Articles by AFP
Paco Rabanne: From fashion spaceman to fragrance king
6 Feb 2023 - People
Nicknamed "Wacko Paco" in the 1960s for his often unwearable designs, Spain's Paco Rabanne became best-known in later years for his globally popular line of fragrances as well as his eccentric beliefs. Dismissed as "the metal worker" by Coco Chanel, his influence nonetheless carried through many generations and he famously dressed global...
Grammys red carpet: bold colours, basic black, bling
6 Feb 2023 - Culture
Music's brightest stars on Sunday brought their fashion A-game to the Grammys red carpet, strutting their stuff in bold colours, slinky styles, major bling and barely-there gowns. While the Oscars are known for embracing a certain brand of Hollywood glamour, the Grammys are in your face: some of the most iconic fashion looks have emerged on...
Amazon broke law in anti-union campaign, judge rules
1 Feb 2023 - Fashion
A US administrative judge has ruled that Amazon broke labor laws by threatening to withhold wage and benefits increases from employees at two New York warehouses if they voted to unionize. The judge, in his decision dated Monday, found that company officials had illegally suggested that unionized employees would have their pay frozen during...
LVMH cancels plans to build research centre near grounds Paris Polytechnic Institute
26 Jan 2023 - Business
Paris - The luxury goods group LVMH has decided not to set up its research centre on the Saclay plateau in the Essonne department of France, near the engineering school of the Paris Polytechnic Institute (IP Paris), which had given the green light to the project last November despite opposition from several students. The school announced the...
Fashion launches into geopolitics to support Ukraine with leopard print outfits
25 Jan 2023 - Fashion
The hundreds of people posting Instagram selfies in leopard-print outfits in recent days launched fashion into geopolitics for Ukraine's successful campaign to get Germany's powerful Leopard battle tanks. Just moments after Germany finally agreed to deliver 14 Leopard tanks on Wednesday, Presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak joined in...
UK Amazon workers strike amid cost-of-living crisis
25 Jan 2023 - Business
Online retail giant Amazon was Wednesday facing its first strike by UK workers, who are protesting over a pay rise deemed unacceptable in a cost-of-living crisis. A few hundred workers at a warehouse in Coventry, central England, have walked out over a pay increase worth five percent, less than half the current UK inflation rate. It comes as...
Walmart lifts US wages in stores again amid tight labor market
25 Jan 2023 - Business
Walmart announced Tuesday it will again raise pay for hourly staff, an indication of persistent tightness in the labor market for front-line employees despite layoffs in the tech sector. The retail giant, the biggest private employer in the United States, is boosting the pay range at US stores to between 14 and 19 dollars an hour from the prior...
Gen Z driving the second-hand luxury watch market
25 Jan 2023 - Fashion
Swiss watches are in high demand these days, but sales of second-hand timepieces are also booming, driven by Generation Z buyers who want luxury goods but are also sustainability-minded. The global second-hand watch market is estimated at nearly 20 billion Swiss francs (21.7 billion dollars) and could reach 35 billion francs by 2030, according...
Josephine Baker and the Roaring Twenties celebrated by Dior
24 Jan 2023 - Fashion
From cabaret feathers to sleek suits and velvet robes, Dior celebrated Josephine Baker and the wild freedom of the Roaring Twenties in a celeb-packed show on Monday to kickstart haute couture week in Paris. A parade of stars were in the front row, including Anya Taylor-Joy, Kirsten Dunst, Rosamund Pike and K-Pop's Jisoo, to see Chiuru's homage...
The Mumbai atelier that's the secret workshop of top French fashion
24 Jan 2023 - Fashion
Sitting in a lotus position, four men weave glittering beads through gold thread on an organza sheet, carefully constructing a wedding dress that will soon wow crowds at Paris Fashion Week. For once, the French couturier behind the design, Julien Fournie, is determined to put these craftsmen in the spotlight: his new collection, showing in Paris...