Italian Fashion Watch

The Versace fashion house has always been close to the arts community. Gianni himself was an avid collector of both classic and contemporary works from artists such as Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol.

Donatella follows his passion and now she announced that she will sponsor the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2008 Gala on October 20.

The sponsorship will be consist of a substantial amount of money but she also collaborated with Marc Quinn, Julian Schnabel and Wangechi Mutu to create three new pieces of jewelry specifically for this event. Every penny earned from the auction will remain to the museum, which will in turn use it to aid young artists.

Donatela will personally host the auction. “I hope the three pieces will find good homes where they will bring pleasure and excitement,” she said.

In October, Versace will also launch its new collection of fine jewelry in collaboration with Vertime, a subsidiary of the Timex Group. Donatella is very optimistic about this experiment of collaborating with established artists in order to create something one of a kind.

We’ll see how that will work out.

Donatella Versace will be doing the interior design of a Manhattan landmark known as The Clock Tower.

The agreement was announced Tuesday by the Italian design company and Africa Israel Investments Ltd., the property’s owner.

The building was constructed in 1909 as the headquarters for MetLife insurance.

The design will include 55 condominium apartments, common areas and a spa. Donatella Versace will personally design a luxury club on the first two floors of the tower.

Francesca Versace is the latest member of the legendary family to hit the fashion industry and will show her debut collection at Paris Fashion Week next week

Francesca, is the daughter of Santo Versace- who controls the business side of the company and also the niece of Donatella who took over as creative director when her brother Gianni Versace was shot on his doorstep in 1997.

It’s just a year since the 25 year old graduated from Central Saint Martins and already she’s warming up for one of the biggest ‘gigs’ in the fashion world. “Well I was looking around for something after I graduated and this happened,” she said, speaking about starting up her Francesca V label.

There were doubts over whether the Versace fashion house would survive after Gianni’s murder following declining sales and making markedly less than it did when he was alive.

However Versace now seems stronger than ever, after Donatella’s hard work and the new addition of Francesca, who received praise from the press at her graduate show in London in 2006.

“Having this name can work against you or for you. Right now things are going very well,” Francesca told the Guardian in a recent interview.

Donatella Versace not only gets coal in her stocking every Christmas, she’s also a great personality match for something that’s so destructive and detrimental to the environment. As Plenty Magazine revealed Friday, Versace’s eco-crimes are a laundry list of sad excess, cruel practices, and plain indifference.  Where to begin?

For one, Versace travels with all of her furniture so that she can “feel more at home” wherever she goes. In addition to the private-jet lifestyle, The Guardian reports that For £10m or so Donatella will fit out your jet with her trademark leather sofas, or for £100m you can have a Versace 747. All this from a woman who screamd for her face creams during an earthquake, according to her ex-husband. It gets worse.

Versace is also a supporter of skinning pythons; a craze that has lit up the fashion world and stimulated demand. Want a taste of this cruelty? Here’s a snippet from the Daily Mail:

“The snake is stunned with a blow to the head from the back of a machete and a hose pipe expertly forced between its jaws. Next, the water is turned on and the reptile fills up — swelling like a balloon. It will be left like that for ten minutes or so, a leather cord tied around its neck to prevent the liquid escaping. Then its head is impaled on a meat hook, a couple of quick incisions follow, and the now-loosened skin peeled off with a series of brutal tugs - much like a rubber glove from a hand. The python’s peeled body is simply tossed on a pile of similarly stripped snakes. After a day or two of unimaginable agony it will die from the effects of shock or dehydration.”

While we are all buying our jumpers and winter coats, top designers are at least six months ahead of us, showcasing the must-haves for spring and summer.

One collection that certainly stood out was Diamond Seduction range which used underwear as outerwear

The London-born model strutted down the catwalk in the Luxe collection, which combines minimal bikinis covered in gold mosaic or coloured sequins with chiffon scarves, shawls and dresses.

Campbell is now using her charm to promote her Fashion for Relief campaign, which raises money for victims of the UK floods.

She was sporting a sparkling sequinned swimsuit and chiffon cover-up from the collection.

One collection that certainly stood out was Diamond Seduction range which used underwear as outerwear.

Around 80 designers showcased their collections on the catwalk this week. They include big names such as Giorgio Armani, Versace and Dolce and Gabbana.

The Spice Girls have asked Donatella Versace to design their outfits for their comeback tour.

The Italian designer has already started working on her exclusive creations for the band - Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Emma Bunton, Mel C and Geri Halliwell - who kick off their world tour in December.

A source told Britain’s Daily Mirror: “Donatella was a big fan of the girls back in the day and as soon as she heard that a reunion was on the cards she submitted her ideas.

“There will be several different looks for each of them and the clothes will be worth over 200,000 pounds ($526,999).”

Donatella - the sister of the late fashion guru Gianni Versace who was murdered in 1997 - is determined each singer will have an individual look, but won’t be rigorously sticking to their previous personas, Sporty (Mel C), Baby (Emma), Ginger (Geri), Scary (Mel B) and Posh (Victoria).

The source added: “She wants the girls to retain their band personas but in a much less obvious way than before. Mel C won’t be wearing ill-fitting sportswear instead she’ll have a really sexy wardrobe. Emma will wear stunning, elegant dresses with a playful touch.

“Donatella thinks they look better than many bands half their age and should show that off.”

The band recently announced extras dates for their world tour, after 3 million people registered for tickets on the girls’ official website.

The group will now perform in Vancouver, San Jose and Shanghai.

Other cities on the tour include London, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Cologne, Madrid, Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires.

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.

Italian designer team Dolce & Gabbana took a military theme to kit out men next summer, ranging from fatigues with tiny lights that glowed in the dark to camouflage patterned swim trunks.

On the first day of Milan’s spring/summer 2008 menswear collections on Saturday, Dolce & Gabbana’s signature line show was colored in army-inspired khakis, navy, black and white.

Models had tattoos and military-style haircuts, and wore baseball caps or square-crowned peaked soldiers’ hats.

Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce loaded fatigue-style trousers with pockets and webbing holders for phones or hip flasks, adding a kit bag in black leather and mud-tone canvas to carry any extras.

They stretched and squared classic camouflage print and used it on T-shirts and mini swimming trunks - a style of beachwear the duo are currently using in a white version for eye-catching adverts for men’s perfume range Light Blue.

Dolce & Gabbana suggested bermuda shorts in prints of blue and white florals with beige and maroon broad striped shirts.

Waistcoats were on show at Versace as well, as Donatella Versace pared them down to a T shape.

Trench coat shapes stopped short at the waist, shirts were long enough to double up as jackets and there were silky pastel colored cowls on T shirts.

The collection, which had no shorts, no beachwear and no swimwear, stuck to a formal, tailored theme in single-breasted suits and pleat-front trousers.

Versace, known for her glitzy designs for womenswear, fished for fabrics worn by oystercatchers 70 years ago to dress her men, painting silk protein on cotton for a waterproof shine.

The show of Gianfranco Ferre, who died on June 17 after a brain hemorrhage, was yesterday.

Italian luxury group Fendi will hold a fashion show on the Great Wall in China in October as parent company, LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton, seeks to double its sales by 2008.

“It’s true,” said a spokeswoman for LVMH, confirming a report in France’s Les Echos newspaper.

LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault has said repeatedly he sees potential for Fendi to become a “star brand” alongside LVMH stablemates such as leather-goods maker Louis Vuitton and TAG Heuer watches.

“We can’t be a global luxury group without a strong Italian brand,” Fendi Chief Executive Michael Burke told Les Echos.

Looks like designers are doing their best to diversify their already well established luxury empires. Donatella Versace, after opening a series of hotels and restaurants all over the world, has decided that deigning helicopter interiors is the next major step in developing the company.

It sure looks great! I would have never expected to see that, but fashion designers are always one step ahead of us

What’s next? Submarines?