News, Milan Fashion Week
Trouble has been brewing at Milan’s 2008 Autumn/Winter Collection Fashion Week.
Milan Fashion Week has been branded a “circus without sense” by Dolce & Gabbana amid fears that it rapidly falling behind Paris and London as a vital destination on the haute couture circuit.
Long delays, chaotic organisation and unseemly catfights led to this year’s edition of Italy’s most prestigious fashion showcase, which finishes today, being roundly attacked.
Due to fears that important fashion editors would leave Milan before the end of Fashion Week, an exorbitant number of shows were crammed into the first few days of the fashion event. In all, there were 103 catwalk shows — supposed to run over the course of a week plus some — featuring 95 different designers and labels.
Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, said she had requested Armani, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana to shift their shows so that she could return to America before Paris Fashion Week begins next Tuesday. As a result, a logjam of catwalk shows at the beginning of the week caused havoc.
The resulting scheduling created near-chaos and a very awkward calendar of events and shows. Furthermore, the rescheduling request evoked criticism from designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, claiming that the presige of Milan Fashion Week was being put into jeopardy and that the event may be “neglected in [the] future.”
Giorgio Armani vocalized his concerns, claiming that Wintour’s request showed her preference for French (and American) designers to the detriment of Italian talent.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Showing posts with label Milan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Milan. Show all posts
10.14.2007
Runways Fade to White
By GUY TREBAY
Published: October 14, 2007
IN the days of blithe racial assumptions, flesh crayons were the color of white people. “Invisible” makeup and nude pantyhose were colored in the hues of Caucasian skin. The decision by manufacturers to ignore whole segments of humanity went unchallenged for decades before the civil rights movement came along and nonwhite consumers started demanding their place on the color wheel.
THE LINEUP
At recent spring shows, black models were scarce or nonexistent, including at the Chloé show in Paris, above.
Nowadays the cultural landscape is well populated with actors, musicians, media moguls and candidates for the American presidency drawn from the 30 percent of the American population that is not white. Yet, if there is one area where the lessons of chromatic and racial diversity have gone largely unheeded, it is fashion. This reality was never plainer than during the recent showings of the women’s spring 2008 collections in New York and Europe.
Although black women in the United States spend more than $20 billion on apparel each year, according to estimates by TargetMarketNews.com, it was hard to discern an awareness of this fact on the part of designers showing in New York, where black faces were more absent from runways than they have been in years.
Of the 101 shows and presentations posted on Style.com during the New York runway season, which ended a month ago, more than a third employed no black models, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Most of the others used just one or two. When the fashion caravan moved to London, Paris and Milan, the most influential shows — from Prada to Jil Sander to Balenciaga to Chloé and Chanel — made it appear as if someone had hung out a sign reading: No Blacks Need Apply.
“It’s the worst it’s ever been,” said Bethann Hardison, a former model who went on to start a successful model agency in the 1980s that promoted racial diversity.
AMONG the people she represented were Naomi Campbell and Tyson Beckford, the chiseled hunk who broke barriers in the 1990s by becoming the unexpected symbol of the country-club fantasia that is a Ralph Lauren Polo campaign.
“It’s heartbreaking for me now because the agents send the girls out there to castings and nobody wants to see them,” said Ms. Hardison, referring to black models. “And if they do, they’ll call afterward and say, ‘Well, you know, black girls do much better in Europe, or else black girls do much better in New York, or we already have our black girl.’”
Last month in New York, Ms. Hardison convened a panel of fashion experts at the Bryant Park Hotel to discuss “The Lack of the Black Image in Fashion Today,” an event she will reprise Monday at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. “Modeling is probably the one industry where you have the freedom to refer to people by their color and reject them in their work,” she said.
The exclusion is rarely subtle. An agent for the modeling firm Marilyn once told Time magazine of receiving requests from fashion clients that baldly specified “Caucasians only.”
The message is not always so blatant these days, but it is no less clear. Take for example the case of two young models, one white, one black, both captivating beauties at the start of their careers. Irina Kulikova, a feline 17-year-old Russian, appeared on no fewer than 24 runways in New York last month, a success she went on to repeat in Milan with 14 shows, and in Paris with 24 more. Honorine Uwera, a young Canadian of Rwandan heritage, was hired during the New York season for just five runway shows.
FRESH FACE
Honorine Uwera was hired for five New York shows, too few to justify a trip to Europe.
While Ms. Uwera’s showing was respectable, it was not enough to justify the cost to her agency of sending her to Europe, where most modeling careers are solidified.
“We represent a lot of ethnic girls,” said Ivan Bart, the senior vice president of IMG Models, which represents a roster of the commercially successful models of the moment, among them black superstars like Alek Wek, Ms. Campbell and Liya Kebede.
“We have new girls, too,” Mr. Bart added, young comers like Ms. Uwera, Quiana Grant and Mimi Roche. “We include them in our show package, give them the same promotion as any other girl, and get the same responses: ‘She’s lovely, but she’s not right for the show.’”
Although, in fact, Ms. Roche and Ms. Grant, both black, were seen on runways in the last five weeks, the reality was that only one black model worked at anything like the frequency of her white counterparts: Chanel Iman Robinson, 17, who is African-American and Korean. Particularly in Milan and Paris, Ms. Robinson’s was often the only nonwhite face amid a blizzard of Eastern European blondes.
It is not just a handful of genetically gifted young women who are hurt by this exclusion. Vast numbers of consumers draw their information about fashion and identity from runways, along with cues about what, at any given moment, the culture decrees are the new contours of beauty and style.
Published: October 14, 2007
IN the days of blithe racial assumptions, flesh crayons were the color of white people. “Invisible” makeup and nude pantyhose were colored in the hues of Caucasian skin. The decision by manufacturers to ignore whole segments of humanity went unchallenged for decades before the civil rights movement came along and nonwhite consumers started demanding their place on the color wheel.
THE LINEUPAt recent spring shows, black models were scarce or nonexistent, including at the Chloé show in Paris, above.
Although black women in the United States spend more than $20 billion on apparel each year, according to estimates by TargetMarketNews.com, it was hard to discern an awareness of this fact on the part of designers showing in New York, where black faces were more absent from runways than they have been in years.
Of the 101 shows and presentations posted on Style.com during the New York runway season, which ended a month ago, more than a third employed no black models, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Most of the others used just one or two. When the fashion caravan moved to London, Paris and Milan, the most influential shows — from Prada to Jil Sander to Balenciaga to Chloé and Chanel — made it appear as if someone had hung out a sign reading: No Blacks Need Apply.
“It’s the worst it’s ever been,” said Bethann Hardison, a former model who went on to start a successful model agency in the 1980s that promoted racial diversity.
AMONG the people she represented were Naomi Campbell and Tyson Beckford, the chiseled hunk who broke barriers in the 1990s by becoming the unexpected symbol of the country-club fantasia that is a Ralph Lauren Polo campaign.
“It’s heartbreaking for me now because the agents send the girls out there to castings and nobody wants to see them,” said Ms. Hardison, referring to black models. “And if they do, they’ll call afterward and say, ‘Well, you know, black girls do much better in Europe, or else black girls do much better in New York, or we already have our black girl.’”
Last month in New York, Ms. Hardison convened a panel of fashion experts at the Bryant Park Hotel to discuss “The Lack of the Black Image in Fashion Today,” an event she will reprise Monday at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. “Modeling is probably the one industry where you have the freedom to refer to people by their color and reject them in their work,” she said.
The exclusion is rarely subtle. An agent for the modeling firm Marilyn once told Time magazine of receiving requests from fashion clients that baldly specified “Caucasians only.”
The message is not always so blatant these days, but it is no less clear. Take for example the case of two young models, one white, one black, both captivating beauties at the start of their careers. Irina Kulikova, a feline 17-year-old Russian, appeared on no fewer than 24 runways in New York last month, a success she went on to repeat in Milan with 14 shows, and in Paris with 24 more. Honorine Uwera, a young Canadian of Rwandan heritage, was hired during the New York season for just five runway shows.
FRESH FACE Honorine Uwera was hired for five New York shows, too few to justify a trip to Europe.
While Ms. Uwera’s showing was respectable, it was not enough to justify the cost to her agency of sending her to Europe, where most modeling careers are solidified.
“We represent a lot of ethnic girls,” said Ivan Bart, the senior vice president of IMG Models, which represents a roster of the commercially successful models of the moment, among them black superstars like Alek Wek, Ms. Campbell and Liya Kebede.
“We have new girls, too,” Mr. Bart added, young comers like Ms. Uwera, Quiana Grant and Mimi Roche. “We include them in our show package, give them the same promotion as any other girl, and get the same responses: ‘She’s lovely, but she’s not right for the show.’”
Although, in fact, Ms. Roche and Ms. Grant, both black, were seen on runways in the last five weeks, the reality was that only one black model worked at anything like the frequency of her white counterparts: Chanel Iman Robinson, 17, who is African-American and Korean. Particularly in Milan and Paris, Ms. Robinson’s was often the only nonwhite face amid a blizzard of Eastern European blondes.
It is not just a handful of genetically gifted young women who are hurt by this exclusion. Vast numbers of consumers draw their information about fashion and identity from runways, along with cues about what, at any given moment, the culture decrees are the new contours of beauty and style.
10.05.2007
McCartney brings sport to London, flowers to Paris
By Kerstin Gehmlich Thu Oct 4, 1:30 PM ETPARIS (Reuters) - Models in flower-power dresses strutted out from behind a leafy hanging garden in Stella McCartney's fashion show on Thursday, as her father, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, applauded proudly from the front row.
Just two weeks after having presented sleek fitness outfits for sportswear maker Adidas in London, the British designer rolled out a selection of romantic, ruffled floor-length dresses for her own line in the French capital.
"It was very sexy, very feminine," Paul McCartney said before disappearing behind a wall of ferns, brakes and sedges at the end of the catwalk to congratulate his daughter backstage. "She's the best!" he said.
McCartney, a strict vegetarian who does not use fur in her collections, said the vertical wall reflected her love of English country gardens.
The 36-year-old, pregnant with her third child, said she would donate the wall to a non-profit organization promoting urban ecology afterwards.
"You invest so much money in these shows. It would be a shame to throw it all away afterwards," she said backstage.
McCartney's ready-to-wear collection picked up on the nature theme, with some models walking out in long, floating dresses covered with flowery prints, and others presenting transparent, silky shirt dresses in shades of ivory or light blue.
McCartney's ex-Beatle dad took pictures from the front row as models in silky all-in-ones strutted over the catwalk.
PARIS GIRLS, LONDON GIRLS
McCartney's romantic outfits for next spring and summer struck a contrast with the tailored golfing shorts and the flirty tennis skirts she presented for Adidas in London.
Singer Lily Allen said she was a big fan of both McCartney collections, adding both London and Paris had their own defining style. The difference?
"London girls just got it," Allen told Reuters before the show, laughing. "(Paris girls) maybe less so," she joked.
Fashion label Celine, owned by LVMH, has been closely associated with the French capital, with Paris landmarks often featuring in its campaigns or as backdrops to catwalk shows.
On Thursday, Croatian designer Ivana Omazic, who was appointed at Celine in 2005, brought out models in brightly shimmering pink dresses and corset-style tops. One girl walked out in a dress held up by a sparkling metal choker.
"I used some materials and colors typically used in French couture, but linked them to more sporty shapes. So I was playing around with some cliches on French couture," Omazic said.
London fashion week, held two weeks before the Paris shows, had a special buzz this year with McCartney, Matthew Williamson and Luella, three of Britain's best known designers, returning from New York and Paris to stage one-off shows.
But Didier Grumbach, the head of France's fashion federation, said he was not worried about Paris losing its edge.
"Here in Paris, people have never presented second lines," he told Reuters. "If you have a second line, you have to present it in London or Milan. Paris is for first lines."
10.03.2007
Milan Fashion Man: more than 50 paraded and more than 30 presentations in order to show the fashion dell´uomo that it will be.
Milan, 23/27 june 2007: more than 50 paraded and more than 30 presentations in order to show the fashion dell´uomo that it will be. The collections for the spring/summer 2008 go up in footbridge. From saturday to Wednesday, to the un´attenzione search that it knows to concentrate itself also on the week end, a well-known little favorable moment to from Milan paraded ones. The male fashion anticipates of a day of the week regarding the traditional domenicale start, decreasing, between saturday and Sunday, some aces of the Italian fashion and not only: Burberry, Versace, Van Noten, Emporio Armani, McQueen, Prada…
Just Dries Van Noten is the colpaccio put to sign for this season from the Room of the Fashion: after years of absolute fidelity to the public square slow combustion stove, the designer Belgian it has chosen to try, in order once, l´emozione of the stage meneghino. A single debut, but excellent. To it the “second times” of Haute and Roen are added, than evidently they have drawn it appeal to and giovamento dall´esordio of slid January, and an important return, that one of Salvatore Ferragamo.
This the calendar of the five male paraded days of from Milan: To open the long paraded series of is the show of Jil Sander, in calendar for 11:00 of saturday 23. To follow, in the course of the day, Custom National Homme, Gaetano Navarre, Missoni, Burberry Prorsum, Gianni Versace, J. Lindeberg, Denis Simachev, the Belgian pair Les Hommes and Dries Van Noten: l´attesissimo from Milan debut of the designer Belgian will happen to hours 21: oo, d´onore timetable for what it is announced l´evento of this edition of from Milan male fashion.
Sunday 24 they come down in track, nell´ordine, Bottega Veneta, Antonio Marras, Frankie Morello, Gianfranco Ferrè, Salvatore Ferragamo - of return on the male footbridges after some seasons - Vivienne Westwood, Carl Pignatelli Outside, Emporio Armani, Neil Barrett, Daks, Prada and Alexander McQueen.
The day of monday 25 sees to ollow itself in footbridge Dsquared2, Valentino, Dirk Bikkembergs, Alexander Dell´Acqua, Biagiotti Man, John Richmond, Moschino, Krizia Man, Gucci, Gazzarrini, Giuliano Fujiwara, Intuitive and Roberto Cavalli.
Tuesdays 26, penultimate day of paraded, are the Marl time, Iceberg, Trussardi, Cleave, Etro, D&G, Messori, Calvin Klein Collection, George Armani (only brand with double quantity show, to 17:00 and 18:00), Belstaff and Haute.
Last five paraded in progamma for the morning of Wednesday 27: Romeo Gigli, Enrico Coveri, Byblos, M+F Girbaud and, in order to conclude, Roen, the Japanese brand that has toed make one’s debut with succeeding to just Milan five months ago.
Many, however, also the presentations: between more the waits they signal Pringle of Scotland, Bally, Moncler, Nicole Farhi, Brioni, John Varvatos (that it has announced for the next season just the return on from Milan footbridges), Aquascutum and, as far as the footwear, Sergio Rossi and Cesar Paciotti.
Just Dries Van Noten is the colpaccio put to sign for this season from the Room of the Fashion: after years of absolute fidelity to the public square slow combustion stove, the designer Belgian it has chosen to try, in order once, l´emozione of the stage meneghino. A single debut, but excellent. To it the “second times” of Haute and Roen are added, than evidently they have drawn it appeal to and giovamento dall´esordio of slid January, and an important return, that one of Salvatore Ferragamo.
This the calendar of the five male paraded days of from Milan: To open the long paraded series of is the show of Jil Sander, in calendar for 11:00 of saturday 23. To follow, in the course of the day, Custom National Homme, Gaetano Navarre, Missoni, Burberry Prorsum, Gianni Versace, J. Lindeberg, Denis Simachev, the Belgian pair Les Hommes and Dries Van Noten: l´attesissimo from Milan debut of the designer Belgian will happen to hours 21: oo, d´onore timetable for what it is announced l´evento of this edition of from Milan male fashion.
Sunday 24 they come down in track, nell´ordine, Bottega Veneta, Antonio Marras, Frankie Morello, Gianfranco Ferrè, Salvatore Ferragamo - of return on the male footbridges after some seasons - Vivienne Westwood, Carl Pignatelli Outside, Emporio Armani, Neil Barrett, Daks, Prada and Alexander McQueen.
The day of monday 25 sees to ollow itself in footbridge Dsquared2, Valentino, Dirk Bikkembergs, Alexander Dell´Acqua, Biagiotti Man, John Richmond, Moschino, Krizia Man, Gucci, Gazzarrini, Giuliano Fujiwara, Intuitive and Roberto Cavalli.
Tuesdays 26, penultimate day of paraded, are the Marl time, Iceberg, Trussardi, Cleave, Etro, D&G, Messori, Calvin Klein Collection, George Armani (only brand with double quantity show, to 17:00 and 18:00), Belstaff and Haute.
Last five paraded in progamma for the morning of Wednesday 27: Romeo Gigli, Enrico Coveri, Byblos, M+F Girbaud and, in order to conclude, Roen, the Japanese brand that has toed make one’s debut with succeeding to just Milan five months ago.
Many, however, also the presentations: between more the waits they signal Pringle of Scotland, Bally, Moncler, Nicole Farhi, Brioni, John Varvatos (that it has announced for the next season just the return on from Milan footbridges), Aquascutum and, as far as the footwear, Sergio Rossi and Cesar Paciotti.
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