Calvin Klein’s Newest Obsession

It had to happen one day or another. After McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Woody Allen, the next major American institution to arrive in Paris is Calvin Klein. America’s best-known fashion designer is scheduled to open a 650-square-meter megastore at 49, avenue Montaigne. Designed by London architect Claudio Silvestrin, the interiors, fashioned after Klein’s Madison Avenue store, are faithful to the designer’s clean, luxurious signature style: pristine white walls, limestone floors, brushed and shiny stainless steel counters and dark walnut chairs. “Each detail was designed to communicate the quintessential idea of modernity, pure luxury and quality, void of ostentation and excess,” says a Klein spokesman.

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The Allure of Chanel

“Genius is the ability to foresee the future,” Coco Chanel often said. But even Mademoiselle, as she was often called, could never have imagined that 26 years after her death, her small boutique at 31, rue Cambon would be the nucleus of a multinational business including a network of stores around the globe. One of the best known fashion names of the century, Chanel is unique. It is the only house that has remained faithful to the spirit of its namesake well after the founder’s death, without compromising the original image. Today, Chanel is the most powerful fashion firm in France. Continue reading “The Allure of Chanel”

Paris Fashion Skin Deep

Fashion has fallen on difficult times. A stagnant economy has weakened European women’s purchasing power. The more affluent American is no longer investing heavily in her wardrobe, and designers in markets from New York to Seoul are inching the French out of their own stylish ball game. With all this working against her, Madame Mode has done what any self-centered diva would do in a time of crisis: strip naked, get her picture taken and call it a return to femininity.

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Fashion’s Young Upstarts Brave Storm

 The world of style is a very strange place to be these days. Production costs are up, stores are buying less, and the public, blitzed by the glamour of supermodels and designer names, wants to buy into the “dream” for as little money as possible. Over the past couple of years there have been increasing numbers of bankruptcies, buy-outs, crippling economy measures and apathetic markets. Moreover, according to reports in Women’s Wear Daily, things are going to get a lot worse, with more retail closings, before they level out. Yet, curiously enough, fashion continues to attract young people with high hopes of making it big in an ever shrinking industry. According to the Syndicate Nationale des Stylistes, as many as 3,000 designers are trying to work in France alone, and major fashion schools here continue to draw a healthy number of students from all over the world. Continue reading “Fashion’s Young Upstarts Brave Storm”

For the love of pearls

 Style, February 1996

When I was 12, my mother presented me with my first pearls: a small pendant in the form of a tiny cluster of creamy white “grapes” topped with two gold leaves. Mesmerized by the iridescent luster of my first piece of fine jewelry, I immediately developed a fondness for pearls that has never faded. For me, they are the symbol of grace, elegance and beauty in its simplest state. Warm to the touch, tender to the eye, they do not sparkle, they glow. Continue reading “For the love of pearls”

Korean Designers Riding New Wave

Ten years ago, the thunder of Japanese fashion, with its great big black silhouettes, roared down Parisian runways, provoking a thirst for exotic aesthetics that has never quite been quenched. Though trends have evolved far from those rebellious looks of the mid-1980s, rag trade professionals continue to be titillated by designers who translate their cultural heritage into modern forms of western gear. Today the fashion world is witnessing another invasion, this time from Korea. Instead of rumbling down the catwalk with aggressive, anti-fashion modes of expression, three designers (all women of a certain age) are creating a quiet sensation with softer looks that for a young woman who’s worldly, yet fragile and vulnerable.

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Paris Fashion Homage to Givenchy

Next month French haute couture will lose one of its few remaining giants. The towering (6 foot, 6 inch) Hubert de Givenchy will take a final bow after his couture collection, then retire from a world he has gracefully dominated for more than 40 years. A perfectionist in cut and silhouette with impeccable taste impervious to radical changes in style, Givenchy is part of the old school of fashion, which believes first and foremost that clothes should beautify the woman. Having dressed many of the world’s most elegant women, including Jacqueline Kennedy, the Duchess of Windsor, Princess Grace and Audrey Hepburn, Givenchy is recognized by industry professionals, including his colleagues, as one of the world’s greatest designers.

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Paris Fashion… a Yen for Style

Grunge, pauperism, minimalism, hip hop and recoup’ (recycled salvaged looks), the styles most popular among young people today, all have one thing in common: their roots can be traced to the Japanese movement of the 1980s. With their strong, innovative shapes, high-tech fabrics and radically different fashion philosophy, Japan’s leading avant-garde designers are responsible for shaping the way an entire generation perceives modern style today.

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Dollars from Good Scents

On the inside cover of a popular women’s magazine is a picture of a corked perfume bottle bearing Yves Saint Laurent’s name and a slogan, “Its name was forbidden, but women will know to ask for it.” The ad is for the controversial perfume “Champagne,” which after a lawsuit won by the wine producers of one of France’s most famous regions, was forced to change its marketing strategy as well as its label. However, by the time the smoke had cleared from the court battlegrounds, the fragrance appeared to be somewhat a winner, racking up 200 million francs in sales in just three months of existence. In an industry built around dreams, fantasies and image, nothing beats a little scandal to stir up interest and sales.

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