Cool Britannia: Amy Schumer, James Corden, Meryl Streep, and More Honored by BAFTA

Photo: Frazer Harrison / BAFTA LA / Getty Images

Just a night after amfAR’s gala and a celebration hosted by Burberry toasting comedian James Corden, BAFTA threw a very English celebration at the Beverly Hills Hotel for the Britannia Awards. This year’s honorees included a diverse group ranging from funny woman Amy Schumer to screen legend Meryl Streep, and taking in the show were a crew of hip, young Brits including Jack Whitehall, Ed Westwick, and John Boyega who stars in the upcoming Star Wars film. After all the awards were handed out, the real fun started and how could it not with a crowd that included Harrison Ford with wife Calista Flockhart, James Corden and Julia Carey, and Orlando Bloom.

James Corden, the Beckhams, and More Get in the Festive Spirit With Burberry

Photo: David M. Benett / Dave Benett / Getty Images for Burberry

Burberry is officially in an upbeat mood, celebrating the forthcoming festive season by giving 10 members of the “Burberry family” trampoline lessons and releasing the results as a filmed commercial. “It was fun—I’d never done it before. It’s good exercise, you know!” laughed Naomi Campbell. “But I got into it, and then they said, ‘Right, do it again with your face straight!’ ” The other rebounding members of the cast range through the generational scale from Elton John and James Corden to Julie Walters, Michelle Dockery, James Bay, and George Ezra to Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and her kid brother, Toby. Romeo Beckham—channeling Billy Elliot—follows his dancing debut in last year’s commercial, with a particularly balletic leap at the end.
Christopher Bailey’s seasonal cast of British characters gathered in the Burberry store on London’s Regent Street to celebrate the launch—and the 15th anniversary of Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot, the story of the English boy from a dour northern background who dreamed of dancing. The opening sequence of Billy bouncing on his bed to T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer” is, of course, the inspiration behind all the trampolining—and explains the participation of both Julie Walters, who played Billy’s dancing teacher in the original movie, and Sir Elton, who scored the follow-up stage musical version a decade ago. In the spirit of the season, Bailey announced Burberry’s own gift: a donation of ￡500,000 to support child charities in the community from which the fictional Billy came—a region still blighted by unemployment since Margaret Thatcher’s closure of the mines in the ’80s. All loving and giving feel-good stuff, with plenty of Burberry product available for stocking-filling familywear available in the form of everything from heart-printed plaid scarves to fringed suede bags to baby onesies and dad sweaters, as of today.

Billy Elliot Christmas ad campaign inspired £250K Durham donation from Burberry

The donation to County Durham Community Foundation’s Learning Working Earning initiative from Burberry will help up to 75 people in County Durham find work

Designer label Burberry has injected £250,000 into a County Durham charity after finding inspiration in its ‘Billy Elliot’ inspired festive ad campaign.

The luxury British brand has joined forces with County Durham Community Foundation to continue their Learning Working Earning initiative in East Durham to progress young people into jobs.

Burberry’s Christmas ad campaign starring Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Romeo Beckham was based on Billy Elliot, which was set in Easington so the firm decided to dig deep to give something back to its area.

County Durham Community Foundation’s Learning Working Earning initiative was launched in March 2013 to help the unemployed throughout County Durham find work.

The Burberry Foundation has donated £250,000 to the scheme which will potentially help 75 people into employment.

Christopher Bailey, chief creative and chief executive officer said: “We feel very honoured to be able contribute to the charitable legacy of Billy Elliot which has achieved so much already.

“Through their work in the local area, Place2Be and the County Durham Community Foundation make a big difference to the lives of so many young people in Easington and the surrounding communities - it is a privilege to be able to support their work.”

The programme has supported almost 300 people find jobs.

Barbara Gubbins, chief executive of the County Durham Community Foundation, said: “We are thrilled that Burberry has agreed to become a stakeholder in our Learning Working Earning programme focusing on 16-25 year olds.

“Unemployment among young people is particularly high in this region, but even more so in East Durham. It is brilliant that such a high profile brand has been pro-active in seeking out projects in County Durham that will really make a difference to people’s lives.”

Burberry Festive Film - The Cast, shot by Burberry

Neil Foster, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for economic regeneration, said: “Learning Working Earning has achieved fantastic results. We are very pleased that, as a result of this partnership, its work to get people back into work and training can now continue.”

Grahame Morris, MP for East Durham said: “The East Durham Learning Working Earning Programme will help young people to overcome the financial barriers when moving into employment, offering practical support to assist them gaining an apprenticeship or work-based learning.”

Toni Houghton, from South Hetton, has already benefitted from the scheme.

The 19-year-old, of South Hetton, had embarked on a media studies college course after leaving school, but soon realised it wasn’t for her.

She says: “I had been working here [at the Robin Todd Community Centre] as a volunteer but they didn’t have the money to employ me.

“Funding from County Durham Community Foundation meant they could afford to take me on as an apprentice, and that made a big difference to my life.

“I’ve been here two years now and I love it. I’m no longer an apprentice, I’m on the staff and work around 30 hours a week.”

Beautiful in Burberry

The leading English brand launches its refurbished branch and showcases its new collection

British brand Burberry recently celebrated the official re-opening of its store in Bangkok and used the party to showcase its new Prorsum Autumn-Winter collections for women and men. Located on M floor of Siam Paragon, the newly

expanded and refurbished store welcomed the brand's die-hard fans including Araya A Hargate, Karatpetch Issara, Natapree Pichaironarongsongkram, Chulalux Piyasombatkul and Ploy Pinsaeng, who also served as models for the new look.

Spread over 500 square metres of prime retail space, the launch event included a showcase of digital innovation that offered Burberry fans a exclusive real-time experience direct from London via LED Retail Theatre, of the recent runway show.

Along with a new scarf bar, customers are also offered a personalised order service and can browse other Burberry stores around the world in real time on the iPads toted by each member of the sales team.

The latest womenswear collection - "Patchwork, Pattern, and Prints" - features paisley and floral bohemian prints inspired by Durham quilts, patchwork prints, and animal and camouflage printed lace. Keynotes colours are indigo, red, burgundy, teal, and ochre.

The menswear "Classical Bohemian" collection mixes layering with tailoring and features authentic fabrics, camouflage, paisley and floral patterns.

The fashion show included a presentation of the collection's hottest accessories and other items, including the Burberry Bucket Bag in English suede, cashmere fringe poncho, linen and wool jacket, cashmere fringe scarf plus animal and camouflage-print carryalls.

The Best Fashion Instagrams of the Week: Kate Bosworth, the Kardashians, and More!

Could it be the vibrant stream of red, gold, and green that flooded our homepage this week, in honor of the Reggae Revival movement, that inspired our favorite Instagram follows to show plenty of their true colors? Just look to Kate Bosworth, who took to the Conan show (and its adjacent parking lot) in a patterned dress that boasted a burst of multicolored tie-dye motifs. Blogger Pernille Teisbaek was bedecked in a vivid clash of hues, metallics, and prints—all from the geek-chic Gucci Resort 2016 collection—while performance artist Millie Brown attended the Art & Fashion Forum in Poland wearing a Joanna Hawrot robe, whose Rorschach blot–printed train billowed as Brown made her way into the affair.

But it was the Kardashians who kept it tonal (the family’s palette of choice), the whole gaggle of sisters snuggling up in matching striped pajamas to celebrate Kim’s baby shower.

Exclusive: Gucci Collaborates With Artists on an Instagram Initiative

You don’t need me to tell you that a vast majority of the fashion flock spends a vast amount of time facedown, immersed in the pictorial world of Instagram. The mix of content is addicting—a selfie of your friend, the latest Gucci shoe, and a photo of an Impressionist painting are just a sampling of things a girl might find in her daily scroll through the app. It’s not too surprising, then, that Instagram is of particular interest to Gucci’s Alessandro Michele—he is the man who manages to blend fictional 17th-century maps with ’70s trompe l’oeil sequins in a visual feast on the Gucci runway. Inspired by the mix of the old and the new, the familiar and the strange, the house is launching an Instagram initiative today in which artists have been invited to rework iconic Gucci patterns in any way they see fit. “#GucciGram is a starting point to tell different stories, which are all united by a great freedom,” said Michele. “Today creativity is often born and finds its voice in digital media, a vital source of visual culture.”

With Gucci’s floral #GGBlooms and geometric #GGCaleido patterns as a jumping-off point, a slew of Instagrammers, ranging from the internationally popular to the up-and-coming, crafted pieces inspired by the house’s prints. Among the submissions you’ll find everything from short, flickering movies that imagine Gucci models as weather girls and TV psychics, courtesy of Spanish illustrator Ignasi Monreal, to a near-nude selfie in an airplane bathroom with a Gucci clutch hanging from the door by Amalia Ulman, to the figures in Grant Wood’s famous painting American Gothic sporting peppy fashion updated in Gucci prints from art collective The Most Famous Artist.

The full selection of entries will be on display on a new section of the Gucci site, as well as on the brand’s social channels over the coming months. The beauty—and genius—of the project is that it will likely spawn a host of imitators offering up their own takes on invited submissions. You can’t put a limit on creativity, especially online.

Now-vintage Gucci purse stolen in 1995 recovered

This Gucci purse, stolen in 1995, was recovered in a southern California citrus grove, and returned to its owner.

 CBS LOS ANGELES

MENIFFEE, Calif. -- A Southern California woman whose pricey Gucci purse was stolen 20 years ago has recently recovered the bag with the items inside -- including her driver's license, a Social Security card, and mascara -- all still intact,reports CBS Los Angeles.

Lynne Button told the station a thief stole her $600 Gucci satchel from her van parked in her driveway on Halloween night in 1995.

Two weeks ago, a citrus grove worker discovered the purse along a row of trees in a grove in Valle Vista, near where Button and her family used to live. It was dirty and weathered, but still in one piece, reports the station.

"It was so intact, I knew right there it was something I needed to get right back to the owner," the worker, Michael Cassidy, told the station. "I looked in it and found a social security card. So I stopped right there and secured the purse."

Cassidy took the Gucci bag to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, where a deputy was able to track down Button and delivered her now-vintage purse.

Button thanked Cassidy, who visited her at her Meniffee home Monday night.

"I think it's amazing, and it reminds you that there are still some really good people," Button told CBS Los Angeles.

Gucci sales jump in Europe and Japan offsets weakness in China

PARIS (Reuters) - Kering's luxury brand Gucci posted a 0.4 percent drop in like-for-like third-quarter sales as spending by Chinese tourists in Western Europe and Japan only partially offset declines elsewhere in Asia.

The expected decline came after a surprise 4.6 percent sales rise in the second quarter, which was helped by one-off markdowns of previous collections, particularly in China.

Investors expect Gucci's revamp under new Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri and creative head Alessandro Michele, appointed at the beginning of 2015, only to start yielding results towards the end of the year, and in earnest in 2016.

Group Managing Director Jean-Francois Palus said demand from Chinese customers for Gucci slowed in the third quarter as the rise in sales in Europe and Japan did not fully compensate lower revenue from mainland China, Hong Kong and South Korea.

"And we do not see any improvement," Palus said.

Gucci third-quarter sales on a comparable basis jumped 27 and 24 percent respectively in Western Europe and Japan.

"This quarter was a period of transition," Kering Finance Director Jean-Marc Duplaix said. "We are only starting now to reap results from the brand's reorganisation," he said, adding that new designs started hitting the shelves last month.

Duplaix said it was not clear whether the stock market slump in China had hit demand for luxury goods at home, or abroad.

"For me the correlation is not evident," he told reporters after Kering published third-quarter revenue figures.

Earlier this month, arch-rival LVMH (LVMH.PA) said the stock market collapse in China had affected sales, particularly at its Louis Vuitton brand.

The Chinese luxury goods market has been hit by a government crackdown on corruption.

"Kering breaks a series of disappointing updates by luxury goods companies started last week and reports slightly better than expected third-quarter organic sales progression, against relatively muted expectations," said Exane BNP Paribas analyst Luca Solca.

Burberry (BRBY.L) and Hugo Boss (BOSSn.DE) also both blamed poor demand in China for disappointing trading updates last week.

Kering's total comparable sales were up 3.1 percent in the third quarter, with strong growth from French fashion brand Saint Laurent.

The company said the relaunch of its Puma sports label remained on track with like-for-like revenues up 3.9 percent during the period.

Kering said watch brands, which include the newly acquired Ulysse Nardin, "continued to be held back by an unfavourable market context" but jewellery makers Boucheron, Pomellato and Qeelin recorded revenue growth of 11 percent.

The company said trading at Italian tailor Brioni, acquired four years ago, remained "volatile".