GLAMOROUS RIDE: Forget Town Cars this fashion season — sort of. Glamour magazine and DKNY Jeans have chartered a more stylish ride to shuttle celebrities to and from the Bryant Park tents during the shows. The Condé Nast monthly rented a chopper from US Helicopter, which runs eight-minute shuttle trips every half-hour from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Manhattan’s Downtown Heliport near Wall Street. Glamour first started shuttling passengers, such as Jared Leto and his 30 Seconds to Mars bandmates, in the DKNY jeans-branded chopper during the MTV Video Music Awards last week; Mandy Moore also hopped a ride to the Sheryl Crow and John Mayer show at Jones Beach. Molly Simms will take the shuttle to Fashion Rocks on Thursday. Glamour did not reveal the cost to rent the helicopter, but Donal McSullivan, senior vice president and marketing chief of US Helicopter, said rates range from $159 a person to $2,000 to charter an entire helicopter for eight people during normal business hours. Now, as long as the stars don’t get stuck in traffic heading uptown….
— Stephanie D. Smith
REAL WOMAN: Perfume, T-shirts and water are the usual front-row gifts for editors and celebrities (not including, of course, all those goodies sent to their offices or homes). But at Carmen Marc Valvo‘s spring show Sept. 13, all the front-row seats also will come equipped with an issue of More magazine. As Valvo and More editor in chief Peggy Northrop will reveal after the show, the eveningwear designer has teamed up with the Meredith title aimed at the 40-plus woman for their annual model search. Valvo will dress the finalists in the competition, which last year drew nearly 20,000 entries, and the winner will get to keep a dress. Past participants have included Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang.
“I really always look for a designer who understands and can relate to real women,” said Lois Joy Johnson, More’s beauty and fashion director, who approached Valvo after seeing his fall show. “He has an understanding that we’re not all 5 feet 9 inches and 90 pounds.”
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Valvo agreed it was a good fit: “The 20-year-olds normally don’t buy couture gowns unless Mommy and Daddy are paying,” he said cheerfully. Did More give him a good deal on advertising in the magazine’s September issue, one of only two print ads for a niche market designer who himself said his “advertising dollars are limited”? “I hope they did,” Valvo said. “I don’t know.”
— Irin Carmon
LORI LANDS: Time Inc. likes Lori Majewski after all. After losing her job as managing editor of Teen People when the title folded in July, Majewski has found another haven within the media company as executive editor of Entertainment Weekly. Majewski jumped from Us Weekly to Teen People in August 2005 to revive the fledgling teen title, but her efforts couldn’t save it from demise. As for her new EW gig, the entertainment contacts she built up at Us, especially in the music world, should help the magazine round out its music coverage. “I’ve been a fan of the magazine since the first issue, and really love what they’ve been doing since the redesign,” said Majewski in an e-mailed statement. “The Spotlight section and music in general really appeal to me, and I am excited to work on them both because the experience I bring can add a great deal to the book. Music is truly my first love and is the reason I got into the magazine business.” Majewski takes her new post Sept. 11.
— S.D.S.
FASHION DRAMA: Sylvia is back. The fictional leading lady of Barneys New York’s mailer last season has returned for fall with more tales of her fashionable adventures — thanks to the store’s inventive creative director Simon Doonan.
In the first mailer, while wearing clothes from designers including Lanvin, Balenciaga and Prada, she met her future husband, got married and was accused and charged with killing him. Doonan said he came up with the Sylvia theme after rereading “Valley of the Dolls” and “Mildred Pierce.”
“I thought it was time we did our own rags-to-riches melodrama,” he explained. “We have always raised the bar high with our mailers. They are like our windows — people expect something idiosyncratic.”
The store sent out 235,000 mailers last season and is planning to deliver 260,000 for fall. A spokeswoman declined to provide production costs.
The fall mailer has Sylvia fleeing from prison, moving to Hollywood and meeting her prince, an heir to the “Forthright squillions,” only to find out she is no longer a wanted felon and has been acquitted of all charges. Wearing a Nina Ricci gown, Sylvia ends her tale by shunning Hollywood and relocating to an African country to live happily ever after with her husband.
Doonan said the store received an overwhelmingly positive response so far. “People went nuts over the first one,” he said. “They seemed hugely grateful that we had made the effort to put some explicit narrative into fashion.” He added, “The consumer is tired of looking at pictures of gals in frocks. They want a bit of drama and some backstory, maybe even a murder or two.”
Doonan said the project was a group effort — he wrote the story, art director Suzi Jones worked with photographer Terry Tsiolis and fashion director Julie Gilhart allocated which designer went into each scene, featuring model Malgosia Bela.
— Amy Wicks