Mistake or On Purpose? Rihanna Wears Completely See-Through Dress, But No Bra Under! (PHOTOS)

She’s no stranger to controversial outfits. But last night Rihanna took things to a whole new level as she arrived at Eden nightclub in Hollywood wearing a completely see-through dress. The 24-year-old singer went bra-less for the night out, with a sheer fabric black fitting dress, showing her pierced nipples and black underwear. Rihanna took center stage with her outfit choice, but kept her face make-up natural and added a bright red lipstick. The singer finished off the outfit with a pair of pink and gold toe-cap heels. Rihanna is enjoying some time till the start of her Diamonds world tour, which kicks off in the beginning March.

PICTURES FROM CHINA FASHION

Eve Fashion Group Interview Part II

Continuing on from Part I of my interview with Eve Fashion Group’s CEO Xie Hua, in Part II, she discusses the relevance of China Fashion Week and the importance of holding fashion shows for company unity. How does China Fashion Week influence the Chinese fashion industry? With 16 years history, China Fashion Week (CFW) has supported the industry, nurtured Chinese brands, and educated the media about fashion. Without CFW, no domestic fashion brands would understand what fashion shows are about. However, many successful apparel brands in China have never done a fashion show. They think that if their clothes sell well and seeing there are no buyers at the shows anyway, there is no point to put on a show. In that case, how do fashion shows and taking part in China Fashion Week benefit your brand? We do fashion shows for various reasons and it doesn’t always have to be for the media. Sometimes its to treat our VIPs to a special event and sometimes its more for marketing. One reason we do shows is to give our designers a stage to try things and get experience. Because the cost of holding a show is so prohibitive, young independent designers couldn’t afford to do their own show. That’s another reason why designers should work for big companies first – so they get a platform and chance to be part of a big show. Often this is more useful to them than just receiving a salary The other main reason we do shows is to define the company’s identity and align everyone internally about our mission and direction. Holding a show every year will also help to identify and resolve any internal issues and so is important for everyone’s moral, not just the designers. Do brands like Chanel and Giorgio Armani still have to do shows the get media attention? I doubt it. They do the shows for the same reason we do, for their own people, for the company internally.

Two years ago you held a show for Notting Hill in China’s top Luxury Mall. Do you plan to do more shows in public places? Yes, we opened China Fashion Week with a show inside Beijing’s Shin Kong Place Mall. That was quite a feat, especially considering we did it in the main entrance in front of big brand stores including Chanel, Hugo Boss and Bulgari etc. In China its always very difficult to do events in public that attract crowds and you need lots of Government approvals etc. Then, when you invite VIPs and celebrities, fans can go crazy so you have to manage that as well. During the entire show I was focused on the crowd - making sure no one would create a disturbance etc. Although technically it was challenging, in the end it was very successful and we had 300 people seated for over half an hour and everything went smoothly. Overall, doing a show like this is very difficult for any brand so we wont be able to do it too often. What is install for China’s fashion industry in the next five years? The next five years will bring big changes as Chinese brands will start to get more international attention. Now its comparable or even cheaper to open concessions overseas because rent in China rent is becoming so expensive. So Eve Group has already started opening retail outlets overseas. The last ten years we had rapid we had development for low-end and fast fashion Chinese brands. I think the time has come for high-end Chinese brands to find their space and make their mark on the world.

Eve Fashion Group Interview Part I

As Founder and Chairman of Eve Fashion Group and also acting in other prominent roles for the China Fashion Association and China Entrepreneur Club etc. Ms. Xie Hua is an influential figure in the Chinese fashion industry. She is a regular speaker at domestic and international fashion events and never shy to speak her mind on what is (and should be ) taking place in China’s fashion industry. The Eve Group is one of China’s most successful menswear companies who’s stable of brands includes Notting Hill, Jaques Pritt and Kevin Kelly etc. plus an variety of products and accessories that tap into and promote Chinese culture. Several months ago planned to spend an hour or so interviewing Xie Hua with a few questions about her company and the Chinese fashion industry at large. What I got instead was an amazing history and culture lesson plus a tour of Eve’s headquarters in South West Beijing. After a long exercise in translation, below are excerpts from my interview with Xie Hua with part two focusing on China Fashion Week to be published next week. Any translation errors are completely my own. How did you get started in the fashion industry? When I graduated from university there was no such thing a ‘fashion’ industry in China, there was just a ‘clothing industry’, so obviously a career path in fashion didn’t exist either.. Originally I was a university law teacher, then in1994 I led a student tour to some factories in Guangzhou. The most successful factories were all making clothing and the owners were rich yet hadn’t even graduated from primary school, After that tour, I saw the business opportunity in making clothes and so I quit teaching and started Eve Fashion Group.

How did you grow your business in the early days? Our first major campaign was in 1999. A lot of advertising companies gave me advice to advertise on TV etc., but I ignored them all. I decided to spend our entire year’s advertising budget in one day which everyone thought was completely crazy. So on Valentine’s Day I spent the entire budget on gifts and sent them to thousands of men. Back then men tended to only meet women in their work environment, so when they all received valentine’s gifts they freaked out and didn’t know who it was from. Once they opened it the gift they discovered it was from Eve and through this we spread our name and became known in the market. Later we started giving VIPs gifts such as tea pots and they were so popular that customers would request them and so we became known for our non-fashion products too. Following this we decided to expand into cultural products as well. Why has fashion and luxury consumption grown so much over the last few years in China? During the 90s we started to see ‘brands’ emerge in China, but there weren’t any mono-brand stores or flagships like we see today. Everyone just went to department stores with racks upon racks of dodgy mannequins and uninteresting black and grey clothes. People would just feel the clothes or maybe try them on and then buy it and leave. They didn’t know or care what brand it was and there was no ‘shopping experience’ at all. Then China’s economy started to grow and China became more open to foreign things like fashion. These days Chinese are very conscious of everything they do and always consider what they are eating, wearing, using and watching, etc. Taking advantage of this, many big brands entered the China market, and now many Chinese think nothing of spending tens of thousands of Renminbi on an outfit. There are now restrictions on buying and trading property and its the same for cars because the government restricts the number of license plates it issues. But if rich people cant buy houses and cars then what else can they spend money on? The government never restricted what individuals can wear so the only thing to spend money on is clothes. Only a decade or two ago, when you got married it was mandatory to buy a TV for the household, then it was a computer, now the price of one outfit for some people could even by a cheapish car. Some Chinese don’t think price an issue at all, but in many parts of the West this would be over the top. How can high-end Chinese brands develop and compete with the European houses? I was once preparing to give a speech at a fashion conference and had a beautiful PPT ready to go, then the speaker before me spoke about his company and brand started by his great, great, great grandfather. Even with beautiful slides, there was no way I could top a story about four generations old brand, so in the end I just spoke about how luxury evolved in China. Actually, China has an extremely rich history of high-class products and an appetite for luxury. In feudal times people would go and catch pure snow flakes to boil into the highest quality and most sought after tea. This shows that for hundreds of years we were very sophisticated and had refined tastes. European brands have long histories and they use this partly to justify their high prices. Most Chinese brands can’t boast heritage like this, but they need to develop their own attitude to approach the market. I’ve heard some people say the reason Europe is more developed in fashion is due to their diligent research of the human anatomy. To this I reply that Chinese have been researching the human body inside and out for thousands of years. Ancient Chinese chairs were designed so people sit in a best position to stimulate the body’s meridians and nourish the flow of chi. Moreover, clothing was deliberately made large so people could move freely and remain relaxed which was optimum for health. So although Chinese brands like Eve have only been in business for 15 years, we should be able to charge respectable prices because we have thousands of years of research and philosophy imbedded in the designs. What are the challenges for young fashion designers today? We have various cooperations with Central St. Martins, Parsons and China Central TV’s Project Runway show that exposes me to a lot of young designers around the world. In general, I have discovered the most common challenge for them is marketing. Despite graduating from fancy design courses they just don’t understand marketing at all. Therefore, I insist all our designers spend time in the store working on the sales floor to understand why people are buying Inevitably they learn that the reasons people buy are different form what they originally thought. Also, many designers act like they are artists (so think they don’t need to learn marketing). But artists often don’t care if anyone ever sees their art, they mostly just do for themselves, and if an artist’s work isn’t seen it doesn’t mean he’s not successful. Fashion designers dream about how many people will wear their clothes, but if their clothes aren’t worn and don’t sell it does mean they aren’t successful. So designers should know their market and although they are creative there are different demands for them and artists. With China’s booming fashion market is it viable for young graduates/designers to start their own brands? I don’t recommend these young people try to start their own brand straight away. Fashion theories taught in schools don’t necessarily translate into the real world and only inside the industry can you understand consumer’s habits. Designers also need to give them self space to design, and not be distracted by all the other tasks running a company requires. A great designer isn’t necessarily a great CEO. Does the designer understand lighting, merchandising and accounting? Unlikely! I know a guy who started a brand and for five years he didn’t go anywhere because he was too busy running around designing and couldn’t manage the business side of things. So my advice to designers is to get two or three years work experience inside an established fashion a company before starting your own brand. Let the market be your school for a while. Are there opportunities for foreign fashion designers to work for Chinese brands?? As many more business relationships are being formed between Chinese companies and overseas schools etc. there are growing opportunities to work with Chinese brands. But it’s not easy for foreign designers to find work in China. Even just filling out the working permit forms is a nightmare. Therefore you need to find a Chinese company willing to hire you and help with all of this. We like to work with foreign designers who have lived in China and can understand the Chinese customer, but are not based in China full time. We like international designers for their brain and creative visions which are better nurtured outside China. To be a full time designer in China its perfectly fine for us to employ Chinese designers

pictures from china runway

Trussardi Opens New Flagship Store on the Bund

Trussardi family business looks to expand on back of Chinese demand. Tomaso Trussardi is just 29 years old, but he reckons he is old and sophisticated enough to know a thing or two about helping run a multimillon-euro company.”I was born into this company,” says Trussardi, a fourth-generation descendant of Dante Trussardi, who founded the Trussardi Group, the Italian luxury clothing and fashion accessories maker.”The skill of CEO is something in my DNA, and I have learned to be a CEO since I came into this world.” Trussardi’s forebears, especially his father, Nicola Trussardi, turned a small glove-making business established in 1911 in Bergamo into a brand appreciated by British royalty and European fashionistas. But the family was struck by tragedy when Tomaso’s father and his brother Francesco died in car crashes in 1999 and 2003. Tomaso’s older sister Beatrice became CEO of Trussardi Group in 2002, and Tomaso is CEO of TRS Evolution, the Trussardi Group company that produces clothing and accessories.The company is now writing a new chapter in its history in Shanghai. It has opened a leather fashion house on the Bund, the well-known tourist destination. To many, the decision has evoked memories of a similar operation his father, a trendsetter in Italy, started in Milan in 1976. “We want to grow,” Trussardi says. “We are growing at a double-digit rate in every market. And speaking of growing, since Europe is in recession and there is little market share for us in America, we would like to focus on China.”China is one of the company’s fastest-growing markets, he says.Even though the international consulting firms Bain & Co and McKinsey & Co have both said the Chinese market for luxury products expanded at a slower pace last year and will continue to do so in the coming couple of years, China’s demand for luxury goods remains strong. Bain has predicted that 2012 will turn in a growth figure of 7 percent, and McKinsey has suggested the rate will be between 12 and 16 percent for the next three years; it was 18 percent in 2011.According to a recent McKinsey report on luxuries, by 2015 more than a third of the money spent in the world on luxury bags, shoes, watches and clothing will come from Chinese consumers.Trussardi’s new flagship store in Shanghai, the first one in the Chinese mainland, is in a prestigious building on the Bund.Its two floors occupy 400 square meters and present a decorative facade that the company believes will present “a chic look and perfectly interpret Trussardi luxury”.”It is a completely different one from other stores in European cities,” Trussardi says. “The exterior design of this store is brand new, a work of Michael Young, an internationally renowned designer. And we have given our greyhound logo a tri-dimensional look only for this store.”Trussardi says it is difficult for him to tell what influences or changes he is bringing to the company.”I am trying to stick to what we are. I don’t want to make big changes, but only move faster to develop the business, for example, in this market.” The company now has 440 stores in 23 countries. Although the brand has been known in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai through its Tru Trussardi collection, it was not until the beginning of last year that it introduced its primary line.Trussardi says he believes the market is now ready for a brand such as Trussardi, which, he says, has much more than a popular logo.The Chinese are no longer obsessed with logos and are instead more attracted to craftsmanship, quality products and Italian lifestyle, he says.”Chinese customers now are more mature.”His beliefs find support from Bain and McKinsey. Bruno Lannes, partner at Bain in China and the lead author of the China Luxury Market Study, says luxury shoppers in China have gone from “showing off” to “recognizing and learning”.The change will pose difficulties to luxury brands, which will lose customers unless they offer them something more relevant than “the status of those brands”, he says.Shoppers in second and third-tier cities in China continue to acknowledge being attracted to products with “remarkable logos”, but 65 percent of the shoppers Bain polled in Shanghai and Beijing said they plan to buy fewer luxuries bearing well-known logos.McKinsey, on the other hand, found that two-thirds of the respondents to its Chinese Luxury Consumer Survey “agreed or strongly agreed” that they prefer luxury goods that are understated. And more than half of the respondents said they think “showing off luxury goods is in bad taste”.Two years ago only 37 percent of the respondents expressed such a view.

In the next five years Trussardi plans to open 15 stores in China that will be completely managed by the company itself, as well as 15 in the Asia-Pacific region. The company now has total managerial control of 25 percent of its stores.”Chinese customers are really willing to spend a lot of money on what they want,” Trussardi says.”In Europe or the United States it may take at least half an hour to sell a bag that is priced over 1,000 euros ($1,320), while here, Chinese customers are like ‘goal customers’ who don’t bother with money.”For Trussardi, the biggest difficulty in China will come in giving people an understanding of its brand without “taking customers back to Italy”.”Trussardi is first a family,” says Trussardi, who began appearing in the company’s advertisements at the suggestion of his father when he was 15 years old. “The identity of Trussardi first comes from a family.”In keeping with that practice, Trussardi’s film-star looks were featured in a recent video clip promoting the brand’s newest perfume in a campaign to mark the 100th anniversary of the company.Trussardi has a master’s degree in corporate finance and banking from Bocconi University in Milan. Wanting to practice the techniques of communication, he once worked as a journalist.After reporting for three years on what he called “the hot topics of the day”, he says he prefers his present job, although it comes with more responsibilities.”My father and my mother, along with my family, give me my thoughts and also my experience. That’s something in my DNA. It’s genetic. I am really lucky because I have the possibilities to grow in the environment of my family and … to become who I am.” Source: