Couture

“Europe will be a luxury goods Disneyland”

July 24, 2012 3:00 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Recently I was talking to James Carsellis, the entrepreneur behind web start-up Luxup, and he mentioned the theory that Europe was becoming a luxury goods Disneyland for emerging market consumers. You know: a place where the entertainment value/point lies in shopping for expensive stuff. I don’t think the comparison is that far-fetched.
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Posted in China, Couture, Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods |

Dolce & Gabbana launches couture

June 27, 2012 5:38 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Today Dolce & Gabbana confirmed rumours that it will create a small couture collection for the first time, to be showed July 9th to a group of clients in Taormina Sicily. The unveiling will take place far from the classic couture environs of Paris; the eye of the Chambre Syndicale, the governing body of the French couture tradition; and the fashion media. The choice is strategic for a number for reasons.
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Posted in Couture, Fashion, Luxury goods |

Versace ups its stake in the branded jewellery game

June 27, 2012 1:24 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The branded jewellery game, long viewed as an area with the least players and the biggest potential pay-off, has a new entrant: Versace, which just announced it will introduce its first high jewellery line (one-off creations with emeralds, diamonds, etc) this Sunday during its couture show at the Paris Ritz. I’ll see your collection and raise you! Read more

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Posted in Couture, Fashion, Jewellery, Luxury goods |
From FT.com April 28, 2012

Recently, a woman in the midst of a career change came to see me. This former banker, who took time off to get married and have children, was on the verge of beginning a new life in the high-end fragrance business. Her launch product is a limited edition perfume called “Tiara” that will sell for $1,200 and features particularly glitzy packaging: nestling inside a white resin box is a glass vial shaped like a cupcake, “crowned” by a special silvery top studded with sapphire blue Swarovski ovals. The look was, she said, inspired by the late Princess Diana’s engagement ring, as now worn by the Duchess of Cambridge. Read more

Posted in Beauty, Couture, Fashion, Jewellery, Luxury goods, Marketing, Royal wedding, Womenswear |

The million euro handbag

March 1, 2012 11:55 am by Vanessa Friedman

Q: When is a hand bag not just a handbag ?

A: When it is also a piece of high jewellery and a sculptural object.

The crocodile skin and diamond Hermès bag (photo by Dan Tobin Smith)

Such is the case, anyway, with Hermès’s second foray into haute bijouterie (as opposed to haute joaillerie — the former starts with outrageous designs, the latter with mega stones). Their jeweller and shoe maestro Pierre Hardy created four different mini-handbags, in part inspired by the brand’s iconic handbags, using gold and a LOT of precious stones. They are each functionally a “bracelet” and they actually work as (very small) handbags.In theory, anyway.

It seems to me the idea of anyone actually carrying a handbag worth €1.5m and made of intertwining chains covered in 11,000 diamonds, or a rose gold version of the Kelly bag with crocodile scales and 1,160 diamonds is a little nuts, and I mentioned this to Patrick Thomas, the CEO of the brand. He laughed. Read more

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Posted in Couture, Fashion, Jewellery, Luxury goods |

Suzy Menkes: “we are all guilty” — but of what?

February 27, 2012 12:05 pm by Vanessa Friedman

“We Are All Guilty for this Mess,” according to Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune. In a heartfelt piece in her newspaper, my fellow Fashion Week traveller and friend took the fashion industry (herself included) to task for the very public soap opera that is the current round of designer switcheroos, in which bystanders gossip and place bets and tweet about real jobs and real people like they are characters in a reality television game.

It’s tough and honest and has people buzzing at the shows, and I recommend you read it, but I’m also not sure I entirely agree with it. I think she’s right about the situation, but doesn’t fully get to the cause. Read more

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Posted in Couture, Fashion, Financial results, Luxury goods |

Raf Simons’s triumphant Jil Sander finale

February 25, 2012 6:11 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Raf Simons may have left the Jil Sander building, but he went out with the
sort of audience reception normally granted rock stars or George Clooney:
the audience stampeded the catwalk, and stood cheering and clapping,
refusing to leave until a security guard made the tearful designer
return to take a bow. The last time I saw this sort of thing was when
Tom Ford left Gucci and YSL. Read more

Posted in Couture, Fashion, Shows, Womenswear |
From FT.com February 24, 2012

It’s a funny time to be in Italy looking at high-end clothes. On the one hand, the last thing anyone wants to communicate in a country that turned to a non-elected technocratic government last November to fix its economic woes is business as usual; on the other hand, on the catwalks it’s – well, business as usual. Kind of. Read more

Posted in Couture, Fashion, Luxury goods, Shows, Womenswear |
From FT.com February 24, 2012

During fashion show season, which is any time between January’s men’s wear shows and this weekend, when their women’s wear collection is shown in Milan, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana don’t go out to lunch. Read more

Posted in Couture, Fashion, Finance, Luxury goods, Menswear, Politics, Shows, Womenswear |

Red carpet scoops from the runway

February 23, 2012 1:58 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Most fashion houses are understandably cagey about who they are dressing for the Oscars, the most lucrative red carpet marketing event of the year, which takes place this Sunday in Los Angeles. However, as I’ve been making the rounds of the Milan shows, some bits and bobs of information have come leaking out. The fear, of course, in spilling the beans is that in the end you are proved wrong (see post on Adele at the Grammys). The dressing game isn’t over until the celebrity actually exits the limo, but a few designers were willing to go on the record. Read more

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Posted in Couture, Fashion, Hollywood, Jewellery, Marketing |
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