Barneys Features Transgender Models In Spring Campaign

Call us optimistic, but we’ve seen change for the better in the Spring ’14 campaigns. Rather than opting for the expected slim, Caucasian catwalkers, major brands are taking the road that’s been historically less traveled, casting models of all shapes, sizes, colors, and beyond. Riccardo Tisci, for instance, brought Givenchy to the front of the ongoing race-in-fashion conversation by tapping neo-soul star Erykah Badu for the house’s Spring ads. Nicola Formichetti championed the beauty of a 26-year-old blogger with muscular dystrophy in his latest campaign, and now Barneys has released its Spring snaps, which star seventeen transgender models. Dubbed Brothers, Sisters, Sons, and Daughter, the Bruce Weber-lensed ads mark Barneys’ collaboration with two organizations: the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. Ten percent of sales made on February 11 at Barneys’ flagship stores and Web site will go to said initiatives. Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman told WWD that the choice to feature transgender models had “a lot to do with the realization that such extraordinary progress has been made in the last few years for the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community, but it’s striking how the transgender community has been left behind. It’s disturbing and upsetting to see that.” Is there a big marketing element behind brands’ decisions to stray from the norm? Probably–but who cares. It doesn’t take away from the fact that key companies are celebrating individuality in all forms. We have to mention, though, that Riccardo Tisci included transgender model Lea T in Givenchy’s ads back in 2010—that Riccardo, always ahead of the game.

David Bailey Brings His Art to the Masses

Thank you, David Bailey, for offering an affordable option for the skint art lover. “Not everyone can afford a print, so this is a nice way of making my work available for everyone,” the famed photographer told Style.com. “What’s the difference between putting it on a canvas and putting it on a T-shirt that everyone can afford? I think it’s quite nice that everyone can have a T-shirt with an image that has some history behind it.”

Bailey is referring to his debut collection of six tees, which launches today exclusively at Selfridges. The tops are printed with some of his most iconic portraits, including those of Michael Caine, Mick Jagger, Boy George, and Grace Jones. Bailey collaborated with the edgy East London creative group The Bleach Room to update the images with a cool collage effect.

The collection is a clever way to reach art collectors and distant admirers alike, especially as his new exhibition, Bailey’s Stardust, is set to open at the National Portrait Gallery next week. At £70 a pop, this is a prime chance to grab an authentic Bailey—while the getting’s good.

Captain Sully Tries Out Watch Design Avec JeanRichard

(NEW YORK) A mere 208 seconds is all you need to compose a tweet, apply eye makeup, or order dinner on Seamless. For Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, 208 seconds is the amount of time it took him to save 155 lives when he maneuvered an emergency landing of Flight 1549 on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the pilot’s quick thinking and valiant actions, JeanRichard, the iconic Swiss watchmaker, toasted their current brand ambassador with a cocktail party. “We immediately thought that for America, Sully would be the perfect ambassador because he represents our values: living life to the fullest, living passion to the extreme and doing it all the right way,” COO, Bruno Grande explained.

Amidst the many, many watches in the Tourneau TimeMachine building, the timepiece of the evening was the JeanRichard “208 Seconds” Aeroscope Watch, created with a few touches from Sully himself. “I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of time,” he explained.  “For a pilot, time is a finite resource; you have to manage it and use it efficiently.”

Melissa Joy Manning Fêtes The Opening Of Her New NYC Flagship

(NEW YORK) Sustainable jewelry designer Melissa Joy Manning celebrated the opening of her new 4,500-square-foot flagship at 12 Wooster Street last night with a packed house. Supermodel Amber Valletta was on hand to help her friend celebrate and looked stunning for the occasion in a slim cut-out black dress. While Manning's first store is in Berkley, California, this is her biggest space. The Soho digs host not only to the retail store, but also a wholesale space, and a sales and marketing office. That's only upstairs: on the downstairs level, there's a design development space, photography studio, kitchen, full entertainment space, and Manning's own office.

"I wanted to have the space for eight years, and I was actively in the real estate market for close to five. I was always looking trying to find something that felt authentic," said Manning.  "I just really wanted to create a vision for the brand that was tangible so people could understand where we're coming from. This building hadn't been touched. I walked in and I just knew. The walls weren't there; it was just a big giant empty space. I was really impressed with the pieces that I could work with in the space, like the skylight in the back and the old safes. It just resonated with me." Before Manning set up shop, the space had housed other creative endeavors like a photographer's studio and a videographer's digs. Originally, it housed a company that sold sewing machines and manufactured needles.

Haute Couture Spring 2014: Maison Martin Margiela

(NEW YORK) Maison Martin Margiela

The fashion set prefers to inhabit digs that are artfully decorated; a colorful backdrop to their lives if you will. With Maison Martin Margiela’s latest Couture showing, home-apropos textiles have found their way onto the runway. Models shrouded with face masks (this year’s version is a sheer black with applique eyes) served as mannequins for the richly textured fabrics. Raw hems and unfinished fabrics hinted at a wealth of history. The likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Raoul Dufy, and Paul Gauguin’s work got translated into oversized coats and pant suits. Simple, strapless dresses hung off the body, allowing the focus to remain on the artful print combinations, while jackets were maxed-out in size. A minidress was covered in all the things one might find at the bottom of a sewing kit: buttons, plastic pearls, snaps, and chains. Patches got covered in hearts and names for a sweetly hand-hewn touch, and a dress fashioned out of pinup girls was finished off with a silk paisley skirt. There was a bit of an Eastern influence on a few of the patterns, like the dragon that dominated a skirt suit and a shapeless dress. As for chaussures, Margiela’s hoof-toed boots are back again, this time in shimmering chartreuse. Closing out the show was a black strapless silk number avec two big eyes adorning the mod’s arms. Perhaps this is the ever-elusive designer’s way of reminding the audience he’s always watching, even if you can’t see him.

Stella’s Sensual Spring Snaps

Debuting exclusively here on Style.com, Stella McCartney’s Spring ad campaign stars Finnish model Suvi Koponen. Lensed in London by Mert and Marcus, the ads were styled by McCartney herself, who told us that her goal was to “capture the freshness and sensual side of summer.” The snaps juxtapose serene black-and-white photography against striking giant red lips, seasonal pomegranates, and berries. “I wanted to evoke a sense of lushness with the images of fruit bursting with life and love, while balancing that with a contrast in the directness of depicting Suvi simply in black and white,” McCartney explained. Barefaced and dressed in the daisy prints from McCartney’s Spring ’14 collection, Koponen—who also landed this month’s German Vogue cover—embodies the effortless, feminine spirit of Stella’s Spring woman.

Clergerie, the Mouret Way

Roland Mouret has been busy dreaming up a new look for the Robert Clergerie man, one he defines as slightly offbeat, a tad psychedelic, but eminently wearable. “The way I see it, you can either do ‘heritage’ or you can create your own identity,” said Mouret upon arriving at the relaunch party he hosted at Maxim’s in Paris last night. “For me, the point of heritage is to break it down and do something new.” Robert Clergerie himself, hale and hearty at 79, joined in the process by sending Mouret a selection of his favorite styles.

There are more than 1,000 pairs of shoes in Clergerie’s nearly 120-year-old archives. (The company predates the man, who purchased and renamed the house in 1978.) Two pairs in particular—one from 1918 and another from 1926—came to inform the Spring ’14 line of derbies, oxfords, boots, and Chelsea boots that are part twenties and, true to Mouret’s style, part eighties.

“Clergerie always had a rock-and-roll spirit,” noted the house’s president, Eva Taub. “Robert’s first shoes for women were actually quite masculine. This spring we’re kind of pushing that signature androgyny in a new direction.” Added Mouret, “The 21st century is not about playing things safe. It’s about going your own way.”

Marks & Spencer Clothing Sales Drop Worsens as Discounts Fail

LONDON, United Kingdom — Marks & Spencer Group Plc reported a tenth straight quarter of falling clothing sales, indicating that heavy discounting before Christmas had little effect in luring customers back to Britain’s largest apparel retailer.

Non-food sales at stores open at least a year fell 2.1 percent in the 13 weeks ended Dec. 28, the London-based company said in a statement today. That’s worse than the median estimate for unchanged sales in a Bloomberg News survey of 19 analysts. Food sales rose 1.6 percent on that basis, less than the 2 percent anticipated by the analysts surveyed.

Marks & Spencer failed to match growth reported by clothing competitors Next Plc, John Lewis and House of Fraser, all of whom benefited from growth in their online units. Unlike Next, the retailer offered discounts before Christmas, cutting prices by as much as half on the key fall/winter collection to shift inventory.

Will H&M Become a Paris Fashion Week Fixture?

When you think Paris fashion week, H&M isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind—however, that may be about to change. Today, WWD reports that the high street retailer, who held its first star-studded party and runway romp for its elevated H&M Studio range during PFW last February, is coming back for round two. The Fall ’14 event will be hosted at a yet-to-be-disclosed venue on February 26. Judging by the Fall ’13 event, which featured the likes of Cara Delevingne, Joan Smalls, and Lindsey Wixson on the catwalk, and Ashley Olsen, Carine Roitfeld, and Chloë Moretz in the front row, it seems H&M’s February showing is poised to become a fashion week favorite.

Alexander Wang’s Toilet Humor

The first image from Alexander Wang’s cheeky Spring ’14 digital campaign broke today, and infused with humor, retro ambiance, and the designer’s signature breed of cool, the Steven Klein-lensed teaser shot has got everything—except clothes. The snap was staged in a bleak public restroom and features only the platform-clad feet of Anna Ewers and Zuzu Tadeushuk. The rest of their presumably Wang-dressed bodies are hiding behind the closed stall doors. “Since the spring-summer 2014 collection plays on the duality of naïveté and perverse explicitness in youth culture, we wanted to shoot the campaign in a very familiar environment most people grow up reminiscing about,” Wang told WWD. “I loved blurring the lines between censorship and humor.”