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      LSU’s Kim Mulkey Courts Controversy in Style

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      Inside the coach’s winning fashion playbook.The smog of a Washington Post exposé may have been hanging over Kim Mulkey’s head during the L.S.U. game on Saturday afternoon, but the highest paid coach in women’s collegiate basketball wasn’t going to hide. How could you tell?Well, in part because at the start of the N.C.A.A. tournament, she had given a news conference threatening a lawsuit about the article, thus calling to attention to it. In part because there she was, running up and down the sidelines and screaming her head off. And it part because … goodness, what was she wearing?A gleaming pantsuit covered in a jumble of Op Art sequined squiggles, as if Big Bird had met Liberace and they’d teamed up for “Project Runway.”Kim Mulkey, resplendent in sequins at the L.S.U. Sweet Sixteen game on March 30.Gregory Fisher/USA Today, via ReutersEven in the context of basketball, a sport in which players and coaches understood the power of personal branding through clothes long before almost any other athletes, Ms. Mulkey stands out. More than perhaps anyone else in the league — possibly in all of women’s basketball — she has made her image a talking point, a reflection of her own larger-than-life personality and a tool to draw attention to her sport. She is basketball’s avatar of the Trumpian era, offering a new version of The Mulkey Show at every game and costuming herself for the moment. As her team meets the University of Iowa again in the Elite Eight, brand Mulkey will most likely be raising the stakes once more.It would be wrong to call her clothes “fashion.” They have little to do with trends or silhouette. But love what she wears or hate it, love how she behaves or hate it, her sometimes ridiculous, always eye-catching outfits are, like her winning record, abrasive personality, problematic comments about Covid-19 and reported homophobia, impossible to ignore.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      New York’s Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival Brought Out Spring’s Best Style

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      New York City welcomed a hint of spring, with a bit of warm sun that turned this year’s Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival into a rousing success.Fifth Avenue was filled with magnificent hat wearers, sauntering up and down 5th Avenue with charm and excitement that rivaled children who might be scouring parks for Easter egg hunts. A recurring cast of milliners and costumed spectators trading nods with the more casual participants — who found creative ways to create their own grand impressions — was a particular delight to see.The colorful flow of her hat (center) was as lovely as her help with a friend’s outfit.Some parade goers’s outfits harkened back to another age.It’s not Fifth Avenue without a perfectly placed shawl.A profile to show off that stunning splash of red hair.Don’t lose your hat! A sea of Easter fashion in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.Soft paisley and a basket for those found Easter eggs.It was unclear whose job it was to protect the treats.A pup tired out from all the excitement.Another splendid example that proves leopard print really does go with everything.A fascinator, but as glasses!Spotted: a fancy wicker bunny in the crowd.This spectrum of violet was almost royal.Baking up the goods in an array of flavors.Spring anyone? This flower on white ensemble was the perfect introduction to the season.What mysteries lay inside this egg?Outfits that summon the look of a certain chocolatier.A fan of the carousel showed up.Easter in every shade.White gloves on one person, black on the other brought a touch of synergy to these two.Pointy bunny ears in front, lace and floral in back.It was easy to find little bursts of joy throughout the parade.More than just coordinating, couples were leveling up to synchronization.The way these gloves matched the handbag was a serious consideration.Some brought messages of their own to the parade.Wondering if the puppet may need its own hat.A constellation of beige.This golden look had faces every which way. More

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      Biden, Obama and Clinton Gather, Tieless, for Campaign Fund-Raiser

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      Did Presidents Biden, Obama and Clinton, appearing together at a fund-raiser in open-neck shirts, look casual or ‘a little disheveled’? Simultaneously historic and perhaps a big nothing, the shot was snapped on Thursday in New York City when President Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton gathered, before a Democratic fund-raiser, for the taping of “SmartLess,” a podcast hosted by the comedians Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.With his beard and rumpled corduroy pants, Mr. Bateman was clearly the odd man out in a group of radiantly healthy alphas dressed in crisp blazers or suits. As one social media quipster put it, Mr. Bateman, the “Arrested Development” star who is soon to appear in a limited series with Jude Law, looked as if he was celebrating his release from the hoosegow. The other dudes were on hand to help cut the cake.It was not Mr. Bateman, though, who generated online buzz with his attire. It was those three presidents appearing without ties. (Messrs. Arnett and Hayes also skipped the neckwear, and as it happened, the three presidents remained without ties straight through the evening’s event.) Were we once again at the precipice, as some commentators seemed to suggest? Was civilization nearing its end? Or were we yet again being reminded of the inexorable march from casual Friday to casual everyday, and to a world in which chief executives dress like field hands and the only people who can be relied on to sport a suit and tie outside a courtroom are bodyguards and limo chauffeurs?Pity the poor tie. Pundits are forever writing its obit. Back in 2022, the doomsayers piled on when, at a G7 summit in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, world leaders including Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson “declared the end of the necktie,” according to Women’s Wear Daily, by posing for a group photo in suits and open-neck shirts.World leaders at a G7 summit in Germany in 2022.Susan Walsh/Associated PressWomen’s Wear Daily, citing the pandemic and the corresponding boom in athleisure and active wear, noted that the formal suit — with that sadly diminished phallic accessory, the necktie — “no longer yields the intellect and vim it once did.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Has the Luxury E-Commerce Bubble Burst?

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      After implosions by Farfetch and MatchesFashion — and with other blowouts possible — the future for online fashion retailers looks uncertain.Rosh Mahtani, the founder of the jewelry brand Alighieri, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her company this year. Her handmade gold-plated pieces, inspired by Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” made her a winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design and a mainstay of luxury e-commerce vendors.During Paris Fashion Week last month, buyers came to her showroom to select stock for the upcoming season, including MatchesFashion, a leading multibrand fashion retailer that is responsible for about half a million pounds, or $630,000, of Alighieri’s projected revenues. But there was a problem.“They had owed me 70,000 pounds [about $88,000] in unpaid invoices since October and had been asking for discounts on those bills,” Ms. Mahtani said last week. It made her uneasy, even if such bargaining was increasingly commonplace for independent brands like hers. Still, she said, she wasn’t quaking in her boots.“The team made a selection, and we talked about a capsule collection for the summer,” she said. “I don’t think any of us had a sense of what would come next.”Days later, MatchesFashion was put into administration (the British term for bankruptcy). Its owner, Frasers Group, which bought the company in December for about 52 million pounds, or $66 million, now said the operation was not commercially viable. Overnight, almost half of the staff was fired from a company that had been valued at $1 billion when it was sold to Apax Partners in 2017. Today, 200 brands are owed money and cannot access unsold inventory, and a furious customer base rages online about accessing orders or making returns.Rosh Mahtani, founder of cult jewelry label Alighieri, was owed substantial sums by MatchesFashion when the retailer was put into administration earlier this month.via Alighieri JewelryWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dries Van Noten Announces Retirement

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      The Belgian designer, known for his glorious use of color and prints, remained independent for years. Now he’s going out on his own terms.In a shock to the fashion world, Dries Van Noten announced that he was stepping down as creative director of the brand that bears his name. His fall 2024 men’s show, scheduled to take place in Paris in June, will be his last.“My dream was to have a voice in fashion,” Mr. Van Noten, 65, wrote in a letter sent to editors. “That dream came true. Now, I want to shift my focus to all the things I never had time for.”Mr. Van Noten was an original member of the Antwerp Six, the group of Belgian designers who changed fashion when they arrived in Paris in the early 1980s. In his statement, he wrote that he had been “preparing for this moment for a while, and I feel it’s time to leave room for a new generation of talents to bring their vision to the brand.”In an industry in which founders often cling to their positions well into their 80s and rarely engage in succession planning, Mr. Van Noten’s move stands out as a rare example of a designer ceding power by his own choice — and at the height of his skills. His last women’s show, held in late February in Paris, was an emotional, generous paean to style over fashion and the creativity of dressing oneself.But the consideration, originality, grace and attention to detail that marked his clothes, and that inspired a 2014 solo exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and a 2017 documentary about his work, have also marked his approach to his business.Looks from Mr. Van Noten’s last women’s show in Paris in February.Photographs by Imaxtree, via Dries Van Noten (far left); Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Celine’s Fall Collection Recalls the 1960s

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      It’s a genuine trend. Just look at Hedi Slimane’s Celine.A full week after the end of the fashion season, Hedi Slimane of Celine released his fall women’s wear collection — as a video. But while he may have been going his own way with timing and format, in one way he was right on trend: Rather than offering up yet another cool-girl-in-the-city collection (trench coats, jeans, blazers, vintage slip dresses), he swerved in an entirely different direction.It was one that focused on the three Ps — pearls, pussy bows and polish — of midcentury chic. The word “pert” also came to mind. Politesse, too. Oh, and pouting. Celine is getting in on the beauty game.In what was framed as an ode to the Celine founder, Céline Vipiana, as well as the photographer Richard Avedon, Mr. Slimane offered up a tight collection of late 1960s silhouettes: extremely short on the bottom (just brushing the rear), structured on the top, and defined overall by an ethos rooted not in rebellion but in the jolie madame. It was less night crawler than day bruncher. Little skirt suits with bright buttons alternated with jewel-encrusted balloon minidresses; neat peacoats with oversize bow blouses beneath carefully cropped jackets.Celine, fall 2024CelineCelineCelineCelineCelineCelineThere was not a pair of pants to be seen, though there were a lot of boots, exaggerated spitfire caps, shades and, always, pearls, in the form of button earrings or Babe Paley strands. Indeed, in aesthetic terms at least, Mr. Slimane and Ryan Murphy of “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans” seem to be on the same page in embracing the return of highly conscious, coordinated outfits — in embracing the idea of the outfit itself, retrieving it from the dustbin of the passé.There’s nothing casual or just-rolled-out-of-bed about these clothes. Nothing “Oh, this old thing?” Rather, they speak to the importance of dressing for the occasion, when every day is the occasion.The message was somewhat undermined by — buy? — the loving close-ups of the new lipsticks, as well as by Mr. Slimane’s insistence on using only very young, very skinny models. (In this, he is still unfortunately stuck in a rut.) But it’s still a striking message, and one that has been dormant for a long time.Ever since casual Fridays were introduced way back when, we’ve been on a slippery slope to the end of even an unspoken dress code. These clothes — this trend, which was also the biggest takeaway of the recent season — suggests there is value in moving in the other direction, in the idea of putting oneself together.In the end, it’s a form of self-care. Can’t everyone use a bit of that right about now? More

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      Best Oscars Red Carpet Looks: Emma Stone, Colman Domingo and More

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      At the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, the red carpet showed not only its true color but also its reputation as a vehicle for elegant, over-the-top and even political fashion.Though there were bright moments — Cynthia Erivo’s dress was a “Wicked” shade of green, Taylor Zakhar Perez wore powder blue Prada — many of the gowns and tuxedos that graced the carpet were black. Some stars’ ensembles harked back to attire they wore at prior Oscars ceremonies. Marlee Matlin said that her shimmering lilac Rodarte gown nodded to the dress she wore when she won the best actress award in 1987, and Lupita Nyong’o went with a pale bluish-silver Armani dress inspired by the color of the gown she wore when she won the best supporting actress award in 2014.Sparkling brooches were among the most visible accessories on both men and women, as were tiny red pins calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. The Israel-Hamas war also influenced action off the carpet, with protests taking place as celebrities were arriving at the ceremony.Of all the fashion on display at the Oscars, these 19 looks stood out as doing the most.Billie Eilish: Most Young Old Hollywood!A power skirt suit.Nina Westervelt for The New York TimesThe Gen Z singer, a songwriter for “Barbie,” dialed up the glamour with flowing hair, a houndstooth Chanel bag and a tweed skirt suit with an Artists4Ceasefire pin on the jacket.Lupita Nyong’o: Most Icy Cool!Shining like a diamond.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh’s Oscar Dresses Raise Some Eyebrows

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      Emily Blunt showed up to the Academy Awards, arm in arm with her husband, the actor John Krasinski, while her dress rejected the premise: Her straps refused to touch her arms. The neckline floated, as if it had been lifted from her Oscar-nominated shoulders by invisible fingers.Those fingers, in theory, would have belonged to Daniel Roseberry, the creative director of French fashion house Schiaparelli. The dress initially appeared on the runway of Schiaparelli’s spring-summer 2024 couture show, in a collection inspired by space, astrology and the heavens. (One model carried a robot baby.)Around Ms. Blunt’s pelvis, the gown — already covered in nude sequins — featured a trompe l’œil outline of men’s boxer shorts in silver sequins. Fashion commentators on E! kept referring to the champagne dress as “sporty,” given the tank-top straps.Then came Florence Pugh, who starred alongside Ms. Blunt in “Oppenheimer.” Her straps similarly stood up straight, jutting off her shoulders, from a gown made by the young Milanese brand Del Core (although her hovering straps weren’t quite as sculpturally rigid as those on Ms. Blunt’s dress).Designer Daniel Del Core said in September, when the gown debuted on the runway, that he was “fascinated by architectural structures, just as much as I am by natural forms and their relations.” The rest of Ms. Pugh’s dress was reminiscent of a sea organism, with its foamy blue-gray color, curling reef-like bodice and glassy embellishments that resembled water drops.Your eyes do not deceive you, Florence Pugh’s top is supposed to look like it might fall off her shoulders.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesThe red carpet of the Academy Awards tends to be pretty traditional — think long trains, bejeweled strapless gowns and other romantic silhouettes associated with Old Hollywood glamour. So it was jolting to see such an unusual design element on Ms. Blunt, and even more surprising to see it replicated on Ms. Pugh.There were a few other bold necklines on Sunday night. Best actress nominee Sandra Hüller’s off-shoulder sleeves were villainously sharp, and fellow nominee Lily Gladstone’s strapless neckline was trimmed with quilt made in collaboration by Gucci and Joe Big Mountain of Ironhouse Quillwork. For Ms. Blunt and Ms. Pugh, their floating necklines injected a little subversion into their predictably shiny looks.Not everyone liked the straps, though. The gowns were polarizing on social media. But they stood out. The word that came to mind, quite literally, was elevating. More