Author Archive: Donna Kato
Donna Kato - fashion expert, trend-spotter and style editor - is a veteran journalist who has covered fashion, retail and the beauty industries. Currently a principal in an early-stage technology venture, she helps consumers understand and incorporate into their lives both practical and cutting-edge design.
SK-II and the Secret Key to Its Cult Following
Expensive skin care products are an indulgence to some women, a necessity for others. While there’s always debate about whether pricey is really better, I tend to pay attention when the accolades come from trusted friends and beauty experts. One such line is SK-II, a company that I first saw in department stores while visiting [...]
Silicon Valley’s Stylish Turn Out for Lambertson Truex Personal Appearance at Tiffany in Palo Alto
All is not diamonds and platinum, silver and gold at Tiffany & Co. Award-winning accessories designers Richard Lambertson and John Truex are poised to make leather a coveted item at the store known for fine jewelry that comes in blue boxes. The two men, winners of a Council of Fashion Designers of America Accessories Designer [...]
Free Stuff! Kiehl’s at Westfield Valley Fair Celebrates Move to Bigger Location
Actor Alan Cumming sings karaoke at the Kiehl’s Fashion’s Night Out event during New York Fashion Week in September. (Photo by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan) Walk into the Kiehl’s store at Westfield Valley Fair this weekend and you’ll be treated to refreshments, complimentary samples of some of their best-selling products and have a chance to win [...]
A Behind-the-Scenes Preview of Scene’s Holiday Fashion Section
I spent the afternoon switching out my wardrobe from summer to fall, packing away the colorful, breezy tops and lightweight skirts and replacing them with sweaters, long sleeved dresses and jackets. What got me in the mood for the closet clean-up was our shoot last week for the next issue of Scene. A straight-off-the-fall-runway Dries [...]
Macy’s Passport in San Francisco Goes Glamorama and Artrageous
Models, Grammy winners and ballet dancers took the Orpheum Theatre stage Friday evening for Macy’s Passport, the venerable fashion fundraiser that started in 1982 to raise money for AIDS education and services. Although the annual event’s foundation is fashion, it’s evolved into theater over the years and it didn’t seem so odd that for the [...]
New York Fashion Week: The Interesting Stuff That Sometimes Happens Off the Runway
The bad behavior exhibited by fashion groupies at the tents is legendarily tacky, pushy and entitled. With the move from chaotic Bryant Park to the more spacious and stately Lincoln Center along with the use of bar code technology has kept many gate crashers and suspicious types out of the shows. It’s made for a [...]
New York Fashion Week: Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. Collection for Next Spring
Gwen Stefani, the musician known for her individualistic self-styling long before Lady Gaga took it up a notch, presented a tightly edited collection of about two dozen looked as if they could be from her closet but wearable enough to share with her friends. Her line, L.A.M.B., has her distinct personality but, like many celebs [...]
New York Fashion Week: An Anniversary Weekend For Reflection
A noticeably subdued mood envelopes New York this weekend and even the usual spectacle that’s Fashion Week has taken on the feel of sensible shoes. Down on flash and frivolity. It just seems a little wrong to celebrate a new sartorial season when there are reminders everywhere of what happened 10 years ago. I wasn’t [...]
New York Fashion Week: Academy of Art University Showcases Collections by Recent Grads
San Francisco’s Academy of Art University has the distinction of being the only fashion school to do runway shows at the “tents”–the official venue of Fashion Week in New York. Bryant Park for years and now Lincoln Center. Simon Ungless, the school’s fashion director, was a contemporary of Alexander McQueen as well as a friend. [...]
New York Fashion Week: Lindsay Lohan and Other “Celebrity” Sightings
Guessing who’s causing the commotion and camera flashes has gotten harder these days as the star power of fashion week’s front row has grown dimmer. So, celeb watchers have to be content with the Real Housewives or one of the small, blond interchangeable starlets on Beverly Hills 90201 or Gossip Girls or One Tree Hill. [...]
