Style & the Street

Holiday Parties Canceled for Big Fashion and Media Houses...

This week, Conde Nast, Marc Jacobs, Hearst Corporation and others canceled their typically lavish holiday parties, though individual departments in the companies may choose to have scaled-back soirees. This is an age-old sign of a recession, as well as the announcement of little to no bonuses for the high-payed executives.

How many more announcements like this will be made? Do you think there'll be any extravagance to spare this holiday season? Projections so far are glum & it's not looking any more encouraging despite advertisers and retailers best efforts to promote and cut prices on non-essential goods.

Sonia Rykiel's Big Show in Hard Economic Times

Sonia Rykiel put on a devil-may-care show at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris this week, showing over 200 new classic Rykiel designs. Rykiel started her line in 1968 and the brand has been staying afloat due to its branding & minimalist tendencies in a time when the bulk of consumers are re-thinking their spending habits. Surely, Rykiel has weathered recesessions before, not the least of which being the 1987 S&L downturn and the current global crisis.

International textile trade on the minds of U.S. Senate...

The epic election last week gave us our first African-American president, but also shed a lot of light on policy decisions in need of change. Trade played a large role in the race for Congressional spots,

Trade played a key role in congressional races as economic worries reigned supreme on the minds of voters. Many formerly industrial states, such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, have seen many jobs move abroad.

One of the policy tenets of President Bush was open free trade, often cited by economists as mutually beneficial due to comparative advantage, but something many Americans find harmful to their job prospects.

Comme des Garcons Goes to H&M ... in Japan

H&M unveiled their Comme des Garçons collection at their new stores in Tokyo, causing more than 2,000 eager shoppers braved the elements, some for days. The brand usually retails for thousands of dollars, but will go for mere hundreds at H&M, leaving eager shoppers chomping at the bit for high fashion in a time of economic lows.

The fervor which some shoppers harbor for the brand is mirrored in collections presented here in New York, and with the economy going to the way it is, it seems like more people will be waiting in mammoth lines to look uber-fashionable without breaking their diminishing banks.

Murakami blowing up at Louis Vuitton

Takashi Murakami, the artist known for his whimsical, sometimes phallic artwork seen all over handbags, dresses and accessories for the luxury brand, will be wrapping the Fifth Avenue Louis Vuitton store like a Christmas gift this holiday season.

The installation will begin going up today and will be completed on Nov. 9.

"The idea to wrap the Fifth Avenue maison in Monogram Multicolore came about earlier this year in an effort to do something truly unique for the holiday season," said Daniel Lalonde, president and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton North America, according to WWD.