Wave Goodbye

I thought I had today's blog all planned out last night when I decided to stay in at the end of a long work day, rather than go out to an event, and fortuitously discover the absolutely gorgeous transsexual India Brooks on Kathy Griffin's show last night. How beautiful is she, I thought, and who is she?

Alas, news about Peter Som leaving Bill Blass just seems too monumental to ignore, so India will have to be noted on my mental list of "Things to Blog About", a list which seems to grow larger each day.

So, should this come as a big surprise after all the financial hullabaloo clouding NexCen, Blass' parent company? Well, not really. I guess a better question to be asked is, just how much did NexCen know about the business of fashion to start with? I mean, they are known for a portfolio of brands that focus well, primarily on junk food: Marble Slab Creamery, Pretzel Time, Pretzelmaker & Great American Cookies. The only other brand remotely in the area of fashion is The Athlete's Foot.

So word is that Som left after the bigwigs at NexCen decided to cancel the pricey runway show in September. But apparently the tension had been mounting for some time as the suits had wanted to exercise control over Som's creative vision, which always makes for a very sticky situation.

Some time ago, The New York Times did an article on NexCen when news first broke about the financial woes, and there was one point I just couldn't get over: their big idea for Bill Blass designers to design apparel for The Athlete’s Foot. It was all a part of their plan to create synergies among their portfolio of brands. Are you kidding me? If that was true, I can just imagine the kind of "suggestions" Som had to listen to every single day, and the thought of them simply make me shudder.