GOING FOR GOLD: Saint Laurent is the most recent European brand to expand into the fizzy marketplace for tremendous jewelry.

Its first collection, unveiled this week on the French brand’s online store, social media channels and in select flagships, includes takes on the home’s Cassandre and Le Maillon motifs.

The Cassandre is the famous vertical YSL logo, which has appeared as shoe heels and handbag hardware, while the Maillon depicts oversized links of a sequence for a touch of tough glamour. (“Maillon” is the French word for links.)

Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello, who has made statement jewelry a key feature of his trenchant runway fashion statements, employed 18-karat gold, diamonds and other precious materials to create a spread of bracelets, cuffs, necklaces and earrings.

Retail prices range from about $790 for an 18-karat gold Cassandre logo stud earring as much as $48,000 for an oversized gold chain bracelet. A twisted cuff bracelet in recycled white gold goes for $7,990.

The home bills them as functional, collectible and timeless, capturing “the forward-looking outlook and exacting Parisian excellence of the home.”

Campaign images by Juergen Teller depict models wearing sleek jersey gowns and interacting with house plants, water spigots and a handsaw. Wrists are particularly loaded up, as they’ve been at several recent Saint Laurent fashion shows.

A number of Europe’s top luxury brands have added tremendous or high jewelry collections in recent times, including the likes of Balmain, Gucci and Prada. — MILES SOCHA

THIRD EYE: Aspesi is dipping its toes into eyewear, embracing the category via a partnership with area of interest Italian brand Retrosuperfuture.

In combining each brands’ quintessentially Milanese roots, the capsule comprises two sunglass styles and a jacket.

Retrosuperfuture’s signature Milano sunglasses, inspired by the sleek frames of the Fifties, have been rendered in a black acetate frame with matching black lenses and a silver frame and mirror lenses versions. They each include a unusual touch, a 3rd eye-shaped enamel within the eyewear’s internal bridge.

Similarly, the cobranded overshirt, inspired by Aspesi’s Mod. 13 padded jacket, has been reinvented for the collaboration, rendered in a double faced nylon version crafted from a light-weight Japanese technical fabric on one side and from olive green shiny nylon on the opposite, the latter face bearing a hand-sewn orange patch on the back with details on the capsule collection.

“It is claimed that a military uniform is a logo of a soldier’s identity, while sunglasses provide a veil of obscurity, allowing one to witness the world without revealing their true self. And yet, when a 3rd eye is nestled inside the frame of those shades, the world becomes anew — a kaleidoscope of colours, perspectives, and possibilities, waiting to be seen through a special lens,” said Lawrence Steele, creative director of Aspesi since 2021.

“In bringing together the military uniform and sunglasses, adorned with a 3rd eye, one embodies the very essence of an adventurer — daring to unearth recent outlooks while safeguarding their identity, as they wander into uncharted territories,” he added.

Hitting Retrosuperfuture’s and Aspesi’s retail channels starting Monday, the gathering retails between 260 euros for sunglasses and 460 euros for the overshirt.

“Growing up in Milan within the late ‘80s, I all the time loved Aspesi’s ability to be so minimally essential yet so playfully fresh,” said Sean Michael Beolchini, creative director at Retrosuperfuture. “We were thrilled about working with such an iconic brand and a creative director whom we respect so very similar to Lawrence Steele.”

Founded in 2007 by Daniel Beckerman, Retrosuperfuture received a majority investment from Renzo Rosso’s family investment vehicle Red Circle in 2019. The brand has developed a spread of collaborations over time with high-end labels including Off-White, Paco Rabanne, APC, Carhartt and Vans. This week it ventured into gaming by forging ties with Razer, the Irvine, California-based lifestyle brand geared on the gaming community, as reported. — MARTINO CARRERA

FOUNDATION MISSION: Saks Fifth Avenue has launched a multifaceted campaign that spotlights the importance of mental well-being and raises funds to support the Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation’s mission to make mental health a priority in every community.

For the campaign, Saks has partnered with mental health and wellness influencer Yasmine Cheyenne to create custom content that might be published across Saks-owned digital platforms throughout the month of May, including interviews and videos on Saks’ social media channels and an exclusive feature on The Edit, Saks’ online editorial hub for fashion news and elegance inspiration.

Saks has also worked with Cheyenne to curate a group of wellness items that might be used this month and all year long to assist customers support their well-being, including a mindfulness journal, yoga gear, skincare products and meditation cushions. The offering is offered to buy at saks.com/mentalhealth.

Throughout the month, Saks will donate 10 percent of online sales from the curated wellness array and Saks Fifth Avenue brand merchandise to the Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation, which supports nonprofits working to extend mental health awareness and education, improve access of care and promote the tools and skills that construct positive mental health for many who need it most.

On Friday at 2 p.m. EST, Cheyenne will host a virtual event on Saks’ digital events platform, Saks Live, to share her suggestions for reducing anxiety, increasing happiness and finding easy every day practices that can assist support positive mental health and self-healing.

Since its founding in 2017, Saks Fifth Avenue and the Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation have donated greater than $6 million to U.S. mental health initiatives and reached greater than 6.6 million individuals with messages that combat the shame and stigma surrounding mental health struggles. The muse’s primary mental health partners are Bring Change to Mind, Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, Girls Inc., Inspiring Children Foundation and The Trevor Project. — LISA LOCKWOOD

ALL ABOUT THE BAG: DeMellier has launched a high summer collection with Matchesfashion because of this of its success with the posh retailer.

The accessories brand is led by Mireia Llusia-Lindh, a Harvard graduate and former luxury strategy adviser to firms equivalent to Burberry and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. 

In June 2022, it was reported in WWD that her business is on the right track to grow to be a $50 million brand in the following three years.

“We’ve been performing thoroughly, in order that’s why they got here to us with the concept of doing a capsule,” Llusia-Lindh told WWD on a Zoom call with Adele White, head of wholesale at DeMellier.

The brand launched with Matchesfashion in May of last yr and that is the primary time they’ve collaborated with a retailer on an exclusive collection. The 2 teams met in November to debate the concept.

“They really desired to go after a high summer theme. They definitely saw a chance there and we’ve done canvas stripe bags inside our whole collection in black and white, in addition to cobalt blue and white,” said White.

“We did three exclusive colours: lemon, azure and macchiato,” added Llusia-Lindh, who tweaked her designs on preexisting bags equivalent to the Recent York, Vancouver and Cannes by giving them a relaxed slouch within the canvas fabric.

Summer destinations were the muses behind the sunshine bags. Llusia-Lindh checked out vintage Italian beach photographs from the ‘60s and watched classic Italian movies to gauge the general feel of the gathering.

The baggage are all made out of plastic-free canvas with natural cottons and the leather is sourced from a gold-rated Italian tannery.

DeMellier is carried by select stockists, including Harrods, Browns and Farfetch.

“We’ve been very picky with our distribution actually. After I founded the brand I wanted the whole lot luxury but the worth,” said Llusia-Lindh, whose bags start at 195 kilos and go as much as 695 kilos.

The Matchesfashion’s fall 2023 buying report highlighted that bags are still having a robust moment with the retailer with a 290 percent increase year-over-year. — HIKMAT MOHAMMED

WOOLMARK JUDGES: The Woolmark Company has put together its panel of judges to choose its upcoming 2023 International Woolmark Prize winner. 

The worldwide wool authority on Thursday revealed the 12 industry executives, designers and creatives who will determine the winner of the annual prize. 

The jury is made up of Zegna artistic director Alessandro Sartori, CR Fashion Book founder Carine Roitfeld, model Caroline de Maigret, Farfetch chief fashion and merchandising officer Elizabeth von der Goltz, Marni creative director Francesco Risso, The Woolmark Company managing director John Roberts, Alaïa creative director Pieter Mulier, dressmaker Salehe Bembury, Yehyehyeh founder Shaway Yeh, Tilting the Lens founder Sinéad Burke, fashion author Tim Blanks and photographer Tyler Mitchell.

“The International Woolmark Prize has all the time been a forerunner in fashion by discovering young recent talents and inspiring creativity and ingenuity,” Mulier said. “At a time where recent generations raise recent challenges for the industry, it’s also an important process to develop and defend countless innovations to search out the plural answers. I’m thrilled to be a part of this unique experience which, yr after yr, embodies the longer term of fashion.” 

The judges will determine the winner from a bunch of eight designers, including Rhuigi Villaseñor, founding father of Rhude and inventive director of Bally; Jaehyung Lee, the designer behind South Koren label Maxxij; Anthony Alvarez, founding father of Bluemarble; Amalie Roege Hove, designer of Danish knitwear label A. Roege Hove; menswear designer Robyn Lynch; dressmaker Marco Rambaldi, design duo Lucile Guilmard and Paolina Russo of fashion label Paolina Russo; and Adeju Thompson, the founding father of Lagos Space Programme. 

The finalists got 60,000 Australian dollars, or $40,000, to design a group out of merino wool as a part of their fall 2023 collections, which might be reviewed by the judging panel.

The winner, who might be revealed in Paris on May 15, will receiver 200,000 Australian dollars, or $133,000, to be invested of their business and can have the chance to be stocked in major international retailers through the International Woolmark Prize Retailer Network. 

The jury panel may also award the Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation to a different finalist, which entails a 100,000 Australian dollar prize, and the Woolmark Supply Chain Award, which celebrates outstanding contribution from a trade partner to driving wool supply chain innovation. — LAYLA ILCHI