Why was the former Mulberry designer Stuart Vevers baring midriffs and aping Mulberry?
When, in July 2007 the announcement came that Brit designer Stuart Vevers would leave Mulberry to become the Creative Director at Spanish leather house Loewe, Pierre-Yves Roussel, chief executive officer of the fashion division at LVMH – which owns Loewe said: “We want to emphasize Loewe’s strong point – leather goods – with someone who can make desirable handbags.” This makes sense, after all, Vevers had had great success giving Mulberry It-bag status, so why shouldn’t he do the same from Madrid? It was confusing, then, that the bags in his most recent collection seemed completely overshadowed by the clothes. Baring midriffs, tooling leather into tiny perforations (which did look very beautiful) and then working it into flippy dresses with neon bras visible underneath isn’t exactly giving the bags their fair dues. Incidentally, the bags were nice enough, the best being plain leather interpretations of the classic brown paper bag that Americans use to take home their groceries. Another
