Macdonald money?
At Julien Macdonald's show, the presence of Matteo Cordero di Montezemolo from the Italian private equity group Charme suggested that the British designer is attracting more serious investment.

A royal stamp of approval still produces sales
The labels that contribute to the iconic style of Queen Elizabeth II are among the more than 850 companies with Royal Warrants, businesses that are allowed to identify themselves as suppliers to the queen, Prince Philip or Prince Charles.

London's retailers look beyond today's bad news
Despite the economic downturn, the mood among some of the traditional British labels has been positively exuberant leading up to London Fashion Week, with renovations, openings and plans to expand their lines.
- London's fashion squeeze

Diversity rules, O.K.!
The style on the streets of London has long inspired the world's designers. But in the new millennium generation, a two-pronged effect has become the catalyst for fashion change.

Topshop's U.S. delay
On the runway, Topshop Unique's show was young, carefree - and winking at the expansive, show-off style of the 1980s.

Ralph Lauren's Arabian days
Ralph Lauren's show, at the end of the New York collections, was not so much a tale of One Thousand and One Nights as inspiration from Arabian days. Also, Donna Karan, Chado Ralph Rucci and Sabyasachi.

Gone with the wind
It is not every designer who can call on Mick Jagger to create music for a show. But as feathers wafted on a shoulder cape in tune with a "zephyr" theme of wind, L'Wren Scott's famous partner produced the lyrics: "You will run me ragged" and "Fly off, you angel."

Style knows no bounds — from fishing to fashion
To the outsider, P***t Fashion always has existed in a parallel universe. Now, though, it's really starting to look like another world, as seemingly everything this season - from chewing gum to fast cars - has been "fashioned."

Britain's models: A look that's all their own
A new group of singular faces are reinforcing the fact that English models, like London style, are endearingly eccentric.

Life, with a point of view
Charles Finch describes his new newspaper, Finch's Quarterly Review, as "a celebration of an old world and a desire to applaud the finer things in life."

Calvin Klein's icy origami; Zac Posen with shine
Now that sportswear has been given a more complex identity with modern techno fabrics, designers in New York's fashion week are reviewing the fashion world from "concept corner."

Spirit of the style
The hippie de luxe spirit that Italian companies can express in exceptional fabrics was part of a story that also included more streamlined sportswear.

Glamour, without a script
Barbara Tfank used her personal collection of fabrics to update a couture past — for shoes, drawing on her stock of vintage Bianchini-Férier fabrics.

Adding muscle to skinny jeans
Men's wear designers at New York Fashion Week look to the world of sports to muscle up their collections.

Japanese linen, out of the closet and into the mainstream
Up until now, linen had been about summer shirts and suits, but these days the subtext is changing from mere summer fashion to year-round lifestyle.

Tokyo hones its vintage clothing market
Tokyo has now reached a point where it's safe to call it P***t Vintage - with its 400-plus shops scattered over the city.

Pope doesn't wear Prada
The devil may wear Prada - but the pope does not.

Fashion all part of the game at Wimbledon
It felt more like a day on the catwalk than the opening of the world's most famous tennis tournament -- but fashion has always been an integral part of Wimbledon with its strictly enforced "predominantly white" dress code for players.

Beijing retail: Too competitive to win?
In this post-Olympics cool-down period, luxury brands are facing a growing challenge of how to stand out in a very crowded Beijing marketplace.
- The bigger, the better when it comes to luxury stores

Retailers trek north in search of sales
Drawn by a strong currency and fashion-hungry consumers, U.S. and European retailers are altering Canada's apparel landscape.

Dollar draws Europeans' interest
While Americans are tightening their purse strings in the face of lost jobs, foreclosures and surging food and gas prices, some designers and analysts say that may not necessarily spell doom and gloom for the fashion industry.

Designers of high fashion enter the age of high tech
After dragging their stilettos for years, U.S. fashion designers are starting to use online tools to scope out competitors' designs, discover trends, and experiment with colors and fabrics.

Designer yearns to re-establish legacy of Yves Saint Laurent
In recent years, the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent has struggled in the global marketplace. But with his eighth collection since becoming creative director of YSL in 2004, Stefano Pilati is building on the fashion icon's identity.

Burberry first quarter beats forecasts
Fashion brand Burberry beat forecasts with a 26 percent rise in first-quarter revenues, helped by strong sales accessories and early receipts from its Autumn/Winter ranges, but said trading conditions were tough.

Britons shunning the shops
Fewer Britons visited retail outlets in June, the fifth drop in six months, as soaring fuel prices deterred shoppers from driving to stores, the research company Experian Group said.

U.S. teens skipping $50 jeans
The financial pressures of adults are finally catching up with American teenagers. Since summer jobs dried up, gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon and parents ran out of spare cash, teens have had to cool it on spending for clothes.

Online fashion retailer Asos reports steep rise in profits
Nick Robertson, ASOS chief executive, said the company was seeing no sign of the slowdown being experienced by store groups and was expected to overtake Next to become Britain's biggest online clothes retailer in its current financial year.

Clarins family to buy out minority investors
The family that owns the French skin cream company wants to pull it out of public trading.

Blahnik puts his foot down
Worship at Carrie Bradshaw's feet? Here are your shoes.

HP laptops go high fashion at show in New York
High-tech took on a fashionable twist in New York when the designer Vivienne Tam sent models down the runway clutching slim, red Hewlett-Packard laptops instead of evening bags.
- MTV and HP collaborate on digital art reality show

Magazine or artsy accessory?
Even the purest of messages can be corrupted by the power of a bag.

Fall shoes: Preening pumps and feathered feet
Ornithologists say there are 10,000 species of birds inhabiting the earth. Of course, that doesn't include the feathered and furry, outrageously festooned specimens spotted in the fall footwear collections.

The Birkin and Hermès
What would you do for a Birkin bag?

The clutch, in the light of day
Thanks to a whole slew of designers - from Yves Saint Laurent to Sonia Rykiel and Michael Teperson to Belen Echandia - the clutch purse is moving from an evening standard to seeing the light of day.

Jelly brand molds Brazil's footwear style
Cheap, cheerful and totally disposable, the plastic jelly shoe is about as ubiquitous as footwear gets. And in Brazil, it's Melissa that dominates the market.

David vs. "David": The battle below the belt in men's underwear
The David vs. "David" standoff marks the moment that underwear has come out of the drawers and off the shelves to become, to men's fashion, the female equivalent of the handbag. It is an accessory - and even a necessity - that can be turned into big bucks.

In London, a rocking celebration of jewels
London Jewellery Week was kicked off with spectacular celebrations and included works by Zaha Hadid and Prince Dimitri, while Nadja Swarovski was bringing on the bling at Runway Rocks.

Fulco di Verdura: The elegant beguiler of stars
A friend of Cole Porter, discovered by Coco Chanel, the Palermo aristocrat Verdura was the favorite jeweler in a gilded circle that included Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn and the Duchess of Windsor.

Will diamonds lose their sparkle?
With the specter of recession haunting the global economy, is the market for luxury gemstones feeling the pinch?

Padua's goldsmiths: modern masters of form
Over six decades, a school of goldsmiths in northern Italy has created original and important pieces of jewelry works based on Renaissance principles of geometry.

Wanted: Genius designer
As the curtains part, fashion awaits a new hero. Maybe that's the problem.

Creating solutions to a water crisis
"1% Water and our Future," an exhibition at Z33 gallery in the Belgian city of Hasselt, explores our relationship to water, and how design can help us to use it more responsibly and productively.

Philippe Starck is tilting toward windmills
Starck is battling on a new front - developing cheap, attractive, energy-saving products to "introduce everybody to ecology."

Whatever 'design-art' is, it's thriving
"Design-art" is a commercial phenomenon, not a cultural one. It's a label adopted by auction houses in the hope of flogging limited-edition furniture for higher prices than it would muster if relegated to the unfashionable category of "decorative arts." And it has been very effective.

In the world of watches, the line between the sexes is blurring fast
Once upon a time, timepieces with complications were for men only, but the limited edition Diane from Harry Winston seeks to change that.

"Star Trek"-styled watches flash digitally coded time
Tokyoflash Japan creates watches that are meant to be watched, not just looked at. Started in 2000, the company says it is trying to make objects that revolutionize the way time is perceived.

Applying color with steely abandon
Taking inspiration from the traditional cloisonné technique of enameling used to decorate watch dials, watch designer Alain Silberstein has developed a unique method of coloring his steel watchcases, which are proving popular with Russian and Japanese collectors.

Richard Mille breaks fresh ground with new high-technology timepieces
Coinciding with the Salon International de Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, Mille is introducing a glittering homage to Boucheron, in honor of the Parisian jeweler's 150th anniversary, and a modern interpretation of a classic pocket watch.

L.A., a scene that's seen better days
As a result of poor attendance by editors and buyers, many talented L.A. designers have decamped to New York shows or chosen venues on the younger, hipper east side of the city.
- The sun never sets on the runway

DKNY celebrates its 20th anniversary
Donna Karan's DKNY line was born in the 1980s but her 20th anniversary collection looked to the future and the next generation of fashion followers.

Facebook for the kindergarten set
A host of new Web sites, including Totspot, Odadeo, Lil'Grams and Kidmondo, offer parents a chance to invite friends and family to join and contribute to a network geared to connecting them to the baby in their lives.

Can fashion forgive his past?
A designer aims to mend his ways and earn respect while getting hefty financial backing for a comeback.

The prodigal daughter returns: Phoebe Philo signs with Celine

Designer Phoebe Philo returns to the world of fashion as the new creative director at Celine.

It's Michael Kors's moment, (partly) thanks to reality TV
The designer's gig as a judge on the fashion reality show "Project Runway" - plus his knack for catering to client's fantasies - have combined to transform his once modest business into a fashion brand with more than $600 million in wholesale revenues and 60 stores.

Fashion house Jil Sander being sold
Fashion house Jil Sander AG, a maker of luxury ready-to-wear clothing for men and women, will be sold to a Japanese apparel group, the private equity firm that owns it said Monday.

Style.com to pack fashion shows into the iPhone
Style.com, the online home of Vogue, is introducing an iPhone application this week designed to enable people to watch runway shows during New York Fashion Week on their phones, within hours of the last model's exit from the catwalk.

Sigrid Olsen's forced retirement
The demise of Sigrid Olsen's label is a sign of how fashion forsakes mature customers.

Putting a new spin on a world of natural fibers
Teasing out fanciful threads from unexpected fibers has become a thriving industry near the northern Italian city of Brescia.

Givenchy's Tisci to design for Madonna's new tour
Givenchy will help dress Madonna for her upcoming "Sticky & Sweet" world tour, a spokeswoman for the French fashion house said.

Dogs have their day on Web
A crossbreed between MySpace and YouTube, Doggyspace allows dog owners from all over the world to come together, create profiles, and share photos and videos of their pups.

I'm down here, up to my eyes in cuticles
As fashion brands continue to emphasize luxury handbags and shoes, the perfectly groomed extremity is becoming the ultimate marketing tool.

Garden is a seedbed for Dr. Hauschka cosmetics line
Dr. Hauschka cosmetics born in a German garden

Americans pull back from expensive plastic surgery
Plastic surgeons are increasingly competing with other specialists, and even non-specialists, for a finite pool of beauty clients.