The weekend wasn’t quite the knockout retailers hoped for because of frigid weather, snow and ice storms in the country. The key question was whether the last-minute rush over the weekend will be enough for stores to hit their holiday targets of 3 to 4 percent growth  and at what price to margins those sales will come.

Saturday was actually pretty busy. It was almost the equivalent to last year’s final Saturday. Although we were slightly behind in traffic, the malls had been lagging, mostly because the holiday selling season has been spread out, beginning before Black Friday and extending out due to the extra shopping weekend this year.

Typically for Black Friday, 50 percent off is almost always planned promotions. This past weekend, maybe a few were planned promotions. I would venture that because promotions were deeper, the management teams did not think this was a successful holiday. Continue reading →

When Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld took over the Ritz Paris and sent beauties like Mariacarla Boscono striding across the thick carpets in sophisticated French fashions, the Italian model in a sultry, fluted dress with a skirt composed of golden eyelash tinsel.

You must be convinced that you are the most beautiful and chicest woman in the world, Said Lagerfeld during a fitting on Monday for his latest Métiers d’Art collection. He dubbed it “Paris Cosmopolite” to evoke a time when elegant women from the world over converged on the mythic Place Vendôme hotel, established in 1898, the Ritz.

The soul of Paris and Gabrielle Chanel, the Ritz, and the Hemingway bar. This is the kind of Paris everyone would like to bring back. Karl confessed to fleeting references to the Twenties and Thirties, when the founding designer took up residence at the famous hotel a stone’s throw from her Rue Cambon headquarters. Continue reading →

Ferrari and Hublot, the Swiss watchmaker controlled by LVMH, unveiled the result of their latest collaboration at the Italian luxury car manufacturer’s factory in Maranello.

Called “Big Bang Ferrari,” it is a limited edition re-design and a customization of Hublot’s signature Big Bang watch, first launched in 2005. Available in three variations – titanium, carbon fiber and King Gold – the “Big Bang Ferrari,” features Hublot’s patented Unico movement with details inspired by Ferrari’s car designs.

The two companies started their partnership in 2011 when Hublot became the licensee of Ferrari’s watches and the official timekeeping partner of all the Italian brand activities.

“This watch is the natural result of the synergy between the Ferrari design team and Hublot, since we met many times to design each single detail,” said Flavio Manzoni, senior vice-president of Ferrari design. Continue reading →

Jonathan Simkhai is a New York based women’s wear designer. Since launching his eponymous label in 2010, he has designed unique pieces capturing a balance between masculine strength and feminine sensuality.

Jonathan’s love affair with fashion began at age 14 working as buyer and merchandiser at a local boutique. Jonathan Simkhai was a member of the CFDA {Fashion Incubator} inaugural class and in 2015, Simkhai showed his first runway collection and was inducted into the CFDA. In November 2015 Jonathan Simkhai was named a winner of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.

Inspired by the iconic glass ceilings of the Grand Palais and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Simkhai filled his gowns with transparencies, gilded details and fantastical elements. Continue reading →

Zhang, who launched his label in 2010, was born in China and spent time in New Zealand and Paris before he came to study in London at Central Saint Martins. Continue reading →

A cotton drill denim jacket or coat and flat leather fringing like a bassorilievo. Moving through to the bags, there’s the new way, a rigid vanity case with a metal closure as well as mini bags, which were carried in pairs. All had metal chain straps to add a bold touch to the total look.

A simple catwalk exalted the bold colors chosen by Nadege Vanhee-Cibulski for Hermès.

The mood remained very chic, exemplified by all the prints with an invisibly elegant feel, folded within the pleats of a swishing skirt for example.

Issey Miyake look or style, Nadege find her style in the eyes of Japan.

Anonymode

This morning, at the Pourtales Hotel, Kim Kardashian, star of the real TV, was under arrest by fake cops. Two armed, masked men dressed as police held the celebrity inside her hotel room on Sunday.

It is the second aggression of Kim Kardashian in Paris during the Paris Fashion Week: A blogger tried to kiss her ass when she was arriving at the Givenchy show. She could have also been arrested in the streets of Paris as she was almost naked for the Balmain show.

Kanye West, her husband, stopped the concert in New York for personal reasons. Kim Kadashian flies to Paris ‘very light’ with only ten million of jewelry. Continue reading →

Is a sensible fashion still fashionable? Lisi Liu has unveiled its new couture collection for the official start of Paris Fashion Week. Graduated from ESMOD International, Lisi Liu has dressed supermodel Adriana Karembeu and actress Aurelia Khazan at the Cannes festival in 2014. A fashion just like Saint Laurent or Dior, a moment for us to forget this world so unfair.

Ready to conquer Paris and the world of luxury, the creator has already opened his first boutique Rue Saint Honoré. We had already Guo Pei in Paris and I had always said that we had not inherited the best one, but with Lisi Liu it is another story!

A Chinese in Paris and, in addition he has talent. He is a promising designer as in the past were Yamamoto and Kenzo when they came for the first time to present their collections at the Fashion Week and now they are is the “Must” of the Japanese fashion. Continue reading →

In 1989, he quit his modest boutique for a five-storey former department store in the Nationalestraat, then a down-at-heel district with little promise. Ironically, this listed historical building had once housed his grandfather’s greatest competitor.

The company expanding quickly, In January 2007, Dries Van Noten opened a boutique in Paris. Here, Dries Van Noten set out to preserve the soul and history of the listed 17th century building in the very heart of Paris. 7, Quai Malaquais is an old bookshop which stands between rue Bonaparte and rue de Seine, close to the Académie Française, the Institut, and the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris.

Dries Van Noten has been entirely self-financed since the beginning of his career and now sells his Men’s, Women’s and Accessories collections all over the world. In addition to his boutiques in Antwerp, Paris, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo, Dries Van Noten works in partnership with some four hundred boutiques in cities such as New York, London, Milan, Berlin, Moscow…

If you want to understand what “fashion revolution” means, take a look at John Galliano’s latest prestation for the Fall/Winter 2016 season of Margiela Artisanal. Today, he proves that it’s not only about the rioting attitude of the “Now Generation,” in fact, he is teaching us that you have to expand the learning rather than replace it. He therefore plays with his own signature style references opulence and eclecticism and mingles it with Martin Margiela’s heritage  deconstructivism and subversiveness.