Ralph Lauren | Source: American Book Center

Ralph Lauren: New in an Old World (IHT)
“Standing shoulder to shoulder at the Élysée Palace, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the American legend Ralph Lauren held a mutual admiration society.”

New York’s Fifth Ave. Sets Record with Uniqlo Lease (Bloomberg)
“New York’s Fifth Avenue is claiming a city retail record: Japanese clothier Uniqlo agreed to pay $300 million over 15 years to bring its affordable fashions to the world’s most expensive shopping area.”

Outnet sale shows hunger of internet shoppers (Lakestar)
“Online fashion retailer Outnet showed that sometimes an online marketing campaign can be a little too successful when it launched a £1 sale last week.”

Ex-employee to sue Prada Japan over alleged harassment (Plush Asia)
“A former employee of Prada Japan who claims she was harassed by the local unit of the Italian fashion house for being ugly.”

Design Vertigo (T Magazine)
“Design Miami and Fendi’s 2010 collaboration, ‘Design Vertigo,’ at Spazio Fendi… aim to highlight the ways in which designers are venturing outside the bounds of traditional practice and joining forces with unlikely partners.”

Fendi Spring/Summer 2010 | Source: Fendi

Burlington Coat Factory Ordered To Pay Damages To Fendi (Business Insider)
“Federal Judge Leonard Sand in New York ruled Monday that Burlington Coat Factory knowingly violated Italian fashion company Fendi’s trademarks, and awarded the luxury brand treble damages.”

A Campaign to Leaven the Mood (NY Times)
“The Saks campaign is indicative of a trend on Madison Avenue to evoke elements of the dire days of the Depression to signal to consumers an understanding of what they are going through today.”

Legendary Ginza district loses some of its lustre (Luxuo)
“As the country struggles to raise itself out of the global economic downturn, companies such as LV and Gucci are downsizing or leaving Ginza, their former properties quickly snapped up by the growing trend of ‘fast fashion’ houses.”

LVMH & Parsons Introduce Young Designers (Vanity Fair)
“[LVMH] recently joined forces with Parsons The New School for Design to create one of the world’s most sustainable designs: a generation of students with a newfound understanding and dedication to craft.”

Draped to Be Shaped (IHT)
“There was nothing mawkish or funereal about the atmosphere at the weekend shows — rather they were a celebration of the individuality that produces imaginative talent.”

Palazzo Fendi, Rome | Source CPP-Luxury

The Future of Fendi: Hotels, Men’s line and F project (CPP-Luxury)
“Michael Burke, CEO of FENDI confirmed in a recent interview the relaunch in 2010 of the men’s line which was stopped earlier this year,” as well as the extension of the F Factory and a new hotel concept.

Replay majority stake bought by new investors (Drapers)
“An acquisition vehicle has bought a majority 60% stake in Fashion Box SpA the owner of denim brands Replay, We Are Replay and Replay & Sons denim. The acquisition vehicle, Equibox Holding, is controlled by Matteo and Massimo Sinigaglia, who were partners in the Replay footwear business, and Wolfgang Friedrichs, who was a partner in Replay’s German operation.”

Business Diary: Matteo Marzotto (FT)
“Matteo Marzotto spent 17 years at his family business, the Marzotto Group, most recently as president of Valentino, the fashion label the group bought in 2002. In 2008 he left Valentino after it was sold to Permira Private Equity, and purchased the fashion house Vionnet.”

Jaeger set sights on Europe (Drapers)
“Jaeger, the British heritage brand, is set to re-enter the European market after revealing sales are on an improving trend. Jaeger, which was bought by British Fashion Council chairman Harold Tillman in 2003 for a nominal sum, has reported a 9% rise in sales in the 14 weeks to December 11, after strong performances from its London flagship stores in Regent Street and Westfield shopping centre in West London.”

Grace Coddington: the Vogue visionary (Times)
“Even now, months after the release of The September Issue, this year’s cult hit about the making of the September 2007 edition of American Vogue, Grace Coddington, the magazine’s brilliant, but hitherto largely invisible creative director, says that at least five people come up to her on the subway every morning.”

Hermès Kelly Bag, courtesy of Hermès

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Sometimes, a mere glimpse of a product’s silhouette is enough to tell which designer or fashion house created it: the Chanel No 5 perfume bottle, the toe of a Berluti shoe, the unique shape of the Fendi baguette. Today, there is renewed interest in these kinds of classic products as shape and design have made a return in making a product desirable, especially now when consumers don’t want their products to scream with logos and bling.

As they look for unbranded products that are recognisable for their design, this also raises the question of whether there is adequate legal protection for these more subtle indications of provenance. This will almost certainly reignite a debate for strong design right protection, but it might also mean that the shape of a product is worthy of trademark protection in and of itself.

The fashion industry is currently fighting two battles on the intellectual property front. The first is against counterfeiters exploiting trademarks and logos. The second, more complicated battle is against those not-so-imaginative designers from within the industry who are simply aping the designs of their peers. This second fight is the one that is most harmful to creativity, investment and reputation. The main weapon against knockoffs is design right protection, but this is not an option if the design isn’t new. So, timeless products without obvious trademarks but which are instantly recognisable — think the classic Hermès Kelly bag — are in a sort-of legal limbo.

In the EU, it is in principle possible to protect a (three-dimensional) shape as a trademark. In practice, however, it has proven extremely difficult to convince courts that a shape has a sufficiently “distinctive character” to be registered. For many years, European courts have been of the opinion that consumers are not in the habit of making assumptions about the origin of products based on their shape. They argue that consumers need a sign or word element to make that connection.

Last week, an EU court restated this long-standing position in a case concerning the shape of the Bounty chocolate bar. The court’s view is basically that the shape of a product must be more than a variant of a common shape of the type of product in question. Only then can it fulfill the function of a trademark indicating origin. Assessing whether that is the case should be done from the point of view of “the relevant public”, described as the “average consumers of the products or services in question, who are reasonably well informed and reasonably observant and circumspect.”

Still, a closer look at this general reasoning makes one wonder if we haven’t actually arrived at a point where at least some consumer groups make the connection between a shape and a product’s origin. While the shape of the Bounty bar might not be sufficiently distinctive for a trademark, the case of luxury products is fundamentally different. These are sophisticated products whose design is born of an intellectual process, tells a message and (if all goes well) transcends generations. What’s more, the very essence of luxury products arguably creates a consumer group that is well above average when it comes to being informed, observant and circumspect about details, other brands and look-alikes.

If luxury consumers are willing to pay for quality in design and shape, shouldn’t it be possible to protect the required and underlying investment and creativity?

Hanne Melin is a competition and IP lawyer based in Brussels

Craft Punk exhibit in Miami, courtesy of Fendi

Why Luxury needs a recession (Business 24-7)
“Michael Burke, President and CEO of Italian fashion house Fendi, has always maintained that luxury should not be affordable. ‘It cannot be, it shouldn’t be for everybody,’ he insists. ‘The way the products are made, the quality and the works… luxury is not for instantaneous gratification. One should aspire for it.’”

Distinctive Men’s Styles From Some ‘Little Brothers’ (New York Times)
“The final day of the spring 2010 menswear collections in Milan spotlighted many of the secondary lines of some of the biggest names in fashion, collections generally perceived to be the sportier, more rebellious young brothers to the high-end lines. But rather than looking like second-class fashion citizens, these shows were collectively strong, with distinctive messages that pushed them out of the shadows of their big brothers’ broad shoulders.”

Clements Ribeiro return to London Fashion Week (Drapers)
“Design duo Clements Ribeiro will return to the London Fashion Week schedule this September after a four year break.”

Protests threaten launch of Bread & Butter Berlin (Drapers)
“Protesters who operate under the banner ‘Rescue Tempelhof’ are campaigning for the disused airport, which will host B&B next week, to be registered as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site and do not want it used as a trade show venue.”

Saks Signature Bag

Saks Upends Luxury Market With Strategy to Slash Prices (WSJ)
Saks’ deep discounting before the holiday season will have a long-term effect on the consumer psychology.

Fashion Walks a Fine Line (WSJ)
During New York Fashion week, you’ll see dour and spunky on the runways, the magic blend that will court customers.

Retailers feel credit squeeze in India (FT)
“India’s biggest discount retailer said that hundreds of its stores had been attacked at the weekend after it failed to pay its security guards, in a sign of the potential socio-economic implications of the credit crisis hitting the sector.”

Shows must go on (The National)
In New York, despite the series of upheavals in the industry just before fashion week, “shows must go on.”