The Seattle boutique Totokaelo – which since 2003 has championed avant-garde Japanese and European fashion in a city better known for flannel and anoraks – recently opened a five-story, 8,400-square-foot outpost in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. “Totokaelo” may appear to be borrowed from the Chinook language, but in fact it’s a corruption of Latin words that translate to “the sky’s the limit,” a motto that applies to many of the prices. The New York Times says the name is pronounced TOH-toh-KYE-yo,
Issey Miyake dress from Totokaelo.
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Fashion reporter Vanessa Friedman (no relation) compiles the best (read: worst) examples of the Show Note, “a handout that purports to describe what was in a creative director’s mind when he or she made what they made; what book or film or artist or decade or shape inspired their flight of fashion.” A couple of gems: “Necklines, sophisticated and deconstructed, slip away like a passing day” (Tod’s) and “Naïve is the new sophisticated” (MaxMara).
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High-in-front, long-in-back hemlines had their moment. The new-new thing is what style blog Refinery 29 is calling “the puppy-ears hemline,” characterized by “longer side panels and a cut-out front and back tab” – just like “the long, floppy ears of a basset hound.”
Akris Punto dress with “puppy-ears” hemline, via Bergdorf Goodman.
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“Fashion discovery” app Knomi, which launched last week, allows users to browse products from multiple high-end boutiques and designers (only in the UK for now). The company is based in London and Helsinki, but the name isn’t Finnish; the silent-K pronunciation is driven home by a #GetToKnomi hashtag. What caught my eye about the TechCrunch coverage, however, was the word footfall, which I’d never encountered in this context. It’s retail jargon meaning the number of shoppers entering a retail store or shopping center, and it may be British in origin—all of the definitions I found were on British sites. Other terms for footfall include people counting and shopper counting.
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Insert bad joke about skinny latte: American Eagle Outfitters is introducing a line of coffee-infused jeans for women called Denim X Café that turns spent coffee grounds “into a vital aspect of the jeans,” according to the style blog Racked:
Since coffee grounds have a natural deodorizing quality, these jeans are also able to ward off smells and will help keep your pants going for a few extra wears. The coffee-infused jeans also protect the wearer from harmful UV rays. And for those concerned about smelling like you spilt coffee on yourself, worry not. The coffee grounds used in the jeans have been treated to remove the fragrant components, like phenols, esters and oils.
The last time I heard about “infused” denim, the infusing substance was moisturizing lotion. Maybe coffee will prove more addictive.
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Not only are men not rejecting Apple’s new “rose gold” iPhone because it’s too girly-pink, the color is proving to be catnip to the XY set. “There’s enough guys getting rose gold that it should be called bros’ gold,” a 33-year-old Twitter developer named Dan Bentley told Re/Code. I’m told it pairs beautifully with brosé wine.
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Previously on Fritinancy Fashion Week: Waist trainer, Plus Is Equal, Bombfell.
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