COTY IN DEL DEAL/8 TOMMY’S SOHO HOME/17Women’s Wear Daily • The Retailers’ Daily Newspaper • December 7, 2007 • $2.00

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WWDFRIDAYBeauty

By Julie Naughton and Matthew W. Evans

Call it a color-me Christmas.While the jury has barely

begun to deliberate, the prestige beauty business seems to be dispelling pre-season holiday

jitters. And somewhat surprisingly, retailers say some of the biggest gains are coming in color cosmetics, turning the conventional wisdom that holiday is all about fragrance on its ear. However, NPD figures indicate that fragrance sales rose

2 percent in October, a possible indication that fragrance will have a strong Yule.

While December once was chiefly devoted to fragrance sales, that trend is diminishing a bit, with

Fighting the Tide: Holiday Beauty Sales Off to Strong Start

See Fragrance, Page 10

The Beat, Burberry’s latest women’s scent, page 8.

English ChannelLONDON — Coco Chanel had deep links to London — both

romantic and professional — so it was only natural that Karl

Lagerfeld brought his road show to town, literally taking it over

with Chanel-logoed cabs, two parties and a runway show for

his métiers d’art collection of pre-fall ready-to-wear. Mixing

Gallic chic with British punk, the show featured bags

covered in Union Jacks, winklepicker shoes, tartan

tulle dresses and Amy Winehouse-inspired hair. Here,

a cream smock dress. For more, see pages 6 and 7.

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WWD.COM4 WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

WWDFRIDAYBeauty

FASHIONBringing a blast of Gallic chic and punk energy to London, Karl Lagerfeld staged a blockbuster show of luxury pre-fall ready-to-wear Thursday.

GENERALWhile the jury has barely begun to deliberate, the prestige beauty business seems to be dispelling pre-season holiday jitters.

Sonia Rykiel has a new managing director and creative director, and revved-up ambitions to build its business abroad, particularly in the U.S.

Burberry hopes to up the tempo at fragrance counters worldwide in March when it launches The Beat, its latest scent for women.

Retailers are discovering it takes much time and effort to merchandise exclusive beauty products and take on the role of marketer.

November same-store sales refl ected a strong start to the holiday season, with department stores posting the biggest gains.

6

● WATTS TO QVC: Claire Watts, former vice president of mer-chandising at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., will join QVC Inc. on Jan. 7 and become president of U.S. commerce in May. Watts will oversee planning, programming, merchandising, broadcasting, TV sales and QVC.com for the U.S. operation. She will report to Mike George, president and chief executive offi cer of QVC. While Watts is credited with weeding out dated brands, building up Wal-Mart’s product development division and opening a Manhattan trend offi ce, she was also the architect of an unsuccessful plan to bring trendier and pricier fashions and home decor to Wal-Mart. She resigned in July after a decade at the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer. She began her career in the May Co.’s executive train-ing program. Watts subsequently held senior merchandising and product positions at Paul Harris, the Limited and Lands’ End.

● PLAYING DEFENSE: A federal agency group, including the Commerce Department’s Office of Textiles and Apparel, has launched a Web site intended to make it easier for American apparel and textile manufacturers to get information on the often-complicated rules of the Berry Amendment, a law that requires the Department of Defense to buy domestically pro-duced apparel and textiles unless products are not made in the U.S. or in cases of national security. Defense contracts are vital to the U.S. textile and apparel industry, which produces prod-ucts ranging from uniforms to tents and boots for the military. The DOD bought more than $2.2 billion in fiscal 2006 in apparel and textiles, according to government estimates. The Web site is otexa.ita.doc.gov/berry.htm.

In Brief

Classifi ed Advertisements............................................................19

WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2007 FAIRCHILD FASHION GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

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“The U.S. is on sale. It’s a bargain for the European customer.”

— Stephen I. Sadove,

chairman and chief executive offi cer, Saks Inc.

Quote of the Week

Steiner, Greiss Tapped at RykielBy Robert Murphy

PARIS — Sonia Rykiel has a new managing director, a new creative director and revved-up ambitions to build its business abroad, particularly in the U.S.

François Steiner, 44, former president of Kenzo, has been appointed the house’s new managing di-rector, while Gabrielle Greiss, 34, was promoted to creative director of the fi rst fashion line. Greiss has worked in the studio with house founder Sonia Rykiel for the last two years.

Steiner, who has also held management jobs at Louis Vuitton and Thomas Pink, reports to Nathalie Rykiel, Sonia Rykiel’s daughter the house’s presi-dent and artistic director. He started this fall, but it is only now that his position has been made offi cial.

“We want to build the future,” said Nathalie Rykiel.The appointments come as Rykiel prepares to

celebrate its 40th anniversary next year.In January, the house will inaugurate the festivi-

ties by unveiling a refurbished and expanded fl ag-ship boutique on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, in the heart of the Left Bank shopping district.

Nathalie Rykiel said the company would in-troduce a special capsule collection of “collect-able” pieces, as well as stage a blowout party on the Boulevard Saint-Germain in May. The fete is scheduled for May 25, which will coincide with Sonia Rykiel’s 78th birthday. “We wanted to do something atypical — very Rykiel.”

Meantime, next October, a museum retrospec-tive of Rykiel’s four decades of style is planned for the fashion museum in the Louvre here. “It will be the fi rst time we’ve done a museum show in France,” said Nathalie Rykiel, who added a docu-mentary fi lm about the house as well as a literary essay on her mother’s style are also in the works.

“We want to show our individuality,” she ex-

plained. “We like to do things our own quirky way. We are one of the only remaining family-owned fash-ion businesses in France. We are 100 percent auto-fi nanced and we are growing. Our story is unique.”

Sources estimate Rykiel had sales of about 100 million euros, or $147 million at current exchange, last year with an increase in revenues of about 10 percent. The house operates 29 wholly owned bou-tiques and counts 26 franchised stores.

“Our main priority is to grow our business in the United States,” said Nathalie Rykiel. Bloomingdale’s and Intermix are among the stores that carry the line in the U.S. It is also sold in Rykiel boutiques in Manhattan and Boston.

“We fell asleep in America,” admitted Rykiel. “It’s time for us to wake up.”

Nathalie Rykiel said Steiner is crafting a co-herent strategy for Rykiel in America. She said her daughter, Lola, 22, a trained classical dancer, was assuming an ambassador role for the brand in New York, where she lives.

The changes were prompted after Nathalie Rykiel last year divorced her husband, Simon Burstein, who had doubled as house president. (Burstein’s family runs the Browns fashion stores in London.)

Greiss, who trained at Central Saint Martins in London, is well-known in fashion circles here, having worked with Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, Martine Sitbon and Anna Molinari before joining Rykiel. Though her touch has been evident since she arrived two years ago, she now is expected to amplify her infl uence over Rykiel’s cheeky Left Bank style even more.

Nathalie Rykiel said Greiss would take a bow on the podium — alongside her and her mother — after the upcoming fashion show in Paris.

But she was quick to emphasize her mother is not passing the baton. “Sonia comes to work every morning,” she said. “She is not retiring.”

By Georgia Lee

The 19-year-old gunman who fatally shot eight people at

a busy mall in Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday before killing him-self picked his victims at ran-dom, authorities said.

The 1.2 million-square-foot Westroads Mall on the city’s west side, which is managed by General Growth Properties, remained closed Thursday be-cause of the crime scene inves-tigation. The 135-store mall was to reopen today.

There is no industry standard or typical security footprint for shopping malls, said Jon Lusher, principle consultant, IPC International in Chicago, which provides security services to 400 U.S. malls. Personnel and equip-ment are determined by multiple factors, including crime statis-tics and demographic profi les.

“These incidents, while tragic, have little or no effect on people’s shopping habits,” Lusher said. “People recognize them as isolated incidents.”

Security training has become

more rigorous since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Lusher said. Although malls have stepped up surveillance, the use of metal detectors is unlikely.

“Practical considerations, and more than that, disruption of freedom of access, would probably prevent that,” he said.

During the holiday season, major mall operators sought to reassure the public that keeping shoppers, tenants and employees safe was their most important goal.

Chicago-based General Growth said in a statement, “Our number-one priority has been to ensure the safety and well-being of the shoppers and employees.”

Simon Property Group echoed the focus on safety.

“This can happen anywhere at anytime — at a university in Virginia, a high school in Colorado, a post offi ce, an offi ce building and at factories across town,” said a spokesman for the Indianapolis-based company. “And because the venue for these horrifi c acts is so random, it is impossible to conclude anything else but that the combination of mentally ill people seeking atten-tion serves as a catalyst for these events, not the place where they are ultimately carried out.”

Security at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., is routinely increased this time of year, said a spokeswoman.

The Omaha gunman, Robert A. Hawkins, who recently lost his job at McDonald’s and broke up with his girlfriend, took an eleva-tor to the third fl oor of the Von Maur department store, where he immediately began fi ring, Police Chief Thomas Warren said dur-ing a televised news conference. Hawkins also wounded fi ve peo-ple with an AK-47 automatic rifl e that belonged to his stepfather.— With contributions from

Katherine Bowers and Rusty Williamson

Victims in Omaha Shooting Chosen at Random

148

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By Miles Socha

LONDON — Leave it to Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel to bring the Eiffel Tower a little closer to Big Ben.Bringing a blast of Gallic chic and punk energy to the English capital, Lagerfeld staged

a blockbuster show of luxury pre-fall ready-to-wear Thursday night. But that’s not all: On Wednesday night he unleashed fl eets of Chanel-logoed black cabs to ferry guests to a thumping Nobu dinner, and on Thursday hosted back-to-back after parties — one with an exhibition of his moody black-and-white photos of Versailles.

“Where does he fi nd the time? He should do workshops on time management,” marveled Thandie Newton on Wednesday night as she fought her way through the crowd fl ooding into Nobu, including Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, Rinko Kikuchi, Kate Moss, Tom Ford, Charlotte Casiraghi, Kelly Osborne, Emma Watson, Yasmin Le Bon and Daphne Guinness.

“Of course I came. I love Karl,” said Minogue, who later popped onto a stool to pose for a photo with a very tall friend.

Before the show, held at the new Phillips de Pury & Co. headquarters in London’s Victoria neighborhood, Lily Allen mused on London-versus-Paris style. She said she found the former “more daring, more quirky” and the latter unbeatable for classics. But she was in a celebratory mood over her Grammy nomination.

“I do need to buy myself a congratulations present,” Allen said.“I like London style,” said Tokyo-based Kikuchi, who plays a sword-wielding character in her

next fi lm, a Japanese action feature. “I think it’s very rock.”Taking the raucous creative pulse of London to heart, Lagerfeld’s show featured handbags

festooned with Union Jacks, spectator-style winklepicker shoes and tartan tulle dresses, all to the beat of live music by Sean Lennon and model-cum-singer Irina Lazareanu.

“It’s clothes for today, but it’s quite Baroque at the same time…a postmodern version of sophisticated punk for the rich,” Lagerfeld said during fi ttings on Wednesday, as a model strode by wearing slim black satin jeans with panels streaming from the back pockets “to give some action.”

One of Lagerfeld’s inspirations was British singer Amy Winehouse, who scored six Grammy nominations Thursday, and whom he likened to “a Brigitte Bardot, with black hair.” To wit, all the models sported the singer’s signature messy beehive and heavy eye makeup.

The fashion messages include lean silhouettes, fl at shoes and an eccentric mix of delicate ruffl es and rough-and-tumble hardware. Knitwear was strong, from piped cardigans and bubble skirts to breeches.

“Postmodern romance,” said Lagerfeld. “The collection is not based so much on shapes as art and craft.” Suits and coats came trimmed in zippers and coats were edged in jewels or dotted with glittering brooches.

The show was the latest métiers d’art collection, launched in 2002 as a way to showcase the skills of the seven couture ateliers that Chanel owns. These include the embroiderer Lesage, the shoemaker Massaro, the feather artisan Lemarié and the silversmith Goossens.

Technical innovations this season include high-heeled shoes with bulbous heels that actually light up — “Batteries included,” Lagerfeld noted —and gloves and neckpieces made from delicate, articulated metal feathers.

Lagerfeld’s favorite piece? His Doorstop bag, a wedge-shaped clutch that can be tucked under the arm and won’t slip out.

London hasn’t seen such a polished and luxurious show for eons: There were endless trays of Champagne, hors d’oeuvres in geometric shapes, candlelit seating and handwritten place-cards. “It’s all very grown-up for London,” said one observer.

Ever the Chanel fan, Emma Watson said it was hard to capture the essence of Karl. “He’s got that je ne sais quoi,” she mused. “And I think this show was terrifi c for London fashion.”

Another Emma — Thompson, this time — said it was her fi rst fashion show.“Clearly I have not lived. Someone told me I should have worn black,” said the

Oscar-winning actress, who was concerned about her outfi t because she was wearing a cream jacket-and-trouser ensemble. Told the show would last about 15 minutes, Thompson said: “That’s just like a fi lm: All the buildup — and then it’s over.”

Chanel, which operates about 10 boutiques in England, including one that just bowed in Manchester, has ties to the country that stretch back almost a century. It all started when Gabrielle Chanel struck up a romance with polo player Arthur “Boy” Capel, who fi nanced her when she set up business in 1910 as a milliner. Chanel was later inspired by another English boyfriend, the Duke of Westminster.

The years 1925 to 1929 represented her most intense English period: She brought Irish tweeds into the Chanel vernacular and into postwar fashion, said Lagerfeld, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the iconic designer.

“She always had a very good relationship with England, and in those days, English people spoke French,” Lagerfeld noted.

For his part, Lagerfeld confessed admiration for “the hunting look” and a particular affection for the Edwardian period, when parading women were “feathered, gorgeous creatures. I like those periods when the world is on the edge of the end,” he said.

Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion, said the métiers d’art collection — initially tested in a handful of stores — is now carried in all 154 Chanel boutiques and select wholesale accounts in the U.S. While it’s evolved into a signifi cant and growing business for Chanel, Pavlovsky stressed the limited quantities of garments, priced in the 10,000 to 15,000 euro range, or $14,600 to $22,000, tap into the upscale customer’s desire for exclusive and exceptional products.

Prices for the collection shown Thursday are still being fi nalized but run up to 30,000 euros, or $43,900, for a full-length leather coat festooned with jeweled embroideries.

The clothes — plus shoes, accessories and jewelry — start arriving in Chanel boutiques in May, allowing the French brand to offer completely new collections every two months.

“There’s a need or a desire for change and new things all the time,” Lagerfeld said. “You don’t wait six months to go back to the shop. The offer has to change. Shopping is a cultural activity.”

Chanel represents between 30 and 50 percent of the workload for the couture ateliers it owns, and the métiers d’art collection has helped boost demand such that the ateliers have had to hire more than 50 employees, Pavlovsky said.

The executive declined to give fi gures for Chanel’s U.K. business, but described it as “booming,” bolstered by strong local demand and tourism. “The last two years have been very dynamic,” he said. “It’s quite a well-balanced business.”

For his part, the ever-restless Lagerfeld is brimming with concepts for his next show-on-the-go. “Besides London, my other idea was to go to India, so that will be next time.”

Karl Hails BritanniaHere and at right:

Looks from the Chanel pre-fall collection,

including AmyWinehouse-inspired

hair and makeup.

Agyness Deyn grooves to the tunes.

WWD.COM7WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

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The Chanel-logoed taxis that ferried guests around town.

Karl Lagerfeld snaps Natalie Imbruglia and Kylie Minogue.

Joana Preiss and Elodie

Bouchez at Wednesday

night’s party.

Kate MossLily Allen

Emma Watson

Fiona Scarry and Charlotte Casiraghi

Karl Lagerfeld snaps Natalie Imbruglia and Kylie Minogue.

By Brid Costello

LONDON — Burberry hopes to up the tempo at fragrance coun-ters worldwide starting in March, when it launches The Beat, its latest scent for women.

The British luxury brand and its beauty license holder Inter Parfums concocted the scent with an eye to tapping the vigor of its fashion business, which has been growing apace in recent years. “The energy that exists within the company is encapsu-lated within this fragrance,” said Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s creative director. “It encompasses the brand as it is today. It’s of the moment.”

“It is very young and modern,” continued Philippe Benacin, chairman and managing director of Inter Parfums SA, adding that the scent marries elegance with a rock ’n’ roll edge. “It’s very well connected to what Christopher Bailey is doing with Burberry today.”

The Beat is also meant to bolster Burberry’s fragrance portfolio by offering a more international bent, Benacin said, adding that its most recent introductions, Burberry Brit and Burberry London, are more obviously linked to the brand’s London heritage.

Industry sources estimate The Beat will generate between 120 million euros, or $176 million at current exchange, and 140 million euros, or $205 million, worldwide in its fi rst year at retail.

With the scent, Bailey also aims to keep a fi nger on the pulse of today’s pretty young things, as well as women who are young at heart. “[While working on the concept,] the word we kept using was ‘energy,’” he recalled. “We wanted youthful energy. We wanted movement, for it to be active and to have the spirit of youthful-ness come out in everything that we did.”

To channel that sense of youthful joie de vivre, Bailey, as reported, selected British model Agyness Deyn, who appears in The Beat’s adver-tising campaign. “She doesn’t take things too seriously. She’s a free spirit,” said Bailey.

That’s evident in the fragrance’s advertising, which was art directed by Fabien Baron and photographed by David Sims. The single- and double-page print campaign features multiple im-ages of the model as she dances to rock music.

Television ads feature a track by Glaswegian band The Fratellis as well as a voice-over by Deyn introducing the fragrance.

The Beat’s juice also has a musical connection, since Bailey provided perfumers who worked on the brief with albums by Kasabian, Dirty Pretty Things, Razorlight, the Arctic Monkeys and The Fratellis to illustrate the mood he was aiming to create with The Beat.

“I always see things in terms of all the senses,” said Bailey. “Fashion is not just about clothes or color, but also about scent, sound and light. I don’t see them as separate things.”

For International Flavors & Fragrances noses Dominique Ropion, Olivier Polge and Beatrice Piquet, the musical analogy was a useful creative tool. “[Music and perfumery] are two uni-verses where words are diffi cult,” said Polge.

Bailey also was keen to imbue the sparkling fl oral woody juice with a typically British feel, so a Ceylon tea with iris accord and a bluebell accord were created to form the scent’s “spinal column,”

Ropion said. Other notes include bergamot, cardamom, pink pepper, mandarin, white musk, vetiver and cedarwood. An “in-tense elixir parfum,” a more concentrated blend of the scent, also will be on offer.

Baron and Bailey designed The Beat’s fl acon, which features an oversize version of a Burberry check pattern, mirroring a scarf worn by Deyn in the advertising. The bottle also has a sil-ver-colored cap, as well as a suede-and-metal charm, which is a nod to Burberry accessories.

“It feels a bit like an old English gentleman’s fl ask,” said Bailey, adding that The Beat’s outer carton opens like a matchbox to un-derscore the scent’s relaxed and modern concept. The elixir’s bottle has a mirror-effect silver fi nish decorated with the check pattern and comes in a transparent cube rather than a carton.

Ancillaries include a shower gel and body lotion. The eau de parfum will be available as 30-, 50- and 75-ml. sprays priced in the U.K. at 27 pounds, or $54.70; 38 pounds, or $77, and 48 pounds, or $97.30. A 40-ml. bottle of elixir will retail for 65 pounds, or $131.70. In the U.S. the sprays will be priced at $50, $62 and $80, respectively, with the elixir priced at $130. In the U.S., the 5.1-oz. body lotion will be priced at $39.50 and the 5.1-

oz. shower gel will be priced at $35.In the U.S., The Beat will roll out at Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom

and Saks Fifth Avenue in March, to be followed with additional department store doors following in April.

“The Beat is a fragrance that will capture the true spirit of the moment,” said Don Loftus, president and chief executive offi cer of P&G Prestige Products in the U.S. “The energy of fashion and music evoked by The Beat will introduce a new group of consumers to the uniquely British history and heritage of Burberry Fragrances.”

— With contributions from Julie Naughton, New York

Burberry: Marching to The Beat

8 WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

Beauty Report WWD.COM

Guerlain has opened a boutique at the Waldorf-Astoria in advance of the spa it is

constructing at the hotel.The boutique, adjacent to the historic clock

located on the ground floor of the venerable Manhattan hotel, is selling the Guerlain skin care, fragrance and makeup collections, and is taking advance registrations for the brand’s fi rst Guerlain Spa, being constructed on the hotel’s 19th fl oor. The spa, a collaboration between the Waldorf-Astoria Collection, the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned Guerlain and global spa operator Spa Chakra Inc., is expected to open early next year.

“Guerlain and the Waldorf-Astoria are both leaders in the luxury market and share values of excellence and service,” said Linda Maiocco, vice president of marketing for Guerlain, of the boutique, which had a soft opening earlier this week. “This partnership, in addition to Guerlain’s retailer exposure in spe-cialty doors, provides excellent brand exposure and a great presence for Guerlain in the U.S.”

“The Guerlain boutique is the fi rst phase of

what we envision as the blending of exception-al luxury spa experiences and incomparable hotel accommodations committed to guest en-gagement, exploration and discovery,” added

Eric Long, general manager of the Waldorf-Astoria.

While Maiocco declined to discuss sales projections, industry sources estimated the boutique would gen-erate retail sales of more than $1 million in its fi rst year of operation.

Maiocco said additional Guerlain boutiques are set to open next year. “We are definitely planning to expand the number of Guerlain boutiques in the U.S. in 2008,” she said, not-ing that future Guerlain Spas and Guerlain bou-tiques are planned for newly built Waldorf-Astoria Collection hotels in gate-way cities globally. “To maintain Guerlain’s exclu-

sivity, the decision to open new boutiques will remain very selective. We are currently fi nal-izing a plan to open one additional boutique in spring 2008.”

— J.N.

Guerlain Opens First U.S. Freestanding Store

The scent’s print ad.

The new boutique.

Reports circulated in the market late Thursday that Coty Inc. has signed a deal

to buy Del Laboratories for an estimated $800 million. It is expected that the two fi rms could announce the acquisition as early as today.

Del Labs, which is owned by the New York private equity fi rm Kelso & Co., is known in the beauty industry for its Sally Hansen nail care — the market leader — but its business also in-cludes over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, such as the Orajel brand.

Industry sources anticipate that Coty will purchase both businesses and later shed the pharmaceuticals piece. They also expect Coty will move swiftly to consolidate Del Labs’ Uniondale, N.Y., headquarters into the fra-grance fi rm’s Manhattan offi ces.

Industry watchers have long suspected that

Coty’s chief executive offi cer Bernd Beetz aims to take the $3.3 billion fi rm public, but said he would fi rst need to round out its fragrance-heavy brand portfolio. This particular deal would pad Coty’s beauty business signifi cantly, given cosmetics — including Sally Hansen and NYC New York Color — account for about 80 percent, or $340.7 million, of Del Labs’ 2006 net sales, which totaled $425.9 million. Coty is 100 percent owned by the Ludwigshafen, Germany-based Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH, a private hold-ing company that also owns 15 percent of the London-based consumer products fi rm Reckitt Benckiser.

News of Coty’s possible purchase of Del Labs was fi rst reported by The Wall Street Journal last week.

— Molly Prior

Coty Said in Deal to Acquire Del Labs

WWD.COM

Continued from page oneitems such as high-end skin care capturing considerable business. “I expect high-end skin care, limited-distribution color brands and holiday color palettes to do well for the holidays,” said Howard Kreitzman, vice president of cosmetics and fragrances for Bloomingdale’s.

Several other retailers agree that color is on a roll, particularly MAC Cosmetics. Claudia Lucas, senior vice president and general merchandise manager at

Henri Bendel, said the retailer had a “terrifi c November” and expected the trend to continue. “We’re really optimistic,” she said, noting that her business has also been buoyed by a steady stream of Europeans taking advantage of the weak dollar. “Business is good across the board, particularly in color. We are already on our third re-order of MAC’s holiday set. Lip gloss sets and palettes are also doing very well, as is Memoire Liquide. We’re also selling a lot of gift cards. A certain percent-age of sales are probably self-purchases as well — at Bendel’s, we have a saying: ‘One for you, two for me.’”

“In color cosmetics,” said Jon Pollack, executive vice presi-dent and general merchandise manager at Belk Inc., “our make-up artist portfolio has been explosive, we see that continuing.” Standout color brands include Bobbi Brown, MAC Cosmetics, BeneFit Cosmetics, Laura Mercier and Chanel.

But that’s not to say that fragrances aren’t important, Kreitzman added. “Our best new fragrances have been Marc Jacobs Daisy, Prada D’Iris and DKNY Delicious Night,” said Kreitzman. Daisy and Prada D’Iris, in fact, were often men-tioned as strong sellers.

Retailers cited other standout brands as Diesel, Usher’s mas-terbrand, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Unforgivable for Women, L, a L.A.M.B. fragrance by Gwen Stefani, YSL’s Elle, Chanel’s No.5 and Coco Mademoiselle, Estée Lauder’s Beautiful, Tom Ford’s scents, Donna Karan’s Cashmere Mist and Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue.

While there are continuing fears that accessories and con-sumer electronics might steal beauty’s thunder, Karen Grant, se-nior beauty industry analyst for The NPD Group, isn’t worried. “There’s a lot of concern that these categories might capture most of the attention — but we are positive about this season,” she said. Grant noted that prestige fragrance sales rose 2 per-cent in October — thought to be a harbinger for the holiday — and outperformed both makeup, which she said has been tracking as the number-one category, and skin care. “We’re hopeful be-cause if fragrance does well in October, it gener-ally also does well for the holidays,” she said.

Grant noted that 20 percent of total-year fragrance sales come in the two weeks before Christmas. “One of the things we’ve seen in the past few years is that sales are getting later and later,” said Grant. “It used to be that 35 percent of December sales were done in the last two weeks. In 2006, 45 percent were done in the last two weeks, with a lot of the sales rolling into the actual week of Christmas. This year, the hope is that won’t change. There will be another weekend in the cal-endar [between Thanksgiving and Christmas] this year, so that should help boost sales. A lot of peo-ple will wait until the very last minute.

“What’s exciting is that there is a lot of new-ness in men’s and women’s fragrances doing well,” she added. “Usher’s fragrances and Diddy’s Unforgivable for Women are particularly strong, and YSL’s Elle is also doing great business. As well, the classics are doing well — Chanel No.5, Estée Lauder’s Beautiful, Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle, Donna Karan’s Cashmere Mist and Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue. We expect to see growth in both classics and new fragrances for the holidays.”

Color cosmetics are also trending well. “Makeup continues to be the strongest category we are see-ing,” said Grant, naming MAC Cosmetics as a standout. “It took over last year as the leader over fragrances. Part of what we’re seeing is that customers are buying as much for themselves at this time of year as they are buying for anyone else — which might explain some of the upticks we’ve seen in both makeup and skin care.”

Gift sets have been selling very well, no matter what the category, said Grant. “The bottom line is that the set business is much stronger than it’s been in a long time,” she said.

And Grant noted that the weak dollar is enticing foreign shoppers to the U.S., particularly in tourist-heavy cities such as New York. “I think that will positively affect the sales doldrums in some areas,” she said.

Will the calendar this year — with that extra weekend day between Thanksgiving and Christmas — help sales? Kreitzman is reserving judgment. “There is one extra day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it is a Sunday, so it should be worth a lot,” he said. “But Hanukkah is early, so that could hurt sales later.”

Many other things will affect sales this holiday, Kreitman pointed out. “The price of gasoline, mortgage meltdown, Wall Street worries, the alignment of the planets,” Kreitzman joked, “but as I was taught by a very wise man early in my career, I can’t do nothin’ about what I can’t do nothin’ about.”

“Gift sets across all categories — color, skin care, fragrance and bath and body — are always a huge holiday hit for Sephora,” said Betsy Olum, senior vice presi-dent of marketing for Sephora. “Clients realize the incredible value they’re get-ting and are drawn to these limited edition items, many of which are exclusive to Sephora. Additionally, the fact that these sets are not available at any other time of year makes them a unique and exciting gift idea.

“This season, there’s a mix of annual favorites and new items that we expect to do very well,” continued Olum. “Of course, perennial successes like Philosophy Home for the Holidays and Sephora’s Blockbuster Palette, which fl ew off store shelves last year, will be very popular, but clients are responding favorably to prod-ucts that offer something fun and unique. Items like the Too Faced Lights, Camera, Glamour! palette that contains a Hollywood makeup mirror that actually lights up, and the L L.A.M.B. set that not only contains the fi rst fragrance by Gwen Stefani, but also a body lotion and solid perfume, are proving to be successful as well.”

“We’re very excited and happy about our overall fragrance business. It’s been very strong,” said Wendy Gottfried, associate divisional merchandise manager for fragranc-es and intimate apparel at Saks Fifth Avenue. “We feel very optimistic we will contin-ue with our strong trend. We’re tracking to [exceed] plan and last year’s numbers.”

Creating a lifestyle approach and having a differentiated product assortment that’s kept fresh will be key to staying on track, according to Gottfried. “Fragrance

is defi nitely our star performer for the quarter and season. [It’s] outpacing skin care and color.”

Fragrance brands that have stood out so far include the Saks Fifth Avenue fragrances produced by Bond No. 9, Chanel, Hermès, Sisley, Gucci, Pucci, Jo Malone, Creed, Annick Goutal, Estée Lauder, Tom Ford and Trish McEvoy.

“We’re seeing great synergies with the designer houses,” said Gottfried, pointing to Bond No. 9, Tom Ford, Narciso Rodriguez and Dolce & Gabbana as standouts on the men’s side. Items that are unusual are “really performing,” she said.

As for competition from other departments within the store, “During markdown periods there are always challenges,” said Gottfried. However, she said she believes presentations in the beauty department will get customers to respond.

“The business is going about as we expected,” said Pollack.“We’re still looking for midsingle-digit increases out of the fragrance category.

“It was a good start, but as usual after an early Thanksgiving, there is a lull — that’s normal, but we’re focused on achieving our plans.” He added that activity “is going to be late and very intense, the last couple of weeks, but all indications are that we’re going to have a strong fi nish to the year.”

Competition within the store from other product categories like electronics or apparel is no differ-ent now than it has been in past years, said Pollack. “We face that every year. Our merchandise has to stand on its own and compete.” Boosting his confi dence, he said, are Belk’s efforts to target cus-tomers. “We’ve done a good job of get-ting scents out there,” he said. “We’ve increased the number of scented pieces in our catalogue or direct mail. We think that’s going to help drive the fourth-quar-ter business.”

Additionally, Pollack said he’s an-ticipating “a big TV media blitz [for fra-grance] in December, which is going to help the overall business. There’s more TV spend than we’ve seen in a long time [and that] will drive the gift-giving time frame. And we’ve focused on in-store ex-ecution quite a bit.” Also, he said, there’s a balanced assortment of classic brands doing well and strong new entries.

So far, Chanel has been performing well on the women’s side. Daisy by Marc Jacobs has been a strong new entry and Dolce & Gabbana’s The One has been “phenomenal.” On the men’s side, Polo Explorer, Usher and Diesel have been “awesome.”

“Christmas is excellent — it is already excelling beyond our expectations,” said Robin Coe-Hutshing, owner of The Studio at Fred Segal. “All categories are doing well — there’s defi nitely a ‘one for me, one for you’ thing going on — but home fragrances, men’s and women’s fragrances and skin care are doing very well. We just opened a Korres Apothecary [for the Greek bath, body and skin care line], and L’Artisan Perfumeur’s home fragrances and Burn [Coe-Hutshing’s candle line] are strong, as is Memoire Liquide. In skin care, Stem Organics is doing well. Clark’s Botanicals are doing well, as are Bubble Room, Diptyque, Tocca and Serge Lutens. We’ve also brought in a slew of Australian brands.”

As a result of the weak dollar, Coe-Hutshing is seeing a large uptick in business, particularly from Japanese tourists. “They think our prices [in the U.S.] are ridicu-lously cheap right now, and that’s defi nitely helping business.”

“We’ve been meeting our plan and we’re excited about that,” said Marla Malcolm Beck, founder and chief executive offi cer of Washington-based Blue Mercury.

“What we’re fi nding is the luxury client is buying the [uncommon] thing that no one [else] has. They want newness and uniqueness. The trend toward the ex-otic is defi nitely there, products that are hard to fi nd.” Bestsellers among fragranc-es include Serge Lutens’ Louve and Acqua di Parma’s Colonia Intensa and Iris Nobile scents. Also doing well are Creed Virgin Island Water and Trish McEvoy’s Blackberry and Vanilla fragrance. “Vanilla fragrances are doing well,” said Beck, “better than the fl orals.” She added “Men’s is doing much better than women’s [es-pecially] on Creed.” Stand-out men’s scents include Creed’s Vetiver and Green Irish Tweed scents.

“We have a mix of suburban and urban stores,” Beck said of the 26-store chain. “The suburban stores are off the charts and the urban stores are trickier, because you get a wider economic base of clients in the urban stores. I think the economy is slightly impacting urban stores.”

In skin care and color cosmetics, doctor and cosmeceutical brands are “doing ex-tremely well for us,” said Beck. “Our core strength is skin care. The Skinceuticals, Dermalogica, MD Skincare and Darphin businesses have been immensely strong.”

Macy’s Debbie Murtha could not be reached for comment.

10 WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

Fragrance Off to a Solid Start The Beauty Report WWD.COM

Daisy Marc Jacobs

Polo Explorer

Scents from Tom Ford’s Private

Blend collection.

Usher He and Usher She

Scents from Tom Ford’s Private

Blend collection.

Somewhere Miss Clairol is turning over in her grave.

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betty™ Color for the hair down there.

MISS CLAIROL® is a registered trademark of The Procter & Gamble Company.

Inclusion of this mark is not intended to indicate authorization by its owner or association with the above mentioned trademark.

Shoppers are buying beauty in more places, and soon they’ll have more stores to encour-age that habit. Some beauty retailers — namely Ulta, Bluemercury, Bare Escentuals and

Sephora via J.C. Penney — have unrolled blueprints for aggressive store growth, which in most cases will accelerate in 2008. Regis Corp. plans to ratchet up the competition by trans-forming its 630 Trade Secret stores into “beauty boutiques,” which in addition to professional hair care will carry skin care and cosmetics. It’s a model that bares a striking similarity to that of Ulta, the beauty retailer that houses salon, mass market and increasingly prestige brands under one roof.

Ulta, the Romeoville, Ill.-based retailer that went public in October, has built a chain of some 236 stores located in suburban off-mall shop-ping centers, and plans to end the year with 250 doors. Ulta’s president and chief executive of-fi cer, Lyn Kirby, said the chain has the potential to grow to 1,000-plus stores over the next decade.

In high-end shopping hubs, the Washington D.C.-based Bluemercury aims to reposition it-self from a Northeastern beauty apothecary into a national player. The 26-store chain — which is now in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Princeton, N.J. — plans to open 30 more doors in 2008. The fi rm wants to maintain a 30-stores-a-year pace and reach 300 stores by 2010, said Marla Malcolm Beck, founder and ceo of Bluemercury.

The mineral makeup brand Bare Escentuals, which is sold in both Ulta and Sephora, contin-ues to open its own stand-alone brand boutiques and has earmarked a long-term target of 400 such stores. Of its 33 company-owned boutiques that have been open for the year ended Dec. 31, 2006, Bare Escentuals’ average annual net sales during the period was approximately $1,800 a square foot, according to the fi rm’s annual report.

For its part, Sephora — which has about 180 stores — has aligned itself with Penney’s and in early 2006 began opening stand-alone branded boutiques in the department store. The beauty shop has since opened in about 30 Penney’s doors, and Penney’s said it plans to ac-celerate the rollout of the Sephora concept next year.

— Molly Prior

12 WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

The Beauty Report

Mass Beauty Targets Natural Products for GrowthNatural and organic products continue to shake up

mass market beauty care.In the coming year, several natural product brands,

which just recently entered mass retailers, will be cut from planograms so merchants can focus only on those that are actually performing. According to several industry insiders, Hain Celestial Group’s various brands will be feeling most of the heat, namely its Alba and Jason Natural ranges. Instead, said sources, retailers will begin developing their own standards of natural, and replenish their mix accordingly. One retailer currently mulling over a natural product stan-dard is Whole Foods Market. “They are chang-ing the way they admit products into its Whole Body” department, said one manufacturer, who met recently with Whole Foods buyers and is looking to get placement into the grocery chain’s

personal care division. Whole Foods would not comment on its alleged initiative, but one source familiar with its

standard said the new order will have products merchandised based on how pure they are and what ingredients products do or do not

contain. An overall industry standard is still top of mind with Mike Indursky of Burt’s

Bees, who earlier this year announced plans to conceptualize and carry out a standard that would help put the indus-

try and consumers on the same page as far as what is natural and what is not. Indursky just returned from Europe where he met with offi cials to discuss the formation of a global standard for natural products.

Several hot launches also look to keep mass market beauty fresh and new.

Physicians Formula is going natural with the launch of Organic Wear, the fi rst certifi ed organic makeup line to be sold in the mass market. In January, the company will introduce 42 color cosmetic items which contain the Ecocert organic certifi cation, meaning 95 percent of in-gredients are of natural origin and at least 90 percent of the total formula contains certifi ed organic ingredients produced on organic farms. Over in the hair care aisle, a new hair color from P&G’s Clairol brand will land on shelf in the fi rst half of 2008 that looks to cut at-home chemical processing to a mere 10 minutes. The new line will have a formula that is ammonia-free, permanent and strong enough to cover gray hair. Also coming in 2008 is Maybelline New York’s entry into minerals, a category that at mass totals about $80 million. Maybelline’s effort, said company executives, looks to almost double the cat-egory in its fi rst year.

— Andrea Nagel

Is the future of the fragrance business written in the stars? A quick glance at next year’s celebrity-powered launches makes

one thing quite evident: this trend isn’t ending anytime soon.In addition to the already scheduled projects of Jennifer

Lopez and Tim McGraw (from Coty) and Sean “Jay-Z” Carter’s Rocawear (by Elizabeth Arden), Christina Aguilera’s fragrance, being produced by Procter & Gamble, is set to launch in the U.S. next year. And the hottest rumor these days is that for-mer Friend Jennifer Aniston is about to join this constellation:

Aniston is said to have shot a fragrance campaign and may have been in discussions with Elizabeth Arden, Coty and

the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. Aniston’s rep did not return a request for comment by press time.

Aguilera launched an eponymous fragrance in Europe in October, although sources say that the Aguilera scent planned for a U.S. launch in fall 2008 will be a different fragrance entirely, one concocted specifi cally for American tastes.

The top notes of Aguilera’s European scent are of fruit sorbet, sparkling tangerine and fruity blackcur-

rant tea; its heart is of peony, jasmine and plum, and the drydown is of amber, creamy vanilla and musk. “To

me, jasmine has always been synonymous with old movie star glamour,” said the singer in a statement on P&G’s Web

site. “It is such a beautiful scent and has great heritage in tra-ditional perfumery, which I love. The blackcurrant tea note for me captures the vibrancy and happiness of my honeymoon. Its fruity, mouthwatering scent reminds me of sitting on our Bali veranda in the heat, looking out over the most gorgeous sunset while sipping a cool, refreshing cocktail.”

A TV commercial featuring Aguilera was shot in Los Angeles earlier this year for the European fragrance. The spot features a sultry Aguilera in full hair and makeup and a cream robe in a designer-fi lled dressing room, trying to decide what to wear. She then heads toward her fragrance bottle, on a nearby dress-ing table, and picks it up. With her back to the camera, she slips off the robe and sprays her back with the scent, which then transforms into a black lace tattoo running across her back. The campaign’s tag line is “Sometimes, it’s all you need to wear.”

The name of the U.S. scent has not been released, nor have its prices or distribution plans.

— Julie Naughton

Beauty’s Retail Sprawl

Need for Critical Mass Fuels Industry AcquisitionsPARIS — PPR and Groupe Clarins. Coty and Del Laboratories. Speculative reports have been rife that such companies are involved in M&A activities.

The pairing of such names — and more — will prob-ably ramp up in the near term. And it won’t all be buzz, said industry sources, who believe numerous beauty deals could be sealed in the months to come.

“There are midsized companies that will either de-cide to sell themselves or make acquisitions to reach a critical size to remain competitive,” said Karine Ohana, partner in Ohana & Co., a boutique M&A fi rm in Paris. When it comes to fragrance manufacturers, criti-cal mass is key to building muscle needed to negotiate with retailers and for advertising’s sake, she explained. For cosmetics makers, it also concerns strengthening research and development.

“Companies might make acquisitions to gain either

route to market, period, or to enter into emerging mar-kets,” said one industry source who requested anonym-ity. He explained another driver of M&A activity could be the need for companies to keep their numbers up in the event of an economic slowdown.

Further, fi nancial sources say they expect more private equity fi rms, particularly smaller funds, to attempt to unload their investments, given lack of li-quidity in the credit markets, and that the potential onslaught of fi rms on the selling block will begin to drive prices down.

Meantime, the Courtin-Clarins family — with 65.1 percent of Clarins’ capital and 78.6 percent of its vot-ing rights — has repeatedly said the company is not for sale, despite rumors to the contrary. Just last week, Christian Courtin-Clarins, president and chief execu-tive offi cer of the fi rm, issued a statement (in response

to speculative reports that Clarins has entered into ne-gotiations with PPR) that said: “To this date there ex-ists no element of a nature to be made public.”

According to some speculative reports, PPR could offer its beauty division, YSL Beauté, to Clarins in return for up to a 30 percent stake in the company — and even a right of fi rst refusal if the company is eventually sold.

In the months to come, Ohana believes beauty com-panies will continue searching for organic and natural brands to buy, as well as holdings to keep them com-petitive with pharmaceutical players.

Market watchers wonder whether L’Oréal might ac-quire Natura or Shiseido and if Procter & Gamble will snap up a skin care company. And that’s just to name a few M&A possibilities being bandied about.

— Jennifer Weil

Inside Bluemercury.

Burt’s Bees items.

Celebs Keep Scent Deals Fresh

COOLA AS A CUCUMBER: Not much can stop Hollywood based-Coola, a new player in the sun care market. The fi rm’s Pasadena warehouse recently burned down — thought to be a result of the fi res destroying much of the neighboring region — and that left Coola’s husband-and-wife founders with a mountain of explaining to do to vendors. “We were basically getting product back from some vendors in order to fulfi ll orders to more high-priority vendors,” said Christian Birchby, who along with his wife, Kristian, founded the line after both sets of parents were undergoing treatment for melanoma. The line includes a Face SPF 30, enhanced with organic cucumber extracts; Total Body SPF 30, made with organic plumeria extracts, and Sport SPF 45, with organic mango extracts. Unscented versions of each are also available. Products retail between $28 and $30. The one good thing about the fi re? “It gave us the opportunity to replace all formulas with PABA-free ones,” said Birchby.

PLUMP IT UP: Continuing his brand’s mission to develop hair care solutions as if treating skin, Frédéric Fekkai is launching All Day Hair Plump within his existing Fekkai Advanced Hair Care range. The $95 daytime leave-in treatment is designed to be applied in the morning on damp hair to provide moisture throughout the day while “plumping up” hair cuticles to strengthen hair. Like several upscale skin cremes, Plump contains hyaluronate humectants

for hydration, marine actin peptides to repair damaged hair, vegetable proteins to strengthen the hair and moringa seed and edelweiss extract for protection from pollution and UV rays. Plump will be sold in Neiman Marcus and Fekkai salons beginning in January.

WHITE JOINS MAYBELLINE: Maybelline New York has named model Jessica White as a new face for the brand. White is best known for her work in ad campaigns with

Chloé and the Gap. In product news, Maybelline’s Defi ne-A-Lash Volume mascara and VolumeXLSeduction lip color enter stores in January. ROYAL BEAUTY: Liz Earle and Kim Buckland, co-founders of Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare, were awarded MBEs (an honor awarded for outstanding achievement, which stands for Member of the Order of the British Empire) in recognition of their services to the beauty industry. Earle, a writer and broadcaster on the beauty industry, and Buckland, a beauty marketer, launched the Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare range in 1995, a botanical-based skin care brand that now boasts its own London-based store. The company employs more than 200 people.

WIGGED OUT: Wigs are poised to overtake the hair extension craze, predicts Shevy Emanuel, founder and owner of Shevy Pro, the Brooklyn-based maker of premium wigs. Her wholesale and retail business has tripled in the past fi ve years, she said, primarily because women and hairstylists are fi nding that hair extensions are unable to provide the quality wigs can. “The market is going away from extensions,” she said, moving instead toward wigs such as hers, which use only Caucasian, unprocessed hair from Europe — mainly Russia — and are hand-sewn at a manufacturing facility in China. Most extensions, she said, use either synthetic hair or hair from Asia or India, which largely yields dark hair that then needs to be dyed. Her 4,000-square-foot salon, Shevy, on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, currently stocks between 4,000 and 6,000 wigs, in an assortment of hair colors, textures and lengths. Her wigs, which sell between $2,000 and $4,500,

are sold in 300 salons worldwide. Shevy Wigs generates about $1 million a year.

ZIRH EXPANSION: Men’s skin care marketer Zirh Holdings LLC, which was purchased from Shiseido in August by a group of investors lead by the brand’s former owner, Brian Robinson, is bolstering its marketing and distribution efforts. Zirh has signed a deal with Quadrant Cosmetics Corp. for distribution of the Zirh brand in Canada, an agreement that will take effect on Jan. 1. Additionally, Zirh has named Alyssa Truppelli to the post of Internet marketing director. Most recently, Truppelli was e-commerce manager at MAC Cosmetics. Zirh has also named Sindhya Valloppillil product development manager. Previously, Valloppillil has worked at Johnson & Johnson and Limited Brands in various divisions.

PACKING A PUNCH: In a move to demonstrate the reality of packaging waste, British design agency Pearlfi sher unveiled an exhibition entitled “Destination Landfi ll” last week. A gallery space at the fi rm’s London studio has been transformed into a waste pile littered with a mishmash of 386 products, some of which feature packaging designed by Pearlfi sher. Nik Ramage, a mechanical sculptor, engineered three machines to haphazardly compress the “waste,” which includes Jo Malone fragrances, Nude treatment products, cartons of fresh milk and chocolate bars. Jonathan Ford, Pearlfi sher’s creative partner, said the exhibit is meant to motivate clients and consumers to choose more ecologically sustainable packaging alternatives by simulating the life cycle of products. The exhibition, whichopened to the public Thursday, will run until Jan. 25.

13WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

WWD.COM

SNIPPETS

Model Jessica White joins Maybelline as a spokeswoman.

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Model Jessica White joins Maybelline as a spokeswoman.

14 WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

The HBA Report WWD.COM

By Faye Brookman and Molly Prior

From the first time discount chains and drugstores began tinkering with

exclusive lines about a decade ago, na-tional brand manufacturers were wary.

After all, retailers often clip space from national brands — backed by multi-million dollar advertising campaigns — to make room for their exclusive offerings, which are either plucked from Europe or created in partnership with a small manufacturer. In either case, the enter-prising efforts require a strong partnership and a hefty investment from the re-tailer. If they don’t work, the retailer will feel the pinch. But for every failed attempt — name-ly Walgreens’ exclusive cosmetics line IsaDora — there is a new entry. Case in point: Last week CVS unveiled 27.4 Skincare, a fi ve-item anti-aging line, in its newly opened midtown Manhattan store.

Referring to retailers’ typical ar-rangements with national brands, Jesse Lawrence, president of CRL Marketing, a fi rm that develops proprietary beauty lines, said, “When products don’t sell, often they go back to the supplier. [With exclusives] retailers quickly fi nd out they don’t have anyone to go back to. Exclusives do have their place, but only when the re-tailer lets the supplier control it.”

Lawrence’s fi rm has created targeted exclusives, including the youthful cosmet-ics line Jesse’s Girl, which is sold at Rite Aid. “Our sales are true sales. A customer walks in and buys it because she likes it and it’s a good price,” he explained.

What many retailers are discovering is that it takes a great deal of time and effort to not only merchandise the exclusive offer-ing, but also to take on the role of marketer.

The most recent exclusive beauty line to exit mass retail is Walgreens’ IsaDora, a Swedish-born cosmetics line. Walgreens added IsaDora to its beauty mix in 2003 and the fashion-driven color line had a solid run there. Walgreens proclaimed its confi dence in the exclusive line by dis-playing IsaDora on a 4-foot wall display, positioning it to go head-to-head with beauty stalwarts Maybelline and L’Oréal. It also expanded IsaDora’s assortment last spring by introducing a mineral makeup collection, which launched in Walgreens fi rst and later was slated to ex-pand to the line’s European markets.

However, Walgreens plans to discon-tinue IsaDora and has cut the line from its 2008 planogram, said a Walgreens spokes-woman. A spokeswoman for IsaDora de-clined to discuss the brand’s future U.S. plans, but said its Web site will be re-launched to accommodate Internet sales. One industry source noted that despite Walgreens’ best efforts, IsaDora’s low pro-ductivity and slow product turns did not justify its generous display space. The source added IsaDora likely gobbled up too much time from both Walgreens’ mar-keting and merchandising teams.

Industry consultant Allan Mottus, re-ferring to IsaDora, said, “The prices are just too high and Walgreens appears to be backing off beauty a little.” Mottus noted Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and dollar stores tend to price their wares 15 percent below Walgreens. “With IsaDora, Walgreens didn’t have to worry about being undercut on price by the discounters,” said Mottus.

Lawrence declared, “Here’s my opin-ion: A woman walks in, likes IsaDora but looks at the price and hasn’t heard of it and picks something else.”

Another manufacturer familiar with exclusive lines said Walgreens may have found the line diffi cult to manage.

Some surmise Walgreens may not have

factored in issues such as damages, liabili-ty of discontinued shades and promotional residuals. Although margins exceeding 60 percent to 70 percent are alluring, other costs such as damages, markdowns and fi xtures diminish the profi ts of exclusives. Ironically, these are the same issues hin-dering vertical retailers, such as Bath & Body Works, from enjoying the benefi ts of their outside brands. Walgreens declined to comment on the productivity of its European Beauty Collection — an assort-

ment of seven foreign-born skin

care brands — but the company said it is pleased with results from another recent exclusive, Yes to Carrots, a natural skin and hair care line.

Duane Reade’s proprietary beauty line, Apt. 5, looked the part of an up-scale line, but failed to generate the sales needed to give it staying power. Duane Reade introduced the cosmetics line in May 2002, and later expanded it to bath products and beauty tools. Despite its good looks, Apt. 5 turned off some New Yorkers and the line was dropped from the retailer’s mix earlier this year, said industry sources. It is still available on the drugstore chain’s Web site, as Duane Reade clears through in-ventory. An industry observer noted the new management team brought onboard two years ago decided to cut Apt. 5, which had seen sales level off and was in need of an update. For retailers, the source added, to support a home-grown line like Apt. 5 they have to have the wherewithal to absorb the costs of up-dating display fi xtures and markdowns.

CVS Pharmacy has steadily expand-ed its portfolio of exclusive brands in recent years, particularly in skin care. Its proprietary brands include Essence of Beauty, Skin Effects by Dr. Jeffrey Dover and now 24.7 Skincare.

CVS created the 24.7 Skincare line in partnership with Cos Brands, a spin-off company of the high-end skin care fi rm Freeze 24/7. The effort is being led by Mike Freedman, an initial investor in Freeze 24/7, whose experience also includes Gillette. Deb Armstrong, CVS’s divisional merchandising manager for beauty care, said the antiaging line — which relies on gamma-aminobutyric acid, an amino acid said to help diminish wrinkles — would be the cornerstone for the expansion of 24.7 into other categories.

Over the last decade, CVS has exper-imented with a host of exclusive offer-ings. Its most recent initiatives, includ-ing Skin Effects and 24.7 Skincare, seem to indicate CVS’s interest in partnering with experts rather than building house

brands from the ground up.CVS also counted the Finnish-born

beauty line, Lumene, among its exclusive brands until last spring when the brand rolled out to Target doors as well. CVS, which introduced Lumene to the U.S. market in 2003, might reap the rewards of the beauty fi rm’s expansion, particu-larly as Target helps to shoulder market-ing costs and promote consumer aware-ness. What’s more, one industry source suggested that retailers may decide to release their exclusives to other noncom-

peting retail channels provided the brand pay them royalties on their sales there.

Boots from the U.K. was the fi rst European brand to deftly carve out a quasi-exclusive dis-tribution arrangement with two U.S. retailers simultaneously

by partnering with both a drugstore chain, namely

CVS, and a discounter, Target.For vendors who already

distribute goods overseas, striking exclusive deals with U.S. retailers can

offer less risky ways to introduce their brands Stateside — in some cases a deal with a U.S. retailer may sim-

ply require them to slightly increase production. For smaller

manufacturers, an exclusive deal might secure an entire line shelf space in a na-tional retailer, rather than have multiple retailers cherry-pick items. One manufac-turer said exclusive deals usually garner more of an interest and investment from a powerhouse retailer. The manufacturer added the more strategic the program for

the retailer, the greater amount of time a manufacturer has to make it a success.

Industry sources also said retailers give their exclusive brands compelling fi nancial breaks. For instance, to partic-ipate in a retailer’s weekly circular, a national brand, such as L’Oréal Paris or Cover Girl, could expect to pay roughly $100,000 to $150,000 an ad, noted manu-facturers that asked not to be named. Vendors that sell their goods exclu-sively in that retailer get preferential treatment, which includes discounted advertising rates and, in many cases, free exposure in the circular and di-rect-mail pieces.

In the last year, retailers also seem to be giving exclusive lines a longer time frame to make a go of it, because retailers know they have the power to make their exclusives successful, ob-served several vendors. Retailers that have unlocked benefits of exclusive lines include Shoppers Drug Mart, with its house brand Quo; Ulta and Sephora, with their proprietary lines, and Target, with Sonia Kashuk cosmetics.

In each of these cases, industry ex-perts said there is a dedicated team of retail executives and consultants working exclusively on the brands. The makeup artist Sonia Kashuk is featured in Target commercials giving credence to the line.

However, Target doesn’t always hit a home run. It appears the chain has scaled back its specialty bath and body collection — once chock-full of European lines — to make room, once again, for national brands.

Exclusive brands plug into shoppers’ fondness for discovery, which is in part what underpins the success of upmarket retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Sephora, said Mottus. Referring to the need for niche, exclusive lines in the mass market, he declared, “The beauty industry was too monolithic. Sephora showed that it didn’t need those big oli-garchs” to entice shoppers.

The Price of Exclusive Brands

ADDING UP BEAUTY

A total of 25 awards were presented. They were:

Breakthrough Product of the Year, Prestige: Aveda Men (hair care); Lipstick Queen by Poppy King (color cosmetics); Care by Stella McCartney (skin care); Memoire Liquide (fragrance).

Breakthrough Product of the Year, Mass: Clairol Nice ’n Easy Hair Color Collection (hair care); Jillian Dempsey for Avon (color cosmetics); Dove Pro-Age (skin care); Mustang by Aramis and Designer Fragrances (fragrance).

Retailer of the Year: Bloomingdale’s (prestige); Henri Bendel (specialty); CVS Pharmacy (mass).

Most Innovative Marketer of the Year, Prestige: Catherine Walsh, senior vice president, American Fragrances, Coty Prestige (person); P&G Prestige Fragrance (company).

Most Innovative Marketer of the Year,

Mass: Mike Indursky, chief marketing offi cer of Burt’s Bees (person); Soap & Glory (company).

Newcomer of the Year: Lisa Hoffman Skin Care (products); My Blend by Dr. Olivier Courtin (brand).

Most Innovative Ad Campaign: Estée Lauder Private Collection (prestige); Cover Girl (mass).

Best Executed Launch Strategy of the Year, Prestige: MAC Loves Barbie (color cosmetics); Lancôme Primordiale Cell Defense Double Performance Cell Defense & Skin Perfecting Serum (skin care); Giorgio Armani Parfums (fra-grance).

Best Executed Launch Strategy of the Year, Mass: Physicians Formula (color cosmetics); Garnier Nutritioniste (skin care); Organix (hair care).

For full coverage, see today’s issue of WWD Beauty Biz.

Beauty Biz Fetes Winners

CVS’ Boots display and Walgreens’ IsaDora cosmetics.

Members of the beauty industry gathered at the Four Seasons restaurant Thursday to celebrate industry achievements at the fi fth annual WWD Beauty Biz Awards. From longtime retailers to new brands, the awards covered a broad spectrum of categories and drew such heavy hitters as William Lauder, Aerin Lauder and John Demsey of the Estée Lauder Cos., Coty Inc.’s Bernd Beetz and Catherine Walsh, indie entrepreneurs Robin Coe-Hutshing and Jennifer Coe-Bakewell, newly minted beauty mavens Jillian Dempsey and Lisa Hoffman, P&G Prestige’s Don Loftus, eco-pioneer Mike Indursky of Burt’s Bees, Eric Lauzet of Lancôme and many more. — Megan McIntyre

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WWD.COM

November Sales Give Hope for Holiday By Liza Casabona

As retailers posted better-than-expected same-store sales for November, the true read

— total sales — on the kickoff of the holiday shop-ping season showed robust results.

The strong sales, coupled with leaner inven-tories at most retailers, temporarily faded prior concerns that eroded gross margins would weaken profi ts in the fourth quarter. Still, November same-store sales warranted scrutiny as a calendar shift may have artifi cially infl ated results. Some retail-ers urged Wall Street to look at the November-December period before making any conclusions.

Eric Beder, a teen and specialty retail equity analyst at Brean Murray Carret & Co., said in a research note that he believes “the fruits of retail management’s drive to reduce inventories will begin to bear fruit in December. We believe dis-counting in our universe is in-line with last year’s levels, which should allow for margin integrity.”

Total sales for the month quantifi ed top-line strength across all three major channels. Of the re-tailers tracked by WWD, the specialty stores post-ed a total sales gain of 15.8 percent for November, while sales in department stores swelled 12 per-cent and mass retailers gained 8.4 percent.

MasterCard said in its SpendingPulse report that retail “sales in November im-proved in a number of sectors as the holiday season took off on a positive note.” But the gains were mostly outside the apparel category, although a recent cold snap has jolted ap-parel sales.

“Much of the boost in November’s sales was due to increases in electronics sales, which, benefiting from hot product promotions, grew at a 12 percent rate,” MasterCard said in its report. “Men’s ap-parel sales grew 7 percent, just slightly more than total apparel sales (6.9 percent), helped by holiday shoppers re-sponding to the cooler seasonal weather across the Northern regions. Lagging sectors for November overall included women’s apparel (down 3.9 per-cent), furniture (a 3.5 percent drop) and furniture/furnishings (down 1.4 percent).”

For November same-store sales, department stores were the big winners in the month, posting an average comp-sales increase of 8 percent. The segment was buoyed by double-digit results at Saks Inc., Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp., which reported gains of 25.7, 13.4 and 10.2 percent, respectively.

The specialty chain stores turned in mixed re-sults. The segment had an average comps decline of 0.2 percent for the month. Aéropostale Inc. reported a 6.6 percent increase in same-store sales, higher than its own guidance and Wall Street estimates. Gap Inc.’s Banana Republic and Gap banners both turned in better-than-expected performances, with increases of 4 and 1 percent, respectively.

The mass merchant segment clocked an aver-age gain of 3.8 percent for November. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. increased 1 percent, within guidance. TJX Cos. Inc. reported 7 percent comps, well above analyst estimates.

Target Corp. had the highest same-store sales, with a 10.8 percent increase. But the company was toward the lower end of its guidance. Despite the better-than-expected results for several key retailers in November, analysts and industry ob-servers remained cautious.

Industry observers argued that the calendar had an additional positive impact on same-store sales numbers this month. The shift included an extra week in November versus last year, and this could give an artifi cially bright picture of results at some retailers, analysts said. Among the retail-ers who reported that way were Nordstrom Inc., Kohl’s, Macy’s, J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Target, according to analysts’ notes. Results for those re-tailers should be viewed cautiously, they said.

Many retailers acknowledged the role the cal-endar shift played in their November fi gures in their sales releases. Target reported two numbers for the month — same-store sales were up 10.4 per-cent, but the company said on a “calendar-adjusted basis” same-store sales were up just 1.1 percent.

The company went on to warn that some key categories within the store did not meet expecta-

tions, prompting the retailer to remain cautious on December and causing some concern in the markets. Target’s stock closed down 7.58 percent to $55.57 on Thursday.

Bob Ulrich, chairman and chief executive of-fi cer of Target, said its post-Thanksgiving event helped sales meet its expectations for the month, but softness during the last week kept the number short of the company’s planned range. The key shortfalls were in seasonal categories like toys and holiday trim, but Ulrich said other home and apparel categories were off as well.

“These sales trends would need to meaning-fully improve in December in order to achieve fourth-quarter EPS growth,” Ulrich said.

The International Council of Shopping Centers estimated that between 0.75 and 1 percentage points of the November year-over-year sales growth is attributable to the date shift this year which in-fl ated numbers for some retailers, according to a statement. November appears to have the strongest monthly sales increase since March of this year when it climbed 5.9 percent, but the calendar shift must be taken into account, the ICSC said.

“Adjusting for the calendar quirk, November sales were in-line with fi scal-year trends,” said Michael P. Niemira, ICSC’s chief economist and director of

research. “We continue to ex-pect comparable-store sales to increase by 2.5 percent during the holiday season (November-December).” ICSC said it ex-pects growth of 1.5 percent in same-store sales in December.

The calendar shift could make looking at the holiday season as one complete piece even more imperative than it has been in past years, said retailers and analysts.

“This calendar shift will result in our December sales being lower than last year. It is important that the November-December holiday selling pe-riod be viewed together rather than each month individually,” said Terry Lundgren, chair-

man, president and ceo of Macy’s, in a statement. Macy’s posted a 13.4 percent increase in same-store sales, well above predicted growth. Sales were driven by colder weather in November as well as the calendar shift, Lundgren said.

Kohl’s chairman and ceo Larry Montgomery said Kohl’s benefi ted from the calendar shift, but that was expected. The store also did well in the outerwear and cold weather accessory categories due to the shift in weather.

Calendar shifts aside, the November results were exceedingly mixed, even within segments, said Patricia Walker, partner in the consulting fi rm Accenture. The high-end retailers were still strong across the board, but in other segments the variation between the winners and losers was sig-nifi cant, she said.

Overall, sources cautiously said this holiday season could prove to be less of a downer than was initially predicted.

“Although conventional wisdom is that this holiday season is the worst in years, those of us who witnessed hundreds of people in line at 4:45 a.m. two Fridays ago in front of Best Buy, Wal-Mart and elsewhere — or stood in lines doz-ens deep at Kohl’s, or back-countried Woodbury Common to avoid the 12-mile backup in each di-rection on I-87 — think this may be a fairly de-cent one for most of the nation’s retailers,” said Craig Johnson, president and ceo of consulting fi rm Customer Growth Partners. Women’s wear and home improvement retailers could still be in a rough patch, he said, but overall retailers could survive the holidays in fi ne shape.

In the midst of continued macroeconomic pres-sure on consumers, fi nancial experts and economists are reluctant to call the outcome of the holiday sea-son without results from December and January.

“What we are seeing here is another slightly positive development for consumer spending that defi es what has generally been a very bearish tone for the economic outlook,” said John Lonski, chief economist at Moody’s Investors Service.

That could be a sign that analysts and media are getting carried away with downbeat predic-tions for the economic outlook, Lonski said, but few are willing to be less cautious until the credit market stabilizes.

NOVEMBER OCTOBER SEPTEMBER

2007 2006 2007 2007 % CHANGE % CHANGE % CHANGE % CHANGE

DEPARTMENT STORES

BON-TON 8.6 -10.5 -3.2 -7.1

DILLARD’S 1.0 -3.0 -7.0 -7.0

MACY’S INC. 13.4 8.5 -1.5 -2.7

GOTTSCHALKS 0.4 -0.9 -3.0 -3.9

KOHL’S 10.2 3.7 -3.8 -3.2

NEIMAN MARCUS 5.8 2.9 8.5 6.0

NORDSTROM 8.7 5.4 -2.4 3.2

J.C. PENNEY 2.6 1.4 -1.8 -4.6

SAKS 25.7 7.2 10.6 7.7

STAGE STORES 3.6 0.2 -2.9 2.3

AVERAGE: 8.0 1.5 -0.7 -0.9

SPECIALTY CHAINS

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH 2.0 -3.0 -2.0 -4.0

AEROPOSTALE 6.6 1.0 3.0 1.3

AMERICAN EAGLE 0.0 10.0 -3.0 -2.0

ANN TAYLOR 3.9 -4.3 -4.2 0.5

BANANA REPUBLIC 4.0 -1.0 -2.0 -2.0

BATH & BODY WORKS -6.0 16.0 -6.0 -2.0

BUCKLE 18.2 4.2 14.9 10.9

CACHE -4.0 8.0 -3.0 3.0

CATO -6.0 -2.0 -8.0 -7.0

THE CHILDREN’S PLACE 3.0 8.0 2.0 -3.0

CHICO’S FAS -13.7 -0.4 -10.6 -8.3

CHRISTOPHER & BANKS 1.0 -8.0 22.0 1.0

GAP (U.S. STORES) 1.0 -7.0 -7.0 -10.0

HOT TOPIC -8.3 -4.3 -4.0 -2.9

LIMITED BRANDS -7.0 12.0 -6.0 -4.0

MOTHERS WORK 0.0 -1.3 -3.9 -7.0

OLD NAVY -3.0 -10.0 -11.0 -8.0

PACIFIC SUNWEAR 2.3 -3.8 -0.8 2.7

RITE AID 0.9 2.9 0.4 0.7

VICTORIA’S SECRET -8.0 14.0 -7.0 -6.0

WALGREEN 4.4 NA 6.9 4.7

WET SEAL -1.7 5.5 -5.4 -7.0

WILSONS 0.4 -19.1 -21.8 -13.0

ZUMIEZ 5.6 12.1 5.1 13.9

AVERAGE: -0.2 1.3 -2.1 -2.0

MASS MERCHANTS

BJ’S WHOLESALE CLUB 7.7 0.6 1.4 3.9

COSTCO 6.0 4.0 2.0 4.0

ROSS STORES 3.0 0.0 4.0 0.0

STEIN MART -8.9 3.8 -5.2 -9.1

TARGET 10.8 5.9 6.1 1.2

TJX COS. 7.0 3.0 4.0 2.0

WAL-MART (DISCOUNT STORES) 1.0 -0.5 2.8 0.8

AVERAGE: 3.8 2.4 2.2 0.4

TALLY:

UP 29 23 15 18

FLAT 2 1 0 1

DOWN 10 16 26 22

TOTAL 41 40 41 41

NOVEMBER SAME-STORE SALES

Target reported a 10.8 percent comp-sales gain.

16 WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

WWD.COM17WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

Hilfi ger Denim Paves Road to RetailBy Sharon Edelson

NEW YORK — Hilfiger Denim’s first U.S. store, a 3,700-square-foot space in SoHo opening today, underscores the compa-ny’s commitment to retail growth.

“We will make sure we can tell the story in more places than just a few,” said Gary Sheinbaum, president of Tommy Hilfi ger retail. Once the store gets off the ground, “we’ll look for the next round of locations. There are lots of ways to do this, even in 1,800 square feet.”

Tommy Hilfi ger in September opened its first women’s-only store, an 825-square-foot unit on Bleecker Street here. Before that, Hilfi ger had not launched a U.S. store since 2001, and in 2002 closed 37 of its 44 U.S. specialty stores.

The company was sold to Apax Partners last year and is being reposi-tioned, including an exclusive deal with Macy’s, as well as an effort to raise the quality and design of its ready-to-wear.

Hilfi ger Denim launched in Europe seven years ago and has about 50 units overseas, but is unknown in the U.S. Brand director Michael Arts, alluding to the company’s transition and the delay in coming to the U.S., said: “The reason we’re coming here now is that we had a lot of other things to do.”

Hilfi ger Denim is the company’s fourth full-priced store in the U.S. And there are more in the works. Men’s and women’s sportswear stores will open in the spring in the Georgetown section of Washington and Miami’s South Beach. A garden be-hind the South Beach store will lead to a surf shop in a separate building.

Sheinbaum said overall, Tommy Hilfi ger is looking for upscale, highly visible street locations and is aggressively pursuing A-list mall locations. “We’re relaunching into the retail business,” he said.

“Going forward, we will operate dif-ferent store formats around the world as well as in the U.S.,” said Fred Gehring, chief executive offi cer. “A limited number of larger stores offering the total brand will include a Hilfi ger Denim department or fl oor. There will also be stores exclu-sively offering Hilfi ger Denim, stores of-fering only sportswear and, in the future, stores offering only women’s wear and children’s wear.”

Hilfiger Denim has the egalitarian goal of appealing to a diverse customer base with more than 70 different fi ts and washes.

“Denim is the second biggest business after sportswear,” Sheinbaum said.

In the SoHo store, a selection of vin-tage clothing is distinguishable by the plain metal dry cleaner’s hangers to which pieces are pinned. Prices range from $60 for a men’s tie to $1,200 for a leather jacket.

Prices for jeans are $98 to $175. A lim-ited edition collection of Selvedge denim signed by Tommy Hilfi ger sells for $375. Nonsigned Selvedge pieces are $250.

“The quality of fabrics and washes is much higher than we’ve ever had in the U.S.,” Arts said. Women’s denim jackets are $189.50; red cotton dresses, $89.50; white puffer jackets, $149.50, and black leather coats, $500.

The space at 500 Broadway grooves to a disco beat, a theme chosen because the denim customer is “more youthful, edgier and a little hipper,” Arts said.

Disco balls dangle from the ceiling, and the fl oors, columns and ceiling are paint-ed black. There are black leather rugs and the 300-square-foot cash wrap is designed to look like a bar, covered in black leather and with acrylic bar stools. All that’s miss-ing are velvet ropes outside.

Exposed trusses à la Studio 54 are

hung with silver globes. The focal point of the store is an LED chandelier, which changes colors and can display projected images. Arts said it’s a nod to the instal-lation art scene of the Seventies. Framed vintage posters fill the walls — Jimi Hendrix, 7-Up, Op-Art patterns and a neon pink Motel sign — and are for sale. Reproductions of Arne Jacobsen’s egg chair, Seventies Mod plastic chairs and a Florence Knoll design are scattered throughout the store. A DJ booth will be occupied on weekends and during spe-cial events, but the playlist won’t be lim-ited to disco.

In the dressing vestibule, a long wall covered with insulation and foil paper is intended for shoppers to leave their marks by scratching out their initials or writing a saying, just like the high school bathroom or the restroom of a disco.

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PIANO MAN: Most executives know the value of a little marketing, and it seems the Archbishop of New York is no exception. On Thursday afternoon, Cardinal Edward Egan presented the Catholic Charities Christmas Angel Award to Josie Natori at a lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria before an audience of 600 that included former governors Mario Cuomo and George Pataki, as well as police commissioner Ray Kelly. Before the presentation, Natori introduced Egan to some of her guests, one of whom, he was told, works for this paper. “In that case,” he said, “I hope you’re doing full-page stories on Natori and Cruz.”

Apparently, the event helped to forge a friendship and, just possibly, a duet made in heaven. In his remarks, Egan told the crowd that he and Natori have made tentative plans to tinkle the ivories together in a concert at her New York apartment sometime soon. “We’ll knock the ball out of the park when we sit down with ‘Schumann’s Concerto in A minor,’” he said. “She’s my fellow piano player. Except,” he corrected himself, “she’s a pianist. I’m a piano player.”

ST. JOHN ROCKS HOLLYWOOD: What a difference a year makes. A new chief executive offi cer, the return of Kelly and Marie Gray to the design team and a positive response to new product appear to have St. John in upswing mode. The streak continued Tuesday morning when the company sponsored The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100 Breakfast (previously supported by Ellen Tracy). Among the fashion plate guests were actresses Monet Mazur and Kelly Lynch, both of whom usually turn heads in vintage and European designers, but this time wore St. John resort, as well as Andrea Wong and Susanne Daniels, chief executive offi cer and president of Lifetime Entertainment. Of course, honorees Jodie Foster and Sherry Lansing opted for their usual Giorgio Armani, but it was a big day for the Irvine, Calif.-based St. John, which also dressed Jaime Pressly for her Emmy-winning night in September.

YSL HONOR: Yves Saint Laurent was made a Grand Offi cer of the Legion of Honor by French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday. The ceremony took place in the intimacy of Saint Laurent’s home with few guests, among them business partner Pierre Bergé and actress Catherine Deneuve.

GIRLS’ NIGHT OUT: ’Tis the season for shopping and charity. Amid the whirlwind of events this week, clotheshorse and political activist Shiva Rose hosted a shopping party with W magazine on Tuesday night at Mulberry’s Melrose Place boutique to benefi t the war-relief nonprofi t No More Victims. The hostess wore Mulberry’s Victorian silk dress and her singleton pals, Ryan Haddon and Alexandra von Furstenberg, were equally well turned out, as were up-and-comers Jud Tylor (yes, she’s a girl) and Michelle Borth. Though guests shopped the current season, they also got to preview the spring collection, where the vinyl Roxanne tote was a hit, especially with its three-fi gure price point. One holiday shopper remarked, “It would make a great baby bag for Halle Berry.”

Meanwhile, a few doors down, the starlets and socials turned out at the Oscar de la Renta Home boutique for a “Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People” book signing by Hamish Bowles. Ginnifer Goodwin, Jacinda Barrett, Jennifer Morrison, Cameron Richardson and Angie Harmon joined Crystal Lourd, Eva Chow, Jamie Tisch and Lulu de Kwiatkowski and Oscar chief executive offi cer Alex Bolen for the affair. Bowles didn’t have a moment to sip Champagne — the ladies kept him signing for two hours straight, and when he ran out of books in the back, the in-store displays had to be dismantled to meet the demand. At least ODLR’s Miles Redd was on hand to rearrange the furniture.

S AND J SPOTTED: “Gossip Girl” has been a hit with New York viewers and Henri Bendel staffers have had good reason to do their share for the Nielsen ratings. Scenes from the show have been shot in the Fifth Avenue store and Henri Bendel has been mentioned in the story line several times. All the free publicity has left some TV watchers curious about what’s in store. After each episode, the retailer’s Web site and consumer hotline have seen upswings and many Henri Bendel visitors have asked if scenes from the show were really shot there. Even two of the show’s stars, Taylor Momsen, who plays Jenny, and Blake Lively, who plays Serena, have dropped by to shop.

NEW YORK — Polo Ralph Lauren plans to bring a new lifestyle con-cept to Bergdorf Goodman, which will involve doubling the size of the existing in-store boutique on the store’s sixth floor. The boutique aims to bring together the world of Ralph Lauren, mixing pieces from Ralph Lauren Collection and Black Label lines as well as vintage looks and an assortment of accessories. Currently, Lauren’s boutique at Bergdorf ’s focuses on the Black Label line.

“This is something that we have wanted to implement for some time,” said Jacki Nemerov, Polo’s executive vice president, in a statement. “It is an exciting oppor-tunity for us to present our brands together in a cohesive atmosphere, allowing the Bergdorf ’s shopper to fully experience the world of Ralph Lauren.”

Lauren’s team will work close-ly with that of Bergdorf ’s to cre-ate the design and execution of the new concept, slated to bow in fall 2008.

“By creating a compelling mix of product for Bergdorf Goodman in a one-of-a-kind environment, we are offering our customers a Ralph Lauren retail experience unlike any other specialty store,” Jim Gold, Bergdorf ’s president and chief executive offi cer, added.

In October, Bergdorf Goodman held its first party for Ralph Lauren to celebrate the Rizzoli book “Ralph Lauren,” with all its Fifth Avenue windows devoted to the designer, who marked his 40th anniversary in business this year.

— Marc Karimzadeh

Fashion ScoopsRalph Lauren Growing at BG

Monet Mazur

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The youthful, edgy feel inside Hilfi ger Denim.

Jacinda Barrett and Angie Harmon

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WWD.COM18 WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

REUNITED: One month after House & Garden’s closing, editor in chief Dominique Browning

and her former design director, Wendy Goodman, will work together again, this time on a story for Departures. The article, which is slated for the March/April issue, is on Philippe Starck’s redesign of the lobby of the Hotel Meurice in Paris, in collaboration with his daughter, painter Ara Starck.

Browning and Departures editor in chief Richard David Story fi rst met decades ago, as senior editors at Esquire. Until leaving New York magazine for House & Garden in February, Goodman had been a contributing editor to Departures, and she has now returned to both positions. “My last day at H&G was Friday, and I was at New York magazine on Monday,” said Goodman, who is on the road to promote her book on designer Tony Duquette. (It’s already sold out its fi rst printing, she said.) Both will join Story in Paris within the next few days.

“It’s very interesting to get on the other side of the desk,” Browning said. She also continues to write for The New York Times Book Review and plans another book. But she won’t exclusively be writing about home design: “I feel like I had the best job in design magazines — I loved my job so much — but I could not go and do this somewhere else. I defi nitely want to write about many other things including travel, stories that are going on around the city.”

She said the content of the January issue of House & Garden, guest edited by Murray Moss, probably wouldn’t see the light of day, but that the magazine’s inventory belongs to Condé Nast (which also owns WWD). “I believe that a

lot of it went to Vogue Living,” she said. “Some of it went to Traveler, Men’s Vogue, Vanity Fair — mostly it’s photo shoots.” A spokesman for Vogue said Vogue Living’s spring issue had some “charming front of the book material” from House & Garden, and that Vogue itself would run a House & Garden-intended story shot by François Hallard in its January issue. — Irin Carmon

OFF THE STREET: Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of The Wall Street Journal has sent its fi rst high-ranking offi cial for the hills, and several more top departures are expected to follow. Dow Jones chief executive offi cer Richard Zannino resigned Thursday, after nearly two years in the position. Dow Jones did not offi cially name a replacement, but a report by the WSJ on Thursday said Murdoch lieutenant Leslie Hinton is expected to be named as Zannino’s successor. Hinton was most recently executive chairman of News International, a post he has held since 1995, and had also been ceo of News America Publishing Inc., whose titles included the New York Post. The WSJ also reported that Times of London editor Robert Thomson will become publisher of The Wall Street Journal, replacing Gordon Crovitz. Dow Jones chief fi nancial offi cer Bill Plummer is also expected to leave his position once the sale is fi nalized next week.

— Stephanie D. Smith

SOUTHPOLE STYLE: Southpole has found its new face. The junior apparel brand just shot 29-year-old K.D. Aubert, an up-and-coming actress who can soon be seen alongside Woody Harrelson in “The Grand” in January and opposite Matthew McConaughey in next summer’s “Surfer Dude.”

Aubert, who will appear in Southpole’s spring-summer

ads, was shot late last month on location in Miami at the Green Span mansion. She modeled fi ve looks from Southpole’s collection, from comfortable logo beachwear to sexy printed tops and denim skirts.

“Being that we target a diverse consumer market and age group, her look and attitude are a perfect match for our brand,” said Janice Welles, director of marketing for the New York-based Southpole.

Southpole’s national ads are slated to hit select fashion and lifestyle magazines and billboards in March. — Julee Greenberg Kaplan

EMAP BUYER?: According to a report on FT.com late Thursday, German publisher H. Bauer won the auction for Emap’s consumer magazine and radio business, with a winning bid of approximately 1.15 billion pounds, or over $2 billion. A spokeswoman for Bauer in the U.S. said the company had no comment and Emap, publisher of magazines including Grazia and Heat, did not comment by press time. Past bidders for the consumer magazine division are said to have included Hearst Corp.’s National Magazine Co., and private equity players including Apollo, Providence, Exponent and Cinven. For the fi rst half ending Sept. 30, Emap’s total group revenue fell 26 percent to 408 million pounds, or $836 million, from 554 million pounds, or $1.14 billion, due mainly to the impact of disposals and closures, including Emap France. — Amy Wicks

MEMO PAD

New York’s Biggest AppleBy Jeanine Poggi

Watchmaker Movado Group Inc. posted a 21 percent jump in third-quarter

earnings, aided by growth in its internation-al business and strength in gross margins.

And despite a cloudy economic outlook, the company raised its earnings guidance.

For the three months ended Oct. 31, net income rose to $26.5 million, or 97 cents a diluted share, from $21.9 million, or 82 cents, in the year-ago period as sales grew 8.3 percent to $180.2 million from $166.3 million. Total same-store sales at Movado boutiques gained 8.8 percent.

For the nine-month period, earnings increased 14 percent to $41.2 million, or $1.51 a diluted share, from $36.1 million, or $1.36, in last year’s period on sales that grew 7.5 percent to $421 million from $390.6 million.

Movado’s international business in-creased 33 percent from last year and rep-resented more than 40 percent of whole-sale revenue in the third quarter. These results refl ect the growing prominence of Ebel and the global expansion of licensed brand business.

“While China is still a small market for

Movado, we continue to make progress as sell-through grows and we look forward to introducing new products specifi cally tai-lored to the Chinese consumer beginning next year,” said Efraim Grinberg, presi-dent and chief executive offi cer, on a con-ference call with analysts.

“Third-quarter results were strong as we positioned each of our brands in the marketplace with bold new products, as-pirational advertising campaigns, includ-ing Movado’s milestone celebration of 60 years of modern design, and fully integrat-ed marketing programs,” Grinberg said in a statement.

The primary driver of top-line growth this year will come from new brands Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture and Lacoste, which are still in their infancy, said Richard J. Cote, executive vice president and chief operating offi cer, on the conference call.

The company said there’s a growing sense of uncertainty surrounding the outlook of the economy and full-year results will de-pend on the strength of the holiday season and retailer replenishment in January.

Movado raised full-year guidance to the range of $1.74 to $1.78 a diluted share, from a previous outlook of $1.72 a share.

By Robert Murphy

PARIS — Vilebrequin, the Saint Tropez-based swim trunks company, has changed hands.

Fashion Fund One, a private equity fund based in the Netherlands, on Thursday said it acquired 100 percent of TRB International SA, the Luxembourg-based holding company that owns worldwide rights to the brand, from its owner, Pierre-Alain Blum. Terms were not disclosed.

It is Fashion Fund One’s second trans-action since a group of former executives from the Mexx fast-fashion chain founded it last year. (Liz Claiborne Inc., which now owns Mexx, is not involved in the fund.)

Last year, Fashion Fund One purchased Secon Group, an Amsterdam company that runs men’s and women’s brands, including Arrow and Anotherwoman, in Europe.

Hans Ouwendijk, managing director of the fund, said other deals were being pursued. He declined to give details. But he said the fi rm was interested in build-ing a portfolio of small to midsize fashion companies based in Europe. “We are inter-ested in smaller brands that we can help export to different parts of Europe and in-

ternationally,” he explained.Vilebrequin, arguably France’s most

popular swimsuit brand, operates 67 stores and is sold in department and specialty stores in 16 countries.

“The company is doing very well and has nice double-digit increases every year,” said Ouwendijk. “We want to put more fuel in the tank.”

Ouwendijk said more own stores would be opened and an effort would be made to increase Vilebrequin’s wholesale accounts. He said Blum would remain a non-execu-tive member of the company’s board.

Vilebrequin was founded in the Seventies in Saint-Tropez and quickly earned cult status among men for its bright patterned trucks that are a riff on classic surfi ng shorts. In the Nineties, the compa-ny expanded by launching men’s ready-to-wear and accessories. It also creates swim trunks for children.

Ouwendijk said there were no plans to expand Vilebrequin into women’s wear.

Mexx founders Rattan Chada and Adu Advaney both are involved in Fashion Fund One. Chada also owns a golf course in the south of France and is developing a low-cost hotel concept.

Movado Net Leaps on Strong Margins

French Swimwear Brand Vilebrequin Sold

By Sharon Edelson

NEW YORK — Apple, with sales of more than $2,000 a square foot, is bringing its retail formula to the Meatpacking District here.

To hear Apple executives tell it, the recipe is simple: make products that people want to buy.

“Every Christmas has a different fl avor in terms of when [consumers] shop and what they buy,” Ron Johnson, senior vice president of retail, said Thursday during a preview of the new store, which opens today at 401 West 14th Street. “The com-mon denominator is that the most-want-ed gifts get bought. The ones that are un-distinguished are getting hurt.”

Featuring iPods, iPhones and Macs, Apple stores were visited by more than 100 million people and did about $4.2 billion in sales in the fi scal year that ended in September, an increase of al-most 24 percent from $3.4 billion the previous year.

With 25,000 square feet of selling space, the West 14th Street store is Apple’s largest in New York City and the second-biggest in the U.S. after a unit on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The other Apple stores in Manhattan are at 767 Fifth Avenue and 103 Prince Street in SoHo.

The newest store is Apple’s fi rst on three levels. A dramatic circular glass staircase leads from the main fl oor to the third level, which is entirely dedi-cated to service. A 46-foot Genius Bar — the longest in Apple’s retail chain — is staffed with technical experts who can assist 100 customers an hour. While the Fifth Avenue unit is open 24 hours, the Meatpacking District store will stay open every night until midnight.

Johnson said the store has the first Pro Labs, where customers can get free in-depth train-ing on applications such as Final Cut Pro for fi lm-makers. “Who lives in this lower part of Manhattan?” Johnson said. “Creatives. They need a place to take their craft to the next level.”

In terms of service, a concierge team will help shoppers navigate the store. Appointments can be made with personal shoppers — a free service.

Apple’s ability to generate foot traffi c may benefi t neighbors such as Jeffrey New York, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Diane von Furstenberg and Hugo Boss, which is building a store next door to Apple.

In terms of the design, “We tried to really respect the neighborhood.…With the Highline [railroad trestle being converted into a park] coming and a lot of develop-ment, we think we’re going to make the area better,” Johnson said.

The dramatic glass staircase leads to the third fl oor.

Inside the new Apple store.

K.D. Aubert behind the scenes at the shoot.

PHOT

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19WWD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007

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Product Development /Merchandising AssistantFast paced private label Outerwear &Sportswear Co. seeks a hands on personwith strong organization / communica-tion skills, ability to multi task, and acomfort level working in a team orientedenvironment. Must be computer literatefor sample fabric & garment tracking,E-mail corresponding, and general of-fice duties. Min. 3 years experience.Please fax resume to: 212-221-3169

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