Haider Ackermann, Kenzo and Céline Spring/Summer 2013 | Source: Style.com

Then Comes the 4th Dimension (IHT)
“To be modern in fashion today, a designer needs a sculptural knowledge of the human body, an architect’s understanding of graphic proportions and an ability to absorb the digital revolution.  Then comes the fourth dimension. The Paris shows for summer 2013 over fashion’s long weekend have divided the protagonists into those who get the depth of possibilities — and those who are still making just clothes.”

France’s Hermès says not feeling any slowdown (Reuters)
“Hermès enjoyed healthy sales growth in the summer and September, contrasting with other luxury brands such as Burberry and Tiffany & Co which have warned of deteriorating trading conditions.”

Mencyclopaedia: Moncler (Telegraph)
“Over the past 10 years, French-founded, Italian-run Moncler has found an answer so persuasive that a 45 per cent private equity buy-out last June valued the company at one billion euros. Still relatively immature, it has only 80 or so stores worldwide, compared to the 600-1,000 norm of long-established luxury companies like Louis Vuitton or Gucci.”

25 Years of What They Need to Know (NY Times)
“When Peter Pilotto began working with the Center for Fashion Enterprise in London, the fashion incubator gave him a weekly cash flow analysis of his fledgling label. ‘We never even heard about cash flow in design school,’ the designer said. But that is why over the last 25 years, centers offering training and advice on how to turn a creative effort into a successful business have spread from Milan to Dunedin, New Zealand.”

Lunch with the FT: Peter Marino (FT)
“In the style-obsessed auditoriums that play host to the world’s fashion weeks, when someone mentions a ‘star designer’ they are not usually referring to an architect… But this week in Paris, when Peter Marino walks into the Chanel show – and the Dior show, and the Céline show, and the Louis Vuitton show – flashbulbs will go off, people will call his name and photographs of him in the front row will go viral on the internet.”

The post A 4th dimension, Hermès endures, Moncler appeal, Fashion incubators, Marino’s star status appeared first on BoF - The Business of Fashion.

Bottega Veneta Autumn/Winter 2012 | Source: Bottega Veneta

Faster, higher, stronger: luxury pricing goes for gold (Reuters)
“Analysts say prices in the luxury industry have surged from 2001 to 2011 and will keep rising faster than broader prices. Thomas Mesmin at Cheuvreux estimates that prices for fashion and leather goods rose 62 percent in that period, while watches and jewelry have risen 78 percent. Euro zone inflation has totaled just 26 percent over the 11 years.”

Luxury goods show signs of losing lustre (FT)
“Richemont’s latest numbers may have been impressive, but sales growth has slowed since the beginning of the year. And much of the boost to revenue at all the luxury goods companies is because of the effect of currency movements, rather than shifting more stock.”

River Island heads across the pond (The Independent)
“Last week came speculation that the company would be expanding into the US early next year. And with the announcement last month that the store was working on a collaboration with international megastar Rihanna, which will launch next spring, the company seems to be writing its own success story regardless of the recession.”

A New Look for French Vogue (WWD)
“French Vogue is getting a makeover with the September issue, which hits newsstands Aug. 23. The magazine features a cleaner, airier design, with remodeled typography and the use of a craft-paper-like brown background — both of which hark back to its look in the Sixties and Seventies.”

Peter Marino, the Leather Daddy of Luxury (The Cut)
“Marino has become the No. 1 designer of the luxury landscape, the man who best understands how to move a customer on any continent through salons full of leather and lipstick and straight to the register.”

The post Price inflation, Luxury losing its lustre, River Island strategy, Paris Vogue facelift, Peter Marino appeared first on BoF - The Business of Fashion.

At first, driving through Doha doesn’t feel so different from driving through Dubai, the Gulf region’s major international hub. Both are cities with gleaming skyscrapers rising from the desert, in areas which were virtually empty less than a decade earlier, and both have drawn foreigners from all over the world to execute on ambitious economic development plans.

Indeed, in the last six years, Qatar’s population has almost doubled, growing from around 900,000 people in 2006 to almost 1.7 million today. During my 36 hour visit to Qatar, I met people from Spain, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, China, Nepal, the United States, and Egypt, all of whom had chosen to settle in Qatar to work in jobs ranging from manual labour to executive positions in major Qatari companies.

The 300,000 Qatari nationals have a high propensity for acquiring luxury goods, but until recently the vast majority of these products were bought abroad. In 2010, the investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund even bought Harrods — yes, I mean the entire landmark luxury department store — from Mohamed Al-Fayed for an estimated £1.5 billion.

The engine for Qatar’s fast-growing economy is energy. According to Wikipedia, “Qatar has the world’s largest per capita production and proven reserves of both oil and natural gas. In 2010, Qatar had the world’s highest GDP per capita, while the economy grew by 19.4 percent, the fastest in the world.” This has brought in more than $100 billion in investment from international oil companies like ExxonMobil and Shell.

But the ruling monarchy recognises that the energy sector will not sustain the country forever and that when oil reserves eventually run out — something which is not expected for at least another 40 years — Qatar will need additional pillars to build its “knowledge economy,” hence the presence of satellite campuses of international universities including Cornell, UCL, and Georgetown, and efforts to build out other economic vectors including finance and international transportation, with the country’s ultra-luxe airline, Qatar Airways.

But Qatar is more conservative than Dubai and doesn’t seem to be seeking out the tourist trade. There were many more women wearing the Hijab in Doha, and alcohol was banned in large swathes of the city, which does not necessarily make Doha a magnet for international visitors. In this way, Qatar is closer to its only bordering neighbour, Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative countries in the region.

Doha has also learned from Dubai’s mistakes, especially with regards to urban planning and development. The city seems more human-friendly. For example, residents can go for a run along The Corniche, which curves around the water like Ipanema in Rio or Marine Drive in Bombay. This is in stark contrast to Dubai’s concrete highways and gridlock traffic.

In Qatar, there has also been heavy investment in culture, both local and global. Just off of The Corniche, we visited the striking I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art (MIA). Our guide was a trilingual Chinese woman who learned Arabic at Peking University in Beijing. Earlier this year, the Qatari Museums Authority unveiled a 24 metre soaring sculpture by Richard Serra nearby in the MIA Park. It is the American artist’s first public commission in the Middle East and said to be a beacon for the arts in Qatar.

The MIA museum was impeccably presented, with perfect lighting and enough space to explore the ancient Islamic artworks. It made me wonder why that same attention to detail hadn’t been translated to many of the luxury and premium fashion brand stores at the shopping mall we visited at The Pearl, an unabashedly luxurious lifestyle residential development on 985 acres of reclaimed land just off the Arabian Peninsula, where Toujouri’s new store was opening. The Pearl is Qatar’s answer to The Palm in Dubai, boasting three marinas with capacity for 700 boats, three 5-star hotels and 2 million square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space, which is slowly filling up.

Designed specifically for consumers in the Gulf Region (but also targeted at the international jet set who touch down in resorts like St Barts, Saint-Tropez and Sardinia), Toujouri’s evening dresses boast modest silhouettes with jewel tones and embellishment, produced in India using age-old handwork techniques.

“I don’t think [people here] have yet been given something that is of high-quality, that is also proud to be associated with the Middle-East,” said Ms El Moatassem. “Toujouri has a real Middle-Eastern essence, but in a modern way.”

Ms El Moatassem said she was lucky to have secured the support of Peter Marino given the small scale of her business, but that it did not come without some hustle. She pursued Mr Marino for over a year, finally winning him over in person by showing him one entire collection, piece by piece.

The benefits of Mr Marino’s participation, apart from the star power of his endorsement, which drew a pack of international journalists from Dubai and London, were clear. Toujouri’s studded facade and bright lighting stood out in a sea of drab, poorly displayed, poorly lit stores nearby. A few of them had clumsy-looking “Sale” signs hanging in the window, something I haven’t seen since a visit to Bermuda a few years ago. No wonder Ms El Moatessem was beaming all evening.

The store-opening coincided with the launch of Toujouri’s collaboration with Atelier Mayer’s magazine, part of the content strategy for the growing vintage e-commerce start-up founded by Carmen Haid, a former communications executive at Céline, Yves Saint Laurent and Tommy Hilfiger.

“I like to go into these countries myself to better understand their culture and their societies, and also the taste of the customers,” said Ms. Haid when asked why she would choose to launch her magazine in the Qatari capital.

So what has she learned about the market for luxury goods in the Gulf countries? Mainstream bling is not enough. “Everybody is trying to be luxury today. It’s kind of boring so you have to really go to the core,” she said, “especially for people who are wealthy, in these regions. They can buy anything they want.”

Taste levels, in the region are rapidly evolving. Ms. Haid recounted a story of carting all of her prized vintage Hermès pieces to nearby Bahrain, only to find that all of the women had “super-bespoke” Birkin bags and were more interested in items from lesser-known brands, and even garments without labels.

“If you go four years back, everyone just cared about Chanel, Dior, Versace, and that’s it,” said Noor Al Thani, co-founder of Haute Muse, a Doha-based lifestyle and fashion blog that morphed into a fully-fledged magazine one year ago. “Now people are open to Topshop and H&M. You can mix and match really high-end brands with [low-end brands],” she said, speaking in a perfect American accent and idiom and demonstrating that the younger generation here are as switched on and logged in as their peers in other parts of the world.

Looking back at the skyscrapers in Doha’s central business zone as we zipped back to the airport, there was also a whiff of the Pudong district in Shanghai, with its futuristic skyscrapers twisting in post-modern statements of steel and glass. But while Qatar may not have the scale of the Chinese market, nor the tourist Mecca status of Dubai, for the luxury sector, this is still a country to watch.

Imran Amed is founder and editor-in-chief of The Business of Fashion

The post The Fashion Trail | 36 Hours in Qatar appeared first on BoF - The Business of Fashion.

Peter Marino | Source: Peter Marino Architect

NEW YORK, United States — “Dude, it’s ninety-five percent hard work!” the black leather-clad Peter Marino told BoF on his rise to the position of luxury fashion’s most influential architect. And work hard he has. Since founding his own architecture firm in New York in 1978, Mr. Marino has designed many of the world’s most forward-thinking retail temples, redefined the luxury flagship experience and established a decades-long tenure as the “go-to guy” for powerhouse firms like Chanel and LVMH.

“My first commissions were from Andy Warhol, Yves Saint Laurent and the Agnelli family,” said Mr. Marino. “Then the fashion world took notice. I started doing retail in the 80’s when Fred Pressman hired me to revitalise Barneys, which was then a sleepy men’s store. We introduced a really novel concept — no one had ever seen anything like it before.”

It was while working for Barneys that Mr. Marino met many of the world’s leading fashion designers: Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Giorgio Armani, Azzedine Alaïa, Miuccia Prada. “I worked with every single one of those designers to bring their boutiques into Barneys, which was tough, because we wanted a very cool and hip look for Barneys, yet I had to keep the designers happy,” he said. “Somehow, I was able to do that, so I got into it as a career.”

But developing retail concepts that translate the codes of the world’s leading fashion brands into three-dimensional space, while creating novel and engaging consumer experiences, is no easy feat. “My real charge from all of the brands and why they keep coming back, is that each time we do a new store, everybody feels like ’that’s the way the brand should look and it hasn’t always looked that way,’” explained Mr. Marino.

Sometimes this means working closely with the brand’s creative director, which is especially important when a fashion house is undergoing a major revamp, as with Céline, for which Mr. Marino is designing new Paris and New York boutiques. “Phoebe Philo really wants to be involved in the stores, reflecting her direction and interpretation of the brand,” said Mr. Marino.

But unlike many architects, Marino doesn’t start with pen and paper. “I’m a colours and materials kind of guy,” he said, describing his creative process. “I start with colours, paint, fabrics, wools, metal, steel and put them on a table and feel if it’s the brand,” he continued. “This is very different from going ‘Oh, I think I’ll make a two-storey space. Hey dude, you’re given the store! One out of ten, I get to do the whole building, but nine times out of ten you’re given an existing building, so you have a lot of internal architecture and certainly a lot of façade architecture [to contend with].”

Marino must also take into account some fundamental economic realities. “[Unlike a fashion collection] architecture is there for six to seven years,” he explained. “For all of the boutiques that I do, it’s the single largest cash investment these corporations make in anything — it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. They absolutely don’t want something that is going to be out of date three, four, even five years down the line.”

In the face of this challenge, Marino has a rather scientific approach. “We push the branding, let’s say, as a factor between ten and thirty percent, so I’m actually trying new things in every store and keeping the rest [constant] so you feel at home and so there is a continuum,” he said. “This is crucial for these corporations financially, which is why I say a continuum: change the new stores, but by the time you get to the end of the seven year period, which is how most of these stores are financed, then you’re ready to begin again, but none of them ever look out of date,” he explained. “That’s my formula.”

But perhaps what makes Marino most valuable to the fashion industry is the way he is so sharply attuned to the practical needs of retail. “Some companies might over intellectualise the process,” he said. “Shopping is shopping. I try to make goods very, very, very accessible. I’m not John Pawson who puts two bags on a wall sixty feet long because I think that’s just torture,” he continued. “If you’re there in the store, the idea is to see the merchandise, touch the merchandise and hopefully get some kind of emotional response out of it.”

Indeed, uniting emotion and shopping is something Mr. Marino does uniquely well. The London ‘Maison’ he designed for Louis Vuitton, which opened last year on Bond Street, is an ambitious examples of experiential retail, integrating work by artists like Takashi Murakami, Gilbert & George and Andrei Molodkin into the shopping environment, something Mr. Marino is famous for doing. “It’s really good bringing artists in early, because you create the space around their art and you work together with them,” said Mr. Marino. “The reason they’re artists is because they don’t see things they way you and I do. They have unique visions and it’s just fantastic. Some of the commissions that I’ve been allowed to do have really synced with my architecture.”

And while Marino has so far eschewed digital interfaces inside his stores, he has embraced new technologies to turn the façades of his flagships into cutting-edge works of art. “I think computers remove emotion,” he said. “But modern technology on façades is totally legitimate and we always push it.” Indeed, as part of his commision for Chanel’s Tokyo Ginza tower, Marino spent eighteen months developing a new kind of “triple polarised” glass which allowed him to turn the building’s exterior into a TV screen, while allowing those on the inside to see out. “We are [using new technologies] with Vuitton and we are doing a new Dior store in Seoul, which will have a beautiful lighting affect on the exterior,” he said. “And for Chanel we are doing a store in China which has a new computerised way of doing neon. It literally feels like a work of art.”

Unsurprisingly, Marino is responsible for many of the most impressive luxury flagships popping up across Asia. Last Week, Louis Vuitton chief executive Yves Carcelle hosted an opening party for the ‘Island Maison’ Marino designed for the brand at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino in Singapore. “It’s a vacation spot for millions of Chinese. It’s an occasion spot [sic] where you go for a week, you go to the casino, the amusement park, hopefully you go to the shopping center,” said Marino. “But [Vuitton] didn’t want to just be in the shopping centre like every other brand,” he explained. “The LV island is a real experiment in retail. It’s an object sitting in the water. You take a little wooden path 100 feet to the store, or there is a tunnel with a moving walkway; a little history of the company flashes by you, which is great fun, and then you come up,” said Marino, explaining the choreography of the consumer experience. “Because Vuitton, with their luxury luggage collection, owns the world of travel, it’s very much reminiscent of a luxury liner.”

With Chinese luxury consumption projected to account for 20 percent of global luxury sales by 2015, it’s no surprise that Marino is increasingly active in the country. “The stores there are anywhere form twenty to eighty percent larger than they are in the West, either due to optimism or the Chinese growth rate,” he said. “But I worry a little bit, because really big is hard to keep [it] luxurious,” he added. “I keep fighting against a lack of intimacy and a lack of surprise.”

Indeed, the demand for fashion is so high in today’s China that not all brands see the need to innovate architecturally. “They just make a box and stick it up and they are successful,” said Marino. “Here in the West, there is so much competition you have to raise the bar.” But in rapidly growing markets like China, flagships also serve to educate consumers. “They convey the brand’s origins, heritage and story,” he continued. “In every market survey that I’ve read or witnessed, [Chinese consumers] are very interested in this.”

For Marino, communicating authenticity is key. “One of the things that I do in China, specifically, is try to accentuate the origins of the company,” he said. “So with Loewe, the oldest Spanish luxury brand, we give it a bit more Spanishness,” he continued. “In this case, we would use an artist like Cristina Iglesias — we want Spanish artists there, because we want to get the message across that this is a Spanish luxury goods company.”

“For Chanel and Dior, I’m also very much promoting that they are French luxury brands,” he underscored. “This means a lot to the Chinese. When they go shopping, they want the legitimate experience of the brand.” Which is precisely what Mr. Marino is so very good at conjuring.

This piece was written by managing editor Vikram Alexei Kansara, with research from contributing editor Timothy Coghlan

The post The Creative Class | Peter Marino, Architect appeared first on BoF - The Business of Fashion.

Asprey Vintage Regulator Detail | Source: Asprey

Time Warp (WSJ)
“In the past couple of years, more and more guys I talk to have been going vintage when it comes to watches… It’s the inevitable pushback against the highflying hedge-fund era, when the pursuit of luxury meant the quest for highly conspicuous quality and lots of it.”

Luxury stocks bounce back as Japan stabilizes (Globe and Mail)
“Luxury stocks jumped Monday on growing optimism that the devastating Japanese earthquake’s impact on retail sales might not be as severe as initially feared. Shares of high-end clothing retailers and sellers of luxury goods were pummelled last week.”

Alexander Wang on building his fashionable family empire (Telegraph)
“Time passes faster and faster, but with every project I always want to find the next challenge and the next challenge is just as exciting as the previous one. So, like, I push myself and as the company grows and things get bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Peter Marino, Leader of the Pack (WWD)
“In an industry with the collective attention span of a fruit fly, Marino has enjoyed an improbably long run. Known for creating modern retail spaces with varying degrees of glamour, from understated to full-frontal, Marino has become the keeper of brand identities.”

The power of Anna Wintour (Yahoo)
“American Vogue’s editor-in-chief, might still be influencing unsuspecting consumers about what they wear, how they shop and what celebrity or cause is about to be the talk of the town.”

The post Vintage timepieces, Luxury stocks rebound, Alex’s empire, Talking to Peter Marino, Anna’s business appeared first on BoF - The Business of Fashion.

Peter Marino | Source: sportsbikes.net

Conjuring Temples of Deep Desire (IHT)
“In the top 100 of fashion ‘influentials,’ Peter Marino is up there on page one, alongside creative geniuses and big brand managers. Yet… the American architect has not been publicly recognized for what he is: the impresario of 21st-century luxury.”

Hermès Raises 2010 Sales Growth, Operating Profit (Bloomberg)
“[Hermès] raised its 2010 revenue forecast after second-quarter sales increased faster than analysts had estimated, on demand in Asia.  Full-year revenue may grow as much as 12 percent… Second-quarter sales rose 27 percent.”

Luxury goods lifted by positive news (Reuters)
“Shares in European luxury goods firm rise… Bernstein Research says it expects upgrades across the luxury sector on the back of a stronger-than-expected recovery in the first half.”

Revival of Worth continues (Telegraph)
“Few names can claim a lineage as distinguished and enduring, as that of … Charles Frederick Worth, an Englishman, from Bourne, in Lincolnshire, who opened his maison in Paris in 1846 and is widely regarded as the ‘father of haute couture’.”

Louise Amstrup wins On|Off Visionary award (Telegraph)
“The Danish-born designer, Louise Amstrup, has been named the winner of the On|Off Visionary Award for spring/summer 2011. The London-based designer will launch her spring/summer 2011 collection at London Fashion Week in September.”

The post Marino’s temples of desire, Hermès raises forecast, Luxe lift, Worth Revival, Louise Amstrup bags Visionary award appeared first on BoF - The Business of Fashion.

Adidas ad camapaign, courtesy of Adidas

Adidas issues profit warning (Drapers)
“Pre-tax profits at the Adidas group sunk by 97% to just €5 million (£4.4m) in the first three months of 2009. Currency-neutral group sales fell 6% to €2.58 billion (£2.28bn), compared to €2.62bn (£2.32bn) in the first three months of 2009.”

The Sui Target (Vogue UK)
“ANNA SUI has become the second designer to participate in discount retailer Target’s Designer Collaboration series.”

Zegna expands business despite downturn (Gulf News)
“Paolo Zegna, spoke to Gulf News on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of his company’s first Global Concept Store in the Middle East designed by world renowned retail architect Peter Marino, at Dubai Mall, which was opened yesterday.”

Kenneth Cole Posts First-Qtr. Loss (WWD)
“Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. on Tuesday posted a first-quarter loss and a decline in revenues.For the three months ended March 31, the company lost $8.2 million.” (Subscription required)

The post Adidas sees loss, Sui for Target, Zegna expands in Middle East, Kenneth Cole posts Q1 drop appeared first on BoF - The Business of Fashion.