Playing Giorgio Armani
Mediaset is filming a fourepisode TV series set in the Seventies and spotlighting the development of Italy's ready-towear designers who have helped build the country's fashion industry.
Called “Made in Italy,” the series will bow in the fall and Giorgio Armani will be one of the designers portrayed, played by Italian heartthrob Raoul Bova. The actor is a longtime loyal friend of the house and has attended many of Armani's shows and worn his suits during red carpet events.
Original clothes and accessories by the likes of Walter Albini, Raffaella Curiel, Fiorucci, Krizia, Missoni, Valentino and several other brands will be worn in the series.
Greta Ferro, a Giorgio Armani Beauty ambassador who last year starred in “Una Giacca” (“A Jacket”), a short film produced during the first edition of the Armani/Laboratorio, a free training course in the field of cinema, is one of the protagonists, together with Margherita Buy, also an Armani friend, and Fiammetta Cicogna.
Filming is taking place mainly in Milan, as well as in New York and Morocco.
The series will be shown on Canale 5, and the rights of the film, co-produced by Taodue Film and The Family for Mediaset, have already been sold to leading French firm Federation.
— LUISA ZARGANI underneath to look at it, he said. Should an element not measure up, he discards those sections.
The artist has turned over scraps of discarded paintings for the designers to use at their discretion. “What we decided on was that we all have the ability to say, ‘We don't like something.' It can be the placement of a button, the choice of a particular painting in a particular area. Either one of us has veto say over any element,” he said, adding that he only spoke up once.
While some of the designs can be worn, the more sculptural designs are meant to be pieces of art with prices ranging from $6,000 to $20,000. The Phoenix Art Museum and the Museum at FIT have already shown some interest in the using the sculptural pieces for exhibitions, Casselman said. There will also be a directto-consumer collection sold via Threeasfour's site. The latter will retail around $200 to $800 with both partners splitting sales
50-50, Casselman said. Should everything sell, about $500,000 to $700,000 in sales would be generated, Casselman estimated.
Bibhu Mohapatra will also be back on the NYFW scene with a 10year anniversary show Feb. 11 at Spring Studios, after skipping last season. After filing Chapter 11 two years ago, the designer said his new partner, BC International, has provided a $100,000 investment. He also aims to build international sales with Christine Pancrate, whom he is already working with. She plans to open a multidesigner showroom in Paris, he added.
— ROSEMARY FEITELBERG star's career.
The collection of T-shirts, long sleeve shirts, hoodies and hats is intended to highlight major moments in Wade's life and include images of him as a child as well as some of his career milestones printed on the back of the pieces to mimic concert tour merchandise.
Prices range from $30 for a Dad hat and $35 for a T-shirt, to $45 for a long-sleeve shirt and $75 for a hoodie.
The line will be promoted through an advertising and social media campaign by both Bleacher Report and Wade that will include a concert tour-style photo shoot with the Miami Heat player.
“I have been closely involved in every step of the design process of this very personal collection,” Wade said. “My fashion partnerships have always been an authentic reflection of who I am. It's been a joy to look back at my career and incorporate very special moments into the design.”
Over the years Wade has been involved with Stance, a sock brand he has partnered with since 2013, as well as Dsquared2 and Tie Bar. In a presentation at Bloomberg last summer, he said he intends to create a lifestyle brand to capitalize on the fame he's had on the court once his career is done. Wade said in September that he would wind up his 16-year NBA career at the end of the 2018-2019 season.
Ed Romaine, chief brand officer at Bleacher Report, said the D. Wade World Tour follows the successful launch in December of the Bleacher Report Drop Up event where the site partnered with Levi's, Adidas and Twitter on a fan-skewed evening for its B/R Kicks subbrand that celebrates sneaker style and culture. Romaine said 12,000 people walked through the art and exhibition space it created in New York City in one day.
“We're breaking down the walls between sports and culture,” he said. And the Dwyane Wade initiative is seen as another way to scale the company's business.
Romaine said Bleacher Report plans to host a number of other, similar initiatives under the World Tour moniker with other athletes later this year. — JEAN E. PALMIERI