John Galliano to Stand Trial in June
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: John Galliano will stand trial on June 22 on charges of verbally abusing three people with anti-Semitic and racist slurs, according to a Paris court.

The criminal trial to determine what happened in February and October at a Paris café where the three say the 50-year-old accosted them will last a day, the court said. Galliano, who did not attend the hearing, has said he was provoked.

"The question is to know who said what at what moment," Galliano lawyer Aurelien Hamelle said before the hearing.

The Gibraltar-born designer's behaviour prompted a swift departure from the 65-year-old Paris fashion house, which also owns Galliano's namesake label. Galliano was fired less than a week after being arrested when a drunken rant led a couple to call police to a café in the fashionable third arrondissement, when a third person came forward to say she had been insulted by the designer and a video of a slurring Galliano was posted on the website of The Sun newspaper.

Galliano, who filed defamation claims against the couple in February, added to his legal turmoil last week, when he filed a criminal claim alleging his former lawyer Stephane Zerbib embezzled 2.8 million euros (£2.5 million) from Galliano's company, Cheyenne Freedom. » | Thursday, May 12, 2011

Sarah Burton, the Royal Wedding Dress Designer Who Will Avoid the Limelight
THE GUARDIAN: McQueen's successor said designing Kate Middleton's dress had been the 'experience of a lifetime', but Sarah Burton is unlikely to try to cash in on her newfound fame

The long-rumoured yet never-quite-confirmed designer of Kate Middleton's wedding dress, Sarah Burton, took over as creative director of the Alexander McQueen label in May 2010, following its founder's suicide in February of that year. » | Imogen Fox | Saturday, April 30, 2011

LA TIMES PHOTOGALLERY: Kate’s royal wedding dress: After weeks of speculation that at times verged on the absurd, Kate Middleton emerged in a wedding gown by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. The wedding gown was classic-looking, in silk gazar with long, intricate Chantilly lace sleeves and a V-shaped neckline, and it represents the grandest British fashion gesture the young royal could have made. » | Jerome Adamstein | Sunday, May 01, 2011

Alexander McQueen Hanged Himself After Taking Drugs
THE GUARDIAN: Inquest records suicide verdict and finds fashion designer killed himself while balance of mind was disturbed

The fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who was struggling with depression and the death of his mother, hanged himself earlier this year after taking cocaine, sleeping pills and tranquillisers, an inquest heard today.

Recording a verdict of suicide, the Westminster coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, said: "It's such a pity for a man who, from a modest start, climbed to the top of his profession only to die in such tragedy."

Knapman concluded that the 40-year-old designer, whose full name was Lee Alexander McQueen, "killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed". >>> Sam Jones | Wednesday, April 28, 2010

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Turkey: Islamic Fashion Designer Sued for Islamic Name
TURKISH DAILY NEWS: With the slogan "Covering is beautiful," a conservative Turkish fashion designer aims to shape the country's newly emerging "Islamic fashion" despite harsh criticism from conservative and liberal Muslims alike.

Tekbir Giyim, a company owned by designer Mustafa Karaduman, manufactures clothes and headscarves that are appropriate according to conservative Islamic standards, but that also look stylish.

The products are presented by elegant models, who, on other occasions, wear bikinis and elegant underwear rather than long skirts. The company's Web site, which is available in Turkish, Arabic and English, happily declares that they export to "five continents" and to more than a dozen countries.

Recently, however, Karaduman and his company have become a source of controversy and have received criticism from both the secular and Islamic camps of Turkish society.

Secularist commentators in the media have accused him of contributing to the "Islamization" of society by presenting the conservative Islamic dress code as something modern.

When Karaduman declared proudly that he has three wives and many children, "which all share the same house," he only deepened the controversy. Islamic Fashion Designer Sued for Islamic Name >>> | May 6, 2008

Tekbir Giyim

THE GUARDIAN:
Turkey's fashion battleground: In a militantly secular country, clothing is at the centre of friction over westernization >>> By Ian Traynor | June 2, 2006

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)