about my love of Jovovich-Hawk previously. They use vintage fabrics and retro styles and show their lines in alternative settings. For a preview of their mass-market looks, go here. Check out Look 18 and contrast with this number from their Spring 2007 line. Yes!

Jovovich-Hawk for GO International Target hits stores March 8.

Dude. Seriously. You can create your own Chuck Taylors! Head on over to the Converse One website and trick out a pair. I am pondering a pair of the high hi-tops. A woman at school was wearing a pair of sequined Chucks. OMG.

I have a history with Chuck Taylors. When I was 10 years old I bought two pairs, one pink and one purple. Sometimes I wore one of each. In middle school I got a pair of hi-tops that were designed to fold down at the ankle but could be laced up the calf. In high school I went through a phase of not wearing leather (a genius idea in winter) and I had a pair of blue hi-top Chucks that I scribbled on. You know, anarchy symbols and Smiths lyrics about how meat is murder. Stuff like that.

Yay for Chuck Taylors. I am totally gonna get me some.

Learning the hows and whys of fashion design made me a picky consumer. Cut corners have spotlights on them and even when I buy something basic it has to be made well. I see women every day who have fashion sense but their cheaply made clothes betray them. Are Americans losing their eye for detail or our interest in such things? Quantity is trumping quality.

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster touches on this. Americans are OK with a hanging thread on a new item; British clip the thread; Japanese return it to the store. Why did we come to expect and accept shoddy workmanship? I’ll be writing more about the book when I finish it.

I love polka dots and big prints and minidresses but there is no way I would pay $325 for a dress so simple to construct yet the pattern is unmatched. Just check out the back view. Ugh. Outrageous.

Demand better, dear readers, or I fear we’ll live in mismatched sweats soon. As The Smiths asked, “How soon is now?”

Oh, yes. Indeed. Best in show. Monique Lhuillier’s Fall ‘08 show is the best of the bunch. This is some high fashion. It sparkles where it should, demures when it should and stays pretty. I would consider changing my hair color so I could wear those cool greys and yellows. The beading work (shown above) is rich rich rich. Like jewelry. This dress looks to be made of the exact liquid-copper silk fabric I used for my bias couture gown. And the blacked-out eye makeup reminds me of a certain clown. Adore.

Halston’s back. The label has been trotted out once again with a new designer. Yesterday the collection showed in New York. Today three pieces are for sale online: Two shirt dresses and a very Jerry Hall-esque jersey dress. Take a peak. Selling clothes straight off the runway is unprecedented — usually runway shows give editors and buyers the first peak at what may or may not be made, based on the orders for garments. Production starts after the orders are placed, weeks or months after the shows. Selling the clothes online is a brilliant PR coup for the fledgling Halston.

To answer the eternal question about time travel and where and when to go back, wearing Halston at Studio 54 is high on my list.

It does not matter that the heels are four inches. I almost fainted when I saw these shoes. Have mercy.

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is “Can you make me a jacket?” (The No. 1 question I’m asked is “Are you going to be on Project Runway?”) Well, I can make me a jacket. But I don’t do menswear, sorry chaps.

Dress Monkey will make you the jacket — for less than $200. I don’t know how they do it, but here they are, selling custom sport coats and blazers on the internets, made to your specs. You can choose a style and then go through selecting fabrics or you can use their ideas. I like that you can chose which side you want the cellphone pocket placed. Neato.

I haven’t seen these jackets. A $150 blazer is not the same as a $1,000 custom job from a tailor you visit in person, who makes a jacket on you. I wonder who’s sewing them and and where and how their labor is so cheap (but the partner who lives in Shanghai leads me to believe the answer is China). I certainly can’t be making anyone a custom anything for less than $200; my hourly is more than $10/hour, not to mention materials and pattern-making and cutting and fitting. So this is low-end custom, the H&M of the made-to-order genre. I think most of my readers could use a new spiff coat. Somebody order one and tell me how it goes.