Relevance is a smaller window than it used to be. I love how sharp fashion is getting, how cruel and hard. Fashion is about codes that you’re flashing like gang codes, and the codes are getting more obscure. The VIP room is getting smaller, shutting down and popping up in different places that are harder to find. | | | | Christian Lacroix, with models wearing haute couture from his first collection. 1988.
(Julio Donoso/Sygma/Getty Images) | | | | | | “Relevance is a smaller window than it used to be. I love how sharp fashion is getting, how cruel and hard. Fashion is about codes that you’re flashing like gang codes, and the codes are getting more obscure. The VIP room is getting smaller, shutting down and popping up in different places that are harder to find.”
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| | rantnrave:// Today is COLETTE's final day after 20 years in business at 213 RUE SAINT HONORÉ. It's a bittersweet moment for longtime fans and customers, but in an interview with VOGUE, co-founder SARAH ANDELMAN says she's not caught up in the past. That sense of timing and cultural currents has served the business well over the years. Colette was known for mixing street and high fashion, unexpected collaborations, bringing artists into a boutique setting, and refreshing merchandise at a steady, accelerated pace, promising the experience that stores, at their best, offer their customers: novelty, originality, surprise. Andelman doesn't shy away from the fact that twenty years on, the Colette formula has become the normal state of things, with collaborations and product drops now part of the reliable retail playbook. There's no wistful eye here. Andelman said she was still placing orders at the time of the interview. Great to see the store maintaining its energy and commitment right up to the end as it steps away from a composite commerce-culture it helped define. Andelman's advice for stores today is to remain distinct: "To be specialized, to really be more precise in the offering. The idea of a little of everything—some books here or items there, in addition to clothes—has become very generic. It’s better to be focused on what you want to say, to do things from your heart." The closure feels celebratory, with TRAVIS SCOTT making an appearance to drop an exclusive vinyl on the last day. One thing retailers should carry forward from the store is its emphasis on exclusive merchandise. It's a rare occasion now that stores carry something not instantly accessible and listed side-by-side online, from multiple retailers. Cheers to Colette on two decades. It's surely earned a place in the annals of fashion and retail history... Briefs: GUCCI's latest ads by artist IGNASI MONREAL are rendered entirely as paintings... ANOTHER throws it back to CHANEL A/W 1994... DOUBLET shows us when the t-shirt is the package is the t-shirt. | | | - HK Mindy Meissen, curator |
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| The designer talks to BoF’s Tim Blanks on the occasion of his retrospective-meets-reckoning ‘Subhuman Inhuman Superhuman.’ | | |
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| Colette is closing, and a fashion era is coming to an end. What’s next for Sarah Andelman and the famous 213 Rue Saint-Honoré address? | | |
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| At the wizened old age of 28, one of my ears began to betray me. Seemingly out of nowhere, a shrill static hiss emerged in my right ear and began drowning out the rest of the world. | | |
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| 10 brave models open up about their experiences of sexual assault in the fashion industry in an exclusive video for BAZAAR.com | | |
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| We got full access to Citizens of Humanity's vertically-integrated headquarters in downtown LA. | | |
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| An RPG-inspired SSENSE editorial shot by Rob Kulisek and styled by Avena Gallagher. | | |
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| 1980 saw the dawn of the Video Era. The UK record charts were filled with colorful young pop stars, all Bowie’s children, striking poses in hairspray and eyeliner. | | |
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| Kelp, yeast, and sequestered methane gas are on the forefront of the move to create environmentally friendly clothing. | | |
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| While painful in the short term, dying malls and empty storefronts provide a unique opportunity for more productive community spaces. | | |
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| Traditionally, a beauty regimen was an attempt to deny the inevitability of the future. Now it’s part of a dream that there is a future to look forward to. | | |
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| 2017 was a significant year for truth in advertising efforts. After targeting social media stars and celebrities with "educational" letters outlining the its sponsored post disclosure requirements, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") issued additional guidelines regarding disclosures, and settled a formal investigation that it commenced against two YouTube influencers. | | |
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| Kris Wu, the multi-hyphenate entertainer, has had an active year in the States. In 2017, the Chinese-Canadian artist starred in "xXx: Return of Xander Cage" alongside Vin Diesel, and made an appearance in "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" with Hollywood heavy hitters Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Cara Delevingne, and Rihanna. | | |
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| With its recent upgrades, What Goes Around Comes Around is waging a war against the big players in luxury consignment. Born in NYC's Soho neighborhood, the 25-year-old company -- known for its cherry-picked selection of Chanel and Hermès bags, vintage Levis and rock tees -- relaunched its website earlier this year in a play to keep up with emerging competitors. | | |
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| With two major acquisitions this year, Target massively expanded its same-day delivery fulfillment capabilities. Is this what finally gives its grocery business a boost? | | |
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| Chinese casualwear labels are adapting in the face of competition from global fast fashion groups such as Uniqlo and Zara. The likes of Heilan Home, Semir and Metersbonwe are changing what and where they sell. FT Confidential Research brand popularity data shows that some consumers are responding to this shift. | | |
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| The future looks active, inclusive, super-human, and even sexy. | | |
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| The promise of one-to-one marketing has been around for over two decades. Finally a convergence of advancing technology and market demands is raising personalization from a "nice to have" to a "must do now." | | |
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| With its putrid colors, polyester pantsuits, skin-tight designer jeans, platform shoes, bra burnings and hippie styles, the Seventies are sometimes called, "the decade taste forgot." Fueled in part by the drug culture, the disco craze, the all-out decadence of Studio 54, feminism, sexual freedom and streaking, the era ushered in hedonism and what Tom Wolfe described as the "Me Decade." | | |
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| Elizabeth Hilfiger’s fashion and art label is cut from a more experimental cloth than her father’s preppy empire, but she’s still learned some lessons from Tommy. | | |
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| Deborah Lynn Scott looks back on designing gowns for Kate Winslet and her big Oscar win. | | |
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