HONG KONG –  One of China’s most talented young photographers, Ren Hang, has passed away.
WWD has reached out directly to Ren Hang’s studio. The news was confirmed by several who worked with him.
According to Taschen, who published the Beijing artist’s work, the 29-year-old took his own life on Thursday.
The book publisher also posted on Instagram: “Taschen is devastated by the death of Chinese photographer Ren Hang (1987-2017), a self-taught master of surrealistic, startling, and beautiful pictures, censored in his homeland, feted across the globe, and at the pioneering forefront of a gender inclusive world.”
Eli Klein of the Klein Sun Gallery also paid tribute saying: “Today we mourn the loss of Ren Hang, a talented and rising young photographer who passed away well before his time. @kleinsungallery was honored to host his solo exhibition last year and sends our heartfelt condolences to all of his loved ones.”
The controversial young artist, who had been arrested multiple times in his homeland and had his often sexually provocative work censored, appeared to struggle with depression. In a foreboding Weibo post on Jan. 27, he wrote: “Every year my wish is always the same: Die earlier.” He quickly followed it up with another post saying: “Hopefully this year

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The giant, vibrant kaleidoscope in the entry flagged the designer’s intent. So did an explosion of actual flags — 3,000 of them, bohemian bright, strung over the show space. For fall, Veronica Etro would embrace the house heritage with euphoric command.
During her tenure as women’s creative director, Etro has taken proud ownership of that legacy. Still, its specificity can prove challenging. Along the way, she has varied her degree of gusto, at times going for full-on embrace and at others, manipulating and distorting the patterns to downplay and disguise their paisley-ness.
No such subterfuge here. For fall, Etro imagined an adventurous sisterhood — the “Etro Paisley Tribe” — as intrepid as they are chic. All passionate travelers, here they gathered for some kind of spiritual-cum-fashion convocation. “It’s like an altitude festival,” Etro said during a preview, “in the mountains, in Bhutan, the Himalayas. And there’s a lot going on.”
Indeed so, but delightfully abundant. And if everything going on — the paisleys shared billing with flowers, regimental stripes, harlequin diamonds, dragon patches, mandala insignias, animal spots and on and on — would prove more than dizzying when descended from the mountain and into more secular stylistic settings, many of the clothes were

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FEMALE NOMINEES
Some of fashion’s most iconic moments have been at the Oscars. Every year, actresses make their most important statements on the red carpet and the media and public alike anxiously wait to see what they chose for their big night. WWD picks looks for the women from the recently wrapped-up couture collections —Mayte Allende
Emma Stone
Film: “La La Land”
Designer: Giambattista Valli

Stone is a risk-taker and she does not mind experimenting and pushing the envelope: We still remember her chic, unexpected Lanvin jumpsuit at the Golden Globes and her memorable golden beaded Elie Saab at the 2015 Oscars. We would love for Emma to try one of Giambattista Valli’s extreme-volume silhouettes such as this one

Ruth Negga
Film: “Loving”
Designer: Givenchy
A relative newcomer on the awards scene — this marks her first Oscar nomination — Negga has already made quite the splash; she wore an exquisite Louis Vuitton silver column gown to the Golden Globes signaling that perhaps she favors an edge. This black Givenchy beaded mesh number is right up her alley.

Meryl Streep
Film: “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Designer: Chanel
Streep holds the record for the most Oscar nominations of any actor with 20 nominations and three wins so as the veteran that she is, we

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Antonin Tron is ready to take Atlein to a bigger stage.
After two seasons of presenting the year-old label in his private apartment on trendy Boulevard Beaumar- chais, the designer plans to
stage his first catwalk show in Paris on March 2. The collection, while still rooted in the draped jersey pieces that made him a hit with fashion edi- tors and buyers, will expand to include a weightier wool jersey suitable for more tailored pieces. In

addition, he is introducing a smattering of knits and a new category: shoes.
“I think it was right for the first two seasons to show the collection in a very intimate presentation, but now it’s time to give body to the brand,” said Tron, sitting in his living room surrounded by green plants and vases from his collection of Sixties-era Vallauris ceramics.

“A runway show is important because it allows me to communicate to the world at large a more global vision,” he added.
The display will feature a mix of professional and street-cast models, alongside friends like Aymeline Valade. With her beauty, outspokenness and athletic physique, the French model and actress — who happens to be Tron’s former room- mate — embodies the spirit of Atlein, he explained.

A

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ALL CLEAR: The Chinese performance artist and photographer Liu Bolin is the art world’s version of “The Invisible Man,” but he won’t be so hard to see in the months ahead.
Annie Leibovitz’s semitransparent shots of him in Moncler’s spring ads are just the start of a hectic work schedule. In April, Bolin will have solo exhibitions at the Gallery Magda Danysz in Shanghai, and at the Galerie Paris-Beijing in Paris. There will also be a performance at Centre Georges Pompidou and another at Festival Portrait(s) in Vichy, France later this year.
Before those get under way, the artist will speak May 11 at the “Art of Tomorrow” conference at the W Doha Hotel & Residences in Qatar. The upcoming blitz is a switch for the artist whose “Hiding in the City” series features self portraits in which he camouflages himself by painting himself to blend into his landscapes. “It’s my way to convey all the anxiety I feel for human beings,” the artist has said of the practice.
Along with brands like Guerlain, Fred, Renault and Ford, Bolin said his first fashion-related project was to hide five well-known designers — Jean Paul Gaultier, Alber Elbaz, Angela Missoni and Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier

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It didn’t quite feel like the old days (no matter what your particular “old days” are) — there were still far too many shows on the schedule for that. Yet the week definitely had a retro vibe. Not the clothes, though, of course there was some retro there as well — what fashion week is devoid? But this fashion week felt calmer than New York has in years — fewer shows, fewer celebrities, less extravaganza, less drama, even the traffic-stopping photo-op frenzy over the street-style set seemed less frenetic than that to which we’ve become accustomed. Yet the calm wasn’t that of resolution. Rather, it played out with an undercurrent of calm more anxious than Zen.
The moment found many designers in a contemplative mood, ruminating on factors ranging from the U.S. political situation to the very nature of fashion itself — what it means, what people want to wear and whether the obsession with streetwear is a passing trend or a permanent manifestation of the increasingly casual world in which we live, and where the notion of appropriate dressing seems as reactionary as spats or a bustle. I gotta be me, and if I’m most me in yoga pants and

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Phoebe Neuman

Apparel maker Gildan Activewear has booked a rise in both earnings and revenue in its fourth-quarter, thanks to growing sales in its printwear and branded apparel businesses.

US retailers are calling for a halt to a planned one-day shutdown of East Coast and Gulf Coast ports in protest over the loss of longshoring jobs and its effect on the economy.