CUSP: A store within a store concept at NM

Nadine Kam photos
Jewelry and accessories have been incorporated into Neiman Marcus's contemporary department, which has been rebranded Cusp.

After being out of town a while, I got my first chance to check out the new CUSP shop-within-a-shop at Neiman Marcus last weekend.

All my favorite contemporary brands are still there, including Alice + Olivia, Helmut Lang, DVF, Rag & Bone, Roberto Rodriguez, Rebecca Taylor, Theory, Alexander Wang, and 3.1 Phillip Lim, and the rebranding and remodel of the store's contemporary department has the effect of shopping a walk-in closet, with accessories from footwear to jewelry right there for mixing and matching as you shop and easy styling as you go.

I couldn't help but notice the comfy looking bright new ottomans that men could plop down on so that wives and girlfriends could shop longer!

Neiman Marcus launched the CUSP brand in 2006 with two freestanding stores that offered customers a contemporary assortment of apparel, shoes, handbags and accessories in a boutique environment. The brand has since grown to six CUSP stores and CUSP.com.

Looks from Alice + Olivia still read young and fun.

Seating areas to park the men and/or boys in your life so you can shop as long as you want.

Accessory displays within CUSP help shoppers create a head-to-toe look without searching the entire store.

Bright design elements and proximity of finishing touches like jewelry, below, give the department the appeal of a walk-in closet.

Fall trends at FNO

Nadine Kam photos
Claudia Vaughan on the runway during the Neiman Marcus fashion presentation on Fashion's Night Out, Sept. 8.

Three-and-a-half hours seems like a long time, except when it's Fashion's Night Out and it becomes a challenge to visit every store offering an event at the exact same time!

When it comes to watching fashion shows, it doesn't leave much time at all, which is why I only managed to stop by Banana Republic to check out its "Mad Men" collection, Old Navy, and Neiman Marcus, from which I never escaped after visiting Andy South to congratulate him on his inaugural collection, taking in a fashion show, checking in with menswear designers Amos Kotomori and Mimi Fong, and finally, ending up having dinner at Mariposa with some friends.

It's great that Andy is sharing floor space—and price points!—with some of my favorite designers, Alexander Wang, Helmut Lang and 3.1 Phillip Lim, as well as Elizabeth & James, Alice+Olivia, Diane Von Furstenberg, See by Chloe and Marc by Marc Jacobs. It's almost unheard of for a new designer to get on the floor of NM with a first collection, but that's how much the local buyers believe in him. Go Andy!

Otherwise, to get shoppers in the mood for fall, the NM fashion show highlighted some key trends for fall, including ladylike looks from apparel to accessories, a touch of shine, the color bordeaux, furs, colorblocking, and more. A video follows.

Designer Andy South with his newly arrived Fall-Winter 2011 collection at Neiman Marcus.

Just as at NYFW, it's always interesting to check out the footwear in the front row.


Nonflash video link

Honolulu Community College Fashion Technology instructor Joy Nagaue showed up to support both Andy and Amos Kotomori, who showed a few samples of his new , one-year anniversary limited edition vintage rayon collection. The designer will also be sharing his collection noon to 4 p.m. Sept. 17, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 23 in NM's third-floor menswear department.

Joy wore a necklace of colorful zipper pulls.

Among those who showed up to support Andy were, from left, Johnathan Walk, Ryan Nakagawa, Nalani Ravelo, Ryan Camacho, Harold Julian, David Crans and Krista Alvarez.

Crystal Pancipanci photographs her daughter Hailey with Andy.

Amos Kotomori launches men's collection

Nadine Kam photos
Honolulu Community College Fashion Technology students and recent graduates turned out in support of their former teacher and mentor Amos Kotomori. From left are JennaBea Galton, Christopher Ching, Amos, Reise Kochi, Jarene Barrett and Thomas Downes.

Amos Kotomori launched his collection of men’s contemporary giclée print shirts at Neiman Marcus on Saturday afternoon, welcoming dozens of friends—old and new—and well wishers. A second event will take place 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 24.

Amos has been a renaissance man in the art-design-production-education fields for three decades, and while he started out as a textile-turned-fashion designer in the 1980s, his path changed. You can read the print story here. Ironically, starting to teach the fashion show production class at Honolulu Community College, and being exposed to students’ enthusiasm and excitement in learning the biz, beginning two years ago, rekindled his own love of fashion and desire to reboot and reinvent.

He’s been working on his collection for a year-and-a-half, and those who came late to the event had to be content to place an order for shirts. His first shipment is already sold out. Hopefully, this bodes well for Amos’ shirts getting picked up by Neiman’s for national distribution. It’s not easy getting into the stores, and it speaks to the quality of his shirts that he was able to do so his first time out.

Mehrzad Solymani, shopping with his wife Heidi, tried on one of  Amos’ sample shirts, all that was left by 2 p.m. Men had to place orders for the next shipment.

It was a good time to study the shirts, with their intricate wrap-around designs, which lined up at every seam due to the method of printing on panels of cloth, an expensive process. I spoke to HCC instructors Joy Nagaue, Lillian Zane and Karen Hastings, who all showed up in support of Amos’ work, and they marveled at the construction and fabric, rich silk-cotton blends.

What I’m waiting for, though, is his first women’s collection, which he now says probably won’t be out until holiday 2011. That’s a very long wait, considering I saw the start of it, the fabrics and prints, at his home in May. That was during a party for 2010’s newly minted designers from HCC alumnus Jay Sario. Before the guest of honor arrived, Amos offered to show me his works-in-progress, including gorgeous silk chiffons that make you want to cocoon and drape yourself in them. Can’t wait til they’re street ready!

Model Brigitte Patton snaps a photo of Amos’s collection.

Amos with a slimmer Amy Hanaiali’i, who shared the secret of her quick weight loss, appetite-suppressing drops and a mere 500 calories a day, in other words, half of what most people normally eat for lunch!

Amos with Honolulu Community College Fashion Technology Program instructor Joy Nagaue, who just got back from watching former star pupil Andy South’s “Project Runway” collection on the runway at New York Fashion Week. She said she’d brought all kinds of omiyage and lei for Andy and his fellow designers and staffers at Lifetime, but designers were whisked away immediately after the show to avoid any contact with the general public due to the secrecy surrounding the show’s finale. She caught up with Andy later, who was responsible for distributing the goodies from Hawaii.

Amos greeted shoppers throughout the afternoon.

Cathy Raymond arranges the lei she took off of Amos to allow him breathing room. Otherwise, it was like graduation!