Aquascutum latest
Aquascutum's administrators announced today that they have entered in to an exclusivity agreement with Hong Kong-based YGM Trading Limited to save the company. YGM - which controls Aquascutum's licences in Asia already - will "acquire the on-going business and assets with completion to take place by May 9, 2012," the administration company said today.
"The joint administrators have been very encouraged by the significant interest shown in the business over the last two weeks and have chosen to proceed with the offer that delivers the best outcome for the creditors of Aquascutum," Geoff Rowley, joint administrator at FRP, said today.
The administrators are also continuing negotiations to secure a buyer for the company's manufacturing plant in Corby, Northamptonshire, which was closed on April 19. No deadline has currently been set for this process.
Model in court
Linda Evangelista will meet Francois-Henri Pinault in court this week as they attempt to agree child support for their five-year-old son Augustin. The case at a Manhattan family court is expected to last four days and, if the supermodel's request is granted, could see Evangelista leave with more than $1,500 (£925) a day - $807,000 (£500,000) a year - for full-time childcare, and armed guards for her son's protection.
Lawyers familiar with the city's family court told the New York Daily News today that payments for child support are generally based on the cost of raising a child, rather than the parents' incomes - meaning that it seems unlikely that the $46,000 (£28,000) per month payout for Evangelista will be granted.
Top naomi
Naiomi Campbell may have settled her long-running feud with Tyra Banks years ago, but the two are set to go head to head again when Campbell becomes a mentor on her very own modelling show. The US programme - called The Face - will follow a similar format to Banks' wildly successful Next Top Model franchise, and will be operated by NBC
Campbell will be responsible for "moulding, nurturing and transforming contestants" alongside two other supermodel mentors who are yet to be revealed. Campbell was linked with a mentoring role onBritain's Next Top Model in 2009, but the show was eventually helmed by Elle Macpherson.
The news comes just days after Banks revealed she had parted ways with her three fellow panellists on America's Next Top Model - Nigel Barker, Jay Manuel and J Alexander - reportedly in a bid to spice up the show's format.
Couture revival
Former couture house Mainbocher and footwear brand Hebert Levine are set to be revived, after French entrepreneur Arnaud de Lummen acquired the trademark rights and intellectual property to both labels. De Lummen, who plans to relaunch both brands as well as several other dormant labels, is best known for buying Vionnet in 2006 before selling the brand to Matteo Marzotto and Gianni Castiglioni three years later.
"You start with roots and a history," he toldWWD. "When you relaunch, you already have a story to tell. After a few years, people completely forget that the brand was dormant. People think it's always been there. It's reassuring to consumers that you're not a newcomer."
Founded by French Vogue fashion editor Main Rousseau Bocher, Mainbocher was first launched in 1929 in Paris before relocating to New York in 1940. It shuttered in 1971, when the designer retired at the age of 81. Popular with Wallis Simpson and Diana Vreeland, the label is known for its understated elegant glamour.
American footwear brand Herbert Levine, named after its eponymous founder who ran the company with his wife Beth, began business in 1948 and closed in 1975. It's bold, statement designs were worn by Hollywood stars including Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Marlene Dietrich, as well as former US First Lady Jackie Kennedy. Manolo Blahnik has since described its designer, Beth Levine, as "the most influential American shoe designer of the 20th Century".
De Lummen is yet to confirm which other brands he has in his possession, but suggested that they include a French fashion house, a French trunk-maker and an English leather goods brand.
Jimmy choo style
Jimmy Choo has launched its highly-anticipated new project this morning, Stylemakers, an interactive website featuring a photo gallery of street style images. The public are invited to upload a picture of themselves wearing a Jimmy Choo style - whether it be a shoe or a bag for day or night. Users will then be able to share their photo at www.choo247.com.
The website will be categorised in different sections according to location - from London and New York to Shanghai and Sao Paolo - with different ambassadors in each city.
The website launch coincides with the brand's new collection, Choo 24:7, which aims to provide the perfect shoe wardrobe for your every footwear need.
Stella yoga
Stella Mc cartney has donated a signed sketch to an art auction to benefit children with special needs. The sale, held each year by the Special Yoga Centre, will this year also feature works by David Hockney, Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk and 22 other contemporary artists.Although McCartney is not an official patron of the centre - which specialises in providing yoga therapy and other support for children with cerebral palsy, down's syndrome and epilepsy - she helps out in other ways, and has supplied the children attending the centre with clothes for several years now. Honorary patrons of the charity include Samantha Cameron and Trudie Styler.
The Special Yoga Centre's 6th Annual Art Auction will be held at the Twentieth Century Theatre in Notting Hill on Tuesday May 15,
Titanic kimono
A Kimono thought to be worn by a survivor of the Titanic disaster in 1912 has been sold at auction for $75,000 (£46,000) - but its authenticity has been called into question. The garment, said to have been worn by Canadian fashion designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon as she escaped by lifeboat, went under the hammer this week at RR Auction House in New Hampshire - but the controversy surrounding it was the talking point on the night.
"This is a very controversial item ever since it's been on the market," RR Auctions vice president Bobby Livingston told WWD. "We have not seen any evidence to change our experts' minds. They have offered nothing to call the kimono into question."
But the former owner's descendants - Lady Clare Lindsay and her sister Lady Caroline Blois - claimed that the kimono was made much later than the sinking of the ill-fated ship, following World War I.
"It is a well-documented Fortuny shape, with an equally well-documented Fortuny textile design dating from the Twenties," Lady Blois said.
