Coutorture

Fashion In 50 Seconds 07/31/09 Vintage Balenciaga, Anna Wintour Disses Reality TV

FabSugar — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 07:40:50 -0700

Le Bon Marché in Paris to sell vintage Balenciaga.

Stefano Pilati will show at London Fashion Week with Tanya Ling.

LVMH makes lower-priced Givenchy shoes.

Louis Goldin teams up with Ballantyne.

Anna Wintour hates on reality TV.

coutorture — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:09:38 -0700

LVMH Announces Winners Of The 'Bike In Style Challenge'

Partnered with FIT and the New York City Department of Transportation, LVMH announced the winners of their "Bike In Style Challenge" yesterday. FIT student Jessica Velasquez, 21, won first prize while fellow students Jane Carlton and Stephanie Murphy were also awarded. The challenge called for FIT students to design a poncho, a jacket and a travel bag which were both functional and stylish. DKNY, which is owned by LVMH, will be producing prototypes of Velasquez's winning designs.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 05/14/09 LVMH Headed Eco & More

coutorture — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:21:43 -0700

LVMH is said to be taking a stake in Edun, the eco label launched by Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson.

Sir Phillip Green wants to open two more Topshops in Manhattan and is currently hunting for the real estate.

Trish Goff modeled Erdem's Resort collection which called up the designer's abstract florals and embroideries.

Suzy Menkes taught Academy of Art University students how to crash fashion shows.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 03/09/09 Tom Binns Accessorizes Fall 09

coutorture — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:36:24 -0700

Tom Binns revealed his Fall 2009 collection and in it, are one-off sea glass necklaces which Michelle Obama loves.

The Stephen Jones exhibit is still going strong and if you're not in London you can check out the pictures.

Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, keeps a close watch on his brands and the quality versus quantity ratio.

In case Fall 2009 has you thinking too far in advance, Spring's biggest trends are reiterated.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 01/09/09 ELuxury Shuttering, Peter Som Not Showing At Fashion Week & More

coutorture — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:35:06 -0800

ELuxury, the e-commerce site owned and operated by LVMH, is closing down it's 'retail section' within the next six months and will transition into editorial.

Peter Som and Creative Design Studios have split, forcing Som to pull out from New York Fashion Week. There's no denying that Som has had a tough year.

On a lighter note...

Fred Flare is desperately trying to cheer everyone up. For Valentine's Day mail in a homemade Valentine and Fred Flare will sell it for $4 and give the money to charity.

Last night Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs celebrated in honor of Stephen Sprouse. Check out a photo gallery from last night's event right here.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 11/12/08

coutorture — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:26:56 -0800

It has been reported that Vena Cava is on the hunt for new office chairs and a financial advisor to take their business to the next level. Young designers make for much better interview subjects.

LVMH 'clarified' that despite a quick drop in stocks yesterday, their China sales are doing quite well indeed. And then WWD finished the article off with a quick sentence about how LVMH stock is trading at about half as much as it was in January.

European luxury brands are warming up to the idea of treating bloggers and online editors like real people which isn't exactly the way WWD put it but there are two sides to every coin.

Macy's reports third quarter loses of 44 million dollars. Chairman, president, and chief executive officer, Terry J. Lundgren, articulated that the retailer is still doing well compared to its competitors.

Fashion in 50 Seconds 10/2 with Martin Margiela, Givenchy, and Fred Segal

coutorture — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:35:12 -0700

If discretion is the better part of valour then the fashion industry is valiantly staying away from its red state friends and their new crusading new Queen, this isn't because we are uninformed princesses without a care for reality despite what we have said this past week and Guy Trebay has now reiterated, no we really just have no comment. Well OK, we like her up do even if we don't condone highlights. We bet Hilary wishes she had been left alone like this too.

Fred Segal has a new pop-up shop called 15 Minutes. It will be run like an art gallery, where the shop’s structure is permanent but the theme, decor and wares on display change regularly

Want to see a picture of Martin Margiela? Eric Wilson has one of the last invisible man. Really, because designers have gotten to be such little publicity hounds (and not for the reasons they should be like say their work) this quiet relative anonymity is considered quite shocking.

If you are concerned with what is or is not wearable on the catwalks, which we think is rather relative to your own comforts, then we suppose its nice that someone is keeping score.

Do you read seating charts like tea leaves? Well Givenchy has much fodder for the divination set as the front row was packed with LVMH executives. What does it all mean!

Perfumer Sarah Horowitz's fragrance brand is going mainstream by repackaging her premiere line of scents in a more accessible form and launching it in Anthropologie. We had no idea that even the perfumers had to go for down market markets and collaborations. Not that we are saying Anthropologie is down market per say.

A Collaboration To End All Others?

coutorture — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:22:30 -0700

Somehow we feel like we've written that line before. So the scoop, if you were at all tuned into fashion happenings on Friday afternoon (we don't blame you if you weren't, everyone needs a weekend off now and again), is that Louis Vuitton and Commes des Garcon are going half-sies on a three-month pop-up in Tokyo. Specifically, in the Aoyama district, home to the Prada Epicenter and all things covetable in both architecture and luxury goods. The pop-up shop will of course house exclusive collaborations, namely, six one-off monogram bags designed by Comme des Garcon founder Rei Kawakubo. As Suzy Menkes rightly puts it,

"Although there have been many recent collaborations between ‘high’ and ‘low’ fashion, starting with Karl Lagerfeld’s mini collection for fast fashion store H & M, this meld is different, since it involves a beacon of individuality with a company at the heart of corporate luxury management, as part of the LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) group."

There are questions as to whether this joint-venture (instigated by Kawakubo--not, Marc Jacobs or LVMH) will alienate Comme fans. There are questions as to whether Comme is doing a little too much popping up and popping in (count a Speedo collab and an H&M collab, among others). There are also questions as to whether all of Louis Vuitton's bag collab antics might not undermine the brand's reputation for refined luxury (i.e. the days of the trunks and whatnot). Rei Kawakubo is titling her bag for Vuitton, 'The Party Bag' and we can't help but feel it's an overall sentiment for Vuitton's recent handbag endeavors. One big, 'however', is the recent Ebay victory LVMH had which only energized their intellectual property. That is, perhaps the answer to the last question is, despite contradicting whispers, no.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 04/10

coutorture — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:29:21 -0700

There has been hearsay about financial investing group Apax’s possible interest in buying out the majority of Escada’s shares. However, the Munich-based luxury fashion label confirms today that Apax is reluctant to take such action. Since last summer, Escada’s shares have dropped thirty percent. A new CEO will be assigned on April 17th in an attempt to restructure the fashion brand.

Known for his Indian-inspired work, English designer Matthew Williamson returns to Manchester to celebrate the exhibition of his 10 Years In Fashion at Urbis Centre. The collection of the designer’s contributions to the fashion industry has been featured at the Design Museum in London last October. Williamson was also the former creative director for Pucci.

British designer Anthony Cuthbertson is appointed to be the new creative director for German fashion house Rene Lezard. He has been the former creative director at Burlington and creative consultant for MaxMara. Cuthbertson will showcase both the men’s and women’s collections for Rene Lezard next fall.

A series of online journals called, 'Costumers And Plug Generation' is set to be launched by Ennio Capasa, mastermind behind Italian fashion label Costume National. This series of journals along with Capasa’s personal page will provide visitors the latest updates stemming from the fashion industry including campaign shoots and live commentary. Capasa is known for his use of subtle shapes, dark tones, and sharp tailoring, his personal page can be viewed here.

Delphine Arnault-Gancia advances to the position of Deputy Managing Director at Christian Dior Couture. Formerly Senior Vice President of Marketing, she has greatly contributed to the development of Dior Parfums. Arnault-Gancia is a billionaire business-savvy woman who also works with LVMH, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate.

Research Assistant: Zoe Su