ACE Awards to Honors Joseph Altuzarra, Will.i.am, Betsey Johnson and More

NEW YORK — The Accessories Council has revealed this year’s winners for the annual ACE Awards. Topping the list are Betsey Johnson, who will pick up the Style Icon Award; Kendra Scott, this year’s Breakthrough Award winner; Jessie Randall whose Loeffler Randall company will be honored as Brand of the Year, and Monica Rich Kosann, who will take home the Trailblazer Award.
This year’s Fashion and Technology Award will be given to the Black Eyed Peas musician and entrepreneur Will.i.am. His pursuits range from working with Apple Music’s Jimmy Iovine, coaching on “The Voice Kids,” acting as a strategic board adviser for Atom, the app-based bank. Joseph Altuzarra will be honored with the Designer of the Year Award. After Kering took a minority stake in the business in 2013, the designer delved into leather goods, followed by footwear and handbags. As a sign of Altuzarra’s confidence in the category, accessories and leather goods were spotlighted in the brand’s fall campaign.
The Retailer of the Year honoree will be Shopbop and chief executive officer Darcy Penick will be front-and-center to pick it up. The 21st annual ACE Awards event will be held Aug. 7 at Cipriani 42nd Street. This year’s Legacy Award will be

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24.05.2017No comments
2017 Cannes Film Festival: Jean Paul Gaultier Joins 70th Anniversary Photo Call

FASHIONABLE GUEST: Jean Paul Gaultier joined a roster of film luminaries on Tuesday for an exceptional photo call marking the 70th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival.
The French designer, who was a member of the Cannes jury in 2012, was the only representative of the fashion industry to pose alongside actors including Nicole Kidman, Will Smith, Jessica Chastain, Catherine Deneuve, Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning for the group portrait.
Also present were directors Jane Campion, Oliver Stone, Pedro Almodóvar and Ken Loach, among others. In all, 113 leading figures from the world of film came together to pay tribute to the festival.
“I didn’t realize I was the only fashion designer in the picture. I’m so honored — film has always been an inspiration for me,” Gaultier said through a spokeswoman. “I had such a great time as a member of the jury in 2012. Cannes has a special place in my heart.”
Gaultier has often said the 1945 film “Falbalas,” “Paris Frills” in English, inspired his vocation.

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24.05.2017No comments
Aurora San Unveils Direct-to-Consumer Swimwear With Interchangeable Straps

SWITCHING UP SWIMWEAR: Sisters and Aurora San founders Gemma Sherman and Natasha San will launch their direct-to-consumer swimwear brand May 24.
Although neither has worked in fashion professionally until now, each typically travels with 20 bikinis. After years of swapping swimwear and sharing tops, they decided something is lacking for swimwear options. They set out to create timeless silhouettes that can be updated by changing swimwear straps. San said, “We were looking for classic, figure-flattering swimwear that lasted season- to-season but was also exciting and on-trend.”
Under the Aurora San label, they have developed five styles of customizable swimsuits with interchangeable straps that will retail from $115 for the Triangle to $220 for the One Piece. Made from polyamide and elastane, the swimsuits are meant to have a controlled cooling body moisture system with woven sunblock properties and quick-drying technology. There are four straps in prints and colors retailing from $30 for a pair of two to $75 for a set of six. The Aurora San clasps are made from Zamak, heat-resistant, hypoallergenic metal plated in a yellow gold color.
While the concept was 10 years in the making, the sisters are self-financing the company. The two have partnered with the brand’s chief

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24.05.2017No comments
Whicker: A hard fall for the Ducks, but they earned every bruise

NASHVILLE — So what’s worse?

Falling off the tightrope three steps from the end? Or never climbing the ladder at all?

The Ducks limped their way out of Bridgestone Arena, the loudest and happiest roadhouse in Nashville on Monday night.

Their 17-game run toward the Stanley Cup had been adjourned by the Predators, 6-3, although it was tied 3-3 until Colton Sissons scored his third goal of the game with six minutes left. Nashville won in six games and plays either Ottawa or Pittsburgh in Game 1 of the Final on May 29.

When you don’t make the playoffs whatsoever, you normally see the end coming long before it arrives. When you get eliminated in the playoffs, particularly when the series was 2-2 just 96 hours ago, it’s an emergency brake.

Terry Francona, the manager of the Indians, used to relate those endings to running into a brick wall. There’s a concussive effect to the spirit.

“That’s how it goes, you capitalize on your opportunities, and when you don’t, the game is over and the season is over,” Andrew Cogliano said. “To go out like that, it’s a joke.”

The Ducks went out in the most enervating way possible. They were by far the better team in Game 6 from create to crease. If they gave out awards on style points, they would be heading back to Honda Center for Game 7 on Wednesday. But the league goes by goals, and Nashville got four pucks past Jonathan Bernier and needed only 16 shots to do it (the fifth and sixth goals went into an empty net).

Meanwhile, the Ducks ranked 41 shots on goal, had 22 others blocked and missed the net 10 times. They launched 73 pucks toward Pekka Rinne. Nashville shot only 35 more times. So much for Corsi and Fenwick, the metrics that measure such things. Of course, the Kings led the league in Corsi this year. Monday night was Christmas in May for their fans, since it marked the Ducks’ demise, but the Kings themselves never got to Game 1.

It’s difficult to justify copping a plea. Nashville didn’t have Ryan Johansen, who left the arena in an ambulance after Game 4. Johansen did show up Monday night with his crutches, and that brought the loudest boom for the fans, who had also celebrated Trisha Yearwood’s rendition of the National Anthem.

But the Ducks borrowed a Yearwood lyric: “Don’t come cryin’ to me.” In the end they were missing wingers Rickard Rakell and Patrick Eaves. Only 12 players in the NHL regular season scored more goals than Rakell (34), who had 13 points in the 15 playoff games he played. Only 16 players in the NHL regular season scored more goals than Eaves (32).

Then John Gibson (hamstring) couldn’t get through the morning skate and gave way to Jonathan Bernier, who had never started a playoff game even though he’s played 255 times in the regular season. The first Nashville goal went off Brandon Montour’s skate and past him. The other three weren’t easy, but at least a couple could have been stopped, at least by a Western Conference championship-caliber goalie.

“We scored three goals and that’s usually enough in playoff hockey,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “They scored too many goals on us.”

As Ryan Getzlaf would say, the Predators “played hard on the net, they bore down.” That decides games. The Ducks found various way to score during these playoffs, but they were not an effective finishing team until they got Eaves, who now takes his career season to the free-agent market.

Corey Perry had a playoff season of renewal, as he found his way to the front of the net again, but Nashville was consistently better at jumping on rebounds and making those slick passes down low that hung both Gibson and Bernier out to dry at times.

Ryan Kesler sat at his locker when the room opened, still in full uniform, a towel covering his head. He played with his usual glowering passion, but he scored one point in six games, and Nashville’s top line had its way, at times, in every game.

Getzlaf was also prominent, and he was playing with different linemates nearly every night, but he also couldn’t find the net in the series,  and his three assists came in the same game.

Irresistible youth sprouted on both sides. On this night, it sprouted in Nashville’s field. Sissons is 23, a center who made his way into Nashville’s lineup only this season but got bumped up to the first line when Johansen was hurt. He has eight goals in his regular-season career and now has eight goals in the playoffs. The game had barely ended when someone had updated his Wikipedia page, describing him as a “Canadian professional duck hunter.”

The Ducks could have used Nick Ritchie, especially with two other wingers hurt. Instead Ritchie tried to inflict injury, boarding Victor Arvidsson and bloodying his face. That got Ritchie a five-minute major and an ejection.

He played two minutes and 52 seconds. Ironically the Ducks killed off the major penalty with a flourish and actually dominated play the rest of the night. But it was an example of the distemper that has plagued the Ducks, off and on, for years now.

“You’re proud of the guys who are playing through a lot of stuff,” Cogliano said. “They’re getting shot up to play and they’re putting it on the line. Injuries happen, and Nashville is missing its best player as well.

“They won the series, they’re a good team. I don’t think they’re much better. Sometimes in these games, it’s not meant to be. There’s no reason it shouldn’t have gone our way tonight. We had a lot of good looks. We scored three goals and probably should have five. Three goals on the road, you should be able to win.

“When you lose a game like that, it kicks you a little harder.”

The teams that feel the most pain in the hockey playoffs also have less time to overcome it. The pursuit ended with a long, painful fall. In time the Ducks will realize it wasn’t trivial.

23.05.2017No comments