At the Milan showroom of an Italian fashion designer, Neiman Marcus Group merchant Rachel Goldberger last week watched as a model twirled in a blue silk cocktail dress with origami pleats.
"How much is she?" asked Ms. Goldberger, who like many retail executives uses the feminine pronoun to refer to clothes. The response, $4,300, shocked Ms. Goldberger, who did a double take.
The designer fashion business lately has been faced with a fearsome question: How does one sell expensive clothes to women these days? Paris's designers have settled on an obvious answer: Sell wearable clothes to people who can really afford them.
Thursday afternoon, if you happened to be passing through the Cour Carrée of the Louvre around 2:45, you saw quite a sight. The denizens of fashion, including the boss of the world’s largest luxury-goods company, were collected inside a clear plastic tent for the Louis Vuitton show designed by the American designer Marc Jacobs
The runway at Alexander McQueen's show in Paris yesterday snaked around a heap of trash. The garbage motif carried over to the styling: Models' heads were affixed with cans, wrapped in Saran Wrap, or served as balances for wheel rims and what looked like deranged manhole covers. And the nylon of one black dress was made to look like black garbage bags. So it only took Mugatu's Derelicte collection from Zoolander eight years to transcend the cinematic world of make-believe. Which brings us a great sense of inner peace.
This season, Stella McCartney triumphantly left any spillover influence her collaborations with Adidas have had on her work behind and went back to her roots. The British designer produced the loosely tailored, but structured and slightly androgynous suits and slip dresses that have long been one of her strongest points.
Manish Arora continues to attract a growing audience at his circus-like runway shows, but yesterday’s sublime presentation will serve to further secure his place at the table of fashion’s fiercest visionaries.
Some of the most forward-thinking designers in Paris are casting a wistful backward glance at the swashbuckling universe of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Their collections, costume extravaganzas , actually - are filled with telling references to the kind of mid-20th century sci-fi futurism that had its genesis in the depression years. Models tricked out like astral voyagers in metallic jumpsuits and moon boots are suited up heroically for uncertain times ahead
The unveiling of the first Corto Moltedo flagship store in Paris caused quite a stir last Wednesday as chic starlets, royal ambassadors and fashion professionals alike came to check out the newest addition to Paris' chic shopping arcades in the historic city centre.
"Ex Top Model living and working in Paris, Robert Jaso originally from Slovakia reconvert himself as a photographer and do it pretty well, always working with the best Hair/Make up and Stylist crew, Robert have a pretty impressive portfolio and worked with the biggest Magazine and Cosmetics brands."
