Bryanboy with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana | Source: Bryanboy

Luxury Firms Move to Make Web Work for Them (NYT)
“The luxury goods industry, struggling through a recession that has threatened some well-known names with extinction, is trying to cast off the kid gloves that have hampered its efforts to get a grip on technology.”

Saks beats Street with surprise profit, shares up (Reuters)
“Upscale U.S. department store operator Saks Inc reported a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations for a loss, stoking investor hopes for a luxury market recovery and sending shares up 4.4 percent.”

Younger Buyers Challenge Luxury Retailers in Asia (NYT)
“Starting up or expanding in Asia is not merely a matter of replicating the tried-and-tested models used back home — This is especially noticeable in mainland China.”

Sophie Theallet wins CFDA fashion fund (Examiner)
“On Monday, November 16th at a gala event held at Skylight Studios in NYC Sophie Theallet was declared the winner of the $200,000 cash prize and one year of mentoring from industry professionals.”

Isabel Marant: breakout designer of 2009 (Telegraph)
“She is part of an astonishingly suc cessful group of female fashion designers… who are reinventing the notion of French style with their thoughtful and sensual, yet practical, designs that blend so well into our frenetic family and work lives.”

Sophie Theallet

NEW YORK, United States — New York fashion is said to strike a balance between commerce and creativity. With few exceptions, New York designers tend to prioritise practical concerns like wearability over more frivolous concerns like the so-called wow factor. On the surface, this seems like a sound business strategy. But when designers focus too much on the practical and are obsessed with being on-trend or with what their peers are doing, everything ends up looking, well, kind of the same.

Sophie Theallet, the French-born American designer based in New York, does not have this problem. Theallet creates clothes with a distinctive mix of sophisticated wearability and refreshingly untrendy luxury. Unlike other designers who look for aesthetic inspiration from visual archetypes or vintage clothes, Theallet, who claims to not have a specific muse, designs with a more soulful, introspective process.

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