MILAN — On Friday, Gucci opened Milan Fashion Week with its first standalone menswear show in 3 years, announced as part of a plan to kick-start the brand’s rapid growth. However, the show was also Gucci’s first outing since the departure of designer Alessandro Michele in November and proved to be a low-key transitional affair. … Read more
FLORENCE— “I’m interested in a certain everyday and ordinary; that’s why I’m attracted to men from all walks of life and not professional models for my shows,” said Martine Rose at the press conference the morning of her Pitti Uomo outing. As Pitti’s special guest, Rose brought Florence a taste of London roughness, exemplified by … Read more
FLORENCE— Belgian designer Jan-Jan Van Essche is an unconventional choice for a guest designer at Pitti Uomo, the bi-annual menswear show which kicked off yesterday. Pitti organizers are good at identifying emerging talent, but they have rarely lent their platform to such a left-wing creator. Van Essche has remained firmly underground since launching his eponymous, … Read more
Los Angeles-based designer Doni Nahmias had planned a big launch in November for his first sneaker, which he designed as an ode to two classic shoes, the Converse Chuck Taylor and the Nike Air Max. This was going to be a major milestone for Nahmias’ namesake Californian streetwear and skate brand, which was founded in … Read more
The luxury sector faced major challenges in 2022, ranging from rapid inflation to slowing economic growth, exacerbated by the return of strict Covid lockdowns in China and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Yet despite the headwinds, sales have never been stronger, increasing 22 percent this year as a post-Covid “YOLO” attitude prevailed. The strongest … Read more
In key market China, Xi Jinping won an unprecedented third term as leader of the Chinese Communist Party but was forced to backtrack on strict ‘zero-Covid’ measures after public frustration erupted into protests. widespread, paving the way for recovery for the country’s luxury and retail sectors. The Russian-Ukrainian war took a terrible human toll. It … Read more
NEW YORK–– Inside a small storefront on Park Avenue, a block from Tiffany & Co., Bulgari and Harry Winston, designer Rosena Sammi makes her boldest statement yet about who can make part of the big leagues of high jewelry. Her online collective’s first pop-up store, The Jewelry Edit, features more than 150 fine jewelry pieces … Read more
In scouring the globe to identify growth opportunities in the coming year, most fashion executives who responded to the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2023 survey cited the Middle East as a region more promising in 2023 than in 2022. Indeed, luxury fashion sales in the Gulf Cooperation Council alone reached approximately $4.2 million in 2021, … Read more
As forward-looking as fashion claims to be, it rarely thinks more than a season or two ahead. I’ve certainly never heard a designer say seven decades from now. But Chitose Abe is not just any designer. Like her mentor Rei Kawakubo, Abe, the driving force behind Japanese brand Sacai, has created her own fashion vocabulary, … Read more
Emboldened by the celebrities and designers they admire, a growing number of consumers are shopping in gender-specific categories. Silhouettes, fabrics and colors no longer need to conform to traditional dress codes to sell to these consumers. For brands, change can be at an inflection point, prompting industry leaders to consider how best to respond to … Read more