Luxury brands

French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, who created famous looks for Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy, has died at the age of 91.

His partner Philippe Venet, a former haute couture designer, confirmed the news to the AFP news agency.

"It is with huge sadness that we inform you that Hubert Taffin de Givenchy has died," he said via the fashion house.

French billionaire Bernard Arnault moved to consolidate control over Christian Dior for about 12.1 billion euros ($13.2 billion), folding the fashion house’s operations into the LVMH luxury empire in one of his biggest transactions.

However in terms of value the Swiss watch industry remains the world's largest exporter, in 2016 the Swiss watch exports were even lower than in the previous year.

Rather than imitating its valuable "real" siblings, creative faux jewelry has long taken a bold stylistic direction of its own. As Coco Chanel, a designer whose adornment vision included both real and fake pieces, once put it: "Costume jewelry is not made to give women an aura of wealth, but to make them beautiful."

ApArt in central Athens is hosting an exhibition-sale of luxury vintage costume jewelry running from Friday, November 11, to Sunday, November 13. Going on display are pieces created for leading French fashion houses Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Lanvin, Scherrer and Spain's Loewe.

A key challenge in the fashion industry is bridging the gap from production to purchase. A group of 24 Greek fashion and accessories designers and brands are currently reducing that distance by unveiling their summer 2017 offerings to a previously uncharted market - as far as their work goes - Australia.

Fope, an Italian goldsmith founded in 1929 and located in Vicenza, has become one of the world's most sought-after jewellery brands. It is recognised for its famous flexible technique of making jewellery. As explained by Karmen Malalan, from the Malalan House of Jewelry, Fope jewellery buyers are women who like modern jewellery that can be worn on any occasion.

We visited their manufacturing headquarters, located in the Joux Valley and home of many prestigious brands of watches. An hour after we left Geneva and climbed the winding road, away from the city streets and advertising signs, we saw the sign next to the road: Le Brassus.

Despite the global political and economic context, edition of Baselworld 2016 proved that confidence in the industry is high.

A Gucci online video commercial that aired featuring an ‘unhealthily thin’ model has caused great controversy, leading to its ban by the Advertising Standard Authorities (ASA). The Italian fashion brand ran an online video ad showing a number of models dancing to a soundtrack. The final part of the ad, which ran on the Times website in December, featured still photos of the individual models.