By JOELLE DIDERICH AND MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Blue Steel is back.Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson confi rmed they were

reprising their roles as male models Derek Zoolander and Hansel McDonald (see below) in a sequel to the cult comedy “Zoolander” with a surprise appearance at Paris Fashion Week. The pair emerged at the end of the Valentino show and strutted down the catwalk to the sound of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me,” throwing the signature Blue Steel look at camer-as and prompting loud cheers from editors and celeb-rity guests including Kate Mara, Olivia Palermo and

Nicky Hilton. (See the review of the Valentino show, page 7.)

On their way back, they both dramatical ly dropped their coats on the run-way, with Stiller grabbing a cell-phone from a front-row guest and filming

himself. The actors made a quick exit after the show, avoiding waiting photographers and press.

Later in the evening, Stiller told WWD that fi lming starts in Rome on April 7, and that the seven-year-old Valentino documentary, “The Last Emperor,” inspired him to fi lm the sequel in the Eternal City. “Rome is the most cinematic environment,” the actor said.

According to a tweet from Paramount Pictures, the fi lm will be released on Feb. 12, 2016. Ignazio Marino, the mayor of Rome, posed alongside Stiller in photos

Café du Mode

WWD

PHOTO BY STÉPHANE FEUGÈRE

By DAVID MOIN

THE NEIMAN MARCUS GROUP likes the look of European fashion and is hoping for a much-needed lift in ready-to-wear sales.

“We believe there is going to be a reason to buy ready-to-wear. We feel pretty positive about the kinds of trends we are seeing,” Karen Katz, NMG’s presi-dent and chief executive offi cer, said from Paris dur-ing a conference call recapping the company’s second fi scal quarter and plans.

“Going into the spring season, we are probably as excited as we have been in a number of seasons about the big fashion change,” Katz said. “There is a big movement of this bohemian look. The Seventies, as a reference period, are all over the runways. We do be-lieve the kinds of ready-to-wear we are seeing on the runway, the kind of shoes, are things customers don’t necessarily have in her closets. There’s a completely different pant silhouette.

“There are just different fashion trends than we have seen in the past couple of years. For our fashion customer, we believe there is going to be a reason for her to buy ready-to-wear. We think it’s re-fl ected in our designer ready-to-wear business. We are having one of the better seasons we’ve had in the last number of seasons.”

If her prediction proves true, it will mark the reversal of a slide in designer rtw sales that has plagued retailers for the last few years. Women in-stead opted fi rst for handbags and shoes and, most recently, for fi ne jewelry. The decline left retailers bemoaning the lack of newness in the market.

SEE PAGE 10

IN PRAISE OF SPRING

NMG Hopes SeasonWill Kick-start Rtw

Fashion Is a Zoo:‘Zoolander 2’ Set

SEE PAGE 11

Karl Lagerfeld all but slung a crisp white napkin over his forearm as he welcomed guests to the banquette-lined Brasserie Gabrielle — a vast stage set inside the Grand Palais — where over croissants and sips of bubbly his patrons were treated to a powerful, textural, tweedy Chanel collection that satisfi ed on all counts. For more from Paris, see pages 6 to 9.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

THE ALLIANCE AND THE ACCORD ARE WORKING TOGETHER MORE AS THEY

SEEK TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS IN THE BANGLADESH APPAREL SECTOR. PAGE 4

GETTING CLOSER NATIONAL PRIDE

BRUNELLO CUCINELLI SAID THERE ARE “WINDS OF CHANGE” IN ITALY AS HIS FIRM REPORTED A 7.5 PERCENT GROWTH IN PROFITS. PAGE 2

PARIS

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DOWN TEXAS WAYA CHAT WITH TAISSA FARMIGA ABOUT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST, AND SOME OF THE STANDOUT

MOVIES AT THE FESTIVAL. PAGE 12

Café du Mode

WWD

PHOTO BY STÉPHANE FEUGÈRE

Karl Lagerfeld all but slung a crisp white napkin over his forearm as he welcomed guests to the banquette-lined Brasserie Gabrielle — a vast stage set inside the Grand Palais — where over croissants and sips of bubbly his patrons were treated to a powerful, textural, tweedy Chanel collection that satisfi ed on all counts. For more from Paris, see pages 6 to 9.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

PARIS

WWD.COM2

By WWD STAFF

NEW YORK — A memorial service for John B. Fairchild will be held April 21 at 2 p.m. at Saint Thomas Church here. The church is located at 1 West 53rd Street at Fifth Avenue.

Fairchild died Feb. 27 at age 87 after a long ill-ness. The former chair-man and editorial director of Fairchild Publications, Mr. Fairchild — as he was

most often known — turned Women’s Wear Daily from a stodgy trade publication into a must-read among not only the fashion set but the worlds of society, the arts and business, and also founded W and M magazines.

Above all, he played an integral role in developing the modern fashion indus-try by bringing designers out from the anonymity of the ateliers’ back rooms and turning them into world-wide celebrities.

WWD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015

The Neiman Marcus Group likes the look of European fashion and is hoping for a much-needed lift in its ready-to-wear sales. PAGE 1

In a stunning finish at Valentino’s fall show, Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander and Owen Wilson as Hansel settled their walk off once and for all. PAGE 1

There could be a thaw taking place between the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. PAGE 4

Bonobos’ sister brand Ayr will undergo its first significant wholesale expansion, entering some Nordstrom locations this week. PAGE 4

The battle to close what many advocates say is an Internet sales tax loophole was revived once more on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. PAGE 4

Gucci is coming to New York. The Italian brand is planning an event on June 4 to show its cruise collection under the new creative direction of Alessandro Michele. PAGE 9

Schiaparelli is reportedly in talks to bring on Bertrand Guyon, a seasoned couture designer currently at Valentino, as its creative director. PAGE 9

According to Forbes’ 29th Annual The World’s Billionaires List, the fashion and retail industry is one of the most lucrative sectors. PAGE 10

Funeral services were held today in Boston for Walter J. Salmon, a Harvard Business School professor who died Sunday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at age 84. PAGE 11

South by Southwest began as a quaint music festival. It’s since mushroomed into a smorgasbord of TED-style talks, concerts, parties and must-see events. PAGE 12

ON WWD.COM

PARIS THEY ARE WEARING: Statement outerwear was the predominant fashion story in Paris as brisk temperatures hit the fashion capital. For more, see WWD.com.

TO E-MAIL REPORTERS AND EDITORS AT WWD, THE ADDRESS IS FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME@FAIRCHILDFASHION.COM, USING THE INDIVIDUAL’S NAME. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF FAIRCHILD PUBLISHING, LLC. COPYRIGHT ©2014 FAIRCHILD PUBLISHING, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. VOLUME 209, NO. 50. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015. WWD (ISSN 0149-5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in March, June, August, September, October, November and December, and two additional issues in April and three additional issues in February) by Fairchild Media, LLC, which is a division of Penske Business Media, LLC. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 11175 Santa Monica Blvd., 9th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WWD, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA, 51593. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA, 51593, call 866-401-7801, or e-mail customer service at wwdPrint@cdsfulfillment.com. Please include both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. For New York Hand Delivery Service address changes or inquiries, please contact Mitchell’s NY at 1-800-662-2275, option 7. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. We reserve the right to change the number of issues contained in a subscription term and/or the way the product is delivered. Address all editorial, business and production correspondence to WWD, 475 Fifth Ave., 15th Floor, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656, or fax request to 212-630-5883. For reprints, please e-mail FFM_Reprints@pmc.com or call Wright’s Media 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please e-mail FFM_Contenlicensing@pmc.com or call 800-897-8666. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Media, LLC magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.wwd.com/subscriptions. WWD IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WWD IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

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Cucinelli Profits Rise 7.5 Percent

Target Eliminates 1,700 Positions

John B. Fairchild Memorial Set

By ARNOLD J. KARR

TARGET CORP. CHIEF executive officer Brian Cornell wasted little time in delivering the job cuts he outlined to investors last week.

Target Tuesday informed 1,700 employees that their positions were being eliminated as part of a plan, disclosed at the company’s investor confer-ence on March 3, to cut about $2 billion in costs over the next two years. Included in the cuts would be “several-thousand positions,” Target said, de-clining to be more specific.

In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday, Target said the first round of cuts would result in severance costs of about $100 million, “all of which are expected to require cash expenditures.” Those expenses will be booked as a pretax charge in Target’s financial re-sults for the first quarter ending May 2.

It didn’t disclose the effective date of the termi-nations or the distribution of cuts throughout its organization, which are expected to be focused on jobs at its Minneapolis headquarters.

The workforce reductions are one part of a transformation of the business being undertaken by Cornell, who succeeded Gregg Steinhafel as chair-man and chief executive officer of Target in August. Among its priorities are a greater focus on a “chan-nel-agnostic approach” to its business, investments in technology to support digital growth and an em-phasis on its apparel business and newer store for-mats, such as TargetExpress and CityTarget.

Target estimated at its conference that capital expenditures during the current year would total between $2 billion and $2.2 billion, including a $1 billion investment in technology and supply chain.

Steinhafel resigned in May following a data breach that took a serious bite out of Target’s holi-day 2013 sales. Fourth-quarter comparable sales fell 2.5 percent and the company lost nearly $1 bil-lion for the full year on its failed entry into Canada. The Canadian operation was closed and its assets placed under bankruptcy protection in January with associated pretax losses for fiscal 2014 total-ing $5.1 billion.

Shares of Target slipped 1.2 percent to $77.67 in New York Stock Exchange trading Tuesday.

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — Brunello Cucinelli believes winds of change are sweeping through Italy and Europe — “a very dif-ferent and improved air, compared with a year ago.”

The Italian entrepreneur was speaking after his luxury goods company reported year-end re-sults. Higher sales and growth in both its retail and wholesale channels helped Brunello Cucinelli SpA see net profit in 2014 rise 7.5 percent to 31.8 mil-lion euros, or $42.3 million, compared with 29.6 mil-lion euros, or $39 million, in 2013. In the 12 months ended Dec. 31, revenues gained 10.4 percent to 355.9 million euros, or $473.3 million at average exchange, compared with 322.5 million euros, or $425.7 million, in the previous year.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed 8.4 percent to 63 million euros, or $83.8 million.

Cucinelli, chairman and chief executive officer of the firm, said the group is “in the midst of a de-velopment path in Italy and abroad, with excellent results in terms of both revenues and margins. We consider this latest year as a ‘fundamental’ year for the image of our business.”

He touted the brand’s “clear positioning at the highest end of luxury as well as the distinctive fea-tures” of the collections and their “craftsmanship, modernity, style and quality.

“The above can be said also of our latest fall col-lections. Since all orders have already been placed by now, we can already guess that the trend can con-tinue at the same pace this year too, reaching dou-ble-digit growth of our revenues,” the ceo added.

Cucinelli said that this “is a favorable time for our Italy, too. The weaker euro will support our exports, the large quantity of cash injected by the ECB [European Central Bank] into our economies will support credit flows to businesses, the reforms of our government are on the right track and as our nation is a manufacturing country, we can envisage a new thriving time ahead.”

During a conference call with analysts, Cucinelli said this was the third year since the company’s

initial public offering and that he was “very, very happy” with being a public company. “We are stron-ger, more international and more supported.”

Sales in international markets rose 12.4 percent, accounting for 80.8 percent of total revenues.

Sales in the U.S. rose 12.7 percent to 122.9 mil-lion euros, or $163.4 million, representing 34.5 percent of the total. Europe gained 8.2 percent to 116.7 million euros, or $155.2 million, representing 32.8 percent of revenues, lifted by tourism. Greater China jumped 32.7 percent to 20.9 million euros, or $27.8 million, accounting for 5.9 percent of total sales. The performance was favored by the conver-sion of three boutiques in Hong Kong at the begin-ning of October 2013 into wholly owned units.

The Rest of the World grew 16.6 percent to 27 million euros, or $36 million, representing 7.6 percent of sales, lifted by the conversion of three wholesale boutiques and 13 hard shops in depart-ment stores to directly operated stores in Japan, carried out in September. The Italian market posted a 2.7 percent growth in sales to 68.5 million euros, or $91.1 million, accounting for 19.2 percent of rev-enues. Referring to Russia, Cucinelli said that or-ders for spring “held up” and that he saw no change for the fall season, despite the fact that the company has no directly operated store in the region.

The group’s retail channel rose 28.6 percent, while wholesale monobrand gained 14.3 percent, ex-cluding the conversions to the direct channel, while the wholesale multibrand division rose 1.5 percent.

As of Dec. 31, the monobrand network was made up of 105 stores, compared with 98 at the end of the previous year.

The company confirmed nine openings al-ready formally contracted for 2015. Of these, Frankfurt and Singapore opened earlier this year. Other key openings include units in Tokyo, Monte Carlo, Vancouver, Honolulu’s Ala Moana, and Düsseldorf, said Cucinelli. During the call, he underscored rising rents, citing, for example, Madison Avenue, now at 5 million euros, or about $5.5 million at current exchange, compared with 1.4 million euros in 2007, or Los Angeles, where rents have risen fourfold.

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

They Are Wearing: Paris Fashion Week. For more, see WWD.com.

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John B. Fairchild, 1970

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Women everywhere are leaning in, shaking up the status quo, and leading the way forward. Join us in Austin as we celebrate Noisemakers in technology, fashion, film, music, food, business, and art. Follow the action at #NMMakeSomeNoise

W E D N E S DAY, M A RC H 1 8Special Appearances by:• Zuzu Perkal, Artist• Natasha Case, Cofounder of CoolhausMusical Performances by Atlantic Records Artists:• Jess Glynne• The Knocks• DJ: Jilly Hendrix

T H U R S DAY, M A RC H 1 9Featured Speakers:• Freida Pinto, Actress, Advocate and Activist• Jenna Bush Hager, NBC’s Today Contributing Correspondent • Dyllan McGee, Founder of McGee Media, Founder/Executive

Producer of MAKERS• Shiza Shahid, Cofounder/Global Ambassador of The Malala Fund• Katherine Keating, CEO/Executive Producer of Keating

Company International• Gracie Schram, Singer/Songwriter, TED Speaker and PhilanthropistMusical Performances by Atlantic Records Artists:• Clean Bandit• Night Terrors of 1927• Kaleo• Anderson East• Max Frost• DJ: emmieshouse

F R I DAY, M A RC H 2 0Featured Speakers:• Laura Dern, Academy Award–nominated Actress and Humanitarian• Katie Lee, Chef, Author and Co-host of Food Network’s The Kitchen• Rebecca Minkoff, Designer and Businesswoman• Lizzy Plapinger, Musician MS MR and Co-owner/Founder of

Neon Gold Records• Audrey Gelman, Political and Brand Communications Consultant• Rosario Dawson, Actress and PhilanthropistMusical Performances by Atlantic Records Artists:• Marina and The Diamonds• Milo Greene• Melanie Martinez• Christine and The Queens• Meg Mac• DJ: emmieshouse

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Ayr Expands Wholesale Reach, Tests Home Try-on

Bangladesh Accord and Alliance: Playing NiceBy Mayu Saini

THERE COuLD BE a thaw tak-ing place between the accord on Fire and Building Safety and the alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.

The bitterness and rivalry between the accord and the alliance, the two groups of brands and retailers that are working to improve factory condi-tions and worker safety in the na-tion’s apparel industry, appeared insurmountable on the ground over the past year. This was even though their fundamental agen-das were the same: To make the industry safer and more sustain-able after the collapse at the eight story building Rana Plaza in april 2012, in which more than 1,130 workers were killed.

But in the last few weeks it appears that the ice between the two groups is melting, and government officials in Dhaka as well as factory owners said they can feel a palpable change.

“it’s true that we are work-ing closer together these days,” said ian Spalding, adviser to the alliance, which represents 28 brands and retailers includ-ing Target Corp., VF Corp., Wal-Mart Stores inc. and Gap inc. that source from about 587 fac-tories in Bangladesh.

On Thursday, the two are set to take a major stride forward with a joint request to the Bangladesh government for quicker decisions as they set out on new pilot pro-grams for worker safety.

“The application to the Bangladesh government is to take forward the issue of imple-mentation of the occupational

safety and health committees for workers,” Rob Wayss, execu-tive director of the accord, said. The accord is a consortium of unions and 190 European and north american retailers and brands, which source from 1,446 factories in Bangladesh.

as the factory inspections have been completed by both groups — by the alliance in July 2014 and the accord in September 2014 — they have moved onto the second step, which includes the process of remediation, as factory own-ers fix the plants that have been inspected. The second phase also includes the formation of safety and health committees at the factory level. These are sched-uled to begin with pilot pro-grams in the coming months.

Government rules on the implementation of the com-mittees appear to be unclear, and Thursday’s joint let-ter aims for more clarity on the matter. Wayss noted the importance of government participation. “The election of worker representatives is going to be a sensitive subject, i think, and requires a prominent role by the govern-ment. The government should be the one to publish the rules on labor law, how the elections are going to be held, oversee those elections and serve the regula-tory functions if there are any ir-regularities in the elections. it’s important for the government of Bangladesh to step up and do that,” he said.

Spalding explained that the alliance also has been pushing behind the scenes for the gov-ernment to finalize the imple-mentation regulations.

“it is taking a long time to finalize. The joint letter to the government is our collective way of trying to push,” he said, adding that the intention is to continue to move forward with several pilot programs regard-ing the committees. “Our pi-lots are really focused on one with the international Labor Organization’s Better Work program, another with Sai Bangladesh and Rapid Results institute. a third will be with some of the trade unions we are working with. The goal of all three will be to experiment with different ways to building up the

capacity to establish democratic elected representatives as part of the committee,” he said.

The two groups are working together in other ways. Spalding said the additional collabora-tions included sharing inspec-tion reports, corrective action plans and joint meetings.

Reports of discord between the accord and the alliance have been widespread over the last year, but it has also been apparent that they share a com-mon goal. There have been extensive negotiations about structural safety measures, such

as column strength; fire safety measures — such as the need for fire doors and sprinklers — and electrical safety, includ-ing issues related to wiring and safety sockets. Talks concerning these issues also have involved the other stakeholders, includ-ing the government, the iLO and the Bangladesh university of Engineering and Technology.

Over the last eight months, another important issue was the duplication of inspections in about 300 shared factories where brands from both the accord and alliance have production. The accord later agreed to avoid du-

plication in the factories that had already been inspected by the alliance. The issues of fixing these factories also appears to have generated more cooperation as financ-ing the remediation becomes a bigger issue. Officials from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters association have estimated that this would cost an esti-mated $250,000 per factory, or $3 billion collectively.

a bigger issue facing both sides has been the unstable situ-ation caused by blockades in the country over the last two months.

“Our inspectors are able to travel mostly on the weekends and in limited capacities for inspec-tions and factory visits slowing down the process of factory visits and discussions,” Wayss said.

Estimates from the BGMEa are that $20 million has been lost by factories in a two-week period alone, as factories run below capacity, struggle with shipments and global retail-ers curtail travel plans and

meetings. “The supply chain in the country has been se-riously disrupted due to the ongoing violence,” said Kazi akram uddin ahmed, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and industry.

The accord still has further inspections — the factories that were added by signatory com-panies to the accord list after aug. 15, 2014, were not included in the initial round and were scheduled for inspections start-ing January 2015. Meanwhile, the accord has received 900 cor-rective action plans from fac-tories with support from signa-tory companies and has posted more than 500 online. Of these, 598 have been approved by the accord and 73 corrective action plans updated after follow-up inspection reports.

There are 52,605 safety issues that need to be resolved in the 500 that were published as of Dec. 1. The largest number of these are electrical issues. “Many factories report that they have remediated the majority of their electrical safety hazards, which the accord will verify. This means that many fires have been prevented, be-cause over 70 percent of garment factory fires in Bangladesh are caused by electrical malfunc-tions,” the report noted.

Last week, the new u.S. am-bassador to Bangladesh, Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, vis-ited the BGMEa offices for the first time.

She spoke about the role of the garment sector in driving so-cial change, and about the need for the finalization of rules for the amended labor law.

’’

’’The government

should be the one to publish the rules

on labor law.— ROB WAYSS, ACCORD

By RaCHEL STRuGaTz

BOnOBOS’ SiSTER BRanD ayr will undergo its first significant wholesale expansion, entering nordstrom this week.

The vertical e-commerce company — an acronym for all year Round — starting selling its denim, cotton pants, woven tops, silk tops and outerwear on nord-strom.com earlier this year, but this is the first time ayr will be sold in a brick-and-mortar envi-ronment, save for the Guideshop in its new york City headquar-ters. The line is available in three nordstrom doors to start — in Bellevue, Wash.; Dallas, and Los angeles — but if the brand follows in the footsteps of its men’s parent company, consumers can expect to see the buy-now-wear-now basics in many more nordstrom loca-tions in the near future.

“We sold more jeans than we had customers,” Maggie Winter, cofounder and brand director of ayr, said of the brand’s first year in business, which saw $2 million in gross sales. “This was a good and a bad problem. [it meant] we needed more customers. There’s huge outside potential of building an audience through nordstrom.”

and while denim still is the largest category for ayr, The Robe — an unconstructed, italian wool coat — is on its fourth reorder. it made its debut with the brand’s first full collection and was the most expensive piece at $485. This was an eye-opener to Winter and

Bonobos founder and chief execu-tive officer andy Dunn, who told WWD earlier this year that he ex-pects ayr to hit $4 million in sales in 2015.

initially, Dunn thought that ayr should be focused on establishing itself as a denim brand, but Winter disagreed. She didn’t want ayr to be pigeonholed into a single cat-egory and supported the growth of an expanding outerwear selection — a sector of the business the two see as a “top opportunity.”

Winter saw similar purchas-ing patterns with outerwear when the brand began selling on Shopbop.com in September, ayr’s foray into wholesale. The fashion pieces did better than the essen-tials, the opposite of when con-sumers buy directly from ayr’s Guideshop, Winter said, noting that there was no price resis-tance for outerwear pieces that neared the $550 mark.

Bonobos, which has been around for eight years, didn’t have a physical wholesale presence until five years into the business, when nordstrom picked up the

line in 20 of its doors (the retailer is also an investor in the men’s wear company). now, Bonobos is sold in all 117 nordstrom stores and the retailer picked up suiting as a category during the holiday season. additionally, nordstrom started carrying Bonobos in its Canadian outpost in Calgary late last year (the brand’s first inter-national wholesale account), and will roll out similar offerings in its Ottawa door this month and Vancouver in the fall.

But beyond wholesale growth, ayr wants to find ways to physical-ly connect with its consumer base.

On Feb. 4, the brand began to pilot a home try-on program with one item, its best-selling skinny jeans in the ultradark blue “Jac’s Jean” wash. Customers who opt in are sent up to three sizes of the jeans and temporarily charged $1 per pair. They’ll receive them within two days and have one week to decide what fits and what they’re sending back.

in the month since, the compa-ny has seen a 10 percent lift in its denim business — the core of its sales. and of the people who have bought from the home try-on sys-tem, 75 percent were new custom-ers, according to Winter, who said the brand spread the word via e-mail marketing.

“This isn’t a $15 dollar product; you want to know exactly how it’s going to work on you. [We need to] get past hurdles on price and fit,” Winter said, adding that they’ve shipped about 500 pairs of try-on jeans so far.

The AYR home try-on page.

By KRiSTi ELLiS

WaSHinGTOn — The bat-tle to close what many advo-cates say is an internet sales tax loophole was revived on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

a group of bipartisan sena-tors introduced a bill, dubbed the Marketplace Fairness act, which allows states to collect taxes on online and other re-mote sales in the 45 states and the District of Columbia that collect sales tax whether they have a physical presence in the state or not. it also pro-vides for a small-seller exemp-tion that prohibits states from requiring remote sellers with less than $1 million in annual nationwide remote sales to collect sales and use taxes.

The new legislation, led by Sens. Dick Durbin (D., ill.) and Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.), is similar to a bill the Senate passed in May 2013 that later stalled in the House.

Retail groups have been pressing Congress to pass legislation for several years.

Congress has been unable to find a resolution on the issue of taxing internet sales, as states have been enacting their own laws to close what they say is a loophole cre-ated in 1992 in Quill v. north Dakota, a Supreme Court rul-ing that stated retailers were required to collect sales tax from out-of-state customers

only if they have a “physical presence” in the customer’s state. E-tailers such as eBay and others that don’t have dis-tribution centers or offices in a certain state have relied on that decision to avoid collect-ing sales tax on online orders. Brick-and-mortar retailers argue that puts them at a com-petitive price disadvantage.

“We welcome this effort to level the sales-tax playing field between Main Street mer-chants and online retailers,” said David French, senior vice president of government rela-tions at the national Retail Federation. “For far too long, brick-and-mortar retailers have faced a competitive dis-advantage solely because of Congress’ inability to resolve the online sales tax disparity. it is Congress’ responsibility to lay out a legislative framework on online sales tax collection, and we hope that the introduc-tion of this bill will spur con-gressional action to remedy this problem this year.”

Joe Rinzel, senior vice pres-ident for government affairs at the Retail industry Leaders association, said: “Ending the special tax treatment afforded to online-only retailers has been a top legislative priority for the retail industry and it’s time to finish the job in 2015. all retailers deserve a fair shot to compete in the free market without the govern-ment’s thumb on the scale.”

Internet Tax Bill Revived

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6 WWD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015

Chanel: Welcome to Brasserie Gabrielle, a place where the foreign-born proprietor celebrates the innate Franco traditions of diversity, resulting in debate and most of all, style. And if delighted patrons indulge in a croissant or 10 a.m. flute of Perrier-Jouët, well, there’s plenty for all. This foreign-born proprietor leaves nothing to chance, and can afford the attention to detail; he’s well-funded by virtue of a long-term superior employment situation that has more than panned out for all involved, the vast global network of Chanel clients included.

Guests arrived to the Grand Palais, transformed into a vast brasserie with all polished wood, leather and brass atop an intricate faux-mosaic floor, yet another manifestation of the wondrous power-fashion fusion that is Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel. The idea to celebrate something intrinsically French came to him because he’s tired of French-bashing. “I’m not French, so it’s easier,” Lagerfeld said during a preview. “If I were French, to do it would look chauvinistic and stupid, but I’m a stranger.”

Still, he couldn’t resist a little dig at a national debate focused on “la théorie du genre,” which in February saw protests here in reaction to school programs intended to discourage gender stereotyping among children. Lagerfeld’s solution: Have his adorable godson Hudson Kroenig (accompanied by dad Brad) arrive clutching a toy Ferrari in one arm and a specially commissioned Coco doll in the other.

What exactly this has to do with the Brasserie or fall fashion — well, nothing, really. Lagerfeld’s mind operates at such warp speed that he’s a constant well of ideas, and if one or two fly in out of context, so what?

A musing about gender studies didn’t distract him at all from a powerful Chanel collection. (In fact, he sent a few men out on the runway; they looked tweedy terrific.) It was impossible to take it all in; delightful though the set, it didn’t allow adequate viewing time from all vantages. The girls came from two directions, rushing around the huge oval bar before stopping briefly for photographers and going on their way, finally settling onto bar stools or banquettes. But you got the point — an impressive array of clothes, particularly for day, with plenty of that virtue du jour, diversity.

There were senses of both classic Chanel and classicism upended. Suits, some with blouson jackets, were crafted from puffed squares of paper-thin leather; others, in tweedy plaids, featured skirts with deep bias borders. But Lagerfeld also made a big show of sportif, as in separates, Chanel-style: patterned sweaters and skirts under glittering parkas; sweater, skirt; cardigan layered over classic jacket and jeans; V-neck pullover stretched into a sweater gown.

There was even a riff on workwear: short and long takes on waiters’ aprons (tweed or embroidered; never white) tied on over pants. Into the mix, Lagerfeld incorporated young, fresh trapeze LBDs; frou in black and white; and, in a pret-meets-haute moment, a huge triangle coat in a divine dissonant union of plain gray wool and frenetic jeweled feathers. His accessories: An oh-so-sensible slingback (great on the models; mumsy alert to a broader constituency) and white plates as handbags. Proprietor Lagerfeld always serves his fashion feast with a side of fun. — BRIDGET FOLEY

Chanel Chanel

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WWD.COM7WWD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015

Valentino: It takes confi dence, not just a game sense of humor, to close your show with the walkoff for which the world has been waiting 14 years: Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, in character as Derek Zoolander and Hansel, were the surprise fi nal exits of Valentino’s fall show. (Both modeled looks from Valentino men’s.) The joke landed. The crowd lapped it up. It was a fantastic, genuinely funny moment that anyone who decided to skip the show was surely sad they missed.

A lesser collection would have been outright upstaged, but the “Zoolander” spoof was a generous bonus to an essentially perfect show. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli are good sports, but they take fashion very seriously, continually raising the bar with imaginative decorative effects and deluxe fabrications within the airtight aesthetic language they’ve established.

Two famous muses fueled this season’s fantasy: Celia Birtwell, the wife of Ossie Clark and muse to David Hockney, and Emilie Louise Flöge; best known as companion and frequent subject of Gustav Klimt, she was also a couturier of Wiener Werkstätte-style fashion. Both women brought rich, creative textile associations to the table, of which Chiuri and Piccioli made incredible use. Birtwell also collaborated on the “funky” dragon that appeared toward the end of the lineup. “Women can be multifaceted,” said Chiuri backstage. “They can be muses, they can be artists. And our collections speak about this in a simple way.”

Simple didn’t begin to cover it.The show opened with stark

black-and-white graphics on a trench with vertically striped arms, a horizontally striped hem and a patchwork of checks and triangles on the body. Optically entrancing, the patterns played out on dresses and easy sweaters over full midiskirts that had immediate impact. Considering the source material, the collection had a surprising amount of black, worked sparely on daywear and opulently — often embroidered with gold and silver threadwork — for evening. But there was ample color, too, in the subtle glimmer of gold on multicolored furs; a crimson red gown; burgundy, ice, pink and yellow lace arranged in crafty chevron patterns; the intense blue, red, black and gold of a geometric Viennese patterned gown. There were too many impressive, couture-level treatments to list, all of them impeccable.

The lurking criticism is that the delicately monastic silhouette the designers have become devoted to needs to evolve. But who can complain when the work is so exquisite? Besides, that point ignores the smart, ongoing expansion of their day range, and the fact that Chiuri and Piccioli did offer variation on their high-collared, long-sleeve, regal uniform for fall, tweaking proportions to give newness beyond nuance. There were cropped midcalf culottes and skirts the same length. Shoulders had capelet panels in the front and back, and high necks were graced with delicate bows tied to the side. Gowns plunged into deep V-necks, point d’esprit shoulders and sheer bustlines framed with fl oral embroideries. Romance turned sensual, heightening as the looks marched on. Then it all ended with a big laugh. The show satisfi ed on every level.

— JESSICA IREDALE

Fall 2015

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Alexander McQueen: With its David Sims photograph of a fragile decaying rose, the invitation to Sarah Burton’s Alexander McQueen show brought to mind Lee McQueen’s lyrical Sarabande collection.

Decay, aging, imperfection, the inevitable processes of life that we fight and to which we inevitably lose have long informed the house aesthetic. For fall, Burton made subtle use of the motif. Her collection, she said, reflected “the fragility of life and the fragility of beauty, and how there can be beauty in decay,” but also, “the idea of decay and rejuvenation in real life.” She thus delivered a wistful yet positive collection.

The show felt intimate, even under the vaulted arches of the Conciergerie where wide, curved seating tempered the threatening majesty of the centuries-old stone prison. There was a great deal of subtlety at play; roses as inspiration didn’t mean obvious patterns (until the end) but tone-on-tone weaves, pleated leathers and typically beautiful laces. Also subtle: Burton’s increasing interest in showcasing either real commercial pieces or those evocative of less intensely wrought versions with real retail viability. There were ultrachic, slim-cut coats in rich tonal weaves; racy bustier dresses with pleated skirts that projected flamboyant charm, and a great tuxedo, sleek, provocative and — in jacquard with lace side stripes — more interesting than most.

It was in her fabrics that Burton really got into the notion-dissipation motif, working lace and airy knits with fraying edges into tiered dresses in whisper-pink or black. These were girlish and sensual, frothy shapes unbuttoned in front over black bras. Two short dresses exploded into skirts formed by giant, wilting rose shapes; a pair of jacquard gowns, the only looks with easily readable floral patterns, had long, full sleeves, the cut of which also referenced the blossom.

Burton’s work is very specific. Here, she stayed at the more controlled end of its range, keeping her extreme theatrical instincts in check, probably in response to the current pervasive commercial hoo-ha. But all is relative, and low-key from Burton still blooms with fashion.

— BRIDGET FOLEY

Vanessa Seward

Paul & Joe

PARIS FALL 2015

COLLECTIONS

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FASHION SCOOPS HEADING TO AMERICA: Gucci is coming to New York. The Italian brand is planning an event on June 4 to show its cruise collection under the new creative direction of Alessandro Michele. Details about the venue are still being mapped out. The last time Gucci held a cruise show in New York was in June 2006. Michele, who succeeded Frida Giannini in January, debuted his first women’s collection for the Florence-based label last month. — LUISA ZARGANI

IN THE PINK?: Could Schiaparelli be zeroing in on its new creative director? According to market sources, Schiaparelli is in talks with Bertrand Guyon, a seasoned couture designer currently at Valentino. The Frenchman, a graduate of the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, has also worked at couture houses Christian Lacroix and Givenchy.

Owned by Italian entrepreneur Diego Della Valle, Schiaparelli has been searching for a creative director since last November, when it parted ways with Marco Zanini after a two-season collaboration. Its spring collection unveiled in January was designed by an in-house team. — MILES SOCHA

BUNDLING UP: Roberto Eggs is joining Moncler SpA as the group’s new chief operating officer, effective May 1. He currently is president, Europe, Middle East, India and Africa at Louis Vuitton, which he joined in 2009 after 17 years at Nestlé SA. At Moncler, he will be in charge of all business activities at a global level and report to Moncler’s chairman and chief executive officer Remo Ruffini. Ruffini underscored that Eggs “brings to Moncler significant knowledge about the rationale of international growth, together with a deep culture of the retail business and the luxury sector.” Eggs has a degree in economics and management, with specializations at the London Business School and the IMD in Lausanne.

Vuitton plans to split Eggs’ role in two and promote two executives — Alessandro Valenti and Francois Pedrol — to cover his territories. It is understood Valenti, currently Vuitton’s managing director in France, is to add Northern Europe, including Russia, while Pedrol, currently Vuitton’s general manager of the Middle East, is to add Southern Europe and Turkey.

— M.S. AND LUISA ZARGANI

UP ON THE ROOF: Marni is continuing its “Marni Prisma” 20th anniversary celebrations by hosting an event in Hong Kong, during the upcoming local edition of Art Basel. Following the temporary flower market held in Milan last September, the brand will recreate a Roof Market at Pier 4. Open to the public on Saturday from 7:30 p.m., the market, which will be decorated with a light installation by Italian artist Massimo Bartolini, will feature counters selling a range of customized Marni products. These will include vase holders decorated with the brand’s vivid patterns, tissue papers and picnic cloths, shopping bags in nylon net, as well as Marni polka dot Saffiano leather handbags and a range of metal and PVC animal sculptures handcrafted by Colombian women. All proceeds will benefit the Vimala Association, providing Tibetan children living in India with medical care and education.

After Hong Kong, other Marni Prisma events will be held in Tokyo and Venice. — ALESSANDRA TURRA

BREAKFAST CLUB: Chanel’s sprawling brasserie show set at the Grand Palais on Tuesday had celebrity guests like Florence Welch in the mood to order a second breakfast. “I’ve drunk a lot of

strong coffee already this morning and now I just want more,” said the Florence and the Machine singer, as she sat at a white tablecloth-clad table. Welch, who previously took her style cues from Stevie Nicks, is exploring new directions for stage costumes ahead of the release of her third album, “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,” on June 1. “I’ve actually been making a lot of stuff from scratch with a friend of mine in L.A., just, like, making shirts and stuff, so that’s been really exciting,” she said. “We’ve been looking at a lot of Nick Cave suits and Bowie ‘Thin White Duke’ era [clothes].”

— JOELLE DIDERICH

TAXING MATTERS: Vivienne Westwood — and her company — have defended the way they pay taxes following a story in The Sunday Telegraph that suggested the designer was avoiding paying money to the British government. The paper, citing the company’s accounts, said the designer pays 2 million pounds, or $3 million, each year to a company in Luxembourg for the right to use her name on the fashion label. It suggested that by doing so she was avoiding paying 500,000 pounds, or $754,300, in U.K. taxes annually. All figures have been converted at exchange rates from the periods to which they refer. The paper also pointed to a 300,000 pound, or $452,580, contribution that Westwood made to the Green Party, which vowed last month to crack down on tax havens and tax avoidance. “I am concerned at the allegation in the papers,” Westwood said in an e-mail to WWD. “It is important to me that my business affairs are in line with my personal values. I am subject to U.K. tax on all of my income.

“My personal donation to the Green Party refl ects my desire to see a more equitable and sustainable society. I remain fully committed to the Green Party and will be doing all I can to ensure that they achieve success in the general election.” The next general election in Britain is due to take place in May.

Westwood’s company said in a separate statement there are no illegal issues involved, and no one is being taken to court. “Vivienne Westwood Limited is part of an independent, international group of companies operating in Europe, USA and Asia. Latimo SA (based in Luxembourg) is the holding company of this group, which owns and protects the Vivienne Westwood trademarks worldwide.

“Vivienne Westwood Limited pays regular royalties to Latimo SA pursuant to a license agreement. Vivienne Westwood Limited and all the companies belonging to the group pay all the required taxes in all the countries in which they trade or operate, in accordance to audited fi nancial statements.”

— SAMANTHA CONTI

Acne Studios: The shoes and booties with their crushed-can heels, gleaming in copper or cloaked in masking tape, were the best things in the Acne Studios fall show. The rest was too arty even for the Centre Pompidou, where the show took place in a fi shbowl runway theater, crowds of young people pressed against the glass.

What happened to this contemporary brand’s effortless and enviable Scandi-cool, its sleek tailoring and quirky yet approachable casual wear? Creative director Jonny Johansson got bogged down sculpting heavy blanket wools into Whipstitched hourglass coats nearly as stiff as a Joseph Beuys sculpture, sheer knits and asymmetrical leather skirts patched with raffi a.

Fashion professionals might be able to project how such ideas could translate in the showroom and on the retail fl oor. But what about all those kids out there in the dark? — MILES SOCHA

Vanessa Seward: Purveyors of more affordable fashion have been converging on Paris Fashion Week like pigeons on a stray crust of baguette. Vanessa Seward stands out because of her connections, her pedigree and her powerful backer, French contemporary chain A.P.C., for which she had previously done an upscale capsule range.

This alum of Loris Azzaro, Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent doesn’t hide her Seventies references, especially YSL from that era: Her lamé blouses, gently fl aring wrap skirts and pert blazers are things one dreams of fi nding at the Clignancourt fl ea market in Paris — but good luck.

Raw denim capes and swing coats, Bordeaux riding boots and silk secretary dresses all telegraphed daytime Parisian chic. For night, easy options included a lacquered lace tunic over pants, or a plain, long-sleeved black gown with a side slit and a ribbon trailing from the hip.

The show was cloaked in a charming, old-school vibe: the smiling, twirling models with their names embroidered on their tight, high-waisted jeans; the breezy soundtrack by her musician husband Bertrand Burgalat, who looked as if he just walked off the set of “American Hustle,” and the small botanical prints and thrift-shop colors.

What impressed was Seward’s restraint as a designer. Almost every exit could accompany a cool girl to Belle Epoque, the bistrot du moment in Paris — a riposte to those pesky photo bloggers whose eyes hunger for overstatement. “I always say I make fashion for the pedestrian woman who has to walk a lot, hop on the metro and take her child to the playground,” Seward told WWD during a preview, summing up the essence of real, not fake, street style. — M.S.

Iris van Herpen: Iris van Herpen likes to feed off other disciplines such as science and architecture for her avant-garde creations, which have earned her a reputation as one of the most innovative designers working today.

She titled her fall collection “Hacking Infi nity” and said it was inspired by terraforming, or the process of transforming the biosphere of other planets to make them like Earth. It was an abstract concept, and one that could not immediately be read in the clothes.

There were new fabric experiments — a translucent stainless-steel weave and a honeycomblike 3-D handwoven material with frayed edges. Both were introduced in the opening look, a sheer sleeveless top and short skirt. It laid a foundation for the soft vs. hard contrasts that ran through the show and climaxed with an off-the-shoulder bustier jumpsuit with a wide belt of sheer optical lighting fi lm that distorted the waist — a novel way to achieve an hourglass fi gure.

Among the other showcase pieces were digitally fabricated dresses made from spiky black plastic, created with architect Philip Beesley, and towering shoes sprouting chunky crystals on the soles, a collaboration with Japanese shoe designer Noritaka Tatehana (of Lady Gaga fame).

Despite a bone-shuddering soundtrack, the display somewhat lost steam with the less-conceptual looks, such as tight dresses in Fortuny-style pleats or a black satin wrap coat that resembled a hair salon robe. There were fl ashes of brilliance — as in a cocktail dress with hand-burnished swirls that spread into a pleated fan covering the face. But van Herpen has yet to sketch out a clear vision of how she will translate her conceptual ideas into a viable ready-to-wear brand.

— JOELLE DIDERICH

Paul & Joe: A youthful mix of school girls and boys, neo-grunge and French attitude (berets) amounted to charming variety on Sophie Mechaly’s fall runway. The collection won’t set the pace in any category but it offered a contemporary geek-chic style that wasn’t gripped by trends.

Plaid shirtdresses worn with black combat boots with thick laces worked the girlish side of grunge, while Seventies fl oral prints on fi lmy dresses and cotton shirting went in a bohemian direction. The most current look was a white shirt with fl oral appliqué tucked into generously cuffed boyish jeans. — JESSICA IREDALE

Acne Studios

Iris van Herpen

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The strength of the U.S. dollar could also help Neiman’s business, but not right away. As Katz ex-plained, “We are spending a lot of time with ven-dors talking about pricing. Not necessarily for fall goods, but when we go to buy resort and early spring, we believe we will see a fl attening out in pricing. We probably won’t see price increases the way we had been. There may be some defl ation, but it would be very slight. Frankly, it’s more about what the product looks like, if it’s heavily embel-lished. The clothes we are seeing have embel-lishment on them.

“As the dollar strengthens we are also keeping a watch-ful eye on European customers,” who could reduce spending, the ceo said. “That said, we are very enthu-siastic about spring. Our customers are re-sponding to the trends, especially bohemian fashion — ethnic prints, fringe, spice colors, lightweight leather.”

Katz couldn’t resist mentioning the appearance of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson on the Valentino runway to hype “Zoolander 2,” which will be re-leased next year. “It was really quite hysterical,” Katz said. “You really need to go into the video. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment.”

At Neiman’s, luxury remains the top performer. “The strongest part of the business is the high end of the business,” Katz said. “Fine designer apparel and couture is better than those opening price points.” Contemporary rtw and contemporary shoes are good, too.

“The shoe and bag business is still trending better than high-end ready-to-wear businesses,” Katz noted.

The ceo added that, “The men’s business contin-ues to be quite good,” marked by “a couple of very hot categories. The luxury sneaker category, which Neiman Marcus owned, is just explosive and these are sneakers priced from $500 to $1,500. That’s really helped fuel the men’s business over the last year.”

Online sales continue to be a high point. Last quarter, online sales, on a comparable basis, were up 15 percent. Mytheresa.com, a fashion retailer online also with one store in Munich, added $38.5 million in revenues in the second quarter. Neiman’s purchased Mytheresa last fall and the second fi scal quarter was the fi rst one to include Mytheresa numbers.

Neiman’s executives expressed concern over spending by international tourists, particularly those from Russia and South America, where there has been a decline due to the strong dollar and their own eco-nomic issues. “We are not dependent on international customers for a large amount” of business, Katz said.

When asked which categories have been weak, the ceo indicated that certain ones have been downsized in the stores, namely gifts and chil-dren’s. “We are always evaluating categories that are not performing at the median or average,” Katz said. “Some categories will have a bad month but we look very, very carefully over the long term [for] which categories we need to expand or need to shrink. We do that on an ongoing basis.”

Katz said if a consumer walks through certain Neiman’s stores, “You might see smaller children’s areas. You might see smaller gift areas. On a dollar per-square-foot basis, they don’t perform as well as shoes or bags. Although we downsized it in a number of stores, the kids’ business online has been explosive.”

On Tuesday, the Neiman Marcus Group report-ed that net earnings for the second fi scal quarter ended Jan. 31 were $27.8 million, compared to a loss of $84 million in the year-ago period, which was largely impacted by costs from the acquisition

of the company in October 2013 by Ares Management LLC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $6 billion.

A better barometer of the company’s per-formance is adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depre-ciation and amortization), which for the second quar-ter came to $200.3 million, a 4.4 percent increase from $191.9 million in the

second quarter of fi scal year 2014. Comparable revenues increased 5.6

percent with total revenues of $1.52 bil-lion compared with $1.43 billion in the prior year. Neiman’s best store regions were the Northeast, the Midwest and Texas. According to Katz, there has been no material impact on Neiman’s Texas stores due to the drop in oil prices.

“We’re pleased with our results. In general, the customer is feeling pretty good,” Jim Gold, president and chief merchandising offi cer of Neiman Marcus, told WWD.

While generally upbeat on the busi-ness, one sector where offi cials were reserved was off-price. While Saks Off 5th and Nordstrom Rack are aggressively opening sites, growth of Neiman’s Last Call Studio has been put on hold so executives can examine the performance of the off-price divi-sion’s stores before deciding to roll them out. None are planned for this year, after a string of openings last year. In August, Liz Asay became senior vice president of the Last Call division, which includes Last Call Studio stores, Last Call stores and lastcall.com. Asay was senior vice president of e-commerce and Sephora at J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

“We will be addressing how we see the future of Last Call Studio late this fi scal year or early next fi scal year,” Gold said. “There will be unit growth, but it will not be a signifi cant driver of growth.”

“The whole off-price area, it could be some ad-ditional growth, but it is not going to be a major part of the way we see our growth,” Katz said.

There are 30 Last Call clearance centers, 12 Last Call Studio stores and lastcall.com.

Instead of off-price, Neiman’s is looking to drive the lion’s share of growth through online innova-tions, raising productivity, store renovations, includ-ing an extensive overhaul at Bergdorf Goodman, and other stores, and omni initiatives. A few addi-tional full-line stores are in the pipeline, including Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side in 2018, and Roosevelt Field mall, which will be Neiman’s fi rst store on Long Island. “It’s scheduled to open in February 2016,” Katz said. “The building has been completely framed and the roof installed.”

WWD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015’’ MEMO PADNMG Looks to Rtw Revival{Continued from page one}

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’’FILTHY (AND FASHIONABLY) RICH: It pays to be in fashion — quite literally.

According to Forbes’ 29th annual The World’s Billionaires List, the fashion and retail industry is one of the most lucrative sectors, with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Walton family leading the charge with a net worth of $41.7 billion.

Forbes said fashion and retail rank fourth behind the sectors of investments, technology and food and beverage. Other retail executives on the U.S. list include Nike Inc. cofounder and chairman Phil Knight, with an estimated $21.5 billion worth, and Revlon owner and investor Ronald Perelman at $14.5 billion. Leonard Lauder, Leslie Wexner and Ralph Lauren followed with $9.1 billion, $7.7 billion and $7 billion, respectively. Under Armour chairman and chief executive officer Kevin Plank amassed $3.2 billion, and earned a nod from Forbes, which wrote: “Under Armour revenues increased 32 percent in the last year, and profits jumped 28 percent. Rather than spending hundreds of millions on endorsement deals with star athletes as Nike and Adidas do, Plank is shelling out for technology, buying three fitness apps for $710 million since December 2012.”

Former chairman of Nordstrom, Bruce Nordstrom, made the list with $1.8 billion, as did Timothy Boyle, the ceo and president of activewear firm Columbia Sportswear ($1.5 billion), and Richard Hayne of Urban Outfitters Inc. ($1.55 billion). Sidney Kimmel, founder of the former Jones Apparel Group, is worth $1.3 billion, Forbes said. Representing the women were Jane Lauder and Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer with $1.4 billion, each, and Spanx founder Sarah Blakely and Tory Burch, both with $1 billion. Burch rival Michael Kors did not make the list this year, but former Kors stakeholders Silas Chou of Hong Kong and Canada’s Lawrence Stroll did. Chou is worth $2.5 billion and Stroll is worth $2.4 billion.

Looking globally, France’s Liliane Bettencourt, a principal shareholder in L’Oréal, is the second-richest executive in the sector with an estimated net worth of $40.1 billion. Nipping at Bettencourt’s heels is LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton chairman and ceo Bernard Arnault with $37.2 billion. Kering’s François Pinault and family ($14.9 billion) and Chanel’s Alain and Gerard Wertheimer with $9.5 billion each follow. In fact, the fashion/ retail sector was the number-one driver of wealth in France as well as in Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the U.K.

“What always strikes me is that how much people who are succeeding and moving up the ranks are those who are selling the items we like to wear and [running] the places we like to shop,” said Forbes assistant managing editor Luisa Kroll, who heads up the wealth team that is responsible for the list.

Asked why Europe appears to have a lock on the sector, Kroll said: “It’s interesting people ask how [wealth is] doing regionally. Europe has not kept pace with Asia, but one area where Europe is a leader is they are tastemakers. Something about their sensibility translates.”

The editor acknowledged that some of those retail scions inherited their wealth, but she also pointed to newcomers such as Germany’s billionaire brothers Marc, Alexander and Oliver Samwer. With the initial public offering of their e-commerce firms Zalando and Rocket, the brothers are each listed at $1.7 billion.

In China, manufacturing counts as the number-one industry but Alibaba Group’s founder and chairman Jack Ma comes in second on its wealth list with an estimated $22.7 billion net worth. In Japan, where the top two sectors include technology and fashion and retail, the biggest gainer and richest billionaire was Tadashi Yanai, founder and president of Fast Retailing. Yanai, whose company operates Uniqlo, is worth $20.2 billion, according to Forbes.

While retail and fashion made an appearance as a top sector in most countries, media was no slouch, as the fifth largest sector in the U.S.

Top media executives included Anne Cox Chambers with $17 billion, Rupert Murdoch with $13.9 billion and Condé Nast chairman Samuel Newhouse Jr. ($9 billion) leading the pack.

— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

We believe there is going to be a reason to buy

ready-to-wear. — KAREN KATZ,

THE NEIMAN MARCUS GROUP

Karen Katz

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WWD.COM11WWD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015

posted to his Facebook page last month, revealing that an American and Italian cast would be filming over 12 weeks at the Cinecittà studios and in external lo-cations in Rome. According to Deadline.com, Penelope Cruz will be one of the female leads in the film, which is being

written by Justin Theroux.As for Stiller, how has male modeling

advanced since the original 2001 movie?“There’s been 15 years of practic-

ing,” he said, joking that the posture is “stretched out a little bit.”

Stiller declined to say if any real fashion people might make cameos in the new movie, as the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Tom Ford, Donatella Versace and Tommy Hilfiger did in the origi-nal. But rumor has it Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour are among those solicited to make appear-ances — and Stiller last fall was overheard talk-ing with Ralph Lauren about potentially making a cameo.

After Stiller arrived at the party, he and Wilson joined Valentino creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli for a jumping portrait, spoofing a scene from the original movie.

Clotilde Courau was sorry she missed the show, but caught up via social media. “It’s amaz-ing how the whole thing went viral,” the actress said. (More than 100,000 comments on Instagram within an hour, the house confirmed.) Courau said she thought both charac-ters were genius and let slip that Piccioli might get a cameo.

Following a whiff of a standoff on the Valentino catwalk be-tween himself and Stiller, Owen Wilson was undecided about who had won the duel. “Oh, I don’t know. It looked like a draw to me. What did you think?” he said.

The Hotel Salomon de Rothschild was decked out for the party with a delicious Bracchian table in old Roman fashion amid antique furniture and ornamental lamps from the school of Lalanne. It wasn’t long before guests in-cluding Christian Louboutin and Kate Mara took to the dance floor throbbing with Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.”

Stiller’s and Wilson’s appearance at Valentino was the talk of the shows on Tuesday — as was the possibility of anoth-er “Zoolander.” Asked about the original

movie, Alber Elbaz replied simply, “I love.” Nicky Hilton called the surprise

catwalk appearance “genius market-ing.” “Paris [her sister] was actually in ‘Zoolander 1.’ Ben [Stiller] was so ahead of his time. He knew who Paris was be-fore she became Paris Hilton.”

“Oh my gosh! Very unexpected,” said Mara of Stiller’s and Wilson’s walk down the runway. “That was so epic. And of all shows you would not expect them to be in this show, which was just, like, the perfect marriage. I loved it.”

“Just two great actors fooling around, playing around with the idea of fashion,” enthused “Rain Man” actress Valeria Golino, who was also caught off guard.

Of course she’s a fan of the film.“It’s impossible to resist,” she

said. “And even when you don’t like that kind of movie, you cannot not like ‘Zoolander,’ no?”

Her favorite scene: “Probably the duel between the two.”

Chiuri and Piccioli said filming on “Zoolander 2” is already underway in Rome. “We met them and there was a good relationship,” said Chiuri, adding that the actors came up with the idea for the stunt. “We said, ‘Why not?’”

Piccioli said it was all in good fun. “We love fashion. We think that we have to have fun. I mean, that’s what fash-ion is for,” he argued. “We work seriously, but we don’t take everything so seriously. It’s some-thing different.”

It is not the first time Hollywood has used Paris Fashion Week as a backdrop. Director Robert Altman recruit-ed designers includ-ing Claude Montana, Thierry Mugler, Sonia Rykiel, Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix, together with a slew of models and ce-lebrities, to appear as themselves in his 1994 satire “Prêt-à-Porter.”

Sacha Baron Cohen made a stir during fashion month in 2008, causing a commotion backstage at Iceberg in Milan; disrupt-ing a Jean-Charles de Castelbajac show; and hamming it up at Stella McCartney’s show dressed as his alter-ego Brüno, a gay Austrian fashion show presenter and the title character of his 2009 film “Brüno.”

Neither gener-ated the excitement that Stiller and Wilson did, though — in fact, Altman and Cohen stirred more resentment than admiration.

But for those want-ing more details, so far all involved are remaining relatively mum. Reached for com-ment in Los Angeles on Tuesday, “Zoolander 2” producer Stuart Cornfeld declined to discuss what designers would be involved in

the movie — or anything else about it. “We’ve pretty much got our fashion

thing happening,” he told WWD. As for the budget, Cornfeld respond-

ed, “I don’t like when people ask how much a movie cost. It costs $12 at the box office, that’s what it’s all about.”

— WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PAULINA SZMYDKE AND MARCY MEDINA

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OBITUARY

Walter J. Salmon, Retail Professor‘Blue Steel’ at Valentino

{Continued from page one}

By SHARON EDELSON

FUNERAL SERVICES WERE held Tuesday in Boston for Walter J. Salmon, a Harvard Business School professor and retail expert, who died Sunday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at age 84. The cause of death was com-plications from a stroke.

At the time of his death, Salmon was the business school’s Stanley Roth Sr. Professor of Retailing, Emeritus.

An active member of the Harvard University faculty for 41 years, Salmon shared with his students a global view of retailing. He had an insatiable curi-osity about the way re-tail businesses worked. “He couldn’t pass a supermarket or retail development without going inside,” said his daughter, Elizabeth Frank. “He was com-pletely interested in retail trends.”

Salmon taught a va-riety of MBA courses, including the required first-year marketing course and electives in retailing and consumer marketing, as well as doctor-al classes. As a member of the execu-tive education faculty of the Advanced Management Program, Salmon taught courses to senior executives and middle managers and developed a corporate governance program. “He was consummately networked,” said his colleague, Stephen A. Greyser, the Richard P. Chapman professor of business administration, Emeritus. “He knew all the key people. Some had been students of his or people he met through the directorships of the boards he sat on.”

Salmon’s board service included the Neiman Marcus Group, Circuit City, TJ Maxx, Stride Rite and PetSmart. He was also a director of the National Retail Federation.

“Walter was a board member at Neiman Marcus when I was ceo there,” said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and

ceo of Macy’s. “He was an early think-er on so many of the retailing topics that are important to our business today, from logistics to private brands. Walter knew something about almost every topic we were working on, and his ideas were often new and pro-vocative. His thoughtful contributions to our strategic development made Neiman Marcus a stronger company. I will miss him.”

Known as “Mr. Retailing,” Salmon helped generations of Harvard Business

School grads find jobs in the industry. Mortimer Singer, presi-dent and ceo of Marvin Traub Associates, said: “Walter’s students would come here and present what they were working on. He had this level of thoughtfulness. His stu-dents were getting into [retailing] through en-trepreneurial activity. They were thinking of direct-to-consumer.”

Salmon’s research fo-cused on trends in distri-bution and issues of or-ganization and logistics and retail information systems. He authored or

coauthored several hundred case stud-ies that delved into firms such as Gap, L.L. Bean, J.C. Penney, Dayton Hudson, Talbots, Dillard’s and Nordstrom.

Salmon, who was born in New York, graduated from City College in 1952 and received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1954. After serving in the U.S. Army, he received a doctor-ate in business administration in 1960 when he was also named an assistant professor. He became a full professor with tenure in seven years at the age of 37. Salmon became the first Sebastian S. Kresge professor of marketing in 1970 and the first incumbent of the Roth chair in 1980. He retired from the Harvard faculty in 1997 but contin-ued to do retail-related research and course development projects at the business school.

Besides Frank, Salmon is survived by two other daughters, Joan Salmon Kaminsky and Stephanie Shenton.

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Walter J. Salmon

Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander on the Valentino runway.

Owen Wilson as Hansel.

Ben Stiller in “Zoolander.”

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12 WWD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015

HAVING AN ACTOR sibling has its perks, as any Mara, Olsen, Affleck or Wilson can attest. Like others before her, Taissa Farmiga, 20, didn’t have to go far to get discovered. Her sister, Vera Farmiga, cast her when she was 15 to play a younger version of herself in her 2011 directorial debut “Higher Ground.” “Vera would photograph me and our other siblings, and she said when she saw me on camera she saw something in me,” says Farmiga, the youngest of seven siblings. “I agreed because she’s my big sister and I didn’t want to get beat up.”

Now, with three buzzy projects premiering at South by Southwest, which begins Friday in Austin, Tex., Farmiga is poised to claim a little of the spotlight on her own.

“This is crazy,” she says of her disparate projects: “Share,” a short directed by pal Pippa Bianco; “Six Years,” a relationship drama shot last year in Austin during the festival, and “The Final Girls,” a horror comedy with Malin Åkerman, Nina Dobrev and Alia Shawkat.

It was during another film festival, Sundance, where she promoted “Higher Ground,” that Farmiga officially caught the acting bug.

“I realized that I loved it, and I just kind of jumped in,” she says. That led to her first TV audition for “American Horror Story.” “They called me and were like, ‘[director] Ryan Murphy really likes you,’ and I was like, ‘What!?’” she recalls. After realizing she would be acting alongside Jessica Lange, she was overwhelmed. “I was like, ‘I’m going to keep my head down and be a good girl.’ If you have someone that amazing in front of you, you just have to take what you can from it, but without being in the way, just observing,” she says.

In addition to appearing in the first season, Farmiga built her own following as teen witch Zoe Benson on the third season of the anthology series. Although she’s no longer on the show, there’s always a chance she could return. “They bring people back sometimes at the most surprising moments,” she notes. She next appeared in Sofia Coppola’s “Bling Ring,” cementing her cool-girl status. “Sofia’s incredible. She’s very soft spoken, but she knows what she wants,” says Farmiga of the writer-director, herself no stranger to nepotism.

While Farmiga still lives in her hometown of Whitehouse Station, N.J., she was speaking from Los Angeles, where she’s shooting the ABC pilot “L.A. Crime” with Erika Christensen. “I never officially moved out of my bedroom in my parents’ house,” she admits. “I’m just traveling so much for work.”

In addition to TV work and festival fare, Farmiga managed to make a couple of big-budget movies. She just finished shooting a still-untitled Warren Beatty-

helmed project about Howard Hughes, and “In a Valley of Violence,” a “good old-fashioned Western” with Ethan Hawke and John Travolta. During the shoot, she passed up buying a pair of expensive boots, a choice she now regrets as she’s headed to Texas. “I wish I had a good pair of cowboy boots to throw on with a skirt, you know?” — JENNY SUNDEL

eye

“EX MACHINA”CATEGORY: HeadlinersSTARRING: Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander.WRITER-DIRECTOR: Alex Garland, writer of “28 Days Later” and “The Beach,” making his feature fi lm debut.PITCH: An intense love triangle between two men and a beautiful robot — or in other words, a love story for nerds.

“TRAINWRECK”CATEGORY: HeadlinersSTARRING: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader and Tilda Swinton.DIRECTOR: Judd ApatowPITCH: Apatow is screening Schumer’s feature screenwriting debut as a work-in-progress. The last movie he screened like that here? A little something called “Knocked Up.”

“SPY”CATEGORY: HeadlinersSTARRING: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne and Jude Law.WRITER-DIRECTOR: Paul FeigPITCH: McCarthy re-teams with her “Bridesmaids” and “The Heat” director to play another rowdy McCarthy-type character. If it ain’t broke…

“SNEAKERHEADZ”CATEGORY: Documentary SpotlightDIRECTORS: Producers David T. Friendly (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and Mick Partridge, making their directing debut.FEATURING: Samantha Ronson, Futura, Wale and DJ SkeePITCH: From Retro Jordan 11s to the latest Nike Foamposite, an exploration of our obsession with sneakers.

“HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS”CATEGORY: HeadlinersSTARRING: Sally Field, Natasha Lyonne and Wendi McLendon-Covey.DIRECTOR: Michael Showalter, making his feature debut.PITCH: Field undergoes a hipster makeover. Enough said.

“FRESNO”CATEGORY: Narrative SpotlightSTARRING: Natasha Lyonne, Judy Greer, Aubrey Plaza and Fred Armisen.DIRECTOR: Jamie BabbitPITCH: Greer and Lyonne, who starred in Babbit’s “But I’m a Cheerleader,” play maids who kill a guest. Think “Bernie” meets “Drop Dead Gorgeous.”

A still from “Six Years.”

Taissa Farmiga takes Austin, Tex., with three fi lms at South by Southwest. Plus, six of the festival’s other must-see movies.

Storming South By

FOR MORE PHOTOS, SEE

WWD.com/eye.

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Taissa and Vera Farmiga in 2014.