H&M signs top designer to boost sales

so one can spend more money on the next spending spree

H&M, the budget retailer, has signed British celebrity designer Matthew Williamson to create its next guest collection. It hoped the move will drive sales during the economic slowdown.

(picture by NCinDC/flickr under CC 2.0 license)

Williamson’s first women’s collection will launch in stores H&M on April 23 next year, and will be followed up by a summer collection for men and women from mid-May.

The fashion retailer’s strategy of bringing in guest designers – such as Madonna, Roberto Cavalli and Stella McCartney – has been a success for the group, which is currently dealing with a tough economic environment for retailers.

Past launches have caused frenzied scenes as shoppers rushed to by goods at cut rate prices. When Stella McCartney’s collection went on sale in November 2005, shoppers bought the entire range in 60 minutes.

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H&M Collaborate With Berlin Design Duo

H&M teamed up with a small Berlin based label.

While H&M is known for its collaborations with famous designers like Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Comme des Garcons, things are a little different in their new store in Berlin’s hip Hackesche Markt neighborhood. In a collaboration with the young Berlin designer duo C.neeon, H&M is offering 300 limited edition T-shirts in C.neeon’s signature geometric patterns. The T-shirts retail at 24.99 euros or about $34.50 at current exchange, and all proceeds will go to Berliner Tafel E.V., a charity which provides food for the homeless. “It all started when they asked us if we could do some illustrations for the walls, and then came the idea for the charity T-shirts,” said C.neeon designer Doreen Schulz.

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Fashion under fire as crisis deepens

everyone feels the global crisis…

Judging from the glamorous parties and store openings in Paris this week, you would be forgiven for thinking the economy is thriving — prompting some observers to say the fashion industry is fiddling while Rome burns.

As harried retailers stay glued to their Blackberries for hourly stock market updates, partygoers throng trendy nightclubs and upscale boutiques. It was a pleasure, therefore, to see a grounded collection from Stella McCartney kick off Thursday’s round of ready-to-wear displays.

New York Times reporter Guy Trebay commented on the mob scene at Tuesday’s opening of a new Bulgari store in an article headlined: “Fashion Has a Marie Antoinette Moment.”

Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of the U.S. edition of Harper’s Bazaar, justified this effervescence by saying fashion offered a glimmer of hope.

“In troubled times, historically, fashion has always shown its most glamorous side. Every person wants to dream,” she told The Associated Press. “Having said that, fashion is also a business and it’s very important to run an efficient business. I think what people want right now are ideas.”

STELLA MCCARTNEY

McCartney offered real clothes for real women, and with real sales potential.

There was plenty of flesh on offer, and not just the mile-high legs of the models perched on see-through perspex platforms. Nude tones mingled with soft shell pinks on outfits including tailored jumpsuits with plunging necklines.

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Real women: the latest fashion

love that!

Muscular athletes in Stella McCartney’s sportswear line for Adidas, Christopher Kane’s blonde bombshells, models well into their thirties at Giles Deacon, a little ethnic diversity across the board … One could be forgiven for thinking that fashion had developed a conscience, if this week’s London collections were anything to go by.

The reasoning behind such a move is as likely to be commercial and aesthetic as it is ethical – fashion is famed for a ludicrously short attention span, after all – but the fact remains that designers are increasingly hiring a wider variety of models and it is likely that this will continue next week in Milan and straight after in Paris.

Not many people working outside the fashion industry will recognise the name Russell Marsh, but as the casting agent behind many of the world’s most high-profile advertising campaigns, glossy magazine editorials and catwalk shows, he is extremely influential.

On Wednesday he told The London Fashion Week Daily, a free news sheet funded by the British Fashion Council: “I like reality, especially in times like these. We need a wake-up call. I think it’s time people saw things for how they are. Grow old gracefully, I say.”

Given that, for years, Marsh has been at the forefront of a mindset decreeing that seeking out the youngest waifs in the world to model is the last word in high style, this seems like quite a radical about-turn. In particular, Marsh works for Prada, whose catwalk famously launches the careers of a fresh crop of models every season. Because of this, the more established names (and established can mean a model who has worked for six months or, if she’s lucky, two or three years) have become almost as disposable as the clothes they wear. But that, may be about to change.

“The models need to be athletic, confident, powerful,” Marsh continued, putting his money where his mouth is by casting Lara Stone – who is positively pneumatic by fashion standards – to open Christopher Kane’s show on Tuesday. “Lara is everything you want,” Marsh said. “She’s slightly bigger than the other girls and on the runway that really makes a statement.”

Marsh made a not entirely dissimilar “statement” when he cast Jourdan Dunn, an 18-year-old British-born model, for Prada’s previous show six months ago: she was the first black model employed by this designer since a young Naomi Campbell. Dunn has appeared in every heavyweight fashion and style magazine and stars in Topshop’s current advertising campaign. “I think the look of the models is definitely changing,” said Sarah Mower, a contributing editor to the American Vogue website style.com, reporting from London this week. “Fashion is always changing and people are just really bored by that characterless, Caucasian look. Neither is it demonstrable that it sells clothes any more.

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Stella McCartney at London Fashion Week: makes going to the gym sexy

well maybe you want to visit the gym more often

Stella McCartney even makes going to the gym sexy.

Junking the traditional catwalk motif, McCartney turned an empty hall into a futuristic health club Tuesday and filled it with ace gymnasts wearing her new activewear line for adidas.

The young women did somersaults off trampolines, performed Olympic-style feats on the balance beam, and set a fast pace on treadmills to show the clothes in action.

The steamy display of athleticism at McCartney’s Olympics-themed London Fashion Week show was electrifying, especially to an audience accustomed to a more sedentary approach.

“It was fantastic, and Stella McCartney makes it very sexy and feminine,” said Hilary Alexander, fashion director of The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The show also featured two genuine Olympic gold medallists-U.S. track star Allyson Felix and British cyclist Victoria Pendleton – who were photographed near the balance beam during the show and with McCartney afterward.

No one could miss the gold medals around their necks, or the satisfied smiles on their faces. British athletes had a smashing Olympic games in Beijing, and look forward to hosting the 2012 Summer Games in London.

The four athletes sporting Stella-wear on the balance beam were also Olympians from the British team, unfazed by their move from Beijing to fashion central.

McCartney, who can do no wrong in the eyes of the British fashion world, is better known for her popular and pricey tops and dresses than for her active wear, but she has developed the “adidas by Stella McCartney” concept since 2005.

The spring and summer line for next year provides clothes for tennis, golf, yoga, and swimming, as well as an eco-friendly line featuring organic cotton and footwear made with sustainable materials.

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London Fashion Week starts amid fears for its future

let´ s hope the best for London

London Fashion Week got under way Sunday with seasoned Irish designer Paul Costelloe presenting his spring-summer 2009 collection, but the event faces a battle for survival.

London, a traditional testing ground for new and experimental designers, is under threat from a scheduling row with the more powerful New York fashion week, which takes place directly before London.

The event in the British capital faces a cut from six days to four because the New York organisers want to push their shows a few days later to give designers more time to prepare their spring-summer collections.

London, which is immediately followed by the Milan shows, is refusing to move because it fears that slimming down to four days could make it less attractive to big-name British designers such as Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood who might decide to go directly from New York to Milan.

The issue is to be thrashed out at a meeting in London Tuesday between the organisers of the world’s big four fashion weeks — Paris, New York, Milan and London.

While London appears set to lose the battle, organisers said they were optimistic.

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