ed hardy

Before last September, the name Emilia Wickstead was one of those slightly privileged pieces of information passed around amongst the chic set—including Samantha Cameron—in Belgravia, Chelsea and other tony London nabes. But during this past London fashion week, the 28 year-old Central Saint Martins grad went from quietly doing made-to-measure in her three floor atelier on Cadogan Place to a ready-to-wear debut in a full runway show.

“It was one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done,” said Wickstead last week over a breakfast of eggs and soldiers at Café Cluny. And this is from a girl who recently not only designed her own gown for her Tuscan wedding—photographed by British Vogue for its November issue—but also custom-designed ten different dresses for her ten bridesmaids. Stress aside, with an exclusive at Matches for her Spring collection, and a late of meetings with stores in New York to lay the groundwork for next Fall, things chez Wickstead are off to a promising start.

Now that edgy London’s much more of a lady’s town (see Erdem, Saunders, Ilincic, Katrantzou), Wickstead’s unadorned brand of elegance fits right in. Still, her clean-lined pieces like sharply pleated skirts and dresses and lantern-sleeved tops and crisp tailored pants aren’t stuffy. Rather they have a delicate but cool romance that recalls Chloé. You can also detect a hint of American and Italian sportswear that’s evidence of Wickstead’s transcontinental resume which includes stints at Proenza Schouler, Narciso Rodriguez, and Giorgio Armani. Fittingly, Wickstead reports that more than half of her client base is made up of New Yorkers, among them ex-pats Elizabeth Saltzman and Lillian von Stauffenberg. For them, she’ll still be running up custom dresses made by her in-house machinists and patternmakers. The ready-to-wear, however, will impressively be made in Italy. “I use Prada’s pleaters,” says Wickstead. Consider our ears perked.

—Meenal Mistry

Photo: Courtesy of Emilia Wickstead

Sometimes it’s just great to have the sparkle on my feet and leave the rest solid and simple. I love this with jeans, with a pencil skirt or with a nice slimming dress.

PRODUCT DETAILS
- 4 3/4″ heel, 3/4″ platform
- Synthetic outsole
- Upper: 100 percent metallic synthetic

I love, love, love this shiny open-toe platformed pump from Piperlime and Chinese Laundry.

This $80 LadyBug shoe has black and silver — mixed! — sequins. The heel height is not unwalkable, so no fear that you’re going to have to slip into another pair of shoes after a few steps in these! Plus, I also like the fact that a sparkled, sequined pump can live on forever. After all, when have you heard of sequins going out of style?

Buy it here.

Leave it to a Lebanese, Paris-born designer to create a jewelry line that combines Middle Eastern mysticism with Left Bank chic. (No, it’s not another collection of blinged-out evil eyes.) Tomorrow, Noor Fares debuts her latest collection of enchanted bijoux under her eponymous label in Paris.

For inspiration, Fares trawls the globe seeking out spiritual talismans for good-energy rock-quartz rings, sculpted ebony cuffs (a nod to the French superstition touche du bois, translation: touch wood for luck), and tiny, sapphire-encrusted evil eyes, which she craftily hides within clasps. “I have loads of funny little superstitions,” she tells Style.com. “If I decide something is lucky, I keep it with me all the time.”

N.oor, which launched in 2009, has attracted Fares’ stylish pals,Cheap Dsquared, including Tatiana Santo Domingo, Eugenie Niarchos, and Margherita Missoni. This summer Giovanna Battaglia was spotted in a pair of Fares’ jet bangles while fêting the Cannes Film Festival. But these baubles are not limited to Fares’ steady following of globe-trotting It girls (even if her latest Sub-Saharan-inspired collection came about after a trip to Namibia for Dasha Zhukova’s 30th birthday). “My jewelry could work on an elegant 40-year-old or a 25-year-old,” Fares says. “Like any symbol, it can be whatever you make it.”

N.oor is available at Michel Klein (33-1-42-81-31-10), October 15 through January 15.
—Nicole Berrie

Photo: Courtesy of N.oor

The reality star tells THR why he signed on for the Chippendales gig and why Hollywood is buying into the craze again with the upcoming release of Soderbergh’s film about male strippers starring Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer and Matthew McConaughey.
Jake Pavelka has gone from pilot to Bachelor to ballroom dancer and now,Replica Dolce Gabbana bags, hes hitting the Chippendales stage.
our editor recommends

PROVIDENCE, R.I. A man who claimed Brown University kicked him out and failed to notify authorities when the daughter of a major donor falsely accused him of rape reached an agreement Wednesday with the woman’s family, resulting in the dismissal of his federal lawsuit against the Ivy League college.

The agreement was reached in U.S. District Court in Providence by William R. McCormick III, 24, and his parents; his accuser and her father; and Brown.

Attorneys for McCormick and his accuser released a statement saying they “have resolved all of the disputes between them … to their mutual satisfaction.” They declined to comment further.

The agreement says McCormick and his parents are barred from suing again.

Brown spokeswoman Marisa Quinn says the school is not a part of the settlement and did not participate in negotiations. She said that she did not know the details of the agreement but that Brown acted appropriately.

Michael Burch, a former assistant wrestling coach at Brown who was assigned to represent McCormick during the university disciplinary process when he was accused in 2006,Replica Abercrombie shoes, said the outcome was a victory for McCormick.

“I’m proud and I’m happy for him that he fought so long against these influences and forces,” Burch said. He criticized Brown, which he said has not learned from this situation.

“Brown will always put its image and money first,” Burch said.

The McCormicks sued in 2009 after, they say, university administrators gave William McCormick III a one-way plane ticket home to Wisconsin when he was accused of rape in autumn 2006.

The student accused McCormick of stalking and harassing her when they were freshmen that September. He says he was abruptly removed from campus after the student later accused him of raping her in her dorm room while she was trying to study.

McCormick alleged the school accepted the rape allegations as true without doing an investigation. Brown didn’t refer the matter to police and instead handled it internally, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says the father of the accuser is a Brown alumnus who has “donated and raised very substantial sums of money.” It says he was in regular contact about the allegations with administrators and contacted university President Ruth Simmons directly.

McCormick has maintained he did nothing wrong but agreed to withdraw from the school after a confidential agreement with the accuser’s family. The lawsuit says he signed the contract under duress.

Under that agreement, the accuser agreed not to press charges or take other legal action against McCormick. The woman graduated from Brown in 2010.

McCormick, a champion high school wrestler from Waukesha, Wis., was at Brown on a full scholarship. After leaving the school, he enrolled at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., where he graduated in the spring.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they were sexually assaulted, and is not naming the father to avoid identifying the woman.