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In yet another seismic shift in the fashion world, Chanel announced on Wednesday that Virginie Viard, Karl Lagerfeld’s handpicked successor, was leaving the fashion house after five years as its artistic director — years in which, though her collections received a critical drubbing and speculation was rife about her possible departure, sales exploded, reaching almost $20 billion in 2023. In a brief statement, Chanel, the second largest luxury brand in the world, thanked Ms. Viard for almost 30 years of service, “during which she was able to renew the codes of the house while respecting the creative heritage of Chanel.” No new designer was announced. Ms. Viard, 62, assumed the artistic director role at a precarious moment, following the death of Mr. Lagerfeld, who had led the brand for more than 35 years, in 2019. An unassuming presence who avoided the spotlight, Ms. Viard had worked side by side with Mr. Lagerfeld for decades and been his choice for a successor. He described her as both his left and right arm, and her appointment brought a sense of continuity to a house Mr. Lagerfeld had long dominated.

Persons: Chanel, Virginie Viard, Karl Lagerfeld’s, Ms, Viard, ”, Mr, Lagerfeld Organizations: Chanel

☆ The Man Who Never Says No to Zendaya
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last March, Law Roach seemed to be at the peak of his career as a celebrity stylist. He had won the first stylist of the year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and was working with Zendaya, Celine Dion, Anya Taylor-Joy and Anne Hathaway, among others. Rumors that he had thrown a tantrum because Louis Vuitton wouldn’t seat him next to Zendaya in the front row. On May 6, Mr. Roach is dressing Zendaya, a host of the Met Gala, which he is also attending. And he is plotting a certification course for would-be stylists, which will, essentially, mass-market and formalize his approach.

Persons: Law Roach, Zendaya, Celine Dion, Anya Taylor, Joy, Anne Hathaway, “, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Louis Vuitton, ”, Roach, Julia Fox Organizations: of Fashion Designers of America

☆ The Best Red Carpet Looks at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-27 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Once a popular target of jokes about bad fashion (and not just from the evening’s featured comedian host), the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner has morphed in recent years into a less campy, more staid prelude to the Met Gala, which takes place days later. It’s only fitting, really, given the subtext of journalists being jailed around the world. Still, the bar for serious style has been raised by the mix of media, political and Hollywood figures that populate the guest list. Not that it’s just the celebs au fait with stylists and designer brands who are working the entrances. And whether Lara Trump, sitting with Politico, would represent in MAGA glory.

Persons: Biden, Brandon, John Fetterman, Gisele, Lara Trump Organizations: White, Politico Locations: MAGA

☆ In Paris, Stars Going Shopping
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Qualley has the Grammys, with her musician-husband Jack Antonoff, looming on her calendar next month. Still, even off the red carpet, couture is having something of a movie moment. Both series focus on the idea of the couture as a riposte to the horrors and deprivation of the war; a clarion call of humanity. Given what is going on in the world, you can understand why filmmakers — and the designers who love them — might think it was a good time to revisit this particular period. In any case, it’s all starting to seem a lot like life imitating art imitating life.

Persons: Virginie Viard, Margaret Qualley, Qualley, Jack Antonoff, Glenn Close, Juliette Binoche, Chanel, Binoche, Coco Chanel, Carmel Snow, ”, Dior, — Organizations: Apple, Disney Locations: Spanish, Europe, United States

☆ Haley’s Fancy-but-Not-So-Fancy Dress May Have Been Just What She Intended
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Exactly the sort of style, for example, that might appeal to Republicans with a yen for the old days. Partiers.”And while Mr. Trump clearly intended his sartorial criticism to be a barb at Ms. Haley — perhaps an implication that he knows fancy (or his wife, Melania, does) and his rival does not — the dress was in fact a pretty effective representation of how Ms. Haley has used her image as part of her campaign strategy. That starts with the fact that she even wore a dress to make her speech, rather than, say, the standard female politician’s trouser suit or even the American flag Ralph Lauren sweater she had been sporting on the road. If you want something done, ask a woman.’”And in the semiology of clothing, a dress often suggests “woman.” Mr. Trump of all people should understand the subconscious messaging. He is, after all, the man who, as president, announced that the women in his administration should “dress like women.”

Persons: Teri Jon, Trump, Haley —, Melania, Haley, Ralph Lauren, Margaret Thatcher, ’, ” Mr, ” Organizations: “, American Locations: British

☆ The Undoing of George Santos
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It may get prosecutors excited, but the general public finds it boring. They make the narrative of wrongdoing personal, because one thing almost everyone can relate to is luxury goods. There’s a reason even Richard Nixon boasted in a 1952 speech that his wife, Pat, didn’t “have a mink coat. In this, as in so many things, the former president appears to be an exception to the rule.) “The notion of elected officials being public servants may be a polite fiction, but it is a polite fiction we expect politicians to maintain,” Mr. Blake said.

Persons: —, Richard Nixon, Pat, didn’t, Wilentz, Mr, Blake, David Axelrod, ” Organizations: Democratic, Institute of Politics, University of Chicago Locations: America, Washington, ”

☆ Rare Gathering of Former First Ladies Shows Style, and Subtle Differences
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In any other circumstance it would have been a shocking sight. Not only that, but she created a situation in which Mrs. Trump was seated right next to Michelle Obama. Mrs. Trump has eschewed almost every major event since leaving the White House in January 2021, including her husband’s several court appearances (the rare exception being his November 2022 announcement that he was once again running for president). But on Tuesday, as is custom, she joined the three other living former first ladies — Mrs. Obama, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush — as well as Jill Biden, the current first lady, at the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta, for Mrs. Carter’s memorial service. “Rosalynn Carter would be so pleased she brought all of you together on this day,” the journalist Judy Woodruff said.

Persons: Rosalynn Carter, Melania Trump, Trump, Michelle Obama, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush —, Jill Biden, “ Rosalynn Carter, Judy Woodruff Organizations: White, Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church Locations: Mar, Atlanta

☆ Family Photos Have Never Looked So Chic
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Forget whipping out your phone to show off your family photos or tucking a loved one’s face into a locket around your neck. What if you could wear your favorite memories on your back? “Every house in the township where I’m from has family photos on display, and it’s a source of pride,” Mr. Magugu said. Mr. Magugu had hoped for 50 orders, to break even. Instead he received a few hundred, from people all around the world (Michelle Obama ordered one with a photo of her mother, Marian Robinson).

Persons: Thebe Magugu, ”, —, Mr, Magugu, Michelle Obama, Marian Robinson Locations: African, I’m

☆ Rosalynn Carter, White House Trendsetter
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rosalynn Carter, who died on Sunday at age 96, was rarely included on any list of best-dressed first ladies. She was not generally called “stylish” or “trendsetting.” She did not play the White House dress-up game, at least as designed by predecessors such as Dolley Madison and Jackie Kennedy. But that does not mean Mrs. Carter did not fully understand the power and political use of clothes, or how to strategically deploy them during her time in Washington. Starting with Mrs. Carter’s declaration, after Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976, that the one item she would be taking with her to the White House from Georgia was her sewing machine. And it set the tone for what came next — which was the greatest dressing scandal of the administration.

Persons: Rosalynn Carter, ”, Madison, Jackie Kennedy, Carter, Jimmy Carter Organizations: White Locations: Washington, Georgia

☆ Trump Family Trial Style
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The New York attorney general’s office has finished presenting its case in the civil fraud trial of former President Donald J. Trump. The first act of the first episode in the extended series known as the Trump lawsuits has come to an end. Mr. Trump is, after all, a man who has always seen the presidency as perhaps the ultimate expression of reality TV. Welcome to the new season of Trump family trial style. It involves a somewhat different look for the brand — one that is notably … well, blue.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Organizations: New Locations: New York

☆ The Next Costume Institute Fashion Blockbuster Is Revealed
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After all, it is called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” And those princess costumes have been very influential. But while the show was, indeed, partly inspired by a hot button cultural moment, it’s not a fantasy one. Specifically, the ephemeral nature of … well, nature. And how fashion captures that literally, in the form of garments inspired by and decorated with flora and fauna, and conceptually, in its endless cycle of in and out, its potential to degrade. Think of it as a show devoted to unsustainable fashion, one that could function as a requiem, a warning sign and a reminder of the fundamental importance of regeneration.

Persons: Barbie Organizations: Marvel, Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art

☆ Today, Shapewear. Tomorrow, the World.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

and USA Basketball, Kim Kardashian was sitting in her office in Calabasas, Calif., framed by two picture windows that offered views of manicured green lawns, and talking about size. Her long hair was dark brown again, after another brief platinum period, and framed her face as neatly as the view outside. I don’t really start out to do anything not the biggest possible.”This is Kim the mogul. Founded four years ago, the brand went from being valued at $1.6 billion in 2021 to $4 billion last summer. In between, it became the official underwear outfitter of Team U.S.A. for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and won the 2022 Innovation Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Persons: Skims, Kim Kardashian, “, Kim, Kanye, MJ Corey, ” Organizations: USA, Team U.S.A, of Fashion Designers of America Locations: Calabasas , Calif, “, Skims

☆ Is the Pantyhose-as-Pants Look a Real Thing?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I thought pantyhose were dead, but now it seems as if they are being treated as the equivalent of actual pants. Are we really supposed to believe the pantyhose-instead-of-pants look I see on social media is going to be a trend? The fashion world became so attached to the End of Pantyhose that editors famously went to shows in February with bare legs and high heels, snow be damned. Then, in September 2022, Matthieu Blazy of Bottega Veneta sent a navy crew neck down his runway paired with only dark hose and heels. Just a few months later, Miuccia Prada largely tossed pants and skirts out the window in her Miu Miu show, subversively matching her librarian cardigans and beatnik polo necks with sheer hose and coordinating undies.

Persons: pantyhose, — Susan, Allen Gant Sr, Matthieu Blazy, Bottega Veneta, Miuccia Prada, Miu Miu, cardigans, Prada, Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol’s, Emma Corrin Locations: Vancouver, Bottega

☆ The Shearing of Sam Bankman-Fried
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Imagine if Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the crypto trading firm FTX and defendant in one of the largest financial fraud trials in history, was actually named Samson, rather than Samuel. Like the biblical character, Mr. Bankman-Fried’s symbolic shearing for his courtroom appearance may become a fabled reflection of promise brought low in the tales to come of our digital age. An apologia writ in hair about what happens when a muscular intellect is married to frail corporate governance. Everyone (or every juror) can see a hairdo and relate. Besides, from the beginning it was by Mr. Bankman-Fried’s hair that so many knew him.

Persons: Sam Bankman, FTX, Samson, Samuel, Bankman, Fried, Michael Lewis, “, Einstein Locations: Manhattan

☆ At the Australian State Dinner, Jill Biden Stays Neutral
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was a night of comfort food and canny comfort dressing — strange adjectives for a state dinner, an event normally known for pomp, circumstance and grand gowns. But everything is relative, and these are complicated times, demanding a careful balance between displays of power and humility in the face of other people’s pain. Then she put her outfit where her words had been. She went with Reem Acra, and she went beige. It was her equivalent of the roasted vegetables, butternut squash soup and braised short ribs on the menu.

Persons: Jill Biden, Anthony Albanese, Reem Acra Organizations: U.S . Marine, Army and Air Force

☆ Hedi Slimane Drops a Surprise Celine Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Of all the designers who stepped off the fashion wheel during the pandemic-induced show hiatus, Hedi Slimane of Celine is one of the very few who has not returned to the same-old-same-old runway system. His last live women’s show was part of a dual-gender extravaganza at the Wiltern theater in Los Angeles in December 2022. The setting, it turned out, was effectively a very fancy architectural metaphor for what Mr. Slimane has been doing with the brand. He is building a wardrobe library: one that can be used by a variety of women, even if Mr. Slimane insists on showing it on anemic looking waifs. The video may have been entitled “Tomboy,” but it included an assortment of genres.

Persons: Hedi, Celine, Slimane Locations: Los Angeles, Paris

☆ Can One Designer Serve Two Masters?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years in fashion, it was trendy for one designer to helm two brands: their own, usually a relatively small one, and a big heritage house at which they acted as, essentially, talent for hire. John Galliano did it, so did Alexander McQueen, Alexander Wang and Karl Lagerfeld (well, he actually ran three brands). Then, as tends to happen, industry wisdom decided this was not really a good idea. It was too draining, too complicated and a designer should be fully committed to one brand. But exactly why it’s so hard for one designer to serve two masters was rarely more obvious as it was on Tuesday at Peter Do’s fantastic first show in Paris — which took place about two weeks after his ho-hum first show as creative director of Helmut Lang, in New York.

Persons: John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Alexander Wang, Karl Lagerfeld, Gabriela Hearst, Chloé, Jonathan Anderson, JW Anderson, Loewe, Peter Do’s, Helmut Lang, Lang Locations: Paris —, New York

☆ Should I Wear a Fleece to the Office?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Currently, I wear a charcoal fleece with a nice fit, but I can’t help but feel the look is starting to feel tired. Fleece is an easy solution and was, for a while, the favorite office uniform of shadow banker bros everywhere, for a variety for reasons. Second, it provided a direct visual contrast to the navy-suit establishment, suggesting that your hedge fund or private equity firm had a different, cooler set of values (especially if said firm was ESG-Patagonia aligned). I knew one private equity titan who deliberately kept his office temperature frigid and always wore a fleece quarter-zip under his jacket, the better to put visitors, who were not expecting the chill, at a disadvantage. The problem is, at that point — or the I-don’t-want-to-look-like-an-extra-in- “Billions” point — fleece at work becomes a cliché.

Persons: — Jessica, Paul Locations: San Diego, Davos, Patagonia

The rest are running for the Republican nomination for president. Ron DeSantis has the words “Ron DeSantis” plastered across the breast of his fishing-style shirts. On sunny days, Tim Scott wears a white baseball cap that says “Tim Scott.” Vivek Ramaswamy’s polo shirts read “Vivek,” and Doug Burgum and Asa Hutchinson wear hats and shirts with their names on them. On the 2024 trail, nearly all of the Republican presidential candidates have turned themselves into human billboards for their campaigns. It’s a fashion choice that would be more typical for a state legislator, and it hasn’t been seen before on such a broad scale during a national campaign.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, ” Vivek, Vivek, ”, Doug Burgum, Asa Hutchinson, Donald J, Trump, —, hasn’t Organizations: Republican

☆ Who Scored a Perfect 10 at Milan Fashion Week?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Judging is an instinct.” “You’re already giving a score to this look in your mind, just express it.” So droned the Voice of God at the Sunnei show over the weekend as Milan Fashion Week drew to a close. Well, who doesn’t know truth when they hear it? This season the subject was the court of public opinion that is the social media sphere, where everyone is free to weigh in on everything. And as usual, while the clothes illustrating the issue were good (Sunnei is essentially grunge for the thinking person), even better was the point. Sometimes that can be hard to find under the plethora of “real clothes,” razzle-dazzle showmanship and archive-diving that currently seems to be the default in fashion.

Persons: “, Simone Rizzo, Loris Messina, ” Organizations: Milan

☆ The Great Gucci Reset Is Here
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sabato De Sarno, the designer who was essentially unknown outside the industry until he was handed the keys to the $10 billion Gucci kingdom earlier this year and tasked with reinventing a brand that had already been reinvented twice before — once by Tom Ford, as a uniform for sultry power players and then again by Alessandro Michele as a big-tent haven for fashion freakazoids high and low — called his first collection “Ancora.”That translates literally as “again.” But, he said in an interview a few weeks before the show, not again as in a retread, like “play it again, Sam” but as the “again, again, again” of desire: the feeling that, when you find something you love, you can never get enough. The feeing that, presumably, Gucci sparked in him, and that he (and his bosses) were hoping his Gucci would spark in consumers. The word was plastered all over posters around Milan teasing the show, on the invitations in a new Gucci burgundy red known as Ancora red and on the sleeve of a vinyl record for the after-party. It was hard to escape.

Persons: Sabato De Sarno, —, Tom Ford, Alessandro Michele, Sam ”, Gucci Organizations: Gucci Locations: Milan

☆ The Magician of Milan
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

House Building“I said I wanted to go against the stream of the monovision,” Mr. Blazy said, talking about his initial pitch to Mr. Pinault. He was in his office in the Bottega Veneta headquarters in Milan, wearing a white Patagonia T-shirt and faded jeans. It also explains a lot about how Mr. Blazy approaches not his job, but the world. “I did not open a computer for the last six months,” Mr. Blazy said. Mr. Blazy collects first drafts.

Persons: Blazy, ”, Henri Pinault, Mr, Pinault, Lee, Isa Genzken, “, ” Mr, Hussein Chalayan, Chalayan, Blazy’s Organizations: Kering, Bottega Locations: Bottega, Milan, Patagonia, Chamonix, ”, British

☆ How Do I Deal With a Shoes-Off Home?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

How do you deal with visits to “shoeless” homes? It’s often a surprise, so you can’t plan ahead with cute socks or by making sure you’ve recently had a pedicure. I’ve been confronted with this more often in the last few years, and I’m never comfortable removing my shoes. I know people who quail at the sight of other people’s feet, and we all know about people who fetishize feet. In many cultures, removing your shoes when you enter someone’s house is natural; it’s a sign of respect.

Persons: “, you’ve, I’ve, I’m, — Ann Locations: San Francisco, American

☆ Post-Pandemic Dressing Finally Takes Shape
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Vanessa Friedman | More About Vanessa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The world was different; we were different. Staring into your closet was like staring into a foreign land. Then there were predictions that the Roaring ’20s would return in all their glittering, befeathered glamour. Then everyone threw up their hands and said, “It’s a mess!”So was fashion, and that’s pretty much where things stood. But as the New York shows drew to a close this week, a different answer emerged: a hybrid look for a hybrid world.

Persons: we’ve, “ Organizations: New York Locations: Ukraine, New

The falling shares mean that Mr. Arnault (now worth about $195 billion, Forbes says) dropped to the second-richest person in the world in June, eclipsed by Elon Musk. Mr. Arnault has broadened LVMH beyond extravagant playthings into the world of experiences, acquiring over 50 grand hotels and resorts. Mr. Arnault’s changes mean he doesn’t have to retire next year as originally expected. The French media is full of headlines comparing the Arnaults to the Roys, the fictional family in the HBO series. There are TikTok videos explaining why the Arnaults are “the real ‘Succession’ family.” The family hates this talk, and takes pains to play down parallels to the show.

Persons: Arnault, Forbes, Elon Musk, LVMH, —, gobbling, Delphine, Dior Organizations: Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, HBO

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