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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Lenzing Fibers has created a technical brochure in conjunction with Spanish textile finishing specialist Jeanologia detailing the advantages when using the latest laser-laundry technologies in conjunction with Tencel fabrics and garments.
The laundry of apparel and fabrics in the manufacturing process has long been a low-tech industry driven by manual labor and poor environmental standards, but the industry is starting to turn to technology to reduce labor costs and drive product development and environmental thinking.
Under the banner of “Light Sensitive,” Lenzing and Jeanologia have conducted a study to demonstrate the advantages of laser technology when using Tencel fabrics.
“Effective laser marking requires quick and effective dye removal, clear image definition, sharp image outline and smooth gray-scale transition,” said Begoña García, senior technologist at Jeanologia. “Fabrics that contain Tencel have the desired characteristics and are the perfect fabrics to work with laser.”
Jeanologia works with many textile and apparel companies focusing on industrial solutions in garment finishing, developing under sound principles of ecology, efficiency and ethics.
“The relationship between Tencel and Jeanologia dates back to 1994 and between then and now we have participated in many different projects together,” said Michael Kininmonth, project manager at Lenzing. “The relationship is such that they now are highly

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It was a small touch but sent a clear message.

Waight Keller has been creative director for six years.

And yes, he looks better than you.

PARIS — Clare Waight Keller will leave Chloé after showing her fall-winter collection for the Paris-based fashion house on March 2, the company said Monday.
WWD first reported on Dec. 15 that Chloé had held discussions with Natacha Ramsay-Levi, a key associate of Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton. Since then, speculation had been rife that Waight Keller would not renew her contract, which officially expires on March 31.
Ramsay-Levi started her fashion career at Balenciaga in 2002 and rose through the design ranks to become Ghesquière’s top design deputy. When the Frenchman exited Balenciaga in 2013, she went on to consult for several brands, including Hermès and Acne Studios, before rejoining Ghesquière at Vuitton, according to a Paris source. Chloé would not comment on the likelihood of her appointment.
Waight Keller, an alum of Pringle of Scotland and Gucci, joined Chloé in 2011 and has brought a sure and steady hand to the house, rejuvenating its ready-to-wear and accessories business and winning largely positive reviews for her collections.
Chloé plans to celebrate the designer, who followed in the footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo, with an after-party on the evening of her last show.
“Clare has been a remarkable partner at Chloé

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