Italian designers seem to be on a mission to get guys to dress up.

Gone from the current round of menswear for the summer 2008 are the baggy, low-waisted jeans, tank tops, shorts and running shoes, which dominated the fashion scene for a number of seasons. The new look is all about jackets and ties, tailored trousers and formal footwear.

"Today's generation of young men wants to look good," Valentino said backstage after his show yesterday, which featured impeccably, slightly retro dressed youths.

"Good clothes help a man feel sure of himself," Valentino said.

The latest Valentino collection includes couture cut suits, butterfly-printed nylon blousons, cashmere knit cardigans and dinner jackets in cotton pique. A silk kerchief around the neck at times replaces a tie, and loafers are worn without socks. The colour palette is classic, except for a few strokes of peach and purple.

Earlier yesterday, the fun-loving Canadian twins Dean and Dan Caten took the fashion crowd for a tour of Formula 1 fashion. But despite the mechanics' jumpsuits, drivers' helmets and caps and the bomber jackets, the show had a top-drawer feel to it. Elegance is a new fashion trick for the designing pair, Dsquared2, who just a year ago presented jeans so low waisted the models had to hold them up.

Giorgio Armani, on the other hand, has always been at home with elegance.

His second line Emporio collection presented Sunday speaks of a man who likes his fashion but also his fun. Cardigans and blazers are interchangeable. Both have slim lapels and single buttoning and often come in iridescent fabrics, the latest summer fad.

Trousers tend to be tapered, with some styles reminiscent of riding pants. Pullovers have a cowl neckline or an off-one-shoulder style, and often replace the jacket.

Italy's leading fashion houses are increasingly looking to the stock market for the kind of financing needed to develop in the ever-competitive luxury sector, while keeping the business in the family.

Two leading Italian labels, Salvatore Ferragamo and Roberto Cavalli, this week announced plans to be quoted on the stock market from 2008, unlike the trend of the 1990s when labels sought to join large groups.

At that time, Fendi and Emilio Pucci became part of LVMH, the French luxury goods group, while Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Sergio Rossi fell in with its rival, Pinault Printemps Redoute (PPR).

In 1998, veteran Italian designer Valentino sold the company he had established 40 years earlier to HPD, an Italian group quoted on the stock exchange, then to Marzotto in 2002 before selling 30 percent of its capital to Permira investment fund in May.

In 2000, the house of Gianfranco Ferre, who died last weekend after suffering a massive brain haemorrhage, had sold 90 percent of its capital to the Groupe Tonina Perna.

"These companies preferred to sell to better develop themselves," Armando Branchini, head of the InterCorporate consultants' company, told AFP.

"They are often houses that have found themselves on the market for a long time, which have existed for several generations and which sometimes no longer find a successor," he said.

Today, however, several fashion houses that are still financially independent -- Versace, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo or Roberto Cavalli -- are tempted by the stock market.

"Currently in Italy there are many family businesses and also young companies whose future will be shaped more and more in the stock market, and not in integrating into big luxury groups," Branchini continued.

"Stock market flotation permits the keeping of a majority of the capital in family hands" and also to retain control of all aspects of the management, he added.

On Thursday, the president of Salvatore Ferragamo, Ferruccio Ferragamo, one of the founder's heirs, announced plans to introduce the company on the stock market next year.

It followed hard on the heels, a day earlier, of Roberto and Eva Cavalli's announcement that they were thinking of bringing a partner into their fashion house in order to be quoted on the stock market, but not for a year.

Ten years after the death of the designer Gianni Versace, the Versace label is still completely family-owned.

While his sister Donatella and brother Santo share 50 percent of the business, his niece Allegra holds the other half. But in recent months, the company has indicated it is mulling stock market quotation.

Prada, owned by the founder's niece Miuccia Prada, has twice abandoned plans to be floated on the stock market but said recently that it intended to be quoted in the near future.

Only Dolce and Gabbana and Giorgio Armani have rejected the stock market option, or an alliance with investors.

"At 70, I see it as a gift the fact that I continue to think and advance in an autonomous way, without somebody leading me by the hand," Armani said in 2004 shortly before his birthday.

The Italian designer is not only the founder of this fashion empire but also sole shareholder, chief executive officer and chief designer of the company, whose consolidated turnover was 1.5 billion euros (2.0 billion dollars) in 2006.

Former Topshop director Jane Shepherdson is to help Oxfam develop its ethical fashion business, the charity said today. Ms Shepherdson, who left her job as brand director of the high street chain last October, is widely credited with being the brains behind its recent success. The fashion executive is a long-term supporter of Oxfam and will be volunteering her time. Oxfam is looking at new product lines as well as changing its image with an emphasis on shopping ethically. Director of trading David McCullough said: "We haven't done as good a job as we can telling people about the things we sell."

China's police officers are polishing their belt buckles, pressing their shirts and leaving their bling at home. The fashion police are on patrol and China's finest are under scrutiny.

The drive to clean up China's image before next year's Olympics means the country's police have new orders. They include having no weirdly dyed hair, no beards, no sideburns and leaving the scarves and the jewellry for when they are off duty.

In the interest of ensuring "a good image for the people's police" the Ministry of Public Security has issued orders about what beat officers can and cannot wear in future.

"When police are in uniform on duty, they are not allowed to wear scarves or jewellery, paint their nails or have colourfully dyed hair," the Beijing News reported, citing the new fashion guidelines that are aimed at ensuring neatness. Anyone who has been dying their hair will have to re-dye it back to its natural colour.

In addition, male police officers cannot have long or curly hair, sideburns, shaved heads or grow beards, while female police officers cannot have their hair longer than shoulder length or wear nail varnish.

"Unless there is a specific job need or illness of the eye, police cannot wear coloured glasses," the new rules specify.

The list of fashion dos and don'ts also includes guidelines on behaviour. The police are banned from smoking in public and entering places of entertainment such as bars - unless for work - while in uniform, according to the regulations, which take effect this month.

And the Ministry of Public Security has made it clear that breaching the new rules could cost any offending fashionista police officer their job.

"Minor offenders will be lectured and asked to mend their ways. Those who repeatedly break the rules or whose behaviour has a detrimental impact could be sacked," say the fashion guidelines.

China's police officers are generally very well turned out, and for that reason a lot of the new rules seem redundant. But they are part of a broader campaign to make sure that public figures do not breach dress codes.

In April, Beijing banned female taxi drivers from dying their hair bright red or yellow and from wearing chunky earrings, in an effort to improve the city's image in time for the Olympics.

Last month, China's armed police were issued with new uniforms, including regular-issue clothing, combat suits with self-protecting functions and specialised uniforms for officers performing missions in bad weather and difficult driving conditions.

The powers-that-be are also working on designing anti-terrorism combat uniforms and new official protocol uniforms.

A week after Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre died the fashion house that bears his name on Sunday presented its summer show for men to a tearful audience that gave him a posthumous ovation.
ADVERTISEMENT

As each male model presented a design by Ferre warm applause broke out and when the show was over the audience of guests, journalists, buyers and professionals, many weeping or obviously in the grip of emotion, rose to their feet and applauded for 10 minutes.

"Of course I'm moved and the parade today was the right place to pay tribute to this personality who was in my view the only person capable of creating high-fashion level ready-to-wear," Mario Boselli, president of the national fashion chamber, told AFP at the Milan show.

The collection followed Ferre's preliminary designs and showed a selection of items tailored in very fluid dark blue materials, used both for formal and casual wear.

White was widely used with light see-through shirts and embroidered jellabas to wear with swimming costumes.

"My collection for men for spring-summer summons up discovery, development, research," Ferre wrote in a statement describing his collection distributed to reporters.

"Development of forms and search for new configurations, rounded although flawlessly executed, in the respect of a code proper to my way of 'feeling' male style."

Ferre died on July 17 aged 62 after a brain haemorrhage and was buried in his birthplace of Legnano near Milan.

The stars can’t get enough of it, and now fashion guru Lawrence Zarian confirms it: white is the hottest fashion trend of the summer.

“White is fresh, it’s clean definitely youthful,” he promised. “White works on every skin tone.”

Zarian took “Extra” on a shopping spree at JC Penny to show how to get the celebrity look for less.

Lawrence showed us how to get a replica of Nicole Richie’s $550 Miss Davenport dress – for only $50!

While in the store, Lawrence was able to find the favorite styles of all the celebs, from Emmanuelle Chriqui to Jennifer Lopez, all for a fraction of the price.

The key, he said, is to look for similar styles and to understand that you don’t need a Hollywood bank account to look like a star.

Members of the Phenomenal Women's Group will collect donations of office-suitable clothing, accessories and undergarments June 25 through 28 at Crist Hall on the Southeast Missouri State University campus.

The donations of new or lightly-worn business clothing will help women begin their journey toward successful careers.

Graduates of the 21st Century Leadership Academy, known as Shear Fellows, are seeking the donations for a fashion show, which will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. June 30 at Southeast's University Center as part of a campaign to aid women and students entering the work force with interviewing skills and work-related fashion advice.

Missouri Mentoring Partnership, the Cape Girardeau chapter of Zonta International and Southeast's Phenomenal Women's Group have partnered with the Shear Fellows for this event.

The fashion show will be presented in a "what to wear" and "what not to wear" format. Those in attendance will be given the opportunity to pick an outfit from donated clothes. Clothing will then be donated locally to organizations with community closets; remaining items will be sent to St. Louis for statewide distribution.

Shear Fellows from nine Missouri college campuses are holding similar events to help mark the 10th anniversary of the 21st Century Leadership Academy, an annual weeklong residential leadership training program for Missouri college students designed to stimulate interest in women's public policy leadership and teach essential success skills in this area.

The 21st Century Leadership Academy was created by the Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life, on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. It is named for the late Sue Shear, the longest-serving female state legislator in Missouri history.