First ever Kids' Fashion Week lands in London with a bang as celebrities and their designer-clad children hit the mini catwalk

With a luxury childrenswear market thought to be worth £500 million in the UK alone and the likes of Romeo Beckham already making a foray into the world of fashion, it was only a matter of time before the kids got their own fashion week.

And last night the first ever Global Kids’ Fashion Week (GKFW) landed in London with a bang.

Stylish celebrity parents and their equally fashion-forward children were out in their droves at Freemason's Hall, Covent Garden, to witness the world's first ever kid's catwalk show, and it did not disappoint.

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Fashion graduates wow Kuala Lumpur

CPIT fashion graduates Phoebe Ratcliff-Reid and Melissa McIndoe are “over the moon” after winning first and second prize, with their Malaysian counterparts, in the New Zealand Week fashion competition in Kuala Lumpur last night.

The girls met legendary shoe designer Jimmy Choo, New Zealand singer Boh Runga and other celebrities at the event, but found that they were the stars of the night.

“This is the icing on the cake,” CPIT fashion tutor Nicola Chrisp said from Kuala Lumpur today. “The show was absolutely amazing and all the students had obviously worked hard.”

Education New Zealand (ENZ) created the competition as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s New Zealand Week to showcase the quality of fashion and design courses in New Zealand to Malaysia.

The competition paired New Zealand fashion graduates with Malaysian counterparts to conceptualise, design and construct a mini collection under the theme of post-earthquake Christchurch ‘Virtual Re-Start Fashion Competition’. Third place went to one of four students from Massey University; other contestants were from WinTec, Otago Polytechnic, and Whitireia Polytechnic.

Chrisp said the students’ ability to collaborate and their excellent technical construction skills impressed the Malaysian students and the judges. The teams had just three days together to finalise their collections, but had been in touch by email and Skype previously.

“They found ways to work together. Their collections were seamless and you couldn’t tell where the Asian influence was and where the kiwi influence was.”
Ratcliff Reid said that the trip had been educational, eye opening and challenging, but her highlight had been meeting her Malaysian counterpart. “My favourite part of the whole trip was meeting Kathryn. We have become really close friends and to find someone like that who also compliments and enhances your point of view as a designer is extremely rare and amazing."

Ratcliff Reid won $10,000 for first place and McIndoe won $3,000. Both were accustomed to creating collections under pressure, having done so twice last year as part of their training. For Pitch, CPIT’s end of year fashion showcase, they each designed and sewed 10 ensembles of around 30 garments including formal dresses and suits. The strong technical emphasis of CPIT’s Fashion Technology and Design programme ensured the girls had honed their construction skills.

Fashion critics defend their craft

Fashion critics encounter naysayers about their beat in every direction. It’s not serious; it’s elitist; it’s a fluffy, feminine topic.

“In many ways, [this attitude has] to do with the history of the way that fashion was covered,” said Robin Givhan—the only fashion critic who has ever won a Pulitzer Prize for her work. “It’s considered something that’s for and about women” and therefore unimportant, she continued, adding that the conflation of fashion and celebrity in recent years has added to this perception. “I think all of those things kind of conspired to keep fashion from being given the same kind of respect.”

Even so, Givhan, along with Stefano Tonchi and Guy Trebay, maintained that the fashion world is an important industry to cover. They spoke to a like-minded crowd at The New School on Tuesday night on a panel marking the new issue of Fashion Projects. The magazine, edited by Parson’s professor Francesca Granata, covers the discipline, accessibly, from an academic perspective. (It’s available for purchase on its website.)

Trebay, of The New York Times, said he did not set out to cover fashion and still considers himself an urban ethnographer, one who grew fascinated by fashion as a subculture in the days before most couture was owned by conglomerates. Now, he said, fashion is “super-corporate,” and much of the creativity is dictated top-down, so “you lose some of the pleasure of observing the process.”

Tonchi, the editor in chief of W magazine, said something similar: “It’s a business, but it’s also a cultural phenomenon, and the two things don’t always go together.” Covering the business of fashion is little different than covering the car industry, he said (both of those businesses also buy lucrative print ads in the publications covering them). Coverage focusing on the artistic parts of fashion tend to leave out the business bits, so “fashion” coverage ends up scattered throughout newspapers’ sections rather than painting a cohesive picture of a major industry.

Givhan said that the shift from bottom-up creation to a well-controlled fashion business paired with professional stylists is just a new kind of story, one that journalists should continue covering.

The media, she added, should attempt “to hold the fashion industry accountable for its choices and for what it says, and to recognize that it’s big. It’s not a club anymore.” This is true both in that most fashion houses are owned by one of three companies and in the fact that chain retailers like Forever 21 and H&M make runway looks widely accessible.

Fashion’s expansion includes the growing legions of fashion bloggers, those controversial turf stompers whom, Trebay said, are mostly writing to further the goal of designing their own looks. This results in poorer quality fashion writing, the panelists said, not because Internet content is inherently bad but because the stakes, and the barrier to entry, are so low.

Bloggers “have to step up their game, writingwise,” he said. “Just because you have an opinion doesn’t mean it’s writing.”

Are Humans Fashion Animals?

Fashion can be the boldest expression of an individual's style, personality, mood and behaviour, and yet we obey some fashion rules intuitively. For instance, some instinctive fashion rules might see us choosing a bright colour or a sexier outfit for a romantic dinner, wearing sober attire or minimal make-up at a funeral service, or ensure we don't turn up to a wedding in beachwear. Additionally, we have an acute awareness of fads and gender 'norms' in fashion. From early childhood we're instilled with an understanding of which type of clothing signifies which gender, and in later life one can make an audacious statement by transgressing against or subverting these gender rules. For some, choosing the right shoes and nail varnish is as important as choosing the right life-partner, while others won't be seen dead without a designer watch!
Fashion is a uniquely complicated social phenomenon which drives our everyday emotional and social states and intrinsically alters how we react to the world, and how the world reacts to us. In this article, we examine the basic question of why humans are drawn to fashion in evolutionary, behavioural, psychological and neurological contexts.

Is survival of the "fashionably" fittest an essential trait?
The evolution of fashion, from a time when basic clothing was merely used to protect the skin from heat or cold, is incredible. Ten thousand years ago Neanderthals were the first pre-humans to wear clothes, which allowed them to run faster, stay outside longer and hunt more easily, resulting in a better quality of life. Custom-made clothing (designed for their pleasing aesthetic qualities, rather than just practicality) only emerged relatively recently, around the 16th and 17th centuries. Two hundred years later, the first 'fashion designer' - Charles Fredrick Worth - officially labelled his clothes. Ever since, the fashion industry has undergone several revolutions, in correspondence to the passing of the decades.

Might, then, the 'evolution' of fashion be linked to the evolution of humans? Does the Darwinian principal of the survival of the fittest ring true for those with style? Our human society is largely monogamous. The choice of mates for procreation is primarily governed by signs of fertility and virility: a healthy body, youth, and myriad other highly desirable traits like intelligence. So in this system, where the most desirable are most likely to reproduce, surely the sharper dressed amongst us are more likely to turn some heads! There is, however, no evidence that fashion has evolved to be an 'essential trait', for selecting a viable mate to propagate the human race! If this were the case, swathes of people deemed 'unfashionable' would fail to reproduce, leaving only a well-dressed populous short of scruffy farmers and geeky scientists.  At the most, unfashionable men and women might be less favoured as mates; nevertheless, this does not brand them any less capable of procreation.

Does your dressing sense dictate your behaviour?
The importance of fashion in a general behavioural sense, aside from mating-specific behaviour, cannot be ignored. Human society is largely inclined to following prescribed social, moral and ethical conduct. Unlike the pre-20th century fashions, set by the royal families, the 21st century fashion is quite experimental, evolving and accessible to everyone. We have started expressing our creativity and individualism through fashion, by either wearing someone's creations or instigating our own trends. Despite this move towards fashion freedom, however, when it comes to dressing for specific occasions, certain principles continue to exist and evolve in the fashion world. There will always be agreed dress and accessories for events, and this will differ depending on culture, ethnicity and gender, as discussed in the introductory paragraph. Thus, every fashion era draws upon a baseline (normal) behaviour while adding its own unique features.

There have been studies indicating differences between male and female behaviour with respect to fashion appreciation. If you ask impeccably dressed, single straight women why they like to match colours of their dress with make-up, accessories and shoes, you are likely to hear a response that they wish to look attractive to men. Now, how many straight men think of colour-synchrony as an important criterion for a woman to look attractive? Surprisingly, not many men really bother if the woman has colour-coded her attire or not. They mostly look for figure-accentuating clothing; highlighting what the men see as being their attractive bodily features and hiding their unattractive one. Interestingly, it has been shown that it is in fact other women who are most likely to be critical of a woman's colour-coding standards!

Fashion in the brain
How do we perceive people and gauge their personalities? Flügel's The Psychology of Clothes (1930) and Bergler's Fashion and the Unconscious (1953) have explored some psychoanalyses in light of fashion. Although the homosexual undertones in their work are conservative and out-dated by modern standards, they have drawn important correlations between clothing and eroticism. It is quite possible that certain aspects of clothing can trigger sexual arousal. What we now know is that this experience is very subjective, due to differences in visual salience, mood and preferences; and it cannot be generalised for the all people or even specific groups. Recent cognitive psychology studies have shown that the interpretation of what people wear might differ in context, based on different ethnic groups, cultures and sub-cultures. The meaning conveyed might also differ on the purpose of fashion like conveying a wearable art, maintaining unique identity, identifying body image or providing a commentary on the body. Based on these intentions, we might gauge others' personalities, tallying it with our own preferences.

How quickly can we judge personalities from their external appearance? Malcom Gladwell's non-fiction best-seller 'Blink!' talks about the rapid cognition we carry out within the first few seconds of meeting a new person.  He discusses a speed-dating scenario in which one could make a snap-judgement about a stranger's personality type. In our opinion, judging if a person might be of your 'type' can be attributed to fashion and body image, because when you have just few seconds to judge, external appearance is the first thing that you tend to observe. Indeed, if what they are trying to convey harmonises with what you are drawn to, it is likely that you will make a successful match. Nevertheless, it is no rocket-science, and not guaranteed that a simple alteration in attire can project a different personality type and create different first-impressions. Think about 'criminal' stereotypes; one might expect to see someone wearing a balaclava wielding knives. However, in reality, thieves and criminals often dress deceptively normally and attract little to no attention. Actors, models, business-heads and politicians often hire fashion / image consultants to advise them on the way they dress in order to project a body image best suited for their profession, and gain them popularity. Thus, fashion and psychology have a strong association in terms of projection and interpretation, but unfortunately, misinterpretation can still be a big problem.

So, what is the brain's mechanism for fashion-induced behaviour? Dopamine (or the 'happy chemical') in the brain is a major component of the reward and motivational system. Recent studies have shown that anti-social behaviour might be caused due to over activity of the dopamine system. Other studies correlate anti-social behaviour with a decrease in adherence to fashion trends; where persons do not care to 'fit-in' the accepted morality standards of the society. What remains to be studied is whether the apparent correlation between the dopamine system and fashion sense in causal or coincidental. If we obtain a significant evidence that it is linked, we might actually uncover a mechanism to explain if and why being fashionable is such an important factor for our emotional well-being.

Fashion Blogger Of The Week: Ella Catliff Of La Petite Anglaise

This week's fashion blogger of the week is the lovely Ella Catliff Of La Petite Anglaise. The 21-year-old Londoner wardrobe is packed with Laduree colours, white stilettos and girly silhouettes - she had one of our favourite London Fashion Week wardrobes this season. Ella is studying fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins and has interned at Alexander McQueen and Baron Baronne in Paris. She started blogging to document her time in Paree, but now posts beautiful pictures of her outfits, interviews and fashion news stories.

Find out below how she got into blogging and her hightlights so far...
Grazia Daily: How long have you been blogging?
Ella: 2 years, 10 months

Grazia Daily: What made you decide to start your blog?
Ella: Strangely enough it was my mum's (slightly random) idea. She saw an article on Tavi Gevinson in a magazine (actually I think it was Grazia) and ripped it out to show me. Initially I thought she was being ridiculous but then I was going to intern in Paris so I thought as I finally had something vaguely interesting and fashion related to write about I may as well give it a shot!
Grazia Daily: What’s been your highlight so far?
Ella: Oooh that's so hard! I've had some truly fantastic experiences. Going on the Gucci bloggers trip to their catwalk show in Milan and factory in Florence last year was awesome. Fashion Week is inevitable fabulous and meeting Karl Lagerfeld and Phillip Lim (not at the same time, unfortunately) was pretty great. To be honest, most of it's a highlight, I feel very lucky to be able to say that about what is essentially becoming my "job".
Grazia Daily: Are there any particular perks of blogging?
Ella: Yes, many. Fashion shows, parties and other things along those lines are a pretty major (and constant) perk but the most incredible thing has probably been getting to meet, interview and in some cases really become friends with people who's work I truly admire.

Grazia Daily: Have you been to London Fashion Week?
Ella: Yep, six times as of this season!

Grazia Daily: Blog brag time: why should people read your blog?
Ella: There are SO many amazing blogs out there so I just hope that La Petite Anglaise offers a personal, unique and (fingers crossed) witty take on the fashion world.

Grazia Daily: What advice do you have for anyone starting a blog?
Ella: It's hard work but if you really want to do it, don't give up. I only had about three readers for my first six months and very nearly packed it in but now I'm extremely glad I didn't.

Grazia Daily: Which other fashion blogs do you love?
Another toughie! I love South Molton Street Style, ItsaLDN thing, the Manrepeller, StyleBubble and AlexLoves. For pure, unadulerated fashion fabulousness I go straight to Bryan Boy or Mr Blasberg... Major case of life/friend/handbag envy.

Fashion To Open The Door Between New Zealand And Malaysia

New Zealand and Malaysia’s top emerging fashion designers are collaborating in a competition created by Education New Zealand to celebrate New Zealand Week, in Malaysia from 11 March 2013.

Emerging talent from both countries, including Whitireia Community Polytechnic student Natalie Smith, will work together ‘virtually’ in pairs to create four distinct outfits, which will be judged by leading New Zealand footwear designer Kathryn Wilson and Malaysian celebrity designer Bill Keith. Each collection will be based on the theme of ‘rejuvenation’, and be inspired by the rebuild of Christchurch city.

“The prospect of being judged by such renowned designers is pretty daunting but I am really excited to see what this collaboration will create. Working with a Malaysian student will be an amazing experience. I hope we can learn from the judges and create some unique pieces we can be really proud of,” says Whitireia Community Polytechnic student and participant, Natalie Smith.

Education New Zealand has developed the Virtual Re-Start Fashion Competition to showcase the quality of New Zealand fashion institutions and attract the attention of more Malaysian students, encouraging them to come and study in New Zealand.

“More than 2000 Malaysian students visited our shores last year and it is a privilege for Education New Zealand to foster on-going relations between both countries. The competition will showcase our cutting edge design talent and the high standard of education that fashion and design students can expect while studying within New Zealand,” says Grant McPherson, Chief Executive of Education New Zealand.

“The Re-Start Fashion Competition is an amazing way to showcase both New Zealand and Malaysian talent, and the fabulous opportunities made possible through the infusion of education and cultural diversity. It’s great to see Education New Zealand using creativity to market New Zealand education. These students represent the next generation in the fashion industry so I am really excited to see what they come up with,” says footwear designer Kathryn Wilson.

In the past, Education New Zealand has successfully attracted Malaysian students to New Zealand to study business, engineering and technology. The focus this year is arts and design, highlighting New Zealand’s growing reputation for design-related work on the international stage.

Students from institutions including Whitireia Community Polytechnic, Massey University, Otago Polytechnic, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, WINTEC, and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) are competing in the competition.

Education New Zealand is working closely with both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) and the Ministry of Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) in the delivery of the event as part of New Zealand Week in Malaysia.

Fashion Week Trend Alert! Celebs Wear Black-and-White in Paris and London

Paris Fashion Week officially winds down this week, and we've admired both the breathtaking runway looks and the spectacular celebrity style statements seen on the front-row attendees.

Plenty of our favorite stars packed their bags and traveled overseas to both London and Paris to support their favorite designers and turn some heads along the way.

One glance at the fashion week wardrobes from these lovely leading ladies and we couldn't but notice that there was a strong recurring theme: black-and-white.

Trend alert: bold black and white
In the City of Light, we spotted Marion Cotillard at Dior, Nicole Richie at the Stella McCartney show and Jessica Chastain at Chanel all wearing the classic combination in a variety of ways.

Cotillard looked ladylike in a head-to-toe Dior ensemble, while Richie rocked a bold monochrome swingy dress with a distinctly edgier vibe.

Chastain exuded classic elegance in a creamy blouse tucked into a satin pencil skirt, and Olivia Palermo was cool and crisp in Tibi's drop-waist checker dress paired with Brian Atwood boots at Antonio Berardi's show in London.

Paris Fashion Week fall 2013: Emanuel Ungaro review

Another day at fashion week, another old-fashion house trying for a revival with a new designer at the helm.

At Paris Fashion Week on Monday, it was the house of Emanuel Ungaro giving it yet another try, this time with Italian designer Fausto Puglisi, who succeeds a string of failed predecessors, most notably one-time artistic advisor Lindsay Lohan.

2013 Fashion Week coverage

The look: Hyper-feminine silhouettes, riotous color and print and jeweled accents. Mixed patterns on a single garment — a pair of pants with polka dots on one leg and leopard spots on the other leg, for example. One-shoulder mini-dresses with color-block details and high leg slits. Drapey jumpsuits, one in gray pinstripes. Blouses covered in jeweled butterfly brooches.

The verdict: It seems Ungaro may finally have found the right man. These clothes were exuberant and fun. I can particularly see them resonating with the pop music crowd.

Fashion Labels for the Picking this Spring Break

It’s spring break again. So why not poke our divining rods into the suitcases of those students bound for their getaway playgrounds? What could be tucked within are some hot stock picks among premium fashion labels.

Ralph Lauren (NYSE: RL) can easily be among our first finds. After all, this label ranks among the top 10 fashion brands most searched on the web search engine Bing in 2012, reports say. Moreover, the company had better-than-expected results for its fiscal 2012 third quarter. Propelled by a 6.5% sales gain in its retail segment during the period, Ralph Lauren’s revenue increased 2% to $1.8 billion, while operating income rose 13% to $304 million and earnings per diluted share were up 30% to $2.31.

Bye-bye rugby

With this year-to-date performance, the company projects that its full fiscal 2013 consolidated net revenues to increase by about 2%. This would be a deceleration from the 21% revenue growth in fiscal 2012, during which a $6.9 billion sales total was posted. For the fiscal 2013 fourth quarter, the company said it expects a mid-single-digit percentage increase in consolidated net revenues.

Ralph Lauren’s sales growth appears hobbled by store closures as the company repositions its greater China sales network and by the phasing out of the Rugby and American Living brands. The opening of new stores and Ralph Lauren’s e-commerce initiatives helped cushion the impact of the store shutdowns and the brand phase-outs, as well as partly deflected the negative impact of currency conversions.

Kors racks it up

If sales growth is solely to be the gauge for the best fashion label stock pick, Michael Kors (NYSE: KORS) sure has an inside track. It led Bing’s roster of the 10 most searched fashion designers last year. For its third quarter, ended December 2012, the company’s total revenue rose 70.4% to $636.8 million. Gross income for the period amounted to $383.5 million, up 72.8% and represents 60.2% of total revenue, a further improvement from the 59.4% in the year-earlier quarter.

For the fiscal 2013 fourth quarter, the company sees total revenue of between $515 million and $525 million, assuming a low- to mid-20% comparable store sales increase. For its entire fiscal 2013, Michael Kors forecasts total revenue at about $2.1 billion, assuming that the gain in its comparable store sales hits a mid-30% clip.

Total revenue for Michael Kors fiscal 2012 rose 62.1% to $1.3 billion from $803.3 million posted in fiscal 2011. Fiscal 2012 gross profit increased 68.8% to $753.1 million, representing 57.8% of total revenue, higher than the 55.5% rise in fiscal 2011.

Ann’s slip shows

Perusing ladies’ luggage bound for spring break will likely turn up Ann Taylor and LOFT brands, which are owned by Ann (NYSE: ANN), a specialty retailer not only of women’s apparel but also shoes and accessories. Sales-wise though, Ann can’t match the double-digit growth of Michael Kors.

This ladies’ clothier recently revised guidance for its full fiscal 2012, projecting a 3% increase in sales to $2.376 billion for the year. With a gross margin rate expected at about 54.8%, the company, however, expects record earnings per share and double-digit net income growth. Ann’s net sales for its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter are now projected to drop 1% to $608 million though.

Better grip for Michael Kors

Without delving into the metrics of their current stock price levels, Michael Kors appears to have the upper hand in delivering higher shareholder value moving forward. As shown by its recent robust sales growth, the company currently has a better handle on the fashion market than Ralph Lauren and Ann.

Notably, Michael Kors (founded 1981) and Ralph Lauren (founded 1967) are both established but mature brands. What they have been doing to keep a firm grip on the ever-shifting fashion market is to revitalize their presence among the high-end consumers. One way of achieving this is by introducing product category extensions.

Ralph Lauren has obviously failed in this department. This was demonstrated in the phase-out of its American Living and Rugby market entries. Significantly, Rugby also has an e-commerce website that was shut down this February along with the brand developed as the younger version of the Ralph Lauren line.

As for Ann, the vital missing link is presence in the menswear market. In the U.S. alone, this market was estimated at $10.7 billion in 2012, and projected to grow by 5.3% annually and eventually reach $139.2 billion by 2017.

Michael Kors, on the other hand, appears to be better at reinventing the wheel with a simple play on its original brand identity, coming up with a range of labels such as MICHAEL Michael Kors and KORS Michael Kors. It also helps tremendously that the founder of the company, the world famous designer Michael Kors, at 53, still personally leads its product design team.