The Luxe Chronicles

Arrivederci Amori! Milano Beckons.

Dear Readers:

I'm off to Milan for a few days. I will fill you in a little later. Ciao-ciao!

Sinceramente,

Le Cronache di Lusso

Fashion: An Open Letter to Christopher Bailey

Dear Mr. Bailey:

I would like to congratulate you on your Fall/Winter 2010 collection for Burberry. It is quite simply gorgeous. Kudos to you for that. I also admire your graceful embrace of social media. This said, I do have a bone to pick with you.

Fashion: Bloggers Behaving Badly?

"I’ve got huge respect for Sarah Brown but I was given this seat." "You tell'em Carmel!"

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, it was customary for women to seek style guidance from a small number of fashion publications. Names like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar immediately inspired confidence and women everywhere on both sides of the pond and beyond willingly submitted to their fashion dictates. These magazines were run by powerful editors who travelled each season to Paris and brought back with them the latest word on hemlines, silhouettes and "the season's must haves". Then a little thing called Web 2.0 came along and suddenly a ragtag bunch of complete "nobodies" with an internet connection upset the established order of things with their blogs and their tweets. Suddenly, magazine editors are viewing couture through the ornate hat of a teenage blogger. Quelle horreur!!

Fashion: Celebrity Fueled Consumption and the Rise of "Wag" Culture

On a cold, rainy evening last week in London, I made my way to the London College of Fashion campus off of Oxford Street to see a short film and attend a panel discussion on the topic of celebrity fueled consumption. The film entitled "Dress Up" was written, produced and directed by the intrepid Kate Battrick of Make Do Style and Fashion and Film blogs.

Bon Weekend!

Nothing puts a smile on my face like the thought of the impending weekend! Have a lovely one!!

Sincerely,

The Luxe Chronicles

Fashion: Fur, Fur Everywhere!

Is it just me or is there a resurgence of fur in store for Fall 2010? Reviewing images from New York Fashion Week, it's hard to escape the fact that fur is back with a vengeance. It's not just in the usual places (Dennis Basso, Oscar de la Renta, Michael Kors) but it has popped up in the collections of younger designers as well (Thakoon, Derek Lam, Zac Posen, Thom Brown). What exactly does this say about the decades of PETA guerilla tactics and high profile ad campaigns designed to turn us off of fur? Would a softer approach be more effective or is the influence of Carine Roitfeld just too powerful to resist?

Sincerely,

The Luxe Chronicles

Left to right: Derek Lam, Thakoon, Zac Posen, Fall/Winter 2010 collections. All photos courtesy of Style.com.

Social Media: When CEOs Tweet, Everyone Should Listen

Judging by the sheer number of tweets emanating from inside the Bryant Park tents throughout New York Fashion Week, Twitter is evidently the new "it" trend where the fashion tribe is concerned. Sadly, the vast majority of tweets have been less than edifying with most descending into a mixture of awkward name-dropping, chummy insider references and shameless self-promotion (Message to the twittering masses: Behavior deemed uncouth offline is just as uncouth online). This said, I would have to award an "A+" to Robert Duffy, the business brains behind Marc Jacobs' creative genius, for best use of Twitter for the purposes of brand promotion.

Fashion: Here Comes the Bride (...)

When a woman sets about organizing what is sure to be one of the most important days of her life, it can seem like a daunting task. In fact, for many women, especially time-starved professionals juggling busy careers and complicated personal lives, planning a wedding is often one more source of stress. Finding a date, venue, caterer, flowers, finalizing the guest list and most importantly, finding the perfect dress, can literally consume months of precious time from an already busy schedule. Starting today, at least one of those tasks has become considerably easier thanks to Net-A-Porter's newly revamped online bridal boutique.

Fashion: A Message for the Industry?

As the fashion industry continues to process the tragic news of Alexander McQueen's death by suicide late last week, there have been surprisingly candid statements made by a few of the industry's most respected journalists. Their usually measured terms have given way to a harsh rebuke of the industry's expectations and relentless pace.

Requiescat in Pace Alexander McQueen

The media is overflowing with tributes of all kind this morning by people who knew Alexander McQueen far better than I. Virginie Mouzat of French daily Le Figaro fittingly referred to him as a "hooligan de la mode" (a hooligan of fashion) and Stefano Tonchi, editor of T, The New York Times style magazine described him as " (...) one of the little cogs that got squeezed" by the machinery of an increasingly brutal business.