At a time when the United Nations is meeting in New York, discord between nations has rarely appeared so high. Christelle Kocher has other ideas.
Her spring collection was an ode to unity, under the guise of a celebration of women worldwide. That could be a soignée Parisienne, strutting down Avenue Montaigne in a fuchsia blazer, or a young girl in Indonesia going out with friends in a sequined top and matching headscarf, paired with pleated track pants.
“It’s an homage to diversity, a rallying call in which fashion can be a good vector of unification,” Kocher said backstage after the show, held at the French Communist Party headquarters in Paris, a saucer-shaped building designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the Sixties.
Kocher has always connected with a more nuanced vision of Paris than most people who live here experience — the result of shuttling between her job as artistic director of Maison Lemarié, part of Chanel’s stable of specialty ateliers, and her own studio in the multiethnic neighborhood of Belleville in the northeast of Paris.
This season, she broadened that vision to places she has visited, and those she dreams of discovering. A black bodysuit was embroidered with silver sequins in geometric motifs inspired

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NEAT KNITS: Don’t take your sweater for granted.
This felt like the underlying message relayed by Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. executives speaking before a crowded room of journalists gathered for a Uniqlo exhibit about knitwear in Paris. People squeezed into the entrance of the show, a wide room covered with dangling wheels of colored wool, the hues arranged like a giant, three-dimensional rainbow.
Held at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris, the show runs from Wednesday through Saturday. It’s a sort of ephemeral pop-up experience from the Japanese label, which touts the exhibit as its first, as it joins the growing ranks of brands aiming to pull in new consumers by telling people how their stuff is made.
“The Art and Science of LifeWear” features a knitting machine in action, building a sweater dress before the public. It then takes visitors through a life of a sweater through photos, showing inspection stages and the factory hanger system, finishing with the final residue removal, done by hand. Another room is covered with rows of outfits, some outfitted with knit hats, scarves and gloves.
Closing the exhibit is a pop-up shop, complete with a cash register, featuring collaborations with Andrea Crews—airport themed, with sweaters stamped “Paris”

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PARIS — The cat is out of the bag: After setting tongues wagging by attending Alessandro dell’Acqua’s No. 21 show in Milan, entrepreneur Diego Della Valle said Tuesday he has drafted the designer to create the first capsule collection for Tod’s under its new strategy.
As reported in February, the Italian luxury group is overturning its business model and launching a new project called Tod’s Factory, in a reference to Andy Warhol. In a system mirroring the streetwear drop, it will release a mix of capsules and limited editions in collaboration with different designers and friends of the house.
“We need to have to have — maximum every two months — a new product going on the market directly,” Della Valle told a room full of fashion editors at a breakfast meeting at the Ritz Paris hotel during Paris Fashion Week.
“We try to remain what we are, and at the same time we put curiosity in our product, a lot of creativity and movement,” added the executive, who was flanked by dell’Acqua and model Edie Campbell, who is the face of the collection. “We are doing more in one year than we did in the previous 20.”
He noted that with the speed of

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Arielle Charnas, the influencer behind the popular fashion blog and social channels Something Navy, had a “wildly successful” launch of her collection exclusively at Nordstrom on Monday, according to a Nordstrom spokeswoman.  The brand was so popular it crashed the site in the first hour, which was quickly remedied.
Many customers complained online that they weren’t able to buy what they put in their shopping bag since the site crashed, and once it was back online Nordstrom had sold out of the items.
The introduction followed the successful launch of the Treasure & Bond x Something Navy capsule collection last fall. That capsule was estimated to have racked up sales of about $1 million in less than 24 hours, as reported.
On Monday, Something Navy sales beat expectations, according to the spokeswoman. Among the best sellers were a v-neck slouchy pullover, which was available in five colors for $79; the double-breasted topper coat in check pattern for $139, and the teddy coat, available in two colors, blue and tan, for $149. The tan sold out Monday and the blue is still available in large and XXL.

The blue teddy coat is still available in a few sizes. 

Charnas will make an appearance at Nordstrom’s Yorkdale

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