Coming Soon: The Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum

Next month, Valentino will open his archives to the world. Using 3D technology, the Valentino Garavani Virtual Musuem — found at Valentino-Garavani-Archives.org — catalogs over 300 dresses from Garavani's five decade-long career, including Julia Roberts's Oscar dress and the couture dress Jackie Kennedy wore to wed Aristotle Onassis.

The site, which officially launches Dec. 5, will also feature over 5,000 images and 95 fashion show videos. Giancarlo Giammetti, Garavani's longtime business partner, explains of the site's content: “Animated galleries show a life’s work, and key dresses have been photographed in 360 degrees. Click on them and they revolve to show every line and stitch. Click again and discover the history of the dress, who wore it where and when, see it in the amazing campaigns that we created for the collections in the late 1960s, 1970s, '80s, '90s . . . move through to other spaces leading off the sunlit courtyards under the Roman sky to new galleries full of photographs of friends, models, drawings, animations, videos.”

Garavani adds of the project: “I see it as part of my legacy. I am happy that thousands of students, young designers and fashion people will be able to see and study my work in every aspect of it, and in a manner easy and accessible for the younger generations. But it is also important to remember things of the past, to review the fashion that has shaped our lives. I would call it ‘Future Memory.’”

Diving for McQueen

Diving for McQueen on Nowness.com.

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Fashion Critic Cathy Horyn Enters the Folds of Sarah Burton's Spring 2012 McQueen Collection

The New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn meets Alexander McQueen Creative Director Sarah Burton at the label’s Paris atelier to explore the house’s intricate, marine-inspired Spring/Summer 2012 collection in Dustin Lynn’s stunning portrait film. Displaying a love and knowledge of fashion far beyond the catwalk, Horyn’s notorious studio visits define her style as a journalist, producing lyrical portraits of designers truly dedicated to the rigor of cutting and creating clothes. Before becoming head of the fashion house, Burton worked as McQueen’s right hand for 14 years. “With Sarah, it has a lot to do with the training she has had at McQueen, and just knowing what the McQueen studio had been like under Lee,” says Horyn of Burton’s qualification for the job. “It was always a place where it was about the technique and craft.” After the turmoil following McQueen's tragic suicide last year, the provocative label has returned stronger than ever with sumptuously beautiful collections, the record-breaking Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute attracting over 650,000 visitors, and Burton designing the Duchess of Cambridge’s much-lauded gown for the royal wedding.


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A First Look at Balmain's More Affordable Line, Pierre Balmain

Balmain's new, more affordable line, Pierre Balmain, doesn't start hitting stores until early December, but a first look at the debut collection, for Spring 2012 — is in order.The new line covers everything from eveningwear to daywear, tailoring to jeans, and will be created by a separate design team from Olivier Rousteing, who is set to concentrate exclusively on the higher-end Balmain label. As Balmain chairman and CEO Alain Hivelin explains the dichotomy, Rousteing will make the “quintessentially Parisian” main collection “even more sophisticated and couture-like — without, of course, renouncing that ‘rock’ aesthetic that has been so important for us these the last few years." Whereas: "The Pierre Balmain collection translates the codes of Balmain in a more casual and relaxed manner ... We see Pierre Balmain as a new and distinct brand that is inspired by the successes and history of a great house, but offers a look and product that respond to the needs and desires of today’s marketplace.”

Prices for Pierre Balmain — in light of the Balmain mainline's infamously sky-high prices — are to range from 120 euros ($172) for T-shirts and 250 euros ($363) for jeans up to 900 euros ($1,291) for eveningwear.



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Proenza Schouler Stake Officially Sold To Theory Founder Andrew Rosen

As suggested, after more than a year of negotiations, Permira has finalized the sale of its stake in Proenza Schouler to a group of investors that include Theory founder Andrew Rosen and John Howard.

According to a statement from Proenza Schouler, the new partnership is a "recapitalization" of the label and will allow it "to enter a new phase of development.” Valentino Fashion Group (which is owned by Permira and bought the 45 percent stake in Proenza Schouler in 2007 for $3.7 million) will keep a minority share in the new partnership.

“We are thankful to VFG for giving us a start, and allowing us to get where we are today,” Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez, and Proenza Schouler CEO Shirley Cook said in a joint statement. “There’s so much we’d like to accomplish and have found the perfect complement in John and Andrew to help us realize our dreams.”

Rosen and Howard, meanwhile, jointly commented: “When we look at the current state of American fashion, we see the next generation focused in the advanced contemporary space. We believe that the Proenza business is the future of American luxury, and uniquely poised to compete in a global marketplace, which is currently dominated by European designers. In infusing this brand with our resources and experience, we will position this business to achieve its full potential."

This is a personal investment for Rosen, who also hold similar investments in Alice + Olivia, Gryphon, and Rag & Bone.



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LVMH Originally Approached Phoebe Philo To Design Her Own Label

Phoebe Philo was very adamant about coming back to fashion on her own terms — that includes working out of London rather than Paris, and having reasonable work hours, she tells The Independent: "I think that's a discipline I've taught myself. We're just organised. Everybody in this building knows when I arrive and when I leave and the important things are done within those hours. That's just the way it is. And it works." She continues: "I have a fantastic team and it's much easier having children, because that creates a natural limit. If I have a good time with them before they go to sleep, it's worth everything to me."
A few more quotes from the rare Philo interview, below.
On not allowing media backstage at her runway shows: "Once the show has happened there's no need to control any image, but I don't like the idea of people sending out images before we've even done it. We don't allow anyone to do that. I don't like all that 'model backstage standing around having her picture taken in a stupid pose.'"
On being interviewed: "I just feel it's really unnecessary ... I think that the clothes say it all much better than I can. I always find it strange after a show when everybody comes backstage and says: 'What was it all about'? It's like: 'You've just seen it. What do you mean?' My instinct is to say: 'What did you think? What did you get from it?' And yet they want you to fill in even more. To me, the show is quite a complete story. There's nothing more for me to say and, anyway, it doesn't matter what it was meant to say. It's out there. It can be whatever anyone watching it thought it was, surely."
On being approached by LVMH: "I was heavily pregnant with my second child and LVMH contacted me to find out what I was up to. I remember having this huge tummy. We agreed it wasn't the right time to go into details, but I said I was looking at going back to work at some point. So, I had my baby, and I think when he was four months old and I was ready, the conversation began again. We looked at a business model for [a completely new, eponymous brand for Philo]. We talked about the products I wanted to do and the vision I had for it. And then Celine came into the picture. LVMH seemed very happy to allow me to do everything I would have done for my own label there, basically giving me the same amount of control, and it just felt right. It's never been important to me that my name is above shop windows, and I get a lot of comfort out of having something I can stand behind. Let Celine be the name and the front of it, and I just quietly come to work every day and get on with it. It's nice. It fits."


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