The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
PARIS, France — Against a huge, blank white screen, Haider Ackermann's models walked with heads uniformly wrapped in brutally short, spiky wigs. Hairstylist Duffy compared the hair to iron filings under the influence of a magnet. It was a starkly dramatic detail. Ackermann said he intended the screen and the wigs to focus the audience's attention on the clothes. But they were also a perfect complement to a collection which pared the designer's aesthetic to a core of razor-sharp tailoring and second-skin knits. As Johann Johannsson's music for "Arrival" swelled on the soundtrack, it was hard not to see Ackermann's women as a different kind of alien visitation, perfect creatures who were not of this world. He delivered an uncompromising fantasy in black and white and red, and electricity sizzled in the room. Most electrifying? The hyper-tailored gold pieces, the fabric cracked, perfection perversely sullied. Maybe it's Ackermann's work on men's tailoring at Berluti which has bestowed on him a new appreciation of the human form. Kudos to that, because he's telling striking new stories.
From where aspirational customers are spending to Kering’s challenges and Richemont’s fashion revival, BoF’s editor-in-chief shares key takeaways from conversations with industry insiders in London, Milan and Paris.
BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks and Imran Amed, BoF founder and editor-in-chief, look back at the key moments of fashion month, from Seán McGirr’s debut at Alexander McQueen to Chemena Kamali’s first collection for Chloé.
Anthony Vaccarello staged a surprise show to launch a collection of gorgeously languid men’s tailoring, writes Tim Blanks.
BoF’s editors pick the best shows of the Autumn/Winter 2024 season.