Startup Handpicked Fashion Is Dressed For Subscription Success

There’s a new subscription apparel box on the market. Decidedly anti-tech and anti-expensive, Handpicked Fashion is aimed at the eCommerce shopper that might be just a little disillusioned with current offerings on the market. The service is an outgrowth of StyleBox, a guided in-app shopping platform, and creates personalized subscription boxes curated by professional stylists. Each box has a complete outfit, based on customer style preferences and selected from premium brands at what the company says an affordable price.

“Today’s online style shopper is overwhelmed by choice,” says Founder and CEO Janet Proger. “Online shopping sites, Instagram and Pinterest are filled with pictures of beautiful clothes and stylish models. But translating inspiration into personal style that fits and looks great is a major customer challenge. How many of us have bought something online, that looked great on the model, and then been disappointed when it doesn’t look good in the mirror? We want to solve that problem taking the outfits you like and adjusting it to your unique body and style.”

If the model sounds a bit like Trunk Club or StitchFix, Proger would agree, to an extent. Handpicked Fashion uses professional stylists to work with a customer’s preferences and then they select clothes to fit the preferences. Like other services, it keeps track of preferences and history. But Proger is adamant that stylists, not algorithms, handpick every item from premier brands at the best prices. She sees limitations in all the subscription boxes on the market, as well as some of the leading eCommerce and brick-and-mortar brands.

“Nordstrom, Macy’s and other retailers with an online presence are too traditional and too limited in their searching and browsing approach,” Proger says. “Stitch Fix and Trunk Club are interesting and successful approaches that indicates that online shopping is changing. This is just the beginning of market transformation into personalized, guided shopping. But the product propositions are limited. Shoppers have no control of what they receive and can’t learn from the process. It is a one-way approach. We focus on shoppers and their needs. All shoppers are different. Some believe in a minimalist wardrobe, other prefer bright outfits with many accessories. Our platform was designed for conscious shoppers, who have full control, communication and feedback.”

StyleBox, the mobile app that Handpicked is built on, has a similar model but a wider array of products. Proger says it has thousands of registered users and is focused on building long-term, personalized relationships, analyzing customers’ tastes and adjusting to their needs. It is currently focused on U.S. consumers who she says are conscious about their current fashion choices and willing to experiment with new ones. As the two businesses grow in parallel, she wants to engage more prominent stylists and use Instagram influencers to build buzz about Handpicked. That approach, she says, will keep algorithms out and instincts from her current stylists in the driver’s seat.

“The success and scale of Stitch Fix are proving that subscription model makes sense in fashion eCommerce, but I believe it should be a fair game,” she says. “I want to provide our customers with freedom to decide if they want to have a subscription model or just a one-time purchase. We provide our consumers more value for their money by shipping them high-quality, known brands for an affordable price.”

Proger says she has seen a bump on StyleBox since the pandemic. It has convinced her that options in the subscription commerce space are more necessary than ever. She’s hoping Handpicked can have the same attraction as the pandemic continues and then hopefully ebbs. Her sentiment is supported by Recurly CEO Dan Burkhart, as quoted in the July installment of the PYMNTS Subscription Commerce Tracker.

“COVID-19 has the trajectory of subscriptions into the future, because the notions of convenience, safety and access that have been appealing to subscribers before have only been accelerated now that they are reconsidering the true cost of going to the store or the mall, browsing aisles and racks, finding something they like and then bringing it home,” Burkhart says. “Offering consumers a variety of procurement and payment options — from longer free trials and pausing existing subscriptions to delivery and contactless payments — are just a few of the tactics that merchants are using to not only survive the economic impact of the pandemic but to thrive in spite of it.”

Killing Eve Is Back, and Villanelle Is Dressed to Kill

Tonight, the third season of Killing Eve premieres on BBC America and AMC. The spy-thriller, starring Sandra Oh as Eve and Jodie Comer as Villanelle, continues the ruthless cat-and-mouse game that the two leading ladies have embarked on throughout the series—Villanelle is a psychotic (and fashion-obsessed) assassin, and Eve is an emotionally-conflicted spy who forms an unhealthy obsession with Villanelle (and vice-versa). In addition to the delicious dark humour and plot twists sure to come this season, fashion fans will delight in the new costume design direction. Killing Eve is already one of the most stylish shows on TV right now, and season three has a new costume designer, Sam Perry, who is whipping up a brand new look for the label-loving Villanelle, who in past seasons has worn everything from a brocade Dries Van Noten suit to a frothy tulle Molly Goddard dress.

“Villanelle obviously enjoys high-end fashion,” Perry tells Vogue. “Her sense of style will always be there, even if she doesn’t have the funds.” This has been true throughout the series: even as Villanelle has been near-death or strapped for cash, she has still found ways to wear the latest runway fashions. This season, however, Villanelle is back on her A-game as a hired killer—with the fashions to match—and crisscrossing across Europe on new assignments, while Eve remains in hiding after last season’s climactic finale. To go with Villanelle’s European excursion this season, Perry decided to infuse her style with a retro, bohemian sensibility that mimics the vibe of each city that she lands herself in. “There wasn’t an intention to give season three a ’70s feel in particular, but I think maybe a vintage-inspired vibe crept in there,” says Perry of her new wardrobe. “Some of the outfits have a ’60s, ’70s and ’80s edge to them.”

A few preview images of the new season already showcase a number of winning fashion moments for the assassin, whose captivating madness is—quite literally—wrapped in a pretty bow. In one scene, Villanelle sports a groovy Halpern suit with sleek leather Simon Miller boots. “The Halpern psychedelic suit definitely had a nod to swinging London,” says Perry. In another episode, the character heads to Barcelona, and brings with her a printed, ’70s-inspired dress from La DoubleJ, styled with Golden Goose cowboy boots. “I was really drawn towards the vintage prints from La DoubleJ for Villanelle’s new wardrobe for Barcelona,” says Perry. “The yellow print felt so youthful and joyous and really complemented her gorgeous new apartment.”

While Villanelle experiments with a softer, more romantic aesthetic this season, Perry did, however, dress her in some of her style signatures this season as well. In one scene, Villanelle slips on a floral, puffed-shoulder dress by The Vampire’s Wife (Villanelle loves florals and London-based labels.) In another, she also sports a Dice Kayek suit with golden Simon Rocha shoes, proving her love of tailoring isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And based on her aforementioned fits? Neither is her status as the world’s most stylish assassin.

Written in the Stars: Seren London

In just two short years, Seren London has made quite the mark on the fashion industry and, in particular, the niche corner of it devoted to jumpsuits. Founder Lucia Dailey cut her teeth on magazines and luxury PR so she combined her knowledge of that world with a life-long obsession with jumpsuits. “It is one of the easiest wardrobe items to wear,” she declares, having worn one to her own wedding, “yet can look the most polished when both dressed up or down”. Seren London launched in 2016 with a collection of just six jumpsuits and we all fell in love with its unique, striking prints. Next time you have a wedding or a party or a birthday to dress for, consider the one-piece – it makes quite the statement.

Where does the name for your brand come from?
Seren is short for Serendipity, playing on the idea of luck and fate – the coming together of multiple influences to create something positive and special.

What is luxury, for you?
Effortless sophistication and authenticity. Quality materials and an innate sense of style that has confidence but doesn't shout too loudly.

Your current favourite jumpsuit:
'The Gee'. It's one of our signature styles and all-time bestsellers. I love it in all prints! The rounded neck and 3/4 sleeves balanced with the low back detail make it chic yet sexy and perfect for all events.

Can you tell us something interesting about the history of the jumpsuit?
Elsa Schiaparelli was the first person to bring jumpsuits into high fashion in the 1930s before they really had their moment in the 1960s and 70s. Some people refer to the jumpsuit as a 'trend'; however the one piece has been a much-loved wardrobe item for years and continues to stand the test of time.

Where are you next going on your travels?
Italy, for pleasure, to our favourite hotel Il Pelicano in Porto Ercole. It was one of Slim Aaron's favourite shoot locations and is still brimming with 70s charm.

What inspires you?
Music: Easy 70s playlist on Spotify is on repeat in the studio!
Films: Talented Mr. Ripley, Alfie, Call Me By Your Name
Museums: Fondation Maeght in Saint Paul de Vence I've found hugely inspiring. In London two of my favourite smaller museums to visit are the Wallace Collection and the Sir John Soane Museum.
Books: I recently finished reading South and West by Joan Didion as well as Patti Smith's Just Kids about her life in New York City with Robert Mapplethorpe.

If you had an unexpected 24 free hours to fill in London...
I would start my day with a spin class followed by brunch in Notting Hill and a walk around Holland or Hyde Park with my husband and 19-month-old daughter Willow. Then I’d spend an afternoon pottering around Portobello and exploring the little shops on Golborne Road, ending with dinner with my husband and some friends at my favourite restaurant La Famiglia, in Chelsea.

Where do you live?
West London, Shepherds Bush.

Your three dream dinner party guests:
Frank Sinatra, Princess Diana and Steve Jobs.

Ranveer Singh Gave A Lot Of Inputs For The Ad Campaign: Vincent Lou, Club Factory

E-commerce company, Club Factory unveiled its first India-market campaign with actor Ranveer Singh and Miss World 2017, Manushi Chhillar. The company which was launched in India, one and a half years ago has made strong inroads in the e-commerce arena in India. Vincent Lou, Founder and CEO of Club Factory chatted with exchange4media on their biggest India-campaign, accelerating the brand growth and more.

Lou said that the e-commerce company in the last two years has acquired more than 70 million users globally. “40 million of these are from India and so it has to be a key market for us," he shared. On Club Factory’s proposition and plans within the overall India e-commerce ecosystem and the importance of India as a market, he said that the brand’s differentiator is that they offer unique, modern and differentiated products at factory price.

When we asked Lou the reason behind the launch of the integrated campaign he said, “Because we now have a larger presence in India, we want to have a better bond with India consumers and so we’re having celebrity endorsements.”

We have these TVCs and will leverage both online and offline mediums for this,” he let out and shared the company does have plans for offline activations too.

Speaking about the making of the campaign, he shared, "Ranveer himself gave a lot of inputs for this ad campaign." On the challenges and opportunities of doing business with India, he opined that the brand has to do a lot of localization. “We have cash on delivery available and also ensure people can shop without any concern about the shipping fee,” said the CEO.

Lou opened up that to further accelerate growth, the company is looking at providing better experiences by having more warehouses and customer care agencies. “We’re looking to do some category expansions,” he revealed.

Read more at: https://www.exchange4media.com

New York City Ballet Reveals Fashion Gala Designers

New York City Ballet is to reprise its love affair with fashion this fall, hosting its seventh annual Fall Fashion Gala on Sept. 27.

The event sees rising choreographers create new works and collaborate with established fashion designers on the pieces’ costumes.

This year’s iteration will see choreographer Kyle Abraham team with Giles Deacon, Matthew Neenan collaborate with Gareth Pugh and Gianna Reisen partner with Alberta Ferretti.

New York City Ballet costume shop director Marc Happel will work closely with each designer in executing their visions for the stage.

The gala will mark Abraham and Neenan’s choreographic debuts for City Ballet. It will be Reisen’s second effort for the company, a follow-up to her piece for last year’s Fashion Gala — which received critical acclaim and saw her team with Virgil Abloh on costumes.

Sarah Jessica Parker — who conceptualized the Fashion Gala format — will again serve as the event’s cochair, this year alongside Mazdack Rassi, Zanna Roberts Rassi and Lizzie Tisch.

Previous fashion galas have featured costumes by Thom Browne, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Dries Van Noten, Marques’Almeida and Valentino.

Promoting Fashion & Aesthetics

Shillong has always been a fashionista’s delight. From street fashion to haute couture, men and women here love to explore everything that’s in vogue. To take this fashion frenzy a step farther and to promote beauty and aesthetics, a group of like-minded people founded Fashion Society Shillong back in 1983.

The Society, which will celebrate its coral anniversary on October 6 this year, is all about promoting the inherent talents of local youths by providing a platform in the form of beauty pageants, fashion shows and musical gigs.

“It is not really a modelling agency. Most of the young talents venture on their own equipped with our certification to enter bigger arenas,” says Aldous Mawlong, chairman of the Society.

Mawlong says the Society does not sponsor participants in national competitions but “if sponsorship is available from the government or business houses then definitely it can tap on these resources and promote youngsters”.

Talking about the evolution of fashion world both locally and globally, the head of the Society asserts that there has been a transcendental change in the way people look at models and in the way models look at themselves.

“The focus today is not only on being fashionable but also being comfortable. There is a shift from just good looking to also be healthy, which explains why most models follow a strict regime of lifestyle, diet and exercise. They also abstain from what is called ‘loud dressing’. Personality plays a vital role in the overall category of looking good,” explains the expert.

The Society meticulously selects the contestants, who have to be between 16 and 25 years of age, for Miss Shillong beauty pageant, which is not an annual event. It conducts practice sessions on catwalk, speech, make-up and grooming. It explores ways to network with similar organisations, the central and state governments and semi-government bodies “for uplifting its activities and achieving its objectives”. The society is also making efforts to archive exhibits, texts, costumes, weaves and other art forms in the latest formals.

However, Mawlong, who joined the Society after its inception and took over as the convener in 1986, says, “We never encourage anyone to give up their studies or jobs because the rat race in the outside world is real. If they are extraordinary and have a great sense of determination coupled with the right contacts and sound financial backup, then it is a different story altogether.”

Besides the beauty pageant, the Society organises various other events like musical shows and Cherry Blossom Festival. It also comes up with a lifestyle magazine called Tattoo Magazine’.

Celebrities who have attended the various events of the Society are Moon Moon Sen, Zeenat Aman, Rahul Dev, Shikha Swaroop, Hina Ramani, Kylie Dorjie and Vijay Kim, among others.

How Lululemon and Under Armour are saving the fashion industry

Athleisure is not a fad. It is not a trend. Athleisure is here to stay. How do we know? The growth of this segment of the retail sector far outpaces apparel as a whole, and it's being led by two relative upstarts: Lululemon and Under Armour. Athleisure has replaced jeans and t-shirts as the new casual. So how did this happen?

Fitness is now fashion

For the past couple decades, fitness and nutrition awareness have been on the rise in American culture. This has made athleisure –a strange hybrid of athletic wear and business casual –the biggest growing segment of the apparel industry. In 2015, retail sales overall were flat, but sales of athletic apparel was up 12% according to Fortune. Even more impressive, a report published by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. states that the global market for athletic apparel is projected to reach $231.7 billion by 2024.

Gone are the days when dress codes prevailed. Today, brands like Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, and Under Armour thrive not only because of fitness trends, but because Americans have embraced dressing down and being comfortable. Athleisure is a broad category that is made of athletic apparel that can be worn outside of the gym—like yoga pants or sneakers with suits.

Shopping behavior has changed

It’s big business. Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, Athleta, Under Armour and others are all seeing healthy profits while traditional clothing retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, and J.Crew are struggling. Fewer people are shopping at malls as mall landlords look to re-invent them as lifestyle destinations (instead of simply shopping retreats). People are spending less on clothing overall. When they are shopping for clothing, they are looking for discounts. Fast fashion, discount stores, and Amazon are stealing customers from traditional retailers. In the period from 2008-2015, sales of athletic apparel boosted the entire apparel industry by 4.1% on average. Take the athleisure out of the equation and that number shrinks to 0.2%. Basically, the public’s love of yoga pants, leggings, running skirts, and other athletic wear is fantastic for sales — especially in women’s apparel—unless you’re a business selling regular clothing.

Traditional retailers are struggling to understand the disparity in sales numbers. A few years ago, J.Crew blamed its slumping sales on not having the right cardigan in its collection. Banana Republic blamed its slump on a blazer with armholes too small for the average American woman to fit into. But the truth is more basic. It’s all about the denim. Skinny jeans have been the go-to silhouette for denim for more than a decade. Why go out and buy new jeans if you already have several pairs in your closet? Retailers think that a lack of newness is what is keeping women from refreshing their wardrobes. But, once again, retailers miss the mark.

Meanwhile, shoppers are not out shopping for denim. They want something more comfortable. Something stretchier. Something they don’t want to change out of the moment they get home. This easily explains the rise of yoga pants, leggings, and the entire athleisure category.

Enter Lululemon & Under Armour

Lululemon ($NASDAQ:LULU), the Vancouver-based cult favorite, is one of the smaller players in the game with just over 700 stores worldwide. In early June, its shares surged to a record high after first-quarter results topped expectations. The company reported a 25% jump in quarterly sales with $649.7 million. Lululemon’s gross margin widened as the brand rarely has sales on their merchandise. The Lululemon faithful happily shell out $98 or more for a pair of leggings.

Lululemon’s recent growth is driven by two things.

First, Lululemon his attracting men more than ever. Last quarter, roughly 30% of its new customers were men. In fact, Lululemon is currently attracting male customers at a faster pace than women.

Second, the company has placed its focus on activities other than yoga. The brand has made big headway into running apparel and hosts an annual half marathon in Vancouver each year. This growth potential takes what has been a niche player until now and puts it in line with the industry behemoths Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour. Only Under Armour ($NYSE:UA) has fewer dedicated retail stores—168, but it has a wealth of deals to sell its merchandise in other retailers. Nike has 2.26K stores in some form, and Adidas dominates with 4.9K stores.

Frequent questions in Quora:

https://www.quora.com/Is-Club-Factory-selling-genuine-products-confused-about-its-pricing
https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-had-any-shopping-experience-with-Club-Factory
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-safe-to-shop-from-a-club-factory

Jade Holland Cooper on building a £10 million fashion brand

When Jade Holland Cooper was seven years old, she started her first business. "It was selling eggs," she remembers. "I had 30 hens, and the other day I found my old notebook where I was listing variable costs and profit – I've always been quite commercially minded."

Today, the 31 year old has swapped eggs for clothes. But one suspects that there is still a notebook somewhere in which she scrutinises the accounts. Indeed, she reveals the best piece of advice she was given when she said she wanted to start a fashion company was from her father: "He said I had to make sure I combined creativity with knowing the numbers; so I learnt about the financials and now run the business strictly according to regular management accounts."

Holland Cooper's father is a farmer and her mother worked as a couturier in London and Paris. It is perhaps unsurprising that, with these dual influences, as a teenager she was torn between pursuing a place at fashion college and one at agricultural college. The Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester won out, but it didn’t take long for her to rethink.

"I was going to all these social events in the country," Holland Cooper explains. "I'm a country girl at heart – I grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk, after all. So, I'd travel around to the polo and horse trials, and everywhere I went I noticed there was a lack of stylish, fashionable clothing for women to wear at these sorts of places: clothes that had the flair of urban pieces, but with a countryside influence." She decided there was a gap she could fill and determined to have a go; she reasoned that if she ended up wanting to learn farming, she could do that at home with her father without the college time. She was 21.

"I was really young, I suppose, but I had this idea and I was convinced I could make it work," she explains. "And I am tenacious – like a dog with a bone once I make up my mind to do something. The hardest thing was persuading people to take me seriously and then having to hire and manage people who were often twice my age. But I soon showed that I knew what I was talking about and things quickly took off."

The principle behind the business is simple, she says. The town/country fashion divide is being broken down by widely available imagery on social media and online and the fact that now many people have places in both. "In Cheltenham, where I'm based now, this is so apparent," she explains. "We have great arts festivals and horseracing here, and there are good restaurants and shops. Many people live between here and London now, and they want sophisticated, elegant and stylish clothes that can work in both settings."

A look at the website (through which the label does 60% of its sales) shows how this philosophy has developed a modern take on classic country-influenced clothing for men and women. Scottish-tweed jackets stylishly cut to give a fashionable fit, waxed cotton capes that are as well suited to festivals as to the polo, skirts in houndstooth and brown Prince of Wales check that can do boardroom as well as outdoors, stylish short coats in camel and country check that are equally at home in the Cotswolds and Chelsea, as well as a wide range of accessories, including on-trend tweed baker boy caps.

Holland Cooper's hunch about the desire for this hybrid look was correct. In ten years, the firm has gone from being a 21-year-old's dream to a £10 million business, with two stores in the UK (and five new ones in development) and many others stocking its wares around the country and abroad, including Harrods, where it is the best-performing label on the 5th floor. Along the way, the founder has managed to build a successful relationship with a network of factories in the UK, and has championed British wool and tweed. This year alone she bought 800,000 metres of British tweed. The homegrown element of the business is something she is very proud of, as is the in-house apprentice scheme she has started for young people to get them into the fashion industry.

What advice, then, would this young entrepreneur give to others thinking about striking out on their own? "Do not be swayed from your vision," she says emphatically. "If you believe in yourself, be clear, understand your journey, your customer, and make sure the DNA of the brand is always there. Don't create products that your customer doesn't understand and doesn't want. Create for real people; don't just create product for the sake of it."

Artificial Intelligence Could Help Generate the Next Big Fashion Trends

A fashion designer working on a new collection has an idea, but wonders if it’s been done before. Another is looking for historical inspiration—1950s-style wasp waists or 80s-era padded shoulders.

Soon, they might turn to Cognitive Prints for help. The suite of AI tools IBM is developing for the fashion industry can take a photo of a dress or a shirt and search for similar garments. It can search for images with specific elements—Mandarin collars, for example, or gladiator laces, or fleur-de-lis prints. It can also design patterns itself, based on any image data set a user inputs—architectural images, amoebas, sunsets.

“Fashion designers arduously put in efforts and time in coming up with new designs which could potentially be trend-setters,” says Priyanka Agrawal, a research scientist at IBM Research India, who has worked on Cognitive Prints. “Additionally, they have inspirations like architecture or technology, which they aspire to translate into their work. However, it becomes difficult to do something novel and interesting every single time. We wanted to make it easier for them by augmenting the design lifecycle.”

The AI image search engine, a collaboration between IBM and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), was trained using 100,000 print swatches from 10 years of winning Fashion Week entries. Users can filter results by year, designer or inspiration (say, “Japanese street wear”). Designers can get inspired, or can make sure their inspiration is really their own and not inadvertent plagiarism (Gucci was recently accused of ripping off designs from legendary Harlem tailor Dapper Dan; they’ve since launched a collaboration).

The Cognitive Prints team is looking at making several extensions to the tool’s abilities. They want to enable designers to make custom edits to Cognitive Prints-generated designs, like changing the background color or, say, swapping spirals for circles on a fabric. They’d also like to teach the tool to design entire garments given just a few specifications, like “red one-shoulder dresses with ruffled hem.”

The use of AI in fashion has exploded in recent years. Various online services use AI to peruse the internet or your own social media data to suggest new outfits it thinks might be to your taste. Indian designers Shane and Falguni Peacock used IBM’s AI platform, Watson, to search a half-century of Bollywood and high-fashion images—some 600,000 in total—to help them create a new East-meets-West collection. Tommy Hilfiger partners with IBM and FIT to use AI to help identify trends in real time, for a quicker design-to-store time. Amazon has created its own AI designer as well, capable of generating new garments.

Agrawal thinks we’ll be seeing much more of this in the near future.

“As AI progress continues to advance, fashion [will] see more transformations,” she says. “For example, with the rise of conversational agents and virtual reality/augmented reality technology, it should not be long until users can not only query fashion catalogs but also interact, iterate and [be inspired by] the technology.”

Muchaneta Kapfunde, founder and editor-in-chief of the technology and fashion site FashNerd, agrees. AI is becoming common at the retail end of fashion, she says, with stores using algorithms to predict customers’ needs. It’s also being used in attempts to create more sustainable materials, an important consideration in an industry that’s one of the world’s top polluters.

But Kapfunde thinks it will be a while before AI tools like Cognitive Prints are ready to design quality garments on their own.

“The idea of using technology to design a perfect dress, it sounds great in theory, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. It’s not so easy to implement,” she says. “We still need the human touch.”

Major Fashion Names Among Worst Offenders in Britain Gender Pay Gap

LONDON — This week, as the final hours ticked down to the deadline for British companies to report their gender pay gap data or face a fine, a flurry of last-minute filings revealed a stark and unflattering trend: Fashion and beauty brands, predominantly focused on female consumers and audiences, and often employing an overwhelmingly female staff, are among the worst offenders in the country when it comes to paying men more than women.

The explanation, according to several companies? A coterie of men in a handful of top-tier executive roles, while the majority of entry-level, retail, design and distribution center jobs are held by women, creating a gendered, pyramid employment structure reflected across sectors in the fashion industry.

Take Condé Nast Publications Limited, publisher of magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour and GQ. The company reported data on Tuesday that revealed it to have the largest mean gender pay gap favoring men among all British media publishers and broadcasters, despite having more women than men at every pay quartile.

The company reported a mean gender pay gap of 36.9 percent (in other words, when comparing mean hourly rates, women earn 63 pence, or 83 cents, for every 1 pound, or $1.40, that men earn) and a median gap of 23 percent (when comparing median hourly rates, women earn 77 pence, or $1.08, for every £1, or $1.40, that men earn).

In a statement published alongside the data, Condé Nast attributed its salary skew to its longstanding and male-dominated senior leadership team. The chairman of Condé Nast Britain, Nicholas Coleridge, for example, has held various roles across the executive team since 1991. Jonathan Newhouse has led Condé Nast International for over 30 years. The statement said that across three-quarters of its business, the company had not found evidence of an appreciable gender pay gap. Three-quarters of all Condé Nast employees are female, with the bottom two salary quartiles particularly dominated by women.

The disparity of wages that exist within most fashion businesses was further underscored by the figures produced by many brands and retailers. The middle market women’s wear brand Karen Millen pays women 49 percent less than men on a median hourly basis, meaning that, companywide, men’s median pay was double that of women. Women made up 84 percent of the company’s top positions, with a female C.E.O. and C.F.O., and the same proportion of men and women received bonuses, yet women’s median bonus pay was 96 percent lower than men’s.

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In a statement, the company said that this was because the majority of its retail assistants and distribution center staff were women, and that the small percentage of male employees worked mostly in its head office.

“Our gender gap paints a misleading picture about our commitment to gender diversity and equality,” the statement read, adding that when head office roles were excluded, the gender pay gap dropped to 6 percent. It did not, however, address why so many head office roles were filled by men instead of women.

Other high-profile names included Victoria’s Secret, with a median hourly rate gap of 19 percent, and Benefit Cosmetics, which revealed a 30.7 percent median hourly rate gap, although women made up more than 90 percent of each pay quartile at the company. At Burberry, where women make up 70 percent of the luxury fashion group’s employees, there is a 26 percent gender pay gap in favor of men, who get higher bonuses too. None of the companies in this article wished to provide further comment beyond the statements released with their data.

“While we continue to take steps to ensure employees at all levels are able to fulfill their potential and further their careers at Burberry, and are recognized for their contribution, we know we can do more,” said the Burberry chief executive, Marco Gobbetti, when the company released its data last month. “This report shows that we have a gender pay gap in the U.K. The gap is influenced by the fact that we have fewer women in senior positions, however we are committed to narrowing this gap as we work to develop more women leaders to drive the growth and success of our business.”

More than 2,500 companies, equivalent to one in four, submitted their gender pay gap figures in the 48 hours before midnight on Wednesday. Last year, the government ordered all British companies with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap reports by midnight on April 4.

The hope, it said, was to shame companies into doing more to close the divide. On the final day of results, findings indicated that 78 percent of companies showed a pay gap in favor of men, 14 percent had a gap favoring women and 8 percent had no gender pay gap. The government calculated that Britain’s overall pay gap is 18.1 percent.

Prime Minister Theresa May called the gender pay gap a “burning injustice,” and added that the whole of society would remain “poorer” if outdated employment practices went unchallenged.

The effort in Britain is one of a growing number of initiatives among countries to promote equal pay. Australia recently mandated gender pay gap reporting for most companies, while in Germany a new law will require businesses with more than 500 employees to reveal their pay gaps. The fashion industry, riding high on selling female empowerment via T-shirt slogans and social media hashtags, is starting to look like the employer equivalent of the emperor’s new clothes.

Spring Fashion Captured by a Photographer Who Hides Faces

The 23-year-old photographer Arielle Bobb-Willis rarely shows a model’s face. “I want their egos to be taken away,” she says. Her fashion photographs are kinetic, snapped as models twist and manipulate the bright color-block clothing that contains them. Without a face, she says, every element in a photograph’s composition has equal play: the clothes, the setting, and the model tell a single story.

For this fashion shoot, Bobb-Willis went to New Orleans, where her mother is from, with a box of our fashion editors’ favorite looks from the spring 2018 runways. She photographed women who live in the city wearing colorful dresses, accordion pants, and plastic knee-high boots, all while contorting on sidewalks and in abandoned fields. “The colors and the composition of the city have always inspired me,” she says. “There’s just this heaviness to it. It’s so vibrant, but there’s a spooky undertone that runs through.”

Bobb-Willis developed an abstract, dissociative style while struggling with anxiety and depression, using photography as a form of therapy. “I felt like my body was something I was renting more so than something that was given to me,” she says. “When I’m shooting, I’m focusing on what’s in front of me and nothing else.”

Exploring Femininity With Fashion at the New Orleans Museum of Art

When fashion curator Sofia Hedman first assembled “A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes” in St. Louis in 2013, she did so with a psychological approach typical to her exhibitions. But now, as a revamped version of the largely avant-garde presentation opens this week at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Hedman’s vision has shifted, along with the collective zeitgeist.

“One thing I’ve learned in the past five years is how politically aware people are today,” explains Hedman, who holds a BA in psychology from Stockholm University. “We wanted now to do something that is quite contemporary and touches on pressing issues such as sustainability, race and inclusivity.”

Comprised of over 100 gowns, shoes, headpieces and jewelry from more than 50 renowned and up-and-coming designers, the museum’s first fashion exhibition explores how pieces of “bold couture” can illustrate various forms of femininity. Iconic pieces from Alexander McQueen, Comme des Garçons and Gucci stand alongside works of photography, sculpture and art including experimental video from South African designer Rich Mnisi.

Calling the exhibition a “celebration of femininity,” Hedman focused her scope of “QA Queen Within” to include only designs of the past decade, building on mythological personality archetypes to illustrate how wearable art can tell a woman’s story in real life.

“We look at the [archetype] of the ‘Thespian,’ who is blessed with imagination,” continues the Swedish-born curator. “We also look at ‘Mother Earth,’ which [investigates] how to make the world more sustainable for the future. Then we have the ‘Explorer,’ who is an independent-minded pioneer, the ‘Enchantress’ or femme fatale, the ‘Heroine’ with a very strong personal morality and, lastly, the ‘Magician’ who is the visionary artist and inventor. She is reimagining a new future.”

Masterfully presenting these lofty concepts has become the norm for Hedman, who in 2010 acted as London-based archivist for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibit “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.”

“There’s been a huge shift politically in just the last five years,” she observes. “I’m very intrigued with looking at fashion from a sociological perspective, but also trying to understand why we dress as we do and what it means.”

Susan Taylor, the director of NOMA, offers a more straightforward assessment, describing the museum’s latest installation as “definitively [demonstrating] that fashion is art.”

Hedman, who describes New Orleans as “bubbling with creativity and culture,” understands the many layers of symbolism may not reach each visitor of the collection, which is open through May. Instead, her hope is that people “see it as a celebration of femininity, but also makes people think about their own lives and how they dress every morning.”

Integral to each of Hedman’s projects is to create a provocative experience that inspires self-reflection for the visitor, which she argues is often easiest with fashion (over other visual arts) given its daily role in our lives. “Today, you can see a lot of people want to create more communities and it becomes very political. You buy clothes to belong to a community or show you have certain values.”

“Some people say they don’t care about clothes, but then they use fashion to tell a story,” she adds. “There are a lot of possibilities with fashion as an art form and you make a statement when you dress every morning. It’s good to be aware of it.”

These Are Hip-Hop's Realest Fashion Styles

From bucket hats to full-body tattoos, hip-hop fashion changes like the wind. Here's our guide to some of the most pivotal and influential trends.

Hip-hop fashion has evolved at a rate of knots since the sound first emerged from New York City's Bronx neighbourhood in the middle of the 1970s and styles have ranged from city to city, coast to coast and scene to scene. Our handy cut-out-and-keep guide to hip-hop trends focuses on those that have stood out most, those that have never gone away and those that continue, from time to time, to make comebacks. Will Chance The Rapper's dungaree overalls stand the test of time like these have?

The b-boy years

The first hip-hop uniform was worn by rappers, DJs, breakdancers and graffiti artists alike. The early '80s b-boy look, which emerged on the east coast, comprised of Kangol bucket hats, chunky street-tuff gold chains and name-plate necklaces, shell-toe trainers with 'phat' laces, and black (sometimes leather) tracksuit tops.

Sportswear companies such as Le Coq Sportif, Adidas and a couple of other now-defunct brands ruled the streets. Run-D.M.C. probably wore it best, but The Fat Boys, Ultramagnetic MCs, Schoolly D, LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane and many, many more also rocked the look.

Black pride

After a few twists and turns that took in an early gangster rap style inspired by Latin American gang culture and the preppy flower-power look of De La Soul, hip-hop fashion became entwined with a growing interest in black pride and socially conscious hip-hop.

Towards the end of the '80s hip-hop acts such as Public Enemy, Eric B And Rakim, Brand Nubian, Main Source, Queen Latifah, KRS-One, Salt-N-Pepa and more began celebrating their African heritage, as well as revisiting black nationalist movements such as the Black Panthers. Paramilitary fatigues mixed with the black nationalist colours of yellow, red, black and green, and even the jewellery took on meaning, with Salt-N-Pepa's gold door-knocker earrings connected to Africanism.

Ghetto fabulous

Next came hip-hop's most ostentatious trend, which outstrips even the Courvoisier-guzzling bling period of the early '00s for flashiness. In a style that suggested extreme wealth, in the mid-'90s hip-hop's biggest stars started wearing increasingly extravagant attire.

Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy, aka Puffy, aka P Diddy, aka Diddy, aka Love) turned the trend into something straight-up slick and called it ghetto fabulous, but he, Snoop Dogg, Notorious B.I.G. and 2-Pac began by mimicking the old-school gangster look of Al Capone and the prohibition era's most notorious. That means fedoras and bowler hats, double-breasted suits and alligator-skin shoes. Snappy.

The baggy years

After the concepts and show-off years, hip-hop fashion simplified in the mid-to-late '90s. Out went suits and uniforms and in came low-slung baggy jeans, snapbacks, work boots, puffer jackets, Tommy Hilfiger threads and – a hip-hop perennial – sportswear.

The Wu-Tang Clan rocked this look, as did Gang Starr, Missy Elliot and others. Later on, Dirty South rappers such as Nelly and Ludacris would add do-rags and basketball tops, while female rappers Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown eschewed the baggy style altogether.

Open Thread: This Week in Style News

Each week, the Open Thread newsletter will offer a look from across The New York Times at the forces that shape the dress codes we share, with Vanessa Friedman as your personal shopper. The latest newsletter appears here. To receive it in your inbox, register here.

Hello and happy Friday. It’s been quite a week.

First there was the red carpet revolution at the Golden Globes. You might have noticed a difference in our coverage and slide shows (no name-checking of brands) and I’d be really curious to hear what you thought.

Then there was the furor over Michael Wolff’s book on the Trump administration, “Fire and Fury,” with its many juicy, controversial revelations, including the astonishing tidbit about how, exactly, the president achieves his hairstyle.

I’ll let you discover that for yourself, but suffice it to say in involves scalp reduction surgery, and then an elaborate comb-up-and-over.

Amid it all, understandably, a genuine piece of fashion news got a little lost: the first designer appointment of the new year. Diane von Furstenberg named Nathan Jenden her new chief design officer (I know: C.D.O.; brings up strange, recessionary nightmares). He starts with a bang — and not a lot of time to settle in — at New York Fashion Week next month.

Jenden, who is British and went to Central St. Martin’s and the Royal College of Art, has a history with DVF. He was creative director of the brand from 2001 to 2010 — he and Von Furstenberg used to take their runway bow together — when he left to concentrate on his own line, which launched in 2005. That didn’t go so well, and most recently he was creative director of Bebe.

Meanwhile, DVF also couldn’t settle down without him, going through three designers in the last seven years.

Now both sides are older, wiser and have presumably realized what they missed without the other — which is probably a good thing in these days of crazy designer churn. A lot of fashion success is dependent on relationships (designer with founder, designer with C.E.O., designer with design studio, brand with consumers) and it takes time to build that kind of trust and understanding.

Anyway, enough with the lectures! Let’s see how it all plays out next month.

For now, I offer the following reads: Amber Tamblyn’s searingly honest Op-Ed about getting dressed for an awards ceremony; an inside look on how the experts pack for the men’s wear season; and the latest, weirdest slogan clothes. Have a good weekend!

Your Style Questions, Answered

Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.

Q: My son is in college in Maine, and the temperature is frequently below zero. It seems like every woman is swathed in an ankle-length black puffer coat from November to March, so why do men have so few choices in outerwear that is knee length or longer? Have you come across any knee-length down coats for men? — Amy, Pelham, N.Y.

A: It’s true: Though dress coats hit at the knee and great coats (especially those that are military-inspired in heavy wool) can be even longer, in general men got the short end of the stick in the coat-length sweepstakes. It’s pretty clear this is one of those sexist fashion things — a long coat is somehow seen as not manly, unless maybe you live in Russia and it is fur. Because real men…have weatherproof legs? Or something.

Given that all sorts of gender rules are loosening up when it comes to clothing these days, however, a warmer time may be on the horizon. In the meantime, however, I asked Matthew Schneier, our deputy fashion critic (currently in Milan at the shows) for his advice. Here’s what he said:

“Where men’s outerwear is concerned, even the hardiest coats seem to come only to somewhere above the knee. To test the theory, I looked around at a range of brands known for their tough winter-wear (the North Face, Canada Goose, Moncler, Duvetica, Stone Island) and struck out at every one. Even L.L. Bean (which knows something about Maine winters, being headquartered there!) didn’t offer much that dropped below the waist. I suspect it’s that floor-length outerwear is pretty unwieldy, especially where there’s snow and slush on the ground, and many men (at the expense of their body temperatures) chafe at the idea of something long enough to be mistaken for women’s wear.

My solution, for what it’s worth, is to pile on the underlayers. Thermal-wear has come a long way since the days of heavy waffle weaves in one color (though I love those, too). I swear by Uniqlo’s Heattech line, which I wear, tops and bottoms, basically all winter. They’re thinner, softer and warmer than their predecessors, cheaper by far than a new coat, and they disappear under clothes. Friends report that there was a run on them at the New York Uniqlo stores last week when the weather was wretched here. I wouldn’t know; I order mine, as can you, online.” — VANESSA FRIEDMAN

In Fashion, the Beauty (and Challenge) of Looking Back

THE ARCHIVES OF BALENCIAGA, the 100-year-old fashion house, are held in a raw concrete warehouse space in Paris. There are 6,000 items in total — sculptural silk ball gowns and cocoon-shaped coats and a tobacco-brown chenille-embroidered lace coat once owned by Wallis, Duchess of Windsor — all shrouded in calico garment bags. Especially delicate pieces are wrapped in acid-free tissue paper to protect against dust and moths and are laid to rest in cardboard boxes referred to in the business as ‘‘coffins.’’ Balenciaga’s haute couture maison, formerly located on the Avenue George V, was a chapel dedicated to the worship of fashion as art; here, in its cavernous catalog of designs past, the atmosphere is of a crypt — or even a shrine.

When I visited the archive in the spring of 2017, the debut fall 2016 collection of Balenciaga’s latest artistic director, Demna Gvasalia, had just arrived. The conservation team, led by archive manager Gaspard de Massé, was unfolding the clothes while wearing white cotton gloves. (Acids from human skin erode the textiles.) These contemporary pieces, whose likenesses had barely departed store racks, are treated with as much reverence as a one-off couture gown by Cristóbal Balenciaga himself, who founded the house in 1917. In this space, these humble garments are transmogrified ­— from contemporary clothing to preserved specimens. The archive team discusses how to stabilize specific pieces: for instance, by running threads from waist to hem to support dresses with unusually curved skirts, which threaten to buckle and distort if they’re not held in place. Those that can be laid flat, are — in one coffin, billows of tissue cosset one of Gvasalia’s evening dresses, a silver strapless style in a sequin-embroidered fabric created by the Swiss textile company Jakob Schlaepfer. Matching boots are stored in another room devoted to modern accessories. The Sisyphean task of the conservation team is to ensure Balenciaga’s clothing — past, present and future — survives, even as time conspires against it.

PARIS IS A CITY where history has always been hallowed — perhaps more so than the present — and where the oldest (and many of the largest) fashion empires are based. Rituals like Balenciaga’s are undertaken by fashion brands across the world, but the archives of Parisian houses are especially sacrosanct. Some are stored in actual museums — Lanvin’s archives reside at the Palais Galliera, the fashion museum formally known as the Musée de la mode de la Ville de Paris. Others seem to be: Off the Avenue Montaigne, in the archive of Christian Dior, a handful of dresses dating back to 1947 (Dior’s debut) are displayed in temperature-controlled vitrines, exhibiting the label’s heritage.

In an industry whose catalyst is relentless novelty and perpetual newness, this zealous reverence for bygone fashions seems incongruous. While these archives — cold and dark, with their shrouds and cardboard ‘‘coffins’’ — may resemble repositories for the dead, the pieces cataloged inside are anything but. Despite the near-religious fervor devoted to their preservation, past styles aren’t viewed by brands as relics, but rather as the foundation for future creations.

These days, the archive is the petri dish for designs of the future. History in the hands of these houses has become a valuable, marketable commodity to build upon, cultural capital that can’t be bought. This past winter, the fall 2017 collections in Paris were distinguished by each house’s attention to their native silhouettes, tropes and trademarks. Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello veiled breasts with a panel of gauze in a velvet dress that originated in an identical style in Yves Saint Laurent’s fall 1992 haute couture collection; Julien Dossena of Paco Rabanne used that label’s still-futuristic-looking metal mesh alongside chain-linked constructions directly drawn from 1967 designs; and Maria Grazia Chiuri riffed on Christian Dior’s penchant for navy blue, offering another iteration of the label’s signature curvaceous suit jacket. (It was named Bar in 1947, and still is today.) Finally, Demna Gvasalia’s Balenciaga women’s wear show made the ultimate statement — he rejected the contemporary entirely and closed with nine gowns that recreated looks, in their entirety, from ’30s and ’40s Balenciaga collections. Ghosts, resurrected.

It’s significant to note that the above designers are creating clothing under someone else’s name, for labels collectively dubbed ‘‘heritage brands.’’ Purchasing their goods as a consumer — or as a luxury-goods conglomerate — is to buy into their history. These houses don’t plea for recognition; they have already earned it. Familiarity, in fashion, breeds not contempt, but contentment. If customers are familiar with a name, they’re more likely to invest in it than in an obscure up-and-coming brand. Immediate recognition is the reason conglomerates overwhelmingly choose pre-existing fashion labels as vehicles for young talent instead of backing new ventures.

Karl Lagerfeld was arguably the first to revive an age-old, old-age designer label when he was appointed artistic director of Chanel in 1982. Lagerfeld produced styles that immediately read as Chanel, trading on classic components of Gabrielle Chanel’s repertoire: bouclé tweed suiting, pearls, chains, camellias. ‘‘There would be no Chanel without the history of Chanel. I don’t have to do it consciously, I do it unconsciously,’’ says Lagerfeld, via email. It’s an interesting turn of phrase; perhaps he means to say that he doesn’t have to try to be Chanel because Chanel’s style is so expansive — she invented an entire wardrobe, from the little black dress to the chain-strapped purse to the two-tone shoe. ‘‘There are lots of things people think are native to the house which are born since I’m here,” Lagerfeld says. ‘‘My job is to make believe. There is no other way for a fashion house to survive.’’

LAGERFELD’S WILDLY successful echoing of Chanel’s history has become the blueprint for labels across the world. Today, designers use archival styles to anchor their individual aesthetics to a brand’s past. You may not recognize Maria Grazia Chiuri’s name immediately, for instance, but you recognize the name and look of Dior in her designs for the house — the wasp-waisted Bar jacket, the wide-spread skirts. The same goes for Paco Rabanne: Julien Dossena is a designer name that resonates mostly among industry insiders, but everyone remembers the house’s chain-mail dresses from ‘‘Barbarella’’ — ‘‘or Jane Birkin, or Françoise Hardy,’’ adds Dossena. All of them, and in turn Paco Rabanne itself, have become synonymous with ’60s Space Age style. In a crowded and confused modern marketplace, immediate recognition — Coco! Bar! Barbarella! — is as good as gold.

From a business perspective, this approach makes sense. But it raises larger creative and cultural questions: namely, who owns history? Does a designer operating under a label founded by another have license to resurrect its forebear’s history for inspiration? It often results in little that is truly, genuinely new. But maybe, right now, we’re not craving something new, but something honest. Some labels will reissue designs with minimal changes, if any — Chanel, for instance, offers multiple versions of the 2.55, the quilted, chain-strapped bag originally designed by Gabrielle Chanel in 1955. Perhaps this is a reflection of a global appetite for vintage, for an authenticity that we believe can only be found in the past.

But maybe backward-glancing isn’t a product of the ideological or philosophical ramifications of our time — a quest for the genuine article — but rather a more practical matter of supply and demand, a need for speed. Fashion designers typically produce four collections a season (bolstered by multiple interim commercial collections), some designing for two or more different labels. (Gvasalia has Vetements, Lagerfeld his namesake line and the co-creative director role at Fendi.) Cribbing from an existing style sheet is an easy fix for an industry demanding ever more from its designers, a practice that’s been employed with increasing frequency since the early 1990s, when journalists began to freely throw around the term ‘‘revival’’ to describe various designers’ close recreations of vintage styles. In the same period, the market for vintage clothing exploded — another example of that thirst for authenticity and, perhaps, a rebellion against fashion’s built-in obsolescence.

But what are the ethics of referencing existing clothing so closely, even if the same label is stitched on the inside? The revival styles we are seeing now are often line-for-line recreations, not mere interpretations. It's largely accepted that a fashion house can freely reference its own past; the name gives designers license, and the physical archives give them access to templates from which to work. ‘‘If you want to know a brand, you have to know the history,’’ Dior’s Chiuri says. ‘‘I really decided immediately, when I arrived here a year ago, that it is like I am a curator for [Dior’s] heritage. And on the other side, I try to give my point of view.’’

IN TRUTH, it’s a delicate balance. Ironically, the strength of a house’s archive (and its worth) can only be measured by the merits of its contemporary designer. Chiuri uses the term ‘‘curator,’’ a word many designers invoke to describe the somewhat uneasy relationship between present and past in their work. Part of their role, at these kinds of brands, is to provide a new point of view on a well-established aesthetic — to reinvent (or at least modernize) the wheel. Designers are tasked with getting the press and consumers excited about something they might have seen many times before.

But does looking back satisfy a designer’s artistic urge to create something new? ‘‘If you think too much about Mr. Saint Laurent, I think the weight is very heavy and you cannot do anything,’’ Anthony Vaccarello says. ‘‘It’s too ‘homage,’ too old.’’ Vaccarello’s approach has been to collage elements from different Saint Laurent looks — his redux of that 1992 dress, for instance, collided the bodice with a miniskirt in the style Saint Laurent showed in the 1960s, rather than copying the full-length original. He remixes, instead of creating faithful reproductions. ‘‘It’s normal for me to live with a huge history because I was born in Rome,’’ Chiuri says. ‘‘I love the archives, I love history, I love memory, but I’m not nostalgic. I want to use that now.’’ Her collections do in fact reference particular Dior styles — her fall 2017 couture collection alluded to specific Dior dresses from every year between the founding of the house in 1947 and 1957, the year Christian Dior died. At its best, archival reference like Chiuri’s intrinsically connects the new with the old, weaving a seamless story that can constantly evolve.

This isn’t necessarily the case for all French heritage houses; the Balmain label, established in 1945, has been revived with only spurious connection to the historical style of founder Pierre Balmain, a lesser-known contemporary of Christian Dior. His look was conservative and decorative — the latter, perhaps, the only link to its contemporary incarnation helmed by Olivier Rousteing, whose trademark is his love of elaborate embellishment. Louis Vuitton had no background in clothing prior to the appointment of Marc Jacobs as its artistic director in 1997; as inspiration for his garments, Nicolas Ghesquière references Vuitton’s past as a luggage-maker — an idea the house will celebrate with an exhibition next month in N.Y.C. dedicated to its heritage — as well as the label’s excellence in leather goods and its abstract notions of functionality.

Respect for history is important, but when respect becomes reverence, it can prove paralyzing. To chart fashion’s major shifts over the past century is to observe creators at odds with the past. The rejection of pre-existing styles is almost a prerequisite for creating something new and noteworthy. Even Dior’s 1947 debut, a collection firmly based in nostalgic notions of femininity rife with Victorian silhouettes and techniques, represented a break with the fashion that had immediately preceded it: the wartime style of short skirts and squared shoulders. Forever after, it came to be known as the New Look. The same is true of Gabrielle Chanel’s little black dress in the 1920s and the anarchic, aggressive styles of punk. They were all new, back then.

But those were moments that reset aesthetics, notions of luxury and beauty ideals. These happenings are few and far between, and it’s unreasonable to imagine that fashion will throw up many more. Nevertheless, history should not (and cannot) be abandoned. It can act as a Trojan horse, a disguise for radical upheavals, for fresh revolutions. Old tags can hide new tricks — or new looks, to borrow the parlance of Maison Dior. Take Demna Gvasalia: He described his fall Balenciaga collection as an ‘‘homage,’’ but he also likened it to a rite of passage. ‘‘I need to prove that I can come into a house and not just start blatantly building my story without knowing them,’’ he says, ‘‘them,’’ meaning the archives. ‘‘I know that Cristóbal would probably roll his eyes at many of the things I do, but I feel the freedom now to do my own story.’’

Fashion Month, Demystified

Fashion Month — the four-week period twice a year when top designers debut their latest collections in New York, London, Milan and Paris — brings out a horde of photographers intent on capturing interesting clothes, both on the runways in the shows and on the sidewalks outside of them.

But when this season’s shows officially begin on Thursday, the last thing New York Times editors will be thinking about is their own attire. “I think a lot of editors learned a long time ago that comfortable footwear is really key during Fashion Month,” said Isabel Wilkinson, the digital director of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. “Most seasoned editors I see stick very diligently to that mantra.”

Fashion teams from T and The New York Times Styles desk will attend more than 300 runway shows, presentations, parties and store openings in the four fashion capitals. Preparations began months ago for coverage of everything from highly anticipated collections from the likes of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren to celebrity-packed parties like Rihanna’s Diamond Ball, which takes place the last night of New York Fashion Week.

New York Fashion Week began in 1943 as a way for designers to share their new collections with the fashion media and retailers. It has since become part of a monthlong global circuit each September and February that attracts influencers, celebrities, brands, professional party people and lots of social media. The goal of Times editors is to speak authoritatively to the fashion community while recording a larger view of culture across print, web, video, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

“We cover fashion this intensely because it’s about the evolution of social statuses and gender roles; it’s so bound up with celebrity and race,” said Choire Sicha, the editor of Styles. “We are obsessed with fashion and we cover it rigorously. Not just because it’s an enormous, important business and because clothes are cool, but because it shows where we’re going as a society.”

Vanessa Friedman, the fashion director of The New York Times, will personally attend approximately 150 shows in New York and Europe. She has been covering Fashion Week for nearly 20 years, and tends to wear the same several dresses, stay at the same hotels and consume the same diet of coffee, candy, bread, the occasional green juice — and Champagne.

But routine allows for focus. “When I’m actually sitting in a show, I am thinking, first, ‘What is this designer actually saying about female identity now?’ ” Ms. Friedman said. “Is it a good idea? If it is not a good idea, why is it not a good idea? And how does that relate to the context of the brand? Does it make sense in the continuation of their heritage and their history? Where they have gone before? And what else is going on in the general fashion scene? Is it part of a trend? If it is part of a trend, what is the trend, and why is it important?”

Reporters typically log 12-hour days, explained Matthew Schneier, a Styles reporter — not counting the parties.

“There’s an unwritten law of Fashion Week that any two shows scheduled back-to-back must be at the farthest possible distance from each other and be scheduled at a time to maximize traffic getting between them,” Mr. Schneier said. “So, a good portion of time is spent in the back of a car, a cab or on the subway, trying to make sense of what you’ve just seen and get down enough sponsor-provided bottled water, protein bars and bodega trail mix to constitute a meal.”

Beyond the runway, the story continues inside the extravagant, invite-only afterparties, explained Denny Lee, a Styles editor. “A lot of them feel like they are P.R.-driven, but there are some that are absolutely lots of fun,” Mr. Lee said. “People just sort of want to let their hair down and have a good time, and you have this professional partying class that comes into New York City and just keeps things going.”

Styles and T work closely to coordinate coverage, and put out a joint newsletter, Open Thread. For Fashion Month, T’s coverage will center on showcasing beautiful images from the events, continually updated on its site, providing readers a way to shop for runway looks, and offering a peek into the world of the creators, Ms. Wilkinson explained.

“We like to do features around the little-known things about creative people — the little moments that aren’t captured, like someone’s strange obsession or weird collection or an unseen room, and giving a fresh perspective on creative people,” she said.

For Ms. Friedman, Fashion Month is like a global tour of modern art galleries.

“Often times you see things that are boring, or derivative, or overly conceptual,” she said. “But when you see something that is really great, that makes you think about your subject in a different way; you forget about everything else and get really excited. That happens each season, and you don’t know when it is going to happen — and that’s what makes it worthwhile.”

From Hangover Armour To ‘Seduction Uniforms’: The Only Five Outfits You’ll Ever Need

Torch your wardrobe: a study by Oxfam has found that women only wear five outfits. Yes, mercifully, it seems that everyone has adopted a carousel method to dressing: at least a third of our wardrobes are defunct, while the same pair of jeans, four T-shirts and three jumpers are rolled out without ceremony, ad infinitum. Seven in 10 of us invariably wear the same dress for every special occasion.

Certainly, there is an element of laziness to this approach; obviously, few can afford to replace their whole wardrobe at the flutter of an invitation. But it is also canny, for there are only really five outfits that you need to proceed through life untroubled. Together they form a capsule wardrobe of sorts, although instead of being choreographed according to shape and hue, as outlined in gilded lifestyle magazines, yours is, of course, themed by routine emotional triggers. Here are the only five outfits you really need:

The ‘seeing an ex’ Outfit

Do not affect that you are above this, no matter how “amicable” the split. You’ll want to look unshowy yet untouchable; best to aim for something in the area of “Scandinavian architect”. Ideally, your outfit should be comfortable, but more importantly it must not require regular repositioning to obscure a greying bra strap.

NB: it will not matter what you wear if you spend the evening scanning the room to locate said ex.

The Wedding/Funeral Multitasker

Granted, the crossover here is difficult to execute, unless you have spent many years cultivating the arch eccentricity of Fi in Four Weddings and a Funeral: faultlessly, unfailingly shrouded in black. Typically, weddings call for froth and fancy, whereas funerals are rightfully sterner.

However, there is a sliver where the Venn overlaps, and deft dressers execute it effortlessly. Keep necklines high and hemlines long – you do not want to be trying to tug your dress down while throwing the confetti. Dark florals suggest both wedding bouquets and funeral wreaths. You are multitasking.

The Office Hangover Outfit

Your whole body is draped in a sheen of perspiration. In your dreams, you are in a cocoon or lying entirely naked on a cool bathroom floor. But, on hungover days, your outfit is your armour: to put the office off your scent, you must wear something “directional”, something that employs “clean lines”. Also, crucially, deodorant. Above all, it must also permit stomach space for the stodgy succour of a lunchtime McDonald’s. Red lipstick, the brighter the better, can distract from your red face.

The Seduction Uniform

Contrary to the pervasive imagery of popular culture, this isn’t a red or black dress. Outfits intended to seduce rarely do. But, in this health-conscious, clean-eating age, your best seduction outfit is, obviously, your gym kit. It is also perfect for channelling Beyoncé at a moment’s notice. You might be tempted to don Liz Hurley’s Versace safety-pin dress to impress, but leggings and a sports bra can have much the same effect, just with more structural support. Can also be worn to the gym.

The ‘smart casual’ Outfit

Aha! You have been invited to a “business lunch” or “engagement barbecue”. That’ll be your smart casual look then. Don’t worry – in centuries to come, archaeologists will still struggle to interpret this most loathed of modern dresscodes. For now, best to just stick on a jumpsuit and hope for the best.

Jeremy Scott Is The Man Fashion Loves To Hate

Fashion Week is a circus, and no one relishes the big top more than Jeremy Scott.

The designer’s February runway show had fashionistas sweltering in an 80-degree room as they waited for attendee Kylie Jenner to appear, 45 minutes late and with TV crew in tow. Gate-crashers stole seats, relegating top editors from Elle and Teen Vogue to watching a live stream of the presentation in a screening room. Model Gigi Hadid stormed the runway in velvet bell-bottoms emblazoned with the face of Jesus; Anna Cleveland sashayed in a gaudy, Vegas-era Elvis cape.

The industry Web site Fashionista.com called the event a “s – – tshow,” while other critics scoffed at the C-listers, such as Sofia Richie, mugging in the front row. But for Scott, that embrace of chaos, celebrity and kitsch is the whole point.

“I’ve always been inspired by pop culture,” the 42-year-old designer told The Post. “I’ve always been very democratic about my view of fashion and iconography.” As for his haters?
“I would say that they’re stuffy and they could go to another show.”

They do so at their own peril. This Fashion Week marks the 20th anniversary of Scott’s namesake brand — his show on Friday will be a retrospective of his career — and, love him or hate him, his postmodern, cartoon aesthetic is everywhere.

It’s on TV, with Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus strutting in his eye-popping designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. It’s on newsstands, where reality stars are on the cover of Vogue. It’s even on the Paris runway, with revered labels such as Vetements and Gucci splattering images from “Titanic” or Disney cartoons onto their clothes.

“It is completely generational,” said Beth Dincuff Charleston, an industry vet who teaches fashion history at Parsons, adding that older fashion fans tend to find Scott’s garish designs off-putting. “He puts a lot of ideas together in a way that the 21-and-under set can really identify with.” She said that when she asks her undergraduate students who their favorite designer is, the name she hears most is Scott’s. “He’s becoming more and more impactful.”

Scott isn’t surprised. “Many times my taste in something that wasn’t accepted at first has ended up becoming more mainstream,” he said. “That’s another note I would say to those people who don’t get [me].”

SCOTT was born outside of Kansas City, Mo., far from the fashion world. But when the self-proclaimed “Midwest farm boy” discovered Details magazine in high school, he became obsessed with ’80s bad-boy designers Jean Paul Gaultier, Martin Margiela and Franco Moschino. After studying design at the Pratt Institute in Clinton Hill, he high-tailed it to Paris, with dreams of interning for Gaultier himself.

“Everyone was like, ‘You don’t know anyone, you don’t have any money, you don’t speak the language,’ ” he said. “There were all [people saying] no, no, no, no, no, but I . . . said yes.”

It was tough: Scott couldn’t get an internship. He was so broke that, in between bouts of couch-surfing, he slept on the Metro. But he fell in with the nightclub crowd and, in 1997, put on his own fashion show using scraps from a medical-supply store.

That collection — featuring hospital gowns with geometric pleats and bandages with heels attached for shoes — attracted a French TV crew. Suddenly, at 22, Scott was the toast of Paris fashion.

Mario Testino photographed his clothes. Isabella Blow, the stylist and magazine editor responsible for discovering Alexander McQueen, became a mentor. Karl Lagerfeld told Le Monde that Scott was the only designer who could succeed him at Chanel. In a few years, Scott was creating clothes for performers such as Madonna and Bjork.

“It was like a fairy tale,” Scott said. “It was . . . superflattering, and, at the same time, a little overwhelming.”

But he had his first fall from grace when, barely a year later, he debuted his fourth collection — an all-gold homage to the most opulent fashions of the 1980s. Vogue called it “destined to sink.”

“That was one of the hardest things to endure,” said Scott. “These were the same people that had said such beautiful things about me five minutes before, and now they’re saying heinous things. I took it very personally.”

Yet by the time he left Paris, in 2001, he was back en vogue — at least among the downtown demimonde, which adored his irreverence. Scott had inched toward an unabashedly pop style, inspired by the garish glitz of game-show hostess Vanna White. Scott settled in Los Angeles, so he could be closer to his growing celeb clientele.

“People thought I was crazy,” Scott said. This was more than a decade before Tom Ford moved to the West Coast and made it a fashion capital. “But Hollywood dictates so much of what we think of as fashion — the way people emulate things worn by celebrities on the red carpet or just getting coffee.”

Scott made his New York Fashion Week debut in 2002 with a show that combined ’80s shoulder-pad hauteur with the space-age kitsch of “The Jetsons.” New York was newly cool in fashion — Alexander McQueen had shown there in 2000 — but Scott helped take it over the top.

He invited reality stars like Paris Hilton to sit front row, creating a media riot. One 2003 presentation at Jeffrey Deitch’s Soho gallery — which featured scantily clad models in elaborate tableaux, such as a dominatrix in a barnyard surrounded by live animals — rankled the fashion press. The Condé Nast Web site Style.com refused to cover his shows for seven years after that.

“It was art,” Deitch told The Post of the scandalous show, explaining that Scott was taking pop-art tropes and expanding on them. “This was something different. He was maybe a little ahead of his time.”

After a sojourn to Paris Fashion Week, and a stopover in London, Scott returned to NYC in 2010, refreshed and with a sharper point of view, conjuring up the gonzo, Cartoon Network-on-acid sensibility that imbues his clothes today. Among his inspirations: Bart Simpson, SpongeBob and the McDonald’s arches, all of which have been emblazoned on his namesake designs or those created for Moschino, for which he became creative director in 2011.

“I think when he started to immerse himself in playing with those recognizable logos, it was a good way for him to [make] his message clearer,” said Parsons’ Charleston.

Katy Perry became a muse. A$AP Rocky sported his kicks, which Scott did for Adidas in an early high-fashion/sneaker collab. Miley Cyrus debuted a plastic jewelry line at his show. He was, now, a celebrity himself.

But some in the industry chafed at his vulgarity. What’s more, he was hit with lawsuits. In 2013, skateboard artist Jimbo Phillips sued Scott for copyright infringement. This was followed shortly with a suit by graffiti artist Rime, who said that the designer had taken elements from one of his Detroit murals for a dress Katy Perry wore to the Met Gala in 2015. (Scott settled in both cases.)

“That mindset of taking the McDonald’s logo and infusing it with the M for Moschino, or using corporate imagery in your designs, that’s fine. But it’s different when you’re using imagery from another artist,” said Charleston. (Scott had permission to use the SpongeBob and Bart Simpson characters, but a representative for the designer said his use of McDonald’s imagery was an “homage” that used a similar, “not direct” logo and therefore did not require approval.)

“For a moment there . . . I did question what Jeremy Scott’s role in the fashion industry is,” said Julie Zerbo, a legal consultant and founder of the Web site the Fashion Law. “But novelty is not what is driving demand for fashion. Demna [Gvasalia of the label Vetements] and Gucci are heavily referential for others’ work. [Copying] is less harmful to one’s reputation. And I assume the young people who are buying [Scott’s] iPhone cases and Barbie-inspired collections don’t necessarily care.”

They don’t. Scott’s pop vision of fashion has now become the norm. Balenciaga has a $2,100 bag that pays homage to IKEA’s blue tote; Gucci sells coats embroidered with Donald Duck.

“He’s a rule-breaker, which is good for fashion,” said influential publicist Kelly Cutrone. “Fashion can be super boring and elitist — there’s only so much you can do with a spaghetti strap, bias-cut satin gown.”

And while several designers, such as Altuzarra and Thom Browne, are fleeing New York Fashion Week for Paris — or skipping the runway entirely, as Narciso Rodriguez is — Scott has remained its stalwart: eager to deliver the sparkle, headlines and drama that the week once regularly promised.

“He still gets all the big models,” said fashion photographer Shawn Brackbill, who added that even though some glossy magazines don’t consider Scott’s shows “elevated” enough to warrant coverage, the presentations still draw a raucous, passionate crowd. “I think it’s a testament to him. Whether it’s just that the shows are fun or just different from everything else, people want to be a part of it.”