I find it a little odd that those in attendance of the IHT Conference in have labeled Africa as the next hub for fashion considering they're talking about an entire continent. While I get what they're trying to say (that it'll be more profitable to start trying to sell better fashions there over the coming years), shouldn't that be the case with any location that's trying to, and succeeding in some cases, to better itself?

Donning wooden, leopard-print earrings, Suzy Menkes, the legendary fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, spoke to hundreds at the Rome Cavalieri, a decadent hotel that sits atop the city’s highest hill. Yet instead of discussing the merits of hand-stitching and dyed pelts, Menkes referred to a solemn passage from Il Gattopardo, an Italian novel about Lampedusa, a troubled island on the Mediterranean Sea, where war-weary African migrants have been flocking since the Arab Spring. Sitting in front of her were roughly 600 designers and critics including a number of fashion greats—Vivienne Westwood, Manolo Blahnik, and Jean Paul Gaultier—who gathered in a dimly lit ballroom to discuss two seemingly disparate topics at the IHT’s 12th annual Luxury Conference: luxury fashion and Africa. Read More