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!

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.

Ravensbourne Graduate Kit Neale Recognised by NEWGEN

One of Ravensbournes very own graduates, Kit Neale has gone on to receive funding from the BFC's NewGen initiative! NEWGEN was first founded in 1993 as an initiative to support up and coming designers and have been picking up on some of Britains hottest talents for years. Kit Neale is just one of the three designers who have been selected to be supported by NEWGEN at London Collections: Men this coming January, the others are Common and Deigo Vanassibara.

Menswear has never had as much a push as womens so its exciting to see the British Fashion Council giving budding menswear designers a helping hand. Kit Neale focuses on graphic printed menswear with a cool vibe, heres some of his pieces check out his website for more info and make sure to keep your eyes open for him at LC:M!

Nicholas Ghesquire at Louis Vuitton, Confirmed!

When it was announced that Marc Jacobs was leaving Louis Vuitton ( :'( ) after 16 years with the french house, the question was who will take responsibility for this prestigious house now? Most set their bets on Nicholas Ghesquiere and they weren't disappointed. Its been confirmed that Ghesquiere will become creative director for Louis Vuitton, but what can we expect from him?

Ghesquiere has already mentioned his love for the label and his respect for its heritage and deep history, which leads up to believe he'll be inspired by the brands heritage. He will show his first collection in March and I for one am excited to see what he produces, I was a huge fan of Marc Jacobs' work at Louis Vuitton so slightly apprehensive to see what will become of it!

For now though, what we do know is that Ghesquiere did extraordinary things at Balenciaga, bringing a modern and fresh feel to the house so we can expect the same at Louis Vuitton. For now however its the waiting game till March and its safe to say we wait with baited breath, don't let us down Mr Ghesquiere!

Schiaparelli Makes a Shocking Return to Paris Fashion Week

The Haute Couture shows were shaken up this season when the ever controversial legend that is Schiaparelli made its come back, and it made sure it was a spectacle to remember. 

The house has never been normal, back in the 1930's Salvador Dali described Elsa Schiaparellis studio as "the beating heart of surrealist Paris", Schiaparelli's designs were grown out of art not dressmaking.

Just as the brand was, its return was truly shocking and one that will be spoken off for a while. Renowned designer Christian Lacroix created 18 outfits that went on display in the Musee Arts Decoritifs, and this will be the first and last collection he designs for the brand. Moreover, the clothes on display were purely for display and not for sale, no matter how much money you were willing to offer the order books would not be opened. I guess this once again expresses that Schiaparelli is art not fashion. Its something that can last forever. 

Lacroix was, in my opinion, the perfect candidate to design the collection. Both designers being so similar in their eccentric colour combinations and ridiculously flamboyant silhouettes. Lacroix payed homage to the legendary designers work with golden bug brooches (Schiaparelli was fixated with birds, bigs and insects), zippered jumpsuits, deep pockets and by abonding wearability, one layered skirts weighs almost 40kg. It was also exciting to see some designs from Lacroix after his label was forced to close its doors four years ago, so its was exciting to see new things from both Schiaparelli and from Lacroix. 

Six years after Diego Della Valle, owner of the Italian Tod's group, bought the Schiaparelli house and announced their attention to relaunch – there is no official confirmation of who the Schiaparelli designer will be, although it has been widely reported that Marco Zanini of Rochas will be given the job.

This is just the start, it seems that from next year they will present their collections commercially, both couture and ready to wear. 21 Place Vedôme will become the home of a Schiaparelli boutique. 

The relaunch of this brand has been nothing but unorthodox but who expected any different, Schiaparelli was just the same and was what made the brand so iconic. I think Lacroix has done a brilliant job of setting Schiaparelli up, lets see if Della Valle can continue his success. 

All images from wallpaper.com