H&M flagship store | Source: NY Magazine

Swedish fashion: How less can be more (CNN)
“Stockholm fashion may not have the clout of Parisian haute couture or the glamor of Milan’s upscale brands. But the city is turning its flair for sleek design into a major business export.”

Bulgari family sells LVMH shares (FT)
“People close to the deal said the Bulgari family had decided to reduce their stake after a strong rise in the shares in the past year and a strong set of results from the world’s largest luxury goods group.”

Savvy Chinese consumer comes of age (FT)
“China even seems to be losing its appetite for fakes. Counterfeit luxury goods, a hit with the girls in the Shanghai typing pool, are losing out to the real thing. Chinese shoppers still like an extra dose of bling on everything, but as salaries and sophistication rise, they prefer their glitz genuine rather than fake.”

Fashion Startup Moda Operandi: Now Opening to the World (Mashable)
“Moda Operandi, the closely watched online retail operation from ex-Gilt exec Aslaug Magnusdottir and Vogue contributing editor Lauren Santo Domingo, is in transition. Once accessible only via application, the year-old site is opening its doors and bolstering its content offerings in an attempt to draw new shoppers in and keep them there.”

Pitching a Few New Tents of Her Own (NY Times)
“Attention young fashion designers, editors, bloggers, stylists and others gearing up for New York Fashion Week. Fern Mallis, widely credited for making this week the huge news media spectacle it is today, has two words of advice: Be nice.”

L-R Gucci, Fendi, Etro Spring/Summer 2012 | Source: Style.com

Yelling ‘Fire’ on a Crowded Runway (NY Times)
“Without question, we can count on Miuccia Prada, Raf Simons at Jil Sander, Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi and, at times, Tomas Maier of Bottega Veneta to say something with fashion, and not just offer approachable clothes. But there should be many more designers in Milan with that driving ambition. Otherwise, the future of fashion will be in jeopardy.”

LVMH says it controls 98.09 pct of Bulgari (Reuters)
“LVMH , the world’s biggest luxury group, said  it controls 98.09 percent of Italy’s Bulgari after minority shareholders tendered their shares as part of its 3.7 billion euro ($5 billion) offer for the high-end jeweler. The deal will double LVMH’s watch and jewelry business to make up around 10 percent of its sales and about 6 percent of operating profit, according to analysts.”

Magazines Begin to Sell the Fashion They Review (NY Times)
“While the glossies have long had a reputation for accommodating the designers they cover, sometimes guaranteeing coverage to those who advertise in their pages, a wave of new ventures and partnerships suggests they are willing to go even further by selling the designers’ clothes.”

A Glimpse Into the Lesser Known (On the Runway)
“While New York and London have built reputations for discovering new talent, making their Fashion Weeks more exciting, Milan’s fashion calendar is dominated by what you could describe as a council of village elders, leaving little room for upstarts to be noticed. That’s starting to change, season by season, with events like Who Is On Next?”

Ready To Wear: In fashion, to tweet or remain discreet? (Independent)
“How best to showcase a forthcoming collection when even the most well-heeled of Western consumers must surely be tightening her belt?… In the red corner, we have Burberry. This is a brand that upholds democracy with pride. With this in mind, the company staged what it described as the world’s first-ever ‘tweetwalk’… In the blue corner: Tom Ford… decided that he doesn’t want any pictures and/or reviews of his clothing to appear until it goes on sale at the beginning of next year.”

Dover Street Market | Source: Dover Street Market

All change (FT)
“While other shops gradually push the spring/summer sale stock into a corner as they introduce autumn/winter collections, every six months for the past seven years Dover Street has shut while new spaces are introduced, existing ones revamped or moved, and new ranges displayed…. What’s more important is creation and strength and newness.”

Italian regulator examining Bulgari bid complaint (Reuters)
“Italian market regulator Consob is examining a complaint from a fund over the price French luxury group LVMH plans to pay for shares in Italian jeweller Bulgari… At the end of June, LVMH took control of Bulgari when the Bulgari family owners swapped their 55 percent stake into LVMH shares.”

Leveraging Mobile to Market in the Moment (Fashions Collective)
“Mobile shoppers are moving targets, so stationary forms of traditional branded engagements need not apply.  Effective mobile marketing strategies accentuate the unique strengths of the medium and must work to solve the numerous elements of variability associated with marketing in the moment.”

Are Consumers Ready To Spend $39,000 on a Backpack? (Thread NY)
“The fashion world is abuzz over… ‘The luxury consumer is no longer afraid or embarrassed to shop. He or she has been reluctant over the past few years, but it seems like they’re back and willing to spend. True luxury brands are really embracing their customer base and are seeing an uptick in sales and traffic.’”

Several Sizes Too Small (On the Runway)
“Hollywood tweens are, after all, but the latest style-world idols. Members of the Play-Doh and Nickelodeon set are sprouting up fast alongside them, dotting a landscape in which, it would seem, one can never be too groovy — or too young… Pint-size fashion pundits are hailed as muses and cast in major ad campaigns.”

Counterfeits get sophisticated: how to spot fakes | Source: WSJ

The Finer Art of Faking It (WSJ)
“The prices of the imitators are rising, confusing customers who are looking for the real deal at a discounted price. Still, the higher-priced fakes are just a fraction of what a real item would cost…  To fight back, more brands are turning to authentication devices into their merchandise.”

The Has-Beens of the Fashion Industry? (Huffington Post)
“There’s a sentiment on the fringes of the fashion industry that is picking up steam and now fully seeping into the industry’s most coveted position: the inside… Big city fashion weeks and major trade shows are not what they once were.”

Digital startup: Editd (Guardian)
“As well as crawling retail sites across the web to gather details on stock, prices and sizes, Editd monitors mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blogs, aggregates data from key catwalk and trade shows and adds a sprinkle of secret sauce that captures public ‘mind share’. The result is a bespoke dashboard digitising the age-old mood board.”

LVMH wins EU clearance for Bulgari takeover (Reuters)
“French luxury group LVMH  secured EU approval on Thursday for its 3.7-billion-euro ($5.24 billion) purchase of Italian peer Bulgari to boost its presence in emerging markets… The acquisition will help LVMH…  improve margins and better compete with bigger watch and jewellery companies.”

Fashion Return (Vogue UK)
“Former Gucci and Valentino creative director Alessandra Facchinetti is returning to the fashion world, with a new label in association with Pinko. The brand, called Uniqueness, aims to build a collection in a new way – interacting with customers and eschewing the traditional fashion seasons.”

Valentino Spring Summer 2011 | Source: Valentino

Valentino: State of Grace (Interview)
“If there is something most significant about Valentino, it’s that women feel beautiful when they’re wearing Valentino. Beauty is at the core of his work—it’s not just an element.”

Nepal seeks legal cover for shawl that conquered the world (Independent)
“Coveted for its lightness and warmth, the [pashmina] wool… has brought much-needed income to the mountain kingdom of Nepal. But recently exports have slumped, thanks to competition from cheap imitations mass-produced mainly in China and India.”

Bulgari Swings To Net Profit As China Sales Surge (WSJ)
“The jewelry maker revised previously reported sales figures up slightly and said first-quarter sales rose 28% to EUR254.7 million. By category, all divisions posted double-digit growth, as jewelry sales rose 29%, perfume and cosmetics sales rose 33% and watch sales rose 22%.”

Hermès First-Quarter Sales Rise 26% (Bloomberg)
“Revenue increased 26 percent to 637.1 million euros from 507.7 million euros a year earlier, the Paris- based company said… The average estimate of three analysts compiled by Bloomberg was 590.3 million euros. Excluding currency swings, sales climbed 21 percent.”

Rise: Yusuke Maegawa (Dazed Digital)
“His dark and voluminous aesthetic led to a place at last season’s Vauxhall Fashion Scout exhibition, and that’s only the beginning for this Japanese Saint Martins graduate.”