Don’t Miss A Link
One of the highlights of a Fendi show is always the accessories, and Silvia Venturini Fendi’s bags for her family’s house are deservedly adored. But don’t miss the jewelry this season—if you ask us, it’s the must-buy from Lagerfeld and Fendi’s strong new collection. All the action is on the wrist this time around, with oversized, chain-link bracelets piling on top of colorful, graphic watches, and F-clasp enamel bangles. Blink and you might’ve missed them as they sped down the runway-which reason enough to give a close look through all of our runway details. Click here to see close-ups of the Fendi jewelry, bags,Discount Tiffany Jewelry, and shoes, and click the details tab here for all of the Spring 2011 detail shots we’ve run so far.
Photo: Gianni Pucci / GoRunway.com
The Latest From London
Some arena-playing rock bands travel less than young London’s designers. Those blessed by the British Fashion Council as part of the roving London Showrooms coterie have been on a whistle-stop world tour of late, hitting Paris, Hong Kong, L.A., and now, finally, New York, where they set up shop this morning to show their Spring wares to U.S.-based editors and buyers. To judge from the group assembled—including James Long, Thomas Tait, J.W. Anderson,wholesale Ed hardy Kids, Holly Fulton, Louise Gray, Marios Schwab, and milliner Nasir Mazhar—the journey may have tired them, but it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm. Almost every designer queried revealed he or she had picked up international stockists along the way; among the city’s reigning favorites, Long and Anderson drew the most attention, but even the youngest in the crowd can now boast increased U.S. visibility. Central Saint Martins grad Simone Rocha, who showed her first solo outing this Spring after a few seasons under the umbrella of Fashion East, now sells her vintage-lace dresses, fluoro tulle sheer layering skirts, and plastic raincoats at Opening Ceremony. Craig Lawrence, a 2011 NEWGEN winner who showed loose-weave knits and cropped, elasticized jumpers, is at several Henry Beguelin locations. Interested buyers were swarming, suggesting more reach is at hand for many present.
New categories and techniques were on display, too. Jeweler and sculptor Jordan Askill introduced pieces with ethical amethyst, sourced from a mine in Zambia, which he worked into silver pieces with his trademark swallows (below left). (A giant swallow cuff, which opened to reveal a hidden compartment, blurred the line between his two pursuits.) Also in the new collection were his first fine-jewelry pieces, with tiny diamonds surrounding a faceted, hand-carved swallow pendant. Holly Fulton had begun working with mother-of-pearl for accessories and real seashells for statement-making jackets; the trick, she confided, is finding shells of uniform shape. Tait, whose finely wrought, voluminous pieces suggest Couture shapes, had a surprising new footwear collaboration: a set of crisscrossed trainers he designed with Nike. (He was wearing a pair himself, as was a model; he had no plans to produce them, he revealed, but persistent interest on the part of buyers may change all that.) And Sibling’s Cozette McCreery was on hand to show off her knitwear label’s first official women’s line, Sister by Sibling. Women had been ordering small men’s sizes for so long, she said, that she and her co-designers, Sid Bryan and Joe Bates, decided finally to cut and knit for them. They were cropped neon and sequin leopard tops (left) and two complementary, sweatshirt-style sweaters emblazoned with the words LOVE and HATE. They’d sold, she said, about evenly, though she expected more interest in LOVE. Call it a knitted insight into the human race.
—Matthew Schneier
Photos: Courtesy of Sibling; Courtesy of Jordan Askill
Appeals court weighs next steps in BofA mortgage deal
NEW YORK (Reuters) Legal wrangling over the proposed $8.5 billion settlement of some of Bank of America Corp’s (BAC.N) mortgage-backed securities liability could drag through the courts for years, a top appeals court judge said during arguments in the case.
The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York is weighing whether last June’s Bank of America accord, which has been closely watched by other banks and bondholders, is a matter for federal court review or belongs in state court where it was first filed.
The settlement was intended to help Bank of America address much of its remaining legal liability from its ill-fated 2008 purchase of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. But some investors have challenged the deal,wholesale Coogi jeans, saying the payout is too low and want it to get more scrutiny from a federal judge.
Regardless of what the appeals court decides, the case “could come back to us,” Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs said on Wednesday.
Jacobs and two other appeals judges did not indicate how they would rule.
Robert Madden, a lawyer for about two dozen institutional investors with tens billions of dollars at stake in the settlement, said at the hearing the matter could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The investors he represents, including BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) and Allianz SE’s (ALVG.DE) Pimco, believe the settlement should be returned to state court, as does Bank of America and trustee Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK.N).
Madden told the three-judge panel that more litigation surrounding the settlement could lead to the federal judge’s work turning out “to be a waste of time.”
The Bank of America pact was intended to address claims by investors who said the seemingly safe securities they bought proved toxic because they were backed by risky home loans based on faulty underwriting practices.
The agreement, which applied to 530 mortgage securitization trusts with $174 billion of unpaid principal, was seen as a template for other banks facing mortgage-backed securities breach-of-contract claims.
The same law firm that negotiated the Bank of America pact for institutional investors, Gibbs & Bruns, has also sent demands for an investigation to trustees overseeing mortgage securities sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N). If the settlement remains tied up in court, it could potentially also delay resolution of similar claims against other banks.
Initially, the Bank of America settlement was sent to a New York State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan to review. It was in state court that the parties used a New York trust law known as Article 77 that is normally reserved for resolving family trust issues.
But the agreement drew criticism from investors, including a group known as Walnut Place LLC, who were not part of the talks, but would be bound by the settlement terms. They complained the $8.5 billion payout was too low and wanted the case moved to federal court for more review. Walnut Place is the hedge fund Baupost Group, according to court documents.
In October, U.S. District Judge William Pauley ruled that the proposed settlement belonged in his court, citing “core federal interests” in the integrity of banks and securities markets.
Jacobs indicated on Wednesday that, even if the appeals panel affirmed Pauley’s decision and he eventually signed off on a settlement in federal court, the litigation would not end there.
Appeals court Judges Peter Hall and Raymond Lohier were also on Wednesday’s panel. Hall focused on arguments by Walnut Place that the accord was a “mass action” involving hundreds of trusts.
“I don’t even see it as a mass action because it didn’t start out as such,” Hall said during the one-hour long hearing, referring to the case’s introduction in state court as a settlement rather than a lawsuit on behalf of a class of plaintiffs.
The case is Bank of New York Mellon v. Walnut Place LLC et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 11-4571.
(Reporting By Grant McCool and Alison Frankel; Editing by Martha Graybow and Andre Grenon)
Travis Porter member faces airport gun charge
ATLANTA Police say a member of the rap group Travis Porter was arrested when he tried to go through a security checkpoint at the Atlanta airport with a loaded gun.,Discount Louis Vuitton sunglasses
Atlanta police say 21-year-old Harold Duncan Jr. had a Glock .45 caliber handgun in his carry-on luggage. Screeners discovered the gun around 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Duncan was being held in Clayton County jail without bond, and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. The jail website says that Duncan is charged with carrying a weapon in an unauthorized location.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer. A media contact listed on the group’s website didn’t immediately respond to an email Wednesday evening. The group’s hits include “Go Shorty Go.”
The TSA says passengers can transport unloaded guns in a proper carrying case in checked luggage, but firearms are prohibited in carry-on bags.