London's Oxford Circus Crossing | Source: blogspot

Footfall up 9% on New Year’s Day (Drapers)
“Footfall on New Year’s Day rose 9% year-on-year, according to the Preliminary Experian FootFall UK National Index… the figure represented an “excellent start” to the New Year given the return of VAT to 17.5% on January 1 and severe weather warnings.”

Fashion’s Best Digital Mirror (NY Times)
“Still a puzzle to me is why more big brands don’t have more interesting sites than they do. They still want to communicate in the old way—from behind a fortress… and you sense, looking at their sites, that they are between two worlds.”

The Shoe That Kicked Off a Frenzy (WSJ)
“A major part of the brand’s allure is its rarity. Until this season, when Isabel Marant accessories were sold at luxury emporium Barneys New York, Ms. Marant’s goods could only be found at a handful of small boutiques in the U.S. Because the brand carefully limits orders, products rarely go on sale.”

Paris, Milan, Tokyo. Tokyo? (NY Times)
“Japan’s trailblazers of street fashion are the envy of Western designers, spawning Web sites filled with snapshots of Tokyo youngsters in the latest distressed jeans or psychedelic stockings.  But most of Tokyo’s clothing designers have not figured out how to cash in on the city’s fashion sense.”

2010 in Richistan: The Year of the Muddling Millionaires (WSJ)
“For the next three to five years, Richistan will likely remain a smaller country, with a reduced population, lower-risk and lower-return investments, more frugal spending, more gradual fortunes being made and more-focused philanthropy. It also will be a country with a much lower profile, as the rich try to avoid becoming targets of public anger and taxes.”