Thinking, and Literally Looking, Very Big (IHT)
“Of all the performer’s covers, this Visionaire production, with its photograph of a slinky, shimmering mermaid Gaga with a tar-covered fish tail, has to be the most flamboyant. The magazine is two meters high and 1.5 meters wide, or 6 feet high and 4.8 feet wide.”

Luxury conquers its CSR fear (FT)
“An interesting policy shift is creeping through the luxury industry: after long being terrified of talking about environmental/corporate social responsibility initiatives except in the most covert whispers, a number of voices are now slowly being raised.”

Saks Beefs Up Online Content (WWD)
“Saks Fifth Avenue is making a major push to get closer to its customers. The upscale retailer today unveils its redesigned Saks POV Web site, featuring richer editorial content, such as designer profiles, coverage of brands carried at the store and lifestyle pieces highlighting the coolest restaurants, exhibits and cultural events.”

Stella McCartney to show at London Fashion Week for the first time (Telegraph)
“For the first time ever, Stella McCartney is to show the latest collection from her eponymous label at London Fashion Week… The Saturday night “special fashion presentation” on February 18 next year will, her office emphasised, be to showcase a “one-off” Stella McCartney collection.”

Abraham Moon: the name on everyone’s lips – and labels (Telegraph)
“Over the past few years everyone from Ralph Lauren to Dolce & Gabbana has descended on the place… The thing that draws them is a 174-year-old woollen mill in a sprawl of sooty Victorian stone buildings either side of the Netherfield Road. There etched on to a black vitreous panel by the entrance are the words Abm Moon & Sons Ltd.”

Tamara Mellon | Source: Sakura Cosmetiques

Tamara Mellon: write her off at your peril (Telegraph)
“‘Jimmy Choo customers feel a strong affinity with her,’ says Emma Elwick-Bates, Vogue’s market editor. ‘She’s incredibly glamorous, but also a successful businesswoman and single mother. She ticks a lot of boxes.’ All of which makes the radio silence from Jimmy Choo following the rupture look a little like panic. This is not an ailing enterprise but one that’s ‘phenomenally successful, one of our top-performing footwear and accessories brands.’”

More Luxury Brands Rolling Dice With Hong Kong IPOs (Jing Daily)
“Despite an IPO environment described by the BBC this summer as “faltering,” nearly six months after debuts by the likes of Samsonite and Prada, it seems that high-end brands are still lining up to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange… Apparently some measure of confidence has returned, though, as luxury brands seem to have regained their appetite for Hong Kong IPOs.”

Saks beats, expects holiday sales gains (Reuters)
“Luxury retailer Saks Inc forecast continued sales growth in the holiday period despite a volatile stock market, and reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as it offered shoppers fewer markdowns. The department store chain expects sales at stores open at least a year to rise by a “mid-to-high single-digit” percentage rate in the final quarter that includes the Christmas season.”

Fashion and You raises $40 mn in venture funding (Business Standard)
“Fashion and You, an invitation-only shopping site, has raised $40 million (Rs 201 crore) from a group of investors led by Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital. This is touted to be the highest investment in e-commerce space in the country, signifying the growing interest of the investors’ community in the e-commerce space in India.”

An Intellectual Fashion | Fabien Baron (AnOther)
“French-born, New York-based Fabien Baron, is a leading art director who has and continues to work on a variety of fashion, beauty and design, editorial, commercial and collaborative projects including the collage-style design on Madonna’s iconic book, Sex. He began his career at GQ before re-designing and re-launching magazines including Italian Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Arena Homme Plus and his latest, Interview, where he is also editorial director.”

Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2005 | Source: Hapsical

Tents, but No Circus (NY Times)
“But what the increasingly industrialized Fashion Week now signally lacks is a certain giddy excitement, the fanfare and promise of genius that were common in the days when you could still get close enough to it all to see the greasepaint and smell the sweat… Ms. Roitfeld claimed flatly that fashion is not much fun anymore. ‘It’s less light-hearted, less spontaneous,’ Ms. Roitfeld said. ‘Fashion has become an industry, one that increasingly stifles creation.’”

Saks, Nordstrom Say Luxury Sales Firm (Bloomberg)
“So far so good in the luxury sector, say top executives of Saks Inc. and Nordstrom Inc., as stock markets lurch up and down amid global economic uncertainty.Saks Chief Executive Officer Stephen Sadove and Nordstrom Chief Financial Officer Michael Koppel say sales at their luxury chains are holding up and that they are sticking to their forecasts.”

Cult following helps Superdry sales soar (Guardian)
“Shares in SuperGroup rose 7% after the company said total group sales were £54m in the three months to the end of July. Wholesale sales almost doubled on the strength of international demand for the retailer’s clothing. SuperGroup listed last year and has divided City opinion, with some investors viewing it is a temporary fashion fad rather than a long-term bet.”

The Rising Popularity of Hong Kong’s Young Haberdashers (Red Luxury)
“Creativity from an unlikely source — young, ambitious entrepreneurs– is cultivating China’s homegrown luxury industry. Particularly in Hong Kong, where relaxed taxes and government initiatives appeal to new businesses, industrious young men have created a niche market for haberdashery that is earning serious attention.”

Paris to sell its young (FT)
“The Council of Fashion Designers of America is taking a page out of the British Fashion Council’s playbook and is bringing 10 of the past CFDA/US Vogue Fashion Fund finalists to Paris Fashion Week. The finalists will be able to use showrooms to help them “expand their international business and increase their presence outside of the United States,” according to Steven Kolb, CFDA chief executive.”

Brioni Autumn/Winter 2011 | Source: Fashion Windows

Brioni Shock (Vogue UK)
“Brioni is ending its womenswear line, and its contract with the label’s creative director Alessandro Dell’Acqua. Brioni’s manufacturing plant in Italy, which was dedicated to the production of the brand’s womenswear collections, will be shut down in September.”

Why luxury goes hand in hand with sustainability (Guardian)
“As social and environmental stresses increase and global resources come under greater pressure, the concept of luxury, always fluid, will keep changing. There have also been positive efforts within the sustainability movement to redefine luxury as something that embodies the social and environmental credentials of a product or service… If we read ‘luxury’ as placing an importance on durability, pride in buying less and better, the link to sustainability becomes less jarring.”

Billionaire Slim Spends $8.8 Million to Boost Saks, Times Stakes (Bloomberg)
Billionaire Carlos Slim spent $8.8 million to boost his stakes in Saks Inc and New York Times Co, adding to his biggest U.S. holdings as the stock market slumped last week… Slim, who had been Saks’s largest shareholder before the purchases and last acquired the New York-based retailer’s shares in April 2009, raised his stake to 16 percent from 15.7 percent.”

What China Should Learn From Hong Kong’s Luxury Malls (Mao Suit)
“There are currently upwards of 50 new luxury malls currently being built across China to tap into rapidly growing luxury goods market, yet very few of them will come anything close to the standard of the luxury malls developed in HK over the last few years… What the HK developers do so well is that they create mixed-use shopping malls that… Create an ecosystem of real estate that brings masses of people to the mall everyday and easily translating into sales.”

Deutsche brands (FT)
“German fashion has been a bit off the international radar since Jil Sander sold her namesake label and Wolfgang Joop left Joop! to start up a new label, Wunderkind… Recently, however, that has begun to change. Thanks to the combination of a buzzy Berlin fashion week and a new generation of fashion-forward consumers, a growing number of local heroes is emerging in the country.”

Barneys' new team photographed by Jason Schmidt | Source: NY Magazine

Barneys’ Fall Line (NY Magazine)
“Like many of its clients, Barneys has had its ups, its downs, and its great many in-betweens, and it is, at right this very moment, engaged in that most New York of pursuits: a reinvention… Last summer, Mark Lee was hired as Barneys’ new CEO. His reputation is as golden as it gets in the fashion world: He’s spent his career in Europe occupying high-level positions at important fashion houses—­Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, and, most recently, Gucci.”

On the Phone: M-Commerce Is the Word (WWD)
“… Along comes m-commerce, capturing sales on the go. It’s quickly becoming a digital priority for the fashion industry, and accessories are rising as a hot category… Net-a-Porter’s accessories buying manager, Sasha Sarokin, reports that with m-commerce, more ‘everyday’ and ‘wear-now’ accessories, like friendship bracelets or small pendant necklaces, are big sellers. Higher-ticket items sell as well, particularly those that pack a strong photographic punch.”

Saks says market turmoil warrants caution (Reuters)
“Luxury department store operator Saks Inc forecast same-store sales growth and better margins for the rest of the year even as the volatile financial markets give it reason to be cautious about fall sales.Shares were down 28 cents, or 3.1 percent, at $8.79 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Stock market volatility has made the company more careful about expenses and how much inventory to carry to be prepared in the event shoppers cut back.”

J. Crew finally treks to Canada (Calgary Herald)
“After being sought out for years by Canadians as a favoured cross-border shopping destination, J. Crew is set to open its first set of fashionable doors in Canada in less than a week…J. Crew’s marketing, which is handled internally, has evolved over the years from a catalogue-driven business into an evolving social-media force.”

RISE: Lisoka (Dazed Digital)
“Lisoka is the creation of Swedish menswear designer Lisa Våglund. Having graduated with a Master’s degree from the prestigious Danish Design School in Copenhagen, she went on to start her own fashion line of clothes with an eco-consciousness… A dream would be to work for a brand like Raf Simons or Kris Van Assche.”