PARIS — PARIS (AP) — Fashion powerhouse Chanel stacked the Paris front row like a movie premiere Tuesday: Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa, Penélope Cruz, A$AP Rocky, Gracie Abrams, Margaret Qualley.
Then, it handed the spotlight to its new designer, Matthieu Blazy, for his much-anticipated couture debut built on one big, confident swing: joy.
Inside the Grand Palais, the house went full fantasy.
The set was a dream-garden of candy-colored trees and giant pink-and-red mushrooms: a surreal antidote to the gray January day outside, and to the even heavier mood of the world beyond the doors.
Before the first look, Blazy even teased the mood with an animation film of woodland animals at work in the Chanel ateliers, “Cinderella” style: a wink that said this would be couture, but not grim.
Then came the clothes, and the message landed fast: lightness.
Blazy took Chanel’s most famous codes — the suit, the pearls, the chain-weighted hems — and made them feel almost weightless.
A classic skirt suit arrived as a sheer, barely-there version of itself, cut so delicately it looked like air had been tailored.
In a house where tweed can be armor, this was tweed as whisper.
Birds hovered over the collection as a guiding idea: freedom, motion, travel.
Featherlike textures and flighty embroideries fluttered across silhouettes that moved like breath instead of structure.
There were flashes of plumage in color and surface — at times bright, at times raven-dark — and plenty of soft, floating chiffon that made the models look as if they were gliding rather than walking.
The best trick was how the craft wasn’t obvious.
Up close, the work was meticulous: a level of handwork couture clients pay for, and ateliers live for.
But the overall effect stayed easy, almost casual; as if the clothes were beautiful without demanding applause.
Blazy played with the artistic technique trompe l’oeil, including a tank top-and-jeans idea reimagined in organza, and with textures that were romantic but also a little strange; couture that winked.
In a brand built on total looks and strong house signatures, Blazy offered something personal: choice.
Models were invited to pick symbols and messages to stitch into the clothes — a love note, a sign, a private mark.
It pushed Chanel away from “uniform” and toward intimacy: couture as a wearable secret, not just a public statement.
The show also had a sense of casting as storytelling.
Blazy’s runways have tended to carry an open, joyful energy, and that continued here — a mix of ages, backgrounds and presences that made the clothes feel lived-in.
Model Bhavitha Mandava, fresh off her viral moment at the house’s Métiers d’Art show, returned.
Later she closed as a couture bride, shimmering and feathered, smiling as if she knew she was ending the scene exactly on the right note.
The soundtrack shifted moods like a DJ set, moving from Disney sweetness to millennial nostalgia — including Moby’s “Porcelain,” and a mashup that blended Oasis’ “Wonderwall” with The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”
By the finale, the room was playing along.
Big sets are easy. Blazy’s debut didn’t try to overpower Chanel with noise or force a new era with aggression. Instead, he made it feel alive.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The production lines at Indeed Brewing moved quickly, the cans filling not with beer, but with THC-infused seltzer. The product, which features the compound that gets cannabis users high, has been a lifeline at Indeed and other craft breweries as alcohol sales have fallen in recent years.
But that boom looks set to come to a crashing halt. Buried in the bill that ended the federal government shutdown this month was a provision to ban those drinks, along with other impairing beverages and snacks made from hemp, which have proliferated across the country in recent years. Now the $24 billion hemp industry is scrambling to save itself before the provision takes effect in November 2026.
“It’s a big deal,” said Ryan Bandy, Indeed’s chief business officer. “It would be a mess for our breweries, for our industry, and obviously for a lot of people who like these things.”
Ryan Bandy, chief business officer at Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis, stands near a pallet of six-packs of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
Ryan Bandy, chief business officer at Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis, stands near a pallet of six-packs of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
Here’s what to know about the looming ban on impairing products derived from hemp.
Congress opened the door in 2018
Marijuana and hemp are the same species. Marijuana is cultivated for high levels of THC in its flowers. Low-THC hemp is grown for its sturdy fibers, food or wellness products. “Rope, not dope” was long the motto of farmers who supported legalizing hemp.
After states began legalizing marijuana for adult use over a decade ago, hemp advocates saw an opening at the federal level. As part of the 2018 farm bill, Congress legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp to give farmers, including in Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, a new cash crop.
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But the way that law defined hemp — as having less than 0.3% of a specific type of THC, called delta-9 — opened a huge loophole. Beverages or bags of snacks could meet that threshold and still contain more than enough THC to get people high. Businesses could further exploit the law by extracting a non-impairing compound, called CBD, and chemically changing it into other types of impairing THC, such as delta-8 or delta-10.
The result? Vape oil, gummy candies, chips, cookies, sodas and other unregulated, untested products laden with hemp-derived THC spread around the country. In many places, they have been available at gas stations or convenience stores, even to teens. In legal marijuana states, they undercut heavily taxed and regulated products. In others, they evaded the prohibition on recreational use of weed.
Some states, including Indiana, have reported spikes in calls to poison-control centers for pediatric exposure to THC.
Cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, are shown in a cooler at the Indeed Brewery taproom in Minneapolis on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
Cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, are shown in a cooler at the Indeed Brewery taproom in Minneapolis on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
A patchwork of state regulations
Dozens of states have since taken steps to regulate or ban impairing hemp products. In October, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products outside the state’s legal marijuana system.
Texas, which has a massive hemp market, is moving to regulate sales of impairing hemp, such as by restricting them to those over 21. In Nebraska, lawmakers have instead considered a bill to criminalize the sale and possession of products containing hemp-based THC.
Washington state adopted a program to regulate hemp growing. But the number of licensed growers has cratered since the state banned intoxicating hemp products outside of the regulated cannabis market in 2023. Five years ago, there were 220, said Trecia Ehrlich, cannabis program manager with the state agriculture department. This year, there were 42, and with a federal ban looming, she expects that number to drop by about half next year.
Minnesota made infused beverages and foods legal in 2022 for people 21 and older. The products, which must be derived from legally certified hemp, have become so popular that Target is now offering THC drinks at some of its stores in the state.
They’ve also been a boon to liquor stores and to small Minneapolis brewers like Indeed, where THC drinks make up close to one-quarter of the business, Bandy said. At Bauhaus Brew Labs, a few blocks away, THC drinks account for 26% of their revenues from distributed products and 11% of revenues at the brewery’s taproom.
A powerful senator moves to close the loophole
None of that was what McConnell intended when he helped craft the 2018 farm bill. He finally closed the loophole by inserting a federal hemp THC ban in the measure to end the 43-day federal government shutdown, approved by the Senate on Nov. 10.
“It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children, while preserving the hemp industry for farmers,” McConnell said. “Industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications.”
Some in the legal marijuana industry celebrated, as the ban would end what they consider unfair competition.
They were joined by prohibitionists. “There’s really no good argument for allowing these dangerous products to be sold in our country,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
But the ban doesn’t take effect for a year. That has given the industry hope that there is still time to pass regulations that will improve the hemp THC industry — such as by banning synthetically derived THC, requiring age restrictions on sales, and prohibiting marketing to children — rather than eradicate it.
“We are very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the industry group U.S. Hemp Roundtable. “If they really thought there was a health emergency, there would be no year-long period.”
The federal ban would jeopardize more than 300,000 jobs while costing states $1.5 billion in lost tax money, the group says.
Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer at Bauhaus Brew Labs, has no doubt his company would be among the casualties.
“If this goes through as written currently, I don’t see a way at all that Bauhaus could stay in business,” Hurst said.
Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer of Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis, stands outside a cooler for cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery’s taproom on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer of Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis, stands outside a cooler for cans of seltzer containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his brewery’s taproom on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
What comes next?
A number of lawmakers say they will push for regulation of the hemp THC industry. Kentucky’s second senator, Republican Rand Paul, introduced an amendment to strip McConnell’s hemp language from the crucial government-funding bill, but it failed on a lopsided 76-24 vote.
Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, are among those strategizing to save the industry. Klobuchar noted at a recent news conference that the ban was inserted into the unrelated shutdown bill without a hearing. She suggested the federal government could allow states to develop their own regulatory frameworks, or that Minnesota’s strict regulations could be used as a national model.
Kevin Hilliard, co-founder of Insight Brewing in Minneapolis, said the hemp industry needs a solution before planting time next spring.
“If a farmer has uncertainty, they’re not going to plant,” Hilliard said.
___
Johnson reported from Seattle. AP congressional reporter Kevin Freking contributed from Washington, D.C.
MINNEAPOLIS — The production lines at Indeed Brewing moved quickly, the cans filling not with beer, but with THC-infused seltzer. The product, which features the compound that gets cannabis users high, has been a lifeline at Indeed and other craft breweries as alcohol sales have fallen in recent years.
But that boom looks set to come to a crashing halt. Buried in the bill that ended the federal government shutdown this month was a provision to ban those drinks, along with other impairing beverages and snacks made from hemp, which have proliferated across the country in recent years. Now the $24 billion hemp industry is scrambling to save itself before the provision takes effect in November 2026.
“It’s a big deal,” said Ryan Bandy, Indeed’s chief business officer. “It would be a mess for our breweries, for our industry, and obviously for a lot of people who like these things.”
Here’s what to know about the looming ban on impairing products derived from hemp.
Marijuana and hemp are the same species. Marijuana is cultivated for high levels of THC in its flowers. Low-THC hemp is grown for its sturdy fibers, food or wellness products. “Rope, not dope” was long the motto of farmers who supported legalizing hemp.
After states began legalizing marijuana for adult use over a decade ago, hemp advocates saw an opening at the federal level. As part of the 2018 farm bill, Congress legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp to give farmers, including in Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, a new cash crop.
But the way that law defined hemp — as having less than 0.3% of a specific type of THC, called delta-9 — opened a huge loophole. Beverages or bags of snacks could meet that threshold and still contain more than enough THC to get people high. Businesses could further exploit the law by extracting a non-impairing compound, called CBD, and chemically changing it into other types of impairing THC, such as delta-8 or delta-10.
The result? Vape oil, gummy candies, chips, cookies, sodas and other unregulated, untested products laden with hemp-derived THC spread around the country. In many places, they have been available at gas stations or convenience stores, even to teens. In legal marijuana states, they undercut heavily taxed and regulated products. In others, they evaded the prohibition on recreational use of weed.
Some states, including Indiana, have reported spikes in calls to poison-control centers for pediatric exposure to THC.
Dozens of states have since taken steps to regulate or ban impairing hemp products. In October, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products outside the state’s legal marijuana system.
Texas, which has a massive hemp market, is moving to regulate sales of impairing hemp, such as by restricting them to those over 21. In Nebraska, lawmakers have instead considered a bill to criminalize the sale and possession of products containing hemp-based THC.
Washington state adopted a program to regulate hemp growing. But the number of licensed growers has cratered since the state banned intoxicating hemp products outside of the regulated cannabis market in 2023. Five years ago, there were 220, said Trecia Ehrlich, cannabis program manager with the state agriculture department. This year, there were 42, and with a federal ban looming, she expects that number to drop by about half next year.
Minnesota made infused beverages and foods legal in 2022 for people 21 and older. The products, which must be derived from legally certified hemp, have become so popular that Target is now offering THC drinks at some of its stores in the state.
They’ve also been a boon to liquor stores and to small Minneapolis brewers like Indeed, where THC drinks make up close to one-quarter of the business, Bandy said. At Bauhaus Brew Labs, a few blocks away, THC drinks account for 26% of their revenues from distributed products and 11% of revenues at the brewery’s taproom.
None of that was what McConnell intended when he helped craft the 2018 farm bill. He finally closed the loophole by inserting a federal hemp THC ban in the measure to end the 43-day federal government shutdown, approved by the Senate on Nov. 10.
“It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children, while preserving the hemp industry for farmers,” McConnell said. “Industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications.”
Some in the legal marijuana industry celebrated, as the ban would end what they consider unfair competition.
They were joined by prohibitionists. “There’s really no good argument for allowing these dangerous products to be sold in our country,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
But the ban doesn’t take effect for a year. That has given the industry hope that there is still time to pass regulations that will improve the hemp THC industry — such as by banning synthetically derived THC, requiring age restrictions on sales, and prohibiting marketing to children — rather than eradicate it.
“We are very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the industry group U.S. Hemp Roundtable. “If they really thought there was a health emergency, there would be no year-long period.”
The federal ban would jeopardize more than 300,000 jobs while costing states $1.5 billion in lost tax money, the group says.
Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer at Bauhaus Brew Labs, has no doubt his company would be among the casualties.
“If this goes through as written currently, I don’t see a way at all that Bauhaus could stay in business,” Hurst said.
A number of lawmakers say they will push for regulation of the hemp THC industry. Kentucky’s second senator, Republican Rand Paul, introduced an amendment to strip McConnell’s hemp language from the crucial government-funding bill, but it failed on a lopsided 76-24 vote.
Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, are among those strategizing to save the industry. Klobuchar noted at a recent news conference that the ban was inserted into the unrelated shutdown bill without a hearing. She suggested the federal government could allow states to develop their own regulatory frameworks, or that Minnesota’s strict regulations could be used as a national model.
Kevin Hilliard, co-founder of Insight Brewing in Minneapolis, said the hemp industry needs a solution before planting time next spring.
“If a farmer has uncertainty, they’re not going to plant,” Hilliard said.
___
Johnson reported from Seattle. AP congressional reporter Kevin Freking contributed from Washington, D.C.
MINNEAPOLIS — The production lines at Indeed Brewing moved quickly, the cans filling not with beer, but with THC-infused seltzer. The product, which features the compound that gets cannabis users high, has been a lifeline at Indeed and other craft breweries as alcohol sales have fallen in recent years.
But that boom looks set to come to a crashing halt. Buried in the bill that ended the federal government shutdown this month was a provision to ban those drinks, along with other impairing beverages and snacks made from hemp, which have proliferated across the country in recent years. Now the $24 billion hemp industry is scrambling to save itself before the provision takes effect in November 2026.
“It’s a big deal,” said Ryan Bandy, Indeed’s chief business officer. “It would be a mess for our breweries, for our industry, and obviously for a lot of people who like these things.”
Here’s what to know about the looming ban on impairing products derived from hemp.
Marijuana and hemp are the same species. Marijuana is cultivated for high levels of THC in its flowers. Low-THC hemp is grown for its sturdy fibers, food or wellness products. “Rope, not dope” was long the motto of farmers who supported legalizing hemp.
After states began legalizing marijuana for adult use over a decade ago, hemp advocates saw an opening at the federal level. As part of the 2018 farm bill, Congress legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp to give farmers, including in Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, a new cash crop.
But the way that law defined hemp — as having less than 0.3% of a specific type of THC, called delta-9 — opened a huge loophole. Beverages or bags of snacks could meet that threshold and still contain more than enough THC to get people high. Businesses could further exploit the law by extracting a non-impairing compound, called CBD, and chemically changing it into other types of impairing THC, such as delta-8 or delta-10.
The result? Vape oil, gummy candies, chips, cookies, sodas and other unregulated, untested products laden with hemp-derived THC spread around the country. In many places, they have been available at gas stations or convenience stores, even to teens. In legal marijuana states, they undercut heavily taxed and regulated products. In others, they evaded the prohibition on recreational use of weed.
Some states, including Indiana, have reported spikes in calls to poison-control centers for pediatric exposure to THC.
Dozens of states have since taken steps to regulate or ban impairing hemp products. In October, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products outside the state’s legal marijuana system.
Texas, which has a massive hemp market, is moving to regulate sales of impairing hemp, such as by restricting them to those over 21. In Nebraska, lawmakers have instead considered a bill to criminalize the sale and possession of products containing hemp-based THC.
Washington state adopted a program to regulate hemp growing. But the number of licensed growers has cratered since the state banned intoxicating hemp products outside of the regulated cannabis market in 2023. Five years ago, there were 220, said Trecia Ehrlich, cannabis program manager with the state agriculture department. This year, there were 42, and with a federal ban looming, she expects that number to drop by about half next year.
Minnesota made infused beverages and foods legal in 2022 for people 21 and older. The products, which must be derived from legally certified hemp, have become so popular that Target is now offering THC drinks at some of its stores in the state.
They’ve also been a boon to liquor stores and to small Minneapolis brewers like Indeed, where THC drinks make up close to one-quarter of the business, Bandy said. At Bauhaus Brew Labs, a few blocks away, THC drinks account for 26% of their revenues from distributed products and 11% of revenues at the brewery’s taproom.
None of that was what McConnell intended when he helped craft the 2018 farm bill. He finally closed the loophole by inserting a federal hemp THC ban in the measure to end the 43-day federal government shutdown, approved by the Senate on Nov. 10.
“It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children, while preserving the hemp industry for farmers,” McConnell said. “Industrial hemp and CBD will remain legal for industrial applications.”
Some in the legal marijuana industry celebrated, as the ban would end what they consider unfair competition.
They were joined by prohibitionists. “There’s really no good argument for allowing these dangerous products to be sold in our country,” said Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
But the ban doesn’t take effect for a year. That has given the industry hope that there is still time to pass regulations that will improve the hemp THC industry — such as by banning synthetically derived THC, requiring age restrictions on sales, and prohibiting marketing to children — rather than eradicate it.
“We are very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the industry group U.S. Hemp Roundtable. “If they really thought there was a health emergency, there would be no year-long period.”
The federal ban would jeopardize more than 300,000 jobs while costing states $1.5 billion in lost tax money, the group says.
Drew Hurst, president and chief operating officer at Bauhaus Brew Labs, has no doubt his company would be among the casualties.
“If this goes through as written currently, I don’t see a way at all that Bauhaus could stay in business,” Hurst said.
A number of lawmakers say they will push for regulation of the hemp THC industry. Kentucky’s second senator, Republican Rand Paul, introduced an amendment to strip McConnell’s hemp language from the crucial government-funding bill, but it failed on a lopsided 76-24 vote.
Minnesota’s Democratic U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, are among those strategizing to save the industry. Klobuchar noted at a recent news conference that the ban was inserted into the unrelated shutdown bill without a hearing. She suggested the federal government could allow states to develop their own regulatory frameworks, or that Minnesota’s strict regulations could be used as a national model.
Kevin Hilliard, co-founder of Insight Brewing in Minneapolis, said the hemp industry needs a solution before planting time next spring.
“If a farmer has uncertainty, they’re not going to plant,” Hilliard said.
___
Johnson reported from Seattle. AP congressional reporter Kevin Freking contributed from Washington, D.C.
NEW YORK (AP) — Designer Jeffrey Banks spent years co-authoring seven books on fashion before finally deciding it was time to share his own story.
The menswear designer recounts more than 50 years in fashion, from working for Ralph Lauren to launching his own label, in his new memoir “Storyteller: Tales from a Fashion Insider.”
At 72, Banks is having a breakout year. One of his designs was selected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibit, and he’s relaunching his eponymous menswear label.
Banks debuted his label of polished tailoring and American sportswear back in 1976 at 21. His menswear played with color and texture: think tartan plaid jackets, pinstriped suits and furs. And at a time when there were few Black designers, his clothes were being sold in major department stores from Macy’s to Bergdorf Goodman and he was landing multimillion-dollar deals.
For his Jeffrey Banks menswear relaunch in January, he’s moving away from suiting and embracing sustainable sportswear, from knits to underwear.
“As much as I love suits and tailored clothing,” he told The Associated Press, “I don’t think that’s the business for now, and the business of young people.”
His industry friends have rallied around him on his book tour. The Council of Fashion Designers of America hosted a conversation between Banks and Isaac Mizrahi last week to celebrate the publication of Banks’ book.
Mizrahi, who worked for Banks on his womenswear line, called him a trendsetter in the commercial space.
“I was so inspired when I was working with him, and he was one of the first people to do a lot of things at once,” Mizrahi said. “I looked at that, and I thought that was real success.”
Banks is a natural storyteller
Banks’ memoir doubles as a love letter to the family, loved ones and fashionable friends who supported him over the years. One motivation for doing the book, he said, was to ensure his mother, who turns 105 in January, could read it.
“She instilled in me and in my sister, as did my father, the idea that if we wanted something bad enough and we were willing to work hard enough for it, we could achieve and get anything that we wanted,” Banks said. “And the fact that we were Black, that shouldn’t make a difference.”
Banks and his mother shared a love of clothing. At 10, he designed a yellow asymmetrical wool coat and matching sheath dress for her to wear on Easter Sunday.
Former CFDA President Stan Herman, 97, said that Banks is a natural storyteller with an impeccable memory, who he joked, “was born with a Vogue in his crib.”
In his book, he highlights his “Mentors” and “Best Friends Forever” through entertaining anecdotes and photos of fashion industry stalwarts like late designer Perry Ellis and celebrities like Bobby Short, Barbra Streisand and Audrey Hepburn. Ever the gentleman, Banks’ book does not divulge all his insider secrets despite working so closely with some of the biggest names in fashion.
Banks’ fashion ascent
Banks credits fashion industry giants Lauren and Calvin Klein as his mentors.
He first met Lauren as a teenager while working at Britches of Georgetowne, a menswear store in Washington, D.C. In his book, Banks shares how Lauren gave him one of his personal suits to wear for prom before he later worked for the designer while attending Pratt Institute. Banks said the two first bonded over their admiration of Hollywood movie stars like Cary Grant and Fred Astaire.
“Ralph always treated me like an equal, I mean, from Day One,” Banks said. “He always said … I’m his other son.”
While attending the Parsons School of Design, Banks was personally recruited by Klein. At his first fashion show, Banks said he sat Klein and Lauren next to one another.
It was while building Klein’s menswear line that Banks was offered the chance to start his own label. He then ventured into men’s outerwear with Lakeland, furs with Alixandre, a Jeffrey Banks Boys’ line and even womenswear.
In 1980, he was tapped to overhaul Merona Sport, a family sportswear brand, he turned into a money-making juggernaut that catapulted his career. He writes that the brand jumped from generating $7 million to $70 million within six months. At the time, Mizrahi said, it was like Banks had “struck gold.”
As Banks goes back to his roots with the relaunch of this menswear label, his fashion community is ready to embrace him again.
“He’s still as relevant as ever,” Fern Mallis, former head of The Council of Fashion Designers of America, said. “And I think there’s definitely a place for him in the market, he’s got a wonderful following of fashionista friends. … We’ll be wearing it, posting it and writing about it.”
MILAN (AP) — Prada heir Lorenzo Bertelli will have a major strategic role as executive chairman of Versace after the Prada Group completes its 1.25 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) deal to buy its rival, expected in the coming weeks, the Prada Group confirmed Thursday.
Bertelli, 37, has been previously announced as the future leader of the Prada Group, where he has been marketing director since 2019 and head of corporate responsibility since 2020. The elder son of acclaimed designer Miuccia Prada and Prada Group chairman Patrizio Bertelli joined the group in 2017 as head of digital communication.
Bertelli made the announcement about his next role on an Italian-language Bloomberg podcast Wednesday.
He said he doesn’t expect any big shake-ups at Versace at least for the first year after the acquisition is complete as he gets to know the company and its executive team. But he underlined that the 47-year-old fashion house founded by the late Gianni Versace has been underperforming its potential.
“The brand is much bigger than the revenue that it is generating,’’ Bertelli said, noting that Versace remains among the top global fashion brands.
The Prada Group announced in April the deal to buy crosstown fashion rival Versace from the U.S. luxury group Capri Holding, putting Versace’s sexy silhouettes under the same roof as Prada’s “ugly chic” aesthetic and Miu Miu’s youth-driven market.
Versace represented 20% of its current owner’s 2024 revenue of 5.2 billion euros.
In a presentation on the deal last spring, Prada estimated that Versace would make up 13% of the Prada Group’s pro-forma revenues, with Miu Miu coming in at 22% and Prada at 64%. The Prada Group, which also includes the Church’s and Car Shoe brands, reported a 17% boost in revenues to 5.4 billion euros last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — On any day during her eight years as first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama said she could go from giving a speech to meeting with a counterpart from another country to digging in her vegetable garden with groups of schoolchildren.
And her clothes had to be ready for that. There was too much else to do, including raising daughters Sasha and Malia, and she said she did not have time to obsess over what she was wearing.
“I was concerned about, ‘Can I hug somebody in it? Will it get dirty?’” she said Wednesday night during a moderated conversation about her style choices dating to growing up on the South Side of Chicago to when she found herself in the national spotlight as the first Black woman to be first lady. “I was the kind of first lady that there was no telling what I would do.”
Obama would become one of the most-watched women in the world, for what she said and did, but also for what she wore. She chronicled her fashion, hair and makeup journey in her newest book, “The Look,” written with her longtime stylist Meredith Koop and published earlier this month.
The sold-out conversation was taped as part of “IMO: THE LOOK,” a special, six-part companion series to the IMO podcast she hosts with her brother, Craig Robinson.
She wanted her clothes to be welcoming as well as versatile.
“The thing about clothes that I find is that they can welcome people in or they can keep people away, and if you’re so put together and so precious and things are so crisp and the pin is so big, you know, it can just tell people, ‘Don’t touch me,’” she said.
She said she would not wear white to events with rope lines in case someone wanted a hug.
“I’m not going to push somebody away when they need something from me, and I’m not going to let the clothes get in the way of that,” Obama said.
Here’s what she said about a few of her notable fashion choices:
The gown for Obama’s first inauguration
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dance at the Obama Home States Inaugural Ball in Washington, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dance at the Obama Home States Inaugural Ball in Washington, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
The white, one-shoulder chiffon gown was designed by Jason Wu, then an unknown 26-year-old who was born in Taiwan. But when she stepped out at the inaugural ball wearing the gown, the moment changed Wu’s life. That was by design, she said.
“We were beginning to realize everything we did sent a message,” Obama said, speaking of herself and her husband, former President Barack Obama. “So that’s what we were trying to do with the choices we made, to change lives.”
She would continue to help launch the careers of other up-and-coming designers by wearing their creations.
Chain mail state dinner gown
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wait at North Portico of the White House to greet Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife Agnese Landini, for a State Dinner, Oct. 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wait at North Portico of the White House to greet Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife Agnese Landini, for a State Dinner, Oct. 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Obama wore the rose gold gown by Versace for the Obama administration’s final state dinner, for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in October 2016.
“So that was a kind of a, ‘I don’t care’ dress,” she said of the shimmery, one-armed gown.
“I put that on. I was like, ‘This is sexy.’ It’s the last one,” she said, meaning their final state dinner. “All of my choices, ultimately, are what is beautiful — and what looks beautiful on.”
Pantsuit worn to Joe Biden’s inauguration
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama arrive to attend the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021, as Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the U.S. and Kamala Harris became the first woman vice president. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama arrive to attend the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021, as Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the U.S. and Kamala Harris became the first woman vice president. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP, File)
“I was really in practical mode,” Obama said, explaining why she chose the maroon ensemble by Sergio Hudson with a flowing, floor-length coat that she wore unbuttoned, exposing the belt around her waist with a big, round gold-toned buckle. Her boots had a low heel.
“The sitting president was trying to convince us that Jan. 6 was just a peaceful protest,” she said.
The inauguration ceremony at the Capitol was held two weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot there by supporters of President Donald Trump who had sought to overturn Biden’s victory.
She said she had been thinking about the possibility of having to run if something else had happened that day.
“I wanted to be able to move. I wanted to be ready,” she said. But she and her team “had no idea” the outfit “was going to break the internet,” she said.
White House East Wing
Obama also spoke about the East Wing, the traditional base of operations for first ladies that Trump last month tore down to make room for a ballroom he had long desired.
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks about her new book “The Look” during an event at Sixth and I, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks about her new book “The Look” during an event at Sixth and I, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Obama described the East Wing as a joyful place that she remembers as full of apples, children, puppies and laughter, in contrast to the West Wing, which dealt with “horrible things.” It was where she worked on various initiatives that ranged from combating childhood obesity to rallying the country around military families to encouraging developing countries to let girls go to school.
She said she and her husband never thought of the White House as “our house.” They saw themselves more as caretakers, and there was work to do in the mansion.
“But every president has the right to do what they want in that house, so that’s why we’ve got to be clear on who we let in,” Obama said.
NEW YORK (AP) — When Kristen Wiig steps out of a vintage Rolls-Royce in the opening scene of Season 2 of “Palm Royale,” she’s sporting a tall, yellow, fringed hat, gold platform sandals and sunny bell bottoms, with fabric petals that sway with every determined step. It’s the first clue that the costumes on the female-driven comedy are taking center stage.
The Apple TV show made a splash in its first season with the starry cast, high production values and ubiquitous grasshopper cocktail. Wiig’s character, Maxine, tries to break into Palm Beach high society in 1969 and bumps heads with co-stars Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb and Laura Dern. But also playing a starring role are the vintage designer frocks that reflect each character.
Kristen Wiig in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Kristen Wiig in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
For Season 2, which premiered this week, Emmy-winning costume designer Alix Friedberg says she and her team coordinated “thousands” of looks that reflect the characters’ jet-setting style. She says 50-60% of the brightly colored and graphic print costumes are original vintage designer pieces, sourced by shoppers and costume designers.
“The looks are so iconic. Sometimes Kristen will walk in in something, and it brings tears to my eyes,” Kaia Gerber — who plays Mitzi — told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
The creative process entails more than shopping
If not original vintage, Friedberg’s team builds the costumes, and if a character has to wear an outfit in multiple scenes or in big dance numbers, the team may create duplicates to preserve continuity. Friedberg says she was lucky to find so many vendors with vintage designer pieces in great condition.
“(Bibb’s character) Dinah wears a few original Oscar de la Renta pieces that are really so perfect. Bill Blass was a big one, Oleg Cassini,” Friedberg says. “There’s a dress that (Janney’s character) Evelyn wears that’s this all emerald green jersey, it’s an original Halston and it’s so stunning on her and it really does sort of evoke what’s to come in the ‘70s.”
Allison Janney in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Allison Janney in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Janney calls Friedberg “brilliant” and marveled at her talent at finding pieces that are like works of art. Some of her favorites were the characters’ après-ski looks in the Swiss Alps — but she finds it hard to pick an ultimate favorite.
“All of them just make me feel divine. And the hair is just a masterpiece, and the makeup — it all goes together to just create Evelyn and I barely have to do anything,” Janney says.
Costumes can be funny
The costumes also help heighten the comedy. Friedberg says Evelyn’s stoic and deadpan character elicits laughs with some of her over-the-top getups.
“She’s delivering this dialogue, these lines with, like, seven wigs on top of her,” Friedberg says. “The absurdity comes out really in how these women present themselves time and time again. … It was just so much fun to get to laugh and wink at the audience.”
Carol Burnett in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Carol Burnett in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Burnett called costume fittings on the show “great fun” and said they helped her find her character, the scheming Norma. “I work from the outside in. I have to know what I’m going to look like,” she says.
Norma’s signature turban started as a practical idea to help Burnett save time in hair and makeup. “The first time she put it on, we were both like, ‘Oh, that’s really so fabulous,’ and every time she came out as Norma without the turban, I really missed it,” Friedberg says. “Each time we built her a dress, we always had to sort of think about what the turban would be, and then it started to switch, and we started designing the turbans before the dress!”
Season 2 of Apple TV’s “Palm Royale” features fabulous costumes and sets, lots of laughs and an undercurrent theme of feminism and female friendship. (Nov. 10)
Many looks go deeper than sparkly sequins
The costumes also help set the tone for the female empowerment theme that permeates this season. “Evelyn wore a lot more pants — which seems ridiculous to say today — but back then that was a real power move,” Friedberg says.
Leslie Bibb in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Leslie Bibb in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Bibb had ideas to show how Dinah evolves from her trophy wife persona. “I knew this season was about her finding sort of her own wealth without a man … and what that looked like. I always have been obsessed with Sharon Stone in ‘Casino,’” Bibb says — and so they “stole” a bit of that look. “We really have Dinah going into pantsuits and just a different sense of her and she’s really becoming her most modern self.”
Friedberg conveyed the privilege and simplicity of the rich men in the series through clothing as well. Josh Lucas plays Douglas, who suffers some disappointments this season, reflected in his costumes.
“What if we approach Douglas where he’s always been dressed by women in his life? He’s always been dressed by someone else. He’s never shopped,” Lucas says he posed to Friedberg (who happens to be his sister-in-law in real life). “And for the first time, (his wife’s) character is not doing that, so he only has three hole-filled Hawaiian shirts.”
He’s in fact the rare character who repeats outfits, Friedberg notes. “You can kind of see them, as the series goes along, getting a little bit more and more threadbare,” she says.
Kaia Gerber in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Kaia Gerber in “Palm Royale.” (Erica Parise/Apple TV via AP)
Gerber’s character gets a major makeover this season after coming into money. The actor gushed about Friedberg’s intentional designs as Mitzi finds her “womanhood and her power.”
“It was so fun to be able to be wearing these expensive gowns and jewelry and the hair and the makeup, and how that really sort of parallels Mitzi’s inner journey as well,” she says.
The costumes may be eye candy, but Friedberg says each look also carries deeper meaning.
“Maxine wears this dress that was an original Oscar de la Renta dress,” Friedberg says. “It’s very much something that Norma would wear, and it is saying to the audience without saying to the audience that she’s arrived, it’s her time, it’s time for her to rule.”
NEW YORK — When Kristen Wiig steps out of a vintage Rolls-Royce in the opening scene of Season 2 of “Palm Royale,” she’s sporting a tall, yellow, fringed hat, gold platform sandals and sunny bell bottoms, with fabric petals that sway with every determined step. It’s the first clue that the costumes on the female-driven comedy are taking center stage.
The Apple TV show made a splash in its first season with the starry cast, high production values and ubiquitous grasshopper cocktail. Wiig’s character, Maxine, tries to break into Palm Beach high society in 1969 and bumps heads with co-stars Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb and Laura Dern. But also playing a starring role are the vintage designer frocks that reflect each character.
For Season 2, which premiered this week, Emmy-winning costume designer Alix Friedberg says she and her team coordinated “thousands” of looks that reflect the characters’ jet-setting style. She says 50-60% of the brightly colored and graphic print costumes are original vintage designer pieces, sourced by shoppers and costume designers.
“The looks are so iconic. Sometimes Kristen will walk in in something, and it brings tears to my eyes,” Kaia Gerber — who plays Mitzi — told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
If not original vintage, Friedberg’s team builds the costumes, and if a character has to wear an outfit in multiple scenes or in big dance numbers, the team may create duplicates to preserve continuity. Friedberg says she was lucky to find so many vendors with vintage designer pieces in great condition.
“(Bibb’s character) Dinah wears a few original Oscar de la Renta pieces that are really so perfect. Bill Blass was a big one, Oleg Cassini,” Friedberg says. “There’s a dress that (Janney’s character) Evelyn wears that’s this all emerald green jersey, it’s an original Halston and it’s so stunning on her and it really does sort of evoke what’s to come in the ’70s.”
Janney calls Friedberg “brilliant” and marveled at her talent at finding pieces that are like works of art. Some of her favorites were the characters’ après-ski looks in the Swiss Alps — but she finds it hard to pick an ultimate favorite.
“All of them just make me feel divine. And the hair is just a masterpiece, and the makeup — it all goes together to just create Evelyn and I barely have to do anything,” Janney says.
The costumes also help heighten the comedy. Friedberg says Evelyn’s stoic and deadpan character elicits laughs with some of her over-the-top getups.
“She’s delivering this dialogue, these lines with, like, seven wigs on top of her,” Friedberg says. “The absurdity comes out really in how these women present themselves time and time again. … It was just so much fun to get to laugh and wink at the audience.”
Burnett called costume fittings on the show “great fun” and said they helped her find her character, the scheming Norma. “I work from the outside in. I have to know what I’m going to look like,” she says.
Norma’s signature turban started as a practical idea to help Burnett save time in hair and makeup. “The first time she put it on, we were both like, ‘Oh, that’s really so fabulous,’ and every time she came out as Norma without the turban, I really missed it,” Friedberg says. “Each time we built her a dress, we always had to sort of think about what the turban would be, and then it started to switch, and we started designing the turbans before the dress!”
The costumes also help set the tone for the female empowerment theme that permeates this season. “Evelyn wore a lot more pants — which seems ridiculous to say today — but back then that was a real power move,” Friedberg says.
Bibb had ideas to show how Dinah evolves from her trophy wife persona. “I knew this season was about her finding sort of her own wealth without a man … and what that looked like. I always have been obsessed with Sharon Stone in ‘Casino,’” Bibb says — and so they “stole” a bit of that look. “We really have Dinah going into pantsuits and just a different sense of her and she’s really becoming her most modern self.”
Friedberg conveyed the privilege and simplicity of the rich men in the series through clothing as well. Josh Lucas plays Douglas, who suffers some disappointments this season, reflected in his costumes.
“What if we approach Douglas where he’s always been dressed by women in his life? He’s always been dressed by someone else. He’s never shopped,” Lucas says he posed to Friedberg (who happens to be his sister-in-law in real life). “And for the first time, (his wife’s) character is not doing that, so he only has three hole-filled Hawaiian shirts.”
He’s in fact the rare character who repeats outfits, Friedberg notes. “You can kind of see them, as the series goes along, getting a little bit more and more threadbare,” she says.
Gerber’s character gets a major makeover this season after coming into money. The actor gushed about Friedberg’s intentional designs as Mitzi finds her “womanhood and her power.”
“It was so fun to be able to be wearing these expensive gowns and jewelry and the hair and the makeup, and how that really sort of parallels Mitzi’s inner journey as well,” she says.
The costumes may be eye candy, but Friedberg says each look also carries deeper meaning.
“Maxine wears this dress that was an original Oscar de la Renta dress,” Friedberg says. “It’s very much something that Norma would wear, and it is saying to the audience without saying to the audience that she’s arrived, it’s her time, it’s time for her to rule.”
PARIS (AP) — France’s government said Wednesday it is moving toward suspending access to the Shein online marketplace until it proves its content conforms to French law, after authorities found illegal weapons and child-like sex dolls for sale on the fast-fashion giant’s website.
The Finance Ministry said the government made the decision after officials found “large quantities” of illegal “Class A” weapons on Shein’s popular e-commerce platform Wednesday, following the discovery last week of illegal sex dolls with childlike characteristics. The ministry did not detail which weapons were found, but the Class A includes firearms, knives and machetes as well as war material.
The ministry said if the prohibited items remain, authorities may suspend the site in France.
The decision came on the same day that Shein opened its first permanent store in Paris inside one of the city’s most iconic department stores. The opening drew crowds of shoppers to the BHV Marais, but also a small group of protesters who briefly disrupted the opening by waving anti-Shein signs before they were escorted out by security.
The director of the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville (BHV) department store Karl-Stephane Cottendin cuts the ribbon at the opening Shein’s first physical store in Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. ( Dimitar Dilkoff, Pool via AP)
The director of the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville (BHV) department store Karl-Stephane Cottendin cuts the ribbon at the opening Shein’s first physical store in Paris, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. ( Dimitar Dilkoff, Pool via AP)
The ministry did not say whether its decision would impact the physical store. It added that a first progress report would be provided within 48 hours.
Shein, founded in China in 2012 and now based in Singapore, pledged to work with French authorities to “address any concerns swiftly as we have always done and we are seeking dialogue with the authorities and government bodies on this issue.”
French authorities can order online platforms to remove clearly illegal content, such as child sexual abuse materials, within 24 hours. If they fail to comply, authorities can require internet service providers and search engines to block access and delist the site.
Ordering from Shein’s French website was still possible Wednesday following the government’s announcement.
People visit the BHV department store as fast fashion powerhouse Shein opens its first permanent store, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
People visit the BHV department store as fast fashion powerhouse Shein opens its first permanent store, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Frédéric Merlin, president of Société des Grands Magasins (SGM,) which owns the BHV department store, praised the government’s move. “I am satisfied with this decision and I hope that, in the end, we will be able to stop selling illicit products on these marketplaces,” Merlin said.
Still, the backlash over the sex doll listings could be a “massive red flag” to investors and become a roadblock to the company’s ambitions of going public, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData.
The episode feeds into the view that Chinese-founded marketplaces “are the Wild West of e-commerce, where there is very little compliance, and they don’t really adhere to established rules, that they don’t have full control over the platforms,” Saunders said. “And that is a problem because if you’re looking to expand, you have to abide by national laws.”
Saunders noted there’s a big difference in having counterfeit merchandise and questionable merchandise on a site. Child sexual abuse material “crosses an important moral boundary,” he said.
Store opening draws shoppers and demonstrators
SGM has called the sale of the sex dolls unacceptable, but praised Shein for its swift response to defuse the controversy.
Shein said earlier that it has banned all sex-doll products, and temporarily removed its adult products category for review. The company had also announced that it would temporarily suspend listings from independent third-party vendors in its marketplace, and launched an investigation to determine how the dolls listings bypassed its screening measures.
Even before the backlash over the sex doll listings, the decision by Shein to launch its first physical store in the heart of France’s fashion capital had faced criticism from environmental groups, Paris City Hall and France’s ready-to-wear industry.
The retail giant has long drawn criticism over its poor green credentials and labor practices. An online petition opposing the Paris opening surpassed 120,000 signatures
Ticia Ones, a regular Shein online customer living in Paris, said the main reason she visited the store on Wednesday was the opportunity to see items in person before buying.
“We can see what we order, touch the items, it’s a good thing,” she said, adding that the brand’s low prices were a strong draw despite the controversy. “I’m not going to comment on the quality, but price is definitely appealing.”
The BHV store has been going through financial struggles in recent years and its owners believe the arrival of Shein will help revive business — even as some brands have chosen to leave the store in protest.
“We are proud to have a partner who has spoken out firmly,” said Karl-Stéphane Cottendin, the chief operating officer of SGM. “We are very happy to be opening the boutique.”
A protester holds a placard reading “No style worth slavery” in the BHV department store as fast fashion Shein opens its first physical store, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A protester holds a placard reading “No style worth slavery” in the BHV department store as fast fashion Shein opens its first physical store, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Environmental and ethical concerns
Shein has risen rapidly to become a global fast-fashion giant. Selling mostly Chinese-made clothes and products at bargain prices, the retailer has drawn criticism over allegations that its supply chains may be tainted by forced labor, including from China’s far-west Xinjiang province, where rights groups say serious human rights abuses were committed by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uyghur group and other Muslim minorities.
Cottendin dismissed those concerns and praised Shein for doing a “tremendous job” to improve its practices.
“Today, it’s a brand that produces under much more legitimate conditions,” he said. “We ensured that the entire production chain, from manufacturing to delivery, complies strictly with French and European regulations and standards.”
Frederic Merlin, CEO of SGM group which owns the BHV department store, answers reporters before fast fashion powerhouse Shein opens its first permanent store Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Frederic Merlin, CEO of SGM group which owns the BHV department store, answers reporters before fast fashion powerhouse Shein opens its first permanent store Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
France is now moving to curb the growing influence of companies based in Asian countries such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress. A draft law targets fast fashion with measures such as consumer awareness campaigns, advertising bans, taxes on small imported parcels and stricter waste management rules.
“It’s a black day for our industry,” said Thibaut Ledunois, director of entrepreneurship and innovation at the French federation of women’s ready-to-wear. He added that Shein’s Paris opening was an attempt to justify “all the bad, and sad and horrible business that they develop all around the world.”
PARIS (AP) — Designer Olivier Rousteing is stepping down as creative director of the Balmain fashion house after 14 hugely visible years in which he fused the rigor of Parisian tailoring with a digital-age sense of celebrity, he announced Wednesday.
“Today marks the end of my Balmain era,” Rousteing, 40, wrote on Instagram. “What an extraordinary story it has been — a love story, a life story … I will always hold this treasured time close to my heart.”
Balmain confirmed Rousteing’s departure and said in a statement that a new creative direction would be announced “in due course.”
“Throughout his remarkable 14-year tenure, Olivier’s visionary approach and creative brilliance propelled Balmain to unprecedented heights,” the label said.
Rousteing, who became creative director in 2011 at age 25 after two years at the label, spent his tenure reviving a once-sleepy fashion house with a mix of couture craft and pop-era bravado.
He transformed Balmain into a headline-generating brand with a vision built on sequins, power shoulders and social media muscle, reframing French luxury for a generation raised on Instagram.
Under Rousteing, Balmain became as much about community as clothing. He cultivated what he called the “Balmain Army” — a loyal circle of models and stars including Rihanna, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian — which embodied the glamour and visibility he championed.
Runway shows became pop events, blurring the line between fashion show and stadium concert. The designer’s inclusive casting and celebration of diversity helped redefine the image of a Paris house often associated with old-world exclusivity.
Born in Bordeaux and adopted as an infant, Rousteing later learned that his biological parents were of Somali and Ethiopian origin — a revelation that he said deepened his sense of identity and creative mission. His collections often wove references to heritage, resilience and belonging, offering a modern counterpoint to the Eurocentric codes that once dominated French couture.
That personal resilience was tested again in 2020, when a fireplace explosion in his Paris home left him with severe burns across much of his body. Rousteing kept the accident private for nearly a year, designing in bandages while concealing his injuries from the public eye. When he revealed the ordeal on Instagram, posting an image of his scarred torso, the gesture was both raw and defiant — a reminder that vulnerability could coexist with glamour.
The designer’s candor about his trauma and recovery further humanized a figure once seen as fashion’s ultimate showman. In interviews, Rousteing said the experience stripped away fear and reinforced his belief in honesty and transparency. His subsequent collections — notably the Spring 2022 show marking Balmain’s 10th anniversary under his direction — were suffused with themes of healing, strength and rebirth, with corseted silhouettes and bandage motifs doubling as symbols of survival.
“Like every story, this one also has an ending,” Rousteing wrote on Instagram Wednesday. He thanked his team and colleagues, but did not say what his next step will be.
“Today, I leave the House of Balmain with my eyes still wide open — open to the future and to the beautiful adventures ahead, adventures in which all of you will have a place. A new era, a new beginning, a new story. THANK YOU.”
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Associated Press writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report from New York.
LONDON — The largest-ever exhibition of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s fashion, including the opulent gowns she wore for her wedding and coronation, will go on display at Buckingham Palace next year to mark the centenary of her birth, officials said Tuesday.
The landmark royal exhibition will feature some 200 items — about half of them never publicly displayed before — that chart the monarch’s life and her historic 70-year reign.
Elizabeth, who died in September 2022 at 96, was the longest-reigning monarch Britain has ever known, and her clothing archive is considered one of the most important collections of 20th-century British fashion. She would have celebrated her 100th birthday on April 21, 2026.
Highlights include a tulle bridesmaid dress worn by an 8-year-old Princess Elizabeth in 1934 and many beautifully tailored couture dresses by the monarch’s most influential designer, Norman Hartnell.
Hartnell was the man behind an apple-green gown the queen wore for a state banquet given for U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Washington, D.C. in 1957; a pastel blue gown with matching jacket that Elizabeth wore for her sister Princess Margaret’s 1960 wedding; as well as the queen’s own wedding and coronation dresses.
Visitors to the exhibition will also see items from Elizabeth’s private, off-duty wardrobe, from her riding clothes and Harris tweed jackets to raincoats and headscarves, as well as design sketches and fabric samples that give an insight into the process of dressing her.
While the queen was known for her elegant and conservative style, the collection included a somewhat surprising and avant-garde item: A clear transparent raincoat by the couturier Hardy Amies, made in the 1960s. The raincoat was designed to allow Elizabeth’s bright daywear to be visible to crowds no matter the weather.
The display will also include pieces by three contemporary British designers — Erdem Moralioglu, Richard Quinn and Christopher Kane — influenced by the monarch’s style to highlight her legacy.
“Queen Elizabeth II’s wardrobe is one of the most significant living archives in modern fashion history. From the decline of the court dressmaker to the rise of couturiers like Hartnell and Hardy Amies, her garments tell the story of Britain and its changing identity through fashion,” Kane said.
“For designers and students, it offers a master-class in silhouette, construction, repetition, symbolism and, perhaps most importantly, restraint,” the designer added.
“Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life In Style” will be staged at Buckingham Palace from April 10, 2026 to Oct. 18, 2026. Tickets go on sale Tuesday.
NEW YORK — Heidi Klum donned green scales and squirming snakes to transform herself into Medusa for Halloween on Friday.
Klum said she loves the Greek myth of Medusa, in which a goddess turns a beautiful woman into a monster with serpents for hair, the sight of which turns living things around her to stone.
“So I wanted to be really, really like a really ugly, ugly Medusa. And I feel like we nailed it — to the teeth,” Klum said before pointing to fangs in her mouth.
Her husband, musician Tom Kaulitz, dressed as a man turned to stone.
Klum said she spent 10 hours getting into costume for her annual Halloween party. She said it was all worth it because she loves the celebration.
The supermodel-turned-TV personality went viral in 2022 when she arrived at her party on the end of a fishing line, encased in a slithering worm costume.
In past years, Klum has come dressed as an 8-foot-tall (2.4-meter-tall) “Transformer,” a werewolf from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video, a clone accompanied by several Klum-lookalikes, and Kali, the multiarmed Hindu goddess of death and destruction.
Klum has said she starts planning her costume for the next year immediately after her party wraps.
Among the other celebrities who walked the carpet at the Hard Rock Hotel New York were a green-painted Darren Criss as Shrek, Maye Musk as Cruella de Vil and Ariana Madix as Lady Gaga.
Monáe was hosting her annual party on Friday, too, and came dressed as the Cat in the Hat. The actress and singer-songwriter turned the entire month into a series of Halloween-themed immersive experiences across the Los Angeles area, concluding with a party at her home in Studio City.
“Halloween gives context to what I already do every day,” Monáe told The Associated Press earlier in October. “As an artist, I’m always transforming, world-building and inviting people to play in the worlds I create.”
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Associated Press journalists John Carucci in New York, Jordan Hicks in Los Angeles, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed reporting.
PARIS — Military regalia met bohemian ease at Enfants Riches Déprimés on Thursday, where designer Henri Alexander Levy once again proved his penchant for contradictions.
A military-looking, shiny-buttoned denim coat, cut with the sharpness of uniform, was paired with ’70s heeled boots and a model’s shaggy, Woodstock hair. It was counterculture refracted through bourgeois tailoring.
The edgy reputation of the house — whose name translates as “Depressed Rich Kids” — was intact. Levy gave Hedi Slimane-like preppy neckties a decadent twist with silver clasps and jeweled belts. White, wide pleated pants, almost aristocratic in their French country-house languor, turned rakish when topped with black leather and shades — the rich kid rolling back to family lunch after a lost weekend.
Founded in 2012 in Los Angeles, ERD has grown beyond its cult beginnings, now anchoring a presence in Paris and even opening an art-book-and-vinyl bar. The label’s cult status has also translated into a devoted celebrity following, with Jared Leto, Miley Cyrus, Courtney Love and Rita Ora among those spotted in its anarchic designs.
Juxtapositions are the brand’s core language. Since its inception, ERD has thrived on posh-punk pastiche — safety pins and raw hems offset by velvet, chiffon, and fine leathercraft. This collection continued the tradition: eclectic, bohemian, but also self-aware, always whispering, “we’re depressed, but we’ve got money.”
Levy’s staging and philosophy have often straddled theater and nihilism, from cardboard tanks and funeral processions to characters imagined out of paintings and collages. Thursday’s clothes were less about shock, more about mood — the decadent melancholy of youth with too much privilege and too much time.
PARIS — Inside the Centre Pompidou, Helen Mirren opened Stella McCartney ’s Paris Fashion Week show with a spoken rendition of The Beatles ’ “Come Together.” Less performance than manifesto, it set the tone for a Tuesday night collection framed around humanity, animals and the planet.
McCartney has long been ahead of the curve in fashion’s sustainability push. This season she claimed her most conscious offering yet: 98% sustainable, 100% cruelty-free.
“It’s about coming together — all humanity, all Mother Earth’s creatures — now more than ever,” the designer said backstage.
No leather, no fur, no feathers, no exotic skins. Instead came world-first innovations: FEVVERS, a plant-based alternative to feathers, and PURE.TECH, a programmable fabric that absorbs pollutants from the air.
If the message was serious, the mood was not. A pounding bass line and rave-like lights kept energy high as Robin Wright, Dylan Penn and Johnny Depp watched from the front row.
McCartney’s silhouettes explored opposites — masculine and feminine, grounded and ethereal. Savile Row tailoring was deconstructed: double-breasted jackets sliced open at the sides, draped with dropped lapels, worn over pleated wide trousers and ’80s Italian-inspired shirting. Cargo codes reappeared in crisp minis fringed with airy crinoline.
Colors shifted from candy pinks, lavenders and blues into khaki, corporate gray and pecan. Upcycling was visible. Denim waistbands collaged into dresses, bags and even platform shoes. Sequins glimmered across Falabella clutches and hand-embroidered denim. Evening pared back to sculptural satin gowns and corseted draping animated by the new feather substitute.
The collection captured McCartney’s recurring aesthetic — eco-lux innovation, ’80s-inflected power dressing, activist theater softened by British wit.
At times the campaigning risks overwhelming the clothes, her shows veering into didactic spectacle.
Still, Tuesday night confirmed why McCartney remains unique after two decades — she can merge spectacle and conscience, sustainability and desirability, daring her audience to imagine fashion that doesn’t just dress the body, but tries to heal the planet.
MILAN — Alessandro Dell’Acqua’s No. 21 collection for next spring and summer, presented Wednesday during Milan Fashion Week, is a study in lightness, as a hedge against the heavy times.
“I believe that in moments of heaviness and uncertainty, sometimes taking a moment of lightheartedness and clearing your mind a bit can be good for you,” Dell’Acqua said backstage. ”This is why I made it so light.”
Nowhere was the concept more at play than in chiffon petal cutouts that were sewn together in ruffles on dresses, or as a collar around the neck, rustling delicately with the movement. Dell’Acqua also created wilted flowers out of chiffon that he pinned on garments, “as if forgotten by time.”
The lightness allowed Dell’Acqua to layer amply. Plaid kilts were underpinned by petticoat layers. Prairie skirts with a big hem ruffle were tied prettily at the waist. Silken slip dresses were worn one atop the other.
The collection was a treasure chest of feminine silks and sheers contrasted with wide masculine denim trousers and gray man’s sweaters tied around the neck in the style of the Milanese bourgeoisie.
“This is about romance, but also about modernity,” he said.
When Cassie Ridgway held her first clothing swap in Portland, Oregon, 14 years ago, she had a few goals: keep clothes out of landfills, help people find free fashion treasures and build community.
The swap attracted about 150 people, and grew from there. Now, the twice-yearly event, which organizers call The Biggest Swap in the Northwest, draws between 500 and 850 participants to share clothes and accessories in a partylike atmosphere.
“We have a DJ and two full bars, so there’s some singing and dancing. But no one’s getting drunk at 1 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon,” said Ridgway’s co-founder, Elizabeth Mollo.
The Portland event asks for a $10 entry fee to cover costs, but the clothes are free and there’s no limit to how much participants can take. People bring their gently used clothing, shoes and accessories to a sorting station, where volunteers sort it into bins and onto tables.
Ridgway, who worked in the apparel industry, sees the process as an answer to throwaway “fast fashion.” She describes “the ‘peak pile’ moment, when our sorters are summiting a mountain, a literal tonnage of apparel, sorting as quickly as they can. In this moment, we see the true ramifications of consumer culture and waste.”
Leftover clothing is donated to another free neighborhood swapping event.
Ridgway recalls a single mom telling her she was able to outfit her teenager with Nike shoes and other major brands typically outside her price range. “These conversations, and so many others, have truly kept me coming back to this event,” she says.
There are no dressing rooms, so participants are encouraged to come in tight-fitting clothes and try things on where they are.
“It does get a little chaotic,” Mollo says, but many people return year after year.
“Where else can you get a whole new wardrobe for $10?”
As prices climb for many food items, community resource-sharing becomes increasingly important, says Taylor Scott in Richmond, Virginia.
Scott was a recent college graduate when the pandemic put her dream of becoming an FBI agent on hold. She took up gardening, and quickly found herself with more tomatoes than she could consume. A friend suggested she put the extras into a community refrigerator, like ones they knew of in places like New York City. But Scott found there was nothing of the sort in Richmond.
“I decided that was what I was going to do for my birthday,” she says.
Scott hopped on Instagram to see if her friends wanted to help, and quickly received an offer of a fridge and a promise to paint it. Several months and planning calls later, she opened her first community fridge outside a cafe, in January 2021.
It was a hit.
“Right away, people asked me when I was going to open more,” Scott says.
She built relationships across the city on “word of mouth and faith” as she added fridges over the next four years. As the project grew and became RVA Community Fridges, food donations expanded from restaurants and farms to include private events and weddings.
“We’ve saved so much food that would have gone to waste,” Scott says.
Today, the 27-year-old president of RVA Community Fridges and her crew of volunteers run 14 fridges, offer “farm to table” education classes and hold community cooking days at a kitchen. The organization has given away more than 520,000 pounds of food, Scott says.
She also likes that the fridge sites have become neighborhood gathering spots. She’s seen people who once needed the food share become volunteers when they’re in a better place.
“They started out taking and now they’re giving,” Scott says.
This style of hyper-local sharing is also a hallmark of Little Free Library, the nonprofit behind those cute little book huts that dot communities nationwide. The libraries offer round-the-clock access to free books, and are meant to inspire meaningful interactions.
“People tell me they’ve met more neighbors in one week than they ever had before putting up their library,” says Little Free Library CEO Daniel Gumnit.
Since the organization’s founding in 2010, book lovers have put up their own creative takes on the libraries, from cactus-shaped structures to miniature replicas of their own homes. There are now over 200,000 Little Free Libraries in 128 countries, Gumnit says.
“Access to books directly correlates to literacy in children,” he notes.
Reyna Macias was looking to expand that access in her neighborhood of East Los Angeles when she stocked her hand-painted Little Free Library box with books in Spanish and English.
“There’s a great library nearby, but many people in our community work long hours that don’t coincide with what the library offers,” Macias says. “Our little library is open 24 hours and has books in their language.”
Macias says her library is frequented by people walking dogs, kids stopping by after school and one grandfather who brings his granddaughter every day.
“For years, East L.A. has been looked down upon. But we’re a community that looks out for each other and takes care of each other,” Macias says.
Her library has received so many donations from neighbors that she now takes a cart full of free books to the farmer’s market every Thursday.
“It’s an important time to show a lot of love,” Macias says. “This is my way of doing that.”
ABUJA, Nigeria — Africa’s fashion industry is growing rapidly to meet local and international demand but inadequate investment limits its potential, UNESCO said Thursday in a report released during Lagos Fashion Week.
Currently valued at $15.5 billion worth of exports annually, the earnings from the continent’s fashion industry could triple over a decade with the right investment and infrastructure, according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, who launched the organization’s first report on fashion in Africa in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos.
With a young population of 1.3 billion people set to double by 2050, the continent’s fashion industry has also proven to be both “a powerful lever for the promotion of cultural diversity (and) also a way to empower young people and women,” said Azoulay.
Across the continent, fashion continues to grow on various fronts – including in movies and films – in the form of textiles, garments as well as accessories and fine crafts, all with a long history of prestige and symbolic of the African culture.
The demand for African fashion brands is also spurred by the growth in e-commerce, the UNESCO report noted.
Africa leads mobile device web traffic in the world, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration. That has opened more market opportunities such that across Nigeria, for instance, young people on social media are steadily opening fashion brands.
“Africans want to wear Africa. It’s really beautiful to see because it hasn’t always been like this,” said Omoyemi Akerele, who founded the Lagos Fashion Week in 2011 to encourage the patronage of Nigerian and African fashion. “But fast forward, a decade after, that’s all people want to wear.”
Featuring a mix of designers from across the continent, the annual fashion show celebrates — and provides a market for — local brands mostly highlighting African culture and crafts in various colours and styles.
In Nigeria and other parts of Africa, young fashion designers are hungry for success and are taking over the global scene, said the UNESCO director-general.
“A new breed of young designers is causing a stir in the international scene, reinventing the code of luxury while at the same time reconciling them with the demands of sustainable, local fashion and heritage,” she said.
One such designer at the Lagos Fashion Week, Ejiro Amos-Tafiri, said she uses her brand to tell African stories while celebrating “the sophistication, class and uniqueness of every woman.”
“With more exposure, people are coming to realize that there is a lot of culture in the Nigerian culture, particularly in the fashion industry,” she said. “So Africa is really the next frontier (for the fashion industry).”
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Associated Press journalist Dan Ikpoyi in Lagos, Nigeria contributed.
LONDON — British luxury brand Burberry unveiled its first catwalk show under new creative director Daniel Lee at London Fashion Week on Monday — and there wasn’t a beige trench coat in sight.
The heritage brand is best known for its elegant, functional trench coats invented during World War I. But Lee, who joined Burberry in September, took the fashion house in a brand-new direction with a debut collection featuring faux fur and feathers, slogan T-shirts and playful duck prints.
The 37-year-old British designer was credited with revitalizing Italian luxury brand Bottega Veneta with hugely popular accessories like shoes and handbags during his tenure there, and many in the fashion industry were keen to know if he could work the same magic at Burberry.
Burberry CEO Jonathan Akeroyd said last year that he was banking on Lee’s flair to significantly grow the brand’s accessories sales and “dial up on Britishness in a modern way.”
At Monday’s show, the brand’s signature check pattern appeared in purple, bottle green and maroon on everything from men’s suits to knitwear, skirts, tights and woolly scarves.
Lee seemed to underline a theme of coziness in the face of British weather: One model was draped in a large white blanket emblazoned with the brand’s heritage equestrian knight design, and many of the models clutched hot water bottles with a check print that matched their outfits. Dramatic, oversized faux fur hats and bags adorned with feathers and fur also featured prominently.
Male models wore low-slung, baggy trousers worn with skin-tight polo neck tops, and silver chains and hardware, paired with a red and black palette, hinted at a punk-inspired aesthetic. But there were humorous touches, too, such as a woolly trapper hat topped with a knitted duck head.
The show drew celebrities including film director Baz Luhrmann, rapper Stormzy and models Naomi Campbell and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley to its front row.
Burberry is traditionally the biggest draw at London Fashion Week, which also showcases catwalk shows by designers including Christopher Kane, Erdem, Emilia Wickstead and Roksanda Ilincic.
The London displays wrap up on Tuesday, when the fashion crowd decamps to Milan Fashion Week for more new season runway shows.
Shoe and sports apparel maker Adidas has lowered its earnings forecast for the full year to account for losses from ending its partnership with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in response to Ye’s antisemitic remarks
FRANKFURT, Germany — Shoe and sportswear maker Adidas on Wednesday lowered its earnings forecast for the full year to account for losses from ending its partnership with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in response to the artist’s antisemitic remarks.
Adidas cut its sales outlook for the year as part of its third-quarter earnings statement, to a low single digit increase from a mid-single digit increase, and net profit from continuing operations to 250 million euros ($252 million) instead of 500 million euros.
The company, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, had previously said ending the partnership with Ye’s Yeezy brand would cost it 250 million euros. The Yeezy brand accounted for up to 15% of Adidas’ net income, according to Morningstar analyst David Swartz. Adidas has ended production of all Yeezy products and ceased royalty payments.
For weeks, Ye made antisemitic comments in interviews and social media, including a Twitter post earlier this month that he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON. He was suspended from both Twitter and Instagram.
The company had already cut its year forecasts on Oct. 20, five days before it announced it was ending the relationship with Yeezy. The earlier outlook revision cited slowing activity in China, where severe restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 have held back the economy, and clearance of elevated inventory levels.
Net income for the third quarter from continuing operations was 66 million euros, down from 479 million euros in the same quarter a year ago. The decrease largely reflected 300 million in one-time costs, most of it from winding down the company’s business in Russia.
