Daily EDition february 21, 2017 1

Fashion. Beauty. Business.

China BounceAltagamma’s latest study says the Chinese market has rebounded, including tourism.

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Emmanuelle Khanh DiesThe French designer, known for her signature eyeglasses, was a ready-to-wear pioneer.

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Vapor WearNike unveiled its new Vapor Max shoe as it gave visitors a tour of its archives.

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● Richard Baker appears to be moving closer to an acquisition, possibly with a partner in China.

by DaviD Moin with contributions from Tiffany ap

Richard Baker, governor and executive chairman of Hudson’s Bay Co., is believed to have a partner in China to help finance a deal to buy Macy’s.

Baker was said to be in Hong Kong this week meeting with the potential Chinese investor, whose identity could not be learned. “He’s not going to be able to do it alone. He needs a partner — that’s for sure,” said a retail source.

Baker’s quest for a partner could have extended beyond Asia, but on the Hong Kong trip he was accompanied by Don Watros, president of HBC International, one source said. Watros worked on HBC’s acquisition of the Galeria Kaufhof depart-ment store chain from Germany’s Metro Group in 2015 and has been leading that integration. He was also instrumental in

● The French brand is touting a new handbag model and its first new fragrance pillar in 15 years.

by Miles socha, peTer Born and Joelle DiDerich

NEW YORK – Long crazy about Coco, Chanel is now going gaga for Gabrielle.

That’s the name of the brand’s latest handbag hope, its communications thrust for 2017 and a forthcoming fragrance – the company’s first new pillar in 15 years, named after the house founder and exalt-ing the rebellious, mold-breaking spirit of her early years before she became Coco.

The Gabrielle Chanel eau de toilette, described as an “abstract floral,” is sched-uled to premiere in Chanel’s boutique

business

HBC SaidEyeingMacy’s BidPartner

fashion

Chanel PlotsYear of Gabrielle

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A New SlantLONDON — Christopher Bailey showed off a more experimental side

Monday night, unveiling a Burberry collection for instant purchase that explored the abstract, body-altering proportions — and even the modest

smock — of late English artist Henry Moore. Here, one of his off-kilter knits, layered over a lacy dress. For more on the London shows, see pages 7 to 15.

photograph by Giovanni Giannoni

CollectionsFall

2017

http://www.rosenthalinc.com/

february 21, 2017 3

First Lady Melania Trump Turns To Alexander McQueen For Latest Look● Trump opted for matching shoes to finish off the look.

● Sistine Stallone Makes London Fashion Week Debut

● Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid Advise Rising Star Delilah Belle Hamlin

● From Pop Star to Horror Icon: Rihanna’s ‘Bates Motel’ Transformation

● Night at the Library With Tiffany Trump, Fat Joe and Paris Hilton

Top 5TrendingoN WWD.CoM

NEWSMAKERSThis Week’s Most Talked About Names In our Industry

Christopher Bailey

Donatella Versace

Jonathan Anderson

Simone Rocha

● BNP forecasts Chinese buyers will increase consumption on luxury goods 30 percent compared to the first half of 2016 while American shoppers are seen spending 23 percent more.

by GorDon sorlini

MILAN — Luxury goods makers beware: your industry is changing faster than you think, from a massive shift in favor of casualwear (to the detriment, obviously, of formal wear) to increasing demand for customization and the need to soothe angry consumers who feel that the price increases of the past few years have gone a little too far.

These were some of the observations shared during Altagamma’s Consumer and Retail Insight 2017 held here. Intro-ducing the fourth annual “True Luxury Global Consumer Insight” — carried out with BCG — Altagamma vice president Armando Branchini set the pace with some key figures: in 2016 there were some 415 million luxury goods consum-ers in the world who spent a total of 860 billion euros, or $920.2 billion at current exchange. By 2023 luxury consumers are expected to total some 490 million and account for some 1.185 trillion euros, or $1.27 trillion, in sales.

More figures followed during a presen-tation titled Retail Evolution 2017 by Luca Solca, managing director global luxury goods at Exane BNP Paribas. “After one of the hardest years ever, the industry’s stars are aligning. We are seeing almost all nationalities spending more — starting from the Chinese, who remain luxury goods’ most important buyers, followed by Americans, Europeans and Russians,” Solca said.

BNP forecasts Chinese buyers will increase consumption on luxury goods 30 percent compared to the first half of 2016 while American shoppers are seen spending 23 percent more.

But every silver lining has its dark cloud: protectionism (in the form of possible Trump administration actions on China and border adjustment taxes) and a breakup of the euro, should populists pre-vail — or make big headway — in national elections in France and Germany, are serious risks that could affect the indus-try. But even here, not everything is as obvious as it seems: a euro breakup, Solca said, could be good for luxury goods makers because most of the industry is in countries whose eventual post-euro currencies would likely benefit from more competitive exchange rates.

Solca also addressed retail, point-ing out that while stores remain key in engaging with buyers, brands have to make their spaces unique. By way of example, Solca cited a recent effort by Moët-Hennessey called “secret apart-ment,” a luxury apartment in a posh Paris residential neighborhood with a couple of salons and a modern wine cellar. Select customers are invited here to buy liquors and Champagnes that are not available in the traditional retail network. Over the first six months of this experiment, the average “secret apartment” ticket has been some 75,000 euros, or $80,250, gen-erating a rapid payback on the investment and a “very high” return on invested

capital, Solca said.Enhancing digital operations is crucial.

And Solca said BNP expects all brands to adopt digital “as a priority,” with a focus on integrating physical and digital retail. After all, consumers who buy both in store and online spend on average 45 percent more with a brand than consumers who spend only in store, according to Exane.

Federico Bonelli, BCG principal, and Nicola Pianon, senior partner and managing director, then discussed findings in the “True Luxury Global Consumer Insight.” In this year’s edition, the researchers moved higher up along the luxury goods consumer food chain: the research target was consumers who on average spend some 36,000 euros, or $38,520 a person a year on “per-sonal luxury” (handbags, shoes, etc.) and “experiential luxury” (hotels, wine and exclusive vacations). Compared to previous years’ samples — which included consumers who spent an average 21,000 euros, or $22,470, on luxury — this year’s sample represents some 17 million people from 10 countries who spent some 250 billion euros, or $267.5 billion at current exchange in 2016 — in other words, the top 4 percent of consumers who account for 30 percent of global luxury sales.

According to the research, “true lux-ury” consumers are seen increasing their spend an average of 6 to 7 percent a year over the 2016 to 2023 period, with con-sumption of “experiential” luxury growing a bit faster — at 7 to 8 percent a year — than “personal” luxury, seen expanding by 4 to 5 percent a year over the period. This performance beats that of more lowly “aspirational luxury” consumers, whose purchases are seen growing an average 4 percent a year over the same period.

Another first of this year’s study, Bonelli explained, is that it measured a consumer’s “appetite” (willingness to buy) for different categories of luxury goods. Here there is heartening and disheartening news for high-end brands: “Shoes remain the champion category,” Bonelli said, “followed by perfumes and cosmetics” while appetite has decreased significantly for apparel, small leather goods and silk products. This is espe-cially true among Millennials, the most sought-after market (or so it seems) for luxury producers.

“Shoes, perfumes and cosmetics are fundamental in bringing Millennials into a brand,” Bonelli explained, because they offer a more accessible (not to be confused with “cheap”) price point for entering into a luxury brand.

The good news? Some 83 percent

of “true luxury” goods consumers are inclined to spend more this year than they did last year, said Nicola Pianon, while 17 percent say they will spend less.

But brands must beware, for these latter consumers — although perhaps not numerically threatening — have some serious gripes. They are not spending less because they can’t; they are spending less on luxury brands because they feel cheated by constant price increases which render products too expensive when compared with their perceived worth. And how do these consumers — half of whom are American and Millennials — react? About 50 percent stop buying from the brand altogether or look for other, cheaper channels to buy the product they want. Another 40 percent of these super-rich consumers trade down.

“This [behavior] is massive in the U.S., where 80 percent of true luxury consum-ers do this,” Pianon said. Of the 40 per-cent who trade down, Pianon said some 60 percent go to premium brands while some 40 percent go “two steps lower,” to fast-fashion brands.

Another emerging trend is the reversal in travel retail’s fortunes. Recently con-sidered one of the main drivers of luxury goods sales, it appears that true luxury consumers have begun to buy more at home again. This is especially true among Chinese. There have been shifts in top shopping destinations, too, with London moving up the ladder — thanks also to the “cheaper” post-Brexit referendum pound — and Paris, still suffering from the terror-ist attacks of last year, moving down a bit.

But brands shouldn’t write off travel retail’s prospects yet: in a brief panel discussion following the presentations, former Ferragamo chief executive officer Michele Norsa — who is now a strategic adviser to the Florence-based brand and to other luxury labels — said that he remains convinced of the value of travel-ers, whose spending grows some 6 to 7 percent a year. “I think that travelers and stores that cater to them remain the main drivers, even in terms of price.”

In a final remark — which received a large round of applause — Norsa addressed another key issue for luxury goods makers in Italy: size. By not under-taking a serious effort to merge and grow, Norsa said that those companies that have the potential to become catalysts are mak-ing a big mistake: “Not taking this step over the next three to five years could greatly weaken the extraordinary creative and productive capability of ‘Made in Italy’ which — as we have seen — is still very attractive,” he said.

business

Chinese Seen Boosting Spending On Luxury, but Challenges Grow

Chinese both at home and abroad are seen boosting their spending at sites like Hong Kong’s Time Square mall.

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● The designer was best known for her signature oversized eyewear.

by Joelle DiDerich and KaTya foreMan

PARIS – Emmanuelle Khanh, one of the pioneers of French ready-to-wear in the Sixties, has died of cancer at the age of 79, her family said Friday.

Khanh began designing anonymously as part of a generation of freelance stylists, who also included Karl Lagerfeld. She launched her own brand in the Seven-ties, joining a new wave of design talents alongside Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Issey Miyake.

“I think if people remember her for one thing, it’s for her signature glasses,” said Ralph Toledano, president of the Fédéra-tion Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, French fashion’s governing body.

“She was an interesting personality because she had a triple career. First she was a model, then she was a freelance designer for houses like Cacharel and Dorothée Bis,” he recalled. “And she was part of the first generation of ready-to-wear designers of the Seventies.”

Khanh was a fit model for Givenchy

and Balenciaga in the late Fifties when she caught the eye of Claude Brouet, then deputy fashion editor at French Elle. “She was leaving a show dressed in a way that was so unusual and striking that I asked where she got

her outfit, and she told me she made it herself,” Brouet said.

“Naturally I asked her to come to the magazine, which she did. I introduced her to [Elle founder] Hélène Lazareff and we immediately took a picture and created a pattern so that our readers could copy the look. It was a skirt with a slightly dropped waist, which was very new at the time, and a little waistcoat that dipped in front,” she recalled.

Khanh subsequently joined forces with Christine Bailly, another young designer, on the Emma-Christie line, launched in 1962. After it folded, she designed collec-tions for brands including Missoni, Max Mara and mail order retailer La Redoute.

In 1965, she headed to New York with Bailly, Paco Rabanne and Michèle Rosier to

showcase her designs at the April in Paris ball, raising her international profile.

“She was featured in Elle a lot in the Sixties. It was the boom of ready-to-wear. It was really the birth of youth fashion in France,” said Brouet. “Her designs were very young and modern, at a time when fashion was still very strongly influenced by haute couture.”

Didier Grumbach, the former head of the French fashion federation, said Khanh was the first designer to join Créateurs et Industriels, the venture he created in 1971 to develop new brands alongside storied couture names. This was the springboard for the launch of her own label.

“She became really well known from 1972. Her collections were extremely new. She would feature printed quilted cottons in winter. There were also military coats, which she did very well,” he said.

Khanh left her label in the late Nineties. The then-dormant brand was subsequently acquired by the Dutch investment fund Rencorp in 2007.

It initially focused on resurrecting the label’s eyewear activities, tapping Thierry Lasry in 2009 to revisit Khanh’s designs. Didier Marder, managing director of the revived label, told WWD: “We realized that it was her eyewear that has really

stuck in people’s minds. Her clothing labels even used to feature a photo of her in these big glasses.”

“Emmanuelle Khanh is the designer who really made everybody realize how sunglasses and glasses in general could help define your personality. I feel like any thick heavy acetate frames that you can see today are somehow an indirect tribute to her aesthetic,” Lasry said after learning of her death.

Poignantly, Khanh had recently become involved in her namesake brand once again after Marder invited her to collabo-rate on a knitwear capsule for the brand’s e-shop for fall 2016.

The brand this year is reigniting the Emmanuelle Khanh ready-to-wear line, starting with a small spring 2017 collec-tion due to launch on the brand’s e-shop and that of French retailer L’Exception in April, that will include a swimwear capsule designed by Khanh. A full collection for fall 2017 — designed in-house — will be pre-sented at the Paris sur Mode trade show in March, according to Marder, who said he kept Khanh regularly updated on the evolution of the brand.

She was due to work on a third capsule for the brand, but pulled out late last year due to illness, he said. “She was a pioneer. Even at 79, she had such an eye, with this vision of modernity, but also comfort,” said Marder. “She would always say that clothing should enhance a wom-an’s body.”

She is survived by her son, Othello Khanh, and her daughter, designer Atlan-tique Ascoli. Details of funeral services were not immediately available.

● Wal-Mart, Macy’s, TJX, Nordstrom and more will reveal their fourth-quarter results this week.

by evan clarK

The holiday reckoning is here.It’s already a given that this winter’s

been an extremely tough one on most retailers, but just how bad it really was will start to be made clear as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Macy’s Inc. kick off the fourth-quarter earnings season today.

Nine major retailers will unveil their results this week and collectively analysts expect them to post a 12.6 percent drop in adjusted profits on a 1.1 percent gain of sales, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. (The trend is slightly better, but still down excluding the giant Wal-Mart, with the other eight retailers combined showing a 5 percent profit loss on a 0.6 percent increase in fourth-quarter sales).

In short, retailers were forced to cut prices to move goods, eating into already slim earnings.

Part of the problem is centered on the consumer, who is simply not buying apparel the way she has in the past, opting for less expensive fast-fashion looks and spending more on experiences.

But retailers are also having to spend more to reinvent their businesses, meeting the challenges of a quick-turn and much more digital marketplace.

The combination is toxic to the bottom line.

Wal-Mart is also running up against the law of large numbers, with sales slated to top $481 billion last year.

“Though Wal-Mart’s 2016 results have generally been in line to better than

management had projected and the Jet.com acquisition should help drive e-com-merce growth in the fourth quarter, we suspect that the company was not immune to some of the in-store traffic challenges experienced elsewhere within retail,” said Scot Ciccarelli, analyst at RBC Capital Mar-kets. (Wal-Mart acquired e-tailer Jet for $3.3 billion last year and tapped its founder, Marc Lore, to build its online business.)

“Longer-term, Wal-Mart is making some smart strategic changes to improve its competitive positioning; however, it has become increasingly difficult for it to grow,” Ciccarelli said, adding the company “is being forced to continue to accelerate investments to defend existing market share, and many of its newer growth initia-tives are margin-dilutive.”

Macy’s has its own, although not unique problems, including store closures and sagging results, and will also face questions from Wall Street about rumors that the company is seen as a takeover target.

On Tuesday, one of the industry’s few truly strong players, off-price giant TJX, will update its investors and although profits are expected to be down slightly, sales are slated to rise strongly, with a 5.3 percent gain.

In a sign of the times, TJX is now bigger than Macy’s on the sales line.

Nordstrom Inc., perhaps the strongest department store player now, is still seen as a solid business despite expected profit declines. Certainly, it’s not immune to the ills of the market.

Christian Buss, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said Nordstrom would “continue to grow sales and outperform peers, but believe some caution is in order near-term given highly challenging market conditions over the holiday period.”

J.C. Penney Co. will end the week on

Friday with what is supposed to be the strongest bottom-line showing of the bunch, a 57.2 percent gain to $190.2 mil-lion despite a 0.6 percent sales decline.

Penney’s misadventure under former

ceo Ron Johnson, which saw a dramatic strategy change lead to dramatic sales declines, has given the company a hole to climb out of — a process that maybe others are just beginning.

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Retailers Set to Pay the Piper, Weak Q4 Seen

obituary

Emmanuelle Khanh, Pioneer of French Ready-to-Wear, Dies at 79

Emmanuelle Khanh

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Source: S&P Capital IQ

J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

TJX Cos. Inc.

Macy's Inc.

Nordstrom Inc.

Gap Inc.

Chico's FAS Inc.

L Brands Inc.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Kohl's Corp.

Fourth-quarter OutlookWall Street is bracing itself for almost universal profitdeclines from retailers weighing in with results this week.

Thursday FridayWednesdayTuesdayRelease Date

Earnings estimate in millionsAnalyst Consensus Recommendation

Year-Over-Year

change

Sales estimate in millions

Outperform$190 +57,2%$3,972 -0,6%

Outperform$665 -0,2%$9,441 +5,3%

Hold$591 -2,2%$8,594 -3,1%

Hold$196 -7,1%$4,296 +3,7%

Hold$203 -11,4%$4,430 +0,9%

Outperform$5 -12,9%$595 -5,1%

Hold$550 -13,5%$4,490 +2,2%

Hold$3,951 -17,0%$130,237 +1,2%

Hold$231 -22,1%$6,214 -2,7%

https://www.victorinox.com/ch/en/Products/Apparel/c/FAS

february 21, 2017 7

The Reviews

Burberry It’s all change at Burberry, and not just from a business and marketing point of view. Christopher Bailey shifted direction for this second see-now-buy-now coed outing, inspired by one of his longtime lodestars, Henry Moore, the Yorkshire art-ist and sculptor famous for his off-balance proportions and chunky, curving bronzes. The Moore aesthetic doesn’t exactly jibe with the modern beauty ideal — what woman wants a breast at waist level and a foot like a T-bone steak? — which made Bailey’s choice intriguing.

The show was a departure on many levels — Burberry loves color and this collection came mainly in black, white, gray and a faded, workwear blue, the latter drawn from the everyday wardrobe of the artist himself. It was also Bailey’s most conceptual collec-tion for Burberry, a purveyor of classic fare — the trench, the check, the military coat.

Bailey, who plans to return full-time to the design studio in July, when he’ll relinquish his chief executive role to Marco Gobbetti, tore everything up in the name of the artist, and the result was an abstract take on the brand’s staples.

Trenches were roomy and robust, with thick cuffs and chunky half-belts at the back, while asymmetric knits looked as if they were pieced together. Some were slashed to reveal a shoulder, while others were cropped high on the waist. Tweed jackets had curved shoulders and rounded sleeves, creating a whole new form around the body. A sculptural white cape was a mix of luscious shearling on the front and cable-knit on the back, while a quilted, military-in-spired jacket had jutting, angular shoulders.

Men got off easier in terms of body alteration: They wore mainly high-waisted pants and novelty shirts.

“Moore’s work is about changing the form, putting it in different directions,” said Bailey, who is also chief creative officer. “His shoulders were suddenly up here, the breasts were suddenly down here, and I liked that idea of putting something on,

turning it in a completely different way, deconstructing it, changing the shape of the body by moving the lines and the pieces in a more unconventional way.”

Inspired by Moore’s white plaster maquettes, or sculpture models, Bailey sent out a lot of white-on-white silhouettes — tiered dresses in cotton poplin, lace

and broderie anglaise, and wide, doilylike collars on solid blue or striped shirts. The finale was a lineup of statement capes in materials ranging from silver feathers and metallic leather to plastic ruffles, stiff lace and glittering bits of chandelier — the latter an ode to Moore’s love of found objects.

It was a risky move, but there were

many commercial pieces here — and appealing ones, too — especially the curving, choppy knits and elaborate capes, which Bailey said would be made to order. It remains to be seen, however, whether the Burberry customer will embrace Moore’s spirit as wholeheartedly as Bailey does. — Samantha Contiph

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J.W. Anderson Just like London, with its perpetually torn-up streets and a skyline studded with cranes, J.W. Anderson’s collection was one big work in progress — at least that’s how he saw it. Anderson’s materials may have been

softer and sexier than the average builder’s — feathers and chain mail among them — but the idea remains the same. London doesn’t stand still for a minute — and neither does Jonathan Anderson.

In the space of just a few weeks, he’s moved from a signature men’s collection

that was all colored patches of macramé, chunky knits and cocooning shapes to a women’s lineup of light and fluttery silhou-ettes, tucked here and slashed there.

Anderson described the collection as a style odyssey. “You have this idea of something that is uberfeminine, but at the same time it can crash, and then it kind of builds itself up again. It’s this idea of strip-ping it right back to an outline silhouette — something very reduced — and then you start to build it up again,” the designer said backstage to describe the sleek looks done in materials such as fur, leather, nylon and silk.

Dresses ranged from the workwear-in-spired to the arty and fantastical. Some were done in nylon with full skirts, drawstring waists and pocket details around their halter tops, while others were long, with asym-metric hems and gold or silver patterns, shimmering like a Klimt painting.

Some dresses suggested saris, with floaty scraps of scarf at the neck, while other toga-like ones were made from delicate drapes of fabric — silver chain mail, mannish brown pinstripes and liquid white silk. Red printed dresses were adorned with big puffs of gray ostrich feathers.

There was fur and leather galore: Short shearling jackets; cropped, shruglike leather ones, and a big dappled fur coat that looked like it came straight from the set of “The Royal Tenenbaums.” It was one of the most commercial and appealing collections yet from a designer who simply can’t sit still. — Samantha Conti

erdem The designer shifted his thinking this season, looking to his family’s history — real and imagined — for inspiration. The Canadian-born Erdem Moralioglu, whose father was Turkish and mother English, envisaged a meeting between his great-grandmothers, Ada Stephenson from England, and the other from Turkey, near the Syrian border.

“It would have been an odd exchange,” admitted the designer, who filled his mood boards with a mix of English florals, Ottoman miniatures and images of sultans and The Royal Scots regiment, of which his great-grandfather was a member.

It was one fertile fantasy, and the result was an opulent and romantic patchwork of pattern, texture and delectable colors such as saffron, eggplant, emerald and chocolate.

Long silk dresses with velvet-edged sleeves blossomed with embroidered flow-ers, while others were fashioned from lilac or mint lace. Some had black ribbons at the neck or little white ruffles at the shoulder. Turkish carpet patterns spread across long panne velvet dresses, while clusters of dia-manté winked from a dark astrakhan swing coat and from a chocolate, rose and black patchwork fur.

For evening, there were sequin and devoré velvet gowns, brocades and a trove of gold metallic embroidery. A culture clash? More like a rich family drama. Here’s one more question: What took those two sophis-ticated ladies so long to meet? — S.C.

J.W. Anderson

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CollectionsFall

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LIBERTY FAIRS LAS VEGAS BOOTH #110

10 february 21, 2017

Christopher Kane Combining traditional fabrics with futuristic silhouettes, Christopher Kane’s collection — while hard-edged — was intrigu-ing and strangely appealing. Noting that he wanted to express a “tougher femininity,” the designer looked to the practical uniform that a female factory worker might wear, resulting in some no-frills, mannish shapes. Here was an oversized wool coat, with a row of what the designer called “OCD pockets” on the sleeves, while there was a wide-shouldered gray trench, striped with bands of iridescent foil.

But given Kane’s wont for splicing deliberately disparate design elements together, he worked opulent, feminine silks into some of those angular shapes, too. He fashioned Gainsborough silks in lavish, neoclassical floral designs in peaches, pinks and blues into shiftdresses with stiff, sharp-edged panels, lending the garments an uncompromisingly clinical air.

Amid this laboratory of ideas were quirky space-craft prints inspired by artist Ionel Talpazan on silk smock dresses; pointy-toed, patent pumps padded with yellow kitchen sponge, and bits of indus-trial foam, and a foil-covered cashmere in an oil-slick like color — an effect Kane called “quite grimy and dirty” — worked into pieces such as a formfitting sweater dress. The bejeweled Crocs that Kane

unveiled last season were stripped of bau-bles and lined in fur.

At times, the number of concepts Kane presented felt dizzying — in one series of looks, 3-D flowers, dense panels of sequins and iridescent fabrics all competed for attention in quick succession. But drawing the collection together was the designer’s modern, off-hand way of combining these elements, resulting in a lineup with a quirky, youthful air that was unmistakably Kane’s. — Nina Jones

roksanda Against the backdrop of an increas-ingly polarized world, Roksanda Ilincic said she’d taken her cues for her latest collection from the idea of “different cul-tures meeting and talking to each other.” Drawing influence from Japan, China and the West, the designer, speaking after her show Monday morning, added that she’d imagined a “woman warrior.”

But the collection wore its global influ-ences lightly, with Ilincic filtering them through the prism of her strong, feminine aesthetic. Fluid silk dresses had a vague air of kimonos, while leather, obilike belts cinched in dresses and skirts, but the overall effect was fresh and modern, rather than overly referential.

This modernity was underlined by the striking colors. Rich shades of red

dominated, with Ilincic noting that she’d been inspired by the intense palette of Mark Rothko’s paintings. An ankle-graz-ing, reddish-brown silk skirt was worn with a smocklike top in color blocks of bright red, brownish red, black and yellow. And one shearling-trimmed, burnished red coat, worn over a silk dress printed in abstract shapes in shades of reds, had a protective air. At times, Ilincic spliced these deep shades with injections of unexpected, pastel shades, as in a pale, cornflower blue silk smock top worn with pinkish-red, wide-legged pants.

Indeed, there was both a softness and strength to the lineup, which saw mod-els parade out to the strains of Michael Nyman’s piano, as the renowned composer performed on a grand piano set up at one end of the runway. And at times, Ilincic’s powerful muse even entertained a touch of whimsy, with sprinkles of sequins and beading embroidered in arty, abstract shapes on a fluttering, bias-cut skirt, or on one deep-red bustier statement gown, with a tiered, sweeping train. — N.J.

roland Mouret Roland Mouret ramped up the sensu-ality for this 20th-anniversary collection — and his return to the London catwalk — with languid silhouettes that breezed across the concrete ground floor of The

National Theatre. Although Mouret slipped in a few of his early career looks, he said the last thing he wanted was to look back-ward. Instead, the aim was to drive home his message of “louche sensuality,” with draped and slashed fabrics, tucks, pleats and playful details that suggested getting dressed — and undressed.

Myriad versions of the Dusty Springfield classic, “The Look of Love,” accompanied a lineup of elegant and feminine silhou-ettes — a short mauve wrap jacket fixed at the front with a kilt pin; a blanket coat that was draped and tucked to accentuate the body’s curves, and a belted one that was slashed high at the back.

Tops were loose and fluttery — one had a single draped sleeve, another was made with a soft fold at the back revealing a flash of skin, while a third had loose ties at the wrist that could be worn done — or not. Among the standouts was a black velvet cape, slashed here and there, with a silk rope tie — the designer’s wink to bondage. That’s all it was — a wink. Mouret never tips into vulgarity.

Following the show, the designer invited his top customers to join him upstairs for a trunk show — but it wasn’t a see-now-buy-now exercise. “Shows need to be longer, they need to take the customer on a journey, that’s why I’m doing it. I want to be there for my customer,” he said. — Samantha Conti

Christopher Kane Roksanda Roland Mouret

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Simone rocha “Women Fashion Power” was a Zaha Hadid-designed show at London’s Design Museum a few years ago and it could easily have been the title of Simone Rocha’s fall collection. Rocha has built her business on statement clothing, but in the past those designs have tended toward the ethereal.

This season, she dialed down the dreaminess and marched into new ter-ritory with a lineup of military-inspired clothing and voluminous faux furs — protective clothing for challenging times. Even Rocha’s flowers — chunky crochet leather appliqués on coats or colored embroidery on sheer tulle and organza dresses — served a practical, as well as a decorative, purpose.

“It was my version of camouflage — all that deep floral foliage coming together, and then almost becoming this tapestry, this idea of protection,” said Rocha, who opened her show with oversized, belted military coats done in heavy, bonded velvet, and skirt suits in olive satin, both with over-sized patch pockets.

Those don’t-mess-with-me looks gave way to softer ones — but even they had a dark edge. Colored flowers — in yellow or red — blossomed over sheer black dresses, some of which were layered under chunky fur capes or over white dresses, while fat fur ribbons or bows dangled from tops and jackets.

It was a confident collection enhanced by

the weird and wonderful volumes — Rocha’s belted fur coats were big enough to envelop the Michelin Man — but also by the models, who ranged from the youthful to the mature, including 73-year-old Benedetta Barzini.

Rocha said the idea for the casting stemmed from her reflections on who she is as a designer and the idea of femininity. “I want to be very inclusive – it’s what I do. My collections are for all different types of women, and I really wanted to reflect that. It is 100 percent mothers, daughters, granddaughters. It’s something that I’ve really built my identity on, so it was nice to be able to share that this time.” — Samantha Conti

Mary Katrantzou Mary Katrantzou toyed with the dark — and fantastical — elements of the Forties, a decade of war, film noir and Disney’s groundbreaking film “Fantasia.” It was a busy collection, with lots of charm, crys-tal sparkle, checks, flowers and fur – not exactly for the minimalist dresser.

“I was thinking of different kingdoms, the Magic Kingdom and ‘Fantasia,’ which I first saw when I was about 10, and how Dis-ney used the music to animate the charac-ters,” Katrantzou explained after the show. “I wanted to counterbalance that with the Forties, and the heroines of film noir.”

A live orchestra, positioned on the sidelines of the runway, played as the show

unfolded with Forties-style chubbies and coats with jumbo fur sleeves, check ones with luscious fur collars, flower studs and crystal fringe, and suits with shiny swan embellishments.

Dresses with poufs at the shoulder were a joyous patchwork of velvet, tulle and check, while tapestry peplum jackets came with jaunty zips down the front. The orchestra, riffing on songs such as “The Rose,” added a dreamy, sentimental dimension, which was fitting for the lineup of velvet dresses, which sprouted pink ostrich feathers or shimmered with iridescent cosmic patterns, starbursts, fairies and fauns. Tinkerbell made an appearance, too, drifting across Katrantzou’s dark velvet designs, with per-mission from Disney. — S.C.

Versus Donatella Versace and her in-house team relaunched the Versus collection in the spring, putting an athletic spin on the label’s signature sizzling looks and aiming to appeal to young women (and men) who don’t mind a bit of clubbing after their crunches, and who want easy pieces that can work in the daytime, too.

That’s just what Donatella delivered for fall — a lineup of easy, street-y pieces for the glammed-up Millennial, all delivered to (what else?) a thumping techno beat. They swung from the racy — as in a black leather wrap skirt with a big slit up the front, and

a little chain-mail dress that barely hid the model’s bottom — to the more demure.

The quieter looks were the strongest, such as cropped, nubby sweaters and dark jackets with rounded sleeves, a burgundy and white Neoprene suit with a swingy skirt, and minidresses that were a mix of chain mail and fuzzy pink yarn. One lovely dress came with fingertip-grazing sleeves and an abstract black-and-white newspaper print with Versace in some of the headlines.

That same print spilled onto oversized puffer jackets, too. Shots of bright aqua added to the collection’s sporty feel as in one neoprene dress with a cutout back like a swimsuit. Many of the looks crossed right over to men’s wear, such as the sweaters (long, not cropped), puffers and round-sleeved jackets.

Versace didn’t elaborate — before or after the show — about the collection, and her front-row guests, who included Lottie Moss and Will.i.am, also kept mum. The British R&B star Tinie Tempah, a designer in his own right who won warm reviews for his first What We Wear collection, said his favorite look from the show was that worn by Adwoa Aboah.

“I really liked the big, branded puffer jacket she wore,” he said before slipping backstage. He was less effusive about the show’s booming music and flashing lights. “I make R&B, so that sort of thing is not really for me.” — S.C. with contributions from Julia Neel

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Molly goddardWarning: Molly Goddard is a big believer in fantasy frocks that can shine on a runway but are pretty much useless in real life. For fall, there were quite a few of them, alongside some delightful ones that bore her signature smocking and ruching, as well as some baby-doll and ballgown shapes.

After showing off cotton-candy pink, aqua and coral-colored confections, models sat down at Georgian-style dinner tables, chatted and quaffed Champagne.

“I wanted to look at all generations at the dinner table — how they wear clothes and how they evolve — old ladies, babies, mid-dle-aged women,” said the designer, one of London’s fast-rising talents, who sells at Dover Street Market, I.T in Hong Kong and Nordstrom Space, among other stores.

Some of Goddard’s wilder numbers included a cotton-candy-pink dress with tulle skirts and sleeves like ballooning lampshades, a voluminous white night-gown style with ruffles and smocking — based on a christening dress — and a whopper of an aqua tulle gown that turned out bigger than planned — double the size — due to a mistake with the fabric delivery, according to the designer.

More wearable creations included a pleated trapeze top, a gray cotton pleated dress with pouf sleeves, and a lineup of ruched tulle and Lycra leggings, which looked as delicate as gossamer, but which Goddard insisted were sturdy and comfortable.

An airy green foil A-line dress was lovely, as was a faded mossy-green one with flower embroidery — maybe not be fitting for strolling down the frozen foods aisle of the local Tesco supermarket — but, then again, why not? — Samantha Conti

Mulberry The inspiration was the English coun-tryside — horses, hounds and rich grand-mas with lavish, moth-eaten wardrobes and glittery boxes of jewels. Mulberry’s thinking could not have been more of the moment as 2017 is shaping up to be the year of the heirloom. There’s the upcom-ing show at Chatsworth that will showcase 500 years of the Devonshire family’s fashion, textiles and jewels, while a major display of Princess Diana’s dresses is set to open at Kensington Palace, marking 20 years since the royal’s death.

Although Mulberry’s thinking was of-the-moment, the collection proved tricky. Highlights included a series of classy crochet dresses with contrasting collars, in feisty combinations such as mauve and mustard, burgundy and green, caramel and aqua, and a lineup of flat-front pleated skirts that swooshed as models walked.

Creative director Johnny Coca said he was thinking of a young woman wandering the halls and rummaging through the clos-ets of the family’s stately home, adapting her grandmother’s wardrobe to suit her modern life. At times, though, it failed to work. The oversized quilted ponchos, inspired by horse blankets, were unwieldy, as were the check suits and big coats that swallowed models’ slim figures.

Bags and accessories — a mainstay of the business — were the true Mulberry family jewels.

Chunky, strappy shoes and high-heeled loafers were adorned with kilt pins, chains and jewels, while patent over-the-knee boots came in snazzy brights such as aqua. There were saddle bags galore, some with accordion pleats at the side, and others done in quilted leather with contrasting

stripes. Circular bags inspired by hat boxes came with braided silk straps, while faux croc ones were adorned with painted mother-of-pearl medallions, inspired by ancestral portraits. — S.C.

osmanBritish-born Osman Yousefzada cele-brated difference with his upbeat and opulent fall collection, sending forth a cast of his artist friends of different sizes and ages interspersed with his catwalk models.

In an optimistic reaction to the current political climate, specifically immigration issues in America, Yousefzada, whose family hails from Afghanistan, put forth a joyful exploration of color and texture – with lots of happy-by-default sequins. Yousefzada’s use of ethnic references was minimal in this outing, but still evident in the midi-length silk dress printed with a pattern taken from an Afghan rug in his home, and in the wide copper leather sash tied at the waist of a long plaid coat.

There were nods to the Eighties in the OTT ruffles that topped one-shouldered dresses, and in the one-shouldered, egg-yolk-yellow sequined dress. He put his spin on power dressing with a red cropped trouser suit, while a gray blazer had a pair of matching trousers with a gathered flare leg. And a pale-pink cashmere coat topped with a matching fur gilet was pure sophistication.

A red floral jacquard added extra opu-lence to a full skirt worn with a trim black leather jacket, belted in a jacquard sash, and to a fitted, double-breasted jacket that came with an extraordinary pair of yellow sequin pants with tiers of frills. The twinkletastic sequined looks that closed

the show, like the tiered silver skirt worn with a white shirt and black coat, finished things on a high note. — Julia Neel

Temperley London There was a new, sleek polish to Alice Temperley’s lineup this season; along with the femininity that characterizes her designs, she imbued them with a sense of strictness and restraint.

Vintage fans that Temperley had found in a museum — and the floral, filigree designs that adorned them — provided inspiration. The designer treated the intricate flowers in a bold way — they appeared on a blue and pink floral jac-quard she fashioned into a chic shirt-dress with a full skirt. But Temperley also worked the idea with a subtle hand, taking a lip motif that was inspired by a Surrealist design on a fan, and embroider-ing it sparingly at the neckline and hem of a black tulle column dress.

The sequins, silks and beading in the collection all had a toned-down quality to them, too. One ankle-grazing, blue sequined skirt was grounded with a snug, cable-knit sweater. And another high-waisted black maxi skirt, in panels of tulle and sequins, was paired with a mannish, high-necked shirt with a black neck tie — drawn, the designer said, from Anthony van Dyck paintings.

But while Temperley noted that she’d envisaged the collection as “cleaner and chicer,” there was still the familiar element of romance and escapism to her designs. “I’m so sort of bored with the scary world out there that you have to get lost in cre-ating something that’s your own and dif-ferent and a little bit more dreamscape-y,” she mused. — Nina Jones

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peter pilotto Folksy elements, seen through a modern lens, defined this collection, which design-ers Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos worked with a breezier, more youthful air than in seasons past.

The designers cited Peruvian quilting as one of the “worldly” techniques they’d explored, with the stitching embroidered onto the silk pockets of oversized tweed parkas, or on a panel of one wool wrap skirt. But alongside those obviously wintery elements were fluttery, bias-cut dresses that had a seasonless, globally minded appeal. One navy blue number was edged in a red and gold pattern that evoked a silk scarf, while another hot pink, one-sleeved silk dress was embellished with pipe cleaners, twisted into leaf shapes.

Adding to the arty-crafty vibe were over-sized sweater dresses, sewn with patches embroidered with what looked like Incan symbols. Accessories, too, had a quirky appeal, from the mismatched glass earrings in abstract shapes, designed by Jochen Holz, to shiny leather riding boots stitched with colorful embroidery. — Nina Jones

Anya Hindmarch Anya Hindmarch set out to conjure “a world of cold” for this glamorous collec-tion with a fairy-tale feel. For the past few seasons, the designer has been enhancing her collection of colorful leather bags with outerwear and piles of lush fur. This season her coats, chunky Fair Isle sweaters and furry white hats were an ode both to mountain life and to traditional leather craft techniques thanks to wisps of silky shearling and embellishments in the shape of hearts and butterflies.

Models cocooned in fur and fabric climbed around a set that had been

transformed into an abstract mountain, showing off coats with cutout shoulders and fur stoles in eye-catching shades of aqua, burgundy, egg yolk yellow and emer-ald. Other toppers were decorated with colored leather cutouts, or had shimmery jewel-like embellishments fixed to the lapels, epaulets and cuffs.

There was shearling everywhere, from slides — some of which had googly eyes or happy faces — to sandals and clogs. Handbag straps were edged or covered in fur, while the leather cutouts made their way onto bags, handles and straps. New bag styles included a modular stack bag for women who can’t resist compartmentalizing their lives, and a bucket style with hand-woven leather straps.

The latter will be part of Hindmarch’s new Build A Bag concept, which she plans to launch in May. — Samantha Conti

gareth pugh Gareth Pugh is not happy with the state of the world, and his collection riffed on anarchy, extremism, intolerance, big-otry and global political chaos. In Pugh’s disciplined hands these nefarious notions translated into a powerful lineup.

Inspired by Liliana Cavani’s cult 1974 film “The Night Porter,” Pugh sent out a cast of lethal heroines played by friends including Erin O’Connor and London club scene legend Scarlett Cannon, who wore elegantly architectural clothes to face what the designer described as the world’s “toxic masculinity.”

There was a toughness in the sharply tailored lines of double-breasted coats and a fluid leather trench. In one dra-matic look, a big faux-fur coat was cap-tured and clamped to the body by a little leather gilet, exaggerating the volume over arms and hips.

The long lean lines on an Edwardian woman’s reading habit were echoed in a floor-length double-breasted coat with molded hips, while Pugh’s take on screen-si-ren glamour was seen in a backless halter gown topped with a bulbous collar embel-lished with three-dimensional ruffles.

Pugh also took Bob Fosse’s 1972 film, “Cabaret,” which is set in Berlin between the two world wars, as inspiration. The sequinned numbers that Liza Minnelli wore shone through in the sheer black gown, dotted with shimmering embellishments, that added a dose of feminine glamour to Pugh’s impressive lineup. — Julia Neel

House of Holland House of Holland might be a label known for its tongue-in-cheek approach, but that doesn’t mean designer Henry Holland isn’t thinking about the bigger picture. “It’s very difficult not to be looking to America at the moment so the collection was kind of my love letter to America. What I wanted to do was celebrate the culture of the country,” said Holland.

He took a characteristically exuberant attitude for a collection filled with Stars and Stripes prints, retro checkerboard patterns and lace and fringing. His ever-youthful silhouettes had an off-hand, Nineties quality this time around, as Holland said he’d been taken with how the era’s hip hop stars had interpreted cowboy looks. There were designs such as a slouchy, pink-and-white checked fluffy sweater worn over a slip-dress. Jeans printed with white stars were paired with an oversized lumberjack shirt and a sweater with a Woody Woodpecker motif (part of a capsule collection inspired by the cartoon character).

As much as the collection channeled a bold, brash mood — fishnet tights and cowboy boots worn with a coat in

red-and-white shaggy shearling checks — there were looks that tempered all those wild elements. Nodding to the grungier side of the Nineties, there were lace dresses in muted shades of mauve and khaki, trimmed with silky fringing. — N.J.ph

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preen by Thornton BregazziBy turns romantic and rebellious, Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi’s beautifully poetic fall collection drew its references from Christina Broom’s photographs of suffragettes, artists Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas and the flamboyance of the Eighties’ New Romantics.

“We were thinking about women, and how powerful women can be, [especially] politically at the moment,” said Bregazzi. In the silhouettes in particular, the design duo played traditionally feminine, corseted garments off against freer, flouncy shapes, to appealing effect. One cream cable-knit sweater appeared to be fused with a black corset, so while the waist was cinched in, the neck slouched off the shoulders. Bre-gazzi noted that the designers had wanted to explore how a corset’s shape could read either “repressive [or] liberating,” depend-ing on how it’s worn.

The duo also deftly toyed with the restric-tive elements of the suffragettes’ Edwardian dress, as in a deep purple silk dress, with its covered buttons at the back positioned

off to one side, and a ruffled collar, half of which had been sliced off. And a high-necked, frilled white shirt with extravagantly long sleeves was paired with carrot-shaped, high-waisted pants for an undone, Eighties air. Adding to that devil-may-care mood was the models’ smudged red lipstick and mussed-up hair.

Florals, a recurring theme in Thornton and Bregazzi’s collections, had a bold, wild-flower quality this season. The designers fashioned floral fabrics in vivid reds, blacks and yellows into high-necked, handker-chief-hemmed dresses, or one cocooning, eiderdown-like coat, to look as if their muse had gone “back to bed [to] hide away from the world,” Bregazzi said. — Nina Jones

phoebe english Building on last season’s contemplative presentation — which had the air of an art installation — Phoebe English delivered a conceptual collection highlighting eight themes for fall, spanning from apathy to tyranny.

“It’s a celebration of beauty and female’s strengths,” said English. “It’s also celebrat-ing unity over division and different types of

femininity. Each character has an element of color symbolism and identity.”

Her well-constructed fall outing was as strong and resilient as her feminine muses — which created an engaging presentation.

She devised a storyline behind her figures and presented an assortment of characters which she named Tyranny, Fear, Apathy, Voice, Courage, Unity, Repair and Hope.

This season, English said she returned to textiles and focused on materials, texture and the use of color. She employed sheer fabrics in sharp silhouettes, as seen on Hope’s draped cotton green velvet top, fashioned with a delicate black tulle overlay and printed jacquard wide-legged trousers.

The designer tried tailoring for the first time and her play on masculinity was seen in a wool cotton red trouser suit on Tyranny. English tucked and pleated Tyr-anny’s suit jacket inward at the waistline, for a slightly distorted look. Elsewhere, she teamed with John Smedley on a black knit piece which was twisted and draped and worn over a soft khaki velvet suit, as seen on Apathy. On Unity, she explored metallics and infused gilded pinstripes on a lightweight long-sleeved white dress worn with a white quilted half jacket — a style the

designer created. — Lorelei Marfil

Halpern There was a cool, no-holds-barred glam-our to the first solo runway outing from designer Michael Halpern, who presented his Halpern collection in a bare-bones store space Saturday evening.

The New York-born, London-based designer — whose collection has already been picked up by Bergdorf Goodman, Browns, and Matchesfashion.com — sent out glitter-drenched, striking silhouettes. Halpern said he was channeling the “hard-core luster” of the Seventies, name checking Cher and her go-to guy Bob Mackie among his inspirations.

There were catsuits a-plenty, with sweep-ing bell bottom pants and high necks. One came in emerald and silver sequins; another in textured stripes of black, silver, and gold sequins. Adding to the collection’s sense of drama were the structured garments sheltering Halpern’s sparkly fare, such as a duck-egg blue bustier with a sweeping train, or a pink bolero jacket with aggressively peaked shoulders.

This was an assured, striking debut. — N.J.

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Huishan Zhang Romance was in the air at Huishan Zhang’s fall show, which took cues from French bohemian dressing. This was most visible in the designer’s beautifully worked lace gowns rendered in pristine white and moody black, this season’s strongest category. They featured gathered sleeves and flared skirts, so light they didn’t make a sound as the models glided softly to the sounds of an acoustic guitar.

As the soundtrack turned to techno, the looks also toughened. The Central Saint Martins graduate turned to a graphic harle-quin pattern for a series of knitwear num-bers, including an oversized sweater and a cropped cardigan. Elsewhere, the motif served as a matrix for intricate feather and pearl embroideries, as seen on a cropped teddy jacket and two-piece evening ensem-ble made of a midlength skirt and cropped top, feeding somewhat into the season’s boudoir chic vibe.

But it was hard to tell how a volley of organza and paneled skirts sporting a blurred flower print by a Chinese water-color artist related to the rest of the lineup. Albeit romantic by nature, they were no match for Zhang’s lace and tulle artistry. — Paulina Szmydke-Cacciapalle

pringle of Scotland Protection — against the elements, and challenging world events — has been an overriding theme at the fashion weeks

starting last month with the European men’s wear collections. Fran Stringer, Pringle’s women’s design director, was yet another designer who proposed robust comfort clothing for fall.

Her mind stretched to the Scottish Highlands — in the days before kilts — when women would wrap themselves in heavy fabrics and secure them with a metal pin. That idea yielded off-kilter cashmere dresses, and cardigans that wrapped around the body like a lover’s hug.

Long, one-shouldered dresses — some smooth, others ribbed — had slits up the sides and asymmetric hemlines, while curve-hugging skirts and sweaters were dotted with different sized buttons. Wide, floor-sweeping trousers were slashed up the sides, with everything done in a com-forting palette of cinnamon, cream and black — and the odd punch of saffron.

Stringer also looked to the Pringle archives, patching together mismatched argyle patterns into sweaters and long dresses with exposed seams. The knitted outerwear far outshone the fabric coats on offer. One floor-length waffle weave cardigan seemed less about battling the elements and more about lounging, fire-side, on a winter night. — Samantha Conti

emilia Wickstead It’s amazing what a posh frock can do for a women’s morale. For fall, Emilia Wickstead was influenced by the work of 19th-century Russian noblewoman and photographer

Natalia Shabelsky, whose passion for tradi-tional folk art and textiles led her to travel all over her native country photographing ordinary women in extravagant dress.

“Some of these women were maids, and it’s amazing to see the empowering effect that wearing those clothes had on them,” explained Wickstead, noting that the palette of blush pink, forget-me-not blue, royal blue, jade green, scarlet, black and white was inspired by the colors in traditional matryoshka dolls.

Silhouettes were Wickstead’s staple of high-waisted skirts and pants, and predom-inantly longer dresses. A decadent high-waisted velvet skirt in deep-blue velvet was teamed with a blue turtleneck covered in posies of folksy flowers, while a lovely pair of white pleat-front pants was worn with a matching top with puffy sleeve details.

A fully sequined dress added mirror-ball glamour, but its long sleeves and midi hem made it modern. While there were only two coats in the lineup, they were great, espe-cially the blue three-quarter-length number with wide lapels and contrasting fluffy pan-els. Fall marks the debut of Wickstead’s first denim offering: high-waisted jeans in deep indigo that the designer paired with either a velvet top with corsetry details or with a black cloqué lace shirt. — Julia Neel

Chalayan Returning to the London schedule after 16 years of showing in Paris, Hussein Chalayan said he wanted to convey a sense of “protest

and celebration” following his Saturday morning show at Sadler’s Wells Theater.

His finale said it all: The looks were inset with papery panels at the bodice, which models tore off to reveal a cascade of feathers or glittery streamers.

“There’s a kind of aggression in that you need to tear them, but the things that come out are quite charming,” said the designer.

The designer also wanted to explore the idea of the “new, isolated individuals that the current world order is generating,” while drawing on elements of Greek folk culture and Ancient Greek sculptures.

While his inspirations might have been as multilayered as ever, they resulted in designs with a spare, serene appeal. Cha-layan’s signature draped and sculptural silhouettes had an austere air, particularly against the backdrop of the theater’s unadorned, shadowy stage.

He channeled wool felt, in sober shades of brown, gray and black, into pieces that ranged from a girlish, drop-waisted dress to a sleek, columnlike gown. Its pleats ran from the neck to the ankles, and it was worn with leather evening gloves to add a sense of occasion.

Also noteworthy were designs that worked elements of tailoring into femi-nine shapes. A black wool, floor-length dress had a top that resembled a jacket, fashioned to sit off the shoulder and revealing the collarbones. Another black jacket was reworked as a corset. It was buttoned over a snappy white shirt and tailored black pants. — Nina Jones

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The streetwear phenomenon is still in full effect as designers

sent out even more puffed-up puffers.

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network and on its web site in June before a broader rollout, eventually reaching the firm’s more than 10,000 fragrance doors around the world.

Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion, and Christine Dagousset, global president of fragrance and beauty at Chanel, disclosed the flurry of develop-ments exclusively to WWD.

“This year will be unique because we are boosting at the same time fragrance and bags, which are the two most important categories in our business,” said Pavlov-sky, interviewed jointly with Dagousset at Chanel’s plush, black-and-cream offices on 57th Street here. “We believe it makes a lot of sense to highlight Gabrielle in 2017 because in each of our businesses we have a lot to say and also we want to seduce a new clientele.

“We are emphasizing the DNA, the roots of the brand. I think that more than ever this is something that is very important to us,” he added.

The house’s watch and jewelry divi-sion, helmed by Frédéric Grangié, also plans to roll out Gabrielle-themed collec-tions this year.

To be sure, Chanel is betting that the Gabrielle scent will catapult its global fragrance franchise.

“Our goal is to put it into the top 10, so it’s not a niche fragrance,” said Dagous-set. She declined to discuss numbers, but industry sources estimate that a fragrance needs to generate $100 million in annual net sales to rank 10th in the world and nearly $250 million to hit number one.

The positioning of the new scent offers a sharp contrast to Chanel’s 96-year-old fragrance business.

Dagousset described the young Gabrielle as a free spirit: “She was a Leo actually, so she couldn’t be tamed.” She declined to break down the composition of the scent, saying only that it was created by Chanel’s fragrance creator Olivier Polge.

With the new fragrance pillar, “we were exploring this whole moment of before Coco — who she really was at the core and that’s what we wanted to express in this new fragrance,” she said.

Chanel’s year of Gabrielle kicks off Wednesday with a three-minute film, “Gabrielle, a Rebel at Heart” — a fast-paced ode to the founder’s audacity and her convictions about female empowerment, daring and freedom.

It’s the 18th chapter of the firm’s popular “Inside Chanel” video series and the first of four that will be focused on Gabrielle Chanel. Previous episodes have been devoted to the iconic Chanel jacket, Marilyn Monroe or the camellia. Last year, “Inside Chanel” videos generated 25.6 million views on social media, according to the company.

The “Rebel” clip unfurls like a manifesto, as a female voiceover declares, “I decided who I wanted to be, and that is who I am” as crisp black-and-white animations show women engaging in sports and adopting the comfort and simplicity of Chanel’s cardigan-like jackets and straight skirts — worlds away from the strangling frou-frou fashions of the turn of the century.

Part two of the Gabrielle communication onslaught debuts on April 3: A campaign lensed by its couturier Karl Lagerfeld and devoted to the Gabrielle handbag.

The ads feature four diverse personali-ties — including the first man in a Chanel handbag campaign: Pharrell Williams. Lagerfeld depicted him on a concert stage wearing a croc version of the bag cross-body. Kristen Stewart, Cara Delevingne and Caroline de Magret are also featured,

each exuding a different allure — seductive, streetwise and quintessentially Parisian, respectively.

Slated to start arriving in stores in March, the Gabrielle bag is meant to become a “pillar” style for Chanel, and is considered the first major new model since the Boy, introduced in 2011.

“We have a lot of seasonal bags in our collections and six times a year we are coming out with a lot of new things,” Pav-lovsky said. “And every four or five years, we want to put the emphasis on one new style and this time it’s the Gabrielle.”

Unveiled on the runway last October amid a “data center” set at the Grand Palais, the Gabrielle is one of those deceptively simple yet ingenious designs at which Lagerfeld excels. He got the idea from looking at virtual reality goggles and upending the shape. Cue a flat-bottomed neo hobo with a double chain handle that straddles both shoulders for ease of carry-ing and security.

The bag — which comes in about half a

dozen iterations, and in a vari-ety of colors and materials, from classic black lambskin to exotic leathers — is to retail from $3,000 up to $33,000 for a large alligator version.

“At Chanel, design comes first and after-wards we try to maximize these creations to be able to make the brand as strong as possible,” Pavlovsky said. “We are working together to make this launch quite efficient in every single country in the world.”

Chanel plans to reprise its Paris-Cosmop-olite show — the name for its pre-fall Metiers d’Art ready-to-wear collection embellished by the couture ateliers it owns — in Japan at the end of May, in tandem with a special event around the Gabrielle bag.

Chanel’s signature quilted, chain-han-dled bags — known as the 2.55 and 11.12 — remain its top sellers. “We put some quotas on these two bags because we don’t want to overload the market with them and we have been able to develop the Boy, which is doing very well — almost the same level as the iconic ones,” Pavlovsky said.

The forthcoming Gabrielle fragrance

will be among powerful siblings. Coco Mademoiselle, originally designed as a flanker of the Coco fragrance with limited prospects, went on to become number one in the world, where it remains, according to the company.

The backbone of Chanel’s fragrance empire has long been No. 5, which Dagous-set admitted was in need of restoration.

“It had been lately losing share of mar-ket in some countries, to be very honest,” she said. The solution was to launch No. 5 L’Eau, which was aimed at Millennials, last year and “boosted the overall fragrance business” with a more than 30 percent sales gain over a three-month period, she said. Dagousset indicated that she expects No. 5 will regain its second-place spot when 2016’s global rankings are released.

“Our goal was to put No. 5 back on the map,” Dagousset noted. “We had all types of women who loved the idea of No. 5 but didn’t like the juice and they found in L’Eau a juice that they really enjoyed,” she said.

Chance is the third Chanel women’s player in global fragrance rankings. Mean-while, the Bleu de Chanel men’s fragrance hit number one in the 2015 male rankings.

So the stage was set for a new pillar. Describing the roles the fragrances are designed to play, Dagousset said, “No. 5 is more about femininity and accomplish-ment. What Mademoiselle Chanel has is this whole paradox of being vulnerable and invincible … and impertinent. Gabri-elle is really who she was [as Gabrielle]. We really want it to be the expression of who she was at her core as a woman whose values are so modern today ... to feature who she was before she became Coco. We’ve done a lot of research with Millen-nial women around the world and you see very clearly they don’t want to be put in boxes. They want to live their own lives,

Chanel Plots Year of Gabrielle COnTinuEd fROM PAGE 1

continued on page 18

The Gabrielle Chanel logo.

Chanel will unveil the Gabrielle bag, which comes in several variations, of several colors and materials.

18 february 21, 2017

they want to be themselves, they want to choose their destiny.”

Chanel’s destiny arrived, fittingly enough, when she was performing on stage as a young, aspiring chanteuse in remote France belting out songs — “Ko Ko Ri Ko” and “Qui qu’a vu Coco” — that earned her a nickname that stuck for life and Coco was born.

The historic house is now showing off its rebellious side at a time when women around the world have mobilized in sup-port of human rights in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president.

“It’s in the air,” Pavlovsky demurred, noting that the same rebellious impulse was in the air three years ago when Lager-feld’s spring 2015 show, on a Paris boule-vard set, climaxed with a raucous demon-stration, echoing the ferment that started bubbling in Paris over gay parenthood.

“It was a very symbolic and nice moment for the brand. These values are very import-ant for what Chanel is today,” he said. “Peo-ple who love this brand, the new genera-tion, they want to be themselves, they want to do and they want to claim what they want to claim. And they know that Gabrielle Chanel in her time was already like that.”

The Gabrielle effort arrives amid strong business momentum for Chanel, accord-ing to Pavlovksy, who cited double-digit growth since the beginning of the year.

“We feel a very nice energy in our bou-tiques,” he said, also citing record orders for the latest Metiers d’Art collection, paraded last November at the Ritz Paris.

Starting in mid-2015, Chanel began harmonizing global pricing in an attempt to stamp out parallel markets and to ready the brand for an eventual online push. Pav-lovsky acknowledged that “we suffered the first parts of the year” in 2016 as customers in Europe reeled from higher prices and Asian consumers watched price differen-tials of 30 to 60 percent evaporate.

“Now we are back to strong expansion. We are doing very well in China and the

good news is we have seen Chinese cus-tomers coming back and buying our ready-to-wear, in China, and not just accesso-ries,” he said. “[Price harmonization] was difficult, but a good decision and today we believe more than ever the customers are coming to Chanel because they love the product and not because they want to make money off the product.”

The Gabrielle focus trickles down to the house’s watch and jewelry division, which in January presented the Coco Avant Chanel high jewelry collection inspired by the young Gabrielle Chanel and the signatures she had already developed in the early stages of her career as a hat designer, such as camellia flowers, lace and loose ribbons.

And at the Baselworld watch and jewelry fair in March, it will unveil its first ultra-ex-clusive ladies’ watch featuring a movement conceived entirely in-house.

The Première Camellia Skeleton watch contains the Calibre 2 movement, a tour-de-force that uses the wheels normally hidden inside mechanical watches to form a camellia pattern on the dial of a transpar-ent, or “skeleton,” watch.

Among the handful of numbered editions on offer is a white gold version set with 7.85 carats worth of diamonds, including 246 tiny brilliant-cut diamonds nestled on the camellia skeleton, in what represents a feat of engineering.

Grangié, president of the division, said the creation was possible only because Chanel has worked in recent years to become totally independent in terms of its watch design and production.

“The caliber was first designed by our studio to illustrate the Chanel codes and to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible, and then handed over to our engineers,” he said in an interview in his office overlooking Place Vendôme, the square whose shape inspired the stopper on Chanel perfume bottles and the case of the Première watch, marking its 30th anniversary this year.

“That means that a model like this takes five years to develop, as opposed to buying a complication from an outside supplier and customizing it to achieve the desired look. Our process is strictly design-based and that, to my knowledge, is unique to Chanel,” he added.

Chanel Plots Year of Gabrielle COnTinuEd fROM PAGE 17

The 18th chapter of the “inside Chanel” video series will launch, called, “Gabrielle, a Rebel at Heart.”

A sketch by Karl Lagerfeld of a Gabrielle bag.

february 21, 2017 19

● The active giant is pushing forward with a new style that eliminates the foam midsole.

by MaGhan McDowell

Nike’s latest step into the world of splashy designs and performance-minded innovations was seven years in the making and marks new capabilities in its manufac-turing prowess.

The Nike Air VaporMax, which will become available in March, eliminates the foam midsole of the running shoe and attaches the upper — the part that wraps around the foot — directly to the sole. The upper is made of Nike Flyknit, while the sole is made up of Nike’s airbags, in this case called the VaporMax Air unit.

The effect makes the shoe more light-weight and flexible, while maintaining durability, which is crucial in building a shoe that maintains air pressure.

John Hoke, vice president of Nike Global Design, called the new technology an “inflection point.” In designing and testing the shoe, Nike used 3-D modeling and simulations that could show potential “hot spots” in a matter of minutes.

“Data-enriched design is here, but data doesn’t dream; we do,” Hoke said.

He hinted at personalization as a key focus of innovation on the horizon.

The soles are made in one of Nike’s two Air manufacturing innovation centers, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There, the airbags are made start-ing with a material that resembles plastic

sheet, filled with nitrogen, and the color is added later. Scraps are recycled and reused to ward against waste.

The Nike Air shoes, which debuted in 1987, have become a signature for the brand. The Air Max, the first to have a visi-ble air-cushioning unit, came of age in the Nineties when expensive sneakers became a status symbol.

But Brett Holts, vice president of Nike Running Footwear (Run Easy), said the design is intended be to the Air Max of the future — not a nod to the past.

His presentation at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., was part of a day of tours and talks at the expansive Nike campus, for which journalists were encouraged, with a smile, to dress comfortably (albeit preferably not in a competitor’s products).

Holts’ talk followed a tour of the brim-ming Department of Nike Archives, where old shoes illustrated the evolution of the running shoe into casualwear stalwart alongside replicas of Olympics track spikes, Michael Jordan posters and World Cup jerseys. Later, 3,000-meter steeple-chase record-holder Evan Jager led a jog around the Michael Johnson track in the Oregon rain.

In the lobby of the building where Hoke leads Nike’s legions of designers, an indoor track paints portions of the bottom floor and a three-story sculpture reads, “Always listen to the voice of the athlete.”

While for Nike’s athletic ethos, this makes sense, it also makes sense to build a shoe for a consumer for whom a $190 shoe has become a lifestyle choice.

business

Nike Ups Innovation With VaporMax

The nike Air VaporMax.

orchestrating HBC’s deal to buy Saks Fifth Avenue in 2013. HBC also owns Lord & Tay-lor, Hudson’s Bay, Saks Off5th, Gilt, Galeria Inno and SportArena. The Lord & Taylor and Hudson’s Bay department store deals were financed extensively by debt from an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.

“Don is Richard’s longtime chief of acquisitions,” said the source. “They were spotted together in Hong Kong this week.”

An HBC official declined comment.HBC could tap Thomas Lau, who heads

up Lifestyle International Holdings, the operator of the Sogo department stores.

He and his brother Joseph are among the richest individuals in Hong Kong.

There is also the Cheng family, which is involved in retail with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Ltd., a diversified, Hong Kong-based company engaged in property development, hotels, casinos, transpor-tation, telecommunications, and also has Hearts on Fire, the diamond jeweler.

Other potential investors: Gaw Capital, a large Chinese real estate developer; Fung Retailing, Macy’s partner in the department store’s e-commerce business in China; Shanghai-based Fosun International, one of China’s largest private conglomerates, which recently started investing in U.S. real estate and purchased 28 Liberty St. in Man-hattan, and Shanghai’s Greenland Group, a major real estate player with ultrahigh-rise buildings, large urban complex projects, high-speed rail station business districts

and industrial park development.If Baker doesn’t secure a deal for Macy’s,

he could shift his efforts back on Neiman Marcus Group, which has been on his radar for years and would represent a much smaller acquisition. Baker is a savvy dealmaker with an eye for undervalued real estate, which Macy’s has.

At $27 billion in annual volume and over 700 stores, Macy’s would be a big nut for HBC, with about U.S. $11 billion in annual volume, to swallow. Still, there would be synergies, best practices, access to different brands and designer labels, retail talent, a lot of volume and some valuable, owned-flagship properties, such as Herald Square in Manhattan and on State Street in Chicago.

On the downside, many consider Macy’s to be a broken business in need of a major fix, though Baker believes in the

department store model. Macy’s is in the process of shuttering more than 60 stores this year and about another three dozen in the next few years, and is working to turn around negative sales trends.

HBC has $14 billion in real estate and with a partner would have the where-withal to orchestrate a deal with Macy’s. One source speculated that a deal could be structured similarly to the purchase of Kaufhof, where real joint ventures were established with no debt or equity involved, to fund the acquisition. Some analysts believe real estate developers Simon Property Group, General Growth Properties and Brookfield Asset Manage-ment could be potential interested parties here, involving HBC selling and leasing back properties. Brookfield is already working with Macy’s to redevelop and monetize up to 50 properties.

HBC Said EyeingMacy’s Bid Partner COnTinuEd fROM PAGE 1

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In Focus: Technology

● Consumers want the fluidity and convenience of cloud-based services without the safety concerns.

by elizaBeTh DoupniK

As retailers plow forward to connect all devices, stores and platforms in effort to appease consumers, it might behoove them to remember that shoppers are easily scared.

Brands and retailers have been tasked to satisfy customers with omnichannel expe-riences; yet seem to have lost sight of the fact that consumers are still wary of pull-ing the trigger in mobile checkouts. With grimly low mobile commerce conversion rates, consumers still don’t quite trust — or understand — the benefits of cloud-based services resulting in lost potential revenue.

Millennials have driven up mobile traffic share. According to the Demandware Second Quarter Shopping Index, mobile traffic share rose to 47 percent globally sur-passing desktop traffic at 44 percent. This marks new opportunities for retailers and brands to exhibit strategies in the spaces in which their customers are most active — social, in particular. But strategies alone won’t keep the lights on. According to Smart Insight, a strategic digital marketing agency, add-to-basket conversion rates for mobile averaged 1.27 percent for the third quarter in 2016.

Highly publicized data breaches such as Target’s 2014 hack and LinkedIn’s com-promise in 2012 have instilled consumer apprehension regarding new technology that can be perceived as hackable. This has a direct effect on brand loyalty. In a study on Generation Z by Interactions, titled “Consumer Experience Market-ing Retail Perceptions,” 59 percent of those polled said they avoid shopping at retailers that have been hit by security breaches. However, 78 percent of respon-dents trust retailers to keep their personal information safe.

It’s not an unfounded concern. The more devices used by a given individual or company increases the chances for a hack. “Over the last three years, AT&T has recorded a 3,198 percent increase in IoT vulnerability scans. The research firm IDC predicts that by 2018, approximately two-thirds of enterprises will experience some sort of IoT security breach,” noted authors of AT&T’s CEO Guide to Navigating the Threat Landscape report.

As if a shaky reputation wasn’t bad enough, most consumers are completely confused about all things cloud. In a recent Ask Your Target Market survey, 11 percent

business

Cloud Curiosity: Uncertain About Security, Shoppers Hesitate

transaction from point of sale to delivery. This will help give customers the reassur-ance that business processes are well in hand,” said Michele Dupré, group vice president for retail, hospitality and distri-bution with Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

Consumer insistence for integrated, personalized experiences across platforms is only increasing. Here, cloud-based solution-providers such as SAP, Adobe and Infor aid retailers in delivering customized content in order to move the needle of conversion. In order to capture more pur-chases, retailers will benefit from multiple touch-points during the checkout process. “Whether it’s a commitment made on a retailer’s web site, part of the opt-in language for using an app or in an e-mail message confirming a purchase, retailers can take steps to reassure consumers that securing their information is a business priority,” Dupré said.

Consumers present a paradigm of demands, requiring cloud-based services that can support a multigenerational shopper base. “The main pain point that retailers are feeling today is the change in the way the consumer interacts or engages with the retailer. Consumers today come in two basic categories: The consumer who wishes to have incredible service ad the other consumer wants to be left alone, does not want to be hassled and wants a friction-free experience,” Mauerer said. “These are characteristics of today’s Mil-lennials. A retailer has to be positioned to serving both classes of consumers. Cloud-based services can support these two types of consumers through things like person-alized attention and frequent communica-tion or self-service through web or in-store, so as to not have to interact too much or more than desired.”

Retailers can win big both from a financial and marketing standpoint if the proper security measures are proactively implemented. According to a 2012 HP Enterprise Security survey, “The average annualized cost for 56 benchmarked orga-nizations is $8.9 million per year, with a range from $1.4 million to $46 million each year per company. Last year’s aver-age cost per benchmarked organization was $8.4 million.”

The study went on to note that compa-nies that deployed appropriate security software benefited from $1.6 million cost savings.

Streamlined cloud-based services that enhance consumers’ journey — despite their preferred path to purchase — will only be meaningful if its underlying platform not only ensures customer information is secure, but the retailers employing said services communicates the benefits to its customers relieving security concerns.

Consumers fear the cloud, but don’t realize they’re already using it.

Have a mobile device that they sync to a computer or online accounts.

Shop online.

Use social networking sites.

Use online banking.

45% 72%71% 62%

of respondents said they use cloud tech-nology — 31 percent said they never use it. What’s more, the same survey said “60 percent of participants worry about secu-rity when it comes to cloud technology.”

The survey also revealed that 45 percent of respondents said they have a mobile device and acknowledged syncing it to a computer or an online account. “Seven-ty-two percent said that they shop online,” the report stated. “Seventy-one percent use social networking sites. Sixty-two per-cent use online banking.”

Consumers fear the cloud but don’t realize they’re already using it.

And though shoppers are highly self-in-formed, their investigative nature tends to focus on product or brand research,

leaving room for retailers to educate customers on their cloud-based offerings and security.

“Part of the solution to this problem is communication of the program to the con-sumer. This includes making certain repre-sentations as regards to security and how their information will be used or won’t be used and the ability to opt out of the rela-tionship at any time, either by phone, web or in-store,” explained Michael Mauerer, chief executive officer of Teamwork Retail, a cloud-based, point-of-sale service. Cus-tomers of Teamwork Retail range from Gilt Groupe to Rebecca Minkoff to Asics.

When approaching shoppers, diffusing concerns before they surface can maintain loyalty. “Consumers, in general, do busi-ness with brands that they trust. Whether it’s an iconic brand that has been around for a long time, or a newcomer, the key is to communicate with customers early and often. Keep communications simple and easy to understand, in addition to commu-nicating what to expect during the entire

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22 february 21, 2017

Surviving a Decade in New York NightlifeThree hot spots opened in 2007 reveal their secret to withstanding the test of time.

the year was 2007: Neither the U.S. economy nor Lindsay Lohan’s career had yet plummeted into deep recession. The nightclub scene in New York was thriving with a bevy of hot spots, from Bungalow 8 to The Beatrice Inn and — riding the Cosmopolitan wave of “Sex and the City” — Club row along 27th Street that included havens B.e.D., Home and guest House.

While some of the businesses above have met their demise, three others — The Box, goldbar, and 1oak — survived the club cul-ture’s downturn, with each mark-ing their 10th anniversary this month with Champagne-soaked celebrations toasting their last-ing success.

ronnie Madra, co-owner of 1oak, says the club "has remained relevant with a pop-up presence everywhere from Coachella to Cannes and a calculated focus on proprietary partying. We always knew we

were building a brand."“We were the toughest door

[to get into] consistently for five years,” continues Madra when asked of the club’s secret to suc-cess. “Slowly, slowly we opened it up a little bit. When you let only the cool people in to buy a drink at the bar or buy a table you’re not really serving the nightlife industry, you’re serving an ego.”

A strategic approach to guest selection is consistent across the board, but each venue realized it is fiscally impossible to maintain such a strict ivory tower approach. on Feb. 14, The Box, known for its raunchy burlesque entertainment, hosted a party for itself with longtime fans of the brand including Lohan — who celebrated her salacious 21st birthday at the club— and actress Susan Sarandon. The guests were treated to a surprise performance by incendiary group Pussy riot just after a well-endowed man, partially clad

in a bear costume, played with himself on stage.

But the louche theatrics of The Box are not for everyone. Accord-ing to a friend, Britney Spears fled the club’s sumptuous fin de siècle interior after a relatively tame act back in 2011, announcing to pals, “Holy s--t, I don’t know if I can do this, y’all.”

“We’re superlucky that we represent a place for maybe fringe-type denizens of the night,” notes The Box co-owner Simon Hammerstein. “It’s a release valve for New Yorkers to go crazy in a safe space.

“The first year it was very different in that it was the top 500 people in New York and only them because they reserved every table in advance every night,” he continues. “It’s fun to watch people come for the first time and fall in love — it’s so silly and ridiculous.”

Consistently changing and shockingly outrageous enter-

tainment is one ingredient to The Box’s success, but a calculated system of data collection has been in play since the venue’s inception with bustier-clad hostesses secretly gathering intel on guests.

“My first night there they showed me the ropes and basically there was a whole questionnaire that consisted of: Who are these people? What industry are they in? Were they attractive? What was the guy-to-girl ratio, were they polite to the waitress and overall, would we like to invite them back or are we banning them forever?” reveals a former employee. “As I say now, that database was pure f--king gold.”

Wearing fishnets, curled hair and red lipstick (think: a Thirties Berlin cabaret), these coquettish covert agents would “float around with a glass or two of Champagne, chat with the guests, and figure out if

they were cool or not. generally speaking it wasn’t like, 'We’re not going to have them back because they were ugly as long as they had money,' but there was a certain priority to some-body who had all of the boxes checked.”

While money and beauty have as much clout as ever in the moderately superficial world of nightclubs, societal shifts have forced business owners to keep up with the times. “The irony is that when [goldbar] opened, there was — and still is — a plaque outside that says ‘no photogra-phy,’” says Shaun rose, co-owner of the gilded Broome Street venue that was once a regular hangout for John Mayer. “A place that had no photography allowed probably has become one of the most photographed rooms in NYC [on social media].”

Designed by robert Mckinley — whose résumé includes Sant Ambroeus, The National and

ruschmeyer’s in Montauk — the intimate space features a wall of 3-D gold skulls and impressively maintained banquettes.

“People who are coming for the first time should have the same experience as someone did when they walked in 10 years ago,” continues rose, who hopes to expand the brand to places like Chicago or Las vegas, while maintaining attention to craft cocktails rather than spar-kler-topped bottle service.

The world — and the nightlife industry — has inevitably changed from a time when owners had the luxury of extreme exclusivity. “It was a lot cheaper to run this busi-ness back then,” adds rose. “You could afford to be at 50 percent occupancy and still have a great vibe in the room.”

But now that it’s somewhat easier to access these once exclusive enclaves the million-dol-lar question looms: Will we want to? — Andrew nodell

Goldbar celebrates the first decade.

Lindsay Lohan and Simon

Hammerstein at The Box .

Alexandra Richards at 1Oak.

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Fashion Scoops

Memo Pad

Making Upyves Saint laurent is back at Colette. The Paris concept store on Monday unveiled two window displays devoted to the French fashion house, signaling a recon-ciliation: Saint Laurent had sev-ered ties with the retailer in 2013 after former creative director Hedi Slimane objected to Colette carrying parody T-shirts with the logo “Ain’t Laurent Without Yves.” Sarah Andelman, Colette’s creative director, purchasing man-ager and the daughter of store founder Colette rousseau, said discussions with Saint Laurent resumed after Anthony vaccarel-lo was named creative director of the brand last year. Colette previously carried vaccarello’s own line, which he shuttered when he joined Saint Laurent.

“We have worked with An-

thony since his first collection. It was obvious that we would be able to work together again,” Andelman told WWD. “As soon as Anthony’s nomination was announced, we met and we started planning the beautiful windows we have right now.”

vaccarello unveiled the collabo-ration on his Instagram account.

The windows will remain on show until March 1, the day after vaccarello parades his fall collec-tion for Saint Laurent. Andelman noted this was exceptional, since the store usually switches its window displays on Sundays. The display consists of an assem-blage of video screens showing an exclusive edit of a short film directed by Nathalie Canguilhem.

Andelman noted the store had carried the Saint Laurent label virtually since opening in 1997, including collections by Slimane

during his first stint designing men’s wear at the fashion house in the Nineties and women’s wear selections from the Tom Ford and Stefano Pilati eras.

Francesca Bellettini, chief executive officer of Yves Saint Laurent, said: “We are happy to be at Colette with such strong support for the launch of Anthony vaccarello’s first collection for Saint Laurent. “The incredible appreciation that his summer 2017 collection has had since its presentation and since arriving in our stores has allowed us to strengthen even more of our relationships with key wholesale partners worldwide. It was mu-tually exciting to work together on this project and to witness its success,” she added.

Andelman bought the spring women’s collection after attend-ing vaccarello’s debut show for the brand in September. The first deliveries landed several weeks ago. “We have already sold out of the gorgeous stilettos with the Saint Laurent logo on the heel, as well as the jewelry. We are still waiting for another portion of our order. It’s coming in gradually. We have the jeans and some beauti-ful leather dresses,” she said. “A lot of the pieces are really easy to sell.” — Joelle dIderICH

rainbow ConnectionViewpoint Colour, a new mag-azine geared toward designers, marketers, artists and other color-conscious professionals, launches this week.

Created by view Publications and Franklin Till Studio, the biannu-al publication is being produced in conjunction with Pantone and is meant to be an extension of the Pantone view Colour Planner. The first issue will be available for $99.95 via Pantone’s web site and select distribution partners that sell the Pantone view Colour Planner Forecast.

Color influences 50 to 85 percent of ideas and product purchase decisions, according to David Shah, publisher of view Publications.

Laurie Pressman, vice presi-dent of the Pantone Color Insti-tute, said, “As time goes on, we see color being more of a unifying factor across all areas of design. Consumers today are increasing-ly color-aware and color-savvy. They are looking at color more holistically and they expect to see the same colors for cars, cosmet-ics and home furnishing.

“Color has almost become the relevancy factor, the cata-lyst across design thinking, the connector across all areas of design,” Pressman said. “We have seen in today’s world, color and material have become the driving forces. We felt it was time to provide our clients with the type of information they are coming to us more and more to receive.”

Pantone’s Color Institute has worked with view Publications since 1999. The first issue of viewpoint Colour is 152 pages

and explores new processes, color psychology, color news and other subjects. A team of 30 to 50 people are available to pitch in at any given time, depending on what is needed, Pressman said. “That is not to say you have the whole team working on every single issue. The whole idea is to take this whole macro trend that we see happening to see how it is influencing design and impacting processes, color, business and be able to break that down fur-ther.” — roSeMArY FeITelBerG

Honest AdsHonest Co. is set to launch its first major ad campaign — more than a dozen broadcast spots with a musical score composed by Will.i.am — that will be followed by a brand overhaul late this year across its family of prod-ucts and web site.

“We’re five years in and I think every brand goes through their evolution and we’re now at that point where it’s important for us to be really cohesive with our look and feel,” said Honest cofounder Jessica Alba. “When we launched the company…we really were only online and so now that we look at ourselves and we look at the competitive landscape at retail, we need to make sure that we can stand out and compete against everyone else on a shelf.”

A new campaign would be welcome following a buzzy 2016 that included speculation about the company preparing for an initial public offering, followed by chatter that the company was on the sales block. The year capped off with confirmation that Honest, in the current quar-ter, would shed 80 jobs.

The “Moments” campaign certainly flips the script on the harder-edge business conversation that’s been had about the company’s direction. Spots featuring user-generated content or nonactors celebrate real births, while others aim to capture everyday moments be-tween parents and kids. Will.i.am, whose real name is William James Adams, reviewed some of the spots for Alba and offered to help compose a musical score to tie everything together.

The collaboration turned out to be a learning experience for both entrepreneurs.

“There’s 150 people who work in my company and everyone rushes. everyone wants to hurry up and get out in the market-place and grow fast, fast, fast. Seeing the Honest Co.’s steps as they gradually grow and get bigger and bigger is inspirational for us,” Adams said. The musi-cian called i.am+ “a big small company.” one hundred of its employees are engineers work-ing on an AI product expected to be released to the market at the end of the second quarter.

The two spoke with WWD last week following a fireside chat at the Honest headquarters in Playa vista, Calif., during which time Alba unveiled the new spots to employees before going into a Facebook Live recording. — KArI HAMAnAKA

● The former Miss Rhode Island, Miss USA and Miss Universe is now a beauty, fashion and lifestyle influencer.

by roseMary feiTelBerG

Through her Miss Rhode Island, Miss USA, Miss Universe trajectory, Olivia Culpo is now better known as a beau-ty-fashion-lifestyle influencer than the classically trained cellist she is.

While she did a few tracks for Snoop Dogg (“who knows where those went”) Culpo said she wishes she had the time to join an orchestra or quartet just for kicks. Over the holidays, she and her fellow-musician mother performed with the Boston Pops “because they just ran-domly handed me a cello and told me to play with them,” she said. “It’s definitely something that I love. I really appreci-ate that I have that skill and that out for myself whenever I need to forget that the world is existing.”

Having recently been shot by Ellen von Unwerth for Rampage’s spring campaign, Culpo said she liked the fact the brand’s jeans retail from $20 to $40. Wearing a Texas tuxedo, a Rampage jean jacket and jeans during an interview at the HGU Hotel here, she said the cam-paign had a lot to do “with having fun — we baked cupcakes, threw popcorn at the screen, drank milk out of straws in that very cheeky kind of Nineties throw-back way to all the milk commercials.”

Painting the scene at the shoot in Los Angeles, she said, “When we went out to the pool, there were green palm trees, the blue pool, pink floaties. We weren’t taking it too seriously. My hair was huge, my lips were drawn up to my nose almost — I just felt like a different person. That was Ellen’s vision.”

Along with helping her pal Gigi Hadid with “a top-secret project,” during New York Fashion Week, Culpo offered her boyfriend, New England Patriot Danny Amendola, tons of pre-show advice before his runway walk at Philip Plein’s

show. “He said, ‘Where should I look? Should I look at you?’ I was like ‘No, don’t look at anybody. Look straight ahead. Just listen to the music. Think of a mantra that kind of resonates in your head with what you see the collection as.’”

So excited to catch the shows in Paris, Culpo singled out Giambattista Valli as last year’s favorite since Hadid walked the runway. “We’ve been friends for a while just because of the business and seeing each other at pretty much everything,” Culpo said. “The last time we hung out together we just laid in bed. We were so tired. We’re either so tired or she’s really creative. What we did this week was very creative. She’s showing a different side to herself; she’s just a nice normal girl.”

As a Pencils of Promise global ambas-sador with Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber, Culpo also liked the fact that some proceeds from the sales of a boot Hadid designed for Stuart Weitzman are benefiting the charity.

Her Oscar night plans will also be charity-driven through an alliance with Marchesa, Stella Artois and Water.org. Culpo will wear a Marchesa gown made of beads that were made from limited-edi-tion Stella Artois chalices to raise aware-ness about the global water crisis. For every chalice that is purchased, five years of clean drinking water will be provided to someone in a developing country. “That’s just one way how fashion can help for the greater good,” said the L’Oréal League member.

With 1.6 million Instagram follow-ers and counting, Culpo is keeping the increasing intrusive glare of fame in check. “Actually, if anything, you almost become better at knowing how to be your-self. Because you constantly have people telling you to be one way and you know that doesn’t feel right. At those moments you have to choose between hopefully staying true to yourself or losing yourself,” she said. So “when you do put your life out there for people to judge, they totally will. You have to remember what’s true to you rather than what people are going to tell you is true to you.”

business

Olivia Culpo Talks Gigi Hadid, Oscar Night Plans, New Rampage Ads

Olivia Culpo in Rampage at

the HGu Hotel in Manhattan.

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Saint Laurent’s logo heel shoe.