Diane Von Furstenberg and Steven Kolb Announce the 2012 Fashion Awards Nominees and Honorees. Photo Courtesy of Getty.

Last night, CFDA President Diane Von Furstenberg and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb, announced this year’s Fashion Award Nominees and Honorees. Though many of the nominations went to former nominees such as Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, and Marc Jacobs, who have been dazzling fashion lovers for seasons – there were some exciting newcomers thrown in, too. The most surprising name of the evening: Johnny Depp, who will receive the Fashion Icon Award (and is the first man to ever receive the honor).

Seth Meyers will emcee the evening, and is sure to inject some humor into the event, which takes place on June 4th at Lincoln Center. We know of a few other exciting announcements that will be revealed at the awards ceremony, but we can’t tell you about them just yet. Stay tuned for updates!

Follow the jump for the full list of nominees! Read more…

The Somber Cool Kids

Marc Jacobs is one of the most influential and admired designers of today, point blank. Regardless of whether you find his work mildly creative or attractive, he has successively dominated the fashion world -season, after season.

In his Marc by Marc Jacobs Fall/Winter 2012 Collection, Jacobs manages to takes us on a wayward ride back to school, a school full of rebellion and peculiarity. I kind of like to call this collection, “Back to Basics,” added with a slight bit of edge that was somewhat reminiscent of Catholic school kids, gone grunge.

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Name: Kay-Jean Wagner

Where do you live? Brookfield, CT USA

Area of study: BFA Fashion Design

Day job / occupation: Domestic Engineer

What qualities do you most value in others? Honesty, Ethics, Optimism

Name three of your favorite designers:

Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, House of Lanvin

List a guilty pleasure:

Yarn – I love shopping for yarn and fabric.

What is your present state of mind?

Do I have to confess to insanity? What is normal? I am always thinking of the myriad of things I should be doing and more on the things I want to do.

What is your dream job?

Working for myself in fashion design.

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President Obama with First Lady Michelle Obama in a dress by Jason Wu at the Inaugural Ball.

The 2012 Presidential campaigns are well under way, and it looks like President Obama will have the most fashionable campaign – EVER. Twenty-two designers have partnered with the Obama campaign initiative Runway to Win, for which designers will create merchandise to help raise funds for the President’s 2012 Reelection Campaign.

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This is surprising and not all at once.

Following Marc Jacobs‘s muse lineage of Andrej Pejic, Victoria Beckham, and Helena Bonham Carter is 53-year-old Cerith Wyn Evans, a Welsh artist/music video director/sculpturist.

Of course, MJ’s BFF photog, Juergen Teller shot the campaign and, of course, Evans is baring all in the campaign.

What do you think of Mr. Evans as the new face of MJ?

[Source: Styleite]

Photo credit: Robert Caplin for The New York Times

In today’s print version of the New York Time (it appeared online yesterday), Ruth La Ferla wrote a very insightful article about Marc Jacobs — fashion’s poster child who can either be 1.) a renowned designer, 2.) tabloid fodder, 3.) a mainstay on the racks of department stores worldwide, 4.) a critic’s punching bag, or 5.) a God to the “fashionista” masses.

Luckily the article — appropriately titled, “The Survivor” — covers all those bases.

Let’s take a look at some quotes from the article:

“His shows have impact,” said André Leon Talley, Vogue’s editor at large. “They become the major, pivotal, prophetic moment of the season.”

OK. We can live with that. His shows are somewhat “important” to the industry — even if they do start three hours late.

Here’s what Mr. Jacobs had to say about his identity as a designer:

“You’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t,” he offered serenely. “If you stay with one look, people just say, ‘Oh, he does the same thing every season.’ If you do something different each time, you’re some kind of fashion imposter.”

Jacobs in 1985

Takishma Faison, a “disaffected” fashion student in the article said the following about the designer: “At one time, his style was very distinctive. It had a recognizable look.” Today, she finds his offerings “kind of commercial, kind of watered down. They don’t look ‘designer,’ ” she said. She added that if she had the means, she would instead turn to Prada or Lanvin.

In turn, Mr. Jacobs said this about his critics:

“I’m going to be defensive here,” he said, shifting slightly in his chair. “People are always going to want newness in fashion, just like they want new pop stars.” Yet he conceded a touch wistfully, “Maybe there’s something I’m missing. I don’t know … ”

With all that said, what do you think of Marc Jacobs? Is he a “survivor?” Or are you, like Faison, disaffected by him? Read the article (by clicking here) and chime in. We’re dying to hear what you have to say!

Proenza Schouler

Danielle: Color pops, ethnic textiles – these are a few of my favorite things. I love when Proenza Schouler translates their geometric style into an ethnic look. I’m going crazy over this collection – the mid-century flourishing necklaces, attention-commanding prints, and knitted skirts are pushing it over the top! (In a good way, of course.) Proenza is (and always will be) one of the most exciting and promising shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center.

Harry: Proenza Schouler boys are the new cool. They define American preppy dressing for young ladies in their 20s and 30s. They’re not as mainstream as Marc by Marc Jacobs­ – which adds up to their coolness. For Fall 2011, Jack and Lazaro add an ethnic element to their collection. One of my favorite pieces from the show was look #15 worn by Suvi Koponen. It’s an asymmetric tribal-print cardigan. It was pleasing to see the play of colors and prints on the Proenza Schouler silhouettes. However, someone pointed this out to me before: why did they put sandals on a fall/winter collection? Fall and Winter in Indonesia, maybe.

Follow the jump to read more.

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Chunkalunk is the technical term for those shoes that have been walking the runways and filling the stores for way too many seasons.

The infamous "chunkalunk"

They look like chunks on your feet and make a clunk as you stomp by.

The term was coined by a producer and a stylist while selecting shoes for a New York Fashion Week show. The only thing available was chunky and clunky.

Oh how they yearned for a ‘barely there’ shoe.

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In 60 A.D., Boudicca, the warrior queen of the Iceni, painted herself and her army with Wode and charged into battle against the Roman invaders.

Wode is a plant that produces a bluish purple dye. The ancient Britons painted their faces with the dye to scare the enemy. They would wear nothing else.

This coming Wednesday there is a call out for everyone to wear purple to honor the seven young men who recently committed suicide due to being overwhelmed by homophobic abuse.

I will be wearing purple (which represents spirit on the LGBTQ flag.) If it was good enough for Boudicca, then its good enough for me.

By the way, I will not be naked with a purple face and you don’t need to be either. Lucky for us our friendly fashion designers have come up with a few appropriate looks to inspire us.

Christian Dior

Jil Sander

Follow the jump for more purple to pump you up.
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On Sunday September 26th, Simon Ungless and I trawled through New York, London, Milan S/S 2011.

The conversation was not recorded.

Here we are…

TINKER (Gypsy) from D & G:

TAILOR from Fendi by Karl Lagerfeld:

Follow the jump for more of GPP’s illustrations…

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