David Beckham for H&M | Source: Zap 2 it

David Beckham Fetes H&M Launch in London (WWD)
“It takes an unusual amount of sex appeal for a man to make a pair of long johns look good — and David Beckham has pulled it off. After serving as the face and body for Armani Underwear, Beckham decided to develop his own range together with his business partner and manager, the entertainment mogul Simon Fuller.”

Yoox Chief Marchetti Raises Stake, Forecasts Strong U.S. Growth (Bloomberg)
“Yoox Chief Executive Officer Federico Marchetti raised his stake in the online retailer of fashion and luxury goods after exercising stock options, saying the Italian company is being undervalued by investors.”

Fashion Changes, and So Do the Magazines (NY Times)
“Glamour’s newsstand sales were down substantially last year, by 17 percent through June and (as submitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulation) 9.9 percent in the second half. Most women’s titles were down. Part of the problem, it would seem, is that by exploiting a winning formula, fashion magazines have made themselves indistinguishable.”

Fashion Tech Boom: Why It’s Happening  (Fashionista)
“Last year saw a major influx of new fashion-focused tech startups. With the early success of pioneers like Gilt Groupe and Ideeli, an industry that has typically been slow to embrace new technology has spawned a burgeoning community of game-changing ecommerce sites, mobile apps and social networking and discovery platforms.”

An Intellectual Fashion | Scott Schuman (AnOther)
“Scott Schuman is the founder and editor of the iconic fashion blog The Sartorialist which he set up in 2005. He achieved considerable influence with his photographs taken in the streets, a selection of which was published as a book by Penguin in 2009.”

Salvatore Ferragamo store Huhehaote China | Source: Moda Online

Luxury brands turn cautious on China (FT) 
“Watching three malls open within a square mile over the past year and a fourth preparing to follow, all with their share of luxury boutiques, Beijingers may think that soon their city will have as many Louis Vuitton and Salvatore Ferragamo stores as bank branches or McDonalds restaurants. But things might be on the verge of changing.”

Prada Poised to Extend Slump as China Shoppers Cut Back (Bloomberg)
“Prada is falling out of fashion six months into its Hong Kong trading debut as investors brace for Chinese shoppers to curb spending. Shares of the maker of $2,000 bags and Miu Miu shoes, which gets more than 42 percent of sales from Asia, have dropped 34 percent from its July peak.”

Paris Reignites Brouhaha Over Fashion Schedule (The Cut)
“After Milan, London, and New York finally compromised on their respective Fashion Week dates for 2013 and 2014, France’s Chambre Syndicale — which has been relatively quiet on the matter until now — announced that they’re unhappy with the proposed arrangement.”

H&M Nov comparable sales lag consensus (Reuters)
“Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz, the world’s second-biggest apparel retailer, posted on Thursday a one percent drop in local-currency turnover at established stores in November, missing a consensus forecast for a narrow rise.”

Building an Empire of Her Own (NY Times)
“It’s a distinctive pedigree, all right, lofty enough to have secured the younger Ms. Roitfeld a flurry of modeling gigs, invitations to the coolest parties and the fawning attention of scores of bloggers. But not lofty enough, evidently, for Ms. Roitfeld herself. ‘I want to be known as me,’ she insisted the other evening… ‘I want to be known for what I can do on my own.’”

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011 | Source: Victoria's Secret

NEW YORK, United States — In recent years, the main fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris have attracted unprecedented interest from end consumers, with brands live streaming their shows and bloggers reporting from the runway in realtime on their sites and social channels like Twitter and Instagram. But in most cases, the actual clothes showcased during fashion week aren’t available to consumers until many months after the shows have finished.

In short, fashion’s communication cycle has become wildly out of sync with its retail cycle. Would the film industry ever hold a movie premiere 6 months ahead of its release to the public? Would Apple make its buzzy product announcements a half-year before said products were available for sale?

By shortening lead times, planning production in advance, and using other lean manufacturing techniques, fashion brands may be able to get product to consumers more quickly. But these kinds of structural changes could take years to implement, especially as many fashion brands do not control the means of production.

One solution has been to let consumers order — but not receive — products immediately after the shows. Mega-brands like Burberry have offered pre-ordering for several seasons now, while a number of mid-sized and emerging brands have collaborated with ‘pre-tail’ trunk-show start-up Moda Operandi to do the same. But market reports suggest that the sales volume of pre-orders has been limited. There are only so many consumers who are willing to plonk down money in advance to guarantee they will get a specific garment in their size months later. Most consumers still seem to prefer to purchase in-season, close to the time of need.

So if enabling consumers to pre-order clothes is not the ideal solution, why not engage consumers just before the collections arrive in store? Based on the evidence of blowout events from Victoria’s Secret and H&M for Versace in New York earlier this month, consumer appetite for this kind of engagement, and the impact it has on sales, seem very promising indeed.

VICTORIA’S SECRET’S GLOBAL FASHION EXTRAVAGANZA

The annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show is quite possibly the largest fashion event of its kind. From its humble beginnings in August 1995, with a budget of only $120,000, the Victoria’s Secret show has grown into a blockbuster multi-media event, with six different themes, featuring 38 models in 69 different looks, and costing more than $13m this year.

“Our show is seen, in one way or another, in over 200 countries in print, Facebook, YouTube, and television specials,” explained Ed Razek, Chief Marketing Officer of creative services of Limited Brands (the parent company of Victoria’s Secret) as we sat backstage before the first of two tapings of this year’s show. “It is must-watch television for young women in the United States. They learn to walk in high heels in this show.”

While Mr. Razek explained how Victoria’s Secret has honed the show format over the past 16 years, Kanye West and the assembled Victoria’s Secret models were doing a backstage photo call in a crush of assembled media from China to Brazil. It could only be described as an all out media frenzy.

“Candidly, I think [the first show] was an aesthetic failure,” he said. “We didn’t much know what we were doing, except the next day papers all over the world were calling it the lingerie event of the century. We knew that we had an idea.”

Over the years, the production values of the show and the quality of the collection have improved dramatically. Just last year, the brand began working with respected stylist and fashion editor, Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou, who is better known for her work with high-end fashion designers like Roland Mouret and Antonio Berardi. This year, Ms. Neophitou-Apostolou spent more than 40 days working on Victoria’s Secret runway collection, providing her input throughout the creative process.

Another parameter that has changed over the years is timing. The first show back in 1995 was held in August. For several years after that, the shows were held in the days preceding Valentine’s Day. But since 2001, the show has taken place in November, just in time for the holiday season. “Christmas is the single biggest commercial opportunity of the year and it’s also a great time to do a fashion show special,” said Mr. Razek. This year’s show was taped on November 9th and will air on November 29th on CBS, one of the three major American broadcast television networks.

Interestingly, the Victoria’s Secret show is not broadcast live, which Mr. Razek says comes down to maintaining production values and managing risk. “You’re on network television in the United States. It is our responsibility to show our girls in their best light,” he said. “The reward isn’t worth the risk. We want a beautifully produced show; something that is compelling and interesting.” In 2004, the Victoria’s Secret show was cancelled in the wake of the backlash following Janet Jackson’s so-called ‘wardrobe malfunction’ during the Superbowl half-time show.

But even without a live broadcast, Mr. Razek said: “You see sales results almost immediately. On the night of the show you see substantial increases in our web business from all of the news coverage. The day after the fashion show runs [on television], you see substantial increases in our web business.”

While he declined to provide any detailed numbers to back this up, Victoria’s Secret Direct, which includes both the online and catalogue businesses, chalked up $1.5 billion in sales in 2010, roughly one-third of Victoria’s Secret’s overall sales. To provide a sense of scale, this makes Victoria’s Secret Direct about twice the size of Neiman Marcus Direct ($715 million in revenues in 2010) and more than eight times the size of Yoox or Net-a-Porter (about $200 million in annual sales each).

But importantly, the Victoria’s Secret show is about more than just driving online sales. It is the cornerstone of an integrated communications strategy that drives brand awareness as well as bolstering revenue across direct retail, catalogue and online channels.

Indeed, an integrated communications and sales strategy has long been part of the Victoria’s Secret DNA. According to a case study published in 2002 by Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College, when Leslie Wexner bought Victoria’s Secret in 1982, he sought to make it “stand [out] as an integrated world-class brand. Across all channels — catalogue, stores, Internet — the same products are launched at the same time, in exactly the same way, with the same quality, and same positioning.”

When asked to compare Victoria’s Secret’s marketing and communications initiatives to those deployed by luxury fashion brands, Mr. Razek offered: “The obvious difference is that we’re showing fashion in real-time, during the season, things that are accessible in the stores now. They are showing Fall in Spring, Spring in Fall. How does the end customer connect with that, particularly with all of the live-streaming?”

“They’re living in the past,” he concluded. “There aren’t three fashion magazines anymore…the world is so broad, there are so many opportunities to communicate. You have to take advantage of them all. My personal opinion is that a substantial portion of the designer community is involved in an exercise of mass collective denial.”

H&M FOR VERSACE INCITES PANDEMONIUM

The day before the Victoria’s Secret show, H&M put on its own fashion spectacle in New York to celebrate its latest high-fashion collaboration, this time with Versace. With 500 fashion editors, bloggers and media from all over the world in town to cover the show, and a celebrity red carpet entrance to rival that of a major Hollywood event, this was another striking example of timing integrated brand communications to coincide with the arrival of product in stores.

The event began with a fashion show in an elaborate replica of the Versace show space in Milan at Pier 57, overlooking the Hudson River. When the show concluded, a beaming Donatella Versace unveiled a vast room behind the show space, filled with disco balls and an intimate stage set, where rising hiphop star Nicki Minaj soon took to the stage, decked out in Versace for H&M. Ms. Minaj’s performance was followed by an unforgettable thirty minute set from pop legend Prince.

All the while, anecdotes, photos and videos were being beamed out to the world via the Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts of the attendees. When the concert eventually concluded at 15 minutes past midnight, the walls opened up once more to reveal a fully-stocked Versace for H&M pop-up store, which created pandemonium unlike anything I have ever seen, and this, even amongst the fashion elite who have access to almost any kind of fashion they want.

As we waited in the crush to enter the store, someone asked American Vogue’s Hamish Bowles why he was subjecting himself to this kind of mob. “It’s all a part of the experience,” he said, gesturing towards the shoppers stripping the mannequins bare, just behind a thick layer of burly security guards who were doing their best to hold back the throng. “Please stand back,” they repeated. “There is plenty of stuff for everyone.”

As it turned out, the security guards were wrong; most of the garments were gone within minutes as the first wave of shoppers snapped up everything in sight, filling four or five or six bags each with clothes. It was not a luxury shopping experience, that’s for sure, and the huge demand was in no small part due to prices which started at $17.95 for a pair of men’s printed underwear. But the collaboration couldn’t have come at a better time for Versace. It put a short, sharp spotlight on the once-struggling brand which is also having a bit of a fashion renaissance. East London creatives have been scouring vintage stores over the past couple of years to find vibrant Versace prints from the brand’s heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Versace was still at the head of the fashion vanguard.

“It is about bringing Versace to a whole new generation, and showing them the true essence of the house,” Donatella Versace told BoF. ”Versace is already interacting with them in other ways. We are very active on Twitter and other social media. I think the Versace name is very powerful and the collaboration with H&M has allowed us to connect with even more people.” The day after the New York event, the show video was already available online, and a quirky fashion film was also rolled out across the fashion blogosphere.

Commenting on the immediate communications formula employed by H&M to promote the collaboration, Ms. Versace said: “It made me think about how there are too many rules in fashion and how too often we get caught in these rules. I have never felt the need to follow the rules, but the system is so rigid these days with deadlines, so many collections to produce every year. This collaboration with H&M taught me that it was absolutely possible and necessary to break the rules.” she said. “I really enjoyed working with a company that felt very strongly that we had to push things further.”

Last week, the collection finally arrived in cities around the world just as the Versace for H&M show buzz was cresting online, selling out almost immediately and crashing the H&M website under the weight of consumer demand.

LESSONS FOR FASHION BRANDS

So, apart from synchronising the timing of brand communications and product delivery, what can a luxury fashion brand learn from these mass consumer fashion events?

Ms. Neophitou-Apostolou said that fashion brands need to learn to dream again. “It’s about selling the dream, that’s the main thing. Don’t be too literal. Create the fantasy. Don’t be afraid of it,” she suggested a few days later, at a lunch in honour of Antonio Berardi. “I think people become so concerned about: ‘Is it wearable; Is it wearable?’ McQueen in the day was always about fantasy. John Galliano was always about fantasy. Even Azzedine [Alaïa] takes you on a journey; in his little shows he creates his own universe. I think that’s the trick. Don’t be afraid to dream!”

That said, “every [look in the Victoria’s Secret show] has a piece of product so you can physically buy the pieces,” Ms. Neophitou-Apostolou continued, but these were mixed in with dream-like pieces including the now famous angel wings. “It’s the best piece of marketing I’ve ever been involved with,” she added.

Indeed, the consumer events in New York couldn’t have been more different from fashion shows designed for an industry audience. They must be conceived and designed to have maximum impact on screen, drive online conversation, and ultimately drive sales online and in-store.

Even for a behemoth like H&M, this kind of initiative requires a huge investment of time and resources. “It’s a huge undertaking to organise a fashion show for editors from all 41 markets,” said Margareta van den Bosch, Creative Director of H&M.

What’s more, having an integrated supply chain from design to production to retail, makes it much easier to align the communications and sales cycles. According to the Tuck Business School case, Victoria’s Secret is “equipped with vertically integrated factories that manufacture and deliver goods directly to the company without the involvement of third party intermediaries.”

“We own all our own stores,” added Mr Razek. “There aren’t any buyers from department stores sitting in the front row writing orders. Our ultimate customer is not a merchant with a pencil, which is different from most designers.”

Imran Amed is founder and editor of The Business of Fashion

A Marriage of Economic Convenience (NY Times)
“More than a decade since Target first popularized collaborations between high-end designers and mass retailers, and seven years since H&M introduced a collection with Karl Lagerfeld, there is still allure in the concept of cheap and chic… Such collaborations are proving to be both a reliable business model for retailers and a business in themselves.”

Marc Jacobs’s Entire Spring / Summer 2012 Collection Stolen (The Daily Beast)
“Call it the case of the missing dresses. Marc Jacobs’ entire Spring/Summer 2012 collection has been stolen from a train en route from Paris to London for the brand’s European press day, the company has announced. According to the e-mail circulated to press on Wednesday morning, the PR team wrote ‘our press day tomorrow in the Marc Jacobs store is cancelled, due to the theft of the spring/ summer 2012 collections during its transfer from Paris.’”

PPR to follow PUMA’s green accounting lead (Business Green)
“The parent company of some of the world’s biggest luxury and sporting brands, including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and PUMA, is to embark on one of the world’s most ambitious green accounting programmes, after announcing it will create a group-wide environmental profit and loss statement (EP&L)… By placing an economic value on its environmental impact, the company hopes to improve its reporting of a wide range of green metrics.”

Missed profit forecasts hurt Abercrombie (FT)
“Shares in Abercrombie & Fitch plunged more than 13 per cent as the US teen fashion retailer missed Wall Street profit forecasts and was put on the defensive over its strategy in Europe. Abercrombie executives were grilled by analysts over falling sales at its international flagship stores after it reported a 1.8 per cent rise in net income to $50.9m, or 57 cents per share, which fell short of market expectations of 72 cents a share.”

Benetton Retries Provocation (WSJ)
“Italian clothing chain Benetton is trying to drum up attention for its flagging brand with ads showing global leaders kissing… Now, after having lost ground over the last decade to competitors such as Inditex SA’s Zara and Hennes & Mauritz AB’s H&M, Benetton is trying for publicity.”

Albert Kriemler of Akris | Source: Estilo Moda

The Discreet Charm of Akris (WSJ)
“Perhaps it is Kriemler’s understated, reluctant approach to anything overt or loud—fashionable or otherwise—that attracts women as powerful and talented as Condoleezza Rice, Angelina Jolie, Susan Sarandon and Nicole Kidman to his clothes… Kriemler works extensively with artisans from Akris’s hometown of St. Gallen. The town is renown in the business for its skilled craftsmanship in linen, cotton and embroidered fabrics, and has long been a focus for fashion houses including Chanel, Marc Jacobs and Giorgio Armani. Akris has proper form and heritage, too.”

World’s Biggest Fashion Brands Invest in The Fancy (BetaBeat)
“The Fancy, one of the consumer facing projects under the thingd umbrella, has secured a $10 million round of financing at a valuation north of $100 million. Interestingly, the big bucks don’t come from a typical venture investor, but from a new lead investor PPR, the $16 billion French multi-national run by Francois Henri-Pinault, which owns the globe’s biggest fashion brands… The Fancy is about visual discovery and has become a natural home for fashion brands, which see a high level of engagement from tastemakers around their goods.”

Richemont cautious after H1 beats expectations (Reuters)
“Richemont, the maker of Cartier jewelry and Jaeger-LeCoultre watches, struck a cautious note for the luxury goods industry outlook as growth rates are starting to ease from the strong performance seen in its first half. Between April and September, sales at the world’s second biggest luxury goods group jumped 36 percent at constant exchange rates and October sales were up 26 percent, in a sign consumers could be turning more hesitant about treating themselves to pricey timepieces.”

Nordstrom full year profit outlook below St view (Reuters)
“Upscale department store operator Nordstrom Inc did not raise the upper end of its full year profit forecast even as it reported a jump in sales and profit in the third quarter, and its shares fell more than 3 percent… The department store chain said it now expects fiscal 2011 sales at stores open at least one year to rise about 6 percent, up from an earlier range of 4 to 6 percent.”

Versace: What’s the bright idea? (Independent)
“‘Iconic pieces for young people – the essence of Versace’ is how Donatella Versace describes her collection for H&M… H&M’s link-ups with some of fashion’s biggest names began in a blaze of publicity in 2004 with Karl Lagerfeld – and that sold out in a matter of hours. Its creator – who starred in the accompanying advertising campaign – has since said the experience was responsible for making him a household name.”

Brioni Autumn/Winter 2011 | Source: Luxos

PPR set to buy men’s wear brand Brioni (FT)
“PPR, the French luxury goods group, has confirmed it will acquire Brioni, the Italian high end men’s wear group that has dressed Vladimir Putin and the fictional character James Bond in several movie outings. In a statement on Tuesday, PPR said it would be buying 100 per cent of the family owned group for an undisclosed sum… PPR is reorienting and expanding its business in two segments: luxury, which includes Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta; and lifestyle, which consists mainly of a majority stake in Puma, the German sportswear company.”

H&M Sets Versace Goddesses of High Fashion to Low Prices: Retail (Bloomberg)
“Hennes & Mauritz AB, the world’s second-largest clothing retailer, next week starts selling apparel and accessories designed by Gianni Versace SpA, including floor-length ‘goddess’ gowns, dresses dotted with Grecian buttons and fluorescent micro-minis. The Versace for H&M line, the latest partnership between the Swedish retailer and a luxury designer that boasts high fashion at low prices, will give the Italian label ‘global visibility’ as it targets sales of about $700 million by 2014, Versace Chief Executive Officer Gian Giacomo Ferraris said.”

Hugo Boss ups 2015 targets on Chinese growth (Reuters)
“German fashion house Hugo Boss sharply raised its earnings outlook for 2015 on Tuesday as it increases its network of stores and eyes strong growth from China. The group… Said it now expects sales of 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in 2015, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and special items (EBITDA) of 750 million. That compares with a previous target for sales of 2.5 billion and core earnings of 500 million euros. Hugo Boss said it expected sales in Asia to almost triple by 2015 compared with 2010, mainly thanks to China.”

Upcoming Zappos iPad App Mimics a Fashion Magazine (All Things Digital)
“The new black this fall: Retailers producing content alongside their products, like an online version of a glossy fashion magazine. Zappos expects to launch its first attempt at recreating the catalog experience on the iPad in early December, just in time for the holidays… Instead of being generally available in iTunes, the Zappos app will be found on Apple’s Newsstand, which organizes magazine and newspaper subscriptions for those who use iOS 5. It will be free; a new edition will appear monthly.”

Alber Elbaz wants dramatic fashion (Belfast Telegraph)
“Alber Elbaz has announced plans to ‘bring back real drama’ to the fashion industry. The Lanvin designer staged a presentation of his Spring/Summer 12 collection at Carondelet House in Los Angeles recently. He’s already put on a similar event in Paris and explained he’s keen to get people interested in style again. ‘Geoffrey Beene told me that fashion is not show business, it’s just business,’ he said. ‘These days there are too many reality shows, and I watch many of them, but I am trying to bring back real drama to fashion.’”

London Fashion Week, Somerset House | Source: Zimbio

Battle of the catwalks as Milan clashes fashion week with London (Telegraph)
“Milan has announced that its fashion week next September will overlap those of New York and London, meaning that if no solution can be found, department store buyers and fashion magazine editors would be forced to choose one city over another.”

Burberry slumps on fears of end to Asian boom (Guardian)
“Shares in the British superbrand Burberry took a fresh pummelling as investors worried that the sun was setting on the luxury goods sales boom in Asia. Nearly £2bn has been wiped off Burberry’s market value in the past three months on fears that the Chinese economy has started to splutter.”

Stella McCartney Keeps It in Perspective (NY Times)
“Ms. McCartney also does not have that designer problem of reducing a woman’s life to one or two moments: work, a fancy party. She also makes outfits that strongly hint of home, like a piped pajama shirt worn with a matching foulard-dot pantsuit, or a loose sweater or easy all-in-one to wear to a casual dinner. And they are done with a slightly wacky sense of humor that one assumes reflects her own life and those of the people on her staff.”

H&M Targets Expansion in Asia (Bloomberg)
“Hennes & Mauritz, Europe’s second- largest clothing retailer, plans to step up the expansion of its new brands in Asia, anticipating that Chinese consumers will favor more-expensive labels such as Monki and COS… H&M is adding stores in China more rapidly than anywhere else, turning to the world’s fastest-growing major economy to help reverse falling profit.”

Christian Louboutin retrospective to open in London (Telegraph)
“Launching at the end of March 2012, London’s Design Museum will host an exhibition detailing the story of the shoe designer’s rise to the top of the glamorous footwear game, from his launch in 1991 to the present day, when he dresses the feet of everyone from Victoria Beckham to Lady Gaga.”

L-R Rick Owens, Balmain, Balenciaga S/S 2012 | Source: Style.com

Raid the Archives With Caution (NY Times)
“Mr. Ghesquiere can come away refreshed from the Balenciaga archive, but for most designers the postwar couture is an element in the cut-and-paste process that largely defines current fashion. Designers saw the Madame Grès exhibition here this summer; they know Balenciaga’s volumes and bullring pomp by heart. But they always have to do something extreme to make you think it’s new.”

Don’t Forget the Clothes! (IHT)
“They are the champions of the Internet age — designers who can tap into the ultra-modernity of image and sound as part of a multimedia experience. But as the catwalk moves into cyber space, there should be one dictum: Don’t forget the clothes! Two fashion labels — the revived Mugler brand and the British-born Gareth Pugh — were in the same territory as the Paris season clicked onto spring/summer 2012. Or make that the year 2099 as these shows streaked into the future.”

H&M cost control cushions fall in profits (Reuters)
“Hennes & Mauritz accelerated its expansion plan and said it was gaining market share as it delivered a fall in third-quarter profits that was smaller than feared. The world’s no.2 fashion retailer suffered a 15 percent drop in third-quarter profit, hit by costs such as higher cotton prices. It said sales so far in the fourth quarter were below its expectations and markets remained challenging.”

From shopping sprees to marketing technique (FT)
“So-called ‘haulers’ are tween-to-twentysomething, largely female shoppers who haul their purchases back home and post video reviews on YouTube for their followers to watch…Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory, a trends and innovation consultancy, says: ‘If that’s your world, to go to the shops and show off your stuff, then it’s incredible. This becomes a whole new mechanism for [retailers to] understand and target a demographic’.”

Official: Alexander McQueen is cooler than Chanel (Telegraph)
“Alexander McQueen, the British fashion label that scored the commission of the century – designing Kate Middleton’s wedding dress – has topped a list of cool designer fashion brands… The label, headed up by creative director Sarah Burton since Lee McQueen’s death in 2010, came eleventh overall in the 2011 list of cool global brands – four places ahead of iconic Parisian fashion brand, Chanel, at number 15.”

Zombie Boy | Source: NY Times

Designers Start to See in Triplicate (NY Times)
“With something like 250 runway shows and parties crammed into the New York Fashion Week that begins Sept. 8, a lot of designers are saying that there must be a better way to show clothes, or at least some way to grab people’s attention for more than a second or two. The latest thing, if a handful of them are correct, would be fashion shows in 3-D.”

Guess joins the queue as labels spread their wares through China (Independent)
“Guess has become the latest international brand to announce massive plans for expansion into mainland China… Guess is targeting its “lifestyle collection” of denim garments, handbags, watches and footwear at China’s ever-growing luxury goods market, one which industry insiders expect to be worth more than 84 billion yuan (13 billion dollars) this year – making it the second largest in the world after the United States.”

Burberry in step with digital age (FT)
“The luxury fashion brand Burberry has spurned glossy magazine adverts in favour of a Facebook campaign to promote the global launch of its latest fragrance, Burberry Body… On average, digital makes up 15 to 20 per cent of media spending globally. Burberry’s strategy shows how quickly the fashion industry is moving away from magazines as it seeks to interact with consumers worldwide.”

H&M and Zara Duke It Out for U.S. Online Sales (Forbes)
“Move over brick and mortar expansion tactics, retailers are finally realizing that bottom line growth isn’t always going to come by swelling square footage. Zara and H&M are taking their fast fashion competition online, while Urban Outfitters is jumping into F-commerce (making their Facebook fan page shoppable).”

First look at Carine Roitfeld: Irreverent (Telegraph)
“Ever since Carine Roitfeld stepped down from the role of editor at Vogue Paris, there have been whisperings about what is next in store for her. But now images of one of her first projects have been released and somewhat surprisingly they involve looking to the past, rather than the future.”

Hermès silk printing table by Brigitte Lacomb | Source: WSJ

The Battle for Hermès (WSJ)
“‘My job,’ says the lean, formal 44-year-old and sixth-generation descendant of the company’s founder, ‘is to keep the strong creativity of Hermès alive. To nourish the rigor and the vision . . . to make these values vibrate. ‘This,’ he says, ‘is the force of Hermès.’ Those values—the dedication to rigor, vision and creativity—are what set Hermès apart from its competitors, what company executives mean when they talk about the ‘culture of Hermès.’

Fashion’s Better Halves (WSJ)
“Two days and a handshake later, a fashion empire was born. Today, the duo presides over two of the industry’s biggest luxury labels: Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton, where the designer has been artistic director since 1997. Under Jacobs’ often iconoclastic stewardship, Vuitton now does $5 billion in annual sales. At last count, Marc Jacobs has 239 retail stores in 60 countries.”

Hundreds sick in mass fainting at Cambodian factory (Reuters)
“Nearly 300 Cambodian workers fell sick this week at a garment factory producing goods for Swedish fashion brand Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), police said on Thursday. A total 284 workers collapsed on Tuesday and Thursday at M&V International Manufacturing Ltd, a supplier for H&M, in Kompong Chhnang.”

Look Back in Envy: The ’70s Take the Runway (NY Times)
“But the 1970s resonate most insistently on fashion runways, through a proliferation of languid fall looks inspired by the greatest hits of Halston and Saint Laurent, as well as those of style-world luminaries like Sonia Rykiel, Rosita and Ottavio Missoni, Claude Montana and Karl Lagerfeld, whose fluid dresses for the house of Chloé are still being emulated.”

Zac’s back (Vogue UK)
“Zac Posen is taking his show back to New York. He will show his spring/summer 2012 offering on September 11 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall… The NY-born designer moved to Paris a year agoto show his eponymous collection there, but still presented his Z Spoke by Zac Posen diffusion line in his hometown.”