Monthly Archives: September 2011

Is it a tongue twister? No, it’s an acquisition. Sometimes during fashion week it’s what happens when you aren’t looking that’s most interesting.

Fung Brands Limited, the private luxury investment arm of Fung Capital Europe, has bought Delvaux, the Belgium equivalent of Hermes. This follows Fung Brands April purchase of Robert Clergerie, the famous French shoe maker that had almost faded from view.

In other words: since Fung Capital is owned by the Fung family of Hong Kong (aka the Asian retail and distribution powerhouse that owns Li & Fung), the prophesy that western luxury brands will go east, not just for consumers but corporate owners, has once again come true.

The choice of Delvaux is both smart and telling — the latter because it marks a new approach to making east meet west when it comes to luxury.

After Fashion 4 Development, the UN initiative involving Michelle Obama and Carla Sarkozy and geared toward supporting industry in developing countries, after Fashion Ambassadors (where celebs and socialites are paid to wear a brand’s clothes out and about), comes…Ambassadors 4 Fashion, a new, unofficial initiative launched this week in Paris.

I say “unofficial,” because I just made it up. But what else to think after the quartet of invitations I have received. To be specific:

1. An invite from the British ambassador, who is holding an event tonight in honour of the young British designers brought to Paris by the British Fashion Council, co-hosted by Samantha Cameron;

2. An invite from the Italian ambassador, who is hosting a cocktail party on Sunday at the embassy in honour of Tod’s new signature line;

3. An invite from the American ambassador, who is hosting another cocktail party next Tuesday in honour of US Harper’s Bazaar editor Glenda Bailey; and

4. An invite from the Belgian ambassador, who is hosting a do in honour of the 25th anniversary of the fashion academy in Antwerp.

This makes more invitations to embassies than I can recall in any other single fashion week in living memory.

Why? Money, my dear Watson. Money.

Fashion is both a major industry and export for all the above countries, and this is just a long-overdue acknowledgement of that. Indeed, if I was a betting girl I would put my cash on that the idea we’ll see more of these parties. In the meantime, I’m carrying my passport in my purse, the better to get past security.

In the “can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-giant-branded-oak-tree” category I’d  like to nominate luxury industry watchers (myself included), who’ve been so distracted by Burberry’s assumption of tech-guru status that we’ve overlooked what one report now believes to be the challenger to that status: Estée Lauder.

A study by think tank L2 on the “Digital IQ” of beauty brands that looks at their websites, digital marketing, social media use, m-commerce, and e-commerce shows Estée Lauder, one of the world’s oldest beauty groups, leads its rivals in exploiting the online community – for example…

Jil Sander show

Jil Sander show - - spring/summer 2012. Image by Catwalking.

For everyone who was super-excited about the rumours, sparked this weekend by a report in the IHT, that Jil Sander’s Raf Simons was going to take over from Stefano Pilati as head designer at Yves Saint Laurent: well, Paul Deneuve, YSL’s chief executive, just told me it wasn’t true.

So there’s the official line.

But ooh, wasn’t the speculation fun? It actually trumped the Christian Dior/Marc Jacobs whispers for a moment there.

The brand extension news is coming fast and furious.

After the Versace/Missoni condos and Fendi yachts comes this exciting titbit – Condé Nast International is likewise embracing the lifestyle concept and opening a Vogue café in Kiev and a GQ bar in Istanbul. Well, if the companies they cover can do it, why shouldn’t the publishers? Isn’t Vogue as much a brand as the brands in their pages?

And you thought all that stuff on the runways was enough! Designers – especially, it seems, Italian designers – are busily embracing all sorts of product opportunities beyond the ready-to-wear, from apartment buildings to yachts. Hotels, fashion’s erstwhile favourite diversification initiative, are so yesterday.

What else to make of the fact that both Missoni and Versace have teamed up with Century Properties in Manila to create the interiors of new high-rise developments, and Fendi just completed a boat with Princess Yachts. After all, you know what they say: one example is a fluke; two is a coincidence; but three, well, three’s a trend.

We have trend, people.

By Rachel Sanderson

Given all the tweeting and blogging coming from the catwalks, it seems worthwhile to take a moment to consider a report on luxury and the internet put out last week by the daddy of luxury associations, Altagamma, aiming to get a handle on the digital life of 187 brands, which together have revenues of €60bn. The conclusions are pretty jaw-dropping (though you have to read to the end).

Altagamma, which represents all the Italian brands you can think of, surveyed 1,500 consumers in North America, Europe and China, trailed through the websites of 450 companies and scanned 150 million blogs and social media tweets. So, it’s a big study. Here are the highlights:

By Rachel Sanderson

Pirelli – it’s not just about tyres and tastefully sexed-up calendars anymore. As of this week, it’s also about fashion, as a new 1,500 square metre store, on prime real estate off ur-shopping drag Montenapoleone, demonstrated. Opened by Naomi Campbell (who was happy to point out that she’s graced the calendar more than any other celeb/model), it features, not surprisingly…rubber! A lot of it.

Pirelli

Architect Renato Montagner is the creative director behind PZero, the name of the new retail collection, which features rubber bike jackets, with designs created by Scott Campbell, an up-market tattoo artist who has worked for Orlando Bloom and Sting.  The line includes bags and suitcases (designed in collaboration with Valextra), and rain hats in – wait for it – rubberised linen (created with Borsalino), not to mention bicycles, trekking boots and rather nifty wetsuits and snorkelling masks.

The star turn though, belongs to the rainboots.

It being Milan fashion week, I have Milan news on the mind. I’ve just learned that Yoox Group, the Italian company that builds and manages about half the fashion world’s etail outlets (Armani, Marni, Zegna, Dolce & Gabbana etc.) and has taken Armani and Dolce into China, is to make a move of its own into the country. Next week, thecorner.com, its high-end multi-brand boutique, will become the first multi-brand etailer to launch in China.

The floodgates are opening! Let the race begin.

Gucci will on Wednesday become the first big kahuna to show on day one of Milan Fashion Week –  but it has already jumped the buzz-generating gun by sending out a curtain-raiser announcement.

Bedazzled by the 2002 Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise blockbuster, “Minority Report,” it has found a way to make that sci-fi technology (you know, where Cruise waved his arms at screens and all sorts of info magically appeared before him) real, and it is putting it in stores! Not only that — it has given it it’s own super-stylish name: the Gucci Immersive Retail Experience. Say that 10 times fast. Or check it out below. That’s the entrance to its Montenapoleone (Milan) store, where the GIRE (like fire, as is “on” — but with a g!) is debuting.


Gucci

What GIRE, which was developed in Hollywood, natch, by OOOii, a tech design company and in Oregon by Planar Systems, appears to involve is not being put in one of those floating tanks like the Samantha Morton character in “Minority Report”, but 50 (count ‘em) 45” and 50” LCD video walls that will “create life-size interactive images.” In short, you wave your hands at them, and things happen.

What things?

Well, you can send products to your phone to share with friends, and watch the fashion show in real time, to name a few. My natural position is one of skepticism, but it’s hard to judge without experiencing it in person. It clearly brings shopping closer to entertainment…

Interestingly, this fashion-for-the-customers initiative comes just after Burberry tweeted every image in its show to its followers just before the models stepped on the runway yesterday.

Though it remains to be seen which approach is more effective, what is clear is both brands are now in a race for the number fashion/tech spot, and they’ve bet chunks of their budget on it. Anyone want to start putting odds on the winner?

Material World

with Vanessa Friedman

About this blog About Vanessa Blog guide
Vanessa Friedman's blog deals with the fashion/luxury industry from both a corporate and consumer point of view, as well as the subject of dress.



Vanessa FriedmanVanessa has been the FT’s fashion editor since 2003, and is based in New York, though she lived in London for 12 years.
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