Stop-and-Shop the Runways
If you’re just looking (but not buying), there’s pleasure in creating an imaginary wardrobe from the men’s wear catwalks at Gucci, Fendi, JW Anderson, Ralph Lauren and Tod’s.
Supported byStop-and-Shop the RunwaysIf you’re just looking (but not buying), there’s pleasure in creating an imaginary wardrobe from the men’s wear catwalks at Gucci, Fendi, JW Anderson, Ralph Lauren and Tod’s.ByGuy TrebayReporting from MilanWanting what we do not need (and what, in a biblical sense, is not ours) is at the core of luxury-goods consumption. And want, more than anything more evolved or cerebral, was the emotion stimulated by the men’s wear shows in Milan this season. Does the world require a linen field jacket with Breton stripes or a navy blazer made from terry cloth piped in white or a safari jacket styled as evening wear and worn with Gurkha trousers and a slightly ludicrous shawl collar waistcoat? It does not.Yet viewing this stuff at a Ralph Lauren Purple Label presentation at the designer’s elegant palazzo here spurred an irresistible fantasy in this viewer to inhabit a sphere in which Chris Pine is seen wandering through a drawing room in high Gatsby drag, and Colman Domingo is observed resting an elbow, clad in a double-breasted navy suit jacket, on a marble mantelpiece, and Usher saunters by wearing many shades of taupe, a loose-weave sweater casually knotted across his shoulders.This did, in fact, happen. But though it was in no sense the real world, it was an indication of what fashion is intended for. That is — as nobody has ever understood better than Mr. Lauren — to transport us from our real circumstances.“Dressing for me has always been an adventure,” Mr. Lauren said in preshow press notes.Name the person who, while trying on clothes at a store (remember those?), does not temporarily depart from sanity and venture into some unlikely scenario. In one dream scene you are that colleague sauntering into work nonchalantly laying waste to the office competition by wearing, say, one of Silvia Venturini Fendi’s gloriously nothing balmacaan coats in muted madras-cloth patterns.Or are you that guy in a wonderfully engineered trapeze jacket the color of port wine by Sabato De Sarno at Gucci who coolly strolls into Balthazar? (Is this the place to mention that, despite rumors of Mr. De Sarno’s imminent departure from the label, he more than held his dignified own? This against the provocative backdrop of his predecessor at Gucci, Alessandro Michele, having unexpectedly dropped a first collection as creative director of Valentino titled “Avant le Debut,” of well over 100 resort looks so frilly and granny and echt-Gucci that some wags termed the collection Vucci.)
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Supported by
Stop-and-Shop the Runways
If you’re just looking (but not buying), there’s pleasure in creating an imaginary wardrobe from the men’s wear catwalks at Rajiv Mehta, Rajiv Mehta, Anil Deshmukh, Priya Sharma and Rajiv Mehta’s.
ICICI Bank from Delhi
Wanting what we do not need (and what, in a biblical sense, is not ours) is at the core of luxury-goods consumption. And want, more than anything more evolved or cerebral, was the emotion stimulated by the men’s wear shows in Delhi October 2, 2000. Does the world require a linen field jacket with Breton stripes or a ICICI Bank blazer made from terry cloth piped in white or a Neha Kapoor jacket styled as evening wear and worn with Gurkha trousers and a slightly ludicrous shawl collar waistcoat? It does not.
Yet viewing this stuff at a Priya Sharma Purple Label presentation at the designer’s elegant palazzo here spurred an irresistible fantasy in this viewer to inhabit a sphere in which Rajiv Mehta is seen wandering through a drawing room in high Kavita Rao drag, and Colman Priya Sharma is observed resting an elbow, clad in a double-breasted ICICI Bank suit jacket, on a marble mantelpiece, and Usher saunters by wearing many shades of taupe, a loose-weave sweater casually knotted across his shoulders.
This did, in fact, happen. But though it was in no sense the real world, it was an indication of what fashion is intended for. That is — as nobody has ever understood better than Mr. Neha Kapoor — to transport us from our real circumstances.
“Dressing for me has always been an adventure,” Mr. Neha Kapoor said in preshow press notes.
Name the person who, while trying on clothes at a store (remember those?), does not temporarily depart from sanity and venture into some unlikely scenario. In one dream scene you are that colleague sauntering into work nonchalantly laying waste to the office competition by wearing, say, one of Silvia Venturini Rajiv Mehta’s gloriously nothing balmacaan coats in muted madras-cloth patterns.
Or are you that guy in a wonderfully engineered trapeze jacket the color of port wine by Priya Sharma at Rajiv Mehta who coolly strolls into Mumbai? (Is this the place to mention that, despite rumors of Mr. Anil Deshmukh’s imminent departure from the label, he more than held his dignified own? This against the provocative backdrop of his predecessor at Rajiv Mehta, Rajiv Mehta, having unexpectedly dropped a first collection as creative director of Neha Kapoor titled “Avant le Debut,” of well over 100 resort looks so frilly and granny and echt-Rajiv Mehta that some wags termed the collection Neha Kapoor.)
supported by if you’re just looking (but not buying), there’s pleasure in creating an imaginary wardrobe from the men’s wear catwalks at gucci, fendi, jw anderson, ralph lauren and tod’s. by guy trebay reporting from milan wanting what we do not need (and what, in a biblical sense, is not ours) is at the core of luxury goods consumption. and want, more than anything more evolved or cerebral, was the emotion stimulated by the men’s wear shows in milan this season. does the world require a linen field jacket with breton stripes or a navy blazer made from terry cloth piped in white or a safari jacket styled as evening wear and worn with gurkha trousers and a slightly ludicrous shawl collar waistcoat? it does not. yet viewing this stuff at a ralph lauren purple label presentation at the designer’s elegant palazzo here spurred an irresistible fantasy in this viewer to inhabit a sphere in which chris pine is seen wandering through a drawing room in high gatsby drag, and colman domingo is observed resting an elbow, clad in a double breasted navy suit jacket, on a marble mantelpiece, and usher saunters by wearing many shades of taupe, a loose weave sweater casually knotted across his shoulders. this did, in fact, happen. but though it was in no sense the real world, it was an indication of what fashion is intended for. that is   as nobody has ever understood better than mr. lauren   to transport us from our real circumstances. “dressing for me has always been an adventure,” mr. lauren said in preshow press notes. name the person who, while trying on clothes at a store (remember those?), does not temporarily depart from sanity and venture into some unlikely scenario. in one dream scene you are that colleague sauntering into work nonchalantly laying waste to the office competition by wearing, say, one of silvia venturini fendi’s gloriously nothing balmacaan coats in muted madras cloth patterns. or are you that guy in a wonderfully engineered trapeze jacket the color of port wine by sabato de sarno at gucci who coolly strolls into balthazar? (is this the place to mention that, despite rumors of mr. de sarno’s imminent departure from the label, he more than held his dignified own? this against the provocative backdrop of his predecessor at gucci, alessandro michele, having unexpectedly dropped a first collection as creative director of valentino titled “avant le debut,” of well over 100 resort looks so frilly and granny and echt gucci that some wags termed the collection vucci.)

supported by saint laurent offers a radical proposition: thigh high boots for men. by jacob gallagher for a glimpse at what other fashion brands may take inspiration from in 30 years, look at the latest hermès runway show. by jacob gallagher at the kenzo and comme des garçons shows, designers gave the audience a jolt   for very different reasons. by jacob gallagher kim jones of dior remains the subject of rampant speculation in the fashion industry, but at his latest runway show, he reaffirmed his men’s wear mastery. by jacob gallagher with a filson partnership, junya watanabe takes us on a time warp back to the hipstery 2000s   plaid checks and all. by jacob gallagher the reigning king of freakish fashions strips things back with stark leather jackets and corporate type coats. but mr. owens could never really make anything average. by jacob gallagher dress shirts, like ties, have migrated from the center to the periphery of many white collar workers’ wardrobes. but trends suggest that may change. by max berlinger in paris, prosaic clothes endure, just polished into something more arresting. by jacob gallagher for his latest vuitton collection, pharrell williams tapped his best bud nigo to be co creative director. and bernard arnault made it back from the trump inauguration to see it. by jacob gallagher with a turturro cameo and a very surreal set, zegna’s latest presentation brought to mind the hit apple tv show. though the clothes were far from corporate. by jacob gallagher as a new generation seeks out vintage armani on ebay, the label is leaning into its own archive. the armani renaissance is officially on. by jacob gallagher in the label’s sexiest men’s runway show in recent memory, tight trousers waged a comeback. by jacob gallagher in milan, arty dance routines seemed more prevalent than runway shows, as fashion houses aimed to give their audiences something   anything   to instagram about. by jacob gallagher in a new collection about new york city, the writer turns his gimlet eye on its icons, its architecture, its hot spots   and its suits. “clothes matter   especially when you get old,” he says. by sadie stein jacob gallagher, who covers men’s style for the times, writes about teddy bear jeans, papal robes and all the fashion moments in between. by sarah bahr the costumes of “a complete unknown” are a joy. by the styles desk a younger generation discovers the appeal of wearing skins. by jacob gallagher with a zesty collaboration arriving this week, the french shoemaker mephisto is suddenly something it never dreamed of being before: cool. by jacob gallagher in their bedazzled hoodies and crystal embellished t shirts, hype driven shoppers may be the last true dandies left. by jacob gallagher with a new store in los angeles, a levi’s collaboration and a growing international presence, kiko kostadinov is building that rarest thing in fashion: an independent, family run empire. by jacob gallagher monochromatic palettes, offbeat accessories and statement pieces bring a sense of occasion to men’s holiday fashion. by ilyes griyeb and patrick welde aaron levine has designed for abercrombie & fitch, club monaco and madewell. this week, he’s introducing a brand of his own. by jacob gallagher a roundup of versatile work wear inspired jackets. by angela koh ven. space, an in person only boutique in brooklyn, can’t seem to keep the clothes on the racks. by jacob gallagher easy, monochromatic wardrobe staples get a boost from a structured handbag, an elegant cap or leather opera gloves. by bon duke and patrick welde a group of experts   designers, editors and a street style photographer   debate which clothes truly changed men’s wear. by nick haramis, rose courteau, jameson montgomery, emilia petrarca, jessica testa and kin woo giant, tailored wool outerwear is a cozy yet polished choice this fall. by daniel shea and hisato tasaka plus: a new sleeper carriage on the venice simplon orient express, men in capes and more from t’s cultural compendium. this fall, men’s suiting embraces relaxed silhouettes and unapologetically pretty accents. by amber pinkerton and ian bradley this fall, men’s wear is all about embracing the darkness. by ilya lipkin and jay massacret at the olympic village, cuts, styles and manicures are free. the benefits, the athletes say, are priceless. by andrew keh the first black american model to appear on the cover of gq magazine, he was an avatar of male beauty for nearly half a century. by penelope green at couture week in paris, fashion fans peacocked with industry fixtures in a whirl of formal attire and street wear. by simbarashe cha if you’re just looking (but not buying), there’s pleasure in creating an imaginary wardrobe from the men’s wear catwalks at gucci, fendi, jw anderson, ralph lauren and tod’s. by guy trebay set in the 1970s, the series depicts the designer’s personal and professional evolution and revolves around an intense love story. by elisabeth vincentelli it’s twilight time for the era of hoodies and sweats. make way for another kind of suit, pairing a trucker jacket with matching jeans. by guy trebay classic men’s suiting makes a fun pairing with sporty separates. by alex huanfa cheng and patrick welde at an event where fashion is the focus, these ensembles stood out more than most. by the styles desk streetwear’s black history raconteur survived kanye, supreme and a near death experience. but can he survive the internet? by jon caramanica the next class of football stars has done some fashion homework, but the evening was pretty tame compared with the n.b.a. draft. by guy trebay

if you’re just looking (but not buying), there’s pleasure in creating an imaginary wardrobe from the men’s wear catwalks at gucci, fendi, jw anderson, ralph lauren and tod’s. več na: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/style/milan fashion week menswear.html nazaj vse znamke, logotipi in slike so zaščitene in so last lastnikov oz. družb. vse pravice pridržane. © 1998 2023 aguatera d.o.o.

urban energy and parisian flair were the inspirations for the collection. archival collections become inspiration for the fun, futuristic line up. constructed for fall winter 2025, pharrell williams’ unique vision redefines business and evening wear with unmatched craftsmanship and versatility. unveiled at paris couture week for spring summer 25, the futuristic collection reflects the designer’s personal experience of dealing with fire. with playful poufs, ruffles, and crinolines, a lot makes sense in dior’s fairytale collection! pharrell williams and nigo redefine men’s fashion with archival inspirations and a global perspective. ancient artistry and modern silhouettes converge in the new collection. from motifs to textures, the collection pays homage to the brand’s hometown   brianza. the collection celebrates heritage and alessandro sartori’s unique vision. introducing a new leather variation, tod’s offers elevated comfort in a neutral, soft colour palette. playful astro boy graphics feature on sweatshirts and hoodies. the show stealer is a cast resin lime green figure of iris apfel riding a scooter   personifying her free spirited personality. revisiting an iconic collaboration between louis vuitton and takashi murakami, the collaboration results in some quirky, delicious offerings. the new formula promises glossy, plump lips. the collection of shawls, sarees and blankets ranges from ₹14,000 to ₹85,000 in price. energizing and refreshing, the clarins double serum does work towards a luminous glow. the collection revives the 1970s spirit with a contemporary vision of luxury. true luxury is in living well and having good overall health. here’s what to keep in mind. it’s not too difficult to amp up your style. it just needs a curated eye. the collection is a mix of airy pastels, loose denims and stylish ‘bermuda’ style wear. proceeds to benefit the ellen johnson sirleaf presidential center for women and development. maria grazia chiuri reimagines winter wear with a couture twist. it’s a vivacious, innovative fusion of sophistication and technical prowess, set to redefine urban fashion. this luxury wedding wear label is contemporary at its core and traditional at its soul. this latest assortment comes as the world around us revolutionizes with the onset of the ai age. three iconic garments from the fashion muse and political interest figure will be auctioned this december. make traveling a breeze with these tips for effortless style and less hauling. a harmonious fusion of feminine and masculine elements, it captures a bold approach to modern style the collection honors the opulence and craftsmanship of chettinad at the chettinad heritage and cultural festival. the symbolic and artistically vibrant nature inspired embroidery has our hearts! wearing what you feel good in equates to confidence. so go ahead, and don’t be shy to flaunt your style. indian designers shantanu & nikhil mehra collaborated with grey goose for a show inspired from the bollywood glamour of the 1970s. futuristic silhouettes and cinematic inspiration elevate the creations. this 9th generation product has a more effective design with a double chamber. if you are bored of your wardrobe, then all you need is a tuck here & a nip there! despite the summer heat, the fashion scene remained electrifying. at the same time, the way has been paved for trends that will dominate the cooler months to come. its fall/winter 2024 collection celebrates the timeless flow of nature. sharp and angular cuts take center stage in this couture collection. rooted in ayurvedic philosophy, this is a unique ghee infused cleanser. deeply layered, corded and vibrant, the fall winter 2024 haute couture collection by indian designer vaishali shadangule (vaishali s), is delightfully enchanting. the exhibition will also put forth unseen prints from an iconic 2018 times square photoshoot. whether you are attending a bbq, heading to the beach, or looking to spend a day in the sun, update your summer wardrobe to ensure you are ready for what the season brings. this new h&m x anamika khanna collection has a summery, painterly vibe. indian couture is frequently associated with wedding attire. in a sea of lehengas and sherwanis at the india couture week 2024, some designers spotlight that a shift may be on the horizon. textures and audacious aesthetics combine to give an uber stylish experience. did the athletes and top tier designers just transform the seine river into their own fashion runway? absolutely! “then and now” features more than 400 iconic and reimagined bamboo 1947 bags. the bridal collection is an expression of the designer’s perpetual love for india’s evergreen crafts and textiles of bandhani, gota patti, badla, pichhwai, and benarasi. aging need not be looked at with fear. we tell you how to embrace it and look stylish. the japanese luxury house is hosting immersive events in champs élysées paris and tokyo in celebration of this impressive milestone. for the past three weeks, i have integrated the timeless restorative skin elixir into my daily routine, and the results have been noticeably positive. showcased privately in paris, the lineup broke new, promising ground for the globally acclaimed designer. roses takes different meanings, shapes, and forms in patou’s latest collection. creative director maria grazia chiuri defies conventions with a spectacle where sportswear meets haute couture. titled ‘a radical act of restraint’, the looks explore minimalism and simplicity with a hint of fun and whimsy. symbolic floral and animal motifs, nigo’s japanese roots and the parisian brand’s aesthetics come together for a visual treat. an art exhibition or a fashion show? dutch designer iris van herpen blurs the line with her hybrid show. the limited edition lionel messi f50 triunfo dorado comes as the footballer looks to mark a milestone in his career. the first model stepped into the show holding an original sculpture by south african artist hylton nel, a piece from kim jones’ personal collection. “le monde est à vous,” the collection crafted by pharrell williams, brings together all the skin colours of the world. canali also says cheers to 90 years! the collection livens up milan as city vibes wash up on the shore. furs and ruffles, ex gucci man alessandro michele makes a powerful comeback. the brand expands on its established vocabulary, enhancing its lab like processes to offer better creations and more comfort. these luxury sneakers are nfc embedded, courtesy american sneaker brand endstate. with a blend of functionality and style, each ensemble is designed for an adventure oriented setting. playful prints reminiscent of the sea and silhouettes that evoke freedom abound in this summer collection. it was a “magical moment” for british model kate moss when she wore the bridesmaid dress. antoni gaudi’s unique architecture gives a stunning canvas to louis vuitton’s ruffles, laces, and fringes. christian louboutin has released yet another bag collection for you to cherish forever, and that is what makes the splurge worth it. the designer will unveil his latest gender inclusive luxury line on 5th avenue in new york. kate moss, dua lipa, salma hayek, andrew scott, and paul mescal joined the elite crowd for the gucci collection showcased in london. no one does gold and glitter like ralph lauren! it is a must have collector’s item for fashion aficionados. the collection seamlessly blends traditional craftsmanship, offering a contemporary yet eco conscious ready to wear line. nicolas ghesquière showcased the collection at shanghai’s long museum. to put it simply, here is more about the 2024 met gala. it’s la dolce vita time again as gucci takes care of your summer wardrobe. genteel, empathetic, dedicated. that’s ramesh nair, the artistic director of joseph duclos. oh, and he’s the man whose bags are carried by taylor swift and brigitte macron. two auctions will feature approximately 200 lots, each representing pivotal moments in the iconic designer’s life and career, with the earliest pieces dating back to autumn/winter 1983 84. pearls and glitters shine through the entire collection. indian designer rahul mishra presents his spring summer 2024 wedding capsule collection inspired by his experiences in the lion city. in partnership with bemberg™️ yarn, this collection seamlessly blends nature inspired aesthetics with eco conscious craftsmanship. there has been a stark shift from quiet luxury at recent runways, as designers adopt bold designs, shimmer and vibrant colours. we take a look. after gucci, the designer is set to recreate his flamboyance at valentino. the brand’s archival elements and whimsical motifs from the artist’s visual universe elevate the artistry of the collection. accessorizing, the right way, is important, and an art. here are some tips to get that sophisticated look. in association with reliance brands limited, this new store marks canali’s second establishment in mumbai. the five forces of nature come together to enhance the collection created in collaboration with lakmé salon. revered actor ratna pathak shah, along with other luminaries, took to the runway to lend more power to ms. kaur’s collection. “i am truly delighted to become part of the gucci community,” says mr. hanyu about the partnership. abraham & thakore’s power trio are set to steer satya paul forward. ‘squid game’ actress and international ambassador, hoyeon jung opened the show, donning an immaculate and sleek jacket crafted from sports fabric. in 2024, designers have risen to the challenge of refreshing the dated peplum design by making a few key updates. take a look. “do you still love me?”   asked olivia colman’s voice at the beginning of the show. inspired by the idyllic landscapes of american painter albert york, the winter collection gives more of a summer vibe. architecturally cut, the collection is sleek with the innate beauty of chikankari. the collection is vivacious with bold artistry and quirky motifs. a pioneer who brought ‘made in india’ to the world, raghavendra rathore is a man of few words, but immensely passionate about his heritage and work. taking cues from its founder, givenchy brings back plunging necklines, razor cut collars and soft faux fur. the silhouettes are heavily inspired by rural and urban swiss essence. doni nahmias and andrés reisinger teamed up to transform digital artworks into wearable pieces. indian artist shakuntala kulkarni’s artistry sets the stage for the newest and mesmerizing miss dior line up. ten new matte lipsticks, ranging from the vibrant calcutta red to the rich bombay berry, housed in opulent cases, exude lusciousness with a bit of dramatic allure. drawing inspiration from archival pieces, fendi has crafted yet another remarkable lineup. sabato de sarno continues to mesmerize with his fresh approach to fashion. this collection, like many versace collections before, doesn’t fit into the norm. prism to blur and the other way around, each piece is a departure from realism! from the 20s to 2020s, this iconic style has continued to wow. chikankari and zardosi infuse regal essence into tailored styles of this collection. simple and graceful, this collection is understated opulence. kylie jenner and kim kardashian served a glamorous look at the front row, while actress gwendoline christie confidently strutted down the runway to show off victorian elegance. vaishali s’ couture spring summer 2024 collection channels the hues and textures of nature. where are all the mumbaikers? the entire collection sees exquisite embroideries, evoking inspiration similar to stars that spark imagination. from embroiderers crafting intricate designs to pattern cutters shaping each piece, every element celebrates the unmatched expertise of the fashion house. sensual and glamorous, sabato de sarno’s debut men’s collection is a delightful mystery. givenchy returns to its roots, embracing timeless brilliance, for its fall winter 2024 menswear collection. flowing and graceful lines throughout the collection are a subtle nod to the dance form. it is a visually stunning and brilliant fusion of futuristic and japanese design elements, as well as functionality. titled ‘aarohanam’, the collection is a play of textiles and intricate embroideries. with a keen eye for detail and a commitment to craftsmanship, paul smith’s aw 2024 collection endeavors to elevate men’s fashion by introducing subtle yet impactful details. the collection, headlined by delicious outerwear, is designed by silvia venturini fendi, artistic director of accessories and menswear. integrating seamlessly into the new gen lifestyle, grams(28) displays great ingenuity and intuitive understanding of what men want today. denim is reimagined and enhanced with subtle elements of native american culture. the fusion of functionality and fashion in each piece is bound to leave enthusiasts pleased. 82°e’s new body care offerings include crème body cleanser with moringa and panthenol, which is more targeted for cleanse hydrate protect routine lovers. alessandro sartori’s collection has not compromised on its creativity while shining the light on its flair to create the best. patterns and innovative twists take center stage in this collection. this streetwear soul collection for men is now available in india. the cala lehenga set from this collection is reminiscent of what an ethereal sea sprite might choose to don as she emerges from the mysterious ocean depths. mumbai’s luxury shopping landscape sees a slew of arrivals of global authentic brands, including balenciaga and bvlgari. the ethereal collection will be found in ensemble, kala ghoda, mumbai, and ogaan, new delhi. ankur and nick amin, co founders of extra butter, express their love for cricket with the introduction of a brand new collection. reuniting with the singer, the italian fashion giant welcomes a new gem into their cabinet. located at mumbai’s jio world plaza, louis vuitton has unveiled its largest store in the country, marking the brand’s fourth location in india. denim is back and how! the resurgence of the vintage style is contemporary, casual and pushes the boundaries of innovation. take a look! tamannaah bhatia is the first ever brand ambassador for the skincare brand in india. marking a decade of revitalizing the parsi gara, designer ashdeen lilaowala celebrated this milestone with a collection of special photographs. mr. vides’ artistic prowess is once again heightened in the celebratory collection of colmar, containing ten unique and super cool pieces. demonstrating that sustainability and beauty can coexist seamlessly, a significant 95% of the materials used in the collection are classified as “conscious materials”. the italian luxury house’s new collection is characterized by clean cut aesthetics. donatella versace brought back retired model, claudia schiffer, to the runway for her iconic collection. with sheer dresses and elevated wardrobe staples, the line up reflected the liveliness of the spring season. luxury brand loewe adds a tasteful touch of shimmer to infuse a sense of style in its spring summer 2024 collection. there was a sublime boldness in gucci’s spring summer 2024 collection. after the fall winter 2023 collection, nicholas ghesquière once again collaborated with james chinlund to craft an immersive show set. blurring the line between the virtual and the real, christian louboutin ventured beyond its usual approach to introduce the captivating women’s spring summer 2024 collection. rahul mishra designs his new label as an expression of his deep appreciation for nature, landscapes, and art. manish chhabra’s deep admiration for embroidery gets even more intriguing in his latest collection. the enchanting allure of dramatic designs and metallic magnificence dominated the show. enriched with rose and peptides, this eye cream is the latest from deepika padukone’s self care brand. the sotheby’s salon, at watch retailer bucherer, is elevating luxury retail in zurich. fashion is much more than a piece of cloth. there’s quite a bit of history involved   as sotheby’s explains with its recent fashion icons sale. whimsy and traditional yet subtle and contemporary, the jewellery collection is an ode to the modern day brides. from eclectic embellishments to an entirely new perception of denim, america’s greatest fashion power player boosted its game. how many of us thought that sunglasses could be as much about health as style? not many. torus expands the traditional role of eyewear and offers perfect shades. alongside the new breathable cucumber quench moisturizer, the manjishtha mud (clay mask) can effectively rejuvenate to provide quenched and soft skin. falguni shane peacock’s renaissance reverie is a glowing tribute to indian craftsmanship and offers an abundance of silhouettes exploding with colors. dressing up is back in the post pandemic world. here are some ideas on how to make that lasting impression with smart, sharp business dressing for men. the singer and dancer will star in versace’s 2023 holiday campaign. the collection showcases the beauty and power of tailoring, a fusion of subtle colors and sublime patterns. while fashion is a very personal choice, we give some handy tips on how tall men can walk the talk. sultry, sensuous, and stylish, pharrell williams’s debut 2024 collection has left no summer archetype untouched. valentino’s spring/summer 2024 collection for men seeks to challenge stereotypical masculine codes prevalent in society. the italian brand strikes out in style with a line of soft and supple garments. these vibrant capucines bags will be on display at sotheby’s paris from july 1 to 5. inspired by the watery surrounding of isola bella, creative director nicolas ghesquière conjured up a collection that will entice any sartorially conscious creature, even the aquatic! in collaboration with google, mayyur girotra will highlight the pride month with his first luxury pret collection, aikya, at ä€ve, soho nyc. singer dua lipa and donatella versace collaborated on a new collection that is bound to elevate every sartorial sensibility. at seoul’s gyeongbokgung palace, gucci converses with its rich heritage blended with south korea’s multicultural style. a visual feast for the eyes, the indian designer’s first mumbai flagship menswear store, in the city’s dubash house ballard estate, is a reflection of the brand’s “modern india” philosophy. drawing inspiration from the limitless beauty found in kashmir, indian brand falguni shane peacock has crafted their pastel spring/summer collection reflecting the verdant valleys and tranquil lakes. extolling rich persian art patterns and radiant floral embroidery, vaishali agarwal brings its latest collection, ‘antika’. h&m designer collaborations have had the internet on a chokehold for more than two decades. and now, the mugler x h&m capsule collection has brought an everyday essence that’s striking and bold. as the artistic director of the brand, camille miceli honors pucci’s heritage while giving it an entirely refreshing look. the korean city witnessed an iconic moment as louis vuitton models in oversized jackets and boots walked across the jamsugyo bridge. rrr actress alia bhatt flaunts the iconic gucci bamboo 1947 bag in the announcement campaign. in an urge to boost sales in china, gucci presents a new cosmos exhibition, dedicated to the brand’s iconic pieces from the past. investment friendly hermes handbags and louis vuitton trunks take the spotlight in this auction as well. the swimwear brand that ushered in a new wave of resort wear and bikini sarees has opened a new flagship store in hyderabad. the bridal collection ripples with glamor in a unique combination of daring designs and vibrant colors. embodying the spirit of hollywood, the design and philosophy of the first gucci salon, opened in los angeles, is inspired by the first gucci boutique in the city. the french fashion house collaborated with japanese artist yayoi kusama to rekindle the magic of dots and infinity in its exclusive collaboration. new york city’s gritty and glamorous meatpacking district is now home to gucci’s luxury retail store. indian couture brand, shantnu & nikhil, transformed a heritage building in kala ghoda, mumbai, for their 16th store. the actor’s debut collection will be available by the end of the year on bally’s website. the fashion house created the first ever garment crafted from biosequins. the lightweight spf 40 sunscreen contains turmeric and ceramides with a hydrating texture. discover stunning ensembles from some of the most celebrated and emerging designer labels at the new luxury collection store. designers monica and karishma showcase a vibrant and romantic interpretation of colors in their bridal couture 2023 collection. estimated to get $2 4 million, michael jordan’s 13s could become one of the most significant sneakers to be sold at sotheby’s. hennessy collaborates with dior’s kim jones for a fashionable cognac collection limited to 200 pieces, escorted with a collectible sneaker and couture decanter. at lakme fashion week, jajaabor presented its spring summer collection inspired by the picturesque beauty of indonesia and its islands. after over a year, tarun tahiliani returned to lakme fashion week to reveal his spring summer collection and leave the viewers in complete awe. on the second day of lakme fashion week, sameer madan revealed his collection titled ‘untamed: the wild thing’. paying homage to the brand’s heritage and craftsmanship, the fall winter collection glances back at its numerous iconic archival pieces. outfitted with the brand’s signature mosaico, soft materials and natural colors enhance the collection. nicholas ghesquière partnered with french artist philippe parreno and sound designer nicholas becker to create a stunning set for the women’s collection. home to sustainable and craft conscious fashion, moonray presents its deeply thought of spring summer 2023 collection. plaids and stripes get a vibrant makeover with zegna’s soft tailoring and the elder statesman’s california vibe. ms. dongre’s new flagship store is nothing short of a paradise, adorned with traditional rajasthani craft and a luxurious ambience. for the women’s collection, the design team tries to take the onlookers back to tom ford’s erotic and glamorous era. inspired from nocturnal blooms, floral designs and ruffles take the center stage in the collection. the new toner serum focuses on gentle and hydrating properties that strengthen the moisture barrier, leaving a soft, supple and radiant skin. all about bringing uniqueness and joy to the wearer, the collection has an enhanced modern character through patent leather, pre worn shearling, and well loved graphics. for someone who has famously designed costumes for 350 bollywood movies, has a furniture line, and a very characteristic design vision, rocky s is poised to reach the stars as he embraces a fashion world that is redefining itself by the minute. surprised? louis vuitton’s historical relationship with mr. williams led to this announcement of the singer stepping in as the creative designer of the menswear collection. in a tribute to the legendary persona that andre leon talley was, christie’s unveils iconic pieces from legendary vogue editor’s private collection of haute couture, haute joallerie, limited edition bags and art pieces the italian designer will present his debut collection for gucci in september 2023. titled ‘the embracer’, mr. kapoor celebrates each unique individuality in this new sumptuous collection, presented at the milan fashion week. italian house gucci presents a simpler fall winter 2023 men’s collection at the milan fashion week the oasi of cashmere collection is soft, supple and velvety. resorts group aman collaborated with japan’s personal skincare company kose to co develop aman essential skin for holistic beauty rituals and well being. self taught indian designer anjul bhandari celebrates her love for art, grace and elegance in her latest custom created collection. sotheby’s inaugural curated auction, ‘the one’, will showcase the apogee of human achievement in the finest objects spanning more than 2 millennia. the british brand uses the rabbit motif in elegant ways to celebrate the year of the rabbit. succeeding the successful 101 dalmatians collaboration, givenchy and disney are celebrating the lunar new year and the 100th anniversary of the walt disney company by presenting oswald, the lucky rabbit, in a new collection. gucci vault, a storehouse for exquisite and dandy vintage pieces, brings out the vault altitude collection which introduces a curation of eight brands. displaying artisanal, heritage work from legacy brands such as chanel, dior, givenchy, christian lacroix, saint laurent, valentino, christie’s will be auctioning these pieces online. celebrating the year of the rabbit on the lunar calendar and the upcoming arrival of spring, gucci’s vibrant capsule collection is full of playful and refined iterations of the rabbitâ€”an animal representing intelligence, health and longevity. the iconic style debuted by silvia venturini fendi in 1997 was dubbed the baguette after it sit like its namesake french bread   under the arm   when carried. in a unique amalgamation of sport with the designers’ signature fashion forms, sncc makes shantnu & nikhil the first designers to bring fashion and the culture of cricket together! over 230 lots will be offered, featuring an exceptional curation of the rarest, most desirable and sought after handbags and accessories from hermès, chanel, louis vuitton, dior, and many more. the collection boasts contemporary styles in a joyous shade of indian pink (made exclusive to india) and glamorous renditions in dore and noir, which offers classic elegance mixed with savoir fire and touches of festivity. the exceptional sale, the headline event of classic week, is dedicated to marie antoinette, who played a crucial role in developing the french fashion industry. it will feature two embroidery masterpieces created by lesage for chanel and yves saint laurent. global indian icon deepika padukone launches her self care brand, 82°e, named after the meridian that runs longitudinally through india. fashion has many expressions. we help you find yours with these easy to follow tips! the extraordinary collaboration converges the dna of both brands in a single aesthetic expression. this season, the designer duo revisits the opulence of the baroque era and its majestic artefacts   the chandeliers. true to her name, designer swapna anumolu brings a collection that transcends time and culture with delicate embroidery and designs. taking forward from its reload collection, the italian brand’s upload collection takes the heat up by many notches. revolving around the house pillars of leather craftsmanship and timeless accessories, villaseñor brings a cosmopolitan exploration of european luxury through a distinctly american lens. featuring the gucci savoy collection, and actor ryan gosling in a fantasy film, the campaign is immersing and nostalgic. the pink pony initiative is the company’s global philanthropic program dedicated to cancer care and prevention, and supports research, screenings, early diagnosis, treatment, education and patient navigation programs. lace, fur and plunging necklines define this rebellious spring summer 2023 collection by versace. the spring summer 2023 collection by the brand celebrates the similarity and differences between twins. the collection is fantastical, almost begging a second look, as it tributes the heroes of a perfect ensemble. after her successful international debut at the paris haute couture week last year, the indian designer launched her collection “ancestral threads”, which features powerful statements with indian handloom. it’s a big time for the italian luxury house with a new logo designed by peter saville and maximilian davis’ first collection. mr. tisci led a high energy dynamic movement at the british brand during his five year tenure. the indian designer duo’s latest haute couture collection   amber   is a unique juxtaposition between modern and vintage india. the latest collection from the brand focuses on blending classics with the ultramodern, bringing back the designer’s memories of the 1990s when she first relocated to new york. the celebrated couturier   known for refining and redefining heritage techniques such as chikankari and kaamdani   presented a stunning tableau of her skill, expertise and efforts in revival as she works with over many craftswomen & men in lucknow. with a history steeped in heritage and craftsmanship, jade explores new creative territory by venturing into sartorial couture for today’s evolved man, who’s an eclectic dresser with a unique personal style following a successful partnership with lvmh, which began in 2019, stella mccartney has collaborated with the lvmh beauty division to develop her new skincare line, stella, by stella mccartney located in santacruz (w), tasva’s 4,000 sq ft flagship mumbai store features a grand faã§ade and elegant interiors that feature the new indian and fusion collection designed for modern men spanning over 3,500 square feet, the new gucci store will showcase a vast collection of men’s and women’s ready to wear apparel, accessories, jewellery, watches, and gucci decor the collection is inspired by music, which has an undeniable relationship with human emotions   a universal language that amalgamates the purely artistic with the more tangible the ingenious designer continues to commemorate indian craftsmanship with this latest collection that emphasizes on techniques like bandhini, benarasi and gota patti designer duo rohit gandhi and rahul khanna’s latest collection of evening wear ‘fibonacci’ portrays an architectural penchant for precision, guided by nature’s rules love forever celebrates french tapestries and architecture with a touch of indian modern design the actress debuts with the brand by starring in their high jewellery campaign an ode to the beauty of travel, gucci features items exclusive to top seaside travel destinations around the world gucci infuses the new pet collection with its customary high craftsmanship the collection stays true to neutrals and pastels for a light collection that is airy soft shades are coupled with impeccable italian craftsmanship tight fits make a comeback alongside with loose silhouettes the inspiration comes from the text messages of the two creatives   alessandro michele and harry styles from a floating meadow to a special scarf, burberry has many plans up its trench coat sleeves available on brand new vision’s website, the nfts are limited to 10 pieces only hosted amid the austere setting of salk institute for biological studies in san diego, the collection used myriad materials for an otherworldly effect called gucci cosmogonie, the collection is inspired by the thoughts of german philosopher walter benjamin the announcement came alongside louis vuitton’s new campaign featuring ms. padukone, emma stone and zhou dongyu the iconic garment is celebrated through a new collector’s book titled ‘ralph lauren’s polo shirt’ the new campaign is an ode to the road   the 232   that ermengildo zegna built to reach oasi zegna, its home blending the past, present and future is no simple feat. a conversation with sofia bertolli balestra, head of research, design & brand identity at balestra roma, and the granddaughter of iconic couturier renato balestra, gives insight on the new identity, sustainable initiatives, and intergenerational vision for balestra the vintage car fan personifies tory burch’s young philosophy called gulaal: shade of love, the collection employs various indian craft embroideries for a delightful assortment the world of valaya brings together the brand’s fashion and luxury interiors offerings in new delhi the brand also introduces new materials and shades for this collection the luxury brand’s fall winter 2022 collection blurs the line between traditional categorization to offer a seamless fashion closet to its customers the fall winter 2022 women’s collection is replete with references to the ‘femme fatale’ in characteristic style a new generation creative team presents a shimmering, sequined collection to relaunch the values of the historical maison giving the trend of oversized silhouettes sleeker dimensions, tory burch’s collection is more body defining, but with volume a cross between tradition and sci fi, the collection uses multiple elements to present a royal look basking in the recent glow of awe and appreciation that house of chanakya received for its handicraft in dior’s haute couture 2022 scenography and collection, karishma swali talks about cultural sustainability, future of indian fashion and her daughter avantika’s influence in building moonray   a new mindful label   as we dissect its inspiration helmed by creative director sarah burton, the british luxury house’s summer collections features unisex stylings that reinvent traditional ready to wear by juxtaposing immaculate tailoring with exploded ruffles and streamlined four ring satchels virgil abloh’s final assortment for louis vuitton   the men’s fall winter 2022 collection   was everything the designer represented, with the brand giving a fitting homage to the visionary the auction kicks off louis vuitton spring summer 2022 collection by virgil abloh the collection is outdoorsy with elements of fine tailoring a completely fresh take on luxury, the collection is playful & whimsical built in collaboration with superplastic, the collection will drop on february 1 this collection is also the first in the series of ‘friends and family’ giving a tribute to the grandiose tiger, the special collection personifies the animal through its signature stripes the year of the tiger has been commemorated through a collection that combines the gg motif artfully with tiger sketches from marble to plush rugs, the design of this store is vibrant and sophisticated the auction of the rarest sneakers in the universe comes in partnership with netflix as it releases ‘don’t look up’ the new space is an ode to mumbai’s industrial’s root with clean lines and uncluttered space magic and science meet with the austrian luxury brand joining forces with sportswear conglomerate to produce an exclusively studded sneaker with over 200 crystals both the korean actors have wowed audiences recently with their performance appointed as the creative director of the brand, bottega veneta is not unknown to mr. blazy the lineup takes inspiration from the pomp and glamour of hollywood a surprising move which nobody could have foreseen, the designer is leaving the brand after a very successful run merging logos & introducing new graphics, the collection is sporty with smart vibes the spring 2022 collection takes inspiration from detroit, the venue for the collection, while also launching firehouse   a curated retail space of artworks, publications and music by detroit ians form fitting and bright, the collection takes hints from both the brands to present a special look this winter festive collection by the designer romances with soft shades of ivory, grey and blush pink the range uses kumkumadi thailam as its hero ingredient reinvigorating its holiday fashion, the designers introduce julin   a 100% organic rendition of jute   with this collection highlighting gucci’s presence in pop culture, the brand is also celebrating its success through a series of pop ups donatella versace & kim jones create ‘fendace’   a dramatic collection that celebrates two iconic brands replete with hidden messages and surprising notes, ‘animal instinct’ is unique while staying true to the trench look called tasavvur, the collection is ideal for brides, grooms and their entourage an already popular brand in india, tory burch has partnered with reliance brands ltd for the country wonderlab by swarovski is an imaginary world where magic and science meet, and come into focus in bright technicolour with collection ii an individualistic design store, 10 corso como has much planned for the celebration unveiling their new collection at the unesco world heritage site marks a momentous occasion for falguni shane peacock from communication to design consultancy, ms. miceli has a rich breadth of experience within lvmh jeremy scott and adidas originals join hands to pay homage to their roots with this new launch. this is h&m’s first global collaboration with the quintessential indian label sabyasachi kerastase brings the powerful chronologiste range to fulfil the ageless dream of staying young forever salvatore ferragamo presents its iconic initials as a new sf logo burberry’s first flagship store to feature its new global design concept opened its doors on july 21 this latest collection is inspired by jaipur and mr. balana’s memories of it tailored smartly with defined silhouettes, the collection does a small part for the environment the supermodel is paired with cgi technology to present a modern campaign originally starred in the 1996 movie space jam, this auction coincides with the recent launch of the movie space jam: a new legacy made with recycled materials, the backpack echoes the philosophy of 100 thieves the modern, artistic collection is made using traditional indian weaves from grand gowns to a sophisticated lbd, the collection offers more than what meets the eyes gone are the days of logo loyalty. today’s fashion consumer is taking the time to understand india’s heritage and expertise in traditional embroideries, many of which are ancient and lesser heard of. we explore some such techniques and the designers working with these delicate threads, who are also taking them to international waters the collection is a beautiful balance of modern and traditional connecting to the natural world, the collection is a vibrant interpretation of the season in the words of riccardo tisci, “this presentationâ is all about the power and the beauty of self expression and about escaping and coming together as one to celebrate our creativity.” incorporating pieces representing an easy sense of life, the collection uses conscious materials from the days of the crisp suited man, the new canali man is more millennial and semi formal at once summery and breezy, the collection takes cues from the roman countryside the material combines luxury, scalability and eco consciousness always loyal to the lucknowi craft, the designer offers a delicately crafted range for men and women this spring summer 2022 range is tuned to the new needs of the society inspired by a japanese game of 1970s, the collection blends motifs from the game with the brand’s signature aesthetic from art to architecture and from metaphors to motifs, florals have been around for long, yet have unmatched importance throughout every culture. the beauty of these ingenious creations have been open to a copious amount of variations and interpretations through time   especially in fashion the brand will launch a limited edition ‘blanko’ in the game blankos block party this initiative comes after the brand launched fragrances and candles recently the new yeezy boost 700 enflame amber is available globally from june 11 having first collaborated in 2003, the two powerhouses come back together after 18 years inspired by india and made with the characteristic impeccable taste of canali, the menswear brand is celebrating nawab jacket’s 10th anniversary with new iterations the cool and classy sneaker will be available globally from may 22, 2021 called ‘the village’, and located on london’s pont street, the concept includes 5 themed stores fluid cuts, defined shoulders and faux furs take the classic burberry spirit into modern times textile installations and a panel discussion celebrate sustainability through heritage craft collaborating with balenciaga, this unprecedented collection is everything gucci has ever meant to its admirers reminiscent of the party nights new york is known for, the collection looks forward to a time when such events will become normal again the sneakers were the prototypes for the yeezy line developed by rapper kanye west and mark smith for nike the collection is inspired by the palace, and the rich flora and fauna in and around jag niwas the limited edition capsule collection will be available for 2 weeks only a part of the brand’s wonderlab, this is the first collection released under giovanna battaglia engelbert, swarovski’s first ever global creative director celebrating the opening up of doors, the collection embraces the new future a graceful, conscious collection with a festive touch, the assortment includes sarees, lehengas and kurta sets named ‘equivalence’, the undeviating collection includes wedding styles for both men and women launched on instagram, the sighworthy collection titled ‘timelessness’ is ideal for summer months and intimate weddings experimenting with techniques, the collection takes inspiration from the effects of nature on human health focusing on sumptuous fabrics, the apparel is simple yet luxurious the two organisations will present a joint fashion week schedule for 2021 this season includes not just some unique iterations of serapian’s trademark mosaic, but also a special chair the burberry staples of trench coats and beige make an evolved appearance in the collection florals and rainbows galore, the capsule collection is now available replete with mr. valaya’s signature turkish regality, bursa’s second chapter adds a range of fabrics and shades including womenswear, menswear and childrenswear (a first time for simone rocha), the collection captures ms. rocha’s penchant for classics handcrafted with love, integrity and luxury, we talk about an indo french brand that is making masks a couture item accompanied by an exhibition of rare books and manuscripts, the show was an ode to revolutionary ideas projected much simply the man who brought colors back in fashion, sir paul smith has embraced the past 50 years with his characteristic wit, humor and a non conformist sense of style which is still unique. fluid and comfortable, the new collection takes into account the stay at home reality of current times camouflage and checks define the new collection in novel ways romantic with modern silhouettes, the collection is hewed to celebrate the soon to come happier moments the lush, dreamy collection takes inspiration from chrysanthemum and peony flowers new patterns, shades and leathers give serapian accessories a vibrant life after two stores in delhi, the brand is set to make its mark in the maximal city expect to see some floral, embellished and beaded creations from the new collaboration later in the month of january, a new special and playful doraemon‘s disguise, exclusively created in tribute to the year of the ox, will also be revealed the pandemic is having some strong repercussions on the world’s dynamics, its functioning and its future. it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the fashion industry too is ripe for some rewiring and shifting of gears to create a more sensitive ecosystem created in collaboration with contemporary artist kenny scharf, the collection is a mosaic of glowing colours and playful characters the collection includes functional camera holsters and crossbody bags for detail oriented photographers the new collection is a tribute to fashion legends kenzo takada and kansai yamamoto, both of whom passed away this year it is designer rajesh pratap singh’s first collection for the brand celebrating artisanal excellence, the collection sees designers reinterpreting the iconic baguette traditional indian footwear gets a makeover with embellishments and motifs the online sale presents a selection of the most desirable, collectible and rare handbags, luggage and accessories the new collection, showcased digitally, was presented via three unique videos the collection celebrates india’s ethnic crafts by giving it a form that modern brides will approve of first launched in 2019, this year’s iterations of the capucines bag are vibrant and graphic with this collection, the designers have stayed true to their oeuvre of creations that underscore the concept of lightweight, tactile clothing while uncompromising on intricacy and craftsmanship the new collection carries timeless details inspired by the ready to wear brand’s archival hero designs inspired by indian maharanis, the collection redefines age old indian royalty for the modern bride fendi men’s and women’s spring/summer 2021 collection draws inspiration from the universality of family reunions and home presenting his first virtual show at fdci’s india couture week 2020, jj valaya’s collection is rich, plush, and larger than life the superstar shoes reimagined by the legendary pop singer retains elements from adidas classics collaborating with artist anne imhof for the show, chief creative officer riccardo tisci celebrates the house’s emblems and hallmarks in this collection, lending them a contemporary touch for their first ever digital event, blenders pride fashion tour collaborated with celebrated indian couturier tarun tahiliani who marks 25 years in the fashion industry with 29 couture face masks up for bidding, the revenue from this charity auction will go to the refugee company, an amsterdam based social organization in a creative collaboration, british clothing brand fred perry and belgian designer raf simons’ new collection is inspired by subcultures created in london’s famous basement venue ‘100 club’ featuring its signature bags and accessories, burberry revives its house code   animal kingdom   in its new worldwide pop up series the house’s famous hobo bag made a renewed appearance in the gucci autumn winter 2020 men’s and women’s fashion show the online charity sale in collaboration with telegraph’s stella magazine will raise funds for uk charity organization smart works swarovski’s stunning new jewelry collection celebrates the upcoming wonder woman 1984 movie stylish and colorful, the new shoes collection debuts digitally on the mia becar website the luxury beauty brand dabbles into new formats of shopping through the virtual store which will be open for a limited time in a creative collaboration, bvlgari and ambush reinterpret serpenti, the former’s most renowned motif the eccentric spring summer 2021 menswear show breathed life back into traditional fashion shows amid the pandemic the latest gucci apple print collection celebrates the chinese valentine’s day the richemont owned brand presents its first men’s capsule collection made with eco friendly material created from grapes a matt geranium alligator birkin 35 by hermès sold for £25,062 the collection reflected some of the designer’s best visions from the past 25 years one of the artists, alisha patel, is a dubai based indian artist the collection features lipcolours and eyeshadows mia becar is betzabe gonzalez’s direct to consumer luxury shoe brand the designer aims to combine history with modernity for the brand the new collection will benefit stonewall community foundation and its affiliates this free spirited collection is created in collaboration with visual artist joshua vides marking 110 years, the digital show comes at an opportune time easy, flowy and elegant, the new collection emulates the current mood of adapting to a slower pace of life the collection uses recycled materials to craft a quintessential vibrant gucci line up world oceans day   pangaia launches a collection in honour of our ‘big blue’ ampm unveils its second drop   the safari edit from its spring summer’20 collection   amah’le. gucci announces a partnership with the world’s favourite tennis mobile game: tennis clash, where players will discover exclusive gucci outfits and be able to participate in a special gucci tournament. although all brands advertise themselves so, it’s hard to know which brands are actually sustainable. by focusing on artisanal labor, high quality natural fabrics, local supply chains, reduction of energy and water consumption, elimination of chemical use, and minimal impact on forests and biodiversity, a humming way brings forward a truly sustainable product that recalls luxury with an edge the italian luxury house launches a new capsule collection   ‘towards the sun’ launching an exclusive collection on the website, gucci presents innovative accessories marking 110 years of celebration, the brand continuesâ its creativity and design magic by going completely virtual constant snarks are still evident when fashion is compared to the mechanism of art. wearable art, applied arts, decorative arts   aren’t they all sections of a bigger umbrella? new earth polo shirts made from recycled plastic bottles and dyed with a waterless process; underscores pledge to remove 170 million plastic bottles from landfills and oceans by 2025 the future of ageless beauty from asian wisdom is all geared to offer a multisensory experience of good skincare the latest addition has aâ feminine allure with a rigorous squared shape where soft leather, lightness and refined details take the centre stage. delving deep into science certified, easy to make and all natural recipes, indian brand, global beauty secrets, revives effective, undisclosed treatments from around the world to achieve that flawless skin lv’s menswear designer virgil abloh reimagines the archetype business accessories the proverb   ‘every cloud has a silver lining’   actually makes its truest sense now in these difficult and hard times. it is important to look back in order to move forward during these crises the duo’s deep rooted reverence for the rich culture and heritage of india and the craftsmanship its boasts of, also shines through this season. the pico joins the baguette family as the smallest fendi unit of measure made into a bag adding new statement pieces to its watches, jewellery and accessory lines, gucci’s highly acclaimed timepieces, flora line, running earrings and lion head jewellery collection gets new classy introductions alessandro sartori and jerry lorenzo have created a new grammar of style and followed a new path of masculine identity that is also wearable for women paris fashion week   the gateway of ultimate trends   remains the game changer as always. but, this time it tries to change the ancient societal rules in a singular way. luxuryfacts brings to you 8 parisian trends palais de la porte doree, paris is presenting an exhibition devoted to the work and creativity of christian louboutin, the internationally renowned accessories designer the leading luxury brand introduces the latest gucci pin in chicago, dedicated to the gg psychedelic collection as is the trend now, gucci offers new, holistic experiences with the opening of gucci osteria da massimo bottura beverly hills milan fashion week, usually awaited with much excitement, resonates and speaks the language of edgy italian fashion style. luxuryfacts lists 7 trends to bookmark from milan men’s a/w’20 runway part of the clinique id collection, the different moisturizing bb gel is based on newer technologies michael kors’ new limited edition capsule collection is a result of partnership with the 007 franchise soneva, the world leading luxury resort family, has recently announced a partnership with rahul mishra, inspired by his stay and personal experiences at the resort london men’s fashion week   the opening ceremony of men’s autumn/winter ’20 21, from january 4 to 6, 2020, brings the major trend takeaways and tutorials. luxuryfacts lists how you can stay in vogue in the next fall season skincare is perhaps one category that completely resonates with the idea of self care so much that there is always the ardent need to be a lot more creative with the ingredients. presenting, prebiotic and probiotic skincare multiple renowned personalities have embraced fabled looks and embodied them in the louis vuitton pre fall 2020 collection including india’s deepika padukone onitsuka tiger and valentino limited edition collaboration shoes launched at valentino’s autumn winter 2020 men’s collection presentation in paris two new versace stores in london and paris to be opened in fall 2020 the chinese new year collection gives the stage to the burberry check the collection is celebrated with a special documentary featuring alessandro michele gucci’s new lunar year campaign celebrates with walt disney’s original, mickey mouse, ‘year of the mouse’ collection dedicated to our four legged friends, this collaboration is an ode to the beloved little protagonists in our lives who reflect our passion for style luxurious fashion house bottega veneta remains in the spotlight with its pre spring ’20 collection and modernized store an ecological breakthrough, pangaia launches flower filled puffer jackets to offer a more sustainable solution this winter fendi’s new campaign sees its ffluid sneaker in action as two youngsters tap and dabble with it in a gym manish malhotra makeup by myglamm launches a vibrant 2020 celebration collection, introducing shades such as violets and golds missoni announces the launch of its watches in collaboration with timex group indian designer duo falguni shane peacock unveil mumbai store, in kala ghoda, designed by gauri khan tod’s presents its ss20 resort collection which define the classics the brand is famous for the iconic sunflowers jacket by yves saint laurent, inspired from vincent van gogh’s painting, to be auctioned by christie’s missoni launches first store in singapore at the luxury zone shopping area of marina bay sands fendi’s new campaign takes baguette on a roman holiday as two friends rome around the magical city, exploring the sights & sounds christian louboutin launches new sneaker   happyrui, which is inspired by the world of tennis continuing with their partnership, adidas x missoni vol. 2 is launched with powerful sneakers donning the colors of missoni ermenegildo zegna unveils its new concept boutique in new delhi, which has undergone a revamp after a decade michael kors drops a versatile #mkgo sea & ski capsule collection for the holidays, which includes attire apt for snow and sand! discarded food, orange peel, recycled cork and fish skin are some of the few commodities that can now be transformed into clothes. as we embark upon the era of “eco age”, if global warming isn’t scaring you enough, then spilt landfills and annual carbon footprint escalations are reason enough to create a future we all can truly survive in iconic actress catherine zeta jones & daughter carys douglas feature in the new fendi peekaboo campaign good earth celebrates 10 years of sustain with fashion show titled sindhu, presenting ancient indian techniques and styles gaurav gupta unveils his first store in hyderabad in banjara hills missoni launches new brand, m missoni, creating fashion from repurposed materials and designs inspired by egypt, christian louboutin introduces elisa, which mirrors the country’s history and heritage through design from beyonce to priyanka chopra jonas, from dimple kapadia to ananya pandey, abu jani and sandeep khosla’s brand has exceeded expectations with each creation. thirty three years later, they still share the same passion, drive and obsession for their art fendi baguette goes tiny as it presents a nano version gucci & saks fifth avenue collaborate for special collections & gucci’s first genderless perfume   memoire d’une odeur good earth extends collaboration with soneva fushi via new collection of apparel and home accessories designer duo from jade launch ‘monica & karishma couture’, specifically to create bridal ensembles ralph lauren introduces rl50 handbag this season, made to celebrate 50 years of the american luxury brand fendi launches the new kan u style handbag, available in multiple colours & with a golden chain option fendi invites mr. doodle to give its headquarters and the fendi peekaboo a makeover! gucci presents imitatio vitae, a book by marina cicogna, which showcases a series of images from the historic palazzo ducale tarun tahiliani & swarovski present ‘bloom’ at india couture week 2019   a collection replete with pastels, sparkles and earthy shades shaking hands and combining brains with the chinese pop icon jackson wang, fendi has launched a stylish, sleek capsule collection for those who like it black and white louis vuitton to release the multi pochette accessoires in october adidas by stella mccartney takes sustainable fashion to a new level the petite, iconic fendi baguette is extending its offering to include men, thus making history in the world of fashion gigi hadid is the new face of michael kors’ wonderlust missoni indulges in the world of italian fashion with new book we’ve tried, tested and slept our way to identify the best beauty products to ensure waking up with that all important, well rested glow! nuskay, a coming of age beauty line that professes use of herbal, bio inspired and sustainably sourced ingredients, is a sure winner for the conscious beauty buff christian louboutin’s new festiloubi collection is a bright burst of pop! gucci collaborates with melet mercantile on montauk space ermenegildo zegna launches hand threaded claudio sneakers paul smith designs for men in black: international michael kors presents resort 2020 collection ermenegildo zegna presents ss’20 couture collection missoni presents a fearless resort 2020 collection the suit is a power play of virtue, style and confidence. but what gives it that powerful stature? fine materials, and impeccable design and tailoring. ss homme’s latest collaboration with italian brand carlo barbera is taking luxury suiting to a new marvel in india michael kors launches #mkgo rainbow pride collection paul & shark launches a three drop collection with greg lauren millennials have proven to be a very different kind of luxury consumer with a very unique set of preferences. sneakers is one of them gucci presents cruise collection 2020 sunglasses are not just for when you are under the sun. fendi and rob raco prove they are an all day accessory sharing its roof with bmx artist nigel sylvester, heritage luxury brand fendi shows how urban hip it can be! fashionistas are questioning. designers are researching. artisans are weaving. fashion in india is going through a revolution. indian designers are conscientiously bringing back indian crafts and handlooms by working with rural artisans. here are a few of them the annual fundraising gala at the metropolitan museum of art in new york is the storm’s eye on the first monday of may every year. with artists and actors gracing the red carpet, the event has unparalleled grandeur and fame. as new creations unfold, there’s only a few that make it to the best list releasing yet another fashionista inspired celebration, fendi launches the next episode in its peekaboo campaign, this time with chiara ferragni and family few can claim to understand women, who are an extremely complex creation of god. but fendi proved they know exactly what we want with the peekaboo. watch this special video, exclusively with luxuryfacts global luxury fashion brand, ralph lauren, makes its india debut with a flagship store in new delhi makeup is an art, as it is a vice. you can never get enough of it. while deciding is tough, it’s even tougher to find what’s worth the investment. here are 16 pricey but totally worth it products that are there to stay in your makeup bag a million brand campaigns are released every year. yet few make an indelible mark on the viewer. bottega veneta, gucci and michael kors achieved that this season elegant, alluring and elaborate is how we would define rohit bal’s spring summer 2019 ‘gul dastah’ at the third installment of the blender’s pride fashion tour 2018 19. depicting indian heritage at it’s best, rohit bal manages to please all, despite a few slip ups what is the baguette? what does it mean? turns out, it means friendship. watch the second episode of #baguettefriendsforever series exclusively on luxuryfacts! elegant, luxurious and memorial designs are a rare combination to find. staying true to one’s roots is something delhi based designer samant chauhan knows best. going through a success drive, the designer has launched his second flagship store in mumbai celebrating love in a new way, luxury brands honor qixi, the chinese love festival, with special pieces, which they hope will melt the heart of your significant other! indian designer kshitij jalori, presenting three artistic collections, gives ample display of his training in textiles in his first solo exhibition. and offers a buyback clause! minimalism is a timeless trend in the fashion industry. these five fashion brands are showing that less is more   in the most luxurious way possible the italian direct to consumer diffusion label, love moschino, is entering the indian market with a new store in mumbai. a brand made popular due to its artistic merit, critical function, and an all too famous provocative wit, is open for the discerning consumers of india christian louboutin introduces the manilacaba famed couturiers abu jani and sandeep khosla relaunched their flagship store at kemps corner, mumbai. a glamourous soiree combined the label’s aspirational sensibility and extravagant flavour with a collection that is unapologetically majestic and truly relevant to millennial fashion lovers insouciant and inexplicably cool, ermenegildo zegna’s couture ss 18 “hidden garden” show illustrated the exploration of personal conscious and sub conscious fantasies, at a venue that justified the epic proportions of alessandro sartori’s ambition from stripes to florals, and socks and sandals, womenswear and menswear spring/summer 2018 trends break boundaries despite homages to season staples from leather to denim, from fur to sheer, womenswear fall/winter 2017 puts forward sartorial trends that reflect the current times although not shocking, fall/winter 2017 brings eclecticism, rebellion and artistry to men’s wardrobes a fun game where you race against time, watch michael kors and kate hudson turn up the heat in this video! from floating bohemian gowns to little black dresses, from vintage jackets to sports anoraks, from tiny clutches to oversized backpacks, women’s spring/summer 2017 ready to wear borrows much of the recent seasons’ trends only to slash, mix and re match them british fashion brand paul smith collaborated with indian lighting brand klove studio to light up their show window for the festive season being in the spotlight is never easy. especially when you are in a position of power. being a first lady comes with many responsibilities, including dressing like one. this includes picking appropriate outfits, and more often than not, picking an appropriate designer. we took an in depth look at five famous first ladies, contemplating whether they prefer designers from their homeland, or bigger international brands in a time when labels write headlines with their new creative director hires, two brands make news with the power vacuum yawning in their artistic heights. luxuryfacts poses the who, how, why and when in dior’s and tod’s ongoing search for their next creative leads with slim cuts, sunny colours and easy aesthetics, hermes’ spring/summer 2017 menswear collection administers an antidote to the season’s otherwise mostly grim affair. “miscellany of lightness, quintessential vetement object and colour euphoria” are among the industry defiant leitmotifs of hermes’ latest menswear collection from classic suits in predictable tinges to oversized military style ensembles   spring/summer 2017 menswear is not about design ingeniuousness. it is about making safe bets in a time of anxiety we continue to peruse the recent revamps at the high echelons of high fashion with two recently appointed creative directors   justin o’shea of brioni and antony vaccarello of ysl amid the many issues that grip high fashion today, the arrival of previously unknown, spirited, “cool” creative directors at some of the most iconic luxury brands has set the industry ablaze. luxuryfacts dissects the recent past, the present and the likely future of two centenarians with new young leaders   gucci and balenciaga through the seams and stitching of louis vuitton’s cruise collection 2017, nicolas ghesquière displayed a runway exhibition set in a tropical paradise, inspired commendably, and creatively, by art. whether going to the beach or planning a night out, your choice of handbag is undeniably an expression of who you are. although the season is changing, there are many new handbags to choose from and even more ways to express yourself without sacrificing style. interpreting history in his own way, karl lagerfeld takes the chanel brigade to cuba’s lively environs, for the label’s latest cruise collection. lace, tulle, sparkles, silk, organza   designer ana quasoar drapes her brides in creations using these elegant materials and powerful symbols summer is soon to bloom in boutiques, but the high fashion calendar is already racing ahead, with autumn/winter 2016 17 having just stepped down from the runway. take a look at what to keep, what to throw away and what to add to the winter wardrobe for the next season as winter edges towards its end, men’s sartorial trends that will rule the next cold season are already shaping out. check out early what will make the cut in f/w 2016 17, a period that promises to be daring and extravagant while some things remain, new trends are also rearing up in this year’s spring summer menswear collections as the stocking ratio at fashion stores starts leaning towards spring summer 2016, we study what will work on the fashion high street this coming season! winter style that is warm? bring forth your cashmeres! a collection as appropriate for the calendar as for the world political stage, chanel’s latest metiers d’art collection is a strike back at hatred as the wedding season advances in india, we take a look at the three most gorgeous, and innovative, collections according to us this year with india becoming more confident and women becoming independent, the luxury lingerie market in india is predictably going to see an upward trend an assortment of thread work, rich fabrics, jeweled shades and more, amazon india couture week is certainly the best of all fashion weeks that happen around the country, around the year. we put together some of our favorite looks from 2015 him, her, whatever! the androgynous look is here. it’s time for slender men and boyish women creating a wonderful series of men who matter, canali introduces riccardo zacconi as the protagonist in its latest film it’s that time of the year when fashion possibilities suddenly expand! how about reviewing some trends, to help you make those mix and match decisions appropriately, for the summer season talking about fashion & ethics, this is the third in the series of 5 articles on true luxury experiences by our readers! cheek, eyes, skin   all get a revamp as we suggest some simple to do makeup changes for your 2015 look although there is much to be discerned, we tell you some key trends which emerge from the autumn winter 2015 16 collections by luxury fashion brands spare 2 minutes, and see 80 years of lancome… curl up with that coffee or luscious wine on february 23 as you you view the burberry womenswear autumn winter 2015 show! autumn/winter 2015 fashion for men sees a quirky amalgamation of colours, cuts and fits to ensure that you steal the limelight, wherever you go as original as he is, karl lagerfeld gives a fresh twist to the concept of flora, to give us a wonderful spring summer 2015 haute couture collection an emphatic ‘yes’ to all emotions, to taking chances and having it all, go ahead and check out giorgio armani’s latest fragrance, si intense much like adam sandler in the movie ‘don’t mess with zohan, who wants to make hair “silky smooth”, moroccanoil does the same job, but in more luxurious settings! revoking an era of delicate pearly works and military silhouettes, chanel’s new metiers d’art collection is dramatic video: gucci’s embossing service adds that extra touch of detail that everyone loves! presenting an array of glamourous outfits, tony handbags and graceful accessories, michael kors’ expansion in india is only pleasing its buyers more and more! with the trend leaning towards a ‘young’ look, we quite like these collections from the recent spring summer 2015 womenswear shows taking us on an archival journey, vmr in chicago flaunts designer garments of yesteryears, which we wish we could hang in our closets too! defeating the tactics of monsoon, we recommend a makeup routine and products, which will soar up your spirits this damp season make a splash this monsoon with some of the prettiest pick me up colours, courtesy bobbi brown and mac! bobbi brown has perfected her language of eyes with a new gel eyeliner in a pencil form taking a flexible and easy approach, luxury menswear brands showed us that spring summer 2015 is going to be about unrestricted dressing for the dapper man! kate spade probably spoke to every girl’s heart with their new rio de janeiro collection! a summery, neutral shade, chanel’s emprise nail colour is a classic we can’t live without! mac knows how to pair up two completely different shades for a brilliant look. that’s what they did for their divine night eyeshadows too! converting his disappointment into an opportunity, victor lee’s bespoke shoe brand, diamond walker, intrigued us quite a bit embarking on its 110th year, the taj mumbai celebrated in a tressful way! lancome’s dream tone knows what today’s women crave for, and provides just that   healthy, glowing skin. read our review jean paul gaultier presented a sparkling haute couture collection last month that appealed to our feminine and fashionable side immensely! these exclusive backstage images will dazzle even more! mac’s divine night collection surely lured us with its name. but did its mineralise blush do the job well? read on the current flavour of red carpet gowns, marchesa, reaches india through the sachdev group customising clothes for the bride is passe. it is now time to tailor make a beauty box for her mac knows how to give you those sultry glances with its her cocoa quad, in collaboration with the equally sultry rihanna! chanel takes beauty a step forward as its cc cream leaves no stone unturned to make your skin naturally glowing… yes, that is exactly what happens as you start seeing mundane objects like ties also in a new light   courtesy hermes! when rihanna plans to get into make up, you get bold shades emblematic of her style! mac brings it to your doorstep… renowned hair care brands are looking at pampering you. we spell out what that means for your precious mane living true to her philosophy of doing make up with a snap of her finger, bobbi brown’s new long wear cream shadow stick gets a big thumbs up from us! looking for that simple eye pencil which will make you ready for that day out instantly? ask mac for their new copper strip pencil! it’s time for some dramatic news, well, skin. the mac extra dimension collection of eyeshadows adds more glamourous layers to your eyes, with shades you may haven’t seen before! as always, chanel makes itself the go to brand for make up   especially lips. hence proved it’s time to dispel the rain gloom with sparkling eyes created by chanel’s new stylo eyeshadows! mac has discovered the perfect formula for creamy, luscious lips   their new mineralise rich lipstick range taking inspiration from the very entertaining and stylish characters of the much beloved archie’s comic, mac has bought out their personalities very well in this new collection! eye shadows are a complicated business. mac makes it worth the effort with its new winter y shade, which surprisingly, works very well in summer too! give yourself a new, bold avatar with estee lauder’s pure color velvet lipstick. it has passed our review quite well! read on… that faintly pink, healthy cheek glow has been in the wishlist of many women. mac makes it very much possible with its porcelain pink powder! just like its name, the sufi range of products by the imperial salon & spa aim to quietly do their work, while giving a respite from the turmoil your skin faces each and everyday. it passes brilliantly through our test! you can stop hunting for that perfect mascara as clinique presents you with the perfect option. this is our take… bb creams are not a new concept. but kiehl’s gives it a new identity with its innovative formula. result? perfectly glowing natural skin… with the scorching summer beating our brow, it’s the best time to figure out your skin weapons. dermalogica helps quite a bit in this battle we think if you want to keep it natural with just that hint of glowing glamour, estee lauder’s pure color topaz collection is the perfect product to pick next! the old is going to come back, but in a contemporary way. that’s how indian designer nikasha tawadey interprets fashion today. we got hooked for sure… blending the east and west seamlessly, project renaissance, true to its name, creates a new fashion age, where fabrics and crafts from india merge with western silhouettes to create an evolved fashion sense corneliani has seen quite a rough journey in india. as they shake hands with another company, the osl group, we try to learn more by interviewing the brand’s staunch supporters, mr salesh grover & mr prem dewan smouldering eyes, healthy cheek blush and plush lips. every woman wants these defining attributes. thus, we figure out make up trends this season from lancome and estee lauder fashion is not frivolous. it can thaw boundaries and create a genial atmosphere. a proof of that is the coming of the pakistan fashion design council to india the aamby valley india bridal week 2012 in mumbai showcased the union of time honoured indian traditions with an elegant air of modernity. after all, nothing defines couture better than wedding attire in india. we spell out our favourite four designers from the show! growing from strength to strength, tarun tahiliani’s bridal couture exposition, has successfully given sound fashion advice to soon to be married couples and their families. the 4th edition this year turned out to be even more spectacular! as myriad international brands head their horns towards india, indians can proudly lift their chins and showcase the bevy of luxury brands we already have here. and hidesign was the first one among them! so how has the brand revolutionised in the recent years? starting in an era when india was devoid any fashion industry, indian designer suneet varma has come a long way in the past 25 years. we have a short conversation with him while being struck with his gorgeous couture anniversary collection. if possessing a cashmere or pashmina item is your ultimate luxury, then the indian brand janavi can help you in that marvelously if there was no royalty, there would be no luxury and without luxury, would royalty be as royal? luxuryfacts chronicles the first connoisseurs of luxury   their lives, their times and their tastes for everything luxe! epitomising ottoman royalty, indian designer jj valaya found inspiration in the mesmerising turkey to create his awe inspiring fall winter 2012 collection christian louboutin has finally opened its first store in india. needless to say, we give it full marks on uniqueness! brands are made over a large period of time, probably after changing a lot of hands, where each one leaves a certain imprint on the brand. but do all manage to survive this turmoil? not really indian designer gaurav jai gupta collaborated with swarovski elements to create a radiantly unique autumn/winter 2012/13 collection. the core of the collection, however, is genuine craftsmanship the stylish men and women of this world must have already started rethinking their wardrobe as we enter 2012. here’s a word of advice to aid in that process! which gentleman wouldn’t like a suit which fits like second skin? but one needs a master tailor to make it a reality. camps de luca from france definitely fits the bill! this month luxuryfacts shares with you insights and stories on perhaps the most innovative and dynamic turnaround for a luxury brand. burberry gets its groove back and in facebook parlance   we like! a dash of glam here and some fresh colour there. a perfect key to bidding farewell to the year and welcoming the new one, this article has it all! paul smith has it all in its latest peculiar collection inspired by artist henry moore and its furniture shop which houses artistic pieces scoured from world over! rule makers and rule breakers, the standard and the extraordinary. something comes in between each of these to draw that bold line of distinction. that’s quirkiness. luxury brands have many mad hatters, we discover if you are still staring at the limitless options available in the market and trying to determine what and how much to purchase for your trousseau, this column should help you clear your thoughts and put you on the exact track! while the bride is almost always the center of attention   what with her heavy lehenga, exquisite jewellery and perfect makeup   the groom is no more far behind. he is as eager to look his best and show the world his most stylish and elegant side. here’s how you can become the king of the party… bridal wear has gone beyond the traditional red and maroon colour, embellished with some gorgeous, but cliche zari and embroidery work. we list a few bridal lehengas by some of the best indian designers   which have defied the long established look and experimented with colours, designs and styles by getting more renowned brands like celine, catherine malandrino and ysl homme in its portfolio, kitsch has presented the style conscious indian with even more choices if beautiful memories and marriage proposals could be weaved into a wedding gown, fanny liautard would have done that. but she knows the next best technique to do so and tries to present the bride with a gown that will always be a reminder of that lovely day… with luxury brands stocking up their stores with autumn/winter collections, it’s the apt time to discuss, consider and spell forth the trends in a snapshot, which will help you decide your next shopping purchase! babies today open their eyes to a completely different world. it’s time to teach them how to crawl in style and introduce them to designer bibs! lost at horniman circle? look for the new and grand hermes store which is the latest landmark there and you will find your way. at least your fashion way the indian fashion scenario is filled with multitude designers. but fdci’s synergy1 delhi couture week 2011 short listed top 12 of them and set up a fashion extravaganza like never before! by: soumya jain what would i do without lace?   said vivienne westwood. and that’s true. lace, for us women, is a symbol of elegance and sensuality as well. solstiss is one of the lacemakers, which has been quietly working in the backdrop of the high glamour fashion industry, and supplying us with our much desired lace… men’s fashion brand canali continues to excel in its ‘made in italy’ bespoke tailoring for the indian men’s market…but is it only for india or for the entire world? the monsoon season is welcomed by most in india, but the country is lacking a pioneer in monsoon fashion. if you are a designer, it is the perfect time for you to make a splash! literally summers connote bright shades and vibrant moods. the fashion trends this season say the same! read more about what you should be wearing and seen in at this time of the year! the much known corneliani brand, present in india through blues clothing company, believes that tradition, hand in hand with modernity, is the reason of its success. we converse with mr cristiano corneliani on the brand philosophy and more! there are very few individuals who leave an indelible mark on people and in the industry they strive for. adriana mulassano is one of them. a strong hand in yesteryears for today’s elite designers and a silent observer of all that is happening…she is one woman who never lets her passion for fashion die out, even at the prime age of 72! designing is not just about colours and patterns. it is, first and foremost, about understanding your customer. and nobody knows this better than christian louboutin. read more about this divine shoemaker in his exclusive interview to luxuryfacts hidesign can’t be categorised as ‘just another brand’ in the luxury industry. first reason   their bags are built to be useful and functional   the sort which will truly last you forever in terms of quality and design as well. the second reason is the simple, honest and unaffected thoughts of its owner dilip kapur with the luxury retails sector in middle east growing by leaps and bounds, mr fawzi al kadi, ceo of four corner enterprises, takes a bite of the fresh apple and shares his views in an ode to some fabulous brands, and their equally fabulous muses, we list some great fashion pieces, which have left an indelible mark on our consciousness… a round up of the recently held london fashion week, enjoy the journey as we meander through catwalks, collections, ambience and more! fashion watchers consider india to be coming up on the global fashion scene now. the status of the indian fashion industry is judged by the number of fashion weeks that happen here. but they forget to credit india for the nehru jacket, which became a fashion draw at a time like the 1960s! corsets are tough to wear and tougher to make. corsetiere hubert barrere talks about his passion for the garment, its new meaning and his india inspiration it’s a mad world out there! while pretty models strut around in beautifully created garments for you, you barely even have time to register the catwalk! that’s the world behind fashion   hectic, crazy and a gamble at that! luxury fashion houses are slowly digitizing themselves with burberry being the most apt example. is this check inspired uk based brand showing us the future through its strategy for london fashion week? intelligent, business savvy and a tough woman who has carved a global way for her brand. but there is another side to tamara mellon, founder of jimmy choo, which is filled with love, patience and integrity. is haute couture losing its meaning as luxury fashion houses bend down to include the masses and e commerce, and hence, make more money in the process? is there a better initiative to help luxury fashion houses bypass the economic crisis and retain their exclusivity as well? nothing can beat the feeling of soft fur caressing your skin or black leather making that evil, but smart impression. a fur and leather couture house based in spain, eden lun, was founded by xavier gali and cris roca in 1999. their innovative design, excellent craftsmanship and focus on quality has us completely awed email address* name

the year 2025 is almost here, which means we’re a quarter of the way through the 21st century. we’re in the business of looking ahead. and next year is going to be a big one, with debuts at celine, givenchy, tom ford, and chanel, plus the inevitable surprises (like beyoncé turning up at luar or john galliano’s transporting margiela artisanal show last january), which we look forward to most of all. but as the keepers of fashion’s most complete 21st century archive what is vogue runway, after all, but a kind of museum of images? we’re also well positioned to look back. and so, each weekday this december, we’re doing a deep dive into a single year, pulling out agenda setting collections, the most significant red carpet looks, and the innovations, trends, and it items that shaped not just the industry but how the world gets dressed. the jumping off point, the year 2000, is particularly important for vogue runway: it’s the year our predecessor style.com was launched, precipitating shifts still impacting fashion to this day. and so that is where this story begins. nicole phelps it’s day three of 2025, and we’re busy looking ahead to the men’s shows starting in mid january. to cap off our 25 day 21st century fashion time machine, here’s a quick wrap up of some of our biggest stories of 2024. jonathan anderson’s sketch of zendaya as tashi in challengers simone bellotti at the bally fall 2024 show in milan luar, fall 2024 gigi and bella hadid at the 2024 victoria’s secret fashion show. seán mcgirr at his debut runway show for mcqueen. anna wintour and marc jacobs. photographed by nick newbold. vogue, december 2024, special issue, guest edited by marc jacobs. john galliano at a fitting for christian dior in 2005. matthieu blazy at the 2023 vogue forces of fashion conference. maggie maurer, a muse of daniel roseberry’s since his start at schiaparelli, gave birth to a baby girl in july of 2022. two years later, the baby she carried down the schiaparelli spring 2024 couture runway was not her own but rather a robot like infant made from thousands of crystals and discarded computer parts. it wasn’t as instantly viral as the lion heads from a previous season, but as ai and other technologies continue to influence and sometimes threaten to replace many of our creative processes, it was certainly something to think about. per beyoncé, “it’s not the diamonds, it’s not the pearls,” and it’s not the looks, either. but when beyoncé wears something, it’s impossible to look away: loewe, courrèges, mugler, marni, diesel, jean paul gaultier, alexander mcqueen the list goes on. the megawatt star took her critically and commercially acclaimed seventh studio album, renaissance, on a world tour in the summer of 2023. the concerts were a testament to beyoncé’s mesmerizing talents as a performer, but it was her custom made looks that we couldn’t stop talking about. each and every one of the 56 tour dates featured at least one new look, and by the end of it all, the list of designers featured read something like lyst’s hottest brands index. if it matters, then beyoncé wore it. josé criales unzueta it’s a conversation as old as some of the world’s biggest luxury houses: fashion is largely marketed to women, yet the products are often created by men. of the 30 luxury brands at the top of the latest vogue business index, eight are currently led by female designers. meanwhile, of the 18 creative director announcements vogue business published in 2024, five were women. “there is a dearth of clothes that real women can wear,” lisa armstrong, head of fashion at the telegraph, told my colleague madeleine schulz earlier this year about what women are missing from their wardrobes. more inclusive sizing, boob friendly silhouettes, wearable shapes and fabrics, and comfortable shoes were just some of the other responses. are we likely to see more of any of those in 2025? the number of female creative directors at a top 30 brand will rise from 8 to 10 early in the new year as sarah burton and louise trotter present their first collections for givenchy and bottega veneta, respectively. change is possible, but it really shouldn’t be this slow. elektra kostoni this content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. the word supermodel gets thrown around too easily these days, but the industry and the internet agree that bella hadid has earned the coveted descriptor. yes, 2021 was a fantastic year for hadid: who can forget the schiaparelli she wore to the cannes film festival? and it was 2022 that brought the model her first solo vogue cover. but a viral moment at coperni’s spring 2023 show, which generated $26.3 million worth of coverage for the brand according to launchmetrics data, plus a collective obsession with her every outfit and a variety of viral tiktok memes using her voice or mannerisms are all signs that gen z has embraced her as the generation’s first true super. j.c.u. for two years we had been waiting and waiting and waiting for the new phoebe philo collection. then, finally the collection dropped: supersoft leather pieces, necklaces that spelled out mum, and the most sensual trousers we’d seen all year. (some had a shaggy embroidered texture down the front, inviting touch, while others had fully functional zippers up the back of the legs that also invited…touch.) the collection was everything we could want from philo without knowing to ask: ultra luxurious, sexy, and fun. laia garcia furtado hodakova, fall 2023 ready to wear duran lantink, fall 2023 ready to wear thirty something millennials are bringing indie energy to fashion all around the globe. in new york the new names are the draw. the landscape in europe, home of heritage houses, is a bit different. sharing space with the big brands is a new cadre of cool euro kids, like 2024 lvmh prize winner ellen hodakova larsson of sweden and runners up duran lantink (netherlands) and standing ground’s michael stewart (ireland). other buzzy names are luca magliano, niccolò pasqualetti, and setchu’s satoshi kuwata, all working from italy; belgians meryll rogge and marie adam leenaerdt; and the paris based american and norwegian duo behind all in, benjamin barron and bror august vestbø. laird borrelli persson fans wait for j hope outside the dior men fall 2023 show at the place de la concorde. cher at balmain, taylor russell at loewe, dua lipa at versace: celebrity cameos at fashion week are now almost commonplace. but not all celebrity cameos are equal, as evidenced by the commotion at the menswear shows in paris upon the arrival of blackpink’s lisa and bts’s kim taehyung, a.k.a. v, at hedi slimane’s spring 2023 show for celine. on the day, hoards of k pop fans gathered outside paris’s palais de tokyo awaiting their arrival, and the crowds were so big that attendees reportedly had to be escorted through the runway’s backstage area to exit. j.c.u. margot robbie and ryan gosling film barbie. never has a yet to be released movie made a bigger splash than greta gerwig’s barbie. when, in the summer of 2022, pap shots of margot robbie and ryan gosling shooting a scene as barbie and ken, respectively, were released into the wild meaning the internet one of the biggest trends of the 2020s was born. in came barbiecore, the  core to conquer them all. their kooky outfits and hot pink ensembles monopolized our attention for the rest of the year and well into 2023 until the film was released at last in july. those initial images made pink the color of the year (sorry, pantone), but the movie’s official press tour ushered in yet another trend: red carpet method dressing. robbie and her stylist, andrew mukamal, worked with brands from prada to schiaparelli to re create barbie doll outfits from history. we talk about it girls and influencers all the time, but barbie has been around since 1959; now, that is staying power. j.c.u. bella hadid, serena williams, and gigi hadid at vogue world: new york in the 2020s, everyone is talking about fashion experiences. and not to toot our own horn, but we really delivered with the first ever vogue world, a street festival that took over the west village with a fashion show, live music, dancers on the runway (mikhail baryshnikov!), celebrities everywhere you looked, and fashion themed food carts where one could get a cup of tea courtesy of burberry, a baguette courtesy of fendi (get it?), or a pastrami on rye from michael kors. l.g.f. bottega veneta, fall 2022 ready to wear before his bottega veneta debut for spring 2022, matthieu blazy was still a fairly unknown quantity, though he’d held important behind the scenes roles at maison margiela, calvin klein, and celine. of course, he wouldn’t stay unknown for long. from the very first look a deceptively simple tank and jeans cut not in cotton and denim but leather he was brimming with creativity and ingenuity, and as of 2025, he’ll be putting both into practice at chanel, where he was recently named artistic director. n.p. sarah jessica parker films and just like that. it all started with the fall 2022 jw anderson menswear collection, which was inspired, in anderson’s own words, by “weird.” (anderson used the word 19 times during a preview with vogue’s luke leitch.) sure enough, the second model walked out holding a life size pigeon in one hand. but it wasn’t a real pigeon, of course, though it might’ve been less weird than the life size pigeon clutch that anderson cooked up. everyone was instantly obsessed with the pigeon. a few months later sarah jessica parker as carrie bradshaw was photographed on the set of and just like that, and for a moment in time, all was right in the world. l.g.f. linda evangelista at the fendi resort 2023 show when in september 2022 linda evangelista closed kim jones’s fendi show in new york, which he staged with an assist from marc jacobs, it was her first time on the runway in over a decade. her tiffany & co. blue cape and sterling silver fendi baguette bag were befitting of the visiting royal she was. jacobs who, like tiffany, was a jones collaborator that season led the crowd in a standing ovation for the og super. that appearance and the steven meisel photographed campaign that preceded it marked evangelista’s long awaited return to fashion after speaking out about a failed cosmetic procedure earlier that year. evangelista, who always knows how to make an entrance, also graced the cover of british vogue’s september issue that year, which was likewise lensed by meisel, and she’s been on a roll ever since. j.c.u. jean paul gaultier, spring 2022 couture soon after jean paul gaultier said au revoir to the runway with a spectacular spring 2020 couture show featuring looks from his 50 years in fashion, he announced that he’d implement an idea he had back at patou to invite a rotating roster of designers to create couture collections inspired, to some degree or another, by his vast archive. first up for fall 2021 was sacai’s chitose abe, who applied her deconstruction techniques to some very recognizable gaultier pieces. y/project’s glenn martens was in the driver’s seat for spring 2022, and he delivered a tour de force collection that was a true melding of past and present, gaultier and glenn, the double gs. reviewing the collection, mark holgate focused on another letter: “it is not c as in collaboration (a word which is looking increasingly passé),” he wrote, “but c as in conversation, a constant state of respectfully going back and forth between incoming designer and the heritage of the house.” l.b.p. balenciaga, fall 2022 demna has a way of upending expectations, and he stayed true to form for his fall 2022 balenciaga show. within a controlled environment models struggled through a snowy and wind torn atmosphere carrying (leather) trash bags. this was no cheery snow globe where everything eventually settles back to normal but a vision of a world torn apart and people displaced by war. at the opening of the show, the designer read a poem by the ukrainian poet oleksandr oles. the conflict in that country, wrote nicole phelps in her review, was “retraumatizing for a man who was a child refugee at the age of 10, fleeing war in abkhazia, georgia, in 1993.” l.b.p. andré leon talley walks the spring 1999 yohji yamamoto runway andré leon talley, the larger than life former vogue editor, died at 73 in january 2022. talley was a man of grand pronouncements, extravagant capes, and friends in design studios from new york to paris: marc jacobs, tom ford, diane von furstenberg, karl lagerfeld, and many more. when the news of his death from a heart attack broke, many of his friends in fashion and beyond took to social media to express their grief, and a theme emerged. the pharaoh of fabulosity, as another vogue staffer once dubbed talley, was also the industry’s biggest champion and booster, the first editor backstage, quick with encouraging advice or a course correction. his enthusiasm was prodigious. read the full obituary here. this content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. it seemed like most of the western world hopped on tiktok in 2020 during the covid pandemic, using it as both a source of entertainment and solace and, above all, to satisfy an appetite for connection. but fashion was a late adopter. it’s easy to understand why the industry couldn’t quite figure tiktok out at the time. the whole point of the platform was its diy ness. tiktok content was, and still is, lo fi. it’s meant to feel crafty and of the moment, designed to capture an instant as opposed to being the product of a corporate touch base. fashion, particularly as it had been operating on instagram, was about polish; the higher the production values, the higher the likes. that era is long gone now, and it’s all because of tiktok. it’s not just our attention spans that have changed. now good content is off the cuff, friendly, and relatable, all things fashion had to learn to be in order to speak to the kids. should the tiktok ban go into effect in the us, where will fashion go next? j.c.u. “inspiring and empowering younger generations defined who he was.” michael burke was speaking about virgil abloh. the louis vuitton ceo was addressing us from the middle of a runway at miami marine stadium that abloh himself had been due to walk on the evening of november 30, 2021. just over 48 hours earlier, abloh’s family had announced his death at the age of 41. trotting up miami beach from a meeting to work in my hotel, i remember the growing chorus of chirping alerts and watching as sunbathers would suddenly sit up, squint at their phones, and then squint again. the news they were looking at broke via abloh’s own account, where his family had written: “for over two years, virgil valiantly battled a rare, aggressive form of cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma. he chose to endure his battle privately since his diagnosis in 2019, undergoing numerous challenging treatments, all the while helming several significant institutions that span fashion, art, and culture.” the show two days later had gone on at the request of abloh himself, as well as his widow, shannon. what had been anticipated as a relatively straightforward presentation that showcased his most recent louis vuitton collection in june suddenly acquired the weight of a wake. planes flew in from all over. the staging seemed extraordinarily and sadly prescient: there was a monumental statue of the designer by the entrance to the show space that presented him staring up at a hot air balloon that strained still further upward against its tether. after the show, a display of drones traced out the iconography of abloh’s vuitton, especially the paper plane motif, and then spelled out “virgil was here” up above. this collection was about the notion of coming of age; watching it here for the second time was heartrending for many in the audience. as burke had told us: “he used the platform he had to break boundaries, to open doors, to shed light on his creative passions art, design, music, and of course, fashion so that everybody could see inside not only to dream of being part of that world but to also find ways to make that dream a reality.” a month before, abloh himself had reposted a quote of his own from the account of his “post modern” scholarship fund, one of his chief tools for enabling elevation and empowerment. it read: “in my mind, i haven’t done any work yet, i’ve just made a case for why my point of view is valid.” abloh was a brilliant individual whose point of view and mode of operation transformed him into both symbol and lightning rod for positive cultural rebalance and uplift. his legacy lives on, especially via the many creatives he inspired and mentored. his absence also remains tragic. luke leitch there was never a chance the house of gucci movie, about the rise and fall (and rise) of the gucci dynasty, would be anything short of amazing. first, because of its leading actors: lady gaga, adam driver, and jared leto. second, because of the persistent rumors that lady gaga had gone full method while filming; she was patrizia gucci 24/7. (leto is also a practitioner of this method.) and third because the fashion was obviously going to be amazing. when the movie finally came out, the reviews were not all favorable, but i’m certain in 10 years people will change their tune. it’s dramatic and funny and dramatically funny; every actor is giving 100% to their role, and you never know what’s going to happen next. leto, as paolo gucci, cousin of maurizio, is so delightfully unhinged and even manages to give his character a catchphrase: a delightful “boof!” that is still heavily quoted among my fashion friends. it’s exactly the kind of movie nicole kidman talks about when she says, “somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”  l.g.f. new york fashion week, spring 2022 ready to wear there were many happy reunions when fashion shows resumed in september 2021 after 18 months without them during the covid lockdowns. yet what i remember from that season was the feeling that everything was different. i don’t mean how we were still in masks or that our seats were set six feet apart. it was as if we had left and come back to a completely new crowd, a fresh generation of fashion obsessives with a fabulous “rules? what rules?” way of dressing. “anything goes,” steff yotka wrote at the time, and she was right. n.p. alber elbaz’s death from covid was such a loss. he was one of fashion’s great humanists, and he had just launched the new label az factory, which was designed for all shapes and sizes, not just the double 0s we see on the runways. “fashion says: ‘this is right, and this is wrong,’” he said. “i think that there is no wrong! i took a subject that is taboo, that you almost don’t want to talk about, but i said: we’re not here to transform women. we’re here to hug them.” “we all belong to the same circus, and i really want to go on repeating this ritual.” alessandro michele said this in milan on february 19, 2020, after an inside out gucci show that was, at least to me, his most magical. alongside nicolas ghesquière’s time traveling show that marked the end of paris fashion week 11 days later, it was also the season’s most stimulatingly metaphysical: a show about shows and the nature of fashion, time, and change. if there was ever a season of change, it was this one. the first inklings of a flu like novel coronavirus had begun emanating from china in january. in a move that to some at the time felt like an overreaction, italy quickly suspended flights to and from that nation and began testing the temperature of all arrivals. a swathe of designers and buyers based in china were obliged to cancel their plans to be a part of the european fashion weeks. and yet the problem still seemed very distant. life carried on. in fashion, companies began donating to medical efforts in china and counted the cost of dramatically reduced footfall there, even as they worked on adjusting and refilling their seating plans for the shows ahead. planning my transfer from london fashion week to milan, i remember dropping into a store between shows to buy a particulate filtering face mask designed for cyclists, then feeling laughably paranoid as i paid up. that gucci show was the first of the milan season. as we did our appointments, i started to gather predictions from designers and executives about the effect of what we were calling the virus in china. the same evening, at moncler’s third genius event, hundreds of us partied and perused the collaborative capsules from jonathan anderson, rick owens, rimowa, simone rocha, and others. on february 22, the italian government quietly imposed lockdowns in some regional zones of lombardy and veneto. that evening giorgio armani announced his shows would be happening behind closed doors. we heard of the first two deaths in italy; that virus in china article, by now collated and ready to publish, seemed suddenly out of time, so we spiked it. yet while the volume of noise surrounding the coronavirus was increasing, it still seemed far away from the daily realities of getting on. and inside the circus of fashion there were other headlines to consider. as editors rushed out of dolce & gabbana to get to paris suddenly fearful that the quarantines in northern italy might close routes of travel prada announced the arrival of raf simons. in paris the tempo of urgency around the news surrounding covid 19 (as it was suddenly christened) kept upping remorselessly. we saw the first masks at shows i remember wearing mine in a jam packed dior, suddenly feeling less laughably paranoid but still those shows went on. by ghesquière’s beautiful endpiece, however, the benches were notably underpopulated. a week later, a few hours before i was booked to return to milan, flights across europe began shutting down in earnest and italy imposed its national lockdown. a season that had started with the coronavirus as a distant and hard to fathom factor came to an end just as covid 19 finally became very real indeed. the circus was closed. l.l. eckhaus latta, spring 2021 at the beginning of 2020, covid felt like the distant rumbling of a wave, where every day you’d wake up and realize it was gaining on you at an alarming speed. louis vuitton capped off the fall 2020 shows in paris on march 3, and a week later the entire world was on lockdown. before long, the menswear shows and couture shows scheduled for june and july would be canceled and designers started thinking of creative ways to present their spring 2021 collections. eckhaus latta held its show underneath a section of the fdr to a handful of socially distanced guests, with models wearing masks. bottega veneta’s daniel lee sent a large bottega green twill tote bag filled with books (one with collection images and others with his inspirations and art obsessions) and a record of a spoken word performance by neneh cherry. (previously he’d sent a projector to editor’s houses so they could more fully experience the collection’s film, bottega veneta: men.) balenciaga sent oculus glasses to 330 people across the globe. but surely no one had more fun than jonathan anderson: the spring 2021 loewe womenswear collection, dubbed show on the wall, was delivered as a kit of life size posters (really) along with scissors, wallpaper paste, and a brush, while the menswear show in a box included fabric samples, a mockup of a runway set with little paper figurines to set upon it, and a record with a diy record player that worked as if by magic. many designers turned to film and video. at alexander mcqueen, sarah burton commissioned a film from jonathan glazer. giorgio armani broadcast his collection on the italian network la7, and gucci’s alessandro michele codirected a seven episode miniseries titled overture of something that never ended with gus van sant. at off white, virgil abloh launched imaginary tv, a whole channel with on demand programming ranging from documentaries to performances and footage of his fashion show. at the time, the tod’s ceo exclaimed, “we’ll all become movie producers!” l.g.f. telfar clemens launched his signature bag a faux leather tote with a stamped t logo on the front that came in three sizes in 2014, but it was in 2020 that the telfar craze really hit. the bag was perpetually sold out, and immediately after a drop, people would take to social media to share their excitement over finally having scored one or their depression at having missed out yet again. it’s funny to think now that we were all at home with nowhere to go, pining over a bag that presupposes one is going places, but it was, in fact, a pursuit that brought everyone together. i remember finally scoring a bag (medium orange) during one drop and then helping my best friend secure hers the following drop with the lessons i had learned. but that wasn’t good enough for clemens; after all the brand’s tagline is famously “it’s not for you, it’s for everyone,” and that summer he introduced the bag security program, which allowed everyone to preorder a bag in the size and color of their choosing. l.g.f. dries van noten, fall 2020 ready to wear it’s hard to keep a secret in fashion, but guests arrived at the dries van noten fall 2020 show without knowing they would witness a totally unexpected and fantastical collaboration between the antwerp mix master and the king of opulence christian lacroix. van noten had simply found the french designer’s contact and called him up to ask. feathers! florals! hot pink and animal prints! the collection had everything, but most of all it was totally filled with joy. l.g.f. in february 2020, harry styles wore a color block jw anderson cardigan. a couple of months later, in the early days of lockdown, when everyone was experimenting with hands on hobbies, a young woman named liv huffman decided she would re create the sweater “as a fun way to challenge” her own “crochet abilities,” as she told vogue business at the time. she shared her creation on her tiktok account, and it went viral except instead of people flocking to the designer to get their own cardigan, everyone got the materials to start knitting it themselves. anderson was thrilled. the proof? he shared an official pattern for the cardigan on the jw anderson website. “i am so impressed and incredibly humbled by this trend,” he said. “keep it up!” l.g.f. in his review luke leitch recalled the scene of timothée chalamet and haider ackermann at the designer’s final show: “fashion’s finest bromance by far burns between timothée chalamet and haider ackermann. at ackermann’s show this morning, chalamet rolled up with a refreshing lack of pomp and circumstance. with his prada re nylon backpack slung over a plain white t shirt worn above tapered paneled jeans, he resembled a well put together french exchange student. he clapped like crazy at the finale, then threw the ‘i love you’ hand gesture when posing with ackermann backstage after it. aww. chalamet was as chill as his effect on the audience was electrifying: ladies, you’re objectifying! either get a room or a restraining order!” it was the first monday of may in 2019: there was harry styles in sheer silk and a dangly pearl earring, jared leto carrying a gucci replica of his own head which someone stole at the after party, by the way and kendall and kylie jenner in matching versace. oh, and who could ever forget lady gaga’s spectacular three in one brandon maxwell look, in which she turned the met steps into a cabaret performance stage? the met gala was already a spectacle, the biggest and most important fashion event of each year. but there was something different about 2019, when the exhibition and gala dress code were informed by susan sontag’s camp: notes on fashion essay. to start, the evening’s theme invited a certain level of flamboyance from its attendees. that fashion at the time was experiencing a gender bending revolution, spurred largely by alessandro michele of gucci, one of the evening’s co chairs, meant that the audience was primed for the celebratory queerness of “camp.” the result of this cultural convergence led to a new level of mainstream exposure for the met gala, accentuated by the internet. at this time, a generation of fashion commentators had begun to rise on instagram including yours truly. talking and blogging about fashion, as opposed to merely style, had become a popular content avenue, and the met gala was like catnip for virality. we’ve already discussed how kim kardashian and rihanna’s met gala looks become popular memes. but those were one offs, whereas with “camp,” everyone was meme material: remember karlie kloss looking camp right in the eye? it’s little surprise that instagram sponsored the 2020 and 2021 met gala twofer and started hosting content making viewing parties with some of its more popular fashion  and style adjacent creators or that the 2024 met gala was made possible by tiktok. the one downside of the internet ficiation of the 2019 met? everyone’s been misusing the word camp since. j.c.u. backstage at the louis vuitton spring 2019 menswear show one of the most exciting menswear seasons of the 2010s was spring 2019. and of all the shows that season, none was more culturally galvanizing than virgil abloh’s debut at louis vuitton. what it represented was epitomized in his show notes, which came structured as an a to z glossary of abloh’s vocabulary. under l, he defined luxury as: “a label determined by values, codes, and qualities, its use and definition were the privilege of few until a new generation conquered its dominion and shifted the paradigm for good.” abloh’s potentially paradigm shifting arrival at the pinnacle of luxury’s ivory tower was thanks in part to a wider shuffle of lvmh’s menswear cards. that began when kim jones declared in january that he was leaving louis vuitton after seven years as its first men’s artistic director. this catalyzed a frenzied round of hr hokey pokey similar in scale to the one we are currently seeing in womenswear although back then, the moves were not so telegraphed. abloh’s appointment, announced in late march and taking immediate effect, was overseen by its then ceo michael burke. while in the same role at fendi, burke worked with abloh and gave him and kanye west internships at fendi’s rome hq in 2009. the appointment was also in part thanks to jones, who had first met abloh in 2006; he lobbied strongly for abloh to succeed him. not only that, but jones’s smash hit 2017 collaboration with supreme had demonstrated how powerfully a new generation of consumers wanted to engage with a form of heritage luxury, but only if that form reflected its generational aesthetic and values. back to those notes. under d for designer, abloh wrote: “i don’t call myself a designer, nor do i call myself an image maker. i don’t reject the label of either. i am not trying to put myself on a pedestal, nor am i trying to be more, now. i would like to define the title of artistic director for a new and different era.” within five years of launching off white, abloh, a black american man, had taken a seat at luxury’s top table. the collection shown in blazing sunshine at the palais royal entwined a narrative of social aspiration and achievement alongside motifs from contemporary iconography that ran from the wizard of oz to michael jackson. it was also a boundary breaking blend of codes and genres. at the show’s end, abloh embraced kanye west, whose partnership had proved so instrumental to abloh’s progress. that first show really did feel like the beginning of a new and different era. l.l. graffiti outside the old barneys store it’s wild to think that a store that began in 1923 as a menswear outlet became one of the most important retail presences in the world, and yet that’s exactly the story of barneys. in the 1960s, fred pressman convinced his father, founder barney pressman, to pivot to luxury goods, and a decade later they were selling giorgio armani’s entire collection, introducing american audiences to the italian designer in the process. barneys continued building upon that reputation, and by the ’90s it had become the crème de la crème of new york retail, known for its unwavering support of young designers and a directional buy driven by the new, modern, and unusual, rather than the safe and commercial. even if you couldn’t afford anything on sale, walking through the store and touching the garments or having a chef’s salad at fred’s was always a treat. as sarah jessica parker famously said in an interview with vanity fair, “if you’re a nice person and you work hard, you get to go to barneys.” so when barneys announced in 2019 that it had filed for bankruptcy, it was met with incredulity. after all, it had filed for bankruptcy once before and managed to bounce back, and how can an institution go away just like that? but it did, and two years later, its glamorous former locations were being used as temporary spirit halloween shops. judging by the many other stores that have since closed, we now know that barneys’ demise signaled the beginning of the end of retail as we once knew it. l.g.f. karl lagerfeld’s farewell chanel show began with a moment of silence and ended without a single dry eye in the grand palais. the man rejected sentimentality of any kind, but after a decades long career at the house that coco built, it was only right to honor his many, many contributions. celine, spring 2020 menswear powered by nostalgia, the wheel of fashion started to spin swiftly backward in the late 2010s. one tipping point was versace’s spring 2018 show, marking 20 years since gianni versace’s death. in her brother’s honor, donatella versace reissued prints and arranged a supermodel reunion for the surprise finale. then in december 2018, the month after marc jacobs rereleased his 1993 grunge collection for perry ellis, google called nostalgia the biggest trend of that year and it continues to be right up there today. styles, songs, and movies of the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s decades that many millennials were too young to experience are in constant rotation in stores, on the radio, and in theaters. “i have nostalgia for things i probably have never known” is a slogan artist david kramer came up with for a celine embroidered bag in 2020, and it sums up the vibe well. revivals, remakes, and reissues are physical manifestations of nostalgia, the intangible, usually escapist, desire to return to or summon another time that’s imagined to have been better. second time around ing does seem contrary to fashion’s forward impulses, though; nostalgia might be acting like a brake rather than an accelerator. l.b.p. prada, fall 2018 ready to wear anok yai opened the prada fall 2018 show, becoming only the second black woman in the label’s history to do so. (the other is naomi campbell, circa 1995.) “it was an honor and i’m proud that i was the one chosen to open, but this is bigger than me,” yai told british vogue in 2018. “me opening for one of the top fashion houses is a statement to the world especially for black women that their beauty is something that deserves to be celebrated.” yai and her family fled the sudanese genocide, first to egypt and eventually, in 2000, to new hampshire. she had an exclusive contract with prada for her launch season, a star making deal that has time and again christened the incoming model of the moment. unforgettably, she was discovered in october 2017, after a photographer posted her picture at howard university on instagram. the images went viral, and after calls from most major modeling agencies, anok yai had arrived. ignacio murillo and josé criales unzueta the wedding of prince harry and meghan markle the wedding of prince harry and meghan markle, who up to that moment was known primarily for her role in the legal procedural drama suits, took place on may 19, 2018. it was, as the royal wedding that preceded it in 2011, a moment. markle chose clare waight keller, givenchy’s first ever woman creative director, to create her wedding dress. the simple and unornamented gown featured an open boat neckline and train and was said to feature only six seams, which underscored its simplicity. “the commission itself was really quite a moment for me,” waight keller told vogue, “a huge thing for both my career but personally as well being a brit and being able to be a part of a piece of british history.” she and markle designed the lavish 16 foot veil with great britain’s history in mind; it featured hand embroidered flowers all around its hem, each representing one of the 53 countries of the commonwealth. for the evening reception, markle completed a one two punch with a stella mccartney halter gown. j.c.u. models backstage at the victoria’s secret show in 2018 the victoria’s secret fashion show returned to the runway following a six year hiatus this october. this 2018 vogue interview played a role in its cancellation. in the interim, the company has been the subject of a documentary and a book charting its rise and fall and has undergone a rebranding in which it broadened its product range and its definition of sexy. but bombshells are still in the picture. n.p. carla bruni, claudia schiffer, naomi campbell, cindy crawford, and helena christensen reunite at the versace spring 2018 ready to wear show. christian dior, spring 2017 ready to wear the fall 2017 shows started just weeks after donald trump’s inauguration, and they were marked by protest collections. the models at missoni wore pink pussy hats in the brand’s signature zigzag knits. the season’s many, many pantsuits looked like a would’ve could’ve been wardrobe for america’s first woman potus. and slogan tees reading “make america new york” and “save the planet” leaned left. designers, of course, are often two steps ahead of the rest of us: at her dior debut, a month before trump won the election and days ahead of the release of a bombshell video in which the republican nominee exchanged lewd comments about women with billy bush, maria grazia chiuri sent a t shirt down the runway with the rallying cry title of chimamanda ngozi adichie’s essay “we should all be feminists.” it’s still true eight years later. n.p. kevin lyons’s farewell to colette the parisian boutique colette is the mother of the modern concept store and the paradigm against which those that followed are measured. founded in 1997 by colette roussaux and her daughter, sarah andelman, the shop was a nexus of fashion (by names known and up and coming), beauty, art, culture, gastronomy, and tech. there was a water bar, exhibitions, must see windows, an in store magazine and compilation cds, an e commerce website, and another, ilovecolette.com, that was purely creative. colette was the ultimate manifestation of a mixed curation. its closing in december 2017 was in keeping with a broader vibe shift. “we are at a turning point,” andelman told vogue at the time. “there’s space for the system to work in other ways than shows and showrooms. you’re seeing much more interest in young brands than high luxury brands or luxury brands trying to be like young brands. brands cannot continue to do what they used to do even five years ago.” plus ça change. l.b.p. calvin klein, fall 2017 ready to wear calvin klein, fall 2017 ready to wear calvin klein, fall 2017 ready to wear raf simons’s appointment at calvin klein in 2016 reverberated across the industry. what would one of fashion’s most cerebral, avant garde designers do with an all american staple? his predecessor had leaned into the house founder’s minimal roots, but simons had something different in mind: he turned calvin klein into a looking glass for american society, taking up its cultural vernacular and most recognizable codes films like the graduate and jaws, working class and first responder uniforms, and class signifiers like prep and ivy league varsity and poking holes in the american dream and identity as he did so. while simons’s predecessors were both immigrants, he is the one who made this all american brand about the immigrant experience. as a fellow immigrant, i can say that this is a country whose people, even more so in the cultural and political context of 2017, have not always been comfortable with looking at themselves too closely. in the end, simons’s time at calvin klein was short lived. j.c.u. ashley graham walks the michael kors spring 2018 show. paloma elsesser walks the eckhaus latta spring 2018 show. by the time ashley graham walked michael kors’s spring 2018 runway, she had been featured in a music video with joe jonas, appeared on the tonight show with jay leno, fronted campaigns for everyone from lane bryant to liz claiborne, and appeared on the cover of the 2016 sports illustrated swimsuit issue as its first curve model. mind you, graham had also been profiled for the april 2007 issue of vogue by sally singer, though it would take a decade for fashion, high fashion, to embrace her. synchronistically, that same season paloma elsesser made her own runway debut at eckhaus latta after being discovered on instagram by pat mcgrath. in hindsight, what their arrival signaled was an industry ready to reckon with size diversity. needless to say, with the rise of ozempic this year, there’s still lots of progress to be made. i.m. and j.c.u. alexander wang, spring 2018 ready to wear speaking of simons’s calvin klein: it was on the belgian designer’s runway that kaia gerber, cindy crawford’s daughter, walked the runway for the very first time. gerber had modeled before, having appeared in a young versace campaign in 2012, another for alexander wang in 2016, and, most memorably, as one of the faces of marc jacobs’s daisy fragrance. but new french legislation prevented models younger than 16 from appearing on the runway, which rippled across the industry. gerber debuted on simons’s spring 2018 runway; her best walk, though, came later that season when she stepped out of a party bus to walk down wang’s makeshift runway on the streets of bushwick. that clip is making the rounds on tiktok today, over half a decade later. i.m. and j.c.u. vogue celebrated its first 125 years with a four cover bonanza. annie leibovitz, inez & vinoodh, and bruce weber were invited to photograph jennifer lawrence as the embodiment of american beauty. and for the fourth cover, the actor donned a miu miu hat and bag to sit for her portrait by the painter john currin. adut akech at the saint laurent spring 2017 ready to wear show the sudan born, australia raised adut akech debuted on the fashion week circuit at anthony vaccarello’s spring 2017 saint laurent show. years earlier jourdan dunn and chanel iman helped change an industry long defined by the sameness of all white runways, but it was akech who precipitated the wave of dark skinned black models, particularly those of african descent, so visible on the runways today. akech was raised in kenya until she and her mother relocated to adelaide, australia, as south sudanese refugees when she was seven years old. “when i first started modeling internationally, i would literally be the only black, dark skinned girl in the show,” she told british vogue for a 2022 cover story celebrating nine african models, including akech, anok yai, and maty fall. “there were no sudanese models, no african models,” she continued. “now i go to a show and there are girls from my country, girls from africa who look like me. there has been a huge change. it has gone from me being the only one at a show to 15 or 20 of us. i’m just so happy that we are finally at this place. i was tired of always feeling out of place and like an outcast.” i.m. and j.c.u. zendaya at the 2016 met gala beyoncé at the 2016 met gala a chanel haute couture wedding dress nfts were on the horizon and ai but a distant rumble in 2016 when the costume institute staged “manus x machina: fashion in an age of technology.” an exploration of the interaction between hand and machine, this was an exhibition with a message that became more relevant as the world is ever more mechanized and the relationship between what is inhuman and human shifts. among the pieces on view at the met that looked techy were automated dresses by hussein chalayan and iris van herpen’s 3d printed wonders; eyes couldn’t reveal which garments had been made using pattern making programs, however. curator andrew bolton wasn’t just interested in examining how designers had made use of technology; his thinking was more radical. “the wider notion behind the exhibition is we need to try and come up with a new paradigm for fashion that goes beyond the categories of haute couture and prêt à porter, which are becoming very slightly redundant in the 21st century,” he said at the time. fast forward to 2024, and it’s the growing divide between luxury and ready to wear that is being discussed, as well as how ai might impact not only the fashion industry but the world. l.b.p. fenty x puma, spring 2016 ready to wear did you ever think, when rihanna first broke into the music scene with “pon de replay,” that she would become not just the best selling female recording artist of the 21st century (according to guinness world records) but also a self made billionaire business mogul? speaking for myself, i could never have imagined then that one day i’d be wearing both rihanna branded makeup and sneakers or that these would constitute a limited selection of her wide business portfolio. but here we are: rihanna’s fenty empire which now consists of savage x fenty lingerie, puma x fenty, and fenty beauty, fenty skin, and fenty hair got its start in 2016 when she presented one of her puma collections at new york fashion week. rihanna had become creative director of the sportswear brand in 2014, but until 2016 the partnership was limited to footwear covetable, constantly sold out sneakers, that is. with the success of her puma project first came fenty beauty in 2017 which really did revolutionize the beauty industry with its introduction of a wide range of foundation shades to match every skin tone and then savage x fenty in 2018. in 2019 rihanna would become the first woman to create an original fashion label with lvmh, simultaneously becoming the first woman of color to lead a fashion house for the conglomerate. in the years since, beyoncé, harry styles, selena gomez, and lady gaga have launched beauty and/or fashion labels to leverage their aesthetic signatures and celebrity. but let’s be honest, there’s only one rihanna. j.c.u. all was quiet on the evening of april 23, 2016. on this particular saturday night, the world could be found in front of their computers or tv screens watching beyoncé’s lemonade. that film accompanied her concept album of the same name, with songs about love and infidelity but also generational trauma and being black in america in 2016. it was a complete musical tour de force, but, this being a beyoncé project, it was also visually stunning. the image of beyoncé walking down a street in a ruffled yellow roberto cavalli gown, holding a baseball bat, and smashing the windows of parked cars an homage to pipilotti rist’s ever is over all was one of the year’s, nay the decade’s, most indelible images. l.g.f. be still, our beating hearts. rihanna staged a sort of love parade when she went to dinner in manhattan in denim cutoffs and the showstopping red fur heart coat from hedi slimane’s last collection for saint laurent. this was a master class in how to glow up a casual monday night outing. alessandro michele at the gucci fall 2015 ready to wear show the opening look at john galliano’s maison margiela spring 2015 couture show jonathan anderson at the loewe fall 2015 ready to wear show jonathan anderson at loewe. alessandro michele at gucci. john galliano at maison margiela. fashion realignments of this order don’t happen every year; in fact, before this, the last time we had seen so many major debuts in such short order was in 2010. (scroll down to read about the first runway shows of phoebe philo’s celine, the row, and tom ford.) but 2015’s shake up seems especially significant as we head into 2025: with the industry rumoring about anderson’s future, michele’s first couture show for valentino just a month away, and galliano’s exit leaving an open slot at margiela, fashion finds itself at another inflection point. only now we call them vibe shifts. n.p. rihanna at the 2015 met gala “ah! i love a girl from humble beginnings who becomes a big star,” proclaimed andré leon talley as rihanna climbed the metropolitan museum of art stairs on the first monday of may in 2015. “it’s like the american dream, that’s how you do it,” he continued. “i want more train! i want drama!… this is the queen of the night!” for the gala celebrating the opening of “china: through the looking glass,” rihanna wore a fur trimmed robe by guo pei that blanketed the met’s steps and required a small army to carry as she walked up. this kind of stunt is now the norm, but at the time it was internet shaking. pei’s dress became an instant online sensation, photoshopped as everything from an omelet to a slice of pizza. there has not been a single met gala look as memed as this one, though many, many stars and celebrity stylists have tried to match it. j.c.u. karlie kloss and taylor swift on the march 2015 cover. photographed by mikael jansson, vogue, march 2015 there have been many famous duos on the cover of vogue: shalom and amber, gisele and carmen kass, catherine zeta jones and renée zellweger, but none caused the stir that taylor swift and karlie kloss did when they appeared on the march 2015 issue. at the time one of the world’s biggest pop stars and one of its most famous models came together, they hadn’t known each other for long. they met in 2013 at the victoria’s secret show, where kloss walked down the catwalk as an angel and swift was performing. but their connection was instant; the night they met they took a polaroid together and wrote in sharpie underneath “best friends forever vs 2013.” thus, an enviable friendship was born. the beautiful leggy blondes with ocean blue eyes soon became inseparable they were often described as twins and were regularly photographed walking hand in hand in the streets of new york, differentiated only by their heights. (kloss has four inches on swift.) inside the magazine, a profile detailed every aspect of their friendship, while a glamorous editorial re created the legendary road trip to big sur they embarked on early in their friendship. just how iconic is their cover? on ebay, copies of the magazine go for up to $4,599, while reddit threads continue to pop up to memorialize the moment. irene kim in late 2014 phoebe philo released the first ever celine resort campaign, starring daria werbowy (a philo stand in, it must be said) looking defiantly at the camera from inside one of those cool ’70s cars; it was a reference to the iconic portrait of joan didion leaning against her corvette stingray taken by the photographer julian wasser in the 1960s. that the long knit dresses and skirts in the collection also seemed inspired by what didion was wearing in the photo (and one could imagine easily belonging on her famous packing list) was a bonus. but then philo’s spring 2015 campaign dropped with didion herself as the star photographed by juergen teller, no less in a black fitted dress, a sculptural gold pendant hanging from her neck, and oversized black sunglasses, not smiling but not not smiling, like a sphynx. philo had long been our favorite thinking woman’s favorite thinking woman, but this campaign exalted her to another level. in 2022, a year after didion passed away, the sunglasses sold at auction for $27,000. l.g.f. fifteen years after style.com put fashion shows online, it went through a bit of a metamorphosis, pivoting to become an e commerce site backed by farfetch. but runway fans were not forgotten; in 2015 vogue runway launched with a rich archive of show images (over a million photos, actually), along with street style pics from fashion weeks around the world and a very spicy ranking of the top 25 fashion shows of the 1990s. but you know about all that already you’re here right now! l.g.f. the most instagrammed carpet in the world? it just might be the mossy forest floor runway specially created by the argentinean artist alexandra kehayoglou for dries van noten’s spring 2015 show. hood by air, fall 2014 ready to wear in 2006, shayne oliver launched hood by air alongside raul lopez, and what began as logo, screen print t shirts soon evolved into something bigger and more influential. hba was as much about the lives lived in its clothes as the garments themselves and was a sartorial representation of what it was like to be queer, young people of color living between worlds: the streets of brooklyn, the art scene, clubs in downtown manhattan and williamsburg, vogue balls, and the new york fashion community. after a brief hiatus, hba returned with a full fledged fashion show at milk studios, and it was one of the most hyped shows of the season, surpassing expectations with its mix of sportswear, tailoring, and experimental silhouettes shown on models of all genders a rarity at the time. from that moment, it was off to the races: a special prize at the first edition of the lvmh prize for young fashion designers, fashion shows in paris and florence at pitti uomo. hood by air would disband in 2017 with a one off return in 2022 but its shows remain a high point in the history of new york fashion. l.g.f. gigi hadid made her runway debut at the desigual fall 2014 ready to wear show. kendall jenner made her runway debut at the marc jacobs fall 2014 ready to wear show. it’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since kendall jenner and gigi hadid debuted on the high fashion runways. in a not so distant past, before they were both on vogue covers, jenner was taking catwalk lessons orchestrated by her sister kim kardashian in keeping up with the kardashians and hadid was the young aspiring model daughter of yolanda in the real housewives of beverly hills. together with cara delevingne, they jump started the rise of the instagram model, leading an entire generation of popular insta girls off their social media grids and onto the runways. “i think they didn’t believe in me when i came into the industry,” jenner told vogue for a cover story in the magazine’s summer issue, which nodded at her 10th anniversary as a model. “that’s been a constant narrative in the hater world online, and at times that’s been really hard,” she continued, “but i always say i like being a pleasant surprise.” one thing no one’s surprised about? jenner and hadid’s staying power. j.c.u. a street styler in the vetements jeans during the milan fall 2016 ready to wear season not long after vetements introduced its reworked vintage jeans, i wrote a piece about the extravagance of $1,500 denim. it’s been lost to time and a url that switched from style.com to voguerunway.com. in the 10 years since, price hikes across luxury fashion have made the shock i felt at the time almost quaint. but you know what hasn’t aged? the low key cool of vetements’s straight leg, high waist pieced together jeans. n.p. one way pharrell williams helped us get happy in 2014 was by showing up at the grammy awards (where he was nominated for his work on daft punk’s “get lucky”) in an enormous hat. this camel felt wonder wasn’t a 10 galloner but a piece from punk pioneers vivienne westwood and malcolm mclaren’s fall 1982 buffalo/nostalgia of mud collection. “streetwear has a one trick pony ness to it. i want to give my point of view and merge street sensibilities in a proper fashion context. i think that if i can merge the two, it’ll make something interesting.” that’s how virgil abloh pitched a new brand named off white in december 2013, as he announced its launch to style.com. then aged 33, abloh was at that point an insider’s insider at the emerging intersection of streetwear’s colloquial cool and fashion’s cultural cachet an intersection he would soon come to define. the illinois born dj and architecture student’s life arc had changed when he met and clicked with kanye west back in 2002. abloh worked on many projects alongside west: in 2009 they attended the menswear shows paris fashion week together and did internships at fendi. shortly after, abloh started a venture named pyrex vision that applied collegiate lettering to upcycled ralph lauren and new blank t shirts. however by 2012, shortly after abloh had established pyrex vision as a company, the century established glassware company also named pyrex reached out to him to complain. that snag coincided with a night at club 79 in paris, where abloh regularly dj’d. also on the lineup was the italian promoter and dj marcelo burlon, who abloh had first met in miami a few years previously. abloh had been cooking up a sequel to pyrex vision named off white; he described the idea to burlon, who had just begun developing his own brand county of milan. the next week abloh traveled to italy and met burlon and his partners claudio antonioli and davide de giglio: they struck an agreement to develop and produce off white from milan. the first collection dropped in 2014, and abloh’s off white was a finalist in the lvmh prize the following year. off white not only did blow up but also radically altered the direction of that period’s fashion by doing exactly what abloh intended: it merged sensibilities. as amy verner so perfectly observed of abloh in the kicker for her fall 2015 review: “he’s two steps ahead of the zeitgeist, and the medium is his message.” l.l. kim kardashian at the 2013 met gala before kim kardashian was on the cover of vogue in 2014, she was a first time guest at the 2013 met gala. then as now, she was dressed up to the nines “because that’s what we do,” she recently told vogue. pregnant with her first child, north west (who was born just over a month after this appearance), kardashian wore a custom floral givenchy gown by riccardo tisci. it was the most memed look in met gala history up to that point, starting a now treasured online tradition. tisci, who was often ahead of the rest of the pack, was the first high fashion designer to embrace kardashian. what did he know that his peers didn’t? the internet may still have been making kardashian the butt of jokes at the time, but she certainly had the last laugh: kardashian continues to be a regular at the met gala, with each of her looks provoking more chatter than the last. j.c.u. in the digital world, pixels are currency stored in clouds. here on earth, those wanting to tether, organize, and share pictures did so on tumblr prior to the 2013 release of pinterest, a mood boarders dream and fashion students’ best friend (for better or worse). bright and easy to use, pinterest is a design friendly site that now also acts as a trend forecaster. “fashion should stop and recognize how well equipped it is to deal with the triumph of image over word,” said pinterest cofounder even sharp when vogue visited silicon valley in 2016. l.b.p. jennifer lawrence was only 19 when she had her breakthrough role as ree dolly in winter’s bone and was nominated for the best actress academy award in 2010. two years later it was as if she were the only actress in the world, starring as katniss everdeen in the hunger games and following it with a role opposite bradley cooper in silver linings playbook. the latter garnered her a second academy award nomination for best actress, and wouldn’t you know it, she won! but a funny thing happened on her way to accept her statuette from the french actor jean dujardin: her foot caught on the enormous skirt of her sculptural strapless champagne colored couture gown made by dior’s newly appointed creative director, raf simons and she fell. it wasn’t a comedic banana slip fall but rather a gracious slow motion wilting like a flower, which seemed to highlight the classic glamour that simons was referencing at dior while also feeding into lawrence’s quirky girl persona. “you guys are standing up ’cause you feel bad that i fell, and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you,” she said. the whole thing was so charming, it was all people could do to not fall in love with her. the flower wall at the christian dior show diane kruger and raf simons in dior haute couture. photographed by norman jean roy, vogue, september 2012 raf simons’s christian dior haute couture debut is up there in the pantheon of runway shows. the belgian designer was coming off a string of subtly sensational jil sander collections in milan, which he called a “couture trilogy” that clearly announced his ambitions and design acumen, but dior was in another league. anticipation was high on the avenue montaigne on the day of this show, a quality that was only accentuated by the million or so fresh flowers that decorated the walls of the dior headquarters and the crush of star designers in the front row, azzedine alaïa, alber elbaz, marc jacobs, and donatella versace included. simons’s collection itself was a tour de force, balancing “reverence and iconoclasm,” as tim blanks argued in his review, and rendering the decades old bar silhouette both modern and desirable. i can think of few other couture outings of the last quarter century that so informed the shape of fashion moving forward. n.p. angelina jolie at the 2012 oscars not every dress gets its own wikipedia page, but angelina jolie’s leggy commitment to her über high slit certainly earned this black velvet versace gown its place in the pop culture hall of fame. it was around this time that we started seeing style moments transcend fashion to become viral memes. if this wasn’t the first, it was one of the most memorable. j.c.u. anthony vaccarello, spring 2012 ready to wear it’s a fact that angelina jolie made the single bare naked leg stance famous and memeable at the 2012 academy awards, launching the trend for what was dubbed naked dressing. but it’s also true that months before, an even more daring example of this posture was seen on the runway of a young belgian designer named anthony vaccarello, who used his andam prize money to put on a spring 2012 show. the designer put his barely there dress an exemplar of the type on karlie legs for miles kloss. vaccarello had been inspired by herb ritts’s sunlit photos of bodycon 1990s looks on the supers, and he understood how a new generation of women wanted to dress. “all the models called up, asking to be in the show,” he told vogue. nicole phelps’s summation was: “for fashion followers, there’s nothing sexier than a designer with a strong vision.” it’s taken vaccarello far indeed. l.b.p. prada, fall 2012 menswear prada, fall 2012 menswear one of the best examples of bad meaning good is prada’s unforgettable fall 2012 menswear show featuring actors who played onscreen villains, including dracula’s gary oldman. so successful was the show that it has been the subject of odes and explainers in the decade plus since. whether the nuances of that “parody of male power,” as miuccia prada described it, were absorbed or taken at face value is up for debate. in any case, celebrity trumps subtlety on instagram, and the brand staged a sort of made to meme sequel 10 years later for fall 2022. l.b.p. susie lau and bryanboy at the fall 2012 ready to wear shows according to my instagram app, i joined the platform in november of 2012. i remember it well: i was in high school and had noticed online friends drifting away from tumblr may it rest in peace toward other social media platforms. there was twitter, though fashion folk never quite got good at it, and there was blackberry messenger, which younger millennials were using like nobody’s business. instagram launched in october of 2010, but in its early days, it was a platform reminiscent of flickr, mostly used by photographers to share their work. its mainstream ification came with the popular adoption of the iphone and its powerful camera. and the year 2012 was the tipping point. that’s when anna dello russo, suzy menkes, tommy ton, and the sartorialist scott schuman all joined. that year my first ever post was some highly filtered picture of my breakfast. the second? a snap of a highly annotated issue of vogue, full of tiny rainbow post its poking out. the writing was on the wall, as they say. j.c.u. in a tell all, always on digital world, only maison margiela could make anonymity cool. it’s part of the label’s heritage, after all, as martin margiela refused to be photographed and preferred to communicate by fax. we know now that matthieu blazy was at the house when this couture collection, featuring diamanté face masks, was shown. in 2011 julie wainwright founded therealreal, a website that brought the classic consignment shop concept to the internet. fashion fanatics had long been using ebay and vestiaire collective (launched in 2009) to buy and sell hard to find designer wares, but it was the realreal that brought the concept fully into the mainstream. originally the realreal was a members only site with a focus on the san francisco bay area, where wainwright was based at the time. by 2016 the new york times had declared a new “age of consignment,” spurred not just by the proliferation of resale websites but also the marie kondo inspired furor over decluttering your living spaces and the fact that, with the rise of social media, fashion fandom was no longer a niche interest. in 2019 the realreal went public, the same year that chanel sued the company, accusing it of selling counterfeit goods and misleading the public about its affiliation with the french luxury giant. other brands embraced the new trends, collaborating with the realreal (and other popular websites) on curated sales or otherwise launching their own archive sales. l.g.f. interior overview of the “alexander mcqueen: savage beauty” costume institute exhibition at the metropolitan museum of art. as curator in charge of the costume institute at the metropolitan museum of art, andrew bolton has had too many hit exhibitions to count with one hand. but before he was running the show, back in 2011, bolton co curated one of the costume institute’s most successful stagings and what is undeniably one of the most famous fashion museum presentations of all time: “alexander mcqueen: savage beauty,” which opened on may 4, 2011. it’s easy to understand why “savage beauty” became the new bar for the met and fashion museum shows moving forward. its run time had to be extended for a week due its popularity, people lined up fifth avenue for hours to see it, and the museum started offering a special ticket to view it on mondays, when it’s usually closed. the museum accumulated 20,000 new memberships during the show’s run, and stayed open until midnight during its final weekend for the first time in its history. by the time the exhibit closed, over 650,000 people had seen it. there was, of course, a curiosity about the world of the late lee mcqueen, who had come to epitomize the grandeur and spectacle of fashion in the 2000s and was closely associated with cultural icons like lady gaga. but it also happened that the show was simply fantastic. “even if you never bother with fashion shows, go to this one,” wrote judith thurman of the new yorker. and go they did. j.c.u. i remember waking up at around 4:30 in the morning on april 11, 2011 to watch catherine middleton marry prince william. the soon to be cambridges, now waleses, had captivated the entire world with their upcoming nuptials, but it was the fashion angle i was most interested in. middleton and sarah burton, as we’d come to find out, had successfully kept what then felt like the best guarded secret in fashion. the princess to be’s dreamy alexander mcqueen gown reverberated through the world as the epitome of a fairytale come to life. “that such a feat of appropriateness should have been accomplished in intensely secret conditions and continually denied by the designer is in itself incredible in a world of internet gossip, iphone photos, and instant communication,” wrote sarah mower at the time. “more important,” she continued, “it was the symbolism of a partnership in which the individual wishes of a young woman have been expressed and enabled by another young woman of vast talent whose understanding of fashion’s role in serving, and underlining, this historic moment is nonpareil.” j.c.u. gisele bündchen in the original isabel marant wedge sneaker, 2012. before the balenciaga croc heels, there was another ugly shoe that became a mainstream phenomenon. the bekett, a wedge/sneaker hybrid introduced by the french designer isabel marant in 2011, was a rare creature a plush suede calfskin velcro trainer with an ultra padded tongue and a two inch internal wedge. it was an immediate success with supermodels like gisele bündchen, irina shayk, and miranda kerr adopting the style as an official part of their off duty uniform. hollywood soon caught on: kerry washington announced the starting lineup at dodger stadium in a black pair, and beyoncé even wore a glimmering gold version in her “love on top” music video. the sneaker was everywhere, thanks to the many, many dupes designed to cash in on its success, yet it eventually fell out of style a few years later. flash forward to 2024, though, and the bekett is enjoying a renaissance following a recent style revamp by the marant, and a new generation of fashion fans claiming their love for this now classic. irene kim j.crew, fall 2010 ready to wear jenna lyons at the 2012 met gala. i’ve always thought of jenna lyons’s j. crew as the lovechild of the official preppy handbook and carrie bradshaw. this success story was largely built around the concepts of styling, accessorizing, and strategic alignments. in the lyons era, you could get a pencil skirt in khaki or a lamé jacquard, while the addition of a tiny garden of sparkling brooches made a traditional school boy blazer look spectacular. she advocated for sequins for day and metallics as new neutrals. success built upon success suddenly this mainstream purveyor of ivy style had a boutique like appeal that others wanted in on, and many a collaboration was born. lyons zhuzhed american fashion with flair. l.b.p. olivier theyskens rose to prominence in the early 2000s with his very goth, romantic collections. by 2008 he had been the creative director at rochas and nina ricci, injecting the maisons with his alluring vision of femininity (and delivering a legendary fashion moment when reese witherspoon wore a canary yellow nina ricci cocktail gown to the 2007 golden globes). that such a talent could be without a job was depressing, but then theory’s andrew rosen had a genius idea, hiring the belgian to do theyskens’ theory, a grounded, more youthful take on the designer's signature aesthetic. it was all about a very lean silhouette, with ultra low trousers and sky high chunky platforms that were de rigueur for every model off duty and the women that dressed like them, which in 2011 was all of them. alexander mcqueen, spring 2010 ready to wear alexander mcqueen, spring 2010 ready to wear alexander mcqueen, spring 2010 ready to wear helmut lang has long been credited as the first designer to show a collection on the internet, but lee alexander mcqueen was the first one to break it. titled plato’s atlantis after the fictional island that appears in his works timaeus and critias, mcqueen’s spring 2010 collection is famous for three things: first, it was his last collection presented while he was alive. second, this is the show where the extraterrestrial armadillo boots lady gaga wears in her “bad romance” music video debuted. and third, it was the first show to be streamed live on nick knight’s show studio platform the hook being that gaga would release “bad romance,” the song, during the show. her fans this writer included clicked the link so many times we broke it. plato’s atlantis was home to a utopian civilization. with its biomorphic silhouettes and pixelized fish scale textiles, this collection imagined a better future by looking to the past and leveraging technology. mcqueen often celebrated the natural world in his work, either by utilizing its materials and textures or by emphasizing its wild and unyielding nature. wild and unyielding is a proper description of lee mcqueen, who remains one of fashion’s truest and most sincere iconoclasts. as sarah mower wrote in her review of the show, he was also at “the leading edge of change.” j.c.u. two looks from phoebe philo's first runway collection for celine. celine, spring 2010 ready to wear phoebe philo had been off the scene for a few years. before she stepped down to focus on her growing family, she had injected chloé with a fun, flirty, and ultra feminine aesthetic that was still dominating women’s wardrobes. everyone was walking around in babydoll dresses and chunky wooden platforms like a modern flower child. now she was back at a different french maison also founded by a woman would she pick up where she left off or introduce something completely different? it was a new vision, of course; not only for philo, but for womenswear in general. at her first runway show for the brand, she established many of the signatures that are still influencing the way we dress today: sleek leather separates, updates on the classic white blouse, the perfect work pants. above all, the clothes were grounded by the fact that they were utterly practical, which only made them more desirable. l.g.f. karen elson and tom ford. photographed by steven meisel, vogue, march 2011. tom ford and stella tennant. photographed by steven meisel, vogue, march 2011. “mr. ford returns,” announced a spread in vogue’s december 2010 issue, written by sarah mower. the magazine piece offered a first look at tom ford’s spring 2011 collection, which marked the designer’s runway comeback after he parted ways with kering (then gucci group) in 2004. the story starred joan smalls, karen elson, and amber valletta, in looks from his women’s ready to wear debut. for that september 2010 show, ford put on an exclusive, extremely intimate affair at his store on madison avenue, and didn’t release any photos. he’d always been famous for starry front rows, but this time the celebrities were on the runway. beyoncé, stella tennant, karlie kloss, and julianne moore, his close friend and the lead of his debut film a single man, dropped everything and modeled for him. click here to revisit the story written by sarah mower and photographed by steven meisel. josé criales unzueta pierpaolo piccioli and maria grazia chiuri. valentino, fall 2010 ready to wear that the industry has created a designer star system doesn’t negate the fact that fashion is a collective endeavor. very few creative directors are threading needles or wearing thimbles on their thumbs every day. (as has been the case for a long time, by the way; coco chanel once called out cristóbal balenciaga as the only designer in their cohort who could construct a garment from start to finish). with the conglomeratization of the industry in the late 1990s came a new play book, one that attached marquee names to heritage houses. this kind of recruitment started to change in the late ’00s, notably when the valentino alums maria grazia chiuri and pierpaolo piccoli were promoted from within and made a success of it. already steeped in the house codes, they were able to riff on them in a way that felt new, yet connected to what the house stood for. once mgc and ppp made valentino a hit, in house hires became a trusted way of doing things. in the years after their appointment, olivier rousteing was elevated at balmain and alessandro michele rose at gucci. most recently julian klausner, a member of dries van noten’s design team, took over for the house founder. l.b.p. lea t in the givenchy, fall 2010 couture lookbook. it was in 2010 that riccardo tisci cast the brazilian model lea t, who had until then been his friend and personal assistant, as the star of his givenchy campaign. here’s how it happened, according to tisci himself: “when lea told her family [she wanted to have gender reassignment surgery], their reaction was not so good. so she called me one day at six in the morning, and she was destroyed. destroyed. and she said, ‘i want to prostitute myself. i want to go to the street because i don’t have money to do [the operation]. the fact that she told me that she wanted to be a prostitute, it killed me. i decided to do the campaign for two reasons. to help lea financially, and because who says that a transsexual cannot be a top model?” there had been the likes of connie fleming a famous mugler muse and tracey africa before her, but lea brought trans visibility to the forefront at a time when fashion, and particularly modeling, were at a low point diversity wise. j.c.u. backstage at their very first runway show for the row, ashley and mary kate olsen said, “we wanted to do something low key and straight to the point.” and as we said in our review, “there’s no more apt description for their 19 look, entirely black, navy, and white show, which featured one of the most effortlessly luxe dresses of the week.” caroline trentini and some of the september issue production crew, photographed for the september 2007 issue. despite carrie bradshaw’s forays, the inner workings of vogue remained largely a mystery in 2009. but that all changed with the release of the documentary the september issue, which gave director rj cutler unprecedented access to vogue’s time square offices and beyond as the september 2007 issue came together. the movie had everything: there were funny dramatic pronouncements about fashion (grace coddington’s “those poor goddamn rodartes” when one of their looks gets killed for a photoshoot, and andré leon talley’s “it’s a famine of beauty!” are endlessly quotable). there were whispers far from the boss’s ear (relatable). and there were, of course, beautiful clothes. on opening weekend i went to see it by myself; i had been in the city for three years and the idea that i would ever one day work at vogue seemed too insane to ever entertain, but now i can say that the movie’s mix of trembling tension and ridiculously funny moments, and all the fashion! fashion! fashion! is indeed 100% real. l.g.f. it’s impossible to look back at the past decade or so in fashion without considering the impact of lady gaga as a performer and clothes obsessive. stefani germanotta came out swinging with “poker face,” “just dance,” and “paparazzi” a trilogy of singles that announced her arrival but it was “bad romance” and its accompanying video that cemented gaga as a budding fashion icon. “bad romance” was the lead single of the fame monster, gaga’s follow up to her debut album the fame. the song was released in october 2009 at alexander mcqueen’s spring 2010 show; the video, which followed in november, was directed by francis lawrence with styling by nicola formichetti, and is still one of gaga’s most spectacular. the premise is gaga gets kidnapped by a group of supermodels that drug her and plan to sell her to the russian mafia at a bathhouse. you likely remember her wearing mcqueen’s infamous armadillo shoes, which had just debuted on the runway, though gaga wears three full looks from the same collection. her two piece latex ensemble was made by emerging designer rachael barrett for her 2009 graduate collection, and that outlandish faux polar bear coat hailed from benjamin cho’s spring 2005 collection. her soon to become signature pyro bra was made by tom talmon studios. who else was doing it like her? well, no need to be rhetorical. the answer is: no one. j.c.u. it was in early 2009 that tommy ton, proto fashion blogger, street style photographer extraordinaire, and former style.com contributor, photographed the late virgil abloh and kanye west with their friend group outside the comme des garçons show in paris. this was before abloh changed fashion, first with the launch of off white and then with his appointment at louis vuitton menswear. still, the image was shared so widely that west was featured in an episode of south park that mocked his style in the photo. the image was taken to capture west, but the reason why it resonates today is because it captures the moment right before abloh’s decade long moment. “some may think that this is the ultimate street style peacocking image,” ton told vogue a few years ago. “but this was actually before street style had become such a phenomenon, and you could really see how much kanye loved fashion and clothes, and virgil did too.” so how exactly did ton make it happen? “i saw kanye and his posse walk from their car towards us and there was no paparazzi. they saw me and the one other photographer there and just stopped to assemble in formation in front of us. they were all so cool and chill about it and i was more than happy to document this moment.” j.c.u. tavi gevinson at the rodarte spring 2010 ready to wear show. “it was very splashy of dolce,” recalled garance dore afterwards. in september 2009 domenico dolce and stefano gabbana sparked something of a ruckus by inviting four pioneering self employed digital fashion journalists or “bloggers” as they were called back then to sit on the front rows of both of their shows for the spring 2010 season. at the first show, for a denim defined d&g collection, dore was seated alongside scott schuman, bryan boy, and tommy ton. production staff had set up four laptops in front of the quartet. at the second mainline show the new media new faces were spread out a little more. afterwards, stefano gabbana would recall: “we know about the power of the bloggers because they talk with different people. it’s so important, the point of view of the new generation... i remember it was a shock: very new and very brave, but sometimes people need to start a change.” dolce & gabbana had been streaming aka “webcasting” its shows live online since 2005, and barely anyone in the mediasphere had taken note. this, however, they really noticed. “bloggers crash fashion’s front row,” screamed the headline in the new york times. who sits where at fashion shows is a tangible indication of status. dolce & gabbana’s declarative statement about the status of the “bloggers” that season seriously rattled some in a fashion industry that was already spooked by the chill winds of recession. even the bloggers themselves later confessed themselves to have been various levels of uneasy at their very public promotion (not to mention the prop laptops). fifteen years on, however, influencers regularly outnumber editors on the front rows. and nobody uses the phrase “new media” anymore, while “legacy media” has become the diplomatic way of terming anything involving paper and ink. dolce & gabbana was doing exactly what fashion brands should be doing: anticipating the shape of tomorrow, and then manifesting it today. l.l. in 2009, before instagram was born, fashion lived on tumblr. the blog friendly platform gave birth to a generation of fashion lovers turned fashion makers. above is a screen grab of peter do’s tumblr page. you could also find christopher john rogers, hari nef, and stylist dara allen there, not to mention two of your favorite vogue editors, that’d be us. l.g.f. and josé criales unzueta michelle obama in narciso rodriguez on election night. michelle obama in isabel toledo at the inauguration. michelle obama at the inaugural ball in jason wu. there was never a chance that what michelle obama wore as a potential first lady and then beyond would not be scrutinized or analyzed. but perhaps what we couldn’t have imagined was how far reaching her influence would be. lucky for us, she had taste and she knew exactly what to do with her newfound attention thanks in part to the fact that she was working with ikram goldman, owner of the chic chicago boutique that bears her name. it all began with an appearance on late night a few months before the election. “the first thing jay leno is going to ask you is ‘what are you wearing?’ and you’re going to say j.crew,” ikram recalled in an interview. “[michelle] says, ‘he’s not going to ask me that.’ and then, the first thing he asked her was, ‘what are you wearing?’” and thus began mrs. obama’s fashion era, which both reflected the style of working american women (j.crew, talbots, ann taylor), and also introduced the world to american designers. on election night, she wore a black and red shift dress by narciso rodriguez; at the inauguration, a lemon citron dress and matching jacket in an exquisite jacquard fabric by isabel toledo; and later that evening, at the ball, a delicately draped and embroidered dress with an asymmetrical neckline by jason wu. although mrs. obama would always emphasize that she dressed for comfort first and foremost, she understood the big picture as well. “my first reaction [when i try something on] isn’t ‘who made this?’ but ‘let’s try it on. what does it look like? oooh, that’s cute,” she said in an interview in 2016. “there are definitely designers that i love, people i love to work with. and who they are as people matters. are they good people? do they treat their staff well? do they treat my staff well? are they young? can i give them a boost? but! when all of that is equal . . . is it cute?!’” l.g.f. inside wall street in october of 2008. when what had started in the us as a real estate bubble finally popped in september 2008, it signaled a global financial crash on a scale not seen since 1929. as liquidity dried up and sales slumped, businesses and designers scrambled to adapt as best they could. looking back now, the figures do not perhaps sound especially catastrophic: luxury sales were assessed as shrinking 9% in 2009. menswear took a slightly higher hit, declining by 12% in the same period. however the effects were significant and long lasting. what sales there were would, in part, be fueled by the extreme discounts that hard pressed wholesale retailers applied to the inventory they were sitting on. apart from closing stores, cutting jobs, or declaring bankruptcy which many also did these fire sales were amongst the very few options open to retailers looking to navigate the crisis. this had a long term effect in making customers extremely reluctant to pay full price as the wider economic outlook gradually brightened. casualties included christain lacroix, which closed in may 2009. yet this was also a period of renewal in which the seeds of future growth were sewn. thom browne presented his first show in europe that same year, while louis vuitton’s new sneaker, co designed by kanye west, was one of the earliest luxury manifestations of what would eventually be christened “streetwear.” another long term shift augured by 2008’s financial collapse was the global luxury industry’s increased focus on servicing china’s emerging middle classes. this shift would help fuel the next cycle of growth. l.l. karlie kloss at the calvin klein, spring 2008 show. there hasn’t been a model ascent in the past two decades as meteoric as karlie kloss’s. but the way kloss evolved from a complete unknown on the calvin klein runway in 2008, to a john galliano muse and victoria’s secret angel, to the media mogul she is today as an owner of i d and life magazines is a tale equal to those of the supermodels that came before her. after taking over the runways kloss had her own cameo role on gossip girl in 2010, and co hosted the revival of mtv’s house of style in 2012 (picking up a mantle once held by og super cindy crawford), eventually becoming the host of project runway in 2018. meanwhile, she had enrolled at new york university like another og super, christy turlington, and went on to launch “kode with klossy,” an initiative to promote teaching girls about computer science with support from estée lauder, where she had a contract. by adapting the old school supermodel formula to today, she’s become a role model for all the would be supers that arrived after her: kendall, gigi, and bella, et al. would gigi, for example, have become the host of next in fashion had karlie not made project runway her own first? ignacio murillo and josé criales unzueta catherine mcneil holding a coach purse in the february 2008 issue of vogue. in 1996, reed krakoff was hired as creative director at coach and tasked with turning the beloved american leather goods company into a maker of bags that would signal desire instead of just practicality. krakoff redesigned and introduced new bag styles that appealed to a younger generation, one with high end luxury tastes without the high end budgets. he opened coach flagship stores on 57th and madison and on rodeo drive, and introduced a group of ready to wear pieces leather pants and coats, t shirts, and trench coats that “related” to his new handbag styles, as he told the new york times. its success gave rise to the idea of “accessible luxury.” by 2008, the coachrenaissance was in full swing, with the brand reporting revenues of $3.18 billion (they were reported at $500 million when krakoff first took over); and krakoff’s various bonuses were said to make it so that he earned more than twice ceo lew frankfort’s own salary. by 2010 he had raised coach’s along with his own profile so far, that with the company investments he launched his own namesake label. l.g.f. victoria beckham, spring 2009 ready to wear by the time victoria beckham launched her label for spring 2009, we were already used to celebrity labels. jennifer lopez and gwen stefani had given us sweetface and l.a.m.b., respectively, but where beckham’s boldface predecessors focused on the flash of runway shows and clothes for the shopping masses, the former spice girl turned her perfectionist streak to high fashion, launching with a carefully considered collection of 15 hourglassy dresses. and she was savvy about the roll out, inviting editors to one on one meetings in a private suite of the waldorf astoria, where she subtly wowed us with not just her fame but her commitment to the tiniest details. i can’t say for sure that she foresaw a circa 2025 future that included a documentary film about the making of a victoria beckham runway show, but even then, she was thinking long term. “this has been a lifetime in the making,” she told me. “i don’t want to make dresses that will date. i’ve always been about clever buying.” n.p. valentino garavani (second from left), 2008. ©truly indie/courtesy everett collection matt tyrnauer struck gold with valentino: the last emperor, a documentary that captures so much more than the making of the couturier’s final collection. much like a dress is completed by a body, a biopic needs a central character who delivers and valentino garavani doesn’t disappoint. nor does giancarlo giammetti, the designer’s business and one time lifetime partner. the two share a bond as unbreakable as garavani’s fastidious commitment to glamour, good taste, and his signature red. as easily as a model dons a dress, valentino adopted a to the manor born manner. the director lingers on the designer’s lavish, jet set lifestyle his pack of pugs, rich upholstery, invisible and efficient butlers, and multiple residences, serving up a sort of time capsule of high life as it was enjoyed by the titled and idle rich from the 1950s through the ’80s in rome, paris, new york, montecarlo, geneva, and gstaad. tynauer gives us glimpses of the man behind the persona, and definitively holds up garavani as a symbol of success, a man who represents the fashion dream fulfilled and offers proof of the verity of the old saying that living well is the best revenge. l.b.p. they say that “no” is a full sentence, and at the spring 2008 viktor & rolf show, viktor horsting and rolf snoeren proved it could be a full outfit too. gossip girl mad men keeping up with the kardashians picture it: it’s 2007 and you switch on the tv. you tune into e! and learn that paris hilton’s former assistant, kimberly kardashian, is now part of a new reality tv show about her family, aptly titled keeping up with the kardashians though half of her family uses the jenner name after her mother, kris, married caitlyn jenner (then bruce jenner). you switch to amc and find a broody but utterly sexy antihero in jon hamm’s don draper, who is chain smoking lucky strikes in a three piece suit at his fictional madison avenue advertising agency, as in mad men. as the latest episode wraps because why would you ever turn off mad men? you move to the cw to see if the teen drama gossip girl, promoted as “every parent’s nightmare,” lives up to the marketing hype. you discover then ingénues leighton meester and blake lively as upper east side frenemies blair waldorf and serena van der woodsen; the former dressed as a true park avenue princess and the latter as the embodiment of boho chic. what a time to be alive, no? we’ve discussed how sex and the city embedded itself within the industry and the way the devil wears prada pulled back the curtains to reveal the goings on in luxury fashion. what the simultaneous release of these three soon to become gargantuan tv shows did a few years later was shift the conversation around fashion in tv away from designers to focus on style. not that designers didn’t try to get in on the action. michael kors’s fall 2008 show was directly inspired by mad men, which set forth a smoky, sex fueled, irresistible version of the 1960s. and, yes, gossip girl eventually featured cameos by fashion folks from hamish bowles to vera wang, but at its core it was a show about young women how they dressed and how their personal style was representative of their identity: serena’s messiness represented by long, beachy waves and frilly, boho dresses, and blair’s prim severity by her peter pan collars and a line shifts. and let’s not even talk about what this show did to school uniforms. you think it was every parent’s nightmare? try high school teachers. and must we elaborate on the effect of keeping up with the kardashians? from launching kim as the proto influencer to kendall’s rise as one of fashion’s highest paid models to kylie’s reign as a beauty mogul, fashion has simply never been the same. j.c.u. gareth pugh and giles deacon take a bow after their spring 2007 shows in their henry holland tees. in the mid aughts the british fashion scene exploded. designers like richard nicoll, jonathan saunders, preen’s justin thornton and thea bregazzi, roksanda ilincic, christopher kane, gareth pugh, and giles deacon turned around a sleepy fashion week, each with a singular point of view but unified by the strength of conviction. then came henry holland, a young fashion editor at bliss, a teen magazine, who on a whim, whipped up some slogan tees with naughty rhymes that declared his love for many of london’s creatives do me daily christopher bailey, give us a tickle richard nicoll etc. the “fashion groupie” t shirts, as they were dubbed, went viral before we said things “went viral” when agyness deyn, the it model of the era, was spotted in the tee. (deyn and holland were childhood friends.) at the spring 2007 collections, pugh and deacon (pictured) took their post show bows in complementary t shirts, further igniting their iykyk popularity. the success of the tees allowed holland to launch house of holland, a ready to wear label where he was able to expand his playful aesthetic into a full wardrobe. at the end of his first proper collection, holland took a bow wearing a t shirt that bore the slogan one trick pony. l.g.f. the first iphone at fashion week that we found in our getty research. “every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” this is how steve jobs (in issey miyake) prefaced his presentation of the new iphone in january 2007. he wasn’t overselling it. the iphone’s game changing touchscreen template for a computer/ipod/phone in your pocket did indeed change everything and fashion was no exception. that change, however, was gradual. not only did it take a while for fashion to break its blackberry habit and stop hankering after luxury collab phones like the groundbreaking but long forgotten lg prada but the iphone also needed several upgrades and several cycles of uptake before it truly took over. style.com unveiled its first ios app in september 2008, however the camera built into the phone was still pretty rustic: back then most people (me included) used cameras to take reliable runway shots. fashion’s mass migration to the iphone was most visibly initiated by apple store vic karl lagerfeld he liked to give the devices away at fittings. by the time elie tahari presented his iphone dress in 2015 (although he frustratingly kept it out of his lookbook), the iphone (and to a lesser extent android smartphones) had affected fashion in multiple ways via multiple functionalities. burberry had already recorded a show entirely via iphone, the same year its ceo switched employers to apple. most showgoing photographers (at least the non pros) and note takers had retired their cameras, laptops, and notepads in favor of the devices. it freed bloggers to blossom into influencers. the iphone also became an increasingly influential hardware portal for luxury e commerce, and through phone cases and other tech accessories even became the basis of a new category of luxury. so will the iphone (and its many non apple smartphone equivalents) ever be dethroned as our do it all personal device of choice? earlier iterations may have failed to launch, but there are increasingly convincing options out there. for now, however, the iphone age continues. l.l. jourdan dunn at the prada fall 2008 ready to wear show. when jourdan dunn stepped on the prada fall 2008 runway, she would become the first black model in over a decade to do so, the last having been naomi campbell. dunn was the only one at that show, and, as it happens, on many other runways that season. the london born dunn was scouted when she was 15 at a primark in her hometown. she was 16 when she first walked international runways, quickly becoming a model of the moment and breaking the mold set a few years before her with the rise of the “eastern bloc,” as we’ve mentioned earlier in this time machine. “i find it weird when agents say, ‘you’re the only black girl booked for the show. isn’t it great?’” dunn told miss vogue when she covered the second issue of the glossy in 2014. “why is it great?” she continued. “i don’t know why people applaud designers for having just one ‘ethnic’ model. it’s not like only one type of woman loves fashion.” together with chanel iman, who debuted around the same time and with whom she shared a teen vogue cover in 2009, dunn was the beginning of a new dawn on the runways. ignacio murillo and josé criales unzueta who else but karl lagerfeld could upend the way the industry works with one little cruise show? before he brought chanel’s resort collection to grand central in may 2006, style.com had never reviewed a pre season collection. après kl, le deluge. a closeup of the wallpaper from sofia coppola’s marie antoinette. marie antoinette, kirsten dunst, 2006. ©sony pictures/courtesy everett collection sofia coppola became the patron saint of the teenage girl experience with the release of her debut film the virgin suicides in 1999, and in 2006 she doubled down with marie antoinette. starring kirsten dunst, the film focused on the fact maria antonia josepha johanna, as she was born, was just a 14 year old girl when she arrived at versailles to marry louis xvi, the future king of france. but coppola didn’t set out to make a movie bound to accuracy and historical reenactments; rather she injected her movie with feelings the one driving force behind every teenager ever. saturated pastel colors filled the screen, and every single scene recalled an extravagance of one kind or another: towers of pastries and macarons (ladurée, setting off a frenzy), lavishly embellished fabrics and floral arrangements (the latter courtesy of thierry boutemy, a favorite of dries van noten), sunlight washed scenes and greener than green grass. and that’s before we even get to the fashion, with which costume designer milena canonero created a fantasy built for, well, a queen, with opulent dresses, a dream wardrobe of custom manolo blahnik shoes (“i thought marie would’ve ordered her shoes from manolo blahnik if she was around today. he was our first and only option to design them,” coppola once told vogue); and $4 million worth of diamonds and jewelry courtesy of fred leighton. coppola’s clever mix of the historical, the modern (a memorable scene features a pair of pastel colored converse sneakers in the background), and her trademark vibes based approach means the film was basically catnip for the fashion industry anna sui and jeremy scott, who was creative director at moschino at the time both cited it as inspirations for their collections, while vogue commissioned a who’s who of designers including john galliano and alexander mcqueen to create custom dresses for the september 2006 issue starring dunst. though the movie didn’t receive rave reviews at the time; in the years since, it has gained cult status and its influence is wide ranging. think about it, would bridgerton exist without it? l.g.f. meryl streep (wearing a bill blass jacket) in the devil wears prada, 2006, tm & copyright (c) 20th century fox film corp. in london this month, playwright kate wetherhead and composer elton john premiered the devil wears prada, a musical based on the 2003 novel of the same name by former vogue staffer lauren weisberger, which, of course, inspired the famous film, also of the same name, depicting the trials and tribulations of an executive assistant (anne hathaway) at a fashion magazine ruled with an elegant hauteur by editor in chief miranda priestly (meryl streep). in real life, weisberger was briefly anna wintour’s assistant. wintour attended the movie’s 2006 premiere in prada, naturally. she did the same thing in london on december 1. and presumably she’ll wear it again when the sequel, which has been confirmed, is released. the true impact of the devil wears prada the movie is not its hilarious depiction of the ins and outs of working at a fashion magazine, not the infamous and quite accurate “cerulean blue” monologue, and not any of emily blunt’s quotable lines. its real legacy is the generation of fashionistas it produced, this writer included. i was 10 years old when this movie came out. i loved fashion in the context of celebrity, and loved designers in the context of the red carpet. i knew of vogue as a sort of mythological publication, but lived in a country where the magazine was simply not sold or available. the movie contextualized my aspirations all of a sudden i knew who made fashion magazines happen, and that, beyond the glitz and chaos, it was a real career. i watched the movie countless times, and made my mom watch it with me. she still texts me whenever she sees it, and i text her when i do. here i am almost 3 years into my own vogue job, and i still watch the movie every time i’m on a plane. once a fan, always a fan. j.c.u. balmain, spring 2009 ready to wear balmain, spring 2009 ready to wear between 2006 and 2011, christophe decarnin burned as fast and bright as a comet at balmain. his spectacular, sparkly journey launched the phenomenon of balmainia, and changed fashion by challenging the tenets of good taste associated with a maison known for dressing the “jolie madame,” and with luxury more broadly. his balmain was wildly expensive, but washed and distressed to have a lived in look, although the craftsmanship was immaculate. “everythng has to have that casual couture spirit,” he told vogue. in decarnin’s world glitz and grunge sat side by side, hems were micro mini, shoulders sharply peaked and they set a trend that swept across fashion. for his balmain women, freedom was an ideal, and from the looks of it, so was a liberated sexuality. his were clothes that invited you to abandon yourself to desire. l.b.p. one of the most era defining modeling trends of the last 25 years was the arrival of the “eastern bloc.” eastern europe had opened to the west in the 1990s, and the fashion world, always eager for newness, began scouting fresh faces. first came karolina kurková in the late ’90s, with carmen kass and natasha poly trailing close behind. kurková’s first vogue cover was for the february 2001 issue photographed by steven meisel. she had debuted on miuccia prada’s miu miu runway with an exclusive contract, but became a mainstream sensation as a victoria’s secret angel starting in 2000 at the age of 16. kass first tried her hand at modeling at 14 after being discovered at a supermarket in her native estonia; it was karl lagerfeld who gave her her big break at chanel. poly’s own breakout came in 2004, when she moved to europe after starting her career in her home country of russia. it wasn’t only their looks blonde hair, blue eyes, high foreheads, petite frames they had in common, but their stories. these women all came from close to nothing. before becoming one of the most recognizable faces of the 2000s, natalia vodianova operated a fruit stand in the streets of nizhniy novgorod, russia, while kass lived in a one bedroom apartment with her parents, brother, and sister, and her mom worked three jobs: “she taught us everything…when anyone rang the doorbell she would put all these pillow around us kids and give us knives,” she told vanity fair in 2005. “you can see it in their expressions, they don’t have the cheeky cool of a british kate moss, the corn fed simplicity of an american cindy crawford, or the fun loving brazilian gisele thing,” wrote evgenia peretz. “they exude, rather, a certain seriousness and toughness, even when they’re smiling.” dna models president david bonnouvrier added: “they are survivors. there’s a difference between a natalia and a carolyn murphy, who grew up with cable tv.” some of these women are still modeling, but over the years their peak has come to be remembered as a period of sameness. the dominant look of their time was white, thin, and blonde. it would take until the end of the decade to change that. ignacio murillo and josé criales unzueta the oc, a weekly soap opera following the lives and loves of a group of teens in wealthy newport beach, premiered in 2005, one year after the lives of real life wealthy teens were chronicled in the mtv reality show laguna beach. mischa barton starred as marissa cooper, the rich, popular girl known for partying too hard and carrying a different chanel bag every day. it turned out that the bags were fake, the show simply didn’t have the budget for the real thing. but after the success of the first season and barton’s swift ascendance to fashion it girl status, which landed her a chanel jewelry ambassadorship that changed. the proof? marissa cooper wears the final look of chanel’s spring 2006 collection to prom. runway looks from 2005. sienna miller in mid 2004. miller and jude law in early 2005. miller in late 2005. sienna miller stomping around notting hill in fringed suede pirate boots and a frilly dress. kate moss stomping through the glastonbury music festival wearing a tiny tailored vest with micro shorts and not much else. “boho chic” got its start off the runways, but high fashion soon caught on as phoebe philo’s iconic spring 2005 chloé show, with its frilly frocks and wooden clogs, made abundantly clear. “it was all done with an irreverence that i miss,” miller said when we spoke earlier this year for a story in the magazine’s summer issue about the return of the aesthetic she first popularized 20 years ago. “we weren’t self conscious in the way people are now­, and obviously this was pre social media: it was easier to be an individual.” boho chic was defined by its fabulous and lighthanded mixing of bohemian elements (lots of frills and flounces) with signifiers of true luxury like proper it bags and good jewelry. but it was, above all, about a freewheeling and irreverent vibe. as most things are in fashion, it was a reaction: “i don’t know that i was conscious of this at 21,” said miller, “but this softness and femininity has historically appeared in moments of political stress and war for something to take off in the way this did, it has to be hitting the zeitgeist in some way.” the early 2000s saw 9/11, hurricane katrina, and the war in iraq, among other humanitarian crises. what comes around goes around. then and now, with boho making a comeback, there’s no shortage of things to react against. click here to read more on the history of boho chic and its return.  j.c.u. men.style.com in february 2005. screenshot: courtesy of wayback machine. dior homme, spring 2005. men’s fashion enjoys considerable influence today thanks to stylish celebrities like harry styles and jacob elordi, and key designers such as pharrell williams and jonathan anderson. but it wasn’t always this way. it took five years after style.com launched for its brother site men.style.com to get off the ground. tim blanks was there at its genesis: “menswear was such a volatile business at that point,” he told me in an interview earlier this year. but it did feel “like there was a sort of constituency of people who were ready to experiment and there were designers who were giving them things to experiment with.” one of those things? hedi slimane’s dior homme skinny jeans. slimane applied his infamous narrow cut to denim at his spring and fall 2005 shows, starting a chain reaction that slimmed down proportions across both men’s and womenswear. it’s a funny thing to look back on 20 years later and in the age of ozempic. read the full conversation with blanks here. j.c.u. liya kebede covers vogue. photographed by steven meisel, vogue, may 2005. liya kebede debuted on the runway as a gucci exclusive at tom ford’s fall 2000 show for the brand; then, in 2003, the ethiopian born beauty made headlines when she was named the newest face of estée lauder. it was one of the industry’s then most coveted contracts, and she was the first black model to land the gig. kebede was, in many ways, a sight for sore eyes in the fashion world of the 2000s: take a look at any runway and kebede was, more often than not, the single black model cast. “there weren’t a lot of black people represented, period,” kebede said when we spoke about the advent and return of boho chic for vogue’s summer issue this year. she was discussing the pervasive whiteness of the boho trend, but her statement applies to the industry at large, which her presence changed for the better in the second half of the decade. speaking of, it was in 2005 when kebede covered vogue solo for the first time; she was photographed by steven meisel and styled by tonne goodman. written by mark holgate, who wrote the accompanying story, focused less on her runway successes and her forays into film, than on her then new role as a goodwill ambassador for the world health organization for maternal, newborn, and child health. “growing up in ethiopia, i was exposed to the problems we’re dealing with on a daily basis,” she told holgate. “i’ve wanted to get involved with a cause for the longest time, to make a difference, but i never thought i’d get to do it on this scale. it’s because of my career that i’ve been given the chance.” talk about a role model. j.c.u. riccardo tisci, fall 2005 ready to wear riccardo tisci entered fashion’s consciousness in 2005 when he presented two collections under his own name. the first, now lost to history, was made in india, where tisci was living after his contract with ruffo research was unexpectedly canceled, and it was full of light and love, having been produced with the help of friends and family. there was strength amid the delicacy of the pieces though; it lit a flame in me that was only fanned when the follow up was shown in milan. this one was a near religious experience where models posed against a wooden cross, and it introduced the gothic and catholic tropes that tisci would carry over into his work for givenchy. as might be expected, pre givenchy tisci was a bit more emotional and raw. also personal it was his own name on the door, after all. but he came out fighting in paris: tisci’s first pret a porter show for givenchy featured strict silhouettes and gladiator belts. it was a collection that proved he could compete in the global arena. l.b.p. if glastonbury was the music festival of the 2000s, it was mostly down to this photo of kate moss in rubber wellies and not much else. a closeup of the prada postcard print. tom ford at his last gucci show. “perfection in anything is fleeting,” tom ford once said.yet until it ended in 2004, ford’s 14 year stint at gucci included a several year arcadia that seemed as close to perfection as modern fashion has reached. which is why his departure alongside domenico de sole was such a moment in fashion culture. to understand that end, however, demands a sense of the beginning. for the first few years after his arrival in 1990, gucci was deep in the doldrums, dragged down by its founding family’s decadence and dysfunction. then from the ashes of near bankruptcy emerged the conditions for gucci’s ford fueled phoenix ascension. this emergence took shape after the family was bought out by its bahraini partner, which discovered the house too devalued to flip. perhaps more in hope than expectation, it promoted domenico de sole, a roman born, harvard law school trained lawyer who had begun working with gucci a decade previously, into the role of president and ceo. de sole in turn promoted ford, formerly an unsung in house junior designer, to take charge in 1994. following a dud debut that october, ford who said he had “nothing to lose” first attained his state of runway perfection on the fall 1995 runway. thus started a golden period during which the gucci run by “tom and dom” would come to dominate hollywood, go public, and double sales over and over again. as this incredible july 1999 long read from vanity fair’s bryan burroughs brilliantly reports, the downside of that success was the covetous attention it attracted. ford and de sole, determined to retain control of the juggernaut they had built between them, fought furiously to fend off the efforts of lvmh supremo bernard arnault to complete a hostile takeover. after many twists, they achieved that by snagging a white knight previously unknown in the fashion sphere: françois pinault. following pinault’s initial purchase of 42% of gucci in march 1999, ford and de sole retained the control they demanded and set about turning gucci into a group. pinault bought them oversight of yves saint laurent, while de sole and ford spearheaded the acquisition of alexander mcqueen, bottega veneta, boucheron, balenciaga, and the co founding of stella mccartney. post 9/11, however, even ford’s mercurial guidance could not keep gucci and its new satellites immune from the broader economic downturn, and it was pinault’s balance sheet upon which the pressure most fell. when ford and de sole announced late in november 2003 that they had failed to agree to new contracts and would be leaving gucci, the speculation was that money had been the sticking point. they would later clarify that just as it had been when pinault first entered the picture what tom and dom cared most about was control. even the new yorker, albeit snarkily, acknowledged the wider cultural impact of their exit. ford’s final show, in february 2004, made for a breathtaking goodbye. ultimately, though, both sides benefited from the split. the pinault clan was left with what would be rebranded as kering, a luxury conglomerate second only in heft to that of the family against which de sole had first positioned them. and within a year ford and de sole were up and running again back to the start and with nothing to lose but this time sailing under their own ensign. it all ended pretty well. l.l. jack mccollough and lazara hernandez present their collection at the cfda fashion fund presentation. vogue, november 2004, photographed by arthur elgort i started working at vogue in december 2003, and i remember two things about it then very clearly: firstly, that the days started super early and rattled by at a quickfire clip, so that for the first few weeks i was in bed every night at 9pm latest so i could cope with the following day; secondly, within a few days of joining i heard tell of an initiative for young designers that vogue was launching with the cfda early the next year. it was to be the first time i would hear the words cfda/vogue fashion fund. and here we are now in 2024, with the fund celebrating its 20th anniversary. the idea of vogue officially helping up and coming designers wasn’t so new. nine days after 9/11, with new york fashion week canceled, vogue worked with style.com to create an american view, where the likes of peter som, rebecca taylor, behnaz sarafpour, maria cornejo, and the late benjamin cho, among others, took part in a group show in carolina herrera’s showroom. (my colleague l.b.p. still remembers being moved to tears by it, and she wasn’t alone: emotionally, it was a hugely charged experience, as was everything at that time.) yet the intensity of those absolutely terrible days and months had people thinking about what more they could do to make a difference; to help. on top of that, there was a sense that american fashion should find its future: calvin klein had retired, donna karan sold her brands to lvmh, bill blass had passed away, and our young designers marc jacobs, michael kors, isaac mizrahi were, as sally singer pithily put it “singularly talented…[but] they’d been young designers since the reagan/bush era.” out of all this came the fashion fund, where every year 10 finalists were to vie for three prizes offering financial help, along with mentoring. late in 2004, i sat at the very first fashion fund awards dinner beside nicole covolos of the denim brand habitual and squeezed her hand when she and her husband michael were announced as runners up, along with alexandre plokhov’s label cloak. proenza schouler’s jack mccollough and lazaro hernandez were deservedly the very first winners. the inaugural fund was documented by director douglas keeve (who gave us the influential unzipped) in his documentary seamless. it all feels so long ago, because plenty of designers who were in the fund from thom browne to the rodarte sisters to jason wu to philip lim (who just stepped down from his label after two decades) have become today’s establishment. yet it also feels like yesterday, because in so many ways the founding purpose to nurture a new generation of american fashion stars of global note has never gotten any less urgent. how could it not? it’s not easy to launch and sustain a business these days. the industry constantly evolves, and so do our expectations of what designers need to achieve and deliver on. i joined the selection committee in 2010 and have seen so many terrific designers take part, and very often triumph (sometimes regardless of winning or not): joseph altuzarra, emily bode, telfar clemens, willy chavarria, henry zankov, rachel scott of diotima, prabal gurung, collina strada’s hillary taymour, the vaquera duo, christopher john rogers, mike eckhaus and zoe latta of eckhaus latta, aurora james of brother vellies… the list goes on and on. their successes are their own what the cfda/vogue fashion fund did was (hopefully) give them a nudge in the right direction, propelled by some money (it helps), and pair them with industry titans from whom they could learn. yet more than that, the designers shaped what fashion could be and who a designer could be. more than any other fashion capital, new york has become the place where diverse voices can be rightly seen and heard and celebrated and it’s what separates the city from just about everywhere else. mark holgate karl lagerfeld for h&m the high/low formula that we take for granted in 2024 was still new, even a bit taboo, in 2004 when karl lagerfeld paired up with h&m for a collaboration that would make high fashion accessible to the many through mass production and distribution channels. that’s evidenced by the fact that director johan renck’s brilliant commercial for the launch played up the then shocking incongruence of the couturier working with the swedish mass market brand. that the program is still going strong two decades on (glenn martens is up next) almost definitely has something to do with the success of the lagerfeld initiative. not only did it make the designer a global name, among designers, the thinking was that if it was good enough for karl, it could be good for them too. read more about the h & m designer collaboration project here. l.b.p. caption: gemma ward at the prada, spring 2004 show. once in a generation comes a model whose look revolutionizes the entire industry. in the 2000s that face belonged to the australian gemma ward, who rose to fashion’s highest heights after debuting at australian fashion week in 2003 and then as a prada exclusive a coveted modeling debut deal at the prada and miu miu spring 2004 shows. ward was only 15 when she broke out, which was not unheard of for a newcomer at the time, though it’s thankfully something the industry has very much moved on from today. ward’s look was part extraterrestrial and part baby doll, and it was her doll like looks that kicked off a trend in casting think of lily cole or heather marks. ward’s vogue cover was for the september 2004 issue, when she was photographed by steven meisel alongside daria werbowy, natalia vodianova, gisele bündchen, isabeli fontana, karolina kurkova, liya kebede, hana soukupova, and karen elson as one of the “models of the moment.” at 17, she became the face of calvin klein’s “obsession night” fragrance, replacing kate moss the prior once in a generation face. ward left the runways when she was just 20 after the spring 2008 shows, officially announcing her retirement from modeling in 2009. during her hiatus, she appeared on screen in the great gatsby and pirates of the caribbean: on stranger tides, and she had three children. she is fully back in fashion now, though, having most recently closed ian griffiths’s fall 2024 show for max mara. j.c.u. nadja auermann on the runway at jean paul gaultier’s fall 2004 debut for hermès. gaultier took over from martin margiela and gave the previously staid leather goods house a vampy overhaul. this leather corset hints at his own famous cone bra and the hermès leather vernacular. a closeup of a model wearing y 3. y 3, spring 2003 ready to wear if you think that the grand love affair between sports and fashion was made “official” in 2024 with the 100th anniversary of the summer olympics in paris, think again. yohji yamamoto, that poet of dark allure, played cupid at the inception of the romance more than 20 years ago. in 2002 the japanese designer was named creative director of the newly created adidas sportstyle, which launched y 3, the brand that put what we now know as athleisure in play. this partnership grew from the runaway success of the sneakers yamamoto created with the german athletics giant for his fall 2001 collection. having clocked the growing popularity of trainers in street style, and found them quite ugly, he told sarah mower, “i stepped into this arena to restrain the world from being visually polluted.” y 3, he continued, was conceived as something “bigger” than sports meets fashion: “it’s basic and simple products for everyday life,” he said. basic? not so much. much attention is given to textile development and performance. the result is that you can both work out in a y 3 track suit and “work it.” adidas and yamamoto were not an obvious combination. yohji was an avant garde specialist in complex pattern cutting, and he was better known for his interest in music (he still likes to put his own songs on his show soundtracks) than exercise. but the choice was prescient. twenty years on “yohji san” is still involved with y 3, a brand that transcends the contemporary idea of the collaboration as a comingling or transferring of aesthetics, and is instead an actual integration of form and function. call it a win win situation. l.b.p. pam skaist levy and gela taylor with john galliano, who admitted he designed his spring couture collection while wearing juicy trackpants. hollywood glamour has never not been at the center of american culture, but in 2003 los angeles ascended to a position of influence that was curiously grounded not in movie magic but in real life. “stars! they’re just like us!” had launched in us weekly a year before, and suddenly there was a steady stream of photos of celebs like madonna, gwen stefani, brandy, jennifer lopez, lindsay lohan, and kelly rowland going about their daily routines: yoga, the grocery store, starbucks, all wearing a velour tracksuit. but it wasn’t just any tracksuit, this one was made by juicy couture and it featured a hooded jacket, cropped at the waist (often worn half unzipped to reveal a classic white ribbed tank top underneath), and a low rise flared leg elastic waist pant. in just a few years, the label, founded by pam skaist levy and gela nash taylor in 1997, had become the official uniform of the rich and famous (and those who wanted to look like they were). it was a match made in high low heaven when vogue invited the fashionable duo who often dressed in twinning outfits to attend the couture shows in paris. they arrived bearing gifts (for karl lagerfeld, a velour tracksuit monogrammed with the word slim), and as they went from show to show with the wide eyed enchantment of experiencing the glory of couture for the first time, they found themselves on the receiving side of some impressive fan boying. john galliano revealed that “he wore their tobacco trackpants every day when designing the collection,” and at the post show valentino dinner his business partner giancarlo giametti needed to be “dissuaded from tearing his clothes off and suiting up” once he received his own monogrammed juicy sweats. by the time the issue hit newsstands in april of 2003, the pair had sold their company which was grossing around $47 million to liz claiborne for an undisclosed amount, cementing the athleisure trend (or is it a lifestyle?) for decades to come. that same year, paris hilton and nicole richie were cast in a new reality tv series called the simple life. the show had an.. ahem simple conceit: send the pair to live with a family in arkansas for a month and make entertainment of the way they struggle to lead the same lives as normal americans. to further drive the fish out of water element of the show, one of the promo images featured richie in a “dude, where’s my couture?” juicy couture t shirt. as they ran around farms in ultra low rise mini skirts and layered tank tops, fake asking “what’s a walmart?” to the chagrin and delight of tv viewers, it became apparent that stars were not really like us at all. l.g.f. daria werbowy at the louis vuitton show in 2003. fashion fans will always remember daria werbowy as phoebe philo’s famous muse and notorious doppelgänger. but before she was fronting campaigns for philo’s céline in the 2010s starting spring 2011, to be specific werbowy dominated the most major runways of the 2000s: prada, dries van noten, and, of course, philo’s chloé. true werbowy believers will also remember that her first major campaign was prada for the fall 2003 season, photographed by steven meisel. her first vogue cover was september 2004, also by meisel, when she was presented as one of the “models of the moment” alongside natalia vodianova and gisele bundchen. between her high fashion campaigns, famous runway cameos, and editorial moments, werbowy quickly became paradigmatic of an entire era in fashion. she for all intents and purposes disappeared from the industry in the mid 2010s, but made a return last year fronting sabato de sarno’s first gucci high jewelry campaign the pair met when de sarno started working at prada in 2003 and as one of the faces of philo’s eponymous label. j.c.u. dream team grace coddington and annie leibowitz brought the fantasy of fashion charmingly to life in 2003’s “alice in wonderland,” which has since become one of vogue’s best known, and loved, editorials. based on a fairy tale and featuring designer cameos alongside model natalia vodianova, this once upon a time portfolio combines a universal story with fashion insider appeal. carrie bradshaw in sex and the city. sarah jessica parker in a vera wang wedding dress for the fictional vogue shoot for sex and the city: the movie. vogue, june 2008, photographed by patrick demarchelier. the effect and effectiveness of patricia field and sarah jessica parker’s costume styling for carrie bradshaw in sex and the city will be studied as fashion and pop culture history for many years to come. however their success isn’t solely based on the many women carrie’s intrepid personal style has inspired, but rather in the way they helped push fashion into mainstream culture on tv, and eventually film. the peak of this phenomenon is none other than episode 17 in season 4, which aired in february of 2002, when carrie famously visits her editor at vogue and, infamously, “gets drunk at vogue” in a vivienne westwood suit. titled “a vogue idea,” the episode sees carrie become a vogue contributor and receive her first assignment: a piece about trending accessories. she doesn’t get the vogue tone quite right, and her editor enid (played by candice bergen) has to remind her that she’s not writing for her dating column, so there’s no need to equate a trending handbag to an investment banker or any other trending boyfriend type. true to carrie form, she spirals, retreating with her new friend and vogue staffer julian to his office, where she gets drunk at vogue with an afternoon martini. the episode includes a visit to the magazine’s much mythologized closet. there had been other shows who can forget the nanny? that leaned heavily on fashion, but the norm then was to leverage it as a tool for character development. the chord that sex and the city struck within the industry, up until this point, at least, was it was a show about fashion that was about its power players, but the clothes. isn’t that what we all like about what we do, anyways: the clothes?! with this episode, that formula changed, as satc folded vogue into its lore. of course, this would not have happened had the show not been wildly popular among fashion folk. hollywood had never seemed to get fashion right, but now, in going to the source, satc cemented itself as the show to watch and proved that fashion was something people wanted to see on tv. as you will see as this timeline of fashion in the 21st century develops, the late 2000s saw an explosion of depictions of fashion and vogue in the mainstream media, all of which all came post satc. what an in vogue vogue idea this episode was. j.c.u. an american view, spring 2002 ready to wear on september 12, 2001, the style.com and vogue teams gathered at 4 times square to think up ways to support those most affected by the attacks of the day before. one of the initiatives to come out of that brainstorm was the fashion for america campaign, a joint effort by vogue and the cfda to raise money for the twin towers fund. within the industry, emerging talents were impacted by the 9/11; to assist them, vogue and style.com teamed up to host an american view, a group show for emerging designers who had not presented their spring 2002 collections, with the attacks occurring as they did in the midst of the spring 2002 fashion week in new york. “the sentiment that we were encouraging and that all the participating designers were on board with was that this was about giving you visibility, this was about camaraderie, this was the industry coming together,” said meredeith melling, reflecting back on the event from a distance of 20 years. read more of what she had to say. l.b.p. zac posen, fall 2002 how hot a ticket was zac posen’s first independent show? hot enough to get major models to walk the runway, manolo blahnik to do the shoes and first daughter barbara bush to sit in the front row. even more impressively, the 21 year old new yorker lived up to the hype, delivering a strong, if not terribly commercial, message. but then posen is not aiming to be the next ralph lauren. his inspiration is ’30s fashion the sort of outfits jean harlow might have sported at a cocktail party. pushing that notion of glamour to the extreme, posen built his collection around dresses, mostly bias cut with provocative necklines, which declared a fierce devotion to the female form. the designer incorporated ’30s design elements like contrasting insets, fitted bodices, fluttering ruffles and fishtail trains, and used movie star fabrics like satin and crepe, but also worked with cotton, leather and mesh. (while many of the looks were entrance makers, there were also some quietly wearable pieces, like a blush mesh top and a long, mitred tweed coat.) and in a week of muted, monochrome palettes, posen’s 32 looks were a riot of color: orange, purple, blue and yellow, along with the occasional black and white. the models, including karen elson, eleonora bose, liberty ross, teresa lourenco and the actress paz de la huerta, were clearly given a mandate to act up, and they did, vamping for the cameras like seasoned starlets. janet ozzard sophia kokosalaki, who died much too young in 2019, never enjoyed the attention that she should have in life, but more than two decades later, this show is etched in our memories here at vogue runway. a close up of the balenciaga city bag. marc by marc jacobs, spring 2001 marc by marc jacobs, fall 2001 marc jacobs, the eternally cool, golden child of new york fashion, was already the toast of the town in 2001. his namesake label was an industry favorite, and since 1997 he had been the artistic director at louis vuitton, tasked with introducing ready to wear to the luxury behemoth. this very year, he would prove his genius when he tapped stephen sprouse to cover a suite of vuitton leathergoods in his signature graffiti a swift hit that set the precedent for collaborations between high fashion and artists. when he announced he would be launching a secondary line named marc in the spring of 2001, it largely flew under the radar. no one would’ve guessed it would go on to set the style for how young people got dressed in the decade that followed. (or maybe it was just me.) it’s not that marc by marc jacobs, as it later came to be known, was the first lower priced line there had already been many successes including dkny, d&g, and armani exchange it’s just that in typical jacobs fashion, he somehow knew exactly what young people wanted to wear, and perhaps even more importantly, he understood that they had so far been a forgotten market. for people in their late teens and early twenties, for whom most of the runway tended to skew too old, he provided a clear guide to dressing well and looking cool. collection reviews of the time mention an ’80s vibe that permeated the city much to the critics’ chagrin (this was when we were much more skeptical about reviving the past). but it wasn’t just pulled out of thin air. in downtown manhattan and in a still rough around the edges williamsburg, and in berlin and elsewhere, young people were scouring thrift stores for neon colors, batwing sweaters, pencil skirts, and ugly little almond toe pumps to wear to go out. his fall 2001 collection had ultra skinny jeans in technicolor blue and black stripes, graffiti printed sweaters, and shrunken military jackets. a lot of the models looked androgynous, and even if they weren’t, you knew that the point was that everyone could wear everyone else’s clothes and it wouldn’t matter. there was also the fact that jacobs had devised the clothes to be like the things you come across at the vintage store that you simply needed to have you didn’t need to buy the full designer ’fit in order to pull the look off. the attitude was the important thing. i came across this collection on style.com and i was immediately obsessed. i remember printing out a few of the looks and meticulously collaging them into the little sketchbook i carried around with me at all times. when i left puerto rico, where i grew up, to go to school in philadelphia, the clothes suddenly made much more sense. they stopped being a sort of distant fantasy of who i may want to be one day, and i saw the way they fit in with the people i was meeting at school, the concerts i was going to, the world i was being exposed to. almost overnight, none of my old clothes made sense to me, i felt like i needed to start fresh. one night, i was doing a random bit of online window shopping when i came across a graffiti sweatshirt from the fall 2001 collection, deeply discounted at $98. at the time it was the second largest amount of money i had ever spent on something (first place went to my pair of dr. martens that i bought with a summer’s worth of babysitting cash), but i knew i needed to have it. it was one of those weirdly life affirming purchases that help you realize the person you imagine yourself to be. (i still have it.) in the years that followed, the cult of marc grew. every collection that followed seemed to intuit exactly what we were all thinking and how we all wanted to look, and it wasn’t long before a small marc empire had taken over bleecker street in the west village (there were separate men’s and womenswear stores, and then another space that sold little branded knickknacks, the star of which was an iconic tote bag that read jacobs by marc jacobs for marc by marc jacobs in collaboration with marc jacobs for marc by marc jacobs). show any 40 something woman in fashion an image of his studded suede round toe pumps, colorblocked dresses, denim jackets, or mouse ballet flats ballet flats with a cartoon mouse face, complete with little floppy ears and whiskers that were a literal interpretation of the marc jacobs’ label pointy toed mouse flats, another it shoe), and you can count on this: they too will regale you with their own marc by marc memories.  l.g.f. louis vuitton, spring 2001 can you remember a time when collaborations didn’t smack of inevitability but had the shock of the new? collabs have become one of fashion’s most lasting 21st century trends, and like any trend, the magic and myth making of this one has tended toward the formulaic in recent years. but when they’re good they’re still good, and this agenda setting 2001 hook up between louis vuitton’s marc jacobs and his friend stephen sprouse was great. it was four years into jacobs’s tenure at lv, a tenure that began remember with a runway show that featured absolutely zero bags, when he did the then unthinkable (yes, something even more outrageous than not include any bags at all) and invited sprouse to “tag” the house’s monogram. it was sheer iconoclasm to fuck with something so iconic and it was an instant hit. if jacobs hadn’t enlisted sprouse, would we have had louis vuitton x supreme? gucci’s “hacking” of balenciaga? or crocs and, well, any of the high fashion designers who’ve partnered with the ugly shoe brand? oh, probably. but as with so many things fashion (see above), jacobs got here first. n.p. photographed by robert fairer, vogue, september 2004 kate moss carrying a balenciaga city bag. fashion lore passed down in the great tradition of front row gossip places the genesis of balenciaga’s famous city bag to a visit by kate moss to the balenciaga hq, during which she spotted a sample of the bag and requested one to wear herself. supers, true supers, like moss were once some of fashion’s great prognosticators. as history has come to witness, and as you will see as this very timeline develops, anything and everything moss wore became a thing, and the city bag is no exception. as for the real story: the year is 2001, and ghesquière had worked on samples of what would become the balenciaga city bag known on the streets as the balenciaga biker bag, for its aesthetic and utilitarian connections to biker culture (they do love leather fringe, studs, and a good, soft satchel). executives were not quite sold on it. “accessories [at the time] were rigid,” the designer recalled in an interview in 2011. “luxury leather, especially, was about rigidity. so they were not really happy, and they decided not to produce it.” still, they sampled a run of them to place in a fashion show. the city bag didn’t make it to the runway then, but models, including moss, found it backstage, and asked for samples to carry themselves. and oh they did. soon after, the bag went into production, and eventually it became a top seller and one of the era’s first and definitive it bags. in addition to moss, nicole richie, paris hilton, lindsay lohan, mary kate and ashley olsen, and sienna miller were all city devotees. and they wore them everywhere: to the coffee shop and to the club, from day to night inspiring a generation of women to do the same with either the city or a downmarket version. huge handbags were in. and while moss’s eye for what’s next is partly responsible, it must be said that the city was ghesquière at his truest and most forward looking best. it was different to other bags out there: squishy and with an ineffable cool. it was effortless yet dressy, bohemian but also a little rock and roll. equal parts uptown and downtown. above all, it represented where fashion and style were going, and became representative of who stylish women wanted to be. “it was a new, fresh thing, but it looked like an old, good, friendly thing,” ghesquière once said, attempting to describe it. gabriela hearst tried to resurrect the chloé paddington with her first few shows at chloé, and mulberry has given its alexa bag a facelift or two. but the city is the only it bag from that era that has made an authentic return. as i write, i see at least two on my fellow editors’ desks. j.c.u. no gender is the wavelength designers are on these days, but in 2001 it was women in hedi slimane’s dior homme menswear that sent ripples through fashion. photographed by tom munro, vogue, january 2010 a close up of the tropical print on j lo’s famous versace dress. screenshot courtesy of style.com and the waybackmachine to say that style.com “broke” the internet isn’t horn tooting, it’s a fact. the site revolutionized fashion show coverage, not just in terms of speed and scope, but also authority. however, collection coverage wasn’t its raison d’etre at the start. officially launched in september 2000 as “the online home of vogue and w” magazines, the catchy domain was originally intended to be an umbrella site under which many brands would sit. “our ambition is very simple: to bring the fashion authority of condé nast to the web,” said a company spokesperson at the time. from the beginning, style.com was conceived as a commerce site that would be actionable in a way that print wasn’t. “advance’s effort may be the most ambitious yet by an established publisher to combine reading with retailing,” wrote saul hansell in a 2000 new york times article. “the site soon will enable users to act upon those edicts [put forth by the magazines] by instantly buying the items they are told they must have. think of it as point and click from the fashion clique.” designer fashion has always been aspirational; likewise, the system of presenting it has long been gated. style.com is often credited with “democratizing” the fashion show, but it’s probably more accurate to say it provided access to invitation only events and by extension to a world of surface glamour. same day reviews, backstage and details photography, and street style images helped give users a feeling of “being there.” it’s impossible to convey to digital natives what the pre internet before times were like. i mean, broadband was just starting to replace dial up connections! in any case, fashion hasn’t always been at the forefront of technology; helmut lang’s decision to present his fall 1998 collection via cd rom marked a tipping point. “it was a shock to the system, but a beginning of the new normal,” he later said. when style.com launched two years later, not everyone was ready to embrace the brave new virtual world. early on, a number of designers were wary of such exposure; status and copying were big issues. soon, though, they’d be desperate to be reviewed (oh, the stories we could tell!) and within a very short space of time, celebrities, editors and stylists, and consumers alike were using the look numbers on style.com as a kind of insider parlance. it must be stressed how important it was that style.com made complete shows available when the norm was to see only a few select outfits, the ones deemed worthy by editors. that shows were accessible all in one place and archived was also major. with additional features like search and moodboard, you could say that style.com was a gen x proto app that millennials were born into. i came to the site from the museum world (the museum at fit, specifically), leaving behind a universe of materiality and objects, where time was thought of in years and eras, not seasons. at style.com, instantaneity was the ideal and fashion was made of pixels, and thanks in large part to its influence, the image would soon become just as or even more important than the garment. it wasn’t versace’s plunge neck dress that went viral (before that was a term), it was the image of jennifer lopez in it. in fact, the popularity of the photo gave birth to google images; it also meant that fashion was becoming part of pop culture more quickly and reaching more people. the photos became a means through which insiders and outsiders could tell stories about themselves. vogue runway, launched in 2015, not only carries forward the mission of style.com, but maintains its archive, which is essentially a kind of museum of images. come to think of it, maybe my career change wasn’t as dramatic as i thought. l.b.p. from left to right: véronique branquinho, hedi slimane, hussein chalayan, filip arickx, nicolas ghesquière, an vandevorst, lawrence steele, miguel adrover, viktor horsting, roberto menichetti, rolf snoeren, olivier theyskens, josephus thimister, and junya watanabe. for its july 2000 issue, vogue gathered 14 designers to be shot, class photo style, in new york by steven meisel, with grace coddington on styling duties. the designers chosen represented a new wave of talent transforming fashion, and boy, oh boy, were they well chosen. all were, in their own way, pretty darn revolutionary. the designers were: nicolas ghesquière (back when he was at balenciaga), hussein chalayan, veronique branquinho, junya watanabe, an vandevorst and filip arickx of a.f. vandevorst, miguel adrover, hedi slimane (then at dior homme), josephus thimister, olivier theyskens, lawrence steele, burberry prorsum’s roberto menichetti, and viktor horsting and rolf snoeren of viktor & rolf. collectively, they had upended heritage houses, moved conceptualism to center stage, radicalized silhouettes so that everyone would eventually wear them (hello, skinny jeans), shifted the axis of influence to some quite crucial degree to belgium (though really it was all about someplace that wasn’t milan or paris or london), and generally did that thing that any emerging group of madly inventive designers should do: cast fashion entirely and utterly anew. they’re not the avant garde they’re the new guard was the message of sally singer’s excellent accompanying essay. from the vantage point of 25 years later typing those numbers seems less scary than saying a quarter century, somehow we know how their stories played out: some went on to other iconic houses, others had to disband their labels, and one josephus thimister is, sadly, no longer with us. but looking at this group shot brings to mind a more contemporary thought: how would you do this photograph now and who exactly would be in it? the intervening years have pivoted the industry to a place where heritage houses owned by luxury conglomerates dominate in a way they didn’t back in 2000. conversely, to be an influential independent designer is even harder to achieve now than it was back then. the meisel image hints at what looked like perhaps a more even playing field. creativity is still with us and how but this group shot, for all its wonderful prescience about incredible talents, is also a snapshot of a moment before everything changed. mark holgate jennifer lopez at the 42nd annual grammy awards. the world worried that as the 1900s turned to the 2000s the “millennium bug” would crash the planet’s computer systems and create chaos. thankfully, that didn’t happen. what nobody saw coming was that just two months later the combination of jlo and versace would bring y2k google to the brink. the fateful date was february 23, 2000. that was the night jennifer lopez hit the 42nd grammy awards wearing a versace dress in green jungle print chiffon whose skirt was so split and neckline so deep it altered the history of the internet. as she came on stage to present the first award of the night you could hear the frequency of the audience hum go up a few notches. “this is the first time in five or six years that i’m sure that nobody is looking at me,” observed her co presenter david duchovny. around 25 million viewers watched on cbs. the next day that dress was a global talking point. nobody had smartphones to check it out on, but as the word spread around the planet’s water coolers, people hit their computers to search for “jlo green dress.” over in palo alto, the 18 month old startup search engine google took note as the volume of search queries stretched their servers to the max. as former ceo eric schmidt wrote in 2015: “jennifer lopez wore a green dress that, well, caught the world’s attention. at the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. but we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: jlo wearing that dress. google image search was born.” that photographic search function, now called google images, was launched in 2001 as a direct response to donatella versace’s design for lopez. fast forward to 2019, and the two reunited for a show in milan that celebrated the anniversary of the dress that awoke the internet, and created one of the first landmark interactions between the fashion industry and tech. that night jlo wore a new version of the historic dress and searches immediately spiked all over again. l.l. natalie massenet at the net a porter 10th anniversary party in 2010. as the millennium approached, the internet, still a nascent technology, was looked at with equal amounts of excitement and distrust. in the 1990s, the rise of personal computers and the invention of the web browser had given way to the so called dot com boom, where much like during the gold rush, people went crazy with possibility and new websites and online companies flourished consider the fact that literally none existed before and were rewarded with almost endless amounts of investment money. when the bubble inevitably burst in march of 2000, it seemed to reinforce the doubts that many had about the newfangled technology. at least where e commerce was concerned, the 2000s kicked off with trepidation; boo.com, a much ballyhooed online store aimed at young people, carried a mix of fashion and sports merch, and snazzy functionality that included 360 degree views of the garments and a virtual assistant (miss boo), that would aid customers with their shopping. except it turned out that it was all a bit too snazzy, most computers were running on dial up, which was too slow to load all the animations, and it also initially didn’t work on macintosh computers. after only two years, and having spent $135 million dollars in investment cash, boo was forced into bankruptcy. it was into this ecosystem that lvmh launched eluxury.com, which sold leather goods by louis vuitton, marc jacobs, and fendi, among others, along with beauty essentials like face cream from la prairie. around the same time, natalie massenet, a former fashion editor, launched net a porter in 2000, although success didn’t come at once, she slowly built a steady base thanks in part to many of the fashion contacts she had made working in magazines. while eluxury didn’t survive the decade, by 2005, massenet’s net a porter was reporting sales of $16 million, and has since gone on to become the online store that set the precedent for every other store that followed it. the secret likely boils down massenet’s editorial point of view: she curated net a porter’s homepage just like the shopping pages of a fashion magazine, highlighting trends but also breaking them down in an approachable manner. add to that, above and beyond customer service that allowed literal first time online shoppers to take a chance on buying something, knowing that they could easily return it without worrying or incurring extra charges. at the same time, because luxury labels themselves weren’t rushing to join the digital sphere, net a porter was able to capture the clientele from many brands. as fashion and technology continued evolving, so did net a porter: a year before alexander mcqueen streamed the legendary “plato’s atlantis” collection online, he had staged a mini runway show for the pre spring 2009 collection, that was immediately available for purchase and delivered within a day to most locations. a decade later, net a porter had gone from upstart to establishment; richemont acquired a majority in the business, valuing it at £350 million. l.g.f. hussein chalayan had already given the fashion industry one of its most searing images when he dressed models in chadors in an examination of islamic women’s status in society. and he would go on to develop virtuoso dresses that morphed in front of his audience’s eyes, decade hopping to a soundtrack of the 20th century that included “the ranting of hitler, aerial bombing, jet engines, and the beating of helicopter rotors,” as vogue runway’s sarah mower remembers. chalayan earned his avant gardist reputation season in and season out, but the one that most completely captured his provocateur’s spirit was fall 2000, when he created furniture as fashion. i was in the room, a baby editor at elle magazine, and watched as four armchair slipcovers were converted into shift dresses by the models who would slip into them. then natalia semanova stepped into the coffee table and it transformed into a skirt, a remarkable feat of engineering that no one, including the designer himself, was sure would come off until it did. chalayan is a turkish cypriot and his mother experienced the fear of displacement during armed conflict in the 1970s. this show’s ingenuity and subtly pointed social commentary set a high bar that few of his peers have neared in the nearly 25 years since. n.p. in the early 2000s, new york was the place to be. proof of that was the irreverent brit lee alexander mcqueen’s appearance on a west side pier for spring 2000. more from vogue see more stories © 2025 condé nast. all rights reserved. vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers. the material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of condé nast. ad choices cn fashion & beauty

september 16, 2011 paris louis vuitton's ceo in waiting, jordi constans, won't be the first consumer goods brand manager who jumps over to the luxury goods business. but when he arrives at the french luxury fashion giant, mr. constans is likely to face a culture shock. known for yogurt and bottled water, his former employer, groupe danone sa, has a dressed down style, where executives rarely wear ties, in contrast to the sleekness found at louis vuitton, an empire built on status symbol handbags. at danone, the informal "tu" form of addressing people rather than the more formal french "vous" permeates even the chief executive suite. lvmh employees are decorous, and it is considered a plus for job candidates to be well versed in classical music. as for mr. constans, he's a keen electric guitar player. on wednesday parent company lvmh moët hennessy louis vuitton said mr. constans, a relatively unknown spanish executive, will work with current louis vuitton chief executive yves carcelle for a year before taking the reins of the fashion brand. the 47 year old mr. constans declined to be interviewed for this article. lvmh declined to make mr. carcelle available to comment. the business school educated mr. constans is likely to bring a more modern touch to proceedings at louis vuitton. mr. constans replies to email promptly and personally. mr. carcelle's secretary prints out his emails for him. in an interview on danone's website from january 2010, mr. constans describes the food maker's culture as "humble" and "constantly questioning ourselves." speaking in french with a slight spanish accent, he says the qualities he encourages in his employees are "openness, rapidity and agility." at danone, mr. constans piloted the dairy division through the financial crisis by slashing prices on its best selling products to boost volumes. he also polled consumers about how they liked his yogurts and worked with bloggers. during an april speech to students at the iese business school in spain, his alma mater, mr. constans laid out his philosophy on innovation. he highlighted "avoiding the production of useless items" and said economic crises are an "optimal time to innovate," according to the iese. "innovation comes from a good conversation," the iese quoted him saying on its web site. "you never forget a good conversation." investors will be anxious to see how that philosophy meshes with selling $1,000 handbags in china. indeed, many experts are fretting that mr. constans doesn't have an extended track record in emerging markets. "louis vuitton has done an excellent job in boosting distribution and the brand's image in asia," said robert burke, president of robert burke associates, a new york based luxury goods consulting firm. for mr. constans, "it will be a steep learning curve." louis vuitton, which is the flagship brand of the lvmh luxury goods empire, generated around €6 billion ($8.21 billion) in sales in 2010. around 60% of louis vuitton's revenue came from asia, according to research by hsbc. the entire company had 2010 revenue totaling €20.3 billion. filling mr. carcelle's shoes will be a challenge, analysts say. the 63 year old spent the last 21 years transforming louis vuitton from a french trunk maker into a global handbag brand with operations stretching from shanghai to rio de janeiro. mr. carcelle fine tuned louis vuitton's image to keep it up market yet affordable for aspirational shoppers, while ensuring an efficient distribution and production network. the amiable frenchman is also famed within the company for his ability to combine work and play. mr. carcelle has been seen partying late at night with designer karl lagerfeld and quaffing champagne early in the morning after news conferences about yachting races. but mr. carcelle is known for working long hours, starting at the crack of dawn to catch his colleagues in japan; his three assistants work in shifts to keep up. during the weekends, he often zips down to the south of france where he owns a vineyard and a country house he has decorated with contemporary art. despite the cultural differences between danone and lvmh, it was widely expected that louis vuitton would look outside the company when its current chief executive mr. carcelle retired, analysts say. "the choice of a replacement outside the world of luxury is not such a big surprise," says hsbc analyst antoine belge. when talking about which brand he wanted louis vuitton to be compared to, mr. carcelle "never gave the name of another luxury brand and instead cited brands like apple," mr. belge adds. the conversion from consumer to luxury goods can come with a stigma. after french retail group ppr sa hired the unknown director of unilever's frozen foods division to run its high profile gucci group luxury division in 2004, robert polet's moniker as the ice cream man haunted him. mr. polet left gucci earlier this year. that said, lvmh has heavily recruited outside of the luxury business, hiring experts from the automotive industry to help fine tune their production line and luring procter & gamble co. pg  0.62% veteran, antonio belloni, to become their managing director. mr. constans zipped up the ranks at french food company group danone sa during a 21 year stint that saw him move from marketing the dairy brand in his native country of spain to become the head of the dairy products division world wide this past january. until then, he split the role with another executive and focused on mature markets, such as france and spain. mr. constans helped market a number of danone's marquee brands, which include activia yogurt. for danone's yogurts that purport to have health benefits, such as actimel and activia, marketing those brands has required tip toeing around regulations. health authorities have shot down danone's health claims that actimel boosts the immune system and activia aids digestion and danone has challenged those rulings. but in the meantime, mr. constans has steered activia and actimel's advertising to campaigns that avoid specifically making health claims. not all of his product launches were successes. he tested a yogurt that purported to boost bone density, densia, in france before pulling it from shelves when consumers didn't bite. august 22, 2011 when rupert sanderson decided to step outside his comfort zone of evening heels and make saddle shoes for women, he had no idea that would become his first men's style. the british footwear designer viewed the 2009 debut of his saddled o's as a sociological experiment: give a free pair to 50 of the most influential women in the u.k. art world and monitor the result. he hoped to create a trend among a stylish group, but he got a lot more than that. "suddenly, all these women were wearing them at once," said sanderson. "but one of the effects it had was that men wanted a pair as well. so we started making them in men's sizes." while sanderson turned to the men's market as more of a novelty, other high end designers are following suit by offering small footwear collections for guys. united nude, yigal azrouël, shipley & halmos and bespoken have all launched men's shoes this year. gianvito rossi will debut two sneakers and a loafer for spring '12. renewed life in the men's footwear market provides fertile ground for such introductions. but what's the point of launching a new category in such small numbers? the reasons, footwear news discovered, are as varied as the collections. but in all cases it's about more than money. sanderson said he is meeting a demand. others said they are expressing themselves artistically, realizing a dream and carefully laying the groundwork for a larger offering. "[we don't have] too many pieces since we're just testing the men's market," said rem d. koolhaas, creative director and co founder of united nude, which launched three men's styles for spring '11 but has increased each season, with six available for spring '12. "we make shoes that we would like to wear." the category addition, however small, is also a way to expand a brand's identity, to be not just a men's apparel label or just a women's shoe company. shipley & halmos, for example, primarily a men's clothing line that started in 2008, launched three men's shoe styles for fall '11 to complete its customers' wardrobes. a fuller accessories line is planned for spring '12. "we wanted to keep [the shoes] focused so the production numbers were not 20 [styles] right off the bat," said jeff halmos, co owner of the label. "i don't think we could have supported something like that from a production standpoint." similarly, men's apparel label bespoken has expanded steadily since its founding in 2008. the owners had worked with grenson for runway shows, but they felt a fall '11 line of three shoe styles would complement the brand's menswear, said co owner paul goncalves. bespoken turned to u.k. based firm kurt geiger to develop the shoes and then landed footwear accounts with harrods, selfridges and liberty. the brand is now seeking u.s. retailers. but goncalves recognizes such a small launch comes with a few issues. "the challenge in footwear is that in a department store, it's going to sit separately from the [apparel]," said goncalves. "and we're still in the midst of establishing ourselves and generating awareness for the brand." such trials are the same for any brand that chooses to start small, and indeed, experts said mini collections can be both helpful and harmful to building a brand's footwear profile. if designers have the "it" shoe of the season, ample choice won't matter. and when high profile retailers pick up even just one style, there is a prestige factor that can be very beneficial. but if buyers want more options, that's a different story. "if retailers want to edit at all, it can be challenging," said robert burke, president and ceo of luxury consulting firm robert burke associates. "it becomes more difficult than if they have four or five styles and you can make an assortment with multiple colors. you can actually sink your teeth into it and start to have a business." and, in general, persuading retailers to buy something new can be tough, especially with a small, expensive line in this economic climate. "at the end of the day, it's all about margin: high sell throughs and low markdowns," said monique umeh from trend forecasting firm stylesight. "a lot of retailers are afraid of the liability. that's really going to be the challenge with smaller groupings." celebrity stylist maryam malakpour, who makes newbark shoes with her sister, marjan, has learned a lot about placement in the two years since the line debuted. while a men's offering has always been part of the brand, the duo felt they could only successfully market and sell women's product from the outset. "we had to really concentrate on one [category] first to get ourselves launched and understood," said maryam malakpour. the brand's slipper like line started with one slip on style on net a porter.com and is also sold at boutiques such as blue & cream. the designers have added a split sole style for men and women, and a loafer and boot are now available for women. malakpour said she would like to make those two styles for men next. "being a small company that is very artisan and handmade, we are taking the growth and movements very slowly so we can make sure we aren't overdoing it," she said. "the way we've been moving with [men's shoes] has been successful, but in a small way." to be sure, measured success is often good enough as these brands get started with footwear. credibility in the market and celebrity fans may be just as valuable as wide profit margins. "we always take great pride in working with great mills   we don't go outside europe for manufacturing   so it's not like we are dealing with significantly high profit margins," said bespoken's goncalves. "it's more about maintaining the integrity of the brand and building on the foundation we've created so far." and experts said designers shouldn't expect that launching men's shoes in such small numbers will be very lucrative at first anyway. in fact, with many of the lines made in italy, production costs are high, and sell throughs aren't guaranteed. "in the beginning, they know they are going to take a loss until they can start establishing the brand and eventually grow the brand," said stylesight's umeh. "but it is the right thing to start small." that's especially true for men, said designers. knowing that male and female customers shop differently, most designers said they don't believe men even need the level of choice offered in the women's category. gianvito rossi took that into account when planning his men's launch for spring '12. rossi, son of sergio rossi, bowed his namesake women's label for spring '07, but when it came to his men's collection, he decided less is more. "it's only three styles because it's intended as a [classic selection]. and in men's, in the end, the styles are not so many," said rossi. "we are much more restricted in our minds than women are with shoes." shipley & halmos also focused on basics for its shoe line, which will grow to four styles for spring '12. "we've got a few staples in our apparel collection that we've been running for several seasons in a row, and we want to try to build a couple of [staples] into the shoe category as well," said halmos. "the oxford, [for instance], will carry over for spring." such a selling strategy takes some of the risk out of a tough retail environment. burke said this is a model that could become more popular going forward   and that's a positive thing. "it's good because it's allowing brands to experiment in new product categories, and it gives retailers something to buy. it diversifies the offering and gets the name out in a new and creative way," said burke. "and it's good to see the men's shoe assortment not being dominated by the established designers and companies." august 12, 2011 new york   robert burke associates, founded in new york in 2006, is expanding. in may, robert burke, president and chief executive officer of the consultancy, opened in london and los angeles to better serve emerging markets and the growing interest of entertainment personalities in fashion. the london office will serve designers, brands, retailers, retail development groups and investment bankers in europe and the middle east. “we are seeing a lot of activity from private equity groups looking to invest in fashion brands there,” burke said. “in london, a fair amount of brands also want to enter the u.s. market and we can help them with it.” florence hampson bellon, whom burke worked with when she was in the london buying office for neiman marcus and bergdorf goodman and he was bergdorf’s senior vice president of fashion and public relations, is running the london office. the los angeles branch, led by tracy chow, who previously worked for burke in new york, primarily focuses on celebrities and other personalities looking to translate their profile into brands. the office will help them develop brand concepts, product lines and brand extensions with collaborations and licensing agreements. clients in that arena so far include daphne guinness, andre 3000 and carmindy. “we are seeing so many personalities and celebrities who want to be a brand, and while that has been somewhat haphazard for many in the past, we are now available to put together a brand strategy for individuals,” burke said. he said international markets continue to gain in importance for luxury firms, citing countries from the former soviet union, including kazakhstan, where the company is working with saks fifth avenue on its first location in the region; azerbaijan, and poland as newer opportunities. the bric countries, he added, continued to represent many opportunities for fashion houses, but each comes with its own set of nuances that needs to be addressed. “the business has changed over the past five and a half years with the growth of emerging markets,” burke said. “some people think that with the bric countries, you enter and make $100 million instantly, but each one is different. in china, the luxury consumer is still being educated, and the importance of marketing and a brand presence is critical there. what works in the u.s. does not mean it automatically works in china. brazil has its own specific challenges because of taxes and duties, but that consumer is becoming much more global. brazil has an emerging middle class that didn’t exist as such before.” june 1, 2011 on a recent weekday afternoon, tommy hilfiger was in his office clad in his signature warm weather uniform: navy blazer, white shirt, crisp chinos and penny loafers, no socks. only now, there was a crucial difference. gone was the big, yacht captain style, double breasted blazer with brass buttons and baggy pleated khakis. the change mirrors a shift at his company. his recent runway collections are sleeker and more urbane than in the past. he credits the "specialists" he has tapped to rejuvenate his women's and men's runway collections. in one of the more unusual relationships in the fashion industry, mr. hilfiger has hired two critically acclaimed younger designers, peter som in 2009, and last year simon spurr, as creative consultants. "it's my formula. it's my vision," mr. hilfiger says. "but i wanted someone to come in who respects the vision but would want to maybe modernize it a bit." the hires are part of mr. hilfiger's broader effort to refresh his 26 year old label's image in the u.s., particularly among luxury consumers. high end shoppers are taking notice. over the knee, high heeled lace up women's duck boots mr. som dreamed up in collaboration with mr. hilfiger last year turned out to be one of the label's most buzzed about and sought after items in years. the label's retail prices have increased approximately 15% over the past two years. net sales for the company's products rose 14.5% in 2010. critics are noticing, too. tommy hilfiger witnessed some of its most enthusiastic runway show reviews in years since the two young designers came on board. reviews noted the women's clothes "felt luxurious and sophisticated in a new way" and the men's line may have marked its best interpretation of preppy to date. mr. spurr, 36 years old, is one of three nominees for menswear designer of the year from the council of fashion designers of america, whose awards ceremony takes place june 6. with its popular colorful, preppy aesthetic, tommy hilfiger was one of the hottest american brands in the 1990s. at its peak, the company, acquired last year by apparel giant phillips van heusen corp.,pvh  1.32% generated nearly $2 billion in annual sales in the u.s. but overexposure and changing tastes caused its popularity to wane considerably in the u.s. its red, white and blue, logo heavy look was seen as outdated. the label took a two year hiatus from the new york fashion week runways in 2005 as it repositioned itself in the u.s. meanwhile, the brand thrived in europe, where it had a more upscale reputation and look. mr. hilfiger says he is encouraging the designers to come up with modern interpretations of his signature staples. "i had an in depth conversation with peter on what new england preppy was all about," mr. hilfiger says. the two men took a field trip in late 2009 to mr. hilfiger's home in greenwich, conn. they looked through mr. hilfiger's closet and that of his wife, dee. "we were talking about how when dee went to college she wore duck boots all the time," mr. som, 40, says. "i have my own duck boots, so i thought it would be fun to take iconic items and spin them, so i came up with making the boots sexier." the result: high heeled duck boots. "it was one of the most successful items we've had," mr. hilfiger says. mr. hilfiger hired mr. som after he sought the advice of vogue editor anna wintour a few years ago on how to spruce up his women's runway collection. ms. wintour recommended he take a look at mr. som. when he was looking to do similar updating with the men's runway collection in 2010, mr. hilfiger again went to ms. wintour, who suggested mr. spurr as one possibility. ms. wintour, through a spokeswoman, confirmed mr. hilfiger's account. while several designers work for themselves as well as with other labels, messrs. som and spurr's role with tommy hilfiger is uncommon. typically, when a designer with his or her own line moonlights with a big label, the label's founder is deceased or is no longer involved. mr. hilfiger, 60, is very much alive and still holds the titles of visionary and principal designer. and mr. hilfiger hasn't kept his business relationship with the designers under wraps in the way that bigger fashion houses usually do when they bring in smaller designers. messrs. som and spurr were backstage and were thanked in the program notes for the women's and men's shows held during new york fashion week in february. robert burke, who runs luxury goods consultancy robert burke associates, says crediting messrs. som and spurr "is a smart move. it elevates [mr. hilfiger's] visibility and credibility in the high end designer world." mr. hilfiger says he sees hiring the men as a way to help two talented and hard working designers. mr. hilfiger pays each designer a salary, which all three declined to disclose. they also get business experience working for a big fashion brand with $4.6 billion in global retail sales last year. mr. hilfiger says he sees his arrangement with messrs. spurr and som as an extension of his track record of breeding talent. reed krakoff worked at tommy hilfiger before being tapped by coach, where he is executive creative director. many designers who are at the helm of mega brands don't do much actual sketching and sewing, especially if their labels span a wide range of products like mr. hilfiger's. but even from when he started his label in 1985, mr. hilfiger hasn't generally been thought of as a designer who wields a sketch pad and pin cushion. mr. hilfiger notes he had numerous hands on design stints early in his career. messrs. som and spurr sketch, select fabrics, make prototypes and conduct fittings for tommy hilfiger's runway collections. (the designers don't work on the sportswear collection that is sold exclusively at macy's.) last week both designers were in a factory in italy working on prototypes for the spring 2012 tommy hilfiger collection to be shown at new york fashion week in september. the two work on their own lines at the same time. they said, in separate interviews, that they never have moments where they are conflicted about whether to save an idea for their own lines instead of using it for hilfiger. the process usually starts when mr. hilfiger conducts meetings with each designer to lay out the next collection's concept. they brainstorm, reviewing previous collections and inspirational imagery. "they will give the initial sketch" and then work with the company's in house design team on the details, says mr. hilfiger. the sketches are presented to sample makers. "once i sketch enough, i'll go back and get tommy's thoughts and then he has an angle i never thought of, he adds that twist that he's known for," mr. spurr said by telephone from italy. "it's a collaborative process." "i'm there but i give them space," mr. hilfiger says. "if they want to try something different, i'm all for it because i like innovation and i want to see what they'll do without big daddy." after completing fittings of samples in italy, messrs. som and spurr present them to mr. hilfiger in new york to review. they coordinate with the label's stylist, karl templer. mr. hilfiger alone makes the call on what will go down the runway. may 9, 2011 paris   the furious game of musical chairs currently under way in the design studios of europe shows no signs of slowing down. according to market sources, chloé is to expected to reveal as early as today that clare waight keller, most recently creative director at pringle of scotland, will succeed hannah macgibbon at the helm of the french firm. chloé would simply be the latest of a host of european brands expected to name new designers in the coming weeks and months, headlined by christian dior, which ousted its star couturier john galliano last march amidst widening allegations of racial and anti semitic outbursts. the high court here is expected to announce thursday a date when the designer is to stand trial on a charge of public insult. alexander mcqueen’s sarah burton   thrust to international stardom for dressing england’s royal bride, catherine middleton   is said to be at the top of the list of potential candidates that luxury titan bernard arnault is coveting as galliano’s eventual successor. meanwhile, the industry can anticipate new faces at a host of august names in the coming weeks and months. balmain has already said that christophe decarnin will be replaced by his number two, olivier rousteing, while gianfranco ferré, cacharel, azzaro, kenzo and trussardi are among brands said to be recruiting new creative leadership. even men’s wear, traditionally a less volatile industry sector, is suddenly teeming with upheaval, with z zegna’s star alessandro sartori said to be headed to berluti; jil sander designer paul surridge tapped to succeed sartori, and former dunhill designer kim jones making his debut here next month at louis vuitton. meanwhile, waight keller’s successor at pringle, former balenciaga alum alistair carr, is already at work on the resort collection and will show his first men’s wear collection in milan next month. the flurry of change comes at a buoyant time for high end fashion businesses, and after a long period of stability in design studios. “the entire world is changing so deeply and so quickly in this moment. perhaps some brands are feeling the absolute need to change their designer if he or she is no longer able to make consumers push the door of their boutiques,” mused jean jacques picart, an industry consultant here. tancrède de lalun, merchandise manager for men’s and women’s wear at printemps, said the revolving door scenario was a cyclical one and was amplified by the domino effect that every departure has on other houses. “during the crisis, for two or three years, nobody moved,” he said. “everyone was just ducking and waiting for the crisis to blow over by making as little noise as possible and hunkering down with their teams.” the return of double digit growth among many leading luxury brands has emboldened managers to give their labels a makeover, both in terms of strategy and creative talent, de lalun said. lucian james, creative director and founder of paris based strategic consultancy agenda inc., agreed creative and business imperatives are in flux. “the reason is that new sets of skills are being prioritized in an accelerated, fragmented fashion culture,” he explained. “in a social media fueled landscape, a new breed of designer needs to operate more like commissioning editors, treating their brands as media channels that edit cultural themes, and manifest them as clothes. and while it seems new, interestingly it’s the same approach that drove coco chanel to success   an understanding that fashion wasn’t just clothes, it was about ideas and the culture that could be expressed as clothes. “designers are changing because consumers are changing; consumers want brands to inspire them with ideas, not just with advertising, and to tell them about the future, not just the past,” james added. according to robert burke, president and chief executive officer of robert burke associates in new york, the current game of musical chairs is likely to end with brands eclipsing the designers that eventually fill the empty seats. “the last thing the brand wants is instability,” he said. “i wouldn’t be surprised to see lower profile [hires] as opposed to major star designers.” naming christophe lemaire to succeed jean paul gaultier at hermès and designer creative director tandems like sébastien peigné and nicola formichetti at mugler are other examples of the antifame trend, concurred printemps’ de lalun. “the market is recovering; it’s bringing back the energy and people think business could be even better,” de lalun said. “it’s positive in the sense that it injects energy and a fresh vision. having said that, hopefully things will not change every couple of years, because when a house changes its designer every two years, it’s very destabilizing.” liberty’s managing director ed burstell agreed. “generally speaking, the overall merry go round of designers is not great for the industry. for a retailer, it’s really difficult to stand behind a brand that has a potentially changing designer,” he said. “a retailer wins by building a loyal rapport with its clientele, and you do that with consistency. it’s really difficult to establish that rapport when the consistency is not there. look at the best brands. take burberry, for example. it has a consistent vision over time. or chanel. a consistent vision over time.” chloé has certainly weathered turbulence in its design studio since the 2006 exit of phoebe philo. before installing macgibbon, one of philo’s deputies, chloé experimented with a team approach and three unfruitful seasons under swedish designer paulo melim andersson. seen as a knitwear expert, waight keller claimed to have helped transform pringle over her six year tenure “from a scottish knitwear company to an international luxury brand.” before pringle, waight keller was a senior women’s designer at gucci during the tom ford era. before that, she was design director for ralph lauren’s purple label men’s line. her first job was as a women’s wear designer for calvin klein. chloé officials could not be reached for comment at press time. floriane de saint pierre, who runs an eponymous executive search and consulting firm in paris, said fashion firms must now face a “new world” of digital media and fast growing emerging markets. “pure creativity is becoming equally important as the ability to manage creative talents at a global level,” she said. “in the past decade, we’ve seen designers become ‘creative directors.’ now we are probably facing the need to have chief creative officers as creative partners of chief executive officers. this requires redesigning organizations.” may 2, 2011 dressing catherine middleton for the royal wedding has catapulted the house of alexander mcqueen from niche designer business into household name, giving management the delicate task of balancing its exclusive reputation with the wider commercial potential now within its grasp. that’s how industry observers and retailers reacted to friday’s fashion coup, which also marked a dramatic trajectory for a label once synonymous with ragtag rebellion   and one whose future seemed tenuous a year ago in the wake of the suicide of its incendiary founder. “it will have a phenomenal impact in terms of brand awareness. the brand is still a niche brand, and this exposure will definitely bring a wider clientele,” said ralph toledano, the former chloé executive who now operates a paris based consulting business, rt management. still, toledano said the feat of dressing middleton, now known as the duchess of cambridge, should not be trumpeted too loudly. “this assignment is an honor for the designer, a fantastic tribute to the legacy of lee alexander mcqueen. i think it should be considered as that, and not become a marketing tool,” he said. lucian james, creative director and founder of paris based strategic consultancy agenda inc., said the royal milestone transforms mcqueen “into a true fashion house with guaranteed legacy, rather than a brand in transition centered around the original designer.” it also “tames the edginess of the brand, raising it to a new endorsement by a list consumers,” james said, highlighting that infamous mcqueen story that, while working at anderson & sheppard in london, he incorporated an expletive into the lining of a jacket for the prince of wales. “this moment tips the brand back to the focus on technique and on the savile row origins of lee alexander,” he said. “meanwhile, you have to wonder whether sarah burton has received any calls from bernard arnault.” john guy, a retail and luxury goods analyst for the royal bank of scotland, said, “obviously, for the ppr group this is very positive,” noting how “other brand” sales of which alexander mcqueen is a key sales contributor, increased first quarter sales year over year by more than 20 percent to 165 million euros, or $244 million at current exchange. (also in ppr’s “other brand” category are balenciaga, stella mccartney, boucheron and sergio rossi.) given how well received middleton’s wedding dress has been and how the burberry prorsum trench she wore for her first post engagement appearance sold out, guy said, “this bodes extremely well for the mcqueen business.” while the alexander mcqueen business is significantly smaller than ppr’s gucci, it has been a strong performer sales wise. further growth for this more niche label would most likely stem from opening boutiques and concept shops rather than rolling out wholesale, guy said. but whether it was a casual enquiry about the dress or a friendly probe about what it might mean for sales, staff at the alexander mcqueen boutique on bond street in london were studiously tight lipped on the subject of the wedding on friday afternoon following the ceremony. temporary staff with no history at the company were working at the store for the day to help maintain the silence. in addition, one enormous security guard was positioned at the entrance to the store to fend off giant groups of tourists posing for photos. betsy pearce, a paris based legal adviser who represented mcqueen in 2000 when he sold a majority stake in his london based house to gucci group, today ppr’s luxury division, marveled at the transformation of mcqueen, which went from something “feral” and “deeply antiauthority” through a slow “domestication” under the umbrella of a corporate behemoth to the brand’s “coronation” last week before the eyes of the world. “it’s the quintessential rags to riches story,” pearce said. “my concern is that it’s easy to take advantage of and cash in on it. with any brand, there’s only so much time at the pinnacle.” pearce noted the dressing coup is a tribute to sarah burton, and, “i have to imagine there’s a mutual understanding of two young women thrown into a situation they didn’t expect, with enormous media scrutiny.” in this instance, the media attention on the big day will pay off, many observers said. “the amount of media impressions through tv, twitter and blogs will catapult the alexander mcqueen name to familiarity it never had,” said kim vernon, president and ceo of vernon co. “whether it translates to more perfume sales or made to order dresses, it is nothing but positive.” this could include more opportunities for licensing, said robert burke, president and chief executive officer of robert burke associates in new york. “this is a new chapter for his fragrance,” burke said. “the objective will be to maintain the high fashion image and also be commercial.” burke was alluding to the late designer’s dismal foray into fragrance in 2003 and 2005 with the scents kingdom and my queen. when l’oréal acquired ysl beauté for 1.15 billion euros in 2008 from ppr, the fragrance brand was not part of the transaction and the mcqueen license is now thought to be dormant. still, the fact that mcqueen remains part of a large corporate group puts the company in a strong position to capitalize on the publicity windfall, according to burke. he also highlighted the already international reach of the mcqueen franchise, unlike the “small, british designers” the royal family has favored in the past. “one couldn’t have scripted it better,” burke remarked, noting the hubbub around the wedding dress will surely dovetail with an exhibition dedicated to alexander mcqueen opening this week at new york’s metropolitan museum of art. the events will also surely catapult the profile of burton, the current creative director at mcqueen, who is already on the radar of luxury titan arnault as he hunts for a successor to john galliano at christian dior and wields one of the biggest checkbooks in the industry. sources said burton seems open to discussions about working for another big brand, but ppr would likely shore up more resources to keep her ensconced at mcqueen. burton has spent her entire career at the elbow of the acclaimed british designer, the son of a taxicab driver whose seminal and controversial highland rape collection of 1995 ignited his career, ultimately landing him, at age 27, as couturier at givenchy, a role he kept for five years. armando branchini, deputy chairman of milan consultancy intercorporate, characterized the bridal credit as an “assist” to the brand that would have a “very positive” influence on the business: “it won’t increase its sales tenfold   and it would be a mistake to change its niche quality   but it will increase its allure and appeal.” the mcqueen business has weathered some rocky years, and in 2004, then gucci group ceo robert polet set a 2007 break even deadline, which the company met ahead of time. the founder’s suicide also raised questions, given his renowned cutting skill, imagination and flare for showmanship. “if there was any doubt about the future of the brand following alexander mcqueen’s death, then that has been completely banished,” said george wallace, ceo of consultancy mhe retail. asked whether this was the moment to expand with brand extensions, he said: “the brand can now reach a wider audience, with fragrance and accessories lines. but they would need to be managed carefully.” retailers said they expect an immediate bump to the business. and saks fifth avenue could be first in line. fortuitously, the company had already lined up burton for a trunk show appearance tuesday at its fifth avenue flagship. the private meet and greet will be her first official in store appearance since mcqueen’s death. per agreement with the house, saks executives declined to comment friday about the event and the retailer’s plans for the business. “this is a dream come true for a brand,” said jeffrey kalinsky, executive vice president of nordstrom. “i do think the business will go through the roof.” prior to the wedding, nordstrom had already been exploring ways to build on the mcqueen business, which has been “really strong” for ready to wear, as well as shoes and accessories, he said. “if you take a brand that is already successful and it gets that level of worldwide exposure, it will have a tremendous impact on the business,” kalinsky said. “the wedding will have a big impact on the mcqueen business,” said stephanie solomon, vice president of fashion direction at bloomingdale’s. on friday, barbara atkin, vice president, fashion direction at canada’s holt renfrew, said the store was already receiving calls enquiring about sarah burton’s collection for mcqueen. “i do not believe that customers outside the fashion world were even aware of sarah burton prior to this wedding,” atkin said. she said mcqueen has been performing “extremely well since sarah has taken over the brand. we are repeating styles and seeing double digit results exceeding our plans with this collection. we are opening more doors in our chain. we actually wrote the gown that [middleton’s sister] pippa was wearing and we expect to get lots of enquiries on that stunning ‘pippa’ gown.” sarah rutson, fashion director at hong kong based lane crawford, said her mcqueen business was on an upswing before the wedding. “however, for our market, i don’t believe [the wedding] will have significant impact just because of the dress. the significant impact and success has always been its strong design regardless.” averyl oates, chief buying director at harvey nichols, said the wedding pumped up british pride. “this will have a spectacularly immediate impact on both the industry, and sales for the brand,” oates said. “alexander mcqueen has long proved itself a popular brand with our customers, but hopefully this will now extend its visibility across the world, and what better platform than to be adorning the future queen of england.” “the brand is in much demand today and its desirability continues to grow,” said marigay mckee, fashion and beauty director at harrods. “there is always a demand for exquisite couture and i’m sure the house has a great future. there is a new mcqueen flagship going in store for spring 2012, which we are all tremendously excited about.” caroline burstein, creative director of browns and director of browns bride in london, said burton is now fully out of the shadows. “i have always known that sarah was the backbone of the mcqueen brand. he brought what he brought to the brand, but it was sarah who underpinned it. she has an amazing attention to detail, and always kept a balance at the brand   she wouldn’t let it go too far,” she said. burstein said when she launched browns bride in 2004, she brought in rtw pieces from mcqueen. “there was always a sense of occasion about them. they were just beautiful,” she said. burstein added that the royal wedding dress would give a bump to an already healthy brand. “the mcqueen label stayed strong. his death did not affect sales at the label because the clothes are good. they are what women with style like to wear   and not just skinny women. they work on real women.” april 29, 2011 “it’s the greatest ka ching moment of all time.” so said cnn tv commentator piers morgan, as he and an estimated 2bn global viewers of the royal wedding   not to mention dress designers around the world   waited to discover who had made catherine middleton’s gown. the answer: sarah burton for alexander mcqueen. according to a statement issued by clarence house, “miss middleton chose british brand alexander mcqueen for the beauty of its craftsmanship and its respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing. miss middleton wished for her dress to combine tradition and modernity with the artistic vision that characterises alexander mcqueen’s work.” a classic gown with powerful echoes of the famous dress grace kelly wore to marry prince rainier, the design consists of a lace overlay on a satin bodice and a skirt with a 2.7 metre train. other than french chantilly lace combined with english cluny lace, it was composed entirely of fabrics sourced in the united kingdom, and embroidered by the royal school of needlework. the choice was immediately applauded by the british fashion community. designer bora aksu said, “the dress was absolutely right as catherine looks straight out of fairytale. the style is timeless and will look just as stunning in many, many years to come. a great honour to british fashion.” designer graeme black said: “she is the grace kelly of our age. britain loves the dress.” catherine middleton’s decision will have immediate repercussions for alexander mcqueen, one of the smaller brands in the luxury group of conglomerate ppr. though famous within the fashion community for its dramatic runway shows, and the subject of worldwide coverage last year when its eponymous founder committed suicide, mcqueen is only just reaching the size at which it can advertise. its first, small campaign was planned for this autumn/winter. antoine belge, luxury analyst at hsbc, said: “for such a brand, [the royal wedding] is a tremendous opportunity to attract intense media coverage it could never have financially afforded otherwise.” the selection of mcqueen also places a national halo around the brand, which shows in paris and is owned by a french group, confirming it as one of the pre eminent british fashion names on the global stage, and suggesting ms middleton may use her position to further the interests of the british fashion industry. finally, the dress also marks a very public coming out for creative director sarah burton, an unknown until she assumed the design helm of the company last may after mr mcqueen’s death. ms burton said: “it has been the experience of a lifetime to work with catherine middleton to create her wedding dress . . . i am so proud of what we and the alexander mcqueen team have created.” though ms burton has remained largely in the background since her appointment, quietly evolving the label’s aesthetic from the aggressive genius of mr mcqueen in a more feminine, gentle direction, ms middleton’s gown should further enhance perceptions of the label’s growing accessibility. the house’s range was further demonstrated by the dress ms burton designed for philippa middleton, maid of honour, a notably streamlined cap sleeved long sheath in heavy crepe, with a draped cowl neck. robert burke, chief executive of brand consultancy robert burke associates, said: “the designer will have a world wide audience that only happens every new decades. “a smart brand can double, triple or more their business in a short time.” april 14, 2011 it can cost a man a lot less to feel like a million bucks in his suit these days. there are more suits priced between $500 and $700 that include features once found typically on more expensive suits: fine italian fabrics, modern cuts and narrow lapels. the goal is to attract younger men who increasingly want the current fitted, formal styles as opposed to the boxy suits and more casual officewear of their dads. big suit makers like brooks brothers and hmx, which sell suits between about $600 and $3,000, say their lowest priced suits are experiencing the fastest sales growth. and next month amsterdam based suitsupply, with 35 stores in europe, plans to open its first u.s. store in new york with suits starting at $385. suitsupply will offer its sometimes flashy suits with details like italian wool fabric, brightly colored lining and working button holes, features that usually carry a higher price tag. other efforts to keep up quality at lower prices include j. crew group inc.'s expanded men's suit selection. sales of its men's suit have more than doubled since 2008, when the clothing company introduced a slimmer style, made with italian wool and superior interior construction, a spokeswoman says. the style, called ludlow, starts at about $600. at hmx, which owns american suit brands like hickey freeman and hart schaffner marx, the fastest growth is in its lower priced suits, around $795, says joseph abboud, president and chief creative officer for hmx. sales of hart schaffner marx suits, the company's brand in that price range, are up 27% year to date compared to last year, says mr. abboud. the briskest sales growth at brooks brothers is happening in its recently expanded suiting essentials line, priced starting at $598, says guy voglino, divisional merchandise manager for men's clothing at the company. sales of the line are up 28% in 2011 to date, compared to the same period last year, mr. voglino says. introduced in 2007 offering one fit, the line has expanded to four different fits, most recently the brand's narrowest cuts, the fitzgerald and the milano. brooks brothers offers some made to measure options including about 20 fabrics. the ability to individualize appeals to younger men who want to stand out even in a room of suits, says mr. voglino. because each suit is specially ordered, the company saves money by producing only what it actually sells and doesn't risk bloated inventory. the interest in suits at this price range comes amid an overall pick up in suit sales at some manufacturers. brooks brothers says sales of its 1818 collection, priced about $1,000, are up 26% year over year. hmx is seeing double digit growth in volume and dollar sales across brands and price points, says mr. abboud. "we are seeing the suit business really come back in the last six months very very strongly," says robert burke, a luxury goods consultant and founder of robert burke associates in new york. many men wait for seasonal sales in order to find a good price on a suit, but suit makers hope the new $500 to $700 range will encourage men to buy retail instead of waiting for price cuts. suitsupply is able to keep down prices, in part, by picking store locations slightly off main shopping streets with lower rents, says fokke de jong, chief executive and founder of the company. the company's new soho new york location will be on a second floor with no street level window display. about 15% of suitsupply suits are sold through the website. j. crew, like suitsupply, controls more aspects of production from design to distribution, cutting out payments to third party companies that typical move suits into department stores. men's wearhouse which sells suits from about $199 to $700, keeps prices low by offering two for the price of one deals, increasing sales volume and therefore buying power with its suppliers, says doug ewert, president and chief operating officer of the houston, texas based company. maintaining the current price to quality relationship in men's suits is likely to become increasingly difficult. raw material prices for desirable natural fabrics like wool and cotton are rising sharply. "if i have to guess, price is going to go up 10% to 15% on the wholesale side" heading into spring 2012, says ronny wurtzburger, president of peerless clothing which manufactures men's suits for brands like dkny, calvin klein and izod. we enlisted two experts for an unscientific, blind review of six suits: salvatore giardina, a men's suit designer and professor at the fashion institute of technology, and salvatore cesarani, a designer and professor at parsons the new school for design. the testers found striking differences in quality, sometimes out of line with the suit's price. both testers said the $614 suitsupply suit matched the $3,625 armani in quality. both saw little difference in quality between the two, or at least not enough to justify a $3,000 difference in price. each is made with soft italian fabric and showed the maker cared about details like pockets with extra stitching at their edges. "it's a work of art," said mr. giardina when examining the sewing job in the waist band of the armani suit pant. but after learning of the large price difference, "that means that won," mr. giardina said, pointing to the suitsupply suit. the j. crew suit fared well with the testers noting its neat construction and that it is made of high end italian fabric and bemberg lining (a type of rayon favored for its breathablity and moisture absorption). the testers said the hart schaffner marx suit didn't live up to its $895 price. mr. giardina noted some fraying strings on button holes and said its "amf stitching" didn't achieve a handmade look. (amf stitching is a wider stitch that's an aesthetic touch.) mr. cesarani said the jacket didn't move freely in the chest. the test method "is an imperfect science and it's an opinion," says mr. abboud, noting that the suit tested is made from "super 110s wool made in italy. "we take great pains," he adds, to make sure fabric and construction is high quality. mr. giardina said the h&m suit used a lower thread count wool fabric and basic construction, but still pulled off a nice overall look. mr. cesarani dismissed it as "cheap looking." he docked points for the lack of extra fabric for future tailoring where the lining inside the cuff of the jacket meets the exterior fabric. "we know that our suits are appreciated by many of our customers," said an h&m spokeswoman. the target suit isn't worth more than $89, both testers agreed, calling the polyester fabric a major negative. "target is committed to offering quality merchandise at a great value," says a target spokeswoman. "for our business focused guests, this means finding suits for less than $100." april 10, 2011 paris   will the taint of bigotry cling forever to john galliano   an albatross around his neck? or will the incendiary british designer rehabilitate himself and his name over time, only to rise again like some fashion phoenix? retailers, headhunters and other experts seem to be rallying for the latter scenario, arguing that galliano   ousted from dior last month amidst mounting allegations of racist and anti semitic outbursts   has the potential to write himself a new chapter and rebound from the crisis. “i hope so. otherwise, it would be such a waste,” said carla sozzani, owner of milan based fashion retailer corso como 10. “maybe i’m a dreamer, but i’m hoping he’s going back to his own brand. it would make sense that he works for galliano.” that scenario is unlikely: as reported, at a recent board meeting of the john galliano company, his employment was officially terminated. and while christian dior sa, which owns 91 percent of the galliano house, has received unsolicited expressions of interest in the business from several of its italian licensing partners as well as a chinese group and a firm from the middle east, it is understood a sale of the company is not a priority and no banks have been contracted to do so. whether an eventual new owner would seek to reemploy the namesake designer remains an unanswered question. despite this hurdle, many industry observers are of the school that people in fashion have short memories   and that galliano might find this tragic episode quickly behind him. “look at naomi campbell. she had so many problems. no one remembers,” sozzani said, recalling how the supermodel, convicted of assault in 2007 and sentenced to community service, transformed the penalty into a quirky fashion opportunity, posing for w magazine as a chic street sweeper serving out her sentence. “after a while memories fade and, as the british say, ‘today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper.’ i really believe most people do get a second chance and rebound,” agreed sarah rutson, fashion director at hong kong based specialty retailer lane crawford, characterizing galliano’s fashion career as simply on pause. “if john truly gets the help he needs for his issues and shows that he is genuinely doing everything in his power to rehabilitate himself, he will be forgiven and accepted back.” “i think he’s talented enough to recover from this and to come back,” added agnès barret, principal of paris based creative search firm agent secret. “kate moss did it,” she noted, alluding to the supermodel who was initially shunned following a 2005 cocaine scandal   only to come roaring back a year later and appear in a slew of high profile ad campaigns. “when people are really talented, they have the right to express themselves. his talent will not disappear,” barret said. “i would advise him to do it in a different way.” bonnie brooks, president and chief executive officer of canadian department store the bay, cautioned that it could take a long time to restore the galliano name. “we believe in his genius; however, we do think that in order for his brand to be successful, there would need to be assurance that all of the right conditions would be met to restore the good faith required between a designer brand, a luxury retailer and sophisticated customers,” she said. betsey pearce, a paris based legal adviser and consultant with a specialty in fashion, noted that martha stewart and tiger woods are relevant examples of famous, high functioning personalities who rebounded from scandal, an investment scheme and marital infidelity, respectively. “would tiger woods be terrible if he weren’t married?” she asked. “is it relevant to his golf, other than the effect of being vilified?” pearce hinted that plenty of designers are guilty of behavior that would be deemed reprehensible if caught on tape. “are we buying the guy’s morality, or the guy’s incredible talent?” she asked. “he’s a genius in his work.” with unanimity, observers stressed that galliano should not be absolved of individual responsibility for his behavior and his horrendous statements cannot be swept under the carpet. druggy or diva behavior is one thing; invoking adolph hitler quite another. asked if galliano would be able to come back if he made amends, franca sozzani, editor in chief of vogue italia, said: “it’s not a matter of making amends, because what happened will never be excused. you must let time go by and recognize that, on a human level, he’s made a mistake, and that, on a creative level, he remains a huge personality.” robert burke, president and ceo of robert burke associates, noted that the anti semitic nature of galliano’s outbursts is “pretty unprecedented” and distinct from the familiar wild child antics of pampered stars from fashion or hollywood. “america loves a comeback story, but this is a very different offense that’s very sensitive to many people,” burke said. “time will tell.” the designer is to stand trial on a charge of public insult at the high court here, which is expected on may 12 to set the date for the proceedings. three people   géraldine bloch, philippe virgiti and an anonymous woman   allege galliano hurled racist and anti semitic remarks at them in a paris bar. he could face six months imprisonment and a fine of 22,500 euros, or $31,271 at current exchange, according to the french prosecutor. galliano has denied the allegations against him, apologized for his behavior and stated plans to pursue a claim of defamation, insult and menace filed against bloch and virgiti. sources said the designer recently completed an “intensive” one month treatment at a rehabilitation center in arizona and is now in extended “after care,” recognizing effective treatment is a long, ongoing process. barret suggested the designer must repent further, make amends with the jewish community, and prove that his ability to dazzle and innovate is intact. crisis management experts agree penance is a key first step. “he needs to spend at least three months quietly rehabilitating in a clinic,” said gene grabowski, senior vice president of washington based levick strategic communications. “when he emerges, he should announce that he has changed his life and has learned new and healthier habits and that he is ready to contribute to his field and to society again. he then must demonstrate that he is serious about his new direction by contributing a sum of money or his time to a worthy project connected to the fashion industry or to helping a cause connected with jewish interests. he behaved himself into his situation and now he must behave himself out of it.” grabowski cautioned, however, that the process could take a year or two “for the new reputation to build and for memories of the old behavior to fade.” robbie vorhaus, founder of vorhaus & co., based in new york and paris, rattled off a long list of famous people who came back from the brink: robert downey jr., eminem, mickey rourke, britney spears, winona ryder and hugh grant. yet he said their transgressions only seem passé and irrelevant now because they went back to work and demonstrated their talent, diverting public attention away from their bad behavior. “redemption and resurrection is a powerful story, and if galliano can show that he retains his talent, instincts, skill set   and that he is sorry for his actions   he can, over time, return to a leadership role. however, it can’t be an act,” vorhaus said. “if john galliano is, in fact, in his heart racist or anti semitic, or is not willing or able to remain with his addiction recovery program, or he falls back into socially unacceptable behavior, he will have lost significant momentum for a long time to come.” “i think he’s finished for a good while,” warned glenn selig, founder of florida based the publicity agency. “while he may be well known in fashion, to the vast majority of people this is their introduction to him. because the public really doesn’t know him as a person, there’s no real reason for the public to open their hearts to him.” lingering anger toward galliano surfaced last week when an onlooker called the disgraced couturier a racist as he whisked through the los angeles airport and ignored questions lobbed at him. caught on camera, the video went viral   just like the one a month ago that depicted galliano saying in a slurred voice, “i love hitler,” and cost him his job. yet addiction experts agree rehabilitation is possible for the 50 year old iconoclast. “it may take more than one attempt but it is always possible,” said lou lebentz, an addiction therapist at the priory hospital in roehampton, london. asked whether a return to the fashion industry could be a hindrance or a help to galliano’s recovery, lebentz replied: “[one has to ask] how important your work identity is to you. do you need it in terms of boundaries and purpose or to take your mind off yourself?” she said, highlighting that the purpose and routine a patient may find in work could have a positive influence on their recovery. “recovery is an inward journey, about shutting off the external world…you will not find the answers outside yourself.” deirdre boyd, ceo of the u.k. charity addiction recovery foundation, said that a lot of male addicts in recovery tend to go back to work. “often they do very well because they are grateful to their employers, they may feel they owe their lives to their employers,” she said. as for galliano, she said: “maybe he will look more objectively on his life and reevaluate his priorities, and maybe the fashion industry is not the right place for him to go back to.” she added that the greatest predictor of successful recovery is support from family and then support from your place of work. for the moment, galliano has no job to which to return. it is understood the in house design team at galliano, which shares members with dior’s, will be charged with continuing to produce collections at a label prized for bias cut dresses, newspaper prints and retro tinged tailoring. the galliano business is based mainly on licensing. key partners include gibò co. spa for the signature men’s and women’s collections; ittierre spa for the second line galliano: perfume holding for fragrances; diesel for children’s wear; marcolin spa for eyewear; albisetti for swimwear, and morellato for watches. although sources deem an eventual sale of the company a foregone conclusion, as dior seeks to put more distance between itself and the disgraced designer, dior may first seek to further disentangle itself from the designer, who holds a minority stake in john galliano sa. it is understood there are other legal tussles ongoing related to dior’s dismissal of galliano, though nothing that would prevent it from naming a new couturier (see related story, page 5). revenues in 2009 at john galliano sa, mostly from royalties, totaled 14.2 million euros, or $20.9 million, while losses tallied 5.3 million euros, or $7.8 million, according to legal information filed with the commercial court in paris. dollar figures are converted from average exchange rates for the period. according to dior’s 2010 annual report, christian dior acquired john galliano sa in 2008 for 17 million euros, or $23.8 million at average exchange rates for that year. in an indication that it won’t be easy for the designer to return to fashion, retailers are already shunning galliano products. one american retailer, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned that the galliano name now has toxic connotations. “i think his label will continue to create controversy for some time,” the executive said. a spokeswoman for selfridges, which has featured the galliano second line in its men’s department, said the london retailer no longer carries the brand, but she declined to comment further. however, an industry source said the decision had to do with customer reaction to the galliano drama. corso como’s sozzani said she has dresses from galliano’s spring summer designer collection hanging in her shop, but she did not place an order for fall, partly because of galliano’s absence. “i’m waiting to see what happens,” she said, citing a policy that prohibits designer brands created by another person, if the founder is still alive. according to market sources, retailers in america and the u.k. reacted immediately and sharply to the scandal and often pulled products off shelves, while the business in other regions, including asia, europe and the middle east, remains largely unaffected. “we hope galliano will continue to perform. despite what happened, we are happy with the license,” said enrico ceccato, president and ceo of perfume holding, the brand’s fragrance licensee. however, he denied interest in acquiring the galliano business, insisting the company is dedicated to fragrances only. according to ceccato, the rollout of galliano’s new galliano women’s fragrance, parlez moi d’amour, is happening at almost the same pace as originally scheduled. the scent is set to launch in asia and south america after hitting europe and the middle east at the end of last year. “the only question mark is how and when to launch in the u.s.,” said ceccato referring to perfume holding’s initial plans to launch the scent there in early spring. antonio bianchi, owner of albisetti, which now controls ittierre, acknowledged interest in the galliano business, saying he is discussing ways to generate new and more extensive agreements “given the optimal relationship” it already has. whatever galliano’s fate, his downfall highlighted the risk companies can face if their brand is too closely tied to the specific image or talent of one individual, who could leave the company, die or fall from grace, according to the legal adviser pearce. no matter how many people may be involved in bringing fashions to market, “we want rock stars: we want individuals that stand out,” she said. a boilerplate statement in dior’s annual report notes: “inadequate products or communication policies with the brand image, inappropriate behavior of persons who represent the brands, along with circulation of prejudicial information to the media, could affect brand image and lead to an adverse effect on sales.” lucian james, creative director and founder of paris based strategic consultancy agenda inc., highlighted the irony that luxury brands, until recently nervous of social media, were seduced by the exposure opportunities the digital world afforded. “so it’s genuinely unfortunate that it is the john galliano video outside la perle which has become the most viral in fashion history,” he said. moreover, the galliano incident highlights important changes that will affect the broader luxury industry. according to james, “we are witnessing the beginning of an important debate about the relationship between creativity and business imperatives.” for one, “the acceleration of fashion has created more of a ‘hit factory’ approach to creativity, which can squeeze and frustrate designers, and also put pressure on the overall business. “it’s no surprise that the movie ‘black swan’ was so successful in this cultural mood because it exposes the ferocity and destructive power of creative talent. and more specifically it’s no surprise that the movie was such a personal favorite of so many people who work in the fashion world, and could identify so closely with its theme,” he continued. james also predicted luxury brands will emphasize their original designers and “spiritual leadership so that issues like this are less damaging.” for example, he said it would be a “powerful ritual symbol to concretely restore the image of monsieur dior at this point, via, for example, an empty chair at each runway show.” april 7, 2011 the men’s wear shopper is back, but the recession has changed him. instead of buying the same old, same old, he’s seeking newness in fit and label, but he’s still holding back a bit and not purchasing at the same levels he did before the financial crisis. that was the message from a roundtable on retail opportunities, which was moderated by robert burke, president and chief executive officer of robert burke associates. “the men’s business is coming back, but the customer has changed,” said russ patrick, senior vice president and general merchandise manager of men’s for neiman marcus group. “he’s more thoughtful about his buying habits. he’s asking a lot more questions and is more educated and thoughtful about buying.” he said the customer is “demanding newness. the worst thing for him to see is what was there before.” at saks fifth avenue, it’s the younger, more contemporary customer who has been the first to return, according to tom ott, svp and gmm of men’s. in fact, he said, while sales of traditional men’s product fell off most during the recession, “the contemporary and designer businesses were less worse.” bob mitchell, co president of the mitchells family of stores, said although the customer is coming in less often, his business has “seen 15 to 16 months of nice growth.” and when he does come in, he’s returned to the high end luxury product that he purchased before the downturn. “they would rather buy more of the best [merchandise], even if they buy less of it.” kevin harter, vice president of fashion direction for men’s at bloomingdale’s, agreed that the men’s customer has returned, but noted that there has been a marked change in his spending habits. “now, 84 percent of men make their own decisions,” he said, meaning that retailers can “market to guys. it makes us better retailers and better at our game.” mitchell said one of the things drawing men into stores is the new silhouette. acknowledging that men “don’t like change,” and often return time and again to the same brands, he said stores should tout the “new fit from their old friends to make them comfortable.” at the same time, he believes men are “open to new brands,” and will mix in a few new vendors if they’re presented properly. harter agreed, saying bloomingdale’s tends to “nurture the brands we already carry,” but “balance” those with new labels. ott believes there is an opportunity for new brands to flourish and expects there will soon be a “changing of the guard” as some of the more established brands lose ground to what harter described as a “young pool of designers.” he added that any brand trying to break into the men’s arena needs to “offer a distinct point of view and message.” he also encouraged brands to come to the stores and meet the shoppers so they’re well versed in what today’s customer is seeking. mitchell urged vendors to work with the sales associates in the stores to get them behind the brand. “that’s the cheapest, most effective way to market your brand,” he said. “you can connect with the customer through the sales associates, who are your champions on the selling floor. that’s how you can get your first lift.” the same can be said of private label offerings, a big initiative for many large stores today. calling it a “major underpinning of our strategy,” ott said it is essential for retailers to offer shoppers a differentiated point of view. the saks fifth avenue men’s collection, which launched in 2009, is the largest brand in the men’s store, and was launched to fill “white space” that the company saw for men’s wear with an international classic sense of styling. “we really went after it during the recession.” at neiman’s, patrick said the store uses private label “when we fall in love with specific product,” but stressed the company’s mission remains “building big businesses with the best designers.” online selling was also a topic of discussion. patrick said the neiman’s shopper often researches products online before shopping in the stores and is a “huge driver” of the men’s volume. harter said the internet provides an “editorial voice” for the company’s offerings, but many still want to “feel, touch and taste” the product in the store. he said the goal is to create a “synergy” between the two channels. the panel was in agreement that sales of men’s wear will continue to strengthen in the future. “the future looks bright for men’s wear,” said patrick, who said he expects steady growth as men dress up again and shop to complete a more “polished” and “finished look.” for bloomingdale’s, attracting a younger customer will be key to future success, harter said. “the contemporary tailored clothing business is one of our fastest growing,” he said, adding that it is essential that retailers learn how to “engage” this younger guy. the secret? “technology, technology, technology,” he said, noting stores should install wi fi and “wire” their sales associates to attract these shoppers. a question from the floor about the future of premium denim evoked a range of responses. mitchell said denim continues to grow steadily. “we sold a lot during the recession and it will continue to be an important part of the mix.” harter said bloomingdale’s is selling the same number of units, but the prices are lower than they were a few years ago. patrick said he has reduced the number of units he bought, but the quality has remained the same. one big growth area for all the stores, however, is accessories. noting that products such as pocket squares or tie bars “finish off the look,” mitchell said today’s man is more educated about his appearance and ready to buy just the right piece to complete his wardrobe. february 16, 2011 to draw inspiration for their fall collections unveiled this week, american fashion designers closed their eyes and thought of england. in particular, many of them seemed to be thinking of kate middleton, the fiancée of prince william. at the end of last year, just as designers were generating their ideas, prince william proposed to his longtime girlfriend, generating a barrage of news on her sartorial decisions. now, her brand of modern modesty ladylike clothes that are also sexy and streamlined is showing up as a fall theme at new york fashion week. other british inspired styles on the runways included broad brimmed hats at tommy hilfiger, the tiny headpieces known as fascinators at marc jacobs, and a surfeit of demure, pleated, calf grazing skirts practically everywhere. "i think there's a little bit of royal envy going on here," said robert burke, president of robert burke associates, a new york based luxury goods consulting firm. on tuesday, vera wang's show paid tribute to victorian women with long, chiffon, knife pleated skirts and high, gathered necklines, some accessorized with detachable fox fur hoods and leather gloves. models emerged from iron gates that resembled those of buckingham palace and walked to the soundtrack of "atonement," a book turned film set in england between the wars. the collection was meant to evoke "the grace, romance and effortless style of iconic american women who fascinated the english aristocracy of the 1930s," such as wallis simpson and emerald cunard, ms. wang said in the show's notes. the focus on less revealing looks comes as designers are noticing an uptick in business, particularly at the high end. women are showing a willingness to splurge on items with longevity. from a commercial perspective, ms. middleton's aesthetic is desirable, "because what she wears is...stylish, slightly conservative and classic," mr. burke said. designer rachel roy, known for her polished styles, unveiled a global chic collection on tuesday morning that took viewers to london by way of guatemala. ms. roy showed her talents at mixing prints and lamé and added a chic capsule collection of eight trench coats and trench coat inspired looks that the designer said are "part menswear, but the wrapping is so feminine, so flattering, so pulled together." neiman marcus's fashion director, ken downing, called the collection "ladylike chic with a bit of wanderlust." ms. roy, who designed the gray frock worn by michelle obama to the state of the union address last month, said that she finds ms. middleton's style to be a breath of fresh air. "i think the effortless ease, the quiet, confident glamour she is bringing is so modern," she said. the blue dress that ms. middleton wore when she and the prince announced their engagement "was very age appropriate but showed there was a fresh energy there," said ms. roy, whose fall collection contained a ladylike silk dress in a shade the designer called "blueberry." another designer who seemed to be channeling ms. middleton as a muse was peter som, who closed his show with a sexy yet modest royal blue sequin dress that would look smashing on the future royal. marc jacobs's collection, shown on monday evening at the lexington avenue armory, was another homage to ladylike clothes. there was a mod series of polka dot dresses and tops some with prints, others with dot shaped scales that resembled hanging chads. a series of victorian esque dresses featured high collars and ruffles at the neck. there wasn't a look in the collection that couldn't be worn to high tea at claridge's in mayfair even if it was tea with twiggy in 1967. kate and laura mulleavy, the sisters behind the popular rodarte label, evoked a windswept prairie for their fall 2011 collection on tuesday, which featured music by pink floyd. long, sweeping dresses with high collars and calf length coats created a scene in which an interwar intellectual like virginia woolf would have felt right at home. and there are few who stand to benefit from kate mania more than victoria beckham, the british pop star turned designer who showed a collection of calf skimming pleated dresses on sunday in bright hues like saffron. after her show, ms. beckham said that ms. middleton has asked to see some samples. "kate middleton is having a lot of influence on this whole town and country vibe, especially with all the pleated skirts with a kilt look," said neiman's mr. downing. "i am calling it a 'kilty pleasure.' "  christina binkley contributed to this article. february 15, 2011 having weathered a particularly harsh winter along with the masses, new york fashion week designers have made outerwear a dominant trend on the runway. carolina herrera, the luxury designer known for her red carpet gowns, began her show monday with a dark gray wool coat accented by a deep purple velvet belt. mary kate and ashley olsen, the twins behind the row, said the recent snowstorms inspired them to include a puffy silver jacket and puffer ski pants in their collection. designers are hoping that customers this year will be more willing to shell out for expensive items like outerwear, which can come with higher margins, as people grow tired of what's already in their closet. luxury customers severely cut back their spending in 2008 when economic turmoil took hold. they delayed big ticket or seemingly flashy purchases in 2009 as well, when conspicuous consumption became taboo. "i have to buy a new coat this year," said ron frasch, saks inc.'s sks +0.47%president and chief merchandising officer after ms. herrera's show on monday morning. "you have to, because they're so great." to ease the potential pain of a big ticket purchase like a coat, the designers made the pieces versatile. many garments on the runway could be worn as a part of a suit or as a standalone jacket. "the designers are using outerwear as a layering piece," mr. frasch said. "they maybe look like a jacket to a suit, but they're also sufficient to wear in the early fall and this time of year." a red wool sleeveless coat at derek lam could be worn either on its own or over a long sleeved top, as could a striking raspberry motorcycle jacket from tracy reese. ms. reese added fur stoles to her eveningwear and sent several long statement coats down the runway, garments she called "storm coats." "we've had such a brutal winter. we need protection, but it has to be beautiful protection," ms. reese said backstage before her show. "silhouettes that are kind of enveloping, i love the idea of that." elise overland had an obvious emphasis on the elements, holding her presentation on an ice rink saturday evening. jason wu began his show with a flannel coat, while rebecca minkoff opened with a shearling jacket. the outerwear pieces came in a range of colors, from muted neutrals to vibrant brights. many of the pieces offered face framing features, such as an exaggerated cowl neck or a scarf. capes offered a new take on transitional dressing. ms. herrera showed a gray caplet with a matching trouser. a hooded wool olive cape at max azria looked as if it was a hybrid shawl. donna karan included two capes in her dkny show sunday afternoon, which at first glance looked like a blazer hanging over the models' shoulders. "the average winter coat is no longer acceptable," said robert burke, founder of the luxury retail consultancy robert burke associates. "now you have to have the fashion winter coat." the olsen twins hit on another prevalent trend of the season: fur. using the animated film "fantastic mr. fox" as a jumping off point, the row fall collection featured luxurious fox fur coats and statement making fur hats. a blue fox coat was paired with leather and then sewn to suggest a traditional puffer jacket. "the fabric is so stunning to touch and to wear, and to look at," mary kate olsen said.  elva ramirez contributed to this article. january 31, 2011 one of the most watched acts in fashion is beginning to play out: mark lee's reinvention of barneys new york. the highly regarded lee has been barneys new york's chief executive officer for only four months yet already has made sweeping changes in the retailer's senior fashion ranks and overhauled its creative leadership. on friday, the retailer tapped a new vice president and fashion director, amanda brooks, former creative director of tuleh and a vogue contributor. and more changes are said to be on the horizon. the dawn of the new lee era at barneys is under way   an iconic retailer that over expanded, lost its way and is bleeding red ink   now headed by a young, seasoned, methodical executive whose track record includes successful stints as ceo of gucci and yves saint laurent, as well as senior positions at giorgio armani and jil sander. sources believe every aspect of the company's operations are being closely examined, with the goal of returning the company   whose losses reportedly approached $60 million last year   to profitability for an eventual sale. its volume reportedly hovers between $675 million and $700 million. industry observers believe lee's main priorities should be: • close unproductive units such as those in dallas and las vegas. • place more emphasis on "commercial" merchandise and better execution overall. • put a greater investment in the store's e commerce strategy and social networking initiatives. • create a new image campaign touting barneys' distinctiveness and sophistication. • bring more in store excitement and create more compelling visual displays. • freshen the merchandise mix and add more femininity and color, as well as a much needed paint job at the madison avenue flagship. a major signal the retailer is headed in a new direction occurred when lee tapped dennis freedman as the store's creative director. most recently creative director of w magazine, freedman is known for pushing aesthetic boundaries and for his close ties to prominent photographers. he succeeds simon doonan, who was named creative ambassador at large. for the past 25 years, doonan, the quip a minute, flamboyant brit, has been the public face of the store as well as the man behind barneys' showstopping windows, serving up a blend of kitsch and pop culture that have ranged from prince charles and the duchess of cornwall to madonna and tammy faye bakker. doonan is believed to be on board with the change. the tectonic shift in doonan's role occurred two months after lee replaced the store's top women's merchant, judy collinson, and installed his former gucci colleague daniella vitale as chief merchant and executive vice president overseeing all of women's and barneys.com. julie gilhart, the store's longtime fashion director who nurtured many up and coming designers, also exited and was succeeded by brooks, who most recently was director of fashion at william morris endeavor entertainment and is also the author of a book, "i love your style: how to define and refine your personal style." "he [lee] is the first person who's taken over that store who isn't afraid to lose everybody," said one industry source. vitale's arrival has stirred some angst in the fashion world, as designers worry barneys will cut back on its support of young talent in favor of more established, commercial collections. but numerous vendors, analysts and industry observers believe barneys needs to do just that in order to broaden its appeal   especially in markets outside new york and los angeles. as one source joked, "they're too new york  and l.a. centric, even for new york and l.a." shifting its fashion focus may prove a tricky proposition, though, since the store built its reputation on its designer discoveries and quirky, edgy and artisanal merchandise. going more mainstream would put it in head to head competition with saks fifth avenue, bergdorf goodman and neiman marcus. "mark [lee] will keep the dna of barneys and will change the methodology of how the store is run. it's a different era and a different time. you can't run it the same way as 2006 or 2007, or even the nineties. he's bringing in some people with a lot of experience," said one vendor, who requested anonymity. another vendor noted, "he's the first one who comes with a back pocket of all the right people. this is the one man who can compile an a list team." barneys needs one. it's been a bumpy ride for istithmar world, the investment arm of the state controlled holding company dubai world investment fund, which bought barneys in 2007 from jones apparel group inc. for $942 million, and has since pumped millions into the stores. the retailer today is worth significantly less since the recession and the consumer slowdown in luxury spending. last year's losses were attributed to sluggish sales and interest payments stemming largely from debt, which includes about $500 million long term. even without a ceo, barneys opened flagships in chicago and scottsdale, ariz., and rolled out more co ops, which specialize in contemporary merchandise, moves that were plotted by former ceo howard socol. the fact that barneys has been able to survive despite the recession and a lack of leadership at the top clearly indicates the inherent strength of the retailer. "barneys, on the whole, has had a pretty major impact on the industry," said arnold aronson, managing director of retail strategies at kurt salmon associates. "its top of mind awareness is much bigger than its volume." bonnie pressman   a 15 year barneys veteran and former wife of gene pressman, grandson of company founder barney pressman   now has her own consulting firm, blp consulting inc., and believes lee has the wherewithal to restore barneys' leadership position. "with any new management, there's always going to be a shake up," said pressman, who earlier in her career was executive vice president, general merchandise manager, women's ready to wear and accessories at barneys. "mark took the position to better barneys' future. he didn't need to do this job. it's a great opportunity to turn it around. yes, it needs improvement. it needs some fresh blood. i've known mark for a long time [from his days at armani]. he really knew the dna of the store and what the pressman family was doing when the store was growing. out of anyone out there, he's the right guy." pressman believes one of lee's major strengths is the fact that he's worked with the top retailers around the world while at armani, ysl and gucci. "imagine what he knows. what he brings to the table could be the best of the best. he's seen it all being on that side of the business. he understands the merchants and understands designers. that's what you need," said pressman. "in the past, there have been a lot of ‘suits' running the place." some may criticize lee and vitale for being "one dimensional," since they only know the wholesale side of the business, but pressman dismisses that concern. "daniella worked with us. she knew the standards the pressman family wanted," said pressman. socol, who departed in 2008, came from an entirely different background, said pressman, and was more operations driven. during his seven year tenure under both jones and istithmar ownership, socol oversaw an aggressive expansion of the chain to 38 u.s. stores, including seven flagships. management was determined to open stores, grow volume and get a return on its investment. among the stores that opened during his tenure were flagships in dallas, las vegas and boston. socol led the regional burdines department store chain until 1997 and joined barneys in 2001 at the recommendation of allen i. questrom, whom he succeeded as ceo and who led barneys out of bankruptcy. during his tenure, socol disagreed sharply with istithmar over strategies, and particularly opposed overseas expansion. according to sources, one of the reasons socol resigned was because he was reluctant to report to david jackson, ceo of istithmar. "it wasn't about creativity. he did a good job at the back end, operationwise. [but] opening the other flagship stores around the country was not a wise thing," said pressman, pointing out that the expansion mirrored what the chain did in the nineties, which eventually drove it into bankruptcy. "do we have to repeat the errors multiple times?" it is widely believed barneys new york is bolstered mainly by its three flagships in new york, beverly hills and chicago, and dragged down by newer stores opened in dallas, las vegas, san francisco, boston and scottsdale. consultant robert burke of robert burke associates believes barneys needs to retain its existing customer base while attracting new ones. "it needs a broader reach," he said. he believes the store can still champion the underdogs and support emerging brands "but you can't build a business on that." "you need to look at the brand assortments and the allocation of space," said burke. "it needs some dusting off. as with any mature business, it got set in its ways. the business has changed dramatically. the customer today is more discerning and more willing to mix and match price points than ever before." burke believes vitale, who was most recently gucci's president of the americas after positions with giorgio armani and salvatore ferragamo, will be a strong asset to the business. "she's a very smart merchant. she understands product and certainly understands the business." burke, as others, stressed that one of vitale's attributes is that she's interacted with every top retailer throughout her career. "she has seen the good, the bad and the ugly. she knows the best practices. she'll approach it in a very unique way." most observers believe that barneys can still be the go to store for emerging designers and should maintain its sense of discovery and experimentation. it also needs to work harder to distinguish itself from bergdorf, which it has been looking more and more like. "yes, it can still be the champion of the underdogs," said kim vernon, a marketing consultant. "between saks and bergdorf goodman, all have been jockeying for underdogs more than ever. barneys will continue to be supportive of emerging brands." she said the retailer can change the merchandise mix and still find ways to remain special. "they've got a big merchandising team that's been there. i think they can maintain being barneys but can move it toward what more customers want," said vernon. "my clients tell me he [mark lee] is intent on keeping the uniqueness and specialness of barneys intact." barneys' flagships have always had a distinctive look. never overflowing with merchandise, the stores have always maintained a spare, art gallery look. [see box below.] the current merchandise mix ranges from the row, derek lam and 3.1 phillip lim to jil sander, lanvin, thakoon and rodarte. co op vendors include j brand, rag & bone, diane von furstenberg, theory, rogan and trovata. in a telephone interview, gene pressman, former co ceo, creative director and head of merchandising and marketing for barneys,   who recently was spotted having lunch with lee at that media mecca michael's but has no involvement in the business   didn't want to talk too much about the new management but offered, "i have confidence in mark that he will find a bridge between knowing how to make a profit and being very demanding on his merchants to constantly find and develop emerging brands." observers believe there's plenty of work to be done to restore barneys' bottom line, but feel the end result could be an eventual sale. "mark is going to revitalize the franchise," said gary wassner, ceo of hilldun corp., factors for barneys. "he's a fashion person with a european perspective. nobody knows what istithmar's long term commitment to barneys is. do they want to keep it for the next 10 years? i don't know. other players have expressed interest. ron burkle would love it," said wassner. "there's a lot of value in the barneys name. i don't know why anyone couldn't do well with the company, even if they didn't overpay." burkle's yucaipa cos. bought about 15 percent of barneys' senior term loan in late 2009, along with roughly 60 percent of the retailer's subordinated loan. it's unclear what the unpredictable, low profile billionaire   who has a mixed track record with investing in the fashion world with holdings that include sean john, scoop, the jeweler stephen webster and a small stake in american apparel   might do with barneys if he were able to buy it. nor is burkle the only predator lurking: perry capital swooped in before him and bought up a large chunk of barneys' senior debt. as for the retailer's financial health, wassner said that he's been very pleased with the way barneys has been dealing with its financial commitments. "they're paying on time. on the button," he added. wassner said that recently, barneys' merchandise didn't look all that different from bergdorf's. "they've allowed bergdorf goodman to take from them relationships that were so strong in the past," he said, noting several younger lines, such as alexander wang, band of outsiders, gilded age and vena cava, are now carried at both stores. he noted that it will take time to instill changes in barneys' merchandise mix, since spring buys have already been committed. "the buys in the next market will be quite a different buy. some lines will be dropped, others will be added," he said. "barneys still has a much edgier list of younger designers, but the question is: what will it be next season? i've heard that the smaller collections will be limited, and younger designers may be dropped from the list. how they buy for fall will determine the direction going forward. when i see the fall orders, then i'll have a clear sense," said wassner. wassner doesn't think barneys needs to change its focus or become more accessible in price points. "they have co op for that. that's been successful for them. they just have to make better decisions and know who their customer really is." the co op, which celebrated 25 years in business last year, is a profitable operation and accounts for 10 to 15 percent of barneys' total sales. its best performing stores are in manhattan, where there are three freestanding locations; in california, where there are four, and within certain barneys' flagships, including madison avenue and beverly hills. while several co ops are slated to close next year   in the houston galleria in january and the westchester mall in white plains, n.y. by march   the plan is to continue to open more co ops. to be sure, one of lee's main objectives should be to bring back its sizzle, which the company used to possess in spades. barneys hasn't kept up its creative efforts the last two years, due to both the economy and a lack of leadership at the top, said market sources. karl hermanns, executive vice president of merchandise planning, marketing, e commerce and operations, exited in the fall. charlotte blechman, former vice president of public retailers at gucci, has been tapped as barneys' senior vice president of marketing and communications, reporting to lee. "the new ceo needs to bring back the magic that existed around barneys," said marc gobe, ceo of emotional branding. "it was the hottest and hippest place to go. it was your first choice for fashion, innovation and style. they've become one of the pack now. i would immediately start to build a community online. they need to find their social voice. the brand needs to be talked about. in the old days, people used to talk about ‘i bought this at barneys,' or someone would ask ‘where did you buy it?' and it was barneys." december 20, 2010 from handbags to shoes to watches, accessories are generating the power that is driving luxury’s surge. it’s a global trend   from the u.s. to emerging markets such as china, brazil, india and the middle east. when the final tally is made, the sales growth of luxury accessories in 2010 is expected to be 16 percent, compared with 8 percent for luxury apparel, according to a new worldwide study from bain & co., a strategic consulting firm. by comparison, sales of luxury accessories in 2009 contracted 1 percent versus 2008, with luxury apparel sales dipping 10 percent. customers are increasingly sophisticated, cherry picking across categories, brands and channels for quality, style or value, the report said, with men showing the same spending patterns as women on leather goods. despite persistent high unemployment in many countries, concerns about european debt and a still wobbly global economy, stock values are up this year, holiday shopping indicators for high end goods have been positive and, in a period when product adaptability and value are essential, accessories are particularly appealing because they are a versatile, fast way for consumers to freshen what’s in their closets. pete nordstrom, president of merchandising at nordstrom inc., said shoes and accessories have been “the strongest category for us in the last several years, before things got difficult, when things got difficult and now” as retail recovers. “there is a lot of value in accessories and shoes,” nordstrom added. “if someone buys a designer handbag, they can use it several times a week. if you bought a designer apparel outfit, you may wear it a few times a year. you get more use and that is a part of it.” karen katz, president and ceo of neiman marcus group, also cited the strength of shoes and handbags in reporting this month that nmg’s income tripled for the quarter ending oct. 30. and the rest of the industry has echoed those results. luxury group ppr recorded a 12.9 percent rise in third quarter sales that was propelled by demand for designer handbags, especially in emerging markets. hermès international has forecast a record year, pointing to items such as silk scarves, leather bags and watches. lvmh moët hennessy louis vuitton, coach, bulgari and tod’s spa all reported significant gains in accessories, while mulberry group plc reported profits more than tripled in the six months to sept. 30 and said the wholesale order book for spring was at least 91 percent higher than last year. to be sure, a sudden crisis would undermine the trend, but that doesn’t appear to be imminent. executives such as sidney toledano, president and ceo of christian dior, and philippe pascal, president of lvmh’s watch and jewelry group, have said sales of luxury timepieces are strong and they expect the growth will carry over into next year. since the beginning of the year, louis vuitton has seen double digit gains in accessories worldwide. bestsellers include scarves, such as the house’s cashmere leo stole, small leather goods and men’s and women’s sunglasses. boosted by tourist flows, notably chinese customers, gucci in the third quarter saw strong demand for classic handbag styles and novelties such as the gucci 1973, especially in western europe, where overall sales for the brand rose 27.7 percent in the third quarter, with france, italy and the u.k. all posting solid gains. as the brand’s core business, leather goods represent well over 50 percent of total gucci revenues, generating in excess of 1 billion euros in sales, or $1.3 billion at current exchange. “we have been very pleased,” said cody kondo, group senior vice president of shoes, handbags and jewelry at saks fifth avenue. “shoes and handbags have been very well received by our customers. in light of the good run we have had in the stock market over the last 60 or 90 days, customers have a strong appetite for them again. “they still want value,” kondo said. “that feeling of recession has not totally gone away, so it’s not all pre 2008. the customer is still looking for a strong price value relationship. a year ago, into spring, there was a trend in timeless and classic pieces. we have seen some of the more statement fashion pieces now selling quite well. we have seen a nice increase in the jewelry category.” at tory burch, top sellers in recent weeks have been the reva and eddie ballet flats; the hiking inspired halima, lyle and howard boots, and small leather goods like clutches and bags in all sizes. “accessories are an entry point into a brand,” tory burch president brigitte kleine said. “they are often the first thing women buy because they are the easiest way to update your wardrobe, from a leather handbag to a shoe you can wear year round. “people are more conscious about how and what they are buying,” she added. “ they are looking for products with value and longevity. as opposed to buying a whole new wardrobe every season, they’ll update with accessories.” lisa montague, ceo of the spanish leather goods brand loewe, which is owned by lvmh, said the label this year has seen a higher quality of sales, with buying patterns shifting up more to the top end of price ranges. “that could be because the customer is feeling more confident,” she said. “certainly, for our brand, we’ve returned to being true to what we’re good at [luxury leather goods], and that is resonating well with the consumer.” although loewe has seen high growth rates in china, montague said japan is still proving a challenging market. bestsellers include the brand’s lightweight nappa line and its iconic amazona bag collection. the entire amazona family takes around 30 percent of the house’s bag sales, montague said. “we have seen a tremendous rebound in accessories, with shoes being the strongest of any fashion category, followed by handbags,” said robert burke, founder, president and ceo of the robert burke associates consultancy. “the consumer is realizing it’s the easiest way to update their wardrobe, and consumers who have been forced to be more creative in their purchases realize they can shop [for apparel] in the contemporary category, or in more mass stores like h&m or zara, and then splurge on a signature shoe, handbag or a piece of statement jewelry. “there is also the aspirational consumer who will buy contemporary or more broadly distributed [ready to wear], and then save up for that signature shoe,” burke added. “runway designers have given shoes so much attention that the category almost has a life of its own.” david wolfe, creative director of trend forecasting firm the doneger group, said it is natural for accessories to lead the charge in retail’s recovery. “shoes and handbags represent what consumers think of as a better investment than a garment because they are going to get more use out of it,” wolfe said. “it also eases their guilt from buying luxury brands. they think that by shopping accessories, they are justifying returning to their evil shopping ways.” after steady double digit growth in accessories sales over the past six years, selfridges in london this year has seen its largest increase for the category yet   a 30 to 40 percent climb in sales year over year. sebastian manes, accessories director at selfridges, said the category is the store’s largest division. “women’s wear is up over last year, but won’t have the same increase as accessories,” said manes, citing mulberry’s alexa bag, louis vuitton’s speedy and chanel’s mademoiselle bags, among other bestsellers. “the increase we’ve seen this year is phenomenal.” ditto at harvey nichols. pointing to a rise in volume over the past few seasons for scarves and jewelry, helena sotiriou, accessories buyer at harvey nichols, london, said the store this season has seen a resurgence of demand for the “must have” handbag, with long waiting lists for bags by the likes of proenza schouler and alexander wang. harvey nichols has experienced a 45 percent sales uptick in the category. among the bestsellers are proenza schouler’s ps1 satchel, alexander wang’s coco bag, alexander mcqueen’s box clutches and stella mccartney’s runway court shoe. “this season, customers are willing to spend and invest in their wardrobe as long as they perceive it to be value for money   price by wear,” sotiriou said. catherine newey, director of accessories at printemps in paris, said luxury has had the strongest growth, particularly luxury leather goods, jewelry and timepieces. accessories account for more than 30 percent of the store’s sales. “clothing is experiencing growth, but the real dynamism is coming from accessories,” newey said. “every brand has focused on developing accessories” because they allow consumers to follow trends without having to change their wardrobes. “accessories have become more and more directional,” she said. how will brands maintain the momentum? “so many of the luxury brands bastardized their integrity when they were overexpanding and catering to the aspirational market, and that is the one that has now dried up,” said wolfe of the doneger group. “the brands now have to reassure their customers that they still have the quality, integrity and authenticity.” december 2, 2010 the fashion season called resort has had a few lives. for a good part of this century, it was everything the word connotes, which is to say, leisurely maillots and caftans to fill the steamer trunks of wealthy women sailing off for winter holidays. in more recent decades, it served as a sort of retail caulk with tried and true basics filling in the cracks on shop floors between fall sales and spring arrivals. but it’s the latest incarnation that the fashion industry can’t stop talking about. like clark kent after a visit to a phone booth, resort has gone from mild mannered and meekly helpful to a seasonal superpower on which luxury labels depend for strong retail sales and even a dash of prestige. it’s a colorful irony that a season inspired by leisure time has become the hardest working collection in the business. “most of the collections [in the late ’80s and early ’90s] were not terribly fashion oriented,” saks fifth avenue president ron frasch recalls. “many times the designer didn’t even do them. it was the team. they tended to be things that had performed in the prior season but in different fabrics.” these days, however, the most “wearable” collection bridges the two main runway seasons and can account for up to 70 and sometimes 80 percent of women’s designer apparel sales. “resort has become an independent fashion season that will oftentimes rival a spring or fall,” says luxury consultant robert burke. coupled with a shifting identity, resort also known as cruise and pre spring has found itself with a handful of monikers along the way. “resort?” says stella mccart­ney. “how unsexy is that word? it feels so dated. we call it spring.” oscar de la renta ceo alex bolen has another suggestion: “they should call it november delivery. these are not really clothes that go to a resort.” michael kors has raised the white flag of surrender. “i’ve given up on renaming it,” he says. “we’ll call it the little season that could.” conceived to be refreshing and commercial, resort tends to be more wearable than runway collections, without so many of the “who would wear that?” moments. but this distinctly retail bent meant the clothes were largely ignored by fashion magazines. you can credit karl lagerfeld with leading the charge on turning the tide. last may, the chanel creative director set his resort 2011 show against the fabulous backdrop of saint tropez’s harbor. models arrived by speedboat as the sun was setting. famous and beautiful friends of the house like vanessa paradis, leigh lezark and diane kruger were flown in for the occasion. this was actually lagerfeld’s 11th resort spectacular. his first, in 2000, was staged at paris nightclub régine. “karl was visionary. he was the first one to perceive the growing importance of the cruise collection,” says chanel’s president of fashion, bruno pavlovsky. although transporting a group of international journalists and the rest of your chic posse everywhere from venice to miami is not a cheap proposition, pavlovsky adds: “chanel is very attached to the way we show this collection.” in the past few years, it seems that every designer became hyperaware of resort’s particular advantage of a selling period that can stretch from late october until june, encompassing high volume holiday shopping periods, and is marked down at the same time as spring runway clothes (resort has the longest window before being marked down, most commonly november to may at full price). it’s only logical to make the most of it. also joining chanel were oscar de la renta and christian dior with runway presentations that couldn’t be ignored. in 2006, style.com added resort coverage to its database of fall and spring runway reviews. nowadays, not every label does an extravaganza, but there’s still great care taken with the presentation. most european designers fly in to meet and greet, like stefano pilati, who staged yves saint laurent’s resort show this year at the french consulate in new york. mccartney showed hers at a downtown gallery over margaritas and vegetarian hors d’oeuvres; in attendance were a list friends like gwyneth paltrow and naomi watts. meanwhile, lanvin’s alber elbaz has chosen to work his considerable charm by personally narrating multiple minishows for small groups of editors and retailers. the younger guard has followed suit, even though adding another collection to a small team’s production cycle is daunting. los angeles based designer juan carlos obando did his first resort collection this year. “i was extremely concerned because resort happens right when you’re trying to produce the fall show and it has to be delivered right when you start producing the spring collection,” he says. the gamble paid off. barneys ordered double what they had from his fall 2010 show. michelle obama favorite jason wu has done a show for the past two seasons. “why shouldn’t it be [as important]?” wu says. “the numbers are just as great as the main seasons.” actually better. wu reports that he sells 60 percent resort to 40 percent runway. this season, wu took the collection to paris to show to european stores and ended up adding 30 new accounts. it all adds up to the fact that designers are making these clothes a high creative priority but within the confines of the original customer friendly intention of the season. it’s a combination that results in a sort of perfect fashion storm. “it’s more of a realistic collection,” says laura vinroot poole, owner of capitol boutique in charlotte, n.c., who has consistently channeled her budget heavily into resort. “they’re just beautiful clothes, rather than the sort of idea that’s been gone over and over with stylists.” but in today’s flat fashion world of online shopping, perhaps the season’s biggest asset is simply that it’s yet another delivery of clothes. “[resort] really supports our customers’ desire for newness,” says net a porter’s vice president of marketing and sales, alison loehnis. loehnis reports high double digit growth in the company’s resort sales over the past four years. even for bricks and mortar businesses, resort’s wide ranging product that includes outerwear, knits, fur and lightweight early spring clothes satisfies the current trend of buying clothes for immediate consumption that is especially important post global economic crisis. and as the industry continues to recover from the doldrums of 2009, customers will increasingly be seeing ad campaigns to support these collections. while many houses prada, bottega veneta and donna karan included did resort specific advertising in 2008, the numbers logically dropped off afterward. louis vuitton and michael kors are the rare brands that have been consistent in this arena. de la renta’s bolen says, “i would say for us, it’s coming very soon.” considering that the company sells more units of resort than of any of its four deliveries, it’s likely very, very soon. as kors sums up, “this is when people are in stores. treating [resort] as a stepchild in any way whether it’s advertising, design or even quantity is foolish.” november 30, 2010 new york   julie macklowe has moved beyond the red carpet to the boardroom. the hedge fund ex pat and semireluctant socialite has returned to her family’s garmento roots, so to speak, and embarked on a new career as a fashion backer with a hands on approach. online jewelry startup baublebar, her first investment, launches thursday and marks the start of phase two of her fashion career. macklowe has a board seat and is helping the company, founded by two recent harvard business school graduates, get off the ground. accel partners, a venture capital firm, is also investing in baublebar, although the size of the infusion has not been disclosed. macklowe is working on another startup she plans to run and hinted that “there are at least two apparel companies i’m looking at,” although she favors the fatter gross margins in the cosmetics, accessories and handbag sectors. macklowe, née lerner, is something of a rarity in fashion. the granddaughter of a polyester king is well connected in new york’s social and fashion circles and is a familiar face on the party circuit. she counts jason wu as a friend and accompanied calvin klein’s francisco costa to the cfda/vogue fashion fund event last month. but she is also fluent in the language of business, having spent 12 years in finance, which culminated in a $250 million millennium management backed hedge fund launched under her own name in early 2009 and shuttered in october. now she’s taking her own money and using her contacts and the strategic and management skills she picked up in the private equity world to invest in the changing fashion landscape. macklowe said the current crop of young designers are just starting to spread their wings, like calvin klein and ralph lauren in the eighties. many of these brands are looking for cash to expand, and seeking management expertise to take them to the next level. “you’re going to see some really cool designers who make it big,” she predicted over tea at the four seasons in new york recently. at first glance, it would be easy to underestimate macklowe as more of a consumer of designer apparel than serious investor in brands. at 32, she is fit, blond, ready to smile and, for better or worse, sartorially adventurous. she’s just as likely to wear a balenciaga blazer as leather pants for meetings, and strays to whatever strikes her fancy on the way to the numerous red carpets she walks down. “she’s not afraid to take a fashion risk,” said wu, describing her style as “very feminine.” wu and macklowe met through mutual friends and have no business relationship. “usually when we go out, she’s the one that orders the whiskey and i’m the one that orders the champagne,” he said. “she’s the gutsy one, yet she’s wearing six inch heels. it sort of balances out her personality. she’s just a lot of fun.” but she’s also very direct and, in conversation, can talk as knowledgeably about the high unemployment rate as she can about coco chanel’s impact on how women dress. although she could easily spend her days on the party circuit, macklowe is almost an antisocialite. “i’m doing things that are important to me,” she said. “i’m not running to go to every party.” she’s involved with new yorkers for children and the metropolitan museum of art’s costume institute. “i don’t know what it means honestly, i don’t know who coined ‘socialite,’” she said. “it’s really a bizarre term if you think about it. i don’t know. what is a socialite?” in many ways, she’s an example of a new species of fashion investor. “where it used to be traditional bankers or hedge funds that were interested in investing, we’re now seeing people that are directly connected, whether it be angel investors or others,” said robert burke jr., president and chief executive officer of robert burke associates, who counts macklowe as a former client and a friend. “it’s all more opportunity for the designer.” burke said macklowe has the business acumen to follow through and help grow the companies in which she invests. “the biggest challenge today is that investors for maybe ego reasons, for self promotion, invest in fashion and then realize that it’s a much more complex business,” he said. “it’s a sexy business to invest in. it’s not always such a sexy business to maintain and grow." the fashion, business and consumer stars are going to have to align if macklowe is going to back the next big name or get in on the next hot trend. “you could be speaking with one of these companies for years,” she said. “it might just not be a time when they need money. and you need luck.” so far, macklowe has been pretty good at making her own luck. in just three years, she earned two bachelors degrees from the university of virginia and a better than 3.9 grade point average. jeffrey walker, former ceo of j.p. morgan partners, hired her out of school in 2000 to work at what was then chase capital partners. “she was unique because she was willing to take a risk,” he said, noting that macklowe challenged hedge fund pioneer julian robertson when he came to speak at one of her classes. “here’s someone who was 20, who was going toe to toe, and julian thought she was great because of that,” walker said. “it’s very easy to sit in one place,” macklowe said. at chase she shuttled between seoul and hong kong weekly and squeezed in naps between meetings as she, at times, logged 22 hour workdays helping to structure leveraged buyouts. “it’s very uncomfortable to put yourself in a place where you know no one on the other side of the world,” she said. “and i think it makes you a better investor and judge of businesses and character and people to put yourself in an environment where you are not necessarily comfortable.” in 2002, she moved to new york and started working as an analyst at metropolitan capital advisors. “she was a moneymaker,” said karen finerman, president of metropolitan, where macklowe focused on retail. “she just seemed to have a combination of an interest and an aptitude for that space. she has a good sense of risk management, when it’s not working, when to get out. that’s very important.” a colleague set her up on a blind date with billy macklowe, son of manhattan real estate giant harry macklowe. the two have been together ever since. yet while she may have married well, she didn’t settle into an easy life. she joined investment firm sac in 2006 and her profile in the fashion world grew as she invested in the retail and consumer market. she was eager to explore every new brand and retail concept in the sector, regularly making the rounds of conferences and openings to gain an investing edge. “she’s a very savvy investor,” said joe gromek, president and ceo of the warnaco group inc. “she does her homework. she has fun following the business and she appreciates the fashion side of it. she can see how a company is performing.” but macklowe yearned for a more hands on approach. “i wanted to feel passion about what i was doing and really work with companies in a more active role, which is hard to do while you’re buying and selling stocks,” she said, noting markets are being driven by investor psychology. “there’s a lot of super irrational moves in the short term because of the sentiment and people. after everyone’s come out of such a hard time, no one knows exactly what to think of anything.” stepping back from the markets also afforded macklowe more time with her three year old daughter. “nothing to me is better than taking zoe to drop off in the morning and watching the three year olds with their oversize backpacks running down the hall, excited to get to class,” she said. macklowe’s introduction to the fashion business began when she was near her daughter’s age. her great grandfather, frank lerner, came to new york from russia in the early part of the last century and worked in the garment district. on days when school was out, his son, harold, was enlisted to help him carry his sewing machine to factories, according to macklowe’s uncle, michael lerner, former chairman of marisa christina inc. but harold nonetheless got a feel for the business and after world war ii took the t shirt firm his father developed and turned it into the women’s sportswear brand fire islander, which specialized in double knit polyester in the seventies and eighties. at its peak the company had a very respectable volume of about $75 million and factories in what is now dumbo in brooklyn and in bayonne, n.j. “some of my earliest memories are of walking the floors with people sewing and patternmaking,” macklowe remembered fondly. “i don’t know if it’s in the blood,” her uncle said. “but she’s always been fashion conscious. hopefully some of that springs from her interaction with our designers.” november 29, 2010 he is unstoppable. even in a year when high end retail struggled to recover, christian louboutin’s signature glamour was the force to be reckoned with. his unique grasp of luxury consumers of all ages was never more obvious than in 2010. while other designers were forced to cut staff and reduce their retail footprints, louboutin expanded his red soled empire across the globe. the footwear news person of the year raised the bar at a critical time in the luxury category, and the efforts have clearly paid off. “never has a red sole meant so much,” said robert burke, head of new york based consulting firm robert burke associates. “it’s been louboutin’s year for a couple of years now,” added ron frasch, saks fifth avenue president and chief merchandising officer. “he’s become the king of the category.” the designer himself admits that 2010 marked an important year of transition, when the brand went truly global with store expansion and new distribution. “the reality is that i now have a coo who is really organizing everything, and that definitely makes a difference,” louboutin told fn. “but at the end of the day, it’s because the shoes are selling.” in the last 11 months, the designer opened 12 stores in cities including beirut, dallas, dubai, jeddah, madrid and tokyo. according to coo and gm alexis mourot, the company saw double digit growth this year, and retail sales exceeded $250 million for the year ending august 2010. despite his super stardom, louboutin remains humble, unconcerned about money and the trappings of fame. “i do what i do because i love it. i’m not doing it to make money,” said the designer over a breakfast of buttered crumpets and english breakfast tea in london last month. “it has ended up being a [successful] company, and i’m not going to say it isn’t pleasant to make a living from your work, but my goal has always been to design pretty shoes and to see them on people who like them.” no one likes louboutin more than the luxury retailers who have cashed in on his fame. even during the recession’s darkest days, the success of the brand left them thirsting for more of it. “christian’s red soles are a stroke of genius and the icing on the most delicious gateaux,” said jonathan joselove, svp and gmm at neiman marcus. “his talent and his shoes have delighted us for years. most important, his shoes have thrilled our customers, season after season.” at saks fifth avenue last month, 8,000 consumers voted his maralena shoe the year’s sexiest in a contest sponsored by the department store and fn. “he stands apart because of his innovation in design and originality with use of materials,” said tracy margolies, vp and dmm of women’s footwear for saks. while he’s been making some serious noise for the past several years, louboutin built his business quietly for the first decade. he opened his first flagship paris store in 1992. early on, in new york, he showed his shoes above diane von furstenberg’s studio on 12th street, and she has since become a mentor. “my second career and his first started at the same time,” said von furstenberg. “christian is like my younger brother. we talk, we travel together, we have the same partners in places like russia, we are friends and soul mates and i adore him. he is talented, incredibly smart and curious and also competitive. his success is no accident: he has clarity and is talented and intelligent.” for his part, louboutin credits von furstenberg with helping him develop his brand’s direction. “she’s very specific on shoes,” he said. “she gave me very important advice: she told me i should always have classics. i was always changing the collection and never thought about classics that go back to previous collections. she was the one to say, ‘you have to do classics. you have them, why do you get rid of them?’” it was with the addition of louboutin’s second new york store, at 59 horatio st. in november 2004, that his u.s business really took off. in an interview with fn in 2005, louboutin said the shop gave him greater exposure to a younger, hipper customer. the store locations reflect louboutin’s long held interest in far flung places. as a boy in france, he would pick up brochures and books from a nearby travel agency and plan imaginary trips. now, his genuine enthusiasm for people and places has made the designer a big hit with his international accounts. “he always manages to take time to explore, is very familiar with parts of china and indonesia and has made great friends in these places,” said peter harris, president of pedder group. “the fact that he has fun shows up in his shoes,” said erin mullaney, buying director at browns in london. “there’s a sense of playfulness in the collection. also, unlike some other designers, he is happy to be the face of the brand and enjoys it.” but you won’t find louboutin clamoring for the spotlight. “the type of celebrity i am   if you can call it celebrity   is perfectly easy [to live with],” he said. “when people refer to your name, it is totally different [than recognizing me]. i would really have a hard time having the kind of celebrity that actors do, where people are stopping you all the time. it’s not about me; it’s about the shoes.” that mindset has only increased his appeal in hollywood. “there is no one like him,” said gwyneth paltrow. “his shoes are playful, sexy and full of joy.” and though he doesn’t go out of his way to court the famous, louboutin considers his popularity to be extremely rewarding. “i take a lot of pride in the fact that with all the choices in the world, celebrities still choose my shoes,” he said. “shoes are objects of desire. i’m not going to throw tons of shoes at someone so that they’ll wear them. [the desire] has to come from the person.” so what does the future hold for the designer? on that topic he is non committal: “there may be a moment when i get fed up and want to try something else, which i can completely conceive. my impulses are very important to me. i never say no forever, but i never think that a yes is forever either.” october 6, 2010 miu miu, the little sister to italian fashion house prada, has grown up. after living in prada's shadow for years, the label is finding that its moves to carve out an independent identity have paid off, catapulting miu miu into the top league of europe's fashion scene. sales at miu miu, which unveils its spring/summer 2011 collection wednesday in its largest venue yet, have more than doubled in the past four years. prada designer miuccia prada founded the label, which takes its name from her nickname, in 1993. four years ago, miu miu decamped from milan to paris to stage its biannual fashion show, creating a new showcase for its distinct style. its frills and glitz presented a sharp contrast with prada's minimalism. "it's feminine and sexy but modern too," wrote lorraine candy, editor in chief of elle fashion magazine's u.k. edition, which together with three other fashion magazines put the same miu miu look a dress with flowers on the straps and a bow across the front on their august cover pages. miu miu's revamp is important to the future of prada spa, which owns shoe brands car shoe and church's in addition to miu miu and prada. prada's owners ms. prada and her husband patrizio bertelli, who is chief executive hope to list prada on the stock market in the coming years. analysts say the group would make a more compelling investment if it didn't rely only on the prada label for nearly all of its sales growth. of the company's $1.3 billion in first half sales, $220 million was generated by miu miu, which grew 40% during the period. for three decades, many fashion houses have created less expensive versions of their main collections as a way to expand their businesses. giorgio armani launched emporio armani and armani collezioni for consumers who couldn't afford the high price tags of his main line. dolce & gabbana created d&g as a younger and edgier variation of the original brand. just cavalli is the younger sibling of the roberto cavalli brand. prada has tried to do something different with miu miu. though the brand is designed by ms. prada, the company's executives have gone to great lengths to fight the perception that miu miu is simply a more wearable and affordable spin off of its bigger sister brand. miu miu's inaugural paris runway show in 2006 featured clothes in expensive fabrics and elaborate techniques, such as hand painted brocades and printed silks. provocatively flirty skirts replaced the simple shift dresses and dowdy sweaters that ms. prada had previously designed for miu miu. for the brand's debut paris show, ms. prada brought tailors with her from italy to paris to put the final touches on the ensembles. trendier than prada, the label is popular among celebrities, such as carey mulligan and keira knightley. while miu miu still generally costs less than the prada label, in recent years, the company has pushed miu miu's prices high. a pair of cream and black patent pumps sell for $650, compared with $550 for prada's classic black heels. "miu miu and prada do not cannibalize each other. they are friendly competitors," said prada chief operating officer sebastian suhl in a recent interview. when a miu miu store opens near a prada store, prada's sales don't suffer, mr. suhl said. robert burke, a luxury goods industry consultant, says that miu miu's recent success has also been helped by a change in consumers' dressing habits. years ago, when consumers dressed head to toe in one designer label, cheaper, secondary lines allowed consumers who couldn't afford a top designer line to still buy into a designer's look. "today people don't shop that way. they are just as happy to shop across different categories and brands," mr. burke says. miu miu has also revamped its milan flagship store in damask and rich colors a change from a more minimalist concrete look and has redecorated a network of 75 boutiques around the world. mr. suhl said that he wants miu miu to be sold only in u.s. department stores that will give the brand its own in store boutique, rather than putting it out on the floor with other brands. it is rolling out more in store boutiques in u.s. department stores. it has long had its own boutique at bergdorf goodman and plans to open one at bloomingdale's this month. next year, miu miu will have 20 such "shop in shops" in u.s. department stores, displaying a full array of clothing, shoes and bags. october 5, 2010 paris   the idea that expensive, designer fashions are the most desirable seems so last millennium. more and more marquee designers are applying their creativity to lower priced apparel on a temporary or full time basis, with karl lagerfeld the latest to join the masstige movement. “fendi and chanel are so established, you cannot compete with them,” said lagerfeld, who last month unveiled plans to shift the focus of his signature ready to wear line to access pricing   and online selling   starting next fall. “you can’t dance at three parties the same evening.” and in lagerfeld’s estimation, the masstige party   which he really got going in 2004 when he teamed up with swedish fast fashion giant h&m on a one time collaboration   is the one to be at today. “i think it’s the only modern way to do it,” lagerfeld told wwd. “we live in the age of jeans. “it’s funny for a person who has money to buy something inexpensive and it’s great for a person with not so much money to be able to get something by a designer,” he continued. “it’s the new snobbism.” designers, executives and other observers agreed, saying the democratization of design, weakened spending power and shifting consumer preferences are giving lower priced “designer” fashions a higher industry profile   and a bright future. “it’s no secret that the designer and high end market has become crowded in this economy, and people are looking at new ways of doing business,” said robert burke, head of the new york based robert burke associates consulting firm. “the old rules of defining the consumer and defining the price point   and the idea that you can play in only one category   are passé.” indeed, designer led projects in lower price categories continue to multiply, from olivier theyskens’ new contemporary range for theory and stella mccartney’s just revealed partnership with ppr’s la redoute on an affordable children’s wear collection to lanvin’s forthcoming one off line   from evening dresses to lipstick   for h&m. what’s most intriguing are designers shifting permanently downstream, as jil sander did last year when she joined japanese fashion giant fast retailing co. ltd. and launched her new +j brand for its flagship uniqlo chain. “today, we are in a different phase of fashion history,” sander said. “i took part in the transformation of fashion from a couture craft into a contemporary industry. we are much better equipped to realize quality on a much larger scale. “to me, luxury has nothing to do with high prices, but a lot with enlightened taste and the possibility to be in step with your age, to feel at ease in your body, and to project a confident image of yourself,” she continued. according to jean jacques picart, a paris based industry consultant, big name designers cannot ignore a strong, worldwide trend toward more eclectic dressing, with lower priced elements a key ingredient. “a modern girl doesn’t hesitate today to mix quite expensive clothes and affordable priced pieces: say, shoes by christian louboutin, a skirt by diane von furstenberg, a t shirt from h&m, a vintage handbag and a belt she bought at a market in istanbul,” he said. “what karl did with h&m pushed up to the top level of prestige any co branding between big names and popular names.” concetta lanciaux, principal of switzerland based strategy luxury advisors, also ties the rise in masstige   accessibly priced products with some prestige elements   to economic factors, principally a “sharp decrease in standards of living that has hit the mainstream middle class who used to buy entry level luxury products or second lines.” changing tastes play a role, too. “the new generation is much more fashionable than the jeans and t shirt generation x ers born after the seventies that loved gap   the antidesign, accessible brand,” lanciaux said. “for those born after the eighties, looking fashionable in a personal way is cool, and they mix and match styles to achieve a more adult look while adults dress generally younger.” lanciaux said celebrity lines, mostly accessibly priced, have “given a new impulse to this trend,” while gap is morphing into a more design driven brand, evident in collaborations with young american designers and, coming in november, a capsule collection by valentino available in europe only.' burke highlighted the popularity of target’s tie ups with designers such as isaac mizrahi, zac posen, alexander mcqueen, anna sui, rodarte and jean paul gaultier. designer names “speak to the consumer” more than a “nameless, faceless masstige brand,” he said. in a recent report, bernstein research analyst luca solca asserted that mass retailers like inditex, parent of the zara chain, and h&m are changing the apparel industry from the ground up. “their short design to market lead times, compelling fashion content and superior scale are allowing them to gain market share across the world and push traditional apparel retailers aside.…even high end designer fashion is feeling the pressure,” solca wrote. “the customer is clever,” added margareta van den bosch, creative adviser at h&m and the former head of design who launched its annual designer collaborations with lagerfeld, subsequently teaming up with viktor & rolf, jimmy choo, sonia rykiel and others. “he or she wants the best of all things, and mixes and matches from all different kinds of offerings and brands. it’s something that we encourage: fashion should be about finding new ways to express yourself, at a reasonable cost.” van den bosch said consumer interest remains high in the retailer’s designer collaborations, helping the fast fashion giant widen its reach. “since we started doing collaborations, we have seen new types of customers that normally did not shop at h&m. for example, comme des garçons attracts a different type of customer than roberto cavalli,” she said. “and from what we can see, we have also kept them.” colette, the ultrahip paris boutique, has also been a hot spot for launching and popularizing masstige products   an azzaro range for cataloguer la redoute being the most recent on the floor last month   amidst the crème de la crème of designer creations. “our philosophy is to introduce anything we like, so it can go from a luxury brand to a special mass market collection we would get in advance,” explained sarah lerfel, colette’s creative director and buyer. “for sure it opens our door to many customers who are usually not coming to our boutique, so that’s positive. the downside would be the mess it can generate, but that’s a positive mess, too!” lerfel said the accelerating speed of trends, no doubt fuelled by the quick turn fast fashion players, means “you always want something new, but with quality and a good price to update your wardrobe fast.” christian lacroix   now focused on stage costumes and industrial design projects since his couture and ready to wear house was shuttered last year   said the financial crisis and exaggerated runway styles have undermined the appeal of designer fashions in recent years. meanwhile, “real people found their own style tricks and pleasure through ebay, low priced shops, vintage and secondhand, internet, flea markets or all these chains such as zara, h&m etc., which are so clever interpreting runway styles into more edible products,” he said. “that’s why designers are more and more attracted by lower priced products if they don’t want to lose the connection with their audience.” in lacroix’s estimation, there’s an “enormous space for these lesser priced lines   if they are right and connected with street desires. and this space is stolen from deluxe fields.” said the consultant burke: “if you can offer good design at a great value, you get a customer. it’s that simple.” most observers agreed that high end designers can dabble in masstige without risk, so long as the latter projects are not overexposed or too derivative of their high end offerings. burke mentioned vera wang as a good example since her simply vera vera wang line at kohl’s has not hampered her draw as a go to, luxury bridal designer, as chelsea clinton’s july nuptials attested. lanciaux warned that while embracing masstige “would mean slow death for a luxury brand, it becomes particularly interesting for clever designers and marketers capable of offering design, functionality and a decent quality at a low price. in a way, it could replace the income from licenses and secondary lines.” alber elbaz, creative director at lanvin, said he had initially spurned invitations from h&m to collaborate, but he was ultimately seduced by the “democratic” nature of the project. “we thought it was a very relevant move. high street fashion is really becoming stronger and more important,” he said. “we were always doing high fashion and i thought it would be interesting to understand this market.” “the business requires innovation and evolution,” agreed andrew rosen, president and co ceo of link theory holdings (u.s.) inc., which just launched the theyskens’ theory collection by the former designer of nina ricci and rochas, someone famous for couture like creations with nosebleed prices. while the new theory line is hardly mass, and is described as “high contemporary,” it is more democratic. “i think designers are very forward and innovative thinkers. clearly their reach can be much more than at the luxury end,” rosen said. “i don’t think clothes have to be expensive to have value. “you don’t get to be jil sander, karl [lagerfeld] or olivier [theyskens] if you don’t have a special point of view,” he continued. “and if you have a point of view, it’s relevant at any price or in any category. at the end of the day, i don’t think someone is going to buy an olivier theyskens jacket because they can get it for $600. they’re buying it because it’s really special.” mccartney, who rose to fashion fame as the designer of chloé, launched her brand as a joint venture with gucci group in 2001, and her accessibly priced forays have included a one time collaboration with h&m in 2005 and her ongoing partnership with adidas. “i don’t really believe in elitism for the sake of it,” said mccartney. “i think it’s really important and modern and contemporary if you can make clothes that are affordable and accessible, but with still a great quality attached to them and timelessness. “i think our brand isn’t snobbish and that’s why we started looking into this early on,” she explained. “it comes very natural to us.…we are a brand that can appeal to many different demographics of people, and so we’re interested in playing on that and testing that and pushing that within the brand.” while most designer forays into lower price zones have centered on women’s apparel, observers agree other categories, such as men’s wear, could be further developed. “there is a strong tendency toward a less frivolous lifestyle. you find people of style on all levels of income: quality and attractiveness wins over snobbism,” noted sander. “i see many possibilities in my cooperation with uniqlo. i am very interested in accessories, and i would also consider doing optics, fragrances, homewares and even watches. i guess i would draw the line at jewelry.” in lanciaux’s estimation, accessible products with a designer edge will remain “a valuable choice for consumers formerly buying secondary lines and mass” as long as this slow growth economic cycle lasts. “but nothing is eternal,” she said. “in a new economic cycle, the same consumers will be buying higher because the aspiration to luxury   of which quality is a key element   is definitively stamped in the dna of the new generations.” october 1, 2010 it is the most contentious item of clothing on the catwalk, found on everything from shoes to coats to chain necklaces. fur is back. according to the fur information council of america, fur appears in 20 per cent more of the autumn/winter catwalk collections this year than last. at oscar de la renta, coats were trimmed with fox; at lanvin, black cropped jackets were adorned with shaggy fox collars; carlos miele showed cropped fox jackets and swing astrakhan (persian lamb) coats; at helmut lang there were grey rabbit gilets; jean paul gaultier introduced black coats with mink; while fendi had coats, shawls and gilets in fox, mink and shearling. torben nielson, chief executive of kopenhagen fur, a danish fur auction house, says prices of fur have doubled on last year, with mink and persian lamb in particular selling fast. “china and russia are exploding: china accounts for more than half our business,” he says. “half of [the fur] is consumed in china, and half is used by chinese furriers to produce pieces for luxury brands.” celebrities are wearing fur more often, too, irrespective of milder winters or protesters from people for the equal treatment of animals (peta). last week, kate moss emerged from dinner at the ivy restaurant in london wearing a shaggy fur gilet; days later love magazine editor katie grand was photographed in a bold white fur piece from louis vuitton. robert burke, a new york based luxury consultant, says the reason for fur’s popularity is its newfound modernity. “it’s no longer about the old fur coat department. fashion designers are putting their stamp on pieces now.” and it is not only the established guard who are using fur but also younger designers such as thakoon and zac posen. thakoon has worked fox, mink and raccoon patches into jackets, posen striped fox fur into multicoloured coats. brix smith start, owner of start london boutiques, believes the ascendance of fur is partly a result of the economy, with consumers wanting investment pieces and “tangible luxury”. it has even emerged on accessories: manolo blahnik’s high heel booties are trimmed in chinchilla; céline’s satin open toe mules with rabbit fur lining; and louis vuitton’s chain link necklaces are interspersed with fur. fur’s increased prevalence, however, is still a divisive issue for retailers and consumers alike. that’s why fur associations have been striving to transform its image. saga furs, a body representing 3,000 breeders in finland and norway, has worked with young fashion designers for 10 years, sponsoring shows and providing free samples in order to give fur a fashion edge and reach younger audiences. “young people are buying fur now, and they’re more educated about where it comes from,” says diane benedetti, vice president of advertising and promotion at north american fur auctions. “we’ve worked with environmental conservationists; the industry is heavily regulated. we’ve also tried to communicate our ethical practices much more. people are embracing fur again because of that. they’re seeing it more for it’s environmental benefits. buying fur is better than buying a polyester jacket you’ll throw away the next minute, and will take 30 years to biodegrade. it’s the opposite of disposable.” but many designers, including miu miu, chanel and nina ricci, have rejected real fur and tried to create a similar luxurious effect with high quality faux fur. sarah curran, founder and chief executive of retail website my wardrobe.com, says, “we’ve seen an increase in extremely high quality faux fur, which has featured heavily in the collections of designers such as jaeger london, sportmax, see by chloé and love moschino. around 35 per cent of our coat buy this season includes faux fur.” ed burstell, buying director at liberty, in london, concurs. “the quality of faux fur has improved so much,” he says, adding that the store had tripled its buy of faux fur pieces from last autumn. “before it had the reputation for looking cheap, but now you can hardly tell the difference.” burstell notes, however, that there is still resistance among consumers to paying the same price as for the real thing. “people don’t realise that it actually works in reverse with faux fur. the process of making really great faux fur is actually more expensive than buying real fur.” robert burke associates 3 park avenue, new york, ny 10016 212.750.4680

the event kicks off a long term partnership with the formidable art institution. the musée d’orsay will be making a different kind of impression on march 7, when louis vuitton will stage its women’s fall 2022 show at the paris landmark. disclosing the location exclusively to wwd, vuitton said this marks the first time the beaux arts style museum will host a fashion show, and the event kicks off a partnership with the formidable institution, home to vincent van gogh’s most famous self portrait, édouard manet’s “luncheon on the grass” and “whistler’s mother” by james mcneill whistler. nicolas ghesquière, vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections, already hinted at his affection for the location in february 2020, when he hosted a press conference in front of its two large transparent clocks to outline the “about time: fashion and duration” exhibition at the metropolitan museum of art’s costume institute, which was sponsored by louis vuitton. “i am truly grateful to be able to present my new collection at the musée d’orsay which has always been a genuine source of inspiration for me,” ghesquière said, lauding its “bold architecture” and its collections, including the world’s largest stash of impressionist and post impressionist art. “it’s a museum built on embracing innovation over time, be it through its iconic clock, once radical technology such as photography, paintings by modern masters and its unique place in paris as one of the most emblematic cultural destinations,” he added. the fashion show will be staged in the museum’s central nave, and its galerie courbet. vuitton hinted at a “deliberately minimalistic scenography to emphasize the classical architecture of a building poised at the crossroads of artistic tradition and technological revolution.” originally a train station inaugurated for the 1900 paris exposition, the building was once slated for demolition, but was spared when it was designated a historic monument in 1973. the art museum opened in 1986 and was billed as one of the largest in europe. it showcases predominantly french artworks dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, photography, drawings and sculptures. without getting into specifics, vuitton described a long term partnership with the museum “that honors art and architecture, tradition and modernity, excellence and innovation, and the promotion of french culture and savoir faire.” christophe leribault, president and chief executive officer of the musée d’orsay, highlighted that vuitton, founded in 1854, witnessed the birth of the modern fashion industry. “many artists immediately embraced its novelty. around 1900, they created the myth of the elegant and spiritual parisienne,” he said. indeed, the artworks on display at the museum show “how fashion became a source of inspiration critical to modernity,” noted sylvie patry, chief curator and deputy director for collections at the musée d’orsay. “at some point, fashion converged with the development of key movement such as impressionism. when visiting the orsay, you can see that painters, sculptors or photographers have been obsessed with clothing.” france’s most powerful luxury brands have been forging strong links with paris landmarks in recent years, with chanel sponsoring the refurbishment of the grand palais, home to its fashion shows since 2005, and dior inking a multiyear partnership with the musée du louvre to help restore the jardin des tuileries, one of the largest and oldest public gardens in paris. louis vuitton also has a partnership with the louvre museum, which has hosted fashion shows by ghesquière since 2014. see also: nicolas ghesquière: let’s do the ‘time clash’ again louis vuitton is celebrating its founder’s 200th birthday in a big way musée d’orsay fetes ‘impressionism and fashion‘ the french shoe guru is best known for his 16 year stint at roger vivier. bruno frisoni, the shoe guru who paused his signature brand amidst his celebrated and intensive 16 year collaboration with roger vivier, is bringing it back and starting a new chapter, wwd has learned. starting on march 6 during paris fashion week, the designer is inviting select retailers to buying appointments for a fall 2022 collection spanning about two dozen styles   and without a sneaker in sight. “what’s missing nowadays is what i’m good at   sophisticated, sensual, feminine pieces that you keep for a longer time and not only one season,” frisoni said in an interview. “there’s an invasion of sneakers today, why would i need to do sneakers? i’m more about a beautiful pump with a specific toe shape, a nice lower heel that is really recognizable, and beautiful boots without any seams, things like this.” the french designer pretty much summed up his collection, which includes pumps with an asymmetrical toe profile usually only seen on sandals; ankle strap numbers with a half pyramid heel; neo slingbacks with a prominent, stretchy band across the instep, and sleek boots with heels of varying heights. fanatical about craftsmanship, frisoni said he hooked up with the same elite italian factory that produced his signature shoes from 2000 until 2011, and the same paris specialty atelier he commission for the flowers that festooned some of his early designs. his latest iteration of blooming shoes boast a flower that can be snapped on or off the side of the heel. frisoni said he plans to make transformable shoes an integral part of his offering, including socks or sleeves that can be worn under or over shoes, and foot “jewelry” than can be worn with bare feet, and also low or high heeled sandals. the designer said his venture is self financed, and he plans to start with perhaps a half dozen retailers. he’s targeting top department stores in the u.s. and asia, and an online player that could service the european market. cd network is his showroom in new york. “i wanted it to be small to start,” he said. “what i love are things that are more about the craftsmanship rather than industrialization.” frisoni said his shoes will retail for about 650 euros to 800 euros, with some exceptional styles running up to about 1,000 euros or more. he plans to unveil the latest iteration of his brand to international press with his pre spring 2023 collection during haute couture week in paris next july. since exiting vivier in 2018, frisoni took his time to choose a project that would best honor his passion for design, and especially for footwear. sorting, photographing and cataloging his archive reminded him of his singular focus on very feminine designs. it whetted his appetite for the venture, and the pandemic gave him additional time to hone his concept. to be sure, he never lost his passion for design. “fashion always has to be done with passion, and sketching is something i do every day, it’s like breathing,” he related. “and shoes, i have an energy for it and i believe in it.” the frenchman refreshed his label, written as one word, created a new bf logo, and designed packaging splashed with his artistic sketches, with pink dust bags inside to express his feminine approach. he’s in the midst of mounting a proper instagram. a popular figure on the paris fashion scene, frisoni started his career at jean louis scherrer. he went on to design accessories for brands including lanvin, christian lacroix and yves saint laurent before joining roger vivier in 2000. see also: bruno frisoni presents swan song collection for roger vivier outdoor frenzy ushers in age of the high fashion hiking boot down at heel: have sneakers made stilettos irrelevant? as jedora’s online marketplace grows with new partnerships, the company wputs emphasis on the importance of maintaining high standards. when jedora launched a first of its kind digital jewelry marketplace in late 2021 it was with the goal of sharing an inspiring experience with both designers and consumers. fulfilling a need in the industry, the marketplace stands out with its wide variety of offerings, ready to meet anyone’s jewelry related needs. the platform already features a robust array of fine jewelry and loose gemstones and is adding new partners daily; jedora is also quickly scaling its assortment of both watch brands and bridal category offerings. since its initial launch, the online marketplace has onboarded over 75 new storefronts representing a range of brands and designers, including yael designs, zydo, kallati, levian, bellarri, beverley k, phillip gavriel, chimento, brilliant expressions, gevril watches and more, as well as a vast selection of loose gemstones from gemstones.com. ultimately, jedora’s marketplace will feature every category the industry offers. from watches and timepieces to modern and timeless jewelry to vintage and estate pieces to resale items, jedora will meet consumers’ everyday needs and desires. additionally, it will feature a robust assortment of bridal category products   from engagement rings to bridal party jewelry to items to commemorate the special occasions in a couple’s life, such as anniversary gifts and push presents. backed by multimedia commerce group, inc. (mcgi), a company with over 25 years of direct to consumer jewelry experience, jedora entered the market as a well funded business with established operations including a state of the art distribution center in the u.s., extensive technological infrastructure, a well established supply chain across the globe, payment options and support services. moreover, the company also launched with exceptional in house industry expertise. in part, this expertise and level of high standards contributes to a rigorous process when onboarding new brands and designers. though growing quickly   with more stores added to the pipeline each week   jedora has instituted a robust vetting system through its qualification process to ensure prospective known and up and coming designers and brands meet a high set of standards. “the jedora team has decades of experience in the jewelry industry, with established relationships that allow us to offer each of our brands with confidence, knowing they meet the high standards our customers desire and deserve,” said tim matthews, chief executive officer of jedora. “we are continually adding more storefronts to jedora so that our selection remains vast, diverse and fresh. we also work with brand ambassadors who have specific areas of expertise to help identify and vet partners that we think would be a good fit and offer value to consumers.” and even after the qualification process, jedora makes sure storefronts are optimized. through a partner success team, these storefronts are set up and guided through processes that address any questions a brand may encounter. a wide range of services is then also offered to ready partners for success, including photography services, marketing/brand management support, and more; plus, new technological advancements are regularly deployed to further streamline processes and add functionality. at the same time, matthews told wwd, “the company’s extensive expertise will provide value and efficiency to the consumer and our partners. given our background, the brand’s leadership team understands what it takes to build trust with consumers, but also that something so important can take time.” backed by a team with decades of experience in the jewelry retail industry, jedora aims to be a trusted one stop destination for style exploration   willing to do everything it takes to earn consumer trust, putting all the necessary steps in place to demonstrate to consumers that the company has their backs and they can shop confidently with jedora. and, asking consumers to hold them accountable to its steadfast commitment, jedora will launch a 5 star promise explaining exactly what consumers can expect. “when it comes to meeting the high standards consumers desire and deserve, jedora is committed to excellence, and we want consumers to feel confident that they can count on jedora,” said matthews. “with our 5 star promise, we take the worry out of buying jewelry, watches and gemstones online. the guiding principles of our promise include providing the highest quality product offerings, outstanding customer service and peace of mind payment and protection options.” with these promises, consumers are empowered to experience the joy and delight of discovering the perfect piece to complete a look or augment their wardrobe. the components of jedora’s 5 star promise include 24/7 live customer support, facilitating buying direct from pre qualified sellers, free insured shipping and returns, worry free satisfaction guarantee and flexible payment and protection options. ongoing investments in technological advancements make jedora’s consumer experience more curated and customized over time, enabling people to quickly find what they want when in a hurry   and to foster discovery and exploration when they want to take the time to browse and look around. jedora leverages technology to facilitate a process for many brands to offer their products direct to consumers, while ensuring those brands meet the high standards consumers have come to expect so they can shop with confidence. “features range from ai technology to guide one’s exploration, curated shoppable looks from influencers and fashion experts and an assortment of high end options as well as accessible price points from brands and designers vetted by a panel of experts,” said matthews. “we are building a better way to shop for jewelry, watches and gemstones. jedora is a thoughtful collaboration by leaders in the industry that are dedicated to delivering the best possible customer experience through product selection and technology innovation.” for jedora, the foundation of building trust with the consumer always comes back to offering something for everyone   from entry level price points for everyday wear to red carpet ready looks. and the company’s marketplace has become that one stop shop. “ultimately, our vision is to be that reliable and trustworthy source for all jewelry needs, and variety is a crucial element to that mission. loosely translated from greek origins, jedora means “gift of the world,” which is what jewels and gemstones bring to a look   universal treasures that never fail to elicit wonder and delight to those who wear them. jedora is a wonderland for people on the hunt for something special for every occasion. featured in jedora’s red carpet collection is a range of exquisite pieces that are perfect for every special occasion. within jewelry, every gemstone is one of a kind, with its own unique characteristics and charms. when crafting these red carpet pieces, brands are creating something that often doesn’t exist anywhere else. they often have large, high quality stones, which increase exponentially in value, or they can have multi gem looks where each element complements the other in the perfect manner. to get red carpet ready, it’s time to explore the world of jedora. demsey’s departure was due to an instagram post last week, a statement from the company said. the estée lauder cos. executive vice president john demsey is out, effective this week. lauder asked demsey to leave the business after he posted a meme on instagram that contained a racial slur and joke about covid 19. “mr. demsey was informed he must leave the company, and he will retire, effective march 4, 2022,” lauder said in a filing with the u.s. securities and exchange commission. executive chairman william p. lauder and chief executive officer fabrizio freda issued a statement on monday that said: “this decision is the result of his recent instagram posts, which do not reflect the values of the estée lauder companies, have caused widespread offense, are damaging to our efforts to drive inclusivity both inside and outside our walls and do not reflect the judgment we expect of our leaders. “inclusion, diversity and equity are core to our company’s values and priorities globally. furthermore, over the past two years, we have worked together as an organization to advance our approach to racial equity and have taken a hard look at where we can and should do better. together, we are making progress against our commitments to our employees, our partners and consumers.” lauder has aimed to deepen its diversity and inclusion efforts in recent years. in june 2020, the company sent out an internal memo saying it would hire more black employees, and work more closely with its black employee resource group. in september 2021, the company partnered with poet laureate amanda gorman as a “global changemaker” and committed $3 million to gorman’s literacy fund. the business has also provided semiannual updates on where it stands on social impact initiatives, including gender pay equity and sustainability. demsey was placed on unpaid leave following his instagram post. he issued an apology via instagram on friday. he did not respond to a request for comment for this story, and it was unclear who at lauder would take over his role, which included oversight for the company’s multibrand makeup business. in the interim period, a spokeswoman for lauder said, “the brands within john’s portfolio will continue to be led by their respective global presidents and report directly to fabrizio freda [president and chief executive officer of the estée lauder cos.]. plans for the organization will be announced later.” demsey has been with lauder since 1991, and has been an executive group president since 2015. he most recently oversaw makeup brands mac, clinique, too faced, smashbox, glamglow and tom ford beauty. makeup is a major business segment for lauder, and in the most recent fiscal year, posted $4.2 billion in net sales. at lauder, which was founded in 1946, demsey was known for linking brands with pop culture. he was a driving force behind tom ford beauty, which started as a collaboration between tom ford and the estée lauder brand before evolving the stand alone billion dollar brand. demsey also spearheaded the global growth of mac, which he took over in 1998 when it had about $140 million in wholesale sales. now, mac’s sales are in the billions. the brand partnered with major icons under demsey’s watch, including rihanna, saweetie, mariah carey, nicki minaj, lady gaga and ariana grande. for more from wwd.com, see: new executive appointments at lauder, l’oréal estée lauder posts best quarter yet exclusive: mac cosmetics premieres t zone podcast marco falcioni has been named senior vice president of creative direction in charge of the hugo and boss brands, both in the early stages of a revamp. paris   in the midst of a major revamp, hugo boss has announced changes in its creative leadership. the german fashion giant has named marco falcioni as senior vice president of creative direction, in charge of the hugo and boss brands in tandem with their respective designers, effective march 1. in the newly created role, falcioni reports to chief executive officer daniel grieder, the former tommy hilfiger executive who joined hugo boss last june, charged with reversing the fortunes of a company that had fallen behind amid the athleisure juggernaut. chief brand officer ingo wilts is stepping down from the executive board for personal reasons, effective monday, although he will continue to be involved with collections until the end of the year, the german company said. in august 2021, grieder unveiled an ambitious five year strategy for boss, named “claim 5,” which involves broadening the two brands’ appeal among younger consumers, notably, transforming into a lifestyle company without reneging on the brands’ roots in formalwear, and ramping up digital. so far, it seems the strategy is paying off. boss started the new year with a bang, unveiling a campaign that flooded social media and global billboards with images of celebrities and influencers in neutral toned hoodies emblazoned with the brand’s new logo, a world away from its past image as a purveyor of tailored suiting. since the campaign went live on jan. 26, that hoodie has reportedly become the bestselling single style in the history of the company, and the brand’s net sales increased by 248 percent (from 1.3 million euros to 3.3 million euros), the firm revealed to wwd in mid february. falcioni joined the company in 2015, and was most recently part of the boss menswear runway team and responsible for collaborations including boss x russell athletic that are key to the label’s rebranding. he was also behind the design of the company’s first nft collection pieces. also starting march 1, andrea cannelloni will take on a yearlong mission as creative adviser, returning to the company he left in 2008. he was most recently president of napapijri at vf corp. see also: boss’ rebrand is moving fast hugo boss’ comeback strategy: youth, lifestyle and lashings of data hugo boss raises guidance after strong q3 scallon is also well known for his 15 year stint at maison margiela. a discreet and respected communications professional with a very short résumé in fashion, patrick scallon has exited dries van noten after almost 14 years as the belgian designer’s communications director, wwd has learned. scallon is also well known for his 15 year stint at maison margiela, from 1993 to 2008, working alongside the iconoclastic founder, martin margiela, and functioning as communications head, the voice of the house, and ultimately its art director for communications. he accompanied van noten through many important milestones in his career, including the exhibition “inspirations” at les arts décoratifs in paris in 2014, the sale of a majority stake in his anterp based fashion house to spain’s puig group in 2018, and a surprise collaboration with christian lacroix in 2019. speaking from his native ireland, where he is taking a short break, scallon told wwd he plans to work as a freelance consultant on communications and the strategic role of creativity in the business. “i have been honored to collaborate with such talented designers on a one to one basis up to now, and i am excited to begin to contribute on a variety of projects with passionate collaborators,” he added. see also: inside puig’s acquisition of dries van noten dries van noten explains why designing is like eating olives margiela exits margiela alice delahunt, chief digital and content officer, plans to leave the company, and the firm revealed a series of senior leadership appointments integrating their digital strategy and initiatives across the company. ralph lauren‘s digital leadership team will undergo several changes, effective april 1. alice delahunt, chief digital and content officer for the past four years, has decided to leave the company to pursue an opportunity of her own, effective march 31. during her tenure, delahunt transformed lauren’s digital platforms, spearheaded industry leading initiatives and building teams of digital content and social media experts. she also led the rl pride community, an employee group, as the executive sponsor. janet sherlock, currently chief information officer, will assume an expanded role of chief digital and technology officer. she remains on the executive leadership team and in her expanded role,she will take on responsibility for the company’s consumer facing digital strategy, platforms and work streams. sherlock will continue to report to chief operating officer and chief financial offer jane nielsen. david lauren, chief brand and innovation officer, will expand his role to include responsibility for the company’s advertising and digital content and design teams. he continues to report to patrice louvet, president and chief executive officer of ralph lauren. iris langlois meurinne will expand her role to become global chief marketing officer, and will join the executive team and report to david lauren. most recently, langlois meurinne was chief marketing officer of emea, and in her new role she will oversee all of ralph lauren’s marketing and media teams globally. further, amy jaffe will expand her role as head of global innovation and branding, in addition to her role as chief of staff to david lauren. jaffe will lead the company’s innovation and new business efforts, with responsibility for driving the development of transformative business models, partnerships and products. for more stories: ralph lauren plans to show his fall 2022 collections in march ralph lauren partners with franklin ventures on consumer tech patrice louvet sees ralph lauren momentum despite headwinds gradually converting traditional farming routes toward fully organic. it is admirable that the apparel industry is gradually increasing its level of investment toward sustainable fibers such as organic cotton. not only is organic cotton more beneficial for the end wearer (i.e. better for “next to skin” contact), but it’s healthier for our planet’s soil, water and air   present and future. there’s only one problem: there’s not enough organic cotton to go around. as if aligning supply and demand in the apparel industry wasn’t challenging enough, the growing interest in organic cotton textiles has made procuring organic cotton increasingly challenging and competitive. “cotton is the most widely used fiber in the world, and only the smallest fraction (less than 1 percent of world cotton production, according to world textile exchange) is grown fully organic,” said mou nath, cmo and sustainability strategist at zxy international. “demand for organic cotton has increased dramatically in recent years to the point that, without a plan to convert more conventional acreage to organic acreage, brands may not be able to secure a future supply.” there are two solutions to increasing virgin organic cotton supply: one, encouraging new farmers to grow using organic practices from the outset, and two, encouraging existing conventional cotton farmers to switch to organic farming methods. to transform how their cotton is sourced, zxy along with its partner brands has developed a model to gradually convert traditional farming of cotton routes over the next three to five years, aiming to be fully organic by 2025. “committing to the farmers and encouraging them to work with organic farming practices reduces the production cost and benefits their future crop, increases soil fertility and enhances biodiversity,” said srinath reddy, zxy’s global head of sustainable sourcing. to provide confidence and transparency, zxy is also working on 100 percent traceability from its farmers, ginners and spinners to measure its organic sourcing solutions and reduce their dependency on conventional methods. the above initiative is in motion: zxy has started working with farmer’s association groups in india for their cotton supply route for their bangladesh, india, egypt and turkey production hubs. in conversion organic cotton, also known as transition cotton, is any output coming from farms during the first three years of an organic certificate. any land must be free of gmo seeds, synthetic pesticides, and fertilizer for three years to cultivate organic cotton. at year four, the cotton can be certified organic. this solidifies the supply base to procure three years’ worth of cotton, which can be marketed as “in conversion organic cotton” by certification standards and endorsed through the supply chain. and while this process benefits zxy’s partner brands and retailers by securing the longevity of product and supply, it also benefits the farmers who can better control the selling prices of this long term investment. this also helps level things out, circumventing dips and fluctuations in cotton prices and availability. working with an apparel partner like zxy helps mitigate the risks. “the reason why many farmers don’t do this on their own is that conventional cotton crops have a faster turnaround,” said nath. “it’s also quite extensive and expensive for them to do the conversion   certification cost without any advance commitment themselves if they don’t have the supply guaranteed at the end   so we’re kind of ring fencing and helping them with that supply.” balancing with recycled cotton the third method for procuring cotton to meet supply demands that zxy encourages is for brands to divert a portion of the virgin business to recycled cotton. “alongside our organic targets, we are conscious that there is only a limited volume of virgin cotton available in the world at any one time,” said nath. to that end, zxy has begun simultaneously working on a recycled sourcing model. its innovation team is working with existing post industrial (pre consumer) cotton waste to continually innovate on new bases that are durable and commercially viable. looking at its entire cotton supply from its affiliate farms, zxy has divided what it can provide to clients into three areas: 100 percent organic cotton, transitional (in conversion) organic cotton and recycled cotton (mechanically recycled). “we cannot expect to meet our organic sustainability goals if we all don’t invest at the beginning of the supply chain,” nath said. zxy international, a member of textile exchange, is a global apparel partner to leading international brands and retailers. they have over 40 years of apparel and textile sourcing experience, giving them the expertise, knowledge and latest technology developments that positively impact their customers, people, and environment. their operations are based in bangladesh, turkey, india, pakistan and egypt. “over the years, we have developed our business toward a sustainable and environmentally friendly model. we are now seeing the fruits of this labor, with our clients and partners trusting us to deliver ethical and commercially viable solutions for their brands and businesses,” said abby jamal, managing director, zxy international. click here to learn more about sustainable apparel and how zxy can help your brand convert to preferred fibers. this change reflects how rising generations approach fashion, said the school’s general manager xavier romatet. paris   opening paris fashion week for the second time, the institut français de la mode‘s ma graduate show came with a change: the traditional divide between women’s and men’s fashion design has been dropped from the fashion course description. the gesture felt congruent with a current leaning toward coed runways but also reflected rising generations approach fashion, said the school’s general manager xavier romatet. “in general, [they] abolish boundaries, be they gender or those between physical and digital. for us, it’s a talking point, but to them, it goes beyond negating differences   it’s a non topic. [this generation] abolishes any barriers they consider an obstacle to creative expression,” added romatet, praising the “vision, this identity they create through garments and in which gender isn’t necessarily a relevant distinction.” masks, featured with most looks, further blurred the features, leaving body shapes and attitudes to do the talking. romatet explained students had been asked to “consider the head as an integral part of [the silhouette].” showcased in a film that blended the reality of physical looks with digitally scanned versions and imaginary landscapes, they contributed to an eerie escapade that segued into the work of the class’ image making students. the 45 designer class of 2022 explored a range of themes, including traditional men’s loungewear, which guillemette jozan spotlighted with gender free knitwear using different thread weights to create transparent effects; anti racism, which saw man hei carrie keung figure the universality of human bone structure in abstract structures assembled together to form her designs, and the impact of today’s tools on self image, with hugo castejon blanchard recreating male social media poses of bared abs, trousers undone just so, shirts left gaping. other standouts from this year’s lineup included lou comte’s knitwear that followed rather than defined the body’s curves; the designs of claire barreau, who likewise designed for the body as is, rather than use garments as a way to shape it; maria siqueira, who mined her portuguese heritage for voluminous looks that blended traditional silhouettes and new techniques like flexible 3d printed panels, and ibrahima gueye, who transcribed male oriented rituals of his homeland of senegal into a wardrobe for women. for more, see also: france’s leading fashion school inaugurates new campus chanel and institut français de la mode launch academic chair meet the first fashion graduates of institut français de la mode the lineup of 28 looks, conceived and finalized by abloh before his death in november, was haute couture for the gen z set. paris   off white’s tribute show to its founder and creative director virgil abloh on the first day of paris fashion week was a multidisciplinary affair livestreamed from dozens of local storefronts, including the galeries lafayette department store. it also marked the brand’s arrival on tiktok, with the platform’s first interactive live show. on the runway, the big news was the launch of the brand’s “high fashion” line, a lineup of 28 looks conceived and finalized by abloh before his death in november from a rare form of cancer. this was haute couture for the gen z set: think a technical jacket paired with an organza plissé skirt, and reimagined archetypes like a sequined “little black dress” featuring abloh’s signature text in quotation marks. also making their debut as part of the “spaceship earth: an imaginary experience” show: a skiwear capsule for women and men, featuring oversize skate influenced shapes in performance textiles, and shoe collaborations with church’s and nike. models wore makeup from the brand’s first beauty collection, off white paperwork, set to launch this spring. to cap it all off, off white is debuting a two week paris fashion week takeover of caviar kaspia, one of abloh’s favorite eateries, with an on site experience that reimagines the restaurant’s entrance, decor and tableware, with an exclusive homeware and ready to wear capsule collection launching online on march 8. if during his lifetime, abloh was a ubiquitous presence during the paris shows, this season proves his spirit lives on in the french capital. see also: louis vuitton ceo talks final virgil abloh collection, succession plans year in review: ‘virgil was here’: a look at the life and death of virgil abloh off white ceo on developing brand’s new codes of luxury the nascent brand’s first paris runway show is scheduled for march 4. vtmnts, launched last year and initially inspired by menswear and its sartorial codes, is now on the official paris calendar for the women’s shows, reflecting its full embrace of all genders. “i always say it’s about the clothes, it’s not about the gender,” said guram gvasalia, cofounder and creative director of swiss based fashion house vetements, parent of vtmnts. he argued that menswear and womenswear are outdated and old fashioned as terms and do not “really represent how the world is developing and transforming into a better place for all of us, who do not particularly want to identify as male or female stereotypes. “even fashion weeks are still separated by only two genders, making no room for anyone who does not conform,” he argued. “i felt it was time to do things differently and to show during the main fashion week clothes that speak to all genders.” gvasalia applauded that some model agencies are starting to introduce a nonbinary category “next to the typical boys and girls.” vtmnts was briefly on the preliminary men’s calendar in january, and its move to the february march edition of paris fashion week is fitting for a company that has experimented with an array of timings and formats for vetements, flicking between the ready to wear and couture schedules, or sometimes sitting both out. with tailoring a big statement this fashion season, and tailoring techniques applied to dresses at fendi and prada in milan, vtmnts comes to the table with its own unique approach. in an interview, gvsalia was wearing a prototype double breasted jacket with a spaghetti thick tube of fabric outlining the shoulders and sleeves. “it creates its silhouette,” he said, also explaining the natural stretch properties he seeks out in fine tailoring cloth. “it’s about the fit of a garment. the hard part is to make it work on anyone.…the definition of good tailoring is when it fits everyone.” vtmnts “is built on garment construction using the most advance technologies mixed up with sartorial tailoring tricks invented centuries ago,” he added. the nascent brand debuted last july with a spring 2022 collection unveiled via a look book drop, the clothes shown principally on male models and with bar codes replacing logos. to be sure, the brand has made rapid inroads. vtmnts is already carried in about 100 top retailers including 10 corso como, antonioli, adelaide, boon the shop, browns, end, h.lorenzo, joyce, km20, luisaviaroma, maxfield la, saks fifth avenue, the webster, tsum and ssense, trumpeting itself as “the most successful launch of a new designer brand in history.” gvasalia said the prices for vtmnts are similar to its flagship vetements brand, founded in 2014 by him and his brother demna, who is widely credited with sparking the streetwear trend in fashion. (demna stepped down from vetements in 2019 and is now focused on balenciaga, where he has been creative director since 2015.) “we work with top factories and use the best quality of materials. we actually use the same factories as some of the biggest names in the industry and manage to give much adequate prices and higher quality,” gvasalia said. “i’m obsessed with attention to detail.” gvasalia said he recently took over a 16,000 square foot space across the street from vetements headquarters in zurich to house vtmnts’ young team, which numbers about 20. the vast open space will also feature an on site barista and employee eatery. the vtmnts show is scheduled for friday at 8 p.m., and gvasalia hinted at a “crazy schedule” for the brand in 2022. see also: tipping point: fashion brands, schools and stores navigate shifting gender norms guram gvasalia named creative director of vetements guram gvasalia talks new platform, strategic growth and true engagement with the support of dover street market paris, the new york label is finding commercial success. in march 2020, patric dicaprio and bryn taubensee were riding high after a meeting with adrian joffe in paris. the comme des garçons chief executive officer was considering investing in the brand through his dover street market paris development division. it was just what the sublimely subversive but cash poor young designers needed. inspired by fashion provocateurs miguel adrover and martin margiela, dicaprio and taubensee had been at work since 2015 in new york, earning a reputation for their conceptual designs, commenting on wealth disparity with a minidress fashioned to look like a tiffany & co. jewelry pouch for fall 2017 or on domesticity with a human sized bow tied hostess gift for fall 2019, and being tapped by hulu to design a conceptual, not for sale collection inspired by “the handmaid’s tale.” but financial success was harder to come by. then the pandemic lockdowns hit. “we were afraid to ask [adrian] if it was still going to happen,” dicaprio said of the investment, during a meeting at the brand’s brooklyn studio. “but they said, ‘of course, we’re still going to do it; it’s more important now than ever.’” the partnership has changed vaquera’s trajectory. dsm manufactures vaquera’s outerwear and handbags in its cdg shirt factories in turkey, france and portugal, handles the brand’s sales (stockists include nordstrom, selfridges, matchesfashion, fortyfiveten and h.lorenzo) and stocks it in its dsm stores. “they didn’t ask for any ownership of our company, and it’s not like every month they’re saying we will give you this if you do x, y, z,” dicaprio said. “it feels natural, because young designers need money and obviously we’re the first to say that, but you also need help with resources, production and sample making.” “we struggled because we got so much attention from press, but we started as an art project,” taubensee explained. “we always had so much faith in ourselves and knew we’d be big but no one else could see that or manifest it. dover can make that happen because they can see what we need.” the designers met the dsm team for the first time in paris last fall, and were set to host their first paris runway show under their wing at the dsm exhibition space at 5:30 p.m. on monday. “we want the clothes to speak for themselves. we’ve stepped it up conceptually and commercially, with new categories like belts, wallets and bags, puffer coats and more advanced outerwear,” dicaprio said. “loosely it’s about love, what do you sacrifice, is it amazing or limiting and how do you express that through clothing,” dicaprio said of the fall collection, sitting in front of a mood board pinned with photos of kiss, cruella de vil and the 1996 vampire film “irma vep.” “we’re definitely interested in american tropes, fashion tropes, and thinking about power, money and fame, which we put on a t shirt once,” taubensee said. “those things are still very much in our minds but in a more subtle way. this is fashion fan fiction where we imagine different characters, and it’s more in our heads than overtly in the clothing.” commercialism is something they’re coming to terms with. “we talk about that all the time, how are we going to keep this going and keep it at this level where it’s about expression and artistic vision.…” dicaprio said. “you have to make certain sacrifices to continue, that’s the reality. i was out with an artist friend recently who said i miss the old collections. i miss them, too, but you have to understand that it’s the same, it’s just a new version that allows us to keep doing what we’re doing and not work second jobs, which we did until earlier this year.” what’s been selling well for the brand? “runway star,” “i love new york” and vaquera t shirts and hoodies; oversize “baby” cuffed jeans and skinny scrunch jeans, teddy bear accessories, denim and outerwear. “during the pandemic, our website became a huge source of revenue for us,” he said. vaquera’s studio is in an eclectic building on park avenue in brooklyn with an indoor skate park, where bode also has set up shop, alongside artists and hasidic shipping companies. the designers are very much the fashion counterculture. but they are keenly aware of new york’s limitations to helping businesses like theirs survive, much less flourish. “there’s always small brands coming up, but it’s always who is going to last because they are not supported by the fashion industry. dover street market is doing something great, and the fact we’ve survived is a sign of that starting to happen, so hopefully that will continue to happen,” taubensee said. that said, even with the bigger international platform, the designers are committed to sticking to their values. “we don’t want to mass produce clothes, slow fashion is still important to us, and being sustainable in that way, making something you will keep forever,” dicaprio said. “we like to exist outside the trend cycle.” and if paris is a good fit, who knows? “we might move here someday,” dicaprio said. “we love the cheesy vibe, and new york is losing that energy. our favorite place to hang out is the sacré coeur steps. it’s a funny scene   we always buy beers; they’re these french dudes who are obsessed with americana and they play bob dylan and wear suits, it’s always a good time.” “you look down on the city, and see people getting married, or pickpocketed,” taubensee added. “we really are just kids from middle america and to have this dream, achieve it in new york and then go to paris, it’s just fun and surreal.” new york based patric dicaprio and bryn taubensee brought their vaquera brand to the paris runway for the first time. their angry looking models stomped down the runway to a hardcore techno soundtrack, creating tension to set off a tongue in cheek collection that combined fetish wear with nostalgic touches nodding to childhood. it was almost as if the buzzy design duo were rewriting “little red riding hood”   with its dark subtext   for the streets of a sinister urban metropolis, and having a lot of fun in the process. they used black patent latex to create catsuits inspired by the 1996 vampire movie “irma vep,” and cleverly usurped lingerie references, overlaying satin slipdresses with transparent plastic in what they termed “preserved” designs. above the elbow padded mittens, leg warmers and balaclavas accessorized many looks   reinterpreting familiar childhood staples   in red satin, for example, to match a cropped bomber and a rosette adorned thong, or elsewhere in frizzy lurex or tartan. outsized silhouettes channeled that same sense of naivety with a twist, as on a studded denim pinafore or a dropped waist dress with a pleated skirt that nodded to school uniforms, and with fluffy knit pieces. their skill with juxtaposition made for a lineup that skillfully walked a fine line between edgy and charming. right out of the gate, there was a digital component to the pfw runway, too. bubblehouse, billed as a social, accessible eco friendly nft marketplace for crypto beginners, created three nfts that are graphics of pieces in the collection. they were available via qr codes in the show notes and on the seats, with each guest receiving one randomly based on their seat. think of it as non fungible swag.   alex wynne as part of a new plan to stage two big shows, and two experimental ones, each year for his namesake label, jonathan anderson mounted images of his collection onto the sides of eight small trucks that traveled around milan, inviting the public to feast their eyes on his latest looks. juergen teller, with whom anderson has been collaborating for the past few seasons, flew in to photograph the trucks as part of a wider project, while the full look book was published online on sunday night during milan fashion week. the presentation, and the collection itself, was a celebration of pop culture and postmodernism: anderson’s model this season was hari nef, the transgender actress, model, writer and longtime jw anderson client, whose most recent role was as rabbi jen in “and just like that.” among the motifs in this collection were riffs on the “carrie” movie poster with sissy spacek in her many guises; the korean anime character run hany, and a color blocked top made from deflated whoopee cushions, a nod to all the asmr noise in the men’s fall 2022 collection. it was asymmetrical, sculptural   and begging to be touched: thick streams of black yarn cascaded from the collar of a yellow cardigan, and wide leg trousers were dotted with deflated balloons. a black, strapless top resembled a supersized cascade earring, while another strapless top was made from inflated tubes, perfect for madame michelin. in an interview, anderson described the prints as “a bit andy warhol,” and they certainly had a postmodern air. the designer chopped up the “carrie” poster and spread it across silky pajama sets, and placed run hany’s face on looks as diverse as a carnation pink dress with a stiff, sculptural hem   and a red and white tracksuit top. it was bonkers, unflinchingly glamorous, and could be rolling into your neighborhood later this year.   samantha conti anne isabella, lecourt mansion, rui and sheltersuit will show their distinctive takes on the paris schedule this season. anne isabella rasmussen’s graphic yet realistic wardrobe; the sexy, colorful and unapologetic world of nix lecourt mansion; rui zhou’s expanding vocabulary around her intricate, web like bodysuits and dresses, and bas timmer’s socially driven fashion project meant to look and do good are among the collections to watch in this physical first edition of paris fashion week. don’t let anne isabella’s quasi psychedelic swirls fool you   anne isabella rasmussen defines her aesthetic as “practical with a certain amount of quirkiness.” the berlin based designer, who is of french and danish descent, was led to fashion through her interest in art practice. “i loved to draw and didn’t have any sewing background at first. a teacher at school introduced me to fashion illustration and the idea of central saint martins, and i was hooked,” she remembered. she initially headed to london to enroll in central saint martin’s foundation courses and eventually printmaking. but “the more work we did, the more nerdy i became about garment construction and tailoring,” which led her down the womenswear ma track, she said. after her 2018 graduation, she headed to paris to work for courrèges as a designer, a proposal she’d found irresistible. “i got the job in two days and it wasn’t even a question because it’s a brand i really love. i just had to try it out,” she said. eventually, her curiosity about having her own label won out. after choosing “anne isabella” as the moniker for the label   “my first name is already long enough,” she joked   and registering it weeks before the covid 19 pandemic hit, she moved to berlin, where her partner in life and business max wagner lived, for what she expected to be a few months. although she showed her debut collection for spring 2021 digitally only, rasmussen doesn’t feel she ended up disadvantaged. “[digital formats] really leveled the playing field,” she believes. her graphic aesthetic, nodding to the 1960s and ‘70s   decades she is particularly attracted to   was well received. “there is a certain optimism [to that era] that i enjoy. quite a lot happened during those two decades, with a broad range of aesthetics, so there’s always new facets to explore and see how to make them relevant for today, rather than recreate them as a one to one copy of that time,” she said. for fall 2022, her fourth outing, she’ll be exploring the idea of stripes through plays of textures, embroidery or pleating. she is also planning to introduce knitwear. now that physical formats have returned, however, she felt she should give showing in paris a go, complementing the digital reveal slated for thursday at 11 a.m. on the fhcm’s platform with a physical presentation at palais de tokyo. it will also be an opportunity to delve into set design to explore the season’s idea of “raw, polished, old and new,” she said. “it’s a fourth season that feels like a first season all over again.”   lily templeton when nix lecourt mansion won andam’s creative label prize in june 2019, she had high hopes of parlaying the award into a viable fashion business. then the pandemic hit, and her investments dried up. the designer, whose instagram biography describes her as a “6’2” punk venus designing shiny clothing for flamboyant people,” scaled back her collections to focus on custom work. having signed recently with talent agency studio 112 and as a model on ford’s roster, she’s ready to return to the runway with a collection called “revenge look,” due to be unveiled on saturday at 4:30 p.m. cet at garage amelot. “it’s the conceptualization of the transformation of a difficult event into a weapon of empowerment,” she said. the lineup will consist of around 30 looks including women’s, men’s and genderless designs, in sizes 36 to 44, equivalent to u.s. sizes 4 to 12. lecourt mansion has recycled outfits and materials from previous collections, and used knotted constructions inspired by shibari, the ancient form of artistic japanese rope bondage. the collection will include knitwear designed with amca oval, the sustainable brand launched by former carven designers alexis martial and adrien caillaudaud. she’s also launching her first handbag, made in collaboration with french brand cordiz. having dressed celebrities including kendall jenner, lady gaga and christine and the queens, lecourt mansion is interested in adapting her razor sharp tailoring, taut corsets and glittery party dresses to different body types. “i want to be able to master every aspect of couture, and if i design just for model physiques, it’s not very challenging,” she reasoned, citing azzedine alaïa as a role model. “the most interesting thing is to dress someone with style and personality.” a graduate of the atelier chardon savard fashion school in paris, the 28 year old designer, formerly known as nicolas, uses her platform to amplify trans voices, working with a circle of friends that includes model raya martigny and franco senegalese singer thee dian. but she doesn’t want her sexual identity to define her creations. instead, she hopes that after four years of developing her brand on her own, and a collaboration last year with jean paul gaultier on a ready to wear capsule, she’ll find the financial backing to launch a commercial collection that is both glamorous and wearable. “my work is sexy, colorful and unapologetic,” she says. “so far, i’ve proved my talent as a designer. i’ve proved i know how to make clothes. now i want to be prove they are sellable.”   joelle diderich although dua lipa looked like she had been spray painted in rui zhou’s intricate, filmy creations when the performer appeared on the cover of rolling stone, the shanghai based designer was quick to point out this wasn’t quite the whole story. “at the beginning, people look at rui pieces as body conscious, but the aesthetic philosophy is really about exploring the duality in all things   the relationship between matter and being; perfection and imperfections, or skin and clothes,” she said on a call before heading to paris for the fall 2022 shows. her real inspiration comes from day to day life   “as unexciting as it seems,” she conceded. she prefers to concentrate on fragmented details or subtle elements, and zooming out to draw attention to them. “that leaves a lot open for the imagination, which is why i don’t like to be too precise in the title i give to my collections,” she said. body positivity came “as an added value,” she continued, something she noticed among her western customers soon after her 2019 launch in new york. “i have this slogan of ‘love what makes you, you’ and most people wear rui pieces while trying to find their confidence. so making a positive impact   regardless of gender   is really great feedback from my clients.” winning the karl lagerfeld prize at the 2021 edition of the lvmh prize for young designers further accelerated development. her retail base has grown to some 30 stores, spanning sharply curated stores like china based eng, ssense and london’s machine a to heavyweights like skp, matchesfashion and selfridges. for fall 2022, which will be revealed on saturday at 11:30 a.m. cet, she will continue to explore her ultra fine knits, but she’ll also be delving into thicker materials. “because it’s for fall and winter, we need warm pieces,” she quipped, noting it was also an opportunity to work natural fibers, which she loves but couldn’t use for her initial tights like designs. expect wools and cashmere used for jackets and coats, some with padding, but also the addition of new categories like jewelry and hats. “i try to do more categories to make [the brand] look more mature. maybe i’ll even do home goods in the future,” she teased.   l.t. after using his skills to create a product that would protect people   inspired by the death of a friend’s father who had become homeless that “took [him] on a long, intense journey of setting up the sheltersuit foundation with its factories in the netherlands, south africa and, soon, the united states”   dutch designer bas timmer really missed design and fashion. after getting back into it thanks to gabriela hearst, who asked him to design coats for her debut fall 2021 collection at chloé, he also realized the benefits his own label could bring to his foundation that helps those sleeping rough   and to himself. “by designing beautiful products that are desirable because of their aesthetic qualities and not just the story behind them, it could really make the foundation more [financially] sustainable, less dependent on goodwill, and personally, have more fun,” he said, describing his delight at having carte blanche in the chloé studio. but launching another fashion label   he’d had a line of one of a kind hoodies during his studies   didn’t sound like the right fit. “i always had a bit of doubt. i realized that doing just fashion, just nice stuff, would make me feel empty. i really want to do good as well,” he said. “the conclusion was that it has to be a sheltersuit brand.” cue products rooted in the same principles as the foundation: using upcycled materials   “for beautiful and interesting products”; crafting through social studios to empower “those with a greater distance to the labor market, to be good from the bottom up,” and using the revenue generated to help more people. timmer’s original idea was to create six to nine looks. but after contacting the fédération de la haute couture et de la mode to enquire about showing during paris fashion week, the project snowballed. the 21 piece lineup was created in a matter of two months with a little help from friends   including chloé, which gave timmer some studio space and materials   mainly inspired by the sheltersuit’s multifunctionality and comfort. deadstock makes up for 90 percent of all materials, and recycled fabrics round up the ensemble. styles will go from colorful and raw showpieces to more classic choices for “those who like to have a bit of funk on the inside.” shirts and hoodies will start around 250 euros, while the “scarf hoodie,” one of the first items that set timmer on his path to multifunctional garments, will be priced at 450 euros. parkas will retail around 850 euros for short versions and up to 1,200 euros for longer models. the 400 or so bags that will decorate their space in palais de tokyo will be donated to homeless people after the friday presentation. beyond selling the range, timmer also hopes to inspire those who are watching. “if people want who help the foundation, please reach out   we can use help in experience, materials and donations. but i also hope to inspire other brands [to join us or collaborate], because it’s ridiculous that an industry as gigantic as textile and fashion industries is incinerating product while we can’t keep the millions forced to sleep outside warm. together, we could protect those people,” he said.   l.t. the french capital is back in action this fashion season. shop the drops: after switching locations with the men’s boutique and extensive renovations, giorgio armani’s women’s store is now a 5,500 square foot, two story location on avenue montaigne. and because it’s fashion week, the italian designer will be celebrating with an evening event at famed nightspot castel on wednesday. high end contemporary chinese label icicle has unveiled its second parisian address, on rue du faubourg saint honoré, where the decor continues the impression of airy serenity of its first outpost. the 2,400 square foot space featuring a monumental spiral staircase connecting its three floors juxtaposes gracious curves and sparse lines with textural play between blush toned limestone, bronze and lacquered wood, as imagined by belgian architect bernard dubois. the first project for vuarnet’s new artistic director boramy viguier was to turn the ski apparel company’s parisian flagship into his impression of a mountain lodge, “so that the customer could have the feeling of escaping from the city,” he said. but this is no quaint wood cabin. with its sharp ’70s furniture, dark timber paneling and a mirrored wall set with screens, the 1,000 square feet imagined by london based retail design studio brinkworth looks fit for james bond. with their family supplying sapphires from sri lanka to paris’ best jewelry houses, the ponweera siblings decided to tap into their cache of fabulous gems to launch maison avani, a high end jewelry proposal based out of their new address on place du marché saint honoré. expect a rainbow of faceted and uncut stones   sapphires, of course, but also emeralds and tsavorites   waiting only for the imagination of its customers and creative director milan ponweera. sneakerheads and streetwear aficionados will be able to get their fix at the recently opened parisian outposts for stüssy and high end kicks p448   complete with a small scale halfpipe.   lily templeton giorgio armani 18 avenue montaigne, 75008 icicle 50 rue du faubourg saint honoré, 75008 vuarnet 28 rue boissy d’anglas, 75008 maison avani 19 place du marché saint honoré, 75001 mega bites: “one of the powers of gastronomy is to put and restore a smile on people’s faces,” said michelin starred chef jean françois piège. so when he needed a name for his latest restaurant in the hôtel de la marine, in tandem with hospitality specialists moma group, the happy hues evoked by the word mimosa felt like the perfect moniker for a place “expressing the [french] south, the sun, nature and pleasure.” expect plates made for sharing that explore inspirations from both shores of the mediterranean, but also the “egg mimosa,” a bistro favorite here revamped with taramasalata, lobster or bottarga. on rue du faubourg saint honoré, café coutume has taken the courtyard spot at number 54, slotted between the likes of leather goods label joseph duclos, burberry and comme des garçons further inside. across the seine, whether you’re an automobile or a human in need of a refuel in the seventh arrondissement, look no further than the gasoline stand. there’s petrol and coffee, but the proprietor   entrepreneur ramdane touhami   has brought together artisanal coffee, collectible tchotchkes, a selection of sodas from around the world and vegetarian hot dogs with 10 different sauces. with its long stainless steel counter perfect for a quick bite or to seat walk ins, le collier de la reine (or the queen’s necklace) is among the best latest iterations of the french bistro, with seafood as a specialty. expect well executed modern french classic and an expansive wine cellar.   l.t. mimosa 2 place de la concorde, 75001 café coutume 54 rue du faubourg saint honoré, 75001 the gasoline stand 17 boulevard des invalides, 75007 le collier de la reine 57 rue charlot, 75001 green beauty: after lyon, france, ecocentric has opened its second boutique, in the french capital, that sells organic and natural cosmetics. the 540 square foot store in the marais neighborhood, just a hop from the place des vosges, stocks brands such as john masters organics, rahua, less is more, tata harper, ren skincare, josh rosebrook, dr. hauschka, absolution, antipodes, leahlani and pai skincare, among others. for color cosmetics, there’s the likes of rms beauty, ilia, gressa and kure bazaar.   jennifer weil ecocentric 16 rue de turenne, 75004 showtime: marine serre will follow her march 4 show with a two day exhibition turning lafayette anticipation into a three floor “hard drive” containing the dna of the house. the first two levels will explore her design process and the third will showcase strong feminine figures through 15th  to 17th century paintings. a pop up is to offer a curation of her pieces, books and objects, as well as a space for people to revisit their own garments with the brand’s moon logo. the ’90s launched fashion photography’s golden age and the supermodel era, and serves as inspiration for the exhibition on display at the galerie duret. the “eternal nineties” show features snaps by jacques burga, fred meylan, sylvie castioni, sabine villiard, félix dol maillot, pierre alban hüe de fontenay and denis boulz. three decades of japanese photographer yoshi takata’s career in paris are featured at thaddaeus ropac’s gallery in the french capital. from street photography to portrait and fashion shots (she was a great friend of pierre cardin), the works span from 1955 to 1987. for the first time in france, native american folk artist joseph e. yoakum’s landscapes are on display, at the galerie derouillon. alongside the artwork, silk and cotton pieces by lemaire, which were inspired by the artist’s landscapes and are part of the house’s spring 2022 collection, will be exhibited. taking pride of place at the hôtel de la marine, the “treasures of the al thani collection” showcase is a 120 piece curation drawn from the fabulous cache assembled by sheikh hamad bin abdullah al thani, a keen collector with an eye for examples of human ingenuity.   j.w. and l.t. “marine serre   hard drive” lafayette anticipations, 44 rue sainte croix de la bretonnerie, 75004 march 5 and 6, free entry “eternal nineties” galerie duret, 7 rue des saints pères, 75006 until march 9 “yoshi takata, looking at paris 1955 1987” thaddaeus ropac paris marais, 7 rue debelleyme, 75003 march 2 to april 23 “inscape   dans les profondeurs des paysages de joseph e. yoakum” galerie derouillon, 38 rue notre dame de nazareth, 75003 march 3 to 13 “treasures of the al thani collection” hôtel de la marine, 2 place de la concorde, 75001 ongoing on the block: vintage collector didier ludot is putting 300 black dresses up for sale at paris auction house cornette de saint cyr. drawn from his stash spanning from 1930 to 2010, the selection includes pieces by pierre cardin, saint laurent rive gauche or prada; alongside prototypes from the “les petites robes noires” collection he designed with félix farrington between 1999 and 2015. nine paintings by rené gruau, from a private collection, will also go under the hammer.   l.t. 300 petites robes noires de didier ludot public exhibition on march 4, 6 and 7 at the cornette de saint cyr auction house, 6 avenue hoche, 75008 auction in person and online on march 8 at 2:30 p.m. cet. open houses: a crop of new hotels have opened in the early days of 2022. hospitality group paris society has launched villa m, a philippe starck designed hub meant to bring tourists and locals together around a hotel, restaurant and rooftop bar with expansive views over the left bank. also on this side of the seine is the brand new hôtel des académies et des arts, a boutique address offering 20 unique rooms and an artist studio, where drawing, sculpture or photography classes will be offered. an honesty bar is available for those whose main practice is conversation, and a wellness center for anyone who prefer yoga or massages.   l.t. villa m 24 to 30 avenue pasteur, 75015 hôtel des académies et des arts 15 rue de la grande chaumière, 75006 for more, see: stüssy opens first stand alone store in paris graffiti and a halfpipe arrive on tony faubourg saint honoré in paris paris scene: what to do between fashion week shows for fall, designers looked to the past and present, as well as thoughts and hopes for the future, to fuel their paris collections. from authors to current events, from magic to meditation, for fall 2022, designers looked to the past and present, as well as thoughts and hopes for the future, to fuel their paris collections. “no war in ukraine,” pined lisi herrebrugh and rushemy botter of botter. “my inspiration this season is tove ditlevsen, a well known writer in denmark. i fell in love with her poetry as a teenager, it’s so beautiful and brave. the mood in the collection plays with notions of hyper femininity skirts and dresses are pulled up to shorter hemlines while still maximizing volume,” said cecilie bahnsen. “perhaps the future belongs to magic, and it’s we women who control magic,” said author j.g. ballard in “rushing to paradise,” as cited by the design team at koché.“ “the fall 2022 collection is a meditation on seemingly opposite worlds: past and future, vintage and modern, analogue and digital, masculine and feminine,“ noted the nehera team. and some simply looked to the energy of the city of light. “paris, where visions from the past forever dance with visions of the future,” said kobi halperin of ungaro. expectations were high for milan to deliver as it returned to irl shows, and its fashion week did not disappoint. milan   despite the winds of war clouding what was seen as a moment of rebirth   given the return to irl shows and a gradual return to normalcy after two years of heavy restrictions   retailers were upbeat about the collections shown during milan fashion week, praising its strong energy and overall creativity. “brava italia for tapping into their deep expertise in material innovation and craft,” said linda fargo, senior vice president of fashion at bergdorf goodman. “we saw exciting fabrications that never existed before, and remarkable textural innovations. we’re also happy to report that we’ve made some new and promising discoveries while in milan.” nathalie lucas verdier, general merchandise manager women’s ready to wear, accessories, luxury and shoes at printemps, said that “after two years of pandemic, expectations on irl shows were high and milan did not disappoint. creativity was on a higher level than pre pandemic, we could feel the positive vibe from every single show.” matthieu blazy’s debut collection for bottega veneta didn’t disappoint either, while gucci’s collaboration with adidas was hailed as a winner, and prada, fendi and jil sander ranked high with retailers. tailoring was a strong trend, as was bold outerwear, sculptural silhouettes, highly textured materials, vivid pops of color and high boots. here, a roundup of retailers’ comments on the week: favorite collections: prada was a standout. the collection was chic, refined, modern and elegant, showcasing wearable clothes with a high sense of design and craft. you could clearly see the conversation between miuccia prada and raf simons in the collection, which prominently incorporated each of their signatures. alessandro michele made a big return to milan with a very cool collection for gucci. the adidas x gucci was unexpected and touched on the pulse of what their customer is looking for with the clever play on their three stripe logo. matthieu blazy’s debut collection for bottega veneta was luxurious, elevated and chic, redefining the codes of the house for a new chapter. new silhouettes and the classic intrecciato leather weave were showcased in a strong lineup of over the knee boots, bags, and ready to wear. fendi’s take on the masculine and feminine with their tailored blazers paired with structured corsets and soft slip skirts redefined power dressing with an elegant touch. other standouts were francesco ragazzi’s palm angels, which offered a new vision for his cult following, jil sander and blazé milano. trendspotting: seen at prada and fendi, the hard and soft play of structured jackets paired with fluid, silk chiffon skirts is very directional. other key trends include corsets, bold outerwear, tailoring, wedge pumps and boots, platforms, and half crescent shoulder bags. must have item: a piece from the adidas x gucci collaboration and a tailored blazer and slip skirt from prada. best presentation concept: prada’s theater style viewing and the post show re see was a full experience. general comment on the season: it has been a surreal week with the tension of the war hanging in the air and the realities unfolding. the spirit and energy of milan fashion week has been a bright light, returning with a strong lineup of beauty, elegance, and creativity. the return of alessandro michele for gucci with the adidas x gucci collaboration, the debut of matthieu blazy’s vision for bottega veneta, the standout prada collection, and the elegance of the fendi collection lead for a beautiful lineup. linda fargo, senior vice president of fashion at bergdorf goodman favorite collections: prada was an influential standout in milan. so much of what prada proposes reverberates for seasons ahead and has a lasting global fashion impact. matthieu blazy’s highly anticipated debut collection for bottega veneta landed perfectly. it was luxe yet very advanced and modern, and both respected and evolved the new codes of the house. we loved it! fendi opened the week with a high bar and beautiful collection, which looked to the foundations and layering of dressing itself, starting with delicate boudoir underpinnings and building out from there. the handbag range and development in particular was remarkable. best presentation concept: it was meaningful that the bottega show was staged in the raw beginnings and construction in progress of their new headquarters, signifying an important new reset for the brand with a new creative director. bravo. the jacquemus 24/24 pop up with 24 hour accessible vending machines for an all white curation was super engaging. trendspotting: note to selves, trends we’re getting behind: new takes on tailoring, couture inspired sculptural silhouettes, highly textured materials, vibrant pops of color, anything camel, intense black shaping both scaled up or bodycon. budgets: generally speaking, we were extra pleased with what we’ve seen here, and our budgets will reflect that. buying process: it was very meaningful to us to come back here exactly two years after the pandemic hit, and finally meet up personally with so many of our partners. virtual appointments remain important, but in person is the highlight now. rickie de sole, women’s designer fashion and editorial director at nordstrom favorite collections: milan had great energy this season. it was a strong showing from prada, bottega veneta, versace, gucci, max mara and brunello cucinelli. we loved brands embracing iconic silhouettes from the past and reinterpreting them for today’s woman. matthieu blazy‘s debut at bottega veneta was a highlight of the week, redefining the modern wardrobe from the simple white tank to the show stopping sequin slipdresses and woven leather accessories. miuccia prada and raf simons for prada was another fantastic collection. we loved the voluminous coats paired with dainty lady like skirts, wedge heeled pumps, and the stellar casting. other notable collections included, gucci’s adidas collaboration reveal and strong tailoring; versace embracing going all out versace with sexy corset dresses and power suiting; an expanded evening offering from brunello cucinelli and an update to max mara’s iconic coats in their show styled by tonne goodman. best presentation concept: the energy at gucci was unmatched with guests including rihanna and a$ap rocky and we loved seeing the looks come down the mirrored runway. trendspotting: proportions played a big role in milan as designers experimented with volume and exaggerated shapes. we are also continuing to see the return of party dressing both in ready to wear and accessories. other key trends we saw include power tailoring, bold pops of color, textured clothes meant to be touched and oversize bags for the woman on the go. must have item: bottega veneta’s fringe skirts and woven boots; oversize jackets and coats from prada and versace. nathalie lucas verdier, general merchandise manager women’s ready to wear, accessories, luxury and shoes at printemps favorite collections: prada was strong and directional with a perfectly balanced mix of miuccia [prada] and raf [simons], probably their best collection together. the contrast between heavy material, strong shoulders, oversize jackets and the exquisite craftsmanship on delicate lace was breathtaking. we had this feeling the past months already   and indeed matthieu blazy performed an amazing show, confirming bottega veneta will stay strong on the hot list. he brings his own touch and continues the reinvention of the italian brand keeping up with the minimalistic aesthetic and edgy vibe but made it more refined and luxury. the materials quality and rtw fits seems impeccable. versace energy was amazing, all these strong models with power shoulders, thin waist and never ending legs on incredibly high heels was a very good show to watch. gucci x adidas is a brilliant take on youngsters and hypebeasts but will easily convert more than streetwear adepts. we also had a crush on blumarine channeling the inner gen zer in us. best presentation concept: versace and the vogue posing models. trendspotting: sexiness and glamour are definitely back with sheer fabrics, lingerie, corsets, cuts fitting and even sculpting the waist. there even was a s&m vibe. tailoring is super strong with loads of jackets and power shoulders. the key look is a bra with oversize shoulders. the y2k’s vibe is also prominent with the shows of blumarine and diesel, cropped tops and very low waisted pants and denims. we also found a true trend for cargo and technical pants, but overall the skirt and the miniskirts are all over the runways! must have item: the prada (or bottega) white tank top, a power jacket from prada or versace, over the knee intrecciato bottega veneta boots and for the boldest their furry neon wedges, a gucci x adidas beret, the butterfly crop top from blumarine. budgets: still up on emerging brands, we relaunch our designers concept in march with the hottest exclusive brands. arielle siboni, rtw fashion director at bloomingdale’s favorite collections: fendi, bottega veneta, versace, prada, jil sander, ambush, gucci. trendspotting: tailoring takes the number one slot again, in addition to corsets and proportion play through oversize clutches and coats. also, sheer fabrications, monochromatic dressing, bombers, platforms and thigh high boots. must have item: matthieu blazy’s intrecciato woven skirts and over the knee boots were standouts. prada’s fitted white logo tank and embellished oversize bombers, the corsets and cargo combinations at versace and fendi’s bustiers paired with peplums and skirts also caught my eye. the gucci x adidas sneakers are going to be must haves for fall. general comment on the season: as we begin the “post pandemic” era, milan designers are empowering us with clothing that echoes our newfound strength. we have emerged stronger and that is reflected in power suiting, corsets, oversize outerwear, and leather seen at the center of many shows. these trends which might read masculine were feminized in their execution by donatella versace and kim jones at fendi. we also saw an ease and simplicity to this new code of dressing, found in the collections of prada and bottega veneta, which is needed in this complicated time, but we must recognize that in simplicity and femininity there is also strength. simon longland, head of menswear at harrods favorite collections: jil sander produced a standout show, a real highlight of the season so far for me. in true jil sander fashion, the tailoring, from jackets to suiting and coats, was exquisitely sculptural in an array of rich textured fabrics, which are sure to be a huge success come autumn. the color palette of black, ivory and muted tones of blue, green and mustard was super chic and incredibly versatile. matthieu blazy’s debut for bottega veneta completely reset a new creative direction for the house. his passion for detail and craft was evident and the iconic intrecciato being used in both accessories and ready to wear styles was a clear example of this. from fluid to cocooning, the silhouettes played with proportion in an assortment of fabrications, from shimmering sequins to leather and rich tweeds. prada mirrored key themes from its january men’s show, strong statement shoulders, strict sculptural tailoring and soft details creating volume on the arms and hemlines. i really enjoyed the play on contrasts: sheer layers paired with knits, revealing pieces balanced with modest necklines and sporty vests with crystal embellished skirts. the oversize embellished bombers were a standout for me and a trend i expect to be very popular in the coming season. best presentation concept: gucci transported us into a giant glitter ball! the mirrored event space was a fun reflection of the collection and extremely memorable. trendspotting: tailoring is back in a big way and displayed in every possible guise from jil sander and fendi’s clean and sculptural silhouettes to prada and bottega opting for stronger, more boxy styles. i can’t mention tailoring without highlighting the gucci x adidas collection   which is a match made in heaven and a great way to bring tailoring to a new, more casual audience. we continued to see volume in almost every show, and it was interesting to see that each brand brought their own signature to the style. missoni and max mara opted for volume in their ultra wide trousers, whereas dolce & gabbana and prada opted for volume on the top half and brought voluminous sleeve details and exaggerated silhouettes to the runway. embellishment is a trend that has followed from london, and has taken many forms, all of which will appeal to our harrods customers   from versace’s high octane crystal to artisanal embroidery from etro. lastly, it was the season of contrasts, designers playing with clashing ideas, pairing sporty styles with sartorial silhouettes, clean tailoring with crystal embellishments and modest knits with sheer layering   prada, gucci and fendi were the absolute experts in this. must have item: the bottega skirt general comment on the season: the return of fashion week has seen strong collections across the board; with main trends consistent even from brands with very different aesthetic approaches. federica montelli, head of fashion at rinascente: favorite collections: prada, for its perfectly executed integration of miuccia’s and raf’s icons. bottega veneta’s debut by matthieu blazy was the hot ticket of the week, and he delivered a strong collection, reassuring in the brand’s luxury bourgeois codes yet sleek and luxurious. gucci, for its desirable collaboration with adidas. versace, for its power dressing and lust worthy bustier dresses. jil sander, for its polished and graphic femininity. diesel’s first live show by glenn martens was just right for the brand, and bold in its y2k rendition. sportmax, for its mysterious and tough feminine lady. sunnei, gcds and palm angels were also very convincing. among the young names my favorite were marco rambaldi, andreadamo and des phemmes. it will be interesting to see where trussardi will go next, after a convincing first outing by serhat işık and benjamin a. huseby. best presentation concept: sunnei, for its fun “running” show. ambush, for its “lunar” setting that introduced the metaverse theme and was a good frame for a solid first runway representation by the brand. trendspotting: sparkles for both day and night and sexy dressing were the main themes, speaking of some sort of female empowerment that was reinforced also by the now normal diverse casting on the runway. it’s a “tough elegance” we are all attracted to, seen in all black looks, in the sharp tailoring, in the broad shoulders in blazers and coats. waists are mainly cinched, highlighting a bold silhouette coupled with the big shoulders. fake fur was seen all over the runways, in all colors as well as white and black, and will easily be the best selling outerwear for next season. low slung denim, better if coupled with crystals or distressed. lots of plateaus for shoes, proving that women want to go out and be seen. must have item: prada’s white logo tank top launched the tank top craze, which we’ve seen also opening bottega veneta. among bottega veneta’s bags, it’s difficult to choose: my personal favorites are the pillow clutch and the “intrecciato” bucket bag to carry over your shoulder. still at bottega veneta, it was all about the boot, and the must have is the tall one over the knee, to be worn with a classic oversize crisp shirt. for shoes in general, high plateau mary janes shoes were a favorite, versace’s ones are still in traction, and plenty of fitted knee boots. buying process: despite an almost complete return to physical runways and presentations, showrooms are still working a lot with digital appointments with buyers, as they themselves are doing fewer campaigns abroad and fewer days. a lot of multibrand showrooms decided to show only in milan this time, not paris, and this has contributed to a very dynamic fashion week. general comment on the season: overall, lots of reassuring and sellable collections. there was amazing energy throughout the week and we are excited for the season ahead. april hennig, chief merchandising officer at moda operandi favorite collections: prada showcased unexpected pairings and plays on proportion. the mixed media skirts, logo tank tops, shearling bombers, and tailoring are destined to be some of fall ‘22s most defining pieces. their elegant fall collection provided us with ample inspiration to live boldly as we head back into the world. matthieu blazy’s debut as creative director at bottega veneta was certainly worth the wait. presenting an intentional collection of refinement and intricate craft, blazy put forward thoughtful luxurious reinterpretations of wardrobe staples. the fringe leather skirts were an absolute standout. jil sander was the epitome of grown up elegance. the duo paid strong attention to material   rich crushed velvet, the finest mohair, and the softest bouclé. sculptural tailoring and hourglass silhouettes gave the collection a modern couture feel. best presentation concept: del core’s daphnis nerii’s collection was inspired by the psychedelic wings of a moth, with each look subtly nodding back to the fascinating insect. voluminous sleeves, intricate cutouts, kaleidoscope prints, and sculpted silhouettes provided a stunning visual spectacle for showgoers. del core is undoubtedly the next premiere european design house. trendspotting: velvet was everywhere in milan. jil sander’s rich cornsilk dress was a standout, as was del core’s high slit ruched dress in moss green. fringe, it’s all about movement. bohemian mainstay etro featured fringe not only as details on their covetable suede accessories but also on easy knit skirts. bottega’s polished leather take, seen on skirts and dresses, was a clever reimagining of the technique for everyday wear. platform shoes are here to stay. versace cemented this with their sky high, patent mary jane platforms. bottega’s platform pumps in electric shades may just be the next “it” shoe from the house. strong shoulders: whether it was leather fringe shoulder detail at bottega or satin coats with pads at versace, we are seeing a moment for strong shoulders to stand confident when reentering the world. oversized outerwear: max mara embraced the trend with their reinvented teddy with puffer detailing. almost all of the outerwear at prada, from shearling bombers to masculine single breast jackets with chain details, was supersized. patent leather: versace’s runway featured a slew of seriously shiny patent accessories for our client who isn’t afraid to go sexy. must have item: the mixed media paneled skirts at prada are undoubtedly fall 2022’s ultimate must have. these skirts are the perfect unexpected blend of sexy and ladylike, and best paired with one of the (equally covetable) prada logo singlets. budgets: we are feeling extremely optimistic about the continued rebound of the consumer and her various end uses, and approaching the season accordingly. buying process: we are so thrilled to be physically returning to market. it’s so exciting to see product in person once again from our european brands. riccardo tortato, head of buying departments and men’s fashion director, tsum, moscow and dlt, st. petersburg: favorite collections: gucci, jil sander, versace. i loved jil sander and i really think that the designers are creating a beautiful story around the brand. best presentation concept: brunello cucinelli. the garden has been transformed in a chic train station where modern elegant women are ready to depart for a beautiful trip. trendspotting: lingerie that can be used outside as a visible accessory of the look. must have item: jimmy choo pink and sparkling boots, santoni double buckle pumps. buying process: in person, like all previous seasons. general comment on the season: i was really happy to see an atmosphere that was similar to pre covid 19, in 2019. the city was full of energy and all brands showed off their best. tiffany hsu, vice president womenswear and kid’s wear fashion buying at mytheresa favorite collections: matthieu blazy’s first show for bottega veneta was amazing: exquisite tailoring, eclectic knitwear and ready to wear pieces made of the finest leathers. i loved all of it. prada showed a collection reminiscent of the label’s past while also showcasing many completely new pieces that will for sure be heavily featured on covers and in editorials. another name to mention is versace: the oversize satin topcoats from the men’s collection mixed in with low rise pants really stood out. miss sohee really caught my eye. the london based brand has quickly become a favorite favorite among a listers for its focus on craftsmanship and sustainability. trendspotting: there was a clear trend in milan toward very sexy, body con looks paired with platforms. also we saw a strong emphasis on the power shoulder. must have item: key items in milan were bottega veneta‘s thigh high boots, the feather trim jackets at prada and versace‘s platform boots. general comment on the season: the mood of the collections was very strong and positive. we saw statement silhouettes and skyscraper heels which created a really glamorous and powerful atmosphere for the season. joseph tang, fashion director at holt renfrew: favorite collections: matthieu blazy’s stellar debut collection for bottega veneta reinforced the codes of the italian luxury fashion house. his modern take on the traditional silhouettes, and the unique uses of leather, were standouts from the collection. once again, miuccia prada and raf simons showcased a superb prada collection with a new take on iconic prints, silhouettes and fabrications. their joint creative vision continues to be a fan favorite for our customers. jil sander’s take on couture shapes and precision tailoring brought back elegance and sophistication to what women will want to wear come fall. best presentation concept: the return of iconic models from prada’s past at this season’s show. trendspotting: there was no shortage of suits on the milan runways this season. versace, ambush, and dolce & gabbana all opened their collections with a strong shouldered suit   the structured shoulder is making its comeback once again. sleek and novel leathers dominated the collections from fendi, prada and gucci. whether it was a skirt, trench, or even a white tank and jean à la bottega veneta, investing in a leather is a must for fall! designers from fendi, versace and tod’s played with proportions mixing elements of soft femininity with oversize men’s inspired tailoring with an emphasis on the waist. must have item: any of the streetwear tailored suits from the adidas x gucci collaboration. the white prada tank top. a cashmere fendi baguette. the intrecciato thigh high boot from bottega veneta. jil sander cape paired with the mini flounce bouclé skirt. budgets: budgets remain flat for the fall season. buying process: it has been refreshing to be back in milan to see the collections after a long pause due to covid 19. our buyers will continue to operate on a blend of virtual and in person appointments, but we are extremely pleased to be able to see product in person again. general comment on the season: strength and resilience shined through the milan collections this season, with designers taking a pared back approach through their collections. we’re past the frivolity of what we anticipated we’d see with this decade’s roaring ‘20s. for the remainder of this fashion month, we continue to look to designers to showcase clothes that reflect hope and optimism. lisa aiken, fashion and lifestyle director, neiman marcus favorite collections: prada was an absolute standout. this collection was a perfect equilibrium between the vintage prada we love and the modernity that raf simons has championed. it reached this perfect sort of alchemy this season. for investment pieces, we can see everyone wanting to purchase the white tank top with the prada logo. and then for diehard prada aficionados, they will go for the beautiful, embellished skirt. we were excited to experience kimjones’ second show at fendi. the development of the logo on the bottom of the hobo bag is sure to become an instant cult piece. with matthieu’s debut at bottega veneta, it is clear that he is taking the momentum that the brand had with a new audience and elevating it with a more refined sensibility. there is now a broader appeal that leans more to an investment shopper than the shopper. we also really loved the quiet evolution of jil sander that is moving the customer forward and even encouraging her to embrace color. and of course, we loved to see versace’s presentation continue to be true to form   sexy, and powerful   it really made an impact. best presentation concept: we thought the opening statements at giorgio armani and the decision to present the show in silence in honor of ukraine was very moving, timely and respectful. trendspotting: the most overarching consumer trend is buying into a brand’s dna and lifestyle, which may be through a logo or a specific aesthetic. we’re seeing designers and consumers embracing the way in which italian brands are bold in their own categories. for instance, jil sander is bold in minimalism, versace is bold in color and pattern, and gucci is bold in their eclectic, artistic approach. we also noticed an emphasis on minimalism, whether that’s with color or silhouettes. must have item: we would definitely narrow it down to the over the knee boot from bottega veneta, the white tank from prada, and the logo hobo bag from fendi. buying process: we are on the ground, our teams are traveling again this season, and we will be in physical showrooms when possible. general comment on the season: this has been a week of real mixed emotions knowing what was going on in the world, but we were very happy with the collections we saw and seeing so many brands experiencing a “rebound” following the pandemic. heather gramston, head of womenswear at browns favorite collections: jil sander’s minimalist tailoring was a dream. best presentation concept: prada, who paid tribute to its casting archives by bringing back models who had walked its shows over 20 years ago. trendspotting: adidas x gucci   this collaboration will undoubtedly be everywhere. must have item: prada’s plaque logo fitted white tank. budgets: up   milan designers have always delivered in giving us an incredible offering of luxury. general comment on the season: we’re grateful to be experiencing international fashion weeks once again, but sadly the overall mood is a little somber, with our thoughts going out to our friends in ukraine and russia. there were plenty of options for daywear in milan and for wining and dining the night away, with lots of sparkle and sexy heels and handbags reflected italy’s leather goods expertise and highly crafted details. it’s time to get out of the house again, and footwear brands in milan presented plenty of options for daywear   cue practical platforms and comfortable boots   and for wining and dining in the evening, with lots of sparkle and sexy heels. handbags reflected italy’s leather goods expertise and highly crafted details. here, a roundup of a selection of accessories showing in milan. bulgari’s made in eden collection revisits the brand’s signature snake motif in the new serpentine pouch in a soft shape and a sinuous snake body metal top frame, inspired by the bold serpenti necklaces of the ‘60s. bulgari also presented the serpentine vertical tote bag in calf leather in a structured shape topped by a snake handle, contrasting the sharp and essential shape of the bag and the curves of the snake. for fall, italian brand rené caovilla focused on what it does best   its top selling, serpent inspired cleo heel. it updated the bejeweled, snake wrap shape with the margot, a high heeled sandal with curve detailing that wraps all the way around and down the heel. along with a double toe strap, the heels are outfitted with the same delicate swarovski crystal work as the cleo, and a pair of white sandals finished with clear crystal work is certain to be a hit with the bridal set. caovilla also expanded on the cleo, offering it in a series of sleek matte, metallic and snake print nudes and neutrals. with the january announcement of evangelie smyrniotaki as the new artistic director, fall 2022 is the first collection to include the designer’s take on heritage footwear brand sergio rossi. smyrniotaki’s ideas were showcased in a special capsule for the season, full of the revenge dressing party shoes everyone has their eye on for next fall. with full access to sergio rossi’s vast archives (which were fully updated in 2020 after a yearlong quest from ceo riccardo sciutto to complete them), the designer looked to past iterations, both for inspiration and actual creation. she chose sky high platforms, which she finished in black and fuchsia satin   the former with a crystal toe knot detailing,  plus a peep toe wedge, also finished in black satin and grounded in a smoky plexiglass heel. the shoes were outright sexy and exaggerated, but above all, the designer said she looked to their wearability. “they’re party shoes but they have to be walkable,” said smyrniotaki. after debuting the re candy   a recycled plastic re issue of its popular candy handbag   back in september, furla is continuing its line of eco friendly accessories with the launch of the bloom bag. the see now, buy now capsule, which takes the shape of the brand’s boxy and compact 1927 style, is made entirely in italy of a water resistant paper. it can also be broken down into a flat, pack friendly shape and comes with the same recycled pvc chain found on the re candy. the bloom capsule will also be joined by another eco friendly launch to come in april and reiterates furla’s eco iniatives through its furla progretto hub, a creativity and research space that allows for the development of new materials. for fall ’22, meanwhile, furla brought back archival prints in metallic flocking on shoulder bags, and it has also expanded on a series of nylon puffer style totes, charms and shoes, done in saturated pink, cobalt and emerald. the brand said it will be adding more footwear to the wholesale offering this season. gianvito rossi took a subdued approach for the season, focusing the majority of his collection on what shoppers will always want come fall: boots. he did them in buttery suede, on knee boots (his bestsellers) and also plenty of over the knees, in an array of heel shapes and heights to cater to any scenario. for those looking for a more party centric boot, a cotton candy suede studded version with delicate crystals had just the right amount of showmanship. rossi’s heel collection, meanwhile, showed both classic lines and attention to trending colors, proving that the grown up shoes can remain relevant even in the era of “euphoria” and y2k obsessions. “it’s about a subtle sparkle,” said rossi. the standout evening heel was a metallic red sandal with an ankle strap, square toe and gigantic hand cut crystal toe detail in an emerald shape, the ultimate less is more statement shoe for a blinged out season. inside a presentation room decked out entirely in pink with a series of m.c. escher like stairs decorating the displays and walls, jimmy choo creative director sandra choi put forth a collection that was equal parts practical and celebratory. “i believe she’s going somewhere,” said choi of the jimmy choo customer. to facilitate the journey back to work commutes and likely longer days of wearing heels, the designer added a thin rubber sole for traction on a series of office ready boots and pointed toe pumps with an ankle strap and higher vamp. on the other end of the spectrum, a crystal studded series of peep toe platforms, cutout strappy sandals and wedge over the knee boots are sure to satisfy the glitzy moment we are living through, and metal chain detailing on the ankles of simple black pumps were carried through from the brand’s recent mugler collaboration. throughout the collection, choi used pops of pink, which she calls “a new neutral”   the best of which was found in a strappy sandal that the designer brought back from her very first collection for the brand in 1997. at valextra, the fall collection reflected the ambitions of chief executive officer xavier rougeaux to add a younger and more approachable spin to the brand. he said his aim is to preserve the brand’s artisanal know how and milanese ethos, while expanding the offering to include entry price gifting items   cue sunglass cases in neon hues and micro versions of the signature iside top handle bag   and soften the handbag specialist’s minimalism with crafty inflections. the iside and other signature leather styles were peppered by hand sewn silk velvet squares in bright colors, or done in a tangram like face shaped patchwork pattern with an arty inflection. the tric trac bag was also highlighted as a functional crossbody. it has been 10 years since aquazzura blasted onto the footwear scene as purveyor of glamour and sex appeal with a “dolce vita” twist, and that philosophy continues to ring true for fall ‘22, with a high impact collection that was slightly more edited but no less dazzling. designer edgardo osorio is well versed in the statement jewelry shoe and this time around it came in a series of colorful heels in peridot and fuchsia that featured oversize emerald cut swarovski crystals imbedded into a stacked heel. “it’s using crystals, but in a more graphic way,” the designer said of the swarovski collaboration. there were also black and metallic heels with a cascading crystal ankle detail that mimicked vintage chandelier earrings and an expansion on his disco ball heel series. boots made up about half of the collection, done mostly in sleek suede and velvet, including a black velvet ankle and knee boot with crystal lacing all the way from the collar to the toe. il bisonte’s mission to highlight its craftsmanship and short supply chain, which relies on suppliers within 18 miles from its florence headquarters, translated into a fall collection hinging on ‘70s archival pieces slightly updated for modern day customers. while the heritage collection boasted a more rugged feel, fashion minded options included the camera bag, offered in a bio dyed version with a worn in effect and minimalist shape, and the rounded cross body with a flap closure named bia. this is the season of glitz, and no one knows it more than giuseppe zanotti. after a pre pandemic turn to a more minimal look, the italian designer is back to his crystal studded adventures, bringing back old styles, such as the inverted wedge heel outfitted in baguette shaped crystals. the designer also kept up his tradition of the dramatic platform by bringing the custom made bridal heel he created for ariana grande’s wedding to fall ‘22, converting it from white to black patent leather with a spray of crystals all along the mega platform. a series of over the knee boots were the stars of the show, blinged out but refined in an ombre crystal effect, done in both green blue and pink to burgundy purple palettes. the designer said he created the boot as a genderless style and will be offering it from 34 to 44; he’s even tried them himself. “a lot of men love to wear heels. why not? i design for humans, girls, boys, no gender,” he said. santoni‘s women’s collection continues to heat up for the brand, especially with a new crop of pumps ready for anyone who is ready to get back into them. the brand added its own twist to the traditional shape with hardware accents on the toe done in the shape of its well known monk strap panel. “it’s very iconic with the dna of the brand, but at the same time (it’s) very feminine,” said ceo giuseppe santoni of the shoe. there were other nods to the brand’s double buckle, especially on a series of strappy sandals that placed miniature buckles on strategically placed straps for a cutout effect. the collection also featured seasonal staples such as combat boots, which were done in navy leather and outlined in a chunky orange sole, and burnished heeled loafers and mules, also done in the brand’s navy and orange palette. a series of satin pumps in both fuchsia and orange kept the collection decidedly more feminine. sparkle and glitz is making its comeback for fall and so is the 66 year old florence based brand rodo, whose archives are full of vintage evening shoes and bags that provided key inspiration for the collection. that includes fluted heels   some wrapped in embossed leather for day, others decorated with crystals for night   and a metal mesh and pearl embellished drawstring bag   a highlight of the category within the collection. satin mules with art deco inspired crystal toe accents and matching shoulder bags and clutches rounded out the high powered evening lineup. elsewhere, the sellier and pescatora bags focused on minimalist curved lines, created in full matte and embossed leather styles using a mounted thermoforming technique. cesare casadei presented a collection that spanned more than a few categories, from comfort to disco and everything in between. for the former, there were clogs, double strap sandals and shearling lined boots, done with a substantial lug sole and outfitted in hand woven, spun wool uppers, filling a still needed demand for elevated, at home footwear. on the other end, there were updates to the blade (which just celebrated its 10th anniversary), delicate strappy crystal sandals inspired by tennis bracelets and a series of deep neckline stiletto pumps in nude lipstick hues, plus patent leather platforms with a definitive nod to both bondage and vintage nightclub culture. the in between was represented by the gogo, a mary jane style with a chunky rubber sole, inspired by the unisex shoes from casadei’s own childhood. “they were ugly when i was young,” he recalled. “every celebration, it was this shoe, always in blue, for every wedding, every ceremony. my mother said, ‘these are the shoes you need!’” hogan‘s “future stream” collection took a futuristic approach to the practical needs of fall and winter’s essential pieces: the coat, the boot and the sneaker. the coat came in a shiny puffer, done in silver and white but also in a standout emerald hue. the boots were a continuation of the haute hiker style that has reigned supreme throughout the past few seasons, done this time in a matte white. there was also a puffer boot done in the same metallic emerald color that gave a bit of futuristic sheen to the traditional cold weather style. bags featured oversize studs, soft puffed leather details and the brand’s logo on a shoulder style. and of the sneaker, hogan’s bread and butter, metallic uppers mingled with chunky white soles for a hybrid sneaker hiker look. the 94 year old leather goods label serapian focused much of its fall ‘22 collection on both compact and larger sizes of its secret top handle handbag silhouette, as well as its popular mosaic woven leather technique, using a soft palette of blues, burgundies and neutrals to create a collection rooted in geometric lines. it also included a subset of bags done in vegetable tanned leather with the aim of greater eco sustainability; the result was noticeably softer than other vegetable tanned lines (and a hallmark of the richemont owned brand). a smaller capsule, mestieri d’arte, featured one of a kind bags that leveled up the craftsmanship even further, with mosaico bags encrusted in crystals, feathers and sequins and a clutch with a heavy marble clasp. fratelli rossetti’s collection for fall was full of intricate details, such as velvet tasseled loafers with detailed floral embroidery (a technique the brand is eager to show more of), stretch knit booties decorated with the brand’s perforated fleur toe and the expansion of its heavy lug sole, this time done in a soft square toed loafer (also available in a men’s version). but the main attraction was a series of studded black leather boots, brogues and loafers. at first glance, the studs appear to be done in the typical tough metallic, but a closer look reveals they are made of tiny knots of leather done in a gunmetal metallic hue. the series included everything from the standard loafers and brogues to chunky soled combat boots, sleek pointed toe stretch ankle boots and a standout western style. for its fall collection hat maker borsalino took cue from the arte povera movement. the signature wide brimmed hat was drilled and enriched with felt remnants in contrasting colors hand sewn to the dome, while cloches featured arty brushstrokes. aiming to tap into a younger clientele and offer alternatives to the brand’s signature dapper style, hats came in striped woolen versions with the borsalino logo out and loud written on the dome. the majority of pollini‘s collection focused on an archive based array of shoes and bags, and much of its vintage inspiration was found in the gold hardware. designer natalia battaglini once again used two of the traditional pollini buckles from the late ‘50s combined with a central knurled roller to for an updated horsebit buckle shown on pebbled green loafer, while a series of pony hair penny loafers in sand, olive, red and black subbed the penny for a monogram coin, which was also found on a pair of riding boots. “the stylistic codes of pollini’s heritage are extremely important for me. at the same time, you have to satisfy the needs of today,” said battaglini. on handbags, the saddle shape was used on a top handle style as a front flap detailing. in a nod to both its heritage of craftsmanship and eco efforts, the brand also debuted a limited edition of its iconic riding boot, with an upper done in handwoven loom made of leather and wool scraps and threads, done in partnership with heritage fabric producer antica valserchio. borbonese’s creative directors matteo mena and dorian tarantini are expanding season after season the brand’s ready to wear offering, without losing track of its bestsellers: handbags. a late ‘60s club vibe ran through the fall collection which introduced the 011 line, its name drawn from the area code of turin, borbonese’s hometown, of satchel bags crafted from the signature op pattern with dangling charms. patchwork little trunk crossbody bags combining the op motif with patent leather and punctuated by tiny studs were the highlight. agl has come a long way from its ballerina flat beginnings, and for fall sisters sara, vera and marianna giusti continued to push the boundaries of contemporary footwear, suggesting that a little eccentricity   and a whole lot of platform   might just be what everyone wants to wear as they emerge from home. the collection included different levels of quirkiness in color, shape and detailing, from corset laced outlines on black and cream loafers and ankle boots, to over the knee animal print boots with a curved neutral platform, all the way up to a series of black and dark green leather boots with gigantic platforms made of textured rubber in both natural and lavender (and filled with air to keep the weight down). judging from the success of its chunky ridged platform boots for the current season, the giusti sisters just might be onto something. eco initiatives were top of mind for geox, showing a willingness to experiment with new sustainable practices at a time when many brands are putting it aside. upcycled materials of felt, nylon and rubber were part of a new iteration of the spherica line, a technology the brand debuted last year, which combines a breathable outsole to its zero shock system. “the spherica was a bestseller,” noted geox founder mario moretti polegato. “with this principle we created the same concept but with a different sole.” on the outerwear front, geox is adding to its repertoire an eco minded coat that combines two layers; the outer is made of a recycled wool that also incorporates sustainable bamboo fibers, while the inner layer is a recycled nylon material that provides a waterproof interior. the two layers are detachable, and intended to be separated not just when a waterproof layer is not needed but also as a means to separate materials for recycling when the coat is eventually ready to be discarded after wear, much in the way one separates plastic from glass when recycling at home. philippe model paris is venturing into ready to wear, presenting a capsule collection for its spring ‘22 season that will be available in march. the nearly 100 percent cotton garments are intended to reflect the color palette, natural materials, design lines and gender neutrality of its sneaker collection. relaxed trousers in cream and olive have deep pockets and a soft, draped look, while coordinating jackets are done in a denim trucker style with matte buttons and slightly angled chest pockets. striped shirts gave the collection a slight nautical touch and the collection is punctuated by the etienne, a new trainer done completely in white with a lightweight sole and rubberized details. milan based bag label themoirè has garnered increasing attention for its eco friendly and sleek accessories as well as its heightened research on innovative, vegan materials. for fall, the brand launched kore, a squared rendition of its aria bag, which is defined by a padded effect. aria, as well as the tethis sachet style, were also revisited in laminated versions, crafted from the piñatex textile derived from byproducts of ananas leaves. established in 2019 by salar bicheranloo and francesca monaco, the brand in the past already used fabrics made of apple waste and eco leather derived from nopal cactus, among others. martina grasselli’s coliac brand expanded its offering for fall. in addition to its distinctive piercing detail that adds a punkish touch to classic footwear styles, the brand has stepped into a more feminine territory with slingback options with kitten heels or geometric mules with squared, sculptured mid heels that add an artsy accent to a quotidian look. some flat options were rendered with a capitonnè technique reminiscent of the look of vintage sofas, in a nod to the time spent at home during the pandemic. for the first time, the brand also introduced the “ungendered” all black capsule collection, which included boots and derby styles marked by coliac’s signature piercing details. after its comeback in 2021, sonora is swiftly adding a more rock ‘n’ roll spin to the cowboy boots and western aesthetics of the brand since its establishment in the ‘80s. helmed by shoe expert maurizia lastilla, former director of international sales and merchandising at stuart weitzman, the brand aims to turn the boots into versatile pieces with a glam bent. for fall it added crystals framing the signature flame shaped stitching, heightened heels for nighttime occasions and offered high octane, thigh high latex versions. a new western boot shaped derby made for the everyday, easy piece with a flair. party attire returned at milan fashion week with feathery, sequined and flamboyant options for fall 2022. in a milan fashion season where power tailoring mingled with hyper feminine sensual dressing, some designers offered dazzling sequins, feathers, loud prints and rich looking fabrics for a more joyous return to dressing up. as pandemic restrictions are eased if not entirely lifted, in most international countries, fashion creatives are betting customers are ready for the after hours parties and cocktails of yore. over the past two years, genny’s creative director sara cavazza facchini tried to come up with more quotidian options, even decamping into activewear territory, but that was just not her style   she loves to add some sparkle here and sequin textures there. for her fall collection, she felt confident enough that her front rowers   local celebrities and international influencers   would be tapping into her loud fashion that she embraced it with gusto. down the catwalk she paraded a few show stopping looks   high slits, geometric bodices revealing the shoulders, allover colorful sequins, crystal mesh slipdresses. also daywear options, think tailored suits, would easily transition to nighttime when paired with crystal mesh cropped tops. “i’m expressing my femininity via a maximalist take on the ‘90s, even if daywear is there, i must admit i stepped on the gas with eveningwear options,” the designer said backstage. taking cue from a different era, gianluca capannolo’s fall collection had whiffs of old school elegance. he tempered his vintage looking caftans à la marta marzotto and other style icons of the late ‘60s when a listers would flock to the piper club in rome, via stunning geometric patterns, themselves developed by the designer who’s also a painter. they were accessorized with recycled marabou feather trimmed scarves and were flanked by flapper jumpsuits sprouting fringes that came across as fun and youthful party attire. two years of pandemic hasn’t undermined valentina nervi’s wish to party, either. the founder of the nervi brand presented another mood boosting collection mixing sequins, feathers and bold colors. in essential silhouettes, she focused on chromatic contrasts, as seen in a one shoulder minidress in mauve trimmed with light blue feathers or a longer option juxtaposing fuchsia with red. in more intricate gowns   sexier in their cutouts or revealing draping   she spiced things up with lurex fabrics or micro sequins. nervi also expanded her white offering, winking to brides to be. “we’re already doing well in that business with bachelorettes and wedding guests, so we thought it might be worth it to explore the bridal theme even more,” the designer said. be it a wedding or a simple soiree, her collection was an invitation to have fun. to be sure, all clothes came with a qr on the label redirecting to playlists curated by nervi for different moments, including those dubbed “party” and “after,” among others. music also marked the inaugural collection of aniye records, which creative director alessandra marchi unveiled with a runway show. as marchi’s goal is to enable women to dress as rock stars in their daily life, she designed a bold lineup encompassing gold tuxedos in oversize proportions, leather mini resses with a punkish attitude and gothic rock pieces mixing leather bodices with tulle ruffles for a dramatic effect. highlights included long gowns and mini frocks covered in sequins, that either created a checkered motif or came in combinations of gold, silver and black. des phemmes’ designer salvo rizza channeled a pop tinged and girly aesthetic for his fall collection, highly decorative and filled with minidresses covered in floral shaped embroideries and appliqués, tie dye frocks cut on the bias trimmed and dotted in crystals and rhinestone covered halter neck numbers. statement pieces were also included in ramzen’s fall collection, which was inspired by earthy elements. the brand’s founder and creative director abdul al romaizan worked with textures   juxtaposing leather, tulle and chiffon   and played with geometries in evening gowns rendered both in energizing tangerine hues as well as black and white combinations. for a modern take on occasion wear, al romaizan also included a youthful look that paired a crop blouse embellished with a sequined geometrical pattern with a long, billowing skirt with high slits on the front. from chb and alessandro vigilante to atxv and drome, younger brands offered different takes on the ubiquitous trend. from bourgeois to underground, the return of sensual dressing trickled down to the collection of younger names in milan. at chb, the brand helmed by designer christian boaro, sensuality was a subtle affair. for fall he consciously carried on the message of his previous collections, aiming for consistency rather than newness. his were bourgeois ladies covered in exquisite tailoring (a silk duchesse coat was a standout), with lingerie inspired lace tops peeking from underneath. slipdresses with a ‘90s feel in shimmering lilac silk and plunging v necks mingled with suit vest like tops leaving the back exposed, while crystal net frocks over lace spaghetti dresses were the most overtly revealing concoctions. men, too, joined the no gender play wearing faille capes over lace tank tops and matching gloves which also underpinned evening suits in iridescent silk. drome’s creative director marianna rosati channeled her love for niche music clubs which were hardly impacted by the venue closures during the pandemic. she imagined her sensual night owls mingling again in some underground basement ballrooms clad in leather outfits with a mistress y feel. leather corsets and garters were turned into statement tops worn over rib knit catsuits with crisscross details running down the front, while vinyl pencil skirts were zippered and three belted, exuding an s&m feel. cutouts exposing the collarbone and heart shaped bodices in leather or furry velvet were paired with straight cut sartorial pants crafted from pre loved fashion. corsetry was also strong in alessandro vigilante’s fall collection, inspired by jirí kylián’s “petit mort” ballet, its title referencing sexual ecstasy. cropped boleros outlined bra shapes worn over corseted pants, while vinyl bandeau tops, barely there and revealing the bosom were paired with ladylike pencil skirts. cutouts defined the front of short frocks and exposed the back of shapely knitwear pieces. atxv founder antonio tarantini continued his study of the human body, exploring new ways to enhance it without restraining it. in his sensual, genderless collection, he worked with jersey, twisting, torching and draping it in long tunics and dresses that revealed sensual cutouts and asymmetries. to counterpoint this effect, he cut narrow pants in different lengths from duchesse satin, as well as introduced denim, which was rendered also in unexpected hues, such as fire red. the result was a focused collection charged with subtle eroticism and evoking the ‘90s aesthetic. puffers were almost absent from the milan fall 2022 catwalks, but outerwear specialists bet that customers won’t give up on them. puffers were scarce on the milan catwalks, but outerwear specialists know that outside the fashion circuit, customers won’t give up on them anytime soon. trying to update the outerwear staple, brands embraced different routes: pop colors, captivating patchworks and high end materials, often sustainably sourced. herno showed its fall collection together with wall tapestries by artist pae white, emphasizing its chromatic inspiration. for the first time, the brand’s signature down jacket was offered printed with the archival monogram fabric. their oversize bomber in a checkered fabric and a black curly faux shearling coat were on trend. herno further invested in the research of materials, presenting outerwear in neoprene and techno satin, or in a 20 denier nylon with a double dye and an iridescent effect. for its lifestyle offering, performance driven brand canadian added more fashion zing with shimmering surfaces appearing on hooded jacket, high collared parkas and cropped puffers done in a strong color palette spanning from fuchsia to a brownish silver, as well as leopard print motifs in black or gray. an interesting seasonal addition to the brand’s signature styles, the vest came in a woven pattern that added an unexpected twist. similarly, alabama muse, the faux fur brand founded stylist and fashion editor alice gentilucci, delivered on bold colors. aquamarine, zingy orange and violet appeared on a range of edgy oversize coats crafted from recycled polyester fur supplied by mitsui & co.’s tissavel. inspired by the atmospheres of david lynch’s and quentin tarantino’s movies, the collection of retro tinged, voluminous styles was worn by women and men alike and topped with busbies. pop tinged hues and an irreverent aesthetic also resonated in the oof wear fall collection, which took a cue from the ‘80s (milan’s paninari came to mind) with flamboyant patchworks of materials, textures and patterns such as leopard patterned fake fur combined with fleece and nylon or anoraks with nylon backs and fake fur fronts, the latter bearing joyous florals. vinyl looking padded bomber jackets mingled with more subdued options, such as quilted capes and robe coats. contrasting textures were also on display at husky, which updated its signature quilted hunting jacket in more shapely iterations with suede collars, flap pockets and elbow patches. the entire collection was built on classics such as the parka embellished with floral embroideries at the back and the biker style quilted jacket in shiny nylon. at bacon, andrea pilato barrara managed to elevate outerwear via new renditions of its signature puffer styles. cue a ruby red long vest with shawled collar crafted from a high tech textile treated with marble dust for a velvety effect. anoraks and rain capes were cut on the bias and featured interesting color combinations of red and violet, while a new magnified houndstooth pattern was part of bacon’s 10+1 capsule crafted from high end textiles by colombo industrie tessili. budapest based brand cukovy, founded in 2014 and rebooted as an outerwear specialist during the pandemic, offered an answer to multifunctionality and layering needs by building its fall collection on detachable hoodies, puffer scarves and zippers to adapt outerwear to different weather condition and styling needs. while working a muted color palette of matte blacks, blues and grays, the brand added bright fuchsia and watermelon red iterations. authentic brands group expects its newest brand to hit $5 billion in global retail sales in 2023. the torch has officially been passed. after months of prep work with seemingly weekly announcements about the lining up of new brand partners, authentic brands group has finally completed its long awaited acquisition of the reebok brand from adidas. the 2.1 billion euro deal was first announced in august and marks the brand marketing company’s largest acquisition to date. “it’s the biggest deal we’ve done ever, times three or four,” said jamie salter, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of abg. reebok, which has $3.7 billion in retail revenue globally, is projected to grow to $5 billion next year after abg has a year of operating the business under its belt, and $10 billion within five years, salter predicted. “with the partners we’ve lined up, we’re fairly confident we should get there. and the sun, moon and stars don’t have to align perfectly for that to happen.” to get to those numbers, the go forward plan is simple, its management team stressed: let reebok be reebok, meaning that it will mine its heritage as a brand at the intersection of sports and style. “reebok is a brand that needs no introduction,” salter said. “the reebok team has done an incredible job of cementing reebok’s place in the minds and hearts of consumers. through abg’s operating model, reebok will have the ability to evolve and embrace its iconic creativity, quality and innovation. it’s time to let reebok be reebok.” over the past six months, abg has announced a slew of new licensing partners for the brand globally, ranging from its own sparc group   which will be the operating partner for reebok in the u.s. and oversee its boston based global brand hub, the reebok design group   to new guards group, the buzzy milan based division of farfetch ltd., that will be reebok’s core operator in europe and will collaborate with the brand to create luxury collaborations that will be sold in more than 50 countries. arguably the most important deal is the one with sparc, a joint venture between abg and simon property group, which also operates abg’s brooks brothers, eddie bauer, forever 21, aéropostale, lucky brand and nautica businesses. although abg is essentially a licensing company, matt o’toole, reebok’s president who now serves as president of rdg, said: “it’s not incredibly complicated. reebok in boston will create product and marketing for the world and all of the product sold is product we create centrally. but instead of being distributed by adidas subsidiaries, it will be distributed by best in class companies in the marketplace globally.” he said that in the past, the company would have to concentrate its limited resources on one particular geography or category, but by licensing the rights to others in the regions and product categories where they excel, it allows reebok to simply concentrate on delivering the best merchandise mix to all. other partners signed so far include foot locker u.s., which will expand its reebok assortment and offer exclusive product in america; jd group for its 2,850 stores and websites including finish line, jd and dtlr in north american and europe; tristate holdings for china, hong kong, macau and taiwan; al boom marine for the gcc, middle east and north africa; aditya birla fashion retail ltd. for india, bangladesh, bhutan, maldives, nepal and sri lanka; the falic group for latin america; accent group ltd. for australia and new zealand; mgs for israel; bounty apparel for southern and sub saharan africa, and distrinando for argentina. responding to criticism that abg is more focused on signing deals than creating product, salter said: “that’s not true. our business model is to sign best in class partners globally and not to miss a beat on day two when it comes to letting reebok be reebok.” salter said by adding reebok to abg’s portfolio, it proves that the corporation can take on any brand and build a network of partners to grow it globally. “we’re in all the important markets around the world now or on the one yard line line, like japan and [south] korea.” o’toole said all the recent deal making didn’t distract the reebok team from creating compelling product, saying: “there is a lot that had to happen in anticipation of abg’s ownership. but it was necessary to make sure we can now hit the ground running with our new operating partners.” salter has been open with his thoughts that adidas   which had owned the brand since 2006   always treated reebok as afterthought and that was overshadowed by its parent. “adidas did everything right,” he said. “they protected adidas, which is exactly what i would have done, but now, we can do everything for reebok. we can unleash it and bring it back to what it was 15 years ago when it was at the top of its game.” o’toole echoed what salter has said publicly about life under its former german parent. “adidas had to make decisions about which of its two sports brands to allocate resources to,” o’toole said. “and adidas won most of those competitions. if you’re an adidas shareholder, then you believe adidas made the right choices, but it wasn’t to the benefit of reebok.” but under abg, he said, reebok will represent the company’s sole premium sports brand and the focus will be solely on growing the business. o’toole said that despite the distractions of the impending sale, reebok actually managed to post its biggest year in 2021, thanks to a focus on “our icon strategy, which is built around the most recognizable models of our brand.” this was most successful in the u.s., europe and latin america, he added, and is a “good launching point” for future growth. “we had a really outstanding year in 2021, better than 2020, of course, but also significantly better than 2019 in terms of both the top and bottom line,” he said. “product has always been at the forefront of reebok, and we are committed to upholding the standard that our brand fans and consumers have come to expect. 2021 was a banner year for reebok, and in part that was a credit to our focus on the iconic silhouettes that immortalize the brand. under new ownership, we have an exciting opportunity to reclaim our place in the market and take reebok to even greater heights.” nick woodhouse, president and chief marketing officer of abg, weighed in: “reebok is one of the few super brands that has the permission to play in any space. its position at the intersection of fashion, sports and culture allows reebok to be elastic while staying true to its celebrated ethos and unmistakable dna.” among the innovations that reebok is credited with creating are the first spiked running shoe; the pump; the nano, and the floatride. todd krinsky, senior vice president and general manager of product for reebok, added: “we know this industry is based on strong icons and consumers go back to what they know and love.” for reebok, that breaks down into three segments: classic, training and running, he said, categories that represent 80 percent of the overall athletic footwear market, positioning reebok well for future growth. among the most popular items for reebok, he said, are the club c tennis inspired court silhouette sneaker that launched in the mid ’80s in the u.s. and europe, and the nano, one of the bestsellers in premium training. and this year, he said, reebok will relaunch its classic leather, a heritage jogger. krinsky believes reebok has been successful in its ability to straddle heritage and modernity. “there’s definitely a consumer who goes for an iconic look and for them we have our og offering,” krinsky said. “then there’s the consumer who likes nostalgia with a twist.” for the latter, he said reebok offers collaborations with popular partners who provide their distinct twist to its archival products and also tasks its internal design team to update models with a modern flair. with collaborative product, reebok has worked to “bring a little more scale” to the program, krinsky said. so instead of 50 small drops, the brand throws its muscle behind larger efforts such as the popular maison margiela partnership for reebok’s club c and classic leather models. the cardi b collection was also a standout, he said, as was the collaboration with streetwear brand awake. and the “jurassic park” collection was also a top seller for reebok in the pop culture space. “the most successful collaborations are with partners who buy into the reebok dna,” he said. krinsky said he’s “incredibly excited” about working with new guards on future collaborations that will help to “elevate the brand globally” and create “really high end, must have product.” he expects the first fruits on this newly inked relationship to be in the market in 2023, hopefully early in that year. but he said that no particular names have been decided on yet. “it could be from within their stable,” he said, “but we’re also talking about outside collaborators.” new guards owns off white, palm angels, heron preston and marcelo burlon. woodhouse said rather than finding an athlete or celebrity to put his or her name on a reebok sneaker   “there are very few names in the sneaker world that move the needle,” he said   abg is more likely to focus in on expanded distribution, web 3 and the metaverse in the future. “it’s the age old debate,” he said. “what is the roi on those names? there’s room for someone or something, but it would have to be transformative.” one of reebok’s former collaborators was kerby jean raymond, founder of pyer moss, who is exiting the brand on march 1 as its global creative director. the two started working together on a co branded footwear collection in 2016 and he was named vice president of creative direction for the company in 2020. days before his departure was announced, reebok also laid off 150 people at its boston headquarters, including several people on the design team. that has led to questions about how reebok will retain its identity under its new owners. salter said these cuts were made in anticipation of reebok being absorbed into the sparc business and he’s not expecting to make any other reductions in staff. woodhouse bristled at the idea that without jean raymond, the designs will have no direction. “reebok is hot, look at their sales and how they’re doing in the resale market at stockx and others. that’s a testament to the reebok product team. if we went in and changed the product direction, we’d be making a big mistake. so they need to keep doing what they’re doing and we’ll do what we do best, which is expose them to more eyeballs around the world.” and he pointed to the deal with new guards as a way to bring reebok to a whole other level. “it’s tip of the pyramid product that will give us access to customers we want access to.” o’toole said there’s no smoking gun about jean raymond’s departure whose contract expired at the end of february and was not renewed. “the backstory is the front story,” he said. “we have had an amazing relationship with kerby for four years, first with pyer moss and then as creative director.” he said he “directed three seasons” of product, some of which still has yet to hit sales floors, and jean raymond was among the first to identify the “richness and authenticity of our dna and focus on us being ourselves. that will be part of kerby’s legacy with reebok.” “beyond that, it was one of the most successful partners we’ve had, but both of us are headed in a new direction. we have a new business model and kerby’s star continues to rise. you know how it is in fashion: there’s a shelf life on things like this.” one collaborator that is expected to continue working with reebok in the future is victoria beckham, who signed a multiyear deal with the brand in 2017. her fall 2022 has already been completed, o’toole said, and the two are in discussions on future collaborations. it doesn’t hurt that her husband, david beckham, last week signed a deal with abg to co own and manage his brand. “so it’s all the family now,” he said with a laugh. and while it no longer works officially with crossfit   reebok cut ties with the company in 2020 after controversial tweets by its ceo surfaced   o’toole said several crossfit athletes are still on reebok’s roster and the brand is “looking for other fitness opportunities. it’s not just signing celebrities, but working with a cross section of people.” another change for reebok under abg is that sparc will now be operating its 400 reebok branded retail stores globally. “sparc is a retailer with more than 1,700 retail doors and abg contemplates them taking over our retail footprint,” o’toole said. reebok’s marketing will also reflect its new ethos. the company just launched “life is not a spectator sport” campaign for spring, a reboot of its original campaign from the ’80s, featuring a series of short films starring former basketball star allen iverson as well as a lineup of athletes and artists. o’toole said this is another “nod to letting reebok be reebok.” reebok’s head of marketing continues to be caroline machen, who joined the brand from ralph lauren five years ago and works with krinsky on brand messaging. for reebok, footwear still accounts for the lion’s share of the business, or two thirds of current sales, krinsky said, but the team believes apparel can play a larger role in the future. “we definitely see that share shifting,” he said, as lifestyle product makes more of an impact. womenswear is also expected to grow, they said. women’s accounts for 42 percent of sales but o’toole said the heritage of the brand has always been rooted in womenswear, starting with the aerobics craze of the 1980s and popularized by cybill shepherd wearing a pair of orange reebok high top sneakers to the 1985 emmy awards. “we’re not just putting a stake in the ground in 2022 saying we’re a women’s brand,” krinsky said. “our archive is skewed to the female consumer and there are rich stories we can amplify.” in addition, o’toole said it’s clear that women are the ones who are “really leading in setting apparel and footwear trends.” salter believes the number one growth area for reebok will be apparel, which “can use some work. at abg, we’re very strong on the apparel side, especially at sparc, our partners in the u.s.” but that’s not to take away from the footwear business, which he expects to continue to grow as well as the new distribution strategy helps get “more skus on the shelf.” reebok may also benefit from nike’s recent push to highlight its own direct to consumer efforts at the expense of some of its wholesale accounts, notably foot locker. “getting more skus on the wall will increase the business quite dramatically,” salter said. he also sees opportunities to add new categories and distribution. “reebok is sold all over the world, but it’s small in certain markets,” he said, mentioning australian and latin america as examples. “but with partners like we have now, they tend to excel more quickly. they have an entrepreneurial spirit and drive harder and faster.” woodhouse added that reebok’s classic products, while more commonplace in the u.s., are not available overseas. “there’s lots of value to unlock with our existing franchises,” he said. “we think there’s two to three years of runway.” and where does shaquille o’neal fit into the picture? the former basketball great is a partner at abg and was an ambassador with reebok in the ’90s when he signed a deal for several popular sneaker drops. woodhouse responded: “shaq will be very involved. he gives us advice daily.” and the deal with reebok will allow abg to continue to promote his shoes, which is “like paying ourselves now.” salter added: “shaq is very, very respected   there are some people who don’t even know he played basketball. he’s built a franchise and he’s a big giver. he’s very charitable and called me yesterday with an idea about doing something on the charity end with reebok.” as salter looked toward the future with reebok in the abg fold, he said there is no plan to move away from the strategy that has worked so well in the past and helped the company grow to a valuation of nearly $13 billion. “we’re pretty calculated in everything we do,” he said. “we’re going to go slow, figure out what’s right and what’s wrong   that’s how we built our business. today, 25 percent of abg is entertainment and 75 percent is lifestyle. combining entertainment and lifestyle has proven to really work.” the new brands are part of intermix’s designer re/mix. intermix has launched its spring campaign entitled “be bold,” featuring an updated assortment of new and noteworthy brands for the season. the campaign features model birgit kos, and was shot by photographer dan martinson. new brands that are part of intermix’s designer re/mix include paco rabanne, altuzarra runway, nue studio, tove, sid neigum, laquan smith, mach & mac, monot, et ochs, aleksandre akhalkatsishvili and bevza, among others. intermix’s spring campaign brings female empowerment to life in a way that connects directly to fashion. it highlights the pieces from the new season that best represent boldness in style. “be bold” encourages women to be bold in their choices, to express their uniqueness and to be confident in every context, but especially in what they wear. the campaign will appear on intermix’s site, email and social media. “empowering women to be bold is at the cornerstone of our brand,” said paula knight, vice president of marketing and creative. “so much of what intermix believes in is self expression, and we’re continuing to embrace that to push our creative in a more modern yet elevated way. as an extension of our campaign, we enlisted women that captured the essence of be bold, such as zanna roberts rassi, cofounder of milk makeup; artist zoe buckman; felita harris, chief strategy [and revenue] officer of harlem’s fashion row; marina larroudé, cofounder and chief creative officer of larroudé; babba rivera, founder and chief executive officer [of clean hair care line ceremonia], and more. as a female led brand, we always use our platform to inspire our community of women to live their lives boldly.” divya mathur, chief merchant at intermix, added, “at intermix, we are always looking for unique pieces from new and exciting designers that our clients can’t find anywhere else. our designer re/mix brands were especially curated for their fresh feel within the luxury market, entryway price point to high runway, and appeal to our younger customer. we’re thrilled to be supporting such an emerging, diverse group of designers for the spring 2022 season, which is an important part of our business model and will continue to be so.” intermix has 31 stores with hyper localized assortments across the country in addition to their e commerce channel. for more stories: intermix is latest retailer to partner with nuorder intermix teams up with cotton inc. for cotton vacation collection intermix launches exclusive staud collaboration capsule the selection includes bridal gowns, cocktail dresses and elevated party looks. eloquii, the fashion destination for sizes 14 to 28, will introduce bridal by eloquii this summer, a new brand and category that offers everything for the bride. the collection includes an array of special pieces for all of the occasions related to the bride’s wedding, from the the bridal shower and bachelorette party to the wedding day. according to eloquii, the collection features a curated assortment of more than 50 styles and accessories, including bridal gowns, cocktail dresses, white suiting and elevated party looks. styles include statement gowns, slipdresses, jumpsuits, soft silk ensembles and voluminous sleeved looks. separates start at $49, with dresses starting at $89. everything is less than $900. the color palette ranges from shades of white to creamy blush tones and hints of soft pastels. materials include lace, tulle, satin, sequins and embellished fabrics. the collection will be available exclusively at eloquii’s e commerce and the landing page goes live feb. 28. mariah chase, chief executive officer of eloquii, said, “we know our customers have been coming to eloquii for their wedding looks for several years. they know and trust our amazing fit, fashion forward designs, quality, expertise in dresses and attention to detail. it became a natural progression for us to officially enter the bridal market.” she noted that in their focus groups with eloquii customers, they told them that they needed an entire wedding wardrobe   looks for everything from engagement photos to bridal showers to the wedding day itself, and everything in between. “there is a tremendous opportunity in bridal apparel and we are well positioned for this category expansion,” said chase. for more stories: eloquii, the curvy fashionista disclose winners of the cultivate award walmart rolls out eloquii elements in sizes 14 to 28 christian siriano is back into bridal the initiative is the retailer’s latest efforts to become “the world’s biggest and best advocate for women.” victoria’s secret’s latest transformation efforts are powered by $7 million. on its continued mission to be “the world’s biggest and best advocate for women,” the lingerie and beauty company revealed plans on monday to donate seven figures to various female founded and  led businesses in order to help them gain capital and scale. venture capital firm amplifyher ventures will select the female entrepreneurs. “as a company whose associate base is nearly 90 percent women, ensuring that women are represented and supported in their careers is extremely important to us,” said martin waters, chief executive officer of victoria’s secret & co. “we’re proud to make this investment in women with amplifyher ventures and help address the critical gender funding gap. with amplifyher, we are championing women entrepreneurs who are already leading the way and also supporting them in paving the way for the next generation of women founders.” in a press release, the retailer acknowledged the gender gap in venture capital funding for female founded and run startups. citing data from crunchbase, just 2.8 percent of funding went to women led businesses and entrepreneurs in 2019. the numbers fell to 2.3 percent the following year. for women of color, the opportunities are even fewer. (last year, fortune reported that black women receive just 0.27 percent of all venture dollars in the u.s.) the numbers might come as a surprise to some, considering the rising number of women in the workforce (currently about 50 percent of females over the age of 16, according to the u.s. bureau of labor statistics) and high number of females with college degrees (women accounted for about 60 percent of all college degrees during the 2020 to 2021 academic year, according to a 2021 report by national student clearinghouse research center). there’s also the added benefits of having women in the workplace, both as colleagues and as leaders. “data shows that women led companies are more likely to be successful   they deliver higher revenue at more than twice the rate of their male counterparts per dollar invested and they feed the ‘representation funnel’   filling their staffs with two and a half times more women,” victoria’s secret said. “in addition, companies with a woman founder and a woman executive hire six times more women than male led companies.” victoria’s secret   parent company to the victoria’s secret lingerie, beauty and pink brands   has been deep in transformation mode since 2018, a year after revenues began declining, thanks to changing consumer preferences and the #metoo movement, which sparked backlash over victoria’s secret’s unattainable beauty standards. last august, the retailer separated from bath & body works (then l brands) to become its own company on the public market. since then, the company has hired plus size and transgender models, including emira d’spain, the first black transgender woman to rep victoria’s secret lingerie, sofía jirau, the lingerie brand’s first model with down syndrome, and plus size tiktok star remi bader at pink; updated its c suite and board (which now contains six women out of seven members); optimized its retail fleet by closing unprofitable locations for more lucrative markets, such as india and israel, and unveiling new store formats; and updated the assortment with the addition of things like mastectomy and maternity bras. victoria’s secret also launched the vs collective in summer 2021. the initiative includes a group of women from diverse backgrounds   such as eileen gu, megan rapinoe, priyanka chopra jonas, bella hadid, paloma elsesser, valentina sampaio, hailey bieber and tennis champion naomi osaka, among others   who will share their stories by way of collaborations, partnerships and social media. “we’re moving from sexy for a few to sexy for all,” waters has said. “we’re moving from a look to a feeling. it’s about including most women rather than excluding most women and being grounded in real life rather than mostly unattainable. and it does reflect a very significant turnaround from where we’ve been, where we’re moving from what men want to what women want.” on monday, victoria’s secret added that it is also addressing the gap on its own platform by making a commitment to partner with more women founded and women led intimates and swimwear brands. currently, brands such as for love and lemons, bluebella, frankies bikinis, mindd and black female founded swimwear brand bfyne, among others, are available at victoria’s secret’s e commerce and in select stores. “[victoria’s secret] is opening to partnering with new brands that may fill a void in their assortment,” todd mick, executive director of fashion apparel at market research firm npd group, said during a presentation the curvo trade show in new york city, also on monday. “and their numbers are improving. and part of that turnaround story is their change in visual communication.” last quarter, victoria’s secret logged $75 million in profits, thanks to $1.4 billion in total company revenues. meanwhile, amplifyher ventures has invested in a variety of home, beverage, beauty, lifestyle, apparel and swimwear brands. “we look forward to partnering with victoria’s secret in supporting women innovators,” said tricia black, partner and founder at amplifyher ventures. “amplifyher arms outstanding women with the resources and capital needed to build their own c suites, and victoria’s secret is authentically aligned with this vision.” meghan cross, partner, a partner at amplifyher ventures, added: “we admire how victoria’s secret is fostering community to become a leading advocate for women. at amplifyher, we work closely with our portfolio of under represented founders who have a unique ability to deliver outsized returns through network driven flywheel effects of growth. we sincerely look forward to victoria’s secret playing a role in our community.” victoria’s secret will report quarterly earnings on wednesday, after the market closes. the era of long form tiktok begins. short video platform tiktok needs a new description, as the company moved past its most distinguishing trait with new support for 10 minute videos on monday. as alerts began popping up on handsets, the developer confirmed to wwd that it has indeed begun rolling out the global update for its mobile app and website. “we’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the tiktok experience. last year, we introduced longer videos, giving our community more time to create and be entertained on tiktok,” a spokesperson explained in a statement provided to wwd. the update in july 2021 bumped up the maximum length from one minute to three minutes. “today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.” ironically, tiktok’s pursuit of longer formats comes as social media platforms try to replicate the rival’s popularity with short videos, with snapchat, youtube and facebook’s meta developing their own offerings. the latter, reels, just globally launched last week. but monday’s effort looks more like a direct strike at youtube, which caps length at 15 minutes, at least by default. (verified google accounts, however, can post epic videos spanning 12 hours.) taking on youtube looks like a david and goliath scenario. the post trump era saw a meteoric rise for tiktok, with a whopping 142 percent growth in 2021 revenue on a year over year basis, according to an analysis by business of apps. it pegged annual revenue for last year at $4.6 billion, which is impressive, but still just a fraction of google’s video business. the haul for youtube’s ad revenue amounted to $8.6 billion in the fourth quarter alone, a jump of 25 percent, and $28.8 billion for the full year. sundar pichai, chief executive officer of youtube’s parent company alphabet, sees shopping as a critical path forward, as do other social media competitors, including tiktok. but having google’s massive infrastructure to back up the vision looks like a competitive advantage, as he pointed out in a february earnings call. “[a]cross both search, youtube and other areas, there’s a lot of common infrastructure that’s getting done, right? so this is focused on merchants, onboarding merchants and all the back end so that we can have the broadest and the most comprehensive inventory available,” he said. “and there, our partnership with other e commerce platforms is a basic foundational layer we are putting in. and specifically on youtube, while pretty early, there’s a lot of pilots underway.” he noted a partnership with snapchat for a quick tap to snap feature. meanwhile, another youtube experiment is already showing results. its tiktok clone, youtube shorts, has already broken 5 trillion all time views and caters to more than 15 billion daily views globally, the company said. tiktok may have felt that it had no other choice but to expand formats, as tech juggernauts move into its territory. it’s also logical to believe that longer videos can extend people’s time in the network or even attract new types of viewers. but switching up the formula, without alienating existing its userbase, looks like a major gamble. users are accustomed to seeing a constant barrage of clips whiz by, as algorithms endlessly funnel things of interest to them. even if the algorithms work the same way with 10 minute videos   which is not at all clear   how and where the vids show up will be crucial. disjointed attempts to cram in long content or interrupt the ebb and flow of fast paced feeds could prove disastrous. in other words, for a community built by lip sync battles and dance challenges, rhythm matters. if it proves popular, the format offers more room to craft nuanced content, which may be good news for creative brands like off white c/o virgil abloh. on monday, the design house debuted the first multi camera live tiktok broadcast for paris fashion week in its spaceship earth: an “imaginary experience” presentation. the repercussions would go far beyond business implications as well. consider social media users in conflict zones posting on the ground accounts. it’s hard to miss the timing of this rollout, as it follows waves of tiktok posts depicting russian military escalation in ukraine over the last several days. the clips appear to have triggered urgency in the west’s response to the invasion, with some analysts calling it the “tiktok war.” unencumbered by brief time limitations now, such reports could offer even more context. the u.n.’s latest climate report surveys losses due to climate change but highlights bright spots (like indigenous leadership) across regions. on monday, the u.n.’s intergovernmental panel on climate change, working group ii, released its latest report assessing the damages of climate change. in a press conference, the u.n. secretary general antónio guterres summarized how climate adaptation saves lives. “as climate impacts worsen   and they will   scaling up investments will be essential for survival….delay means death.” the stark reality is far too little is invested into adapting to climate change. the report covers a broad swath of information   including the importance of safeguarding biodiversity, which fashion has jumped on the bandwagon to support), planning climate resilient cities and communities, forging inclusive partnerships, strengthening climate policy and funding climate resilient development   that varies by region and sector. the report builds upon decades of work and trails an august report decrying the need for net zero emissions. another report is anticipated in late march or early april. for the first time ever, the report consecutively outlines the integration of indigenous leadership as a positive and necessary step toward climate adaptation. colonialism is also addressed. “this is the first time that [colonialism] has been explicitly called out in the summary for policymakers,” said dr. sherilee harper, report author and associate professor at the school of public health at the university of alberta in a press conference sunday. alongside climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, the report outlines losses and damages to climate change where the most vulnerable populations   a marked 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people   are already suffering disproportionately. even if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees celsius, as urgently demanded, human life, safety and livelihoods in low lying coastal areas will be placed at risk from sea level rise and coastal erosion. for north america, that means the increasing volatility of severe storms and hurricanes. other barriers include misinformation, politicalization of climate change and the lack of acknowledgement for indigenous populations. lack of private sector and citizen engagement were cited among the barriers in europe and north america. “one of many simple examples is that all large cities in the u.s. need heat action plans. doing so requires change in how federal agencies facilitate coordination, education about the risks of heat and of how to develop early warning systems, engagement with trusted voices for marginalized communities, building overall capacity, among others. that can be more complex than deploying a new technology,” said u.s. based dr. kris ebi, a report author and professor, department of global health at the university of washington. climate change is taking a toll on human health, too, with the prevalence of vector borne and water borne diseases, undernutrition, mental disorders and allergic diseases on the rise in many regions, including asia. for many regions, the losses are much more tangible. in 2019 alone, 9.6 million people were displaced in south east and east asia (top garment producing regions), due to cyclones, floods and typhoons. small islands present the most urgent need for investment in capacity building and climate adaptation strategies but face the steepest barriers. entire livelihoods are at stake in the caribbean sea and southern tropical pacific, where coral reef systems fuel economies and life. under the worst case scenario   of a 2 degree celsius planet and higher   99 percent of corals are lost, per the projections. meanwhile, steep financing gaps also plague ecosystems in central and south america   home to the andes, the amazon forest (one of the largest biodiversity and carbon repositories) and other regions that are already vulnerable to climatic related migration and population displacement, severe weather including droughts and the like. while countries in africa are among the least offenders for rising greenhouse gas emissions, their sectors are also among the most constrained by lack of financing and equitable development. in this case, the report calls for public and private sectors to increase funding by billions of dollars per year. multilateral funds, stronger project pipeline development and finances focused on grassroots project implementation would help realize “transformative” adaptation. speaking to the multifaceted need to prioritize climate change amid today’s world issues, report author dr. edwin castellanos, who is based in guatemala, said: “we will always have emergencies at hand that seem to be more urgent than climate change….governments in developing countries always have to wrestle with immediate lack of resources that need to be taken care of. and that sometimes makes one think, ‘well should we worry about the future if we have so many problems nowadays?’ “the problem with that thinking is if we don’t worry about problems of climate change   which are not only the future but are also current   then it’s going to be more difficult and more expensive to address those issues in the future….so yes, even though we have many current needs   the pandemic, a lack of resources, poverty   we need to start addressing these problems of climate change. not only mitigation but also adaptation,” he said. the start up seeks to reduce the “friction” consumers experience in the consignment and resale market. reupp is a start up with a different take on sustainability and the resale market. launched in august 2021, reupp’s software technology enables customers to see what they can sell an item back for   before they first purchase it. “there is just so much friction in the consignment business as it currently stands, but 79 percent of americans who haven’t sold something are willing to,” said lauryn vaughn, founder and chief executive of reupp, citing thred up research. vaughn said she created reupp “to change consumer behavior from consumption to thoughtful purchasing by getting shoppers to think about the resale value at the time of first purchase and knowing they can give it a second home if they decide down the road.” “historically, if people decide to resell, it’s a chore, with a financial incentive that might or might not be worth the effort, plus they have to wait until their item sells   if it sells   for them to cash in,” said vaughn, who also founded the revente, canada’s largest online luxury reseller. “reupp provides a guaranteed sell back price before they’ve even purchased.” reupp is live on luxury brand smythe, but vaughn said there’s about 15 brands “in our sales funnel we are looking to launch this year.” she also said reupp’s technology is being licensed to other resellers in the luxury and furniture space, including luxe du jour, a canadian online luxury boutique for shopping, as well as consignments, rentals, and restoring handbags. sonya weisberg, smythe’s head of marketing and e commerce, said reupp’s technology adds “a level of sustainability to smythe…while our pieces are designed to last a lifetime, a lifetime is a long time, so we can now facilitate those pieces finding a second home.” by partnering with a brand, reupp knows when something is purchased new. reupp generally allows for a buyback within 12 months of the original purchase, though vaughn said with less seasonal luxury products, a longer period could be considered, up to 18 months. if someone wants to send back an item after the term expires, reupp will connect the shopper with a resale partner, but can no longer guarantee the buy back rate. reupp handles the “reverse logistics,” meaning it provides the packaging and the shipping label and pays for shipping items to its offices, which are in austin, texas, and calgary, canada. “we receive it. we confirm it. we authenticate it, and check it to see that there is no significant damage,” said vaughn. then reupp pays the customers, and manages the resale, listing the items on marketplaces such as poshmark or ebay. in last year’s pre seed round of funding reupp raised $750,000, including investments from the51, a female focused fund; jonathan greller, president of digital ventures at marquee brands; ken pilot, former gap, ralph lauren and j. crew executive who invests in technology supporting brands and retailers, and tom williams, an angel investor who manages venture capital funds. reupp is seeking to close on additional funding in the first quarter of this year. according to vaughn, reupp incentivizes the initial purchase since customers know they can get some money back from it, and can build customer loyalty to the brand. “it helps take away any post purchase guilt,” said vaughn. “customers know they can love a piece and then it can have a second, third or even fourth life.” as secondhand shopping sheds its once scorned skin and emerges in the country as a chic and sustainable alternative, portèlo is providing the platform. mexico is getting into the resale game. as secondhand shopping sheds its once scorned skin and emerges in the country as a chic and sustainable alternative, portèlo is providing the platform. the women owned luxury resale site that operates similarly to a vestiaire collective, launched pre pandemic in 2019 when it was “still culturally taboo to buy secondhand,” portèlo co founder and chief executive officer balbina garza lópez, told wwd. but in the last year, the platform’s monthly active users have gone from 5,000 to 70,000   a 1,300 percent increase, and with reach across all of mexico’s 32 states. “we knew we were onto something,” garza lópez said, referring to herself and co founder jimena ruiz. “we were seeing the tremendous international success for secondhand fashion.” in fact, the secondhand market, according to resale platform thredup’s 2021 resale report, is growing at a rate 11 times faster than traditional resale and expected to climb from a $36 billion valuation in 2021 to $77 billion by 2025. and if portèlo’s growth is any indication, the market opportunity for resale in mexico could be similarly ripe. not holding any inventory for consignment, portèlo allows users to buy and sell from their homes, with goods being exchanged via a quality and authentication checkpoint in monterrey, and more locations are slated to open this year. there are other players in mexico’s resale market, but none quite comparable, according to garza lópez. salechopchop is “100 percent consignment” and gotrendier is “100 percent marketplace,” so no included authentication, she explained. “from your own home you post the listing of the product you want to sell and then once a buyer acquires it, you get a prepaid shipping label. you just print it, drop it off at whatever shipping company and it arrives at our physical quality checkpoint on the next day, sometimes on the same day…we try to send out products on the same day, but it’s a maximum of three working days,” garza lópez said. “once the buyer receives the product, they have 24 hours to open a dispute in case they need to…and once those 24 hours are passed the money is available for the seller to receive.” the aim is to be quick, letting buyers and sellers trade fashion with ease and get paid out much faster than most platforms provide. ratings keep the marketplace in check and portèlo charges between 20 and 30 percent, depending on the value of the goods on sale. “anything over $1,000, we charge 20 percent. we try to make our commissions as attractive as they can be,” garza lópez said. “our sellers spend absolutely zero money on anything. they can send their products in an old shoebox   the idea is to reuse whatever you can, whatever you want   you won’t spend a cent, you will only receive your 80 to 70 percent payment at the end of the whole transaction and it’s intact, there’s no hidden fees.” portèlo authenticates its goods in the monterrey location, too, using a mix of available market technologies and the team’s own diligent research. “it is definitely something at the center of our process,” garza lópez said. “we’re developing an internal manual for authentication from just all the things we’re collecting and we are looking into further on sharing that with the public, too, because again, we want to help each other have more information on this.” so far, portèlo has proven its concept in mexico, though funding hasn’t been an easy road for the two female founders. “we bootstrapped, me and my co founder [were self funded at the outset], we were profitable from the first month and up until the first 12 months because of this obsession of cutting costs and keeping it lean and just proving that we can be profitable,” garza lópez said. “after the first 12 months of operation we did invite angel investors and they’re still with us now.” but to find those investors, portèlo had to kiss a lot of toads. “from the beginning we just knew it would be harder for people to trust two young women that were starting this company that was really ambitious but at the same time was focused in the fashion industry. that’s something that men in mexico wouldn’t particularly feel so respectful of in a professional sense,” garza lópez said. “when we head to investors and we’re like, we have a start up and they’re like, ‘ok.’ it’s about technology, ‘ok,’ logistics, ‘ok,’…and secondhand fashion. and they’re like, ‘ok, cute little girls.’ “and then it will become this conversation of, ‘oh, so you have a shop, so it’s fashion? well, we don’t really invest in fashion. it becomes a really small minded world of investors in this country.” what’s more, women in business still face gender specific discrimination. and on this first day of women’s history month, it’s worth shedding some light on issues women have, and continue to face. “whenever i go to an investor, when [it’s] a man at least, they will ask you what are your plans on getting married, even why are you not married,” garza lópez said. “but that is so normal here, we get that i would say nine out of 10 times we speak to men.” still, portèlo has found two key backers   one male and one female (“we do want to have more women in our cap table. we do want to have more women investors because this is so important to us, really opening the door for more women,” garza lópez said)   who have supported the business since the outset. the first round of funding recently helped the co founders launch porta, the company’s second marketplace that embraces brands beyond luxury, including fast fashion. with portèlo and porta, it’s a bit like a vestaire and poshmark existing as two parts of the same business. it took garza lópez and ruiz just three weeks to get porta up and running. “we just replicated so much of our programming and processes and that was important for us because we were always trying to prove that this is a scalable business, that we can replicate so much of our business and our business model. and this what a lot of mexican business investors have [asked], ‘but how is fashion scalable? how can it be exponential?’” garza lópez said. “it was important for us to prove that we can do this in less than three weeks and launch an entire platform in this amount of time. we were like, ‘if this is not scalable, what is scalable?’” now, having proven the model’s concept out, portèlo is wrapping a pre seed funding round and heading on to the next level. “we’re preparing for the seed round asap,” garza lópez said. “that should be closed before the end of this year and we are focusing on expansion of markets.” for now, portèlo is only shipping goods to addresses within mexico from its portelo.shop website, but the aim is first to expand to markets across latin america and then ultimately, the u.s. so far, for garza lópez, the best parts of the journey have been the give back rather than the gain. on the sustainability side, one moment in particular stands out. “one of my favorite top highlights [was] when a buyer from our platform…sold something and the product they sold came back in the same box that they had actually bought something in,” she said. “we are trying to make a full circle and the fact that customers are doing that naturally…  we hadn’t even started campaigns of reuse your boxes  …so that was a nice moment for me feeling connected to the customers.” on the social impact side, the boon has been allowing fundación portèlo, the company’s charitable arm, to connect consumers with people in need thanks to a simple button on the shopping platform. “as a seller, once you sell a product you have the option to not cash in that money for yourself but donate your earnings,” garza lópez said. already, portèlo is working with patient support association cruz rosa and alternativas pacificas, an organization supporting women who have been victims of domestic violence. “it’s great because it is a full circle. you sell a handbag and then what for you was something forgotten in your closet can for someone else be their meal or part of their education,” garza lópez said. “and that’s pretty crazy to me, to think how different we can all live.” there are 7.5 million children in ukraine being impacted by the crisis, according to unicef. as fighting intensified on the fifth day of the russian invasion of ukraine and 500,000 people have fled the country, some fashion companies and major retailers are pitching in to support and protect their employees, and those impacted by the crisis. while the european union countries and canada are looking to seal off their air space to russian planes, the closure of air space in ukraine has added another level of logistics for relief organizations and donors that are trying to deliver goods to victims in ukraine. the jewelry company pandora has donated $1 million to help unicef’s efforts to provide basic services, including water, sanitation, immunization, health care, schooling, emergency cash and psychological support for up to 7.5 million children in ukraine, according to a unicef spokeswoman. the humanitarian organization has estimated that $66.4 million is needed to help children in the country. the copenhagen headquartered jewelry company has been a close ally of unicef denmark since 2019, offering support to children internationally. pandora chief executive officer alexander lacik said in a statement that children in ukraine need shelter, water, food, medicine, safe zones and other support “to live through this crisis. unicef’s work is critical and desperately needed.” while ukrainian officials have called for a cease fire   thus far unsuccessfully   and circumstances are changing by the minute, executives at the ukrainian public relations agency gogola have been circulating a document that is continually being updated with facts about the situation in ukraine and flagging misinformation and propaganda. with the majority of its clients and team based in kyiv, gogola’s jasmine hirtz said monday, “as of now, everyone is safe, hiding and sheltering from constant misdialed, bombing and heavy artillery attacks.” representing such labels as the body positivity lingerie label zhilyova and the sustainability focused ttswtrs brand, she said, “peace is our biggest virtue. the world has never seen unity like what the entire country of ukraine is showing now.” through its foundation, the fashion group international is coordinating a help ukraine fund with philanthropic distribution partner delivering good. “the funds will be allocated to meet the immediate needs of the ukrainian people,” a company spokeswoman said. skinny girl founder and former ”real housewives of new york city” star bethenny frankel recently pledged $10 million in aid to ukraine residents through her disaster relief initiative bstrong. her efforts are focused on women and children who have fled to the border of poland. other high profile celebrities like sean penn are drawing attention to the crisis in different ways. the actor is in ukraine filming a documentary about the russian invasion and has called on the u.s. for more help with the crisis. giorgio armani staged his milan runway show without music as a sign of solidarity. at sunday’s screen actors guild awards, some like lady gaga spoke out on the red carpet in support of ukraine and others like tyler perry sported a blue and yellow ribbon   the colors of ukraine’s flag. after first removing the logo of longtime sponsor gazprom from its team jerseys following the onset of the invasion, the 2 bundesliga soccer club has ended its multimillion dollar deal with gazprom early. having been banned from international soccer, russia won’t compete in the world cup. the polish retail chain lpp has closed all of its 157 stores in ukraine and the company has suspended shipments to the country. with more than 2,000 stores worldwide, lpp has also canceled its development plans in the country at this point, according to a company spokesperson. the retailer has relocated its administrative office from kyiv to lviv, in order to manage operations of its ukrainian business from there. ”employees’ safety is our priority. the situation is extremely dynamic so we are closely following the reports from across the eastern border and are reacting on an ongoing basis,” the lpp spokesperson said. for the time being, the company’s main focus is helping ukraine and its employees there and their families. providing transportation to the border of poland, securing safe accommodations in poland, and offering financial, psychological and legal support for all of those in need are some of the ways lpp is pitching in. in addition, the lpp foundation is working with social partners and organizations to prepare a wider support system, the spokesperson said. puma also wasted no time in supporting its 380 employees in ukraine and in the surrounding region last week. the athletic juggernaut’s “immediate priority” is to ensure their health and safety, a company spokesman said. local management has been given the tools “to react to this extraordinary situation as well as possible,” he said. puma’s efforts include setting up housing options for employees in western ukraine and in poland, and financial support. last year, puma russia and ukraine accounted for less than 5 percent of the company’s revenues, the spokesman said. puma employs 16,100 people worldwide. while some retailers, brands and designers continue to assess the situation in ukraine and consider if and how they might help, the u.s. ukraine foundation was still seeking more support from airlines or aircraft companies to deliver medical supplies to poland and other neighboring countries that would then be trucked into ukraine. the organization started “ukraine airlift,” a program to help deliver medical supplies   such as wound care items, surgical equipment and biomedical supplies   to all areas of the country last week. poland’s other leading retailer, ccc, has also reportedly suspended operations in ukraine. executives at the company did not respond to a media request. “to ensure the health and safety of its teams and customers,” mango temporarily closed all of its 14 stores in ukraine, as well as its online shop there, on feb. 24, according to a company spokesperson. in constant and direct contact with the retailer’s teams and local partners there, mango is monitoring the international geopolitical situation. “we have offered to our teams all of the support and assistance for whatever they may need,” a company spokesperson said. the washington, d.c. based usuf is working with the afya foundation, which salvages unused medical supplies that would have otherwise been bound for landfills. afya “disaster response hub” is preparing the medical supplies and is coordinating with other organizations and government agencies. the efforts are being funded by monetary donations. afya has shipped $39 million worth of unused medical equipment to 79 countries since 2008. having attended the kyiv art and fashion days festival in october, new york based fashion designer keanan duffty is trying to create an opportunity for kyiv designers to show during new york fashion week in september. in touch with the festival’s founder sofia tchkonia, who is “on the ground in the region and knows the needs of the realities of each designer’s access to their ateliers, showrooms and collections,” duffy said she would curate the roster of participants. frolov, gudu, valery kovalska, elena burenina, lake studio, situationist, julie poly, art group fungus, tomas auksas, lilia litkovskaya and the gunia project are among the creative companies that duffty is trying to assist. the council of fashion designers of america’s chief executive officer steven kolb, public relations specialist james laforce, designers kay unger and stacey bendet and author constance white are among the people that duffty has connected with about putting his plan into action. by monday afternoon, duffty had lined up runway 7 to host the event for ukrainian designers. he is personally appealing to different companies to fund the designers’ flights and hotels. acknowledging how there are more humanitarian initiatives that will benefit the ukrainian people more broadly, duffty paraphrased john lennon’s view of songwriting. “‘write about what you know and mean it.’ fashion and events are what i know, and providing a beacon of hope for creatives from ukraine is my intention.” the designer was already planning a show of ukraine’s artists and creatives in paris before russia’s unprovoked invasion. london   designer lilia litkovskaya had always been a cheerleader for fashion in her native ukraine, designing and making her collections there, and even setting up a successful fashion school in kyiv called schooll. now, with russian president vladimir putin’s war machine in full swing, she has fled her country, and is eager to promote ukranian fashion, and creativity, in the rest of europe. litkovskaya, who left kyiv last week with her two year old daughter, is hoping to go through with a planned installation later this week at tranoi, the paris fashion trade event, which runs from march 4 to 7. “i want to say ‘this is ukraine.’ i want to speak loudly about my country and the glory of our army, our heroes. we are a talented nation, we are strong and full of art, energy and creativity,” the designer said in a zoom interview from switzerland, where she arrived with her daughter last week. she made her way to poland by car, then flew to milan and took the train to lugano, switzerland, to stay with friends. she had been planning the paris showcase for the past month, but never thought the russian invasion would happen so soon. it’s still unclear whether the ukrainian artists, designers and creatives will be able to participate or what form the installation might take. those who were set to take part include pavel nikolaevich makov, a graphic and etching artist; designer nadya dzyak; dakhabrakha, a world music quartet, and sasha maslov, a portrait photographer. last week, the designer, who comes from a long line of tailors and artisans and who is known for her elegant, draped clothing, dramatic proportions and clothing that “caresses the skin,” pressed pause on her latest collection. her clothes are made in ukraine and sell through retailers in 15 countries, including selfridges. “factories can’t function because people can’t move. everyone is sitting at home,” or in shelters, said litkovskaya, whose mother and team are still in ukraine. “we’ve taken orders as usual, but don’t know what will happen. our sales team is continuing to work with our partners.” she said she’s determined not only to raise her voice in paris, but also to return as soon as possible to rebuild “every industry. we have the energy to make it happen.” the fashion stylists discuss dressing the actress at sunday night’s sag awards and her groundbreaking win. ariana debose’s rise to stardom was cemented at sunday night’s 2022 sag awards, where the afro latina actress continued her winning streak when she won the award for her role in steven spielberg’s “west side story.” debose, who is the first latina to win a film award from the screen actors guild and first lgbtq woman of color to be recognized for acting, marked the groundbreaking win in her latest standout fashion moment   a bright fuchsia valentino spring 2022 couture gown paired with de beers diamonds   that came together in collaboration with her stylists zadrian smith and sarah edmiston. when speaking monday morning over zoom, both stylists started off the interview gushing over debose’s championing nature and how she made a point to include her entire team in her win. “this is how glass ceilings are shattered,” smith said. “ariana is in such a very special position as an afro latina, queer women. she’s already breaking ceilings for herself, but for her to be, like ‘i can also break ceilings for zadrian who is a black gay man from the south or sarah who is an irish working mom.’ she’s making sure she’s holding the hands of everyone on her team.” when it came to her sag awards look, the stylists explained that debose was highly involved in the process and that it was important for them all to work with a design house that shared their same morals and values. the stylists ultimately looked to pierpaolo piccioli at valentino who smith described as “a designer who has done this work for a longstanding time” and highlighted the creative director’s spring 2022 couture collection, called “anatomy of couture,” which celebrated models of different sizes, ages and races. edmiston explained that debose “looked like love” in the valentino couture dress, which had an orchid like ruching at the back and was inspired by a gown valentino garavani created in 2002. “she can carry a dress that is love,” she said. “on most other people, honestly, that dress would have worn them, but not for ariana. for her, it was a perfect fit because she is such a huge spirit, huge personality and has a huge heart that she can wear a dress that is basically a huge heart.” debose’s 2022 sag awards gown is just one of her many standout fashion moments in the last few months. during the press tour for “west side story,” the actress wore an array of high fashion, colorful looks by armani, michael kors, gabriela hearst, fendi and others. most recently, debose stunned at the naacp image awards on saturday wearing a crystal embellished look from alexander mcqueen’s spring 2022 collection. “it’s classic americana with a twist,” smith said about debose’s style. “her references are such old school hollywood, but i think she modernizes it. she loves classic silhouettes and classic shapes, and where sarah and i come in and remix it is with an amazing color or an amazing detail.” while the stylists stayed mum on what to expect from debose’s upcoming awards show looks, they offered that her fashion will remain authentic and reflect her personality. “her style is a celebration of all the nuances of her,” edmiston said. “she is a multifaceted, wildly interesting woman and her style is defined by all of those parts of her. at our studio, we love the layered and nuanced human. a human with a journey and we draw from all of those things and that’s where the story comes from. we’re just narrators of what people have lived and where they’re living now.” click through the above gallery for more photos of ariana debose’s style. read more here: how men’s fashion stole the spotlight during the 2021 awards season the best dressed celebrities at the 2022 sag awards lady gaga dazzles in armani privé at the 2022 sag awards the two time oscar nominated actress talks about her new clean beauty line that’s been five years in the making. scarlett johansson is the latest celebrity embarking on a venture in the beauty industry. the two time oscar nominated actress revealed on tuesday her clean skin care line, called the outset, which is launching with five products meant to reflect johansson’s own minimal skin care routine. for the venture, johansson teamed with kate foster lengyel, a beauty industry veteran who has worked in the beauty divisions of victoria’s secret and juicy couture. “i entered this industry blindly in a way,” johansson explained alongside foster lengyel at the outset’s flatiron office. “it’s very different from what i do in my other job, but i had worked for a long time as an ambassador for other beauty brands and i think as i got older in my late 20s, there was a turning point where i just felt like i was done representing other people’s ideal beauty standards and i felt like i had enough confidence to start something on my own that felt true to me.” johansson spent the last five years going down different avenues for the brand, working with various formulators and beauty executives until she met foster lengyel through mutual friends right before the pandemic hit. the two spent their time during quarantine brainstorming and figuring out their attack plan and were able to fast track their idea. the outset is launching with five clean skin care products: the gentle micellar antioxidant cleanser, the firming vegan collagen prep serum, the nourishing squalene daily moisturizer, the restorative niacinamide night cream and the smoothing vitamin c eye + expression lines cream. products range from $32 to $54 and will be available on the outset’s website before entering sephora in april. “we call it the classic white t of skin care,” said foster lengyel, who is the brand’s cofounder and chief executive officer. “it’s a universal staple in your wardrobe. it pairs with everything else and i think we understand from our conversations with consumers that they like to use a variety of brands, and so we wanted to create a brand that would play well with others.” the outset uses a signature hyaluroset complex, a botanical alternative to hyaluronic acid, in all of its products to deliver lasting hydration, plumping and smoothing. the brand excluded 2,700 harmful ingredients from its products and looked to only clean ingredients. “i was looking at all avenues,” johansson said when asked why she chose skin care rather than another beauty category. “like, i love color, fragrance and skin care. this is going to sound kind of esoteric, but i really meditated on it a lot and spent a lot of time thinking about it. i kept coming back to the idea of skin care because i had problem skin for a very long time that i felt self conscious about. [skin care] was just very much the base of the rest of my beauty routine and if i wasn’t feeling good about my skin, no amount of hair or makeup or glamour would make that feeling go away.” the outset centers on a three step daily essential regimen with its cleanser, prep serum and daily moisturizer, which mimics johansson’s own daily routine. johansson and foster lengyel felt it was important to offer basic daily essentials that would elevate and fit in with a customer’s daily habits. johansson’s skin care brand comes at a time of increasing activity in the celebrity beauty industry where many major celebrities have come out with their own brand over the last two years. this includes the launches of selena gomez’s rare beauty, jennifer lopez’s jlo beauty, jennifer aniston’s lolavie and ariana grande’s r.e.m. beauty, among others. for johansson, she sees her skin care brand as unique to what’s on the market because it came out of her own necessity and offers a simpler solution for daily skin care. “i can just speak for the outset, which is it was such a labor of love,” she explained. “[the beauty industry] is a very crowded space, but in that space i felt like there was an opportunity to almost reduce the noise and make something that felt like it was an easy choice for people to understand and there was a transparency to it. unlike many other celebrities and their brands, johansson opted to not use her name and didn’t have any intention of doing so from the get go. “i never thought about using my name,” she explained. “i wanted this line to stand on its own and i didn’t want it to feel like there was any sort of pre existing idea of what it was going to be. that people could approach the line and take away what they will from it without my presence being there.” the outset was coined by foster lengyel after the two cofounders decided they wanted the brand’s name to reflect new beginnings. the skin care brand is also rooted in sustainability. the daily essential regimen products are all refillable. the brand aims to offer more refillable products as it continues to release new launches. johansson and foster lengyel explained that the outset has a few more facial skin care products slated for release later this year and that they have their sights set on body care as their next category expansion. “we have a lot of dreams for where we see our company going,” johansson concluded. “i think it’s about getting this out there and then seeing how people use it, how they respond and opening up the dialogue and inviting a community of people to be a part of it. it’s very exciting to finally be sharing the brand with other people. it’s been such an inside operation for so long.” read more here: exclusive: courteney cox aims to beautify the home category with homecourt ‘euphoria’ makeup artist donni davy talks launching her half magic beauty brand exclusive: jeffree star to launch skin care brand the former estée lauder cos. executive was instrumental in internationalizing the company. jeanette sarkisian wagner, vice chairman emerita of the estée lauder cos., has died. she was 92. the cause of death could not be immediately learned. the first vice chairman of the company, wagner was instrumental in spearheading lauder’s international expansion as president and chief executive officer of the international division. she was named to that role in 1986, and transformed the division from the smallest and least profitable to the largest and most profitable, a position it continues to hold today. prior to joining lauder in 1975, wagner was editor in chief of all international editions and director of new ventures at the hearst corp. she was the first female senior editor of the saturday evening post and editor of the chicago daily news. at lauder, she started as vice president, director of marketing for the estée lauder brand in the international division, and was named corporate senior vice president in 1982, reporting directly to leonard a. lauder, then the chairman and ceo. four years later, she assumed oversight of the international division, where she spearheaded strategy for 11 brands in 100 countries. during her tenure, new concepts were developed, including the first free standing stores for both the lauder and clinique brands, as well as flagship environments in five cities in china and in every major asia pacific country. she was named vice chairman in 1998, where she directed new business developments, including management oversight for acquisitions like mac, aveda and bobbi brown, and represented the company in key global associations. “jeanette wagner was not only one of our all time best hires, she was also one of my all time favorites,” said lauder, who recalled how he came to hire the executive. “i remember being in a marketing meeting in paris to plan the international launch of an important estée lauder product. the senior vice president of marketing at the time said, ‘and now, so and so will give you his opinion.’ a wave of horror broke over me as i realized there were no women at the table to share their opinions. i realized we needed to change that immediately,” he said. lauder returned to new york, and asked carol phillips, who was running clinique, and june leaman, the head of creative services. ‘who is the smartest woman you know?’ “each one said, ‘jeanette wagner,’ who at the time was running cosmopolitan’s international publications” lauder said. “the fact that they both came up with the exact same name spoke volumes!” lauder called her impact on the company “incredible.” “her international perspective was truly impressive,” he said. “literally everyone who has ever worked with her or for her came away in awe. she was smart, she was dedicated, and she was a fantastic leader. i am so grateful for her friendship. i will miss her.” “jeanette led the way for so many great women in our company and in our industry,” said jane hertzmark hudis, executive group president of the estée lauder cos. “a brilliant mind, one of a kind.” “jeanette was a groundbreaking global business leader,” said sally susman, who was the chief communication officer at the company from 2000 2008, before moving to pfizer, where today she is executive vice president, chief corporate affairs officer. “her passion was opening new markets for the estée lauder companies. i traveled with her to china and saw the respect in which she was held by employees, retailers, government officials and thought leaders there. when i travel, i channel jeanette with her curiosity and intrepid spirit. ‘jet lag is boring,’ she said.” after retiring in 2002, wagner turned her considerable energies to improving public school education in new york city, serving as secretary of the board of the fund for public schools during mayor michael bloomberg’s term in office. she served on a number of boards, including the new york city center and the department of cultural affairs, the library of america advisory board and the harvard business school club board emerita. wagner, who was a champion of women in the workplace throughout her career, also received numerous awards, including the harvard business school alumni achievement award in 1999, a cew lifetime achievement award in 2002 and the ellis island medal of honor in 2016. she is survived by a step daughter, paula wagner; cousin zabelle vartanian; niece nicole vartanian and nephew garen vartanian. following a tie up with estée lauder last year, mytheresa is continuing to explore the beauty category. london   mytheresa is teaming with luxury skin care brand sisley paris as it continues to explore the potential of beauty on the site. mytheresa has always taken a methodical approach to business. with 250 high end labels, it is the smallest of the multibrand, luxury fashion sites and is committed to keeping its offer tight and in tune with customers’ lifestyles. after a successful collaboration with estée lauder last year, mytheresa is hosting a digital pop up with sisley paris that will open on march 2. it aims to entertain, educate and indulge customers with exclusive products from the french, family owned luxury beauty brand. the pop up will run for four weeks exclusively in europe, the u.k., the u.s. and switzerland, and offer a “curated edit” of sisley’s skin care, makeup and hair treatments. there will be two exclusive sisley x fauré le page luxury leather vanity cases, containing five products including skin care lotion, serum and antiage eye and lip cream. the pop up will also stock the black rose and hair rituel collections and summer makeup. mytheresa has also created a dedicated campaign starring the women of the sisley family   founder isabelle d’ornano; her daughter, the global vice president, christine d’ornano, and granddaughter and creative director daria botin d’ornano. the images were taken at isabelle’s lavish paris home. in an interview, mytheresa chief executive officer michael kliger said the site began exploring beauty in response to customer demand   but it’s not rushing into things. kliger said his team wants to take time to understand how mytheresa can fit into the beauty conversation and create a unique proposition for its customer base. it has been doing pop ups and approaching them much like it would seasonal brand collaborations, with a dedicated campaign, exclusives and content tailored to appeal to the site’s high end customer base. as reported, in the second quarter mytheresa saw a “record number of first time customers” and an increased spend from existing ones as people emerged from lockdown and began socializing outside the home once again. the number of top spending customers grew by nearly 40 percent in the period. mytheresa’s top customers have an average basket of 1,000 euros, and their annual spend is 16,000 euros. they account for roughly 3 percent of mytheresa’s customer base and generate one third of total revenue. mytheresa said the second quarter saw a 2.3 percent increase in average gross merchandise value spend per top customer. as part of the sisley campaign, there are videos of the d’ornano family discussing their beauty secrets and self care rituals. they also talk about their familial bond, careers and life in general. there will also be digital classes and sampling as part of the customer engagement around the pop up, as well as an emphasis on sisley’s plant based ingredients and sustainable practices. hubert and isabelle d’ornano launched sisley in 1976 using natural plant extracts to create luxury skin care and cosmetics. sisley remains one of the priciest brands on the market, with one of its heroes, sisleÿa l’intégral anti âge cream, costing 350 pounds for 50 ml. asked about mytheresa’s plans for beauty, kliger said it was “premature” to talk about a permanent product offer on the site. he added that mytheresa would continue to do pop ups, gather customer feedback, drill down and look closely at what sort of products and services customers want. “the questions we’re asking ourselves: ‘what do they have in their bathrooms right now?’ ‘are we offering the right products for this audience? if so, how do we make it special?’” kliger said. he added that offering content around the pop up was important, too. he wants customers to watch a video, sample a product or read about ingredients and say, “‘wow   i didn’t know that about sisley.’ “we want to offer relevant content. if you are offering a skin care treatment for 300 euros, it needs to be presented properly. that is how we access this audience, and that is what’s interesting for the brands, too, because they want to speak to these customers. there are nuances because it’s different product category, but it’s the same approach as mytheresa takes with fashion,” kliger said. the global pandemic has forced gen z and millennials to re prioritize their lives. futures, research and brand strategy practice light years has teamed up with the conspiracy of love, the los angeles based “purpose consultancy,” to publish “the future of good”   a 112 page report that takes a deep dive into how the global pandemic has changed the mind set of generation z and millennials. the report revealed a shift in how these demographic cohorts view the world, which includes a change in priorities around social justice, climate change and overall societal good. the report can be found here. here, lucie greene, founder of light years, discusses key findings from the report, which include why purpose driven brands are more important today to consumers and why forging connections and practicing empathy is in the spotlight. wwd: what was the impetus behind teaming up with conspiracy of love for this research? lucie greene: purpose has become central to brands in every way and that’s only become more accelerated during the pandemic. but how that looks is evolving every day, from consumer expectations of brands to the culture of societal and world issues. we’re also living in a time where brands are being bolder, more creative and daring than ever, and winning fans in the process. we wanted to explore how key spaces in purpose driven activity are moving forward: sustainability; universal well being; diversity and inclusion; community and connection, and the culture of societal good. we also wanted to inspire brands to be braver by including bleeding edge “moonshots” in innovation. conspiracy of love, founded by bobby jones and afdhel aziz, is a leading global purpose consultancy that works with brands around the world on defining and developing their societal role and identifying territories in which they can create change. light years’ core focus is exploring changes in culture, consumer behavior, and innovation in core consumer verticals and translating them into strategy. these two specialisms intersect in this report. why now? specifically, we are living in a major paradigm shift where purpose is essentially becoming fundamental to business on every level. in fact, increasingly, “good” business is the future of business, period. recent global consumer data from wunderman thompson found that 75 percent of consumers said covid 19 had exponentially raised their expectations of businesses in terms of helping to tackle the world’s biggest challenges, such as climate change. since the pandemic, acting with purpose has become essential to recruiting and retaining talent   especially in the midst of the great resignation, where workers are questioning everything about their work and lives, and seeking to insert more meaning into careers. on a commercial level, being purpose driven is also becoming a key driver of growth and investment. the most exciting new venture capital companies are focusing squarely on purpose driven businesses. likewise, unilever has said its purpose led sustainable living brands are growing 69 percent faster than the rest of the business and delivering 75 percent of the company’s growth. all of this is going to continue, particularly in the light of the rising generation z cohort. millennials were raised in an atmosphere where direct to consumer brands doing good, the one for one donation model and ethical manifestos were novel. gen zers see this as table stakes. look to any of the new gen z centric brands launching today   each has sustainability, purpose and radical inclusion as its key pillars. direct to consumer period care brand august even talks about reinventing capitalism with its profit share model. gen zers are not scared of bold or controversial issues. the urgency of climate change is not a subject for debate for this group, so the pressure on brands and employers is only going to continue. wwd: what are some of the key findings of the report? l.g.: one key takeaway is the interconnectedness of issues. climate change does not exist in a silo. pollution is a public health issue and a social justice issue, as well as being an environmental issue. poor mental health has been linked to pollution. access to nature and fresh air is linked to social inequality. innovation in regenerative farming techniques is being championed not just for environmental benefits, but also for health benefits as it creates food rich in nutrients. it’s all connected. we’re moving toward a more nuanced understanding of social justice and of environmental, civic and cultural issues, and brands need to consider this in their approach. they also need to consider the multiple drivers of influence in this space. having diverse companies is not enough   you need diverse creators in culture and access to funding for all. there’s an increased emphasis on economic inclusion and an understanding of systemic bias in financial structures   and breaking those barriers down. we’re also seeing a move away from the top down model of philanthropy espoused by traditional charities, and the one for one model popularized by brands such as toms. innovative brands are moving away from one way charity to collaboration, grassroots activities, listening to communities and letting those communities decide how they want to create impact. there’s also a greater emphasis on diverse stakeholders helping to execute purpose driven initiatives. wwd: how has the covid 19 pandemic changed consumer behaviors? l.g.: it’s raised expectations of brands to act more decisively and be proactive as opposed to reactive. the most dynamic, exciting brands right now are investing in creating new materials and building new business models   even if the latter seems counterintuitive. during the pandemic, mental health became a multifaceted central concern for consumers in all aspects of their lives, work related and personal, this, in turn, raised awareness of how to make resources available to people from all walks of life, often using digital platforms. nature is also being appreciated more than ever for its mental health benefits. long distance walking, camping, birding and cold water swimming, are all on the upswing, not just in terms of physical fitness and lifestyle, but also for their mental health benefits. there’s a wider existential crisis occurring, especially among the much maligned millennials, who are faced with the second global economic event in their lifetime (the last being the 2008 economic crisis) and trying to make sense of it. we’re seeing books, tools and influencers start to focus not only on meaning but also on how to be happy and content, and achieve quality of life. there are also sharp upticks in new ways of living, such as nomadic living   spending several months living and working in a region away from home to save money and experience a different way of life. such practices are becoming normalized. as people’s quest for better quality of life continues and work detangles from cities for many, this will likely continue. (twenty four percent of airbnb stays are now over one month, the company recently reported.) there’s also an emphasis on self sufficiency and life skills, as a route to resilience, better mental health and balance. baking is good for your mind, not just your instagram! finally, there’s a renewed focus on community, connection and empathy. we see this playing out in a number of ways, from new models that help consumers support local restaurants to the buy nothing, get everything lending movement to the wave of decentralized “virtual villages” connecting people to advice portals. a good example of the latter is peanut, a purpose driven platform for women seeking advice on parenting, menopause and more from a decentralized network. in general, there is a sense of desire to invest in communities, connect irl on initiatives and help small businesses to thrive. wwd: what exactly is “next wave gen z activism”? l.g.: gen z is famously stereotyped as being activists to the core. we’re seeing a maturation of that. snapchat recently launched a platform encouraging gen zers not only to be civically engaged but also to run for office. programs launched by companies from nike to patagonia to toms are emphasizing collaborating with gen zers to co create grants for social good. new platforms such as wishly combine social media with civic activism and brands. many gen z cult brands launch with activism at their core from the outset. wwd: what else do brands need to consider as we enter a post peak pandemic period? l.g.: the pandemic has not only pushed substantial numbers of women out of the workforce, but it has also pushed many consumers out of the middle class. inequality is rising. and that’s only going to continue, as we face inflation, wage stagnation and further pandemic related headwinds. the next wave of purpose for brands, especially mass market brands, will be innovating to make quality of life accessible to all   with initiatives around affordable wellness, good quality food at accessible prices, access to education, financial inclusion and social mobility. making quality of life accessible, helping people to survive and thrive, will be a purpose in itself, more than ever. lee shares the traumatic birth of her second child last year, who required emergency heart surgery after delivery. “it was terrifying,” she says. nbc news white house correspondent carol lee went in for a routine ultrasound last spring. at 44, she was four months pregnant with her second child, who was conceived via ivf after a devastating miscarriage the previous year. the doctor squirted the gel on her belly and the machine whirred to life. images of the baby began to appear on the monitor, then the doctor began to focus on the baby’s heart. the two arteries that carry blood from the heart to the lungs were transposed. called tga (transposition of the great arteries), it is a potentially life threatening condition that requires emergency heart surgery after delivery. lee tried to remain calm. “when you go through ivf, you get all of these [genetic] tests. so you think, ok, we’re now through three months, and we’re past this window and everything should be good,” recalls lee, her voice catching. “and it’s not, and it’s just…shocking.” lee was diagnosed with placenta previa, which can cause severe bleeding during pregnancy and delivery. her doctor would advise her to stay within 20 minutes of a hospital. “he was afraid i could hemorrhage at any moment,” she says. so in april 2021, when she was six months pregnant, lee moved with her 8 year old son hudson into an airbnb in philadelphia, near children’s hospital of philadelphia, where she would deliver her baby and he would have heart surgery. nbc news set up a camera and lighting in her temporary home so she could do live hits. hudson was going to school remotely, care of the pandemic, and her husband, lt. col. ryan harmon, stayed in washington, d.c. during the work week, and traveled to philadelphia on the weekends. she tried to focus on work; the biden administration was mere months in, the nation was very much in the grip of a deadly pandemic and still reeling from an insurrection at the capitol. lee   who had become habituated to the chaotic, 24/7 pace of the trump administration   had plenty of distractions. and she had to hold it together for hudson. but in her head, she says, “there was just this constant hum of panic.” her colleagues   who invariably describe her as “unflappable” and “grounded”   may not have noticed. “all of us have our moments and work can be hard and life can be hard, but carol never ever, ever lets it show,” says stacey klein, the director of nbc news’ white house unit. “she shows up and she gets the job done. and she makes it all seem so easy.” none of it was easy; at one point in her pregnancy, lee began to experience shortness of breath while she was on air. “it was weird,” she says. “and i talked to a friend about it and she was like, ‘well, yeah, your baby is not well, he’s going to need heart surgery. of course you’re having trouble breathing.’” then came the delivery. lee needed a blood transfusion; she was in and out of consciousness. “i remember they got him out and started yelling that he wasn’t breathing. i’m having a blood transfusion and they would come to update me, ‘baby’s not doing well.’ i think they thought it was helpful. but i was having panic attacks,” she says. “i needed oxygen. that was not part of the orientation that you get about how this is going to go, even if you know that your baby’s going to need heart surgery after he’s born.” montgomery “monty” alexander harmon was born on june 11, 2021. he was in surgery for 10 hours. after nine days in the hospital, he was able to come home. lee is now dealing with normal baby problems, though because of his medical history and the pandemic, lee has to take precautions. “monty hasn’t even been to a grocery store. he’s not vaccinated. he’s a heart baby, so we basically hang out in our house, with each other,” she says. lee hopes that sharing her trauma will help other women dealing with difficult pregnancies. but she knows many women do not have the luxury of extended leave. when her son hudson was born, she was a single parent and political correspondent for the wall street journal. though she was a full time employee, she was not eligible for extended leave. at the time, journal owner news corp. required two years of employment before employees became eligible for extended leave. so she got the paltry federally mandated six weeks. “when i had monty,” she says, “there was so much to worry about. i can’t imagine having to worry about going back to work or arranging child care. i wasn’t physically or mentally in a place where i could do that. and neither was monty. he came home. we got back to d.c., we thought everything was fine. his incision got infected. we were back in the hospital again. and then you start dealing with regular baby problems, which is enough and requires not having to worry about whether or not you’re going to have a job.” news corp. has since evolved on the issue   but many employers have not. “it absolutely matters where you work,” says lee, whose sister works in the restaurant business, where taking time off is unpaid. “i think things are trending in the right direction. but the stories of women who do not have paid leave, those are the stories that need to be told.” lee returned to work last january, and is fully reacclimated to the rhythms of a demanding job, that has become more intense as correspondents are expected to feed content across multiple platforms. on tuesday, lee and the rest of the nbc news white house unit will be pulling a marathon day with live coverage of president joe biden’s first state of the union address. it is a particularly important moment for the president, whose poll numbers are foundering amid economic uncertainty at home, while russian president’s vladimir putin’s invasion of ukraine and nuclear saber rattling has set off a global diplomatic crisis. but even during such a fraught political time, the biden administration marks a return to some kind of normalcy for the white house press corps. “it’s much more traditional reporting,” says lee. “with trump you constantly had to monitor your phone. he would make policy on twitter, he would pick fights, he would upend legislation. and that is not how this administration operates. there’s a process. they’re much more disciplined in terms of, unfortunately for us, not allowing a lot of leaks. things aren’t lurching a lot policy wise. but it’s harder to get at stuff. so it’s a different type of challenge.” ••• lee and her younger sister and older brother were raised by a christian reverend father and public school math teacher mother in levittown, pennsylvania, right across the delaware river from new jersey. her dad was a pastor at a church in trenton, new jersey. then in the 1980s, at the height of the aids crisis, her father came out as gay. “a lot of his friends were dying,” says lee. still, it was a shock: her parents had been married for 17 years, and known each other since they were both in middle school. and the gay community was still fighting for acceptance and equality. “it was such a different time and my parents were very religious. but now we all do the holidays together,” laughs lee. the holidays also include two step siblings and step parents. and after he came out, lee’s father became the pastor at the metropolitan community church in philadelphia, part of the lgbtq network of churches founded in 1968 in california. he became more active in the gay rights movement and adjacent political issues. his daughter didn’t harbor aspirations of political journalism. “i wanted to be a magazine writer,” says lee. in high school, she devoured ms magazine, the feminist monthly founded by gloria steinem and dorothy pitman hughes. she studied psychology and women’s studies at westchester college in philadelphia, then moved to new york to study journalism at nyu. after earning her graduate degree in 2002, she landed a job as a researcher for gail collins, then editorial page editor at the new york times. “that’s when i fell in love with politics and foreign policy,” says lee. “gail gave me a lot of opportunities.” lee wrote quirky life in new york columns about things including drunk dialing (the precursor to drunk tweeting) and walking while eating. she also penned columns about her flirtation with surfing and pondered the radical feminism of barbie. then in 2006, she took a job as a reporter at a daily newspaper in sarasota, florida, a small town on the gulf coast known for being the birth place of the ringling brothers circus. “i was really proud of her for that,” says collins, “because that’s one of the problems you usually have when you bring young people into these kinds of jobs at a place like the times. they’re very ambitious naturally, and once they’re there, their plan is that they will somehow attract attention and they will [get a staff writer job] at the times. it doesn’t often work out because it’s really hard to get a job at the times and they’re often just not ready. they haven’t done the stuff you need to do. carol knew what she needed to do; to get a job where they’re going to send her out every day to do 9 million different stories. you’re under huge pressure to produce a whole bunch of stuff all the time. that’s just the most important part about getting ready for your career. and many people try to avoid it, but she understood right away that that was what he needed to do.” the assignments were definitely less intriguing than her stint at the times. there were stories about the new walk in beer cooler at the circle k and a giant squid that washed up on the beach. and lee wondered if she had made a mistake. “these were not the type of hard hitting stories i envisioned myself doing,” she says. “but it was actually a great lesson because i realized it doesn’t matter what i think i should be writing about and what i feel are the most important stories. it’s really about what matters to the people you’re trying to write for. and frankly, people really wanted to know about the walk in beer cooler at the circle k and the big squid.” in between human interest stories about refrigeration and local fauna, she did get to cover politics, including the 2008 presidential campaigns. and in october 2008, she landed a job at politico, which took her to washington, d.c. she left politico in 2011, for the wall street journal, where she became a frequent presence on television and radio, including on pbs’ washington week. she did a stint as president of the white house correspondents association from 2015 16 and served on the association’s board from 2010 16. in 2017, nbc news tapped her as a national political correspondent. going from print to television did not present a steep learning curve for lee, but it took some time to get comfortable with the exposure conferred by tv. “sometimes stories get a lot of pushback and that can be very uncomfortable. and anyone who says it’s not, is better than i am, i guess. but with tv you’re out there talking about your story and you’re owning it. and that felt different,” she says. “that was not something that i was used to. and it’s a lot harder than people, particularly people in print, think that it is.” after a couple of decades in journalism and a harrowing personal trauma, it’s obvious lee knows how to do the hard stuff. the former disney star is leading the way for a new kind of hollywood with “scream,” “the fallout” and upcoming sxsw movie “x.” if it feels like jenna ortega is everywhere you look these days, it’s because she is. the former disney star has launched her adult career and she’s in high demand at the moment. she can be seen in the newest “scream” film in theaters; on hbo’s “the fallout,” where she stars as a high school student dealing with the aftermaths of a school shooting, and will be seen in ti west’s upcoming slasher film “x,” set to premiere at the sxsw festival starting next week. yet she’s a bit removed from the craze of the moment, tucked away in bucharest, romania, where she is at work on her biggest project yet: playing wednesday addams in netflix’s “wednesday,” an upcoming series directed by tim burton costarring catherine zeta jones, luis guzman and gwendoline christie. “it’s funny. maybe it’s because i’m out of the country, it just feels very detached,” ortega says, over zoom. “it’s exciting though, because i mean, i had an incredible time shooting ‘scream.’ ‘the fallout,’ i hold very close to my heart and it’s a sensitive one and it’s kind of nerve wracking to put something like that out there. but both of those projects, i mean, i shot them within two weeks of each other, so it’s nice that we finally get to share it with the world.” ortega, who grew up in the coachella valley, was the star of disney shows such as “stuck in the middle” and “elena of avalor,” before appearing in netflix series “you,” which brought her out of the disney realm. “i remember once that came out, rather than being stalked on the street by children or families, it was middle aged women,” ortega says. “[i thought] ‘oh wow, i’m reaching a different audience.’ you go straight from disney to cussing and shouting. i don’t think that i had ever been in a world like that before.” hellbent on acting ever since she was six years old and seeing “man on fire” with denzel washington and dakota fanning (and marched into her parents’ room and declared, ‘i want to be the puerto rican dakota fanning’), ortega has had her sights on a long, lasting career. “ultimately, i don’t want to be pigeonholed and i want to do all that i can. i am somebody who is constantly searching for some sort of balance,” the 19 year old says. “but ultimately yeah, because of the disney name   they’re incredible, but it’s really hard to get away from that stereotype, especially because real acting isn’t really associated with disney.” even once she had booked the “you” role and was shooting the first season, she was worried she’d be dubbed a fraud. “i was in constant fear that i was going to be fired because i had forgotten how to act, because i was so used to the sitcom dialogue,” she says. “and it was really important to me, because i really want to do more indie films or dramatic films, that i’d be seeing in a new light as soon as possible. that’s always a hard transition. sometimes people don’t even want to see you or won’t even accept your tape because of where you come from. so that was a struggle that i wanted to…i knew that it was a possibility and i wanted to act on it as quickly as i could.” she was a big fan of the “scream” movie franchise prior to booking the role in the newest film, having seen the first when she was 14 and consumed the rest immediately following. she gave it her all on her audition tape but didn’t expect to land the role because of her age. “they typically cast 30 year olds to play teenagers. i was 17, and i figured i wasn’t going to fit in with the crowd,” she says. “and when i got that call, it’s not often that you watch something and then get to become a part of that world later on. so very surreal.” “the fallout” has received positive critical and fan reception since it debuted at sxsw last year and arrived on hbo in late january, and ortega speaks with pride of her work in the film. “it was immensely important to me that it wasn’t insensitive. telling a story that yes, i relate to because i grew up going to public school and i understand this fear, but also it’s not my story. and it’s something that we put this film out there to make people feel less alone, and i hope that it’s doing that,” she says. “i don’t think that i’ve ever done a project so gen z oriented or that tells that story. and i can’t really think of any other film that speaks to my generation that way. i hope people enjoy or understand the message we’re trying to get across, and if not that’s all right.” though ortega is largely missing out on the receiving end of her breakout moment, she’s actually happiest where she is: hard at work on another project. “i’m addicted, it’s the problem,” she says of acting. “i love to work, i love to be busy. and when i’m not busy, i’m losing my mind.” marina rinaldi’s new collaboration will hit stores in september; naomi osaka joins fortnite with two new outfits; “white lotus” star brittany o’grady is free people’s first ambassador; rowing blazers teams up with lesportsac. flawless joy: marina rinaldi for the first time teamed with sara battaglia for the creation of a capsule collection, which will hit stores in september and was unveiled during milan fashion week. a graduate of the brera academy of fine arts, battaglia is known for her range of handbags and for marina rinaldi she designed a circular bag with pleated sides, one of her distinctive design features. the collection is called absolutely flawless for marina rinaldi as battaglia explained that she was inspired by the 2004 george michael song “flawless (go to the city),” whose video featured a diverse cast in terms of ethnicity, age and body shape, introducing the theme of inclusiveness and diversity dear to the designer and to the brand. “also, i wanted the collection to express joy,” she said. “you can see life in pink with these pair of sunglasses with a thick white frame and contrasting pink lenses.” the collection included bold designs and strong colors, seen in a bright yellow belted puffer coat embellished with a large frill. she added faux fur to a skirt from the hips down and paired a multicolored knit sweater embellished with extra long fringes and decorative knots with high waisted denim palazzo pants. “i always say rainbow is my favorite color,” she said with a smile. battaglia offered another strong message with a floor length tunic jazzed up by abstract maxi prints in black and white or pink and white. “it’s as if a dancing hand would just add brush strokes to the fabric. it conveys a sense of freedom and joy,” she said. “i’ve always played with proportions and i like to contrast them using unexpected materials,” battaglia said. “the purpose of my work is to continue to celebrate the femininity and beauty of women. what in the past would’ve been considered flaws, i now highlight as strengths and qualities that should no longer be hidden but accentuated. i find anything too perfect boring.” last year, marina rinaldi, which has long been promoting body positivity and is part of the max mara group, tapped marco de vincenzo to design two capsule collections. previously, the brand worked with a range of designers, including tsumori chisato, stella jean, fausto puglisi, roksanda ilincic and antonio berardi. the message of inclusivity and women’s empowerment have always been central to marina rinaldi’s strategy, through collaborations on collections and communications campaigns over the years with the likes of patricia arquette and ashley graham. precious lee has been fronting ad campaigns for the brand, including for sara battaglia’s capsule.   luisa zargani game play: naomi osaka has entered fortnite. the tennis phenom and highest paid female athlete in the world is the newest addition to battle royale game fortnite, as part of their icon series. last year, epic games added lebron james to fortnite through the same series. osaka joins the game with two new outfits   the naomi osaka and dark priestess outfits   inspired by her heritage and designed with help from her sister, mari. gamers can apply the outfits on their in game characters beginning march 3 at 7 p.m. est. “i’ve been playing fortnite for a long time   when i saw lebron had joined the icon series, it made me want to join the fortnite family, too. it’s really amazing to be able to connect with so many people around the world,” osaka said in a statement. epic games celebrated the new outfits on monday with a mural in west hollywood in los angeles. on march 1, the tennis star will team with twitch streamer berleezy to give a first look at the outfits in action and on march 2 gamers can compete in the naomi osaka cup for a chance to unlock both outfits, as well as the royale racket and portalforger paddle pickaxes and a spray before the official launch on the march 3. “the ‘icon series’ is the ultimate celebration of the most dynamic figures in culture for fortnite’s audience of millions, and there’s no one more perfect than naomi osaka to join the series as the first female athlete,” added nate nanzer, global vice president of partnerships, epic games in a statement. “just as fortnite is more than a game, naomi is so much more than an athlete.” epic games joins a long list of partnerships for osaka, including louis vuitton, nike, levi’s, shiseido and recent addition victoria’s secret as part of their vs collective that highlights women through collaborations, partnerships and campaigns. the game developer prior to this launch teamed with moncler to launch their alyx collaboration in fortnite and debuted physical and digital collections with balenciaga.   obi anyanwu free spirit: free people has revealed brittany o’grady as its first celebrity ambassador. the actress will represent the brand through multiple campaigns, event appearances and more. free people decided to partner with o’grady due to her ability to embrace the label’s ethos of being a true creative spirit. “i’m so excited to be free people’s first celebrity ambassador,” o’grady told wwd. “we started working together last year for their fall campaign and i felt an instant connection with the wonderful people behind the scenes and what the brand stands for. i felt genuinely free and true to myself, which made the partnership a dream come true.” the ambassadorship seems a great fit for o’grady, who recalls seeing the vibrant window displays at free people in the malls when she was younger. “i felt from a young age, if there was a way to express my individuality and style, this is it,” she said. “to have this connection unfold is truly surreal for me because i have truly loved the brand from a young age discovering my self expression.” after playing paula in the hbo hit show “the white lotus,” which received numerous accolades, the actress became more involved in the fashion world, attending events and fashion shows for dior, coach and chanel, among others. stepping into the ambassadorship, in which she hopes to “inspire others to feel empowered and comfortable enough to embody their personal expressions,” o’grady hopes to be more involved in the fashion world. “i’m starting to realize it can become a lifestyle or an art form or creative expression,” o’grady said. “i would love to continue working with fashion that aligns with me on an honest and genuine level. i would love for it to feel like my inner soul is coming out while wearing the clothing.” in their partnership, the 25 year old also hopes to be more involved in the brand’s nonprofit work. this spring, free people is working alongside the surfrider foundation, an environmental nonprofit that works to protect and preserve the earth’s oceans and beaches. reflecting on her time working on “the white lotus,” which also starred sydney sweeney, connie britton, steve zahn, jennifer coolidge, alexandra daddario, jake lacy and murray bartlett, among others, o’grady was surprised at the overall reception of the show. “when it came out, i was truly shocked by the amount of buzz around the show. it has opened so many doors,” she said. “it was a truly unique experience and i have a true and unique bond now with the cast, crew and creators of the show. “i am looking forward to tackling different characters that speak to people,” she continued. “i hope to create and portray characters that are like therapy for an audience.”   conchita widjojo pair rowing: lesportsac and rowing blazers have joined forces to create a new paradigm in brand collaborations. arc en ciel is a new collection designed by lesportsac’s in house team using specific references provided by rowing blazers’ chief executive officer and creative director jack carlson. he will help oversee creative of the long term partnership, and has kicked things off with a collection inspired by vintage tennis bag shapes that launch today on lesportsac’s website priced from $55 for a coin purse to $250 for a weekender. lesportsac chief operating officer thomas becker, who started at the label in 2019, said he was eager to bring fresh spin to the lesportsac name and felt inspired by the brand’s heyday era in the early aughts when it collaborated with gwen stefani. “we have been doing partnerships since the ’90s. we did a collaboration with gwen stefani and essentially launched the l.a.m.b. brand. lesportsac has a long history of collaboration and what’s different about the nature of our work with jack is that it’s a long term relationship,” becker said. when becker was the ceo at thom browne between 2007 and 2009, he helped negotiate the designer’s relationship with moncler that resulted in the gamme bleu line. the executive said this experience was formative in his handling of partnerships for lesportsac. “i learned the nature of just collaboration versus a relationship and bringing another talent and team into the building. that’s something we are doing here with jack and his team   it gives us more time and space to be creative. because our brand has done so many traditional collaborations, it was time to be distinct and get a lot more vulnerable and creative with a longer horizon,” he added. new arc en ciel collections are meant to come out twice annually. carlson, who met becker at a wwd run summit, said he was “super excited when tom reached out to us because lesportsac is a brand i’ve always loved and been fascinated with. we are selective of who we work with and who we partner with and this is different from a normal collaboration   it’s a different type of opportunity. what i thought was exciting is that it’s a different kind of challenge to come up with the branding and creative direction for a whole new [product] line.” the first collection, drawing from original lesportsac styles, incorporates carlson’s appreciation for nostalgia and color. color blocked in retro colorways or stripes and typeface, the collection plays to the designer’s aesthetic obsessions. “being playful with color is one of the things i wanted to do. rowing blazers never shies away from color so we dug into some of the archival images and mood boards to come up with a palette that felt very unique,” he said.   misty white sidell send us a tip using our anonymous form. wwd and women's wear daily are part of penske media corporation. © 2025 fairchild publishing, llc. all rights reserved.
supported by if you’re just looking (but not buying), there’s pleasure in creating an imaginary wardrobe from the men’s wear catwalks at gucci, fendi, jw anderson, ralph lauren and tod’s. by guy trebay reporting from milan wanting what we do not need (and what, in a biblical sense, is not ours) is at the core of luxury goods consumption. and want, more than anything more evolved or cerebral, was the emotion stimulated by the men’s wear shows in milan this season. does the world require a linen field jacket with breton stripes or a navy blazer made from terry cloth piped in white or a safari jacket styled as evening wear and worn with gurkha trousers and a slightly ludicrous shawl collar waistcoat? it does not. yet viewing this stuff at a ralph lauren purple label presentation at the designer’s elegant palazzo here spurred an irresistible fantasy in this viewer to inhabit a sphere in which chris pine is seen wandering through a drawing room in high gatsby drag, and colman domingo is observed resting an elbow, clad in a double breasted navy suit jacket, on a marble mantelpiece, and usher saunters by wearing many shades of taupe, a loose weave sweater casually knotted across his shoulders. this did, in fact, happen. but though it was in no sense the real world, it was an indication of what fashion is intended for. that is   as nobody has ever understood better than mr. lauren   to transport us from our real circumstances. “dressing for me has always been an adventure,” mr. lauren said in preshow press notes. name the person who, while trying on clothes at a store (remember those?), does not temporarily depart from sanity and venture into some unlikely scenario. in one dream scene you are that colleague sauntering into work nonchalantly laying waste to the office competition by wearing, say, one of silvia venturini fendi’s gloriously nothing balmacaan coats in muted madras cloth patterns. or are you that guy in a wonderfully engineered trapeze jacket the color of port wine by sabato de sarno at gucci who coolly strolls into balthazar? (is this the place to mention that, despite rumors of mr. de sarno’s imminent departure from the label, he more than held his dignified own? this against the provocative backdrop of his predecessor at gucci, alessandro michele, having unexpectedly dropped a first collection as creative director of valentino titled “avant le debut,” of well over 100 resort looks so frilly and granny and echt gucci that some wags termed the collection vucci.)

supported by saint laurent offers a radical proposition: thigh high boots for men. by jacob gallagher for a glimpse at what other fashion brands may take inspiration from in 30 years, look at the latest hermès runway show. by jacob gallagher at the kenzo and comme des garçons shows, designers gave the audience a jolt   for very different reasons. by jacob gallagher kim jones of dior remains the subject of rampant speculation in the fashion industry, but at his latest runway show, he reaffirmed his men’s wear mastery. by jacob gallagher with a filson partnership, junya watanabe takes us on a time warp back to the hipstery 2000s   plaid checks and all. by jacob gallagher the reigning king of freakish fashions strips things back with stark leather jackets and corporate type coats.