Nestled as it is between New Year revelry and the start of the AW runway shows, the beginning of January tends to be quiet when it comes to news, with brands preparing big collection launches rather than spending time piquing our interest with collabs and special projects. But it was not a total desert: a few things still popped up and caught our attention during the freezing weather so here we go with the first happenings of 2025…
Shoe Wars
Seems there is a little bit of passive/aggressive tit-for-tat going on in the footwear world… You might remember Bottega Veneta launching what they called a tribute but what others thought was a downright copy of a classic Timberland boot, albeit gussied up a bit with Intrecciato details at the top. Now the US brand, fresh off the back of their collabs with LV and Aimé Leon Dore, has hit back with a boot of their own made entirely in Bottega’s signature basket weave style. Revenge aside, it’s a pretty successful homage, to be honest, and we like to feel the whole episode has been done with a sense of humour and mutual respect. We look forward to more shoe battles if they result in this kind of creativity.
Louis Vuitton x Murakami
Art and fashion collabs are ten a penny these days but twenty years ago, when Louis Vuitton’s then creative director Marc Jacobs worked with Japanese illustrator Takashi Murakami, the resultant collection was ground-breaking, innovative and insanely popular. To mark the anniversary, the luxury house is relaunching over two hundred pieces – some reruns, some new variations – that mash together Parisian heritage, anime, bright colours and kawaii imagery. Never doing these things by halves, LV has created a campaign fronted by no less than Zendaya and built pop-up stores that resemble Japanese capsule hotels. Expect to see multicoloured logos and cherry blossom motif bags on the arms of the super lucky – and super-rich – this spring. More pictures in our Instagram post.
Bogner 007 Ski Capsule
As someone who thinks sport, vacation and cold weather should never be in the same sentence, Graham is not a likely candidate for skiing but if anything is likely to persuade him to hit the piste it will be a reminder that James Bond (at least in the Roger Moore and George Lazenby years) was a nifty skier, especially when pursued by machine gun-toting baddies. The spy’s salopettes of choice always came from Munich-based Bogner and the brand is now capitalising on this with a special 007 collection of jackets, fleeces, boots, gloves or skies. They are not the most exciting products you’ve ever seen but, being mostly in black, it makes a stylish alternative to all those lurid purples and pinks and at least has a cool retro vibe. Check the whole collection here.
Tesla Mezcal
With an egomaniac owner spending most of his time interfering in politics and becoming a serious liability to the brand, you’d think Tesla had enough on its plate but they are still finding the time to work on various side hustles to their electric car business. Latest from the Tesla stable comes, rather incongruously, their own brand of Mezcal (cars and alcohol seem a rather unfortunate mix to us). The first batch was launched last year but a new edition, for a ridiculous $450 a bottle, hits the shelves this month. Presented in a truly ugly lightning bolt flask, it has notes of raisin, pineapple and lime but personally, we think Mr Musk has way too much money already and it will taste like any regular Mezcal anyway, so will pass on this one and rather go to one of our favourite bars.
Year of the Snake Part Two
After Chinese horoscope rats, cats and dragons, the fashion world has been desperately waiting for a year that could be turned into an easy sales opportunity and, with the year of the snake upon us, a suitable animal has arrived. Snake-themed collections are EVERYWHERE at the moment. Whilst some of them seem to think a bunch of red garments photographed on an Asian model will do the trick (Levi Strauss and Miu Miu, we are talking about you), some brands have been very creative in their interpretation of the reptile. We love Rains’ ‘shredded snakeskin’ Macs, Kenzo’s old-school embroidered sweatshirts and Gucci’s serpent/logo mix. Make the most of it though, next year is the year of the horse which has potential but the year after is the humble goat – not quite as chic.
