loose threads

Everyone Wants Phelps’s Swimsuit; Banks Keeps Audience Waiting

You just can’t get enough, can you?Photo: Getty Images


• Consumer interest in Speedo’s $550 LZR Racer is at an all-time high now that 92 percent of Olympic gold medalist swimmers, like Michael Phelps, have been seen wearing it. Online preorders have led Speedo to predict it will sell out immediately when it goes on sale next month. [WWD]

Cindy Crawford on Michael Phelps: “I’m friendly with him. We met four years ago when he was just trying out for his first Olympics. And to see how far he’s come … He was a kid and now he’s just so much more poised and handling the pressure so well.” Jealous! [British Vogue]

• Via Spiga, the footwear brand, has approached Vena Cava to create a capsule footwear collection for their September 6 Fashion Week show at the Chelsea Art Museum. The four-style collection mirrors Vena Cava’s “Egyptomania” spring theme, with muted colors and pyramid hardware. [WWD]

Louis Vuitton’s new Fifth Avenue flagship window display, which features a broken glass case resembling a mock break-in, looks so real that police officers entered the boutique last week to investigate the scene. [WWD]

• Cape Town Fashion Week officially kicked off last week. Highlights include fashion label Lalesso, which offered a bevy of tribal-printed maxi dresses, and Hip Hop, whose dramatic gowns and hats proved red-carpet-worthy. [British Vogue]

• Deréon, the juniors’ sportswear line created by Beyoncé and her mother, has a line of affordable jewelry to launch next spring in the works. [WWD]

• A Vogue intern passed Anna Wintour in the halls without making eye contact (as they are schooled to do) but then witnessed Wintour trip and fall. The intern chose to run away without helping Wintour and was told by her boss that she did the right thing. And you thought your office was awkward. [Gawker]

Tyra Banks kept the studio audience for her talk show waiting for almost two hours before taping while audibly “giggling, snacking and chatting” backstage with her crew. [NYP]

• Here’s a video of Helena Christensen discussing why she signed on to model for Odd Molly and her favorite haunts in Copenhagen. [British Vogue]

Kate Moss remembers meeting Frank Sinatra on his 80th birthday: “I said, ‘Happy birthday, Frank,’ and he just lunged for me. He kissed me on the lips, then gave me a filterless cigarette. I came off all light-headed. He was fabulous.” [British Vogue]

Everyone Wants Phelps’s Swimsuit; Banks Keeps Audience Waiting