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.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Highlights from Burberry’s party/fashion show in Beijing | Source: YouTube

China First: Coaxing or Kowtowing? (Luxury Society)
“Last Wednesday, Burberry joined the ranks of such other megabrands in this quest to show China not only that they mean business but that they are putting the country first… Offering a technologically enhanced ‘debut’ geared toward China’s youth is also a strategic one, considering that 73% of luxury buyers in China are under the age of 45.”

Aquilano and Rimondi out at Gianfranco Ferré (Fashion Etc)
“When questioned about the designers’ fates at the label’s Fall 2011 show in February, Paris Group’s Abdulkader Sankari and his son Ahmed are said to have cut Aquilano and Rimondi loose in the face of weak sales figures. ‘Sales didn’t go well at all and the designers have already left.’”

Gap plans overseas push, expansion of Old Navy (Bloomberg)
“Gap is consolidating international operations to accelerate growth overseas and plans to open its first Old Navy stores abroad, in Japan by 2012… The goal is for international and online sales to make up 30 percent of its total by 2013, up from 22 percent in 2010 and 14 percent in 2006.”

Bulgari Sales Sparkle, Up 27.5% Led by China (Forbes)
“The general recovery of the economic context, together with an extremely competitive offer in all product categories, very impactful communication initiatives and a constant improvement of the shopping experience had a very positive influence on the turnover, with a significant contribution from both the directly owned stores and the wholesale channel.”

Spring Theater of the Absurd (On the Runway)
“In the last year, the energy has come from outside of the fashion world… while the few truly brilliant ideas are coming from hard-thinking insiders… As someone on the blog suggested this week, in reference to the thread about fashion TV, it is more and more about popular taste.”

Bulgari Store, Rome | Source: Daylife

Bulgari under fire for global ambition (FT)
In a globalised world, the relatively small scale of many Italian companies… is proving a problem that is shared by Italian industry at large… ‘The risk to independent brands is that if they do not have revenues of around €3bn [$4bn], they will probably lose market share.’ This is because it is too difficult to compete with companies such as LVMH.

A new day for Valentino couture (Telegraph)
“The task before Chiuri and Piccioli – to take couture and ready-to-wear to the next generation – was seen by many as a poisoned chalice… Alessandra Facchinetti’s designs were judged too directional for established customers and yet not appealing enough for a new audience… Now young Hollywood in particular is embracing Valentino.”

Luxury brands need more of a woman’s touch (Independent)
“Even Arnault wants more women at the very top: a third non-executive female director will be joining in May and more will follow. He’s given Chantal Gaemperle, the head of human resources and synergies for the group, the task of helping push the proportion of female executive committee members to 35 per cent by 2012.”

China Split Between Conspicuous And Sophisticated Shoppers (Jing Daily)
“Currently, China’s luxury consumption remains in the ‘conspicuous consumption’ or ‘competition in consumption’ stage. Of course, there are some consumers who are highly educated and erudite, some rich second- and third-generation individuals, and those who have had experience living abroad — all of whom have learned how to enjoy luxury goods.”

Fashion designer crackups: Is industry’s pace too relentless? (Washington Post)
“You are on a very, very tight schedule. It’s like a factory putting out an aesthetic. There is no space for imperfection.’ The shift occurred during the past two decades, when business tycoons took over established family-run houses and — with the help of bright, young talents — transformed them into publicly traded billion-dollar global luxury brands.”

L-R Alexander McQueen, Chanel Autumn/Winter 2011 | Source: Style.com

Chanel provides the fire, McQueen the ice (Independent)
“The mood in fashion is changing. The sight of a waif-like female stepping out in a heavily embellished, barely-there cocktail dress now seems dated. Lagerfeld’s status as the last of the great, traditionally trained couturiers is undisputed. He is also enough of a modernist, however, to respond to the zeitgeist and his reaction made for impressive viewing.”

Leather Costs Hit by Supply Squeeze (WSJ)
“European luxury-goods companies are bracing for higher hide prices as a rebound in high-end consumption and a swelling middle class in China drive up demand for leather as well as more-exotic skins. U.S. federal data show cattle-hide prices are at their highest level in nearly a decade.”

Bulgari CEO Trapani Says Independent Jewelers Will Struggle (Bloomberg)
“LVMH and large luxury competitors will increasingly dominate the industry as scale and global reach becomes more important, said Bulgari Chief Executive Officer Francesco Trapani. ‘More and more, I think the big groups will be the protagonists of the luxury business,’ said Trapani, who this week announced plans to sell Bulgari to LVMH.D&”

Dolce to Fold D&G Brand Into Main Label (WSJ)
“Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana is planning to fold its secondary D&G brand into the main label… in an effort to limit cannibalization between the two lines. The D&G label will disappear, but the Dolce & Gabbana line will extend its price range to carry lower-priced clothing in addition to its more expensive, tailored collection.”

After the Pressure, the Smoke (NY Times)
“Each day in the Tuileries hundreds of people wait along a carpeted path to see the fashion people arrive for a show… The carpet begins at the Place de la Concorde, so it’s an extremely long walk of shame. There are more people waiting than ever, about 500 or 600, with cameras and microphones, and you can’t believe what they ask.”

Bulgari Between Eternity and History | Source: Bulgari

LVMH to take over Bulgari in 3.7 billion-euro deal (Reuters)
“French luxury group LVMH will take over Italy’s Bulgari in an 3.7 billion-euro all-share deal… Bulgari, established in 1884, agreed to the takeover ‘in order to reinforce, in accordance with its history, values, craftmanship and identity, the long-term development of the Bulgari Group,’ it said. Under the deal, the Bulgari family will become the second-biggest family shareholder in LVMH.”

Off the Catwalk, the Battle for Hermès (NY Times)
‘Mr. Arnault says he will not interfere with Hermès’s management or traditions. ‘We are a totally peaceful investor,’ he said in the interview last week. ‘But as a leader in the best quality products in the world, we believe we can bring a certain savoir-faire to improve the functioning of their business.’”

Gaming Offers a Big Jackpot, if Labels Can Figure Out How to Play (NY Times)
“Gaming has become a prime topic of conversation around luxury fashion brands. And while no one yet has determined how to successfully redirect much of this video play, a number of sites are using elements like point scoring, scavenger hunts and clock countdowns to engage, entertain and, hopefully, ultimately build loyalty.”

A Good Time to Be a Realist (NY Times)
“Plain tops and slim skirts turned out in wood-grain prints at Céline seemed a bid by Phoebe Philo to take fashion further into the woodwork. Make it disappear. There are probably a lot of people who think it’s high time that it did.”

Fashion: Creative destruction (FT)
“[Tom Ford relaunched] with only two collections a year shown to small groups… ‘I had got so caught up in being successful and making money…  I had become so isolated.’… [Similarly Hussein Chalayan] keeps his presentations small. ‘Being in those houses is like running on a diamond-plated hamster wheel: you have to go faster and faster and faster, and chances are still very high you will fall off.’”

Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez | Source: Fashionista

Chloe Sevigny interviews Proenza Schouler (Interview Magazine)
“It has been nearly nine years since Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez-both 23 and fresh out of design school… Their almost instantaneous rise through the realms of the fashion world as Proenza Schouler-seemingly so unscripted that they hardly had a business model when they began-is the stuff of lightning New York success stories.”

Prada autumn/winter 2011 at Milan Fashion Week (Telegraph)
“In a sublime statement about contemporary dressing, Ms Prada referenced the 1920s and 1960s – two of her favourite decades – dropped the waist to the hipline, mixed colours like Rothko, and invented a ‘trompe l’oeil’ sock-boot that was a fusion of sock and spat.”

Custom Tailors Enjoying a Boom (WSJ)
“‘People have come to realize that the expensive designer suit they are used to buying is made to fit a thousand other people,’ says Rome-based tailor Luigi Gallo, who has been in the trade for more than 30 years. ‘In addition, they’re paying a huge price for that logo sewed into the jacket.’”

Bulgari MBA is the first of a new generation (City AM)
“It makes perfect sense for luxury goods businesses to get involved with business schools. While many Western businesses have suffered since the downturn, luxury businesses, with their growing market in Asia, have proved resilient. The brands too know that they can no longer rely on domestic markets, but need serious business nous if they want to expand into these newly wealthy regions.”

Pierre Rougier: The Man Behind the Curtain (WSJ)
“His name may be unfamiliar, but his clients’, including Yves Saint Laurent, Versace and Jil Sander, are not…. As founder of PR Consulting, the New York–based public-relations agency that manages the image and press coverage of a stable of exclusive brands… his job is to keep the Americans, whose critical opinions drive international buying trends, in line.”