PARIS — “I’m happy to finally give birth — I feel like it’s been 10 months instead of nine, so I’m way overdue,” said Kris Van Assche, greeting a visitor at the Berluti showroom just days before his debut runway show for a luxury label that is rooted in footwear.
Indeed, it’s been an unusually long gestation period for the former Dior Homme designer, whose arrival at Berluti was confirmed in April 2018. Not that he’s been idle: Van Assche presented his capsule spring collection in October, and has also shown a pre-fall collection in-house.
But having watched Kim Jones at Dior and Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton, his fellow designers within the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton empire, make splashy debuts during Paris Fashion Week: Men’s in June, followed by Hedi Slimane’s coed show for Celine in September, the 42-year-old is understandably eager to finally lay out his vision for the new-look Berluti.
That vision starts, unsurprisingly, with the footwear. Known for his mix of sharp tailoring and sophisticated sportswear, the Belgian designer has revamped Berluti’s classic Alessandro oxford shoe, made from a single piece of patinated Venezia leather, with the addition of sharp angles and gleaming silver hardware.
“If my previous work always

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The European men’s shows are in full-throttle. Ditto, Hollywood awards season, and couture, just around the corner. Yet fashion’s biggest ongoing curiosity is what’s next at Calvin Klein Inc. as the brand and its parent PVH Corp. try fervently to erase the effects of their brief, rapturous affair with Raf Simons. The most recent development: the sudden availability of Kevin Carrigan after his departure from Ralph Lauren Corp.
Carrigan is the designer who, for 18 years, held the title of global director at Calvin Klein Inc., with responsibility for CK Calvin Klein, Calvin Klein Jeans and Calvin Klein White Label, always big moneymakers for the brand. Two days after Simons’ appointment at Calvin Klein, Carrigan resigned, though he stayed on long enough to complete several seasons’ worth of collections. He was quickly hired by Ralph Lauren Corp. as senior vice president, creative director of the women’s Lauren and Chaps brands. His departure from that post was reported by WWD exclusively on Monday. The obvious speculation: Is Carrigan headed back to Calvin Klein? While both sides insist there has been zero conversation about a possible return, recent history tells that one should take Calvin Klein denials with a grain of salt, and Carrigan’s departure from

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Lucie and Luke Meier like to do things that “feel right.” This was a recurring expression the designers used throughout a preview held in Milan at Jil Sander’s headquarters ahead of the brand’s fall/winter show in Paris on Jan. 18. It will be the first men’s runway show after they experimented with the coed format in Milan and men’s presentations — the latter two in Paris.
The Meiers, however, do not precisely want to split cities and shows. “It was not a decision to do men’s in Paris and women’s in Milan,” said Luke Meier. “We have a really strong attraction to Paris, it’s very personal to us and Lucie was living there for a very long time,” he said, referring to his wife’s experiences at Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton and Dior. The couple took on the creative helm at Jil Sander in April 2017. “We like to have a foot in both [cities] and we figured out how to bring an element of Jil Sander in Paris and have an element here in Milan — it’s nice.”
Choosing to hold a runway show now instead of a presentation, he shrugged differences away. “It’s cool to have a show, but the work is

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LONDON — British brand J&M Davidson has named Katie Hillier creative director, with her first collection set for fall 2019, WWD has learned. Hillier will be part of a new creative collective at the brand, which has traditionally been known for its leather accessories and is owned by the Japanese luxury group Yagi Tsusho.
Hillier’s first collection will be a full product range that includes ready-to-wear and accessories, and her appointment forms part of a strategic growth plan led by Shingo Takahashi, chief executive officer of J&M Davidson. The brand is repositioning itself in the accessible luxury sector, with an emphasis on craftsmanship, fabrication and process, as well as design.

Katie Hillier’s new designs for J&M Davidson. 
Courtesy

Hillier’s first collection has a laid-back, soft, bohemian feel, with lots of bright color, colorblocking, exotic skins and embellishments such as fringing.
Yagi Tsusho acquired J&M Davidson in March 2013, with the brand’s founders John and Monique Davidson exiting in early 2018. The new owners have also assembled a team of collaborators, including the artist Jeff West, art director Jamie Reed, the product and space designer Tina Vaia, and a young design team based in London.
The new team will work with Hillier, who will continue to pursue

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MIU MIU’S GIRLS: Miu Miu has tapped Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon to front the brand’s spring 2019 ad campaign.
British photographer David Sims portrayed Leon in the backseat of a car against a blurred cityscape. Other images feature actresses Juliette Lewis, Maya Hawke, Zazie Beetz, and Chinese model Du Juan aboard coaches and buses.
This is not the first time Leon fronts a fashion campaign as she was tapped as one of four models for the images of Stella McCartney’s Pop fragrance in 2016.
The 22-year-old Leon also recently walked her first runway show last September during New York Fashion Week, appearing on the catwalk of Gypsy Sport.

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The auction house unveils a selection of 21 works by female artists from the 16th through the 19th centuries.

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