These were some of the Halloween decorations at the White House this year. You can see a video of the Obamas handing out treats here and you can watch a video about the White House spider cookies here. Here are some of the decorations.
A skeleton and candles decorate the Blue Room of the White House
A fairy inside a giant bubble near the North Portico of the White House
A giant spider hangs from the North Portico of the White House
A performer dressed as a grapevine tree moves about the north grounds of the White House
Disney On Ice presents Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo took top honors in the category of Best Foreign Show in Argentina at the annual A.C.E. Awards. This was the first A.C.E. nomination and win for Disney On Ice in the twelve years that the productions have toured the country. The worldwide Finding Nemo tour, produced by Feld Entertainment, opened in Orlando, Florida, in September 2004. It quickly set the all-time record for the highest grossing Disney On Ice show for its first two years of touring. Since its opening, the show has played more than 1,680 performances to over 6.3 million guests in 21 countries. You can find the tour schedule at Disney on Ice. You can also see a video there of the Finding Nemo skaters in action.
Lara Stone is on the front cover of Vogue UK's December issue wearing a Dior Haute Couture white tulle corset dres. She was photographed by Mario Testino. Vogue UK calls Lara the "girl of the year" which is appropriate since Lara Stone has been talked about everywhere this year.
WWD cornered Zac Efron at a party thrown by G-Star for him to celebrate him being on the November issue of Nylon Guys. Naturally, WWD's reporter went straight for the burning fashion question of the moment: how does Zac get his jeans so perfectly lived in? Well, he works at it. A Lot.
At 22, Zac Efron is meticulous when it comes to his clothes. Consider his raw denim jeans by G-Star, which he wore continuously over eight weeks to weather the stiff dungarees for the too-cool-for-school look, complete with dusty yellow whiskers on the front pockets. "They're my favorite jeans," the actor said Wednesday at the dinner G-Star threw for him at XIV to celebrate his turn as cover boy of Nylon Guys' November issue. "I wore them all throughout High School Musical 3. I even wore them hiking. You have to wear them everywhere to get them right."
Joined by High School Musical co-star Ashley Tisdale, actress Brittany Snow, local "It" girl Cory Kennedy and DJ Steve Aoki, Efron paired his dirty denim with a striped sweater by Marc Jacobs. It's too bad he didn't have much to say about the jeans he wore on the cover of the magazine. Instead of G-Star, they were crisp, clean Levi's.
That was quite tactful of Zac. No need to hate on the Levi's just because you're loving your meticulously broken in G-Stars.
Ebay is opening its first physical store in New York City this holiday season. WWDreports that the 5,500 square foot pop-up store will open at 3 West 57th Street and will run for just a few days from November 20th to November 29th. The store will carry items ranging from electronics to high-end fashion items. Some of the fashion items in the store will include L.A.M.B. shoes, Michael Kors handbags and Dooney & Burke handbags. The store will also carry the Norma Kamali for eBay collection which debuted in September. Other items in the store will include cosmetics, electronics, home products and toys. Inside the store customers will be given handheld tablets so they can place orders for anything on eBay.com.
WWD says the launch of eBay's holiday store kicks of with a cocktail party on November 19th. The store will also be participating in Black Friday when some "daily deal" items will be handed out to the first 100 shoppers who visit the store.
Chefs (and brothers) Matt and Ted Lee have a new book out called The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor. They appeared on The Today Show to show Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira how to make some traditional Southern recipes that have been modernized. The brothers cook up Pimiento Cheese Potato Gratin and Caeser Salad With Catfish Croutons. Take a look:
WWDreports that Juicy Couture is opening up shops in several aiports. The photograph above is a Juicy Couture store opening up in Miami International Airport's American Airlines terminal. Other airports soon getting a Juicy Couture store include John F. Kennedy International Airport, TaoYuan International Airport and the Athens airport. The Miami airport store opens in December and the three others open in 2010. Juicy Couture told WWD they know their customers are in the airports.
"We know that our customer is traveling and she's in the airports," said Ellen Rodriguez, senior vice president of global licensing and international at Juicy Couture. "Women are always wearing our tracksuits, especially to travel in. We just don't think she's being targeted by other retailers in these airports, so there's a real opportunity there for us."
The brand has developed a new airport store design concept to showcase the best of what Juicy is known for, as well as items that are geared toward travel. Tracksuits will be available in a multitude of colors, and there will also be easy last-minute gifting items such as jewelry, sunglasses, watches, charms, logo T-shirts, packaged baby socks, onesies and bibs. In addition, city-specific gifts will be available in the shops, such as a T-shirt graphic stating "Choose Miami" in the Miami airport location.
It's not a bad strategy. The reduction of flights has more people stuck in terminals as they wait for a connecting flight. Shopping is one way to pass the time.
Leighton Meester looks fabulous on the December cover of Glamour UK with huge hair, styled in a 1960s Brigitte Bardot look. She's wearing fishnet stockings and a faux leopard print coat. In this issue, Leighton Meester talks about how her past relationships have inspired her music and how she wants her Gossip Girl character Blair Waldorf to cut loose. Leighton told Glamour UK that she doesn't care how people label her.
Leighton says, "I'm proud of the work that I've done. I don't care what people label me as. If they want to say I'm an actress, and I should never sing, that's fine. If they know me for my music, because they don’t watch my show or my movies, that's fine, too. I'm doing what I want with my life. I just do...me."
This weekend H & M held a party in Los Angeles to celebrate the U.S. launch of the hotly anticipated Jimmy Choo for H & M collection. Hayden Panettiere, Paris Hilton, Nicki Hilton and Olivia Wilde were all wearing items from the collection which is based on black and cobalt blue, with sequins, leopard print and jeweled accessories.
Hayden wore the black sequin cardigan, skinny leather pants and a carried the studded zebra-print clutch. Hayden had nothing but praise for the line, saying, "[Founder] Tamara Mellon is so brilliant, and such a wonderful designer. Her shoes are incredible....I do my shopping sprees at H&M... And I am in love with these pants!"
Paris Hilton wore the belted jumpsuit and accessorized with lots of bracelets from the collection and the hot pink box clutch. Paris said,
"I already love H&M but the fact that they are doing Jimmy Choo as well I think is amazing. The purses, the shoes, everything. The clothes are so cute. They have so many fabulous things and I can't wait to get the whole collection."
Nicky Hilton wore the beaded batwing dress and Olivia Wilde looked fabulous in the rhinestone-encrusted black cocktail dress, cage heels and a mock croc clutch. The party was orchestrated by a producer who had models wearing the outfits. They posed and changed positions at specified times. Take a look:
The collection goes on sale on November 14 and is not available online to U.S. residents. A crowd is expected at most of the stores, so they will be handing out bracelets to get in. The store has limited the number of items each person can buy to discourage people from stocking up and reselling on Ebay at higher prices. A full explanation of how to buy the items can be found here (just skip the intro).
Ryan Seacrest posted this photo of him and a lovely Great Dane, with the comment "My new homie." He's adorable. And huge. We do hope Ryan has laid in a big supply of dog food.
