What's In A Name?

Thinking perhaps you will start a fashion line?  Become the next Project Runway star, and swan your way down the red carpet at Vogue's prestigious Met Ball with fabulous movie stars wearing your wear?  Madame Shock has stern words for you, right up front:  Choose the name of your line carefully.

In the name of research Les Madames selflessly went shopping - yes, the sacrifice! They visited everywhere from Neiman Marcus to the local thrift store seeking examples that might terrify hopeful young designers into thinking straight about names.  Ecoute, mes enfants!

This, perhaps, would not be the best idea in trousers, slacks, or...let's be serious...anything:

Nor would this, as much as it pretends to embrace improvement:

And one suspects the designers of the below item perhaps do not call English their native language - a good warning for those who may be tempted to choose a saucy French word or cool-looking Asian character for their brand name (you would think all those celebrities with incorrect tattoos serve as a lesson here, but that's another post indeed...):

Think, dahlings, of the image you want to project, the picture that forms in your mind when the soon-to-be-adoring masses hear the name of your soon-to-be-selling-out fashion line:

Think also of how a woman wants to feel when she buys and wears your item - perhaps not like another version of a man (that is, of course, yet another post...):

And above all, lieblings, do your research research research.  Madame Shock, for one, shudders each time she sees someone proudly traipsing about with this town name emblazoned across their chest or (god forbid) posterior:

Mon Dieu! Have you ever BEEN to Hollister?  Wethinks mayhap the designers had not... 

The Bash Aftermath, Part I

Madame is staggering around in her satin slippers, a tad bit dehydrated and overwhelmed from the efforts of recent days getting ready for the Hollywood-heavy FWAB gala. She promises to dish gossip, celebrities, photo ops, dresses, accessories, and more very shortly, but she must first recover from such overexcitement.

She will, however, leave her dear fellow glam girls with a few photos of her chosen dress and jewelry (she always finds it best to try the entire ensemble on her mannequin for photo-conferences with Mesdames Chic & Chausseurs, since taking photos of yourself in the mirror is so difficult).