SHOWnews: NEW New Bottega, Solange In Gucci, SKIMS In NYC

It’s Reigning Women

Yesterday was a nice day for fashion. A very good creative director was appointed at a house focused on personal identities rather than, let’s say, a ruthenium interlocked logo gleaming all phosphorescent-like above a sea of dark, quilted leather. We imagine Stella Tennant as the physical embodiment of that interlocked, double-C, charcoal-but-platinum, ruthenium bag. Less obvious than the gold turn-lock in black leather, yet no less desirable. Which brings us back to Louise Trotter. Like Tennant, the new Creative Director for Bottega Veneta is British. She did not advance in fashion with sexy appointments nor influencers sitting self-impressed at her Joseph, Lacoste and Carven shows. And much like Tennant, Trotter has good taste. She focuses on an effortless sense of taste that lives, not that merely exists.

Perhaps that comes from Trotter crafting her influences. Knit one: Mark Rothko’s luminous expressionism. Pearl two: Linda McCartney’s vibrant life photography that captured Mick Jagger as sensorially as the Scottish countryside. Cosmic fashion elements from Martin Margiela’s darning needle, Junya Watanabe bodices in perfect incongruity, plus the order of Prada Sport at odds with a stroppy Northern disorder from Miu Miu, pepper two collections that affirm why Louise Trotter is a perfect Bottega fit: Joseph fall 16 and Lacoste spring 22. That each show was finessed by stalwart veterans Jane How and Suzanne Koller respectively makes Trotter’s appointment topical — more women visibly in creative director positions at houses. Trotter and Koller are chill, fashion-obsessed women coming to continue Bottega’s vision affirming your personal style being enough to rely on. Thank goodness.

Think of the last Bottega collection filled with chic, wondrous ideas (the Armani man conjured as an Armani woman) that elevated daily dress to cinematic levels.

Mix those concepts with Trotter’s editorial, but also pragmatic shapes in her fall collection for Carven, styled by Koller. Her clothes breathe. Her women do in fact exist. Liisa Winkler — an 01 prime Helmut Lang-era girl — does not walk for just anyone. Trotter favours relaxed, confident women you want to know more about, not some far flung character narrative from a fussy gay fashion man obsessed with Barbies and taffeta. Through her easygoing approach, Venetian craft gets female redirection this January. Happy New Year indeed.

Gucci Pours The Holidays Through A Looking Glass

Gucci films the tension between material desire and immaterial importance in a new Gucci Gift campaign, envisioned by creative director Sabato De Sarno, as a four-chapter story unfolding across lively holiday scenes. De Sarno bets on genuine connection as a guiding focus that strips away the greed of holiday hauls to reveal genuine gestures between those that give and receive. Here’s how:

Chapter 1: Stories from The Savoy

The Savoy Hotel in London. A sense of the house’s origin story fills the air — Guccio Gucci worked at The Savoy as a porter — as actress Jessica Chastain and her friend Danielle, use an elevator mirror to ensure their looks look good before hitting the town. Next, models Kendall Jenner and Lineisy Montero enter the elevator doing elevator things, Jackie 1961 in tow, as the doors open to Kendall’s destination on snowy mountain tops.

Chapter 2: To the Mountains

Chapter 2 reveals our heavy-handed moment of the Gucci Gift campaign. Entitled ‘To the Mountains’ since obviously…the campaign invites viewers to a snow-capped peak, following a group of friends in relaxation overlooking a chalet. Our wintry soothsayer Kendall Jenner returns in a two-piece daywear ensemble with GG monograms and a Marmont bag while supermodel Kirsty Hume and daughter Violet unload the SUV in Gucci après-ski.

Hume famously walked finales with Kate, Guinevere and Carolyn from the house’s iconic, erogenous gowns in white jersey from the fall 1996 show. Come to think of it now, Jessica Chastain’s elevator dress feels like a slight copy. Anyways, time for hot chocolate.

Chapter 3: Heading Home

This Gucci campaign tale strikes a heartfelt tone in Chapter 3 with a cozy setting filled with friends, families and festivities. Kids play with an automatic train set. Solange Knowles walks over to hug her mum Ms. Tina Knowles as a rendition of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ plays in the background. We think of ‘Summer Renaissance’ by Solange’s sister at this point, which put Summer’s original to great use 2 years ago. A camera follows a girl down a hallway. And just like that, Chapter 4.

Chapter 4: A Night in Florence

The final chapter of the Gucci Gift campaign takes place on a party night Florence, the birthplace of Gucci. While we are not sure, nor do we appreciate, why actress Dakota Johnson is shoeless, the camera fortunately cuts to people sensible enough to wear shoes —Global Brand Ambassadors, the actors Ni Ni and Xiao Zhan. As Zhan speeds away from undesirable holiday nonsense, we smile as he does. Christmas with Gucci is exhausting. Let’s go home with Xiao and ignore everyone until mid-January.

Jil’s New Jewels

Jil Sander is a house familiar with fluctuations. For every triumph, it seems they face a challenge. One month ago, Jil Sander’s CEO was said to be departing. Two weeks later the new Jil Sander monograph ‘Jil Sander By Jil Sander,’ a celebration of company founder and designer Mrs. Sander’s enduring history was announced. Then last week, the company opened their largest flagship to date in Tokyo. This week, amidst rumours that creative directors Luke and Lucie Meier will depart after their A/W 25 presentation, house yin combines with superstitous yang once again to launch the first line of Jil Sander Fine Jewellery. Teased in last week’s flagship details, the new collection encapsulates nature and nature’s elements: botany, water, and the cosmos.

Light is the guiding principle. Forms are organic archetypes elevated into a synthesis of 18k gold and lab-grown diamonds. Subtraction is at odds with difference where creative processes vanish behind the alluring results, a raw tenet within the Jil Sander material process. Three series — the Branch, the Astral and the Drop — in respective white gold and rhodium plates; yellow gold embedded with diamonds; and yellow gold ellipses make their debut at the Ginza flagship and shops next year.

Off-White™ Is Out Of Office This Month

Off-White™ and collaborators Brick and Dieter “Du” Grams of BSTROY™ christen the vision collectively shared with Virgil Abloh to launch the limited-edition Off-White™ c/o BSTROY™ ‘OUT OF OFFICE’ sneaker. Originally developed four years ago by Abloh, the trainer was designed with radical creativity in mind. BSTROY™ and Off-White™ creative director Ib Kamara draw directly from Abloh, Brick and Grams’ playbook from an architecture markup in pink marker to the trainer-level. The exact arrow from Abloh's electronic finger drawing was used in design with the pink sketched symbol replacing the shoe’s usual leather arrow overlay, bringing Abloh’s hands directly into the design. Colourways in silver and black reflect the trio’s passion for the Porsche 911, topped off with Abloh’s pink sketched arrow.

The limited-edition Off-White™ c/o BSTROY™ ‘OUT OF OFFICE’ in silver-black-pink and silver-blue-green are available online right now.

Alaïa Redesigns Gallery Experiences

Maison Alaïa’s Dialogue series stages artistic and cultural projects directed by its Creative Director Pieter Mulier. Now in its third edition, six Paris design galleries suggest variations on modular-meets-chic scenarios for Le Teckel, Mulier’s 2024 hit bag named after a dachshund. In a series of images, photographed by Katja Rahlwes, each Teckel is placed in close proximity to unique design pieces, sparking a conversation between applied artistry. Dialogue between design and fashion objects negotiates spatial energy to examine the feelings when form sits next to (or on top of) function. At Galerie Vallois, a beige Teckel converses sensorily with a sofa (circa 1922) by Pierre Chareau. At Galerie Jacques Lacoste, Le Teckel forms a tableau setting with a 1955 vase by Valentine Schlegel and Table Forme Libre (circa 1956) by Charlotte Perriand. While at Galerie Kiyama, it stands in dialogue with two vases (circa 1945) by Tanabe Chikuunsai II. This series of dialogue installations expresses Le Teckel as a functional accessory for transport while also exhibiting its value as an austere object. Each ‘Le Teckel’ exhibition is currently on display.

Marni Pops-Up At Selfridges

Fans of Francesco Risso’s liturgy of beauty from his Marni S/S 25 show are in for a treat. Marni is taking over Selfridges for two months. The pop-up space is the retail debut for the collection that had Risso asking ‘Is there anything more pure than the essence of beauty?’ Selfridges loans out an ‘immersive colourful space to discover Marni’s universe through the art of MENDING — a gesture that transforms every garment into a work of art.’

This interior intention clicks with pride-filled answers to Risso’s question. His continuous thread of beauty running from day to evening dress in S/S 25 promoted a pride within oneself. An important value emphasising that beauty is precious and should be protected with importance.

Marni S/S 25 Vol. 2 collection harkened back to late-2010s collections (virtuoso showmanship honestly) from Marc Jacobs with a performative narrative concept contained in the clothes. A child-like approach to millinery and designs requiring only paper and cotton to come alive, touch Marni retail entry points at every level.

Running until 2 February 2025 Selfridges becomes an idiosyncratic experience on a child’s idea of freedom expressed on clothes for adults. Find your beauty in Marni’s repetitive shapes, prints and textures this winter at Selfridges.

Skims Paints The Town Beige

SKIMS Kardashian continues their rapid global revolution in shapewear with the first SKIMS flagship shop opening in New York City this week. Situated in the old Versace building, design studio Rafael de Cárdenas, Ltd. reshapes the four-story, 6,570 sq. ft interiors to reflect SKIMS’ value system: aerodynamic, curvy, beige. As a monumental Vanessa Beecroft acts as both Statue of Shapewear Liberty and security lead, you sense more of Beecroft’s year 2000 moving installation army filled with red-haired white girls in a tableau of ‘the stance’ rather than her Yeezy Season 1 armed forces intensity. We’re not racialising, just physicalising. Alabaster bodies connoting blank canvases invited to reform, restrict, smooth and shape wear to wearers can be both art and artifice, right? This is not a straightforward retail exercise.

‘This flagship is a dream realized for SKIMS. We've created a space that perfectly embodies our brand and elevates the customer experience.’

— Kim Kardashian, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer

Well now, reading Kim’s comments perhaps SKIMS NYC very much is a straightforward customer journey. Convenient, direct access to assorted SKIMS apparel categories, plus obsessions like those Dolce & Gabbana and The North Face collabs is a nice way to dial down hot take Kardashian distaste. Now haters can see if SKIMS rubber truly meets the road. Some of us might actually sniff around the SKIMS men's selections. It too will be available for in-store shopping.