BROADER REACH: With K-pop stars securing several high-profile ambassadorships recently, Dior is looking farther afield in Asia for brand spanking new faces to represent the brand’s menswear.

The posh house has tapped Thai actors Nattawin Wattanagitiphat, higher referred to as Apo, and Phakphum Romsaithong, nicknamed Mile, as its newest men’s ambassadors for the country.

“Apo and Mile are very cool guys. I actually love their attitude and I feel they’re the right ambassadors to represent Dior,” menswear creative director Kim Jones told WWD.

“The duo has established a special friendship with the home, where each embody the Dior style and spirit locally and worldwide,” the corporate added.

“I’m over the moon to affix the Dior family as a house ambassador. Dior is such an iconic brand with wealthy history and timeless style, so I’m excited to be an element of the family,” Mile said.

“Dior is a brand that I even have all the time admired. I’m honored to be an element of the Dior family,” added Apo.

The 2 costar within the mafia-set romantic drama “KinnPorsche.” The series has secured a world fan base for the young actors, and sparked a five-city Asia tour to Singapore; Seoul; Manila, Philippines; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Taipei, Taiwan, based on its popularity.

Each has greater than 3.5 million followers on Instagram.

Thailand is a key emerging marketplace for luxury brands, projected to be price $4.6 billion in 2023. It’s forecast to grow 5.6 percent annually through 2028.

Jones will show his latest collection for Dior on Friday. — RHONDA RICHFORD

SING IT BACK: Loewe has signed on K-pop sensation Taeyong, a member and leader of South Korean boy band NCT, as its newest global brand ambassador, WWD has learned.

The rapper is anticipated to attend Loewe’s spring 2024 menswear show in Paris, scheduled for noon on Saturday.

Foreshadowing his relationship with Loewe, Taeyong often wears the brand’s runway styles, mixing them with more casual items. He wore a padded leather shirt and leather board shorts to Loewe’s fall 2023 women’s fashion show in Paris in March.

Keen on purple, silver, or fluorescent green hair, Taeyong counts 11 million followers on Instagram, where he shows off his many tattoos, eclectic fashion sensibility and mesmerizing dance moves.

“We love his idiosyncratic style,” commented Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson. “With Taeyong’s many talents spanning songwriting, performing and visual creation, I’m really excited to see what this collaboration will bring.”

“I’ve been an enormous fan of Loewe, not just for the designs, but additionally for the brand’s philosophy and unique way of communicating,” Taeyong added, alluding to Loewe’s positioning as a cultural brand prizing craft and freewheeling expression.

The 27-year-old singer and songwriter has also been a member of South Korean supergroup SuperM, and earlier this month released his first solo album, titled “Shalala.”

Anderson has assembled a variety of talents to represent Loewe, casting Sir Anthony Hopkins and “The White Lotus” actor Murray Bartlett in recent ad campaigns, for instance.

Loewe’s other global brand ambassadors include Josh O’Connor, Tang Wei, Taylor Russell, Leo Wu, Stephane Bak and South Korean girl group Nmixx.

European fashion houses are racing to sign on K-pop stars as a approach to engage Gen-Z and capitalize on the celebs’ avid followers.

For instance, Prada recently signed the seven members of South Korean music sensation Enhypen as its latest ambassadors.

Also on the boys’s front, earlier this 12 months Dior signed BTS member Jimin as a world ambassador; Louis Vuitton signed on BTS member J-Hope and solid him in a campaign for its Keepall bag; Valentino named BTS member Suga as a brand ambassador, and Givenchy unveiled Taeyang, a member of Big Bang and a solo artist, as its newest brand ambassador. — MILES SOCHA

CHARLES’ CHOICES: Anna Wintour and Roksanda Ilinčić have each received accolades in King Charles’ debut birthday honors list.

Wintour, who already holds the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, has develop into a Companion of Honour, a top accolade. She joins figures including Paul Smith, J.K. Rowling, Elton John and Paul McCartney as members of the select group.

The dignity is reserved for many who have made “a significant contribution to the humanities, science, medicine, or government lasting over an extended time frame,” in response to the British Royal Household. There are only 65 members at anybody time.

Wintour, global content officer at Condé Nast, has been recognized for services to fashion. She was made a Dame in 2017.

Ilinčić has develop into a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, also for services to fashion.

The Serbian designer is a fixture at London Fashion Week and is understood for her dramatic, color-drenched silhouettes that draw inspiration from the worlds of art, dance and theater.

Ilinčić, who is predicated in London, studied architecture and applied arts in school in Belgrade. She moved to London within the late ’90s to check for her MA at Central Saint Martins under Professor Louise Wilson.

There, she laid the foundations of her clothes and niknaks business, which Ilinčić launched in 2005. The designer has a store on Mount Street in Mayfair and her collections sell at stores including Mytheresa, Selfridges and Harrods.

She has also taken part within the Great Britain campaign to advertise British products and craftsmanship abroad. Last 12 months, Ilinčić designed the costumes for Royal Ballet dancers performing in Valentino Zucchetti’s world premiere of “Prima,” on the Royal Opera House.

This 12 months’s birthday honors list has a heavy literary and artistic skew. The novelist and screenwriter Ian McEwan became a Companion of Honour for services to literature.

Fellow novelist Martin Amis, who died last month, was given the consideration of Knight Bachelor, also for services to literature.

The director and producer Stephen Frears and Ben Okri, the poet and novelist, got the consideration of Knight Bachelor for services to film and tv and to literature, respectively.

The king’s birthday honors list was published on the eve of the Trooping the Color ceremony on Saturday.

Trooping the Color is a military parade and ceremony that marks the “official” birthday of the monarch, regardless of once they were born. The tradition began in 1748, and the event takes place every year in the primary half of June. — SAMANTHA CONTI

PLAY IT AGAIN: Dior is bringing its fall collection to China.

On July 12, the French luxury brand will stage a repeat show in Shenzhen of the ready-to-wear display held in Paris last February, featuring a monumental textile sculpture by artist Joana Vasconcelos, Dior said in a press release shared exclusively with WWD. It didn’t specify the placement of the event.

The announcement comes after Chanel said it plans to stage a repeat showing of its cruise 2024 collection in Shenzhen on Nov. 2, marking its first major event in China for the reason that outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Situated on the Pearl River Delta bordering Hong Kong, Shenzhen has grown in the midst of several many years from a fishing village into the capital of China’s Silicon Valley, with a population of 13 million.

It ranked at number eight worldwide within the list of cities with probably the most billionaires published by Forbes in April, just behind Mumbai and ahead of Singapore, making it a magnet for luxury brands looking for to expand their retail network.  

Maria Grazia Chiuri’s collection for Dior was inspired by the ’50s — the heyday of founder Christian Dior that continues to be the bedrock of the posh brand’s communications strategy.

The designer delved into the stories of three heroines who shaped the post-war years in Paris: Dior’s sister Catherine, a French Resistance fighter during World War II, and singers Édith Piaf and Juliette Gréco.

The show comes amid signs that China’s economy recovery is stalling, sending luxury stocks tumbling. 

Lately, Dior kept up a gentle pace of events in China despite restrictions designed to curb the spread of COVID-19, including the second edition of its “Art ’N Dior” exhibition in Shanghai, held in November. — JOELLE DIDERICH

MORE BEAUTY: KCD is beefing up its beauty services and clientele.

The style communications firm has created a recent segment of its business meant to raised serve beauty corporations, and sweetness divisions of fashion brands with media relations. The move is marked by key hires, in addition to the addition of Tom Ford Beauty to its roster, effective immediately.

“Our insight into the interconnected fashion and lifestyle industries has proven invaluable to our clients,” said Rachna Shah, partner and managing director of KCD. “As we saw clients trying to fortify how their brand values translate inside all segments of their business, we felt we could leverage our credibility to forge and fortify relationships across their fashion, beauty and cultural ecosystems. This dedicated beauty focus will mix our expertise in media relations, influencer strategy and guest experience with team members across these areas of the agency.”

To that end, KCD tapped LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton alumna Jamie Karp to oversee the wonder segment as vp of media relations. Karp most recently led earned and paid media for Givenchy Beauty and Kenzo Parfums. She is considered one of three Latest York-based hires, and extra hires will even join the KCD Paris and London offices. The sweetness team will work in lockstep with the preexisting digital teams on overarching strategy.

It also comes after the Estée Lauder Cos.’ acquisition of Tom Ford, the biggest deal in Lauder’s history, last 12 months. KCD has been the agency of record for Tom Ford’s fashion business since 2018. Current beauty clients include Paco Rabanne, Galenic, Lancôme and Victoria’s Secret. — JAMES MANSO

RUNNING IN: Vuori continues to expand its reach — this time into the footwear space.

When it was founded in 2015, Vuori focused on selling direct-to-consumer men’s activewear. Since then it has expanded into women’s performance apparel in addition to lifestyle looks for each genders. It operates a fleet of its own stores within the U.S. and the brand is sold in seven European countries. Now it’s partnering with Clae, a Los Angeles-based shoe brand, on its first men’s capsule.

Called the Malone Lite Vuori, the launch encompasses three retro-inspired fitness sneakers that work each within the gym and on the road.

The shoes are offered in black, off-white with a green heel or white with a yellow heel and have Vuori’s signature “V” logo on the side. The sneakers range in size from 4 to 13 and can retail for $160. They might be sold on the Vuori website.

The Encinitas, California-based Vuori was founded by Joe Kudla, an energetic yogi and surfer, to fill a void he saw in the boys’s activewear marketplace for workout shorts that might take a man from the gym to lunch. He raised $300,000 from family and friends and created moisture-wicking, quick-drying shorts with a distinctly coastal California aesthetic. Since then, the brand has attracted some deep-pocketed investors — notably SoftBank Vision 2 and Norwest Enterprise Partners — it now has a valuation of $4 billion. — JEAN E. PALMIERI

PHYGITAL DEAL: Myami, a Sydney-based digital fashion brand, has launched a collaboration with students at Central Saint Martins, enabling them to explore the connection between digital and physical fashion and the advantages it offers to luxury brands and consumers.

Brad Morris, founding father of Myami, said greater than 40 students from various pathways — brand, strategy, image, editorial and content — got access to Myami’s pixel fabrics and technology roadmap to finish school projects which are linked to their respective fields.

“We hope to encourage and prepared the following generation of fashion’s brightest talents in shaping a future where everyone can experience the transformative power of fashion in each its physical and digital form, wherever they select to seem,” added Morris.

Roger Tredre, course leader of Fashion Communication MA at Central Saint Martins, believes that working with “a borderless fashion brand like Myami, with a foot in each the digital and physical worlds, is an actual thrill for the scholars,” and “the sheer breadth of what they’re tackling makes this quite unlike anything we have now done before.”

Founded in 2021, Myami released a stingray water puffer and a pair of Ice Runner trainers and launched an 80-piece fungible collection called Abiogenesis last 12 months during PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival. — TIANWEI ZHANG

SKATE BOY: Photographer Giampaolo Sgura can add fashion creative director to his resume, having launched a youth-centric fashion brand during Milan Fashion Week. 

Named Cultura, it’s the brainchild of Sgura along with friends Mauro Porzia and Edoardo Lo Izzo and is inspired by skater culture, with basics including oversized cargo pants, elongated graphics-bearing T-shirts, hoodies and tank tops.

The three founders know the way skaters consider their garments as Linus blankets that they wear again and again until they’re beaten up. Each of the 30 garments in the gathering is available in two iterations — pristine and distressed, to mimic a worn-in effect. 

Vintage prints decking orange T-shirts and grey hoodies were AI-generated by inputting the phrase “Nineteen Seventies skateboarders in California.” The result includes credible vintage pictures of boys in, say, Venice Beach’s skate parks, their face and body parts often distorted. 

Cultura has dropped a see-now-buy-now capsule collection for Antonia nevertheless it is officially hitting retail for spring 2024. — MARTINO CARRERA

FIRST POP-UP: PH5 is trying to connect with its Latest York customer base with its first retail activation.

The knitwear brand designed by Zoe Champion and Wei Lin is opening its first Latest York City pop-up store at 168 Ludlow Street. The shop might be open starting Wednesday through June 27 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

The pop-up is supposed to have a good time the five-year anniversary of PH5’s bestselling “wavy dress” — a knitted, asymmetrical dress the brand offers in virtually every color. In accordance with the designers, Latest York City can also be their biggest direct-to-consumer market, in order that they desired to host the pop-up to attach with their customers. 

“It’s the five-year anniversary of the wavy, so we’re really pushing the wavy,” Champion said. “[The pop-up] is our first selling activation that we’ve done in Latest York, so it’s going to be very nice to fulfill our customers and the folks that have supported us in Latest York for thus long.” 

The Latest York pop-up follows similar retail activations PH5 hosted in Shanghai and Dubai in recent times. The shop will highlight the brand’s wavy dress by offering the style in a big assortment of colours. Customers can even shop from the brand’s recently launched pre-fall collection, the primary PH5 has produced in its nine years since launching. There will even be select summer pieces. 

PH5 can also be offering two promotions on the pop-up. On Friday, the brand is hosting a “Show Us Your Love” initiative where it’s offering customers who can show they own any PH5 item a one-time 20 percent off discount in store. 

Then on Saturday and Sunday, the brand is holding its first sample sale with styles from previous seasons that might be 50 percent or more off. — LAYLA ILCHI

BEACH-READY: As a part of its rebranding efforts, Paul&Shark, the brand rooted in its love of the ocean, has unveiled a resortwear capsule collection as a part of its spring lineup.

After unveiling its fundamental collection at Pitti Uomo earlier this week, the brand threw a midafternoon bash at its Milan store on Via Montenapoleone, taking on a portion of the road with a lemonade cart, beach chairs and striped umbrellas to evoke the mood of the capsule.

Channeling old-school Italian flair and inspired by the Matt Damon-led 1999 movie “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” the gathering includes bathing suits in recycled polyester, some bearing a shark print; breezy linen shirts, and silk polos combining pastel tones and underwater colours, sometimes in gradient.

The move aligns with Paul&Shark’s retail strategy because the brand operates several stores in tony seaside destinations including Miami, Palma de Maillorca and Marbella in Spain, Nice in France and Forte dei Marmi and Ischia in Italy, amongst others.

Softening the core yachting ethos of years past, the brand’s sustainability credentials and link with the ocean are being exalted via lifestyle-leaning activations.

This spring the brand tied in with Tigu Beach, a beach club positioned on the shores of eastern Liguria, in Riva Trigoso, a stone’s throw from Sestri Levante facing the biodiversity-rich Tigullio Gulf. — M.C.