Scarlett Johansson for Dolce & Gabbana, courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana

P&G Flirts With Luxury Cosmetics (WSJ)
“Dolce & Gabbana The Makeup marks P&G’s first foray into upscale cosmetics, a huge jump from its drugstore CoverGirl and Max Factor brands.”

Retail sales slide in February (Drapers)
In the UK, “retail like-for-like sales fell 1.8% in February and fashion sales recorded their worst performance since last April as the end of the sales and bad weather hit trade.”

Retailers widen options, including more modest clothes (USA Today)
Modest clothes are making a comeback at U.S. Retailers.

Smythson considers sale (Drapers)
Smythson has hired advisors to help with a potential sale of the company.

Giles Deacon for Smythson

LONDON, United Kingdom — When Giles Deacon developed a set of chic correspondence cards, each with a signature Giles sketch, in collaboration with Smythson earlier this year, the first batch sold out in just one day — on both sides of the Atlantic. For all you hard core Giles fans, the cards appear to have been re-ordered and are now available for sale again.

Even better, here at BoF we were lucky to have had a special sketch from Giles (you can see it below the jump), built around our new brand identity, in celebration of our exclusive Inside the Studio interview series with Giles which debuted earlier this week with Chapter 1, “Unstructured Exploration…”

On Monday, February 9, Chapter II will be released here on The Business of Fashion and on www.swarovskisparkles.tv. In the second installment, which focuses on Giles’ creative process, he tells us that he is “A Designer Who Has Always Drawn,” explaining how illustration forms a key part of his creative process by giving life and meaning to his ideas.

Stay tuned. … Continue Reading