We’re now a subsidiary of First Citizens Bank, bringing even more expertise to help support your business goals. Our commercial services team has the financial savvy to turn your invoices into working capital, manage customer credit, make collection calls on your behalf and more.
Join Jeffrey Mann and the Mann Charitable Foundation at the beautiful Fresh Meadow Country Club in Lake Success, New York for a great day of golf, food, and networking.
The Mann Charitable Foundation was founded 20 years ago in memory of Marion and Irving Mann. Its mission is to fund research for geriatric diseases, and to ultimately find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Last year, the Mann Charitable Foundation expanded its initiatives to include Crohn’s and colitis, breast cancer, and liver diseases. This year we are expanding our donations to lymphoma and macular degeneration.
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say something from my heart: yes, it is
cannot tell you what it means to me to
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industry in the fashion capital of the world, New York City, as my
Marc Heller and Harriet Greenberg.
With love and deep appreciation, Jeff
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As we roll into the month of October, I have to say that this past September was very busy, as my editor Aida stated in her letter. New York Fashion Week (NYFW) kept the Fashion Man nuscript team busy, since the team attended all of the amazing presentations provided by the fashion designers surrounding their latest collections, which will give all of you a glimpse of how the fashion world works.
While NYFW unfolded, tremendous steps in the business world occurred. The purchase of CIT by Citizens Bank was one of the major transactions orchestrated by Marc Heller, president of CIT Commercial Services. To make this even more exciting, the acquisition of Marcum LLP and Friedman LLP combine the two greatest forces in the accounting world, which skyrocket them as one of the top 5 in the country. Marcum LLP has been around for about 60 years and Friedman LLP longer than I can think of. Two things that come to mind is that Marcum LLP has a tremendous presence in the apparel and consumer spaces in California. By purchasing Friedman LLP and having Michael Sacco as National Leader, they acquired the best apparel and consumer product division in New York, which will make Marcum LLP an institution to watch in the Big Apple. That to me is very exciting news. In addition to what I want to see happeing this month, I had the pleasure of witnessing the soft opening of the Metropolitan Commercial Bank during a walk around the town. The banking center is one of the most exciting things to have happened to Times Square, as the whole sleek, contemporary layout of the Metropolitan Commercial Bank is so hip and cool, which doesn’t make it feel like a typical bank.
Lastly, our National Realty Club Golf outing was a grand success, as we had guests from the retail industry attend, among others. Then we have our Mann Charitable Foundation Golf Outing on October 17, where we are honoring Marc Heller, president of CIT Commercial Services and Harriet Greenberg, former co-managing partner, Friedman LLP where all proceeds will go towards Geriatric Diseases. I am very grateful to honor Marc and Harriet because I couldn’t have done it for two better friends, who I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for over 35 years. Overall, hope you all enjoy reading this special issue!
“Luxury is in each detail
Hubert
I recall reading through every glossy fashion magazine my mother ever owned when I was a little girl. While reading these magazines at such a young age, I would visualize the lives of all the sources that were written about, whether they were fashion designers, artists, celebrities, brands and more. Not to mention, I was always enamored with the editorials taken by the talented photographers who have their work featured on covers and spreads. With that said, I am honored to take the reins as Fashion Mannuscript’s Editor.
Our theme for this month’s issue is sustainability and I couldn’t be more excited for the first ever Fashion Mannuscript issue I am working on as editor to be based on topics I’m extremely passionate about. As you skim through this month’s issue, you’ll read about the amazing New York Fashion Week (NYFW) events our team attended, such as Stacey Bendet’s alice & olivia’s SS23 presentation, the opulent runway featuring FC Fashion Week’s emerging designers, the award-winning event titled The Nolcha Shows, and so much more. In addition, I even received the chance to write about collections by Kimberly Pucci, who is the mastermind behind Serena Willams’ US Open Tote Bag and women owned bespoke tailor The Tailory New York’s collection with DOGPOUND, a gym owned by celebrity fitness trainer Kirk Myers.
This issue also features a local city press trip our staff made to the MAGIC New York and COTERIE New York, where both tradeshows featured emerging labels and new exhibitors presented fresh collections for fall 2022, including ready-to-wear, footwear and accessories.
Overall, this was a busy month, as our team took part in a plethora of NYFW events and soirees. I am looking forward to working with the amazing team at Mann Publications and delivering content on this beautiful art we all call fashion.
-Aida M. Toro
Penelope
Absence of Proof presented a non-alcoholic pop-up bar at Kobrick Coffee on September 9, 2022. In honor of New York Fashion Week (NYFW), Absence of Proof brought a boozeless night to the Meatpacking District in Manhattan, consisting of a curated menu featuring non-alcoholic cocktails, beers, wines and functional beverages.
Photo courtesy of AJ Portrait NYC
Christiane Pendarvis & Natalie Guzman
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) welcomed more than 700 friends to celebrate the opening of Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle. This is the first solo exhibition dedicated to the genre-defying artist Matthew Flower, better known as Machine Dazzle. Sequins, glitter, feathers, rhinestones and ribbons filled the museum, as the self-taught designer shared his repertoire of stagecraft, design, performance and music, showcasing queer maximalism’s aesthetic language of gay liberation.
“Since its founding, the MAD has been a home for artists who have reimagined and radically subverted traditional craft techniques in search of more authentic self-expression,” said exhibition curator, Elissa Auther, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and William and Mildred Lasdon, Chief Curator at MAD. “Machine Dazzle demonstrates how costumes have world-making capacity, why unorthodox materials have become the preferred way for those outside of majority culture to describe themselves and the ways in which excess can both transform and transfigure the queer body.”
Warmth, joy and connection exuded from the museum, highlighting the importance of this exhibition to the LGBTQ+ community.
“The higher the heels, the closer to the goddess,” Machine Dazzle told a packed room as the Dazzle Dancers reunited to perform a colorful dance with a provocative finale of no clothing–just glitter! As founding Dazzle Dancer Mike Albo wrote in his essay contribution to the exhibition catalog, “having fun is a political act,” as only fun was had on this special night.
House of alice + olivia, welcomed women to come and indulge in the endless glamor, whimsy and inspiration found in Bendet’s wonderland version of home. For the Spring of 2023, Stacey Bendet of alice + olivia asks, “Why must glamor only exist outside?”
“So often do my interiors inspire my design, and my designs inspire my interiors,” she noted.
Forged out of her own personal experience of decorating a new home in the last year, her SS23 collection presentation puts forth the surreal possibilities of creating an illustrious wardrobe inspired by interior decor. But this is no study
in minimalist design. Instead, it nodded to a British eclectic style: eccentric and maximalist, sophisticated and dramatic.
In the presentation, people wandered through several vibrantly decorated rooms. Women donned alice + olivia housecoats made of a gorgeous brocade reminiscent of regal window curtains. Some lounged on couches with tulle floral gowns speckled with hints of bright colors as if a garden bloomed on the garment itself. Others showed their grand dame prowess with rich white silk capes that welcomed guests into a glamorous dinner party. There were even some who wore sculptural floral cocktail dresses,
ideal for the woman who wants to exude both romance and sexiness. In a cheeky move, there was a coat meant to emulate a gorgeous baked cake and was worn in a room filled with actual renditions of the decadent treat.
But glamor wasn’t the only thing on Bendet’s mind for both the collection and her home, as she mixed in elements of 90’s grunge while maintaining a vibe which is both feminine and chic.
“It’s modern femininity, where women can mix and match collection pieces. Make them more fun, youthful, livelier,” she said.
Held on Monday, September 12, NYFW’s The Talk hosted “Ten Years of Costuming the New York City Ballet Fall Fashion Gala”, a conversation featuring Gianna Reisen, Marc Happel, Humberto Leon and Zac Posen which was moderated by Donya Archer Bommer. Ahead of New York City Ballet’s decade anniversary of its iconic Fashion Gala, the troupe’s key contributors reflected on designing for dance.
Ever wondered what fuels staff and models in between all the excitement and mayhem of New York Fashion Week? Well, we have the answers!
We’re delighted to share that vegan restaurant chain Beatnic once again collaborated and catered with top NYFW shows: Runway 7, Collina Strada, Brandon Maxwell, Proenza Schouler and Cynthia Rowley. By developing a custom-made, plant-based NYFW exclusive breakfast menu, and introducing their new fall menu items, Beatnic was on the scene across the city from morning to night, and was by far the most raved about and highly coveted vegan eats of fashion week.
As a kickoff to all Runway 7 shows located at Sony Hall Sept 9-11, where Beatnic partnered as an on-site sponsor, Beatnic hosted an intimate and private dinner at one of their stores to bring all the designers together. Runway 7 is an innovative platform in the fashion scene for up-and-coming designers,
which aims to optimize the future of fashion week by offering guests an experiential experience both in-person and online. Guests enjoyed Beatnic favorites such as Quinoa Taco Salad, Kale Caesar Salad, Air Baked Chicken Dippers, Buffalo Cauli Poppers, Mac N Cheeze and Guac Burger Sliders. Sweets included Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies, Mini Sprinkle Cookies, Cookies N Dream Bar bites and Chocolate Chocolate Brookie bites.
With an exclusive food partnership with Proenza Schouler, Beatnic serviced roughly 120 people on show day. The menu included Kale Caesar Salads, New Balsamic Roasted Broc, Quinoa Taco Cups, BLT Sandwich, Chicky Dippers, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies and Kitchen Sink Cookies. Ahead of the show during prep and fittings, Beatnic also provided meals to the Proenza team and models in their studio.
Building on last season’s partnership, Beatnic is now also an exclusive food partner to Collina
Strada. Serving roughly 345 people, breakfast included Avocado Toast, AB & B Toast, BLT Sandwich, Vanilla Bean Chia Pudding and PB & J Overnight Oats. Lunch included Guac Burger, BLT Sandwich, Mini Kale Caesar Salad, Quinoa Taco Cups, Chicky Dippers, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Rainbow Sprinkle Cookie and Kitchen Sink Cookies. Show guests also enjoyed sweet boxes of assorted mini cookies upon conclusion of the show.
At the Brandon Maxwell show, serving roughly 200 people, Beatnic provided breakfast which included Avocado Toast, AB & Toast, BLT Sandwich, Vanilla Bean Chia Pudding and PB & J Overnight Oats.
At the Cynthia Rowley show, serving roughly 60 guests, Beatnic provided a menu that included Kale Caesar Salads, New Balsamic Roasted Broc, Quinoa Taco Cups, BLT Sandwich, Chicky Dippers, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies and Kitchen Sink Cookies.
BY
e-retailer Boohoo announced collaboration and partnership with Kourtney Kardashian Barker, entertainment personality and the CEO & founder of Poosh. Kardashian Barker is the brand’s newest ambassador with a focus on sustainabil ity, delivering two capsule collections that have been created in tandem with a journey of investigation into opportunities for creating a more sustainable fashion future. Launched in September 2022, the year-long project started with design meetings, where Kardashian Barker posed questions about the possibility of using the partnership to discuss the chal lenges of sustainability in fashion and help people make more informed choices. As the design team worked with Kardashian Barker to develop the first 46-piece capsule collec tion, discussions with global industry experts began, and Kardashian Barker worked to gain a better understanding of the challenges the fashion industry faces in this space. The entire journey has been captured as part of a social content series and gives a first-hand account of the experts they met on and off camera, the conversations they had, what they discovered and how this continues to inform the project and the Boohoo brand into the future.
In the series, Kardashian Barker works to dig under the surface of the industry, speak ing with experts who help her and the audience to form a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities. The audience will hear from specialists in worker welfare, human rights, textile waste, upcycling, resale and vintage fashion. Kardashian Barker also called upon the expertise of her long-time friend and sustainability influencer Stephanie Shepard, co-founder of Future Earth to identify the difficult questions we need to ask and get the conversation started about whether style and sustainability can really go together.
“When Boohoo first approached me with this idea that was all about sustainability and style, I was concerned about the effects of the fast fashion industry on our planet,” said Kourtney Kardashian Barker. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to use my platform to drive conversations that lead to ongoing change and use my voice to share actionable tips with consumers on how we can play our own part.”
The conversation starts with the content series and New York Fashion Week was the back drop for the launch of the first collection and help to ignite a more in-depth conversation. The fashion industry has challenges ahead, and Boohoo is committed to playing their part in delivering more sustainable style choices. This is just the start and as the discovery continues, the second collection, launching in spring will encompass more of what Kourt ney and our design team have learned and we will mark the end of the partnership by announcing a series of commitments based on what all of the independent experts have recommended.
Bay and Levi’s announce the opening of a Levi’s premium Shopin-Shop that offers a pinnacle ex perience celebrating the brand’s heritage, sustainability and modern design aesthetic at Hudson’s Bay in downtown Vancouver. The shop is more than just a destination to find the brand’s everyday icons such as 501 jeans and Trucker jackets, as it is a 6,600 square foot immersive experience that offers styling, product tailoring and customization, tech-enabled fitting rooms and a larger as sortment of the brand’s favorite products.
“With consumer behavior shifting in the ev er-changing retail landscape, Levi’s contin ues to prioritize how we deliver our iconic products and impactful brand experience,” says Nicolas Versloot, Managing Direc tor for Levi’s Canada. “Our goal was to provide a premium one stop shop in a coveted, high-traffic area, perfect for engaging with Levi’s fans who want to connect with the brand, and who are searching for a retail experience as well as their dream pair of Levi’s.”
“Levi’s is a brand that has transcended generational fashion eras and remained a must-have wardrobe
staple in our customer’s closets for years,” says Lau ra Janney, Chief Merchant, The Bay. “This shop rep resents Levi’s continued innovation, quality and latest fashion in an environment that inspires shoppers as they discover and connect with an iconic brand.”
As we all know, one size doesn’t and shouldn’t fit all - which is why Levi’s stylists have been specially trained to provide advice and inspiration to custom ers so that they can find their perfect style and fit,
no matter the occasion. What’s more, Levi’s has reimagined and digitized its fitting rooms for a seamless and effort less experience interacting with stylists on the floor to ask for an alternative style or fit, request heels or a belt to help visualize how the look will wear after purchase and to offer additional inspiration on pieces that help com plete the wearers’ look - all at the touch of a button.
At the heart of the experience is the Levi’s Tailor Shop, where customers can work with a skilled Levi’s Tailor to make sure the jeans fit exactly the way they want them to —whether that means simply cropping a hem, taper ing the leg or adjusting the waist. From coloured shank buttons and rivets to patches, to pocket linings, to chain stitching and embroidery, the Levi’s Tailor Shop offers a full range of customization options that ensure each pair of jeans can be a oneof-a-kind creation.
Overall, the new Levi’s Shop-in-Shop is the perfect place for customers to find their dream pair of jeans and forge a deeper connection with the brand.
to effortlessly merge Lovesac’s brand promise of Total Comfort with Alice + Olivia’s fashion aesthetic, the collaboration will bring limit ed-edition cover prints, designed by Stacey Bendet, into the living rooms of U.S. based consumers. Lovesac x Alice + Olivia CitySac and Squattoman Covers will be sold in Lovesac showrooms and on Lovesac.com, while ad ditionally being merchandised in select Alice + Olivia boutiques and shown during this season’s NYFW Presentation.
“Alongside Alice + Olivia, we’re hoping to help consumers bring runway fashion into their homes, in a comfortable and sustainable way. Just like an Alice + Olivia dress stands out from the crowd, our Stacey Bendet-designed Sac Covers will offer an expressive accent piece for virtually any living room,” said Shawn Nelson, Lovesac Founder and CEO. “Our brands share the same entrepreneurial spirit, passion for fun and unique products, and a desire to help customers reduce their carbon footprint. For Lovesac, this means designing products that are built to last a lifetime and working to wards our mission of zero waste and zero emissions by 2040.”
The brands will launch two unique styles for Fall ‘22. The Stace Face, fea tured on the Sassy Stace pattern, has been a staple for the Alice + Olivia brand since its inception. The rainbow design celebrates Alice + Olivia’s 20th anniversary and aims to bring a dose of joyful maximalism to owners’ homes.
Floral patterns, like the one featured on the Flower Garden Cover, have been crucial to Alice + Olivia designs since the brand’s inception, and this partic ular pattern will resonate with homeowners – bringing a splash of color and texture to any living area. The Flower Garden Lovesac print will be discover able in select Alice + Olivia boutiques, as well as creatively featured in Fall 2022 seasonal styles.
“We designed this Lovesac collaboration using our favorite prints to create something fun and unexpected for the home or office! The floral print is from our Fall 22 collection and the rainbow Stace Face is the icon of our brand. We chose prints that are meant to bring a pop of whimsy and happiness to your home or home office environment,” says Stacey Bendet, CEO and founder of Alice + Olivia.
Compatible with any existing Lovesac CitySac and Squattoman Inserts, the brand’s changeable, washable covers offer the opportunity for customers to tailor their space to fit their current aesthetic and changing design needs. Both patterns will be available as limited-edition covers for the Lovesac City Sac and Squattoman styles.
its 58-year-history, Nike, Inc. has been obsessed with innovation. Although the Oregon-based conglomerate has ventured beyond the bound aries of performance for footwear and apparel, the company has also exper imented with colors, manufacturing processes, marketing and other efforts.
Nike, Inc. has had its fair share of scandals over the last handful of decades, but the sportswear institution has gone back to the drawing board on countless occasions to assess how it can do better. One such area in which the Swoosh empire has focused over the last few years is sustainability. Well before recycled and eco-conscious footwear became an industry-wide focus, Nike explored ways to deliver products that required less non-virgin materials and carbon-production without sacrificing performance, resulting in innovative designs like the Air Woven (2000). The company has also used materials like cork across footwear, further experimenting with what’s possible.
The last two years have seen the Swoosh boldly bet on “Next Nature,” an initiative that sees at least 20% upcycled construction across a range of Nike Sportswear designs, most famously the Nike Dunk Low. While only making up a portion of the Nike, Inc. empire’s output of product, Next Nature is just one arm of the conglom erate-wide “Move to Zero” initiative that went into effect in 2019. Projects like the Nike Space Hippie collection were born out of the goal of becoming carbon neutral, with the all-new Nike Forward program joining the fight.
While exclusive to apparel, Nike Forward may lead the charge for updates to the brand’s footwear manufacturing procedures like Flyknit. Akin to some of the most recent Nike ISPA offerings, the latest sustainability-focused effort is rooted in future circularity. Zippers, aglets and extra trims are omitted on the first items produced via the Nike Forward platform – gray sweatshirts – to enable an easier recycling process for garments. Knits and wovens created through this platform significantly reduce their carbon footprint by an average of 75% when compared to knit fleece traditionally used by the Swoosh.
“This is the biggest Nike apparel innovation since Dri-Fit 30 years ago,” said Aar on Heiser, VP Global Apparel Product Merchandising, Nike, Inc. in an official Nike News post. “Nike Forward has huge potential to transform the industry in the way that Air and Flyknit did for Nike footwear.”
Cougar Shoes has named Janelle LeBlanc as VP of global sales. In this newly created role, LeBlanc will spearhead the development, growth and further ex pansion of Cougar Shoes’ branded sales organiza tion, including Canada, USA and international sectors. LeBlanc most recently served as managing director of U4IK Ltd., a B2B & DTC sales and marketing solutions company. There, she worked with major global brands such as FitFlop, Pajar, Chaco and Caprice, to help build and increase brand awareness at the retail level, as well as support omnichannel integration and growth. Prior to this role, LeBlanc served as the brand manager/ national sales at Wolverine Worldwide, served a twoyear term as the president of AFA Canada and remains an active member and founder of the webinar series, RetailNext.
New Balance has named Romina Bongiovanni as its global director of international marketing, where she will oversee the brand’s marketing strategy as part of the global leadership team. She previously served as the company’s director of global communications and enter tainment. She replaces Tim Malone, who left the role to join Crocs as its VP of global integrated marketing.
Macy’s, Inc. has tapped Pam Quintiliano as head of in vestor relations. In this role, Quintiliano will be respon sible for leading the company’s active investor relations program. She will succeed Mike McGuire, who previ ously announced his intent to retire after more than three years at Macy’s, Inc. and more than a 20-year career in investor relations. McGuire will stay on through the end of September to help with the transition. Quintiliano will report to Adrian Mitchell, CFO of Macy’s Inc. She joins Macy’s, Inc. from Abercrombie & Fitch Co., where she most recently served as the group VP of investor relations.
“Pam brings a wealth of experience to this role, with a deep understanding of the retail industry and financial community, including more than two decades as both a sell- and buy-side analyst,” said Mitchell in a statement. “Pam will serve as an invaluable partner as Macy’s, Inc. continues our transformation and executes on our strate gy to deliver sustainable profitable growth and maximize shareholder value over the long-term.”
the Kobe Bryant estate officially renewing its partnership with Nike, fans of the Black Mamba should be excited for what’s to come for the future of the Nike Kobe line. The revitalized union kicked things off with the release of the Kobe 6 “Mambacita”, in which proceeds of the sale went straight to the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation. Moving forward, Nike is likely to inject the Protro treatment into the vast catalog of Kobe signature shoes, updating the cushioning and materials to better fit today’s standards of hoops footwear and sustainable manufacturing. Rumored to release sometime later this year is the Kobe 6 “Prelude”, one of the celebrated installments of 2014’s Prelude Pack. This particular design references a number of Los Angeles landmarks while nodding to Kobe’s 2011 All-Star Game MVP. We suspect the entirety of the Kobe Prelude Pack to re-release in updated Protro format, although it remains to be seen if there will be a deliberate staggered schedule of releases much like how the original Prelude Pack dropped week after week to lead to the global launch of the Kobe 9 Elite.
The
environmental crisis is becoming more and more prominent in our daily lives. In turn, more people are taking it upon themselves to practice sustainability. KOKOLU, for instance, prides themselves on being a sustainable shoe manufacturer that works to prioritize the environment and eco-friendly practices throughout their entire business model.
Now, KOKOLU is adding the Eco Knit Sneaker to their collection - the first truly white sneaker to hit their shelves. The crisp white look is sure to add a layer of style to any wardrobe while being versatile enough to feel at home alongside just about every look in the book. Whether they’re worn to the office, out to the store or the bars, the Eco Knit Sneaker from KOKOLU works with any fit.
Beyond the aesthetic itself, the Eco Knit Sneaker is designed to be extremely comfortable with a shock-absorbing BLOOM insole, and a breathable exterior that provides temperature regulation to keep feet dry all day long. Most importantly, the sneaker is also a very sustainable product. The insoles are made of bamboo fibers and algae-extractions, and there are eight recycled water bottles in each sneaker as well. In addition, the packaging is 100% recycled cardboard, and the rubber is a combination of natural rubber harvested sustainably and rubber waste that would otherwise end up in landfills. All of this combines to make the crisp white, beyond comfortable, as well as extra stylish, sustainable and brand new Eco Knit Sneakers from KOKOLU.
a US-based supplier, announced it has joined Pact Collective, a nonprofit mem bership organization made up of beauty industry stakeholders focused on improving the end-of-life of beauty packaging and develop ing solutions that drive toward circularity for the industry. Eastman and Pact will work together to leverage Eastman’s molecular recycling technol ogies to recycle beauty packaging that can’t be mechanically recycled, which would otherwise end up incinerated or in landfills.
“We are thrilled to join Pact Collective,” said Tara Cary, Eastman cosmetics packaging seg ment manager. “We share its goal of ending packaging waste in the beauty industry and are excited to explore opportunities to leverage our molecular recycling technologies to grow beau ty-to-beauty recycling.”
Cary continued, “The recycling challenges for the beauty industry are complex. Eastman is commit ted to working with the industry on solutions to achieve a more sustainable future. Pact Collec tive is positioned to bring participants in the value chain together to achieve real results.”
Pact Collective offers both an in-store collec tion program and a mail-back program for hard-to-recycle beauty packaging. Pact saw Eastman as a valuable partner because of its
innovative molecular recycling technologies that offer the ability to recycle materials that the indus try can re-use in packaging.
“Pact identifies the highest and best use for the materials we collect — always starting with me chanical recycling when that is an option. What we like about Eastman’s technology is that it is true material-to-material recycling, not waste-to-fuel or energy,” said Pact Co-Founder Mia Davis.
“Eastman can help us keep plastic material in cir culation, creating more recycled content that can be used in future beauty packaging and other items.”
Eastman is a pioneer in molecular recycling — in novative technologies that source hard-to-recycle plastic waste rather than fossil-based feedstocks to create high-performance materials. These tech nologies divert plastic waste from landfills, give it new life and reduce greenhouse gas emissions relative to traditional production.
Over the past year and a half, Eastman has intro duced two portfolios of sustainable materials for cosmetic packaging using its molecular recycling technologies called Eastman Cristal Renew and Eastman Cristal One Renew As an important next step in building the circular economy, Eastman is exploring strategic take-back programs.
The female-founded body care brand continues its plant-based revolution with targeted skin care solutions for anti-aging, acne and eczema.
Photo courtesy of Green Goo
Sierra Sage Herbs body care brand, Green Goo, is pleased to announce the launch of its new Plants for Your Face & Body skincare collection. Developed to target a range of skin conditions and issues including acne, eczema, sun damage, wrinkles, dry skin and psoriasis, Green Goo’s Plants for Your Face & Body collection is produced utilizing the brand’s proprietary lipid infusion process. Rather than using harsh chemicals or pre-made extracts, Green Goo infuses healing herbs and whole-plant botanicals in rich, nourishing organic essential oils to maximize purity and elevate the healing properties of its products.
“Our new skincare collection was born from practitioners searching for non-toxic alternatives to treat chronic and acute skin conditions, and we now have hospitals and facilities across the country recom mending our products to their patients seeking head -to-toe body care regimens,” said Sierra Sage Herbs’ CEO and Co-Founder, Jodi Scott.
Scott continued, “Ultimately, we hope this collection serves all those people looking to make a lifestyle change to nourish their skin health fully. This is really just the beginning for Green Goo to challenge the way we think about and use body care products.”
and Evian water announced the launch of a limited-edition, tennis-inspired capsule collec tion made with repurposed Evian water bottles, exclusively created by Rothy’s. With a shared mission to significantly reduce and repurpose plastic waste, Rothy’s and evian collected approximately 72,000 evian bottles from New York’s largest tennis tourna ment last year, and transformed them into a stunning capsule collection using Rothy’s signature 3D knitting process.
Each September, nearly ten tons of plastic is gener ated at this annual tennis event and diverted away from landfills through recycling. In 2021, Rothy’s and evian committed to working together to find a circular solution for a portion of diverted waste, equating to approximately 72,000 evian bottles. Together, the brands announced a shared goal of giving evian bot tles collected from the tournament a chic second life as part of a capsule collection of court-side essentials, made using Rothy’s low waste, circular-focused man ufacturing method. Now in 2022, this first-of-its-kind collection where courtside style meets circular pro duction, debuts just in time for the height of the 2022 tennis season.
To create the capsule collection, evian bottles were blended with other recycled plastic bottles and then transformed into soft, washable thread, which Rothy’s used to knit each item to shape. The limited-edition offerings feature an assortment of durable and wash able footwear, tennis gear and accessories.
As Rothy’s and evian both pursue a closed-loop future, the partnership comes on the heels of both brands’ commitments to be circular by 2023 and 2025, respectively. By designing with recycled ma terials, circularity is an inherent benefit baked into Rothy’s business model. Rothy’s builds every product in its wholly-owned workshop, using world-class knit ting technology to create footwear and accessories— with nearly no waste. Furthering its mission, in March 2021, Rothy’s announced its pledge to reach circular production by 2023, pioneering the shoe recycling technology to incorporate twice-recycled materials into new products. Investing in nature-based carbon reductions for every mile of shipping, Rothy’s will also reach carbon neutrality by 2023.
“Inspired by the staggering amount of waste our founders saw in other footwear manufacturing, Rothy’s was founded with the goal of creating some thing better: better materials, better production, better product,” said Saskia van Gendt, Rothy’s Head of Sustainability. “We are excited to collaborate with evian to showcase Rothy’s transformative capabilities and prove that through innovation we find new uses for single use plastic.”
Packaging allows evian to bring its spring water to consumers, preserving the uniqueness of evian natu ral spring water’s quality – but the brand believes it shouldn’t come at the expense of the environment. evi an is certified carbon neutral and all bottles are fully recyclable. The brand is part of Danone North Ameri ca, one of the world’s largest certified B Corporations, which is part of a growing movement of established companies using business as a force for good. Today, evian natural spring water 1.5L bottles in the US are made from 100% rPET2. The Rothy’s x evian capsule collection will be available for a limited time.
Leaving its mark on thrifted clothing, Heinz Vintage Drip is a collection of 157 one-of-a-kind secondhand, ketchup-stained items, available exclusively on thredUP.
Afterdecades of leaving its mark on the fashion industry, Heinz partnered with thred UP, one of the world’s largest online resale platforms, and launched a first-of-its-kind fashion collection of thrifted clothes with ketchup stains. The collection is exclusively avail able on thredUP, featuring 157 sec ond hand streetwear and designer pieces, each containing a unique Heinz ketchup stain.
“While Heinz is recognized glob ally for its iconic glass bottle, key stone and slow-pouring ketchup, we saw an opportunity to view the stain we’ve been leaving on clothes as another iconic brand
symbol and change the narrative from a stain to a statement,” says Alyssa Cicero, Brand Manager, Brand Communications, Heinz. “This collection is about sustain ably celebrating the character Heinz ketchup stains add to ap parel, inviting our fans to embrace a new iconic symbol.”
The Heinz Vintage Drip collection comes at a time when demand for thrifting sustainable, one-of-a-kind clothing options is at an all-time high among eco-conscious Gen Z and Millennial consumers. thred UP’s 2022 Resale Report found that 62% of Gen Z and Millennials state they look for a second hand item
before purchasing a new one. The global secondhand apparel market is also expected to grow by 127% by 2026 – three times faster than the global apparel market overall.
“At thredUP, we believe every piece of clothing deserves a sec ond life- even summer barbeque casualties,” says Erin Wallace, VP of Integrated Marketing at thred UP. “This collection offers a unique way for fashion risk-takers and food lovers alike to participate in the circular economy, while doing good for people and the planet.”
Heinz Vintage Drip is available exclusively at thredUP’s website.
& Barrel unveiled its latest col laboration with interior designer, au thor and entertaining expert, Athena Calderone. Crate & Barrel’s design leadership and Calderone’s artful eye create a purposeful collection of furniture, kitch en, entertaining and décor products for beautiful, modern living.
“We were thrilled to work with Athena to create timeless pieces that transcend trends,” said Se bastian Brauer, Senior Vice President of Product Design, Head of Metaverse and Web 3.0. “Athena’s aspirational vision and commitment to live beauti ful coupled with our design centric craftsmanship and values of living with purpose and intention come through in the authentic details and materi als across this lifestyle collection.”
Inspired by elements of contemporary, global de sign, the collection draws on Athena’s signature style of making familiar shapes feel new and fresh paired with Crate & Barrel’s rich heritage of mod ern design. Much like the informed collection that took Athena years to curate for her own home, these products connect past, present and future, by mixing materials, finishes, and periods of archi tectural influence.
“The shared vision of making beautiful design accessible to all was truly captured through this collaboration with Crate & Barrel and I can’t wait to see how people style the pieces.” said Athena Calderone. “What an honor it is to think about how the collection will live on in people’s intimate homes and spaces for years to come.”
The entire collection brings ease and elegance to any home. The Scandinavian-inspired shearling Le Tuco Chair, and the Angolare sofa featuring soft mohair fabric, bring warmth to living spaces. The entertaining pieces create an elevated tone atop the Es Taller dining table, with details like the European revival ridged motif of the Pile Parfaite dinnerware. Décor including the Crucible Plant ers, and the Facette and Énorme Cannelee Vases give ancient forms a sleek, modern look.
Saks, the premier digital platform for luxury fashion, has launched the second year of its emerging designer accelerator program, The New Wave, presented by Mastercard. This year’s program features eight new-to-Saks brands, including Claude Kameni, KEEYAHRI, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Nalebe, SUNNI SUNNI, Undra Celeste, Who Decides War and Zeynep Arcay. To celebrate the program, Saks will feature participating designers in a robust marketing campaign across its digital channels and in a special window installation at the Saks Fifth Avenue New York flagship on display now through Tuesday, October 11.
The New Wave program develops and supports high-potential independent brands in accelerating their growth at Saks, and ultimately across the greater fashion industry. This year, participating designers were sourced from all categories, including women’s, men’s and gender-fluid ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories. Participants were identified by the Saks leadership team as brands that possess significant growth potential and would benefit from additional support to scale their businesses.
The program also aims to amplify BIPOC voices and furthers Saks’ commitment to increasing representation in its merchandise assortment. This year, six of the eight participating brands are Black-owned businesses, and Saks has ensured that at least half of the program participants will be BIPOC brands each year.
“We are excited to continue using our platform to uplift emerging brands and support BIPOC designers,” noted Tracy Margolies, chief merchandising officer, Saks. “This incredible program provides a unique opportunity for up-and-coming designers to accelerate their growth at Saks and across the fashion industry. At the same time, it furthers our commitment to increasing representation in our assortment and delivering fresh, compelling fashion to our customers.”
This year’s New Wave program includes:
• Onboarding bootcamp at Saks’ corporate headquarters in New York City.
• Cross-functional advisory sessions with leaders from key areas across the Saks business, including merchandising, marketing, public relations and business operations.
• Mentoring sessions with industry experts, including designer Joseph Altuzarra, Harlem’s Fashion Row’s Founder and CEO Brandice Daniel and Executive Vice President at Purple PR, Andrew Lister.
• Roundtable discussion with NBA AllStar, entrepreneur, investor and Saks board member James Harden on entrepreneurship and style.
• Small business workshops and consulting led by program partners including Launch Collective, NuORDER by Lightspeed and SKYPAD.
ing ing
• Deskside meetings with Vogue editors and access to professional development through the CFDA.
• Opportunity to receive a $10,000 grant to support business operations and growth.
For the second year in a row, Mastercard is the presenting sponsor of The New Wave program. Mastercard will provide participating designers with Digital Doors® Toolkits, including exclusive tools and resources to help small businesses digitally transform, as well as one-on-one mentorship on digital enablement. This partnership builds on Mastercard’s sustained commitment to build a more inclusive digital economy and to help close the racial wealth and opportunity gap for Black communities.
This year, United Airlines is also taking part in The New Wave program. United hosted a competition for this year’s participants to design the refreshed Saks Fifth Avenue day blanket that will appear on board United flights in United premium cabins from April 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023. Following review by leadership teams at Saks and United, Claude Kameni was selected as the winner of the design competition. In addition to her design being featured on board United flights, Claude will receive a $10,000 travel grant and a $10,000 monetary grant for design services from United.
Sapahn: A luxury brand prioritizing human rights by harnessing the power of fashion to advance rights for ALL people.
BY KRYSTAL PEGUERO
Photos courtesy of Sapahn
“Fashion should empower. It must.” This is a phrase that the sustainable handbag company, Sapahn, goes by to instill their purpose behind the brand. In 2010, Sapahn was founded by Brooke Mullen. While studying for her masters in human rights and working at the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in Thailand, she came to understand that a lack of local job oppurtunites pushed people into high-rush migration, resulting in increased vulnerabilities and incidences of trafficking. Mullen became aware of her call-to-action. She noticed a gap in women-led co-ops and business in rural villages struggling to make their trade sustainable. Eleven years later, the impact of Sapahn increased. The impact has permeated through nine villages and supported over 300 artisian families.
Sapahn means bridge in Thai. The brand takes pride in not only creating beautiful things, but the purpose of these creations is to give back; to do beautiful things. Through human rights,
Sapahn is a sustainable brand taking steps to ensure human rights is number one in their story. The brand consults with artisans to make sure their voices are heard. The artisans are also protected and paid fairly with a relaxed healthy enviornment. In the words of Brooke Mullen, “True beauty empowers. Fashion can empower. It must.” This defi nes getting serious about empowering artisans or workers. This occurs by putting their human rights fi rst and positioning them to empower themselves. Sapahn’s buyers come for the narrative on human rights and purpose, but stay and come back for the luxury leather bags.
The beautifully crafted bags are known for being soft-to -the touch. Often compared to butter soft and smooth texture, people love the feel of the luxury the bag embodies. The functional-
ity and versatlity of the bags is another feature that does not go unnoticed. Many of the bags can be worn in multiple ways for a variety of occasions. From the unique bright linings and functional pockets, Sapahn is known to go above and beyond with their detailing. Styles are dynamic, unique and can be worn multiple ways. Designed for the woman who shops quality fi rst and foremost, who also doesn’t want a bag that is covered in logos, customers love that Sapahn’s bags are minimalistic and understated but still turn heads.
The ultimate goal for Sapahn is to change the way the fashion industry operates. The brand is a reminder to be the bridge in one’s part in putting human rights fi rst.
To learn more about Sapahn and their luxury bags, visit sapahn.com.
Sapahn’s team are building a bridge to a future
“ True beauty empowers. Fashion can empower. It must. That means getting serious about empowering artisans or workers. This happens by putting their human rights first and putting them in a position to empower themselves
- Founder & Designer, Brooke Mullen
EffectiveSeptember 1, 2022, Friedman LLP and Marcum LLP joined forces under the Marcum brand. The combina tion of these two leading na tional accounting and adviso ry firms establishes Marcum as a top-12 firm with a team of more than 3,500. Friedman’s managing partners described the merger as “a momentous step toward the future” and “in the best interests of our clients, partners and employees.”
This merger represents a major milestone, earning Marcum a spot among the few pro fessional service firms with annual revenues in excess of $1 billion (projected).
Marcum’s incorporation of the 850-strong Friedman team stands to strengthen its di verse portfolio of service and industry groups, perhaps none more profoundly than the Firm’s Consumer & Industrial Products practice.
The Best of Both Worlds Marcum enjoys a strong reputation as a pro vider to the consumer and industrial products industry. The addition of the Friedman team enhances the Firm’s resources, reputation and brand by introducing professionals from a sim ilarly accomplished practice focused on serving the New York market.
Michael Sacco has served for years as the part ner-in-charge of Friedman’s consumer prod ucts practice. He brings decades of experience, deep industry knowledge and leadership skills to Marcum as head of the firm’s newly reconfig ured national Consumer & Industrial Products group. At Marcum, he’ll have more responsibil ity and resources to pursue the strategies that helped propel Friedman’s consumer products practice to prominence.
According to Sacco, “Relationships define our business – our group strives to maintain strong relationships with clients, referral sources and one another. I have a ton of respect and ad
miration for the business owners, C-suite pro fessionals, bankers, factors, attorneys and other consultants in this industry, and I take pride in understanding my clients’ businesses and the challenges and trends they face. Whether we’re providing business advisory, tax planning, trans action advisory services or financial statement audits, we are confident that our experience in the industry and passion for client service will ensure that the needs of our clients are met.
“My team and I understand that each company is unique in terms of what they sell, how they sell and where they sell. As a result, our ap proach is based on serving their one-of-a-kind needs. Whether you’re a wholesaler, a retailer, an established online shop or looking to shift into e-commerce, our team will guide you at ev ery turn to strengthen your standing in chang ing marketplaces.”
Sacco has spent his entire career developing relationships in the consumer products space and helping consumer products companies of all types keep their products on shelves or em brace new practices to move ahead of the com petition. His team advises manufacturers, im porters, distributors, retailers and online stores in all segments of the industry, including but not limited to apparel, footwear, accessories, electronics, home, furniture, beauty, diamond and jewelry and other industries.
Of his passion for the space, Sacco said, “This industry and its people are special. There’s a lot of creativity, tons of personality and infectious tenacity and self-belief. I wasn’t born with the creativity of a designer, but I can contribute my business sense, my drive to build knowledge and connections and my interest in making things work.”
The prospect of a new firm, culture, and team is intimidating for most. But for Sacco, Fried man’s combination with Marcum was a natu ral step on the road to growth. “From the be ginning this combination looked like a great
opportunity and that’s been born out in how seamlessly everything came together.”
He also expressed admiration for his new firm, saying, “Marcum has had an incredible journey, growing more than five-fold since 2008. Jeffrey Weiner, the Firm’s managing partner, is always looking ahead to the next step. It’s an admira ble mindset but, beyond that, the results speak for themselves. I think the Firm’s prospects and the market more broadly recognize Marcum as a leader and look to them as an innovator that can help them in their own growth. That has certainly included their Retail & Consumer Products practice. Like the advertisements say, ‘Ask Marcum.’”
Sacco added, “As accountants and business ad visors, we want to start a dialogue. We thrive on hearing our clients’ questions, doing our research and bringing solutions. From that perspective ‘Ask Marcum’ says it all. It’s a really strong brand and a great platform to build on.”
What about the firm he’s left behind? “We had a lot of success at Friedman, particularly when facing the challenges of the last few years. Our clients faced supply chain issues, concerns about transactions, tax planning and financ ing, uncertainty surrounding the PPP, and our people stepped up and did an amazing job to help see them through. But ultimately, this deal worked because we were able to enter it feel ing like we wouldn’t be leaving anything behind us but the name. Credit goes to our managing partners and to Jeffrey Weiner, who have made it clear that we are taking everything that made Friedman special, its people and its culture, and bringing it with us to Marcum.”
As a national industry group leader at Mar cum, Sacco will be responsible for growing the practice, expanding the Marcum brand in the marketplace and leading the consumer prod uct team throughout the country. He will also continue to leverage his industry knowledge and access to key industry advisors to serve the
interests of the practice’s clients. He believes that his long-standing relationships with banks, attorneys, private equity investors and logistics companies, as well as e-commerce and other industry consultants, will be an asset. In discussing what will change for Sacco as the leader of a larger national consumer products practice, he’s quick to refocus on what will re main constant, saying, “I’m going to continue to serve our clients and Marcum team mem bers and wake up every day focused on busi ness development, growing the Marcum brand and training and mentoring our Marcum peo ple to be the next generation of leaders.
The clients following Michael and his team from Friedman’s practice will likely take com
fort in uninterrupted access to their long-serv ing partner and other team members. As a bonus, they will now find an extensive menu of additional services available to support their growth.
In addition to Marcum’s more substantial geo graphic footprint, the firm has a broad offering of specialized industry practices. For example, Friedman provided technology consulting ser vices centering on data stewardship and cy bersecurity solutions. Marcum clients – partic ularly those in industries that are increasingly dependent on sophisticated technological sys tems and eCommerce channels – have access to a much deeper technology consulting capa bility at Marcum.
“eCommerce is ever-evolving. At the begin ning you needed a website. Now it’s not just the website, but an app, branded social media, a strong virtual presence, latest ERP systems and warehouse management systems – all of which continue to evolve,” said Sacco. “Mean while, there’s a whole new suite of tools on the horizon, including drones and robotics, auto mation, metaverse malls, augmented reality, 5G integration and more. Marcum Technology is dedicated to helping clients become more re sponsive, profitable and sustainable in this en vironment by integrating technology solutions that have immediate impact on the business.”
Another key area of service is Marcum’s Trans
action Advisory Services group, which has a long history of guiding privately owned companies, PE firms, family offices, fundless sponsors, investment banking firms and middle-market companies through complex mergers, acquisitions, carve-outs and corporate formations in the United States and abroad. After all, it isn’t just the accounting industry that is seeing an increase in major combinations.
“Marcum has a top M&A group,” said Sacco. “Whether it’s quality of earnings, buy- or sellside due diligence, deal structuring or buyouts, we can take on that work seamlessly to help ensure deals stay on track, opportunities aren’t missed and clients have the full spectrum of financial insight all in one place.”
Even with so much to look forward to, Sacco remains focused on the details. He understands the challenge of walking into an established practice with the responsibility of pulling it all together while meeting his commitments to existing clients and new colleagues.
“Thankfully, this is not a ground-up construction. Marcum’s people are their strength, and their consumer and industrial products team isn’t being built, it’s just expanding. As for my clients, I’ll continue to be by their side and will show them that more responsibility for me means better service for them.”
As for the national team? “The emphasis on
growth outside of New York will be new to me, but not to this team. We want a presence throughout the country so we can harness new opportunities and expand our services. To accomplish this, we will need more regional consumer and industrial product specialists, new lines of consulting services to offer, training for our staff and new relationships. At the same time, it’s important to me that our national group operates as one team.”
Furthermore, Sacco is arranging consumer and industrial products symposiums, monthly meetings and more to bring team members together, digitally and face-to-face.
He added, “It’s imperative that our staff develop to offer continuity of service.”
2022 Fashion Week’s Newest, FC Fashion Week announced it will be premiering its first Red Carpet Fashion Show in one of Brooklyn’s most trendsetting neighborhoods, Williamsburg (Seven House Gallery). Traveling all the way from Union, New Jersey, Faraj Couture Creative Studio decided to produce a Fashion Show that would allow emerging designers a platform that would help establish them as a professional entity. With months of brainstorming and
searching for inspiration, the theme “Crystal Noir” just seemed best fitting with the opulent aesthetics of Faraj Couture’s Cre ative Director and founder Princess Faraj. With the expertise and unique vision of Branding Specialist Asia Golden, Creative Director and Founder of AGLDN, they were able to come up with a distinctive look and messaging that would immediately peak interest in those casually scrolling on social media look ing for fashion opportunities.
BY AIDA M. TORO & LAURIE MELCHIONNE
Photos courtesy of The Nolcha Shows
art of luxury craftsmanship has laid the backbone of Tuscan goods for thousands of years. Literally. The ancient Etrus cans molded pottery for bowls and plates. Renaissance jewelry makers smithed gold and diamonds to fill Medi ci coffers in Florence. A city pulsating with his tory, art and design, it is no wonder that Kim berly Pucci’s luxury, sustainable fashion brand found its roots in the famous Tuscan capital.
Pucci, who studied English at the University of Rhode Island, always found her heart in the cul ture of the Romance Languages. With a back ground in art history, Pucci learned Spanish and Italian before deciding to go to the world of luxury fashion’s birthplace: Florence itself, where she lived for a study abroad program and ended up staying for 17 years.
“When I landed in Florence, I was stopped in my tracks,” Pucci said. “I could not believe that in every corner and on every street, all I could find was beauty.”
After returning from the study abroad program, Pucci graduated from the University of Rhode Island, packed a bag and hopped on the first flight back to Florence. There, Pucci worked as a nanny for a couple who owned a Florentine leather shop, and subsequently found her first introduction to leather. From then, Pucci be came a sponge, absorbing every craft that came her way. That included falling in love with her first fashion passion: jewelry.
“From gold design to craftsmanship, creation,
stones, stone settings and the jewelry market, I fell in love with all of it and was constantly sur rounded by the best Italian jewelers that were known to mankind,” said Pucci.
Everything Pucci learned in Italy 25 years ago from original Tuscan craftsmen, she incorpo rates into her collections today. With that said, Pucci became the talk of the town this summer when she met Serena Williams at an event in the Hamptons hosted by the 1640 Society. At that event, Williams fell in love with the Niccolo Bag designed by Pucci, as she mentioned to her that as a busy mom, she was a lover of large, oversized bags without zippers so she could take things out in a hurry.
“I am extremely honored and humbled that one of the most inspirational female tennis players in the world decided to wear a Kimberly Pucci tote bag on her first day of what was officially her last U.S. Open,” said Pucci. “This put the brand front and center stage, not only at one of the most renowned sporting events in the world, but all eyes were on Serena because she knew her power as well as her impact on the world by wearing my bag and for that, I am truly blessed.”
Her encounter with Williams wasn’t the end of the hype, as she was a featured designer at the leading award-winning event The Nolcha Shows for New York Fashion Week (NYFW) “I feel this show was very special,” said Pucci. “As a designer and someone who loves the Earth, I am constantly looking for ways to create a brand that is beautiful but also luxurious and setting the standards for luxury craftsmanship
for the future.”
The inspiration behind the collections pre sented at the Nolcha Shows recalled glorious Tuscan sunsets touched with Florentine gold, glimmering hues of the Mediterranean as the brand navigates the crystal-clear Sardinian Ar chipelago and the cool monumental marble of ancient Roman pillars that still stand in their glory throughout the Eternal City.
With client-needs put first, the brand contrib utes to decreasing waste in fashion, a notori ously wasteful industry. For Pucci, slow fashion is the heart of the luxury goods crafted for a bespoke wearing experience on an individual level, making not only quality a top priority, but sustainability and respect for the environment, craftsmen and Tuscan traditions.
“Kimberly Pucci is not only an impeccably cre ated luxury goods line,” explained Pucci, “But it is a brand designed in the U.S. with strong ties to Tuscan heritage.”
Overall, Pucci has other projects in the works with private residences, hotel groups that em brace slow and sustainable travel with acces sories such as travel bags, gifts, hotel décor, a branded image through the art of travel and living, and so much more.
“I am super excited about a number of things that I have in the wheelhouse,” concluded Puc ci. To keep up with Pucci and her upcoming projects, follow her on Instagram over at @kimberly.pucci.
Photos courtesy of Ana Sophia Acosta
we look inside our closet, more often than not, we have all these clothes but find ourselves wearing the same pieces. And yet, with the latest fashion trend or style emerging, we find ourselves buying more of what celebrities are wearing and putting our already forgotten clothes even further on the back burner. They sit there for the “what if‘’ occasions, nostalgia, or the simple feeling of finding it hectic to get rid of them. Therefore, it is easier to keep them stored away. The cycle of buying more clothes while neglecting most of the ones we already have persists. But what if we can use what we already have in our closets and make that fit with what we desire now? The old becomes new and while doing so, we are practicing sustainability. Now that’s a la mode and what Converted Closet, created by Kate McGuire, is all about—using what we already have in our closet and repurposing it into a new look which in turn reduces our carbon footprint.
To provide more of a visual, we as people for the most part wear just 20% of our clothes with the remaining 80% going unscathed. McGuire prompts people to really look into their closet to verify such statistics.
“With your hand on your heart. What percentage of your closet that you’ve got right now, do you wear on a day to day basis?” asked McGuire.
Due to the prevailing world of fast fashion, people are able to obtain what they want with ease, owning a new item of clothing. If the right occasion presents itself, many think to themselves that it’s time to add a fresh addition to their closet. What we don’t see are the hugely squashed margins all the way down the supply chain in order to bring us the clothes. The Business of Fashion did a report called The Future of Resale Potential, where it looked at the future of resale potential and how much resale is actually out there to be able to sustain the resale industry.
McGuire states, “The fashion consuming population, they’re wearing 20% [of clothing] and I’m sure it’s bigger than 2.1 trillion. So you think about that and then you think about the 150 billion new clothes that the fashion industry is churning out every year.”
She continued, “We’re not thinking about what’s behind the rails. We’re just looking for the next hit, which I don’t believe there is a blame for. I believe it is about educating and raising awareness of what’s going on so that we can let people have a choice. We all live here. So we should have the choice as to how we treat the planet and it’s that simple, but if we don’t know what’s going on and we are not aware, how can we make a choice?”
McGuire has made it her mission to educate on the fashion industry and how it affects the world through entertainment. She believes people don’t want to be told information, as there are enough people out there bearing bad news.
“I’m gonna tell you this information, but at the
same time, I’m gonna tell you something that’s gonna change your life and make your fashion consumption even more exciting than it was in the first place,” she said.
She also believes that you can get immense value from your closet as it is and with all these resale platforms popping up, people can wear a lot of the clothes they didn’t think they could, create their own design, a version of anything out there for a snip of the price by investing in a local seamstress and understanding what it takes to make it suitable just for them.
McGuire added, “You will never look back because everybody I know who has started doing this, who’s started to realize that this is an option, has completely changed their lives. So therefore, it’s like, okay, lets raise awareness of the issue and then raise awareness of the power of converting and altering your clothes.”
If green is sustainable, I was red
The journey of fashion and sustainability for McGuire wasn’t always clear cut. Having lived in Winchester, England, McGuire grew up where shopping locations were limited. There were about three cool–or - coolish shops, high street shops. Even though she couldn’t really get what she wanted, McGuire took it upon herself to convert the clothes she already had. Having struggled with her weight when she was younger, she didn’t like the way she looked in clothes and wanted to find ways to admire her image when it came to wearing the clothes.
“If your skin didn’t fit you, you’d feel really off,” explained McGuire, who considers clothes to be a secondary layer of skin.
There had to be a way for clothing to fit just right for an individual which led to her discovering the art of optical illusion in fashion.
McGuire mentioned, “Something that doesn’t really work on me is this big trend for big oversized puffy sleeves. It looks fantastic on everybody with big hair and a certain frame, but I have a small frame and I wear my hair back and it looks bloody ridiculous. I look like I have a pinhead, but I love that fashion.”
She continued, “With that said, I bought many pieces of clothing with big sleeves and all I’ve done is just move the shoulder in and just by making that one change it looks amazing. It’s important to let people know that literally one or two tweaks makes a garment look completely different on you.”
The conversion of clothes continued throughout the years, at first starting out just for fun. One day, McGuire’s hairdresser’s receptionist told her to post her converted clothes on Instagram. When she created her account and started doing so, what she thought would be an account for simple styling actually became an account about converting. Through McGuire’s consistency with her Instagram posts, people told her that what she was doing was sustainable and at
that moment in time, she had no idea what that meant. At first, she was on the opposite spectrum of sustainability.
McGuire said, It doesn’t matter where you join the party from, you know, what point you get in the river, who cares, where you get in. You’ve just gotta get in.”
She became interested in educating herself on sustainability and going to the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. The more McGuire learned, the more interested she became. She then made some videos for sustainable companies, like Fashion Revolution, because they caught her eye. When attending the summit, which is basically the hub for all the major brands to gather once a year to commit to changes when they produce clothes, McGuire realized there weren’t that many solutions for sustainability in fashion. The issue was being discussed; however, nobody offered a resolution.
“This is a massive problem. I want a solution. I was finding a solution before I even knew that one was needed,” said McGuire. “I was doing it for fun. So if I’m doing something for fun and it happens to be a major solution to a major global problem, then what can I do?”
McGuire had to introspect in order for her solution to affect the masses. When reflecting, she thought that a weird paradigm existed in today’s fashion society.
”Fashion is about giving people a look that they can mimic so that they become part of a tribe so that they feel like they belong,” she stated. “There’s this idea of belonging and at the same time, there is this yearning for people who want to be unique.”
McGuire thought to herself, How do you straddle designer pieces and belong to one kind of look and then be unique with it? She continued her thought process by thinking of which elements pertain to the look that everybody currently wants. Essentially, by knowing this information, one can take the bits and pieces that they love with the help of a dressmaker and create their own version of the look they desire. Converted Closet can convert their clothes with how-to’s by illustration and videos, giving people the tools they need to make a change while obtaining their desired look.
Converted Closet has big plans for the future such as an entry-level book for the novice converter. McGuire promises the book to be full of illustrations , allowing the reader to see the visual and how it became the final product through conversion. She also said it will be a fun read to gain one’s attention, although, she would love for readers to just do everything themselves.
Overall, McGuire would like to have a large scale Instagram presence, at least three books published and create her own TV show. Want to keep up with McGuire and Converted Closet? Follow her on Instagram over at @ convertedcloset
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Downtown Manhattan-based, women-owned custom clothing company, The Tailory New York, took their friendship with neighbor DOG POUND Gym to the New York Fashion Week (NYFW) runway at the Nolcha Shows. The show paid a musical homage on the runway to the former burgesses of their respective head quarters’. Both brands inhabit the foregoing stu dio and headquarters of Oscilloscope Laborato ries, “The House”, founded by founding member of the Beastie Boys, Adam Yauch.
“The honor of my workspace being the former studio of Adam Yauch is something I do not take lightly,” said Shao Yang, Founder & Creative Director of The Tailory New York. “I grew up in Brooklyn in the 80’s and 90’s, and not only were the Beastie Boys just the soundtrack to our youth but were our heroes.”
Yang continued, “The music they wrote were anthems to us, they led us, guided us, and most of all, educated us. We think of Mr. Yauch daily, the relics of his studio, the physical elements, and those anthems I mentioned, they play on our sound system constantly, with singing, dancing and fist-pumping included.”
She opened the doors to The Tailory New York in 2013 as a way for her to combine her two passions: Fashion Design and Custom Tailoring. She realized everyone wanted to look their best by having a wardrobe curated to their body and lifestyle, not only enabling them to look their best, but to feel their best as well. The most recent collection in collaboration with DOG POUND, STREETORIAL gained inspiration from high above the corner of Canal and Ren wick streets. The actual gym is street level and The Tailory’s Design Studio is directly above it
on the second floor.
“Our two spaces are divided by a hallway, and thanks to DOGPOUND, it has the energy of the tunnel that the players run out of at the Super Bowl,” she said. “The gym thumps all day; it is the collective heartbeat of the building.”
Starting daily at sunrise and dressed in pitch black, DOGPOUNDs Founder Kirk Myers’ and his team are training clients out on Renwick Street. At DOGPOUND, a very special vernac ular is utilized, which is dominated by inspiring words such as: “smash!”, “crush!”, “yes!” and most importantly, “let’s go!”.
“This collection exemplifies two unlikely brands and friends coming together to create some thing really special, which is what I always love to see,” expressed Myers.
With Fashion Week different for the past two years, Yang felt designers owed the audience something special. With that said, her thoughts turned into what creates New York’s energy, the endless drive required and the necessary hustle. The following step was to capture the feel of New York street energy into a collection, which Yang had no need to go a far distance for her muse. As both The Tailory and DOGPOUND share the fifth floor of their building as their re spective headquarters, the collaboration was a no-brainer.
“When we asked Kirk about doing this, in an instant he said, ‘Let’s go.’ Then I asked, ‘Hey Kirky, how about you walking in the show?’” said Yang. “He then replied again in an instant, ‘Let’s go.’
“This is the second show I’ve walked in and it was great,” said Myers.
Yang describes STREETORIAL as a fierce, strong and versatile collection. The inspiration from DOGPOUND added street elements such as graffiti, rips, cuts and got The Tailory New York thinking about accessories. Therefore, they infused bucket hats, belts and of course fanny packs, which had the collection go from an athleisure concept to athleisure with an im mersion of streetwear.
“The collection was a great translation of our brand and me,” said Myers. “It really brings out the vibe of our brand! The blazer I wore that had our logo crystalized was definitely my style, as I am a big fan of the Swarovski crystals.”
“The one word I would use is ‘formative’,” said Yang regarding what she looks forward to with STREETORIAL. “Every collection and every fashion week exhibition has a profound, lasting impact.”
Yang concluded, “Usually, you do not realize the effect for a while, because the runway show is just the launch of it. The realization of the ex perience usually happens when you are looking back months later. This collection is different, it has been formative since we started working on it.”
Myers hopes STREETORIAL makes people feel inspired to do things outside the box and to sim ply just have fun.
Learn more about The Tailory and DOG POUND’s STREETORIAL collection on Insta gram : @thetailorynyc and @dogpound.
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our present and the future to come, tech nology is at the forefront. Whether we are aware or not, it plays a significant role in all we have as well as what we do. Beauty is a topic that will always be of relevance, which is why society questions how the two worlds result in merging.
Beautyque NYC, founded by Sonia Khemiri and Sylvie Giret, is the first 3D multi-brand virtual retail storefront in the beauty industry exempli fying the intertwining of both businesses. The brand aims toward bridging beauty with tech nological innovation to create immersive expe riences. Khemiri chose indie brands due to her personal experience and believes a brand is au thentic once it has a mission, products that work and are absolutely clean.
“I pitched to many retailers, reached out to many stores, but the response was very disap pointing to me at that time,” said Khemiri. “As a financial analyst by training, it was important for me to find a solution for my own brand.”
She was trying to figure out ways her brand can access the savvy customer and how she can build awareness as well as engagement as a brand with her limited budget. In addition, Khemiri noticed there were many good brands
and products out there, which deserved to be recognized just like hers.
“I’ve never looked at them as competitors, how ever I knew they deserved to be noticed,” she said.
With this idea, Beautyque was born. The busi ness model she utilized is not new, however, it is fresh to the beauty industry. Serving indie brands that are worth being seen and used by customers is the core of Beautyque NYC’s mis sion. However, with time, the company was ap proached by bigger brands and has a few big names like Lelo in sexual wellness, which is absolutely in tune with what Beautyque NYC supports.
“For us, they can absolutely coexist on our plat form and work together in this experience,” said Khemiri. “With many consumers shifting to the online shopping platform, Beautyque NYC brings the in-store experience to where you are.”
“Etre bien dans sa peau” (Feeling good about yourself) is an overall thing that we always want to offer at Beautyque.
Beautyque NYC also offers live workshops, which began online during the pandemic just
one month after the 3D store launched in May 2020. Live events stream in the 3D store with brand founders sharing their stories as well as product demonstrations. Events comprise of fit ness, coaching, mental health, sexual wellness seminars and more. All these events are cen tered around Beautyque NYC’s beauty pillars: mental & emotional empowerment, nutrition & health, sexual wellness & intimate care, skin care, makeup and any other topic that matters to foster empowerment.
“From the beginning, our vision was about beauty,” said Khemiri. “For us, beauty is not only about skincare and makeup, but also men tal empowerment, sexual health, and nutrition.”
Sonia continued by stating that Beautyque NYC desires for women and men to feel good no mat ter their age, ethnicity or gender when experi encing the company’s highly curated products by independent brands.
Designed to be a physical retail store in Soho, NYC in the spring of 2020, however, halted by the pandemic that transpired, the Beautyque NYC brick-and-mortar was going to offer per sonalized wellness, health and beauty solutions. With a quick pivot, the store launched as an ecommerce site with a virtual 3D storefront,
keeping the same foundations for the online pres ence. When choosing brands to be part of the actual store, Beautyque NYC wanted those that create great products as well as make an impact.
Khemiri stated, “We look for unique brands. Uniqueness is a bit tricky because some factors are measurable and some others are non-mea surable. We look at the message behind the brand, their authenticity, what they offer and the substantiation behind their claims.”
Through discussions with brands, Khemiri judged which brands were being transparent and authentic to bring into the store. She mentioned that she seeks brands that have a mission beyond just conducting business, such as supporting causes of all sorts along with women and minori ty owned brands.
“We support brands who made sustainability their reason to exist, or brands who want to offer quality at an affordable price,” she said. “We look at their innovation, which sometimes could be a simple product that works and also look at the way they serve their customers.”
The extensive process of searching for the best fit brands for the store does not end there. Af ter reading all available information on beauty
brands and discussing details with Khemiri, Beautyque NYC along with a formulating team of experts requested to receive products to test, as it is essential to see how they work and assess whether the product fits the company’s standard of a clean product.
Beautyque also differentiates itself from other stores with the experiences provided for their consumers. According to Khemiri, the experi ence goes beyond the 3D space, as they are work ing on bringing a customized experience to their virtual store in order to gain an authentic human connection just as they would as a physical shop. Starting out as the first 3D virtual retailer in the beauty industry, Beautyque NYC now plans to be a leader in the Metaverse.
“We started the experience with the 3D store presence, which we are working to enhance to its optimal use, especially with Metaverse we have unlimited possibilities,” said Khemiri. “For this reason, we got into tech and I personally love it.”
She continued, “Tech is here to uplift our lives in the digital world and beauty to uplift us in the real world.”
While Beautyque NYC in its entirety remains online, the company currently has a partner
ship with Doors NYC, a unique fashion and art platform in Soho and LA founded by Alise Traut mane, which supports unique emerging fashion designers and artists while incorporating fashion with art.
“Adding beauty in a space of fashion and art made sense, there is a thin line that connects them all,” she said.
Beautyque NYC also plans to create a much big ger space with more interaction in the Metaverse. Khemiri believes the company needs to be lead ing the metaverse by providing a culmination of technology, knowledge and a highly curated selection of products that serve the customer’s beauty journey. In addition, Beautyque NYC is working on improving their sense of community by building and bringing more brands into their platform.
“We want people to be part of our community to help them grow in this journey and give them access to what we believe will help, something to know, something to experience or to buy,” said Khemiri. “Join us, share with us and support brands that deserve your recognition.”
To learn more about Beautyque NYC, visit www. beautyque.nyc and contact hello@beautyque.nyc.
Xcel Brands, Inc., a media and consumer products company with unparalleled expertise in livestream shopping, an nounced the launch of C. Won der by Christian Siriano. In ad dition, the company announced that Siriano was appointed Creative Director of the new brand, which will launch in spring of 2023. The praised American fashion designer has helmed his own brand since 2008 and has been a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) since 2013. Siriano’s designs have been worn on the red carpet by numerous celebrities, such as current FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden, for mer FLOTUS Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie, Oprah, Zendaya, Ariana Grande, Julianne Moore, Lady Gaga, Tiffany Haddish, Billy Porter, Cardi B, among others. Although he’ll be delivering his signature refined exuberance to C. Wonder by Christian Siriano, Siriano will continue to design his own collection. Not to mention, he will serve as the public face and voice of the brand, includ ing appearing on HSN’s broadcast and stream ing service in 2023.
“Bringing Christian on board to lead the trans formation of C. Wonder by Christian Siriano is another key step in the creation of a live-selling ecosystem that connects our brands directly with consumers,” said Robert W. D’Loren, chairman and chief executive officer of Xcel Brands. “Chris
tian’s sophisticated aesthetic, creative vision and vibrant personality have made him one of Amer ica’s most respected young designers and we’re confident he’ll bring a renewed sense of excite ment to C. Wonder as we solidify our leadership within the fast-growing livestream marketplace.”
“I’ve always loved the C. Wonder brand and I’m thrilled to join the team at Xcel Brands to collab orate and share the brand with new audiences,” said Siriano. “Livestreaming has such a fantastic future here in the US and I can’t wait to be able to connect personally with millions of C. Wonder customers across platforms.”
C. Wonder was originally founded by billionaire Chris Burch. All stores closed back in 2015, hav ing failed to find a market for its kitschy midpriced womenswear, home goods and more. D’Loren felt it to be an ideal time to reintroduce C. Wonder to a larger audience who is looking for fashion-forward apparel, accessories and home products at a great price. With the dras tic changes the fashion world has experienced, consumers are looking for that personal connec tion when shopping, which they receive through livestreaming.
“Understanding how a brand connects with con sumers is very important to its longevity, and Christian was the perfect designer to bring on board to help renew C. Wonder, which has so
much life to it, through our expansive livestream ing network,” said D’Loren.
Xcel Brands is one of the largest apparel pro viders within the interactive TV market and is strategically investing in livestreaming technol ogy platforms and partnerships. In addition to C. Wonder by Christian Siriano, the company produces and distributes sportswear and dresses under the Halston and H Halston labels available at premium retailers that include Neiman Mar cus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and HSN. It owns the Judith Ripka and LOGO by Lori Goldstein brands as well as a minority stake in Isaac Mizrahi and Longaberger home products and livestreaming platform.
“Livestreaming” is a powerful way for brands and retailers to engage with their customers,” men tioned D’Loren. “Consumers are bored with static images and are seeking more information and interaction with the brands that interest them.”
Shopping, entertainment and social media inter sect via livestream in order to meet and create social commerce. With that said, C. Wonder and Siriano are the perfect match to entertain and engage with consumers through livestreaming.
C. Wonder by Christian Siriano will launch in March 2023.
On its 150th anniversary, the leading retailer launches b the change, a new platform that will define its next era of social purpose, and introduc es the Bloomingdale's x FIT Sustainable Innovation Fund
announced today the launch of b the change, a new social purpose initiative that will define the future of the com pany’s social impact efforts as it celebrates its 150-year legacy this fall. The leading retailer has part nered with the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) of the State University of New York to establish the Bloomingdale’s x FIT Sustainable Inno vation Fund, a collaborative endeavor that will curate the philanthropic and sustainability-centered efforts for the new b the change platform.
“As we celebrate our milestone anniversary, we are not only commemorating the past 150 years, but also look ing ahead to our next era,” stated Tony Spring, chair man and CEO, Bloomingdale’s. “We believe we have a responsibility to our colleagues, our customers and our community to help build a more equitable, sustain able future for everyone. We are excited to have had the chance to partner with FIT to bring b the change to life with new programs and initiatives that will help shape the future of our industry. Together, we are working to ward a more inclusive, diverse culture and making our philanthropic efforts even more meaningful.”
With b the change, Bloomingdale’s is redefining its so cial good and philanthropic commitments as well as
progressing its commitment to sustainability and inno vation. The new platform has three distinct pillars that inform the charitable initiatives, educational programs and operational innovations dedicated to these commit ments.
• b sustainable - to protect our planet for the next gen eration by conserving resources and reducing environ mental impact
• b inclusive – to build a more equitable future where all voices are heard and amplified • b the future – investing in the youth of today through mental health advocacy and equitable educational re sources
Bloomingdale’s and FIT have come together to develop this new philanthropic initiative that will highlight and celebrate sustainability and the next generation of cre ative industry leaders. At the core of b the change, the Bloomingdale’s x FIT Sustainable Innovation Fund will create new spaces and resources that support teach ing and learning, research and activities dedicated to sustainability for students, faculty, alumni, industry part ners and the public.
“FIT is honored to be part of this new initiative cre ated by Bloomingdale’s,” explained FIT President, Dr. Joyce F. Brown. “Partnering with Bloomingdale’s will
promote and enhance the strong, active and highly vis ible commitment that FIT has made to sustainability innovation. In collaboration with their leadership, we want to demonstrate that sustainability is possible for a large institution and ultimately provide a model for other organizations.
With a mission to engage the fashion and retail com munities in the development of sustainable projects, the Bloomingdale’s x FIT Sustainable Innovation Fund will help both partnering institutions achieve their shared goals to bring people across the industry together with programs that spark new ideas and lead to the develop ment of viable solutions.
The funds raised through this collaborative initiative will support a variety of commitment-driven efforts including educational and mentorship programs, inno vation labs, sustainable fashion showcases and more.
As part of its commitment to cultivating a more inclu sive, sustainable future, Bloomingdale’s is committed to raising $2 million for its philanthropic partners through in-store and online events throughout the year. In honor of the launch of b the change and the Bloomingdale’s x FIT Sustainable Innovation Fund, shoppers can support the cause and donate by rounding up their purchase to the nearest dollar in store or making a donation online at checkout throughout the month of September.
Cooperman
a leading accounting and advisory providers for manufacturing and distribution companies. Over time, the firm has developed a focus on fashion and apparel companies, providing assurance, tax, and advisory to both start-ups and well-established brands. Citrin Cooperman has a keen understanding of the industry and remains upto-date on market trends and changes that impact
apparel
this
State-of-the-art fashion and beauty programming to embrace sus tainability and technology aimed at representing Los Angeles as the world’s new creative capital.
N4XT Experiences presented a reimagined Los An geles Fashion Week (LAFW) to take place from Oc tober 6-9, 2022, which represents a preview of the experience to come in 2023. LAFW Fall 2022 will be a premiere culture hub that will produce unique, immersive, state-of-the-art physical and digital experi ences across fashion, beauty, technology, sustainabili ty and inclusion. Programming during the events will include: immersive experiences, traditional runway shows and presentations, curated pop-ups, panels,
fireside chats, masterclasses, as well as activations in the beauty, health and wellness landscape.
LAFW will take place among a variety of quintessen tial Los Angeles locations, using the newly renovated and innovative Lighthouse Immersive ArtSpace L.A, Citizen News and EDITION West Hollywood as of ficial LAFW venue partners as well as activating at the Dr. Barbara Sturm Los Angeles Spa & Boutique. Official Partners include Mercedes-Benz of Los An
geles with the EQS class as the Official Car of LAFW, Bolt, Estée Lauder, Ray-Ban Stories & Meta, Delos, Ultimate Ears by Logitech, EcoAge, Red Bear Winery and Moët & Hennessy. Additional partners include DeLeon Tequila, Ciroc, Crown Royal, Tanqueray, Heineken, Perrier, Essentia, Bev, Della Vite Prosecco, Moss Adams and more. LAFW has also onboarded Viper by KCH to enhance and elevate the overall guest experience.
The innovative and bespoke experience conceptual ized by LAFW highlights the intersection of fashion, beauty, tech and sustainability with culture shifting brands that include: AnOnlyChild by Maxwell Os borne with his LA Inaugural Presentation in collab oration with K18 Hair Biomimetic Hairscience; The Delta Runway Runway Collection with Issa Rae; Fleur du Mal with their 10th Anniversary Celebration in collaboration with Too Faced; Gypsy Sport, Sami Miro Vintage, Levi’s, Guess, Revice Denim, Demobaza, Asian Journal Group & Tech Edge Solutions present ing Chris Nick, Francis Libiran & Avel Bacudio, and a selection of emerging designers.
On Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October 8, LAFW will feature N4XT CHATS: a selection of masterclass
es, fireside chats and panels at Citizen News. These sessions include: Sustainability & Technology: Shifting the Tide of NFTs with Livia Firth of EcoAge, Sustainability: The Stories We Wear – What Sustainable Fashion Stands For and How We Can All Make an Impact/Be Part of The Change, Moderated by Taylor Zakhar Perez, Future of Beauty: The Clean Beauty Revolution, Mod erated by Joe Zee featuring Dr. Barbara Sturm, Rose Inc and Amyris, Digital Fashion & How it is changing the Industry presented by DRESSX, The Journey of Starting a Brand with Jennifer Zuccarini of Fleur Du Mal, Live Art session with Danielle Lauder and Don ald Robertson discussing Fashion, Beauty and Artistry and more.
The N4XT Experiences leadership team is composed
of industry heavy-hitters that will provide innovation and guidance for all participating. The four founders include Ciarra Pardo, President of Los Angeles Fash ion Week Enterprises and former Chief Creative Offi cer of FENTY, Imad Izemrane, co-founder of Spring Place, Marcus Ticotin, former Co-Founder and CEO of Abandon Entertainment, Keith Abell, formerly co-President GSC Group and founder, The Blackstone Group Asia, and joining the founders is Arthur Chip man serving as the Executive Producer for LAFW.
President of LAFW and Co-founder of N4XT Expe riences Ciarra Pardo said, “We are looking to create a cohesive festival experience that can happen ev erywhere, and explore the possibilities that fashion, beauty and tech can hold in creating a more sustain
able and innovative future. L.A has really become the Mecca of sustainability in the U.S. and with the pro gressiveness of California, we wanted to celebrate that cultural renaissance.”
For the first time in over a decade, LAFW will also list its schedule on the CFDA Fashion Calendar with the support of the organization. “The new direction of L.A Fashion Week is impressive. It is exciting to see the high caliber of shows and events on the schedule.
I’ve spent time meeting with Ciarra Pardo and Imad Izemrane, and I am aligned with their vision. I ap preciate the respect they have for CFDA, and we are pleased that LAFW is using CFDA’s Fashion Calendar in organizing and presenting its schedule” said Steven Kolb, CFDA CEO.
N4XT Experiences has also enlisted a special advi sory board of leaders in the fashion-scape to further exemplify the mission statement of democratizing the
industry, amplifying emerging voices and enriching experiences for participants. These board members include Catherine Bennett (CEO at FMT Entertain ment, former SVP and Managing Director WME-IMG Fashion Events and Properties), Bethann Hardison (fashion pioneer & activist, executive advisor for Guc ci Global Equity Board & CFDA board member) and Livia Firth (co-founder and creative director of EcoAge).
Held on Monday, September 12, NYFW’s The Talk hosted Navigating the New Phygital Age of Fashion and Art, presented by Afterpay, a conversation featuring Natalie McGrath, Elise Swopes and Michelle Reeves. The event was moderated by Melanie McClain. The Q&A touched on how advances in technology have altered much more than the processes in which we make clothing and reframe our mindset around them.
Energous Corporation, a leading developer of RF-based charging for wireless power networks – and Flagship – a retail technology company that gives physical stores the ability to track their products in real time while unlocking detailed customer browsing insights – today announced their second retail store deployment of Wiliot In ternet of Things (IoT) Pixel smart tags. Energous and Flagship’s latest deployment is with Acad emy Brand, which specializes in timeless, classic clothing for men, women and kids across Aus tralia.
The deployment is the second retail program an nounced by Energous and Flagship. The Wiliot tags in Flagship’s retail deployment are all wire lessly energized by multiple Energous WattUp PowerBridges, capturing important information such as stock integrity (in-store inventory location) as well as purchases. This helps Academy Brand to understand in-store consumer behavior and garner actionable insights related to inventory counts, loss prevention, fitting room sessions, replenishment requirements and floor merchandising.
“This exciting new deployment with Academy accentuates the progress that we continue to make in the commercial rollout of wireless power networks within the retail sector,” said Cesar Johnston, CEO of Energous. “By providing a reliable source of wireless power for these tags, Energous technology is truly enabling the transformation of the smart retail space.”
Wiliot IoT Pixels are battery-free, active Bluetooth smart tags that can be at tached to almost anything and at a low cost. In the Academy Brand deploy ment, the Wiliot tags are wirelessly powered by multiple Energous WattUp PowerBridges.
“We were originally working with solutions that featured battery-powered BLE
tags, however, Wiliot has uncovered both a cost and operational benefit that couldn’t quite be achieved with the battery-pow ered tags. Once we understood the level of sophistication that Energous’ wireless power transmitters and the Wiliot IoT Pixels provided, we knew this was what we were looking for,” said Simon Molnar, founder & CEO of Flagship. “This partnership supports Flagship’s mission to bring brick-and-mortar retail into the digital world. Providing retail tags and connected devices with a reliable source of power is instrumental to enabling the smart store of tomorrow, and we’re proud to now have multiple pilot deployments with Energous and Flagship’s technologies.”
“It’s very exciting to see the momentum grow ing behind this new generation of retail systems using Wiliot technology to unlock a real-time view of what’s going on in the physical store. When you can improve efficiency and enhance the shopping experience at the same time, it’s clear that eventually all stores will be run this way,” said Steve Statler SVP at Wiliot. “Flagship and Energous are great examples of how our partners’ expertise is enabling best-of-breed solutions for brands that want to use cutting edge technology to thrive.”
Capable of powering multiple devices simultaneously at-a-distance, WattUp PowerBridge transmitters from Energous send power to, and can act as a data link for, connected IoT devices such as sensors, Electronic Shelf Labels, track ers, IoT tags, batteryless devices and more. Multiple WattUp PowerBridge transmitters create a WattUp Wireless Power Network capable of covering unlimited distances for large footprint deployments such as retail stores, indus trial warehouses, manufacturing plants, logistics hubs and more. The WattUp Wireless Power Network is designed to provide consistent levels of power for IoT devices.
INTERMIX, the trend-setting fashion boutique for designer clothing, shoes, bags and more, announced a partnership with Affirm, the payment network that em powers consumers and helps merchants drive growth. Eligible shoppers can choose flexible and transparent ways to pay for the designers and brands they love across INTERMIX online, in-store, and Designer Re/Mix hub.
INTERMIX’s Designer Re/Mix is a hub of the most established, innovative, and noteworthy design talent - with a unique POV that you will only find at Intermix. Brands like Des Phemmes, Altuzarra, Nue Studio, Area, LAPOINTE, Bevza and Laquan Smith will have specialized boutique experiences in six INTERMIX loca tions: Madison Ave., Soho, Bal Harbour, Beverly Hills, Robertson and Rush Street in Chicago, as well as online, where eligible customers can use Affirm to pay for their purchase.
By selecting Affirm at checkout, approved INTERMIX customers can choose the payment option that works best for them, ranging from four interest-free biweekly payments to monthly payment options. They are shown the total cost of their pur chase and will never pay more than they agree to upfront, as Affirm never charges customers any late or hidden fees.
“At INTERMIX, shopping is personalized, easy and fun. We’re committed to pro viding our customers with the most seamless shopping experience, whether that’s curating the best designer assortment, showing them how to put it together, or giv ing them the ability to pay over time,” said Karen Katz, interim CEO, Intermix. “Our partnership with Affirm will allow our clients more payment flexibility and price transparency in the way they pay. As we continue to scale, we are looking at dig ital investments that will improve the overall customer experience and enable us to offer a highly personalized boutique shopping experience across both channels.”
“As many of our consumers begin to leave their homes to attend in-person events and return to the office, we are eager to bring them a way to build their wardrobes while taking control of their finances,” said Geoff Kott, Affirm’s chief revenue offi cer. “By partnering with INTERMIX, we are able to bring flexible and transparent payment options to shoppers who want to look and feel their best, without worry ing about late or hidden fees.”
INTERMIX joins Affirm’s network of nearly 14 million consumers and 235,000 merchants, including Gucci, Ulla Johnson, Neiman Marcus, Theory, Shopify, Walmart, Target and more. By offering Affirm at checkout, merchants can reach new customers, drive overall sales, increase average order value and customer repurchase rates.
Global branded payments provider Blackhawk Net work partnered with lifestyle brand H&M to launch the fashion and home design company’s B2B gift card program through Blackhawk’s B2B gift card platform. As part of the integrated gift card program, H&M joins other popular brands within Blackhawk’s vast network of B2B channels to offer physical and digital gift cards for employee rewards, consumer incentives and fund raising.
“H&M is a consumer-favorite brand because of its commitment to creating value for its shoppers through fashion and design. We are expanding on that com mitment by providing yet another option for H&M to deliver value for consumers,” said Tom Boucher, head of B2B gift card programs, Blackhawk Network. “When it comes to rewards and incentives, people consistently identify gift cards as their top choices from employers, retailers and the other businesses that they interact with. H&M is already a well-known and loved brand and we look forward to growing its presence in
the B2B gift card space.”
According to the most recent data from Mercator, the B2B gift card market in the U.S. represents nearly a fourth (23%) of the total $125.4 billion gift card in dustry1. As the B2B gift card market continues to drive a significant chunk of merchants’ gift card revenue, merchants are optimizing their programs to ensure op
erations, marketing, and fulfillment are efficient and reliable. In addition to its gift card portfolio options, Blackhawk’s SaaS-based B2B platform provides end-to-end program management that solves many of the pain points merchants see today including technology-first solutions, scalability and risk man agement.
“As our gift card program has continued to evolve, it has become a significant driver of sales for our brand as well as one of our best customer acquisition tools,” said Jeff Miller, gift cards program manager, H&M Hennes & Mauritz LP. “The B2B gift card market represents a tremendous growth opportunity for us. Our gift card sales have grown significantly over the past couple years, and we’re excited to continue that growth through our program with Blackhawk.”
H&M gift cards never expire and are redeemable at H&M locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada and online at hm.com in the U.S. only.
In response to growing customer focus on sustainability, fashion companies are increasingly pursuing and touting green initiatives, such as making products with recycled materials or manufacturing them using less nonrenewable resources. Regulators and consumers are also taking notice, intensifying their scrutiny of environmental claims to ensure that companies are actually doing what they say they are.
In addition to regulatory enforcement actions, companies are also facing an uptick in consumer lawsuits alleging “greenwashing,” or making unsubstantiated or overly broad environmental claims. This summer, H&M was hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the company used “misleading” environmental scorecards, known as “Sustainability Profiles,” to tout clothing from the brand’s Conscious Collection. The lawsuit accuses H&M of engaging in deceptive acts or practices and false advertising in violation of the New York General Business Law by way of its alleged “[misrepresentation of] the sustainability and attributes of the products to induce consumers to purchase H&M’s products,” citing that “a consumer acting reasonably under the circumstances would reasonably believe those claims, particularly given that H&M is a nationally recognized and wellestablished company.” In one example cited in the suit, H&M allegedly presented “a particular product as being produced with 30% less water” when the Higg Index, which is where H&M obtained its information, “showed that the item was actually made with 31% more water, making it worse than conventional materials.”
H&M is not the only fashion company to face allegations of greenwashing. To avoid unintended liability, fashion companies must be mindful when making environmental claims, which may include statements that products
are “sustainable,” “eco-friendly,” “green,” or “responsibly-made.”
Such statements must not only be accurate, but also readily substantiated. The Federal Trade Commission’s “Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims,” or Green Guides, are designed to help marketers ensure that the environmental claims they are making are true and verifiable. While the Green Guides are not agency rules or regulations, they provide general principles that apply to all environmental marketing claims, as well as address how consumers are likely to interpret particular claims and how marketers can substantiate and qualify these claims to avoid deceiving consumers. While the FTC hasn’t updated its Green Guides since 2012, the agency continues to bring enforcement actions under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act). Under Section 5, the FTC can take enforcement action against deceptive claims, which ultimately can lead to Commission orders prohibiting deceptive advertising and marketing, and fines if those orders are later violated. Retail giants Kohl’s and Walmart recently agreed to pay millions of dollars to resolve claims that they made misleading representations that violated the FTC Act and the Textile Act. According to the FTC, the companies knowingly advertised textile products as made from “bamboo” when they were actually made of rayon. In addition to imposing combined penalties totaling $5.5 million, the proposed settlements with Kohl’s and Walmart include provisions dictating how the companies must make textile representations and bamboo-related environmental claims going forward.
The FTC announced in 2021 that its regulatory review of the Green Guides will begin this year. The agency had faced pressure from groups within the fashion industry to modernize its guidance to reflect advances in technology and changing views on sustainability. In a letter spearheaded by PoliticallyInFashion and sustainable denim brand Amendi, a coalition of brands, nonprofit organizations, journalists and others called on the FTC to take action, writing: “In the past nine years, there has been an exponential growth in sustainability claims by businesses. But, without guardrails on this term, or data to substantiate these claims, there is risk the term becomes meaningless, or even detrimental to efforts to promote healthy environmental practices.” Additional signatories included organizations such as Sustainable
Brooklyn, Wearable Collections, The OR Foundation and the New York University Stern School of Business Social Impact and Sustainability Association. Other countries have been more proactive in addressing sustainability claims, particularly in the fashion industry. Last year, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its Green Claims Code. After giving companies time to come into compliance, the CMA recently announced that it has started “looking into environmental claims of fashion companies to weed out businesses it believes are ‘greenwashing’ their operations in a way that violates consumer protection law.” In the Netherlands, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has also issued guidelines and launched investigations into the sustainability claims of several fashion companies. Closer to home, the State of New York is considering its own local regulation. The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (Assembly Bill A8352) would require businesses to identify, mitigate, and disclose potential adverse social and environmental impacts in their supply chains.
For U.S. fashion companies operating across borders, it’s essential to recognize that many other countries have more rigorous standards regarding environmental claims. It would be advantageous for the FTC to keep pace, as having clear regulatory guidance not only helps brands avoid making misleading environmental claims, but also promotes fair competition among businesses making such claims. In the meantime, it’s imperative that fashion companies be transparent about the success and the limitations of their sustainability initiatives.
Howard D. Bader is a NYC attorney who serves as general counsel for clients in a wide range of industries on an international scale. With over three decades’ worth of legal experience, he has represented clients in numerous legal matters, including commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, creditor’s rights and mergers and acquisitions, as well as numerous corporate transactions and business law matters.
Howard D. Bader
AAll businesses come with unique risks to protect against, and operating a retail store, fashion/ apparel business or an e-commerce website is no different. Whether it’s slips, trips and falls, or increasing cybercrime, retail risks can have a significant and costly impact on your business. Fortunately, with a retail risk management strategy in place, businesses can mitigate the risk of these threats before they happen. Retailers should especially be vigilant in watching out for the following major risks:
s we head into 2022, we are still finding that COVID-19 is a constant headline. Upon writ ing, we learn that we may be facing a new and perhaps more virulent strain of the virus, newly-named Omicron. The health precautions implemented almost two years ago — masking, social distancing and, most importantly, getting vaccinated — are not only still with us but will seemingly be here to stay for some time to come. Protecting ourselves, our families, our society and our businesses has become an even more import ant component to our way of life.
Theft continues to be a leading loss factor for traditional retail store operators. According to data from the National Retail Federation, the average shoplifting incident cost U.S. retailers about $460 in 2020. The average robbery cost retailers more than $7,500, a tremendous increase over the previous years.
Onsite security guards are the most effective protective measure, but a combination of approaches is generally recommended.
Our retail businesses find themselves specifically in the dead center of the bullseye of disruption on so many fronts. Supply chain bottlenecks, in creased consumer demand and renewed con cerns about inflationary trends — the likes of which we last saw in the late 1970s and early 1980s — are rearing their ugly heads.
Newer security technologies allow for multiple battery powered cameras, alarms and lights to be remotely set up on motion sensors with smart device notifications. Signage stating that surveillance is in use can further deter criminals.
Sensor-based product tags and labels, locked display cases for items that can be easily stolen and alerts that sound when customers enter or leave the store are other important approaches. Training employees to detect shoplifters can also be an effective retail risk management strategy.
Since theft will affect many merchants at some point, a good retail risk management strategy starts with purchasing industry-specific property and inventory insurance, which covers theft fires, and other losses.
As more people shop online, e-commerce crimes
Perhaps we need to ask ourselves, “Is this a natu ral course in the evolution of retail selling?” First, we had the general store, which gave way to de partment stores, and now we find ourselves with the advent of a new shopping emporium: the in ternet. The silver lining is coming, as was outlined in a recent front-page headline of the Wall Street Journal, in an article titled “E-commerce Needs Real Store Locations Now More Than Ever.” The article said that for the first time since 2017, we are seeing a shift in shop openings that will exceed closures. Brick-and-mortar stores are becoming integral to fulfilling e-commerce orders and are serving as hubs for pick-ups and online returns.
The cost of acquiring customers online has sky
By Leslie Gallin, former president, footwear, Informa Markets
are on the rise. In a 2022 report, the Federal Trade Commission found that social media scams caused losses of $770 million in 2021 – more than 18 times the losses reported in 2017. Website and app scams cost U.S. residents about $554 million that same year.
how they want to shop and what they want at a speed like never before. Consumers want to be immersed in a brand’s authentic story and wish to fully understand a company’s values, ethics and sustainability, alongside its artistic roots and craftsmanship. It is no longer enough to produce products that are quality-driven or value engi neered — companies now need to tell the stories of their brands.
As the cost of data breach recovery continues to rise each year, the risk of cyber threats will also continue to rise across industries throughout 2022 and beyond.
When addressing concerns about your operation’s online safety, the first step is to acknowledge the existing cybersecurity risks that expose an organization to a hacker’s malicious attacks. Best practices to avoid a data breach include patching and updating software, high-grade encryption for sensitive data, upgrading devices when a manufacturer no longer supports software, enforcing “bring your own device” security policies, enforcing strong credentials and multifactor authentication and educating employees on best security practices and ways to avoid socially engineered attacks.
CBI is an important extension to your business interruption insurance to help minimize the financial loss of a supply chain disruption. When your operations rely on others coming through, you can rest assured knowing you’ve planned for events outside of your control.
the building manager becomes the lead story on all news channels. And, as a result, many local restaurants drop DoorDash as a delivery option.
Onsite injuries for both employees and customers are a leading risk exposure across most industries. In fact, the most common work-related injuries are caused by inadvertent slips, trips and falls, which are among the most common and costly workplace accidents, accounting for 35% of incidents and 65% of lost workdays, according to the National Safety Council.
To achieve this fully-immersed experience, re tailers must utilize marketing via all channels. For several years, the word “curation” buzzed around how and why retailers brought products to store shelves. Curation works when one has a true point of view and can authentically explain it, which is why more consumers are looking to purchase items from company-owned, mono-brand stores. They can see the full product range and be ser viced by employees who have been trained in the brand’s history. It could and should be a wonder ful time for independent retailers to shine, and the ability to offer services, such as alterations, proper fitting and customer service, will rule the day.
From retailers to manufacturers, apparel supply chains span across the globe, with dependability, cost efficiency and speed as critical components for operations. Global supply chains have been tested more in the last few years than many organizations have experienced throughout their entire existence.
How do we cultivate and drive the next generation to our products? Video game advertising (which is a simplistic way of saying “intrinsic advertising plat form”) is just one way. I won’t bore you with sta tistics, and rather just say, what child do you know today that doesn’t play video games? Let’s con sider printed magazines. Having online portals for engaging new readers is key, but how do you get the young reader to your platform? Today, there are companies who can support your efforts with game producers to interweave your products into their video games!
Ongoing supply chain challenges could cost North American apparel and footwear brands between $9 billion and $17 billion in lost EBITDA in 2022, according to a recent report1. The report also shows that approximately only 12% of organizations in the sector are “leaders” in resilience2, meaning they have design, distribution, and financial agility, among other qualities that can help weather supply chain disruption.
When your business is interrupted as a result of an unforeseeable supply chain failure that prevents your organization from producing its products or delivering its services, contingent business interruption coverage (CBI) will bridge the gap of income for your business and help you get on your feet again.
What can we learn from this story? Your custom er service team is your front-line contact with the consumer! We all know the general public is not easy to navigate — and today, businesses also need to investigate not only what the complaint is but also who the complainant is. By using the elec tronic tools at our disposal, we can quickly see the consumer reaching out to us has an influential internet presence. The very last thing a company needs is for a consumer to go viral by defaming your brand.
Maintaining work areas free of clutter and obstacles will greatly reduce hazards and exposure to accidents. Good housekeeping should start at the top and filter throughout the organization. Instilling cleanliness and organization in your company will ensure accountability and send a message to your employees that management is committed to a safe environment. Instilling this behavior within the culture of your business will allow it to become second nature to your employees. General liability insurance protects your retail businesses if a customer sues you for injuries they sustained on your premises. Workers’ compensation (WC) insurance is required by law for businesses with employees in almost every state and protects both owners and workers who sustain injuries on the job.
I will leave you with hope. I recently had the op portunity to pitch a business idea to graduate students at the University of Southern California Graduate School of Business (USC) in a creative marketing class. During the initial pitch, the class was engaged but said very little. What they did say was that this pitch was the first time they were be ing asked to solve real-world issues and not just learning theory. A few weeks later, I returned to the class to hear and see their presentations, and I was in awe. The thing that got me most was the students’ ability to explain their reasoning for the creative approach they each took to solve the question at hand. Those of us with historic knowl edge can be of real value to companies with our ability to guide new teams forward based upon strong foundation.
When a natural disaster, fire, burst pipe or vandalism causes an unplanned closure, the loss of income can be devastating. When the business interruption is the result of a natural disaster, key personnel loss, structural collapse, power interruption or machinery breakdown directly related to the business, business interruption coverage (BI) will bridge the income gap caused by the disaster, finance a temporary relocation for the business and more.
Happy and healthy holidays to all, and here’s to brand-new year!
A DoorDash driver makes a food delivery to an apartment building and decides to relieve them self in the lobby — which is caught on camera. The building manager writes and calls DoorDash to share the incident and ask that DoorDash be responsible for the cost of the cleanup. DoorDash responds by saying that the company would be more than happy to remove the charge for the delivery and offer a coupon for a future order. After many attempts to reach a senior executive
Frank DeLucia currently serves as senior vice president of Hub International Northeast, a leading full-service global insurance brokerage. He can be reached by phone at (212)3382395 or at frank.delucia@hubinternational. com. For more information on Hub, please visit hubinternational.com.
As president of footwear for Informa Markets, Leslie Gallin developed the FN Platform, the foot wear shows at Magic. Gallin scouts the world’s best new designers and trends, providing unpar alleled business insights and access into the world of footwear and beyond. Gallin is a board mem ber of Footwear Distributors/Representatives of America; American Apparel and Footwear Associ ate; Two Ten-Footwear Charity and From Fashion with Love.org, among others, and has held posi tions at World Shoe Association, Geoffrey Benne, Escada, Louis Feraud and Pauline Tigere. She has
Sustainability is defined as: noun
The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level: “the sustainability of economic growth” avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance: “the pursuit of global environmental sustainability.”
Before I began writing this article, I decided to ask some folks what “sustainability” meant to them. It’s a subject that surrounds us daily.
For those of us who live in the Western USA, especially California, sustainability is always top of mind, specifically water and power (electricity).
Regarding water usage and our lack of rain, I’ve often wondered, “Why are we not using science to seed the clouds to make rain?”
Every State needs to be looking at upgrading their electrical infrastructure. We are currently living with daily Flex Alerts and regulations to reduce the number of days we can water our lawns! Electric cars are multiplying on our roads daily. Yet, our electric infrastructure doesn’t seem to be evolving fast enough to handle all our current demands for electricity, let alone the push for more electrical cars on the road. Perhaps instead of buying Twitter we can call on Elon Musk to upgrade our electrical grid!
Denim has long been a popular fashion staple. You all know the denim industry used to consume ghastly amounts of water in the creation of denim
finishes. Kudos to the denim industry as they were one of the first to embrace alternative ways to reduce water usage and the disposal thereof. This is an international issue.
The subject is rocking our world. Generations X, Z and Y are all learning about our environment and wholeheartedly embracing the care for our little planet Earth. When discussing fashion and sustainability, those of us of another generation before the purchase would ask: “Will this item be something that lasts?” We never really looked beyond our self-gratifying needs. Crisis has a way of moving the needle regarding what we pay attention to and the implementation of systemic changes.
A caveat to our world today is the influence of celebrity on everything! We are an instantgratification society whose conspicuous consumption has helped drive manufacturing and retailing to new heights. Coming out of the covid era (hopefully), we see companies taking a stand on many issues, one of which is sustainabilityreviewing how they can implement ways to conserve energy, which is just one of the many positive reactions coming out of our time when the world stood still. Or did it really?
The past two years have also shown us the importance of “sustaining” our relationships. Now more than ever it has been important to use these networks to secure, propel and support our ability to be relevant and sustainable in our postcovid world.
What if more folks went back to working in offices? Would this actually save money and natural resources? All those folks working from home had to see their water and electric bills soar! Much will be said and written about the exodus from the office, but I haven’t heard or seen the study yet on the increased cost to the remote worker. Just saying…
Those of us who have had the pleasure of
remodeling a home know all too well of the laws which now address “sustainability” and expense to home builders. Material costs are just the tip of the conversation. Making a home sustainable for fire and flood has become top of mind to all who own properties. Let us look at the effect of severe climate changes. We are faced with more frequent and drastic swings in our weather patterns. The historic pendulum of significant weather changes has shown that there is a real world need to ensure the longevity of building materials and innovation to embrace these drastic weather-related changes. Here, too, one can find the industry rising to meet the needs of current and future habitation given our changing environment. In California, concerns have grown regarding building on ridgelines and wildlife preservation, with each concern having now taken center stage in our political conversation.
No longer can we SALLY (same as last year) just about anything we do. Prospering today and sustaining into the future will require us being resilient, open to new ideas and smart about how we use our historic knowledge. Do you think we’ll be able to sustain that resilience? We hope so.
As president of footwear for Informa Markets, Leslie Gallin developed the FN Platform, the footwear shows at Magic. Gallin scouts the world’s best new designers and trends, providing unparalleled business insights and access into the world of footwear and beyond. Gallin is a board member of Footwear Distributors/Representatives of America, American Apparel and Footwear Associate, Two Ten-Footwear Charity and From Fashion with Love.org, among others, and has held positions at World Shoe Association, Geoffrey Benne, Escada, Louis Feraud and Pauline Tigere. She has been featured in Footwear Plus, Footwear News, O The Oprah Magazine, Vegas, Fox’s Good Day LA, Extra TV and more.
Leslie Gallin Meridian Group missfashion@cs.com
This month has seen some serious new commitments, including a luxury department store from France downtown, restaurants around the market and the promise of a new development in New York’s second home, South Florida. Can 2024 come fast enough?
Continuing its reinvention and acceleration, storied French luxury department store, Printemps, announced the opening of a new store in New York, marking the brand’s first U.S. initiative. Printemps will open in the historic 50-story landmark building at One Wall Street (1 Wall Street). Expected to open in Spring 2024, the 54,365-square-foot store will feature two levels and a façade that measures 346 linear feet facing Broadway. The landmarked Red Room will be incorporated into what the announcement said will “pioneer a new format of experiential retail.”
Outline, a women’s boutique from Opening Ceremony and Totokaelo’s former women’s buyer Margaret Austin and childhood friends Julia Edelman and Hannah Rieke, debuted at 365 Atlantic Ave. in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
Blaine’s Jewelry Box is coming to Wall Towne Center in Manasquan, New Jersey, marking the area’s second location for the family-owned and operated jewelry store. The new lease brings the 100,000-square-foot, grocery-anchored shopping center to 100% occupancy, according to Levin Management Corporation (LMC), the property’s exclusive leasing and managing agent. Warby Parker continues to grow, opening its eighth store in Manhattan at 73 Fifth Ave.
Restaurant and bar Nobody Told Me will open its second location at Front & York, the condo development in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Its first site is at 951 Amsterdam Ave., Samanea New York, the retail complex in Westbury, and has signed leases with two new tenants to join its Restaurant Row located on the property’s north side facing Old Country Road. Ten-year leases have been signed with Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao, also known as Bao, a Michelin-recommended Shanghainese restaurant known for its signature soup dumplings, and Ichiddo Ramen, a nationwide specialist in Japanese noodle soup. Eatery Little Italy has signed for ground floor space at 437 Fifth Ave. Southdown Coffee will help caffeinate Long Island, taking space at the New Village at Patchogue mixed-use development.
At press time, Bond Vet, a female-operated veterinary surgery, opened on September 12 at 242 Broome St.
William Macklowe Company and Senlac Ridge Partners — joint developers of a site at 120 Fifth Ave. in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, soon to be developed as a major residential and retail complex — have signed CVS to operate a pharmacy, joining Lidl, at the development. CVS will occupy the ground floor and lower level of one of the two mixed-use buildings planned for the site. Lidl will anchor the retail component of the other building. BP has opened its first Ampm convenience store in New York City, expanding the convenience chain from its West Coast roots. The store, located at 824 Allerton Ave. in the Bronx, is the first opening for the convenience brand on the East Coast.
The store features BP branding throughout the fuel experience and Ampm’s food menu, including a hot deli and grocery with fresh fruit and extensive dry goods. The entire customer-centric experience is modeled after Thorntons, the Kentucky-based fuel and convenience retailer that BP took full ownership of in 2021
The “Squid Game” TV series has come to real
life, with gaming company Gamebox creating a multiple-player experience at 81 Essex St. The company is also applying for a beer and wine license for the location.
Around the U.S.
Fontainebleau Development, a designer, builder, owner and operator of premier hospitality, commercial, retail and luxury properties, has revealed the first details for the new luxury retail experience to debut within Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the first luxury resort destination to be built on the Strip in 15 years. The project is scheduled to open in winter 2023. The 90,000-square-foot shopping district will feature approximately 35 luxury retail concepts across two levels.
Unlike traditional separate retail destinations, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort shopping district is conveniently connected and highly visible from the larger resort ecosystem, as every space will be designed with accessibility top of mind — neighboring, either adjacent or above, Fontainebleau’s 173,000-square-foot casino, dining experiences and other offerings.
Hermès will open its first store in Arizona at the Scottsdale Fashion Square sometime in 2024.
Jetset Pilates is in rapid expansion mode, growing its studio footprint throughout South Florida and statewide with its first-ever round of franchising underway. Jetset launched franchise applications in 2022 and attracted almost 200 inquiries in the initial 60 days. With new applications being submitted daily, the brand has already issued preliminary approval to five franchise applicants which will more than double its current footprint by early 2023.
Bookstores live! McNally Jackson will take 7,000 square feet at 1 Rockefeller Plaza for its fifth location in the city.
Debra Hazel Debra Hazel Communications North Las Vegas, NV (201)618-5247
I don’t know about you, but I have been very concerned about all the plastic waste that is dumped in the ocean, the landfills or has been shipped to other countries to dispose of.
Additionally, after years of sending boatloads of our garbage overseas, many countries including China have recently said “NO” to accepting any more shipments of our trash. China has been taking half the world’s plastic waste for years.
Germany has been shipping three quarters of their plastic waste to China. Maybe this will motivate their brilliant engineers to invent a solution for this catastrophic global situation.
Every day we all have contact with thousands of different forms of plastics uses, from plastic wrappers, containers, toys, bottles, straws, etc.…. So, what to do about this global crisis that we have created for ourselves? Well, I was very interested to read in this week’s Economist that John McGeehan of the University of Portsmouth in Britain and his colleagues have reported details of the discovery of a bacterial enzyme called
PETASE, which can break down the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in the production of plastic bottles. They have engineered a version of the enzyme that can digest plastic faster than any natural variety. The report is published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” This plastic-munching bacteria, called Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, was discovered in 2016 at a PET-bottle recycling plant in Sakai, Japan. While more research on the bacteria is needed, the discovery does, thankfully shine a hopeful light on the whole global crisis. If they can surmount the development for industrial use, PETASE might begin to make a dent in the alarming situation the world is in with all our plastic waste.
We must also do our part by becoming more sensitive to the overuse of plastic and its eventual disposal. One of the first things when out eating and drinking is to ask your server not to give you a plastic straw. Billions of straws are produced yearly, which often end up in the ocean where they all too often get caught in turtles’ noses or blocked their stomachs. If you want a straw, ask for a paper one or buy your own metal straw and carry it with you.
Recently, we returned from Maui, which we travel to often to visit our son who works there. There are so many wonderful turtles there to watch and enjoy but unfortunately, we see far too many who have been injured by the plastic in the oceans. Many of these injured turtles and sea life are often
found on the beaches, or in some cases in the ocean in crisis. Some are fortunate to be rescued by volunteers and then operated on to clear their mouths, noses and insides from the pollution of plastic waste in the oceans. However, for many sea creatures it is often too late.
While the consequences of all this plastic waste in the ocean are not often visible to our eyes, the damage to sea life is obvious. Fine plastic particles are also causing imbalances in the water. When washed, synthetic fiber particles from some synthetic fabrics begin to break down in the water. Water balances are further harmed when plastic particles from beauty products such as shampoos and toothpaste have been made to incorporate these plastic particles.
So, if we can begin the cleanup process using the promising newly discovered enzyme, plus get more serious about recycling plastic into other products like roof tiles and synthetic wood, we’ll have hope for the future.
As I am writing this article for apparel-related professionals, who for the most part are aware of these issues, it is my hope that we can work together to help alleviate some of the industry pollution issues. The clothing industry is a guilty polluter of our environment and we should begin a serious dialogue to address and solve the problem of plastic waste, pollution of the ocean and the overproduction of clothing.
Peter Pugliese
According to Katherine Cullen, Director of Industry & Consumer Insights of the National Retail Feder ation, the back-to-school season is a critical time for many consumers as well as retailers. It is sec ond only to the winter holidays in terms of spend ing power and is bigger than Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day combined. At a recent Retail Marketing Society webinar, Cullen joined Larry DeParis, CFO & COO, LT Apparel, Lynn Husum, co-founder of Appaman and Nick Woodhouse, President & CMO, Authentic Brands Group to discuss the current state of the children’s back-to-school apparel market and the implica tions it may have for Holiday ’22 sales.
Clothing is a strong area for both back-to-school and back-to-college. However, a big shift is in the timing. Consumers started shopping in early July. Early shopping is a trend that is expected to continue into the holiday season and NRF predicts this is the precursor to a bigger trend spurred by the pandemic. However, even before COVID, consumers were moving up their holiday shopping. Thanksgiving weekend became Black November and retail sales for the holidays started in October.
“People are doing it because they want more time to shop for sales and promotions,” observed Cullen. “They feel burned by supply chain delays, so they want to allow more time for products to get to them. They’re trying to spread out this spending across mul tiple paychecks. We see that consumers like giving themselves a little less pressure, giving themselves more time to shop, thus avoiding crowds.”
One of the impediments to robust sales is the glut of spring inventory. DeParis cited a recent Wall Street Journal article that reported on retailers resorting to stashing excess inventory in trailers. Some retailers stepped forward and took deep discounts to clear the inventory, resulting in better back-to-school performance. For those that didn’t, it leaves fall goods competing with spring goods. DeParis also expressed concern about the ongo ing effects of this inventory glut.
“It’s tremendous what’s out there . . . the economy really started to slow down after people placed fall order,” said Woodhouse. ”Those goods are coming in and holiday goods are going to be coming in, too. If the retailers continue the need to clear the inventory, even the fresh holiday goods are going to be competing with deep discounts like we saw some years back. If we’re at 40 and 60 off trying to clear up fall goods, it’s not going to bode well for holidays.”
“Everyone’s concerned about inventory,” add ed Woodhouse. “But the one thing that always continues is that good brands will win, and bad brands won’t win. When the consumer chooses to buy, they will find something that is going to be price and value, not price or value.”
“Overall, we are seeing continued strong spend ing this year,” reports Cullen. “We do see that lower income families are feeling the pressure of higher prices and inflation . . . and maybe taking some steps to address that.”
“The assumption is that the folks who are buying items anywhere from $10 to $20 average unit of retail were hit more by the turning off from stimulus checks, escalating gas prices, etc. But someone who’s buying a Brooks Brothers suit might buy one less bottle of wine at dinner and buy a suit, while the person who was buying a Forever 21 dress might be filling up their car instead.”
Both Woodhouse and Husum reported that their suiting business for the youth market is doing ex tremely well.
“We’re targeting a middle to upper class clientele that is still buying. We do a big suiting business (we call it ‘fine tailoring’) for young men, and it sells well. I think it’s a result of the welcoming back of events and people being excited to attend a special occasion,” said Husum.
LT Apparel’s school uniform business has also ben efited from dress wear.
“Although our khakis, polos, jackets, skirts, etc. are bought predominantly for school, they are also being purchased for regular wear,” ex plained DeParis. “We have a high-quality product at a terrific value price. I think we’re getting the benefit of parents trading from other brands and then buying our clothes for events—for church and synagogue, for communions, Bar Mitzvahs and the like.”
There was general agreement that back-to-school spending patterns don’t necessarily correlate with holiday spending. Cullen pointed out that it’s im portant to remember that these are two very dif ferent buying occasions. One is an essential, as it relates to your child’s necessities. With holiday, there’s a much bigger slice of the population par ticipating and it’s a gifting occasion as well as a celebratory occasion. During the pandemic, we saw a lot of focus on holidays and special events where people wanted to make them feel more cel ebratory, as they were focusing more on goods. If people are concerned about their finances, we may see a bit more of a focus on discount, trading down, possibly rethinking those gifts for cowork ers or non-core gift recipients that you might have thought of in the past.
Retail Marketing Society (201)692-8087 retailmarketingsociety.org retailmarketingsoci@retailmarketingsociety.org
Avenue
Avenue
During my twenties, I was living in Israel. Prior to this move, I was living in New York and working as a nurse, where I lived with my former boyfriend for a couple of years. I was seeking to work with an allAmerican doctor during my time in the United States. After submitting a series of applications, the doctor who called me back was a plastic surgeon, who I worked with for a year before moving back home to Israel. Once I was back in Israel, I was back and forth between working in a hospital and in aesthetics, which is the field I really wanted to stay working in.
Nowadays, I am a Nurse Practitioner and aesthetician. I founded Nicole Frontera Beauty based out of Rockaway Beach Blvd, Queens, NY. For me, services provided at my establishment are really artistic. Not to say that it’s not for anyone else,
however; my main thing is to do things that are very natural, as my approach is to always anti-age in the most natural way and utilize other products (besides Botox), such as fillers when the time is needed. Therefore, not only am I trying to have people look extremely natural, but feel like themselves. I always look at each person, see what their best features are and enhance them. Overall, I spend a lot of time with my patients, as I give them time to talk to me.
As for sustainability when it comes to aesthetics, retinols are the best, through-and-through. As new products come in and the old go out, retinols stay around the longest. If there’s one thing to do with anti-aging, it’s retinol because it will never change. Retinol creates more cellular turnover, so your skin is constantly moving, constantly creating new skin – leaving it brighter, tighter and more glowy. We achieve this with my own product called Skin Renew. We also compound our own formulas, which allows us to put different percentages of retinols for each individual person. For example, if someone has pigment, we can tailor it to target pigment. We can do a milder or a more aggressive version depending on someone’s skin damage and needs. This product is called Brightening Supreme. Since it’s tailored to your skin, it eliminates the need
for several different products.
Hyaluronic Acid is great for maintaining hydration status in your skin. Our SkinQuench works by penetrating deeper into the dermas to create internal moisture so you’re not too dewy outside, which is great for someone with oily skin because you’ll maintain moisture balance from the inside.
I think of skin as a canvas, and the better the canvas is, the better my artwork will be. Lasers make the complexion better, addressing the skin’s quality and texture. Long term, this leads to the most beneficial results. Lasers are permanent treatments that work by building collagen.The results don’t go away like fillers or other injectables, but when the lasers make the change in the skin, your skin will continue to age; it just needs more of a maintenance program. If you continue to maintain these results with lasers, you’ll have great skin for life. I also believe the aesthetics and beauty industries can be more sustainable by being consistent since people use many different technologies and techniques. If we categorize procedures in one column, consumers can understand what each procedure does and what they need, which will make consumers less intimidated.
Informa Markets Fashion, the global connector of the fashion industry and organizer of, COTERIE, PROJECT, SOURCING at MAGIC and MAGIC offers a first look into the new era of COTERIE. The evolution will better unite a larger cross-section of fashion including designers, influencers, stylists, and fashion experts to create new avenues for retailers to discover keystone advanced contemporary brands, as well as new and emerging designers.
COTERIE New York has served the women’s contemporary market since its New York debut in 1986. The first installation featured 22 brands that filled the need for a womenswear market at the time. For nearly 40 years, COTERIE has been the premier fashion event for women’s contemporary and advanced contemporary apparel, footwear and accessories. COTERIE has been an industry leader credited for the premium denim boom by propelling brands into the market, including 7 For All Mankind, Citizens of Humanity, J Brand, Current Elliot, AG, and Joe’s Jeans. Other notable brands who have launched, relaunched and scaled through COTERIE New York include Theory, Velvet, Alice & Olivia and many more.
“COTERIE New York is about supporting our brands by placing them in the ideal position to showcase their premier apparel, footwear and accessories in a space where buyers can discover
the finest in women’s advanced contemporary fashion. The only place fitting for this experience is New York City. COTERIE is New York embodied,” said Kelly Helfman, president of Informa Markets Fashion.
COTERIE’s mission will incorporate a redesigned sense of connection throughout the community, not just business to business and buyers to sellers, but by fostering relationships on an individual and intimate community level. Through this, the industry will grow, evolve and share information. Through the convergence of individuals and groups within the community, styles will intermix, allowing for the emergence of new ideas and innovations from both a domestic perspective and the strong international influence the COTERIE community brings. Hosting international brands from Europe, Asia and the Americas together in New York City will allow for more connection, perpetual growth and sharing of ideas, therefore further strengthening the market.
The fashion industry has changed significantly over the past few years and the needs of the market are constantly changing. COTERIE is evolving to meet the new expectations of brands and retailers based on their developing priorities.
“This is more than a superficial rebrand; we are evolving from the root up,” said Teodora Nicolae, vice president of marketing, Informa Markets
Fashion. “Expect to see elevated branding, a renewed focus on our values and mission, more inspirational and insightful content and truly immersive in-person experiences. It’s COTERIE as you know it, but more dynamic than ever.”
The evolution of COTERIE will bring life to three foundational pillars. The first focuses on the community and culture of our industry as it is such an integral part of the evolution of fashion. The second pillar highlights pathways to sustainability for brands and the full fashion ecosystem as it should be at the core of everything we do. The third pillar of COTERIE will focus on bringing new technology to our audience, including access to education sessions and other live programming on the metaverse, retail technology, Web3, 3D merchandising and other emerging fashion technology. Together these three pillars build the new COTERIE story.
“COTERIE is focused on curating and merchandising a larger presence of top tier brands. We are enhancing the fully immersive experience for both brands and retailers online and face-toface and strengthening our community through enhanced education sessions from the industry’s top leaders and comprehensive community content,” said Kelly Helfman, president of Informa Markets Fashion. “Our evolution is ongoing; this is just the start.”
Providing a key opportunity to take advantage of the growing business prospects in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), Yarn Expo Shenzhen will be held in Hall 10 at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center from November 2–4, 2022. Suppliers will be showcasing a wide selection of yarn and fiber advancements, from high-quality, natural products to innovative synthetics, as well as offerings in the sustainable and functional yarn categories at the event.
“Yarn Expo has established its global reputation as a leading trade fair that highlights international yarn and fiber trends, and one that encourages thought-provoking discussions,” Wilmet Shea, deputy general manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, said in a press release. “We are pleased to be welcoming participants back to Yarn Expo Shenzhen this year, which is strategically located in the Greater Bay Area, a dynamic fashion hub and one of the country’s growth engines. In addition to the customary yarn and fiber categories, sustainable and functional materials will be a key focus at our upcoming fair. This is a product sector we’d like to develop further, as we believe it better
meets the industry’s sourcing needs, especially when you consider the rapidly evolving market in South China and Southeast Asia.”
With Shenzhen as one of its core cities, China’s GBA has been witnessing strong domestic demand and steady economic growth. According to data from Delta Analysis, GBA recorded a positive trade balance of $42.9 billion in July 2022 with 19.5% year-on-year growth. Its most notable trade balance rebound was after spring, with the region seeing significant year-on-year growth of 34.6% in May 2022. In addition to the area’s export potential, the Commerce Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality has made efforts to develop Shenzhen into an international consumption hub, introducing a wide range of new measures in February 2022 in aid of this.
Notably, Shenzhen is home to thousands of designers, brands, and garment producers, connecting with major yarn and fiber manufacturers in categories such as ladieswear, menswear, kidswear, underwear, denim and wool. With evidence attesting to the region’s manufacturing, consumption and export
potential, Yarn Expo Shenzhen is a well-placed platform for industry players to reach out to key contacts and grow their businesses.
Following the success of the previous edition, which attracted 24,463 buyers, the 2022 fair will host a comprehensive array of forum sessions and seminars. Meanwhile, three other textile trade fairs will be held concurrently with Yarn Expo Shenzhen – Intertextile Shenzhen Apparel Fabrics, CHIC and PH Value. Together, these fairs represent the entire textile value chain and will provide a wide variety of sourcing options and networking opportunities to maximize business outcomes, added the release.
“The visitor flow is way better than our expectation. Yarn Expo and the concurrent fairs form a comprehensive trade platform where you can find everything in the areas of yarn, fabrics and fashion. It offers us a good opportunity to find new potential clients and to network with our existing clients,” commented Nicole Ni, marketing manager at Zhejiang Xinao Textiles Inc., on how the show strengthened their business.
Across
This was the first multi-level retail build
in its LA district
Omnichannel e-commerce platform
provider of AI driven measurement
Start word for Vegas and Palmas
____ Iyengar, co-founder of Alterre, the modular footwear company
Louis Vitton’s Neverfull Tote Epi Leath
and Prada’s Tessuto for example
Glide down the catwalk, perhaps
CIT Commercial Services President,
____
to cart, for example
Boston’s state, abbr.
Dolce & Gabbana offering
Swimwear offering from Flex Park or Melissa Simone
Internet addresses, abbr.
The highest degree
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“Don’t wait for extraordinary opportu nities. Seize common occasions and make them ___” Orison Swett Marden
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LA Fashion District’s former name
Panasonic’s new travel hair dryer
Makes more comfortable
2022 Catalyst for Change winner at the CEW’s Women’s Leadership Awards, ____ Chuter, founder and CEO of Uoma beauty
Staved containers
Alice + ____ a women’s designer cloth ing company that recently celebrated its 20th anniversary party
BFF
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“___ Are My Sunshine” song
Brand that curated the Changjiang Li
County, Hainan fashion show
suffix
star, ___ Adams
often
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abbr.
Australian singer who recreated her “Darling” fragrance
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biggest face of fashion trade shows,
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Big Momma’s House actress ___ Long
Modern as a prefix
BHI offers full commercial banking services that combine the personal attention of a prestigious boutique bank with the expertise and financial strength of Bank Hapoalim – the leading financial institution in Israel.
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Experience an expansive collection in Atlanta for women’s, men’s, and children’s apparel, shoes, and accessories. Then, head west to Las Vegas for another great opportunity to shop young contemporary, accessories, shoes, and more. Each market hosts top brands, plenty of parties, complimentary food and drinks, and trend presentations and photo ops to keep you inspired.
October Atlanta Apparel
October 11-October 15, 2022
January Atlanta Apparel
January 31 – February 4, 2023
February Las Vegas Apparel February 12 - February 15, 2023
March Atlanta Apparel
March 28 – April 1
For full market dates and registration, visit Atlanta-Apparel.com and LasVegas-Apparel.com
#atlapparel #shoplva | @apparelmarkets
Sustainable Fashion: Take Action 3rd Edition (October 6)
“
By Connie Ulasewicz and Janet Hethorn
Sustainable Fashion: Take Action, Third Edition” presents a fresh exploration of practices that are underway in design and production within the fashion industry and the possibilities for future directions that can be taken now. This book focuses on innovative action needed to achieve the goal of creating healthier environments, reducing climate change, and improving the well-being of all people as they choose and wear clothing.
Unretouchable (September 13)
By Sofia Szamosi
After a glamorous New York photoshoot, Olive learns that taking pictures is only the first step. She discovers the “violent verbs” (cut, crop, slice, lasso) of image retouching software and the secrets behind “virtual models.”
Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh (Classic Cartoon Cover) (September 15)
By Anders Christian Madsen
When Virgil Abloh took his first bow for Louis Vuitton in June 2018, fashion changed forever. The newest addition to the Classics Collection, Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh honors the designer’s boundary-breaking creativity on and off the runways.
Cartier Panthère (October 4)
By Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter, Vivienne Becker, Joanna Hardy and André Leon Talley
Silently stalking its way through Cartier iconography for a century, the panther is the proud leader of the pack of precious animals that make up the famous Cartier menagerie. No other creature or jewel is quite so indissolubly and emotively connected to outstanding 20th-century women of style and to ideals of modern femininity, and has become Cartier’s most iconic motif for a century.
Yves Saint-Laurent: The Impossible Collection (October 1)
By Laurence Benaïm
After getting his big break assisting French couture titan Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent struck out on his own and transformed haute couture for a new era of youthful, strong, independent women. His designs changed the course of fashion, introducing the concept of designer ready-to-wear for a wider clientele.
This month, heavy Aries placements can find themselves with a steady fl ow of mental and physical energy. You are craving recognition for the hardwork you are putting in. Your approach to love is light. Try giving potentials a real chance, as you’ll never know who you may really connect with.
Geminis are naturally creative as well as logical. You desire to be wanted, rather than needed. You also live too much in your head and neglect your physical and emotional needs. Make sure to bring yourself back to reality and take time for self care, as you’ll be in full social mode this month.
This month, Mars resides in your tenth house, revealing overall great results and news in the workplace. Some things you don’t comprehend, are blessings in disguise. Make sure to continue having a positive attitude, even towards the unknown. Seek medical attention for the injuries you face, as things do not appear to be as minuscule as you think.
The scales are the symbol of the Justice Card and their astrological counterpart, Libra. Everyone is equal in the eye of this cardinal sign, and Libras always do their best to find a harmonious balance in the name of what is fair and just.
October is a month in which Tauruses are heavily into their work & craft. You have been very direct about your focus this month and once you’re in the mood to accomplish it all and have the creative ideas fl owing, there’s no stopping you in going after what you want.
October remains to be a month full of pushes and pulls. In this period, the moon in your tenth house reveals some challenges you can’t ignore, especially in your career. The conjunction of Mercury and sun in your third house prevails a healthy relationship with your family.
This month, Virgos can face fi nancial difficulties and challenges in romance. Mercury is transitioning into your fi rst house and leads to encouraging aspects, such as great health and career triumphs. Continue taking care of mind, as self care is the key ingredient to great result.
The Death card represents transformation and growth. As we all know, Scorpio is the only zodiac sign who easily evolves with times and wants to change throughout the stages of their life.
Libras will experience mixed results. These results will vary for all of you, as you can experience smooth versus chaotic times. There will be misunderstandings over petty issues, but how one reacts to it can determine an easy month or an eventful one. You may have some health issues that bother you, overall health seems to be okay, and fi nances seem to be in your favor.
October is full of light and positivty for heavy Sagittarius placements. You’ll be blessed with favorable results in your career, fi nances, family and love. At the same time, there will be concerns in Mars’ presence in your house of health. Eat right and seek medical attention towards any concerns regarding physical and mental issues.
Aquarius, your love life will be great this month. Business will be profitable and people at the workplace recognize your strong work ethic. Traveling this month is encouraged. Seek adventure and bask in this month’s positivty. No need to sweat finances as you have a steady flow coming in.
This is an overall good month for Scorpios. However, pay extra attention to your health, as things may be a bit concerning if you do not. There will be a healthy atmosphere amongst family aspects. You’ll also fi nd yourself in some fi nancial troubles, while your career is in a much better place.
October promises a month full of peace and happiness. You have achieved balance in your life, and because of this, you feel your life is on track. Despite what people may have to say, you are able to have your cake and eat it too. Celebrate your strengths and see how far you’ve come.
Pisces placements will receive harmony in relationships like never before. Finances are excellent this month and your social life seems to be fun and eventful. October brings joy, however, there needs to be a focus on your health. A lot has been accomplished, so make sure to celebrate those wins.
New data portrays one in three Gen Z stating they feel ad dicted to the concept of fast fashion. thredUP brought in the actor and rising fashion star to assist today’s youth in break ing up with fast fashion for good.
thredUP, one of the world’s largest online resale platforms, partnered with Stranger Things actor, Priah Ferguson, to launch the Fast Fashion Confessional Hotline. In unison, they aspire to assist Gen Z resist the urge of fast fashion and develop more sustainable shopping habits. The hotline was inspired by thredUP’s new Fast Fashion Report, which found 1 in 3 Gen Z that were addicted to fast fashion.
thredUP’s 2022 Resale Report discovered that 59% of fast fashion shoppers stated that shopping fast fashion was a hab it, which is hard to stop. Further, nearly two in three fast fashion shoppers say they aspire to purchase more second hand fashion.
Since August 16, 2022, thredUP and Priah’s Fast Fashion Confessional Hotline offers callers the opportunity to confess their fast fashion sins and receive the support they require to make the transition towards healthier shopping habits. When callers dial 1-855-THREDUP, they’ll hear Priah’s voice on the other line convincing them to not purchase more fast fashion. In addition, they can remain on the line to learn more about the reasons why fast fashion isn’t ideal for the planet and how thrifting can be an affordable, sustainable alternative. Callers can even get to listen to Priah’s own fast fashion confession and have a chance to share their own sto ry by leaving a voicemail.
thredUP’s Fast Fashion Confessional Report Found that Gen Z is Hooked on Fast Fashion and Want to Quit: thredUP’s first-ever Gen Z survey conducted alongside GlobalData revealed that many young consumers feel addict ed to fast fashion and have a hard time kissing the habit goodbye. Survey highlights include:
● Gen Z feel addicted to fast fashion and find it hard to resist:
o 1 in 3 Gen Z say they feel addicted to fast fashion.
o Nearly half of college students say it’s hard to resist the temptation that fast fashion offers.
● Many Gen Z want to quit fast fashion and embrace more sustainable shopping habits:
o 51% of college students say they would like to quit shopping fast fashion or shop it less.
o The number 1 reason Gen Z wants to quit or cut back on shopping fast fashion is because they want to shop more sus tainably and ethically.
● Yet, they’re continuing to shop and engage with fast fashion:
o 72% of college students say they have shopped from fast fashion in the past year.
o Nearly 40% of college students scroll fast fashion sites/apps once a day or more. o 1 in 2 college students watch fast fashion hauls on social media weekly or more.
Thrift Priah’s Looks Just in Time for Back-to-School:
thredUP and Priah’s Fast Fashion Con fessional Hotline debuted just in time for back-to-school season. The company’s Gen Z study found that 71% of college students plan to buy new clothes for this back-to-school season. Further, more than two in five college students state they purchase clothes for events that they’re likely to wear just once.
Young consumers are also seeking value more than ever this season, with nearly two thirds of college students striving for more affordable apparel options when they shop now com pared to previous years.
Thrifters will now receive the chance to easily swap their fast fashion purchases with thrifted ones by shopping Priah’s back-to-school looks at thredUP.com/ hotline. The actress also selected her favorite items on thredUP, which thrifters will get to shop similar styles at up to 90% off retail value. From outfits for class and intern ships to school dances and formals, Priah’s thredUP looks fit every back-to-school occasion. They also offer all the fun and value of fast fashion without the waste.
The Eco Impact of Thrift: 60% of fast fashion items are pro duced and thrown out in the same year.*** One of the best ways we can reduce this waste and develop a more sustainable future for fash ion is to keep clothing in use and out of landfills.
According to thredUP’s Fast Fashion Confessional Report, the average Gen Z shopper plans to buy 12 new appar el items this back-to-school season. If every Gen Z swapped those 12 new items for thrifted ones, we could collectively save nearly 10B lbs of C02e.
Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of Dior, was honored with the Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion at the annual luncheon for The Museum at FIT. The event’s co-chairs Kara Ross and Julie Macklowe welcomed guests such as Audrey Gruss in head-to-toe Dior, Somers Farkas, Hilary Geary Ross, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Kim Heirston and Candace Bushnell to the David Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. Other best-dressed women included Jean Shafiroff who had Rebecca Seawright, Carolyn Maloney, designer B. Michael and Janna Bullock at her table.
“I strive to be attentive to what is happening in the world and to create fashion that resembles the women of today,” said Chiuri. “Fashion that accompanies them in their transformations, avoiding stereotypical categories of masculine/ feminine, young/less young and reason/emotion, which also has complementary aspects.”
She also invoked the “vagina” word, sending shivers through the room. Applauding were Yaz Hernandez, Derek Blasberg, Fe Fendi, Nina Garcia, Veronica Webb, Francisco Costa and the museum’s Dr. Joyce F. Brown and Dr. Valerie Steele. Nordstrom sponsored the event. fitnyc. edu
Christopher Burch
Lang Lang Young Scholars
Longtime board member and soon-to-be chairman of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, Chris Burch held a Young Scholars Concert at the housewarming of his far-flung Watermill estate and spectacular gardens. Chris encouraged everyone to walk around the house
and gardens, as well as to grab a drink.
“I encourage drinking here,” he chuckled, adding as he introduced the two pianists, “I only like extraordinary humans, I’m not interested in ordinary humans.”
Young Scholars Eden Chen and Maxim Lando performed renditions from The Nutcracker, Led Zeppelin, Gershwin and Sousa. In the audience were Lang Lang board members David Hryck and Kyle Wool, Lucia Hwong Gordon, Peter Thomas Roth and his son Ryan, and others of that ilk and stripe. The Foundation works on three continents including North America, Europe and Asia, partnering with schools in lowincome districts to ensure that no child is denied a musical education. CEO of the foundation, Lukas Barwinski-Brown, ended the night by thanking Chris and announcing his gift of six hundred pianos a year to emerging pianists. langlangfoundation.org
one of the most resilient contributors to New York society.”
Those attending were “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan and Real Housewife of NY Luann de Lesseps. patrickmcmullan.com
Jean Shafiroff and the columnist gave Patrick McMullan a dinner party to celebrate his 67th birthday in Southampton. The famed photographer received a citation from the NY State Assembly which celebrated Patrick’s 40year career as a photographer. The impressive document was hand-delivered by McMullan’s friend and Member of Assembly Rebecca Seawright.
The citation read in part “Whereas, Patrick has helped capture New York’s role as the social and artistic capital of the world through his acclaimed work behind the camera and as a cancer survivor Patrick has overcome setbacks and has become
The Parrish’s exciting new director, Monica RamirezMontagut, greeted the guests at the museum’s Midsummer Dance and Dinner in Water Mill, Long Island. Larry Milstein and Destinee RossSutton co-chaired the young people’s dance which kicked off the weekend of festivities. Oscar Nñ of Papi Juice kept Serena Bancroft, Eugenia Bullock, Sarvi Chafik, Elizabeth Kurpis, Laura Brown, Samantha Blake Cohen and about three hundred others on the dance floor until the lights came on. This night is now a must-be-seen-at event for the bright young things on the East end. The following night Debbie Bancroft, Preston Phillips and George Wells co-chaired the museum’s elegant gala dinner. The benefit honored artist Jasper Johns, collector Miyoung Lee and the curators of the museum’s Set It Off exhibition, Racquel Chevremont & Mickalene Thomas. Sponsors included Amazon. parrishart.org
“Sex and The City” author Candace Bushnell and Arthur Dunham joined Audrey Gruss as the co-grand marshals of her seventh annual Race of Hope in Southampton. Four hundred men, women, children and dogs raised over 325K for Gruss’s Hope for Depression Research Foundation. Billionaires were everywhere you looked, including Richard LeFrak, John Paulson and Martin Gruss.
Candace pumped up the crowd saying, “This organization is important to me because I too have suffered from depression. And I can tell you that it really does rob people of a portion of their lives.” Leading the applause were Jamee and Peter Gregory, Anne Nordeman, James and Teresa Remez, divorce attorneys Harriet Newman Cohen and Martha Cohen Stine and Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren. The 5K walk/run is a U.S.A. Track and Fieldsanctioned event. HDRF’s next event is their annual luncheon seminar on November 9. hopefordepression.org
The host committee of Guild Hall’s signature gala included Ross Bleckner, Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson, Virginia Coleman and Peter Duchin, April Gornik and Eric Fischl, Marlene Hess, Susan Stroman, and the fabled interior designer Peter Marino. In recognition of her establishment of the William P. Rayner Artist-inResidence program, Guild Hall honored Kathy Rayner.
“Every so often, a perfect collaboration is born between a philanthropist and a nonprofit. Kathy Rayner has made one of those moments happen,” said the organization’s Executive Director, Andrea Grover.
Guests, including the New York Times food columnist Florence Fabricant and groundbreaking editor Stefano Tonchi, all hit the dance floor to the tunes of DJ MICK. The benefit was sponsored by First Republic Bank with catering by Laurence Craig. The splendid evening raised $750k. guildhall.org
Andy Sabin’s Private Zoo
Metal magnate Andy Sabin threw a party at his house in East Hampton. Senator Ted Cruz arrived with three capitol hill police officers, his wife Heidi, and their 11-year-old daughter, Caroline. Andy gave them a tour of his private zoo where they saw and petted pigs, peacocks, pheasants, rabbits, goats, chickens and a giant tortoise.
Andy said, “I never saw so many liberals who wanted their picture taken with Senator Cruz.” Guests included Julia Haart, Daphne Oz, Congressman Andrew Garbarino, Jill Zarin, wealth manager Sergio Nicolosi, Carole Crist, the former first lady of Florida, as well as investor and philanthropist Afsaneh (Sunny) Akhtari, who shared an ice team trip to the Mister Softee truck with the senator and his family. sofo.org
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One glorious fall morning, while riding his horse through the beautiful hills of Dutchess County in upstate New York, Chauncy Devereux Stillman decided to buy and preserve two abandoned farms. The properties became the nucleus for the 1.000 breathtaking acres of nature and culture that are Wethersfield Gardens today. This year the Garden hosted its second annual lunch chaired by Karen Klopp, an expert on what to wear, where and how. Marion de Vogel was honored for her energy and success as a conservator of natural beauty and supporter of the arts.
BY MICHELE GERBER KLEIN
With fall rolling in, we all want to revamp our wardrobe, the items in our closets, accessories and more. At Fashion Mannuscript, we take new beginnings seriously, especially those relevant to fashion, beauty and overall lifestyle moments. It’s plain and simple: new beginnings, new season, new fashion favorites.
As our October issue is themed on sustainability, we’re rounding up athleisure apparel, skincare items, accessories and more that sent us on our sustainability trip in style. Discover our October favorites below.
Fashion forward active wear brand Koral has a wide selection of items one can look stylish in this fall. As athleisure wear has been on the radar for quite some time, Koral’s Intact Blackout Jumpsuit is a transitional piece one can wear this season with an opened Oxford button-down and some Golden Goose Sneakers...that is, if you are seeking a street chic look. Not to mention, all Koral items are curated out of technical fabrics that last through infi nite wears and washings.
The Organic Skin Co’s Good Oil
Skin care is key, especially during the fall, as skin has the tendency to dry up. New Zealand-based natural skincare label The Organic Skin Co’s Good Oil is great for all skin types and gives your skin that dewy yet silky look and feel that will also assist with nourishment and rejuvenation, as well as prep for your glam session while providing a fi nishing glow.
If you want that Carrie Bradshaw look from the “Sex and the City” movie, then a pair of VienneMilano’s Concetta Chevron Thigh Highs are here for it! These specific thigh highs have a purpose, as they are on a mission to save the planet, since they are sustainable. Their chevron stripes bring forth a blazing rebelliousness and imitating feline stripes, perfect for when you are on the prowl during a night out.
As seen on Serena Williams, Kimberly Pucci’s Niccolo Bag is one to have on your radar for your fall weekend getaways. Handcrafted in Tuscany by Pucci’s master leather goods artisans, the Niccolo Bag is a very spacious bag, which allows you to overpack in style. Did we mention that the bag maintains its perfect composure once you fi ll it up?
You can’t go wrong with a nice, soft towel to wipe your face after a hike, workout or facial care routine. State-of-the-art gym DOGPOUND will be carrying their micro-fi ber plastic towels at the luxurious Fouquet's New York Hotel. These towels are manufactured by FaceSoft, which makes the towels with eco-friendly and biodegradable materials, as the company’s aim is to help stop damage in the ocean one towel at a time.
say it takes a vil lage to bring some thing to life. For Aun drea Kudrna, Pattern Village’s cultivation came to fruition in New York, as it is an extended love affair with the Big Apple. The brand defines the results of the hustle and grind, the unimaginable and over all people. Not to mention, the desire to throw in fresh, colorful, bold patterns to today’s sustainable fashion closet. As Kudrna offers effortless elegance via the New York touch for Pattern Village, Fash ion Manuscript took the time to speak with the designer on her inspirations, in tentions, and more.
What inspired you to create Pattern Village?
No one asks me that, and the inspiration is one of my favorite things in the world. So many things inspired me along the way [such as] my own personal travels and just wanting a garment that I could wear from day to night that had func tionality and was chic and interesting. I like to pack light when I travel, so I like to have things on me that I can wear at any part of the day. That’s where Pattern Village’s inception started. Also, people are drawn to eccentric things. I felt like in the eco-fashion world, bold, colorful pat terns just weren’t being done. I’m a lover of organic and light colors, and I thought a colorful option was missing from a sus tainable wardrobe.
Where did the name Pattern Vil lage come from?
When thinking through the name, I am a huge lover of artistic patterns. It also has to do with the structure of the garment, and the process of sewing it, and going through how someone can find a garment easy and useful. When we put in pockets, I wanted them to have zippers so that if you’re walking on the beach and you’re wearing a dressy gown as a cover up, you can have your credit card zipped in your pocket and not have to worry about it. And then on the inside, there’s another component to the structure, and I also didn’t want you to put something heavy in your pocket and feel like the garment was heavy and dragging you down. So, to resolve this, we put a specific attachment that goes in any dressing gown and holds up heavy objects in your pocket. It’s just very specific details that go into designing the pattern of a garment that I found super interesting to dive into. And then this idea of “pattern” needed to be part of the name because that’s in the brand itself. And then “village” comes from… it takes a village. It’s not just me, it’s gar ment manufacturers in New York. It’s the textiles from New Jersey. It’s the pattern
maker in Queens. It’s everyone that I work with that brought Pattern Village to life with me, and it even extends beyond that to the people who support it and pur chase our garments. They are part of the village as well. When you purchase from Pattern Village, you’re part of the village.
Welcome to the village! Whenever I de sign something, I want it to be as inclusive as possible for all body types and tastes.
What is your relationship with New York, Pattern Village’s home? New York inspired Pattern Village. I’ve lived here for so many years, and I have such a love for this city and the creativi ty it gives to everyone. Sitting on a stoop in New York City, you watch a runway unfold in front of you. That’s always been influential for me. I’ve been com ing to New York since I can remember. My parents were small business owners. They’d take us on trips all the time, and I remember being as young as the second grade sitting in traffic in Chinatown and thinking, “I have to live here.” It’s a city that’s 24/7. You can dress how you want.
You can be who you want. I was the kid going back to school with sneakers on 6-inch platform heels. And I think my family, being in small business, inspired the entrepreneurial part of me. Them also bringing us to New York so much made it as if New York was always in my future. There was never another option.
When I went to college, I only applied to New York schools. I went to St. John’s and moved to Queens and fell in love with Queens. From there, I’ve lived all over New York. I’ve lived the New York life; you move every two years because of rent reasons. It was an idea that was put in my head at a very young age and was never second guessed.
Everything you create is eco-friendly. What makes your garments sustainable?
The dressing gowns are made from 100% water bottles. Our fabric is all certified. It’s PFAS-free. Everything is made in the Tri-State area. The garments are printed in NJ and sewn in Brooklyn. I’m always trying to keep a low carbon footprint and support local garment manufacturers and an industry that is so often being pushed to other places. Pattern Village is really showing that eco-fashion can be manu factured in New York. The goal is always to maintain a price that more and more people can experience the brand. All our packaging is biodegradable and uses safe inks and is FTCC-certified. Everything we do, from beginning to end of the product lifeline, is with sustainability in mind. For every purchase, we plant a tree.
I work with One Tree Planted, which plants trees where they’re most needed
in the USA for forest fire replenishment, mostly in Colorado and California. What is behind your design pro cess?
Inspiration-wise, it comes from what I see around me. It ties back to what I see in New York, and then what I see on the road. Travel plays a huge part of what I put into the design. The Water Crushed dressing gown comes from my time spent in Morocco and the sapphires and tur quoise colors. The blues you see rippling through the cities of Morocco are like no other. I really wanted to capture that in a pattern and that became the Water Crushed dressing gown. Nature plays a huge role, too. If you look at Safari Lust, I went with the giraffe print. In fashion, giraffe doesn’t get as much love as some of the other animal prints. I also wanted to make the pattern look like the giraffe was walking, so you’ll see crumbled lines that are really cool. We also figured out how to make sunspots, so when you’re wearing the dressing gown in the sun, it literally looks like the sun is shining on a giraffe throughout the pattern. With all of the patterns, I want people to look at it and think, “That’s me. It makes me feel something, remember something, or want to visit a place.”At the beginning of the design process, I sketch it out and do a ton of mood boards. Then I like to work with a different female artist on each one. I’ll collaborate with a surface pattern designer on each pattern. For example, on Loverland, I worked with an artist named Mardula and we talked through the wanderlust, desert utopian aspect that I wanted to get across with that pattern. She painted it all. We digitally painted it so it can become a pattern for the dress ing gown. At the end of the day, like I said, it really takes a village. It’s not just me. It’s finding other designers that have a love for the brand as well and want to be part of it. Then we collaborate and work together on these beautiful patterns that are born.
How do you find these designers and artists to work with? Instagram has been the best tool for that. There’s such a community of designers that are constantly posting their work on Instagram. I really get into the weeds of finding the right ones. When you’re on Instagram, you don’t need a thousand likes for me to find your post. It’s about finding designers I really connect with. I also work with people I know. For exam ple, my cousin designed Safari Lust with me. I was working on it for so long and I thought, “I need someone else to work on this pattern and get it to the finish line.” It just so happened that my cousin was the perfect person. She understood
my idea for the sunspots on the giraffe dressing gown immediately and pieced it together. I spend a lot of time researching artists that I think will be a great fit for the brand, and who I want to support. What makes the garments you’ve launched different from others in the market?
I don’t think anything in the market is similar to the line of dressing gowns that I launched with. The garment is so unique in terms of being able to wear it as a swimsuit cover up to brunch, as a dress to lunch, for cocktails, etc. The function ality is completely unique. The fact that it’s UPF fabric is another aspect that differentiates the product from anything else on the market. The dressing gowns are unique for so many reasons. From the fact that they are made from recycled wa ter bottles to the artistic, bold, beautiful patterns, and the way that they function as a cover-up or out to brunch or cock tails. There’s so many uses for it. It’s really a travel garment that’s made to go with you throughout the day. Then when you look at our jumpsuits, it all comes back to an outfit that is chic and comfortable but also has function to it. The straps are adjustable, but so are the pant legs. How often do you drop new items? Can we have a sneak peek of what’s to come?
I came back from Greece filled with ideas. Next summer has so much in the works. I do one new dressing gown pat tern a year. I launched that in the spring before the start of summer. Last year, I introduced the jumpsuits. I have some fun plans for the jumpsuits, and I plan on extending the color lines. I’m looking at new sustainable fabrics, too. You’ve also been working in the ho tel industry for years. How do you balance working in hospitality and the fashion business?
Hotels are always part of what I do, and they’ve inspired so much of Pattern Vil lage. There are some fun hotel projects in the future that will come around. I’m also moving into this new role that’s very much tied to the retail world, so it is relat ed to what I do.
How do you look forward to making fashion more sustainable in the future?
I’m really focused on making sustainable fashion more accessible for more peo ple. I’m always thinking of the price tag and how we can put the best out there for more people to be able to purchase sustainable fashion. That’s my goal at the end of the day. I put the price out there that’s best for the consumer. I don’t mark up prices. There’s no middleman be tween me and the consumer.
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