Styles by Claudia Blog

Archive for August, 2009

“Life is an endless struggle full of frustrations and challenges, but eventually you find a hair stylist you like.”
Author Unknown

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“I’m not offended by all the dumb-blonde jokes because I know that I’m not dumb. I also know I’m not blonde.”
Dolly Parton

In the 1980s, those newly prosperous from the economic boom opted for mall bangs, poodle perms, and voluminous hair. Melanie Griffith showed that the first step on the woman’s career ladder involved the shortening and taming of such “big” hair in the hit ‘8os movie Working Girl.

Lady Diana’s 1981 wedding made all us commoners around the world realize that dreams do come true if you have a short, elegantly layered hair. In 1988, Sinead O’Connor’s shaved head, combined with soft features, paved the way for all quiet, modem renegades, and dreads went glam as singer Lauryn Hill hit the charts that same year. Superstar Madonna started a revolutionary career with her controversial lyrics and stage moves combined with her wild, long, sometimes choppy, highlighted, root-infested tresses. The pop star exemplified a woman’s right and capability to change her appearance as often as she liked, as was evident in the endless hair colors and styles she sported throughout the decade and beyond.

Change was the mantra of supermodel Linda Evangelista in the early 1990’s. Because she constantly varied her hair’s hue, length, and style, Linda’s pictures in national women’s magazines and her struts down designer catwalks were always anticipated. Anti-pop became the popular in the 1990S, and grunge rocker Courtney Love’s dark-rooted platinum look started the 1990s off with a screaming rant.

By 1994, more conservative masses had found their “friend” in Jennifer Aniston’s layered, angled shag cut. In the late ‘90S, middle-parted, quick-styled, long, straight, pale blond hair rose to stardom on the heads of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Gwyneth Paltrow, perhaps in response to the 1995 international agreement to eliminate the production of chlorofluorocarbons found in aerosols.. At the turn of yet another millennium, actress Sarah Jessica Parker graced the small screen prompting widespread adoption of flowing, curly locks.

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“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” – David Bowie

By the 1950s, highlighting was the driving trend as was Lucille Ball’s flaming red mane. Doris Day’s helmet-hair inspired fans and Audrey Hepburn’s image in “Roman Holiday” mobilized the modern pixie cut. Brigitte Bardot’s “sauerkraut” (a.k.a. choucroute), a structured yet wavy do, was the thing to emulate. Clairol’s “Does She or Doesn’t She?” advertising campaign reassured women that it was acceptable to color their hair. Housewives had a staid role in our 1950s and ‘6os society, and their hairstyles revealed that fact. In the ‘5os, the homemaker’s hairdo was conservative, and in the ‘6os, women wore stiff Dynel wigs and toyed with the idea of wearing falls for Supremos-inspired styles. Toward the end of the era, beehives and bouffants became popular with the availability of hair spray and the trend toward a more carefree lifestyle.

For the first time ever in any fashion era, the 1960’s allowed the young became the leaders of fashion. They led with new and radically innovative fashion styles, with little girl-woman looks for women that swept away the sophisticated sweater girls of the early sixties. The picture of Twiggy in the header defines her as the epitome of the sixties baby doll woman. Twiggy’s wore hair short and boyish in a no-fuss fashion that abruptly ended the harsher ’50s styles.
The freedom of the 1960s was expressed even in popular hairstyles. People let their hair down and there was a distinct movement toward trading gender norms in hairstyles. British rock sensations the Beatles wore their hair long, a style generally out of fashion since the 19th century. In 1963, Vidal Sassoon started issuing easy, wash-and-dry looks. Nearing the end of the decade, hair was also worn naturally long.

In the 1970s, the musical Hair hearkened back to the rebellious lifestyle and sexual revolution of the late 1960s and early ‘70S, and Angel Davis’s Afro became a symbol of black pride. Punk first emerged in the mid 1970s in London as an anarchic and aggressive movement. About 200 young people defined themselves as an anti-fashion urban youth street culture. Punks cut up old clothes from charity and thrift shops, destroyed the fabric and refashioned outfits in a manner then thought a crude construction technique, making garments designed to attract attention. It deconstructed garments into new forms. Whilst torn fabrics, frayed edges and defaced prints are now considered normal in the 21st century, in the 1970s it shocked many people, because it had never been seen before. Until then fabric had been treated as a material to keep as pristine, new looking and beautiful as possible.

Extremes like Grace Jones’s forceful box cut and frosted wings defined the disco look, while Gloria Steinem’s simple straight hair with a center part offered an anti-style statement. The clothes suited the lifestyle of those with limited cash due to unemployment and the general low income school leavers or students often experience. Vivian Westwood launched alone renaming the same shop as ‘World’s End’. Westwood was soon translating her ideas into the fresher Pirate and Romantic looks. The collections were innovative, but were spoken of as unwearable, yet so often other designers picked up on ideas she had instigated and soon started another new trend.

By 1970 women chose who they wanted to be and if they felt like wearing a short mini skirt one day and a maxi dress, midi skirt or hot pants the next day – that’s what they did. The feathered hair of “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett was the decade’s most copied do. Variations of African-American braids were popularized in 1975, and Dorothy Hamill’s short, layered wedge became a sporty trademark in 1976 after she won the Olympic gold medal for figure skating. But even as Dorothy spun, punk rock brought purple, blue, green, and orange Mohawks into focus. Cornrows were a “10″ in 1979, a la Bo Derek.

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Belajon – The first real breakthrough in cleansing technology since the invention of shampoo.

It’s all about the water! Most people nowadays wouldn’t think about drinking water from the tap. Our cities water is infused with chlorine to kill the bacteria. Also many city water supplies contain copper, magnesium and other minerals. But here is the simple truth; city water contains minerals and minerals accelerate color fadage and make hair dry and brittle.

Well water is not much better. It’s often loaded with minerals such as calcium, magnesium, sulfur and many more.

All of these weigh down hair and negatively affect color.

Enter Belajon – The sulfate / PABA free Belajon H20 Neutralizing Technology actually naturalizes chlorine, copper, calcium and magnesium. It turns tap water in the bottled water every time you shampoo!

This shampoo / conditioner combination keeps hair at a ph of 5.5/6. It’s this perfect balance that keeps hair color from fading. Also the Belajon Conditioner uses Protein Mapping, which provides an efficient protein delivery at sensory markers directed to damaged sites.

A simple test can be done right in front of the client. Take a small white cup or clear glass full of water from the shampoo bowl. Ad five drops of OTO (Orthotolidine, for testing pool chlorine) the water will turn yellow or yellow /green. Then ad three or four drops of Belajon Shampoo to the water. The water will instantly turn a light blue. At this point the chlorine is neutralized. Then, several minutes later it will turn a light, cloudy white.

This is the Belajon Guarantee – You will feel the difference the very first time you use it. If you are not in love with the way your hair feels and if you do not see greater color performance, return it for a full refund!

As a stylist who’s been privileged to use and test Belajon, I can only say the outcome has been incredible. I’ve used many great products over the years but never have I used one where the client and I will both feel and see the results immediately after the first shampoo and even before doing the conditioning! Clients will touch their hair and say “What did you just do, it feels amazing?” – Claudia Diesti

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“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” – Coco Chanel

While corsets were drawn tighter than ever, chignon fillers like braids and swatches were wrapped around thin hair coils to resemble fuller heads of hair. Creative invention didn’t stop there; it only flourished.
The socio /economic changes that occurred and were accepted during 1914-18, changed the role of women much more than the small amount of campaigning liberated ladies could ever have achieved.
As in many other fields, the 20th century brought invention to the hair and fashion industry that dramatically changed everything.

In 1907, the first chemical hair color formula was born—named Aureole by its originator, Eugene Schueller, and then later renamed L’Oreal. Charles Nestle invented the first permanent-wave machine in 1905. Madame CJ. Walker began selling hair care products for African-Americans in 1906, which later became a multimillion-dollar business.

In 1917, the double-process blonding technique was invented, giving blondes worldwide more fun than ever! Inspired by the vacuum-cleaner hose, the first hair dryer was invented in 1920, blowing away the old air-drying methods. By 1925, there were already 25,000 beauty parlors in the United States! Breck International set up shop in the 1930s.
Sisters Maria and Rosie Carita opened a beauty salon in Paris in the 1940S.

Present-day conditioner was created in the 1950s, when chemists discovered that ingredients used in fabric softeners could also soften hair. The aerosol spray can was invented in 1956, making hair spray possible—and, therefore, probable. Redken popularized pH-balanced and protein-enriched shampoos for better conditioning in the 1960s.

In 1971, the first hand-held blow-dryer limited trips to the salon by making it easy to simply “blow and go,” and a special iron was invented in 1972 by Geri Cusenza that crimped.

Hairstyles underwent rapid changes in the 20th century as well. Styles of the times reflected what was happening socially and were most often worn by icons of popular culture, which epitomized our ideals and our dreams. Until, and through, the early i90os, wealthy women had set the standard, donning hair jewels, bone combs, and veiled hats with lace, flowers, and feathers by day, and dusting their hair with silver and gold powders by night. A new look, created by Antoine of Paris, showcased hair parted in the middle and swept back in smooth bands over the ears. Edith Wharton sported a loose, wavy, puffy feminine look that also turned heads. In 1907, Josephine Baker’s sleek style and the Marcel wave cascaded over the United States and Europe.

By 1910, American nurses in Europe had fed a copycat trend back home. They had cut their hair short to protect themselves from flea infestation and women in America began to do the same for fashion. Louise Brooks’s 1917 bob became the most popular hair trend of the 1920S as women strove to express their freedom, shedding their corsets and entering the work force.

The 1920s saw a universal fashion for short hair a more radical move beyond the curtain styles of the war era. Hair was first bobbed and then shingled. The Eton crop became popular 1926-7. An Eton crop was considered daring and shocked older citizens, since hair had always been thought a woman’s crowning glory. Only maiden aunts and elderly dowagers avoided the severe shorter styles, but by the 1930s softer waved hairstyles were a refreshing change.

The costume history image in our minds of a woman of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ is actually likely to be the image of a flapper. “Flappers” embraced all things and styles viewed as modern. A fashionable flapper had short sleek hair, a shorter than average dress, flat chest, applied make-up in public, smoked with a long cigarette holder, exposed her limbs and epitomized the spirit of a reckless rebel who danced away the night in jazz clubs. So well known was this image that the French named it the “garçonne”. Even the great fashion designer Gabrielle Chanel (Coco Chanel) promoted the styles we associate with flappers.

The 1930s and 1940S found wartime citizens ogling the glamorous life. In 1931, Jean Harlow starred in Platinum Blonde and a hair color craze soon swept the nation and beyond. Also in the 1930S, child star Shirley Temple’s tight curls had grown women pinning their hair into ringlets. During the war, when the feminine ideal was largely expressed through movies and film magazines, women copied Hollywood hairdos. In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth made side-parted finger waves the sexiest style of her time, and Veronica Lake’s cascading blond hair redefined glamour.

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“So soon as a fashion is universal, it is out of date.” -Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

In 1635, Paris France saw the very first ladies hair salon, named Cham- pagne. The 18th century witnessed stiff pompadours-masses of hair combed high, frizzed above the forehead, and held in place with paste and glue. For instance, The “Fontange”, A headdress worn by women and named after Mlle de Fontanges, (It is said that she tied her hair up with a ribbon after losing her cap while horseback riding. The king liked the look and it soon became fashionable)
After 1770, hairdos started to rise higher and requiring the use of wire construction and hair-pieces. Hairdos spawned sayings such as “The hairdos are as high as a house!” Until then, women did not have to wear wigs because social convention demanded long hair in women anyway, so pre-1770s hairdos could be achieved with natural hair.

The entire period marked the origins of hairdressing as an art which noblemen and women brought some of the most memorable styles. Hairdressers constructed monuments out of hair as fashion statements, and even further, as statements about current events and deep emotions. Some masterpieces were so elaborate that ladies reportedly crouched on their knees to fit the huge “dos” into their carriages when traveling.

Women bedecked their heads with tall ships and panoramas with a plaster made of beef lard which fragrance began to smell! Although some truth mixed with tale talks about rats invited due to the odor and hence the term “Rats Nest”. The noblemen wore massive wigs because of political power and size of their wigs, the term “Big Wig” was borne and still used today
The ship under sails hair piece often encountered in books did really exist. Even contemporary sources support the story, e.g. the copperplate to the left. The hairdo was created to celebrate the victory of the ship “La belle poule” in some battle.

Hundreds of years before the punk rock era, hair was seen powdered blue, violet, white, pink, and yellow pastels. These elegant styles featured disarrayed locks whimsically arranged and loosely tied, with overflows of curls in chocolate brown hues. Hair was also crimped, tousled, and caught up in chignons, with locks framing the face, much like today’s special-occasion up do. Women also wore their hair knotted low in heavy chignons and accented with flowers. Later around the French Revolution, hair called for shorter, less elaborate styles. During the early 19th century, hats, hoods, and headdresses became popular in France. Plain and plaited hair made waves in England in the 1850s. The 1860s” were quite different, with clip-on and big hair marking another change.

In the 1870s, beauty parlors opened in the United States, featuring centennial chignons and dainty bunches of curls. In the 1880’s, Crystal Gayle would have been jealous, with ladies wearing hair all the way down to their backs, even to the ankles!

(Wig above was created by friend and mentor Ben de Cordova)

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“If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.” – Aristotle

Hair stylists; what started as the work of servants and peasants has become the passion of artists with near rock star notoriety. Don’t believe me? Although the majority make only about $23,000 annually and few have gone beyond a year of college, there are many that earn more than many doctors and lawyers (many in the 250-500k range), have products we use every day named after them, fly across cross-county to perform a single blow-dry, hang out with movie stars, designers and models and even escort guest speakers to the United Nations (Yea, you can thank Jessica Simpson for that one)

From $800 haircuts with a three month waiting list to stunning, multi-million dollar salons that rival elite art galleries, this incredible industry has a history that is beautiful, funny and interesting but few know it. I want to smack a stylist when they think that Vidal Sassoon invented the hair cut! I thought it would be nice to compile some of the great history and facts of this most beautiful industry.

Some of the earliest references to hair care appear around 4000 B.C., when Egyptians crafted combs out of dried fish bones. In 2000 B.C., Egyptians mixed water and citrus juice to make shampoo, and they applied animal fats and plant oils to their hair for conditioning. In 1800 B.C., Babylonian men powdered their hair with gold dust, and in 1500 B.C., Assyrian slaves curled the hair of kings and other nobles with heated iron bars. In 500 B.C., hair styling was seen in western Africa, where sticks and clay were used as early versions of curlers and setting gel. Accessories and color were introduced in 35 B.C., when Cleopatra wore jewel-studded ivory pins in her hair and Roman prostitutes were forced to dye their hair blond.

In the first century A.D. hair color became even more prominent. Women attended Roman feasts showing off their dark, shiny tresses, thanks to dyes, which were created from boiled walnuts and leeks. Charging the battlefield, Saxon men brandished their swords along with hues of blue, green, and orange hair. In Rome, circa 200, sculptors began attaching marble wigs to their work to update them in accordance with the hairstyles of the times. The fourth century saw hairnets and scarves became popular. And if you think that perm solution has a strong odor think about European women in the 1300’s who conditioned their hair with dead lizards boiled in olive oil! These women also shaved their hairlines to show high foreheads and piled hair high on their heads to make their necks look longer.

Women of the 1400s had the challenge of styling under lines guidelines theoretician Machiavelli, who announced the standard for women’s hair. He stated “loose and blond, sometimes the color of gold, at other times honey, shiny as the rays of the sun, wavy, thick and long, scattered in long curls, and fluttering on the shoulders.” Religiously indoctrinated women, of 16th-century Italy, adhered to the view that married women were expected to cover or braid their hair in the interest of modesty. Around the same time, French women frizzed their hair with heat and then sculpted it to towering heights. Red hair and wigs, which before was considered “unlucky”, were made fashionable in England by Queen Elizabeth, and “blending” was a hit, with a homespun dye composed of wine, spices, and herbs.

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It’s said that for humans, nothing is worse then solitude; not being noticed. I remember a story that depicted the pain of invisibility. A note was found that said that the person writing it was going to walk home. On his walk if just one person would smile, say hi or acknowledge him in ANY way he would not end his life. The note was found next to his body. What made it so sad was that he had walked though some of the cities busiest streets and at the busiest time. The thought of not being alive paled compared to the thought of not being seen. The Pyramids, Romeo and Juliet, the Sistine Chapel. Although the pharos, Shakespeare and Michelangelo are gone their work will be seen forever, it is immortal. Almost any artist will tell you they want to be well known but what we really want, even if we cannot be, at least our work can be immortal, forever known, forever seen.

What made me write this is that I like any other artist crave to be noticed. I like seeing my name or my work in a magazine, having people whisper and point in a local restaurant or grocery store when they notice my face and all of those things, its nice. I feel that being “seen” as an artist defines me as a person.

Depending on your art, you may be able to leave behind a piece of work so unique, so beautiful that it will live long after you’ve gone. As a hairstylist though, few have achieved this. For every Vidal Sassoon and Trevor Sorbie there are tens of thousands of great stylists that we will rarely, if ever, hear their name decades from now. Unlike Sassoon I cannot reinvent Mia’s “bob” nor can I recreate Sorbie’s “wedge” cut. These greats have their “Sistine Chapel” that immortalizes them as sure as if they were carved in marble and placed in the Vatican among stone angles.

So what about the rest of us? Can’t we have our “Sistine Chapel”; a piece of work that will breathe life long after ours is gone? For a decade now I’ve focused so much on my education, hoping to create some masterpiece, something where those who see it would say “that is the work of Claudia Diesti.” And although I will not cease to try for that special something, I’ve come to a realization. Aside from photographs our art is seen on a keratin canvas that fades quickly and our work is brief. And also although I teach, and have been taught that our trade is as much about the emotional connection to people as is the craft itself, I now realize I may have that immortality, just not as I originally thought.

At the time this client came to me (out of respect I will not mention her name) I was in a private room set up with two chairs. Normally I, my assistant and two clients would be there at one time. This one time was different. As soon as I made eye contact with her I knew something was wrong. She sat down, eerily quietly and with a blank stare. Something told me she needed time alone. I had never done this before but I apologized to the other client and the assistant and asked that they please leave. She then began explaining how she had just come from the doctor. He had diagnosed her with cancer and things did not look hopeful. She then said she wanted things done on her own terms and decided she wanted her hair removed that day! She was not going to have it fall out over time. We talked and cried together for some time since I had made it clear I was not to be disturbed. I did not realize it at the time but looking back, I see that the immortality I desire may have come about in the most unusual way. Here I was an artist, who wanted to be “seen” and remembered as someone who uses hair to express how I view things and give the person wearing what I create, something memorable yet, here I was removing the very work that would normally do that! Understand she could have gone to anyone to have this done. There was no technical skill involved. She could have done this in her home, behind walls of privacy but she choose not to be alone in solitude. I did not realize it at the time but what I desire so much was becoming a reality. Consider this. Who doesn’t think that every time this wonderful person tells her story; how she began her treatment and how she decided to fight this disease on her terms, don’t you think she mentions the hairstylist who held her hand, cried with her and helped her to do something so difficult and that is to remove what so many of us women thinks defines us? You bet! Although I love to dream about styling for Versace in Bryant Park, peeking at my work atop a beautiful model with camera lights flashing, I realize that may never happen. And for so long now I’ve felt that that would be the highlight of my career but after seeing the effect of “being there” for an individual during most intimate and difficult times, I have new perspective.

I’m am not a big fan of Robert Cromeans work but one story he told stands out and until recently I did not see the principle as my own. He told of a woman who came to his salon. She had her hair cut, colored and styled. And in his classic smoozing style he kept telling her how pretty she was and how great she looked. Later he received a letter from her explaining that she had come to his salon and wanted to look her best for when they found her. Yes, she was heading home after the salon to take her own life but because of how he spoke to her and the attention he gave her, she changed her mind!

Donatella, as much as I love your work, the beauty your brother left behind and the camera lights at Bryant Park during Fashion Week, nothing and I mean nothing could ever compare to that. Even if Roberts work is never seen after he passes that woman’s story will live on forever. That is his immortal Sistine Chapel.

As Michelangelo wanted to be remembered as a great sculptor I wanted to be remembered for being a great stylist. I used to picture my funeral full of so many beautiful people with beautiful hair all speaking about the beautiful work I did. But recent events have allowed me to see things differently. Michelangelo did not want to do the Sistine Chapel and did not think of himself a painter but that is the very work that immortalized him. No Donatella, I haven’t giving up on you but I know this beautiful industry can help people in ways I never imagined.

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Earrings are jewelry that’s decorated the female face since the dawn of time. And although I’m sure our fashionista predecessor, the Cavelady (not to be confused with Caveskank) had a huge pair of Wooly mammoth loops to match her beautiful Saber tooth nose bone, the modern day female fashion lover has come a long way since then. No one can deny that some good-ol-fashion geometry hasn’t helped. So without farther ado here are facial geometric principles every lady should consider. And any modern day skanks out there…grab your pencils; this is where you take notes, this is a test!

Since earrings are so close to the face, they need to compliment the face shape. So the next question is “how to make your choice?” First, as the Greeks say “know thyself”. What does the mirror say? You need to know what category your face identifies with and what better way than the all too familiar actresses we’ve come to love?

Kirsten Dunst – Round Face
Think of lean, long and angular curved lines. The goal here is to elongate and add some angle to your face. In this category you have drop earrings in dangles, ovals and oblongs. Square, rectangular and angular earrings are also good.
Avoid small studs, hoops and large earrings as well.

Jessica Biel – Oval Face
This face will work with almost any style. This one you can just play and have fun with. Soft shapes like studs, ovals and teardrops are all good here. Earnings that dangly will look great on you as will pearls, diamonds, or gemstone studs if worn with a short or formal up-hair.
Avoid the overly long and thin earrings that tend to drag the face downward.

Brittany Murphy – Heart face
Wide bottomed earrings are your calling here – tear drops and triangle shapes that start with a peak. Pyramid style earring will also hot!
Avoid the heart shaped and very short earrings.

Jessica Simpson – Square face
You want round and angular edgework in your earrings to soften the face. Hoops and curved edgework will do the trick. Think round, longer tear drops, or tiered dangling earrings.
Avoid strong angles and square shapes.

Sarah Jessica Parker – Long or face shape
Now you want to keep it simple. SSS! Studs, studs, studs are always safe here. Some faces might pull off chandelier style earrings. This way the multi-dimensional earrings can add some fullness to your face.
Avoid the flat or dangling earrings and any triangle that has the point downward.

Nicole Kidman – Diamond face shape
Wear short and wide earrings. A straight line and curves combination will work well for you, also studs and small drop earrings.
Avoid the long and thin earring style.

Jordana Brewster – Triangular face
If you have a triangular face you need earrings that will soften the sharp angles. Large oval or small circular earrings will work well for you. Prefer earrings with curves at the bottom and
Avoid any that point downward.

Again these are some good principles not rules. You’ll always want to take into consideration the cut and color of your hair, skin tone and clothes you’re wearing.

Ok test over. Skanks, pencils down and gentlemen take note. Guys, getting your lovely ladies a beautiful set of earrings can always help you relieve a little, lets say…tension. No…still don’t get it? It’s simple, you think of sex as we think of jewelry. Get it? Ok, last try…jewelry = sex. Yea, I thought that would do it for you.

Now ladies (pat him on the head so he knows your happy with him) and say “Good boy, lets go shopping.”

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We all know that sex, blood and scandals do well in the movies but they can do better in fashion. Here are a few of the top fashion scandals. Just curious, is it easy to get blood out of a Chanel gown?

1995-In the style Don Corleone, Maurizio Gucci, last member of the Gucci Family to run the fashion Giant, is shot dead by a young Sicilian on the steps of him Malian office. His wife Patrizia Reggiani ordered the hit and is sentenced to 26 years. How cool would a Gucci holster be?

1996-The National Labor Committee reports sweatshop labor was used to make cheap clothes for Kathie Lee Giffoed’s clothing line sold at Wal-Mart. America goes crazy for a few days then its back to Wal-Mart for more.

1996-Giorgio Armani denies accusations against him for tax evasion. He’s later finned 64K and ordered to complete 9 month suspended sentence. Come on Giorgio; Death and Taxes…we’ve all heard it.

1997-Gianni Versace is tragically murdered outside his Miami home at the age of 50 by Andrew Cunana, a male prostitute who went on a killing spree. A few days later, surrounded by police, Gianni’s killer was found dead by self inflicted wound on a houseboat. As one of the greats, the fashion world lost a part of its soul with this one.

1997-The Hugo Boss Company admits that Hugo Boss who founded the business as a maker of police and postal uniforms, joined Nazi Party in 1931. By 1993 he had begun manufacturing Nazi uniforms by using forced labor from Poland and France. Can’t picture this one…Hitler in Hugo briefs???

1999-Satrically called the “Pacolpse”, Paco Rabanne (famous for his jewelry creations for Givenchy, Dior, Balenciaga and popular fragrance’s) interest in the paranormal leads him to predict that the Russian Mir space station would fall on to Paris in 1999. If you have every traveled to Paris sometimes you may have thought…humm?

2000- Naomi Campbell pleads guilty in Toronto to an assault charge for beating an assistant. Campbell is sued in 2003 by a former assistant who claims the supermodel threw a phone at her during a Nantrum, also known as a Naomi Tantrum. Then in 2006 Campbell who is preparing for her Big O (Oprah) when she accuses her housekeeper of taking her jeans and in a fit of Campbell rage, also known as a Cage, she allegedly throws a cell-phone at the women’s head, causing laceration needing stitches.

2001-Winona Ryder attempts to leave Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hill with $5,500 worth of clothing and accessories in her bag, but she is stopped by security and later testifies in court. She is sentenced to 480 hours of community services, $3,700 in fines, and $6,3555 in restitution to the Saks Fifth Avenue store. In 2008, Ryder nabs headlines again when she leaves a Hollywood store with makeup she neglects to pay for. I need to go shopping with this girl!

2001-Imelda Macros, Widow of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, opens the Marikina city Footwear Museum in Manila as a consecration to the unbelievable collections of footwear, which, before fleeing the presidential palace in 1986, had consisted of 1,060 pairs of shoes.

2002-Steve Madden is sentenced to 41 months in prison for securities fraud and money laundering, the minimum sentence possible under a plea bargain. Martha should have talked things over with Steve first!

2005- Then infamous ‘cocaine Kate’ photo is published in the Daily Mirror; most of her modeling contracts are soon severed or not renewed as a result of the controversial photo (Coke Smoke). Four years later, she’s still the most in-demand model on the planet. Now try telling your kids “Just say no”

2007-The day after showing his collection for Louis Vuitton in Paris, Marc Jacobs, checks into a rehabilitation center in Arizona. Though the addiction relapse of fashion’s most beloved designer rocks the industry, Jacob bounces back with a full recovery, buffs up, scores a sweet and sexy fiancé and makes man-skirts a trend. Don’t worry Marc we an LV love you!

2008-Designer Anand Jon is arrested on suspicions of lewd conduct and raping a young aspiring model (the first of many, who come forward that the designer sexually abused them,) He is later convicted of 16 out of 23 counts of sexual abuse, including the forcible rape of seven women and girls. For this one I’d call in Lorena Bobbitt!

2007-When Peter-Juirgen Boock gets out of prison in 1998 after a seventeen year sentence, he reviles in 2007 to Der Spiegel that the Germen terrorists he was part of, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was plotting to kidnap Karl Lagerfeld in 1997. The designer was unscathed, though other victims were taken and murdered in his place.

2009-Versace’s top US exec. Patrick Guadagno is hit with sexual harassment lawsuit –he is accused of pressuring a former assistant to recite word-for-word, naughty phone messages left for him by his lovers.
1-900-VERSACE ($5 per minute)

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