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Who would have thought? The little skate and streetwear label that could, Huffer, will soon be entering the US market and they hope it will be in a big way. Their quirky, cool and totally individual take on streetwear has already proven popular in Australia and Japan and, if everything goes well in North America, they project a turnover of US$15 million within the next four years.
Try this for size
Paris Fashion Week starts this Sunday but judging by the recent past it won't just be about what the super-skinny can wear down a runway. For the first time, the Paris Pret-a-Porter show - a twice-a-year fashion event that took place a couple of weeks ago - set aside special floor space for several dozen specialist firms producing plus-sizes.
"There is a demand for this," says the head of France's powerful ready-to-wear federation, Jean-Pierre Mocho. "And the idea is not simply to make existing models bigger but to show creative new designs in large sizes."
Anyway, contrary to popular opinion and according to France's Textile and Clothing Institute, not all French women are thin. There is a growing market for larger sizes as women grow taller and heavier.
Currently 41.14 per cent of French women wear sizes 44 to 56 (size 16 to size 26 here). And size 40 (size 12) is the most popular size.
Network your fashion
The MySpace social networking site has become the perfect place for musicians and their bands, both unsigned and signed, to market themselves. And now it's the fashion industry's turn. The fashion section of MySpace has just been upgraded, is now an official area similar to the music section and apparently over 362,000 fashionable site members are already posting and blogging on the subject. Will it become the best way to launch a new label? New Zealand's student designers will, no doubt, feature large. And the rest of us will have to watch out for the first MySpace-discovered-me fashion genius!
