Hillary Clinton, the first woman in history to become a major party nominee for the US presidency, wore a white pantsuit during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. The pantsuit was sophisticated and professional, appropriate for the task of addressing voters as their potential next president.
So far, 3D printing has not quite lived up to expectations. Skeptics are abandoning the idea of a future when you’ll be able to 3D print just about anything in your living room, and MakerBot, the only relatively well-known maker of 3D printers, has stopped producing its own printers, outsourcing the work to China.
Team Canada hopes to take home up to 19 gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, which begin on Aug. 5. Unofficially, it has already secured one. Among the countries that have publicized their team uniforms—which isn’t nearly all of the more than 200 nations competing—the Canadian Olympic kit has beat out the competition as the most stylish at this year’s games, in this fashion reporter’s opinion.
Under Armour is planting a major flag in New York. Kevin Plank, the Baltimore-based company’s CEO, announced on a call with investors today (July 26) that the company will take over the former home of FAO Schwarz in New York.
In a terrific speech endorsing Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention last night (July 25), First Lady Michelle Obama spoke movingly about the barriers that black Americans and women have overcome. Her words about caring and unity reflected the evening’s theme—”United Together”—and furthered the tone of optimism that Clinton’s campaign has established, in contrast to Republican rival Donald Trump’s “us vs. them” message.
When Victoria’s Secret, best known for lacy underwear and cleavage-enhancing push-up bras, first introduced a line of sports bras in 2013, it had a hard time selling them. The company didn’t specify why, but one possibility pointed out by a writer at Jezebel was that active women like her “literally do not give half a jiggling fuck about looking sexy” while doing high-impact exercise.
In the early 2000s, a major shift happened in the way people dress. Flared and baggy jeans began to give way to a skinny, low-slung version, and by the end of the decade, it seemed everyone—including men—were squeezing into jeans so tight that doctors began issuing health warnings. Now skinny is the status quo, and fashion’s early adopters are searching for a new look.
Amazon has reportedly been battling a rising tide of fakes this year, ever since the company opened the door for Chinese manufacturers to sell directly to US consumers on its site.
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the US presidency, has had a difficult time when it comes to clothing. Macy’s dumped his signature line after he made inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants to the US, and he has been lambasted for manufacturing his clothes overseas while decrying that same practice. Now the maker behind some of Trump’s campaign t-shirts and hoodies has disavowed his message.
Spanish fast-fashion giant Zara has something of a reputation for copying. Often the alleged targets for imitation are big labels, such as luxury brand Céline, or hyped lines such as Kanye West’s. But what happens when it’s an independent artist who doesn’t have the same resources or recognition?
Times are getting desperate for a number of American clothing retailers. Department stores such as Macy’s continue to struggle. Specialty apparel stores including J.Crew and Gap are withering. Many can only find customers by discounting. Meanwhile, they’re losing shoppers to off-price stores selling goods that are permanently on sale.
More than three years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed 1,134 people, Bangladesh is still trying to hold those responsible accountable for their actions.
Never wear socks with sandals. It’s one of those long-standing fashion edicts that seems to have its grounding in a universal understanding of good taste.
Alexander McQueen, the celebrated fashion designer who committed suicide in 2010, liked to provoke. His 2001 asylum-themed collection, for example, culminated with a fleshy, nude woman reclining in a glass cube, breathing through tubes connected to a face mask as large live moths fluttered around her.
The New York Times’ T Magazine has just published a sort-of profile of Natalie Portman, tied to the Oscar-winning actress and deserving Harvard graduate’s directorial debut. It’s framed as an email exchange between Portman and the novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, and ranges in topic from motherhood to Judaism to the vagaries of time.
Issues with the fit of clothing are among the top reasons customers return clothes and footwear bought online, and it’s a costly problem for retailers. A 2015 report by IHL, a retail research firm, estimated that retailers worldwide lose billions each year from returns due to wrong sizing.
When Vetements, the label currently considered fashion’s hottest commodity, wanted a partner to make bomber jackets for its new collaborative collection, it turned to Alpha Industries. Kanye West chose Alpha, too, to supply the bombers he used for his recent tour merchandise. Celebrities such as model Kendall Jenner are often spotted in Alpha’s MA-1 bombers, and R&B artist The Weeknd wore one to accept his many trophies at the Billboard Music Awards in May.
In the next few decades, about 56% of all salaried workers in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam could be displaced by automation and advanced technologies, such as 3D printing. That’s the conclusion of an extensive series of new studies by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
When Yoox and Net-a-Porter merged last year, they created what Net-a-Porter’s founder, Natalie Massenet, described as the “world’s biggest luxury fashion store.” There’s a big balancing act inherent in that title. Luxury goods rely on scarcity, high prices, and prestige. How do you reconcile those demands with an huge online operation selling designer labels that are often on sale?
Some years ago, the food advocate Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, succinctly summed up the best advice he could offer on how a human should eat: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” It’s so simple you’d hardly think it need be stated, and yet the global rise of obesity and diabetes, coupled with an overcrowded marketplace of fad diets, makes its necessity clear.
Since UK’s Brexit vote on June 23, interest in travel to London has spiked. Shopping in the city is one of the big draws, and since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, it’s as if the whole country’s goods are on sale for anyone shopping with foreign currency.
Fashion has long had a close relationship with technology, through the invention of the sewing machine, the loom, and beyond. In the computer age, as the industry revels in everything from “cognitive” clothing to innovative manufacturing such as 3D printing, the infatuation has reached a new pitch.
Spider silk’s qualities are nearly mythical. Its tensile strength is comparable to steel’s. Yet it is lighter, and can be as stretchy as a rubber band. Those traits in combination make it tougher than Kevlar. To give you an idea: If the spider webs that shoot from Spider Man’s wrists were real spider silk, the superhero could genuinely have pulled the runaway train to a halt in that dramatic scene in Spider Man 2.
It’s practically a fashion trend itself. In the past few years, startup clothing and home goods retailers have taken to a peculiar naming convention: linking two nouns with &, + , as well as the word “and.”
