Category Archives: BREAKING MODE

HERMÈS NOTHING NEW

Posted on by

Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski decided to pare the women’s wear back to a graphic essence. In keeping with the Hermès 2020 theme, “Innovation in the Making,” she presented a “manifest of purity,” as she called it, on a set of striped vertical bars reminiscent of horse jump poles.

Working in Piet Mondrian’s strict vocabulary of primary colors, she created a baseline for an Hermès wardrobe, including more options in non-leather or using minimal-leather (with the growing animal-loving luxury class in mind, perhaps?).

Some looks came in both, well positioning the brand for changing values around consumption, and offering more accessible pieces as it courts customers with new product categories, including its first line of lipsticks bowing March 4. Continue reading →

PACO RABANNE FASHION KNIGHTS

Posted on by

Flashy chain mail knights: no, we’re not in Domrémy and we’re not going to push the English out of the conciergerie. A place probably rightly chosen by Julien Dossena, given my neighbors who do not detonate with the concierges on the nearby rue St-Denis.

But Paco Rabanne’s message became grunge in a whirlwind of chivalry. Here is a plunge into the Kingdom of France with a mix of Anglican pastor’s outfits. These are the magical creatures that Julien Dossena evoked with his autumn collection for Paco Rabanne. This thirty-eight year old Breton offers a ceremony of powerful chic, with shiny leathers of military influence to chiffon dresses embroidered with metallic threads.

He has breathed new life into chainmail, but it’s true that only Maille fits me. The house shows an Indian, Eskimo and Russian woman from the steppes of Central Asia; a melting pot bathed in the medieval age of high culture that would fit very well in our time. The only shadow in the picture is the presence of the Wintour next to Nicolas Ghesquière de Vuitton after the Elysée Palace, a sign perhaps!

Anonymous

LVMH CANCELS LEADER PRIZE

Posted on by

The cocktail celebrating the 20 semifinalists for the LVMH Prize for Young Designers is the latest event to fall victim to the coronavirus scare.

Organizers of the gathering, to be held at the luxury conglomerate’s headquarters on Avenue Montaigne in Paris, said they have decided to cancel the event, originally scheduled for Feb. 27 at 6 p.m., though participants will still show their collections throughout the day on Thursday and Friday.

In a brief statement, LVMH gave no reason for the cancellation, although it comes on the same day that France recorded its first death from the coronavirus. Six Chinese brands have scrapped their planned events in the French capital because of the outbreak, and scores of editors from China and elsewhere are skipping the season.

DIOR PARFUMS AND CLAUDIA

Posted on by

Claudia Marcocci has been appointed brand general director of Parfums Christian Dior.

She took up the position on Feb. 15, succeeding Véronique Courtois, who had held the job for more than seven years before moving to steer Guerlain, another LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand.

Marcocci was formerly senior vice president of Gucci Beauty, beginning in 2017, at Coty Inc. She also served as vice president of global for that brand, starting in 2016, and the year prior became associate director of Gucci Beauty global design after the Procter & Gamble beauty brands were acquired by Coty.

Marcocci held numerous positions at P&G, including global digital and e-commerce director for its prestige division.

LVMH’s Perfumes and Cosmetics Division closed 2019 with sales of 6.84 billion euros, up 12 percent year-over-year in reported terms and 9 percent on an organic basis. The company cited Dior as a main growth driver for the branch, and said the brand’s business grew much faster than the beauty market. Continue reading →

PRADA AND ROYAL AIR FORCE

Posted on by

Breaking news: Raf Simons is the new co-creative director of Prada. He is to work in partnership with Miuccia Prada “with equal responsibilities for creative input and decision making,” the company said Sunday.

Simons starts April 2, and the duo’s first co-designed collection is to be unveiled for spring-summer 2021 during a fashion show in Milan in September.

A collaboration between the Italian brand and the Belgian designer, which had been rumored for months, was announced at a press conference at Prada headquarters on the last day of Milan Fashion Week, and during the Boss fashion show.

The development suggests Prada and Bertelli are readying a succession plan at the Italian fashion house they catapulted from a historic maker of nylon accessories to a luxury mega brand albeit one whose performance has trailed its peers in recent years due to various design and business missteps. Continue reading →

MOSCHINO ROYAL PUNK

Posted on by

Beauty looks at the Milan Fashion Week reached new heights when Bella and Gigi Hadid, walked the Moschino fall 2020 catwalk sporting baroque, pastel-toned wigs inspired by Marie-Antoinette.

Interpreting creative director Jeremy Scott’s intention to mix the 18th-century inspiration with a rock vibe, hair stylist Paul Hanlon played the modern Léonard-Alexis Autié the famed hairdresser behind the eccentric looks of the French Queen and created the intricate wigs, which required a week of work. Continue reading →

FENDI FINALLY ALONE

Posted on by

Silvia Venturini Fendi is in charge now, and on Thursday night she put inclusivity front and center on the Fendi runway with more sizes (Paloma Elsesser) and ages (Carolyn Murphy and Karen Elson), marking a new era for the house.

Fendi said backstage, explaining that for her second collection working as a solo act following Lagerfeld’s death last February she wanted to think about “the woman I want to dress  strong, independent and free, but within the traditional codes of femininity.”

That meant drawing inspiration from boudoir and silver screen femme fatales, including those Lagerfeld himself costumed for the Seventies film, “Maitresse.”

On the runway, the focus was on curvy women, if not literally, on making them so by using puffed and padded sleeves, nipped and corseted waists on brushed gray flannel coats and blazers, pink satin and velvet dresses that were the film noir, covered-up side of seductive.

For evening, more revealing lingerie looks came out to play, with satin, bustier and fringe details, worn with pumps with garter ankle straps, and coquettish back-of-the-headbands that looked like a trend in the making. Continue reading →

GUCCI A FASHION CAROUSEL

Posted on by

Smart and real, Michele was humbly asking you to come to the show, if you didn’t have anything better to do. From the thoughtful invitation to the warm welcome, the entrance was directly backstage where makeup was in progress and the designer was greeting everybody.

Life is a carousel, and when it begins to turn, time seems long, and the days are whirling around in a whirlwind. It is the time of childhood, the beginning of the youth of illusions, love and hope. That’s Mitchell’s message?

As in fairy tales, everything is beautiful and seems enchanted, like the carousel, with the pretty colours of a world full of splendour. Come and let’s enter the magical land Gucci tells us and invites us to share the gaiety of the 70s.

It’s not about showing a story, but rather a time that passes like a story stopped in a painting. This time is not the duration but rather the time to celebrate Zeno’s arrow and its paradoxes. It is in the interval from one position to another that the viewer can judge this wear and tear exposed in a painting. But it is also what implies the reversal of thought as Aristotle did in his time. Continue reading →

AMSTERDAM HEADKAISER

Posted on by

“Embrace the present and invent the future,” one of his famous quotes, is writ large in the atrium, a mantra for the 150-plus employees here who are nimbly propelling his namesake house into one of the fastest-growing brands in fashion.

Retail sales of all Karl Lagerfeld products reached 700 million euros last year, and the brand should cross the 1 billion euro threshold within the next two years, according to Pier Paolo Righi, the executive who partnered with Lagerfeld nine years ago to establish his name in the “masstige” zone with a digital-first thrust.

Almost one year after the death of the legendary designer, the company is brimming with youthful energy the average age of employees is 30 and a slate of new projects, from an underwear range to a collection of fragrances inspired by some of Lagerfeld’s favorite destinations.

“We always look into what was Karl’s favorite,” Kim said, showing off a mood board for pre-fall 2020 full of images of Biarritz, the seaside town in France where Lagerfeld frolicked and occasionally vacationed in his younger years.

BECKHAM SCHOOL UNIFORM

Posted on by

After last season’s oversized extravaganza, Victoria Beckham reined it in with a collection that took in shorter lengths and nodded to school uniforms in traditional tweeds, checks.

The designer took Penelope Tree and the ever-cool Marisa Berenson as her inspirations, pairing her tweed, plaid or dark wool A-line skirts and culottes with high, thigh-gripping leather boots. She sliced a few inches off her trousers, too, teaming them with long, tailored jackets and more high boots with gently curving heels.

I like how a sexy, tight boot feels and I think it is a strong statement. It toughens the look up, pointing to the ruching effect on the leg of her new boots with their curvy “banana” heels.

Other proportions were shorter, too, as in thigh-skimming tunic dresses with billowy or cape sleeves, and shapely shirtdresses done in a lumberjack plaid. The clutch of slim, cleavage-flashing black dresses that opened the show , will give Beckham’s loyal customers options, and keep them coming back for more. Continue reading →

CALL ME MARC THE GOOD GUY

Posted on by

Jacobs is an extraordinary designer, his part showmanship. Over the years, he has staged some incredibly engaging shows, the kind now called “experiential.” This was a museum-worthy performance-art piece one that would sell a lot of tickets.

It’s ‘Drastic-Classicism, which we took from Karole, during a late-night preview, referring to the dancer’s 1981 work of the same name.

Less obvious, a pink and blue evening-bedecked twosome looked like grown-up glam versions of the creepy twins of “The Shining.” “It’s more the idea of age and stages in our careers, fashion designers, people who love fashion, people we have always admired, the things we return to, the things we revisit.”

jacobs characterized the collection as joyful, but differently so than last season’s over-the-top, maximalist romp. But the clothes were an in-depth treatise on sartorial refinement. There was so, so much there, all of it highly considered and impeccably crafted. Many, particularly the fabulous range of coats and jackets, could be called minimal. Continue reading →

PARIS FASHION CORONAVIRUS

Posted on by

The coronavirus has taken its toll on the Paris Fashion Week schedule: Masha Ma, Shiatzy Chen, Uma Wang, Jarel Zhang, Calvin Luo and Maison Mai have cancelled their planned events in the French capital because of the outbreak, organizers said on Tuesday.

La Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, French fashion’s governing body, announced the cancellations as it gears up for the fall ready-to-wear shows and presentations, due to take place from Feb. 24 to March 3. Continue reading →

GLOBAL ORGANIC TEXTILE

Posted on by

Kaitlyn Dever in a custom red Louis Vuitton strapless gown and stole made of GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) Taroni silk-satin embroidered with red-blue beads at the Vermont Atelier in Paris, certified according to the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 and approved by the Red Carpet Green Dress organization. Who knows what all that gobbledy-greengook means exactly, but it sounds good coming from a brand whose parent LVMH has faced criticism for not signing the United Nations' fashion industry charter for climate action.

Louis Vuitton designer Nicolas Ghesquière has had a banner red-carpet season, no doubt about it. On Sunday, he also dressed Lea Seydoux using certified ivory silk, and a new wood fiber textile developed by Tencel Luxe that will hit the market this May.

When you think about it, it’s tragic, but it’s part of the human condition. We really wasted our planet in a way, said Seydoux during a fitting at the Chateau Marmont earlier in the week, when the street was closed off so Oscars sponsor Cadillac could crane in a 2021 Escalade to sit poolside for a cocktail bash. Continue reading →

R13 NEW YORK 2020

Posted on by

In 2009, Chris Leba launched R13, a cool-girl denim brand that can now be found at top retailers like Barneys, Shopbop and Totokaelo. Only, not a lot of people knew he was behind it, because until December, he had a full time job as a VP at Ralph Lauren. All press around the brand noted that it had an “anonymous” creative director, à la Margiela pre-Galliano. Continue reading →

THEYSKENS NEW CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT AZZARO

Posted on by

Designer Olivier Theyskens has been appointed by fashion house Azzaro as the new creative director. Theyskens succeeds Maxime Simoëns, who has resigned the position of creative director to the brand last year.

Theyskens will show his first collection for the fashion house during the couture week in Paris from 5 to 9 July. “There is a style from the sixties and seventies that is clearly about sensual and beautiful femininity,”. The designer will use the heritage of the fashion house for inspiration and translate it into contemporary fashion.

When Theyskens was at the head of Rochas and Nina Ricci, he frequently used historical references in the garments. That the designer will do the same at Azzaro is therefore in line with expectations, and in 2016 he revived his own label of the same name. He will continue to design for this, says the designer .