Advice From Dries Van Noten:
“Everybody dresses the way they want to dress. David Beckham–he’s trying very hard. I’m not so fond of his look, but I think a lot of people consider it extremely stylish. So who am I to say it’s unstylish? I’m not a dictator . . . Listen to what other people are saying about the way you dress, because in the end, fashion is a way of communicating. When you get your message wrong, it’s good that the people around you let you know.”
Samsonite Turns Itself Around from Near-Bankrupt Drab to Global Fab:
“Former Louis Vuitton CEO, Marcello Bottoli, is turning Samsonite from an American basket case into a European, multibrand powerhouse . . . ‘I predict 10% growth a year, for five years,’ says its 46-year-old Italian-born CEO Marcello Bottoli, who was until 2004 CEO of an even more iconic brand, Louis Vuitton . . . As well as building on a hugely successful expansion into footwear and a move into the women’s handbag market – ‘which once would have been considered outrageous,’ laughs Bottoli – the current transformation will involve a big push into eyewear, men’s and women’s fashion accessories, timepieces, mobile phones, stationery and various hush-hush projects.”
Below is a video clip preview of Samsonite’s 2008 Black Label Collection:
Women Got ‘Em, Fashion Designers Want to Hide ‘Em:
“(Vogue) Fashion director Lucinda Chambers makes it clear that a girl’s best assets are worse than last season: they are over, over, over, and must be disguised at all costs . . . Breasts, one may infer, represent the difference between the haute and the high street. Where flat chests are chic and classy, so heaving bosoms are judged trashy, de trop . . . A straining cleavage has become the benighted preserve of the glamour model and aspiring Big Brother starlet.”
Emerging Markets are the Lifeline of the Luxury Brands:
“Gildo Zegna said sales would slow this year partly because of US subprime credit fallout, and that his company is relying on emerging markets to take up the slack. ‘Sales will be up, but I don’t think they will be double-digit,’ he predicted. ‘There is a slowdown in the American economy, Japan is flat, but we still can count on a decent increase in Europe, a stronger increase still in China, South-East Asia and Eastern Europe.’ . . . According to Franck Petitgas, international investment banking chief at Morgan Stanley, despite the US downturn and slower sales growth in Western Europe, luxury companies posted results for the third quarter of 2007 that showed an average growth of 12% to 16%. Emerging markets, he says, played a substantial role.”
