Dior’s Denim Bubble, Castle Heights at Valentino, Sephora Doubles Up – WWD

BUBBLING UP: Dior is dropping its capsule collection with cult label Denim Tears with a series of pop-ups around the world featuring giant inflatable installations.

The first space will open in London on Saturday with a cocktail event in the presence of Kim Jones, artistic director of men’s collections at Dior. However, Denim Years creative director Tremaine Emory will not be attending, as he is still recovering from the lower aortic aneurysm that caused him to miss the line’s launch event in Cairo last December.

The London pop-up will remain open until July 13. It will be followed by temporary stores in Tokyo from July 11 to 30, Seoul from July 13 to 22, and Shanghai from July 15 to 25, the brand said in a statement.

Dior promised “an immersive, multisensory experience,” as each boutique will feature huge inflatables occupying the interior spaces.  

“Visible from the surrounding streets, their organic shapes reveal an inhabited, alternative universe, where sounds, shadows and lights are perceived differently — as if filtered — conveying an entrancing, poetic atmosphere,” it said.

Customers will be able to enter the bubbles in Seoul and Shanghai, but not in London or Tokyo, said a spokeswoman for the house. The spaces will be animated with musical sessions and video projections designed by the studio of Japanese floral artist Azuma Makoto. Inspired by the Dior Tears logo designed for the collaboration, the videos can be downloaded with a QR code.

Denim Tears, which has collaborated with brands including Levi’s, Ugg, Converse and Champion, is known for telling stories about the African diaspora and promoting racial justice and cultural activism through its designs, such as its signature cotton wreath motif.

Unveiled during a presentation at the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Dior Tears collection was inspired by Black artists and creatives like writer James Baldwin and jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who were celebrated in Europe in the ’50s even as segregation raged back home in the U.S.

“It wasn’t perfect but it was just a moment, a beautiful moment for Blacks to have the privilege and opportunity to escape from the terror, the horrors of America, a segregated Jim Crow America,” said Emory, who is also creative director of cult New York skatewear brand Supreme.

Models wore high-low combinations that summed up the meeting of French craftmanship and American staples. Think tailored wool overcoats paired with slouchy cashmere jogging pants, and suits rendered in lightweight technical fabrics borrowed from workwear. — JOELLE DIDERICH

MAGIC HOUR: As fashion show backdrops go, the soaring spire of Château de Chantilly is pretty cinematic. The castle wowed guests at the Valentino couture show Wednesday night, as the golden-hour sunset cast a magical light.

“They understand spectacle,” said actor and playwright Jeremy O. Harris. ”Also one of Moliere’s first plays premiered here, so there is some good theater history and I’m very excited about that.”

It was his first time attending a Valentino show and meeting designer Pierpaolo Piccioli. He selected a crisp white coat over a sleek black suit for a monochrome look that suited the breezy evening. The “Emily in Paris” star was also catching up with pals. “Little Women” star Florence Pugh and YouTuber Emma Chamberlain were on the guest list.

“I’m having some good times, chilling with Florence, seeing Emma. There’s a lot of good people around,” Harris said of the guests that made the trek to the destination-but-not-a-destination show two hours outside of Paris.

If Valentino set the stage, Pugh knew how to milk it. She was wearing a sheer lavender gown with a flowing train, and had fun flipping, flaring and fluffing it in the sunset light for some dramatic pics.

Baz Luhrmann was also directing some fashion scenes, helping guest adjust their outfits. The “Elvis” director has become a front row regular in recent seasons, and praised the show for its execution.

“It was an exquisite piece of opera really, it was so exquisitely beautiful,” he said. “It was a big risk to bring everyone out here to be in the clutches of the weather, which could have gone badly, but then to have the most perfect light. Then of course he had the clothes.”

The Oscar nominee played coy when asked if he plans to direct a fashion film. “Such an interesting question,” he mused, before deflecting: “Is that the sound of the party?”

Naomi Ackie said she’s been on holiday since her trip to the Cannes Film festival in May, where she won the Chopard Trophée award. The “Whitney Houston” actress has a history with the house.

“My first couture fashion show was Valentino and it was a huge moment for me, because I’ve always loved couture and had such huge respect for it and to be able to go to Valentino was a huge deal for me,” she said.

“I think I’ve been too nervous to actually look where I am because I’ve been just trying to focus on looking nice,” she said of the striking setting. The actress was wearing a short suit jacket and tie, with a full-length skirt.

After a summer of “chilling out,” Ackie will get behind the keyboard to finish writing her first screenplay. “It’s really hard, like really, really hard. It’s harder than I thought it would be,” she said of the process. “So fingers crossed, wish me luck.”

Chamberlain was carrying two Valentino V handbags that coordinated with her pink outfit. “I need a lot of space but the tiny bag look is so good, so this is like everything you need and more,” she said. She keeps her phone and camera in the larger bag, and her lipstick in the smaller one.

“The setting is so elegant and romantic and beautiful, and all the looks matched that energy,” Chamberlain added of the show.

“Crash Landing on You” actress Son Ye-jin made her way to France for her first fashion show appearance since having a baby last fall, with other guests including “And Just Like That” star Nicole Ari Parker, singer Raye and rapper Saint Jhn.

After the show, guests made their way to the castle’s gardens. Pugh removed her shoes and carried her train as she hung out with mom Deborah Mackin, while Ackie and Harris danced the night away. — RHONDA RICHFORD AND J.D.

SEPHORA STRIKES AGAIN: Sephora isn’t wasting any time expanding in the U.K., with plans to open its second London store in November at Westfield Stratford City in east London.

The multibrand beauty retailer owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton returned to the U.K. market last March after 18 years. 

The brand unveiled a 6,000-square-foot unit at Westfield White City in west London and tapped the Sugababes to perform live on the eve of the opening. 

The shopfit was the first of its kind for the brand, with double-height ceilings, soft edges, textured finishes and tall green plants dotted here and there.

The curation has been done with an editor’s eye. Walking around feels like flipping through the pages of a glossy magazine with lots of slick branding, product news, exclusives, trends, recommendations and curated merchandise areas.

In total, there were more than 135 brands on offer in addition to a hub at the center of the store providing services ranging from fragrance bottle engraving to professional makeup, skin treatments and diagnostics.

Brands exclusive to Sephora U.K. include Makeup by Mario, GXVE by Gwen Stefani, One/Size by Patrick Starrr, Vegamour, Skinfix and Commodity.

The store also debuted brands in physical retail for the first time in the U.K., including Tarte (which has its own area near the front of the store) Glow Recipe, Supergoop, Danessa Myricks and Kosas.

The opening in March followed Sephora’s earlier purchase and rebranding of the e-commerce site Feelunique, which it had been using to feed, and monitor, the high demand coming from the U.K. market.

The retailer eventually unveiled an app, which it said has been met with “unprecedented demand.”

Sephora declined to comment further on its plans for the store at Westfield Stratford City, which opened in 2011 next door to the Olympic Park. — SAMANTHA CONTI

TALKING PROJECTS: It might be cliché to say an actor is “fresh off” a project — but it’s possibly never been more true than in Zoe Saldana’s case at Thursday’s Fendi couture show.

“We just wrapped on Tuesday and our wrap party was yesterday,” she said of finishing the much buzzed about Jacques Audiard film “Emilia Perez.” The film costars Selena Gomez and Edgar Ramirez. The trio have spent months in France — and hit up other fashion shows — filming the musical.

“I do sing — and in Spanish,” Saldana said of taking on a new challenge. “There’s a lot of transformation. There’s a lot of real-life themes, sort of packed together with surrealism. It’s really special.”

“It was honestly a bucket list item that I can finally check because I’ve been a fan of [Audiard’s] work since I was a teenager,” she said, singing the praises of the “Sisters Brothers” director. “I just admire his writing, his editing and his directing. But nothing prepared me to be completely enamored with his character as a person.”

Fendi artistic director Kim Jones dressed Saldana for the Oscars in a pleated lace gown. “It was such an honor,” she said of the dress. “So coming back here and witnessing the show is like my dream.”

She’s heading into promotion for her CIA-set series “Lioness,” costarring Nicole Kidman, next week and she plans to wear Fendi on the red carpet and at other promotional events.

Eiza González stars in the upcoming Netflix drama “Three Body Problem,” based on the sci-fi book trilogy of the same name.

“I was a huge fan of the books. I read the books; I couldn’t believe it. I really just thought, ‘You know, this needs to exist in the zeitgeist.,’” she said of the time-bending book series. Friends Peter Dinklage, who worked with producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on “Game of Thrones,” recommended working with the duo and Rosamund Pike joined as an executive producer. “So it couldn’t have been more perfect. Everything was just sort of alchemy, and it worked.” The show will premiere in January.

She recently wrapped “Ash,” a mystery with Aaron Paul shot in New Zealand. “We worked for months,” she said. “It was genuinely one of the most intense — I mean, it was gratifying but also terrifying at the same time, and really challenging.”

The actress is on pause for the moment, in part due to the writers’ strike in the U.S., and in part to take some much needed rest, she added.

It’s been a few months of milestones for Naomi Watts. She recently married longtime love Billy Crudup, and celebrated the 100th birthday of her grandmother. “We celebrated just outside of London and she got a letter from the king, which was quite lovely,” she shared. Watts remained mum on any honeymoon plans, but said the two are “very happy” post nuptials.

She stars in the next installment of Ryan Murphy’s hit series “Feud,” with Chloë Sevigny. The show explores Truman Capote’s legendary socialite “swans.” She plays Babe Paley.

“It’s really visiting an era that is no longer in existence, that’s full of glamour and fantastic juicy stories,” she said of the ’60s-set series. “Lots of fashion.”

The trio were in the front row along with Lily James and Camila Cabello. Cabello has been in Paris for fashion week, hitting up several shows and taking long walks around the city in the evening. “I’d love to live over here some time, it’s so different,” she said.

Cabello also snapped photos with Shakira, who made a last minute entrance, while Cardi B posed for photos with Donatella Versace, who has been showing support for the Italian brands at Paris Fashion Week, including Valentino’s Wednesday night show and Fendi. — R.R.

BUILDING BRIDGES: Kenzo will stage its first show in China on July 28, parading its men’s and women’s spring 2024 collection in Shanghai.

Kenzo creative director Nigo originally unveiled the collection on June 23 during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, choosing as a venue the Passerelle Debilly, a footbridge over the Seine river that connects the Palais de Tokyo and the Eiffel Tower.

Nigo has made the interplay between late Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada and the French capital a central theme of his Kenzo. “A bridge between cultures” is how he put it during a recent interview with WWD.

The location for the Shanghai event is under wraps, as are details for an after-show party.

China represents a key market for Kenzo, where the brand operates 40 stores “and is thus reinforcing its strong commitment and growing presence in the Chinese market,” the Paris-based house said in a statement shared exclusively with WWD.

Kenzo noted the repeat show is to include new iterations of key looks unveiled at the Paris display, which exuded more of a grown-up, Parisian sophistication as Nigo eased up on preppy and collegiate themes.

The spring 2024 collection also incorporates a striking serif font for a new Kenzo Paris logo, which Nigo stamped on judo jackets and canvas tote bags, and repeated as a busy print for T-shirts, windbreakers and parkas.

The brand, part of luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, recently named K-pop star Vernon, one of 13 members of South Korean boy band Seventeen, as its global ambassador. — MILES SOCHA

TIME TO CHECK IN: Travel is more often than not a key ingredient to fashion, and a few designers are aligning with hotels in different ways.

The Los Angeles-based designer Rosetta Getty recently revealed a partnership with the Belmond Group to develop a hotel on Mexico’s Pacific Coast that is expected to open in 2025. Last month the Karl Lagerfeld Macau, a luxury resort that the late designer collaborated on prior to his death in 2019, started welcoming guests. And Bulgari showed off its new luxury hotel in Rome.

Lesser-known brands are also tapping into the hospitality sector, too. Why not? Last year direct spending on U.S. travel returned to pre-pandemic levels, reaching $1.2 trillion, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

In time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the Wheat Collection set up shop at the Faraway Martha’s Vineyard. The Shop by Wheat and an adjoining coffee shop called The Strand are now operating in the hotel. This is the first time Wheat has combined the concept in the same location. The New Hampshire-based fashion label and retailer has partnered with the luxury hotel group before. In May, another Shop by Wheat debuted at the Faraway Nantucket.

The company, which was founded in 2017, has teamed with other hotel groups and now has 16 locations. Earlier this year Wheat  introduced three locations on Hawaii — two at the Four Seasons Lāna’i and another one at the Four Seasons Sensei. For the latter, the design and understated product assortment were meant to meld with the property’s neutrals.

The husband-and-wife founders Huw Collins, an actor known for his role in “Pretty Little Liars,” and Molly Shaheen, whose mother Jeanne is a U.S. senator, also design the Los Angeles-made Wheat Collection. There are plans to unveil a Dover, New Hampshire, location in September and a Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, one in March.

Meanwhile, in Savannah, Georgia, Laurel Wolcott, a Savannah College of Art and Design graduate, will have her designs showcased later this month at the Perry Lane Hotel’s luxury boutique Muse. There, shoppers can arrange to purchase existing pieces or custom designs with prices in the $3,000 range.

The inspiration for her collection was a woman who grew up in the hotel. That premise also riffs on the hotel’s fictitious muse Adelaide Harcourt, a descendant of financiers who was a world traveler with an ear for literature, an eye for art and a knack for collecting.

The designer photographed her collection in the hotel, a 167-room property that’s part of the Marriott Luxury Collection. For the launch there will be a welcome party for guests at the hotel on July 28. Wolcott’s five dresses will be displayed in the North Tower lobby. Once the fall semester gets underway at SCAD, the Perry Lane Hotel will bid farewell to Wolcott’s styles and replace them with a new creative’s work. — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

BACK IN HONG KONG: Diane von Furstenberg last week unveiled a new physical store in Hong Kong at the popular, upscale shopping mall Harbour City shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The opening of the approximately 1,000-square-foot store marks the brand’s return to the Hong Kong offline retail market after a two-year hiatus. The brand operated a store in Landmark, a luxury shopping mall in Central, pre-pandemic.

The new space comes with a clean and elegant interior design with a flowing glass curtain wall, water mill marble flooring, and gold-plated titanium display racks, showcasing the latest collections. The boutique also highlights DVF’s iconic black-and-white chain-link print and signature graphic.

During COVID-19, the land border between mainland China and Hong Kong was shut, which led to sharp declines in retail sales. For the first five months of 2020, retail sales decreased by 34.8 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

But since the beginning of this year, as mainland tourists returned, Hong Kong has logged consecutive six-month growth in retail sales, with May figures rising 18.4 percent from a year earlier.

Riding the momentum, DVF said the new store bears “great significance” to its expansion plan in the Greater China region, as “Hong Kong has long been regarded as the center of Asian fashion and one of the busiest commercial and financial centers in the world.”

“With the continuous improvement of the macro environment in the global fashion and luxury industry and the reignited enthusiasm of consumers in the Greater China region, we believe that there will be more opportunities and space in the Hong Kong market,” the brand added.

Jessie Chen, global partner of DVF and president of DVF China, described the new store as a “milestone for the brand in the Asia Pacific region, and we hope to bring a new shopping experience to Hong Kong’s fashion consumers.”

In an earlier interview with WWD, von Furstenberg said her biggest client during the pandemic was her Chinese distributor Chen, who has been exclusively operating the DVF franchisee business in China from 2011 to the present via a partnership under Shanghai Fairywood Co.

In October 2020, the brand entered a partnership with Glamel Trading Ltd., a Hong Kong-based firm that’s also owned by Chen. Glamel is now the exclusive operations partner with DVF worldwide. High Fashion is the factory in China that has been DVF’s supply chain partner for 25 years, and partners with Glamel and DVF to make DVF womenswear.

“It was very important that I continued the relationship with them,” said von Furstenberg, adding that the DVF online flagship is on Tmall Luxury Pavillion and a stand-alone DVF China site will be launched in 2024. — TIANWEI ZHANG

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: With more than 25 billion downloads and 25 million-plus social media followers, Angry Birds has evolved into more than an amusing mobile game. The latest sign of that burgeoning enterprise, which includes two feature films and a Netflix series, is the opening of the first Angry Birds retail café.

Interestingly (and strategically), the iSwii by Angry Birds outpost will not be based in the heart of the tourist-flooded Times Square, but in Flushing, Queens. The 3,300-square-foot space debuts Saturday inside Tangram, a 1.2 million-square-foot engaging mixed-use development. In the Instagrammable café, shoppers and Angry Birds players can try and buy the trendy bubble teas and pastries, do some gaming, buy Angry Birds merchandise and, of course, take photos with abandon in the Pop Art-colored interiors.

The Shanghai Construction Group America SCG America partnered with Angry Birds’ creator Rovio Entertainment to debut the game franchise’s first retail café. The deal was sealed with the help of Angry Birds’ worldwide licensing agency IMG.

The interactive destination features in-person and screen activities to reel in individuals and families. New York City-themed statues outside of the entrance are meant to be an added attraction, as is the mural on the store’s ceiling and the colorful dessert-like sprinkles motif that can be found on the floor and on the terrazzo counter. Patrons will be able to hang out in nest-like hanging wicker chairs, surrounded by bright wall coverings and tropical plants.

Visitors will also get to window shop the chef’s confectionary creations, through a glass-partitioned “exhibition” of the custom decorated cakes and pastries. The family-friendly and social media-leaning interiors were cooked up by SCG America’s head of interior design Tina Wu. Those who yearn for more nesting can reserve private rooms for special events, where guests can play Angry Birds VR games and leave with Angry Birds swag bags.

Indoor fun isn’t the only main event that Angry Birds has introduced recently: Angry Birds fans have until Monday to try the 30 new levels in Angry Birds Friends. Rovlo teamed up with the National Parks Foundation to create those based on greenery and scenery that can be found in U.S. parks. — R.F.

TUPAC SALE: Sotheby’s is kicking off its third annual hip-hop auction with a rare piece.

The auction house will be selling Tupac Shakur’s self-designed gold, ruby and diamond crown ring worn during his last public appearance at its upcoming auction celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. The ring is estimated to sell for between $200,000 to $300,000.

The late rapper engraved the ring with “Pac & Dada 1996,” which referenced his recent engagement to Kidada Jones. Shakur wore the ring at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards.  

Shakur’s ring will headline the auction, which will also include artwork, artifacts and sneakers from Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Ice-T, Afrika Islam and other prominent figures in hip-hop.

“Few, if any, cultural movements have made as explosive a global impact in such a short amount of time as hip-hop,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture. “Coinciding with hip-hop’s 50th anniversary this year, we are honored to present our third sale devoted to the multiple generations of hip-hop artists whose indelible marks on music, fashion, entertainment, entrepreneurship and social change continue to resonate.”

The auction will take place from July 18 to 25, with a public exhibition held at Sotheby’s New York location from July 20 to July 24. 

Sotheby’s hip-hop auction follows its recent “Sports Memorabilia: Part II” auction last month, which was the auction house’s biggest sports auction to date. The auction offered coveted pieces from athletes like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Muhammad Ali, Derek Jeter and Rafael Nadal. — LAYLA ILCHI