Farhi Sold (Vogue) "Nicole Farhi is on the cusp of a new wave of business expansion after private equity group Kelso Place Asset Management acquired a majority stake in the company. Kelso Place, which sold British luxury leather goods company Smythson in 2009, bought the stake from OpenGate Capital, which only acquired Farhi in 2010 for £5 million."

High-End Brands Are Missing the Boat on Mobile, Study Finds (Mashable)
"In a ranking of 100 well-recognized fashion, beauty, hospitality, watch and jewelry, and retail brands, nearly half were deemed 'feeble' in their efforts. Only two-thirds of indexed brands have mobile-optimized sites, and yet a full third of those don't allow consumers to shop from those sites, L2 noted. Many also fail to provide the full range of content available on their desktop sites, including product search and user ratings, to mobile audiences."

Nike factory to pay $1m to Indonesian workers for overtime  (Guardian) "A Nike factory has agreed to pay $1m in unpaid overtime to Indonesian workers in a move that could force other suppliers of multinational companies to follow suit. Nearly 4,500 employees at one of the sportswear group's suppliers, the PT Nikomas shoe plant in Banten province, will be compensated for close to 600,000 hours of overtime clocked up over the past two years."

Virtual dressing room eliminates need to take off your clothes (LA Times)
"At the Consumer Electronics Show this week, a Calabasas company was giving demonstrations of Swivel, a real-time virtual dressing room that takes a lot of the hassle out of shopping — no more long waits in the fitting room line loaded down with an armful of clothes, or the tedious process of getting dressed and undressed several times during one trip to the mall."

'Can I Help You?' Irks the Web-Savvy Customer (NY Times)
"Self-service has long infiltrated the consumer experience, most recently with self-checkout at grocery stores. But the biggest factor affecting attitudes toward salespeople may be the amount of time people spend shopping online, which tends to be a solitary experience. In 2011, online shopping on Cyber Monday was up 22 percent over the previous year, according to comScore, which tracks Internet traffic."