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FASHION

Swedish shop hits back: our Converse are real

Swedish retailer Coop has refuted complaints by US sneaker brand Converse that Coop stores are selling unauthorized pirated copies of the iconic footwear.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Converse, which is owned by Nike, had asked a Stockholm court for permission to search through five of Coop’s stores where it believed pirated Converse sneakers were being sold.

But Coop later rejected Converse’s piracy accusations, claiming that the shoes on sale at Coop Forum stores in Bäckebol, Norrköping, Skövde and Skara were the genuine articles.

“We’re very surprised that they would go forward in this way and ignore the documentation we sent to them when we first heard about the accusations that we were selling pirated copies of Converse shoes,” Coop spokeswoman Marika Hjelm Siegwald told the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

“It’s not true,” she added, explaining that a law firm has helped Coop obtain certificates of authenticity from the manufacturers.

The complaints emerged after Converse noticed that Coop was selling its wares for about 399 kronor ($60), half of the usual retail price of 799 kronor ($120).

Experts from the company purchased several pairs of the popular canvas trainers and sent them to the US where further inspection revealed the shoes lacked a serial number combination used as a security measure.

But Hjelm Siegwald maintained that the Converse shoes on sale at Coop do in fact have the numbers.

“We have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the Converse shoes we’re selling in our stores. We have documentation that proves the shoes are real and trust our suppliers,” she told the Metro newspaper.

On Tuesday, the Stockholm District Court granted permission to Converse to enter Coop stores and obtain samples of the shoes in order to determine if further legal action is required.

However, the court refused to allow all the shoes to be confiscated.

“We’re going to continue to sell the shoes because we’re sure they are real,” Hjelm Siegwald told SvD.

“Why Converse is doing this to us is a good question, but we don’t know. It’s not like the price in itself is an indication of a product’s authenticity.”

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FASHION

Paris exhibition celebrates 100 years of French Vogue

A new exhibition in Paris will tell the story of 100 years of French Vogue - from the post-war 'New Look' of Christian Dior through the sexual liberation of the 1960s to the dangling-cigarette waifs of the 2000s.

French Vogue celebrates 100 years
French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance. 

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