FRENCH FEDERATION CHANGE
The French Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode has published the final version of the official schedulen finally, with a number of changes as usual. The return of Saint Laurent, the first big house to step away from preset schedules to set its own pace for collections during the pandemic, who says goodbye to the Venice views and desert vistas to return with an 8 p.m. show on Sept. 28 at the new museum of the businessman Pinault.
It joins returnees Balenciaga, Loewe, Maison Margiela and Valentino among the big names that have decided to return their collections to Paris this season. Couturier Alexandre Vauthier has moved the reveal of his latest ready-to-wear offering to a bright and early 9 a.m. on Oct. 2. Continue reading
IPHONE 13 VENDREDI
The subtle aesthetic changes in Apple’s latest collection of iPhones, iPads and Watch hold no carrot for a fashion set that craves newness.
But the company, which held its virtual “California streaming” product announcement on Tuesday, is betting that its beefy camera upgrades and other under-the-hood improvements will keep its smartphones in high demand. Continue reading
CAROLINA HERRERA 2022
Despite the ridiculous gestures more incongruous than couture, at Carolina Herrera the task does not matter as long as you have drunk. But it is true that with “Gordon who did not invent the Gin”, the creation and the filiform girls follow each other and look alike, these thin as nails, never make me hammer. “My eye is used to seeing beautiful things” he likes to say, he comes from Chicago Illinois, and builds dresses like the buildings of the city of Al Capone. If you attended the last presentation of his collection in New York, we had trouble seeing the beautiful and sublime being non-existent! A color palette of stains and gingham a la Tati, on suits that set the tone of a collection not very shiny.
Far, very far from this young boy so charming who, at the time, gave us his copy without inhibition. We thought then that his age would outweigh his youth to become a real designer, but it is not so. We have before us the finest example of couture cheating, imitation and false art, as well as the triumph of failure, the apotheosis of puffism. Continue reading
MAISIE WILEN SPRING 2022
We are in the midst of a innerwear-as-outerwear, shorter-tighter, fetish-fashion moment the likes of which we haven’t seen since the ’90s. Making her New York Fashion Week debut Saturday morning at the Boom Boom Room, fittingly, Los Angeles-based Maisie Wilen designer Maisie Schloss was here for it. Continue reading
FRENCH WORDS
Did you know that onomatopoeia makes words from a sound? Coquelicot, which appeared in the 16th century, is derived from cocorico, because the red flower is reminiscent of a rooster’s crest. Click, which in 1306 meant “to make a dry noise” had disappeared from the French language. It came back in 1980, reported by the English as “To click” to designate the use of the computer mouse. But there are many other terms derived from onomatopoeia such as chuintement, claque, hibou, hiccup or even zézaiement…
Over the course of time, we will also discover that words are sometimes taken from proper names. As early as the 16th century, the “truism”, in other words “an obvious fact that is unnecessarily specified”, was known. It comes from Jacques de la Palissade, who had nothing to do with this posthumous glory. Continue reading
FENTY NAKED AND CULLOTATED
The Lord’s newest recruit, the oh-so-creative Rihanna, is getting ready for her next show. After making men’s and women’s jackets, she’s moved on to lingerie. The muse entrepreneur announced on Thursday that she will present “Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 3” on September 24 on Amazon Prime Video.
Sharing the news on her Instagram with a video of her dressed in various pieces of “Klein blue” lingerie with the caption, “Oh, you think you’re ready?”. Bottle green eyes and breasts at “half mast”, it is said that at the bank in Zurich, the banker asks her: “How much does she want to deposit? Three million,” the Barbadian whispers, not wanting to be noticed. “You can speak up,” the banker replies. “Here in Switzerland, poverty is not a shame.
The fashion show will include a previously unknown “line-up of models, stars and artists”. Past celebrities have included Paris Krypton, Cara Two Lines, Rosalía land, Bella Indead , Demi Maure, Big Sin and Normani, a beautiful blonde who believes that synovial effusion is the son of Sy Novial. Continue reading
A SMILE NAMED DESIRE
For bimbos who look at themselves for hours on end, it’s easy to find flaws that they can focus on with their mono-neurons. Moreover, the selfie has made this practice, which seems to have been initiated by plastic surgeons, more and more common. The myth of Narcissus or the complex of teeth and their alignment are part of these new obsessions of the great horizontals of the planet, and men are not left out. Continue reading
SUPERSTITION MODE
Gabrielle Chanel’s lucky number was five, for Karl Lagerfeld it was seven, and for Riccardo Tisci it is 17. That’s apparently why he puts that number on his T-shirts and at the end of his Instagram handle. This is the tip of the iceberg, because when it comes to superstition in the fashion industry, fortune tellers, fortune tellers, lucky talismans and even shamans have been around for ages. Friday the 13th is still considered a bad luck day.
Irrational beliefs with supernatural influences that would be at the origin of the perfume of the late Alber Elbaz; created in 2017 and named “Superstitious”. Former Dior designer Gianfranco Ferré never included a No. 17 look in his collections. It was always 16 bis, which is also why four-leaf clovers and evil eye motifs became so popular in his jewellery collections.
Superstitions in fashion, say psychologists, are due to a predisposition especially to people in insecure situations. Fashion is an industry that goes through ups and downs; you can be the star of the catwalk one day and totally out of favour the next. Part of the superstition comes from a lack of autonomy and anxiety, and people in the fashion industry think it helps them to choose when to present their collection. Continue reading
PARIS FASHION GEEK 2022
The next “Paris Fashion Week” will count 92 houses including: “Paul Smith”, a Frenchman from the “perfidious Albion”, and “Raf Simonstre”, who are making their comeback on the official calendar of the Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion, having no one else to invite but old-timers! Nine days of presentation, from Monday 27 September to Tuesday 5 October, will take place in the traffic jams of the Magot Queen. To begin with, a must-see Kenneth Ize, the Austrian-Nigerian designer and finalist of the Lord’s Prize, and the season will end with a dead man, Albert Elbaz, with a show of his very young fashion house AZ Factory, but between dead men, they recognize each other.
The other Christian Dior, Balmain, Hermès, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Chanel, Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton will be organising shows in person, but only the Florentines, shoe-shiners and Instagrammers will be invited for a return to the shows of yesteryear on the sly, and at this word alone, the bimbos will say: “Catimini, I love Italian cars”. Don’t forget the Fringant flop, which judges fashion in one minute. Continue reading
IN FRONT OF PARIS MILAN FASHION WEEK
In the past few seasons and despite the pandemic Milan Fashion Week has quietly but increasingly become a launchpad for several emerging names, under the lead of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, which has spearheaded a series of initiatives to enhance its mentoring role.
As much as the direct-to-consumer business model is mining the appeal, especially business-wise, of international fashion shows, there is still a slew of young designers who are sticking to the format in hopes that showcasing their collections within the frame of established fashion weeks can boost their appeal and global resonance.
Once deemed as dormant or at least less exciting than Paris, especially during the men’s season, the showcase has been able to attract new names, not only supporting Italian creatives but also drawing designers from all continents. Continue reading
VUITTON 200 YEARS AGO
Two hundred years after his birth, the Vuitton company is marking the milestone in ways its founder never could have imagined, including a video game with embedded NFTs, a documentary on Apple TV, window installations, artworks, and social media activations galore.
Media is evolving so quickly that every time there’s a new way of communicating, you have to tell your story all over again, said Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive officer of Vuitton. Generations are now defined by technology, not by age.
Vuitton Louis setting off from the tiny town of Anchay in eastern France at age 13. And yet the life story of Vuitton, who eventually reached Paris and apprenticed at renowned trunk maker and packer Romain Maréchal, contains many universal business truths, including the necessity of taking risks, of staying close to the customer, and of passing the baton to the next generation at the right time. Continue reading
MOSCHINO FULL CONTROL
Aeffe SpA on Wednesday revealed that it was raising its stake in Moschino to take full control of the brand. Aeffe shares closed up 6.38 percent at 1.60 euros at the end of trading.
Aeffe already controls the Alberta Ferretti, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Pollini labels. “Moschino is strategic for us and this is an important step in our medium-long term growth strategy, Aeffe’s executive chairman Massimo Ferretti told . Having full control over the Moschino brand, we are now in the best conditions to manage all activities related to the brand’s value chain, from product to quality and with positive effects on image, distribution and communication.
The acquisition will allow Aeffe to take action in a more powerful way, and will help integrate all of the women's apparel collections into Aeffe. We will be able to manage the brand autonomously and decide its strategic positioning, explained Ferretti.
Aeffe’s manufacturing plant is in San Giovanni in Marignano, near the beach town of Italy’s Cattolica, on the Adriatic Sea. Continue reading
WELCOME TO THE BUBBLE OF…
Consumers still appear willing to spend lavishly on luxury clothes and accessories, even as markets reopen and other activities like restaurants and travel compete for their discretionary dollars.
The world’s biggest luxury group, which owns 75 brands ranging from Dom Pérignon Champagne to Bulgari jewelry, said its fashion and leather goods, or FLG, division was once again the star performer in the second quarter, FLG activities posted sales of 7.13 billion euros in the three months to June 30, up 40 percent on an organic basis versus the same quarter in 2019, reflecting the resilience of star brands Louis Vuitton and Dior. Continue reading
FIVE BEACH BOOKS ON PERFUME
Le Dictionnaire Amoureux du Parfum, by Elisabeth de Feydeau
From Adam and Eve to Chanel N°5, from the still to orientalism, the historian Elisabeth de Feydeau, who has already written many books on perfume, wanted to add a novelistic dimension to the words and characters she tells. Historical references and unpublished anecdotes are combined in this book, which reads almost more like a short story than a dictionary.
Editions Plon, 27 €.
Les 5 parfums de notre histoire, by Laure Margerand
No, this is not a book about the five most mythical fragrances, but a novel. An olfactory novel about anosmia and the quest for a taste for life after a family tragedy. Bonus: a bookmark with 6 scents linked to key moments in the story. A card with repositionable stickers designed by Arcade Beauty and put in smell by the perfumer Irène Farmachidi of TechnicoFlor.
Editions J’ai lu, €19.90 Continue reading