First Digital Haute Couture Week Starts and Makes Fashion Houses Get Creative
Hello and welcome to the twelfth issue of moderated, a newsletter created to dive into insights and phenomenons in the Fashion Industry. It also has a curation and summary of the most talked last week’s events of the industry, offering further readings for more details.
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In this week’s moderated, I go through the main events of last week, including the Haute Couture Week - and how fashion houses explored their creativity so far to present their collections digitally. So let’s check the last week’s recap of the Fashion Industry.
Last Week’s Recap
Fashion Businesses in Trouble: Nordstrom, Capri Holdings, Harrods and Arcadia
Last week, the Seattle Times reported that Nordstrom cut thousands of jobs due to the pandemic. The luxury department store was financially healthy before the pandemic, demonstrating the massive impact of this new still arising economic crisis from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Capri Holdings, the group that owns Michael Kors, Versace and Jimmy Choo, may permanently close up to 170 stores over the next two years and cut spending by US$150 million in fiscal 2021. This comes after the company announced it was expecting to have a 70% drop in its first-quarter revenue.
The Arcadia Group, the company that owns Topshop and other brands, also announced it will be cutting one-fifth of its head office staff, which accounts for around 500 jobs. The iconic British luxury department store Harrods also stated it will be cutting 14% of its 4,800 employees – which is around 672 jobs.
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JW Anderson Show Was In a Box
Yes, you read it right. Due to the pandemic, JW Anderson sent his first collection for 2021 in an A4-sized box. The box contained the debut of his men’s and women’s designs, while also offering many other imaginative components, “like a puzzle almost", according to Business of Fashion. Time capsules were the inspiration for the designer’s idea. “You’ll stick it on a bookshelf and one day it will fall out, and there’ll be all this stuff on the ground and you’ll remember when we all had to be indoors forced into self-reflection”, he stated. The box contained photographs of the pieces of the collection, as well as fabric samples, handmade nails to pin the checked cloth printed with the brand’s mission statement - “In a time of uneven connections, I thought the show should come to you” –, pressed flowers and thematic cards.
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Suzy Menkes Will Leave Vogue
After 6 years, the veteran journalist Suzy Menkes will exit Condé Nast, stepping down from her position as Incoming International Vogue Editor in October. She was brought to the magazine to lead runway show coverage and to develop its live events businesses. The journalist stated that her years at Vogue were fulfilling. But, with the current situation, she had time to reflect and decided to start a new adventure. Menkes will keep recording her point of view on the fashion industry on her own website and Instagram. Before Vogue, Menkes worked for 26 years at the International Herald Tribune, now the International New York Times, where she became one of the most respected fashion critics. In 2001, she was famously banned from LVMH fashion shows for her criticism.
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The Upcoming New York Fashion Week Will Be Shorter This Year
The New York Fashion Week, scheduled to happen in September this year, had its duration shortened to only three days, according to a note from CFDA. The event will be from the 14th to the 16th of September. The CFDA said that, if there is enough demand, they could still extend the event for one more day, until the 17th. The vice-president of marketing and events of CFDA told WWD that the decision was based on the Covid-19 impact, which had a financial impact on many designers that could decide to skip this season.
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Balmain Celebrates Its 75 Year Old Birthday With a Boat Show
Last Sunday, the French fashion house Balmain completed 75 years. To celebrate, Olivier Rousteing sent a boat to the Seine River with models wearing Balmain pieces, a music performance from the French singer Yseult and a dance performance. The models were wearing archived Balmain pieces, from Pierre Balmain and his successors, Erik Mortensen, Oscar de la Renta, and Olivier Rousteing himself. Rousteing stated, "Balmain is all about optimism, and after this period I wanted to bring back this optimism that this brand has been known for”. The event was available to everyone that wanted to enjoy it from the river shore in Paris. (images from Olivier Rousteing’s and Balmain’s Instagrams.
First Digital Haute Couture Week Starts - and Makes Fashion Houses Get Creative
Monday was the first day of the Haute Couture Week, where fashion houses present their most exclusive and luxurious collections that are custom-fitted to each client. The event started with a speech from the supermodel Naomi Campbell about inclusivity in the fashion industry. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, this year’s event is being held 100% digitally for the first time in history. To fit this new format, fashion houses are trying to get creative on their collections' presentations, but so far, not as much on the collections themselves. This was a hard year to work in an haute couture collection, which demands a lot of handmade teamwork, which was limited by the lockdown measures. Next week I will bring a review of the whole haute couture fashion week, but for this week, let’s take a look at the first-day highlights.
Dior held a cinematic short film experience with mermaids and nymphs for its autumn/winter 2020-2021 collection. The fashion film, called ‘Le Mythe Dior’ was directed by Matteo Garrone and follows the story of a dollhouse with a couture collection in miniature. The miniature pieces pay a tribute to an exhibition of small scale fashion mannequins that traveled to Europe and the United States after the war in 1945, due to wartime shortages. This was a fit for the current times when ateliers had to close for a long period due to the lockdown measures. Each of the 37 pieces of the collection was made to fit a 55cm tall mannequin, as well as a full-size version, wore by the mythical characters at the film. The idea and creative execution of the film were beautiful. The clothes, however, reminded something that was already done before. To be fair, it was a challenging moment to create an haute couture collection.
Schiaparelli made noise with an ‘imaginary collection’. According to Daniel Roseberry, the creative director of the fashion house, “It’s the story of a collection that could’ve been (…) There’s this beautiful, poignant admission that we didn’t have the resources to function as usual”. Indeed, the fashion world accepted well his collection composed of sketches of the pieces that will be presented in December. No clothes were made, but the ideas were so beautiful that the reception of his imaginary collection was outstanding. Check the video of the presentation on the brand’s Instagram.
Iris Van Herpen, famous for uniting technology and craftsmanship, made a short film for the Haute Couture Week with one single piece. The Dutch designer stated that “Working on this project felt like a new start. We have to surrender to the fact that things are in a state of change. I really don’t want to hold on too rigidly to the structure I’ve known before.”
Ralph & Russo was very innovative with its collection presentation. The pieces were based on the seven wonders and the model that presented it was an avatar called Hauli – a Swahili word which means strength and power. The pieces were beautiful, even though they were not ‘never seen before’ designs. The way the collection was presented really brought some magic to it. Check the full process of the brand in their Youtube video.
To understand how these brands managed to create a couture collection during quarantine, I recommend reading this article from Fashionista.
Thank you for reading this week’s moderated and next Tuesday I will be back with more. If you haven’t already, subscribe below to receive the moderated newsletter straight to your email, and if you really liked it, share this post with friends and family.
Bye-bye and see you next week!
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