J. Crew Website Update & A $30,000 ‘Thank You’ Ring for Michelle Obama?

Hello and Happy Tuesday!

It seems our post yesterday on the J. Crew website problems touched a nerve with many readers. The problems were also noted by the mainstream business and technical media. From Crain’s New York in their story:

“This is a terrible time to experience technical difficulties. J. Crew, which underwent a massive redesign of its Web site over the summer, has been suffering glitches ever since.”

There are also multiple reports of similar issues at several big name retailers, including Bloomingdale’s:

Bloomingdale's

Bloomie’s does seem to be up and running just fine today. If considering doing some business in a cyber sort of way, don’t forget their free shipping offer for purchases more than $100. Use promo code SHIPXMAS at checkout.

Crew’s site also appears to be functioning at 100% this morning, providing another fiscally friendly shopping opportunity:

J. Crew

To receive the Extra 30% off sale merchandise, use promotion code EXTRA30 at checkout; this offer ends Wednesday night at midnight. And BTW, this promotional offer was planned all along by J. Crew, it was not created in response to the technical problems, as we wondered aloud yesterday.

TP remains hopeful everyone’s site remains healthy and happy for a robust holiday shopping season!

+++++++++++++++++

We have fun information to share regarding a little trinket Michelle Obama is hypothetically receiving as a “Thank You” gift from the President-elect, at least according to the Daily Mail on the far side of the pond.

Courtesy Giovanni Bosco

The ring is to be created by Italian jewelry design house Giovanni Bosco, from the firm’s “Harmony” collection. (The items below are merely examples of the company’s work and do not represent their Harmony Collection.)

Courtesy Giovanni Bosco

Our struggle with this story is that we simply don’t see the President-elect doing business with a firm that will share this kind of information about personal merchandise in such a public fashion.  The Mail’s story quotes “A spokesman at Giovanni Bosco….” in their story as saying (among other things):

“‘Our American distributor has contacted us and has asked us to provide details on the Harmony ring.

‘It is our top of the range piece and made from rhodium and encrusted with diamonds.”

Courtesy Giovanni Bosco

More quotes attributed to the ‘spokesman’ include:

‘Our agent in the United States was asked by Mr Barack Obama about the ring because he wants it as a thank you gift for his wife Michelle for her support the last two years.”

“We have a select number of clients both in the United States, Europe, Russia and the Middle East and our prices as a result reflect the wealth of our customers.”

The ring is supposedly valued at approximately $30,000 (USD) and it is to be delivered in time for the inauguration in January.

Somehow this is reminiscent of the stories circulating that an outstanding Atlanta designer, Cassandra Bromfield, was selected to design Mrs. Obama’s gown for the Inaugural balls.  Here is our original post on that topic, and then Ms. Bromfield setting things straight in this post.

Of course yours truly could be way off the mark on this one; we shall let you know of any developments.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

For anyone simply unable to last another day without a “Confessions of a Shopaholic” update, Bluefly has posted the movie trailer and more.

Although the film doesn’t open until Feb. 13 next year, the Bluefly microsite has some fun features.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

We see more and more references to the ‘preppy look’ or ‘preppy style’ the Jonas Brothers sport most of the time they appear publicly.

PHOTO: Charles Sykes/AP

The three brothers were signing copies of their new book at the Barnes & Noble on Madison Avenue last Friday.  The book, entitled “Burning Up: On Tour with the Jonas Brothers is also available at Amazon.  Actually, it seems to be everywhere; is this one of the “it gifts” for teenage girls this year?

Burning Up: On Tour with the Jonas Brothers

And how about “Honor Society,” the band that opens for the Jonas Brothers? The photograph below shows the band performing in Las Vegas Saturday night and they are also looking very preppy in their wardrobe selection.

PHOTO: Ethan Miller/Getty

If ever there were a prep aesthetic for a band it would appear to be these young men. If you have any doubt, take a look at the extra photos they have on their MySpace pages, including these of bassist Andrew Lee:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

For today’s Pretty in Pink we offer Barbie: 50th Anniversary The Ultimate Collection book from the always fabulous Assouline publishing house.

Barnes & Noble is selling the Limited Edition Boxed Set, which has much beyond a standard hardcover book.

The boxed set is also available at Amazon.

Did TP ever share the deep and horrible tale from her youth about Barbie?  No?  Well then, to be brief: we did not have one.

Did. Not. Have. A. Barbie.  (Explains a lot, doesn’t it?)

The truth is, in an effort to instill proper values in her little Princess, TQM advised us prior to the one Christmas when we were positively begging for Barbie that we needed to choose between Barbie and the…

Ummmmm, well… it was actually a choice between Barbie… uhhhhh… er….um…….okay, fine – it was a choice between Barbie and the Beauty Parlor Doll!

The Beauty Parlor Doll. Yep. We opted for the Beauty Parlor Doll. The Beauty Parlor Doll was ‘lifesize’ and made of that dellightful aqua and pink plastic. It was *at least* as tall as TP, how is that for a mental picture?  As we are perilously close to the TMI line, we’ll cease sharing our innermost secrets. It’s just not done.

BTW, the Queen Mother rectified this tragic situation years ago, presenting us with our very own Barbie doll as a birthday gift.

May the rest of your day be splendiferous!

Another Prep Fashion Faux Pas, Inaugural Updates, AntiPreps

First off, before you read one more word, scoot over here and leave a comment so you are entered in this week’s Great Giveaway, with preppy goodness anyone can win! Leaving a comment about anything you are thankful for = giveaway entry.

Quick headlines of the day, many of which may well be moldy oldies to many of you, but here we go anyway.

The Presidential daughters will be attending Sidwell Friends school; Malia at the Middle School in Northwest DC (the Upper School Building is also here), and Sasha at the Lower School campus that is actually located in Bethesda. Malia is in fifth grade and Sasha in second grade.

PHOTO: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The Obamas selected the Quaker school where Chelsea Clinton and Al Gore III received their educations, deciding it was a better fit than Georgetown Day and Maret. For more background, our post here may be helpful.

Newsweek features the future First Lady in their Dec.1 issue, on newsstands today.

PRNewsFoto/NEWSWEEK

And we hear an entire book dedicated to the Michelle Obama style is quickly being put together; former Mademoiselle editor Mandi Norwood is writing the book. It is scheduled for publication sometime next spring by Avon Books.  Coming out even earlier, “Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady“ is due December 9.

Harper Collins

Written by David Bergen Brophy, the publisher is Harper Collins.

Speculation continues on who will design Michelle Obama’s gown for the Inaugural Balls in January, but we have seen little devoted to basic inauguration day apparel for Michelle Obama and the girls….? Seeing some designs in that genre would be most enjoyable.

That now-famous Thakoon dress worn by Michelle Obama is now officially out of production, at least for the time being.

PHOTO: Mark Wilson/Getty

More sketches for Inaugural gowns are floating about from other designers, including this from Isabel Toledo, done at People magazine’s suggestion, for a story.

Isabel Toledo via People.com

Below, Mrs. Obama in the Isabel Toledo gown worn to a June fundraiser hosted by Anna Wintour (Vogue) and Calvin Klein. Many readers may be familiar with the divine illustrations Ms. Toledo’s husband, Ruben, has done for the Nordstrom catalogues.

PHOTO: AP

And Reem Acra also shared her creativity, again, per People magazine’s request.

Reem Acra via People.com

+++++++++++++++++++++++

We have another entry in the Gwyneth Paltrow Fashion Faux Pas category. While we do not want to appear as though we are unfairly focusing on Ms. Paltrow, her style statements of late are surprising in light of her über-preppy upbringing.

…

Above, the actress at the grand re-opening of the remodeled Fontainebleau this weekend. The famed hotel was also home to the Victoria’s Secret fashion show taping.

The always-interesting Styleist blog takes Ms.Paltrow to task for the Antonio Berardi dress she wore (below) to the Two Lovers film premiere in London.

PHOTO: Getty Images

The comments include these:

“We see London, we see France, we see Gwyneth Paltrow in Paris at the premiere of ‘Two Lovers’ wearing another weird dress. Plus we see underpants! And her bra!

Gwyneth frequently comes thisclose to fashion greatness. But then she takes a giant leap off the Cliff of “Odd and Awkward” into the ocean of “Looking at Her Makes Us Wince”. Doesn’t she have any friends? Or a mirror?”

The Victoria’s Secret goings-on alerted us to very frightening news: two Antipreps were in the same place.  At the same time.  Clearly someone neglected to put up the deflector shield.  Mon Dieu.

Exhibit A:

PHOTO: Hans Deryk/Reuters

In case anyone is fortunate enough to *not* recognize this individual, it is TV personality Kim Kardashian; here is our initial post affirming Ms. Kardashian attaining official AntiPrep status.

Next we have Paris Hilton, our very first Anti-prep, as explained here. It could almost be said Ms. Hilton prompted the necessity of an Anti-prep category.  BTW, for those keeping score at home, this is the second such occurrence of dual (dueling?) anti-preps appearing at the same location.

PHOTO: Hans Deryk/Reuters

We apologize for the multiple spellings on antiprep; we just can’t locate the word in our Webster’s and don’t know how to spell it so we can find it when we look things up in the blog.

Until next time!

Obama Inaugural Gown Update, Preps Party at CFDA

Well, here we are again!

The volume of inquiries surrounding plans for the Michelle Obama inauguration gown is increasing; thus today’s additional post.  At last night’s CFDA gala Diane von Furstenberg shared an interesting tidbit, according to a story in today’s online New York magazine: she has submitted sketches for an inugural gown.  And why did she send sketches?

“Well, they asked me to. Of course, everybody has,” she said. “I’m so proud to be an American.”

In the story by Alisa Gould-Simon, the question of a dress for all those Inaugural Balls was put to one of Mrs. Obama’s favorite designers:

Thakoon Panichgul, one of Michelle’s favorite designers, tried to remain elusive when we asked if he’d submitted sketches. “Um … we’ll see what happens,” he said with a devilish smirk.

And the Observer has a headline that will grab the attention of most fashionistas: “Narciso Rodriguez Hoping for a Second Chance to Dress Michelle Obama,”with insight from designer Narciso Rodriguez on one of his designs being worn by Ms. Obama election night:

“She saw that dress and she liked it,” said Narciso Rodriguez, who designed Michelle Obama‘s Election Night dress. “She saw it on the runway, she chose it, I guess from the runway…” He nodded slowly and mouthed “yes” when asked if he’d known in advance that she would wear it.”

Should one be interested in more information about some of the Thakoon designs worn by Ms. Obama, here is a post as well as here. The Observer story includes speculation from those in attendance at the dinner about an inaugural gown:

The young designers of Proenza Schouler approached Mr. Rodriguez. “Did you see Michelle Obama in his dress?” cried Lazaro Hernandez. “Really major!”

“They have a fabulous new bag line,” deflected Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Hernandez asked if Mr. Rodriguez was designing the inaugural gown. “It would be nice to think so,” he said modestly.

Also in attendance at the CFDA/Vogue gala were Gossip Girl stars Blake Lively (in a dress that didn’t really wow us) …

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

…and Penn Badgley….

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

…along with Tory Burch…

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

and über-preppy couple David Lauren and Lauren Bush…

PHOTO: Scott Gries/Getty

We apologize for being tedious, but we may need to be back one more time again today with our update on Black Friday sales for Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, J. Crew and more.  We’re typing as fast as we can!

Michelle Obama Inaugural Dress Update

Hello again everybody … we thought we should share this promptly as the rumors surrounding possible designers for Michelle Obama’s Inaugural gown are such a hot topic.

In brief, it is *not* designer Cassandra Bromfield as many have reported. To help clear up any confusion, Ms. Bromfield addressed the issue in her blog today, in a post titled Separating Fact from Fiction:

“On Wednesday, I got a call “Congratulations, are in order, I understand you will be making Michelle Obama’s Inaugural gown.” What in the world is she talking about. I just shrugged it off as a wishful thinking. Then I check my emails and there are a few more congrats, what in the world is going on. So I did a bit of research and found that it is listed on a few blogs (as of Wednesday). “Cassandra Bromfield is tapped to create Michelle Obama’s Inaugural Gown.” As the week goes on there are a few more phone calls and emails. Now, some media is calling and I feel I must separate fact from fiction.”

Fiction: Mrs.O has contacted Cassandra Bromfield

Fact: I would love to hear from Mrs. Obama, but I have not spoken to her directly

Fiction: I am sworn to any secrecy

Fact: There is no secret

One need only stop at Ms. Bromfield’s website to know she would design a stunning gown for the Future First Lady.

Courtesy Cassandra Bromfield

We want to publicly thank our tipster for the email alerting us to Ms. Bromfield’s update; we very much appreciate the assistance. Regular readers know we were concerned about the lack of a firm confirmation, with us tiptoeing around the issue as best we could. Below, a snippet from our post on Nov.6th discussing the Sasha and Malia Obama election night dresses:

“Ms. Bromfield also writes a popular wedding blog.  We will await confirmation of the news on the gown’s designer and share it with you as soon as we know the information.”

And in this Tuesday’s post on the Maria Pinto dress Ms. Obama wore for her visit to the White House:

“We still have no confirmation on the Cassandra Bromfield rumor…”

This is not intended to pat ourselves on the back, merely to demonstrate our efforts to maintain accuracy here at the Princess Blog. This may be one of the few areas where it is helpful to have spent all those years in journalism, as it has made TP just a tad neurotic. (A tad?!)

We shall continue to keep an eye on the Inaugural gown story and alert you as soon as we learn anything that merits reporting.