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Dressed for Succession? Kim Jong Un, Daughter Fuel Speculation with Matching Coats

This picture taken on February 25, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 26, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attending the military parade to commemorate the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on February 25, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 26, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attending the military parade to commemorate the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
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Dressed for Succession? Kim Jong Un, Daughter Fuel Speculation with Matching Coats

This picture taken on February 25, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 26, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attending the military parade to commemorate the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on February 25, 2026 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 26, 2026 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attending the military parade to commemorate the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea at Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un donned matching jackets with his daughter at a military parade, state media photos showed Thursday, stoking speculation she is being groomed as heir.

Kim's teenage daughter Ju Ae featured prominently in state photos published to mark the closing stages of the ruling Workers' Party congress.

The duo donned matching leather jackets as they stood side-by-side to watch over a vast military procession.

Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju, also appeared alongside the duo in a similar attire, AFP reported.

The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades, and a cult of personality surrounding their "Paektu bloodline" dominates daily life in the isolated country.

Ju Ae has long been seen as the next in line, a perception stoked by a string of recent high-profile outings.

Analyst Lim Eul-chul said the jackets - a staple of leader Kim's wardrobe, especially during key public appearances - were more than a fashion statement.

"In North Korea's political symbolism, that look carries weight -- it's tied to the image of the leader as the ultimate guarantor of national security and future prosperity.

"So when that same symbolic attire is put on his young daughter, it's hard to see it as accidental."

Other photos from the parade showed Ju Ae striding a red carpet next to her father as he received salutes from North Korea's military top brass.

Ju Ae has been clearly "designated as a successor", South Korea's national intelligence service said earlier this month.

Korean affairs expert Leif-Eric Easley said Ju Ae's latest appearance demonstrated her elevated status.

"But she still appears in her capacity as the leader's daughter.

"She is probably not yet old enough to participate in the congress with an official party title."

Ju Ae was publicly introduced to the world in 2022 when she accompanied her father to an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

Before then, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who visited the North in 2013.

Pyongyang has never confirmed Ju Ae's exact age, but analysts believe she is in her early teens.

Ju Ae has drawn attention for her taste in luxury fashion, appearing in Gucci sunglasses and wearing a Cartier watch.

At other times, she has mirrored her father's distinctive style, wearing matching leather jackets and dark glasses.

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Fashion

LVMH Sales Edge Higher Despite Fashion Slide

FILE PHOTO: A Louis Vuitton logo is seen outside a store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, August 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Louis Vuitton logo is seen outside a store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, August 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo
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LVMH Sales Edge Higher Despite Fashion Slide

FILE PHOTO: A Louis Vuitton logo is seen outside a store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, August 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Louis Vuitton logo is seen outside a store on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, August 3, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/File Photo

LVMH, the world's leading luxury group, said Monday its sales edged higher in the third quarter despite a slowdown in China hitting its fashion and leather goods segment.

The group, whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine and drinks maker Hennessy, took in 18.5 billion euros ($20.6 billion) in the three months to the end of September, beating the consensus of analysts polled by Factset financial data firm.

The 1.2 percent sales gain beat the marginal 0.1 percent increase registered in the second quarter. The group's sales slumped six percent in the first three months of the year.

"Backed by its diverse range of businesses, LVMH remained very solid in an uncertain geopolitical and economic environment," AFP quoted the company as saying in a statement.

But the fashion and leather goods segment saw sales drop five percent excluding currency effects and changes to the business as it was "affected in the third quarter by the slowdown in demand in China."

Louis Vuitton saw its public image take a hit in China after pursuing a local tea company for copying its logo. While it won the case, it provoked a wave of indignation on social media and a call to boycott the brand.

The drop for fashion and leather goods follows the segment posting its first sales gain in two years in the second quarter.

But LVMH's selective retailing division, which includes the Sephora perfume and cosmetics retail chain, posted an eight percent sales increase, while the watches and jewelry and wines and spirits segments both managed six percent gains.

LVMH's share price has dropped 40 percent since the start of the year, with the group losing its place as the leading company on the Paris CAC 40 index in terms of capitalization to L'Oreal.

Fashion

Saint Laurent Says Designer Anthony Vaccarello to Leave

(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
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Saint Laurent Says Designer Anthony Vaccarello to Leave

(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

Belgian fashion designer Anthony Vaccarello will leave his post as chief designer at Saint Laurent after a decade in charge, the French house's parent company Kering announced Friday.

"Anthony Vaccarello has played a key role in Saint Laurent's development, helping to strengthen its identity and influence across the worlds of fashion and culture," Kering said in a statement, without giving any reason for Vaccarello's departure.

The designer had hinted at his potential exit at his final show for Saint Laurent on September 29.

Saint Laurent is the last major Kering brand to switch creative director as a ⁠luxury ⁠industry slowdown prompted designer changes last year at Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta.

"The focus of the new designer will be in currently under-represented product categories, such as women's daywear and menswear, in high-end leather goods, and less penetrated regions such as China/Asia," Barclays analysts said in a note.

Industry speculation points to Chemena Kamali, currently creative director at Chloe and previously womenswear design director at Saint Laurent, as Vaccarello's likely successor.
Saint Laurent's gross revenues fell by 9% and 6% in 2024 and 2025, before largely stabilizing this year, according to Kering.

Fashion

Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa Watch Chanel’s Creative Revival at Paris Fashion Week

Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
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Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa Watch Chanel’s Creative Revival at Paris Fashion Week

Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

Chanel’s artistic director Matthieu Blazy sent the fashion house's suits stretching towards sportswear and evening dresses drifting through clouds, with Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa and Pedro Pascal in the audience as he unveiled his spring-summer 2027 collection.

The Monday night show underscored that a year into his creative revival, Blazy has made the house feel newly unpredictable.

The former Bottega Veneta designer succeeded Virginie Viard, who took over after Karl Lagerfeld ’s death in 2019. Viard’s tenure brought record sales but Blazy’s contribution has been to restore a sense that Chanel’s familiar ingredients can produce something unexpected.

That renewal is visible in his treatment of the house’s symbols: tweed can stretch; formal jackets sit against bare skin; quilted bags turn slouchy.

The appeal lies in giving established clients something recognizable, and newer ones something to reinterpret.

Beneath illuminated birds at the Grand Palais, Blazy's collection traced Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s passage from Edwardian constraint towards the freedom she sought in dress.

“It’s about the women within a woman,” Blazy wrote in his notes.

Across 83 looks, that meant expanding the possibilities of a Chanel wardrobe: knits that skimmed the body, masculine tailoring, airy eveningwear and sharply abbreviated skirts.

Raw-edged waistcoats and narrow skirt suits reworked men’s formal clothes. A pearl-embroidered corset top paired with black trousers brought the tension between restriction and ease into focus.

Older fashions lingered in ruffled collars, peplums and traces of corset boning.

The strongest development was Chanel’s new “smocked tweed,” designed to stretch and move with something of athleticwear’s ease. It was a useful proposition for an expensive, familiar garment: preserve its character while improving its possibilities.

Competing patterns and frothy tutus sometimes tipped towards costume. Dres

ses made from layered, printed silk were more persuasive, turning cloud formations and changing light into shifting color, The Associated Press reported.

Model Dyanira Hurbuscher opened and closed the collection — carrying Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 handbag, borrowed from the famed archives.

That element neatly framed the collection’s ambition: continuity with room for change — a balance Blazy’s revitalization of Chanel rests on.

He has made Chanel's heritage feel available for play, backed by serious work in the ateliers.

Lipa wore a sleeveless skirt suit with pink heels. Kidman attended with her daughter Faith Margaret.