Galliano on the nose – The Australian
EVEN with the menswear shows in full swing, the biggest news in fashion today is John Galliano’s trial in Paris on charges of verbally abusing three people with anti-Semitic and racist slurs.
Paying measured attention will be Perfume Holding, the French-Italian company that produces Galliano’s fragrance line. With an estimated wholesale turnover of $US14.2 million a year, Galliano’s fragrances are a drop in the $US18 billion fragrance industry, but that hasn’t stopped the company’s vice-president of creation and marketing development from spinning up a storm in WWD.
“If the product is great, it becomes more important than the brand,” Brigitte Wormser says of Parlez-Moi d’Amour, Galliano’s latest fragrance, which launched in the Middle East and Europe in October but still awaits a US sales date.
“Everyone knows John was sick at the time,” says Wormser, Perfume Holding’s vice-president of creation and marketing development. Comparing Galliano with Kate Moss, she adds: “We have all forgotten now that she messed up.”
Galliano’s tirade affected fragrance sales in Israel and upset some German and English retailers, but the impact in France and Italy has been minimal.
“Consumers seem to have moved on, but certain retailers have been reticent to continue stocking the brand,” Wormser says.
Ignoring the media frenzy surrounding the former designer for Christian Dior, Perfume Holding will proceed with the launch of an eau de parfum version of Parlez-Moi d’Amour in Europe, the Middle East and Asia in October.
“There are other brands whose namesake designer is no longer present and who sell perfectly well,” Wormser says. “Young people today do not remember Paco Rabanne, but the brand is still successful.”
Actress and pop singer Taylor Momsen will appear in advertisements for the new fragrance which has notes of raspberry, mandarin, chypre and vanilla. No whiff of scandal was necessary.
Feeling the love
AFTER a five-year absence, Lover’s return to the Rosemount Australian Fashion Week runway has finally paid off for designers Nic Briand and Susien Chong. David Jones has signed the label to be stocked in seven of its stores.
“There is something very unique and special about the Lover brand, which combines a classic aesthetic with a contemporary vision,” says David Bush, David Jones general manager of womenswear.
The signing is a big step for the 10-year-old label, stocked in boutiques across the world and sold online through Net-A-Porter and its own site.
“We have always wanted our business to be at the right stage so we could properly work with the opportunity,” Briand says. “We feel that the time has come. Within this deal, the integrity, intelligence and forward-thinking nature of the brand that we built over the last 10 years will always continue.”
David Jones has also signed Flannel, Carl Kapp and Megan Park.
Backpacker chic
THE menswear spring 2012 ready-to-wear season is in full swing, with the action moving from Milan to Paris today but one trend is already making itself apparent. Designers have taken note of the economic crisis and are injecting the backpacker signature of socks with shorts into their luxury looks.
Ennio Capasa at Costume National, Raf Simons at Jil Sander and Miuccia Prada at Prada all favoured black socks with shorts and shoes that were more suited to the office than the beach.
The look was rockabilly at Costume National, while at Jil Sander Simons turned to 90s club culture with techno fabrics and Prada raised a smile with flower power shirting, but the shocking socks were a common theme.
Calvin Klein Collection designer Italo Zucchelli enlivened ankles with socks in cerulean blue and cintronelle yellow, but it was Thom Browne at Moncler Gamme Bleu who truly challenged aesthetics below the knee. Browne, who is known for his shrunken silhouettes, sent out models looking like half-undressed stormtroopers in white socks.
Brace yourself for Speedos with socks on a beach near you this summer.
Browne eyes
THOM Browne’s Pee-wee Herman suiting has a cult following, which Harrolds is counting on when it becomes the label’s exclusive Australian stockist, but Dita Eyewear is hoping the American designer’s eyewear will have wider appeal when it launches later this year.
This is Dita’s first designer collaboration, which will include 20 styles drawing inspiration from the architects, professors and industrial designers of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The glasses feature leather trims and metal mesh side cups.
“Ever since the inception of Dita, we’ve always seen ourselves as waging a revolt against mediocrity and uniformity,” says John Juniper, co-founder of Dita. Manufactured in Japan, Dita found fame by using 18-carat gold and titanium in frames.
As well as designing for his own label, Browne also collaborates with Brooks Brothers on the Black Fleece collection and with Moncler Gamme Bleu.