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lifestyle TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2014 FASHION

Salvatore Ferragamo

Missoni

Armani ends Milan Fashion Week amid industry shifts

iorgio Armani rounded off Milan DSquared2 also showcased their latest again showed his focus on material with Fashion Week yesterday, as reports of designs yesterday with an eccentric show set Sunday’s collection, which included dresses in Gan investment in a young designer by in an insane asylum that included an actual -a sparkling -and pleated skirts that luxury giant LVMH and a Chinese firm’s pur- pillow fight and where the designs were part opened to reveal metals. The label said in a chase of historic label signaled shifts in sado-masochist, part 1960s glamour. As the press release that the collection “continues to the industry. Italy’s 79-year-old fashion king celebrity parties and behind-the-scenes trans- explore motifs that deceive the eye to create bowed and applauded at the end of his cat- actions wound down in Italy’s fashion hub, personal paths in design”, with materials that walk show, which featured a color palette of two reported business deals were the talk of are “manipulated, sliced, engraved, embossed, greys and blacks set off with lime-colored lin- the town. Women’s Wear Daily, a leading trade embroidered and fused to the point of trans- ings, top pockets and trouser stripes. Trouser journal, reported that the world’s top luxury figuration”. — AFP suits and jackets were roomy-a key trend dur- firm, France’s LVMH, was preparing to ing the autumn/winter 2014-2015 fashion announce a joint venture with the Rome- week collections this year, which have also based up-and-coming designer Marco de been filled with opulent furs, global nomad Vincenzo. looks and bold colors. The investment, which the report cited its sources as saying would include a “significant” minority holding in the label and the possibili- ty of increasing the stake in future, has been rumored for months. Backstage after his own show on Sunday, de Vincenzo spoke as if it were already a done a deal, saying: “Now I can be calmer from the point of view of produc- tion because if you are on your own the risks increase”. But there was no official confirmation from LVMH (Moet ), which owns , , , Loro Piana and among others. LVMH has recently invested in two up-and-coming British fashion brands, J.W. Anderson and Nicholas Kirkwood, reflecting growing interest in younger trends and sources for growth in the fashion sector. Rival French luxury group Kering, which owns Gucci, has taken stakes in London-based Christopher Kane and young French-American designer Joseph Altuzarra. Sicily-born de Vincenzo, who moved to Rome to attend the European Design Institute at 18 and worked as an accessories designer at Fendi, is best known for his experimental use of fabrics and geometric patterns. De Vincenzo, who made his Milan debut in 2009,

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani acknowl- edges the applause at the end of his Giorgio Armani women’s Fall- Winter 2014-15 col- lection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy, yester- day. — AP