First Spring directed by Yang Fudong | Source: Prada

Cinema à la Prada (WSJ)
“With the Internet and digital technology, industry executives say short online videos have become an essential part of the fashion marketing tool box, offering customers a new way to interact with a brand and show clothing in motion.”

Web-only luxury retailers fared well during the recession (Internet Retailer)
“Luxury goods retailers that sell exclusively online increased their sales by 87% last year compared with 2008, even as overall luxury sales declined 20%.”

Hugo Boss to Keep Ohio Factory Open (WSJ)
“Hugo Boss reversed a decision to shut down a factory in Ohio, succumbing to an aggressive union-led campaign against the German fashion house and its private-equity owners.”

Anna Wintour on the Web, Vogue’s Future, and the iPad (WSJ)
“She was formally inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame during the National Magazine Awards, held at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.”

Helmut Lang: From catwalk to gallery (Independent)
“He is, for many, the last of the great couturiers. With his chic white dresses and sleek trouser suits, Helmut Lang’s meticulous designs defined 1990s minimalism.”

Marco Santaniello T-Skirt | Source: Marco Santaniello

MILAN, Italy — And now for a fun BoF Spotlight post to end your week. We couldn’t resist a bit of colour to spice up the Spring that is finally blossoming.

Marco Santaniello‘s pop art portraits of fashion models, editors and the ubiquitous bloggerati caught our attention when we stumbled across his Facebook page a couple of months back. Since then, he has continued to churn out images of the industry’s legends and new stars, with alarming regularity.

So where did all of his colourful inspiration come from?

After a little bit of investigation we learned that Marco is a crusader against the Italian fashion industry’s formality and bureaucracy and apart from designing his own collection of graphic T’s and writing about fashion news for the MaxMara fashion blog, he worships the Rubik’s Cube, his “personal fetish” and the key influence behind his colourful illustrations, which is sitting in the BoF Spotlight this month

Here is a selection of Marco’s colourful portraits, including Susie Bubble, Anna Wintour, Agyness Deyn, and BoF’s very own Imran Amed.

Jeremy Renner in Esquire's Augmented Reality Fashion Spread | Source: Esquire

Luxury brands focus on digital retail experience (Marketing)
“Brands and high-end retailers, including House of Fraser and Selfridges, are preparing to launch virtual shopping experiences using cutting-edge digital technologies.”

Google wins EU ruling in fake luxury goods case (AP)
“Google Inc. won a key European Union court ruling Tuesday that says it did not violate luxury goods trademarks by allowing counterfeiters to buy brand names as advertising key words that link to their online stores.”

Saks Plans to Cull Weaker Stores (WSJ)
“Luxury-goods retailer Saks said Tuesday it plans to close two Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Portland, Ore., and is considering closing others that aren’t profitable and have leases expiring.”

Indian fashion for the masses (BBC)
“High Fashion has never been in so much demand in India. A growing section of the population is young, rich and not shy of flaunting their wealth and beauty.”

Health Matters: Weight and Wellness in Fashion (Fashionologie)
“Anna Wintour, Michael Kors, and Natalia Vodianova gathered in Boston to participate in a panel discussion entitled ‘Health Matters: Weight and Wellness in the World of Fashion,’ where they addressed current industry efforts to prevent eating disorders.”

Italian fabrics by Alessandro Scotti | Source: WSJ

In Italy’s Mills, a New Spin Emerges (WSJ)
“Factories in China are proving as adept at copying fabrics as films and handbags… While worried, Mr. Ferla is relying on his quality-focused business strategy.”

Luxury Shame Thrives on Facebook (Slate)
“According to a new report from research firm Unity Marketing, nearly 80% of ‘affluent luxury consumers’ belong to a social network… Not surprisingly, well-off consumers engage differently with their favorite brands on Facebook.”

Men’s fashion takes centre stage in London (Independent)
“From Savile Row suits to S&M leathers, the autumn/winter menswear shows at London Fashion Week today ranged right across the style spectrum.”

What Milan Fashion Did for Anna (WSJ)
“Designers in Milan face a chaotic crunch as they scramble to fit 88 runway shows into about 70 hours over six days to accommodate the Vogue editor-in-chief’s plans to stay just four days in Milan instead of a full week.”

Foxy Lady: Gaga To Wear Armani and Prada on Tour (WWD)
“Lady Gaga has tapped two fashion houses — Armani and Prada — to help outfit her for the overseas leg of her Monster Ball tour, which began last week in Manchester.”

Christian Dior Couture 2010 | Source: style.com

Wintour Calls for French Fashion Stimulus (WSJ)
“In between fashion shows Monday, Anna Wintour, the influential editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, told French officials that the country doesn’t do enough to support its fashion sector… Ms. Wintour encouraged the French government to provide more backing for young designers.”

Luxottica Q4 sales down, optimistic on 2010 (Reuters)
“Luxottica, the world’s biggest premium eyewear company, said 2010 would mark a ‘return to ‘normal’ for the maker of Prada and Ray-Ban sunglasses, resulting in growing sales, a more than proportional increase in margins and ‘an appreciable reduction’ in the ratio of net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.”

As recession stops splurges, luxury retailers retool (Boston Globe)
“Wyman is emblematic of the “aspirational shoppers’’ – middle-class consumers with luxury tastes – who have disappeared during the Great Recession. Their newfound frugality has contributed to an estimated 16 percent plunge in luxury spending over the past year.”

Dior: Hand of History (IHT)
“That feeling of a film fading or a fairy tale ending has never seemed so powerful and elegiac at this fashion house as it did after the poetic parade that John Galliano sent out on Monday.”

Sarah Brown and Naomi Campbell join forces to help Haiti (In Style)
“The Prime Minister’s wife together with supermodels, Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon and Erin O’Connor have got together to raise money for earthquake victims.”

Jean Paul Gaultier

Hermès Denies Any Gaultier Plans To Quit (Fashion Wire Daily)
“Hermès and Jean Paul Gaultier have vehemently denied recent reports on the Internet that the French designer was planning to quit his position as creative director of women’s wear for the luxury label.”

Good Things Do Come in Pairs (New York Times)
“Very few celebrities are either so fascinating or appalling that they manage to get under our skins, as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have, and it may be because they are twins. Yet their success in a field as competitive as fashion is impossible to deny. The Olsens, who are 23, have succeeded with two different labels simultaneously — The Row and the hip, less expensive Elizabeth and James — and without formal design training.”

Liberty losses reduce (Drapers)
“Iconic London department store Liberty has reduced its first half losses after the relaunch of its West End flagship store proved a success.”

Anna Wintour: The most powerful woman in fashion (Daily Record)
“You know, you can make a hit movie without Steven Spielberg’s blessing and you can publish best-selling software without Bill Gates’ blessing, but you can’t really be a successful fashion director right now without Anna Wintour’s blessing.”

Returnees and Spoofs (New York Times)
“Jenny Dyson, the publisher of Rubbish Magazine in London, is introducing a collection of finger puppets in their likenesses as a sort of tribute to famous fashion figures around the world.”

Vogue editor Wintour critiques Letterman’s socks (AP)
“Wintour, making her first appearance on CBS’ “Late Show,” made light of her image as an imperious and tough boss, but acknowledged that she is direct with her staff. “Well, I’m very decisive and I try and give very clear direction to the people that I’m working with, and sometimes, unfortunately, they don’t hear the answer that they would like to hear,” Wintour said.”

Online sales soar during July (Drapers)
“Online sales surged to £4.2bn in July as shoppers showed signs of renewed confidence. According to the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, July recorded around 15.7% more online sales than June, a 16.8% year-on-year rise.”

Prada quashes speculation it is seeking a partner (Drapers)
“A spokesman for the Italian fashion house said “there are no talks with anyone” following speculation Prada’s banks were seeking a partner to take a 30% slice of the group.”

Where the streets have no shame (Salon.com)
“The Sartorialist blog is an ever-evolving pictorial essay on the distinction between personal style and mere fashion. The former is a living, breathing element; the rest is just clothes. At last a selection of Schuman’s best images have been collected in one place, a book called, simply enough, The Sartorialist.”

Christian Dior

The House Dior Built (Wall Street Journal)
“After the stock market crash in 1929, a Frenchman lamented that his dream of being an architect would never be fulfilled; his family fortune was devastated. But by 1947 he had built an institution that would affect design for decades to come: The House of Dior.”

Fashion faces its coldest Wintour (Telegraph)
“Can The September Issue, a hotly-tipped fly-on-the-wall documentary about the British editor of US Vogue, Anna Wintour, reboot an ailing fashion industry?”

Global brands turn to China’s young amid slump (AP)
“Young Chinese shoppers like Zhong are still spending freely, and major brands ranging from Nike Inc. to Barbie doll maker Mattel Inc. are courting them eagerly to shore up revenue as demand elsewhere slumps.”

They Know What She Wore Last Night (Wall Street Journal)
“Ms. Kerr and Ms. Power, both 29, are entrepreneurs building a brand off the power of celebrities as trendsetters and the growing influence of the Web in the world of high fashion.”

For Rachel Zoe, fashion is much more than a business (USA Today)
“Stylist to the stars Rachel Zoe, 37, is building herself into one hefty brand.”

LONDON, United Kingdom — Bootlegged copies of The September Issue have been circulating amongst fashion insiders in London. The new 90 minute documentary featuring Anna Wintour of American Vogue is not due to hit U.S. and U.K. theatres until later this Summer, but it is already providing much fodder for industry conversations over mid-Summer cocktails and pre-collection appointments.

The film revolves around the development, execution and advertising sales for the September 2007 issue of US Vogue, an 840 page tome featuring Sienna Miller in a feathered Marchesa dress on its cover and reaching almost 13 million people. Anna Wintour carves a clear path throughout the film, with a singular vision for her magazine. Industry luminaries young and old tremble in her presence, as she serves up her trademark quick, clear, sharp feedback to designers, businessmen and editors alike.

Stefano Pilati, the Creative Director of Yves Saint Laurent questions his collection based on Wintour’s feedback and stylist Edward Enninful exclaims “I wanna kill myself,” after a meeting with his notoriously demanding boss. American ingenue designer Thakoon Panichgul admits that his hands couldn’t stop shaking during his first meeting with Anna and even heavyweight fashion photographer Mario Testino feels the wrath of nuclear Wintour when he fails to deliver an image she was expecting of Sienna Miller outside the ancient Roman Colosseum.

But Wintour also comes across as slightly misunderstood by an industry that paints her as evil and scheming. Rather, she simply does what she thinks is best and is singularly focused on her professional output and achieving her vision. Whether you agree with the vision is a different story, but as an operator, she runs a tight ship and achieves the results she wants.

At one point in the film, Burt Tansky, the Chairman of Neiman Marcus, even asks for Wintour’s help in dealing with the poor deliveries of designer fashion brands. “We are waiting longer and longer for deliveries,” he says. Wintour responds that the problem is that many designers just need to do more editing. There is too much product. “Less is more,” she declares, well before the economic meltdown which hit the industry one year later.

The foil to Wintour’s more commercial approach to editing Vogue is the magazine’s Creative Director, Grace Coddington, who slowly reveals her endearing passion for fashion through honest interviews peppered throughout the movie. The 20 year Vogue veteran started in front of the camera before a car accident ended her modeling career leading her to British Vogue where she was junior editor. Coddington comes at fashion from different angle than Wintour, completing the creative partnership that lies at the heart of the most powerful fashion magazine in the world. The tension between them is also part of the magazine’s success.

“I never dreamt to be a model or never, never dreamt to be a fashion editor, but I just love the pages and the pictures,” she says, looking out on the grand boulevards of Paris during the Couture. Remembering Norman Parkinson, the legendary fashion photographer, she adds “he taught me to always keep your open and never go to sleep the car. Keep watching because whatever you see out the window…it can inspire you.”

RSS and Email subscribers click here to watch the trailer.

Imran Amed is Editor of The Business of Fashion.

Liz Claiborne S/S 09, courtesy of Liz Claiborne

Liz Claiborne Results Raise Questions About Retailer’s Future (CNN Money)
“Liz Claiborne’s future is being questioned after the fashion retailer posted a sharply wider first-quarter loss and sees a similar performance for the current quarter as the company is stymied by a lack of customers, big markdowns and a low cash position while trying to reignite demand through efforts that include a new namesake line.”

Richemont FY Net Profit Down 31%, Extends Share Buyback (WSJ)
“Swiss luxury goods maker Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA Thursday said its net profit for the fiscal year dropped by 31% and reiterated a cautious outlook, but said it would extend a share buyback.”

Anna Wintour Addresses Rumors About Leaving Vogue and More (NYMag)
“In a rare public appearance, Anna Wintour spoke to Jonathan Tisch at the 92nd Street Y last night. Topics included how Vogue stays relevant in the recession and how to look good without spending a lot of money.”

When No One Wants to Look Like a Banker (New York Times)
“While double-digit declines have hit much of the retail sector, one of the few pieces of good news is one of the most surprising. In a reversal of every recession in the last 100 years, figures show that men have not cut back on buying clothes as much as women have. They’re not buying power suits – they’re replacing them.”