Meditative stretching takes on a sleek bent with the Louis Vuitton Yoga Mat. But the French Maison has found itself in trouble after upset Hindus called the luxury fashion house for using cowhide leather to construct its recently released Yoga Mat.
Hindu religious statesman, activist and President of Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, called the €1600 ($2,390 USD) luxury item ‘highly inappropriate’. Noting that the yoga mat seemed and offending two serious concepts of Hinduism – cows and yoga – and is hugely insensitive to Hindu feelings.
Rajan Zed also highlighted how wrong performing yoga, a profound, sacred and ancient discipline introduced by Hinduism, on a mat made from a killed cow is. “A sacred and long venerated animal of the religion, is a case of ‘religious appropriation’. Marking the Yoga Mat as sacrilege and an item that ridicules serious spiritual practices of an entire community”.
Rajan Zed is calling for Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) CEO Bernard Arnault, Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke and Louis Vuitton Executive Vice President Delphine Arnault to issue a formal apology and pull the item as it goes against its the concept of ethical responsibility included in the company’s ‘Acting Responsibly and with Social Awareness’ section of its Code of Conduct.
Louis Vuitton has not yet issued a statement regarding the outrage over its Yoga Mat. Come into the world of Louis Vuitton.
The job of artistic designer at Fendi has finally been filled. The storied Roman fashion house and fur specialist announced on Wednesday that the British fashion designer Kim Jones would replace Karl Lagerfeld, who died in February of last year, in the role.
Mr. Jones will be responsible for the haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women, Fendi said in a statement. He will also maintain his current position as artistic director of Dior Men in Paris. It is the second major designer move by Fendi’s owner, LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, the world’s largest luxury group by sales, since the coronavirus pandemic began, – the French company appointed Matthew Williams as Givenchy’s new designer in June.
As such, it reflects the luxury group’s commitment to forging ahead with its brands and buzzy designers, even as questions swirl around the future of fashion, shopping and the entire traditional show system. In a statement, LVMH’s chief executive, Bernard Arnault, called Mr. Jones ‘a great talent’, adding that he had proved his ability to adapt to the codes of assorted LVMH Maison’s ‘with great modernity and audacity’.
The hire represents a doubling down on a bet by LVMH that fur will continue to be a hallmark of luxury, at a time when it is increasingly being seen as an unethical relic of another era. And as the industry faces a reckoning on race and diversity, the hiring of a white man already in its employ at Dior for one of the most plum design titles in the business also could be seen as going against the trend of confronting fashion’s systemic racism, and LVMH’s stated commitments to tackling that.
The choice of Mr. Jones is the culmination of more than a year of discussions and apparent soul-searching by LVMH, which built Fendi into a billion-dollar brand. Fendi has been a core pillar of its fashion empire since it purchased an initial stake in the company from the Fendi family in a joint venture with Prada in 1999 (in 2001, LVMH became the brand’s sole owner).
Along with Silvia Venturini Fendi, the only family member still in the company, who will continue to design Fendi accessories and men’s wear once Mr. Jones arrives, Mr. Lagerfeld was integral to that growth. Over a 54-year tenure at Fendi, Mr. Lagerfeld created the concept of ‘fun fur’ when fur was seen as the stale province of the bourgeoisie. He held ‘haute fourrure’ shows on the couture calendar even as fur increasingly fell out of fashion. He and Ms. Fendi appeared on the catwalk together at the end of every women’s wear show.
Though it was often suggested that Ms. Fendi, who referred to Mr. Lagerfeld as a mentor, might assume sole creative ownership of the brand after his death, executives at LVMH were open about their belief in the benefit of two creative personalities sparking off each other. Along with Mr. Jones, another name thought to be in the running for the position was Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of women’s wear at Dior.
Designer pairings can be a risk, given the egos that are sometimes involved. But along with Miuccia Prada’s recent decision to name Raf Simons as co-creative director of Prada, pairing Mr. Jones and Ms. Fendi may also signal a new approach to team-building in fashion. A fetishisation of the single visionary has more often been the norm, and several high-profile talents like Mr. Jones and Virgil Abloh have increasingly juggled multiple design responsibilities across top fashion houses. Fendi’s chief executive, Serge Brunschwig, called Mr. Jones “one of the most talented and relevant designers of today”.
I would like to profoundly thank Mr. Arnault, Mr. Brunschwig and Silvia Venturini Fendi for this incredible opportunity. Working across two such prestigious houses is a true honour as a designer and to be able to join the house of Fendi as well as continuing my work at Dior Men’s is a huge privilege.
Kim Jones
After graduating from the London art-and-design school Central Saint Martins and one of the brightest stars on the luxury men’s wear scene, the London designer worked for several brands, from Iceberg to Mulberry. And while he’s best known for designing menswear for Louis Vuitton, Dior and his own brand, he’s scored many a female fan (including close friends Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Victoria Beckham and the Karadashians-Jenner). In fact, when he joined Dior Hommes, in 2018, there were rumours that he was going to lead all of the collections for the Parisian fashion house, including womenswear.
Before joining Dior Men he worked at Louis Vuitton as their men’s wear designer for seven years. At Vuitton, he brought his longstanding love and encyclopedic knowledge of luxe streetwear – athletic tech fabrics, big sneakers, oversize graphic T-shirts and elegant tracksuits, but also crocodile backpacks and cashmere baseball tops – to a superbrand that had been overly content to sell its male clientele little more than monogrammed leather cases, belts and wallets.
More recently, at Dior, his shows merging suiting with streetwear and reworking tailoring for a modern audience generated buzz beyond the men’s market. They have shown Mr. Jones to be more plugged in to the outside world than some of his industry peers.
In July, for example, a week after the brand was criticised for casting an all-white ensemble of models for its women’s wear couture presentation as Black Lives Matter protest raged worldwide, Mr. Jones featured only models of color in his spring 2021 collection. It was designed in collaboration with the acclaimed Ghanaian portait painter Amoako Boafo. In December, Mr. Jones was named designer of the year at the Fashion Awards in London.
He will be expected to bring some of that magic to Fendi. The brand has seen robust growth in recent years, fueled by its savvy leather accessories, fur designs and a burgeoning fan base in China and Southeast Asia.
“I look forward to taking the Fendi universe to the next level with Kim”, Ms. Fendi said. Though Fendi is planning to hold a physical show – for fall-winter 2021/22 – on Sept. 23 in front of a reduced audience during Milan Fashion Week, Mr. Jones’s debut collection is planned for February, the company said. We can’t wait. Come into the beautiful world of Fendi.
Gianfranco Ferré was an Italian fashion designer who earned the nickname ‘the Architect of Fashion’, both for his designs and for his background of as an architect. Ferré was born on 15 August 1944 in Legano. near Milan in Lombardy, in northern Italy, he earned an architecture degree at Politecnico di Milano, but began working almost immediately in the fashion industry. First as an accessories designer, later as a designer of raincoats. Gianfranco Ferré branched out to women’s fashion’s with the formation of his own company, Baila, in 1974. His first women’s signature collection was shown in 1978, with a mens collection following in 1982, and his first haute couture collection debuting in 1986.
Ferré became Stylistic Director of Christian Dior in Paris in 1989, when he was chosen by owner Bernard Arnault to replace Marc Bohan, and split its time between Paris and Milan. In 1996, it was announced that Ferré would end his engagement with Dior with the Spring 1997 collection for the label.
Gianfranco Ferré won a number of prestigious awards including the prestigious Occhio d’Oro (‘Golden Eye’) fashion award for Best Italian Designer six times, and for his first Haute Couture collection for Dior he received the De d’Or (‘Golden Thimble’) award.
He returned to exclusively designing fashions under his own name. His own label is more relaxed and pared-down than Dior. Sophisticated white shirts have become the symbol of his personal signature in fashion design. Gianfranco Ferré sadly passed June 17, 2007, just 62 years old and at the hight of his career. The previous Friday, he had suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. His fashion house continous under the creative directors Federico Piaggi and Stefano Citron.
Italian fashion house Gianfranco Ferre launches a new women’s fragrance that magnifies the beauty of the rose flower – Gianfranco’s favorite flower – but also becomes a fragrant elixir that heals and protects the woman’s heart, as stated by the brand.
The composition of Gianfranco Ferre Blooming Rose is signed by perfumer Alex Lee, who created it from a cocktails of fruits and narcotic floral notes guided by roses, with a woodsy trail that provides a gentle warmth caressing the rose’s beauty.
Top notes: Pomelo, Raspberries, Black currant
Heart notes: Freesia, Jasmine, Rose oil
Base notes: White wood, Cedarwood, Sandalwood
For the opening of the composition, Alex Lee choose a fruity cocktail of pomelos, black currants and raspberries, creating a sweet, vibrant and fresh overture to the white floral bouquet of jasmine and freesia, with a dominant scent of rose oil. Warmth and tenderness come from cedarwood, white wood and sandalwood, creating a milky and creamy layer for the flowers and fruity juices.
Gianfranco Ferre Blooming Rose is available as 30ml, 50ml and 100ml Eau de Toilette.
French luxury goods company LVMH has agreed to buy a majority stake in French independent perfume house Maison Francis Kurkdjian as it expands in fast-growing niche luxury fragrances.
In 1985, at the age of 26, Francis Kurkdjian created a perfume that would become the catalyst for his career; Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male. Now, the French-Armenian perfumer, who launched his eponymous brand in 1999 with French-Lebanese businessman, a former partner at Ernst & Young in Paris, Marc Chaya, has become the latest to sell to the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey (LVMH) portofolio.
Speaking about the new partnership in which both Kurkdjian and Chaya will continue in their roles, Bernard Arnault, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LVMH says: “I am delighted to welcome Maison Francis Kurkdjian to the LVMH Group. Their avant-garde spirit and the quality of their creations give this fragrance House great potential and a promising future”.
“LVMH clearly understands the nature of our Maison, and the Group’s approach to custom-crafted creativity guarantees that our distinctive identity will thrive for the long-term”, added Kurkdjian, who has also previously crafted perfumes for Christian Dior, Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry, Giorgio Armani, Versace, Nina Ricci, Baccarat, Carven, Narciso Rodriguez, Kenzo and Elizabeth Arden.
Exploring new creative territories in fragrances through his own bespoke fragrance atelier, collaborations with artists and pop-up installations. Francis Kurkdjian received the honorary title of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 2008, and became a member in January 2016 of Comité Colbert, the association promoting French luxury and know-how.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian, with estimated annual sales of between 15 and 20 million euros, has two stores in Paris, four in Taiwan, one in Malaysia and another in Dubai.
Its perfumes, which cost up to 1,200 euros ($1,290) for 70 milliliters, are sold in more than 500 select locations in more than 40 countries.
The composition of Gianfranco Ferre Blooming Rose is signed by perfumer Alex Lee, who created it from a cocktails of fruits and narcotic floral notes guided by roses, with a woodsy trail that provides a gentle warmth caressing the rose’s beauty.
Yakymour 