Olly Alexander 'respects' Harry Styles' commitment to gender-fluid fashion

Olly Alexander 'respects' Harry Styles' commitment to gender-fluid fashion - Blue Mountain Eagle

Olly Alexander 'respects' Harry Styles' commitment to gender-fluid fashion - Blue Mountain Eagle
Industry Sees UK Fashion Under Threat, Survey Finds | BoF - The Business of Fashion
Fashion for a Summer of Reentry - The Atlantic
For teens, back to school means back to fashion - Los Angeles Times
Moore From L.A.: Hot in Hollywood Again — How Ugg Is Building a Head-to-Toe Fashion Brand - WWD

Olly Alexander 'respects' Harry Styles' commitment to gender-fluid fashion - Blue Mountain Eagle

Posted: 06 May 2021 02:00 AM PDT

Olly Alexander "respects" Harry Styles' commitment to gender-fluid fashion.

The Years and Years frontman thinks it is great how the One Direction star doesn't care "what 'a traditional man' should wear" as he praised Harry for "expressing" himself.

He said: "He just looks so good. It's undeniable. I really respect his commitment to having fun, being playful and not caring what 'a traditional man' should wear.

"Gender-fluid fashion has been around forever, but seeing it in a more mainstream context is cool. I'm all for guys getting to express themselves, no matter what their sexuality."

And the 30-year-old singer also opened up about a time he was told that what he was wearing was not "appropriate" for TV as he slammed those who were "uncomfortable" with him asserting his sexuality.

Speaking to the Spring issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, he added: "There have been questions from people (not on my team) going, 'That might not be appropriate.' I had an occasion where I was wearing a pair of chevron trousers on a TV show. In rehearsals, a comment came back, saying, 'We think the chevrons are highlighting Olly's crotch. Does he have a different pair?' Nobody would ever think that about this pair of trousers. We blew up and they backed down. So the chevrons went on TV and nobody said a f****** thing. It makes me angry. I'm a gay guy and I want people to know that, but it's interesting to see how quickly people become uncomfortable when you want to assert your own sexuality."

Industry Sees UK Fashion Under Threat, Survey Finds | BoF - The Business of Fashion

Posted: 05 May 2021 04:00 PM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Industry Sees UK Fashion Under Threat, Survey Finds | BoF The Business of Fashion

Fashion for a Summer of Reentry - The Atlantic

Posted: 05 May 2021 04:01 AM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Fashion for a Summer of Reentry The Atlantic

For teens, back to school means back to fashion - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 05 May 2021 01:00 PM PDT

Like many L.A. teens, 17-year-old Sheccid Vazquez spent the last year in pajamas.

"During quarantine, I would wake up and stay in my pajamas until the end of school," said the Ramona Convent Secondary School senior. "I wouldn't change because teachers gave us the option not to turn our cameras on."

But with high school campuses reopening across L.A. County — including all last week at the Los Angeles Unified School District — teens are redefining back-to-school wardrobe, shedding their remote-learning loungewear and constricting before-times ensembles for innovative and eye-catching new looks.

"I definitely had a lot of time on my hands, so I went deeper into fashion," Vazquez said. "I wanted to have a whole aesthetic for what I wear. For the return, I want to make the best of it."

Experts have been predicting a post-pandemic style shift since at least April 2020. But this spring's back-to-school season has become something of a test case for how that future might look. If quarantine was a cocoon, what would emerge? A butterfly or a moth?

The answer, if this spring's back-to-school season is any indication, may be a little bit of both.

"I'm seeing a splintering of what's considered performative fashion on social media and what is actually conducive to post-pandemic life," said Raissa Bretaña, a fashion historian and a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. "There will be a reckoning with comfort, but I think that ... people will be excited to dress up and show off."

Indeed, many former jeans-and-T-shirt dressers such as Vazquez have emerged from quarantine bold and bright as the monarch on a cropped tank top from 1997.

"My style right now would be '90s but modernized," Vazquez explained. "I've been looking more toward thrift stores and second-hand shops, a lot of vintage things."

Others, like 18-year-old Jesus Gomez of Long Beach, have shed more polished pre-pandemic personas for functional, comfortable clothes.

"I didn't touch a pair of jeans or a pair of slacks in a good three or four months," said the Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School senior. "It was shorts or sweatpants and a T-shirt, that's it."

As restrictions lifted, his old jeans felt strange. Like many teens across the country, he suddenly found much of his wardrobe no longer fit him.

"I can't wear some of them because they're too big on me," said the dancer, who went from practicing with his team for hours every day to being stuck at home. "[Before] I would need to eat in order to function. But after that, we didn't have practice, everything was shut down, so I sort of stopped eating."

Like Vazquez, Gomez sourced his new threads largely from thrift stores.

"A huge demographic for us is high schoolers," said Eric Hart, general manager for the Goodwill of Southern California's popular Atwater Village store. "At least once or twice a day, I'll see someone making funny videos of the things they're looking for."

Bretaña, the fashion historian, said recycled fashion would likely emerge as the through-line in an otherwise atomized collection of trends, from the so-called Y2K aesthetic of baggy jeans and graphic T-shirts to '70s platform shoes, cozy, neon-hued streetwear to outré skirt sets à la Fran Fine of "The Nanny" and Cher Horowitz of "Clueless."

"Sustainability is part of every conversation in fashion now," the professor said. "But I also think that the desire for vintage comes from the resurgence of the '90s and early 2000s — you can't get these clothes unless you're thrift shopping."

Hart, the Goodwill store manager, agreed.

"A lot of girls are shopping in the men's section looking for oversized vintage T-shirts," he explained. "Either you wear a large T-shirt and you're wearing tights and platform shoes, or you're doing a crop top and large denim, even bell-bottoms."

The other big back-to-school trend this spring — big, flashy shoes.

"I was thinking when I picked out the outfit, I want to stand out, but not too much," said 18-year-old Kayla Coulter, another Cabrillo High senior, who split the difference between the cozy comfort of her remote-learning wardrobe and a flashy return to campus style with a lime-green sherpa-style cropped sweater and black joggers. "My clothes were kind of simple, but my shoes were completely out there."

The shoes in question? Oversized, pink and bedazzled.

"Sometimes I like to be extra, and these shoes scream extra," she said.

But hard-soled shoes, like denim pants, have been an adjustment after 13 months of slippers.

"It's kind of weird," Coulter said. "Now I'm wearing shoes all day, and I can't really take them off."

As far as COVID-era school style is concerned, the biggest adaptations have been born of necessity. For Gomez, who can no longer change between class and dance practice, that's meant incorporating black dance team ensembles into his everyday style. For Vazquez, it's condensing a full face of makeup into dramatic lashes and brightly-colored eyeliner.

"I started focusing more on my eyes," she said. "I would wear my lashes and pink or red eyeliner, because nobody can really see my face with the masks."

Masks, too, have become a locus of style.

"I saw a whole bunch of different masks when I was at school," Coulter said. "One person had clothespins in their mask — I thought that would be pretty uncomfortable."

It's not the first time youth culture has emerged from a crisis with experimental new styles. The 1918 flu pandemic birthed the boyish silhouette of the Roaring '20s, the polar opposite of the poufy, high-femme 1910s. Teen culture as we know it today rose from the ashes of World War II. What ties these disparate looks together, experts said, is a desire to see and be seen.

"Young people are so much more into sustainability and DIY and wearing things that are unique," said Marla Eby, marketing director for Goodwill of Southern California. "They don't want to buy cookie-cutter and all wear the same thing."

Viral variants and lingering social restrictions mean gatherings such as cookouts, music festivals and parties are still largely on hold. But school is here, now.

"There's no events going on, so the [few opportunities] that we have to kind of get together is the most that we can use to express ourselves," Vazquez said.

For her, the wild variety of back-to-school looks has been thrilling.

"It's a sign of hope and new things coming," she said of the kaleidoscope of new trends. "I think it's really positive and I love it."

Moore From L.A.: Hot in Hollywood Again — How Ugg Is Building a Head-to-Toe Fashion Brand - WWD

Posted: 05 May 2021 09:02 PM PDT

Andra Day wore Ugg Fluff Yeahs with her gold mesh gown to an Oscars after party. Addison Rae, Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner and Kaia Gerber have been snapped wearing theirs on the sidewalk, on set and running to get coffee. For spring, London designer Molly Goddard gave Uggs a high-fashion spin, creating flatforms to pair with her feminine tulles, and come June, New York designer Telfar Clemens will release an Ugg sheepskin version of his famed Bushwick Birkin.

Not since the early Aughts have Uggs been so popular. Only now, there's even bigger business in the footwear-driven-lifestyle sector, with the sale of Birkenstock to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-affiliated L Catterton, and the initial public offering of Dr. Martens.

The Southern Californa brand is poised to compete globally with its own head-to-toe ambitions. That's due in large part to Andrea O'Donnell, president of fashion lifestyle at Ugg parent company Deckers Brands, a cool Brit who arrived five years ago at the Goleta, Calif., headquarters with experience at DFS Group, Lane Crawford and John Lewis department stores in the U.K.

During her tenure she has transformed Ugg from a sleepy cold weather boot business into a fashion player through buzzy designer collaborations and influencer campaigns (featuring from DJ Peggy Gou to fashion editor André Leon Talley).

O'Donnell and her team have built on the Classic sheepskin boots to create several innovative (and Instagrammable) footwear franchises, like the Fluff Yeah slipper sandals in raver colors, the Fluffita in a collage textile inspired by the California super bloom, and the Neumel chukka.

Last year they introduced the brand's first dedicated ready-to-wear collection, with cashmere sweatsuits, fashion fleece and tie-dye biker shorts, which in coming seasons will evolve into more substantial outerwear, knitwear and activewear offerings.

"When I hired Andrea, I said your job is to disrupt us…I didn't know what that looked like, but what she has done is remarkable. We've created a brand with core traditional accounts, new accounts and younger, more diverse consumers. It shows how much potential Ugg really has," said Dave Powers, chief executive officer of Deckers, who bonded with O'Donnell over their shared love of '80s and '90s alternative music and their belief in a "no-a–holes" policy at work.

The relationship is paying off.

During the pandemic, cozy indoor and outdoor adventure dressing have been good for the bottom line. Deckers, which encompasses footwear lifestyle brands in both categories, including Hoka and Teva, reported record third-quarter results in February, propelled by Ugg, which saw net sales increase 12.2 percent to $876.8 million, compared to $781.1 million for the same period last year.

Powers sees potential for even more robust growth in the next five years. He's aiming to scale rtw from 10 to 25 percent of the business, and retrofit Ugg's 140 stores to better showcase the collection, which is front and center in the 11,000 square-foot Fifth Avenue flagship. He's also expanding wholesale distribution from rtw launch partner Nordstrom to Saks Fifth Avenue, Dillard's, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's this fall.

"It's one of our top priorities. Now that we have proof of concept, we need investment in technical design and merchandising but also in bringing it to market — making our proposition online and with our partners more compelling," Powers said, noting opportunity for expanding the brand further into Europe and China.

Deckers president of fashion lifestyle Andrea O'Donnell. Mikaela Hamilton/WWD

When O'Donnell signed on, Ugg — which was founded in 1978 by an Australian surfer in California — was stuck in the classics, with an aging fan base. "We had a lot of good intelligence on our customers, and one segment in women's was saying her primary purchasing decisions were influenced by style.…So I knew we needed to change the way we thought about design," she said.

Although she was an enthusiastic (U.K.-based) early adopter of Uggs in their Us Weekly, "The Simple Life" era, attracted by the starry SoCal associations, O'Donnell still needed a crash course in the actual California lifestyle when she arrived in the Santa Barbara area, where Deckers is based.

"One of the real big shocks was no restaurants open on Saturdays for lunch because everybody is out paddle boarding and surfing," said the executive during a recent visit to her offices, where she was sporting her characteristically zany work attire of Eckhaus Latta dip-dye jeans, a vintage band T-shirt, an Isabel Marant grunge plaid coat, sustainable Ugg Fluff Sugar sandals in a Peeps-like shade of yellow and red David Bowie socks.

The first step in rekindling desire for the brand was to develop some tactical fashion collaborations. Under her direction, Ugg gave over its classic sheepskin boot to Jeremy Scott's embroidered flames, Phillip Lim's utilitarian zippers and Y Project's slouchy thigh-highs that practically broke the internet when they hit the runway at Paris Men's Fashion Week in 2018.

"In the early days, there was a lot of internal chatter about what is she doing with the brand? She's crazy," Powers admitted. "But product and storytelling trumped that."

"They were giving us a perspective on our brand we hadn't considered before — to challenge what we stand for and how we define ourselves," said O'Donnell of the brand's collaborators, which recently included Chinese-born, London-based designer Feng Chen Wang, who created a technical-inspired, transformable three-in-one sandal boot.

"I wanted to collaborate to expand our brand to female consumers," said Wang, who has been pushing her men's wear line in a more unisex direction, of what she got creatively out of the partnership.

Ugg x Telfar will include logoed boots, as well as T-shirts and underwear, hinting at more co-branded designer apparel and accessories to come as Ugg expands its fashion reach.

The Ugg x Telfar shopping tote. Courtesy

"We like what he does, we like what his brand stands for, and also, this sense of democracy, that his brand is for everybody. That's what we are," said O'Donnell. (Ugg brand prices range from $58 to $1,995, with most settling in the $100 to $250 range.)

"Ugg has this ubiquity that cuts across society — which is very much our vibe," said Clemens. "But also as a brand it is built firmly on a tangible feeling, that comes directly from the materials and construction of the product. And that is rare for any brand and a very cool entry point for a collaboration. When you see Ugg you can feel them. That's how we wanted the bags to act, for example."

When it comes to Ugg's own product innovation path, the Fluff Yeah, introduced in 2018, opened up the brand to play, and gave it confidence to do more in the fashion space.

"It's completely outrageous…and there is something about the volume that is in most of our footwear — the Classic boot is a volume play," said O'Donnell of the marshmallow-y slingback style, which comes in taffy-stripes, tie-dye, with Warholian flower motifs, or extreme platforms. "It was how to fashion-ize slippers in our heritage materials."

"When you look at the different swatches and colors, it's hard not to feel like you are in a candy store," added Helene Frein, senior design director for women's footwear, previously at Robert Clergerie, Calvin Klein, APC and Isabel Marant.

Ugg's Fluff Yeah style. Courtesy

"We knew we had something fun, and spent a lot of time on the name and [$100] price because we knew it didn't fit in the categorization of footwear and that there would be a debate is it a slipper or a sandal. There are still those debates, and we have done a lot of consumer research and 50 percent of people wear them outside," O'Donnell said.

"When we thought this could really be amazing was when accounts didn't know where to put it. It defies classification, it's a unicorn. And when we put them in the windows of our shops, the feedback was instantaneous. It was a diverse, younger consumer," she said. "We now know we have something, and the conversation is, where can it go globally?"

The Fluff Yeah became an acquisition driver for other Ugg styles in the U.S., particularly among 18- to 34-year-olds.

"I don't think we knew how to connect with that customer until we had that. Getting that product and getting it on important people's feet in the world of fashion, that was key. And it's very rare you get a brand worn by those people at that price point because they can choose anything. That took the momentum to the next level, of effectively free publicity," said O'Donnell.

"Go back two to three years ago, we couldn't get a conversation with trendy boutiques.…Now they are reaching out to us," said Powers, adding that the Ugg formula of developing footwear product franchises, some of which could theoretically be their own stand-alone brands, is one he's looking to replicate at Deckers and through acquisitions.

Ugg, fall 2021 Courtesy of Ugg

Ugg's casual, freedom fashion-feeling resonates in the rtw spearheaded by Khristene Son, a Gap Inc. veteran who has been designing statement-driven spring sportswear, including "Miami Vice"-like color block windbreakers, tie-dye faux-fur jackets, balloon-sleeved crewnecks, cropped tops and biker shorts, alongside more textural, classic outerwear for fall.

"The whole design philosophy is things should be softer than they look," she said. "It's such an emotional part of the brand experience, slipping your foot into a perfect shoe, and we want to deliver that through apparel."

O'Donnell has also worked hard to evolve the brand's values, making Ugg a canvas for self-expression.

Last fall, the "Feel" campaign launched spotlighting creatives wearing Ugg, including artists Sonya Sombreuil and Fulton Leroy Washington (Mr. Wash) as part of a partnership with L.A.'s Hammer Museum, and fashion legends Iman and Talley.

André Leon Talley for Ugg in front of his White Plains, N.Y., home. Courtesy

"Coming into the business, I knew from research that we had a relatively diverse customer base.…But we weren't expressing ourselves that way. This was the Rosie Huntington Whiteley and Tom Brady years," she said of the former faces of Ugg.

"I didn't think it was the right representation of the brand going forward. So we made a decision within the first year to become more diverse and more real, using real people in our campaigns. André Leon Talley is the most recent manifestation, but we shot everyone from Kim Gordon to a rap crew in L.A. to older women, because I thought, 'California is one of the most progressive places in the world,'" said O'Donnell.

Three years ago, Ugg started being more strategic around LGBTQ Pride, and this year's capsule collection launching May 20 will feature a range of product, from rainbow disco stripe Fluff Yeahs to tutus.

LGBTQ inclusion is a priority within Deckers, which hosts an annual Pride festival on campus, and connected Ugg to a local youth foundation to host its first Pride Prom in 2019, a tradition O'Connell hopes to take global. (Deckers brands, including Ugg, have committed to featuring 60 percent people of color, LGBTQ and diversity of body types in marketing, and the company has pledged to have 25 percent of people of color representation at the director level in the U.S. by 2027.)

"We bring kids in, do a photo shoot, kit them out and tell their story. It's validation you get from prom and from being photographed really cute and being seen by millions on our Instagram account," said O'Donnell. "It's a celebration."

A look from the Ugg 2021 Pride collection. Courtesy of Ugg

Sustainability is another business priority, although it's a fine line to walk for a brand built on sheepskin.

"It is our heritage material and there are a lot of positive things about it; it's a by-product of the meat industry, and if you look at both its biodegradability and its durability — our customers wear their Classics for an average of five years — the carbon footprint is really low," said O'Donnell, explaining the brand is working with the Humane Society on "stress testing ethical protocols" and looking at ways to reduce waste by accepting more imperfections in sheepskin.

But fashion's move away from animal products, fur especially, isn't being ignored by the brand based in Southern California, where veganism and animal welfare are popular values, particularly among the young celebrities they are trying to court.

As a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, Deckers is working on alternative and sustainable materials. Ugg's The Plant Power collection launched in March with the brand's first entirely plant-based shoes, including the Fluff Sugar flatform constructed from Tencel yarn made into faux fur with a cotton candy-like appearance, dyed using natural indigo, camellia or mulberry flowers, and a eucalyptus pulp sole.

Ugg's Fluff Sugar flatform. Courtesy

"There's a lot of work being done on raw materials, because 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from the processing of raw materials in manufacturing," said O'Donnell, explaining that Ugg has partnered with the Savory Institute so that by fall 2022, she hopes to launch a number of collections using regenerative farming.

"It's about creating a brand that's desirable but diverse, accessible but with its own fashion point of view. What we are trying to do is make people feel," she said of her outlook. "We're having success with it and will continue to build in that direction. I'm hoping we'll be the next accessible luxury phenomenon."

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