Chanel’s Métiers d’Art Show Is Coming Back to Paris

HOMECOMING: There’s no place like home, according to Chanel.
Chanel’s next Métiers d’Art collection will be shown in Paris on Dec. 5, according to a statement issued by the house. The exact location is yet to be revealed.
The Métiers d’Art 2019-2020 collection will be the first designed exclusively by Virginie Viard, Karl Lagerfeld’s longtime right hand, who took over creative direction of the house following the designer’s death in February.
The collection traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for New York for Chanel Métiers d’Art 2018-2019 and Lagerfeld’s native Hamburg, Germany, in 2017. The Métiers d’Art collection hadn’t been presented in France since the Paris-Cosmopolite collection at the Ritz in 2016, in honor of the luxury hotel’s reopening.
Lagerfeld introduced this pre-fall ready-to-wear collection — embellished with the specialty couture ateliers Chanel owns — in 2002. Previous destinations for the Métiers d’Art show include Edinburgh, Scotland; Shanghai; Rome; and Dallas.
The announcement comes as Chanel is strengthening its bond with the French capital. In February 2018, the house signed on as the exclusive private sponsor of the renovation of the Grand Palais with plans to pledge 25 million euros toward the works, which are due to be completed in time for the Summer Olympics in

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Jane Fonda’s new fitness line is getting in gear.
The collection will be launched on Evine Live Inc., a multiplatform interactive video and digital commerce company on July 5. It will be teased on evine.com today.
News of the collaboration first appeared in November.
There are 25 items in the first activewear collection, including T-shirts, sports bras, leggings and layers. The line ranges from cotton/jersey blend Ts with empowering phrases for $40 to a cotton/spandex blend off-the-shoulder shirt, in various patterns including leopard for $85 to a Supplex/spandex terry zip up for $125.
The 81-year-old actress, activist and fitness guru has never had an apparel line before. She was involved in designing every piece to ensure quality, function and style.
In the Eighties, as a means to raise funds for her political activism, the actress created the Jane Fonda Workout series, which has sold more than 17 million copies.
“Inspired by my lifetime love for fitness, I wanted to create a line that is fun, comfortable and timeless. It was also really important to me that the line be accessible to everyone, both in its price point but also with inclusive sizing. Not only is this important to me, but I’m so happy to have a

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Germany jewelry maker Thomas Sabo, has revealed British pop star Rita Ora as the company’s global brand ambassador from July onward.
The firm, which is based in southern Germany but has around 300 stores worldwide and sells to a further 2,800 retailers in 75 countries, has contracted Ora for two years. Although the singer officially begins her work with the jewelry line when the fall-winter collections come out, Ora posted a thank you note on Instagram on May 25, after she wore what she described as Thomas Sabo custom jewelry at a show a few days earlier in Cardiff, Wales.

A still from the spring-summer 2019 jewelry collection by Thomas Sabo. (Courtesy picture) 
Courtesy Thomas Sabo

A woman of many talents — Ora sings, presents and acts — the Kosovo-born star has also been flexing her design skills recently, and these seem to have proven particularly popular in Germany. In 2014, Ora collaborated with Adidas and this year, she will co-design a capsule footwear collection for German shoe retailer Deichmann. She also recently signed on as brand ambassador for German fashion label Escada, and customized a signature handbag for it. There is potential for Ora to collaborate on design with Thomas Sabo, too, during

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The German automaker is getting in on the scooter wave.

A year after having her tennis outfit banned at the French Open, Serena Williams had something to communicate through her look for the 2019 tournament — literally.
At the 2018 French Open, the 23-time Grand Slam winner made headlines for wearing a Nike compression catsuit to compete on the tennis court. While Williams wore the sleek one-piece outfit to help prevent blood clots that she developed after giving birth to her nine-month-old daughter, Olympia, the French Tennis Federation took issue with the fashion statement, banning the look in a new dress code issued after the match.
Undeterred from pushing the fashion boundaries, Williams, who has her own fashion label, returned to the French Open on Monday in an equally headline-making look, this time a Virgil Abloh-designed black-and-white Nike outfit with a jacket emblazoned with the words “champion,” “queen” and “goddess.” Many are seeing Williams’ sartorial choice as a rebuttal to the ban on her catsuit.

Serena Williams in Nike at the French Open 2018. 
Dave Shopland/BPI/REX/Shutterstock

On the 2018 dress code drama, Williams commented last May to reporters: “I feel like if and when, or if they know that some things are for health reasons, then there’s no way that they wouldn’t be OK with

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ROME — Alessandro Michele is speaking up.
The designer’s Gucci Cruise 2020 collection to be shown on Tuesday evening at the Capitolini Museums in Rome is a “hymn to freedom” that will allow him to express his belief in the idea of self-determination and gender equality.
Michele is empowering freedom of expression and, in particular, freedom of choice, supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights, illustrating this concept with the feminist slogan “My body, my choice” on some of the men’s and women’s pieces, as well as on a Chime for Change T-shirt, or embroidering an image of the female reproductive system on a gown — embellished with flowers. Some looks also display the date May 22, 1978, the day the Italian law for the social protection of motherhood and legal abortion took effect. In terms of style, the designer winks to the Seventies — a crucial time for the women’s liberation movement.
The Chime for Change gender equality campaign was launched earlier this year, but Michele and Gucci have been committed to supporting the issue for the last five years. Chime for Change has already funded more than 825,000 euros in projects for reproductive and maternal health in countries ranging from Afghanistan

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LONDON — Maison Pyramide, a Beirut- and Cairo-based sales showroom, has set up shop in Harvey Nichols’ London flagship in Knightsbridge.
The company, which now also operates as a content creation and talent agency and a traveling retail concept, is looking to introduce some of the emerging labels it works with to the London market — where Middle Eastern brands have already been enjoying traction.
The showroom primarily works with brands based in the Middle East, as well as a host of international emerging names like Nafsika Skourti and Robert Wun.
“The U.K. with an emphasis on London, counts as our second-biggest market after the MENA region, across all channels, from our social media following to our wholesale business. There are also similar traits in consumer behavior and retail experience between the two regions. Middle Eastern clients are being taken into consideration by the local retailers within the seasonal buying and as a market itself, the U.K. is more receptive to new brands,” said Giovanina Atieh, who operates Maison Pyramide alongside Nathalie Mroue and Maria S. Munoz.
The pop-up, which will operate until June 14 on the department store’s fourth floor, will feature brands such as the Cairo-based handbag company Okhtein, which is known

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FORMAL PROCEEDINGS: After a four-day state visit to Japan, President Donald Trump and first lady Melanie Trump are expected back on U.S. soil this afternoon. Their trek allowed for a much-publicized championship sumo wrestling match and a trip to the golf course for the president and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Talk of trade, North Korea’s nuclear program and other weightier matters were front and center. But the main event was the first couple’s meeting with the new Emperor Naruhito, who ascended the throne May 1. Trump became the first head of state to meet the new emperor and his wife, Empress Masako.
The first lady wore a white Carolina Herrera dress adorned with small cherry blossoms for the meeting with the emperor and empress. As always, she worked closely with her stylist Hervé Pierre, who is a designer in his own right. They are known to give great consideration to formal appearances, taking into account protocol, scheduling, etiquette, weather and other factors beyond fashion.
While Pierre worked for Carolina Herrera for many years before venturing out on his own, he has a track record of being democratic and practical in his selections for FLOTUS. She departed for Japan on Friday wearing

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Online Chinese luxury platform Secoo will start offering Prada and Miu Miu products starting from June, the latest indication that the Italian fashion house is getting serious about both digital and China.
Secoo, founded by Richard Li, is China’s largest luxury lifestyle digital platform offering premium products across categories from fashion to jewelry to cars and travel.
“We’re very proud of the fact that Prada chose us. It proves we [represent] luxury, we are reliable, authentic, and we protect their image in the market,” said Secoo’s international chief executive officer Federica Marchionni.
While Secoo has offered some Prada Group products on its platform in the past, it was not via a direct retail relationship. Earlier this month, Secoo also unveiled a tie-up with LuisaViaRoma as Chinese companies race to align themselves with Western fashion firms to boost their fashion credibility. Earlier this year JD.com folded its luxury Toplife platform into Farfetch, while Alibaba has inked a deal with Richemont.
“The strategy is to offer Chinese consumers the best,” continued Marchionni. “We are continually improving our offer and we are curating more brands in our portfolio.”
Last month, Prada Group revealed it would be partnering with Oracle to enhance its data capabilities and streamline business processes as

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In an industry riddled with issues, Anya Fernando is making meat a sustainable—and ethical—option.