LONDON CALLING: Emporio Armani will hold its women’s spring 2018 show in London on Sept. 17, during the city’s fashion week, WWD has learned. The event will coincide with the unveiling of  the newly renovated Emporio Armani Bond Street store.
“London — dynamic, energetic and cosmopolitan — represents global culture, so it’s the perfect setting for my Emporio Armani collection,” said Giorgio Armani. “After my ‘One Night Only’ event in 2006, I’m thrilled to be returning to London to unveil the new concept at the Bond Street store, bearing witness to the brand’s strong bond with the British people.”
In a similar move, the designer last year decided to exceptionally hold his Emporio Armani spring 2017 fashion show in Paris as the restyling of the brand’s boutique and its Caffé on Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés provided the opportunity  to rethink the location and timing of the show.
In 2006, Armani exited the Milan Fashion Week calendar to show the Emporio spring 2007 collection in London for the first time as part of what the designer called a “unique fashion music event.” It was held to mark the launch of the Emporio Armani Product Red line, with a portion of gross profits of the collection channeled in support of the

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“I do have this tendency to wander off,” Tom Chapman says about his conversational inclination. Before an hour-long phone chat has ended, that observation will prove something of an understatement.
The original purpose of a call with the Matchesfashion.com cofounder: To discuss the trio of “In Residence” symposia his brand will host throughout April to celebrate the retailer’s 30th anniversary. The first kicks off in New York, at a townhouse on 2 East 63rd Street, on Wednesday with a press day and dinner for designers and other “friends,” followed by a Thursday-through-Sunday program for customers. The densely packed schedule boasts sessions both fashion-centric (Joseph Altuzarra in conversation with Garance Doré; Gabriela Hearst on sustainability; Kristopher Brock with Refinery29’s Christene Barberich and Matches buying director Natalie Kingham) and not at all (florist Nicolette Camille offering a how-to demo with spring blooms; model-cum-trainer Akin Akman offering the kind of get-physical inspiration that only a model-cum-trainer can deliver). Other In Residence events will follow in Paris from April 20 to 22, and in Los Angeles April 25 to 27.
While Chapman’s enthusiasm brims at their mention, he finds the topic too narrow, and over the course of a telephone hour delivers a wealth of information

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Burberry’s capes are on the road. “The Cape Reimagined,” an exhibit of made-to-order capes that was first shown as part of “Henry Moore: Inspiration & Process” at Makers House in London following Burberry’s February show, is in New York today through April 10 at Moda Operandi Madison. The capes can be viewed and ordered by private appointment. Additionally, Moda Operandi’s Lauren Santo Domingo will host a private event in the space Thursday. After that, the capes make their way to Los Angeles, where the exhibition will be mounted at Burberry’s Beverly Hills flagship on Rodeo Drive from April 20 to 30.
All the capes in the exhibition debuted on Burberry’s runway in February, with the collection inspired by Moore’s work and personal style. Since leaving Makers House, where the capes were showcased alongside more than 40 works by the British sculptor, “The Cape Reimagined” has done stints in Seoul and Milan. It will move on to Dubai May 3 to 7.

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CRUISE CONTROL: After years of avoidance, is Miuccia Prada joining the cruise-show frenzy? Yes — and no. Prada will show her cruise 2018 collection formally on May 7 in Milan. But the extravaganza construct that has come to be associated with the season — the globe-trotting ways of Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and more recently, Valentino — is not her style. Rather, Prada will remain at home in Milan, where she will host a lunch for about 250 guests at Pasticceria Marchesi at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. That Galleria happens to be home as well to Fondazione Prada’s L’Osservatorio space, to which the invited will proceed to take in the show.
While Prada has long preferred to go low-key with cruise, she is experimental by nature. She has been particularly so in her approach to showing Miu Miu’s pre-collections, both cruise and pre-fall, which she typically unveils in Paris during the couture. Recent showings have ranged from a small in-store presentation to a raucous party to a creative static installation. As for the Prada collection, several years ago she started showing cruise on the runway in June along side her men’s spring lineup. The move to break it out and show it

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SYDNEY – L Catterton Asia has acquired Colombia’s Maaji Swimwear to create a merger with Australia’s Seafolly, as part of a strategy to build a global beach lifestyle retail platform generating $500 million in sales within the next five years.
The Singapore-based arm of the LVMH-backed private equity firm said Tuesday that it has acquired 100 percent of the Colombian brand for 50 million Australian dollars, or $38 million at current exchange (1.3 times sales and 10 times earnings), with plans to create a new yet to be named combined Seafolly/Maaji group that will be headquartered in Sydney.
L Catterton will control 61 percent of the new, tentatively titled Swimwear Holding Company, with Seafolly and Maaji each holding 18 percent stakes and the remaining three percent to be divided among senior Seafolly and Maaji executives.
According to L Catterton Asia chairman and managing partner Ravi Thakran, the two brands generated annual sales of 190 million Australian dollars, or $141 million, in 2016 – with Seafolly accounting for roughly 125 million Australian dollars of that – and earnings of 26 million Australian dollars, or $19 million at average exchange for the period.
L Catterton Asia aims to lift sales to $500 million and earnings to

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