Business of fashion

What’s going on at Gap?



Yeezy Gap

Kanye’s first Yeezy Gap jacket drooped last week, but is it any cop?

The single nylon puffer was the first piece from the much hyped ten-year project to appear as a pre-order on the U.S Gap website (to be shipped in the autumn). In bright blue, the voluminous $200 jacket wasn’t your average Gap fare. (Some memes compared it to a Smurf-coloured bin bag.)

Early reactions on fashion forums were mixed – 65/35 against I’d say. The 35% were quite emphatic in their enthusiasm, applauding Gap for giving so much trust and control to Team Yeezy. Gap even temporarily erased its entire Instagram feed save for one picture of the polarising item. At this stage, one could concede, what exactly does Gap have to lose? (more…)



Business of beauty: who will be the next make-up mogul?



Violette beauty line

With a couple of recent beauty brand launches, it’s interesting to speculate who will be the next make-up-artist-turned-make-up-mogul after Pat McGrath and Charlotte Tilbury. I’m currently enjoying watching the rise of Gucci Westman and Westman Atelier, but next in the running we have Violette Serrat and Lisa Eldridge.

Violette rose quickly from freelance MUA to Estee Lauder Global Beauty Director after growing a dedicated following of her beautifully shot (and very ‘French girl style’) YouTube videos. Her aspirational but relatable style now translates to Violette_FR, a capsule beauty line that includes Boum Boum Milk spray serum, liquid eye shadows and – already! – a unisex musk oil perfume (above). (more…)



The Tank Must de Cartier for a new generation



Tank Must de Cartier

I’m a complete sucker for a classic Cartier watch, especially one reissued from the archives. This month sees the relaunch of the Tank Must de Cartier, a discreet unisex style originally released in 1977. Created at the height of the quartz watch era, it was designed to appeal to the new young Cartier customer, with its diminutive proportions, entry price point, brightly coloured dials and vermeil (gold-plated silver) hands.

Fast-forward and we’re again seeing this new youthful customer embracing old-school watches. (more…)



Quote of the day: Barrett Swanson on the trouble with TikTok content houses



Barrett Swanson on the trouble with TikTik hype houses

“For a moment, I cannot remember who I am or why I am sitting here amid this sea of beautiful young people, all of them desperate for recognition, their whole lives ahead of them, empty at the absolute center. TikTok is a sign of the future, which already feels like a thing of the past. It is the clock counting down our fifteen seconds of fame, the sound the world makes as time is running out.”

Writer and English professor Barrett Swanson laments the empty culture of TikTok influencers in this outstanding long read for Harper’s Magazine (more…)