Alexander McQueen for Puma | Source: Puma

PPR to sell lower-margin retail units (FT)
“PPR, the French retail conglomerate headed by billionaire François-Henri Pinault, plans to dispose of retail businesses that generate 70 per cent of group sales to focus on clothing and accessories brands within its luxury Gucci Group and Puma, the sports wear company.”

Online Luxury Retail Remains Elusive (Business Week)
“There are still some brands that sell absolutely nothing online, save for beauty products. Consider Chanel. While the legendary Parisian fashion house sells cosmetics both on its own site as well as on a few other high-end e-tailers, its current fashion and accessories collections are not for sale online.”

FIPB defers Gucci’s stake buy proposal (Times of India)
“Italian designer goods maker Gucci’s proposal to pick up a majority stake in its Indian franchisee has been deferred by the government after Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion sought further examination.”

Ralph Lauren’s Grand Entrance (WWD)
“After an absence of more than a decade, Ralph Lauren is returning to Greenwich — and making quite an entrance… opening a nearly 19,000-square-foot store with all the ingredients increasingly emblematic of the designer’s retail network.”

What the wealthy give each other for Christmas (Times)
“One area, though, where things are truly booming is personalisation. ‘The term ‘luxury’ is so overused,’ says the bag designer Anya Hindmarch. ‘But I think you can definitely say that something is luxury when it’s completely personalised.’”

Gucci Eyeweb versus Burberry Art of the Trench | Source: InFashionMedia

LONDON, United Kingdom — In recent weeks, two major luxury fashion brands have taken the plunge and launched social networks built around their brands and products. It’s not a new idea by any means, and indeed I wrote a piece on this very idea for the Financial Times almost two years ago. But, that doesn’t make it any less notable because, as far as I can tell, it is the first time top fashion brands have used social media in this way. Indeed, both Gucci and Burberry went to great efforts to highlight these initiatives at last week’s IHT Techno Luxury conference in Berlin.

So, have their experiments been successful? Of course we at the BoF have our own opinions, but in the spirit of democracy we thought it was the perfect opportunity to turn to the BoF community to see what you think. In our first ever BoF Twitter Poll, we asked:

BoF Twitter Poll: What do you think of Gucci Eye Web versus Burberry’s Art of the Trench?

The responses came in fast and furious from BoF’s followers around the world, including James Gardner, CEO of the industry’s leading creative agency CreateThe Group, and influential bloggers such as Bryanboy and DisneyRollerGirl. In the end, it was a no-contest knockout for Burberry which was unanimously selected as the winner.

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Gucci Dark Brown Crocodile Purse | Source: Gucci

For the Downturn, Gucci Downplays the Logos (Business Week)
“The fashion house is going both upscale and down, but its signature Gs are relegated to the back room.”

New F.T.C. Rules Have Bloggers and Twitterers Mulling (NY Times)
“Beginning Dec. 1, bloggers, Twitterers and many others who write online product reviews must disclose the receipt of free merchandise or payment for the items they write about.”

Pinning Down the New American Shopper (Business Week)
“It’s about information, value, and being green: Today’s discriminating consumers are careful about how they spend, and they’re concerned about the planet.”

Gap to Open China Store In Growth Bid (WSJ)
“Gap Inc. plans to open its first store in China next year and expand its overseas e-commerce operations, as part of a broader turnaround effort.”

Luxury retailers lambast EU plans to reduce brands’ control (Retail Week)
“Retailers could gain the right to sell any brand in stores or online, after the European Commission launched a review of selective distribution laws.”

Rugby by Ralph Lauren

Polo Ralph Lauren sales and profits fall (Drapers)
“Polo Ralph Lauren has notched up first quarter sales of $1bn (£588.6m), an 8 percent fall on the same period last year.”

Luxury Brands Gain Momentum in China Despite the Slowdown (Seeking Alpha)
“Even as luxury goods consumption has fallen worldwide, China’s appetite for high-end retail has shown a strong momentum.”

Shoppers see a value in unique items, sometimes regardless of price (Canadian Press)
“The clone wars have ended: It is no longer cool to carry around the must-have handbag that all your friends have, too. Nor do you need to have matching designer outfits or easily identified mass-market kitsch.”

Fashion Membership (Vogue)
“The British Fashion Council is the latest organisation to become a member of the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT). The UKFT is a trade organisation which represents the fashion and textile sector – including some of the country’s top brands – and the BFC will take up two seats on its board.”

Relatives barred from using Gucci brand name in US (Reuters)
“A judge barred a Gucci heir’s ex-wife and her daughter from using their names commercially in the United States without trademark approval on Wednesday, saying they could confuse consumers and damage the brand.”

Rodarte’s Target (Vogue)
“Rodarte will join the ranks of Erin Fetherston, Jovovich-Hawk, Rogan and Jonathan Saunders (among others), as the latest designers to collaborate with American retailer Target as part of its Go International series.”

Clessidra Pulls Out Of Deal With Cavalli (WSJ)
“Italian private equity fund Clessidra SGR SpA has pulled out of a deal with fashion house Roberto Cavalli after disagreement over the value of the company, a person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday. The talks collapsed just two months after Cavalli and Clessidra signed a letter of intent for the fund to buy 30% of the fashion house.”

Mark Ronson designs trainers for Gucci’s Pop-Up Store (Elle UK)
“Gucci launches ‘Gucci Icon-Temporary’, a pop-up trainer store that will travel the world. The shop will stock 18 trainer designs in all, 16 for men and two for women. And for that extra limited edition-ness Gucci has collaborated with DJ and trainer addict Mark Ronson to design one exclusive, unisex trainer for each city.”

Adidas profits plunge 93% (Drapers)
“Adidas suffered a 93 percent plunge in profits in its second quarter as the downturn continues to take its toll on consumer spending.”

Naomi Sims, the First Black Supermodel (Time)
“A tall, striking, confident, chiseled, brown-skinned beauty, she has forever changed how America defines beautiful.”

Prada flagship store in Omotesando, Tokyo

LONDON, United Kingdom — The scariest news I have recently read about luxury was in Tuesday’s Financial Times. The Japanese, it seems, have stopped buying luxury goods. Luxury imports in Japan were down 10 percent and sales of LVMH in the country were down 18 percent in the first quarter.

And no, it’s not just the recession. “This is not a blip. This is a long-term shift in the market,” Brian Salsberg, the author of a McKinsey report on the Japanese luxury goods market, the world’s second largest, told the Financial Times. This is concrete evidence of a trend first reported on BoF one year ago.

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New Gucci store concept, courtesy of Gucci

Gucci Renews GG-Logo Purses Priced Below $3,000 Under New Chief (Bloomberg)
As reported late last year on BoF, “Gucci’s new chief executive officer, Patrizio di Marco, said he’s fighting the recession by cutting production, making fewer styles to reduce costs, and bulking up the luxury label’s mid-priced range.”

Lengthy Search for New CEO Dogs Barneys (WSJ)
“Barneys has spent more than a year without filling its top slot, an unusually long time for a CEO hire and one of the longest-running hunts for a new chief executive now going on anywhere.”

Tough Times for Small Luxury Goods Makers (Business Week)
“Bankruptcies are hitting small and midsize European companies that supply luxury houses with everything from hand-tooled leather to perfume bottles.”

Samsonite joins list of debt-for-equity groups (FT)
“Samsonite, the world’s biggest maker of suitcases, backpacks and carry-bags, is the latest to join the fast-growing list of private equity-owned companies that have run into trouble and needed to be saved by swapping debt for equity.”

The Future of Luxury in a Recession (Atelier)
As companies like Coach, Gucci Group and LVMH report their results this week, this video from Atelier, a division of Leo Burnett, highlights some of the cataclysmic changes in consumer behaviour that will drive the luxury of the future. What do you think of their assertions?

PPR Says Luxury Sales Remain ‘Sluggish’ (WSJ)
“Mass retail and fashion group PPR SA posted a 2.6 percent drop in first-quarter sales and said revenue in its luxury unit remained “sluggish” in March, signaling that demand for high-end products is still suffering amid the downturn.”

Business focus on eco-fashion: Greener clothing sized up (Telegraph)
“Allanna McAspurn, UK general manager of Made-By, is attempting to kick start an initiative funded by the European Union and the Dutch government to promote sustainable practices in the retail clothing industry.”

Mizrahi’s star back on the rise (Variety)
“While many of his fellow fashionistas are struggling to survive in an economy where aspirational shopping is as out of date as last season’s handbag, Mizrahi’s stock is clearly on the rise.”

Coach Profits Fall (WWD)
“Coach Inc. on Tuesday posted a 29.3 percent decline in third-quarter profits, hurt by the pullback in consumer discretionary spending, but said that it was confident in its business outlook.” (Subscription required)

Gucci S/S 09 advertising campaign

Gucci CEO sees satisfactory Q1-report (Reuters)
“Fashion house Gucci has had a satisfactory trend in the first quarter.”

‘Project Runway’ Will Move to Lifetime (WSJ)
“Nearly a year of litigation between General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and Weinstein Co. over “Project Runway” ended Wednesday with an agreement that allows Weinstein to move its popular reality-TV show to Lifetime Networks.”

Macy’s CEO got 2008 compensation of $14.82 million (AP)
“Macy’s Inc.’s Chief Executive and Chairman Terry Lundgren received compensation valued at $14.82 million in 2008, much of it in stock compensation, according to an Associated Press calculation of figures disclosed in a regulatory filing.”

Hermès to Open in the Hamptons (WWD)
The French luxury brand will take up temporary residence in a 2,000-square-foot space specialising in beach attire. (Subscription required)

Gucci Spring/Summer '09 ad campaign

Murjani to divest Gucci stores in India (Economic Times)
In an effort to recoup investments he’s made in the luxury sector, Mohan Murjani plans to divest the operations of Gucci in India.

Luxury goods succumb to the cycle (FT)
Despite some views to the contrary, the luxury industry is proving to be prone to cyclical ups and downs.

Malaysian shoe guru Jimmy Choo plans teaching academies (Yahoo)
“Malaysian-born luxury shoemaker Jimmy Choo is planning a network of “Couture Shoe Academies” worldwide, with the first to open in his home country.”

A New Home for New York Fashion Week (New York Times)
After this month’s New York Fashion Week at Bryant Park, the event will move to the Lincoln Center for Spring/Summer 2010.

Macy’s to Centralize and Cut 7,000 Jobs (WWD)
As another sign that the retail landscape in New York is abysmal, Macy’s cuts 4% of their workforce or 7,000 jobs. (Subscription required)