Bill on Bill

The problem is I'm not a good photographer. To be perfectly honest, I'm too shy. Not aggressive enough. Well, I'm not aggressive at all. I just loved to see wonderfully dressed women, and I still do. That's all there is to it.

- The picture subject talks back

Miu Miu: An apron for a new age
Miuccia Prada's Miu Miu presentation, which closed the international season, seemed like a metaphor for fashion now: individual, interesting and filled with oblique and obscure references.

Louis Vuitton and Lanvin: Activating desire
With fashion channeled from every species of bird feather, animal pattern, reptile skin and ethnic inspiration, the Louis Vuitton show made a bold statement at the Paris summer 2009 collections Sunday.

Chloe: The girl-child grows up
As the girly look fades from fashion, the women who embraced the frilly and even childish styles in their 20s, are looking for clothes that keep the lightness but cut the sweetness.

Martin Grant: Timeless beauty
Searching for a safe place to invest your fashion funds? Look no further than Martin Grant. His collection full of classics means that any purchase will be one with a long fashion shelf life.
- Commuun: Elegant minimalism
- Rue du Mail: From the locker room

Putting American Apparel on the world
Dov Charney the founder, creative director and chief executive of American Apparel, believes the worldwide brand expansion he began in 1998 is promoting a creative conversation with the international consumer.

Athens extends its luxury scope
While much of the planning for the entrance of international fashion brands in Athens was done long before the current financial turmoil, the retailers all voice confidence in their eventual success.

Economy gives new allure to Europe's outlet centers
Far away from the genteel thoroughfares of Bond Street, Madison Avenue or Via Montenapoleone, lofty brands like Chanel and Dior entered the outlet game long before anyone smelled the rot in the markets. But why the U-turn?

Chanel goes back home
From the moment Karl Lagerfeld revealed the set at his Chanel show on Friday, you knew that the designer was back with Coco.

Facchinetti to exit Valentino
With clothes lighter, prettier and more transparent than the rumors surrounding her, Alessandra Facchinetti showed Friday what was to be her last collection for Valentino.
- Statements from Facchinetti, Valentino

Celine: A bit of the tribal world
Once again, sportswear was the name of the game. But this time Ivana Omazic tried to incorporate a little bit of the tribal world into her active wear.
- Guy Laroche: Reptile rally

Gypsy style, in the harsh light of day
Fashion's ongoing fascination with the Gypsy style of dress is intriguing because the ethnic minority has been scorned and at the center of several large-scale persecutions in Europe.

Paris is enchanted by some northern lights
As the days get colder, and the economic climate even frostier, the world of fashion might be expected to look nostalgically toward Southern climes for some escapist inspiration. Instead, Paris is turning toward northern lights.

A gaucho stride at Givenchy
In his last Givenchy couture collection, the designer Riccardo Tisci played with a gaucho fantasy, a tough, nature-in-the-wild chic inspired by the idea of a coming trip to South America.
- Roger Vivier: Reviving the pagoda
- Loewe: Growing clothes

Happy birthday, Sonia Rykiel!
At Sonia Rykiel there was a surprise "gift" from daughter to mother, which was the climax of an event that took place in the Park of Saint-Cloud on Wednesday night.

Upping the color quotient
Color has emerged as a major hook for fashion brands and retailers, with mid-season injections of merchandise translating to a vast array of shades in stores.

Japan's 'inner wear' revolution
Tokyo women have become increasingly attuned to concepts like comfort and eco-friendliness without ignoring their sensuality.

Tattoos gain new visibility
Artists with prominent Chelsea galleries and thriving careers, practicing physicians, funeral directors, fashion models and stylists are turning up with more holes in their faces than nature provided, and all manner of marks on their body.

Hong Kong style, with a bit of sparkle
The moment that the Hong Kong singer Eason Chan Yik-Shun started wearing 1980s-style MC Hammer pants at live performances, it seemed inevitable the look would start appearing on the street and in trendy clubs.

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.

India to reconsider luxury brand limits
During a visit to Paris on Wednesday, the Indian trade minister, Kamal Nath, said he would think about allowing foreign retailers to own 100 percent of their companies in India, up from 51 percent today.

Weaving a story in Laotian silk
Anou Thammavong, a French designer of Laotian descent, is creating high-end silks that he hopes will crack the upper echelons of the fashion world.

New Parisian boutiques in all shapes and sizes
While the major players are reaching out to their clientele with larger stores and a more targeted offer, small, innovative boutiques are investing in elegant back streets for a highly intimate shopping experience.

Building fashion empires of their own
Although LVMH, PPR and Richemont shifted their acquisition engines down a gear in recent years, it still is obvious that these multi-tentacled corporations wield a mind-boggling power in the fashion business.

Online fashion studies arrive in Italy
Italian fashion companies have come to recognize the potential of online sales and now one of the country's most highly regarded universities is stepping in to train a new breed of managers for that growing industry.

Dubai to finance Villa Moda growth
Majed al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti lifestyle retailer known in the fashion world as the "Sheik of Chic," has teamed up with the government of Dubai to create a global brand development strategy for his Villa Moda enterprise.

Conquering the frontiers for luxury
A seismic shift has begun in how fashion marketers view the world's mature, emerging and frontier markets, with many to focus on countries that were once on the fringes of fashion.
- Risk prerequisite for profit

Handbag heaven
Caroline Calabria, owner of the Vintage Art Gallery, is often one of the first arrivals at a local market to search the jumbled stalls for vintage handbags.

Handbags - big and bigger
Far from the world of the tiny beaded clutch, iconic French bags combine quality and quantity - think the chunky Louis Vuitton Speedy, the spacious YSL Muse or the roomy Hermès Birkin.

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?

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.

Watch sales slowing down
The emerging markets miracle will not be enough to prevent 2008 from being the year the Swiss watchmaking industry suffers its first significant slowdown in half a decade.

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.

The Paris-New York rivalry
A new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York studies the relationship between the Big Apple and the City of Light in their competition for status as the world's fashion capital.

A new address in style: Palais Royal
The sleeping beauty of Paris is finally starting to stir thanks to a number of suitors, each with his unique luxury kiss.

Lanvin in talks with Qatar investor
Lanvin is in talks to sell a stake to an unnamed investor in Qatar in a deal that could value the French fashion house at around €150 million.

Identifying fakes by hand
Assuming that you didn't buy the dress in a back alley from some shifty guy in dark glasses, it's often difficult to tell a designer garment from a fake.

Fashion film gets a life of its own
In a digital age, fashion companies are making short films, typically one to five minutes long and produced for the internet.

Dundas to join Pucci
Peter Dundas, the Norwegian designer of colorful, hippie de luxe glamour, will be the new creative director at Emilio Pucci, with an official announcement expected Friday from its parent company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

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.

Ready for a closeup
Makeup sellers seeking to make their products stand out on crowded cosmetic counters are expanding into a niche once reserved for people who live under the scrutiny of the camera lens: high-definition makeup.

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.