20 main events of the year in the fashion world
We continue to remember what we will remember in 2013. Yesterday we talked about the triumph of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, the deaths of the heroes of TV series, short-term reunions and other outstanding cultural events of the year. This material is what I remember this year from the point of view of the fashion industry. These are, of course, personnel changes in major brands, from Louis Vuitton to Schiaparelli, scandals involving John Galliano and Eddie Sliman, the growing popularity of Russian and Ukrainian designers abroad and other important points.
1
Trendsetters: Hip Hoppers
It is difficult to deny the fact that hip-hopers have a major influence on fashion from the side of pop culture. A $ AP Rocky and Kanye West make it mainstream, singing in the tracks of Céline and Prada and showing how cool Raf Simons is, not worse than stylists. In addition, the first rapper defiles on the show Hood by Air, and the second comes up with a collection for the French A.P.C. Girlfriends are not far behind: Beyonce flashes in the H & M campaign, Maya is developing a clothing line with Versus, while Rihanna poses for Balmain. Perhaps it is thanks to these guys that voluminous bombers, t-shirts with prints and pants with sneakers become an integral (sorry) part of our wardrobes. Whether they will retain their former influence in 2014 will be seen, but, knowing the pace of fashion, one can begin to doubt this now.
2
Permutations: Louis Vuitton
Three months ago, a rumor was confirmed that Marc Jacobs was leaving the armchair of the designer Louis Vuitton. According to the official version, the American decided to concentrate on his own brand names Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs - they are planning to put them on an IPO. It was also rumored that it had become too commercial for LV. Leaving, Jacobs gave a farewell show in which models in hits from all his collections for 20 years of work with Louis Vuitton defile among the scenery with the most memorable show, painted in black. The replacement was found right away: Nicolas Ghesquières was appointed new creative director of the French brand, who left Balenciaga two seasons ago. His debut can be expected in March 2014.
3
Return: John Galliano
It was difficult for John Galliano to take the first steps towards restoring his reputation. A friend helped the designer: Oscar de la Renta invited him to work in the atelier on the current autumn-winter collection - Galliano's influence is noticeable to the naked eye. True, then the British waited for a series of failures. So, in Parsons canceled his master class. Only good news came on. Galliano won the lawsuit against his former employer, Dior, gave large interviews, where he poured out his soul and talked about alcoholism and treatment, and even began working on Stephen Fry's production of Oscar Wilde: the heroes of "The Importance of Being Serious" will perform in costume designer
4
Brawler: Edie Slimane
Edie Slimane shows controversial collections, which are sold surprisingly well, and publishes campaigns with musicians beloved by the public, from Daft Punk to Courtney Love. Along the way, the designer manages to spoil relations with the critic of The New York Times, Katie Horin, and the Colette store. A couple of months ago, the creative director of the concept store, Sarah Endelman, said that Saint Laurent had ceased cooperation with its store. The reason for such a radical decision was the T-shirt on Colette with the inscription referring to Sliman’s decision to change the brand name: "Ain't Laurent without Yves".
5
Care: Gilles Zander
Gilles Zander left the name brand, founded back in 1968, for the third time. She twice failed to get along with her husband, designer Miuccia Prada Patrizio Bertelli, who bought the brand Jil Sander in 1999, and once returned to the name of the fashion house to replace Raf Simons, who managed to win back Christian Dior. Now Gilles Zander is 70, and her leaving is quite logical: who is ready to make six collections a year at such a respectable age? As we wrote, you should not be upset or surprised at her resignation: it’s better to remember what she taught two generations of women. For example, the fact that a shirt is just a shirt, and trousers are just trousers, and not an art object or thing for dancing under disco.
6
Hope: Jeremy Scott and Marco Zanini
The appointments of Jeremy Scott in Moschino and Marco Zanini in Schiaparelli are hardly the main permutations of the year, rather, one of the key ones. The first one needs to rejuvenate the Italian brand with a 30-year history and traditions, the second one - to revive the Coco Chanel rival brand Elsa Schiaparelli. What will happen with both designers will see in March.
8
Rebranding: Diesel
The new creative director of Diesel, Nikola Formicetti, immediately started rebranding - it is impossible to do otherwise now. He started with visuality and social networks: he launched a special blog-board, in which anyone could publish their thoughts about the new image of the giant denim. Models for the first shooting of the brand under the leadership of Formicetti, by the way, found in Tumblr. They were mostly New York creative industry workers, including graffiti artists and photographers, as well as 15-year-old student of the Frank Sinatra school. Also Formichetti released an advertising campaign made in the Glitché app, which was created by Look At Me art director Vladimir Schreider, and a calendar shot by Terry Richardson. So the former stylist of Lady Gagi makes Diesel closer to the mass and young audience, while using more uncommon tricks.
9
Renaissance: Agnona and Viktor & Rolf haute couture
Pay attention to two processes that are also important for the 2013 fashion. First, Stefano Pilatti earned his full strength as the chief designer of the Italian brand Agnona. Of course, his collections for Agnona do not discuss as much as the work at Yves Saint Laurent, but this is only a matter of time. If he revived the fashion house, then Victor Horsting and Rolf Snowner brought their haute couture clothing line back to life and staged a couture show — the first in the last 13 years. It was a performance. Designers took to the podium and meditated for five minutes. Then the models one after another came out in black dresses. At the end of the show, Victor and Rolf made the girls close by and covered them with a large black cloak. To the great joy of the duet, half of the collection sold out before the show.
10
Shows: Chanel lesbians and Rick Owens step dancers
You can make a fashion show with a performance, as in the case of Viktor & Rolf, or you can put a message in it, relating, for example, to society. Thus, in the finale of the show, Chanel Karl Lagerfeld released two female models with a child on the podium, which symbolized his support for the fight for equal rights for homosexuals in France. Rick Owens decided to abandon the traditional models and put in his new collection of the corpse step dancers from Los Angeles, who danced with angry faces. So understand what the author wanted to say: Owens either promotes the idea of strong women, or wanted to hide monotonous bows, for which he has recently been scolded, among unbanal models.
11
Mass market: & Other Stories
& Other Stories is another brainchild of the H & M Group, which appeared in March 2013 following the Swedish assets COS and Cheap Monday. He has three stores - in London, Milan and Paris - and no fewer fans than his older comrades. Shops, by the way, are similar: these are offices resembling multi-room premises with mindboards on the walls and shelves. & OS produce six collections per year, can boast prices comparable to any Zara, and a couple of good cooperation - for example, with the London-based Alöe underwear brand. The following stores will open in Barcelona and Berlin, and Russia, apparently, will have to endure a few more years.
12
Filming: Kate Moss for Playboy
Playboy magazine celebrated its 60th anniversary with, it seems, the main current model - 40-year-old Kate Moss. Pictures - the work of the American photoducer Mert Alas and Marcus Piggo. We discussed this set much more than any other shooting of the year.
13
Attachments: Jonathan Anderson, Christopher Kane and Nicholas Kirkwood
Immediately in the three young designers from Britain have made large investments. Thus, the LVMH conglomerate bought a stake in the brands of Jonathan Anderson and Nicholas Kirkwood. The main rival of the French, Kering (in the very recent past - PPR), invested in the brand of Christopher Caine and even hired him the general director, Alexander de Brett, who was engaged in financial communications in fashion. From these deals, you can judge which brands are more likely to be big brands in the future, so remember.
14
Technology: 3D
Now not only avant-gardists like Iris van Herpen use 3D printing. The technology was adopted by more mass companies, for example, New Balance, which, together with the athletes, prints perfect running sneakers, as well as Victoria's Secret, which made the body out of plastic. Next in line are H & M, Topshop and Zara.
15
Models and society
It seems that now public opinion plays the same important role in choosing a model for a shooting or a show, like beauty. Analysts talked about the clear advantage of fair-skinned girls on the catwalk - and three black models (Bethann Hardison, Iman and Naomi Campbell) discussed this issue at Good Morning America, and Prada took the first African American in ten years - Malaika Firt. At the same time, girls are moving from female departments of agencies to male ones, showing that the career of a model-girl does not last long and can stay afloat in even the most non-trivial way.
16
Retail: launch of Russian versions of western online stores
Three western stores started active expansion into Russia: Asos, Luisa Via Roma and Shopbop. There also take the Spanish group Inditex, which launched online stores of brands Massimo Dutti and Zara. According to representatives of all three structures, if you translate the menu of the entire site into Russian, sales will increase markedly. At the end of the year Scandinavians Stylepit joined them, so the trend is evident.
17
Media: Dazed & Confused Digital i-D
The print version of Dazed & Confused magazine will now be published only once in two months: this innovation is waiting for it in the first quarter of 2014. At the same time, Dazed Group will engage in attracting an audience to the site DazedDigital.com, the number of unique visitors of which reaches 800,000 people per month. At the same time, Dazed Digital and i-D made a massive restart by opening video sections, and Garage and 032c are also being developed online. Perhaps the talk about the death of print was not a waste of time.
18
Russians abroad: Andrei Artemov, Svetlana Takkori and Tigran Avetisyan
More and more Russian designers are beginning to interest foreign buyers and the press. Get at least a campaign online store Moda Operandi on pre-order collections of Alexander Kondakov, Ruban and Kalmanovich. More loud in the West thundered and strengthened other names. So, Andrei Artemov’s Walk of Shame was sold at Opening Ceremony in the youth’s mecca, caps by Italian-based designer Svetlana Takkori can even be found in Colette, and our favorite male designer Tigran Avetisyan liked Nick Knight and goes to Pitti Uomo as part of the Fashion Buzz program.
19
Synergy of fashion and art
It seems that if earlier we talked about the cooperation of fashion and art professionals - the Louis Vuitton collaboration with Yaya Kusama or The Row with Damien Hirst - then now we should talk about a complete merger of these two spheres. Fashion, in general, is of no interest to anyone in its pure form, but paintings and artists occupy more and more space in their minds. The industry quickly picks up: look at at least the Harper's Bazaar and Vogue issues about art and the list of Art Basel participants in Miami, which is difficult to distinguish from the list of guests at the Paris Fashion Week.
20
Country Ukraine
In Ukraine, an incredible amount of new creative energy is concentrated, from designers like Masha Reva and Svetlana Bevza to photographers Synchrodogs and video director Nowfashion.com and author Style.com Darya Shapovalova. The guys flashed in the British and Italian Vogue more often than their colleagues, and in connection with the events of the last month - rallies on the Maidan - publications like 032c, published by designer Anton Belinsky and photographer Alexandra Trishina, and Dazed & Confused, set for which they made the heroine of our "Wardrobe" column Kati Garbuz. With the flip side of the coin - sales - the guys are fine too: they are on Luisa Via Roma, as well as in small but pleasant shops in Europe and America.
