loose threads

Blog Helps Stella McCartney Profit; Cathy Horyn Pans Rochas

Stella McCartney’s profits rose 17.8 percent to $3.3 million last year, a boom that the company attributes particularly to its popular Falabella bag. [WWD]

• Cathy Horyn on the Sweden-inspired Rochas show: “If these clothes sound like costumes in a film in which strong-willed women dominate the scene, where there is probably a kitchen with good china and hunks of bread with plenty of butter, and no men around to seduce or flatter, then you have the picture.” [On the Runway/NYT]

• Christina Binkley on Nina Ricci: “The show began to feel more like an archive catalog than an edited collection.” [WSJ]

• Björk on Alexander McQueen: “I felt Lee’s raw connection with nature and birth and death was very refreshing. When I moved to London, being from Iceland, I sometimes found the self-importance in the UK’s obsession with the decay of its empire boring, to insist the whole world is dying with them. This urban apocalyptic aesthetic is still a bit overdriving, a bit teenage really … it mostly just reveals its impotency.” [GQ UK]

• Mary J. Blige’s sunglasses, which range from $150 to $250, hit stores today. [StyleWatch/People]

• Norma Kamali thinks the U.S. needs more workers. “China makes us look like we are walking backwards. The world is kicking the s–t out of us,” she said. [WWD]

• Duran Duran will perform at Fendi’s bash next week. [Elle]

• Ann Taylor executive Adrienne Lazarus will become the new president of Intermix. [WWD]

The Wall Street Journal declares retro sneakers back in style, crediting Chinese sneaker brand Feiyue with the trend. [WSJ]

Blog Helps Stella McCartney Profit; Cathy Horyn Pans Rochas