Topshop and Topman coming to Nordstrom

Photos courtesy Nordstrom
Designs from Topshop and Topman are coming to Nordstrom.

Anglophiles rejoice! Nordstrom announced today that it will be launching Topshop and Topman at 14 Nordstrom stores—including the Ala Moana store—and on Nordstrom.com beginning the week of Sept. 10.

Nordstrom will become the only large U.S. retailer to sell a broad assortment of the British fashion brands’ merchandise in-store and online. Otherwise, you would've had to go online or head to New York, Chicago or Las Vegas to shop this side of the Atlantic. (A Los Angeles outpost will open in Spring 2013).

Nordstrom will carry a full selection of the hottest looks for both men and women, as well as limited-edition pieces exclusive to Nordstrom. An expanded merchandise selection will also be available on nordstrom.com.

Topshop and Topman are known for an individualistic, eclectic approach to style, with an aesthetic that's not for fashion wallflowers or beginners. It'll be interesting to watch how people incorporate the pieces into their wardrobes and see if it injects a little more life into street fashion.

Can't wait to see the collection! I love Brit style.

A lei for you, and your little dog, too

Photos courtesy Lei Woof
Mia in a Lei Woof lei.


Krystal Narusaki was at a loss trying to think of something original to give a friend whose dog was graduating from the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen Program, the doggie equivalent of a high school graduation.

“Everybody gives a canine treat, but I was trying to think of something special I could do and thought, ‘What do people give at graduations?’ They give a lei, but it couldn’t be a flower lei because a dog will just eat it.”

So with ribbon and yarn, Narusaki, a longtime crafter, made a choker-style doggie lei, and it didn’t take long for friends and family to request lei for their four-legged companions, including a rabbit.

She’d been making them for only about six weeks when LeiHut.com came calling. The website is an online marketplace for “stuff from Hawaii,” and a lei for dogs is eminently marketable.

Narusaki, who already has a full-time marketing job with DK Restaurants, wasn’t aiming to launch a business, but said with the interest, it didn’t take long for her to come up with a name, Lei Woof, and packaging.

Krystal Narusaki with her shih tzu Beau.

Her dog Beau is the official product tester, and she claims he loves wearing the lei.
“I think he does because dogs really respond to human attention, and when people see him, they go, ‘Oh, my gosh, he’s so cute!’ He just looks at them and thinks, ‘I must be doing something good.’

“And when my mom goes into town with her dog, he walks around like he’s hot.”
Like ribbon lei intended for humans, the doggie lei are made to resemble Hawaiian flower lei. Narusaki had to work on the design to make sure the garlands lie flat and that there is nothing to scratch or irritate.

Styles offered are plumeria (yellow), lokelani (pink), maile/mokihana (green) and pikake (cream). There are also a couple with light-green “foliage” accented by a choice of purple or orange flowers. The initial design has a ribbon tie closure, and she’ll be introducing an elastic version soon.

The lei come in sizes from extra small to large, and the largest dog Narusaki has seen in one of her lei was a standard poodle. Prices range from $6 to $10. Human lei are also available for those who want to match their pet.

You can find the lei at www.leihut.com and at Aloha Doggie Daycare & Grooming at 525-B Cummins St. Customers are encouraged to post a picture of their dog on Lei Woof’s Facebook page to be entered in a monthly sweepstakes.

Date with a princess

Nadine Kam photos
Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece is in town to mark the first anniversary of her children's boutique in DFS Galleria Waikiki. Families are welcome to share the birthday cake tonight.

Marie-Chantal photo
Pieces from Marie-Chantal's fall-winter 2012 collection, including this Cord dress and zip cardigan, will start arriving in mid-August.

The Marie-Chantal boutique is celebrating its first year in Hawaii with a free first birthday party tonight at the DFS Galleria Waikiki, and families are welcome to join the fun between 7 and 9 p.m.

There will be complimentary mini cupcakes, face painting, balloons, music and bib embroidery. Then, at 8 p.m., Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece will make an appearance, posing for photos with keiki and cutting a birthday cake.

Marie-Chantal Flick coat.

DFS Galleria Waikiki is at 330 Royal Hawaiian Ave. While there, check out the fabulous windows and displays, some highlighting the work of University of Hawaii at Manoa Apparel, Product Design and Merchandising seniors, who were invited to come up with little black dresses inspired by luxury handbags.

One of the windows featuring a collaboration between DFS and University of Hawaii fashion students and graduates. It's great to see the retailer taking notice of the students' work. There are some beautiful windows that come out of similar collaborations in New York between retailers like Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue, and the students of Parsons.

Although the princess was here last year for the boutique grand opening, I was in New York so missed it, but I got to catch up with her this morning and learned about her fondness for Hawaii stemming from her frequent travels here as a child, as the daughter of Robert Warren Miller, a co-founder of DFS.

She said her mom claims she had to be rescued when she fell into one of the lagoons at the Kahala Hotel, but she said she doesn't remember the incident.

Of course I had to ask her if, with her dad's stake in the company, if she had the inside track to bringing her boutique to DFS, and believe it or not, she said she was never one to pull the relationship card.

In growing her 10-year-old brand, she stuck close to home at first, opening three shops in London, and said, "I could go to my father for advice, but he really wanted me to do it on my own. He knew how difficult it would be, and what he was doing, retailing, is very different from manufacturing."

With her entrepreneurial streak, she initially thought of launching a cosmetics business, but as a mother of five, three at the time, she was persuaded to look at children's clothing just before the market took off.

DFS Galleria Waikiki is beautifully dressed for tonight's celebration, including with this floor-to-ceiling display. The illustrations were done by French artist Jean-Pierre Busson in advance of a "How Do I Look?" beauty event to take place in September. Should be huge!

"At the time, it was difficult to find a one-sop shop with everything you needed, from casual to party clothes and everyday wear," she said. Today she offers everything from outerwear to underpinnings, and while her inaugural collections were innocent and sweet, as her children grew older, they became more trend driven.

Her 16-year-old daughter has since aged out of her clothes, but Princess Marie-Chantal said otherwise, her children never complained about wearing her collections. "My kids, they were good, but I think I have good taste. I knew what feels good and I want children to feel fantastic about themselves."

Part of knowing what feels good came from knowing what didn't, and the princess said she grew up in Hong Kong where it was difficult to find children's clothes, and the clothes they did find were scratchy and stiff.

She said her mom had to go to Europe "to get us the pretty clothes. There was Cacharel, Daniel Hechter and Rose of London, I remember all the names."

House of Aria celebrates summer at new location

Nadine Kam photos
House of Aria owner Melody Domingo, center, presented a fashion show at her new Chinatown Arts District boutique with an assist from Marichris Diga-Lazo, left, and Kimberly Seko.

House of Aria presented its summer fashion show at its new downtown location at 1140 Bethel St. on July 7.

The new boutique is easily three times the size of owner Melody Domingo's first House of Aria, which opened in July 2010 at Waiau Center in Pearl City. At the time, Melody was a full-time registered nurse hoping to go part-time.

This time around, I asked her if opening the new store means she'll be giving up nursing, but she says she actually likes the work so has no plan to leave nursing.

Meanwhile, after closing her original boutique in May because her lease expired, Leeward customers have been pleading with her to come back to the West side and she's scouting for a more visible location.

She said moving to town had its learning curve, and she's changed her mix to be trendier and younger, vs. more conservative styles and scrubs for nurse friends she carried in Waiau. During the fashion show, we saw fishtail dresses, cut-out dresses and lace shorts.

Shoppers liked what they saw because there was a line for the dressing rooms afterward, and each person had at least four pieces in hand.

You can check it out firsthand at the corner of Bethel and Pauahi.

Megan Wong was one of three models for the fashion show.

Morgan Clark in a $52 dress. Few pieces are priced higher than that. For now.

Accessories were also featured, such as this clutch shown by Tasha Johnson.

This one-piece bustier dress is $46.

Erin Yenney, left, and Dawn Larson-Lord of Larson Talent Management. Larson-Lord has returned home after spending more than a decade working in talent management in California. She was busily scouting for a TV commercial while enjoying the event.

Danielle Cason, left, with one of the House of Aria swag bags bestowed on the first 25 shoppers, and Amy Showalter.

Target + Neiman Marcus team up for holidays

Now, this will be interesting. Two retailers at opposite ends of the price spectrum—Neiman Marcus and Target—are teaming up for an unprecedented collaboration involving 24 designers.

The Target + Neiman Marcus Holiday Collection will feature an eclectic and diverse mix of more than 50 limited-edition gift products that will range from $7.99 to $499.99, with most items less than $60. Not sure yet what those gifts will be, but the roster of designers certainly caught my eye. They are:

Alice + Olivia
Altuzarra
Band of Outsiders
Brian Atwood
Carolina Herrera
Derek Lam
Diane von Furstenberg
Eddie Borgo
Jason Wu
Judith Leiber
Lela Rose
Marchesa
Marc Jacobs
Oscar de la Renta
Philip Crangi
Prabal Gurung
Proenza Schouler
Rag & Bone
Robert Rodriguez
Rodarte
Skaist-Taylor
Thom Browne
Tory Burch
Tracy Reese

All of the designers are members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and Target and Neiman Marcus are donating $1 million to CFDA to demonstrate their commitment to fostering design talent.

The limited-edition holiday collection will be out Dec. 1, at all Target and Neiman Marcus stores, as well as online at Target.com and NeimanMarcus.com. Will let you know as soon as the first photos emerge! For now, here's a preview video:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/HgZtNkzfvig

Future so bright, she had to make shades

Nadine Kam photos
Megumi Hosogai, in her Megumi-O polarized shades and T-shirt, takes a break at The Modern in the middle of her sales tour of Waikiki.

I never did like selling as a little kid going door-to-door trying to peddle candy or whatever for school fund-raisers. Some of my friends were lucky to have parents who bought their whole allotment and did the selling for them to friends and co-workers. But my parents were not like that and I had to do all the hustling, which wasn't easy in Waipahu, where all the families had kids my age who had their own fund-raisers to consider.

So I feel for every fledgling designer who not only designs but has to act as his/her own marketer, manufacturer, accountant and salesman. Of all those tasks, for me, selling for me, would be the worst (though strangely enough I sold residential real estate here for five years). But selling seems the easiest thing in the world for Megumi Hosogai, whose story about creating her Megumi-O Asian-fit eyewear brand appears in the paper today. I interviewed her when she was in town for her 20th Punahou reunion, and watched with awe and amazement as she made the rounds of top-tier hotels to place her shades.

She honed her skills selling commercial real estate in L.A., and as a result says she has no problem with cold calling. She has boundless energy anyway, so even though I was amused that she wore her high school prom dress to her reunion—who does that?—I wasn't surprised that it still fit her!

Then she showed me a photo of her prom dress, and let's just say her Rachel London's Garden dress wasn't very typical of promwear circa 1992! As brash as her form-fitting all-over floral dress was, her classmates didn't remember it when they saw it again!

Just goes to show you, social media is a good thing. Posting photos and happenings will help jog your memory when it starts fading.

I tend to remember a lot, but when I think about the first half of my life, it feels like I'm a third party looking at a different person.

Photos courtesy Megumi Hosogai
Megumi Hosogai at her high school prom below, and 20 years later, at her Punahou reunion in her prom dress.

A drama queen then and always.

With friends in her Punahou reunion photo booth, with and without her Megumi-O shades.

Megumi-Os on singer-songwriter and actress Roselyn Sanchez.

And on "The Hunger Games' " Isabelle Fuhrman.

Breakfast without Tiffany

Tiffany photos
A treasure at the recent Friends of the Library book sale that I let slip away.

After visiting "Eat the Street: Garlic" June 29, I headed to the Friends of the Library book sale at McKinley for a peek before the sale ended July 1. I figured June 30, 50 percent off day, would be too crazy to bother with.

Just before closing, I was browsing through the art books and picked up "Tiffany Jewels" by John Loring. A beautiful book and timely, considering the company is marking its 175th anniversary this year and we'll be hearing more about events planned for fall.

All the other books I was picking up was about $3 or $5, so when I saw a whopping $20, I balked. Hmm, if I wait til tomorrow morning, it'll be $10. Never mind that the book is now selling for $285.50 new on Amazon.

My husband was no help, wavering between, "You don't need another book," and, "If you really want it, get it now." Those were two conflicting messages that made me think, "What would I do with the book immediately," and, "I want it, but do I really need it? How many other books do I have that are unread, like clothes in my closet that are unworn?"

Sometimes you need some overnight clarity. Ultimately, I just loved the beauty of the full-color photographs and illustrations throughout the book.

A sample page from John Loring's "Tiffany Jewels." The company celebrates its 175th anniversary this year.

I figured my timing would be perfect. The sale would open at 9 a.m. and I could pop by en route to a hair appointment. I was among the last to leave the McKinley cafeteria Friday night. What were the odds someone would swoop in Saturday morning and grab my book?

Of course, if you can ask the question, you can guess the outcome. When I got there about 5 minutes to 9 a.m. the next day, there were about 60 people in line. I scanned the crowd to try to gauge what they might go after. The people with boxes worried me. They are typically resellers.

When I finally got in the door, I gazed over at the art section, and there were only four people milling around. I went straight to the box containing my book and it looked the same as the night before. I feared that staffers might have tidied up and consolidated, but the other three books I had seen there the night before were in place. I pulled back the large book that hid the Tiffany book, and ... it was gone!

There was no competition for these other books I picked up.

I searched for a while to see if anyone had walked off with it and placed it in another box, but alas, it was not to be. So I went home with a few more consolation prizes, like a First Ladies cook book because I like historic menus, a book about barns reflecting newfound interest after having just returned from farm country, and a book about castles, after having heard my mother-in-law's stories of having grown up in them.

Here's a link to some "Tiffany Jewels" previews on Amazon so you can see what I missed: http://amzn.to/MupH7q

To commemorate its birthday, Tiffany & Co. recently reset the Tiffany Diamond. The fancy yellow diamond, which has been reset four times—including starring in Jean Schlumberger's Ribbon Rosette necklace worn by Audrey Hepburn in publicity photos for "Breakfast at Tiffany's"—is now set in a platinum necklace, surrounded by 120 carats of white diamonds, 20 Lucida diamonds, and 58 brilliant-cut diamonds.