The New Creative Establishment | Source: INDUSTRIE Magazine

LONDON, United Kingdom — Today, The Business of Fashion brings you an exclusive preview of The New Creative Establishment, a list of the 50 most influential and inspirational creatives working in fashion today, developed by our friends at INDUSTRIE magazine for their second issue which comes out later this month and was inspired by a much-watched list with a similar name published by Vanity Fair called ‘The New Establishment’.

Ever since the widely-read debut issue of INDUSTRIE hit the stands last May, editors Jens Grede and Erik Torstensson have been carefully creating their list which they say is a “celebration of creativity in fashion.” After the first draft of the list was developed, they sought feedback from fashion insiders and peers, and re-iterated the list several times. The emphasis is on the word ‘new’ as there are obviously some very important longtime names who continue to wield great influence who are not on the list. In the end, “those listed were selected not only for their creative faculties/creative contribution to fashion today but also because of the wider impact their work has had on fashion business, the social and other creative industries.”

So, without further ado, here is The New Creative Establishment from INDUSTRIE magazine. What are your thoughts and opinions? Who deserves to be on the list? Is anyone missing? And what do you think of fashion power lists in general?

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Aldo’s global footprint (Globe and Mail)
“Canadian shoppers are familiar with Aldo shoes. But few realize that this Montreal-based retailer has quietly built an empire that spans 1,500 stores in 55 countries.”

Vera Wang’s Idea of Empire: Marry High, Low, In Between (WSJ)
“Ms. Wang… is pursuing a three-tiered retail strategy of selling through luxury, midpriced and discount stores. A growing number of designers… are trying to deploy similar strategies as economic worries linger.”

Lululemon Grows Fast on a Slim Budget (WSJ)
“Lululemon belongs to an emerging class of retailers focused primarily on designing, making and selling athletic wear to women—and grabbing growing shares of the estimated $15 billion market for women’s fitness attire.”

Tom Ford’s Very Small, Glamorous Show (On the Runway)
“When you’re Tom Ford, and you’ve been away from women’s fashion for six years, more than likely you’ve thought a great deal about your return, perhaps even plotted it down to the last buttonhole.”

Thierry Mugler Appoints New Creative Director (Marie Claire)
“Lady Gaga’s stylist, Nicola Formichetti, has been appointed the new Creative Director of Thierry Mugler… Formichetti was chosen for the role because he represents a new direction in French fashion.”

Prada Autumn/Winter 2009 | Source: Prada

Luxury jewelry maker Richemont eyes Prada stake (New York Post)
“Prada is close to a tie-up with Swiss watch and jewelry maker Richemont that could shake up the luxury landscape worldwide, sources told The Post. The Italian fashion house — whose ambitions to expand have been hampered for years by a crippling debt load — is nearing a deal to sell about a third of the cash-strapped label to Richemont.”

Luxury retailers see shoppers fed up with ‘frugality fatigue’ spend (Telegraph)
“Fortnum & Mason, the luxury department store on London’s Piccadilly, saw like-for-like sales rise by over 10pc in the first three weeks of December, as the weak pound and “frugality fatigue” caused shoppers to splash out.”

U.K. Retailers Post Strong Holiday Results (WSJ)
“Next and John Lewis, a department store operator, are the first of the U.K.’s big retailers to report Christmas trading results, and the results point to a strong result for the sector as a whole. However, both warned that the outlook for 2010 is still tough.”

The public image: Louis Vuitton’s ‘Savoir-Faire’ campaign (FT)
“‘Heritage’ and ‘hand-crafted’ have become catchphrases for the luxury industry since the recession hit, as old names that had embraced fashion during the consumption bubble attempt to shore up their credentials as investment-worthy brands. No campaign has made the connection quite so obvious, however, as that of Louis Vuitton.”

Meet Mr. Gaga | The Stylist Nicola Formichetti (T Magazine)
“Whether or not you know him by name, you’ll recognize the stylist Nicola Formichetti by his aggressively modern looks (Lady Gaga’s metal orb, anyone?). When it comes to his personal style, Formichetti attributes his unrestricted creativity to his multicultural upbringing, which was shared between Italy and Japan.”

LONDON, United Kingdom — Last night on X-Factor, one of the most popular shows in British television history, Lady Gaga laid down the digital pop star gauntlet again, dressed in Gareth Pugh’s fantastical creations from Spring/Summer 2007 while performing Bad Romance, the first release from her second album The Fame Monster. The song originally debuted at the seminal show of the Spring/Summer 2010 collections staged by Alexander McQueen. As was widely reported at the time, when Ms. Gaga announced the song’s debut to her more than 1 million Twitter followers, it promptly crashed the SHOWStudio site which was live-streaming the McQueen show.

Since then, Gaga has performed Bad Romance at the American Music Awards, the Ellen Degeneres Show, the Jay Leno Show, and now X-Factor, reaching millions of viewers around the world. But even more interestingly, she has gone beyond the typical old media promotion circuit, using the internet to create viral interest in her music and day-to-day antics.

The results are impressive to say the least. Since the Bad Romance video was launched on YouTube on November 10th, it has been viewed more than 30 million times. To put that into perspective, Madonna’s current single, Celebration, has only been viewed 1 million times since it debuted on YouTube on October 14th. In total, Lady Gaga’s videos have been viewed more than 500 million times on YouTube, the equivalent of almost 40 appearances on X-Factor, which attracted an estimated 13 million viewers yesterday evening.

It’s no wonder that Forbes Magazine recently declared that “Lady Gaga isn’t the music industry’s new Madonna. She’s its new business model.” However, what the Forbes article failed to note is that Lady Gaga may very well be revolutionising the fashion business as well.

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