Daniel Silver and Steven Cox of Duckie Brown; Lisa Mayock of Vena Cava; Andrew Buckler; Sophie Buhai, courtesy of the New York Times

The Make or Break Season (New York Times)
“The age of the young designer, however, may be coming to an end.”

Zara’s Inditex latest to join the stampede to open India stores (The Spectator)
Zara, the Spanish fast fashion chain, will open in India.

Monique Lhuillier’s New Lower-Priced Gowns (WSJ)
Responding to the requests of retailers, Monique Lhuillier will now offer evening gowns that will retail around $2,500.

Lauder to Cut Jobs, Restructure (WWD)
“The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. plans to reduce its payroll by 2,000 employees – 6 percent of the workforce.” (Subscription required)

Zara owner Inditex posts strong sales (Drapers)
Despite the volatile market conditions, Inditex has posted a net sales increase of 11 percent this year.

So it’s official. As of the first quarter of 2008, Inditex, the phenomenally successful Spanish fast-fashion conglomerate and parent company of Zara, has officially overtaken The Gap to become the world’s biggest fashion retailer. In the meantime, the once venerable Gap is still tweaking its product around the edges, struggling to find a formula that works.

Zara stores have been popping up on high streets and in malls around the world, registering  a whopping €6.3b in sales in 2007, making it larger than Louis Vuitton. Perhaps more surprisingly, the performance of Inditex’s smaller brands like Bershka and Massimo Dutti has also been strong, registering revenues of €925m and €696m respectively, in 2007, making Bershka’s business larger than that of Christian Dior Couture and Massimo Dutti’s greater than that of Bottega Veneta.

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