Oscar de la Renta's Feud With Cathy Horyn; The Man Repeller's Empire Expands

Feud of the Week: On Friday, Oscar de la Renta published a full-page letter in Women’s Wear Daily in response to New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn’s review of his show. “Mr. de la Renta is far more a hot dog than an eminence grise of American fashion” Horyn wrote in her review. Retaliating, de la Renta wrote: “If you have the right to call me a hot dog why do I not have the right to call you a stale 3-day old hamburger.” The hilarious argument has now been chronicled on the NYT’s Public Editor’s Journal with Horyn clarifying that her use of hot dog was intended to convey that, “he’s a cool guy who’s showing off his tricks,” in the athletic sense—referring to a style of showmanship surfing that was popular in the 1950s. Despite the war of words, de la Renta insists that he won’t be banning Horyn from his fall 2013 fashion show (she’s previously been banned from Armani and Carolina Herrera) telling WWD, “I’m not going to make it that important.” [WWD], [NYT]

The Empire Expands: The Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine is about to bring her awkward teachings to stores nation-wide. The style blogger has teamed up with sportswear brand PJK on a line of clothing that will debut in stores this spring, called Man Repeller x PJK…Just Sayin’. Each item of clothing will come with a special hangtag that measures the piece’s level of repelling, something they’re calling a ‘repel-ometer.’ The line will retail between $198 and $398. [WWD]

Put Those iPhones Down: Perhaps nowhere else is the impact of social media more evident than at fashion week. In New York at least, show-goers have recently shown more interest in posting a photo of the front row on Instagram/Twitter/Pinterest/Pose than paying attention to the actual clothing themselves. In an effort to point out this flawed chain of command, Buzzfeed's Amy Odell has detailed the six ways in which twitter, Facebook, instagram, blogs, and whatever’s inevitably next has ‘completely tainted fashion week.’ [Buzzfeed]

Now It Makes Sense: The Guardian takes a look at Kim Kardashian as a modern-day brand and asks the reality star the most pressing question of all—why is she famous? Responding, Kardashian said "What is my talent? Well, a bear can juggle and stand on a ball and he's talented, but he's not famous. Do you know what I mean?" [Guardian]