Roger Federer's Midas Touch

The Brits may not be digging Roger Federer's gold lame accenting on his Nike tennis outfit, but it sure does liven up the game.

Quickies: Rag & Bone opens shop, Phelps the philanthropist, Pilati uncensored, & Campos' choice

Photo: Getty Images

Rag & Bone opened up their first free-standing store in New York City's West Village. The reigning one-word review? Amongst others: fabulous! [The Cut]

Speedo offered to pay Michael Phelps $1 million if he got seven gold medals in Beijing. Well, he got eight and he got the dough, but, as any good-hearted athlete who is guaranteed millions upon millions more from other endorsements, he is donating the money to charity. Not a charity to help us all look that good in a Speedo, though. [DNR News]

Yves Saint Lauren head designer Stefano Pilati opened up to The New York Times Magazine, talking about everything from his sexuality to his keen fashion sense from the age of 9. Ever since his harsh sound bite about Tom Ford hit ("talented but not gifted"), we've been waiting for the rest. [NYTM]

Carlos Campos, noted menswear designer, is showing his first womenswear show in New York next week, but with an added twist: He'll only use black models. In a moment of "duh," Campos cited Iman as inspiration. [The Cut]

-- SETH PLATTNER   

Sports + fashion, together forever

Photo: Getty Images

A new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum examines the romance between sports and fashion and its resulting street chic offspring, the tracksuit. Featuring 60 outfits, drawings, photographs, and films that showcases design elements, advertising campaigns, and fashion collections, "Fashion V Sport" reveals the ways in which sportswear has sprinted from the gym to the runway.

"More and more we are seeing fashion brands getting involved in sports like the Olympics or Wimbledon or the U.S. Open," curator Ligaya Salazar told Reuters. 

The show is divided into sections entitled "Dare," "Display," "Play," "Desire," and involves designs from high end names like Prada, Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and Yohji Yamamoto, who have created looks for companies including Adidas, Reebok, Nike, and Puma. It also investigates the role of sports celebrities, like hunky poster boys David Beckham and Roger Federer, in popularizing fashion trends off the field.

"Fashion and sport share a long history, but close collaboration only began about 10 years ago after designers noticed ordinary people wearing sports gear outside the gym in emulation of the stars of the sports and entertainment worlds," Salazar said.

And here we were willing to give all the credit to Richard Simmons.

The exhibition runs through January 4th, 2009.

New York's Opening Ceremony to honor Olympics with a three-day marathon shopping event

Photo: Getty Images

Today in Beijing, the U.S. Olympic team marched into the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony wearing Ralph Lauren's Chariots of Fire-inspired team uniforms (seen above). Half-way around the world, New York's very own Opening Ceremony kicked off a three-day non-stop shopping marathon to celebrate the occasion.

Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, co-owners of the designer SoHo store, spoke with the New York Times about the 72-hour Olympic-themed fete. "From the very beginning, one of the things we've talked about was that we would love a store that was open at one or two in the morning," Leon said. "Sometimes you feel like going out, but you don't want a bar."

Late night attendees will be able to shop (Opening Ceremony is selling exclusive Nike items like $250 gold and silver versions of the Air Max 1), munch on free tacos and ice cream, participate in a 1 a.m. table tennis tournament on Sunday morning, and line up to commemorate the event with a tattoo by Brooklyn artist Scott Campbell who will be inking customers with Olympic designs beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

With Shopping, snacks, tattoos, (and the packs of cute hipsters that combination is sure to conjure) and Leon's promise to broadcast the Games at Opening Ceremony all weekend long (which are finally safe to watch again now that those ghastly Roots berets are out of the picture), we can think of no better way to spend the next 72 hours.

-- NOAH MICHELSON

Opening Ceremony is located at 35 Howard Street New York, New York 10013 Tel. (212) 219-2688
 

Topshop Comes Stateside; Olympic Swimmers and Drag; Samuel L. Jackson Designs for Armani; Nina Garcia Leaving Elle; Yigal Dishes

Photo: Getty Images

British Cheap-chic retailer Topshop announced that they will open a U.S. flagship location in Manhattan on October 10th! Mark your calendars, boys. [Fashion Week Daily]

The swimsuits to be worn by swimmers on the U.S. Olympic team not only cover more of the male swimmers body, but also gives them a gender-neutral Ken doll-like crotch to reduce "drag." In other words, the swimming competitions just lost some gay viewers while some drag queens get some much-needed respect. [Queerty]

Celebrities are always meddling with fashion. Samuel L. Jackson has been trying to get Giorgio Armani to use more brocade, beaded fabrics—and fabrics used in the womens collection—for the mens collection. Armani needs to tell Samuel L. to stick to acting and let Armani design the clothes. I mean, celebrities are just walking coat hangers for designer clothes to get into celebrity magazines. [WWD]

Is Nina Garcia, Project Runway judge and Elle Fashion Director, leaving the magazine? When WWD reports a rumor, it's usually true... I said usually. What does this mean for her Project Runway gig? [WWD]

Yigal Azrouël dishes about his collaboration with K-Swiss and his love of surfing. [The Cut]

Ralph Lauren Named Official Outfitter for Olympic Games

Team USA's decidedly "informal" outfits at the 2006 Olympic Games. Photo: Getty Images

Ralph Lauren has been named the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic Team for the Beijing Summer Games. The brand will create all of the outfits for the athletes, including those for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as their off-duty grab for hanging out in Olympic Village.

The deal signals a stylish upgrade for the athletes who, in previous years, wore decidedly "too informal" outfits from Roots—a company that isn't based in the U.S. but in Canada. Call me crazy, but athletes representing the U.S. should wear American clothes, no? By choosing Ralph Lauren, the marquee name in fashion that is synonymous with American style, the men and women will look better than ever (See sketch, courtesy of Ralph Lauren)!

According to Fashion Week Daily:

"At the Olympic Village and at closing ceremonies, athletes will wear a wardrobe of V-neck tennis sweaters and ties, Polo mesh shirts with the word "Beijing" written in oversized Chinese characters, and cargo pants. The color scheme will be a patriotic palette of red, white, and blue. Polo ponies will also make an appearance on the garments. Additionally, the Olympic logo featured on the new uniforms may include a replica of a crest with stars and stripes used by the 1932 U.S. Olympic team at the Los Angeles Games."

This is not the first time that Ralph Lauren has contributed to major sporting events. The brand is also the official outfitter for the U.S. Open and the polo shirts with oversized pony logos were one of the most coveted items during tennis season.

While Ralph Lauren has only signed on to outfit athletes for the Games in Beijing, the brand has the option to extend the deal for the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 and Summer Games in London in 2012.

[FWD]

Links Looks

Every sport has its attire, and that is right and good. Golf has pretty much the ugliest getups of any game, and unfortunately also wields undue influence on the way men dress. To a lot of guys, a polyester golf shirt with a pattern of, say, a fleet of sailboats says "safe", "self-assured", "confident". To us, the shirt says "watch out for the sand trap as you run for the hills!"

Not surprisingly, celebrities do it a little better than real professional golfers, so we're start with them, and see if we can decipher what they were thinking when they showed up for the 9th Annual Michael Douglas & Friends Celebrity Golf Tournament.

Mark Wahlberg: Ya like my MW monogram? Aw yeah, you know who's rockin' this tournament!

 

Not So Fond of Bottle Blond

David Beckham has lightened up (his hair), and Us Weekly's reader's don't like it...The Sun is calling him "Marilyn." We think he looks more like late 80s Brigitte Nielsen, and it doesn't become him. Disappointing in a man who so artfully popularized the mohawk, the fauxhawk, and could dress like Joseph of Aramathea and still look studly.

Related: beware the wrath of Marilyn! Posh and Becks have bitch-slapped the clumsy publicists at Polo Ralph Lauren, who used the names of sons Brooklyn and Romeo in a press release. Tacky, tacky, tacky!

Photo: Getty Images

Snazzy Dressers: the Adelaide Crows

Many people are a little shy about wearing a)skimpy garments, b)loud patterns. The Adelaide Crows prove you can do both, and still be super-sexy.

By the way, the game they play is Australian rules football, something like what we call soccer, but with hands allowed.

Photos: Getty Images

All the Rage

Remember 28 Days Later, the 2002 Brit thriller that featured a (brief) shot of Cillian Murphy naked? Remember the name of the super-scary virus lovely Cillian was running away from? Rage.

Everyday, real-life varieties of rage, like road rage, air rage, and cubicle rage, aren't generally transmitted by biting, but are far more common than the 28 Days Later kind. Pop MD Mehmet Oz offers these smart strategies for dealing with rage, including the surprising finding that throwing alcohol on a fire may put it out:

"Having a drink when you're angry can be a good thing, because alcohol calms your brain's executive center -- its reactionary autopilot."

Photo: Getty Images