Rag Trade

• New Juicy Couture ad: Let Them Eat Tracksuits. What the...? [Juicy Couture]
  
• WWD Features Writer Jacob Bernstein usually likes women's sports (well, unless the Venus sisters are out there making it no fun). His slew of complaints about the women's gymnastics team: "the perfect little ponytails"; the routines looking all the same; that they can't dance for shit. He identifies their specific infractions: the funky chicken, the "Britney Spears rump shaker move," the "gangsta-lite shoulder bop," the running man. My take: these are strange criticisms indeed for our athletes, young women who are not exactly vying for the prize of the girl you're checking out for keeps on the dance floor. These are Olympians. Furthermore: USA! USA! USA! [WWDb]
• Hips are hip again. Only prerequisite: be a size 2. (Thanks for nothin, Miz Weber'!!) Caroline Weber outlines reasons to support the sillhouette of the season: First, stop traffic ("Just imagine the figure you'll cut wedging your way onto a crowded N train in your new McQueen tutu"). Second, protect your personal space by avoiding the unsolicited touch. Third, skip the gym. Fourth, cool off...with a hooped skirt. Fifth and finally, "lie back and think of Darwin." No explanation required. See you in the maternity ward. [T Magazine]
• The hipster in 2008 has received a bevy of hyperbolic interpretations in the past few weeks. You pick! [The Independent, Adbusters]
• Copenhagen Fashion Week (There's always a Fashion Week somewhere...okay, okay) turns out to be more fun than other fashion weeks. Photographer JD Ferguson writes: "In Milan and Paris you usually get one or two cute Danes to gawk at backstage. But not this week, not on their home turf. They're all here." Yes. Oh, yes. [V Magazine]
• A writer for the NY Daily News actually wrote this sentence: "Ford Models is suing a rival firm for allegedly poaching a Brazilian beauty and a Danish delight from its stable of lovelies." (Emphasis all mine.) Somebody got a case of Friday afternoon misogyny... [NY Daily News]
• Breaking news: buying luxe on the cheap is in! Saks and Neiman's expand their off-price offerings; Baccarat opened its first outlet this summer. [WWD]