Vivienne Westwood | Source: Entrelinhas e Botoes

Westwood: From outsider to subversive insider (FT)
“This coming week marks 30 years since Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s ‘pirate’ collection stormed the runway in London with a blaze of sunshine colours and ethnic prints. The show was Westwood’s first swagger on to the catwalk, forging a sophisticated post-punk aesthetic with a billowing new romantic silhouette.”

Duffy Sued (Vogue UK)
“LVMH has defended Robert Duffy against claims made by a former Marc Jacobs chief operating officer, alleging that the company’s president is guilty of sexual discrimination and using company money for personal expenses.”

Oxford Street to receive £1bn makeover (Fashion United)
“East Oxford Street is about to get a makeover. The New West End Company, which represents 600 businesses in London’s West End, has revealed over £1billion of private and public sector investment… set to be injected into the East end of Oxford Street by 2016.”

H&M Profit Misses Estimates as Retailer Absorbs Cost Rises (Bloomberg)
“H&M, the world’s second-largest clothing retailer, reported first-quarter profit that fell more than analysts anticipated as the company decided against passing on higher costs to customers.”

Rise: Camilla Bruerberg (Dazed Digital)
“Camilla Bruerberg is a Norwegian menswear designer who founded her label C/BRUERBERG in 2010 at Oslo Fashion Week. Her latest collection, SOUP, uses a variety of different materials to create pieces focused on the fusion of knit and digital print.”

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.”

Robert Duffy and Marc Jacobs | Source: Twitpic via @robertcduffy

In our latest CEO Talk, Robert Duffy, longtime business partner of Marc Jacobs, speaks to BoF about the power of Twitter.

NEW YORK, United States — When Robert Duffy posted his first-ever Tweet on 30 January, saying “Welcome Tweeties,” he had no idea what he was getting into. What happened in the weeks that followed is an excellent lesson for fashion executives everywhere: the best way to understand social media is to use social media.

You see, Robert Duffy had never used Twitter before. In fact, he didn’t really even know what Twitter was until a member of his team introduced it to him. Eventually, he warmed to the idea of using Twitter to share the behind-the-scenes action of the Marc Jacobs show, still the highlight of New York Fashion Week even after 26 years in business.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing. On his second day of tweeting, Duffy accidentally deleted all of his tweets. In the days that followed, he learned about direct messaging and retweeting and privacy on Twitter. Still, Duffy stuck with it. He began each day by getting on his stationary bicycle and reading the hundreds of tweets that had come in over night, listening and responding to feedback and questions on stores, customer service, the Marc Jacobs website, and — music to our BoF ears — how to run a fashion business.

Soon, Robert became an expert tweeter, not only on the techniques and norms of using Twitter, but also by speaking authentically in his own voice and even sharing a few private moments with Marc Jacobs himself. This authenticity resonated across the fashion Twittersphere in thousands and thousands of retweets, and spreading to blog posts and articles in the mainstream media.

By February 13, the power of Twitter had really dawned on Duffy: “I have learned much from doing this,” he tweeted. “Am really better for the experiance [sic]. You talk to the whole world in 1 second. Takes no time. Amazing!”

Still, he announced to his almost 7,000 followers that he would be hanging up his Twitter hat. And yesterday, after the Marc by Marc Jacobs show, his @robertcduffy handle was transformed into @MJInternational, leaving room for an as-yet unnamed someone else to fill Duffy’s shoes.

In a very special exclusive CEO Talk for The Business of Fashion, I caught up with Robert Duffy backstage before the Marc by Marc show, armed with questions from our loyal BoF followers, to learn more about his Twitter experience.

… Continue Reading

Robert Duffy | Source: Style.com

The Future Of Fashion, Part One: Robert Duffy (Style.com)
“That unflappability has presumably served Duffy well over the last two and a half decades, as he and Jacobs have gone from being the self-described “rebels” of American fashion to becoming the leaders of a global mega-brand. During our conversation… he talked about his experiences with tweeting and live streaming.”

Rewarding Men With a Store of Their Own (WSJ)
“High-end fashion has long catered to women more than men. Hermès and Coach are the latest fashion houses making new efforts to shrink the gender gap.”

New York Fashion Week Gets Techy (WSJ)
“New York fashion week officially kicks off Thursday morning, in what will assuredly be the most open-and-available shows to the public ever. No, that doesn’t mean just anyone can walk into the tents… But if you’ve got an Internet connection, you can do the next best thing: watch a live-stream of the show online. Fashion has finally gotten technology.”

Fashion’s Online Numbers Game: Faking an Audience (Signature 9)
“Despite a straightforward statement to the contrary, wildly inflated numbers about fashion blogs and websites abound. Sometimes the numbers come from the bloggers and websites themselves – with no verification, other times they’re seemingly pulled from thin air.”

Who Sits Where at Fashion Week and Why (Vanity Fair)
“While everyone knows that front-row seats are reserved for celebrities, V.I.P.’s, and important editors, very little is known about the strategic process that goes into filling the chairs where everyone else sits.”

Kate Moss for Longchamps | Source: Longchamps

Kate Moss: Bags of Style (IHT)
“‘I am not doing it for different personalities — it’s what I like,’ says Ms. Moss — or Kate, as she is known. At age 36, she has taken another step in her second life, as a designer rather than as a supermodel using her pretty face and sensual lips to promote other brands.”

Esprit 1st-Half Net Profit Down 5.2 percent; Beats Forecasts (WSJ)
“Fashion retailer Esprit Holdings Ltd. said Wednesday its first-half net profit fell 5.2% percent from a year earlier as a disappointing wholesale business offset the improvement in its core retail operations.”

Abercrombie & Fitch’s Style Sense Wears Thin With Some Shoppers (WSJ)
“Retail analysts said Abercrombie’s troubles go beyond pricing to its once unerring sense of style, a problem that could be trickier to fix. The logo T-shirt and torn jeans ensemble that Abercrombie made the unofficial school uniform a decade ago has played out.”

Marc Jacobs to Stream Show Live While Robert Duffy Hypes It via Twitter (NY Magazine)
“Further democratizing the Fashion Week process, Jacobs’s business partner Robert Duffy just started tweeting to document Marc’s progress on the collection.”

Luxury in 2010 (CNN)
“Is there a luxury hotlist for 2010? CNN’s Ayesha Durgahee reports.”