With the men’s shows just around the corner, a Milan flyby wouldn’t be complete without knowing about a few things happening in the city. Antonioli, one of Milan’s best-kept secrets, has relocated to the bank side of the Naviglio. The ten-year-old store remade itself into a spectacularly mysterious environment decked out in wood floors, rubber walls, copper-colored mirrors, and lights that play with perspective. Originally one of Milan’s first cinemas, it’s now a fittingly dramatic setting for Claudio Antonioli’s selection of Rick Owens, Haute, Dsquared, Raf Simons, Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Alexander McQueen, Dries Van Noten, and Dolce & Gabbana.
-Troy Smith
- ALL Fashion Features /
A new wave of cultural arts magazines has appeared on the periphery of publishing, and it’s changing the underlying structure of the dialogue between fashion and art.
While every fashion house churns out new fragrances at an alarming rate, the perfume business is seeing the real experiments among an independent group of perfumers providing some level of personalized service-from recommending only two scents from a selection of several to customizing fragrances specifically for the individual — it’s no longer about buying into the hot images of an ad campaign. Hermès has hired a full time nose for the first time in its history. Frederic Malle, the increasingly sought purveyor of personalized scents, opened branches at Barneys New York and Corso Como in Milan in addition to their two Paris stores.
One of our most talked about profiles of 2002 was the breaking news on the sensational French rugby calendar. This year, the calendar has become fashion’s dirty little secret. Barely halfway through the year, it has been widely announced that the 100,000 limited copies have sold out, and shameless hunts for the nudie calendar (and the equally coveted making of DVD, and book with foreword by Madonna) continue at fever pitch. Fashionistas (who didn’t make early year trips to Europe) are burning up the phone and fax lines of Paris-based friends to hopefully score hard to locate copies.
We’ve seen the butterflies on Valentino and Marc Jacobs spring shoes, studs and chains at Christian Dior, and the mega buckles that started it all at Bruno Frisoni a few years back, but shoe accoutrements, although they muscled into the mainstream of fashion, haven’t seen the likes of SHY, a five year old brand out of Riviera del Brenta, in Fiesso d’Artico, Italy, or Blond, from New York.
The summer Olympics is stirring up buzz for Athens but for a crop of Greek fashion players the games have already begun. Stylists, designers and photographers are pole-vaulting their talents from different cities across Europe and are helping to shape a Greek movement in fashion.
If you thought the market for fashion accessories had reached its saturation point, think again. There might be only so many shoes and handbags a person can buy, but there are many extra facets that can be brought to your look with one little four-legged accessory — a dog. Expanding on an idea that Park Avenue dowagers, supermodels and, dare we say it, even Paris Hilton, have long known comes a global market increasingly waking up to the concept of beyond basics pet care and the amount that people will spend to pamper their pooch.
In the last couple of years multi-brand stores across London have shown a sharpening of the retail game and are setting the pace for department and specialty stores across the globe.
With every return to Berlin, JC Report is unsurprised to find a fertile climate of creativity and style which fuels our belief that this city has clearly established itself as a serious player in the international fashion, art, and music scenes. Berlin’s DESIGNMAI is in full bloom, representing a cross-section of exhibitions exploring vital innovations in design trends. With the recent expansion of the EU, the themes this year focus heavily on design from the perspective of the East and the West. The city’s prime location as a crossing point of these two cultures further validates its importance as an emerging platform where these voices collide. On the fashion front, new stores are sprouting up around town.
How did one brand’s handcrafted leather totes quickly become a style phenomenon in Tokyo while remaining a novel sight in Paris and New York (usually on Japanese tourists)?
To anyone keeping track, one of the most sustained buzzwords in the fashion industry is resuscitation. From the fabled overhauls of Gucci and Burberry to the recent trademark sale of one of America’s mid-century moderns, Norman Norell, conventional wisdom suggests how much easier it is to revive a label with a defined history, and a pre-existing customer base, than to create one from scratch.
A trip to Julia Muggenburg’s eccentric South Kensington townhouse was the backdrop for one of our most thrilling recent discoveries. This three-story architectural wonder — replete with modern art, African masks, Middle Eastern scrolls, and quartz “logs” decorating the fireplace — also doubles as Muggenburg’s showroom for Belmacz, her jewelry line. Strewn across antique furniture, wooden bowls, and thick art reference books are what can only be described as a menagerie of wearable modern treasures. With pieces of varying ethnic styles and influences enough to complete the jewelry department of a sizable retailer, we were surprised that we hadn’t heard of the prolific designer.
Robert Rydberg, Stockholm-based stylist for Swedish Elle and Fjords magazines.
JCR: Do you agree that there’s a new enthusiasm for style in Stockholm?
RR: Yes, definitely. A few years ago it was a bad thing to be Swedish and to wear Swedish. Six or seven years ago we used to look abroad, we didn’t have the energy like this is us, this is our country. They had it in Denmark for a long time. And I think because of the economic downfall, Swedes now have less money, we don’t travel as much, we don’t see as much of the world as we used to, and that’s why local Swedish brands now have a chance to have a greater impact in the local market.
JCR: I’m struck by how massive the youth culture is in Stockholm, everyone is so unbelievably young…
From the well-groomed Swedes one would expect to have more product filled meccas for indulgent beauty products, but it’s next door to Bruno, the galleria in Slussen, where you’ll find c/o Stockholm (Götgatan 30), the only one-stop (apart from the ground floor of NK) beauty destination in the city. This store works a light concept that includes a power line up of skincare and beauty brands from Nars and Stephane Marais to Shiseido and Yves Saint Laurent, with other lifestyle offerings including Linda Farrow sunglasses, Helmut Lang flip-flops, Myla sex kits, Pucci pillows, Diptyque candles, Vanessa Bruno handbags, and Orla Kiely accessories.
Stockholm’s other pulsing neighborhood is the City downtown. The main department store NK contains co-op stores for Swedish power brands including J. Lindeberg (a shockingly popular brand whose logo is seen on every other t-shirt and sweatshirt in the streets), Filippa K, WE, SWEA, and Tiger of Sweden, as well as international labels like Diesel and Miss Sixty. The Paul and Friends concession shop is noteworthy for a selection of Dries Van Noten, Y3, and Miu Miu but more careful selection is to be had at the nearby boutiques dotted across downtown. One of the only multi-brand stores in the City for high fashion brands like Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent and Prada is Nathalie Schuterman (Grev Turegatan 1).
If you’re a denim brand not yet selling in Stockholm, make note to self: research the market. We’ve reported on the denim eruption around the world but it rises to new heights in Stockholm. On fit men and women’s derrieres, you’re more than likely to spot a hot jeans line from Rogan, Blue Cult, Habitual or locals Acne Action Jeans and Nudie Jeans (the two most sighted brands in the stores, on the streets, and at Berns, Stockholm’s nighttime hotspot in the sprawling Berns Hotel lobby).
Our detective work took us first to the South of Folkungagatan in Sodermalm (SoFo is the name being touted for this working class neighborhood that contains an outbreak of trendy stores and restaurants, but the term hasn’t quite stuck yet). At the edge of the Sodermalm, our first stop is Nakkna (Tjärhovsgatan 3), a tiny storefront working a rigid black, gray, and white color story for women and men’s clothing.
The worlds of furniture and fashion continue to share an important bond. Magazines like Wallpaper and Surface began covering the trend in the mid-’90s, and the disciplines are arguably the two most significant ingredients in the oft-used term fashionable lifestyle (our focus here at JC Report). On cultural detective assignment, last weekend we traveled to Milan to attend Salone Internazionale del Mobile (the furniture tradeshow) to track just how linked the two worlds currently are, and to find out how fashion trends influence furniture design.
Marko Matysik is a glamorous figure on the international fashion scene. As
contributing beauty editor to Vogue Nippon, Matysik is often spotted
backstage or front row in fashion capitols, whipping up fine art
sketches and daubing them with glitter, feathers, et al for his beauty
spreads. But it’s Matysik’s line of uber luxe Marko accessories that
keeps him squarely in the highest echelon of the industry, and what has made
We’ve been on the DCSHOECOUSA (DC) trainer watch for sometime. Certain that the California based brand has the right features (retro look, unintentionally fashionable logo, bold design, and comfort factor) for fashion market crossover, we’re now seeing the label starting to appeal to more than skaters and action sports enthusiasts. While we can report on some increased sightings of the trainers in downtown New York, it’s our recent visits to London that have confirmed our early prediction for DC. There the label is frequently spotted on skaters, hip-hoppers, and fashionistas alike, and appears to be in a head-to-head competition with some popular brands on the market.
Before Bernhard Willhelm became the poster child of kitsch, W& LT (Wild and Lethal Trash) sated edgy consumer tastes for toy-influenced and anime-inspired quirky clothes. In the mid to late ’90s, W& LT pioneer Walter Van Beirendonck created a breakthrough fashion language where it wasn’t uncommon to see models in alien headgear and thrash comic printed daywear and complete bodysuits descending the runway.
