The Buzz
For the past day, up until about an hour ago, Coco Rocha owned my Tumblr dashboard. By that, I mean she'd paid for a "Pinned Post" (one of Tumblr's ad products) which hovered at the very top of my screen, putting her words in my face every time I clicked over to the social network.
What was so urgent that Coco needed to monopolize the whole of my Tumblr attention span? The new Instagram terms of service, naturally, which have provoked a level of outrage that makes me really concerned about America's collective blood pressure.
The offending clause in Instagram's new terms of service:
“Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.”
The reactions to this were, I think, overly dramatic. Melodramatic. Histrionic. Way too much.
A post on Mashable captures the general feeling: "Not only did you fail to see a red cent from the deal, but the whole experience of taking and sharing the pic seems somehow soiled."
The tech site was so proud of this sentence, they even used it as a pull quote. If you're expecting to find authentic experience and some kind of sense of transcendence on an iPhone picture sharing site owned by Facebook, a multinational Internet corporation, you and these new terms of service deserve each other.
Social sites want you to spend as much time as possible on them, not because they like you and want to make your life better, but because they hope to monetize both your eyeball attention and the information you give to them, because they need money in order to keep existing. You can't expect these companies to not try and profit from you, all you can do is either 1) choose not to use them or 2) be extremely careful about what you post on them.
Earlier today, Instagram issued an apology and backed away from the new policy. I think that's all thanks to Coco Rocha's Pinned Post. I'm glad my Tumblr irritation was not for naught.
This is probably a good time to let you know that we'll be beefing up our Instagram activity in the coming weeks, so you should give us a follow.
And if you aren't following the TFS Tumblr — come on, get it together already! 
If you've had the good fortune of leaving your house today, you know it's beautiful out there (at least here in New York; white Christmas whatever), but that's not the only reason to feel jubilant and happy. First of all, it's a great day for pre-holiday package deliveries. (FedEx and UPS and USPS employees probably feel differently about the volume of stuff clogging the postal pipelines.) Second, Prada dropped its Spring 2013 campaign today, and it's a stunner in a sea of stunning Spring ad campaigns. (Third: we're definitely alive and probably loved, but let's focus on the Prada ads.)
Shot by Steven Meisel and starring pretty much every top tier model (more specifically: Vanessa Axente, Saskia de Brauw, Irina Kravchenko, Eva Herzigova, Sung Hee, Irene Hiemstra, Kirsten Owen, Sasha Pivovarova, Amber Valletta, Maartje Verhoef, and Raquel Zimmermann), these pictures prove you don't need an elaborate set or concept to pull together the kind of campaign that makes me seriously consider selling my organs.
Here's what Prada says about itself:
Uncompromising backgrounds of grey or inky black are refreshingly spare and confident – a contemporary canvas for the models’ distinctive attitudes, and a collection that turns on its head notions of womanhood.
Flowers are a recurring motif, reimagined on panel prints on duchesse satin dresses, appliques on wraps and inset on eyewear. But there is nothing girly or ostentatious about these blooms or these women, whose poses reflect their confident individuality.
Setting aside all the immodest adjectives (I'm familiar with the power of suggestion, but I'd rather be the one to decide whether the backgrounds are "uncompromising" and if the spareness is "refreshing"), I want to wear allll of this clothing. Maybe not that pink fur flower cape, or the red satin skirt it's matched with, but definitely those geisha-in-space sock-shoes everyone (except for me and Elle Fanning!) hates.
Images courtesy of Prada
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 Indefatigably cool Kiwi label Stolen Girlfriends Club has released a very Stolen Girlfriends Club campaign for its Summer 2012/2013 womenswear collection. Titled ‘Hello Country, Goodbye Nightclub’, this is the crisply tailored female component to their grungy menswear offering.
The cult brand’s signature combo of matchy matchy florals and tough girl leather is alive and well in the campaign. The 90s element, another mainstay, surfaces in the form of crochet and killer accessories. Lilly-printed backpacks and cross-body bags make the perfect storage solution for carting your belongings around during late-night rampages and cross-country adventures. The jewellery comes from Stolen Girlfriends’ ‘New Metal’ collection, an assortment of faceted semi-precious stones set in the clutches of shiny gold fangs and claws.
All of this is modelled on the enviable limbs of Gunita. The dreamy Latvian newcomer is represented by N Model Management in New Zealand and Priscilla’s in Sydney, where the campaign was shot by Derek Henderson. Gunita’s country housewife-meets-high-paid assassin countenance takes versatility to a whole new level, and to say she’s going to be big is an understatement that comes second only to saying Stolen Girlfriends Club are fans of taxidermy.
 
 
 
Images: Stolen Girlfriends Club
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It’s almost Christmas, which means that we’ll be saying goodbye to 2012 before we even know it, and what a fab fashion-filled 12 months it has been! Around this time of year, it always gets us wondering what exactly the good old UK fashion industry has lined up for the forthcoming year ahead. So, here’s a taste of what we can expect!
Selfridges’ Silent Shopping Area
One of the UK’s leading department stores, Selfridges, has exclusively revealed that it’s set to launch a silent shopping area in January 2013. If you’re wondering how exactly that’ll work, well, shoppers will be asked to leave their shoes and mobiles at the door upon entering so they can peruse the quiet shop where labels such as Acne and Jil Sander will be sold. To add to the relaxing environment, there will also be a meditation area and headspace pod.
It sounds like a nice idea, as everybody knows only too well how annoyingly noisy and stressful shopping can be at an overly busy destination such as Selfridges in the heart of London.
Manolo Blahnik’s LFW Project
We are already dreaming about the next London Fashion Week, and today we heard the exciting news that shoe designer Manolo Blahnik has created the imagery for the AW/13 schedule. (Last time it was Jonathan Saunders' fine art work.) Blahnik’s backdrop for fashion week has been inspired by the designer’s own career path, and features dream-like scenarios. We can’t wait to check it out!
Images: Lia Toby/WENN.com
Based on my calculations, if you've watched all six seasons of Gossip Girl, the CW show which finally finale'd last night, you've spent devoted 7,260 minutes to the show. Which may sound like a lot, but if you fast-forward through commericals and don't go to sleep and have all of your food delivered and also pee into a cup, it'll only take you three-and-a-half days to watch the entire Gossip Girl oeuvre.
I basically did that two years ago during Christmas, after I had just broken up with someone, didn't go home for the holidays, and didn't have anyone to hang out with over the weekend. That's when I watched, like, three seasons of Gossip Girl back-to-back. You'll be surprised to hear that isn't the period of my life I remember most fondly. Still, with every cloud comes a silver lining, and I guess I cannot underestimate what "discovering" Gossip Girl did for my life.
You, on the other hand, probably watched all the scheming and underhanded text-messaging the way the teevee gods intended, every Monday night when the weekly installments aired. The show's been on for five years, which is a big commitment. If Gossip Girl had been your boyfriend, your grandparents totally would have been hassling you to get married already. Imagine how disappointed they'd be to hear it was over: "But you were so happy together!"
But what grandparents don't understand — and what we do — is that sometimes things have to end, to make room for something better. It's good that our time with Manhattan's fictional Upper East Siders has come to a close. I know this is a cliche, but when one door closes, it's often because there was something really horrifying behind the door. In the case of Gossip Girl, that really horrifying thing was called Rufus. All we can do is pray he doesn't get a role on The Carrie Diaries.
Image via WENN
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According to a press release which arrived in our inboxes earlier this morning, Vice Media* claims it received the "BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER" because it acquired i-D magazine.
The British fashion publication is a TFS favorite, but BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER, it is not. Can you make out with i-D mag? Cook breakfast together in the morning? I guess you can lie in bed with it for hours on a rainy day. Okay. That's good. But you can also totally do that with a cat. And cats, unlike magazines, purr.
But because Vice was never really interested in cuddling and intimacy-related gifts, maybe we can't fault the media company for thinking that it got the best present ever. Vice is hoping to take i-D's vision and product and brand, and use it to launch a fashion video channel behemoth. And I bet it'll be a success: video is legitimately one of Vice's greatest strengths, after cynicism. Vice is also aiming to increase i-D's print circulation and audience, which is a really creative goal for a magazine holding company.
Even though I'm not comfortable with any development which includes the line, "Vice Acknowledges that i-D Partnership will do the Impossible — Make Them Cooler," in the corresponding press release (because there's nothing cooler than announcing you're cool in a press release), the two publications do seem like a natural fit, and Vice is doing a smart/good thing by having the i-D founding editor couple, Terry and Tricia Jones, stay on as partners, shareholders, and "creative visionaries" (what a job title!).
You kind of want the people responsible for getting Grace Coddington to smile so so wide to be on your team, you know?
* FYI, I'm currently waging a personal vendetta against their eponymous publication for various reasons, so I encourage you to bear that in mind whenever you hear me say anything about Vice, ever.
Image via i-D Online
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