L’ATELIER DE CHINE

Here is the most sublime collection of Fashion Week and the theme is Art Nouveau, an artistic style that develops from the late nineteenth century, first in Belgium and then in France. It flourishes in architecture and decorative arts. The search for functionality is one of the concerns of architects and designers. Art Nouveau is characterized by forms inspired by nature, where the curve of nature dominates.

Unlike many other artistic movements, Art Nouveau does not seek to promote a precise system of artistic principles invented by an artist or a group of artists and theorists. The name itself is that of a store in Paris, the Maison de l’Art Nouveau, opened in 1895 by the German art dealer Siegfried Bing. For Bing, as for many of his contemporaries, European civilization was going through a period of great turbulence and was facing unprecedented political, social and technological changes; the world of art and decoration therefore had to respond to the demands of this evolution. Continue reading

ERMANNO SCERVINO

“I always wanted to be a stylist” Ermanno once announced. And from a young age, he dreamed of dressing the most beautiful women in the world. This is not a first for us, because we already talked about him in 2010. A collection of ultra-feminine style and the time was to highlight the curves and other feminine attractions, because down the masks, thus throwing the spotlight on dresses guipure for legs as long as compasses.

Guipure from Ireland, Flanders, Le Puy; making guipure for a sublime trench coat, collar, cuffs with lace ruffles, not too young they say, but it is the only material that silk likes for neighbor, and this one comes from China. This static show deserves nothing less than the epithet of Royal, at least for the atmosphere of the almost moving sculptures, of an intense presentation that in terms of eloquence sews to the maturity of a great, from the Huang Mountains. Continue reading

CHINA YU PRIZE

Chen Peng, the designer best known for his outsize down puffer jackets, took home the top award from the Yu Prize, the platform founded by Wendy Yu that seeks out China's best up-and-coming fashion talent.

Chen will receive funding of 1 million renminbi, or $152,000, in addition to a year’s mentoring from OTB Group, retailing at Harrods, and a showcase by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. The inaugural event grew from one prize, as it was originally announced, to four awards that grant the winners a total of 1.5 million renminbi, or $229,000. Continue reading

SUPERMASK MEDICAL MUSIC

Music group Black Eyed Peas introduces his newest tech innovation today: Xupermask. Pronounced “supermask,” the product is made in partnership with technology and manufacturing company Honeywell International.

The wearable face technology, launching April 8, is made using medical-grade silicone and an adjustable elastic strap, featuring three dual-speed fans and a Honeywell created filtration system, plus noise-canceling audio, a microphone, a magnetic earbud docking system, Bluetooth connectivity and a seven-hour battery. Produced in two colors and sizes, Xupermask retails for $299 and will be available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and E.U. at Xupermask.com.

The product offers newness as consumers adjust to COVID-19, its impact on everyday life today and moving forward. While the price point might prove prohibitive for some, especially when compared to the myriad cloth or Continue reading

RALPH LAUREN AND SELFRIDGES

Ralph Lauren Corp., which has been on course to build even stronger digital connections, has made some key changes in its creative department.

Jack Becht, most recently digital fashion director at Selfridges, joined last month as creative director, agency, at Ralph Lauren, overseeing the Polo, Luxury, Lauren, Home and RL content studio divisions.

He reports to Alice Delahunt, chief digital and content officer, who has been with the company for three years, having cut her teeth at Google, Snap Inc. and Burberry, where she worked for six years and rose to global director of digital and social.

Becht has more than 10 years of experience in advertising, branded content and editorial. Prior to his year at Selfridges, he spent three years as creative director at Condé Nast, where he led the Fashion/Luxury group creating advertising and content campaigns for client’s channels, as well as the print, digital and social platforms of Condé Nast’s brand portfolios.

H AND M SNEAKER

After the Vuitton sneaker the H and M sneaker the two extreme ones are here, except that Vuitton was an April fool, so stop calling the office to know where the sneakers are on sale.

Sustainable sneaker label Good News has joined forces with H and M on a capsule collection of unisex sneakers. The sneakers, which have a retro flair and feature upbeat stripes and colors, were made using grape leather, fibers derived from banana plants and biodegradable soles.

Despite these efforts, there remains a lot of scrutiny around fast-fashion giants and their sustainability claims which some often dismiss as greenwashing.

For the Good News duo, however, the retailer’s willingness to make changes and its levels of transparency the Swedish company topped the 2020 transparency ranking by campaign group Fashion Revolution made the tie-in a step in the right direction. Continue reading

GUCCI VACCINATES EMPLOYEES

Gucci will open the doors of its corporate offices and facilities to vaccinate more than 6,000 Italian employees, including offices, factories and retail. The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has been slow in Italy and a number of Italian fashion companies are taking steps to help speed up the process.

Gucci on Monday said it was joining an initiative by Italy’s association Confindustria. Even LVMH has thought of using its new flagship la Samaritaine to vaccinate its employees. As soon as Italian national and regional health regulations allow it, Gucci will open the doors of its corporate offices and facilities to vaccinate more than 6,000 Italian employees, from offices, factories and retail.

The decision is in line with that of parent company Kering, which is offering its own spaces and those of the other brands of the group operating in Italy. Continue reading

MAURIZIO GUCCI A VISIONARY

While much of the subsequent media attention obviously focused on Maurizio Gucci’s murder in 1995 the anniversary of which is Saturday his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani’s jealousy and greed, and their strained relationship, Morante talked some light on the events that preceded the tragedy and which also helped set the scene for the global development of the luxury goods industry  such as the arrival of private equity funds and international and diverse creative and management teams as well as the challenges family businesses face.

Maurizio Gucci was the first to realize the potential of the Gucci brand at a moment when the luxury industry was nascent. In the late ‘80s, Maurizio understood ahead of time that the luxury industry was about to embark on and experience a global renaissance. Not everybody was convinced at that stage, he told to Jacques Mouclier about Haute Couture and Metiers d’Art ; the only man who shared the same opinion. Continue reading

KOHLER LEAVES FERAGAMO

The Salvatore Ferragamo Group is seeing changes in the Americas, as Donald Kohler will be exiting the company. Kohler joined Ferragamo as chief executive officer of the Americas region and chief retail officer of the worldwide group in September 2017.

Ferragamo confirmed Kohler was leaving to pursue another professional experience at the end of his contract, but did not provide a specific time frame, while adding that the company has given a mandate to an executive search firm to seek a successor.

Kohler started his career in 1990 at Macy’s, in the executive training program, working both in stores and in the buying office. In 1993, he joined Gap in San Francisco, rising to the role of vice president merchandise planning for the international division. Continue reading

CAPUCINES SEYDOUX FOR LV

After channeling the screen icon for the December issue a French magazine, the French actress is reprising some of Monroe’s most famous photo shoots in her latest Louis Vuitton campaign, which finds her naked in bed with only a Capucines handbag for company.

A Monroe rolling in bed, a photo shoot with Bert Stern that took place six weeks before the iconic actress died in 1962.

For Vuitton said that while Monroe was “an everlasting source of inspiration,” the images also refer to the fantasy of “Jane Blond girls” Seydoux is set to reprise her role as Madeleine Swann opposite Daniel Craig in the upcoming James Bond film “No Time to Die,” which is now set for release in October after several postponements due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A woman and her bag the timeless elegance of the Capucines bag. The French fashion house is billing the style, launched in 2013, as a “modern classic,” highlighting the large model in black leather for the campaign. Continue reading

GUCCI NEXT COLLECTION IN APRIL

Gucci will present its next fashion collection through a short film on April 15 on several digital platforms around the world. This is the first collection to be unveiled in the year that marks the brand’s centenary anniversary, Gucci revealed that creative director Alessandro Michele has named the collection Aria.

The collection is presented outside of any fashion week calendar. In music, an aria is a self-contained piece for one voice.

The designer in November presented a seven-part film series he codirected with Gus Van Sant. The collection appeared throughout seven episodes running from Nov. 16 to 22, screened during a new digital fashion and film festival called GucciFest.

The collection and the series were called “Ouverture of Something That Never Ended,” shot in Rome and featuring actress and artist Silvia Calderoni as well as a range of friends of Continue reading

OTTOLINGER FALL 2021

Inspired by Chinese writer Hao Jingfang’s science fiction work “Vagabonds,” Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient combined their quirky, deconstructed body-con with padded, protective forms in a more three-dimensional register.

Puffer jackets and suiting in a color palette of murky brights with quirky straps and accessories that wound around the body, creating what looked a little like futuristic armor. Continue reading

HERMÈS FAKE BAGS THE END OF THE BEGINNING

Are there more fake than real Birkin bags on the market? Twenty-three people were charged, including nine former Hermès employees, the news agency reported. A 41-year-old man was sentenced, in absentia, to six years in prison and fined 1.5 million euros; a warrant has been issued for his arrest. The individual was accused of being the mastermind of the network, which included a workshop in Hong Kong.

Some 400 handbags were made in clandestine workshops in France and Hong Kong, while 800 came from the house’s employee program, which allows workers to make their own handbags.

Hundreds of copied Birkin bags, supplied by the international network, were sold in France. Another individual, age 66, was judged to be the main supplier and sentenced to four years in prison and fined 400,000 euros. Continue reading

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