Thanks to the more than 65 of you who filled out the Business of Fashion survey to help us learn more about the BoF community. While this is by no means a scientific sample, it does represent the demographics, behaviour and opinions of the core audience who turns to this site most often. I thought the least I could do was share our learnings with you.

The biggest takeaway, especially through your detailed written comments, was that the BoF has really become a space for industry professionals to inform themselves and engage with each other on both creative and business issues. We will continue to build on this in the months to come and have really appreciated that more of you have been clicking on the comments button to let us know what you think. One of our goals, is to increase the amount of commenting by a signficant order of magnitude. This means providing you with content that engages you, but it also means that you should click that comment button and join the discussion.

We’ll keep the survey open for another few week or so in case you haven’t yet had a chance to respond and would like to share your thoughts. Here are the headlines about the BoF community from the survey results:  

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Authorities in Canada’s Competition Bureau have instructed Lululemon to remove from its labels the claims that the seaweed content in its VitaSea line would reduce stress and provide anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, hydrating and detoxifying benefits to people wearing the garments. Acting Deputy Commissioner, Andrea Rosen, said:

Those claims have to be scientific and they have to be provable. The onus is on the advertiser, not the government, to prove that the tests are adequate prior to making the claims.

Yesterday, in the wake of a Lululemon investor relations breakdown about the seaweed content and the health benefit claims, the Business of Fashion advised Lululemon, especially now that it is a high-profile public company, to back up all of its product claims with clear evidence. Earlier this week when Chip Wilson, the company’s Founder, Chairman and Chief Product Designer, was told of the results from the New York Times’ test of the VitaSea product, he said:

If you actually put it on and wear it, it is different from cotton. That’s my only test of it.

Sounds like they also need to take our advice to more carefully manage their Corporate Communications and PR. There is an ongoing and raging debate about this, and other LULU issues linked to this incident, over at Google Finance.

Over the past year, Canadian yogawear brand and erstwhile stock market darling Lululemon Athletica has often been cited as proof of the market opportunity in new-age fashion concepts which pick up on psychographic and attitudinal shifts — i.e. that people are looking for more from their clothing than just functional and aesthetic utility. Some people, it is argued, want healthy, ethically conscious, and environmentally friendly feel-good benefits as well. Lululemon was delivering this in spades, while also benefiting from a lifestyle craze centred around Yoga, building a business of close to $150m in revenues.

However, the news all over the North American press this week was dramatically different. The New York Times published a damning article suggesting that Lululemon’s claims about the seaweed content in one of its clothing lines were patently false.  Through its seaweed content, the VitaSea line claims to reduce stress and provide anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, hydrating and detoxifying benefits to its wearers, but the New York Times’ test showed no evidence of seaweed in Lululemon’s clothing.

This  sent Lululemon’s stock price on a rollercoaster ride. Previously, Lululemon had been enjoying stellar stock performance, reaching $60 a share after an IPO price of $25 in July. Yesterday the stock closed at $41.50.

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There was quite a bit of interest our recent post  Discreet Luxury – A Segment to watch. Stealth wealth consumers want something special and discreet and therefore reject obvious logos, product ubiquity and sameness. Though the category is dominated by thousands of small, independent brands, Bottega Veneta is the one global brand that has been emblematic of how well this can work from a business standpoint.

This video supplements a Wall Street Journal article entitled Inside a Salon that Serves the Logo-Phobic and takes you inside Yuta Powell’s discrete luxury boutique in New York’s Plaza Athénée Hotel (I didn’t know New York had its own Plaza Athenee either!). The store stocks niche luxury brands like Boudicca, Azzaro and Kiton and each product must pass through Ms. Powell’s exacting standards for quality and craftsmanship, honed during a long career at Givenchy.

Ms. Powell says "This is slow fashion; fewer but better clothes."

Wall Street Journal: In West L.A, A Homeless Man Inspires New Brand
Back in August when the BoF touched down in L.A. to poke around the lively local fashion scene, I witnessed a very interesting character twirling  down Robertson Boulevard in an outrageous outfit. Today, I read this article in the Wall Street Journal about the same gentlemen, who has inspired a range of t-shirts that are all the rage in the City of Angels.

Fashion Inc: Web 2.0 at the Luxury Briefing Conference
I had the full intention of attending all three of the London conferences this Autumn dedicated to the web 2.0 and luxury. Unfortunately, I am home-bound due to a nasty bout of Shingles (yes, really), and so was happy to see Lauren’s as-it-happens report from today’s conference.

WWD: What’s Next for Fashion Networks (subscription required)
Even WWD is getting in on the social networking act, though they don’t necessarily seem to "get it" just yet. They begin the article by saying it remains to be seen whether niche sites could grow as big as MySpace and Facebook. So, quick answer: Not likely at all. The most interesting insight was that Forrester Research says "16% of adults online belong to social networks and predicts that social media will increase in effectiveness in the next three years: In 2007, marketers spent $600m on social media and that figure is expected to more than double to $1.5b next year and rise to $6.9b by 2012.

Crazy Robertson photos courtesy of WSJ.com

Unless your head has been stuck in the sand (or in Vogue or Style.com or WWD), you will know that Pakistan has been gripped by serious turmoil in recent weeks, forcing its embattled leader, General Pervez Musharraf, to declare a State of Emergency. Unrest and instability have become a common theme in Pakistan over the past 5 years, ever since Musharraf seized power and the country was drawn into George Bush’s War on Terror. Just today, legendary Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan was arrested for protesting against Musharraf’s government.

So what does this have to do with The Business of Fashion? It’s often during times of turmoil like this when artists and designers are able to deliver poignant messages in a subtle but positive way. Suma Project V aims to do just this, by heightening the consciousness of Karachites to the more positive aspects of their city.

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Rachel Roy, the New-York based designer and wife of hip-hop mogul Damon Dash, has announced that TSM Capital has taken a significant minority stake in her eponymous business. According to WWD, Roy’s business is generating $10m in wholesale revenues.

The Rachel Roy brand is carried in an impressive set of department store chains including Bergdorf Goodman, Saks 5th Avenue, and Neiman Marcus, and also in reputable international stores like Kuwait’s Villa Moda and Moscow’s Tsum.

With a respectable wholesale business in place, TSM says the capital injection will be used to open retail stores, spur expansion outside the USA, and expand into new categories, likely through external licensing deals. In an interesting twist that runs opposite to the flow of designers moving into the Contemporary segment, Roy’s business had originally been positioned as a Contemporary brand, but it was subsequently repositioned as a Designer brand, which meant raising prices by 40%. This was a move that was generally lauded by buyer and editors.

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Susie Bubble is one of the most recognisable, most respected and most widely-read fashion bloggers in the world. Her quirky style suggestions, honest reviews and friendly voice make her blog a must-read for thousands of women everyday.  To use Malcolm Gladwell’s vocabulary from his best-selling book, The Tipping Point, Susie is the ultimate maven, and the blog has provided the perfect platform from which to share her expertise.

Not surprisingly, fashion brands, online fashion media and ecommerce retailers have been looking to get in on the action. Banner ads have recently begun to appear on her site from the likes of Net-a-Porter and Diesel. Susie is regularly invited to conferences and events so others can draw upon her expertise.  Almost by accident, this London-based style expert has turned her passion for fashion into a bonafide business. 

The BoF caught up with Susie to understand a bit more about the genesis of the Style Bubble, get her views on the business of blogging, and find out the pros and cons of monetising a fashion blog. 

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Karl Lagerfeld for H&M. Roland Mouret for Gap. Giles Deacon for New Look. Proenza Schouler for Target. And the list goes on. You’d think by now that consumers would have started to tire of it all. At a Retail and Luxury Conference earlier this year, Peter Som said that he felt the whole thing was played out and that it was no longer a distinctive way of creating brand buzz, which I thought was a good point.

Well, one look at a video from Style.com (see below), which shows the pandemonium that erupted in New York when Roberto Cavalli and Canadian model Jessica Stam unveiled his own H&M collection on Thursday, and it seems there may be some mileage in this strategy yet.  I was surprised by the exhuberant reaction around the world and the amount of money that people were willing to spend. In the video, one girl has 12 bags of clothing which retailed for about $6,000.

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It’s been a milestone year for Ralph Lauren, who has been celebrating 40 years of WASP-inspired fashion, which he has successfully taken all over the world. This should be no surprise, as it’s not like Lauren has been quiet about it.

Along with a gala event held during fashion week in Central Park in New York, he has had wall-to-wall coverage of his anniversary in almost every fashion magazine on the planet from the ultra-mainstream to the uber-edgy.  I must have seen at least 10 multi-page spreads, celebrating Lauren and his contribution to fashion.

To his credit, Ralph Lauren has had something genuinely impressive to celebrate. How many other American designers (or any designer, for that matter) can boast of a multi-billion dollar empire built from scratch without the help of a major luxury group? The only other one that comes to mind is Armani.

In any case, it must have been extremely disappointing then for the company to release a surprise profit warning, stating:

Given the current macroeconomic challenges in the U.S., the Company thought is was prudent to recalibrate expectations for the back half of this fiscal year with a more cautious view on sales and margins for its domestic operations.

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