IN THE NEWS...

#WeekTwo

Shamed designer John Galliano gets rave reviews for first fashion collection four years.
John Galliano returned from fashion exile to unveil his first collection four years at London Collections: Men, and the fashion community lapped up his surreal creations.
The designer’s much-anticipated show for the Belgian brand Maison Martin Margiela was his first since he was fired from Dior in 2011 after a series of racist and anti-Semitic of fences.

 

 

Gucci creative director Frida Giannini has left a month earlier than expected. The announcement comes after Gucci’s new CEO, Marco Bizzarri, moved into his new role at the beginning of the year. Giannini’s departure from the brand was confirmed back in December, but with the label’s Fall menswear show less than a week away and the women’s show in Milan next month, this comes as a surprise.
The fashion world is abuzz with rumors about what called for Giannini’s early and abrupt exit. Stay tuned for more.

Sophia Amoruso announced that she’s stepping down from her role as CEO of her L.A.-based e-commerce site, Nasty Gal. The company’s president Sheree Waterson will replace Amoruso, effective immediately. This news comes after 10 percent of the staff was laid off over the summer and reports of slowed growth for the company.
“It’s become resolutely clear that I and Nasty Gal are ready for a move I’ve been thinking about going for two years now,” Amoruso wrote in a post on her company’s blog, published today. “As you know, part of being a #GIRLBOSS (and just a decent human being) is about playing to your strengths. I’ve been wondering for a while now if the CEO role is one that I want—and the one that I’m best at.”
This announcement comes after the recent New York Times Style section story, which featured the 30-year-old Amoruso and author of #GirlBoss, alongside Diane von Furstenberg and Tim Gunn, as one of America’s next top mentors.
Amoruso, who founded Nasty Gal back in 2006, says she is ready to bring her company to the next level by stepping into more of a mentorship position (she’ll remain executive chairman and lead the creative and brand marketing), one she’s likened to Natalie Massenet of Net-a-Porter.
“I see this new partnership working very similarly to how my friend Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-Porter, operates,” she says. “She has had a CEO for quite some time, while remaining the founder and executive chairman. Natalie bleeds Net-a-Porter as I bleed Nasty Gal. I, our customer, want you to know that I’m not going anywhere.

The footwear designer makes his debut at London Collections: Men.

The 72-year-old shoe designer nonpareil is installed in Sir John Soane’s Museum, one of London’s finest but lesser-celebrated cultural jewels. “I first came here with my parents when I was 18—this is where I fell in love with Greece.” Blahnik said

Blahnik has been making men’s shoes for as long as he has made women’s, but they have always been barely spoken of—really, they were shoes for Blahnik and a few aficionados to enjoy. He says: “I started to do them in 1972. I did saddle shoes and everybody bought them—Ossie Clark, everyone—but just two styles…it is my eternal shoe. I have been wearing it since I was 15, 16. I was in Geneva at school and all the North American boys and girls used to have saddle shoes because it was the ’60s. And this is what I have been wearing, always.”

In memory of his late partner, L'Wren Scott, Sir Mick Jagger is funding a scholarship program under the designer’s name at Central Saint Martins.
“Scott, who died in 2014, and professor Louise Wilson, the late course director of the MA program, who also passed away last year, had met at the British Fashion Awards,” “Scott was ‘impressed with Louise’s commitment to excellence and her dedication to fashion education.’” The three-year L’Wren Scott scholarship program kicks off October 2015 and will cover one MA student’s fees for a year and a donation to their living expenses.

Who better to pontificate on youth for The Wall Street Journal than certified Young Person Kendall Jenner? The model joined a panel that also included ex-youths Tim Howard and Goldie Hawn for WSJ. Magazine's recurring "The Columnists" feature. The issue hits newsstands on January 24. Quoth Kendall,
“I feel like I grew up too fast a long time ago. Having older siblings, you grow up around adults, so you mature more quickly. I saw my sisters and parents working every day, so I was pretty much brought up to be a workaholic. But I just turned 19 a couple weeks ago, and I’m scared to be 20—it’s
the first step out of being a teenager. My sister Khloé always says to me and my younger sister, Kylie: You have your whole life to be an adult but only so long to be a kid. And we get it. In the right situations, I try to be as immature as I can sometimes—react to things as if I were 12. You can’t take things too seriously. I just laugh thinking about my dad being a teenager, partying. It’s the funniest thing. And it makes me think—what am I going to be like when I’m 65?”

Maxime Simoens has parted ways with LVMH, two years after the fashion conglomerate invested in the designer’s eponymous label , which he launched in 2009.
The split is said to be an amicable one,"I'm extremely serene regarding my future, for my brand and other projects. I'm very confident in my company's future."
Before he decided to focus solely on his own label back in 2012, Simoens was the creative director of Leonard for six months and was widely rumoured to be a front runner for thr top job at Dior - following John Galliano's departure and Raf Simon's arrival - having previously interned at the fashion house.