If the Price Isn’t Right, It’s Negotiable
As an alternative to robbery, the Cheap & Chic Emporium may be attractive to bargain-hungry Los Angeles fashion addicts. Set to open Nov. 5, the 8,000-square-foot store--on Robertson Boulevard between Burton Way and 3rd Street--is being billed as “a department store born out of the recession.” This means the price of everything under the roof will be negotiable, just like a Middle Eastern bazaar. Customers will be encouraged to haggle over marked prices on new and “vintage”--a.k.a. used--merchandise ranging from clothes to lawn furniture. Sounds like the sort of place where Ross Perot might buy a suit.
* NO AWARDS, PLEASE, WE’RE BRITISH: Turkish-born Rifat Ozbek was named British Designer of the Year for the second time this week. But not without protests. Two designers withdrew from the competition after criticizing the way it is run. Jasper Conran, Designer of the Year in 1986, said Ozbek was not eligible to participate because he now is based in Italy, adding the criteria for selecting the winner were “muddled and confused.” Designer Paul Smith said the event was too “self-congratulatory.”
Ozbek, who also won in 1988, received his award from the Duchess of Kent, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, at a swanky London dinner. About 800 guests, including singer Mick Jagger and model Jerry Hall, attended the $165-a-head event at the Grosvenor House Hotel. The award ceremony is the culmination of London Fashion Week, the annual showcase of British designers. (Many of the London designers also will be showing this week in Paris.)
* THE SHOE DROPS: The United States Shoe Corp. announced this week that a consolidation of its women’s shoe manufacturing operations will wipe out 300 jobs by the end of the year. The company said it will close its Ripley, Ohio, plant in two months and cut 45 jobs at a Harrison, Ohio, operation. The moves will actually affect about 400 people, but managers hope to relocate about 100 of them within the company, a spokesman said. Besides shoe manufacturing, U.S. Shoe is a specialty retailer of women’s apparel whose operations include August Max Woman, Casual Corner, Petite Sophisticate, Banister and Capezio Factory Outlet stores.
* PRESIDENTIAL SHORTS: A bidder paid $325 for a pair of President Bush’s undershorts at an auction. Bush donated the autographed undies for last weekend’s Great Outdoor Underwear Festival in Piqua, Ohio, where the main industry is making underwear. While Bush may be behind in the polls, he beat Democrat Bill Clinton in the bidding. A pair of shorts autographed by Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, went for a mere $200.
* DOG FIGHT: A woman who dresses dogs in fake fur coats, motorcycle jackets and satin wedding dresses has sued her former partners, claiming they stole her designs and created their own fashion line--for children. Christene Selleck had agreed to create children’s clothes to coordinate with her dog coats but instead found her designs selling under another label, she claimed in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The lawsuit filed last week seeks a minimum $50,000 damages. Woof, woof.
* WARNING TO MADONNA: American pop star and tiresome exhibitionist Madonna had better stay out of Malaysia. The government there banned a popular actress from appearing on radio and television because she once posed nude, newspapers reported this week. Information Minister Mohamed Rahmat was quoted by the Star as saying he was banning Zarina Zainuddin “indefinitely” to show that his ministry is serious about setting high moral standards.
* HAIR BY MOZART: Worried about that bald patch? Forget those miracle cures advertised in newspapers--just sit back and listen to a little Mozart. That at least is the advice of Daiichi Pharmaceutical, a leading Japanese drug maker marketing a compact disc of Mozart’s music to help reverse the balding process in men. “The aim is to put the listener in a relaxed frame of mind where the music can have a soothing effect and relieve stress,” a company spokesman said. “Mozart is lighter and easier to listen to than many other composers,” he said. Daiichi has sold more than 10,000 discs in six months.
