Let's be honest, as much as the younger generation loves Louis Vuitton, as a company they have never directly marketed their product to us.
Under the direction of Kim Jones, we think Louis V may be turning a new leaf.

PHOTOS: Louis Vuitton Goes On African Safari For Men's Spring/Summer 2012 Collection
To prove how hip they are, Vuitton has enlisted the help of many up and coming musicians, models, editors and artist to take part in their latest campaign for the Spring/Summer 2012 collection of sunglasses.

Some of the models include: French artist Andre, blogger Emily Weiss, Langley Hemingway, Venus X, Xan Aird of The Virgins and Maluca Mala.
VIDEO: Louis Vuitton Animates This Season's Belts With A Saul Bass Inspired Short
Take a look at everyone who appeared in the campaign as well as their background stories in the gallery above, but the real stars are the sunglasses.
More on: Louis Vuitton, Spring 2012

Brand owners are howling for new laws to help them crush “rogue” websites. But why? New powers don’t seem necessary when courts are already forcing Internet companies to delete websites from the Internet.

The latest example involves Louis Vuitton. This week the luxury handbag maker asked a Florida court to take action against hundreds of websites with names like “louiszvuitton.com” and “knockofflouisvuittonhandbags.com.”
The case is significant because Louis Vuitton did not simply ask for an order restraining the websites from using its trademark. It also wants to zap them from the Internet altogether by forcing registrars like Go Daddy to unplug them and for search engines to deny their existence.
In this case, Louis Vuitton appears to be borrowing from a playback that Chanel has been successfully executing in Nevada since last fall. In that state, a federal judge has repeatedly granted injunctions that force Go Daddy and Google to participate in the enforcement actions. Here’s an example from an order handed down earlier this month (the language is technical but it’s easy enough to make out the general drift) :
The Registrars and the top-level domain (TLD) Registries for the Group VIII Subject Domain Names, upon receipt of this Preliminary Injunction shall … change or assist in changing, the Registrar of record … GoDaddy.com, Inc. shall hold and/or continue to hold access to the Group VIII Subject Domain Names in trust for the Court during .. this action. Godaddy.com shall.. modify the Domain Name System ..

Plaintiff may enter .. the Group VIII Domain Names into Google’s Webmaster Tools and cancel any redirection to the domains.
In its Florida complaint, Louis Vuitton is asking the court for similar orders.
The significance of this is that the luxury brands are taking actions similar to those proposed in the Stop Online Piracy Act, a piece of legislatin that went down in flames earlier this year. SOPA was so unpopular because it would have required tech companies to meddle with the technical integrity of the Internet.
With their injunction requests, Chanel and Louis Vuitton have discovered an end run that will let them do the same thing.
The issue here is not that these websites should be allowed to sell fake merchandise — the issue is that courts are giving brand owners private powers that may not be

sanctioned by law. Meanwhile, the federal government is also using questionable tactics.
The FBI, for instance, has been seizing websites on the basis of anti-drug laws and then playing Hollywood propaganda messages on them. None of this is appears to be authorized under federal criminal law.

To learn more about the Chanel seizures, see trademark lawyer Venkat Balasubramani’s explanation on TechDirt. You can also see the hundreds of domain names in question below:
Louis Vuittion Complaint

NBC's couture competition show Fashion Star is down to the wire, so what better time for John Varvatos to show off some of his new threads? Menswear designer, show judge and rock enthusiast Varvatos opened the show with his new line. Per usual, Varvatos wore the rock influence on his sleeve, with a few jackets that looked like less electric approaches to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Bandalbum art. In keeping with the aesthetics, his models walked out to Queen's "Now I'm Here."

Following Varvatos' exhibition came the contestants. Nzimiro Oputa was able to land a $100,000 offer from Macy's for a collection built around his versatile, classic cardigans. After a brief and tense bidding war, Kara Laricks' distinctive tuxedo shirts were sold to Saks Fifth Avenue for $80,000, with H&M saying they'd "save up some money" for her.

In the next pairing, Luciana Scarabello and Nikki Poulos didn't fare quite as well. Nikki ended sans bid with her prom dress-style maxi frocks; Luciana's retro-evoking dresses earned a $50,000 bid from Saks. Ronnie Escalante got a $50,000 bid from H&M thanks in part to an innovative ad campaign involving a few red balloons, but Ross Bennett, who rocked the classic look but couldn't get his more modern designs just right, and Orly Shani, who the buyers saw as having taken "a step backwards," found themselves on the chopping block as well. Ross ended up with the elimination, and now only six remain, with next week yielding a triple elimination.
But anyway, back to Varvatos.

For some more of Varvatos' hits for 2012, here's his rock-edged showing from Men's Fashion Week in Milan back in January:

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 Video, 2012 Webby Award Winners, Webby Awards, Webby Awards 2012, Slideexpand, Webby Anna Wintour, Webby Asos, Webby Award Winners, Webby Fashion, Webby Fashion Award,  Style News

The votes are in for the 2012 Webby Awards and quite a few fashion faves nabbed first place honors for both categories: the Webby Award, chosen by the International Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Webby "People’s Voice" Award, voted on by, well, the people.
Unsurprisingly, Anna Wintour came out swinging. The Vogue editor-in-chief will take the stage for the second time to accept the "People's Voice" award for fashion. In typical Webby tradition, Wintour summed up her acceptance speech in the ceremony's mandatory five words: "Sometimes geeks can be chic."

Classic.
We can't wait to hear what she has to say at this year's ceremony on May 21. Until then, check out who else in the fashion world will take home a 2012 Webby

_

Australia’s Fashion Week is in its 17th year, but it’s still got some growing up to do.
One of its most pressing issues is timing – its May scheduling means designers are too late for local spring-summer collections and too early for resortwear lineups, which typically arrive in the middle of the year.

This is something IMG, which organizes Australia Fashion Week, is trying to fix, said Jarrad Clark, IMG’s global production director and a guest judge on the country’s reality show “Project Runway.”
“The reason the event is when it is now is because of decisions that were made 17 years ago,” said Mr. Clark, “but the world has changed. The buying side has changed, the retailing has changed and the consumer interaction has changed, so we definitely need to make a change to our timing.”
That’s not to say Sydney’s fashion industry hasn’t evolved. Buyers used to wait months to get their hands on catwalk items, but this year Sydney-based label Toi et Moi is distributing nearly a third of its “Frenchie chic” collection within hours.

Compare that to Burberry, regarded by many as the global leader in the runway-to-reality trend, which sold key pieces from its spring-summer collections online last year so that they arrived in customers’ homes within weeks of being shown. Australian brands An Ode to No One and Bless’ed Are the Meek have similar plans to speed up their distribution, selling shoes directly from the catwalk within three hours through Australian footwear website StyleTread.

But fashion week isn’t limiting its sights to the domestic market. Mr. Clark said IMG is working with some of Australia’s designers – including Dion Lee, who pulled out of the event at the last minute to focus on London Fashion Week in September – to help them expand overseas.
“We want to be working with them across the 12 months, so if they want to go to other markets, we’ve got a footprint there,” he said. “This event should be a springboard for designers looking to grow their businesses internationally.”

Still-booming growth in China’s luxury market, which has it on track to surpass Japan as the world’s top spender on high-end goods by 2015, has seen major brands continue to invest in nationwide expansion, but issues such as a shortage of suitable retail space have made some question whether the market is seeing early signs of saturation. Despite these concerns, on-the-ground statistics indicate that, while the market is evolving and the consumer is becoming gradually more sophisticated, demand remains high. According to CNN, LVMH’s first-quarter sales jumped 25 percent this year, “thanks to China,” adding, “While Chinese buyers are Louis Vuitton’s biggest customers already, the market is far from saturated.” As Wendy Trevisani, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, put it, “China’s consumer is still in its infancy,” and consumer spending is growing “pretty much without hesitation.”

This week, IW Magazine speaks to Swiss watch veteran Marc Bernhardt, who now works for the Chinese luxury group VASTO, who, like Trevisani, feels that the vastness of China’s interior — and the potential of consumers in third- and fourth-tier cities far from Beijing or Shanghai — means the market remains one of the most enticing in the world. VASTO, which currently operates around 300 points of sale throughout China, as well as shops in Switzerland and the Middle East and plans to expand to France and the US, positions itself as the “Brooks Brothers of China,” sells apparel, Swiss-made watches, French-made pens and Italian leather goods. From Bernhardt’s interview:

IW: Tell us about the Chinese luxury market.
Marc Bernhardt (MB): China is a huge country with a population of 1.4 billion, but is made up of made very different markets of which differences may be as large as exist between Scandinavia and Italy. However, the “standardization” as evidenced by similar looking malls with uniform global brand marketing campaigns is leveling the playing fields. Based on the development and penetration (of international) brands, the market is largely divided into first, second, third and even fourth tier areas. First tier markets include Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, which have modern infrastructure and a Westernized consumer. Other tier cities will include cities with a population of around 1 million each. Western brands usually enter China through tier one and two and then work their way down.
It is amazing to already see particularly the presence of some of the Swatch brands (Tissot, Rado, Longines) in fourth tier areas. So the notion that there is still virgin territory with ignorant consumers can slowly be dismissed.

IW: So are you saying that China is reaching saturation for luxury products?
MB: No, on the contrary! There is still plenty of potential and it is forecasted that two-thirds of future wealth creation will particularly take place in tier three and four areas. What I mean to say is that consumers are becoming much more knowledgeable and you have to have a credible brand and story to tell. To a large extent this is the problem that many Chinese “luxury” brands are facing—and there are many of them, from garments to luxury furniture. Many have been free-riding with adopted European sounding names or blatant copies of existing international brands—some of the examples with derivatives of Gucci, Dior or Boss are almost funny and should keep trademark lawyers very busy.

IW: But what is the quality like of these Chinese luxury brands?
MB: Well, some of it is really quite good reaching similar levels as international brands. Actually, you would be surprised to see the high prices, but we can touch on this subject when we talk about the consumers. Again, many international brands already produce many of their items in China, so a certain know-how and savoir faire is present in the Chinese manufacturing base. What Chinese brands lack is instilling a story, a meaning and raison d’être in their products. In the past it was sufficient to pretend to be European, preferably with a blond and blue-eyed model advertising the product. Today, this marketing strategy is passé. Consumers are asking questions and are generally more critical than in the past. Recently, there was a widely publicized scandal involving a luxury furniture maker that was selling high priced “Italian Made Furniture” that turned out to be low-end Chinese-made—the company needed police protection to fend off angry consumers.

IW: Tell us about the Chinese Consumer. What distinguishes them from American or European consumers?
MB: For many years, China has been the origin of mass-produced goods often at the lower quality end. So perhaps, the impression may be that Chinese consumers having grown up in this environment will not be as demanding as their Western counterparts. This is totally false! I have rarely seen more demanding and finicky consumers. Visitors to Hong Kong may have already observed expensive watches in the shop window wrapped in protective cling film. A Chinese buyer will literally take out a magnifying glass to ascertain that there are no marks of use. Due to the propensity of fakes (from products to bank notes) Chinese are particularly careful. Anecdotally, this is also the reason why in restaurants a chicken (or any other meat dish) will often be served with the head to prove the genuine product.
On one hand, Chinese consumers will try to achieve a maximum discount, which is the reason why prices are often marked double the suggested price. On the other hand, things cannot be marked too cheap, as this would again raise suspicion that the quality was inferior or that the product may be fake. So setting the right price is a big challenge.
In general, Chinese are much more “suspicious” about the quality and serviceability of a product. For this reason, it is important to have a visible after-sales-service, an area where for instance Tissot leads with a technician work bench at each Tissot point of sale.

Though the importance of second-, third- and now fourth-tier cities to the continued development of China’s luxury market, and the increasing connoisseurship of first-tier consumers and luxury “veterans,” isn’t exactly new, major takeaways from this interview for luxury brands include more of an emphasis on legitimate story and making it personal to the Chinese consumer (rather than just pushing a clichéd “European” identity), a greater and more visible after-sales service infrastructure, and high-tech anti-counterfeiting efforts to reassure shoppers.

Alex Hutchings stands outside the Las Vegas Showgirl Museum with seven of his peers, wearing a wide grin as he waits for his field trip to begin. The 25-year-old student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas just got thrilling news and can't wait to share it. If he can find funding, he'll have an internship with "RuPaul's Drag

Race," a cable TV show produced in Los Angeles.

"I'm hoping to do research for my thesis," he says. "I'll be able to interview gay performers and find out how they see fashion themselves."

His thesis is titled "Costuming and Gay Performers." Hutchings is a history major and this is a history of fashion class.

It's one of the few fashion courses that doesn't require sketching or needles and thread, but none of that should come as a surprise since it's offered through the

history department. The curriculum here puts less emphasis on Coco Chanel and her pearls and more focus on the kind of facts that can make history buffs genuinely interested in fashion trends.

"I talk about what Americans have come to expect of their clothing - comfort and practicality," says Deirdre Clemente, history professor at UNLV. "And what is that a reaction of? Social, economic and political change."

For instance, women wearing pants. The progressive trend started in the '20s in France. Women in the United States didn't start putting their clothes on one leg at a time until the '30s. After World War II, the trend took a "downward slide," according to Clemente, because men didn't like returning from the war and finding their women in dungarees. By the second half of the '40s, however, women donning pants was commonplace.

"Women's power as consumers made this trend happen. People think everything comes down from Givenchy - no," Clemente says, holding her hands up to mock a puppeteer.

"That's why this was so profound because it was one of the first times fashion was driven by the masses."

The history professor once worked as a fashion reporter at the Baltimore Sun. She got her doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University and worked as a curator for the Heinz

History Center for two years before moving to Las Vegas. She's always taken a special interest in fashion history, particularly the '20s, or as she refers to it, the Gatsby era.

In fact, "The Great Gatsby" feature film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan that's set for release this Christmas relied on Clemente's expertise for costuming. They found her through the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she wrote a thesis for her master's degree called "Fashioning Fitzgerald: Clothing as Cultural History in the Early Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald." She acted as one of many history consultants for the film.

Eleven students take her history of fashion class. Most of them are humanities and liberal arts majors and one studies anthropology. The syllabus' weekly schedule varies from "The Fallacy of the Flapper: Five Untruths of an American Icon" on Feb. 29 to discussion of the zoot suit March 26 to "P. Diddy is Worth $350 million:

Clothing and Hip-Hop Culture" April 16.

Field trips include a jaunt to Hard Rock Hotel, where they get a lesson on the effective display of its rock 'n' roll garments; a trip to the State Museum of Nevada where curator Dennis McBride provides hands-on analysis of costumes; and the aforementioned Las Vegas Showgirl Museum, where Grant Philipo discusses his vast collection of showgirl costumes and gives students a tour of his home where they're displayed.

It's a two-part course. Next semester gives the students exhibition experience with a State Museum of Nevada partnership. Students will learn how to dress a mannequin, how to handle historic costumes and how to conduct archival research, among other things.

"I'm not just teaching fashion 'cause, 'Hey, aren't these cool pictures?' I'm giving them skills and critical information that teaches them to look critically at history. It's applied history and that's invigorating to teach that. Our program is getting people with history degrees jobs," she says.

The UNLV history department has placed its graduates at museums, national parks and other universities.

Fifty-five-year-old Jim Turben, who was laid off from his printing press job last year, is taking the course to get a degree in history and hopes to go on to teach it.

"I want to get through to the kid that I was," he says. "Maybe then my life will mean something."

HuffPost Arts' Haiku Reviews are regular features where we invite critics to review exhibitions and performances in short form. Some will be in the traditional Haiku form of 5x7x5 syllables, others might be a sonnet or even a string of words. This week George Heymont, Laurence Vittes and Peter Frank capture the best of the art world now.

Pavel Haas Quartet April 21, Samueli TheaterOrange County Performing Arts CenterCosta Mesa
Britten: Three DivertimentiPavel Haas: Quartet No.2Smetana: String Quartet in E Minor, "From My life"

Both Czech Republic and Slovakia have a long history of producing string quartets of extremely serious virtuosity and insightful music making. The young Pavel Haas Quartet is one of the latest in the line of succession, in this case "descended" from the famous, extremely serious Smetana Quartet whose violist, Milan Skampa, seemingly continues to tutor every young quartet in sight. The Quartet takes its name from the Czech composer Pavel Haas (1899-1944), who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in 1941 and murdered at Auschwitz three years later. Quartets like these are very important to the health (strength?) of the classical music industry, and there are a lot of good ones out there ready to be snapped up right now. The leader of the Quartet, a strikingly beautiful blond named Veronika Jaruskova who was the original founder of the quartet, features a distinction common to all great Czech and Slovakian quartets, of being able to blend the first violin line in with the others so that the music is like you see it on the page when you're reading the score: All the lines are always there, before your eyes and thence your ears. The 12-minute Britten Divertimenti were originally called Go play, boy, play, and it's an invigorating early work which audiences will be eager to hear. Haas's Second Quartet is earnest, ardent, young and pregnant with fate. Veronika took over in the Smetana and kept it magnificently tight-lipped all the way. A large audience in wonderful Samueli Theater warmed to the serious nature of the Quartet's and the music's love and devotion.

By Laurence Vittes (drawing of Veronika Jaruskova by Larisa Pilinsky)

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email  to buy additional rights.  the French retail and luxurygoods group, helped trigger a rally throughout the luxury goods sector this week.PPR was among the biggest risers in Paris, gaining 8.2 per cent to
127.25 after its first-quarter results came in above expectations, with a 17.8 per cent jump in sales in its profitable luxury division.Eva Quiroga, analyst at UBS, said: “[PPR’s] luxury numbers were exceptionally strong. The fact that Gucci had nice double digitgrowth in PPR’s results went down really well – as did the impressive growth at Bottega Veneta and YSL.”PPR’s results sparked gains across the sector. Hermès International rallied 5.5 per cent to
266.55, while in Milan, SalvatoreFerragamo, the Italian luxury goods manufacturer, jumped 12.8 per cent to 17.35 over the weekCredit Suisse was one of a number of brokers to increase its target price on the stock following the results, raising it to 180 from 155.Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst at Credit Suisse, said: “Investor focus seems to be on one-time costs, potential efficiency gains and other special issues in Volkswagen. In our view this overshadows the simple fact that Volkswagen is selling more cars[and] growing more strongly than we [and] consensus expected.”Volkswagen’s peer Renault ended the week up 0.6 per cent at 35.68, after a slump in European sales in its latest resultsweighed on the stock. Shares in the French car company have fallen by almost a fifth from their 2012 peak.

PUNE, INDIA, Apr 27, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Undertaking consistent and relentless environment conservation efforts and working in sync with the brand policy of Spirit to Preserve and Spirit to Serve, the Courtyard by Marriott Pune Hinjewadi celebrates April as the Environmental Awareness Month. With various environment friendly activities planned, Hinjewadi extended stay hotel conducted a 'Green series' of events to spread awareness amongst the hotel associates as well as guests, urging them to 'Go Green.'

The series of Green activities commenced with the interdepartmental 'Best out of Waste' theme based competition. The associates honed their green creativity to make message depicting, environment conservation models made out of recyclable materials. A sapling plantation with the hotel's associates was organized to add a splash of Green to the hotel's surroundings.
Spreading the green wave beyond, the corporate clients were given saplings as a gesture of green encouragement. Commemorating the Earth Day, the Pune 4 star hotel organized a walkathon in Hinjewadi and to spread the message far and wide. The enthused participants walked as Green ambassadors reaching out to extend the message of 'Go Green'.

General Manager of Mumbai Pune expressway hotel, Ms. Ranju Alex said, "We at Marriott have always been ardent advocates for environmental and community causes. We are proud to do our bit to spread the social message of environmental conservation. We hope our green path encourages more and more corporates to come forth and save our environment thereby making way for sustainable development."
Courtyard by Marriott, Pune Hinjewadi kick started its Green run with participation in the Earth Hour 2012. Marriott's environmental vision is to be the global hospitality leader that demonstrates how responsible hospitality management can be a positive force for the environment and create economic opportunities around the world, and by our example, inspire personal action in the communities where we live and work.

When visiting the eco-friendly Courtyard Pune Hinjewadi, be sure to check out the available hotel deals in Pune. Marriott is offering a new India-wide promotion throughout the summer. Guests booking 2 or 3 night stays can take advantage of the You Play, We Pay offer and receive a credit at the hotel. Credits can be used on everything from everything from room upgrades, minibar purchases and high-speed Internet access to dining, spa treatments and laundry service. For more information on this limited time offer, visit  http://ourfanshion.weebly.com/ .