Category Archives: Uncategorized
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.
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.
CHANEL MUSE BARBIE
On Tuesday night, Paris Hilton attended the Chanel 2024 collection fashion show in Los Angeles. She wore an openwork mesh dress and matching cardigan from the French brand. Chanel paired her Barbie-inspired pink ensemble with a matching tweed bag, cream patent leather heels and layered pearl necklaces.
Her blonde hair was styled with a pink bow. Hilton’s makeup included white eyeshadow, pink glossy lips and a touch of chanel blush of course. At the after party, Hilton showed off her DJ skills. She shared videos of the event on her Instagram story, dancing with actress and Chanel muse Marion Cotillard.
She and husband Carter Reum welcomed their first child via surrogate in January. An heir for the hotel group. Hilton released her third book in March. “Paris: The Memoir” became a New York Times bestseller. This confirms that Americans have no culture!
In Los Angeles, where the Writers Guild of America is on strike, Chanel held its fashion show at Paramount Studios. Designed by creative director Virginie Viard, the event featured Sofia Richie, Lil Nas X, Margot Robbie and Elle Fanning, to name a few.
LIPA NAR AND DONATELLA LIPSTICK
Donatella Versace is not at her first collaboration with young or more established designers, from Christopher Kane to Kim Jones, but never with a youTuber the Dua Lipa, for a collection of fashion (THAT KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT COUTURE ONE MORE) Albanian singer whose name means “love” in Albanian a good program for Dona.
WEST DOES NOT PAY HER BILLS
Kanye West and his fashion brand Yeezy have been ordered to pay more than $300,000 to Brooklyn, New York-based creative Katelyn Mooney after failing to appear in court. After Pharells Williams the Xerox now West the swindler. The French brands have to be careful with these pseudo designers.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gerald Lebovits issued a default judgment in Mooney’s favor on Monday, after no lawyer for West or Yeezy was entered on the docket for the fashion line and it never responded to court papers.
According to court documents, Mooney was hired by West on Sept. 11 as an independent contractor to produce a shoot on Sept. 13 for Yeezy’s new line of SHDZ sunglasses for an agreed amount of $110,000.
The complaint stated that Mooney was hired to be fully responsible for every aspect of the photo shoot, including but not limited to hiring models, reserving studio space, procuring lighting, catering, pre-production and post-production. Continue reading
MET GALA 2023
DAME MARY QUANT DIE
Mary Quant, a figure of the Swinging Sixties, the cultural revolution of the 1960s in the United Kingdom, passed away on Thursday. According to some, the British designer with brown bangs popularized the miniskirt.It is however the subject of “discussions”, with some pointing to André Courrèges as the partner behind this iconic piece of women’s clothing. Some say that his haircut was stolen by the copious Wintour
With Britain emerging from post-war austerity, a concept store mixing fashion, art, music, and bar quickly became a meeting place for fashionable artists.There is a legend that the Beatles, Audrey Hepburn, and Brigitte Bardot met there.
As a result of its success, a second store opened in 1957. As a small anecdote, Terence Conran, the founder of Habitat, will redecorate the store in 1964.
With her marketing skills and avant-garde materials choice, the British designer expanded her offer by offering patterns to use for her own creations, PVC shoes or lycra lingerie. She even launched a cosmetics line in 1966, whose logo is a daisy. Continue reading
THE SALON BY KERING
Gucci has launched its first luxury salon boutique concept in Los Angeles. The 4,380-square-foot space is located on the prime corner of Melrose Place and Melrose Avenue, in an ivy-covered building that was occupied for years by Marc Jacobs.
Gucci’s gigantic billboard at the top allows the brand to be visible to anyone who passes by. But the Gucci salon is not open to everyone, it is reserved for the most prestigious clients and only by appointment. Poor guy with only 2 million dollars in his bank account can’t afford it.
While the word salon is a French word, it has an Italian meaning that dates back to the 18th century, a Florentine idea, in fact, from the Renaissance and the Medici court, a gathering of interesting people with a passion for beauty. Florentine for fashion makes sense.
The L.A. Salon is surrounded by tinted glass so that customers can see out, but prying eyes can’t get inside, a sort of peep show for the rich and remembering Paris Texas.
NO MORE LUXURY HANDBAG
If you grew up dreaming of a Louis Vuitton Speedy or idolized Gucci and Chanel, the best luxury handbag brands are never out of stock.
The best handbags from the most iconic brands maintain their value over time, meaning you own a piece of history. How to buy a designer handbag and whether the item you covet is actually worth it.
MEMORY FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
My soul has become dark where the sun doesn’t really go down anymore. Sometimes I start dreaming of this beach at the end of the world with my beautiful one, the one whose skin is as blonde as wheat, who followed me to the end of the earth. I am in that country of the long white clouds with this vision which is that to discover a wild ground, dominated by the blue color and where the so hot and so dangerous sun dries our skin. A new yellow, luminous and deep, for a beach along the coast that seems to extend to infinity. A wild and mysterious land, and when Kate slips a tiare flower in her hair, I feel like the first man on earth discovering the first woman.
CHINESE DRIVE LUXURY
Over the coming months, China’s reopening will partly fuel a rebound in luxury consumption in the Middle East. Chinese tourists are expected to boost Middle East luxury sales over the next six to 12 months, starting in the second quarter.
Pre-pandemic, Chinese tourism accounted for about 10 to 15 percent of Dubai’s luxury sales. Due to higher flight capacity and targeted marketing campaigns from Dubai toward Chinese tourists, it is clear that travel from mainland China to Dubai is recovering much faster than travel to Europe.
Major events in the Gulf this year, including Formula 1 Grand Prix races in March and October, and Expo 2023 in Doha, Qatar, launching in October, will drive tourism.
Also this year, the Red Sea Project, an ambitious tourist hub with bewildering landscapes and ultra-luxurious hotels, will begin to open in phases. Middle Eastern collectors, among the most enthusiastic in the world, continue to demand high-end watches from a watch dealer in Riyadh.
DIOR MADE IN INDIA
On Wednesday, huge logistical and security measures were put in place as Dior teams worked around the clock, sets for the show were put together over the past five days and flights arrived with celebrities planning to attend the show.
More than 850 guests are expected to attend the event, which will be the first global launch of this scale in India of a calendar collection versus a capsule collection. Chanakya has created an enrichment of embroidery. “Dior has been extremely committed and generous. Lesage would have said thank you very much!.
LVMH RELAUNCH GENTA BRAND
He has designed and created watches for some of the greatest names in modern luxury watchmaking, including IWC, Omega, Universal Genève, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. Gérald Genta is nicknamed by Christie’s the “Fabergé of watches
Gérald Genta was born in Geneva in 1931 to a Swiss mother and a father of Piedmontese origin. At the age of 20, he completed his studies in jewelry and goldsmithing and obtained a Swiss federal diploma. Recruited by Universal Geneva, he created the Polerouter model for the airline in 1954.
Gérald Genta has created many iconic watch models: Constellation for Omega (1959), Golden Ellipse for Patek Philippe (1968), Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet (1972), Ingenieur for IWC (1976), Nautilus for Patek Philippe (1976), the Pasha watch for Cartier (1985). Continue reading
HOMICIDE FOR DESIGNER KATIE GALLAGHER
A homicide verdict has been rendered in the death of Kathryn “Katie” Gallagher, an independent designer based in New York. Police officials at the New York Police Department said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
According to the New York City chief medical examiner’s office, the death was caused by a combination of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, and ethanol intoxication.
A 35-year-old woman was found dead in her Lower East Side apartment on Eldridge Street on July 24. A few minutes before 9 p.m. on July 24, NYPD responded to a 911 call and found the designer unconscious and unresponsive on a bed in a bedroom, according to the police report that was filed last summer. There were no signs of trauma. EMS responded and pronounced Gallagher deceased.
Upon asking if Gallagher’s death was being investigated as a drug-facilitated theft, as one news outlet reported Friday, a NYPD spokesperson replied, “The investigation continues.” Continue reading
L’OREAL AND GEMO
The quest for sustainable ingredients is picking up pace at L’Oréal. One of the world’s largest beauty companies announced Monday that it has invested in a Geno-led initiative to develop and commercialize biotechnology-based alternatives to key ingredients in beauty products.
A founding member of the initiative is Genomatica Inc., known as Geno, along with Unilever and Kao.
According to Barbara Lavernos, L’Oréal deputy chief executive responsible for research, innovation, and technology, Geno is among the most powerful biotech start-ups.
Geno develops sustainable materials from plant- or waste-based feedstocks rather than fossil fuels. A wide range of products are made from its materials, including cosmetics, carpets, performance foods, drinks, and home cleaners. Continue reading
A STINKY SMELL PERFUME
In many member states, the European Commission conducted unannounced inspections of companies and an association involved in the perfume industry. A collusion investigation is being conducted regarding the supply of perfumes and fragrance ingredients.
According to the Commission, which did not reveal the names of the companies and associations it inspected, it has also sent formal requests for information to several companies in the same sector. But knowing that few companies produce perfumes we can easily guess which ones.
“The inspection and requests for information concern possible collusion in the supply of perfumes and fragrance ingredients,” the European Commission said in a statement. “Fragrances are used in the manufacture of consumer products, such as household products and personal care products.
The Commission stressed that these inspections do not imply that the companies are guilty and do not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.
In exchange for reporting the conduct and cooperating with the Commission throughout its investigation, companies that participated in a secret cartel may receive immunity from fines or a significant reduction in fines under the European Commission’s leniency program. Continue reading
IN THE EYES OF PASSION
Here is the most glaring contradiction of this new world of fashion, new status and pillar of popular culture, a show that anyone can follow or even practice by commenting for the most part without any knowledge. A large part of the audience on Instagram is dominated by fashionistas in slippers often having unemployed neurons.
However, they believe they have a true devotion, for fashion, not out of passion, but out of a desire to shine from Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame. Some of them think they are indispensable, like the bimbo who works for 1,200 euros gross at LVMH, and who, with a business card with the “Vuitton” logo, thinks she is the top of the fashion week. One of them told me one day: “fashion is me! She was a saleswoman at Sephora. Continue reading
FASHION BUYERS FLEE THE FRENCH CAPITAL
According to a study, the majority of Buyers leave the French capital. It was not until 508 that Paris became the capital of the Franks for the first time. And it is still the work of Clovis who resides in the thermal bath, as its name indicates, in Paris built by the Romans.
And despite the history of the capital, the fact is there, Russian, Chinese, American and Italian who represent 85% of the fashion buyers coming usualy in Paris during the Fashion Week, were on vacation this year. Since the French capital has begun works in the street it has made traffic more difficult and leds to heavy traffic and if you add strikes of all sorts plus garbages left on the pavements of the streets as well as a lack of services in the restaurants you discouraged people to come and work in Paris