Dries Van Noten | Source: Girl Scene

The Insider’s Outsider (WSJ)
“In today’s fashion world of corporate ownership, design by committee and mass production and sales, Belgian designer Dries Van Noten is an anomaly. Since he launched his brand in 1985, the 53-year-old Van Noten has lived and worked in Antwerp, avoiding the fashion capitals circuit except for his shows in Paris.”

Too Much Demand, Too Little Space: Chinese Vogue (Forbes)
“The diminutive Angelica Cheung presides over Vogue China from her office in one of Beijing’s many tower blocks… This is a woman who – in the midst of a crisis that has pitted publishers against each other in a to-the-death fight for advertising ink – actually needs to continually increase editorial volume to keep up with advertising demands.”

India Is Poised to Be Fashion’s New Muse (CNBC)
“This week, India opened its doors to foreign retailers in a move that is expected to open the floodgates to western brands entering the skyrocketing Indian market… Stores like Salvatore Ferragamo and LVMH’s Louis Vuitton have been inching into the vast Indian fashion market for some time… This new policy will be a ‘game changer’ for the retail industry in India”

Hearst: We’ll Have More Than 1 Million Digital Subscribers in 2012 (Mashable)
“David Carey, president of magazine publisher Hearst Corp, expects the company will have more than 1 million paying digital subscribers by the end of 2012…Unlike other magazine publishers such as Conde Nast, Hearst does not offer print subscribers free access to the digital editions of its magazines.”

Chris Moore Catwalking: A celebration of the London catwalk (Telegraph)
“For 43 years, photographer Chris Moore has tirelessly tread fashion’s ‘front line’, angling for the best spot at the end of the catwalk, and discreetly capturing unforgettable moments backstage. Having cut his teeth at Vogue in the ’50s assisting Cecil Beaton and Henry Clarke, Moore first covered the Paris Haute Couture shows in 1967, and followed the growing catwalk circuit which developed soon after.”

Dries Van Noten Spring/Summer 2012 | Source: Style.com

Dries Van Noten: Illuminating a Cityscape (IHT)
“Dries Van Noten’s show Wednesday was a magnificent sweep of imagination and invention compressed into elegant, modern clothes. There is no doubt that Paris, which comes last on the international calendar, holds the creative corner… What is required to succeed here is an exceptional vision and the ability of an established designer to change without breaking an identity.”

Inside Dior, fashion’s besieged atelier (Telegraph)
“For reasons it must wish didn’t exist, Christian Dior has been the most-talked about fashion house of 2011. From the moment the footage of John Galliano’s racist outburst went viral in March, the house has been under siege. Galliano’s guilty verdict a few weeks ago only intensified speculation about his replacement.”

A Model Business (China International Business)
“China is the world’s fastest-growing fashion market and the crème-de-la crème of the sector are all flocking here in search of business opportunities. Even the grande dame herself, American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, came last year — the fashion-world equivalent of a state visit — and was blown away by the buzz of energy and creativity.”

Tablets: Ultimate Buying Machines (WSJ)
“Retailers have found an interesting characteristic of consumers who browse their websites using tablets: They’re much more likely to pull the trigger on purchases than other online shoppers… Tablets still account for only a small percentage of overall e-commerce, but they are punching above their weight. While the conversion rate—orders divided by total visits—is 3% for shoppers using a traditional PC, it is 4% or 5% for shoppers using tablets.”

Fashion Bloggers, Posted and Represented (NY Times)
“Indeed, seemingly every fashion brand is working with bloggers these days, including mainstream brands like the Gap (which featured the avant-garde-leaning Susie Bubble in a campaign), DKNY (which hired the photo blogger Jamie Beck to shoot behind the scenes at its recent runway show)… But deciding which opportunities to accept can be tricky for bloggers, who risk overexposure and being seen as a corporate shill. A blogger’s influence is derived from independence.”

Dries Van Noten, courtesy of IHT

It’s day two of the BoF India Fashion Week and today we turn our attention to Sustainable Luxury, the theme of the most recent IHT Luxury Conference, held this year in India, home of age-old craftsmanship and artisanale traditions.

NEW DELHI, India — “What does an economic collapse and a terrorist attack have to do with sustainable luxury?” Everything, strategist and author Jem Bendell suggested as he addressed the attendees of the International Herald Tribune’s annual conference on Luxury held last week.

The event was re-scheduled from December of last year, due to the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. The topic for this year’s conference was Sustainable Luxury—a phrase whose meaning has expanded to include more than just corporate social responsibility (CSR). The global economic downturn has precipitated a major shift in both consumer behaviour and expectations, affecting the bottom line of many luxury brands and calling into question the sustainability of the sector itself.

As Suzy Menkes, Fashion Editor of the IHT, noted in her opening address, “these are tough, rough times in the luxury world… and those sensitive to the shifting mood doubt that the 15 years of expansive growth can return in the same heady, crazy way”.

… Continue Reading