Nike RT: Riccardo Tisci and Nike collaboration confirmed

Over the past few seasons Riccardo Tisci’s most recognisable pieces have been his printed t shirts and sweats, cult pieces which merge high fashion with sporty streetwear. So it only makes sense that Tisci would collaborate with one of the biggest sportswear brands in the world.  The rumours have been flying around of a collab between the two since WWD.com posted about it earlier today, the news is expected to be confirmed later today. It is thought the collection would have a strong focus on footwear.

Not sure how Tiscis BFF Kanye West will take this blow after his infamous fall out with Nike after they denied West any royalties for the sales of Air Yeezys and Air Yeezy II’s after which he signed a deal with rival brand Adidas.

Inevitably Givenchy’s pieces become one of the most coveted items each season so its likely that if this collab goes ahead to same will happen when it hits the shelf’s.

Miu Miu's New Muses

Our hearts were all a flutter when we first laid our eyes on the new Miu Miu campaign featuring actress and ultimate girl crush Elle Fanning, but apparently that wasn’t enough for Miu Miu as this morning three more portraits were revealed for their Spring Summer 2014 campaign featuring three more of Hollywood’s hottest rising stars.

Elle Fanning has given her older sister a run for her money over recent years; getting her first big break in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere she then went on to work with J.J. Abrams for sci-fi blockbuster Super 8. 2014 see’s the release of highly anticipated Disney live-action Maleficent in which Fanning plays Princess Aurora alongside a terrifying Angelina Jolie as the infamous villain.

Also featuring in the campaign is Elizabeth Olsen, who in the past has always been known as the younger sister of Ashley and Mary Kate but after a breakout performance in Martha Marcy May Marlene has proved she wont be staying in the twins shadows for long, Bella Heathcote who starred in Dark Shadows alongside Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and Lupita Nyong’o who got her big screen debut in Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave which is already looking to cause waves at this years Academy Awards, not bad huh.

Shot in New York by Inez and Vinoodh the campaign features each actress in looks from Miu Mius Spring/Summer 2014 collection. Poised perfectly in sets as distinctive as the actresses, the shades of blue, red and violet compliment the prints and materials to create a truly striking campaign that flirts with sexual femininity, classic demure pieces with an edge. 

Thick wool stockings are in rich tones of red and yellow and paired with ruby red Mary Janes or lace-up knee-highs. In one shot we see Bella looking perfectly demure in a good girl coat then the next Lupita works a bad girl bustier dripping with jewels, each effortlessly translating the new spirit of the Miu Miu woman.

Hello, My Name Is Paul Smith

If you're visiting London between now and March be sure to stop by the Design Museum to check out the new Paul Smith exhibition. The massive exhibition finally opened last week and is already receiving rave reviews. Curated by Donna Loveday, the museum is hoping that the exhibit will rival its previous (and record breaking) Louboutin exhibition for popularity. 

It is said to give an immersive insight in to the world of all things Paul Smith, Loveday stated that it has been curated to appeal to a wide audience and is confident it will be a success, especially with Paul Smiths stellar reputation however they're promising that even new fans will find out something they don't know about the menswear designer.

You'll have to opportunity to delve in to all things Paul Smith as you take a journey through every chapter of Smith's lengthy career starting at his very first store. A tiny 3 x 3 metre boutique first opened in Nottingham in 1970, well a recreation obviously. Then you can take a look in to the makeshift dupe of the designers office and all the wonderful things you'd find in their, collected over the years from his many travels around the globe. 

Paul Smith and Donna Loveday worked very closely to create the showcase to take you inside the mind of one of Britain's most famous designers. So whether you're a Paul Smith fan or not, if you're looking to be inspired or just fancy a nice day out, get yourself to the Design Museum!

Karl Lagerfeld Comes to London

Karl Lagerfeld will open a flagship store on London's Regent Street for his self titled label Karl Lagerfeld in March 2014, it has been announced.
The store will be his largest in Europe to date, spanning an impressive 2,700 square feet and will sell both and mens and womens ready to wear and accessories. Karl Lagerfeld's CEO has said that opening in Regent Street is an excellent opportunity as its the perfect position for this important market. 

The store is set to incorporate impressive technology heavily, from the dressing rooms which will apparently contain photo booths with instagram like filters to a digital guestbook for customers to leave special comments for the designer. Its been said that luxury consumers are all about the experience and not the products now, it looks like Karl got the message.  Keep your eyes peeled for more info!

Who Says Fashion Doesn't Care?

Many people think of the fashion industry as a bunch of snobs deciding whats cool and whats not but now and again fashion likes to show its generous caring side. In the midst of the dreadful typhoon that hit the Philippines the Beckhams did their bit for charity buy putting loads of their designer clothes for sale with all proceeds going toward those in the Philippines.
Mac cosmetics have been helping for years, their limited edition Viva Glam lipsticks have been a huge success with campaigns fronted by the likes of Nicki Minaj and Ricky Marting with all profits going to charities helping HIV/AIDS sufferers. With the fashion industry being quite dominated by homosexual males, HIV is a big issue among most.

Also focusing on HIV is Maison Martin Margiela, who started a line of printed t-shirts with French charity 'Aides' available from LN-CC. Its €75 a pop but its all in the name of charity eh.
Again helping AIDS, Swedish retailer H&M are in their fifth year of collaboration with Fashion Against Aids, with 25% of profits going towards AIDs awareness organisations.

Its not just AIDs however, over the years we've seen Jeans for Genes, Pink Ribbon and most recently Alexander Wang collaborated with Samsung and Art Start, a charity that aims to nurture the creative talents of at-risk kids. Wang and some of his creative pals used the Samsung Galaxy to create doodles that Wang then printed on to a lambskin backpack. Its not cheap at $550 a bag but from a designer such as Alexander Wang you can't expect it for much less and hey its for a good cause!

Lady Gaga Channels Donatella for Versace

Earlier this month it was rumoured that Lady Gaga was collaborating with Versace but at the time the Italian brand refused to comment on the rumours, until now when these images were released proving the rumours to be true.

The campaign shot by Mert and Marcus features Gaga looking unnervingly like Donatella herself, in a tight lilac Versace dress with poker straight platinum blonde hair. The campaign says Lady Gaga for Versace which assumes she's had more to do with the campaign than just featuring in it. 

When speaking of the collaboration Donatella said  "I am honoured that my friend Lady Gaga is the face of our new Versace campaign, I wanted to capture her true beauty and spirit in images that are elegant and alluring. She is like family to me, the embodiment of the Versace DNA."

Lady Gaga's recent album 'Artpop' even features a track named after Donatella, which Gaga described as a love letter to the designer, cute. 

Mulberry Backs Out Of LFW 2014

Bruno Guillon, Lana Del Rey and Emma Hill

Mulberry was rocked this summer when it was announced that Emma Hill would be quitting her position as creative director for the British handbag specialist. After creating the Alexa and Del Rey bags which proved to be a huge success, questions were asked about her departure, it was announced that she left after "disagreements with management over creative and operational strategy". For the six years whilst Hill was the the helm of Mulberry, the houses popularity greatly increased and they filled the whimsical, girly gap left by Luella. Hill also introduced entry-level price points which appealed to the younger Mulberry women with less cash to burn, this seems to be where the differences begun. In 2012 Bruno Guillon (previously of Hermes) was appointed chief executive of Mulberry and his sole intention seems to be to re-emphasise the luxury nature of Mulberry. For example in autumn 2012 oversaw a substantial increase in Mulberry's prices across the board.

It seems Mulberry's troubles don't stop there. It was announced today that Mulberry will be backing out of Februarys Fashion Week, Mulberry was always one of the most anticipated shows with an a list packed front row so to see it go is sad. It seems that Mulberry is having trouble filling its creative director vacancy after Emma Hill left in June, rumoured successors have ranged from Erdem to Mary Katrantzou. Its been announced however that Mulberry will still feature in the LFW schedule but we'll have to wait till nearer the time for more info!

LFW starts 13th - 17th February.

The Everlasting Love of Fashion and Music

For many years, fashion and music have gone together hand in hand, both creative industries have helped each other thrive and progress through massive collaborations. Fashion has used music as a source of inspiration for years and vice versa, from the drug induced UK rave culture of the 1980’s, where fashion quickly spilled over from the clubs to the catwalks, to subcultures, which are hugely dictated by the music they listen to. Designers have decided to step up and go directly to the musicians for collaborations which has pushed both industries to creative highs, its gone on and beyond. Even the likes of film makers such as Nick Knight who has collaborated with creatives from Alexander McQueen to Kanye West, have got involved. Bridging the two has resulted in the creation of great art.

In recent years the trend has flourished, Burberry hold live events showcasing some of Christopher Baileys favorite acts such as British indie band White Lies, its even got to the point where the models turn to the musicians. We all know models and rock stars go together like ring and yang, Agyness Deyn (circa 2008) offered her vocals to unknown indie band Five O Clock Heroes and Kate Moss featured on past boyfriend Pete Dohertys album for Babyshambles.

Here are my seven picks of perhaps not the best, but the biggest fashion/music collabs:

Rihanna x River Island

Pop/Illuminati (sorry, I had to) Princess Rihanna took the high street by storm last year when she unveiled a collection designed exclusively by her (we’re led to believe) for high street retailer River Island. She even showed at London Fashion Week, surprisingly. Unless you haven’t seen the collection you can easily imagine it was an array of bomber jackets, camo, and mid riff bearing crop tops all of which you could imagine Rihanna to wear herself. It was commercial and with her massive following it was bound to be a massive success and has carried on over a couple of season. It’s all wearable but each to their own I guess!

A.P.C x Kanye

Unusually modest for a collaboration featuring Kanye, this collection consisted of mainly denim jeans, hoodies and t-shirts, staple items for most men. We all (unfortunately) remember the previous debacle when Yeezy last attempted to break in to the industry much to the distain of Anna Wintour, after that Kanye seeked advice from Jean Touitou, head of French brand A.P.C which developed in to a beautiful friendship and resulted in this basic but successful collab.

Vivienne Westwood x Sex Pistols

Although not classed as an official collaboration it is probably one of the most influential. In the 80’s Vivienne Westwood began designing clothes for Malcolm McLarens shop ‘Sex’ who also happened to be the manager of punk band the Sex Pistols, the two styled the band that helped develop the punk style which continued throughout the 70’s.

Riccardo Tisci x Watch The Throne

Bringing two musical geniuses together simply wasn’t enough for Jay Z and Kanye West when they collaborated to create Watch The Throne in 2011. West bought in good friend (and rumored ex boyf) to create the duos album and single covers and even merchandise for their world tour. As you can imagine from Jay Z, the biggest name in the industry, and Yeezy, the biggest ego in the industry, the creative direction was ridiculously extravagant, with lashings of gold and images of the duos faces merged with cheetahs.

Saint Laurent x Daft Punk

Although Daft Punk were initially introduced to the fashion world in 2007 by Louis Vuitton, it was Hedi Slimane who has really given the Dj duo a push in recent years. His debut collection for Saint Laurent was underlined by Daft Punk’s take on David “Junior” Kimbrough’s music. He then designed a jacket for the Parisian duo who also featured in the houses 2013 campaign.

Alexander McQueen x Björk

In 1997, Alexander McQueen collaborated with Björk to create the artwork for the cover of her game changing ‘Homogenic’ album. He even directed the video for one of the albums singles. Their mutual love for technology and nature made them the perfect creative duo.

Converse x Pharell, Santigold and Julian Casablancas

Back when Santigold was Santogold (ah 2008) she collaborated with Pharell and The Strokes front man Julian Casablancas to create a campaign and single for Converse. The campaign featured various musicians both dead and alive as it’s been the shoe favored by musicians for years, and the song was even my MySpace song, that’s nostalgia for you.