Kurt Geiger ad campaign

Kurt Geiger EBITDA soars 21% (Drapers)
“Premium footwear business Kurt Geiger reported that full-year EBITDA rose 21% to £12.1m, bucking the retail downturn.”

WDT boss to lead fast-fashion overhaul (Drapers)
“Asbed Momdjian, founder of World Design & Trade, the company behind young fashion brands Firetrap, Fullcircle and Sonneti, has outlined plans to turn the group into a specialist fast-fashion branded supply house and slammed the traditional two-collection, multi-brand retailer route to market as ‘dead’.”

Fuller’s 19 buys Storm model agency (Guardian)
“Group behind American Idol acquires 51% stake in agency that represents Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford and Emma Watson.”

Hartmarx sold; price not disclosed (Chicago Tribune)
“Emerisque Brands UK and its partner SKNL North America said late Friday that they completed the purchase of assets of Chicago-based suitmaker Hartmarx Corp.”

A fleeting tweeting (FT)
According to Vanessa Friedman, Twitter “is an accessory for communication, and whether you choose to try on that look or not has as much to do with identity as facility. It’s the It bag of the internet: a public declaration of allegiance to a group – albeit much less expensive, of course.”

Barack Obama wearing a Hartmarx suit

British firm offers stitch in time to save Barack Obama’s tailor (Guardian)
“About 3,000 midwestern factory workers at Hartmarx are lobbying creditors to accept a $128m (£79m) buyout by a London-based private equity firm, Emerisque Brands.”

Fire Sale: Once Towering, the Luxury Market Teeters (Time)
“The typical luxury consumer has traded in high-priced fashion for quality, durable goods at a lower price, according to a recent report by Bain & Company.”

The future of today’s fashion graduates (FT)
“The photographer Annie Leibovitz, in a jocular mood earlier this month, aimed to assuage the fears and raise the spirits of nervous graduates during her speech at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. And with good reason: for graduates, the future is about as bright as a wet weekend.”

Luxury market recovery seen slow (Reuters)
“At a time when just being able to afford the rent seems like a luxury, purveyors of high-end jewels, fashion and handbags are facing challenges like never before.”

Cool American chic, Tommy bets on Obama effect (Times)
“The company, which today reports a 21 percent rise in full-year sales to €1.6 billion (£1.39 billion), insists that it was able to survive a tide of anti-Americanism over the past decade inspired by George W. Bush.”