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EXCLUSIVE: Karl Lagerfeld Inks Denim License With Italy’s Giada SpA

PARIS — Karl Lagerfeld, who has been partial to skinny jeans for more than a decade, is getting his own denim line.
The fashion brand has inked a multiyear license agreement with Italy’s Giada SpA for the production and distribution of its new Karl Lagerfeld Denim collection in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The first collection for men and women is to debut at retail in spring 2019.
“The launch of Karl Lagerfeld Denim is an exciting, high-potential addition to our brand’s diverse product portfolio,” said Pier Paolo Righi, chief executive officer of Karl Lagerfeld. He called Giada a “leading producer and marketer of premium denim production, and we are fascinated by their love for product details. We look forward to working with them to build this business.”
The development comes as the brand is preparing to unveil its revamped men’s wear collection at the Pitto Uomo trade show this week.
The Lagerfeld and Karl Lagerfeld labels have been fused under a single Karl Lagerfeld collection, which is being presented alongside a capsule line curated by the designer’s longtime personal assistant Sébastien Jondeau, as reported.

A look from the Karl Lagerfeld men’s line being presented at Pitti Uomo.
Courtesy/Stéphane Gallois

Founded in 1987, Giada is the maker

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EXCLUSIVE: Stella McCartney Takes the Plunge Into Men’s Swimwear

STAR OF THE SEA: Stella McCartney is plunging into men’s swimwear with a debut collection that launches Tuesday in partnership ISA SpA, the Italian textile manufacturer, WWD has learned.
Animal and tropical prints — including a jaunty parrot one — from the ready-to-wear collection, star embroidery and a geometric pattern have been cast onto boxers, briefs, rash guards, cover-ups, towels and sustainable beach totes made in Kenya. The color palette includes lavender, yellow, blush pink and bottle green for the organic cotton and recycled nylon fabrics.
McCartney said because she designs swimwear for women, it was only right that she should do the same for men, and that launching the collection felt like a natural progression.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to broaden the men’s collection. I wanted to explore an area of a man’s wardrobe that is important and is perhaps slightly under-designed at times. And I wanted to bring the personality of the man into swimwear, so the relationship of the man and the woman on the beach has consistency.”
The collection will drop at the designer’s boutiques and on her web site and will also be stocked at stores including Harrods, Matchesfashion.com and Mr Porter. Prices range from 155 pounds to 255 pounds for

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Marimekko Names Satu Maaranen as Head Designer of Ready-to-Wear, Bags and Accessories

CROSSING THE ‘FINNISH’ LINE: Marimekko has tapped Satu Maaranen as head designer of ready-to-wear, bags and accessories.
She assumes responsibilities that were previously handled by Anna Teurnell, who exited as creative director last February. Since her departure, Marimekko’s design and product development team has collectively worked on the brand’s ready-to-wear collections.
As head designer of that sector along with bags and accessories, Maaranen now leads the design of those collections and will work closely with Minna Kemell-Kutvonen, who heads up the label’s print design and home collection. Both report to Marimekko president and chief executive officer Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko.
As a graduate of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Maaranen is no stranger to the Helsinki-based brand. She has designed clothes and prints for Marimekko since 2010. Maaranen is also a cofounder and creative director of Pre Helsinki, an organization committed to the internationalization and export of Finnish fashion. In 2013 she won the Grand Prix at the Hyères Fashion Festival. She has also been honored at the Finnish Elle Style Awards and at Copenhagen Fashion Week. In 2015, she was one of eight nominees in the fashion category of the British Design Museum’s annual Designs of the Year Awards. In

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Vivienne Westwood Goes to War in Her Fashion Film for Fall 2018

WAR OF WORDS: Fashion’s gadfly Vivienne Westwood dropped off the London men’s schedule this season and instead created a film called “Don’t Get Killed,” that was filled with models marching, waving flags with tarot card designs or the European Union flag and talking about their commitment to the Westwood Army.
The designer did reiterate that she uses fashion as a “vehicle for activism, to stop climate change and mass extinction of life on earth. The need to live in harmony with the planet is a matter of life and death.” She also repeated her mantra of “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last.”
Westwood had been teasing the film on social media with weekly releases of tarot-like cards on her climaterevolution.co.uk site, because “over the years, I’ve designed so many T-shirts, pamphlets and posters, it occurred to me that I have enough graphics to do a packet of playing cards which amounts to my complete message,” she said.
The designer also shot a look book with pieces from her fall 2018 unisex collection that includes a princess coat, which Westwood said is her favorite outerwear piece ever because of its feminine and masculine qualities.
Other pieces included jeans, wide-leg trousers and suits in a multitude of

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