Fashion News Alert: USA Olympic Uniforms Spark Criticism, Andre Leon Talley’s New Gig, and Paris Couture Week Ends with a Glamorous Bang

Andre Leon Tally has been busy since left his post at Vogue as editor-at-large. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Numero magazine, and he has recently been named artistic director of Zappos Couture.

Zappos Couture has been around since 2004 and Talley’s presence and extensive lists of fashion insiders, celebrities, and society mavens promises to give the site a much-needed face lift. “I took the job because I felt that this was a new experiment that I needed to have going toward the future because digital and online is so important in today’s world,” Mr. Talley said in a phone interview with The New York Times.

“We are excited to unveil the re-designed Zappos Couture, especially the new, original content,” said Jennifer Sidary, Head of Couture at Zappos Couture. “Andre has done a magnificent job as Artistic Director in translating and editing what’s happening in fashion to provide our customer base with a fresh perspective.”

Ralph Lauren comes under attack

The USA Winter Olympic team uniforms were unveiled last Thursday. In spite of the controversy that ensued around the USA 2012 Summer Olympic team uniforms, Ralph Lauren was again chosen to create this year’s Sochi Winter Olympic togs.

However, many social media fans expressed that Ralph Lauren’s uniforms looked like a woolen patchwork of stars and stripes. Team USA will be dressed like your rich aunt at Olympics,” posted @Rio2016 on Twitter. “It was so nice that Ralph Lauren’s grandmother volunteered to knit all the Team USA sweaters herself. I like the personal touch,” tweeted @My_Lo.

“The sweater is a ‘patchwork’ in the true sense of the word to make a collage that represents the American athletes who each have their own unique story to tell,” the brand said in its release. This is the fourth time Ralph Lauren has created Olympic uniforms for team USA.

Glamorous Paris Couture

Paris Couture Week ended with a marriage between Hollywood glamour and Gaultier–like avante garde. Belgian couture designer Serkan Cura successfully combined these two disparate points of view for the last show on Thursday of Paris Couture Week.

The couture shows this season were marked by a return to glamorous romanticism and a lightness of being. “It has to be light otherwise couture’s image will be dated,” Lagerfeld told reporters after the show on Tuesday.

Serge Carreira, a professor at Paris’s famed Sciences-Po University and an expert on the luxury industry, said “romanticism and lightness were the keywords of this season”. Carreira said this was accompanied “by a certain sobriety with just a hint of subtle exoticism with the hats of Schiaparelli, Gaultier’s butterflies and the African motifs of Valentino.”

—William S. Gooch