Cheryl Shops

I was going to post about this last Thursday, but my Internet was down (thanks, Time Warner!), but luckily now there's even more good masstige news to share.

Last week Target hosted a Zac Posen Go International pop-up shop for slightly over 24 hours at the New Yorker hotel, and I was lucky to attend the press preview. By the time I got there at 8, the racks were already dilapidated; I managed to snag my favorite dress (the one I had blogged about earlier this month) in an XL, which was far too large. However, as is always the case, it's good to make friends with the salesgirls, because it turned out they had a bunch more in the back. So I ended up with my favorite dress, in my size. My only quibble is that it's polyester, but it's pretty nice polyester (is that an oxymoron?), and for $39.99, I suppose I can't complain too much. There's also a cute version of this dress in solid pink, a navy grommeted dress that went quickly, and a safety pin-print dress was extremely popular. The one-piece swimsuits looked pretty good to me too, however I can't wear them (I have a freakishly short torso). The Zac pop-up shop is long gone, but the collection hits stores this Sunday, April 25th.

In the meantime, Target's Cynthia Vincent and Eugenia Kim collaborations are now available on the site--in theory. All that's left of the Cynthia Vincent shoes are the strappy heel and the flat sandals (the wedges are, unfortunately, long gone). It appears that most, if not all, of the Eugenia Kim hats are still available, however.

In super-exciting news, Brooklyn-based designers (whom I saw walking down Clinton Street Sunday afternoon) Costello Tagliapietra are designing a line for Uniqlo! The lumberjack-ish duo are known for their gorgeously draped dresses, and they set out to create a work-friendly collection, which will retail for a very nice $29-$39, so you can buy two or three or everything in the line, which I am contemplating. The dresses hit Uniqlo May 20th. Looks like I'll be, ahem, late to work that day.

Finally, if you can't wait till May (or till this weekend), here's a masstige collection you can shop right now: Richard Chai and Jeremy Scott have teamed up with Alternative Apparel to create knits exclusively for Refinery 29. Prices are a big higher than your usual masstige collaboration, but tops like the one pictured are a luxe modal/silk blend and thus a step above the average. The line will be available only for a month, so shop now or forever hold your peace.

MasstigeWatch! Target edition
Note: I am having trouble uploading images. My apologies for the visual boringness of this post.
I went to the Target in good ol' tax-free Salem, New Hampshire this weekend, and as happy as I am to have a Target nearby in Brooklyn, going to a Target in the suburbs is a completely different experience: the shelves are stocked, there aren't thousands of people everywhere, and, in all, it's a positively transporting experience. So I was happy to see, a day early, that their Richard Chai Go International collection was out on the racks--not every single piece, but a good percentage of it nonetheless. I only ended up buying this striped top (which is a lot cuter than it looks in the picture), but I tried on a bunch of other stuff. The voile top had the potential to be awesome, but on me, it looked like a maternity top. The floral-print dress, while not exactly my style, was really cute, and its classic shape will flatter a bunch of body types. I really liked this sleeveless black dress, but ended up not buying it because, really, the last thing I need is another black dress. I also really liked the long cardigan, but thought the color was going to be more of a dark purple, as opposed to a bluish lavender. Still, it's a cotton-cashmere blend, so the feel is very soft, and I like the longer length. I tried on the zip-front skirt too, and while it was cute, it was also about three inches shorter than what I can get away with for work. Although I had been really excited about it, I didn't try on the crinkled colorblock dress--it's 100% polyester and, well, looks it. The highlight for me, however, is that I was able to score a few of the far superior Rogan pieces--the romper and the mint green blazer--on mega-clearance. Yay for unfashionable New Hampshire!

While in Target, I also was able to check out all of the Botkier bags; the magenta and plain black bags were the best-looking; all of the metallics and animal-printed ones were jankety-janky-looking. Brooklyn's own Hayden-Harnett is supposedly the next accessories collaboration; let's hope they come up with better product than the last few.

MasstigeWatch!
I was very excited to hear about the upcoming Richard Chai for Target collection; Chai is an exceptionally talented designer, and while I think it's awesome that he's BFF with Phillip Lim, Chai should be getting just as much attention as Lim. Hopefully his collaboration with Target will help raise his profile. Nylon has the first images (with an even bigger story in the magazine's August issue), and while I was definitely expecting something more minimal, there are some great pieces. My favorite outfit is the one at right--I'm a sucker for a good cardigan, and I only hope it's not made out of something janky like acrylic. The collection drops sometime in August; more details to follow.

Fashion news roundup
Nominees for the CFDA awards have been announced; Proenza Schouler, Marc Jacobs, and Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein are vying for the womenswear prize. Winners will be announced June 2nd. If beauty is more your thing, Fashionista has the full list of nominees for the CEW awards, which will be announced May 2nd.

In high fashion news, Paulo Melim Andersson is out at Chloe; he'll be replaced by Hannah MacGibbon, who worked at the label under the sorely missed Phoebe Philo. Word on the street seems to be that Andersson's collections were fairly well received by the press, but not so much by Chloe's loyal clientele. Personally, Andersson's designs were a bit too Marni for me, and while I love me some Marni, well, I'd rather go straight to the source. Let's hope MacGibbon brings the label back to its feminine roots.

Finally, for the MasstigeWatchers out there, Glamour's Slaves to Fashion blog was the first to confirm that Richard Chai is Target's next Go International designer! (I posted about the rumor back in January.) Word is that the Rogan Gregory collection is all swimsuits, so I'm guessing this one will be for late summer or early fall. I am very excited--Richard Chai is one of my favorite up-and-coming designers!

MasstigeWatch!
Pierre Hardy's capsule collection for the Gap has yet to hit the shelves, but already there's another masstige rumor: The Fashion Informer reports that everyone's favorite downtown design collective ThreeAsFour might design a line for the Gap. No details available yet, but stay posted...

Yesterday's Women's Wear Daily [subscription required] was packed with informative articles (on a sad side note, I learned that Active Endeavors has closed all of its Chicago stores to focus on its Internet business). And buried at the very end of this one about very-much-underappreciated designer Richard Chai finally getting major financial backing, was this little chestnut:

Chai's design touch may be found elsewhere next year should he become the next guest designer for Target's Go International initiative. Chai declined to comment.

Let me be the first to say that if this rumor is indeed true (which most of the Target rumors tend to be), I will be so incredibly psyched. Chai makes gorgeously constructed clothes that float about the wearer in an effortlessly chic manner, and while the thought of Target trying to reproduce his draping techniques makes me a bit nervous, if two good pieces come out of the collection, well, that will be enough for me. (If you can't wait, however, Chicago's excellent Jake has several Chai pieces for sale, including this stellar dress, which has been marked way down from its original price of $1795.) I will, of course, report any further details, should they arise.