Why the Teen Choice Awards red, um, blue carpet matters

Chloe Grace Moretz arrives at the Teen Choice Awards at the Galen Center on Sunday in Los Angeles.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press)

If you’re not a teenager, you may not have noticed that the Teen Choice Awards happened Sunday in Los Angeles. But Gucci, Giambattista Valli, Marni and other luxury fashion brands sure did, seeing an opportunity to impress that elusive younger demographic, those pesky millennials who would rather spend their money on experiences than things.

On the red carpet (which was actually blue for the event), overt sexiness was out and quirkiness was in. Chloe Grace Moretz, 18, emerged as a poster child for the new vision of Gucci under creative director Alessandro Michele, who took over at the Italian luxury house in January. She wore an edgy emerald green Chantilly lace embroidered top with an Adam-and-Eve, serpent and apple motif. 

From the Cruise 2016 collection shown just weeks ago, the ensemble has the kind of naughty-but-nice look that should appeal to young girls and casts a goth spell that’s fresher than the kind of in-your-face crop tops and bandage dresses that have dominated recent Teen Choice Awards red carpets. 

It also signaled a bit of a style evolution for Moretz, who was named one of Time magazine’s most influential teens in 2014. No longer a sweet young thing, she recently tattooed the initials of her family on her upper thigh and pierced her septum. At the awards show, her undone hair, red lips and pale gray nails added a sense of cool nonchalance.

Moretz accessorized her look with a Gucci aged metal, palladium and enamel ring, one of many pieces of costume jewelry Michele showed on the runway at the recent Gucci resort show, indicating that accessible accessories (some of the jewelry is priced in the $300 to $400 range) is part of his brand strategy, as a way of reaching a younger audience.

The Gucci-Moretz pairing began working its magic on social media immediately, with Moretz tweeting a picture of her outfit to her 1.76 million Twitter followers, and YahooStyle, PopSugarFashion and VogueUK naming her best dressed. On Instagram, Gucci’s post about Moretz got more than 23,000 likes. Moretz also posted a photo of herself at the awards to her 3.3 million Instagram followers, an image that got 191,000 likes.

That’s a lot of reach for a single look at an awards show in August.

The new Gucci made its red carpet debut earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where Sienna Miller and Lupita N’yongo wore Michele’s gowns at different events. Cate Blanchett has also worn Gucci looks, but to lower-profile events.

Shorts by Giambattista Valli. The Italian designer known for over-the-top, frothy, feminine couture-like creations, dressed a couple of starlets in his new, sportier, lower-priced Giamba line, including Maia Mitchell, who looked breezy and cool in a spring-summer 2015 top and shorts.

Why the Teen Choice Awards red, um, blue carpet matters

Chloe Grace Moretz arrives at the Teen Choice Awards at the Galen Center on Sunday in Los Angeles.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press)

If you’re not a teenager, you may not have noticed that the Teen Choice Awards happened Sunday in Los Angeles. But Gucci, Giambattista Valli, Marni and other luxury fashion brands sure did, seeing an opportunity to impress that elusive younger demographic, those pesky millennials who would rather spend their money on experiences than things.

On the red carpet (which was actually blue for the event), overt sexiness was out and quirkiness was in. Chloe Grace Moretz, 18, emerged as a poster child for the new vision of Gucci under creative director Alessandro Michele, who took over at the Italian luxury house in January. She wore an edgy emerald green Chantilly lace embroidered top with an Adam-and-Eve, serpent and apple motif. 

From the Cruise 2016 collection shown just weeks ago, the ensemble has the kind of naughty-but-nice look that should appeal to young girls and casts a goth spell that’s fresher than the kind of in-your-face crop tops and bandage dresses that have dominated recent Teen Choice Awards red carpets. 

It also signaled a bit of a style evolution for Moretz, who was named one of Time magazine’s most influential teens in 2014. No longer a sweet young thing, she recently tattooed the initials of her family on her upper thigh and pierced her septum. At the awards show, her undone hair, red lips and pale gray nails added a sense of cool nonchalance.

Moretz accessorized her look with a Gucci aged metal, palladium and enamel ring, one of many pieces of costume jewelry Michele showed on the runway at the recent Gucci resort show, indicating that accessible accessories (some of the jewelry is priced in the $300 to $400 range) is part of his brand strategy, as a way of reaching a younger audience.

The Gucci-Moretz pairing began working its magic on social media immediately, with Moretz tweeting a picture of her outfit to her 1.76 million Twitter followers, and YahooStyle, PopSugarFashion and VogueUK naming her best dressed. On Instagram, Gucci’s post about Moretz got more than 23,000 likes. Moretz also posted a photo of herself at the awards to her 3.3 million Instagram followers, an image that got 191,000 likes.

That’s a lot of reach for a single look at an awards show in August.

The new Gucci made its red carpet debut earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where Sienna Miller and Lupita N’yongo wore Michele’s gowns at different events. Cate Blanchett has also worn Gucci looks, but to lower-profile events.

Shorts by Giambattista Valli. The Italian designer known for over-the-top, frothy, feminine couture-like creations, dressed a couple of starlets in his new, sportier, lower-priced Giamba line, including Maia Mitchell, who looked breezy and cool in a spring-summer 2015 top and shorts.

Chanel muse Kristen Stewart uses clothes to ''tap'' into her unexplored depths.

Kristen Stewart uses fashion to ''tap'' into herself.

The 'American Ultra' star regularly attends catwalk shows which led to her becoming the muse of luxury fashion house Chanel in 2013 and has revealed that she wears clothes that help her to discover her ''unexplored'' depths.

She said: ''I really like tapping into unexplored aspects of myself; obviously, that's what I do. Clothes can seriously do that, but you don't want your clothes to wear you. So often I'm like, 'Oh man, that is going to own my ass.'''

Though the 25-year-old actress is most relaxed when dressed in faded jeans, a white T-shirt and a pair of Vans and confessed she is ''a skater'' at heart.

She said: ''I'm a skater. I'm not a hard-core skater chick - I can skate on the street, but I don't like to trick s**t out. Skating around down town might be my happy place.''

Meanwhile, Kristen finds many perks to being Chanel boss Karl Lagerfeld's inspiration and told how she is allowed to ''chop'' up the gowns.

She told the September issue of Nylon magazine: ''He lets me chop dresses, he lets me steal a belt from that dress and wrap it around another ... I'm really into the performance aspect of it, but I still have to make it my own. I don't want to feel like I'm wearing a costume.''

Gucci spars with Hong Kong landlords

Hong Kong - Landlords on Hong Kong’s Russell Street a year ago could boast the highest retail rents in the world. Now they are adjusting to a new reality.

Burberry Group, Kering and jewellry retailer Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group are pushing landlords to lower rents on existing properties as luxury brands are scaling back amid plummeting sales. TAG Heuer closed its Russell Street store last week, citing high rents and declining traffic.

Luxury retail sales have plunged amid China’s economic slowdown and President Xi Jinping’s austerity and anti- corruption campaigns, causing Hong Kong to relinquish the top spot to New York’s Fifth Avenue in November and spurring the biggest drop in retail rents this year since 2009. Also contributing to slack demand are a weaker yen and euro, prompting Chinese tourists to favour Japan and France over Hong Kong, said Helen Mak, senior director of research at Colliers International.

“Unavoidably rents will trend down,” says Marcos Chan, head of research for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan at CBRE Group.“We don’t see any reason why retail will quickly see a rebound any time soon.”

jewellry, watches, clocks and valuable gifts sales fell 15.9 percent in the year ending June, according to Hong Kong Retail Management Association statistics.

In a July research report, Jones Lange LaSalle predicted high-street rents will drop 15 percent to 20 percent this year. That’s a far more bearish scenario than the 5 percent drop the company was forecasting at the end of last year.

Ground zero

Ground zero of the downturn is Russell Street, a mere block and a half long in the heart of the Causeway Bay retail district, lined with shops selling Montblanc pens, Omega watches and Swarovsky jewellry. Average monthly rents in the area fell 10.4 percent in the first half, according to Colliers.

Kering, the owner of the Gucci brand, has warned that it may close some of its shops in Hong Kong if rental costs don’t come down.

“Many landlords have not necessarily understood that the markets have changed,” Kering CFO Jean-Marc Duplaix said on a conference call with analysts in July.

Russell Street’s two largest landlords are Emperor International Holdings and Soundwill Holdings. A spokeswoman for Soundwill, whose tenants include Burberry and a Rado shop which is moving into the spot vacated by TAG Heuer, declined to provide rental figures.

Kowloon landlords

While luxury retailers are slowing down their pace of expansion, some mid-market shops are looking to expand and may be able to find more affordable options, CBRE’s Chan said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday.

“We see landlords are willing to negotiate with the retailers, a trend which did not happen in the past few years,” he said.

Street-level landlords in Central on Hong Kong Island, and across the harbour in Kowloon neighbourhoods that cater heavily to mainland shoppers, are also feeling the pinch. Average rents fell 15 percent in Tsim Sha Tsui in the first half, Colliers said.

Chow Tai Fook renewed its monthly lease at its Bank Center location on Nathan Road for HK$800 000 ($103 203), an almost 39 percent reduction, the Ming Pao newspaper reported. A Chow Tai Fook spokesperson declined to comment on the specific deal, saying “tenancy rental reduction varies in different districts and locations.”

Jewellry and watch chain Chow Sang Sang has closed two of its stores in the past nine months and has obtained rental reductions on a couple more of its 54 outlets.

Mall owners have weathered the downturn better, thanks to a more diversified tenant mix including restaurants, health and beauty centres and cosmetics shops as well as luxury brands.

“Our rental conversion is very much positive,” said Ronnie Chan, chairman of Hang Lung Group, which owns Fashion Walk in Causeway Bay. “But we have to keep refreshing our properties and keep changing tenants.”

Christopher Bailey Reveals His Plan for Burberry

After a quietly cheerful first six months on the job, Christopher Bailey, the Burberry chief executive, revealed his first five-point plan for the brand on Wednesday during its presentation of its first-half results.

Here’s what he has cooking.

While most of the reports after the presentation on Thursday focused onthe company’s mixed results — sales in the six months ended Sept. 30 were up 14 percent, but pretax profit fell 12 percent, largely because of foreign currency values — and a continued slowdown in China, Mr. Bailey has some bullet points that seem to me really worth noting.

They may be unfortunately couched in the ridiculous language of management-speak (Mr. Bailey can talk chief executive like the best of them), but translate the verbiage — see my efforts below — and the result is revealing. To wit:

“1) The strategy we’ve been calling Leverage the Franchise becomes Inspire With the Brand, to express more clearly our determination that Burberry speaks to the consumer with one equally inspiring and authentic brand voice, wherever they encounter us. To achieve this, we intend to focus amongst other things on more extensive utilization of data and insight, greater emphasis on brand consistency and continued innovation at the intersection of our physical and digital worlds.”

Translation: Burberry is going large on all that big data it has from its online initiatives, and unlike many luxury brands, it is able to share those numbers across platforms, from virtual to brick and mortar.

“2) The strategy we’ve called Intensify Accessories is being broadened out and renamed Realize Product Potential. Our focused attention on accessories in recent years has taken this category to 36 percent of retail/wholesale sales from 29 percent in 2006, and we now have great balance in our product mix and growth drivers across all categories. Accessories will remain an important future growth driver as we reinforce our dominant position in soft accessories such as scarves and further develop our bags and small leather goods. Other areas of focus will include underdeveloped product categories such as shoes, alongside continued opportunity in all areas of men’s and, of course, the development of beauty. “

Translation: Burberry is entering the shoe wars! And bags are not nearly as over as we all may think.

“3) Accelerate Retail-Led Growth becomes Optimize Channels. We have successfully shifted the shape of our operating model towards the retail channel, which represented 70 percent of sales last year from 43 percent in 2006. Now, with our retail/wholesale mix broadly where we would like it, it is time to broaden out this strategy to focus on improving and optimizing all routes to market, both physical and digital. This will include significant opportunities in elevated wholesale and third-party digital relationships, as well as exciting initiatives to enhance retail productivity, some of which Donald will touch on in his presentation.” (Donald is Donald Kohler, the chief merchandising operations officer.)

Translation: Mobile, mobile, mobile; Facebook; Twitter.

“4) Invest in Under-Penetrated Markets becomes Unlock Market Opportunity, to articulate more clearly the rich potential to further evolve Burberry’s footprint and positioning in both developed and younger markets. Future opportunities for the brand in China and Japan are, of course, an important part of this, and I was pleased to see firsthand the excellent preparations our teams are making for the Japan transition on a visit to the market a few weeks ago. Other areas of geographic focus will include the ambitious development of our travel strategy and the continued elevation of our business in the U.S. – where the recent openings of our Rodeo Drive and Post Street flagships in L.A. and San Francisco are great examples of our vision for the brand.”

Translation: The United States is the market of the moment for luxury, and we are not giving up on China just yet, especially not Chinese tourists shopping elsewhere.

“5) The final core strategy, Pursue Operational Excellence remains unchanged, but its scope is expanded to encompass our efforts to drive greater efficiency and productivity throughout the business, in addition to its historic emphasis on improving our back-of-house operations. What we call “the productivity agenda” – spanning opportunities in retail, product and processes – is an area in which we have further significant opportunities and will be the subject of intense focus for this next phase, as we leverage the investments we have made in recent years.”

Translation: It’s time to enter the wired production era.

Now, if only he could redesign the wordiness to have the same clarity as his clothes….

Burberry pay deal makes Christopher Bailey one of best paid FTSE 100 chiefs

Fashion company hands £9m in shares from bonus schemes to CEO, avoiding last year’s confrontation with investors

Christopher Bailey immediately sold half of the shares to cover his tax liabilities. Photograph: David M Benett/Getty Images for BurberryJill Treanor

Thursday 23 July 2015 13.32 EDTLast modified on Thursday 23 July 201519.01 EDT

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0Christopher Bailey has cemented his position as one of the highest paid chief executives in the FTSE 100 after the Burberry boss was handed more than £9m in shares from bonus schemes.

Bailey, who was catapulted into the top job a year ago and remains the fashion company’s creative head, immediately sold half of the shares to cover his tax liabilities.

A disclosure to the stock market showed that 350,000 shares he was awarded in 2010 have been released and are worth around £5.5m at current share prices. Another tranche of shares, worth around £3.7m, have paid out from a 2012 long-term scheme which had performance conditions attached to it.

The shares were released this week to Bailey, who was also awarded shares worth £3.8m at current share prices in a long-term incentive plan, although the exact value of the award will be determined over four years and depend on performance and the future share price.

The payouts to Bailey follow the annual meeting a week ago where the company managed to avoid a rerun of the revolt over pay that took place following Bailey’s appointment. A year ago, 52% of investors had voted against the company’s pay deals as it emerged that Bailey’s £1.1m salary was supplemented by a £440,000 cash allowance. He had also received a one-off award of shares worth £15m.

This year there was less confrontation with investors after Bailey received £7.9m, made up of his salary, allowance and payments such as £303,000 for his pension, £1.8m for his annual bonus and £4.4m from a long-term incentive plan. Almost 93% of investors endorsed the company’s pay deals last week.

Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting this month, Burberry’s chairman, Sir John Peace, said the company had been left “extremely disappointed” by the 2014 revolt and had sought to engage with investors on Bailey’s pay. “Through extensive engagement, we have sought to better explain the details behind his package,” said Peace.

Bailey’s pay deal makes him one of the best paid executives at the helm of a FTSE 100 company, as was his predecessor Angela Ahrendts who he replaced after she quit to join Apple.

Bailey was elevated to chief executive after 12 years overseeing its creative direction. Despite his crucial role at the business as creative chief, his pay only became public once he was elevated to the board last year to become chief executive.

The latest stock exchange disclosure sheds light on pay deals for other senior figures outside the Burberry boardroom. Regional heads Pascal Perrier and Andrew Maag cashed in shares awarded in 2012 worth £1.5m and £1.2m respectively. They are left with shares in the company worth £1.6m and £1.2m respectively.

Celebrities Wearing Louis Vuitton Shoes

Miranda Kerr in Louis Vuitton denim booties.

Getty Images.

Today marks what would be Louis Vuitton’s birthday. The French businessman was born in 1821 and founded his eponymous leather-goods maker in 1854 in Paris.

The company has grown into one of the world’s most recognizable designer brands, thanks to its signature monogram printed all over its products. In 2014, Louis Vuitton celebrated its 160th anniversary, and in the same year, the company posted revenue of €30.6 billion (about $33 billion).

What began as a modest trunk-packing shop is now part of the LVMH conglomerate, which is headed by Bernard Arnault. LMVH also owns luxury brands Celine, Berluti, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Fendi and others.

Celebrities favor the label’s footwear for appearances ranging from the red carpet to runway shows. Louis Vuitton’s Series 3 campaign for fall ’15 stars actress Jennifer Connelly, who has walked the red carpet in the label’s booties and heels.

Julianne Moore has also worn the label for a handful of red carpet appearances, including one in which she wore booties with an allover LV monogram print, which she paired with bold knitted tights. Models Miranda Kerr and Riley Keough have worn the brand’s denim Swinging Half Boot.

Click through the gallery to see more celebrities in Louis Vuitton footwear.