July 2010

The Artisan Series: Mandy Aftel (Part 2)

July 30, 2010

When writing about Mandy Aftel and her Aftelier brand, it’s easy to get carried away over her use of rare, expensive ingredients and her ambition to provide a luxury level product within the field of all-natural perfumery — a field that’s more commonly associated with stories of independent perfumers harvesting materials from their own backyards [...]

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The Artisan Series: Mandy Aftel (Part 1)

July 27, 2010

I’m presently sitting in the Fonte coffee shop in downtown Seattle, a self-described “micro-roaster” that was founded locally and made a name for itself through its use of high-quality beans (“the top one percent of coffee beans from around the world”) and small-batch roasting overseen by a master roaster (Steve Smith) with over twenty years [...]

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The Luxury and Fashion Biz: 07/23/10 (of Lacroix, price hikes, world trade and why Preppy still sells)

July 23, 2010

1,) New Lacroix Designer Wants to Do Couture *and* Target: “Christian Lacroix’s new designer, Sacha Walckhoff, who now helms the label without Lacroix, is trying to pull the company out of debt and modernize it a bit. Lacroix’s passion may have been couture, but that won’t sustain a label nowadays. Many high-end designers looking to [...]

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The Artisan Series: Who Are They?

July 19, 2010

While reading the book, “Luxury World” by Mark Tungate, one particular passage, where the author visits the shop of custom & made-to-measure shoemaker Pierre Corthay, stood out for me, and I believe it speaks directly to the recent efforts among marketing professionals to deliberately confuse the boundaries between 1.) mass-production global fashion brands employing low-wage [...]

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The Luxury and Fashion Biz: 07/17/10 (Of Burberry, Armani, ethics and cultural moments)

July 17, 2010

1.) It’s a Mad About Burberry World:“Burberry Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest luxury retailer, posted a 27% gain in first-quarter sales, beating analysts’ estimates, led by growth in Asia and deliveries to wholesale customers . . . Burberry, known for its plaid designs, plans to increase capital spending by 86 percent this year, opening 20 [...]

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Photos: Maison Martin Margiela Untitled

July 12, 2010

One fashion company I would love to have seen retain its independence from the corporate takeover is Maison Martin Margiela. Deliberately “anti-fashion” while being highly fashion forward at the same time, the Margiela brand was known for the unexpected: exposed seams, oversized garments, the use of graphic prints, asymmetric details, creative washes and extreme distressing [...]

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The Luxury & Fashion Biz: 07/09/10 (or, “Of Haute Couture, the China Problem and Getting Creative”)

July 9, 2010

1.) Time For the Haute-Couture Relevancy Debate . . . Again:“Unless you have been catching up on “Gossip Girl” reruns, national deficits and unemployment do not correlate with a couture dress that costs as much as a Harvard education. Couture is slipping off people’s radars faster than a U.F.O. And virtually all of the luxury [...]

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The Artisan Series (Vol. 1): What Does It Mean?

July 5, 2010

With the news that Prada is the latest to join the swelling ranks of formerly internet averse mass-luxury brands (such as Valentino, Oscar de la Renta, Roberto Cavalli, Alexander McQueen, Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney, Gucci and Hermes, just to name a few) that have conceded to the 21st century necessity of offering their goods online [...]

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Luxury Industry News: 07/02/10 (Let’s Hear It For the Girls)

July 2, 2010

Re: the subject of the recent Spring/Summer 2011 menswear shows that just walked down the runways in Milan and Paris (plus the reaction from some of the journalists and blogs to said shows), I think I finally figured out just why so much of high-fashion menswear comes across as odd, absurdly quirky or even just [...]

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