Fittingly the Hermès store at 17 Rue de Sèvres, Paris transforms the glamorous former Lutetia swimming pool into an enchanting retail environment. RDAI architects design all Hermès’ stores worldwide and have excelled themselves by allowing the Deco style to shine through whilst creating a truly contemporary space to showcase this luxury brand.
The much anticipated David Bowie exhibition at London’s V&A museum is being enjoyed by record-breaking numbers of visitors. We swelled those numbers by taking the London College of Fashion‘s Access Fashion Business students, many of whom were newbies to the wonders of the Bowie!
The exhibition claims not to be a retrospective but uses David Bowie’s own vast archive- including hand written lyrics to many of his iconic songs, stage costumes and ‘sound and vision’- to explore the influences on, and influence of Bowie.
Accompanying the exhibition are a range of talks and activities. Curators Jeffrey Marsh and Victoria Broackes treated a captivated audience to a glimpse behind the scenes of staging the exhibition- their visit to the David Bowie archive in New York, how they selected artefacts to exhibit and explained the innovative audio-visual experience visitors enjoy as they tour the exhibition. They also shared their surprise and delight at the amazing coincidence of their opening coinciding with Bowie’s latest (highly secretive) album release- The Next Day.
The fabulous Theatre of Fashion‘s Amber Jane Butchart in conversation with Helene Thian as part of the V&A Bowie weekender explored Bowie’s interest in kabuki theatre and his creative collaboration with Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto which spawned many iconic costumes.
The V&A shop features some fun products- I love the Bowie paper doll book.
All the world’s got Bowie-fever including Vogue Japan– the April 2013 edition features ‘Fashion Warrior’– a Bowie fashion spread.
Selfridges is one of my favourite stores. I’m obviously not the only one of that opinion as Selfridges was named best department store in the world in 2010 by the Global Department Store Summit. Founded on London’s Oxford Street in 1909 by Gordon Selfridge, the store has always been famed for its window displays. This Christmas is no exception, and vmcfashion‘s photographs of the Nutcracker themed windows are featured in a great review entitled ‘Selfridges Cracks Christmas‘ on the website of Visual Merchandising & Branding experts Blue Mount.
In keeping with the heritage trend, Selfridge’s enticing history is soon to be dramatised in a new ITV series Mr Selfridge.
I’m obsessed with the PrintempsChristmas windows. The chic Parisien store has 74 specially commissioned Dior dolls dressed in some of the house’s most iconic creations.
Scroll through the Dior videos to enjoy the opening & get a peek at the dolls’ creation!
Love this image from Shanghai Tang‘s S/S 2012 campaign ‘Rite of the Phoenix’; photographer Chen Man works with China’s top male model Hu Bing & the ‘first face of Taiwan’ Lin Chiling.
Edwyn Collins‘s A Girl Like You provides an upbeat soundtrack to the new Marks & Spencer A/W 2012 ad ‘Every Woman You Are’. Using models across a range of ages & sizes (UK 8 to 16) in a video directed by Jake Nava M&S hopes to lure back its core customers, many of whom have slipped away over recent seasons.
According to the introduction Skald was ‘an ancient Scandinavian poet who memorialised the epic deeds of the Vikings with elaborate recitations at court’, Skald is also an award-winning art & literature publication produced by the students of Villa Maria College New York. Featuring work from many college departments there’s plenty for a fashion-lover to enjoy!
Swimmer Ryan Lochte, decathlete Bryan Clay, rower Giuseppe Lanzone and women’s football player Heather Mitts model the 2012 US Olympic team opening ceremony uniforms blissfully unaware, as they pose in the Ralph Laurenretro loveliness, of the controversy about to boil over regarding their offshore manufacture in China.
In this CNN report Senator Harry Reid & fashion designer Nanette Lepore express their frustration at what they see as a missed opportunity to highlight onshore manufacture. But is this a realistic option in today’s globalised fashion industry? Dan Ikenson from the US think tank the Cato Institute argues that offshoring is a natural result of free market economics.
According to an article in the LA Times, Li Giulian founder of DayangTrands (the Chinese manufacturer of the Ralph Lauren US team uniforms), questions whether the US has the capability to produce the uniforms, stating ‘We have cheaper costs here so you can have cheaper prices in America.’
This story provides an interesting ethicaldebate for fashionistas.
Us fashionistas have been waiting with bated breath for Raf Simons‘ debut couture collection for Christian Dior & I’m sure noone was surprised to see Raf’s reworking of some classic Dior silhouettes. The show opened with a trouser suit whose jacket references Dior’s iconic 1947 Bar suit worn with a cigarette pant that proved a staple of this collection- shown in multiple ways; with jackets, under cropped & full-length strapless 1950s mood gowns. Check out the whole collection at style.com
Another couture collection giving us a history-of-the-house was Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel– signature tweeds fashioned in silhouettes from the 1940s through the 1980s. The clothes were for grown-ups but lurex tights & hair & make-up in the style of Alexa Chung brought a more youthful feel. The show closed with a spectacular white dress- ahhh couture.