App Icons | Source: Blogversity

Online retailing: The mobile allure (FT)
“The transparency and convenience of ‘mobile commerce’ have given Americans the upper hand over retailers, according to Mr Thompson, who echoes the connect-and-inspire ideology of Silicon Valley when he says: ‘The consumer ultimately holds all the power.’ Indeed, for many traditional retailers, rising competition from the internet has capped sales growth, squeezed profit margins and forced them to re-evaluate how they use their store space.”

LVMH stake in Hermès reaches 22.3 pct (Reuters)
“The world’s biggest luxury group, LVMH, has increased its stake in leather bag maker Hermès to 22.3 percent and now has 16 percent of voting rights, according to a statement from France’s AMF stock market regulator. LVMH, which previously held 21.4 percent of its smaller rival, plans to continue buying Hermès shares ‘according to circumstances and the market situation,’ LVMH said in a filing to the AMF.”

Brand power helps Nike beat estimates (Reuters)
“Nike Inc’s quarterly results beat Wall Street estimates, as its swoosh logo attracted shoppers, especially in emerging markets, despite higher prices. Nike shares were up 3 percent at $96.65 in after-market trade on Tuesday, after closing at $93.63 on the New York Stock Exchange. Worldwide futures orders for the Nike brand, a closely watched measure of demand in coming months, grew 13 percent to $8.9 billion at the end of the quarter.”

Founder with an eye for design (FT)
“One of Mr Totterman’s ideas at the start of the business, was to ask Jean Paul Gaultier, the French fashion designer, if Inspecs could distribute Gaultier-branded spectacles in the UK. ‘At the time we had no design function – we were reliant on other people’s products and we felt we needed a big name if we were to get anywhere. To our surprise [Mr Gaultier] said, ‘Yes.’”

Sophie Theallet on Running a Fashion Business (Thread NY)
“Sophie Theallet worked under masters like Azzedine Alaïa and Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris before decamping to New York City to start her own label, which launched in 2007. Since then, she has racked up acclaim — including the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award, which she won in 2009 — and has dressed everyone from Jessica Alba to Michelle Obama.”

Bryanboy with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana | Source: Bryanboy

Luxury Firms Move to Make Web Work for Them (NYT)
“The luxury goods industry, struggling through a recession that has threatened some well-known names with extinction, is trying to cast off the kid gloves that have hampered its efforts to get a grip on technology.”

Saks beats Street with surprise profit, shares up (Reuters)
“Upscale U.S. department store operator Saks Inc reported a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations for a loss, stoking investor hopes for a luxury market recovery and sending shares up 4.4 percent.”

Younger Buyers Challenge Luxury Retailers in Asia (NYT)
“Starting up or expanding in Asia is not merely a matter of replicating the tried-and-tested models used back home — This is especially noticeable in mainland China.”

Sophie Theallet wins CFDA fashion fund (Examiner)
“On Monday, November 16th at a gala event held at Skylight Studios in NYC Sophie Theallet was declared the winner of the $200,000 cash prize and one year of mentoring from industry professionals.”

Isabel Marant: breakout designer of 2009 (Telegraph)
“She is part of an astonishingly suc cessful group of female fashion designers… who are reinventing the notion of French style with their thoughtful and sensual, yet practical, designs that blend so well into our frenetic family and work lives.”

Sophie Theallet

NEW YORK, United States — New York fashion is said to strike a balance between commerce and creativity. With few exceptions, New York designers tend to prioritise practical concerns like wearability over more frivolous concerns like the so-called wow factor. On the surface, this seems like a sound business strategy. But when designers focus too much on the practical and are obsessed with being on-trend or with what their peers are doing, everything ends up looking, well, kind of the same.

Sophie Theallet, the French-born American designer based in New York, does not have this problem. Theallet creates clothes with a distinctive mix of sophisticated wearability and refreshingly untrendy luxury. Unlike other designers who look for aesthetic inspiration from visual archetypes or vintage clothes, Theallet, who claims to not have a specific muse, designs with a more soulful, introspective process.

“My aesthetic approach is simple: I design what I feel in my heart and mind,” she explains. Inspired by the enduring styles of designers such as Jeanne Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent and Gabriel Chanel, she insists: “A beautifully executed garment, both in design and in workmanship, does not need to be bounded by trend. It is profoundly my style and my way of seeing things and it naturally became our business model.”

Masha K

Combining this deeply personal approach with a quintessential French sensibility gleaned from her days working with two of world’s foremost couturiers, Jean Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaia, Theallet’s fledging label has concocted a recipe that is showing the early signs of success.

Encouraged to start her own line by the late retailer Janet Brown, whose eponymous store many considered to be as influential as the larger department stores, Theallet launched her label in 2007, when it was quickly picked up by Barneys New York. Now, Forty Five Ten in Dallas, Blake in Chicago, and Jeffrey carry Theallet’s collection in the US, and it also has international distribution in choice retail doors in Kuwait and London.

One reason for Theallet’s breakaway success has been that she has struck a chord amongst discerning fashion tastemakers, whose support can help a young fashion brand rise above the thousands of emerging labels around the world.

First, there was the American Vogue profile last June, which was no doubt precipitated by regular attendance at Theallet’s shows by the magazine’s powerful editors Sally Singer, Hamish Bowles, and Grace Coddington. They were joined by the industry’s two most important fashion critics, Suzy Menkes and Cathy Horyn, who were clearly paying attention to the French expat’s uniquely untrendy designs. And, earlier this year, Michelle Obama single-handedly put Theallet on the global fashion map when she wore the designer’s black berriboned dress to an April unveiling of a Sojourner Truth sculpture in Washington D.C.

Despite the considerable editorial attention and early success with retailers, Theallet’s husband and business partner, Steven Francoeur, knows that there is a long road ahead before they have a sustainable business. “Unfortunately, the big fashion groups have so much financing, and it is difficult to compete being independent,” he says. But rather than accepting defeat, the husband and wife duo, who got their lifeline from a “small family investment,” remain both proactive and patient.

Though the company would benefit from a business partner, they are looking for someone “who understands our business model,” says Francoeur. Ultimately, he wants to help grow Sophie Theallet’s unique vision — on her own terms.

Robert Cordero is a Contributing Editor of The Business of Fashion.