Anna Berkeley is ladies casual wear buyer for Selfridges department store in London

JC: What’s propelling the sport/fashion trend forward?

AB: It is a highly commercial look that is now quite ingrained in the fashion psyche; it’s easy to wear, comfortable, and versatile.

JC: How much of the movement is attributable to the comfort factor?

AB: I think comfort is a huge factor — what woman [or man! - ed.] doesn’t want to be comfortable in what she’s wearing!

JC: What’s the role of fabrication in the movement?

AB: For the area that I buy for – more holistic/yoga/pilates/loungewear — there is an element of technology to the fabrics. For instance the DKI Yoga line works with a special fabric to wick away moisture. Otherwise it is less important for this department than for a proper sports area.

JC: What makes sportswear such a fluid category to design in?

From Y3‘s luxurious take on casual fashion to Hommebody making sweatshirt fabric appropriate for working out or for work, designer sport clothes is showing no signs of a slow down as a trend to rival the denim craze seen in the last few years. Here’s a listing of the some of the players and their activities in the sector.

This week New York is busy with the fall collections but the buzz among the style jetset is of an art/fashion event six months down the road. Terminal Five is the name of the unprecedented, hotly anticipated exhibition set to show at the abandoned TWA terminal (five) at JFK airport in September. Independently curated by Rachel K.

While the fashion flock recuperated from the Butt Magazine party (arguably one of the capital’s best fashion week shindigs in seasons), Japan-based Masaki Matsushima was making an exquisite early morning comeback to the Paris runways after a three year hiatus. Matsushima worked skillfully with the important men’s trend of the season, that of the finely tailored suit, and designed to-die-for-separates that stood above the pack in a very strong menswear season. Working in that sweet spot where sexy meets classic, Matsushima kept up a steady assault of some of the season’s most seductive menswear pieces. Jackets in every length with narrowly tailored shoulders and cool double-breasted cuts, pants with sharp cuffs, covered buttons and smooth stitch work defined this very composed collection. Fabrics ranged from shiny woven canvas to silk to stiff cottons and buttery leathers with zip away detailing.

It was inevitable that the huge migration from countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia to cities like New York, London and Paris would have effects on fashion trends. And in May, when some of these countries become fully integrated into the EU, the spirit of the Eastern bloc will demand even greater attention — for now we can report some early signs.

We’ve been spotting ladies donning crystal rings in locales from Mykonos to Miami and it appears to be a trend embraced by both young and old. Lalique and Baccarat, companies with a history in tabletop crystals, are carefully minding a ready-to wear jewelry market opening up to a whole new audience. Lalique should be credited with resuscitating the demand for their Cabochon rings. Working from the celebrity trickle-down formula, they cleverly stocked the rings in a variety of hues in the 2002 Oscar bags.

It was all in the walk for Nicolas Berny (formerly an assistant to Rodolphe Menudier and Bruno Frisoni), and Alain Demore, (who was Menudier’s head of commercial) when they decided to collaborate on a shoe line together.

The fashionable clientele at SoHo’s Kirna Zabete boutique will soon testify to striking a couturier’s goldmine in the form of Sebastian Pons, the Majorcan-born, long time Alexander McQueen collaborator and former design director at Miguel Adrover. Pons has managed a meticulous collection representing the cultural stimuli of ancient civilizations.

Paris hasn’t seen the surge of a new neighborhood for some time but that’s all changing with the recent commercial activities seen in the upper Marais. The neighborhood hasn’t quite exploded yet but if a spate of new bars, eateries, storefronts and hybrid establishments are first signs then the quartier is gearing up for a kick-start.

New from the body (and face) that sold a million Wonderbras and untold amounts of lingerie and swimwear for Victoria’s Secret and Calvin Klein, among others, comes a line of beachwear that’s right in the swim of the model-cum-mogul trend of the moment.

Maybe it’s those drab gray tones, boorish fabrics, and pedestrian cuts that have men running away from wearing suits. Today’s man understands that the suit has existed too long as a uniform for the business class. But he can’t escape the historical relevance of proper tailoring, the clean feel of a great fit, the power of strong lines, nor the evolution that’s taken place since doublet, breeches and hose were gradually replaced by coat, vest and trousers. Thankfully, there’s a new generation of men’s haberdashers who relate to that elusive need for business suits that maintain a decorum of personal identity.

Trash Couture, the Paris based label from industry veterans Ann Wiberg and Roberto Henrichsen — the former a member of a design royalty from Copenhagen with a string of stores there and in London, the latter previously creative director at Anna Molinari and Missoni menswear — is gearing up to be a top ten “it” brand of 2004.

In the hopes of attracting attention to the wealth of textiles coming out of Switzerland, the Swiss Textiles Award, now in its fourth year as a designer competition, is starting to become a high profile fashion event. With a whopping grand prize of 100,000 euros that come in the form of assistance in developing an international fashion career and 10,000 euros in fabric vouchers, the fashion industry is taking notice of this award that can single-handedly ensure the future of some of our most creative, albeit undercapitalized, design talents.

The fur trend is at full throttle and shows no signs of a slow down. In early December in Paris there was a round table discussion entitled “Furs for the Future,” at the International Herald Tribune‘s Fashion 2003: Luxury in a Cool Climate conference.

Collaboration is a long-standing fashion tradition. The partnership between designer and muse, or artist, or musician, has been a powerful creative force in the fashion industry and in recent years this trend is moving towards collaborations of more unlikely sorts. Nowhere is the fusion of structure and fashion more evident than in architecture and interior design.

Linda Farrow, the pioneer behind Yoko Ono’s trademark wraparounds
(a result of Farrow’s experimenting with screws on frames) and eyewear
wholesaler for major brands (including Pucci,
Balenciaga, and Sonia Rykiel
in the late ’70s and ’80s), is back with a vengeance. Since 1970, in collaboration with her optician husband, Farrow has designed
and produced hundreds of styles for her own collection and for others, including the Sterling Moss sunglasses. This spring when
her son, Simon Jablon, decided to pick up the trade for himself, he opened her warehouse in London’s Islington area to discover

With the Gucci shake up and the anticipated spring job shuffle, the air in Milan is tense and the buzzword coming out of the city is holiday, of the getaway kind. For gift giving then, tending the mind and body — whether you’re staying in or leaving the city — is in order. Collistar dermosplastic bath with sea algae is the style setter’s secret weapon for livening the body and freeing the mind from today’s frenetic lifestyle.

Where New York and London suggest an anything goes policy, standards are slightly higher in Paris when it comes to gift giving. Wrapping is given careful analysis and can often say more than the content, which should lean to the exquisite no matter what the size of the gift. A one-stop shopping destination for valuables and fine presentation is our favourite Paris store, L’eclaireur, where objects that evoke meaning are always on display. At the Palais Royal branch of the store, Dosa’s Christina Kim shows her own color block apartment of sheep skin rugs and throw pillows upstairs and sells her sterile white bohemian wool t-shirts on the first floor; the latter is the perfect gift for any knowledgeable fashion maven. Prices start at €165.

We’ve searched under every retail rock of the British capitol to come up with the ultimate London holiday wish list. Firstly, the holiday without chocolate is unthinkable and British chocolatier Rococo produces the best. Look out for delicious holiday flavors such as Christmas pudding and Frankincense & Myrrh. High on any style maven’s wish list is cult label J&M Davidson‘s luxurious handbags like the roomy Soho bag in supple calfskin or the Mercer bag, a refined and feminine take on the classic doctor’s bag. Both versions come in a range of colors and finishes. Prices start from £400.

It is a self-confident fashionista who will confess to the myriad of alternative shopping options New York City has on offer. With that in mind, JC Report has compiled a list of New York-focused holiday gifts that the less sophisticated among us may have overlooked. For the dreamer in your life, a gift certificate to Aedes de Venustas, the mecca of fragrances, may lead to many romantic tales. For the fashion-obsessed, the must-have accessory of the moment is Andrew + Andrew’s 24K gold Sensor pin, $95 at Seven New York.

Stylesetters are seeing that the love of trinkets stays entrenched as an important trend. Clusters of pendants on gold and leather necklaces, charmed bracelets, quirky key chains, pins and odd bits of charms dangling from clothes, from handbags, hats or wherever the creative palette deems cool continues to grow as a trend for men and women. Guys, often averse to decorating the neck are donning delicate chains with a memento (or two or three) discreetly lying in that little sink just above the neck bone. London based couturier, Japanese Vogue editor and super trendsetter Marko Matysik has taken to peppering his zippy neon tote and distressed Levi’s jeans with oodles of charms and ribboning to an elegant fairy-like effect.