LIZ CUTS FORECAST/2 WAL-MART SEES APPAREL ...LIZ CUTS FORECAST/2 WAL-MART SEES APPAREL BOOST/2...

LIZ CUTS FORECAST/2 WAL-MART SEES APPAREL BOOST/2Women’s Wear Daily • The Retailers’ Daily Newspaper • May 14, 2008 • $2.00

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Fiesta WearThe resort season just keeps getting bigger, and nothing

illustrated that like the Christian Dior collection John

Galliano showed on Monday. Inspired by Millicent

Rogers, Gloria Guinness and Acapulco, the fl amboyant,

citrus-colored styles included off-the-shoulder peasant

tops, like this dramatic one, sashed over a full skirt and

worn with a big hat and assertive jewelry à la Rogers.

For more on the presentation, see pages 4 and 5.

WWDWEDNESDAYSportswear

See Barneys, Page 6

Finding the Right Fit: Barneys’ Socol Quits, No Clear SuccessorBy David Moin

One of the plum jobs in American retailing has just opened up — but

it’s rife with challenges.Howard Socol, chairman, president

and chief executive officer of Barneys New York, on Tuesday confirmed recent speculation and said he will retire from the specialty chain at the end of June. A search firm will be hired “in short order” to find a replacement, David Jackson, ceo of Barneys owner Istithmar, told WWD.

However, with Socol’s decision to resign coming sooner than expected, finding a successor seems a long way off.

WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 20082

WWDWEDNESDAYSportswear

FASHIONChristian Dior’s resort show at Guastavino’s in Manhattan was a major offensive at a wretched moment for consumerism in the U.S.

GENERALHoward Socol has resigned as chairman, president and ceo of Barneys New York after seven years at the helm of the prestigious retailer.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted higher fi rst-quarter sales and profi ts and said its apparel business is set to kick into high gear with warm spring weather.

The earthquake that struck southwest China caused moderate damage in Chengdu’s retail areas, but is bound to test consumer confi dence.

Strength in South America, Eastern Europe and China offset weakness in France as Carrefour posted a 10.2 percent fi rst-quarter sales gain.

Retail sales at specialty stores were up 0.7 percent to $19.02 billion in April, but fell 0.1 percent to $16.97 billion at department stores.

MAINSTREAM: Buyers at Moda Manhattan and FAME said they were waiting longer to place orders and then only buying what they loved.

WEST: Kate Spade is courting Los Angeles shoppers for the fi rst time with its own stores, part of an ambitious retail rollout this year.

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● BIG TIME: Louis Vuitton plans to christen its largest store yet — in Tokyo’s burgeoning Ginza district. A Vuitton spokes-woman in Paris confi rmed a report in Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic Journal) saying Louis Vuitton Japan Group would open a boutique occupying the fi rst 10 fl oors of a new 12-story building to be completed in 2010 in Sukiyabashi, across the street from Hermès.

● ANTICOUNTERFEITING EDUCATION: A new public service campaign aimed at educating New Yorkers about the human cost of purchasing counterfeit items was unveiled Tuesday at the Harper’s Bazaar annual Anticounterfeiting Summit. Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler said the goal is to make locals aware of the harm that counterfeiting causes, such as supporting child labor and taking away tax dol-lars from the city. The posters will be displayed throughout Manhattan, and predominantly in high-traffic tourist locations such as Times Square.

● WIPO ELECTS NEW CHIEF: Australian lawyer Francis Gurry was elected Tuesday to head the World Intellectual Property Organization, which sets the rules that oversee copyrights, patents and trademarks. Gurry, currently WIPO deputy director-general, secured the director-general post from a field of 15 candidates. He said a key challenge WIPO faces is integration of the intellectual property system. “We have a territorial intellectual property system, but we have global economic markets and global use of technologies,” he said. “We have to face all those challenges, trying to adjust the systems while retaining sufficient flexibility at the na-tional level to enable countries to meet their own national priorities.” Gurry is slated to take the post Oct. 1 from Kamil Idris of Sudan after the agency’s ruling assembly ratifies his appointment in September.

In Brief

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Liz Sees Red in First Qtr.By Whitney Beckett

Liz Claiborne Inc. chief ex-ecutive officer William L.

McComb’s tale of two cities anal-ogy continues to haunt him.

On Tuesday the company post-ed a fi rst-quarter loss of $31 mil-lion, or 33 cents a diluted share, down from profi ts of $16.2 mil-lion in the fi rst quarter of 2007. The bottom line was hurt by $44 million in restructuring costs.

The results exhibited the same story for the beleaguered vendor: direct brand sales grew 28 percent to $610 million, while partnered brand sales slid 14 percent to $501 million.

Facing what McComb called “a very light second quarter,” the vendor lowered its 2008 adjusted earnings per share guidance to a range of $1.40 to $1.60 from a previous range of $1.50 to $1.70.

“Today, on an apples-to-apples basis, you saw an uptick, and we hit what analysts had been ex-pecting,” McComb told WWD. “But the second quarter is always a tough quarter, and this quarter will be tougher than normal.”

Sales for the quarter in-creased about 5 percent to $1.12 billion from $1.07 billion.

Juicy Couture continued its growth streak with revenues in-creasing 58 percent to $140 mil-lion. Lucky Brand Jeans sales rose 21 percent to $110 million, Kate Spade sales climbed 44 percent to $28 million. Helped by the strength of the euro, Mexx revenues grew 20 percent to $342 million, though McComb said, “Mexx is underperforming the market overall” and “our ex-ecution has been poor.”

But this time around, the tale of two cities story included a twist, as even the partnered brands developed haves and have-nots. The company pointed to Kensie, DKNY Jeans, Liz & Co. and Monet as growth leaders, and the Liz Claiborne brand, Claiborne men’s and Kohl’s Villager business as leading losses.

“Department stores are pro-moting heavily, conserving their

open to buy and managing their inventories carefully,” Dave McTague, executive vice presi-dent of partnered brands, said. “The fall of the partnered brands environment will continue to be tough, especially on our declin-ing brands. We are carefully watching our exposure to order cancellations and markdowns….While we won’t claim success in 2008, with careful execution, we are on course for signifi cantly improved results in 2009.”

McTague added there are plans to improve all three of the worst performing brands for spring 2009. Isaac Mizrahi will relaunch the fl agship Liz Claiborne brand, John Bartlett will do the same for Claiborne men’s, and Villager will be dis-continued and replaced by Dana Buchman, which Claiborne has licensed exclusively to Kohl’s.

Claiborne also has signifi cant sourcing changes on the horizon, and McComb said an announce-ment should be forthcoming in the next month. The vendor has already moved some of its sourc-ing out of China into Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, and is considering Jordan and Egypt.

“I have not been happy with the degree to which sourc-ing has been integrated in the brands and the degree to which we drive our competitive advan-tage,” McComb said. “We will be

taking a substantive approach to integrating sourcing with design, merchandising, and merchan-dise planning and allocation.”

Analyst Jennifer Black, of the fi rm that bears her name, thinks the revisions are realistic. “Unless we go into a depression, this could be a turnaround story,” Black said. “The big question is if this is a 2009 story or a 2010 story.”

Black said she was encouraged by Juicy’s “extraordinary growth and potential” (even proposing Juicy could open special stores for its new intimates line), Kate Spade’s prime segment given the current economic situation, and Lucky’s plan to add more fashion denim and tops. On the partnered brands side, Black said, “I’m dying to see the Isaac Mizrahi line. In the meantime I have no expectations for the Liz brand.”

But Brad Stephens, a retail analyst for Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc., said he was wary about the store rollout plan for Lucky, which entails 20 to 25 full-priced stores and 15 to 20 outlets this year, after the brand’s stores have experienced negative comps. He was also concerned that the strategy for Kate Spade of opening 12 outlets to six full-priced stores could hurt the brand image. Plus, Mexx also continues to underperform.

Claiborne’s stock closed Tuesday at $18.75, up 38 cents.

By Evan Clark

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted higher first-quar-ter earnings and sales and said its apparel

business is ready to “kick into high gear” with warmer spring weather.

Earnings rose 6.9 percent for the quarter to $3.02 billion, or 76 cents a diluted share, from $2.83 billion, or 68 cents, a year ago. Revenues for the three months ended April 30 rose 10.3 percent to $95.3 billion from $86.41 billion.

Comparable-store sales at U.S. Wal-Mart stores rose 2.7 percent, the best showing in two years, thanks to increases in both traffi c and the average purchase size.

But Wal-Mart might be an anomaly in these tough economic times. Macy’s Inc., J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Kohl’s Corp. and Nordstrom Inc. are all expected to report this week that the weakened consumer led them to lower earnings or losses last quarter.

“Apparel is already recovering and it’s being driven by the very successful introduction late last year of our Express for Less initiative and our emphasis on price points of $10 or less,” said Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and chief ex-ecutive offi cer of the Wal-Mart division.

The company’s Express for Less program fo-cuses on licensed merchandise, such as T-shirts with slogans.

“We are making progress in apparel and with

help from the weather, this business unit and our seasonal business should kick into high gear,” said Castro-Wright.

This month Wal-Mart is rolling out Ocean Pacifi c apparel as an exclusive and is emphasiz-ing both branding and price.

The launch is being supported by a print, radio and online marketing blitz featuring Kristin Cavallari, of “Laguna Beach” fame, and rocker Pete Wentz, among others. An OP wide-neck jer-sey T-shirt for juniors was priced at 97 cents on the chain’s Web site Tuesday.

“Their apparel business is clearly on the mend and it’s an improving trend,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a New Canaan, Conn.-based consultancy.

So far, Wal-Mart’s pricing message seems to be lin-ing up neatly with consumers’ economic wariness.

“Customers everywhere are concerned about the rising energy costs, food infl ation, home values and a number of other factors tied to the global economy,” said Wal-Mart president and chief exec-utive offi cer H. Lee Scott Jr. “Wal-Mart customers value our price leadership more than ever, espe-cially as they try to stretch their money further.”

For the second quarter, Wal-Mart expects U.S. comp sales to be fl at to up 2 percent and earnings of between 78 and 81 cents a share. Profi ts could come in below analyst expectations, which Yahoo Finance placed at 81 cents. Last year, second-quarter earnings totaled 72 cents a share.

Wal-Mart Earnings Rise, Bullish on Apparel

Juicy Couture’s retail business is doing well, and added stores like the Beverly Hills fl agship in 2007.

WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008 3

By Sharon Edelson

Macy’s Inc. is betting on the fast-growing Phoenix market and on Las Vegas, which has been hard-hit by the economic slowdown.

The retailer said Tuesday it will unveil a 120,000-square-foot unit next April at SanTan Village in Gilbert, Ariz. In fall 2010, a 120,000-square-foot unit will open at Estrella Falls in Goodyear, Ariz., and a 150,000-square-foot two-level store is to open at CityNorth in the Northeast Valley of Phoenix.

By the end of 2010, Macy’s plans to operate 11 stores in the Phoenix-Scottsdale metropolitan area. The company said it is fol-lowing the population, which is moving from Scottsdale to the north and southwest.

In addition, a 180,000-square-foot store at the Shops at Summerlin Centre in west Las Vegas is scheduled to open in fall 2009. The General Growth Properties project, an open-air regional center, is rising near the new western portion of the Las Vegas belt-

way. Macy’s two-level store will offer apparel and accessories for men, women and children, and merchandise for the home.

“West Las Vegas is one of the country’s fastest-growing suburban mar-kets, and we look forward to expanding the merchandise and service in this market,” said Jeff Gennette, chairman and chief executive offi cer of Macy’s West, the division responsible for the Arizona and Las Vegas mar-kets. The new store will give Macy’s fi ve units in the Las Vegas area.

“This is a diffi cult period right now, but we expect the [Las Vegas] economy to bounce back at some point,” a Macy’s spokesman said. “This is growth for the future.”

In Arizona, SanTan Village, a 3 million-square-foot mixed-use project, will have 1.2 million square feet of regional shopping space with Dillard’s Inc. and 130 specialty shops. Estrella Falls has re-ceived a commitment from Dillard’s, but the lease has yet to be signed. Both projects are being developed by Westcor.

“From the perspective of Estrella Falls, Macy’s validates our long-term vision of developing a regional destination in a highly underserved market,” said Garrett Newland, vice president of de-velopment for Westcor.

The Related Cos. and Thomas J. Klutznick Co.’s CityNorth will have 1.25 million square feet of retail space, including anchors Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.

“This [Macy’s] gives us the third leg of the triangle,” said Webber Hudson, executive vice president of Related Urban Development, a unit of Related Cos.

Each of the Phoenix-area Macy’s stores will have a design suited for open-air lifestyle centers with new “main street” entrance con-fi gurations and an emphasis on natural lighting.

By Kathleen E. McLaughlin

BEIJING — The massive earthquake that struck southwestern China on Monday left only moderate damage in the retail areas of Chengdu — the larg-est city near the quake’s epicenter — cutting power and leaving most stores closed. But economists said the quake and its human toll will test consumer confidence both locally and nationwide.

Less than 24 hours after China’s largest quake in decades, retail shops in the commercial heart of Chengdu reported little physical damage to buildings. Still, telephone communications were spotty and electricity remained out in several parts of the city. Thousands of residents opted to huddle in the rain to avoid entering buildings for fear of aftershocks and falling debris, according to local reports and China’s state-run media. In most shopping areas, only restaurants and supermar-kets were open for business, observers said.

Economists predicted the overall economic impact of the quake, which killed at least 12,000 people, will be limited to the immediate region surrounding Sichuan province, a relatively re-mote area accounting for just 2.5 percent of China’s total manufacturing industry, according to a Merrill Lynch report distributed Tuesday. Still, some warned the quake could have signifi -cant psychological repercussions for a country that is already in a somber mood thanks to the controversy surrounding the Beijing Olympics and a string of recent misfortunes, including freak snowstorms, uprisings in Tibet and April’s high-speed train wreck. Many Chinese, somewhat su-perstitiously and justifi ably, are hailing 2008 as an unlucky year.

The quake’s effect on consumer confi dence will be long-lasting and reverberate throughout China, said Zhang Ming, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

“It is especially hard for industries like manu-facturing, the service industry and tourism,” said Zhang. “It’s diffi cult for people to work and function with the same confi dence as before. It’s going to take a long time for people to get over the crisis period.”

But Merrill Lynch in its research note predicted the quake would have a limited impact on the Chinese econ-omy as a whole. China’s re-cord-paced infl ation, which was up 8.5 percent in April, was more affected by the freak spring snowstorms that ground logistics to a halt in the Pearl River Delta for several weeks.

“The earthquake should have a much smaller impact on China’s economy than the snowstorm [that] happened earlier this year,” wrote Lu Ting, Merrill Lynch economist. “The earthquake affected less area in China, and the disaster itself has a short time span.”

Still, life in Chengdu, which was largely spared in terms of

structural damage, is hardly normal. A power outage forced mall Xiwu, in the heart of Chengdu, to shut-ter its doors Tuesday, according to a clerk at a Louis Vuitton boutique there. The same mall houses other luxury shops like Dior and Versace. At Ito Yokado, a Japanese shopping mall that houses Jack & Jones and Vero Moda, businesses were open but customer traffi c was extremely slow, a clerk told WWD before the tele-phone line went dead. The quake cracked the glass in one of the windows of Emporio Armani’s store in nearby Chongqing but didn’t cause other damage or injuries, an Armani spokesman said.

Balbina Wong, deputy chairman and chief ex-ecutive of fashion distribution company ImagineX Group, said that she’s been monitoring the news and keeping tabs on her staff at the Maison Mode department store in Chengdu.

“There has been some diffi culty in communi-cating. We can’t reach them, but they have been getting through to us through our Beijing offi ce via telephone and e-mail. The whole thing is tragic. [Maison Mode] is already closed, I don’t know for how long,” she said, adding her offi ce has started a relief fund to help people in the area.

Chengdu is one of China’s booming “second-tier” cities, where new wealth and a rising middle class have created thriving retail markets. Four years ago Intel built a test and assembly plant in the city, spurring much of the region’s economic de-velopment. The company led a high-tech boom in Chengdu, previously a primary development zone for China’s aerospace and defense industries.

While the Chengdu region and Sichuan prov-ince at large are home to some textile and ap-parel manufactures, the bulk of those activities are concentrated in the Guangdong province and the Pearl River Delta. Still, before the quake, it looked like an increasing number of businesses were eyeing the Sichuan region. There’s been re-cent speculation that rising labor and raw materi-als costs in southern China are pushing companies to Sichuan and other parts of the interior west.

— With contributions from Constance Haisma-Kwok, Hong Kong

By Whitney Beckett

Sun Capital Securities Group LLC is shuttering Hong Kong-based sourcing operation Kellwood Trading Ltd. The vendor is in talks

with Li & Fung Ltd. to consolidate and outsource its manufacturing.“We are in discussions with Li & Fung to provide sourcing ex-

pertise for our Kellwood Global Asia organization,” a Kellwood Co. spokeswoman said. “Kellwood Global Asia provides sourcing services to certain Kellwood divisions. It is anticipated that most of Kellwood Global Asia associates will join the Li & Fung organization.”

Sources said Kellwood chief operating offi cer W. Lee Capps 3rd is in Asia meeting with Kellwood Trading’s employees, and could potentially head the new sourcing operation. Sun, which acquired Kellwood for $762 million three months ago, saw potential in Kellwood to be profi table if the sourcing could be made more ef-fi cient, even if sales held fl at.

Li & Fung boasts one of the most effi cient sourcing models in the industry, and has gained a reputation as a low-cost operator that can make a profi table business from moderate brands on which other companies lost money.

Sun has been busy making changes since it took over Kellwood in February, including shutting underperforming brands like O Oscar, Liz Claiborne brand suits and dresses, and its moderate dress busi-ness. Additionally, although Sun has traditionally kept on the man-agement of the companies it acquires, it has hired Russell Reynolds Associates Inc. to fi nd a replacement for Kellwood chairman, chief executive offi cer and president Robert C. Skinner Jr., and has let go several top executives.

Macy’s Heads West For Latest Openings

Experts Weigh Economic Impact of China Quake

Sun Shuts Kellwood Sourcing Operation

A rendering of CityNorth’s West Plaza Park where Macy’s will be located.

Debris of collapsed buildings in China.

Local people wait to be transported to safe areas as the injured lay in the open air and rain falls on Tuesday.

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Talk about an emerging market. Resort has exploded in the past few seasons with all the gusto, gun-slinging and disarray of consumer goods out of China. It is

fraught with its own set of controversies, some of which already seem to have obvious answers. One, is there anyone who covers resort — that would be the retailer-and-press set — who doesn’t think that the six-week marathon, which opened on Monday with several showroom appointments and an awesome, over-the-top, muscle-flexing extravaganza Christian Dior show should be reined in, perhaps to a two-week period? Two, with that Dior production as exhibit A (exhibit B to follow in Miami on Thursday evening courtesy of Dior’s friendly adversary Chanel), is it not now crystal clear that resort is fashion’s new marketing jewel, an opportunity for a house to take its case on the road directly to the people, whether here in New York or in one of those more exotic far-flung centers of seemingly endless new consumer yearning?

At least there is such opportunity for the fashion haves. But this is a world of haves and have-nots. While for some houses, large and small, the no-show decision is based on the opinion that resort should be intimate and all about the clothes. The minute you start venue-scouting and obsessing over hair and makeup, goes the thinking, you shift focus from the clothes to the production. But designers are defecting from that camp like superdelegates from Hillary Clinton. On Tuesday, Oscar de la Renta will show resort formally for the third time. Others adding shows include Diane von Furstenberg, who is hitting the road for Florence.

Yet many houses don’t even have to get that far, as most simply can’t afford to stage a third proper show, especially with the bar set sky-high. The Dior event, held at Guastavino’s, the newly renovated and reopened event space under the 59th Street Bridge, was a major offensive at a wretched moment for consumerism in the U.S. And the citrus-colored clothes certainly channeled sunnier times. Galliano was inspired, he said, by “great American couture buyers Millicent Rogers and the fabulous Nan Kempner,” as well as Gloria Guinness and days spent “poolside in Acapulco.” And what would such icons wear on a modern-day, South-of-the-Border getaway? Off-the-shoulder peasant blouses, exaggerated pantaloons, backless and

halter nip-waist frocks, and fi lmy djellabas, many of which featured a soupçon (well, more like a soup vat) of 3-D decorative motifs inspired by Tony Duquette’s interiors. “They’re very bold, very contemporary,” said Galliano. Or, in other words, fun, real clothes for ladies of a fl ashy proclivity; to wit, Jennifer Lopez, perched at the faux pool runway with Marc Anthony by her side, who uttered an audible sigh of approval at the sight of a green number, a caftan that incorporated a shapely gown beneath its fl ou, the better to show a gal’s post-baby svelteness.

And considering the bucks Dior spent, including airfare for a healthy international press contingent, to stage such a splashy affair, you could bet Lopez and her beloved weren’t sitting poolside alone. Indeed, there was enough star-wattage to compete with the runway’s glittering backdrop. Christina Aguilera, Charlize Theron, Leighton Meester and Ziyi Zhang, some in vibrant, breezy little cocktail shakers on what felt like the windiest day ever in New York, were among the off-runway beauties, who also happened to include an offi cial beauty queen: Sherryl Pascal, aka Mrs. New Jersey, American Beauty. She accessorized her peach Dior capris with a proud pageant sash and a giant Swarovski crystal tiara. “It gives me a blinding migraine,” she said. “But it’s nothing a Percocet can’t take care of.” Medicated or not, Pascal is willing to suffer, or make others suffer, for her fashion obsession. “I turned my son’s room into a shoe closet,” she admitted. “He sleeps somewhere else.”

Would J.Lo consider doing the same to her newborns’ sleeping quarters? Who knows? She wasn’t talking to anyone — press, that is — although she did mouth sweet nothings across the runway to Aguilera, who was in town shooting her fragrance campaign, and marveled at Galliano’s “genius.” Not the least of which includes infusing Dior with enough class and sass to assure cross-generational appeal. As Anne Slater put it, “He’s a little exotic for me sometimes, but he’s divine.” And in the eyes of Lauren Hutton, who had never been to a Galliano show (and evidently no longer suffers for fashion — she took her heels off immediately after the show, before she’d even gone down the stairs), Galliano is “a wizard; he does bizarre wizardly things.”

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Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony

Sherryl Pascal, Mrs. New Jersey, American Beauty.

Leighton Meester

WWD.COM5WWD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008

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By Liza Casabona

WASHINGTON — Retail sales at specialty stores in-creased 0.7 percent to $19.02 billion in April, but fell 0.1 percent to $16.97 billion at department stores as that channel continues to struggle.

The underlying economic challenges faced by merchants were evident in a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent drop in April sales for all retail and food service providers, dragged down by soft automotive sales, after increasing 0.2 percent in March, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

Compared with a year ago, specialty stores posted a 3 percent sales increase and department stores reported a 2.3 percent decline. Many retailers faced easy year-over-year sales comparisons in April, possibly the best they will see in 2008, said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics. Warmer weather also released some pent up demand for spring apparel and seasonal merchandise, he said.

When individual retailers reported April same-store sales last week, most posted gains, but economists cau-tioned that the numbers were tempered by fl at or nega-tive same-store sales in March.

“The April retail sales fi gures overall were not too bad in view of widespread reports of extremely grumpy con-sumer sentiment,” said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. fi nancial economist for Global Insight. “Overall, consumer spending continues to chug forward, albeit at very slow rates.”

Given the diffi cult economic environment, “this report is probably not as strong as some people are taking it to be,” said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer econom-ics at Moody’s Economy.com.

The federal tax rebate checks that are rolling out could prove to be a bright spot, economists noted, but it is uncertain how much and where those improvements will occur. Hoyt said the question is whether the rebates will be spent on food and energy to offset higher prices, or whether consumers will spend them as intended on discretionary purchases, such as apparel.

By Miles Socha

PARIS — Robust sales in South America, Eastern Europe and China offset slower growth in France as Carrefour on Tuesday reported a 10.2 percent jump in first-quarter sales.

The world’s second-largest retailer after Wal-Mart said sales, including value-added tax, tallied 23.38 billion euros, or $35.01 billion at average exchange rates for the period. Excluding acquisitions, group sales increased 6.8 percent.

It was the second consecutive quarter of gross double-digit growth for the hypermarket operator, which has been hamstrung by weakness in its home market.

In France, which accounts for roughly half of Carrefour’s business, sales grew 2.6 percent in the quar-ter, with a “solid” performance in food dented by a drop in other categories “as customers defer spending on dis-cretionary purchases,” Carrefour said.

The retail giant highlighted a general weakness in non-food categories, which account for 27 percent of sales. “Current market conditions remain challenging and are tougher than we would have anticipated at the end of last year,” Carrefour said.

However, the company is gunning for sales growth of 6 to 8 percent, excluding acquisitions, with emerging markets compensating for trouble spots like Italy and Belgium. At constant exchange rates, sales leaped 51.2 percent in Poland, 49.4 percent in Romania and 48.4 per-cent in Argentina. China, where Carrefour has been the target of anti-French sentiments, recorded its best perfor-mance since 2001 with like-for-like growth of 14 percent.

Separately this week, Carrefour named Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive offi cer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, to its supervisory board, tightening the luxury titan’s grip on the mass market giant. Arnault fi lls the slot of Robert Halley, who resigned as the board’s chairman and stepped down as a member.

Carrefour said Halley, whose family once controlled the majority of the retailer’s shares, would become hon-orary chairman of the company.

Amaury de Sèze succeeds Halley as chairman of the supervisory board. Previously, he was vice chairman.

The changes came a month after Blue Capital, the investment fund owned by Groupe Arnault and Colony Capital, raised its stake in Carrefour to 10.7 percent, mak-ing the fund the retail giant’s largest single shareholder.

At Carrefour’s annual shareholders’ meeting here last month, ceo Jose Luis Duran downplayed the impact of the shareholding shift. “We’ve lived with Blue Capital [on the board] for the last year,” said Duran. “I don’t expect any strategy changes.”

Continued from page oneThe departure comes at a pivotal time for Barneys.

The retailer is feeling the impact of the weakened economy, and has experienced a few disappointing fl agship openings around the country since launching a renewed expansion strategy two years ago in Boston.

Despite these issues and Socol’s departure, offi cials said the company hasn’t lost sight of the long-term and is sticking with its agenda for growth. This involves more fl agship openings in the U.S., with Chicago and Scottsdale, Ariz., units already slated and others ex-pected to be revealed this year; entering the interna-tional arena, with the Middle East likely to be the fi rst stop; further rollout of the Co-op chain, which special-izes in contemporary merchandise, and building up the relatively new Web business.

“Through the process of the acquisition, Howard always indicated he wanted to stay a shorter period rather than longer,” said Jackson. “We feel quite lucky he stayed as long as he did and are very sad to see him go. We would have loved to have kept him.”

Socol said he stayed longer at Barneys than he anticipated when he joined the retailer in the year 2000, having initially signed on for three years, but staying over seven, and through three different own-erships. Istithmar bought Barneys from Jones Apparel Group Inc. last year for $942 million. Jones had acquired it from Whippoorwill Associates and Bay Harbor Management in 2004 for $397.5 million.

While there has been widespread speculation his resignation was triggered

by disagreements with Istithmar over strategy, Socol explained his decision by saying, “This is a full-time, seven-day-a-week job. There are a lot of things I love to do. I plan to enjoy life, travel a lot, and expand my mental and physical capacities. There is a lot on my “‘I want’ list.” Taking another job in retailing, said the 62-year-old Socol, is not on the list. “I have no inclina-tion to do that.”

Barneys, he said, now needs a new ceo who can steer the business for a long time, in light of all the growth plans. He added the replacement could be a re-tail veteran.

Asked if he had differences with Socol, said to re-volve around the pace of expansion and the ceo being able to steer the ship without second-guessing from its new owner, Jackson replied, “I’m always reluctant to respond to rumors. Unequivocally, from our perspec-tive, we have enjoyed a very positive relationship with Howard. Better than I could have hoped for at any stage. Certainly, I think any difference of opinions were not anything other than positive. I don’t perceive there to be any of the warring factions portrayed in the press. We think the world of Howard. We wished he would continue. This was 100 percent Howard’s decision.”

Jackson said Socol disclosed his decision to resign “very, very recently,” which led to “whirlwind discus-sions” to try to retain him.

As far as choosing a successor, Jackson said he didn’t want to speculate on whether Barneys will choose an insider or someone from outside the organization. It’s probable the retailer will search for an outsider, though, considering Socol did not groom a successor.

Considering Socol’s departure is only six weeks away, Istithmar is under immense pressure to identify a suc-cessor quickly.

“It will be very tough to fi ll [Socol’s] shoes,” Jackson said, though he added he believes the fashion industry is very talented.

Jackson said he isn’t wedded to having a luxury retail executive run Barneys. “We are looking for someone re-ally who is a leader. To the extent we can fi nd that per-son, it could be someone from a slightly off-beat path.” He said he preferred a retailer, but it could be someone from wholesaling, considering many wholesalers oper-ate retail stores. Socol added his successor should un-derstand the Barneys DNA and its delicate presentation of what’s “cool” and what generates “commerce.”

“This is a very special job,” Socol continued. “It’s all about creativity, energy, fashion. It’s not about price. It’s not about promotion. It’s about the things that get a lot of retailers’ juices going.” Barneys is not so big so

you can still be a merchant, Socol noted. “On this job, you can be a merchant, and a businessman. You can touch and feel the merchandise. You can touch and feel the people,” he said.

He responded to reports that Barneys is feeling the pinch of the weak econo-my by saying, “I feel good about how Barneys has acted in the tough economy. This is going to be a tough year for ev-eryone. The things we have done are smart. We are controlling our inventory. I’m proud of our organization for that. We have very good expense control. We have been creative in our merchandis-ing. We haven’t veered away from who

Barneys is….Our domestic expansion continues. Next year we open in Chicago [a replacement store] and in Scottsdale [a new market]. There will be other an-nouncements domestically.”

Socol also said despite domestic issues, overseas expansion continues to be explored. “I visited Dubai, before Istithmar was ever involved. We visited a num-ber of different locations [abroad.]”

“As we look at all of our business, it’s important not to get caught up in [economic] cycles,” added Jackson. “From our standpoint, the strategy on grow-

ing Barneys hasn’t changed just because of the fi nan-cial condition of the U.S.”

Asked how many fl agships Barneys could open in the U.S., Jackson said, “The Barneys experience is unique. I don’t think there is ever going to be 100 stores. It will be in the low double digits.” Currently, there are seven fl agships, two smaller stores, 15 Co-ops and 13 outlets.

Regarding the potential for stores abroad, Jackson said Barneys fl agships could open in “all the places you have to see, when you are coming of age and have the notion of going on a grand tour and seeing all the major cities” and “think of those cities where retail is an im-portant part of the DNA.” He did not specify any cit-ies, though it is believed that London, Paris and Macau, along with Dubai, are among those being scouted.

Back on the home front, Socol only hinted at which locations are not performing and which are. “I defi -nitely think New York is a good place to be. Beverly Hills is a good place to be. Chicago is a good place to be. Seattle has done very nicely. There are a lot of good places to be. The Web continues to be a good place.”

Barneys also operates fl agship stores in Dallas, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Boston, and a unit in Chestnut Hill, Mass. “There is no question I would like to have last year’s economy,” Socol continued. “The idea is to run a very professional ship. Keep the brand image at its highest level and wait for the economy to turn, and then you will be poised for great growth.”

“As the owner, we believe Barneys is in all the right locations,” Jackson said. “We are not looking at [Barneys] in terms of any individual stores in light of the current economic situation.”

Carrefour Revenue Rises 10.2 Percent

Specialty Store Sales Up,Department Stores Lag

Challenges Await Next Barneys Chief

American Apparel Inc. on Tuesday reported a 34 per-cent decline in fi rst-quarter earnings, hurt by start-

up costs for a new dyeing and fi nishing facility.For the three months ended March 31, earnings fell

to $1.1 million, or 2 cents a diluted share, from $1.7 mil-lion, or 3 cents, in the year-ago period. Sales soared 51.9 percent to $111.6 million from $73.5 million, with same-store sales jumping 36 percent.

Management reaffi rmed full-year guidance in the range of 32 cents to 36 cents a diluted share, before a onetime noncash stock compensation expense in connec-tion with a previously announced employee stock grant.

In a separate development, the Los Angeles-based company said it purchased assets from U.S. Dyeing & Finishing Inc. for about $3.8 million in cash. The as-

sets include machinery and equipment related to fab-ric dyeing. American Apparel also got the lease for two buildings totaling 135,000 square feet. The facility, lo-cated in Garden Grove, Calif., has done contract work for American Apparel for about 10 years.

“While American Apparel already operated one of the largest cut-and-sew operations of its kind, this ac-quisition will further reduce our reliance on contract dye facilities, allowing us to expand our product of-fering, streamline our supply chain, lower costs and ensure better quality control,” said Marty Bailey, chief manufacturing offi cer.

About 140 U.S. Dyeing & Finishing workers will be-come employees of American Apparel.

— Jeanine Poggi

Costs Lead American Apparel to 34 Percent Earnings Drop

“From our standpoint, the strategy on growing Barneys hasn’t changed just because of the fi nancial condition of the U.S.”— David Jackson, Istithmar


By Cate T. Corcoran

Saks Direct President Denise Incandela came from McKinsey & Co., where she

consulted on Internet retailing, to launch Saks Fifth Avenue’s Web store in 1999. The operation numbers about 400 peo-ple, including fulfillment and customer service. This year it will be Saks’ second-largest store after the Fifth Avenue flag-ship. Here, Incandela talks about video, social media, the economy, and Saks’ in-novative multichannel campaign with Theory, which concluded Monday.

WWD: How is Saks using video online?Denise Incandela: The editorial portion of our site in the last year has really changed the way people shop. Especially video. Ninety-nine percent of our customers are now on high bandwidth connections. So it’s more like TV and it’s much closer to the in-store experience. We’ve incorporated video into our trend coverage. One thing we’re doing that we’re really excited about is designer interviews. For example, we had an interview with Christian Louboutin up in December. It generated over half a mil-lion dollars in sales. Think of it as a store personal appearance, but in the store only so many people get to go. This concept is taking technology and using it to expand beyond what we could do in the store.

WWD: Video is a big piece of your cam-paign with Theory.D.I.: We’re doing a promotion with Theory that is a multichannel event, which is why it’s so powerful. You tell us your point of view on fashion. The winner

will win a $3,000 shopping spree. We held events in fi ve stores last month in the Theory areas. People could make a video in the booths. About half of the entries so far were submitted through the stores. About half were submitted through our outside partner Brickfi sh. [Entries can be viewed at the Brickfi sh site.] We also used Facebook. You can send a link [an application that shows the user’s favorite Theory outfi t] in Facebook. It’s viral, you can pass on the link. We also had Theory video in New York store windows.

WWD: What are the results so far?D.I.: We absolutely saw a lift on the in-store piece. For us, it was also a question of how do we reach a customer segment we’re not reaching today. There is social media out there that we think is cannibal-izing our shoppers’ time. We need to be in-volved. Our online customer tends to be 10 years younger than in the store. Shopping used to be a form of entertainment and now with social media there’s competi-tion for that form of entertainment. We don’t see a lot of retailers partnering with social media companies or sites.

WWD: Is Saks planning to do more Web 2.0 type things?D.I.: Yes, we are, but I can’t talk about it yet.

WWD: Are you seeing any budget cut-backs? Is it possible you will have to shelve some innovations because of bud-get constraints? D.I.: Everything we do is self-funded. We have a four-month target with each invest-ment. And we’re more than achieving that,

so it hasn’t been an issue. All our market-ing is ROI [return on investment] based. All this stuff is not only really cool but it also drives sales. We’re in a tough econ-omy now, so we’re asking what can we do that’s innovative and new. We don’t think of a recession as a time to sit back, we think it’s a time to get more aggressive.

WWD: Are you expecting online sales growth to slow, given the economy? D.I.: It’s hard to say. We’ve had such a strong month. Across the board, the growth rate has declined a bit but it’s not as bad as the rest of the economy. We still have a healthy growth rate. Last year we were up close to 40 percent. This year we’re not ex-pecting the growth rate to be as signifi cant.

WWD: Is your online merchandise differ-ent from what’s in the stores?D.I.: About 60 percent of our assortment overlaps with the stores. About 40 per-cent is our own, but the percentage is growing. Another thing we’re getting into is [categories] with [limited] fl oor space, such as children’s, electronics, gourmet food and home. We are starting to outper-form our New York store in children’s.

WWD: What is the most expensive item you sell online?D.I.: It would probably be an exotic hand-bag. We haven’t seen any price resistance. It’s all about convenience. When people want something, they want it.

WWD: Are you seeing any change in where shoppers are coming from? For example, are Saks shoppers typing in

the URL, coming from search engines, or from blogs?D.I.: One thing we’re seeing across the industry is that organic [traffi c] is going down. Our conversion rate is going up. The people who are coming are coming to buy.

WWD: How do you deal with bloggers?D.I.: We have someone who shares best-sellers and other news with them, who manages events and affi liates. It’s been a full-time position for about eight months.

WWD: What should we expect to see in the coming year?D.I.: I think in general, not necessarily at Saks, there will be video in the product de-tail. We’re still adding more [product] views as we speak. We’re going to bring interna-tional shipping to the Web site next year. We do it now through our 800 number.

WWD: Would Saks do something like de-velop its own online community?D.I.: I can’t talk about our go-forward initiatives, but we’ve discussed it. It’s not our skill set but the space is evolving so quickly we can’t rule anything out.

Product bookmarking service ThisNext is thinking outside

the Web site with ventures that include a Facebook application and a deal with Ford Models.

The product bookmarking site made its debut in August. Like similar sites Stylehive, Kaboodle, Wists and StyleFeeder, it allows visitors to bookmark fa-vorite products online and see which ones others have book-marked. Most also include per-sonal profi les, blogs, comments, ratings, search and other features. In addition, ThisNext’s home page displays what items are hot in various cities.

Last month, ThisNext signed a deal with Ford Models Inc. that will let the agency’s stylists and models recommend products and allow the two companies to split any revenue they generate. “It’s a way for the models to build their recognition as style leaders,” said ThisNext chief executive offi cer and co-founder Gordon Gould. “There are surfer models, yoga, fashionista and outdoorsy models.”

Meanwhile, ThisNext has added an application to Facebook called “I Want.” Facebook users can add it to their pages and send out a plea about an item they’re looking for — say, a white fl at-screen TV or the perfect pair of patent sandals — and receive pho-tos of suggestions from ThisNext users on their Facebook page.

“We see ourselves as less of a site and more of a service,” said Gould. “There’s no reason you need to come to ThisNext per se. Where you do your product recommendations or shopping to us doesn’t really matter. We can serve advertisements or cost-per-click wherever you go.”

ThisNext will take in “a few million” in revenue this year, some of it from visitors who click through to look at products on a retailer’s site. Visitors don’t have to buy for ThisNext to get paid. The site also gets a cut of purchases and carries advertising.

Social bookmarking is potentially a better way to reach cus-tomers than display ads, Gould contends. Banner ads typically have click-through rates of less than 1 or 2 percent, whereas about one-third of visitors to ThisNext click through to a retail site, he said. About 16 million people have visited ThisNext since August, with an average of a couple million visitors a month, according to Gould. Revenue per page on ThisNext averages $14, he said.

The company has about 24 employees and recently closed a second round of funding for a total of $10 million in venture capital backing.

— C.T.C.

Next Step for Social Shopping

Saks’ Incandela on E-tail

NOT STANDING STILLFace Hunter photographer Yvan Rodic will take his streetwear blog into the video realm with interviews of his previously still subjects on MySpace TV. It will debut around the end of the month with a launch party in Rodic’s favorite fashion capital, Stockholm.

BEST DRESSEDThe 16 million tween members of the Stardoll virtual world need never know a bad fashion day. If virtual outfi ts from DKNY, mary-kateandashley and other brands aren’t enough, now they can design their own using the site’s StarDesign fashion design software.

Saks’ Denise Incandela.

ThisNext’s home page.

Exec Tech

of U.S. shoppers said they are likely to opt to receive messages about promotions via cell phone when they approach a store. — TNS Retail Forward

PRECIOUS PHONETo celebrate the recent opening of its New York store in the Plaza Hotel, Vertu is offering a patterned leather edition of its Constellation phone. The handmade, precision-engineered ceramic Monogram comes in fi ve colors and contains sapphire crystals and precious metals. The $5,500 price includes a 24-hour concierge service.

Bits & Bytes

5%

— C.T.C.

WWD.COM

By Whitney Beckett

NEW YORK — Specialty stores’ open-to-buys might be holding steady, but at this month’s Moda Manhattan and FAME trade shows, buyers reported they are looking more before making decisions, waiting longer to place orders, and then only buying what they love — mimick-ing the behavior of their own shoppers.

If not ordering for immediate delivery, most buyers were scouting for fall, rather than holiday, at Moda and FAME on May 4 to 6 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Top-selling items were must-have novelty pieces that stood out in terms of color, shape or embellishment, and that didn’t break the bank.

Carolyn Billet, owner of Maple Street Clothing in New Orleans, shopped Moda and FAME for her two cus-tomer bases: “women and college students.” She was looking for early fall with a fl at open-to-buy, and ordered novelty knits, boyfriend sweaters and jackets in purples, reds and charcoals at Moda.

“I’m being extremely selective because of the econo-my, so an item must be something I absolutely love, noth-ing on the cusp, for me to order it this season,” Billet said. “Fringe items will be trimmed, and I am sticking with manufacturers who have been tested.”

Thomas George, owner of E Street Denim in Highland Park, Ill., said he “worked a lot harder” at this round of shows, making sure that he was fi nding the best merchandise for his stores with his fl at open-to-buy. But he said he was disappointed by the lack of risk vendors were taking.

“I don’t think we’ve done a great job in our industry to make things exciting, and consumers are probably spending the same amount of money, but they are shift-ing out of our industry to travel, technology,” George said. “Retailers also have to take some risk, and unfor-tunately, I didn’t fi nd enough out there that’s moving it forward — anything that was ‘oh my god.’”

Vendors reported strong traffi c on Sunday, then a ta-pering off of visitors when Intermezzo opened. For ex-ample, sales were up 40 percent over last year for Don Hurowitz, the New England representative for better lines Maralyce Ferree Design, CTC and Ameeta, which all showed at Moda. He said buyers scoured his lines for “novelty, texture and color.”

“Buyers seem concerned, but they are here and they are buying,” Hurowitz said. “People say they are cutting back, but they don’t actually seem to be.”

New York-based knit resource Bask did well at Moda with standout silhouettes, from trapeze vests to ponchos to swing coats. “We’re selling more short sleeves and sleeveless than ever before, because of the emphasis on layering for fall,” said Bask president Jeff Scher.

Most buyers were ordering for fall or even imme-diate, rather than the holiday offerings many vendors

were pushing. For New York-based Melly M, which wholesales from $68 to $180, 90 percent of orders at Moda were for imme-diate delivery, according to sales represen-tative Laura Sullivan.

Buyers were not only holding back on spending, but also being careful with the price of items. At Kay Celine, a New York-based line that showed at Moda and wholesales for $45 to $94, “more tops are selling than dresses because they’re less expensive,” said representative Janette Richards. Top sellers all were novelty, featur-ing embellishments, metallics and prints.

“We’re selling all novelty and anything at a price,” echoed Seena Addeo, sales manager of New York-based David Brooks, which whole-sales from $24 to $84.

Buyers parted with their money for nov-elty and color. For New York-based knit vendor WR 9000, which whole-sales from $42 to $98, its biggest sellers at Moda were bright reds, pur-ples and fuchsias, par-ticularly novelty pieces that include fur. But still, according to sales representative Rosanna Balsamo, sales were slow and rarely extend-ed past August.

At FAME, Los Angeles-based young contemporary line Bizz, which wholesales from $25 to $60, was “swamped” with traffi c and orders, according to senior sales rep-resentative Amy Kim. “The key is a simple body with detailing that sets the item apart,” said Kim.

FAME is now three-quarters young con-temporary and junior exhibitors, of the nearly 400 vendors at the show, with the in-tention of forming a more focused destina-tion for buyers.

Pura Vida, a junior line based in Wooster, Ohio, has been doing FAME since the show started, according to president Raj Arora. He said most people were writing orders, particularly for pattern dresses, “mostly for fall but some immediates.”

Ninety percent of junior line Luv2Luv’s orders were for immediate shipment, ac-cording to president Manish Khanna. “Customers are very skeptical about how summer will play out, and they are being

very cautious,” Khanna said. The Plainview, N.Y.-based vendor did well with fl oral and but-terfl y prints.

“This is not a time to buy,” said Juno Chang, president and ceo of junior line Juno. “Traffi c is slow.”

Both shows moved to the upper level of Javits, which allowed them to grow 4.5

percent in square footage as well as in the number of vendors, to about 1,000

between Moda and FAME, according to Britton Jones, president and ceo of

Business Journals Inc., which owns the shows. Buyer attendance was fl at compared with last May, but Jones said he thought smaller stores

that have been hit particularly hard by the recession weeded themselves

out, and the retailers that remained “had money to spend.”

“It’s pretty easy to run a great show in a hot market; it’s a little more diffi cult to run a great show in a more diffi cult mar-ket, and that’s what we just pulled off,” said Jones. “Stores went through a rough period, but saw a rebound in April, and they realize that the best way to im-prove sales is bring in exciting trends, which they saw at the shows.”

Meanwhile, at the Atelier Designers trade show, which ended its three-day run at the Doubletree Guest Suites

in Times Square on May 6, much of the talk centered around the uncertain economy

and the ongoing rise in gas prices and the im-pact on consumer spending.

Trends at the show ranged from a variety of artisanal touches, such as mixing bohemian prints to item-driven collections, with a particu-lar focus on outerwear and blouses.

The Chicago-based Jermikko label was a fi rst-time exhibitor at the show with a focus on state-

ment-making novelty coats and eveningwear. Designer Jermikko Johnson said she was pleased with the traffic. “A couple of people said they would have bought more, but the economy isn’t as strong,” Johnson said. “The point is, they bought.”

Among Jermikko’s best-sellers was a boiled wool blue coat for $418 whole-sale, and a brown plush wool coat for $518. Overall, Jermikko’s wholesale price points range from $300 to $798.

Brooklyn-based Ohm Studio designers Julie and Tom Diller were also new to the show, bringing an artsy touch with their handmade collection of al-most hippie luxe garments. Bestsellers at the show in-cluded a tulle-over-wool quilted jacket for $158 wholesale.

“We have been steadily busy,” said Julie Diller. “At

least for us, people aren’t really talking so much about the economy. They said January and February were scary, but it has picked up since then.”

Tom Diller added, “Items are more important than outfi ts.”

Lola Herrera, designer of Lola of San Francisco, of-fered a younger, quirkier, downtown aesthetic, with cool yellow denim coats, jackets with front-snap detailing and materials such as cotton twill for coats. Bestsellers included a raspberry herringbone coat at $139 whole-sale and an Italian denim coat for $175, as well as hemp denim skirts with hand-pieced silk fragments, for $150 wholesale. Susan Summa, who produces Atelier, said she went into this edition of the show with uncertainty.

“We had no idea what to expect after the February show, with the split market,” Summa said. “The econom-ic news has not been good, but many buyers reported that business has picked up in April.”

As for trends, she noted a move toward items. “So many of the buyers come in and ask me about great shirt lines,” Summa said.

— With contributions from Marc Karimzadeh


In the Mainstream

Buyers Wait Longer, Scour Harder for Special ItemsA yellow Italian denim jacket from Lola of San Francisco at Atelier Designers.

A purple sweater with fur from WR 9000 at Moda Manhattan.

A Luv2Luv dress at FAME.

Isotope Design Group can help. We provide sketching services, silhouette designing, CAD artworks and CAD colors, as well as pattern making, grading solutions, embroidery design and digitizing. We do it all online with 24/7 availability and work-in-progress visibility.

Visit our website or call Isotope Design Group today to learn more.

[email protected] 212-868-1049

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they needhave the time

to design?Reduce your costs, increase your productivity and give your designers the gift of time to do what you hired them to do.


Hartnett to Front New Armani ScentGiorgio Armani is out to prove dia-

monds aren’t just a girl’s best friend.The fi rm’s beauty division on Tuesday

signed actor Josh Hartnett as the face of a new scent due out this summer called Emporio Armani Diamonds for Men, a mas-culine counterpart to last year’s Emporio Armani Diamonds women’s fragrance, which was fronted by Beyoncé Knowles.

“The Emporio Armani genera-tion is inspired by film and music,” the de-signer stated. “I felt that for the men’s Diamonds fragrance it would therefore be appropriate to involve one of today’s most inspiring young actors.”

D i a m o n d s for Men, which is Emporio Armani’s sixth men’s fragrance, is due to be un-veiled in June,

during the spring 2009 men’s fashion shows in Milan. It is slated to be launched worldwide in August.

While Hartnett, who is known for his work in fi lms such as “The Black Dahlia,” “Black Hawk Down” and “Pearl Harbor,” will represent the Diamonds

for Men scent, details of his exact role have yet to be fi nalized. The designer, however, alluded to an ad campaign featuring Hartnett, stating the actor’s “magnetism” will “guarantee a memo-rable print and TV campaign for this new launch.”

Knowles, by comparison, appeared in print and TV advertising for the women’s version of Diamonds, which was launched in August of last year.

Hartnett’s upcoming fi lms include “I Come With the Rain,” which is set to be released this year.

— Matthew W. Evans

YSL Beauté Reaches Trademark Settlement

YSL Beauté Inc. has reached a settle-ment with Costco Wholesale Corp. and

Quality King Distributors concerning alle-gations of trademark infringement arising from the sale of fragrance products bear-ing the Yves Saint Laurent Opium name, the fi rms stated Tuesday.

Litigation had been pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“Yves Saint Laurent is pleased that we were able to amicably resolve this litigation with Costco and Quality King,” stated Marc Rey, president of YSL Beauté Inc. “We commend the coopera-tion of Costco and Quality King in these proceedings, and this settlement refl ects their absolute commitment to the sale of authentic goods.”

Quality King and its Quality King Fragrance business stated, “We are pleased to have been able to work co-operatively with YSL and Costco to achieve a mutually benefi cial resolution of this matter.”

By Sharon Edelson

Ugg Australia has called on Rozae Nichols, a Los Angeles-based de-

signer whose line is known for its propri-etary fabrics and handwrought elements, to design an outerwear collection.

The 14-piece collection ranges from $595 for a suede hooded pullover to $2,300 for a long shearling coat.

Nichols, whose eponymous brand for fall ’08 featured shearling vests with asym-metrical collars, fringed leather vests and leather and fabric, experiments with shapes and avant-garde styles. For holi-day ’07, she designed a pleated balloon skirt that looks like an infl ated accordion and jackets with uneven hems. Although Ugg is a traditional brand — the design of the boots and shoes doesn’t change much from year to year — Nichols was eager to undertake the collaboration.

“I was very attracted to the project,” she said. “I like leathers and shearlings. They’re very interesting materials to work with. I thought, ‘Let’s apply some of the wonderful techniques we’ve de-veloped here.’” Nichols said Ugg was “pretty wide open to [her suggestions] because they’re basically a footwear company” and didn’t come to the project with preconceived ideas.

“I’ve always admired the Ugg brand as having a very iconic style,” Nichols said. “I really like the philosophy of the company. It’s very authentic. It came from a very nonfashion point of view. Its origins were utilitarian. I like the great design that comes out of that necessity.”

Nichols was careful to strike a bal-ance between the fashion quotient and the brand’s traditional attributes, such as its signature stitching. She created

utilitarian chic pieces, including a re-versible cropped shearling jacket, $995; reversible shearling vest with horn toggle closure, $1,300, and a shearling-lined glazed suede bomber jacket with antique zippers, $895.

“The approach was to concentrate on the strength of their shearling and bring to that a sense of forwardness in-sofar as the way we looked at a modern cut and silhouette,” Nichols said. “But

it’s also classic because I didn’t want the garments to upstage the classicism of the footwear. It was very challenging to bring a forward-fashion freshness to it. What Ugg represents to footwear and what we wanted to bring to the clothing is a sense of humble luxury. It’s so genu-ine, there’s nothing ostentatious.”

Nichols believes the collaboration has staying power. “We’re looking for-ward to a long [relationship],” she said.

In addition, Nichols said she would like to design handbags for Ugg. “Our brand is also interested in expanding the collection into accessories in spring or fall of 2009,” she said.

Josh Hartnett and Giorgio Armani at the Armani Privé fashion show in Los Angeles in February 2007.

BEAUTY BEAT

Ugg Taps Nichols for Outerwear Line

An ad from an Ugg campaign highlighting outerwear designed by Rozae Nichols.

WWD.COM

By Valerie Seckler

With the worsening U.S. economy putting a strain on peo-ple’s wallets, for the first time in seven years consum-

ers are placing more importance on which apparel brands they’re wearing — and they’re expressing more willingness to try some new ones.

Twice as many adults — and twice as many women — are fi nding more signifi cance in sporting certain brands, logos and symbols than they did a year ago, according to the Brand Keys 2008 Fashion Brand Loyalty Index. One in 10 women, and 8 percent of adults overall, make up this new wave, stemming a tide that last year saw about three-quar-ters of the country’s consumers claim that wearing specifi c brand names was becoming less important to them.

“This is an acknowledgement that people are looking for differences between brands,” said Robert Passikoff, presi-dent of marketing consultant Brand Keys. “It doesn’t neces-sarily mean they’re fi nding it.” Nonetheless, Passikoff pro-jected, “This should be a good thing for the fashion brands.”

Almost two dozen of the 60 favorite brands mentioned by 26,000 consumers are new to this year’s list — an unusu-ally big portion — signaling shoppers’ openness to donning something different. They include Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Donna Karan, Nordstrom, Calvin Klein, Polo, J. Crew, Levi’s, L.L. Bean and Dockers, with half of those names preferred by more than one demographic group participating in the March survey taken by Brand Keys.

Ralph Lauren, a perennial favorite in the loyalty index, was the leading choice among women and was ranked sec-ond overall, following apparel licensed by a person’s favor-ite athletic team.

Whether a luxury label or an American classic, people said it’s a garment’s quality — including materials, construction and durability — that most often attracts them to the brands they’d like to wear. Not surprisingly, most shoppers also said their affi nity for a given label is infl u-enced by the value they perceive in a specifi c item, Passikoff noted, “more so this year be-cause of the economy.” When asked about the power of status for its own sake, he said it is dimming, given people’s pri-ority on quality and value.

At Saks Fifth Avenue, Suzanne Johnson, group senior vice presi-dent and general manager of the Fifth Avenue fl agship, said brands that have been selling well this spring include Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Carolina Herrera, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Akris and Agnona. Dresses and pieces flashing bright colors and floral prints are in demand.

“We’ve got our antennae up like crazy to see what customers are saying and how they are shopping,” Johnson said. “They want some-thing that will last and they want something they can wear now. They don’t want to wait three months to put it on,” she continued. “They’re not cutting back, but they want to wear something special. Brands that are more basic are having a struggle.”

In the past six months, apparel is a prod-uct people have been saying they’re spend-ing less on or dropping from their shopping lists, as rising costs of necessities like hous-ing, gasoline and food eat up their discretion-ary income. Consumers cited apparel again

in early April as one of three kinds of purchases they were most likely to cut back on in the near term, according to an NPD Group poll of 2,000 adults. Dining out and home enter-tainment were the other areas in which the group expected to clip spending.

In the 12 months ended March 31, consumer spending on women’s apparel decreased 3.8 percent to $100.5 billion from $104.3 billion in the prior-year period. Five of the 10 best selling national and designer women’s brands in the year ended this March, according to NPD, also were named by participants in the Brand Keys survey as being among their favorites to wear: Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Levi’s, Nike and Tommy Hilfi ger.

At the high end, fashion names including Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan and Chanel were most signifi cant

for women and Baby Boomers to own, representing more than three-quarters of their choices. These labels got only half as many mentions among men, Gen-Xers and Millennials, who showed a strong taste for American classics, such as Nike, Levi’s, J. Crew, Dockers, Tommy Hilfi ger, Banana Republic and L.L. Bean.

“The consumer is responding well to un-complicated fashion — classic American, cool product,” observed Fred Gehring, chief executive offi cer of Tommy Hilfi ger Group. That inclination and the Hilfi ger brand’s fa-miliarity to shoppers, he said, is refl ected in the group’s healthy comparable-store sales growth. Hilfi ger’s comps this year through April 18 were up in the low double-digits at about 400 Macy’s stores around the coun-try and in three full-price Tommy Hilfi ger shops, and were up 5 percent in the compa-ny’s 125 outlet stores, according to the ceo.

With the Hilfi ger business “a fraction of what it could be in the U.S.,” in Gehring’s

view, the company is planning to “step up” its communi-cations with the public this fall in product-focused, co-operative ads with Macy’s, in an image-based global ad

campaign, and via its new viral marketing platform, the newly launched online music channel TommyTV.com.

Increases in disposable income for the af-fl uent among the Baby Boomers, considered

the country’s wealthiest generation ever, is probably adding to the allure of designer names like Lauren, Karan and Chanel, Passikoff said, while the sense of “comfort” and “warmth” people are fi nding in some of America’s heritage brands is heightening their appeal. The Ralph Lauren brand may be ben-efi ting from both dynamics. “Ralph Lauren has 40 years of branding behind it and the brand is very familiar,” said David Lauren, senior vice presi-dent of advertising, marketing and communica-tions at Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. He maintained the clarity of what the Ralph Lauren name is in-tended to stand for, including “quality, elegance and good taste, is a critical part of keeping the brand strong.”

These days, fashion shoppers are being drawn to brands that are “approachable and have identi-

fi able attributes,” observed Tom Julian, president of the newly formed brand consultant Tom Julian Group. For example, he cited “fresh Americana attitude with updated must-have pieces — a Diane von Furstenberg dress, a Tory Burch tunic, a Michael Kors coat, Marc

Jacobs accessories.”Recalling conversations he’s had with consumers,

Julian added, “There is a real heavy [not black] cloud hanging over many women when it comes to the spend column. We are in a shifting political year, and any house-hold is very aware of the required pinching from the monthly budget, compared with 2007.”


Brooks Brothers is hitting the greens as clothing sponsor of the PGA’s Stanford

St. Jude Championship in Memphis next month, including the presentation of a championship jacket — part of its first ef-fort to market the 190-year-old brand in na-tional sports settings.

Outfi tting the champion of the PGA event with a seersucker jacket tailored by Brooks Bros., when the event concludes June 8, will follow the retailer’s fi rst-time national golf presence, the cosponsorship of the LPGA’s Stanford International ProAm in Miami, in April. Special embroidery will spell out the champion’s name in the lining, the fi rst time a seersucker jacket will be awarded to the winner of a PGA tournament. Brooks Bros. credits itself with introducing seer-sucker in the U.S., during the 1830s.

After executives of the retailer attended last year’s PGA tournament, they and the tournament chiefs decided to work togeth-er, as they are both benefactors of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the tourna-ment group suggested Brooks Bros. develop a winner’s jacket, according to Kevin Krisle, executive director of the PGA contest.

Staff, executive team and volunteer crew of the tournament will don Brooks Bros. threads from the start of the event on June 2, much as their counterparts did at the LPGA ProAm in Miami last month. The clothes they sport will range from a suit to a navy blazer to a polo shirt.

The idea is to extend the lifestyle sensi-bility of the Brooks Bros. Country Club brand beyond the confi nes of stores, catalogues and online to the settings in which it envisions its customers wearing such items, explained Louis Amendola, chief merchandising offi cer at Brooks Bros. The signings of golfers like Scott Verplank and Taylor Leon as brand am-bassadors also served as inspiration.

Marketing moves such as these are pro-jected to grow from three golf tournaments this year (a third, yet-to-be-named site is being negotiated) to four or fi ve sporting events in 2009, Amendola said.

“As we evolve the ProSports line with more tennis and sailing products, we will defi nitely entertain” more kinds of event mar-keting, Amendola said of the ProSports per-formance apparel bearing the Country Club name. “We are also interested in events spe-cifi c to certain cities where we have stores.” Brooks could establish a presence at a regatta in Newport, R.I., for example, where one of its seven Country Club stores is located.

Even as it negotiates to sponsor a third golf contest this year, Brooks Bros. is still determining how big to go with such mar-keting plays, how much product it ought to develop for those events and how many of those items it will offer in its stores, cata-logues and online, Amendola said. So far, souvenir polo shirts for its fi rst two LPGA and PGA tour stops and seersucker hats, belts and totes with tournament logos have been earmarked for sale at Brooks Bros., the main tie-in with the stores.

— V.S.

Brooks Bros. Strikes Golf Sponsorships

Fashion Brand Fans Are SpreadingMarketing

CONSUMERS’ NEWEST FAVORITES TO WEAR(Brands cited by group in 2008)

BRAND BIGGEST APPEALNordstrom Women, Baby BoomersJ. Crew Women, men, Millennials, Gen X-ersLevi’s Men, MillennialsDockers MenL.L. Bean MenPolo/Ralph Lauren Gen X-ersCalvin Klein Gen X-ersGucci Baby BoomersLouis Vuitton Baby BoomersDonna Karan Baby Boomers

SOURCE: BRAND KEYS 2008 FASHION BRAND LOYALTY INDEX, BASED ON MARCH SURVEY OF 26,000 ADULTS.

A Brooks Bros. window display in Bal Harbour, Fla., promoting the recent LPGA ProAm.

A Brooks Bros. window display in Bal Harbour, Fla., promoting the recent LPGA ProAm.

A Tommy Hilfi ger spring 2008 ad.

A spring look fromJ. Crew.


By Katya Foreman

CANNES — Led by Julianne Moore, star of the thriller “Blindness,” which kicks off the Cannes International Film Festival today, a formidable cast of leading ladies is expected to mount the event’s fabled red steps over the coming days — all in need of a frock.

And fashion designers are equally eager to dress the stars, many of them already attached to brands. These include Cate Blanchett, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Christina Ricci, Penélope Cruz and Ziyi Zhang, as well as jury member Natalie Portman, who is said to have been directing a self-penned short fi lm for the “New York, I Love You” anthology right up to boarding the plane for the festival.

Giorgio Armani has lots of big fi sh in his net already, having announced that he will dress Blanchett, Sean Penn, Harrison Ford, Joaquin Phoenix and Aishwarya Rai dur-ing the festival.

Roberto Cavalli, who wrangled 70 dresses onto stars during last year’s festival, has added an extra suite to his showroom at the Hotel Martinez, equipped with three seam-stresses and stocking around 150 gowns. Jimmy Choo, also situated in the hotel, will offer around-the-clock hand-dyeing and heel-altering ser-vices. Swarovski will have a customized dyeing service for the fi rst time for three of its Red Carpet clutches.

Rumor has it Louis Vuitton will dress Mélanie Laurent for the opening of her fi rst directorial ef-fort, “De Moins en Moins” (“Less and Less”). At age 25, Laurent is one of the youngest directors to have been nominated for the festival’s short fi lm section. Ziyi and Adrien Brody are also likely to be dressed by Vuitton during the festival, accord-ing to a source.

Linda Evangelista, Eva Herzigova and Milla Jovovich are also expected to roll into town, while speculation is that Bar Refaeli will don the mega-expensive bejeweled gown created by Chopard’s Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele and designer Alberta Ferretti at the festival’s opening night ceremony, followed by an after party where Juliette Lewis will be manning the decks. The gown will later be auctioned at the amfAR gala, whose after party will be hosted by Fendi. The Roman fashion house is also reprising its “Fendi O” private club

at Jimmy’z for the two-week festival.Also tonight, L’Oréal spokeswomen Eva

Longoria and Eva Mendes will host the Nikki Beach Kick Off in its nightclub at the Palais Stephanie with a performance by Macy Gray.

Madonna is also headed to Cannes to promote “I Am Because We Are,” a documentary about children orphaned by AIDS in Malawi, while Mischa Barton will walk the Croisette for the thriller “You and I.”

Hot tickets for the festival’s night owls, mean-while, include the Vanity Fair party at the Hotel du Cap on Saturday, followed by the water-tight after party for the “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Skull” premiere on Sunday.

Fashion is never far on the party circuit, though, from Costume National’s opening night dinner for the “Blindness” cast at the Hotel Costes’ ephem-

eral restaurant at Orange Beach opposite the Carlton hotel, to a private Chopard cocktail Saturday for Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and its cast, including Johansson,

Cruz and Rebecca Hall. Agnès b. will also host a private party for Bruce

Weber’s Eighties documentary “Let’s Get Lost.” A typically rock ‘n’ roll crowd is expected to attend the event, including Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Pedro Almodóvar, Jim Jarmusch, Lou Doillon and Placebo’s Brian Molko.

New retail additions to the Croisette, meanwhile, include

stores from Bottega Veneta — which will host “The Knot: A Retrospective,” on May 21 — and Balenciaga, which recently opened its sec-ond French store in Cannes. Designed by Nicolas Ghesquière and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, the two-story boutique’s basement contains an ambient “exploration gallery” situated below sea level that features wall panels covered in numeric mirrors and aluminium leaves, as well as a green marble fl oor containing a central strip of blue sodalite, de-signed to evoke an underground lake.

A fl eet of Italian fashion vessels has set sail for Cannes, including Ferretti’s “Prometej” and the Missoni family’s “Pegasus.” The latter will host a private summer benefi t fete for OrphanAid Africa on Friday, organized by Margherita Maccapani and the British concierge company Quintessentially. Four days before the amfAR gala, Cavalli is due to sail in on his 41-meter-long motoryacht “R & C,” which will be moored in the old port.

The boat sports a special iridescent paint that glows a golden-purplish tint when the sun is high, shifting to navy blue at sunset.

By Ellen Groves

PARIS — With the controversial Lindsay Lohan as its new face, Italian lifestyle brand Fornarina is planning a global push into the world’s fashion capitals in a move aimed at tripling its business over the next five years.

Lohan revealed her latest fashion tie-up during the sixth edition of the Fornarina Urban Beauty Show at the Carrousel du Louvre here Monday night. The fi rst ads featuring Lohan will break in spring 2009. The party, a fusion of fashion, art and music, drew a 2,000-strong crowd.

“[Lindsay] is that very self-confi dent, dynamic woman, she’s got a lot of attitude,” said Scott Ronaldson, managing director of Fornari Retail. “That’s what we’re hoping our customer will aspire to.”

The brand plans to open fl agship boutiques in London, Paris and New York later this year and to triple sales within fi ve years from an estimated 170 million euros, or $233 million at average exchange, through 200 doors globally in 2007. Growth will also be driven by expansion into Eastern Europe and Russia and in Asia, where the company boasts 90 doors in China.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Fabio Tamburini, managing director of Fornari SpA, has taken over as interim chief executive offi cer to head up the U.S. business.

The brand’s new retail design, to be introduced starting in fall, consists of four universes that will each be operational as sepa-rate stores or as corners. They include a Denim Bar, designed like a bar or club; a Powder Room, which will showcase ac-cessories including shoes, bags, jewelry and eyewear; a Total Look concept featur-ing the latest technology such as plasma screens plus ready-to-wear collections, and a Rock Out cultural zone with perfor-mances by local DJs in a bid to connect with potential customers.

With its new concept, Fornarina has plans to generate an estimated $2,000 per square foot and more than 1 million euros, or $1.5 million, for every 1,000-square-foot store. Fornarina will also boost its produc-tion capacity to deliver between four and fi ve new collections each season. “Fashion is about speed,” said Ronaldson, “about stock rotation. We’ll have new collections 10 to 12 times a year.”

As well a sneak preview of its spring 2009 looks during runway shows through-out the evening, Fornarina unveiled limited edition lines with six artists, in-cluding Japanese creator Junko Mizuno; half-Dutch, half-Spanish illustrator Mijn Schatje, and Dutch tattooist Angelique Houtkamp. A rotation of theatrical installations including acrobatic displays, plus a pop-up shop showcased the new designs, from octopus motifs printed on silk dresses by Mizuno to American artist Glen Barr’s retro face painted onto cotton T-shirts. The collec-tions will be sold in Fornarina’s 100 freestanding stores worldwide.

And Fornarina could have another new designer — namely Lohan, who said she’d love to create accessories for the brand. The actress has already been cutting her teeth creating her own leggings collec-tion, dubbed 6216 after Marilyn Monroe’s birth date. “Right now, it’s just leggings for me,” said the actress, who is set to make a return to fi lming with the romantic comedy “Labor Pains” later this month.

Yellow is a leading color this spring, but Ralph Lauren, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg

and Lance Armstrong were wearing it as a sym-bolic pledge to fight cancer.

The trio and several hundred supporters marked the fi fth anniversary of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention Tuesday in Harlem’s Marcus Harvey Park, and kicked off Livestrong Day 2008, a one-day nationwide initiative led by the champi-on cyclist’s Lance Armstrong Foundation. The dress code wasn’t lost on the mayor, who wore a yellow tie and Livestrong bracelet.

Lauren, whose Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. provided the seed money for the cen-ter, said, “This is not about money. This is about your soul. This is about life.”

The objective is saving lives, which the center has

done and will continue to do, Lauren said. The facil-ity has helped 10,000 patients and handled more than 36,000 visits for screenings, diagnosis and treatment.

Armstrong, whose frenetic schedule involved stops in Columbus, Ohio; Denver, and Las Vegas in addition to New York, said cancer is “unlike any war we have fought, waged or funded.

Harold Freeman, M.D., the center’s president and founder, and Harold Varmus, M.D., the center’s chief executive offi cer, who is also president and ceo of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a Nobel laureate for his work on the genetic basis of cancer, were among those attending. Armstrong, who described Freeman as an “idol,” gave him a Tour de France yellow jersey to hang on a wall at the center.— Rosemary Feitelberg

Lindsay Lohan at the Fornarina Urban Beauty Show Monday.

Fornarina Forms Tie With Lohan

Lauren, Armstrong Mark Cancer Center Anniversary

Roberto Cavalli’s R&C motoryacht.

A Big Week in the Stars for Cannes

NEW FACE: Miu Miu is kissing Kirsten Dunst goodbye and saying bienvenue to

Vanessa Paradis, who will be the brand’s new face for the upcoming fall campaign. Miu Miu has once again tapped Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott to photograph the ads. A company spokeswoman declined to comment.

LISTEN UP: Arnold Scaasi is known to spin a yarn or two, but at Monday night’s Literacy Partners gala he had plenty of reinforcement from A.J. Jacobs, Chris Matthews, Azar Nafi si and Ann Patchett, who read some of their favorite passages, which in some cases were their own. Liz Smith, who along with Parker Ladd and Scaasi cohosted this year’s shindig, couldn’t resist ribbing Matthews, who she noted some people call “The Great Interrupter.” But she seemed to have a change of heart after he read from “The Great Gatsby.” “I didn’t know you were such a romantic,” Smith said. Nafi si urged the 750-person crowd to fi ght for the rights of readers. And Patchett, who was unabashed about her bee-master status at her local Tennessee spelling bee, encouraged attendees to go back to “the podunk places that made you” to pay respect. Smith described Jacobs, whose recent body of work called for living a year by the Bible, as “the craziest man in the world.” Jacobs talked about some of the ramifi cations of his quest. Be fruitful and multiply? He had twins. Don’t shave the corners of a beard? “I spent a lot of time at airport security,” he said. Thou shall not covet, gossip or lie? “I live in New York and work in media, so that’s 60 to 75 percent of my day.”

Apart from the laughs, the event honored Julia and David Koch and raised $1.2 million for Literacy Partners.

Fashion Scoops

Swarovski’s satin and crystal clutch.

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Harold Vargas, Harold Freeman, Ralph Lauren, Lance Armstrong and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Parker Ladd, Liz Smith and Arnold Scaasi.

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WWD.COM12 WWD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008

WWD West

Kitson, the fad-driven boutique on Robertson Boulevard here, is branching out for fall.

Owner Fraser Ross is planning Kitson’s fi rst location in a life-style mall in the Americana at Brand, which opened this month in suburban Glendale, and a store on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood is back on track after resolution of a zoning dispute.

“I would be naïve if I said I’m not worried about the econo-my,” Ross said. “I don’t know if things are getting worse or bet-ter. There’s always a trend in the market that you can chase. We sell a lot of different brands.…The diversity really helps us.”

The new stores will give Kitson seven locations, including four on Robertson and one in Dubai.

“The rents on Robertson are getting a little ridiculous and the street is getting a little more corporate, so it was time to aggressively expand elsewhere,” Ross said, adding that he is in negotiations to open another store near Santa Monica next year. “I love it there, but we don’t need Robertson as much as Robertson needs us.”

Kitson helped build Robertson’s reputation as a hot retail venue through celebrity shoppers like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Among the street’s stores are Lisa Kline, Intermix and Tory Burch. In addition, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana’s D&G concept and Chanel are on tap.

Kitson at the Americana will be 15,000 square feet and de-signed like a department store, with women’s, children’s and gift merchandise on the 10,000-square-foot ground level and men’s wear, which Ross cited as a fast-growing segment, on the 5,000-square-foot second fl oor.

“We wanted to go into The Grove [in Los Angeles] but there was no room,” Ross said. “This is a bit farther away, so we can pull from a different market. It’s like The Grove on steroids and the competition isn’t heavy for us, so it made sense.”

The 7,000-square-foot Melrose Avenue store also will be two fl oors, and Ross signed a 10-year lease. The space was the subject of a disagreement with the city of West Hollywood — and a subse-quent lawsuit against the landlord that has been resolved — over whether it was zoned for retail and had suffi cient parking.

Balenciaga recently opened its West Coast fl agship near the future Kitson location on Melrose, Beckley will open this sum-mer and Alberta Ferretti is slated to come. The area already includes John Varvatos, Maxfi eld and H. Lorenzo’s green con-cept store HLNR.

— A.R.K.

By Anne Riley-Katz

BEVERLY HILLS — Miu Miu is back with a new store on Rodeo Drive.The Prada-owned brand’s 3,200-square-foot shop opened Saturday, and marks Miu Miu’s reemergence in

metropolitan Los Angeles two years after closing its boutique on Melrose Avenue, which launched in 2001. “We were not happy with the results on Melrose, and we wanted to be where the other big luxury

brands were — on Rodeo,” said Tomaso Galli, Miu Miu’s head of global communications.

The brand has a long-term lease on the rectangular space, which features 25-foot ceilings and skylights and green silk brocade draping the walls and ceiling — cov-erings that are interchangeable and designed to incor-porate colors from the latest collection. It is Miu Miu’s only West Coast unit.

Referring to the two-year hiatus, Galli said, “Location is everything, and until we have the right location we will always aggressively seek it.”

The space will house an exclusive capsule collec-tion, a mixture of select spring-summer and fall-winter 2008 pieces.

The Rodeo store will carry the full Miu Miu ready-to-wear line as well as handbags and other accessories. Shoes start at $380, jackets and dresses cost as much as $2,500 and purses range from about $1,000 to $2,000.

Representatives said Miu Miu’s coming of age involves more luxe de-sign and fabrics, intended to further develop a luxury customer base. Miu Miu now shows in Paris instead of Milan, which Galli said helped increase perception of the brand as a true luxury player.

Founded by Miuccia Prada in 1993, Miu Miu registered 2007 sales of 223 million euros, or $326 million at current exchange rates, a 50 per-cent increase over the previous year.

Miu Miu has 13 freestanding stores worldwide, including Paris, Milan, London, Hong Kong and two units in New York, as well as plans for a 57th Street fl agship that will open this fall in the space formerly occupied by Jil Sander.

“The economy continues to have its ups and downs; the long-term plans are to continue to grow this brand and follow momentum on a worldwide basis,” Galli said.

The Los Angeles market is a key part of the U.S. sales strategy because of “a very sophisticated clientele living there, there is sig-nifi cant tourism to the area and the presence of an important in-dustry like entertainment,” Galli said. “We had to have a signifi cant presence in L.A.”

By Rachel Brown

Kate Spade is courting Los Angeles shoppers for the first time with its own stores, part of an ambitious

agenda to almost double the accessories brand’s retail doors this year.

Liz Claiborne Inc.-owned Kate Spade’s Southern California retail initiative kicked off May 2 with the open-ing of its 1,100-square-foot store at Caruso Affi liated’s new Americana at Brand lifestyle center in Glendale. That store is to be followed this month by launches at the Westfi eld Century City and The Oaks at Thousand Oaks malls, and on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

“Because of the shopping patterns in the West Coast, a number of neighborhood or micromarket stores help support the customer base there,” said Kate Spade co-president Craig Leavitt. “There is an opportunity for a relatively large number of stores in that marketplace and that is why we are seeing this fl urry of activity in L.A. that will expand to other places in the West Coast.”

Revving up Kate Spade by spreading its retail enter-prise is a risky move in a weakened economy that has hit Southern California especially hard. But Leavitt contended Kate Spade will win over consumers with relevant accessories that don’t have price tags rivaling mortgage payments.

“In this type of economy, it becomes a market share

game,” he said. “While the pie may be getting small-er for the short term, we think that it is important to carve out additional market share, and we think that is through the great product.”

Retail has become an emphasis for Kate Spade, which endured a shake-up of top executives after Claiborne purchased it for $124 million in December 2006. Last year, Kate and Andy Spade, former designer and ceo, re-spectively, left the company they started 15 years ago.

Claiborne hired Deborah Lloyd, who had been Banana Republic’s executive vice president of prod-uct design and development, and Leavitt, who was president of global retail operations at Theory, to be co-presidents, reporting to Claiborne ceo William L. McComb. The two have set out to reinvigorate Kate Spade’s merchandise, often criticized for design stag-nation in the midst of an accessories boom, and quickly build its retail portfolio.

“What you will see for fall and beyond is an evolution of the product that lends some additional sophistication, but at the same time refl ects the whimsical heritage of the brand,” Leavitt said.

Kate Spade is expected to expand to about 50 stores this year from its current total of 26 — and plans at least 40 more by 2010. The brand had four California units — Fashion Island Center in Newport Beach, Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto and two in San Francisco — before launching

at Americana at Brand, and Leavitt indicated that its West Coast presence would be bolstered soon with locations in the San Diego region, Northern California and Portland, Ore.

Co-tenants, demographics and space avail-ability are crucial factors in determining where Kate Spade places stores, Leavitt said. The com-pany scouts malls or lifestyle centers and streets for retailers that attract customers, notably pro-fessional women and non-working women from the 20s to 40-plus with hefty disposable incomes who are good candidates to become devotees.

“Our strategy is to develop stores both in the malls and on the street,” he said. “It is re-ally a way to balance our presentation in the marketplace.”

Kate Spade’s West Coast stores are laboratories for elements of a redesign that is scheduled to roll out in earnest starting next spring. In general,

the stores will be more intimate, averaging 1,500 to 1,700 square feet compared with 2,300 square feet previously, encourage interactivity with lower shelving and fewer items under glass, and have fi tting rooms for the antici-pated launch of Kate Spade apparel collections in 2009.

“What you are seeing is the beginning of the pro-cess of store redesign,” Leavitt said. “Accessible is a key word because we are a company that produces ac-cessible luxury products and that is a key part of that [redesign]. We want to build stores that provide us an opportunity to present additional categories as we layer them on.”

In fi scal 2007, Liz Claiborne reported Kate Spade’s sales averaged $631 a square foot, which Leavitt said is “pretty consistent to where we have been trending” this year. However, he forecast “signifi cant increases in productivity” as Kate Spade’s products progress and the size of its stores shrinks.

Handbags constitute more than half of sales at Kate Spade locations, where the average ticket is in the $250 to $350 range, and are trailed by footwear and small leather goods. About 60 percent of Kate Spade sales now come from its stores, with the rest from wholesal-ing to retailers such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. Kate Spade generated $90.5 million in revenues last year, making it the smallest member of Claiborne’s fam-ily of direct brands that includes Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and Mexx.

Kitson Charts Growth Spurt Lap of Luxury: Miu Miu Launches on Rodeo

Kate Spade Targets L.A. for Retail PushPH

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Miu Miu on Rodeo Drive.

Kate Spade in the Americana at Brand.


TJX Cos. Inc. said Tuesday that fi rst-quarter income increased almost 20

percent as shoppers squeezed by rising gas and food costs and tight credit hunted for lower-priced items.

For the three months ended April 26, income jumped 19.6 percent to $193.8 million, or 11 cents a diluted share, from $162.1 million, or 9 cents, in the same year-ago quarter. The results included a benefi t of $12 million, or 2 cents a share, for certain unanticipated tax-related adjustments, compared with the previ-ous year’s quarter, which had an after-tax charge of $12 million, or 3 cents a share, in connection with a computer data breach. Sales were up 6.2 percent to $4.36 billion from $4.11 billion on a same-store sales gain of 3 percent.

Despite the jump in income, TJX shares fell 4.6 percent Tuesday to close at $30.65 as the retailer only met Wall Street’s expectations.

The discounter, based in Framingham, Mass., operates about 2,600 stores, in-cluding TJ Maxx and Marshalls.

“We once again drove strong sales, mer-chandise margins and profi t growth de-spite the challenges of the consumer envi-ronment and unfavorable weather in the fi rst two months,” said Carol Meyrowitz, president and chief executive offi cer.

As TJX moves into the second quarter, she said the company is “well-positioned to continue to capitalize on merchandise op-portunities” and deliver value to customers.

The company said it expects second-quarter earnings per share in the range of 40 to 42 cents. For the fi scal year end-ing Jan. 31, 2009, TJX said it is maintain-ing its EPS guidance in the range of $2.20 to $2.25.

— Vicki M. Young

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: Another chapter in the drama that is Bonnie Fuller’s career is coming to a close. The tabloid queen gave up her throne at American Media Inc. on Tuesday, stepping down from her post as executive vice president, chief editorial director after fi ve years. The company said that, as of today, Fuller will be an editor at large at Star and a consultant to AMI chief executive offi cer David Pecker. Her job — one that netted Fuller a much-discussed $2 million a year plus benefi ts and perks — will not be fi lled. The editor had another year left on her contract, which was renegotiated in April 2006.

While conspiracy theorists will no doubt have a fi eld day as to the reasons the overtly ambitious Fuller gave in, she insisted the decision to leave was hers and that she had been mulling over quitting for a few weeks. “I felt like I want to go and pursue a new adventure and a new venture,” she told WWD. An AMI spokesman confi rmed “the decision to resign was Bonnie Fuller’s. It was driven by her view that she had accomplished many of the things she has set out to do when she joined AMI in 2003.” Fuller also stressed she has a good working relationship with Pecker.

Fuller at one time was known as an innovator who had her pulse on the tastes and desires of American women. After editing Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Marie Claire, Jann Wenner hired her in 2002 to become editor in chief of Us Weekly, which she successfully reinvented (with much Sturm und Drang among staff) and made into a picture-driven glossy to take on category leader People. “She absolutely gets the credit for changing the game in the celebrity category. Even People owes it to her,” said one former colleague.

However, Fuller — who’s known for getting itchy feet after a while — left

Us in July 2003 just as suddenly as her announcement Wednesday afternoon — AMI’s Pecker poached her with a huge salary package to reinvent the down-market Star into a slick newsstand friendly glossy. But while the strategy worked once at Us, it didn’t quite click at Star in the face of a People revival and continued growth of Us under Fuller acolyte Janice Min. Fuller’s diva-dom wasn’t quite as tolerated in the AMI hallways, and a job that initially was billed as having editorial oversight over all of the company’s weekly tabloid titles essentially shrank to managing Star. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations, single copy sales at Star have slid to around 700,000 from 920,000 in 2004.

A former boss of Fuller’s gave her credit as a brilliant editor, albeit one with faults (and which editor doesn’t have them?). “She did help them successfully reposition Star to a full-fl edged celebrity slick magazine,” the source said. “She did it pretty well, and I think if she had had a good boss, she would have been ahead of Us Weekly by now.”

Speculation in the industry is that Fuller has been looking for a new gig for some

time, leaving her offi ce frequently to take meetings and even trying to lobby television honchos for a job. Fuller, however, said she was “very busy” at AMI in recent months, overseeing the covers each week at Star and redesigning Fit Pregnancy and Country Weekly. More recently, Fuller was rattled by the death of her mother, Tanya, with whom she had a close relationship. “Her mother always told her never leave a good job,” said Donald Robertson, senior vice president, creative development at Estée Lauder, who is a longtime Fuller confi dant and creative director at the magazines she edited.

Though Fuller would not say what she planned on doing in her next act, she did say an announcement on her next project is forthcoming. “She’s always looking for the next thing.” remarked Robertson.

Her former boss added the parting of ways is a win-win for both Pecker and Fuller: “I think that [AMI] couldn’t afford her anymore. Bonnie found another job that she wants to take. Her current contract probably technically says she can’t take it. She probably went to David and said, ‘I haven’t been earning my pay anyway. I have an opportunity I’d like to pursue.’ He said, ‘Yes, but let’s do it in a cosmetic way.’ It’s not a bad day for David or Bonnie.” — Stephanie D. Smith

BREAK OUT THE KNOLL CHAIRS: Remember Wallpaper — that temple to all things sleek, minimal and Swedish? Well, the magazine is trying to step back onto New York’s radar again, with former creative director and newish editor in chief Tony Chambers cohosting his fi rst U.S. event with Jim Gold of Bergdorf Goodman this Friday. Artist Anthony Burrill created four covers of the June issue, which was devoted to the theme of work, and Bergdorf’s men’s store windows will feature displays inspired by the issue. The party also marks the 20th anniversary of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. The magazine is upping its frequency from 10 to 12 issues starting this year, with July and January 2009 issues. — Irin Carmon

MEMO PAD TJX Profi ts Rise 19.6%

Bonnie Fuller

WWD.COM/CLASSIFIEDS

For more career opportunities log on to fashioncareers.com. Call 1.800.423.3314 or e-mail [email protected] to advertise.

100%fashioncareers

100% fashioncareers

For subscriptions, call 800-289-0273

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VP FINANCEPRESTIGE BEAUTY CO.

LA based emerging growth PEbacked beauty company seekshands on VP Finance for mgmt ofday-to-day opps incl. accounting,financial reporting, budgeting andplanning, supervising legal, HR,IT, and OPS. 5+ yrs CPG/beautyexp, req. Must have proven trackrecord of success. Competitivecomp. pkg incl. stock. E-mail to:

[email protected]

ASSIST MANAGERLOS ANGELES, CA.MEN’S HI-END LUXURY RETAIL

2+ YEARS EXP A MUST$50K + BONUS

FULL BENEFITS INCL 401KE-mail: [email protected]

KARLYN FASHION RECRUITERS

SALES REP - WEST COASTWilliam Rast & People’s Liberationis seeking an experienced WestCoast Sales Rep based in L.A.Showroom. 3+ years premiumdenim exp sales w/strong customerrelationships. Travel required.E-mail: [email protected]

SWEET PETITES APPAREL INDEPENDENT SALES REP

New line of active & casual wear forpetites, recently featured on theTODAY Show. Must have establishedcontacts & exp w/activewear. Multipleterritories available. Commission only. Email: [email protected]


COMMERCIALREAL ESTATE

WWD.COM/CLASSIFIEDS

For more career opportunities log on to fashioncareers.com. Call 1.800.423.3314 or e-mail [email protected] to advertise.

Search hundreds of positions infashion, retail and beauty.

FACTORIES WANTEDClothing importer looking for factoriesfor budget knit and woven junior sleepwear. Should be able to handle mediumto large size orders. We are also interestedin ladies sleepwear closeouts.

Please contact [email protected]

Customized KnitwearDesign Studio

High-End CoutureHandknit Swatches, Samples

E-mail: [email protected]

Patterns/Samples/ProductionAny Style. We do Bridal/Evening

Gowns custom made & wholesale.Call: 212-278-0608/646-441-0950

Patterns/Samples/ProductionFull Service, Fine, Fast Work.

Any StyleCall Casey: 212-560-8998 / 212-560-8999

PATTERNS, SAMPLES,PRODUCTIONS

All lines, Any styles. Fine Fast Service.Call Sherry 212-719-0622.

PATTERNS, SAMPLES,PRODUCTIONS

Full service shop to the trade.Fine fast work. 212-869-2699.

www.DigiPhotoGroup.comE-comm/Print Digital/PhotographyRetouching/Rotation Photography

In-House or Outsourced 646-536-3729

CAD for Fashion DesignU4ia for Textile Design

PAD for Fashion Pattern Design Photoshop/Illustrator TrainingDreamweaver/Flash Training

212.465.8833500 8th ave, 4FL

XINCON.COM

#1 Fashion Resume ExpertStaff Thru Executive-Wholesale/Retail

Free Evaluation - Lifetime UpdatesGILBERT CAREER RESUMES

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JOBBER/EXPORTERWe buy better goods. All categories,

including fabrics. Immediate $$.Please call 212-279-1902

1407 BROADWAYSHOWROOMS/OFFICES

TREBOR MGMTBob Forman 212-944-6094 x 314

SHOWROOM TO SHAREHigh-end luxury Italian shoe & hand-bag brand is seeking to sublet/shareshowroom space within multi-brandhigh-end/ready to wear/accessories.

Please Call 917-325-5286.

RETAIL SPACE FOR LEASE 4800 sf Prime Space

1st Block Newbury St. BostonSunny Side, Great Window

Call Tom Brennan: 617-536-4655

STORE FOR RENT

Heart of Garment District38th St. Betw. 6th & B’way

3,000 Sq. Ft. plus basement.Call Jeff Buslik:

ADAMS & CO [email protected]

Accounting AssociateInt’l textile co seeks highly motivatedindiv who is organized, computerliterate with excellent comm skills.Accounting exp in garment & textileindustry pref’d. Company paid benefits.Fax resume to: 212-209-4405 or E-mailto [email protected]

ADMIN ASSISTANTAdmin assistant/bookkeeper needed toassist growing supplier of luxurybedding. Based in our NY showroom,winning candidate must be proficientin Quickbooks, Excel & Word andhave 5+ years exp w/ a mfg firm.Competitive salary & benefits w/advancement opportunities. Pleasee-mail resume to [email protected].

AR COLLECTIONS COORD.Apparel Co. seeks individual for A/Rcollections & reconciling deductions.Responsible for resolutions of customerdiscrepancies incl. returns, shortages,POD’s, chargebacks etc. Competitivesalary/good benefits. E-mail resume andsalary reqs to: [email protected]

Vice President of Retail OperationsThe icon of the American epicurean experience seeks a premiere lead-er for its retail operations group. Must be both strategic & hands-on.

In addition, our expansion plans require us to consider highly qualifiedexternal candidates for General Manager, Assistant GM, ExecutiveChef, Director of Food Operations, Buyer, and other key positions.Must be willing to relocate.

Submit your resume and salary history in confidence to:[email protected] EOE

Men’s Outerwear Freelance DesignerSeeking freelance talented designer with extensive high-end experience. Must be capable to develop from concept to sample, strong color sense,

excellent creativity and best knowledge of fabric. Capable to guide ourdesign team. E-mail resume to: [email protected]

ASSISTANT DESIGNEREstablished, fast-paced private labelcompany is looking for an Assistantlevel Designer w/ a degree in FashionDesign. Must be able to work inde-pendently, possess great followthrough skills and have the ability toflat sketch & illustrate. The ideal can-didate will have experience in bothwovens and knits, with focus onprint/embroidery development. Profi-ciency in Illustrator and Photoshoprequired. Fax Resume Attention: NT(212) 302-1856

ASSISTANT DESIGNER To work w/estab’d co. Must be a selfstarter, organized & have ability tomulti task. Must have a degree inFashion Design & 1-2yrs. working ex-perience. Duties will include prepar-ing Tech Packs, Specing, Line Sheets,Presentation Boards, Sketching, etc..Must know Illustrator/Photoshop Pro-grams, Visual 2000 a plus. Pls. faxresume to: (646) 674-1190 attn: Genaro

ASSISTANT NEEDEDTo work w/estab’d co. Duties: sales,buying. admin. Must be organ, ind.,energetic go-getter with some fashionind. exper. Perf for someone breakinginto the biz. Flex hrs, PT/Fulltime. Salopen. Resume to [email protected].

BRIDAL FITTERSeeking an experienced. Bridal Fitterfor high volume Couture Bridal Storein Staten Island. Bridal exp. a must.Fax: 718-980-1169 / Tel: [email protected]

CAD

Sr. Cad Artist/Color PrintTo work with Director to create printsand manage color and print approvalprocess. Must be a U4ia power userwith an eye for color/print trend. Abilityto communicate effectively with overseasoffice on a daily basis req’d. Only can-didates able to multi task at a fast paceneed apply. Send resume to:

[email protected]

CHILDREN’S DESIGNERChildren’s wear company seeks quali-fied designer with boys/girls exp. Pro-ficient in Illus/Photo/Colour Matters &must know garment specs. Be detailed &a fast worker w/ knowledge of garmentconstruction, fabric content and printingtechniques. Must be fluent in English.

Fax resume Attn: Kitty: 212-997-9252

Customer Service $40K-$45KTrim Manager $50K-$80KPlanners $60K-$120KDesigners $60K-$200KMerchandisers $75K-$85K

Freelance and Fulltime positionsavailable!!!

Please email resumes to:[email protected] freelance opportunities:

[email protected]

DESIGN ASSISTANTMajor apparel company seeks organizedteam player with excellent communi-cation skills to assist head designer ofladies sportswear and dresses. Responsi-bilities include tech packs and sketchingas well as tracking production samplesand piece goods. Experience with Illus-trator and Photoshop necessary. Workingknowledge of a design and sampleroom. E-mail resumes to:

[email protected]

DESIGN COORDINATORNeeded for infant apparel co. musthave min. 2 yr. exp. Well organized &highly motivated. Expected to do designwork as well as coordinate projects.Adobe Ill. and Photoshop exp. a must.E-mail resume to: [email protected]

Design Director $150KMust have Mens Luxury Director Exp

E-mail: [email protected] FASHION RECRUITERS

DESIGNER $125-150kCurrent exp in Jr. denim bottoms.

Creative. From inception to [email protected] 973-564-9236

DESIGNER/BRIDALAnd/Or EVENING WEAREstablished bridal company seeksbridal and/or evening wear de sign-er with min 3-5 yrs design experience.Must be proactive, self starter and de-tail oriented team player. Strong color

sense; knowledge of fabrics/trims;trends. Excellent opportunity. Pleaseemail resume & if available portfolioto: [email protected], or Faxresume to 212.874.6018 Attn: Jenny

DESIGNER - INTIMATESPart or full time. Experienced, proficientin Photoshop & Illustrator. Strong colorsense. Fax/Email Linda: 212-532-8707

[email protected]

DESIGNERPastry Apparel seeks creative juniordesigner who lives and breathes fashionto create monthly capsules of hip juniorcontemporary product

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:*Develop and design fashionable juniorsportswear collection, including fabrics,artwork, trims, and worksheets.*Work with graphic team, product devel-opment team, sample room and spectechnician to develop each style*Create and maintain technical packagesand sketches and maintain library

QUALIFICATIONS:*3-5 years experience in junior market,with extensive Adobe background.*Basic fabric knowledge and garmentconstruction.Background in denim and woven bottomdesign E-mail resumes to:

[email protected]

DESIGNERWOVEN/TEXTILES

For men’s & women’s imported fabri-cation. CAD experience helpful. Colorsense & styling capabilities important.Able to merchandise product lines andcreate focused storyboards. Salarycommensurate w/ exp. Company paidbenefits. Fax resume: (212) 209-4406 orE-mail to: [email protected]

FASHION CAREER OPPORTUNITIESIleen Raskin, Apparel 212-213-6381Nancy Bottali, Accessories 212-213-6386Ed Kret, Textiles/Apparel 212-213-6384

[email protected]

First Patternmaker/DraperMajor eveningwear manufacturerseeks draper to work with designer tocreate muslin/first pattern in domesticsampleroom. Capable of working withsamplehands to create finished gar-ments. Working knowledge of produc-tion techniques. Send resume in confi-dence to [email protected]

FOLEY + CORINNAExperienced Handbag DesignerNeeded. Only handbag designers withmin.5 years exp. need apply. Sketch-ing, designing, communicating withfactories both in US and overseas,computer proficient. Please sendcover letter, and resume,along withPDF ’s of portfolio/samples of flatsketches. [email protected]

Graphic ArtistFast paced private label co. seeks a crea-tive Graphic Artist with an excellentcommand of Illustrator & Photoshop andis MAC efficient. We are looking for ateam player to work with the Art Director& merchandising team to create screenedtees in boys’, young men’s, and ladies’size ranges, contribute fresh ideas, andcommunicate with our factories. E-mailresume with 3-5 samples of your workto: [email protected]

GRAPHIC ARTISTMajor apparel co seeks graphic artistfor men’s "skate & surf" hot brand. Re-sponsibilities include researching trendtechnique and direction, designingtheme graphics as directed by designer,designing trims, and designing artwork& tech packs. E-mail resumes to :

[email protected]

15WWD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008

Denim Sportswear Companyseeks the following positions:TECHNICAL DESIGNER

Seeking expert in spec/fit/garmentconstruction. Minimum 3 yearsexperience. Computer literate +Illustrator skills.PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Seeking person experienced inkids bottoms, detail oriented,organized individual. Qualified can-didate will have good understandingof garment construction, monitoringall approvals, Time and Actionplan to maintain deliveries. BilingualChinese a+ Friendly workingenvironment and excellent compa-ny benefits. E-mail resumes:[email protected]

Import Customer Service $30KStrong data entry, Excel & goodCommunication skills required.Opportunity for advancement.

e-mail: [email protected] FASHION RECRUITERS

* JOBS *JOBS *JOBS *Artist Girls- Boys-Jrs. - Mens- $HIArtist Boys 4 - 7 Licensed Characters $HI Designer-Assist-Assoc Boy-Girl-Jr.Product Manager or Coord - Apparel Exp Product Mgr or Coord-Sports License ApparelProduction Mgr-Assist-Coordinators-$HISales - Girls 4/16 Denim i.e. Shopco Technical Designer & Assistants $HICall B. Murphy(212)643-8090; fax 643-8127

OFFICE MGRExp. to handle all aspects and assistmultiple depts. Small, but fast-paced,high profile, company. Will req. longhr and wkends during high season.Email resume: [email protected]

PATTERNMAKER - 1stLuxury women’s apparel companyseeks a 1st patternmaker with expertisein women’s tailored clothing. Must beable to create from sketch and drape.Please fax resume to : 212 -869-5795

PROD’N MGRS SWEATER/KNITS $90K(2) Better Young Contemp Designer

[email protected] or 212-947-3400

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTContemporary Apparel/Denim Co.seeks a highly motivated/detailed ori-ented individual to oversee all aspectsof production. Responsibilities in-clude: communicate daily withdesign/sales/factory & delivery track-ing. Exceptional communication andfollow-up skills a must. Some over-seas travel may be required. Emailresume to [email protected]

Regional Visual ManagerChristian Dior, Inc. seeks aRegional Visual Mgr with a3-5 yr experienced profilein high end luxury retail.Based in NY. Must travel.

Production Coord $45-55KMust have 3-5 years experience in

Home, Accessories or Toys.Benefits & 401K.

e-mail: [email protected] FASHION RECRUITERS

Production Coord $55K2-3yrs exp in SWEATERS a must

E-mail: [email protected] FASHION RECRUITERS

Production ManagerTailored clothing company seekingexperienced, highly motivated,detailed orientated Production Manag-er. Candidate will be responsible tomanage all aspects of the productioncycle. This position is an excellent op-portunity for someone with 5-7 yearsexperience. Asian exp preferred.

Please send resumes to:[email protected]

SALESPERSONHot branded jr & girls 7-14 seeks a

dynamic sales exec w/ min 5 yrs exp w/major retailers. Fax resume 212-944-6462

Seeking CoutureDesign Room Asst

Must have strong technical skills• Draping from sketch• Patternmaking• Grading experience required• Knowledge of garment constructionFax: 212-242-2687 Call: 212-242-7510

[email protected]

SPEC TECHChildren’s Sleepwear

Seeking candidate with 3-5 years expand knowledge of Children’s sleepweargarments and specs. Responsible fordaily communication with factories,conducting fittings and translatingchanges into the necessary specifica-tions. Understanding of Flame RetardantRegulations a must. Strong follow-upand computer skills needed. Qualifiedcandidates, please forward resumeswith salary requirements toHenry/Jenny at: 212-842-4030 or e-mailto: [email protected]. EOE

ACCESSORIES DESIGNERSeeking dynamic, creative, fasttrack accessories designer forhigh profile, contemporary fashionand licensed brands. Must beproficient in Photoshop & Illustratorand have 5 years of experience.Travel, Great Benefits.

Please e-mail resume to:[email protected]

TECHNICAL DESIGNERBe expd in intimates/foundations

CREATIVE CONNECTIONS AGENCYPh: 212-563-5930 Fx: 212-563-6086

e-mail: [email protected]

Technical DesignerMissy sportswear company seeks techdesigner with min 5yrs exp. Must behighly organized and detail-oriented increating spec packs, QC & daily commwith overseas as well as private labelaccounts. Extensive knowledge of Excel,garment construction, pattern-making,fit, technical sketching and grading amust. Salary commensurate with exp.Email resume: [email protected]

"Technically" Speaking“On the Marks” has many long andshort-term positions for TECHNICALDESIGNERS. Cad and Web PDM aplus. Additionally, we are currentlyrecruiting for PATTERNMAKERS,PRODUCTION COORDINATORS andASSISTANT BUYERS.

Please email your resume tojackie@otmaa or fax to 212-532-6892.

Textile Cad ArtistExpert in Photoshop 2 + years

exp, textile design skills a must.Sal + ben. Fax resume 212-947-4501

Email: [email protected]

WHOLESALEOPERATIONS ASST

High-end/Contemporary designer linein-search of an assistant operationshandler. Coordinate and liaison withwholesale sales offices directly andhandle as an account executive issues -such as sales follow ups and communi-cation with showroom and buying offi-ces. Logistics coordination duties willneed to be handled with coordinatinglogistics department. Training ingeneral overall operations duties withpotential of becoming an operationsmanager. Seeking highly motivatedself starter that would like to join afast growing company with vastgrowth potential. The candidate mustbe able to work in fast paced environ-ment, highly organized, detailed andarticulate. Fluency in Korean wouldbe a plus, but not necessary. Entrylevel to 1 year experience is OK.E-mail resumes and salary require-ments to: [email protected]

Sales AssistantMaker of apparel trim seeks sales as-sistant in NYC. New showroom,exciting opportunity. Trim experiencea plus. Must be computer literate,eager to learn, motivated and have expworking with designers, productionstaff, and purchasing agents. Resumeand Salary history to: 973-777-2739.

SALES ASSISTANTRapidly growing Junior Apparel Com-pany seeks motivated assistant tosupport sales execs, follow up on buyercommunications, & other administrativeduties. Must be dependable, flexible,able to multi-task, and have strongorganizational skills. Great opportunityfor growth. Please email resume to:[email protected]

SALES EXECUTIVECalifornia based clothing manufacturerlooking for a dynamic NYC BasedSales Executive with a minimum of 5-7years experience working with majorretailers (such as Kohl’s & JC Penney)related to the placement of moderatelypriced Misses and Women’s Plus SizeSportswear. Travel, while desireable,is not required. Pls e-mail resumes:

[email protected]

GANT Women’s Sr. Acct Exec

Sales ManagerAuthentic American lifestyle brand isseeking experienced candidates to joinour New York showroom team. Candi-dates should be enthusiastic, highlymotivated and have strong communi-cation skills. Must have a min of 5 yrsexperience in the better sportswear in-dustry and established contacts in thebetter specialty/department store arena.

Please send resume in confidence andsalary history to [email protected]

SALES EXECUTIVELA based High-end Lingerie Companyseeks aggressive & exp’d person inLingerie market. Must have establishedAcct’s & Relationships with majorchain-stores. Fax resume:310-470-9650/E-mail: [email protected]

SALESPERSONFast paced established intimate apparelco. Seeks sales rep to open up chainstores & specialty retail accts. Highlylucrative comp plan available. [email protected] F:206-426-0950

SALESPremium denim brand with patentedconcept in denim market: Seeks ag-gressive & exp’d person in denim mar-ket. Must have established accts & re-lationships w/ major retailer & specialtyStores. Fax resume: 310-470-9650 orE-mail [email protected]

SALES REPSEst. Leather & Shearling OuterwearMfr. seeks Exp. Sales Reps who havecontacts with Dept. Stores and allaccounts. Commission based. E-mailto: [email protected]

SLS / SLS MGMT - HI$TARGET KIDSWEAR

Est’d Kidswear co seeks "heavy hitter"w/ on-going Target connection for diversebranded and P/L product.

A.D. FORMAN ASSOC.450 7TH AVE (AGCY) 212-268-6123

SALES EXECUTIVENYC based premium denimcompany seeks talented salesexecutives for both our NYand LA showrooms. Min of3-5 yrs exp working w/ betterretailers. Salary + comm.

***EXCELLENT BENEFITS***Email: [email protected]

Top Sales ConsultantMust have strong contacts

with better majors. E-mail resume to:[email protected]

Y E O H L E ESENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Position offers growth opportunity in acreative and challenging environment.Candidate must have an internationaldesigner background with establisheddesigner-level store contacts. Travelrequired. Email letter and resume [email protected]

Global Sourcing AndProduction Executive

Accomplished money making execseeks new opportunity w/estab importcompany. Extensive exp managing allaspects of ladies, Jrs and kids produc-tion, world wide sourcing, costing andproduct development. Total under-standing of mass market (Walmart),mid-tier and private label vendor com-pliance procedures. Please reply to:917.572.2383/[email protected]

Tech DesignerWith patternmaking exp. Karat, Web

Pdm seeking PT or Fulltime. George917-696-5714 or [email protected]

Please Fax resume to:(917) 463-1038 or E-mail:[email protected]

E O E

Next Issue: June 26

Space Close: May 29

Bonus Distribution: Bread & Butter

Who’s Next Pitti Uomo

MAGIC Project Las Vegas

THE FUTURE OF CUTTING-EDGE

INTERNATIONAL STYLE IS HERE NOW

For more information on advertising in WWD, contact Christine Guilfoyle, publisher, at 212-630-4737, or your WWD representative.WWD Style Starts Here™

PHOTO BY LACEY

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