Cathy Horyn

Cathy Horyn and Oscar de la Renta must have resolved the name-calling scuffle they had in September: the fashion critic was spotted front row at the designer's Pre-Fall 2013 show Monday night.

WWD reports that Horyn not only showed up at the show, but made a point of telling the brand's president, Alex Bolen, she was wearing one of the designer's dresses. We saw Bolen talking with Horyn before the show began; the two later walked toward backstage, where Horyn talked with the designer before the show.

"I told her we probably approach fashion in two different ways," de la Renta said. "I respect her way and I hope she respects my way. My vision of fashion is for my customers. I read every single article she writes on fashion. I never hold grudges."

In her review of de la Renta's Spring 2013 collection, Horyn called the designer a "hot dog." De la Renta responded with a full-page ad in WWD, asking "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?" Horyn later told us that she "used the term in a professional context, as someone showing off his tricks, like a surfer."

One of Cathy Horyn's sources in Paris claims that Alexander Wang is the likely replacement for outgoing Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière. The house could be ready to announce that it's hired Wang as early as next week, the source said.

Shortly after Ghesquière announced his departure, Balenciaga CEO Isabelle Guichot said that she had a short list of potential candidates, which was rumored to include Wang, Joseph Altuzarra, Bouchra Jarrar, J.W. Anderson, and Christopher Kane, among others. A spokeswoman for Kane said earlier this month that speculation about him joining Balenciaga was "unfounded," but just this week it was reported that Kane has had discussions for possible financing with Balenciaga's parent company, PPR.

Wang, who runs his brand independently, was rumored to be in the running to replace John Galliano at Dior last year. At the time, he said that he would only take on another design challenge if it were "completely different" from what he does with his own label.

"Sometimes you don't get to say all you want to say in your brand," he said. "When the right opportunity comes, it will present itself in a way that I'll be inspired by it. But right now, it's not like, 'Oh I'm after that house, I want to do that.'"

Only time will tell whether Wang is sufficiently inspired by Balenciaga. Ghesquière's last day at the house is Friday, Nov. 30.

Photo: Alexander Wang photographed by David Needleman for the October 2011 issue of Out Magazine.

Like any father figure would, PPR chief Francois Pinault defended Hedi Slimane against some of the less kind things critics have said about his debut collection for Saint Laurent. In the process, he also sent a thinly veiled zinger in the direction of Cathy Horyn, and may well have put an end to the war of words between the critic and the designer.

"Hedi Slimane did a remarkable job. I liked last Monday's fashion show very much — the Saint Laurent collection exceeded my expectations," Pinault said. "The house needed both a renovation and a return to its roots and, with Hedi, we have started down that road. I totally stand by the house of Yves Saint Laurent and the decisions made by its teams or its artistic director, and I didn't appreciate that some people tried to use me by linking my name to chatter about invitations or the seating of this or that person."

By "some people," Pinault may have meant Horyn, who wrote in her review of the collection that Pinault expressed dismay when he found out Horyn hadn't been invited to the show. The unfavorable review spurred Slimane to write an open letter posted to Twitter and other missives decrying Horyn as a "schoolyard bully and also a little bit of a comedian." Those tweets have now been deleted. One wonders, now that Pinault has gotten what effectively is the last word in this saga, whether he asked Slimane to put those barbs away in the first place?

From left: Salma Hayek, Francois Pinault, Kate Moss, Jamie Hince, and Vivienne Westwood front row at the Saint Laurent Spring 2013 show in Paris.

Hedi Slimane batted back against Cathy Horyn on Twitter once again Wednesday night, responding to her comment that his reaction to her critique of Saint Laurent's Spring 2013 show was "silly nonsense."

"The perfect integrity of The NewYork Times, and its writers, is not precisely 'just silly nonsense,'" Slimane tweeted. He continued, "What is a 'silly nonsense' to me is Catty [sic] Horyn still singing her tired bias tune for the nyt. This is an embarrassment for the newspaper."

The volleys started Monday, when Horyn wrote a post about Slimane's debut show for Saint Laurent (to which she wasn't invited), calling it "a nice but frozen vision of a bohemian chick at the Chateau Marmont. . . . Mr. Slimane's clothes lacked a new fashion spirit."

Slimane responded with an open letter Tuesday, calling Horyn "a schoolyard bully and also a little bit of a stand-up comedian." The letter continued to say that she would never be invited to a Saint Laurent show. Horyn told WWD on Wednesday that the war of words was "just silly nonsense to me."

Photo courtesy of Yves Saint Laurent.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Remember the hula hoop bag from Chanel's Spring 2013 show? "It's for the beach," Karl Lagerfeld says. "You need space for the beach towel, huh? And then you can put it into the sand and hang things on it, and things like that." [Styleite]
  

• Alexa Chung is writing a book that will be released in September 2013. We wonder if it'll debut during Fashion Week? [Vogue UK]
  

• Cathy Horyn has responded to an open letter from Hedi Slimane, in which the designer called her a "schoolyard bully" for her critique of his debut at Saint Laurent. "It's just silly nonsense to me," she says. [WWD]
  

• Fashion Week founder Fern Mallis got her first job in the industry by winning a contest at Mademoiselle magazine. "I was the guest editor. I won that contest, and that really started the whole ball rolling," she said. [Teen Vogue]
  

• Victoria's Secret has asked Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Bruno Mars to perform at the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. [Jezebel]

Hedi Slimane has added his name to the short list of designers to respond publicly to Cathy Horyn's criticism of their work this season.

Slimane, who showed his Spring 2013 collection for Saint Laurent in Paris on Monday night, tweeted a message titled "My Own Times." The text read in part:

"Miss Horyn is a schoolyard bully and also a little bit of a stand-up comedian. Insiders argue she is an average writer, and a bit provincial, but I disagree, she did some great things. Her biggest achievement so far is a book about Bill Blass, that I haven't read. It might be terrific, and I'll be happy to recommend it, if it helps the sales. . . As far as I'm concerned, she will never get a seat at Saint Laurent, but might get two for one at Dior. She should rejoice. I don't mind critics, but they have to come from a fashion critic, not a publicist in disguise. I am quite mesmerized she did get away with it for so many years."

Horyn was not invited to the Saint Laurent show on Sunday and pointed that out in a post about the collection. She explained her exclusion thus:

"Despite positive reviews of his early YSL and Dior collections, as well as a profile, Mr. Slimane objected bitterly to a review I wrote in 2004 — not about him but Raf Simons. Essentially I wrote that without Mr. Simons's template of slim tailoring and street casting, there would not have been a Hedi Slimane — just as there would never have been a Raf Simons without Helmut Lang. Fashion develops a bit like a genetic line."

Oscar de la Renta took out a full-page ad in WWD to respond to Horyn calling him a "hot dog" in her critique of his Spring 2013 show. In it, the designer asked Horyn, "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?" Horyn later told us that she was trying to compliment de la Renta "as someone showing off his tricks, like a surfer."

A look at the full text of Slimane's tweet, below.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• "You may think I am high maintenance, but I assure you, the attention is worth it," Choupette Lagerfeld writes in the infamous diary her two maids keep detailing her every move. "Even my fur balls are glossy." [Grazia]
  

• Lady Gaga has sided with Oscar de la Renta in his tiff with fashion critic Cathy Horyn. "Bravo Oscar," the singer tweeted. "Only you would be so chic as to purchase an entire page in WWD, making statements like a good fashion citizen." [Styleite]
  

• Mugler creative director Christophe de Lataillade has revealed the secrets behind campaigns for the house's iconic fragrance Angel — including the set that nearly burned a model's flesh. [The Cut]
  

• Calvin Klein's ex-boyfriend Nick Gruber has accused the fashion icon of paying private eyes to "stalk" him and his new boyfriend, animator John Luciano. "Calvin can hire goons to follow John and me all he wants — we have nothing to hide. I've moved on. I've never been happier." [Page Six]
  

• Hedi Slimane will unveil his new Saint Laurent Paris store concept when he opens a store in Shanghai next week. The design, involving a lot of dark stone and mirrored surfaces, references the French art deco and Union des Artistes Modernes movements. [WWD]
  

• Versace has opened another store, too — online. Customers in Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France can now buy the house's wares through a new ecommerce site. [Versace]
  

• Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet has been appointed chairwoman of the British Fashion Council, succeeding its leader of five years, Harold Tillman. [The Independent]
  
  Photo via Grazia

Cathy Horyn told us the full-page ad Oscar de la Renta placed in WWD responding to her critique of his Spring 2013 collection — in which she refers to him as a "hot dog" — was the result of one big misunderstanding.

"I used the term in a professional context, as someone showing off his tricks, like a surfer," Horyn said in an email. "I thought an ad was a little over-the-top."

Hotdogging was coined as a surfing term in the '50s and generally described surfing "for flash rather than function." De la Renta's collection had plenty of flash: graffiti embroidery snaked over a lace suit jacket and dress, little cloth-covered beads hung from strings on a cardigan and a full ball gown, and the fluttery effect of one cocktail frock was created by sewing individually cut white flowers with red piping all over a strapless white A-line dress.

The designer's response to Horyn's critique was a little less flowery. The open letter reads in part, "I respect and accept criticism because in many ways it does help us develop; I try to make my work better each time. What I do not accept is when criticism is personal. 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? My advice to you is to abstain from personal criticism. Professionals criticize the clothes, not the people."

Horyn's original critique said, "Mr. de la Renta is far more a hot dog than an éminence grise of American fashion. He opened his lively show on Tuesday with a red latex pencil skirt, a sleek ivory wool pantsuit and dairymaid lace. . . . It was wonderfully cantankerous, a good bit of window-dressing for the gooey stuff that followed."

She may have intended to be positive, but this isn't the first time that Horyn's criticism has gotten her in hot water with designers. Giorgio Armani banned Horyn from his shows in 2008, complaining in a letter to her editor about the "unnecessarily sarcastic comments" on his friends and family at his Spring 2008 couture show and saying that he "rarely found positive remarks" in Horyn's reviews. She's also been banned from shows by Dolce & Gabbana, Helmut Lang, and Carolina Herrera.

In 2010, Horyn wrote quite plainly that Alexander Wang "is not a great designer," but she was still seated at his show the next season.

We've reached out to representatives for Oscar de la Renta for a comment on Horyn's clarification and will update this post when we hear from them. For now, the original full-page ad below.