It wouldn't be too harsh to say that London has been the poor relation to the fashion weeks in the other cities. Slowly but surely though things have changed and in a big way. The fact that world-renowned PR firm KCD have decided that now is the right time to set up shop here shows that.
'We always knew that we'd open in London when the time was right and that time is definitely now,' KCD London managing director Nan Richards told Vogue. 'London is very much at the forefront of fashion today and we wanted to bring the strategic expertise of our NY and Paris offices together with a KCD London team of professionals to work alongside our partner, Spring. With London-based Spring, we're able to offer our clients solutions and opportunities across PR, events, digital, advertising, content development and e-commerce - basically, a global fashion communications offerings.'
KCD were one of the first big PR companies to embrace all things digital so when the company announced last season that they were launching Digital Fashion Shows, a platform to provide online-only shows to press and buyers, nobody was surprised. To kick start the project they worked with See by Chloé and Prabal Gurung on his inaugural ICB collection and with fashion week just around the corner, they've just confirmed that the line-up is expanding.
In addition to working with those brands, they will also showcase the S/S13 collection from Pierre Balmain, the French fashion houses' sister line, and it's not hard to understand why the line-up is growing. The initiative offers a lot more than a simple livestream. The videos can be viewed on just about every mobile device and each look comes with a front, back and detail view along with show information and the ability to make notes on each look.
The fashion world seems to be experiencing a new decade shift, as we've seen Michael Herz and Graeme Fidler move from Aquascutum to Bally, and W magazine moving offices and companies, whilst losingDennis Freedman and Camilla Nickerson, and gaining Stefano Tonchi. In more departures and arrivals, it was announced on Friday that executive vice president of global communications at Oscar de la Renta, Paul O'Regan has resigned to commence a new, undisclosed project after his anticipated trip to Nepal and Tibet.
Arriving at Bottega Veneta to become worldwide director of public relations will be Billy Daley, having worked at Michael Kors and previously spending six and a half years at KCD as publicity director. And finally, beginning yesterday in time for the designer's bridal presentations, Christophe Hebre has joined Reem Acra as president and chief operating officer.
The MAC & Milk team should be pretty proud of its second-season lineup of shows and presentations at New York Fashion Week. One of the biggest scores of the week is McQ, Alexander McQueen's lower-priced line, which usually goes on display to select editors who make appointments through the PR firm KCD. So now that the brand is going full-on, will the designer himself grace Milk Studios?
Maybe, according to Fashionista. And what's more, it's possible that the Pre-Fall McQueen collection might be in, too. McQ and McQueen in the same week? February is definitely going to be our month.
