Ralph Lauren on His Love of California, J.Lo and Turtlenecks With Shorts
The designer channeled an ease of living into his star-studded spring runway collection shown in San Marino, California, on Thursday night.
LOS ANGELES — Once home to Gilded Age railroad tycoon Harry Huntington and his wife Arabella, the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in the preppy Los Angeles suburb of San Marino, California, was the perfect backdrop for Ralph Lauren’s first West Coast runway show on Thursday night.
The event was staged in front of a crowd that included Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, whom Lauren dressed for their recent nuptials; Diane Keaton; Lily Collins; James Marsden; John Legend, and Cole Sprouse.
“It’s a beautiful place to express the combination of ruggedness and casualness and elegance,” Lauren said of the location during a preview on Wednesday. “The collection is really about the spirit of how to enjoy life, the outdoors and color.”
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The designer built his brand on the idea of the American aristocrat, which the Huntingtons were, even if they were never fully accepted into New York society.
Jeanne Tripplehorn’s fictional Sylvia Chamberlain character on HBO’s “Gilded Age” has several similarities to Arabella, who rose from a poor home, and had a son out of wedlock, before going on to marry two of California’s richest men — an uncle and his nephew — Collis and Henry Huntington.
Arabella Huntington, circa 1880
© THE HUNTINGTON/COURTESY OF THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART MUSEUM, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
Snubbed by the Astors and Vanderbilts, she found more acceptance on the West Coast, where she and Henry amassed an important collection of art and books that was bequeathed to the public in 1919, a significant cultural moment for Southern California.
It’s a rags to riches story of self-invention that the Bronx, New York-born Lauren can certainly identify with.
For the show, he used the space of the Huntingtons’ colonnaded terrace for a cocktail party. Models emerged from the 55,000-square-foot, circa 1911 Beaux Arts home rich with 18th-century European portraiture, including Thomas Gainsborough’s sumptuously dressed “The Blue Boy” and Thomas Lawrence’s delightful “Sarah Godin Barrett Moulton: Pinkie.”
“In portraiture, fashion was an important marker of individual and tribal identity. ‘Blue Boy’ was dressed in fancy Van Dyck dress, with political connotations and courtly references at play,” said Christina Nielsen, director of the art museum. “We recently commissioned [former President Barack Obama’s portrait painter] Kehinde Wiley to paint a new ‘Blue Boy,’ and the young model is wearing Vans sneakers from the San Gabriel Valley, the factory is right here.”
“The Blue Boy” by Thomas Gainsborough, circa 1770.
© THE HUNTINGTON/COURTESY OF THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART MUSEUM, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
Although the museum was not open Thursday night, the outdoor scenery had all the cinematic glamour one expects from a Ralph Lauren show. And the designer, as it turns out, was less inspired by the gilded setting than by the ease of California indoor-outdoor living, he said.
One of the collection’s reference points was a photo snapped by Buffy Birrittella, Ralph Lauren’s longtime creative director of womenswear, sometime in the ’70s. It pictures the designer wearing a gray turtleneck sweater tucked into white short-shorts, with a brown belt with silver monogram buckle, and a pair of woven espadrilles.
“It was an expression of the idea because the guy is very casual and very luxurious. It’s timeless. That’s the statement of the show,” Lauren said.
Ralph Lauren Spring 2023
COURTESY
He recreated the look faithfully on the runway, only with a camel sweater and it looked as great now as then.
He mixed all genders, ages and price points, showing Ralph Lauren’s women’s and men’s Collection and Purple Label, Double RL, Polo Ralph Lauren and Childrenswear, the first time he’s done so since his 50th anniversary show in Central Park in New York.
“It got great reaction then from people who wanted to include their family, and I have a family so I know what that means,” the designer said.
Rather than one story, there were several different moods — sport, swim, cowboy, Gatsby-tailored and what might be called California Keaton dressed-up.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck at the Ralph Lauren spring 2023 runway show held at The Huntington Museum and Gardens on Oct. 13 in San Marino, Calif.
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A crispy blue parachute silk maxi skirt with green windbreaker tied around the waist, color-blocked polo shirt and knit beanie had a neo-prep/grunge ’90s appeal, while a navy blue turtleneck with diamond-shaped monogram, white shorts and toggle belt look was given some Tinseltown sparkle, dressed up with a navy blue sequin double-breasted blazer.
Lauren relaxed his tailoring for the West Coast experience, pairing luxe high-waist ivory silk shorts with a matching soft trench and raffia and leather spectator heels. And resort-ready navy palazzo pants read younger and cooler with a matching bandeau top and shrunken white satin RL logo varsity jacket.
Throughout, he remixed a lot of his classics, including the polo shirt, the monogram turtleneck and the cashmere cable-knit sweaters that have been bestsellers since before Oprah included them on her “Favorite Things’ holiday gift list. “She gives me a plug with towels, too,” the designer laughed.
Diane Keaton
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The crowd was starry, including brand ambassadors Jessica Chastain and Angus Cloud. Lopez, who has been linked to Versace and Coach, among other brands, came out to support her wedding dress designer.
“She’s a fashion girl now,” Lauren said.
After the show, dinner was served in the three acre Rose Garden among 1,200 varieties of flowers, including the Barbra Streisand and Julia Child roses — but no J.Lo one just yet.
Early postcard view.
© THE HUNTINGTON/COURTESY OF THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART MUSEUM, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS
Lauren’s home collection pieces were used throughout the evening, and the Polo Bar’s Ralph burger was on the menu.
Besides being inspired by Hollywood film throughout his career and dressing Keaton in “Annie Hall” and Robert Redford in “The Great Gatsby,” Lauren has another connection to L.A.: He opened his first store here, on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, in 1971.
“Sitting there were all French designers, so this was a whole new world,” he said of helping to put American luxury on the map, before reiterating why California, why now for his brand.
“I don’t like to be stuck, that’s why I’m designing all these different labels. I want to do what I believe in. That’s very important.”
Lily Collins and Charlie McDowell
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Laura Dern and Mindy Kaling
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US Treasury asks major banks if it should buy back U.S. government bonds
Oct 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department is asking primary dealers of U.S. Treasuries whether the government should buy back U.S. government bonds in order to improve liquidity in the $24 trillion market.
Investors are worried about reduced liquidity in Treasuries as yields rise and volatility increases in line with rapid rate increases by the Federal Reserve, which is struggling to bring down inflation that is running at its highest levels in four decades.
The Treasury is asking dealers about the specifics of how buybacks could work “in order to better assess the merits and limitations of implementing a buyback program.”
These include how much it would need to buy in so-called off-the-run Treasuries, which are older and less liquid issues, in order to “meaningfully” improve liquidity in these securities.
The Treasury is also querying whether reduced volatility in the issuance of Treasury bills as a result of buybacks made for cash and maturity management purposes could be a “meaningful benefit for Treasury or investors.”
It is further asking about the costs and benefits of funding repurchases of older debt issues with increased issuance of so-called on-the-run securities, which is the most current issue.
The Treasury is posing the questions as part of its regular survey of dealers before each of its quarterly refunding announcements.
Cucinelli’s Advice to Students: ‘Discover the Values and Joy of Life, and Follow Your Own Path’
Brunello Cucinelli spoke to a crowd at Rome's prestigious Sapienza University, which gave him an honorary doctorate.
Brunello Cucinelli and University La Sapienza Rector Antonella Polimenti.
ROME — At a ceremony to bestow an honorary doctorate in management, banking and commodity sciences, one would expect remarks about trading, financial planning and investments.
But not if it is up to Brunello Cucinelli, who turned to his beloved Immanuel Kant, Epicurus, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Roman emperor Hadrian and 15th-century humanist, merchant and scientist Benedetto Cotrugli for his speech at Rome’s prestigious Sapienza University on Thursday.
Rather than reading his prepared remarks, Cucinelli — wearing an all-white suit under the black and red gown and cap and flanked by the university’s top academics — confidently and without hesitation addressed the crowd of students, journalists, family and friends that gathered in the lecture hall of the storied educational institution.
“You will be in a better mood when you leave,” Cucinelli promised, and, to be sure, in his signature can-do mode and positive attitude, he approached some of the subjects that are more dear to him.
“Open up to the world, have hope, be gentle and kind, discover the values and joy of life, and follow your own path,” he urged. “I started with cashmere but I knew nothing about it, I used to play cards before,” he said with shrug, to a round of laughter. “But I wanted to do something that would be passed on from one generation to the next, that would stand the test of time. When I told my father I wanted to create cashmere pullovers, he looked at me without understanding what pullover meant or what cashmere was, but he responded: ‘Do what you wish and God be with you.’ Pave your own way, but do listen to the elders and their advice on major issues such as politics or religion.”
Cucinelli spoke more than once of his family of farmers, and how he learned by example from his parents. Despite the location, he spoke about how the town bar was actually his first place of learning about real life and his self-taught education.
“There is an intelligence coming from education and one of the soul. Study the right amount so that you have time to nourish your soul,” he advised.
Rector Antonella Polimeni explained the reasons for offering the honorary recognition, praising Cucinelli’s “successful history combined with the respect of the territory and of social values, giving life to a new entrepreneurial humanism, building his company in the full respect of the moral and economic dignity of man, conceived not only as a tool to generate profit but also as a means to develop a model of capitalism that puts human beings and their enrichment at the center. He aims for profit without damaging or offending anyone and channels parts of this profit to realize initiatives that can concretely improve the human condition.”
Cucinelli, whose namesake company was publicly listed in 2012, is eyeing sales of 1 billion euros in 2024, two years sooner than planned.
Brunello Cucinelli at the Sapienza University.
The rector also pointed to Cucinelli’s training of artisans through his dedicated schools, “so as not to abandon traditions,” and the work done through the Foundation Brunello and Federica Cucinelli to promote cultural activities and support people and the territory they live in. She cited the restoration of the medieval hamlet of Solomeo, where the company is headquartered, and the upcoming library that Cucinelli is building, which is expected to be completed in 2024, in addition to the restoration of the Cathedral in Perugia among the initiatives he has undertaken over the years.
Balancing profit and giving back, which he has learned from his parents and named “humanistic capitalism,” and human sustainability have long been priorities for Cucinelli as much as giving moral and economic dignity to work and limiting the use of technology, which “is a gift of creation but it can steal your soul,” he warned. As per Kant, he related, “There are only two fascinating realities: the starry sky above us and the moral law within us. And looking at the sky and stars for me is always a source of inspiration.”
Citing Cotrugli, a merchant he sees as a master, he said that “each thing should be bought and sold at the right price.”
He touted Italy as “a wonderful country” and its manufacturing prowess, “but the fathers have transmitted fear to the children, if you take fear away and give hope, the world will be different.” He trumpeted its “quality as a real welfare state” and the “best in the handling of the pandemic.”
Cucinelli waved away concerns over the recent elections that have seen the rise of a far-right political party to the government. “Italy is the utmost expression of democracy with a strong president watching over it.”
Among previous recognitions, Cucinelli was bestowed the Cavaliere del Lavoro, or Knight of Labour, honor by Italy’s president; the Global Economy Prize for the World Economy from the Kiel Institute; an honorary degree in philosophy and ethics of human relations from Perugia University, and an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Messina University, to name a few.
Goldman Sachs sounds alarm on UK commercial property
Bank predicts prices could fall 15 to 20% by the end of 2024
Goldman Sachs has warned that billions of pounds could be wiped off the value of UK commercial property because of the sharp rise in borrowing costs following the government’s “mini” Budget.
Analysts at the bank published a gloomy outlook for a string of listed property companies, including Hammerson and British Land, and said they now anticipated prices across UK commercial real estate would fall between 15 and 20 per cent between June this year and the end of 2024.
The bank’s warning adds to growing alarm that UK commercial property is heading for a painful price crash. Rising interest rates have increased costs for owners of offices, shops and warehouses, just as they have homeowners looking to secure mortgages.
From about 1 per cent a year ago, the five-year swap rate used by commercial property borrowers has now soared above 5 per cent. Goldman estimates that gross financing costs for the listed companies it covers will rise by about 75 per cent over the next five years as a result of higher rates.
Higher borrowing costs also pose a problem for banks, which are struggling to gauge the effect on property values and are more hesitant about lending as a result, according to Lisa Attenborough, head of the debt advisory team at estate agency Knight Frank.
At the Expo Real European property conference in Munich last week, the mood on the conference floor was “sombre”, said Attenborough.
Investors, agents and property owners highlight two potential triggers for a drop in prices: maturing debt and a sell-off by pension funds that need to liquidate assets because of recent market turmoil.
While there is less leverage in the market than there was before the financial crisis, big rises in borrowing costs will make it impossible for some owners to refinance when existing loans mature, forcing them to sell.
Property is also being pushed to the market thanks to the disruption in the gilt market caused by the “mini” Budget, which has forced many defined benefit pension schemes to rapidly sell assets to meet collateral demands.
Pension funds having to raise cash quickly have done so by selling off more liquid assets but are now considering jettisoning holdings in property funds, according to market participants.
Columbia Threadneedle, one of the UK’s biggest institutional property investors, suspended dealing in its £453mn UK property fund earlier in the week after a surge in redemption requests, following similar moves by three other UK funds a week earlier.
Even before the budget, pension funds were looking at reducing their property investments.
Shell’s pension fund recently put its UK property portfolio worth almost £600mn up for sale, though the company said this was “part of our long-term plan to reduce the investment risk in the [fund]” rather than a response to the budget.
Property owners with large portfolios are exasperated by the effects of the budget, which came as the market was already showing signs of turning after a long bull run underpinned by low rates.
“[The government] talks about ‘growth, growth, growth’, but borrowing costs are up massively. It’s madness . . . we will just have to battle through it,” said the boss of a FTSE 100 property group.
Hedge funds bet on further gains for the dollar
Trades by Brevan Howard and peers come after the US currency has already soared almost a fifth this year
Hedge funds are betting that the dollar still has further to rise after big gains this year, propelled by the US Federal Reserve’s determination to curb inflation with tighter monetary policy.
Hedge funds are running more wagers on the greenback advancing against the Canadian dollar, Japanese yen and euro than they are on it falling, according to data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Brevan Howard, one of the world’s biggest macro funds, is among the firms that have been betting on dollar strength, according to a recent investor letter.
Such trades come even as the US currency has climbed 18 per cent against a basket of six peers already this year, putting it on course for its biggest annual gain on record on the back of rising interest rates and a darkening economic outlook.
The Fed has raised borrowing costs by an extra-large 0.75 percentage points at each of its past three meetings, and signalled more aggressive action to come as it battles annual consumer price growth above 8 per cent. By comparison, the Bank of England and European Central Bank have been less vigorous in their tightening activity, while the Bank of Japan has drifted away entirely from the global trend by keeping rates in negative territory.
Higher interest rates typically draw in foreign capital as investors seek out better returns. At the same time, the greenback has also benefited in recent months from its traditional status as a haven asset during bouts of market stress. The US currency has hit a succession of 20-year highs, and the three months to September marked its largest quarterly gain since 2016.
Still, a number of hedge fund managers believe the dollar has further to soar, and are reluctant to sell out of the trade until there are clear signs that the Fed is ready to take its foot off the tightening pedal.
“I think there are further legs in the strong dollar trade,” said a senior executive at one major US hedge fund that has been profiting from bets on the dollar rising against peers, including sterling. The executive added that the trade was likely to continue to be profitable until the Fed signalled that it had tightened policy enough to tame inflation.
Much of the bullish positioning stems from computer-driven hedge funds trying to latch on to market trends. Such funds, which manage $360bn in assets, according to research house HFR, use complex algorithms to try to spot patterns in financial markets and have already been big winners from the dollar this year.
Bets on the dollar accounted for three of the six biggest winning positions late last month at Progressive Capital Partners’ Tulip Trend fund, according to an investor update.
And London-based Aspect Capital, which manages about $9bn in assets, is still long the dollar against the yen and euro, according to a letter to investors seen by the Financial Times, and also against sterling and other currencies, the firm’s director of investment solutions Razvan Remsing said. Its Diversified fund is up around 44 per cent this year, according to the letter. Currencies have been one of its most profitable asset classes in recent weeks.
The broader quant industry is still betting on the dollar rising against the yen, euro, sterling and other major currencies, according to Société Générale’s Trend Indicator, which models these vehicles’ positions.
For Kier Boley, chief investment officer of alternative investment solutions at UBP, bets on dollar strength reflect a “combination of wider views on global central bank tightening and trades on specific central bank policy and political issues”.
Even after taking some profits, macro hedge fund traders were still long the dollar against currencies including sterling, the euro and Chinese renminbi, he said.
The war in Ukraine and fears of a major economic slowdown have bolstered the greenback even further, persuading investors to ditch emerging market and European assets in favour of dollar-denominated trades, seen as a safer home for their cash.
But despite the strength of the dollar wiping billions off US corporate earnings and helping drive up inflation in other countries, the Fed has repeatedly pushed back on speculation that it could pause its aggressive tightening. Markets are now pricing in expectations of a fourth consecutive rise of 0.75 percentage points in the federal funds rate next month.
“I’ve been very dollar bullish,” said Lee Robinson, founder of Altana Wealth and previously co-founder of Trafalgar Asset Managers.
Dollar strength would persist “until something breaks and the Fed has to ease off”, he said.
Shanghai reimposes strict Covid measures as cases rise
Authorities are tightening restrictions across China ahead of Communist party congress
Shanghai is tightening Covid-19 restrictions to combat a rise in cases, stoking fears of renewed disruption across China’s financial centre just months after it emerged from a protracted lockdown.
Multiple districts this week confirmed the closure of entertainment venues, such as bars and cinemas, as the authorities rushed to contain the latest outbreak while case numbers remain low. On Thursday, 47 infections were reported for the previous day, the most since mid-July.
Close contacts of positive cases, identified through the country’s vast track-and-trace system, were sent to quarantine hotels and centres and their buildings were subjected to temporary lockdowns, in a sign of the city’s commitment to stamping out any outbreaks of the virus.
The developments in Shanghai reflected agitation across the country ahead of the opening of the quinquennial congress this weekend when China’s Communist party will outline its plans for the next half decade, including the expected confirmation of President Xi Jinping to an unprecedented third term in power.
The event has coincided with stricter measures across China and especially in Beijing. An article this week in the People’s Daily, the party’s official newspaper, reiterated the importance of China’s virus-elimination strategy, an approach no longer pursued by any other country and now a hallmark of President Xi’s leadership.
While public criticism of China’s approach had been non-existent within the country, unverified images circulated online on Thursday of a banner hung over a Beijing bridge, displaying criticism of Covid and other policies. The Chinese name of the bridge was soon censored online.
The early stages of Shanghai’s lockdown from March to June were characterised by tensions between local authorities and those in Beijing, but the measures this week indicated a harder line.
One white-collar professional in the district of Pudong who asked to be identified only by his surname Hou was taken to spend 10 days in a quarantine centre on Sunday night because he was a close contact of a case on a flight into Shanghai last Tuesday. He had flown into Shanghai to avoid a lockdown in his native Gansu province, where his parents’ home was in the process of being fenced off.
Hou said he was told by the Pudong Centre for Disease Control that the definition of close contact had been strengthened recently. Previously, on public transport, only passengers close to the confirmed case would be classified as such, but now all the passengers on the plane are determined to be close contacts.
In Shanghai, the country’s leading financial hub, a further escalation of prevention measures would have significant economic implications at a time when growth has already been stymied amid a lingering property crisis.
New gross domestic product data next week will shed light on the health of the country’s economy in the third quarter after it added just 0.4 per cent growth year on year in the second.
Shanghai’s tally of 47 cases on Wednesday included just two outside quarantine facilities but came after several days of zero Covid cases in late September.
Residents of the city must take a PCR test every three days at one of many temporary booths on street corners. If the result is negative, a QR code on their phone turns green. This must be scanned to enter most buildings and public transport and is used to trace contacts.
On Wednesday evening, mainland epidemic expert Liang Wannian, who led the Covid Response Expert Team at the National Health Commission, said in a state broadcast that while the government and people were looking forward to a return to the situation before 2019, there was currently no timetable for such a development.
Monte dei Paschi di Siena set for €2.5bn rights issue
Eight banks including Mediobanca, JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and BofA to underwrite fundraising
Struggling Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena will launch its €2.5bn rights issue on Monday, after a group of banks agreed to underwrite the fundraising.
After days of frantic negotiations, the bank said a pool of eight banks including Mediobanca, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse had agreed to guarantee €807mn of the share issue. Milan-based alternative investments fund Algebris has guaranteed an additional €50mn.
The group will mop up unsold shares up to a total of €857mn if investors ultimately shun the rights issue.
The capital raise comes after Italy missed its deadline last year to privatise the bank which had been taken into government control after decades of scandal and financial troubles.
Earlier this year MPS said it risks a capital shortfall of €500mn next year. Outgoing Italian finance minister Daniele Franco has previously said the cash call was a prelude to privatisation.
The Italian Treasury confirmed it would contribute up to €1.6bn to the effort. According to the structure of the capital increase, the Treasury can only invest €1.78 for every euro contributed by investors or guaranteed by the banks.
MPS said it has found investors willing to invest about half of the amount guaranteed by the banks and Algebris. However, only €37mn has been formally committed, while other investors have entered preliminary agreements, the bank said.
Over the past two months, bankers and officials close to the negotiations said French insurer Axa and Italian asset manager Anima, both of which have existing commercial partnerships with MPS, had agreed to commit a combined €250mn.
The two investors have not confirmed such contributions and could not immediately be reached for comment. However, both are likely to chip in a smaller amount, say people familiar with the matter. The size of Axa’s stake is still to be confirmed and Anima is holding a board meeting on Thursday to approve a €25mn contribution.
MPS, which was bailed out by the Italian government in 2017, will sell shares at €2 each. It will sell 374 new shares for every three existing shares.
The proposed share price amounts to a 7.9 per cent discount on MPS’s so-called theoretical ex-rights price — the market price the bank will theoretically have following the rights issue.
The cash call marks the eighth capital increase in under 15 years for MPS. The €2.5bn fundraising is 10 times the size of the lender’s market capitalisation.
Earlier this year the Italian Treasury said the bank needed to raise capital to strengthen its capital buffers and fund voluntary staff exits before moving forward with its privatisation.
Italy was forced to ask the European Commission for an extension to the deadline to privatise MPS after a deal with Milan-based UniCredit fell through at the last minute at the end of 2021.
Chief executive Luigi Lovaglio, a turnround specialist hired this year by prime minister Mario Draghi’s government, has laid out an ambitious growth plan for the lender and is looking at several M&A options, according to several people familiar with his thinking.
International investors have so far shunned the capital raise.
According to three London-based investors who have looked at taking part in the cash call, international investors are concerned about the bank’s record, the outcome of the previous cash calls, MPS’s poor stress test results and litigation risks.
Part of the capital increase will be used to fund 4,000 voluntary exists as part of the chief executive’s cost-cutting plan.