In June, Christie’s are auctioning the world’s two most expensive designer handbags. They’re both Birkins and their combined value is over a quarter of a million pounds. They’re unique, sure – but those figures are not unheard of. Alexander Fury examines the new market for handbags whose craftsmanship – and price – is seen on a par with works of art. And arguably as tempting an investment. Handbags are big business – and for once, that doesn’t refer to the fashion houses making millions from particular styles they dub to be “It”. The most in-demand bag, in fact, is one you can’t even purchase in a store – the Hermès Birkin. It’s named after Jane Birkin, who inspired the design – on a flight in 1981, she griped to a fellow passenger of the impracticalities of the current hold-all she was toting. Said passenger happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, chairman of Hermès, who subsequently designed a bag meeting Birkin’s demands, and named it after her. There are a number of reasons for the Birkin’s overwhelming and enduring popularity. Advertising isn’t one of them – Hermès may feature the bag in a campaign, but they’re as likely to focus on a […] Read More
Young British designers are increasingly coupling with centuries-old brands is an unlikely fusion of hitherto dusty heritage and the strikingly contemporary. It’s a mutually beneficial marriage, and proof opposites can prove very attractive, says Alexander Fury Lately, fashion has become peopled by odd couples, strange twosomes grouped under a new favoured heading: “collaboration.” The ubiquitous conjunction for these two names is the letter “X”, a vote of confidence in the unlikely fusion of, says, a sports star with a skincare line (David Beckham x Biotherm), a pop star and a high street brand (Beyonce x Topshop), or even a television host and a preppy staple. The latter is just all-out weird, especially to British audience – Jimmy Fallon, host of American institution The Tonight Show, collaborated with J. Crew to create a pocket square-cum-phone case. Lots of cross-overs. And it’s a bit like Jonathan Ross making a line of pants with Marks and Spencer. Then again, the male model David Gandy has already done that… Fashion designers collaborating amongst themselves has become commonplace – the newest incarnation, however, couples young brands with old in odd, May-December fashion romances, frequently with centuries separating the two. They work because they bring the […] Read More
Statement placements or splattered all over, the motif is the big story of spring/summer menswear. Lee Holmes decodes some of fashion’s favoured graphics . Since the lunar landings of the 1960’s, space and the exploration of it, has never failed in capturing the imagination of almost everyone. Fashion designers are no exception; in the same decade Paco Rabanne created the wardrobe for Jane Fonda in the sci-fi cult film Barbarella, while as recently as 2007 the Italian label Dolce and Gabbana sent models dressed as astronauts down their catwalk. Nowadays, the idea of travelling to the moon has become a little passé. Instead, it’s the exoplanets – worlds light years away that may actually harbour other life – that fire our imaginations. And again, designers are quick on the uptake; this summer J.W. Anderson, for the Spanish label Loewe, used space rockets and planets as his motif of choice. Emblazoned across both the clothes and leather accessories, these interstellar patterns gave the collection a Boys’ Own sense of adventure. Miuccia Prada was another – if we’re talking Kubrick, the intarsia-knit rockets adorning sweaters at her spring/summer 2016 menswear show last June had shades of Danny Torrance in The Shining rather […] Read More
With cult fashion publications featuring white y-fronts and Hollywood actors turning up to awards bashes in little more than their knickers, Simon Chilvers looks at some of the key moments in men’s underwear – pivotal pants, if you will… Here’s a sentence to get things fizzing: Rod Stewart wearing Fiorucci briefs. Really quite small ones. This particular visual assault is featured in the brilliantly titled Paula Yates’ 1980s book ‘Rock Stars In Their Pants’. The image is what I’d call high pant impact, and is very much without the kind of pouch reinforcement that the modern pants world is now in grateful possession of. Fast forward to circa-right-this-minute and y-fronts are having a fashion moment in bi-annual men’s magazine Man About Town. Shot by the much talked about menswear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy and styled by the equally talked about stylist Lotta Volkova (who works for Balenciaga and Vetements), the pants in question are “stylist’s own” and worn yanked up (very Gosha), teamed with a bronze Paul Smith blazer, Prada socks and Acne chunky heeled zip boots. Modern. Read More
Well, that didn’t last long. After a brief hiatus during awards season earlier this year, sheer gowns (and other racy little numbers) are back with a vengeance on the red carpet. The stars upped the shock factor at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in a parade of black numbers that boasted varying degrees of opacity, from modestly semi-sheer to completely see-through. Read More
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art hosted a discussion on the history of runway shows on Friday night with Tim Blanks, editor of The Business of Fashion, and Booth Moore, a Los Angeles Times fashion journalist, to kick off the museum’s newest exhibit, Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear. Read More
Dad jeans turned into a skirt, and a business suit and old newspapers transformed into ball gowns. With pieces made of 90 percent recycled materials or trash, every outfit was different. Read More
Something about fashion shows always seems to set off The Real Housewives of New Jersey cast! This season, it was Melissa Gorga‘s catwalk extravaganza in New Jersey on March 30 that was the setting for the season’s wildest catfighting yet. And although Jacqueline Laurita did not attend, an eyewitness told RadarOnline.com that she was at the center of the drama! Read More
