Gucci Goes to Hollywood, Fast Fashion Is Growing and More News You Should Know
Your mid-week fashion news digest is here.
This is the Wednesday NEWSletter where I break down a few fashion news stories you should know about this week and why. The fashion industry has a lot of news and not all of it makes it way to the mainstream. I think there is an assumption that it’s too “insidery,” which is bullshit. Fashion often tells one side of a larger story, and usually, it impacts us all.
Gucci showed “Love Parade” in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday night, Gucci showed its Spring and Pre Fall ‘22 “Love Parade” collection in Los Angeles to a crowd of A-list celebrities – some of them, like Brenda Song's partner Macauley Culkin, modeled. The very on-the-nose Hollywood theme of the collection featured cowboy hats (spaghetti Western costuming), lingerie and feathers (Silent movie era costuming), and gowns with boas (à la old Hollywood red carpet glamour). According to Vogue, designer Alessandro Michele said that the collection was inspired in part due to the idea that Los Angeles “is not a fashion city, but it’s so fashionable.” A debatable statement in my opinion, because it depends where you look. For starters, most American-made clothing is made in Los Angeles, which is an essential part of what makes something a fashion city. As for the fashionable part, that’s probably subjective. L.A. certainly has its own perspective on style and I think that’s fair to say it exists mostly outside of the Hollywood circles.
In any case, celebrities already love Michele’s Gucci for its playfulness, and I can guarantee this is going to be a collection that will be helping them play out their actor (pronounced ACT TOUR) fantasies on red carpets in the coming year.
Gwyneth Paltrow wore a callback to her Gucci by Tom Ford suit.
Gwyneth Paltrow went to the aforementioned fashion show wearing an updated version of a suit she famously wore to the 1996 VMAs. This time, the red velvet two-piece was designed by the current creative director Alessandro Michele for the brand’s 100th anniversary show in April. I think it would have been cool to see her (or someone) wear the archive piece, but she looked great regardless.
Nike trademarked virtual clothing.
According to USPTO Trademark & Patent Filings, Nike filed trademarks on its swoosh and Jumpman logos “for use online and in online virtual worlds.” The assumption (though unconfirmed by the brand) is that the virtual reality world that seems to be rapidly approaching via Meta and Microsoft, will have a fashion component.
This wouldn’t be fashion’s first attempt at going virtual, but if avatars truly become a stand-in for our over-lit faces on Zoom, it might be the most successful. More on this soon.
Fast Fashion is bouncing back.
A new report titled "Fast Fashion Global Market Opportunities and Strategies to 2030: COVID-19 Growth and Change," has found that the fast fashion market is set to grow by 5.3% annually by 2025 to $163,468.5 million. It’s an alarming number, especially with a growing sentiment that shoppers have an increased awareness around consumption. But I think those feelings have consistently been overblown when fast fashion has all the resources to combat skepticism. Whether it's greenwashing to make their collections appear more environmentally friendly or using predatory marketing tactics to keep people shopping, without any oversight, that growth seems plausible.