Going against nature: An inconvenient truth in fashion
The current fashion system is growing old and tired and the celebratory candles on the cakes are a false signal that all is well.

Tightening credit, jittery markets -- is it 2003 all over again?
Though memories of the downturn after 2001 are still fresh, purveyors of the finer things in life are betting that the recent volatility in global markets will not drastically affect their bottom lines.

Stella McCartney and Adidas
At a London sports stadium, Stella McCartney brought the femininity of her design to a new part of the Adidas range.

At McDonald's, a take on the classic designs of Arne Jacobsen
If the modernist goal is to make "good design" available to as many people as possible, isn't it a triumph for the elegant chairs to seat the masses? Or is the company ridiculing the ideas of Jacobsen and his fellow modernists by using them as marketing props?
- For McDonald's, a European redesign starts to pay off

With blooms and bows, the New Romantics of fashion
In London, designers like Giles Deacon and Richard Nicoll - and even establishment labels like Aquascutum - give a modern edge to England's traditional sense of romance and prettiness.
- Farhi marks 25 years in fashion
- East is where the edge is

Athens emerges from the pack
Greece is reaping the benefits after entering the international fashion week arena in 2005: Local industry has gained a new impetus.

Hollywood stylist has her next big client, and it's herself
Rachel Zoe has dressed stars like Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz and Keira Knightley. Now Zoe and Todd Shemarya, her brand agent, plans to reinvent Zoe.

Williamson at 10 years: 'Where are my peers now?'
With the colorful, decorative "ethnic eclectic" style that he has made famous, Matthew Williamson presented a rich collection of modern silhouettes, sexy shapes and light dresses that are just plain pretty.
- Young British designers, mix masters without peer
- England and France's epic war over Dior's fashion throne

Well dressed for the Olympics in Beijing
The Olympics Games have helped set off the construction in Beijing of huge new malls with top international brands, and the confidence bolstered by China's growing prosperity means people are spending money.

Paul Smith is looking that man/woman thing
The purpose of his fast-growing women's line is to replicate the masculine success on which his empire was constructed.
- Fashion: An eclectic mix of designers makes a splash in London

Muslim fashion designers moving beyond the traditional
In an ever-influential global pop culture that idolizes the shortest of skirts and catwalks where flesh can overshadow fabric, Muslims from Sydney to Saudi Arabia who love fashion are taking matters into their own hands.
- Seeking a middle ground for Muslim designs

Natural skin care products woo beauty from the chemical beast
In the area of skin care, thanks in part to consumer worries about the wide use of synthetic chemicals in mainstream cosmetics and toiletries, the natural-beauty sector has seen a surge in interest - and sales.

History of postwar haute couture on display in London
The Victoria and Albert Museum makes its contribution to fashion education with "The Golden Age of Couture," which includes witty touches like a display of the controlling underwear from the days when women's bodies were literally molded into their clothes.
- Olympics inspires London fashion week offerings
- Target debuts in London with Temperley
- Screening, not ban, on ultra-thin models urged

Flashy and tailor-made: rag trade blogs
Citizen journalists are securing the scoops, attracting big-budget advertisers and amassing millions of readers - a kind of fashion people's revolution.

A sizable revolution in Spanish fashion
The Spanish Health Ministry has co-opted major womens wear retailers in an effort to make sizing uniform and closer to the national norm. Some companies are offering more varied - and simply more - larger-size clothes.

Luxury ad world increases its star power
More and more, the $184 billion luxury product industry is relying on the faces of celebrities from Sharon Stone to Mikhail Gorbachev.

Love it or loathe it, Memphis style with its color and kitsch is back
Remember the Milan-based group of designers and architects, Memphis, who split the design world after their 1981 debut? There were those who loved the postmodernist wit of their kitsch, colorful furniture, and others that loathed it. The style is now making a clear comeback.

Andre Kim, South Korea's fashion pioneer, still in the public eye at 72
The renowned designer, who wears a white spacesuit, has been weaving a Western sensibility into South Korean fashion for four decades.

New York fashion week gets the red carpet blues
This season's gowns were simple, subtle and rendered in muted shades - not characteristics usually associated with celebrity dressing.
- Hilfiger looks to the sea
- Donna Karan goes for the top

Luxe labels find success in unusual U.S. spots
Executives and designers from big and small luxury labels and fashion houses are realizing that there are sizable pockets of wealth dotted all over the United States and customers who need to be catered to locally.

Women rule in Kiwi fashion
When small New Zealand girls give up wanting to be fairy or pop princesses when they grow up, there are plenty of other jobs for them -- like fashion designer.

Benjamin Cho wears his iconoclasm well
As fashion gets more and more domesticated, it's hard to stay wild, but a young New York designer proves there's still room for a zigzag, sequined dress.

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, dies at 64
Roddick used The Body Shop chain of cosmetics stores to promote causes like ending animal testing and supporting the environment.

An online playground for the rich and fabulous
If more proof were needed that the rich are different, it could be found on aSmallWorld.net, an invitation-only social networking site.

Fashion stocks still in demand
Even with the euro heading north, Japanese consumers remaining skittish and valuations at lofty levels, enthusiasm for luxury fashion stocks as a medium-term investment remains undimmed among many investment professionals.

Tokyo Fashion Week surprises with a sensual cheeriness
The event, now in its fifth year, is rapidly shedding its unfinished, training-wheels image to emerge as a formidable, if small-scale, contender for attention in the international fashion show arena. Thirty-eight designers participated in shows this season.

As Brazilian fashion matures, splashy gives way to subdued
Long gone are the days when fashion insiders tried to evoke a Brazilian aesthetic from trite references like Carnival plumage or bikinis on a Copacabana beach. It has taken designers here 10 long years to convince the outside world that there is as much diversity in their native fashion panorama as in the natural one.

Marc Jacobs disappoints with a freak show
In one frenzied night, heavy on hype and starting two hours late, the designer follows up his breakthrough fall collection with a none-too-original heap of vintage-steeped creations.
- Shorts invited to cocktails
- Preppy gets a 21st-century makeover

Ralph Lauren show mixes Edwardian charm and red carpet
Ralph Lauren's 40th anniversary show tipped a top hat to his English influences, expressing perfectly the designer's spirit and containing a few surprises.
- A fine sense of romance at Fashion Week
- White collections raise some green for environmental causes
- Great expectations for Proenza Schouler

A fine sense of romance at Fashion Week
To be a romantic in a city like New York requires a leap of fashion faith. But designers are exploring ways of expressing the feminine without resorting to frills or wallowing in Paris Hilton pink.

Putting a sporty spin on American fashion
New York looks forward to spring/summer 2008 with tailored shorts, floppy hats and minidresses, all in crisp white and citrus shades.

A design-art boom at London festival
British designers are flourishing, as seen in the innovations of the festival starting on Sept. 15, which has become bigger, and more eclectic each year. Design-art and sustainability are themes this year.

Provocative and pretty, but really DVF?
Diane von Furstenberg and her principal designer, Nathan Jenden, have been eager to prove the label can extend beyond the signature wrap dress, as the explosion of color and loose, bold shapes of the latest collection amply demonstrate.

White collections raise some green for environmental causes
Mariel Gamboa, the founder of Limited Edition New York, headed a charity drive during New York Fashion Week that turned over a sum in the low six figures to Al Gore's The Climate Project.

International brands, with a Hong Kong twist
Local Hong Kong designers put their own spin on creations for Ferragamo, LeSportsac, Alessi and Herman Miller.

Lululemon Athletica's yoga-inspired sports attire positions itself for success
The company has tripled sales over the past two years, and after opening stores in Canada, the United States, Japan and Australia, it plans to expand into Europe and the rest of Asia.

Great expectations for Proenza Schouler
The recent partnership between the dynamic young New York design duo and Valentino Fashion Group has allayed financial anxieties, but heightened their desire to prove they're 'adults.'

Unveiling of new "Steel" Calvin line kicks off celebration central
The big boys Ralph Lauren and Lacoste will be getting festive with anniversaries. Meanwhile, celebrity collections from Gwen Stefani and the greater international world show a passion for fashion.

Autumn looks for women of substance
After a decade dominated by clothes that were lightweight in every sense, a more feminist image is fighting its way back.

Valentino to quit as fashion designer
Valentino Garavani has long been expected to resign with rumors that a younger designer, such as Alessandra Fachinetti, could be poised to take over his line.
- Statement from Valentino Garavani
- Statement from Giancarlo Giammetti

Fashion industry grapples with designer knockoffs
Legal copies of new runway fashions, usually Asian-made, are appearing before the originals hit U.S. department stores.

MySpace goes for fashion
Last week MySpace.com/fashion was upgraded as a dedicated part of the site and some 362,000 "members" are already posting and blogging. But the jury is out as to whether new talent will sprout on the laptop screen - or whether the space will be invaded by smart fashion houses who see it as a marketing tool.

In Tokyo, bikewear for on and off the road
In Tokyo, new styles are reflecting a desire for cyclists to be well-dressed while they ride and later for social occasions.

Ingo Maurer: The magic of his light years
The achievements of Ingo Maurer, one of the world's most ingenious lighting designers, are to be celebrated in an exhibition opening on Sept. 14 at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

In U.S., a backlash against sagging jeans
A number of town councils have decided that pants worn low enough to expose underwear pose a threat to the public.

Valentino at 45: Painting the town in red
At the Roman Colosseum, with three dancers in red floating like puppets on a string and a golden shower of fireworks, Valentino celebrated more than four decades of fashion history.

Valentino in Ara Pacis
Patrick Kinmonth and Antonio Monfreda - the scenario's joint creators - have used the Richard Meier glass cube framing the Ara Pacis (peace altar) to show Valentino's dresses literally in a new light.

Armani, with attitude
It began with Giorgio Armani's "Rock Symphony" and ended at midnight Wednesday with a barefoot Courtney Love in a Givenchy couture gown belting out "Samantha" until even the wrought iron banisters of the august Paris fashion house were shaking.

Tailors on the prowl
A fashion king earned his crown on Wednesday as Jean Paul Gaultier gave his imagination a royal workout with princes as a theme. With the look of Ruritania or Rajasthan, the models strode the catwalk, crowned heads (and sometimes crown hairdos) held high, showing precise tailoring and artistic embellishment - often both at once.

Lacroix is sugar sweet
Christian Lacroix celebrated 20 years of couture with a collection that was charming, fresh and bonbon sweet. Yet the sugar came in calorie-controlled doses.

Lagerfeld again triumphs for Chanel
Karl Lagerfeld created a superb show for the Paris haute couture collections Tuesday.

Robert H. Frank's economic guidebook unlocks everyday design enigmas
The American economist, Robert H. Frank, has devoted a book, "The Economic Naturalist," to unraveling such mysteries as why women button their clothes from the left and men from the right, or why CD cases are smaller than DVD cases when the discs are the same size. His explanations for what he calls "everyday enigmas" are rooted in economic theory.

Design: Limited editions, without the usual limits
For Vitra Editions, the Swiss furniture company Vitra commissioned a collection of 15 limited edition objects from a gilded group of architects, including Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid; and designers, such as Jasper Morrison, Hella Jongerius, and the French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

Does the iPhone have 'It'? Early signs are good
Apple's new smart phone going on sale Friday shows signs of becoming one of the elite cadre of products that decades later are remembered as icons of their time.
- The iPhone matches most of its hype
- Apple leaves accessory makers in the dark
- A FAQ on what the iPhone has and what it lacks
- SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: iPhone launch
- Customers line up for Apple's iPhone days before Friday's launch
- Apple iPhone expected to drive mobile phone industry toward fancier touch screens
- Without wireless downloads, iPhone may not rock music industry
- Who really makes the iPod?

The technical challenge of making space travel easy
Marc Newson is working on the interior design of a spacep***, a new leisure spacecraft that was unveiled in Paris last week by its manufacturer, Astrium, part of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company. It will take tourists into space starting in 2012.

Naoto Fukasawa: Intuiting function from form
The Japanese design guru believes that "you shouldn't need to use an instruction manual to learn how to use a product. It should be so intuitive that you work it out naturally."
- Design calender: Key design events of 2007-8

A Mediterranean moment for Armani menswear
Fendi and Calvin Klein also played with easy cuts and light fabrics, some of which bordered on the daringly sheer.
- Prada's pajamas lost in a maze
- Gucci: Bold and brash
- Hedge fund hotties! Targeting the golden boys
- Milan: The color conundrum

Millefeuille! A thousand ways with layers
There is only one way to cook up a fashion show this season and that is with different layers.