Italian Fashion Watch

It seems like the high fashion mobile phones, designed by the worlds top designers are in these days. After Dolce and Gabbana collaborated with Motorolla to create the shiny Gold MOTORAZR V3i handset and Prada worked hands in hands with LG to and released another ‘designer phone’, Armani also looks to enter this market.

He’s got a previous a previous collaboration with Samsung on the Samsung Ultra Edition 6.9 phones, but this time he wants to hit it big. According to some sources, the new handset will sell for about 1600$, but that’s still unconfirmed.

I can’t wait to see the new release.

Bulgari SpA, the Italian fashion group, is studying the acquisition of a Swiss watchmaker, the daily Finanza & Mercati said citing CEO Francesco Trapani.

The group is also interested in acquisitions in the jewelry and accessory businesses, the newspaper said, adding that the overall acquisition outlay could be about 200 million euro.

Valentino Garavani celebrated 45 years of the Valentino fashion label two weeks ago, and he had some rather, eh, interesting views on women in a recent interview. In this clip, he discusses how he feels “sorry” for women who dress too “relaxed”. (I’m guessing I would send Valentino into a deep, deep depression.)

Valentino also lets us know that women are like a “beautiful flower bouquet” and that we should always be “sensational”, “perfect”, “on display” and that women should be spending their time “pleasing their husband” or their “lover”. Oh Valentino…mamamia!

PPR SA, the French owner of the Gucci luxury brand, said a $7.3 billion (U.S.) bid for German sporting goods maker Puma AG succeeded after almost two-thirds of investors accepted its offer.

PPR now owns a 62.1 per cent stake in Puma, a statement yesterday by the Paris-based company said. The purchase is the first major acquisition by chair Francois-Henri Pinault since he took over from his father two years ago. Puma investors had five weeks until July 11 to tender their shares.

The luxury goods maker agreed in April to purchase a 27 per cent stake in Puma and bid for the rest of the shares to gain a global brand that straddles sports and fashion. Puma, Europe’s second-biggest sporting goods maker, has raised sales fivefold in six years as nostalgia for the 1970s spurred purchases of shoes and clothes evoking the period.

Debutant director Bhavana Talwar, whose film Dharm was released earlier this year, has been nominated for the second annual Gucci Group Award that will be presented on 3 September, 2007 during the 64th Venice Film Festival.

Talwar’s Dharm explored religious fanaticism and caste conflicts in India and starred Pankaj Kapur and Supriya Pathak Kapur amongst others.

The Gucci Group Award is bestowed to an internationally-acclaimed artist who has made a remarkable contribution to a film in any capacity within the past 18 months, as a director, actor, screenwriter, set designer, or costume designer.

“Gucci Group is committed to recognizing and honoring visionaries who transform their art into experiences which we all can embrace. We are honored to work with the Venice Film Festival, and together we share a mission to support artists whose talents transcend ordinary limits, who possess the courage for expression in new and untried media, and who have brought their art to life on screen,” said Gucci Group chairman and CEO Robert Polet.

The Armani Group is opening its giant Armani/Ginza Tower in Ginza, one of Tokyo’s ritziest districts, as part of its strategy to lure customers in Japan, already the company’s largest market.

The 6,000 square-meter (65,000 square-foot) complex opening on November 8 will include a spa as well as a restaurant to “offer a complete lifestyle,” the group said in a statement.

Armani’s first spa will take inspiration from “ancient Roman thermal baths” and include private suites and an exclusive skincare line, the company said.

“I dream of a place where the body and the being are revitalized together in a nurturing and liberating experience,” Giorgio Armani wrote in a statement.

Japan is dotted by natural hot springs, making bathing a popular form of relaxation.

CEO of Fendi Michael Burke last night confirmed Fendi’s plans for a 100 look fashion show on the Great Wall of China.

The show, which is due to take place at the end of October has been given the go ahead by the People’s Republic of China.

Burke, speaking from the Dior couture show in Paris, explains “What’s even better is that now we can accommodate several live feeds,” rather than just CNN.

The original show was supposed to take place on 24th May but was postponed which worked out for the best, “A sandstorm hit Beijing on the day we had planned for the show,” Burke recalled.

Giorgio Armani Prive built up from pretty tailored pieces consisting of waisted jackets, tuxedo suits and pretty dresses all belted down tight at the waist to create an hour glass figure out of the fashion model bodies. The colours were a world away from the muted colours usually reserved by Armani, this time citing David Bowie as an inspiration. Shocking pinks, tangerines and feather boa’s in a rainbow of colour was a refreshing change.

But what took my breathe away was the fabulously stunning sparkly cocktail and red carpet gowns with a plunging sweetheart neckline. The dresses were covered in shiny beads, crystals and sequins so that the dresses seemed blinded you in the spotlight.

Versace, the Italian design firm, is shifting away from its money-losing clothing line to focus on more profitable accessories, such as luggage, shoes, handbags, leather goods, home furnishings and automobile interiors. Accessories last year accounted for more than 33 percent of Versace’s $383 million in revenue, a 27 percent jump in two short years. They also contributed to the company’s $25.4 million in profit, its first after years of losses, the Journal reported. In most cases, the accessories generate more profit than the designer’s core clothing line, had a longer shelf life and quicker go-to-market cycles, according to the article.

Many other designers are following suit by deemphasizing their exclusive, expensive and non-profitable clothing lines to drive consumer-friendly accessories, all in the name of attracting more customers and generating greater profit.

Versace’s lesson should not be lost on CE/Imaging retailers, especially those that continue to moan about unprofitable digital cameras and flat-panel televisions. Like Versace’s core clothing line, flat panels and digicams will never again yield the profits they once did. But there are also some very important differences that separate the two. Unlike clothing designed for the moment and for the rich, flat panels and digital cameras are affordable, sell across all demographics, create solid demand and serve as core product lines that beg for a variety of accessories.

But with any change in business models, there are always challenges.

In Versace’s case, Gaincarlo Rossi, the CEO behind the designer’s new strategy, had to convince a reluctant Donatella Versace to follow suit. “This is not going to work,” she recalled to the Journal. “This is going to die.” What eventually happened was quite the opposite, which illustrates what can happen when someone married to an old business model drops their ego to listen to the advice of outsiders. To wean itself from clothing, the company even dumped its lingerie and children’s line, and sold its unprofitable perfume, jewelry and watchmaking divisions. Change might be painful, but it can lead to growth.

The Age of Aquarius finally arrived for the Italian couturier, Giorgio Armani, in Paris last night (Wednesday), exactly a week before his 73rd birthday.

As the actress Cate Blanchett, sitting front row, murmered “this rocks”, Armani, once known as ‘Mr Beige’, swapped from minimal to magic.

He unleashed a fireball of fluorescent colour and bling-bling metallics in his.Privé couture collection, shown in the Palais de Chaillot by the Eiffel Tower.

Models, with switches of orange, lime and pink hair dangling from their braided locks – unfettered by strange Smurf-like hats for the first time in decades – appeared in neon-lime taffeta puffballs, shock-croc pink bustiers with velvet pencil skirts, rainbow-feather cloaks and tight, cleavage-jackets worn with floral dance-dirndls, all accessorized with crystal boots and fluorescent, platform stilettoes.

Armani called the collection, which was inspired by David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era, “the beginning of a new age.”