● The concept boutique’s Melrose Avenue flagship is undergoing a major refresh spearheaded by its new head of brand.

BY KARI HAMANAKA

LOS ANGELES — Change is afoot at the Maxfield flagship on Melrose Avenue after 25 years of sitting as the solitary concrete fortress on a tame stretch of the famed shopping district.

The West Hollywood concept boutique with its templelike entrance balances designer brands such as Chanel and Gucci with an L.A. grunge aesthetic in emerging labels such as Fear of God, Enfants Riches Déprimés and Mike Amiri. Mixed in is vintage furniture, books and objects for the home.

But now, recently appointed chief branding officer Peter Utz, who came to Los Angeles for previous employer Saint Laurent, is set out to spruce up

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Maxfield Seeks To Create Enclave of Cool On Melrose

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LONDON — Jonathan Anderson, a closely watched talent in London, made a strong case for body-skimming dresses at a terrific show on Saturday for his J.W. Anderson label. “I just wanted something that is a bit girly again,” he said. “A bit solar.” Here, one of his linen slip styles with a bouncy, handkerchief hem. For more on the shows in the British capital, see pages 5 to 8.

Sunny Side Up

●Retailers were excited about new trends but had mixed views on see-now-buy-now fashion.

BY SHARON EDELSON

NEW YORK — Is there a fashion schism in the works?

After a New York Fashion Week where the debate centered on see-now-buy-now — often at the expense of the spring styles on the runways — retailers remain divided over whether it’s a good thing for fashion and the creativity that is as much part of the industry as results on the sales floor.

Retailers said the see-now-buy-now shows remained a work-in-progress. Tom Ford’s cocktail dinner show on Sept. 7; Tommy Hilfiger’s extravagant carni-val-cum-show on Sept. 9 for his Gigi Hadid collaboration; Rebecca Minkoff closing off Greene Street on Sept. 10, and Ralph

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DAILY EDITION SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 1

Fashion. Beauty. Business.

Color Wheel Pantone lists its top 10 colors for women’s wear for spring.

Page 10

Hot NightStars sweltered on the red carpet at the 68th annual Emmy Awards.

Page 16

Branching OutSuki Waterhouse launches customizable accessories with Poppy Jamie.

Page 14

WWW.BRANDART.IT

info@brandart.it+390331634392+19173883186

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 3

● The ListenFirst Digital Engagement Ratings measure customer engagement toward consumer brands across social media.

BY LISA LOCKWOOD

When it came to digital engagement during New York Fashion Week, Michael Kors won hands-down.

The brand, which had its most impressive week on social media in its history, came in first place in the ListenFirst Digital Engagement Ratings, which measure customer engagement toward consumer brands across Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia combined with organic conversation volume, owned post engagements such as a “like” or a retweet, and general searches. The timeframe was from Sept. 7 to 15, and the numbers are cumulative over the nine-day period.

Kors had a rating of 9.6 million (number of engagements) for the nine-day period.

Coming in second place was Victoria Beckham, with a rating of 4.3 million, and third place was Sherri Hill, the eveningwear and prom dress company, who scored 3.2 million. Hill had the distinction this season of having Olympic gold medal winners Simone Biles and Aly Raisman in the audience.

According to ListenFirst, Kors’ “#AllAccessKors campaign (launched Sept. 11 at his SoHo store for his new Access smartwatch collection) dominated social all week and the women’s collection, shown Sept. 14, was widely praised by consumers and the press. Having Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid in the show also helped boost engagement.”

Coming in fourth place was Tommy Hilfiger (2.4 million), who staged a #TommyNow fall show at Pier 16 at the South Street Seaport on Sept. 9 to showcase his new Tommy x Gigi collection, which is a collaboration with “It” model Gigi Hadid. According to ListenFirst, on the day of Hilfiger’s show, the company was the number-one fashion brand on digital, generating more than 411,000 digital

MEDIA

Michael Kors, Victoria Beckham Lead in Digital Ratings

● The entrepreneur will become president of the Italian company.

BY LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — Matteo Marzotto is investing in fashion once again.

One of the former owners and former chairman of Valentino, who also took a stake in and relaunched the Vionnet brand, Marzotto is eyeing a younger and more streetwear customer with an investment in Dondup.

“This is one of the very few brands in this segment and positioning that is so recognizable,” Marzotto told WWD. “There is an excellent basis to further develop the label.”

L Capital, now part of L Catterton, will continue to remain Dondup’s majority shareholder. Marzotto declined to provide financial details of the transaction but said this was also an “operative” investment and not purely a financial one.

Andrea Ottaviano, partner at L Catterton, expressed his belief in the brand and “the great potential of its style content

on global markets. We are enthusiastic about Matteo Marzotto’s arrival and sure that his contribution will be fundamental for the development and positioning of Dondup among the most important players in the world.”

Cofounder Massimo Berloni, the former president of Dondup, will become honorary president. Manuela Mariotti, who founded the brand with Berloni in 1999, will remain creative director of both the men’s and women’s collections.

Marco Casoni, who worked with Marzotto at Valentino and was a partner in Vionnet as well as general director at Marni, will become chief executive officer at Dondup, succeeding Carlo Morfini.

Arcadia Srl, Dondup’s parent company, has sales of about 60 million euros, or $67.4 million at current exchange, and an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin of 20 percent.

Italy accounts for 80 percent of sales and Marzotto said the goal is to expand the brand internationally.

Casoni said the company aims to reach sales of around 90 million euros, or $101.1 million, in 2020.

“Massimo and Manuela have done a formidable job,” said Marzotto. “Yes, this is different from what I’ve done in the past, but I’ve always been a little jealous of the possibility for this market segment to grow quickly.”

While regularly impeccably dressed in tailored suits, Marzotto, who is an avid sportsman, said that he also enjoys wearing more “relaxed” looks — polos and jeans. He said he was enjoying the opportunity to put himself to the test.

Casoni, who placed Dondup in the contemporary premium sector, said the

brand “has more values and content than what is expressed on the market.” He praised the style, research, technical knowledge and “industrial excellence” seen at Dondup’s Fossombrone manufacturing plant in Italy’s Marche region. “This allows flexibility because it is all made in house and we can produce capsules depending on the markets and new assortments three or four times per season,” he observed.

Marzotto’s and Casoni’s strategy is to revise the brand’s distribution and enhance its communication. “We have to shine the light on the range of Dondup products, tell a story — it’s not only about pants, although they have an extraordinary fit,” said Marzotto, emphasizing the company’s “entire pipeline from washes to finishings.”

“Dondup can compete with fashion houses and lifestyle brands in terms of style and research,” noted Casoni.

The collection is currently available at 600 multibrand stores. A flagship is opening on Sept. 22 during Milan Fashion Week in Via Spiga. Marzotto said he would like the second store to open in Rome in the second half of next year.

The company will also focus on key players in France and the U.K., and plans partnerships in Asia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China, while eyeing the U.S. and working on an e-commerce and web project.

Basic denim retails at between 220 and 250 euros, or $247 and $281 at current exchange, while knits retail at around 350 euros, or $394.

Denim accounts for 50 percent of revenues today, but the company plans to expand its fashion content. Women’s wear accounts for 50 percent of sales.

BUSINESS

Matteo Marzotto Takes Stake In Dondup

Matteo Marzotto

engagements — a 347 percent increase compared to the previous day and a 36 percent gain over Hilfiger’s performance last year.

By the morning following the show, ListenFirst said there were 93,700 tweets about the show and the collection. “Tommy continued to generate impressive momentum 24 hours later, maintaining the number-one position and increasing performance by 15 percent the day after their show — a rare feat among brands during fashion week, as fans are usually on to the next thing the second the show is over,” said ListenFirst.

The next six spots were dominated by Banana Republic (2.4 million), Marc Jacobs (1.3 million), Carolina Herrera (1.26 million), Tom Ford (1.2 million), Ralph Lauren (1.1 million) and Desigual (938,882).

According to ListenFirst, Ford, who showed Sept. 7, saw success by offering “instant gratification amidst a sea of spring ’17 collections.” It said on the day of his show, he ranked number two, generating more than 334,000 engagements across social and digital channels. He also benefited by having celebrities like Rita Ora and Uma Thurman in the audience for the fall 2016 show.

Discussing the results, Jason Klein, co-chief executive officer and cofounder of ListenFirst, observed, “Tommy Hilfiger and Tom Ford released ready-to-buy fall collections instead of flaunting spring 2017 lines that aren’t yet available for purchase. The gamble paid off. Both brands saw a huge increase in their online buzz thanks to this decision.”

Further, he said, looking at the most viral posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, they were surprised to see that prom dress designer Sherri Hill generated the most buzz on Facebook thanks to their photo of Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach moments

before she hit the runway. The other top posts went to VFiles on Twitter, Victoria Beckham on Instagram and Coach on YouTube.

Surprisingly, Yeezy didn’t make the top 10 list (although it had a high ranking last season). According to ListenFirst, unlike other designers, Yeezy doesn’t have official social presences (like a Yeezy Facebook page, Twitter account or Instagram page), so there are no posts from the Yeezy brand itself. The only stats around Yeezy are from organic social conversation, which are posts that fans published and reacted to.

Victoria Beckham and Michael Kors

scored highest in digital

engagement.

Top NYFW Brands Based on Digital

Engagement Sept. 7 To 15Michael Kors

Victoria BeckhamSherri Hill

Tommy HilfigerBanana Republic

Marc JacobsCarolina Herrera

Tom FordRalph Lauren

Desigual

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Once again, Jonathan Anderson packed his London Fashion Week audience onto narrow benches set in narrow corridors — the walls painted palm green and the lights overhead coaxing sweat.

Models in long, torso-skimming dresses whisked through the venue, their handkerchief hems lapping at the knees of editors, and guests that included Tory Burch, Alexa Chung, Olivia Palermo and Anderson’s family. Sunset colors — erupt-ing in striking dégradé or blotches across meaty, natural linens — heightened the summery vibe.

“I wanted something a bit more grounded, a bit more fluid. A bit solar. Something calm,” the designer said back-stage. “And I just wanted something that was a bit girly again.”

This was a confident, chic and alluring collection for Anderson, who has become a beacon of fashion experimentation, and a highlight of London Fashion Week. There was still quirk and daring — Hulking tunics with giant looped Henry VIII sleeves anyone? — but with less of the borderline awkwardness and haphazardness that defined his early collections.

The fluted skirt shapes — the most exag-gerated slashed into spiraling streamers; the most demure a collage of crisp, white linen place mats — swished seductively. An elongated bubble skirt was the other main shape, rendered in rustic-looking knits.

Tudor references recurred in padded doublets extended into dresses with frothy, off-kilter skirts.

What left the biggest impression was all

the languid, free-falling fabric, on simple scoop-necked or V-necked dresses — and Anderson’s flare for juxtaposing rustic textures with synthetic color or bits of hardware.

“Not awkwardness,” he noted, coining a more trenchant descriptor of that J.W. vibe: “Organic friction.” — Miles Socha

Simone Rocha The designer staged a show full of grace at Southwark Cathedral, where models walked down the long stone aisle dressed in lovingly distorted takes on communion dresses, wedding and baptis-mal gowns.

Inspired by a recent exhibition in Ire-land that featured photographs by Jackie Nickerson of farm girls alongside paintings, one of them entitled “The Catholic Girls” by the Irish artist William John Leech, Simone Rocha worked her signature plays on volume into a collection that was both ethereal — and earthy.

She created her own broderie anglaise — in white or black — working it into dresses with puffed shoulders and chunky knots on the sleeves; tops that were patch-worked with lace, or a girlish collar that popped from under a long, dark glen plaid check dress.

Rocha also worked miles of sheer silk organza and tulle into long gossamer dresses adorned with embroidered flowers, in a palette of peach, pink and soft green. Some had drooping hems, and looked as if they were torn.

Workaday elements provided a cool contrast: There were long and slim red gingham dresses in the mix and sheer

plastic coats, both of which were adorned with small flowers or broderie anglaise. Tall boots had a sturdy, no-nonsense look and were finished with plain or colored Perspex heels, another Rocha signature.

Some of the models wore cross-body bags slung across their backs. They were done in a mix of plastic, napa and cloque, and their ample, unconstructed shapes looked perfect for holding babies — or potatoes.

“I wanted to take those land girls from the farm and bring them to a pure place,” said Rocha, adding that she also liked the idea of mixing the synthetic and the earthy; putting something together and then having it fall apart; and creating dis-torted shapes with the lumpy bags.

Once again, Rocha produced haiku-ish liner notes — “cotton poplin and broderie anglaise/hard-working days,” read one stanza — and to round off the collection’s other-worldy mood, she told some guests backstage after the show: “Everyone will take holy communion now.” — Samantha Conti

Versus“I lost her for a while, but now she’s back — and I’m so happy,” said Donatella Versace of the latest incarnation of Versus — a collection for the sporty gal who can easily swap her heels for slides, and wants a bit of comfort in her everyday and night-clubbing wardrobe.

Versace is back at the helm of the col-lection she first designed two decades ago, and there are no plans to replace designer Anthony Vaccarello, who took over as creative director of Saint Laurent earlier

this year. “I have a fun team — they stop at nothing — and we’ve re-energized the brand,” Versace said.

Her Millennial madam is more laid-back than in past seasons, with Versace describ-ing the collection as “fresh, feminine, utilitarian and utopian.”

Early designs were tested on staff members — and if they weren’t comfort-able, they were gone. Those that made the cut were sleek and sporty — all with the brand’s punky edge.

They included sleeveless swingy wool mini-kilt dresses, slashed knits, piles of skinny, black stretchy trousers and leather jackets. There were flashes of that signa-ture Versace chain mail, too, as handker-chief-like panels at the sides of short black dresses.

Versace and her team also fused metal mesh onto distressed denim where it glinted from beneath tears in the jeans, and from the underside of slashed knits.

Utilitarian materials played a big role, too, with parachute and wetsuit fabrics worked into designs — the former was used for cropped or long army green puffer jackets, and the latter for short dresses with tiny V-shaped details along the seams, one of which Versace was wearing during a pre-show walk-through. Hers was skinny and short with cutouts and zips, while others had skater skirts.

There were also clingy, long-sleeved T-shirt dresses — done in a mix of olive and black, or an eye-searing shade of tangerine — and ribbed knits galore, adorned with removable, reusable Velcro patches.

This was an energetic, commer-cial-minded comeback for youngsters who want their first jolt of Versace. — S.C.

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Peter Pilotto This high-energy collection was one of design duo Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos’ strongest yet, rich with delicate sil-houettes and naïve, folksy motifs inspired by the South American landscape — seen through the eyes of a child.

Pilotto and the half-Peruvian de Vos said they were inspired by their travels, and the conflation of pre-Colombian and European colonial cultures on that continent.

The result was a dreamy lineup of long Irish linen dresses done in macaron pastels adorned with gold embroidery here and there; airy lace gowns in plum or gold, some with delicate, colored macramé frills around the waist or sleeves, and others still with jaunty, cartoonish patches in the shape of mythical animals, folk figures, alligators, palm trees and hearts.

Rustling taffeta dresses — some with slits up the front, some with macramé edging and others adorned with a sad sun face crying a big crystal tear — had an 19th-cen-tury socialite feel, as if they’d been plucked from the pages of a Gabriel García Márquez novel.

The collection wasn’t all sweeping gowns, though. The designers know there’s much fun to be had at a 21st-century South American beach, and to wit, there were gingham dresses with more of those fun folk patches, and off-the-shoulder denim ones, too, which were similarly adorned. A host of halter tops, small macramé bags and flower-print cotton dresses rounded out their offer. — Samantha Conti

Gareth Pugh See-now-buy-now is hardly a topic for a fashion showman like Gareth Pugh,

who uses clothes to create an atmosphere alive with forebod-ing, female empowerment and disquieting beauty.

The narrative this season was particu-larly dense and evocative, for his spring collection dovetailed from an assignment from the Paris Opera: more than 60 costumes for “Eliogabalo,” a 17th-century Italian opera about a perverse tyrant.

“From the Opera Garnier to a car park in the middle of Soho to tell the same story,” Pugh enthused backstage, for the premiere in the French capital had been the night before.

With its soundtrack of furious drum-ming, the show had a knife-to-the-throat intensity that is rare in London, where a great many collections exalt British eccen-tricity, from quaint to zany.

Pugh opened with a series of cocooning black coats gleaming with dense, 3-D gold bullion in mosaic formations. Gold shards embellished lean cotton pantsuits with flared legs and lean leather dominatrix dresses.

Regal and ecclesiastical silhouettes ultimately gave way to sultry draping, with strips of chiffon or points of jersey lapping at bare legs. Everything had a sci-fi gloss, sometime dystopian a la “Mad Max,” but more often idealistic a la “Star Wars.”

While he insisted the show was not polit-ical, he drew a parallel to modern times in describing the opera’s protagonist — a child emperor in imperial Rome — as “an agent of chaos, a crowned anarchist, emerging amid a climate of greed and narcissism. It’s essentially about an empire eating itself, which felt alarmingly relevant.”

Pugh made it clear he was alluding to the U.S., and not post-Brexit Britain. But he insisted he wanted to send a positive

message with all his sun-ray stripes and gleaming fabrics

and embellishments.The slogan T-shirt he wore backstage

drove home the message: “Optimism Is the Ultimate Rebellion,” it read. — Miles Socha

Mary KatrantzouA designer can fight against her nature for only so long. For spring, Mary Katrant-zou returned to her trademark prints and her Greek origins, yielding a collection that was visually exuberant — at times dizzy-ingly so.

Colorful optical patterns battled for real estate with frescos, chariot racers, urns and meandering Greek fret designs. These motifs covered lean tube dresses, tunics and flaring pants that — backed with a blaring Prince soundtrack — wouldn’t look out of place on a Versace runway.

It was also hard not to think of Paco Rabanne and his original dresses with metal and plastic discs joined with wire. Katrantzou’s — in pastel-toned Perspex — clattered down the runway and amplified the patterns worn underneath.

Mirrored versions of Daniel Buren’s can-dy-striped columns at Palais Royal in Paris were plunked on the runway, adding to the visual overload.

Backstage, the designer recalled trips as a child to Knossos Palace, and “the satura-tion of color” she saw there.

“It was a really personal collection,” she said. “I’m usually more abstract in my approach, but this time I wanted to look at my roots — and distort the images with something that was op-art and psychedelic.”

The finesse of Katrantzou’s labor-in-tensive designs never fails to impress,

particularly her short scalloped skirts, the half-moons arranged in optical forma-tions, and the long ones marrying sheer black fabric and embroidered key and fret motifs.

She also concentrated on more demure shapes, including narrow, floor-length skirts and boxy cocktail suits with pep-lums. These came mainly in moiré patterns, and should open Katrantzou’s universe to society ladies. — M.S.

Anya HindmarchAnya Hindmarch’s staggering vortex show set — complete with a luminous, cantilevered lid and a sliding staircase bifurcating the void — could actually get you excited about handbags.

Models spiraled up and down the gleaming white whirlpool or whisked around its perimeter in colorful Neoprene coats in cocoon or bathrobe shapes. These were the secondary backdrops, bearing as plastrons or collar details the same geometric leatherwork tacked onto the leather goods. This leatherwok was achieved without any stitching, according to the show notes.

The spectacle, titled “Circulus,” was impressive and summoned the right retro-futuristic mood to exalt Hindmarch’s hero product. Tearing a page from the Fendi playbook, she decorated many of her satchels with dangling fur pom-poms and Rubik’s-Cube-like leather charms. There was also a whiff of Marni in the vaguely Sixties, naïve geometry reminis-cent of printed circuit boards.

No matter: The bags were crisp and as enticing as candies. Hindmarch’s new Stack style, sandwiching multiple zippered pouches, brought to mind licorice. — M.S.

Mary Katrantzou Anya HindmarchGareth PughPeter Pilotto

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House of HollandHenry Holland adapted photographer Josef Koudelka's gritty, black-and-white images of gypsy communities as his start-ing point. But given his multicolor vision, Holland gave that touchstone a distinctly exuberant treatment.

Gingham dresses in red, purple, and orange were done in tiers of ruffles, while drop waist, floral slipdresses had skirts with flounces of black tulle. And there were florals a-plenty, which had a wild, folksy appeal. An off-the-shoulder dress was fashioned from white guipure lace embroidered with red poppies, while a dark floral print of chrysanthemums and forget-me-nots bloomed on everything from hoodies to flippy dresses.

To keep the look modern, Holland also wove in elements of the streetwise, more-is-more style that modern traveler communities are known for in the U.K. — namely huge hoop earrings, fishnet vests and tracksuits. (Holland’s were in rich cotton, sewn with gingham panels.) It was a charming collection, with plenty of approachable pieces amid the expressive styling.

And celebrating his label’s 10th anniversary this year, Holland closed the show with a collection of the cheeky slogan T-shirts — sample quote: “I’m Yours for a Tenner, Kendall Jenner,” that launched him as an upstart designer in 2006, updated for 2016. — Nina Jones

Margaret HowellA breezy, off-hand femininity infused Margaret Howell’s outing this season. As ever, there was a chic simplicity to the collection, with Howell never veering from her calm, wearable aesthetic.

A smidgen of quirkiness did appear in her vaguely Fifties silhouettes. She over-laid her easy, knee-length skirts with a layer of navy tulle, while some silk shirts had sweetly ruffled collars, and were but-toned askew. Alongside those eye-catch-ing pieces were the designer’s staples, such as roomy raincoats, cropped pants and fine knit cardigans, often belted to show off the waist.

The color palette was similarly under-stated, dominated by navy, khaki, rust and teal, with flashes of dulled, metallic red and gold, in pieces such as pleated, full skirts and loose shifts. Those touches of off-kilter glamour showed the evolu-tion of Howell’s pared-back arty aes-thetic. — N.J.

MM6 MargielaThe design collective at MM6 Maison Margiela continued on the affectionate theme of hugs and kisses it explored for the resort 2017 collection, looking again to images of couples embracing for inspiration.

This translated into creased and tan-gled effects in the cut and seams placed to skew the line of garments. One top was constructed with two back panels — the idea being that when people hug, you don't see their fronts. So conceptual, this lot.

A kitsch print of frolicking kittens that appeared on a black pencil skirt and a sweatshirt was deceptively innocent. Closer inspection revealed the kittens playing with lit candles and death's-head hawkmoths. Creepy.

Throughout the installation, members of the collective painted elements of the collection with white acrylic paint, obliterating the kittens' faces or marking out the collar of a sleeveless biker jacket, transforming the pieces into one-offs that will be sold in selected MM6 stores.

Other highlights included a huge blue shirt with oversize white collar and cuffs,

Margaret Howell Molly Goddard

MM6 Margiela

and another with different stripes on back and front, and exposed raw-edge seams down the sleeves. Isn't it romantic? — Julia Neel

Molly Goddard Molly Goddard's frou-frou, childlike party dresses have been gaining buzz over the past few seasons, so there was a sense of anticipation among the packed crowd

ahead of her debut runway show at Lon-don's Old Spitalfields Market on Saturday night.

Goddard didn't disappoint: She pumped up her baby-doll aesthetic, working tulle in rave-worthy, fluorescent shades. One tiered, petticoat dress came in searing green, while another oversize one was done in a garish pink.

Some dresses were inset with chest panels in a Neoprene-like, technical fabric.

The designer said in her show notes that she was inspired by those who use their clothes to escape "the mundanities of their working lives," and dressed her models for an "outdoor all-nighter."

She also drew on photographer Nick Wap-lington's images of the New York club scene, printing snapshots of clubbers on T-shirts.

It all had an out-there, sweetly anarchic air, cementing Goddard's status as a name to watch. — N.J.

House of Holland

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¬ “Shop the Show,” reads a huge banner un-derneath Topshop Unique’s live-stream on the high-street retailer’s web site. The retailer held partially true to its see-now-buy-now promise. Immediately after the show, six pieces from the collection, labeled September 2016 rather than spring 2017, became available to buy. That’s only a portion of the 36-look show.The online drop was anticlimactic. Presented in flat-shot images, these pieces were clearly the pre-prepared option until the web site caught up with itself post-show. Five hours later, there were 31 items available to buy with most sizes in stock, including the show-open-ing Perry Blouse (143 pounds, or $188.50) and zebra-striped Vaughn Jacket (550 pounds, or $715). The checkout, like the rest of the site, is seamless and Topshop granted its customers free shipping to celebrate London Fashion Week. — RUBY ABBISS

WWD spot-checks the system.

Topshop UniqueSHOW: Sunday, Sept. 18

The Instant Fashion Experience

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Mulberry In his second outing for the brand, cre-ative director Johnny Coca left last season’s hardware on the shelf, swapping the M&M-style silver embellishments for a lineup of classic, fluid silhouettes — the better to show off spring's snappy accessories.

Models wore clothes inspired by Brit-ain’s tradition of uniforms — both military and collegiate — as in a burgundy For-ties-style dress that cinched at the waist; an army green cotton coat; and jackets, skirts and dresses with regatta stripes galore.

Those trends also formed the foundation of a powerful collection of accessories, including a zippered lunchbox-style bag known as the Cherwell, with hand and shoulder straps that came in solids and regatta stripes (not superhero or Min-ion-themed, like their elementary school counterparts).

Other new handbag styles riffed on 3-D geometric shapes, including a triangular prism and a cube. Coca also debuted the Bayswater Piccadilly, an outsized take on the brand’s signature bag, which models grasped under their arms as they made their way down a massive runway, looking as if they were running away from home.

Footwear also stood out, thanks to Coca’s new curved heel on ruffle-edged mules and boots and charming school-marm-styles with grommets and ribbon ties. They also came on a jazzy pair of regatta-striped shoes that were dotted with silver studs — a nod to punk, that other British uniform. — Samantha Conti

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi

The designers looked to society’s decay, to subcultures, cults — and witchcraft — for this highly embellished, color-packed collection that at times felt overwhelming, with a flounce too many.

Designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bre-gazzi were certainly in a statement-making mood, sending frothy, frayed and shred-ded ruffles spilling from the armholes of sleeveless jackets, and down the fronts of sheer tops and long dresses, the latter done in bright candy colors.

The designers said they let their silk chif-fons and velvet devorés shred and decay naturally. "We just let it go," through the sampling and the fittings, Bregazzi said.

White cotton blouses came with tone-on-tone lasagna-like ruffles as did a neat white denim jacket, with a single frill that wound its way over the shoulders and down the arms.

There were bright plaid dresses — some with fraying edges — long silver sequined skirts and a pentagram occult motif that appeared across leather jackets, a long white cotton dress, and a series of colorful gowns that had a whiff of the flapper.

Those dresses, with their bare backs, pentagrams and shapes picked out in col-ored sequins, were the stars of the show, and will no doubt work a powerful magic on the red carpet.

Preen is one of the few London design-ers this season to trial a capsule of see-now-buy-now looks — three in total — that were set to go on sale on the brand's web site following the show. — S.C.

Temperley London Romance blew through this bohemian luxe collection that was full of sunrise and sunset colors and soft shapes.

For as hard as Temperley must work, her head and heart remained pool and beachside — at least this season. Models even walked on a runway-in-the-round that was covered in sand — just to drive home the spring message.

Ahead of the show, the designer described her collection as “sunrise to dusk — a 24-hour Temperley tribe,” and that is just what she delivered.

There were sheer-printed day dresses with full sleeves; longer, off-the-shoulder ones; Empire and halter styles in diapha-nous fabrics or sturdier cotton ones, and more prim numbers done in cotton with short sleeves. Some had a thick ruffle around the edge, while others glinted with gold thread or subtle embellishments.

They came embroidered and printed in daybreak and twilight shades of pink, orange and red. Skirts got the same treat-ment as did off-the-shoulder crop or halter tops.

Temperley sent out wide-leg trousers and jumpsuits, too, while an ultra-light-weight denim jacket came with swirls of multicolored embroidery. The designer hit her stride for evening, with a lineup of iridescent sequin dresses, and a glittery jumpsuit in beachy, bleached-out blue, russet, orange and yellow.

The latter was one of three looks she put on the social app Vero immediately after the show as she dips her toe into the see-now-buy-now waters. — S.C.

Topshop Unique

The extravagant shapes, loud animal prints and slick textures of the Eighties were writ large across the Topshop Unique collection. (The brand had simply dubbed the collection "September 2016,” as a num-ber of pieces were available to buy straight after the show.)

In the show notes, the design team said they looked to artist Linder Sterling — known for her subversive, collage-like works — and the myriad London fashion markets that thrived during the Eighties, with the aim of conjuring “a time when individualism roared through the city to the soundtrack of punk and New Wave.”

The retailer had distilled those vintage inspirations into a slick, easily digestible spin on the era. There were voluminous, cocoon-shaped jackets in zebra print; high-waist, tailored pants in black and white tweed, and skin-tight PVC dresses. Playing to the decade’s romantic side, pretty floral prints appeared on sweater dresses and tops, while one black and white, rose print blouse had a ruffled bib.

While some of the fabrics looked a bit flimsy under the harsh floodlights of a runway setting, this upbeat collection succeeded in packaging up a fun slice of a time synonymous with excess. —Nina Jones

MulberryPreen by

Thornton Bregazzi Temperley London Topshop Unique

CollectionsThe

London

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 9

Lauren building a glass box in front of his Madison Avenue flagship all showed adap-tations of the model, but other designers still had to work out the kinks.

The question remains, though, whether see-now-buy-now is truly a strategy to follow.

Ed Burstell, managing director of Lib-erty, noted the importance of satisfying customers’ desire for instant gratification, but said the cost of see-now-buy-now could be steep. “It really comes down to big ver-sus little businesses. This will put smaller brands under even more pressure,” he said. “Basically you can’t make money unless you have money. How many emerg-ing brands will have the financial backing to manufacture seasonal collections sight unseen by buyers and unreviewed by editors and journalists? This could have a devastating effect on creativity as the num-ber of brands could shrink substantially.”

Burstell pointed a finger at self-ap-pointed Internet pundits, who opine despite a lack of knowledge or credentials. Some say this has made fashion more dem-ocratic and inclusive, but Burstell believes it’s created a culture of noise and dispos-able products.

Jeffrey Kalinsky, designer fashion direc-tor of Nordstrom, has reservations about see-now-buy-now. “In the designer world, [see-now-buy-now] is not what will drive consumers to stores,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to me. When stores get a [see-now-buy-now] collection, is everyone going to rush to the store and gobble it up? If the consumer doesn’t wander into the store for a month, where’s that excitement? There are so many other ways to make things better in stores. Why has this become the focus?”

“It’s such a complex subject,” Coco Chan, head of women’s ready-to-wear and accessories at Stylebop.com, said of immediate fashion. “There are many pros and cons. It’s easier to say it than to do it, in reality. Some designers have dipped into it in a capsule way, like Moschino.”

Chan acknowledged that the concept of designs hot off the runway “generates a huge amount of excitement and sells really quickly. But it works best for product that’s easily digestible, particularly accessories. I suspect it’s not for every type of product or category, such as the more conceptual

collections that take time for customer to understand and appreciate.”

Chan was skeptical that see-now-buy-now could work for high designer collec-tions. “For certain products, perhaps the production time can be shortened,” she said. “No one can make a Valentino gown in less time than it takes. The customer appreciates the workmanship and will see the difference.”

“[See-now-buy-now] is giving fashion week a new impulse, highlighting different strategies among designers and brands,” said Tiziana Cardini, fashion director of La Rinascente in Milan. “It remains to be seen if the outcome will be positive for custom-ers and brands.”

Alix Morabito, fashion director of Gal-eries Lafayette, sees see-now-buy-now as primarily a publicity vehicle. “Except for collaborations, buyers have already bought the collections. These shows became tools of public communication. See-now-buy-now is promoting the selling season. For the European market, American designers are not easy to position due to their price range and design. The [gap] between

advanced contemporary, emerging designer and luxury is too blurred.”

Mario Grauso, president of Holt Renfrew, said, “We’re in the midst of a big change in the way we view, edit and buy collections. The customer always comes first, but until vendors are able to accommodate retailers with timely see-now-buy-now deliveries, the Internet will continue to be the go-to source for consumers.”

Ken Downing, senior vice president and fashion director at Neiman Marcus, has been bullish about see-now-buy-now from the start, but even he admitted, “We are in a learning period. It’s important that designers continue to look for new ways to present their collections in relevant time.”

Tom Ford’s see-now-buy-now collection produced strong business for men’s and women’s rtw and had a halo effect on beauty, fragrance and accessories, Down-ing said, adding, “This is truly the future and brands that don’t understand that will be left behind.”

Linda Fargo, senior vice president of the fashion office and the director of women’s fashion and store presentation at Bergdorf Goodman, said the efforts of Ford and Lauren had a positive impact on sales with a 360-degree approach that included store events, marketing, and digital and social media to explain the strategy to the consumer.

Designers were showing on runways see-now-buy-now collections that she bought six months ago, said Sarah Rutson, global vice president of buying for Net-a-porter. “The reality is that the brands and design-ers didn’t know what would be shown in September when we did the buy back in February,” she said.

La Ligne, which showed buyers prod-ucts for October delivery, has the right idea, Rutson said. “La Ligne committed early to buying stock and showing certain pieces,” she said. “We, in turn, bought something that’s truly [see-now-buy-now]. It’s all about being balanced for our global customers with different needs based on climate and seasons.”

Suzanne Timmins, senior vice presi-dent, fashion office, Hudson’s Bay Co., said, “We’ve seen an immediate reaction to the capsules we’ve carried and it’s been beneficial for us to be able to register that immediacy as a retailer.”

While all the talk seemed to center on see-now-buy-now, there remained a large

number of designers who didn’t hop onto the bandwagon and instead showed their spring collections. Among these, buyers found plenty to praise, as emerging or rising labels including Brandon Maxwell, Monse, Rosie Assoulin, Joseph Altuzarra, The Row and Sies Marjan asserted their originality, overshadowing some older, more established hands.

There were bankable trends such as stripes, cargo details and eye-popping colors; must-have items such as off-the-shoulder men’s shirting blouses, and in a springtime for velvet twist, the winter staple did double duty. The biggest trend for spring seems to be skin, with bra tops, cutouts, crop tops and skirts with high slits.

Store executives praised the smaller, inti-mate presentations some designers opted for, including Jonathan Saunders’ first effort for Diane von Furstenberg, Derek Lam and Lela Rose. “It was a different way of looking at fashion week than we’ve been doing for the last decade or so,” said Roopal Patel, senior vice president and fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue. “Everyone was beating to the sound of their own drum.”

“A lot of designers took risks and pushed the envelope a bit more than usual and offered very competitive pricing,” said Kelly Golden, owner of Neapolitan Collec-tion in Winnetka, Ill.

“We’ll definitely be buying into shirting,” Timmins said. “This trend continues to grow and move in different directions. The cargo-utilitarian trend feels very new as does the effortless dress, long, floaty and pretty.”

Several retailers attributed the burst of creativity to the presidential election. “In a time of uncertainty, designers said, ‘Let’s try to have some fun,’” said Beth Buccini, owner of Kirna Zabête. “There was a real flirtiness and playfulness to the collections.”

“In spite of, or maybe because of an uncertain election climate, many design-ers responded with amped up creativity, beauty and expressiveness,” Fargo said.

Barneys New York executive vice president and women’s general mer-chandise manager Jennifer Sunwoo said must-haves for the store’s customers are personalized satin bomber jackets, printed tops and bralettes from Altuzarra, and deconstructed men’s wear shirting seen on several runways.

Brooke Jaffe, Bloomingdale’s operating vice president, fashion director of rtw, said she’s eyeing promising designers such as Novis, Tome, Creatures of Comfort and PH5, while Moda Operandi’s gmm of rtw Elizabeth Leventhal singled out Brock Collection, Hensley, Adeam and Rejina Pyo for accessories. Her counterpart for non-apparel, Chloe Sippe, called out statement earrings as a key trend.

Haus Alkire was singled out by Macy’s Inc. group vice president and fashion director Nicole Fischelis, along with Gypsy Sport, which has “a very interesting approach to genderless ath-leisure.” She liked the juxtaposition between the roman-tic streak seen in many collections with the trend of more rigid military-inspired looks.

As the fashion focus shifts to Europe — where Burberry will hold its see-now-buy-now show Monday — the question remains whether more brands will join the party, or else stick to the current schedule. The dan-ger is further confusion among consumers at a time when fashion retailers and brands are struggling to find growth.

“There’s an enormous malaise among customers,” Downing said. “There’s an overexposure of goods, on celebrities, on social media. The quicker brands realize that we need to find new ways to excite and energize customers, the better. The power of social media can be a positive and an asset to the industry or a liability. Cur-rently, it’s become an enormous liability.”

Instant FashionFractures Industry CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Jason Wu

Proenza Schouler

Rosie Assoulin

Victoria Beckham

Monse

10 SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

●Niagara, Primrose Yellow, Lapis Blue, Flame and Island Paradise were the leading five spring colors based on Pantone’s analysis of New York designers’ spring runway collections.

BY ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

In keeping with the see-now-buy-now undercurrent sweeping through the spring collections, Pantone has switched up its seasonal forecasting by releasing its Top 10 colors in the wake of New York Fashion Week.

Leading the charge are Niagara, Primrose Yellow and Lapis Blue in the top three slots respectively, followed by Flame and Island Paradise. Ranking sixth through 10th, are Pale Dogwood, Green-ery, Pink Yarrow, Kale and Hazelnut.

Just as many designers have taken to a more immediate approach to retail, so has Pantone with its color analysis. Pan-tone Color Institute’s executive director Leatrice Eiseman said, “Obviously, that’s a really important part of where the fashion industry is headed. You have to look at things and ask would people say, ‘I love that color. I want it now.’ For us, it also plays into that whole idea of transitional seasons and offering options that are not just typical of seasons.”

True to the itinerant nature of today’s jobs, Eiseman tuned into the New York runways from Seattle and Paris. With some designers like Thom Browne blending nine shades into one dress (not counting the Island Paradise lip-stick worn by some of his models), the Pantone team had their work cut out for them. There were about 119 NYFW shows and presentations on the schedule, with colors ranging from “the wackadoodle to the absolutely gorgeous and romantic,” Eiseman said. Relying on the numerical and the instinctive, she said, “When you’re seeing the colors and the clothing coming down the runway, you get a pretty good picture of what value the color is and what tonality it is.... We also record them. In the end, it really is a question of numbers — how many people are using these variations of colors.

“We looked at each look, and of course for that, you really have to whistle through. But there are certain things that stood out because we’re always looking for color cues,” Eiseman said. “It seems to me that exponentially it just gets better and better, because there is just so much originality and freedom in the use of color, particularly in the use of combina-tions. It’s fun for us to see the extremes too — from the silly to the sublime. And silly in a good way because it can also be inventive, creative and eye catching. You look at all the gorgeous dresses, gowns and fabrics and that’s all lovely. But when there’s whimsy as well that puts a smile on your face, that’s what fashion is all about.”

FASHION

Pantone’s Top 10 Spring 2017 Colors Counts on New York Fashion Week for Inspiration

Niagara 17-4123Comfortable, dependable and relaxed, this denimlike blue was used by Carolina Herrera for a ballgown, by Zac Posen in translucent detail on a gown and by Joseph Altu-zarra in a floral-printed denim jacket. “That convergence of different looks coming together was a standout to me,” Eiseman said. “One of the things that really impressed me was the Carolina Herrera dress shown in this denimlike blue — the bustier effect in this denimlike color. The creativity involved in that was kind of like denim-meets-ballgown.”

Primrose Yellow 13-0755Along with several of the oth-er Top 10 colors, this sunlight one is akin to flowers and a reminder of nature. Several designers used this color with the cooler Island Paradise and warming Hazelnut, Eise-man said.

Lapis Blue 19-4045When it comes to blues, navy is a given as a spring color. Lapis Blue is a way of bringing in a bit more vitality, adding a little more energy with an in-ner radiance or pearlescence that enhances any layering effect, from Eiseman’s point of view. “That’s the direction we’re heading in with the blues — not to stay too boring or too same,” she said. “Blues are anchoring colors. Women are looking for change, they’re looking for fun or some drama in fashion. But those familiar colors give us some ease in a political climate that gives us reason to calm down a bit.”

Flame 17-1462This red-fused orange definitely has a lot of heat in it and is “gregarious, vivacious and definitely a party color. It’s very theatrical and you know you’re definitely going to turn heads when you wear that color and walk into a room.” Rag & Bone, Gabriela Hearst and Lela Rose were onto it, Eiseman said. “Tory Burch has a history of loving that color and she does it very well.”

Island Paradise 14-4620A refreshing cool blue, this shade found its way into Victoria Beckham’s panne velvet dresses and the color alone made one feel it was spring, Eiseman said. Its name alone brings to mind beautiful bodies of water that make daydreamers want to dive right in, she added. Lela Rose earned her praise for using the hue in a lace dress as did Christian Siriano for combining the light blue with fiery Flame.

Pale Dogwood 13-1404Color watchers might see this one as an extension of Rose Quartz, which shared the 2016 Color of Year title with Seren-ity. “There is a holdover effect — people are still affected by it. Designers are working in a season where they’re thinking of lightness and airiness,” Eiseman said. J.Mendel, Banana Republic, Ryan Roche, Baja East and Lacoste looked to have gotten the cue and others added it to Kale.

Greenery 15-0343Shoppers’ longing for the great outdoors is evident in this yellow-green and its partner Kale. Zac Posen, Trina Turk and Cynthia Rowley all had a dose of Greenery. “The Japanese have a technique called ‘forest bathing,’ where they encourage people to go outside and take a walk in a forest. Obviously, if you live in a big city you don’t always have that opportunity. But anything that you can create that gives you that feeling of really being immersed in na-ture is a good thing,” Eiseman said. “Greens are not unknown to Michael Kors, but he was right on target with the way he used this, along with Island Paradise and Lapis Blue.”

Pink Yarrow 17-2034Festive and visible, this is a color women know well since it has been an outstanding cosmetics color for years. “Put it in a garment and you’re always going to get compli-ments,” Eiseman said. Kith and Nanette Lepore seemed to have gotten the memo.

Kale 18-0107Apparently, this leafy green’s popularity extends beyond juice bars, restaurants and farmer’s markets. Aside from complementing so many oth-er colors, Eiseman said, “We refer to it as ‘oxygenating,’ tak-ing a breath of fresh air. The world of architecture is also in on the trend given the breadth of vertical gardens, rooftop greenery and leafy plazas cropping up in new commer-cial buildings from New York to Dubai. “They’re bringing plants in but not just plunking them down in your office. Architects are really turning it into an art form whether you are in a work atmosphere, a hotel or theater — anywhere you really want to bring the outside in,” she added.

Hazelnut 14-1315A quintessential neutral with a warm undertone, Hazelnut speaks to the idea of transi-tional color that actually can be worn all year, Eiseman said. Kanye West used it in his controversial Yeezy collection and Dennis Basso worked it into a chiffon blouse and a short lace dress.

Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring 2017

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NEW YORK — Ipsy is focused on content creation and the individuals who create it — even if that content doesn't directly generate revenue.

Almost all of the company's $150 million in revenue last year came from the $10 monthly fee from its 1.5 mil-lion members, said Jennifer Goldfarb, Ipsy's president and cofounder along with Michelle Phan, the pioneer of the beauty influencer movement online, and Marcelo Camberos.

"It's important," Goldfarb said of the company's personalized subscription service. "But more powerful is the cre-ators and working with the community of creators we work with. She [Phan] inspired a generation. It's amazing the world she's opened up. Today you can tell your parents I want to be a beauty content creator."

On Friday, the company hosted its first Creator Day in New York at the Dream Hotel to foster the growth of aspiring influencers and build its community of engaged, beauty content creators. The event was part of Generation Beauty, a two-day beauty event sponsored by Ipsy that took place Saturday and Sunday at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Brook-lyn had representation from 34 beauty brands and 4,000 attendees.

For Creator Day specifically, Goldfarb said 300 individuals with varying sized followings were invited to partake based on how "high quality their work is." For her, since so much of this activity takes place online, having an in-person networking and educational opportunity is important. Phan keynoted the event, which had three panels that addressed how to work with brands as well as build-ing one's personal brand.

While other subscription services

might be cutting staff, restructuring their businesses and rushing to find more venture capitalists to fund them, Ipsy continues to expand.

Each month Ipsy sends a Glam Bag of five deluxe-sized samples or full-sized products to members using a person-alization algorithm built by engineers and data scientists at the company's San Francisco headquarters.

She acknowledged that while sampling gives Ipsy 12 opportunities a year to talk to its customers "in their hands, in their bathrooms," it makes money for the business that's then taken and invested in the creator universe. The company's 10 in-house content creators work to produce content monthly to support the samples that appear in members' Glam Bags (and since selections are personal-ized, there are up to 300 variations of Glam Bags a month) and show members how to wear, use and incorporate these items into their beauty routines. Goldfarb said that Ipsy-owned content that lives on both the in-house stylists' and Ipsy social channels gets a combined 500 million views per month.

"We have been profitable since the beginning so there is clearly something about the way we're running the business that's working," Goldfarb said, calling content and the in-house content cre-ators a point of differentiation.

This fosters a high rate of engagement from members who, according to Gold-farb, submit over one million product reviews to Ipsy every single month. Also, Ipsy doesn't do any retail beyond the sub-scription service, which she explained makes the company different from Birch Box.

"[With] many businesses, the goal is to come back and buy full-size [product]. Ours is to get you to create content," she said.

It helps that rather than paying for the millions of samples it sends out each month, Ipsy works with brands to develop "media packages" that entail e-mail promotion, social media posts and video. Brands "pay" Ipsy in product in order to "reach a targeted community."

FASHION

Jacobs Responds to Appropriation Claims

BEAUTY

Michelle Phan, Ipsy Assist Influencers

● The hair at Marc Jacobs’ show spawned heated Internet conversation about race.

BY RACHEL STRUGATZ

NEW YORK — It comes as no surprise that the hair at Marc Jacobs runway show Thursday — pastel colored, wool dread-locks banded into models’ hair — spurred heated Internet chatter.

Immediately following the show, there was a flurry of social conversation around cultural appropriation, with some users blasting Jacobs for his show’s hair choices. The issue went viral and has been covered by publications including USA Today, The Daily Mail and The Daily Beast.

Jacobs first commented on an Insta-gram post published by the brand @marcjacobs with his personal handle, @

themarcjacobs. The comment read: “@radical.lizeth @emmelephant and all who cry ‘cultural appropriation’ or whatever nonsense about any race or skin color wearing their hair in any particular style or manner — funny how you don’t criticize women of color for straightening their hair. I respect and am inspired by people and how they look. I don’t see color or race — I see people. I’m sorry to read that so many people are so narrow-minded….Love is the answer. Appreciation of all and inspiration from anywhere is a beautiful thing. Think about it.”

A more recent comment made by Jacobs appeared below his Instagram post of Ken-dall Jenner and his dog Neville from three days ago that already has more than 1,100 comments. He apologized for his earlier comment.

It read: “@__kayy1_ of course straight hair isn’t a white thing. I was referring

have 1.2 million and seven million follow-ers, respectively. A perusal of the brand’s Snapchat Story from the past 24 hours revealed a lot of models getting ready backstage, celebrities front row and bits from the actual show.

This did nothing to calm the Internet, whose commentary about the designer is still going strong.

Marc Jacobs’ could not be reached for comment.

WWD was backstage before the show, where lead hairstylist Guido Palau discussed Jacobs’ hair inspiration. WWD originally reported that when asked by an editor if Rastafarian culture influenced the hair, Palau said “not really, no.” He rattled off references — in addition to Jacobs’ friend, director Lana Wachowski’s, pink dreadlocks — that included things like ravers, acid-house music, Harajuku Girls and Boy George.

to hair styling and texture for my fash-ion show and defensive. I apologize if I offended anyone at all. Certainly wasn’t my intention at all.”

A formal statement on social media hasn’t been made yet on either Jacobs’ personal (@themarcjacobs) or the brand’s (@marcjacobs) Twitter accounts, which

● The company hosted its first Creator Day to foster the growth of and build its community of beauty content creators.

BY RACHEL STRUGATZ

Men can now get their Stitch Fix, too.The online styling service is expand-

ing into the men's market today, offering brands such as DL1961 and Scotch and Soda as well as an in-house brand, Hawker Rye, which is expected to be joined by other pri-vate brands. (Hawker Rye amounts to Stitch Fix’s take on modern American sportswear, with washed shirts and chinos).

In all, the men’s offering of apparel, footwear and furnishings will include more than 50 brands, from Threads for Thought and Descendants of Thieves to AG and Seven For All Mankind with prices for the men's offering ranging from $28 to $178.

Men's is just the latest leg of Stitch Fix's growth tear.

Since Katrina Lake founded the San Francisco company as a data-powered digital styling service in 2011, it has grown to more than 5,000 employees, including 3,000 stylists across the country and 70 data scientists. The service offers 200 women's brands, covering petites, accesso-ries, maternity and footwear and has plans to offer plus-sizes early 2017.

The firm's c-suite has also been growing, with Julie Bornstein, who previously over-saw Nordstrom and Sephora’s moves into the digital realm, joining as chief operating officer.

Bornstein said many of the elements that helped grow and strengthen the women’s side of Stitch Fix's business are now informing the launch into men's — an area considerably less saturated than the women’s segment.

“There are fewer players out there,” Bornstein said of the men’s market. “So there is a higher potential value and, I believe, there can be higher penetration.”

MEN’S

Stitch Fix Expanding Into Men’s Fashion● The online personal styling

service is also launching an in-house men’s brand, Hawker Rye, with plans to add more going forward.

BY MAGHAN MCDOWELL

She said more than one-third of Stitch Fix's female clients spend over half of their apparel wallet share with the company. (Although Stitch Fix doesn't share its revenues or how many customers it has, the company has shipped more than one million "fixes" since it was founded.)

The Stitch Fix men’s service will mirror the women's side of the business — men sign up online to share size, budget and style preferences. A personal stylist sends five items and the shopper can buy what he wants and send back the rest. The $20 fee for each “fix” goes toward the purchase of any pieces, and shipping is free both ways. The stylists do not make a commis-sion but are paid hourly.

“When Katrina explained the concept, I thought that we could understand the customer like no other retailer,” said Mike Smith, general manager of Stitch Fix Men. Smith came to the company from walmart.com, where, he said, “We thought we had all the data in the world, but we knew very little about the customer — we knew about transactions.”

Stitch Fix spent a year researching the men’s expansion and began a beta test with a few thousand customers in March.

“To men, a brand equals quality, which equals fit,” Smith said. “The men in our beta service said that fit is their num-ber-one apparel concern.”

He added that men liked the discovery aspect and tended to be more interested in understanding the technical aspects of clothing. “We knew that women have fun, and we didn’t know if a guy would have fun the same way,” Smith said. “But he’s having a lot of fun discovering brands and having a stylist.”

Chris Phillips, vice president of men’s merchandising, said the male customer is “very specific and very knowing” and more engaged with the survey stylists receive after sending products.

“He is very explicit [about his feedback] and funny, in a charming, personal way,” Phillips said.

Sizes Stitch Fix Men will range from XS through XXL, covering waist sizes 28 to 42, and inseams 30, 32 and 34. Rather than target one demographic, by age or style, each “fix” is tailored for individuals, although men in the beta test gravitated toward “modern casual” and were is looking to appear more polished. After beta shoppers were comfortable with the service and sure the fit was dialed in, some wanted a favorite piece in every color.

“Men have said, ‘This is going to replace all my shopping,’” Smith said.

12 SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

the company’s flagship and ambitiously envisions a Maxfield enclave of sorts on the small section of Melrose the company inhabits.

The business also includes the gallery of vintage furniture across the street from the Melrose boutique, a store at the Malibu Country Mart and Maxfield Bleu in Beverly Hills, which sells past seasons’ designs.

Utz has his gaze on the Melrose flagship and has organized a series of pop-ups for emerging brands that will sit in the gallery space located directly across the street from the concept store. The pop-up, totaling roughly 2,500 square feet, is a temporary store for Maxfield founder Tommy Perse’s son James Perse.

“I like the idea of creating a village,” said Utz of the connectivity of the spaces.

On Oct. 27, Fear of God will launch the pop-up series and will remain there for one month. Other brands that will take over the space include Virgil Abloh’s Off-White, Vetements, Maison Margiela, Enfants Riches Déprimés and Mike Amiri. Designers will have full control of how the space is designed, Utz said, so as to ensure their creativity isn’t dictated or translated through the lens of another creative.

Fear of God refashioned 100 vintage rock ‘n’ roll T-shirts for Maxfield last month, which was revealed by the brand on social media. A line began forming at the door at 6 a.m. up until the store’s 11 a.m. opening. The shirts sold out in 30 minutes.

The label’s founder, Jerry Lorenzo, is set to release an exclusive sneaker, an all-white capsule and the debut of a ready-to-wear collaboration, all at the store. Maxfield is being strategic with those limited-edition and exclusive releases with those timed to go out over the course of the store’s lifespan rather than all at once.

Similar tactics will be employed for the

Maxfield at 8825 Melrose Avenue.

Fear of God to kick off the Maxfield pop-up series.

The Gallery at 8818 Melrose Avenue, where the pop-ups are to be held.

Maxfield Seeks to Create Enclave of Cool on Melrose CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

other brands. Off-White is set to follow Fear of God with 45 limited-edition items for men and women, created by Abloh, for sale in the store. There will also be the release of a new take on the Off-White basics collection that will give it a vintage quality.

“The idea is to give the chance to a young designer who hasn’t got a store based yet in Los Angeles and to give them a perfect location, our retail knowledge — how to organize it and how to staff it — and their creative input for the rest,” Utz said. “It’s a blank canvas where they can really create what they want.”

The pop-ups are part of a number of moving parts for Utz and the rest of the Maxfield team. The original flagship across the street will undergo a bit of its own refresh, beginning next week, with new lighting and a new coat of paint inside — details that haven’t been touched since the store first opened.

“We’re going through every single detail of the store. Every visual aspect to make the journey of the customer who doesn’t know Maxfield as high end as possible,” Utz said.

The Fifties home designed by French architect Jean Prouvé that was shipped to the store’s site last year from Paris now sits on a cement platform just outside the Maxfield entrance and, on Monday, will temporarily become a men’s boutique to provide room in the original store for the interior to be painted. That inventory will all move back once the space is completed. The vintage furniture, temporarily in storage, that once was on display in what will be the pop-up space will move to the Prouvé structure which, Utz explained, provides a more fitting landing place for the collection.

It’s a bit of skillful maneuvering, with all parts likely to be in permanent place by mid-November.

“It’s exciting,” Utz said. “It’s a big transi-tion for the company because Maxfield has never really gone through such a re-brand-ing situation. It’s a beautiful company and I just think it’s important for the store to always be current and that we [maintain] the right image.”

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THE P OWER OF CONTENT

ISSUE October 12 | CLOSE September 28 | MATERIALS October 3

An Advertising Opportunity

FASHIONAn in-depth look at what it takes to go from

runway to retail in real time.

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backpack, fanny pack), and hangtags (luggage tags, tassels) to make the look their own.

Waterhouse and Jamie said the cam-era-bag style is predicated on their needs for a night out. “It’s inspired by our love of dancing; it’s such a nightmare when you are that lame person trying to dance with a heavy bag,” said Jamie. “It’s one of my top irritating things when someone has a big bag on the dance floor,” added Water-house. All of the brand’s bags are manufac-tured in downtown Los Angeles.

The jewelry line relies on a paper clip

● Pop & Suki’s customizable bags and jewelry become available for preorder today.

BY MISTY WHITE SIDELL

Suki Waterhouse is looking to prove that she is more than just a pretty face.

Today, joined by best friend Poppy Jamie and e-commerce entrepreneur Leo Seigal, the trio will launch accessories label Pop & Suki for preorder.

The digitally-native, direct-to-consumer brand looks to capture a fun-loving portion of the Millennial market with cus-tomizable handbags and jewelry, largely priced at less than $250. Since launching its pastel-swathed Instagram account

in January, the label has already gained traction — amassing more than 18,000 followers.

“After working in the fashion industry for so long, I’ve always been around other people’s ideas, it comes from the control freak part of me — I love fashion and I love photography and wanted to create things with my friends,” Waterhouse said. “It’s something I never thought I’d be able to pull off.”

The label will launch with two handbag styles — a shopper tote and a camera bag, each available in pink, cognac and black. The latter style can be personalized on its bottom, with shoppers also having the option to purchase a variety of inter-changeable strap packages (cross-body,

ACCESSORIES

Suki Waterhouse Launches Accessories Brand With Best Friend Poppy Jamie

●Gap Inc., Puma, Adidas, H&M and Levi’s were among brands meeting to address the growing problem. BY DENE-HERN CHEN

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — In a bid to address the growing traffic fatalities affecting the apparel sector, representatives of 12 major clothing retailers — including H&M, Gap and Puma — met here this week to discuss a strategy to improve road safety for factory employees as they commute to work.

Cambodia has long been plagued by a lack of serious enforcement of road safety and traffic regulations, with traffic acci-dents being the nation’s leading cause of death. The problem is especially acute in the apparel sector as data from the Ministry of Labor’s National Social Security Fund — which investigates and compensates workplace injuries — shows that industry workers were involved in 4,300 traffic acci-dents last year, resulting in 60 fatalities.

So far this year, there have been more than 2,200 traffic accidents involving apparel industry workers that have left more than 3,200 injured and 42 dead.

Esther Germans, program manager of the International Labor Organization’s Better Factories Program — which facil-itated the meeting between the brands on Wednesday — said that while this is a nationwide issue, “it has specific character-istics for the garment sector.”

“It’s bigger than garment factories. We have been struggling with finding our entry point to what we can do about it because it’s about a lack of good traffic habits, the need for transportation, the lack of enforcement of the law,” she said before the meeting. “It’s not within our control, but it is the brands’ concern as it involves

the safety of the garment factory workers.”Workers commute daily to factories on

open-air, flat-bed trucks which typically only provide standing room. The truck companies are often unregulated and unlicensed and provide the workers with the cheapest option of getting to factories. Cramped onto the back of these precarious vehicles, workers usually grip the trucks’ metal railings to hold themselves steady as they hurtle down underdeveloped roads.

Laura Wilkinson, Gap Inc. spokesman, said that the retailer, along with 11 others that source from Cambodia, have formed a Brands Working Group on Worker Safety Transportation to try to put an end to this growing problem.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that a solution is needed to address the issue of worker transportation safety and that a lasting solution will require engage-ment from a wide range of stakeholders,

including the garment industry, labor, global brands, civil society and the Cam-bodian government,” she said. “[We] hope to play a constructive role as part of the solution to this critical issue.”

Kerstin Neuber, head of Puma’s corpo-rate communications, confirmed that the German activewear brand will support any initiative that improves road safety conditions, although she stopped short of including any reform outside of the com-pany’s five supplier factories.

“We have set ourselves a target of zero fatal accidents at our direct manufacturing partners. Transportation of employees is included in this target if it is organized by the factory/employer,” Neuber explained, adding that while the brand has only a small number of supplier factories in Cam-bodia, that does not diminish the value of the workers who stitch their products.

“It is correct that we have only a limited number of suppliers in Cambodia. Never-theless, we will not accept a risk to the lives of the workers in these factories who manu-facture Puma goods,” she said. “We are, of course, aware that as a small brand, we will not be able to influence the general road safety conditions of a country. However, we hope to achieve a consensus on which good-practices factories we can implement to minimize the risk as far as possible.”

(While Neuber had stated that Puma is “small,” the German multinational is actually one of the most recognized active-wear brands in the world. Pulling in 3.4 billion euros in revenues in 2015, its star is likely to continue rising with the success of brand ambassador Rihanna’s latest launch of Fenty for Puma as well as its sponsor-ship of Olympic champion Usain Bolt.)

A spokesman for Adidas confirmed that it is part of the working group, which would work with the government, the manufactur-ers’ association, the ILO and GIZ, a German development agency that published a study on this issue earlier this year.

“Occupational safety does not relate only to what happens once a worker enters his/her place of employment,” said Silvia Raccagni, who is with Adidas’ sustainability communications department. “When we consider the overall supplier safety in Cam-bodia, the single largest cause of worker injuries, or fatalities is due to traffic acci-dents, hence our interest and involvement in the Cambodia transportation initiative.”

Levi Strauss said that while none of its suppliers’ workers have been involved in accidents, the company is “deeply concerned about the continued traffic accidents.” H&M and Dutch retailer C&A

also threw their support behind the work-ing group, emphasizing the need to find “short- and long-term solutions.”

In the past year, the government has tried to tackle the growing road safety issue by imposing fines and punishments for traffic offenses that include high-speed driving on the wrong side of the road or under the influence of alcohol, and driving overloaded vehicles. Still, these scenes are common in Phnom Penh and while the traffic police have an increased presence in the city cen-ter, the outskirts — where the factories are located — are still largely unregulated.

Labor rights groups and unions have long argued that a simple solution to this issue is to raise the minimum wage, which currently stands at $140 a month. Manu-facturers have hit back at the idea, saying that workers can lobby for a safer solution as they often move in groups. Much of the blame has also been levied at the govern-ment for the lack of traffic law enforcement.

William Conklin, head of American labor rights group Solidarity Center, said that the road safety issue has been “20 years in the making” as there has been little strategy and planning for the apparel sector as it has expanded.

“Now it is a complicated issue with no easy solution. A series of short-term and long-term measures are needed, as well as a whole new approach to situating factories and the location of the industry,” he said, adding that brands are in a unique position of being able to gather informa-tion from its supplier factories.

“No set of solutions can be effective without brands taking responsibility and being accountable,” Conklin said.

Im Phearom, an 18-year-old worker from Svay Rieng province, just focuses on getting to work daily. Im remembers clearly how she was once in a truck with 70 other work-ers when it crashed into a motorbike, throw-ing all the passengers onto the ground. “The motorbike driver died and many of us on the trucks got injured,” she said, adding that she also got a cut on her eye.

While Im acknowledges the danger of getting into the rickety trucks every day to get to and from work, she said that she has no other options. The only insurance against danger she has is to pray for a smooth road.

“I pay $16 every month for transporta-tion to go from work and home. I cannot afford to save money from work to buy a motorbike to drive to work, so I force myself to travel in these crowded trucks,” Im said. “I always pray to Buddha to save us from any road accidents.”

MARKETS

Global Retailers Tackle Cambodian Workers’ Traffic Deaths

A product from Pop & Suki.

chain design that can be expanded into varying shapes and draped with inter-changeable charms. It will come cast in silver, gold vermeil and 14-karat solid gold.

Both the handbag and jewelry ranges will eventually expand, with designs dependent on consumer reaction to the initial styles. “That’s one of the best things about the direct-to-consumer model is that we can learn what the cus-tomer wants and what they are reacting to,” said Seigal.

Sunglasses, tech accessories and statio-nery are on the table for the future. “We may go the functional route but we are also open to going more down the fashion route. We are not ruling anything out, but there are no plans for apparel in the pipeline. We’re pretty keen on keeping with accessories,” he added.

The team said that it has no current plans to wholesale. “We intend to do brick-and-mortar a year or two down the line. We have stronger plans for that then we do for wholesale,” said Seigal.

The label, based in Los Angeles, pres-ently has a staff of six employees.

So far this year, there have been more than 2,200 traffic accidents involving apparel industry workers that have left more than 3,200 injured and 42 dead.

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Real EstateBoston, Philly, DC, Atlanta + Florida

ISSUE: September 28

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“This party is the best because it kicks it off,” said Constance Zimmer Friday night before heading to the rooftop of Catch LA restaurant for Audi’s annual pre-Emmy fete.

The “UnReal” actress, who received her first Emmy nod for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, was attempting to ignore the win-lose culture of awards shows. “I shouldn’t say it, but I do feel like I’ve already won,” Zimmer said. “I’m just going to the event and soaking it up.”

Over at Gracias Madre in West Hollywood, Women in Film and Variety hosted their pre-Emmy party where Jill Soloway revealed her plan for staying comfortable on the big day. “When I go on the red carpet and go to these events, a lot of women that I meet are saying, ‘I can’t wait to go home and get my shoes off,’” the Emmy nominee said of her Kenzo bomber jacket and sneakers. “But I’m dressed to enjoy myself and have a good time and treat it like an athletic event.”

Also Friday was Entertainment Weekly magazine’s pre-Emmy bash, held at yet-to-open Night-ingale Plaza, where a crowd of TV talent was in the mood for reuniting.

“I have so many friends that are now at the place where they’re nominated every year and I feel so proud because I’ve got friends who I’ve known since we were all just kids,” said Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who just signed on to the upcoming third season of Emmy darling “Fargo.” “Now every year we get to see each other and reminisce.”

Saturday morning began with the fifth annual National Women in History Museum Brunch at The Montage in Beverly Hills to honor Rachel Zoe, Tracee Ellis Ross, Abigail Breslin and Toni Ko.

On her Emmy nomination, which marks the first time in 30 years that an African-American is up for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Comedy Series, “Black-ish” star Ross said, “I will say that I’ve certainly given

many acceptance speeches into a mirror in my life. I’ve been practicing for quite some time. But, the effort I put into my work, the sheer pride that I put into my work does not need an Emmy. It just wants one.”

While Londoners enjoyed fashion week across the pond, America-based Brits got their tea party on at BAFTA Los Angeles’ annual pre-Emmy event at the London Hotel in West Hollywood on Saturday afternoon.

“Game of Thrones” actress Maisie Williams debuted fresh ink that she and her costar Sophie Turner got together. “That was the date I found out I got the part of Game of Thrones,” she said, revealing the numbers “07.08.09” on her left inner arm. “It’s the sev-enth of August. And not the eighth of July because in the U.K. we put our dates the other way around….It’s quite a prominent date for both of us. It’s the day both of our lives changed forever.”— ERICKA FRANKLIN, SCOTT HUVER AND LINDZI SCHARF

TV Preps for Emmys With PartiesA set of pre-parties over the weekend hyped up Emmy enthusiasm, from BAFTA’s tea party to Variety’s toasting of women in film.

Ali Larter in Wes Gordon.

Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery and Joanne Froggatt.

Emilia Clarke in Elie Saab. Yara Shahidi

Rachel Zoe and Tracee Ellis Ross in Galanos.

Julianne Hough, Jaime King and Lea Michele. Elizabeth Banks in David Koma.

Maisie Williams in Henry Holland.

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Awards drill: It’s hot outside. Celebrities sweat (they’re real people, too). Women feel like prin-cesses in their safe, borrowed gowns. And men silently suffer in their tuxedos, happy that at least they’re not wearing corsets or stilettos.

This year’s most topical, and significant, themes proved much more interesting fodder for red carpet chatter and observation: the prevalence of diverse nomi-nees (Hollywood is still smarting after the #OscarsSoWhite issue), diverse genders (call it the year of transgender) and ages (from teens and tweens like Yara Shahidi and Lily Chen to grand dames like Jane Fonda); and yes, some fashion risk-takers — see: Sarah Paulson’s sparkly green Prada dress).

Hari Nef, the transgender model and actress on Amazon’s Emmy-nominated show “Trans-parent,” epitomized the moment in a custom Gucci gown. “I love being on the show with all of these gorgeous trans women around me. We slay on the red carpet and we fight for our community. This probably sounds corny, but being surrounded by these chicks empowers me to continue because it can feel isolating sometimes when you’re out there like that.” Of her gown, she said, “I’m great friends with Alessandro [Michele]. They rock.

They’re so supportive of me.” Gucci also dressed “Transparent” showrunner Jill Soloway and Nef’s mother Robin.

Nef also voiced what many ac-tresses probably think. “I struggle with the red carpet, you know? I want to look pretty and sexy and all of that, but I dress for girls, not for guys. I try to find something that strikes a balance and Gucci is so good for that. It’s so ap-propriate, but also wrong. It’s so wrong, but it’s so right,” she said of her cherub-print gown. “It’s a classic red carpet silhouette with that grotesque Renaissance-y Alessandro twist.”

The most cheered-for actors on the red carpet were nomi-nees Anthony Anderson, Taraji P. Henson and Tracee Ellis Ross. “You know it!” shouted Anderson as he fist-pumped his way down the carpet and gave a bear hug to fellow Best Actor nominee Jeffrey Tambor.

Designers still managed to make the most of their primetime marketing opportunities, with the New York contingent out in full force: Ross in Ralph Lauren, Michelle Dockery in Oscar de la Renta, Tatiana Maslany in Alexander Wang, Emily Robinson in Carolina Herrera and Priyanka Chopra in Jason Wu.

“We talked a lot about what I wanted to wear,” Chopra said. “I didn’t want to have to walk like I was a mummy. I feel free and

chill,” she said of her crimson gown. “We felt red right from the beginning. Oh great, I look like a carpet,” she laughed when she realized she was blending in. At least she was having fun. “Somebody gave me tequila, so I don’t know what I’m saying. That always happens to me, even at the Oscars. I always end up getting tequila-fied.”

The red carpet also didn’t disappoint on eye candy, served up by veterans such as Heidi Klum and newbies like Emily Ratajkowski, who was there promoting her new Netflix show “Easy.” Ratajkowski and her date Zac Posen coordinated in navy. “She’s an artist. She’s a beauty. She’s a performer. I’m the luckiest guy here today. I love to be able to bring her,” Posen said. Ratajkow-ski echoed the love. “I’ve never been with such a gentleman before. He’s setting the bar very high. He introduces himself to every single person. He asks me if I need water. He picks up my dress. I adore him.”

Posen, a four-time Emmy at-tendee, offered this advice to Em-my-goers: “Enjoy yourself. Have fun. That’s the most important with any of these big events. Go and say hello to an artist you’ve always wanted to meet. You can fan-geek out. It’s OK.” — MARCY MEDINA AND LINDZI SCHARF

Emmys Red Carpet: Celebrities Get RealStars on the Emmys 2016 red carpet dished diversity, fashion and their favorite designers.

Kerry Washington in custom Brandon Maxwell.Taraji P. Henson in custom Vera Wang. Tatiana Maslany in Alexander Wang.Claire Danes in Schiaparelli.

Priyanka Chopra in Jason Wu.

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Tracee Ellis Ross in custom Ralph Lauren.

Emilia Clarke in Altier Versace. Sarah Paulson in Prada.

Michelle Dockery in Oscar de la Renta.

Constance Zimmer in Monique Lhuillier.

Kit Harrington Kirsten Dunst in Givenchy.

Sophie Turner in Valentino.

Rami Malek in Dior Homme.

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20 SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

Crunch at Condé?The mood at Condé Nast these days seems to range from fearful and on edge to anticipatory and apathetic. Word of a significant restructuring has loomed dor-mant for weeks, making way for wild speculation among staffers.

But the wait is likely to soon come to an end. WWD has learned that Condé Nast has

tapped strategic advisory firm MediaLink to help reorganize the corporation. Sources believe the restructuring could come in early October, but others noted that different scenarios are still being mulled through and it may take more time.

Condé Nast declined to comment.

One scenario is the reduction of 13 publishers to just a handful. They would be organized based on category, such as luxury, for

instance. Hearst has a similar model for certain titles and it is rumored to be considering more consolidation. Rival Time Inc. recently went through a drastic reorganization that entailed the role of publisher. Executives now sell by category, such as beauty. While Time Inc. has worked with MediaLink in the past, it could not be determined whether they used the firm in their current reorga-nization.

In the past, the New York-based publisher has used advi-sory firm McKinsey for its go-to market strategy — and it hasn’t always taken its advice. The same may hold true with its current advisory firm.

What appears to be different this time around is that MediaLink has emerged as a force in today’s digital environment. Described as the media world’s “shadowy overlords” by Recode, MediaLink acts as a sort of connector for old media and new tech firms, while also operating as a strate-gic adviser.

Headed up by Michael Kassan and Wenda Harris Millard, Media-Link’s mission, as per its web site, is to work with organizations “that are not satisfied with maintaining the status quo.” While that mantra may sound generic and broad, the company positions itself dif-ferently than rivals McKinsey and Bain because it has an in-house

executive search division, which may strike fear in the hearts of clients. — ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

Joining McQueenAlexander McQueen has named Paolo Cigognini its worldwide communication and marketing director, effective today.

Cigognini joins the Lon-don-based fashion house from Dolce & Gabbana, where he was worldwide communication, mar-keting and e-commerce director.

Prior to that, he was world-wide communications director at Bottega Veneta, which like

Alexander McQueen is controlled by French conglomerate Kering, also parent of Gucci, Boucheron, Puma, Saint Laurent, Stella McCa-rtney and other brands.

This is one of the first exec-utive hires of McQueen’s new chief executive officer Emmanuel Gintzburger, who took up the management helm last May.

Gintzburger joined McQueen from Saint Laurent, where he was worldwide retail and wholesale director, and succeeded Jona-than Akeroyd, who left Kering and became ceo of Versace in Milan.

Cigognini’s role, a new one, includes customer relations management for the house. — MILES SOCHA

V-DayGigi Hadid put on a show of sis-terly solidarity on Saturday night, taking a front row seat at the Versus Versace show in support for her sister, Bella, who opened the show in a black biker jacket, a micro jumpsuit and stompy boots.

Gigi Hadid was accompanied by her heartthrob squeeze Zayn Malik, the power couple causing a storm of camera flashes as they took their seats on the front row next to models Jourdan Dunn, Jessica Hart, Winnie Harlow and Clara Paget.

“Empire” actress Serayah Mc-Neill was also there, at the end of her first day at the London shows. “I love the London scene, I love how real and raw it is and, at the same time, it’s fresh for me, com-pared to the States,” she said.

“Even in big fashion shows, it’s so much more chilled. They wear what they wear, it’s not a show-up vibe. I feel like you can pay attention to fashion more, it’s awesome.”

Singer-songwriter Leon Else was similarly enthusiastic.

“I love fashion,” he told WWD. “I got into it a couple of years ago. When I put out my first EP, I was invited to a load of shows like Givenchy and stuff like that, and I just got the bug for it so when fashion week comes around I’m like, ‘Yeah, I wanna go!’”

For all that enthusiasm, he doesn’t do a lot of shopping, as the clothes come to him.

“I’ve still never bought anything luxury,” said the performer, noting that designers have been keen to dress him. “I love it, but I’ve never bought it, I can’t afford it still. I haven’t made much money yet, you know. Fingers crossed. I’m wearing clothes that are worth more than I earn in a year.”

He added: “When you put on something that’s made a certain way and then you realize why the high end has premium prices.” — JULIA NEEL

My MusePat Cleveland celebrated the launch of her new book “Walk-ing With the Muses: A Memoir” (Simon & Schuster) on Saturday night at the Blakes Hotel in Kensington, with guests includ-ing Donatella Versace, Winnie Harlow, Ellen von Unwerth, Philip Treacy and Clive Arrowsmith.

“The book is really a love story — it’s a daughter, that’s me, to my mother in the beginning, and it’s all about the pains of growing up and wondering what you’re going to do with your life,” Cleveland said. “Then somehow fashion

comes into your life and it’s like you’re on a flying carpet.”

The party was held in the hotel’s new bar, with music by duo DJ Disco Smack, who also did the music at Kate Moss’ 40th birthday party. “I get distracted by the music,” Cleveland told WWD during the launch. “I just recently learned how to play the guitar so I hear music like words. I get so into it because I tear each word apart, when I first hear the music I explode into it.”

The American model grew up in Harlem in the Fifties and Sixties, and was first discovered in 1966 by Carrie Donovan, an assistant fashion editor at Vogue. She later moved to Paris, and became the house model for Karl Lagerfeld when he was creative director at Chloé. Not long ago, Tom Ford cast Cleveland, who is now in her 60s, for a sexy fashion shoot alongside Conrad Brom-field — a South African model in his early 20s — for Numéro Russia.

“Walking With the Muses” tracks Cleveland as a young girl hoping to become a fashion designer, and her path as she attains modeling success in the Sixties and Seventies, working with photographers such as Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Steven Meisel. “I had built my life around fashion, the idea that these clothes will take me where I want to go. I used to make clothes and I thought this is my dream to be seen in those clothes,” Cleveland said.

“We’re so into the future, we are running ahead of ourselves but back [in the Fifties] we had the time to sit on our laurels, I guess,” said Cleveland, who also remi-nisced on being taught etiquette in her youth “We were taught to

sit properly and always be a lady, but now we are bad girls and we are twerking and doing all these things!” — RUBY ABBISS

Green TeamHennes & Mauritz and London College of Fashion have unveiled their second collection of sustain-able fashion.

As part of the collaboration, 33 teams of first-year students from the BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Technology Womenswear, and BA (Hons) Fashion Jewellery courses used recycled garments from H&M’s in-store collecting scheme.

“The challenge was to upcy-cle the donated garments that we have from our stores into new creations using innovative techniques, design and styling,” said Catarina Midby, H&M’s U.K. and Ireland sustainability manag-er. “We thought, why not get the students to use their creativity, because they are the next gen-eration and some of them will be designers in H&M.”

Professor José Teunissen, dean of the London College of Fashion’s Design School, said: “We at LCF really try to do more with sustainability, it is such an im-portant issue that we really have to address.”

The 10 winning teams — eight who made garments and two who made jewelry collections — are being showcased in five different H&M windows around London to raise awareness for the need of more sustainable practices in fashion.

One of the winning teams said they took inspiration from Kazuo Ohno, a Japanese dancer and choreographer.

“We thought about the fabrics first, we used denim and white

jersey because we knew there would be a lot, and then we had to make it work with the inspiration that LCF gave us,” said student Margot Didier Deren.

Her team invented a technique that involved fusing two fabrics together to make a new one.

The panel of five judges looked at how well the groups collabo-rated and incorporated sustain-ability in every part of the making process.

“The young generation is really on board with sustainability and from a customer perspective you want the company you buy from to be responsible, you want to know that people and the environ-ment are treated in a good way in production,” Midby added.

“The goal is that everything we produce should be from sustainable materials. It isn’t a time-bound goal at this point, but we are increasing sustainable materials.” — WWD STAFF

Needle WorkTod’s and tattoos are rarely uttered in the same breath, but all that changed this week when Diego Della Valle moved the British needle artist Saira Hunjan onto the top floor of his Bond Street store.

Hunjan has been tattooing the brand’s large Double T bags, riffing on the brand’s signature lion and adding serpents, roses and hearts to create mythical creatures that wind their way across the front and back of the bags.

“Every bag has a different narrative,” said Hunjan, who spends about 22 hours tattooing each one.

Inking treated leather is not easy, and few brands have attempted it. “She’s working with the least-treated, most precious leather we have, because that

works best,” said Della Valle, pointing to the caramel-colored hide on the workshop table.

The more a hide is treated, the more absorbent it becomes, which makes them tricky and messy to ink. Hunjan, who lives and works between London and South Wales, traces her designs on the leather a number of times, and repeatedly cleans it as she works, so that it doesn’t stain.

The generously-inked Hunjan said some parts of the process are similar to human tattooing. “I even use Vaseline to lubricate the skin to help the needle penetrate a bit more,” said the tattooist, who also appears in a short film — starring Suki Waterhouse — created to mark the collaboration.

On Friday at the store, Hunjan was working alongside Fabrizio Vita, a craftsman from the Tod’s factory near Ancona, Italy, who was patiently sealing the seams of bags with a small paint brush. “They’re from two different worlds — he’s from the middle of Italy, she’s from London — but they’re both specialized in hand crafts-manship,” Della Valle added.

The Double T bags are limit-ed-edition, and will go on display in Tod’s stores worldwide. The company also plans to issue a more commercial version of the bags for resort. Those bags set to land in stores in December.

During an event at the new-ly refurbished Tod’s store on Thursday night, Waterhouse said she has no intention of getting a tattoo. “I just haven’t ever found anything that I wanted to tattoo on me,” she said. “I think my friend Cara [Delevingne]’s tattoo that’s on her foot — it says ‘Made in Britain’ — is pretty sexy.”

The model and actress also appears in the latest campaign for Tod’s, and said she’d spent much of her summer in Bristol, England, filming for “The White

Princess,” a period drama for television in which she plays the corseted Princess Cecily of York. It’s due to air next year. — SAMAN-THA CONTI AND J.N.

Back-to-SchoolThe Duke and Duchess of Cam-bridge headed to Essex Friday as part of their ongoing mental health awareness campaign targeting teenagers and children.

The young royals visited the Stewards Academy in Harlow, a school supported by Place2Be, a charity of which the duchess is a patron. They joined the school’s assembly and observed speech-es and performances from students.

They met with students in-volved with a mentoring scheme, and also met with parents. The duchess wore a blue polka dot dress by Altuzarra.

The duke and duchess, along with Prince Harry, launched the mental-health awareness initiative last April. A back-to-school guide to aid parents is in the works.

Kensington Palace confirmed that the young royals, along with Prince George and Princess Charlotte, will visit Canada from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1. Their eight-day tour includes visits to Vancouver, Victoria, Bella Bella, Haida Gwaii and Kelowna in British Columbia and Whitehorse and Carcross in Yukon. The duke and duchess have visited the country before, in 2011.

This will be 16-month old Princess Charlotte’s first royal tour. Prince George traveled to Australia and New Zealand with his parents in 2014. — LORELEI MARFIL

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Anna Cleveland, Zandra Rhodes and Pat Cleveland.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.