Investigative Report #3 : You Copy-Cat, You!

Isabel Marant Fall 2010

Balmain S/S 2011

One time not so long ago, we did like the deluxe hippie garb Balmain's Christophe Decarnin was churning out, then came Balmainia. And with that hype also came the supposed news that orders would sell out once they hit the shops. Well, we live in New York City and see recognizable high-fashion all over the place on a daily basis and have yet to see any Balmain, anywhere. Good friends of ours in the retail world have also told us that those $2,500 shredded t-shirts are indeed a hard sell, and oddly enough, the men's line is said to be selling better than the women's.

So for Spring/Summer 2011 you can imagine the disappointment we felt when we noticed that the ideas and attitude at Balmain had an uncanny similarity to Isabel Marant's Fall/Winter 2010 collection. Same silhouette, same girl, except we prefer Marant's more elegant version. Only further proving how much more realistic we think it is for a woman to design for a woman this day & age.

Isabel Marant Fall 2010

Balmain S/S 2011

Investigative Report #2 : You Copy-Cat, You!

Our latest Investigative Report had us floored! Usually Chanel accessories are dead-on and most often incredibly inventive, however this mixed bag patchwork tote(above) from Chanel's Fall 2010 collection is a dead-ringer for Louis Vuitton's more colorful and audacious number from several seasons back(below). We moved on from the cult of Kaiser Karl quite a while ago as we think Chanel needs some fine retuning & this obvious "borrowing" of an idea puts the house to further shame. Ah, what can we say besides long live Alber Elbaz at Lanvin!