For examples of the following work done at Rational 360:
- Press releases
- Media lists
- Graphic design
- New media initiatives
- Website development and execution
- Etc.
Please e-mail me at jaclyndianeday@gmail.com.
Photo still by El Frijole
The motto of retailer Steve & Barry’s new Bitten line for women is, “It is every woman’s unalienable right to have a pulled-together stylish, confident wardrobe with money left over to live.” Headed up by celebrity actor Sarah Jessica Parker, who is most well-known for her work on Sex and the City, Bitten is truly ushering in a new generation of fashion for women.
It’s difficult to find stylish, good-quality clothing at an affordable price point. The impossibility of matching quality to price tag to good style is a problem that shows up again and again and again. Take, for instance, the popular and trendy chain Forever21. If you Google “forever21” and “quality” together, you’ll find dozens of sites linking to comments, blog postings and other articles that lament the horrific quality of that store’s clothing. Although women can universally agree upon the trendiness and style offered there, the question remains: is it worth paying less to see your clothes (literally) fall apart?
Bitten, on the other hand, pledges to stand by the quality of their clothing, despite their prices being lower than chain counterparts Forever21 and H&M, both of which are stores where the author frequents. Nothing in the Bitten line tops $20 and the selection is fairly diverse: the Bitten website (www.bittensjp.com) says there are nearly 1,000 clothing and accessory pieces being sold. One aspect of Bitten that I appreciate is their commitment to offering a variety of styles: from XS to XXL in tops, for instance. Many chains directed at young women, such as Forever21, neglect their sizing being true to size, leading to problems in the fitting room and at home. A size large at Forever21 would likely not fit a woman above a dress size 10-12. With Bitten making larger sizes accessible to women, it opens up a whole new realm of fashion possibilities for those who may have neglected style otherwise at the sake of affordability.
Unfortunately, Steve & Barry’s is not omnipresent, and at this time they do not offer the Bitten line through their website, although they mention that they are working on making that a reality. If Steve & Barry’s became more physically accessible to women, the Bitten line has huge, explosive potential beyond what it has already accomplished. There are only a handful of stores in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area alone, and to give online access to the clothing line would decrease the large foot traffic in the stores and increase the efficiency for busy, working women.
Bitten is proving something that a lot of fashion industry experts never thought was truly attainable: that fashionable, good quality clothing can also be extremely inexpensive. By meshing both admirable philosophies together, Bitten gives the average women an above-average chance to emulate trendy or classic style. As Bitten spokeswoman Sarah Jessica Parker said, “Fashion is not a luxury, it’s a right.”
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Photo by Coutorture
Forever 21, the go-to clothing chain for inexpensive trendy fashions, is facing a potential crisis regarding copyright infringement. Accused of directly copying expensive and recognizable designer fashions, Forever 21 remains only in the gray area of copyright infringement because they do not directly copy logos or labels, just styles or fabrics.
Congress has even gotten involved. Two Republican Virginia senators have introduced a bill entitled HR 2033 that would extend copyright protection to the fashion industry, effectively putting an end to the “designer-inspired” styles sold by chains like Forever 21.
Blogs like fashionista.com and publicknowledge.org have publicized Forever 21’s oftentimes blatant copying of designer styles. For instance, fashionista.com regular posts blogs entitled, “Adventures in Copyright,” showing expensive designer fashions and Forever 21 bargain pieces placed side by size—the pieces identical in all but price.
For the frugal consumer, Forever 21 seems like a dream come true—but as is so often the cases with dreams—the potential for their disruption is high. In 2007, Forever 21 was hit with more than dozen federal lawsuits for piracy, filed by high-profile designing brands such as Anna Sui, Diane von Furstensburg and Gwen Stefani. Fabric manufacturers even jumped on the lawsuit bandwagon, as Forever 21 often copies designer, one-of-a-kind fabrics into cotton replicas for use on their dresses and blouses. Diane von Furstensburg, the head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, is leading the charge legislatively against the chain. She settled privately with Forever 21 in September of 2007 to an undisclosed amount.
However, Forever 21 still remains one of the most lucrative fashion chains today, boasting more than 400 stores worldwide that average 20% turnover rate in merchandise a week. This kind of turnover poses problems for those with pending lawsuits against the chain, as most of the offensive merchandise is sold and out of stores before the two- or three-week mark.
As co-founder Jin Sook Chang mentioned of the store, shopping in it should be “a little bit of a treasure hunt.” All the more so if you can pick an identical copy of that $300 3.1 Philip Lim blouse for a mere $20.
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WASHINGTON – President Bush announced today that the federal government will be providing assistance to unstable financial markets in the wake of a massive national mortgage crisis.
During Bush’s speech at the White House press conference, he cited the need to provide temporary assistance to the enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both enterprises have been heavily affected by the financial downswing, causing a wave of foreclosures across the nation. President Bush cited the need to make sure mortgage credit would still be available to citizens as a reason for the government action, and said that many citizens don’t realize how important the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enterprises are to the mortgage market.
Fannie Mae is the nickname for the Federal National Mortgage Association, while Freddie Mac is the nickname for the Federal Home Mortgage Association. Both have been in operation since 1968 as government-sponsored enterprises. This essentially means that the companies are privately owned by shareholders, but have the security backing of the federal government.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide a secondary market in home mortgages—meaning they purchase mortgages from the lenders who originate them. According to Professor of Finance Emeritus Jack M. Guttentag at the University of Pennsylvania, “The mortgages [covered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] account for roughly 80% of the conventional home loan market.”
Contributing to the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae crisis are soaring home mortgage interest rates combined with low home values nationwide. A RealtyTrac poll showed the mortgage crisis resulted in a high foreclosure rate on homes this month. RealtyTrac said that one in every 464 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing, default notice, pending bank auction warning or were actually foreclosed upon. According to the same poll, this represents a 55 percent increase over last year.
The president mentioned several times throughout the conference that the government assistance would be “temporary” to the financial market and that the enterprises involved would remain “shareholder-owned companies.”
Bush cited a twofold purpose in the government action, the first being the stabilization of the important mortgage market institutions. The second purpose is to “kind of calm nerves.”
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Photo by pesotum74
Bing Crosby, an actor and one of the most popular singers in America, died on October 4, 1977 of a massive heart attack. He was 74 years old.
From the period of 1934 to 1954, Crosby held top sales in records, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. In 1948, Music Digest magazine estimated that Crosby’s voice dominated over 80,000 weekly hours of recorded radio music.
Crosby was also a major invester in the world’s first commercial reel-to-reel tape recorder and became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows.
In 1962, Crosby won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Going My Way.
Born Harris Lillis Crosby, he earned the nickname “Bing” from a childhood friend. After making money with a local band, Crosby dropped out of his final year in college at Gonzaga University in Washington state to pursue a show business career.
Crosby’s first number-one vocal hit was a jazz-influenced version of “Ol’ Man River,” released in 1928. Crosby’s popularity and style of singing coined the new term “crooning.”
His biggest musical hit was a recording of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,’ which first appeared on a 1942 Christmas radio broadcast. Crosby also starred in the film Holiday Inn around the same time.
According to movie tickets sold, Crosby is the third most popular actor of all-time, behind Clark Gable and John Wayne. Crosby’s most popular film, White Christmas, grossed $30 million in 1954, which is equivalent to about $229 million today. He received 3 Academy Award nominations in his lifetime and won once.
Crosby’s musical talent could, as described by musicologist J.T.H. Mize, “…melt a tone away…” After the mid-1950’s, Crosby began singing primarily in a bass range, while his voice maintained the melodic timbre of a baritone.
Crosby had several hobbies, including Thoroughbred horse racing. One of Crosby’s closest friends Lindsay Howard was the son of Charles Howard, the owner of famous racehorse Seabiscuit. Crosby was one of the founding partners of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif. He was also member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He was a two-handicap who competed in the British and United States Amateur championships.
After recovering from a potentially-fatal lung infection, Crosby traveled to England in September of 1977 for a concert tour of England. His final Christmas special featured guests Twiggy and David Bowie, whom he recorded the duet “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.”
When the tour concluded, Crosby flew to Spain to hunt and play golf. On October 14, Crosby died suddenly of a massive heart attack after finishing eighteen holes of golf on a course near Madrid.
Crosby’s first wife Dixie Lee died in 1930 from ovarian cancer. He is survived by Lee and his four sons, Gary, Dennis, Phillip and Lindsay and his second wife Kathryn Grant and their three children, Harry, Mary and Nathaniel.
Crosby was born on May 3, 1903. Bob Hope said of Crosby, “Dear old Bing. As we called him, ‘the economy-sized Sinatra.’ And what a voice. God, I miss that voice. I can’t even turn on the radio around Christmastime without crying anymore.”
