Artworks of Yves Saint Laurent and Bergé to be sold
Pierre Bergé will auction the artworks he collected with his partner, Yves Saint Laurent, in Paris in February. They include works by Picasso, Léger, Brancusi, Braque; Matisse and Mondrian.

Feminism beneath the frivolity of crinoline
The Paris exhibition "Sous l'Empire des Crinolines 1852-1870" suggests that crinoline, while a lighthearted pleasure, was also the founding of a commercial fashion industry and the force behind democratic department stores and women's active new lives.

Designer 'Christmas trees' sold at Paris auction
At the "Les Sapins de Noël des Créateurs" charity auction in Paris, 44 designer Christmas trees in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles were sold.

The heist at Harry's
The thieves behind the Harry Winston heist in Paris have been nicknamed the Pink Panthers, after the movie.

Stephen Webster of Garrard's: The crown hipster of jewelry
As the new creative director of Garrard, the crown jeweler, Stephen Webster is expected to bring more than the rock 'n' roll spirit he tuned into when he spent the 1980s in California. Ron Burkle, Garrard's current owner, is hoping to match heritage with hip and welcome Webster's smoking-hot celebrity clientele.
- Jewelry sets responsible standards

Even in recession, spend they must: Luxury shoppers anonymous
Just because the sun is going down on the economy doesn't mean well-heeled women have to stop shopping. But it doesn't mean they're proud of it.

Karl Lagerfeld's silent cinema brings Moscow to Paris
With the film "Paris-Moscou," the designer added another string to his bow as he unveiled last week both the mini-movie and a new "satellite" collection for Chanel.

Czar power: Tracing imperial splendor
The exhibition "Magnificence of the Tsars" at London's Victoria and Albert Museum (until March 29) traces the development of czar style from Peter the Great to Peter II.

Rare and colorful diamonds on display in London
The Aurora collection of 296 colored diamonds, with a 267.45 carat weight, has been collected and selected over 25 years by Alan Bronstein. They are now on display at London's Natural History Museum.
- Jewelry sets responsible standards

New knits define a rugged masculinity
The moment of the "metro-sexual" male is past. This season sweaters are rugged and comforting and the patterns, indisputably masculine.

Luxury prices are falling; the sky, too
Black Friday had an unreal quality for stores selling luxury goods, as retailers had to drastically slash prices to stay afloat during a turbulent economy.

Gifts for hard cases
Five design experts offer guidance on what to buy for people who truly are impossible to shop for.

Luxury luggage woos the jet set
Well-known luggage brands like Samsonite, as well as luxury brands better known for fashion like Gucci and Prada, are tapping into a desire for distinctive luggage.

Haute cuisine hits a fashion high
It's not just a fashionista's fantasy: Pret-a-Portea at the Berkeley Hotel in the Knightsbridge section of London really does serve edible versions of designer collections, updated every six months for a fashionable high tea.

Jourdan Dunn named model of the year
Jourdan Dunn, 19, picked up the award as model of the year at the British Fashion Awards last week.

Sonia Rykiel: Designer for the independent woman
"Sonia Rykiel, Exhibition" at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (until April 19) celebrates 40 years of the designer who was part of a generation that rejected the staid grandeur of haute couture and made prêt-à-porter for the newly emerging, dynamic woman of the 1960s.

Hats off for milliner Stephen Jones

Wearing a crown of his own design, Stephen Jones, milliner extraordinaire, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the model and fashion personality Erin O'Connor at the British Fashion Awards.

Jennifer Aniston: Screens Goddess
Jennifer Aniston could watch herself on a TV, a movie screen, an iPhone or a laptop. But mostly she tunes herself out — while everyone else tunes her in.

Trying to grasp the revolution that was YSL
The challenge for the de Young museum in San Francisco, which is hosting "Yves Saint Laurent" until April 5, is to put this great body of YSL work in context.

Jeanne Lanvin's art collection to be auctioned
Jeanne Lanvin's collection of 31 artworks, which reads like a list of Impressionism to early Modernism, goes on sale at Christie's in Paris on Dec. 1.

Paris's newest and hippest shopping destination
The elegant shop that Yohji Yamamoto opened last week in Paris marks a fashion moment: a flagship on the cusp of haute couture and hip style for the Japanese designer, and the consecration of a discreet new shopping street - the Rue du Mont Thabor.

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.

Luxe is losing its edge
The first recession in luxury-goods sales in nearly 20 years has forced companies like Bulgari and Cartier to economize.

Luxury waits for no recovery
What global financial meltdown? Ready or not, here comes a new wave of jewel-encrusted accessories.

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.

The 24-karat handbag
With an eye toward diversifying, jewelers are giving their trade a whole new context: deluxe designer bags, embellished with precious metals and stones.

Fifth Avenue outdoes itself for the holidays
From Saks to Bergdorf Goodman, from Tiffany to Harry Winston, creative geniuses try to outdo each other with window displays that delight the eye and lift the spirit.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Russian jewelers revive the spirit of Fabergé
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russians, rejecting austerity, thirsted for a return to imperial glamor. Jewelers have been happy to oblige.

Rich in gold and gemstones, the insignia of chivalry offer dazzling glimpses of the past
Insignia are not only windows into the history of nations and rulers, but also into the craftsmanship of the artisans from around the world who made them.

Claddagh ring gets the message across
On the proper hand, and in the right atmosphere, the ring can emit signals ranging from Come Hither to Get Lost.

Jewelers cope as cost of gold remains high
Some use alternative metals, others more of an open weave. Still some just follow their artistic inspiration and raise their prices.

Jewelers rediscover silver
After watching gold and platinum prices climb to historical highs in the spring, and then slip to virtual parity for the first time in a decade, a number of high-end designers have rediscovered silver.

Around a neck,

Kris Van Assche, a young Belgian-born designer, says that his work is a fusion of nostalgic heritage and radical modernism. In his world, traditionally tailored suits and rich fabrics cross and meld with bathing suits and sportswear - the whole eclectic collection being held together with blue suspenders, shod with futuristic high-top sneakers and set off by accessories that speak to Van Assche's own hopes and experiences.

Enzo Mari: A rebel with an obsession for form
An exhibition of works by Enzo Mari opened last week at Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin and it offers a timely reminder of what a gifted designer he is.

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.

Bill Gibb: A bittersweet story of a forgotten designer
"Billy: Bill Gibb's Moment in Time," an exhibition at London's Fashion and Textile Musuem remembers a forgotten fashion hero.

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.

Concept watches blur the line between dream and reality
At the top end of the market, specialist watchmakers increasingly are rolling out their latest, most complicated designs before the watches have even been built. Some collectors are happy to wait for delivery; as long as the watches work.

Luxury watch brands designing for security
Vast improvements in the quality of counterfeit watches, that have made it much harder to distinguish fakes from the real thing, have inspired luxury brands to reach out to state-of-the-art anti-counterfeiting technology.

Kris Van Assche, a designer who puts his heart into his jewelry
"Para Siempre," coming to stores in the spring, will be the latest in a line of heart-pendant necklaces by the Belgian-born designer Kris Van Assche.

In bad times, as in good, Antiquorum and Patrizzi fight on
While major auction houses are navigating through an unfolding financial crisis, Antiquorum, the watch auction specialist, and its former chairman, Osvaldo Patrizzi, are ending the year pitched dangerously in the wake of their acrimonious break-up.

The race is on to build the world's fastest watch
The Zenith El Primero's 40-year-old record for vibration speed could soon be broken. Chopard Technologies has been testing a new movement that would have 72,000 vibrations per hour, compared with El Primero's 36,000.

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.

Matthew Williamson to design collection for H&M
Swedish fashion retailer H&M AB on Tuesday said Britain's Matthew Williamson will design its summer guest collection.

Romeo Gigli launches a new line

Romeo Gigli, the Italian designer who defined the softer and poetic side of the brash 1980s, is back. But not under his own name, which no longer belongs to him, but a combination of words that the cognoscenti will recognize immediately: io ipse idem. With Italian investment, the renaisssance was announced on Thursday.

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.

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.