VUITTON TEXAS INSTRUMENT
LVMH has just signed a purchase agreement for an approximately 300 acre ranch located in Alvarado, Tex., an outer suburb of Dallas with a population of roughly 4,000.
The purchase price is estimated at 111 acres of land for $832,500 in that region.
The land acquired by Louis Vuitton is set to become the site of its newest leather goods manufacture, the third of its kind in the U.S. The first two are in California.
Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chairman and chief executive officer, earlier this year said during a meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump that his company was looking to expand its manufacturing presence in the U.S.
While Texas may not be the most obvious choice for a luxury brand so steeped in French culture, Johnson County alone is composed of half a dozen cattle farms, and cattle ranching is one of the state’s biggest industries. Continue reading
ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER SPRING SUMMER 2018
CHINESE CURE OF YOUTH AT DIOR’S
Last Wednesday, in Shanghai, in presence of both brand ambassadors, the 29th year old actress Zhao Living and the Chinese model and actress Angelaby, Dior celebrated the reopening of its enlarged and revamped flagship in the major shopping of West Nanjing Road, which feature women’s and men’s collections, as well as fine jewelry and timepieces.
The presence of the young Ambassadors had a very positive impact on the young generation. Sidney Toledano, the CEO stated : We have seen that we are attracting more young people, but we are not a brand for teenagers. We want young people to dream about the brand.”
Far from changing Dior’s strategy in order to bow to the desires of younger consumers, Toledano counters that the brand’s heritage and authenticity that allow it to appeal to consumers of all ages in China and elsewhere. Continue reading
DUMAS OR NOT DUMAS?
Lucia Dumas (nothing to see with Dumas of Hermès) has been named Executive Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs at L’Oréal and will join the group’s executive committee in January.
She is succeeding to Isabel Marey-Semper, who will be leaving the company. Since 2012, Lucia Dumas has served as Vice President of Communication at Essilor. She formerly held the same post in the Rhodia Group during five years, and took part in the implementation of the merger with Solvay, having been in charge of its press relations.
She began her career at Moulinex Group, where she had international and external communications roles, and prior to that graduated from the European Business School in marketing and international strategies. In statement, L’Oréal highlighted Dumas’ diverse expertise and knowledge of industrial sectors where innovation and technology play a key role. Continue reading
RALPH & RUSSO LONDON 2018
MOROCCO AND ST LAURENT
“I am sure that they are watching us from heaven and that they are insanely proud,” said Betty Catroux, at the inauguration of the Yves Saint Laurent museum in Marrakech.
It is in Morocco that he found the range of colors he used: the zelliges, zouacs, djellabas and caftans. The boldness seen in his work is owed to this country in which he drew his forceful harmonies, his audacious combinations, to the fervor of its creativity. He absorbed the culture, transformed and adapted it.
The institution opened to the public on Oct. 19, a little more than a month after the death of Pierre Bergé.
When Yves Saint Laurent first discovered Marrakech in 1966, he was so moved by the city that he immediately decided to buy a house here, and returned regularly. It feels perfectly natural, 50 years later, to build a museum dedicated to his oeuvre, which was so inspired this country. Continue reading
V. CONSTANTIN A NEW DEAL
American consumers might have a weakness for watches that are large and geared to the outdoors, but with the right emphasis, Vacheron Constantin chief executive officer Louis Ferla thinks the dressy, upscale brand can find stronger resonance in the country.
“I think for us, with a bit more focus and explanation, we should be able to properly develop that market,” .The Swiss label, which belongs to Richemont, has just launched three new watch models, the latest additions to a two-decade practice of reissuing historic styles.
From the Twenties, the American 1921 model features a round face set in a cushion shape and was designed at a slightly skewed angle, making it possible to read the time with minimal wrist movement.
Like many players in the industry, Vacheron Constantin faces the challenge of finding the right balance between highlighting the house’s deep history and securing its pertinence in a future with a crowded landscape of offers that include models connected to the Internet. Continue reading
GYPSY SPORT PARIS 2018
MAISON MARGIELA 2018 PARIS
13 LUCKY NUMBER FOR LVMH
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton posted a 13.6% rise in third-quarter sales as brisk business in most divisions helped offset a drag from unfavorable exchange rates and slower growth in its wine and spirits activities. Sales over the quarter were 10.38 billion euros, up 12% on an organic basis.
The largest division, fashion and leather goods, home to its star brand Louis Vuitton, clocked 13% growth on an organic basis for the quarter compared to the same period last year. LVMH highlighted the brands first smart watch as well as efforts to improve the quality of its distribution network as contributing to Vuitton’s performance over the first nine months. The label just opened a new Paris flagship on the Place Vendôme in Paris. Continue reading
LÉGER BEYONG THE BANDAGE
Hervé L. Leroux, the French designer famous for creating form-fitting bandage dresses that were the uniform of Nineties models, died at the age of 60. Leroux, who was born in Bapaume in northern France, started his career as Hervé Léger but lost the commercial use of his name in 1999 after BCBG Max Azria bought the brand.
He began his career as a hairdresser before seguing into hats. In the early Eighties, he met Karl Lagerfeld, with whom he worked at Fendi and subsequently at Chanel. It is Karl Lagerfeld who first suggested him the name “Léger” and subsequently came up with the name Leroux, he told Canadian web site Canoe.com last year.
Leroux founded his ready-to-wear label in 1985, developing the signature bandage technique that sculpted the body like shapewear. Under the Leroux brand, he specialized in draped jersey, creating glamorous gowns that heightened the wearer’s natural assets, which he preferred on the curvy side. Continue reading
KARL LAGERFELD BACK HOME
Karl Lagerfeld has chosen one of Europe’s most amazing new buildings as venue for his next itinerant show for Chanel. It is his hometown: Hamburg. On December, 6th at the Elbphilharmonie, a hulking structure with a wavelike roofline designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.
Lagerfeld typically uses the destination to recount a chapter of the house lore, real or imagined, though he may be tempted to draw on his own history or a building he considers “stunning.”
According to the architects, the Elbphilharmonie takes inspiration from three structures: the ancient theater at Delphi, sport stadiums and tents which could all be fodder for Lagerfeld’s creativity.
The Elbphilharmonie, which opened last January, is located in Hamburg’s old working port. The new glass structure sits atop a hulking warehouse named the Kaiserspeicher originally built in 1875. Continue reading
JOHN GALLIANO 2018 PARIS
HERMÈS DARE THE UGLY
The Spring-Summer ready-to-wear 2017 has the smell of an old sadler. The new artistic designer Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski failed with the code of Hermès. It seems that when she conceive the collection, she completely forgot who were the clients and in due fact the clients will forget Hermès.
The ugliness of the collection reflects the ill-being of the firm. More than an ill-being, it the industrialization and the change of economic model which disrupts the culture of the company. When the culture of a firm is not respected, the group becomes a MacDonald or in Vuitton. That’s the way it is.
In my opinion, the cocktail which consists to continuously give more money to the shareholders on less quality products is a cocktail which will lead the company to an end. It cannot happen in a brand like LVMH where brands in deficit rely on profitable brands. That cannot happen in a mono brand like Hermès. Continue reading
FATIMA LOPEZ PARIS 2018
The 38th Parisian collection of ready to wear created by Fatima Lopes get its inspiration by the amazing and magical aesthetic of Birds.
Enchanted by the harmony and the elegance of the colours association, often unexpected but always graceful, the designer created aerial and colourful silhouettes which combine lightness and nobility because of the choice of the fabrics, and strong architecture of the pattern which remind the steep lines of bird’s beaks.
The colours embrace each other in an explosion of bright and fruity colours such as raspberry, grapefruit, emerald green, red and so on.
Important is as well the utilisation of more neutral ones as nude and black, bringing balance to the palette through them pureness.
Among Beach and Cocktails, the superposition of silk’s chiffon layers plays with the transparencies and engage the clothing into a game a see through which show only lightly the body shapes.
MABILLE ENIVRE NOTRE MÉMOIRE
GUY LAROCHE DARC EN CIEL
LANVIN NO SHAW
The anagram of Lanvin is not lapidary but nival, the rich Chinese woman, Shaw-Lan Wang, who is in reality Taiwanese, recruits the new designer on feeling. But who would be the fashion designer of her dreams? It is a man, 100% straight, no salary expected, and supposed to have no integrity … For this first collection of Olivier Lapidus the emotion is egal at : nothing ! in the same way that you have no emotion when you go to Zara.
No observation of the world, superficial, outfashioned dresses, the common sewing and devoid of characteristics.
We leave the collection as the pigs emerge from a quagmire, stunned by displeasure. Even, Mrs. Imatoumi of the Qing dynasty, told me at the end of the show that she had never seen so much ‘duster cloth’. If you do not believe me, look at the pictures hereafter immersed in this abyss of diarrhea incubator, and you will stay without stifling or throw up, is prohibited, as a prisoner of the none creativity house Lanvin. Continue reading
DIOR AVE MARIA RAZZIA SURI
MILANO FASHION WEEK
Blue skies and daily doses of sunshine worked wonders on the mood of buyers, who praised Milan’s creativity and use of color, disco glitter and tailoring. During Milano Fashion Week, Linda Fargo of Bergdorf Goodman said “The weather was an upper for Milan, many collections were on an up and where there was newness, our spend will be up to match,”. Blue skies and daily doses of sunshine worked wonders on the mood of buyers, who praised Milan’s creativity and use of color, disco glitter and tailoring.
Helen David of Harrods said her must-have was “Gucci everything,” while Mario Grauso of Holt Renfrew summed up many of the retailers’ feelings about the Versace show, Donatella’s tribute to Gianni on the 20-year anniversary of his death: “Donatella has dominated the entire week with her tribute collection and reunion of the most iconic models.” Sadly, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Carla Bruni, Helena Christensen, and Claudia Schiffer reunited one time only for the 20th anniversary of Gianni Versace’s death. Continue reading
MISSONI 2018 MILAN
FENDI 2018 MILAN
GUCCI WALLPAPER COUTURE
The impeccably curated tableau vivant of artful, ironic juxtaposition features a too-tall putti-painted architectural panel turned on its side against romantic floral wallpaper.
Alessandro Michele arrives with the aura of a rock-‘n’-roll aesthete: Seventies haircut and beard working in concert with his Gucci street-glam regalia: aviator shades; sequined baseball jacket over jeans and dragons on his boots.
In his creative reflexion Alessandro Michele does not think Fashion anymore but prefer to express his vision than beauty: dare the ugly.
Last year Alessandro wondered what should we do in the future collection at his last year first presentation. Now we know. Gucci builds the future of the fashion house on ruins in Milan. Continue reading
ANTONIO BERARDI LONDON 2018
KIM JONES IN VERSACE
At Versace, discussions are held to recruit the designer Kim Jones, currently men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton.
Interviewed on the sidelines of the Versus show in London on Sunday, Versace chief executive officer Jonathan Akeroyd declined all comment. A Vuitton spokeswoman also declined comment, while Jones could not be reached for comment.
An extraordinary globetrotter with a passion for wildlife, Jones has no design experience in women’s wear or couture, but has had a storied fashion career, with John Galliano snapping up his graduate collection from Central Saint Martins.
His own men’s wear label, known for its sporty, streetwear edge, lasted for eight seasons and attracted the attention of Dunhill, where he was creative director from 2008 to 2011, when Vuitton came. Continue reading
BURBERRY FASHION TERROR ATTACK
HERMES, WHAT’S GROWING ON?
Hermes sales were up 8.9 percent in the second quarter, down from 13.5 percent in the previous three months. Revenues in the three months to June 30 totaled 1.36 billion euros, representing a rise of 8.3 percent at constant exchange rates.
That compares with a 15 percent rise in revenues at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and a 25.4 percent increase at Kering, which saw net profit surge 77.6 percent thanks to another outstanding performance from its cash-cow brand Gucci.
In the medium-term, despite growing economic, geopolitical and monetary uncertainties around the world, the group confirms an ambitious goal for revenue growth at constant exchange rates. Everybody can dream. Continue reading
RALPH LAUREN NEW YORK 2018
OSCAR DE LA RENTA
For their second runway collection, the two designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia wanted to pay tribute to Oscar de La Renta, the house founder.
Tachism or not, derived from the French word tache, stain) is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The term is said to have been first used with regards to the movement in 1951 It is often considered to be the European equivalent to abstract expressionism, although there are stylistic differences (American abstract expressionism tended to be more “aggressively raw” than tachism) that is the choice of Laura and Fernando.
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG 2018 NEW YORK
NAMILIA TITS TILTE
Fashion Weeks are a real opportunity for new designers to make them known. Unfortunately, often we attend to presentation which will never be produced and are better suited for a conceptualized student show than one from a brand trying to sell product. It is a real debate which has been on for quite some time over the traditional fashion week runway format.
Namilia designers Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl seemed far from thoses concerns and have presented a collection inspired of the XVI/XVII centuries.
Therefore not only these clothes cannot be sold and technically there is a real lack of know-how. Those two designers should go back to a fashion school. Continue reading