Lanvin by But Sou Lai | Source: NY Times

The Inside Story of a Couture Dream in the Making (IHT)
“Few dare to focus on a blank page, even if it has a gilded trim, or to imagine that a cover could be made from gros grain, with the texture of a couture dress and no sign of a title — until you find the names embossed on the gilding: ‘Lanvin’ and ‘Alber Elbaz.’… ‘I didn’t want to make it a retrospective, the beginning of the end,’ says Mr. Elbaz, who is celebrating covertly his first decade at Lanvin.”

Lion Capital’s Lyndon Lea defends his performance (Telegraph)
“In recent months, however, Lion, a private equity firm famous for turning Jimmy Choo into an international luxury brand, has lost some of its glamour… Lea models Lion’s culture on the creative businesses it invests in, a different approach from most numbers-obsessed private equity firms, even if he does get some stick for the wild parties.”

Supergroup sales jump over Christmas (Reuters)
“SuperGroup, the company behind the Superdry fashion brand, posted a 22 percent rise in group sales over the key Christmas period as it overcame distribution issues which had dogged the firm in 2011.”

Valentino’s Creative Directors Prepare For Their Men’s Runway Debut (Style.com)
“Tomorrow in Florence, Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli debut their Fall ‘12 menswear collection as the invited guests of Pitti Uomo. The occasion marks the first runway show for the men’s collections, which the designers took over several season ago and have been quietly showing by appointment in their Place Vendome showroom—where it has been a quiet highlight of the Paris collections—ever since.”

Sole Man Blake Mycoskie (WSJ)
“Although he’s the founder of TOMS Shoes, the company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair sold, his name isn’t Tom. Social entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie named his for-profit company after his original charitable inspiration, ‘Shoes for a Better Tomorrow,’ which eventually became ‘Tomorrow’s Shoes,’ and then ‘TOMS.’

Steve Jobs | Source: Wired.com

Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011 (Wired.co.uk)
“The full legacy of Steve Jobs will not be sorted out for a very long time. When employees first talked about Jobs’ “reality distortion field,” it was a pejorative — they were referring to the way that he got you to sign on to a false truth by the force of his conviction and charisma. But at a certain point the view of the world from Steve Jobs’ brain ceased to become distorted. It became an instrument of self-fulfilling prophecy. As product after product emerged from Apple, each one breaking ground and changing our behavior, Steve Job’s reality field actually came into being. And we all live in it.”

A Sea Change in Style (IHT)
“The carousel of horses — and maybe the merry-go-round of the fashion world — twirled through the Louis Vuitton show on Wednesday, as the models stepped off the white horse roundabout, and the audience debated whether this would be the last LV show headed by Marc Jacobs.”

No sombre mood allowed on Paris catwalks (Reuters)
“Ending a month-long marathon of fashion shows which started in New York, fashion critics said the mood on the catwalk was upbeat and relaxed – in contrast with the gloomy media headlines they read in the papers while waiting for the show to begin. ‘I find this spring/summer season to be much lighter and uplifting than the others,’ said Linda Fargo, senior vice-president in charge of fashion at Bergdorf Goodman.”

SuperGroup fires off shock profit warning (Guardian)
“SuperGroup, the company behind the fast-growing Superdry brand, has fired off a shock profit warning after a computer glitch at its warehouse… The shares dropped 25% in morning trading on Wednesday after a misfiring IT system resulted in products being dispatched in small and extra large but not the sizes in between, leading to depleted sales. The company said the upset would wipe up to £9m off this year’s profits.”

Kanye West, Designer (Yawn) (NY Times)
“‘I gave you everything that I had,’ he said, one of his few printable remarks. If that is true, Mr. West faces bigger obstacles in life than credit-card debt. His show was described by those who attended as, at best, a disappointment, and yet the rapper could be found almost everywhere during Paris Fashion Week defending himself.”

Bernard Arnault | Source: Fashion Pile

Bernard Arnault Rethinks the Cult of Fashion Gurus (Newsweek)
“Arnault suggests it’s time for change, time to recast his global, glittering, status-laden empire as something else. The watchwords are: intimate, Old World, artful. And the timing feels right… After all, Arnault has learned that rock-star designers come and go. ‘A good product,’ he says, ‘can last forever.’”

SuperGroup rebuts critics as sales soar (Guardian)
“… The fast-growing retailer behind the Superdry fashion brand, has hit back at detractors… Supergroup reported retail sales up 48 percent for the first 10 weeks of the financial year… They are still trading well below the high of nearly £19 but remain more than double last year’s float price of 500p.”

China and M&A keep luxury stocks strong (Reuters)
“Chinese demand for premium brands will help luxury stocks continue to outperform even in the face of a shaky U.S. recovery, inflation in Asia and peripheral Europe’s debt crisis… With demand from emerging economies helping the sector rebound from the global credit crisis, luxury companies have also been active on the IPO markets.”

Made to Measure (Marketing Week)
“…The DIY trend is about consumers using new self-service brands to achieve and create professional-quality products, goods or services… ‘As the power of the high street diminishes further, and more store groups start to disappear, people will want greater choice and bespoke offers that.’”

Nothing Sells like a Duchess (IHT)
“In the duchess’s case, much like that of Michelle Obama, every designer she wears is likely to see an immediate impact on sales… The duchess has been praised for projecting a youthful freshness without being remotely bare, for wearing the work of a number of London designers.”

Wonder Girls for Chloé | Source: Luxuo

In China, Women Begin Splurging (WSJ)
“‘Many people are inclined to believe that gentlemen are generously purchasing luxury gifts for women in China, but our observation is that the great majority [of the buyers] are women who have achieved great success in their business and are now rewarding themselves with the finer things in life.’”

GQ, Gilt Groupe Team Up on E-Commerce Site (Ad Week)
“Gilt Groupe’s Park & Bond, an upcoming online retail spin-off for men, will host a GQ online store that will feature items picked by the magazine’s editors. Starting with the September issue, the picks will be marked in the magazine as well as on GQ.com, which will send shoppers to the e-commerce site.”

Resort isn’t a season for fashion to take a break (AP)
“The resort season is not a time for fashion to take a vacation. Resort collections, which hit stores during the all-important Christmas holiday shopping season, are a growing part of designer businesses as consumers move toward styles they can wear year-round.”

City speculates on Abercrombie bid for SuperGroup (Retail Week)
“US retailer Abercrombie & Fitch may be interested in acquiring trendy fashion retailer SuperGroup, City speculators believe… Shares in SuperGroup, which floated last year and subsequently rocketed, have fallen lately on fears of a sales slowdown.”

Jean Paul Gaultier lands in Montreal (Montreal Gazette)
“The object of the show… is to allow the public an up-close view of haute couture, which only those invited to the shows in Paris or the very few clients of haute couture in the world can see.”

The fluorescent Satchel | Source: Dover Street Market

British satchel maker takes fashion world by storm (Guardian)
“A traditional chestnut-coloured unisex leather satchel, made in the UK by a mother-and-daughter team, has unexpectedly taken the fashion world by storm. The Cambridge Satchel Company has become 2011′s accidental multimillion-pound global hit, and is competing for popularity with international mega-league brands.”

How Prada became the biggest name in fashion (Independent)
“While the Western world is still reeling from the effects of the 2008 economic crash, business at Prada… appears to be booming. On 17 June… The expected listing price of HK$36.5 to $48 a share values Prada higher than its European peers including even France’s largest and most powerful luxury goods conglomerate, LVMH.”

Cacharel Attempts to Revamp With New Designers (Fashionista)
“It goes without saying that the brand needs a dual shot of stability and modernity; enter French-educated Chinese design partners Ling Liu and Dawei Sun… they will now be joint artistic directors for all the brand’s lines, including womenswear, childrenswear, menswear and accessories.”

Bears charge in on news of Supergroup voucher (Independent)
“Supergroup continued to slump yesterday amid fears that the retailer behind the Superdry brand might be losing its edge with customers. The worries first surfaced on Friday, when traders learnt that in a break from past practice, the group had sent discount vouchers to online shoppers.”

CFDA Awards: And the Winners Are… (WWD)
“There was no shortage of fashion at Monday’s CFDA Awards, but the one style matter everyone was wondering about was that of Lady Gaga’s grand entrance… she arrived fashionably late, a turquoise-hair-topped tower of black custom Thierry Mugler beaded tulle and lace over her spiked leather and mesh bodysuit.”