In the last decade, Chanel has continued to grow, introducing Allure perfume in 1996, a sports collection, a watch line and a fine jewelry collection sold in 200 Chanel boutiques and in-store shops.
With Charles James, however, Weinstein and Chapman have a chance to tap into the growing and profitable allure of red-carpet fashion at a time when the designer's name is attached to the biggest fashion party of the year.
But now Amsterdam's international allure and growing fashion industry have created a pocket cosmopolitan enough to allow even the more outrageous designs of Rick Owens, Henrik Vibskov and Martin Margiela to find favour with the young graphic design and public relations sets.
With poverty rates escalating, and, according to farmers, the government spending most of its funds on fighting the Taliban rather than helping local people, the allure of growing poppies is only growing stronger.
"A large element of Tibet's historical allure grew precisely out of its isolation, that it was untouched by the modern world and did not welcome incursions," Orville Schell, author of "Virtual Tibet," a book about the enduring Western fascination with Tibet, wrote in an e-mail message.
