Coutorture

Fashion In 50 Seconds 04/28/09 Forever 21 Expands & More

coutorture — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:59:48 -0700

Fast fashion mega-store Forever 21 will open its first Japan flagship in Tokyo tomorrow.

For their second wedding ceremony in Venice this weekend, Salma Hayek wore Balenciaga.

David Beckham will design a range for Adidas Originals by Originals alongside Jeremy Scott.

Gabrielle Greiss has left her position as creative director of Sonia Rykiel after less than 18 months.

Japan Fashion Week In New York Spring 2009

coutorture — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:38:22 -0800

Last night we attended the first annual Japan Fashion Week in New York event where emerging Japanese designers showed looks from their Spring 2009 collections. For some designers, like Hidenobu Yasui, it was their first time ever being in New York, while other designers, like tiny dinosaur, only recently landed here thanks to the efforts of Opening Ceremony. The event helped establish a stronger bond between fashion in New York and Japan which, with any luck, will only continue to grow.

Fall 2009 Fashion Week Updates: Celine Up In The Air & More

coutorture — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:43:02 -0800

The first full week after the holidays has proven to be quite interesting, today more Fall 09 Fashion Week news unfolds...

Yesterday, it was announced that Peter Som had split from his backers at Creative Design Studio. Today we discover that Som will still produce his Fall 09 collection although it will not be shown during New York Fashion Week.

The following designers are slated to show in the tents at Bryant Park this season; Adam by Adam Lippes, Monarchy, William Rast, Barbie, George Chakra, Tommy Hilfiger, Yigal Azrouel, Brian Reyes, and J. Mendel are among the fifty-odd designers on the official Bryant Park schedule.

The highly-anticipated Celine Fall 09 collection in which Pheobe Philo was thought to make her debut as Creative Director of the brand is now in question. Rumors circulate that Philo is clashing with new management prompting representatives at Celine to comment, "Pheobe's debut show will be in October".

Thirteen of Japan's most prominent up-and-coming designers will show in New York on January 27th. Normally, one might worry that everyone will be in Paris for the couture shows--but, as we know, that shouldn't be a problem this season.

Opening Ceremony Now Featuring Japan

coutorture — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:39:25 -0800

New York boutique and all around arbiter of style, Opening Ceremony, have just launched their newest geographic concentration on the retail floor--namely, Japan. If you're not yet familiar with the brands Sabatino, Toga, Beauty + Youth, or Casio Nude don't fret, that's why they started this practice in the first place. For the Fall 08 season these designers will live alongside brands like Peter Jensen (London), Acne (Stockholm), and Rodarte (Pasadena) and will seep into our fashion lexicon just as the now-recognizable names did years ago.

To see the Opening Ceremony Spring 2009 women's collection, click here, and for the men's, click here. To see the Spring 09 women's shoes, click here.

Fashion In 50 Seconds 10/03/08

coutorture — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:57:36 -0700

Forbes journalist Lauren Sherman wrote an interesting piece on the buying power of hipsters as seen by the booming sales of Urban Outfitters and the attendance of certain Fashion Week happenings. It's bit jumbled to us, the fact that trendsetters are described as those wearing stovepipe jeans and flannels and then everyone from Jefferson Hack to a person who shops at Urban Outfitters a la the mall are included in this grouping. But the point is that the young, left-of-center fashion kids want to spend money on clothing because being different all the time means shopping often.

New York Mag is the closest we come to any kind of celebrity-centered journalism and this morning there's some instant gratification on the front page. Someone put together a slideshow of Anna Wintour's possible successors and it's a whopping six slides long. We're not suggesting that there are more out there, but six slides isn't going to add up to a ton of pageviews which is why, we assume, the darn thing was created in the first place. Anyway...speaking of Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld there's a New York versus Paris exhibit uptown.

Uniqlo's Japan sales are up by a whopping 20 percent for the month of September. The Japanese retail climate is just as stifled as all of those Western brick and mortars but the company attributes the jump to an early drop in temperatures and their aggressive advertising strategies. We think a brand like Uniqlo is just the kind of place people shop when they've stopped consuming from other retailers, but yeah, maybe it's just the change in weather.

As far as Great Britain mass market retailers go, Vogue has taken a moment to lament their continued decline. Most significant is that of Miss Sixty who is facing a hefty and unmanageable debt to their Italian parent company.