3 key pieces to make your spring wardrobe sing

Neck scarves　Recently spotted: Hedi Slimane started showing scarves on the spring 2015 Saint Laurent runway. Models wore thin scarves tied around their necks in an effortless, rock ‘n’ roll manner. Now, they're being worn as thicker bandannas and thin, silky versions tied in bows, often paired with chokers and reinforcing the neck and shoulder areas as the focal point of the body that’s in fashion at the moment. Lanvin, Gucci and Rodarte included a lot of neck scarves in their spring 2016 runway

March 31, 2016

Jean Paul Gaultier’s avant-garde fashion at a glance

A touring exhibition dedicated to the creations of veteran French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier has made the final stop of its five-year world tour in Seoul. 　The exhibition, which opened Saturday at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, showcases more than 150 haute couture and ready-to-wear outfits that Gaultier designed between 1976 and 2016. Also on display are his sketches, stage costumes, footage from films, fashion shows and concerts related to his works.   Visitors view works on display at the

March 28, 2016

A peek into fall fashion

Seoulites struggled to stay comfy in the widely fluctuating temperatures this week, but boxy sweaters, oversized wool coats and chunky winter scarves did not seem at all out of place on the runways of Seoul Fashion Week. 　With the weather unexpectedly turning chilly this week, cozy, warm winter fashion seemed the right choice for SFW visitors who showed up lightly dressed. 　Here are some highlights from the first two days of the SFW which ends Saturday. Nohant’s fall-winter 2016 collection (Seou

March 24, 2016

[Herald interview] Luxury shopping evolves in digital era

Businesswomen are usually so strapped for time that it is hard to fit shopping into their busy schedules. Furthermore, visiting several stores to track down the perfect trench coat for spring is often a luxury. 　Online luxury shopping malls, especially multi-brand stores, cater to the needs of such time-pressed professional women, making shopping convenient for them, said Michal Kliger, president of mytheresa.com, a Munich-based online multi-brand shopping website for luxury women’s fashion. 　“O

March 24, 2016

Victoria Beckham reveals exclusive dresses for Korean customers

Singer-turned-designer Victoria Beckham revealed four dresses for spring and summer exclusively for Korean consumers on mytheresa.com, an online luxury brand shopping website, Monday. “I picked these colors and silhouettes because I think these are well-suited to my Korean customers. They are cute, energetic and right amount of fun. We will have fun, but not too much fun,” said Beckham, at a press conference Monday in Seoul. Victoria Beckham (third from left) poses with Korean models wearing fou

March 21, 2016

Polarized luxury jewelry market

Korea’s luxury jewelry market has become polarized in terms of price, while consumers are becoming more adventurous in their purchases when it comes to design.　Amid the lull in the global economy, the wealthy continue to invest in fineries, while those with smaller budgets still look to enjoy luxury while paying less, said Giorgio Damiani, vice president of Italian jewelry brand Damiani. 　Jewelry and luxury brands are catering to this consumption pattern by dividing their product lines, said Dam

March 16, 2016

Alpaca fiber from Peru destined for luxury stores

PUNO, Peru (AP) -- The 4 million alpacas that graze on the remote slopes of Peru's southeastern Andes wear warm coats of a silky fiber highly sought in the United States, Europe and Asia. 　Colored in one of 24 different natural tones, the fiber from this domesticated camelid smaller than a llama is processed after an annual shearing, with each alpaca producing a little more than 3.7 kilograms of fiber each year. 　The finest threads are chosen, then washed, dried, cleaned up and converted into ya

March 16, 2016

Isaac Mizrahi says new show a survey, not a 'retrospective'

NEW YORK (AP) -- Don’t call the Jewish Museum exhibition on Isaac Mizrahi's work a retrospective. Those, the 54-year-old designer said, are for dead people. 　This journey through several elegant rooms on Fifth Avenue is more like a mid-career survey. 　"I was very, very reticent and a little bit, kind of, shocked," he said Monday of his first reaction to the idea of a show just for him. "I hesitated, only because I feel as though it needed a lot of exploration and a lot of clarification."　But awa

March 16, 2016

Seoul Fashion Week expands trade show component

Be prepared to see hip and trendy Seoulites flocking to downtown Seoul as Seoul Fashion Week returns with fall-winter 2016 collections from March 21-26. 　The biggest fashion event of the year will take place at two venues this season. The main venue is Dongdaemun Design Plaza and the other location is a former flour factory-turned hip fashion venue in Mullae-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu. 　More than 60 shows and presentations will be held at the two sites with a few designers hosting their own shows thr

March 9, 2016

Paris fashion looks to ‘fat ladies’ for inspiration

PARIS (AFP) - Fat ladies tend to be thin on the ground on the Paris catwalk.　But rising Dutch designer Liselore Frowijn made her ready-to-wear debut Tuesday with a colourful collection to light up autumn-winter inspired by the feminist artist Niki de Saint Phalle's proudly voluptuous “Nanas.”　Her show with its eye-catching zebra-striped trouser suits was full of the bold and joyous colors of the sculptor’s liberated ladies.　Frowijn said Saint Phalle “just wanted to make people happy and herself

March 2, 2016

Oscars fashion: Many of the red-carpet stars went soft

Alicia Vikander set the tone on the Oscars red carpet Sunday as she walked early in a pale yellow custom Louis Vuitton gown, her hair flowing down her back.The Swedish actress has become an "it" girl for glam and didn't disappoint this time around in the strapless princess gown with a balloon hem that was higher in the front. Like her hemline, her hair was also high-low, fastened into a half-bun that showed off her chandelier earrings. Alicia Vikander(Academy Awards Official Website)"I love the

Feb. 29, 2016

Rejections aren't dead losses for OMA architects

Dubai Renaissance compared with other iconic skyscrapers (OMA)A conventional, rectangular office building may not seem like an attractive design choice when major cities compete to build iconic skyscrapers as symbols of their economic growth. But Reinier de Graaf, partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, founded by architect Rem Koolhaas, says the simple form will ironically stand out among other stylish buildings. “When everything is exciting, a non-exciting (design) becomes excitin

Feb. 28, 2016

‘Sustainable and responsible’ buildings for the future

A conventional, rectangular office building may not seem like an attractive design choice when major cities compete to build iconic skyscrapers as symbols of their economic growth. But Reinier de Graaf, partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, founded by architect Rem Koolhaas, says the simple form will ironically stand out among other stylish buildings. “When everything is exciting, a non-exciting (design) becomes exciting,” said de Graaf at a public lecture at Daelim Museum in Seou

Feb. 28, 2016