The Korea Herald

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat to reopen again

BRNO, Czech Republic (AP) ― It was completed in 1930, a Modernist masterpiece by legendary German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.But Villa Tugendhat’s early history was rocked by the turbulence of the 20th Century: The Nazis seized it, then came World War II bombardments that smashed its windows. When the Soviet troops liberated Czechoslovakia, living space became a large stable. It has languished in disrepair ever since.Now, a two-year renovation that cost $9 million is almost complete. In

Feb. 1, 2012

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat to reopen again

Louis Vuitton to unveil jewelry studio, perfume

ROME (AFP) ― French luxury brand Louis Vuitton will open a boutique and jewellery studio on Paris’ Place Vendome this spring and is preparing its first perfume, the label’s head Yves Carcelle told AFP Friday.“In April we will have our own jewellery workshop and in May will will open our boutique in the same building,” Carcelle said during the inauguration of the “Maison Rome Etoile,” Louis Vuitton’s new shop in the eternal city.The project, unveiled in an area of Paris synonymous with luxury, wi

Jan. 30, 2012

Designer puts luxury tag on ‘Made-in-India’ label

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― “Made in India” clothing is often seen as the product of sweatshop labour, but fashion designer Saloni Lodha, whose fans include film stars Naomi Watts and Emma Watson, wants to give it a luxury tag.“I have great faith in the made-in-India idea, and wanted to see an Indian, Made-in-India brand in the world’s best stores,” she told AFP while on a visit to Mumbai to source fabrics.British-based Lodha launched her label, Saloni, in 2007 with just 10 designs on offer.Today, her fli

Jan. 30, 2012

Kathmandu architect chronicles a dying culture

KATHMANDU (AFP) ― It is said that the medieval era never really ended in Nepal, its historic towns and architectural jewels blessed by an unbroken continuity of life and ritual that links the present with the past.The lasting image for tourists flying out of Kathmandu is of the multi-roofed pagodas of palaces and temples and the 16th century courtyards, which were once the basic unit of city planning.But much of the capital’s ancient architecture will soon be no more than a memory, according to

Jan. 30, 2012

Old-fashioned trumps high-tech in a chef’s kitchen

LOS ANGELES ― Chef Suzanne Tracht is quietly elegant; her teenage daughter is beautiful and casually fashionable in black leggings. Their kitchen? Kind of like grandma’s house ― and that’s just how they like it.Tracht doesn’t want to spend her off hours in a modern, stainless-steel kitchen that feels like the kitchens at her restaurant, the Beverly Boulevard chophouse Jar.“I don’t want to come home from work and see that,” she says.The atmosphere was set when she moved to the house in Beverlywoo

Jan. 30, 2012

Old-fashioned trumps high-tech in a chef’s kitchen

Jean Paul Gaultier pays tribute to Amy Winehouse

PARIS (AFP) ― Amy Winehouse. There is no mistaking the look of the first model at Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture show Wednesday, the beehive hair and thick eyeliner, black skirt and brassiere visible under a white top.“Amy Winehouse was a true style icon,” Gaultier told reporters backstage after a show conceived as a tribute to the soul singer, six months after her untimely death.“What she stands for above all, is uniqueness. Both in music and the way she dressed, she mixed a great many influences

Jan. 26, 2012

Women’s groups: Tabloids portray women unfairly

LONDON (AP) ― Britain’s inquiry into media ethics shifted its focus away from phone hacking Tuesday to look into how women are portrayed in U.K. newspapers.Women’s rights campaigners told the inquiry that newspapers treat women as sex objects and mis-report cases of rape and domestic violence.Anna Van Heeswijk of women’s campaigns group Object said that sexualized images of topless or skimpily clad women in British tabloid newspapers damage the way young women think of their appearances and life

Jan. 25, 2012

Spider silk outfit goes on show in London

LONDON (AFP) ― An astonishing golden outfit made from the silk of spiders goes on display at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on Wednesday, the largest example of the material in the world.The four-meter-long hand-woven textile, a natural vivid gold colour, was made from the silk of more than one million female Golden Orb spiders collected in the highlands of Madagascar by 80 people over five years.It was made by Englishman Simon Peers and American Nicholas Godley, both of whom have lived and

Jan. 25, 2012

Spider silk outfit goes on show in London

Lagerfeld’s retooled brand line debuts online

NEW YORK (AP) ― Karl Lagerfeld’s reboot of his own label is happening entirely online.Starting Wednesday, the Karl collection, with an emphasis on more downtown styles ― including denim decorated with a subtle image of Lagerfeld’s likeness, jersey dresses, T-shirts, shoes and handbags all with a rock ‘n’ roll edge ― are offered exclusively for the first month on the Net-a-Porter website. After that, there’ll also be a Lagerfeld-branded site.Among the offerings are the gloves and collar neck piec

Jan. 25, 2012

Could neckties be cool again?

PARIS (AFP) ― Now that older men have ditched it to look cool, the stylish young are reclaiming the necktie as their own, with the once-derided accessory making a stealthy comeback on the menswear runways.“I never wear one,” Antoine Arnault, the 34-year-old son of luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault told AFP on the sidelines of the first ever menswear show by the LVMH-owned shoemaker Berluti ― where ties were a full part of the look.“Except on Monday afternoons when I have appointments with my father.

Jan. 25, 2012

Fasten your seatbelts: Chanel flies couture sky-high

PARIS (AFP) ― Chanel flew the fashion crowd sky-high on Tuesday, conjuring up a life-sized plane as the runway for an all-blue spring collection as it headlined day two of the Paris haute couture shows.Stewards walked the length of the central aisle, offering champagne to Chanel’s guests as they took their seats in the model aircraft, purpose-built inside the Grand Palais exhibition hall.“After the red carpet, the blue carpet,” the house’s silver-haired designer Karl Lagerfeld, in trademark blac

Jan. 25, 2012

Fasten your seatbelts: Chanel flies couture sky-high

Dior impresses and Versace dazzles in couture

PARIS (AP) ― France may have lost an A in its credit rating, but fashion seems to have won it back with a flourishing start to haute couture week ― from the A-list celebrities to Dior’s 1950s A-line silhouettes.Monday marked the lavish return to Paris couture of Donatella Versace, who wowed spectators with her unapologetic glitz, gold and famous friends.Since haute couture is such an expensive affair ― shows have been known to cost in the millions ― Versace’s decision to show in the French capit

Jan. 24, 2012

Dior impresses and Versace dazzles in couture

Solid state Swiss Army Knife can save digital lives

LAS VEGAS (AFP) ― Victorinox has pulled from its technology pocket a version of its vaunted Swiss Army knife equipped with a solid state drive capable of holding all of the digital data in a person’s life.A USB drive capable of holding as much as a terabyte of data is folded into a Swiss Army Knife being shown-off at the Consumer Electronics Show that officially opened its doors on Tuesday in Las Vegas.“It fits in the palm of my hand,” Victorinox spokeswoman Renee Hourigan said as she cupped in

Jan. 11, 2012

Rodarte designers leap into the world of opera

LOS ANGELES ― Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy are slated to design their first opera costumes for the Los Angeles Philharmonic production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” in May, which will be staged by modernist director Christopher Alden.The pair will join a creative team that includes conductor Gustavo Dudamel and architect Frank Gehry, the latter doing the set design. The production will be a homecoming for the Los Angeles designers, who started their label in 2005 and have been recogniz

Jan. 11, 2012

Rodarte designers leap into the world of opera

Hundreds protest at D&G photo ‘ban’ in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (AFP) ― More than a thousand people protested outside a Dolce and Gabbana store in Hong Kong on Sunday after the Italian clothing store allegedly prevented people from taking photographs of its shop front.The protest followed reports that a Dolce and Gabbana security guard had stopped a photographer taking pictures of its shopfront from the pavement outside.More than 13,000 people had protested over the incident on Facebook.People gathered Sunday outside the fashion brand’s flagship Ho

Jan. 9, 2012

Paint it black? No way! Fashion gets colorful

PARIS (AFP) ― As the economy splutters, fashion will naturally turn to solemn greys and blacks, right? Wrong, according to fabric gurus who unveiled their top trends for spring-summer 2013 in Paris on Thursday.“We don’t believe for a minute that fashion is going to turn all austere, that consumers are going to start dressing all in black,” Pascaline Wilhelm, fashion director at textile fair organizer Premiere Vision, told reporters.From neon pink to deep ochre or metallic silver-blue, and a slew

Jan. 9, 2012

Shoe clubs are in step

Once a month, you can automatically receive in the mail a bottle of wine, a box of organic fruit and now, a pair of sequined stilettos.In a cyber twist to the traditional monthly sales clubs, shoe membership websites have become a hit among fashion-forward women, who say they bring together the convenience and affordability of shopping online with the personalized experience offered in a boutique.“This is fashion of the future,” said celebrity fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, who recently si

Jan. 9, 2012

Spain’s ailing retailers slash prices to lure shoppers

MADRID (AFP) ― Spanish retailers are offering deep discounts in their post-Christmas sales to try to get cash-strapped shoppers to open their wallets as a sharp economic downturn drags painfully on.Shoppers packed into an outlet of Spanish clothing store Blanco in central Madrid on Monday, the first day of the official sales period, drawn by a 50 percent discount on all items in its winter collection.“It is hard to resist, you can buy much more clothes for the same amount of money if you wait un

Jan. 4, 2012

Spain’s ailing retailers slash prices to lure shoppers

Vogue’s vast archives make online leap from paper

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Bookshelves groaning under the weight of every issue of American Vogue ever published since December 17, 1892, and there have been about 2,800 of them, can now heave a sigh of relief.Two years in the making, an online Vogue Archive is being pitched to fashion designers, photographers and stylists for whom rummaging through musty back issues for inspiration is an everyday part of the job.“That’s about 400,000 pages. It’s everything,” said Matt Dellinger, a writer and multimedia

Jan. 2, 2012

Fashion’s most relatable new trends arrive early

NEW YORK (AP) ― You’ll find a drop-waist dress when you set off on your first shopping spree of the new year, and you probably already can find a flouncy ruffle attached to a chic, trim jacket or sheath in stores. But for all the talk about fast fashion, few looks move directly from the runway to the real world without some tweaks and adjustments.Designers, manufacturers and retailers use the months between splashy previews and on-sale dates to harness big ideas and turn them into the garments t

Jan. 2, 2012

Fashion’s most relatable new trends arrive early