Italian designer Roberto Cavalli has signed a letter of intent with Italian investment fund Clessidra to sell 30 percent of his fashion house.

Fashion is truly a victim of the recession - Christian Lacroix has entered a turbulent period and Véronique Branquinho, the Belgian designer, has put an end to her label's activity.

Loss-making French fashion house Christian Lacroix has filed for creditor protection, hit hard by the global collapse in consumer spending, it said on Thursday 28 May.

There is another new project for the British fashion house. The Paul Smith Project 10: Bag is the result of the designer taking the Flight Bag shape and creating 138 different designs, one for each of the Paul Smith boutiques in Japan.

It isn't exactly the most exciting of vegetables, but the humble cabbage has inspired a budding Japanese lingerie designer and won her the chance to showcase her creations on the world stage.

Experiments on mice have revealed a gene that is linked to early hair loss, a Japanese researcher said Tuesday 26 May, sparking hopes for a treatment to prevent thinning and baldness in humans.

British refinement meets American dynamism. Fond of collaboration (Libération, 1:6 Design, Manchester United…), Paul Smith is starting a new project this summer. The British designer is signing, with Oakley, a collection of sunglasses for his jeans label.

Italian fashion brand Gianfranco Ferre, one of Milan's top designer names, is to create a jewellery collection as part of a deal with jeweller Damiani, the companies said on Tuesday 26 May.

Designer Sabine von Oettingen, who stars in a new documentary about East Berlin fashionistas, says the fantasy world of fashion gave her a sense of freedom while trapped in communist East Germany.

Halston has entrusted its artistic direction to Marios Schwab. The graduate of Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design, owner of his own label since 2005, will head up the the design team, working on items from designer shoes to a line of handbags.

Italian financial police have notified Dolce & Gabbana of steps to recover taxes on what the designer duo described as a "completely abstract" 800 million euros ($1.12 billion).

In Notting Hill, in the windows of 186 Westbourne Grove, a man-sized Eiffel Tower takes pride of place sporting the Union Jack. The reason? To remind people that under an anglicised name hides one of the most Parisian brands in ready-to-wear clothing.

Tunisian fashion designer Larbi Boukamha beamed with pride Saturday 23 May as he sent out his latest creation -- the world's longest pair of trousers -- at a football stadium near Tunis.

Aborigine Gloria Petyarr has become the first Australian artist to design for Hermes, creating a pattern for one of the silk scarves the French fashion house is renowned for.

A new player has stepped into the beachwear game: MK. The men’s swimwear brand has come from the brains of the MacKeene brothers after the Franco-Scottish pair weren’t able to find swim shorts that “combined elegance, style, comfort and speedy drying” on their travels.