THE FASHION CHARTS FOR THE WEEK OF 25TH April 2015.
1. In fantastic news, The Met Gala, one of the most fashionable events in the fashion calendar is finally getting it’s own documentary this year. Condé Nast Entertainment and Vogue have teamed up with Relativity Studios to document the preparation of this year’s Anna Wintour Costume Centre exhibition – part of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art – titled China: Through the Looking Glass, and its accompanying celebrity-filled gala, which will take place on May 4. Look forward to lots of celebrities, even more beautiful gowns and drool at all the inside gossip likely to come out in this documentary. Read more about it here.
2. A new rule has been imposed for this year’s Cannes Film Festival and it’s one I wholeheartedly support. The director of the festival has banned selfies on their red carpet for the festival, calling the practice “ridiculous and grotesque”. Speaking at this year’s festival, Theirry Fremaux, told the press that he would be attempting to reduce red carpet selfies. “We are waging a campaign to slow down the contemporary practice of selfies on the red carpet and the steps” he said. “Beyond what we think, it’s a practice that’s often extremely ridiculous and grotesque.” he added. Festival president, Pierre Lescure, also weighed in saying, “the red carpet goes around the world and we see people looking very good, and honestly you’re never as ugly as on a selfie.” While organisers have admitted there won’t be a selfie police there on hand to stop celebrities snapping a quick picture of themselves, we reckon the shame of being caught out by any celebrity is enough to deter them. Read more about it here on grazia.co.uk.
3. Lily Rose Depp, the daughter of the Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, not only won in the genetics game, but has managed to land her very first magazine cover as a model, at the tender age of 15. Watch out celebrity offspring looking to make it in fashion, you’ve got a new competitor on your heels. The gorgeous young model covers Australian fashion mag, Oyster magazine. Fresh off her catwalk debut for Chanel in New York last month, this young model is taking it all in her stride. Read more about it here.
4. H&M’s Conscious Exclusive collection, fronted by the actress Olivia Wilde landed in shops this last week and already had the majority of the collection sell out within hours. With the emphasis on ethically sourced and recycled materials, the collection featured beautiful structured dresses and smart tailoring. I even done a shoot featuring one of the dresses on Saturday at Kew Gardens, which you can check out here.
5. Alexander Wang and Diane Von Furstenberg have been named as fashion’s most influential designers in Time’s annual top 100 list of influential people in the world. Read more about it here.
6. Uh oh, another legendary fashion designer seems to have opened his mouth and spouted some rather offensive things again. This time it was the turn of Giorgio Armani, when he stated that gay men shouldn’t dress like homosexuals. In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said ,”a homosexual man is a man 100%. He does not need to dress homosexual. When homosexuality is exhibited to the extreme – to say, ‘Ah, you know I’m homosexual,’ – that has nothing to do with me. A man has to be a man.” While granted, it isn’t as offensive as what Dolce and Gabbana came out with last month, it will cause consternation among his fans and the gay community. While the designer has never denied being gay himself, his comments seem more old-fashioned than homophobic. Read more about it here.
7. It is the end of an era for Abercrombie & Fitch as the company officially announced on Friday that it would no longer be featuring shirtless male models in their stores. Teenage girls and women around the world will be crying at the sound of the news. It all comes part of their strategy to turn the faltering US company around after years of lacklustre sales and controversy regarding it’s fat-shaming practices and over-sexualisation. In fact they will be going so far as to remove all sexualised advertising by July 2015; we’re talking everything from shirtless male models, to shirtless models on their billboards and print campaigns, turning up the lights in their stores, turning down the music and retraining their staff. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up to the reader, but they’re hoping to turn the company around by becoming more family-friendly. Read all about it here on fashionista.com.
8. It’s a sad day in fashion indeed as we also learn that WWD will print its final edition before moving fully to the online sphere. Last month, the 105-year-old trade paper for fashion and apparel news announced that it would be reducing its print frequency from daily to weekly and investing more of its resources into the web, where it will start publishing articles every day, but it is still sad to see another iconic fashion brand wave goodbye to the print edition and go online. Read all about it here.
9. The tale of American Apparel seems to get messier by the day. Months after former CEO Dov Charney was spectacularly fired from the company, a lawsuit emerged on Tuesday by AA shareholders — Jan Hubner and Eric Ribner against current board members Allan Mayer and David Danziger and former board members Marvin Igelman, William Mauer and Robert Greene. The claim goes back to when Dov Charney was fired, and it claims that the board members intentionally misrepresented their own views on whether Charney should stay with the company. At the time, they said that they believed him to be an integral part of the company. Then, “almost immediately” after Danziger, Greene and Mayer were successfully reelected to continue serving on the board, they terminated him. As a result, the suit alleges, shareholders were denied their right to decide whether Charney was a fit leader for the company and the opportunity to propose and vote on a competing board of directors. Talk about this getting messy!
10. It’s been a bad week for Hermés. At the end of last week, a band of thieves filched 500 Hermès bags from a packaging and logistics facility outside Paris, according to Women’s Wear Daily. The six thieves targeted the facility, CAMS in Le Plessis-Bouchard, because it had been contracted to package and transport the bags, and they chose a time to strike when the only person on the premises was the manager, whom they forced to load the bags onto their truck. Curiously, WWD also notes that the thieves were not visibly armed on surveillance footage. They are still at large. Read more about it here.
