Aquazzura Spring 2012 Campaign | Photo: Diego Diaz Marin

FLORENCE, Italy — This month, the BoF Spotlight shines on Aquazzura, a women’s footwear label designed by Colombian-born, Florence-based Edgardo Osorio who creates sexy, high quality shoes at refreshingly reasonable price points under $1000.

After attending Central Saint Martins and the London College of Fashion, Osorio spent over ten years designing footwear for luxury brands including Salvatore Ferragamo and Roberto Cavalli. But when he decided to set out on his own, Osorio spotted an underserved gap in the market and deftly positioned Aquazzura, his ode to a high glam Mediterranean lifestyle, at an entry-level luxury price point.

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DOHA, Qatar — Just before the madness of fashion week season began, I couldn’t resist accepting an invitation from Lama El Moatessem to visit Doha, the capital city of the tiny nation of Qatar, to attend the opening of the Peter Marino-designed flagship for Toujouri, Ms El Moatessem’s three year old fashion brand. How did a little-known Middle Eastern brand get Mr Marino, the go-to architect for powerhouse brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Céline to design its first store? I was intrigued.

At first, driving through Doha doesn’t feel so different from driving through Dubai, the Gulf region’s major international hub. Both are cities with gleaming skyscrapers rising from the desert, in areas which were virtually empty less than a decade earlier, and both have drawn foreigners from all over the world to execute on ambitious economic development plans.

Indeed, in the last six years, Qatar’s population has almost doubled, growing from around 900,000 people in 2006 to almost 1.7 million today. During my 36 hour visit to Qatar, I met people from Spain, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, China, Nepal, the United States, and Egypt, all of whom had chosen to settle in Qatar to work in jobs ranging from manual labour to executive positions in major Qatari companies.

The 300,000 Qatari nationals have a high propensity for acquiring luxury goods, but until recently the vast majority of these products were bought abroad. In 2010, the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund even bought Harrods — yes, I mean the entire landmark luxury department store — from Mohamed Al-Fayed for an estimated £1.5 billion.

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Calvin Klein Mens by Italo Zucchelli | Photo: Karim Sadli for 032c

In Part I, we examined Italo Zucchelli’s philosophy of menswear. Today, we explore the designer’s creative process and approach to innovation.

NEW YORK, United States — A honeyed accent doesn’t give away Italo Zucchelli’s heritage as much as his ability to cut a jacket. A Wagnerian sense of color and experimental materials reveal professional stints with both Romeo Gigli and Jil Sander respectively. He may seem of a piece with European contemporaries like Prada or Raf Simons, but critic and friend Tim Blanks argues that Zucchelli is refining an entirely personal viewpoint, what he calls “subtle futurism,” an evolution sewn discreetly into every collection. Stitch by stitch it could add up to an altogether altered reality.

Everyone agrees Zucchelli has stepped into a big pair of shoes – a pair of Calvin’s as it were. He’s won respect for not kicking them off, but Zucchelli notes the paradox faced by a generation of talented designers who, like him, are breathing new life into old brands: “If all of us were strictly referential we would be criticized. It’s very important to respect the language and understand the staples, but also evolve because time moves on.”

With nearly two decades of witnessing audience reactions to every twist, fold and turn on the runway, Nian Fish warns that the pressure to innovate is ruthless: “If you are safe, they will kill you.” In her opinion, Zucchelli is moving not only the clothes, but also the whole brand forward. Forward? Fashion may innovate, but certainly not in the same way as technology, or does it?

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Calvin Klein Menswear by Italo Zucchelli | Photo: Karim Sadli for 032c

In an exclusive two part interview, courtesy of our friends at 032c, Pierre Alexandre de Looz explores the work of Italo Zucchelli, Calvin Klein men’s collection creative director, known for grafting the infallible promise of technology — the 21st century’s cultural hope — to the fibre of masculine elegance. Today, in Part I, we examine Zucchelli’s menswear philosophy.

NEW YORK, United States — Snug. Well cut. Brilliant. A smack-your-lips example of product design, it defines a point of no return in menswear that equates less with the demise of the top hat than the birth of the iPod. In the story you are about to read, nearly everyone had something to say about Calvin Klein underwear, even the bootlegged kind: MoMA PS1 Curator Klaus Biesenbach, for instance, purchased emergency briefs after losing his luggage on a trip to China and “they are still going strong,” he said, 10 years later. Minimal, clear and universally known, they are like the dark slab of Kubrick’s Space Odyssey, a portal to somewhere beyond our tatty reality. Welcome to the tailored universe of Calvin Klein Men.

Beyond the spread of new men’s fashion rags, growing menswear revenues, and greater assimilation of male customers into the larger fashion system, the Calvin Klein identity sets an ideal stage for modern menswear. If fashion historian Anne Hollander is correct, that “Male dress was always essentially more advanced than female dress throughout fashion history, and tended to lead the way, to set the standard, to make aesthetic propositions to which female fashion responded,” then menswear is the future and the Calvin Klein man is like modernity to the second degree, our escort on the red carpet to a distant horizon.

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Savigny Luxury Index January 2012 | Source: Savigny Partners

LONDON, United Kingdom — It’s been a strong start to 2012 for the luxury good sector, as equity markets made significant gains in January.

Big news

• The Savigny Luxury Index (‘SLI’) outperformed the benchmark MSCI World Index (‘MSCI’) by 6 percentage points, gaining 11 percent over the month of January, relative to an increase of close to 5 percent for the MSCI.

• Investors have been exposed to continued good news.  Indeed almost all luxury groups have announced outstanding Christmas trading and 2011 year-end results driven mainly by growth in Asia excluding Japan.

• However, uncertainties have not dissipated.  Although the US market seems much better, Europe remains a concern, with sector sales highly dependent on tourist spending.

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