DOUBLE DUTY: Most designers are eager to take a break after showing their fall collection, but a gaggle of London’s new names is traveling to Milan straight after London Fashion Week – to not only host a party, but to staff it too.
Giles Deacon will man the coat-check, Roksanda Illincic will act as a cigarette girl, Gareth Pugh will run the cocktail bar and Henry Holland will collect glasses, when together with Pitti Immagine the designers re-create for Milan the vibe of London club night Boombox. Boombox is the Sunday night club where Luella Bartley and Katie Grand have been known to DJ and guests outdo each other with outrageous outfits.
During the event, which will be held Feb. 22 on Via Tortona, models wearing the designers’ collections will mingle with clubgoers imported from the original Boombox night in London’s Hoxton Square.
“This is not just a fashion party, but a manifesto for our latest project,” said Lapo Cianchi, communication and special projects director of Pitti Immagine. “Boombox is the perfect vehicle to realize this, through their ties with the pathfinders of fashion, who we feel are forecasting the future”. Other designers taking part include Richard Nicoll, Marios Schwab and Jonathan Saunders.
V FOR VIVIENNE: Get ready for another feature film about fashion, and this one spans from punk to the Paris runways. According to sources, Hollywood producer Brian Grazer has signed up to do a movie based on the life of maverick London designer Vivienne Westwood. Grazer, producer of such films as “The Da Vinci Code” and “A Beautiful Mind,” is said to be heading to Paris later this month to soak up the atmosphere of Paris Fashion Week. A Westwood spokesman declined to comment.
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LUELLA SETS UP SHOP: Luella Bartley may have just shown her fall collection in Manhattan, but it’s in her native London where she’ll open her first store. The designer is set to unveil a standalone boutique in Mayfair in April, a company spokeswoman confirmed Monday. She declined to give any more details, however.
That Bartley has chosen London as the location for her first store is no surprise: Her muses have run the gamut of Brit icons from The Clash to Sloane Rangers, and her design studio is based in a converted schoolhouse in the city’s East End, where she’s neighbor to Giles Deacon and Katie Hillier.
In Mayfair, Bartley will likely be close to her designer contemporaries, including Matthew Williamson and Stella McCartney. both of whom have stores on Bruton Street. Marc Jacobs is set to open on nearby Mount Street next week.
LONDON’S BAG LADY: Anya Hindmarch is on a crusade to reduce the fashion industry’s carbon footprint – and her weapon of choice is a $10 shopping bag. The cotton canvas bag has thick, rope handles and screams, “I’m not a plastic bag” in fabric letters on the front. The limited-edition bag will go on sale in mid-March at Anya Hindmarch’s U.K. stores and Web site, Colette in Paris, London’s Dover Street Market, Villa Moda in Kuwait and on Net-a-porter.com.
In April, it will also be sold through some less conventional channels: 300 Sainsbury’s supermarkets in Britain. “We wanted to give people a choice between plastic bags and our bags, and what better place than a supermarket?” Hindmarch told WWD, adding that she doesn’t mind her bags selling alongside frozen Yorkshire puddings and bottles of lager.
“It’s not just about the brand. It’s about influencing people through fashion, and communicating the idea that it’s cool to think about the environment,” she said. The project is meant to raise awareness – and there are no profit expectations or charity donations involved. Hindmarch said the reaction so far – you can pre-order the bags on her Web site, anyahindmarch.com – has been “bonkers,” and she’s already talking to American partners to take the idea to the US soon.