Taylor Momsen for New Look Spring/Summer 2010 | Source: Nitrolicious

New Look to raise £650m in IPO as it takes on high street old guard (Telegraph)
“New Look aims to raise £650m by returning to the stock market, giving it the funds to repay debt and keep taking business from high street stalwarts Marks & Spencer and Next.”

Valentino Sales Rebound May Signal More Openings, Chief Says (Business Week)
“Retailing revenue rose at a ‘double-digit’ pace in the last two months, Valentino Fashion Group Chief Executive Officer Stefano Sassi said in an interview in Paris. The performance would indicate ‘we can grow more’ this year.”

Uniqlo sales mark first fall in 6 months in January (Reuters)
“Japan’s Fast Retailing said sales at its Uniqlo casual-clothing chain fell 7.2 percent in January, the first year-on-year decline in six months, blaming a shortage of inventory after robust sales the previous month.”

CFDA Chooses 12 Designers for Fashion Incubator (Style List)
“Half-off rent in the Big Apple? Sounds too good to be true, but twelve designers heard the improbable news from the CFDA and New York Economic Development Corporation today.”

The ‘Luxury Prime’: How Luxury Changes People (HBS Working Knowledge)
“Are people who travel in town cars and on corporate jets different—on a psychological level—from you and me? Does the availability of luxury goods “prime” individuals to be less concerned about or considerate toward others? The answer from new research seems to be yes.”

Jil Sander and Tadashi Yanai, courtesy of AFP

Jil Sander to join Uniqlo (Drapers)
Jil Sander is set to become a design consultant at Uniqlo, “which will see her take overall creative control of the value fashion chain’s womenswear and menswear ranges.”

Delhi gears up for two fashion ‘weeks’ (India PRwire)
“Term it excess in times of a global economic slump, but two parallel events – the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW) and the Delhi Fashion Week (DFW) – are again set for a head-to-head clash for their autumn/winter editions later this week.”

The duck that laid the golden egg (IHT)
According to the International Herald Tribune, the Moncler down jacket has come down from the mountains and landed on the city streets and fashionable society.

CFDA Announces Nominees for 2009 Awards (CFDA)
Marc Jacobs and Narciso Rodriguez are among the nominees for the CFDA Awards.

Escada Losses Widen in Quarter (WWD)
“Tough times continue at Escada. Against a backdrop of ongoing restructuring and a weakened luxury market, Escada’s earnings and sales further tumbled in the first quarter…” (Subscription required)

The results are in. After receiving more than 100 applications for the 2007 edition of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, a jury of who’s who fashion personalities has chosen the following emerging brands as finalists in this year’s competition:

• 3.1 Phillip Lim
• Band of Outsiders
• Erin Fetherston
• Koi
• Michael Bastian
• Philip Crangi
• Rogan
• Threeasfour
• Vena Cava
• VPL

On a big news day like this, people will be googling these designers’ names to learn more about them and their products. Thus, it is surprising that so many of these brands lack a meaningful, proprietary web presence and are therefore leaving it to others to describe their brands to the world. It’s such a low-cost way of providing a window into the brand and a missed opportunity for those who haven’t taken the time to build a proper website

The winners of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund’s $200,000 prize will be announced on November 15, 2007.

For all of you budding young designers based in America, the CFDA has officially begun its annual search for America’s most promising young designers. Each year, the CFDA awards a $200,000 grant to the winner, along with mentoring from a recognised fashion business guru as part of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.  Past winners include the intelligent and talented Doo-Ri Chung (looking super glam in this ad) who is mentored by J.Crew’s legendary Mickey Drexler and the refined-beyond-their-years Proenza Schouler design duo, Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez, who were mentored by Burberry’s impressive former CEO, Rose Marie Bravo.

This is a really great initiative from the CFDA and other venerable fashion names like Barneys New York and Vogue. That said, I have one suggestion to make it even more powerful. I believe the CFDA should supplement the business mentoring and cash with a requirement and access to funding for the winning designers to find a suitable day-to-day business partner/advisor. While mentoring from an experienced fashion business executive is priceless, it does not make up for daily support and partnership.

I have made this point before, but so many young designers try to do everything on their own, and this means they deal with areas where they might not have any formal training or expertise. One look at the long list of established designers who have relied on business parters to act as thought partners on day-to-day decisions and to share the workload, shows that this is a real pattern of success in the industry.  Marc Jacobs (who has Robert Duffy), Miuccia Prada (has always worked with her husband Patrizio Bertelli), Tom Ford (who with Domenico De Sole turned Gucci around from a fuddy duddy backwater brand), Giorgio Armani (Sergio Galeotti worked with Armani for years before he passed away), Valentino (Giancarlo Gianetti is still his business partner, even if he is no longer his life partner), and Derek Lam  (Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann) have all shown that this tandem approach can help to get the business off the ground properly, allowing the designer to focus more on the creative aspects of the business.

This ad above, from today’s WWD, lays out all of the requirements and the application procedure. Good luck!