Top executives from 16 major US manufacturers have sent an open letter to Congress urging elected officials to pass tax reforms and the controversial border tax in order to boost growth for domestic companies and taxpayers.
Esprit has seen continued improvement in the first half of fiscal 16/17, building on the positive progress achieved in its last financial year to book “record” earnings.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) has entered into a partnership agreement with the East Africa Trade and Investment Hub to ensure best-in-class manufacturing of goods destined for the US market from East Africa.
A cohort of human rights groups have questioned a report by the The International Labor Organization (ILO) that claims the Government of Uzbekistan is making progress in reforms to address risks of child and forced labour in its cotton industry.
Lulu Kennedy’s coterie of emerging talent provided a rich offering of imaginative and experimental clothes at Saturday’s Fashion East show. British-born Supriya Lele kicked off the proceedings with a static presentation immediately before the show, exploring the connection between her family’s Indian heritage and her London upbringing. Despite the use of PVC, latex and gaffer tape fastenings, it was an elegant debut for the designer who graduated from the Royal College of Art’s MA course last year.
Inspired by memories of watching her grandmother tie a sari, she played with the concept of wrapping. But there was nothing sentimental in her slick reimagining. A baby pink skin-tight top came with a matching pair of wide-leg trousers, topped with a shiny red skirt constructed to look as if wrapped around the waist. She coated silks with plastic to give them the effect of sexy PVC and used them in slim pants that had gold gaffer-tape fastenings and, in the case of the pink pair, wrapped around the leg above the knee. And her latex maxi coat looked like it was made of heavy silk — no mean feat.
Mimi Wade returned with more of her kitsch boudoir creations, this time inspired by motifs from the
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There was a punk flavor to this collection by Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi, who believe women want to tear up their wardrobes and piece them back together in different — and more laid-back — ways. “These are iconic pieces, but in the context of today: masculine-feminine silhouettes and embellished, sporty clothing,” Aquilano said backstage after the show, which was set in a new brick-and-concrete loft space near Linate airport.
The designers riffed on Fay’s outerwear staples — duffle and military coats, hooded jackets, and toppers done in check and plaid fabrics. They sprinkled them with clusters of diamanté jewels, or punched them full of small, shiny studs. There were flippy, pleated skirts and short jackets in plaid or leather, some bejeweled, others streaked with zippers or dotted with studs, while a few glowed with iridescent leather made to look like python.
Plaid overcoats and duffles had large, rounded shoulders in a nod to all those oversize proportions swarming the European catwalks, while a neat peplum jacket with a drawstring waist and a big white collar had a spray of sparkly jewels at the front. None of it this was groundbreaking, but that’s not the point. It was classy — and commercial.
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Veda founder and creative director Lyndsey Butler recalibrated her vision for Veda this season, pivoting back to her roots of designing the perfect leather jacket, with a focus on fit and quality. Since launching in 2008, she has offered a range of ready-to-wear looks that have a sense of cool, laid-back ease underscored by timeless design. Her redefined mission statement for fall came through a whopping 12 leather jacket iterations — not including varying color and leather choices — and a capsule of black leather separates, hammering home the brand’s core identity.
It’s hard to imagine there being that many covetable leather jacket silhouettes, but Butler crafted some outstanding options: modern aviator bombers; cropped aviator styles with colorful, interchangeable shearling collars; shearling moto jackets; cropped blazers; velvet-leather biker jacket hybrids, and an understatedly cool leather puffer, to name a few.
Butler wanted customers to consider Veda as the one-stop shop for leather everything, including fitted camisole and slipdresses, a boxy T-shirt, casual five-pocket pants, a stretch-leather legging, an A-line miniskirt and other tops with various hardware detail. Her earthy color palette drew from Agnes Martin’s recent retrospective at the Guggenheim, with pops of color taken from Japanese photographer Takashi Yasumura’s “Domestic Scandals.” Styles will carry over to forthcoming
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That 5 a.m. post-party moment, when you’re either doing the walk of shame or the stride of pride, was the inspiration behind Ashley Williams’ more polished collection for fall. The lyrics of her favorite song — Kate Bush’s “Under the Ivy,” in which the protagonist takes a breather from a party to await her lover in the boughs of the garden — inspired the introvert mood of the collection, which spoke to the wardrobes of those party girls who love the night life as well as those who’d rather be home watching Netflix.
Party refuseniks were catered to via full tracksuits in pale lemon yellow or gray emblazoned with “Gimme Five” or Stephen King-inspired “Misery” slogans, respectively, the hood worn up and topped with oversize Stetsons for maximum anonymity.
Williams nodded to the Milanese Paninaro street-style trend from the Eighties, in which cool young things thoroughly embraced American sportswear and Wild West influences, and incorporated preppy Ivy League looks into their style. This translated into nice tartan skirts and wide cropped pants and was especially successful in the yellow tartan kilt that came with a buttoned-up gray shirt and a tan varsity jacket, also featuring a “Misery” slogan and a wolf’s head
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Wolfgang Joop mixed safari, tartans, men’s suitings and punk references for his campy, outdoorsy fall collection. At times, the results were casual, as in a khaki shirtdress that featured a detachable contrasting pleated bottom and was layered over a navy hoodie and a metallic puff jacket. Other looks were more forced, as with a red-striped tailored jacket with a skirt that was half matching, half in leopard and tartan. There were plenty of reworked classics to go around — pink oxford shirtdresses with deconstructed skirt overlays, super-wide chinos, cozy sweaters and for the trendy youngsters, floral velvet suiting over hoodies.
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HEADLINER: Karl Lagerfeld has turned his design talents to the Vienna Opera Ball.
The multitasker has designed a tiara for the dozens of debutantes at this year’s event, due to be held on Feb. 23, dubbing it The Blue Danube. Lagerfeld picked a color scheme of white gold set with diamonds and sapphires, although the tiaras will in fact be produced by Swarovski using their signature crystals.
The original sketch of the tiara — in pastel, grease pencils and Tipp-Ex on tracing paper — was sold by auction house Dorotheum at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna on Tuesday, raising 13,000 euros, or $13,650 at current exchange, for Caritas & Du, a charity based in Vienna that offers support for the homeless as well as emergency aid internationally.
Lagerfeld last year designed costumes for “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet” at Opéra Bastille, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied, drawing inspiration from the Vienna Secession art movement for his designs.
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