Frida Giannini | Source: Vogue Taiwan

How Gucci Got Its Groove Back (Departures)
“Today she’s happy being the woman behind the brand, unlike Ford, who was ultimately bigger than Gucci, which is why, in part, he’s no longer there. (Ford declined to comment for this article.) ‘After almost ten years, it’s difficult to divide myself from Gucci,’ she says. ‘I love this company, and I have such respect for its history.’”

Azzedine Alaïa, a furious fashion talent (Independent)
“Basking in the knowledge that, more than any other designer, he occupies neutral territory – it is not uncommon for M Alaïa to be seen front row at many of his competitors’ shows, or indeed for other designers to wear his clothes – this is not a man who has been overly worried about what others might think of him and that, too, in fashion circles, is most unusual.”

The Rise of Consumption Equality (WSJ)
“It used to be so cool to be wealthy—an elite education, exclusive mobile communications, a private screening room, a table at Annabel’s on London’s Berkeley Square. Now it’s hard to swing a cat without hitting yet another diatribe against income inequality. People sleep in tents to protest that others are too damn wealthy.”

Fashion Hangover (Vogue)
“Louis Vuitton is going to war with Warner Bros: suing the entertainment giant for profits from it recent blockbuster sequel The Hangover Part II, for using fake copies of its bags in the film. Despite requests by the luxury label to not feature counterfeit bags – created by Diophy which is also being sued – the fake Louis Vuitton luggage appeared in a scene filmed at the airport.”

Cathy Horyn Recounts the Year in Fashion (NY Times)
“‘Give me time, and I’ll give you a revolution,’ Alexander McQueen once said. Like anyone born to achieve, he resented the small distractions — and the fashion business provides plenty of them.”

Michael Kors | Source: Life

Michael Kors Seeks to Raise $792.3 Million in U.S. IPO (Bloomberg)
“Michael Kors Holdings Ltd., the luxury-clothing company, is seeking to raise as much as $792.3 million in a U.S. initial public offering as the company’s founder and the biggest investor trim their stakes… Michael Kors, the designer who founded the company in 1981, is planning to cut his stake as retailers of luxury goods outperform mid-priced department stores and discounters this year.”

Gucci sales not slowing yet, has plan B ready (Reuters)
“Luxury brand Gucci has not seen any impact on its business from global economic woes but it would be prepared to react quickly and cut costs if sales slowed, its chief executive said in a newspaper interview. Patrizio di Marco told Le Figaro that Gucci, part of French luxury and retail group PPR, had a ‘Plan B’ that could see it delaying store improvement work while sticking to its store opening programme.”

U.S. retailers tailor fashions to Asian tastes (LA Times)
“As the U.S. market continues to sputter and China’s continues to boom, U.S. retailers are updating business plans to include the world’s second-largest economy as well as the rest of growing Asia. Just as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Apple have erected temples of capitalism in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, Western apparel makers are infusing their clothing lines with Asian sensibilities in look, feel and size.”

Future Classic (WSJ)
“At the house of Roger Vivier, the buckle reigns supreme… The buckle, which has adorned Vivier shoes and handbags for more than four decades, is a signature that you recognize without realizing that you have… But Bruno Frisoni, the dashing, bespectacled and asparagus-slim Frenchman who is artistic director of the label, has quietly been masterminding another house signature: the Prismick.”

A glint in his tie (FT)
“‘Clothes maketh the man,’ goes the cliché: but what exactly do they maketh of him? What, for example, to make of the landslide of lads in spangly sweaters at the autumn/winter Prada show?… For many men the latter might seem the most likely answer, except for the fact that those metallic sweaters are currently hitting shop floors and selling out.”

Vogue: The Covers | Source: mostmagnific.com

LONDON, United Kingdom — There are two ways in which a fashion magazine can be successful: either by featuring clothes with which the reader can identify or by stimulating the reader’s imagination. It is the old tussle between commerciality and creativity. Except, of course, it isn’t a tussle that existed before fashion magazines became mass market and needed to chase and keep readers who, for most of the twentieth century, never even opened a ‘glossy’ magazine, which until the fifties was still a very exclusive and small circulation type of publication.

The effects of commercialisation can be seen very clearly in Vogue: The Covers (Abrams), which is a visual threnody for subtleties lost. The change happened comparatively quickly in the sixties when the clothes and the elegance they epitomised gently morphed into the woman — and normally the famous and easily recognised woman — as the face became the selling point: a clear indication of the power of the cosmetics industry over magazine publishers. The battle between clothes and make-up was largely over by the end of the decade as flawless faces and worryingly perfect teeth, seen through slightly parted lips in order to emphasise the lipstick shade, routed the clothes which had dominated the previous three decades.

… Continue Reading

Uniqlo 5th Avenue Flagship in New York | Source: High Snobiety

Fast Retailing May Buy Bigger Rival in U.S., Europe on Yen (Bloomberg)
“Fast Retailing Co., Asia’s largest clothing chain, may buy a bigger rival in the U.S. or Europe after the yen’s advance to a postwar high against the dollar boosted the Japanese company’s purchasing power… The billionaire aims to take advantage of the yen’s climb to expand outside Japan, where an unexpectedly long summer damped demand for fall and winter clothing, contributing to a 12 percent decline in profit in the year through August.”

Calvin Klein’s largest market outside the US – China (Red Luxury)
“Outside of the US, China is Calvin Klein’s largest market with 50 percent annual sales growth for the past two years. Its China business has pulled ahead of other international markets… The company continues to expect stellar growth ahead. ‘Our business grew 50 percent in 2010, it will grow 50 percent this year and the way we’re going, we could see 50 percent again next year,’ said Tom Murry, chief executive officer and president of Calvin Klein. ‘Our global business has been growing at 10 to 15 percent, so you can see the business here is outpacing the global business by a long shot.’”

Gareth Pugh: His Dark Materials (Independent)
“‘She’s very beautiful. But she looks like she might kill you,’ says Gareth Pugh of model Alla Kostromichova, the lovely if admittedly somewhat intimidating face of his soon-to-launch, limited-edition line of make-up and accessories, designed in collaboration with Mac. And that just about sums up not only the designer’s aesthetic more broadly, but also this latest venture.”

Gucci coup: the Italian fashion house celebrates 90 years in fashion (Telegraph)
“If an essential element of a successful luxury brand is its history and heritage, then Gucci’s is more richly textured than most. In this, the 90th year since the establishment of the first Gucci boutique, the company has celebrated the opening of the Gucci museum in Florence, its founding city.”

Pierre Cardin on banks and working at 89 (BBC News)
“He began his career making costumes for the film-maker Jean Cocteau. Christian Dior took him under his wing and he launched his own label in 1950… In 1959, Cardin courted their further contempt when he launched the first ever ‘pret-a-porter’ (ready-to-wear) show for the mass market. Later he went into merchandising in a major way, with hundreds of Cardin franchises all over the world, many of them not exactly top-of-the-range.”

Gucci Museo | Source: Oyster Magazine

Gucci Feeds Its Florentine Roots (IHT)
“The museum, housed in a 14th-century building in the Piazza della Signoria, is designed to honor the company’s leather goods legacy and to bring it into the 21st century by juxtaposing the innovation of bamboo-handled bags or luxe sports equipment with modern art… The idea of facing off past with present — under the slogan “forever now” — was the brainchild of Frida Giannini, the creative director of the famous brand.”

Paris fashion week strutting under cloudy economy (Reuters)
“Paris Fashion Week kicked off on Tuesday under a cloud of economic pessimism mixed with uncertainty about the creative direction of some of the world’s biggest fashion brands… After New York, London and Milan, Paris closes the season of presentations for next spring and summer with nine days of shows at which designers will be fighting for buyers and media attention amid worries about a possible economic slowdown.”

Cavalli Chief Sees Luxury-Goods Slowdown (Bloomberg)
“Luxury-goods companies should brace for weaker growth in 2012 asEurope’s sovereign debt crisis leads to a slowdown in spending, according to Gianluca Brozzetti, chief executive officer for designerRoberto Cavalli… ‘The luxury sector is not immune,’ CA Cheuvreux analysts including Pierre Lamelin, wrote in a note this month. They estimate that so-called organic sales growth across the industry will slow to 9 percent in 2012 from 15 percent in 2011.”

Hearst Passes 300,000 Monthly Digital Subscribers, Takes a Bow (All Things Digital)
“Hearst, which is about to sell its digital magazines via Amazon’s new tablet, wants the world to know it’s selling its digital magazines on plenty of other gadgets, too: The publisher says it is now racking up more than 300,000 paid digital downloads per month.”

20 Q&As: Gareth Pugh (Dazed Digital)
“In 1991, Gareth Pugh and Katie Shillingford were ten years old. They’re a bit older now – one is a successful fashion designer, and the other works as his stylist and senior fashion editor of Dazed. Graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2003, Dazed was the first to celebrate his work, featuring the red and white balloons from his BA collection on the cover in April 2004… Shillingford talks to her friend about life in 1991, and how the past 20 years have shaped their worlds.”