Category Archives: pfw
COLOR BY KENZO TAKADA
Never perfumes will have been so ugly. A globally recognised leader in direct selling of beauty and related products Avon, today launch Life Colour, its second fragrance collaboration with world-famous designer Kenzo Takada.
“We’re incredibly excited about the potential of this new fragrance and the opportunities that it will bring to Avon and our Representatives around the world,” said Jonathan Myers, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Avon. “With marketing activation across 50+ markets, this collaboration will be one of the Avon’s biggest launches of the next 12 months. Continue reading
WHO IS LOUISE TROTTER?
Lacoste, without artistic director since the departure of Felipe Olivera Baptista in spring 2018, has announced the appointment of the British designer Louise Trotter. She is taking over as the new creative director of Lacoste, the sports and leisurewear brand famous for its green crocodile logo.
Trotter, 49, who left the British label Joseph in July after leading it for nearly a decade, replaces the Portuguese designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista who parted company with Lacoste in May.
In her twenties, Trotter worked in Italy and Paris. She then moved to New York, and worked for Calvin Klein, Gap and then Tommy Hilfiger. Continue reading
DIEGO SAYS NO WAY
On Tuesday, at the 2018 Milano Fashion Global Summit, Della Valle, Tod’s chairman and chief executive officer, stated : “We are buyers, not sellers”. It was clearly announced. Tod’s brand is not for sale.
As reported in February, the Italian luxury group is overturning its business model and launching a new project called Tod’s Factory, in a reference to Andy Warhol. Employing a system mirroring the streetwear drop, the company is to release a mix of capsules and limited editions in collaboration with different designers and friends of the house. Last month in Paris, Tod’s unveiled a capsule collection with Alessandro Dell’Acqua, which will hit stores in mid-November. Continue reading
LVMH DRAWS CROWDS IN PARIS
The long queues in front of leading luxury stores in Paris this weekend might suggest they were holding the high-end equivalent of a Black Friday sale.
But the crowds gathered outside Dior headquarters on Avenue Montaigne, the Guerlain flagship on Avenue des Champs-Elysées or the Chaumet salons on Place Vendôme weren’t looking to part with any cash just to catch a glimpse behind the scenes of some of the 70 brands that form LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
The event is the brainchild of Antoine Arnault, head of communication and image of LVMH, who launched the biennial initiative in 2011 to counter a perception that the group was only interested in making money.
Antoine Arnault launched the event with a cocktail party on Thursday at the group’s headquarters in front of the new building “the Good Samaritan” where he posed with his father the lord of Luxury, LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard the Great. Continue reading
ANREALAGE PARIS 2019
EMPLOYEE A LUXURY CHALLENGE
“With 70 brands and 150,000 staff worldwide, there’s no doubt that LVMH, the parent company of brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Guerlain, Bulgari and others…, is a global corporate
But even a fashion force like LVMH cannot rest on its laurels when it comes to recruiting and retaining staff, especially at a time when unemployment in the U.S. is hovering at a near 50-year low of 3.7 percent.
“Recruiting right has always been difficult. “From store level up to ceo’s, having the right people translates immediately into good results”.
So, yes, it’s an obsession and of course we are trying to not only find, but then help keep employees motivated and offer them a journey. A career which could be a journey thanks to the size of the group the fact that we have over 70 brands.” Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE LVMH HOTEL IN PARIS
An exclusive hotel in Paris opened his doors for Canal-luxe.
This morning at 8 o’clock, the futur Cheval Blanc Hotel of LVMH opened its east side doors (the sun always rises on the east) to Canal-Luxe. We were all excited to discover the fabulous Art Deco building better known by the parisian by La Samaritaine.
A decade ago, the group LVMH bought the department store, La Samaritaine to build which would be soon become the next place of the luxe. It was a long process to come to the end of that project. But as we already stated a few years ago: Paris downtown will soon belong to Monsieur Bernard Arnault and to his group LVMH. He has regrouped around la Samaritaine most of his most famous brands. It would soon become the new golden place for shopping in Paris. Continue reading
VUITTON BALANCIAGA’S 1067
Nicolas Ghesquière tapped into his obsessions with sci-fi imagery and garment construction with a collection designed to empower women.
Nicolas Ghesquière embraced the moment with his lineup of retro-futuristic clothes, shown in a maze of neon-lit tunnels set up in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum after dark.
“This is not a narrative collection. This is about my obsession to empower women,” he said after the show. “There were so many discussions the last months about the place of women, and I thought that this is really an intuition to want to give power when you are a designer.”
He did that by tapping into a few of his other obsessions: sci-fi imagery and exaggerated volumes. Dominican model Ambar Cristal Zarzuela, making her Paris debut, opened the show in an oversized blouson with mille feuille sleeves featuring photo prints of candy-colored artificial landscapes.
With its echoes of “Star Wars” and Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album cover, the imagery was reminiscent of Ghesquière’s work at Balenciaga in particular the curved white hats that looked like shrunken versions of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s futuristic 1967 wedding veil. Continue reading
CHANEL BAYWATCH
It was a grey autumnal day in Paris. But at the Chanel show in the Grand Palais, Karl Lagerfeld ensured that summer stuck around for a bit longer. The designer, who previously brought a Chanel supermarket and a rocket bearing the brand’s signature double “C” logo to fashion week, doesn’t do things by half.
This time, a beach was recreated that included an ocean with gentle waves, blue sky, wooden docks and lifeguards. To complete the scene, the former Baywatch actor Pamela Anderson watched the proceedings from the front row. Continue reading
CATWALK ON WATER CLOSET
Traffic literally stopped. After the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, it is L’oréal which halted the traffic on the River, the Seine. In front of the Musée d’Orsay and Tuileries gardens, and on a footbridge, people gazed at a floating, 195-foot-long catwalk.
It was about to spring to life with the L’Oréal Paris fashion-beauty show dubbed Le Défilé L’Oréal Paris billed as a celebration of beauty, fashion and diversity.
Eva Longoria appeared on a big screen to psyche up the audience. Two drones whirred overhead, and music pumped out of giant speakers as a barge parked parallel to the runway. Nothing really interesting as usual. They use the Fashion Week audience to make a buzz.
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HERMES AT LONG CHAMP
Hermès held its spring show at the Longchamp racecourse, as did Dior earlier in the week, just to tease Mister Arnault. The two houses made very different uses of the venue. If Dior was your rich gypsy aunt who reads Tarot cards and loves modern dance, Hermès was her richer, snobbier sister, for whom tastefulness is next to godliness. She’s not as much fun as the bohemian, but her cashmere is softer, her Champagne is crisper and you can put money on her horse it always seems to win. Continue reading
UMA WANG PARIS 2019
GUILLAUME HENRY AT PATOU
Sidney Toledano, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Fashion Group, is spearheading the project and has already selected and signed on a designer to lead it: Guillaume Henry.
Last March, Henry exited Nina Ricci and he is said to be passionate about the legacy of Patou, a French designer who brought modernity and buzz to fashion in the Twenties —and innovated in business with fragrances, logos and sport clothes.
LVMH is now in the throes of building teams around Henry with a view to launching the first collection of ready-to-wear and accessories in the second half of 2019.
It is understood the group views Patou as something of a niche, rarified name and not its next megabrand. Consequently, LVMH will likely start with a single boutique, most likely in Paris, along with e-commerce and select wholesale partners.
The relaunch suggests the world’s largest luxury group is anticipating an easing of the streetwear craze, and a swing of the fashion pendulum back to sophisticated chic. Continue reading
BURBERRY FUR OR NOT FUR
Burberry said early on Thursday the no-fur policy will apply to Tisci’s debut collection for Burberry later this month, and the company will phase out existing real fur products.
Over the past year, the brand has come under fire from anti-fur protestors who staged screechingly loud and aggressive protests outside its runway shows. The company also became the target of criticism in the British press for its decision to destroy new, but unsalable, merchandise each year. Continue reading
CELINE NEW LOGO
On Sunday, Céline’s designer Hedi Slimane offered followers clues about the world he is fashioning for the French label on Instagram, revealing a new logo, and some explanations as well.
“The new logo has been directly inspired from the original, historical version that existed in the 1960s,” reads the first line of description, all in capital letters, as is the logo. The designer opted for a “modernist typography” that dates from the Thirties and removed the accent on the first “e” for a “more balanced proportion” evoking the label’s collection in the Sixties, the description continued.
One of the most prominent and influential fashion figures, Slimane joined the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned label in February with the mandate of broadening its scope to add men’s, couture and fragrance lines. His collection makes its debut on Sept. 28 in Paris. Continue reading
STOCKHOLM FASHION WEEK
Fashion Week Stockholm, which has been showcasing some of Sweden’s most interesting brands and designers since 2005, has progressively established itself as one of Northern Europe’s leading fashion events. In part due to their renewed presence during this bi-annual event, fashion houses such as Acne, Tiger of Sweden, Filippa K, Hope, and, more recently, ATP Atelier have gained regional notoriety and brought international attention to the Swedish fashion scene. It has also enabled the so called “Scandinavian aesthetic” – often defined by its minimalism, functionality and simplicity – to be widely popularized and globally recognized.
Much like the other major fashion weeks, it also serves as a platform for emerging and increasingly established fresh talent, presenting a younger generation of designers who are pushing the boundaries of what’s expected when it comes to Nordic style and aesthetic. Here is a selection of up-and-coming designers who are launching Sweden’s fashion into the future, informed by worldly references and infused with their domestic heritage. Continue reading
SHANGHAI PARTNERSHIP
China’s fashion capital is teaming with young designers, many of whom have studied in London, Paris, New York, or Milan before moving to Shanghai. Amongst this group of mainly millennials, some teamed up in pairs to drive their young labels forward. Continue reading
PHILIP TREACY LONDON
Philip Treacy has become the world’s most in demand hat designer. His hats are as popular with European aristocrats as with Hollywood royalty. Widely credited for changing the perception of the hat, he designs hats to flatter and enhance the wearer. Continue reading
ST LAURENT REACHED TARGET
Behind the Gucci-centric headlines that greet every quarter of impressive growth at Kering, there is another brand that is fueling the French luxury group Saint Laurent because of a reboot of its women’s wear offer under chief executive officer Francesca Bellettini and creative director Anthony Vaccarello.
Since she took over in 2013, the Italian executive has overseen a tripling of the house’s sales, though she’s not one to sit on her laurels. Rather, she continually drives her teams toward the next challenge, as she propels the label founded by Yves Saint Laurent toward its long-term revenue target of 3 billion euros.
Having posted sales of 1.5 billion euros in 2017, the house — the second largest brand in the Kering stable after Gucci has kept up a steady clip, though its pace is normalizing after several years of exceptional growth. Continue reading