Italian Fashion Watch

I Really love this trend of hiring top fashion designers to design custom items. After Armani Was hired to design Katie Holmes’s wedding dress, now I see that Roberto Cavalli has been hired by Cristina Aguilera to design her world tour costumes.

She’s got to look magnificent on stage, right?

Sources claim that the fashion mogul has already created 10 costumes for Aguilera, and is also commissioned to create looks for her dancers, reports Contactmusic.

And according to Women’s Wear Daily, some of the outfits include a Forties-style white stretch satin tuxedo, bordered with golden pearls and topped with a white fox stole; a Fifties-inspired satin silk bustier and printed, gold-leaf and crystal-adorned silk taffeta skirt; a Sixties suit embroidered all over, and a tailored jacket with embroidered tails to be paired with a red-and-black Swarovski-adorned bustier.

The trade association of the Italian luxury industry, Altagamma, has decided to re-elect Leonardo Ferragamo as the chairman of the board for another three-year post.

Altagamma members include Alberta Ferretti, Brioni, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, Max Mara, Loro Piana, Tod’s, Versace and Valentino.

The executives elected as Altagamma board members were Niccolo Branca, Jacopo Biondi Santi, Patrizio Di Marco, Andrea Illy, Matteo Marzotto, Vittorio Missoni, Matteo Montezemolo, Laudomia Pucci, Carlo Rivetti, Francesco Trapani, Santo Versace, Ermenegildo Zegna.

It commemorated its 15-year anniversary with a revision of its mission to the following: “To affirm the excellence of Altagamma member companies and to promote, together, Italian Lifestyle and Culture around the world.”

The group’s long-term goal is to continue globally defending and promoting the cultural and economic heritage of the highest level of Italian lifestyle.

Altagamma is also active in research studies. Last summer, the producers association announced global figures showing that consumers spent $94 billion annually on luxury goods with 26% or $25 billion spent on Italian goods.

The ‘Austin Powers’ actress – who is marrying Indian businessman Arun Nayar next year – is said to be planning her bash for February and wants to make sure it is a unique night.

During the show, guests will be able to choose dresses to wear to Hurley’s nuptials.

A source told Britain’s Grazia magazine: “Elizabeth wants Donatella to provide some dresses so her friends can choose stunning outfits for her big day. She wants it to be an intimate gathering, with lots of champagne and nibbles.”

Hurley’s no-expense-spared bash – which is expected to be attended by a galaxy of stars, including Victoria Beckham – will apparently involve pampering sessions, beauty treatments and a lavish meal at a top restaurant.

The source added: “She has budgeted for about £3,000 a head and is expecting to foot a large part of the bill.”

David Challanger wrote an article for CNN talking about a regular day in Giorgio Armani’s busy life.

In the interview, Armani confesses that if it wouldn’t have discovered his passion for fashion, he would now be known as Dr. Armani. He started medical school, but things turned out differently for him.

A typical day in Armani’s life starts at 7 AM, with a 90 minutes workout.

“I exercise for 90 minutes with a personal trainer — 45 minutes of aerobics and 45 minutes of weights. It’s become a daily ritual, and there’s no doubt it helps my mind as well as my body,” Armani says.

Then he meets his associates to discuss business. He takes the most important decisions in his fashion empire, but he’s gathered a terrific management team to keep much of the less important stuff under control.

In the past, he wanted to be involved in everything, but these days he likes to offer himself some time to relax and meditate.

With the launch of the new charitable Product(RED) collection, he allocates a lot of his time to it.

“This new project is a pioneering global business initiative launched by Bobby Shriver and Bono, which aims to help fight AIDS in Africa. I think it’s a powerful idea to harness the might of global brands for goodwill,” he says proudly.

You can read the whole article on CNN’s website.

Singer Ashlee Simpson was spotted by some paparazzi these days wearing the exclusive Fendi Moncler Spy Bag, which her sister, Jessica Simpson, managed to strike a deal to get it TWO WEEKS ahead of its Nov. 1 release, just in time for Ashlee’s birthday.

Now that’s a great sister.

The Fendi Spy Bag is the result of a small partnership between Fendi and the Moncler fashion house.

Only 500 of these will be produced, and most are already sold. For a price of $2100, I can’t see a reason not to be happy of owning one.

Ashlee got the first one. I wonder where the other 499 Spy Bags will go to.

Gucci’s new home in Tokyo is its biggest in the world. Last week, the Italian superbrand opened the doors of an eight-story glass-and-steel flagship store in Ginza.
Incorporating four floors of retail space, a cafe and a gallery, as well as 3,700 sq. meters of offices, the building is not only Gucci’s first architectural creation, it is also the first flagship to feature the house’s new subtler, more understated store design.

The fresh look fits in with a new direction for the ubiquitous brand, which celebrates its 85th anniversary this year. Since guru of glam Tom Ford quit as the brand’s chief designer in 2003, Gucci has been striving to build a new identity.

Now, with Italian Frida Giannini (formerly an accessories designer for the house) having found her feet as creative director, it has settled into a less in-your-face take on Italian extravagance.

The interior of the flagship, Gucci’s 54th store in Japan and its 14th in Tokyo, was designed by American Bill Sofield, the man responsible for interpreting Ford’s sultry elegance in a silver and cocoa color scheme.

For this store’s new look, Giannini asked Sofield for something lighter and warmer: The result is shelving and display units in light rosewood, mohair upholstery, and flooring in taupe marble as well as a thick-pile carpet.

Most significantly, the shiny chrome of old has been replaced by brushed steel with gold highlights. “I feel that gold and its warm glow is very right for the current Gucci aesthetic,” said Giannini, sporting a slinky black dress at last Tuesday’s press preview.

“We wanted this to be the most luxurious Gucci store in the world,” Gucci CEO Mark Lee said, flanking Giannini at the same event.

Say the word “Gucci” to fashionistas under the age of 40 and they’ll most likely think of the hard-edged sexiness of Tom Ford ’90s-era Gucci, or the girlish glam favored by the company’s current creative director, Frida Giannini, who jettisoned her predecessor’s in-your-face vixen vibe for a more demure couture.

But to style-savvy men and women of a certain age – those old enough to remember when Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor were sex symbols, luxury was available only to a privileged few and travel was actually glamorous – Gucci is synonymous with a very specific type of old-world elegance, embodied by bamboo, double-G logos, green-red-green striped canvas webbing and horsebit-trimmed loafers.

These and other iconic Gucci references abound in the lavish 452-page tome, “Gucci by Gucci,” which was published this month by the Vendome Press to commemorate the legendary fashion company’s eighty-fifth anniversary.

“Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten,” announces a quote, attributed to company founder Aldo Gucci, on the opening page of the book, which was designed by Gucci art director Doug Lloyd and features a forward written by British fashion journalist Sarah Mower.

But it’s the photos here that really tell the story of Gucci, from the Florence-based company’s not-so-humble beginnings in 1921 (even then, Gucci catered to a well-heeled, well-traveled clientele), through the Loren-Taylor heyday of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Jackie Onassis, Sammy Davis, Jr, Rod Stewart, Liza Minnelli, Ingrid Bergman, Barbra Streisand, Jack Lemmon, Elke Sommer, Michael Caine and Clark Gable were also fans, and many of them are pictured in an airport, Gucci luggage in hand, en route to some far-flung locale.

Then there are the more recent snaps of 21st century Gucci girls Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Charlize Theron, Beyonce, Cameron Diaz, Uma Thurman, Jennifer Aniston, Naomi Watts, Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow, all of whom have worn Gucci on the red carpet and beyond.

As heretical as this may sound to fashion’s Tom Ford fanatics – and they are legion – when shown alongside eight decades’ worth of Gucci designs, many of the overtly sexy, flesh-baring garments of the Ford years look, in retrospect, far more déclassé than aspirational.

The book also offers an almost inadvertent glimpse into the evolution of the paparazzi, as photographers routinely stalked Peter Sellers and his much-younger wife, Britt Ekland – and countless other famous folk – while they browsed in Gucci’s Rome flagship store in the 1960s, setting the stage for the candid celebrity-fashion-shopping-spree photos that have come to define today’s tabloid culture.

It’s the wedding Hollywood and the world was anticipating for months, and, with such grandeur, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes did not disappoint.

Hello! magazine has every fabulous detail from this weekend’s festivities at Lake Bracciano, Italy.

From the dramatic castle setting to the “who’s who” of Hollywood’s elite in attendance, Tom and Katie’s wedding was the event not to be missed.

Hello!’s 21-page photo spread of Tom and Katie’s wedding includes:

- behind the scenes photos of the castle dining room, and where Tom and Katie exchanged vows

- the glamorous guests, and what they wore

- intimate photos of the newlywed couple

- in-depth features on the bride and groom and the path that led them to happiness in Bracciano.

Dressed in pink Uggs, Seven jeans and a matching pink sweater and cap, Elizabeth Cohen looks the epitome of hip as she winds her way through the holiday crowds at the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles.

She is a discerning consumer — her Ugg boots are not knockoffs, and she names Prada and Dolce & Gabbana as her favorite brands.

She’s also 10 years old.

“I ask her, ‘What do you need these for?’ ” said her mother, Jane Cohen of Bel-Air, who shops mostly at vintage stores and garage sales.

But the 10-year-old is hardly unusual. Elizabeth and other “tweens” — kids who are 8 to 12 — are expected to contribute to growing demand for luxury goods this winter.

Today, the season shopfest begins in earnest with day-after-Thanksgiving sales, crowds and traffic jams. For tweens and their older teenage counterparts, the search is on for expensive accessories, belts, purses and perhaps a pair of shoes such as those seen in fashion shows and glossy magazines.

“There’s a huge uptick in teens shopping for traditional luxury brands,” said Jim Taylor, vice chairman of the Harrison Group, a strategic marketing firm that recently conducted a survey of teenagers’ preferences. “Having a Gucci scarf is part of being a kid today.”

To be sure, even on the affluent Westside of Los Angeles, these youths rarely have closets full of luxury goods.

Many, including Elizabeth, also shop at stores such as Target or Gap, looking for bargains. Frequently, they mix and match with luxury accessories.

“It’s not only the rich communities — it’s anywhere that kids have an income,” Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard’s Retail Consulting Group in New York, said about teens and tweens buying luxury products. “A lot more kids earn money than used to, and they feel they have the right to spend their money as they see fit.”

Taylor said many of the teenagers buy these brands with allowance money or wages earned from part-time jobs. This can lead to a fair amount of spending on brands once known only to the rich and famous.

“They’re 100% more brand-conscious today than they used to be,” said Fraser Ross, owner of the upscale Robertson Boulevard store Kitson. “A 12-year-old will know what Louis Vuitton is.”

Kitson is known as a high-end Westside celebrity haunt, near the Ivy restaurant. A year ago, Ross added Kitson Kids nearby, but he said tweens still prefer items at his main store, such as $190 Seven for All Mankind jeans and $650 Isabella Fiore handbags.

Many of these customers, he said, see celebrities wearing certain brands and buy the same ones. Some browse the store aisles while their mothers have lunch at the Ivy. “I call them ABC girls — Armani, Blahnik, Chanel,” Ross said. “They wear everything branded.”

Remember I told you earlier this week that Armani got into the RED, together with other important mundane personalities, launching a new fashion line called INSPI(RED). The ideas is that some of the profit he’ll make out of this collection will go to an international charity that aims to promote various methods to prevent HIV and AIDS in poor countries in Africa and other poor regions of the world.

In support of this collection, Armani will open three new flagship stores in United Kingdom’s capital to coincide with the London Fashion Week.

The Emporio Armani (PRODUCT) RED capsule collection will also be launched at the exclusive event, which will be filmed for Channel 4.

“I hope that my three new stores and restaurant will further add to the cosmopolitan culture of the United Kingdom’s capital city,” Armani said.