Michael Kors sells minority stake in deal that values brand at $2.5B (New York Post)
"The New York fashion label — whose black-clad founder and namesake also moonlights as a tough judge on the "Project Runway" TV reality series — has sold a minority stake to a group of investors in a deal that values the brand at a whopping $2.5 billion."

Surface to Air Comes to New York (IHT)
"In a sense, the business model of Surface to Air was ahead of its time. In the years since, a number of multitasking companies have developed similar approaches and are perhaps better known than the Paris label. Opening Ceremony, for example, operates a showroom in addition to its stores, and its owners were recently named the new creative directors of Kenzo."

Nordstrom raises profit, sales outlook (Reuters)
"Upscale retailer Nordstrom Inc raised its full-year profit and same-store sales outlook, and reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit that was helped by more full-price selling… The department store chain said it now expects fiscal 2011 sales at stores open at least one year to rise 4 percent to 6 percent, up from an earlier range of 2 percent to 4 percent."

Designer Nicholas Kirkwood talks extreme shoes (LA Times)
"After graduation in 2005, he found work with milliner Philip Treacy. It was there that he noticed a void in the market for truly artistic shoes. 'There were really exciting things going on in ready-to-wear with Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan, and with hats too,' he said of the London fashion scene at the time. 'But the shoes were from a different decade.'"

Fabergé: would you shell out for eggs like these? (Telegraph)
"The South African mining entrepreneur Brian Gilbertson purchased it in 2007, with the ambition to build his company into a global jewellery empire. Fabergé was relaunched with great pomp in 2009. Now it is ready to present its first hatching of eggs since the Tsars."