Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime show fashion designer sued by investors for 'extravagant lifestyle'
He made the body suit Beyoncé wore during her Super Bowl halftime show, but designer Rubin Singer is under a blitz from investors who say he stiffed them.
The 35-year-old couture creator is in haute water for blowing $560,000 in seed money to support an “extravagant lifestyle,” according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Investors who ponied up loans to help the New York City-based Singer launch his business, charge he threw away their dough on limousines, dating service subscriptions, a David Barton gym membership and a 2012 vacation to Thailand.
“Singer’s vacation had no business purpose,” the investors charged in the civil suit filed Wednesday.
One lender, Michael Lehr of San Francisco, says he used his personal credit card to loan Singer $160,000 to stay afloat only to have his credit ruined when the designer failed to pay him back.
Adding insult to injury, Lehr claims in the suit that he was working for equity in Singer’s original company, RSI, when his boss hit him up for the loan.
Another investor, Keith Kaplan of Los Angeles, introduced Singer to movers and shakers in the fashion world, including the fashion director of Neiman Marcus, where his clothes are now sold.
But when it came to paying Kaplan back, Singer turned out to be a deadbeat, the suit charges.
Singer used RSI as his personal cash machine and paid little attention to keeping track of his lavish expenses, the suit alleges.
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The fashion model's guide to Milan
This piece, and several others on Milan, complement the CNNGo TV series. Starting with a tour through the city with two top fashion models and a photographer, this month's CNNGo TV episode then ventures into the "fashion quadrangle," arguably the most fashionable shopping district on the planet, and also takes a trip to the city's most famed umbrella maker.
(CNN) -- Cabbies, concierges, local websites.
Traditional sources all, commonly used by travelers seeking local information.
But Italy's fashion capital of Milan is no common city.
In a place that feels
more like one big catwalk, swarming with models, the best guides to the
city are those closest to the fabulous action.
That's why we asked a panel of local glamour gurus to fashion a tour of the best places in Milan to get close to the beauty.
Fashion model Roberta
Defez has done photo shoots for Italian designer labels such as I
Ragazzi del Rosso and Gianmarco Rii and luxury hotel brand Belmond
Hotels. The Naples native works for the ICE Models Milan agency and has a degree in marketing and communications.
Also from ICE Models
Milan, Olga Lopatina, born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, is a showroom model
whose clients include Ermanno Scervino, Pinko, Diesel, Jil Sander and
Marlboro Classics. She speaks four languages and has degrees in foreign
languages and marketing.
Enrico Labriola is a well
known Italian fashion photographer who has shot for Grazia, Vogue
Italy, Max France and Paris Match. Clients include Pitti Immagine,
Dupont and Pomellato, and his work is regularly exhibited at the
Cannes' Fashion Photography Festival.
Below are the pros' picks for places models and fashionistas drink, eat, dance, shop and generally look hot.
Be prepared to bump into more than one.
Getting pretty
Before or after a runway walk, there's really no wrong time to hit one of Milan's luxury spas, salons and beauty parlors.
Vigal & Jus (Piazza della Repubblica 12; +39 02 3966 9451)
is a "beauty hotel" with the expected hair and beauty services, as well
as spa suites where models go to get the pretty on before a photo
session.
Services suggested by
our panel include baby-blond highlights and hot water stone massages
that come with aperitif and finger foods.
Enclosed within Renaissance stonewalls, Milan's thermal bath at QC Termemilano (Piazzale Medaglie d'Oro 2; +39 02 551 9936; from €45) are a favorite hangout of model Roberta Defez.
"At night, the blue LED lights have a soothing effect and you can sip a cocktail while nibbling on some fruit," she says.
Most Milan beauty parlors and spas also cater to men.
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Revolutionizing The Fashion Industry's Impact: Four Insights From A Top Social Entrepreneur
Canopy, an organization founded by Ashoka Fellow Nicole Rycroft, works to protect the world’s forest, species and climate by collaborating with over 700 businesses to create sustainable supply chains and innovative solutions to environmental challenges. Every year, an estimated 70 to 100 million trees are cut for fabric production globally – a number that is estimated to double in the next twenty years. If not reversed, treasured rainforests and threatened and endangered species around the world will be impacted. Some may vanish forever. And unsuspecting consumers are often not aware that ancient and endangered forests make their way into clothing.
Canopy’s new global initiative, Fashion Loved by Forest, brings together a variety of clothing-industry giants to address the apparel sector’s growing impacts on the world’s forests, biodiversity and climate. Last week, the world’s two largest clothing brands, H&M and Zara /Inditex , announced their commitment to work with Canopy to eliminate fabrics in their supply chain that are sourced from endangered forests – joining 20 other progressive brands and visionary designers.
Reflecting on the growing support for the Fashion Loved by Forest initiative, social entrepreneur Nicole Rycroft provided four valuable how-to’s for enabling cross-sector partnerships to foster a new industry trend:
1. Providing a Compelling Vision for the Partnership.
Canopy started with an underlying belief that business can be a powerful force for environmental change. While past campaigns or initiatives tended to point fingers at businesses for their failure to address social problems, newer models focus on business as part of the solution and actively encourage more corporate participation in fostering change.
2. Looking at how you can engage across an industry/Identifying the lever points within industry
Identify who are the likely early adopters, gatekeepers (those with largest market shares) and trendsetters (those with a history of bold leadership in sustainability). Mapping this out enabled Canopy to find the most strategic partners and develop influential networks that are positioned to establish new “norms of behaviour” in sustainability for the industry.
3. Listening and enabling honest exchanges of interests
Relationships are foundation to enabling collaborations and as such an environment that facilitates co-creation is integral. “How can we truly work together to create more sustainable supply chain systems?” is a question Rycroft notes is central to Canopy’s work and partnerships. Working closely with the fashion industry, Nicole is eager to understand the needs of business, the mechanics and inner workings of the clothing brands and what it takes for a company to be both economically successful and environmentally sustainable. This has helped her, and Canopy, in being able to co-create solutions suitable for the scale of the ecological problems faced by our societies.
4. Identifying societal shifts affecting your industry
Globally, we are witnessing a rise in social consciousness, with consumers wanting to understand the origins and true impacts of the products they buy. Canopy and Fashion Loved by Forest partner brands are taking bold steps to ensure business can effectively address their customers’ concerns by transforming their supply chain to offer more responsibly-sourced clothing. Identifying and working constructively with progressive companies willing to be ahead of the curve – to embrace change before issues become front-page controversies – is an integral part of Canopy’s success.
These four themes underpin Rycroft and Canopy’s track record of high impact, innovative collaborations. Best known for “greening” the Harry Potter book series by working with JK Rowling and her publishers, the Fashion Loved by Forest initiative is the latest in this social entrepreneur’s endeavour to drive a tipping point of change in the world’s consumption – production systems.
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See the Winning Images From Last Night's Episode of 'The Face'
"It's no secret that the fashion industry is enamored by [androgyny]," said ELLE's own Joe Zee, who appeared as this week's judge. "You want to convey a sense of sensuality; you want to convey a sense of mystery." The prize on the line for this competition? A feature right here on ELLE.com—a fitting primer for the ultimate winner of The Face, who will appear in the pages of the magazine.
Some of the contestants struggled with the challenge, which was really a test of their versatility (a non-negotiable for any model hoping to make it big in the industry). But with the help of their model mentors and none other than RuPaul, the girls who thrived were the ones who stuck with the guidelines that host Nigel Barker offered at the beginning: Tell a story, make a connection, and remain believable.
Team Naomi did just that, as contestants Felisa and Afiya embraced their characters beautifully and weren't fazed by the fact that they were posing with one of the biggest modeling icons of all time.
"I don't know where the story is going, but I want to know more," Joe Zee praised as he viewed the winning photos. "I have to say, those girls held their own." We wholeheartedly agree—and don't these images say it all? Congratulations, Team Naomi!
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Model Josephine Skriver on Her Latest Venture in LGBTQ Advocacy
"My mom always taught me to be proud of who I was and to be proud of my family, so from a very early age, it always felt like second nature for me to speak up," she says. "From the moment I realized that not everyone thought it was an okay scenario for kids to be in, it kind of became my secret mission to show the world that they weren't right about my family—nor would [my upbringing] affect me in a negative way."
Perhaps her mission was "secret" as an adolescent, but now, Skriver is completely transparent about her advocacy. In fact, she just announced her new partnership with the Family Equality Council's Outspoken Generation program, which encourages children with gay parents to raise positive awareness with their personal stories. Skriver opened up to us about this new collaboration, her own experience, and how the fashion industry has played a role in her decision to speak up.
Tell me about the Outspoken Generation program and how you plan on working as an advocate.
The Outspoken Generation program wants to empower
everyone with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ)
parents to speak up, both to support and to protect the countless LGBTQ
families across the world. I will be sharing my own story locally,
nationally, and even internationally with everyone from students to
politicians. Right now, I feel that it's time for me and fellow children
of LGBTQ parents to no longer remain silent. We really need to show
that the love expressed in our own families is no different; that we
also want to share the same, unconditional love to everyone else in the
world.
We found out about your new gig via an announcement from your agency, The Society Management. Even though this is obviously a very personal cause for you, how do you link it with your career as a model?
I have never been afraid of voicing my opinions on the
subject, and I have always been the family's frontrunner when it came
to showing how proud I was of everything they represented. I have always
jumped at any chance I could to provide for this cause, and [I was
always] the one dragging my family to Pride parades. At 15, I even went
to visit an international school in Norway to do a speech about how it
was growing up in a LGBTQ family.
Being a model and a more public figure has given me a much bigger
voice and platform to do this kind of outreach, and it's also a new
responsibility. I would feel it to be such a waste if I didn't use the
opportunity I have right now. So no, I don't really find it strange that
the announcement sprung from my agency, The Society. I am just really
grateful to have such an amazing team behind me to help me fight for the
things I really care about!What do you think is the biggest obstacle for the LGBTQ community right now? What steps do we need to take to overcome this?
It might seem like a simple thing or a hard thing to
change, but my biggest goal has always been to try to change the
assumptions many have about gay couples' ability to be great parents. I
wish people would understand that they are just the same as everyone
else, they just have a different preference when it comes to love.
Have you found the fashion industry to be supportive of this cause?
The fashion industry has only shwn me support when it
comes to this cause. It's so open-minded to all kinds of people, and
it's a very embracing industry to work with. That is best shown by just
how many members from the LGBTQ community actually do work and succeed
in this business.
How do you see your advocacy taking shape in the next several years? Do you intend for this to become a full-time effort, or just something to continue to do alongside modeling?
I believe my platform as a model can help a lot more
people. By having this career on top of the upcoming advocacy work, I
totally see myself becoming a lot more involved in active cases and
causes over the next few years. But at the same time, I still hope to
keep growing as a model...and hopefully a role model for some, as well.
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Michelle Williams Stars in New Louis Vuitton Campaign
Louis Vuitton has tapped Michelle Williams for a second time as the face of the brand's latest accessories
campaign. The actress, who appeared in the label's fall ads last year,
is back for spring, posing atop a bicycle, in a suitcase, and showing
off, among other pieces, a new version of the Lockit bag, set to hit
stores this July.
In the ads, the 33-year-old star sports a tousled platinum 'do and matching lips and nails in gorgeous, bold pink hues. Shot by Peter Lindbergh and styled by Carine Roitfeld, Williams adopts her best "ain't no thang" attitude in the images, leaning up against a wall, and standing around barefoot in impeccable Louis Vuitton, like she does it on the regular. If this is what spring looks like, warm days can't come soon enough.
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Man Skorts, Speedos, and Boys in Birkenstocks at Jeffrey Fashion Cares
They drank together right up until one second before they had to get dressed. “Don’t worry everyone, you can get a fresh drink as soon as you are done,” one woman from the production team told them. They were all relieved to hear such news.
All 42 of them were dressed in less than 10 minutes flat. Those are record times.
11 models rocked Birkenstock or Teva-like sandals. Not one of them complained about it.
10 of them wore ab-baring looks. Since all of them had glistening six-pack abs, that made for 60 abs on display in total. (FYI, they don’t naturally shine like that, they are heavily greased up by a team of makeup artists.)
It’s not easy being an Adonis. We spotted all 10 of the dudes baring extra skin doing some sort of pre-show workout, including squats, planks (on top of each other, no less), boxing jabs, various yoga poses, and of course, push-ups. How many push-ups? We saw one ambitious man whip out 50 before he took the runway.
Only three guys wore Speedos. Fun fact: They wear Calvin Klein briefs underneath those teeny, tiny Speedos.
Two sported Givenchy man skorts. Let’s just say skorts have never looked so sexy.
They revealed their super, top-secret beauty tricks in under a half minute. “I don’t really do anything. I put gel in my hair to make for a clean look, and I use moisturizer,” explained model Noma Han. Must be nice.
Afterwards, no one was kiss-kissing each other. There were fists pounded and high-fives exchanged. Way to go, bro.
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A Snake Walked the Runway at Australia Fashion Week
Here's the snake (and very brave model) in action, as captured by our very own Danielle Prescod, who is currently across the globe and keeping us up to speed on all things fashionable Down Under:
First of all, kudos to that catwalker. That's a fearless move, especially when your only form of protection is a couple of inches of swimsuit material. Second of all, this looks wonderfully familiar.
It's not Britney (bitch), but I'd like to think that this was some kind of homage to the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. If that is the case, then well played, We Are Handsome, well played.
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