DESIGNER: Patrick Veillet

Structure might be a big element in the fashion world, but you can’t get any more structural than the skeletal accessories by Patrick Veillet. Besides designing an array of head, neck and eye-wear as well as bone-like jewelry, Veillet is a vendor of perfume, cosmetics and other accessories. The pieces

DESIGNER: Marko Mitanovski

Today’s popular culture craves the sexy, the beautiful and the bizarre. I haven’t seen this expressed as clearly as fresh-faced Serbian designer Marko Mitanovski did during London Fashion Week. As one of the three “Ones to Watch,” Mitanovski showed an over-the-top collection filled with S&M, Renaissance elegance, a gothic twinge

Fashion 2.0 | LuxuryLab Innovation Forum

NEW YORK, United States — On Friday, BoF attended the LuxuryLab Innovation Forum, a half-day conference hosted by Scott Galloway, associate professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and founder of LuxuryLab, a think tank that attracted attention earlier this autumn with a report ranking luxury brands by their “Digital IQ.” Billed as TED for the [...]

BoF Daily Digest | Versace’s fashion disaster, Dollars and scents, Rent-the-Runway, Chatting with Henry Holland, Fast fashion losers

How Versace went from rags to riches—and back again (Newsweek) “Donatella Versace, tiny, sculpted and forever blonde, was standing backstage after her menswear show at the Teatro Versace in Milan in June… it all felt feeble, pathetic—a sad, soulless charade to promote something that no longer exists.” Luxury perfume houses are expanding (FT) “Forget the lipstick index as [...]

Absolut Art

Absolut is one of the few brands that boasts a long history of partnerships with prominent artists—dating back before such enterprises were fashionable. The company is now in its 30th year of creative collaborations—beginning with Andy Warhol's vision of a silk screened Absolut bottle in 1985—and is now bringing all its art under one roof at the Historical Museum of Wine and Spirits in Stockholm.

In this age of shared brand equity, where mixing art and commerce can appear soul-less, Absolut still maintains a "commitment to creativity," according to Anna Malmhake, the company's vice president of global marketing. And with three decades to show for itself, no one can challenge Absolut's unrivaled power. Sylvie Fleury, David Shrigley, Hung Tung-Lu and Dan Wolgers were a few of the artists who all traveled to Stockholm last week to help celebrate the exhibit's landmark opening. "The collaboration gives coverage to not necessarily well-known artists," explains Fleury, noting that her association came about because "[Absolut] wanted to be part of an iconic project like the Kelly bag and Nike shoes that I did." In addition to the great exposure, Malmhake also notes that "there's no interference"—in other words, once the brand decides to work with an artist, the finished product is solely up to the designated designer.

Among the works on display, it was particularly hard not to notice Wolgers' witty image of the bottle stuck on a rack (the original sculpture was also on hand) and Keith Haring's ghostly, hollowed out figures storming the iconic vessel in a cloud of canary yellow. Jean Michel Basquiat, Helmut Newton, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Kenny Scharf and Louise Bourgeois were just a few of the hundreds of other artists whose clever reinterpretations of the Absolut bottle over the years were all proudly featured.

Despite selling the company to Pernod Ricard last year, the Swedish government has shrewdly retained ownership of this vast art collection and has established an artistic prize to go with it. The winner of the first Absolut Art Award was Israeli-born, Berlin-based artist Keren Cytter, who received a €15,000 prize and will see her work at the new museum set to open at Djurgarden in Stockholm at the beginning of 2012. Meanwhile, the brand also announced film director Spike Jonze as their latest collaborator. Suffice to say, Absolut's artistic horizon now looks brighter than ever.

—Jason Campbell

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Daily News: A Global Round Up

Jean Paul Gaultier s/s '10, photo courtesy of Dazed Digital.

At Paris fashion week, "the trendy looks reveal how hard the industry is struggling to grab shoppers' attention: micro miniskirts, transparent blouses, pointy 'Mad Men' bras, and panties worn as shorts." (WSJ)

Burberry embraces social media to launch a campaign for its trench coat. (Reuters)

Isetan sales slip 66%. (WWD)

La Perla closes nine brands. (Drapers)

—Staff

Siki Im Challenges The Status Quo

Most can agree that fashion and French philosopher Michel Foucault are an unlikely pairing. But for Siki Im, a former Karl Lagerfeld and Helmut Lang designer, it's this unexpected overlap that sets his directional, high-end menswear apart from the rest of the scene in New York. Just as Foucault questioned homosexuality, urbanism and media with radical texts, this former architect challenges conventional notions of men's fashion with meticulous tailoring, architectural details and inventive silhouettes.

Though this may seem rather complex in process, the pieces in Im's eponymous debut s/s '10 collection are deceptively simple when on the body. As with post-structuralist philosophy, the clothes are more than meets the eye—one can appreciate the polished look of handcrafted, tailored jackets made from luxe Italian and French 130's wool, but the real drama lies inside. Placing equal importance on the jacket's interior, Im uses transparent silk organza as lining, allowing wearers to see loose threads that fuse the seams together. No buttons are outwardly visible, but that’s because they are all hidden and are made from horn.

There are also subtleties that the untrained eye wouldn't necessarily catch upon initial inspection. A long wool vest's armholes curve roughly half an inch deeper in the back to reveal more skin. A gorgeous black organza trenchcoat has kimono sleeves that create a slouchy drape over the shoulders. And inside some pieces there are straps that can be anchored onto their shoulders to convert into a cool looking cape.

While these clever techniques can be attributed to Im’s background in architecture—he was educated at Oxford and practiced at Architectonic—his play on sartorial proportions is a reaction to the taut silhouettes favored by male urbanites. Apart from the numerous skirts in the collection, he also featured voluminous trousers that taper at the hem, slouchy t-shirts with scoop necks and cotton sateen shirts with high armholes and cut to tunic length.

It takes a unique kind of designer to break down the philosophical and aesthetic traditions of menswear design, but Im has done just that—and will no doubt continue to do so for years to come.

—Robert Cordero

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Pattern Puzzle: how to fix this bag?

I'm in a pensive mood this morning, rehashing what I learned from last week's production pattern making classes. I think my biggest lesson is what I think is obvious, may not be. Another lesson is, I need to assign pre-attendance homework. I was surprised that no one had actually tried the zipper tutorials. I need a major attitude adjustment. I figured people would be happy to try something that worked so easily and neatly but as it turns out, people will avoid attempting something that's been so error ridden and stressful. The matter of the zipper tutorial was significant because our sample pattern had one and you can't design a pattern for something you can't sew. Or rather, you can't design the pattern well. Speaking of, one person asked me which I preferred, designers who sew or those who don't. I can go either way for various reasons but it remains true that designers who sew are often limited in their design expression. They won't design something they can't sew personally. Designers who don't sew don't care. They don't know how difficult or easy something is and pick out what they like. If you can only design what you know, you'll have to grow beyond this somehow. Either practice the tutorials or learn to design beyond the range of your experience. And that was another thing that surprised me. Students didn't know how to find things on the site. Expect a site orientation entry soon.

Archives 10/30 – 11/5 2005-2008

Did anybody miss me? I was here but away, busy with the production pattern classes all week. It's taken me awhile to get back to everyone who wrote or needed help with things so your patience is appreciated. Things should be back to normal next week. Sort of. I'm in the office today and discover the heater stopped working and I can't figure out what the problem is. ~sigh~ That will affect productivity next week. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon. Better late than never are this week's entries from the archives. Have a relaxing Sunday. October 30, through November 5, 2005 Poka Yoke pattern making Piece naming conventions Pattern puzzle: Junya Watanabe LA Textile wholesale fabric show Color coding implementation LA Textile wholesale fabric show pt.2 Poor man's BMI October 30, through November 5, 2006 Trick or Treat Like mother, like son Muslin, "muslins" & protos

Denim laundry contractor pt.2

In continuation of Tuesday's entry here's part two on laundering premium denim. Fashionably distressing jeans is labor intensive. Considering all the work I saw being put into them, I'm surprised they don't cost more. If you thought seam classes were overwhelming, the range of denim treatment options are bewildering and complex. Here is a survey of available options. A very simplistic description of the process -a veritable lather, rinse and repeat- is:

• Pre-treatment, handwork, sanding, and resin whiskering
• Washing
• Potassium permanganate spray applied and dried.
• Wash again
• Paint spatters, these are dried in the oven.
• Wash again
• Lastly, is stone washing.

The first part of the laundry that Robert showed me was the hand abrading section. Below you can see jeans blown up on mannequins off to the left and right. Below this gentleman is wearing down jeans with abrasion using a super duper secret material known to insiders as "sand paper".

Trip report: Denim processing contractor pt.1

Have you been waiting for the trip report to the denim processing facility in El Paso? I certainly have been. I couldn't write it because I'd leave either my camera (with the photos) at home, or the notebook, or vice versa and back and forth they'd go with neither in the same place at the same time. This is too long for one entry so this is part one. The company I visited was PPR (stands for Patricia, Peter and Robert but they're changing their name to Denim Works) owned by Robert White. Like many contractors, they don't have a website but I'll include the contact information at close. Robert has about a billion jizillion years in denim processing working for everyone from Express and Guess to Wrangler. He also spent a spate of years selling chemicals used in denim processing. Here's a picture of him (right) with a client (Mark Tierney, Alina Jeans). PPR is a smaller denim processor which is great for people looking for small lots. The smallest lot he'll do is fifty pieces. Lot must be quantified. Lot doesn't mean fifty pieces coming in the door, it means 50 pieces needing the identical processing. If you have ten needing sanding, another ten are resin, and the rest tumbled around in rock wash soup (stone washing), then this is three lots. Anything under 50 pieces is done at sample prices which runs about $20-$25 a pair depending on the treatment. The price for production quantities can average $6 a pair but again, the cost depends on lot size, chemicals, and hand work. Resin is definitely more expensive; the chemical cost (his direct cost) is $1 to $2 a pair.

Pop Quiz: Denim Quality

I was going to stick this in my jeans entry on denim processing but then decided it'd get buried. So, it stands alone. Tell me boys and girls, which of the two denim samples below is of higher quality? One is purportedly great Japanese denim circa $9 a yard and the other is -in the words of my host- "crap". For what it's worth, I thought the crap denim was the better one. Although I'm properly chastised and corrected, I still like my selection better. I guess I'm doomed to wear crap jeans. No surprise there. By the way, I also learned that "mom jeans" have bifurcated butts. Mono-butt jeans are the "cool" ones.

Sicilian Madonna for Dolce & Gabbana

Cacharel Inks Deal With Aeffe

Karen Duffy Says Goodbye Zac

Thakoon Panichgul Takes on New Creative Role

Isetan Mitsukoshi First-Half Net Slides 66%