CUSTOM OFFERING: Coach is deepening its relationship with Lil Nas X.
On Tuesday, the company will release a campaign featuring the singer and looks he curated from the Coach winter collection. The Lil Nas X Drop capsule highlights pieces handpicked and customized by the artist who worked with Coach’s creative director Stuart Vevers on the assortment. The offering includes shearling coats in pop colors; graphics inspired by concert merchandise, and an American varsity jacket personalized with patches featuring symbols from Lil Nas X’s life, such as his pet cats and zodiac sign, Aries.
“Our winter collection is inspired by my belief that fashion is about exploring and celebrating all of who you are,” Vevers said. “To create the collection, we twisted the Coach archives and were also inspired by Lil Nas X’s connection to music and nightlife. We evolved heritage styles introduced on the runway last season by amplifying color, texture and graphics to create pieces that celebrate our love for individuality and authentic self-expression that we share.”
The winter collection offers American archetype pieces such as leather biker and shearling jackets, T-shirts, sweatshirts and bags featuring acid graphics and electric colors.
The Lil Nas X Drop will be available for purchase in select Coach stores and on coach.com beginning on Dec. 26. — Jean E. Palmieri
THOM’S TREE: The Royal Poinciana Plaza has become well known for its annual surfboard Christmas tree, and this year, Thom Browne was selected to put his unique spin on the holiday tradition.
The tree is decorated with an assortment of surfboards sporting Browne’s signature red, white and blue stripes, and a golden tree topper is in the shape of Browne’s dachshund, Hector.
In addition to the tree, the partnership includes the first Thom Browne retail experience in Palm Beach, Fla. — a pop-up shop featuring a curated assortment of men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, accessories and fragrance. The designer handpicked select antique pieces such as Jacques Adnet desks and George Nakajima chairs to decorate the space.
“Palm Beach represents an iconic area of true individuals with a long history of appreciation for quality and design,” Browne said. “I’ve had the privilege to have great support in this region and now feels like the right moment to build my presence here. Being asked to design the annual tree alongside this exciting moment for the brand felt perfect — to combine sport and fashion with my surfboards and give them a new life in Florida. All topped with a golden Hecky.”
“We are overjoyed to partner with Thom Browne to not only design this year’s surfboard tree but bring an incredible new retail experience to The Royal,” added Samantha David, president of WS Development, which owns the upscale shopping area. “Thom’s cutting-edge fashion vision, seamlessly intertwined with Palm Beach’s iconic coastal lifestyle, will deliver an unparalleled shopping experience for locals and visitors alike.”
While the tree may not last past the holidays, the store will be open through May. — J.E.P.
MODERN MUSE: Lingerie specialist Aubade has called on French model Cindy Bruna for a capsule collection playing on bold cuts and layering.
The 14-piece line will span lingerie and nightwear, respectively titled “Sumptuous Waves” and “Midnight Storm,” with five bra styles, three bottoms as well as waist cinchers, a body, silk slips and a catsuit.
This marks the first time the French label has collaborated with a prominent fashion figure rather than a designer or another brand.
Following the overhaul of its brand direction in April, Aubade felt that “[its] message of ‘Live Your Desire’ is universal and today, we wanted to give it a face,” said brand and product director Samar Vignals.
Bruna fit the bill for an Aubade muse, being “a strong woman who is sensual, empowered, sophisticated…someone who is committed to her causes and is also multicultural,” she continued. “For us, it’s not another collaboration, it’s a partnership, a muse and the wow effect we want to give to the brand and the modernity of a public figure who is beautiful but most of all, has a lot to say.”
The capsule also pushed the envelope in terms of product, stepping up the inside-outside angle and introducing daring designs such as the catsuit, according to Vignals.
Bruna said she wanted the offering to be versatile, wearable as lingerie for day as well as evening and suitable for layering. She named the body as her favorite design from the lineup offered in black and a smart “Imperial Blue.”
For the model, working with Aubade is “a true celebration of self-confidence and the uniqueness of every woman, every curve,” particularly because the brand has always been on her radar, she told WWD over email.
“It started with my mother, then with my sister and finally with me,” she recalled. “I always saw my mother wearing this lingerie with a lot of confidence and elegance and I envied her collection for a long time, but I couldn’t afford it — until the day it happened.”
Prices will start at 80 euros for a tanga and go up to 450 euros for the catsuit, while bras are around 150 euros.
Sizes will run up to a G cup in certain bra styles, while bottoms will go from an XS to an XXL. Night pieces will go from XS to XL.
The Cindy Bruna x Aubade collaboration will be presented alongside the brand’s lines at the International Lingerie Show in Paris, running Jan. 20 to 22. It will go on sale in June with the first deliveries of fall 2024 from the lingerie label’s stores and retailers. — Lily Templeton
FASHION FUNDING: Fashion designers Alexander Enticknap and Sean McCallum, and creative director Blake Sutherland, are the winners of the 15th edition of the Australian Fashion Foundation’s scholarship awards.
Announced at an event at Sydney’s Old Clare Hotel on Monday evening Sydney time, the trio — who are recent graduates of the University of Technology Sydney, RMIT and the Whitehouse Institute of Design, respectively — will each receive an internship placement at an American fashion company in 2024, as well as $25,000 in cash to assist with living costs for the duration of the placement.
The judging panel was comprised of designers Camilla Freeman-Topper and Christopher Esber, The Next Generation director Courtney Miller, editorial director and publisher News Prestige and Condé Nast titles Australia Edwina McCann, Harper’s Bazaar Australia editor in chief Jill Davison, Carfrae Consulting founder Malcolm Carfrae and fashion influencer and philanthropist Nicole Warne.
The foundation was launched in 2008 by Carfrae and Vfiles founder and chief executive officer Julie Anne Quay in a bid to help Australian fashion graduates gain valuable international experience.
The AUSFF program has since facilitated internship placements at companies including Wardrobe.NYC, Altuzarra, Athena Calderone’s EyeSwoon, Dion Lee, Oscar de la Renta, Narciso Rodriguez, Proenza Schouler, Louis Vuitton, Thom Browne, Alexander McQueen, Diane Von Furstenberg and Calvin Klein.
“Not only have we been able to thrive for 14 years now, with many thanks to our longstanding partners the American Australian Association and Nick and Gabi Molnar’s The Next Generation, our alumni have also gone on to have incredible fashion careers,” Carfrae said.
Those alumni include Talisa Trantino, who is now head of jewelry and special projects at Loewe, while Tim Watson is creative coordinator at Schiaparelli and Vlad Kanevsky is a collections designer at Thom Browne.
“What the judges and I are really looking for is world-class talent and the potential for a bright and successful career ahead,” Carfrae added.
“Many of [the scholarship recipients] still keep in touch and continue to send messages of gratitude, which makes me so proud of our work fostering a global network of some of Australia’s brightest young fashion stars.” — Patty Huntington
CANADIAN GROWTH: Psycho Bunny is expanding its footprint in Canada.
The Montreal-based men’s label, known for its slightly maniacal rabbit logo, has opened four stores in its home country, bringing the count there to eight.
The new brick-and-mortar locations are located in McArthurGlen Designer Outlet and the CF Pacific Centre in Vancouver; West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, and Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga. Psycho Bunny opened its first Canadian store in Toronto in December 2022.
“As a Canadian company with our roots firmly planted here, we’re excited to finally reach the local market with our premium menswear,” said Anna Martini, Psycho Bunny’s chief executive officer. “With our trajectory leading us to various other destinations — as we scaled our growth mostly the opening of stores in the U.S. in the past four years — we are extremely proud to now spread our message and apparel across our beautiful country.”
The Canadian retail rollout follows a similar strategy in the U.S. where the brand operates 76 stores. The plan is to continue to add more stores in its home country, including a unit in Metrotown unit in Burnaby, British Columbia, in February.
Psycho Bunny launched in New York in 2005 and was purchased in its entirety by Montreal-based Alen Brandman of Thread Collective, the brand’s former outerwear licensee, in 2021. — J.E.P.
FLUFF IN RESIDENCE: In light of the 10th anniversary of the Max Mara Teddy Bear coat, the brand unveiled another immersive experience of the Fluffy Residence on Saturday night, this time in London’s Covent Garden.
With Christmas around the corner, the space was festive-ready; cue the Christmas tree decorated in fuzzy baubles, surrounded by fluff-wrapped presents.
The coat-inspired rooms immersed the visitors into a teddy coat lover’s cosmos. Everything on sight, from the teddy bed frame, kitchen utensils, artwork, bookshelves and even the walls — was covered in the brand’s signature fluffy camel fabric.
The experience included a magic mirror with a camera that captured visitor’s images and reimagined them with a teddy twist.
The London Fluffy Residence marked the latest stop of Teddy’s 10th anniversary tour and will be open to the public until Dec. 26.
The initiative was launched by Max Mara in the fall, amongst a series of different activations and installations globally, to pay tribute to the Teddy coat’s debut. It was created in 2013 by creative director Ian Griffiths.
The installation was most recently seen in October at the luxury mall IFS Chengdu in China and at Portrait Hotel Milan in November, both of which were a hit with the public, with visitors posing and posting on social media the plush setting. — Maria Papakleanthous
