Coutorture

Versace Opened Two Boutiques In Dubai This Month

coutorture — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:00:00 -0700

While American retail numbers are still disappointing, designers and brands are expanding elsewhere. This month, Versace opened a jewelry boutique and a flagship boutique inside The Dubai Mall. The recent openings bring Versace's total number of Middle East stores to nine--the same as the United States. See images of the two new boutiques in the gallery below. For more on Versace, check out the Resort 2010 collection.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 05/12/09 Giles Expands & More

coutorture — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:46:24 -0700

Giles Deacon inked a deal with a large manufacturer and will be increasing his distribution from 38 stores to at least 120 stores.

The full Tracy Feith for Target lookbook has been released with the collection launching in stores and online this weekend.

Rachel Zoe will be designing a line of accessories for QVC, poised to launch this fall.

Roberto Cavalli just opened a $30 million dollar club in Dubai, billed as the first designer club in the Middle East.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 11/04/08

coutorture — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:25:21 -0800

J Crew intimates their choice for presidency by showing an outfit Michelle Obama wore on their front page. We had no idea Michelle Obama wore the yellow cardigan we included in yesterday's style spread, but that doesn't mean we were not making a suggestion...

The Dubai Mall opens today and will be, with 1,200 stores and 160 food outlets, the largest in the world. There are approximately 165 stores in the Dubai Mall who have not yet been represented in the whole of the Middle East. The mall will be comprised on ten mini-malls which will be curated by interest. The Fashion Avenue mall will have over 70 high fashion flagships.

Later this month Teen Vogue is will open its first mall store where shoppers are encouraged to drink smoothies and charge their cell phones. No products will be sold at the pop-up space, the goal is said to simply 'encourage' people to shop in the mall. More than twenty Teen Vogue advertisers are participating in the project.

Unfortunately, more magazine layoffs, this time...a lot.

Fashion in 50 Seconds10/09 With Fashion Weeks in Dubai, Portland, India, Chicago and Outer Space

coutorture — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:00:25 -0700

Proving that its always fashion week somewhere we have runway news from all corners of the world as we ponder the inevitable question of who buys all these clothes.

But before we get to the question of wordly fashion weeks our first stop is outer space as the spector of fashion and space tourism rears its perfectly coiffed yet protected against vacuum head.

Designers in Chicago showed in Millenium Park at the Fashion Focus Chicago.

Portland Fashion Week kicks off tonight. We certainly hope to see grand innovations in polar fleece design.

Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, Spring/Summer 2009 gears up to showcase the work of 79 designers.

Splash Emerging Talent Showcase gives a platform for emerging designers in Dubai.

Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Elie Saab, Jasper Conran, Temperley London and Bruce Oldfield will all be showing wedding gown designs starting tomorrow at London's Designer Wedding Show

Fashion in 50 Seconds 10/6 Beretta, Boucheron, and Helmut Lang

coutorture — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:18:58 -0700

All we are saying is give peace, erm, fashion a chance says bridal fashion show Bridal Asia in New Delhi India which featured Pakistani models in an effort to promote cross cultural understanding through every little girl's dream. Literally we are imagning, arranged marriages are still huge.

The country lifestyle has gone far beyond Barbour jackets and duck boots when it comes to strange inspirations for fashion. It turns out shooting is the next big fashion inspiration. Beretta, the firearms manufacturer, has a clothing line called 1526. The line focuses on the shooting lifestyle that countryside sports represents. Made in Italy from luxury materials we are willing to bet this is going to show up at Freeman's in a month or so. Other gun manufacturers seeing a boom in clothing demand include James Purdey & Sons and Holland and Holland. Who knew?

Fashion critic and illustrator Michael Roberts has a new book called "Fashion Victims" features 26 poems with accompanying illustrations based on the letters of the alphabet, ranging from Auctions to Zips.

The solution the Wall Street collapse? Brazil, Russia, India and China - the BRIC economies, have a growing middle class that is developing an appetite for luxury.

Boucheron has launched an ecommerce site proving once again that Gucci Group is consistently the most innovative of the luxury conglomerates when it comes to online retailing and luxury technology use.

"Fashion shouldn't be about absoluteness, otherwise it would be a church," says Lang, whose first art exhibition, Alles Gleich Schwer, at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hanover, Germany, is currently attracting him plenty of renewed attention.

L'Oreal is sponsoring Dubai Fashion Week which runs October 5th through the 9th. Way to hop on that trend guys!

Rome, Paris, Nah Its All About Beirut and Dubai

coutorture — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:23:13 -0700

We had a thought while browsing through the Spring 2009 gowns on display from Elie Saab, why didn't anyone float the Lebanese designer as a possible Valentino successor, moot though the point may now be. Now hear us out, the self trained designer knows how to make a woman look beautiful. His entire career has been based on designing gowns that make an impact. Saab was the first non-Italian designer to become a member of the Italian Camera Nazionale della Moda, not to mention his inclusion his Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture more than qualifies him to take on the more strenuous couture colections. Sure Saab doesn't quite have the Valentino color pallete but how hard is it to change up the fabrics to red huh?

And lord knows that the world's spendiest couture consumers are coming from the Middle East these days. We say what says jet set more than a weekend in Dubai. The new luxury class is very much from these oil rich countries and old line houses might do well to aknowledge that.

Fashion in 50 Seconds 9/30 with Balenciaga, Lanvin, and H&M

coutorture — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:25:24 -0700

The record drop in the DOW after the collapse of the bailout plan in Washington was particularly harmful to apparel and retail stocks as fears over the economic turmoil turned to concern over how dramatic drops in consumer confidence will impact holiday spending. On the bright side “It definitely will impact the spending habits of an aspirational consumer, and by that I mean someone who will buy at an opening price point of a luxury brand to be in it” says Jeffry Aronsson. Though its clearly already impacting the cheap chic shoppers as H&M had a disappointing 3rd quarter. But so far the truly expensive is still doing quite well as Balenciaga is having a banner year with nearly every runway garment they have sold out in pre-sales. Let's hope that Balenciaga CEO Isabelle Guichot doesn't get caught up on Gucci Group's notorious politics shall we? And if worse comes to worse there is still plenty of money in the Middle East, just ask Lanvin who is in talks with a Qatar based investor. This must be our addiction to romance that is making all this happen right?

Christie's has unveiled the highlights of the forthcoming Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge art sale which has some 700 pieces on offer estimated to fetch up to $440 million.

Someone started a shoe only channel called Shoetube.tv. Really we aren't lying.

And the one piece of good news we could find this morning? Our beloved Adam Lippes is opening a pop up store in our favorite underated American city of Buffalo.

Fashion in 50 Seconds 9/22 with Sigerson Morrison, Prada, Villa Moda and Valentino

coutorture — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:44:30 -0700

Matthew Williamson is leaving Pucci at the end of his three year contract. His replacement as creative director is Peter Dundas of Emanuel Ungaro.

Sigerson Morrison is collaborating with Pringle of Scotland. The soft but strong shapes in cream, grey and dusky pink will launch for Spring 2009

Liz Claiborne and Narcisco Rodriguez are at an impasse over the growth of the 15 million dollar niche designer label.

Italians are not scared of ecommerce anymore. Really! Milan's Politecnico University, called MIP, will inaugurate Italy's first master's degree program aimed at creating specialists in online fashion sales. Too bad the internships will happen at Yoox's Emporio Armani store. Usability may not be a core value of the program.

Its a good thing the Prada IPO has been pushed back as sticking to a core money making business has never been something at which the brand excells. And often to very positive effect. Prada's new art project with favored architect Remm Koohlhas? Its called Transformer, which will be unveiled in Seoul, South Korea, next year. Transformer is a tetrahedron structure in lieu of a theater that will accommodate cultural, artistic and fashion events Prada is organizing. If Prada has Koolhas and Chanel has Zaha Hadid which duelling fashion + architect team is the Autobots. And more importantly who are the Decepticons?

Iisli has a pop up store on Bond Street. Iceland Kisan is opening a boutique in Soho. Villa Moda has some serious bling in Bahrain. Good thing they now have the backing of the entire country of Dubai to get fancy. Also fast fashion may be out!

The rich keep getting richer even as America decides to be come a socialist country, thus Valentino’s accessories designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli are going to the ultimate luxury destination with a new couture handbag line. Shopping Couture is a line of bags with just one tote - served up in 10 variations.