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Cacharel

ChicHERE — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:12:51 +0000

Jean Cacharel (French designer)

Jean Cacharel became an established designer name in the mid-1960s when his fitted, printed, and striped shirts for women became fashion “must haves”—so much so that by the end of the decade French women went into stores not asking for a shirt, but for a “Cacharel.” The designer had finally done for women what others had not—created a shirt that was flattering, comfortable and easy to wear.

Cacharel, Jean Bousquet, came to Paris from Nïmes in the mid-1950s, where he had apprenticed in men’s tailoring. Adopting the name of Cacharel, which was taken from the Camargue’s native wild duck, he moved into womenswear as a designer/cutter for Jean Jourdan in Paris. At the time womenswear was dominated by Parisian haute couture and mass market took a dim second place. Cacharel was one of the first designers to foresee a fashion future beyond the oldmonied clientéle and catered to an emerging nouvelle riche and fashion-conscious mass market. The strong emergence of youth culture in the 1950s and 1960s strengthened his vision.

Cacharel opened his own business at the end of the 1950s and employed Emmanuelle Khanh as a stylist and designer. Together they created a company image that was very French, young, and sporty in fresh matching separates that were colorful, pretty and wearable. Success was sealed in 1965 when Cacharel began working with Liberty of London. He rescaled and recolored traditional floral prints so they became softer and more flattering. Prints previously scorned as frumpy and homely were transformed by Cacharel’s cut and taste into snappy, feminine, wearable clothes. Liberty of London subsequently stocked and sold the Cacharel label for decades.

Further developments at Cacharel included moves into licensing and distribution agreements. Cacharel’s sister-in-law, Corinne Grandval, joined the firm and helped introduce a successful mini couture line for children, which was widely copied and adapted in the industry. Cacharel’s children, Guillaume and Jessica, also joined the family business in the 1990s. Yet by the turn of the century, the Cacharel name needed a boost. Though it still represented stylish ready-to-wear for women in France and throughout Europe and Latin America, the name was recognizable only in fragrances in the United States. Setting out to crack the American market and spruce up its image, Cacharel decided to launch new versions of two if its earlier fragrances.

Cacharel’s Loulou and Eden came out in 1987 and 1994 respectively; their younger, hipper counterparts, Loulou Blue and Eau d’Eden debuted in 1995 and 1996. The introductions, however, came at difficult time for the company, as its namesake was on trial for misdeeds while the mayor of Nïmes, where the business was based. Subsequently convicted, Jean Cacharel was fined and sentenced to a year in jail, followed by a year of probation. Cacharel, the business, continued during its founder’s confinement. In 1998 came the launch of Noa, an exciting fragrance and body products line symbolizing female empowerment and spiritual harmony. Its mate, the first Cacharal men’s fragrance in almost two decades, Nemo, came out the following year.

The complementary scents, like all of Cacharel’s later fragrances, were directed at a youthful crowd complete with flashy packaging and aggressive advertising campaigns. Boldly going against the unisex fragrance trend, Cacharel’s distinctly male and female scents were a welcome hit in the U.S., which had proven resistant to earlier Cacharel fragrances (with the exception of Anaïs Anaïs which had been an enduring success).

While Noa brought the Cacharel name to the forefront of the fragrance industry, with mega sales worldwide, Cacharel’s womenswear was bolstered with arrival of the Clements Ribeiro design team in 2000. Husband-and-wife team Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro’s ready-to-wear collections in 2000 and 2001 were warmly received. While the duo continued to design under their own label as well as at Cacharel, Clements commented to Women’s Wear Daily in August 2000, “Now we can be more whimsical and extreme with Clements Ribeiro. Cacharel, on the other hand, is more grounded in reality. It is more simple and has pieces, like suits, that we wouldn’t do for our own line, but that are important for Cacharel because it is a full collection with an economic reality.”

Under the artistic direction of Clements and Ribeiro, the 40-year-old house of Cacharel was in good hands. The company’s founder, Jean Cacharel said, “Clements and Ribeiro have tapped into the true Cacharel spirit. The line is about creative pieces that can be easily mixed and matched—all at an affordable price.” In addition to reinvigorating its ready-to-wear and other clothing collections, Cacharel introduced matching accessories and opened a new store in Marseilles in 2001. The new décor, almost completely outfitted in various shades of blue, was another step in redefining Cacharal worldwide, with the remainder of firm’s shops slated for renovation in 2001 and 2002.

Gucci

ChicHERE — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:12:36 +0000

Gucci is one of the most coveted handbag makers in the world and we thought our visitors would enjoy reading about it.

Gucci (Italian fashion and accessories house)

Founded: in Florence, Italy, as saddlery shop by Guccio Gucci (1881-1953), 1906, after family millinery business failed.

Company History: Became retailer of accessories, 1923; Gucci shops opened in Florence, 1923; boutiques open in Rome, 1938; firm renamed Societá Anonima Guccio Gucci, 1939; stores opened in Milan, 1951; renamed Guccio Gucci Srl, 1945; New York boutique opened, 1953; opened in Paris, 1963; shop opened in Hong Kong and Gucci Parfums formed, 1975 (renamed Gucci Parfums SpA, 1982); company renamed Guccio Gucci SpA, 1982; appointed Dawn Mello creative director, 1989; Tom Ford joined company, 1990; acquired by Investcorp, 1993; Mello departed and Ford named creative director, 1994; deaths of Mauritzio and Paolo Gucci, 1995; listed on the NYSE, 1995; rival Prada bought stake, 1998; sold stake to LVMH, 1999; Pinault Printemps Redoute acquired major stake and fought off LVMH, 1999; Alexander McQueen defected from LVMH to Gucci, 2000; hired Stella McCartney to create her own line, 2000; designer Nicolas Ghesquiére came to firm with acquisition of Balenciaga, 2001.

Exhibitions: Costume Archive, Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Awards: National Italian-American Foundation Special Achievement award, 2001 [de Sole].

Company Address: 73 Via Tornabuoni 50100, Florence, Italy.

Company Website: www.gucci.com.

The illustrious name of Gucci began as a mark on leather goods produced in Florentine workshops for the young Guccio Gucci. Inspired by the grandiose luggage transported by wealthy guests to the Ritz Hotel in London, where Gucci worked in the kitchens, the young Italian returned to his native country where he began making leather luggage.

The characteristic double-G motif printed on the canvas was introduced after World War II due to a shortage of leather. Its bold red and green bands on suitcases, bags, satchels, wallets, and purses have become one of the most copied trademarks in the world, along with France’s Louis Vuitton. The Florence-based company grew to international proportions in the postwar period, expanding its range to include clothing, fragrances, household items such as decanters and glasses painted with the distinctive red and green bands, scarves, and a slew of other accessories. It was this indiscriminate expansion that ultimately proved to be detrimental to the name of Gucci for, as Yves Saint Laurent’s director Pierre Bergé once said, “A name is like a cigarette-the more you puff on it the less you have left.”

Added to this overexposure was the proliferation of Gucci imitations which reputedly cost the company a fortune in legal fees, along with infamous conflicts between the volatile members of the Gucci clan. All were detrimental to the high profile image the company needed to maintain. There were, however, many Gucci items that became status symbols in their own right-such as the Gucci loafer with its unmistakeable gilt snaffle trim which, according to the New York Times was what carried the company to fortune.

Biographer Gerald McKnight notes in his book Gucci: A House Divided, (New York, 1987) that the loafer even became the subject of well-worn jokes in the 1970s when the name Gucci became as well known as household items such as the Hoover and cellophane tape.

Gucci: A House Divided
Price: —

3 used & new available from USD 34.00

Having lost a great deal of the prestigious aura that is a vital element to the success of a luxury brand, the house of Gucci suffered bad press during the 1980s, as journalists hungered after stories of bitter rivalry between family members and their legal battles. It was an American woman, Dawn Mello, who restored the luxurious image of Gucci when, in 1989, she was appointed executive vice-president and creative director of the company. Under her control, the existing Gucci lines were edited and refined, and fewer, more select new items introduced.Mello provided a clever combination of just the right balance of historical relevance and a real sense of modernity which restored Gucci to its former glory as a “must have” name.

She was helped by designer Tom Ford who came to Gucci in 1990. Three years later, in 1993, the Gucci clog was a sell-out item among the fashion cognoscenti and became the most copied shoe style of the season. Gucci was once again established as a purveyor of luxury goods but also as a serious contender in the high fashion stakes. This same year, the firm was acquired by Investcorp, and the following year relocated its headquarters from Milan to Florence. Mello however, left to rejoin Bergdorf Gordman in New York, and Ford was named Gucci’s creative director.Ford proved a good fit for Gucci, his collections took the house back to its must-have status. Along the way came corporate intrigue, when rival Prada suddenly acquired a chunk of Gucci in 1998, only to turn around and sell to archrival LVMH in 1999.

The events sparked a takeover attempt, with Gucci narrowly escaping due to white knight François Pinault, whose Pinault Printemps Redoute bought in to Gucci. Pinault and Gucci CEO Domenico de Sole soon gave LVMH a run for its money in the bid to become the world’s largest luxury firm. Though LVMH was ahead, Gucci was a force to be reckoned with and pursued the same targets as LVMH, such as Fendi in 1999. LVMH, partnered with Prada, prevailed; with Prada eventually selling its stake to LVMH. Gucci itself then went on a buying spree, acquiring stakes in Boucheron, Sergio Rossi, and Bottega Veneta.By the end of the 20th century, Gucci had become a global competitor and flexed its muscle with the acquisition of Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga.

Tom Ford, widely considered Europe’s top designer by this time, took the design reins at YSL in addition to his Gucci responsibilities, and the Balenciaga buy brought hot new designer, Nicolas Ghesquiére into the fold. Alexander McQuuen, who had defected from LVMH, and Stella McCartney, another sensation, had also joined Gucci. With four of the fashion world’s most acclaimed designers under its roof, Gucci was sure to take the catwalk by storm.

Check Measurements for Women & Girls

ChicHERE — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:12:21 +0000

To ensure the best fit for women and girls, you’ll need to measure the bust, waist, and hips.

Bust: With your arms at your side, place the tape measure around the fullest part of your chest, under your arms. Make sure that the tape measure remains parallel to the floor.

Waist: While standing, wrap the tape measure around your natural waistline. Keep the tape comfortably loose.

Hips: While standing with your feet together, wrap the tape measure around the fullest part of your body between your waist and your knees. This is approximately 8 inches below your waist. Make sure that the tape measure remains parallel to the floor.

Inseam: Measure from the crotch seam to the bottom of the leg.

Check Measurements for Men & Boys

ChicHERE — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:12:01 +0000

To ensure the best fit for men and boys, you’ll need to measure the neck, arm/sleeve, chest, waist, and inseam.

Neck: Measure the circumference of your neck just above the base and around your Adam’s apple. Place two fingers between your neck and the tape measure.

Arm/Sleeve: With your arm bent slightly, put your hand on your hip. Start the tape measure at the center of the back of your neck. Run the tape measure across the top of your shoulder, down to the elbow, and then to your wrist.

Chest: Standing with your arms at your side, place the tape measure around the fullest part of your chest, under your arms. Ensure that the tape measure remains parallel to the ground. Place two fingers between the tape measure and your body.

Waist: While standing, wrap the tape measure around your natural waistline. Keep the tape comfortably loose.

Inseam: Lay out flat a pair of pants that fit you well. Using a measuring tape, measure from the crotch seam to the bottom of the pant along the seam.

Hermès

ChicHERE — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:57:06 +0000

ChicHERE.com do not sell new Hermes. Authentic new Hermes are impossible to obtain for resale. However, this is one of the most coveted handbag makers in the world and we thought our visitors would enjoy reading about it.

From Hermès to Eternity

Almost two centuries ago, a royal coronation might be delayed until the arrival of its exquisitely stitched Hermès carriage fittings, just as today even the richest women must wait for an exquisitely stitched Hermès Birkin bag. With the family-run French company passing to a sixth generation, the author chronicles its rise to global pre-eminence, where a modern aesthetic meets the humble tools—awls, mallets, needles, knives, and stones—of unsurpassed tradition.

by Laura Jacobs September 2007

‘The world is divided into two: those who know how to use tools, and those who do not.” “We are an industrial company with 12 divisions, which designs, makes, and retails its products. We aren’t a holding company.”

For 28 years, from 1978 to 2006, the most quotable voice in retail—pragmatic, poetic—came from Jean-Louis Dumas, the head of a company that in every other way speaks with its hands. It is an old company with a Protestant spine and a Parisian perfectionism, one of the oldest family-owned-and-controlled companies in France. Its name alone prompts sighs of desire among those in the know, and those in the know run the gamut from French housewife to fashionista to queen (both kinds), from social climber to Olympic equestrian to C.E.O. The name itself is a sigh, a flight, and its proper pronunciation must often be taught. “Air-mez”—as in the messenger god with winged sandals. Mischievous, witty, ingenious Hermès.

“We don’t have a policy of image, we have a policy of product.”

Dumas, fifth generation of the Hermès family, was eminently quotable because he expressed clear concepts that made sense in any language. Though Hermès is grouped with other luxury brands, it hovers ineffably higher, apart, and not only because it is more costly. Dumas himself pooh-poohed the term “luxury,” disliking its arrogance, its hint of decadence. He preferred the word “refinement,” and intrinsic to that refinement is what Hermès won’t do. It does not boast, does not use celebrities in advertising, does not license its name, does not let imperfect work leave the atelier (imperfect work is destroyed), does not get its head turned by trends.

What it does do—Dumas’s “policy of product”—is create necessary objects made from the most beautiful materials on earth, each so intelligently designed and deeply well made it transcends fashion (which is good because the pieces last for generations). When Diane Johnson, in her best-seller of 1997, Le Divorce, describes a gift box from Hermès “set alluringly on the desk, like a cake on an altar,” she catches that special blend of the senses and the soul inherent in an object from Hermès.

“Time is our greatest weapon.”

Inside that gift box is an Hermès handbag, a Kelly, the company classic renamed in 1956 for the actress Grace Kelly, who used one to shield her pregnancy from a paparazzo’s lens. In Johnson’s novel the Kelly is symbolic of an Old World transaction—the taking of a mistress. But under Dumas’s brilliant leadership, Hermès became a brave-new-world company, growing global in a sustained, savvy, relatively debt-free ascent that was prepared for in the 80s, rocketed in the 90s, and continued to climb after 2000 even as other luxury brands slipped.

Young women in Japan, China, and Russia now buy their own Kellys. Paris is no longer the only destination for those who want incomparable leather goods, scarves, ties, and iconic jewelry and watches—Hermès now has 283 stores worldwide, 4 of them flagships. Dumas set the tone for Hermès as a fierce competitor that competes only with itself and keeps winning. Upon his retirement, in March of last year, he handed the reins to members of the family’s sixth generation, who must now find their own relationship with time.

It began with Thierry Hermès, the sixth child of an innkeeper. He was born a French citizen in the German town of Krefeld, land that in 1801 was part of Napoleon’s empire. Having lost all of his family to disease and war, Hermès went to Paris an orphan, proved gifted in leatherwork, and opened a shop in 1837, the same year Charles Lewis Tiffany opened his doors in New York.

Today the two companies have the most distinctive color signatures in retail—Hermès orange and Tiffany robin’s-egg blue—but there the similarity ends. Where Tiffany began in stationery and costume jewelry, Hermès specialized in the horse harnesses required by society traps, calèches, and carriages. The dynamics of animal power and grace, movement and travel, energy controlled and the outdoors enjoyed, are deep in the lifeline of Hermès. It was a business built on the strength of a stitch that can only be done by hand, the saddle stitch, which has two needles working two waxed linen threads in tensile opposition. It is a handsome, graphic stitch, and done properly it will never come loose.

The clients of Thierry Hermès were rich: the Parisian beau monde and European royalty, including the emperor Napoléon III and his empress, Eugénie. But Thierry’s true client—the wings on his sandals—was the horse, whose hauteur in this era was unrivaled. It was in equipage that the Hermès allure took form, born of a linear integrity, a tailored masculinity, its richness lying in the leather and in hardware honestly, elegantly designed. When Thierry’s son, Émile-Charles, succeeded him, the family business moved to 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, where it has been a limestone landmark—the home of Hermès—ever since.

In that same year of 1880, saddlery was added, a custom business that required measurements from both horse and rider. Added as well in the 19th century, another Hermès institution: the wait. Because handstitched perfection cannot be rushed, royal coronations were sometimes delayed until Hermès fittings for the carriage and the guard had arrived. In this century, the waitlist for items such as the hot-and-heavy Birkin, a handbag created in 1984 for the actress Jane Birkin, can stretch to five years. One Birkin takes 18 to 25 hours to make, and the Paris workrooms produce only five or so each week; these supply Hermès stores worldwide.

Franco Moschino

ChicHERE — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:49:47 +0000

Franco Moschino (Italian designer)

Born: Abbiategrasso, 1950.
Education: Studied fine art, Accademia delle Belle Arti, Milan, 1968-71.
Career: Freelance designer and illustrator, Milan, 1969-70; sketcher for Versace, 1971-77; designer for Italian company Cadette, 1977-82; founded own company Moonshadow in 1983; launched Moschino Couture!, 1983; fragrance for women Moschino introduced, 1987; introduced diffusion line, Cheap & Chic, 1988; launched Uomo, menswear collection, 1986, and Cheap & Chic Uomo, 1991; Ok-Ko men’s fragrance, 1991; firm continued after his death in 1994; formation of Franco Moschino Foundation, to help children with HIV and AIDS, 1994; Cheap & Chic fragrance debuted, 1995; opened shops in Rome and Beverly Hills, late 1995; Oh! de Moschino launched, 1996; opened New York Madison Avenue store, 1996; introduced Moschino Life sportswear, 1999; opened new London boutique, and hired Vincent Darre as designer, 2000; bought by Aeffe SpA, 2001.
Exhibitions:X Years of Kaos! [retrospective], Museo della Permanente, Milan, 1993-94.
Died: 18 September 1994.
Company Address: Moonshadow SpA, Via Ceradini 11/A, 20129 Milan, Italy.
Company Website:www.moschino.it.

“Fashion is full of chic,” Franco Moschino once commented, was an ironic statement coming from one of Europe’s most successful designers. Based in Milan, Moschino originally studied fine art, with ambitions to be a painter, but came to see that tailoring and fabrics could be just as valid a means of expression as paint and canvas. Consequently, his first job in fashion was with the Cadette label, for whom in 1977 he produced a simple range of stylish clothes.

Starting his own label in 1982, Moschino used his experience in the Italian fashion industry as a source for his philosophical ideas evolving a set of tactics designed to shake the fashion establishment out of its complacency. Much to his amazement, he was embraced with open arms as a new iconoclast by the very people he despised. Essentially Moschino was picking up where Schiaparelli had left off, displaying an interest in the surrealist tactic of displacement—he has for a long time professed a love of Magritte’s use of the juxtaposition of incongruous imagery to produce a surreality. This is aptly shown in designs such as his quilted black denim mini with plastic fried eggs decorating the hemline, quilted jacket decorated with bottle tops, plug-socket drop earrings, and bodices made out of safety pins. Moschino’s 1989 fun fur collection included a winter coat of stitched together teddybear pelts and a scorch-mark printed silk shirt saying “too much ironing.”

Although dubbed the Gaultier of Italian fashion, Moschino responded to fashion differently. Unlike Jean-Paul Gaultier who was interested in playing around with the shapes and the fabrics of fashion, Moschino used basic forms and traditional methods of construction to produce wearable, sexy clothes, cut to flatter and beautifully made. Dismissing his approach as visual and superficial, Moschino stressed he was a decorator, completely disinterested in clothing construction.

Believing he could criticize the business more effectively from the inside, the underlying theme of his work was the parodying of so-called fashion victims, those prepared to be seen in the most ridiculous clothes if they were the latest style, and a general protest against the materialism of capitalism. He did this with visual gags like a triple pearl choker with attached croissant or the Rolex necklace—the pearls and Rolex being traditional ways of displaying wealth—and by mixing cheap plastics with expensive fur.

This parodying of the conspicuous consumers of fashion was continued in 1990 with his use of jokey logos on a series of garments like the cashmere jacket with the words “Expensive jacket” embroidered in gold across its back, or “Bull chic” on a matador-styled outfit. Designs such as these were supposed to make the wearer feel duped into spending vast amounts of money on designer clothing, but after achieving a vast amount of publicity, the people he was attacking flocked to buy his clothes. The iconoclasm of Moschino was destined to become the choicest thing on the catwalk.

Calling for a “Stop to the Fashion System” through his advertising in high fashion magazines, Moschino displayed a classic Dada stance—for an end to the fashion system would mean the destruction of his own empire which came to encompass not just Moschino Couture! but the successful Cheap & Chic range—a diffusion line which was not actually all that cheap—and ranges of underwear, swimwear, jeans, children’s clothes, accessories, and fragrances (the men’s sold in a double-ended bottle so it can’t stand up and the women’s advertised with a model drinking it through a straw rather than dabbing it behind her ears).

Known for his theatrical fashion shows (in the past his models impersonated Tina Turner and Princess Margaret), Moschino mixed up and twisted classic styles and wrenched them into the present by using humor. A fine example was a Chanel-type suit restyled with gold clothes pegs for buttons. Interestingly enough, his insults were rarely taken seriously. At one collection he pointedly mocked the top fashion editors by leaving moo-boxes on their seats, implying they were dull bovines with not an original thought in their heads, but they applauded all the more.

Moschino’s ambition was to destroy the dictates of fashion so people could please themselves with what they chose to wear, and to produce more anonymous clothes once he completed the downfall of the industry. The irony is that Moschino became his own fashion-asantifashion status symbol; yet his belief that fashion should be fun was valid and remains so today. Unfortunately for Franco Moshino, he was not around to see his plans to fruition—he died in 1994. His funky design firm was carried on after his death, and to dizzying heights of popularity. Soon after Moschino’s death, the Franco Moschino Foundation was founded to help children battling HIV and AIDS, and the Moschino firm would routinely design for charities and fundraisers like Artwalk New York.

Fashionwise, Moschino designs lacked the sharpness of Franco’s razor wit yet still provided laughs and sales. The company segued into fragrances with the launch of Cheap & Chic in 1995, and opened wildly funky boutiques in Rome and Beverly Hills near the end of the year. More hip shops, in New York City and London, bowed in 1996 and 2000 respectively, while a new sportswear range, Moschino Life, was introduced in 1999. Yet the biggest Moschino news was the firm’s acquisition by Aeffe SpA, the burgeoning fashion empire founded by Alberta Ferretti in 2001, which had already produced several Moschino lines.

Blumarine

ChicHERE — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:33:38 +0000

Blumarine (Italian fashion design company)

Founded: in Carpi, Italy, in 1977, by Anna Molinari, chief designer and artistic director, with husband Gianpaolo Tarabini.
CompanyHistory: First catwalk show in Milan, 1981; Anna Molinari line presented twice a year in Milano Collezioni shows, from 1986; added two lines, Blumarine Folies and Miss Blumarine, 1987; Blumarine licensing deals for perfume, glasses, leather goods, swimwear, jewelry, and home furnishings, 1987; opened flagship store in Via Spiga, Milan, 1990.
Awards: Best Designer of the Year, Modit Milan, 1980; Griffo d’Oro award, Imola, Italy, 1981; Rotary Club Gold award, 1991; Lions Club Carpione d’Oro award, 1992.
Company Address: Via Don Milani, 6-47814, Bellaria, Italy.

Blumarine:

The stylistic concept of Anna Molinari is very simple: fantasy, passion, curiosity, fascination, and romanticism. It’s easy to describe the typical Blumarine woman: one has only to look to Anna Molinari, her intelligence, vivacity, creativity, femininity and passion: a vibration between angel and femme fatale. Helmut Newton, one of the world’s greatest fashion photographers, has perceived this essence and, guided by the modernity of Anna Molinari, has created a new concept of feminine power.

Blumarine collections are designed by the company’s founder and owner, Anna Molinari. Based in Carpi in Italy, collections are shown seasonally, twice a year in Milan. Since its 1977 inception, the company has built up a steady international following that includes recent openings in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Blumarine collections are young, fun, and throwaway. Kitsch and naughty, sexy yet prudish, the clothes always represent an appealing ambiguity. A Blumarine promotional piece, for example, gives a peek-a-boo glimpse at a little girl plundering her elder sister’s wardrobe and emerging half innocent, half saucy, into the sophisticated world. There is also a hard-edged defiance about the clothes, designed by a woman who combines her intelligence with the feminine powers of seduction.

Fashion photographer Helmut Newton has created a strong image for Blumarine since he began styling and photographing the company’s promotional material. Whether it’s set in the seedy world of a back street hotel, complete with tacky 1970s decor, or on the shores of a trashy Mediterranean seaside resort, there are always strong sexual connotations in the imagery. Clothes are styled with revealing accessories—suspender belts, the spiked patent stilettos of the dominatrix, or dog collars as chokers. The poses of the models, particularly Nadja Auerman, who resembles an early 1980s Debbie Harry, tantalize. The images, Molinari’s and Newton’s, are always provocative.

Molinari likes to emphasize the female figure, which is often achieved by exaggerated feminine styles. Very popular is her tutu miniskirt, which features a tiny cinched waist that suddenly explodes into a full bell skirt, and layer upon layer of net and lace petticoats. The line also featured delicate black lace baby doll dresses cut dangerously short, laced bustiers, short, striped milkmaid dresses, tiny cardigans, and figure-hugging sweaters, always worn in a way to reveal a lacy bra top or satin-trimmed slip.

Popular fabrics have included lace, brocade, chiffon, and fake fur either as a trim or made into a figure-hugging jacket. Accessories are important—bo-peep caps worn with schoolgirl pigtails, large feather boas, or top hats. Ruffles often reoccur in collections, on shirts or as flounced cuffs and necklines. Color mixes are always refreshing and unexpected: ice blues mixed with burgundy, peach, and cream, or chocolate brown mixed with sky blue and tangerine; dominating, though, is black, always sexy and suggestive.

Blumarine has also explored many directional fashion themes in collections. For spring/summer 1995, Molinari exploited the most accurate depiction of that season’s “disco diva” look, with short, pleated-on-the-knee pencil skirts in sherbet satin, combined with fitted jackets, good-time hot pants, and kitsch-print Lurex t-shirts. Other collections exploit what Anna Molinari believes to be the dual personality in every woman: coyness combined with passion, or the little girl combined with the temptress. The company has steadily increased its influence and is now recognized as one of the more directional, risk-taking fashion labels in the world, with showrooms in Milan, New York, and Paris, and a steadily increasing coterie of boutiques in Hong Kong, Milan, and London.

The company’s courtship of the moneyed, under-30 buyer brought a sharp turnaround in both style and taste. The arrival of Molinari and Tarabini’s daughter Rosella into the design studio in 1998 splashed an obviously youthful élan over the Blumarine high-fashion severity. Long past its days in knitwear, Blumarine’s theatrical reds, purples, torrid pinks, and turquoises teamed with cigarette skirts in satin, leather, and crocodile and body-hugging suits collared in mink and topped with fox stoles and full-length fur. In March 1998, Molinari presented satin and pointelle slip dresses, fur-collar velvet coats, and sweater sets for fall, a nostalgic return to the sweater girls of the 1950s and 1960s with a touch of the flapper. For dress-up, she stressed beaded evening wear for a head-turning party entrance.

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In her second season, designing daughter Rosella toned down her ebullience with less exhibitionism, more control of her gala florals, sequined slip dresses, tailored pantsuits, and polka dot organza with ruffled hems and poufy sleeves. Balancing a mother’s boldness with mother-knows-best, Molinari designs drew West Coast fans to Heaven 27, Sofia Coppola’s Los Angeles boutique which debuted in 1999. In consecutive spring showings, Blumarine kept up the pressure with flirty flair and a sprinkling of Rosella’s heart prints, a come-hither for the youngest fashion follower.

New lines bolstered the house image for tarty chic with embroidered and jeweled mules for 2000. Fall/winter 2000 also sought past glow and sparkle with black frocks from the 1980s and dress-up attire in beads and sequins, embroidery, ethereal lace, and silks with daring slit skirts, scalloped hems, chiffon blouses, and touches of Swarovski crystal mesh, a motif that continued into 2001.

Dirk Bikkembergs

ChicHERE — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:09:38 +0000

Dirk Bikkembergs (Belgian designer)

Born: Flamersheim, Germany, 3 January 1962.
Education: Studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Arts, Antwerp.
Military Service: Served with Royal Belgian Army, in Germany.
Career: Freelance designer for Nero, Bassetti, Gruno and Chardin, Tiktiner, Gaffa, K, and Jaco Petti, 1982-87; launched Dirk Bikkembergs-Homme Co., with DB shoe line for men, 1985; introduced knitwear, 1986; first complete menswear collection, 1988; presented first womenswear line, Dirk Bikkembergs-Homme Pour La Femme, in Paris, 1993; moved to more luxe styling, 1998; participated in Mode 2001 Landed-Geland, Antwerp, 2001.
Awards: For menswear collection, winter 1985-86, several Belgian fashion industry awards, including Golden Spindle.
Address: Kidporp 21, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium.

Dirk Bikkembergs:

I design clothes for men and women that have a special, strong attitude; for a younger, future-minded generation for whom fashion has become a way to express themselves; to give shelter and strength and the feeling of looking good; a generation that has risen above the question of fashion, sure about its quality and style and their own; celebrating life.

I design collections that give one whole strong look, a vision of life, men and women with items that are nonchalant and easy to mix, give freedom and don’t restrict the wearer; but there are always special pieces that are stronger and more defined, marking a certain period of time and setting a sign.

My clothes are never retro. I hate the idea of looking back. I don’t have any idols from the past. I do strongly believe in tomorrow and the future of the human race. To achieve this I devote a lot of attention to the cut and fabric that I use. Yes, I tend to think about my clothes as fashion and I’m not afraid of that, nor are my clients.

I design strong clothes for strong individuals rather than wrapping up pretentious nerds in sophisticated cashmere. Nothing is so boring as a “nice and neat” look. Life is just too good and too short for that.

Dirk Bikkembergs is one of the so-called Group of Six designers who have dominated the Belgian fashion scene in the last two decades in a country not previously known as a fashion mecca. Bikkembergs and several other graduates of the Royal Academy of the Arts at Antwerp—Ann Demuelemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Von Beirendonck, and Martin Margiela—have brought new attention to avant-garde fashion in Belgium. Deconstructionist in their designs, they have added such innovations as exposed seams, loose-fitting garments, and ragged edges.

Heavyweight fabrics and macho imagery quite literally dominate Bikkembergs’ work. His best designs convey a solidity through their layering of leather and thick knitwear while still retaining the feeling of minimalist restraint that has come to be associated with Belgian fashion. Bikkembergs, although not the most prominent of the designers who formed the Belgian avant-garde of the later 1980s, is nonetheless a significant purveyor of their ideals. His clothing consists of dark and muted-toned separates that provide strong images of modern living, although his own work does not so frequently contain the deconstructed edge of his counterparts.

Bikkembergs first came to prominence with his treatment of footwear. A specialist in the field, he brought together the traditions of well-made, hard-wearing shoes made up for him by Flanders craftspeople with the late 1980s and early 1990s who epitomized the era’s obsession with workwear. His designs were inspired by classic functional styles; he reworked the clearly defined shapes of 1930s’ football boots, making them into neat, round-toed, lace-up urban footwear in 1987. In 1993, he tampered with the weighty infantry-man’s boot, stripping it of its utilitarian status when, with a deconstructivist flourish, he removed the eyelets that normally punctuated the boot and accommodated the distinctive high lacing. Instead, a hole was drilled into the sole through which the laces had to be threaded and then wrapped around the boot’s leather upper to secure it to the foot. The style soon became de rigueur for both men and women in fashion circles, with copies being sold in High Street chains. Like all his other work, they were based on familiar designs that conveyed traditional notions of masculinity, conjuring up images of sporting and military heroics. Such ideals have also pervaded his menswear.

His carefully styled shows send muscle-bound models down the catwalk clad in the obligatory biker boots and black leather that become a staple of the late 20th-century male wardrobe. This machismo continued in his signature knitwear range. Heavy-ribbed V necks were worn with lightweight jogging bottoms or matching woolen leggings. His work may not show the more slim-line feminine notes that have been gradually breaking through the previously limited spectrum of menswear designs, but they still have influence. Bikkembergs helped widen the scope of knitwear with witty takes on classic Aran jumpers and cardigans and by using decorative detailing to add interest to simple designs: in 1992 with bright blue zips on either side of burnt orange sweaters, while back in 1987 by adding them to the high-necked jumpers popular at the time.

Although he works best with winter-weight fabrics, Bikkembergs still adds twists to his summer collections. In 1988, he produced collared linen waistcoats that could be layered over long-sleeved shirts or worn alone to give interest to plain suits. It was in the late 1980s that his designs were most attuned to the zeitgeist. He provided the overblown masculine imagery so popular then; this was encapsulated in his distinctive marketing, which demonstrated the same eye for detail. The catalogues produced for each collection show in grainy black and white his tough masculine ideals with his commandeering of popular stereotypes like the biker.

Despite this concentration on menswear, his work has extended to a womenswear range. In 1993, his first collection was warmly received, bringing together both his love of strong silhouettes and a deconstructed minimalism to provide a twist to basic shapes. The natural counterpart to his masculine lines, it carried through his use of sturdy footwear and accessories that had always been popular with women as well.

As part of the rise in status of Belgian fashion since in the later years of the 20th century, Bikkembergs’ work appeals to the fashion cognoscenti. The overt masculinity of his designs is combined with a knowledge and exploitation of traditional styles to provide stark, modern imagery. If not as well known as contemporaries like Van Noten, he had still carved a niche for his work and heralded a fresh slant to his output with a divergence into womenswear.

In the late 1990s, Bikkembergs departed from his characteristic masculine style to enter the couture market with elegant tailored pantsuits. They still included his customary metallic effects, however, such as silver necktie knots and metal fox heads on fur boas. He also experimented with a lattice look, creating trellises of woven leather or knits, and he offered other knitwear with metallic accessories. His womenswear lines have included unadorned, tailored capes, long skirts, and reefer jackets.

In 1998 at a Milan fashion show, Bikkembergs returned to showy, strong masculine themes in such menswear pieces as form-hugging sweaters or coats with Velcro fastenings. In Paris, he stayed with virile themes and strong graphics. A typical outfit was a singlet with an asymmetrical scooped neckline and a torso crossed with compass twirls, with matching pants. He continued to produce knits with strong geometric patterns as well. Bikkembergs seemed to move more toward luxury at the end of the decade with couture items like a cashmere cat suit for men. His sportswear line has been compared to that of American designers, with items like hooded, zippered tops.

Bikkembergs and the other Group of Six designers participated in the Mode 2001 Landed-Geland, an important fashion festival in Antwerp that firmly established the city as cutting edge in the world of fashion. According to Rebecca Lowthorpe, writing in the Independent on Sunday, these designers offered looks that were “avant-garde, yet for the most part, eminently wearable,” with “uncompromisingly hip visions.”

Fits of jeans styles

ChicHERE — Sat, 03 May 2008 02:02:37 +0000

Fits of jeans are determined by current styles, sex, and by the manufacturer. Here are some of the fits produced for jeans:

Ankle jeans, Baggy jeans, Bell bottom/Flares, Bootcut, Boy cut or Boyfriend (for women), Carpenter jeans, Classic, Hip-huggers, Loose jeans, “Mom” jeans, Original jeans, Overall, Phat pants, Relaxed Fit, Saggy, Skinny jeans, Slinkies, Straight jeans, Wide leg, Jorts (Jean shorts).

Rises in jeans (the distance from the crotch to the waistband) range from high-waisted to superlow-rise. Jeans for men usually have a longer rise and zipper, whereas women have a shorter rise and zipper, although exceptions do exist.

Burberry

ChicHERE — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:56:25 +0000

Burberry Ltd. is a manufacturer and marketer of men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel, as well as accessories and fragrances. The Burberry name is virtually synonymous with the tan gabardine raincoat pioneered by the company more than 145 years ago. Writing for WWD (Women’s Wear Daily) in 1989, Andrew Collier described the garment as “a mainstay in outerwear worldwide, that symbolizes all that is Britain: sturdy and unassuming, equally at home in fine hotels and muddy lanes.”

In 2000, Burberry operated 58 company-owned stores, and its products were also found in department and specialty stores around the world. In 1999, the firm launched the Prorsum designer collection as part of its efforts to reinvent Burberry’s luxury brand status. An icon of classic clothing, Burberry has utilized licensing and brand extensions to appeal to a younger generation of fashion-conscious customers. The company is a subsidiary of the United Kingdom’s Great Universal Stores plc, the very closely held $9 billion credit reporting, mail-order, and retail apparel conglomerate.

Founder Thomas Burberry was born in 1835 and apprenticed in the drapery trade, establishing his own drapery business in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1856. A sportsman, Burberry was dissatisfied with the then-popular rubberized mackintosh raincoat, which was heavy, restricting, and stifling, and thus unsuitable for extended outings. Inspired by country folk’s loose “smocks,” Burberry designed a tightly woven fabric made from water-repellent linen or cotton yarn. Although sturdy and tear-resistant, this “Burberry-proofed” cloth was lightweight and allowed air to circulate, making it considerably more comfortable than the heavy mackintosh. The tailor trademarked his cloth “Gabardine,” a Shakespearean term that referred to shelter from inclement weather. Burberry developed five different weights of gabardine: “Airylight,” “Double-Weave,” “Karoo,” “Wait-a-bit,” and “Tropical.” He even patented “Burberry-proofed” linings made from silk and wool.

Burberry was a shrewd marketer, employing trademarking and advertising to great benefit. Illustrated advertisements touting the clothing “designed by sportsmen for sportsmen” drew customers to Burberry’s retail outlet, which was established in London’s Haymarket section in 1891. Having used a variety of labels to distinguish its garments from imitations, the company registered the “Equestrian Knight” trademark in 1909, an insignia used continuously through the mid-1990s. Also employed in the corporate logo, this image represents several Burberry ideals. The armor signifies the protection afforded by the outerwear, the “Chivalry of Knighthood” reflects the company’s own standards of integrity, and the Latin adverb “prorsum” (”forward”) referred to Burberry’s innovative fabrics and styles.

Although the gabardine name was used under exclusive trademark by Burberry until 1917, Britain’s King Edward, one of the first members of the royal family to don the gabardine coat, has been credited with popularizing the Burberry name by requesting the garment by name. Burberry garments have enjoyed a loyal following among royalty and celebrities around the world ever since. The company’s clientele has included Winston Churchill, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Humphrey Bogart, George Bernard Shaw, Al Jolson, Peter Falk, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Paul Newman. The company also boasts warrants (endorsements of quality) from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. Considered a “rite of passage” by some commoners, a Burberry coat was a prerequisite to a first job interview.

By the turn of the century, Burberry offered an extensive line of outerwear for both men and women. The company designed hats, jackets, pants, and gaiters especially for hunting, fishing, golf, tennis, skiing, archery, and mountaineering. The garments’ time- and weather-tested reputation for durability helped make them the gear of choice for adventurers of the late 19th and early 20th century. Balloonists and early aviators wore specially made Burberry garments that let neither wind nor rain penetrate. Captain Roald Amundsen, Captain R.F. Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton wore Burberry clothing and took shelter in Burberry tents on their expeditions to the South Pole in the 1910s.

Burberry established its first foreign outlet in Paris in 1910 and soon had retail establishments in the United States and South America. It exported its first shipment of raincoats to Japan in 1915. It was World War I, however, that brought widespread acclamation and fame to Burberry. First worn by high-ranking generals during the turn of the century Boer War in South Africa, the Burberry coat soon was adopted as standard issue for all British officers. With the addition of epaulets and other military trappings, the garments came to be known as “Trench Coats,” so named for their ubiquity and durability through trench warfare. One Royal Flying Corps veteran wrote a testimonial noting, “During the War, I crashed in the (English) Channel when wearing a Burberry trench coat and had to discard it. It was returned to me a week later, having been in the sea for five days. I have worn it ever since and it is still going strong.” The company estimated that 500,000 Burberrys were worn and, perhaps more important, brought home, by veterans.

Rainwear became so important to Burberry that the company soon whittled its lines down to little more than trench coats and tailored menswear for much of the 20th century. The notoriously conservative manufacturer stuck primarily to its well-known raincoats until the 1960s, when a fluke led Burberry to capitalize on the garments’ trademark tan, black, red, and white plaid lining. It all started with a window display at the company’s Paris store. The shop’s manager spiced up her arrangement of trench coats by turning up the hem of one coat to show off its checked lining, then repeated the check on an array of umbrellas. The clamor for the umbrellas was so immediate and compelling that Burberry’s made and quickly sold hundreds. This experiment eventually led to the introduction of the cashmere scarf, also a perennial best-seller. By the 1990s, Burberry offered six different umbrella models and scarves in eight color schemes. This turning point in the company’s merchandising scheme notwithstanding, rainwear remained Burberry’s single largest line into the late 1970s and early 1980s, and menswear continued to dominate.

Burberry’s export business increased dramatically during the 1980s, fueled primarily by Japanese and American craving for prestigious designer goods. By mid-decade, exports constituted two-thirds of the British company’s sales, with more than one-fourth of exports headed to Japan and another 15 percent sold in the United States. By 1996, Burberry had accumulated a record six Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement and ranked among Great Britain’s leading clothing exporters. Overseas sales continued to grow by double-digit percentages in the early 1990s.

Realizing that “A fine tradition is not in itself sufficient today,” Burberry sought to broaden its appeal to a younger, more fashion-conscious female clientele. Acknowledging that “The first thing people think of when they hear Burberry is a man’s trench coat,” U.S. Managing Director Barry Goldsmith asserted in a 1994 WWD article, “That’s the image we’re up against.” One result was the Thomas Burberry collection, first introduced in Great Britain in 1988 and extended to the United States two years later. The new merchandise was priced 15 percent to 30 percent less than Burberry’s designer lines, bringing a blouse down to $90 versus the normal $150 to $225, for example. Yet it was not just the price tags that set this “bridge line” apart from the brand’s more traditional garb. The collection emphasized more casual sportswear, as opposed to career wear. “Updated classics” included youthful plaid mini kilts, jumpers, and snug “jean fit” slacks. U.S. advertising executive David Lipman called the line and its model, Christy Turlington, “modernly relevant, yet classically beautiful.” At the upper end of the scale, Burberry launched a personal tailoring service for the ladies. The company’s women’s division grew 30 percent from 1994 to early 1996 and was expected not only to overtake menswear, but to constitute more than 70 percent of total annual sales by 1999.

Although it continued to manufacture 90 percent of its merchandise in British factories, Burberry also started licensing its name, plaid, and knight logo to other manufacturers. By the mid-1990s, the Burberry name added panache to handbags and belts, throw pillows and boxer shorts, cookies and crackers, and fragrances and liquor. Childrenswear, stuffed toys, watches, handbags, golf bags, and even a co-branded VISA credit card sported the Burberry check.

Burberry’s efforts at product and geographic diversification appeared to be paying off in the mid-1990s. Sales (including a small sister subsidiary, Scotch House) increased by more than one-third, from £200.9 million in fiscal 1994 (ended March 31) to £267.8 million in 1996. Net income before taxes grew twice as fast, from £41.1 million to £70 million, during the same period.

Despite diversification efforts, it became clear to company management that the Burberry brand did not have the spark it once claimed. In 1997, Rose Marie Bravo was elected CEO of Burberry. Her expertise in brand management fit in with company plans to strengthen the Burberry brand throughout the United States and Europe. Bravo began focusing on product and design development and hired creative director Roberto Menichetti to head up this initiative.

While the company focused on positioning itself among leaders in the fashion industry, it began facing problems caused by its over-dependence on Asian customers. Sales decreased by 7 percent in 1998 and profits tumbled in its retail and wholesale sectors due to the Asian economic crisis. As a major exporter, Burberry also was hurt by the strength of the pound. The company also began to slow down its shipments to the Asian grey market–a market in which its products were sold cheaply or re-imported back to Europe and sold at a discount–and shut down three production facilities in the United Kingdom. Whereas this decision hurt the firm’s profits in 1998, management felt it would, in the long run, protect the Burberry image.

In 1999, the company profits continued to falter. Sales decreased by 19 percent as the firm battled its Asian-related problems. Amidst its financial struggles, however, the company continued to focus on brand development and aggressive marketing. Under the leadership of Bravo, Burberry was once again re-emerging as an international luxury brand. The company launched its Prorsum collections in 1999, a new designer line that was part of Bravo’s strategy. According to a June 1999 Daily News Record article, the launch was, “The latest step in the Bravo-directed makeover of the brand. Over the last 18 months, she’s trimmed its distribution, cut the number of licensees, and ramped up marketing and advertising. The goal is to turn the Burberry name into a brand as hip as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or Prada.”

As Burberry entered the new millennium, its financial results improved dramatically. The Asian market recovered, its European and American markets grew, and its new brand strategy began to pay off. Trading profits increased 103 percent over the previous year and sales rose by 11 percent. The company also closed nonprofitable stores and opened new stores in Las Vegas, Nevada and in Tokyo. Burberry also opened a new three-floor flagship store in London that was 16,000 square feet in size and featured new product lines including lingerie and swimwear. A new licensing agreement was signed with Mitsui in Japan, securing a greater share of profits from that region, and the firm acquired its Spain-based licensee–Spain was the firm’s second largest market after Japan.

Burberry’s parent announced in late 2000 that it was planning an initial public offering (IPO) of the company’s stock. Great Universal Stores did not consider the company one of its core businesses, and in light of Burberry’s recent successes, it considered an IPO much more lucrative than selling the firm. In 2001, Burberry management continued its aggressive brand strategy and focus on its potential in the United States and in European markets such as France and Italy. Burberry’s repositioning as a leading luxury brand left its management confident that it would remain successful in the future.

ChicHERE.com

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