RUNWAY MUSE

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RUNWAY MUSE AT NYFW

Hosted by SohoMuse Founder Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin

By Lillian Langtry

ohoMuse, the global creative community’s professional networking website, and Runway 7, the New York Fashion Week vertical fashion platform, were proud to present Runway Muse, an inaugural fashion student runway competition, at Runway 7, held at Sony Hall, 235 W 46th Street. The event was live-streamed and shown to an audience of fashion VIPs, influencers, press, and buyers. The runway competition – one of the ticketed New York Fashion Week events at Runway 7 – was hosted by SohoMuse co-founder/CEO and Billboard recording artist Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin and featured 16 graduating student designers from fashion schools across the country, including Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Istituto Marangoni Miami. Five distinguished judges critiqued the students’ two original designs – one

Sathleisure/streetwear look and one edgy nightlife look: Fashion designer Naeem Khan, who debuted his S/S 2022 collection at Runway 7 in September 2021; writer, designer, and pop culture culturist Mickey Boardman; author and life coach Elliot Carlyle; actress and model Debbie Dickinson; and fashion writer and designer Joseph DeAcetis. The inaugural fashion student runway competition allowed young designers to be mentored by SohoMuse lead designers, learn how to create and develop their line, and then sell it. With this competition SohoMuse will provide mentorship and job opportunities to the next generation of designers. Three student winners were chosen, and each received a dream come true: their first fashion collection made by Runway 7’s expert team of pattern-makers and seamstresses, as well as an allexpenses-paid runway show to debut their new fashion line at Runway 7 during

New York Fashion Week in September 2022. The first-place winner was Desislava Simeonova who was awarded an original 20-piece collection; first runner-up Jacqueline Mones who was awarded a 15-piece collection; and the second runner-up Francys Lorena Herrera who was awarded a 10-piece collection.

Runway 7 will hold product development meetings with the winning designers and will produce all designs. All winners will have their lines featured in SohoMuse Marketplace, an e-commerce retail platform, in addition to a professionally produced runway show during NYFW in September 2022. Each designer will have an e-boutique dedicated to direct-to-consumer sales, as well as one year of online exposure.

Other student designers that competed in the inaugural Runway Muse competition were Jamie Avadis, Bryan Barrientos, Alejandro Bárzaga, Neena Bui, Belkys Costa, Eve De La Font, Carmen Lee, Owen Rogoff, Alyssa Seelal, Ghena Spatola, Yvari Toussaint, Helen Troshyna and Lisa Husberg. The students represented the following schools: including Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), Fashion Institute of South Florida (Miami, FL), Fashion Institute of Technology (New York, NY), Fashion Careers International (FCI) Fashion School (Los Angeles, CA), Instituto Marangoni Miami (Miami, FL), Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) (Boston, MA), Miami International University of Art & Design (Miami, FL), THOS Fashion School of Design (Boca Raton, FL), and Austin Community College Fashion Incubator (Austin, TX). “We wanted to create an opportunity for young designers, who would soon be coming out of school and entering the workplace, to be mentored and nurtured,” said Costin. “Giving them access to fashion industry insiders for valuable advice and direction, plus the chance to create the line that they have always dreamed of, and then to be able to sell it and showcase it in their first show, is an incredible opportunity. The business of fashion is just as important as the creative aspect,” said Costin.

“Becoming a success in the fashion industry can be especially challenging to a student who may be blessed with an innate design talent yet lacks the specific skillsets to hone his or her craft – as well as the backing to produce a first collection. That’s where Runway Muse is a true game changer,” says Amy Montoya, Runway 7 Director of Operations and a partner in Runway Muse.

“Runway 7 is proud to play a role in empowering the next generation of fashion designers,” said Anthony Rosa, founder of Runway 7. “Our platform is unique in the New York fashion industry – Runway 7 is the only fashion vertical that will cut, sew, and manufacture your collection – as well as produce the runway show to launch it. We are the total package and have the infrastructure to produce fashion industry superstars. We are excited to see the talent that emerges from the Runway Muse competition.”

www.sohomuse.com www.runway7fashion.com

Agent Provocateur Lingerie

How to Choose It, Wear it and Enjoy It! with Fragrance Expert Sue Phillips

By Adam Kluger

ue Phillips, one of the world’s most renowned fragrance experts, has created fragrances for brands, celebrities, and connoisseurs at her ultra-chic and discreet House of Fragrance Atelier in New York. For a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Sue takes her clients on a journey of scents, sharing secrets, histories, and the effect of the rarest of ingredients she has collected throughout her storied career. Their bespoke perfume formula is recorded in the database and can be reordered at any future time. Now, “The Nose that Knows” finally relates her relationship with fragrances. Sue’s long-awaited and much-anticipated book The Power of Perfume: How to Choose It, Wear it and Enjoy It! (Central Park South Publishing Company; $19.95) is finally here. http:// www.thepowerofperfume.com The 240 page book, available in bookstores worldwide and on Amazon, is filled with highlights from Sue’s career, myths about perfume, and little-known facts about the intoxicating effect of fragrance on all of your senses. The Power of Perfume: How to Choose It, Wear it and Enjoy It! also includes photos of celebrities Sue has worked with throughout her career: Hollywood elite, from Katie Holmes to Jamie Foxx and Zendaya, and the late Cicely Tyson. There’s plenty more in Sue’s book, but to reveal it would ruin the surprise. It’s an homage to perfumes, fragrances, and scents (whichever you want to call them) and how they help people gain confidence, reflect their individuality, and create a signature. ‘Why wear what everyone else wears when you can create your own?’ Sue Phillips, a native of South Africa, is a resident of New York. An internationally recognized expert on fragrance, she has worked in senior-level positions at many of the beauty industry’s top companies, including Elizabeth Arden (working on licensees Chloe and Lagerfeld), Lancaster on the Davidoff brands and Chopard, Trish McEvoy (developed her first 3 fragrances); Lancôme Paris (Magie Noire) and Burberry, where she created scents for its “Society by Burberry” brand. It was at Tiffany & Co., that Phillips achieved her renown: creating its first-ever perfume TIFFANY, which became one of the company’s top sellers. She followed that up with Tiffany for Men. Global luxury beauty companies, Elizabeth Arden and Lancȏme hired Sue Phillips for her marketing expertise, followed by Tiffany & Co. who recruited Sue as VP Marketing Fragrance, where she spearheaded the development, creation, and

Slaunch of the successful TIFFANY perfume for their 150th Anniversary internationally. From Tiffany, Sue established her company Scenterprises Inc. and designed and launched fragrances for Society by Burberry, Burberry for Men, Diane von Furstenburg, and many other well-known brands. Throughout her career, Sue’s passion, ability, and ingenuity have resulted in her being at the forefront of innovation and always delivering quality products and experiences to her clients. “My mission,” she says, “is to lift fragrance out of the bottle and to create memorable fragrance experiences”.

Sue, you became a brand ambassador and influencer for Tiffany and other major brands. Why did you leave Tiffany? When I left Tiffany to have my daughter that's when I started my own business Scenterprises (https:// suephillips.com/scenterprises/) and it has been extraordinary. When I left Tiffany and started my own business I was retained to develop a fragrance for Burberry and the Trish McEvoy fragrances and then Avon retained me to develop several different business models, so I was creating and developing many

innovative fragrances and businesses for all these companies and then in 2008 the economy crashed so this is when I started thinking about what's next? The designer fragrances and the celebrity fragrances were really being proliferated and there was so much confusion in the marketplace and after the crash, nobody was interested in fragrances at that point so I started thinking about bespoke or custom-made fragrance. So, at this stage, I had become a fragrance expert and I knew about fragrances, and the history of fragrance and I developed 18 different perfumes to expand the entire olfactive palate. I worked from my apartment and offered custom fragrances to people who wanted to create their own custom fragrances. This was in 2009-2010 just at the start of the personalization trend. People said to me," what are you doing? Tupperware parties for fragrances?" and they laughed at me. Now, as we know, personalization is the hottest trend and everybody is a brand. Social media is everywhere, and Instagram, Pinterest, Linked-in, clubhouse, Facebook, TikTok, Twitch and Clubhouse is popular and everybody is a brand. In 2013 I opened my first perfume studio in TriBeCa which I called the Scentarium and I turned it into a beautiful oasis. People like Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes would come by. I presented corporate events and small team-building events and it was so cozy with such a lovely ambiance and perfectly suited for a custom fragrance experience. I was there for 12 years and sadly because of Covid in March of 2020 I had to move because the building was being sold and the pandemic happened So, serendipitously I found a new location But all of this is to say that the whole idea of custom perfumes has really taken off and as the pandemic subsides, more and more clients are coming in to create their own Custom Perfumes. People love the idea of custom fragrances and reflecting their individuality and personality. We present corporate and teambuilding events and many consultations and sessions through zoom.

Tell us about your book. Last year I wrote a book entitled The Power of Perfume, and because of Covid, sadly so many people have lost their sense of smell. I have now helped over 100 people regain and rediscover their sense of smell after Covid through the power of perfume. Many people have found me through press outlets like NBC which ran a profile on my book. I was asked if I could help a long-hauler regain her sense of smell and I said I would try. She had lost her sense of smell in March of 2020 and NBC did an interview with us an asked if they could bring in someone with Anosmia. It was amazing as she had a breakthrough. Halfway through the perfume journey, she was trying 18 layers and then she suddenly said, "I smell something and it's beautiful, ' and she started to cry and it was so emotional. And so that program went viral and I appeared on Inside Edition and GMA and literally hundreds of programs and as a result of that I've had so many people contact me and they realize how important their Sense of Smell is. I explain to clients that I'm not sure I can help, and I am not a doctor but I will certainly try as I know the power of fragrance and my blends are beautiful and complex. As a result I've actually been able to help Covid sufferers of all ages through my passion for fragrance.

Future plans? I am now distributed by Scentbird, a digital retailer they have a subscription service, with 8 million subscribers. I've put together five beautiful artisanal fragrances. I'm starting my own Sue Phillips collection of fragrances. I'm preparing for a Ted Talk that I am excited about. I am launching on TalkShopLive soon and continuing to help people feel so much better because of fragrance. I am looking at doing a TV series which I think could be fantastic about fragrance. I have a lot of fingers in lots of different pies at this point. Part of being an entrepreneur is seeing how I can expand what I have been doing and really help people understand the power and glory and magic of fragrance. Fragrance is not just something to be sprayed in the store. It is so much more than that. Our sense of smell is our most powerful sense, with our Sight being the strongest. So when people lose their olfactory sense, it affects them in so many ways and they become really very depressed. Covid has really accelerated the awareness of Anosmia or loss of smell. Years ago, I interviewed the head of the taste & smell clinic in Washington DC, Dr. Robert Henkin, when I was a beauty editor for a magazine, and at the time he said 25 million Americans lose their sense of smell every year, but now Covid has really accelerated the awareness of it. I'm not sure that Covid is going to disappear so I've developed a scent kit, the olfactory rediscovery scent healing kit.

What scents inspire you, are they like colors? I often discuss the analogy of art and music. In art, you have three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue. Think about those three primary colors and how many exquisite pieces of art and paintings have come about from secondary colors and tertiary colors. How red and blue make purple and yellow and blue can make green and millions and millions of colors have been basically used and developed by those three primary colors. In music the octave is comprised of eight notes. Think about the amazing diverse musical works that have come from just those eight notes of music – Jazz, Classics, R&B, Pop, Folk, Opera, even HipHop! So, in fragrance, there are eight fragrance families (Chypre, Citrus, Green, Floral, Spicy, Woody, Herbaceous, Animalic. Each one of those olfactive families is then split into several subfamilies. Those eight fragrance families are responsible for millions and millions of different fragrances. Fragrance can expand your confidence and make you feel uplifted, sexy, sensual, happy. Our sense of smell has a direct correlation to the limbic system, so what you smell actually triggers a feeling and an emotion. So when you smell something you are also processing the event or the emotion or person that goes with it. Scent and emotions become so indelibly imprinted in your brain so when you smell the scent again it triggers the memory again as it is tattooed on your brain.

“MY MISSION IS TO CREATE MEMORABLE FRAGRANCE “EXPERIENCES” AND PRODUCTS…. DROP BY DROP.” -SUE PHILLIPS

So if you fell in love with someone wearing a certain scent and you come across that scent years later what happens? When you come across that scent years later, you immediately think back to the person you fell in love with, it is so palpable. Scent is so powerful.

25A CELEBRATE WITH CORAL THIS VALENTINE’S DAY

Coral, the protective stone, from Chantecler Capri Jewelry

A symbol of protection since ancient times, coral has been coveted as a talisman to ward off evil and ill intent. While it might not prevent Covid, it will inspire compliments. Precious coral or red coral is the common name given to Corallium rubrum, otherwise known as “noble coral”, considered the most desirable type of coral for jewelry.

Our picks for Valentine’s :

Chantecler Enchanté Earrings in rose gold, red coral and diamonds;

Chantecler Bon Bon Earrings in Rose Gold, Diamonds and Red Coral Chantecler Medium Campanella in White Gold and Red Coral

Chantecler Enchanté ring in 18K rose gold, coral and diamonds Curators at new emporium Via Coquina on Worth Avenue’s Via Mizner are always eyeing the currents. In this case currents from the sea. For Valentine’s Day, they celebrate coral, a perfect gift for our most cherished love, or for oneself.

About Via Coquina

When Cara Polites Ferro opened Via Coquina, a meticulously curated boutique featuring fine artisan treasures last year in the midst of the pandemic, it didn’t take long for Palm Beachers to discover they could experience the charm of their favorite Mediterranean port of call right here, on Worth Avenue’s Via Mizner. Cara’s recent travels to her native Greece and Mediterranean Coast have resulted in beautiful unique additions to her eclectic, yet authentic collection of home décor, dinnerware and table linens as well as fashion, jewelry, apothecary and accessories.

SPELLCASTER PODCAST WITH DEIRDRE ARUTUNIAN & RENEE JORDAN

hat is your podcast Spellcaster all about?

Deirdre: We are a spiritual glam podcast and we talk about finding your authentic truth. Everybody’s truth is different. To me, self-love isn’t about finding it, it’s about being. You just are and the more you try and the more you search the less you find. Renee: Spellcaster is constantly evolving and growing as Deirdre and I evolve and grow together. What we have seen is that people are interested in us, our growth, our take on spirituality, and our straightforward - no holds barred approach to the issues that every one of us faces on this life journey. We hope to spread the message that it’s ok to be authentically you. It’s ok to speak your truth, to fail, to learn, and to grow. We encourage the collective to be kind, supportive to each other and to share the lessons you’ve learned. By building each other up, rather than tearing each other down in an effort to “win” that’s how change can really happen. Right now, society needs to go back to its roots, step away from social media and online, and start interacting and really communicating in a real and meaningful way.

Photographer: Ken Arutunian Kenart.design I love the terrific energy, flow, and humor of the podcast

Wby Adam Kluger Photography by Ken Arutunian

Possible future plans with Spellcaster?

Deidre: We have been talking with producers about turning this into a TV talk show. Renee: We want to raise the collective up, for everyone to be and feel their best. Intentions are powerful, words are spells, energy is everything but it all takes effort. Deirdre once asked me “How will people hear our message?” I told her, “ It starts with two people that are brave enough to speak their truth with honesty, love, compassion, and authenticity. That’s how Spellcaster was born. IG: @spellcaster_sistersDeirdre: Renee is very enlightened and we are both seekers of truth. Renee: Deirdre is my soul sister. She understands me in a way that almost no one else has. She fills so many roles in my life: Sister, Mother, Best Friend, Confidant, Partner in Crime. From the day we met, we knew our relationship was special. We have a completely different approach to life, work, so many things - but somehow we always land together in the same place. We balance each other, where I am scheduled, she is free-spirited, where I am closed off, she is open, where I am scared she is brave, and vice-versa. We somehow know each other so well, that we communicate without words, we support each other and protect each other fiercely. We are each other’s touchstone, truth-teller, and biggest fan.