The iPad effect: How to unite physical and digital worlds (FT)
"Sales staff are using iPads featuring a range of digital technologies to encourage customers to play with and try on jewellery and watches virtually. One technology company has almost doubled in size in the past year to accommodate demand from watch, jewellery and luxury clients."

At Dior, Garden of Earthly Delights (IHT)
"Flowers budding, blossoming, dabbing their sweet spring colors against the greenery, the Christian Dior show on Monday was a garden of earthly delights. The designer Raf Simons stayed rooted in reality — his models with cropped, wash-'n'-go hair and tailored clothes — but he embraced Christian Dior's love of flowers and gardens and took the collection from tight bud to beautiful blooms."

Glory days of watchmakers on hold as sales start to lose lustre (FT)
"On the face of it, 2012 was another good year for Swiss watchmakers... Business over the next 12 months is unlikely to be as brisk, however. For alongside such headline successes, 2012 also saw a number of developments that will cause problems for watchmakers in 2013."

How much?! The rise of the £6k dress (Independent)
"For spring 2013, the luxury-fashion site Net-a-Porter predicts 'the rise of the £6k dress'. That's a dress that costs £6,000. They are not wedding dresses, or even red-carpet gowns: some are for cocktail parties; others might even qualify as daywear. And they sell – if not in industrial quantities, then at least enough to warrant buyers placing larger  orders than they used to."

Jenna Lyons, the Woman Who Dresses America (NY Times)
"It's hard to miss Jenna Lyons. About nine feet tall and slim as a mink, often eccentrically dressed and wearing the boxy, geek-chic eyewear that has become the most identifiable signature in fashion since Anna Wintour's bob, the 44-year-old executive creative director of J. Crew was an instantly recognizable presence at the many parties, runway shows and red carpet events she attended during 2012."