A Sign of the Times We Could Do Without

Hello and Harrumph.

Yes, we realize how inexcusably rude a greeting of this nature is; we are more than a little cranky this morning.  Pourquoi ça?  Because we have multiple SOTTs (Sign Of The Times) in today’s post, and we don’t like them.

And because the world just shrank. Again.

We are going to be forced to say goodbye to a longtime friend, legendary in the field:

Gourmet is going away. After almost 70 years of publishing, Conde Nast is closing the magazine. Below, we have a snippet from the internal memo with today’s announcement:

“Gourmet magazine will cease monthly publication, but we will remain committed to the brand, retaining Gourmet’s book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com.

Most insiders thought Bon Appetit would be sacrificed to save the storied Gourmet brand, the news this morning caught many by surprise.

Also being shuttered by the publishing giant: Elegant Bride.

And Modern Bride.

Filling out the quartet of closures: Cookie.

As a businessperson we completely understand the circumstances leading to this morning’s grim news. Two food magazines in this environment is one too many. Three bridal books consolidated into one, we comprehend this decision. But it doesn’t mean we have to like any of it. (Yes, the Princess is pouting.)

A few related points that may be of interest:

• The November issues of Gourmet and Cookie will be their last; Fall Elegant Bride is that magazine’s final printing and the October/November issue is the last for Modern Bride
• To ‘offset’ the end of Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, Conde will boost the frequency of Brides; it becomes a monthly.
• the Cookie and Gourmet.com sites will be up through the end of the year

If this carries a familiar sound familiar it may be the recollection of Conde announcing the Portfolio and/or Domino closures, the end of Golf for Women, or the news that Men’s Vogue would be ‘incorporated into’ Vogue.

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A quick reminder for fans of Gossip Girl and Tory Burch: those two are combined on this evening’s episode.

CW/Giovanni Rufino/Landov

In the photo above of Ms. Burch with actress Blake Lively it may appear the scenes were shot on location at the designer’s office; that is not the case.  A special set was constructed to replicate that site.

In a People magazine story Ms. Burch was asked to put together looks for two of the program’s main characters: Serena van der Woodsen (Ms. Lively) and Blair (Leighton Meester). Below, the styles selected for ‘Serena’.

Courtesy Tory Burch via People.com

Next, the choices Ms. Burch came up with for ‘Blair’.

Courtesy Tory Burch via People.com

Fortunately we follow meghandono from (Wit & Whimsy) on Twitter, or we never would have remembered about tonight’s episode.

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Before we fly, a quick query for our fellow Mad Men fanatics: did everyone notice where Joan is working now? For those who are not addicts fans, here is a clue.

We’re not sure how we feel about Pete Campbell describing Bonwit Teller as “The Republic of Dresses”.  BTW, what does everyone think about Betty’s Junior League ‘project’?

With that deep thought (hee-hee-hee) to ponder we shall say ‘g’bye until next time!

SAY HELLO: Juicy Couture, Tory Burch, Nordstrom SAY GOODBYE: Harold’s, ‘O at Home,’ Club Libby Lu, Men’s Vogue

Well if it isn’t the economy, then it’s the economy!

Yawn. (Please have the houseman send two Excedrin. STAT.)

Before we do all the dreary-dreary, let’s start with some fun news, like Tory Burch opening her Palm Beach store today!

Conveniently located right on Worth Avenue, this is the designer’s 16th store; next month her 17th opens in New York’s meatpacking district.  This reminds us, has everyone seen the new Reva in suede?

Another designer landing nearby on Worth? Michael Kors, with a new boutique he has planned for a long time, according to a story in the Palm Beach Daily News:

“In America, the warm-weather place to be is Palm Beach,” he said. “Palm Beach has always been on my radar.”

Also, Nordstrom *finally* opened their new store in Naples last Friday. At last!  And the Juicy Couture flagship on Fifth is now open, following Thursday night’s big do. Below, co-founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor.

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Juicy Couture

From the halls of popular prep school drama Gossip Girl star Blake Lively was on hand for the Juicy festivities.

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Juicy Couture

Co-star and real life significant other(?) Penn Badgley was on hand along with Jessica Szohr…

Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Juicy Couture

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Many readers are probably familiar with most of these dreary headlines, but just in case anyone missed them along the way…we start with Saks announcing last week that it is closing the Club Libby Lu stores; that is almost 100 shops in total.

The company expects to have all closed by the end of their first-quarter in 2009.

Then we had surprising news today about perennial Wall Street favorite J. Crew, according to an AP story via CNBC:

“Shares of J. Crew Group Inc. fell to an all-time low Monday after an analyst said she expects weaker results from the apparel and accessories retailer…”

And now we are ever-so-glad the Queen Mother wasn’t planning to purchase the new flat-screen at Circuit City, with their bankruptcy announcement today.

But here is the loss that really hurts, hitting too close to home for our sensitivities. Harold’s.

Courtesy Harold's

During our years doing tv in Oklahoma City we frequently found ourselves at the Harold’s at Penn Place if shopping in town. Our favorite out-of-town Harold’s haunts were at River Oaks, The Galleria in Dallas and on Lover’s Lane; we would also pop into the store at Tyson’s when visiting that part of the galaxy.  Even TSU (The Spousal Unit) went nuclear upon hearing the news.

The liquidation sales started last Friday; the company expects it will take approximately four months to finish selling the merchandise.  Sniff.  Tissue please.

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The word came last week that “O at Home,” the quarterly spun off from “O: The Oprah Magazine,‘ will cease publishing with the Winter issue.  Any future issues will be part of O.

The Princess Consort was concerned when he learned that Men’s Vogue will essentially cease publishing, although technically it is being ‘absorbed’ by Vogue, and hopes to publish twice a year.  (Okay… truth be told, the Consort won’t miss this one iota, it is I who enjoyed flipping through the pages.)

And here is one that rapidly became one of our more enjoyable business reads, Conde Nast’s Portfolio. It is dropping from twelve to ten issues a year.

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We are in peril of becoming completely distraught, so rather than going off the deep end we shall mention the Great Preppy Giveaway here at  Preppy Princess Intergalactic Headquarters, where it is *always* pink and green.

You can win an outstanding Bungalow Scout Tote, simply by leaving a comment mentioning something about America you are thankful for… that’s it!  Just fill in the blank: “I am thankful __________” and leave a comment and you are entered!  Plus, if you mention the Giveaway on your blog and you win, you receive a fabulous set of oh-so-preppy Madras Photocards as a second gift that we’ll send to anyone of your choosing! And we pay the postage on all of this!

It is our way of saying ‘Thank You’ to all of our faithful customers and blogging friends! This contest closes at midnight Wednesday night, and the next one begins early Thursday, so have some fun…you just might be the lucky winner! For more information, click here to read detailed specifics and background!

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For today’s Pretty in Pink item we honor Club Libby Lu (not that TP has ever set foot in one, but we have heard about them…does that almost count?!) with the Pop Sugar Polka Dot Cupcake PJ Set in pink.

Club Libby Lu

Until later… grins and giggles.

Does Fashion Rock?

Well, if it isn’t really and truly a change of seasons – it simply can’t be ignored any longer. Fall fashion magazines have started clogging the mailbox; the poor postal carriers must be simply smothered under the weight of them all!

Before anything else, The Princess has a pout. It’s about this, the annual Fashion Rocks supplement accompanying many of your Conde Nast September magazines, like Vogue, Lucky, Wired, and many more.

Well, actually, now it’s two things we’re feeling a bit peevish about because we discovered the second problem while looking for the page number to point out the first problem, which is an *enormous* typo. And we would tell you what page said typo is on, except there are no page numbers in the magazine. No page numbers. Not in the Table of Contents. Not on the pages. None. Nary a number. So now we are up to three irritants and trending down if we were to be asked. We apologize for being disturbed by the lack of page numbers, it really is just too linear of us, isn’t it? (Don’t even think about answering that one.)

So now we’re back to the 2nd issue which was originally the first (and only) one: the typo. Lacking a page number, we can only say that it is in the first paragraph of the first story of the first person they profile, who also happens to be the superstar on the cover of the publication, Justin Timberlake. Could we not have gotten this much correct? (The sentence in the story reads “I don’t how it works…” when TP thinks it is meant to read “I don’t know how it works…”)

We now get to the third problem, which is fairly simple: the Fashion Rocks website says “Stay Tuned.” It is essentially inactive other than cycling through a lot of previous photos of earlier concerts. This is a huge event with a concert at Radio City Music Hall with performances confirmed from the following: Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, Fergie, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Duffy, Keith Urban, Kid Rock, and Lil Wayne, Chris Cornell, OneRepublic, Pussycat Dolls, Solange Knowles and Timbaland, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, to name but a few.

It is the Fifth Annual concert, but the first time with all the hoopla of three network news anchors formally announcing plans for it back in July. Now, there is an AOL site that has loads of pictures and information, should that pique your interest. The Princess merely thought a website for a fundraiser of this magnitude would be a bit more well, active or something, wouldn’t it? If you would like your social secretary to pencil this in, the concert is on CBS on Tuesday, September 9th. (It is actually taped on the 5th.) Proceeds from this year’s concert will benefit Stand Up To Cancer.

Now that TP has that little tirade episode behind her, let’s talk fashion magazines, shall we? All is not hunky-dory for at least for more than a few of them when it comes to the all-important September Fashion issues. For openers, Vogue’s September issue with Keira Knightley on its cover is down by about 50 advertising pages from last year, a rather stunning development.

Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan and W are among those magazines losing traction on the advertising side of the business. On the other hand, it turns out that Elle actually boosted its advertising $$$ by a good percentage; it features Jessica Simpson on the cover.

What’s Elle doing the others aren’t? TP thinks it may have something to do with the cover girl selections. Last month’s cover showcased Mariah Carey, before that Mary-Kate Olsen, and the month prior to that it was singing star Rihanna.

Unless we’re misreading things, they seem to be trending toward a *much* younger demo. Vanity Fair and their slight shrinkage? Well, we don’t know about everyone else, but here at the Prepatorium, the increasingly strident attacks on so many different things and people have become tiresome. Perhaps we’re poor citizens, but we’re just tired of all the yelling.

One way publishers try to goose sales a little can be with different covers, like the two Bazaar used for their September blowout, both with Tyra Banks.

We received the blue issue in our mailbox. Some designers actually spent more on magazine advertising this year than they did last year. One of those doing so is Oscar de la Renta, one of TP’s favorites. Below we show two looks from his 2009 Bridal line.

That provides the perfect opportunity to showcase what has to be one of the most scenic locales for a fundraiser TP has ever seen. Ever. Seen.

We’re talking about Oscar de la Renta’s 8th Annual benefit for the League to Save Lake Tahoe. One arrives by boat for the party, in what appears to be a classic Chris Craft or perhaps a Century. Regardless of make, it is TDF. Totally. (TP was used to the family Century, but realizes the majority were Chris Craft.)

Is there a better locale for a fashion show that you have attended? If so you simply must tell us about it so we can share that info with the rest of the class.

We leave with something from a line TP currently doesn’t have in her walk-in, and it will probably stay that way, but we definitely applaud any new designers willing to take on the fashionistas with something new. So, how about this for the ultimate in ‘lighting things up”?

‘Rhyme and Reason” is a design firm using light as a material to enliven white knitwear and “…create transformative fashion.” Besides, one can alway multi-purpose their clothing in ways previously unexplored.

“When not being worn, the pieces double in function as lamps, avoiding the fate of hanging neglected in a closet.”

As always, our thanks to Luxuo.com for their eye.

And then there’s Miss Little Bow Prep, oh she of the chic taste and fast fingers, typing up a storm of preppy goodness and culturally broadening blogdom. MLBP has been exceptionally generous in bestowing upon us a Diamond Award…whoo-hoo! The rules of the Award state that one must acknowledge on their blog they are a recipient of it and then tag seven others with the Award and link to their blogs. So here we go:

• Muffy Martini
• Tres Poshe Preppy
• Jewish Girl in Wasp’s Clothing
• Preppy Newlywed
• Misadventures of a Newlywed
• I Pick Pretty
• Preppy Pink Crocodile

Thank you Miss Little Bow Prep!

The Ultimate Preppy Tea Sandwiches, “The Towering World of Jimmy Choo” & Saks Sales

Happy Thursday, ’tis The Princess back again from visiting the Queen and still in a dither about the Princess Consort’s revelations yesterday. Really. I thought we had agreed some things just didn’t need to be made public, lest people think less of The Princess. And then he just goes and tells everyone about his fear of swimming in the ocean, and the time he “…hired a man to swim in the ocean for me”. How embarrassing for everyone to know he hires people to do his swimming for him!

On a side note, all Wall Street reporting aside, one would not know from the number of cars in the Nordstrom parking lot they hadn’t been enjoying a completely stellar year; they were quite busy yesterday. But then again, their sale section seemed really very large, especially when one considers this was not their Anniversary Sale section, but a “regular sale area,” an oxymoron at Nordstrom, for until recently (this year we believe) the only sales were the Anniversary Sale and the Shoe Sale.

We couldn’t resist putting up this image of pink and green sandwiches, the shot was simply too good not to post! It is from flickr, posted almost three years ago. The description follows:

pink and green tea sandwiches: egg with capers and smoked pimentón, turkey with a cranberry-pecan-orange zest cream cheese, smoked salmon with cucumber and an herby cream cheese.

The fillings sound yummy although TP isn’t sure how she would do with the bright and vibrantly-hued bread! Now the next item on our hit parade,

isn’t available until March of next year, but we couldn’t resist at least alerting you to its impending arrival. The Towering World of Jimmy Choo: A Glamorous Story of Power, Profits and Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe comes to us via Bloomsbury Publishing, and is written by Laura Goldstein Crowe, the former (and fab) Fashion Inc. blogger at Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine, and Sagra Maceira de Rosen, an executive specializing in Luxury and Retail investments for Reig Capital.

One of our favorite websites, the Business of Fashion, managed to get an early and exclusive look at the book. As they put it, “The book is sure to cause a frenzy when published…” and we couldn’t agree more. This one sounds like it has all the makings of an outstanding non-fiction book so filled with inside stories it’s better than many a fiction book. Or, as you frequently hear from TP: “…I couldn’t make this stuff up…” on some of the more unbelievable posts.

Continuing with the Jimmy Choo track, Saks has several pair on sale at markdowns that are significant if these are your style. The Elm Water Snake Sandals start us off, with what TP is tempted to describe as “only a 4.5″ heel,” the way things are shaping up. (And up…and up!) These have “…Glamorous water snake metallic wraps at the cut-out ankle.” Indeed. Originally $920, these are now just $367.90.

Additionally Saks offers the Aeon Lizard Sandals, also originally $920, now $551.90.

A few more sale samplings at Saks, including the Burberry Infant’s Stripe Skirted Onesie at $62.90 from $95; it has snaps at the shoulders, tough to see in the photos, we know.

Also available if you’re looking for something a bit subdued for yourself, the Carmen Marc Valvo Polka Dot Dress is light and foofy, originally $330 and now $197.90.

Because we don’t want to show specific items that have limited quantities, here are just a few overview page links to designers at Saks we know you love, so you can just scan all of their sale items rather than seeing one specific item here that has long since sold out.

Their was a fair amount of Lilly Pulitzer left, some Shoshanna bathing suits and cover-ups, a smattering of Tory Burch goodies definitely worth looking at, a good amount of Hugo Boss for him, and a substantial amount of Juicy Couture. There is simply oddles more, this is just after The Princess did a quick graze to satisfy her concerns that these merit your time and attention.

We close with a few image of the plans for what is expected to be the ‘world’s largest fountain,” set to be built in Dubai. Situated next to the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest structure as of July 4th, with an observation deck slated for the 124th Floor when the building is completed sometime in 2009.

As the company’s news release explains:

The fountain on Burj Dubai Lake is more than a visual spectacle that adds to the aesthetics of Downtown Burj Dubai. It is an engineering marvel and will further contribute to Dubai’s rich array of tourist attractions.

The Tower will have one of the first Giorgio Armani hotels in the world, the “Dubai Armani Hotel.” A visit to the Burj Dubai website is an eyeopener; you can also enter a contest to actually name the enormous fountains.

As TP is truly something of a geek inside, she can’t resist sharing this image of “3 Upcoming Architectural Wonders in the UAE,” courtesy of the Hotel Club Travel Blog.