Designer Daily: Donna Distefano

Edited by Jessica Lapidos

You like your jewelry handmade locally. You value the artist and the precious stones and gold as the natural and manifested wonder they are. Sadly much of the metals and jewels harvested for jewelry comes from suspect places. Places that send children into mines and practice unjust businesses have their product widespread. Which is why Donna Distefano is strictly conscious about where she sources her stones and metals. She gets her rubies and sapphires from community run mines Malawi; they are the finest. She found clean artisan diamonds in Botswana. The problem you run into with gold is that mercury naturally leeches gold out of the earth, causing awful effects to biodiversity. Instead, she only uses recycled gold, and she gives a far better price than those guys in the CASH FOR GOLD commercials. She learned the ancient goldsmith methods from her work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and now she makes each piece in the same space she sells her work directly. 

INDIE NEWSROOM: Submit to Sozzani…McQueen Hits Half-Mil…Gaga Nails BlackBerry

Edited by Jorge Martinez-Garza

- Is your current boss not enough of a bipolar bitch? Well, Franca Sozzani is looking for contributors for her new Vogue Italia project. [Fashionista]

The Weekly Beforecast — Missed Morsels from May 9th-13th

Edited by Lester Brathwaite

- I think it’s safe to say the Met’s Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibit is fairly popular.

Guinness Wants to Bring Blow to the Masses

Edited by Lester Brathwaite

Socialite, heiress, fashion icon and occasional window dresser Daphne Guinness spoke about dear departed friend, editor Isabella Blow during an exclusive tour of the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit at the Met last week. Having bought Blow’s wardrobe to prevent its auction, Guinness now wants to  display them, perhaps via a virtual museum.

MUSE OF THE WORLD: Condé Nast Continues Its Downward Spiral, ALT Is Modest As Usual and You Too Can Smell Like a Duchess

Edited by Lester Brathwaite

- Condé Nast is going down in flames, mostly because I’m burning it to the ground as we speak. On the heels of Rihanna disgracing the cover of Vogue and Justin Bieber bringing his fever to Vanity Fair, Katy Perry is the latest popstar to cheapen the CN brand, tarting it up on the cover of June’s Vanity Fair as shot by Annie Leibovitz. Meanwhile, Liz Taylor’s Final Days are relegated to a banner. Give me “Diamonds, sharks, gay bars and the most bizarre road trip ever” over an alleged singer any day of the week. [Vanity Fair]

In Love And Fashion: Met Gala’s 5 Most Stylish Couples

Edited by Samantha Lim

Love was in the air at the Met Gala last night, and fashionable couples posed on the red carpet in their most dapper attire.  Click through to see our 5 favorite:  

MUSE OF THE WORLD: McQueen at the Met a Study in Romance; J. Crew Is Here, Queer, Get Into It; Proenza is Ready to Play Dress-Up

Edited by Lester Brathwaite

- At the McQueen press preview this morning, Stella McCartney and Sarah Burton shared their thoughts while Philip Treacy got a little misty-eyed over the Andrew Bolton-curated Alexander McQueen:Savage Beauty. Instead of a chronological trek through McQueenland, Bolton organized the exhibit into six themes: The Romantic Mind, Romantic Gothic, Romantic Nationalism, Romantic Exoticism, Romantic Primitivism, and Romantic Naturalism. I’ll be live-tweeting my experience at the Met tomorrow morning if you’re interested in seeing what Romantic Hysterical Crying looks like over Fashion Indie‘s Twitter, @fashionindie.  [Style File]

Bookclubbin’: The Other Side of the Picture by Olivier Theyskens

Edited by Lester Brathwaite

Olivier Theyskens is one of the most singular designers in fashion today. His clothes are brooding, dramatic, poetic and above all beautiful, much like the designer himself. Shortly after dropping out of Belgium’s La Cambre Art Academy, one of his gowns ended up on Madonna‘s mannish back at the 1998 Oscars, thus propelling him to stardom. Documenting Theyskens road from precocious art star to his four seasons at Rochas and finally his brilliant but short-lived tenure at Nina Ricci was photographer Julien Claessens, whose haunting photos add another dimension to Theyskens sartorial creations and form the backbone for The Other Side of the Picture (Assouline, 2010).

FASHION SCRAMBLE: Royal Wedding Family Portraits + The McQueen Factor + DNA Sues Ford

Edited by Lester Brathwaite

- The official Royal Wedding photos are out and are adorable. Shot by Hugo Burnand, the royal family and the Middletons gathered in the the throne room of Buckingham Palace for a family portrait, Windsor style. Meanwhile, the design community has weighed in on Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge‘s Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding dress and the overall opinion is “You go, girl.” [Fashionologie]

Big Girls Do Cry. Miuccia Prada Bans Fatties From Production of Attila

Edited by Saynt

The designer behind Miu Miu and Prada apparently only likes her girls one size: model.

While working on the upcoming production of “Attila” for the Metropolitan Opera, the designer reportedly refused to work on the “curvy” performers, stating that she only designs for the insanely thin.