PARIS (AP) -- Actor Robert Pattinson took center stage at Dior Homme's menswear show in Paris that celebrated the styles of Britain’s iconic retro club, The Haeuroienda -- against a theatrical fairground backdrop that had celebrity attendees gawping. Kenzo, too, paid homage to legendary retro clubs in a show dedicated to the flamboyant styles once worn at New York music venues.Here are some of the highlights of the spring-summer 2017 collections.Rise of Robert PattinsonPattinson, who has success

MILAN (AFP) - The future of exclusively menswear catwalk shows is in doubt, but the cult of the “see and be seen party” is alive and well.Highlights from the Milan menswear Spring-Summer 2017 fashion shows, which concluded here Tuesday, included Dsquared2 duo Dean and Dan Caten’s bash in their own Ceresio restaurant, which boasts spectacular views of the Milanese skyline.Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana treated the crowds outside their show to glasses of bubbly before hosting their party at Bi

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo has leveraged its prowess in mass production to build a fashion empire filled with shelves upon shelves of affordable, good quality items like down jackets, underwear and T-shirts. Now the 17-nation, 1,734-store retailer is on a quest to beat Western giants like Gap, H&M and Zara to become the world's biggest apparel-maker.In the overcrowded, highly competitive casual fashion market, size is important, but no guarantee of success: Analysts say Uniqlo’

NEW YORK (AP) -- We need leaders. Beware false gods. Wear cool clothes.The design duo Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow opted out of the New York Fashion Week frenzy to present their latest ready-to-wear collection Tuesday -- instead of the usual February or September -- against a dystopian backdrop that served as an Orwellian wake-up call.Before their models race-walked down the runway, sirens blaring, workers stood silent in assembly lines, their faces covered in black mesh, hands hidden in yell

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a surprise appearance, Beyonce delighted a glittery fashion crowd Monday evening, showing up unannounced to accept the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Fashion Icon award.Usually, organizers announce the name of the Fashion Icon winner well in advance, but this year they kept it under wraps until the end of the ceremony, when designer Diane von Furstenberg took the stage to introduce the pop superstar, saying she was everything women aspire to be. Designer Calvin Kle

TOKYO (AP) -- Although he’s behind one of the biggest fashion brands to come out of Japan, Issey Miyake detests being called a fashion designer. Maybe a designer, even a sculptor, but not that frivolous, trend-watching, conspicuous consumption known as fashion. What he has pursued since he started in the 1970s is more timeless. His down-to-earth clothing is meant to celebrate the human body. And it’s anyone’s or everyone’s body -- any race, build, size or age.“The work of Miyake Issey,” at the N

BALTIMORE -- Ethan Giffin doesn’t let working in a business setting prevent him from showing off his sense of style.　Giffin, CEO of the Little Italy-based Groove: Creative Marketing, Design & Development, is known for his extensive collection of accessories -- hundreds of patterned pocket squares, lapel flowers, designer cuff links, colorful socks and dress shoes.　“Many of my friends’ wives and girlfriends say 'I wish you can dress more like Ethan',” Giffin, 44, said. “It’s definitely something

Glamour of luxury brands attract fashion-conscious foodies, selfie lovers and tourists to in-house cafes and restaurants

NEW YORK (AP) -- For decades, argues Andrew Bolton, the star curator of blockbuster fashion exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we’ve all been looking at fashion through a flawed prism. We’ve assumed, he says, that hand-made garments are better, purer, fancier, more luxurious. And that machine-made garments are inherently inferior, even mediocre. 　We’re wrong, Bolton says, and his new Met exhibit opening this week, “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” seeks to prove that t

NEW YORK (AP) -- The opening seconds of the trailer for “The First Monday in May,” the new documentary about the dizzyingly star-studded Met Gala, show pop star Rihanna tossing her fashionable head in slo-mo as the red-carpet cameras click furiously. Suitably, she sports a glistening tiara.　And then suddenly we're looking at a boyish, bespectacled man far from the limelight, far from Rihanna and Bieber and Beyonce, walking through the dimmed galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is And

In some fashion universe, TV’s fashion cheerleader Carrie Bradshaw is probably talking to her husband, John James “Mr. Big” Preston, and gazing at all of her shoes. After all, the former Ms. Bradshaw, a lover of shoes, missed her ferry ride home during an old episode of HBO’s “Sex and the City” after slipping out of a designer shoe and crying out, “Wait, I lost my Choo!”　The “Choo” she was referring to, of course, is the red carpet favorite Jimmy Choo, the London-based footwear and accessories l

Fashion journalist and critic sees gender-neutral dressing as next thing