When Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli painted his Birth of Venus between 1485 and 1486, he most likely would never have figured that Venus, with her tummy pouch and sensual, curvy, and milky soft skin, would be considered a plus size in today’s thin-obsessed world. However, if Venus was into today's latest trends, she might not even be able to find her size in fashion retail stores.

It’s taken more than 520 years, but the Italian Renaissance for modern curvy women has been launched. Well, at least in Italy it has. Vogue Italia is rediscovering curvy women and dedicating a section of its online site to full-figured ladies, calling it Vogue Curvy.Continue reading...

Retail search engine Like.com added Couturious – a new website that allows users to virtually style 3D models – to its list of acquisitions.

Couturious uses clothing from more than 100 labels and allows visitors to personalize their own styles according to their tastes and physiques. According to TechCrunch, “The idea is for users to not figure out what to wear but how to wear it.” Members can purchase individual pieces and post styled outfits on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Couturious has collaborated with 6 designers, and is granting users virtual access to clothing shown at New York City’s Fall 2010 Fashion Week. These pieces are not yet available in stores, and feature looks styled by 20 fashion bloggers. Like.com hopes that this feeling of exclusivity coupled with its unique hands-on approach to fashion will appeal to budding stylists.Continue reading...

Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet says that the show will go on. At an annual results presentation in Paris last week that opened with a video tribute to late designer Lee Alexander McQueen, Polet reinforced his faith in the future of the brand that Gucci Group owns a 51 percent stake in. Moving forward with the business would be the best testimony to his talent, he said, although adding that Lee is irreplaceable.
 
Reviving a brand after the death of a flamboyant founder has been a tough task to follow. Versace has yet to garner the same praise as it did with Gianni at helm and Valentino is on their second creative director since Mr. Valentino retired in 2008. His immediate successor, creative director Alessandra Facchinetti, famously learned of her firing through the press after Mr. Valentino had allegedly complained about Facchinetti's alleged lack of respect for his brand.Continue reading...

French fashion designer Christian Audigier has designed for a wide range of brands, including Lee, Naf Naf, Liberto, and Kookai. He is famously the creative force behind love them/hate them brand juggernauts Von Dutch and Ed Hardy.

Audigier has also collaborated on a brand of wine and champagne and a nightclub in a Las Vegas Casino. He understands the power of branding probably as well as any designer or marketer. That is why his latest move is so entertaining.

In the Las Vegas Sun, Robin Leach (Yes, that Robin Leach!) writes that Christian Audigier is "going to make the ultimate fashion statement here this week with the revelation that he’s here to launch a no name, no logo and no brand line. One of the flashiest men on the planet is going flash free!"Continue reading...

The economic downturn has caused many fashion houses to either close or completely reinvent their brand strategies. Rather than making such a drastic move, Carolina Herrera is smartly adjusting her prices.

Last year, Herrera's company, owned by Puig SL, laid off 5 percent of its employees and lost its president to Vera Wang. The brand continued to cut spending with additional changes, one of which included trimming prices by 10 percent.Continue reading...

Is it just me, or are thighs suddenly in?

In the March issue of Elle Magazine, shoe retailer Nine West displayed a model sprawled in the ocean and the first thing I noticed, before even her shoes, were her thighs. A few pages over, Tommy Hilfiger’s model had some meat on her bones, and distinctive thighs. Hugo Boss featured a model holding a handbag – and she had some girth to her as well.

Rest assured, rib cages and concaved chests have not disappeared from the latest fashion ad campaigns. But today many fashion brands are willing to cast a model that has a more relatable – meaning bigger – body type to potential customers. And some models are even choosing to take their health over the opportunity to walk in a high profile fashion show or fit into sample sizes used in ad campaigns.Continue reading...

It’s no longer nerdy to channel Avatar. British stalwart Burberry will live stream its fall runway show in 3-D in four cities. While models take the stage in London on February 23, onlookers in New York, Paris, Dubai and Tokyo will be chicly geek in their 3D appropriate glasses.

This five-city visual bonanza will mark the first time a brand has broadcast live simultaneous events in 3-D worldwide, says WWD. Burberry will also stream its show in 2-D at live.burberry.com for at-home viewers, who can comment on the collection in real time using their Facebook and Twitter accounts.Continue reading...

How can brand marketers preserve ad dollars in a tough economy? Re-use past ad images, of course.

That's what luxury brand Gucci is doing in its latest worldwide watch campaign.

Gucci has brought back black-and-white photos of the model Veruschka and the actor Peter Sellers which ran in Gucci ads in the 1960s. Three new watches will be shown in color, overlaid onto the photos in the background. One of the watches is a nod to contemporary times -- it is the first-ever digital Gucci watch.Continue reading...