Balenciaga appoints a new artistic director, Amazon is now selling homemade jewellery, Marisa Webb steps down at Banana Republic, and other style news that made the rounds this week.

• Demna Gvasalia of French brand Vetements is succeeding Alexander Wang as artistic director at Balenciaga.
• Target is being applauded for featuring “plus-size” male model Zach Miko in the website’s big and tall section.
• Amazon is now also selling homemade jewellery and home decor items made by artisans, which led to Etsy stock falling 6.1 percent.
• Livia Firth has curated an ethical capsule wardrobe collection for Marks & Spencer “to meet the working woman’s needs”.
• Marisa Webb is stepping down as Banana Republic’s creative director but will stay on as a creative adviser.

Fun Fashion Fact

Did you know that false eyelashes became a common beauty tool in 1916 when film director D.W. Griffith wanted actress Seena Owen’s eyes to look “twice as large and supernatural” for the movie Intolerance. So he asked his wigmaker to glue a pair of eyelashes made from human hair onto Owen’s eyelids with spirit gum. Within a decade, false lashes became standard equipment for actresses and flappers.

This ensemble was inspired by my clients who enjoy wearing mustard. They often combine mustard with blue to cool down the palette. Dark blue pieces like jeans and a coat are easy options because most people have one or both of these in their wardrobes. 

Think of any way to combine mustard with dark blue. Incorporate mustard in small or large doses. Here are the casual components of the outfit formula. 

Jeans: Choose a pair of dark blue jeans in a silhouette that tickles your fancy. 

Top: Choose a dark blue or mustard top in a solid or pattern. Wear it untucked over the jeans, or semi tucked if that’s your preference. I’ve chosen a mustard plaid shirt, a solid ink pullover, and cropped ink windowpane pullover. Create a column of colour with an ink top and add mustard accessories for a Mustard-Lite look. 

Topper: Choose a casual ink blue or mustard coat, cardigan, sweater coat or jacket. 

Footwear: Choose black, ink, cognac or mustard casual footwear that works with the jeans. I also threw in some forest green just for fun. 

Accessories: Choose a casual mustard bag if that’s the only way you’ll incorporate mustard into the outfit. Otherwise add a cognac, black, orange or burgundy bag. Forest green is fun too. A mustard scarf is another way to incorporate mustard. Add jewellery, eyewear, watch and headgear as desired. 

I haven’t included examples here, but mustard and dark blue also works well in dressier combinations for business casual. 

“All-natural” perfumes rarely contain only natural ingredients, but The Guardian reports that “a growing number of independent perfumers are creating genuinely natural perfume, even if this means they have to make smaller, more personal products.”

Both Nivea and Weleda are branching out into the world of scents: Nivea is launching an eau de toilette in Germany and Austria, while Weleda is now selling a trio of fragrances under the name Eaux Naturelles Parfumées / Jardin de Vie.

I enjoyed this piece on Lyn Harris who, after establishing fragrance house Miller Harris in 2000, has now launched Perfumer H, a new niche brand that will offer bespoke services and bring out new collections twice a year.

Fab Links from Our Members

Annagybe thought that Tom Ford’s Spring/Summer 2016 music video featuring Lady Gaga was a pretty fun alternative to the traditional runway show.

Murpheleven came across this article about how entrepreunerial designers are coming up with fashionable ways to wear your activity tracker.

After reading this post on Five Challenging Fall Trends, Marlene asks: “Is a trend worth it if it requires a step-by-step work-around just to make it wearable?”

She was also happy to see that ModCloth is retiring the separate plus-size categorization for clothing.

Celia likes the on trend mix of colours and ladylike feel of this outfit.

Vildy enjoyed this conversation about clothes and the hidden anxieties of getting dressed.

Suz directs us to the REDress Project, a powerful aesthetic response to Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Diane G would like to share this post from Catherine that provides food for thought on the ever thorny subject of age.

Sally shares a list of vendors and brands with sustainable, conscious, or worker-focused practices. Angie thought it was great to see Karen Kane, Eileen Fisher, Everlane, NYDJ, Bailey 44, Munro, Frye, ECCO, Stuart Weitzman, Rag & Bone and J.Brand on the list.

If you use the YLF Finds feature then you have probably seen the email alerts we send you when we know that an item in your collection has dropped in price. The alerts are sent out on Tuesday and Friday mornings, and include all items in your “Shopping” and “Wardrobe” folders that have dropped in price over the last 7 days.

Now we have added the ability to control the alerts that you receive. If you go the the “Email” tab on your profile page, you will see a new section entitled “Finds Price Change Alerts”. Underneath that are three checkboxes where you can turn on price alerts for your “Considering”, “Shopping” and “Wardrobe” folders independently. Currently “Shopping” and “Wardrobe” are on by default. We guessed that you would want to see price alerts for items on your shopping list, and for items in your wardrobe (in case there is a chance of getting a price adjustment).

If you don’t want to receive any alerts at all, just uncheck all three boxes.

Just in case you use Finds but haven’t got around to organizing your items into folders, I should elaborate on that a little. When you collect an item it automatically goes into the “Considering” folder. So if you have never moved your items into different folders, they are all in “Considering”. But you can easily move an item from there into “Shopping” and from there into “Wardrobe”. Folders are really easy to use and Angie explained them in some detail last year.

If you aren’t using Finds, please consider giving it a try. You can easily collect items from online stores, include them in your posts, create collections, and as I mentioned above, receive alerts when the items in your collection drop in price.