Sandra‘s Closet

This week, Kering announced that Tomas Maier, who has been creative director of Bottega Veneta since 2001, is leaving the Italian brand.

Tomas Maier with Lauren Hutton

The reason? Kering has been dissatisfied for quite some time as Bottega Veneta’s sales have struggled and younger consumers are not interested enough in the brand that focuses extremely on craftsmanship. Compared to another label of the luxury conglomerate, Gucci, Bottega Veneta has been all about understated luxury and still lives up to its motto from the 1970s: «When Your Own Initials Are Enough.»

On the S/S 2017 runway: Gigi Hadid arm in arm with Lauren Hutton

Lately, Tomas Maier made headlines with the model casting for his S/S 2017 runway show. He sent out 73-year-old Lauren Hutton together with 21-year-old Gigi Hadid, confirming that beauty has no age. The same year, the brand reissued the iconic intrecciato clutch worn by Hutton in the 1980 film American Gigolo.

Lauren Hutton carries a Bottega Veneta clutch in American Gigolo.

Reissued: Lauren 1980 intrecciato leather clutch by Bottega Veneta

In a statement, Francois-Henri Pinault, the CEO of Kering, thanked Tomas for his work in the past 17 years: «It is largely due to Tomas’ high-level creative demands that Bottega Veneta became the house it is today. He put it back on the luxury scene and made it an undisputed reference. With his creative vision, he magnificently showcased the expertise of the house’s artisans. I am deeply grateful to him and I personally thank him for the work he accomplished, and for the exceptional success he helped to achieve.»

The new creative director has already been named. It is former Céline director of ready-to-wear, Daniel Lee. Until now, Lee has maintained a low profile at a number of historic design houses. He graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2011, worked at Maison Margiela and Balenciaga, before heading to Céline under Phoebe Philo.

I think that is an interesting choice. Kering has a track record of hiring lesser-known designers to top houses, which worked amazingly in the case of Alessandro Michele and Gucci.

TO SHOP BOTTEGA VENETA ONLINE, CLICK HERE PLEASE.

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of Bottega Veneta, via Grazia Magazine

This week, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Days Zurich take place. In comparison to the Fashion Weeks in Paris, Milan, London and New York, those days focus more on the business-to-consumer side with tickets available for sale to get a feeling of high class fashion in reality. They are also devoted to helping upcoming young designers, enjoying the S/S 2013 collections of established and famous designers and to just having a lot of fun.

Speaking of which, the four-day event kicked off on Wednesday with the Mercedes-Benz Opening Night. Among the famous guests American actress and former model Lauren Hutton, the world’s first male supermodel Markus Schenkenberg and British singer Dionne Bromfield. 
MSGM di Massimo Giorgetti, Marco de Vincenzo, Mila Schön and Angelos Bratis presented their collections for the next season, followed by a musical performance of the Swiss band Pegasus. The culmination of the event was the runway show of Laurèl.

Spotted on the red carpet in the VIP-tent and later on the runway: Luisa Hartema, winner of Germany’s Next Topmodel 2012.

Markus Schenkenberg with me

How cool are the shoes of Patrick Liotard-Vogt, especially in combination with his purple pants…

Greek designer Angelos Bratis,“The Draper”, won the first prize of the “Who Is On next?” competion for emerging fashion designers in 2011, organized by AltaRoma and Vogue Italia. The international jury was composed by important names of the fashion industry such as Suzy Menkes (International Herald Tribune) and Franca Sozzani (Vogue Italia). His winning brought him international press acclaim and a new job. He just moved to Milan to design the Vionnet collection. I couldn’t think of a better match!

“I love the air, the sky and the people”, Massimo Giorgetti said about being in Zurich. He went on about his designs: “I love Indie music. MSGM is my soundtrack of the last six months when I was preparing the collection.” Massimo Giorgetti’s idea of MSGM is to mix and match great tradition with revolutionary ideas from the new millennium, and the first collections have been celebrated by the industry thanks to their inner iconoclastic and celebrative spirit.
To shop MSGM by Massimo Giorgetti click here.

Marco di Vincenzo is Italian fashion’s rising star. He started his career as one of Silvia Venturnini Fendi’s key assistant on accessories at Fendi. Now with his own line, he has gone spare for the S/S 2013 season, showing cotton poplin pieces with jersey backs, sporty with an interesting approach to volume.

Bianca Gervasio, Creative Director of Mila Schön, has a very good eye for colour and feminine cuts and showed a contemporary lightness paired with romantic details for the next summer. The young designer said about Zurich that she likes “the colourful and prismic light that gives it an elegant ambiance and its sophisticated people.”

Lauren Hutton, who had graced 27 Vogue covers, was sitting of course front row and told Annina Frey that “her beauty secret is having a good man in your life”.

At the Mercedes-Benz Opening Night, Laurèl sent their models in ’50s bikinis, pencil skirts and cute little tops down the runway. Highlight of the collection: The vibrant gowns.

The after party took place at the Park Hyatt and was a lot of fun.

Bianca Gervasio with me

Lauren Hutton at the after party framed by Raquel Marquard and me

Lauren Hutton’s backpack was hilarious.

Celebrating with Angelos Bratis and his friends.

Stay tuned for a detailed post of my outfit and of course all the other nights coming up soon. Unfortunately, I am little behind with my posts as my blog has experienced some technical problems during the last days due to maintenance work. You might have realized that the newsletter hasn’t been sent neither. My apologies for that!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht

Tom Ford’s first collection under his own name for S/S 2011 is truly outstanding. His very secretive show was the most exclusive and buzzed about one last Fashion Week with famous models like Julianne Moore, Lauren Hutton, Karlie Kloss, Lou Doillon and many more. And now we can see what all the hype was about.

Like something that will be in a museum one day, it is every fashionista’s dream to have one piece of Tom’s first collection in her closet. Glamourous with a `70s feel to it, the cuts are immaculate, the fabrics just beautiful, those must-haves are already true classics.

The “King of Sex” managed to create a ladylike collection with a certain kind of seduction. Not so obvious like a Gucci girl, more subtle with an intelligent sex appeal, it is all about high-voltage glamour.

Especially the accessories are super: the bags with the exaggerated zippers and the ultra-sharp spike heels are among my favourites. But those dream pieces have their price.

I couldn’t resist. As you know, I love overalls. So that jumpsuit with the deep cleavage was immediatly my must-have. The fishnet bustier complemented the look for me perfectly. The little hat made me look like just having graduated from fashion college or probably being a flight attendant for Vamp Air.

The flap-over bag and the huge sunglasses are my daily companions. The boots are vintage, from Gucci’s F/W 2004 collection that was still designed by Tom Ford at that time. “Old” Tom meets “new” Tom and they get along well…

Enjoy the photos:

Needless to say, it requires heavy shopping but those pieces are very limited and retailers very rare. So here in Zurich we are among those lucky birds having a beautiful Tom Ford store for both genders in the middle of the city at Münsterhof 17. Please enjoy the photos I took of the shop and fall in love with the collection.
For further enquiries, you can contact the store under +41 44 221 02 50.

Happy Shopping!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: © Sandra Bauknecht