Material World

Is menswear the next big e-tail thing?

Vanessa Friedman — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:01:59 +0000

We all know menswear is seen as a Great Luxury Hope, what with the Chinese market being driven by male consumers with money. Hence the Kering acquisition of Brioni; LVMH focusing on Berluti and buying French made-to-measure tailor Arnys to make apparel; Hermes and Coach opening mensonly shops, and so on. Now, however, it seems the on-line folks are also thinking along these lines. Yesterday MenInvest, the slightly cringe-worthy-named Paris-based e-commerce group bought the even odder named upmarket UK site Oki-ni.com, which specialises in “cutting-edge” menswear, for an undisclosed sum.

Not-so-valuable Luxury brands

Vanessa Friedman — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:48:01 +0000

The WPP/BrandZ Top 100 Global Brands ranking is out today – OMG! OMG! – and, as usual (for me, anyway) what ISN’T on it, when it comes to fashion and luxury, is more interesting than what makes the grade.

Of course, that isn’t hard to parse, since only FOUR (yes, more capital letters, but this is big) traditional luxury brands do make the grade. And yes, you can argue that Apple (#1) and BMW (#24) are luxury brands, but let’s stick to the generally accepted silk/apparel/leathergoods/watch & jewellery categories, for clarity’s sake.

And in those categories, we have: Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci and Prada. That’s it.

Yup: no Burberry. No Ralph Lauren. No Cartier. No Armani. No Fendi or Celine. No Bottega Veneta or Balenciaga. No Michael Kors. Uh oh. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Rumble in Milan

Vanessa Friedman — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:39:33 +0000

Oooh, the trash talk out of Milan. Having finally woken up to the fact that London Fashion Week is getting buzzier, and that such a development could be a threat to Milan, its collections, and the related economic windfall that comes to a city during showtime, Milanese designers are joining forces to defend their territory – but the infighting has already begun. The gossip and name-calling is fun to watch, but behind it is a real issue currently afflicting every fashion week: the tension between national industry interest and a brand’s self-interest.

Richemont’s Johan Rupert redefines luxury as a year off

Vanessa Friedman — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:26:24 +0000

The announcement that came along with Richemont's 2012 annual results this morning that chairman Johan Rupert (left), is taking a year off from running the world's second biggest luxury company starting this September is by far, to me at least, the most interesting part of the statement. For a man who has built the largest watch and jewellery Group to take a year off at age 62 – which, let’s face is not so old -- at a time when the exponential growth trajectory of the luxury sector has started to slow is a little, well, surprising. And leads to all sorts of interesting speculation.

Rebuilding fashion for the internet: from Versus to Matches

Vanessa Friedman — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:31:30 +0000

Tonight Donatella Versace is unveiling her new Versus Versace JW Anderson line, a capsule collection with a too-wordy name made in collaboration with YBD J.W. Anderson. She is doing so at 9:30 pm, in the form of a concert/party, which feels old-fashioned: very 1980s big top, like when Jean-Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler had shows in stadiums, as opposed to recession-restrained. And yet this is, at least strategically, a very new-fangled brand. Essentially, it has been re-built for the on-line world.

How far does cultural and creative protectionism go?

Vanessa Friedman — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:17:27 +0000

I wonder what the luxury world makes of the new French initiative to protect its culture in the digital age by imposing a tax on sales of tablets, smart phones, etc? They, after all, (the luxury folks, that is) have been promoting themselves as a “cultural industry” for the last few years. I mean, the name of their pan-European lobbying group is the European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance. In case you missed it somehow. Yet as far as I know they don’t benefit from any protectionist legislation, in France anyway.

Luxury profits from baby boomers: glasses are the new handbags

Vanessa Friedman — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:27:56 +0000

So the other day I was chatting with Safilo CEO Roberto Vedovotto, trying to get to the root of the explosion in optics – they’re fast catching up to handbags as the super-accessory of choice – when he threw out an interesting theory: it’s the baby boomers, stupid.

The Met Ball backlash

Vanessa Friedman — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:09:29 +0000

One of the more interesting developments this week has been the growing backlash against Monday’s Met Ball, below left, aka the Costume Institute Gala, aka the fashion party of the season. It’s one of the most talked-about, and blogged-about, events of the year, and yet Wednesday Gwyneth Paltrow was quoted by USA Today as saying she was “never going again,” that night I was at a dinner where a beauty mogul, who shall remain unnamed, announced he wasn’t going anymore, and yesterday the wife of a major brand CEO said the same. What’s going on?

Ottavio Missoni dies: The end of the (family) era?

Vanessa Friedman — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:26:23 +0000

The news today that Ottavio Missoni, known as Tai and co-founder of the fashion/knitwear brand that bears his surname, has died aged 92 has sent the fashion world into mourning, for a number of reasons -- some personal, and some to do with the end of an idea about fashion itself.

Galliano out at Parsons: lessons not learned

Vanessa Friedman — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:58:11 +0000

So much for that public image rehab. After the excitement, pro and con, generated by Parson’s announcement that disgraced former Dior designer John Galliano would be teaching a masterclass, they have called the whole thing off. On reflection, I think this is too bad. Not because Mr Galliano necessarily belongs in the classroom, but because I think part of the material for the class – a “candid” discussion about his career -- would have been valuable for students. We learn from failure often more than we learn from success, after all. Not to mention public implosion.