Italian Fashion Watch

Gucci just announced its 5th anniversary of the Gucci Campaign supporting UNICEF, a unique collection that is sold in over 200 Gucci stores all over the world from November 19, 2008, till January 31, 2009.

Gucci donates 25% of all profits made by this collection to support various UNICEF programs that provide lifesaving health care, protection, clean water, and education to children in Malawi and Mozambique

In February 6th 2008, Gucci held a fund raising event in New York hosted by the Creative Director, Frida Giannini. The event’s goal was to raise money and awareness for orphans and children who’s life was affected by HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan regions

The event raised 2.7 million USD that were used for the “Schools for Africa” program, a joint campaign by UNICEF and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

To date, Gucci’s contribution to UNICEF adds up to 5 million, making it one of its biggest corporate supporters.

Gucci - Rihanna Ad

Gucci continues its collaboration with UNICEF in raising money for charity purposes for a consecutive fourth year. Sofar, the fashion group managed to contribute an impressive 5 million with its Tattoo Heart Collection.

This year, it looks like its getting ore serious, by getting Rihanna on its team as a fashion icon. Earlier this year, Frida Giannini, Gucci’s creative director argued that in order to show its dedication to unicef, they would need a young, popular musician to be the perfect image for the collection. Wel, Rihanna fits this description.

For this season, Gucci has unveiled a range of handbags, all featuring an illustrated hears thatincorporates the fashion firm’s signature symbols, the horse bit and the web.

When asked what the design represents, Frida Gannini said that the illustration ‘is a permanent mark that you can wear with pride that stays with you. I think that represents very well what we are doing here.’

So it is.

This ad campaign this year features Rihanna singing from a hoop, wearing a beautiful swimsuit, together with her Tattoo satchel bag.

The bags will be available worldwide starting on 19 November till 31 january 2009. @5 percent of the amount earned from them will go for charity

Gucci Announced the names of the artists that will compete for this year’s Gucci award. The list is made of the actor Steve McQueen, American filmmaker Julian Schnabel, Beastie Boys founding member Adam Nathaniel Yauch and director Isaac Julien.

The Gucci Award is given each ear in at the Venice Film festival and the candidates are chosen from a list of internationally known artists that have made a contribution to the development of a movie in the last 18 months.

This year, the jury that will choose the winner is made of Marco Mueller, Vogue Italy chief editor Franca Sozzani and Stefano Pilati, the CEO of the international fashion house Yves Saint Laurent.

The Venice festival will run from August 27th to September 6^th , and the winner wil be announced on the first of September.

Regarding this year’s contestants, Marco Muller said: “We have chosen the most original international artists, who, through broad creative metamorphosis, continue to challenge our hearts and minds.”

Gucci’s CEO said that: “The Gucci Group recognizes that talent and creative vision expressed in one medium often lead to significant contributions in other artistic endeavors. This award crystallizes the groups’ long-term goal of fostering originality and inventiveness in the arts.”

Just when fashion in Rome needed a dash of inspiration, Gucci’s Frida Giannini comes along and throws a big party in a villa overlooking the Eternal City.

Tuesday night’s event marked the 70th anniversary of the famed Gucci boutique near the Spanish Steps, and began with the presentation of the designer’s 2009 cruise collection, usually shown in New York.

The five goddess gowns that closed the snappy jet-set show are in honor of Rome and will only be available in the Via Condotti boutique.

“Isn’t Rome fantastic?” said the 36-year-old designer as she greeted some of her 300 guests, many who had come from afar, at a sit-down dinner after the show.

The 17th-century villa and its sumptuous gardens are part of the American Academy complex atop the Janiculum hill. Later 700 hip Roman young people joined the party and danced into the night to the live music of Goldfrapp.

Giannini wanted to pay tribute not only to her birthplace, but to the Roman school where she got her fashion education, The Academy of Costume and Fashion, and to her first job at Fendi, founded by five Roman sisters.

“I owe a lot to this city,” she told The Associated Press.

The event was the buzz of the Rome couture “AltaRoma” week that ended Thursday.

Gala events are few and far between since the heydays of the 1960’s, when such stars as Liz Taylor, Rita Hayworth and Audrey Hepburn, in town for filming, made Rome the high point of Italian fashion.

During the 1990s Rome had a second fashion moment, with the “Women under the Stars” gala summer event on the Spanish Steps, a fashion show that included the top names in Italian couture and ready-to-wear as well as foreign designer guests. That was televised live to many countries.

But despite attempts to revive the mood, in the past decade Rome couture has become a very local event.

This time more than 20 houses, including Gattinoni and Sarli, showed their latest collections in the halls of a former Medieval convent in the shadow of St. Peter’s Basilica, the same venue used last year by Valentino for his farewell to fashion.

The clothes were beautiful with sumptuous fabrics and grande soiree styles, and at times a little more affordable with the invention of `demi-couture’ — something between `haute couture’ and ‘ready to wear.’ Mainly, however, the shows were about dresses for mother’s garden party and her daughter’s wedding.

The crowds reflected the runway, including plenty of ladies from wealthy families as well as TV starlets.

“We have to rekindle Rome’s fashion fire,” said Rome’s new mayor Gianni Alemanno, a guest at the Gucci party.

Gucci will broadcast live on its Web site its 2009 cruise runway show at Villa Aurelia in Rome next week, as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of its store in the Italian capital. Unlike a previous live Webcast of Gucci’s cruise show in 2006 – which could only be accessed by password by select fashion editors, journalists and retailers in Europe and Asia – members of the public also will be able to view the July 8 show in real time on gucci.com from 8 p.m. local time.

Gucci spokesmodels Claire Danes and James Franco, and Danes’ actor boyfriend Hugh Dancy are among those penciled in to attend the event, which is rumored to include a performance by British electronic group Goldfrapp.

As the head designer at Gucci for a decade, he was king of Milan and a lynchpin of the fashion establishment. Texan-born Tom Ford also tried to conquer Paris when he took over Yves Saint Laurent in 2001. But yesterday at London Fashion Week he launched an attack on the supremacy of the French capital over the rest of the global fashion industry.

“Quite honestly in terms of French culture, if you think about what the French are producing in terms of fashion or architects or painters or musicians, they are quite far behind what the British are producing, and yet when you think of fashion, you think of Paris,” said Ford, who was in the capital to judge the Fashion Fringe award held in Covent Garden, central London.

Ford described Paris fashion week, which is home to the likes of Christian Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton as “a global showcase – but it isn’t necessarily where talent is coming from. When you think of Paris you think of Karl Lagerfeld who is not French, and you think of Marc Jacobs who’s not French and Stefano Pilati who’s Italian.”

Ford, who left the Gucci Group in 2004, launched his own high-end menswear label earlier this year in New York and plans to open a London menswear line in 2009, with a women’s line being launched in “two or three years”.

He calls his big-budget men’s tailoring label a “new brand” but the 45-year-old designer has a slight advantage over the four young contestants in the competition he was judging. Now in its fourth year, Fashion Fringe is an initiative intended to support the most raw design talent. Graeme Armour, Andrea McWha, De-jan and the eventual winner Aminaka Wilmont all presented collections of a standard equal to the better graduate shows, but in a very competitive season none stood out as yet having star quality. The young designers produced their collections in three months, and as Ford’s current career demonstrates, even those with healthy finances need time to build a brand.

The final day of fashion week saw a phalanx of big names arrive at the last minute. Fashion eccentrics Antoni and Alison persuaded Nicole Kidman to appear in a short film that showcased their spring/summer 2008 collection. Stella McCartney commandeered a sports hall in west London late last night to show her collection for Adidas, while in one of the more unlikely collaborations Naomi Campbell had gathered together some of her supermodel pals to put on a charity show in co-operation with the Rotary Club, in aid of the victims of July’s floods.

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.

Lots of glitter and excitement too far to the west as Milan fashion week continues. Tuesday, fashion house Marni showed its Summer 2008 Menswear collection. Unlike many other collections shown this week, Marni steered away from bright colors, opting instead for minimal, simple designs that played with the usual silhouettes. Luxury fashion label, Gucci also showed its Menswear Summer 2008 collection. Let’s take a closer look.

The show paid homage to 1950’s Italy. It featured suits with bold checks, striped polo shirts and soft post-war trousers.

There were hints of “Rebel Without a Cause,” too. Gucci’s slim versions of biker jackets and other retro styles gave prominence to the Gucci name right up front. It’s normally something you’d see on preppy university gear.

Gucci just launched a new fragrance, called Gucci Eau de Parfum II. I find the way the pink perfume in kept inside a much bigger class capsule very interesting.

Also, the ad campaign ties in nicely to the packaging. It features a beautiful woman who has a soft pink rim of color (the same shade as the perfume) lining the insides of her eyes.

The parfum is made from: mandarin, black currant, violet and blackberry warmed with base notes of jasmine, heliotrope and cedar wood; it is intended for someone who wants to be noticed.