NexCen Brands Acquires Bill Blass Couture (Market Watch)
In order to have more control of the overall Bill Blass brand, NexCen, has acquired the Bill Bliss Couture.
Fashion middle market becomes hip (Times UK)
In the UK, sales are up for cheaper secondary lines such as See by Chloé.
Sydney, Dubai make biggest strides in fashion-study (Reuters)
In a recent study, the top five fashion cities have remained the same, but Sydney and Dubai have moved up significantly.
Low-cost clothes era could be nearing end (FT)
With clothing retailers experiencing a 4 percent rise in costs, cheap fast fashion clothes à la Primark could become defunct.
Bulletproof fashion for London’s super rich (The Telegraph)
Michael Caballero, maker of bullet proof clothes, is set to open an outpost in Harrods.
Bill Blass a/w ‘08, courtesy of Catwalking.com
Interesting stories, but I think the one about Sydney and Dubai moving up in the greater scheme of fashion is seriously flawed. Look at their method: they just counted the number of mentions the various names got. This may be a measure of online buzz (though I think it’s rather a poor one, because it doesn’t take into account the influence and credibility of the people doing the talking) but buzz is quite a bit different from business- as the BoF well knows. I’d be more interested to know the combined revenues of the fashion houses based in each of these cities, or an estimate thereof. How much does each city bring in from its fashion industry? After all, Dubai might be a popular destination to open a shop, but it only consumes, it doesn’t produce. In short I find the list to be a little bit ridiculous. How does Las Vegas come in before Berlin, Tokyo, Madrid, Barcelona and Stockholm? And Rome was eclipsed by Milan decades ago. To me the results look meaningless.
Posted by: Anjo – 15 July, 2008 at 12:13 amIf Tokyo only ranks #10 on that survey, maybe “counting words in the media” is not the best way to measure “fashion cities.”
Posted by: W. David Marx – 15 July, 2008 at 1:48 am@David and @Anjo: The survey stinks! We’re with you. Perhaps we should start another new feature with the fluffiest, most non-substantive fashion articles of the week…Sadly, I think there would be a lot of articles that fit into this category: hype and sensational headlines, but no substance.
Posted by: Business of Fashion – 15 July, 2008 at 7:43 amWhat’s the difference anyway? If you can’t afford gas/transportation, you’ll never get to the mall. How absurd.
Posted by: t – 15 July, 2008 at 1:52 pm