“Vera Wang's philosophy - Denver Post” plus 2 more

Vera Wang's philosophy - Denver Post
Commissioners: Philosophy, not gender, will be key on new board - msnbc.com
Clevelander Nicole McGee brings philosophy of reuse to her decorative pieces, jewelry - Cleveland Plain Dealer

Posted: 07 Nov 2010 02:03 AM PST

From competitive ice skating to glamorous red-carpet gowns, the designer says life's lessons have taught her how to be successful in fashion

To make a name for yourself in fashion, especially a household name, there's a lot to learn about timing, trends and egos. Vera Wang has mastered many of those lessons in the 20 years she's led her own namesake company.

Wang made a list of the nuggets of wisdom she's gained in her career, not only as her own boss but reaching back to her time in competitive ice-skating (she was a contender for the 1968 Olympic team), as a Vogue editor and as a designer at Ralph Lauren.

She's still on alert for new tricks, but here's a sampling of what she's come up with so far.

1. It's not just about what you design, it is who you dress

Wang tackled the red carpet long before she launched her runway collection.

The sequin tunic and accessories in Vera Wang's moderately priced holiday line for Kohl's echoes a look from her spring 2009 ready-to-wear collection shown in New York. (Photos from Kohl's and The Associated Press )

She was, however, already making bridal gowns and competition skating costumes, so it wasn't a huge leap.

"I jumped into celebrity dressing when it was pretty new. There had been a moment of Scaasi with Barbra Streisand and Bob Mackie with Cher, but not in more recent times, so I jumped in with Valentino and Armani," Wang says.

2. Timing is everything

Even though her preference was for sportswear, the opportunity in fashion in the late '80s and early '90s was evening wear and bridal because those were big, expensive show-stopping pieces in the spirit of Christian Lacroix. Now, Wang says, in this era of Theory and Topshop, she'd probably do the reverse and start with contemporary, everyday clothes.

3. It's better to be lucky than smart

Sometimes the big break comes from something out of your control. Wang points to Jason Wu, designer of Michelle Obama's inaugural gown and many more outfits since then. He's a young talent worthy of all the hype and praise, but there are other still-undiscovered designers who also are worthy.

"Smart" comes into play when you recognize the lucky break you've been handed and make the most of it, Wang says.

4. Nothing is new

Vera Wang is known for her glamorous wedding dresses, such as this look from fall 2009. . (Bloomberg file photo)

in fashion; its about how you reinterpret it

There are only so many ways a garment can be sewn to be functional and flattering, Wang says. The challenge for the designers is to twist it and make it their own.

5. It's not about the money. It's about the money — always

"We creative people don't like worrying about it, but to be in business today, you have to face the reality of the business climate," Wang says. "I've redefined my business model constantly." Wang's current partnerships include more affordable lines at Kohl's and David's Bridal.

6. Relevance is relevant

In 2010, women want clothes that move seamlessly within their lifestyle and budget. If you

The spring 2009 Vera Wang collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008. (FR77522 AP | LOUIS LANZANO)

can't mix a collection piece with something from a mass retailer, it'll rarely see the light of day.

"Women don't run around in ball gowns, I'm sorry to say."

7. Everyone deserves true fashion at any price

No matter how much something costs — high or low — it's an investment on the part of the shopper, and she should be getting something that looks good. Style should be democratic, Wang says.

8. Fragrance is about the most personal thing a person can wear

"Fragrance makes a statement about who you are," says Wang. You want to be a girlie girl? There's a scent for that. Rebel rocker? There's a scent for that too. City sophisticate? Check.

"Girls can attain

Chelsea Clinton wore a Wang gown for her marriage to Marc Mezvinsky. (Barbara Kinney, Getty Images )

fragrance and incorporate it into their daily lives and not spend a fortune." (And the messaging incorporated into fragrance ads really helps define your brand to a larger audience, she adds.)

9. A pair of shoes or boots can create attitude in a second

You aren't wearing the same persona in ballet flats as heels, and clunky Uggs create a different aura altogether, says Wang.

10. Fashion is expressive

Building on the shoe-attitude theory, use accessories to change your outfit depending on your mood, but keep the core pieces classic. Change proportions, wear fine jewelry with T-shirts or a chunky necklace with a gown, she advises. But then keep those pieces and wear them a new way next year.

11. In design, all people have is their own barometer to guide them

Yes, there are larger cultural trends that designers need to be aware of, but Wang says if she isn't "feeling" a particular color or silhouette — no matter how popular — it won't work in her collection. If she doesn't believe in something, how can she convince others to?

12. Ready-to-wear: always out of my comfort zone

The runway is Wang's chance to show off who she is and her aesthetic. (Think artful and dramatic.) She says: "Designing this is a torturous process. It's never easy for me, but that's been good. I always push myself out of my comfort zone. I don't see a reason to do it if I don't."

13. It takes courage to put yourself out there

Reviews can be hard to read, she says, because the reviewers are ignoring the bravery it takes on a designer's part to churn out collection after collection — on a strict schedule — to an often fickle audience. A filmmaker, for example, often can reshoot something or extend a deadline when something isn't working. A designer doesn't have that luxury.

14. Dressing athletes is a crazy winning — and losing — sport

Skating was such an important part of her own life that she gets very emotionally wound up with the skaters she has dressed, including Nancy Kerrigan, Michelle Kwan and Evan Lysacek, she explains. She wants the clothing to contribute to a performance instead of hamper it, which could happen if things aren't cut perfectly.

15. You're not always successful

"I had to learn to dust myself off and try again. That's my real story. You have to struggle to appreciate the successes in your life. It's not real otherwise."

16. You are only as good as your team

No one can do it all, Wang says, herself included. Fashion is not unlike a team sport, where there are a handful of people who get the glory, but it took many to get them where they are.

17. Keep fighting. Don't sit on your laurels

If you hang back, even just one season or one awards show, someone else is waiting to take your place, she says.

18. Everyone's journey/route is different

Wang says she tries hard not to compare herself to other designers, businesswomen, wives or mothers. Everyone makes choices based on their own situation and no one else will ever fully understand those decisions, she says, they can only second-guess them.

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Commissioners: Philosophy, not gender, will be key on new board - msnbc.com

Posted: 06 Nov 2010 03:14 PM PDT

Last week?s election changed the composition of the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners ? but many say viewpoints will trump gender. For the first time, females will outnumber males on the commission, which in 1978 grew on a voter-approved expansion from three to five members. Newcomers Peggy Littleton and Darryl Glenn will be sworn in Jan. 11, to represent Districts 5 and 1. They?ll join current members Sallie Clark, Vice Chairwoman Amy Lathen and Chairman Dennis Hisey. The tipping of the gender scales is something Hisey?s thought about. But he said in the days following the election that gender isn?t a factor likely to dominate the board?s work. ?I expect people will align themselves more based on their philosophy than their chromosome makeup,? he said. ?There?s a period in the beginning when you?re figuring out who?s interested in what, and that has to shake out, but I?m not concerned about our ability to work together.? Hisey said he?s known Littleton for years because his kids went to school with her kids. What?s unknown, though, Hisey said, is ?how she?ll come down on certain matters she?s voted on education, not land use.? Littleton served as a volunteer on the Colorado Board of Education for the past seven years. She beat Democratic challenger state Rep. Michael Merrifield for the commissioner seat. Littleton describes herself as someone who ?will do what?s best for the citizens I represent? and says she has the same mindset as the current commissioners when it comes to being fiscally conservative. ?I?ll look at data and research before making a logical, informed decision, as opposed to an emotional decision,? she said. Personality tends to be more of a defining measure in terms of a group of elected officials working well together, said Terry Harris, who teaches political science at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and who served as the first county commissioner for District 5, from 1979 through 1986, and was later the county?s administrator. ?We?ve had a lot of women on the board ? Marcy Morrison, Jeri Howells, Betty Beedy ? and I don?t think it matters that there will now be three women,? he said. ?Sooner or later, they?re all going to come down to their own philosophies, ideas and campaign promises. And they?ll make it work, whether they?re women or men. That?s their job.? Several controversial figures have served on the board in recent years. In the late 1990s, Betty Beedy drew national criticism for her fiery stands on social issues. Then voters elected Tom Huffman, whom opponents blasted as arrogant for his positions on expanding the county courthouse and jail. Both Beedy and Huffman survived recall attempts. Anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce, whom many consider the most polarizing figure in Colorado politics, also had a stint on the board, bringing much contention and seemingly endless 4-1 votes, particularly on county spending issues. Current board members have aired philosophical differences on local issues, most recently two measures that the board referred to the ballot: extending term limits of elected county officials and banning medical marijuana related businesses in unincorporated El Paso County. Jim Bensberg, who will vacate his District 5 seat in January due to term limits, cast the sole dissenting vote against both issues. ?If the commissioners wanted to ban dispensaries, they should have voted amongst themselves, not put it on the ballot,? he said. ?But they lacked the political courage to do so.? Despite such varying views, Bensberg said the existing board has clicked in terms of getting the job done, and he predicts ?the collegial atmosphere will continue with the new board.? With voters approving extended term limits for the commission seats, the new board could be working together for years to come. OUTGOING BOARD MEMBERS JIM BENSBERG: Since taking office as a county commissioner in 2003, Jim Bensberg has acquired the nickname ?the prince of darkness? from his co-workers. ?I?m known for going behind people when they leave the office and turning out the lights,? he said. Energy-conscious Bensberg also has been known to inject a sense of humor and lightheartedness from the dais. But the seasoned politician has taken his role as an elected official seriously. ?I like being directly accountable to the voters who put me on the board,? he said. ?Of all levels of government, county commissioners are the most accessible, and we pride ourselves on being responsive to our constituents.? Among his accomplishments, Bensberg cites: -- Increasing public visibility of the commission. Bensberg worked with fellow commissioner Sallie Clark to negotiate a deal to have the weekly commissioner meetings televised via the Pikes Peak Library District on Comcast Channel 17 at no taxpayer cost. -- Establishing a federal immigration and customs enforcement office in El Paso County. Bensberg said he lobbied hard for the effort. -- Regulating medical marijuana businesses in December 2009, when he was still chairman of the board. -- Changing county collection methods on use tax of building materials from an honor system to a more accountable assessment. -- Improving recycling and conservation efforts, by setting a personal example, encouraging co-workers to follow suit, increasing local waste tire recycling and working with state legislature to funnel more money for tire recycling. Bensberg scrapped an idea to run for county treasurer and said he?s not ready to announce his plans for the immediate future. He said he intends to run for the state House District 16 seat in 2012, which will be vacated by a term-limited Rep. Larry Liston, also a Republican. WAYNE WILLIAMS: Wayne Williams, a county commissioner since 2003 and a lawyer specializing in labor and employment cases, has leant a voice of reason to the board. His said his ability to analyze all sides of issues helped him bring some points to the forefront of discussion. ?I?ve probably made more amendments than anybody else because I?m usually trying to find ways to make things the best they can be,? he said. ?Sometimes the details are fairly important.? Transportation has been one of his areas of concentration and expertise. Since 2005, he?s served as the region?s representative to Colorado?s State Transportation Advisory Committee and has been involved with numerous other committees. Williams said transportation was one of the most frequently raised complaints of residents when he was campaigning and a source of personal frustration. Among his accomplishments, Williams cites: -- Playing a key role in obtaining funding for transportation projects, including widening Interstate 25 to six lanes and extending Woodmen Road to Falcon, and building Fort Carson?s I-25/Highway 16 Interchange. -- Working with Fort Carson to obtain buffer lands and offering county land for a veterans? cemetery. -- Turning over operations of the Pikes Peak Center and an equestrian center to private nonprofits that are not subsidized by taxpayers. -- Adding more than 1,000 acres of new park and open space land without a tax increase. Williams, past chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, was elected county clerk and recorder last week and will take over in January. ?I?m concerned about the elections process in our country; I?ve testified in legislature on those issues and want to reduce the possibility of election fraud,? he said.... Click here to continue to the story

Clevelander Nicole McGee brings philosophy of reuse to her decorative pieces, jewelry - Cleveland Plain Dealer

Posted: 05 Nov 2010 12:09 PM PDT

Published: Friday, November 05, 2010, 3:08 PM Updated: Friday, November 05, 2010, 3:17 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Nicole McGee is a bike-riding, worm-composting, chicken-raising, clothes-swapping contrast to big-mortgage-two-SUVs-in-the-driveway consumers.

She's not at all like those who work long weeks to make a lot of money to buy all the things they think they need.

Not that she has anything against people who choose a fancier lifestyle. It's just that a productive life in her old house on a brick street on the near West Side suits her style.

The 30-year-old lives a life of reuse and sustainability, extending the concept to the jewelry and decorative objects she makes from found stuff.

Check out the jewelry she makes from beads she found alongside a Cleveland street. And some groomsmen just loved the boutonnieres she made from vinyl floor samples. Ditto the floor-sample floral centerpieces she created for the five-state chain of Aladdin's Eatery restaurants. She found the samples at ZeroLandfill, a Cleveland organization that recycles materials such as paint chips and upholstery fabric squares by offering them free to artists and teachers.

"The idea of reducing consumption is one I feel strongly about -- which is a dichotomy since as an artist I'm essentially repeating the same model by selling my stuff," said McGee. But she's talked with others who consider her work to be a way for people to reconsider waste and to celebrate resourcefulness and reuse.

That's why a friend gave McGee her grandmother's lifetime collection of beads, because "I know you'll do something with them." And why the artist biked past an old drawer full of beads lying on a curb and promised herself she'd stop if it were still there when she rode by again. Thus was born her "Train Avenue Collection" of necklaces and earrings, a story she loves to tell the people who buy them.

Jewelry made from reused objects has stories. New items do not, McGee said.

Her work space is the wide hallway between the kitchen and living room of her double on Pear Avenue. (She and her husband, Matthew, rent the bottom half.) It is room enough for a table, a stool, the punch press her dad found for her secondhand, and an organized clutter of strings of plastic bottlenecks she weaves into colorful plaques and broken necklaces she will rework.

Perched here and there are vinyl floor-sample centerpieces like the ones the people from the company that makes Johnsonite flooring saw in an Aladdin's and said, "Hey, that's our product!"

From that, McGee got a big order for necklaces and key chains made from vinyl tiles for the company to distribute as little gifts to interior designers. (Her jewelry generally ranges in price from $30 to $80.)

The jewelry maker also raises thousands of red wiggler worms in two vermicomposting bins in her basement. They eat the banana peels she saves by the dozen in the freezer.

"My husband, Matthew, is the most patient creature in the universe" about the recycling and composting, she said. They met in high school in Franklin, Pa., their hometown. She and Matthew share one car. Living close to the West 65th Street RTA station is handy -- part of the appeal of living in the Detroit-Superior neighborhood's pedestrian-friendly EcoVillage, Cleveland's sustainable living project that promotes green housing and urban farming.

"I think a big part of living sustainably is to reduce our own consumption," said McGee, who organizes clothing swaps with friends to replenish her wardrobe and recommends reading "Your Money or Your Life" (Penguin) by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, and "Voluntary Simplicity" (Quill) by Duane Elgin for instruction on the subject.

"Of course, we all need to buy things," said McGee, who belongs to an egg co-op. (The eggs are provided by some Rhode Island Reds housed in a coop a few doors down from her house.)

"When it's a purchase other than food, I try to consider it for as long as possible before I buy," said McGee. "This helps me make a wise choice and also is a good reminder of what a privilege it is that I can easily buy optional things for myself."

She would rather spend $100 on a pair of shoes that will last a decade rather than $20 on a pair that will wear out in a year.

Though it makes perfect sense to her how art and community activism meld, it might be surprising to some that McGee came to Cleveland in 2003 to be a community organizer at Merrick House, the Tremont neighborhood center and settlement house. She now volunteers as a member of its board.

In May, McGee finished her master's degree in sociology at Cleveland State University. Her thesis has a reuse theme; its title is "Perfectly Good, the Value of Used Over New."

She makes notecards from doodles on reused paper, cutouts from cereal boxes or snips from the paper tablecloth used at a family reunion.

"I just keep bringing in all kinds of trash," McGee said. Like wire hangers pitched by the dry cleaner that went out of business. They will become stems for the fat roses she makes from newspaper. "I like to think of myself as an alternative florist," said McGee, who also makes decorative bowls by putting old vinyl records in the oven.

She and other artists who make environmentally minded art and gifts will offer their wares Thursdays through Sundays from Thursday, Nov. 18, through Sunday, Dec. 19, at Pop-Up Gift Shop, a temporary shop at 2242 Euclid Ave., at Trinity Commons next to Ten Thousand Villages. (Fittingly, the shop will take over a vacant storefront.)

Stop in and ask her about one of her pieces. She'll be happy to tell you its story.

Philosophy

Sunday, November 7, 2010