Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is how you place the object on the person. |
| | | | | Neil Barrett's Aoyama flagship, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. (Damon Garrett) | | | | | | | “Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is how you place the object on the person.”
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| rantnrave:// The worst-kept secret in fashion has finally been made official: HEDI SLIMANE is leaving SAINT LAURENT. In four years at the helm, HEDI revamped the brand top-to-bottom, overseeing retail design, shooting ad campaigns, designing both men's and women's collections, and resurrecting the house's couture line. While his work didn't always resonate with critics, it sure did with consumers -- SAINT LAURENT is now one of the most commercially viable luxury brands on the planet. Rumor has it KERING is set to appoint ANTHONY VACCARELLO as HEDI's replacement, a move I'm not crazy about. As for HEDI, I suspect he'll take another sabbatical from fashion, as he did after leaving DIOR HOMME in 2007. For now, dig into a couple HEDI-centric REDEF FashionSETS: "Selling SAINT LAURENT" and "PRO/CON: HEDI SLIMANE and SAINT LAURENT's Legacy"... "What we have to do today is more than selling clothing, it's selling dreams." That's ARMAND HADIDA of long-standing, directional French boutique L'ECLAIREUR speaking at BUSINESS OF FASHION's VOICES conference in SYDNEY, but it's a common refrain in the world of fashion and luxury, one you hear so frequently it's almost lost its meaning. It's the foundation all advertising was built on, but it seems outmoded to me, and slightly sinister. Consumers are more connected and better informed than ever. They have their own dreams already. What they need are clothes to augment their real, waking lives, and I believe they can be sold as such... R.I.P. ZAHA HADID. The rare human whose artistic gifts were matched by her resolve and work ethic. Her buildings may no longer seem radical, but they still astound. Last NOVEMBER I spent a rainy evening at her DONGDAEMUN DESIGN PLAZA in SEOUL, puzzling over its curves. Things that amaze, that delight, that amplify our experience of the world -- they matter. Not that I need to convince you -- you're reading a newsletter about fashion! And best believe HADID would have been a heck of fashion designer had she chosen that path -- tell me you don't see some of RICK OWENS' draping and volume play in her HEYDAR ALIYEV CENTER... Whoever was manning LULULEMON's TWITTER feed yesterday has learned some important lessons about bad puns and criticizing BEYONCE. On social media, neither tend to work out well. Brand social media teams should try running all their tweets past an impartial teen before posting. | | | - Adam Wray, curator |
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| Today's news that Hedi Slimane has parted ways with Saint Laurent puts this year's most fraught speculation at an official end. The house confirmed Slimane's departure via press release, stating that, "at the end of a four-year mission, which has led to the complete repositioning of the brand, the Maison Yves Saint Laurent announces the departure of Hedi Slimane as its creative and image director." | | |
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| A startup finds that asking for certain data improves the fit of its clothes - and lands the company in a cultural minefield. In 2008, an entrepreneur named Seph Skerritt was frustrated with the way he shopped for clothes. Then a student at MIT's Sloan School of Management, he chafed at the time wasted while trying on garments in stores. | | |
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| One of the first things fashion designer Tomas Maier produced when he started his own label 19 years ago was a bikini. It was a natural choice. The line focused on "time off"-something very much on Maier's mind after 20 years with the punishing travel schedule of an in-demand freelance designer. | | |
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| "He was doing radical manoeuvres. I thought, 'this guy is going to wreak a fair bit of havoc' . . . that, and he had the lethal competitive attitude of a great white shark." How well these words sum up the guy who has me in an eye-lock, a disrupter who wants to shake up the murkiest corners of the clothing business, the ones in which dirt-cheap sweatshirts are piled high. | | |
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| Fashion house Balmain inspires a particular type of fandom, and it's stoked in part by a savvy use of social media. WSJ's Christina Binkley and Pascal Dangin, founder of creative agency KiDS, join Lee Hawkins to discuss. | | |
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| LONDON -- The offices of Unmade have the typical trappings of a digital start-up: exposed ceilings, small potted plants, whiteboards flecked with colored Post-it notes. But there also are three industrial knitting machines, their humming mechanics churning out customized sweaters and scarves. Unmade is out to change the fashion industry, one knit at a time. | | |
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| Retailers have no doubt about the importance of millennial shoppers. Boomers may be the biggest spenders today, but millennials promise to be the largest consumer generation in history, currently encompassing roughly 80 million people and $600 billion in annual spending in the United States alone. | | |
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| Fresh from a $5.5 billion valuation and a brash buying spree, the agency's co-CEOs open up on rival CAA (they're "freaking out"), Netflix ("a monopoly"?) Ben Affleck's future as Batman, Trump vs. Hillary, and critics of their $2.4 billion bet on sports and fashion: "They're all f—ing scared of their own goddamn shadow." | | |
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| Consumers hate "traditional advertising," according to Refinery29 co-CEO Philippe von Borries. At the same time, his company is on track to make more than $100 million -- from advertising -- this year. | | |
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| Meet Revolve Social Club. Please don't call this a store -- or even a showroom. Revolve, after toying with various temporary retail formats in recent years, debuts a concept Thursday on Melrose Avenue that's one part clubhouse, one part event venue and, yes, a place to buy clothes and shoes. | | |
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| When 28 year-old brunette bombshell Ashley Graham made history in February as the first plus-size model to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, not everyone was thrilled. | | |
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| Calvin Klein embodies an ideal of American manhood that enshrines both muscularity and sexuality. But it's taken an Italian creative director to keep the look fresh. Italo Zucchelli tells Alexander Fury how he does it. | | |
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| MM.LaFleur has found success selling workwear to busy women who want to look great but defy stereotypes about fashion. | | |
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| Manolo Blahnik is jumping into online sales with both high-heeled feet. The luxury British footwear brand launched its global e-commerce store on Wednesday in partnership with online designer marketplace Farfetch, where it will sell all of its products (heels, flats, men's shoes and handbags) online and ship them from one of its several flagship stores. | | |
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| Christian Louboutin has added an important new style to his inclusive “Nudes” collection: flats. | | |
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| Vetements, the upstart collective built on a combination of elevated grit and Martin Margiela antecedents that has become the darling of French fashion, has proved influential in any number of ways, sparking a renaissance in the industry's fascination with street style and the exaggerated silhouette that culminated in its one of its founders, Demna Gvasalia, being named artistic director of Balenciaga. | | |
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