Saint Laurent is finally back and black on the official Paris Fashion Week schedule. Anthony Vaccarello’s narrow, elongated silhouettes for spring as emphatic as the Iron Lady, models filing in precise rows around a wall of scaffolding that blinked with lights and ultimately erupted with falling water. Continue reading
To close the Paris fashion shows, Vuitton decorated the Louvre’s Passage Richelieu with a sea of vintage chandeliers and told a story few have ever heard. The passage was used by Louis Vuitton himself to “reach the apartments of Empress Eugenie” the wife of Napoleon III “for whom he was the trunk maker.” Thanks to Nicolas for this kind invitation.
The Balenciaga show was riotously fun, blurring the lines between fashion and entertainment; thawing the icy, impassive image of the Balenciaga brand, and further solidifying Demna Gvasalia’s position as one of the industry’s most original and unpredictable thinkers.
The “Théâtre du Châtelet” had all the trappings of awards season in Hollywood: howling photographers, efficient handlers, and a steady stream of attention-seeking guests. All of this was broadcast inside the venue on a giant screen as if it were Césars, the night of the Césars, a kind of French Oscar, usually at the Chatelet theater . Continue reading
You can find everything at the Samaritaine! Including young talented designers who parade from the first to the last floor, under the applause of the public. Fashion comes down to the street with men and women of the street (non-professional models)! This sacrosanct Fashion Week, this cenacle asleep and protected by some to remain in dark rooms hyperprotected for VIPs where everything sells so quickly that nothing is sold in the stores because they are empty of creation and meaning. Dgena, yesterday afternoon, brought fashion to the street, in Les Halles, the epicenter of youth, under “La Canopée” that young people want to protect at all costs and on the square of the last jewel of the Lord of Arnault, the young designer presented the last 20 models from Upcycling.
The originality of this one: all the pieces created are from overcycling, more commonly called “Upcycling” (end of rolls, fabric scraps, building tarpaulins, clothes found in resourceries, including clothes from individuals) and made in the luxury standards of Haute Couture. With this collection, Dgena shows that it is possible to make Luxury with existing clothes and materials, donated or from the recovery . Continue reading
For the first major show of Paris Fashion Week after the covid, the Dior women’s wear designer transformed a tent in the Tuileries gardens into a ‘60s-era nightclub, with a multilevel circular stage where a live band played Italian disco music, and models stood until it was their turn to walk.
After 20 years, the show is back to his original theater at 11 Via Borgonuovo, an underground space at his storied headquarter where he showed his collections every season until he opened the new Tadao Ando-designed theater across town in 2001. Continue reading
The French Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode has published the final version of the official schedulen finally, with a number of changes as usual. The return of Saint Laurent, the first big house to step away from preset schedules to set its own pace for collections during the pandemic, who says goodbye to the Venice views and desert vistas to return with an 8 p.m. show on Sept. 28 at the new museum of the businessman Pinault.
It joins returnees Balenciaga, Loewe, Maison Margiela and Valentino among the big names that have decided to return their collections to Paris this season. Couturier Alexandre Vauthier has moved the reveal of his latest ready-to-wear offering to a bright and early 9 a.m. on Oct. 2. Continue reading
In the past few seasons and despite the pandemic Milan Fashion Week has quietly but increasingly become a launchpad for several emerging names, under the lead of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, which has spearheaded a series of initiatives to enhance its mentoring role.
As much as the direct-to-consumer business model is mining the appeal, especially business-wise, of international fashion shows, there is still a slew of young designers who are sticking to the format in hopes that showcasing their collections within the frame of established fashion weeks can boost their appeal and global resonance.
Once deemed as dormant or at least less exciting than Paris, especially during the men’s season, the showcase has been able to attract new names, not only supporting Italian creatives but also drawing designers from all continents. Continue reading
Two hundred years after his birth, the Vuitton company is marking the milestone in ways its founder never could have imagined, including a video game with embedded NFTs, a documentary on Apple TV, window installations, artworks, and social media activations galore.
Media is evolving so quickly that every time there’s a new way of communicating, you have to tell your story all over again, said Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of Vuitton. Generations are now defined by technology, not by age.
Vuitton Louis setting off from the tiny town of Anchay in eastern France at age 13. And yet the life story of Vuitton, who eventually reached Paris and apprenticed at renowned trunk maker and packer Romain Maréchal, contains many universal business truths, including the necessity of taking risks, of staying close to the customer, and of passing the baton to the next generation at the right time. Continue reading
Consumers still appear willing to spend lavishly on luxury clothes and accessories, even as markets reopen and other activities like restaurants and travel compete for their discretionary dollars.
The world’s biggest luxury group, which owns 75 brands ranging from Dom Pérignon Champagne to Bulgari jewelry, said its fashion and leather goods, or FLG, division was once again the star performer in the second quarter, FLG activities posted sales of 7.13 billion euros in the three months to June 30, up 40 percent on an organic basis versus the same quarter in 2019, reflecting the resilience of star brands Louis Vuitton and Dior. Continue reading
Several brands, including Louis Vuitton, Bulgari and Porsche, have cut ties with top Chinese Canadian singer-actor Kris Wu as controversial claims surrounding his personal life emerged on Chinese social media over the weekend. A young woman who said she’d dated the pop star accused him of targeting young and sometimes underage females for sex. Continue reading
Fashion is not art,” believes Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli. “Fashion always has a practical scope while art is an end in itself.” Ateliers couture collection shown in Venice on Thursday, as 22 out of the 82 designs on the runway.
Andrea Respino inspired a stunning intarsia coat almost trompe l’oeil, said Piccioli made of 150 different swatches of fabrics, from satin to taffeta, laminated and sequined. One could catch glimpses of the painting on the front of the garment, while the back was conceived with the help of Respino, responding with his own creativity to the design.
Another standout was a long, glittering sequined slipdress worn under a floor-length, taffeta bouillonné cape with a pattern reminiscent of poetic images of the moon reflected on a lake by Chinese art curator and photographer Rui Wu.
Fashion and art are creative practices that respond to different purposes one linked to the body and movement, the other completely free from constraints of sorts which nevertheless find a conjunction in the atelier: the place of making, of thinking with the hands, of translating a desire, an idea, a sensation into a tangible object. Continue reading
The title sounds like a philosophical fable, a dreamlike tale, a belief shared by believers from all walks of life. But he speaks, above all, despite his backward references, of an increasingly hot topicality on the subject of wealth and poverty.
Some time ago, the magazine « L’Histoire » had the headline « The Rich and the Poor, 1000 years of inequality ». Far from me the idea of any morality or a trial of intent. I must admit that I had a lot of trouble choosing the direction of this collection. To be honest, I didn’t want to choose and each character finally found its place.` The Servant, the Ferryman and the Relic.
The Servant embodies a girl of the woods, glades and ponds. A peasant woman who evolves in a bucolic universe which translates my desire for stripping back.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who has never left my thoughts, is once again present in Ermenonville, not far from Chaalis. He will live there for the last ten years of his life. Here, he is at the heart of his deep convictions, those related to nature. Continue reading
Louis Vuitton and Frank Gehry have teamed up yet again, this time on a new fragrance line, called Les Extraits Collection.
For it, the French luxury goods house’s master perfumer Jacques Cavallier has created a new collection of extracts of perfume, while Gehry conceived a bottle to hold the five different juices. Each flacon comes topped with a three-dimensional, silver-colored sculptural work reminiscent of wind moving through and swirling a silver sheath.
“My ambition was to reinvent the extrait de parfum of the 21st century, bringing newness and new emotions without having any connections with the existing fragrances at Louis Vuitton by breaking the rules,” explained Cavallier, during a press conference held in Paris on Monday.
The fragrances are called Stellar Times, Cosmetic Cloud, Dancing Blossom, Rhapsody and Symphony. Each represents a different major olfactive family and is concentrated at 30 percent.
The fragrance line marks Vuitton’s second collaboration with the legendary architect, who designed the Fondation Vuitton in the Bois de Boulogne in a Paris suburb.
On the Venice Lido beach amid pounding dub music, hand-carried fog machines and water jets spewing huge arcs toward the shore.
His collection hole-punched tailoring, filmy tops and puddling pants, much of it in white embraced hedonism, but I didn’t want entitled hedonism. Continue reading
The French luxury brand unveiled the sneakers as part of Virgil Abloh’s spring 2022 men’s collection and Nike Partners With Louis Vuitton on New Air Force 1 Sneakers.
In an homage to hip-hop culture, Virgil Abloh has brought together his two biggest brand partners to create what is sure to be one of this year’s hottest sneaker collaborations.
The shoes, designed in 21 colorways, were unveiled on Thursday as part of Abloh’s spring 2022 men’s collection, a sked whether they would be made available for sale, Vuitton responded: “Stay tuned for more details.”
The shoes feature a small neon green serrated tag on the side, and a label with the Louis Vuitton name and the Nike swoosh on the tongue. Continue reading
Return on investment for Bernard Arnault with the inauguration of the new department store “La Samaritaine” by the French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday evening, marking the culmination of a 16-year renovation process that promises to galvanize shopping and tourism in the centre of Paris as the city emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Oh la la!” the French leader exclaimed as he walked into the painstakingly restored Art Nouveau building, where 700 employees lined along the stairs and balconies greeted him with loud cheers. Will we be back to the 18th century when staff belonged to the Lord? It looks like Selfridges serie to follow on Netfilix
He praised Arnault and his group for their “relentless” commitment to the project, noting that none of it would have been possible without teamwork. Now LVMH is betting that its 750 million-euro investment will pay off, despite the continued absence of tourists, which are the lifeblood of DFS, the travel retail division which operates the store. Continue reading
The French luxury house reported on Tuesday that revenues totaled $10.1 billion in 2020, down 18 percent at comparable rates.
This was in line with the forecast by Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS, who said in June 2020 that the company was expecting a double-digit drop in sales for the full-year. Chanel underperformed competitors such as luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which saw revenues decrease 16 percent at constant exchange rates in 2020; Kering, which reported a 16.4 drop in organic sales, and Hermès International, which recorded a 6 percent decline. Continue reading