Christian Dior Couture Spring 2012 | Source: Style.com

Dior Designer: On the Doorstep? (IHT)
“The black and white, filmic Christian Dior haute couture show on Monday marked nearly a year since John Galliano left the brand in disgrace. But Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, confirmed that there would be no announcement about a new designer this week and that the ‘suspense’ would continue.”

How the other half dress: Paris says merci as haute couture sales rise (Guardian)
“The demand for haute couture is a reflection of economic reality. Not of the recession, but of the polarisation of wealth. Fifteen years ago, there seemed little economic logic in creating beautiful dresses which cost 20 times more than those available in the top Bond Street boutiques. But the emergence of a super-rich strata of society, tiny in number but fabulously wealthy, has created a niche market for whom couture makes perfect sense.”

Now, Online-Only Fashion Shows for Busy Editors (On the Runway)
“KCD, the public relations company that produces fashion shows for top labels like Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, announced on Monday that it is offering a new service wherein it will produce some shows in an entirely digital format so that overtaxed editors can watch them online.”

Little Red (Litigious) Shoes (NY Times)
“This week a federal appellate court will hear arguments in a case involving this very question. The issue arises in connection with shoes, specifically, the vivid red soles beneath Christian Louboutin shoes.”

Fashion’s beautiful relationship with art (The National)
“There’s a real buzz about the vivid, almost saccharine sweet pastel shades that will define spring/summer 2012 fashion. That, and of course the other huge trend of the moment: thrilling prints and 3D textiles. Sometimes it’s hard to tell one from the other because the surface is textured, which heightens the overall trompe l’oeil effect of the print.”

Dior Couture by Patrick Demarchelier | Source: Fashion Diary

How long can Dior thrive without a couturier? (France 24)
“Ten months after John Galliano was sacked over a racist outburst, Dior has yet to name a new chief designer — but sales are booming. Which begs the question: how long can the French fashion house thrive without a couturier at the helm?”

Rio 2012: what can the fashion industry do to become more sustainable? (Guardian)
“This new ‘fast fashion’ model has considerably changed the role of fashion retailers in their supply-chains, specifically how and where they buy… Cheap fashion uses cheap fibres, such as polyester and cotton. While polyester is an oil-based commodity, cotton on the other hand is not exactly the ‘good’ crop it is usually perceived as.”

Asian shoppers and tourists boost Burberry (Reuters)
“British luxury brand Burberry posted a 22 percent rise in third-quarter revenue as wealthy shoppers and tourists, particularly in Asia, showed their resilience to shaky economies in Europe and the United States.”

In the ‘Twilight’ Zone (IHT)
“Alexander McQueen is introducing a made-to-order line with Huntsman of London’s Savile Row. And that news, along with the upscale clothes displayed in the brand’s Milan showroom, confirm that the tilt in men’s wear is toward the formal and the evening.”

Milan’s Rising Star: A Conversation With Umit Benan (On the Runway)
“His clothing collections, under the label Umit Benan, have made Umit Benan Sahin a rising star in Milan, where he moved after working briefly in New York. In 2009, he won a prize for new talent sponsored by a trade show in Florence that raised his profile, and last June, he was hired by Trussardi to design its men’s and women’s collections.”

Givenchy Couture A/W 2011 | Source: stylefrizz

All about the Atelier (FT)
“It’s possible we’re thinking about this all wrong – this being the now-shrunk-to-three-days-with-only-six-full-fledged-couture-brands couture shows. It’s possible we’re asking the wrong questions. It’s possible that, instead of perennially rending our garments and plunging into the long tunnel of debate over whether couture is relevant in a not-entirely-post-recession 21st century, we should reconsider our assumptions.”

The battle at the heart of French fashion house Hermès (Independent)
“It’s not without reason that Arnault, the man at the head of it all, is dubbed ‘the wolf in the cashmere coat’ and his far-from-demure entrepreneurial style is well-known, not to mention entirely at odds with the more discreet and traditional values this proudly independent name represents.”

Boosting America, in Her Own Fashion (NY Times)
“Michelle Obama’s impact on fashion extends far beyond the ‘made in America’ label stitched into her dress. The optimism, glamour and accessibility that she communicates through her style of dressing transcends cultural borders and economic boundaries.

Jimmy Choo sees profits treble despite sales fall (This is Money)
“Jimmy Choo’s profits have more than trebled despite a slump in sales abroad… estimated to be worth £500m, [the company shows] turnover six per cent lower at £82m in 2009 but pretax profit up from £4.8m to £15.3m – thanks to big cuts in sales and administration costs.”

Rankin’s beautiful model army (Telegraph)
“Daphne Self is an 80-year-old model, Vivienne Westwood a fashion designer, Elizabeth I the most renowned queen of England. A more unlikely group of superheroines you would be hard pressed to come up with… This at least is the hope behind Snapped! , a new exhibition of fashion portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery in London.”

Coveted vs. Coveted | Source: Signature9

Eminent Domain Name: What To Do When Your Brand Is Coveted (Signature9)
“Late last week, Erin Kleinberg, Stephanie Mark and Jake Rosenberg launched a new fashion blog. The design was solid, the content striking and the concept – a peek inside the closets of fashion editors and insiders – met with enthusiasm. The name, however, was met with raised eyebrows.”

Onstage or Backstage, a Kiss for Paris (NY Times)
“The couture shows have been pretty wonderful this season. Nobody is crabbing about them being out of touch, maybe because a lot of editors just finished preseason collections and are bored to death.”

Prada Appoints Banks for Planned Hong Kong Share Offering (Bloomberg)
“Prada SpA, the Italian fashion house known for its triangular logo, has decided to start the process for selling shares in an initial public offering in Hong Kong.”

Emmanuelle Alt: Vogue Paris ‘will be the same but different’ (Telegraph)
“‘French Vogue today is a successful magazine and it has a strong identity, so it will probably stay along the same lines’ she explained. ‘But, I mean, some things will change of course, because we have a different eye – It will be the same, but different!’”

Behind-the-Scenesters: Tony King (Style File)
“King was a founder of flagship digital services agency Createthe Group, and as such had a hand in bringing dozens of blue-chip luxury brands online. Here, King talks to Style.com about fashion’s digital deficiency, the future of print media, and using a Sharpie for inspiration.”

Christian Dior Couture 2011 | Source: Style.com

And Now Couture (On the Runway)
“Not even 24 hours after the Paris men’s shows had ended they were a dim memory. The women had moved in for the spring haute couture shows, like a temperance league.”

Asian shoppers thirst for luxury (BBC)
“So many times in the past few decades, the insatiable appetite of the Americans [helped the world out of recession]… But if China’s emerging class of consumers put their mind to it… their buying power will shape the needs and demands of the rest of the world.”

Coach U.S. sales soar, but cost pressures rise (Reuters)
“Coach reported a larger-than-expected quarterly profit as U.S. luxury spending rebounded over the holiday season, but the company faces pressure from rising leather costs.”

Islamabad’s first fashion week (Guardian)
“The organisers of the capital’s four-day fashion show hope it will prove that there’s more to Pakistan than politics. ‘Islamabad fashion week will change the way people think of Pakistan… There is a bright side to Pakistan, which is modern, secular and upwardly progressive.’”

Tod’s to restore Rome’s Colosseum (Telegraph)
“Tod’s, the Italian luxury shoe group… has announced a new project to fund the cost of the restoration of Rome’s historic Colosseum, at a cost of €25 million. The project, which will be carried out in eight stages, has been finalised by the Italian ministry of Culture.”

Fashion Crowdsourcing Panel at DLD (DLD Conference)
“The Fashion Panel was all about the use of crowdsourcing for fashion brands. Vanessa Friedman moderated the talk with Natalie Massenet from the online luxury fashion retailer Net-A-Porter, who shortly before won the Aenne Burda Award, the Creative Adviser of H&M, Margareta van den Bosch and Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU. The main discussion focussed on whether the customers still want strong curators or prefer bringing in their own ideas and designs.”

Mad Men! Romancing the Suit (IHT)
“In tailored suits and noble coats, a whole new generation is finding an antidote to casual sportswear. It is as if the cast of ‘Mad Men,’ the cult television series based on a New York advertising office in the 1960s, had migrated to the men’s shows and been re-branded for the 21st century.”

Couture Isn’t So Dead, After All (Fashionologie)
“How many articles have been written heralding the imminent death of couture? But after Alexander McQueen reported that its custom order business is profitable last week, executives across the board seem optimistic about the state of couture.”

Prada Said to Decide on IPO (Bloomberg)
“Prada, the Italian fashion company that has scrapped initial public offerings four times in 11 years, may decide to proceed with an IPO by the end of the month… An announcement could follow as early as February.”

Berlin’s fashion scene struts into the future (The Local)
“Berlin is seen as the up and coming place for new designers, this is the second Fashion Week that we’ve been to and you can see that it’s progressed even since last year… Things are growing here from season to season.”

Full Spectrum, Less Spectacle (NY Times)
“Don’t be fooled by the giant lion at Chanel… Most of the remaining half-dozen or so houses that show haute couture scaled down their presentations… a nip here, a tuck there and a P.R. man explaining in a hushed tone that the designer wanted to ‘return to couture’s roots.’”

Luxury shoppers pull back in June (Bloomberg)
“MasterCard Advisor’s SpendingPulse reported late Wednesday that luxury spending dropped 3.9 percent in June from a year earlier, the first decline since November.”

Primark’s sales boosted by £12 dresses and £10 shoes (Guardian)
“Its £12 floral dresses and court shoes for a tenner pulled in shoppers, with analysts estimating like-for-like sales increased 7% in the 16 weeks to 19 June. That is just shy of the 8% figure reported for the first six months and better than high street rivals.”

Tesco to make its West End fashion debut (Telegraph)
“The supermarket… has already looked at potential sites on Oxford Street and High Street Kensington. The store would be branded F&F after Tesco’s own-label clothing range, previously called Florence & Fred.”

In Fashion, Lifestyle, Not Age, Defines a Consumer Group (Forbes India)
“Renzo Rosso looks every bit the rebel. His graying curls peep out of a baseball cap and tattoos pop out from under his T-shirt as he animatedly talks about the denim brand he started fresh out of college and his fashion philosophy.”

Chanel Haute Couture Spring 2010 | Source: Ledefile

Bonjour Couture (Vogue.com)
“Just as Haute Couture Fashion Week begins the high fashion market has posted some very positive sales news. Top Parisian labels, including Chanel, Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier, have revealed a marked increase in both sales and demand.”

Cosmetics from Burberry and Topshop (FT)
“Fashion brands are often able to make that transition from clothes to fragrance, but with make-up it is harder. Women will still want to go to the brands that specialise and are seen as beauty experts.”

Consumers consider paid, sponsored bloggers less trustworthy (Biz Report)
“Is content by paid or sponsored bloggers seen as any more or less trustworthy than that provided via ‘earned’ media? Apparently so. But this won’t stop the growth of social media sponsorship.”

Vogue is first European fashion magazine available on the iPad (iPad News Tracker)
“The Vogue iPad app from Condé Nast is a fusion of glossy magazine and up-to-date content. The application can be downloaded with immediate effect from the iTunes store, making Vogue the first-ever fashion publication to be available on the iPad in Europe.”

Beautiful and Islamic: the new look on the catwalk (Independent)
“Welcome to the world inhabited by the ‘Hijabistas’, a trendy set of up and coming Muslim fashion designers who are doing their bit to forge an indigenous British Islamic identity.”

Yohji Yamamoto | Source: Coolspotters

The Yohji Yamamoto story (Telegraph)
“Yohji Yamamoto, the charismatic and mysterious Japanese designer, is allowing the first-ever published biography about his life to be published. The book, entitled (enigmatically, of course) ‘My Dear Bomb’, will be released worldwide in October.”

Ferragamo Sees ‘Very Good’ 2010 (Bloomberg)
“Salvatore Ferragamo, the Italian shoemaker, expects ‘a very good’ 2010 as the weaker euro boosts sales and margins, and consumers return to pay full price for luxury footwear and accessories, Chief Executive Officer Michele Norsa said.”

Best foot forward as Office seeks buyer (FT)
“Office, the fashion-forward high street shoe retailer owned by Sir Tom Hunter, has put itself up for sale with a price tag of £170m. The chain was bought… in 2003 for about £16m. It has since expanded from 21 stores, mainly in London, to a national presence of 125 outlets.”

Ready-to-wear trends to impact on July’s haute couture (Relaxnews)
“Even if most designers would say there are no trends in haute couture, some of the previews of the collections obtained by Relaxnews hint at the opposite.”

Kirkwood For Pilotto (Vogue.com)
“Peter Pilotto and British shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood have announced a new footwear collaboration. The capsule collection will make its debut at Pilotto’s show at London Fashion Week in September.”

Christian Lacroix Couture A/W 09, courtesy of Coutorture

Rethinking the rules at Paris couture shows (FT)
“Should couture go big or small? Subtle or over-the-top? These days, this particular niche of the fashion industry seems as volatile in its identity as the price of oil. When the rest of the world is busy doubting the rationale for your existence, a show is effectively a public argument for your worth. But how to make the case most effectively?”

Halston targets growth with heritage collection (Drapers)
“Luxury brand Halston is launching a lower-priced collection and is targeting European expansion.”

Kate Moss ‘to go into business with Sir Philip Green and Simon Cowell’ (Telegraph)
“Kate Moss is poised to go into business with Sir Philip Green and Simon Cowell, creating a billion pound global empire bringing fashion and entertainment together, it has been claimed.”

Critter-Friendly Grows Up (WSJ)
It used to be that synthetic shoes looked fake and cheaply made. But now, a growing number of manufacturers are launching stylish shoes marketed as vegan and animal-friendly for women who don’t want any animal products in their footwear.