Friday, March 19, 2004
Christian Dior: Teddy Boy Chaos
Paris - "Il se moque de nous," "il se fout de notre gueule," were just a few of the remarks uttered, barely under their breathe, as French fashion editors and stylists exited the Christian Dior Fall/Winter 2004/2005 show.
For those not bright enough to speak French, these two phrases translate as "who does he does he think we are" and "he is laughing in our face." Now, you can bet all the champagne in the LVMH cellars in Reims that no French critic is actually going to write that, but it's a testament to how upset a lot of folks are about the latest collection by John Galliano for Christian Dior.
Not that the show didn't have the usual quotient of spectacle and the odd great fashion look. It was more that the Galliano tricks sometimes just irritate far more than please.
To what did people so violently object? First of all the make-up, which can be beautiful in Dior shows, but today merely succeeded in rendering some of the world's great beauties weird and largely indistinguishable from each other.
The mood was also not helped by threatening chords and flashing neon at the opening, which ill prepared the audience for a collection influenced by Teddy Boy cool and Rock-a-Billy risibility.
As for the clothes themselves, few people could actually imagine a gal going anywhere other than a Dior catwalk in farcically oversized moirŽ wraps, 15-high pink mink collars, XXXX large snakeskin baseball jackets or absurdly bright blue lame suits.
John did send out some cool leopard print dresses, fabulously over the top Art Deco silver earrings and a slew of clever bags in big cat prints, which you know will warm Dior's bottom line.
But overall, this show felt like a far-too-self-confident piece of self-indulgence that had lost its audience well before Galliano took his bow in a deconstructed Teddy Boy houndstooth suit. He, by the way, looked damned good.
Just as the lights went down one New York editor made a wish to a nearby colleague. "We know he (John) can do beautiful clothes. I hope I see some today." But as the lights went up you could tell from their wrinkled brows, that they clearly felt their desire had not been granted.
Paris - "Il se moque de nous," "il se fout de notre gueule," were just a few of the remarks uttered, barely under their breathe, as French fashion editors and stylists exited the Christian Dior Fall/Winter 2004/2005 show.
For those not bright enough to speak French, these two phrases translate as "who does he does he think we are" and "he is laughing in our face." Now, you can bet all the champagne in the LVMH cellars in Reims that no French critic is actually going to write that, but it's a testament to how upset a lot of folks are about the latest collection by John Galliano for Christian Dior.
Not that the show didn't have the usual quotient of spectacle and the odd great fashion look. It was more that the Galliano tricks sometimes just irritate far more than please.
To what did people so violently object? First of all the make-up, which can be beautiful in Dior shows, but today merely succeeded in rendering some of the world's great beauties weird and largely indistinguishable from each other.
The mood was also not helped by threatening chords and flashing neon at the opening, which ill prepared the audience for a collection influenced by Teddy Boy cool and Rock-a-Billy risibility.
As for the clothes themselves, few people could actually imagine a gal going anywhere other than a Dior catwalk in farcically oversized moirŽ wraps, 15-high pink mink collars, XXXX large snakeskin baseball jackets or absurdly bright blue lame suits.
John did send out some cool leopard print dresses, fabulously over the top Art Deco silver earrings and a slew of clever bags in big cat prints, which you know will warm Dior's bottom line.
But overall, this show felt like a far-too-self-confident piece of self-indulgence that had lost its audience well before Galliano took his bow in a deconstructed Teddy Boy houndstooth suit. He, by the way, looked damned good.
Just as the lights went down one New York editor made a wish to a nearby colleague. "We know he (John) can do beautiful clothes. I hope I see some today." But as the lights went up you could tell from their wrinkled brows, that they clearly felt their desire had not been granted.
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Louis Vuitton Has a Braveheart Moment
Fashion Wire Daily - Paris - You had to cross over a snow bank to take your seats at the Louis Vuitton show this weekend, as the creative director of the house, Marc Jacobs, went north in mood and mode.
Guests passed by ice columns, and sat around giant frozen blocks and a faux snow catwalk at the show, staged ironically in a giant glasshouse in a West Paris public park.
From his opening looks, plaid coats and tartan blankets, Jacobs charted his fashion north of Hadrian's Wall, eventually arriving near the Arctic in a polecat top coat or a bleached weasel coat. Matter of fact there was enough plaid to cover the cast and crew for the wrap party of "Braveheart."
Overall, though, the collection mined the same silhouette as the Jacobs signature collection dug into in New York, fifties Republican style
Got to hand it to Jacobs, when it comes to handbags he knows how to produce sure winners. His Vuitton monogram bags in quilted tapestry, velvet or mink with trompe l'oeil buckles not only made for great runway looks; they will attract huge orders as well. And, consumers are definitely going to love the monogram mink scarves, delightful pumps with tuffs of fabric and dancing shoes for Highland lassies.
Not that it all was swell; a green tweed suit on Karen Elson was a real horror. But when Marc got it right things were nigh perfect, like the see-through embroidered cardigan and silver sequined dress worn by French beauty Elise Crombez.
Jacobs dedicated the collection to "the loving memory of our friend Stephen Sprouse," who died last week on lung cancer. Yet something of the iconoclasm of Sprouse lived on in this collection with its cool revamping of Victorian plaid and conservative chic.
Fashion Wire Daily - Paris - You had to cross over a snow bank to take your seats at the Louis Vuitton show this weekend, as the creative director of the house, Marc Jacobs, went north in mood and mode.
Guests passed by ice columns, and sat around giant frozen blocks and a faux snow catwalk at the show, staged ironically in a giant glasshouse in a West Paris public park.
From his opening looks, plaid coats and tartan blankets, Jacobs charted his fashion north of Hadrian's Wall, eventually arriving near the Arctic in a polecat top coat or a bleached weasel coat. Matter of fact there was enough plaid to cover the cast and crew for the wrap party of "Braveheart."
Overall, though, the collection mined the same silhouette as the Jacobs signature collection dug into in New York, fifties Republican style
Got to hand it to Jacobs, when it comes to handbags he knows how to produce sure winners. His Vuitton monogram bags in quilted tapestry, velvet or mink with trompe l'oeil buckles not only made for great runway looks; they will attract huge orders as well. And, consumers are definitely going to love the monogram mink scarves, delightful pumps with tuffs of fabric and dancing shoes for Highland lassies.
Not that it all was swell; a green tweed suit on Karen Elson was a real horror. But when Marc got it right things were nigh perfect, like the see-through embroidered cardigan and silver sequined dress worn by French beauty Elise Crombez.
Jacobs dedicated the collection to "the loving memory of our friend Stephen Sprouse," who died last week on lung cancer. Yet something of the iconoclasm of Sprouse lived on in this collection with its cool revamping of Victorian plaid and conservative chic.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Adventure travel climbing back from slump
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Adventure travel can involve a thrill ride into uncharted territory -- and that's just the business end of it.
Archeologist-turned-tour-operator Charlie DeLorme learned that the hard way. Riding high after back-to-back banner years, DeLorme loaded up his Utah-based business with new staff and an extra $150,000 in equipment inventory in 2001, only to have adventure travel fall off a cliff.
Now the market is slowly starting to bungee back up, boosted by families and by a growing niche called "adventure education" that mixes exotic travel with astronomy, geology, natural history and other -ologies.
The extent of the comeback won't be known until the summer travel season is fully booked, according to industry insiders attending a trade show in Chicago last week. But, as an adventure travel marketer might say -- safari, so good.
"The business of adventure has truly been an adventure over the last couple of years," said Sean Greene, founder and CEO of the Away Network of adventure travel Web sites. "It's been a tough time ... but inquiries are up and the trend toward bookings is encouraging as well."
DeLorme, 50, who leads river expeditions, is an expert on Mexico's ancient Olmec culture and guides tours to archaeological digs in Siberia. But he and his fellow adventure-travel business operators were rendered virtually helpless by the terrorism of September 11, 2001.
Combined with a recession and a stock market swoon, the attacks sent the industry into near-collapse. It was just starting to recover when war in Iraq and a far-reaching epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, struck last year.
"People took a big hit in this industry from 9/11, and we're still in a state of recovery," said DeLorme, president and general manager of Wild Rivers Expeditions in Bluff, Utah. His company was founded in 1947 and had never experienced a decline in yearly revenues until 2001, when business dropped by 30 percent.
Reshaped marketplace
On the upswing again, adventure travel businesses -- which comprise only a $1 billion to $2 billion segment of the half-trillion-dollar travel industry market -- now face a reshaped marketplace because of all the recent global turmoil.
"From selling the world, it became selling the Western Hemisphere," said George Deeb, CEO of iExplore Inc. in Chicago, which specializes in off-the-beaten-path travel.
They must also cope with more uncertainty because of wary travelers' tendencies since September 11 to book big-ticket trips only two or three months or less ahead of time.
The good news for operators: Adventure travelers have higher-than-average incomes and they are willing to spend them, thanks in no small part to baby boomers and the growing tend toward creature comforts.
"They are still interested in active travel but they tend to want a glass of wine and a shower at the end of the day," said David Brown, director of America Outdoors, a trade group for outfitters and guides based in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Those "maturing" consumers have spurred the rise of adventure education, which Brown said has emerged in the last five years. Such excursions range from star parties for amateur astronomers to Siberian digs and Mayan trips focusing on rock art in the caves of Baja California.
"We've been able to hang in there better than our friends in the tour and travel industry who cater to the drink-a-beer, bash-a-wave crowd," said DeLorme, whose firm has evolved from a whitewater raft outfitter to educational adventure travel to meet changing demand. "It attracts a little bit more of a well-informed, cerebral traveler" -- one who is less likely to be "freaked" about increased security and other post-2001 challenges, he said.
Kirk Hoessle, president of Girdwood, Alaska-based Alaska Wildland Adventures, said his 28-year-old firm's nature safaris and Alaska camping adventures are doing more business lately because they are taking in a younger clientele, not just an older one. "Family travel is on the increase, and more people are traveling with their children," he said.
An improved economy and the relative lack of recent world disasters to spook travelers has companies thinking consumers just might stick to their intentions, as expressed in surveys, to do more adventure travel in 2004. January and February, in fact, were the strongest months for the industry since 1999, according to Deeb.
"There's huge pent-up demand," he said. "People feel the time is finally right."
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Adventure travel can involve a thrill ride into uncharted territory -- and that's just the business end of it.
Archeologist-turned-tour-operator Charlie DeLorme learned that the hard way. Riding high after back-to-back banner years, DeLorme loaded up his Utah-based business with new staff and an extra $150,000 in equipment inventory in 2001, only to have adventure travel fall off a cliff.
Now the market is slowly starting to bungee back up, boosted by families and by a growing niche called "adventure education" that mixes exotic travel with astronomy, geology, natural history and other -ologies.
The extent of the comeback won't be known until the summer travel season is fully booked, according to industry insiders attending a trade show in Chicago last week. But, as an adventure travel marketer might say -- safari, so good.
"The business of adventure has truly been an adventure over the last couple of years," said Sean Greene, founder and CEO of the Away Network of adventure travel Web sites. "It's been a tough time ... but inquiries are up and the trend toward bookings is encouraging as well."
DeLorme, 50, who leads river expeditions, is an expert on Mexico's ancient Olmec culture and guides tours to archaeological digs in Siberia. But he and his fellow adventure-travel business operators were rendered virtually helpless by the terrorism of September 11, 2001.
Combined with a recession and a stock market swoon, the attacks sent the industry into near-collapse. It was just starting to recover when war in Iraq and a far-reaching epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, struck last year.
"People took a big hit in this industry from 9/11, and we're still in a state of recovery," said DeLorme, president and general manager of Wild Rivers Expeditions in Bluff, Utah. His company was founded in 1947 and had never experienced a decline in yearly revenues until 2001, when business dropped by 30 percent.
Reshaped marketplace
On the upswing again, adventure travel businesses -- which comprise only a $1 billion to $2 billion segment of the half-trillion-dollar travel industry market -- now face a reshaped marketplace because of all the recent global turmoil.
"From selling the world, it became selling the Western Hemisphere," said George Deeb, CEO of iExplore Inc. in Chicago, which specializes in off-the-beaten-path travel.
They must also cope with more uncertainty because of wary travelers' tendencies since September 11 to book big-ticket trips only two or three months or less ahead of time.
The good news for operators: Adventure travelers have higher-than-average incomes and they are willing to spend them, thanks in no small part to baby boomers and the growing tend toward creature comforts.
"They are still interested in active travel but they tend to want a glass of wine and a shower at the end of the day," said David Brown, director of America Outdoors, a trade group for outfitters and guides based in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Those "maturing" consumers have spurred the rise of adventure education, which Brown said has emerged in the last five years. Such excursions range from star parties for amateur astronomers to Siberian digs and Mayan trips focusing on rock art in the caves of Baja California.
"We've been able to hang in there better than our friends in the tour and travel industry who cater to the drink-a-beer, bash-a-wave crowd," said DeLorme, whose firm has evolved from a whitewater raft outfitter to educational adventure travel to meet changing demand. "It attracts a little bit more of a well-informed, cerebral traveler" -- one who is less likely to be "freaked" about increased security and other post-2001 challenges, he said.
Kirk Hoessle, president of Girdwood, Alaska-based Alaska Wildland Adventures, said his 28-year-old firm's nature safaris and Alaska camping adventures are doing more business lately because they are taking in a younger clientele, not just an older one. "Family travel is on the increase, and more people are traveling with their children," he said.
An improved economy and the relative lack of recent world disasters to spook travelers has companies thinking consumers just might stick to their intentions, as expressed in surveys, to do more adventure travel in 2004. January and February, in fact, were the strongest months for the industry since 1999, according to Deeb.
"There's huge pent-up demand," he said. "People feel the time is finally right."
Friday, February 27, 2004
Gucci: What a Wonderful, Wonderful Wake
Fashion Wire Daily February 26, 2004 - Milan - Got to scratch your head and wonder? How did they ever let this guy go, after a really stellar final collection from Tom Ford at Gucci Wednesday night in Milan that closed the curtain on the hottest streak in fashion.
The entire audience rose to its feet - give or take the odd uptight Italian journalists - tears flowing from their faces as Ford took his final bow, in a shower of pink rose petals.
Clearly moved, head held high, attired in a smart double breasted black suit, white shirt and white flower, Ford embraced his longtime partner Richard Buckley, before he was instantly mobbed in a pack of fans.
“I’m very sad, obviously. The great irony is that today I am at my best technically as a designer, so it’s doubly strange to be leaving,” Ford told FWD.
Even before the beautiful clothes had hit the runway word had spread that Ford would be leaving Milan tonight, even while his farewell party will be in full swing.
Like a Renaissance prince departing his conquered kingdom, the designer will depart after midnight on a private Gulfstream. His destination – Los Angeles and a new a career in the movie industry.
The collection itself was a no-expenses-spared, updated reprise of many of Ford’s greatest hits for Gucci, so much so it was extremely difficult to imagine anyone actually fitting into Tom’s Texan boots.
The opening look, a superb black satin suit, nipped at the waist with multiple darts at the shoulder and a snug pencil skirt, was the epitome of razor sharp cool.
Ford wrapped his beauties in ice blue fox stoles over peak shouldered jackets, worn with crocodile clutches and open-backed mules. His color palette shouted attention seeking sex appeal – ruby, ice and the palest of blues.
Intermingled were his classic cool guy looks, midnight blue velvet smoking jackets with piping, white suits with Norfolk jackets, elongated snakeskin slip-ons. Being the last Gucci show, Ford made sure to remind the audience that his strengths also included the world of men’s.
His finale was pretty much perfect series of stunning columns in white, beige and chartreuse, with snazzy cut-outs, impressive fringes and just the right amount of beading.
Above all, the show captured what Ford stood for aesthetically, a sense that fashion opened a unique world where individuals could really achieve, enjoy and indulge in hedonistic moments without a sense of shame. Moreover, it firmly stated something far too often forgotten what a great tailor Ford is, and how well he understands a woman’s body. His ability to cut clothes around the always key area of waist and hips and give women a firm and sexy shape set him apart from practically all his contemporaries.
On the soundtrack, Ford opened with a rap tune that sampled “Papa was a Rolling Stone.” Tom will lay down his hat in Southern California from now, and if he has half the success in Tinsel Town that he achieved in fashion he won’t just be attending Vanity Fair’s Oscar party, he will be up on the stage getting an award.
Ford gave the honor of taking the final passage in the show to Georgina Grenville, his fetish model who starred in his legendary early ad campaign with Eames chairs shot by Mario Testino and styled by Carine Roitfeld that influenced so much nineties fashion advertising.
“This show was about summing up what Gucci stood for, which was slick sexuality and sensuality,” Ford explained.
Testino and Roitfeld sat front row with Tim Jefferies, Alex von Furstenberg and Dawn Mello, who first hired him at Gucci, along with every editor of note on the planet. Notably, no senior PPR executive was in evidence. It will be interesting to see what they conjure up for the final campaign, if there is one.
“Beautiful! Tom Ford for Gucci,” said Domenico De Sole, the CEO of Gucci who like Ford will leave in late March the company they turned into the second biggest luxury conglomerate on the planet in one decade.
His remark summed up the conundrum facing Gucci’s owner PPR, how on earth are they going to replace a designer who so totally represents the image and sense of the brand.
“You know what think. It’s basically really stupid. Yeah, that’s the right way of looking at it, stupidity,” said Ford’s best gal pal, Elizabeth Saltzmann, Vanity Fair’s fashion editor who takes the Gulfstream tonight with Tom.
Could not have put it better ourselves. Quite how a bunch of corporate bean counters could let the hottest designer in Milan walk is extremely difficult to understand.
His successor does not just have a steep hill to climb – make that the Matterhorn. Nobody can envy his or her task. Any of the scores of names bandied around as possible replacement will face a huge job trying to make Gucci their own – As Tom Ford for Gucci did.
The Man just left down.
Fashion Wire Daily February 26, 2004 - Milan - Got to scratch your head and wonder? How did they ever let this guy go, after a really stellar final collection from Tom Ford at Gucci Wednesday night in Milan that closed the curtain on the hottest streak in fashion.
The entire audience rose to its feet - give or take the odd uptight Italian journalists - tears flowing from their faces as Ford took his final bow, in a shower of pink rose petals.
Clearly moved, head held high, attired in a smart double breasted black suit, white shirt and white flower, Ford embraced his longtime partner Richard Buckley, before he was instantly mobbed in a pack of fans.
“I’m very sad, obviously. The great irony is that today I am at my best technically as a designer, so it’s doubly strange to be leaving,” Ford told FWD.
Even before the beautiful clothes had hit the runway word had spread that Ford would be leaving Milan tonight, even while his farewell party will be in full swing.
Like a Renaissance prince departing his conquered kingdom, the designer will depart after midnight on a private Gulfstream. His destination – Los Angeles and a new a career in the movie industry.
The collection itself was a no-expenses-spared, updated reprise of many of Ford’s greatest hits for Gucci, so much so it was extremely difficult to imagine anyone actually fitting into Tom’s Texan boots.
The opening look, a superb black satin suit, nipped at the waist with multiple darts at the shoulder and a snug pencil skirt, was the epitome of razor sharp cool.
Ford wrapped his beauties in ice blue fox stoles over peak shouldered jackets, worn with crocodile clutches and open-backed mules. His color palette shouted attention seeking sex appeal – ruby, ice and the palest of blues.
Intermingled were his classic cool guy looks, midnight blue velvet smoking jackets with piping, white suits with Norfolk jackets, elongated snakeskin slip-ons. Being the last Gucci show, Ford made sure to remind the audience that his strengths also included the world of men’s.
His finale was pretty much perfect series of stunning columns in white, beige and chartreuse, with snazzy cut-outs, impressive fringes and just the right amount of beading.
Above all, the show captured what Ford stood for aesthetically, a sense that fashion opened a unique world where individuals could really achieve, enjoy and indulge in hedonistic moments without a sense of shame. Moreover, it firmly stated something far too often forgotten what a great tailor Ford is, and how well he understands a woman’s body. His ability to cut clothes around the always key area of waist and hips and give women a firm and sexy shape set him apart from practically all his contemporaries.
On the soundtrack, Ford opened with a rap tune that sampled “Papa was a Rolling Stone.” Tom will lay down his hat in Southern California from now, and if he has half the success in Tinsel Town that he achieved in fashion he won’t just be attending Vanity Fair’s Oscar party, he will be up on the stage getting an award.
Ford gave the honor of taking the final passage in the show to Georgina Grenville, his fetish model who starred in his legendary early ad campaign with Eames chairs shot by Mario Testino and styled by Carine Roitfeld that influenced so much nineties fashion advertising.
“This show was about summing up what Gucci stood for, which was slick sexuality and sensuality,” Ford explained.
Testino and Roitfeld sat front row with Tim Jefferies, Alex von Furstenberg and Dawn Mello, who first hired him at Gucci, along with every editor of note on the planet. Notably, no senior PPR executive was in evidence. It will be interesting to see what they conjure up for the final campaign, if there is one.
“Beautiful! Tom Ford for Gucci,” said Domenico De Sole, the CEO of Gucci who like Ford will leave in late March the company they turned into the second biggest luxury conglomerate on the planet in one decade.
His remark summed up the conundrum facing Gucci’s owner PPR, how on earth are they going to replace a designer who so totally represents the image and sense of the brand.
“You know what think. It’s basically really stupid. Yeah, that’s the right way of looking at it, stupidity,” said Ford’s best gal pal, Elizabeth Saltzmann, Vanity Fair’s fashion editor who takes the Gulfstream tonight with Tom.
Could not have put it better ourselves. Quite how a bunch of corporate bean counters could let the hottest designer in Milan walk is extremely difficult to understand.
His successor does not just have a steep hill to climb – make that the Matterhorn. Nobody can envy his or her task. Any of the scores of names bandied around as possible replacement will face a huge job trying to make Gucci their own – As Tom Ford for Gucci did.
The Man just left down.
