This week's Retail Therapy calls attention to the best and worst of retail and fashion. Best: body-accepting Instagrams and swimwear lines. Worst: thoughtless naming and disrespectful shade at the Oscars. You win some, you lose some.
The stuff of PR nightmares
This week in cringe-worthy “what were they thinking?”: Dolce & Gabbana’s $2,300 “Slave Sandal.” The embellished, pom-pom decked sandal was listed on the designer's e-commerce shop and first spotted by Footwear News Wednesday. The publication goes on to explain that while this is a term once bequeathed to this particular type of lace-up sandal, it has been unanimously replaced with the far more PC (and you know, decent) term “gladiator sandals.” Dolce & Gabbana changed the name of the shoe Thursday afternoon to "Decorative Flat Sandal."
The mother of the bra
The woman who created the modern bra was also a 20th century queen. (As in "Yas Queen," not to be confused with sovereign queen or band Queen.) Racked recently took a look at the life of Caresse Crosby, who at 20 years old sewed together two silk handkerchiefs and revolutionized the world of brassieres. After selling her design in 1914, she went on to live the life of fairy tales: flitting around Paris with her husband, socializing with authors like James Joyce and D.H Lawrence, and throwing parties that involved her riding a baby elephant around—TOPLESS. I’ll say it again: queen.
Egg crusade
Steve Harvey, of Miss Universe and Family Feud fame, recently partnered with tech company TEN Ag Tech to launch a line of egg products called “Just Ordinary.” Harvey talked with Fox Business about the new venture, which allows customers to track each egg to the farm it came from through a trace code. If this type of hyper-transparency sounds familiar, that's because it is:
Barbie suits up
We've reported on Barbie’s fashionable Instagram, complete with guest stars Derek Zoolander and Hansel from Zoolander 2. Now, Fortune reports that Barbie is partnering with Target to promote the retailer’s new swimwear line, modeling it on Barbie’s new curvy, tall, and petite doll line.
Fashion police
In this week's Oscar news, the Wall Street Journal gave readers an inside look at this year’s nominees for costume design, asking each team to describe one outfit from their respective movies that epitomizes their hard work.
But alas, even an Oscar winner can’t get any respect in Hollywood. After winning the Oscar for Mad Max: Fury Road, costume designer Jenny Beavan received loads of shade and side eye after walking up to accept the award wearing anything but the typical award show dress and heels.
Obsessed with all these famous people on the aisle refusing to clap for an #oscars winner. https://t.co/ideciyQNuh
— Dalton Ross (@DaltonRoss) February 29, 2016
And lastly...
To round out our list of good and bad in retail, we have... a Loser. More specifically, Brady Loser, who was arrested Sunday for allegedly stealing items from multiple Wal-Marts in California, according to the New York Daily News.