Many had thought it as good as dead, destined for a place in fashion oblivion next to plus fours. But this week a most unexpected thing has been happening on Paris men's catwalks -- the stuffy old suit has come back. In show after show suits and tailored jackets have shaken off the toxic baggage of corporate uniformity.

It wasn't supposed be like this. Long eclipsed on the men's catwalks by supposedly more practical street and sportswear, the suit was thought to be slowly going the way of the doublet and pantaloon.

"There is the narrative that tailoring is dead, that the tastes of the youth are completely defined by sportswear -- and you do see that on the street," Vogue critic Luke Leitch told AFP. It was assumed that men no longer wanted to "wear tailoring at work", he added, "because it is not always that comfortable, and that it's forever associated with their dads".

Yet with fashion swinging "between streetwear and sportswear for quite a few seasons now, this week in Paris and to some extent in Milan, we have seen tailoring galore". "Suddenly everyone is saying, 'I'm reconsidering tailoring. How can we bring it into the future?'" Leitch added.

'21st-century tailoring'

That includes the biggest streetwear guru of them all, Louis Vuitton's Virgil Abloh, fashion's hottest property at the moment. The first African American to lead a major French luxury brand, he sent rappers out in suits and ties in the star-studded show for his own Off-White label.

"I am always the streetwear guy," Abloh told reporters, lamenting being stereotyped. "But... in culture you are supposed to lead," he said. And that is what a brace of top designers from Kim Jones at Dior Homme to Dries Van Noten, Junya Watanabe and Sean Suen have been trying to do with the suit and jacket in Paris.

It is all about making 21st-century tailoring "more now", Jones told AFP. A master of giving luxury clothes a streetwise edge, the Briton said he wanted to make "Dior's classic black suit a bit cooler and a bit more fashion". Pop star-oriented Balmain also blinged up the dinner jacket and the classic two-piece. Givenchy too are dipping a toe into top-end male tailoring. Even the avant-garde American Rick Owens, the grandaddy of the oversized trend, which has seen men swaddled in vast duvet coats in recent seasons, returned to the fitted jacket fold.

His glam rock collection about the "glory of lust and vice" was sleek, sexy and highly masculine. We can expect more of the same from the superstar designer Hedi Slimane -- the "sultan of slim" -- when he presents the first-ever Celine men's collection Sunday.

Slimane has always been a true believer in tailoring, as has Kris Van Assche, who showed his first collection for luxury men's outfitters Berluti Friday after more than a decade at Dior.

Silver swagger

"Rather than accepting that all people want to wear is sweatshirts and jeans, I want to claim back the idea of tailoring, a new tailoring, one that talks to young people," he told AFP just before he took up his new job. The Belgian is no fan of the androgynous look that has gone hand in hand with more unisex and oversized clothes.

"There is nothing more lovely than a girl in a man's suit, it's an interesting contrast," he said. "But if men's clothes become feminine we lose the contrast," he added. Like Van Assche, Japanese veteran Watanabe used older models for his joyous "Silver Swagger" show earlier the same day.

He took his inspiration from how middle-aged hipsters can make a suit sing by mixing tightly-cut blazers and tweed jackets with turned-up jeans. Yet Vogue's Leitch wondered if the trend would change much in the real world. Designers have a "romantic attachment to tailoring", he said.

"It has its own language and it is a great pleasure to go back and play with the codes." In an age when a "kid from Albuquerque can get as many likes on Instagram as Dior", Leitch said the street now sets the tone for what most of us wear. Even so, he said Ermenegildo Zegna, "reputedly the world's biggest suit company, turning over billions every year" recently bought Thom Browne, the highly tailored and brilliantly far-out American brand which showed in Paris Saturday.

"Whatever about who is setting the zeitgeist, the market is there," Leitch said.(AFP)

Photo: Dries Van Noten AW19, Catwalkpictures.com

Balmain's creative director Olivier Rousteing is on a mission to democratize fashion. Although that's not an easy feat when you're the man behind an exclusive luxury brand, he's riding the digital wave to make it happen. Balmain will be launching an app that will allow consumers to go behind the scenes of the storied fashion house with augmented reality content and live streams of their runway show. The app is officially available on iTunes today.

“For too many years, the legendary ateliers, boutiques and runways of Paris have only been open to a very lucky select few,” Rousteing said in a statement to WWD. “We’d like to try to begin to change that, by inviting as many members of our Balmain Army as possible into our Balmain universe.”

Balmain's men's show, taking place this today, will be uploaded online Saturday as the first runway show available for viewing on the app. The brand's couture show, the first in 16 years since Oscar de la Renta designed the couture line, taking place on January 23, will also be available on the app.

“We always said that Balmain will define a new communication strategy based on entertainment, based on inclusivity, based on authenticity, but also supported by a strong technological element,” Balmain chief executive officer Massimo Piombini told WWD.

“The app is the final element of the strategy we are rolling out to launch the new monogram, the new logo, and to support overall the new communication strategy of Balmain,” he continued. “This is a way to connect with the next generation, with new customers, with a segment of customers that are close to the brand that are expecting from us these kinds of new features.”

Rousteing is also very up to date with influencer strategies as well, being a known friend of super influencer and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian West. His ability to partner with the right celebrity names and build upon digital strategy has done wonders for turning Balmain into a household name. Balmain also expanded their digital presence last year by opening a digital flagship with Yoox-Net-a-Porter.

Patagonia has underscored its commitment to be carbon neutral by 2025 when the company will have a fully sustainable production cycle.

The news was confirmed by Patagonia ceo Rose Marcario at the 2019 edition of the America's National Retail Federation's annual Big Show & Expo.

Marcario stated Patagonia's suppliers responded positively to the new standards implemented by the company, in some cases converting to the use of solar energy and meeting the rigorous standards of its material sourcing.

In 1994 Patagonia made the decision to take a stand against chemically intensive cotton and switch to organically grown cotton throughout its collections.

The company admits being part of the larger problem: "We make products using fossil fuels, built in factories that use water and other resources, create waste and emit carbon into the air. We ship our products around the world in boxes and plastic bags. We consume electricity—some generated using renewable resources and some not—at our corporate offices, distribution centers and stores. We drive cars and ride on airplanes. As individuals, we consume products of all shapes and sizes—probably more than we need."

Since 1985, Patagonia has pledged 1 percent of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. It has awarded over 70 million dollars to domestic and international grassroots environmental groups. In 2002, Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, created a nonprofit called 1 percent for the Planet to encourage other businesses to do the same. To date, 1 percent for the Planet member companies have contributed more than 100 million dollars to nonprofit environmental groups.

Paris fashion week ended on Sunday, simultaneously closing the autumn winter 2019 men's catwalk season of the Big Four, being New York, London, Milan and Paris.

It was a week of anticipation and debuts, with Hedi Slimane for Celine and Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy showing men's only collections for the first time. There were first season debuts at Berluti and Rochas under creative direction by Kris van Assche and Federico Curradi respectively. And then there were the second outings by Kim Jones for Dior and Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton.

It was also a week of surprises, some good, some less so, yet with plenty of fashion ammo to see customers - and retailers - through until the end of the year.

Celine

It was always going to be a definitive moment, or THE definitive moment of the season: Celine's first dedicated men's wear collection. Satisfyingly, and perhaps unexpectedly, it didn't disappoint. The naysayers from Slimane's SS19 collection, widely critiqued as not being novel enough following his tenure at Saint Laurent, witnessed a new dawn in Slimane's slickly cut tailoring. Tailoring which this season came alive in sumptuous fabrics, looks that were equally louche, mod and smart, but most importantly with a silhouette other than Skinny with a capital S.

Granted, Slimane is partial to a slim cut, but this season the focus lay elsewhere. Multiple pleat trousers, cut or cuffed at the ankle, had a new volume, as if Slimane had let all restrictions go and the rock and roll by night look made way for something more sophisticated and collegiate. Blazers breathed room, but never hulked out over shirts. Slimane would never exaggerate a men's shoulder to the point of absurd.

Outerwear was paramount, and seemingly no luxury spared when choosing fabrics. Overcoats, double and single breasted, checked, speckled, leathered or just in gloriously plain and luscious wools ruled most looks. The skinny ties captured Slimane's penchant for youth, as did the sunglasses, but it was the shoes - posh military boots, tassled loafers and monk shoes that kept it polished, without a sneaker in sight. With every designer hopping on the streetwear wagon, this was the collection that will spark a thousand high street copies next winter.

Rochas

It's official. The overcoat is the must-have item of AW19. Or at least a coat by Rochas, which came in variants of sportive parkas to slouchy gabardine and wool versions, long in length and an array of handsome textiles.

This was a formidable debut by Federico Curradi without needing to scream fashion. Curradi instead offered ample sophistication that trumpeted the quietude. Let's hope it will filter down to the retailers, who need something other than noisy streetwear to make men's wear great again.

Berluti

The house of Berluti began life as a luxury cobbler and has since become a bonafide ready-to-wear label for men. But despite an eight month stretch for incoming designer Kris van Assche to electrify the fashion world with something stunning, this debut simply fell short.

Firstly, it felt disjointed, from the double breasted big shouldered blazers worn with front zipped trousers, to the leather racing trousers, featuring contrast panels with logos and all sorts of unnecessary details. Plus they had elasticated ankles.

This was a styled collection, but one where the (new) codes of the house have yet to be cemented. A slick leather aviator jacket worn over a suit; an aubergine tailored jacket and trouser teamed with a striped pink sweater, complete with matching bag and tassles pinned to the lapel. And logo belts with capital B. Different strokes for different folks.

There were plenty of colour pops in red and pink, but nothing that set this collection on fire. The pointy but square toed shoes in ombre leather were beautifully executed, but, like the rest of van Assche's propositions, will not be to everybody's taste.

Photo credit: Berluti AW19, Celine AW19

As per media reports, Reliance Industries will soon launch an e-commerce platform. To begin with, it will empower shopkeepers in Gujarat. Reliance has as many as 50 brand new warehouses specifically for e-commerce operations, three million small merchants hooked to cloud-based services, a new set of small format fashion stores called Trend Express and an inventory-based online marketplace model.

The online marketplace will be an extension of Reliance’s brick and mortar outreach, will not have any sellers or vendors on the platform and follow an inventory-based model. Reliance will be the sole supplier of inventory to its merchants, mom and pop stores and retailers all over the country. Reliance has 7,500 stores, 350 million customers, 215 million Reliance Jio users, a well-oiled backend machinery of a telecom network, a digital money wallet and a taxation and inventory management solution.

The company has been working on its e-commerce plans for more than three years and has been adding a slew of private labels, acquiring controlling stakes in various fashion brands, and is in discussion with several fashion retail brands in the country to create a separate line of co-branded only for Reliance-made products, which it would be selling via a new chain of small format retail stores called Trend Express.

Fourteen top French lingerie labels staged a huge rock concert cum fashion show Sunday in the city which invented sexy underwear.

The musical extravaganza in Paris called "Lingerie Rocks" set out to show that in the era of #MeToo lingerie "was about making women feel good about themselves".

Creations by five rising young designers were also featured in the song-and-dance spectacular which aimed to showcase what is an almost completely female-dominated industry.

Karine Sfar, of the French lingerie federation, told AFP that women wanted comfort more than anything -- whether they wore lingerie for seduction or support.

Sales of push-up bras and G-strings have been on the slide as women go for a more natural feel and look, according to the industry, which has a turnover of nearly two billion euros ($2.2 billion) in France alone.

"All women regardless of their body shape have the right to feel beautiful and feel good about themselves. Lingerie helps you feel at ease," Sfar said. Sales of French lingerie are growing and Sfar said the industry prides itself on elegance, two centuries of know-how and designing for women of all shapes.

New fabrics, 3-D design and rigorous testing on "real women" -- with bra makers themselves road testing new models at home -- mean that most garments now "felt like a second skin", Sfar argued.

"The aim is that a woman might even forget what she is wearing," she added. "Lingerie Rocks", only the second joint show that the French industry has ever staged, came right in the middle of the first Paris fashion fortnight of the year.(AFP)

It rarely sees the light of day but the upscale bra is the most tested, sweated over and highly engineered piece of clothing of all.

AFP went behind the scenes at some of the most famous French lingerie houses to draw back the veil on the almost exclusively feminine world of bra making.

No other item of clothing provokes such fierce emotions.

Some swear by traditional bras, others prefer the structural minimalism of modern bralets and crop tops, while a growing feminist minority entirely reject what they see as a symbol of female oppression.

Designed these days using 3D modelling, bras made by most big French brands are sewn to the millimetre and samples are worn by testers before going on sale.

It takes up to two years from the first preparatory sketches for a new model to end up in the shops, according to their makers.

Prototypes are on average remade and altered around 40 times. The width of a pencil mark can often be the difference between two cup sizes, they say.

In the high-end family-owned Simone Perele lingerie house, new products are road tested by 80 of the bra makers themselves, said Stephanie Perele, the grand-daughter of the label's founder.

They wear them for three days, washing them every night to see how the materials hold up before making up to 10 adjustments in the lead up to the final test.

These multiple dry runs on real women explain why there is no such thing in Paris as a male "corsetier" working on commercial women's bras.

A women-only world

And it is also why even the most sensitive male fashion designers have their work cut out reimaging a piece of notoriously intricate apparel that has between 20 and 30 parts.

The managing director of Aubade, Martina Brown, said that for its latest collaboration it asked the Dutch haute couture house Viktor & Rolf to come up with 12 shades of its trademark fuchsia colour for a new range.

In the end Aubade went for their 13th suggestion, she told AFP.

"They had limitless ideas, some of which unfortunately weren't doable. We had to drop the frills and the bows on the bonnet -- but we did manage to get them into the embroidery. We also had to say no to their neoprene fabric, which was very cute but which scratches," German-born Brown added.

"Comfort is what it is all about now," said Alain de Rodellec, head of the French lingerie industry body, Promincor. It has organised a huge "Lingerie Rocks" show Sunday to mark the halfway point of Paris fashion fortnight. "The bra is the first thing many women put on in the morning, and it is against the skin all day long," he noted.

Seduction is not a priority for most women. "Push-up bras are losing ground in favour of a more natural hold," Rodellec said.

More and more innovative bras are been made without underwiring, which can be a challenge for the "corsetieres" particularly when dealing with more ample bosoms.

However, only one in four women in France take a D cup or bigger, while more than half fit into a C.

A genius girl and girdles

The world-famous French lingerie industry was launched in the 1820s. The corset soon became commonly worn by pretty much all women, regardless of their class.

But by the end of the 19th century, as more women took up sport and other leisure activities, their needs changed.

Francois Auguste Gamichon made the first big technological breakthrough with an elastic meshed bra made with a mix of materials including vulcanised rubber.

He and his nephew Paul-Maurice Kretz, who brought into his firm, Chantelle, in 1898, won gold medals for their patents at the world fairs in Paris, Milan and London.

But it was a woman, Herminie Cadolle, who in 1889 came up with the key idea of supporting the chest from above with shoulder straps.

Her company, Cadolle, is still a leading brand.

By the start of the 1930s, when dresses became thinner and more body-hugging, bras began to reflect women's natural proportions.

The golden age of French bra making followed World War II, with the dawn of Christian Dior's "New Look" in 1947.

New brands multiplied including Empreinte, Simone Perele, Lise Charmel and Aubade in 1958.

Competition was intense to invent models that neither compressed or nipped the breasts but gave women a dramatic profile.

The real revolution came when the US chemical giant DuPont invented Lycra the same year. This elastic fibre could be stretched to seven times its size before regaining its original form, and gave unmatched comfort.

With the feminist revolution of the late 1960s some women burned their bras in protest at the all-powerful patriarchy at the Miss America beauty pageant.

A new "no bra" movement took up the torch last year in the wake of the #MeToo revelations, although the vast majority of women would still rather not live without what for them is a functional fashion item.(AFP)

Photo: Lionel Bonaventure / AFP

UPDATEBruno Sialelli has been appointed to the role of Creative Director at Lanvin, confirming rumors which have been around since October. The relatively unknown designer, who used to serve as Menswear Designer Director at Loewe, will be Lanvin’s fourth Creative Director in four years. Prior roles include Pre-Collections Womenswear Designer at Balenciaga and Senior Womenswear Designer at Acne Studios and Paco Rabanne.

According to a company statement, Sialelli was chosen after an “extensive” application process which involved “an incredible array of talented fashion designers”. Commenting on Sialelli’s appointment, Jean-Philippe Hecquet, Lanvin’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Bruno as the new Creative Director of Lanvin. His singular and very personal vision, his audacity, his culture, his energy and ability to build a strong creative team definitely convinced us”.

"I am delighted and honoured to join Lanvin, a house founded by a visionary woman who among the first French couturiers dared to offer a global universe with a very wide field of expression,” explains Sialelli. “Bringing emotions through compelling stories and defining a modern attitude are going to be exciting challenges in continuing this legacy.”

Sialelli tasked with taking Lanvin to "pivotal new direction"

Lanvin’s new owner, Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, aims to take the French fashion house to “a pivotal new direction”. Sialelli’s experience in both menswear and womenswear, and his taking of Loewe towards a more gender-fluid direction, are what caught the company’s eye. “His proven ability to seamlessly transition between menswear and womenswear will stand Lanvin in great stead as luxury fashion increasingly blurs the boundaries between the sexes”, read the label’s statement.

Lanvin was founded in 1889 by legendary designer Jeanne Lanvin. Fosun Fashion Group, whose portfolio includes Wolford, Tom Tailor, Caruso and St John Knits, acquired the label in February 2018.

Photo: Lanvin

Paris men's fashion week finished late Sunday with superstar designer Hedi Slimane's first menswear collection for Celine, which has up to now only dressed women.

The "sultan of slim", who previously sent revenues soaring at Dior Homme and Saint Laurent, is credited with inventing the skinny look.

And in Sunday night's show in a mirrored pavilion Place de la Concorde at the foot of the Champs Elysees, Slimane stayed true to his tight ultra-tailored style.

Rake-like male models, often in black shades, wore a panoply of Slimane staples, 1960s-style English suits with pencil-thin ties, black Nehru tunics, leather jackets and trousers a bright yellow leopard pattern coat to add to the retro rock-star chic.

The skinny sixties theme had earlier been picked up by the veteran Britain tailor Paul Smith, who sent out a sassy and colourful collection. Slimane also lowered the suit hem, a move away from the pinched jackets now a la mode.

The reclusive French creator and close friend of pop star Lady Gaga is regarded as the second most powerful creator in fashion, after Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel.

"The Kaiser" once famously shed 41 kilos (90 pounds) to squeeze into Slimane's skinny jeans.

But his slash-and-burn takeover of Celine -- previously led by popular British feminist designer Phoebe Philo -- took a kicking from critics in his first women's show in October.

They railed at his retrograde "crotch-skimming cocktail dresses" for wafer-thin teenage vamps.

Hugely vocal Philo fans known as "Philophiles" also branded Slimane the "Trump of fashion" for taking down her collections from the label's website.

An Instagram account dedicated to her work at Celine soon clocked up nearly 200,000 followers and sales of her clothes rocketed on resale sites.

The RealReal, the world's biggest of these resale sites, said prices had also spiked as Philo's minimalist creations became collector's items "We are finding people to be extremely loyal to her," the US site said.

Paris haute couture week starts Monday. The highly select shows of handmade creations happen only in the French capital and are sustained by a small number of the world's richest women.(AFP)

Photos: Celine, AW19 via Catwalkpictures

Dirk-Jan Stoppelenburg voluntarily stepped down from his role as CEO for Scotch & Soda. After five years in the position, the former CEO indicated that the time has been "intensive" and that he wants to step back and be with his family in Sweden.

Stopplenburg helped to develop the Dutch fashion label into an international chain, growing its presence into over 70 countries. Under his leadership, the brand entered the Chinese market and debuted at New York Fashion Week, amongst other milestones.

As a result of the omnichannel strategy implemented under Stopplenburg, Scotch & Soda generates 70 percent of its turnover through self-owned channels. The brand continues to grow in its core markets, which include the Netherlands, Germany and the U.S.

Scotch & Soda isn't letting go of Stopplenburg entirely. He will transition into the role of Chairman of the board to help the brand continue its immense growth.

“I am very proud of the results we have delivered together in the past years. Scotch & Soda is a fashion brand that conquers the world step by step," the former CEO said in a statement. "We now reap the benefits of the implementation our omnichannel strategy."

Adidas is dedicating efforts to help 13 young companies grow. The sportswear brand launched an incubator called Station A last week, totaling to a 1-million-euro investment. The brand selected 13 emerging brands out of an applicant pool of 400 to mentor using the incubator program.

Adidas will help its 13 selected companies to build traction and build their brand concepts in a way that can successfully promote sales.

As well as helping the start-ups selected to build traction, the firm hopes to learn from them and implement elements of their concepts with an open-source mind-set in order to ultimately build their own sales.

The companies selected each fit into one of three areas that Adidas believe to be strategically important: an improved digital consumer experience, leveraging the supply chain through digital means, and health.

Adidas' 13 selected startups include Hero, a service that connects online shoppers with store associates, and French AI company Vekia, which allows clients to manage global supply chains and optimize inventory.

“My expectation is that we challenge each other,” Adidas senior vice president of digital Scott Zalaznik told WWD. “What I hope for every one of the 13 is that you can see that this was a pivotal moment for your company.”

Presented today at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Iris van Herpen's latest couture collection "Shift Souls" is an intricate blend of early astronomical discovery, recent biological advancement and aquatic art.

While the sources of influence seem to have very little in common, the Dutch fashion designer blended them into 18 remarkable haute couture looks characterized by dissected and voluminous layering rendered in a warm color palette.

"I looked at the evolution of the human shape, its idealization through time and the hybridization of the female forms within mythology," Van Herpen said in a statement. "The way imagination and the fluidity within identity change in Japanese mythology gave me the inspiration to explore the deeper meaning of identity and how immaterial and mutalble it can become within the current coalescence of our digital bodies”

More specifically, the Dutch designer collected her inspirations for her latest set of designs from early celestial cartography as well as its representations of mythological and astrological chimera.

Van Herpen also took note of modern advancements in DNA engineering, particularly the creation of human/animal hybrids called Cybrids, which are made through the fusion of multiple cell parts that result in a single cell that contains the nucleus from one species and the cytoplasm of another.

In the notion of Cybrids, Van Herpen interprets themythological dreams of humankind that existed since the dawn of civilization now shifting to the canvas of science. While looking at the use of mythology to interpret early scientific discovery, "Shift Souls" expresses the fact that a new scientific reality is upon us.

Van Herpen integrated a couple of silhouettes that emanate her various inspirations: a voluminous spheroid shape that unfolds vibrant patterns through translucent organza, called the Harmonia, and the Symbiotic volumes are made from gradient dyed silks that are multi- layered into sculptural shapes.

The Harmonia silhouettes are made using hand plissé, while the Symbiotic features use of fine 3D lasercut frame of PETG, mimicking the juxtaposition of early discovery and modern science from the designer's influences.

Some of the designs in "Shift Souls" use a "Galactic glitch" technique, in which cloud-printed silk is heat-bonded to mylar and lasercut into the finest lace of thousands of O.5mm ‘harmonica waves’, that optically distort the body.

While the thematic inspirations of the collection come from scientific discovery, the aesthetics turn towards New York-based aquatic expressionist artist Kim Keever. Through painting and photography, the former NASA engineer experiments with the idea of ephemerality and movement.

Van Herpen collaborated with Keever on vaporous colored clouds that are printed in translucent organza in her silhouette called Cosmica.

And for the final look shown in the haute couture collection, Van Herpen employed the help of another contemporary artist, Nick Verstand. The artist, known for his work in spatial audiovisual compositions, helped Van Herpen to subdivide the space using walls of materialized laser light, revealing a dreamscape of circulating clouds that encapsulated the visual themes of "Shift Souls."

Photos: Courtesy of Iris Van Herpen

Li & Fung has appointed Darren Palfrey as the company’s Chief Digital Officer (CDO). The company said in a statement that as CDO, Palfrey’s primary focus will be to realize Li & Fung’s vision of the supply chain of the future and build the LF Digital Platform – a fully-integrated digital platform that connects suppliers, customers and other partners with end-to-end visibility.

“As Chief Digital Officer, Darren plays a critical role in helping us get closer to our vision of creating the supply chain of the future,” said Spencer Fung, CEO of Li & Fung, adding, “2019 is the year of acceleration of our digital strategy and that’s where our new CDO Darren comes in.”

The company added that Palfrey’s appointment highlights the company’s focus on continuing to build on the strong progress it has already made in its Three-Year Plan (2017-2019) themes of speed, innovation and digitalization.

Palfrey, Li & Fung further said, is a successful entrepreneur with over two decades of industry experience. He has held a number of leadership roles including divisional director of supply chain at Allport, development director at Uniserve Group, and in the supply chain team at TTC Global. Most recently, Palfrey co-founded and was COO of Gravity Supply Chain, at which his team developed and brought to market, a state-of-the-art digital supply chain management platform.

Birla Cellulose has introduced an eco-enhanced variant of Liva fabric called Livaeco. With Livaeco, Birla Cellulose is looking at systematically engaging with the textile value chain and offering fashionable clothing that is ecofriendly. Liva is a brand from the Aditya Birla Group. Over four years, Liva has become the preferred ingredient brand for most consumers through its consistent high quality, natural origin and fluidity that it imparts to the garments, making them fashionable and highly desirable. The brand ambassador for Liva is Kangana Ranaut.

Liva itself is a highly sustainable fabric, Livaeco enhances this further through the use of raw materials from sustainable and certified forests, lowest water consumption and low green house gas emissions during the manufacturing process coupled with a unique traceability solution for ensuring source credibility.

Livaeco will be available exclusively in the spring/summer and autumn/winter collections of the brand W, which has specially curated a high fashion collection leveraging the attributes of Livaeco. The collections will be in 300 exclusive W Stores and in W collections at large format stores and multi brand outlets across India by March’19.

On a preliminary basis, Hugo Boss Ag said that group sales grew by 7 percent in the reporting currency and 6 percent in local currencies to 783 million euros (889 million dollars) with both the company’s own retail business and the wholesale business recording positive growth. On non-audited basis, Hugo Boss achieved sales of 2,796 million euros (3,174.5 million dollars) for the full year, which represents an increase of 2 percent in the reporting currency and 4 percent on a currency-adjusted basis driven by growth of the group’s own retail business. The group anticipates that EBITDA before special items in 2018 will roughly remain on prior year level at around 491 million euros.

“We look back on a successful 2018. We increased our pace of growth and achieved our full-year targets, supported by a very good fourth quarter,” said Mark Langer, Chief Executive Officer of Hugo Boss in a statement, adding, “The new year will entirely be focused on the execution of our business plan until 2022. We will personalize our offerings even more and accelerate important business processes.”

Review of fourth quarter performance of Hugo Boss

The company added that adjusted for currency effects, sales in the group's own retail business grew 4 percent both on a comp store basis and in total, despite the prior year's high comparison basis. On a comp store basis, Asia/Pacific was once again the fastest growing region for Hugo Boss. In particular, in China the positive trend continued with the company achieving high single-digit currency-adjusted comp store sales growth also in the fourth quarter. Currency-adjusted comp store sales in the Group's own retail business in Europe and in the Americas grew at a mid-single digit and low single digit rate, respectively.

The group's own online business grew by 37 percent currency-adjusted in the fourth quarter, while sales in the wholesale business increased by 15 percent in local currencies. The company further said that besides double-digit growth in the replenishment business, which allows Hugo Boss to react to short-term demand from wholesale partners, delivery shifts led to sales increases compared to the prior year. Also Great Britain and France, where total sales in the fourth quarter grew at double-digit rates each, benefited from this. Business in Germany remained stable in an overall ongoing challenging market environment. In the United States, Hugo Boss achieved a mid-single digit sales increase in the fourth quarter with comp store sales growth in the group’s own retail business and higher sales with wholesale partners contributing to this development.

For the whole year, the company’s own online business, recorded more than 100 million euros in sales. However, the company added that the positive effects resulting from the increase in sales and a continued strict cost management were offset by investments in product quality, negative currency effects and investments in the digital transformation of the business model.

Picture:Facebook/Boss

Woolrich has launched a capsule collection with Japanese retailer Beams+ to celebrate the retailer’s 20th anniversary.

The collection, entitled Woolrich x Beams, has been designed by Daiki Suzuki with the aim of blending “authentic Beams+ interpretation with Woolrich’s rich history, archive and great product-making expertise”.

Launching for autumn/winter 2019, the collection has been inspired by Woolrich's archival “big game hunting" apparel and features a coat, a jacket, trousers, a vest and a hat, all in a uniform dark-coloured traditional Woolrich hunting check.

Suzuki, who worked for Woolrich from 2006 to 2010, said in a statement: “My approach to the project was to bring back the Woolrich woolen mills brand. I thought it would be interesting if I came up with designs as if the Woolrich Woolen Mills brand was still existing today.

“I worked on some iconic items like the cape shoulder lumberjack coat, the hunting breeches, the railroad vest and the mackinaw coat. Not just staying with the authentic details but also transform it into a modern fit with a new interpretation for Beams+.”

Images: courtesy of Woolrich

Designer Anita Dongre has collaborated with a traditional Rajasthani painter, Lekhraj, to create a bridal line ‘Pichhwai’. The limited edition collection was created over the course of two years. The Rajasthani art of Pichhwai is very old and known for its intricate detailing. Dongre translated its fine brushstrokes into a 15 piece bridal-focused collection where the art form has been hand painted directly on to her garments.

On a visit to Rajasthan, the designer happened to meet Lekhraj. Intrigued and inspired by the intricacy of his work and flawless brush strokes, she felt she had to give this art another form of life. Lekhraj handpainted his art on to Dongre’s traditional wear designs to create a new outlook on an age old tradition. The pioneering collection features classic bridal lehengas with floral motifs and birds celebrating the cornucopia of nature. A black cocktail dress and gown also feature and the hand-painted menagerie stands out on their dark hues. The limited edition line is an innovative take on traditional wear and Dongre’s collaboration brings the traditional art world into fashion in a new way.

A showcase of exquisite Indian aesthetics and craftsmanship in a contemporary language is prevalent in all of Anita Dongre’s designs.

Fashion brand Superdry has named former Nike executive, Phil Dickinson, as its new creative director.

In a statement, Superdry said that Dickinson, who joins the retailer today, January 22, will be in charge of product design and “driving the wider creative direction of the brand”.

The industry veteran, has "deep experience of brand, product, design, retail and e-commerce,” added Superdry, developed over a 28-year career, which has included several senior roles with Nike, including turning around the Umbro brand.

Since 2013, Dickinson has also been running his own design agency, Some Ideas, with clients including Adidas, Rapha, Richard James Saville Row, and Woolmark.

Superdry CEO, Euan Sutherland, said in a statement: “Phil is one of the best creatives working in our industry and we are delighted that he is joining Superdry. Last summer we kick started an 18-month product diversification and innovation programme and Phil will bring extra pace, focus and energy to that work.”

Phil Dickinson joins Superdry as creative director

Commenting on his new role, Dickinson added: “Superdry is a great brand with a fantastic heritage. I am excited to be joining the business at a time when we are accelerating innovation and working to revitalise all our product.

“There is a wealth of opportunity ahead and I look forward to working as part of a team committed to creating great product for consumers around the world.”

The news comes after the brand’s chief product officer Brigitte Danielmeyer stepped down due to “personal reasons” earlier this month following a period of compassionate leave before Christmas.

As well as reports over the weekend in the Sunday Times that there is a boardroom revolt being lead by co-founder Julian Dunkerton, who has been campaigning for a shareholder meeting to vote on his reinstatement at a senior level after a string of profit warnings issued by the retailer during the past months.

Image: Superdry Facebook

Footwear brand Skechers is adding more than 175,000 square foot of office, design and showroom space to its corporate headquarters in California as part of its commitment to global growth.

The expansion of the Skechers corporate headquarters will span several adjacent buildings in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, California to more than double the company’s current office, bringing it to just over 330,000 square feet.

“We started Skechers in a Manhattan Beach condominium in 1992, and now we’re a global brand with annual sales of over 4 billion US dollars in 2017,” said Michael Greenberg, president of Skechers in a statement. “Through our years of incredible growth, we’ve called the South Bay home, so to be able to expand our headquarters where this company was born, is important to who we are. This community inspires all that we do, and we share it with visiting customers from around the globe who shop and eat locally and fall in love with our beaches.”

Skechers chief operating officer, David Weinberg, added: “It’s been a challenge to meet the needs of our growing business with our existing space. This investment in our corporate headquarters allows us to better plan for the future and increase efficiencies. It will allow us to consolidate our teams, give us room to grow, and enhance our work, design, meeting and showroom space.”

At the centrepiece will be a more than 100,000-square-foot design centre as well as neighbouring executive offices on Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach. Additionally, there will be an expansion to the existing building at 330 South Sepulveda Boulevard and a new office across the street in Manhattan Beach.

All buildings are being developed with sustainability in mind to achieve LEED Gold certification upon completion, including using eco-friendly features such as solar panels, daylight harvesting and motion-controlled lighting, high-performance glass, R30 insulation, and Forest Stewardship-certified wood. Additionally, landscaping will utilise drought-tolerant bio-filtration planters with low-water use plumbing and irrigation.

“As a fast moving, forward-thinking brand, it’s essential for Skechers to expand our office space to stay ahead of the curve,” said Robert Greenberg, Skechers chief executive officer. “We have always focused on meeting the needs of consumers around the world, growing our business significantly including more than doubling our annual sales in four years, but we also believe there are numerous opportunities to strategically expand our business. The new Skechers Corporate Headquarters will give us the much-needed space to achieve this. And with completion anticipated for 2022, this beautiful new headquarters will mark the celebration of our 30th anniversary.”

Image: courtesy of Skechers - a rendering depicting the new Skechers Design Centre in Hermosa Beach, California

IN PICTURES Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri took Christian Dior to the circus Monday with arguably her most sublimely balanced collection for the Paris haute couture label.

A troupe of all-female acrobats of all body shapes led out the show inside a retro big top -- complete with harlequin-pattern floor -- built in the gardens of the Rodin Museum in the centre of the French capital.

Chiuri is the first woman ever to lead the mythic French label, and her feminism is never far away.

All her nearly 70 models wore glittery skullcaps fastened under their chins -- think aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart meets commedia dell'arte character Pierrot.

But there was nothing remotely clownish about the muted elegance of the clothes, featuring lashings of embroidery and beadwork, to summon up the spirit of the circus-set 1917 ballet "Parade".

That legendary show pooled the talents of Pablo Picasso -- who did the sets and costumes -- the composer Erik Satie, writer Jean Cocteau and Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes.

Chiuri's designs mixed the romantic and the muscular, cutting her dreamy organza and tulle dresses with whip smart ringmaster and lion-tamer jackets, leather corsets and high-wire jumpsuits.

"Every look has its own personality, just like circus characters," she told AFP, "brave, funny, happy and sad."

"The circus is a world of its own, which passes from town to town, changing each one a little as it goes -- a bit like fashion week," the creator added.

Tattooed lady

The tattooed lady, that staple of the Victorian sideshow, also got a drum roll with a look inspired by Maud Wagner, America's first known female tattoo artist. The designer, who sports a few herself, floated surrealist neck tattoos in a previous show.

Critics predicted her silk bandage roll gowns and architectural tutus would also be a hit with haute couture's super-rich clientele, the only people who can afford the handmade creations which are shown only in Paris.

Chiuri said she took her powdery palette from the stage curtain Picasso painted for "Parade", with bolder colours almost having to fight their way through what she called the "fine dust that sprinkles stage clothes".

The designer has put her unabashed feminism at the core of the brand since she took the reins at Dior in 2016.

Previous shows have involved collaborations with women writers, musicians and choreographers.

This time she worked with the female-led British acrobat company Mimbre.

Chiuri said she was struck by how inclusive the circus world was, and how it offered "a possible equality... where beauty, origin, gender and age are no longer important. Only technique and daring matter."

It was this that inspired the collection's necklaces and bracelets of interlocking gold hands. An acrobat "puts their life in the hands of another, you have to really trust each other", she said.

Feminism was the big theme of the day on the Paris catwalks, with Italian actress and #MeToo campaigner Asia Argento taking a starring role in her Roman neighbour Antonio Grimaldi's spring/summer collection.

She wore an asymmetrically cut white sleeveless dress adorned with ostrich feathers designed to show off her tattoos as a cheeky take on the wedding dresses that traditionally close couture shows.

While Grimaldi praised her courage and "unconventional spirit", Argento told AFP that she "loved his sculptural couture".

Few designers anywhere, however, can match the sculptural verve of the Dutch Iris van Herpen, whose gravity-defying creations were the fruit of collaboration with New York artist and former NASA engineer Kim Keever.

Azzaro and Giambatista Valli rounded off the first day of the Paris haute couture shows that follow a week of menswear collections.

Both went with a leggy look, with tight bow mini dresses from Valli -- some with parachute sleeves -- that he developed out into full ball gowns.

He also topped a series of full-length sheath dresses with fezzes.

Azzaro too toyed with bows in a mostly two-tone black and white riff on the short skirt and the classic "le smoking" dinner jacket.(AFP)

Photos courtesy of Dior