What the fashion world talked about this week:
‘CLUELESS’ MUSICAL
Brace yourself fashion lovers, this is BIG news: Clueless, one of if not THE most iconic high-school-meets-fashion-meets-romance-meets-cliques movie (closely followed by Mean Girls, of course) will be on the big stage. And not just as a theatre production – No, Clueless will be reproduced as a musical! The film’s director, Amy Heckering, announced the fabulous news and revealed to Entertainment Tonight that she wrote the book and it will be a jukebox musical! She also revealed that Kristin Hanggi who is responsible for hits like Rock of Ages, Jersey Boys, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Into the Woods, will be the director. As of now, the cast is not decided upon but Katy Perry has been name dropped for the role of Cher, so has Iggy Azalea’s (who already gave us a preview in her music video for ‘Fancy’). It’ll still be a long wait until Cher, Dionne and Tai will hit the stage but we have waited twenty years what are a couple more?
MINIONS TAKE OVER THE FASHION WORLD
Who ever said the fashion world takes itself too seriously, clearly hasn’t seen the latest (admittedly mock) cover of Vogue. Vogue International Editor, Suzy Menkes, questions fashion legends like Alber Elbaz, Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana, Stephen Jones and UK Editor-in-Chief Alexander Shulman about the influence the minions (yes, the little, gibberish talking, yellow minions) had on fashion. The interview reveals that Giles Deacon is “pretty terrified of the minion’s yellow”, Alber Elbaz admits that he prefers lunch with Kevin and Alexandra Shulman ponders whether the “priceless” Minion cover issue might exceed the millennium issue in quality. Check out the video above – it’ll be sure to put a smile on your face.
DON’T GIVE COUNTERFEIT A CHANCE
Italian authorities have closed down 410 websites that sold illegal counterfeit high fashion-luxury goods – included were items from Prada and Patek Phillippe. 15 individuals are being held responsible and are being officially investigated after raids in 11 cities nationwide. The Italian Finance Police has stated that the illegal practice has “obvious negative effects on the economy, in terms of job losses, tax evasion, connections to organised crime, exploitation of minors, security, health and damage to consumers.” Italy isn’t the only one concerned with the issue – Kering, one of the largest fashion conglomerates, including brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, has announced that it will again pursue China-based e-commerce platform Alibaba for allegedly selling knock offs of items from its fashion houses. This will be the second time in a year that the Chinese firm is being sued by Kering.
RHETT’S ODD MIGHT NOT BE IN HIS FAVOUR
As a rule of thumb: Fashion likes a ‘bad boy’ but when it comes to rude or even mean boys, the fashion world has a lot less patience. This was proven once again, as now former vice president of merchandising for J.Crew, Alejandro Rhett, has been fired after a series of inappropriate Instagram posts. The posts immediately followed after 175 employees of the struggling company had to be let go. In a rather tasteless manner, Rhett posted pictures of him and some of the remaining employees celebrating, with captions like #hungergames and #maytheoddsbeeverinyourfavour. The brand has yet to confirm the firing but a representative of the brand said “We do not condone this behaviour in any way. Individuals’ actions do not represent the culture of our company – this is not who we are. The tough decisions we made last week were not something we took lightly. We do our best to make decisions with care and 1compassion for all of our associates.” As part of their 10% staff reduction, J.Crew had to let go the head of women’s design, Tom Mora who will be replaced by the former design chief for J.Crew’s sister brand Madewell, Somsack Sikhounmuon.
GIVENCHY TO MOVE TO NEW YORK
In an unusual move, French fashion house Givenchy will show its Spring/Summer 2016 collection in New York Fashion Week rather than Paris. Scheduled for the 11th September the collection will no doubt be a highlight of the usual schedule. “It’s a very delicate day for America, and so the show is going to be a celebration of family and love”, Riccardo Tisci told WWD. The (temporary) move intends to celebrate the opening of its new Madison Ave store which will be the first Givenchy store in New York since the closure of the former Madison Ave store in 2006, shortly after the arrival of Riccardo Tisci as creative director. As Philippe Fortunato, Givenchy’s chairman and CEO, has pointed out the move back to New York fashion week is like “history repeating itself” as Hubert de Givenchy, the founder of the house, also used to show in the US.
Raphaela Ring
Images: Rex Features, Vogue.co.uk, purseblog.com, facebook.com/Alejandro Rhett,
