Retail sales volumes fell unexpectedly in the year to January following robust increases over the final quarter of 2016 – but growth is expected to return next month, figures show.
Luke Tadashi and Tommy Nowels, the California natives who design Bristol, drew from a few sources for their collection, which is new to the New York Men’s Day schedule. The NBA was the primary reference and Tadashi said Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson’s off-court style during the early Aughts influenced the line, as did rules and restrictions, specifically the rules that players were forced to abide by when the NBA established a dress code in 2005.
“These rules stripped players of their personal identities, but they also improved the way they dressed,” Tadashi said. “Many times when we are given constraints, we get more creative.”
The looks hit on the notes that are trending within streetwear — velour, bomber jackets and matching monochromatic sets — but what felt fresh were the cropped tartan pants, the shearling-collar coat with red racing stripes, and the dusty color palette, which was influenced by California landscapes. Also interesting was their use of fabrics, which were all Japanese. The Tito suit, which consisted of a bowling shirt and matching cropped pants, was made from linen while a classic sweatsuit style was reimagined in terry cloth and updated with pin tuck pants.
Tadashi and Nowels, who won Gen Art’s
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Uri Minkoff’s love affair with the urban commuter continued for fall with a lineup that effortlessly blended a tailored aesthetic with technical fabrics and detailing.
“It’s all about the modern commuter — the highs and lows, the stresses and relaxation, being part of a group but being alone,” he said.
That translated into a lineup of stretch wool and cotton fabrics in everything from houndstooth and Prince of Wales patterns to a new double-breasted suit model with a low two-button stance in burgundy corduroy and leather puffers with cross-protection panels and bright blue stripes on the venting that added a sense of utility and upped the fashion quotient.
Minkoff drove home the point by using an eclectic group of models — from Berlin club kids to actual bike messengers who showed their cycling skills — and the pop colors on the bottom of their shoes — on Tribe bikes Minkoff collaborated with to use in the presentation.
Another cycling reference came in the zip-up tight-fitting sweaters with removable sleeves and pants that were cropped enough to avoid the inevitable bike grease.
Accessories, still a core of the line, were shown in everything from cross-body bags and briefcases to a smaller and higher luggage shape.
Minkoff also took the opportunity to
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David Hart has always had an affinity for eveningwear, but this season his collection was exclusively dedicated to the category, which, according to Hart, has been a vehicle for growth. Over the past year, celebrities including Ryan Gosling and Alan Cumming have worn his designs, and Hart said he’s relying less on traditional retail and more on made-to-order and a direct-to-consumer portion of his business.
Models posed on a red carpet in front of a David Hart step and repeat wearing wool tartan suits with velvet bow ties, iridescent mohair suits with notch lapels and a bubble gum pink tuxedo that was very reminiscent of the Seventies.
Hart is also dabbling in women’s wear this season — he started out designing for women at Anna Sui and Tommy Hilfiger — and presented a women’s tuxedo, which he said is a test.
Hart’s quirky take on men’s wear is still there, but his strong presentation concepts, which have ranged from American Indians to Blue Note Jazz, were sorely missed. It seems as if some of the wind has been taken out of his creative sails.
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Samuelsohn came up with an innovative way to showcase the brand’s new high performance fabrics in its fall collection. The company took over the skating rink outside the Standard Highline hotel to promote its proprietary Ice Technology of wool and cashmere in an updated assortment of suits and overcoats. While they look like regular fabrics, a special process provides them with water resistance, wrinkle recovery, stretch and breathability.
“There are a lot of firsts here,” said Arnold Brant Silverstone, president and chief creative officer. “It’s the first show during New York Fashion Week for Samuelsohn, we’re unveiling our new branding with its wine and silver coloring and we’re showing our Ice wools and cashmeres.”
He said that by having models — and one Canadian silver medalist in pairs skating — wear the line, it showed the collection’s “performance and movement.”
While some of the suits were slim fitting, other silhouettes — notably the coats — were flowy, including a cashmere number with silver fox collar.
The mainly gray palette was injected with a few pops of color including cobalt blue and burgundy velvet that added some bright relief.
Tailoring expertise has always been a strong suit for Silverstone and that remains a hallmark of the collection
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ONE DOWN: Buyers and fashion editors set to head into the next round of shows may be relieved to hear that the Chambre Syndicale, French fashion’s governing body, has managed to shave one day off Paris Fashion Week by shuffling the lineup sans making any radical shakeups to the traditional calendar format.
Scheduled to run Feb. 28 to March 7, the week will now run across eight days and end on a Tuesday, versus the usual nine-day run that ends on a Wednesday. The major players that traditionally show on the last Wednesday of Paris Fashion Week — namely Louis Vuitton, Moncler Gamme Rouge and Miu Miu — have been integrated into Tuesday’s lineup, which means all three brands will now show on the same day as Chanel, with Vuitton down as the last major show of the day.
“It’s really about optimization. There were holes in the calendar that are no more, which makes it one day shorter,” said Pascal Morand, the Chambre Syndicale’s executive president. He could not confirm the Paris calendar will continue to operate on an eight-day schedule going forward. “We pay attention to the number of days, and do what we can to optimize as a function of what’s possible.”
Fellow
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Wen Zhou got her first pair of real shoes, the store-bought kind, when she was nine years old, a gift from her father, who’d traveled outside their small Chinese village. Four years and thousands of miles later, Zhou got her first job, packing and seam clearing at the garment factory where her mother worked on New York’s Lower East Side. Today, she is chief executive officer of 3.1 Phillip Lim.
From those three bullet points, one can infer of Zhou intelligence, grit, a superhuman work ethic and utter mastery over her professional life course. On the last point, she begs to differ. “I have a very philosophical way of thinking about people, about business,” she said. “Phillip and I are together because we were destined to be together. That’s just it.”
Consider destiny kind. In the 11 years since they launched the company as equal partners, they have garnered the respect of the industry while remaining independent, growing steadily through good times and holding their own through bad. Currently, 3.1 Phillip Lim has 16 freestanding stores and 450 points of sale around the world. Last year was a bad one across fashion; the company maintained its women’s and men’s ready-to-wear levels and
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In his first stand-alone presentation, Kozaburo Akasaka showed a lineup centered around rawness and deconstruction — or “brutal sensibility” as Akasaka described it. His punk rocker sensibility favored high-waisted, cropped bell-bottom pants, deconstructed cropped jackets and amusing platform boots in bright red and black.
The deconstruction techniques worked best in exposed seams on blazer pockets and a silk shirt that was essentially falling apart.
Although the rock ‘n’ roll inspiration is a favorite among designers today, Kozaburo’s take felt fresh and modern.
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Amid a tense and uncertain climate mainly created by President Trump’s actions and promises to turn global trade on its head, sourcing and textile executives are trying to formulate a strategy amid the chaos.
From European fabric firms looking to maintain and grow their business in the important American market to U.S. mills and brands seeing opportunity for a strengthening of their revival movement, executives showed strong resolve at the latest editions of two vital trade shows in New York.
Mixed in with the Trump threats and actions on international trade agreements and relationships are the Instant Fashion phenomenon and the continued desire and move toward greater sustainability in the supply chain.
Guglielmo Olearo, exhibitions director for Première Vision International, said, “The fashion world is questioning itself. The way people are consuming fashion is different, so the way to create fashion is changing.”
He said there is a “generalness, a seasonless” approach that came about over the Instant Fashion movement, that is practical and can lead to some smart strategies such as more local manufacturing, but “it does create confusion.”
Olearo said the problem that’s pervasive, whether economies are holding their own or struggling, is consumption.
“Price is a very sensitive point versus the real value
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Lotta Volkova, one of fashion’s most coveted stylists, is having trouble keeping a straight face long enough to have her picture taken. Crossing her arms, she shoots the photographer the kind of impassive look familiar to fans of her Instagram feed, but repeatedly collapses into fits of giggles between poses.
In less than five minutes, the session is over, with Volkova opining that the first image was the best. The session was fast, fun and instinctive, an insight into the working process of the 32-year-old Russian stylist who is instrumental to cult label Vetements and new-look Balenciaga.
Volkova is part of a cadre of creative types from Eastern Europe that has taken the fashion world by storm with a raw, underground aesthetic shaped by the experience of growing up after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Alongside Demna Gvasalia, the Georgian designer who heads both Vetements and Balenciaga, and Russian streetwear star Gosha Rubchinskiy, she is championing a lo-fi aesthetic marked by oversize volumes, garish color and a fluid approach to gender. It’s a group that thrives on a collaborative approach and a postmodern take on references borrowed from Nineties sportswear, uniforms and subcultures. Collectively, they are revolutionizing luxury fashion.
“I just feel like
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