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Los Angeles
Just days before his L.A. fashion show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios to debut his new AJ Jeans collection, celebrity designer Anan Jon Alexander who goes by the name of Anan Jon, was arrested and charged with rape. The show has since been cancelled.
The allegations were so serious that Jon’s bail was set at $1.36 million dollars. The crimes are said have occurred between October of 2004 and March 5, 2007 and to involve four separate victims, the youngest of whom was only 15.
This is not the first serious brush with the law that the designer who has dressed Paris Hilton, Janet Jackson and Mary J. Blige has had. In 2003 he received a suspended sentence for committing lewd acts on a child.
The 33 year-old native of India now based in New York is a Parsons School graduate. He was included in the News Week list of Power & Influence in 2004 and has appeared on America's Next Top Model several times.
His sister Sanjana Jon is also a fashion designer who made her debut at the 2006 New York Fashion Week. A court appearance has been set for April 4th. A lawyer for Jon, Ronald Richards, said the allegations were fabrications by models who believed they weren't getting the work they had expected from the designer.
The nominees for the 25th annual Council of Fashion Designers of America awards were announced this week. Up for the 2007 Womenswear Designer of the Year are Oscar de la Renta, Proenza Schouler's Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, andMarc Jacobs. Ralph Lauren, Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein, Duckie Brown's Steven Cox and Daniel Silver were selected for the Menswear Designer of the Year category. Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs for Marc Jacobs and Derek Lam were nominated for the Accessory Designer of the Year award.
The event will take place on June 4 at the New York Public Library. Ralph Lauren, who is marking his 40th year in the business, will receive the CFDA's first American Fashion Legend Award.
London
TopShop owner Sir Philip Green decided to throw an elaborate 55th birthday bash for himself by flying 100 of his closest friends on two private jets to an exclusive eco-spa on the private Indian Ocean island of Maldives.
The festivities included topless dancers, a 35ft granite Buddha, 30 bottles of vintage champagne for each guest, a performance by George Michael and private armed guards.
The bill is expected to top 20 million dollars.
One disappointment was that Kate Moss, who is set to release her collection for Top Shop, did not attend but Sir Philip is said to understand.
To add insult to injury Naomi Campbell, who was sentenced last week to five days of community service and ordered to mop floors at New York's Department of Sanitation for assaulting an assistant with a cell phone, has been put on notice not to act like a glamour queen when she shows up for work.
Her new boss at the Sanitation department told the New York Daily News that, "Hopefully, she'll know not to come in high heels or anything like that, Sneakers and blue jeans are a good idea. Wearing Manolos (Blahniks shoes) is not."
New York
Sarah Jessica Parker apparently sings like a bird when it comes to price ...cheap ...cheap ...cheap.
The Sex in the City star announced some details of her soon to be unveiled fashion line called Bitten for the media in New York. The collection will include jeans, lingerie, casual wear and accessories with prices ranging from 7.98 to 14.98.
It will be available at Steve and Barry's an aggressively expanding US bargain chain as of June 7th.
Parker appeared dressed in one of her own outfits that will retail for no more than 30 dollars. The 41 year-old actress became famous as Carrie Bradshaw, a scheming journalist who would do anything for a pair of Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik shoes. “Women should be able to wear great clothes and not lie in bed at night feeling guilty about how much money they've spent," Parker said in a press release.
The collection is being called casual and sophisticated but it still remains to be seen how refined a dress can be for under 15 dollars.
London
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and the consort wife of Prince Charles, committed a ghastly oversight when she forgot to pack her favourite pair of high heels in preparation for a visit to Kuwait.
She planned to wear them to a gala banquet hosted by county’s royal family.
Charles immediately had his staff back at the couple’s Highgrove home in London shipped them to the Arab Eremite in time for the function. The shoes arrived as planned but by then Camille decided to wear a different pair. The eco-Prince, who readily criticizes others for what he sees as their environmentally irresponsible behaviour, was just bashed in the press a few months ago for deciding to fly to America with an entourage of 14 staff members to pick up an environmental award when he could have stayed home to conserve energy.
To satisfy his critics he announced that to offset the extra carbon emissions the trip generated he would order his staff to plant trees and make eco-friendly investments.
So now the question becomes how many trees have to planted to conscientiously ship a pair of shoes half way around the world in time for dinner?
New York
A recent study reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association suggests that teenage diets often backfire and result in additional weight gain. Similar findings have turned up in other studies. Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the study's lead author, believes teenage dieters tend to skip meals and then end up binge eating. She was quoted as saying she wanted to discourage teenagers from dieting because most teens used unhealthy weight control strategies including smoking, fasting, and skipping meals.
