Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton or shortened to LV, is a French fashion house and

luxury retail company.

founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label’s LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses and books.

 Louis Vuitton is one of the world’s leading international fashion houses; it sells its products through standalone , lease departments in high-end , and through the section of its website. For six consecutive years (2006–2012), Louis Vuitton was named the world’s most valuable luxury . Its 2012 valuation was US$25.9 billion.

 The 2013 valuation of the brand was US$28.4 billion with  of US$9.4 billion.The company operates in 50 countries with more than 460 stores

The Louis Vuitton label was founded by Vuitton in 1854 on Rue Neuve des Capucines in  France.Louis Vuitton started at $10,567 as a sales price. Louis Vuitton had observed that the Osilitetrunk could be easily stacked. In 1858, Vuitton introduced his flat-topped trunks with trianon canvas, making them lightweight and airtight. Before the introduction of Vuitton’s trunks, rounded-top trunks were used, generally to promote water runoff, and thus could not be stacked. It was Vuitton’s gray Trianon canvas flat trunk that allowed the ability to stack them on top of another with ease for voyages. Many other luggage makers later imitated Vuitton’s style and design.

The company participated in the . In 1871, became the first recorded Japanese customer, ordering a set of luggage while in Paris as a military observer during the .To protect against the duplication of his look, Vuitton changed the Trianon design to a beige and brown stripes design in 1876. By 1885, the company opened its first store in on . Soon thereafter, due to the continuing imitation of his look, in 1888, Vuitton created the Damier Canvas pattern, which bore a logo that reads “marque L. Vuitton déposée“, which translates into “L. Vuitton registered. In 1892, Louis Vuitton died, and the company’s management passed to his son.

Special collaborations

Louis Vuitton has had many collaborations with prominent artists and designers.

• Takashi Murakami created special edition collections, such as the Monogramouflage Collection, which debuted in 2008, and a previous collection, released in 2002, which featured some of his artwork. The creations were “painted” over the traditional monogram , which brought a radical new twist to the timeless design.
•  also commemorated a previous collaboration, designed by Stephen Sprouse. This collection, originally released in 2001, featured bold print that looked like , over the traditional canvas. The recreation of the collab used the same idea, but gave it a new twist using bold colors, like hot pink, neon green, and orange, that also glow in the dark. This recreated version of the graffiti collection was finally released in 2009 to much fanfare.
• Louis Vuitton also collaborated with Kanye West in 2009, designing his own limited run of shoes.
• In July 2012, Jacobs teamed up with  to create the “Infinitely Kusama” Collection, which features bold colors of dots over the vernis leather or the monogram canvas. These pieces come in black with white dots, red with white dots, and yellow with black dots.
• Louis Vuitton collaborated in their Spring-Summer 2016 collection advertising campaign with the highly popular Japanese video game franchise  and their Games Main Heroin called Lighting from
• In 2017 Louis Vuitton collaborated with American streetwear brandreleasing products in various pop-up stores in major cities around the world. Items feature the Louis Vuitton monogram canvas mixed with the Supreme box-logo design.
• Also in 2017, Louis Vuitton collaborated with artist Jeff Koons for two collections in an effort to “further [explore] the intersection of fashion and art.

“Simple Living”

On 13 February 2007, Louis Vuitton sent a  to Danish art student for using an image of a bag that allegedly infringed Louis Vuitton’s intellectual property rights. Plesner had created a satirical illustration, “Simple Living”, depicting a malnourished child holding a designer dog and a designer bag, and used it on T-shirts and posters to raise funds for the charity “Divest for Darfur”. On 25 March, the court ruled in favour of LV that the image was a clear  Despite the ruling, Plesner continued to use the image, arguing artistic freedom, and posted copies of the cease-and-desist order on her website. On 15 April 2008, Louis Vuitton notified Plesner of the lawsuit being brought against her. Louis Vuitton demanded $7,500 (€5,000) for each day Plesner continues to sell the “Simple Living” products, $7,500 for each day the original cease-and-desist letter is published on her website and $7,500 a day for using the name “Louis Vuitton” on her website, plus legal and enforcement costs.

Craftsmen advertisements

In May 2010, the British  banned two of the company’s advertising spots, depicting craftsmen at work on its products, for being in breach of its ‘Truthfulness clause’. The ASA said that the evidence supplied by Louis Vuitton fell short of what was needed to prove the products were made by hand. The ASA said that the two adverts would lead consumers to interpret that Louis Vuitton bags and wallets were almost entirely hand-crafted when they were predominantly created by machine.

The ASA stated: ‘We noted that we had not seen documentation that detailed the entire production process for Louis Vuitton products or that showed the proportion of their manufacture that was carried out by hand or by machine. Vuitton denied that their production was automated, arguing that over 100 stages were involved in the making of each bag; they, however, admitted that sewing machines had been used in production process.

Chanel.

The House of Chanel (Chanel S.A.) originated in 1909 when Gabrielle Chanel opened a  shop at 160 Boulevard Malesherbes, the ground floor of the Parisian flat of the and textile businessman , of whom she was the mistress. Because the Balsan flat also was a  for the French hunting and sporting élite, Chanel had the opportunity to meet their mistresses, who, as such, were women of fashion, upon whom the rich men displayed their wealth — as ornate clothes,, and hats.

Coco Chanel thus could sell to them the hats she designed and made; she thus earned a living, independent of her financial sponsor, the socialite Balsan. In the course of those salons Coco Chanel befriended, an English socialite and  friend of Étienne Balsan; per the , Chanel also became mistress to Boy Capel. Despite that social circumstance, Boy Capel perceived the businesswoman innate to Coco Chanel, and, in 1910, financed her first independent millinery shop, Chanel Modes, at 21 rue Cambon, Paris. Because that locale already housed a dress shop, the business-lease limited Chanel to selling only millinery products, not . Two years later, in 1913, the and  couture shops of Coco Chanel offered for sale  sports clothes for women, the practical designs of which allowed the wearer to play sport.

The (1914–18) affected European through scarcity of materials, and the mobilisation of women. By that time, Chanel had opened a large dress shop at 31 rue Cambon, near the  in Paris; among the clothes for sale were , straight-line skirts of , long made of  fabric, and skirt-and-jacket suits.

Coco Chanel used jersey cloth because of its physical properties as a garment, such as its drape — how it falls upon and falls from the body of the woman — and how well it adapted to a simple garment-design. Sartorially, some of Chanel’s designs derived from the military uniforms made prevalent by the War; and, by 1915, the designs and the clothes produced by the House of Chanel were known throughout France.

In 1915 and in 1917, magazine reported that the garments of the House of Chanel were “on the list of every buyer” for the clothing factories of Europe. The Chanel dress shop at 31 rue Cambon presented day-wear dress-and-coat ensembles of simple design, and black evening dresses trimmed with and  dresses decorated with , a minor gemstone material.

After the First World War, the House of Chanel, following the fashion trends of the 1920s, produced beaded dresses, made especially popular by the  woman. By 1920, Chanel had designed and presented a woman’s suit of clothes — composed either of two garments or of three garments — which allowed a woman to have a modern, feminine appearance, whilst being comfortable and practical to maintain; advocated as the “new uniform for afternoon and evening”, it became known as the Chanel Suit.

In 1921, to complement the suit of clothes, Coco Chanel commissioned the to create a perfume for the House of Chanel. His perfumes included the , named after the number of the sample Chanel liked best. Originally, a bottle of No. 5 de Chanel was a gift to clients of Chanel. The popularity of the perfume prompted the House of Chanel to offer it for retail sale in 1922.

In 1923, to explain the success of her clothes, Coco Chanel told Harper’s Bazaar magazine that design “simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”

The success of the  encouraged Coco Chanel to expand  sales beyond France and Europe and to develop other perfumes — for which she required investment capital, business acumen, and access to the North American market. To that end, the businessman  (founder of) introduced the venture  to Coco Chanel. Their business deal established the Parfums Chanel company, a parfumerie of which Wertheimer owned 70 per cent, Bader owned 20 per cent, and Chanel owned 10 per cent; commercial success of the joint enterprise was assured by the Chanel name, and by the cachet of la “Maison Chanel”, which remained the sole business province of Coco Chanel.

Nonetheless, despite the success of the Chanel couture and parfumerie, the personal relations between Coco and her capitalist partner deteriorated, because, Coco said that Pierre Wertheimer was exploiting her talents as a and as a businesswoman.Wertheimer reminded Chanel that he had made her a very rich woman; and that his venture capital had funded Chanel’s productive expansion of the parfumerie which created the wealth they enjoyed, all from the success of No. 5 de Chanel.

Nevertheless, unsatisfied, the businesswoman Gabrielle Chanel hired the attorney  to renegotiate the 10-per-cent partnership she entered, in 1924, with the Parfums Chanel company; the lawyer-to-lawyer negotiations failed, and the partnership-percentages remained as established in the original business deal among Wertheimer, Badel, and Chanel

From the gamine fashions of the 1920s, Coco Chanel had progressed to womanly fashions in the 1930s: evening-dress designs were characterised by an elongated feminine style, and summer dresses featured contrasts such as silver eyelets, and shoulder straps decorated with rhinestones – drawing from Renaissance-time fashion stylings. In 1932, Chanel presented an exhibition of jewelry dedicated to the diamond as a fashion accessory; it featured the Comet and Fountain necklaces of diamonds, which were of such original design, that Chanel S.A. re-presented them in 1993. Moreover, by 1937, the House of Chanel had expanded the range of its clothes to more women and presented prêt-à-porter clothes designed and cut for the petite woman. Among fashion designers, only the clothes created by Elsa Schiaparelli could compete with the clothes of Chanel.

During the (1939–45), Coco Chanel closed shop at Maison Chanel — leaving only jewellery and parfumerie for sale — and moved to the , where she lived with her boyfriend, , a Nazi intelligence officer.Upon conquering France in June 1940, the Nazis established a Parisian occupation-headquarters in the , on the rue de la Rivoli, opposite the  Museum, and just around the corner from the fashionable Maison Chanel S.A., at 31 rue Cambon.

Meanwhile, because of the Nazi occupation’s official anti-Semitism, Pierre Wertheimer and family, had fled France to the U.S., in mid-1940. Later, in 1941, Coco Chanel attempted to assume business control of Parfums Chanel but was thwarted by an administrative delegation that disallowed her sole disposition of the parfumerie. Having foreseen the Nazi occupation policy of the seizure-and-expropriation to Germany of Jewish business and assets in France, Pierre Wertheimer, the majority partner, had earlier, in May 1940, designated Felix Amiot, a Christian French industrialist, as the  proxy whose legal control of the Parfums Chanel business proved politically acceptable to the Nazis, who then allowed the perfume company to continue as an operating business.

Occupied France abounded with rumours that Coco Chanel was a Nazi collaborator; her clandestine identity was secret agent 7124 of the Abwehr, code-named “Westminster”.As such, by order of General Walter Schellenberg, of the Sicherheitsdienst, Chanel was despatched to London on a mission to communicate to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill the particulars of a “separate peace” plan proposed by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who sought to avoid surrendering to the Red Army of the Soviet Russians.

At War’s end, upon the Allied liberation of France, Chanel was arrested for having collaborated with the Nazis. In September 1944, the Free French Purge Committee, the épuration, summoned Chanel for interrogation about her collaborationism, yet, without documentary evidence of or witnesses to her collaboration with the Nazis, and because of Churchill’s secret intervention in her behalf, the épuration released Coco Chanel from arrest as a traitor to France.Despite having been freed by the political grace of Churchill, the strength of the rumours of Chanel’s Nazi collaboration had made it not possible for her to remain in France; so Coco Chanel and her German lover, Hans Günther von Dincklage, went into an eight-year exile to Switzerland

In the post–war period, during Coco Chanel’s Swiss exile from France, Pierre Wertheimer returned to Paris and regained formal administrative control of his family’s business holdings — including control of Parfums Chanel, the parfumerieestablished with his venture capital, and successful because of the Chanel name.

In Switzerland, the news revived Coco Chanel’s resentment at having been exploited by her business partner, for only ten per cent of the money. So she established a rival Swiss parfumerie to create, produce, and sell her “Chanel perfumes”. In turn, Wertheimer, the majority capital stock owner of Parfums Chanel, saw his business interests threatened, and his commercial rights infringed because he did not possess legally exclusive rights to the Chanel name. Nonetheless, Wertheimer avoided a trademark infringement lawsuit against Coco Chanel, lest it damage the commercial reputation and the artistic credibility of his Chanel-brand parfumerie.

Wisely, Pierre Wertheimer settled his business- and commercial-rights quarrel with Chanel, and, in May 1947, they renegotiated the 1924 contract that had established Parfums Chanel — she was paid $400,000 in cash (wartime profits from the sales of perfume No. 5 de Chanel); assigned a 2.0 per cent running royalty from the sales of No. 5 parfumerie; assigned limited commercial rights to sell her “Chanel perfumes” in Switzerland; and granted a perpetual monthly stipend that paid all of her expenses. In exchange, Gabrielle Chanel closed her Swiss parfumerie enterprise, and sold to Parfums Chanel the full rights to the name “Coco Chanel”.

Resurgence — 1950s–1970s

In 1953, upon returning to France from Switzerland, Coco Chanel found the fashion business enamoured of the “New Look” (1947), by Christian Dior; the signature shape featured a below-mid-calf-length, full-skirt, a narrow waist, and a large bust (stylistically absent since 1912). As a post–War fashion that used some 20 yards of fabric, the House of Dior couture renounced wartime rationing of fabric for clothes.

In 1947 — after the six-year austerities of the Second World War (1939–45) — the New Look was welcomed by the fashion business of Western Europe because sales of the pretty clothes would revive business and the economy.

To regain the business primacy of the House of Chanel, in the fashion fields of haute couture, prêt-à-porter, costume jewelry, and parfumerie, would be expensive; so Chanel approached Pierre Wertheimer for business advice and capital.Having decided to do business with Coco Chanel, Wertheimer’s negotiations to fund the resurgence of the House of Chanel, granted him commercial rights to all Chanel-brand products.

In 1953, Chanel collaborated with jeweler Robert Goossens; he was to design jewelry (bijouterie and gemstone) to complement the fashions of the House of Chanel; notably, long-strand necklaces of black pearls and of white pearls, which high contrast softened the severe design of the knitted-wool Chanel Suit (skirt and cardigan jacket).

The House of Chanel also presented leather handbags with either gold-colour chains or metal-and-leather chains, which allowed carrying the handbag from the shoulder or in hand. The quilted-leather handbag was presented to the public in February 1955. In-house, the numeric version of the launching date “2.55” for that line of handbags became the internal “appellation” for that model of the quilted-leather handbag.

Throughout the 1950s, the sense of style of Chanel continued undeterred; the firm’s initial venture into masculine parfumerie, Pour Monsieur was a successful eau de toilette for men. Chanel and her spring collection received the Fashion Oscar at the 1957 Fashion Awards in Dallas. Pierre Wertheimer bought Bader’s 20 per cent share of the Parfums Chanel, which increased the Wertheimer percentage to 90 per cent.

Later, in 1965, Pierre’s son, Jacques Wertheimer, assumed his father’s management of the parfumerie. About the past business relationship, between Pierre Wertheimer and Coco Chanel, the Chanel attorney, Chambrun said that it had been “one based on a businessman’s passion, despite her misplaced feelings of exploitation . . . [thus] when Pierre returned to Paris, full of pride and excitement [after one of his horses won the 1956 English Derby]. He rushed to Coco, expecting congratulations and praise. But she refused to kiss him. She resented him, you see, all her life.

Coco Chanel died on 10 January 1971, at the age of 87. She was still designing at the time of her deat .For example, in the (1966–1969) period, she designed the air hostess uniforms for Olympic Airways, the designer who followed her was Pierre Cardin. In that time, Olympic Airways was a luxury airline, owned by the transport magnate Aristotle Onassis. After her death, the leadership of the company was handed down to Yvonne Dudel, Jean Cazaubon and Philippe Guibourgé.

After a period of time, Jacques Wertheimer bought the controlling interest of the House of Chanel. Critics stated that during his leadership, he never paid much attention to the company, as he was more interested in horse breeding.In 1974, the House of Chanel launched Cristalle eau de toilette, which was designed when Coco Chanel was alive. 1978 saw the launch of the first non-couture, prêt-à-porter line and worldwide distribution of accessories.

Alain Wertheimer, son of Jacques Wertheimer, assumed control of Chanel S.A. in 1974. In the U.S., No. 5 de Chanel was not selling well. Alain revamped Chanel No.5 sales by reducing the number of outlets carrying the fragrance from 18,000 to 12,000. He removed the perfume from drugstore shelves and invested millions of dollars in advertisement for Chanel cosmetics. This ensured a greater sense of scarcity and exclusivity for No.5, and sales rocketed back up as demand for the fragrance increased. He used famous people to endorse the perfume — from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Tautou. Looking for a designer who could bring the label to new heights, he persuaded Karl Lagerfeld to end his contract with fashion house Chloé.

The post-Coco 

In 1981, Chanel launched Antaeus, an eau de toilette for men. In 1983 Karl Lagerfeld took over as chief designer for Chanel. Like Chanel, he looked into the past as inspiration for his designs. He incorporated the Chanel fabrics and detailing such as tweed, gold accents, and chains. Lagerfeld kept what was signature for Chanel but also helped bring the brand into today.

In later collections Lagerfeld chose to break away from the ladylike look of Chanel and began to experiment with fabrics and styles. During the 1980s, more than 40 Chanel boutiques opened worldwide. By the end of the 1980s, the boutiques sold goods ranging from US$200-per-ounce perfume, US$225 ballerina slippers to US$11,000 dresses and US$2,000 leather handbags. Chanel cosmetics and fragrances were distributed only by Chanel outlets. Chanel marketer Jean Hoehn explained the firm’s approach, saying, “We introduce a new fragrance every 10 years, not every three minutes like many competitors. We don’t confuse the consumer. With Chanel, people know what to expect. And they keep coming back to us, at all ages, as they enter and leave the market.” The 1984 launch of a new fragrance, in honor of the founder, Coco, continued the label’s success. In 1986, the House of Chanel struck a deal with watchmakers and in 1987, the first Chanel watch debuted. By the end of the decade, Alain moved the offices to New York City.

Maison de Chanel increased the Wertheimer family fortune to US$5 billion. Sales were hurt by the recession of the early 1990s, but Chanel recovered by the mid-1990s with further boutique expansion.

In 1994, Chanel had a net profit equivalent to €67 million on the sale of €570 million in ready-to-wear clothes and was the most profitable French fashion house.

In 1996, Chanel bought gun-makers Holland & Holland, but failed in its attempt to revamp the firm. The swimwear label Eres was also purchased in 1996. Chanel launched the perfumes Allure in 1996 and Allure Homme in 1998. The House of Chanel launched its first skin care line, Précision, in 1999. That same year, Chanel launched a travel collection, and under a license contract with Luxottica, introduced a line of sunglasses and eyeglass frames.

While Wertheimer remained chairman, Françoise Montenay became CEO and President. 2000 saw the launch of the first unisex watch by Chanel, the J12. In 2001, watchmaker Bell & Ross was acquired. The same year, Chanel boutiques offering only selections of accessories were opened in the United States. Chanel launched a small selection of menswear as a part of their runway shows.

In 2002, Chanel launched the Chance perfume and Paraffection, a subsidiary company originally established in 1997 to support artisanal manufacturing, that gathered together Ateliers d’Art or workshops including Desrues for ornamentation and buttons, Lemarié for feathers, Lesage for embroidery, Massaro for shoemaking and Michel for millinery. A prêt-à-porter collection was designed by Karl Lagerfeld.

In July 2002, a jewelry and watch outlet opened on Madison Avenue. Within months, a 1,000-square-foot (90 m²) shoe/handbag boutique opened next door. Chanel continued to expand in the United States and by December 2002, operated 25 U.S. boutiques

Gucci.

Italian pronunciation

is an Italian luxury brand of fashion and leather goods.Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Tuscany, in 1921. Gucci generated about €4.2 billion in revenue worldwide in 2008 according to BusinessWeek and climbed to 41st position in the magazine’s annual 2009 “Top Global 100 Brands” chart created by Interbrand; it retained that rank in Interbrand’s 2014 index.Gucci is also the highest-selling Italian brand.

Gucci operates about 278 directly operated stores worldwide as of September 2009, and it wholesales its products through franchisees and upscale department stores. In the year 2013, the brand was valued at US$12.1 billion, with sales of US$4.7 billion. In the Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brands list, Gucci is ranked the 38th most valuable brand, with a brand value of $12.4 billion as of May 2015. As of January 2015, the creative directoris Alessandro Michele.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Gucci company became one of the world’s most successful manufacturers of high-end leather goods, clothing, and other fashion products. As an immigrant hotel worker in Paris and later London, young Guccio Gucci (1881–1953) was impressed with the luxurious luggage he saw urbane guests bring with them at the Savoy Hotel. Before leaving, he visited the manufacturer, H.J. Cave & Sons. Upon returning to his birthplace of Florence, a city distinguished for high-quality materials and skilled artisans, he established a shop in 1920 that sold fine leather goods with classic styling. Although Gucci organized his workrooms for industrial methods of production, he maintained traditional aspects of fabrication. Initially, Gucci employed skilled workers in basic Florentine leather crafts, attentive to finishing. With expansion, machine stitching was a production method that supported construction.

Together with three of his sons, Aldo Gucci (1905–1990), Vasco Gucci (1907–1975), and Rodolfo Gucci (1912–1983), Gucci expanded the company to include stores in Milan and Rome as well as additional shops in Florence. Gucci’s stores featured such finely crafted leather accessories as handbags, shoes, and his iconic ornamented loafer as well as silks and knitwear in a signature pattern.

The company made handbags of cotton canvas rather than leather during World War II as a result of material shortages. The canvas, however, was distinguished by a signature double-G symbol combined with prominent red and green bands. After the war, the Gucci crest, which showed a shield and armored knight surrounded by a ribbon inscribed with the family name, became synonymous with the city of Florence.

Aldo and Rodolfo Gucci further expanded the company’s horizons in 1953 by establishing offices in New York City. Film stars and jet-set travelers to Italy during the 1950s and 1960s brought their glamour to Florence, turning Gucci’s merchandise into international status symbols. Movie stars posed in Gucci’s clothing, accessories, and footwear for lifestyle magazines around the world, contributing to the company’s growing reputation.

Gucci’s distinctive lines made its products among the most frequently copied in the world in the early 2000s. Pigskin, calf, and imported exotic animal skins were subjected to various methods of fabrication. Waterproof canvas and satin were used for evening bags. Bamboo was first used to make handbag handles by a process of heating and molding in 1947, and purses made with a shoulder strap and snaffle-bit decoration were introduced in 1960. In 1964 Gucci’s lush butterfly pattern was custom-created for silk foulards, followed by equally luxuriant floral patterns. The original Gucci loafer was updated by a distinctive snaffle-bit ornament in 1966, while the “Rolls-Royce” luggage set was introduced in 1970. Watches, jewelry, ties, and eyewear were then added to the company’s product lines. A particularly iconic touch, introduced in 1964, was the use of the double-G logo for belt buckles and other accessory decorations.

The company prospered through the 1970s, but the 1980s were marked by internal family disputes that brought Gucci to the brink of disaster. Rodolfo’s son Maurizio Gucci took over the company’s direction after his father’s death in 1983 and dismissed his uncle Aldo—who eventually served a prison term for tax evasion. Maurizio proved to be an unsuccessful president; he was compelled to sell the family-owned company to Investcorp a Bahrain-based company, in 1988. Maurizio disposed of his remaining stock in 1993. Maurizio was murdered by a hitman in Milan in 1995, and his former wife, Patrizia Reggiani, was convicted of hiring his killer. Meanwhile, the new investors promoted the American-educated Domenico De Sole from the position of family attorney to president of Gucci America in 1994 and chief executive in 1995.

The company had previously brought in Dawn Mello in 1989 as editor and ready-to-wear designer in order to reestablish its reputation. Well aware of Gucci’s tarnished image and the value of its name brand, Mello hired Tom Ford in 1990 to design a ready-to-wear line. He was promoted to the position of creative director in 1994. Before Mello returned to her post as president of the American retailer Bergdorf Goodman, she initiated the return of Gucci’s headquarters from the business center of Milan to Florence, where its craft traditions were rooted. There she and Ford reduced the number of Gucci products from 20,000 to 5,000.

Steinunn Sigurdardóttir was the Director and Senior Designer for Gucci from 1995 to 2000.^{[citation needed]}

There were seventy-six Gucci stores around the world in 1997, along with numerous licensing agreements. Ford was instrumental in the process of decision-making with De Sole when the Gucci Group acquired Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron, Sergio Rossi, and, in part-ownership with Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga. By 2001 Ford and De Sole shared the responsibility for major business decisions, while Ford concurrently directed design at Yves Saint Laurent as well as at Gucci.

The French conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, however, gained ownership of 60 percent of the Gucci Group’s stock in 2003. Women’s Wear Daily then announced the departure of both Domenico De Sole and Tom Ford from the Gucci Group when their contracts expired in April 2004. The last spring collection under the direction of Ford and De Sole was a critical and commercial success. Amid widespread speculation in the fashion press about Ford’s heir, the company announced in March 2004 that he would be replaced by a team of younger designers promoted from the ranks of the company’s staff.

In 2005, Frida Giannini was appointed as the creative director for women’s ready-to-wear and accessories, previously joining Gucci in 2002. In 2006, she also became the creative director for men’s ready-to-wear and the entire Gucci label.

As announced in December 12, 2014, Creative Director Frida Giannini and CEO Patrizio di Marco were to step down from Gucci. Marco Bizzarri was appointed CEO of the brand.

In 2017, Bizzarri said, “Being socially responsible is one of Gucci’s core values, and we will continue to strive to do better for the environment and animals,” and therefore fur would be banned from Gucci collections as of 2018. In August 2018, Gucci launched online operations in New Zealand.

After being appointed Gucci’s creative director in 2015, Michele reintroduced the company’s double-G Marmont logo.

Christian Dior (fashion house)

Christian Dior 

commonly known as Dior, is a French luxury goods company controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group. Dior itself holds 42.36% shares of and 59.01% voting rights within LVMH. Sidney Toledano has been the CEO since 1997.

The company was founded in 1946 by designer Christian Dior. It currently designs and retails leather goods, fashion accessories, footwear, jewelry, timepieces, fragrance, makeup, and skin care products, while also maintaining its tradition as a creator of haute-couture under the Christian Dior Couture division. The Christian Dior label remains largely for women’s offerings, although the company also operates the Dior Homme division for men and the baby Dior label for children’s wear. Products are sold throughout its portfolio of retail stores worldwide, as well as through its online store.

Founding

The House of Dior was established on 16 December 1946 in “a private house” at 30 Avenue Montaigne in Paris. However, the current Dior corporation celebrates “1947” as the opening year. Dior was financially backed by wealthy businessman Marcel Boussac.Boussac had originally invited Dior to design for Philippe et Gaston, but Dior refused, wishing to make a fresh start under his own name rather than reviving an old brand. The new couture house became a part of “a vertically integrated textile business” already operated by Boussac. Its capital was at FFr 6 million and workforce at 80 employees. The company was really a vanity project for Boussac and was a “majorly owned affiliate of Boussac Saint-Freres S.A. Nevertheless, Dior was allowed a then-unusual great part in his namesake label (legal leadership, a non-controlling stake in the firm, and one-third of pretax profits) despite Boussac’s reputation as a “control freak”. Dior’s creativity also negotiated him a good salary.

On 12 February 1947, Christian Dior launched his first fashion collection for Spring–Summer 1947. The show of “90 models of his first collection on six mannequins” was presented in the salons of the company’s headquarters at 30 Avenue Montaigne.^[4] Originally, the two lines were named “Corolle” and “Huit”.^[4] However, the new collection went down in fashion history as the “New Look” after the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar Carmel Snowexclaimed, “It’s such a new look! The New Look was a revolutionary era for women back in the forties. When the collection was presented, the editor in chief also showed appreciation by saying; “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian!”  The debut collection of Christian Dior is credited with having revived the fashion industry of France. Along with that, the New Look brought back the spirit of haute couture in France as it was considered glamorous and young-looking. “We were witness to a revolution in fashion and to a revolution in showing fashion as well.”The silhouette was characterised by a small, nipped-in waist and a full skirt falling below mid-calf length, which emphasised the bust and hips, as epitomized by the ‘Bar’ suit from the first collection.The collection overall showcased more stereotypically feminine designs in contrast to the popular fashions of wartime, with full skirts, tight waists, and soft shoulders. Dior retained some of the masculine aspects as they continued to hold popularity through the early 1940s, but he also wanted to include more feminine style.

The New Look became extremely popular, its full-skirted silhouette influencing other fashion designers well into the 1950s, and Dior gained a number of prominent clients from Hollywood, the United States, and the European aristocracy. As a result, Paris, which had fallen from its position as the capital of the fashion world after WWII, regained its preeminence.The New Look was welcomed in western Europe as a refreshing antidote to the austerity of wartime and de-feminizing uniforms, and was embraced by stylish women such as Princess Margaret in the UK.According to Harold Koda, Dior credited Charles James with inspiring The New Look. Dior’s designs from the “New Look” did not only affect the designers in the 1950s, but still some of the newer designers we know from now in the 2000s, including Thom Browne, Miuccia Prada, and Vivienne Westwood. Dior’s evening dresses from that time are still referred to by many designers, and they have been seen in different wedding themed catwalks with multiple layers of fabric building up below the small waist (Jojo, 2011). Examples include Vivienne Westwood’s Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 2011 and Alexander McQueen’s Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2011 (Jojo, 2011).

Not everyone was pleased with the New Look, however. Some considered the amount of material to be wasteful, especially after years of cloth rationing. Feminists in particular were outraged, feeling that these corseted designs were restrictive and regressive, and that they took away a woman’s independence.There were several protest groups against the designs including, the League of Broke Husbands, made up of 30,000 men who were against the costs associated with the amount of fabric needed for such designs. Fellow designer Coco Chanel remarked, “Only a man who never was intimate with a woman could design something that uncomfortable.Despite such protests, the New Look was highly influential, continuing to inform the work of other designers and fashion well into the 21st century. For the 60th anniversary of the New Look in 2007, John Galliano revisited it for his Spring-Summer collection for Dior.Galliano used the wasp waist and rounded shoulders, modernised and updated with references to origami and other Japanese influences.In 2012 Raf Simons revisited the New Look for his debut haute couture collection for Dior, wishing to update its ideas for the 21st century in a minimalist but also sensual and sexy manner. Simons’s work for Dior retained the luxurious fabrics and silhouette, but encouraged self-respect for the woman’s body and liberation of expression. The design process for this collection, which was produced in only eight weeks, is documented in Dior and I, presenting Simons’s use of technology and modernist re-interpretations.

Dior

Available references contradict themselves whether Christian Dior Parfums was established in 1947 or 1948. The Dior corporation itself lists the founding of Christian Dior Parfums as 1947, with the launch of its first perfume, Miss Dior. Dior revolutionized the perfumery industry with the launch of the highly popular Miss Dior parfum, which was named after Catherine Dior (Christian Dior’s sister). Christian Dior Ltd owned 25%, manager of Coty perfumes held 35%, and Boussac owned 40% of the perfume business, headed by Serge Heftler Louiche. Pierre Cardin was made head of the Dior workshop from 1947 until 1950. In 1948, a New York City Christian Dior Parfums branch was established—this could be the cause of establishment-date issue.The modern Dior corporation also notes that “a luxury ready-to-wear house is established in New York at the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street, the first of its kind,” in 1948. In 1949, the “Diorama” perfume is released and by 1949, the New Look line alone made a profit FFr 12.7 million.

Balenciaga.

Balenciaga S.A. is luxury fashion house brand owned by the French multinational company Kering. It was originally founded in Spain by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a designer born in Spain. Balenciaga had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as “the master of us all” by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet “modernistic silhouettes” became the trademarks of the house.

Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first boutique in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1917, which expanded to include branches in Madrid and Barcelona.The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy wore his designs, but when the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his stores, Balenciaga moved to Paris.

Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his first boutique in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1917, which expanded to include branches in Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy wore his designs, but when the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his stores, Balenciaga moved to Paris.

Balenciaga opened his Paris couture house on Avenue George V in August 1937, and his first fashion show featured designs heavily influenced by the Spanish Renaissance. Balenciaga’s success in Paris was nearly immediate. In the period of two years, the French press lauded him as a revolutionary, and his designs were highly sought-after. Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, was an early champion of his designs.

Customers risked their safety to travel to Europe during World War II to see Balenciaga’s clothing. During this period, he was noted for his “square coat,” with sleeves cut in a single piece with the yoke, and for his designs with black (or black and brown) lace over bright pink fabric.

However, it was not until the post-war years that the full scale of the inventiveness of this highly original designer became evident. His lines became more linear and sleek, diverging from the hourglass shape popularized by Christian Dior‘s “New Look“. The fluidity of his silhouettes enabled him to manipulate the relationship between his clothing and women’s bodies. In 1951, he totally transformed the silhouette, broadening the shoulders and removing the waist. In 1955, he designed the tunic dress, which later developed into the chemise dres.of 1958. Other contributions in the postwar era included the spherical balloon jacket (1953), the high-waisted baby doll dress (1957), the cocoon coat (1957), the balloon skirt (1957), and the sack dress (1957). In 1959, his work culminated in the Empire line, with high-waisted dresses and coats cut like kimonos. His manipulation of the waist, in particular, contributed to “what is considered to be his most important contribution to the world of fashion: a new silhouette for women.”

In the 1960s, Balenciaga was an innovator in his use of fabrics: he tended toward heavy fabrics, intricate embroidery, and bold materials. His trademarks included “collars that stood away from the collarbone to give a swanlike appearance” and shortened “bracelet” sleeves. His often spare, sculptural creations—including funnel-shape gowns of stiff duchess satin worn to acclaim by clients such as Pauline de Rothschild, Bunny Mellon, Marella Agnelli, Hope Portocarrero, Gloria Guinness, and Mona von Bismarck—were considered masterworks of haute couture in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1960, he designed the wedding dress for Queen Fabiola of Belgium made of ivory duchess satin trimmed with white mink at the collar and the hips. Jackie Kennedy famously upset John F. Kennedy for buying Balenciaga’s expensive creations while he was President because he feared that the American public might think the purchases too lavish. Her haute couture bills were eventually discreetly paid by her father-in-law, Joseph Kennedy.

Protégés

Several designers who worked for Balenciaga would go on to open their own successful couture houses, notably Oscar de la Renta (1949), Andre Courreges (1950), Emanuel Ungaro (1958), but his most famous and noted protégéwas Hubert de Givenchy, who was the lone designer to side with Balenciaga against the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne and also the press over the scheduling of his shows.

Battle against the press

In 1957, Balenciaga famously decided to show his collection to the fashion press the day before the clothing retail delivery date, not the standard four weeks before the retail delivery date the fashion industry followed at the time. By keeping the press unaware of the design of his garments until the day before they were shipped to stores, he hoped to curtail ongoing piracy and copying of his designs. The press resisted, finding it nearly impossible to get his work into their print deadlines, but Balenciaga and protégé Givenchy stood firm, seriously impacting their coverage and press of the era. His supporters would argue that rival Christian Dior would gain acclaim from copying Balenciaga’s silhouettes and cuts, claiming them as his own original work; because Balenciaga was not interested in press coverage, the media, and consumers never knew.

In 1967, both designers reversed their decision and joined the traditional schedule.

Battle against the Chambre

Balenciaga defiantly resisted the rules, guidelines, and bourgeoisie status of the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture parisienne, and, thus, was never a member. Although he is spoken of with immense reverence, technically, Balenciaga couture was never haute couture.

Cristóbal Balenciaga closed his fashion house in 1968 and died in 1972. The house lay dormant until 1986

Balenciaga today

In 1986, Jacques Bogart S.A. acquired the rights to Balenciaga, and opened a new ready-to-wear line, “Le Dix”. The first collection was designed by Michel Goma in October 1987, who remained at the house for the next five years to mixed reviews. He was replaced in 1992 with Dutch designer Josephus Thimister who began the restoration of Balenciaga to high-fashion status. During Thimister’s term, Nicolas Ghesquière would join as a license designer, and eventually was promoted to head designer in 1997.

In 1992, for the Summer Olympic Games, House of Balenciaga designed the French team’s clothes.

Balenciaga is now owned by Kering, formerly known as PPR, and its womenswear and menswear was headed by Nicolas Ghesquière.Ghesquière, like Balenciaga, is a self-taught designer, and apprenticed to Jean-Paul Gaultier and Agnes B. The fresh interpretation of Balenciaga classics, such as the semifitted jacket and the sack dress, caught the attention of the media as well as such celebrities as Madonna and Sinéad O’Connor.

In 2002, Balenciaga’s star, Nicolas Ghesquiere, imitated the work of Kaisik Wong, a designer from San Francisco. Ghesquiere created a patchwork vest in his spring collection that resembled one that Wong designed in 1973. Ghesquiere admitted in an interview in Paris that he had copied the garment.

There was some conflict within the House of Balenciaga on Ghesquiere’s designs, with the Gucci group saying that if Balenciaga didn’t make any money in 2007 they would replace him. Ghesquière’s F/W 2005 line showed that the house was not only making money, but also attracted a number of celebrity customers including editor-in-chief at Vogue, Anna Wintour.

The House of Balenciaga designed the dresses worn by Jennifer Connelly and Nicole Kidman to the 2006 Academy Awards, as well as the wedding gown Kidman wore when she married Keith Urban.Kylie Minogue also wore a Balenciaga dress for her “Slow” and “Red Blooded Woman” music videos and for her concert tour.

Today, the brand is best known for its line of motorcycle-inspired handbags, especially the “Lariat”. Balenciaga has eight exclusive boutiques in the United States. One Balenciaga store is located on 22nd St in New York City, New York. A second store is located in Los Angeles, California, on Melrose Avenue. Recently, a third store opened at the South Coast Plaza, in Costa Mesa, California. This store is 1,200 square feet (110 m²) and includes coffin-like inset displays. The New York and Los Angeles boutiques carry both men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, while the South Coast Plaza boutique carries only women’s clothing. A fourth, located in Las Vegas inside Caesars Palace, carries only accessories. An additional location on the Las Vegas Strip, in Crystals at CityCenter, sells accessories as well as women’s ready-to-wear. The boutique at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, offers men’s and women’s ready-to-wear and accessories. There is a store at the Bal Harbour shops in Bal Harbour, Florida. An eighth store is opening spring 2014 in Dallas, Texas, at the Highland Park Village to become the first boutique in Texas. The Highland Park Village boutique is opening next to Christian Dior and will carry men’s and women’s ready to wear and accessories. All of the boutiques employ spirited architecture, with white paneling, marble, and glass work as well as black leather seats and light green, black and navy carpets or white tiles, emphasizing the brand’s lean toward avant-garde and the drama of fashion.

Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2007 show impressed Teen Vogue editor-in-chief Amy Astley so much that an entire spread in the magazine, titled “Global Studies” and shot in Beijing, was influenced by it. The line included skinny jodhpurs, tight, fitted blazers, beaded embellished scarves, and other multicultural mixes.

Balenciaga is known for creating avant-garde structural pieces, straddling the edge of fashion and forecasting the future of women’s ready-to-wear fashion. Vintage Balenciaga garments are very popular among influential fashion editors, Hollywood stars, and top models, and have been seen on Sienna Miller, Lara Bingle, Raquel Zimmerman,Caroline Trentini, Emmanuelle Alt, Tatiana Sorokko,Hilary Rhoda, Jennifer Garner, and Stephanie Seymour, among others. Balenciaga is also frequently worn by actress Chloë Sevigny, who is also a muse of Nicolas Ghesquiere.

On 24 March 2011 at San Francisco’s M. H. de Young Museum, House of Balenciaga celebrated the opening of Balenciaga and Spain, a 120-piece fashion retrospective of Cristóbal Balenciaga‘s career. The exhibition included many Balenciaga designs from the museum’s encyclopedic costume collection, which boasts impressive holdings of creations by the designer. “You can’t even measure it,” said Rodarte designer Laura Mulleavy of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s influence. The $2,500-a-ticket fund-raiser for the museum drew 350 guests, including Denise Hale, Marissa Mayer, Vanessa Getty, Victoria Traina, Vanessa Traina, Jamie Tisch, Gwyneth Paltrow, Orlando Bloom, Balthazar Getty, Maggie Rizer, Connie Nielsen, Maria Bello, and Mia Wasikowska.

On 5 November 2012, Balenciaga announced that it was parting with creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, ending his 15-year tenure. The brand announced Alexander Wang its new creative director.Wang presented his first collection for the label on 28 February 2013 at Paris Fashion Week. In 2014, the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris set a trial date for the lawsuit between Balenciaga vs. Ghesquière. Kering-owned Balenciaga claimed that Ghesquière’s comments in the magazine System had hurt the company’s image. The highly publicized suit was mediated out of court.

On 30 July 2015, Balenciaga announced it was parting with creative director Alexander Wang after three years. The Spring/Summer 2016 show was his last, featuring white lounge wear made from soft, natural fabrics. In early-October 2015, the brand announced Demna Gvasalia as its new creative director.

In popular culture

On January 29, 2014, the character Myrtle Snow cries “Balenciaga!” as her dying words on the season finale of FX television show American Horror Story: Coven.

The brand is mentioned in the single “New Americana” by Halsey. Nicki Minaj references the brand in her first single from the album Pink Print, “Bed of Lies”: “Balenciaga’s on my boot with the python strap”. It is also mentioned in A$AP Rocky‘s song “Fashion Killa” and Tee Grizzley‘s.Balenciaga for my God oo.” The brand is also referenced to by Bronx rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie in his song “Not a Regular Person” with the lyrics “I’m done with these Balenciagas…” Cheat Codes has a song called Balenciaga. In the single OKRA by rapper Tyler, the Creator, Balenciaga is referenced in the lyric travel bag Balenciaga 30, 000 just for luggage”

The brand is mentioned in the single “P Secondiglian” by New Trap Neapolitan Singer Geôlier.

RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Elijah Kelly uses the brand as the last name of his drag persona, Mariah Paris Balenciaga.

Film Director Paul Thomas Anderson was inspired to make Phantom Thread when he became interested in the fashion industry after reading about designer Cristóbal Balenciaga.

In 2018, singer Ozuna released a single featuring Ele a el Dominio called Balenciaga.

In Cardi B’s hit single I Like It, the rapper references the brand in the line, “I like those Balenciagas, the ones that look like socks.” On the same song, featured artist Bad Bunny mentions the brand in Spanish: “Mis tenis Balenciaga, me reciben en la entrada.”

6LACK and Offset also released a song called “Balenciaga Challenge” in his album “East Atlanta Love Letter.

Global AzN references the brand in his song “Dark out” stating that the brand is on him everytime he walks outside.