Nordstrom innovates, Emerging fashion, American Apparel warned, Content is king, Condé Nast courts India

| Daily Digest

Laura Theiss Autumn/Winter 2010, at Début | Source: Début New York

Nordstrom Links Online Inventory to Real World (NY Times) “The company wove in individual stores’ inventory to the Web site, so that essentially all of the stores were also acting as warehouses for online. Results were immediate… It also means that inventory is moving faster, and often at higher prices.” The Demand for Emerging Fashion: Part I (Huffington Post) “[The first trend] noticed was brand exhaustion

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CEO Talk | Paolo Fontanelli, Chief Executive Officer, Furla

| CEO Talk

Paolo Fontanelli, CEO of Furla

LONDON, United Kingdom — This Great Recession has proven difficult for many fashion companies positioned ‘in the middle.’ Between the ultra-luxe brands like Hermès and Louis Vuitton (whose performance has continued to impress, despite the downturn) and the mass-market miracles like American Apparel and Uniqlo (who are also outperforming the market), are aspirational luxury brands like Coach, who recently reported that

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Friday Column | Business vs. Fashion?

| Uncategorized

LONDON, United Kingdom — I just finished reading the interview with Jane Rapley, the Head of College at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in this month’s Luxury Briefing, and I couldn’t help but think that for a school that prides itself on being progressive, she sounded behind-the-times when it comes to the way the industry works and what her students need to thrive in it. Take for instance her answer to the

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CEO Talk | Jeffrey Kapelman, Chief Executive Officer, Hilldun Corporation

| CEO Talk

NEW YORK, United States — Even in the best of times, it’s tough for fashion start-ups to access the capital they need to sustain their growth and expansion. But today, it’s downright brutal. The usual private investment sources like angel investors and early-stage venture capital, which were limited to begin with, have dried up. What’s more, fashion boutiques can be notoriously slow at paying their invoices and

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