Diesel’s Rosso Acquires Majority of Viktor & Rolf (WWD)
Diesel’s Renzo Rosso acquires a majority stake in Viktor and Rolf, and plans for huge investments to make the label one of "top reference fashion houses of the future."

Designers Say Berlin Is Not Alpha and Omega of German Fashion (Deutsche Welle)
Beyond Berlin and its fashion week, fashion lives in Germany.

Mervyn’s: Another Retailer Going Down (Seeking Alpha)
Mervyn’s, the California based department store chain is in dangerous territory and may be the next U.S. retailer to go bust.

Levi’s campaign to promote its iconic 501 style (Drapers)
Levis has globally launched its "Live Unbuttoned" campaign to promote its classic 501 jeans.

Viktor And Rolf, photo courtesy of Artkrush.

Coronation of LK Bennett’s kitten-heel queen (The Telegraph)
Media shy Linda Bennett speaks to Andrew Cave about the £100m takeover of  LK Bennett by private equity firms Phoenix Equity Partners and Sirius Equity.

Life after Ghost: Tanya Sarne is back with a new line in her signature style (The Independent)
In collaboration with Gary Graham, Tanya Sarne, formerly of Ghost has just launched, handwritten.

Arnault seeks to raise Carrefour stake (FT)
LVMH CEO, Bernard Arnault, wants to raise his stake in Carrefour.

Estate Jewelry Keeps Giving (WWD)
Because of interest from Russia and China, the estate and vintage jewelry business is growing.

LK Bennett store window

LONDON, United Kingdom - James Ogilvy noticed something in 1996: there was no dedicated business publication for the wider luxury industry. So he conceived of Luxury Briefing, a monthly publication which is read by leaders and senior executives in luxury companies from fashion to cosmetics to gourmet food to design to media. Since then, James and his team have launched a website and a series of annual conferences that dig into the issues that impact businesses across the luxury spectrum.

James comes into contact with idea makers and opinion leaders from different parts of luxury and knows the topics and concerns on these executives’ minds. I caught up with James to benefit from this unique industry-wide vantage point and to learn about an exclusive Luxury Briefing offer for readers of The Business of Fashion.

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Fashion needs to change (Emirates Business 24-7)
One of BoF’s favourite Indian designers, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, lays out his approach for the future of the fashion business.

A Modern Take on Iceland’s Traditional Hand-Knit Look (WSJ)
The Icelandic sweater is a source of inspiration for many contemporary designers in Reykjavik’s thriving fashion scene.

Block Party (WWD)
This fall, Karl Lagerfeld is set to launch Kapsule, a unisex collection of three scents that can be mixed and matched.

What Happens in Vegas: $9 Billion Mega Project Ups the Ante on Luxury (WWD)
In Vegas, the $9 Billion City Center project, slated to open next year has signed a strong roster of luxury brands including Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co.

Soaring online sales defy credit crunch (Drapers)
In the UK, online shoppers spent £26.5 billion in the first six months this year.

Sabyasachi Mukherjee designs, photo courtesy of Sabyasachi Couture.

Vogue Models a New Reality Series (WSJ)
Vogue and IMG join forces to produce a Web-based reality series called Model.Live about models navigating the global fashion weeks. (see preview video above)

Selling $4,000 Jackets in a Slowdown (WSJ)
Although Akris defies many luxury brand practices, the Swiss company is performing well.

Chinese demand for luxury drives Richemont (The Telegraph)
Due to strong demand in Asia, Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods conglomerate that owns Cartier and Montblanc, had a strong performance in the quarter ending June 2008.

Berlin Looks for its Place on Fashion Map (Deutsche Welle)
Berlin, known for its vibrant creative scene, wants to make waves in fashion.

Fashion M&A Activity Down, No Quick Turnaround Seen (WWD)
In fashion, merger and acquisitions activity fellby 22%  in the second half of 2008.

Martin Margiela: Fashion’s invisible superstar (The Independent)
Susannah Frankel profiles Martin Margiela, one of the most talented and elusive designers in fashion.

Breaking: CFDA/‘Vogue’ Fund Finalists Announced (NYMag)
The finalists for this year’s CFDA/‘Vogue’ Fund include Richard Chai, Alexander Wang, Swaim and Christina Hutson of Obedient Sons & Daughters, and Sophie Mayock and Lisa Buhai of Vena Cava.

Halston: Creative Chief Zanini Said to Be Out at Label (WWD)
At the newly revived Halston, creative director Marco Zanini is out.

VF Corporation scores record Q2 revenues (Drapers)
Despite a turbulent economy, VF Corporation’s revenues for the second quarter is up at a strong 11%.

Martin Margiela’s London Store, courtesy of The Independent/David Sandison.

LONDON, United Kingdom – Last night, I caught up for dinner with Olivier Bassil, one of the co-founders behind the exclusive video-sharing site Squa.re. I have known the team behind Squa.re from its early days, and like all new Internet businesses, I have seen it go through its fair share of fits and starts.

But, its core video proposition continues to hold promise and Olivier and his passionate team, which includes former Warner Music executive Paul-Rene Albertini as CEO and a key mentor, have been tweaking their original model and will unveil a re-design of the site in the early Autumn which will improve the user experience, introduce a directory feature which catalogs all the content, and establish a VIP area, enabling members to find each other more easily.

So what does this have to do with fashion, you ask?

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Dries Van Noten: A quiet fashion force (Boston Herald)
With the best international designer award from the CFDA, soft spoken Belgian designer, Dries Van Noten, is having a fashion moment.

Strong US sales boost Burberry (FT)
Burberry’s sales in the US uplifts its performance.

In India, Magazines That Translate Well (NYT)
With Indian versions of foreign magazines such as Vogue and Rolling Stones hitting newstands in the past year, and GQ and Fortune slated to debut soon, magazine publishing is thriving in the country.

Retailer’s Collapse Hits Mall Owners (WSJ)
Struggling mall owners who wanted to fill empty spaces lured Steve and Barry’s with sizeable checks boosted its profits, but when payments slowed, the company crumbled.

EBay Wins Trademark Suit Brought by Tiffany (DNR)
EBay, which lost a recent French case versus LVMH over fake goods sold on its site, has successfully defended itself against a similar suit brought on by Tiffany in the USA.

Dries Van Noten autumn ‘08, photo courtesy of BBC/Associated Press.

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

Readership and subscriptions to The Business of Fashion have continued to grow, largely through a campaign of whispers where one person tells another person who tells another person. This is exactly how we’d like to get around.  So, thanks to all of you for recommending BoF to your colleagues and friends in the fashion business.

With this continued momentum, I thought it was about time we began to deliver more features and content — but I can’t possibly create all this on my own. And so, today I am pleased to welcome our first two contributors to the Business of Fashion, Robert Cordero and W. David Marx.

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