Stella McCartney's 'All Together Now' Collections Honor Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' Mindset

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Stella McCartney's 'All Together Now' Collections Honor Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' Mindset

Stella McCartney is on a genius blitz these days and none of us can keep up with her. At the end of June Stella launched a celebration of her new ‘All Together Now’ collection, inspired by the iconic 1968 Beatles film. A collection of Stella luvs joined hands at the Electric Cinema in London’s Notting Hill to watch the film together.

“The beauty of the lyrics blows me away,” McCartney said in a statement. “I found that I was removing myself from the fact that it was family, and just finding myself as a fashion designer watching a piece of material that was massively and emotionally effective to me.”

Digitally remastered for its 50th anniversary last year, Yellow Submarine is a psychedelic adventure through a colorful world that brings people together with love and music, sending a message of togetherness that is as important in today’s political climate as it was when it was originally released. Stella’s personal connection to the film’s legacy with her father Paul McCartney inspired her to celebrate this message through the collection and its upcoming campaign, spreading this statement of unity to a modern audience and encouraging them to be agents for change.

Ralph Lauren Reflects On Family and Philanthropy In Pamela Hanson Images For Town & Country

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Paul Goldberger interviews Ralph Lauren in the ongoing celebration of Lauren’s 50th anniversary of his business. Events began on September 7 with a memorable fashion show and black tie dinner at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.

On the day of his Goldberger interview, Lauren — a Bronx boy who made good — was practicing throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium. Now 78, Ralph Lauren continues as a large presence in the fashion industry. His wife Ricky and three children Andrew, David and Dylan are all part of the big show — one with major substance.

David, 48, is now chief innovation officer and vice chairman of the Ralph Lauren Corporation. At the 50th anniversary fashion show in Central Park, with luminaries like Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton headlining the event, all the Laurens stood up when dad took his bows, as they do at every one of his shows.

Lauren explains: “I am very emotional about life and family—I’ve been married for 54 years. I’ve appreciated my life and my family, and I’ve been very lucky. So as far as philanthropy is concerned, I have never done anything for effect, only if I have been interested in it. I had a brain tumor 30 years ago, and after that I saw my friend Nina Hyde of the Washington Post, who had breast cancer. She wanted to start a center for women with cancer, and I said I would help her.

Michael Kors Buys Versace For $2.12 Billion, Diversifying Its Geographic Portfolio

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Michael Kors Buys Versace For $2.12 Billion, Diversifying Its Geographic Portfolio

The Michael Kors group of luxury brands will rename itself Capri Holdings, inspired perhaps by its decision to buy the Italian fashion house Versace at a purchase price of $2.12 billion.

"We are excited to have Versace as part of our family of luxury brands, and we are committed to investing in its growth," Michael Kors Chairman and CEO John Idol said in the press release.

"We believe that the strength of the Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo brands, and the acquisition of Versace, position us to deliver multiple years of revenue and earnings growth," he added.

Michael Kors says as part of its long-term strategy it will aim to grow Versace to $2 billion of revenue globally while expanding its retail footprint to 300 stores from 200. It also hopes to build out Versace's e-commerce and omni-channel development.

The deal will help the American-based brand diversify its geographic portfolio from 66% Americas to 57% Americas; from 23% Europe to 24% Europe; and from 11% Asia to 19% Asia.

Chopard Adds Sustainable Garden of Paradise Fragrances To Growing Green Credentials

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Chopard Adds Sustainable Garden of Paradise Fragrances To Growing Green Credentials

The Financial Times How To Spend It Magazine turns our focus to eco-perfumes and an interesting entry into the fragrance category by watchmaker and jeweler Chopard's Garden of Paradise fragrances. 

Chopard was the first watchmaker and jeweller in the world to enable small scale mining communities to reach Fairmined certification as well as provide training, social welfare and environmental support. With a multi-year track record of high credibility in the sustainability sector, Chopard reaffirms its commitment to honoring both the earth and its everyday laborers toiling for the luxury market by introducing the first perfumes composed of ingredients from the Naturals Together programme.

Chopard first stepped out in the sustainable luxury sector at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival with the launch of the High Jewellery Green Carpet Collection, guided by Caroline Scheufele in partnership with Eco-Age and its creative Director Livia Firth. 

Eye: Nicholas Ghesquiere Honors Vintage Artistry, Coddington Cats & Leon For Resort 2019

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Eye: Nicholas Ghesquiere Honors Vintage Artistry, Coddington Cats & Leon For Resort 2019

When Nicolas Ghesquière renewed his Louis Vuitton contract at the end of May, his Instagram hashtag #notgoinganywhere made headlines. In a fashion industry spinning almost as fast and potentially out of control as a Donald Trump foreign policy speech, Ghesquière’s decision to remain at LVMH brought a stability-loving sigh pf relief. 

The designer brought his vintage style vintage factor to his 2019 resort collection. Ghesquière said he wanted to pay homage to eccentricity. “What is it today to be an original, [someone] who has her own way of dressing? This bricolage . . . you can start a real movement. I love those people who are eccentric.” 

Ali Hewson and Bono's Eco-Conscious Edun Brand Ceases Operations As LVMH Divests

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LVMH is divesting its 49 percent stake in the eco-conscious made-in-Africa Edun brand, founded by Ali Hewson and her husband Bono in 2005. The luxury conglomerate is selling its shares back to the founding couple with ambiguity surrounding its future. For the present, all business operations for the brand will cease. “In light of a joint review of the business, Edun is restructuring its operations in preparation for its next chapter and LVMH will transfer its shares back to the founders,” said LVMH in a statement.

The move follows news that Tomas Maier is shutting down after Kering withdrew its support, and that Christopher Kane is also in talks to buy back stock in his own company. 

AOC joined many in applauding the socially conscious brand with psychological and emotive ties to Africa. In reality, the brand saw high creative-director turnover as it struggled to create a style and product reality inspiring supporters to get out their wallets. 

Chanel Couture Jewelry Unveils The Coromandel Collection Inspired By Coco's Screens

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Chanel Couture Jewelry Unveils The Coromandel Collection Inspired By Coco's Screens

Whenever she moved her domicile, from the chic 16th Arrondissement to the Ritz Paris (and, later, Switzerland), Gabrielle Chanel took her Coromandel screens with her to “upholster” her home, writes Vogue. “I’m like a snail. I carry my house with me,” she once remarked to Claude Delay, her friend and biographer. Chanel's most beloved pieces, the ones she kept all her life and considered the doors to her private world, were the 17th- and 18th-century Coromandel folding screens she picked up in 1910 with her great love, Boy Capel. Today, these ornate, opulent black lacquer screens adorn the salons of private apartments at 31 Rue Cambon.

On Friday, Gabrielle Chanel's beloved Coromandel screens serve as the inspiration behind the brand's couture jewelry collection to be unveiled on the Place Vendôme in advance of the couture collections.

Kering Announces Departure Of Tomas Maier Creative Director of Bottega Veneta

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Luxury conglomerate Kering announced on Wednesday that Tomas Maier, creative director of Bottega Veneta since 2001 is leaving the brand. 

The Hollywood Reporter writes that during Maier's time at Bottega, Maier revived the Italian brand's 1970s brand message, "When Your Own Initials Are Enough," creating an understated luxe lifestyle brand "with a nod to '40s and '50s Hollywood silver screen style, gathering fans including filmmaker Liz Goldwyn, Selma Blair, Naomi Watts and more."

Maier made major fashion news around his Spring 2017 runway show, creating the memorable image of sending then 73-year-old Lauren Hutton down the runway with then 21-year-old Gigi Hadid. 

Eye on Dior: Jennifer Lawrence in Dior's Pre-Fall 2018 Campaign | Bernard Arnault Now Richest Man In Europe

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Eye on Dior: Jennifer Lawrence in Dior's Pre-Fall 2018 Campaign | Bernard Arnault Now Richest Man In Europe

Jennifer Lawrence continues her Dior love affair, appearing as the face of Dior's pre-fall 2018 campaign. Lawrence poses in relaxed, tailored looks designed by Maria Grazia Chuiri, Dior's creative director. 

More Maria Grazia Chiuri on Feminism

Since her appointment as the first female artistic director of Christian Dior in July 2016, Maria Grazia Chiuri has been writing a new chapter in the storied house's history, using feminism and female empowerment as a platform for her own political ends.  “When I arrived, I decided to think about femininity in a way that is contemporary,” she says. “The women are different now.”

Simply stated, the Dior brand must extend far beyond cocktail dresses. And in an epic leap taken by very few luxury brands, Chiuri brings moral messaging into the topic of brand desirability. 

Eye: Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri 2018 Mood Is #RESIST As Feminism Digs Deeper Roots In The World's Most Valuable Apparel Company

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Eye: Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri 2018 Mood Is #RESIST As Feminism Digs Deeper Roots In The World's Most Valuable Apparel Company

CR blog spoke to designer friends about mood and intention in 2018.  Maria Grazia Chiuri weighed in: ""My motto for 2018 is that of American artist Marilyn Minter: Resist. Because we should defend our ideas, stand our ground, and never back down. We should always be brave. All of the work that we have done to be brave enough to face reality and try to change it, the campaigning for equality and for equal rights and responsibilities, too, are part of a long-term project. Now is the time to resist and try to build something new and extraordinary."

Watching for the first time Chiuri's Dior Couture Fall 2017 video, I sense the mood of the designer's forward women's march in a collection honoring Dior's cosmopolitan, globetrotting roots. Gone are the Roger Vivier spindly heels, replaced by men's brogues and manly ankle boots. 

'The Crown's' mood is everywhere in the Dior couture show: the sobriety, modest femininity and pared-down opulence. 

Yet, there is a distinctly feminist, #RESIST current running through this Dior couture collection. Will it declare itself again in Chiuri's fall 2018 ready-to-wear show? I hope so. After all, the female actors like Meryl Streep, Jessica Chastain and Emma Jones are promising to wear black dresses to the Golden Globes Awards next Sunday night to protest gender inequality and sexual harassment. The women have also said that they will not answer frivolous, Red Carpet  fashion questions like "who are you wearing?" Like Chiuri's countless marching women, they will speak on topics related to the act of RESISTing. 

Eye | Blondey McCoy's Burberry Manhattan Murals | 'Here We Are' In Hong Kong & Paris | Gobbetti on Luxury

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Burberry has teamed up with British artist, designer ande pro-skater Blondey McCoy for a three-mural collab in Manhattan. Celebrating the holiday season, the murals will be in place through December. 

The 19-year-old London-based model and skateboarder for brands like Palace, Adidas and Supreme 

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Burberry's new CEO Marco Gobbetti, plans to change the luxury brand's focus away from competing with brands like Polo Ralph Lauren and move it head-to-head with Louis Vuitton and Gucci. 

Consumers Prefer Either Luxury Itams or Mass-Market Brands . . . The Mid-Market offering No Longer Has A Place With These Consumers

Gobbetti, who comes to Burberry from the French house Celine, says consumers either wear H&M or Zara, top-end luxury brands -- or a mix for a creative look. The middle is a dead as America's closing shopping malls.

Burberry, one of the fashion industry's most successful turnaround brands in the early 200os, has lost its pep, says Gobbetti, who is searching for a new designer. 

“You want someone crazy to come in and break the mould,” said Michel Phan, professor of luxury marketing at the Emlyon Business School in France. With luxury brands captivated over Gucci's delightful and dramatic transformation.

“Young people in the fashion world don’t want to buy the same trench coat that their parents had.”

 

Eye: Tiffany & Co Opens The Blue Box Café At Fifth Ave Flagship On Friday As Twitter Derides $1000 Tin Can From New 'Everyday Objects'

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Eye: Tiffany & Co Opens The Blue Box Café At Fifth Ave Flagship On Friday As Twitter Derides $1000 Tin Can From New 'Everyday Objects'

Channeling its 'Breakfast at Tiffany's heritage made famous by Audrey Hepburn, Tiffany & Co opens its first Blue Box Café overlooking the entry to Central Park and Bergdorf Goodman. The cafe shares space with Tiffany's wholly-renovated fourth floor housing its luxury home and accessories collection and represents the first major project from Reed Krakoff, who assumed his position as chief artistic officer in January. 

Vanity Fair describes the effect as one of dining inside one of Tiffany’s famed blue boxes, like some Tiffany-crazed genie who prefers crisp right angles to a bottle’s curves. That is very much the point. “Design of the space began from the idea of immersion in Tiffany—not only the feeling of being inside a blue box, but surrounded by Tiffany hospitality,” Richard Moore,   the vice president creative director overseeing all things store and window design, explained. Guests will first lock eyes with the view of the park, he hopes, and then they’ll see the sea of Tiffany blue, which they’ve “embraced throughout.”

Alessandra Ambrosio & Eddie Redmayne Celebrate Omega's Seamaster Aqua Terra Watch 15th Anniversary

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Alessandra Ambrosio & Eddie Redmayne Celebrate Omega's Seamaster Aqua Terra Watch 15th Anniversary

Omega Watches has tapped Alessandra Ambrosio and Eddie Redmayne to be the faces of its new Seamaster Aqua Terra campaign for women and men, respectively. The Seamaster watch has been an important staple for Omega for the past 70 years. The Seamaster Aqua Terra model was created in 2002, making this year Aqua Terra’s 15th anniversary.

The luxury watch market has struggled to maintain its relevance as a status must-have and also in the "context of geopolitical and economic instability", advises LVMH shairman Bernard Arnault. Omega is owned by Swatch, who predicts strong growth for the brand in 2017. The Financial Times notes thatSwatch is notoriously overly-optimistic in its business projections. 

Thomas Chauvet, head of luxury goods equity research at Citigroup, told FT: “It feels like the industry is only at the beginning of downsizing, but the numbers are less bad and investors want to believe we’re at the bottom. “There has been too much price inflation without innovation over the past decade. There is a danger of too much complacency — after all it was a technology company, not a Swiss company, that launched smartwatches.”

EYE: A Bold Calvin Klein Reboot Goes For American Brand Gold In The Shadow Of Charlotte's White Nationalism

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EYE: A Bold Calvin Klein Reboot Goes For American Brand Gold In The Shadow Of Charlotte's White Nationalism

Without a doubt, this is the most dramatic 180-degree turn in the history of a great luxury brand. Ironically, in deciding to stock a collection of home wares, displayed in the context of Ruby's celebration of the American vintage quilts, Homer Laughlin coffee mugs and Rose Cabat's ceramic "Feelies" sold alongside Calvin Klein bedding, Simons enters Ralph Lauren territory.

Raf Simons assumed creative control of Calvin Klein in 2016, the number of retailers stocking the brand has increased tenfold, as stressed-out retailers strive for enticing relevance in the age of Amazon. It's interesting to watch the evolution of Calvin Klein in the age of Trump.

It's good that people of intelligence and vision are trying to understand America at the very moment America is trying to understand itself. In a country blinded with the golden glow of torches held high by white nationalists in Charlottesville last week, the color of optimism is under assault. Still, an estimated 40,000 people showed up in Boston Saturday to protest white nationalism and the resurgence of a bold racism under Trump. As Trump follows unlimited gold for his family financial coffers, we will follow the future of bold yellow optimism. America is doing much soul-searching at this moment.  ~ Anne

Erdem's Exquisite Resort 2017.18 Collection Arrives With News Of Erdem's Nov 2 H&M Global Launch

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Erdem's Exquisite Resort 2017.18 Collection Arrives With News Of Erdem's Nov 2 H&M Global Launch

Canadian and Turkish fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu presents his new 2017.18 resort collection, inspired by the works of Wisconsin-born, Mexico-lover surrealist painter Sylvia Fein and German Dada artist Hannah Hoch.

Fashion photographer Billy Ballard captures the lavish prints in linear, elegant silhouettes./ Makeup by Anna Priadka; hair by Richard Phillipart

Vogue's Sarah Mower shared her chat with "London's most successfully romantic, cinematically minded independent designer" on July 13 about his decision to develop a new H&M collection. The decision is a major break with the designer's 12-year history of avoiding commercial ventures with his label. 

Eye| Nicolo & Carlotta Oddi Show Alanui's S/S 2018 Collection | GlamTribal Woolly Mammoth Jewelry

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Nicolo & Carlotta Oddi Show Alanui's Spring/Summer Collection At Pitti Uomo

Carlotta Oddi cut her design chops as a styling assistant to Anna Dello Russo at Vogue Japan, although her design aesthetic couldn't be more different than Russo's. Oddi describes herself as a true bohemian at heart, describing her own design aesthetic as 'chameleonic/eclectic'. in general, a crossover brew of different world inspirations."

Brother Nicolò Oddi developed the knitwear brand under the name Alanui, which translates to 'large path' in Hawaiian. 

“Alanui has started its journey as a brand with a collection that focuses on a single item, produced in a variety of patterns: a buttonless oversized jacquard cashmere cardigan, edged with a dense fringe and closed with a two-tone belt. That’s it: an adaptable piece with no immediate gender connotation and no season. The colorful jacquards pay homage to the Indian America iconography, but this is just the beginning of a path that can lead in many different directions.

GlamTribal Design Jewelry & Gifts is inspired by the migration of humanity and animals out of Africa. In our pursuit of elephant conservation and news around the perils of elephant conservation in the modern world, we met mammoths, and woolly mammoths in particular. 

Elephants no longer live in the American Southwest or in the south of France, near the caves of Lascaux. They live in Africa, imperiled by the insatiable greed of humans in pursuit of ivory.

In the last two years, woolly mammoths have emerged as a strong design influence for GlamTribal, unifying collections like Alanui's American Southwest, native people's inspiration with tribal heritages in Africa. We regularly use their bone beads and our featherweight decoupage wooden beads with woolly mammoth imagery in our jewelry designs. 

When we began our woolly mammoth journey, the tie supported concerns about elephant extinction and also the religious disputes around creationism and human evolution. I've spoken with customers at high-quality artisan shows who told me that it was impossible that the woolly mammoth bones were 10,000-100,000 years old because God made the world much more recently. 

I do not have the patience for these conversations and generally end them quickly. A recent discovery near a highway in San Diego -- the bones and teeth of a mastodon dated at 130,000 years -- is rewriting our scientific understanding of when humans first reached North America. 

We delight, however, in the emergence of the woolly mammoth -- and mammoths generally -- as a unifying element in linking our human evolution heritage globally, leaving no doubt that GlamTribal's woolly mammoth jewelry looks simply fabulous with the gorgeous, over-sized sweaters from Alanui's spring/summer 2018 collection. 

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GlamTribal Design Woolly Mammoth Necklace and Pendant + Earrings Sets

Coach Acquires Kate Spade For $2.4 Billion

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Coach will buy handbag and accessories brand Kate Spade for $2.5 billion, an acquisition already approved by both boards of directors. 

Coach CEO Victor Luis said he planned to "unlock Kate Spade's largely untapped global growth potential" and that the acquisition provides "an additional vehicle for driving long-term, sustainable growth.” The purchase also gives Coach a prestige brand with a strong Millennial following and potential to capitalize on recent success expanding into lifestyle categories like home furnishings. 

Coach is also focused on its own brand, with a strategy of running fewer promotions and pulling out of discounting department stores like Macy's and Lord & Taylor. The company will employ the same strategy with Kate Spade by reducing online flash sales and its wholesale presence.

Kate Spade is the second major acquisition by Coach, who bought designer shoe brand Stuart Weitzman in 2015.

After Greece's Refusal, Gucci Moves Event To Florence With Promise To Restore Boboli Gardens

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The Boboli Gardens at the Uffizi Gallery. Image Wikimedia Commons.

After Greece's refusal to allow Gucci to use the Parthenon for a June 2017 runway how -- in exchange for a large donation for restoration of the site, the Italian luxury brand has turned to the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy to stage the event at its Galleria Palantina on May 29. 

The $2.13 million allocated for the event space will be used now to restore the Boboli Gardens at the Uffizi Gallery. In announcing the agreement, Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri said sarcastically: "I guess that Greece's fiscal situation is in better shape than Italy's."  Both economies are under siege, but Italy has very successfully turned to Italy's finest luxury brands to restore its most historic sites, with the full understanding that tourism is imperative to Italy's financial future.

Currently, less than 20 of the 33 acres comprising the gardens are accessible to the public. The Gucci funds will open the entire green space.

Of the agreement, Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, commented:

“Fashion is also part of our cultural heritage and our history. In our country, taste, elegance, and education in what is beautiful are part of our day-to-day lives.”

“The connection between fashion and art has always been a close one, and it has been often conducive to striking and unique occasions, like this one, where a prestigious Italian fashion brand has decided to invest in an important cultural landmark, while appreciating its mission,” he added.