Fashion

Marc Jacobs takes fashion/film relationship to the next level

April 12, 2013 1:33 pm by Vanessa Friedman

This weekend marks the opening of designer Marc Jacobs’s first feature film. A “social media thriller” directed by Henry Alex Rubin and entitled “Disconnect”, it stars Jacobs (as well as Jason Bateman, Alexander Skarsgard and Andrea Riseborough) in a supporting role as an sort of e-pimp who provides runaways with shelter and employment doing internet porn. Judging from the trailer he’s pretty good – and really looks the part. In other words, he seems like a legitimate actor, which takes the whole fashion/film thing to a new level. It is a fluke or the future? That si the question. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Hollywood |

Will New York go after luxury counterfeit consumers?

April 10, 2013 1:22 pm by Vanessa Friedman

New Yorkers are tussling over the question of whether to legally punish purchasers of counterfeit goods instead of simply the purveyors. Well, why not?France and Italy do it already. And though brands have had success going after the purveyors of false stock, it’s a bit like a Hydra: cut one head off, and ten more pop up in its stead. This theory says cut off the demand, and the heads just wither and die on their own. Makes sense, no? Theoretically. I do see some stumbling blocks though.

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Posted in Fashion |

How luxury can succeed in Brazil: forget the bling

April 9, 2013 1:27 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Today the third in a series of World Luxury Index BRIC reports from the Digital Luxury Group (and the Luxury Society) is released – after Russia and China, we have Brazil, and the “Top 50 Most Searched-For Brands”. Guess what? One of these things is not like the other ones! Though conventional luxury wisdom says emerging markets always look to the obvious, in-your-face icons of luxury first, Brazil seems the exception to the rule.

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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods |

What’s Prada’s secret?

April 5, 2013 4:30 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The rest of the luxury world may be quailing in the face of an Asian slowdown; Cassandras may crying doom! as the new Chinese political regime cracks down on bribery and obvious bling; Europe may be seeing flat or no growth, but you’d never know it to look at the Prada Group’s results. Today the Italian luxury Group, which includes Prada, Miu Miu, Car Shoe and Church’s, and is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, reported consolidated net revenues of Euro 3,297 million, a 29% increase (+23% at constant exchange rates) over 2011, making its earnings per share — up 41% in 2012 (from Euro 0.17 in 2011, to Euro 0.24) – the highest in luxury according to a recent report from HSBC.

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Posted in China, Fashion, Financial results |

Mayor Bloomberg: Italian Vogue cover boy

April 5, 2013 10:30 am by Vanessa Friedman

American Vogue may have Michelle Obama as their cover coup, but L’Uomo Vogue, Italian Vogue’s men’s fashion arm, has, on their April issue…Mayor Michael Bloomberg! I kid you not. It’s a little left-field as a choice, no? For both of them (the cover model and the magazine). So what’s the rationale here?

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Posted in Fashion, Menswear, Politics |

Tamara Mellon’s Act II: a book, a brand, a…biopic?

April 4, 2013 3:19 pm by Vanessa Friedman

What do you do when you are stuck in a non-compete for a year? Write a memoir, which is in part a tell-all about your former employer! Such, anyway, seems the approach of Tamara Mellon, who left Jimmy Choo, the shoe brand she built into a global luxury powerhouse after it was sold to Labelux, and whose book, In My Shoes, is slated to appear on October 1. It seems to me the timing is particularly canny. Read more

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Posted in Fashion |

Learning from Thierry Mugler, Nicola Formichetti and Lady Gaga

April 3, 2013 1:22 pm by Vanessa Friedman

So stylist/creative director/friend of Gaga Nicola Formichetti is leaving Thierry Mugler after two years. This is one of those insider fashion stories that will barely register outside the glossy environs of the industry. So why do we care? Well, because his fame was partly the point: his famous friendships and access to celebrity; his hundreds of thousands of twitter followers; his ability to reach out via Facebook and livestream and so on and exploit new media to an old brand’s advantage. He is not a designer, after all, so putting him in charge of a design house was an experiment, much ballyhooed, in whether all that other stuff was actually more important in brand revival that ye traditional stuff.

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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods, Marketing |

Museum monetises fashion: V&A leverages Bowie and ballgowns, starts new retail trend

April 2, 2013 2:12 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Museums have always had shops where they sell pieces “inspired” by exhibits; this is nothing new. But London’s Victoria & Albert appears to be taking it to the next level, inking deals with Selfridge’s and Coast to sell exhibit-inspired pieces in those retail emporia. It strikes me as an interesting development, and one with potentially broader fall-out.

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Posted in Fashion |

Michelle Obama resurrects dress

April 1, 2013 2:44 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Right on cue, yesterday Michelle Obama resurrected a previously worn Prabal Gurung dress from her wardrobe to wear for Easter Sunday. It’s not only a holiday-appropriate move, and nicely economic, but underscores the trend she set during the campaign for shopping her own closet, Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Politics, Womenswear |

Gucci plans charity launch with star-studded event

March 26, 2013 4:39 pm by Financial Times

By David Hayes

With all the ballyhoo of a major Hollywood production, the Gucci-founded charity, Chime for Change, today launched its headline event for 2013, The Sound of Change Live, to be held at Twickenham on June 1.

Hosted at the screening room of a swish central London hotel, the media event didn’t hold back on pizzazz: Salma Hayek Pinault (wife of PPR’s François-Henri Pinault, resplendent in a figure-hugging deep red dress), Oscar winning documentary maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (in a waft of oyster chiffon and satin), Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter John Legend (in sensible leather jacket) and, drum roll, a larger-than-life on-screen Beyoncé delivering a special heart-felt message.

What was all the fuss about? The recently created charity, Chime for Change (say it with a comedic Italian accent and, geddit, it almost sounds like “time for change”), with Gucci’s Frida Giannini, Beyoncé and Salma on the founding committee, is a new global campaign to raise funds and awareness for the empowerment of girls and women in the developing world. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Hollywood |
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