The latest must-have luxury accessory: a ballet

May 3, 2013 2:14 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Forget art collaborations – they’re so yesterday. Mobile phones, ditto. These days, it seems, the must-have accessory for a luxury brand (not, note, a luxury consumer) is a gig creating costumes for the ballet. It’s the newest stamp of high-art approval. The latest to join the club: Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci. So what does it mean? Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Luxury goods, Marketing |

Jimmy Choo starts writing its post-Tamara story

May 2, 2013 3:26 pm by Vanessa Friedman

I had a very illuminating chat yesterday with Jimmy Choo chief executive Pierre Denis. He’s been in the job not quite a year now (previously he was ceo of John Galliano, so you can understand the job change), and has started to articulate the brand’s story going forward. Put simply: it’s history, people. Read more

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Posted in Accessories, China, India, Luxury goods |

Where is the LVMH of the contemporary market?

May 1, 2013 1:28 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Despite all the lip service paid to potential of the contemporary market – despite J Crew’s expansion into Europe and Asia, and Tory Burch’s $2bn valuation; despite all the private equity interest in the sector, which has seen KKR buy Sandro and Maje, and General Atlantic put its money in Burch as well as TPG and LGP lead the charge by taking J Crew private – I find it striking that no one has yet attempted to put a bunch of these together and create a group, as are so ubiquitous in luxury, to leverage synergies and create a power structure.

 Read more

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Posted in Fashion |

Will the showroom replace the flagship?

April 30, 2013 1:31 pm by Vanessa Friedman

I’ve been fascinated recently by the game of semantics being played between “showrooms” and “flagships” – and wondering whether the evolution of the second into the first is actually the future of commerce. Or put another way, the place e-commerce and bricks and mortar commerce merge.

 Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods |

Moda Operandi’s Met Ball click’n'pay red carpet

April 29, 2013 7:12 pm by Elizabeth Paton

Moda Operandi’s announcement this morning that it would be selling designer gowns seen on celebrities and society mavens direct from next week’s New York Met Ball has really lifted the veil on the extent of the commercialisation of the 21st century red carpet.

The three-year-old company, which made its name offering high fashion looks straight from the catwalk and has widely been touted as one of the few e-commerce start-ups with a real shot at competing with queen bee of the pack Net-a-Porter, first made waves earlier this year by announcing its sponsorship of the “Punk: Chaos to Couture” themed event. Read more

Posted in Fashion, Finance, Hollywood, Internet, Jewellery, Luxury goods |

Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga tell-all: executives beware!

April 29, 2013 1:42 pm by Vanessa Friedman

I guess the non-disclosure has ended (well, it’s about six months since he left). The Businessoffashion has an excerpt from ex-Balenciaga Nicolas Ghesquiere’s first big interview – in the newly launched System magazine — since he quit the house he made famous last November, and it’s a doozy. Effectively, the designer is taking on the entire executive side of PPR-about-to-be-Kering, the Group that owns Balenciaga. The interview is sure to ignite the always-burning flames of the creative vs. corporate debate, which flared high post-John-Galliano’s implosion, but have of late been simmering rather lower.

 Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Luxury goods |
From FT.com April 26, 2013

The recent move by President François Hollande to make cabinet members disclose their holdings and net worth has created something of a ruckus in France, though it has also received enough positive attention that David Cameron is suggesting the UK does the same. We may get to know, as we do with some of Hollande’s crew, all about their houses, art, boats, cars, bicycles and jewellery. What we won’t know about, however, is their clothes.

And yet clothes, especially for those in public office, require real investment these days. Read more

Posted in Fashion |

Hedi Slimane’s revenge: despite PPR/Kering slowdown, YSL is selling

April 26, 2013 1:57 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Yesterday Kering, the group-formerly-known-as-PPR, announced their Q1 results, and, as with rival LVMH, they were a little…slimmer than usual: up only 3.1% on a comparable basis and 1.0% on first-quarter 2012 (the luxury was up 6.4%, but the sports lifestyle side was struggling). To paraphrase the reaction: shock, horror, luxury slowdown! Except for one thing: the bright spot in the presentation was YSL. This is, of course, the first test of new creative director Hedi Slimane, and despite a large amount of angst surrounding his debut, at least on the part of the industry, he seems to have passed it pretty well. So how did everyone (except the guys who hired him) get it so wrong?  Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Financial results, Ready-to-wear, Shows, Womenswear |

Carmen Busquets has found her new Net-a-Porter

April 25, 2013 2:53 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Ever since its launch, Net-a-Porter has been the gold standard in e-tail: the high-end market leader, with a profit margin far ahead of the pack. And ever since then, entrepreneurs have been chasing its market share. Now Carmen Busquets, one of Net’s original investors (she is still a minority shareholder) thinks she’s found the answer: giftlab.com, a gifting site that provides a host of high-ish-end targeted alternatives to orchids and artisanal chocolate for events from weddings and baby showers to weekend visits. And she’s raised $5 million from US investors, including venture capital firm NEA, and a group of HNIs, to launch in America next September. Read more

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Posted in Accessories, Fashion, Internet, Luxury goods |

The subtle, striking, Kering transformation of Gucci

April 24, 2013 1:32 pm by Vanessa Friedman

PPR-about-to-be-Kering is on something of another spending spree. In the last two days they have announced two (count ‘em) acquisitions in Italy: the jewellery brand Pomellato, and the porcelain house Richard Ginori. The first buy is getting the most press, but it’s the second that really interests me. See, it wasn’t officially bought by Kering, but by Gucci (though this could be semantics, since Kering owns Gucci), and the purchase is being spun as the rescue of an important “Made in Italy” brand. Add that to two other Gucci intiatives, and it seems an image change is in the works, and no one has really noticed. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Luxury goods, Marketing |
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