I never praise myself, but I KNEW Pharrell was the perfect human for Louis Vuitton Mens and that LV would see it that way, too.
I’ve asked Louis Vuitton Mens [and Dior — too — both men and women] and Etro this morning to pick up the mantle that few businesses can lead. LVMH is well aware of what I am saying. And they are listening.
This video about Pharrell’s ‘Black Ambition’ organization is only about two years old. Clearly Virgil knew how ill he was, but we see here Virgil and Pharrell really speaking to issues of black success. The convo goes deep into their values as humans.
Felecia Hatcher is very succesful in her own right and she serves as CEO of ‘Black Ambition’.
On Resee.com, Phoebe-era Céline is one of the top-three selling labels. Imagine that fact: Phoebe’s Céline follows Chanel and Hermès.
Phoebe understands us — the woman wearing her fashion — is a constant theme among her devoted. Lynette Nylander, the executive editorial director of Dazed, explained further. Down to the most finite detail “how wide her armholes are, the fact that she always paired things with trainers. This is someone who’s not living a curb-to-cab lifestyle. I’m on the subway, I’m sweating, but I still want to evoke some sense of fantasy. Phoebe was the master of doing that.”
Backed by LVMH, Phoebe Philo will be available to see and buy in September 2023. One assumes this will go well, because for every 20-year-old, who doesn’t even know about Phoebe Philo, there’s a 35-year-old who is thrilled to have her back in business.
Prior to connecting with WSJ Magazine for a recent touchbase, Chloe designer Gabriela Hearst was in Egypt in mid-November 2022 for the COP27 climate conference.
The annual UN Climate Change conference taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh put Hearst on a panel speaking about fusion.
The future is fusion, in the eyes of Gabriela Hearst, who isn’t particularly concerned if we can or cannot read her new passion into the clothes that make up the Spring 2023 Chloe collection.
What is exciting about Hearst’s enthusiasm is that a huge breakthrough in the drive for fusion power happened days after Hearst returned from Egypt.
Lila Moss, daughter of supermodel Kate Moss, is the newest US ambassador of YSL Beauty.
The rising model is set to appear in upcoming Yves Saint Laurent Beauty makeup campaigns featuring the brand’s must-have products such as the All Hours Foundation, Lash Clash Mascara, Rouge Volupté Shine Lipstick, and Rouge Volupté Candy Glaze Lip Gloss.
Denim giant Levi Strauss & Co is now sourcing organic cotton directly from farmers in Pakistan as part of its membership of the Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) initiative.
Levi's is sourcing the organic cotton through Pakistan-based denim mill Artistic Milliners' Organic programme which involves 2,000 cotton farmers in the Kohlu region of Baluchistan.
The vast majority of cotton farmers and pickers are women, and the focus of Artistic Milliners is female empowerment. Founded in 1949 with a small factory of 22 women, the company now has a workforce of 18,000 employeess.
“Black-ish” and spinoff “Grown-ish” actor Yara Shahidi has exciting news. She will be joining American Ballet Theater principal ballet dancer Misty Copeland in Abu Dhabi for the Know Your Value and Forbes Magazine second annual 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, running concurrently with International Women’s Day from March 7-10.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headlining the 2023 Forbes 30/50 Summit, that is organized by Huma Abedin, vice chair of the 30/50 Summit, along with Forbes editor Maggie McGrath and “Morning Joe” co-host, and founder of Know Your Value Mika Brzezinski.
Anya Taylor-Joy was named to the Forbes Europe 30 Under 30 List in 2019. She was honored last November by Harper’s Bazaar UK in their 2022 Women of the Year Awards.
KidSuper founder Colm Dillane, Brooklyn’s homegrown superhero, will return to Paris Fashion Week, as the luxury fashion equivalent of an ‘artist as residence’ in the creation of the Louis Vuitton Autumn/Winter 2023 menswear collection.
Mr. Dillane, 31, is considered to be a great storyteller. In 2021, the prestigious LNMH Prize awarded him the runner-up Karl Lagerfeld prize with two other designers. Dillane thrives on collaboration, as did Abloh, and his commercial partners have run the gamut from Puma to SpaghettiOs.
Arab News Tehran reports that Iran’s judiciary has ordered police to “firmly punish” people who violate the country’s hijab law, a news agency reported Tuesday, January 10.
France’s Charlie Hebdomagazine, a French satirical weekly magazine, has again provoked the Iranians, publishing cartoons mocking Iran’s ruling clerics and their aggression against the protesters.
Two French-born al-Qaida extremists attacked the newspaper’s office in 2015, killing 12 people in Paris on January 7, 2015. Today the irreverent publication operates from a secret location with round-the-clock police protection, continuing its refusal to bow down to right-wing, religious zealots of any ideology, not only Islam.
Lost in some of the late December 2022 holiday news was the appointment of current fashion director Christine Centenera as editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, replacing Edwina McCann.
Centenera’s most recent role in the limelight was styling Kanye West's controversial 'White Lives Matter' show in Paris, on October 3. She also worked closely with Virgil Abloh, styling Louis Vuitton Mens until Abloh’s passing.
Centenera runs her own label Wardrobe.NYC. In May 2021 she gave birth to twins, becoming parents with her long-time friend and partner since 2018, actor Joel Edgerton.
The Jewish global human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center released its Top Ten Worst Global Anti-Semitic Incidents 2022 on January 29. [see pdf].
Ye topped the list for “his continued anti-Semitic comments and leveraging his immense social media platform to weaponize hate, bigotry, and ignorance.”
With the Gregorian calendar’s New Year’s Day upon us in hours, and the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Rabbit ringing in the Lunar New Year on January 22, 2023, Gucci releases a beautiful and without controversy campaign that celebrates two global cultures and also Easter 2023, coming on April 9.
Thank you to perhaps the most soulful creative in fashion — Alessandro Michele, formerly of Gucci. I am certainly one of the people who only recently expressed my understanding of your vision and perspective.
Casa Degli Atellani has been purchased by Bernard Arnault the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Built around 1490, the landmark was donated by Ludovico “Il Moro” Duke of Milan to Leonardo Da Vinci in 1498. The legendary artist was in Milan working on his masterpiece ‘The Last Supper’.
The 15th century townhouse hides a verdant courtyard that has been restored to its centuries-old status as home to Da Vinci’s vineyard. Casa Degli Atellani is presently the “only existing wine-producing estate in the center of a metropolis”.
Kanye West, legally known as Ye, seems to have gone underground, although TMZ reported a single Kanye citing in LA in December. A former business manager for the rapper Thomas St. John has filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against West but is unable to serve him with papers. St. John has requested an extension from the court.
Yeezy Rent Eviction Looming
Reports are that West’s Yeezy offices in California are on the verge of eviction after missing both November and December’s rent payments of $31,477.40 per month.
Gucci has opened its first permanent boutique dedicated to its Gucci Valigeria luggage and travel collection. Located in Paris at 229 Rue Saint-Honoré, the 2,900-square-foot-location was previously dedicated to Off-White.
“Gucci Valigeria is a powerful reminder of our Florentine roots and our timeless craft,” said Marco Bizzarri, the president and CEO of Gucci, calling the Paris store collection a “symbol of [the Gucci] legacy, reinterpreted through the ages for the travelers and modern-day explorers of every era.”
Adidas Is ‘Re-Evaluating’ its partnership with Balenciaga, “pausing” all co-created product launches “until further notice.”
The news came quietly, with customers supplying Sneaker Freaker with copies of emails they’ve received from adidas regarding the pre-order of Balenciaga/adidas Stan Smith trainers.
In a bit of irony, Balenciaga tells customers a different story, that the “trainers will be delayed in shipment” and that “We will notify you again once the item is shipped.”
In case you thought this might be a coordinated message between the two brands to the same customers, it obviously was not.
To celebrate her influence on American design and architecture, Mattel collaborated with the design magazine PIN-UP on a limited-edition art book, “Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey.”
“Barbie’s house is infinitely more exciting than Barbie herself,” writes Elvia Wilk, a cultural critic. “The structures we live within — fantasize about living within — say more about our lives and dreams than plastic bodies ever will.”
The New York Times breaks down the Barbitecture story with A Six-Decade Tour of Barbie’s Dreamhouses and AOC gifts readers the link.
Wilk is one of many critics who contribute to the book’s analysis of Barbie’s huge influence on American culture.
Fashion world got a major wakeup this morning with a preview of the January 2023 Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama campaign.
Yayoi Kusama, Age 93, Rolls Again with Louis Vuitton
LV makes a big move putting Gisele Bundchen front and center in a second, historical collaboration with revered Japanese creative Yayoi Kusama, one of the world’s pre-eminent artists at age 93.
“One of the aspects of her [Yayoi Kusama’s] work is happiness, and we thought it would be really refreshing after the pandemic to have the worlds of Vuitton and the world of Kusama meet again,” Arnault explained. The successful first collaboration between the two global giants happened in 2012.
Spanish model Olivia Martin poses in Dior Beauty shots for the house’s core Miss Dior Fragrance.Lilly Marthe Ebener styles Martin in images by key Dior photographer Brigitte Niedermair.
Dior writes: “At Dior, we are dedicated to preserve biodiversity. For our Maison, this mission particularly resonates through our never-ending love of flowers. They are not only the beating heart of our creative vision, they are also the origin, present and future of beauty. In the context of COP 15, we are reminded ambitious actions are essential to preserve flowers from extinction.”
By 2030, 100% of Dior gardens and partner gardens will be operated in organic or regenerative agriculture. Additionally, Dior Beauty is committed to reducing their carbon emissions by 46% by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to +1.5°C.
Candice Swanepoel and her sustainable swimwear brand Tropic of C [IG] celebrate the brand’s classic styles with very modern cutouts, lensed by Eduardo Bravin [IG] .
Candice was an early user of econyl, a regenerated nylon product introduced in 2011 by Aquafil.
Econyl is made entirely from ocean and landfill waste, such as industrial plastic, fabric scraps from clothing manufacturing companies, old carpets and "ghost nets".
AOC believes that beautiful bodies live on a sustainable planet. We’ve always applauded Candice Swanepoel for building a brand from day 1, with sustainability beating beautifully in its heart.
