St. Kitts, Canouan, and Grenada are becoming the regions high-rolling heavyweights.

LONDON – Kim Jones, artistic director of Dior men’s wear, will be among the British and international names to step onto the stage at Royal Albert Hall Monday night as the winner of the inaugural Trailblazer award.
The award marks Jones’ “always-on cultural zeitgeist and his reputation for challenging the norms while respecting heritage, history, creativity and innovation,” the British Fashion Council said, adding the award recognizes “the very best innovators and creatives in fashion” who are significantly shaping the industry.
The BFC pointed to Jones’ collaboration with KAWS to reinterpret the Dior bee emblem and the designer’s appeal to a growing female audience, “reflecting the trend for men and women forgetting the gender focus of a collection and buying pieces they simply want to own and wear.”
“His love for travel, international cultures and understanding of consumers further enhance his creative and commercial standing,” said Caroline Rush, chief executive officer of the BFC, adding the organization is “very proud he is British born, educated and a great global ambassador for our industry.”
Jones, a Central Saint Martins graduate, said: “This recognition for my work means a lot to me.”
The Fashion Awards, which is sponsored mainly by Swarovski, is the main fundraiser for the BFC,

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More…

MOVING ON: Rod Manley, executive vice president of global communications at Calvin Klein Inc., is leaving the New York-based fashion house.
It is understood Manley resigned for personal reasons, and to pursue another professional opportunity. His next move could not immediately be learned.
The executive could not be reached for comment over the weekend. A Calvin Klein spokeswoman said Sunday Manley is still with the company, but confirmed he has tendered his resignation. “Rod has been an incredible asset to Calvin Klein during his time with the organization. We wish him the absolute best in his future endeavors,” she said.
A seasoned communications figure, Manley joined Klein in 2015. Before that, he was senior vice president, communications at Giorgio Armani, where he has worked for nine years, both in New York and previously in the company’s Milan headquarters.
Manley oversaw the public relations, celebrity services, special events and corporate communications teams. His successor has yet to be named.

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More…

DKNY will launch a digital pop-up shop today, featuring custom T-shirts and totes based on “100% DKNY.”
Previously, the custom “100% DKNY” product was available exclusively to celebrities and influencers in fashion, entertainment, music and contemporary art.
The digital pop-up will remain open until Dec. 21 at iamdkny.com. Custom Ts will retail for $50 and totes are $25. Net profits from the digital pop-up will be donated to Ronald McDonald. Items can be custom-printed with elements that make the individual unique and ultimately add up to “100 DKNY.” The products will be delivered within three days in custom DKNY pizza boxes, making for clever holiday gifting.

Sophia Richie in “100% DKNY” T-shirt. 

This past fall, DKNY, which is owned by G-III Apparel Group, launched its first digital-led campaign, photographed by Oliver Hadlee Pearch and styled by Emilie Kareh. The campaign featured a roster of individuals such as Dilone, Soo Joo Park, Alanna Arrington and for DKNY Men’s, Miles McMillan. Each individual was shown navigating the city, under the Williamsburg Bridge, across SoHo Street, and on rooftops, overlaid with copy that broke down their DNA, all of which added up to “100% DKNY.”
In a guerilla seeding campaign in September, DKNY designed and produced several hundred

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More…

PARIS — Gosha Rubchinskiy was scrambling to minimize damage to his business and reputation over the weekend after a 16-year-old seeking to model in the Russian designer’s look book accused him of inappropriate behavior.
Jan Silfverling shared exchanges on Instagram and WhatsApp with Facebook group High Fashion Talk that seem to suggest the designer was trying to coax racy pictures from the youth.
“Would like to show how Gosha can’t be trusted as a designer,” Silfverling said in the post. HFT said “it is alleged by the minor that some of the deleted messages were more explicit in their requests but Gosha redacted them.”

The post was picked up by outlets including Supreme Leaks News and Diet Prada.
Putting it down to a simple request for a photo to facilitate a fashion shoot that has been misinterpreted, Rubchinskiy’s team on Sunday issued a statement to WWD defending the risky practice of casting via Instagram. “Gosha throughout his career in 10 years always personally chose models. For us participation of not professional models and common street-cast guys always was important. Not only appearance but also personal qualities. Gosha and his team maintain friendly relations with many guys over the years. Gosha is familiar personally with

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More…

SHANGHAI — As far as bygone New York City eras go, the Seventies with its disco balls and grungy graffiti-splattered walls is one of the most fondly remembered — and it was this slice of life that Coach re-created at the West Bund Art Center, parking vintage Mustang replicas beside the runway and blaring police sirens and hip-hop beats.
Actress and Coach campaign face Chloë Grace Moretz came to hang out, as well as Ji Soo and Rosé, band members from the K-pop group Blackpink. Hannah Quinlivan, the model and wife to Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou, also came to view the dual-gender collection, which featured varying handkerchief hemlines and a more colorful palette than seen in the past two seasons. The show contained only small bags, perfect for the wallet-less China WeChat generation.
With so much tense talk between U.S. and China over trade the past few months — the two sides only last week came to a temporary tariffs truce — a Shanghai show from a New York house acted, if only in its own small way, as counterpoint.
For Coach, the motivation to hold the show was its 15th anniversary in China, a country which now figures as its second-largest market after North America.

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More…

The 2019 Pen of the Year honors the samurai with a pen collection decorated with quotes and symbols related to the Japanese warrior class.

Live in a Malibu beach house designed by the legendary entertainer.

A look into the evolution of the world’s most iconic racing liveries.