Author: Laurence Benaïm
PARIS — “Trends, collections, seasons. I get so confused. … When I don’t want to create a collection, I simply don’t,” Azzedine Alaïa once said. This oft-quoted remark has long been used to frame Alaïa as a great outsider to the contemporary fashion system. At first glance, nothing seems further from Alaïa’s atemporal, self-determined approach than the calibrated operations of Christian Dior’s “beehive,” which allowed its founder to revolutionise fashion with 22 haute couture collections in just ten years. Not to mention that whereas Dior’s designs always began with a sketch, Alaïa did not draw, and would even cut entire…
The late Martin Parr was not only a great photographer, but one whose greatness lay precisely in mocking everything that was great, immense and pretentious. It was the reality of the world that he celebrated, making visible the things many try not to see: the vanity fair, global tourism, litter, sunburn. By photographing the mundane, he created work that was unique.Wherever he was, whether it was shooting the Badminton Horse Trials or a shopping mall in Las Vegas, the first McDonald’s in Russia, tourists in Gambia, or watches bearing the image of Saddam Hussein, he never ceased to be a…
PARIS — When Matthieu Blazy unveiled his first collection for Chanel, a few of the most memorable looks came not from its own atelier but from that of its Place Vendôme neighbour, Charvet, which has been making immaculate shirting for nearly two centuries. The collaboration marked an unexpected appearance of the storied shirtmaker on the runway — a broad spotlight on a house better known for discretion than display.Inside Charvet’s quiet salon, stacked with thousands of ties and silk squares stacked on Louis XV-style tables — saleswomen still see clients off with a soft “Merci, Monsieur,” in a timeless scene…
PARIS — At the end of a season marked by firsts — with Jonathan Anderson’s debut at Dior, Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga, Demna at Gucci, Duran Lantink at Jean Paul Gaultier and more — one question inevitably arises: What relationship should artistic directors have with the past? Will they act as guardians of memory, or as entertainers, diluting their work’s meaning to make it more Instagrammable?Two years into an industry-wide slowdown from which the path forward for fashion remains unclear, “the past becomes a refuge, full of mirages we can turn to paper over the present,”…
PARIS — “We don’t have the luxury of waiting” flashes on a screen on the ninth floor of LVMH’s Avenue Montaigne headquarters. Luxury may take time, but the world’s largest luxury group prides itself on moving quickly.Flanked by two Murakamis and a Rothko, longtime LVMH executive Sidney Toledano advances down a hushed corridor to a meeting room surrounded by the Paris sky.Toledano is preparing to conclude a transformative six-year tenure as chairman and CEO of LVMH’s Fashion Group, whose labels Celine and Loewe have grown into global megabrands during a period of explosive growth for the luxury sector.In a statement…