Last night, legendary Parisian concept store Colette feted London designer Giles Deacon’s latest collaboration with Mulberry — a link to Giles’ S/S 07 collection of ’subtle’ fetishism. The place was rammed with fashionistas (there were a couple of other events going on). The Parisians are into colour-blocking these days, there was a lot of red, purple and electric blue peaking out of black blazers, leather jackets and dresses. Even the cocktails of the night were electric blue.

Collaborations like this are good for emerging designers like Giles because they provide much needed cash to fund the business through working capital crunches, lend credibilty to designer’s stature, and raise the profile of the designer on the back of PR events like this. Who doesn’t like to have a party thrown in their honour? In return, the brands get cool products and street cred.

Who ever thought Mulberry could look like this?

The place was heaving.

The colour-blocking was raging.

How cool does this look? What a creative event.

Gentry de Paris is hosting a very special event at next weekend’s Salon de

la Lingerie.

In conjunction with the cult Parisian cabaret MurderSuicidePresents, Monsieur Poudre, our mysterious Master of Ceremonies, will be your guide into the curious and surreal dream of sleeping Joséphine de Beauharnais. Featuring Lady Bird in a silver cage and Miss Morte under a flurry of ostrich feather fans, Joséphine’s strange dream comes alive once an hour through a pink champagne haze provided by to our gracious sponsor Champagne Duval-Leroy

Elegant lines and opulent fabrics inspired by the Premier Empire feature heavily in the Winter 2007 collection. Our bra-panty-garter sets in luscious French silk satin jacquards come in pale, antique colors. Opulent silk satin solids make up our pyjamas and nightgown range.  Super soft viscose jersey wireless bras and boyshorts suit every budget.  And of course our Loro Piana featherweight cashmere comes in boxers, tanks panties and pyjamas.

Many emerging designers get their initial support from the myriad small boutiques around the world that are trying to give their customers something a bit different; something they won’t necessarily find in a department store. High-end boutiques also differ from their department store counterparts in that they really get involved in giving their customers advice and tips on the newest designers and styles. I took a walk through SoHo on Saturday with my friend Joan, a serious fashionista, who also spends a lot of her time scouring eBay for unique pieces that speak to her individuality.

This is Joan camping out in front of some SoHo graffiti, wearing her first ever eBay fashion purchase, a shaggy shearling jacket that helps keep her warm in the frigid temperatures that New Yorkers have been struggling with over the past few days.

We visited a couple of Joan’s favourite designer womenswear boutiques. The first one was Kirna Zabete

(96 Greene St., SoHo, New York 10012, near Spring St. +1 212-941-9656), which is a store selling the wares of young designers including Peter Som, Proenza Schouler, Tuleh and Derek Lam. The store is run by two very glamourous women who I have spotted at the shows in New York and Paris. You can’t miss them. They are some of the best-dressed women around, and they run a good business to boot, having been flogging designer clothes for over 6 years. Many boutiques don’t last even 6 months. I attribute their success to focusing carefully on their target customer and buying a tightly-edited collection that suits that customer perfectly. The store staff were helpful and smart (if not somewhat aloof), even though the security guard wouldn’t let me take a photo of the store-front from the outside. We took one anyway because it seemed ridiculous to prevent people from taking photos on the street. I can understand why they want to keep people from taking photos inside, but outside too? Sheeesh.

The next stop was Curve (83 Mercer Street, SoHo, New York), a new transplant from L.A. where Curve has been pleasing West coast fashionistas for several years now. The sales staff in Curve were extremely friendly and truly excited about the brands they are carrying, including their own house label "Curve" and Fenton jewelry, mixed in with Vivienne Westwood, and some serious vintage couture pieces from Dior and the like.

What’s great about New York is that it is always reflecting the zeitgeist of America, which right now is of course about the war in Iraq. Joan and I spotted an unforgettable scene of simple graffiti in a basketball court which speaks for itself. The chain-link of the fence seemed to be perfectly appropriate symbol for this.

A work colleague invited me to an interesting art/design exhibition of the highly-regarded young industrial designer, Marc Newson in New York’s west side. It was one of those moments when I thought, Doh!, I wish I had my camera/cameraphone with me so I could capture not only the artwork but also the truly fabulous crowd that had assembled to pay hommage to this young talent. I am still getting used to always being ready to capture the cool moments  that sometimes happen unexpectedly. In any case, I really like this cool shelf that kind of looks like a giant piece of industrial honey-comb.

To be honest, I am not sure I understand exactly how the business of that whole exhibition worked, as it was an absolutely enormous space with less than 10 pieces being shown, in addition to a West-Coast pop art Surfing Video meets sleek industrial design Installation. There must have been at least 500 people there, but really not that much to see in terms of art. I think most people were enjoying the people-watching as much as I was.

For those of you in London and interested in the business of fashion, you might want to check out the Fashion Business Club which was co-founded by two friends, Alison Whelan and Courtney Blackman, in late 2005. The club meets every 2 months to discuss business issues and invites guest speakers from various spheres of the industry to promote debate, shared learning and networking.

Courtney and Alison used the online social networking site asmallworld to build the initial membership base and have now expanded it to anyone involved in the fashion industry. They have really taken this club to the next level with interesting speakers and even a bi-monthly newsletter.

The next meeting is on Thursday 25 January at 43 South Molton St, London W1.

You can check out the club’s website here for more info.

The Gap announced today that Paul Pressler has been pushed out of the organisation as it struggles to find ways to turn the business around. Part of the problems the company is facing is addressed in my previous post: "Mind the Gap?"

I am not surprised by this move as public companies often try to make high-profile leadership changes to signal to the market that they have recognised a problem and are trying to fix it. Whether they actually manage to turn things around, remains to be seen. You can read more about it in today’s WWD – their prognosis for the company’s future is not terribly optimistic.

Check out this cool photo from Getty Images that my friend (and 360 Fashion member) Diane Pernet just posted on her "A Shaded View on Fashion" Blog at  http://dianepernet.typepad.com/diane/2007/01/dp_for_sale_on_.html. You can see the reflection of the model walking down the catwalk in Diane’s glasses.

Diane is an iconic figure in the fashion industry and has a network of co-bloggers around the world who help to keep the content on the "A Shaded View on Fashion" site fresh and up to date. On a given day, there are posts about fashion happenings from three different continents. Diane is also a bonafide entrepreneur, having been part of the team to launch iqons.com (tipped as the myspace for fashion industry) and the You Wear It Well film festival of fashion film shorts.

I met Diane for the first time in February last year at the Charles Anastase show during Paris Fashion Week. Here is a picture I took of her before the show.

I have started receiving invitations to fashion shows, showrooms  and exhibitions for upcoming fashion weeks in Paris, London and New York. I’ll keep posting them up here as I receive them.

Invitations are a bi-annual way of reinforcing designer’s brand identity. It is amazing what some designers are able to do with a small piece of paper to make their creative vision for the season sing out from the page. In this digital era, invitations have taken a new dimension as people play around with digital elements to make the invitations come alive.

Rajesh Pratap Singh, New Delhi and Paris
I met Pratap and his sister-in-law Sapna at Delhi Fashion Week in April last year. His is one of the most talked-about collections on the Indian Fashion Scene. Beautiful minimalist lines and a muted colour palette make Pratap a stand-out in the colourful frenzy that is Indian fashion. What’s more, on the business side, Sapna is the driving force behind managing this rapidly growing business. With an MBA from INSEAD and a good understanding of how to get things done in India, the business is much stronger as a result.

This is a label to watch. Check out www.pratap.ws.

VPL, New York
Victoria Bartlett designs for VPL New York and the business is managed by my friend Kikka Hanazawa that I met at business school. Kikka has years of experience in the fashion industry including a stint at Theory where she headed up strategy.

Check out www.vplnyc.com

Wendy and Jim, Vienna and Paris

The wonderful Anina introduced me to Wendy and Jim in the Autumn. I have not seen their collections in person yet, but hope to check it out this season. Not sure if I will be in Paris that night or not, but the invitation looks cool.

More images are on the fun website at www.wujsympathisant.com

The semi-annual harvesting of the fruits of menswear designers from all over the world has just ended In Milan, and I have to say, it was a bumper crop.

I never planned use this blog as an editorial on fashion trends or styling, but the menswear looks that have come out of Milan this season are really strong, and give strong direction for mens fashion. For the first time in awhile, things look fresh, and that’s got to be good for business.

I have selected a few of my favourite looks – these are the styles that I seriously dig – and I am no conceptualist. I think these are wearable commercial looks as well.

Best looks

From sharp tailoring  at Etro and Bottega Veneta, to long knits and layering at Burberry and Valentino, menswear was spot on this season, with a bit of colour or new silhouette to freshen the looks.

The ongoing trouser debate was truly challenged by J Lindeberg who went wide. I actually like the way this looks. Some disagreed though and the rock star skinny was still inny as we saw at Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana.

CK, J Lindeberg, Etro and Prada worked the knitwear long and fast, in both muted and colourful hues.

And to top it all off, the perfect trench from a triumphant Mr. Lindeberg, followed by the perfect high DB black tuxedo from Mr. Valentino

[photos: Marco Maceira from style.com]

Speaking of the new trends I mentioned in a previous post, style.com just posted a summary of trends (well, its 221 photos, so not a summary in actuality) for women’s S/S 07. My favourites, as I mentioned, were the eighties revival and futurism.

I couldn’t help but take note of the pinup girls trend. It made me think right back to the launch of Madonna’s Confessions on  Dancefloor album in the Autumn of 2005, where she pranced around in a purple leotard in Hung Up video. Some people (and countries) were scandalised by it at the time (see this article about her purple-leotarded performance being banned in Malaysia ). Let’s just say not everyone could appreciate this latest Madonna avatar. But given the looks shown in this part of the trend watch on style.com, many designers loved  the look (maybe unconsciously?) and channeled it in their S/S 07 collections. Though they might not admit it, Madonna is their pinup girl. Now, too bad she couldn’t get a royalty stream from that as well.

[photo from madonna.com, Confessions on a Dancefloor]