Canton Road, Hong Kong | Source: Asian Central

Hong Kong is firmly at the heart of China’s new cultural revolution (Guardian)
“The richer China has become, the more they visit Hong Kong to shop. ‘Luxury brands are forecasting year-on-year growth of 35%,’ says Helen Willerton, former managing director of Chloé Asia Pacific. ‘Mainlanders fly in for a few days, save money on accommodation by staying in three-star hotels, and spend on high-end retail – watches, jewellery and fashion.’”

Gap weaves fabric of L.A. into 1969 jeans campaign (LA Times)
“To bring its 1969 Premium Jeans line closer to the heart of the designer denim industry, the apparel giant last year opened a creative design office in a gritty section of downtown L.A. near the fashion district. Now Gap is putting its L.A. vibe at the core of a global marketing campaign.”

European vs American luxury: is there a difference? (FT)
“Proenza often seems more design-led than many of its NY fashion week peers… which are more rooted in the American sports wear tradition of combining super-luxurious materials with super-uncomplicated shapes. This is one of the reasons VFG bought them it the first place; its work does not, in fact, scream ‘American!’ It sort of whispers ‘cool chic.’”

Chloé’s Former Chairman Is Taking Over at St. John (The Cut)
“Ralph Toledano, who was the CEO and chairman of Chloé for eleven years before stepping down last August, is said to be the new chairman of St. John, reports WWD.”

Milk Meets Nicola Formichetti (Milk Blog)
“The digital approach is very important, it’s the future. But we should not forget about our reality, the physical world. We always need to embrace new things, but never be dependent on them.”

Clare Waight Keller | Source: Chloé

Hannah MacGibbon out, Clare Waight Keller in at Chloé (Telegraph)
“Chloé have announced via their Twitter feed and a statement on their website, that Hannah MacGibbon is set to leave the label she has headed up since 2008, to be replaced by ex-Pringle of Scotland designer Clare Waight Keller.”

In fashion, the brand plays on (LA Times)
“A trend toward the further depersonalizing of brands [is] in the future. ‘The last thing you want to do is have your brand tied to a personality, especially in an industry where bad behavior is the norm.’ Brand identities will be crafted around heritage and associations rather than a designer personality.”

The End Of The Supermodel (Forbes)
“Looking at the most recent models list, it’s clear to me that successful models are now even more removed from Hollywood. Most of them are not household names… The supermodel era, as it was defined two decades ago, is dead. In its place, however, there’s a more interesting model—one that has more in common with Wall Street than Hollywood.”

How a Young Fashion Designer Stands Out in a Crowded Market (Entrepreneur)
“When Rebecca Minkoff co-founded a New York-based luxury handbags company in 2005, her goal was to develop a high-quality product that was both practical and sexy. What she didn’t expect — especially in the competitive fashion industry — was that sales would rise so quickly.”

For These Designers, Mom Knew Best (NY Times)
“In ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’ Oscar Wilde wrote: ‘All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.’ Fashion designers get around this problem by incorporating their mother’s way of dressing into their work. On the occasion of Mother’s Day, several shared their primal style memories.”

Louis Vuitton boutique Warsaw, opened 2010 | Source: Luxguru

Poland: luxury’s next promised land (FT)
“Euromonitor has a report out, and this one’s a doozy: it says Poland is the world’s fourth fastest growing luxury market… ‘Between 2005 and 2010, the [Polish] luxury goods market grew by 50 per cent in real terms, [while] China achieved real growth of 59 per cent over the same period.’”

Hannah MacGibbon staying at Chloé (Telegraph)
“The gossip mill would have it that Chloé bosses were poised to squeeze MacGibbon, who took the helm at the French label in 2008, out of her illustrious role… But it looks like it may all have been hot air, with Chloé’s chief executive officer Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye confirming on Friday that it’s business as usual for the design team.”

Luxury brand names take Google fight to High Court (Independent)
“Some of the world’s most prestigious brand names are to fight a legal battle in the High Court over Google search terms…’The defendant’s selection of adwords that are identical to the claimant’s famous and distinctive marks takes unfair advantage of their reputation,’ the claim states, adding that the intention is to ‘benefit from their power of attraction, their reputation and their prestige.’”

LVMH Sales Exceed Analysts’ Estimates (Bloomberg)
“[LVMH] said first-quarter sales rose 17 percent, beating analysts’ estimates, as wealthy customers bought more Givenchy handbags and Hublot watches… Revenue at the fashion and leather-goods unit, LVMH’s largest, rose 17 percent, the company said, led by growth at the Louis Vuitton brand.”

Madame Grès as Sculptor (IHT)
“Madame Grès, the legendary creator of the sensual austerity of a draped dress, died in obscurity more than 17 years ago. But her (invented) name — the pseudonym with which her artist husband signed his paintings — has sprung back to life in Paris this spring. … Prepare to see shape and drape as an evolution of 21st-century minimalism.”

Stella McCartney Spring 2011 Look Book | Source: Stella McCartney

Women Designers and the Quiet Revolution (Guardian Weekend)
“From Phoebe Philo at Céline to Stella McCartney to Hannah MacGibbon at Chloé, women designers are at the forefront of fashion right now… When women design clothes for women, they do it differently. For women, clothes are not just seen, they are felt from the inside.”

Luxury stores caught out by surge in demand (FT)
“[Louis Vuitton] is not the only luxury goods company to have been caught unawares by the strength of demand after last year’s slump. Chanel has pushed up the price of its classic quilted leather bags by 20%… while Salvatore Ferragamo says sales have risen by 20% since June.”

Optimistic Feelings as Rich Buyers Return (Reuters)
“Optimism is in the air at fashion houses Christian Dior and Lanvin… Consumption is back in Europe… and the market has picked up again in Russia. There was a time when our affluent clients did not want to spend, but now it is over.”

Luxury brands must allocate more budget to online advertising (Luxury Daily)
“Luxury brands must invest much more heavily in online advertising or find themselves out of touch with the young consumers who might be their biggest clients in the coming decades.”

Call It a Victory for Maturity (NY Times)
“It’s worth keeping in mind that Azzedine Alaïa and Karl Lagerfeld are doing some of their best work past age 70… Indeed, maturity in fashion, as Hussein Chalayan suggested, ‘is knowing exactly what you need and doing it really well.’”

American Apparel Summer 2010 | Source: American Apparel

American Apparel: The public won’t wear it (Guardian)
“[American Apparel] was now a vertically integrated company that seemed dedicated to getting women horizontal.  It turns out that, even in the fashion business, there’s such a thing as too much sex.”

Burberry: Runway to Checkout (NY Times)
“Burberry plans to offer customers a substantial portion of its Prorsum spring 2011 runway collection — to be shown Sept. 21 in London — for immediate online sale, with delivery in six to eight weeks.”

Thoroughly Modern Milliners (Vogue UK)
“With visionaries like Lady Gaga around, there’s a feeling that we should all be making more effort with our headgear – especially as the class of 2010 are redefining the art of millinery.”

French luxury vet steps in at Chloé (NY Post)
“On tap to replace Toledano is Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye, a veteran of French luxury conglomerate LVMH and Walt Disney Co., who most recently engineered the turnaround of British department store Liberty.”

Louis Vuitton’s Global Flavor (WWD)
“Louis Vuitton’s holiday windows worldwide will have an Indian flavor this year. Starting Nov. 5, displays will pay tribute to Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, an ancient and joyous occasion to light oil lamps, wear new clothes and distribute sweets.”