1 Granary Newsletter

Kicking off the second edition of the 1 Granary Design Awards and our newly-formed Design Council with une petite soirée during fashion week. Last week, we announced that the second 1 Granary Design Awards will be shepherded by a council of 23 respected in-house designers and consultants. On the Sunday of Paris Fashion Week, we brought together this illustrious group to celebrate the news over dinner, and share a drink with our wider designer network.

The couturiers, editors and photographers who built modern fashion – in their own words, and their own mess. By Eleanora Dal Bosco In the Italian biography of Miuccia Prada, sadly never translated to English, a very long paragraph from the most intimate and revealing chapter of the book describes a typical meal at Miuccia’s.

As profits turned to losses, VooStore took a radical step: ceasing online sales altogether and focusing solely on its Berlin shop. Could this be a turning point? Image via @jakewkburt By Orla Brennan Last month, VooStore did something many in the luxury retail world would consider business suicide. It went offline. The Berlin multi-brand retailer closed its e-commerce operation entirely, leaving customers with only one way to shop: by visiting its physical store in Kreuzberg.

Because this series relies on close viewing, MUBI is offering our student readers 60 days free: mubi.com/1granary. And don’t worry, if you’ve already graduated, you can still start with one month free, see here. There is a specific pleasure in knowing, more or less, what lies ahead.

Fashion has a pretty unusual relationship with crediting, particularly when you compare it with other industries. In entertainment, it would be heresy to end a film or TV episode without the names of every crew member appearing on screen first (thanks, unionisation). Yet, at fashion week, that’s pretty much what happens at every show.

Oh, the endless creative director changes… While we’re pretty informed, every now and then we stumble: ‘Wait, who’s at Balenciaga now? Where did Alessandro Michele go?’ Most creative director lists we found online are either unnecessarily complex or they’re rather outdated. So, here’s a topline, regularly updated list of who’s a creative director right now and who preceded them, separated by city, to keep you in tune. 50 brands: 26 showing in Paris, 18 in Milan, 3 in London and 3 in New York.

Somewhere along the way, a collective perception emerged that working in fashion meant being a designer, an editor, a stylist. As houses like Dior and Chanel began to invite press into their ateliers – spotlighting their couturiers and artisans – the proximity prestige of such specialist roles became somewhat more visible. But roles like working in a mill, a dyehouse, or on a factory floor were still largely considered to be, for lack of a better phrase, grunt work.

Eugene Rabkin is harsh on the fashion industry, but only because he loves it. Trading a Wall St. job for a career in fashion writing 20 years ago, his magazine StyleZeitgeist – now an Instagram, Substack and podcast – has been a place for independent thought and criticism on brands, designers and wider culture ever since. The need for such a space, as we know all too well at 1 Granary, has never been more vital. As commerciality has come to define fashion, the critic’s role has greatly diminished.

How do you teach the codes of a widely-known fashion house without falling into imitation? For a seven-month industry project with Maison Valentino, students of Accademia Costume & Moda were invited to tackle this question head on. The brief?

By Wonne Scrayen In need of some mentoring, institutional support or cold hard cash? 2026 may be melting away, but there are still some great opportunities worth applying for before the year is out. Following on from our list at the beginning of 2026, we’ve found the deadlines that haven’t yet passed, as well as a couple prizes that weren’t included the first time round. Summer’s over, time to lock in. The Woolmark Prize has proven foundational in fashion history.