MAN OF THE WEEK

REBEL SWELLPLUS:Coach teams with artist Hugo Guinness on a series of bags and small leather goods. Page MW2

JACK BE NIMBLE

Jack Spade Adds Tokyo Outpost,New Suit LineFirst international store joins new U.S. retail units as apparel helps drive growth.

October 20, 2011

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JACK SPADE IS on a growth spurt.The men’s accessories and apparel brand

last week opened its first international store in Tokyo, part of an effort to grow its unde-veloped business in overseas markets. The store joins new Jack Spade locations in Boston and Georgetown, Va., that opened in August and September, respectively.

The company, known for its canvas mes-senger bags, also launched its first suit line this fall in partnership with Massachusetts-based Southwick. The foray into tailored clothing comes as apparel becomes an in-creasingly important part of the business, ap-proaching close to 50 percent of total sales.

“Our strategy for growth in building a global men’s lifestyle brand includes ex-panding the product category offering, building consumer awareness through both marketing efforts and expanded distribution and executing a brand-appropriate retail expansion, both domestically and in key in-ternational markets,” said Craig Leavitt, co-president and chief operating officer of the Kate Spade division of Liz Claiborne Inc.

Jack Spade is housed under the Kate Spade umbrella within Liz Claiborne but operates as a separate men’s brand.

The Tokyo store is housed in a bi-level, 1,300-square-foot space in the Jinnan district near Shibuya. “It’s sort of an up-and-coming area with some great men’s stores nearby,” said Cuan Hanly, vice president and brand director of Jack Spade. Neighboring shops include Margaret Howell, Beams, Ships and Journal Standard.

Jack Spade product in Japan was pre-viously sold in Kate Spade stores but that distribution was phased out about two years ago to create a separate identity for the men’s product. A small Jack Spade whole-sale business is conducted in Japan, and the new store is aimed at improving brand rec-ognition and driving that business further.

“Our stores are such an important part of how we present the brand, it was important to open here to support it,” said Hanly.

The Japan business is operated via the Kate Spade Japan joint venture with Sanei International Co. Ltd. “We feel it will be the first of many stores,” said Hanly.

Currently, the U.S. represents the great bulk of Jack Spade sales, with small over-seas wholesale businesses in select markets such as Italy and Scandinavia. The company is also scouting potential store locations in the U.K., Continental Europe and China.

{Continued on page MW4}

Simon Spurr’s cotton coat, Burberry Prorsum’s cotton shirt and Valentino’s cotton pants.

Blue Crush

One of men’s wear’s most traditional colors, navy blue is being reintroduced with a modern twist for spring. The subdued but sophisticated color becomes the minimalistic choice for the customer looking to buck the bright-color trend.

There’s an established antiestablishment uniform....and this guy pulls it off. Page MW2

Men’s WeekWWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011MW2

Coach Partnering With Hugo Guinness

Man of THE WEEK

This guy is perfectly cast for an antiestablishment movement. He shows a lot of street cred with his Rick Owens-esque skater look that might not score him a job in finance but is perfectly suited for an alternative career. Maybe Vans is hiring?

Street, Skate Looks Draw Buyers at Cobbby Brenda LLoyd

aTLanTa — Men’s urban re-tailers shopping The Cobb Show here earlier this week continue to move toward street, skate and activewear trends as they seek ways to keep their businesses afloat.

retailers attending the show at the Cobb Galleria booked fall and holiday fill-ins and either bought or previewed spring. They were lined up at Parish nation, young Jeezy and akademiks, but other exhibi-tors got their share, too.

Gary Malik, owner of The Purple Carpet in Miami, said

he was buying fall fill-ins on hot sellers this season, including streetwear and skate looks, snap-back caps, and T-shirts that hook up with sneakers. He planned to spend about 20 percent of his open-to-buy at the show.

Malik said he booked brands that are hot now, in-cluding Parish nation, akoo and Sneaktip, as well as new lines for fall, yums and american rugby.

andrew rhodes, owner of okuns Shoe Store in Clarksdale, Miss., booked all of his men’s and women’s spring apparel here. “For fashion, you have to stay ahead,” he said. His key brands are Parish nation, rocawear, yums, LrG, akoo and young Jeezy. “This is the hot merchandise, but I’m also buying a lot of price-point merchandise if it looks good and goes with the trendy appar-el,” he said. He bought jeans, polos, and button-down woven shirts in solid colors and plaids. “The market is moving to more of a skateboard trend and more true-fit jeans,” he said.

Joe nadav, owner of City

Blue, which has 28 units based in Philadelphia, booked mostly immediate and holiday merchandise, and previewed spring. He filled in on fleece and activewear. “That’s what’s selling, and it’s the market di-rection,” he said.

yuksel Gurbuz, owner of Trendz in Montgomery, ala., booked about 80 percent of his fall merchandise, buying most-ly urban looks as well as baggy and fitted jeans and shirts. He worked primarily with Parish nation, LrG and rocawear.

Business is still difficult, but these retailers said they’re doing oK and finding ways to keep customers coming in. Gurbuz said his business is tough because the name brands are pricey. He’s moving more to non-brand names that have the right look at a lower price point. “a lot of customers don’t ask for the name brand now,” he said. “They just want some-thing nice to wear.”

rhodes, who has six stores, said he’s expanding and in-creasing his buy. “We’ll prob-ably open two new stores next year, and we’re getting out of my leases and building our own stores,” he said. “The new stores will be bigger [10,000 square feet versus 6,000 square feet] because we want to do our presentation the right way.” He said he’s seeing a small in-crease in sales this year over 2010, and is looking for a good holiday season.

Malik said his business is “decent,” and he is increasing his spring buy a little as sales have improved as the weather has gotten colder.

“I hope Christmas will be good, but people are nervous about spending,” nadav said.

Todd Snyder Pop-up Shop Opens in TokyoTodd Snyder IS oFF to a good start.

The former senior vice president of men’s design for J. Crew launched his own namesake line for fall, and the initial reaction has been strong. The collection is carried in Bergdorf Goodman, which Snyder said has had 60 per-cent sell-through already, as well as neiman Marcus and directional specialty stores such as odin, Unionmade and ron Herman.

But perhaps his biggest success is coming from Japan.

“They really understand and appreciate american sportswear,” Snyder said.

adam et rope Biotop, a 20-year-old spe-cialty store in Tokyo, recently opened a pop-up shop called Todd Snyder General Store. The 300-square-foot shop carries Snyder’s collection as well as an eclectic assortment of pieces such as vintage furniture, bicycles and “other things that Todd himself loves,” said Tatsuya Takaku, the buyer who brought Snyder to Biotop. “It’s doing tremendously well,” he said. “It’s really been accepted by the Japanese consumer.”

Snyder said 30 percent of the inventory was sold in the first week. The shop is expected to remain open through the end of the year.

In addition to Biotop, Takaku purchased the collection for Barneys Japan, Ships, Hankyu and est nation. “It’s very wearable but still has an edge to it,” he said. “That’s refreshing.”

Snyder said that as well as his retail presence in Japan, he has also been featured in a number of key newspapers and magazines, and writes a monthly style column for the Tokyo Calendar.

Takaku said Snyder was discovered by the Japanese because of his work on J. Crew’s

first men’s store, a TriBeCa boutique called the Liquor Store. “The Liquor Store is their mecca,” Snyder said. “They’ve really embraced me in a great way.”

Snyder, who also worked for ralph Lauren and the Gap, offers a collection of tailored clothing, sportswear and furnishings that mixes British tailoring with american vintage sensibility.

— J.E.P.

Brooklyn artist created designs to be featured on iconic Coach products for spring.

by Jean e. PaLMIerI

CoaCH HaS partnered with London-born artist Hugo Guinness on a series of bags and small leather goods that will launch at retail in February. There are 17 items in the collection, and prices range from $68 for a key fob to $398 for a revers-ible leather-canvas tote.

They will be sold on coach.com and at select Coach store locations in north america, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, France and Ireland.

To promote the line, Coach has created a special broadsheet that will be in-serted into key regional pub-lications and national men’s fashion magazines. The in-sert, which is on newsprint, quotes the designer: “I am inspired by what I see around me in the city and in the coun-try: something overlooked and perhaps unusual to see in a picture, the every-day things of life that we tend to ignore. That’s what appeals to me: honesty, sim-plicity and humor.”

Guinness, who lives and works in Brooklyn, has translated his wood-block carvings onto several iconic Coach products. For example, his illustration of a pair of handcuffs is featured on totes and zip pouches, a new york City coffee cup is printed onto wallets and key chains, and an image of a boxer is found on totes and wallets.

The artist created four designs that are exclusive to Coach — the coffee cup, sun-glasses, the key ring and a tick-ing stripe — and the company chose two other designs to feature as well: the handcuffs and the boxer.

Guinness said since his artwork “is usually framed

in glass and placed on a wall, the idea of my block prints on totes, accesso-ries — even playing cards — was re-ally interesting to me. Coach under-stood and appreciated the simplicity of my art. When they asked me to create block prints that symbolized the Coach brand, I was intrigued. Coach is a new york institution, so I created what I see

every day on the streets of the city — coffee cups, keys, sunglasses,

handcuffs.” The collection will be sold in the company’s

freestanding men’s stores or in men’s departments of dual-gender stores, and is part of a series of col-laborations for Coach. The brand is also col-laborating with Tony duquette, a designer of furniture, jewelry, inte-

riors and movie sets, on a line of limited edi-tion women’s jewelry, and has recently partnered

with Lutz & Patmos and net-a-porter.

Looks from the Hugo Guinness collaboration.

The shop is at Adam et Rope Biotop.

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Occupy WAll STReeT pROTeSTeR: A-

Military cut is perfectly rebellious.

less pizza, more

proactiv.

Graffiti lettering adds realism to the

disheveled sign.Backpack

with heavy straps is the

bag of the season.

Military jacket slung across his back is cool and

carefree.

Rolled up to the knee, the carrot shape transforms into a

chic harem silhouette.

High black socks and high-top converse

sneakers are a bit too trendy for an idealist.

w20b002a;4.indd 1 10/19/11 6:35 PM10192011183617

Men’s Week MW3WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

True BlueIn a season full of vibrant hues and wild graphic prints, monochromatic blue emerges as the ultimate minimalistic dress code. — Alex Badia

Photos by JEFFREY COHEN

Dries Van Noten’s cotton jacket and Salvatore Ferragamo’s cotton pants. Salvatore Ferragamo espadrilles. Roberto Cavalli’s wool

jacket, Simon Spurr’s mesh tank top and Dries Van Noten’s cotton shorts and leggings.

Acne’s suede jacket, Cheap

Monday’s cotton shirt

and Marc Jacobs’ cotton

pants. Dior Homme shoes.

Salvatore Ferragamo’s

cotton jacket, Gucci’s

cotton jacket on waist and

Yves Saint Laurent’s

cotton and silk pants.

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FOR MORE LOOKS, SEE

WWD.com/menswear-news.

Men’s WeekMW4 WWD thursday, october 20, 2011

Jack Spade GrowS with New StoreS, Suit LiNe

The secreT is out: Ward simmons, vice president of marketing for hugo Boss, really wants to be on Broadway.

“i want to be a singer. i want to be a dancer. i want to be a Broadway star,” he said onstage during the Broadway in south Africa charity fund-raiser Monday night in New York. “But i can’t sing, i can’t dance and the closest i will ever come to Broadway is Times square. But i can raise a hell of a lot of money for this organization.”

simmons was event chairman for the gala, which raised funds for Keep a child Alive, an organization that provides treatment for children and families af-fected by hiV/AiDs in south Africa. The evening fea-tured original music performed by some of Broadway’s freshest faces including Declan Bennett of “American idiot,” Andrew Keegan Bolger of “Mary Poppins,” sean Bradford of “The Lion King,” Lilli cooper of “spring Awakening” and rachel Potter of “The Addams Family.”

One of the highlights was the New York debut of five students from south Africa who were flown in for the event and performed skits and sang.

Broadway in south Africa is an organization that develops a cross-cultural exchange between youth in need and artists seeking to use their talents to in-spire change. — Jean e. Palmieri

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Broadway and Sports Stars Raise Funds for South Africa

New York Yankee David Robinson with wife Erin, Ward Simmons and Lance Bass.

{Continued from page MW1}“We believe that there is significant

growth opportunity for the brand, both do-mestically and internationally, and plan it to be among the fastest-growing components of our business on a compound annual growth rate basis for the next several years,” said Leavitt. “it has the potential to be a leading men’s American lifestyle brand.”

The growth at Jack spade comes as claiborne continues to shed noncore busi-nesses to focus on its three key divisions: Kate spade (incorporating Jack spade), Juicy couture and Lucky Brand. Last week, Liz claiborne inc. agreed to sell its flagship Liz claiborne brand to J.c. Penney co. inc. as part of a series of transactions that will raise $328 million to pay down debt. The sale includes the claiborne men’s line.

“We were already focusing additional re-sources into growing the Jack division, and

have had support from our parent all along the way,” said Leavitt. “The very positive financial impact of the recently announced changes will only underscore our ability to invest in the brand.”

Jack spade sales have grown at a healthy clip this year, although company officials de-clined to reveal exact figures. however, the brand is still a small slice of the Kate spade business, which grew 67.4 percent in the first half of this year to $127.4 million.

The company now operates seven Jack spade doors in the U.s., including two New York stores, two in Los Angeles, one in chicago and the new Georgetown and Boston units. Additional stores are planned for 2012, with hanly looking for spaces in san Francisco and Miami, among other po-tential markets.

Key wholesale accounts in the U.s. in-

clude saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Barneys New York and Fred segal.

The 1,500-square-foot Georgetown store, which opened sept. 9, is located in a two-level town house at 1250 Wisconsin Avenue. Neighbors include rugby, Apple and Tumi.

The Boston store at 129 Newbury street bowed on Aug. 13 and sits in a 1,300-square-foot space in a Victorian building. The brand was previously housed in the basement of the Kate spade store a few doors down.

in July, the original Jack spade store in New York’s soho underwent an expansion

and renovation, annexing a space adjacent to it and growing from 800 square feet to 1,650 square feet.

The tailored line with southwick builds on a sportswear and tailored separates col-lection launched in 2009. The southwick collection is the first time Jack spade has of-fered suits that are sold as a jacket-and-pant combo. The Made in the UsA range is sold in Jack spade stores as well as Barneys New York and retails from $995 for a sport coat to $1,595 for a suit.

Moving forward, Jack spade is consider-ing expanding into the sunglass and watch categories, said hanly.

The Boston store opened Aug. 13.

The Tokyo store opened Oct. 14.A look from the new Jack Spade suit line produced by Southwick.

A|X GOES INTERACTIVE: A|X Armani exchange is preparing an interactive video app that will allow its followers to create their own music video fashion shows.

The A|X Videopad app for iPhone and iPad is the final piece in a year-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of A|X, a younger-themed collection from Giorgio Armani. The app can be shared through Facebook and Twitter and includes a link to the A|X online store for shopping. it is expected to launch next week.

“it’s like stylepad, but times 100,” said Tom Jarrold, chief marketing officer for A|X. stylepad, which launched earlier this year, is an app that allows users to design their own A|X pages by selecting a background, casting a model from supplied images and writing a personalized message over the image to share with friends on social networks.

The Videopad is more elaborate. Users are able to select from 10 animated graphic backgrounds, choose from eight musical tracks and then pick eight favorites from among 30 looks from the company’s A|XX 20th Anniversary collection worn by some of the company’s most famous models including Alessandra Ambrosio, Marlon Teixeira, Francisco Lachowski, Milou Sluis and others.

The user names the show, signs his or her name and then sits back and watches the fashion show that was created. At the end, the user can share the show with friends or click on looks to purchase them. Other content on the site includes a “backstage pass,” Jarrold said, behind a button that reads: “Unlock hidden content.”

The Videopad also offers users access to a Giorgio Armani supershow created by the designer.

Jarrold said the app will be updated each season. Users will also

receive exclusive content and be able to participate in special promotions. The next phase will include a sweepstakes where the winner will be flown to Milan for an Armani fashion show. — JEAN E. PALMIERI

JUMPING INTO THE AWARDS GAME: WsJ. Magazine editor Deborah Needleman is ripping a page out of the Richard Beckman playbook: On Oct. 27, WsJ. Magazine will host its first awards ceremony at MoMa to honor so-called innovators of the Year. Awards are being given out in diverse and somewhat incongruous categories: fashion, art, food, philanthropy, design, technology and architecture. But, Needleman said, that’s done by design.

“The business side was, like, ‘is there something you’d like to do?’ And it kind of made sense,” she said. “Of course everybody has an awards ceremony and i was never more aware of than i am right this minute producing one, how many there are out there, but innovation is sort of — i hate this word — the DNA of the magazine. everything we do in the magazine is about influence, creativity and innovation.

“We’re not a straight-up fashion magazine, we’re not a straight-up business magazine,” she continued. “i feel like making a magazine is a bit like making a community — and our community is made up of art, fashion, food, philanthropy, design, architecture, and those are the natural categories for the event.”

At the ceremony, Marc Jacobs will present Katie Grand the award for fashion innovator of the year. Marina Abramovic will accept the award for Ai Weiwei — the chinese artist imprisoned and subsequently released by the chinese government

who was recently named by Artreview as the most powerful artist in the world — for best art innovator. Jonathan Safran Foer will present the food innovator award to — wait for it — chipotle founder Steve Ells. Other winners include Elon Musk (technology), Joris Laarman (design) and Bjarke Ingels (architecture). Bill Gates and Warren Buffett got the philanthropy award, but will not be at the ceremony.

WsJ’s innovators issue comes out Oct. 29.

in other WsJ news, the magazine’s deputy editor, Michael Caruso, is

leaving after arriving just four months ago to become editor in chief of smithsonian Magazine.

“he brought good stories and writers to the magazine, and he is an excellent editor,” said Needleman. “And i’m happy he’s got this new opportunity to run his own show.”

Needleman said she’s not sure if she’s

going to hire a replacement. since Ruth Altchek was promoted to editor of Off Duty in the late summer, Needleman has been spending most of her time with the monthly magazine. — JOHN KOBLIN

A LIST, NOT AN AWARD: Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list is released today, and in the media crowd, Ryan Seacrest gets the highest ranking, number 13. Cesar Conde, president, Univision Networks, ranks 14th, and cNN host Erin Burnett comes in at number 33. in the fashion business, Libby Wadle, executive vice president, retail and direct at J. crew, is 23rd on the list, and Tony Hsieh, chief executive officer of Zappos, ranks 31st. Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms shoes, lands at number 34. — AMY WICKS

MeMo pad