It's been a busy 2010 for Milan-based, French sport brand Moncler. On top of news they will be unveiling a new line, called Grenoble, during New York Fashion Week and after launching Moncler V (a vintage-inspired collection by Japanese streetwear designer Hiroki Nakamura) during the men's shows in MIlan last month, today Moncler announced a new collaboration with Comme des Garçons.
Named Moncler 365, the Comme des Garçons partnership will produce special products and a retail concept in Tokyo's Aoyama neighborhood. The store will be open on March 25.
Kate Moss has been making the rounds promoting her collection of handbags with Longchamp (last week she hit Pais during couture), and Selfridges will be her next stop later this month. The Mirror is reporting that Moss has ruffled a few feathers over her demands for a lounge-style VIP and smoking area for her and her friends at the London event. We say, give the girl a break. . . and a smoke. Images from the complete look book can be found in the gallery below. We're all over the sturdy Gloucester duffle (above right in zebra print)—perfect for travel.
>> In 2004, Wall Street Journal's Deborah Ball reports in her just-published book House of Versace, Donatella Versace told her daughter Allegra Versace Beck she has until she is 24 to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. If Allegra didn't succeed by then, she had to come work for Versace. Allegra, who owns a majority stake in the company, turns 24 in June of this year.
The declaration could have changed by now — although in media interviews, Donatella still expresses hope that Allegra will join the company at some point. Allegra lives in New York and attends Versace board meetings; she was involved in replacing Versace's chief executive last May with current chief executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris. And at the beginning of 2009, she began spending more time in Milan and now has a desk in Donatella's atelier.
>> First Look: Catherine Holstein for Evisu —After Paper, Denim & Cloth and Earnest Sewn co-founder Scott Morrison was brought in as creative director to revamp Japanese denim brand Evisu, he in turn asked Catherine Holstein to oversee a new range of Evisu women's apparel for Fall 2010. Alongside the requisite denim (designed by Ben Smith, formerly of Earnest Sewn, Helmut Lang and Rag & Bone), Holstein created slouchy sweatshirts, oversized button-downs, and cozy scarves. Fashionista has a peek at the lookbook. [Style File, Fashionista]
Acne designer Jonny Johansson found inspiration for his fall 2010 collection, show yesterday in London, in his children's current obsession—"The Clone Wars" cartoons. Hours spent watching Star Wars videos and playing with character figurines had its impact on the Stockholm-based designer as seen in his current science-fiction-meets-utility collection. Models (with metallic painted foreheads) wore sand-colored jumsuits, rugged leather jackets, and deconstructed patchwork coats along with oversized track pants and metallic bangles worn as ankle cuffs. Very chic little galactic warriors.
More images in the gallery below.
>> Jason Wu has a new, 9,000-square foot office in Manhattan's Garment District, sales of his just-launched Pre-Fall collection are already 45 percent over initial projections, and his new sunglasses collection, priced at $275 a pair, just hit stores. “There are four styles: the Mia, which is very Sixties looking; the Jett, an Eighties, Wayfarer style; the Earhart, my version of the aviator, and the Seberg, which is my take on the cat eye with a metal brow on top," he told WWD. "Jean Seberg has actually been my invisible muse for the longest time.”
The designer already has plans to enter footwear by 2011, but first comes his capsule collection with Tse Cashmere (preliminary sketch below), which will debut during New York Fashion Week on Feb. 16: “The inspiration was about artist Robert Ryman as well as Geoffrey Beene and his controlled femininity . . . I wound up rendering [fox fur] in these loopy, metallic-yarn knits. It’s almost like a thesis. How do you showcase the material in different ways in one collection? This Tse collaboration has really been about expanding my horizons and bringing my aesthetic to a brand that’s very different from my own."
Word is Wu is working with Samantha and Dawn Goldworm, the sisters who created the scent diffused during Rodarte's show last season, for a custom-made scent to diffuse at his own Fall 2010 show next week.
For pre-fall Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana continued on a few themes from their spring 2010 collection—namely a heavy use of lace and leopard prints. The former appeared in black and gray on ladylike jackets, camisoles, and floral hosiery, while the leopard spots covered everything from sequin evening looks to bags, boots, scarves, and gloves. Our early fall 2010 prediction? We'll be seeing lots more where this came from on the runways this month.
>> Alexander McQueen's Mother, Joyce, Has Passed Away —Alexander McQueen announced on Twitter today of his mother, Joyce McQueen: "i'm letting my followers know the my mother passed away yesterday if it she had not me nor would you RIP mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx." He then added, "but life must go on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" This may put a damper on the possibility that he show up at New York Fashion Week for the Spring 2010 McQ presentation at Milk Studios. [@McQueenWorld, @McQueenWorld, Fashionista]
>> In the March 2010 issue of Harper's Bazaar, Glenn O'Brien asks cover girl Kate Moss about her fashion design career. "Um . . . I'm not really a fashion designer," she retorts. "I just love clothes. I've never been to design school. I can't sketch. I can't cut patterns and things. I can shorten things. I can make a dress out of a scarf."
O'Brien responds, "Well, that's what lots of famous designers do. They find great old clothes in stores and copy them. Most designers today are really stylists. How many do you think can really sketch?" Kate replies, "Lee McQueen doesn't do that! [John] Galliano doesn't do that! There are lots of them who don't. Stella [McCartney] is a proper designer!"
Kate may not consider herself a designer, but she's got a clothing line with Topshop and a new handbag line with Longchamp — whose company's chief executive John Cassegrain is clearly thrilled with the outcome: "We have not really made a plan or a budget for Kate — but she is known worldwide, everybody likes her and she has already given us more visibility." And she's not done — she wants a jewelry collection, she tells the International Herald Tribune, “to get out my jewelry and say ‘this necklace’ and ‘this bracelet.”’
She continues: “Not shoes. I’ll leave that to the professional craftsmanship. And I wouldn’t do a sneaker — I would do a ballet pump. I bought sneakers thinking they would be good for working out in Ibiza, and I looked down and thought ‘That’s not my foot!”’ Kate says there's no "master plan" for her career, but you won't catch in a movie. “I couldn’t sit on set — sitting in a caravan for six months.”
Finally, all those rumors of moving to Paris aren't true — she would never live anywhere else. “I’m so British. I just like going home. I like the bus stops; I just do. I love the country. I like being able to get in my car and drive myself.”
>> First Look: Dasha Zhukova's Second POP Issue —If your idea of a good time is Abbey Lee Kershaw on a motorcycle, then you're in luck — POP just released a peek at the upcoming issue: their first ever video segment featuring a windblown Abbey Lee. The issue comes out next week. [