Dear Reader,
The Editorial Team of TextileFuture suggests today for your reading only two features.
The first feature is entitled “Lifestyle: The best New Watch Designs of 2023” it is based upon the Geneva Watch Show.
The second item has the title: “Inside the White Sneaker’s 20-Year Rise to Fashion Ubiquity” and shows the development of Sneakers over 20 years, thus a fashion item.
We hope that we made the right choices for your personal reading and wish you a week of satisfaction ahead.
The two items were published firstly in the Wall Street Journal Magazine and we are proud to republish those two items.
We kindly expect that you will return next Tuesday for the new edition of the TextileFuture Newsletter.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
The Editorial Team of TextileFuture Editorial Team
This is the start of the first feature:
Lifestyle: The Best New Watch Designs of 2023
Here are the top timepieces from the annual Watches and Wonders trade show in Geneva.
By guest author Jenny Hartman from the Wall Street Journal Magazine.
April 3, 2023
This past week, the watch world flocked to Geneva for Watches and Wonders, the industry’s largest and most closely watched fair, where nearly 50 brands and manufacturers unveiled their latest designs.
At the event, brands including A. Lange & Söhne, Zenith and Panerai focused on their sportier and more utilitarian models, introducing new interpretations of the classics with a mix of vintage-inspired details and, in some cases, a new minimalism. Rolex introduced the 1908 Perpetual, a sleek and dressy timepiece that launches a new line of watches for the brand. Striking new jewelry pieces from companies like Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels added a lighthearted approach to serious gemstones and gold.
Below, WSJ.’s top designs from this year’s event.
Photo: courtesy of rolex
Rolex
To inaugurate a new collection of Rolex watches, the brand introduced the Perpetual 1908, a slim 39mm dress watch with a delicately fluted bezel. The name of the new piece is a nod to the year that the Rolex trademark was registered in Switzerland. Aesthetically akin to the beloved Cellini line of watches, this new design features a pared-back dial with a seconds subdial at 6 o’clock and gold Arabic numerals at 3, 9 and 12 o’clock. Available in yellow or white gold with a white or black dial, the timepiece is built with the new calibre 7140 and finished with a transparent caseback. Rolex Perpetual 1908, USD 22000.
Photo: courtesy of A. Lange & Söhne
A. Lange & Söhne
German watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne released just one timepiece at the fair this year, focusing on their four-year-old sports model, the Odysseus. The new chronograph—which is limited to 100 pieces—equips a stainless-steel watch with a high-end movement, the manufacturer’s first self-winding chronograph. Clean, legible and bold, it features a textured black dial with large day and date windows, a seconds display subdial at 6 o’clock and a bright-red chrono seconds hand. A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Chronograph, price upon request.
Photo: courtesy of patek philippe
Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe debuted a new everyday Calatrava with a dual time-zone function and a 24-hour display. Equal parts sporty and elegant, the rich navy-blue dial features a variety of finishes—striated, satin and snailed—with hand-applied, rose-gold numerals and markers. It is encased in rose gold without pushers to offer a distinct appearance. Patek Philippe Calatrava 24-Hour Display Travel Time, USD 57370.
Photo: courtesy of chopard
Chopard
Chopard’s new L.U.C 1963 Heritage Chronograph looks as good on the outside as it does on the inside. It combines sporty and vintage aesthetics and features a deep-green sunburst dial with markers and subdials inspired by a car dashboard. Designed with a 42mm Lucent steel case, made from Chopard’s proprietary alloy of 80 % recycled elements, the watch has two mushroom-shaped pushers and a brown calfskin strap with green stitching to echo the color of the dial. A transparent caseback reveals the hand-wound flyback chronograph caliber with a 60-hour power reserve. Chopard L.U.C 1963 Heritage Chronograph, USD 32300.
Photo: courtesy of panerai
Panerai
For its new Radiomir California, Panerai introduced a touch of playfulness to the 1930s design, which was initially created for the Italian military. The updated version retains many original details, including its alternating Roman and Arabic numerals, with a dash for 3, 6 and 9 o’clock and an inverted triangle for 12 o’clock. The most striking update is its green dial and shrunken 45mm case (previously available only in 47mm). The coated-steel case is hand-brushed, adding to its vintage character. Panerai Radiomir California, USD 12300.
Photo: courtesy of zenith
Zenith
The highlight of Zenith’s newly revamped pilot watches, the Pilot Automatic, features a black dial with horizontal grooves, large vivid Arabic numerals and a date at 6 o’clock highlighted by a horizontal line, referencing an artificial horizon instrument on a plane’s dashboard. The case redesign includes a flat bezel with rounded case, finished with an oversize crown. Zenith Pilot Automatic, USD 9600.
Photo: Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin
Vacheron Constantin
For the first time, Vacheron Constantin launches a retrograde date display complication into its Overseas line of watches. The unexpected combination marries a formal complication with a stainless-steel sports watch. The 41mm timepiece features a vibrant blue lacquer dial and an elegant moon phase that sits at 6 o’clock. Vacheron Constantin Overseas Moon Phase Retrograde Date, price upon request.
Photo: courtesy of Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels
Hidden within the bracelet of the rose-gold Ludo Secret from Van Cleef & Arpels is a small guilloché mother-of-pearl dial that’s revealed when the white diamond disks are pinched together by the wearer. The design was inspired by the French maison’s hallmark Ludo bracelet, introduced in 1934, which was shaped like a belt and featured a flexible, meshlike brick pattern. Van Cleef & Arpels Ludo Secret watch, USD 154000.
photo Courtesy of Chanel
Chanel
With an outsize 55mm bezel, domed crystal and matte-black grosgrain bracelet, the architecture of Chanel’s new series of five Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles watches resemble that of a dressmaker’s pincushion. Each dial features a different motif from the French atelier. A standout piece references fabric embroidered with sequins, expressed through a black dial snow-set with 917 brilliant-cut diamonds. Chanel Mademoiselle Privé Pique-Aiguilles Embroidery Motif Watch, price upon request.
Photo courtesy of Cartier
Cartier
Cartier played with scale and proportion to create the new baby Baignoire. Its oval dial features the same Roman numerals introduced over a century ago but has a balloon-like bezel and a yellow-gold bracelet now instead of a strap. This new iteration is part watch, part sculptural piece of jewellery and fits seamlessly into a stack of bangles. Cartier Baignoire Mini, USD 11800.
Photo: courtesy of jaeger-lecoultre
Jaeger-LeCoultre
continues to propel the Reverso into the future with subtle updates to its hallmark model. This year the brand introduced a small seconds style, featuring a black dial against a rose-gold case. The new piece references its origins on the polo field, the sport for which it was first conceived. It comes with two interchangeable straps, including a canvas-and-calf version, made in collaboration with Argentine bootmaker Casa Fagliano. Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Small Seconds, USD 21900.
Photo: courtesy of grand seiko
Grand Seiko
The Grand Seiko Tentagraph is a sporty titanium model from the Evolution 9 collection. Its poetic blue dial draws inspiration from views of Mount Iwate in northern Japan, where the manufacturer is located. It is also the brand’s first mechanical chronograph and features a high-beat movement with a three-day power reserve. Grand Seiko Tentagraph, USD 13700.
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article incorrectly included images of Zenith’s Pilot Big Date Flyback watch instead of its Pilot Automatic model. (Corrected on April 7, 2023)
The Wall Street Journal is not compensated by retailers listed in its articles as outlets for products. Listed retailers frequently are not the sole retail outlets.
Here is the beginning of the second and last item:
Inside the White Sneaker’s 20-Year Rise to Fashion Ubiquity
Season to season, the simple white leather sneaker is one of fashion’s most reliable units—for brands from Gucci to Veja. But it wasn’t always so.
By guest author Jacob Gallagher
April 4, 2023
Fashion companies love to think of themselves as unique beasts.
They crow about proprietary fabrics and paradigm-shifting silhouettes. They compete to see who can stage the most titanic runway show, or quibble in trademark court over who really owns this plaid or that logomark.
But for all this posturing about individuality, there is one item that an overwhelming number of fashion companies all offer: the simple white sneaker.
High-fashion behemoths from Berluti to Brioni, from Celine to Brunello Cucinelli, from Gucci to Givenchy, all sell virtually look-alike white sneakers with prices hovering near four figures. Upstarts like Veja and Axel Arigato have built their entire businesses on bleached soles.
According to the sneaker-reselling site StockX, the pedestrian all-white Nike Air Force One was its No. 2 bestselling shoe last year, edging all those cartoonishly-colored Dunks and Jordans.
The white sneaker is “something that brands are looking at as a must-have,” in league with staples like a tailored jacket or a pair of jeans, said Chris Kyvetos, the buying director of menswear for online retailer Mytheresa. “It’s not a trend, it’s a category in fashion now.”
These shoes are not clones—more like cousins. Alexander McQueen’s model (an elder within the category; it’s been around nearly a decade) sits on a gargantuan sole, Gucci’s “Ace” style has a Lilliputian bee logo and Off-White’s all-white shoe comes with a removable colored hang tag.
But by and large, when spotted across the street, they’re nearly identical.
They also don’t differ much from stark, low-profile sneakers like Dior Homme’s “B01” model or Margiela’s “Replica,” which ushered in the trend nearly 20 years ago. These soft-soled models, echoing military trainers from decades before, compelled men to mothball their stiff dress shoes. More than that, they opened a chapter in men’s fashion in which editing one’s wardrobe down to nothing but the basics became a high ideal.
Before Marie Kondo made a blip, style blogs were publishing listicles of “the only 10 clothing items you need,” and making the case for a minimalist wardrobe. Many of these guides heralded the minimalist leather “Achilles” style from New York footwear company Common Projects.
“When we came to design Common Projects, ‘I was like it’s going to be something that never changes,’” said co-founder Peter Poopat. “Part of the reason that it was called Common Projects is because it was supposed to be like the common sneaker.”
Launched in 2005, the Achilles was developed out of Mr. Poopat and his business partner Flavio Girolami’s quest for a spartan shoe that wouldn’t unsettle a suit—something like Adidas’s on-court Stan Smiths, except constructed with finer materials. The Italian leather sneaker had a price that matched its higher-caliber makeup: around USD 260 when the company launched and around USD 400 today.
Initially, the brand sold the shoes in gray, white and black—of which the gray was the clear bestseller. But about five years into the company’s existence, Mr. Poopat recalled, white roared ahead. Soon, the clichéd uniform for New York art directors and budding Los Angeles talent agents was a pair of raw-denim jeans or a slender J.Crew Ludlow suit finished off with some sparkly white Achilles.
Common Projects’ blank sneaker hasn’t faltered since, remaining the company’s far and away bestseller even as it has introduced loafers, boots, sandals and (gasp) dress shoes.
The chameleon blankness of colourless sneakers continues to pull shoppers to the white side. “You can wear them with essentially anything,” from a gray T-shirt up to a suit, said Marion Alexander, 35, a project manager at an engineering firm in Houston. Mr. Alexander owns plain leather sneakers from Saint Laurent, Gucci, Adidas and Common Projects, which—neat freaks take note—he cleans with baby wipes after each wear. “They look brand new because I take care of them,” he said of his 2-year-old, blemish-free Common Projects.
The ease and approachability of the white sneaker makes it something that brands can’t afford to leave off their line sheets.
Even if high-fashion labels want to present their latest rainbow-streaked cashmere capelet or 17-pocket cargo shorts on the runway, it’s those ho-hum white sneakers that boost their bottom line. When a man of means deems Givenchy’s USD 6660 embossed biker jacket too fashionable for his arsenal, a pair of its USD 950 all-white sneakers is easier to digest.
“More people can wrap their head around how and when and why to wear a white sneaker than they can a lot of other things in their closet,” said Chris Corrado, president of Autry USA, a sneaker company whose alabaster sneakers were part of an early 1980s boom for on-court—and really on-court-only—white tennis shoes.
When that trend fizzled, the company went dormant, but was revived just over three years ago under new ownership, with an aim toward selling white sneakers for daily life. The business is growing, said Mr. Corrado, in part because broadly speaking, “an all-white sneaker tends to be the bestselling SKU in any footwear brand’s assortment.” (Mr. Corrado also owns the wholesale showroom Plus Plus, which represents other companies including Salomon shoes and Diemme boots.)
In an uncertain economy, companies may be leaning more on these well-selling shopper favourites. Yet, Mr. Kyvetos noted that today, our tastes in plain shoes are becoming a bit less vanilla.
“We’re now in that transition period towards the white sneakers that actually perform,” he said.
Today consumers are shifting toward athletic-honed running shoes from On and Hoka with techier materials and bouncier soles. Said Mr. Kyvetos, once the customer “has purchased a pair of On running shoes, for example, and has worn them all day, it’s hard to go back to a really hard nonperforming sneaker.” The white colour, however, runs on.
Appeared in the April 5, 2023, print edition as ‘White Sneakers Are Here to Stay’.
Newsletter of Last Week
How Blockchain Is Changing Luxury Fashion – Help Me Move? I’ll Pay You in Instagram Likes – Gwyneth Paltrow’s Courtroom Glasses Have Already Taken Off With Gen X – Paul Newman Rolex Daytonas, Found in a Desk, Could Sell for Millions https://textile-future.com/archives/108227
Highlights of News of last week, for your convenience just click on the item to read.
Airlines
The sarcophagus of Ramses II. Travels on Board of a an Air France Airbus A350 https://textile-future.com/archives/108658
Associations
AATCC Committees Invite Participants https://textile-future.com/archives/108417
Improved Soil Standards from AATCC https://textile-future.com/archives/108554
Awards
Colorjet awarded in Utar PradeshColorjet awarded in Uttar Pradesh https://textile-future.com/archives/108424
The Elite Award for Design Beds 2023 : https://textile-future.com/archives/108453
Companies
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR – Acquisition of Borgers Automotive by Autoneum successfully completed https://textile-future.com/archives/108299
Clariant completes sale of North American Land Oil business https://textile-future.com/archives/108349
Clariant’s shareholders approve all agenda items https://textile-future.com/archives/108387
Cotton
ICAC: Indian Farmers Might Be Delaying Cotton Deliveries but Global Production Is Stable https://textile-future.com/archives/108373
Data
The McKinsey Week in Charts https://textile-future.com/archives/108175
Swiss Consumer prices increased by 0.2 % in March 2023 https://textile-future.com/archives/108288
Nights booked via EU online platforms: 2022 tops 2019 https://textile-future.com/archives/108320
Renewables: main source of EU energy production in 2021 https://textile-future.com/archives/108328
EU farms: 5.3 million fewer in 2020 than in 2005 https://textile-future.com/archives/108333
OECD inflation declines to 8.8 % in February 2023, as energy prices continue to ease https://textile-future.com/archives/108361
Worldbank: South Asia Faces Weakening Growth Amidst Tightening Financial Conditions https://textile-future.com/archives/108390
Worldbank: Global Economy Trends in Nearshoring and Green Industry Can Help Boost Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean https://textile-future.com/archives/108449
EU Price of sports goods & services: sharp increase in 2022 https://textile-future.com/archives/108465
Worldbank: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Cost-of-Living Crisis Dim Growth Prospects in Emerging Europe and Central Asia https://textile-future.com/archives/108510
Worldbank: Growth slows for most MENA economies amid double-digit food inflation https://textile-future.com/archives/108531
Emily
It’s Time to Address the Emily in the Room https://textile-future.com/archives/108738
Events
India ITME Society announces the 2nd edition of ITME AFRICA & M.E 2023 https://textile-future.com/archives/108304
BMSVISION AT ITMA 2023 (JUNE 8-14,2023) https://textile-future.com/archives/108515
Monforts: ITMA 2023: Exploring new routes to efficiency https://textile-future.com/archives/108773
Hotels
Off Duty Travel: Escape to a Grand Hotel… for USD10 (Tip Included) https://textile-future.com/archives/108719
The Hunt
The Hunt: They Had USD 350000 and a Dream to Live Together. Could They Make It in Manhattan? https://textile-future.com/archives/108683
India
India’s Textile News prepared by Banthia Consultancy Dhaval Prajapati https://textile-future.com/archives/108641
OPEC
OPEC+ Cut Won’t Throttle Chinese Oil Demand https://textile-future.com/archives/108625
McKinsey
Mckinsey: Winning in China: Top priorities for global apparel and fashion https://textile-future.com/archives/108379
McKinsey Author Talks: Martin Wolf issues a wake-up call on the state of democratic capitalism https://textile-future.com/archives/108394
McKinsey: Modern marketing: Six capabilities for multidisciplinary teams https://textile-future.com/archives/108650
McKinsey: Leading with authenticity: A conversation with Bill George https://textile-future.com/archives/108715
McKinsey: What is cybersecurity? https://textile-future.com/archives/108726
OECD
OECD: Agreement to expand export credit support for climate-friendly and green projects : https://textile-future.com/archives/108340
Personalities
Earley named Disney streamer chief https://textile-future.com/archives/108632
Siblings
A Sibling Rivalry Divides a Famous Artist’s Legacy https://textile-future.com/archives/108188
Science
Empa: Loopholes in the Montreal Protocol: Emissions of banned ozone-destroying chemicals increasing https://textile-future.com/archives/108352
PSI: Jupiter mission to explore conditions conducive to life https://textile-future.com/archives/108499
Switzerland
Swiss State Secretary Martina Hirayama receives delegation from Greenland : https://textile-future.com/archives/108311
International Monetary Fund supports Switzerland’s economic policy and decisive action to preserve financial stability https://textile-future.com/archives/108420
Human Rights Council: 52nd session adopts two Swiss resolutions https://textile-future.com/archives/108444
Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin on a working visit to Canada https://textile-future.com/archives/108497
Swiss Federal Council makes decisions on variable remuneration at Credit Suisse and UBS https://textile-future.com/archives/108672
UK
Supply Chain: Why businesses need to keep a closer eye on imports in light of Brexit https://textile-future.com/archives/108540
USA
The other three: A Comment and Facts in the New York Times on Donald Trump https://textile-future.com/archives/108432
BP’s Fuel Station Deal Meets Inconvenient Bid https://textile-future.com/archives/108566
After a Boom, an Auto Profit Bust Looms https://textile-future.com/archives/108615
BREAKING NEWS: Newly leaked Pentagon documents reveal how deeply the United States has penetrated Russia’s security and intelligence services https://textile-future.com/archives/108730
Webinar
WIPO webinar on copyright infrastructure – Project Nexus: A data matching project of PRS for Music (April 19, 2023) https://textile-future.com/archives/108551
Worldbank
World Bank Group Media Events for the Spring Meetings 2023 https://textile-future.com/archives/108677
WIPO: Spring 2023 Webinar Programme out now! https://textile-future.com/archives/108637
WTO
WTO Publications: Global Trade Outlook and Statistics https://textile-future.com/archives/108537
WTO: Investment facilitation talks resolve remaining issues in Annex to Draft Agreement https://textile-future.com/archives/108609
WTO Trade forecasts: Trade growth to slow to 1.7 % in 2023 following 2.7 % expansion in 2022 https://textile-future.com/archives/108666