Fashion News Alert: Rihanna Breaks Harper’s Bazaar’s Record, Lord & Taylor Files for Bankruptcy, and Sayonara Kansai Yamamoto

As Rihanna’s fashion empire continues to grow, so does her influence. Rihanna has broken a Harper’s Bazaar record by appearing on the covers on all 26 global Harper’s Bazaar upcoming September issue.

As a fashion icon, Rihanna got to wear a vintage John Galliano dress, a Saint Laurent coat, a dramatic yellow fuzzy Veneta Bottega coat from the fall 2020 collection, a Dior logo print silk headscarf, a Max Mara slouchy coat,  and of course her Savage x Fenty lingerie and Fenty makeup and beauty products. The editorial and covers were art directed by Jen Brill, photographed by Gary Sorrenti with interview conducted by editor Kahlana Barfield Brown.

The 2020 September Harper’s Bazaar issue will be on newsstands on September 8. Ri-Ri reigns!!

Another one bites the dust

On August 2, mega retailer Lord & Taylor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. With this bankruptcy filing, Lord & Taylor joins a long list of retail stores and brands—J Crew Group, JC Penny, and Neiman Marcus in May, and Lucky Brand in July—that have recently filed for bankruptcy.

The Lord & Taylor store chain was founded in 1826 and is now estimated to have between $100 and $500 million in assets and liabilities. It has been reported that Lord & Taylor is planning to liquidate inventory in 38 of its retail stores. Lord & Taylor opened its flagship store in New York City in 1914. The flagship store closed in 2019.

Bye, bye Kansai

Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto has passed away. Yamamoto became famous for designing stage costumes for David Bowie, Elton John, and Lady Gaga. “I found David’s aesthetic and interest in transcending gender boundaries shockingly beautiful,” he told website The Cut in 2018, as reported in a recent article on fashionnetwork.com.

Kansai Yamamoto came to prominence in the early 1970s with his famous shows that used bold, bright color with brilliant patterns referencing and incorporating Japanese colors. Yamamoto’s avant-garde designs were also gender neutral and was a direct contrast to some of the more minimalist points of view of other Japanese designers.

Kansai Yamamoto was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1944 and showed his first collection in London in 1971. Yamamoto design aesthetic is inspired by the Japanese concept of Basara—an aesthetic defined by “extravagance, eccentricity and excess.” In later years, Yamamoto collaborated with Anna Sui and Nicolas Ghesquiere for Louis Vuitton in recent years. 

Kansai Yamamoto died of leukemia. He was 76 years of age.

—William S. Gooch