loose threads

Hugo Boss to Shutter Cleveland Plant; PETA Honors Tim Gunn

Hugo Boss announced that it will be closing its plant in Cleveland, Ohio, and plans to lay off 300 workers. The employees will be paid through the end of April. [StyleList]

• PETA named Tim Gunn Man of the Year. Gunn narrated the PETA documentary Fashion Victims this year. [E! Online]

• Taylor Momsen on her style: “I like to wear a lot of baggy things. Like, I buy guys’ clothes, like T-shirts, and I cut them up and wear them loose, but my blazers have to be really fitted. I also like layering things and really short skirts — or showing off my legs.” [Seventeen]

• Because of stormy weather during the weekend before Christmas, online sales grew. [WWD]

• Queen Elizabeth II named several fashion figures as Officers of the Order of the British Empire on her 2009 New Year Honors list, including milliner Stephen Jones, Amanda Wakeley, and Michelle Mone, founder of lingerie company MJM International. [WWD]

• Labels who don’t embrace digital media risk looking like they lag behind the times. Prada and Balenciaga have websites that are very plain, while Burberry launched a whole interactive marketing campaign and allots 40 percent of its marketing budget to digital media. [NYT]

• Prices increased over the last decade. From 1999 to today, the price of a Gucci purse increased 600 percent. [Madison Avenue Spy]

• The mystery of Maison Martin Margiela’s workshop is revealed … through a video. [HuffPo]

• Alexa Chung stars in the Pepe Jeans spring 2010 campaign. [Fashion Verbatim]

Hugo Boss to Shutter Cleveland Plant; PETA Honors Tim Gunn