Francois Henri Pinault

• Bottega Veneta has commissioned artist Nancy Lorenz to create a series of decorative boxes, which will go on display at Milan's Salone del Mobile. The boxes cost €5,000, or $6,429 at current exchange. [Style.com]
• Want a piece from Dolce & Gabbana's couture collection? Break out the stationery — all communication for Alta Moda is done with handwritten notes. [Telegraph]
• JCPenney has tapped jewelry designers Lana Bramlette, Kenneth Jay Lane, and Kara Ross, among others, to participate in its new jewelry counter called Bijoux Bar. [Racked]
• Marie Claire Mexico editor in chief Adriadne Grant has a transparent tip to success: "If you want the job, you have to be really clear of what you want," she said. "A lot of people come to me and say they really want to work at Marie Claire. OK, why?" [Daily Front Row]


More fashion news you need to know, right here.

In just a few months' time, the French luxury conglomerate now known as PPR plans to change its name to Kering. The switch is meant to reflect a major shift in the way the business operates, and in how it wants to be perceived.

Since it began selling off its retail assets, like the French department store chain Printemps, in 2006, PPR has drilled its focus down to the luxury and sportswear brands it owns. The most noticeable thing about the new name, which was announced at a press conference on Friday, is that it sounds like the word "caring" — and that's not a coincidence. In a statement, the company said the name is meant to express "our company culture of taking care of our brands, people, stakeholders, and the environment."

It also comes with a logo, a stylized owl with a heart-shaped face, that's meant to telegraph wisdom and nurturing. A new slogan, "Empowering Imagination," helps to extend that sentiment. After all, the company's brands — like Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent, and Alexander McQueen — have grown because of investment, monetary and otherwise, from the executives at PPR.

And in the video, which shows a dramatic visual journey from the designer's studio to the runway and then to the soccer pitch, a strong male echoes the new theme once more. "Imagination needs wings," he says. "Imagination needs caring to become a reality."

Watch ideas take flight in the video above.

PPR just bought a new little brother for Gucci. After months of speculation, Christopher Kane's eponymous label is now a member of PPR's stable of luxury brands. On Monday, the French conglomerate purchased a 51 percent stake in the company and revealed plans to help it grow internationally.

Some of those plans include adding another ready-to-wear line to the Kane umbrella and opening the brand's first freestanding store, which will probably set up shop in London next year.

"Christopher Kane is already established as a luxury label and has a tremendous intrinsic growth potential," said PPR CEO Francois-Henri Pinault in a statement. "We thus have great ambitions for the brand and will enable it to benefit from our expertise and know-how while providing the space for it to further develop its own creative identity."

Though PPR now owns a controlling share of Kane's label, Kane told WWD that the company "understands and appreciates our creative independence." That said, PPR has not ruled on appointing a new CEO for the brand at a later date. Currently, Kane's sister Tammy runs the business side of the company.

Both sides agree that the primary objective for Christopher Kane is expansion.

"Our long-term ambition for the company is obviously to grow it into a globally recognized brand," Kane said. "We do not plan to make any immediate or major changes to the way that the business is currently managed. All growth will be gradual and organic."

Rumors that Kane's label would join PPR began shortly after he left his position as the creative director of Versace's secondary brand, Versus. At the time, Balenciaga, another PPR brand, had just announced that its longtime creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière, planned to leave the company. Some believed Kane would replace Ghesquière, but that job eventually went to Alexander Wang.

PPR's executive team is having discussions about backing a new brand, but it's not known yet who the lucky designer to join the fashion conglomerate will be.

"We have been talking about investing in a new luxury name," said PPR CEO Francois-Henri Pinault in an interview with the Financial Times. "We have no more young brands since Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney have all passed the €100 million mark (just over $132 million at current exchange)."

When PPR makes an acquisition, Pinault said, it usually tries to break into an area where it's underrepresented. For example, the firm recently purchased Qeelin, a Hong Kong jewelry operation. Before that, Boucheron was the only jewelry unit in PPR's luxury portfolio. Pinault also made it clear that PPR "will not buy a promising brand and try to move it into another sector."

And though there has been speculation that PPR has been in talks with Christopher Kane, the firm's method of buying new brands would suggest that his label might not be the right fit. Kane's product is certainly different from other PPR brands. But as far as his business model is concerned, Kane's brand is a smaller, younger version of what PPR already has in its stable. Christopher Kane, Stella McCartney, and Alexander McQueen all offer high-end women's clothing — even around the same price point — and all three brands speak to a modern British design sensibility. If PPR did invest in Kane, it would be at odds with how Pinault has described his brand-buying methods.

Still, this hasn't stopped industry observers from honing in on Kane as a possible contender for PPR's investment. He's been a free agent since he left his position as the creative director of Versace's Versus line to focus on his own brand last month. Kane was even mentioned as a possible replacement for Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga.

Francois-Henri Pinault — CEO of the company that owns Balenciaga — says his newest employee Alexander Wang is exactly what the fashion house needed in a new creative director.

In a Q-and-A with CBS reporter Rebecca Jarvis, Pinault said a combination of Wang's youth, worldview, and talent for design made him the perfect candidate to replace Nicolas Ghesquière.

"Alexander Wang is young and he has a very universal culture," Pinault said. "He has a very strong talent not only when it comes to accessible product, but his talent could also be adapted for couture at Balenciaga. It will be a big challenge for him. I like that he's young and based in New York, so we will have more exposure of the brand worldwide. Alexander has this wonderful contemporary brand under his own name and this has nothing to do with Balenciaga. We will not change anything in the positioning. We have spent a lot of time determining where the brand is and where we want to stay in terms of being very modern and avant-garde, but still being influenced by the street. Nicolas was one of the best at this."

Wang will no doubt have big shoes to fill, but Pinault said his Asian heritage "was not a criteria for recruitment at all. It was really [a matter of] let's find the right talent, the right skills, the right profile for the reality of the brand. . . We plan to continue to build on what has been built by Nicolas. We needed someone who was capable of coping with that."