A New Fundraising Effort Aims To Help Young Fashion Designers Impacted By Coronavirus - Forbes |
- A New Fundraising Effort Aims To Help Young Fashion Designers Impacted By Coronavirus - Forbes
- 5 Books To Expand Your Fashion Knowledge While In Quarantine - Forbes
- Carpe DM: 60 years of the Dr Martens boot – fashion's subversive smash hit - The Guardian
- How Christian Siriano Turned His Fashion House Into a Mask Factory - The New Yorker
- Fashion Fights Against Coronavirus - Forbes
| A New Fundraising Effort Aims To Help Young Fashion Designers Impacted By Coronavirus - Forbes Posted: 01 Apr 2020 03:05 AM PDT  Emily Adams Bode BFA.comEmerging fashion designers reeling from canceled orders and the loss of sales as a result of the coronavirus may now have a new financial lifeline. The Elaine Gold Launch Pad, which was named after the scarf designer who died in 2015 and runs a fellowship program for promising young designers, has joined a new fundraising effort, "A Common Thread" to support those most in danger of going out of business. On Tuesday, it said it would be contributing $250,000 to the fund while matching donations of up to $250,000 by partnering with the newly-formed pandemic relief initiative created by Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The initiative fund was created by funneling CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund capital into "A Common Thread" and is seeking additional donations through a campaign on both CFDA and Vogue channels. "We have all seen first-hand how quickly this virus has affected our friends, family and the industry as a whole. It is our duty to step in and support where and when we can," says Karen Giberson, president and CEO of the Accessories Council, which runs the fellowship program in partnership with the CFDA. "A Common Thread" is designed to help designers like Emily Adams Bode, who recently shuttered her boutique in New York City's Lower East Side neighborhood due to the coronavirus outbreak. While previous fellows like Bode may have a greater awareness of the fund, any young fashion designer is eligible to apply for financial assistance. Applications don't open up until April 8. "There isn't a brand, designer or factory that we work with that hasn't had orders canceled," says Giberson. "We have never experienced anything like this before. The effects will be catastrophic for many of our companies." Designers who have been in business for less than two years are particularly vulnerable to going under. Already, many have had to make tough decisions to cut costs. "The single biggest issue facing young brands right now is liquidity," says Steven Kolb, president and CEO of the CFDA. "Small, emerging brands have had to close their doors, limit manufacturing, and furlough workers to get through this challenging business climate." The program for young designers is part of a larger fundraising effort announced last week by Vogue's Anna Wintour and designer Tom Ford. The initiative, called "A Common Thread," will aim to support those in the American fashion community who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will use prize money from the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which was originally created after 9/11 to help vulnerable emerging fashion designers and brands during a period of economic uncertainty and has become a prized-based financial resource for participating winning designers following that.  |
| 5 Books To Expand Your Fashion Knowledge While In Quarantine - Forbes Posted: 31 Mar 2020 06:09 PM PDT As social distancing and quarantine become part of the new normal, this list of books was put together because of the prolific people who authored them and the unique topics which they cover. From how a monarch's fashion choices tell the story of her history to a storied designer who recounts his life, each author is an expert storyteller and researcher whose books make for both entertaining and exciting reading.  A deeply researched book about Marie Antoinette and how her fashion tells the history of her life. PicadorQUEEN OF FASHION: WHAT MARIE ANTOINETTE WORE TO THE REVOLUTION By Caroline Weber Marie Antonette has a historical persona of excess, but what Weber unearths for the reader in this masterfully researched account is how the Empress used fashion as a medium for communication and a tool to assert her power and position. The result is a gripping account of the rise and fall of Antoinette through her fashion choices, and how they reflected her position in society, a brilliant interpretation of one of history's most famous figures.  Fashion historian Bronwyn Cosgrave brings together two things that fascinate society, Hollywood and ... [+] BloomsburyMADE FOR EACH OTHER: FASHION AND THE ACADEMY AWARDS By Bronwyn Cosgrave Fashion historian and former Vogue Editor, Bronwyn Cosgrave, knows that what people wore to the Academy Awards is just as important what people won. A study of the female Oscar nominees since the days of Marlene Deitrich and before, Cosgrave paints the picture of an awards ceremony whose image is created by the couturiers, stars, and behind-the-scenes people who create the magic of the world's more glamorous awards show. Focusing on the partnerships between actress and designer—Audrey and Hubert! Cher and Bob!—the book is full of rich illustrations, rare sketches, and vintage photographs.  Gods and Kings is Dana Thomas' biography on two of the most talented, and infamous, designers in the ... [+] PenguinGODS AND KINGS: THE RISE AND FALL OF JOHN GALLIANO AND ALEXANDER MCQUEEN By Dana Thomas The original enfant terribles of contemporary fashion, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen came onto the scene and shook up the minimalist trends of the time and created fashion of fantasy, creativity and excess. Their runways exploded with theater, which never overshadowed their unquestionable talent. Thomas chronicles the revolution these men started, while revealing the high prices the both paid to get there.  5 American designers face-off against 5 French designers, winning a battle they were sure to lose ... [+] Flatiron BooksTHE BATTLE OF VERSAILLES: THE NIGHT AMERICAN FASHION STUMBLED INTO THE SPOTLIGHT AND MADE HISTORY by Robin Givhan Pulitzer Prize winning Givhan tells the story of a fashion face-off of historical proportions. 5 American designers, including Oscar de la Renta and Halston, faced off against 5 French designers, including Yves Saint Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy, in an event where the Americans were sure to lose. In front of an audience of royals, artists and aristocrats, the Americans fearlessness resulted in a show that would forever cement their places on the world stage.  Written by the man himself, Dior's autobiography is a deeply personal and modest look into the life ... [+] V&ADIOR BY DIOR: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHRISTIAN DIOR by Christian Dior In a glimpse into the life of a very private man, Christian Dior's autobiography chronicles the designer's life in his own words. From his childhood in Granville to the 1950s couture scene, what is striking is how someone with such a large persona could write about himself with such modesty. The reader is given glimpses into the behind-the-scenes of his work and personal life, including his friends, family and the years that challenged him the most.  |
| Carpe DM: 60 years of the Dr Martens boot – fashion's subversive smash hit - The Guardian Posted: 01 Apr 2020 12:00 AM PDT
And, like these other items, the 1460 is enjoying a fashion moment beyond its classic status. Perhaps because the past decade has been so turbulent – even before we had a global pandemic to contend with – fashion has returned to the dependable. The Hadids, Baldwin and Kaia Gerber are all endorsing Dr Martens. In other words, as Vogue declared in October, they have become "model off-duty staple". While the vegan range and patterned designs have been credited with a 70% rise in profit for the brand in 2019, the 1460 remains the bestseller and it is this history that is likely to have attracted rumours in March of a potential £300m sale to a US private equity firm. Dr Martens, and the 1460, began with a collaboration. If most modern alliances are between two brands (JW Anderson x Uniqlo, Adidas and Raf Simons), this one was a bit less hypebeast-friendly. A small shoe factory in Northamptonshire partnered with two doctors in Munich. Dr Klaus Märtens had developed an air-cushioned chunky sole in 1947, after a foot operation following a skiing accident in 1945, and had begun making it with his friend Dr Herbert Funk to sell these comfortable shoes to older women. In Britain, the shoemaking Griggs family saw an ad for Martens' soles in 1959. After acquiring the licence, Bill Griggs designed the 1460, the eight-hole boot with the now familiar yellow stitching and chunky Märtens sole, although when marketing the design for postwar Britain, the umlaut in Martens' name was removed at launch.  Initially, the 1460s took the lead from Märtens' designs, which were worn by those who prioritised comfort and durability. Marketed as a work boot and sold for about £2 (roughly £38 in today's money), postmen, factory workers and policemen wore them, and they became part of the uniform for London Underground workers. However, as with army jackets, jeans, even trench coats, the Dr Martens boot secured its place as a staple in our wardrobes after becoming a uniform for a series of subcultures. "It's almost easier to list which subcultures haven't adopted Dr Martens over the past six decades," says Andrew Groves, a professor of fashion design at the University of Westminster and the curator of Invisible Men, last year's exhibition about men's working wardrobes. "The list of those style tribes that took the DM to their hearts includes punks, skinheads, northern soulers, scooterists, as well as (later on) teenagers into grunge, two-tone, and Britpop." As a symbol of working-class culture, it was the original skinheads – before the term equated to the far right – who first picked up on the 1460s. When the Who's Pete Townshend wore them on stage in 1967, he put them on the radar of the band's growing fanbase in the proto-skinhead scene. In his classic book Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige sees the take-up of Dr Martens as the rejection of the explicitly aesthetics-based mod culture of the early 60s. Instead, this look was "aggressively proletarian, puritanical and chauvinist".  Groves also points out the inherent rebellion of wearing something practical for its aesthetic value – even if that value is about fetishising working-class culture rather than just wanting to look sharp. "At their heart, all youth subcultures love nothing better than annoying their parents," he says. "What better way to do that than adopting the boots your dad wears for his respectable job and subverting them into the latest youth craze?" During the 70s and early 80s, the 1460s became part of a uniform worn with skinny bleached jeans, braces and, quite often, a bit of a snarl. Images of skinheads – either in Gavin Watson's classic photography book Skins, or Shane Meadows' This Is England trilogy – often feature DMs, and they continued to be associated with the subculture, even as, as Meadows documented, it became darker, as the far right infiltrated it. Although this association is still there, it's now a whisper – thanks to Groves' litany of other, less controversial, subcultures that also took up the DM. By the time i-D magazine's A Decade of i-Deas was published at the end of the 80s, the style magazine had declared them "the fashion accessory of the past five years". I remember blisters covering the back of my heels for weeks when I got my first pair in the 90s. Groves says he wore them "when I was a mod, a skinhead and a casual … I've worn them polished up with Sta-Prest trousers and scuffed-up with jeans. I've probably got at least three or four pairs at the moment."  The breaking-in that the 1460 requires has now been a rite of passage for young people for more than 50 years. The current generation – who would have seen them worn by King's Road punks, kids in archive rave footage, Damon Albarn in the 90s, as part of queer culture from the 80s onwards, and emo in the 00s – have a whole archive of #inspo to explore. There's a democracy and an "everyboot" quality to them that appeals – the Hadids might have a very different life from a 90s schoolgirl, but they, too, would have had to go through the blisters stage. Sophie Rhind, the senior footwear buyer at Asos, argues the democracy of the style is its strength. "The diversity of celebrities and influencers who are wearing DMs further hammers home the point that the brand can be worn by everyone and can be styled any which way possible," she says. On the site, it's the Jadon – a version of the 1460 with an uber-chunky sole – that is the most popular, with 20,000 pairs sold last year. Dr Martens is also producing a "remastered" series of 1460 collaborations this year – the Japanese brand A Bathing Ape and Raf Simons have featured so far. While tweaks to the boot are OK (camo print from Bape, ring decoration from Simons, the Jadon chunky sole), the recognisable design has to remain. In times of crisis such as we are experiencing now, perhaps putting on a boot that is tough, familiar, classic and (eventually) comfortable is what we need. While we won't be venturing far, they are the choice for your daily walk: Bella Hadid was photographed in Los Angeles this week on the way back from Target, wearing her DMs. "The Dr Marten is such an archetypal object that they can be worn in both an understated manner or used to underplay a full-on fashion look," says Groves. "It's hard to imagine anything else being worn by your postie and Gigi Hadid, and both looking equally good in it."  |
| How Christian Siriano Turned His Fashion House Into a Mask Factory - The New Yorker Posted: 31 Mar 2020 01:55 PM PDT  On the morning of March 20th, the thirty-four-year-old fashion designer Christian Siriano sat in the living room of his country house, in Danbury, Connecticut, watching the must-see TV of the moment: the daily press briefings of Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, about the state's battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo was asked, by one reporter, whether he wished that President Trump would invoke the Defense Production Act, which would allow him to force companies in other industries to begin manufacturing desperately needed medical supplies, including ventilators and P.P.E., or personal protective equipment, like masks and goggles. "Look, if I had a New York State Defense Production Act I would use it," Cuomo answered, adding, "If you're making clothing, figure out if you can make masks. I'll fund it." Siriano, a former "Project Runway" winner who has dressed the likes of Michelle Obama and Taylor Swift, realized that he was in a position to help. He had closed his atelier a week earlier, as the outbreak in New York City was accelerating. But his team of eight sewers had brought their machines with them. Siriano had intended to keep them busy—and on the payroll—with client orders for wedding dresses and gowns for fall galas. At noon, he tweeted at the governor: "If @NYGovCuomo says we need masks my team will help make some. I have a full sewing team still on staff working from home that can help." Within an hour, a representative from Cuomo's office had slid into Siriano's direct messages and accepted his offer. The governor's office sent Siriano a stock pattern. The mask was not a medical-grade N-95, which requires special materials, such as non-woven polypropylene, to filter microscopic particles. It was a cloth surgical mask, with three pleats, elastic ear bands, and a small metal strip that could be molded to fit the nose. Siriano had a suitable polyblend fabric in his atelier, which he had delivered to each sewer's home. For two days, the team worked remotely. (Siriano, who does not have a sewing machine in Connecticut, served as a kind of virtual Rosie the Riveter.) But, with each sewer working on her own, they were only able to make around fifty masks a day. So Siriano asked Cuomo's office for permission to reopen his atelier as an "essential" business. He returned to the city and gathered the team under one roof (six feet apart, of course), where they could form an assembly line. In the first week, they produced almost two thousand masks. The first box they shipped went directly to the new field hospital at the Javits Center. On March 25th, as the mask-making was in full swing, Siriano took me on a FaceTime tour of his atelier, which occupies a prewar Beaux-Arts town house on Fifty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue. It sits on what, during New York's Gilded Age, was the site of St. Luke's Hospital, and in the nineteen-forties served as an office for the Victory Clothing Collection for Overseas Relief, a service that gathered warm clothes from civilians to send to soldiers in need. "At one point, I'm sure similar things were being made here," he said. A willowy sprite with a shiny acorn cap of black hair and chunky glasses, Siriano was wearing a tight black T-shirt and slim black jeans. In a hallway on the third floor, he squeezed past a rack of several dozen sequinned ball gowns. He entered a bright, airy room full of white sewing tables that looked much like a set from "Project Runway," and zoomed in on a half-finished wedding dress, with a kelly-green bodice and a cascading skirt of black-and-white tulle. It sat on a mannequin next to a table where a woman was attaching elastic cording to the back of one mask after another. Siriano stressed that staff participation in the effort was entirely voluntary. The first day back in the office, after he explained the plan via a group text, around twenty people showed up to help: cutters, sewers, designers, even the building's doorman. Now, on any given day, around ten report for duty. Each morning, private cars shuttle them from their homes to the town house. A caterer provides lunch so that no one has to leave the office and risk exposure. Twice a day, every day, the employees stop for a temperature check. American officials have advised the public against wearing masks for their own protection against the coronavirus, in part because of the dire shortage of supplies needed for health-care workers. But studies suggest that they are a worthwhile precaution. While working their stations, each staff member wears a House of Siriano mask. In normal times, Siriano is known as the rare designer with an inclusive vision of high fashion; when the comedian Leslie Jones complained on Twitter, in 2016, that no designers would outfit her for the "Ghostbusters" première, Siriano answered the call with a regal scarlet gown. He said that he sees making masks now as an extension of his mission, which is to use his resources to help those in need—even if the need now is far more urgent than, say, a red-carpet appearance. "Fashion is amazing. And it is beautiful," he said. "And I think we change a lot of people's lives. But it is a luxury. It's very surreal, to push aside, like, our ten-thousand-dollar gowns, and they just go in the corner." It was disconcerting, he said, that a company like his was even in a position to pitch in. "It's like wait, how is there not enough product? How was there no preparation at all? In one way, it feels good we have something to do. On the flip side, we get e-mails every day from hospitals being, like, 'We have nothing.' It's a mess. It's horrible." During his first week of quarantine, Siriano had spent his free time working on a series of paintings. Each showed a female figure done in the sparse, fluid style of the midcentury Vogue illustrator René Bouët-Willaumez, wearing a wispy gown and a matching face mask. On Instagram, Siriano posted a photograph of himself posing with three of the paintings. "I guess this is what my collections will be for a while now," he wrote in the caption. "A tulle gown and mask to complete the look." Siriano sold the paintings and funnelled the proceeds into his mask operation—all the work he's done so far has been pro bono. In recent days, companies much larger than his have volunteered to begin producing P.P.E. On Monday, Brooks Brothers announced that it would use its menswear factories to make a hundred and fifty thousand masks a day. Siriano says that he will keep his new operation churning as long as his supplies are needed, but he won't mind when his staff can return to embellishing ball gowns. "I mean, my sewers are couture sewers," he said. "Now they are making masks, which is great. But they're not really using their talents." A Guide to the Coronavirus |
| Fashion Fights Against Coronavirus - Forbes Posted: 31 Mar 2020 03:28 PM PDT  Prada is joining the fight against coronavirus by producing masks and overalls for healthcare ... [+] Courtesy PradaWith the fashion industry at a virtual standstill since coronavirus swept through Asia and all of the world's fashion capitals, fashion companies are pivoting their efforts to help fight against COVID-19 in a number of ways, from mobilizing their seamstresses to create masks for healthcare workers and others in need of personal protective equipment to donating revenue to charities that will help make an impact on those in need due to unexpected loss of income because of the virus. Here is a list of what some companies are doing: Vestiaire Collective Launches Celebrity Sale To Benefit Hospitals and Research Vestiaire Collective, the French pre-owned fashion e-commerce retailer, is holding a charity sale to help support the fight against COVID-19. The reseller reached out to its high-profile network of celebrities and fashion influencers, including Kate Moss, Rachel Weisz, Thandie Newton, Anna Dello Russo, Carine Roitfeld, Charlotte Tilbury, Margherita Missoni, Bella Freud, Leia Sfez, Caroline Issa and more, and asked them to pull items from the closets to sell items that will raise funds to help support local hospitals and scientific research. All of the proceeds of the sale will be donated across a number of charities, including The World Health Organization, the Italian Lombardia Region Fundraising, France/Paris Hospitals Foundation and Madrid's La Paz Hospital. Prada Goes Into PPE Production Prada shifted its Montone factory's capabilities, promising to produce 80,000 medical overalls and 110,000 masks for healthcare personnel in Tuscany after the region made a request. The PPE will be delivered daily, and production will be completed on April 6. Mango Provides 2 Million Face Masks To Spanish Ministry of Health Mango delivered 2 million face masks to the Spanish Ministry of Health. The face masks arrived at Saragossa airport. It also will make its logistics capabilities available to Spanish authorities in order to curb the social, economic, and public health consequences caused by coronavirus. Michael Stars Goes To Bat For Service Workers Purchase a Michael Stars One-Size t-shirt, and 20 percent of the revenue from that sale will go to support One for All, its initiative that supports One Fair Wage's Service Workers Emergency Fund, an organization that fights against the sub-minimum wages that are all too common in the United States. Michael Stars is committed to a donation of $10,000. Rails Donates 10,000 Masks LA-based clothing brand Rails announced that it will be donating 10,000 medical-grade and FDA-approved KN95 masks to hospitals in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Atlanta, and more. The brand is also maneuvering garment production to mask production, to create 100 percent cotton masks for personal use and protection, with the ability to create 5,000 masks to distribute, with some hopefully going to California's large homeless population. In addition, a percentage of all purchases on railsclothing.com will go to No Kid Hungry, which feeds kids whose meals are affected by school closures. Repost @Rails on Instagram, and it will donate an additional $1 to the organization. Hugo Boss Supports American Red Cross This week Hugo Boss will donate 20 percent of online sales to the American Red Cross. Visitors to hugoboss.com can also donate directly to the American Red Cross on the website. The German luxury label will also convert its clothing production site in Metzingen, Germany to manufacture face masks in a cotton blend  |
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