Alessandra Facchinetti Named Tod’s Creative Director

ALESSANDRA FACCHINETTI is the new creative director of Tod's women's collections. The former Gucci, Valentino and Uniqueness designer will start her role next month.

"Alessandra Facchinetti is a very talented woman," said Tod's Group president Diego Della Valle. "Her passion for detail and her dedication to the research of materials and manufacturing make her perfect for our brand, which has always been very attentive to quality and Made in Italy."

Facchinetti announced that she was leaving Uniqueness yesterday, the brand that she founded in collaboration with Italian label Pinko in 2011. She will unveil her first collection for Tod's during Milan Fashion Week in September.

Alessandra Facchinetti added: "As an Italian designer, I feel very honored to take up such an important role for a brand that - with the highest quality and refinement - helps to keep up the prestige of Made in Italy in the world."

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ELLA ALEXANDER | FEBRUARY 21, 2013 | Article Link

H&M Crashes Paris Fashion Week

Three days after crashing the Oscars red carpet by dressing Helen Hunt in a strapless gown, H&M, the Swedish fast fashion retailer, crashed Paris Fashion Week.

It has been eight years since H&M presented a runway show for its signature label, not counting its big promotions with Donatella Versace and Maison Martin Margiela, so executives at the company evidently decided it was time to pull out all the stops with an elaborate show on the grounds of the Musée Rodin. H&M’s previous show, by the way, was held in the Central Park Zoo. So it has come a long way.

It says a lot about the state of fashion shows, which are increasingly becoming entertainment vehicles designed for the public as opposed to events for industry insiders, that H&M chose Paris, the city of haute couture, for this one. Previous designers to have shown their collections in the gardens behind the museum include Dior, during the late John Galliano years, and Tom Ford before that, when he was at Yves Saint Laurent. And yet H&M’s production seemed even more over the top, and the audience appeared at least as wowed.

Guests entering the show Wednesday night walked along a candle-lit pathway to an enormous tent that had been decorated like a fantasy apartment, with more than 15 small rooms where editors were seated on couches, beds, marble slabs and at gilded wicker seats around a dining table. Each room was decorated in a different style, including a Moroccan lounge, an Art Deco sitting room, a marble bathroom and a kids’ bedroom with an outer space motif. Finding your assigned seat through the winding rooms was like walking through Ikea, only with better furniture........

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ERIC WILSON | February 27, 2013 | Read More Article Link

Fashion Show: GIANFRANCO FERRE

TWIST it, turn it, work it, belt it: that was the message that Federico Piaggi and Stefano Citron were promoting with their Gianfranco Ferré collection today. No look was complete without a belt and it had to be fastened just so – elaborate and twisted and elegantly tamed to stay in line with the rest of the shapes going on around it.

This duo is known for their sculptural aesthetic, able to manipulate and elongate, smooth out and refine shapes to precise and futuristic effect. Last season they toned that down, a good move given they were still only one year into working with the heritage house. Today it seemed to simultaneously go up and down a notch – layers were the key here.

Jackets and skirts, tunics and coats all came with a severity to their cut but layered all together made for a less forceful and sci-fi approach. Something which worked for the better and put their clothes back in the real-world realms – though there was still a series of cloaks towards the end that might still be a little too other-worldly for some.

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JESSICA BUMPUS | FEBRUARY 25, 2013 | Article Link

Anja Rubik Turns Designer

ANJA RUBIK has designed a capsule footwear line for Giuseppe Zanotti. The collections of five styles are inspired by two of the model's music heroes - Debbie Harry and David Bowie - and will launch in stores and online in early March. Prices range between €550 (£480) and €1,400 (£1,200).

"It's a bit glam-punk," Rubik told us.  "I love that period in music. I'm a huge Bowie fan. People have said I look like him, which is honestly the biggest compliment. I think it's the high cheekbones. His style was so bold and brave and his music so honest. The whole collection is very personal to me, there is a real story behind it."

Zanotti and Rubik met when the Polish beauty was 16 through mutual friends. The model appeared in one of his campaigns, but they didn't meet again for another six years when they worked together for a second time. She has since starred in numerous adverts for the Italian brand.

"We're very good friends," she said. "We'll always have lunch together when I'm in Milan and I'll always tell him what I like and don't like about his shoes. One day I said to him: 'Maybe you should do something a bit more punk.' And he said, 'Why don't you design it for me?' It happened very organically."

Rubik travelled down to the designer's Italian factory to make sure she was fully involved in the whole process - although she wasn't prepared for the cultural differences between Italy and her hometown, New York.

"That Italian way of working - it took a while to get used to," she said. "I'd arrive and everyone would say, 'come on we're going out for lunch.' Then we'd return a few hours later. There was a lot of wine and food. It was how life should be - the perfect balance of work and play."

That's not to say that the road to design success was an easy one: "I was trying to show the factory-workers what I was going for and I found this piece of old suede on the floor and started cutting shapes in it to give them a better idea," she recalled. "Then Giuseppe walked in and asked: 'Has anyone seeing my favourite glasses cloth?' I was so embarrassed."

Rubik isn't ruling out a possible second collaboration, having enjoyed her first design project so much.

"I'm just going to take it slowly," she said. "If I did it again, I might create a collection at more accessible price points. I tried my best with this though and I'm happy with the results. I just hope that everyone else does too."

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ELLA ALEXANDER | FEBRUARY 25, 2013 | Article Link