Fashion

Hunt for Shoppers: Luxury Brands Raising Stakes on Instagram
2019-06-07 16:10:35 UTC
PARIS (Reuters) - Big-spending luxury brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior are splashing out on everything from dance-fuelled fashion shows to teams of advisers as they target social media platforms in the hunt for young shoppers. Without the entry barriers of magazine advertising - where a one page glossy ad can cost tens of thousands of dollars - sites like Instagram, a fashionista favorite, have allowed unknown labels to find an audience with canny or eye-catching campaigns. But big bucks are changing the game as cash rich luxury goods groups like LVMH and Kering hike their social media budgets, giving them vast mea...
2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Final Draw
2017-12-03 08:06:38 UTC
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The favorites to win next year’s World Cup in Russia were given navigable paths to the last 16 with the coaches of Germany, Brazil, Argentina and Spain having reason to feel reasonably optimistic after Friday’s draw. <blockquote><h2>2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Final Draw</h2>Even hosts Russia, the lowest-ranked of the 32 nations taking part, breathed a sigh of relief after learning they will open the 21st edition of the tournament against Saudi Arabia before tackling Egypt and Uruguay in Group A. H...
Italian designer Giorgio Armani stunned Milan's fashion week
2017-03-01 08:18:23 UTC
By Giulia Segreti | MILAN Once again Italian designer Giorgio Armani stunned with bright and eloquent colors in his autumn and winter collection, wrapping up six days of catwalk shows at Milan's Fashion week. As with his Emporio line, shown on Friday, the designer brought to life his creations with ruby and deep reds, purple, orange, emerald green, turquoise, petrol and electric blue, as well as multicolored polka dots. "Color is an expressive gesture," the 82-year-old said in the style notes given to guests at the show on Monday. The black velvet and silk was enriched with tassel and pompom details and necklaces, fringes and str...
Gone With The Wind: Dress worn by Vivien Leigh sold for $137,000
2015-04-19 04:31:43 UTC
(Reuters) - A gray and black dress worn by Vivien Leigh in her role as Scarlett O'Hara in the classic 1939 film "Gone with the Wind" sold for $137,000 at an auction in California on Saturday. The outfit, featuring black appliques, was one of more than 150 items from the film up for auction by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions in Beverly Hills. The items were part of the private collection of James Tumblin, formerly in charge of the hair and makeup department at Universal Studios. Tumblin began collecting onscreen costumes, props and behind-the-scenes artifacts from the film in the 1960s, amassing a collection of more than 300,000 pie...
Anorexia Crackdown: France bans super-skinny models
2015-04-03 18:32:13 UTC
(Reuters) - France will ban excessively thin fashion models and expose modeling agents and the fashion houses that hire them to possible fines and even jail, under a new law passed on Friday. The move by France, with its fashion and luxury industries worth tens of billions of euros, comes after a similar ban by Israel in 2013, while other countries, like Italy and Spain, rely on voluntary codes of conduct to protect models. The measure is part of a campaign against anorexia by President Francois Hollande's government. Lawmakers also made it illegal to condone anorexia and said any re-touched photo that alters the bodily appearance of...
New fashion museum exhibit documents Lauren Bacall
2015-03-14 07:38:06 UTC
New York (AP) – On stage, screen and magazine covers, Lauren Bacall was known as “The Look,” but in her regular life, the late icon described her style as “studied carelessness.” Now, more than six months after her death, student curators at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology have managed to capture both sides of Bacall in an intimate new exhibit that runs through April 4. The graduate students relied on garments they helped cull from more than 700 items Bacall donated to FIT over 18 years. And they used clips from a TV show she hosted, interviews and archival photos, covers and sketches to accompany about a dozen look...
Fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana sentenced to 18 months prison for tax fraud
2014-05-04 07:57:42 UTC
AN Italian appeals court on Wednesday upheld a tax fraud conviction for Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the founders of the world-famous fashion label Dolce & Gabbana, sentencing them to a suspended 18-month jail term. The designers stood accused of failing to pay tax on income of $277 million by creating fictitious companies in Luxembourg in order to dodge heftier corporate tax rates in their home country. In a first instance ruling in June, each was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment. MORE: DOMENICO DOLCE SPOTTED WITH KYLIE MINOGUE IN MELBOURNE On appeal, the prosecution asked the court to drop the charges and acquit them, but ...
London 'draining life' from rest of UK economy
2014-03-19 07:49:00 UTC
LONDON (AP) — There's London. And then there's the rest of the U.K. A tale of two Britains has increasingly emerged since the Great Recession. While the government trumpets the country's recovery from the financial crisis and its status as the world's fastest-growing developed economy, the rhetoric hides an increasing divide: One that pits London's boom against the malaise in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham that are struggling to remain vibrant in the 21st century. Buoyed by foreign investment and a resurgent financial industry, the economy of London and the rest of Britain's South East region has expanded almost twice as fa...
Back to the Future fashion: this season's big trend
2014-03-14 07:20:39 UTC
That the film Back to the Future is being cited as a key fashion inspiration this season, just shy of 29 years since it was released, will come as no surprise to any fans of the film or, indeed, of fashion. The fashion industry has always been fond of rehashing – sorry, I mean paying homage to – a huge variety films, from Roman Holiday to The Addams Family. While Heathers might seem a more obvious teen film for the fashion world to plunder, Back to the Future is, surprisingly, an easier sell. Not even Miu Miu has convinced many people to give coloured tights a spin this season, and only the boldest of 80s fashion diehards would try Heat...
Karl Lagerfeld to design Macau hotel
2014-03-07 08:43:28 UTC
BEIJING (AP) — Karl Lagerfeld and a Macau casino operator announced plans Friday for the Chanel designer to create his first hotel. The 270-room Karl Lagerfeld Hotel will open in 2017 in a 20-story tower in the gambling enclave in southern China, according to Lagerfeld and the Sociedade de Jogos de Macau. "An entire hotel designed by me. It's the first time for me! I think the idea is great!" said Lagerfeld in a statement. The announcement comes after Lagerfeld startled visitors to Chanel's fashion show in Paris this week by holding the event in a full-scale recreation of a supermarket with Chanel-branded groceries. The Lisboa ...
Mary Quant's Miniskirt Changed the World
2014-02-11 07:03:10 UTC
<h3>'A mini-skirt was a way of rebelling': British stylist Mary Quant, who will soon celebrate her 80th birthday, is credited with inventing the above-the-knee skirt that has become a wardrobe staple. Coco Chanel may have said they were 'just awful,' but the mini-skirt revolution kicked off in the UK in the Swinging Sixties and soon took the rest of the globe by storm.</h3> It was all too much for Coco Chanel. As the sixties started to swing, the French fashion icon pronounced mini-skirts to be "just awful". She also famously declared that she had never met a man who liked women wearing them. How wrong can you be? Half a century lat...
Wang lures fashionistas to Brooklyn Navy Yard
2014-02-09 20:45:03 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — There are hip fashion shows. And then there are fashion shows that seek nothing less than to redefine just how hip a fashion show can be. How else to describe a designer who can get crowds of the most discerning fashionistas to leave Manhattan on a frigid Saturday night in February and head to Brooklyn — to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, yet — for a 15-minute fashion show? That would be Alexander Wang, 30, who presented the fall collection of his signature line (he is also creative director of Balenciaga in Paris) at a 100,000-square-foot greenhouse at the Navy Yard, a huge space that provided a dramatic backdrop for his lat...
Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week
2014-01-22 10:03:55 UTC
Here are some key moments: CHANEL'S COUTURE SPORTS CLUB It was not your run-of-the-mill Paris sports club. It was Chanel haute couture. At Karl Lagerfeld's dazzling "Cambon Club" show, he boldly mixed the couture designs associated with Coco Chanel's fashion empire at 31 rue Cambon, with a youthful sporty kick. Pearly chiffon, satin silk, fastidious embroideries, sequins and sculpted corsets met with — gasp — sneakers, sporty white cropped boleros, fanny packs and silver knee pads. Models even ran down the steps that led onto a bright crystalline stage, sometimes skipping. If the spring-summer show felt less vibrant than rec...
Growing trend for 2014: Orchid as top color
2013-12-05 06:25:58 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — Orchid is growing on us: A version of the purple hue is Pantone Inc.'s color of the year for 2014. It follows this year's pick of emerald green. Officially known as Radiant Orchid, the tropical shade is a color-wheel contrast to green, said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, but it's not the red that would have been a more obvious choice. "It's a little different, it's a little off the beaten path, and it's not a primary color," she explains. "It's an invitation to innovation. The purple family offers (an) opportunity to do creative things." And, she said, that's what pop culture w...
Forevermark Reveals Iconic Image for New Diamond Collection
2013-11-21 20:04:12 UTC
Forevermark developed an iconic image, which will be used in national advertising campaigns in print and online, to target affluent consumers and introduce the Forevermark Exceptional Diamond Collection. The iconic image (pictured) was created to illustrate what Forevermark considers to be a profound transformation the rough diamond makes from its original form into a polished gem. The image reveals this transformation by using a polished diamond emerging from within a rough diamond. Forevermark determined that this image also demonstrates the beauty of nature coupled with man’s skilled artisanship in cutting, and it symbolizes the bi...
Luxury jewelers, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels Open at Americana Manhasset
2013-11-09 11:47:26 UTC
IBEX Construction completed the Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier boutiques at the Americana Manhasset Mall on Long Island, New York in time for the luxury jewelers to open ahead of the Christmas season. Callison designed the two new jewelry boutiques. Van Cleef & Arpels opened recently as part of the London Jewelers collection of stores at the mall -- a newly developed concept that allows each store to be an individual property from the outside, while allowing customers to move freely from one to the next. Each store has its own distinctive style and exclusive finishes that represent the brand, but the transition from store to store is ...
Milan fashion week celebrates homegrown creativity
2013-09-20 04:19:13 UTC
MILAN (AP) — Milan is seeking to reclaim its fashion pre-eminence with a re-energized fashion week not only through strong messages from the runways but concrete acts of to enhance the city's prestige. Fendi unveiled a new flagship store on via Montenapoleone, Kate Moss was on hand to launch a new retail concept for Stuart Weitzman and Costume National returned to Milan after a two-decade womenswear absence. Roberto Cavalli said that Italian design is still driven by homegrown creativity -- and he hopes to see a greater push for young designers going ahead. "What's great about Milan we are the ones who design Italian fashion," he sai...
Simple looks are deceiving at NY Fashion Week
2013-09-07 23:31:20 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — The simple things can be the hardest to do in fashion, because you have to do them well. Take the white shirt. Designers Peter Som and Max Azria both said a plain white button-down shirt is their favorite thing to see on a woman, and versions of it have been on nearly every catwalk during the previews of Spring 2014 at New York Fashion Week that entered their third day Saturday. But these basics are far from simple for designers. Prabal Gurung said Saturday that with such crisp pieces, you can't hide behind embellishment or interesting fabric. When it's simple, it has to be perfect. "Ease isn't easy," echoed Jason ...
Designer calls for a halt to fashion week's celebrity circus
2013-09-03 06:50:57 UTC
Oscar de la Renta halves his guest list for show in New York as critics say too many poseurs crowd the runways. Some of America's most prominent fashionistas are calling time on the overcrowding, demand for endless "newness" and general hoopla that has become an obsession in the industry. Before this week's opening round of New York spring-summer 2014 presentations, Oscar de la Renta, one of the most respected figures in American fashion, has announced that he will halve the number of people at his show. De la Renta, a former couturier for Jacqueline Kennedy, said decision-makers in the business should not have to fight their way thr...
Burberry showcases latest menswear in London
2013-06-18 17:22:51 UTC
LONDON (AP) — British luxury brand Burberry has showcased its latest menswear designs in London after a decade in Milan. The move brings the brand's menswear division in line with its more profitable womenswear branch, which has led the London Fashion Week circuit for the past few seasons. Burberry design chief Christopher Bailey said Tuesday his collection aims to project a modern British elegance that's "sartorial but slouchy." His show, in Kensington Gardens, drew tennis star Serena Williams and British singer Tinie Tempah to its front row. Best known for its trench coats, Burberry reported recently that menswear was its ...
Prominent pavilions at the Venice Biennale
2013-06-02 05:20:07 UTC
VENICE, Italy (AP) — The 55th Venice Biennale, the world's most prestigious art fair, features national pavilions from 88 countries, 10 presenting work for the first time — including the Vatican. No official theme ties together the pavilions, but several ideas are emerging as favorites, including greed, collective actions and the boundaries of the physical world. The jury awarded the Golden Lion prize for "best national participation" to Angola, for an exhibition that focus on the African nation's capital city, Luanda. Here are some other prominent pavilions in this year's edition. UNITED STATES Step back and Sarah Sze's ...
Milan prosecutor seeks jail time for Dolce,Gabbana
2013-05-29 17:30:19 UTC
MILAN (AP) — A Milan prosecutor is seeking a 2 year and six month sentence against the designing duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana for failing to declare 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in income to tax authorities. Prosecutor Gaetano Ruta told a court during closing arguments Wednesday that the pair had evaded taxes on 416 million euros each and 200 million through a Luxembourg-based company. The statute of limitations has run out on another charge of misrepresenting income. A judge two years ago threw out a tax evasion and fraud case against the pair, whose label Dolce&Gabbana is a mainstay of Milan fashion. But Italy's hi...
Over There is now Over Here
2013-05-28 05:48:15 UTC
San Francisco (DiaalNews) — In the wake of the unthinkable tragedy that was the factory collapse in Bangladesh, a tragedy nearly equal to the WorldTrade Center in scope of death and far more sinister because it was entirely preventable, we western shoppers are obliged to think about the proper response to this outrage. For far too long now, we have been lulled into believing that the unbelievablely low prices for goods available through the big box shops are a normal and good thing, when in fact they are the result of the continuing exploitation of people all over the world, who in most cases simply dont know that they are being overly...
Ralph Lauren's 4Q profit rises 35 pct
2013-05-24 04:48:38 UTC
NEW YORK (AP) — Ralph Lauren Corp. reported a 35 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit as the luxury retailer benefited from lower cotton prices and cost controls. But the seller of Polo and other brands saw its stock fall Thursday because its revenue fell below Wall Street expectations amid poor weather, economic challenges in the U.S. and abroad and the move to eliminate some businesses to focus on the most profitable ones. The results, announced Thursday, show how the New York based luxury company is seeing increasing profits since the first half of its fiscal year, when cotton costs soared and the company was bearing the br...
Dior presents cruise fashions amid stars in Monaco
2013-05-20 04:28:03 UTC
MONACO (AP) — The glittering star power of Cannes migrated up the coast to Monaco for front-row seats at Dior's colorful, sexy cruise fashion show. With the Mediterranean Sea the picturesque backdrop, Dior showcased its 2014 collection on Saturday night. It was a wet, cold and generally miserable outside the white stage, but Raf Simons' designs provided the shimmering summery lift for the evening. Among those on hand were Oscar-winner and Dior spokeswoman Marion Cotillard, actresses Ruth Wilson and Jessica Biel, and Prince Albert of Monaco, along with his fashionable wife, Princess Charlene. Before the show, Biel called Dior...