The theme for MET GALA is Black Dandy. Superfine: Tapping into Black Style will be front and center on the Mega Red Carpet May 5th 2025 in New York City.
These Black Dandies came from our Pitti Uomo collection.
Category: Feature
Features and opinions on a range of topics from politics to technology. Sometimes the features are serious, sometimes they are fun. Check them out.
Fashion Week month just ended, but the news from the style capitals keeps coming. First, the shock announcement of Hedi Silmane leaving French House Celine after seven years took the industry by surprise. The Paris born designer revitalised the womenswear label with youthful designs. Parent company LVMH released a statement reading Michael Rider will replace Hedi.
Milan’s Missoni issued a statement that Filippo Grazioli exited. Known for knightwear, Missoni returned to the runway schedule two years where Filippo debut a colorful, well received collection for the family owned label. Alberto Caliri has been named as the replacement.
It is hard to believe there was a time when designer had longevity sitting at the top of the pyramid. Those days have passed the same as shopping at a Sears Department Store in a local mall. There is better job security as an UBER driver than being a fashion creative head.
Global headlines have spooked consumers. Shoppers are holding back on purchases, electing to save money instead of splurging on fun buys. Fashion brands and retailers struggle to lure buyers. Stores could are overstocked with unsold pieces. Now, as the holiday season approaches, companies are in early markdown stages trying to move merchandise.
Relax and wait to get that special item you always wanted and a good price. After all, “He/she that can have patience can have what he/she will.”
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Connected at Digital X
Digital X in Cologne, the digitalization event started by German Telekom hits the mark for technology gatherings. On September 18th and 19th, brands, experts and press discuss topics concerning: cybersecurity, sustainability, connected business and future of work.
The fifty thousand attendees moved from one staging area to another talking to individuals and teams concerning the future of digital interaction.
I found it a bit contradictory, the topic of Connected Business as many technology companies are requiring return to offices. Since the Covid Lockdowns, Virtual, Augmented and Immersive Reality devices and gadgets have advance rapidly. Apple’s Vision Pro, Meta’s Quest and Microsoft’s HoloLens are being promoted as the next generation of tech headsets.
The Huawei IdeaHub ES2 introduced me to the Bring Your Own Meeting (BYOM) term. The hardware is compatible with Zoom and Microsoft Teams platforms for distanced collaborations. The smart whiteboard, camera and speaker/voice incorporate Z-Tech technology. The applications for this technology go beyond corporate office usage. The educational potential is boundless. Higher learning is about to get disrupted. Schools and universities could use the entire hardware system and platforms digital classes, eliminated the need for physical classes. Students log in to a session with an instructor and can download the lecture via a QR code.
Curiously, giant IBM offered a fashion and tech melody. The US company works with clothing brands an AI profile matrix for brands to better understand customer needs and purchasing habits. Given the poor financial health of online sales platforms, maybe this could help, but I have a few doubts.
I would like to write better about start-ups area in Cologne; however, Germany is still a country trying to embrace the business trend while trying to stay in the risk adverse box. Originality requires going out on a limb. Many of the ideas at the different booths seemed more safe copies of tried concepts.
Schedule Digital X on your tech calendar for 2025, this get together is well worth the time.
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Goggle or Look Away
Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. Lagerfeld.
Choose, look away or goggle, at times that is a hard decision to make, especially if it is a sudden choice in a rather embarrassing situation, especially if it involves a man’s large bulge. At the 2024 Paris Olympics the games come across as a public acceptance of OnlyFans. Male athletes are known for performances and packages. Sometimes you have to wonder why do people put on certain pieces of clothing before heading out the door. Were they in a rush? Was it a quick decision or a grab and go? That was the only clean piece available. I am not sure how the Karl Lagerfeld quote would apply to this moment in life.
People wear sweat pants for comfort, a quick errand, going to the gym or just laziness. It was clear sunny day in London. I decided to have a walk from the market to the other side. While crossing the Southwark Bridge, admiring the cityscape, looking down the Thames seeing London Bridge, a funny thing happened on the way to the north bank. On the horizon I saw two guys approaching from the opposite way. From the outlines, one looked slim to athletic, the other, more muscular perhaps, brawny. But, I was still enjoying the scenes of a bustling metropolis, just keep moving, thinking about a finding a café or hitting a Tesco supermarket for deli a chocolate chip cookie.
A Melon
The male duo got close enough to get a clearer view. One was muscular blonde, square head shaped, around 1.83 meters wearing a white t-shirt with grey sweatpants, a bag over his shoulder. The leaner dark haired one carried a large fitness handbag. Maybe they just left a gym.
Without warning, the hunky blond in the grey grabbed my attention in a “Jim Carrey Ace Ventura” way, a double take with swollen eyeballs locked below his waistline. In a flash, London disappeared before my eyes. The city’s vistas became meaningless. Juggling in loose baggy track pants could have been cantaloupe large enough for a two-plate lunch salad. The eggplant meme was not popular then. Mr. Melon noticed my animated reaction. Suddenly, he broke into a smile while we passed each other, an acknowledgement of appreciation for seeing his very obvious for a few seconds.
That fleeting time on a bridge has stayed with me all these years. I wonder if he had sweatpants in different colors. Bye the way, I forgot about the cookie.
How did luxury lose its luster? There are many answers to this question. As the industry reels from lower profits while consumers cut back on aspirational purchases. Some answers require a somewhat deeper analysis.
As masstige became a business model for exclusive brands, they began to lose their allure. Overproducing so called “desired pieces” accomplished the opposite effect, a splash of everyday common tattiness. When once there was admiration mingled with a touch of covetousness for a displayed logo or design, today, this comes across as vacuous consumption for the sake of showing off.
As management drivers took control of the luxury industry, maximising the bottom line became paramount. Corporate control is not about creation, but rather big profits. A fast way to make money is to increase prices for high demand goods. These price hikes did not go unnoticed by pinched shoppers who simply prioritized basics over splendours.
A cautionary tale is taking place. Trying to be everything to everyone can mean nothing to all. As luxury fashion continued casting a wide net, discerning buyers went in the opposite direction. A corporate boss does not desire what a workers have. Teen buyers are shaped by peers, not their parents. Generation Z has become mass labels wary. Young buyers look less willing to chase brands, looking for different, more individualistic clothing.
The most important asset for any brand is reputation. An ongoing sweatshop scandal has at least in the short term made many buyers question the real value of these labels. Factories employing illegal workers in poor conditions while producing high quality expensive goods rattled consumer trust.
The luxury sector is entering a period of uncertainty. With retail in a tailspin, once rock solid markets in Asia in a slowdown, global conflicts, changes at the creative head levels, the Fall 2024 Fashion Week conversations will be more interesting than the runway collections.
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Department Stores Downfalls
Is the department store going the way of the Dodo Bird in Germany? Once these temples to consumption were places of dreams offering shoppers the best of the best. Those days are long gone. As the retail carnage continues, once mighty shopping temples have fallen silent.
In Berlin, the department store culture slow death is sad to watch. Germany’s two largest chains Karstadt, founded in 1881, and Galeria Kaufhaus, 1889, formed Galeria Karstadt Kaufhaus from a 2018 merger. The two struggling stores fell far due to inconsistent management strategies, asset stripping, covid, bankruptcies and of course, shoppers’ migration to online platforms. After years of struggling, the new owners decided to jettison fifty-two locations by this summer. Let’s hope the current proprietors will invest in updating their remaining eighty-two mouldy locales.
Speaking of July 31st, Berlin’s Galeries Lafayette will permanently close its stylish 9000 square meter Friedrichstrasse location after twenty-years. The French retailer cited changing commercial dynamics for the decision. In this writer’s opinion, the store was in the wrong location anchoring a decaying Zombie Mall.
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The Spirited yet Damp 2024 Berlin CSD
A rainy cloud filled 2024 Christopher Street Day hit the city July 27th. Seventy-five trucks slinked through the capital on a ten kilometre journey finishing in Tiergarten at the Siegessäule Column. The weather did not dampen the spirit, just fewer naked bodies on the parade route. This year’s theme “for diversity and democracy” is a call for different communities to unite during these tense times.
As Generation Z gets squeezed, facing gaping economic inequality, the expense to show off becomes harder. In 2024 trade down and keep posting model reigns. If the bank account cannot afford the real thing, get the fake one. The rise of the super counterfeit luxury goods means bling, bling without the high price tag. Fakefluencers brag about purchasing fake luxury goods, glamour on a shoestring budget. Even when they are showcasing their false items, perhaps even looking silly, fakefluencers have taken influencing to the next level, Fakefluencing. These style setters are no longer waiting for brands to dm their Instagram accounts asking for a collaboration. Why go to Saks Fifth Avenue? Now, Fakefluencers buy the sort of real thing online or on the street corner.
Excess, no questions asked is the philosophy. That interlocked Double C Chanel handbag under an arm was probably made who knows where, by who knows whom, under what type of conditions.
At least the world’s most expensive logos are being seen with people who count. Next time looking over a lifestyle of the rich and famous social media post just remember “If it looks too good to be true, it is probably fake.”
Author Colin McDowell cynical take on the fashion world in his 1994 book The Designer Scam coined a phrase “Display Artists” for those who show up at events to parade around, get pictures eager being a part of the “best” crowd. Today they are called “Influencers”, people who influence others posting on social media. Others display their recent buys in shopping hauls. How can we not notice the neatly lined bags behind content creators on YouTube. These video Display Artists must show the world they can afford the big brands.
