Shop ’til You Drop

June 12, 2019 / by Stéphane Roth

image above: The main entrance of the Galeries Lafayettes Champs Elysées, which celebrates the art deco heritage of Paris with marble columns and geometric shapes

Precarious times can induce pleasurable measures. This spring in Paris, the Yellow Vest movement once again made headlines after damaging shops along the Champs Elysées, yet only days later the magnificent avenue saw the opening of the Galeries Lafayette department store. While it may seem like just another retail expansion in a world overly maxed-out by mega-stores, the move was something of a novelty for the French capital, which had seen nothing of this scale open for decades.

Indeed, Paris has always presented limitations in terms of its size, given its few available venues to host large stores. And since most of the city centre is an inventory of heritage sites, it’s challenging to nurture contemporary retail emporia while respecting the city’s architectural code. There’s also the significant factor of economics; Paris, along with Hong Kong, London and New York, is one of the most expensive cities for commercial real estate in the world.

Traditionally, the city has relied on three iconic department stores: Le Bon Marché, Le Printemps and the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann. This equilibrium just shifted with the Champs Elysées opening, and will change again next year when La Samaritaine will reopen on the bank of the River Seine after more than a decade’s worth of renovations. Within a 12-month timespan, the retail scene will have changed more than it has in the past decade. 

Spot the trend? These openings echo the growing volume of sales to international travellers in Paris, which is not only one of the most visited cities in the world (with more than 17 million visitors per annum), but France also enjoys the highest average spend on duty-free goods by all travellers in Europe. That appetite for shopping, one continuing to grow from Asia, is putting a new spring in Paris’s retail step. 

Located at 60 Avenue des Champs Elysées, the new Galeries Lafayette store is a luxury temple housing more than 800 brands over four floors, comprising 6,500 square metres in a sumptuous 1930s art deco building. This pleasure palace blends fashion, beauty, accessories and gourmet food to create a smooth retail experience that includes private shoppers, connected hangers that inform you if the product you are trying exists in different sizes (yes, really!) and a selection of niche brands. 

The on-site dramatisation is worth a visit to the French capital alone. Some products are displayed on a baggage carousel, lest we had any doubts of its dedication to visitors. Coincidentally, this new Parisian space opened just a few days after a new Galeries Lafayette store in Shanghai, which demonstrates the strength of the Shanghai-Paris connection in terms of retail and luxury.

Cognisant of that axis, and across the Seine in the upscale 7th arrondissement, is the next-gen retail venue Beaupassage, which is also worth a visit. The recently opened space evokes comparable locations in Shanghai in terms of its concept and approach – Columbia Circle and some lanes in the Xingfu Lu neighbourhood, for example. In both cases, it is a closed lane or site renovated around a single identity, mixing works commissioned from contemporary artists, high-end cafes, restaurants and gourmet food boutiques, and a selection of trendy stores. Such an integrated approach is something of a new direction for Paris. 

But it’s a recipe that works: exclusive patisseries and cafés mixed with striking contemporary outdoor artworks that are used to blend an engaging retail concept into a heritage site. Stunning artworks ensure that the site is ubiquitous on Instagram, and the exclusive patisseries ensure constant visitors (especially those with kids) who stop for a sugary treat. Last but not least, the heritage site ensures the uniqueness of the architecture and lends a certain provenance to the site as a whole. 

Beaupassage plays host to the first Pierre Hermé cafe in Paris (until then, the brand only had stores); the second bakery by Thierry Marx, the former chef of the Paris Mandarin Oriental; an outlet of the popular % Arabica cafe, imported from Japan; and two new bistro concepts created by famed chefs Yannick Alléno and Anne-Sophie Pic. This ornate shrine to gourmandism lives side by side with a high-end sports studio and design stores – thus, a 360-degree immersive experience in the heart of the city. 

German Grooves

May 29, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Quantum Style

April 17, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Image above: Quant and models at a Quant Afoot launch, 1967

From miniskirts and hot pants to vibrant tights and make-up, Mary Quant launched a fashion revolution on the British high street. A design and retail pioneer, she popularised super-high hemlines and a range of irreverent looks that became critical to the development of the Swinging Sixties scene. Her legacy is celebrated in Mary Quant, a major exhibition at the V&A in London, which opened on April 6 and runs until February 16, 2020. 

Although Quant is often credited with creating the decade’s most iconic look, the miniskirt, there’s no conclusive evidence to say who first took hemlines a daringly long way north of the knee (French couturier André Courrèges is another possibility). Regardless, extremely short skirts and shift dresses became Quant’s trademark, and were popularised by the era’s most high-profile model, Twiggy, whose willowy figure helped turn ultra-short hemlines into an international trend. 

Miniskirts and dresses were perfectly paired with Quant’s tights and underwear range, one of the first lines produced using the Mary Quant name under licence. She also created the skinny-rib jumper (apparently inspired by trying on an eight-year-old’s sweater for fun) and, in 1966, invented hot pants. Capitalising on the 1960s’ love affair with new materials, she was one of the first designers to use PVC, creating wet-look clothes and different styles of weatherproof boots in her footwear range, Quant Afoot.

As London’s boutique scene was still blossoming, Quant was cementing her position as a commercial and cultural powerhouse. In 1962, she signed a lucrative design contract with US department-store chain JC Penney. In 1966, she was awarded an OBE and published her autobiography, Quant by Quant. The following year, she opened her third shop on London’s New Bond Street. By the end of the decade, Quant was the UK’s highest-profile designer and had achieved unprecedented reach in the market; it was estimated that up to seven million women had at least one of her products in their wardrobe, while thousands more sported the super-modern shades of her Daisy-badged cosmetics range.

For the first half of the 1970s, Quant remained at the forefront of fashion – her work was celebrated in a retrospective exhibition, Mary Quant’s London, at the London Museum in Kensington Palace from November 1973 to June 1974. From the late ’70s onwards, the business produced high-quality womenswear and a variety of products alongside coordinated interior designs for British manufacturing giant ICI, including bedlinen, carpets, paint and wallpaper; diffusion ranges such as swimwear, hosiery, jewellery; the Daisy Fashion Doll; and popular skincare and make-up products. Quant also introduced skincare for men and published books promoting her ideas about cosmetics. 

Getting to Know Deveaux

April 3, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

You’ll likely know the name Tommy Ton as the doyen of street-style photographers, who shot the likes of Kanye West and Virgil Abloh together on his Instagram before people knew the latter was the former’s stylist. Ton was shooting on his site Jak & Jil before most people had Facebook, never mind Instagram. His work has graced the pages of Vogue and InStyle, and his snaps of influencers rolling up to fashion shows in Paris, London, Milan and New York acted as a calling card to greater fame for many a blogger and influencer. 

Perhaps it’s only natural, then, that having driven the evolution and cultivation of the digital influencer scene – Ton counts nearly 400,000 followers on his IG – he should finally have cross-pollinated into the world of fashion design with New York-based, American-made luxury brand Deveaux, by co-designers Andrea Tsao and Matthew Breen. The label started life as a menswear collection; Ton’s arrival as creative director has ushered in the introduction of womenswear. 

“Deveaux represents hard work and integrity, especially when it comes to how we manufacture our clothing – all within the US at factories with fair labour standards,” he says proudly. “I also love how inclusive it is – one of the great things about the name Deveaux is that it could be men’s or women’s, and it appeals to a wide age range as well.” 

How does this former street-snapper, who was himself originally inspired by Japanese street-fashion photographers shooting for magazines in Tokyo, find the transition to designing silhouettes for women? “I do think designing for women is a lot easier than men,” he says, noting their predilection for greater experimentation, coupled with their willingness to embrace different silhouettes and proportions compared to men. But still, the male mindset is paramount. “We [Deveaux] never want to get away from our roots of menswear shirting and tailoring,” he says. “Sometimes I envision how I would want my alter ego – I call her Tammy – to dress. And the Deveaux woman is who that alter ego is.”

Which women in cinema does he envisage wearing today’s Deveaux? “Annie Hall, Gwyneth Paltrow in Great Expectations and Demi Moore in Ghost,” he says. And what are his go-to film fashion inspirations? He cites “Zoolander for a good laugh, Unzipped for a documentary, and Kill Bill for general fashion inspiration.” And what three songs does he imagine would be on the Deveaux woman’s playlist? “Queen’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’, Janet Jackson’s ‘Come Back to Me’ and ‘A Violent Noise’ by The XX.”

Ton’s film references mirror the classics-revisited feeling of Deveaux’s spring/summer 2019 womenswear collection. “We are always thinking about how to tweak and elevate essentials, and oftentimes that finds its roots in classic silhouettes,” he says. The trio push the envelope with fabrications, too. “While we still keep things luxury and use the best materials, we do try different fabrics, such as papery nylons, taffetas, plaid tablecloth or other unique blends that the mills are working on,” adds Ton. 

The colour palette for spring/summer 2019 is discreet and subdued, in which nude and beige feature prominently, and also lends itself to the idea of androgyny. “The concept of ‘skin’ was the initial starting point,” says Ton. “We were thinking about our Deveaux woman as someone who only wants to reveal so much, and is careful and selective in what she reveals. She likes masculine clothes, but is comfortable with a certain sensuality and femininity. Both give her confidence and empowerment. We then contrasted these luxe feminine fabrications with the papery nylons and masculine twills from our men’s collection. We were thinking about this woman in New York and how she would want to look, but also how she would handle the city in the summer heat.”

Casting played an important role in Ton’s debut womenswear collection, having selected five women of varying ages and careers – including a model mother of two, a certified tea blender, a former forklift driver and a mental health advocate. “They’re women I know other women would instantly relate to and basically girl-crush on,” says Ton. “I’ve always found women of various ages to be the motivating factor in my street photography, and it trickled into the process of designing this collection. I think it’s really important, especially now, to cast models that people can relate to and feel that what they’re wearing is very accessible”

Were there any creative scraps over who and what they all thought the design for a Deveaux woman should be? “Only small ones over how sexy or sensual she would be, or how ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ the collection might be,” recalls Ton. His role is to focus on the creative side, and how clothes should be styled and hang, while Tsao oversees garment construction, fabrication and initial sketching, and Breen addresses fashion from the merchandising perspective and considers the margins. “It really helps that we all get along so well,” says Ton. 

Deveaux doesn’t yet sell in Hong Kong, but its menswear retails at stores in Tokyo and Seoul. “The womenswear is still new to Asia, as it has only been one season, and we have no stockists there yet,” says Ton. “But we are looking to grow the Asian business with the best retail partners, because Asia is where everything is happening now.”

As such, the brand hopes to initiate some launches with stores and introduce the brand to consumers. And how does Ton assess our city’s style? “Hong Kong style is always on the cutting edge,” he says. “The customers in the city really love fashion, and it is about being in the know and being aware of trends.”

Ornate State

April 3, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Izzue View

March 20, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

On February 19 at the Strand in London, a palpable sense of excitement pervades the pristine blue skies on the final day of London Fashion Week, as I.T Group-owned brand Izzue prepares for its historic moment – to be the first Hong Kong fashion label to stage a solo runway show in the capital. But this is no ordinary fashion morning, as it turns into a fashion mourning. News has spread at 10am that famed Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld has breathed his last and died in Paris. Izzue has inadvertently chosen a prophetic day on which to make a triumphant statement of its own. 

Outside, the ubiquitous crowds of voyeurs, bloggers, stylistas, influencers, KOLs (perhaps ironic that Hong Kong’s oft-used acronym for “key opinion leaders” also could stand for “Karl Otto Lagerfeld”), the furred and the faux-ed jostle to find focus for the lenses of moment-defining street-snappers. The likes of British singer Lily Allen and fashion designer John Rocha arrive for the Izzue show, as does Hong Kong-born, London-based blogger and writer Susannah Lau aka Susie Bubble. 

Not attracting quite the same screen time, though no less culturally visible, is Colombian artist Oscar Murillo with his wife and child. David Zwirner, the renowned gallerist who represents the artist, calls him this generation’s Jean-Michel Basquiat. “Well, I live in London, as you know, so it’s natural that I come to the shows,” says Murillo, who recently staged the inaugural show at Zwirner’s Hong Kong gallery in H Queen’s. “I’ve been in Hong Kong quite a lot recently, so it’s a great chance to see the Izzue cool over here in London.” 

Cool and innovative Izzue may be, but behind the scenes two hours pre-show in the lobby of the Me London hotel, I.T’s chief commercial officer, Deborah Cheng, is a combination of pride and anxiety – almost like an expectant mother. “It’s like I’m going into labour,” half-jokes Cheng. “And you don’t know whether it’s going to be a boy or a girl, or maybe even twins! We spent so much time and effort to get the show on schedule for today. I really hope you guys like it.” 

What’s not to like? Izzue, set up in 1999, has been on one continuous and experimental mission to pursue design innovation, brand collaborations and projects that pre-empt future trends, along with nurturing design talent by supporting the work of students through top-tier establishments such as Tsinghua University in Beijing and Central Saint Martins (CSM) in London. 

Izzue’s investment in London’s creative scene marks the launch of its capsule collaboration with two CSM students, who were chosen following a design competition, alongside the activewear brand Phvlo and overseen by the school’s MA fashion design course director, Fabio Peras. As well as being on the runway, the designs form part of a ten-piece portfolio currently selling in Selfridges. 

In keeping with the I.T-owned brand’s “Live it Real” mantra, the show gets underway at exactly 2pm, parading Izzue’s key items (or #izzueessentials) of striped tees, sweatshirts, trench coats, down puffers, bikers and shirts/blazers. The looks and theme reflect the difficulties of living in the now – questioning what drives feelings of insecurity or displacement in today’s youth, and how they can best equip themselves to combat such emotions. 

“It’s coming out of the comfort zone,” explains Cheng. “So we pay a lot of attention to our core design elements, which is trench coats, stripes, jackets… all these elements we’ve used for the longest time. And the feeling of the whole British punk thing. It’s genderless. I think it’s the whole trend now, that a lot of different brands are doing genderless. You’ve got men doing womenswear and women doing menswear shows, so it’s getting more flexible.”

Cuts and forms on the runway are deconstructed, and the show proposes the notion of repurposing, reconstructing and reusing clothes as a way of reacting to life’s challenges and outcomes. Experimental PVC makes its way into tailoring and a utilitarian military theme underscores the sense of modern urban combat.  

In a marvellous finale, model-actress Shum Yuet, who is also the daughter of I.T Group boss Sham Kar-wai and actress Chingmy Yau, led the pack in shimmering white to conclude her runway debut. It’s a champagne moment indeed. 

CDLP sits front-row with Piras for Izzue’s show. How does he assess the brand’s culture and the way ahead? “This whole project has been about bringing youth as a creative entity, and bringing young students as the creative entity, to contribute to the philosophy of Izzue – which is about youth, and about movement and a community that needs to buy and wear easy and appealing products,” he says. 

Sustainability also doesn’t need to be a complicated matter, he adds, eyes wide open to the idea of another Izzue x CSM collaboration. “At the end of the day, you want novelty and innovation in materials, and you want an entity like Izzue to choose a material that is not what they use all the time.” 

So what would Piras propose for a follow-up crossover? “I would go with a range of T-shirts, sweatshirts and something totally visual,” he says. “At the end of the day, it needs to be fast. It can be a very simple choice, such as which cottons you use, which nylons you use. You can do something really simple just by using one element that changes everything.” 

Christian Dada SS/19

March 6, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Street Heat

February 20, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Oh! You Pretty Things

January 30, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

Gen-Zheng

January 30, 2019 / by China Daily Lifestyle Premium

When Chinese designer Jessica Zheng’s The Little Emperors collection appeared on the catwalk of The Mira hotel last June during the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s MA fashion show, the spirit of the onlookers rose with it. There had been some quirky and highly trend-driven collections, but Zheng’s was particularly distinguished from the rest by its boldness, exaggeration, decadence, eccentricity, satire, colour and, most importantly, humour. In its seemingly indulgent grandiosity, it felt like something of a design moment. 

Zheng believes fashion is the carrier of culture and a tool for narrative, and she considers herself as fashion storyteller. The collection, which mixes traditional Chinese weaving techniques with laser-cut technology, handmade silk and six different types of leather, is based on the 80s generation in China, when every family was allowed one child only. Zheng’s collection tells the story of growth and strife of this generation through the work – the obsessive and overly protective parental love, and how though everyone thought the generation would turn out to be the nation’s weakest they have worked hard, succeeded and overcome their ‘little emperor’ status. 

Six months later, Zheng won the Best of the Best Fashion Graduate Award, an initiative set up by the government-supported Fashion Asia Hong Kong. She cites a lofty group of designers as being inspiration: Iris van Herpen, “a haute couturist who creates works that push boundaries and uses materials that are specially created to communicate her concepts – her speciality is the use of rapid prototyping (3D printing)”; Alexander McQueen for his ability to “technologically transform garments from concepts into couture”; and Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake, who are “deconstructive designers, though their designs are so different.” 

With plans to head to the UK to continue her studies, Zheng credits PolyU’s Basia Szkutnicka, the programme director of the MA in Fashion and Textile Design, for much of the success of her collection. “Basia always had room for us to develop and find our own personality. She was leading me to arrive in my own space – she is experiential and unlimited. She specifically inspired my use of colour.” Previously, Zheng had tended to occupy the safety zone of black, but in this collection, she “finally created the red of my own.”

Szkutnicka joined PolyU in 2017 and has a considerable fashion pedigree. She graduated from London’s Central Saint Martins and worked with mentor Isabella Blow on a series of avant-garde projects photographed by Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Roberts and Judy Blame. The former director of the study-abroad programme at the London College of Fashion for 15 years, she’s also the author of two books on fashion. At PolyU, she aims to produce “creative, forward-thinking designers who will be encouraged to evolve their personal design identity and bring a new proposal to the fashion landscape.”

In other words, Szkutnicka knows raw talent when she sees it – and such is Zheng. “Jessica’s work contains her design DNA, which sets her apart from many other young designers who don’t necessarily know who they are or are unable to express themselves visually,” she says. Szkutnicka thinks time spent in the UK can only be positive for Zheng. “Going to study the technical aspects of design in the UK will be highly beneficial for her, as it will place her in a dynamic, foreign environment that will stimulate new ideas and emotions. Plus, of course, she will be challenged with a higher level of design experimentation and practice.” 

Zheng already has a strong sense of her own fashion mission and hopes to launch her own brand shortly after. While she acknowledges Japanese designers like Miyake and Yamamoto, she wants to go beyond that influence. “Deconstruction does not follow the ruels of dressmaking – for example, the silhouette can be created however the designer chooses. My works will be different from these designers because it will be based on our country’s culture and traditional craft, which combines deconstruction and modern surface design technology.” 

A colleague on the same design course, Rue Li, who admired Zheng’s combination of “unique fabrics with poetic silhouettes” and is now working as a brand ambassador to help broker cult sneaker brand Andrew Kayla’s entry into China, thought the prize marked as much a significant cultural as an individual moment. “I think the winning prize is significant for both Jessica and all designers in China,” she says. “It showed the public what a designer does isn’t just about following the current trends, but also about keeping an eye on exploring the symbolic relationship between human beings and our society.”