Parting Ways
Josep Font is stepping down as creative director of Spanish luxury brand Delpozo. He was hired to relaunch the brand six years ago by Grupo Perfumes y Diseño, which has held the house's perfume license since 1992 and acquired the label in full in 2011. A successor will be named at a later date.
Prior to joining Delpozo,
Font had his own label, which he showed during Madrid, Barcelona, Tokyo and Paris fashion weeks. He revived Delpozo, originally launched in 1974 by Spanish couturier Jesus del Pozo, with a flare for dramatic, colorful and eccentric collections that often employed couture techniques and silhouettes. Though based in Spain, the brand held its fashion show during New York Fashion Week before switching to London for the last two seasons.
“Josep has been a key figure for the relaunch of Delpozo,” said the company's president Pedro Trolez, who owns Grupo Perfumes y Diseño, in a statement. “Over the past six years, he has helped rejuvenate and continue the legacy of Jesus.”
“I am very proud of what we have achieved together in the short space of six years,” said Font. “I want to thank my talented team who has been committed since the beginning of this journey.”
There are freestanding Delpozo stores in Madrid, London and Dubai. The brand has an agreement with Chalhoub Group and KLH Group for further retail expansion in the Middle East and Korea, respectively.
— JESSICA IREDALE a judge on “China's Next Top Model,” revisited the signature Clergerie platforms on articulated soles with floral embroideries produced in her native Sichuan region.
Liu, who boasts more than 50,000 followers on Instagram, described the collaboration as a “deeply personal” design project.
Sporting delicate flowers and metallic details embroidered by hand on lambskin, the signature masculine-feminine contrast of the wedges gives a subtle punk vibe. The shoes were developed in Clergerie's ateliers in Romanssur-Isère, France.
Two styles are available, in black or white: a high monk-strap version with a 100-millimeter articulated wedge, and a lace-up derby style with an 85-millimeter articulated wedge.
“It's how you use those elements. I think the sense of color and [traditional details] have always influenced my own styling and personal life, and here I tried to modernize it,” said Liu, describing the shoes as “colorful but still quite cool, with the high platform.”
“It's also about the different ways of styling the shoes,” added the stylist who, as founder of creative company The Ballroom, has collaborated with brands including Uka and Pony.
The footwear capsule is to launch on Clergerie's web site as well as in the brand's stores and selected retailers worldwide from February 2019.
— KATYA FOREMAN welcomed the way women are reclaiming the term.
“I think it's long had negative connotations or frightening connotations but, you know, we live in England where it's quite a pagan country in a lot of ways, and witches were people that you went to for healing purposes, so they actually have incredibly ancient power and wisdom,” she mused.
Blanchett is gearing up to play comedian Lucille Ball in a biopic, but she hasn't yet found her Desi Arnaz. “Aaron Sorkin is writing, and I think he's delivering the script sometime soon, but I don't know when, where or how,” she demurred.
Patrick Schwarzenegger, fresh off celebrating his 25th birthday earlier in the week, recently wrapped filming
“Daniel Isn't Real,” in which he plays the main character's imaginary friend.
“It's about a guy who's kind of schizophrenic, who has voices in his head, and he develops this relationship with this voice in his head, his imaginary friend,” he explained.
While Schwarzenegger had to fly straight back to Los Angeles for work, Dominic Cooper hoped to squeeze in some more sightseeing before returning to the set of his television series “Preacher,” now entering its fourth season.
“I like to queue up and try and see ‘ The Last Supper,' which I'm failing at, at the moment. But I went to the cathedral yesterday and it was absolutely stunning. I was completely mesmerized. We didn't have time to go in, but the size, the scale of it, and the architecture and the beautiful craftsmanship of it, are incredible,” the “Mamma
Mia” star said.
After the show, Cooper and other guests crossed the road to take in an exhibition of photographs by Sarah Moon at the cavernous Armani/Silos space. Featuring more than
170 images in black-and-white and color, including a series of spectacular large formats, the exhibit titled “From One Season to Another” is scheduled to run until Jan. 6.
Asked why he wanted to showcase Moon's work, Armani responded: “Beautiful things must be seen, tout simplement.“He noted the painterly quality of the images, and drew a link with his own aesthetic.
“I designed a collection once, without having looked at Sarah Moon, where the woman has a similar attitude, similar clothing, so it felt very beautiful to do this show that somehow reminded me of my past,” the designer said.
Moon noted she intentionally didn't include any images from her fashion advertising campaigns. “Often I blend fashion and landscapes, or industrial images with circus photos. Everything is mixed together,” she explained, before melting into the crowd.
— JOELLE DIDERICH frescoes by 18th-century artist Giambattista Tiepolo.
Guests including Silvia Venturini Fendi, Delfina Delettrez, Fausto Puglisi, Alberta Ferretti, Anna Molinari, Caroline Vreeland, Giuseppe Zanotti and Carlo Capasa joined Alaïa's partner Christoph von Weyhe and close friend Carla Sozzani at the event.
Olivier Saillard, the fashion historian who curated the show, said seeing the outfits in the gilded reception room, which also features tapestries and a wood marquetry floor, cast them in a fresh light.
“There are clothes I have handled dozens of times, and for example this little white dress, I think, looks a lot more alive here,” he said, pointing to a short Grecian-style draped jersey dress.
“It's the first time that Azzedine Alaïa is the subject of an exhibition in Milan. It's like a little appetizer in the hope of perhaps doing something bigger one day,” he added.
Supported by the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation and Vogue Italia, in partnership with Place Vendôme Qatar, “Azzedine Alaïa Couture Sculpture” is open to the public until Sept. 25 during Milan Fashion Week.
For Sara Maino, deputy editor of Vogue Italia and head of
Vogue Talents, it was a family affair. Sozzani, her mother, worked alongside Alaïa for decades and is still closely involved with the brand.
“I used to call him papa. He saw me since I was, like, three years old, so it's really kind of a family passion,” she said.
While some of the outfits were also shown at the Villa Borghese in Rome in 2015, the foundation has stepped up the rhythm of exhibitions since the couturier died last year.
“Azzedine Alaïa: The Couturier” runs at the Design Museum in London until Oct. 7, and a new exhibition will bow at his exhibition space in Paris during couture week in January, Saillard said.
“We try to favor venues that have never hosted a fashion exhibition before, which is the case here, but now we are going to give the clothes a little bit of a rest,” he said. —J.D.