“Hosiery is a fabulous accessory and truly makes a woman’s outfit,” Daman says. “Having used DKNY legwear so often on Gossip Girl, it seemed completely natural for me to collaborate with a brand I love to work with.”

The packaging includes unique artwork by Dallas Shaw and pays homage to Eric’s and DKNY’s New York City roots. The collection is available for purchase at Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, DKNY and DKNY.com, ranging from $15 to $24.

Style council members teamed up  to talk to fashion students about how to make it in the industry, educate themselves about the creative process, and encourage them to join the “vitaminwater color collection” competition, a t-shirt design competition that leads to a $5,000 grant and a tshirt produced and sold through vitaminwater.  The FIT panel included Gossip Girl stylist Eric Daman, Elle’s creative director Joe Zee and CFDA designer Richard Chai.

Attendees got to hear about how youthful passion led all three industry experts to their respective careers today.  Regardless of whether you end up in magazines, as a designer, or styling television and movie sets like the panelists one theme rang strong:  be open minded to new opportunities, be creative, and always ask questions.

Fashion students sipped on Vitaminwater while listening to the wise words of the fashion elite.  And a special treat at the end?  Several lucky audience members walked away with iPad2′s, copies of Joe Zee and Eric Daman’s books, and a certain special someone got a cashmere cardigan designed by Richard Chai (lucky me!).

To find out more about the nationwide style council tour and to join the competition and get your lucky break, click here!

20110429-_JRC9325.jpg VitaminWater Multi City Event - NYC - Private Event FIT - Fred P. Pomerantz Art & Design New York, New York USA April 29, 2011 Photo by Joe Corrigan/WireImage.com To license this image (17506099), contact WireImage.com

20110429-_JRC9061.jpg VitaminWater Multi City Event - NYC - Private Event FIT - Fred P. Pomerantz Art & Design New York, New York USA April 29, 2011 Photo by Joe Corrigan/WireImage.com To license this image (17506021), contact WireImage.com

“You know, she was approached with a lot of other offers but I think she made a very wise choice,” Daman said. “I’m not surprised about the news. You know, she grew up loving Chanel, she’s a muse to Karl [Lagerfeld]. She’s beautiful, she really has become this icon and I think it was a very smart choice … It’s like a Princess Grace thing, but she’s also an all-American beauty while still being understood and appreciated in Europe. I think Karl is inspired with her because she’s like a breath of fresh air. She’s like a glistening disco ball, whenever you’re around her she sparkles.”

I grew up loving Chanel and would be happy to roll around in a tub of glitter every morning if it meant I could be the new face. Althought Lively is a pretty damn good choice who apparently needs no help from the sparkle department.

LINK LOVE: The Cut

At an age when many of us can’t even afford a couture gown let alone make one, Maxime Simoëns has joined the official Couture calendar. What’s even more impressive, he’s the first designer to do so without ever having staged a runway.  But before sending out his first painfully constructed garment down the Parisian runway this week, the young couturier shared his inspirations and insights with Style.com.

Your first interest was film. Why did you abandon it for fashion?

Starting from the age of five or six I was totally taken by James Dean, Charlie Chaplin, and Marilyn Monroe. Then I got to film school and found it too technical and scientific—all physics, math, chemistry. I wanted to express myself more concretely; I was thinking less about science and more about the narration of a heroine. Then came Madonna’s “Drowned” World Tour and I took one look at the costumes and silhouettes—and of course the corsets—by Jean Paul Gaultier, and I knew. I went home and started to draw. It totally threw my parents off because after ten years of talking about film I turned around and told them it was going to be fashion.

What happened once you arrived in Paris?

I attended the Chambre Syndicale, and I figured that since Gaultier was my inspiration my first internship should be there. It’s very complicated to get an internship there, so I knocked on all the doors I could, and then I hand-embroidered a letter on a corset that I made out of python and painted. It took my whole summer vacation—the corset, the packaging, everything. Mr. Gaultier never saw it, but his assistants did. It made the rounds in-house and that’s how I got my internship in the accessories department.

You also interned at Christian Dior and Balenciaga. What were the takeaways there?

I was an assistant stylist in the embroidery atelier at Dior. So much happens at the last minute that it was a lesson in working on a tight deadline. As an assistant stylist at Balenciaga I worked on inspirations and embroidery, especially prints. Once, two weeks before the show, we changed everything. It was sort of a liturgical theme, and then it was flowers. Working with Nicolas [Ghesquière] is great because he pushes everything to the limit.

How did the annual fashion and photography festival at Hyères become your launching pad?

Hyères is usually about a concept, but some journalists told me that my mini-collection of seven pieces had commercial potential. We presented at Hyères and found ourselves with orders for 600 pieces, which was enormous. I couldn’t work out of my apartment anymore; we had to really set up a house. Then, unexpectedly, the numbers doubled with the second collection. At the same time, Gossip Girl stylist Eric Daman was scouting for the Paris shoot and he liked the collection. It gave us great exposure, and we [Gossip Girl stars Blake Lively and Leighton Meester] hit it off.

Is that how the couture connection came about?

Didier Grumbach [president of the Fédération Française de la Couture] had encouraged me to participate in Couture week, but I wasn’t sure at first because couture seemed to me a bit old-fashioned. In the end I decided to do it because it wasn’t about aligning with an old image, it was about a new vision of couture. The timing is perfect because ready-to-wear arrives in stores a week later.

What is your take on couture?

For me it’s not about made-to-measure. It’s more about normalized sizing with French creativity and quality. There’s a whole French generation emerging that’s interested in preserving that tradition. Since we took over Lacroix’s old atelier, we have artisanal know-how to back us up and the capacity to deliver quickly. Those two factors make [creating couture] feasible. The idea with our atelier is to support the young coalition and help consolidate the new generation of French couture.

Who are this season’s heroines?

There’s a Sofia Coppola inspiration for both parts of the collection. The first, which I call “Cherry Blossom Girl,” is dedicated to sacrificial heroines like the teenage ones in Virgin Suicides, but with glamour, geometry, and elegance. The second part is called “This, Madame, Is Paris,” which is inspired by Marie Antoinette. For my first Couture show I wanted a theme that was very French, so I chose the absolute icon.

How do you render an icon of excess in neo-minimalist times?

Instead of panniers and frills I worked a lot on fabric, in mille-feuilles and prints. One print is black marble; another is lace transformed into jacquard that is slightly industrial; and another is a pixelated version of a painting the Queen commissioned for the Petit Trianon. Then you get to a heavier jacquard that I created from droplets of blood Photoshopped and reworked in color, thread by thread. But even if her end was somber, we focused on the lighter, iconic side of things—handmade flowers in leather, white gowns embroidered with stones. And there’s a chain theme to invoke the idea of being chained to one’s destiny.

Has Sofia Coppola seen the collection?

No, but she’s invited!

Link Love: Style.com

Gossip Girl costume designer Eric Daman on dressing Chuck Bass:

“Bass goes beyond my personal style, I wish I had the money and youth to carry off his looks. It’s just un rêve (a dream) to dress a womanizing straight boy in such dandy apparel. I’ve read blogs from different colleges that actually have Chuck Bass Fridays. There is a whole movement behind him and his wardrobe which is sooo gratifying because, lets face it, men really should dress better. There is no one favourite look, I just try to keep him up to par each episode, which is no easy task.”

LINKAGE: NY Mag via A Shaded View of Fashion

Eric Daman, stylist behind the Gossip Girl crew and creator of the GG inspired windows at Henri Bendel, talks about Chuck Bass:

“I love dressing Chuck Bass (played by Ed Westwick). I think we’ve worked to make his character dress really well. I want to try and pioneer a movement where straight men dress better.”

Funny quote, cuz it seems as though many are attempting to dress the straight male, yet once he is dressed, everyone starts to wonder if he is gay, or words like metro-sexual are thrown around. Why does the way a man dress have to do with his sexual preference? Why can’t men be groomed, take care of themselves, and dress fashionable without anyone questioning their sexuality? Have to give Eric props, for making Chuck Bass one of the shows most fashionable characters, but a pioneer he is not…all he did was bring back plaid.

Source: Fashionista via WWD