March '04
Hint pays attention to retail


With his Mt. Fuji-shaped skirts, exaggerated polka dots and head-engulfing hoodies, Ziad Ghanem is truly big in Japan. The Lebanon-to-London transplant is also the latest Westerner to design a limited-edition collection for Celux, the LVMH-owned shop and members-only club at the top of the glittering Louis Vuitton Omotesando building in Tokyo, where membership costs a mere ¥197,900 ($1850) plus hefty annual dues. It includes, however, priceless access to Ghanem's's one-off punk-inspired collection—among the racks of Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy, Kenzo, Pucci—unavailable in the other dozen or so Japanese shops where his regular women's and men's line is stocked. Perhaps the designer's biggest fan is his muse and mother, a model in Lebanon during its heyday in the 60s and 70s, who apparently never stopped wearing couture, even while preggers, and who still maintains an unequaled vintage couture collection. That's what we call lipstick Lebanese. Ghanem's own label can be found in London at Concrete, +44 0 207 434 4333; in Paris at Surface to Air; and in New York at Dernier Cri, 869 Washington Street, 212-242-6061. (MORE IMAGES)

Think globally, buy locally. That's the message Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo hopes will save the fashion world from big brand oppression. In a show of grassroots support, the ever-independent designer opened her first Guerrilla Store in Berlin's nondescript Mitte district last month. A small outlet carrying an assortment of merchandise—not just Comme des Garçons—from a variety of seasons, it's the first of twenty such stores that will spread out across the globe, but each lasting only one year. Deliberately unobtrusive, the stores are set up in dusty old buildings far from established commercial areas, with a bare minimum of expense and virtually no outside trace of CdG. The second city to receive the honor is Barcelona, whose very own Guerilla Store opened March 19, with advertising consisting only of a city-wide smattering of posters, like the one pictured here. Future locations include Stockholm, Warsaw, unrecognizable names in Slovenia and Lithuania, and Brooklyn come September. Fight the power brands!
Why send a postcard when you can wear one? A near decade into her reign, the Queen of Milan has taken her collections to new and unexpected places season after season. But for spring, the tireless Miuccia Prada clearly had travel on the brain, sending her clothes on a vacation to locales as varied as Venice—where this button dirndl got its print—and Mesopotamia, home to the ancient tie-dye technique employed throughout the collection. Could the woman be saying she needs a break. -Suleman Anaya

A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Study fashion at Parsons The New School for Design in NYC
 

The last fashion show invitation for the New York label Duckie Brown ordered guests to "show your cock at the door," so it's no wonder editors, buyers and stylists are giving the men's line with a rooster insignia a long, hard look. Steven Cox (don't laugh) and Daniel Silver formed the outré label just over two years ago, and have since drawn inspiration from English children's games, 18th century chandeliers and the late British stylist Ray Petri's images of 80's youth culture, among other UK-centric sources. As a result, the Duckie Brown look is a bit mad, but lad, with cock ring totes, fingerless 'wanker' gloves, men's clutch wallets with make-up mirrors and proper tailored suits appealing to East Villagers and Connecticut quarterbacks alike. When we asked Cox what the best part of being a designer is, he told us, "I got my mom to say 'cock ring.'" That's Duckie Brown in a nutshell. -Cator Sparks
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