After years being categorized as children wear, the rubber boot had made a comeback into adults’ closet during the last few years. Its advantages are obvious – the rubber keeps your feet dry and, thanks to its high grip in the ground, prevents you from slipping and getting up close and personal with the pavement (… Yeap… I should know). But the rubber boot has one big flaw – chubby and bulky, it’s as elegant as a dairy farmer after a long day of work between his cows.

Shlomit Slavin, founder of the footwear label HOKI , understood the need in a new generation of rubber boots. From her home in Tel Aviv, along with her sister Mira Kaermely, she compromises fine design and rough material. Introducing the URBAN rubber boot:

Hoki boots 65-85 Euros.

Today’s newspapers are reporting with surprise about a mysterious coup in the french industry -  the luxury giant LVMH bought 17.1 % of Hermès’s shares, without Hermès even knowing about it ! By doing that, LVMH became the second most powerful share holder, right after the Hermès family. I believe this is a good opportunity to discuss LVMH, a one-of-a-kind octopus that touches your life and mine more then we might think.

Let me explain: a girl, we can call her Suzy, wakes up in the morning, takes a shower and gets dressed. Suzy puts on a set of kenzo lingerie, a dress from Céline, a pair of Marc Jacobs shoes and turns to the bathroom to perform her make-up routine. She applies a Guerlin foundation, mascara from Dior, a Make Up Forever lipstick and a Sephora blush.
On the way out she spritz herself with some Givenchy perfume, throws over a Donna Karen coat, grabs her Louis Vuitton bag and goes out the door.

Suzy adores fashion her taste in style is exquisite… She picked each and every one of these cherished possessions carefully. Do you think that she knows that all of her wardrobe and beauty products come from the same source? Do you think she would have bought them if she did? Probably not, and that’s what makes LVMH so powerful in the industry today. As powerful as 77,000 employees worldwide and an annual revenue of 17.053 billion Euros (net profit of 1.973 billion in 2009).

LVMH was created in 1987 after the wine group Moët Hennessy merged with the leather goods and fashion house Louis Vuitton. Over the years and after many taking-overs, the group grew to control more than 60 different labels, mostly in Fashion, beauty, wine and jewelry. The acquired companies keep their identities and maintain some kind of an autonomic activity, but they all report to the same headquarters. Practically speaking, you buy LVMH products all the time, without even knowing.

In the group’s little black book one might find all of the examples above plus Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Acqua di Parma, Benefit Cosmetics, Hublot, Zenith, Château d’Yquem, Loewe, StefanoBi, Dom Pérignon, Chaumet, Le Bon Marché, and the list goes on and on…

And the plot thickens when you go up a scale – the group Christian Dior owns 42 % of LVMH’s shares (wait, aren’t they supposed to compete ?). Both groups are under the control of a privet company – Group Arnault SAS who belongs to the french business man Mr. Bernard Arnault, chairman of both Christian Dior and LVMH. According to Forbes Magazine, Arnault is the world’s 7th richest person, with an estimated wealth of 27.5 billion Dollars (before the Hermes ambush).

Does it all sounds too complicated to you ? Maybe you should start reading the financial newspaper Les Echos. Can you guess who it belongs to ?

*hint : it’s a four-letters initials.

Christy Turlington, Natalia Vodianova and Karen Elson by Steven Meisel

My birthday’s coming up this weekend, and to celebrate the event “Mr. Issues” wanted to buy me a pair of shoes (he’s sweet).

We were going around in circles on the 5^th floor (shoes department) of Printemps, till something caught my eye: dark-red, medium heel Prada shoes with a bow… They were as pretty as the sunlight.

Sure, they were way out of our budget but he wanted me to have a pair of Prada and gave me the green light.

I could’ve just said “yes” and they were mine. But I didn’t. My brain (stupid organ) started hyperventilating. I was thinking too much about the money, and about the fact that they are beautiful on the shelf, but not extraordinary when you put them on (dear god, please forgive me). I thought about the fact that they aren’t really comfortable to wear (I can’t believe what I’m saying here!)…

Then, I put them down and turned away. Just like that. And I’m not even sorry! (though I’m having a hard time falling asleep ever since)

Is something wrong with me Doctor?

I was wondering online when I came across this outfit on Cos’s web site (*Info: Cos is the higher-quality label of Hennes & Mauritz, more known as H&M).

To the untrained eye, this would be a dress, but a closer look reveals another picture…

Like a wardrobe from IKEA, so is this dress from Cos (maybe it’s a swedish thing?) – You have to buy it by pieces. The sleeves come separately from the top, and the skirt isn’t really for sale, it’s only there for the catalog…  Never did a fashion company remind me more of a car thief  (:

One of my latest and most pleasant discoveries is an object I’d like to call a “calm” fashion magazine. Meet I LOVE YOU (I love you, please meet Issues).

This German publication is only one year old (5 issues up until now), but is already very put together, concept-wise. It is a magazine that was born up side down, from the web to the print - Christiane Bördner, Editor in chief, was first a blogger. As she said in an interview to the New York Times, she was looking to create a magazine that speaks to the readers eye-to-eye, like blogs. “I like the idea that consumers produce for consumers. I read that in 10 years 50% of the entertainment will be produced by consumers, and you can see it’s already happening… I am sure younger generations prefer to read the news on Facebook than the newspapers”.

Sure, many have said such things before and ended up creating yet another content-less, unidentifiable magazines. But I Love You proves to stand behind its ideas better then them. It’s filled with beautiful productions and well written, amusing texts. However, when you look through its pages, you don’t feel completely out dated, ugly or short. You don’t have a sudden hole in your chest and your finger doesn’t take a life of its own, traveling to topshop.com, cos.com, asos.com or others, searching for something to buy in an attempt to make you feel better.

I do have one little itch about I Love You – the paper on which it’s printed doesn’t do well to photos… But you can’t have it all right, do you?

I Love You magazine, 7 euros

-      ” What do you mean ‘you’re not going to write about Paris Fashion Week’ ??? How can you call yourself a fashion blogger and not write about Paris Fashion Week ???”

-        “You’re right. I can’t just ignore fashion week, it’s way too important… But what am I going to say ? It’s not like I was invited or anything. How can I cover an event that I wasn’t there to see?”

-       “Being there isn’t important, everything is online already. Look at the fashion shows online and find something, write about trends…”

-       “I DID see everything online, I’ve been doing that all week long. But if I write only based on the internet, I might as well write about New York or London Fashion Week. Do I have to write about Paris FW only because I live here ?”

-      ” Suit yourself… I’m just saying that  you’re the only one who didn’t write about Paris fashion week.”

Well, there you have it.
And here are a few looks I liked during Paris Fashion Week:

Fendi

Dior

Vera Wang

Lanvin

Céline

Chanel

DKNY

Erdem

Sonia Rykiel

Photographer: Walker Brockington; Model: Vick @ Elite Models NYC

The new business year is here, and along with it comes new reading material from all over the world, even from across the Atlantic. One of them is the fresh, colorful, nicely mise-en-page, Vaga Magazine.

Editor-in-chief and creative director Fernando Lahoz has been working in New-York for several years as an art director in fashion. In his new and promising publication he plans to showcase emerging talents in the fashion industry next to experienced veterans.

Issues: How was Vaga born?
Fernando Lahoz: “I started this project with my closest friend and NYC based photographer Walker Brockington.

As an art director I spend a lot of time looking for new, interesting and different visuals that inspire me. I wanted to create a way to do something relevant with all this huge collection of images… like returning the favor to all these anonymous people who inspired me”.

How is it different from other magazines to you? What was missing from the market that Vega can deliver best?
“We are like an open back door to the fashion industry. It is an open magazine, with a good attitude towards new creatives and with the capabilities to promote their names since we put them next to relevant photographers and artists in the industry”.

How does this open door policy work? Can young designers just send Vaga an email with their book?
“Yes. We are always looking for new talented people. Our full contact information is in our website. Next month we are launching a new space in our site called “VAGA IN MOTION” where we are going to be showcasing these new artist and multimedia fashion editorials”.

The very first issue of Vaga was recently printed in 1000 copies, under the theme “In love with a teenager”. The magazine will be published biannually, and sold online and in selected newsstands in NYC (“soon getting to London, Paris, Berlin and Madrid”, adding Fernando). Price: In US 15 dollars, In Europe 17 euros.