Fashion-tourism in world

Fashion-tourism in world. Four fashion capitals are four the most fashionable cities in the world London, New York, Milan and Paris. All there hasten for whom fashion is a new kind of religion.

London Beyond the slippery jellied eels, leftover punks and Waterloo sunsets, London remains one of the most exciting and creative fashion cities in the world. The heady swirl around London Fashion Week is as strong as always, even if its star attractions have decamped in recent years. The citys undeniable strength is its wealth of younger off-schedule designers, specialist boutiques, huge department stores, countless vintage clothing emporiums and crackling bar and club scene.

London has never lost its cocky, underground edge. For the city so aware of its own iconic history, it has the firm grasp of creative modernity and youthful, brave design. This clash of opposites is everywhere from sedate department stores booking in-store garage DJs to the major British designers secretly commissioned to tweak the collections of hugely popular high street brands. As new concept stores reanimate the citys ancient bespoke tailoring district Savile Row, they revel in the tradition of stifling personal service.

Approached territorially, fashions sharpest edge - at least on the wallet - is still the west the quiet decadence of Sloane Street and Brompton Road spreads into Kensington and, finally, Bond Street. Soho and Covert Garden are also innovative areas, dominated by designer-mix boutiques and streetwear stores linked through the back streets of the busier, cheaper heart of the city. Sprawling markets are a weekend institution with dubious back alleys and scorchingly colourful street-level stalls.

Portobello and its nearby boutiques are still trawled by major designers and stylists searching for vintage couture and one-off originals. In the east, Brick Lane and surrounding area is a little more satisfying quite filthy and full of dark, damp treasures, it has seen the large collection of bars, clubs, galleries and scruffy fashion kids populate the area in recent years.

New York As only major fashion capital outside Europes lavishly fringed borders, the megalopolis of New York stands as a glittering monument to future-is-now modernism and gimme-gimme glambition. In the vertical city of glass and steel, cash is king, Anna Wintour is queen and cinched-up socialites parade as court jesters. Tradition is a weekly spree at Barneys, lineage is cut by Studio 54 wannabes and history is anything in last months trinity of glossies Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and W. And to whom does New York owe its wealth, opportunity and privilege It s varied street culture.

Seventh Avenue CEOs intersect with Madison Avenue advertising executives and Wall Street investment bankers in the well-oiled convergence of designer know-how, marketing chutzpah and bullish wealth. From Halstons disco decadence of the 1970s to Calvin Kleins celebrity obsessions of today, success on the New York fashion stage has meant manufacturing, bottling and selling the cult of personality.

But an entirely different, yet equally influential, seamscape exists on the streets below 14th Street, where downtown designers are digging in their vintage heels in the fight against conformity. Counter-culture crusaders like Chloe Sevigny slink along NoLitas Mott and Elizabeth Streets wearing Imitation of Christ, bands of Bjork look-alikes march down Orchard Street with the flashy quartet As Four slapped on their backs and the scenesters of the Meatpacking District are let loose in Bruce. Underground favorites like United Bamboo, Benjamin Cho, Tess Giberson, Jess Holzworth, Indigo People and Pierrot have become fixtures on the fashion map and that master of disappearing acts, Miguel Adrover, whose fashion show once clogged the entire Lower East Side with traffic, has announced his return to New York Fashion Week. There goes the neighborhood.

Milan Milan is still seen as the world capital of fashion and design. During the 1980s, when the economic boom was at its height, the big names of Armani, Versace, Ferre, Max Mara and Gucci started to impose their Italian style all over the world from here. Today, these labels remain the power behind this northern city few other capitals can afford the density of designer boutiques to be found in Milans quadrilatero delta moda, which cuts right into the citys heart, from Via Montenapoleone to Via della Spiga. Many of the reasons why Milan has become a world leader in fashion can be traced back to the 1960s. Milan then was a pivotal centre for industrial design, thanks to its legendary manufacturing industry.

The transition to ready-to-wear clothing process was a natural progression.

If not genius in creativity, the Milanese fashion industry relies on the sheer quality of its product - and a hugely successful business was built on this reputation. As a city, Milan doesnt appeal immediately to the aesthetic senses. It hasnt got the charm of Venice or the beauty of Rome. But the Milanese have a natural style all their own appearances have always counted here and still do. A Milanese woman never rushes to the supermarket without full make-up, while the men pride themselves in being the best dressed in Europe - with a keen eye on their waistline. That said, outsiders often remark on how conservative the fashions can be in Milan the stoic look of minimalist chic is a standard issue and most individual choices are dominated by this formula.

The Milanese are hard-headed working types the ties loosen up and the heels slip off only at the time of the aperitivo a cultural institution.

But herein lies the citys allure. In Milan, Italian style has reached its peak shops - be they fashion, furniture or food - restaurants and art galleries are simply and undeniably chic. Ggggg Paris The role of the fashion capital has been argued about constantly for years. The truth is that theres no one capital of fashion, as each of the major fashion cities traditionally Paris, New York, London and Milan, but today the term stretches as far as Sao Paulo and Sydney is progressively building its own state of mind and identity. For Paris, its always been about institutions, but recently the citys influence has become more varied.

Since the Colette store shook up French fashions conventional outlook in the 1990s, Paris has become much more open-minded towards ambitious and atypical ideas. This phenomenon gained general acceptance and allowed a growing Paris creative scene to develop slowly a strong reputation in graphics, music and the arts. Suddenly the streets of Paris were gave birth to new and challenging concepts, not only in fashion stores but also bars, galleries, restaurants and clubs.

However the notion of institution is still de rigueur here, as superficiality is a notion that doesnt appeal to Parisians. Many big fashion names have been enlightening the city for nearly a century now Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent And with the rebirth of luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior Homme and Balenciaga, thanks to exciting new designers Marc Jacobs, Hedi Slimane and Nicolas Ghesquiere respectively, Paris has become even more powerful and influential in fashion.

The success of magazines including French Vogue, Self-Service and Numero is further proof of the vitality of la mode. The city itself is very coquette, taking great care in the way it looks of course eccentricity is still tempered by Paris need to remain elegant and chic. Today the French capital is in a better shape than ever. After decades of self-criticism, Paris is confident again.

Still one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Paris once more feels young and alive.