Italian Fashion Watch

She has medals on her chest, a silken blouse with fins of frills, a thick skirt and a gold plaque under the laces of her high-heeled shoes. She’s the purposeful new Gucci girl, except that she has matured into all those famous wartime women, from the movie star Katharine Hepburn to the photographer Lee Miller, with the body of a woman and the guts (not to mention the clothes) of a man.

Sounds pretentious for a fashion show? This flirtation with the ’40s was just a theme at the Gucci show Wednesday. But from the thick winter coat that strode out at the start to the ending of silver screen gowns with twin brooches sparkling from sweetheart necklines, the designer Frida Giannini caught the man/ woman mood, with military overtones, of the autumn/winter Milan season.

It was her best show yet, in terms of providing a new, heavyweight image for Gucci, which needs to broaden its scope from skinny pants for spindly celebrities and sexpot dressing after dark. Giannini addressed the dress, making it seem summer, rather than winter, but pretty with an abstract bluebell print and a focus on a sharp and embellished shoulder. Also from the 1940s came tweed knickers, a snug woolen vest and Rita Hayworth waterfalls of hair.

The company launched its renovated flagship store in Beverly Hills, unveiling a sleeker, more understated side of the decadent Versace style. In addition, creative director Donatella Versace will accept the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style award on Thursday night.

The 5,000-square-foot unit here was the first that the company overhauled from top to bottom.

“Everything is completely brand new, from the floors to the shelves to the ceiling,” said Roberto Lorenzini, president and chief operating officer of Versace USA.

The black-and-white color scheme is accented with Italian crystal display units and glossy black terrazzo marble floors, juxtaposed with matte white walls and ceilings.

“This is a new concept defined by Milan,” Lorenzini said. “For the U.S. market, the renovation is definitely an important step for us, because it’s going to show what Versace is becoming…The boutique is more sophisticated, elegant and modern.”

The store maintains a Rodeo Drive address — 248 North Rodeo Drive — but is located in the open-air Two Rodeo shopping complex, which intersects the iconic shopping street. Tiffany & Co., Gianfranco Ferré, Badgley Mischka and Gucci Fine Jewelry are among Versace’s neighbors in the center.

Gucci and Fendi are planning exclusive branded outlets in India and are now in talks with major retailers like Pantaloon, Lifestyle, Shoppers’ Stop, the Runwal Group and Big Bazaar for the same. Gucci, at present, has a presence here but only in a multi-branded outlet format, making its products just one among the many displayed in malls. Exclusive branded outlets in malls would mean that these brands will get exclusive space to the tune of 2,500 to 5,000 sq ft. Fendi, on the other hand, is making an entry into the booming Indian retail segment for the first time.

Shubhranshu Pani, president – retail services, TrammellCrow Megharaj said, “Murjhani brothers, the partners of The Gucci Group would be setting up Gucci outlets in India. Apart from eyeing malls for setting up outlets, Gucci group and Fendi are also in talks with top hoteliers of the country to set up Gucci branded exclusive outlets within premium hotels in high street locations.” It was in January 2006 that Gucci had identified the Murjani brothers as their partners to enter the Indian market, and then followed with an agreement with them.

Pranay Vakil, chairman, Knight Frank India said, “The demand for international premium luxury brands such as Gucci has taken off well in markets such as Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. But it will take at least six months to a year to decide how these brands take off nationally as more malls are likely to come up in Tier II cities, as well. When branded outlets are developed, consumers look for variety value.”

According to industry experts, a branded company today willingly pays 12% of the gross income by way of rent. In areas such as Linking Road, Mumbai, branded companies pay Rs 500 to Rs 600 per sq ft as rent as they are able to justify the value realisation that exceeds the rent payable at 12% of the gross income. The only exception to this are the international branded companies who have outlets just to promote the brand.

Looks like fashion designers are trying to take over the world. After hotels, restaurants and mobile phones, they’re now going for the airports.

San Francisco’s airport is the first to have the pleasure of hosting a Gucci boutique. Already renowned worldwide for its high quality items, Gucci is now omnipresent.

Being paced in an airport, it has a huge potential to generate enormous profits, given that many businessmen are in a hurry and don’t have the time to check a shop that may be on the other side of the city. But now, being right in your face as soon as your plane lands, there’s no excuse for not even taking a look.

The smell of high quality Italian leather hypnotizes its customers, and well, they do pay big money for some of Gucci’s most exquisite handbags or belts.

Other fashion houses that have boutiques in airports so far are Bulgari and Hermes.

Italian fashion retailer Gucci has made plans to move its flagship to Trump Tower and create the world’s largest Gucci store.

The four-floor, 46,000-square-foot site at 725 Fifth Ave., at East 56th Street, has been vacant since British jeweler Asprey moved out earlier this year. Asking rents for ground floor space on that section of Fifth Avenue start at $1,500 per square foot and can top $2,000 per square foot.

Jeweler Graff and watchmaker Swatch were reportedly interested in the space, but the landlord wanted to give the long-term lease to a powerful luxury company that could feasibly turn a profit in the large store after Asprey foundered there.

“Gucci is the ideal tenant for the space,” says Andrew Goldberg, executive vice president of the CB Richard Ellis retail group, which negotiated the deal on behalf of property owner Donald Trump. “Gucci can make sense out of it,” he says.

Gucci will relocate to the new site from its current holding at 685 Fifth Ave., at East 54th Street, in 2008.

Looks like every designer started deigning fashion phones for various companies in the mobile phone and electronics industry. I think it’s becoming a new trend, and I’m sure the future offers us plenty surprises.

First, there were the two Italian designers, Dolce and Gabbana, who designed the extremely good looking MOTORAZR Motorola Phone. I must say, that’s one of the coolest phones I’ve seen in my life. With it’s gold color, it’s catches your eyes instantly. Too bad I’m not a Motorola fan.

Then, Giorgio Armani designed the Samsung Limited Edition Armani Exchange Ultra Edition 6.9 in Blue, for the well known Korean company which manufactures everything electronics. I have two Samsung TVs and a D600 phone by the way, but that’s another story.

The phone presents itself as great. It has a more simple look. Very modern. The only reason I don’t like is because I already have the technologically more advanced D600, which has way more interesting features for the technology addict

Now I see that Prada is also moving into the fashion phones design industry. The company they’re working with is LG, another important mobile phone manufacturer. They’ve just launched their new creation these days.

With all of this, I wonder which designer will go for Nokia. I’m sure the design is already in progress. I bet we’ll hear about it in the next two or three weeks maximum. Nokia can’t remain behind in this new venture.

Will it be Versace or Gucci…

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.

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.”

Over this last 85 years, Gucci has imposed itself as one of the reference brands in the fashion industry. Turning 85 doesn’t actually mean that it’s getting old.

In fact, the company proved that it has kept it’s youthful ideas that have made it so successful, with an outstanding show and party at the Milan Fashion Week.

Designer Frida Gianini celebrated the brand’s birthday with a collection which reminds of Gucci’s ‘60s A-line silhouettes and short styles.

The range of colors was black, with punches of red, purple, and disco silver.

Frida Gianini became Gucci’s creative designer last year, after a period when she was in charge of Gucci’s accessories department.