BREXIT FASHION SAVE THE QUEEN

With Britain still in lockdown and designers grappling with complex, costly paperwork and trading post-Brexit, fall 2021 will likely be remembered as the season of choking on red tape.

London Fashion Week begins today and runs through Feb. 23 and while the showcase is coed, and open to the public, it’s an unusual time. Many big names, including JW Anderson, Erdem and Christopher Kane, are opting not to show on the calendar, and London’s biggest brand, Burberry, is releasing men’s wear only, with women’s to come at a later date.

The British Fashion Council, which puts on the shows, has secured major new sponsors in the two tech companies TikTok and Clearpay neither of which is British and is taking a slice of LFW to Seoul, South Korea, via a collaboration with multibrand retailer Boon the Shop. Continue reading

KERING SLOW KING

Kering Q4 Sales Disappoint , Sales fell 8.2 percent in the fourth quarter, as organic revenues at Gucci dropped 10.3 percent, missing analysts’ expectations.

The French luxury conglomerate reported on Wednesday that revenues in the three months to Dec. 31 totaled 4.0 billion euros, representing a decline of 5 percent. Kering’s share price should take a hit as growth also slowed at its smaller brands, Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent. Continue reading

FIRST LADY DESIGNER

There was already a retired person at the White House, why not a First Lady dressed as a surintendante.

The up-and-coming Markarian brand got a serious boost from First Lady Jill Biden on Inauguration Day, and with her fall 2021 collection, Alexandra O’Neill more than lived up to the hype, putting the designer on a course to become a new American classic.

That O’Neill can make a party dress is a given, and her one-shoulder blue-pink metallic wood grain minidress with dramatic pink train is this season’s prime example.

A petal-sleeve, 1940s-feeling rosewood silk jacquard dress with black bows and crystal trim on the bodice was also charming and very First Lady Biden. Continue reading

GIANT FURNACES FOR A POSITIVE BOTTLE

Ahn reveals that the limited-edition Champagne collection will have a positive impact on the environment. Never forgets that the production of glass requires giant furnaces heated up to 1,600 degrees day and night. The glass is an ecological disaster. The production of a glass bottle rejects twice as much CO2 as a plastic one, but when the bottle is named Moët & Chandon’s it suddenly becomes positive.

Moët & Chandon’s Impérial Champagne Bottle shows a New Cool Design. For the first time in its history, Moët & Chandon has teamed with a designer on redesigning one of its signature bottles.

Ambush founder and creative director Yoon Ahn are the first designers in the history of Moët & Chandon to have the chance to revisit the bottle of the brand’s iconic Moët Impérial Champagne.

Ahn, who is based in Tokyo and along with designing her own label is also the creative director of Dior Homme’s jewelry collections, put her signature minimal touch on the bottle, coloring the traditional gold neck in black, which contrasts with a new white embossed label. Continue reading

VICTORIA BECKHAM 2021

If there was ever a designer fully tuned into trans-seasonal fashion, and the laws of layering, it’s Victoria Beckham, who’s been spending her lockdown in Miami with the family, as husband David gets on with work at Inter Miami CF, the MLS team he cofounded.

The family has been in south Florida since Christmas, and Victoria has been homeschooling the kids and working remotely with her team back in freezing, snowy, locked-down London. This season, she’s combined her pre-fall and fall collections, and filled them with pieces that can work in a variety of climates.

Her lineup was packed with military looks — roomy topcoats with shiny buttons; navy trousers with red stripes, and a puffer jacket with regimental details.

LVMH STOPS THE FENTY BRAND

Rihanna, LVMH Are Pausing the Fenty Fashion House. Lord Arnault had thrown powder in Rihanna’s eyes to make her believe that she would become a fashion designer, but in fact he only wanted her brand of cosmetics.

The music star and the French luxury giant have mutually agreed to put the Fenty maison on hold, less than two years after the launch. The brand stopped posting on its Instagram account on Jan. 1, and the last collection drop on Fenty.com dates back to November 2020.

LVMH have jointly made the decision to put on hold the rtw activity, based in Europe, pending better conditions. According to sources, a skeleton staff remains at the Paris headquarters of Fenty fashions to wind down remaining operations. Continue reading

THE MANTERO ARCHIVE

The Mantero Archive has long been considered a comprehensive and extraordinary collection of textiles and an inspiration for numerous designers, with more than 10,000 volumes and 60,000 foulards from the top fashion houses, thousands of drawings and prints.

Now it has expanded further, housing the Ken Scott Foundation in Grandate, just outside Como. Italian silk specialist Mantero, which is based in Como, bought the Ken Scott brand in 2019, and has structured the foundation as an exhibition space.

We are anxious to open it up to the world, once the travel restrictions will be lifted, said Franco Mantero, chief executive officer of the family-owned company.

The Ken Scott Foundation was established in 1989 by the Indiana-born designer, who died in 1991 and became popular in the 60s and 70s with his colorful prints. Continue reading

ROCHAS VILMORIN AND H&M

Rochas has named Charles de Vilmorin as its new creative director, cementing the 24-year-old designer’s meteoric rise since launching his fashion label last April in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Three press-cutting in some tabloids and the rocket  will certainly be a wet firecracker. This announcement was made the day Rocha signed a partnership with H&M; a bad presage.

Fresh off his debut at Paris Couture Week last month, de Vilmorin, after the plagia of the muse Niki de Saint Phalle, will be in charge of designing women’s ready-to-wear for Rochas, Rochas’ boss doesn’t surely understand anything about Haute Couture to hire a young non-talented kid who plays with colors like a kid in the kindergarten.

But it is true that when we talk about perfumes, the only thing we know about Haute Couture is the smell of bad taste. Continue reading

ROCHA AND H&M

H&M is getting ready to release its latest designer collaboration, this time with Simone Rocha.

The retailer released the full look book for its Simone Rocha x H&M collaboration on Monday, a collection that includes women’s and men’s wear, and children’s options. The collection is said to take inspiration from the history and fashion of Ireland and Hong Kong, representing Rocha’s dual heritage.

“I hope that the items in this collection will be worn and treasured for years to come,” Rocha said in a statement. “They were all informed by ideas and inspirations that have shaped me and my brand over the last 10 years, and I am so excited to see them worn out-and-about and interpreted and styled in new ways.”

The collection includes a variety of feminine dresses with lace and tulle detailing in floral and tartan prints. Many of the pieces are embellished with pearls, a detail also seen in Rocha’s spring 2021 ready-to-wear collection. Continue reading

REMEMBERING ACTOR C.PLUMMER

Legendary actor Christopher Plummer, known for films like “The Sound of Music” and “All the Money in the World,” died Friday at the age of 91. Plummer died peacefully at his home in Connecticut, according to Deadline.

Plummer was one of the industry’s veteran actors with a career that’s spanned nearly 70 years and included more than 200 movies and TV shows. One of his earliest and most famous roles was as Captain von Trapp in the beloved 1965 film “The Sound of Music,” starring alongside Julie Andrews.

The actor was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one for best supporting actor for the 2010 film “Beginners.” His most recent nomination came in 2017 for his role as J. Paul Getty in the Ridley Scott film “All the Money in the World.” Continue reading

BOYCOTT YVES ROCHER IN RUSSIA

Calls to boycott Yves Rocher are proliferating online as Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to two years detention for violating parole in a case linked to the French beauty company that dates back almost a decade.

Yves Rocher said in a statement Thursday that it has never filed a complaint against Navalny or his brother Oleg, or made legal claims against them at any time.

The case dates back to 2012, when local authorities questioned Yves Rocher Vostok, Yves Rocher’s Russian subsidiary, in a judicial investigation into the Glavpodpiska company that was owned by the brothers. Yves Rocher said clues were found making it likely fraud had been committed by Glavpodpiska against the company, whose services had been recommended after the Yarsolav post office seemed to be struggling with the volume of packages. Oleg Navalny was a senior official at the Russian post office at the time. Continue reading

BRITISH FASHION WEEK KILLED BY BREXIT

British fashion threatened to be “decimated” by Brexit. The sector “risks being decimated by the Brexit agreement and current government policy,” the Fashion roundtable warns in a letter.

This is a call for help from the British fashion world to the government. In an open letter, the Fashion roundtable warns of the risk that the sector could be “decimated” because of Brexit.

Fashion and textiles, “an industry that contributes 35 billion euros to the UK’s GDP and employs almost a million people”, “risks being decimated by the Brexit agreement and the government’s current policy”, warns the letter, addressed to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Ministers of Culture, Industry and Home Affairs.
The sector contributes more to Britain’s GDP than the fishing, music, film and automotive industries combined.

Stressing that the EU is the biggest partner for both imports and exports, the fashion world denounces delays and “paperwork mountain” induced by the new rules. It calls on the government to support measures and consider tax cuts. Continue reading

TILMANN WANDERER OF THE STARS

I seek the essential, because I want to live next to human people who do not swell with triumphs, and who do not feel elected before their time. Today we will talk about a creator from across the Rhine. That’s good, we were missing a famous German on the calendar! And this one comes from the schools of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, his name is Tilmann Grawe. From Louis Féraud Haute Couture to Paco Rabanne, he launched his first collection in March 2000.

The collections of Tilmann Grawe are thus, they cover with jewels also the head of women admirably, and show this madness of the years of the same name. Hair jewelry from the 1920s for the wonder of Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, neither fire nor ice can reach the intensity of these creations that come directly from his heart.

The human race, as a whole, chooses to address you. Driven by an irresistible prejudice, favorable to you, and this only by the magic of your creations, you become the wanderer of the stars, and the eyes of the women gathered in a cenacle of sweetness and honey look at your work through the eye of the ineffable and exhilarating glamour of the past. Continue reading

MARTONE DIED AT 41

Saturday that Martone died at age 41 in tragic circumstances. She was hospitalized for a 15-minute surgery, but died suddenly due to complications during the operation.

Daughter of ICR’s Roberto Martone, she retained creative roles in the family-run fragrance manufacturing business, which develops scents for the likes of Salvatore Ferragamo and Bulgari.

There was something fascinating in being in the presence of Giorgia Martone, who was known in the beauty industry for her expertise in fragrance creation, a passion passed down by her father and Italian leading perfume manufacturer ICR’s president Roberto Martone. Continue reading

ON AURA TOUT VU

Corseted bustier in silk satin and cristals, enhanced with 100 Syringes filled with crystal vaccine, which ends in a needle whose tip is adorned with a drop-shaped pearl.
The vaccine dress … by @onauratoutvu

WORLD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND SORBIER

Franck Sorbier couldn’t start his film without paying tribute to Robert Hossein, who was a faithful friend, who saw them humming like the wings of a hummingbird, only to end up making no noise at all, because their magic often reminds us of the calm chaos of these people fighting to keep their balance, like tightrope walkers all in feathers of lightness in the deafening silence of the Paris Fashion Week that promotes young men of 23 years old with just presumed talent.

Their show sounds like caresses and glances, but  all night long I negotiate with myself and with my conscience to know to whom I will wear my couture calame on the white sheet of paper. So here it is, back to the days of the fashion carnival, this magnificent place where each one wants to run faster than the other in order to attract attention. Golden threads to warp my day; a scrap of guipure shining with colors, to the dream where I can remain a child and still be free a little, childhood found in abundance by the Master’s dresses. Continue reading

ROLLAND L’ANDALOUSE

When Stéphane Rolland caresses the organza, it becomes as precious as a jewel, and it is then that the gold metallized silk embroidered with crystals and pearls appears. I see the dresses that a kiss accompanies with the stream of dreams that lights up the eyes, and that makes the passage from sadness to enchantment. Continue reading

FARHAD RE GORGEOUS

Farhad Re was born in Rome and grew up between Italy and France, where he spent most of his time invested in his work as a stylist loved by stars, princesses, and jet-setting ladies such as Catherine Deneuve, Ivana Trump, Joan Collins, Brigitte Nielsen, Ursula Andress, and Princess Soraya – heads of sumptuous and marked elegance. Known for his high fashion garments and accessories that despite their modernity reflect a taste for extreme luxury.

It is difficult to classify his singular creations mixing, instinctively, baroque, punk and romanticism. Organza, satins, furs, embroidery and laces are the refined ingredients of his elaborated combinations. Without any dose of nostalgia, he knows how to combine heritage and modernity, technique and creation.

Even if his house is young, it is part of a long tradition that he respects, while not hesitating to move towards new ideas. In 2018, Farhad Re moved his Atelier and showroom from Rome to Paris… Continue reading