Dior

Can fashion save publishing (and vice versa)?

April 2, 2012 4:24 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Can fashion save publishing and can publishing save fashion? So did I wonder when news of a new coffee table book from Rizzoli entitled “Celebrities in Dior” with Dior ambassadoress Charlize Theron on the cover arrived. Before you roll your eyes and say “big whoop,” know this: I think this is a lot more than a thinly disguised star-fashion-tome. In fact, I think it’s very revealing, both of a new publishing reality and a super-smart and subtle Dior strategy.
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Posted in Fashion, Hollywood, Luxury goods, Marketing |

Another creative director may depart

March 13, 2012 5:06 pm by Vanessa Friedman

I’m telling you: ides of March. Rumours have spread like wildfire that Derek Lam, the American designer who has been creative director of Tod’s for the last six years, has parted ways with the brand. The Tod’s folks are have been hiding from all emails and phone calls since last night, but they aren’t denying it. If it’s true, it has interesting implications for the future of luxury.  Read more

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Posted in Accessories, Fashion, Luxury goods, Recession |

LVMH: daring to ditch the runway circus

January 24, 2012 10:47 am by Vanessa Friedman
Phoebe Philo. Getty Images/AFP

Phoebe Philo. Getty Images/AFP

OK, I know that’s a bit of a misleading headline: LVMH LOVES a show. But between the extreme foot-dragging about signing a new creative force at Dior (which, technically, actually owns Paris-based LVMH, as opposed to the other way around, but for efficiency’s sake let’s acknowledge that those initials have come to stand for both), and today’s news that Celine, one of the group’s hottest brands, is not having a runway show during the upcoming ready-to-wear season because their designer, Phoebe Philo, will be eight months pregnant with her third child, it’s hard not to think that perhaps the luxury world’s biggest group may be itself rethinking the whole runway circus, and the cost/benefits involved. Read more

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Posted in Couture, Fashion, Luxury goods, Ready-to-wear, Shows |

Mila Kunis sells handbags to grown-ups — and other luxury fables

January 5, 2012 4:06 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The freezing winter winds are now upon us, which means fashion’s spring/summer ad campaigns are about to launch, and the excited sneak peek emails have been coming thick and fast. The most recent comes from the house of Dior, who have signed Mila Kunis, the 28 year old actress from Black Swan, as their new “face.” Here’s my first reaction (and I liked her as an actress): groan.

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Posted in Beauty, Fashion, Hollywood, Marketing, Womenswear |

Holiday cheer

December 23, 2011 2:15 pm by Vanessa Friedman

This is my last post of the year. Though I have been hanging on in terror that some perverse power play on the part of Dior will cause them to announce their designer WHEN EVERYONE IS AWAY FROM THEIR DESKS – hah! Panic in the fashion newsroom – I have finally decided to turn off the computer, and in a few hours I’m off to the not-entirely-frozen north and the great Canadian woods to hang with the coyotes. The real kind, not the metaphorical human kind. I will leave you with one of the few virtual cards I received this Christmas that actually made me smile.

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Posted in Fashion, Luxury goods |

Movies come to the flagship

November 28, 2011 4:36 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The flagship superstore is getting yet another special feature: after cafes and restaurants (Armani, Gucci), concert halls (Chanel), bookstores (Marc Jacobs, Armani), and art galleries (LV), comes actual film theatres. Louis Vuitton has announced their new maison in Rome will “house a small cinema show casing art films from contemporary artists.” This is an arresting new development. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Hollywood, Luxury goods, Marketing |

Brussels finally recognises luxury

November 23, 2011 5:59 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Yesterday, for the first time, Antonio Tajani, the European Commission’s VP for industry, met with a bunch of luxury companies like Chanel, Dior, Pucci, MaxMara and Harrods to talk about what the brands and the EU might be able to do for each other. Wait — the first time? Yes, weird as that may sound, after two years of lobbying, the ECCIA (European Cultural and Creative Industries Alliance) finally succeeded in getting Brussels’ attention. Read more

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Posted in Luxury goods, Politics, Recession |

Versace, couture and a radical re-think

November 16, 2011 4:18 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The Chambre Syndicale, French fashion’s governing body, has just announced Versace is returning to the couture schedule eight years after leaving it due to cutbacks. Is this good news? Or rather, is it enough good news?
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Posted in Couture, Fashion, Shows |

Marc Quinn goes from art to commerce via clothes

November 11, 2011 4:34 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Art and fashion have had a notoriously long affair, with the former attracted to the glamour and glitz of the latter, and the latter attracted to the former for the creative legitimacy it can bestow on an essentially commercial endeavor, but rarely has one actually crossed over into the territory of the other. As of this Christmas season, however, Marc Quinn — he of Saatchi Young British Artists, “blood head”, and Traflager Square plinth/disabled marble bust fame – is breaking the rules.

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Posted in Fashion |

Estée Lauder’s web success

September 27, 2011 11:07 pm by Vanessa Friedman

In the “can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-giant-branded-oak-tree” category I would like to nominate all luxury industry watchers (myself included), who have been so distracted by Burberry’s public assumption of tech-God status, recently met by Gucci, that they have TOTALLY OVERLOOKED the real challenger to both those thrones: Estee Lauder.

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Posted in Beauty, Internet, Luxury goods |
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