Hermès vs. the World

Hello! We sincerely hope that on the last week of summer you'll remember everything that happened during past 3 months and you'll understand that it has been the best summer of your life.
And now... back to fashion! :)

Recently we came up with an idea that the most frequent piece of advice given to people by friends, family, books, movies, tv-psychoanalysts, pseudo-psychoanalysts and regular psychoanalysts is: "Stay true to yourself. Don't forget about your purpose. Follow your own path". The same advice is often addressed to fashion-houses. But in that case it usually sounds like: "Go back to your DNA. Go back to your source!". And it's translated like: "Do what you do best". This particular idea became a burden in a brilliant Wall Street Journal article about Hermès fashion-house - The Battle for Hermès by Dana Thomas. Those of you who have spare 30 minutes and English level high enough to understand all the subtleties of corporate top-management, make yourself a cup of tea and read the article. For the rest of you - highlights:

1. Hermès headquarters on Faubourg Saint-Honoré Street in Paris is the best office on Earth (yes! we love the first paragraphs of fashion-themed articles for their complex sentences and extreme picturesqueness).
2. The absolute majority of Hermès goods is produced in France by French craftsmen from raw materials obtained in France or in foreign countries under the direct control of Hermès employees (example from the article - Hermès Brazilian farm producing silk fibres for the company).
3. Financial indicators are at a very high level - sales grew by 25% in 2010.
4. Hermès is a family business. All along its existence it was managed by people with different family names but with the same family tree (cousins, daughters' husbands etc.).
5. Hermès is trying to stand out by calling itself not a fashion-house but a house of craftsmanship with 174-years history and a bunch of traditions (for example, printing of a 90x90 cm silk scarf takes whole 15 hours and the technique is very similar to the one used 74 years ago when the Hermès silk business started).
6. Hermès is at war with LVMH. This war is desperate. LVMH wants to buy Hermès stock and barrel, Hermès resists. One day the family will lose (it's the mood of the article, the family and LVMH) but not in the near future.So, is it right for Hermès to fight fashion-giant LVMH? Maybe it'll be better to have a deal and make a renovation of family-estate and pay for the education of all descendants?
To answer this question let's use our time machine (yep! that blue box in the corner :) ) and go to January 2011... and let's quote Forbes article "Master of the Brand" by Susan Adams and Hannah Elliott which is about Bernard Arnault: "He's got an energy that's just amazing", "He is battle-hardened from many corporate fights. He has put in place a creative management group that thinks long term", "I see myself as an ambassador of French heritage and French culture", "...as Arnault cultural adviser Jean-Paul Claverie has described it...", "Arnault's role as global arbiter of taste", and last but not least quote by Anna Wintour: "I think he's pretty much unstoppable". The moral of the story: the enemy is strong and will not retreat. He will wait for a money-based conflict between the family-members and then he will be ready to buy the company.But does this mean that Hermès should wave the white Birkin? Quite the contrary! If the fashion industry turns into a game of chess between Bernard Arnault with his LVMH and François Pinault with his PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute), the fashion itself will at first become a bonus to the enterntainment industry and then will disappear at all (due to strong competition fashion-companies will start to produce everything at the same time). Just those very brands - independent and proud - warm up that melting pot which journalists call fashion. Those brands do not let fashion-giants relax and extend Arnault's work hours. Is it bad? No! The man is full of energy! It's definitely good for him!

That's why we're on Hermès side.

D & P

Tuesday of Trends

Trend is not only about patterns or skirt's length which are considered fashionable this season. It is also about those who are challenged by designers to represent the brand. This season fashion world chose the youth policy.

Recently we were looking through May Nylon and we found there Chloë Moretz. Then, while we were reading American Vogue, also May, we saw a fashion shoot in Chateau Marmont where Natalia Vodianova organized a pyjamas party with Hailee Steinfeld, Elle Fanning and Chloë Moretz. We were also scrolling through fashion news on the Internet and... Hailee Steinfeld is the new face of Miu Miu campaign. Elle Fanning, 13 years old, is the new face of Marc by Marc Jacobs. Surprised? No. Impressed? Yes!

1. Hailee Steinfeld, 14: Oscar's award nominee for "True Grit"
Miu Miu AW 2011/2012 by Bruce Weber



*You can see the rest of the photos on the official site

2. Elle Fanning, 13: Big roles: "Somewhere", "Super 8".
Marc by Marc Jacobs AW 2011/2012 by Juergen Teller


And here is a big editorial for Marie Claire

3. Chloë Moretz, 14: Roles in "Kick Ass" and "Let Me In".
Photoshoot for Nylon, May 2011 by Jennifer Rocholl



And now look at the photos, formulate your opinion on young Hollywood trio and comment!

"No more than 300 clients". Christian Dior. 1947

Yes, we're talking about Christian Dior and his opinion about the quantity of haute couture clients. 300 - it is precisely the number of Dior clients at the beginning of his work. In Janie Samet's book (We recommend!!!) there is a detailed description how this number grew to 3000 clients and how Dior opened branches all over the world. Today haute couture designers can only dream about such numerous group of consumers. Haute couture is dying, making way for pret-a-porter which in its turn changes into ready to wear. But as long as there is monarchy, aristocracy, diplomacy and Chinese millionaires haute couture has a weak but stable source of income. Moreover, haute couture has several image functions - drawing attention, showing the craftsmanship of a fashion house, demonstrating the ultimate achievements of the industry.

So, the Haute Couture week AW 2011/2012 is now taking place in Paris. Today the 'Christian Dior's collection was shown to the public. It was created by Bill Gaytten and Susanna Venegas. The representatives of the house told that Bill wouldn't become the successor of John Galliano. Yes, it's difficult to find somebody to replace him. Maybe that's the reason why this particular collection was like the first Valentino collection after the resignation of Garavani - muddled and a bit confusing.

Now you can watch the video and see the details: (photos by Vogue.co.uk)


*Click on the image to enlarge it

See you soon!

MODEL Monday

Hi! We survived exams, disappointments in fashion industry, tiredness, first summer heat, and then we stopped whining and complaining and wrote a post.

We've been waiting for the event, which is the subject of today's post, for several months - since February 2011, when a huge diamond sparkled for the first time on supermodel's finger and reps of both sides - Kate's and The Kills guitarist's Jamie Hince - confirmed the engagement rumours. Last weekend (from Friday July 1st to Sunday July 3rd) runaway star and British rock star tied the knot in the Cotswolds, UK. The guest list was impressive: Karl Lagerfeld, Daphne Guinness, Emmanuelle Alt, Carine Roitfeld, Anna Wintour, Stefano Pilati (who handled his job - suits for the groom and for his 'best woman' The Kills vocalist Alison Mosshart - amazingly well), Marc Jacobs, Mario Testino, Lara Stone, Jude Law and other A-list guests. Let's not forget about Jefferson Hack, EIC of Dazed&Confused, Kate's ex-boyfriend, father of her daughter Lila Grace, he also attended the ceremony. Scandalous and unpopular particularly this season John Galliano created the wedding dress (attended the ceremony as well, despite the displease of the fashion world with his recent behaviour). We have to admit that we love Kate's dress and we are very happy that she didn't follow the advice of British Vogue's EIC and didn't choose Alexander McQueen, because the main reason we love fashion is its variety.

During the festivities Kate also wore a full-length dress, a mini-dress and a suit by Stella McCartney, who was among the guests as well.
You can see more photos from the event @ Vogue.co.uk:

And a bit of Cotswolds:

Let's wish the newlyweds a long and happy life together!

PS: several guests had to leave the celebration early because of another big summer wedding - the one of Monaco's Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock. We'll talk about it soon.

And now... the main question: the wedding dress - YAY or NAY?

We're going INTERNATIONAL!

Hello-hello, dear readers!

In general, we don't believe in numerology... Of course, there are some magical sequences so beloved by Dan Brown, but in other respects figures are just figures.

But some coincidences throw into confusion even us - children of XXI century. A little bit of history: initially, we wanted to open our blog on April 1st (it conformed to the title and to the idea), but force majeure prevented us from publishing our first post the same day. So, the world learnt about our blog only on April 11th.

From the very beginning we were looking for creating a parallel English version. Firstly, because English is the international language nowadays. Secondly, because we wanted to show this blog to our English-speaking friends, and Russian letters drive into ecstasies every foreigner but when the first impression is over, the cursor stretches itself to the red cross in the upper right corner.

Without thinking we chose the date of the openning of the English version - November 1st. And only one week ago we saw a curious dependence which strengthened even more our confidence in necessity of translation of every post - November 1st = 1.11!

Ok, we know that we bored you with meaningless figures. That's why... please welcome this site:

www.thatisnotajoke-eng.blogspot.com
All posts will appear on Russian version at first and then (the same day or the next day) on English version. We make all the translation on our own, so they will be a little better than Google translate)))

Add our blog to your Favourites and tell your friends about us!

Thanks for your attention!

D & P

PS: if you have a twitter account follow us here: @thatsnotajoke

Slow fashion

People, who think that fashion is the same thing that consumerism, annoyed by the changing of tendencies. But what can we do? Fashion doesn't exist without changing. Fashonable and new are practically synonyms. And yes, tendencies are created artificially, everyone understands that. "So, is it right to produce more and more?" - the #1 question of fashion industry. However, very few people try to find an answer to it. The main reason is that a fashion house sells not only clothes: frankly speaking, we don't need 20 dresses. And polo-shirt is just a polo-shirt, even if it has a crocodile-logo. So, there is no need to pay more.

However, it might have sense to pay more in case of Lacoste crocodiles, because Lacoste still produces some clothes in France. As for Ralph Lauren, he produces his polo-shirts in Vietnam (and they cost even more than Lacoste's polos).

So, a fashion house sells a beautiful story rather than just clothes. At Zara they don't embroider small "z" on their polos, it's absurd: Zara sells just clothes. As for Lacoste, they can give you a polo and an image of success. Ralph Lauren didn't enlarge his logo for nothing)) At Ralph Lauren they understand that a polo made in Vietnam is not interesting at all. A polo with a logo of the main Americain fashion house - excellent!

But we have distracted. So, is it right to produce more and more? Does fast fashion have any sense? When serious dudes, like Stephane Plassier, come to the industry they answer "no" to the both questions.

Stephane Plassier is one of the few supporters of slow fashion. He decided to create a perfect wardrobe which wouldn't need to be renewed permanently. All Stephane's clothes are black, that's why they combine easily with each other. He adds 2-3 pieces each season. Moreover, some of the clothes can be draped in different ways and look differently.

You can see the collection here.

However, we think that the collection is a bit less interesting than the idea of giving seasons in fashion up. BTW, the idea is very fearless: Stephane knew that it would be difficult to convince boutiques and buyers who already have a habit of seasonal changing of collections.

But Plassier is sure: if you want to sell something - be different!

Instead of P.S. "black is beautiful"


D & P

Babies ;)

It can't annoy. It can't bore. There can't be too much of it. It doesn't provoke any negative emotion. What is it?

Everyone has already come up with a dozen of answers to this question... We doubt whether you thought about the subject of our post. But you will definitely agree with us! So what is it? Did you guess? Children's clothes! You don't agree?


And now?

Still nothing???

Are you ok? Take the temerature... feel the pulse... take blood pressure... very strange! :)
And what if...

Recently Burberry has published their new lookbook Autumn/Winter 2010 Burberry Childrenswear collection.
And also the video:

But if your heart doesn't melt with little pretty British chubby lads, don't be upset! There are Americain children! Photos from children's ad campaign were shown also at Gucci. But here thoughtful mother hasn't lost sight of kids not for a second.

Yes-yes! Jennifer Lopez and her twinsMax and Emme. The ad campaign is dedicated to the partnership of Gucci Group and UNICEF which assumes that Gucci will donate 1 mln $ to UNICEF's program "Schools for Africa".

We'll give you some time to look at these nice pictures!

D & P