Designers looking for a leg up and a home on the Upper East Side have a new place to turn: Code.
The 10,000-square-foot hybrid store, showroom, café and event space for designers at 800 Fifth Avenue — a port in the storm of New York’s fashion scene — is the brainchild of Moshe Lax, who was nudged into his new fashionable life by his wife, Shaindy, Hillary Beckman and Ivanka Trump.
When Shaindy found that it was no easy feat to break into department stores with her detailed fashions for kids, Lax turned to Beckman, a friend with a long list of fashion industry contacts, including childhood pal Tracy Margolies, sister-in-law and filmmaker Fabiola Beracasa Beckman and Bergdorf Goodman executive Elizabeth von der Goltz.
“I told him that the stars have to align, and even then, you may be a blip on the radar and never gain traction,” Beckman said.
Lax and Beckman concluded that the fashion industry is fragmented, struggling to stay one step ahead of consumers’ shifting tastes and still reconciling e-commerce with brick-and-mortar.
“There’s a hole in the market,” Beckman said. “There’s nowhere a new designer can go to get all the eyes, especially those of editors and heads of fashion departments.”
Lax

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Leave it to Public School to shake things up a bit.
The New York-based streetwear brand has been chosen as the third label in the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Retail Lab, a mentorship program that includes a physical store. But unlike their predecessors who opted for more-subdued designs, designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne created an installation that re-creates a Cadillac crashing into a wall inside the store at the Cadillac House at 330 Hudson Street.
The prior two designers who participated in the program were Timo Weiland and Cushnie et Ochs.
“We messed it up a bit,” Osborne said. “We ran a car through the wall to offset the prettiness of the showroom.”
And in keeping with the Public School aesthetic, the car’s trunk is halfway open and goods for sale are spilling out. “It’s like a street mentality,” Chow said. “You pop the trunk and that’s where you find the hot merchandise.”
Saying the installation was “a lot of fun” to create, the designers said the mix will change every week or so in order to draw repeat customers. In addition to men’s and women’s looks from the core Public School collection, the store will include “exclusive collaborative product” as well,

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Jill Newman

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is calling on the British government to impose “significant sanctions” on garment factories breaching contracts, and for a multi-sectoral response, following an undercover investigation that found workers being paid less than half the minimum wage.

A group of US based apparel brands and retailers is joining calls expressing concern at recent labour unrest in the Bangladesh garment industry, and is urging the country’s government to implement a regular and transparent wage review mechanism.

Orange is the new black. So says Giorgio Armani, the master of understatement, who chose this most unexpected of colors as the running theme of his Armani Privé haute couture display.
It wasn’t the first time Armani has been wowed by a powerful hue — spring 2016 was an ode to mauve. But it takes a brave man to toy with a shade associated with prison uniforms, safety jackets and — eek! — Halloween, especially with two freshly minted Oscar nominees, Nicole Kidman and Isabelle Huppert, sitting in the front row.
The designer’s controlled introduction was a testament to his confidence and skill. Rather than sounding an orange alert from the get-go, he injected just a soupçon of coral via floral embroideries on one of his signature peak-shouldered jackets and the embroidered lace top worn underneath.
Armani turned up the dial with a curry-colored silk satin jacket and another in orange crocodile leather. By the time he unleashed a series of printed silk dresses, it felt almost natural to be drinking in bright citrus shades instead of his trademark taupe and gray.
Why orange? “Because it’s an optimistic color. Because it’s a color that suits blondes and brunettes. Because it goes beyond my usual

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For starlets looking for red-carpet options with modern attitude and a fun twist, Lebanese-American designer Rami Kadi’s proposition for fall was just the ticket. Off-white lace, tulle and silk crepe de chine was his blank canvas for an explosion of embroidered and appliquéd motifs in rainbow colors inspired by a visit to Venice.
Heraldic lions and snakes were part of the pop collage, as were hearts, stars, rainbows and the occasional lamppost, all part of Kadi’s upbeat Venetian mood board.
The motifs sprouted on a fishnet lace gown with ruffle details; a cute A-line skirt and graphic lace blouse, and a linear tuxedo dress with front slits in crepe de chine. He played with laser-cut foil motifs on a bib-fronted dress, appliquéd printed aluminum as a celestial vision on a floating tulle gown in what he described as “modern bling bling,” and stamped pop-colored wax disks onto a floral lace column dress with a feathered bodice. For the finale bridal look, Kadi dialed up the volume with an ample skirt and train, but toned down the color scheme, repeating his fun embroidered motifs in knotted ivory raffia, glass beads and Swarovski crystals.

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Haus of Yoshi, Bom.B and Gear3 formed a triumvirate to bring South Korean men’s style to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin.
Presenting 12 looks, Haus of Yoshi’s playful black-and-white printed shirts, batik jeans and leather jackets were juxtaposed to Bohyung Lee of Bom.B’s dark tailored pants and heavy wool coats with studded skulls, and Gear3’s sleek and sporty luxury leather bags. The three lines came together in a solid and fresh way.
“Berlin is such an international city that works as starting point for all kinds of artists and creatives, so the designers decided to come to show and collect feedback on how to better develop,” said Sangbeom Woo, manager at Idea Berlin, an agency that represents South Korean artists and other creative talent in Germany.
South Korean designers have been a fixture at the Berlin fairs such as Premium and Seek for the past seasons, and some brands, like Gear3, already sell in German shops like Voo Store.

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David Koma drew inspiration from the paintings of Tamara de Lempicka for his pre-fall collection for Mugler, which had a strong focus on tailoring.
“I wanted to do something very masculine, but with this kind of soft and feminine touch. And in her work I see a lot of it: the very graphic, sharp lines, but I read them very soft at the same time,” he said.
Jackets with a planed shoulder and curved waist were paired with wide pants — think Madonna’s suit in the video for “Vogue,” which coincidentally (or not) opens with footage of de Lempicka’s paintings. They were accented with silver rings and chains inspired by old-fashioned men’s watch chains.
Metallic studs and buckles appeared on everything from body-conscious knits to a black patent leather wrap skirt. Koma worked a mostly monochrome palette with shots of intense jewel tones, like the lapis blue of a heavy satin evening gown.
In addition to bulking up the label’s tailoring offering, the designer is expanding its handbag assortment with three new styles of its Choker line. Virginie Courtin-Clarins, general manager of Mugler, said the house plans to launch e-commerce to coincide with the relaunch of its web site in the second half.

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