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Paul Costelloe Opens 40-year-old London Fashion Week with Classic Designs

A model presents a creation at the Paul Costelloe catwalk show during London Fashion Week in London, Britain, February 16, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
A model presents a creation at the Paul Costelloe catwalk show during London Fashion Week in London, Britain, February 16, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
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Paul Costelloe Opens 40-year-old London Fashion Week with Classic Designs

A model presents a creation at the Paul Costelloe catwalk show during London Fashion Week in London, Britain, February 16, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
A model presents a creation at the Paul Costelloe catwalk show during London Fashion Week in London, Britain, February 16, 2024. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

London Fashion Week kicked off on Friday with Irish designer Paul Costelloe championing classic looks and bringing a little bit of nostalgia to the catwalk as the showcase event celebrates its 40th birthday.
The 78-year-old designer, who could not attend the show due to illness, presented a mix of whites, dark greys and plenty of tweeds in his "Once upon a Time" autumn/winter 2024 collection, described as "Where Limerick meets Downtown New York".
Models in white jackets and floaty skirts opened the show. A selection of plaid looks followed, with the color palette then turning darker for tailored tweed skirt suits, belted coats and short feminine dresses, Reuters reported.
For the evening, there were patterned frocks with puffy sleeves.
"This collection expresses my view that classic design still has its place in high fashion," Costelloe said in show notes.
"I have added a personal moment of nostalgia by adding a print based on the street where I once lived. It was a glorious moment to dream and live."
Costelloe's team also shared a note from the designer explaining his absence due to a virus and wishing London Fashion Week a "happy 40th birthday".
This year marks 40 years since the British Fashion Council (BFC) held its first London Fashion Week, which is one of the four big catwalk fixtures alongside New York, Milan and Paris and is best known for its emerging talent and avant-garde trends.
On Thursday night, several London landmarks were lit up green for the occasion and other celebrations are planned for the year.
"Of course, 40 is kind of a coming of age, a maturity and when we look back, I think we reflect on the incredible creativity that has come through London, and London Fashion Week as a platform," BFC Chief Executive Caroline Rush told Reuters.
"It continues to be about youth culture, subcultures, creativity, innovation and really leading where the rest of the fashion industry will no doubt follow."
Costelloe's show was one of more than 40 catwalk presentations this London Fashion Week, which runs until February 20, with the likes of Burberry, Bora Aksu and Mark Fast also on the calendar.

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Fashion

Jeweler's Eye-popping Watch is Love Letter to Albania

The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
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Jeweler's Eye-popping Watch is Love Letter to Albania

The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP
The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November. ADNAN BECI / AFP

Albanian jeweler Pirro Ruco labored day and night for five years to capture the essence of his country in a spectacular luxury watch.
Now the timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November, AFP said.
Set under a sapphire dome, the hours are marked by 12 golden folk dancers -- each in different regional dress -- set on Murano glass, the minute and hour hands adorned with eagle talons in homage to Albania's national symbol.
Ruco's rollercoaster rise mirrors that of Albania, from poverty and isolation as the most closed communist regime in Europe, to rollicking capitalism.
Along the way the jeweler overcame jealousy, the secret police and being sent into internal exile to rise to the pinnacle of his profession.
It all began for Pirro -- as he is known in his homeland -- in 1985 when he was asked to make a medal in red and gold bearing the head of Enver Hoxha, the paranoid dictator who ruled the small Balkan nation with an iron fist for more than four decades.
"That saved me," he told AFP from his workshop tucked away in an alley in the capital Tirana.
The medals were awarded to the regime's most loyal supporters and later caught the eye of Hoxha's wife.
The turn of fortune saw thousands more produced and worn by communist cadres across Albania.
"All the congressional delegates had to wear it. I made a name for myself with it," he said. It also saved him from the textile mills where he had been sent because his family had been deemed "rebellious".
'Priceless'
All this, however, was nearly derailed by an anonymous letter sent to authorities accusing Pirro of working with foreign agents.
He was questioned by intelligence agents and his workshop raided.
Down but not out, he was able to bounce back after crafting a ring bearing the image of the late husband of a member of the communist politburo and in July 1990 won a prize for a piece featuring Albania's 15th-century national hero Skanderberg.
But the very next day history intervened. The regime began to crumble and the collapse of Albania's communist rule in 1991 was followed by years of violent tumult as the country transitioned to a free-market economy.
Amid the ups and downs, Pirro stayed busy designing pieces for officials and celebrities.
During a trip to Basel in Switzerland in 2016, something new caught his eye.
"I wanted to make a watch. It was my new dream," he told AFP.
For the next five years, Pirro said he focused on "doing something special, Albanian, and at the same time completely new and never before seen in the watch industry."
The new timepiece which he calls Primordial Passion was designed in collaboration with the Swiss watchmaker Agenhor.
"I never wanted to make jewelry, but art," the jeweler said.
"Sculptures, images of the country, pieces of culture... This watch is the culmination of all that, of this love for Albania," he added.
"It is more than just a watch. It combines the rich heritage of ancient Albanian culture with the notion of chronometry."
Pirro refuses to divulge the methods used to craft the watch, but remains hopeful the painstaking details will be recognized by the judges at the Grand Prix in Geneva.
Several collectors have already contacted him about buying the timepiece, he said, though it would be difficult to part with his creation.
"I set a price because I had to. But for me, it is priceless."