December 2007

12/31/07: Cutting Back On The Luxe?

December 31, 2007

11:07 a.m.Live by the sword, die by the sword: Souring economy causes luxury items to lose luster “While few analysts see the ultra-rich trimming their spending dramatically, there is concern that middle-class shoppers, who helped create the boom in high-end brands from Gucci to Burberry, might be cutting back as skyrocketing gas prices and the [...]

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12/24/07: Christmas Cheer

December 24, 2007

1:32 p.m.Somewhere, someone in a record company executive’s office decided it would be a bang-up idea to get Bing Crosby and David Bowie together for a Christmas special. Below is their somewhat stiff rendition of one of the holiday classics: Methinks they both could have used just a bit more spike in the eggnog, but [...]

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12/15/07: The New Brigitte Bardot?

December 15, 2007

11:45 a.m.Karl Lagerfeld has declared jazz singer turned drug-horse Amy Winehouse the new Brigitte Bardot: Lagerfeld’s New Muse “She is a beautiful, gifted artist. And I very much like her hairdo. I took it as an inspiration. Because, in fact, it was also Brigitte Bardot’s hairdo in the late ’50s and ’60s. And now Amy [...]

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12/14/07: Catriona MacKechnie

December 14, 2007

10:19 p.m.So I ran across the Catriona MacKechnie website the other day and thought, “Hey, I know someone who would really groove on this!” — so I emailed Louise a link. She promptly forwarded the link to several friends of hers, resulting in 3 or more sales in one day. Damn. I should get a [...]

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12/12/07: Hang Ten

December 12, 2007

4:43 p.m.British designer Matthew Williamson is celebrating his ten year anniversary in the fashion world with a retrospective of his work at the Design Museum in London. Only graduating from design school in 1997, he’s already nabbed a head-design position at top fashion house Pucci while also running his own namesake label, a feat that [...]

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12/11/07: LVMH in India

December 11, 2007

5:27 p.m.China’s red-hot economy is most often featured front and center in U.S. news reports, but the expansion of the Indian economy has not gone unnoticed by the giant fashion conglomerates. Earlier this year, LVMH purchased a 20% stake in Indian leather works company Hidesign, which is now expanding its focus on luxury leather handbags [...]

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12/11/07: Twenty Million Dollar Man

December 11, 2007

11:07 a.m.David Beckham has had his ups and downs since moving to the states, but initial football/soccer

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12/10/07: YSL Gets Into Spring

December 10, 2007

11:51 p.m.I just ran across these YSL wedge-heeled sandals for Spring 2008, and I think they pretty much encapsulate, in one effortless swoop, what I find so fascinating about the upcoming collections: “Close your mouth, ma’am — no one likes a drooling gawker.” The muted pastel of the new Verde hue, the cork wedge with [...]

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12/08/07: A Tiffany Swatch?

December 8, 2007

9:45 p.m.I know, I know — I keep beating that “The 80′s are Back!” drum, but really, they are! Swatch and Tiffany Ink Strategic Alliance “Under the agreements, Swatch Group will create a Swiss-based watch-making company, authorized to use Tiffany’s trademarks . . . Swatch has made clear it will produce a full line of [...]

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12/03/07: Viva la Renta!

December 3, 2007

11:19 a.m.There’s an article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal (Why Is This Man Still Fashionable?) about the continued, and even accelerating, success of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. With many of his contemporaries exiting the fashion stage and/or selling controlling interest in their eponymous lines to huge conglomerates such as LVMH or PPR, [...]

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