KENZO now
struggles to keep its cult Tiger jumpers in stores for more than
two to three hours at a time, but the much-coveted piece nearly
didn't make the cut.
Creative directors Carol Lim and Humberto Leon were trawling
through the label's archives when they found a small running tiger
motif inside waistbands and jackets, which they then embroidered on
an
autumn/winter 2012 knitted jumper (featured left) - although
this wasn't the piece that would set fashion hearts racing. Leon
wanted a
more relaxed version to wear when he took his catwalk bow, a
request that was met with reluctance from his design team.
"I told Kenzo, 'I'm going to make a tiger sweatshirt for
myself,'" Leon recalls. "They were like, 'What kind of fabric?' I
said, 'Er… sweatshirt material,' and they said, 'We don't do
sweatshirts.'"
Luckily for the brand's adoring fans, the correct fabric was
found and the item became a bestseller.
"The knitted and embroidered jumper that we created was quite
expensive and we didn't sell that many," Lim toldStylist. "But then
there was a waiting list in store for the sweater as it got shot
for the ad campaign. So when the sweatshirt came in, it just blew
up. We just couldn't keep it in stores."
JONATHAN
SAUNDERS, Christopher
Raeburn and Richard
Nicoll are this season's Woolmark Company
collaborators - and all intend to help prove that wool isn't just
for winter.
"For spring/summer 2014 I have been working with Cool Wool in an
unexpected way," Jonathan Saunders says. "Traditional
menswear-style tailoring has been used on casual shapes and
panelled with satin - the same fabric has been overprinted with
pigment, giving the fabric texture. Cool Wool knitwear in a fine
gauge creates a luxurious drape which I have panelled with couture
fabrics - a sweater that appears classic at first glance has
surprising sheer textured panels as part of the knitted piece."
Christopher Raeburn's collection will include pieces made
entirely from Cool Wool, alongside some hybrid Cool Wool pieces,
while both Richard Nicoll and Jonathan Saunders will each include
at least six garments made from the material. Cool Wool uses fine
Australian merino-wool fibre and is transformed into lightweight
fabrics and knitwear pieces through modern manufacturing and
processing techniques, the company noted.
"With filming throughout London Fashion Week and exclusive
backstage interviews at the shows, we will express the endless
possibilities available through merino wool, and to ultimately
raise awareness of the benefits of Cool Wool for the spring/summer
season," the Woolmark Company's Rob Langtry said.
BETTE
FRANKE had a good excuse for not being in New York this weekend
for Fashion Week, the Dutch model was busy getting married. She
posted a picture on her Instagram account showing her laughing as
she posed with her flowergirls and her new husband, Ilja Cornelisz;
a researcher in economics and education who is based in
Amsterdam.
The couple married on Saturday, September 7 - the same day that
they first met, and the date that her grandparents married - in
their native Netherlands after a three-year engagement. The service
was attended by close friends and family - including fellow models
Romée Fight, Kim Noorda and Sophie Vlaming - and the
special day was captured by her fashion photographer friend Marc de
Groot.
"My wedding dress was beautiful; my sister Sanne Franke made the
dress, which made it so special," Franke told Dutch Vogue.
"We designed the skirt and two tops together." Franke teamed
the dress with white pumps from Maison Martin
Margiela and chose a wedding ring from Tiffany & Co;
gold inlaid with diamonds.
HOLLY
FULTON is helping build excitement for London
Fashion Week, which kicks off on Friday, by teaming up with Ebay to launch an
exclusive capsule collection. The Scottish designer has created
four limited-edition pieces for the website, available to buy now
until September 18.
"I wanted to work with Ebay as it's a fantastic chance to
connect with a broad customer base, because such a diverse range of
shoppers will receive the collection," she told us. "I'm a
dedicated Ebay fan, so I was just as excited on a personal
level."
Additionally, Ebay will sell three pieces from Fulton's most
recent
autumn/winter 2013 collection - which was inspired by Seventies
art rockers. The offering includes a T-shirt and a sweatshirt, both
of which come emblazoned with a detailed animal motif, as well as
statement jewellery that references the graphic shapes of the art
deco era.
Prices start between £70 for a necklace, rising to £120 for a
jumper. To shop the collection visit Ebay.co.uk/holly.
FRENCH outerwear label Moncler is heading
for an IPO at last, as it confirmed plans to list around 25 percent
of its shares, between the end of the year and early 2014.
The brand's initial public offering was first mooted in 2011 and
again in June this year, but neither materialised. The skiwear
brand hopes to cash in on rising sales that have doubled its value
in the past two years to about €2 billion (£1.7 billion), sources
close to the deal told Reuters.
Established in an Alpine town near Grenoble in 1952 by French
entrepreneur René Ramillon, Moncler was sold to
Italian businessman Remo Ruffini, today's president and
creative director of the company.
A DECADE ago, London
Fashion Week was just a tearaway little sister to three more
established elders: seen-it-all, done-it-all,
post-coital-cigarette-smoking Paris; corporate focused, financially
fly New York; and straight-A student (albeit smouldering) Milan. In
those days, London's most successful designers inevitably
eventually graduated to one of these international outposts, but
today its reputation for producing talent affords us a fairer share
of the global limelight. Natalie
Massenet was named chairman of the British
Fashion Council a year ago, and we're now beginning to see
signs of the effect she and the weight of her £350m company is
having: significantly inflated sponsorship; 75 12-ft flags hanging
the length of Oxford Street; Manolo Blahnik and Smythson on the
schedule for the first time; a new designer shop in Somerset House
during Fashion Week; constant chatter on the social mediawaves -
plenty of new developments will be credited to Massenet's
leadership. She insists, however, that the developing success of
the event is down to the expertise of BFC chief executive Caroline
Rush. Massenet's self-determined brief is in her efforts to bring
British fashion close to the consumer. "In New York everybody knows
when Fashion Week is on - it feels like Fashion Week - I
want it to be the same here," she says.
"Our visual message will travel digitally to let people all over
the world feel the excitement - and that drives desire and sales,"
she says, her crisp Brooks Brothers shirt and tailored black skirt
matching the glass-fronted, white-plumped-sofa office as if to
encapsulate the gloss of her success.
In addition to getting all designers online and transactional as
soon as she can, her BFC ambition goes far and wide. Less concerned
with persuading big labels like Stella and McQueen to show here -
"because whether you're showing in Timbuktu or London, you're still
marketing British fashion" - she's more about positioning London as
to fashion what Silicon Valley is to technology.
"It's undisputed that we have the most dynamic, creative
designers here - luxury businesses everywhere are infused with our
talent - but we haven't championed our industry as a business," she
says of an industry worth an estimated £21 billion to the UK
economy. "If you're a teenager in Palo Alto launching an app, you
know from the outset how you plan to finance your business. If your
16-year-old neighbour were creating an app, everyone at a dinner
party would ask, 'How much is he raising to do it?' We need the
same question asked of anyone starting a label."
"Fashion is bigger here than the car industry. It needs to be
celebrated as such so we'll see more jobs, more exports and more
stores opening on our streets, as designers develop into
self-sustaining, independent businesses. The BFC is here to improve
their chances of success by adapting and advising them properly in
the context of a new global economy."
To make that happen, Massenet has pulled together a dream team
to lead five pillars of activity - Reputation; Business Know How:
Education; Digital & Innovation; and Investment - headed up,
respectively, by "pillar presidents": creative director and
front-row titan Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou; James McArthur of Anya
Hindmarch (formerly Balenciaga and Harrods); fashion journalist and
BFC ambassador Sarah Mower and Meribeth Parker, group publishing
director of luxury at Hearst; Google's director of retail Peter
Fitzgerald; and Jonathan Goodwin of Lepe Partners, who worked with
Tamara Mellon at Jimmy Choo and runs the Founders Forum. Each will work directly (and
voluntarily) with the BFC staff to engineer success for British
fashion designers, by way of tool kits, seminars, the match-making
of students from London business schools with fashion colleges,
scholarship programmes and dialogue with the most experienced,
successful group of industry professionals in the country.
All the presidents, invited to an off-site meeting chez Massenet
at the beginning of the summer, have been given Team GB-style
personalised sweatshirts and tote bags (featured left). "The focus
is incredible. From the mayor's office to number 10, we're getting
everyone on board with this," says Massenet.
"In 13 years of doing my day job I've learned a few things about
motivating people. It's about setting a vision and, as long as
everyone knows why they're doing what they're doing, you achieve
that vision."
"We've cracked the hard part -we have the talent," she
continues. "Now it's simply a process of letting designers know
their options - whether they are a three-man operation in Hoxton or
a business with multiple flagships on the way to being the next
Burberry: how to do it, how much to leverage and then, when you get
to the stage when everyone wants you, how, why, when do you sell
and who to? We're going to ensure 'business' isn't a dirty word in
fashion. We want to make people dream of working in an industry
that isn't fluffy - it's an amazing way to earn a living and create
jobs based on creativity."
But is London fashion, traditionally so flamboyant and creative
but lacking in business flare, ready for this? "Of course!" says
Massenet "We have a generation of young designers who have grown-up
in the digital age, but they're in the business of making clothes
so they don't necessarily have access to this world. My day job
gives me access to these people - it's a killer advantage."
Short-term results will mean a bigger, better London Fashion
Week - maybe even a longer one because "London is always the most
packed schedule - you can't miss anything because our designers are
unpredictable". In the medium term, says Massenet, it's about
questioning the state of the industry, "whether that's thinking
about bringing consumers into the shows, or taking our Fashion Week
on a tour of other cities every season". Most radical, she muses,
would be a one-season, one-city show concept that could see
Olympics-style bids for cities to host all the international
collections in one place each season. Long term it suggests a
legacy that will leave future British fashion graduates in a more
confident position to let their creativity come to the global
fo
It's a revolution that brings support from all the designers on
the British schedule, for whom Natalie is constantly on call.
"She's a visionary and I'm thrilled that she represents our voice,"
says Erdem. "Not only does she have this incredible global
credibility, but she is also available in person when you want to
ask advice," adds Christopher Kane. "She truly understands what it
takes to grow a business in the UK with relevance around the
world."
The designers also value Massenet's political skills, but she
shrugs off the suggestion of any ambition for an official place on
the global stage. "I just have my fingers crossed that the shows
start on time, that people have an amazing experience here and that
we send them to Milan just a little bit tired."
"My personal ambition remains the same - to be creative, to be
modern, to stay one step ahead, to enjoy life. I've learned to take
nothing for granted because the rules are changing all the
time."
Lastly, the inevitable question: how does a woman like this get
dressed every morning? "I just wear what I like and lots of it is
British," she says, before reeling off a list of designer labels -
including "some cute Stella", Kane, Jonathan Saunders and
Williamson - that make up one serious wardrobe, and adding
wickedly: "I buy it all on this great website I know."
THE official Fashion's Night Out T-shirt has arrived and is
at the ready for fashion frolics on October 10. Manchester's
northern lights beckon for the fifth annual shopping festival and,
with over 100 brands taking part, the night is set to be as
extravagant as any party should be, with designer appearances,
exclusive collections, goody bags and, of course, plenty of
Champagne. Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has chosen Save the
Children as this year's official FNO charity, saying: "I am
delighted that Vogue's Fashion's Night Out in Manchester
is going to benefit Save the Children. Their work is essential not
only in the UK but internationally and being able to contribute to
their efforts, via this celebration of fashion and shopping, adds
an extra dimension to the evening."
The T-shirt, modelled by Sam
Rollinson for Vogue, will be widely available on the
night for £18. Snap yours up early.
Summer may be fizzling out, but don't let the darkening evenings
dampen your spirits. Put Fashion's Night Out firmly in your diary
and head up north to join a city abuzz with activity. Oh, and start
planning your outfit as street style photographers and
VogueTV will be seeking out the most stylish and capturing
all the fun at fashion's biggest street party. Vogue's Facebook page for the event has launched - like
us here to
keep up-to-date with all the latest news in the run up to Fashion's
Night Out.
KENZO now
struggles to keep its cult Tiger jumpers in stores for more than
two to three hours at a time, but the much-coveted piece nearly
didn't make the cut.
