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WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2010 FAIRCHILD FASHION GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 199, NO. 121. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except for Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in January, May, June, October and December, two additional issues in March, April, August, September and November, and three additional issues in February) by Fairchild Fashion Group, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S. I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, President/CEO; John W. Bellando, Executive Vice President/COO; Jill Bright, Executive Vice President/Human Resources. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6 POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615–5008. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008, call 800-289-0273, or visit www.subnow.com/wd. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions and reprint requests, please call 212-630-4274 or fax requests to 212-630-4280. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.fairchildpub.com. Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008 or call 800-289-0273. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

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6

FASHION

Fluid shapes, whisper-thin fabrics and colorful prints are blooming for resort, providing plenty of fresh options.

GENERAL

Online fashion retailer Net-a-porter in January will unveil Mr Porter, a stand-alone Web site aimed at the affluent, time-pressed and style-hungry man.Tory Burch has revamped and expanded her collection’s denim offerings as part of a strategy to grow the business and help the company expand in Europe and Asia.

Larger quantities of merchandise are being stolen by more brazen criminal groups, but the percentage of retailers being victimized has dropped slightly, a National Retail Federation survey said.

PITTI PREVIEW: Men’s buyers are heading to Pitti Uomo in Florence next week, followed by the Milan and Paris men’s ready-to-wear shows, in search of enticing product at fair prices.

EYE

French director Daniele Thompson’s “Change of Plans” is about a dysfunctional dinner party, so it was fitting that Diane von Furstenberg feted the project with a dinner party.

1

3

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“We feel that confidence has returned, and that men are back in the store at full force.” — Kevin Harter, Bloomingdale’s vice president

of men’s fashion direction. Page 14.

QUOTEDAILY

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T he $60 billion U.S. wedding industry just got a few new players, as brands look to capitalize on a market long

considered recession-proof. J. Crew has offered bridal online since

2004, but opened its first brick-and-mortar salon in New York last Wednesday, one day before The Limited launched its online-only gowns. Another new entrant is Net-A-Porter.com, which joined the wedding party in February. Urban Outfitters intends to int roduce it s wedding wear in 2011.

Candice Benson, master bridal consultant and owner of The Finishing Touch wedding and event planning company, says well-known brands are branching into bridal because the market, although not recession proof, is recession resilient.

“Brides will always be getting married and these lines offer some options that may not have been available in the past,” Benson says. “There is also such a large focus now on the wedding industry, with so many movies and TV shows, that it’s smart to market in that space. Only time can tell if [new bridal entrants] can stand up against the big designers once the economy picks back up and brides are not as afraid to be a bit more opulent.”

These latest gowns range from beach-perfect to church formal. Brides will f ind simple column gowns as well as those with beads, sequins, bows, tiers or ruff les. Among the choices are gowns made of cotton or cotton blends. The Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Moni t or ™ su r vey shows 79% of women prefer to wear cotton and cotton blends, and 79% of women say cotton and cotton blends are the fibers best suited for today’s fashions.

P r i c e s o n t h e g o w n s r a n g e a s d r a m a t i c a l l y a s t he s t y l e s . Not surprisingly, luxe site Net-A-Porter has some of the more eye-popping tags – like a $15,000 Lanvin model – although it has a few under $1,000. J. Crew’s sell from $300 to $3,500. Anthropologie’s will be $1,000 to $5,000. Brides-to-be will find the real deal at The Limited, where its two gown styles sell for $298.

“Women have always worn our dresses to go to weddings, so now they can come to us for their special day,” says Elliot Staples, vice-president of design. The Limited offers the ruffled “Romantic Wedding Dress” and “The

Elegant Wedding Dress,” which is an ivory, cotton blend strapless style with a hidden pocket and modern belt. Its wedding collection also includes two bridesmaid dresses.

J. Crew counts the cotton blend Lucinda and Estate gowns, and the cotton cady Maddox gown among its stylish pieces. Brides can buy the full collection of gowns online or at the new Madison

Avenue salon in New York. The multi-f loor, Parisian-inspired boutique provides guests with champagne or sparkling water while they shop the bridal and bridesmaids’ dresses in private suites. The store also provides everything from lingerie to jewelry to perfume.

Considering her wedding day is full of stress and emotions, the bride should feel good in her gown. And The Cotton Incorporated 2010 Environment Survey finds 82% of women describe apparel made from cotton as comfortable, as well as soft (80%), natural (78%), good quality (77%), a good value (74%), fashionable (73%) and environmentally friendly (70%) .

Value is always important, even in the bridal business. While TV shows like “Say Yes to The Dress” regularly feature dresses that cost several thousand dollars, more than three quarters of brides (78%) spend at or below the average of $1,031 for their bridal gown, according to Shane McMurray, CEO of The Wedding Report.

Urban Outfitters intends to capitalize on that with its bridal collection, which will initially

launch online around Valentine’s Day 2011. CEO Glen Sen k characterized the gowns as “heirlooms, to be passed on from one generation to the next.” Brides who purchase their gown from the web site will be able to schedule f ittings at their local store. The business wil l a lso include bridesmaids’ d re s s e s , j e we l r y, shoes and accessories, invitat ions and a bridal registry.

Senk said he wants the company to be part of the U.S. wedding market, which remains sizeable despite the recent downturn.

“In 2007, couples spent $28,732 [on their weddings]; in 2009 it was $19,581 – big difference,” McMurray says. He says only a small increase is expected for 2010. “While the industry isn’t recession-proof, it does have some resilience, and that makes it attractive for retail brands looking to keep their brand growing.”

“Women have always worn our dresses to go to weddings, so now they can come to us for their special day.”Elliot Staples, The Limited

More Brands Say “I Do” to Bridal CollectionsRetailers Look to Maximize on Wedding Industry

79%

14%

5%

2%

Cotton/Cotton Blends

Other

Don’t Know

Silk

0%Spandex/Lycra

0%Polyester

Source: CottonLifestyleMonitor.com

Female Consumers’ Favorite Fibers to Wear

This article is one in a series that appears in these pages on Thursdays. The data contained is based on findings from the Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™ survey, a consumer attitudinal study, as well as upon other of the company’s industrial indicators including its Retail Monitor and Supply Chain Insights analyses. A digital version of this column and other relevant information can be found at CottonLifestyleMonitor.com.

WWD.COM

By Ross Tucker

TORY BURCH WILL BE DELVING DEEPER INTO THE DENIM CATEGORY COME FALL.The designer has revamped and expanded her collection’s denim offerings as part of a strategy to grow the

business and enhance a product category that will aid in the company’s efforts to expand in Europe and Asia.“We’re looking at [denim] as a core part of our business,” said Burch, adding that denim could represent as

much as 10 percent of her ready-to-wear business by the end of the year.Burch said denim has been a part of the collection since its introduction in 2004. She acknowledged that

the primary denim offering consisted of boot-cut and slim styles. Offering a more in-depth denim assortment is recognition of how strong a component denim tends to be for her customers, Burch said. It’s also the right time for the company to be undergoing targeted product expansion.

“We want to prove ourselves in the denim world and we want to do it in the right way and at the right pace,” she said. “For us, it’s a learning process. I feel that we are at a good place right now. I’m really happy with the direction of our collection and it’s something that we’re going to continue to work on and expand. I think there’s always room for denim in the market if it’s great.”

Denim will become a standard part of the collection’s 11 deliveries throughout the year. Skinny and boot-cut styles have been joined by denim leggings, stretch corduroy, a Sgt. Pepper jacket, a sailor-cut style and highly detailed items such as printed denim, bottoms that have been hand-painted in silver and a jacket and a bottom that feature a washable leather.

“I think printed denim is really interesting and I think our prints really translate onto denim,” Burch said.Retail prices for bottoms range from $165 to $250, and tops sell for $295 to $425. About 50 percent of the

fabric will come from Japanese denim mills and the majority of production is in Asia. Other details include hand-ground holes, hand-painting, embroidery and whiskering. Burch also has mixed denim with other materi-als, such as leather and canvas.

“I’ve learned a lot in the last year doing a lot of research on different fits, textures and weights,” she said.The revamped denim offerings will be carried in all the label’s branded stores in the U.S. and will be avail-

able on its Web site. Many of the brand’s wholesale customers also have picked up the line, as well as 100 department and specialty stores in Europe and Asia.

“As we all know, denim is very much part of how our customer dresses and how we all dress, so I wanted to expand on that and create more options,” Burch said.

WWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010 3

MEMO PAD

Tory Burch Ramping Up Denim

Inditex Profits Rise 63%By Joelle Diderich

SPAIN’S INDITEX SA, THE OWNER OF THE ZARA retail chain, boosted confidence in a rebound in con-sumer spending with a 63 percent jump in net profit during the first quarter.

Europe’s largest clothing retailer posted net prof-its of 301 million euros, or $408 million, in the three months ending April 30, exceeding analysts’ expecta-tions and sending the stock price up 7.5 percent to 47.19 euros, or $56.37, by the close of trading on Wednesday.

Sales totaled 2.66 billion euros, or $3.61 billion, up 14 percent versus the same period last year. Dollar figures are calculated at average exchange rates for the period in question.

The gross margin stood at 59.9 percent of sales, up from 56.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009, thanks to “inventory management, the use of sourcing proximity to respond to sales growth and a positive currency im-pact,” the company said.

Based in Arteixo in northwest Spain, Inditex manu-factures half its products in the Eurozone, allowing it to respond rapidly to spikes in demand for high-turning products and helping to keep inventories lean.

Store sales in local currencies rose 13 percent year-over-year between Feb. 1 and June 7.

Inditex deputy chairman and chief executive officer Pablo Isla played down the possible impact of fiscal austerity measures on consumer spending in Spain, the group’s number-one market with close to a third of total sales.

“The reality in Spain is better than the perception you may have. I personally have strong confidence in the dynamism of the Spanish economy going forward,” he told analysts in a conference call.

The group opened 98 stores in 29 countries during the first quarter, bringing the total to 4,705 locations in 76 countries as of April 30.

Although Zara generates the bulk of the company’s business, Inditex is also expanding its other chains: Bershka, Lefties, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, Uterqüe and Zara Home.

The latter two recently unveiled new-look stores that will be rolled out to other locations, Isla said. Meanwhile, Zara entered the Indian market in May with a first store in New Delhi, and a second location will open in Mumbai today.

“Zara’s arrival in India, the world’s second most populous country with 1.1 billion inhabitants, repre-sents a new strategic milestone for our group,” Isla said. “Inditex is now present in all the key Asian markets.”

Zara will launch online sales on Sept. 2 in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Portugal on all platforms including smart phones and tablet de-vices. More than two million people in 85 countries have already downloaded Zara’s smart phone applica-tion, Isla noted. “We have plans to roll out Zara online sales in other selected markets until we reach a global presence,” he said. “During 2011, we want to be present with our offer online in the most relevant markets in the world, and this includes the U.S. market.”

Tory Burch’s denim jacket with washable leather sleeves.

The “Aleigha” stripe turtleneck sweater.

THE FOOD PARADE: Another food magazine is in the works — this time between Condé Nast and Parade, the weekly supplement that runs in more than 470 newspapers across the country and which also is owned by Condé Nast parent Advance Publications. “We are in the final stages of going through the process to decide if we will do it,” said Parade chief executive officer Jack Haire. He added a potential partnership with Condé Nast’s food brands — Bon Appetit and Gourmet — hasn’t been determined. A decision on how to proceed, or not, with the new food title is expected in the next week or so. If it does get the green light, the title would be the first launch since Carol Smith, vice president and publishing director of Bon Appetit and the Gourmet brand, came on board. Smith was hired from Elle to build Condé Nast’s food profile. — Amy Wicks

ALL THE RAGE: A wave of raids is going on between magazine companies these days — and now Architectural Digest could join the mix. As the search goes on for a successor to longtime editor in chief Paige Rense Noland at the title, speculation is focusing on Elle Decor editor in chief Margaret Russell as a front-runner. If Russell makes the jump, it would mark the second big poaching Condé Nast brass has made on Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in recent months (see Carol Smith, above). Behind the scenes, designers have been pondering the future of Elle Decor, although it’s having a good year with ad pages up 15.5 percent year to date, according to Media Industry Newsletter.

In the latest poachings on the media circuit, Real Simple has tapped Didi Gluck, executive beauty director at Shape, as its new beauty and health director and the Time Inc. title has also named Abbey Kuster-Prokell, deputy design director at Martha Stewart Living, as art director.

But not every empty job in media is being filled by a company outsider. Self said Wednesday that Laura McEwen, publisher of Condé title Teen Vogue, will become its next publisher, succeeding Kim Kelleher, who is moving to Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated Group as vice president global sales. Sources said Marcy Bloom, associate publisher at GQ, had also been gunning for the job. A spokeswoman said a successor for McEwen at Teen Vogue has not been named. — A.W.

GOODBYE, VOGUE: As Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour can tell you, in fashion, three makes a trend. So there seems to be a trend of sorts at the magazine — one of departure. The latest is Patrick O’ Connell, its director of communications, who is leaving after 12 years. (The other two were Sally Singer for T and William Norwich to Town & Country). O’Connell handed in his resignation last week, and is expected to stay on until a successor is named. “It’s been an incredible 12 years at the top of the game, and an experience I wouldn’t trade for the world,” O’Connell said. “It’s just simply time for a personal change.” O’Connell

has played an instrumental role as a spokesman for the magazine and Wintour, from the inception of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund to the Costume Institute benefit, “The September Issue” documentary and thornier moments like “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Front Row,” the unauthorized biography on Wintour. O’Connell will be looking to stay in communications in areas that encompass community relations, development work and corporate philanthropy. — Marc Karimzadeh

SO THAT’S WHY GOOGLE IS WORRIED ABOUT FACEBOOK: Social networks overtook search engines in popularity for the first time in May in the U.K., according to a report Tuesday from Hitwise. Could the U.S. and other parts of the world be far behind? In May, social networks received slightly more online visits than search engines from the region, 11.88 percent to 11.33 percent, respectively. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the three most popular social networking sites in the U.K., with Facebook accounting for 55 percent of all social networking visits there. Quibbles about strict category definitions aside, this is significant because social networks could become bigger drivers of traffic to sites (such as retailers) than search engines, which have long dominated the online world. And, of course, digital marketers have already come up with a new buzzword — “social media optimization,” or SMO — to rival that old standby, search engine optimization. — Cate T. Corcoran

BETTER KNOW YOUR READER: Arianna Huffington has an idea of what consumers will pay for online and it’s not general news content. The Huffington Post founder explained to the crowd at I Want Media’s Future of Media panel on Tuesday afternoon that people are only willing to shell out for specified subject matter online. Financial data, she said for example or, “very weird porn.” Fellow panelist Dan Abrams couldn’t contain a smile as he made sure the audience at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute heard Huffington. “You just said weird porn,” the NBC personality and Mediaite publisher said. “The accent sometimes…how weird porn, Arianna?” inquired Glamour editor in chief

Cindi Leive. Huffington declined to satisfy everyone’s curiosity, but did quash recent rumors that Yahoo would be buying her site. Yahoo Media vice president James Pitaro, who sat a few chairs away from Huffington on the panel, declined to comment. — Matthew Lynch

CUTS AT RDA: More layoffs are coming to Reader’s Digest Association. Following the recent departures of Eva Dillon and Alyce Alston, staffers are bracing for a 10 percent reduction in head count across most company departments. A spokesman declined to comment on specific personnel, but apparently Dillon’s former number two, Elaine Alimonti, vice president of marketing, was let go by Dan Lagani, the newly appointed president of RD Media. — A.W.

WWD.COM4 WWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010

FRENCH DIRECTOR DANIELE Thompson’s latest flick, “Change of Plans,” is about a dysfunctional dinner party. So it was fitting that, on Tuesday night,

Thompson’s best friend, Diane von Furstenberg, feted the project with —

what else? — a dinner party. Fortunately, things went smoothly this time as Oscar and Annette de la Renta, Matthew Modine and model-turned-actress Mallory June filed

into the designer’s studio for a buffet of Sant Ambroeus grub after a screening of the film at the IFC Center.

Veteran hostess that she is (no less than eight events this spring), von Furstenberg shared her party-planning expertise. “The secret to being a good hostess is to behave like a guest,” said the designer, who stuck to her word by spending most of the evening holed up in a corner with

friends Fran Lebowitz and Anh Duong. Does she get tired hosting so many events? “That is what New York is all about: People come here to promote their book or their movie and, you know, you help one another,” she shrugged.

Then von Furstenberg offered her fail-safe technique when seated next to an unfriendly dinner companion. “I make him talk about his mother,” she said. “It creates an intimacy.” (For more on the film, see below.)

ARTIST GUSTAVO NOVOA RELISHES IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE, WHERE predators and their prey gaze serenely at one another and there is no strife or stress. To Novoa, they are the antithesis of the world of his childhood.

“I didn’t have many friends to play with or sports to participate in,” Novoa says, adding that as a child growing up in a family of lawyers in Santiago, Chile, he was often lonely and frightened. “My parents turned our home into a battleground where they would constantly level their differences, so I had to find refuge in my own parallel universe.”

The Academy of Fine Arts and frequent trips to the zoos in Santiago and New York’s Central Park helped Novoa’s style coalesce into a blend of surrealism and naïve art. Beginning June 15, the Wally Findlay Galleries will hold a retrospective of his work, benefitting Panthera, an organization involved in saving wild cats and their habitats.

“When people ask me to describe my paintings, I say that if [Henri] Rousseau and [René] Magritte had had a child, it would have been me,” says Novoa, who was born in 1941.

While he loved animals, it took some time for them to become part of his visual vocabulary. He moved to Paris in 1960, where he sold his paintings on the streets of Montmartre under the name Jean Marie

Gallais — he felt the French would never buy the work of a Chilean artist.

Then, in 1961, Novoa had his first one-man show, sponsored by the Chilean ambassador at the Maison L’Amerique Latine. Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain sponsored his second show in Lausanne the following year. After that, he started showing his work more regularly in galleries and the Salon de la Jeune Peinture.

In 1965 he moved to New York,

where he received several lucrative commissions from Marlboro Books and Macy’s.

“It was commercial,” he admits, but it paid the rent and allowed the artist to open a gallery on East 61st Street in Manhattan.

In time, though, Novoa shed his commercial work and began painting jungle animals exhibiting very unjunglelike behavior. His works have been collected by everyone from Valentino to Prince Charles, Sylvester Stallone to Carolina Herrera and Baron Hans Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Novoa continues to take the animals on new journeys. He borrows the theme of Rousseau’s “Sleeping Gypsy” for his 1995 painting “Dream Within a Dream,” which shows a lion gently nudging a sleeping woman under the moonlight. In his version, a lion and panther on the banks of a river appear to be superimposed over the Rousseau version.

In the 1981-1984 series, “The Grand Tour,” jungle creatures visit capitals and landmarks around the world. “That marked their emancipation from their habitat. They no longer needed to pose by a tree,” says Novoa.

Novoa’s social heyday was when the disco ball at Studio 54 was spinning strong. As a result of the excesses of the Eighties, Novoa sought refuge in Santa Fe, where he painted desert scenes.

The artist was coaxed back to the jungle by some friends, who invited him to Canaima National Park in Caracas. The trip whet his appetite for painting animals again.

“I realized my cats represented me best,” he says. “I created a menagerie that now owned me.”

— Sharon Edelson

Women who took ballet as children usually hold on to at least one aspect of dance throughout their lives — be it good posture, a penchant for buns or the irrational fear of slim, gray-haired ladies barking for a tendu. Coco Kopelman, a former student at the School of American Ballet, definitely maintained her carriage (her hair’s too short for a bun and no word on any phobia of strict instructors), and has been a staunch supporter of the organization with her husband, Arie, for more than two decades. On Tuesday night, the couple was honored at SAB’s Workshop Benefit at Lincoln Center, cochaired by Chanel U.S. president John Galantic and his wife, Sasha, among others.

Before guests such as Debbie Bancroft, Pamela Joyner, Peter Bacanovic and Megan Mullally watched the students perform a series of three ballets, Kopelman was presented with peonies by her granddaughter, Sadie Kargman. The 6-year-old is an up-and-comer at SAB, and it appears that rhythm runs in the family. After sitting patiently through the post-performance dinner, Sadie took to the dance floor with a vengeance, breaking out her best robot for the teenage ballerinas.

Dinner Theater ANIMAL PLANET

EYE SCOOP

IT WOULDN’T BE ENTIRELY UNFAIR TO CALL Danièle Thompson something of a late bloomer. An accomplished and prolific screenwriter for decades, Thompson, 68, only started directing 11 years ago, when she helmed “La Bûche,” with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Emmanuelle Béart, which she also wrote.

Her fourth directorial endeavor, “Change of Plans,” to be released in August, follows a group of bourgeois couples as they prepare for a dinner party thrown by ML, whose mother has just died, and her husband, Piotr, who has just lost his job. Romances fizzle, new alliances form and in the event’s postmortem, unexpected relationships bloom.

Considering her lineage, it’s no surprise Thompson has proved to be a multitalented filmmaker. Her father was legendary director Gérard Oury, with whom she collaborated on many screenplays, and her mother is actress Jacqueline Roman. Thompson’s son, Christopher, is an actor who also cowrote the scripts for her last four films.

In town to meet with longtime pal Nora Ephron, whose “Love, Loss and What I Wore” Thompson is adapting for the Parisian stage in January, the director-screenwriter chatted with WWD about dinner-party choreography, Franco-American differences and why laughing at a funeral isn’t so horrible.

— Vanessa Lawrence

WWD: Was there a specific dinner party that made you think it would make a great subject for a film?Danièle Thompson: Yes, in a way, a long, long time ago. [My husband and I] had a very nice little dinner with six

couples at home and at one point the subject came up, which we’ve all been through: How did you two meet? So everybody around the table told the story of the day they met. And the next day a very close friend called me and said, “You know, we didn’t want to ruin your dinner party, but we wanted to tell you that yesterday afternoon we had decided to get a divorce.” And I was so stunned, like, “My God, how did I not realize? I thought, Oh my

god, this is amazing because they were so gracious and so strong.” WWD: This particular party is also funny. Is the comic tone representative of your approach to life?D.T.: Very much. I’m the kind of person who can suddenly have a laugh that’s impossible to keep in at a funeral. But it doesn’t prevent tears. WWD: You’ve laughed at funerals?D.T.: Of course. Haven’t you? WWD: No, I can’t say that I have.D.T.: When I was at my grandmother’s funeral, where I was very, very sad, one of the undertakers said to my father, “Are you satisfied?” Because he was talking about his work and how everything went. And my father looked at him and I burst

out laughing. The poor man is distraught, his mother just died and the guy says, “Are you satisfied?” Of course you laugh. And it doesn’t prevent you from feeling terrible. WWD: If “Change of Plans” were an American film with American characters, how do you think it would differ?D.T.: You have dinner a bit earlier. We have dinner at nine; you have dinner at eight.

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See more party pictures at WWD.com/eyescoop.

Zoe Lister Jones in a vintage jacket, Christina Lehr shirt and H&M pants with Daryl Wein.

Jennifer Esposito

Mallory June in Betsey Johnson.

Oscar de la RentaOscar de la Renta

WWD.COMWWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010 5

By Kristi Ellis

WASHINGTON — Larger quantities of merchandise are being stolen by more brazen criminal groups, but the per-centage of retailers being victimized has dropped slightly, a National Retail Federation survey said.

The report said criminal activity is “most problem-atic” in Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami and New York, which are among areas where organized retail crime flourishes. The others are Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa, Orlando, Baltimore, Washington, northern Virginia and northern New Jersey.

Increased law-enforcement and new industry partner-ships have reduced the percentage of merchants who re-ported being targeted by crime to 89.5 percent from 92.2 percent in 2009, the study said. Almost three in five re-tailers, or 58.9 percent, said they had seen an increase in criminal activity, compared with 73 percent last year.

Joe LaRocca, senior asset protection adviser at the NRF, said criminals are stealing “greater quantities of merchandise, and they are becoming more brazen about it….For those being targeted, it’s getting worse, but fewer retailers are reporting being victims.”

Retailers said in the survey that “smash and grab activ-ity significantly increased” and that “criminals are getting more violent, more bold.”

LaRocca cited a recent case in which authorities broke up a large, sophisticated ring that targeted Levi’s apparel products. He said the gang posted lookouts for security and had drivers ready to speed escapes. The thieves used “aggressive tactics” to intimidate store employees, al-though none were hurt.

Criminal activity is estimated to cost U.S. merchants $15 billion to $30 billion annually.

The findings are based on responses in March and April

from 124 representing department and big-box stores, dis-counters, drug, grocery, restaurant and specialty shops.

“In a broad brush, we’re hearing a lot of success sto-ries, and communication and partnerships have never been stronger,” LaRocca said.

Merchants are starting to invest more time and re-sources on efforts to curb crime in their stores and distri-bution centers. More than 48 percent of retailers said they are allocating additional resources to deal with organized retail crime, up from 41.8 percent last year.

In addition, 62.5 percent of the respondents said they had “some success” in identifying stolen merchandise at fencing locations such as pawn shops and temporary stores, and 66.1 percent said they identified stolen mer-chandise through e-fencing operations online.

Retailers have poured thousands of dollars into lobby-ing lawmakers and the Obama administration for help in cracking down on organized retail crime.

The industry launched a collaborative database called the Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network, or LERPnet, in 2007 that connects retailers with each other and law-enforcement officials sharing statistics on suspect-ed thieves and criminal activity. It also started the Coalition Against Organized Retail Crime that includes members such as Target Corp., Macy’s Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the NRF and the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

In March, the NRF announced a strategic alliance with eBay to develop strategies to combat criminal activity.

There are three bills pending in the House and one in the Senate that confront the criminal activity in several ways, ranging from strengthening the federal criminal code to new civil fines, and imposing policies and infor-mation-sharing requirements on online auction sites and in flea markets and pawn shops that are often used to fence stolen goods.

our target market, that was asking for this.”The launch comes on the occasion of the 10th anni-

versary of Net-a-porter, which in April was purchased by Compagnie Financière Richemont in a deal valuing the company at 350 million pounds, or $511 million at current exchange. Net-a-porter is now part of a group that also owns brands like Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chloé, Dunhill, Montblanc and IWC. Richemont confirmed earlier this week that it had completed the purchase of Net-a-porter Ltd. and now holds more than 93 percent of the issued ordinary capi-tal of the online retailer, with the remaining seven percent held by Massenet and other shareholders.

Net-a-porter will today begin a recruitment drive for a team of experts to address the men’s market, according to Massenet. About 35 positions are set to be filled in the first hiring wave at Mr Porter.

Speaking in a telephone inter-view from South Africa, where she was taking part in a Richemont meeting, Massenet said she and some of the Net-a-porter team will attend the spring 2011 men’s shows in Milan and Paris, and that they will all be heavily involved in the new site.

“The team will hit as many shows as possible. Our brand relationships are enormously important, and we plan to feature editorial content on the site. At Mr Porter, we’ll be telling a story just like we do on Net-a-porter,” she said.

Men’s is the company’s second stand-alone business after the Outnet, the off-price site for end-of-season wom-en’s wear that launched in April 2009.

Asked whether more stand-alone sites — such as chil-dren’s wear and beauty — were in the pipeline, Massenet said, “We want to focus on men’s wear now. We’ve talked about doing a children’s space, but we want to do it prop-erly.” The company already owns the domain names Petit-a-porter and Net-a-Beaute.

Although Massenet declined to reveal first-year sales projections for Mr Porter, she said, “If we do the job right, it will be a meaningful business.” Sales at Net-a-porter were roughly 120 million pounds, or $175 million, in the year ending Jan. 31.

Massenet, who plans to tap into Net-a-porter’s database of 3 million unique users in 170 countries, said she hopes that someday the men’s business could be as large as the women’s one. Men’s generally makes up less than 20 per-cent of a traditional department store’s overall business.

“Most men don’t like shopping,” Massenet said, add-

ing the new site would have the same service culture and features as Net-a-porter, with round-the-clock ordering, same-day delivery in London and Manhattan and 24- to 48-hour delivery in the rest of the world.

The biggest markets are expected to be the U.S. and the U.K., followed by Germany and the Far East, she said.

The online men’s wear market in Great Britain is cur-rently valued at 1 billion pounds, or $1.46 billion, accord-ing to Kantar Worldpanel Fashion, the global agency that tracks consumer spending habits and behavior. Over the past year, 12.2 million people have bought men’s wear on-line, up 25 percent on the previous year, although wom-en’s wear is currently growing faster than men’s wear on-line, according to Kantar.

And while Mr Porter will share the same commercial ethos and back-office operations as its sister company, the

customer-facing elements will be entirely different. The packaging will be black-on-white and per-sonalized. Depending on the brand and customer, the label on the packag-ing will say, for example, “Ralph Lauren trousers for Mr. Jones.” The com-pany also plans to use its new branding for a sepa-rate fleet of delivery vans and motorcycles for same-day deliveries.

The merchandise edit will be rigorous. “There aren’t 75 blue shirts to wade through — there will be four or five,” said Alison Loehnis, vice pres-

ident of sales and marketing at Net-a-porter, in a separate interview at the company’s new headquarters at Westfield London. “And we won’t be slavishly following the catwalk. We are aiming to dress an ageless, international, modern, classic man. Among our inspirations are ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ and Alain Delon,” she added.

Loehnis said there would be a cross-platform offer from Day One, including apps for the iPad, iPhone and other mobile devices. Although she declined to provide details, Loehnis said the site’s functionality and special services would make for speedy shopping and gift buying.

Asked about competitors, Loehnis named saksfifthavenue.com, barneys.com and neimanmarcus.com, in addition to niche, focused and regional Web sites in the U.K. and the U.S. Saks ships internationally; however, Barneys does not, and Neiman Marcus requires customers to call a separate num-ber to request delivery at an international shipping address.

“We see this as one-stop shop for men,” said Loehnis, adding the only men’s merchandise the site will not be selling is fragrance.

By Jean Scheidnes

WITH NO FANFARE, THE THEATRICAL AND polarizing men’s designer Thom Browne is branch-ing into women’s wear in his signature collection.

Browne has tested these waters before, selling a capsule collection at Barneys New York for a couple of seasons in 2007 and 2008. In addition, his made-to-measure business, based out of his New York shop, has always served a handful of female clients.

This time he’s taken a bigger step, designing a small collection (one rack’s worth of samples) and selling it to Barneys New York, Colette and 10 Corso Como Seoul for fall. The Thom Browne shop will carry the range as well.

“This time I have more time to focus on it,” Browne told WWD. “For September, it will be a bit bigger than before, with more styles within the cate-gories, but very focused. In the next couple seasons it will become a fully developed collection.”

The designer, known for shaking up American men’s wear with his shrunken suits and avant-garde runway shows, sold a majority stake of his company to Japan’s Cross Company last year, and the partners are keen to sensibly extend the brand.

“This is something I really want to do and Cross is definitely supportive,” said Browne, who also talks about the relaunch of women’s in the June issue of the magazine WSJ. “I want to develop it the same way men’s developed — small at first, and evolving slowly.”

Browne believes the collection will look very familiar, with lots of his signatures.

“It’s very focused on jackets and trousers and outerwear. I think it’s what people expect from me, very men’s-inspired women’s clothing. Gray flannel, navy cashmere. Good, all-American men’s wear influence, but fitting in a cool feminine way. I want it to be very understandable. Personally, when I see it on the girls I think it looks so good. I like the idea of men’s tailoring on girls. It’s very strong and sexy in a nonovert way.”

Browne’s most significant experience in women’s is Black Fleece, the dual-gender collections that he has designed for Brooks Brothers for a few years.

This month Browne will hold his men’s show in Paris for the first time. Could a women’s show be far behind?

“I don’t know when, but definitely down the line,” he said. “You know me, I love to entertain.”

Thom Browne’s LatestForay Into Women’s

“For September, it will be a bit bigger than before, with more styles within the categories, but very focused.

” — Thom Browne

A 2007-08 look from Thom Browne.

Net-a-porter to Launch Men’s Site

NRF Study: More Stolen From Fewer Stores

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Fluid shapes, whisper-thin fabrics and colorful prints are blooming for resort, providing plenty of fresh options.

Fresh TakesStella McCartney: For Stella McCartney, resort is not a question of show versus showroom, but rather how to, in a quick New York visit, upstage everyone else with a presentation-as-garden-party. The venue was Gavin Brown’s enterprise staged with vignettes: models playing chess, dancing to an a cappella group, posing in a faux photo shoot, etc. It all served as a charming, if at times chaotic, backdrop for bold floral dresses, sporty shorts and jackets done with scalloped edges, McCartney’s signature tailored blazers, and lovely organic laces.

Stella McCartney

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“We just try to have a bit of fun,” said McCartney, calling her inspiration “an English garden in New York.”

Calvin Klein: Francisco Costa presented a focused collection for Calvin Klein with midlength, A-line sheaths as the dominant silhouette. Reverse seams, darts and crisp folds infused the spare shapes with a pleasant dose of the artsiness Costa loves. It all had a weightless quality, thanks to a muted palette and beautiful fabrics, such as silk cupro, waxed nylon and whisper-thin

velvet devoré that floated down the runway.

Zac Posen: The pastel-bright colors of Jordan almonds — and the point “where the Forties meets the Seventies” — served as inspiration for Zac Posen’s whimsical lineup, which includes bouclé jackets, print dresses and plenty of eveningwear. Posen goes for restrained drama: a bustled cream gown in matte taffeta and cropped jackets with tufts of feathers. A highlight: delicate cardigans emblazoned with artist Rosson Crow’s lovely flower prints.

Doo.Ri: Doo-Ri Chung goes back to square one with a focus on her signature draped jersey. “I have to embrace that this is what I do best,” Chung said, explaining the languid tops and dresses that work a romantic vibe. Prints come in blurry, abstract patterns inspired by reflections, while tailored looks — including a pretty blazer with tulle lapels — push that gentle mood further. As for the Melissa Joy Manning cuffs, Chung revealed she’s collaborating with the jeweler for spring.

Nicole Miller: Nicole Miller finds inspiration from her days at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Seventies — or rather, her wardrobe back then. “We used to wear these Forties vintage dresses with military jackets,” recalled Miller. Dresses with inside-out floral prints work the chic side of retro, while army jackets and khakis add structural contrast. Even the swirling abstract patterns stem from her college years, and feature the work of glass sculptor Dale Chihuly, who taught at the school.

WWD.com.collections, see

looks from the For more

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For spring 2011, Pitti Uomo exhibitors are highlighting a relaxed sense of leisure and informal dressing in their collections. Tailored clothing vendors, in their search to attract a younger customer, are reinterpreting the suit, showcasing unconstructed blazers and form-fitting silhouettes in a variety of light earthy tones. In sportswear, look for cropped cotton bombers, linen shorts and summer-weight blended knits that embody the easy lived-in look of the season. — Alex Badia

Brunello Cucinelli’s jacket, B.D. Baggies’ shirt and Converse by John Varvatos’ pants, all in cotton. Oliver Peoples sunglasses; Jil Sander shoes.

For more coverage of the upcoming Pitti, see WWD.com.

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Isaia’s jacket, Christopher Fischer’s sweater and Aquascutum’s pants, all in cotton. Car Shoe shoes.

Gant Rugger’s cotton sweater and Italia

Independent’s linen shorts. Church belt.

Valstarino’s jacket and

Dockers’ pants, both in cotton.

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S.N.S. Herning’s wool sweater and Etiqueta Negra’s cotton and

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By Emilie Marsh & Jean Scheidnes

WELCOME BACK, DEPARTMENT STORES.Luxury retailers say they have experienced a strong start to 2010 and expect con-

tinued improvement in the second half of the year, buoyed in part by men returning to stores, as well as inventory control and focus on gross margin. Men’s buyers are heading to Pitti Uomo in Florence next week, followed by the Milan and Paris men’s ready-to-wear shows, in search of enticing product at fair prices.

“We feel that confidence has returned and that men are back in the store at full force,” said Kevin Harter, Bloomingdale’s vice president of men’s fashion direction. “The biggest surprise is how strong the tailored business is. Men are definitely dress-ing up, and they are coming to Bloomingdale’s to update their suits and accessories that go with them, such as ties, shirts, etc.”

In the U.K., Selfridges’ business has been “consistently strong” this year with con-temporary fashion and edgy designer labels such as Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga leading the way, according to David Walker-Smith, director of men’s wear and beauty. “We expect the second half of the year to also be robust,” he said, adding that good management of inventories has been key to the store’s ongoing success.

Although their recovery has trailed that of brands’ own stores, department stores across the globe have reported increased sales for the year to date.

At Liberty of London, “sales have been on fire this year” with total first-quarter sales up 30 percent and men’s wear performing “even stronger” than overall sales, accord-ing to buying director Ed Burstell. “As we have been able to increase mar-ket share this past year, we are aggressively looking to grow men’s wear this fall, with the budget in-creased by 15 to 20 percent.” The size of the men’s wear department will also increase by 20 percent.

Chastened by the recession, department stores have made top-to-bottom adjustments to stimulate sales and improve margins: tighter-edited collections, careful assortments of brands, balanced price ranges, more employee training, locally targeted marketing, in-store events, revamped men’s spaces, enhanced loyalty programs, exclusive product (especially private label collections) and perhaps, above all, inventory discipline.

Harvey Nichols “experienced strong double-digit growth” in men’s wear sales for the first half on significantly reduced inventory levels, said Richard Johnson, men’s wear buying manager. “Our more contemporary designer collections and casual sportswear collections have seen the most rapid growth. This has allowed us to keep sale periods short and focus customer attention on full-price product. It is of the ut-most importance that we retain the integrity of the products we offer and premium position of brands whom we partner with,” said Johnson.

At the same time, luxury brands have grown increasingly dependent on their own stores, eroding the dominance of the wholesale business. In the latest quarter for Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., for example, retail sales jumped 31.4 percent, while wholesale declined 2.6 percent. The trend will likely continue, as the company has deep cash reserves to spend and has identified international retail and e-commerce initiatives as top priorities for investment.

As a brand grows more international, the balance of distribution shifts even more toward freestanding stores. China, for example, simply does not have department store networks for wholesale distribution that the U.S. has, so brands looking to ex-pand rapidly there must open stores.

Calvin Klein Inc., which operated 67 stores worldwide at the end of 2009, plans to

ramp up to 151 by the end of 2012, and about 60 of those will be in China alone.“The freestanding stores are really important because they present the lifestyle and

they’re a branding platform,” said Tom Murry, chief executive officer of Calvin Klein.Luxury consumers sometimes want to see the largest possible assortment from a

brand, said Robert Burke of the fashion consultancy Robert Burke Associates.“Also, because of all the inventory reductions and economic instability, sometimes

department stores had played it very safe. And what we’ve found is safe product is not motivating the customer to spend….People who had a strong store presence realized during the last two years that they could control their own stores, but they couldn’t control the department stores.”

Indeed, brands have not quite forgiven retailers for the great discounting panic of 2008.

“We will be more selective in the future, proceed with more caution and control and put limitations where necessary,” said Pier Luigi Loro Piana, ceo and deputy chairman of

Loro Piana. “That said, we don’t want to lose the sense of competition department stores offer. They play a key role in deter-mining how your merchandise fares com-pared to others.” With wholesale compris-ing 20 percent of sales, Loro Piana eked out a 1 percent sales increase in 2009.

For their part, department stores say they don’t discourage vendors from opening stores, which add credibility to the brand, ultimately benefiting every-one who carries it.

Besides, if brands are out to reduce their dependence on retailers, the feel-ing is mutual, since department stores are aggressively ramping up their pri-vate label businesses that afford them maximum control over the margins, the flow of goods and the floor space. As they head to Pitti Uomo next week, one of their top priorities will be to find manufacturing partners for their private labels.

“Our men’s collection has pretty quickly become our largest brand,” said Ron Frasch, Saks Fifth Avenue presi-dent and chief merchandising officer. “We have very, very aggressive plans for it, and we’re investing aggressively in it

from all angles — store staff, brand management, product development, real estate, visual, marketing, every aspect. And we think it has a big number attached to it, with a very high margin.”

Private label has also gained a foothold in Europe, with department stores looking to invest in their own brand names, which more often than not predate that of the labels they carry.

“Historically, private label’s share of the market has increased over time, especially during recession, and almost a quarter of all consumer goods sales in the U.S. are private label,” said Umberto Angeloni, citing Harvard Business School professor John Quelch. Angeloni co-owns Caruso, which manufactures tailored clothing for such brands as Dior Homme, Lanvin, and Ralph Lauren, as well as a handful of private label brands. “I view the exercise as that of building a retail brand…a brand that they can totally control and thus will never betray them or compete unfairly. Stores realize that sometimes their most valuable asset is their own name.”

To wit, Harvey Nichols said it would launch private label product in selected core categories later this year.

And Paris-based Printemps is gearing up to introduce a cashmere collection for both men and women, priced between 95 and 120 euros, or $114 to $144 at current exchange, under its own banner in September.

“We are positioning the collection at a very affordable price point while maintain-ing a premium quality and style quotient,” said Tancrède de Lalun, general merchan-dising manager for men’s and women’s apparel.

Liberty is taking the strategy a step further, with plans to wholesale a contempo-

Stores Lure Back Luxury Male Shopper

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Liberty of London’s historical facade.

A look from the Saks Fifth Avenue Collection.

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rary men’s line it created with licensee Slowear Group, banking on the cachet of the retailer’s own heritage. The 200-piece line, which marks Liberty’s first licensing pact, will bow in Milan for next spring, and sales in six years should reach 30 million euros, or $38.6 million, Liberty said.

“It’s a clear margin-building strategy where we can control the product so it does not conflict with anything else we carry,” Burstell said, adding the store’s 135-year history and heritage provided the ideal background.

Brands with perceived heritage con-tinue to enjoy a competitive advantage, and playing up history — in the form of origin myths, legacy stories, reverence for forefathers, founding dates and arti-facts — is now front and center of many marketing strategies. Retailers are embracing the trend as well.

From a merchandising standpoint, “I see stores being much more edited and se-lective. That’s a fine line, because you want to take a specific point of view but you also want to have a breadth of product and especially unique and high-positioned product,” said Burke.

Despite tensions with brands that also have retail strategies, Burke added, “It’s important to be able to grow the department store business, because there’s a cus-tomer who doesn’t want to shop in a specialty store, particularly a men’s customer who wants a one-stop-shopping situation.”

Brands and retailers still have plenty of common ground. All parties want to pro-vide distinctive product that will inspire consumers to buy. While no one wants to relive the nightmarish overstocks of the recession, vendors say it’s time for stores to loosen the purse strings a little.

“We’re not seeing this recovery as much in Europe as in Asia and the U.S., but what I’d like to see [in the healthier regions] is more aggressive purchasing. They were so cautious and gun-shy during the downturn. Now I’d like to see more confidence in the recovery,” said Calvin Klein’s Murry.

Indeed, buyers said they had to “chase inventory” for most of the spring. But that doesn’t mean they’re about to abandon their newfound discipline.

“The budgets are up, and we’re feeling confident but cautious,” said Frasch of

Saks. “I don’t want the inventory to out-pace the sales growth. We learned we could improve our margins significantly with targeted investments and very dis-ciplined inventory management. We’re not going to walk away from that.”

Alluring product offerings go hand in hand with alluring environments and, to that end, many stores have revamped their men’s spaces to lure shoppers in.

Barneys New York, which has identi-fied men’s contemporary sportswear as a category with significant growth po-tential, last month revamped the fourth floor of its flagship to seize the oppor-tunity. Le Bon Marché is making room for Balthazar, its men’s department, to devote more space to high-end tailored brands and shoes. The LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned depart-

ment store on Paris’ Left Bank will unveil a revamped 44,000-square-foot men’s wear space in September.

“Men’s wear is a growth sector for the store,” said Le Bon Marché deputy ceo Bruno Villeneuve. “We intend to go higher end.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Keith, president of Joyce, said men’s wear will find a new home in the brand’s Canton Road store in Hong Kong in August.

“We are seeing an increased level of confidence from our male customers. They are responding to new brands and key trend items well,” said Keith.

By managing inventory levels and chasing early deliveries, inventory is down 35 percent from last year, and it has delayed season-end discounting by nearly a month. Exceptional levels of service, such as home-shopping visits, tailoring services and personal orders for top clients, have also helped to entice shoppers.

“We have been caught short a little by the strength of customer reaction to certain key items [that] in certain cases we have had to do multiple reorders on. We now have male customers putting down deposits on fall 2010 runway,” said Keith.

Vendors complain that when buyers scramble for inventory too late in the season, everyone loses.

Polo Ralph Lauren told analysts that with production mostly offshore involving requisite lead times, it might be difficult for suppliers to react as quickly as some stores would like. Roger Farah, Polo’s president and chief operating officer, said, “Retailers will need to learn what is realistic and what is not.”

By Matthew W. Evans

ITALIAN BAGS AND ACCESSORIES brand Mandarina Duck, whose fragranc-es were introduced in the U.S. at Barneys New York two years ago, is looking to boost its scent business in the U.S.

The brand’s first fragrance, a sig-nature women’s scent, was launched about five years ago, mainly in Europe, because Mandarina Duck has a follow-ing there, according to Mario Moura, international export manager at Idesa Parfums. The Barcelona-based distribu-tor owns the Mandarina Duck fragrance license and handles other Italian fra-grance brands in Spain.

Now, Idesa is working with New Jersey-based Abdel LLC, which is dis-tributing Mandarina Duck fragrances in the U.S. While the brand’s latest scent, a men’s eau de toilette called Pure Black, was initially launched at Barneys in November, it was recently rolled out to Dillard’s and is now carried at about 73 stores in the U.S.

Moura and Jim Delalla, who owns Abdel, said they see distribution of Mandarina Duck scents potentially dovetailing with new distribution of Mandarina Duck bags in the U.S., beginning at around yearend, with slated introductions at Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.

“Through the course of the next six months, we will follow the distribution pattern of the [Mandarina Duck] lug-gage,” said Delalla.

The strategy is to “expand in a sys-tematic, qualitative way,” added Moura, who said the idea is to selectively cre-ate awareness of the fragrance brand around the U.S.

Pure Black was introduced quietly at Barneys, according to Moura, but indus-try sources estimate it rung up $100,000 in retail sales volume during its first four months on the market. The aim, according to sources, is to reach $1 mil-lion in retail sales with Pure Black at

Barneys and Dillard’s.Pure Black is Mandarina Duck’s

fourth fragrance. It follows the signa-ture women’s scent, a signature men’s scent and a women’s scent called Cute Pink, a pillar of the brand’s fragrance business, according to Moura. He added that Pure Black is meant to be another pillar for Mandarina Duck.

The promotional plan for Pure Black comprises in-store visuals and events, noted Delalla.

The scent, an oriental fougère, was composed by perfumer Nathalie Lorson of Firmenich and includes

top notes of bergamot, tanger-ine and pepper. In the heart of

the scent, there are notes of tonka bean, tiara flower and orange flower, and it dries down into notes of sandalwood, atlas cedar and Madagascar vanilla.

There are two versions of the scent, a 50-ml. size for $58, and a 100-ml. bot-tle for $78. An aftershave balm, shower gel and deodorant spray accompany the fragrances.

“This line targets the masculine mar-ket, values and codes,” Moura said, add-ing that, with its shiny black and matte dark gray packaging, it’s meant to be “modern and classic at the same time.

“We wanted something more mascu-line,” he said. “In men’s, there’s a big trend toward black colors. We wanted to position ourselves in this popular seg-ment — but with our own values.”

men’scorner

A More Masculine Spin for Mandarina Duck

Mandarina Duck’s Pure Black.

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Selfridges’ men’s department.

Men’s Wearhouse to Expand ‘Modern’ OfferingsBy Jean E. Palmieri

THE MEN’S WEARHOUSE INC. WILL EXPAND ITS ASSORTMENT OF TAILORED clothing and sportswear targeted to a younger customer — but won’t be launching a women’s concept anytime soon.

Doug Ewert, president of the Houston-based retailer, said: “We’re having some great success with younger-fitting products, modern fitting, tailored clothing, fitted dress shirts, trimmer-fitting sportswear. We’re having some very nice sell-throughs in those categories, and it is our plan to expand those assortments throughout this year.”

Ewert made the comments late Wednesday during the company’s first-quarter earnings call. In the three months ended May 1, the tai-lored clothing giant reported net income of $13.6 million, or 26 cents a diluted share, 12 cents above ana-lysts’ consensus estimates carried by Yahoo Finance and 158.9 percent above the $5.3 million, or 10 cents, reported in the 2009 quarter.

Net sales tallied $473.5 million, 2 percent above the $464.1 million reported in the comparable quar-ter last year. Clothing product sales rose 2.6 percent to $368.4 million from $359.1 million. Sales were up 2.4 percent at Men’s Wearhouse, to $318.3 million, and rose at the same rate on a comparable-store basis. Sales were off 6 percent at the firm’s K&G op-eration, to $98.3 million, and comps contracted 4.9 percent. Helped by the relative strength of the dollar, Moores in Canada generated a 21.3 percent sales increase, to $47.4 million, while comps, measured in Canadian dollars, were up just 0.2 percent.

The performance at K&G was below plan in the period. Ewert said: “Beginning in the first quarter, we moved too aggressively to increase our ladies presence and de-empha-size the men’s offerings at our K&G stores. Our initial expectations of those efforts have not been achieved in the first quarter, although our ladies category produced midsingle-digit positive comp-store sales, those results were much less than planned. We are mak-ing adjustments to our outlook and assume a slower rate of growth in this category.”

George Zimmer, founder and chairman, also denied published reports the com-pany was planning to open a women’s wear chain. Zimmer said if the company were to test selling women’s, it would be “on the Web first, not in the stores.”

He also denied published reports that the company was considering opening out-let stores to combat those being rolled out by competitor Jos. A. Bank. Zimmer said: “I don’t think we’re going to go down that path. We will continue to promote at the 1,000 Men’s Wearhouse stores.”

The company projected second-quarter diluted EPS in a range of 75 to 78 cents, with the upper end just matching the consensus estimate prior to the earnings report. Comps at MW are expected to rise in the low-single digits but decline in the low- to mid-single digits at K&G. Moores is expected to be to flat to up in the low-single digits.

Shares ended the day at $18.67, up 15 cents or 0.8 percent, prior to the earnings announcement and rose 3 percent in the first hour of after-hours trading.

— With contributions from Arnold J. Karr

The company’s profits rose in the first quarter.

BREMA-MENICHETTIBrema, an Italian brand founded in 1969 as off-road motorcycling attire, has a new designer in Roberto Menichetti, the former creative director of Burberry Prorsum and Jil Sander. Brema, based in Ancona, was once known for intro-ducing bright color and technical ma-terials to motorcycle suits. This season, Menichetti has taken over design of Brema’s signature line, giving it a trend-ier look and more all-purpose function with extra-light fabrics. The core item, the jacket, is complemented by pants, shirts and sweatshirts. In addition, the partners are launching a co-branded collection called Brema-Menichetti, geared toward the needs of hard-core rally, endurance and travel motorcy-clists with more extreme fits, fabrics and treatments.

SUNDEK BY NEIL BARRETT This is the beginning of a four-season collaboration between Sundek, the swim-trunk maker, and designer Neil Barrett, who is known for modern tai-loring and mash-ups of sport and for-mal. The collection consists of about 50 pieces, from a new version of Sundek’s signature rainbow short to a complete range of T-shirts, polos, jackets, walk shorts and beach accessories. Prices will be slightly higher than Sundek’s main line but much lower than Barrett’s. The partners will host a presentation and cocktail party on June 15.

“We actually sell a lot of beachwear and swim shorts in our collection, so it seemed like a logical thing to do at such a reasonable price,” Barrett said. The designer borrowed some of his favorite men’s wear fabrics — chalk-stripe flan-nel, vintage camouflage, biker leather and denim — and applied them, via photo printing, to beachwear. Other trompe l’oeil effects include printed bow ties. “It’s all very Neil, very much my palette, very neutral,” he said.

C.P. COMPANYC.P. Company is marching back to its roots. Thanks to FGF Industry SpA, which acquired the label from Sportswear Co. SpA in February, the Italian label is getting a new life and returning to what it does best: military-inspired sportswear and intricate tex-tile treatments.

According to Enzo Fusco, the owner of FGF Industry — which also produc-es and distributes Blauer USA, BPD, Design by Enzo Fusco and Sweet Years — the label had strayed from its course.

“I think C.P. Company’s error lay within changing the product too much and trying to make it too fashionable,” he said. “C.P. Company is a modern brand with a strong identity, but it’s not a high-fashion brand. Every brand has a history, and it’s down to us to restore it to C.P. Company.”

Replacing former C.P. Company cre-ative director Wallace Faulds with his

own design team, Fusco also snatched up 20,000 pieces from C.P. Company archives in order to build a wardrobe around the label’s beginning, which dates to 1975, when Italian designer Massimo Osti built a cult following with military-inspired silhouettes such as the “goggle jacket” and customized textile treatments.

“We wanted to give value to the his-torical aspect of the brand with added modernity,” Fusco said. The collection, which is seeking to garner interest from a younger clientele, features 180 piec-es. It includes a wide variety of dress shirts and trousers, as well as piece-dyed blazers. Rather than presenting the new collection during Pitti, Fusco will seek to reinforce the brand’s DNA with a video installation. LEVI STRAUSS & CO.Levi Strauss & Co. is set to show that where you come from is as important as where you’re going. At Pitti, the 157-year-old denim behemoth will launch Made in the USA by Levi’s Vintage Clothing, a capsule collection of reproductions of iconic American workwear. Taking key looks from Levi’s archives, the collec-tion is historically accurate in construc-tion, fit and function. Inspiration for some pieces can be traced to the early pioneers and to the post-World War I era. A replica of the 501, called Barnyard, for example, resembles the original pair of jeans from 1890 that was recently found in an abandoned barn in California, while the Type 1 Jacket, a sturdy denim item with a pleated front, is a dupli-cate of a design first launched in 1924. Ranging in price from 250 euros, or $334 at current exchange, to 950 euros, or $1,140, the Made in the USA collection will go on sale this summer in premium locations worldwide, including Barneys New York, Fred Segal, Isetan, United Arrows and Cinch London.

WHO’S ON NEXTOut to prove that Italy’s got talent, too, an international panel will judge the second edition of Who’s On Next. The initiative is intended to promote young, Italy-based men’s wear design talent and has been organized by Pitti Immagine Uomo, the Roman couture as-sociation Alta Roma and L’Uomo Vogue. The eight finalists include — from the fashion community — Camo, short for camouflage, best known for its uniform-inspired wardrobe; Dead Meat, maker of thought-provoking T-shirts; FQR, a ready-to-wear collection by textile mav-erick Fabio Quaranta, and Maurizio Miri, whose classic tailoring is for to-day’s man. On the accessories front, there’s AI, designed by Andrea Incontri and inspired by Italian leather goods from the Fifties; Ozona eyewear; Pierre-Louis Mascia’s print-friendly accesso-ries collection, and footwear by Italy-based Japanese designer Yuji Miura. Winners will be announced on June 15.

— Emilie Marsh and Jean Scheidnes

WWD.COM18 WWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010

PITTIPREVIEW

Brema

The original 1989 C.P. Company goggle jacket

FQR’s Fabio Quaranta.

Levi’s was a pioneer in the workwear business.

Ones to Watch at Pitti Uomo

WWDMen’s

Neil Barrett

WWD.COM19WWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010

By Jean Scheidnes

Two months into his job as president of fashion and retail at Victorinox, Joachim Beer is charting a new course for the brand.

Earlier this spring, the departures of Beer’s predecessor Johanne Shepley Siff and creative director Pierre-Henri Mattout seemed to indicate Victorinox might abandon efforts to elevate the fashion cachet of the label. Indeed, Beer is intent on stabilizing and clarifying the brand without the drama that sometimes comes with designer per-sonas.

“We have a history of 126 years, and it all comes from the Swiss Army Knife and a lot of attributes that easily can drive our development and design,” said Beer.

Going forward, the collection will be colorful and active, with more versatility rath-er than high-performance features.

“We’ve tried to merchandise it closer to European modern sportswear versus total-function outerwear. And here again we took inspiration from the Swiss Army Knife, because the knife is a hobby tool. It’s not for a professional carpenter or mechanic or engineer, but it has functionality and variety of possibility,” he said.

When it comes to creating mystique around a brand without the benefit of a VIP de-signer, Beer has a powerful model in Hugo Boss, where he spent nearly his whole career and briefly took the helm of the U.S. division in 2008.

Victorinox apparel is sold in 45 monobrand stores and 800 wholesale doors across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia. In the U.S. the main accounts are Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom.

“The situation today is that we’re still struggling a little bit because things have not been well executed,” he said. “A lot of things have to come together in execution. If the most creative item is in the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong price, it doesn’t move.”

Victorinox is returning to Florence’s Pitti Uomo this season. Buyers who come to the New York showroom will find it redesigned as an airy white loft. The marketing will get a new look, too, according to Beer, more focused on prod-uct and less on lifestyle. And internally, Beer is restructuring teams to work in a more inte-grated way.

He isn’t opposed to reintroducing some fashion excitement once things settle down. He said Victorinox will take on design col-laborations starting in fall 2011 but in a lim-ited and controlled way.

A spring jacket from Victorinox.

Victorinox Moves Ahead Without Design Star JUNE 12LuisaViaRomaThe store celebrates its 10th anniversary with the event “Firenze 4ever…It’s Magic” party dedicated to the best international fashion bloggers, in collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger, who will present a capsule collection inspired by Keith Haring.9 p.m.: LuisaViaRoma flagship, 19 Via Roma

JUNE 14Patrizia PepeInauguration of “Precious Waste,” an installation by Arabeschi di Latte.5:30 to 7:30 p.m.: Tessilform, 7/9 Via Gobetti, Capalle

Polimoda Fashion Week Inauguration cocktail.5:30 to 7 p.m.: Luisa Via Roma, 19/21r Via Roma

JUNE 15Firenze Made in Tuscany MagazineCocktail party in collaboration with Mercedes to mark the new issue. 7 p.m.: Riva Lofts Florence, 98 Via Baccio Bandinelli

GilliCocktail party to inaugurate the new flagship.6:30 p.m.: Gilli flagship, 33 Via Tosinghi

JUNE 16AnnaMode CostumesIn collaboration with the European School of Economics, opening of the exhibition “Glamorous Divas and Fashion” with

photographs and clothing from the Fifties and Sixties.6 p.m.: Aria Art Gallery and European School of Economics, 40 Borgo SS Apostoli

Ray BanRock cocktail.4:30 to 8 p.m.: Ottica Fontani, 22 Viale Strozzi

Tateossian20th anniversary celebration cocktail, presentation of new collections.6:30 to 9:30 p.m.: Four Seasons Hotel, 99 Borgo Pinti

L’Uomo VogueCocktail and DJ set.5:30 to 7:30 p.m.: Fortezza da Basso, Central pavilion terrace

WGSNTrend seminar in collaboration with Pitti Immagine.11 a.m. and 3 p.m.: Fortezza da Basso, 1st floor Area Monumentali

48th L’Altro Uomo PartyParty with special guest Roger Taylor of Duran Duran.11 p.m.: Villa Castelletti, 5 Via Castelletti, Signa

JUNE 17Jil SanderSpring 2011 men’s wear runway show followed by garden party.8 p.m.: Location undisclosed.

— Christine Lee and Alberto Zacchini

PITTIPREVIEW

Select Events Around Pitti Uomo

By WWD Staff

WAY BEFORE THE OFFICIAL KICKOFF ON FRIDAY, FASHION AND SPORTS companies got the ball rolling with a string of products related to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

South Africa versus Mexico will inaugurate the tournament of 32 teams. The open-ing concert, billed as the largest entertainment event to ever take place in Africa, is slated for Thursday night in Johannesburg. Among the artists slated to hit the stage are a Roberto Cavalli-clad Shakira, the Black Eyed Peas, John Legend and the Soweto Gospel Choir.

Given the tournament is considered the world’s larg-est sporting event, it’s no surprise companies are tapping into the buzz. Even smaller brands are supporting the Italian team with Italia Independent, Lumberjack, Carlo Pignatelli and Gherardini fashioning green, white and red shades, boat shoes, a watch and a shopping bag, respectively.

Meanwhile, commissioned by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), Louis Vuitton created a special case handmade by one master craftsman in the company’s 151-year-old workshop in Asnières, near Paris, to house the solid, 24-karat gold tro-phy with malachite detail-ing that will be given to the winning team.

Giorgio Armani, who in the past has dressed the Italian national team and the Chelsea squad in England, and whose clothes are regu-larly donned by players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and David Beckham, created a special World Cup collection of men’s accessories for Emporio Armani. The selection in-cludes a weekend bag, a black or white belt and sneakers, T-shirts and boxer briefs with a detachable fl ag logo that can be customized depending on one’s allegiance.

For the fourth year, Dolce & Gabbana is outfi tting the Italian national team, this time with a navy blue two-buttoned suit with spear-headed lapels over a white shirt, a four-button waistcoat and a jacquard tie. A quilted trenchcoat completes the look, as do aviator-style shades with the Italian fl ag on the hinge.

The designers also dedicated a portion of their gym and under-wear collections to the soccer event with briefs featuring the word “calcio,” or football, on the elastic, while the more sporty part such as tracksuits, hoodies and shorts bear the Italian fl ag. The products hit the Dolce & Gabbana bou-tiques in mid-May.

“When we started designing the uniforms for the national team it was because we wanted to export a full Italian message and, through the uniforms, we wanted to com-municate the idea of elegance, passion and uniqueness through a sartorial suit, a gilet and a white shirt,” said Stefano Gabbana.

Added Domenico Dolce, “Soccer players are role models and idols that people like to imitate, but this project stemmed fi rst and foremost from our passion for soccer. ”

Strenesse continues to supply off-fi eld uniforms for the German team, with the formal outfi t a dark blue sport coat, and coordinating shirt and tie, while the informal attire this

season will include a medium-blue lightweight corduroy jacket, khaki cotton pants, a slim-fi tting cotton shirt, colored polos, a cashmere sweater and additional trousers.

“It’s a privilege to be able to [outfi t the team], for it’s rare to fi nd such an image and advertising medium in Germany,” contended Strenesse chief executive offi cer Gerd Strehle. “We had the luck to begin [our involvement] with the restart of the German team.” The team had previously been dressed by one company for 20 years, Strehle noted, “but the team and the management wanted a new feel and it was our chance.”

Naturally, activewear companies like Nike, Adidas and Puma have a plethora of World Cup related kits, accessories and jerseys, as well as a fl urry of lifestyle product launches. Adidas, which will outfi t 12 teams at the World Cup, is “convinced it will

achieve over” its 1.3 billion euro, or $1.7 billion, target in sales of soccer-related products this year, according to ceo Herbert Hainer.

Puma, which will dress seven teams at the soccer tournament, said it saw a double-digit increase in team sport sales. That performance is thanks

to World Cup-related collection, including replica soccer jerseys and a soccer-inspired lifestyle collection designed by New York-based art-

ist Kehinde Wiley. Jochen Zeitz, Puma’s ceo, said he expects the bulk of World Cup gear will be sold in the second quarter.

Among other European brands, Tod’s commissioned its artisans to braid a selection of colored leather brace-

lets to refl ect all the national teams’ colors that retail for $225; Diesel will host eight World

Cup-themed parties with a fashion angle in Johannesburg, Durban, Pretoria and

Cape Town; Fred Perry has created 12 tournament shirts, each featuring a participating country’s football colors and name underneath the Fred Perry laurel leaf logo; French Connection

has produced a collection called Football Legends featuring three shirts with black-and-white photographs of the legendary soccer players Pelè, Bobby Moore and George Best at $36 each; British retailer Burton has soccer-themed socks, underwear, fl ip-fl ops, T-shirts and polo shirts, as well as two limited edition T-shirts and wristbands in the England colors of red and white, and Ted Baker has created a retro-inspired col-

lection of classic boxers, socks, T-shirts and sneakers.

German giant Hugo Boss has introduced 11 nationally color-coded polo shirts and caps for men

and women, while the German men’s, women’s, juniors and children’s label s.Oliver has special edition Peanuts

T-shirts for kids as part of its cooperation with the children’s charity Ein Herz für Kinder (or A Heart for Children), while

adults can opt for themed QS by s.Oliver tops or “Cotton Made in Africa” T-shirts in the s.Oliver Casual women and men and s.Oliver Junior ranges. There’s also a soccer-themed charm bracelet on offer. For more luxury-oriented soccer enthu-siasts, German cashmere producer Allude is offering a World Cup sweater for men and women. Creative director Andrea Karg said Allude’s involvement was sparked by “the pure joy of the World Cup — so just for fun.”

“Now all we have to hope for is a great tournament,” said Armani.

WWD.COM20 WWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010

By Khanh T.L. Tran

KNITWEAR MAKER BY DESIGN LLC HAS acquired a majority stake in David Kahn for more than $10 million and hired a new chief executive officer for the premium denim label.

By Design, a New York-based manufac-turer that generates annual volume of $200 million in private label tops sold at retailers, including Nordstrom, Kohl’s and J.C. Penney, purchased the trademark and assets of Los Angeles-based David Kahn. It now owns a 90 percent stake in the fi rm, which was founded in 1999 and tallies annual sales of $15 mil-lion at more than 1,100 doors in the U.S. and Canada. Kahn and his manufacturing part-ners, Orosman and Ricardo Vizcaino, retain 10 percent in the company.

With the new ownership and an injection of

cash for sales and marketing, David Kahn has hired Ron Perilman, a former senior vice presi-dent at Not Your Daughter’s Jeans, as president. Perilman’s wife, Jill, was named head designer to work with Kahn, who remains the design di-rector at his namesake company. In addition to launching the women’s brand Jolt at Kellwood Co. and designing at Tarrant Apparel Group and Bella Dahl, Jill Perilman owns Denim Head, a denim trend forecasting service.

Ron Perilman, who has more than 30 years of apparel experience at French Dressing in Canada and City Girl Inc., said his goal is to grow David Kahn as a coveted denim brand among Baby Boomers.

“I believe the Baby Boomer really wants premium jeans,” Perilman said. “The young gal that was 21 to 28 doesn’t have the dispos-able money to spend on premium that she

had in the past. Once women are estab-lished in the world, they can go for more premium jeans. I’m going after that mar-ketplace.”

Perilman said he plans to expand the distribution for David Kahn jeans, which retail for $158 to $198, to Europe, Japan and high-end retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Nordstrom is David Kahn’s biggest account.

After adding knit tops and sweaters re-tailing from $39 to $99 for fall, Perilman is spearheading a marketing campaign that will promote David Kahn online, on bill-boards and in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and InStyle.

“Now we have the money to really go out and tell the world what this brand is,” Perilman said.

Brands Tapping Into World Cup Fever

By Design Buys Majority Stake in David Kahn

“Soccer players are role models and

idols that people like to imitate, but this project stemmed…from our passion

for soccer. ” — Domenico Dolce, Dolce & Gabbana

Products designed for the FIFA World Cup.

A look from David Kahn.

WWD.COM22 WWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010

Financial

22.75 19.00 Oxford (OXM) 20.2 527186 21.93 +20.89

730.00 640.00 Asos * (ASC:L) 36.5 2639335 728.00 +15.10

47.38 44.20 Inditex * (ITX:MC) 20.6 5917118 47.19 +7.54

1.41 1.25 Birks & Mayors (BMJ) - 3300 1.25 +6.94

33.76 31.05 Citi Trends (CTRN) 18.5 187565 33.00 +6.01

5.17 4.89 Hot Topic (HOTT) 24.4 1496061 5.12 +4.92

18.30 17.26 Jones Apparel (JNY) - 2276969 17.87 +4.56

12.64 11.85 Orchids Paper (TIS) 7.3 33945 12.57 +3.88

40.75 39.14 Richemont * (CFR:VX) 27.2 2804849 40.75 +3.85

90.20 86.68 LVMH * (MC:PA) 24.3 1743893 90.20 +3.80

10 BEST PERFORMERS DAILY COMPANIES P/E VOLUME AMT

HIGH LOW LAST %CHANGE

2.46 2.05 New York & Co. (NWY) - 4316292 2.18 -5.63

12.45 11.42 Talbots (TLB) - 7322054 11.56 -5.25

2.70 2.59 Charles & Colvard (CTHR) - 55912 2.59 -5.13

12.31 10.70 Kenneth Cole (KCP) - 593047 10.82 -3.99

0.54 0.49 Phoenix Footwear (PXG) - 1800 0.49 -3.92

16.87 15.34 Duckwall-Alco (DUCK) 20.7 21149 15.50 -3.00

26.58 24.69 G-III Apparel (GIII) 12.1 292814 25.01 -2.91

7.96 7.62 Sally Beauty (SBH) 12.1 1415100 7.67 -2.54

3.89 3.77 Tandy Leather Factory (TLF) 11.6 11026 3.85 -2.53

3.95 3.77 Wet Seal (WTSLA) 4.3 484397 3.78 -2.33

10 WORST PERFORMERS DAILY COMPANIES P/E VOLUME AMT

HIGH LOW LAST %CHANGE

By Evan Clark and Liza Casabona

FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN Ben S. Bernanke boosted markets early Wednesday with relatively kind words on the consumer and economy, but the run didn’t last, and retail stocks ended flat as the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped back below 10,000 and ended the day with a loss.

The here-and-gone-again rally, which had retail issues up as much as 2.2 per-cent midday, demonstrated the market volatility that’s developed amid a slow U.S. recovery and Europe’s debt trou-bles. Investors, who abhor uncertainty above all else, remain on edge.

“It’s total, absolute nervousness,” said James Smith, chief economist for Parsec Financial Management, of the late-day decline.

Smith said the U.S. recovery was still on track but that the bounce back was only about half what it historically should be given the seriousness of the recession. He also said there was a 35 percent chance of another U.S. recession over the next year, while Europe faced a 70 percent chance.

Concerns the debt troubles that began in Greece could spread beyond Europe have kept investors from celebrating signs of modest strengthening in the U.S., including a positive take on April and May from the Fed’s Beige Book report.

Bernanke told House lawmakers the economy would expand by about 3.5 per-cent this year and continue to pick up speed in 2011. But he also warned the job market would remain weak.

“This pace of growth, were it to be realized, would probably be associated with only a slow reduction in the un-employment rate over time,” Bernanke said in testimony. “Consumer spending is likely to increase at a moderate pace going forward, supported by a gradual pickup in employment and income, greater consumer confidence and some improvement in credit conditions.”

The S&P Retail Index closed at 422.25,

a gain of just 0.11 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.4 percent, or 40.73 points, to 9,899.25. Blue-chip stocks traded as high as 10,065.14 Wednesday.

Retail gainers included Tiffany & Co., up 3 percent to $42.43; Coach Inc., 2.4 percent to $40.81; J. Crew Group, 1.9 percent to $41.18, and Sears Holdings Corp., 1.7 percent to $80.38.

European investors pushed the DAX up 2 percent to 5,984.75 in Frankfurt, the CAC 40 ahead 2 percent to 3,446.77 in Paris and the FTSE 100 up 1.2 percent to 5,085.86 in London. In Asia, the Hang Seng Index rose 0.7 percent to 19,621.24 in Hong Kong and the Nikkei 225 slipped 1 percent to 9,439.13 in Tokyo.

Consumer spending improved in April and May, according to the Fed’s Beige Book, released Wednesday afternoon.

According to the anecdotal report, retail sales improved in most parts of the coun-try during the two-month period compared with the previous report and in many re-gions compared with a year earlier.

Spring and summer apparel sold well in New York, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo. Sales of larger-ticket items contin-ued to lag in most cities and regions, ac-cording to the report.

“It’s definitely a better year than last,” one Philadelphia retailer said, “and we are selectively expanding.”

Some retailers in Boston said sales were “volatile” but strong in categories such as apparel and household goods.

Clothing, jewelry and cosmetic sales in New York were also strong, retailers reported. New York City outperformed other areas within the broader New York region tracked by Beige Book.

Vigorous demand in Dallas for ap-parel and accessories wasn’t enough to increase department store sales, which were flat in the region, according to the Beige Book. Overall, retail sales were down in the area but that was mostly due to Easter sales that were pulled into March by the early holiday.

American Eagle Preps Expansion in East

* Editor’s note: European stocks are quoted in the currency of their principal exchanges. Shares on the London Stock Exchange are quoted in pence, Richemont and The Swatch Group are quoted in Swiss francs and Hennes & Mauritz is quoted in Swedish kronor. All other European stocks are in euros.

Retail Finishes Flat After Sell-off

Target Planning Store Upgrades

By Sharon Edelson

SEEKING TO CAPITALIZE ON CHINA’S consumer spending boom and a per-ceived void in the teen market, American Eagle Outfitters Inc. said Wednesday that it will open stores in Hong Kong and China through a franchise agreement with Dickson Concepts (International) Ltd., which operates more than 400 stores in Asia.

American Eagle will unveil three stores in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai in early 2011. “There is sig-nificant appetite for the American Eagle Outfitters brand internationally,” said Jim O’Donnell, chief executive officer of American Eagle Outfitters.

“There is a burgeoning demand for trendy young fashion in Asia,” said Dickson Poon, group executive chair-man of Dickson Concepts. “I am very confident that American Eagle Outfitters will achieve the same level of phenom-enal success in Asia as in its home mar-ket of North America.”

American Eagle will offer the brand’s complete seasonal assortments, inti-mates and dormwear from the aerie sub-brand. The only concession to consum-ers in the region will involve size. “We won’t change the assortment, but we may alter some of the styling and colors,” said Christopher Fiore, executive vice presi-dent of AEO International. “Ninety-five percent of the stores will look like an American Eagle store in the U.S.”

The U.S. retailer will provide mer-chandising and marketing input, and Dickson Concepts will handle all opera-tional functions.

Fiore declined to say how many

stores American Eagle could ultimately open but said the company’s 20-year, multistore agreement with Dickson Concepts represents a significant com-mitment. “The countries are develop-ing from a retail perspective,” he said. “We’ll look at every market. There are secondary cities we would pursue.”

American Eagle is new to the interna-tional game, having opened its first stores outside the U.S. in March in Kuwait and

Dubai. “We got very good feedback from the Middle East,” Fiore said. “We learned that the brand can travel and that the brand resonates with customers outside of North America. We’ll have enough locations in [the Middle East] in the next few years to be well on our way to a major rollout.”

In terms of competition, Fiore sees American Eagle’s price as a selling point. “I see a great opportunity for a value brand,” he said. “There are some devel-oped national brands in China that will be competition. The first retailers to open stores there were the luxury brands.”

By Sarah Protzman

DENVER — Target Corp. is aiming to up-grade the stores to build upon the mo-mentum of last year, when the firm gen-erated the strongest retail segment profit in its history.

Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, presi-dent and chief executive officer of the Minneapolis-based discounter, told the annual meeting of shareholders here Wednesday, “The changes beyond food are so extensive, they resemble a brand new store.” He said there will be re-newed emphasis on “more open, visually compelling departments.”

Kathee Tesija, executive vice presi-dent of merchandising, told WWD follow-ing the meeting that, in beauty, there will be efforts to “upgrade the environment so customers feel like browsing,” rather than just popping in to buy a tube of lip-stick and heading out the door.

“Beauty was organized and very neat, but not very inspiring,” Tesija said. To

change that, endcaps were added to high-light new product, and gondolas were lit for ease of browsing. Additionally, 200 stores now feature computers in beauty that can help guests choose hair color and skin care items, a feature officials expect to roll out in an additional 250 units by yearend.

Those same 200 stores have also re-ceived a footwear makeover: Gondolas are now closer to eye level, and more mirrors and seating have been added with backdrops of seasonal product.

While children’s wear results have been disappointing, the use of a more friendly color palette in kids’ de-partments has started to turn things around, aided by merchandising that, through mix-and-match presentations, makes it easier for parents to match tops with bottoms.

Also on Wednesday, Target increased its quarterly dividend to 25 cents a share, 47 percent above the previous payout of 17 cents.

For full daily stock changes and more financial news, see WWD.com / business-news.

American Eagle Outfitters is implementing a growth strategy in Hong Kong and China.

WWD.COMWWD, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010 23

FASHION SCOOPSHEAVY MEDAL: When John Galliano takes his bow during Men’s Fashion Week in Paris later this month, look out for a tiny red ribbon or rosette on his lapel. On June 23, the night before the shows get under way, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to decorate the couturier as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor at a ceremony at the Elysée Palace. Galliano was notified that he was to receive France’s highest honor back in January 2009.

UPTOWN BOY: Zac Posen, who confirmed last month that he will be showing his signature collection in Paris for spring 2011, said Wednesday he will bow at another runway as well, this time a more local one: Lincoln Center, where he will show his Z Spoke secondary line in September. “It’s 7 on Saturday,” Posen said while unveiling his signature collection’s resort lineup, noting he had hoped to get a morning slot for Z Spoke. The secondary line, to which Posen has added handbags, will bow exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue for the last time with resort, and will then be available at other retail outlets.

LACOSTE’S NEW FACE: Alexa Chung, the British TV presenter and fashion show fixture, will front a Lacoste women’s scent, which is to launch in January. Chung, 25, is the first female celebrity to front a Lacoste fragrance. Known for her laid-back yet fashion-forward style, she has collaborated with Madewell, and Mulberry named a handbag after her. Her television résumé includes MTV’s “It’s On With Alexa Chung” and T4’s “Frock Me,” which she presents with designer Henry Holland.

SELLING FOR TELEVISION: Reality star, stylist and QVC fashion maven Rachel Zoe showed her second fall collection for the home shopping channel on Wednesday at the Gramercy Park Hotel, proving that despite her luxe Hollywood roots the woman knows how to shill fake-fur outerwear and costume bling. “I don’t think we should dumb down the consumer,” Zoe said as she showed off a surprisingly chic fake-shearling motorcycle jacket, available in black and camel. All under $200, with some pieces — small-frame resin sunglasses, for instance — dropping below $35, the collection, which includes real leather and suede bags, skews trendy, featuring mostly coats and vests (some with furry collars) in what Zoe called “classic colors” — taupe, army green, black. Jewelry has a retro vibe and includes Gobstopper cocktail rings and a number of drapy necklaces (around $124.50). Of the challenges of producing an inexpensive collection for a mass audience, “it’s about wanting [the line] to be cohesive, relatable, but still interesting,” Zoe said. While some scarves and jewelry will be available this month, the rest of the collection will go on sale in September.

And while Zoe admitted to pulling inspiration for the pieces largely from her own closet — “I’m thinking Saint-Tropez glamour,” she said, later adding, “and Stevie Nicks, who’s like my favorite ever” — she plans to expand to ready-to-wear and shoes in coming seasons.

CROWD-PLEASER: It takes a lot to pack a party with fashion folks a mere 24 hours after the CFDA Awards. Tuesday night, Francesco Clark succeeded and then some at cocktails to celebrate his memoir “Walking Papers,” hosted by Glenda Bailey, Narciso Rodriguez, Mary Alice Stephenson and The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Karolina Kurkova, Maggie Rizer, Alexandra Reeve Givens, Peter Som and Lisa Airan took turns congratulating Clark, whose memoir details his journey after a diving accident left him paralyzed at age 24. “I never thought I could write,” explained the 32-year-old, who said the impetus for his book came from a series of e-mails he sent to his former boss two years ago. At her encouragement, he started expanding on them. “I drank too much coffee and started writing.”

DEEP BREATH: A gaggle of International Herald Tribune-hawking Jean Seberg clones are slated to clutter the sidewalks in front of hip boutique Colette today, modeling tops echoing the iconic New York Herald Tribune T-shirt worn by Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless.” The happening marks the European release of four limited edition

“Breathless”-inspired Rodarte T-shirts, which are already on sale at Barneys New York in New York and Los Angeles and will hit Dover Street Market

in London over the coming weeks. They fete the Studio Canal-produced 50th anniversary theatrical rerelease of Godard’s Nouvelle Vague masterpiece, which will be screened

tonight at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. Rodarte design duo, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, will attend the screening. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Audrey Tautou, Marion Cotillard, Maggie Cheung and Wes Anderson are also expected.

LIFE IS A CABARET: “I’m always up for a challenge,” says French actress — and princess since she married Emmanuel-Philibert de Savoie in 2003 — Clotilde Courau, who will take to the stage at the mythic and racy

Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris this September. For the occasion, Italian designer Roberto Cavalli

created four exclusive designs, one for each number the sparkling artist will perform. They include one inspired by “Chicago” and an adaptation of a Marlene Dietrich song.

“It’s extraordinary, and torture,” said the 41-year-old actress, who noted that dancing has long been her first passion. Long inspired by post-war cabaret artists like Dietrich, Courau will

launch her own show called “l’Insoumise” next November at another Paris venue. And this summer, she will start shooting a new Philippe Claudel movie opposite Anouk Aimée. As for those who might think she takes royal protocol lightly, she responded: “I’m a modern woman. I’ve always worked and I expect to as a wife and a mother.”

A HOME FOR A ROGUE: Alex Carlton is making good on his plans to expand direct channels for his brand, Rogues Gallery, with a new store on Cape Cod. The 900-square-foot unit, the brand’s second, is located in Provincetown, Mass., on the town’s main drag.

The inky black exterior opens on a nautical world inspired by old sail lofts. Waxed sail cloth covers the floors, oily photo collages cut from vintage National Geographic magazines line two walls — a good home for the brand’s popular T-shirts, which make use of old New England iconography. Carlton also injected a heavy dose of third-party brands: jeans from A.P.C., Quaker Marine caps, slickers from Ekla, shirts from Burkman Bros., as well as basics from the L.L. Bean Signature line, the brand’s more stylish range, for which Carlton is creative director. The merchandise mix and interior stand as a prototype for future stores, Carlton said, adding the brand would look to an urban market for its next shop. In April, the brand revealed plans to scale back the wholesale operations in order to pursue a model based on direct retail and local manufacturing.

Rodarte’s T-shirt for “Breathless.”

Roberto Cavalli looks for Clotilde Courau’s Crazy Horse appearance.

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