Moncler pays homage to its trademark classics with high fashion style for street and slope

With the PyeongCheng Winter Olympics 2018 still fresh in our minds, and arctic temperatures blanketing the whole of the UK and much of Europe, we can learn a thing or two from the continent about how to keep warm, especially if we take notes from the brand is Moncler's latest on offer as previewed at Milan Fashion Week.

The latest collection for Autumn-Winter 2018-19 from its Moncler Grenoble range gives ski and mountain wear a flair for mix-and-match layering, with exploding floral prints, folkloric patterns taken from Eastern European cultures, and Alpine motifs, assuming technical quality with playful sophistication to face up to sub-zero temperatures in the city or up on the slopes.

Meanwhile the Moncler 52 range highlights the brand’s trademark classics reinterpreted with pop colours and contrasting enlarged logo, paying homage to the brand's birth year and defines the natural evolution, of its 66-year of history, based on technical research and creativity.

Indeed the new Moncler 1952 range shows off the brand's forte in delivering lightweight, down parkas and outdoor gear, spiced with street-wise coordinates and  Aztec inspirations.

Moncler was founded at Monestier-de-Clermont, Grenoble, France, in 1952 and is currently headquartered in Italy.






















Known for the brand's unique appeal of combining high style with modern technology taken from mountain apparel, the Moncler brand has been successful in proposing desirable fashion for town and country, from street to slope.

Source and Images: Moncler

Moncler revolutionises fashion showing schedule with monthly installment of 'Genius'

Unveiling its first monthly ‘Genius’ series at Milan Fashion Week (which concluded on Monday 26 February 2018), Remo Ruffoni, the CEO and creative director behind the Moncler brand made headline news with his new way of showcasing the brand's new collections.

Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli has stripped the classic duvet to the clearest shape for Moncler Genius.

Rather than showing in the traditional schedule of twice a year, Moncler is rolling out collections once a month, starting with the first monthly installment of the “Genius” series from a team of  eight designers headlined by Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli.

So far Remo Ruffoni's bold plans and dynamic execution of his strategy to revitalise the Moncler brand have met with commercial success.  Moncler recorded revenues of 1,193.7 million euros (£1,054.28 million), an increase of 15 percent at current exchange rates over 2016.  In the fourth quarter, the company said, revenues rose 17 percent at constant exchange and of 14 percent at current exchange rates.

Recently, speaking to the South China Morning Post at the opening of Moncler's premium 500 sq. metre shop on Canton Road in Hong Kong,  Ruffini said the core of his strategy has been making its signature down jackets desirable items across the globe. “It sells just as well here in Hong Kong as it does in Canada,” he said, and that the company has used new fabric technology to make lighter-weight jackets for warmer climes.  He explained that fundamentally, the brand’s success has been down to two things. “First we are quite young, and (second) we never compromise,” he said in the SCMP report.

Designer Simone Rocha had images of daring Victorian climbers in petticoats in mind. She worked on voluminous silhouettes and deconstructed proportions merging a taste for embellishment with the performance quality of Moncler.

Designer Craig Green conceives items that rewrite the dialogue between clothing and body, dress and habitat. 

Simone Rocha.

Since Remo Ruffini took over the helm in 2003, Moncler manufactures and directly distributes the clothing and accessories collections through its boutiques and in exclusive international department stores and multi-brand outlets, and collaborates with a host of global designers including currently British designer Craig Green, whom Ruffini describes as “one of the few geniuses in menswear” and Simone Rocha. 


















Source and Images: Moncler

Milan Fashion Week Moncler's duvet shapes have a couture élan

The French-Italian brand Moncler (short for Monestier-de-Clermont, an Alpine town near Grenoble, France) is well-known for its lightweight, down parkas and outdoor gear.

Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli has stripped the classic duvet to the clearest shape. Take a look at what the designer unveiled at Milan Fashion Week for Autunm-Winter 2018-19 at Moncler Genius.

The designer follows the idea that purity is reached when form reflects essence. 

His take on functionality has a couture élan.    

Source & Images: Moncler

LENZING announces TENCEL™ as its flagship brand

Austria-based textile and nonwovens cellulose fibres producer LENZING has announced that it is entering a new phase launching its TENCEL™ brand as their flagship brand for textile with a new slogan “Feel So Right” to foster a connection between industry partners, retailers and consumers.  

The TENCEL™ brand portfolio covers a wide range of applications, from activewear to denim, home, intimate apparel and luxury ranges, notably TENCEL™ Active,  TENCEL™ Denim, TENCEL™ Home, TENCEL™ Intimate and  TENCEL™ Luxe, all enabled by two fibres: TENCEL™ Modal and TENCEL™ Lyocell.

Sketches of a nature-inspired TENCEL™ Luxe lounge dress
introuced by Lenzing  and  lingerie guru Jos Berry.

Among the first to team up with LENZING for this new branding milestone is renowned lingerie guru, Jos Berry, Founder and Creative Director of Concepts Paris, introducing a nature-inspired lounge dress made with 100 percent TENCEL™ Luxe, a breakthrough sustainable cellulosic filament yarn specifically for the luxury fashion market, launched a few months ago.

TENCEL™ Luxe sustainable cellulosic filament in a range of colours;
designed specifically for the premium fashion market.

Featuring liquid-like drape and a silky-smooth hand feel, the lounge dress was recently showcased at the Nature Moves Us Exhibition at Interfilière Paris in January 2018 and would be showcased in Hong Kong during Interfilière Hong Kong, slated for 27-28 March 2018.

Ms Berry explained: “With a change in lifestyles, the dividing line between underwear and outerwear is becoming blurry, leading to growing importance of loungewear in the fashion industry, and the TENCEL™ Luxe lounge dress is a perfect fit to the narrative. Given TENCEL™ Luxe is designed for sensuality and engineered for sustainability, we hope to showcase inspirational designs of nature beyond flowers.”

“The TENCEL™ Luxe lounge dress by Jos Berry is a great example of how comfort and sustainability can be integrated with high-end fashion and lingerie,” added Judy Chen, LENZING’S director of Global Business Development, innerwear. “Since there are virtually unlimited possibilities for using TENCEL™ Luxe in fashion, we look forward to seeing more integration of sustainability in the innerwear and lingerie sector through this innovative cellulosic filament yarn.”

Earlier this month, at a press conference on February 13^th 2018 during the Premiere Vision Paris international textile trade fair, LENZING’s Chief Commercial Officer Robert van de Kerkhof said he expected 2018 to be a game-changer year for the fibre group. 

Designed and based on the findings and insights of an extensive market research, the brand architecture is deemed as an important step for LENZING to make the transition from a business-to-business (B2B) fibre producer to a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) brand, underlining its core principles of trust, transparency, reliability and amicability, said Kerkhof, and by leading technology innovation in the textile sector.

Acknowledging a growing trend amongst retail brands and consumers to seek out products that make them look and feel good, but also do good via sustainable and transparent production processes, the TENCEL™ product brand as been redefined with the tagline “Feels so Right” to better communicate the fibre’s characteristics and value.

LENZING’s director of Global Brand Management, Harold Wedhorst, who is based in the group’s Hong Kong office, said their aim is to grow TENCEL™ beyond fibre types and functional characteristics to become a true consumer-focused brand, offering the holistic benefits of botanic fibres that bring comfort and high performance for everyday life.

New swing tags and marketing materials will be launched on a retail level to provide clarity on product benefit claims.  "Co-branding programmes and co-marketing campaigns with retail brands will enable us to reach out to consumers directly," said Amit Gautam, Lenzing's vice president of Global Business Management in Textile.

Read about LENZING'S Denim Competition.

Photos: Lenzing / Lucia Carpio.

Premiere Vision Paris Feb 2018 show reported 54,500 international trade visitors

Reporting an attendance of 54,500 from 120 countries to its February edition of trade fairs, organisers of the prestigious Première Vision Paris say the strong visitor figures confirms its role as the leading influential event for the entire international creative fashion industry.

Held over three days (February 13th – 15th 2018) at Parc des Expositions in Villepinte, Première Vision Paris organisers reveal 71% of the total visitors had come
 from outside of France. 

Among the European countries, the French market was strongly present, with trade and professional visitors up by 4%.  In second place was Italy with 6,125 visitors  - 11% of attendance), followed by the United Kingdom with 5,291 visitors (10% of attendance), then Spain with 3,475 visitors, Germany with 1,844 visitors 3% of visitors, the Netherlands and Belgium. Portugal sent a healthy figure of 1,180 visitors while countries from Northern Europe were led by Sweden (508 visitors) and Denmark (473 visitors).

Some 9% of the professional visitors came from Asia, led by which sent 1,544 visitors, following by South Korea with 990 visitors, and China with 780 visitors.

Turkey saw an almost 20% increase with 2,859 visitors, ranking it as 5th among visitor countries.
However the organisers say the total visitor figures of the February 2018 edition also show a slight decline of 3% compared to the February 2017 shows, following growth experienced in two previous successive editions.

The slight pullback in visitors has been attributed this season’s show dates with the Chinese New Year, a situation that on its own accounted for 50% of the decline in visitors - with visitors from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong falling by 42%.

Attendance at the show also reflected current challenges related to the transformation of the retail landscape, which is particularly affecting the US market, with US attendance recording some 1,900 visitors, a decline of nearly 5%.

The next edition of Première Vision Paris will take place September 19-21, 2018.

Photos © Lucia Carpio 2018.

Paris Federation of High Fashion and Premiere Vision trade fairs to join forces to support young fashion talents.

Top quality fabrics are key to the creation of high fashion.  Thus it has come as welcome news that two top French companies responsible for promoting world class fashion materials and quality creative designs should join hands for a valuable cause, with the common goal of bolstering Paris’s position as fashion capital of the world.

Première Vision February 2018 held at Parc Des Expositions, Villepinte, Paris.
 Photo © by Lucia Carpio.

An agreement has been made between the Fédération de la Haute Couture de La Mode and Première Vision - the two leading companies in Paris which share common goals that focus on the international developments of their trade events; a support for creative fashion and young designers and a strong stand and engagement regarding the fashion industry’s key structuring issues, such as Fashion Technology and Responsible Creation.

 Designs SS 2018 by Ziad Nakad
shown at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week.
Photo: Kirsty Sparow / Getty Images for Ziad Nakad

The agreement, which took effect on 1 January 2018 and announced on 15th February 2018 at the conclusion of the latest edition of Première Vision trade fair,  is aimed at strengthening the existing close links between the two companies, with the goal of supporting young creative companies, providing them with training and helping them develop creative and innovative fashion.

This partnership is structured around 3 main areas, according to the announcement:
• Paris World Fashion capital
Developing a programme of initiatives and joint lobbying efforts with the international community and its institutions to enhance Paris attractivity.
• Innovation accelerating the development of Fashion Tech and its players thanks to the first major and dedicated platform: the WEARABLE LAB, a key new development of Première Vision.
• Young Creative talent - supporting the future of creative fashion of young designers and companies selected by the Fédération de la Haute Couture de la Mode during the Paris Fashion Week®.
Première Vision will in turn support the young designers at participation at their trade fairs, specifically in the DESIGNERS APPARTMENT and NEW NOW for emerging brands in their search for creative materials - fabrics, leathers, components - and partners to manufacture their collections.

Paris textile trade fairs recorded 81% of visitors came from abroad, say organisers

The very established Messe Frankfurt France which organised the group of  complementing textile and fashion trade fairs: APPAREL SOURCING PARIS – AVANTEX PARIS – SHAWLS & SCARVES PARIS the accessories showcase – TEXWORLD PARIS – TEXWORLD DENIM PARIS -  which took place at Le Bourget, Paris, from 11 to 14 February 2018, reportedly welcomed 13,606 international visitors, acknowledging that opening the shows on a Sunday had been a success.

 “This February 2018 show with our initiative for a Sunday opening was a trial run for us. The gamble of opening the trade fair on a Sunday (had) paid off with an attendance of 18% of total visitors, who were able conduct their business in a calmer atmosphere,” said Michael Scherpe, President of Messe Frankfurt France, adding that the second day of the fairs, which fell on a Monday proved to be their busiest day of this edition.  However he confirmed that come September 2018, the shows will revert to their previous timetable to open on a Monday, 17th September running until 20th September 2018.

Mr Scherpe revealed that this February, the shows’ attendance remain international: the top five countries were respectively France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain, and Italy.  New visitors were recorded from North America (+7%) and the African continent (+26%), led by the countries who are major suppliers for Europe such as Morocco (+25%) and Turkey (+15%), who came to Le Bourget to carry out sourcing.

The shows welcomed also visitors from emerging markets such as South Africa as well as Ethiopia, which was the country of honour this season.

“The Southern Hemisphere has proved to be very promising, since Australasia recorded a healthy increase of 55%. Nonetheless, we have noted a drop of 6% in attendance from Asian countries, obviously due to Chinese New Year, an all-important family celebration.  Anticipating that many Chinese exhibitors would be bringing their families, the shows also set up a day care centre to accommodate accompanying children.

“On the other hand, Turkey is very active with a 20% increase.  Returning to Europe, here visitor numbers from Eastern European countries have kept growing compared with February 2017, especially from Russia (+38%), Poland (+15%) and Hungary (+8%), and we see favourable results for the Ukraine, Cyprus, Finland and Bulgaria.

"These steady and sustainable visitor numbers go to demonstrate how very attractive Messe Frankfurt France’s Paris shows are and their strength as a business platform,” said Mr. Scherpe.

All Photos © Lucia Carpio 2018

Happy Lunar New Year to all!

恭 喜 發 財 !
As the Chinese wish their loved ones, friends and family great prosperity in the new year, they gift red packets filled with lucky money. 
Photo © Lucia Carpio 2018

The Lunar New Year Holiday presents A Huge Opportunity For the Chinese to practice a key Tradition with a twist, or two.

One key tradition of the Lunar New Year is for elders and married people to give their loved ones, juniors and children little red envelopes – known as “Lai See” in Cantonese or “Hung Bao” in Mandarin - filled with lucky money inside. This is to symbolise that one has plenty of good blessings and pleasantries to pass on.  This is a custom naturally much welcome by the younger generation.

According to PCA Predict a market leading provider of cloud-based address management services, this Lunar New Year tradition has changed rapidly in recent years thanks to e-commerce.

Chris Boaz, ‎Head of Marketing of PCA Predict, (a GBG company) said many people have begun gifting this tradition online, with 46 billion red envelopes exchanged digitally last year.

“This follows a wider trend of nearly three-quarter (73%) of Chinese consumers shopping online for Chinese New Year.   There is a huge opportunity for UK retailers to capitalise on the Chinese ecommerce market around New year, especially as it is estimated more than a fifth (23%) of consumers in China will make at least one cross-border purchase via the internet in the next year.”

“While Chinese New Year can’t compete with the size and scope of Singles’ Day in terms of ecommerce opportunity for international brands, it is becoming an increasingly important date for retailers outside of China.”

Meanwhile the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong has reported that two Shanghai-based internet entrepreneurs believe millennials want more than just lucky money in red envelopes or "Hung Bao".

The two ladies, Teresa Wu and Amber Chen have tapped into a segment of shoppers who want more creative ideas when it comes to gifting during the new year.  They founded BeGifted, an ecommerce platform devoted to helping their client find the perfect gift for that special someone.

With their background in luxury media and PR industry for 13 years, the two "are trying to shed the negative association" with bribery and lavish gift-giving, "with a product selection that is more about sentiment than extravagance."

According to the report, most of the items cost 100 to 2,000 yuan (£10 - £200) , and many of their customers are in their 20s and 30s.

February 13 - 15 2018: Premiere Vision Paris sets the course for a new look and innovations

All professionals involved in the creating of fabrics and the development of textiles, for the fashion, accessories, leather and interior industries need to always keep their fingers on the pulse of innovation if they are to make progress in their business, and this makes the Première Vision Paris international trade fair a must-visit event each season where the world's top movers and shakers meet, connect, network and interact.

Première Vision Paris September 2017 event.

Première Vision Paris group of trade fairs takes place February 13 – 15 2018 at Villepinte, north Paris, to showcase the latest products from 1,725 exhibitors (an increase of 1.6% compared to the February 2017 show) from around the world, representing 50 countries across six dedicated sectors, from textiles to leather, fabric designs to yarns, accessories to finished garment manufacturing.

 Première Vision Paris February 2017 event.

Focusing on Spring/Summer 2019 collections and trends, two of the key areas of the February 2018 session are being given a face-lift, featuring a new stand design created by French designer Ora  Ïto  who presents an exclusive stand and furniture concept, putting a special emphasis on highlighting the creativity of exhibitors at two sectors: Première Vision Fabrics and Première Vision Yarns, offering new lighting and novel additions, such as video screens built into the stand walls.

“I worked to create a virtuous and homogeneous microcosm, a fresh, reinvented showcase where each element is eco-friendly and thought-out all along the manufacturing process,” explains Ora Ïto. 

This creation brings together all in one place the strong values of Première Vision:  aesthetic research, access to new technologies and environmental awareness.

The show’s new look and layout is also accompanied by changes in the organization of the fashion information areas and forums, which are indispensable tools for brands and buyers looking for inspiration and exhibitors’ latest products.

There are also two market focus areas:   TECH FOCUS dedicated to the sports, performance and functional-wear sector, and JEWEL FOCUS to present a selection of components for the fashion jewellery market.

Displays at Wearable Lab, Première Vision Paris February 2017 event.

Also notable is the expansion of the Wearable Lab covering 800 sq metres dedicated to Fashion Tech, with a strengthened space for discoveries, meetings and discussion.

Maison d'Exceptions at Première Vision Paris, February 2017 

And the Bag & Shoe Manufacturing is another key focus area in the Leather segment, while the scope of Maison d’Exceptions for exceptional and artistic hand-craftsmanship has been expanded.  It presents a diverse international showcase of unique techniques for designers and buyers from luxury and high-end fashion brands on the hunt for exclusives.

Meanwhile the Première Vision Marketplace is designed to keep step with the profound changes in an industry seeking accelerated product renewal and a shorter time-to-market.   As a B-to-B e-commerce site, an editorial platform and an industry service provider, the Première Vision Marketplace will be inaugurated in the second semester of 2018,  thanks to a dedicated team within the Group’s new subsidiary, Première Vision Digital.

More details can be seen on the website: www.premierevision.com
Photos © Lucia Carpio 2017.

Premiere Vision Paris scales up The Wearable Lab pavilion this February

Come February 13 - 15 2018 the Premiere Vision Paris group of trade fairs for the global textile and fashion industry will take place at the Parc d’Expositions in Villepinte, and play host to international professionals eager to showcase their latest top products and to exchange ideas on the future of the fashion, materials and accessories industry.

Building on its mission to decode future trends, Première Vision (PV) organisers will once again offer as one of the latest inspirations, the unique Wearable Lab: a space at the heart of the show designed to showcase the Fashion Tech players whose focus are on technological innovation.

In 2018, PV acknowledges technology will continue its growth in the fashion industry, thus the Wearable Lab is expanding to become a 900m² village. Its goal is to present an international selection of materials, products and services to serve as sources of experimentation for the fashion industry.

Expected to present itself as a hotbed of inspiration, this dedicated space, located near the Tech sector of Première Vision Fabrics in Hall 6, will present a 360° offer of technologies, materials, meetings and discoveries in 4 areas.

To read more about Premiere Vision Paris, click here.

Texworld group of trade fairs in Paris February 11 - 14 2018

Due to open on February 11 2018 in Paris at Le Bourget is the joint fairs of Apparel Sourcing, Avantex, Shawls&Scarves, Texworld Denim and Texworld Paris.

Organisers at Messe Frankfurt France have scheduled a busy programme of catwalk shows as well as informative conferences and seminars for attendants to gain insights into various sectors of the textile and garment industry which will be co-hosted by a number of top officials from different participating countries and exhibitors.

Subjects being covered include an Overview of the European and worldwide foreign trade in 2017; the good practises in apparel sourcing; Materials and components, Transparencies and new materials, the strengths and constraints of European manufacturers and speakers will include experts and professionals from Germany and Austria.

For full story, click HERE.

Photo from the 2017 September Texworld events.

Special edition of Samsung Galaxy phone help Olympians Capture the Excitement of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018

If anyone who can do an electronically-infused, all inspiring opening ceremony, the Koreans can do it better. 

(Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
A special edition of the Galaxy Note8, the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition features a shiny white back glass to celebrate the winter theme, and gold Olympic Rings - inspired by the Olympic Torch – an expression of the Olympic Movement with the union of five continents and unity worldwide

As Olympians from close to 100 nations gathered in PyeongChang, Korea this week for the start of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. Athletes representing their respective countries enjoyed capturing and sharing the moments of the unique Olympic Games experience during the Opening Ceremony with the official Olympic Games phone, the Samsung PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games Limited Edition. 

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Worldwide Olympic Partner with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the Wireless Communications Equipment and Computing Equipment category, gifted  4,000 devices to all PyeongChang 2018 Olympians, helping them to enhance their experiences in the Games and connect more easily with family and friends around the world. 

Sofa - bed: Tom Dixon X Ikea

All those fashion shows to review, we need a lie down.  Or at least somewhere to sit.

The answer could come in the form of the DELAKTIG - the result of a collaboration between British enfant terrible designer Tom Dixon and the world’s biggest furniture company Ikea.

Described as a durable, transformable platform for living – DELAKTIG was launched in Milan a couple of weeks’ ago.  It is a sofa that also functions as a bed.  

According to Tom Dixon, the bed is the most important furniture we need in our life.  As many of us now work from home, we can certainly relate to that.  More often than ever, we bring our work into our bed with us, sitting up at odd hours to pour through our emails and social media platforms using our electronic devices to communicate with colleagues, clients, loved ones, friends, contacts in different parts of the world.

Tom Dixon has come up with the concept of making the bed work harder for us as to him it is the only indispensable piece of furniture, the primary unit of home furnishing.

Together with IKEA, Tom decided to create a super-durable aluminium frame that could be constantly updated or upgraded as your life and needs evolve.   At its most basic, DELAKTIG is a single bed - rapidly transformable into a chaise lounge or a three seat sofa by adding additional components.

Contributing to a global community of IKEA hackers that already edit and modify IKEA designs for every-day life, Tom and IKEA began work with the world’s most innovative art schools to see if DELAKTIG, rather than being a complete finished piece of furniture, could be the start of something much bigger - a kind of ecosystem with unlimited possibilities. The results were diverse and inspiring.

In response, Tom Dixon has created heavy-weight task lamps, coffee tables and magazine racks that can be clamped, slotted or bolted on at will, to mutate the sofa into a work or entertainment space. Made of substantial and durable aluminium plate the hacks are robust enough to last a lifetime.

Tom Dixon also collaborated with Bemz who specialize in soft hacks to produce three luxe covers that elevate the IKEA frame into a luxury unit – from Shower-proof stripes to an Icelandic sheepskin mono-cover known as ‘The Beast’.

So, this is the plan - you can go to IKEA and you can buy yourself a bed. If you want, you can add components to make it into a sofa. Once you’ve got this bed sofa you can add on Tom's hacks, other people’s hacks, or you can hack it yourself.    Presently, the hacks are available from tomdixon.net in the UK and Europe only.

Paris Haute Couture Fashion S-S 18: the Jean Paul Gaultier twist

Jean Paul Gaultier does haute couture with a twist: exploiting bold monochrome and psychedelia.  The SS2018 collection has got the 1960’s vibe: Sci-fi A-Go-Go style. 

Models gyrate down the catwalk enveloped in swirling silhouettes and asymmetric cuts. Note the long groovy fringes, fun missed-matched tights and coordinating shoes and boots, geometric earrings and exaggerated bangles; macrame knots and basket weaves; twisted panels creating a 3-D effects. 

Then M. Gaultier goes over-drive with head-to-toe electrifying colours. 

Feast your eyes also on the daring circular motifs of vibrant colours. An execution of avant-garde surrealism.

Credits: beautypress.com

Images: P. Stable