Rei Kawakubo will receive the 2019 Isamu Noguchi Award from the Noguchi Museum.
The award, which will be presented at the museum’s annual benefit on May 2, is given to individuals who share Isamu Noguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness and commitment to East-West cultural exchange.
Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons and cofounder of Dover Street Market, is also involved in graphic design, advertising and interiors for her businesses, which she considers to be inextricable components of her aesthetic vision. Her work has appeared in several exhibitions, including a solo exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017, which was only the second monographic show awarded to a living designer by The Met. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Comme des Garçons.
According to The Museum, “Rei Kawakubo has consistently defied notions not only of beauty, but also of what fashion can be, at once confounding our expectations for clothing — and like Noguchi — challenging the idea that design and art are inherently different endeavors.”
Kawakubo received the Fashion Group International Award in 1986 and the Excellence in Design Award from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2000. In 1993, she was named a Chevalier in the Order of

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MILAN — Giorgio Armani has unveiled on Monday a new partnership with the Italian Soccer Federation.
In particular, the designer and the Italian sport institution have signed a four-year partnership that will see the country’s national soccer team wearing formal off-field Emporio Armani uniforms.
Previously, the Armani company created the uniforms for the Italian national soccer team for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and for the 1994 World Cup. In addition, the fashion house designed the official uniforms for the Newcastle United, Chelsea and Bayern Munich soccer teams.
In all the official occasions, the members of the team will sport an Emporio Armani jersey suit, a shirt and an overcoat with detachable linings, all embellished with the Italian Soccer Federation’s shield. In addition, Armani designed shoes, a kit bag, a backpack, a belt, small leather goods and a pair of sunglasses.

Emporio Armani uniform for the Italian soccer team. 
Courtesy Photo

“This agreement makes me particularly happy: I am returning to football after my experience with Chelsea and Bayern, and once again I am dressing the Italian national team, as I did for the 1994 World Cup,” Armani said. “I am proud to partner with the FIGC and to offer our athletes my idea of soft

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MILAN — Geraldina, the women’s wear label founded by Geraldina Bassani Antivari and Michal Saad, has opened its first flagship in Milan’s Brera district.
The brand started taking shape four years ago when Bassani Antivari was still creative director of outerwear label Mr & Mrs Italy and Saad, a former associate fashion editor at Vogue US, was working at Loro Piana as an e-commerce project manager.
Based on an antifashion idea, transcending the concept of trends and seasons, Geraldina wants to offer women “beautiful and flattering clothes, with great quality,” said Bassani Antivari seated in an armchair in the brand’s new Milanese store. This occupies a unique three-story town house, which stands out compared with the stately Milanese buildings that generally line the Brera streets. The venue previously housed a Massimo Piombo boutique was the studio of iconic Italian architect Gae Aulenti.

The Geraldina store in Milan. 
Federico Lomartire

“The last thing I had in mind was to open a store in Milan because people here know me for my family and they might have thought, ‘here is another daddy’s girl,’” said Bassani Antivari, referring to the fact she is the daughter of Luca Bassani Antivari, founder and president of Monaco-based maritime design company Wally

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PARIS — Dior on Monday reprised its circus-themed spring haute couture show in Dubai as it seeks to reinforce its ties with Middle Eastern customers with special initiatives, including the launch of a gold-themed capsule collection featuring brand icons such as the Lady Dior and Saddle bags.
Egyptian actress and singer Yousra and Saudi Arabian singer Aseel Omran were among the guests who gathered in a big top in the city’s verdant Safa Park for the show, which was slightly tweaked for the local audience. Instead of the all-female Mimbre troop that performed in Paris in January, guests were entertained by fire acrobats and performers perched on balls and unicycles.
Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of women’s collections, designed 15 new looks for the presentation in Dubai, including metallic pleated gowns, embroidered playsuits worn with long sheer skirts and fitted wool redingotes with hand-embroidered frogging.
Dubai is the sixth most-visited city in the world, with 15.9 million overnight visitors in 2018, up from 15.8 million in 2017, according to Dubai’s Department of Tourism. Construction is booming as it prepares to host a World Expo in 2020.
It remains the top-ranking destination city based on overnight visitor spend, with visitors spending a whopping $537 a day

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Donald Patz unveils Secret Door and two other special new wine ventures.

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Signaling his admiration for the Japanese culture, Giorgio Armani is headed to Tokyo on May 24.
In the Japanese metropolis, the designer will host his first runway show for a pre-collection parading the Giorgio Armani men’s and women’s resort 2020 lineups. The location for the show has yet to be disclosed.
The show will be held in conjunction with the celebrations, that same night, for the reopening of the Armani/Ginza Tower in the city’s tony shopping district.
“I am glad to be returning to Tokyo for the reopening of Ginza Tower after its refurbishment: a major project that underscores my bond with Japan, a country whose aesthetics and culture I have always admired,” Armani said.
Nodding to the Japanese culture, the Italian designer, for instance, pierced the runway of his spring 2015 Privé haute couture show in Paris with bamboo-shaped transparent stalks and featured prints, embroideries and appliqués of the plant’s stems and leaves on the garments; gold brush strokes inspired by Japanese calligraphy decorated men’s jackets, knits and outerwear in the Emporio Armani men’s fall 2015 collection.
First unveiled in 2007, the Armani/Ginza Tower — covering about 65,000 square feet over 12 floors and two basement levels — featured the Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani

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Chriselle Lim is expanding retail partnerships for her eponymous label.
In September, the superinfluencer teamed with Nordstrom to launch the debut line from The Chriselle Lim Collection, her namesake clothing brand. The collection, inspired by the fall season, was sold in 40 Nordstrom doors and online. On March 21, the sophomore line will arrive at Nordstrom and two new retail partners: Bloomingdale’s and Shopbop.

Chriselle Lim modeling her namesake collection, which enters Bloomingdale’s and Shopbop on March 21. 
Courtesy Image

“[Nordstrom is] one of the best retailers out there, but I felt like I was ready to expand the collection and to get it into more hands,” said Lim. “Nordstrom isn’t everywhere — they’re not in New York. I have a ton of New York followers that have been asking and dying for [the collection], so Bloomingdale’s felt like the right fit. Our international customers, as well, are dying to get the collection and I believe that Shopbop has a great international shopping [experience]. I felt we were ready to expand.”
The forthcoming collection, the theme of which is “blooming,” consists of 28 stockkeeping units — tops, trousers, blazers, shorts and matching sets. There is also a larger offering of dresses, as requested by Lim’s

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