I feel like I'm reading The Daily Prophet from Harry Potter lol. These images are called cinemagraph, the concept was created by Jamie Beck & Kevin Burg. Many cheif editors in fashion believe cinemagraph will be the future of online imagery and soon replace traditional photos.
Cinemagraphs are like animated GIFs as far as the image format is concerned but a big difference is that, in a Cinemagraph, only a portion of a photograph is moving in an infinite loop while everything else is frozen. Online fashion magazines are ready to pounce on the idea but there are some logistics that must be solved.
Why did you open your flagship in Los Angeles, versus New York? Paul & Joe is a sparkling and sunny brand, and so it is fantastic for L.A.. The city is so magical because it's always busy. Tourists come from all over, and some are very big spenders. And my brother, who is my partner in the company, lives in Los Angeles. It just felt comfortable.
And what about New York? My goal is to open a boutique in New York within a year.
Your parents worked in the fashion industry—your father as an executive, and your mother as a designer. Did your upbringing shape the way you do business now? Yes, I learned a great deal. I was working in the fashion industry myself in the late '80s. You must learn first from a good boss. Of course, you have to have a bit of talent!
What are your cardinal rules of running a good business? Be able to do more than just one thing well. You have to be curious and commit so much of yourself to the process of selling and designing. There is a lot of competition, so you have to be better than the others. You must be fair and nice at all times. There are so many different ways to make it work, but the most important thing is to be real and sincere to the people around you. You have to remind them that they are doing well and give them confidence. You can’t calculate too much. When I started, I never thought about how much money I would make.
Your label is 15 years old now. How has it evolved?Yes, 15! At the very beginning of Paul & Joe, I wanted to make only men’s clothes that were fanciful, happy, and colorful. But many of my customers were asking me to do something for the ladies. I was hesitant, because I know women's wear is so tough. I didn’t want to do it at first, but now, the women's business is so much bigger than men’s. Season after season, I started to do coats and knitwear and other areas. And years later, I was approached to do beauty. After 15 years we have childrenswear, Paul & Joe Sister, which is the more affordable line, jewelry, accessories, and so on.
What’s next?I really want to develop home. I am interested in linen, china and décor. People are now willing to make their homes as good-looking as they are. I designed a hotel suite in Paris, and we made special wallpaper, frames, linen and blankets. It was so joyous. The day we are bored, we must stop or change jobs.
In 2006, you collaborated with Target. How did that affect your business? It affected the brand very positively, because it makes the line so much more affordable. At one point, these collaborations were considered as cheaper alternatives to the brand. But now, it's becoming almost snobbish to shop at Target! It’s genius for the brands and for the store. If I had to do it again, I would do it with no doubt in my mind. It was in all the magazines, we received very positive reviews, and everyone is still talking about it. It allowed Paul & Joe to enter the homes of areas in the U.S. where otherwise they never would have heard of Paul & Joe.
How badly were you hit during the recession?We were very, very aware of the times, and we were so careful. And I think we actually did pretty well. We have such a big market, thank goodness. Our main focus is France and Asia, which have not been so bad.
How important is celebrity dressing? They are our number-one ambassadors. They are so important to sales. This is all very recent. You have a celebrity wearing anything at all, and if it’s credited, you have waiting lists. That’s the way it works! We’ve always had a lot of American celebrities in Paris and London buying the brand, and now it will be much easier for them.
Why are you so inspired by nature?I love, love the animals, plants and flowers. Sometimes, the color of a fish will catch my eye. Now, I am not going to tell you I am a fully organic woman. I am not a vegetarian.
Your label is named after your children. Will they join the family business?My eldest son is 18 and he loves fashion—the blogs, the people, the popular culture. He is a shopaholic. He sent me a list of places to visit in L.A.. He is going to university, so he will have years of learning experience, and after that, why not? My younger son doesn’t care as much. He cares about his friends and the girls. But my eldest son loves coming to the showroom and trying the samples of the new men’s collection. He gives me advice. I like to have him come in with his friends because they are the next generation of customers. The original article. Shop Paul & Joe. Watch Paul & Joe 2010 summer collection.
Mr. Dundas joined Pucci just over a year ago, and his third collection is about to be shipped to stores for fall. In that relatively short time, he has already captured a new, younger audience for the brand. At its core, the image is decadent, chic party animal (of the heiress sort).
"Since Peter has come on board, he's taken it beyond 'I'm-going-to-wear-it-on-vacation,' " says Petra Flannery, a Hollywood stylist who dressed actress Zoe Saldana for the Los Angeles premier of "Star Trek" last year in a Pucci dress with a snake slithering around the torso and mesh cut-outs. She put starlet Hayden Panettiere in form-fitting Pucci for a number of public appearances, including the World Music Awards in Monaco last month.
Before Mr. Dundas's arrival at the brand, red-carpet appearances were rare. Ms. Flannery says she used Pucci only in shoots for swimwear and beachy editorial spreads.
"We were doing the same look every season," Didier Drouet, Pucci's chief executive, conceded after the brand's fall 2010 runway show in Milan.
Pucci's new emphasis spurred Saks Fifth Avenue to create a space for it on its venerable third floor in New York for this fall. Saks will feature Pucci's new cocktail and evening gowns. Saks will also devote its Fifth Avenue windows to Pucci between Sept. 2 and Sept. 9. Before now, Saks sold Pucci clothes only at stores in places like Boca Raton and Naples, in Florida, and Phoenix. "We thought it was more of a resort, warm-weather collection," says Joseph Boitano, Saks' women's general merchandising manager.Now, Mr. Boitano says, Mr. Dundas "really is attracting a very young customer."
The emergence of solids is a nod to the fact that there are only so many Pucci patterns that a woman's closet can hold.
But there is a risk here of losing the iconic look of the brand. It can be difficult these days to recognize a Pucci when you see it. When Carrie appeared in a swirling, gray Pucci gown in the recently released "Sex and the City 2," I wouldn't have known it was Pucci without the movie notes. Clothes that look generic may not work to build the brand's image.
Still, the Pucci family itself is loving the new look. "I hate the stereotypes of Pucci, the psychedelic pop," says Laudomia Pucci, the daughter of Emilio Pucci, who founded the brand. "Peter has shaken that up."
It's a ticklish task to dial down the target age of a luxury brand without losing its older, wealthiest customers. Mr. Boitano says Pucci is managing that by continuing to create plenty of prints and simpler dresses. On Mr. Dundas's runway, the prints are often still there—though they're sometimes dyed an unexpected color like deep burgundy, and the clothes can be so revealing that they border on lewd.
These days, the role of a designer at a brand goes way beyond making clothes. Mr. Dundas's arrival at Pucci is re-setting the image of the house, which is owned by the Pucci family and luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
The original designer, Mr. Pucci, was a Florentine aristocrat who began by making bathing suits and reached his calling as a designer in his 40s. His wildly colored, geometric designs and simple silhouettes drew attention in the 1950s and 1960s. Marilyn Monroe was buried in Pucci.
After Mr. Pucci's death in 1992, Pucci clothes were created by a succession of designers known for their use of color and patterns, including Christian Lacroix and Matthew Williamson.
Now, Pucci is following the playbook of other European luxury brands, from Louis Vuitton to Ferragamo, that have branched into every possible product line. Mr. Drouet is busy building licensing relationships: Expect to see more Pucci handbags, shoes, fragrances, ties and sunglasses. Original article.
"Journalists normally come in with a preconceived idea about what I’m like. They have all these assumptions that aren’t accurate. They want this fantasy of this sort of tough businesswoman, red-carpet thing. That’s the story they want."
JOHNSON-HILL: You look stunning. I couldn’t turn my eyes away—I think I’ve re-looked at it about five times.
TAMARA MELLON: Oh, my god! I mean, it’s nude but it’s chic. But with that reaction, okay . . . I wonder what they’ll say at the next board meeting.
JOHNSON-HILL: What was your motivation to do all that back then?
TAMARA MELLON: Independence.
JOHNSON-HILL: Independence from what?
TAMARA MELLON: Independence from a very dysfunctional family.
JOHNSON-HILL: So you were totally driven by creating something that would become your own and be your baby.
TAMARA MELLON: Yes, it was almost like buying my freedom.
JOHNSON-HILL: Well, what motivates you now?
TAMARA MELLON: There were two things that motivated me then: independence, and passion about what I was doing. And those are still the things that motivate me now. I still have that passion for creating a product. And I will never be dependent on a man. I will never be dependent on a husband or a boyfriend or a father. That’s one thing that’s really important to me.
“I got the idea for them from H.R. Giger, and seeing Alien, and then I got a sculptor to make up a shoe so that it looked like it grew right out of the foot. Sick, ain’t I?
“The whole show was metamorphic. It was the reversal of one before that, which was Charles Darwin with the evolution of the species. This was the reverse: instead of Darwin’s theary that we come from the sea, we made it that we come from the land and go back into the sea.”
McQueen on his most recent boyfriend:
“A bastard who went back to Australia, and I was left looking at his name,” he grimaces, pointing to a name tattooed on his right arm. Which he then turns down when I try to read the moniker and keeps that way until the end of the meal.
McQueen on his work:
“I am married to work”, though id he wants to disparage someone he calls them a :stitch bitch”. Nor has he any interest in taking over another famed house such as Hermes or Chanel. “Been there, done that,” he remarks in reference to his stint at Givenchy which ended nearly a decade a ago. Click here for the original article in Australia Harper Bazaar .
Tom Ford interviewed with the The Advocate Magazine. When asked about his experience working for YSL early in his career, Ford said some of his best collections were there. He than said there was a flipside "Yves Saint Laurent was such a negative experience for me even though the business boomed. Yves and his partner, Pierre Bergé, made my life such misery. I went to college in France. It wasn’t until I started working in France that I began to dislike it. They would call the fiscal police, and they would show up at our offices. They’re like Nazis, those police. They’d come marching in, and you had to let them in and they’d interview my secretary. I’ve never talked about this on the record before, but it was an awful time for me. Pierre and Yves were just evil. So Yves Saint Laurent doesn’t exist for me." -The Advocate
What does Fashion mean to you, is it a concept or a word?
Fashion means style, it's about expressing yourself through your clothing choices.
If you were starting as a young designer today. What one job is most important?
I think it is really important to have a sense of business. As a designer you can get so wrapped up in the design and fashion side that you forget the business side.
Do you think a new designer should know how to sew, stitch or make they're own garment before outsourcing the work?
I think knowing how to design something yourself from start to finish is helpful. Having said that, it's not necessary because with a vision and determination, you can do anything.
What do you think of reality television?
I think reality TV is a lot of fun to watch, I'm often very amused!
Have you ever been star struck?
Yes of course, I think everyone is at some point. One of my first was Elton John!
What is your favorite food?
Sushi
Who is your most respected influence?
I've been influenced by so many wonderful people in my life and career - Karl Lagerfeld, Obama, Martin Luther King Jr -Huffington Post
