Swedish fashion retailer H&M, US apparel giant VF Corp and denim giant Levi Strauss & Co have been named among the world’s most ethical companies by US business ethics think-tank the Ethisphere Institute.
These are not your grandmother’s fur coats. For fall, designers gave real pelts and plush fakes a modern edge, in looks ranging from colorful to crafty.
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MILAN — “We want to switch on the light,” said Aspesi chief executive officer Fabio Gnocchi about bringing attention to the Italian brand and expanding it globally.
Italian private equity fund Armònia SGR in December acquired a majority stake in Aspesi, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2019, and the closing is expected at the end of April. Founder Alberto Aspesi maintains a 10 percent stake in the company, which is known for its understated collections and, in particular, its classic lightweight down jackets.
Sitting in the expansive yet unpretentious 8,640-square-foot store on Milan’s Via Montenapoleone, Gnocchi attributed the acquisition and his own arrival at the company to a shared passion for the Aspesi product.
Armònia, which made the investment through the Armònia Italy fund, was founded in 2015 by Sigieri Diaz Pallavicini, Alessandro Grimaldi, Luca Rovati, Francesco Chiappetta and Fabrizio Di Amato. This is Armònia’s first acquisition and Gnocchi said the investors all appreciate Aspesi’s expertise with and research into fabrics and his sophisticated taste. Gnocchi, previously commercial director at Brunello Cucinelli and, before that, a longtime executive at Etro, talked about a web of longstanding friendly relations between himself, Aspesi and patriarch Gimmo Etro. “On Saturday morning, you can find them both here
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Is fashion entering a new Golden Age for women designers?
On Thursday, Givenchy confirmed that Clare Waight Keller would become its first female couturier, thrusting the former Chloé designer into the haute spotlight.
The appointment echoes Dior’s last year of its first female couturier, Maria Grazia Chiuri, and Lanvin’s decision to put Bouchra Jarrar at the creative helm. What’s more, Jil Sander plans to soon name Lucie Meier, an alum of Dior, the head of its women’s studio, according to market sources.
Waight Keller staged her swan song for Chloé on March 2, with Nicolas Ghesquière’s longtime deputy Natacha Ramsay-Levi succeeding her at a brand that has in the recent past been overseen by a series of prominent female designers, including Phoebe Philo and Stella McCartney.
Givenchy chief executive officer Philippe Fortunato said Waight Keller would show her first collection for the house during Paris Fashion Week in October and that her mission is to propel the legacy of the 65-year-old brand even further into the modern era.
The British designer joined Chloé in 2011 after a six-year stint designing Pringle of Scotland. A calm, soft-spoken woman with a ready smile, Waight Keller brought a sure and steady hand to the house, rejuvenating its ready-to-wear
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Celebrity stylist Ilaria Urbinati and Eddie Bauer have reunited for another limited-edition capsule collection, this one for women and launching for fall 2017 at select Eddie Bauer stores and eddiebauer.com in late September. Urbinati last paired with the Seattle-based vertical retailer in 2015 for a men’s capsule collection launched at Sundance Film Festival.
“We appreciate the way she has remained true to the brand’s ethos while modernizing some of our classic silhouettes, creating a fresh take on many of Eddie Bauer’s iconic pieces,” said Eddie Bauer chief executive officer Mike Egeck. “Ilaria’s sense of style, combined with Eddie Bauer’s rich outdoor heritage, has created something truly special that is relevant for today’s outdoor and fashion consumer.”
A sweater from the Ilaria Urbinati x Eddie Bauer women’s collection.
Urbinati, whose male clients include Ben and Casey Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Bradley Cooper, Chris Evans, Armie Hammer, Rami Malek, Donald Glover, James Marsden, Joel Edgerton and Tom Hiddleston, pulled from Bauer’s archive and took inspiration from his wife, Christine “Stine” Bauer, an avid outdoorswoman, whom Urbinati called a “badass.” A field expert in her own right, Stine was the driving force behind Eddie Bauer’s first women’s outdoor apparel line, insisting he make women’s versions of his
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The big, flat box of Dunkin’ Donuts, assorted varieties, sits open, one column short of the dozen, the only non-minimalist appointment in sight. It graces a sleek table in the upstairs seating loft at Studio 2 at Spring Studios. Tom Ford swears that the box isn’t a regular-guy prop, that he has in fact feasted on the missing sugary quartet this morning. “Four doughnuts and three cups of coffee.” When I express skepticism, he insists it’s his typical morning intake. “What?” he fakes reciprocal dismay. “I only eat fish and vegetables the rest of the time.”
The balance works. Dressed in an impeccable lean-cut suit with shirt and tie, Ford looks as svelte as ever and classically debonair, having left the open-to-there shirts of his slightly younger self behind. Yet I wasn’t invited to talk doughnuts or Ford’s eternal good looks. The primary topic: his decision to “abandon” (his word) the see-now-buy-now approach to showing that only last season some progressive industry thinkers considered at the vanguard of best practices. Ford tried it, staging a tony, civilized affair at the former Four Seasons restaurant in New York. The show proved a crowd-pleaser and the clothes, impressive, garnered him an explosion of press
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US fashion retailer Guess is to close 60 stores over the upcoming financial year and continue to implement supply chain initiatives under a recently-announced plan to improve profits in the Americas after seeing its earnings tumble in its fourth quarter and over the year as a whole.
An increase in the traceability and transparency of the full supply chain is just one of the recommendations made to brands and retailers sourcing leather from India, in a new report that claims the rights of leather workers in the country are systematically violated.
FLOATING A NEW IDEA: For the designers housed at Dreams on Air, the set-up offers the double-barreled approach of retail upstairs and a public relations showroom downstairs.
Apparel, jewelry, handbags, shoes and sunglasses are featured on the 2,500-square-foot first floor of 120 Wooster Street in Manhattan, and one level below, samples from the featured designers are ready for editors, stylists and bloggers. The concept was created by Alise Trautmane, a The New School’s Parsons School of Design graduate and former Designer of the Year in Latvia for her Narciss label, and Sai Kong, who also created a brand. The duo also have marketing and retail experience, which they are putting to use for 25 New York-based emerging designers.
Shoppers can find labels such as Alexandra Nam, Artemis Design Co., Echtego, Eric Javits, Faces, Gwen Salakaia, Hi June Parker, Jordan Matériel, Pirosmani, PÓAR, Saku, Sankt, Sarah Swann, Sarara Couture and S/H Koh. Trautmane said, “Designers share the costs of the rent and the professional staff for retail, [public relations], marketing. Designers keep all the proceeds from items sold minus a small administrative fee. They sell for their retail prices. We do not buy the collections.”
“Even for extremely talented designers, it’s almost impossible to
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Reed Krakoff is getting into the Tiffany & Co. groove.
Krakoff — who began his new role as the jeweler’s chief artistic officer on February 1 — had taken a break Wednesday evening to attend a VIP preview of the 2017 Whitney Biennial, for which Tiffany serves as a major sponsor.
The designer said he has kept busy in the last six weeks — visiting Tiffany’s various manufacturing hubs, learning the brand’s technical aptitude and devising a creative blueprint for the firm.
“I’ve been to Padua to work on sterling, I’ve been to Murano, to Vermont actually, to work with a ceramic and glass company, hand-blown and hand-formed. We are working with Wedgwood on home products, and internally there is an incredible amount of technical ability — it’s just limitless, it’s really a dream,” Krakoff said of learning the ropes.
Shedding an early light on his vision for the label, he said: “It’s really breathtaking, the amount of capability, not just creatively but technically. I think it’s unheard of in this country, frankly, a brand that can bring both to the market in a meaningful way.
“I don’t think people realize it — we are making real things with a wholehearted, artisanal, hand-wrought quality. In a funny
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