Burberry store Chennai India | Source: Luxury Facts

Worst of times prove best for luxury brands (CNN)
“Luxury brands, including fashion label Burberry and vehicle manufacturer Rolls-Royce, have all enjoyed bumper years, recording slump-busting profits that may raise eyebrows among consumers forced to tighten their non-snakeskin belts. Such income surges will dispel doubts raised when markets first began to falter over the resilience of the high-end market.”

Chanel’s Blue-Sky Thinking (IHT)
“Chanel took flight on Tuesday — both in its air travel stage set, inside the Grand Palais, and in the soaring imagination of its summer 2012 haute couture collection, all in blue, like an open sky. Trim and elegant as fantasy air hostesses, the first models were sent out by Karl Lagerfeld, who appeared in front of a mock pilot’s cabin at the end to take his bow.”

Jean-Jacques Picart Shares Four Decades of Fashion Wisdom (WWD)
“In a dense new book comprising 30 interviews with famous names and hidden talents, Paris-based fashion consultant Jean-Jacques Picart gleans life and career lessons — and unearths some candid snapshots of yore that alone are worth the price of admission.”

Osklen, Brazil’s First Global Luxury Brand (Forbes)
“Brazilians are snapping up luxury goods at a staggering rate. Industry sales were up 33% last year to $12 billion. So one would assume that the big, domestic brands would treat Brazil’s own consumers as a priority. Not Osklen, the sought-after maker of sportswear founded in 1989 by the orthopaedic physician Oskar Metsavaht.”

LVMH: daring to ditch the runway circus (FT)
“The Céline  move marks a conscious decision to choose the designer over possible marketing returns from the runway pictures (front row, celebs, backstage) that benefit brands every season, and is the first time I can remember that an LVMH house has done anything like this. Even after John Galliano’s fall, they continued to have major shows for Dior, refusing to miss a season.”

Mickey Drexler | Source: Bu

Lunch with the FT: Mickey Drexler (FT)
“My lunch with Millard S. Drexler, the 67-year-old chief executive of J. Crew, the American clothing brand made world famous by its First Client Michelle Obama, turns out not to be a lunch. Or to be more specific: not just a lunch. It’s lunch, followed by a short walk, a couple of emails and two phone conversations… Typically I find that chief executives of $1.7bn companies such as J. Crew… Are happy to give you the allotted hour and a half or so, then cross you off their to-do list. But Drexler, it turns out, is very consciously not that sort of chief executive.”

Readjusting Our Eye, Again (On the Runway)
“We have at the moment a strong crowd of designers not merely believing in clothes with a modern attitude but also showing us what they mean — and without turning craft into some fetishistic pile of stuff that no intelligent person would consider wanting for a second.”

Online shoe store Spartoo.com projects €100 million turnover this year (TechCrunch)
“This ‘Zappos of Europe’ was founded in France by three young entrepreneurs in 2006, and is now active in 20 countries, including United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Today, the company revealed that its internationalization efforts have led to significant growth. In fact, Spartoo.com says it sold more than one million pairs of shoes in Europe in the first months of 2011 (the company offers about 15,000 models and 400 brands).”

Why are we so cuckoo about Coco? (FT)
“There is, it appears, an endless appetite for Chanel (and I am not talking about the quilted bags or the tweed jackets, though those are very covetable) – one that is exponentially greater than for any other fashion designer… What Chanel has that other fashion designers don’t is as basic as the little black dress: a really fantastic narrative. And if history teaches us anything, it’s that narratives – stories that can be passed on through generations – are what lasts.”

A Golden Touch Without the Glitter (NY Times)
“Rather, the shy woman with enviable rocker-messy hair who was sitting, largely unnoticed, in the NoHo restaurant the Smile on a recent sunny Friday morning is Charlotte Ronson, the clothing designer, who in the last few years has quietly and somewhat surprisingly evolved into one of the most successful retail entrepreneurs of her generation.”

Chanel Spring/Summer 2012 | Source: Style.com

Chanel Never Breaks Stride (NY Times)
Suffice to say, the Chanel show had everything, from novel materials to feathered chiffon prints to jackets with ties formed by the linings. (“It’s a stupid idea,” Mr. Lagerfeld said, with a shrug, “but stupid ideas can be good ideas.”) Above all, the Chanel show had no feeling of being stuck. The shapes were agile and youthful, for going places, and that’s really all that matters.

Aging European Brands find second life in China (Red Luxury)
“The rising Chinese middle-class, driven by its strong conscious for status, is gobbling up exhausted European brands re-imagined for their rich histories and royal connections. ‘Chinese are a lot more brand driven than other countries, and also they have rapidly increasing income but their brand product knowledge is sort of behind their spending power. That creates an interesting opportunity,’ said Vincent Lui, a Hong Kong-based partner at Boston Consulting Group.”

Milano Unica, Italy’s Largest Textile Fair, Woos Emerging Designers (Forbes)
“Milano Unica, a biannual textile fair featuring 480 European manufacturers, eager to sell their fabrics and services to a bevy of designers, labels and retailers. For its 13th edition this season, Miano Unica welcomed 21,400 visitors from all over the world… ‘So many young designers are focused on styling rather than materials now,’ says Loro Piana. ‘We have to change that.’”

Elie Tahari Reportedly Near Deal to Buy Catherine Malandrino (Thread NY)
“Many folks outside of the fashion industry mostly know Tahari to be designer with a successful brand that has a broad appeal to customers at department stores. In fact, Tahari actually co-founded Theory in 1997, and then later sold his stake. His business has been reportly been valued at about $500 million.”

‘Think big but start small’ (FT)
“Ms Busquets’ investing style stands apart from more famous venture capital firms, which shower start-ups with tens of millions of dollars, bestowing young companies with colossal valuations. Instead, she doles out small investments as a company needs capital.”

Peter Marino | Source: Peter Marino Architect

The fashion industry depends heavily on a wide variety of creatives apart from just fashion designers. In our new series, The Creative Class, BoF highlights success stories, insights and advice from the most talented creatives working in fashion today.

NEW YORK, United States — “Dude, it’s ninety-five percent hard work!” the black leather-clad Peter Marino told BoF on his rise to the position of luxury fashion’s most influential architect. And work hard he has. Since founding his own architecture firm in New York in 1978, Mr. Marino has designed many of the world’s most forward-thinking retail temples, redefined the luxury flagship experience and established a decades-long tenure as the “go-to guy” for powerhouse firms like Chanel and LVMH.

“My first commissions were from Andy Warhol, Yves Saint Laurent and the Agnelli family,” said Mr. Marino. “Then the fashion world took notice. I started doing retail in the 80’s when Fred Pressman hired me to revitalise Barneys, which was then a sleepy men’s store. We introduced a really novel concept — no one had ever seen anything like it before.”

It was while working for Barneys that Mr. Marino met many of the world’s leading fashion designers: Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Giorgio Armani, Azzedine Alaïa, Miuccia Prada. “I worked with every single one of those designers to bring their boutiques into Barneys, which was tough, because we wanted a very cool and hip look for Barneys, yet I had to keep the designers happy,” he said. “Somehow, I was able to do that, so I got into it as a career.”

But developing retail concepts that translate the codes of the world’s leading fashion brands into three-dimensional space, while creating novel and engaging consumer experiences, is no easy feat. “My real charge from all of the brands and why they keep coming back, is that each time we do a new store, everybody feels like ’that’s the way the brand should look and it hasn’t always looked that way,’” explained Mr. Marino.

Sometimes this means working closely with the brand’s creative director, which is especially important when a fashion house is undergoing a major revamp, as with Céline, for which Mr. Marino is designing new Paris and New York boutiques. “Phoebe Philo really wants to be involved in the stores, reflecting her direction and interpretation of the brand,” said Mr. Marino.

But unlike many architects, Marino doesn’t start with pen and paper. “I’m a colours and materials kind of guy,” he said, describing his creative process. “I start with colours, paint, fabrics, wools, metal, steel and put them on a table and feel if it’s the brand,” he continued. “This is very different from going ‘Oh, I think I’ll make a two-storey space. Hey dude, you’re given the store! One out of ten, I get to do the whole building, but nine times out of ten you’re given an existing building, so you have a lot of internal architecture and certainly a lot of façade architecture [to contend with].”

Marino must also take into account some fundamental economic realities. “[Unlike a fashion collection] architecture is there for six to seven years,” he explained. “For all of the boutiques that I do, it’s the single largest cash investment these corporations make in anything — it’s hundreds of millions of dollars. They absolutely don’t want something that is going to be out of date three, four, even five years down the line.”

In the face of this challenge, Marino has a rather scientific approach. “We push the branding, let’s say, as a factor between ten and thirty percent, so I’m actually trying new things in every store and keeping the rest [constant] so you feel at home and so there is a continuum,” he said. “This is crucial for these corporations financially, which is why I say a continuum: change the new stores, but by the time you get to the end of the seven year period, which is how most of these stores are financed, then you’re ready to begin again, but none of them ever look out of date,” he explained. “That’s my formula.”

But perhaps what makes Marino most valuable to the fashion industry is the way he is so sharply attuned to the practical needs of retail. “Some companies might over intellectualise the process,” he said. “Shopping is shopping. I try to make goods very, very, very accessible. I’m not John Pawson who puts two bags on a wall sixty feet long because I think that’s just torture,” he continued. “If you’re there in the store, the idea is to see the merchandise, touch the merchandise and hopefully get some kind of emotional response out of it.”

Indeed, uniting emotion and shopping is something Mr. Marino does uniquely well. The London ‘Maison’ he designed for Louis Vuitton, which opened last year on Bond Street, is an ambitious examples of experiential retail, integrating work by artists like Takashi Murakami, Gilbert & George and Andrei Molodkin into the shopping environment, something Mr. Marino is famous for doing. “It’s really good bringing artists in early, because you create the space around their art and you work together with them,” said Mr. Marino. “The reason they’re artists is because they don’t see things they way you and I do. They have unique visions and it’s just fantastic. Some of the commissions that I’ve been allowed to do have really synced with my architecture.”

And while Marino has so far eschewed digital interfaces inside his stores, he has embraced new technologies to turn the façades of his flagships into cutting-edge works of art. “I think computers remove emotion,” he said. “But modern technology on façades is totally legitimate and we always push it.” Indeed, as part of his commision for Chanel’s Tokyo Ginza tower, Marino spent eighteen months developing a new kind of “triple polarised” glass which allowed him to turn the building’s exterior into a TV screen, while allowing those on the inside to see out. “We are [using new technologies] with Vuitton and we are doing a new Dior store in Seoul, which will have a beautiful lighting affect on the exterior,” he said. “And for Chanel we are doing a store in China which has a new computerised way of doing neon. It literally feels like a work of art.”

Unsurprisingly, Marino is responsible for many of the most impressive luxury flagships popping up across Asia. Last Week, Louis Vuitton chief executive Yves Carcelle hosted an opening party for the ‘Island Maison’ Marino designed for the brand at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino in Singapore. “It’s a vacation spot for millions of Chinese. It’s an occasion spot [sic] where you go for a week, you go to the casino, the amusement park, hopefully you go to the shopping center,” said Marino. “But [Vuitton] didn’t want to just be in the shopping centre like every other brand,” he explained. “The LV island is a real experiment in retail. It’s an object sitting in the water. You take a little wooden path 100 feet to the store, or there is a tunnel with a moving walkway; a little history of the company flashes by you, which is great fun, and then you come up,” said Marino, explaining the choreography of the consumer experience. “Because Vuitton, with their luxury luggage collection, owns the world of travel, it’s very much reminiscent of a luxury liner.”

With Chinese luxury consumption projected to account for 20 percent of global luxury sales by 2015, it’s no surprise that Marino is increasingly active in the country. “The stores there are anywhere form twenty to eighty percent larger than they are in the West, either due to optimism or the Chinese growth rate,” he said. “But I worry a little bit, because really big is hard to keep [it] luxurious,” he added. “I keep fighting against a lack of intimacy and a lack of surprise.”

Indeed, the demand for fashion is so high in today’s China that not all brands see the need to innovate architecturally. “They just make a box and stick it up and they are successful,” said Marino. “Here in the West, there is so much competition you have to raise the bar.” But in rapidly growing markets like China, flagships also serve to educate consumers. “They convey the brand’s origins, heritage and story,” he continued. “In every market survey that I’ve read or witnessed, [Chinese consumers] are very interested in this.”

For Marino, communicating authenticity is key. “One of the things that I do in China, specifically, is try to accentuate the origins of the company,” he said. “So with Loewe, the oldest Spanish luxury brand, we give it a bit more Spanishness,” he continued. “In this case, we would use an artist like Cristina Iglesias — we want Spanish artists there, because we want to get the message across that this is a Spanish luxury goods company.”

“For Chanel and Dior, I’m also very much promoting that they are French luxury brands,” he underscored. “This means a lot to the Chinese. When they go shopping, they want the legitimate experience of the brand.” Which is precisely what Mr. Marino is so very good at conjuring.

This piece was written by managing editor Vikram Alexei Kansara, with research from contributing editor Timothy Coghlan

Chanel Couture A/W 2011 | Source: Ecouterre

LONDON, United Kingdom — Death and disgrace do not often darken the world of fashion. In the case of the first, a designer normally dies long after retirement and his demise is of only local interest. In the case of the second, it rarely happens and can usually be covered up by one means or another. But in the last eighteen months there have been two tragedies that can neither be covered up, nor ignored. They are, of course, the death by suicide of Alexander McQueen and the disgrace of John Galliano at Christian Dior.

Their effect, traumatic enough when the events occurred, have ramifications not merely for London and Paris, but for the whole structure of the international fashion world. And the questions they raise must be answered.

As even the most doltish are aware, fashion is a tough business where impossible timeframes and endless demands affect everyone. As companies grow bigger, they become greedier. Even the best beloved designer retains that status only as long as the sales figures stand up. The bottom line (that infamous bottom line!) is not ‘how good was it?’ but always ‘how good are the figures?’ And the first matters less and less.

Businessmen in the rag trade have rarely been known for their sensitivity to artistic attitudes. Even more rarely are they actually engaged with the beauty and originality of the product their firms sell. Normally this would hardly matter at all. You don’t have to love (or even understand) the goods you are pushing — ask any furniture salesman. Your job is to sell them and then balance the books at the end of the season. We all know that selling is a business. But it does matter very much if you are the man who is pressurising the other guy, for whom the product matters passionately. Mainly, of course, because the money man always makes the final decision and aesthetics or creative integrity are rarely considered. The men in charge of these things are rarely attuned to the world of high glamour sophistication. So, why does it matter?

Well it matters at this moment because it is apposite to the case of John Galliano, who was brought into Dior as a golden boy and created a standard of luxury and extravagance in both garments and presentation never seen before. He set the media of the world alight and was adored by all at Dior for the tact with which he re-invented the aesthetic of the man who’s work he revered.

‘Great!’ said the financial gurus. ’Let’s have more of this.’
‘Sure!’ says John, as any designer would.
After all, he had pulled the trump card and arrived in fairyland. Smiles all round.

But the years roll on. The designer’s workload increases substantially during this time — as do the profits. Everyone envies John and his ability to do virtually anything he wants to as long as the bottom line doesn’t waver. But other things are wavering. Things the money men do not understand. The creativity is beginning to sag. Some seasons are not as good as others — creatively or in sales. Senior press become increasingly lukewarm. John feels pressurised and leans more and more heavily on prescription drugs and booze to help him through the days. His loyal and loving staff see it and feel powerless. But instead of help from management, John gets criticism. Life becomes very much harder. Rumours that there are storms a-brewing in fairyland increase. The loyal team continue to see loyalty as keeping their heads down and their mouths shut when the bosses are around. It can’t go on.

Finally, Armageddon.

Very few of us will ever know why Alexander McQueen decided to end his life. And that is how it should be. It is only for those closest to him to be privy to such truths. But we do know the pressures he was under because they are the pressures most young designers are under even if, on paper, they own their names and sometimes their actual companies. Of course, they are given financial rewards and help and, if they are lucky, are able to keep the company small and more or less under their charge. But, almost always, it is the smaller companies that feel any economic pinch first and I could roll off a lot of names of young designers who, at this difficult moment, are protesting how viable their companies are whilst actually clinging on by their fingertips.

So, what price freedom? Rather high. What price long term success? Rather low. Especially so if you are a young designer wishing to show in London Fashion Week where the fee for a place on the tent schedule with back-up security, lighting etc is a cool £12,000. But, in a ‘damned if you do; damned if you don’t’ scenario it is hard for a young designer to know which will be the most damaging for his young company — to spend a lot of money in order to show in the official venue and hope to get all the right people there or to show elsewhere and probably not get them. In the fight to keep solvent, neither seems terribly promising. Rock and hard place isn’t it?

Of course, London is a special case in that the BFC has dedicated itself to having more shows than anywhere else in order, somewhat naively perhaps, to demonstrate, to what I fear is a rather indifferent world, how buoyant their fashion scene is. And they could be right, if you believe that the old costermonger’s policy of piling them high and selling them cheap is a valid way to run a fashion week, make money and support young talent. And, of course, unless they are very naive, they know that the wastage will be high and appear to accept the fact. Sad for the young designers who drop off along the way, however.

This brings us to the related question of how Fashion Weeks themselves are going to remain in business. They are, as many would agree, a clumsy, inconvenient and costly way to show clothes each season. In the case of couture week (which, like London, takes rather less time than that) there are only one or two shows a day that it is necessary for the international elite to attend. But with typical French pragmatism, the Chambre Syndicale has quietly allowed the parameters of the week to stretch in order to include fine jewellery and probably, in the future, perfume launches as well. This not only works as far as everybody’s time is concerned, it reinforces the city’s traditional role as the world centre of luxury, exclusivity and glamour.

A shrewd move. But what about the other cities? And what about the burgeoning number of fashion weeks around the world? Can they, in any meaningful sense, now or in the future, have any value or viability in terms of international fashion, faced, as they currently are, by the highly organised competition of the huge conglomerates of the west? And will their designers be doomed to be small and always cash-strapped before quietly fading back into the woodwork or be taken up by one of those big conglomerates and possibly suffer the different fates personified by John Galliano and Alexander McQueen? Neither is a happy prospect, but I don’t see any solution until international fashion embarks on a co-ordinated root-and-branch investigation of its world and starts planning for a future that will be much more rosy for young designers than it is now, at this difficult time.

During the Couture week in Paris, there was a feeling of ostriches with their heads in the sand as luxury and excess swamped any new fashion ideas that might be there. For Chanel, Lagerfeld even replicated Place Vendôme in the Grand Palais, complete with column, but with Coco at the top instead of Napoleon. Megalomaniac? Moi?

There is a fear that, after the hype has been stripped away, international fashion will be left, not as a high-mettled glossy race horse bred for perfection over the generations, but merely the whitened bones of its skeleton.

Colin McDowell is a contributing editor at The Business of Fashion

Acne Paper Spring/Summer 2010 Photographed by Daniel Jackson | Source: Acne

Northern Discretion: Thomas Persson of Acne Paper (Interview)
“When Acne Paper was founded in 2004 as a literary prong of the multi-faceted Swedish denim empire, it faced a challenge: having to prove its creative independence, and its worthiness beyond being a fancy bit of advertising.”

Louis Vuitton, Burberry Win Millions in Landmark Canadian Counterfeit Suit (Forbes)
“Louis Vuitton and Burberry have won significant damages in Canada’s single largest trademark counterfeit and copyright case…  The fashion houses had filed suit last year… claimed that Singga, Carnation and Altec had been selling fake handbags, along with other “fashion accessories.”

Business is brisk for fashion brand Valentino: CEO (Reuters)
“Italian fashion brand Valentino is enjoying solid demand for haute couture pieces, thanks to Middle Eastern, Russian and U.S. buyers and trading overall continues to improve.”

A Vision in Melancholy (NY Times)
“For Chanel’s haute couture show here Tuesday night, he recreated the Place Vendôme inside the Grand Palais… Dresses… Added to the fin-de-siècle melancholia… it’s a legitimate mood in an overbright, bored world. It was just unclear how to read it against kitsch scenery.”

Bip Ling unveiled as new face for Forever 21 (Fashion Monitor)
“Model and DJ Bip Ling has been announced as the latest face of the US fashion store, Forever 21… Spanning three floors, the new Forever 21 London store is unveiled to the public on July 27.”

Harry Wang | Source: Shiatzy Chen

PARIS, France — Long before the question arose about who would create the first Chinese luxury brand, Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia set up Shiatzy Chen to explore her tailoring skills and budding interest in serving the local luxury market in Taiwan.

Fast forward thirty years, and Ms. Wang now has a business with a turnover of more than $60m and growing, built through hard work, perseverance and — in the Chinese tradition — the support of her family, including husband Wang Yuan-hong, and their son Harry Wang, who now acts as the brand’s chief executive.

Mr. Wang believes the business can grow to $200m in revenues by 2020. But rather than focus on growing the business in the West as so many brands from emerging fashion markets tend to do, he has his sights set firmly on Asia. Extending from the brand’s home base in Taiwan to China and Japan is first on his list. Mr. Wang has also brought Shiatzy Chen’s fashion shows to Paris, forcing him to up his communications game and consider the brand’s role and customer targets in a global context.

I caught up with Mr. Wang during the last round of Paris shows to learn more about Shiatzy Chen and to benefit from his firsthand insights on the evolving nature of luxury in China.

BoF: Many of our readers will have never heard of Shiatzy Chen before. Can you tell us about the history of this family fashion business?

Harry Wang: Shiatzy Chen was created by my parents in Taiwan in 1978. My mother was the designer and my father focused on the business side. I was originally brought in around 2001 as my father’s assistant, overseeing almost every department except for design. Then my job was to develop the international market. Given the number of stores we have in Taiwan, I have been focusing on opening more stores in Hong Kong, China and elsewhere. The first boutique outside Taiwan was opened here in Paris in 2000, but we’ve had an office in here since 1990.

BoF: You’ve been showing in Paris for a few seasons now. Apart from international exposure, what were you hoping the Paris show would do for your business?

HW: I was hoping it would bring me some wholesale revenue, which turned out to be not very successful. But apart from that, we wanted to bring into focus the positioning of our brand. In Chinese department stores, we sit on the ground floor, right next to the big players. Our store in Beijing is right next to Fendi; in Hong Kong we are right next to Chanel. So, we are aiming to position ourselves higher on the global stage. We are not trying to fool customers, but rather trying to position the brand differently. We want to position ourselves as the most luxurious Chinese brand.

BoF: Do you see your aesthetic as being Chinese then?

HW: In the beginning, we did something very Chinese. But between 1985 to 1992 we were actually doing something that looked quite Western. It worked at the time because Western labels were not allowed in Taiwan. But after 1992, when all the big Western brands starting coming in, we felt that in order to be different we needed to do something more than just Chinese pieces. Today, we are known for taking Chinese details — embroidery, buttons, collars — and using Western cuts. We purchase all our fabrics from Italy, but more than 50 percent of these are our own designs.

BoF: What’s the biggest challenge you face as a brand based in Asia?

HW: The biggest challenge is internationalising the brand and trying to expand in Europe and the States. Selling in Asia is easier for us of course, because it’s closer and the culture is similar. We talk to our design team and tell them that if we want to be internationalised we need to do something very simple, sexy, the look has to fit Western tastes. Western people still like Western design.

BoF: What about the Chinese customer? When they come to Shiatzy Chen, what are they looking for?

HW: In Taiwan and China, they buy mostly the embroidered pieces. They feel, in terms of the craftsmanship and design, that Shiatzy Chen is very good; probably one of the best, and definitely comparable to the Western brands. They feel proud to wear our designs because we produce a very limited number of the same item. For instance, the jacket you just saw, we produced roughly one hundred pieces across four sizes. We manufacture about 70,000 pieces a year in total across 100 styles.

So, you see, we produce a lot of different styles, but in a very limited quantity.

BoF: And how is the business performing?

HW: Currently, we are making money in all of the markets in which we operate. The margins for the retail business are very good in Taiwan, but a bit less so in China because the expenses there are very high. Hong Kong is the most expensive market, followed by Shanghai.

Our margins in China are lower even though we sell the clothes at higher prices there. If I compare China with Taiwan, in China the rental is at least four times more, and sales tax is 17 percent compared to only 5 percent in Taiwan. Advertising costs are at least four times more per page. So, as an independent brand in China you can earn about 10 to 15 percent in operating profit, depending on your skill. In Taiwan, you can earn more.

BoF: Do you think the major international luxury brands are making money in China?

HW: I think the big players like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci are making very good money. Smaller brands like Celine and Chloe, maybe Jimmy Choo, still lose money in China.

The more mass market Chinese brands which are inspired by bigger brands also make lots of money. For example Ports 1961 makes money. They have many distribution channels; their price point is good; they are positioned well; they show at New York Fashion Week; and they spend a crazy amount of money on advertising. Chinese customers feel that Ports is a Western brand.

BoF: You’re clearly changing the way you merchandise your store here in Paris compared to the way you merchandise your store in Taiwan. Do you think that Western luxury brands are sufficiently adapting their store assortment to Asia?

HW: I don’t know about ‘successfully’, but look at Chanel. They did a Chinese collection which, at least in my opinion, probably doesn’t sell at all. It’s very different from the ‘Chinese’ that we are looking for in Asia. They make it in an old way. It’s old fashioned, it’s not contemporary.

The Chinese customer wants to buy Western things from Western brands. In the 1990s Versace was very popular in Taiwan. Everybody wanted to have one of those really flashy shirts. In China today, it’s very much like market in Taiwan in the 1990s. People want to wear something to show that they have money.

I think in the next 5 to 10 years this will change and they will start to mix and match the design from different brands. But now, you go to Plaza 66 and you see ladies wearing D&G with logos everywhere. You can tell they don’t know how to mix and match it.

BoF: What about Hermès’ Shang Xia brand, which is billed a the first Chinese luxury brand?

HW: We are in the same shopping mall as Shang Xia, so I check their store every time, and I don’t really know what they are trying to sell. The way they are packaging themselves is very mysterious. They have a little section where they have chopsticks, glassware, all these plates, some selection of Hermès ‘comfortable wear’. But they don’t have a special look, there is no identity as yet. To me, Shang Xia doesn’t represent China. People know them as a subsidiary of Hermès and that’s why the press visit.

BoF: As you think about taking Shiatzy Chen as a business forward, what are your plans for the future in terms of growth?

HW: We feel that the main revenue will come from Asia, so our target is to open 100 stores altogether in China by 2020. Right now there are 10 stores in China, and this year we are opening another eight. It’s not very easy to achieve, and we are looking at about 20 to 25 stores in Japan if everything goes smoothly. So I think will have 100 stores in China, 50 in Taiwan, 25 in Japan, and we want to add up another 25 worldwide.

Imran Amed is founder and editor of The Business of Fashion

CEO Talk is an ongoing series of discussions with fashion entrepreneurs and business leaders. Previous interviews are listed below:

• Natalie Massenet, Chairman and Founder, Net-a-Porter
• Camilla Skovgaard, Shoe designer and Entrepreneur
• Susan Lyne, Chief Executive Officer, Gilt Groupe
• Priya Kishore, Founder and Creative Director, Bombay Electric
• Alex Bolen, Chief Executive Officer, Oscar de la Renta
• Jeffrey Kapelman, Chief Executive Officer, Hilldun Corporation
• Bonnie Takhar, Chief Executive Officer and President, Halston
• Sara Ferrero, Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Group
• Paolo Fontanelli, Chief Executive Officer, Furla
• Stella Iishi, President and Founder, The News Inc.
• Greg Furman, Founder and Chairman, Luxury Marketing Council
• Sarah Curran, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, my-wardrobe.com
• Brian Hill, Chief Executive Officer, Aritzia
• José Neves, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, farfetch.com
• Federico Marchetti, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, YOOX Group
• Sojin Lee, Co-Founder, Fashionair.com
• Harold Tillman, Chairman, The British Fashion Council
• Christopher Colfer, Chief Executive Officer, Alfred Dunhill
• Pierre Mallevays, Founder and Managing Partner, Savigny Partners
• Robert Duffy, President, Marc Jacobs International
• James Gardner, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CreateThe Group
• Stephanie Phair, Director, TheOutnet.com
• Jeff Rudes, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, J Brand Jeans
• Lisa Montague, Chief Executive Officer, Loewe
• Marigay McKee, Fashion and Beauty Director, Harrods
• Matteo Marzotto, Chairman, Chairman, Vionnet
• Emmanuele Carminati Molina, President, Valextra

Prada's Spring/Summer Covers | Source: Fashionista

Prada’s Spring Collection Lands 48 Covers (Fashionista)
“Last season it was Miu Miu, specifically that one appliqued dress, that kept appearing on cover after cover. This season, Prada’s spring 2011 is sweeping the glossy covers… So far Prada’s colorful stripey bananas collection has seen 48 covers (that we’ve counted) and starred in countless editorials.”

He’s Only Just Begun to Fight (NY Times)
“To many, Mr. Charney is not only a somebody but even something of a hero: finding a new niche in a saturated market for cotton basics by refusing to make them overseas… crusading for workers’ rights; and successfully marketing the idea that young adults should embrace their natural sexuality… But to others, he is a morally challenged provocateur.”

D&G Will Die; Long Live Dolce & Gabbana (WSJ)
“When Dolce & Gabbana said recently that it is folding its younger, less expensive D&G brand into its high-end line, many retailers were bewildered… But there’s another way to look at this wager: Consumers—savvier and more confident than ever about fashion—no longer pay as much attention to narrow tiers of brands…. what consumers really care about is the designers who stand behind them.”

Asos apprenticeships will keep us in fashion that’s made in Britain (Telegraph)
“It’s not something that can happen overnight: setting up training, let alone new factories, is a long and laborious process which has to be overseen by people who are qualified, understand quality, and know how to direct a fashion business. But how great that the likes of Asos are already kicking things off.”

Insiders | Chanel Metiers D’Arts – Lemarié (AnOther)
“Ever since Marie Antoinette added exotic plumes to her headdress to get herself noticed in 18th century French society, feathers have come to represent the ultimate in fantasy and female frivolity. But this recherché craft has dwindled over the years from nearly 500 ateliers in Paris in the 1920s to barely a handful now, chief of which is Maison Lemarié.”

Mugler's pre-show and backstage live stream | Source: WWD

Mugler’s Digital World (WWD)
“‘My job was to resurrect the brand, and to pump it up and bring it to the new decade… I had this amazing history and archive but there was nothing for me to work with to make it contemporary. For me, it was taking those amazing historical ideas and transforming them digitally. I design digitally, I communicate digitally, and I live digitally, and I wanted to incorporate that into the brand.’”

Julie Gilhart on Sustainability, Philanthropy, and Life after Barneys (Thread NY)
“Julie Gilhart has been flying fairly under the radar since her dismissal as Barneys’ fashion director in November (aside from touting favorite socially-conscious causes via Twitter), but Friday she appeared at Afingo’s Fashion Forum at FIT to discuss sustainability and philanthropy, and revealed a bit about her personal priorities and plans in the process.”

Spain’s Puig is front-runner for Jean Paul Gaultier (Reuters)
“Spanish perfume maker Puig is the front-runner to buy control of fashion brand Jean Paul Gaultier after China’s Li & Fung walked away but Interparfums is still in the race, fashion and banking sources said… Jean Paul Gaultier, which is still lossmaking, made revenues of 26 million euros in 2010.”

Carine Roitfeld, Chanel Stylist (WWD)
“Carine Roitfeld, a guest editor and stylist at Barneys New York this fall, has also been tapped by none other than Karl Lagerfeld. The designer just wrapped up shooting Chanel’s fall-winter campaign in Paris with… the former Vogue Paris editor in chief, as stylist.”

Ten minutes with Carven designer Guillaume Henry (Telegraph)
“If you have not heard of Guillaume Henry or Carven – it won’t be that way for long. The ex- Givenchy and Paule Ka designer moved to the storied French house two years ago to breathe new life into the brand, and has since been causing quite a stir.”

LONDON, United Kingdom — This season, fashion brands embraced fashion film like never before, integrating digital videos more meaningfully into a wide spectrum of communications strategies, from Nicola Formichetti’s formidable social media machine for the House of Mugler to Tom Ford’s contrarian approach that defied the industry trend towards greater access and immediacy.

In past seasons, fashion films have often been geared at editors, buyers and other industry insiders, accompanying — and sometimes even replacing — runway shows and presentations. But as brands grappled with the tug-of-war between digitally-enabled consumers with real-time expectations and the challenging realities of syncing the physical atoms of their supply chains with the virtual bits of their digital communications, momentum swung in the direction of consumer-facing fashion films designed to coincide with the retail schedule and build intrigue around new collections, just as they hit stores.

Chanel launched a robot animation with terrific viral appeal to support its Spring 2011 makeup line, while Tom Ford synced the arrival of his first womenswear collection in stores with the debut of a film that captured his ultra-exclusive fashion show held last September. But our top honours go to Prada, which released an irresistible fashion film with just the right energy to match the stripes and monkeys of Miuccia Prada’s current collection and accompanying ad campaign.

The following is a BoF selection of what we think were the most compelling fashion films of the Spring 2011 season. As you sit back and enjoy the films, let us know which ones you like best.

1. Prada S/S 2011

In a highly addictive film that almost pops off the screen with infectious charm and masterfully executed quick edits, Tati Cotliar, Kinga Razjak, Arizona Muse, Mariacarla Boscono and Zuzanna Bijoch show off their monkey moves in the stripes and banana prints of Prada’s Spring 2011 collection to the glitchy sounds of Ratatat’s Mirando. “This is just BEGGING for gifs,” added an enthusiastic Tavi Gevinson, referring to simple user-generated animations often based on a few frames of a film, as she reblogged the video on her Tumblr. Indeed, with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, there is something about the film’s quick bursts of colour and body movements that both resonates with today’s remix culture and triggers instant desire, making the video and the collection it displays, completely irresistible.

2. Tom Ford Spring 2011 Fashion Show

While Tom Ford has taken a strong stand against fashion immediacy, preventing the media from photographing or tweeting his ultra-exclusive shows, it would be wrong to conclude that he has rejected the internet entirely. With a stylishly edited film that nicely captures the extraordinary glamour of his Spring show, Mr. Ford has skillfully embraced digital video on his own terms. The film, whose launch was timed to coincide with the arrival of his clothes in store, features an utterly fabulous cast including Julianne Moore, Beyoncé Knowles, Lauren Hutton, Rachel Feinstein, Daphne Guinness, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld and more. Capturing the special ambiance of a very small and glamorous fashion show — we catch glimpses of Anna Wintour, Grace Coddington, Hamish Bowles, Joe Zee, Stefano Tonchi, Cathy Horyn, Carla Sozzani and Jefferson Hack, amongst the 100 top editors in attendance — Mr. Ford’s film may have proven that in the internet age, one thing that people crave even more than immediacy is a feeling of intimacy.

3. Here Comes The Beauty Pack by Chanel

Peter Philip, Chanel’s terrifically talented global creative director for makeup, conceived this fabulously fun animation featuring robots made of Chanel’s iconic packaging. Released to coincide with the launch of the brand’s latest beauty line and drive interest around Chanel Makeup Confidential, a new website featuring exclusive video content, backstage beauty looks from Chanel shows and how-to guides, the video was a runaway success that spread like wildfire across thousands of fashion blogs.

4. Gareth Pugh Pitti 2011

Gareth Pugh made his Italian fashion debut at Pitti Immagine with a visual tour de force by Ruth Hogben. Projected on the ceiling of the 14th-century Orsanmichele church in Florence, the film perfectly complemented a collection that was inspired by Christian iconography and Florentine opulence. But the overall communication transcended reference, colliding the ancient and the hyper-modern to form one powerful vision. With immaculate styling by Katie Shillingford and a dramatic soundtrack by Matthew Stone, this was a fashion film that verged on religious experience.

5. Seven Henrietta Street by Kate Spade New York

Shot by music video director Kinga Burza in a Georgian townhouse in Covent Garden and featuring English actress Anna Brewster and a soundtrack by the disarming chanteuse and MySpace phenomenon SoKo, this film beautifully tells the story of the Kate Spade girl — and brand. Unconventional, curious and imaginative, she “laughs out loud, sings off key and believes in taking chances,” says a text that accompanies the film on the brand’s official YouTube channel.

6. Anatomy of Change for House of Mugler Menswear

House of Mugler creative director Nicola Formichetti launched a captivating web film to build online anticipation and post-show buzz around the creative director’s debut for the brand, using a powerful trinity of fashion, film and music (supplied by Formichetti’s friend and creative co-conspirator Lady Gaga) to transform both his menswear and womenswear runway outings into real-time fashion entertainment. We think integrating the film into the show (a version of the film appeared as a backdrop to the catwalk, while the online edit featured video from the runway) was a smart move, striking a chord with a broader public, but also helping to extend the show’s impact online, giving  fans of Lady Gaga and Mugler a piece of digital content they quickly shared with their friends and followers, carrying Mugler’s new image across the internet.

7. Vanessa Bruno “Miracle”

Directed by Stephanie di Giust, this fantastical film beautifully communicates the colour and prints of Vanessa Bruno’s Spring collection. Featuring actresses Lou Doillon (the brand’s muse) and Jessica Joffe on a mysterious island, the film has a impetuous, tribal tempo that brings new energy to a brand that’s better known for its gentle romanticism. Indeed, the clashing soundtrack, reality-defying camera effects and cascade of colours make this film feel like a rite of liberation.

8. Spying on Kate Moss

Released in early January on NOWNESS, we thought this surreal and charming video of Kate Moss, shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin on the set of the Fall 2010 Balmain campaign, was a refreshing take on the traditionally dull behind-the-scenes video. We especially love the soulful Antony and the Johnsons soundtrack and the “half horror, half Disney” animations by Jo Ratcliffe.

9. Miu Miu “The Powder Room”

The first installment of “The Miu Miu Women’s Tales,” a series commissioned by the Italian brand to celebrate female directors and “explore the feminine love affair with Miu Miu,” this short film by Zoe Cassavetes revolves around the ritual of the power room. Starring redheaded beauty Audrey Marney and set at London’s Claridges Hotel, the film has a visually lush and dreamy quality that nicely shows off this season’s colourful Miu Miu dresses. The Power Room will soon be followed by a new Miu Miu film from another female director, so stay tuned.

10. Net-a-Porter Bag Guide

While not a new concept, Net-a-Porter’s “Bag Guide” uses the sounds of zips and clasps to terrific effect in this fun ode to the season’s hottest arm candy. With the recently launched Net-a-Porter TV, streaming online and on Google TV, we’re looking forward to more fashion videos from this pioneer of shopable content.

Did we miss anything? Which fashion films captured your imagination this season? Let the BoF community know which films you liked best.