Style icons slam throwaway fashion culture

LONDON: British style icons including designer Vivienne Westwood and model Lily Cole condemned throwaway fashion culture as London Fashion Week got under way on Friday.They have joined the Oxfam charity´s Second Hand September campaign to encourage people to re-use, re-wear and recycle clothes."We can´t ignore the fashion industry´s enormous impact on the environment so it´s heartening to see that the London fashion world is getting behind Oxfam´s drive to encourage people to buy second-hand," said Oxfam GB director Danny Sriskandarajah.Several stars have donated items to the resale clothing site Vestiaire Collective, with the proceeds going to Oxfam. The initiative has more than eight million members in 50 countries.Westwood donated a handbag, while designer Henry Holland gave some shoes."Buy less, choose well, make it last," said punk designer Westwood.Actress Rachel Weisz, models Daisy Lowe and Stella Tennant have also raided their wardrobes."Peace of mind and a new wardrobe without the environmental damage is the dream!" said singer Paloma Faith.Oxfam claimed that the carbon footprint of new clothes bought in Britain every minute was greater than driving a car around the world six times."Fashion doesn´t need to cost the earth: buying second-hand not only stops clothing from ending up in landfill, but can also be the first step on the path towards more sustainable consumption," said Sriskandarajah.

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At NY Fashion Week, robotic dresses take on a life of their own

NEW YORK: Fashion and technology have often gone hand in hand, improving supply chains and bringing the world´s runways to the masses, but at this week´s shows in New York, robotic designs took center stage.The dresses were conceived with the help of a kit designed by Anina Trepte, a former model and founder of the 360Fashion Network, who wants designers to integrate technology into their work even if they cannot code themselves."I am on a mission to encourage other women to get into tech," Trepte told AFP.On Trepte´s initiative, designers Clare Tattersall and Azrael Yang used the kits to conjure up six dresses unveiled in a Harlem church at a show organized by Melange, a movement promoting diversity in fashion and the art.Tattersall, a Briton who lives in New York, created one dress with large futuristic flower petals that open and close mechanically on their own -- the perfect eye-catching cocktail attire.A second dress has a large silver hood that goes up and down with the click of a button.The last is a fitting frock for the #MeToo era.It features bits of metal appliqued to one shoulder, and when hidden motion sensors detect someone who is too close, the metal rattles and shakes.Yang, who is based in Beijing, took her inspiration from the ocean and seaweed for her work, which gently undulate like waves, guided by sensors and environmental data."A phenomenal result," Trepte said of the dresses.- ´Creative tool´ -Trepte, a tall American-born German woman with red hair and big blue eyes, gave up the catwalks and moved to Beijing more than a decade ago to devote herself to fashion tech."All the designs and the tech on these clothes were made by women -- and the men did the sewing, ha ha ha!" she said.For Tattersall, the founder of New York-based fashion tech company ThunderLily, education is key."My goal is to get girls involved in math and technology, show them that technology is a creative tool," she told AFP.Tattersall teaches girls of all ages about wearable technology, which she sees could be especially important in the future in terms of improving our health and fitness.The dresses were also shown at a separate exhibition in New York´s Union Square, along with some of Trepte´s own wearable tech -- jewelry that lights up, wallets that charge cell phones and an "SOS" ring that sends a text and a GPS location to an emergency contact.Also on display were kits to make gloves with LED lights or coats with heating, and even a robot that can prepare cocktails and is activated by wearable tech hidden in the sleeves of a jacket.- A special guest -There was a special guest at both the Harlem show and the subsequent exhibition -- the humanoid robot Sophia, made by Hanson Robotics.Her features and gestures are lifelike -- right down to her eyelashes. The effect is unnerving.At the Melange show in Harlem, she gave a speech about diversity. On the catwalk: models of all shapes and sizes, races and sexual orientations.Rag & Bone joined the robotic fun in a different way -- for its big return to New York Fashion Week after a three-year absence, it deployed a giant robotic arm to film its catwalk show.The images were shown live to the public on giant LED screens.The robotic arm -- which was connected to sensors capturing the models´ movements -- was almost a character in the show, according to Aaron Duffy, who directed the robot for the show.It went from "kind of playful" to "pretty scary," Duffy told Fast Company magazine. 

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‘Teeny Weeny’ bag biggest excitement at Paris fashion week

PARIS: It's so small wags joke that it can only hold a single Tic Tac, but French brand Jacquemus' teeny weeny bag, ‘Le Mini Chiquito’, is arguably the biggest thing at Paris fashion week.Never has something so tiny excited so much fashion passion and hilarity on social media.The handbag, or should we say finger bag made its debut last week on the opening night of the Paris shows.A shrunken version of the miniature and already cult $500 (440-euro) ‘Le Chiquito’ bag which has the likes of Rihanna and Kim Kardashian have been spotted clutching between their thumb and forefingers ,it is merely 5.2 centimetres (two inches) long.Jacquemus has sold ‘tens of thousands’ of Le Chiquito bags in the last year, according to Cosmopolitan magazine, with fashionistas so desperate to get their fingers on them that there are lengthy waiting lists for some colours.Although the brand told AFP that they have yet to set a price for Le Mini Chiquito, if the reaction on Instagram and Twitter is anything to go by, demand could be equally brisk.

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Chanel’s iconic couturier, Karl Lagerfeld dies at the age of 85

PARIS: The iconic German-born designer, Karl Lagerfeld was one of the most hardworking figures in the fashion world holding down the top design jobs at LVMH-owned luxury label Fendi from 1977, and Paris' family-owned power-house Chanel in 1983.Chanel’s iconic couturier, Karl Lagerfeld, whose accomplished designs dominated high fashion for the last 50 years, has died. He was around 85 years old. The iconic designer, who was the creative director of Chanel, is believed to have been unwell for two weeks before his death in a Paris hospital. He joined Chanel as a couturier in 1983 and spent 36 years working for the company. Lagerfeld worked tirelessly until the end, giving instructions to his teams for the Fendi fall ready-to-wear collection for whom he worked for more than half a century. The show was due to take place in Milan on Thursday.

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Little-known designer to lead fashion house Lanvin

PARIS: A little known 31-year-old French fashion designer was handed the keys to Lanvin Monday, the oldest couture house of all.Bruno Sialelli, who has previously worked for Loewe, Balenciaga and Acne Studios, is the fourth creative director to head the troubled brand in four years.He has been charged with unifying its men´s and women´s lines after the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, who bought out the brand last year, said they wanted to take Lanvin in a "pivotal new direction".Chief executive Jean-Philippe Hecquet said that they were won over by Sialelli´s "singular and very personal vision, his audacity, his culture, his energy and ability to build a strong creative team."The turmoil at the house began in 2015 with the departure of star designer Alber Elbaz after a 14-year run during which the brand became a favourite of the fashion set.The following year the company -- then owned by the Taiwanese media magnate Shaw-Lan Wang -- sank to a loss of 18.3 million euros, its first in a decade.Elbaz was eventually replaced by Bouchra Jarrar, who quit after just 16 months.

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Michael Jackson-themed Abloh makes his bid for cool king of Paris fashion

PARIS: Virgil Abloh bent the knee to Michael Jackson -- a fellow African American from the Midwest whose "prodigious talent catapulted him to unparalleled fame" -- in his Louis Vuitton show Thursday at Paris men´s fashion week.The designer -- the first African American ever to lead a major Paris label -- did not make a direct comparison between himself and the "King of Pop".But there was plenty there for those wishing to read between the lines.The 38-year-old´s bravura celebrity-studded show for his own ultra hot Off-White brand had already hogged the Paris limelight Wednesday.And his Vuitton show Thursday in the gardens of the former royal Tuileries gardens confirmed the streetwear guru as the new pretender to the title of king of the catwalk.The designer is currently jousting with the Georgian-born Demna Gvasalia, who designs both for Balenciaga and his own post-Soviet tinged poverty chic brand, Vetements, for the title of most influential creator on the block.Abloh threw down the gauntlet by sending out a sparkly Michael Jackson white glove as his invitation to the show.He penned a long tribute to Jackson in his notes and posted a poem he wrote about him to his 3.4 million Instagram followers.He even included the flag of the singer´s home state, Indiana, in one of the pleated "flagification" pieces which brought a splash of vivid colour to an otherwise chromatically restrained collection.Abloh, a renaissance man who studied architecture and engineering before switching to fashion to work with his friend rapper Kanye West, was born in neighbouring Illinois.As well as a run of sparkly and jewel-encrusted Jackson-style gloves, he sent out a jumper, hoodie and a shirt and trousers with cartoon figures inspired by "The Wiz", the 1978 all-black musical version of "The Wizard of Oz" which had Jackson as the Scarecrow and Diana Ross as Dorothy.Iron Man also made an appearance in the guise of a hooded aluminium foil knee-length coat worn with similarly reflective sunglasses.Abloh also made a nod to the legendary three-zip red jacket worn by Jackson in the video for his megahit "Beat It".But the designer -- whose parents are from Ghana -- showed he was not afraid to take a knife to the heritage of the Paris house, which has often toyed with colonial chic.To show that the roles have changed, Abloh had one black model head off on his travels with a Vuitton bag wearing a safari hat and a quasi-military camel suit.

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Revolution at gates of protest-hit Paris men´s fashion

PARIS: Paris men´s fashion week started Tuesday with a tsunami of new talent but with shows also threatened by the "yellow vests" protest movement that has been rocking France.Dior moved its show from Saturday to Friday to avoid the weekly Paris demonstrations which often turn violent after its flagship shop on the Champs Elysees was looted after a march in November.Several other luxury brands have been targeted by "yellow vests" activists, with boarded-up boutiques regularly scrawled with graffiti denouncing the rich.Japanese label Sacai, streetwear brand Andrea Crews, Namacheko and the American Thom Browne have also rescheduled their Saturday shows to avoid trouble from the populist street movement.But it is the boiling anger of fashion critics that reclusive superstar designer Hedi Slimane will be dreading, after they gave his first outing for Celine a kicking in October.Slimane was accused of thrashing the feminist legacy of his predecessor Phoebe Philo -- a charge he is unlikely to face for the first men´s collection in Celine´s history.Another, quieter revolution is also taking place on the men´s catwalks, with an ultra-hip gang of streetwear and cult Japanese designers being welcomed into the elite Paris fold for the first time.Heron Preston, the son of a San Francisco cop, who has previously taken inspiration from New York binmen and street cleaners´ uniforms, opened the packed six-day schedule.An old pal of both the rapper Kanye West and Off-White tyro Virgil Abloh, whose first collection of menswear designs for Louis Vuitton have been a huge hit, he is one of a wave of young designers taking streetwear upmarket.He set his first Paris show in a fake airport terminal replete with metal detectors, with looks drawn from security guards, transport workers´ uniforms and others who frequent "24-hour places".He also purloined the Securitas three-dot logo which he adapted to fit his own "style" tag written in Cyrillic.Preston, 35, first came to notice alongside Abloh at the streetwear brand Been Trill. Like his friend, he has made no secret of his dream to one day lead a big brand, in his case Prada.Two Japanese fashion idols also brought a huge shot of extra fizz to the traditionally sedate opening day.Former Comme des Garcons stalwart Fumito Ganryu made a highly intelligent first Paris bow with rethought oversized duffle coats and hoodies you could imagine particularly stylish Shinto priests wearing.His genuinely unisex black suits, some with trousers and other with skirts, were equally thoughtful, with pom-pom socks that hung over the heel adding a touch of playful fantasy.Another hero of the Tokyo scene, Takahiro Miyashita, rounded the day off with a show of "survival clothing to get through today´s reality" for his The Soloist label.Gone are the psychedelic colours of his late lamented Number (N)ine brand.Instead Miyashita´s masked urban warriors wore black and blue and could pass for heavily-styled members of the "Black bloc" anarchist and "yellow vests" demonstrators that regularly clash with French riot police.Givenchy too are putting their toe in the water with a first men´s made-to-measure collection.All eyes will also be on Abloh at Vuitton and Kim Jones at Dior to see if their second collections in their new homes will go down as well as their first.The men´s Paris shows will be followed by the haute couture collections next week, the pinnacle of the fashion calendar, which only take place in the French capital.

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US fashion group calls for more diversity in model size

A trade group representing hundreds of America´s designers has called on the fashion industry to showcase women of greater size diversity, such as plus-size models Ashley Graham and Candice Huffine.Graham, of Nebraska, in 2016 became the first plus-size model to make the cover of "Sports Illustrated." She also appeared on the cover of "Vogue," helping to break down barriers in the notoriously snooty fashion world."We are beginning to see signs of fashion moving in the right direction," Marc Karimzadeh and Nicky Campbell wrote on the website of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), which says it represents more than 500 men´s and women´s designers as well as jewelry and accessory designers."Designers such as Michael Kors and Christian Siriano are casting models that defy tradition," they said in a reference to the fashion world´s longstanding preference for slimness."Body Positivity is important in fashion and we want to see more designers and companies embrace this in 2019," the CFDA communication officials wrote.A movement to recognize alternate body types started in 2017 at New York Fashion Week, with runway shows by Prabal Gurung, Christian Siriano and Michael Kors.In September, the CFDA launched with plus-sized brand Dia&Co the #TeeUpChange campaign to encourage greater diversity in size among young creators.It also collaborated last year with Universal Standard, a brand that offers to exchange a piece of clothing in the year following its purchase if the customer´s size changes."In the past year, we put more focus on size inclusivity," through the Dia&Co and Universal Standard tie-ups, "and it continues to be a focus going forward," Karimzadeh told AFP.

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Fashion designer Raf Simons to leave Calvin Klein

Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons, considered one of the most talented of his generation, will leave Calvin Klein little more than two years after joining it, parent company PVH said Friday."Both parties have amicably decided to part ways after Calvin Klein, Inc decided on a new brand direction which differs from Simons´ creative vision," the company said in a statement.The arrival of the self-taught Simons in New York in August 2016 after four years at Dior caused a sensation. Dubbed "chief creative officer," he had vast powers to revitalize the American brand, which relied on him to boost the profits of its high-end collection.But there has been speculation since November about his potential departure, after an official from PVH apportioned him some of the blame for declining sales.PVH did not specify when Simons would leave, but according to The New York Times, his departure is immediate even though his contract expires in less than six months.No details have been given as to who will replace him or what he will do after his departure. During his short stint at Calvin Klein, Simons garnered praise from the fashion world for his innovative collections, and he has received three awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.Calvin Klein´s shows at New York Fashion Week were among the most popular but the fashion house will not organize any runway events at the next Fashion Week to take place in February, PVH said.Simons´ last Fashion Week runway show in September was inspired by "Jaws," the 1975 Steven Spielberg blockbuster film."The landscape of America -- literal and psychological -- inspires Calvin Klein. A journey through America leads, inevitably, to the edge of the landscape: the beach," where there is "this incredible idea of beauty, but also a tension," Simons wrote in notes for the show.Simons, 50, has been credited with giving the iconic American label renewed relevancy, his collections diving deep into the good, the bad and the ugly of the United States.But several industry news sites had speculated about the departure of Simons, after the PVH group head blamed him during a third-quarter earnings presentation for a lack of dynamism in sales.PVH chairman and CEO Emanuel "Manny" Chirico announced a more commercialized marketing approach, signaling that the Simons creative era was ending.Calvin Klein, the New Yorker who in 1968 founded the label bearing his name, sold it in 2003 to PVH which also has the Tommy Hilfiger brand.

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