GQ and Park & Bond pop-up shop, NYC | Source: Selectism

When mags merge with bags (FT)
“GQ is not the only media operation to embrace a more overt commercial role. More and more publications have been trying to establish ecommerce operations in an effort to extend their brands beyond the printed page, and find new sources of revenue in a tough advertising market.”

Mulberry enjoys strong festive season, sales up (Reuters)
“Luxury fashion company Mulberry Group Plc expects 2012 financial year results to exceed its earlier forecast, led by strong Christmas and New Year sales, putting it firmly in the festive winners’ camp in the UK.”

Asos Third-Quarter Sales Rise on Retail Growth Outside U.K. (Bloomberg)
“Asos Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest online clothing retailer, reported a 46 percent increase in third-quarter retail sales because of growth abroad, and said it’s confident of meeting analysts’ full-year profit estimates.”

Chinese haute-couture steps up at HK Fashion Week (Reuters)
“China at one time may have been better known for fashion knockoffs than catwalk creations, but Chinese haute-couture is now finding its feet on the international stage — even as it grows ever more popular with customers at home.”

Marc Jacobs: “I don’t know what the key to happiness is” (The Talk)
“I don’t know, I don’t know what the key to happiness is. Happy is just a feeling like every other feeling. I certainly feel happy some days and in general I am pretty happy, but I have all the other feelings as well. So I don’t know if there is a key.”

Liz Claiborne Autumn/Winter 09/10 | Source: NY Mag

For Liz Claiborne, will new name bring better luck? (MSN Money)
“When Liz Claiborne sold its namesake brand to J.C. Penney late last year for $288 million, it became obvious that a name change was in order. The company indeed announced Wednesday that starting in May it would become Fifth and Pacific. The name reflects New York (Fifth Avenue) and Pacific (The Pacific Ocean). It is not a bad corporate name, but it doesn’t obscure the challenges that lie ahead for the fashion.”

Spotlight on specialty online retailers (The Times of India)
“The red hot e-commerce story will go niche with the speciality e-tailing set to dominate the consumer internet business in 2012. Venture capitalists who pumped big bucks in group buying and mass merchandising portals like Snapdeal, Flipkart and Yebhi are now chasing the single category e-tailing start-ups.”

Inside Marc’s World (Vogue)
“Louis Vuitton’s new Marc Jacobs exhibition will open at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris on March 9 until September 16. A celebration of the designer’s 15-year-long reign at the luxury label, the exhibition will be curated by leading fashion author and lecturer Pamela Golbin.”

In With the New: A Look at 2012 (WWD)
“The publishing world is all about what’s new and what’s next, so 2012 should be right up its alley. There are lots of changes ahead in Media Land.”

Insiders | Sarah Mower (AnOther)
“Her recent citation with an MBE for ‘services to the Fashion Industry’ only confirmed to the wider public what the British fashion industry has known for years: few have done as much to ensure the rude health of London’s fashion designers than Sarah Mower.”

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.”

Chloe Raises the Roof at the Tuileries Tent in Paris | Photo: BoF

LONDON, United Kingdom — It was a fashion season of extreme weather. After the New York Fashion Week schedule was upended, first by an earthquake and then by the State of Emergency declaration that came courtesy of Hurricane Irene, an unprecedented heat wave in Paris threw buyers, editors and bloggers into a wardrobe tailspin.

The American editors were worst off, having packed for the European shows two weeks before Paris with no prior notice of the heat wave that was to come. After a few days of shows in impossibly hot venues, some of them resorted to ripping the sleeves off their outfits or just wearing their ‘airplane clothes.’

Brands tried to ease the pain. Fans were distributed at shows alongside champagne and much to everyone’s relief, Chloe arranged for the roof of the Tuileries tent to be removed for their show, letting in the sun and much welcome breeze. Meanwhile Net-a-Porter, always on top of a new market opportunity, delivered heat wave friendly clothes to editors caught without weather-appropriate attire.

But of course the real action was on the runway and in conversations between BoF and the good and the great of the global fashion tribe at a season filled with its fair share of events and parties.

Without further ado, it’s time to look back at Spring/Summer 2012, the season that was.

1. FASHION’S ENDLESS PLAYGROUND

Louis Vuitton Carrousel | Photo: BoF

At the opening of Marc Jacobs’ stunning show for Louis Vuitton on the last day of Paris Fashion Week, a large circular curtain was lifted to unveil models in dresses as light as feathers, perched coquettishly on white horses that sat atop a highly stylised carrousel. Those assembled gasped with audible pleasure and then erupted into spontaneous applause. But more than a visual delight alone, Mr. Jacobs’ magical set was a clear metaphor for an industry in constant motion, with its endless cycle of fashion shows, not to mention the musical chairs of creative directors moving from house to house.

This was the defining moment of the Spring/Summer 2012 collections, a season during which rumours continued to engulf Mr. Jacobs and other designers at the helm of major fashion houses, including Stefano Pilati, who seems safe — for now.

For others, the news was not so good. Immediately following the Vionnet show, it was announced that Rodolfo Paglialunga had been replaced. And just before Paris Fashion Week, Ungaro announced that the house and Giles Deacon had mutually agreed to part ways. Deacon was Ungaro’s fifth creative director in as many years and The Wall Street Journal reported at the end of September that Ungaro chief executive Jeffry Aronsson believes that “in-house talent can mine Ungaro’s heritage—bright colours, silk prints and sexy draped dresses—better than a high-profile designer from outside.”

But while some brands were severing ties with their creative directors, others were debuting new ones. Olivier Rousteing took the bow at the end of the Balmain show. There were also debuts from former Pringle designer Claire Waight Keller at Chloe and Manish Arora at Paco Rabanne — and, of course, the torrent of industry speculation about Galliano’s soon-to-be-announced replacement at Christian Dior.

2. BUZZ, EDGE AND SPORT COUTURE IN NEW YORK

Altuzarra prints and backpack detail | Photo: BoF

But fashion month begins in New York, which boasts more than 250 shows in a span of eight days, making it by far the busiest and buzziest fashion week of all. As one editor put it to me, “In New York we are great at picking up the leaves and throwing them up in the air and saying, ’It’s Fashion Week!’”

The unofficial kick-off for the Spring/Summer collections happens a couple of days into NY fashion week, with Fashion’s Night Out. Spearheaded by American Vogue, with individual events in almost every retail establishment across the city, it is a format that has been exported around the world. But though it has become a global phenomenon, the return on investment for brands and retailers remains in question. Most designers and retailers said it simply wasn’t worth the expenditure of time and resources, especially at one of the busiest moments in the fashion calendar. Barneys effectively sat this round out, eschewing the kind of elaborate in-store entertainment favoured by other retailers and issuing a statement that they were refocusing all efforts “on the shopping experience” and would donate ten percent of their Fashion’s Night Out sales to a fund for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

And with that, the New York shows were on and we entered a weekend of vibrant prints, inspired by places all around the world. It was a colourful vibe that New York designers seemed to have caught from London. But they gave it their own unique, New York spin with mesh fabrics and athletic details, making “sport couture” the buzzword on the lips of editors and buyers everywhere, from Joseph Altuzarra and Rag & Bone, to Alexander Wang, who has made athletic-inspired fashion part of his brand’s identity.

The week’s highlights came from power design duos Proenza Schouler and Rodarte, whose shows are now, deservedly, two of the most anticipated shows of New York Fashion Week. And both Jason Wu and Prabal Gurung took edgy steps forward from the red carpet and ladylike fare of their previous collections. These are some of the names amongst a healthy crop of promising young designers working in New York at the moment, pushing the boundaries of American fashion.

3. LONDON’S SHINING MOMENT

Giles Deacon swan hat, by Stephen Jones | Photo: BoF

It’s a shame that conflict over the global fashion calendar is putting London Fashion Week under threat just as the event really seems to be hitting its stride. This season, fashion stars in London shone brighter than ever, benefitting from the pulsating creativity of designers and digital print artists, who are largely based in the East London neighbourhoods of Hackney, Shoreditch and Dalston.

Of course, previous generations of young London designers were also praised for their creativity, but they were never able to translate this into commercial success. Garments were of poor quality and deliveries were often late. But that seems to be changing now. Indeed, Natalie Massenet, founder of Net-a-Porter told the Financial Times that “if people have been paying attention, they will see there is a new crop of extraordinary talent, which is young and dynamic and have learnt commercialism is not a dirty word.”

Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo told Suzy Menkes that although she was primarily in town to see Burberry and Tom Ford, it was the young talents who really excited her. “My camera is going and my notepad’s flying,” she said. “Between the prints and the quality, I am blown away.”

Not really ‘emerging’ designers anymore, Christopher Kane, Peter Pilotto, Jonathan Saunders, Giles Deacon and Erdem Moralioglu all put on very strong shows. Mary Katrantzou and Michael van der Ham both pushed their signature techniques forward. And the two new names in London that everyone was watching were JW Anderson (who put on both mens and womens shows within a span of five days) and Thomas Tait, a name familiar to long time readers of BoF. Cathy Horyn of The New York Times said Tait’s clothes were “imaginative and inspiring” — high praise from one of fashion’s most respected critics.

But will London’s recent successes be hijacked by the current scheduling complications? And if a sensible resolution isn’t found, will editors really choose to see independent designers in London over major advertisers in Milan? Watch this space.

4. THE RISE OF FASHION DIPLOMACY

Tods Light Installation at Italian Ambassador's residence in Paris | Photo: BoF

With all the bickering and back-and-forth between the fashion capitals, it somehow seems appropriate that national ambassadors, much better versed in the ins and outs of international diplomacy, are using their muscle to support young designers, senior editors, and famous national brands.

In Paris, the Italian ambassador invited the fashion glitterati to a special event for Tod’s, at which Chairman Diego Della Valle was present, to celebrate the launch of the brand’s Signature collection. Sir Peter Westmacott, the British ambassador to France, along with the prime minister’s wife Samantha Cameron, continued to show their support for London-based designers — Nicholas Kirkwood, Erdem Moralioglu, Roland Mouret, Antonio Berardi, Jonathan Saunders and Katie Hillier, to name a few — with a lavish event at the ambassador’s residence. And, Glenda Bailey was hosted by the American ambassador to France for a celebration of her book commemorating her ten year tenure at Harpers Bazaar USA.

5. MOUZAT AND MENKES GO VIRAL

Mark Holgate and Anna Wintour of American Vogue at Burberry Spring/Summer 2012 show | Photo: BoF

Fashion editors from two important newspapers flexed their editorial muscle this season, creating ripples throughout the fashion industry.

The season’s first viral moment came courtesy of Virginie Mouzat, fashion editor of Le Figaro, one of France’s most respected daily newspapers. Though her name is not widely known outside elite fashion circles, Mouzat’s scathing critique of Tom Ford’s private London presentation had everyone talking, even if only a select few were there to witness what Mouzat described as “a nightmare.”

When an English translation of Mouzat’s article was emailed from the American Vogue office in Paris to its senior editors in London and New York, it wasn’t long before the email was circulating throughout the global Conde Nast empire and, indeed, throughout the industry. Incredible chains of emails — from one front row name to the next, from one senior magazine editor to another, from one global brand executive to his colleagues — was a lesson in how closely tied this industry really is. Ms. Mouzat had clearly struck a chord amongst the fashion establishment, for whom email, not Twitter, is still the most powerful viral tool.

Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the IHT, set off her own viral frenzy, this time on Twitter, with the assistance of her colleague Jessica Michault. In her review of Raf Simons’ collection for Jil Sander in Milan, Ms. Menkes suggested that Mr. Simons was in talks to take over from Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent. When Michault tweeted the breaking news, which coincided with the Aquilano Rimondi show in Milan, attendees were reportedly glued to their iPhones and Blackberries, while debate quickly broke out across the social web about whether Suzy Menkes was actually saying Simons was going to YSL.

The next day, Yves Saint Laurent quelled the rumours in an official statement, which while firm, still seems to leave open the possibility that Mr. Simons, or someone else, could indeed design for YSLin the not-too-distant future. Will Suzy Menkes still be proven right? Time will tell.

6. PRE-TAIL GAINS MOMENTUM, BUT FACES OPERATIONAL ROADBLOCKS

Edgy Glamour at Jason Wu Spring/Summer 2012 | Photo: BoF

When Aslaug Magnusdottir and Lauren Santo Domingo launched their “pre-tail” start-up Moda Operandi (MO) last season, they must have known that the model would generate copycats, just as Gilt Groupe (itself inspired by Vente Privee) and Groupon were copied by hundreds of other similar businesses.

But as it turns out, Moda Operandi’s fast followers have not been other startups. Rather, it’s major media and retail brands who got into the pre-ordering game this season. Online industry bible Style.com debuted an “Instant Get” program for one-off products from six New York-based designers and venerable New York luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman partnered with Jason Wu to offer pre-orders on selected items from his Spring/Summer 2012 collection. Sister company Neiman Marcus posted an exclusive pre-ordering opportunity for Donna Karan’s Spring 2012 collection, along with an interview between fashion director Ken Downing and Ms. Karan herself.

But fresh with a $10 million capital injection from New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm, the MO team had big plans of their own, announcing a partnership with Vogue.com just in time for fashion week, which directly linked the latest runway images to MO’s pre-order platform.

“We’ve experienced a steady rate of growth since our launch in February,” said Ms. Magnusdottir at the end of New York Fashion Week, “but the collaboration with Vogue has accelerated the rate of growth of both member acquisition and sales.” Indeed, Magnusdottir said that membership is expected to grow from 15,000 just after launch, a customer base built primarily on the personal networks of the founders, to an expected 100,000 members by the end of the year, driven by affiliations with Vogue.com and GOOP, the online media brand of Gwyneth Paltrow.

But despite the clear momentum, the model still faces a major roadblock that is out of the control of pre-tail players like MO: inefficiency in the fashion supply chain. As it stands, consumers still have to wait four to five months to receive most pre-ordered products. If pre-ordering is really going to provide instant gratification to consumers who are interested in buying from the runway, brands and retailers will ultimately need to deliver products more quickly than this. Burberry delivers its pre-ordered products within eight weeks, and Style.com’s ‘Instant Get’ products were due to be available within a few days of the 31 October launch.

Indeed, the broad success of the pre-ordering model rests on the ability of designers to compress delivery lead times. In response to this suggestion, Ms. Magnusdottir said she expected that supply chains would eventually be compressed over time, enabling MO to better match demand with product delivery.

Based on this season’s pre-commerce momentum, it can’t be long before other major fashion e-commerce players such as Net-a-Porter and Shopbop get in on the pre-ordering game. If the industry manages to sort out its supply chain issues, better aligning the operations and media cycles by delivering goods closer to the peak of consumer interest, could pre-commerce eventually just become plain old e-commerce?

Imran Amed is founder and editor-in-chief of The Business of Fashion

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.”

Marc Jacobs | Source: Fashionfreax.net

Marc Jacobs To Dior? (Huffington Post)
“The question of who will take the top job at Dior has remained since Galliano’s ousting. But WWD writes that meetings between Dior representatives from LVMH, the luxury conglomerate that owns the Christian Dior label as well as Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and a host of other top brands, and Jacobs’ legal representatives are set to take place this week in Paris.”

Carine Roitfeld by Karl Lagerfeld (Interview)
“Although Carine Roitfeld is no longer the editor of French Vogue, she remains steadily at the perch of the fashion world, standing atop those super-high bondage-referencing heels that she partly made a staple of Parisian style. But la femme parisienne, which Roitfeld very much is, makes her own ground wherever she walks.”

Cut from a different cloth (FT)
“What happens when bespoke is not enough? As the ability to personalise everything from your trainers to your trench has become democratised thanks to the internet, those in search of the truly special – the ne plus ultraof made-to-order – have become frustrated. Even more so as their old go-to solution, the tailor, has been constrained by the increasing homogeneity of cloth.”

J. Crew’s Canadian shoppers balk at higher prices (The Globe and Mail)
“J. Crew has raised its merchandise prices by about 15 per cent in its Canadian store and on its new Canadian e-commerce site compared with those at its U.S. outlets. For online customers, taxes and duties raised the final price for orders in some cases by as much as 50 per cent compared with the U.S. site they previously ordered from.”

Summer Scouting (On the Runway)
“F.N.O. was a good idea when it began, back in the depths of the recession when stores were virtually empty. But now it’s become a party, an institutionalized kickoff to Fashion Week, and though it apparently raises money for some causes, I have to believe that the costs of security, crowd control and entertainment, not to mention the traffic headaches, outweigh the actual benefits.”

Marc Jacobs | Source: Wajima

Marc Jacobs: The Survivor (NY Times)
“Call him a genius. Call him a junkie, an original, a shameless copycat, a winsome recluse, a brazen exhibitionist. Marc Jacobs has heard it all. And he has absorbed it all with a hard-won equanimity.”

One size does not fit all (FT)
“Sizing is a national issue: whether fashion brands are upscaling their definition of a size four for the upscaled US consumer, shrinking their purses for Japan, or… launching a new shoe shape specifically for the Hong Kong foot.”

Global luxury brands flock to Hong Kong bourse (AFP)
“Some of the world’s top luxury brands are set to list on the Hong Kong bourse to tap China’s deep capital markets — and draw more customers… China is forecast to be the world’s top buyer of products such as cosmetics, handbags, watches, shoes and clothes by 2015.”

Asos sales boosted by international growth (BBC)
“Asos has reported a sharp rise in full-year revenue as sales at the online fashion retailer’s international business continue to grow rapidly… “I am pleased to report another successful year for Asos,” said the group’s chief executive Nick Robertson.”

Vuitton’s Intrepid Effort to Court China’s Tourists (WSJ China Real Time Report)
“LV’s museum partnership also fits into China’s recent art rage. According to a report commissioned by the European Fine Art Foundation, China is now the world’s second-largest market for art and antiques.”

François-Henri Pinault | Source: Coolspotters

PPR Chief to Run Gucci Himself (NY Times)
“The French luxury magnate François-Henri Pinault said… he would personally take charge of Gucci Group as he reorganizes its parent company to focus on the most profitable businesses. Robert Polet, who has headed Gucci since 2004, will be stepping down in a few weeks… Mr. Pinault also said Paul Deneve would replace Valérie Hermann as chief executive of Yves Saint Laurent.”

At Marc Jacobs, the Show Before the Show (NY Times)
“‘Sometimes, I don’t know how we got from there to here,’ Mr. Duffy said, referring to the early days of his 27-year partnership with Mr. Jacobs, when the two of them constructed sets themselves and went around ‘with a tin cup’ to friends. ‘Nobody has any idea what it takes to do all this,’ he added.”

Hermès Wants LVMH to Cut Stake to Free Up Shares in the Market (Bloomberg)
“Hermès wants LVMH to reduce its stake by more than half to free up shares on the open market… With the family controlling more than 70 percent of Hermès stock, ‘it’s not normal’ that LVMH Chief Executive Officer Bernard Arnault should hold 20.2 percent of the shares, Bertrand Puech said in an interview in Paris yesterday. ‘We want him to reduce his stake to less than 10 percent.’”

Cinderella Dreams, Shoestring Budget? No Problem (WSJ)
“If consumers can rent a movie by mail, or wheels on a whim, why not a couture gown should the occasion strike? That’s the concept behind Rent the Runway, a website launched in November 2009 that promises to give ‘every woman the opportunity to be Cinderella for the night’.”

Cast Your Vote for Calgary (NY Times)
“Imran Amed, the founder and editor of the popular Web site The Business of Fashion, has teamed with the renowned British leather craftsman Bill Amberg to create a new line of unisex totes designed with the globetrotting fashion follower in mind.”

Mount Street | Photo: Nick Ingram

LONDON, United Kingdom — For years, London’s Bond Street and Sloane Street have been the destinations of choice for luxury brands looking to set up shop in the British capital to serve the wealthy Arabs, Russians, Indians and Asians who call the city home, and more recently, the hundreds of thousands of luxury shoppers that have been descending on London, bolstered by a weaker pound and the depth of riches on offer from every luxury brand imaginable.

But a stone’s throw away on Mount Street, a former backwater of gentlemen’s collector shops and art galleries, a remarkable transformation has been taking place that is giving Bond Street a run for London’s luxury retail supremacy. Following last year’s multi-million pound privately-funded street restoration by Grosvenor, taking a walk down the newly-restored Mount Street is not only visually and aesthetically inspiring, it’s also a testament to the confidence in the ongoing luxury growth wave that paused for only a short while after the economic crisis of 2008.

The list of new brands that have arrived is staggering. Christian Louboutin, Lanvin, Azzaro, Goyard, CH Carolina Herrera, Stephen Webster, Aesop, Wunderkind, Balenciaga and Rick Owens are amongst those who have moved into the Mount Street area in recent years, creating a luxury land-grab unlike anything seen in any major fashion capital around the w0rld. In the last few weeks alone, both Mackintosh and Nicholas Kirkwood have officially opened their shops on Mount Street, with further openings expected soon, including LVMH-owned Loewe’s first London outpost and Roland Mouret, around the corner on Carlos Place.

Certainly, Bond Street has had a remarkable resurgence of its own — welcoming the sparkling new Louis Vuitton Maison, the first London Tory Burch flagship and an expanded Miu Miu store  — but many luxury brands big and small have chosen to set up shop on Mount Street instead, largely because it offers a refined experience better suited to the desires of consumers who want to come to shop discreetly, and then enjoy a drink or a meal, while their chauffeur-driven cars wait patiently to whisk them away; a real luxury experience.

It all began with Marc Jacobs, whose first London store was opened on Mount Street in 2007 in an old antique shop, setting off a frenzy of activity in the neighbourhood that has continued unabated ever since. “Six years ago, Mount Street did not have one single fashion brand,” recalls Alexis Mourot, group chief operating officer of Christian Louboutin, who at the time was part of the team setting up shop for Marc Jacobs in London and more recently, spearheaded the effort to bring Mr. Louboutin’s legendary red-soled heels to Mount Street.

Of course, Mr. Jacobs is famous for breathing retail life into Bleecker Street in New York and the Palais Royal in Paris, but even these transformations pale in comparison to the gleaming storefronts that are now catering to the every whim of luxury consumers on Mount Street.

So apart from Mr. Jacobs’ uncannily successful real-estate track record, what is it about Mount Street that has convinced so many brands to take the plunge?

The lower cost of real estate has certainly played a part. Although rents in Mount Street have almost quadrupled, from £85 per square foot per year a few years ago to £325 per square foot per year today, they are still much more affordable than rents on Bond Street, which have skyrocketed, making it the most expensive retail real estate in Europe at over £925 per square foot per year for the best space. This is up almost 20 percent in the year up to September 2010, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a real-estate and property firm.

For luxury brands, the fixed cost of expensive retail is often a huge cost-sink, and especially so for smaller brands who don’t have the positive cash flow from other longstanding stores to help finance the upfront cost of setting up a store and servicing the rent that has to be paid, even when consumers aren’t buying.

But most luxury executives I spoke to insisted that cheaper rent, if anything, was only a minor consideration for choosing Mount Street. “Not at all,” says shoe designer Christian Louboutin. “It is just because it is such a beautiful street.”

Nicholas Kirkwood, thought by many to be at the very beginnings of the next great luxury shoe business after Mr. Louboutin, agrees. “I never considered Bond Street or Sloane Street, and it wasn’t due to the rents, but rather because I felt that the historical charm and beauty of Mount Street made sense to me for the luxury experience that I want to have for my first shop.”

There were other more practical considerations as well. “In order to make a significant impact on these streets we felt we would need to invest in a much larger store than we actually require for the size of our collections,” explains Gary Bott, brand manager for Mackintosh. “Mount Street lends itself well to our size as many of the properties are Georgian buildings that perfectly suit our retail concept.”

Louboutin’s Alexis Mourot echoes that sentiment. “Mount Street offers much more power in terms of visual presentation. We have a great window and we use it to have a little bit of fun,” he says.

Nicholas Kirkwood also found the space to be well-suited for this purpose. “The corner location, unusual for a for a shoe store, has 7 large arched windows that stretch across the entire facade of both Mount Street and the adjoining Carpenter Street,” he explains, adding that his new space also houses his design studio, enabling him to stay connected to the retail consumer, even as he designs his next collections.

But apart from the beautiful architecture and well-proportioned space on offer, the biggest draw seems to have been the balance of retail with restaurants and other luxury businesses that have helped to create an authentic luxury experience, and a real feeling of community.

“At Aesop we select our retail locations around existing and forward potential and with a weighting toward complementary brands,” says Dennis Paphitis, the highly-respected founder of the Australian luxury skincare brand. “But the gin and tonics at The Connaught were also part of the equation and similarly the offerings across the road at Scotts. A unique and great retail offer outside of fashion works well for us.”

Indeed, over and over again, executives used the words “luxury community” to describe the convivial commercial spirit of Mount Street. “We try to  be part of the community,” says Mr. Mourot. “We work together with the other brands as a team because we recognise that our customers go from one store to another. We’re like a small family.”

This is not just PR talk. Mount Street boasts an official association of retailers, who meet regularly to discuss common issues and make plans for the future, much like those in a residential neighbourhood. So, rather than think of themselves as cut-throat competitors, building ever bigger, brighter and blingier stores, the retailers, restaurateurs and hoteliers who have set up on Mount Street recognise that together they can create the kind of rarefied luxury experience that has been lost in other luxury destination streets.

“As the major retail streets today can look more and more similar, this one has a charm and character all of its own. We appreciate the rare combination of international businesses mixed side by side with others that are truly local. This you can’t find everywhere,” explains Caroline Brown, chief executive of Carolina Herrera.

But how are the businesses performing? Beautiful architecture and community alone do not a retail business make. At the end of the day, successful retail is about bringing consumers into the store and making those cash registers ring. “For us, it is performing very, very well,” reports Mr. Mourot. “We are continuing to experience strong double digit growth each year, but then again, this also reflects the general strength of the Christian Louboutin brand.”

“Business is reaching our expectation on this location and is growing each month,” says Ms. Brown of Carolina Herrera. “Especially strong sales from the start were the women’s handbag and apparel collection which is consistent with our expectations for a city like London.”

But the recent street restoration works did not come without some pain for some residents like Aesop who have been on Mount Street since 2008, a few more years than most. “We’re relieved that the disruptive roadworks in Mount Street have now come to a close and foot traffic has returned to the expected levels,” admits Mr. Paphitis.

Looking ahead, with the extensive roadworks completed, a multi-million pound water fountain installation by Tadao Ando to open just outside the Connaught Hotel, and the rumoured announcement of the arrival on Mount Street of one of the world’s hottest fashion brands as well as an iconic American fashion brand, things are only looking up for this once sleepy Mayfair neighbourhood.

The only problem now, it seems, is finding space to welcome more brands. By the sounds of it, none of the current occupants are going anywhere soon.

Imran Amed is founder and editor-in-chief of The Business of Fashion

A burst of colour at Burberry A/W 2011 | Source: Style.com

In High Definition Color (IHT)
“Orange, marigold, lagoon blue and purple — the start of the Milan menswear winter season has been drenched with color. High Definition vision is the message from designers who seem determined to look forward… and to put a brighter perspective on autumn 2011.”

Publishing, Without Publishers (NY Times)
“Luxury brands have always advertised in the likes of Vogue, Esquire and Architectural Digest and tried… to get mentioned in the editorial pages… [But now companies] are reaching out directly to consumers — and cutting out the middlemen.”

Next big trend: virtual fitting rooms (FT)
“Augmented reality, also known as interactive video technology… is set to transform the consumer experience. ‘It’s the next step in creating a seamless experience for the consumer at home, closing the gap between the store and online shopping.’”

Richemont Sales Rise 33 percent (Bloomberg)
“Richemont SA, the world’s largest jewelry maker, said fiscal third-quarter revenue rose 33 percent, helped by Asian sales of watches and the acquisition of online fashion retailer Net-a-Porter.com. Revenue in the three months ended Dec. 31 increased to 2.11 billion euros.”

Robert Duffy charms Tokyo (TokyoWeekender)
“The success of American fashion genius Marc Jacobs is in large part due to early support from Japan. His namesake brand’s co-founder, Robert Duffy, was in Tokyo to talk about the new Aoyama flagship store and navigating his unique relationship with the designer.”