the biggest irony is my job inches me into the fashion industrybut im becoming more out of touch with it.

stolen girlfriends club. winter 09 collection – pretty vacant.

pretty vacant, pretty apt. i hope i find my passion for fashion back, so cliqued but quite true.

character, literal and recycled, all the way from finland. 350 euros and maybe a big house for the above stunning looks. yay for unemployment and HDB flats ;(

What exactly is the formula of success for the British luxury powerhouse founded in 1856 by a 21 year old draper’s assistant Thomas Burberry?

Burberry: Of Gabardine and Warfare attire

Thomas Burberry always had a vision. In his days, motorcars were becoming important. He pioneered a whole series of clothes for cars and changed the way people dressed. He also patented Gabardine, a water resistant, hardwearing yet breathable fabric made from yarn which was waterproofed before weaving.

Burberry’s Equestrian Knight Logo for the Burberry Prorsum (which means “forwards”) was trademarked in 1907 and Thomas Burberry was commissioned by the War Office to adapt officers’ coat to suit the conditions of contemporary warfare. Yes, this was how the trench coat came about. These coats had the representative Burberry classic check as coat lining.

A rich history like this acts as a double edged sword. Brought over by Great Universal Stores (GUS) in 1955, the brand became dependent on tourists, licensees and the grey population as the check design became mite ubiquitous and headed towards oblivion.

Bravo resuscitation: Do a Burberry

Named by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in the world, Italian-American New Yorker Rose Marie Bravo turned a then stagnant, traditional Burberry into a global powerhouse when she took the helm in 1997. She was quick to capitalize on the authentic British history and globally recognized classic trench coat and operated with the core values of the brand. With the Asian Financial Crisis plaguing sales in the Southeast Asian cities, she brought back licences and invested in the Burberry store as the “ultimate brand environment” to reinstall the brand’s heritage and positioning in the luxury sector.

Although she confessed suffering a culture shock when she arrived at Burberry’s scruffy headquarters above the firm’s factory in the East End, a less than enchanting change from the plush Manhattan offices of Saks, she set to work quickly within the next few weeks. Engaging legendary fashion photographer Mario Testino for an image-changing shoot and made Kate Moss her new muse in spite of her drug taking allegations. Corporate wise, she hired some of the best creative, financial and marketing brains in the business. The sexy edge attracted the fashion Press and revenue and profits shot up by 18% and 30% respectively in 2002. The stellar result explains why industry insiders have coined the phrase “Do a Burberry” to mean revamping a stodgy luxury brand into a hip one.

Rose Marie’s encouragement for innovation and change is underscored by the autonomy she gave to then newly poached up-and-coming designer Christopher Bailey from Gucci Group. The modest designer attributed his accomplishment to the freedom Rose Marie had given him, not once questioning his decision to avoid plaid, the most recognized icon of the 148 year old brand.

Christopher Bailey: Design sensibility with business acumen

For such a colourful Curriculum Vitae, Burberry’s youthful designer Christopher Bailey is modest almost to a fault. Discovered by Donno Karen at a tender age of 20, he became right hand man to head designer Peter Speliopolous at Donna Karen for 30 months before returning to Europe to join Tom Ford’s team at Gucci. As Gucci grew to huge dimensions, he sought a new role and jumped at the creative director appointment in Burberry, only after approaching Ford.

Bailey’s unyielding principle behind every collection is to find inspiration from British traditions and culture while tweaking the influences with contemporary silhouettes, fabrics and finishes. The juxtapose of young modern fashion with tradition and history has been working for both the designer and the brand as share price has been ticking upwards, even amidst the grouchy performance of the retail industry.

His ability to distinguish what works for each target segment, as he heads the design teams for both the Burberry Prorsum and Burberry London lines, and cater to their transient tastes has propelled Burberry to become one of the 500 international businesses that play to the fantasies of the rich and beautiful cited by UBS.

Angela Ahrendts: More to come

Rose Marie Bravo kicked start the style diversification at Burberry, as more apparel, handbags, jewellery and shoes were added to the khaki trench coat.

A former executive vice president at Liz Claiborne with global brands like Ellen Tracy, Juicy Couture and DKNY Jeans in her cradle, Angela Ahrendts foremost role is to reorganizae the company around a honed brand image while improving execution and efficiencies. While Burberry has streamlined significantly from a “largely licensed business in the hands of distributors”, only recently had the brand been sharpened into a “global, high growth … luxury brand with a very British sensibility”. She aspires for Burberry to become a purer brand because in her words, “the purer our message, the more compelling it is to consumers”.

In the evolution into a purer brand, Burberry will again capitalize on its core: outerwear and the classic trademarked Burberry check. Bailey had caught on her direction and developed luxury variations of the heritage pattern (Mega Check, The Beat Check, Exploded Check), again injecting fresh modern tastes into the most recognized brand icon. 35 product categories, each with check all over them, were shut down because Ahrendts believed they devalued the icon.

Growth Challenges Ahead

The big picture remains challenging in the global economic downturn. Will the goal of investing in “under-penetrated” markets with new Burberry stores in Kuwait City and Indonesia steer Burberry away from the unfortunate fate of the collective luxury fashion houses? Or will the emerging markets, China and Middle East, continue to redeem the underperforming developed markets?

“We will continue to reforecast flexibly, dynamically adjust … and micromanage the business on a weekly basis before making plans going forward.” Ahrendts said.

Never wrong to proceed cautiously.

-wwd.com

Fitting room Follies

Very nice to watch. so many moments that I can identify with when I fit clothes in fitting rooms of less luxurious brands – smiling, posing, twisting those hips. Lara Stone is so sensual and has the best legs.

Just a quick round up of the looks at the Christian Lacroix Opening Gala of the Audi Fashion Festival in Singapore which took place on 6 May 2009! There were a series of the boring stuff, introduction about the AFF, sponsors, programme line-ups for the rest of the fashion festival, followed by a slide show on Christian Lacroix’s life and signature works. The finale, which was the actual runway presentation, showcased 15 looks. Charmaine Harn, 1.78 local model of Dutch, French and Chinese parentage, opened the show in a short-sleeved, navy, military jacket, gilt-buttoned and braided, worn with loose, navy gaberdine trousers. Androgynous waif model of the millennium Jacquetta Wheeler closed the show in a one-shoulder gold lame sheath gown with a giant bow on the left shoulder.

While we had barely half of the entire collection, the signature of mix of the nonchalant chic masculine tailoring and feminine romantic ruffles can be quickly picked up from the limited number of pieces. Models exuded girlish charm as they strutted the runway in doll-like puffball skirt in pink taffeta and embroided gold and pastel coat with the lively Spanish remix of Careless Whisper on the background. The change of music was the cue for the floor length chifforn and organza gowns overlaid with expensive antique lace. The movement of the clothes, the music in the background, the brightly lit elevated runway.

Awesome show, even without Christian Lacroix being pelted with carnations or the backdrop of Pompudou centre.

Show choreographed by Jeremy Tan of 1 Werks creative events management company in Singapore.

Individual pictures from various sources (Benjamin Seetor, Plush Asia)

Backstage!

P/S Please credit if you re-publish any of the collages because it took me some time to fix them up!

Talk about Fashion meets Finance!
Bündchen is also an active philanthropist, lending her support and image to a number of charities and humanitarian causes, such as the I am African campaign, in which she painted her face to protest against the lack of attention given to Africa’s HIV/AIDS victims.Without receiving payment, Bündchen was, in 2006, the face of American Express Red Card, an initiative to send a percentage of monies earned from the financial transactions of this credit card to Africa’s HIV/AIDS victims front man

She promotes protecting the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Amazon Rainforest water sources, donating to this cause a percentage of profits from her line of sandals named Ipanema Gisele Bündchen.

While she may not be a fashion person, she certainly looks chic and well put together in the most effortless pieces. Jeans, jeans and more jeans.

It is so easy to emulate her style but so difficult to look as good. Talk about height and figure proportion, I bet her legs start at my bustline! Still, a girl can always try!

Audi Fashion Festival Updates:

The Christian Lacroix Gala Opening was awesome! The entire event was glitz and lavish glamour. Socialites, influential fashion Editors, celebrity stylists and hairstylists and talented fashion designers. British emo-punk-rock-ish designer Gareth Pugh looks just like any of those cool Soho London club kids when I saw him smoke a fag outside the tent@Orchard; just in a more Asian, Singaporean setting. Skin and bones with sleek pencil straight hair covering like half of his face, he lavished smiles as he walks past us and was more more than willing to accept requests for photographs. I was half expecting a less than polite rejection from this little understood designer with dark aesthetic, uncompromising vision and raw talent.

Also had a brief 1 minute conversation and quick photograph with favourite, most admired worshipped Singaporean fashion industry muse Ashley Isham. He was either exchanging “mwahhh mwahhhsss” fluttering like a social butterfly in the tent or sashaying with linked arms with Hong Kong stylist Karen Ng out of the tent for cigarettes.

Fashion glitterati at its best. One word, Awesome. And I can’t wait for the rest of the shows. Photos soon!

Barbara Hulanicki for Topshop

Light, girlish, fun and no brainer yet so so so chic.

I can’t sleep if I dont’ share this with you!

Barbara Hulanicki Lookbook Video

Barbara Hulanicki, the proud owner of BIBA (a boutique which started as a small, mail order business featured in daily columns in newspapers), began her fashion career as a fashion illustrator for renowned magazines like Vogue, WWD and Tatler. What is amazing is, Anna Wintour, the intimidating woman at the helm of US Vogue got a fashion start as a sales associate at the Biba store, which was frequented by rockstars like Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. Read more about her awesome life here!

And please, you have to view this video. She talks about how she started making clothes because she had no choices back then, could never get black fabric and how a black dress was considered a risky option (!!). Hear her scorn the colors ugly beige and royal blues and narrate how the Topshop collaboration started as she sketches!

all photos, images and videos from topshop.com

Big Money?

The statistics scream increased revenue for retailers. The plus size market is growing three times faster than other woman apparel categories, according to Elaine Berkman, plus size specialist for Doneger Buying Connection. It is not difficult to spot this proliferating market when the rate of obesity among adolescents has more than tripled, increasing from 5 to 17.6% in the last 20 years. Apparently, as a woman turns 50, she would weigh an average of 8 pounds heavier than her mother did at the same age.

And if you’re reading this article, you should understand the innate potential of a woman when it comes to shopping. Call it retail therapy, stimulating the economy or just plain exhilaration.

Put two together and voila! “an under $2 billion business that could easily grow to a $4 or even $5 billion business within a a year or two”, according to Marshal Cohen, an analyst for the NPD Group which studies the clothing market.

Or will the super sizes really translate into super normal profits? Economics 101 teaches us that competition within the market forces all firms to enjoy no more than normal profits. Are retailer that retarded to spot the burgeoning market staring straight at them? Why are they still offering only size 2 bandage dresses when 47% of the US female population are Beth Dittos?

The folks at 39thandbroadway.com had a spot-on answer – size 20 bandage dresses don’t sell. LA times ran a i’m-plus-size-and-have-nothing-trendy-to-wear lamentation and made two very important insights. One being plus size pieces sold at Kohl’s and Wal-Mart “consists of basic, often matronly items”. Secondly, “plus-size clothing is largely relegated to the Internet”.

The basic, matronly items are made exactly that way to cater to the bulk of the plus size women, who are typically of ages between 35 to 64, according to a quick check with AOA. This demographic group may not be the most fashion-fast-forward ladies who chase the neon brights or Balmain ripped skinnies assembles.

Afterall, stylists have relentlessly warned us, through “Ask a stylist” columns, about wearing styles that compliment your body shape (be it apple, pear, petite, lanky or curvy). You have never been taught to don skinny jeans when you have hips that are 45 inches thick, have you? It’s always smart to hide them behind A-line skirts or balance them out with flare denims. Also, black is always the new black when it comes to slimming figures. So if matronly items are what that fly off the racks, why would Wal mart want to offer sheer lacey blouses or corset tops a la Faith 21?

Moving on to the second point about plus size clothing largely relegated to the Internet. I think the article has again, addressed why the high street and designer labels are not selling upping their sizes. Could it be that shopping in a non specialist store for a plus size line still evokes a certain stigma and remains a daunting and often unappealing option thus the desired level of anonymity offered by online shopping? Sales have fallen 2.8% for high street plus size lines but increased 1.2% for the online labels.

Supersizing health woes

I can’t help but also get started on stretching fashion to fit plus size teens. All Faith 21 items will run in sizes XL, 1X and 2X. I googled for a size conversion and learned that 2X is a size 20. If the average American woman is a size 14 and sizes for adolescents and young adults are running into size 20, are we sending the idea that burgers are good for you? Buying and fitting into clothes of my usual sizes (US 4 to 6, depending on the cut) keeps me in check with my diet and exercise regime. When size 6 constricts my blood circulation, I watch my diet more religiously. If you’re in high school and a size 20, do you really relish the idea of shopping for styles similar to your slimmer girlfriends, in a different section in the same store?

Super skinny models are always blamed for poor body image. I know how weighing less than 100 pounds takes away fertility and breaks your bones but so many more Americans die of clogged arteries and collapsed hearts.

Will teens start learning the importance of healthy diets and moving their limbs beyond reaching for the mac-and-cheese if good press surrounds the supersizing of clothing sizes? Why should McDonalds be liable for your 37 inches waist?