Suzy Menkes

Congratulations to Suzy Menkes our favorite fashion samurai for her 20 years at the International Herald Tribune, fashion wouldn't be the same without her incisive, intellectual and down right funny writing. Plus who doesn't love that she gets her write ups done nearly as quickly as your average blogger?

Net-a-Porter and McQueen are solving the how to seat everyone in the age of new media and just doing the damn show online. Democracy NOW! Except for the price tag of course.

Could the outlet mall be the future of luxury? Value Retail does luxury on the cheapish.

Indian jewelers are reinventing traditional styles for a new generation.

Sophia Coppola directed Christian Dior’s Miss Dior Chérie fragrance newest commercial. The ad, scheduled to go worldwide early next year, stars Belorussian model Maryna Linchuk.

Galleries Lafayette is opening a store in Casablanca.

Burberry is opening a children's store in the Westchester Mall in NY. Doesn't their first freestanding kiddie store in Hong Kong look darling?

>> INSIDER WIRE —In a new video interview by International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes with Tom Ford about his new Milanese store, the designer has the most affected, pseudo-British, radio-style accent ever. Keep in mind that he was born in Texas and grew up in New Mexico — maybe it was encouraged by Suzy's British accent — but wow. Amazing. [The Cut]

Suzy Menkes at The Royal College of Art Summer Fashion Show; London, June 12.

*image: source

It's true. In Monday's "Computerphobia: Is It Undermining The Fashion Industry" penned by Suzy Menkes for the International Herald Tribune, the point is most definitely driven home. Sure, we've all heard the redundant Lagerfeld sound-bite about how he owns fifty ipods which he hasn't the slightest idea how to use (conjure the mental image, now shiver) but Menkes offers a much broader scope of the technophobia at work in the fashion industry. In summation, no one really knows how to "surf the net" and the fact that they didn't respond to this question by laughing proves the point. It will be unfair to spend the next five hundred words making such easy fun ("I have two screens on my desk - one for Google, the other for e-mail and I surf the Net for an hour a day." says chief executive of PPR's Gucci Group) and likewise time-wasting to speculate whether it is undermining the fashion industry. As usual, Menkes wrote a fine article, but this time with a news-y title that didn't fit the bill. It's not like Nicholas Ghesquiere need to post myspace bulletins about Blenciaga's new Fall 08 collection, or Raf Simons need to send off nasty emails to the Jil Sander interns. That is, the combination of being up front about their lack of interest and being of a generation in which they do not think with the internet in the first place saves them the responsibility of staying current. Does it undermine the fashion industry? Probably not. Surely, someone is checking the email (and making sure the campaign videos make it on to YouTube). And someone, that is, thinking up the clothes. Multitasking is for the young!

All together now, P-O-W-E-R-H-O-U-S-E. That's right, it's the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes and Britian's seventh richest man, Sir Philip Green. Here, Green tells Menkes about Topshop's generous (we're talking the big break) support of young designers like Christopher Kane and Marios Schwab. And even though he has to take out a piece of paper to remember their names, we don't doubt that he means what he says. Otherwise, the British wouldn't have knighted him!





Video courtesy of the International Herald Tribune