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You would think that Olivier Rousteing would have enough to do being the Creative Director of Balmain. Not so!!
Rousteing now has an additional job. Wagging fashion tongues were insinuating that former enfant terrible of the fashion industry, Jean-Paul Gaultier was looking for some top designers to design his couture collections. When Gaultier showed up at Balmain’s recent fashion show, wagging tongues believed that Rousteing would be the chosen designer. And they were right!!
Soon after, Gaultier’s fashion brand revealed that Rousteing will be a guest designer for Gaultier’s haute couture collection. Rousteing’s haute couture collection for Gaultier will be revealed in July 2022.
Jean-Paul Gaultier sold his fashion brand to the Spanish Puig Group in 2011 and stopped creating ready-to-wear collections in 2015. Since then, the brand has re-introduced ready to wear with a sailor-themed collection 2021 in collaboration with five emerging designers Ottolinger, Palomo Spain, Lecourt Mansion, Alan Crocetti, and Marvin M’Toumo.
The brand has revived their haute couture by collaborating with five young fashion designers. The first collaboration dropped in July of 2021 with Japanese designer Chitose Abe reinterpreting the Gaultier codes.
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Dasvidaniya Russia, well temporarily
As the US and other countries sanction Russia over the invasion of the Ukraine, several fashion and beauty brands are following suit by closing stores and limiting inventory. Every day the list becomes larger with brands taking action against the Russian invasion. The ever-expanding list now includes L’Oreal, Unilever, Pronovias, Sephora, and the PVH brands which include Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, and Kenneth Cole.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, PVH stated that on March 7, PVH brands will temporarily close stores in Russia and in Belarus. Two percent of PVH brands revenue comes from sales in Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine.
On March 8, 2022, L’Oreal stated that its stores, and their directly operated counters in department stores and its e-commerce sites in Russia, will be temporarily closed. And Unilever will stop imports and exports out of Russia.
On Instagram, Sephora announced that it will suspend operations in Russia and all its 24 boutiques in Russia. The closures and suspension of business happened on March 6.
“Given our increasing concerns about the current context and the complexity to operate, we will suspend our activity in Russia until further notice,” said the brand, which operates 2,600 stores in 35 countries, as reported in fashionnetwork.com. Sephora is owned by company LVMH.
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Marc Jacobs reinvents
Back in the early 2000s, Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs were the go-to brands for any fashionista who wanted stylish, trendy clothes at a higher price point. And Jacobs continued this upward projection for almost two decades.
Though he hasn’t been in the news much as of late, Marc Jacobs is a fashion brand that still brings a smile to shoppers. With Marc by Marc Jacobs defunct for the last few years, Jacobs launched a new brand, Heaven by Marc Jacobs, a few years ago. Heaven by Marc Jacobs will appeal to a much younger consumer.
And in line with the youthful point of the brand, Jacobs’s has employed an array of pop stars and actors that will appeal to his young consumers, namely Nicki Minaj, Sky Ferreira, Yung Lean, Steve Lacy, Paloma Elsesser, and Mena Suvari. Mena Suvari recreates her iconic scene from “American Beauty” for Heaven by Marc Jacobs’ spring 2022 campaign.
The collection launches online and in-stores today and this season sees contributions from artist Claire Barrow, photographer Ed Templeton, 1994 TV series Hi Octane and 1950s show Gumby, and more.
—William S. Gooch
