Laura and Kate Mulleavy | Source: Displaced Bones

Rodarte Steps Up to a Widening World (IHT)
“Over the past year the fashion brand, created in 2005 by the sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, made headlines not only for its distinctive ready-to-wear collections but also for its first foray into costume design… [Now] they have announced that they have been invited by Pitti W, the womenswear portion of Pitti Immagine, to be its special guests at its June capsule collection in Florence.”

Designers Focus On Trunk Shows; See Boost to Bottom Line (Thread NY)
“While it may seem old fashioned in the midst of the e-commerce boom (trunk shows, after all, were first popularized by Bill Blass following World War II), many designers are finding that nothing beats face-to-face time with their customers. And to rack up sales, many of them are spending months on the road with their most recent collection… $4,000 dresses don’t just sell themselves.”

Less Appetite for Luxury (NY Times)
“‘I realize how much I have wasted… This whole incident has changed people’s outlook’… Now, analysts say, the triple disaster has jolted the Japanese into a new reality, sapping the materialist, feel-good spirit and replacing it with a focus on helping others and a mood of back to basics.”

Prada soars ahead of Hong Kong listing (FT)
“Prada, the Italian fashion group, reported a surge in operating profit in 2010 ahead of an expected stock market listing in Hong Kong as early as May… Prada’s figures come amid a sharp rise in luxury goods sales among the largest European groups as consumers from China, but also the US, Europe and the Middle East snap up expensive handbags and shoes.”

Getting Ready for Jean Paul Gaultier (WWD)
“A talking facsimile of Jean Paul Gaultier will greet visitors to the exhibit of his designs making their debut June 17 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal… ‘This is not just a fashion show. You’re going to see at work a brain that uses the medium of fashion to influence pop culture and to reflect pop culture, and the technology that is going to be part of this is fascinating.’”

Barneys Spring/Summer 2010 | Source: Barney's

‘Get-It-Cheap Party’ for Luxury Goods Ends at Saks, Barneys (Bloomberg)
“Luxury chains including Barney’s and Saks Inc. are selling costlier goods after scaling back discounts and promotions they offered to attract shoppers in the recession.”

Outlook brightens for Italian luxury sector: study (AFP)
“Prospects for Italy’s luxury goods sector are looking up thanks to strong sales forecasts in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, the Altagamma Foundation said.”

Luxury Industry Set for Mergers, Acquisitions (Bloomberg)
“The luxury-goods industry may be set for a new wave of mergers, acquisitions and initial public offerings as it recovers from its worst year on record, according to consulting firm Bain & Co.”

Twitter Aims to Tweet Brands with Respect (Brandchannel)
“By chalking up its 100 millionth user, Twitter can no longer be denied as a media platform that’s here to stay. …Twitter this week unveiled a number of initiatives to leverage the brand to generate revenue.”

What’s Next: Fashion (WSJ)
“Five years ago, fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy, founded Rodarte, a label they called after their mother’s maiden name. Since then, the brand has earned a following in design circles.”

LONDON, United Kingdom — The fashion film movement has hit the mainstream, with well-known brands like Prada and Y-3 running integrated, cross-channel campaigns around high-impact digital videos and a dedicated Digital Schedule for fashion films and catwalk streams now in place at London Fashion Week.

But there were no signs that the medium was condensing around fixed codes. Quite the opposite. What we saw was the kind of restless innovation and constant evolution that characterises the fluid nature of digital media itself, with an explosion of new films that energised, but also transcended, the seasonal presentation schedule, speaking directly to consumers across the internet as part of in-season digital campaigns.

During the Paris menswear collections, Stefano Pilati opened the Yves Saint Laurent show with “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” a 7-minute film by legendary photographer Bruce Weber, while on the first night of New York Fashion week, a mesmerising film by Nick Knight, featuring Ranya Mordanova in a fractured, postmodern ritual, beautifully complemented Korean designer Jung Kuho’s deconstructed Hexa collection. A week later in London, the British Fashion Council inaugurated a special screening zone at Somerset House for a series of film presentations by young designers like Craig Lawrence, Louise Gray and Katie Eary.

But much of the action took place outside the official fashion week schedule. We saw fashion films inhabiting online advertising units on sites like The New York Times, as well as the emergence of new editorial channels like TEST and NOWNESS, which joined SHOWstudio, Dazed Digital, brand websites, video sharing sites, and Diane Pernet’s international festival, A Shaded View on Fashion Film, as platforms for striking films by avant garde designers and established brands alike.

Last October, we brought you our first seasonal ranking of the Top 10 Fashion Films. This season, the competition was stronger than ever. So sit back, turn up the volume, and enjoy the Top 10 Fashion Films of the Season — and since most of the films are in HD, we recommend you expand the videos to fill your screens with the latest in digital fashion creativity.

(RSS and Email subscribers, click here to view the films).

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NEW YORK, United States — For decades, a quick route to fashion world prominence involved a designer turning a youth culture trend into a runway-ready collection. Calvin Klein made heroin chic, Jean Paul Gaultier sampled from club culture, Marc Jacobs glammed-up grunge and Hedi Slimane turned Berlin punks into fashion plates.

The concept was simple, even if the design work wasn’t: find a scruffy outsider style that remained untapped, then spruce it up for the luxury market. But today, as high fashion becomes increasingly accessible, this approach may no longer work. Today’s internet-empowered youth have the tools, access and information to create and promote their own fashion culture.

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