29 July, 2020

Retail reset: is Nike’s House of Innovation the answer?

Vogue Paris Nike by Geordie Wood

While it’s doom and gloom in the world of retail (Selfridges is letting 450 staff go), I can’t help believing that there’s still life in the physical retail model. And now is the perfect time for some fresh thinking.

Nike has just built its new Paris flagship, a ‘House of Innovation’ (below) serving as a temple for its most loyal worshippers. As it moves away from the wholesale model to focus on selling directly to these loyalists from its own stores, its goal is to focus on full price products that die-hards don’t mind paying for. (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 0 Comments Brands, Business of fashion, News, Online shopping, Retail concepts, Technology, Trends J Crew, Nike, retail concepts, retail news, Telfar

5 May, 2019

The Drg Style Index: Wales Bonner, Muji, Chanel, Shiseido, WeChat, Nike and more…

Here’s the latest weekly DRG STYLE INDEX ranking, a round-up of the brands and industry stories currently buzzing on my radar…

WALES BONNER WINS
Wales Bonner SS19 by Harley Weir

It’s been a big old week for Grace Wales Bonner. On Wednesday she was named as the winner of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund £200k prize, while also collaborating with Dior on its 2020 Resort collection and hosting a ‘devotional meditative sound experience’ in New York with Solange Knowles, as part of Frieze. The prize win is a pretty good accolade, not that it’s the magic bullet people assume it is. Thomas Tait, who won the LVMH Prize in 2014, opened up recently about the reality behind the facade of young designer ‘success’. It’s still tough out there… (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 0 Comments Beauty, Brands, Business of fashion, Design, Fashion shows, News, Photography, Retail concepts, Technology, Trends A.P.C, beauty, Chanel, Dior, DRG style, DRG Style Index, Fashion Foie Gras, Frieze, Glossy, Gucci, influencers, Nike, Resort 2020, Shiseido, The Beauty Conversation, Virginie Viard, Wales Bonner, WeChat

15 January, 2019

Twenty years later: the Hermes tan trainer

Hermes aw98 trainers Vogue Runway

Ten years ago I would have been all over the Sacai x Nike trainer collab (a kind of double-everything monster trainer with a retro vibe). Today? Not so much. I’m well over super-statement trainers and prefer a Nike Air Max shape or a utilitarian gym shoe like a Converse Jack Purcell. (Currently seeking a JP in white – why so elusive, Converse?)

However, I’m feeling the return of the luxe tan trainer, an understated gender-neutral number that kicks the post-ironic, hypebeast trainer roundly in the butt. Do you remember when Hermès did its first trainer? It was in 1998 and part of Martin Margiela’s first collection for the house. A rich conker brown affair, Hermès was the first luxury brand to design a trainer made entirely of leather and thus the ‘Quick’ caused quite the stir. (more…)

Disneyrollergirl 4 Comments Brands, Business of fashion, Design, Designers, Menswear, News, Trends Hermes, Martin Margiela, menswear, Nike, nineties, Sacai, trainers, trends

24 March, 2018

THE DRG STYLE INDEX: Dior, Malin + Goetz, Depop, Nike and more!

Here’s the latest weekly DRG STYLE INDEX ranking, a round-up of the brands and industry stories currently buzzing on my radar…

1. ALL CHANGE AT DIOR (BUT WHAT ABOUT MARIA?)
Kim Jones Dior
The big fashion news of the week was the announcement that Dior’s longtime men’s designer, Kris Van Assche, is departing, and being replaced by Kim Jones, London’s street wear darling, formerly of Louis Vuitton menswear. But the word on my WhatsApps is… (more…)