Rich list

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Mulberry has helped its owner Christina Ong to an incredible year, which saw her rise 53 places to number 61 on The Sunday Times Rich List. The Singaporean retailer - who also owns franchises of Emporio Armani, Prada and Donna Karan - made £1.2 billion last year thanks to a 70 per cent growth at Mulberry, according to the list which is sometimes deemed more hype and less truth by the people who are featured upon it.
It's not been such a great year in retail for Sir Philip and Lady Green, who own Arcadia; and George and Galen Weston, who own Selfridges. Green's wealth dropped £900 million this year leaving him at number 17, whilst the Westons lost around £100 million, although still scraped into the top 10 with earnings of £5.9 billion.
The Richest Couples List features several from the style set - including Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell (£665 million), Sir Paul and Lady Smith (£280 million), David and Victoria Beckham(£190 million), and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas (£185 million).
Some more unexpected additions come from the 60 Richest People Under 30 List, which includes Thomas Persson - the London-based 24-year-old who runs his father's company, H&M, with his older brother and holds a 36 per cent stake, giving him earnings of £700 million - as well as a host of actors and actresses. Film franchises are unsurprisingly the route to great wealth - with Robert Pattinson,Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley all featuring - as well as Vogue cover girls Natalia Vodianova, Keira Knightley, Adele, and Florence Welch all featuring



Louboutins on show

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 Christian Louboutin opens his first ever UK retrospective this evening with a private view and after-party that is expected to be attended by a host of famous fashion names - including Daphne Guinness, Dita Von Teese and Yasmin Le Bon. Von Teese will become one of the showcase's centrepieces  the Burlesque dancer will feature as a life-size hologram wearing a pair of the designer's glittering creations as she dances. The display will open to the public tomorrow.

Abbey Lee Kershaw

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Abbey Lee Kershaw is about to add acting to her already extensive repertoire. The model and singer - who also has a band called Our Mountain with boyfriend Matthew Hutchinson - has secured a part in the fourth installment of the Mad Maxseries alongside Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, set to start shooting later this month - but the Aussie beauty is no overnight success.
Discovered in a CoverGirl search in her native Australia in 2004, Kershaw made her catwalk debut in 2008 in New York before she was booked as a Gucci exclusive for the autumn/winter 2008-09 show. She featured in campaigns for H&M and Levi's early in her career and was soon the face of Gucci's Flora fragrance; an accolade that opened many more doors.
Tattooed and pierced, Kershaw is no ordinary pretty face; she occupies a model niche of beautiful otherness along with the industry's edgier faces - and bodies - like Freja Beha Erichsen and Erin Wasson, and this has attracted many designer fans.
Following covers for Vogue in Australia, Japan, Korea, Russia, and Germany 
Her career hasn't been without its setbacks - a well-managed tumble at the spring/summer 2009 Rodarte show in New York was followed by a fainting spell at Alexander McQueen's show later the same season thanks to a too-tight leather corset,but none of these mishaps deterred designers from using her. And her edgy looks haven't stopped more mainstream brands from booking her: she even appeared in the 2008 Victoria's Secret show, although she may have added a few tattoos since then.



Coco on Karl

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 Despite Karl Lagerfeld's past protestations that Coco Chanel would have hated his work at the fashion house that she founded, the label's current chairman - Bruno Pavlosky - thinks quite the opposite.
"I think she'd say she is very proud," said Pavlosky. "She should be very satisfied with the way Karl has reinterpreted the things she created."
The Chanel helmer has previously said that Coco failed to keep her brand modern and relevant (she famously dismissed the idea if miniskirts and jeans), a skill Pavlosky believes Lagerfeld has in abundance
"He's amazing. Karl just keeps coming up with new things, and he has an impressive ability to bring together talented people and get them working as a team," Pavlosky told Japanese newspaper The Daily Yomiuri. "He shows no sign of slowing down. That's why the thought of changing our head designer hasn't even crossed my mind. I think the match between Karl and Chanel and our energy has helped us put together new collections and many revolutionary events."



Kris talks Raf

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Perhaps surprisingly, Dior Homme creative director Kris Van Assche doesn't know fellow Belgian designer Raf Simons - who is now his womenswear counterpart at Dior - but he is looking forward to working with him.
"I think it's great news. Let's just wait and see how he decides to express himself. We've never been in the same place at the same time so we never got close," he told WWD. "But I hugely admire his work."
But he dismissed comparisons of the two which stem from their shared national heritage: "I think it's a bit of a cliché, no?" 



When Poppy met Sienna

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Sienna Miller and Poppy Delevingne may be firm friends now - the pair even lived together in New York - but eight years ago Delevingne was one of the legions of girls in thrall of the actress' famously bohemian style.
"I remember when Sienna Miller's first Voguecover came out, just after she was in Alfie and before I knew her. She looked so dreamy in white and she had feathers in her hair and that whole boho thing going on," Delevingne told vogue." She was totally my heroine at the time, I just wanted to emulate her. And now of course we're friends and I'm always telling her how I wanted to be just like her - she probably finds it quite scary."
The BFC young ambassador and Louis Vuitton muse also spilled the beans on what her little sister - model Cara Delevingne - was like as a child.
"Cara was just the sweetest little thing, growing up. She had this gorgeous little face you just wanted to squidge, she was just so adorable,"she said. "She was one of those people that from the day she was born, you just knew she was going to be beautiful. The pictures of her as a child are brilliant."


Chloe Award

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Chloe has named Canadian designer Steven Tai as the winner of its inaugural design prize, as part of the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography - which took place at the weekend. The prize fund is worth €15,000 (£12,197), and provides valuable exposure to rising talent.
Also at the festival, Finnish design trio Siiri Raasakka, Tiia Siren and Elina Laitenen  were awarded the L'Oreal Professionnel-sponsored prize, having impressed a fashion jury - including Yohji Yamamoto and i-D founder Terry Jones - with a rave culture-inspired men's collection.


Iron Lady Exhibit

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You can see the costumes worn by Meryl Streep during Oscar-winning film The Iron Lady up close in a new exhibition, opening on Wednesday at the London Film Museum. The showcase, which will open to the public for the next six weeks, will feature outfits seen on both the young and older Margaret Thatcher - including her famous pearls, two-piece skirt suits and prim blouses. 

 

Paul's Valentine

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Natalie Portman has teamed up with Johnny Depp for Paul McCartney's self-directed new music video, My Valentine. The actors feature in a simple black and white video, gesturing and lip-syncing McCartney's lyrics to the mellow track, which is taken from his recent album, Kisses on the Bottom.
The video was unveiled at a private event on Friday evening in the LA store of daughter Stella McCartney, where guests included Miranda Kerrand Orlando Bloom, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin as well as Reese Witherspoon, Gwen Stefani, Kristen Stewart and Zooey Deschanel.



Jaeger sold!

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Jaeger has been sold for almost £20 million to Better Capital, a Guernsey-based investment company.
Better Capital said in a statement today that it had acquired, "all of the secured debt and a 90 per cent stake in Jaeger Group Limited… The aggregate cost of the acquisition was £19.5 million, the substantial majority of which was in respect of the acquisition of the secured debt with the remainder in respect of the equity stake."
The British label - which saw profits fall more than 60 per cent from £2.22 million to £772,000 in 2011 - was acquired by British Fashion Council chairman Harold Tillman in 2002, but the retail mogul admitted in January that the label had not been immune to a difficult year for the UK high street.



Diana the muse

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Princess Diana, is responsible for two of the footwear world's most iconic designs - or so says Christian Louboutin. The legendary designer created his first pair of shoes, the Love style, after being inspired by the late royal.
"It was 1992 and I was looking at this picture of Princess Diana taken while her husband was giving a speech. She looked so sad and bored, I thought: 'what would bring a smile to her face?'" he said.
He added that Diana also gave him the idea for cleavage shoes - styles that expose the top of a woman's toes.



Diors Future

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  Dior president and chief executive Sidney Toledanohas spoken for the first about Raf Simons'appointment as artistic director at the label.
"It's a very exciting time," Toledano told WWD. "I always said that the right person would come along when all the stars aligned and that's exactly what happened last week. Simons has already begun to lay out his vision for where he can take Dior in the future and I think we are all very excited by that vision."


Angies engaged!!!!

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Angelina Joile and Brad Pitt are engaged, the jeweller who designed Jolie's ring has confirmed this evening. Robert Procop worked closely with Pitt in creating the piece, which Jolie wore for the first time last night at a private view of the new Chinese Art collection at the LA County Museum.
"Yes, it's confirmed," Pitt's manager, Cynthia Pett-Dante, told The Hollywood Reporter. "It is a promise for the future and their kids are very happy. There's no date set at this time. Brad designed the ring."



Brides Week

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NEW YORK played host to the latest designer wedding dresses this weekend as Bridal Week once again came to the city
The biggest names in bridal - including Vera Wang, Marchesa, Jenny Packham, Monique Lhuillier, Reem Acra(pictured), and Alfred Angelo - showed their spring/summer 2013 collections over the weekend, with Oscar de la Renta set to take to the catwalk today as the Week comes to a close.



Oscars new home

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Oscar De La Renta is opening his first shop in London and, after a three-year search for the perfect location, is set to move in to hairdresser Nicky Clarke's Mount Street flagship.
Clarke, who has occupied the unit for more than 20 years, will move just along the road to 11 Carlos Place - next to Roland Mouret and Jenny Packham's stores, and just opposite the Connaught Hotel - in a deal said to be worth more than half a million pounds. Both Clarke and his landlord have refused to confirm whether he was paid the reported £500,000 premium to move, but his ex-wife and business partner Lesley Clarke said all parties are happy with the move.



 

Mr Right

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Joan Burstein, Colin McDowell and Katie Grand, among others, have joined the debate about the appointment of Raf Simons at Dior and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
"It is not a surprise that he has got this position as he bought another dimension to Jil Sander as far as sophistication and a touch of glamour was concerned," Browns founder Burstein  the woman who bought Simons' predecessor John Galliano's graduate collection in 1984, 12 years before he was appointed by Dior  told us. "And I am sure he will have the opportunity to develop his great talent at Dior."
"This is a great chance for Raf to prove himself a true all-rounder," legendary fashion journalist and Fashion Fringe founder Colin McDowell added. "I see no reason why he should not succeed in moving Dior in a new direction and I look forward to his collections with great anticipation. It is so refreshing to have another young designer alongside Riccardo Tisci as an haute couture creator."
"I am a huge fan of Raf's, he's smart, clever, interesting and extremely talented," Love editor and long-time Marc Jacobscollaborator  Katie Grand told us. "I think he will modernise Dior's womenswear and I'm very excited to see a fresh, new vision from the house."
"Raf is possibly the most modern designer of our time," fashion consultant Yasmin Sewell added. "Having him take on one of the most historical fashion houses will be, in my opinion nothing short of ground breaking"


Pilati at Armani?

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JUST one day without successor rumours is quite enough for the fashion world and, almost as soon as Raf Simons' appointment brought a year of Dior conjecture to an end, speculation that Stefano Pilati is headed to Giorgio Armani has reared its head again.
Former Fashion News Daily writer Jim Shi Tweeted earlier this week: "My sources are telling me Stefano Pilati is headed to Giorgio Armani with the intention to assume full creative reigns when GA retires."


End of the road

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 Heidi Klum and Seal have each filed divorce papers, following news of their separation in January this year. The supermodel has asked for joint legal custody of their four children, while Seal has requested joint physical custody - meaning that the children would divide their time between both parents. The papers show that the couple signed a post-nuptial agreement, so no assets will be divided. Klum cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the split. Both parties have asked the judge to reject any spousal claims made.

Super things come in small packages

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Joan smalls appeared for the first time on the international catwalks 11 seasons ago, but the 23-year-old's look is still as fresh as it was on her first season - with designers including Balmain,Givenchy, Dolce & Gabbana and Alexander Wang utilising her adaptable catwalk beauty. Born Joan Smalls Rodriguez - since in Hispanic culture, children take the first surname of each parent to create their own apellidos  or surnames - in Puerto Rico, the model is now based in New York.
After beginning her career in 2007 when she was signed by Elite Model Management, her breakthrough came in January 2010, when Riccardo Tisci booked her to walk exclusively for Givenchy during the couture shows.Since then, Smalls  has been chosen by brands including Calvin Klein Jeans, Chanel, Givenchy, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Roberto Cavalli and Stella McCartney to front their advertising campaigns: a true sign of her bankable, near-supermodel status.


The Del Rey

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You might be able to get your hands on the Del Rey bag earlier that anticipated, after Mulberryreleased a limited number exclusively to three stores in London, New York and Singapore yesterday - over a month prior to the official global launch date. The bag is now available in black and deer brown, with the remaining colours to follow in May.