Sophie Buhai

All the bits fit to print here, in our daily news roundup.

• Erin Fetherston designed the waitress's aprons for Butterfly, a restaurant that will open downstairs from her design studio this Spring. [Food & Wine]
• Patrick Demarchelier shot Kati Nescher for the February cover of Vogue UK in the middle of Hurricane Sandy. [Vogue UK]
• Street style at Pitti Uomo is all about Italian tailoring, Winter textures, and double monk-strap shoes. [GQ]
• Kate Middleton's official portrait, painted by Paul Emsley, is now on display at Britain's National Portrait Gallery. [Racked]
• In other art news, painter Tim Furzer has created minimalistic watercolors for Calvin Klein's Madison Avenue flagship store windows. [Harper's Bazaar]
• Jan Heppe is Burberry's new president of the Americas. [WWD]
• Vena Cava's Sophie Buhai describes the label's secondary line, Viva Vena!, as "the little sister to Vena Cava…if Vena Cava were an opera, Viva Vena! would be an indie band." [Refinery29]
  

• L.K. Bennett selected Rosamund Pike as the face of its Spring 2013 campaign. [Telegraph]
• Oscar nominations for best costume favored period dramas and fairy-tale films. [LA Times]

Source: GQ

>> Vena Cava is positioned to grow its business by leaps and bounds over the next few years thanks to a new partnership with trading firm Li & Fung.

The deal gives designers Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock complete creative control over their eight-year-old brand, but Li & Fung's global approach to building and marketing brands will push Vena Cava into new territory. The plan is for Li & Fung — which also works with brands like Rachel Zoe, Guerlain, and Keds Apparel, among others — to help Vena Cava enter categories other than making clothing for young women.

"We now have all the production, sourcing and technical help that we could ever dream about," Mayock told WWD. "We have so many ideas we tried to execute in the past that just haven't worked because we didn’t have those kind of resources and couldn't figure out the best way to make something actually happen."

Buhai added that eventually, they'd like to add homeware and menswear. "We are interested in doing more print publications, little movies and eventually one day we'd like to have our own stores."

This is a huge turnaround for a brand that just five months ago was rumored to be on the verge of collapse. After presenting their Spring 2012 collection with a dinner party, instead of staging a runway show, it was widely reported that Buhai and Mayock's financials forced them to lay off much of their staff and take their offices back to their New York homes. Buhai says the rumors were just rumors.

"We just hit a point where we realized that in order to take [Vena Cava] where we wanted to take it in terms of our vision, we had to get some investment help," Buhai said. "So we decided to take a little bit of time. We were just regrouping."

>> In the wake of opting for an intimate dinner party — in lieu of their usual runway show or presentation — for the Spring 2012 season in September comes news that Vena Cava may be in trouble.

WWD reports that the label was in the final stages of negotiating a financing deal with an unnamed investor earlier this month when talks broke down. According to WWD's source, Vena Cava's current financial state is "drastic," and it won't be able to move forward without an angel investor or partner coming forward.

Fashionista, meanwhile, reports: "According to a source close to the situation, the label moved out of their Soho headquarters this week and laid off a lot of staff." Apparently founders Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, who started Vena Cava in 2003, have moved their offices home, and still have a deal with TJ Maxx in the works.

“We love what we built with Vena Cava and are dedicated to seeing it thrive and grow. We have had some very positive talks from potential partners and feel confident about moving forward,” Mayock told WWD.

Without hesitation, Vena Cava is on my shortlist of must-wear brands, and the designer duo and BFFs Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock are two of the coolest PopSugar City girls I know. The ladies haven't taken a break since debuting their 2011 Fall collection in February. Currently, Buhai and Mayock are in Vietnam, rounding up inspiration for Spring 2012 (talk about springing forward). They just launched their awesome new ecommerce site, and even a world away, they still managed to give us the inside scoop on what every New York girl should have in her Spring wardrobe, where they find inspiration in the city, the best street "treasures" they've come across, and more.

PopSugar NYC: As a fellow West Coast defector, I'm curious, what was it about NYC in the initial stages that made you stay indefinitely?

Sophie Buhai: We both attended Parsons, so school is what brought us out to NYC. New York is really the place to be if you want to start a small fashion line; the industry is very supportive, and you have access to amazing production and all the editors. We felt very connected to an emerging group of designers who were all starting brands around the same time. The early 2000s were when the word "young designer" was exploding, and the economy was ripe for new talent. We were lucky to be in New York during that time, I don't think that could have happened if we had been in LA. We hope to make it out to LA at some point . . . perhaps when we launch our caftan line!

To find out what else the ladies have to say, head over to PopSugar NYC to read the whole interview.

Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai's Vena Cava line and cheap(er) collection, Viva Vena!, used to only be available in stores, but now the duo are taking their quirky cool-girl appeal to the masses thanks to a brand-new ecommerce site. Starting today, you can shop both collections from the comforts of your own abode. But that's not all; the site comes with a ton more cool features. Want to hear about our favorites?

We love their "garage sale," featuring one-of-a-kind items like an early '80s portable TV, vintage accessories, and cool magazines. And while you're there, check out the "vibes" page, showcasing the duo's friends wearing their designs by categories such as "black tie Che Guevara" and "soccer mom chic" — fun!