A Marriage of Economic Convenience (NY Times)
“More than a decade since Target first popularized collaborations between high-end designers and mass retailers, and seven years since H&M introduced a collection with Karl Lagerfeld, there is still allure in the concept of cheap and chic… Such collaborations are proving to be both a reliable business model for retailers and a business in themselves.”

Marc Jacobs’s Entire Spring / Summer 2012 Collection Stolen (The Daily Beast)
“Call it the case of the missing dresses. Marc Jacobs’ entire Spring/Summer 2012 collection has been stolen from a train en route from Paris to London for the brand’s European press day, the company has announced. According to the e-mail circulated to press on Wednesday morning, the PR team wrote ‘our press day tomorrow in the Marc Jacobs store is cancelled, due to the theft of the spring/ summer 2012 collections during its transfer from Paris.’”

PPR to follow PUMA’s green accounting lead (Business Green)
“The parent company of some of the world’s biggest luxury and sporting brands, including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and PUMA, is to embark on one of the world’s most ambitious green accounting programmes, after announcing it will create a group-wide environmental profit and loss statement (EP&L)… By placing an economic value on its environmental impact, the company hopes to improve its reporting of a wide range of green metrics.”

Missed profit forecasts hurt Abercrombie (FT)
“Shares in Abercrombie & Fitch plunged more than 13 per cent as the US teen fashion retailer missed Wall Street profit forecasts and was put on the defensive over its strategy in Europe. Abercrombie executives were grilled by analysts over falling sales at its international flagship stores after it reported a 1.8 per cent rise in net income to $50.9m, or 57 cents per share, which fell short of market expectations of 72 cents a share.”

Benetton Retries Provocation (WSJ)
“Italian clothing chain Benetton is trying to drum up attention for its flagging brand with ads showing global leaders kissing… Now, after having lost ground over the last decade to competitors such as Inditex SA’s Zara and Hennes & Mauritz AB’s H&M, Benetton is trying for publicity.”

Pushing the Boundaries of Black Style (IHT)
“As opposed to the fascistically frozen street-style snaps of The Sartorialist and others, these pictures are styled and plotted fictions but also affecting ones, depicting a pair of young black men taking ownership not just of the body and what goes on it, but also of the environment it moves in… Already they have wide reach: Street Etiquette receives 20,000 page views a day.”

Abercrombie & Fitch profit rises 64% (Market Watch)
“Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 64% as the teen-apparel retailer’s sales continued to soar, though rising costs hurt margins… Abercrombie & Fitch has seen strong results of late, aided by more promotional pricing and the growth of its international business. But like other clothing retailers, the company has said higher prices are on the way because of increased raw material costs.”

Forever 21’s Suppliers Are Also Being Sued for Copyright Infringement (The Cut)
“Forever 21 has defended itself against over 40 copyright infringement lawsuits by throwing their vendors under the bus. The company’s president, Do Won “Don” Chang, has said that their policy is to trust their suppliers not to break the law, rather than checking everything that they sell. So in order to cover all their bases, clothing label Feral Childe is suing both Forever 21, as well as the factory outside L.A. that supplied the copied design.”

Pandora’s IPO Under Investigation (Forbes)
“Danish regulators have recommended an investigation of Pandora’s IPO. The jewelry maker issued one of the largest floats in 2010. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, the country’s market regulator, said Tuesday they will ask police to investigate Nordea Bank Denmark, a unit of Sweden’s Nordea, for failing to report its financial interest in Pandora in an investment analysis prior to the company’s float in October.”

London: fashion capital of the world (Telegraph)
“London has overtaken New York as the world’s fashion capital for 2011, according to a survey by the Texas-based trend analyser, Global Language Monitor… Based on a system that tracks the frequency of words and phrases in print, electronic and social media, London has officially claimed the top spot – which New York had claimed for several years – after a surge in media interest.”

Wonder Girls for Chloé | Source: Luxuo

In China, Women Begin Splurging (WSJ)
“‘Many people are inclined to believe that gentlemen are generously purchasing luxury gifts for women in China, but our observation is that the great majority [of the buyers] are women who have achieved great success in their business and are now rewarding themselves with the finer things in life.’”

GQ, Gilt Groupe Team Up on E-Commerce Site (Ad Week)
“Gilt Groupe’s Park & Bond, an upcoming online retail spin-off for men, will host a GQ online store that will feature items picked by the magazine’s editors. Starting with the September issue, the picks will be marked in the magazine as well as on GQ.com, which will send shoppers to the e-commerce site.”

Resort isn’t a season for fashion to take a break (AP)
“The resort season is not a time for fashion to take a vacation. Resort collections, which hit stores during the all-important Christmas holiday shopping season, are a growing part of designer businesses as consumers move toward styles they can wear year-round.”

City speculates on Abercrombie bid for SuperGroup (Retail Week)
“US retailer Abercrombie & Fitch may be interested in acquiring trendy fashion retailer SuperGroup, City speculators believe… Shares in SuperGroup, which floated last year and subsequently rocketed, have fallen lately on fears of a sales slowdown.”

Jean Paul Gaultier lands in Montreal (Montreal Gazette)
“The object of the show… is to allow the public an up-close view of haute couture, which only those invited to the shows in Paris or the very few clients of haute couture in the world can see.”

The BoF community looks on at Fashion Pioneers with Natalie Massenet | Photo: Lawrence Randall

LONDON, United Kingdom — It’s been quite the year for the BoF team. In January, we will celebrate our 4th birthday, having seen BoF grow from a passion project created from the sofa in my living room to a growing global community of like-minded fashion professionals that is BoF today.

We are grateful for all of the support our community has shown us over the past 12 months, from the success of our sold-out Fashion Pioneers series to the rapidly growing numbers of you who come to us every day for opinionated fashion business analysis and a highly-curated point of view on the day’s news. We now have over 150,000 followers on Twitter, 2,000 fans on Facebook and growing follower base on our new Tumblr page. We are honoured and grateful that so many of you take the time to engage and interact with us on a daily basis, in so many ways.

The international media has also been paying attention to the power and reach of our community, from the International Herald Tribune to Vogue Italia to The Evening Standard. Canada’s Macleans Magazine called BoF “The Economist of Fashion,” the Daily Telegraph included BoF in their round-up of “Britain’s Best Fashion Bloggers” and just this month British GQ gave us a little surprise for 2011 (check out number 92). What an honour and a great way to start the new year!

None of this would be possible without you, the global community of executives, designers, editors, students, academics, investors and supporters who have made BoF their daily must-read on the fashion business. We’re going to take a break over the holidays, but in the meantime here’s a look back to the articles and stories which fired up your interest and passions this past year. Thank you again for your continued support.

Happy holidays, happy new year, and see you in 2011!

… Continue Reading

Olivier Zahm by Terry Richardson | Source: purple DIARY

The Future Of Fashion: Olivier Zahm (Style.com)
“The French editor and founder of the twice-yearly independent publication Purple Fashion has many other passions… but in an increasingly conformist world, Zahm offers an original, entertaining, and astute voice.”

Abercrombie Will Keep Discounting (WSJ)
“Abercrombie & Fitch said… it will continue its uncharacteristically high levels of discounting through the spring in order to boost store sales… it is willing to sacrifice margins if necessary to improve sales.”

Burberry accuses TJX of selling counterfeit goods (Reuters)
“Burberry Group… has sued TJX, accusing the operator of the off-price TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores of selling counterfeit goods.”

Céline starts from clean slate (Wealth Bulletin)
“After struggling for years to forge an identity, the label is finding influential retailers including Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman are clamoring to carry its collection, even as they cut back their portfolios to focus on best sellers.”

Paris: A Rounder Season (NY Times)
“Louis Vuitton seemed to provide the perfect bookend to the Milan-Paris ready-to-wear season… Between Miuccia Prada in Milan and Marc Jacobs at Vuitton we saw the return of the lush, full-hipped woman, her breasts served up like ripe fruit.”