Paris Fashion Week 2013 Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2013

Paris Fashion Week 2013
PRINCE PHILIP rocks our boat . We couldn't get the image of him as a young, dashing naval officer out of our heads while watching Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2013 menswear caravan go. You could attribute it to the Diamond Jubilee euphoria, but for some reason, we believe the Duke of Edinburgh was up there with the best of them on Kim Jones' inspiration wall. 

By no means are we implying nostalgia. Dapper tailoring, clever in the way the double-breasted blazers were roundly cut in the front, was presented in midnight blue, camel and grey hues, before exploding in light graphite blue overcoats and scorching fluoro yellow anoraks.
The maritime vibe came in waves: first with an anchor, caught between the monogrammed initials LV, then as a water-resistant life jacket in black and finally with those ropey sandals.

It was the clever accessorising that made us gasp for air - we like to think of this as the fashion equivalent to free-diving. The oversized rucksacks in discrete orange and yellow detailing were great, so were the smallish, rectangular hard-cased boxes in the signature LV check. Once again, pendants were protruding from blazer pockets, rocking left and right as the models walked down the runway.
The Queen's consort might have been put off by the more daring neoprene scuba diving suits at the end, but there you have it - you can't please every sailor. We're lucky enough to have Jones steering the ship.

Source:Vogue

Paris Fashion Week 2013 Raf Simons Spring/Summer 2013, Menswear

Raf Simons headlined day one of the Paris menswear shows on Wednesday, sending out an urbane, playful look that showed a lot of leg, days before his hotly-waited debut as the top designer at Dior.

All but a handful of the Belgian designer's looks were built around bermuda shorts cut high on the thigh, and slashed at one side, paired with clean white shirts and single-breasted jackets, black patent brogues or sneakers.

Boxy white tunics or art-print T-shirts added to the contemporary feel of the collection -- at odds with the nostalgic, post-war inspiration behind many of the looks on the Milan catwalks last week and elsewhere in Paris on Wednesday.

Coats came in flower-prints, ultralight raincoats in pink or orange, while suits were dove grey or navy, with splashes of emerald and violet, a handful of slim cigarette pants and wide-legged ones thrown in with the shorts.

The colour scheme was muted at first, all blacks, whites, greys, midnight blue and forest green, eventually blossoming into spring with a staggering short pink marshmallow bomber jacket, tangerine, grapefruit and copper vibes, until a colourful floral yellow and blue motif spread on collars, elongated shirts and light overcoats.
An abstract approach to portraiture was detectable in a sleeveless shirt-dress, resurfacing memories of both Picasso’s deconstructed figures and Kandinsky’s treatment of colour.


 

Designers Dolce, Gabbana face tax trial - sources

Dolce & Gabbana Autumn Winter 2012-13, 
Milan Fashion Week 

Milan (Reuters) - Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who count model Naomi Campbell and pop star Madonna among their friends, will stand trial over alleged tax evasion, according to legal sources and a court filing seen by Reuters.

Milan judge Giuseppe Gennari gave the green light for prosecutors to bring the fashion duo to court over allegations of tax evasion offences totalling around 1 billion euros ($1.25 billion).
The decision in the long-running case came after a higher court overturned a previous acquittal of the two glamorous designers, who have denied any wrongdoing.
"Everyone knows that we haven't done anything," Gabbana said in a tweet on Friday.

Milan prosecutors allege the fashion duo had sold their D&G and Dolce & Gabbana brands to a holding company they set up in Luxembourg in 2004 in order to avoid paying high taxes in Italy. The investigations started in 2007.
The designers had been cleared from accusations by a previous court last year, to the joy of numerous fans who cheered the news on the Internet.
But prosecutors appealed against the decision and a high court overturned the ruling in November asking for a new judge to decide whether to send the pair to trial for unpaid taxes.
A court filing seen by Reuters confirmed the decision reported by the sources.
The case is poised to be one of the few tax disputes involving celebrities to go to court in Italy, where out-of-court settlements are preferred in order to cut on long proceedings and avoid possibly harsher punishments.
In 2000, late tenor Luciano Pavarotti settled a four-year dispute and paid more than $12 million in back taxes to Italy.

Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona owes some 38 million euros in unpaid taxes to Italian authorities, according to media reports. He recently said he wanted to clear up his situation.

Former MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi agreed to pay $51 million to Italy's tax agency in 2008 after a lengthy probe. ($1 = 0.8021 euros)

(Reporting by Manuela D'Alessandro, Additional reporting by Ilaria Polleschi and Antonella Ciancio; Editing by Michael Roddy)

French designer Pierre Cardin will present a new haute couture collection in Belgrade

French designer Pierre Cardin will present a new haute couture collection in the palace of Serbia's crown prince Aleksandar II Karadjordjevic, the palace media service said Thursday.
"He will personally present a new collection of some 200 designs" on Saturday in Belgrade, a spokeswoman of the Karadjordjevic family, which plays mainly a social role in Serbia which is a republic, told AFP.
Cardin, 89, is due to arrive in Serbia's capital Friday, she added.

Italian-born Cardin has been a trailblazer in a career that has spanned more than six decades. He was one of the first designers to bring Western style to Asia and one of the first to develop brand licensing.
His name now adorns hundreds of products worldwide: from shirts to bottled water to furniture.

He announced in 2011 that he was looking for a buyer for his label - so long as he retained artistic control and received the one billion euros he insists the company is worth.