Andrej Pejic | Source: Deviantart.com

Fashion blurs gender boundaries (Telegraph)
“Transsexuals, transvestites and models with no clear gender affiliation are all the rage in current advertising campaigns and editorials.”

Hermès Shares Jump in Paris After LVMH Increases Holding (Bloomberg)
“Hermès International rose as much as 5 percent in Paris trading after larger luxury-goods rival LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA said it increased its stake in the Birkin bag-maker to more than 20 percent.”

China’s Li & Fung buys Italian fashion house Cerruti (Reuters)
“Li & Fung group’s Trinity has bought Cerruti for 53 million euros ($70 million) from the U.S. fund which salvaged the Italian fashion house best-known for its woollen men’s suits and 1881 perfume.”

V&A to present Japanese Yohji Yamamoto work (Fibre 2 Fashion)
“Next spring the V&A will open the first UK solo exhibition celebrating the life and work of Yohji Yamamoto, one of the world’s most influential and enigmatic fashion designers.”

Name You Need To Know: Fashion Designer Bibhu Mohapatra (Forbes)
“New York City has experienced a bit of a fashion renaissance lately…another newcomer is poised to join their ranks, in a very different design niche. His name: Bibhu Mohapatra. His specialty: ball gowns.”

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade | Source: mdpNY

Slow Month for Retailers, but Strong Finish Is Seen (NY Times)
“Major sectors like apparel, luxury goods and jewelry experienced slight sales declines…but retailing analysts said the declines were minor and that many consumers were saving their powder for the day after Thanksgiving, the blowout shopping day known as Black Friday.”

Cellphones That Speak Luxury (IHT)
“The market for mobile phones is 30 years old, at best, dating from the first commercial cellular system installed by N.T.T. in Tokyo, in 1979. Compare that with 300 years for watches. Consider it a sign, then, of cellphones’ burgeoning promise in luxury circles that among the players who have staked fresh claims in the market this year are Swiss watchmakers.”

Diamonds: An Investor’s Best Friend? (WSJ)
“They are rare, beautiful, valuable and a girl’s best friend but traditionally diamonds haven’t really been considered an asset class in their own right. Diamonds do not have the “safe haven” status of gold, and their prices are more volatile than the precious metal.”

Cerruti Opening Furniture Store (WWD)
“He might have sold his fashion label nearly a decade ago, but that’s not stopping Nino Cerruti from pulling up a chair in Miami — literally… After being renamed Cerruti Baleri earlier this year, the family-run firm combines more than a century’s worth of textile manufacturing know-how, fashion design and the craft of furniture design.”

Gucci brothers design handbags (Grazia)
“If you can name-drop ‘Gucci’ in your new fashion line, you’ve pretty much got a sure fire recipe for success… Alessandro and Guccio Gucci, great-grandsons of Guccio Gucci who founded the iconic fashion house in 1921, want to make their own mark with their collection.”