Croatia Online - Croatia in 2009?

It may be a little late to wish readers a happy New Year in the traditional sense but the Chinese have only just celebrated their New Year and that's our excuse!

After a longer than normal trip to the UK for the Christmas break, and a couple of weeks back in Croatia to catch up on the news, it's good to find a refreshing buzz to Croatia compared with the doom and gloom of America and Western Europe.

Croatia's banks didn't go mad on the fringes of the financial systems - derivitatives, or excessive risky lending for example - like many of their global counter parts, and thus do not have a banking system crisis of their own. Croatia seems likely, however, to be dragged into recession soon. Forecasts on growth figures vary but the picture is far less dire than the UK for example. That's not to say that Croatia doesn't have it's own problems - government debt is high and, as GDP shrinks, repayments and interest will be harder to meet and debt may grow further still. Later in the year it will also, no doubt, be more affected by financial contagion - the fall out of western Europe's problems to those it trade's with. Plus, most of Croatia's banks have foreign banks as parent companies who will, of course, be looking to tap their more liquid subsidiaries for cash.

Tourism is a big factor in Croatia's economy and opinions vary as to what that holds for 2009. Astutely, the Croatia National Tourist Board has increased its marketing spend significantly, and the optimists believe that those who have had to defer big spending decisions - new houses, cars and yachts - will still want to cheer themselves up with a holiday. Value for money will be the watchwords but that doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a resurgence of low budget holidays at the expense of more upscale treats. Travellers will just need a little bit more convincing that they are placing their trust with a reputable travel company, hotel or agency, and that their allocated budget will be well spent. Experts suggest that, in times of crisis, spenders in the luxury markets stick to well established brands with a strong heritage, and quality marketing. Wise Croatian company's in the tourism industry will therefore pick their marketing outlets carefully and make sure they offer customers good value at all budget ranges. The tourist board is advising hotels to maintain prices at last year's levels unless there have been improvements in facilities, and let's hope this good advice is heeded.

Croatia has never been a country to be sucked wholesale into western european hype - whether it be massive consumerism, reckless borrowing or financial wheeler dealing. Yes, we witnessed an increase in personal borrowing last year - on new cars for example - but traditional principles are still strong and lets hope that one of them - living within your means, and saving when you can - is not punished here like it seems to be in the rest of the world, whilst the converse is rewarded.

On the streets, certainly the Dalmatians, appear to be out in numbers as before, enjoying their coffee, as soon as the sun shines. In a region where resourcefulness is a strong part of the national make up, and the simple pleasures have not been overwhelmed or overtaken by technological ones, life seems to go on happily as before. Let's hope that endures!

And finally, those that have deferred buying their new yacht but still fancy a cruise around one of the best sailing destinations in the world, might want to try a charter in Croatia this year. To whet your appetite, why not get a copy of our Croatia Cruising Companion, covering the Dalmatian Coast and Islands - more information on our sister site - www.croatiacruisingcompanion.blogspot.com!

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Today's photo is of the new street furniture on Split Riva, provided to mark the World Handball Championship taking place in Croatia. The final is today - Croatia v France. Hopefully the winter cheer in Croatia will be cemented by a home team victory!

Interview with Maria Luisa Poumaillou

fashiontraveler.com
From farfetch.com

Her unique outlook and intuitive buying style has made Maria Luisa Poumaillou one of the most iconic and influential women in Paris. Owner and buyer of the directional Maria Luisa boutique, she has been feeding the Parisian’s discerning appetite for style for over two decades. Here, farfetch.com talks to the woman behind the boutique about her passion for new talent and freedom of expression.

2009 sees the 21st year of the Maria Luisa boutique in the fashionable Saint Honoré district, how did you make your start in the industry?

Maria Luisa: I’d say almost by accident. My husband and I were associated to this friend who had designed a collection and we were supposed to open a store with her, on rue Cambon where our first boutique was located. We clashed so both friendship and shop project sank. We ended up with an empty store which we had already invested money in. I decided to call all the designers I liked and had seen from magazines and asked them to carry their collection. Naively, when they asked me which other designers I carried, I mentioned the names of the other designers I just had called – and it worked! I think I already had a strong taste, but I didn’t know much how things worked at the time!

What were the first labels to be stocked and how have these names evolved since your first buy with them?

Maria Luisa: There are not many comments to make about the designers that I carried right from the opening of the store: Martine Sitbon – which I have always carried until today under the Rue du Mail label; John Galliano - what is there to say?; Helmut Lang - I was the first one to buy him here, before the 90’s – so influential. I could also mention Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela, Issey Miyake, Comme des Garçons. A lot of the brands I used to carry have disappeared since then, but still, we used to have such a huge success with Jean Colonna and Patrick Kelly. Also Rifat Ozbek and some other designers have become huge under their own names or in houses.

You’re renowned for a unique and intuitive buying style and when the first Maria Luisa boutique opened, Saint Honoré was considered a very traditional, couture-focused area. What was the reaction to your radical buying style?

Maria Luisa: We have had a very strong press support right from the beginning. Of course, commercially speaking, it wasn’t an easy task, but there was a freshness at the opening of the store that people really liked. The fashionistas, editors, models etc made it a success pretty early on. I think people were just plain excited to see something new with new designers around. Remember what the ‘houses’ like Dior etc looked like at the time - they were boring. Afterwards, so many of these designers ended up taking the lead in the houses, Galliano, McQueen, Marc Jacobs, Margiela at Hermès etc. It was an exciting time because people wanted a new direction, a new way of conceiving fashion, different from the traditional ‘bourgeois’ luxury from that time - a new silhouette, like Margiela’s or Helmut’s.

The boutique presents a real diversity in its collection. With names as disparate as Ann Demuelemeester and Charles Anastase, how do you begin to curate such a collection?

Maria Luisa: What we like in fashion is the freedom to be whoever you like. There are so many different styles, identities. I don’t like being stuck in a style rut – even though I have my own favourite designers of course. What our designers have in common is their talent, their creativity, but also the ability of surprising us. They also have to be efficient at their work - it is not only about ‘art’ - they also have to deal with the reality of everyday life. I guess what we are doing is the total opposite of big group’s logics - we want to transmit our enthusiasm, the things we are excited about, basically we want to relay these designers to the consumer. We are not pushing in only one direction like today’s marketing, but we want to feel free. Not that we are running after new things just for the sake of it, everything should be justified somehow. It sounds complex and messy but it makes sense in the end, it works in the store – it’s our secret recipe I guess.

In 1998, you introduced Manolo Blahnik to Maria Luisa, with just a handful of stockists outside of the Manolo Blahnik stores, having the collection exclusively in France must be a great asset to the boutique?

Maria Luisa: Yes, I guess it is an asset for the store, but it is also a partnership, a kind of mutual recognition. It is the best product, in terms of quality and style, such an exquisite taste, we are so happy to work with him. You know, it is like a Rolls Royce, you can’t find much better!

After several incarnations through the years, the Maria Luisa boutique now consists of a menswear boutique and the newly opened womenswear boutique on Rouget de L’Isle. What was the concept behind the store design and what kind of atmosphere did you want to achieve?

Maria Luisa: We have never been a ‘concept store’ so there was no other concept behind the store than to give our intuitive buying a frame for a unique shopping experience. We have never had impressive or obnoxious boutiques, we like the idea of our store open to new ideas as a gallery, but in a more lively way!

As part of your commitment to new talent, you’re a partner of the International Talent Support (ITS), a project which offers a platform for young creatives. Can you tell us about the project and the role of the Maria Luisa Award within it?

Maria Luisa: The dedicated team of ITS contacted us very early at the start of their organisation and we liked their project and also the way they see fashion, it’s pretty similar to ours actually. We are part of the jury who decides who wins the awards, but we also have our own ‘Maria Luisa’ award. It is more of an opportunity than an award in itself - it depends on the designer and what they want to do - most of them have only just graduated and we like to support their vision as much as we can. Some of them need contacts for a job in a house or an internship with one of our designers, some of them use our shop as a showroom during Fashion Week when they launch their own collection, like Peter Pilotto or Justin Smith (JSmith Esquire), some of them just want to do displays to include in their portfolios etc. I think basically we are there to help them in their first steps in the professional word of fashion. But we don’t only do that for people who get this award, we asked Heikki Salonen, who got the Diesel Award to produce a small collection for us. We also check a lot of schools around the world and of course support Hyères Festival.

You decided to join the farfetch.com project and were one of the original boutique partners for the launch in 2008, how important do you feel the role of e-commerce is for emerging and established fashion labels and boutiques?

Maria Luisa: E-commerce has to be integrated now for all sorts of businesses today. Not doing it would be like still riding a horse when there are already cars. Even though you can still ride a horse and own a car.

What new labels can we expect to see from the boutique for Spring/Summer 09?

Maria Luisa: The US duo Ohne Titel - one of the best collection of the season - with Helmut Lang infused looks and innovative knitwear; the Finnish Heikki Salonen with a collection discovered at ITS; Olivier Borde with a menswear collection first shown in Hyères Festival - very refined and childhood inspired; the jewellery of Arielle de Pinto - thinly knitted webs of silver and gold chains.

Ohne Titel

Dior Haute Couture Spring 09-10

Making a Case for Retail Innovation

From Coolhunter

Economic doom and gloom does have an upside. It has laid the foundations for a fertile new landscape of creativity and innovation. When the market gets tough brands have to work harder to keep their customers, they have to find more creative ways to engage them. Innovation becomes a must in the design process. It's a case of innovate or risk a likely death. Which is why we predict a rebirth of creativity across product design, marketing and retail design. This new era isn't about big dollars, it's about big ideas and originality. Expect the unexpected.

The Genius behind Chanel

Fifty Years Later: Chanel Couture Spring 09

From Women's Wear Daily January 27, 2009

“The idea was a white page,” Lagerfeld said days before his show. But there are white pages and white pages. For his, Lagerfeld commissioned a floral paradise crafted from 4,000 meters of plain, pristine paper. He “wanted everything graphic itself, no bling-bling,” to realize the idea, which came to him just after his over-the-top Russian-inspired satellite show in December: “Everything was so pushed — housecleaning was needed.”

Hence the move from the Grand Palais — “I’m glad it was empty,” Lagerfeld quipped of the landmark, now housing the show of another fellow, Picasso — to a former bank just up the street on the Rue Cambon. Along with it, he shifted his set approach from the single-prop, megainstallations of swirling tower, giant carousel and re-created city street to a glorious paper heaven (grand stairway and 32 columns covered in pristine bowers; paper flower centerpieces and lace cloths dressing cafe tables) that looked like the best work of the cleverest wedding planner in town, or a walk-in version of David Pelham’s ingenious pop-up book “Trail.” (Rather than the book, Lagerfeld’s own 18th-century porcelains, as well as the modern interiors of Marcel Wanders and others, served as primary inspirations.) The set, done under the direction of Stéphane Lubrina, boasted 6,700 assorted-species blossoms and took 40 people 15 weeks to create. (The paper was glass, rather than wood-based, all ye who might get your scratchy organic panties in a twist.) “Mr. Wertheimer said something very nice,” Lagerfeld relayed in reference to his own spending proclivities. “He said, maybe a shortage somewhere, but not in your department.”

Certainly, here was no shortage of pure delight, a collection inventively conceived and impeccably executed, from the wondrous paper headpieces crafted by Japanese hair genius Katsuya Kamo to several chic takes on spectator sandals. And the real stars of the day: the clothes. Lagerfeld sent out fab day clothes working a supernarrow focus — tiered structure in various shades of white. Anchoring the look: a square shoulder, often in a short, straight capelet, as if sliced from an 8-1/2-by-11 page. These perched atop little jackets and crisp A-shaped skirts, interspersed with softer moments now and then, and with an occasional flash of crisp black trim. Similarly, save for a brief digression to black and prints, high evening continued along the great white way, with stark lines contrasting more ethereal options.

In lesser hands, it might have been a snooze. Lagerfeld, however, worked each look to distinction. A plain suit featured a swish of chiffon at the wrists; a dress’ curious lace motif was fashioned from feathers. As for Lagerfeld’s no-bling assertion — not really. In this lineup, tight rows of bugle beads formed shimmery stripes, paillettes masqueraded as polkadots and the bride wore an austere sequined Sixties Space Age jumpsuit outfit, her endless frothy train decorated with, among other elements, paper embroideries, done by none other than M. Lesage.

Still, the mood chez Chanel is that the paper trail won’t end in his nimble hands. Recession or no, the belief is that more than a few clients remain plenty flush with cash. Or they can break out the kind of plastic that’s good for the fashion environment.

See Chanel Runway Slideshow

A Look back: Vintage Haute Couture, Chanel 1959