Something Old, Something New

Lord & Taylor, America’s oldest department store, is freshening things up a bit. If effort to celebrate their 181-year heritage and modernize their image, the retail company will launch a $10 million re-branding campaign in mid-August.

Most often identified by the signature hand-written logo, the new campaign will feature an impressive roster of famous faces. The ads, shot by famed fashion photographer Mario Testino, will feature models Carolyn Murphy, Lauren Hutton and Jacquetta Wheeler, as well as artist Ed Ruscha and socialites Lauren Davis and Lydia Hearst, just to name a few.

The campaign will demonstrate the four-year re-positioning efforts of Lord & Taylor President and CEO, Jane Elfers. ‘The stunning images depicted in this campaign will signify Lord & Taylor’s relevance in the specialty department store arena.”

Final Word: Look out for a multi-page spreads in the September issues of Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair and others.

Moutains out of Mole Hills

The last time I wrote about The Hills I covered the series premier. I called Lauren Conrad "the Kelly Taylor to Kristin Cavallari's beautifully bitchy Brenda Walsh," and predicted that LC was far too boring to carry a spin-off of her own.

Clearly, I was dead wrong.

The Hills have swept the nation, myself included. And as the third season premiered earlier this evening, LC, Heidi, and even that pig Spencer have become household names (in large part to their self-driven media debacles, but that's beside the point).

In watching the first two episodes, several variables have changed:

Lauren has discovered booze, Heidi has discovered cocaine, and the entire cast have apparently discovered that there are cameras documenting their every move (we're not exactly sure what took them so long).

The result can be described in one word: awkward. In watching these episodes my feelings of discomfort nearly rivaled the overwhelming sense of physical disgust that I am subjected to each time I'm forced to look at Spencer.

Final Word: I hated it. But I'll still tune in every Monday at 10pm, or at least my TiVo will. My guilty pleasure just got slightly less pleasurable. But then again, was it ever?