Juicy Couture Founders Leave Company

Juicy Couture founders Gela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy have announced they will be leaving the brand to pursue other projects, including books, television and movies.

Since selling the brand to Liz Claiborne in 2003, the two founders have netted more than $200 million and since that time, their participation in Juicy Couture has been a downward spiral. In 2008, they stepped down as co-presidents of their own brand to become creative directors, making their announcement to leave the brand completely the only logical next step in their edging-toward-exit process. Nash-Taylor and Skaist-Levy did make a brief statement on their departure from the brand, saying:

“We stayed seven years, which is a long time… We’re super-creative girls. We want to bust out and do everything.”

While the founders are definitely trying to exit without too much of a flareup from their fans or anyone else associated with them on a business level, some are speculating that the real reason they have decided to completely leave the brand is because of their scufflings with Liz Claiborne CEO, Bill McComb. It has been said the duo and McComb have gotten into scuffles over the quality of Juicy Couture’s fashions declining after recent reshuffling of Asian manufacturers. McComb has also stated, “As a business gets bigger and bigger, less and less comes from the founding team.”

However, contrary to what McComb has stated about the continued success of Juicy Couture, upscale department stores, including the likes of Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s have been cutting back floor space allotted to the brand after plummeting sales and markdowns. In fact, Juicy Couture’s third quarter sales have dropped 7.8% and while Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy still continue to remain upbeat about its long-term prospects, I have to say that now was the best time to get out with their $200 million and spread their juicy-scrawled asses all over books, movies and television.

Book Review: Dream Life by Lauren Mechling

Although Dream Life is a sequel to Lauren Mechling’s first book, Dream Girl, Dream Life is the first book I have read in the supernatural journey that is Claire Voyante’s world. That being said, Mechling first and foremost succeeded in creating a book that you can pick up and jump right into, without needing any back story from the first publication in the series.

Claire is a typical high school girl with a not-so-typical gift; ever since her grandmother, Kiki, gave her an onyx and ivory cameo necklace, Claire has been having black and white dreams that are major tips in solving some pretty influential mysteries. To make Dream Life even more intriguing, Claire isn’t just solving mysteries around New York, she (albeit, mistakenly) aligns herself with a secret society of do-gooders called the Blue Moons, who give her quite the mystery to solve–find a missing pink iPod that holds the secrets of a new and absolutely huge project to save the Brooklyn Bridge from real estate developer slimeball, Sink Landon.

Admittedly, Dream Life was a little slow to start for me, which I attribute to not reading the first book and really not knowing the who knew each other so well. However, the book surprised me with its ability to catch–and keep–my attention to the end. Claire is a remarkable and rememberable heroine that you find yourself rooting for in her entire series of problems, not just with solving mysteries, but also rifts with her friends, her complicated boy troubles and dealing with her eccentric parents. Through reading so many young adult books and seeing the amount of quirkiness young adult authors portray in their parental characters, it is my belief that YA authors write parents with the exaggerated qualities they had in parents growing up, with a myriad of additional attributes they wished their parents had and Dream Life had that ten-fold with a Paris-crazed mother with a love of the Zodiac and her parents’ insane Paris-themed house parties. But most of all, I fell in absolute love with Claire’s grandmother, Kiki, who reminds me of every genuinely close friend I have ever had that I could divulge anything to without feeling a hint of judgment.

Lauren Mechling not only presents a fabulous mystery novel that captures the attention of young adults and older adults alike, but also is the first author since the creators of Sex and the City to turn New York City into a character in itself. Being the wannabe-fashionista that I am (read: If I had money, oh the clothes, shoes and accessories I would buy), I really enjoyed the fashion appearances in this book as well. Kiki’s hand-me-down vintage dresses Claire wears and the footwear described in her best friend Becca’s wardrobe are enough to make even the savviest of fashionistas swoon.

I loved being given the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in Claire’s life; from her stance as a Half Moon in the Blue Moon society, solving a mystery that proved me wrong when I thought I had everything figured out, to finally figuring out who she is as a person and knowing her own level of morality, which makes Claire completely and utterly real.

I would recommend this book to anyone craving a serving of hilarious, page-turning, on-the-edge-of-your-seat read that lets you breathe a sigh of relief when you think things can’t get much worse.

Rating:

Katie Holmes Pregnant Again?

For the past week, Katie Holmes has been photographed, which isn’t new in her life; but what is new is the fact that every day she has been photographed, she has been wearing the exact same pair of baggy jeans.

“It’s the new look Katie is going for,” a source tells US Magazine. It has also been confirmed that not only is she wearing extremely baggy jeans every single day, but that their not even hers, they are Tom Cruise’s.

This of course makes you wonder what’s going on that the severely wealthy Katie Holmes is wearing her husband’s jeans and for an entire week, at that; it does seem like that awkward time in a pregnancy where you find your clothes getting a little tight but it’s way too soon to break out the maternity wear. Speaking of which, have we all noticed the bump that is in plain sight?

Leave the shirt untucked next time, Katie.