International Herald Tribune Heritage Luxury Conference: What It Was and Wasn’t

Yesterday, I wrote about how sincerely and steadfastly Suzy Menkes has been working towards the success of International Herald Tribune Heritage Luxury Conference. Susie Bubble, who was invited to the IHT Heritage Luxury 2010 had a lot of interesting things to say about the conference and the kind of people that she met and spoke with.

Alber Elbaz, who is the Artistic Director of Lanvin mixed humour with sarcasm and spoke in a way that can only be described as typical of a person like him. He insisted that though heritage may be a good thing for luxury, reviving businesses that have a deep heritage may actually be difficult.

Angela Ahrendts and Christopher Bailer of Burberry did not speak much about luxury and heritage, but did reveal that Burberry Bespoke would be launched very soon, in early 2011.

Lane Crawford and Alannah Weston is one of the best stores, if you are looking for luxury deals. The president of Lane Crawford Ms. Jennifer Woo certainly wooed the audience with her take on luxury. She is also the Creative Director of Selfridges, and she sure knows what the future for luxury is going to be. However, discussion was related to Hong Kong.

Mary-Adair Maclaire runs the Pringle of Scotland revealed that businesses cannot survive on heritage alone, and there is also a growing need for innovation. Pringle also invented the word “Knitwear”.

Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye the man behind Liberty spoke about all the turnovers, and the heritage that the profits carried along with them.

Rosita, Angela and Margherita Missoni handle the Missoni brand which has a particular family heritage. Their words were more important when we talk about heritage in the field of luxury.

Victoria Beckham revealed that luxury is something inbred and she just wants people to feel god in what they wear. She also added that she may not want to design men’s clothing because they look better when they don’t wear any clothing. Now, I assume she is talking about only the hot ones, and not the rest of the world.

Karl Lagerfeld may have attracted a lot of unpleasant reactions with his disdain for heritage, but sometimes I do have to agree that one need not walk with the burden of the past, and to look towards the future and do stuff that one has not done before is where the true creatvity lies. Oh! And Mr. Lagerfeld finds computers beautiful, but I don’t.

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