Classic Timberland Boot | Source: Timberland

Timberland to be taken over by VF Corporation in $2bn deal (Independent)
“VF Corporation… said outdoor clothing was among the fastest-growing apparel categories… ‘The Timberland brand is synonymous with high quality outdoor footwear and apparel… the company had been number one on its acquisition hit list for years.”

Clothes: Too much, too cheap (Independent)
“Blame the so-called democratisation of fashion if you will… consumers can ‘get the Marc Jacobs look’ only hours after the designer’s biannual New York show has taken place, and this despite the fact that the prototype… won’t go on sale until almost half a year later.”

Lululemon: Momentum Continues (Financial Post)
“Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s strong showing in the first quarter came despite unfavourable weather in Canada and the United States, lean inventories and a transition in its e-commerce business.”

Fash File: Umit Benan, Pitti Uomo, Rodarte (IHT)
“When Umit Benan won the Who Is On Next’ Pitti Imagine award in Florence two years ago… [the] designer was struggling to make an impact… But now this creative force is being nurtured at Trussardi, where Umit will be named this week both men’s and women’s designer.”

Alexandre Plokhov’s Poetic Elegance (Dazed Digital)
“Back in the early part of the new millennium when Hedi Slimane was making his indelible mark on menswear with his work at Dior Homme, a New York based Russian émigré called Alexandre Plokhov was creating a quiet revolution of his own with his cult label, Cloak… After a spell designing for Versace Homme, Plokhov is back with his own eponymous label.”

Salvatore Ferragamo | Source: Museo Salvatore Ferragamo

Florence Reasserts Craftsmanship (JC Report)
“Gone are the days that glossy surface advertising alone meant stellar profits, and even designers such as Tom Ford, who helped accelerate the previous generation of luxury sales, are now reverting to more authentic brand propositions.”

Mulberry bags huge profits rise (Evening Standard)
“The fashion retailer — which beat Burberry, Pringle of Scotland and Victoria Beckham to win ‘Designer Brand of the Year’ at the British Fashion Awards…posted pre-tax profits of £4.7 million for the six months to the end of September, compared with £1.5 million a year earlier.”

Lululemon customers and investors walk path of devotion (Globe and Mail)
“Amid the high expectations around Lululemon, executives sprint to spot customers’ needs by keeping in close touch with them through free yoga classes and focus groups. They hire staff who are themselves active… and then offering their own feedback on products.”

On the front lines in the vintage clothing war (Toronto Star)
“This war has been fuelled not only by an explosion of vintage stores in the past five years, but also by Toronto’s emergence as a major hub on the vintage-clothing distribution pipeline.”

You Can’t Look Away (Style.com)
“Lady Gaga, James Franco, Anna Dello Russo—the year’s newsmakers seemed to turn every moment of their waking lives into a spectacle, part deadly serious, part put-on. Backstage, too, the players and the moves they made were full of bravado.”

Aldo’s global footprint (Globe and Mail)
“Canadian shoppers are familiar with Aldo shoes. But few realize that this Montreal-based retailer has quietly built an empire that spans 1,500 stores in 55 countries.”

Vera Wang’s Idea of Empire: Marry High, Low, In Between (WSJ)
“Ms. Wang… is pursuing a three-tiered retail strategy of selling through luxury, midpriced and discount stores. A growing number of designers… are trying to deploy similar strategies as economic worries linger.”

Lululemon Grows Fast on a Slim Budget (WSJ)
“Lululemon belongs to an emerging class of retailers focused primarily on designing, making and selling athletic wear to women—and grabbing growing shares of the estimated $15 billion market for women’s fitness attire.”

Tom Ford’s Very Small, Glamorous Show (On the Runway)
“When you’re Tom Ford, and you’ve been away from women’s fashion for six years, more than likely you’ve thought a great deal about your return, perhaps even plotted it down to the last buttonhole.”

Thierry Mugler Appoints New Creative Director (Marie Claire)
“Lady Gaga’s stylist, Nicola Formichetti, has been appointed the new Creative Director of Thierry Mugler… Formichetti was chosen for the role because he represents a new direction in French fashion.”

Andrew Rosen | Source: The High Line Portrait Project

Made in Midtown: Meet Andrew Rosen, Theory (Huffington Post)
“As an inveterate horseman, Andrew Rosen knows the power of bloodlines– and in his, fashion run deep. His grandfather Arthur, a dress-maker, launched Puritan Manufacturing Co. in Boston nearly a century ago. ‘I remember as a young boy running around the factories and the warehouses, playing in-between all the clothes,’ he says.”

Lululemon rides out recession in quality fashion (The Globe and Mail)
“Christine Day could have followed the path of other high-end retailers in the recession. They slashed prices and scaled back offerings as consumers pulled back their spending. Instead, the chief executive officer of yoga wear purveyor Lululemon Athletica Inc. took a contrarian approach – and now it’s paying off.”

Alexander McQueen launches men’s underwear range (Telegraph)
“There has been mounting speculation over the future of the Alexander McQueen brand. It’s comforting news then, that business appears to be continuing as usual: the label has just launched its first men’s underwear collection for autumn/winter 2010.”

India’s Fashion Is Its Own Victim (WSJ)
“Fashion weeks are supposed to be trade events where fashion editors and department store buyers are the most-sought after, front-row guests. In India, for some reason, most of the front row is reserved for Bollywood actresses, retired models and socialites.”

Osman Yousefzada is the rising star of fashion (Evening Standard)
“When news broke last month that Sarah Brown had commissioned four new outfits from Yousefzada, it was confirmation that the Afghan-British designer is being taken very seriously.”

Vancouver Olympics Red Mittens | Source: Hudson's Bay Company

VANCOUVER, Canada — Every two years that global extravaganza called the Olympic Games alternates between summer and winter sports. Next in line is Vancouver which will host the XXI Olympic Winter Games between 12-28 February 2010, costing the city in excess of $1.5 billion.

Over the weekend, Tyler Brûlé reckoned in the Financial Times that Canada is wasting an opportunity to re-brand itself to the world, using the Olympics as a communications platform like Sydney and Barcelona successfully did. Would-be Canadian Prime Minister Michael Ignatieff, on the other hand, seemed to have read Mr. Brûlé’s mind, writing in a New York Times Magazine article the day before that Canada is not looking to put its own brand at the centre of these Olympics as that would be un-Canadian.

But like it or not, this is the first truly social media Olympics. A digital footprint of these games will be left for eternity on countless Facebook pages and Twitter streams. It is the first time that athletes, hailing from more than 80 countries, will be tweeting their experiences from the sidelines while spectators share their experiences in real-time, uploading photos and videos, documenting every Olympic second for their friends and family back at home.

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