Her personal clients have included celebrities such as Julia Roberts, Becki Newton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexis Bledel, Brooklyn Decker and Erin Andrews.

Annie’s personal style is very Parisian/Bohemian. The stylist is inspired by the French allure of unconformity and effortless sense of fashion. She takes cue from Brigitte Bardot and her infamous je ne sais quoi attitude. The stylist, who’s favorite shops are Barneys, Net-A-Porter, Tokyo 7, Frock NYC and Decades in Los Angeles, explained, “While most New Yorkers opt for black and muted clothing, I like to wear vibrant color. I tend to think you stand out more.” Her favorite pieces in her closet are her Helmut Lang, Balenciaga and several vintage motorcycle jackets.

The successful fashion stylist also told us her secret wish. With the cutest smile on her face she admitted, “If I won the lottery, I’d love to go shopping with Shakira! And we’d go to Azzedine Alaia in Paris.”

Check out Annie’s website and follow her on Twitter!

                          

We recently sat down for a Q&A session with Kyle Anderson, ELLE magazine’s Senior Accessories Editor. Not only was Kyle lucky enough to have Marie Claire‘s Fashion Director, Project Runway judge and book author Nina Garcia as his mentor, he is also one of the most talented fashion accessories editors we’ve ever met! Read more about how Nina Garcia changed Kyle Anderson‘s life below!

Kyle, what inspired you to work in the fashion industry?

“Growing up even in a small town I found fashion, and especially magazines, a huge escape from my conservative surroundings. My best friend was also obsessed with fashion. We used to go to the public library starting in elementary school on our bikes and spent hours reading magazines like ELLE, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and W. I used to love W and their gigantic pages. I remember even ripping a huge Chanel ad out to take it back and put on my bulletin board when I was like 7 years old!
My next-door neighbor’s mom was really obsessed with shopping and always taught us how important clothes were. When most kids were asking for toys, I was asking my mom to drive to outlet malls and downtown Chicago to go shopping and buy clothes. Growing up, all of our vacations surrounded going to big malls. I remember begging to go to the Mall of America for a vacation.
I went to a boarding school in high school and was excited to find a huge group of girls and guys who were crazy about shopping, trends and fashion. For the first time I was in close quarters with kids my age from big cities like Paris, Tokyo and Seoul who loved designer clothes and accessories. Immediately after graduating from college I moved to NYC and started an internship at Esquire the day I arrived. I interned at Esquire, COSMOgirl, Marie Claire, Vogue and ELLE. I also did freelance assistant work for various stylists on photo shoots and then later free-lanced at COSMO and Vanity Fair and finally back at ELLE. I was supposed to freelance at ELLE for 90 days but after about a week Nina Garcia hired me and it was a day that changed my life. I owe everything and all of my last 6 years of experiences at ELLE to her for taking a chance on me – over 6 years ago – back when most magazines were still afraid to hire guys to work on women’s fashion. I think there was maybe one other male editor working at a women’s magazine and never before a male editor at ELLE.  She was always my biggest supporter and the best mentor anyone could ever imagine.”

How does your average day look like?
“I live in Times Square and usually leave the house around 8:30/8:45am, grab a taxi and start heading out to go on appointments. I visit maybe around 4-5 designer showrooms in the mornings to preview their accessories collections. I take digital pics of everything I see and like and later use them to request the accessories for our stories in ELLE magazine. I go back to the office around 12-1 to grab lunch, download my pics and start working on all of our stories and shopping pages. I usually stay in the office until around 6 or 7 (unless we have a group appointment or a group private show to attend for some kind of designer preview) and then I usually meet with designers or the designers PR managers for drinks or dinners.  After that, I usually meet my friends and go to clubs, bars or fashion parties. There are at least 3 different fashion events or parties every night for the launch of something. Most of my friends work in fashion as either models, editors, stylists or photographers, so its nice to be able to go together.”

How would you describe your personal style?

“I love rock ‘n’ roll and military. I’m very into Balmain and Givenchy. I like combat boots, camouflage, military stuff and black leather shirts, pants and vests.
I also like silver jewelry. I wear my silver Rolex everyday.”

What are your most favorite shops/boutiques/department stores?
“I go to Barneys twice a week to see if there is anything new. I love Barneys! I go every Saturday and then one night after work if I have time. I’m always looking for new Givenchy and Balmain ready-to-wear. Gay guys are usually thin! So it’s a competition to get the items before the smaller size is sold out! ”

What is the one thing in your closet you cannot live without?
“My Rolex!”

If you won the lottery, which celebrity should join you for a shopping spree and where would you go?
“There isn’t really a celebrity who I would go with. I would go with either my boyfriend or my friend model Andrej Pejic who I like to go shopping with anyway and who has great taste and style and loves to go to Barneys.”

Any fashion secrets you want to share with our readers?
“One thing that Nina Garcia taught us always is to take fashion and make it your own. You don’t have to be head to toe punk, or head to toe military. Mix military with leather or punk with florals, you know? That’s what makes fashion interesting. Not just wearing a runway look. That’s easy – and boring. Wear something fancy like a Prada sweater with old ripped up jeans. Or sweat pants with a Balmain coat.”

Who is one of your style icons?
“Sharon Stone as Ginger in the film Casino – she really takes each look to the max.”

Who is your favorite designer?
“My favorite brands are Balmain for their distressed casual military and realxed clothes and Givenchy for their tough black and leather. Alexander Wang is always cool. I’m waiting for the official big launch of his menswear collection next season.”

Besides ELLE, What’s your favorite magazine?
Vogue Paris.

Can you share anything about your exciting upcoming projects?
“At ELLE we’re just wrapping up our women in Hollywood issue, which is going to be MAJOR! Huge!!!

Outside of ELLE, I’m launching my own website www.kyleeditor.com where I’ll have a blog about my life as an editor and my portfolio and tips on how to become an editor because I get emails every few hours either on Twitter or Facebook or at work from people who want to become editors. I just shot a cover story for Essential Homme and another story for SCHON magazine in London. And I just moved to Times Square and I love it! So I’ve been spending a lot of time decorating. I’m also working with Olivia Palermo on the launch of her own website and also a shoe collaboration. Am I forgetting anything? ”

                          

Savage Beauty reveals McQueen as a true artist, whose manipulation of the medium of fashion brought messages about culture, politics, and other uncomfortable truths to the attention of society. The exhibition runs from McQueen’s Central Saint Martins postgraduate collection of 1992 to the designer’s final, and post-mortem, runway presentation in February 2010.

From his nineteen-year career, about one hundred ensembles and seventy accessories appear in the exhibition. The pieces were mostly taken from the Alexander McQueen Archive in London, though some were drawn from the Givenchy Archive in Paris and still others were from private collections. The “bumster” trouser, the kimono jacket, and the three-point origami frock coat, all of which are signatures of the late designer, will be staples of the exhibition as well as the backbone of the exaggerated silhouette, another of McQueen’s trademarks.

The exhibition’s appeal comes in great part from the visceral reaction McQueen’s pieces engender. The clothes portray at one moment nature, at another moment war, at another a fantastical animal, and many other wildly divergent images. Holland Cotter described the uniqueness of the clothes in his review of the exhibition in The New York Times: “[the] clothes come at you like electrical zaps: a blouse threaded with worms, a coat sprouting horns, shoes that devour feet. A pert little jacket is printed with a crucifixion scene; the hair on a full-length hair shirt is carefully waved and combed; a corset has a cast-metal animal spine curling out from behind.” Perhaps Savage Beauty, as its pieces make windows into the extraordinary, has made us feel that untouchable part of the world beyond, that part we cannot name, a rare beauty we must (dare) say is art.

                          

We thought that the liaison between Karl Lagerfeld and his lunettes de soleil would have reached the status of inseparableness but this weekend, the Chanel and Fendi designer cheated on his infamous sunglasses! Lagerfeld dined with his bodyguard Sebastien Jondeau in Saint-Tropez without his most favorite accessory.

We’re wondering if Uncle Karl just set a new trend?!? If so, we bet we’re going to see Vogue editrix Anna Wintour without her shades at New York Fashion Week!

                          

Nicholas K‘s  Fall 2011 collection is now available (check out nicholask.com)!

Hailing from Arizona, Nicholas and Christopher grew up spending a lot of time in the outdoors and love to go fishing and camping. After living in New York City for several years, the brother & sister duo decided to finally look for a refuge in Upstate NY where they could bring their dog (the popular Boxer, Jake, who always makes the runway exit with them after their shows) and participate in the outdoor sports they love. Their search for the perfect cabin, surrounded by protected land with reservoirs, trails for hiking, forests for hunting and streams for fishing, became an inspiration for the duo’s upcoming Fall collection.

As Nicholas explains, “€œFor our Fall collection, I was inspired by the woods and rustic living; the survival instinct and going back to primitive ways. The fall colors of the forest are reflected in the palette and overall aesthetic and I used a lot of texture and incorporated Navajo inspired prints. Think log homes, gypsies,  stone fireplaces, owls, camping and migration.€ “Movies such as The Wilderness Family, A River Runs Through It, Legends of the Fall and Into the Wild also served as inspiration. Our guess is the fashion siblings just love Brad Pitt as much as we do!

The collection features fabrics such as; rich corduroys, hunter green silk velvets and butter-soft lambskin and warm Mongolian furs. Key styles include chunky hand-knit cable sweaters with hand knotted leather buttons, tiered ruffle skirts that can be worn as dresses and many pieces are made with multifunctional details. Colors include rust orange, hunter green, evergreen, moss, birch, snow, harvest, bark and mud brown. For the fall season, Nicholas K collaborated with Vintage Shoe Co. creating limited edition boots.

Since launching their women’€™s line in Fall of 2003, with men’s following in 2006, Nicholas Kunz and her brother and business partner, Christopher Kunz, have continued to deliver a downtown city edge to their customer base. Known for their trademark traditional quality and design with modern twists, the brand strives to deliver unique products, which will remain timeless wardrobe staples.

                          

Toni Francesc‘s collection is inspired by the migratory movements and the need to survive at a wild environment. The quest for freedom and sense of identity are merged with the aesthetics of different cultures. Nomadic people related to earth and wind as basic elements are the basis of this collection: earth being the place to live and seek the path of their journey, and wind in a metaphorical sense of freedom and mobility.

Materials merge to create garments where the fabrics provide a sense of protection and also weathering by erosion. The colors are earthy and yellow like sand and stones, or red and blue as the sky. Silhouettes are broad, overlapping and asymmetrically constructed to imitate shapes of nature to get an effect of protection and feeling good.

“Seekers” is an allegory of humanity, who lives in search of livelihood and the need to be constantly on the move.

                          

“To me Macy’s is the perfect department store in the US where everybody can find what they’re looking for without ruining their budget,” the designer said. “That’s why I am happy to make this limited collection just for Macy’s.”

Karl Lagerfeld for Macy’s will be sold in 235 Macy’s department stores in the US beginning August 31st. Priced from $50 to $170, the collection will comprise dresses, loose-fitting tops, tweed fabrications, and silhouettes with high-collared necklines. Will you be there on August 31st?

                          

If you are in Boston, make sure to stop by Louis Boston! The high-end clothing store now carries EMERSON!!!

For her Fall 2011 EMERSON collection, designer Jackie Fraser-Swan found inspiration literally from her own backyard, just outside Boston. Acres of New England forest, particularly at dusk, and the surrounding elements; trees, lake, rocks, and shadows, are reflected in the prints and color palette. Fraser-Swan referenced her New England heritage using her distant relative and brand name-sake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the creation of this new concept collection, quite intentionally. Both Emerson the philosopher and poet, and the EMERSON collection share a reverence for simplicity, nature and challenging the norm.

The fabrics used for the Fall collection include soft, solid color jerseys, textured knits, pebbled tweed infused with metallic accents and cozy wools in abstract animal prints, and strikingly colored silks. In addition, there is a red and black textured wool, black lamb and calf skin, and a jersey viscose in sold colors. Nearly all of fabrics are exclusively European. Deep gem tones and rich natural hues contrast the stark color palette, which include dark red, forest green, charcoal gray and black as well as an inky blue/black abstract animal print, and a painterly tree-printed silk.

There are two key pant silhouettes in the collection, including a high-waisted, slim cut and slouchy trouser cuts with oversize patch pockets. Tops include an oversized menswear-style shirt, short and long sleeved tees, an open weave cowl neck sweater and open front vest with detached arm warmers. Other key pieces include a form-fitting belted leather coat, a princess cut, knee-length ‘detective’ coat, and an oversized, sleeved cape coat. Details like shimmering pockets add an unexpected quirkiness and asymmetrical hemlines add a hint of sexiness to several styles.

                          

We apologize for posting only an image without any editorial – we need to run to Madison Avenue and battle for the red soles!

…and we’re off!!!

                          

Nicky Hilton attended Bluefly‘s launch celebration for the launch of Eyefly.com, a new online fashion eyewear boutique, on June 2^nd in NYC and was looking hotter than ever wearing her shades. 

Nearly all in attendance at the Eyefly launch event were bespectacled. Women and men alike preferred bold and dark frames, although some opted for metal-wire glasses in the mostly daring crowd. Attention remained on the glasses as guests kept their dress simple, donning black and white maxi dresses and skirts, as well as clean-lined linens and suits to welcome in the warmer weather.

Eyefly‘s products dotted more than just the faces of the partygoers. Cases of designer glasses lined the walls and trying on eyewear was encouraged, both virtually using FittingBox technology and in a photo booth set up near the bar. Large banners decorated the brick walls, mimicking in style the conventional vision tests used by doctors, to complete Eyefly‘s launch as the new online oasis for eyewear.

Eyefly.com offers fashionistas a new way to shop for men’s and women’s designer prescription eyewear starting at $99. On Eyefly, glasses are presented as fashion accessories no less important than an exquisite pair of shoes and have-to-have handbag. The extensive collection of fashion-forward frames enables the bespectacled to match distinct eyewear to the many looks in their closets.