As we hit the last week of winter, the fashion world continues to fire (and sometimes hire) whilst we find a way for you to document that last ski trip of the season. Elsewhere some English shoemakers are having a big birthday, American sportswear gets a Tokyo twist and we find a solution to over-shopping on vacation. Here are some things we think you might like this week…
Fashion News
Yet more departures this week… Casey Cadwallader steps down from Mugler (this brand is really having trouble getting back on its feet) and, rather sadly as we liked what he did, Sabato de Sarno is leaving Gucci after a short two years. Maybe his pared-down, sophisticated take on the house was a little too subtle after the garish years of Michele Alessandro (though those customers can go to Valentino where he is now churning out exactly the same stuff). More positive news though from New York where Calvin Klein showed its first collection by the very experienced but unknown-outside-the-industry Veronica Leoni and very good it was too. Elsewhere rapper A$AP Rocky has been appointed Ray Ban’s first-ever creative director. So will the future belong to celebrity hirings or more anonymous low-key designers? Let’s wait and see…
Clark’s 200th Anniversary
At this point, we would like to say a very happy birthday to Clark’s Shoes who are celebrating an amazing 200th anniversary this year. We’ve always been big fans of their iconic desert boots (Graham has owned dozens of pairs over the years) but many of their styles are best described as ‘comfortable’ rather than stylish. Now however they are looking back in their archives and re-releasing styles from the past, including some great loafers from 1955 and promising some guest designers to collaborate with. This could be a fruitful and creative move for the brand and we look forward to seeing what they come up with.
Rimowa foldable bags
We’ve probably all experienced shopping too much on vacation and then having to cope with bulky carrier bags on the plane or wearing five layers to go home. Help is now at hand with luggage experts Rimowa who have come up with a couple of well-made and very practical bags that fold up completely flat and can be packed in your case in readiness for shopping. We all know the cheap nylon bags that do this but they are too fragile to check in, whilst these are sturdy enough to survive even Milan’s notorious luggage handlers. We are not fans of backpacks so we will forget that one but the sports bag is great. But maybe in the future they can think about adding some colour instead of just generic black?
Undercover x Champion
Another very old company (founded in the US in the 1930s), Champion has long been the supplier of practical but rather dull sportswear, catering mainly to basketball and soccer fans in the States. But this week they upped their fashion credentials by collaborating with super cool Japanese brand Undercover. In the latter’s first-ever collab, sweatshirts and hoodies have been printed with CHAOS, given raw edges and scaled up to give a Harajuku vibe. Best of all, the Champion logo has been reworked in embroidery and even beaded. We somehow feel they will appeal more to Undercover customers than the tailgate party crowd back in America…
Leica SOFORT 2 Burton Edition
Days on the piste are all well and good but if you can’t photograph and post them, then how will people be jealous of your glamour lifestyle? If you really want to make them green with envy back home, make sure your snow fun is beautifully recorded on the new collab between Burton Snowboards and Leica, the legendary camera makers. In the end, this is actually a pretty simple redesign of the class Leica SOFORT 2 with a Burton logo on the top and a special pattern on the front (inspired we imagine by shadows on a mountain but which, to our eyes, looks rather like a lurid zebra skin) but the quality is very good and it saves you fumbling with your much more expensive iPhone on the black runs.
