If you can create a collection in ten days which usually takes six months, either you are a Picasso or you are a liar, it’s up to you to judge.
Category Archives: BREAKING NEWS
TOM HAWKING AND FORD
Hawkings made his debut on the Tom Ford catwalk on Thursday evening with a collection that could be called my twin pregnancy TomTom and nana.
ROBERTO CAVALLI 2024
Puglisi went wild with the theme of jungle leaves, one has to admire his courage and design skills to find something new to say with the motifs of the African jungle and the nature of hot burning countries.
FENDI PARIS 2024
In his spring collection, Jones blended corset elements from the last Fendi couture collection, which he said sold very well, with things his favorite fashion plates might wear: neat coats with a gentle flare, masculine tailoring, pencil skirts, twin sets and body-skimming tube dresses.
GUCCI AND SABATO
Sabato De Sarno’s High-Stakes Gucci Debut and the designer’s first outing this Friday will be a major test for the Italian megabrand and owner Kering.
Born in Naples, De Sarno started his career with Prada in 2005. He later worked for Dolce & Gabbana and, from 2009, as director of men’s and women’s collections at Valentino.
His appointment with Gucci in 2023 is his first role leading a fashion house. He will debut his first collection in September, 2023 at Milan Women’s Fashion Week.
PARIS FASHION THIEF
Clothes expected for the upcoming Balmain show at Paris Fashion Week have gone missing after a truck transporting the collection was stolen, according to an Instagram post from Olivier Rousteing.
Was the delivery diverted or the truck stolen? Thank goodness the driver is safe,” the creator wrote in a message to his 9.8 million followers. So it would have been more of a truck jacking!
The show scheduled for September 27 near the Eiffel Tower would continue as planned, we are in the process of redoing everything but it’s so disrespectful, he continued, especially for others but he doesn’t know that when we have the patterns it’s easy to redo all in a few days.
A big intellectual scam, for a fictitious theft certainly, welcome to the wonderful world of fashion. Oh by the way, there are always GPS trackers when transporting a collection. The truck from China got lost on the Silk Road!.
LONDON FASHION WEEK
Sarah Burton is stepping down as Artistic Director of Alexander McQueen after 26 years, 14 of which she spent as Creative Director. Her departure marks the end of an era, and raises questions about the future of this legendary British fashion house at the start of London Fashion Week. Continue reading
BACCARAT DESERTED BY THE CHINESE
Baccarat is for sale. Tor Investment and Sammasan Capital, the two Hong Kong creditors who became shareholders of the prestigious crystal factory when its Chinese owner disappeared in 2020, have mandated the bank Messier & Associés to find a buyer, according to our information.
Around six to seven contenders are still in the running, according to sources familiar with the matter. Asian and Gulf investors, an industrialist from northern Europe, as well as a Swiss fund and another from the Maghreb.
The glass factory founded by King Louis XV in 1754, however, no longer interests French investors. The French industrial group Chargeurs, which seeks to strengthen its position in luxury, was interested in the deal.
“They found the sellers’ price expectations unreasonable in view of the performance and closed the file this summer,” indicates a source. Since then, its manager Michaël Fribourg has turned to other acquisitions in the luxury sector. Sammasan Capital hopes to raise more than 400 million euros from the sale of the emblematic Lorraine factory.
A GIFT OF “SILK
Antoine Arnault, who had been appointed head of communications and image for the LVMH group (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), is truly a master of communications. Surfing on the Restos du Cœur for 10 million euros is certainly a stroke of genius. And all the while, the Insoumis are getting in their faces comments like “Did they donate any of their parliamentary ‘alimony’ to the Restos du Coeur?”
The group’s success, more powerful than that of oil company Total last year in the CAC 40 stock market rankings, imposes its strategy ahead of the Pinault group, whose Lord says: “the only diploma François has for assets is his driver’s license.” Let’s hope that by digging deeper into his differentiation from the other groups, he doesn’t end up finding oil! He might even sell it to us for perfume.
EVENTS AROUND THE BOOK
For twenty years Jean-François Spricigo has developed an artistic language of rare power, mixing different photographic writings often nourished by dialogue with writing, sounds, video or staging. At the foundation of this radical work, the intense relationship with nature which animates the artist, refuting any hierarchy between forms of life: “Humbly, I observe nature and recognize it as the only tangible norm in the face of the changes in our societies” . As the only place, also, of possible reconciliation between the imaginary and the real.
The book Wild Prayer, published in 2021, testified to the strength and integrity of this journey.
We the horizon will remain alone (title to be read in two groups of words), is a story of recent travels on the island of Reunion, in Mayotte and in Guyana, for an intimate quest for the sensitive, thus marking a new stage in the work of the artist. Inspired by the fierce and indomitable dimension of overseas coastlines, this new book relates, in words and images (but also in sounds during a show), the memories of human and animal encounters, and echoes of ever-renewed wonder at the immensity of life.
ARMANI IN VENI VIDI VENICE
The Venice One Night Only event, which has so far taken place in Tokyo, Beijing, Rome, New York, Paris, and Dubai, coincided with the Venice Film Festival. Continue reading
KERING BEAUTY
The French luxury house announced in early February that it had taken its beauty activity back in-house, and appointed Raffaella Cornaggia as CEO of Kering Beauté.
Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Pomellato, and Qeelin asked her to develop a beauty team.
In late June, Kering Beauté made the bold move of acquiring Creed, the oldest existing high-end niche fragrance house. The deal was reportedly worth 3.5 billion euros.
During a call regarding Kering’s half-yearly 2023 results, François-Henri Pinault said Creed had revenues of around 250 million euros in 2022, with a very high EBITDA margin.
Creed was acquired after Kering chased Tom Ford International, which was ultimately acquired by Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., for $2.3 billion. A reported 1 billion euros was paid by Puig for luxury brand Byredo, which Kering was interested in acquiring.
FRAGRANCE HERITAGE A NICHE MARKET
The Cherigan Paris 1929 fragrance brand was discovered by Luc Gabriel in 2016, 87 years after its launch and more than a half century after its demise. The name cheri, French for darling, and gant, French for glove, intrigued him. Cherigan was part of the Art Deco period, which Gabriel adores.
As the executive learned, the brand had created iconic perfumes such as Chance, Parisienne, Bleu Impérial and Fleurs de Tabac. It owned a store on Paris’ Champs-Élysées. In the U.S., Australia, and France, Gabriel found some vintage Cherigan bottles and sampled their scents.
In faraway lands such as Cuba and the U.S., Cherigan was highly regarded by jetsetters. The label went under in the 1960s, so Gabriel purchased the rights from various people before relaunching it in 2022.
It’s spreading to other domains. Beauty brands with a sense of place and history are becoming increasingly popular. Ditto for make-believe heritage brands emitting a true identity. Continue reading
BERGDORF’S AND BOTTEGA
With an energetic launch of Bottega Veneta’s winter 2023 collection, Bergdorf Goodman puts the spotlight on the Italian house.
Bergdorf’s is offering clients early access to the artfully crafted pieces designed by Bottega Veneta’s creative director Matthieu Blazy. Continue reading