HERMÈS FAKE BAGS THE END OF THE BEGINNING
Are there more fake than real Birkin bags on the market? Twenty-three people were charged, including nine former Hermès employees, the news agency reported. A 41-year-old man was sentenced, in absentia, to six years in prison and fined 1.5 million euros; a warrant has been issued for his arrest. The individual was accused of being the mastermind of the network, which included a workshop in Hong Kong.
Some 400 handbags were made in clandestine workshops in France and Hong Kong, while 800 came from the house’s employee program, which allows workers to make their own handbags.
Hundreds of copied Birkin bags, supplied by the international network, were sold in France. Another individual, age 66, was judged to be the main supplier and sentenced to four years in prison and fined 400,000 euros. Continue reading
CAROLINA HERRERA FALL 2021
Carolina “Errare humanum est ” ;With a flurry of sequins, tulle and taffeta, the designer made the heart ache to dress up again in a pink silk faille sweetheart cocktail frock embroidered with scattered candy-colored hearts, a wildly chic red giraffe print taffeta strappy dress, or a drop-dead gorgeous black mermaid gown with pink tulle frothing out from the hem. Continue reading
DECIEM THE ORDINARY PURCHASE
The Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. has agreed to buy a majority stake in Deciem, the parent company of popular skin care brand The Ordinary, at a $2.2 billion valuation.
Lauder is paying $1 billion to increase its ownership position to 76 percent, valuing the company at $2.2 billion. In three years, Lauder plans to buy the rest of the company at a to-be-determined valuation.
For 2020, Deciem nearly doubled sales, to about $460 million. The bulk of sales come from The Ordinary, known for affordable skin care products including Niacinimide 10% + Zinc 1%, $5.90, and AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution, $7.20.
Deciem plans to draw on Lauder’s expertise in global expansion to consider entering markets where there is demand, like India and the Middle East, Kilner said. The company also plans to consult with Lauder on regulatory requirements related to those moves, as well as inventory and infrastructure. Continue reading
ROKSANDA LONDON FASHION WEEK 2021
Roksanda Ilincic offered clothes that where as cozy as they were optimistic and forward-looking, experimenting with new fabrications, construction techniques and prints that doubled as artworks, Apparently… Continue reading
HERMÈS LOOKING IN THE SKY
Shares in the French luxury group closed up 3.1 percent on the Paris Stock Exchange on Friday in response to strong fourth-quarter results, as consumers flocked to surefire investments like the brand’s Birkin handbags and Chaîne d’Ancre bracelets.
Revenues rose 12.3 percent in the three months to Dec. 31, sharply outperforming its sector peers as strong growth in Asia Pacific compensated for continued weakness in Europe and a flat performance in the Americas.
Sales totaled 2.1 billion euros in the fourth quarter, representing an increase of 15.6 percent in comparable terms, sharply exceeding a consensus forecast of 8.7 percent growth.
By comparison, sector leader LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton reported a 3 percent decline in organic revenues during the same period, while sales at Kering were down 5 percent in like-for-like terms. Continue reading
BREXIT FASHION SAVE THE QUEEN
With Britain still in lockdown and designers grappling with complex, costly paperwork and trading post-Brexit, fall 2021 will likely be remembered as the season of choking on red tape.
London Fashion Week begins today and runs through Feb. 23 and while the showcase is coed, and open to the public, it’s an unusual time. Many big names, including JW Anderson, Erdem and Christopher Kane, are opting not to show on the calendar, and London’s biggest brand, Burberry, is releasing men’s wear only, with women’s to come at a later date.
The British Fashion Council, which puts on the shows, has secured major new sponsors in the two tech companies TikTok and Clearpay neither of which is British and is taking a slice of LFW to Seoul, South Korea, via a collaboration with multibrand retailer Boon the Shop. Continue reading
KERING SLOW KING
Kering Q4 Sales Disappoint , Sales fell 8.2 percent in the fourth quarter, as organic revenues at Gucci dropped 10.3 percent, missing analysts’ expectations.
The French luxury conglomerate reported on Wednesday that revenues in the three months to Dec. 31 totaled 4.0 billion euros, representing a decline of 5 percent. Kering’s share price should take a hit as growth also slowed at its smaller brands, Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent. Continue reading
FIRST LADY DESIGNER
There was already a retired person at the White House, why not a First Lady dressed as a surintendante.
The up-and-coming Markarian brand got a serious boost from First Lady Jill Biden on Inauguration Day, and with her fall 2021 collection, Alexandra O’Neill more than lived up to the hype, putting the designer on a course to become a new American classic.
That O’Neill can make a party dress is a given, and her one-shoulder blue-pink metallic wood grain minidress with dramatic pink train is this season’s prime example.
A petal-sleeve, 1940s-feeling rosewood silk jacquard dress with black bows and crystal trim on the bodice was also charming and very First Lady Biden. Continue reading
GIANT FURNACES FOR A POSITIVE BOTTLE
Ahn reveals that the limited-edition Champagne collection will have a positive impact on the environment. Never forgets that the production of glass requires giant furnaces heated up to 1,600 degrees day and night. The glass is an ecological disaster. The production of a glass bottle rejects twice as much CO2 as a plastic one, but when the bottle is named Moët & Chandon’s it suddenly becomes positive.
Moët & Chandon’s Impérial Champagne Bottle shows a New Cool Design. For the first time in its history, Moët & Chandon has teamed with a designer on redesigning one of its signature bottles.
Ambush founder and creative director Yoon Ahn are the first designers in the history of Moët & Chandon to have the chance to revisit the bottle of the brand’s iconic Moët Impérial Champagne.
Ahn, who is based in Tokyo and along with designing her own label is also the creative director of Dior Homme’s jewelry collections, put her signature minimal touch on the bottle, coloring the traditional gold neck in black, which contrasts with a new white embossed label. Continue reading
VICTORIA BECKHAM 2021
If there was ever a designer fully tuned into trans-seasonal fashion, and the laws of layering, it’s Victoria Beckham, who’s been spending her lockdown in Miami with the family, as husband David gets on with work at Inter Miami CF, the MLS team he cofounded.
The family has been in south Florida since Christmas, and Victoria has been homeschooling the kids and working remotely with her team back in freezing, snowy, locked-down London. This season, she’s combined her pre-fall and fall collections, and filled them with pieces that can work in a variety of climates.
Her lineup was packed with military looks — roomy topcoats with shiny buttons; navy trousers with red stripes, and a puffer jacket with regimental details.
CHRISTOPHE JOSSE 2021
LVMH STOPS THE FENTY BRAND
Rihanna, LVMH Are Pausing the Fenty Fashion House. Lord Arnault had thrown powder in Rihanna’s eyes to make her believe that she would become a fashion designer, but in fact he only wanted her brand of cosmetics.
The music star and the French luxury giant have mutually agreed to put the Fenty maison on hold, less than two years after the launch. The brand stopped posting on its Instagram account on Jan. 1, and the last collection drop on Fenty.com dates back to November 2020.
LVMH have jointly made the decision to put on hold the rtw activity, based in Europe, pending better conditions. According to sources, a skeleton staff remains at the Paris headquarters of Fenty fashions to wind down remaining operations. Continue reading
THE MANTERO ARCHIVE
The Mantero Archive has long been considered a comprehensive and extraordinary collection of textiles and an inspiration for numerous designers, with more than 10,000 volumes and 60,000 foulards from the top fashion houses, thousands of drawings and prints.
Now it has expanded further, housing the Ken Scott Foundation in Grandate, just outside Como. Italian silk specialist Mantero, which is based in Como, bought the Ken Scott brand in 2019, and has structured the foundation as an exhibition space.
We are anxious to open it up to the world, once the travel restrictions will be lifted, said Franco Mantero, chief executive officer of the family-owned company.
The Ken Scott Foundation was established in 1989 by the Indiana-born designer, who died in 1991 and became popular in the 60s and 70s with his colorful prints. Continue reading
ROCHAS VILMORIN AND H&M
Rochas has named Charles de Vilmorin as its new creative director, cementing the 24-year-old designer’s meteoric rise since launching his fashion label last April in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Three press-cutting in some tabloids and the rocket will certainly be a wet firecracker. This announcement was made the day Rocha signed a partnership with H&M; a bad presage.
Fresh off his debut at Paris Couture Week last month, de Vilmorin, after the plagia of the muse Niki de Saint Phalle, will be in charge of designing women’s ready-to-wear for Rochas, Rochas’ boss doesn’t surely understand anything about Haute Couture to hire a young non-talented kid who plays with colors like a kid in the kindergarten.
But it is true that when we talk about perfumes, the only thing we know about Haute Couture is the smell of bad taste. Continue reading