Brace yourself, recession. You might be the biggest, baddest economic maelstrom to come along for decades but tonight you face an arm wrestle with the US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
Fashion's Night Out is a global evening of celebration that Wintour developed during Paris Fashion Week earlier this year when she invited editors of Vogue's myriad international editions to breakfast at the Ritz. One imagines they picked at bits of fruit, sipped black tea and listened to Wintour's idea.
The plan was as follows: Wintour would use her address book and mighty clout to browbeat designers, celebrities, models and just about anybody useful in fashion into an evening in New York City, where stores would stay open late and hold various celebratory events.
She wanted a night to celebrate fashion, to inject enthusiasm back into shopping and to get those cash tills singing out once again. Never mind that people were losing jobs; what they needed was a night of spending money. "I think there is this slightly psychological block against shopping right now," she noted, in an interview with WWD.
Other countries in which Vogue is published were to follow suit, and the grand list of participating satellites now includes the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Russia, Brazil, India, Japan, China and Taiwan.
There has been plenty of frothy publicity for the evening. The website (www.fashionsnightout.com) features a video advertisement with Sarah Jessica Parker, Vera Wang and P Diddy. "New Yorkers are always in fashion," they say, speaking in turn as if in a classroom.
We learn that the fashion industry in New York employs 175,000 people and generates $10 billion (Dh37 billion) a year in wages. "Fashion is big," growls Diddy, emphasising the point by stretching his arms open. Nearly as big as his gold necklace, perhaps.
"Let's make shopping fun again," they all trill.
It's "Fashion's Night Out", laughs Wintour. Yes, that's actually her laughing.
"Spend a little bit of money," pipes in Diddy, jiggling in a kind of morris dance.
Plans started in earnest in May, when the New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the initiative and put this brief visual feast up on the website. Wintour then announced that she would be kicking off her night at Macy's in Queens. In her recent interview with David Letterman, Wintour looked like she gagged a little when she mentioned Queens, but rest assured she is not soldiering there alone. The mayor and the designer Michael Kors will be there, too. "I don't sing or dance or do anything like that," Wintour told WWD modestly, so she has also enlisted the cast of Hair to perform.
More than 700 stores will remain open until 11.00pm. Other highlights include Oscar de la Renta singing in his Madison Avenue Boutique, Justin Timberlake in a pop-up shop in Saks, Kate Hudson putting in an appearance at Stella McCartney's eco-inspired evening at her Meatpacking District shop, Alexa Chung on the DJ decks in Chanel's downtown store and Victoria Beckham showing at Bergdorf Goodman. Proceeds from T-shirts sold will go to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Elsewhere in the world, there will be similar shopping orgies. In London, more than 200 stores have signed up. Dover Street Market, also celebrating its fifth birthday, will feature appearances from Christopher Kane, Gareth Pugh and Hussein Chalayan. At Browns, fashion bods such as Charlotte Dellal and Jonathan Saunders will be behind the tills. Selfridges has created a special fashion ice cream for the evening, coloured black. Natch.
In Paris, the action is centred around Avenues Montaigne and Charles V. The editor of French Vogue Carine Roitfeld and Karl Lagerfeld will be minding the Chanel boutique. In Brazil, there will be parties in upscale malls in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with appearances from some of Brazil's most loved soap opera stars. In Moscow, Vogue has taken over Red Square; in New Delhi, Burberry will host a British-themed party in the DLF luxury mall; in Berlin, Mercedes Benz will shuttle VIPs and shoppers between the city's two main shopping districts, split according to the old East-West divide.
About 22,000 people are expected to flock to the three main shopping areas in Madrid; in Tokyo, more than 200 shops will stay open late and Christian Dior will show off a window display created in collaboration with Vogue. China is holding the evening under an art-meets-fashion banner in Beijing; Milan has a goal of 300 brands on 30 streets; in Taiwan there's a special lighting ceremony in the Taipei 101 tower, and Athens boasts 195 stores all ready and waiting to take your money.
Whoever said fashion was fickle?
LIST OF INVITEES
Shergo Kurdi (am)
Rayhan Thomas
Saud Al Sharee (am)
Min Woo Lee
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Matteo Manassero
Alfie Plant
Othman Al Mulla
Shaun Norris
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Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
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Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Price: From Dh61,500
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Monday's results
- UAE beat Bahrain by 51 runs
- Qatar beat Maldives by 44 runs
- Saudi Arabia beat Kuwait by seven wickets
SPECS
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Herc's Adventures
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Publisher: LucasArts
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Rating: 4/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
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