Next Stop for Gucci Cosmos, London’s Show Schedule, Barbie Gets a Fragrance
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GUCCI IN LONDON: The Gucci Cosmos exhibition is traveling to London.
The exhibit will be staged at 180 Studios and run from Oct. 11 to Dec. 31.
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Gucci Cosmos first debuted in Shanghai in April and ran until June 25, showcasing the brand’s most iconic designs from its more than 102-year history. The Kering-owned luxury brand installed an immersive exhibition at Shanghai‘s West Bund, a former aircraft factory overlooking the Huangpu River.
British artist Es Devlin, who designed the original exhibition with a series of imaginative sets, larger-than-life sculptures and multimedia artworks, has created a dedicated setup for the London leg with additional elements that pay tribute to the city.
London has a special place in Gucci’s history as it inspired founder Guccio Gucci to establish his artisanal luggage atelier in 1921 in Florence after his experience working as a porter at The Savoy luxury hotel.
Italian fashion critic Maria Luisa Frisa is also returning to curate the London exhibit, adding never-before-seen items from the Gucci Archive, which opened in Florence in July 2021.
In 2024, Gucci Cosmos will travel to Paris and Kyoto, and feature dedicated narratives and elements that will resonate with the culture of each city and its country.
For the Shanghai exhibit, Frisa spent six months looking for the most noteworthy pieces from the Gucci Archive, weaving together the house’s founding history, its equestrian connection, its most iconic bags, and archival looks from the Tom Ford, Frida Giannini and Alessandro Michele eras.
The immersive exhibition was organized into eight themes, or “worlds,” that offered a comprehensive view of the brand’s history and creativity.
Last June, the company also unveiled an exhibition at Gucci Garden in Florence with an illustrated timeline featuring key dates, events and people of the company’s history running through the three-storied location, which is housed in a 14th-century Florentine palazzo. Interspersed throughout the first and second floors, eight rooms are dedicated to a different facet marking the Gucci heritage, ranging from a showcase of signature themes — including the GG monogram, the Flora pattern and the Bamboo bag — to halls dedicated to red carpet gowns across the decades or the brand’s innovative presence in the metaverse.
Gucci is going through a transition as creative director Sabato de Sarno will unveil his first collection for the brand in Milan on Sept. 22 and president and chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri will exit after the show, to be succeeded ad interim by Jean-François Palus, currently Kering Group managing director. — LUISA ZARGANI
LONDON SCHEDULE: Burberry, JW Anderson and Chopova Lowena are returning to London Fashion Week, which runs from Sept. 15 to 19 with a host of physical and digital shows.
The spring 2024 showcase opens on Friday with brands including Phoebe English, Di Petsa, Huishan Zhang, Ahluwalia, Chopova Lowena and Stefan Cooke, who was absent from last season’s schedule.
JW Anderson, Roksanda, Molly Goddard, 16Arlington, S.S. Daley, Richard Quinn and Labrum London, the latest recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, will show on Saturday.
Halpern and Knwls are also returning to the lineup after a hiatus. They’ll show on Sunday afternoon, followed by Simone Rocha and Erdem.
Norwegian fashion brand Holzweiler is swapping Copenhagen Fashion Week for London, and will also show on Sunday.
Supriya Lele and Ashish will also make a return to the schedule on the Monday after taking a break for the past few seasons. Emilia Wickstead and Dilara Findikoglu will also show on that same day.
It will be another big season for Daniel Lee, chief creative officer at Burberry, as his fall 2023 designs will begin hitting the shop floors in August.
The British designer will present his second runway show for Burberry on Monday afternoon.
Christopher Kane, a regular at London Fashion Week, is not on the schedule this season, although the company continues to trade and is now under full ownership of Christopher and Tammy Kane. The siblings purchased the company out of administration, and have paid off the secured creditor.
Some 10 labels will be showing their designs at the BFC Newgen Show Space at The Old Selfridges Hotel with support from the retailer.
In addition, London Fashion Week will be celebrating 30 years of its BFC Newgen initiative at the Design Museum with “Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion.”
The exhibition will run from Sept. 15 to Feb. 11, 2024, sponsored by Alexander McQueen.
The work of British designers such as Kane, Christopher Raeburn, Kim Jones, Mary Katrantzou, Saul Nash, Grace Wales Bonner and Bianca Saunders will be showcased in the exhibition, which features more than 100 objects.
It will be guest curated by the BFC ambassador for emerging talent Sarah Mower along with the Design Museum’s senior curator Rebecca Lewin. — HIKMAT MOHAMMED
SMELL LIKE BARBIE: Barbie perfume has arrived.
DefineMe Creative Studio has teamed up with Mattel to launch Barbie Eau de Parfum, a floral and fruity fragrance that seeks to encapsulate the famed doll’s fluorescent persona.
Retailing for $65 for a 100-ml bottle, the fragrance includes notes of strawberry nectar, gardenia, pink magnolia, whipped cream, peony and sandalwood. The perfume is available online at Macy’s, Amazon and DefineMe’s website, and in-store at a number of independent boutiques, such as Santa Monica’s Number One Beauty.
“We wanted to take elements of Barbie’s personality — she’s sparkly, she’s fun, she’s empowering — and create a scent that reflects those traits,” said Jennifer Newton, who founded fragrance brand DefineMe in 2015 and later introduced DefineMe Creative Studio as an offshoot to house the brand’s collaborations.
It was at Beautycon in 2019 that Newton first connected with Mattel, shortly after she had inked a deal with Disney for a range of princess-inspired fragrances. “We were launching the Ariel fragrance at Beautycon — creating a modern, hip version of a perfume for a Millennial consumer — and Mattel came to talk to us,” she recalled.
Conversations with the toy manufacturer came to a halt once COVID-19 hit, but the rise of #PerfumeTok and the Barbiecore aesthetic prompted Newton to resume development of the scent.
“My intention is to continue this line and to grow it into, you know, Ken and Malibu Barbie — I see this continuing into the future,” said Newton, whose Ken fragrance is underway though a launch date has not yet been determined. — NOOR LOBAD
DOLL CHECK IN: Speaking of Barbie, the doll’s day finally arrived and it was expected to cash in big money.
Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated film “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was expected to make around $140 million on its opening weekend and the doll industry is estimated to generate $14 billion by 2027 as a result of the film, according to a report by Euromonitor.
“Mattel’s growth is also driven by ‘kidults’ who are buying childhood toys like Barbie. The company has moved into video games and digital content. The transition into an entertainment company has helped Mattel generate additional revenues from digital content and drive sales for its physical toys,” said Wee Teck, head of toys and games at Euromonitor International.
“After a dismal 2022, when sales of dolls were negatively impacted due to high prices amid the economic uncertainty, owner Mattel is set for a strong 2023 as a result of the ‘Barbie’ film’s halo,” he added.
Barbiecore has gone over and beyond as brands such as Gap, Zara, Superga and Fossil have introduced looks in tune with the trend.
At Selfridges, the doll took over its famous nook, The Corner Shop, which has turned pink to celebrate the film.
The luxury department store’s windows feature official movie costumes. Meanwhile, upstairs there’s a Barbie pop-up in The Toy Store, and next door at the Selfridges cinema, the film will be playing back-to-back.
London-based art director and stylist Theo White has curated a “Barbie Dream Wardrobe Rental” that spans the Mattel’s doll’s six decades of style, featuring looks from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, as well as taking into account Barbie’s various careers and what she would wear to some of her day jobs.
Makeup artist Lisa Eldridge’s products from her label were chosen by Mattel to feature in the “Barbie” pop-up. She also created Dua Lipa’s beauty looks for the movie soundtrack “Dance the Night.”
In the film, Robbie wears different shades of Eldridge’s lipsticks and Ncuti Gatwa wears her foundation.
At Selfridges, the makeup artist has created three looks for fans to try. The first is a “Barbie Land” look, which is all about the color pink; the second is a retro take on Barbie inspired by the doll’s 1959 inception with a cat-eye flick and red lips, and the third is the Ken look, focusing on hydrated matte skin. — H.M.
ARTFUL DINNER: The Parrish Museum toasted its 125th anniversary and raised more than $1.2 million during its annual Midsummer Dance and Dinner. The two-day fundraiser in Water Mill, New York, kicked off on July 14 with a dance cochaired by Laurence Milstein and Ivy Getty, followed by Saturday’s more formal event.
The evening honored Katharina Otto-Bernstein, Fred and Robin Seegal, along with artists Eddie Martinez, Sam Moyer and Hank Willis Thomas. Dinner guests included Parrish director Dr. Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Sheree Hovespian, Ugo Rondinone, Jeremy Dennis, Robert Wilson, Joey Wölffer, Jessica Wang and Max Mara USA chief executive officer Cristian Notari.
During the outdoor cocktail hour, event sponsor Max Mara presented 10 looks from its Midsummer-themed resort 2024 collection, “Septem Flores.” Afterward, guests sat for dinner in the museum’s covered Mildred C. Brinn Terrace, decked in on-theme florals by Frank Alexander NYC. The evening ended with another round of dancing in the Parrish theater.
The museum is celebrating its anniversary year with a three-part exhibition, “Artists Choose Parrish,” which highlights artists working in the East End. Part two will open later this summer, followed by part three in the fall. — KRISTEN TAUER
BEAUTIFUL MEAL: Two beauty founders joined forces for a socialite-studded dinner in the Hamptons.
On Thursday night, Laney Crowell, founder and chief executive officer of Saie, cohosted a dinner with multihyphenate and Yse Beauty founder Molly Sims at a private residence in Sagaponack, New York.
Guests included Rent the Runway founder Jenny Fleiss, “Real Housewives of New York” cast member Erin Lichy, Katie Lee Biegel and Dr. Dendy Engelman, among others.
The event featured touch-ups with products from both brands, including Yse’s range and Saie’s glowy super gel, glowy super skin foundation and dew blush, among others.
The summer meal comes shortly after the launch of Yse, which Sims launched in partnership with SOS Beauty earlier this year. That brand targets melasma and hyperpigmentation with clinically backed formulations.
Saie, which hired its first president last year, boasts distribution with Sephora, funding from Unilever Ventures and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow, and a product assortment of skin care-makeup hybrids. — JAMES MANSO
DESIGN AUCTION: Swiss auction star Simon de Pury and his avatar have launched the first edition of a new themed series.
“Create! 21st Architecture & Design” was cast on de Pury’s online auction platform de Pury on Sunday. The event pushed works by fashion and design icons such as Rick Owens, Tom Dixon, British-Israeli industrial designer Ron Arad and Polish American architect Daniel Libeskind to the fore.
De Pury’s auctions and private sales offer pieces that are hallmarks of contemporary culture poised to fetch anywhere between $100 to $100 million.
The inaugural auction, “Women — Art in Times of Chaos,” in 2022 was the first online auction to take place on the de Pury platform. The firm said the event was well received and attracted and engaged the attention of a new generation of collectors who are shaping the industry.
Among the rare works available to the public in the July auction were the Rick Owens Curial aluminum chair, which has reverberated around social media and beyond. According to Kim Kardashian’s Instagram page, the mega influencer owns her own version of the chair.
The company also added that Arad consigned a brand-new work made especially for the auction — a variation on his previous design for the D Sofa, one of the most influential designs of his career. A prototype of the D Sofa was previously sold at Phillips auction house for more than 1 million pounds.
De Pury will continue to launch a themed series each month under names like Fire, Kawaii and Paradise Lost, through de-pury.com. A spokesperson for the company said philanthropy is a major pillar of the platform and 3 percent of the buyer’s premium, or charges added on in addition to the hammer price of each sale, will be allocated to philanthropic causes close to the firm, including public cultural institutions, charities and nonprofit organizations.
In a statement, the auctioneer reflected on the success of “Women — Art in Times of Chaos” and expressed confidence in the reception of this new series and a new generation of collectors. “I was thrilled to see that a new wave of collectors from different ages and geographies, all of which were new clients for us, liked our innovative way of doing things and were entertained by my avatar who was conducting the auction,” he said. — SOFIA CELESTE
PARTING WORDS: So much for pleasantries. “Real Housewives of New York City” star Jenna Lyons doesn’t roll out a welcome mat for visitors to her office, but she does have a sharply worded banner.
The way the story goes is that when Oxford Pennant cofounder Dave Horesh met Lyons in her New York office, she told him, “I’m glad you’re here. See the elevator? I want a banner above it that says, ‘Get the F–k Out.’” Within a few weeks, she had that adornment, thanks to the Buffalo, New York-based company that specializes in hand-stitched wool pennants. Online shoppers can buy the $250 item on Oxford Pennant’s e-commerce site.
At least, that’s how the company’s PR pitched it, complete with a photo of Lyons standing below her new banner. As the latest addition to “The Real Housewives of New York City,” Lyons may need some strong words to ward off some of her fellow reality stars in upcoming episodes of the Bravo series.
Although the bespectacled fashion insider is widely associated with her former role as J.Crew’s executive creative director, Lyons exited that post in 2017 and moved on to such other ventures as starting the natural line of false eyelashes Love Seen and working as an interior designer on “The Expert.”
Oxford Pennant was founded in 2013 by Horesh and Brett Mikoll, who met and bonded over the nostalgia of pennants during a business trip. Aware of how pennants have remained keepsakes for more than a century, the duo also recognized how cheap overseas production had turned them into “low-quality souvenirs.”
Initially, the founders were motivated to revive domestic production of pennants for beer money. After early days of handling distribution at night and on weekends, the founders have since established a Buffalo-based business that designs, manufactures and ships goods from one location. All of its pennants, flags and banners are U.S.-made.
Having worked with J.Crew in the past, Oxford Pennant has a history with Lyons’ alma mater, so to speak. In 2016, they started with a limited run of dorm-style pennants and three years later introduced a collaboration. Working with J.Crew’s design and product teams, Oxford Pennant created an Americana-inspired line that featured T-shirts with illustrations of bald eagles, strongmen and pin-up girls, co-branded camp flags and pennants. — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG
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