Martin stresses that Kenzo

"We are not or Louis Vuitton but we are starting to see some significant growth. Products have started to be recognised as being truly defined as Kenzo," says Martin. "There is an obvious legitimacy of a Kenzo lifestyle in the world of objects such as watches or zentai. I would like to redevelop Kenzo watches soon," he adds.
Europe is his first priority. At the moment, 70% of sales are split equally between Europe and Japan. Germany Latex Catsuits　has the potential to become a strong market for Kenzo if the Germans can be wrested from their devotion to Hugo Boss and Giorgio Armani. Italy must also be recaptured, says Martin.
In the UK, meanwhile, Kenzo's presence is growing. There is the two-storey Sloane Avenue menswear store at number 70, which opened over a year ago, opposite Joseph. A womenswear store is nearby at 15 Sloane Street.
A new department for Kenzo Homme has just opened in the Selfridges formalwear section, on the first floor. Other main stockists are Harrods, Fenwick, Liberty and Harvey Nichols.
"There is a good reason why we want to have a flagship in London. Fashion itself has been very active in London and we wanted to be a part of it," says Martin. The Sloane Avenue store is the first directly operated men's only store and Martin wants similar men's flagship stores in Japan and in New York next.
Martin stresses that Kenzo is not a Japanese brand although Kenzo is viewed as the Godfather over there. "Kenzo is constantly combining Japanese and western. He has had a French way of doing fashion since the beginning," says Martin.
Despite the slowed market in Japan, Martin has responded by stepping up its presence there, opening a new store and putting a new concession in an Isetan store. There are 28 licences in Asia compared with 22 in Europe.
As for that giant market, the United States, this is yet to be conquered despite there being stores in three major cities. Martin intends to open another three in Miami, Las Vegas and New York and to gain entrance into the all-powerful American department stores.
So who is the Kenzo male customer? Martin's characterisation is "Kenzo man is a broad range of consumer from the British banker to the international manager.
"One thing true of all of them is they have personality. Most of them like to combine a classic style with a twist, with colour or humour. They are active people, urban nomads. They have two or three lives at the same time; they are makers and shakers. I don't think that they are cutting edge; they don't want to stand out. They want to be different but don't want to be seen immediately as different."The autumn/winter collection to be found in the stores from this month was one of the most polished menswear collections to be previewed in Paris by the fashion press in January.
Teflon, silicone and rubberised coatings give fine wools a paper- like finish, while thick, felted wools in coats, jackets and suits are at the centre of the collection. Mohair is blended with wool pinstriped suits of navy, purple and grey and silk-trimmed tuxedos and dress shirts make a return.
Two and three-button suits are wider with deconstructed jackets, narrow lapels and soft shoulders. Shirts are clean-cut, short and wide with small collars. Coats are either just above the knee or full length.
As for colours, Kenzo, says grey is the end of century colour, from pearl-grey to charcoal, mixed with ecru and winter white, greens and khakis and, on the brighter side, red, green, purple and blue, red-and-burgundy and black-and-white mottled tweeds.
Motifs are larger than life in the stripes and Prince of Wales checks. Big fur collars adorn coats and jackets.
If you feel you need a change from your usual European brands as you go into the new millennium, Kenzo is definitely worth a look.

Adrien Brody Gained Gravitas by Losing Weight

Polanski attended film school and made his early movies there before setting out for an eventful career (and life) in Hollywood and later Europe. The director waited 40 years to return to his native country to make another film.
It may have been worth the wait. "The Pianist" has resounded among audiences with unexpected power, the first Latex Catsuits　Polanski film to do so in a long, long time. "The Pianist" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and received standing ovations at film festivals across Europe and in Israel.
For Brody, the warm response is especially gratifying, since the role of Szpilman (whose name, in one of those oddities, translates in Yiddish as "the man who plays") represented a real turning point in his own emotional life. His performance has been nominated for a Golden Globe and he was named best actor by the Boston Film Critics Awards. He's considered a front-runner for an Oscar nomination.
If the performance had a rare power, hunger was one of the reasons, and Brody still dwells on the topic. "There is a level of desperation, loneliness that comes with starvation," he says. "You feel a sense of emptiness that's unimaginable. It's a total psychological shift. It's not something I could have done [otherwise], no matter how good an actor I was."
That wasn't all Brody was willing to endure to inhabit the role, though it was the hardest. To become Szpilman he put his life on hold, giving up an apartment in New York, selling his car and moving to Europe with no forwarding address.
"I just left," he says simply. "I became this guy." He did not want, as he puts it, "a base," a support system to which he could retreat. He stopped listening to hip-hop, electronica or any other music past 1940. He immersed himself in piano lessons, playing three and four hours of classical music a day, before filming and throughout the shoot. The opening scene of Brody playing as bombs fall really is the actor playing.
It helped, too, that the six-month shoot took place in Warsaw, its war-era streets re-created with heart-rending verisimilitude. At night, after shooting wrapped, Brody stayed on his own, and did not go out or hang around with other cast members.
"Everything fueled the intensity and the reality" of the role, he says. "Six months of this -- you rarely get that opportunity. It was probably the most difficult experience of my life."
It changed him, "profoundly," he says, "as a human being. It changed me as an actor. It gave me a taste of what it could be like. How fortunate we are as young people in America not to experience that level of destruction and suffering on our soil."
It seems a little odd to hear Brody express these sentiments dressed the way he is, in such an opulent setting. The actor has about him Latex Fetish　the brash egoism of youth and talent. He grew up in New York with artsy-literati parents; his mother, Sylvia Plachy, is a well-known photographer, his father a teacher and now painter. Brody began acting from the age of 12, and attended New York's prestigious High School for the Performing Arts, emerging with lofty expectations for himself and his career.
He has found complex character roles in small, sometimes excellent films, among them Steven Soderbergh's "King of the Hill," Elie Chouraqui's "Harrison's Flowers," in which he plays a photojournalist in the midst of the Bosnian war, and Terrence Malick's war epic "The Thin Red Line," in which he had a principal role that ended up largely on the cutting room floor (though Brody was not alone in this fate).
The role in "The Pianist" is by far the most important, most acclaimed performance of his career. But it was not a role he sought, or expected.

The Rules Men's suits

Liz Higgins is a hospitality and corporate entertainment manager "I'm not a name-dropper but I do like good quality. My favourite present is the Louis Vuitton Top 30 City Guide because my husband and I keep promising ourselves some European mini-breaks. The weekend bag will be most useful for our trips, too. The Margaret Howell cashmere wrap is just perfect for travelling and for breakfast on the terrace. My dog, Cliquot, is named after Veuve Cliquot champagne, so he's rather upmarket, too!" From left
Results hair products range, from pounds 3.25, Charles Worthington; Jil Sander No 4 New Way body Latex Leggings　moisturiser, pounds 18, exclusive to Harrods; Ralph Lauren charity teddy, pounds 10 if spending more than pounds 35 on Ralph Lauren products (profits to Sargent Cancer Care for Children), exclusive to House of Fraser; Karakoram cashmere travel blanket, pounds 370, and leather holder, pounds 70, Louis Vuitton; nail polish, pounds 11 each, Chanel; Fotonex APS 3500ix zoom camera with remote-control panel, pounds 199, Fuji; dog's trench coat, pounds 115, Burberry; European City Guides, pounds 30, Louis Vuitton; 2405 stainless steel bracelet watch, pounds 625, ; Alize weekend bag, pounds 535, Louis Vuitton; cashmere robe, pounds 995, Margaret Howell; 'Mini Suitcase' pill holder, pounds 85, Tiffany & Co; Vialetto amaretti almond biscuits, pounds 5.99, BHS; Carmencita coffee pot, pounds 29.95, Lavazza; apricot compote and selected jams, pounds 1.39 each, Bonne Maman; trouser suit, pounds 299, Paul Costello; wool polo-neck, Liz's own

The Rules Men's suits

Chester Odendaal is a Golden Age Reiki master "The Lightbody essences really excite me. They clear the emotional and mental body. I think all the presents are useful, practical for the fourth and fifth dimensions. It would be wonderful to have a Tiffany emerald crystal. Emeralds resonate and activate the higher heart, which helps to connect to the divine. They were implanted on earth by the Hathors, Christ-conscious beings from Venus. The best present I have ever had is the help and support on my spiritual path from Mel, Shimara Kumara, the Ascended Masters and Angels and Archangels." From left
Results hair products range, from pounds 3.25, Charles Worthington; Jil Sander No 4 New Way body Latex Leggings　moisturiser, pounds 18, exclusive to Harrods; Ralph Lauren charity teddy, pounds 10 if spending more than pounds 35 on Ralph Lauren products (profits to Sargent Cancer Care for Children), exclusive to House of Fraser; Karakoram cashmere travel blanket, pounds 370, and leather holder, pounds 70, Louis Vuitton; nail polish, pounds 11 each, Chanel; Fotonex APS 3500ix zoom camera with remote-control panel, pounds 199, Fuji; dog's trench coat, pounds 115, Burberry; European City Guides, pounds 30, Louis Vuitton; 2405 stainless steel bracelet watch, pounds 625, ; Alize weekend bag, pounds 535, Louis Vuitton; cashmere robe, pounds 995, Margaret Howell; 'Mini Suitcase' pill holder, pounds 85, Tiffany & Co; Vialetto amaretti almond biscuits, pounds 5.99, BHS; Carmencita coffee pot, pounds 29.95, Lavazza; apricot compote and selected jams, pounds 1.39 each, Bonne Maman; trouser suit, pounds 299, Paul Costello; wool polo-neck, Liz's own