FROM MARISA TO CARDI B

So here’s a real ampoule couture metaphorizer arriving like a cynical “Shein” to activate his obscene, blasphemous needle spear as an outward sign of weakness. A runt who relieves himself at the foot of K2, to drown an angel in the lewd sludge of supermarket bimbos.

Cardi B made her dramatic entrance in a velvet gown that she declared “beautiful, amazing.” Normal is the only fashion word she knows.
Continue reading

FIRE AT TYFFANY

A fire broke out Thursday morning in Tiffany & Co.’s recently renovated flagship store in Midtown, but the “money never sleeps” boutique was already preparing to reopen a few hours later.

At 9:38 a.m., the New York City Fire Department received a call and crews responded to 727 Fifth Avenue at East 56th Street. According to a NYFD spokesperson, no injuries were reported. Two employees who were on the scene before the store opened at 10 a.m. were sent for medical consultation as a precautionary measure. Every day, 200 employees work in this busy location.

Following a fire department inspection, the retailer has postponed the store’s reopening until Friday. Jewelry, watches, porcelain, gifts, accessories and other luxury items were not damaged by the fire – even the fire didn’t want them! Jeweller wins environmental award and commits to decarbonization, a bad start for CO2.

SAINT SERMIN NAKED SOULS

We could have said woolly hair, but in the case of de Saint “Serv-nain”, it was more like short hair. Eureka! “j’ai trouvé”, which I translate for bimbos as “silly” as a thong string. Well, move along, there’s nothing to see in the courtyard of the Musée des Archives Nationales in Paris, and yet there’s so much to read. When I write, I weigh my words, but when I see this, words weigh me down. Here, then, is the flat dressmaker par excellence, who judges beauty in the same way that a tic-tac-toe stumbled upon Olympus would judge the beauty of a goddess’s ass.

Continue reading

RICK OWENS BLACK IS BLACK

There are times when Rick Owens wears colors other than black, no way! Owens opted for black for his spring 2024 collection.

He opened the show with flared pants with high, cinched waists, giving the appearance of endless legs not seen since the modeling heyday of Nadja Auermann. Owens created small tops in silk or leather wrapped around the shoulders and chest.

In the parvis of the Palais de Tokyo, Owens’ favorite venue in June, colored smoke exploded from metal rigs plopped in the reflecting pool and presented these elongated, almost alien silhouettes. As a result of the forecast rain, bits of ash drifted down over downwind audience members.

After that, the volumes started increasing, first with strange little smoke stacks protruding from the shoulders, then widening out to the linebacker proportions Owens pioneered, here in featherlight, mille-feuille constructions.

A lustrous habotai silk, which is more commonly used for linings, was featured in billowing shirts, tunics, parkas, and robes. Radical boots resembling pneumatic walking braces were worn by many models

SETCHU RTW SPRING 2024

A presentation in the outskirts of the city doesn’t make for the most convenient of appointments to squeeze into a packed show schedule, but the fashion crowd freed up a spot on their agenda pronto for Setchu, especially after Satoshi Kuwata received the annual LVMH Prize earlier this month. Continue reading

FENDI FACTORY

No black nightie for sleepless nights at Fendi, and in Benito’s country, we discover workers lost in the intricacies of work attire… Admittedly, my conception of man dates more from the Neanderthal than from Homo sapiens and, consequently, the one presented to me has none of my values or references. But is it really necessary to choose and to want at all costs to make us drink out of a Caterpillar dildo of a Henri III mignon or a Païva, in the masculine form, and not complain?

Silvia Venturini Fendi a few days ahead of the luxury brand’s show at its factory in Capannuccia, Bagno a Ripoli, a 30-minute drive from Florence.

  Continue reading

FARRELL DIED AT 89

David C. Farrell, died June 5 in St. Louis. He was 89. Farrell served as May Co.’;s chairman and chief executive officer for 19 years until retiring in April 1998. He’s credited with shaping the modern-day department store, pioneering matrix buying that requires vendors to meet strict sales and profit targets, thereby narrowing the list of vendors that make it into the stores, and running highly productive and tightly managed department stores.

He was at the forefront of big brand marketing, acquisitions, consolidations and aggressive cost management.

The late Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, once called Farrell the best retailer in the country.He was a great merchant and mentor to so many retail leaders through the past 40 years.

Farrell was a workaholic who micromanaged and had an authoritative management style, often labeled dictatorial. He set a strict culture at May Co.

COACH RESORT 2024

Designed to appeal to a younger audience, the resort collection offers a variety of silhouettes and eye-catching colors. During a preview of the collection, Vevers said he doesn’t believe his client goes on cruises or to resorts. The collection continued to build Coach’s legacy through the eyes of the next generation. Continue reading

CONVERSE HAS A NEW BOSS

There is a new leader at Converse. The Nike-owned company has named Jared Carver president and chief executive officer. Carver’s promotion is part of Nike’s leadership realignment last week. He succeeds G. Scott Uzzell, who was named vice president/general manager for North America of Nike. Continue reading

CHANEL THE HEROES OF MONEY

With revenues growing 17 percent last year to $17.22 billion, Chanel’s operating profits grew 5.8 percent to $5.78 billion, closing in on luxury’s ultra-exclusive $20 billion threshold.

Announcing double-digit growth across all product lines, the French fashion house said retail teams cultivated local clienteles during pandemic restrictions, alluding to China’s lockdowns last year that hurt luxury sales.

After adjusting for currency fluctuations and changes in company structure, Asia Pacific revenues increased 14.3 percent to $8.65 billion. In Europe, revenues increased 29.6% to $4.72 billion, while in the Americas, revenues increased 9.5 percent to $3.86 billion.

Chanel unveiled its cruise 2023 collection in Monte-Carlo last year, then repeated the show in Miami later in the year, along with its lavish ready-to-wear and haute couture displays in Paris. In the Senegalese capital of Dakar, the brand unveiled its Métiers d’Art collection, making history as the first European luxury brand to do so.

VUITTON 2023

The assets of Bernard Arnault, who holds a little more than 40% of LVMH shares, have thus melted by 11.2 billion dollars. The reason is not the latest Vuitton Cruise collection, but the German banks believe that “it is time to be more selective” in its investment choices. Continue reading

CHANEL IN HOLLYWOOD

Coco Chanel was invited by Samuel Goldwyn to add glamour to the flagging film industry by creating costumes for his United Artists studio.

Continue reading

LUXURY CRITIC, WHERE ARE YOU?

They are called the “Employees of Fear” and it is the lord of the Arnault family who sets the tone with the man from Toledo and his Marand who takes the “Edict of Nantes” for an English woman. But, can we criticize luxury today? Are there still critics in this profession? Because the luxury industries frame journalists and influencers by putting them under a drip of money, paying a salary to these “Dubaï-Brother”,

For my part, I only met tireless scribblers who lived off the brands, fake talents metaphorizing sclerotic words, never speaking with reflection but always with interest. Brands are content with little, because for them it is better to have a good jack who can be bent over and over again, than a dodgy smelling chief who might drop a truth in a moment’s lapse.

If you criticize these groups, and even if this criticism is constructive, they systematically blacklist you to relegate you to the bottom of their cesspool, a sort of luxury purgatory where you have to get down on your knees to show your allegiance before reaching paradise, a compulsory four-legged as a sign of submission.

Continue reading