Lenny Kravitz may be best known for his music but of late he's diversified. He recently partnered with Toms on a special collection of shoes and also played a stylist in 'The Hunger Games'. Now he's focusing on turning his company, Kravitz Design, into a lifestyle and fashion brand.
So far the company's emphasis has been solely on innovative commercial and residential design but now he wants to expand. 'The plan is to make it a lifestyle brand...in the same way you would see Ralph Lauren or Giorgio Armani,' Kravitz told CNN. According to the Telegraph first up on the plans is an eco-resort on a farm he owns in Brazil, along with a clothing, furniture and bedding line.
It's no secret that Victoria Beckham has been doing well. Back in 2011 she successfully launched her diffusion line, Victoria by Victoria Beckham, and this year her spokesperson confirmed that sales of the mainline were up by 70% to £15million compared to the first quarter in 2011. Next up for the designer is a store. 'That's what I'm working on at the moment,' she told CNN. '[The store] will probably be in London.'
Many had expected the first store to be in New York, especially since she's now based in America and also shows her collections there but an opening in London first seems to make sense. The Beckhams continue to be hot property here and her collections always go down well. As far as the Asian market goes, she's taking it slowly. 'Asia's very exciting to me. I'm just scratching the surface at the moment,' she said. 'I just wanted to take baby steps, build this business at a steady pace. I don't want to rush. I don't want to run before I can walk.'
Having featured the likes of Carine Roitfeld, Diane von Furstenberg and Liya Kebede in the past, this month sees Italian design duo Dolce & Gabbana star in a 30 minute video profile on CNN: Revealed. Following the designers through two seasons of menswear, fans of the pair will enjoy watching the pair hard at work, and relaxing at their home in Portofino.
They might not have been in a relationship for nearly five years now, but the documentary reveals a clear affection between the pair, and as David Gandy, a veteran model for the brand, explains "[Stefano] sort of looks after the visuals and the branding, and Domenico is more in charge of styling and the shows. So they're very different. One has a very dry sense of humour and the other is more hand-on and in the limelight."
The video even goes into detail of the brand's humble beginnings, as Dolce explains, "We produced the first womenswear Dolce & Gabbana show alone. We organised it in one small studio, we didn't have money to pay the models so we asked all our friends to come. We didn't have any money for shoes and bags so all the people used their personal accessories. For the curtain we attached the sheet I had bought for my house, but it was too short and you could see people's feet." A far cry from a Dolce & Gabbana show these days, click here to watch excerpts of the video.
The saying 'the show must go on' is one that those in the entertainment industry live by. The same cannot always be said where the fashion industry is concerned. A case in point is Alber Elbaz of Lanvin, who recently unveiled his leopard-print-heavy pre-fall 2010 collection at Milk Studios in New York. Those who saw the show must have counted themselves as very lucky, as it would seem that Lanvin's show only just got off without a hitch. Thanks to Elle's Anne Slowey's tweet which read, "Poor Alber! He had to cry to get his pre-fall collection out of US customs!!!", we learnt of Alber and Lanvin's very lucky escape.
In spite of the customs debacle, the show still went ahead and even managed to attract Carey Mulligan, star of An Education, who is rumoured to have told Elbaz just how much she loved the dress. Having rocked up in a t-shirt teamed with a pair of jeans, we can only guess that she was referring to her Golden Globe gown? Perhaps that was what Elbaz was doing over the Christmas break: "It was pajamas, CNN and Style.com. It was great."
News flash: Michelle O has a wide fashion following. One of her fans happens to be Israeli-born designer Elie Tahari, who has created a one-shoulder 'Michelle' dress in honour of the First Lady. He said on CNN's 'American Morning': "I noticed when I saw her that she wears bare shoulders and she had great arms...She has a great style, and what's great about her is she is dressing like everybody else can dress."
WWD reports that the Michelle dress will be available in a floral print for $598 starting in July, and a solid plum version will come out for $498 in October.
Who would you prefer to see on the small screen: Anna or Carine? Both are involved with different TV projects. As we all know, Anna appeared in The Septmber Issue, a documentary about the creation of the September issue of Vogue. Despite initial speculation about resistance, Anna has continued filming at fashion week this season.
Not to be upstaged, our favourite fashion editor Carine Roitfeld has been filmed for a profile too. The CNN camera crews have been following her around during Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks, and the resulting profile is out next Wednesday, 18 March at 4:30 am EST (and will re-air at 1:30 pm EST the same day, as well as in the days following).
