A Marriage of Economic Convenience (NY Times)
"More than a decade since Target first popularized collaborations between high-end designers and mass retailers, and seven years since H&M introduced a collection with Karl Lagerfeld, there is still allure in the concept of cheap and chic... Such collaborations are proving to be both a reliable business model for retailers and a business in themselves."

Marc Jacobs's Entire Spring / Summer 2012 Collection Stolen (The Daily Beast)
"Call it the case of the missing dresses. Marc Jacobs' entire Spring/Summer 2012 collection has been stolen from a train en route from Paris to London for the brand's European press day, the company has announced. According to the e-mail circulated to press on Wednesday morning, the PR team wrote 'our press day tomorrow in the Marc Jacobs store is cancelled, due to the theft of the spring/ summer 2012 collections during its transfer from Paris.'"

PPR to follow PUMA's green accounting lead (Business Green)
"The parent company of some of the world's biggest luxury and sporting brands, including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and PUMA, is to embark on one of the world's most ambitious green accounting programmes, after announcing it will create a group-wide environmental profit and loss statement (EP&L)... By placing an economic value on its environmental impact, the company hopes to improve its reporting of a wide range of green metrics."

Missed profit forecasts hurt Abercrombie (FT)
"Shares in Abercrombie & Fitch plunged more than 13 per cent as the US teen fashion retailer missed Wall Street profit forecasts and was put on the defensive over its strategy in Europe. Abercrombie executives were grilled by analysts over falling sales at its international flagship stores after it reported a 1.8 per cent rise in net income to $50.9m, or 57 cents per share, which fell short of market expectations of 72 cents a share."

Benetton Retries Provocation (WSJ)
"Italian clothing chain Benetton is trying to drum up attention for its flagging brand with ads showing global leaders kissing... Now, after having lost ground over the last decade to competitors such as Inditex SA's Zara and Hennes & Mauritz AB's H&M, Benetton is trying for publicity."