Fashion Archives - Page 23 of 24 - The Fashionable Truth

Romeo Gigli’s comeback enthralls Asia as he casts his critical eye at European fashion

He was one of the world’s most admired and successful designers of the 1990s, then Romeo Gigli lost it all. As he makes a quiet comeback in Venice, Italy’s fashion maestro tells Luke Leitch how his...

Andrew Keith, Romeo Gigli and Carina Lau

Romeo Gigli’s FW 2013 collection at Joyce

Romeo Gigli Iconic fashion designer Romeo Gigli came to Hong Kong last month to launch his gorgeous Fall Winter 2013 collection at Joyce, where he joined the growing ranks of designers who have become...

That tradition was shaken last year when LVMH, the world’s largest agglomeration of luxury marques (including Louis Vuitton), acquired a 22 per cent stake in Hermès. To secure Hermès from LVMH, 50 relations from three branches of the family recently met to establish a watertight holding company that owns 51 per cent of Hermès, and which cannot be sold for 20 years. “Although we’re confident,” Pierre-Alexis says, “we will remain paranoid until the end. It was really a Nietzschean moment, it didn’t destroy us, so it made us stronger. When I pass this company on to the seventh generation, then I will believe I’ve done my job.” “No,’ Pierre-Alexis says baldly. ‘I don’t. It’s not my bag.” A few days later, I visit an Hermès facility on the outskirts of Paris. Once my passport is politely confiscated, and I am firmly admonished against photography, the experience proves cheery. The vision of Hermès at the Leather Forever exhibition did not include the snaps of David Beckham or Daphne Guinness (toting an Hermès) that are Blu-Tacked to Parisian workers’ desks, or the laughter-punctured murmur of chatter, machine-whirr and banging (during ‘perlage’, the attachment of hardware to bags) that fills the room. The craftsmen and women I meet (all quite young) appear both genuinely charming and charmed by their jobs. They say the Plume – the company’s oldest bag design – is the most difficult to make, and that the average time it takes to make a bag is two and a half weeks. A recently hired 17-year-old named Dimitri, wearing piercings and jeans, has just finished his first Kelly, coloured a glowing light blue, and made inside out to reduce the appearance of stitching on the exterior. In front of us, with infinite slowness and the help of a tiny iron to reduce stress to its calfskin, he turns the bag outside in again – and beams like a new father when the delivery is flawlessly complete. Another worker, a cool, slightly older chap named Julien Serange, says, “We don’t feel like machines here, because we do everything from the beginning to the end, from A to Z. It is a pleasure to do this.” Even if you’ve no intention of spending thousands of pounds on a handbag, it is certainly interesting to see how the world’s finest are made. And the determination of the people who run it is impressive too. Pierre-Alexis may be a little prickly, but who wouldn’t be in the face of an unwanted outside attempt to wrest control of a company built, and loved, by six generations? As he says, “As long as the Hermès house remains a family business – and as long as we’re alive – I can tell you that we will be here to remind people that there are human beings behind an object. An object is a tenet of culture, and it has a soul. If we forget that, we die.”

In China Hermès is searching for success with a powerful set of tools

THE LUXURY COMPANY HERMèS HAS BEEN CREATING LEATHER ACCESSORIES FOR 175 YEARS, FROM ITS BIRTH AS A SADDLEMAKER TO ITS LATE 20TH CENTURY REINVENTION AS THE wORLD’S MOST...

In London Stephen Webster makes celebrity jewelry a rock and roll art form

Webster’s high jewellery collection is known for its bright stones Stephen Webster is the king of celebrity jewelers but his wedding rings for Madonna and bracelets for Christina...

Christian Dior in 1951; he reigned supreme at his couture house until his sudden death in 1957

Inside Dior, the struggle to replace John Galliano was an epic battle

John Galliano departed from The House of Dior over one year ago. Speculation about who would replace him raged throughout 2011, but now the more interesting question is why it has taken so long to...

Raphael le Masne de Chermont and son at the Genghis Khan polo club

Top luxury entrepreneurs discuss strategy for the China market

What’s the best way to build a market in China, and how does a successful entrepreneur stay hungry? Ketty Koutsolioutsos, co-founder of Folli Follie, and Raphael le Masne de...

FAR LEFT: Pilot's Watch Chronograph LEFT: Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month RIGHT: Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun FAR RIGHT: Big Pilot's Watch Top Gun Miramar

For explorers IWC have watches that are rugged and beautiful

The sea and sky represent a harsh environment for watches but IWC-Schaffhausen has made their reputation creating timepieces that are a match for the most challenging conditions. The...

Hat Tricks, DeDe Valentine

“If you want to get ahead, get a hat,” the old advertising jingle advised. Let’s update. If you want to get ahead, get a DeDe Valentine hat. The rising “milliner” and hush hush head to toe style...

Folli Follie campaign on Spetses, Greece

Folli Follie’s Big Fat Greek Photo Shoot

It was crazy, but then so is the brand that paid for all this mayhem. Folli Follie (Crazy Craziness in Italian) was founded in 1982 and it will celebrate 30 years of almost non-stop growth next year. To...

Good as gold

The black market for gold in china now sees up to 100 billion yuan worth of trade every year. The world’s most precious metal may seem like a great investment, but beneath its shining surface...