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DOG’S DAY: Snoopy and Belle are back on the fashion circuit, and this time they’re taking it to the masses with a retail bent. The “Snoopy & Belle in Fashion” project, which debuted at the Louvre in 1984 with nearly four dozen outfits designed by everyone from Karl Lagerfeld to Gianni Versace, has been on a nonstop worldwide museum tour ever since. Its last iteration celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2014 with new designers such as Isaac Mizrahi and Rodarte coming into the mix, and others such as Diane von Furstenberg and Betsey Johnson, who were part of the original exhibit, creating a second set of costumes.

Colleen Atwood’s sketch of Snoopy in an outfit inspired by her costume for Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in “Alice in Wonderland.” 

The 2017 tour brings the collection back to the U.S. in shopping malls instead of museums. The first stop is Feb. 14 at Los Angeles’ Beverly Center, and it will hit six U.S. cities before ending at Brookfield Place on Sept. 7 in time for New York Fashion Week, where it will remain until Oct. 1 before it goes overseas.
To mark the Los Angeles kickoff, Peanuts Worldwide — which is 80 percent

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NEW YORK — Robert L. Wells, former president and owner of textile sales agency European Textile Trading Corp., died Jan. 18 in Palm Beach, Fla., according to his son, George. He was 90.
George Wells said his father helped Ralph Lauren source hand-printed wool challis fabrics from Switzerland in the early years before the Polo Ralph Lauren brand began. He also was instrumental in supplying Halston with matte jersey for some of the designer’s iconic styles.
In addition, Wells, who went by Bob, was among the first to bring Loden cloth from Austria into the U.S. market. Loden would go on to be featured by many classic men’s wear labels.
Wells recalled how his father’s easygoing manner and positive attitude within a hectic industry made him stand out among his peers.
“He was a trailblazer in the textile field and evolved the business with extensive travels to various mills in the years well in advance of Interstoff Germany and Première Vision in Paris,” said Wells, who succeeded his father as owner of the company in the mid-Eighties.
The company has been in operation for more than 50 years and was founded by Robert Wells’ uncle, Alfred, in 1936.
Born in 1936 in Waterbury, Conn., Wells enlisted in

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AZZARO RISING: Loris Azzaro began celebrations of its 50th anniversary with the presentation on Wednesday of a capsule collection designed by socialites Bianca Brandolini and Eugenie Niarchos.
Gabriel de Linage, chief executive officer of the Paris-based fashion house, said it was the first of five key events scheduled throughout the year, ahead of the planned relaunch of its women’s ready-to-wear collection in 2018.
In March, it plans to open its first men’s store in France in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district of Paris. This will be followed by a retrospective at an undisclosed location in May, to be accompanied by a book published by Editions de la Martinière.
The house is set to reveal soon a successor for Arnaud Maillard and Alvaro Castejón, its former artistic directors who exited their roles in June after a three-year stint. In addition, it plans to launch a men’s capsule collection in the fourth quarter.
“We are trying to develop men’s and women’s in parallel. They are both very strong segments: men in particular thanks to the perfume, which is very well-known, and women’s fashion thanks to couture, which is at the heart of Azzaro,” de Linage told WWD.
“We plan to reunite men’s and women’s with a new women’s ready-to-wear

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In a multipronged collaboration, Invista’s Cordura brand will introduce its space-themed X.Venture Collexion in Europe for the first time at the Munich Fabric Start trade show on Tuesday.
Cordura is bringing the collection, designed by Struktur Studio, to the German fair as part of what it’s calling a 50th anniversary road show.
The collection is a cooperative collaboration between Cordura and Artistic Milliners and features Tencel from Lenzing Fibers, and coatings for Swiss manufacturer Schoeller Textil. Cordura is collaborating with industry partners in several offerings this year as part of its expansion in its 50th anniversary plans.
The X.Venture Collexion is an interpretation of how some of the most innovative performance textile technologies can combine with the art of design to impact the future of technical denims. The garment concepts take influence from retro astronaut gear — a nod to the Sixties heritage of Cordura, combined with modern, Space-Age popular culture.
Struktur Studio’s retro-futuristic garments in the X.Venture Collexion highlight the cutting-edge denims created by this collaboration.
“To us, the future of innovation is collaboration — whether that’s with a designer or with our community of textile innovators like Artistic Milliners, Tencel and Schoeller Textil,” said Cindy McNaull, global Cordura brand and marketing director. “Orchestrating these industry powerhouses

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“Joy” is the word shoe designer Manolo Blahnik used to sum up 46 years of his career, displayed and celebrated in Milan through a new exhibition. Running from Jan. 26 to April 9, the “Manolo Blahnik. The Art of Shoes” retrospective showcases 212 shoes — selected among more than 30,000 styles — and 80 sketches in the suggestive, 18th-century location of Palazzo Morando, situated in the city’s tony district near Via Montenapoleone.
“I do all this with immense joy,” Blahnik said about his activity, admitting that money has never been on his mind while sketching a pair of shoes, but everything he has ever worked on has been done “just because I like it.”

Manolo Blahnik attending the exhibition on his name in Milan. 
Andrea Delbò

Curated by Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz, who worked on the project for the past two years, the exhibition intends to celebrate Blahnik’s work as a form of art, highlighting the designer’s creativity, vision and craftsmanship. Divided in six areas according to Blahnik’s leitmotifs and inspirations, the venue includes the “Gala” section, displaying the most imaginative styles, such as the ones created for Sofia Coppola’s movie “Marie Antoinette.” Dedicated corners focusing on materials, art, architecture and the many geographical

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Jacobs says, “Her beauty, uniqueness, and strength is something I have long admired and respected.“

Like most non-Millennials, John Galliano is intrigued and unsettled by the extent to which social media has upended traditional methods of communication. “All these advancements, I just wonder if we are all at the moment genetically prepared to absorb so much information,” he said, miming a person engrossed in a relationship with his phone, oblivious to the people nearby. Then, as himself: “I’m grateful to know how important it is to live in the present.”
Unlike almost everyone regardless of generation, Galliano can channel his thoughts on the subject into a work of  creative brilliance. That’s what he did on Wednesday in his spring artisanal collection for Maison Margiela.
Galliano spoke before the show, his tone more conflicted than critical. He is, after all, a social media participant himself, particularly Instagram. (Surprise!) One aspect of his interest: social media’s impact on visual communication, specifically the app filters that can be layered onto photos, ultimately altering reality. As he has done so often with disparate cultural phenomena, he translated that into his own kind of applications — high-skill haute-worthy techniques. Here, he appropriated the filter concept for big, bold-faced graphics and in his use with fabrics, layering unlike pieces — wool, point d’esprit,

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One could argue that this couture season saw two major debuts, the more obvious, that of Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri. In a sense, her former partner, Pierpaolo Piccioli, had his own debut, his first solo couture collection for Valentino, since he and Chiuri ascended to the role of joint creative directors after the retirement of the house founder.
“To do couture for a designer is a great opportunity,” Piccioli said during a preview, appearing not at all frazzled on the eve of his third show in three weeks. (He’s shown men’s last week in Paris, and prior to that, pre-fall, in New York.) “For me to create couture, to have the opportunity to work with the atelier, is a dream come true.”
For spring, Piccioli staged another exquisite Valentino Dream sequence. That it was beautiful should surprise no one, given the portfolio he has put out there these past several years (albeit, until now, a tandem résumé). During that time, the house has soared among the elite of fashion on the strength of an aesthetic that seems antithetical to the modern world, one of grace and lyricism.
What did surprise: The challenging nature of the collection. These were not easy clothes. Exquisite, yes,

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