Tom Ford

Tom Ford ups the wildly expensive accessory ante

March 9, 2012 2:54 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The flight to the highest-end continues. I know it doesn’t come that close to Hermes’s million euro bejeweled handbags, but yesterday news landed of eye glass frames for $2,950, courtesy of Tom Ford. If ever there was illustration that luxury brands are convinced their customers not only still exist, but are demanding ever-more extreme iterations of their products, I think this is it.

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Posted in Accessories, Luxury goods |

The tao of titles

December 20, 2011 3:01 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The other day I got a nice email informing me that Marigay McKee, formerly Harrods’ Fashion & Beauty director, had been promoted to “Chief Merchant Officer,” a relatively new title in the luxury world as far as I can tell (and one not to be confused with that other CMO, chief marketing officer), but one that, I think, reflects not just a titular promotion, but a systemic change in industry thinking.  Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Finance, Luxury goods |

PPR and Brioni: After the deal, the implications

November 8, 2011 1:26 pm by Vanessa Friedman

So it all came true, and PPR did, indeed, buy Italian men’s wear luxury brand Brioni. So far, so rumoured. But what does it mean? Seems to me there are two main implications to the deal. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Jewellery, Luxury goods, Menswear, Recession |

Rewriting the fashion rules: first the brand, then the business

October 24, 2011 3:44 pm by Vanessa Friedman

More details are emerging about Karl Lagerfeld — aka “Kaiser Karl,” he of the white-powdered ponytail, high-necked white shirt, leather gloves, and Chanel fame — and his new business, which for the last year has been code-named “Masstige.” It has now been christened…wait for it!…Karl. But there’s more.

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Posted in Fashion, Internet, Marketing, Ready-to-wear, Womenswear |

A question of youth: why magazines use teen models

August 5, 2011 4:23 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Hoo-ha in the US yesterday not just about plunging stocks, but plunging model ages, as Good Morning America discovered that French Vogue and other such mags have been putting a 10 year old -gasp – in their pages. Now what was once a rumbling within fashion has burst out into the world of public opinion and opprobrium, but what the critics should be asking is not “Is this appropriate?” but rather, “Does the sort of shoot actually do what it is supposed to do — move product?”

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Posted in Fashion, Marketing, Politics, Womenswear |

Tom Ford and Michelle Obama’s new fashion agenda

May 25, 2011 4:56 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Last night Michelle Obama wore white Tom Ford to the Buckingham Palace banquet. Once again, she matched the Queen! I have to say, though, I’m not entirely convinced by the choice. And the more photos I see of it, the more it niggles.

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Posted in Fashion, Politics, Womenswear |

The most influential fashion figure of the year

April 21, 2011 4:45 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The Time magazine list of the 100 most influential people in the world is out and guess what: there’s only ONE fashion person on it: Tom Ford.  Read more

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Posted in Fashion |

Fragrance before fashion

April 12, 2011 5:30 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The other day I was talking to Bernd Beetz, the chief executive of Coty, in his office high over Park Avenue, and he noted that “fragrance is now a crucial building block of a brand.” In other words, it’s the base, not the capstone, of a business. I was thinking about this today because Puig Beauty and Fashion Group just announced a truncated version of their 2010 results and they are pretty good.

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Posted in Beauty, Financial results, Hollywood, Internet, Ready-to-wear |

Designers saving money in New York

February 11, 2011 3:00 pm by Vanessa Friedman

There has been much talk at the beginning of New York fashion week (whoopee!) about the incredible shrinking of the shows. Not the number of shows themselves, which is still alarmingly high, but the shrinking of the show spaces: the purported embrace of new, intimate catwalks that only allow a few hundred, instead of many hundred, attendees.

Y-3, for example, has a “new, intimate” venue downtown instead of the Park Avenue armoury; ditto Yeohlee Teng, who only has room for – count ‘em – 50, as opposed to 500. This is being blamed, variously, on: Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Finance, Marketing, Shows |

Tom Ford: Advertising without advertising

January 31, 2011 5:02 pm by Vanessa Friedman

There’s a big Tom Ford interview in this month’s interview magazine, by the artist and FoT John Currin, in which Mr Ford makes two pretty provocative statements.

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Posted in Fashion, Marketing |
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