PRESS RELEASE GDS – International Event for Shoes & Accessories 13 – 15 March 2009 Interesting new exhibitors: labels to watch Annette Görtz In the new shoe collection from the Annette Görtz designer label, exciting surfaces meet unusual details. Rugged cowhide boots with high shafts and funnel heels have braided inserts in the calf area. The leather decorated with small nails in the heel area is especially clever. Ankle styles also appear with wooden funnel heels — either with distinctive lacing or as clean booties. Long-shaft boots in fine suede/leather combinations with wedge heels and fabric lacing are among the leading characters in the collection and dovetail perfectly with Annette Görtz eveningwear. Exciting material combinations can be seen in flat smooth-leather boots that offer an especially good fit through the integration of stretch fabric. Rugged high boots and half boots with eye-catching metal grommets are perfect for outdoor wear. Profile soles with indentations in linoleum cut patterns intended to prevent the accumulation of mud and sludge are comfortable and functional. True to the colour-reduced collection, colours are limited to black and nostalgic mud. www.annettegoertz.de Babybotte The story of children's shoe label Babybotte began with the French man Georges Bidegain. In 1936, he founded a company to design children's shoes in Pau, a town in Southwest France. Already in 1949 the Bidegain company and the Babybotte label were famous. The products became THE synonym for children's shoes in France. Soon the Bidegain SA company developed a reputation beyond French borders and was able to establish itself on the global market. In 1959 an orthopaedic yet stylish shoe was developed and the sister label Le Loup Blanc (the white wolf) was born. The years between 1975 and 1989 were especially important for further technical developments. The mission was and is to offer children's shoes with an ideal fit. Today the tradition-rich Bidegain company, with its Babybotte label, looks back on more than 70 years of experience in children's shoes. It is a company that takes the health of children's feet very seriously: according to the company philosophy, good shoes are essential for children, since they play a very important role in the growth of the feet. www.babybotte.com Baldessarini The men's luxury label, Baldessarini, stands for the best materials processed with expert craftsmanship. For the 2009 Autumn/Winter season, Baldessarini presents their own shoe collection for the first time, thus completing their fashion offerings. The styles are characterised by an exclusive leather selection in natural colours such as taupe, black olive, smoky blue, grey mocha and deep black. They are handmade using the time-consuming Goodyear method. Vegetable tanning processes ensure a unique and natural leather characteristic. This lends the shoes more intense colour that marbles with time. Washed goat hide, exclusive calfskin or velour from Tuscany, lambskin double-face from New Zealand and horse leather from Chicago are the materials used in this collection. Classic styles are interpreted in a fresh, modern manner. Next to the typical Baldessarini suede Chelsea boots, monks, derbies, oxfords and jodhpurs are offered. Manufacture and distribution of the Baldessarini shoe collection is handled by the Zimmermann Shoe Group in Germany. www.baldessarini.com Frankie's Garage Bag label, Frankie's Garage, is currently celebrating a true comeback. Founded by their own admission in 1985 "in New York by a couple of cool dudes," it was born as a messenger bag. The initial spark was good for an article in the New York Vogue. Complemented by a record box, a wash bag and a sea bag, an entire collection was created. The label had its true coming out as Andy Warhol himself orchestrated one of the bags in a photo session along with his then friend. The creators of Frankie's Garage separated in the late eighties, and the label disappeared from public until mid-2008. Now it has returned and presents, in addition to the vintage bags, many new styles. With the "700 billion dollar bag", women get a "personal bailout" license and are able to personally profit from the global money distribution. www.frankies-garage.info L.A.M.B. L.A.M.B. stands for "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" and is the fashion and footwear line of pop-punk diva and fashion icon Gwen Stefani. Gwen made her name as front 2 woman in the band No Doubt. She founded her fashion label in the USA in 2003. As a designer she enjoys an exceptional reputation amongst glamorous female colleagues with their own brands: she actually designs her collections herself. And since 2007 there has also been a separate shoes line with matching footwear for each style. Gwen Stefani has style, exudes natural elegance and charm, has been a thrift store junkie since childhood and has long since designed her own clothes – whether for the stage or just daily life. She does not aim to reinvent the wheel here or make claims to total uniqueness. Instead she merely presents herself. Gwen: “L.A.M.B. represents all things that I love. It’s very much my style and how I like to put things together. A beautiful, timeless, crazy fun collection.” Her first professionally marketed fashion line came onto the market in Summer 2004 followed naturally by successful shoes. The shoes range grew until Summer 2007 when a complete line with styles for men, women and children developed. www.l-a-m-b.com Luis Onofre Luis Onofre’s luxurious women’s shoes are extremely feminine, elegant and sexy. The success story of this trained Portuguese designer began in 1993 when he received the “Better Design” prize from the Italian trade journal Ars Sutoria. Onofre worked, amongst others, for the Cacharel and Daniel Hechter fashion houses and in 1999 he founded his own shoe label. The line is now distributed throughout the world. The Luis Onofre Winter 2009/2010 collection takes us back to times past, evoking the military boots of the Great War. With a dazzling array of colours and innovate finishing work. The designer’s favourite colours include the natural tones, honey and brown. And especially grey… which, when coupled with innovative and exquisite finishes and aged leather, takes on an exclusive new aura in this collection, strengthening the vintage look. Luis Onofre also pays special attention to accessories, which certainly have not been forgotten here strengthening the refined spirit of this one-of-a-kind collection. www.luisonofre.com Mexicana Founded in 1988, the MEXICANA label can be described with one word: passion! This passion was born in the founders' youth, at which time cowboy boots were a 3 symbol of fraternization, rock and adventure. Add the enthusiasm for Mexico, experienced as an epiphany. Congruent to their wishes, the men found a lifestyle characterised by tradition and freedom in this country. As a passionate boot manufacturer, Mexicana ensures that its styles are continuously transformed so that they reflect widely varying looks and constantly new lifestyle worlds, always with the primary focus on quality and originality. The label keeps the handeddown skills of Mexican artisan craftwork alive while lending them a brand new identity. Every pair of Mexicana boots is the crowning culmination of a long manufacturing process: there are 175 distinct operations between selection of hides and the finishing. Ten craftsmen produce the boots according to the traditions and customs of their native country, fully preserving the handed-down manufacturing secrets. Afterward, every single boot goes through a rigorous quality control. Only the hides of breeding animals are used according to the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species: python, crocodile, lizard, ostrich and caiman. www.mexicana.fr Harajuku Lovers "Let the cuteness begin" is the website slogan of Harajuku Lovers, the second fashion, shoe and accessories label by pop and style icon Gwen Stefani, famous as the singer in the band No Doubt and as the designer of the L.A.M.B. line. The collection comes from the USA. The name comes from Japan where being cute is an established cultural phenomenon. In Harajuku Lovers shoe styles sweetness is centre stage. The look is childish, lovable, fresh and playful and is reminiscent of typical Japanese comic manga and anime characters. The women’s shoes label has been in existence since 2005 and specifically targets Gwen Stefani fans. Gwen drew inspiration for the name from her Japanese background vocals, the Harajuku Girls. Harajuku is a district in Tokyo, seen as the centre of Japanese sub-culture and eccentric fashion styles. Characteristic features of the collection are stylised, so-called kawaii representations of the singer and her dancers. Cutesy images of this kind have been a fascinating and successful design element in many areas of daily life in Japan since the 1970s. www.harajukulovers.com 4 Samsonite Footwear Samsonite Footwear promises 24 hours of comfort and builds its style on several impulses: couture, street and sportswear, elegance, wellness and sensuality combine to create a multi-faceted yet harmonious fashion mix—"smart glamour that perfectly suits the urban lifestyle," according to Samsonite. Finest materials, elaborate production techniques and details designed for functionality ensure impressive quality. Borrowing from the classic-elegant tradition of craftsmanship, the men's line for Autumn/Winter 2009/2010 translates a serious style with sporty, easy-to-wear casualness. The colours are sophisticated: brown appears in various vintage nuances, complemented by an absolutely clean business black. The women's line caters to the busy life with comfort, feminine styling and functionality. The look can be described as clean, precise, modern and informal. Black is the power colour, appearing sleek and often shiny. Deep blues, Bordeaux and grey shades join in. The styles, including heels and wedges, are wellproportioned, ergonomic and relaxed, and include boots with shafts of various lengths, as well as heels, moccasins and sneakers. www.samsonitefootwear.com Scholl Studio “Gymnastics while you walk” was the motto already propagated at the start of the 1900s by Dr. William Scholl for a holistic sense of physical wellbeing. Since then the Scholl brand has been synonymous with comfortable shoes and foot care. And thanks to the trendy high-fashion line Scholl Studio this comfort now also comes with lots of style for discerning men and women who attach great importance to style and quality. Design inspirations for Studio Line include influences from Milan designer Diego Dolcini who, alongside his luxury signature line (Scholl by Diego Dolcini), also determines the colours and materials of all the Scholl collections. A key styling element in Autumn/Winter 2009/10 is the material mix of suede and patent leather for shoes, boots and ankle boots with birch wood soles. Designed with minimalist self-evidence the Basic line featuring Bioprint technology ensures a comfortable, natural rolling motion while walking thanks to natural materials like cork and recyclable rubber. Striped and checked ankle boots, booties and shoes with wide necks look very British. Punk influences and authentic Prince of Wales checks make the look perfect. Thick, warm sheepskin5 lined boots inspire us for winter sports. Perfectly matching the street and casual style are sneakers in a leather/patent leather/suede mix. www.scholl.at The forthcoming GDS will be held at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre from 13 - 15 March 2009. 800 exhibitors from 29 countries present 1,870 shoe and bag collections (effective 11.02.09) for Autumn/Winter 2009/2010 as well as trends for the current season. For all activities related to GDS as well as exhibitor contact data and collection descriptions go to: www.gds-online.com Düsseldorf, 11 February 2009 Further Information: press department GDS & GLOBAL SHOES Thomas Kötter Corporate Spokesman t: +49.211.4396.490 f: +49.211.4396.6490 e: [email protected] Margot Dittmann Press Officer p: +49.211.4396.384 t: +49.211.4396.495 e: [email protected] 6