Dgena Mouclier, embodying the union of luxury and eco-responsibility. She dresses the first French rapper in audience as well as the entire French rap music scene. The initials “DM” not only reflect the designer’s name but also her heritage, with “Dgena” meaning “paradise” in Maure and “Mouclier” evoking “mouclade,” a dish from Vendée associated with French royalty. Continue reading
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L.V BED TRUNK AND MORE
Not content with just your bag or wallet, the brand is now taking over your living room, too. From the iconic Louis Vuitton 1885 Bed Trunk (because who doesn’t need a fancy trunk to sleep on?) to the Hemingway Library Trunk designed by Gaston-Louis Vuitton in 1927 (because Ernest Hemingway obviously needed a portable library for his really long trips), the French luxury brand has been cozying up to the design world for quite some time. And now, they’re ready to turn your home into a monument to expensive taste.
The Louis Vuitton Home Collections because clearly, your home isn’t complete without $30,000 worth of design is about to be your new obsession. It’s a comprehensive line that includes five categories: Objets Nomades (fancy name, but probably just a chair you’ll never sit on), the Signature Collection of furniture and lighting (because your lighting really needs a signature), Decoration (don’t forget the objects and textiles, darling), Tableware (for serving your $1,000 meals), and Exceptional Gaming (because, why not?).
THE LORDS OF LUXURY DICTATE SILENCE
Unfortunately, these monarchs in patent leather shoes don’t stop there. If your murderous pen bothers them, they’ll attack the most precious thing you have: your children. Yes, these virtuous merchants of dreams are turning into modern-day inquisitors, blacklisting your descendants from all the headhunting agencies and companies in their group. Guilty by descent, heretics by birth, condemned to professional exile even before their first CV.
And what can we say about these CEOs, these lacklustre kings of Toledo, so ugly in their tyrannical grandeur? Unable to bear the slightest criticism, they rule by soft terror, a totalitarianism scented with vanilla and oud. They won’t send you to the Gulag, but they’ll make sure that nobody looks at you, reads you or hires you.
We live in a wonderful time, when the big luxury houses sell us the dream while imposing the nightmare. Their advertising campaigns extol inclusion, freedom and creativity, but beware of anyone who dares to lift the veil on the filth hidden beneath the Persian carpets of their gilded boutiques. Continue reading
MONCLER 2025
Moncler, the undisputed sovereign of luxury clothing for Siberia, is in fashion. So what could be better than a fashion show at altitude to prove that elegance and gravity can coexist? That’s why the house organised its grandiose show at the Courchevel altiport, a place where even planes break out in a cold sweat when they land, and where Russians are still allowed. It has to be said that the runway there is so short and sloping that it looks like it was designed by an architect who is a fan of roller coasters.
LVMH FORMULA ONE
LVMH is stepping on the gas and pressing the accelerator in Formula 1: luxury, champagne and the God Chronos will be there in 2025. After dressing the Paris Olympic Games in its finest fabrics, LVMH is moving up a gear by getting a ticket on the starting grid, but without “Shoes marker”, Louboutin oblige.
The luxury giant has signed a ten-year global partnership for a sum slightly less than 100 million dollars. A modest sum for the No. 1 in luxury, the lord. Three flagship brands of the group will play the co-pilots of these prestigious Grand Prix: TAG Heuer, to ensure that the times are as precise as the Boussac group’s cut, Moët & Chandon, for podiums as sparkling as a Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, great builder and merciless conqueror, it makes sense, and the Louis Vuitton brand, no doubt to pack the trophies in more luxurious trunks that the cars in the parking lots will not be able to carry, because in a Ferrari, there is no trunk. Continue reading
AMI READ IN PARIS
While some brands open a flagship to make a bold statement, Ami Paris’ newest store is all about blending into its surroundings. “I liked the idea of being a neighborhood shop, something deeply rooted in the area’s history,” said creative director and founder Alexandre Mattiussi ahead of the opening. “It’s next to a café, beside a restaurant, in a real neighborhood with schools, pharmacies, and bakeries.”
For Mattiussi, the store isn’t meant to be a destination but rather a natural stop during a stroll through the Marais. “I love the idea that on a Saturday, people might grab a quick coffee at Le Progrès and then drop by Ami,” he said. “Suddenly, we become part of someone’s everyday life.”
META RAY-BAN GLASSES
When augmented reality meets frustrated reality, this is the story of when Santa Claus (or rather a loved one who clearly wants to test my patience) gave me a pair of Meta, Ray-Ban glasses. A total immersion in a world where my eyes become screens, and where technology merges with my style. Reality? A total immersion in a physical world where I fight with a capricious application, and where technology merges especially with my nerves.
As soon as I open the package, I am won over: a beautiful frame, an elegant design, Gary Grant’s Wayfair in “North by Northwest” designed to make me look like a Silicon Valley genius on vacation in Saint-Tropez with my Russian friends.
DGENA MOUCLIER
The DM brand, founded in 2019 by Dgena Mouclier, embodies the union of luxury and eco-responsibility. The initials “DM” reflect not only the designer’s initials but also her heritage, with “Dgena” meaning “paradise” in Moorish and “Mouclier” evoking “mouclade”, a Vendée dish linked to French royalty.
JACQUEMUS THE DIVINE FINGER
Under your fingers, an infinite dance where polka-dot fabrics whisper of life, and the light circles of shy stars sown on the fabric in a limpid ballet come to light. I’m talking about a day tinged with light, dresses floating in the spring air, and scarves caressing the proud nape of the neck, with the gentle audacity of a sweet dream. Am I at Jacquemus? Yes, you are, but when it’s good, it’s good, and in this case, we’ve hit the nail on the head.RICK OWENS QUAY OF THE MISTS
Bowie’s anthem ‘Heroes’ rings out over dramatic high-collared coats and supernatural silhouettes in front of the emerging Eiffel Tower. ‘La dame de faire’ means lady to do… is back in a haze, where a silhouette appears in this tender winter morning.
Rick’s muses walk to embrace an ephemeral dream, a non-existent muslin veil blowing over laceless fabrics. Their footsteps echo on the cobblestones of the Trocadero Palace, and beneath the greyness, the outfits seem to dance in a mystery woven of light and shadow. And when the mist stretches out like a silky thread from a nebulous sky, it often draws perfect folds.
On the catwalk, nature scrolls by, calm and stylish. Each drop of creation hangs like a pearl at the end of a penis, dressing the next dawn in eternal grace. This is Owens’ creation, newness in continuity. Some people think that life is a ‘fashion’ sentence, others know it, but don’t think about it.
FM
CHINA NIBBLING THE FRENCH LUXURY
Suggesting investor appetite remains strong for unique luxury properties, Chinese fashion conglomerate Youngor Group has acquired 100 percent of French childrenswear brand Bonpoint from private investment firm EPI.
It is understood Bonpoint attracted several unsolicited offers, and Youngor outmaneuvered other potential suitors by touting its retail, Shein is suppose to be sad.
SWAROVSKI YEARS OF JOY
In honor of the Year of the Snake, Swarovski has revealed its latest Lunar New Year collection, “130 Years of Joy,” marking the brand’s 130th anniversary celebrations. A variety of symbolic designs highlight Swarovski’s craftsmanship and creativity in this collection, which combines tradition with modernity.
At the heart of the collection is the Swarovski Swan. For this milestone year, the swan is reimagined in a new design that combines it with its mirror image, their necks intertwined.In pieces such as a gold-tone pendant featuring one gold-tone and one rhodium-plated swan, both adorned with shimmering Swarovski Zirconia pavé, this design is demonstrated.
I am writing this article because when I went to the store with my friend’s ring to buy her a new one, seeing that the one I had brought was slightly damaged she exchanged it for a new one.
TAISNE RIOCOUR AT THE TOP OF THE SUBLIME
This is a sparkling journey in the heart of the Côte des Bars, a day through the enchantment of the setting sun on the vineyards. There is the pleasure palace with its voluptuousness of the superfluous and the fantasy, taking us to the heart of the medieval and finishing on the hill of the Biodynamic.
In France, there are sometime chapels which, without noise, export the image of these in all their greatness, like a kind of abstract goddess escaping from a bottle after a light explosion, like Bacchus and the lord of the wine. So here is Les Riceys in the Côte des Bars with its 866 hectares of vineyards, and a commune that has the largest wine-growing area in the whole of Champagne.
Like Helios, Pierre welcomes us with his brotherhood, watching over the pleasure of the others. Coco Chanel said about champagne: “I only drink champagne on two occasions. When I am in love and when I am not. Here, the family produces nectar that helps to amaze the taste buds, but above all, they are passionate. The land of Ricey goes from the mystical to the divine with Pierre, it’s amazing, but also overwhelming. A historian’s concept, you may ask? No, I was thinking more of a network of links that governs a family for a set of poles that found the slopes of the heart of others.
BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY
As everyone knows, I often visit young designers, and when I saw a jacket with a fabric that looked more like a Napoleonic Guard ceremonial set, I pointed this out to the designer: ‘I like this bomber with these fabrics from the 18ᵉ century to the 19ᵉ because it gives the buyer something to think about. Indeed, it is always reassuring to think that, in a garment, there is a bit of history from the past.’ The designer looked at me with an interested expression, because in fact she hadn’t thought about it, she’d done it instinctively, as artists often have this instinctive vision of the world of the future. It is no doubt commonplace to observe that modernity gives tradition a bye, and to say that the modern is the era of the new or of renewal; it is a little less so to explore this assertion in greater depth and to grasp the twofold gesture that constitutes its substance.
The new of modernity to dismiss the old, for a gesture of rupture, a caesura without appeal. But in the same way that Lord Arnault said to Steve Jobs: ‘You have the technology of the moment, while I am selling the heritage of France’. Modernity begins when it reflects on its separation from the previous world and culture. The thread of tradition is broken, and supposedly cannot be renewed, but as the sentimental man that I am knows, we always need a bit of the past to appreciate the future, or to hate it. Continue reading
A WOMAN AT THE HEAD OF FASHION
Finally a woman at the head of fashion (A hidden message for French organisations.). The British Fashion Council has appointed Laura Weir as its new chief executive, succeeding Caroline Rush. Ms Weir, currently executive creative director at Selfridges, will take up the role on 28 April.
Laura said she would work with designers, industry partners and government bodies to advance the organisation’s mission to champion British fashion through programmes that support creative talent.
NO 21 PRE-FALL 2025
Alessandro Dell’Acqua continued to explore bourgeois codes in a collection that wasn’t short on embellishments but with an anarchic undertone from Jurassic. Rebellion can come in many guises, including wrapped in candy hues and cascades of glitzy sequins.
A NICHE MARKET
A woman flew from Australia to meet master perfumer in the South of France. A lover of fragrance, she wanted a made-to-measure perfume. But more than having it just for herself, the client hoped the scent would ultimately be passed down to her granddaughters, to stir up memories of her. A small selection of perfumers are offering bespoke services to people from the world over. Just don’t ask who the clients are Confidentiality the rich aren’t secretive, they’re discreet.
Prices are from 45,000 euros and go up to 100,000 euros-plus. Among major cost contributors are the olfactive ingredients used. Yet still there are often waiting lists for those women and men wanting their own fragrance, since perfumers generally can only accommodate a handful of clients annually. In 1853, Eau de Cologne Impériale was created as a special order for the Empress Eugénie for her marriage to Napoleon III by Pierre François Pascal Guerlain, founder of the perfume house.
In 1933, his grandson Jacques Guerlain developed Sous le Vent for Josephine Baker and six years later conceived Coque d’Or for Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes to name a few of the made-to-measure creations. A niche market; let’s hope it’s not a doghouse.
FM
BACCARAT WHY NOT !
The 260-year-old Maison Baccarat is embarking on a strategic shift with the appointment of Laurence Nicolas as its next CEO.A former executive at #Dior, where she led the watchmaking and fine jewelry division for 17 years, Nicolas has since consolidated her expertise in strategic roles at Sotheby’s and Printemps Haussmann.
Already familiar with #Baccarat through her seat on the Board of Directors since 2018, she succeeds Margareth (Maggie) Henriquez PhD, whose tenure was marked by ambitious modernization initiatives.
This transition comes as Baccarat seeks to strengthen its international presence and capture new audiences in a constantly evolving luxury market. It’s always interesting to watch someone who has arrived in a profession they don’t know and to see if coming from Dior they can manage a crystal factory!
ROKH GOES FASHION
After a collaboration with H&M, Rokh Hwang unveiled recycled “ribbons” of cotton and linen, taking months to shred them into fine threads and rearranging them into floral clusters on the body, like French designer Dgena and the jacket he made for rapper Yamê.
GUCCI MERCATO
At the end of December, Valérie Leberichel joined Gucci as SVP global communications, reporting directly to Cantino. Daughter of the most famous florist in Dinan, Valérie Leberichel began her career as head of public relations at Jean Louis Scherrer before becoming communications director at Issey Miyake Europe. In 2002, she joined Celine as communications director. All that remained for Pinault was to take on the general director of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, Catherine Leyaouanc, to stock up on Breton women from his region for his house, but as is well known, Bretons work with their compatriots.
Leberichel will “develop a strategic vision for brand positioning and create a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy designed to enhance brand awareness, strengthen emotional connections with audiences across all channels, and drive product demand.”
With Alessio Vannetti’s departure last week, Leberichel will assume Vannetti’s role as executive vice president and chief brand officer. In September last year, Vannetti returned to Gucci, replacing Susan Chokachi, who left after 25 years. Vannetti was previously Gucci’s worldwide communications director from 2015 to 2019, then spent 3.5 years at Valentino as its chief brand officer. Gucci’s chief people officer, Luca Bozzo, is also leaving.
MARINA FOR A BAG SAAB
Elie Saab is strengthening its handbag division and has appointed Marina Raphael as its new artistic and design director.
The Greek-Austrian designer, who is part of the sixth generation of the Swarovski family, will remain artistic director of her eponymous brand, which she founded in 2017. A daughter of a family, the little girl has relied on her family to shore up her handbag business. Now she will have to prove herself.
“I have long admired Mr. Saab’s remarkable vision, his exceptional craftsmanship and the meticulous attention he pays to each creation. Our first discussions about expanding the handbag category began last year, and in February in Paris, I was honored when Elie Jr. offered me this extraordinary opportunity,” said Raphael, who is based in Athens, where her brand is headquartered.
THE LUXURY WAR IS RELOADED
The acquisition of Paris FC will mark the Arnault clan’s latest expansion into sports, following luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s sponsorship of the Paris Olympics and its 10-year partnership with the Formula One championship.
French sports daily L’Equipe revealed late Wednesday that Antoine Arnault, the group’s director of communications, image and environment and a keen football fan, had engineered the deal with his brother Frédéric Arnault, CEO of LVMH Watches and managing director of Agache. LVMH declined to comment.
KIM JONES QUIT FENDI
After four years of Fendi’s turbulent collaboration with the Roman house, Kim Jones is leaving Fendi. The British designer, whose position at Fendi was artistic director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections, will continue in his role as artistic director of men’s collections at Dior in Paris.
Fendi’s parent company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, announced Jones’ departure in a brief statement Friday.
Kim Jones has made significant contributions to the brand’s creative legacy, seamlessly integrating his modern, cross-cultural aesthetic with Fendi’s historic heritage, according to the joint statement.
Under his leadership, the house has reinvented its ready-to-wear and couture collections, offering an inclusive and innovative approach to fashion that constantly renews Fendi’s Italian codes. Throughout his four years, Jones’ work has been driven entirely by passion and creativity. In short, the usual luxury house story, blah blah…
THE VÉNUS BY MISHMASH RICCI
After the doves of Lalique, and the horrible series “Les Belles de Nina”, a sort of crowned multicoloured turd; here is a new femininity, which emerges from the Spanish, inspired by mythology, echoing the heritage of the house! Inventing a contemporary goddess of today, but this one will certainly be a bimbo wandering the lobbys of the hotels of the capital, “it’s the spirit of the times”. A fragrance where the Magnolia shines like a real jewel, and for the story…, magnolias appeared before beetles, and of course, Baroness Wildenstein, because fossilized specimens have been found and date back 20 million years before her first unsightly operation. A perfume bottle, like a fan-shaped jewel in the art deco style, a real innovation! It is a copy of a 1960 bottle from Tiffany & Co.; Sterling silver perfume bottle with scalloped sea shell below.
Venus, the goddess of love and seduction, the feminine beauty of Roman mythology, imported to the homeland of Antoni Gaudí who might smell not of mussels, but of clams.