THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY ■ $3.00
BRIDGET
FOLEY’S
DIARY
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
MODELS: LINDSEY BYARD/REDIRECT AND MAX VON ISSER/FUSION; HAIR BY MARCEL DAGENAIS/LVA ARTISTS USING ORIBE HAIR CARE; MAKEUP BY JAVIER ROMERO USING MAKE UP FOR EVER
FROM ASIA TO AMERICA, THE THINGS TO
LOOK OUT FOR IN THE JEANS WORLD. SECTION II
HE’S BACK
JOSEPH ABBOUD AT
LAST GETS TO DO A
COLLECTION UNDER HIS
OWN NAME AGAIN.
MW, PAGE 13
NIKE’S $7 BILLION GOAL
IN WOMEN’S. PAGE 12
WWD
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY
Edie
Rocks
Picture a modern-day Edie Sedgwick
— what would she wear? The
flirtatious bombshell pushed the
fashion envelope with rock-star
appeal that attracted cameras and
boys alike. Here, Delpozo’s cotton
poplin top and Azede Jean-Pierre’s
silk cotton pants. Marc Jacobs
shoes; Louis Vuitton earring; Lady
Grey earring; Faith Connexion
bracelet; Iceberg belt.
On him: Sandro’s leather jacket,
Burberry London’s cotton shirt
and A Gold E’s cotton jeans.
Saint Laurent shoes. For more,
see pages 6 and 7.
PHOTO BY ISA WIPFLI;
WOMEN’S STYLED BY MAYTE ALLENDE;
MEN’S STYLED BY ALEX BADIA
BERRY BUYS BRAND
NEW CEO CORNELL SETS STRATEGY
Fashion Key in Target Revamp Halle’s Little Nothings:
By SHARON EDELSON
BRIAN CORNELL is challenging Target’s status quo.
Target’s first chairman and
chief executive officer from
outside the company’s ranks
— Cornell was ceo of Pepsico
America and prior to that ceo of
Sam’s Club — is shaking things
up and focusing on the key categories of fashion, home, baby
and kids and wellness, while
refining its strategy on food.
He’s also investing in online
and digital capabilities, an
area where retail experts saw
Target as lagging behind competitor Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,
which operates a lab in Silicon
Valley and has acquired more
than a dozen small tech companies in the last two years.
Cornell recognizes the fact
that Target has lost some of
its merchandising mojo — the
creativity, style and edge that
earned it the nickname Tahrjay in the early Nineties. He
said Target’s image has shifted more toward the low-price
proposition of its longtime
brand promise, “Expect More.
Pay Less,” than the part of the
message that addresses innovation and creativity.
“How do we inform the
brand and get the balance back
to ‘Expect More, Pay Less,’” he
said in an exclusive interview.
Asked whether Target is
doing anything differently in
terms of its designer partnerships, which have become the
hallmark of retailers from
H&M to Macy’s, Cornell said,
“Our whole focus is on design
and style. We love to hear new
ideas. We’re very pleased that
what we’ve done [in terms of
collaborations] still works.
We have a collaboration with
Joseph Altuzarra and we have
apparel based on the movie
‘Annie.’ The Toms partnerships
are blowing up on social media.
Toms is our largest partnership
to date. It’s so well positioned
for Target, which is a company
that’s been giving back throughout its history.” Toms donates a
pair of shoes to a child in need
for every pair purchased.
Cornell is redefining the profile of the Target “guest.” “We still
have a ‘cool factor’ shopper, but
we’re recognizing that more and
more there is a growing Hispanic
audience,” he said. “We recognize that the guest has changed.
They’re very connected and love
to shop, but the demographics
have changed. Localization and
personalization are important.”
CityTarget, an urban format
with 80,000 to 100,000 square
feet of space, has opened in
SEE PAGE 10
Actress’ New Scandale
By ROSEMARY FEITELBERG
HALLE BERRY’S latest venture
may read like an all-too-obvious
Hollywood pitch — Academy
Award-winning beauty invests
in 80-year-old Parisian luxury
lingerie label called Scandale
that will launch in Target.
The double entendre is not
lost on the thrice-married actress, whose curvaceous physique
all too often falls prey to the paparazzi. “If you’re in on the joke,
you’re in on the joke. If you’re
not, I don’t think that you’re offended by it in any way,” Berry
said during a recent interview at
The London hotel in New York.
But this is not a let’s-seehow-it-goes type business deal
for the actress, whose endorsement deals to date have intentionally been select beauty ones.
Berry deflected the suggestion
she is part of a new paradigm
of celebrity investors. “People
have been doing it — Ashton
Kutcher, Bethenny Frankel with
Skinnygirl, Gwen Stefani with
L.A.M.B. — just not everybody
has the desire to go into business
in this way. You have to really
want to do it. It’s time-consuming.
You have to work hard at it. Along
with the career you already have,
it’s another job, if you will, that
you’re tackling. Not everybody
has the desire to do that, but I’m
certainly not the first.”
Not to mention Jessica Alba’s
two-year-old The Honest Co.,
which is eyeing an initial public offering with a valuation at
just under $1 billion, according
to Dow Jones VentureWire. By
introducing a mass version of
the label that textiles designer
Robert Perrier started in 1932,
Berry also joins a roster of VIP
lingerie designers, including
Heidi Klum, who just partnered
SEE PAGE 4
2 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
in 1999. He joined Luxottica in May 2005 as head
By LUISA ZARGANI
of its industrial engineering division and then became operations director for Asia. Over the followMILAN — Luxottica Group SpA hopes to put its ing three-and-a-half years, he lived in China and
management turmoil behind it, at last naming a was responsible for doubling the size of the Asian
new co-chief executive of markets to help steer the manufacturing arm, made up of 7,000 employees.
Vian returned to Italy as group chief operations ofeyewear giant.
Leonardo Del Vecchio, chairman of the group, ficer while he also managed the North American
on Wednesday named Procter & Gamble executive lab network and the Oakley factory in California. In
Adil Mehboob-Khan to the post. Independent direc- 2013, he was given the additional responsibility for
tor Marco Mangiagalli was tapped as a member of Tecnol’s Brazilian site.
Luxottica has seen some turmoil since ceo Andrea
the human resources committee, succeeding Roger
Guerra left the company in September. As reported,
Abravanel, who resigned last week.
Mehboob-Khan’s role will be formally effective last week Del Vecchio, who continues to own a majority of the firm through his
Oct. 29, when the board will meet
holding Delfin Sarl, assumed the
again to approve and release
role of interim ceo until a pair of
its quarterly financial results.
co-ceos could be appointed. He
During that meeting, Massimo
took on the role after the deparVian is expected to be appointed
ture of Enrico Cavatorta, who
interim ceo for the group with all
was appointed ceo of corporate
executive responsibilities until
functions and interim ceo of
Mehboob-Khan joins Luxottica
markets only last month.
in early January. Vian will then
Luxottica released the
assume his role as co-ceo of opmanagement news at the end
erations and product.
of trading here. The group’s
Mehboob-Khan was born
shares on Wednesday closed
in London, his father from
up 2.47 percent at 38.13 euros,
Pakistan and his mother
or $48.70 at current exchange
Italian-Hungarian, and he grew
rate. Shares have been reup in Rome before graduatcovering from a 9.5 percent
ing in engineering at London
tumble following the news of
University. In 1987 he began his
Cavatorta’s abrupt departure.
career at Procter & Gamble.
The governance shake-up at
Since 2011, he has been presiLuxottica took the industry by
dent of Wella, acquired by
Adil Mehboob-Khan
surprise, after years of stability
Procter & Gamble in 2004.
and international growth. Last
Previously, in 2009, he became
vice president in charge of all the European retail month, Luxottica reshaped its management structure based on a co-ceo model, with Del Vecchio rebeauty businesses for the group.
At Procter & Gamble, Mehboob-Khan will be turning to take on a more active role. Guerra left
succeeded by Patrice Louvet as president of the the firm after 10 years, and was to be succeeded by
P&G Salon Professional division. Louvet, a 22-year two executives, one focused on the markets and the
P&G veteran, will also assume leadership of P&G’s other dedicated to corporate functions — a manageGlobal Prestige division since the current president, ment model that left analysts skeptical.
The eyewear maker produces under license
Joanne Crewes, is due to retire in December, according to a P&G spokeswoman. Louvet has been presi- for names including the Giorgio Armani Group,
Bulgari, Burberry, Chanel, Coach, Prada and
dent of the company’s global shave-care category.
Vian was born in Verona in 1973 and earned Versace, and also has a number of owned brands,
a degree in management engineering at the such as Ray-Ban, Oakley and Persol.
University of Padua, and then moved to London
— WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PETE BORN
Halloween’s Online Beauty Rush
For instance, on YouTube, searches related to
By RACHEL STRUGATZ
dry-skin makeup peak in January, while orange lipstick tops out in March through June, purple eye
BEAUTY BRANDS wanting to scare up some business shadow in April, waterproof mascara in the summer,
should look to what the vloggers are doing on YouTube. white makeup in October, red lipstick in October
Halloween is prime time for beauty vloggers, through December and gold and glitter eye shadow
who take the opportunity to showcase their most in December.
Green cited L’Oréal’s Destination Beauty as sucelaborate looks and rack up some of their biggest
numbers, according to data set to be released today cessfully tapping into this trend. The brand published content about dry skin in the New Year — at
by the video platform’s parent company Google.
The most-watched makeup tutorial on YouTube the exact time users’ interest in the topic piqued.
was Michelle Phan’s “Barbie Transformation Maybelline, Aéropostale, Burberry, Chanel and
Benefit Cosmetics are
Tutorial,” which has garothers that have been
nered 56 million views
thoughtful in the execusince its original publish
tion of beauty content
date about five years ago.
— from Burberry highPhan takes the top
lighting nail polish colthree spots. Her “Lady
ors from the runway to
Gaga Bad Romance Look”
Chanel “How-To” posts
and “Lady Gaga Poker
that coincide with the
Face Tutorial,” received
launch of every new
47 million and 34 million
makeup palette.
views, respectively.
Overall, videos with
“If you look at her
“makeup tutorial” in the
channel now, [Phan’s]
title have been watched
taken advantage of the
on YouTube more than
seasonality [of her con2.4 billion times.
tent],” said Lisa Green,
Google’s research
head of industry, luxury
also found people are
and apparel at Google.
increasingly accessing
“She has all these
Michelle Phan’s Barbie Transformation Tutorial has
beauty content from a
Halloween videos up that
garnered more than 56 million views, becoming the
mobile device. Upwards
aren’t even new. She is remost-watched makeup tutorial on YouTube of all time.
of half of all beauty
surfacing content because
searches on Google and YouTube come from a
she knows what people are looking for.”
From 2012 to 2013, views of Halloween make- mobile device, with product information and reup content increased more than four fold, with views serving as the two primary types of searches.
Halloween videos comprising 57 percent of season- Mobile searches related to “prom makeup” jumped
85 percent from 2013 to 2014.
al makeup tutorial views as of August.
“When it comes to makeup, mobile is even more
Green’s key takeaway is that beauty-content
searches on Google and YouTube are largely sea- important. It’s so rare that you’re putting on your
sonal — and brands can tap into this, tailoring their makeup with your laptop open — but you have your
phone,” Green said.
search and video strategy.
THE BRIEFING BOX
IN TODAY’S WWD
On the grounds at Frieze
art fair in London. For
more, see WWD.com.
PHOTO BY MARCUS DAWES
Mehboob-Khan Joins Luxottica
WWD.COM
Brian Cornell, Target’s first chairman and chief executive
officer from outside company ranks, is shaking things up and
making fashion, among other categories, a key focus. PAGE 1
Halle Berry is investing in 80-year-old Parisian luxury lingerie
label Scandale, which will make its debut in Target. PAGE 1
Designers and retailers may have withstood a typhoon
during Tokyo’s six-day fashion week, but economic
headwinds are still gusting. PAGE 8
The Association of Magazine Media has provided some new
insight on consumer demand for fashion and beauty magazines
for the month of September. PAGE 10
The Nov. 7 opening of Burberry’s first Rodeo Drive flagship
in Beverly Hills will precede its receiving the 22nd Rodeo Drive
Walk of Style Award on Nov. 19. PAGE 12
Ending one of the longest-running sagas in men’s fashion,
Joseph Abboud is finally able to create collections under his
own name again. PAGE MW13
Man of the Week: Brad Pitt, the star of “Fury,” seems to
be channeling “Boogie Nights” with his Seventies-porn-star
interpretation of a red-carpet tuxedo. PAGE MW14
Sébastien Jondeau has recently added fashion model to
his main duties as Karl Lagerfeld’s longtime bodyguard and
personal assistant. PAGE MW14
Los Angeles-based sneaker brand L.A. Gear will relaunch in
the spring and the first style will be will be part of the “Originals”
collection designed by hip-hop artist Tyga. PAGE MW15
Civil aviation lawyer Wan Li is among a growing number
of Chinese who are seeking professional help to dress and
look better. PAGE MW15
ON WWD.COM
THEY ARE WEARING: The 12th edition of Frieze London drew in
an eclectic crowd of arty attendees. For more, see WWD.com.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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4 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
Halle Berry Muses Off Set on Scandale
her own style as “pretty simple.” In a black
blouse and torn jeans, the “Extant” star,
who had just returned from a God’s Love
We Deliver visit with Kors before the interview, said, “I try not to ever overdo it. You
WWD.com/
won’t see me overjeweled or overdressed.
market-news.
That’s really not my style.”
Berry’s business manager of 25 years,
Jeff Wolman, gave her the most solid advice that has served her well. “He is probably the most honest man I have ever known
and he is solely the reason I still have a lot
of the money I have ever earned in life,
because he taught me how to manage my
money,” she said. “He told me, ‘If someone
is not adding value, they should not be on
the payroll.’ While that seems like a simple
statement, sometimes it’s really hard when
you’ve known someone for a long time and
they’ve worked for you for a long time. It’s
hard to look at a situation with your business mind and not your heart.”
Having partnered with Kors for the
United Nations’ World Food Programme,
Berry insisted philanthropy is not just
for the affluent. “I just hope that through
Michael or me talking that people will
start to help. I tend to think a lot of people
really help. But when you really start to
break it down, you realize that a lot of people don’t help in the ways that they could
help. A lot of people think, ‘Well, I’m not
superwealthy — I can’t afford to give a lot
of money,” she said. “I took my daughter to
Nicaragua and she was so moved by it that
when she came home she set up a lemonade stand and raised $300 in an afternoon.
That inspired me to think, ‘It doesn’t matter who you are. You can be six years old,
and raise $300 to make a difference.’”
Of Kors, she said, “He’s one of those
guys who is really putting his money
where his mouth is and putting his
money into something that is really
meaningful.…I personally don’t know any
secrets [about him.] So I would have to say
you would be surprised to know that he
really is that guy who he appears to be.”
As for any moral responsibility tied to
fame, Berry said, “It’s a very individual
choice. There’s no right and there’s no
wrong. Some people might give in a quiet
way. They might make contributions financially. They might give of their time and
you don’t know what they do. That doesn’t
mean that it is any less honorable than
the people who do it more out in the open.
If we can use our voices from time to time
to raise that awareness, then I personally
feel that’s an important thing that I should
do because I have that power to do that.”
Once her daughter ’s zombie
Halloween costume is good to go, Berry
will be winging it to New Orleans for her
— HALLE BERRY
Moviefone-sounding role as “a mother
who will stop at nothing” to rescue her
cated to these patients and felt they had to roam in Europe. “When you’re with a son in the Lorenzo di Bonaventura and
been totally and completely mistreated local [in Paris] you kind of get to enjoy the Erik Howsam-produced thriller “Kidnap.”
In the meantime, Berry hasn’t lost
and that the country kind of forgot about city in a different way. Of course, we love
them, especially when they came back the food, the wine, the culture — the fash- any sleep about the potential for others
from the Vietnam War. She was committed ion is different there. We have a place in to chalk up her Scandale pursuit to her
St. Germain so I love to roam around and beauty, a subject she only addressed when
to helping change their lives.”
In turn, Berry, a mother of two, helped discover the artists. I love the freedom asked. “I honestly have suffered that my
champion the antipaparazzi bill that be- that I have when I’m there. It’s very dif- whole career. That’s not even something I
came a California law last year. Her pro- ferent than when I’m tooling around here. think about quite honestly when I decide
duction company 606 Films is named for There’s just a freeness [in] the way that I to do something. I kind of get lumped in
that box no matter what I do. I find myself
that piece of legislation. “It’s gotten bet- am able to move around in the city.”
Partial to Helmut Lang, Chloé, Isabel struggling out of that, struggling to prove
ter for my children under the 606 pact,”
said Berry, adding that she is more at ease Marant and Michael Kors, Berry described myself in a different way. I used to think
that at some point, everybody is going to get over
that, but they never seem
to. So I don’t really think
about that any more. I
just do. I believe in this
brand. I love lingerie and
I think this is something
that North American
women will really be excited about and happy to
have. So that’s where I
come from. I really can’t
control what people are
going to think. I learned
a long time ago to stop
From left: Veronica Timbers, Wesley Snipes and Halle Berry in 1991’s “Jungle Fever”; 1998’s “Bulworth”; 2002’s “Die Another Day”; 2003’s “X-Men 2”; 2012’s “Dark Tide.”
worrying about that.”
{Continued from page one}
’’
’’
I understand that women want to feel sexy and
beautiful. They want to have undergarments
that are very functional, but to still feel
beautiful when we take our clothes off.
“JUNGLE “FEVER” © UNIVERSAL PICTURES/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION; “BULWORTH” © 20TH CENTURY FOX FILM CORP. /COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION; “DIE ANOTHER DAY” © MGM/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION;
“X-MEN 2” © 20TH CENTURY FOX FILM CORP./COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION; “DARK TIDE” © LIONSGATE/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
FOR SLIDESHOW ON
HALLE BERRY, SEE
PHOTO BY JOHN AQUINO
with Bendon on a new label that will replace Elle Macpherson’s Intimates brand.
Berry and her business partner Erik Ryd,
founder of the intimates-driven Hop Lun,
own Scandale 50-50, and Berry has reimagined it for the North American market.
Tooling around the side streets of St.
Germain while visiting her now-husband
Olivier Martinez in Paris, Berry discovered Scandale, researched its heritage, learned she could acquire it and
signed up to revamp Scandale. Ladurée
in Manhattan’s SoHo was her location
of choice for this morning’s unveiling of
the bound 10-piece Scandale Paris collection, which launches at Target on
Monday and is decidedly more modest
than what she wore in “Swordfish” or even
“The Flintstones.” Intrigued by vintage
Scandale ads by such famed illustrators as
René Gruau, “I thought this would be the
perfect way to bring that Parisian glamour and sophistication that I feel about all
things Parisian to America,” she said.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I have
been offered many, many times to endorse
a product and a big fat check came along
with it. But I didn’t feel that that was in
line with who I was. There have been some
very bizarre things — let’s put it that way,”
she said, declining to elaborate.
“For many years, I’ve endorsed the
brands of others like Revlon. I sort of partnered with Coty and started making my
own fragrances. But those aren’t my own
companies. I decided for my own evolution
as a woman and an entrepreneur, it’s time
for me to step out and really be part owner
of something that I believed in and not
just lend my name to a brand,” she said. “I
understand that women want to feel sexy
and beautiful. They want to have undergarments that are very functional, but to still
feel beautiful when we take our clothes off.
That’s really important and that’s a way to
make women feel sexy and validated — all
the ways we as women need to feel. And I
love lingerie. It’s always been important in
my life. This is a very important endeavor
that feels very in line with who I am.”
Berry, whose first name is a wink to
Halle’s Department Stores in her hometown of Cleveland, once punched the
clock in retail. “My first job was selling
cookies at a place called The Cookie
Company in Cleveland. I was about 16.
Hated it. I knew that 9-to-5 selling cookies would not be for me,” she said with
a laugh. “Later I worked at Higbee’s
Department Store. I liked that better
than selling cookies, but I knew that was
not what I would be doing with my life.”
Even before she wheeled it out of
Ohio at the age of 17, Berry grasped what
it took for her mother to provide. “I was
raised by a single mother. All I saw her
do was work her ass off to raise two kids
to give us every opportunity to succeed
in life — from the sort of school she sent
us to, to the social environment that she
allowed us to grow up in, to her ability
to teach us that our world is bigger than
our backyard,” she said. “She was a registered nurse on a psychiatric ward in a V.A.
hospital for 35 years. So imagine. A lot of
stories came home from work. She was
committed to it. Every time she had a bad
experience she never quit. She was dedi-
6 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
Sally LaPointe’s cashmere
and wool top with
feathers and Paule Ka’s
cotton shorts. Giuseppe
Zanotti shoes; Louis
Vuitton earring (left); Lady
Grey earring (right). On
him: Costume National’s
wool suit and Caruso’s
cashmere turtleneck.
Saint Laurent shoes.
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fashion-news.
▼
Azede JeanPierre’s cotton
bra and Maki
Oh’s polyester
skirt. Paco
Rabanne shoes.
On him: Dior
Homme’s wool
turtleneck and
Topman’s cotton
jeans. Saint
Laurent shoes.
Paule Ka’s
triacetate and
polyester dress
and cotton
tank. Anthony
Vaccarello by
Versus Versace
shoes. On him:
Marc Jacobs’
wool coat,
Topman’s wool
sweater, Ovadia
& Sons’ cotton
shirt and A Gold
E’s cotton jeans.
Faith
Connexion’s
leather
jacket and
AllSaints’
cotton
jeans.
MODELS: LINDSEY BYARD/REDIRECT AND MAX VON ISSER/FUSION; HAIR BY MARCEL DAGENAIS/LVA ARTISTS USING ORIBE HAIR CARE; MAKEUP BY JAVIER ROMERO USING MAKE UP FOR EVER; PHOTO ASSISTANT: LEVI MANDEL; FASHION ASSISTANTS: MILTON DIXON AND MERCEDES PLS BASS
WWD.com/
Burberry
London’s
cashmere
coat, Paul
Smith’s cotton
shirt and BLK
DNM’s cotton
jeans. Saint
Laurent belt.
▼
▼
FOR MORE IMAGES, SEE
▼
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 7
WWD.COM
8
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
Tokyo Collections
Spring 2015
IT WOULDN’T BE TOKYO FASHION WEEK WITHOUT A HEAVY DOSE OF QUIRK — BUT FOR SPRING, THERE WERE ALSO PUNK
AND STREETWEAR LOOKS, AS WELL AS COLORFUL TAILORED SUITS.
Onitsuka Tiger by Andrea Pompilio:
The fashion-weary audience
waited nearly an hour for the
start of Andrea Pompilio’s
collection for sneaker brand
Onitsuka Tiger, which closed
the Tokyo season. Thankfully
he delivered an energetic
show that put a fresh spin
on sportswear and produced
some edgy clothes. Stripes
resembling industrial tape and
bold color-blocked accents gave
flair to jackets, sweats, pants
and tank tops. The guys rocked
a few looks in camo, such as
a parka and matching shorts.
The ladies sported feather
headpieces as they strutted
in ruffled skirts and dresses
including a couple floor-grazing
numbers. As for shoes, there
were sneakers, both high-tops
and low, with skin-bearing
cutouts and a variation that
laced up the calf, giving the
sportif a gladiator spin.
Onitsuka Tiger by
Andrea Pompilio
Mr. Gentleman
Facetasm
— AMANDA KAISER
Mr. Gentleman: Designed by
Takeshi Osumi and Yuichi
Yoshii, Mr. Gentlemen delivers
bold color with a cool factor.
For spring, the designers
worked a resort-friendly mood
with notice-me suits — jackets
over shorts or long pants in
vibrant emerald and coral. A
more literal interpretation of
the theme came in a jacket
embroidered with an image of a
Mediterranean seaside hamlet.
The collection also featured
sporty twists on tailoring, such as
hoods or mesh pockets on shirts.
While such looks might not
appeal to the investment banker
set, young Japanese guys are
generally more open to colorful
clothes and brash patterns
than a lot of other men. Still,
even they might steer clear
of the leathers, particularly a
sleeveless jacket and shorts in
lavender — tough for even the
ubercool to pull off.
— A.K.
Toga Virilis
Taro Horiuchi: Taro Horiuchi
said he’d been dreaming about
the universe and the future
this season. More specifically,
he looked to the UFO-themed
work of Belgian artist Henri
Van Herwegen, who goes by the
name of Panamarenko.
Horiuchi sought to
incorporate futuristic shapes
and fabrics into his lineup.
While he did so only vaguely,
he delivered an appealing
collection. Texture played a
key role in a high-shine green
dress and a white perforated
fabric used for a blouse and
pencil skirt as well as a dress
with kimono-sleeves. Other
strong looks included a short
pin-striped shirtdress and long
nubby sweaters draped over
dresses and skirts.
— A.K.
Toga Virilis: For spring, Toga
Virilis’ Yasuko Furuta headed
west — the American West.
For the poorly lit presentation,
she stationed her models on
low platforms of red dirt that
recalled desert sands. Some
of the pieces — bandana-print
shirts and bolo ties — spoke
FOR MORE SPRING
COVERAGE, SEE
WWD.com/
runway.
to the theme literally. Other
items like a long, blue, doublebreasted coat and embroidered
workman’s jackets were less
obvious. Furuta employed a
mix of hard and soft textures,
layering a thin knit cardigan
over a leather motorcycle
jacket in one instance. A red
windbreaker with a blue snapon bottom panel and a sweat
suit with mesh sleeves seemed
slightly out of place, but overall
it was a solid collection of
wearable yet distinctive pieces.
— KELLY WETHERILLE
Phire Wire: Phire Wire, whose
designer goes by the single
moniker Kiri, had a dark,
sinister feel. A follow spotlight
that took the place of stationary
overhead lighting called to
mind a searchlight.
The dramatic setup proved
anticlimactic given the lineup
of standard sporty fare.
Textural detailing — a tonal
print on a T-shirt, tuxedo
stripes on sweatpants —
attempted to elevate the items
beyond their basics core. So,
apparently, did images of flying
fish on the group of random
T-shirts that closed the show.
But compared with some of
the more directional men’s
collections of the week, this one
fell a bit flat.
— K.W.
Facetasm: Hiromichi Ochiai’s
Facetasm show was one of the
most highly anticipated of the
week. Ochiai delivered with
his street-ready mix of what
he called: “dress-up and dressdown.” He thus fused elements
of the two, adorning the backs
of men’s T-shirts and tanks
with feathers, and adding a
fluttering overlay of chiffon to
one sleeve of otherwise sporty
women’s blouson jackets.
Some standout looks riffed on
high-polish fare. Reincarnations
of tuxedo shirts included a
men’s poncho version and one
with a 3-D panel for women.
Pin-striped suiting fabric turned
youthful on a tulle-trimmed
pencil skirt and a men’s jacket
with crisscrossing satin panels
over the lapels .
— K.W.
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 9
WWD.COM
Taro Horiuchi
Tokyo Gets More Salable
By AMANDA KAISER
Sretsis
TOKYO — Designers and retailers may have withstood a
typhoon during this city’s sixday fashion week, but economic
headwinds are still gusting.
Uncertainties about Japan’s
macroeconomic landscape, especially plans for a second sales
tax increase, are looming.
From a creative standpoint,
foreign buyers, some of whom
received free trips from the
Japanese government to attend
the shows and presentations,
were upbeat about the fashion
they saw as tending toward a
more accessible than extreme
aesthetic.
’’
Phire Wire
So many of the
trends that you
have seen done
on the runways in
Milan and Paris
actually have
evolved and are
also here. So it’s
not like it’s from
outer space or
not relevant.
’’
— NICK WOOSTER
Key women’s wear trends for
spring included a heavy emphasis on sporty fabrics and athletic
wear, lace, tie-dye applications,
plaid and pleated skirts. The
men’s wear similarly focused
on sporty fare — including baseball/varsity jackets, a carryover
trend from last season — as well
as colorful suits, motorcycle
jackets and leather pants.
“The Japan designers did a
very good job with [real-world
sensibility] and a true creativity and they are very open
and attentive to advice,” said
Géraldine Florin, partnerships
senior buyer for fashion and accessories at Galeries Lafayette.
Fashion week organizers said
international buyer registrations rose to 221. That compares
with 212 buyers in March and
192 in October. The countries
with the biggest number of registrations were China and the
U.S. with 50 and 35 respectively.
And while buyers were generally positive in their feedback,
those accolades still do not necessarily translate into significant
commercial sales. Some Japanese
merchants said they liked what
they saw but they are also balancing their budgets to accommodate
talents from other countries, such
as the U.S. and the U.K.
Aya Ota, a women’s buyer for
Isetan’s Shinjuku store said she
was impressed with the work
of Sretsis, Facetasm and men’s
brand Toga Virilis. At the same
time, she warned that she might
trim her budget for Japanese
designers for the spring season
as she is favoring British brands
at the moment. Perhaps more
importantly, she expressed caution about Japanese shoppers’
increasingly selective mind-set.
“After the fall of Lehman
Brothers and the March 11
earthquake, it’s not cool to be
so interested in fashion anymore,” she said. “Young people
are using their money for other
things besides clothes. They
won’t buy something just to buy
it; it has to be very good, something they’ll use for a long time,
or something they really like.”
Similarly, Motofumi Kogi,
men’s fashion director of United
Arrows & Sons, voiced positive
feedback about brands like Mr.
Gentleman, Toga Virilis and
Phenomenon, but said he is also
juggling the geographic makeup
of his spring budget.
Kogi said he’s seeing a lot of
strong “luxury street” brands
coming out of Los Angeles at
the moment, so he may allocate
more of his budget to those labels. That doesn’t necessarily
tinued to decline from April to
August. However, luxury goods
performed better compared to
regular apparel,” said Yukino
Kawabata, a research analyst
with Euromonitor. “There are
certainly those that think
the government should postpone the second tax hike in
October of 2015 as it would
double the tax rate from 5
percent to 10 percent in a period of just 18 months.”
While Japan’s economy remains a significant question
mark for designers here — and
many of them do the bulk of
their business in their home
market — a relatively weak
yen works in their favor when
it comes to export appeal. Still,
as Florin pointed out, Japanese
designers need to understand
the needs of international retailers. For one, western stores
need a wider range of sizes beyond the two or three sizes that
Japanese brands often produce.
Nick Wooster, a consultant who formerly worked for
Neiman Marcus and Atrium, visited Tokyo for a second straight
season as a guest of show organizers. He said he has seen
an evolution in the quality of
the brands and shows since
March. Citing standouts such as
Factotum, Yoshio Kubo, Kidill,
99%IS- and Onitsuka Tiger x
Andrea Pompilio, he said he was
impressed with the men’s tailoring and attention to distinctive
shapes and bright colors.
“So many of the trends
that you have seen done
on the runways in
Milan and Paris actually have evolved
SPRING 2015
and are also here.
So it’s not like it’s
from outer space
or not relevant,”
COLLECTIONS
he said.
As in past seasons, fashion week
organizers invited a
handful of international
buyers to come to Tokyo on free
trips to check out local brands.
Guests this season included
Galeries Lafayette’s Florin,
Jennifer Mankins, owner of Bird
in Brooklyn and Herman Shah,
director of operations and a buyer
mean that his budget for Tokyo for Singapore-based Front Row.
Mankins said she plans to
brands will decrease but it probpick up a few new Japanese
ably won’t increase, he said.
While Japan’s economy per- brands for her store includformed relatively well over the ing World Basic, Nicholson &
tail end of last year and the first Nicholson and Still by Hand. She
part of 2014, it took a tumble in also enjoyed the playful patterns
the second quarter. It contract- and prints at the Ne-net show.
“Every collection is beautied an annualized 7.1 percent
over the April-to-June period. fully produced and the textiles
April’s sales tax hike — the rate are gorgeous,” said the retailer.
grew from 5 percent to 8 per- “It’s eye-opening to come here
cent — put more of damper on for work...to really dive in and
consumer sentiment than origi- meet the smaller designers.”
Shah said he still hasn’t denally anticipated. The country
is now waiting to see whether cided if he will pick up any
Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Japanese designers this season
Abe will proceed with plans to but might be ordering more acpush through a second sales tax cessories. While he said he appreciates the quality level and
increase to 10 percent next year.
“The tax hike is also pos- design expertise of Tokyo deing a threat to the apparel and signers, he offered measured
luxury goods market in Japan. feedback of the week.
“Tokyo as always has been
The majority of Japanese consumers feel discouraged from evolving. This season is no differpurchasing apparel due to the ent,” said Shah. “But the brands
tax hike and followed by rising I saw this season are playing it
price. According to the Japan safe I feel, I guess to be more acDepartment Stores Association, cepted internationally.”
consumers’ spending on ap— WITH CONTRIBUTIONS
parel at department stores conFROM KELLY WETHERILLE
TOKYO
10 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
Cornell Shakes Up Target Strategy
{Continued from page one}
locations such as downtown Chicago.
The first TargetExpress opened in July
near the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. At 20,000 square feet,
the store offers 15 percent of the products in a SuperTarget store. While the
ceo did not reveal plans to open more
TargetExpresses, he hinted that it’s a
possibility because “people are moving
back to cities. We need to understand
how to meet the needs of urban shoppers.
We also recognize that we have families.
We’re rolling out CityTarget and looking at
rolling out Express, which is in the very
early days and has been successful.”
P-Fresh, Target’s multiyear initiative
begun in 2008, expanded the grocery
departments in most stores, resulting
in an increase of 50 percent to 200 percent more space for food. But it’s unclear
how successful P-Fresh has been in driving repeat business. Target entered the
food arena under then-chairman and ceo
Robert Ulrich, who saw the new category
as a major game changer for the retailer
and a chance for it to close the revenue
gap with the behemoth of Wal-Mart.
Cornell is revamping that strategy.
“As we think about the role of food, we
need to step back,” he admitted. “We’ve
made it really clear we’re going to double
down on style and design and invest in apparel and home. Baby and kids are critically
important and wellness is a big growth area.”
Target’s Merona and Mossimo brands
are billion-dollar businesses, but it’s
been several years since the retailer introduced a new apparel label. “We have a
very extensive product design and development team of over 600 people,” Cornell
said. “How do we unleash them with the
right guest in mind? We have some great
internal designers.” Will Target develop
another women’s apparel label along the
lines of Isaac Mizrahi for Target, which
was discontinued after the designer
joined the Liz Claiborne brand in 2008?
“We’ll come back with one of those,”
Cornell vowed. “What is the next new
proprietary brand to keep the collections
fresh and serve other guests? Home and
apparel is where we can [leverage] that.”
Cornell has some serious challenges
to overcome. Target’s financial results
have been uneven since last year’s fourth
quarter, when the retailer posted a loss
due to the massive data breach at holiday that potentially impacted millions of
shoppers. Second-quarter net earnings
dropped nearly 62 percent to $234 mil-
MEMO PAD
FIGURING OUT THE NUMBERS: The
Association of Magazine Media has
provided some new insight on consumer
demand for fashion and beauty
magazines during the all-important
month of September.
The MPA ranked the women’s
magazines Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar,
Allure, Teen Vogue, Lucky, Glamour,
Marie Claire, Seventeen and InStyle,
and while the numbers might need a
statistics degree to decipher, it found
that Glamour had the largest brand
audience with 19 million for the month.
That brand audience number, which
is dubbed MPA’s “total 360” number,
comprises readers of a title’s print
and digital editions, as well as unique
visitors to its video channel and to its
Web site via computer and mobile. The
data, which is culled from third-party
providers GfK MRI, Ipsos, ComScore,
Nielsen Online and SocialFlow, is
the MPA’s new way of providing what
it claims is the “true” insight into
consumer demand for magazines.
Returning to the September numbers,
the MPA said that year over year, Glamour
grew just 8 percent, while Harper’s
Bazaar logged the biggest improvement
lion or 37 cents a share on sales of $17.4
billion from $17.1 billion, a 1.7 percent
increase over 2013’s second quarter.
Target cut its guidance for adjusted
third-quarter earnings per share to between 40 cents and 50 cents a share.
Analysts are expecting earnings of 65 cents
a share. For fiscal 2014, Target cut guidance
to between $3.10 and $3.30 a share from a
previous forecast of $3.60 to $3.90 a share.
A key problem is Canada, where the
business continues to falter. Canadian
segment sales rose 63.1 percent to $449
million from $275 million in the 2013
second quarter, partly due to new store
openings, but comps declined 11.4 percent in the second quarter. Target has
changed its management in Canada in an
attempt to get the business on track.
All of these problems led to pressure on Cornell’s predecessor, Gregg
Steinhafel to step down in May. Cornell
joined as ceo in August.
Now, he’s facing his first holiday season at the helm of the discounter — one
that’s expected to be more competitive
than ever across all segments of retail.
Target and Wal-Mart themselves are
deploying new technology, investing in
low prices and trying to one-up each
other with exclusives.
Cornell on Wednesday unveiled a multipronged holiday initiative with new enhanced digital tools such as a holiday wishlist app and said the retailer will offer for
the first time free holiday shipping on most
purchases made on target.com. However,
some analysts warned that free shipping
could negatively impact gross margins.
“We estimate that this free shipping offer
could translate to 230 basis points of gross
margin impact and 4 cents to 6 cents in
earnings per share, although the company noted this offer is already included in
guidance and therefore likely funded with
expense reductions in other areas,” said
Matt Nemer, a retail analyst at Wells Fargo.
Target is upping the offering of items
for sale online to 65,000 from 60,000. The
retailer has a price-match guarantee
and will be loading Cartwheel, its digital
savings app, with daily deals. IPod and
Android apps have been relaunched for
the holidays with new enhancements
such as interactive store maps and
streamlined checkout with Apple pay on
the iPhone app.
Wal-Mart last week lowered its fullyear forecast, citing a tough economy,
and putting a cloud over holiday sales.
But the retailer isn’t surrendering
with a 44 percent increase in brand
audience to six million. The MPA didn’t
add Cosmopolitan magazine to its top
10 list, as it likely views it as more of a
generalist read, but that glossy turned
in the highest total 360 number among
women’s magazines with 29.5 million.
(Of MPA member magazines, the highest
overall 360 number went to a non-fashion
publication, People, with 75.1 million).
Among the top 10, Vogue came in
second with a total 360 number of
16 million, followed by InStyle (12.4
million), Seventeen (11 million), Allure
(10.2 million), Elle (9.8 million), Bazaar
(six million), Teen Vogue (5.8 million),
Marie Claire (5.5 million) and Lucky (3.5
million). In men’s magazines, GQ earned
an audience of 13.7 million, while
Esquire pulled in 8.3 million and Details
attracted 1.6 million. On the bright side,
Details improved its total 360 number by
16 percent, according to the MPA, which
noted that InStyle only improved on its
figure by 2 percent.
The MPA introduced its total 360
metric in late September when it
revealed that it would cease reporting
monthly advertising-page figures, as
those numbers tell just one element of a
magazine’s health, namely the print story.
For those still interested in print
and ad pages, Vogue pulled the highest
total page count in September with 631,
Christmas. With its financially pinched
shoppers in mind, Wal-Mart is offering
a holiday layaway plan with no opening
fee. A portion of its Web site is devoted
to a clearance: “Huge savings on the hottest items” and a “savings center” feature
that suggests other low-priced items that
might interest a consumer.
Wal-Mart polled hundreds of children
to find their favorite toys and will cover
them on SavingsCatcher, its digital pricecomparison tool. The Bentonville-based
mass merchant plans to deliver its holiday message through its new “holiday
hub,” a production studio that will produce thousands of ads and other forms
of content for everything from broadcast
television to Vine under the direction of
a former Saatchi & Saatchi executive.
Target is offering free shipping
for the holiday season.
Target recently launched two new
apps and promises more in 2015. A new
Target Healthful app manages prescriptions and an updated gift registry has
new features and capabilities for life
events such as wedding, baby and college.
“As we go forward, it’s really all about
mobile,” Cornell told WWD, adding that
digital will be the first point of entry for
the majority of customers in the not-toodistant future. “It’s such a mobile experience. It’s where they purchase, it’s in
their hand. I’ve seen shoppers steering
their cart with one hand and using their
other hand to hold a phone. There’s an art
to it. They’re using Cartwheel to find savings. It’s a GPS, a navigator for the store.
“Shoppers recognize they have more
options now,” he added. “Amazon has
changed everybody’s expectations. Our
staff has got to supply solutions. We can
although that was a 4.5 percent dip from
last year. InStyle and Elle nabbed 485
and 465 pages, respectively, with Bazaar
nipping at their heels with 444 pages.
Glamour, MPA’s total 360 winner, had
215 pages, down 4 percent, and Cosmo
grabbed 188 pages for a 9.1 increase.
GQ’s pages were flat at 203, while Details
had a 10 percent decline in pages to 132.
Esquire’s pages fell 12.3 percent to 109.
— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD
BUCK STOPS HERE: When people talk
about a “dearth” of talent in fashion and
retailing, it appears to be a misnomer. If
Harvard Business Review is any standard,
this sector is alive and well when it comes
to the world’s best-performing chief
executive officers. The November issue
lists the world’s top ceo’s, and 14 of them
hail from the fashion and retailing world.
The ceo’s were judged on such hard data
as total shareholder return and market
capitalization, as well as long-term results.
Number one on the list is Jeffrey
Bezos, ceo of Amazon, whose sales keep
growing even though it routinely reports
losses. Amazon continues to bet on the
future and move into completely new
industries, according to HBR. David
Simon, ceo of Simon Property Group,
came in at number four, while Tadashi
Yanai, ceo of Fast Retailing, whose
properties include Uniqlo, Theory and
direct you to a new app or a digital solution. Our physical stores are quickly
becoming solution centers for the guest.
We’re shipping from stores now. You can
come in, shop, and decide you want to
pick up next week or have something
delivered. We’re beginning to think of
stores as distribution facilities. There’s
much more flexible fulfillment.”
With a new social command center at
headquarters, Target is becoming more
proactive in terms of social media “to stay
in touch with what’s happening and what’s
streaming,” Cornell said. “We built a center
where we can see data from all of our platforms [Facebook, Twitter and Instagram].
Retailers are content generators. We amplify guest content and make it very visible.
Guests love it when we use their content.
The guests get more posts than our posts.
It has an authenticity and attraction. We
do it across platforms and monitor their
comments closely. When a friend says, ‘You
have to go to Target,’ it has [far more influence than anything we could say.]”
There are further signs that Target
is pushing hard to recapture its buzz.
The company said it will partner for
Christmas with Story, a Manhattan store
known for its themed installations and the
editorial lens it brings to retailing. Story
visited Target headquarters to select holiday products from the retailer’s design
partnerships to its everyday collections.
The Target collaboration will open at the
store on West 19th St. on Nov. 5. Kathee
Tesija, chief merchandising and supply
chain officer at Target, said that Story will
be “a testing ground for us to continue to
understand how merchandising and product curation influences our guests.”
Across the board, there is change in
the air at Target — beginning in the chairman’s office. Cornell is far more open and
forthcoming that his predecessors, which
was evident from Day One when he held
a town hall-style meeting for thousands of
employees. It’s all part of Target’s recognition that its methods of the past are no
longer enough.
“Retail is really shifting,” Cornell said.
“We used to be so campaign-focused. In
July, it was back to school, but the customer [didn’t want to buy back-to-school
until August]. I want to engage with the
Target guest and make sure I understand
and the team understands their expectations of us. My vote shouldn’t be driving
our decisions when we have an opportunity to get so much feedback from guests.
They vote with their wallets.”
J Brand, took the number 11 spot. Pablo
Isla Álvarez de Tejera, ceo of Inditex, which
owns Zara, was listed as number 14.
Michael Balmuth, ceo of Ross Stores,
came in at number 25, while Carol
Meyrowitz, ceo of TJX, came in at number
51. Meyrowitz is not only one of two
women who made the top 100, but she
also came in at number 10 on the list
of performers with the highest total
compensation. She earned $20.7 million,
according to compensation analysis firm
Equilar. (Heading up that separate list
was Disney’s Robert Iger, who earned
$34.3 million, followed by David Zaslav,
ceo of Discovery Communications, who
earned $33.3 million).
Of the top 100 ceo’s, Nick Hayek Jr., ceo
of Swatch, came in at number 52, while
Blake Nordstrom, ceo of Nordstrom tied,
for number 54 (with Howard Schultz, ceo of
Starbucks). Also making the top 100 were
Terry J. Lundgren, ceo of Macy’s, who tied
for number 66. Athleticwear firms also
made a strong showing. Herbert Haines,
ceo of Adidas, took the number 73 spot,
while Mark Parker, ceo of Nike, sprinted
in at number 76. Fabrizio Freda, ceo of
Estée Lauder, earned the number 81
spot, while Eric Wiseman, ceo of VF Corp.,
came in at number 84. Further down the
list was Michael Kowalski, ceo of Tiffany &
Co., who came in at number 92.
— LISA LOCKWOOD
WE’RE HIRING.
(YES, YOU READ THIS CORRECTLY)
–
WWD Deputy Fashion Editor
–
WWD Beauty Sales Director
–
WWD Beijing-Shanghai or Hong Kong Reporter
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WWD Sales Coordinator LA
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WWD Street Style Reporter/Editor
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WWD Sales Integrated Marketing & Research Specialist
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WWD Eye Reporter NY
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WWD Digital Sales Account Executive
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WWD Eye Reporter NY/LA
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WWD Creative Specialist, Advertising Sales
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WWD Accessories Reporter/Editor
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Summits Attendee Sales Manager
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WWD Brazil Beauty & Fashion Reporter
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Summits & Events Sponsorship Sales Director
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WWD Silicon Valley-San Francisco Reporter
(Fashion-Tech-Commerce)
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Brand Strategy & Social Media Director
Summits & Events Experience Director
WWD Activewear Swimwear Reporter
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Summits & Events Marketing Director
WWD Men’s Wear Reporter/Editor
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Event Creative Director
WWD West Coast Fashion Editor
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Summits & Event Manager
WWD Copy Editor
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Designer InfoGraphic Designer Specialist
WWD Wearable Tech Reporter
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Sales Marketing Designer
Financial Analyst
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Summits & Events Lead Designer
FN Business Reporter
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Summits Art & Design Director
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Assistant Manager, Consumer Marketing
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Director Corporate Sales, Consumer Marketing
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FN Sales Coordinator
Fairchild Media is growing. We’re looking for talent across our organization. If interested, contact:
FairchildJobs@pmc.com
Indicate the job you are applying for in the subject line or you will not be considered.
12 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
FASHION SCOOPS
Mark Parker
BURBERRY TAKES RODEO DRIVE: The Nov. 7 opening of Burberry’s
first Rodeo Drive flagship will precede its receiving the 22nd
Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award on Nov. 19, which was
revealed today by the city of Beverly Hills and the Rodeo
Drive Committee. The award, inaugurated in 2003, has been
presented to Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford, Gianni and Donatella
Versace, photographer Mario Testino, the houses of Missoni and
Ferragamo, costume designer Edith Head, and editor Diana
Vreeland, among others. Burberry, founded in 1856, plans to
celebrate its Beverly Hills store with a big bash in April. Los
Angeles locals and tourists have already
FOR MORE
glimpsed the soon-to-be-finished threeSCOOPS, SEE
story store, on the corner of Rodeo
Drive and Dayton Way. — MARCY MEDINA
WWD.com.
Nike’s Women’s Day
THERE WAS a whole lot going
on at opening day of Nike’s twoday Women’s Summit at Spring
Studios, not all of it terribly wellorganized, but the takeaway could
not have been more clear: Nike
loves the ladies, and it plans to
marshal that love into a 40 percent
increase in business by 2017.
Bridget Foley’s That’s a cool $2 billion on top of
the current $5 billion worldwide.
Diary
Another takeaway was that,
while Nike may be brilliant when
it comes to performance research and development,
its fashion show proclivities swing a little cheesy.
(Not to mention counterproductive. One part of
the show occurred on a runway lined with rows
of wispy, desert-looking fauna between which the
athletes and models walked, partially obscuring the
merch, particularly the sneakers.)
But who are we to argue with five billion bucks?
Or a female digital community of
65 million as well as two apps, the
Nike by
Nike+ Training Club App and the
Pedro
Nike+ Running App, that have
Lourenço
been downloaded 16 million and
nine million times, respectively?
In his remarks to open the
show, chief executive officer
Mark Parker spoke about the
intense degree to which women
are shaping the fitness world and
noted that today, they hold more
gym memberships than men. In
a brief postshow interview, he
elaborated on that explosion. “It’s
a cultural shift,” he said. “It’s a
convergence of a number of things
— the awareness of health and
fitness and the importance, not
just of health, but of the emotional
[aspect],” he said. “And there’s a
social element to it.”
About that $2 billion projection,
one area primed for growth
is Nike’s already explosive
e-commerce: 70 percent growth
overall in the last quarter with
purchases by women up in the
triple digits. “The whole digital
e-commerce experience is getting
so much better,” Parker noted.
“The style guide helps. There’s
fewer clicks to get through — a lot
of those basic improvements are happening. But
it does come down to the product, how good is the
product, how easy are you making [the experience],
how compelling is the presentation.”
As Parker noted, fitness is integrated into the
cultural fabric. So are other aspects of Nike’s
reality, including its relationship with the NFL,
whose uniforms it provides.
Given Nike’s focus on women, does the brand
have a seat at the league’s table when it comes
to developing a domestic violence policy? “I
PHOTOS BY GEORGE CHINSEE
CRUZ GOES STREET: Victor Cruz is turning his
wouldn’t say a seat at the table,” Parker said.
“But we have made our position known. We’re an
important partner, so we think it’s important to
make our position known. I think they, by their
own admission, they have trailed the play, so to
speak. I think they’ve learned a lot. I’ve spoken
to Commissioner [Roger] Goodell. I think he’s
learned a lot himself, personally, but also the whole
organization. Domestic violence and child abuse is
something that is not tolerable.”
Yet Parker stressed that despite the horror
stories, he believes in the affirmative power of
sports. “We take the cases of athletes in these
situations case by case,” he said. “I’m a firm
believer that athletes and sports are an incredible
source of inspiration for people around the world.”
Back to the event itself, the runway show featured
two parts; one had 27 athletes from around the world
including Nike stalwart Joan Benoit Samuelson,
Russian skater Adelina Sotnikova and Chinese
tennis player Li Na, who all wore gear that could
best be described as basic. That
was followed by a showing of
Nike’s new collaboration with
young Brazilian designer Pedro
Lourenço. Lourenço showed a
collection of black and beige that
was appealing, if low key. If the
line takes off, it could be quite a
boon to his minuscule ready-towear business. But what attracted
him to the partnership was the
chance to take advantage of Nike
technology. “It’s really important
not just for the business side,
but more for me as a designer
to experiment with technology,
which is something in my line that
is very important to me. With Nike
I had the possibility to use all of
their tools to develop technology
on clothes. I think that’s the next
big step in fashion.”
Other collections, some of a
feistier visual ilk, were shown
off the runway in various
“rotations,” although finding
them took more effort than that
warranted by the promise of a
few pairs of vibrant tights.
Amy Montagne, vice president
and general manager of Global
Nike Womens, counted among
key areas of development
performance tights, sports bras and shoes, including
Flyknit sneakers, which look fabulous. “This is a
versatile training shoe. It’s the lightest weight, but
superstrong and supportive.” One mélange knit in
a delightful pastel called to mind Chanel’s much
meatier tweed sneakers. But Nike will never be
about beauty — or any fashion trend — for its own
sake. “We will always, first and foremost, start from
the athlete, innovation and performance,” Montagne
said. “That is what inspires us.” And the promise of
all those extra billions doesn’t hurt.
eye to Japan — at least as far as the new
Kith collaboration with Japanese clothing brand Ones Stroke
is concerned. The injured wide receiver from the New York
Giants fronted the new look book campaign for the downtown
streetwear store’s Kith for Ones Stroke Genesis Collection.
“Victor has always been fashion forward,” said Kith’s
founder Ronnie Fieg. “Not only has he supported Kith for
a very long time, he is also one of my closest friends — a
brother. I felt that there would be no one better to help me
deliver this collection to the world than him.”
It will be the first time that the Japanese label will be sold
Stateside. Ones Stroke is popular in Japan and best known
for its denim workwear. The collaboration with Kith will run
in 40 different pieces, from Japanese selvedge denim pants
to reimagined robes in light denim and buffalo plaid. Prices
will range from $250 to $450 and the line will be introduced
at the new Kith shop on Saturday.
“I feel that the U.S. has always appreciated Japanese
style and culture, but it is hard for us to integrate it into our
wardrobe,” said Fieg. “Either the price tag is too high or the
sizing is too skewed. So with this project, I focused on delivering
Japanese sensibilities with an American fashion twist.”
It will mark the first time Kith has ventured into denim
bottoms. The brand — which expanded from footwear to
apparel — has previously offered tapered sweatpants. — DAVID YI
HANG TEN: A decade
has passed since Karl
Lagerfeld did a oneoff collaboration for
H&M — and the fashion
industry has never been
the same. “Inexpensive
is not ‘cheap’ anymore,
that’s why the luxury
industry has to make an
even bigger effort. I think
all that is very healthy,”
Lagerfeld muses in
The commemorative H&M book.
“The First Ten Years,”
a commemorative book H&M is releasing Nov. 6 in tandem
with its latest holiday tie-up, Alexander Wang for H&M.
Available in about 250 stores, it’s priced at 9.90 euros,
or $11.50 at current exchange, with 25 percent of proceeds
going to UNICEF.
H&M dug out unseen imagery and solicited
contributions from each of its participating designers,
including Donatella Versace, Alber Elbaz and Roberto Cavalli.
The Swedish retailer is also mounting a retrospective
exhibition of its annual collaborations at its Fifth Avenue
flagship in New York from Oct. 27.
Said Lagerfeld: “I never expected it to make such a splash.”
— MILES SOCHA
SKIN-TIGHT: Fashion and art have never been as closely
intertwined as at Paris’ Silencio on Tuesday night. Two
chairs, a pair of thigh-high boots custom-made by Francesco
Russo and bare skin — lots of it — were the main ingredients
of a performance staged by Turner Prize-winning artist
Douglas Gordon. The elusive nightclub-cum-theater designed
by director David Lynch proved the ideal venue for the brazen
if slightly obscure cabaretlike act based on an improvised
interaction between Gordon, who wore said boots with a
black shirt (and nothing else), and his female counterpart.
“It’s not about fashion any more,” explained Russo, who
had personally sewn matching gloves onto the black-andnude stiletto boots, which, when worn with the provocative
footwear, put the protagonists in even more compromising
positions, giving full view of Gordon’s private parts. Don’t
bother asking what the exact message was.
“Art is about the artist posing the questions and the person
who watches giving the answers,” was Russo’s explanation.
OK. But it struck a chord with collectors, who had
arrived in Paris ahead of FIAC, the city’s annual art fair
starting Thursday.
“In a sense, it’s like a tailor-made sculpture; each piece is
unique,” said the shoe designer, as he took measurements of
the impromptu buyers’ feet and hands while the performance
unfurled further. “I just wish I could get two instead of only
one boot,” said a young connoisseur, vowing to cherish the
boot-cum-glove as part of her private art collection.
— PAULINA SZMYDKE
Men’s Week
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
13
Joseph Abboud Redux
by JEAN E. PALMIERI
JOSEPH ABBOUD is Joseph Abboud again.
Ending one of the longest-running sagas in
men’s fashion, the designer is finally able to
create collections under his own name again
and is launching an upscale line with Men’s
Wearhouse, where he is chief creative director.
Tonight, the Men’s Wearhouse, which
bought the Joseph Abboud brand just over a
year ago, will host an exclusive preview of the
Joseph Abboud Limited Edition Collection,
a new higher-priced lifestyle assortment of
suits, sport coats, slacks, dress and casual
shirts, knitwear, outerwear and accessories
that will be sold exclusively on a new Joseph
Abboud Web site. The merchandise will retail
for around 30 percent to 40 percent more than
the Joseph Abboud product currently sold in
Men’s Wearhouse and Moores stores in the
U.S. and Canada, with suits retailing for about
$695 versus $495 at Men’s Wearhouse.
The meat of the collection, which will be
more than 200 pieces strong, will be suits
and sport coats that are being manufactured
at the company’s factory in New Bedford,
Mass. The suits are signed and numbered
and are being touted as “a modern tribute to
the heritage of classic men’s wear, with a sophisticated color palette, luxurious weaves
and vintage fabrics.”
Abboud said the Limited Edition collection is a way to “exercise my creative
juices.” There were “no limits” on the piece
goods, styles or design details he could use,
so he was able to produce what he believes
is the “true essence of the Joseph Abboud
brand” — albeit a brand that has had many
essences over the last 14 years, ever since he
lost control of his name in 2000.
The new line was built as a collection
and the clothes “blend rather than match,”
he said. Key pieces will include sepia-toned
sport coats, mushroomy chalk stripes, herringbone suits and vested suits in “rich,
textured fabrics. There are not a lot of
flat finishes.” In its sensibility and fabric
choices, the line is reminiscent of the original Abboud collection that the designer
launched in 1987. He said with a chuckle:
“Fast-forward 25 years and I’m back on
track. It’s been an amazing journey.”
The Boston-born Abboud started his
fashion career working at the Louis Boston
retail store and after cutting his teeth at
Ralph Lauren, launched his own brand. He
sold his name and trademark in 2000 for $65
million and the brand went through several iterations and owners — with Abboud
angling to get his name back every step of
the way — before Men’s Wearhouse bought
it for $97.5 million last August. At the end
of 2012, Abboud, who filled in the gap years
with stints at several labels including Hickey
Freeman, joined Men’s Wearhouse at a time
PHOTOS BY GEORGE CHINSEE
Joseph
Abboud
Looks from the
Limited Edition
Collection.
when the men’s wear retailer was in the
midst of its own drama as it shortly after
ousted its founder and chief spokesman
George Zimmer in an acrimonious battle.
Since purchasing the Abboud brand, the
label has grown to represent 13 percent of
Men’s Wearhouse’s overall sales, which are
about $2.5 billion. And the tailored clothing
has yet to roll out to all stores. “We anticipate
this will be a $200 million business for us by
the end of this year,” Doug Ewert, chief executive officer, told WWD. And the margins are
strong. “We’re value-pricing this product, so
it’s not being promoted and the margins are
stronger,” Ewert told analysts last month.
Ewert, naturally, pooh-poohed the prevailing wisdom at the time that Men’s
Wearhouse had overpaid for the brand.
“Clearly that’s not true,” he said — although
the numbers will ultimately prove whether
he’s right or wrong.
The ceo believes the numbers will be on
his side, and that the Abboud brand can grow
to between $300 million and $400 million
within the next couple of years. “It’s really
resonating with the customer and attracting
a new customer,” he said. “And it’s selling
just as well in Canada as in the U.S. It also
gets us into the custom clothing business.”
Ewert said the Joseph Abboud custom offering is still rolling out but is selling well,
and will be marketed more aggressively
next year. “It’s a really high-quality garment,
made in the U.S. that can be delivered in
three weeks,” he said. Prices for a custom
suit, also manufactured in Massachusetts
and available only at Men’s Wearhouse
stores, start at $595.
Ewert said the factory has been running
at capacity for months and the workforce has
been grown by 50 percent since the acquisition. And he believes it
can expand further as
demand for the product grows.
Although
he
doesn’t expect
the
Limited
Edition offering
to significantly
add to the label’s
bottom line, Men’s
Wearhouse views
it as a “halo” for the
brand as a whole.
“We anticipate it will
do business, but we’re
not giving guidance on
how much,” he said — a
comment that implies it
won’t be immediately significant to the company’s
overall sales. “But it will provide a halo approach to the
product. It’s modern, classic
styling in luxurious fabrics
that showcases the craftsmanship and exclusivity of the
brand. And it will help position
Joseph as the leading modern
men’s wear authority.”
Abboud credited Ewert and
his merchant team with having a
“real vision” for the brand. “They
perceive it as a brand, not a private label,” he said.
The Limited Edition product will be sold only on the
new Web site, which is also
scheduled to go live today. In addition to selling product, the site will
also provide commentary. “It will be
commerce and information,” Abboud
said. “We will give a lot of fashion
advice. We have a great marketing team and this company knows how to get a
message out.” He said
it won’t be a “how-to
manual,” but instead
will provide insight
on where the fabric was made,
why it has a peak
lapel and the
origin of a ticket pocket, for
instance. And
there will also
be a blog.
Ewert said
he’s not concerned that customers may shy
away from buying
tailored pieces on
the Internet, even as
other retailers find it difficult to do so. “We sell a
lot of tailored clothing on
the Web,” he said. “And if they
have to come into a store to get
it tailored, even better.”
Abboud agreed: “It’s unbelievable what’s sold online,” he
said, “Even tailored. We think
we’ll get the guy who likes the
brand and wants something
unique and special.
Neither the ceo nor Abboud
ruled out one day adding the
line to some of the company’s
flagship stores. “The future is
wide open,” Abboud said. Men’s
Wearhouse has also hinted that
it may one day open separate
Joseph Abboud retail stores.
But for right now, the focus is on
Limited Edition, the designer’s
latest attempt to make his mark in
the men’s wear sector.
“Men’s tailored clothing
hasn’t been this exciting since the
Seventies,” Abboud said. “There’s
such an energy level around it now.
It makes me feel like a kid again.”
Men’s Week
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
From Bodyguard
To Fashion Model
by MILES SOCHA
PHOTO BY STÉPHANE FEUGÈRE
him, people are not that aggressive. You just have to
be careful with someone who could be crazy.”
PARIS — Sébastien Jondeau’s first brush with Karl
Looking good is something Jondeau takes seLagerfeld involved a three-hour wait, a few minutes
riously, too, adjusting his attire to the occasion:
moving some 18th-century furniture, and a 500-franc
Perhaps a “Karl Who?” parody T-shirt and shorts for
tip — a handsome sum for a 15-year-old from the
a vacation stroll in Saint-Tropez, or a matching tailrough-and-tumble Paris suburbs.
coat for a royal wedding in Monaco.
It’s been a wild ride since to the front lines of
He said the designer generously furnishes him
international fashion for the
with most of his wardrobe —
39-year-old Frenchman, who
from Dior Homme, Givenchy
has recently added fashion
and Tom Ford, in addition to
model to his main duties as
the Lagerfeld brand — but that
Lagerfeld’s longtime bodyguard
he puts together outfits himself.
and personal assistant.
“The good thing with him
Now the face of Lagerfeld
is you have to have a style, you
know? Not to look like everyone,”
men’s wear, Jondeau has also
he said. “He’s very demanding,
walked the Chanel catwalk at
but cool at the same time.”
the German couturier’s invitaLike his boss, Jondeau is
tion, and bared his bottom for a
an off-the-rack guy: size 50 in
2011 photo shoot for Pirelli.
suits, 31/32 for jeans.
An avid kickboxer who has
He has a weakness for
fought professionally and trains
watches — “It’s jewelry for
intensively daily, the strapping
men,” he shrugs — and sneakJondeau is sanguine about
ers, having amassed a collecstrutting his stuff.
tion of more than 100 pairs
When he made his runway
of Air Jordans from Nike, indebut in 2007 in a penguin
cluding rare ones sourced on
sweater, everyone asked him
international trips.
if he was intimidated. “I said,
With his close friend and
‘What the f--k? I just had five
Sébastien Jondeau in a
training partner, French welboxing matches and I’m going
Lagerfeld suit and
terweight champion Brice
to be nervous just to walk in
Karl Lagerfeld shirt.
Faradji, Jondeau plans to
clothes?’” he recalled.
launch an app called Interval
Indeed, little seems to ratTraining Song, which will allow people to customize
tle Jondeau, except a jangling cell phone — in case
playlists in the rhythm of boxer workouts: three minLagerfeld is in need of him.
utes of activity; one minute rest.
He takes the bodyguard job seriously, and is
Lagerfeld said Jondeau stands out against a landrarely more than a step away when the designer is
scape of wan, scrawny male models, and appeals to
in public. However comfortable Lagerfeld may be
the core 35-to-40 demographic his dressy line targets.
negotiating large crowds, the risk of harm requires
Asked what it’s like to shoot campaigns with
extreme vigilance, Jondeau insisted.
Jondeau, the designer’s affection was plain: “It’s
“Maybe I’m too much around Karl, but I know he
like you’re photographing your son.”
needs it. It’s very important,” he explained. “With
Man of
THE WEEK
The sleek hair is a major
improvement from his
desperately disheveled
styles of the past.
The mustache makes him look a little
bit like a pervert. His constant quest
to make himself less attractive is
working well with this look.
The bow tie is perfectly
knotted. But please get
someone to straighten it
before you go out in public.
PHOTO BY ANTHONY HARVEY/GETTY IMAGES FOR BFI
It looks like he rented it off
the rack at a mall men’s wear
retailer. It’s oversize and
unflattering for his slender
5-foot, 11-inch frame.
The star of “Fury,” the
nation’s number-one
movie, seems to be
channeling “Boogie
Nights” with his
Seventies-porn-star
interpretation of a redcarpet tuxedo.
BRAD PITT: C
The slightly tinted glasses are
the first major step into porn-star
territory — and they age him, too.
Even if they’re prescription, he should
lose them and go for contacts.
The James Bond,
straightedge pocket
square looks great.
With the wide
satin peak lapels,
the cummerbund
becomes
overwhelming.
Mark Shale Launches Advice Site
MARK SHALE is back in business
— sort of — but this time, it’s an
Internet play.
The well-known Chicago retailer, which had an 83-year run
before shutting down in 2012, has
launched markshale.com, a fashion
advice and personal shopping site
for men and women. The site identifies what it believes are trendright pieces and links to places
where customers can buy the looks.
The current page presents tips
about packing light for a business
trip and recommends taking along
a white dress shirt from Canali,
Finds segments are updated weekly.
Over the course of its eight-plus
decades in business, Mark Shale
had three tours through bankruptcy. The Baskins sold an equity
stake to JOB Investments in 2009,
but that failed to sustain the stores
and the final three units closed two
years ago. At one time, the retailer
had operated more than a dozen
stores around the Midwest.
Baskin said after Mark Shale
closed, he purchased the name and
intellectual property and has been
“sitting with it” since that time. “But
over the course of the last year, more
and more people
were saying they
missed
Mark
Shale and asking
where they could
buy clothes.”
Baskin said
he’s been doing “a
lot more Internet
shopping” himself and realized
that it’s often a
challenge. “So I
thought, maybe
there’s a service I
can offer.”
He said some
of the sites he
links to will pay a
tiny percentage to
The homepage of the site, which offers personal shopping.
him for the referral. Eventually, “as we build viewwhich links to Saks Fifth Avenue,
ership to the site, there might be
a Trafalgar leather belt, available
opportunities for advertising and
at Nordstrom, and a light topcoat
marketing partnerships,” he said.
from Brooks Brothers.
The site is also hoping to launch
“It’s fun and somewhat differa virtual personal shopping feature
ent,” said Scott Baskin, chief execuwhere Baskin would have a convertive officer of the site and the grandsation with a customer and shop the
son of Al Baskin, who founded Mark
Internet exclusively for them.
Shale in 1929. The site’s Clothes &
— JEAN E. PALMIERI
Conversation as well as Fashion
The Skivvy Strut
NEW YORK — “It was such a difficult task casting these models,”
said 2(x)ist’s creative director
Jason Scarlatti backstage before
his spring runway show Tuesday
night, surrounded by a bevy of chiseled, nearly nude male models.
Even though 2(x)ist has built its
reputation on underwear, Scarlatti
said the company is transitioning into a full lifestyle brand. This
season, for instance, the New Yorkbased label launched bags, with
backpacks, totes and gym bags.
“It’s about evolving the brand
as a teaser,” he said. “We’re dipping our toes into getting more into
a lifestyle. We introduced swimwear but now we’ve been learning
a lot from our new activewear line.
The business is growing but the
core is still, of course, underwear.”
There was a lot of that.
The annual show, held at Skylight
Modern in Manhattan’s Chelsea
neighborhood, showcased many confident male models in barely-there underwear that hugged their every inch.
“There’s only so much I can
do to make it different each year,”
Scarlatti admitted. “Right now we’re
introducing quick-wicking fabrics
and performance fabrics as well —
anything our guy wants.”
And who is this 2(x)ist man, daring
enough to walk in front of strangers in
nothing but skimpy undergarments?
“He’s someone who knows
who he is,” said Scarlatti. “He’s
not afraid to be original or daring.
He’s interested in taking a risk.”
Apparently so.
— DAVID YI
Looks from
the spring
collection.
Everybody knows he
designed his own wedding
ring. How nice....
The pants are bad.
They’re superbaggy
and unflattering.
There’s nothing
wrong with the
shoes, but it’s hard
to get past the
mustache.
PHOTOS BY STEVE EICHNER
14
Men’s Week
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
15
Image Consulting Gaining a Foothold in China
by JAKE SPRING
BEIJING — Wan Li admits that he needs
some fashion help. Sitting in his office
wearing a black belt and brown shoes, the
otherwise smartly dressed civil aviation
lawyer realized he needed to up his sartorial game when he met a group of British
lawyers last year.
“I realized what a lawyer who was
properly dressed should look like,” said
the 27-year-old. “I decided I needed to
make some changes.”
PHOTO BY BIBIANA HAYGERT
Custom clothing
is increasing in
acceptance in Asia.
Wan sought the help of an image consultant through a firm called Principle M.
Together, they discussed his desire to dress
in a way that would impress his clients.
After looking over photos on Pinterest to
agree on a look, they settled on a light gray,
two-button made-to-measure suit. The consultant also helped him purchase ties and
pocket squares to accessorize his look.
Wan is among a growing number of
Chinese who are seeking professional help
to dress and look better. The image consultants, who are partly fashion gurus and
partly salespeople, dish advice to help sell
their company’s made-to-measure clothing. Their male and female clients are
predominantly lawyers, financial professionals and businesspeople — those who
can afford the clothes and workshops that
can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.
“Normal Chinese companies have this
uniform, and it’s a very boxy suit. Most of
them are black or charcoal, they’re very big
and sloppy,” said Elsa Zheng, an image consultant at Principle M. “Some of them even
get married in that suit. So for me, it’s really
easy for me to improve their image because
the starting point is really not [good].”
Justin Kwan, cofounder of Principle M,
said his customers are eager for guidance.
“They don’t even know what a black-tie
event means. So they’re actually quite excited
about learning about that from us,” he said.
In Beijing, two-year-old Principle M
and the decade-old Melly International
represent the extreme ends of the spectrum in the nascent image-consulting industry. Principle M counts roughly 100 clients and skews toward young professional
men. Melly International has 3,000 clients
of both genders, and they tend to be older
professionals, often in leadership roles.
Principle M’s clientele is generally
upper-middle-class, with many working in
law or finance. Its made-to-measure suits
start at 5,800 yuan, or $943, for those made
of Italian Dino Filarte wool. Those sourced
from Vitale Barberis Canonico and British
mill Scabal cost more. The company is considering expanding beyond these three primary suppliers to other British producers
and also to fabrics such as tweed.
The company makes money on custom
Tyga Takes L.A. (Gear)
by DAVID YI
TYGA IS on the prowl.
On Monday, the hip-hop artist and style
influencer teased four photos of himself
wearing four different pairs of new L.A.
Gear sneakers. “Coming soon,” he wrote,
which had his five million fans wondering
if the famed Nineties sneaker brand was
making a comeback.
The answer is “yes.” WWD has confirmed that the Los Angeles-based company
will relaunch in the spring and the first
style will be part of the “Originals” collection and be designed by Tyga, the brand’s
newest creative brand adviser. The styles
will retail for $120 and launch with a gold
shoe, the L.A. Gear Lights Liquid Gold, in
conjunction with the 24-year-old’s forthcoming album, “The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty,”
executive-produced by Kanye West.
“L.A. Gear is iconic and represents a
mind-set I relate to,” Tyga told WWD. “I
wanted to do something different, take my
own path. Instead of doing a deal with an
active brand in the market, I wanted to be
part of something that felt original to me.”
The brand launched in 1983 on Los
Angeles’ Melrose Avenue, and was best
known for its blinking L.A. Gear Lights,
Hollywoods, L.A. Tech Runners and KAJ.
The brand hit its peak in the Nineties
with brand ambassadors such as Michael
Jackson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wayne
Gretzky and Joe Montana, among others.
Though market share dwindled in
the shadows of other sneaker brands, it
has never ceased production, a company
spokeswoman said. With the relaunch, the
firm will target megabrands Jordan, Nike,
Adidas and Reebok as its main competitors, the spokeswoman said.
“Our loyal customers and sneaker collectors have been consistently buying out
our existing L.A. Gear Originals inventory,” said Lance Jackson, L.A. Gear’s vice
president. “With the blending of vintage
and modern style so on-trend right now, it
is the perfect time to remind everyone of
the L.A. Gear Originals line while adding
a fully updated and modern edge to each
shoe design and to the overall brand.”
With Tyga — who also worked with
Reebok on launching his T-Raww sneakers — the brand hopes to make a mark in
the streetwear market.
Tyga in his
L.A. Gear
sneakers.
clothing, and the consulting service is seen as
added value, Kwan said.
Melly International, founded in 2004, has
more than 3,000 clients, said founder Wang
Xiaocan, and its seven-page intake form records
everything from physical measurements and
professional details to hobbies and family life.
Meeting with a consultant is free — Chinese
would find up-front consultation fees hard to
accept, Wang said. The company’s consultants
spend anywhere from six months to as much
as four years on each client and customers pay
for training sessions on, for example, how to
style their hair and how to dress. The company
will custom produce clothes for the client from
its in-house design and tailoring staff, and depending on a particular need, will also teach
them how to act and speak in professional settings to project a certain image.
Among the firm’s first clients were people
working for the national state-owned broadcaster CCTV, Wang said. The firm has since expanded to high-powered professionals across most
fields from artists to finance types, with lawyers
also making up a large contingent. Clients will
usually spend from 3,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan, or
$488 to $4,878, for the clothes and services.
A high proportion of clients return to the
company repeatedly for new clothing, she said.
The company goes so far as to save certain fabrics for years in case clients want to produce
similar garments or make repairs. Melly uses
a range of more than a dozen imported fabrics
for its men’s suits, including those from British
mills Hield and Charles Clayton and Italian
mills Marzotto and Reda. Silk and other fabrics used in Chinese-style formalwear are
made in traditional centers of production in
Suzhou and Hangzhou.
New clients must often wait three months
for their initial appointment because of high
demand, Wang said.
While Wang feels her company has gained
market recognition, she and Kwan acknowledge that expansion is a gradual process. They
both rely almost solely on word-of-mouth referrals. Melly has never done any formal promotion, while Principle M does some limited
promotion via the mobile application WeChat.
When it does, the emphasis is on promoting
workshops and other events to get potential
clients in the door.
Michel Phan, an associate professor of
luxury marketing at Emlyon Business School
in Shanghai, said retailers and malls should
consider adding image-consulting services to
breed customer loyalty and distinguish themselves in a crowded market. Galeries Lafayette
brought such services to the mainland when it
opened a location in Beijing last year.
“They have similar brands, if not the same
brands, in every mall, so what makes a consumer go to one mall versus another besides the
fact that it’s close to their home or work,” Phan
asked. “To offer image-consultant service could
be an interesting value added to the malls.”
John Varvatos’ Homecoming
JOHN VARVATOS chose an unorthodox
channel to reveal the location of his next retail store: CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
On Wednesday morning, the designer
joined anchor Joe Kernen and Quicken
Loans chief executive officer Dan Gilbert
to talk up the virtues of Detroit, his former
hometown and the site of his new store. A
4,000-square-foot unit in an historic 1891
Queen Anne-style building at 1500 Woodward
Avenue is slated to open in the spring.
Varvatos said when he was growing up in
the city, Woodward Avenue was “the place
to be, and you can sense that it’s happening
again.” He said he believes the beleaguered
metropolis is turning a corner and the future
is bright, with more hotels, restaurants and
bars opening and more young people moving
downtown. He said there’s a “buzz” about the
city these days — “there’s so much happening.”
But Varvatos said the store will be more
than just a statement — he expects it to do
business, too. “It’s definitely a business opportunity, for sure,” he said. “But you can’t
always look at the numbers. Sometimes
you’ve got to go with your gut.”
The store will carry Varvatos’ complete men’s
wear collection including the John Varvatos
Collection, John Varvatos Star USA and Converse
by John Varvatos.
— JEAN E. PALMIERI
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“It made perfect sense to collaborate
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ago with fashion at its core,” said Jackson.
The brand plans to launch other styles
throughout the year, including the T-Raww
sneaker line, which is no longer associated with Reebok. It is taking appointments
with buyers and plans to sell via specialty
sneaker stores, major retailers, on L.A.
Gear’s new Web site, lagearoriginals.com
and its own phone app.
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WWDWHAT’SNEXTINDENIM
SECTION II
Love
Story
When she turned 75 last spring, Ali MacGraw
let her hair go gray. But her “Love Story” style
remains forever young. With the proverbial tweak
here and there, it still looks great, and will likely
be endorsed by coeds everywhere come spring.
Here, suede trench by BLK DNM over Rebecca
Minkoff’s silk and cotton embroidered top and
Mother’s cotton, polyester and elastane denim
pants. For more fashion, see pages 8 to 16.
ASIA
TAKES A
SLOW TURN
PREMIUM’S
THIRD WAVE
EUROPE’S
PHOTO BY JOHN AQUINO; STYLED BY ANTONIA SARDONE
BLUE STREAK
MODEL: WANESSA AT MARILYN; HAIR AND MAKEUP BY MARCEL DAGENAIS AT LVA ARTISTS USING ORIBE HAIR CARE; PHOTO ASSISTANT: EMILY TAYLOR; FASHION ASSISTANT: EMILY MERCER
Denim’s
2
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
Jeans Market Looks to Reignite Demand
COMPANIES LOOKING to
boost their sales of jeans in
the U.S. market are apparently
going to have to do it without a
sudden resurgence in demand.
Women’s jeans consumption
continues to fall, with retailers
working down their inventory
positions contributing to a decline in sales, whether measured in units or dollars.
The drop-off continues to
be most severe in the area that
had been the primary source of
growth for more than a decade
and which showed the earliest
signs of erosion — premium
denim. The affluent women
who brought about the upswing
in upscale jeans have in a
sense become overinventoried
themselves, with closets and
drawers full of earlier denim
purchases and their eyes now
focused on yoga pants and active-oriented bottoms.
They’re coming upon some
new expressions of denim —
fresh versions of distressed
looks, athletic interpretations
of denim fabrics and silhouettes, prints and yarn-dyed designs — but those aren’t making up for the nearly automatic
sales registered by retailers
just two years ago.
According to figures compiled by The NPD Group Inc.,
dollar sales of women’s jeans
in the U.S. fell 8 percent in the
12 months ended in August to
$8.1 billion from $8.8 billion
in the comparable prior-year
period, while units dropped 5
percent to 324.2 million from
342.2 million. With high-end
jeans struggling, fast-fashion
retailers pushing lower-priced
alternatives and many retailers
turning to denim as a promotional weapon during a back-toschool season marked by poor
traffic, the average price of a
pair of women’s jeans dropped
3 percent to $25.02 from $25.86.
By contrast, overall sales of
women’s jeans were still trending upward in the year ended
in August 2013 — up 8 percent
to $8.9 billion with units ahead
12 percent to 348.8 million.
However, during the earlier period, sales of jeans at retail prices between $25 and $75 were
still growing at a near doubledigit pace and those below $25
moved ahead 16.1 percent.
But the premium segment
had already begun its contraction, with sales of jeans priced
$75 and up down 19 percent,
falling below the $1 billion mark
and landing at $818,000, reducing
their share of sales to 9.2 percent
from 12.3 percent earlier.
NPD no longer discloses sales by price point, but
Marshal Cohen, the company’s chief industry analyst,
confirmed what many had expected: “The higher you go on
price, the bigger the drop-off.”
Although a smaller business
and one less affected by fashion preferences and more by
replacement, men’s jeans sales
traveled a similar, if slightly
less dramatic, trajectory. Dollar
sales declined 5 percent in the
12 months through August to
$5.4 billion and units pulled
back 4 percent to 207 million.
Cohen noted that the denim
business — at least since the
Sixties when it crossed over
from workwear to a symbol
of youthful freedom — has always been cyclical, prone to
rise with the arrival of a hot
idea such as designer jeans,
acid washes, high and low
rises and various leg openings,
and then slump when the hot
item cools off.
“The numbers have been
soft in denim for long enough
that we’ll see some improvement as they get ‘anniversaried,’ but the industry has
the opportunity to make the
recovery happen before the
cycle gets us there,” Cohen
said. “The denim industry as
a whole has gotten into replenishment mode and that
is not going to build the business. The resources are trying, and I realize that they’re
dealing with retailers who in
many cases are very resistant
to giving new ideas a chance
in a soft market, but there just
past two years, with private
equity players making significant acquisitions of brands
such as True Religion, Lucky
Brand, NYDJ and Paige;
companies combining, such
as Joe’s Jeans’ purchase of
Hudson Jeans, and larger
firms picking up brands, as
Fast Retailing did with J
Brand. PVH Corp.’s acquisition of Warnaco Group allowed
it to consolidate the jeans
and underwear operations of
Calvin Klein previously under
Warnaco into PVH and undertake a relaunch of the jeans
business this fall.
New owners have tended to
make transformations of these
businesses a necessity rather
than simply an option. Nearly
all the acquired companies,
and many remaining under
present ownership, have taken
steps to fine-tune or build
their retail businesses and expand their assortments in pursuit of the mass necessary to
be considered a brand, rather
than simply a label, and compete on the worldwide stage.
“It’s a tough time to have
nothing other than denim,”
Downward Trend Persists
WOMEN’S JEANS SALES
DOLLARS
UNITS
AVERAGE PRICE
2014
$8,100
324.2
$24.98
2013
$8,800
342.2
$25.72
CHANGE
-8%
-5%
-3%
2013
40%
17%
12%
9%
10%
3%
4%
1%
3%
CHANGE
2%
-1%
0%
1%
-1%
0%
-2%
0%
1%
DOLLAR AND UNIT FIGURES IN MILLIONS.
WOMEN’S JEANS, MARKET SHARE
2014
SPECIALTY STORES
42%
DEPARTMENT STORES
16%
NATIONAL CHAINS
12%
OFF-PRICE RETAILERS
10%
MASS MERCHANTS
9%
DIRECT MAIL/E-COMMERCE PURE-PLAYS 3%
MANUFACTURER-OWNED STORES
2%
WAREHOUSE CLUBS
1%
OTHER
4%
SOURCE: THE NPD GROUP INC.
FIGURES ARE FOR THE 12-MONTH PERIODS ENDED IN AUGUST OF THEIR RESPECTIVE YEARS.
hasn’t been enough in the way
of real innovation in fabric
and silhouette and washes.
Basically, what the customer
sees when she gets to the store
is, ‘Here’s more of what you already have, but we’re going to
give it to you for a little less.’
But if there’s no room in the
closet and they’ve already
seen it, you could give it away
and it wouldn’t matter.”
Mills and makers have been
pumping the innovation lever
heavily and there are products
now in the pipeline offering temperature and moisture control,
antimicrobial properties, shape
retention, greater sustainability
and other attributes not previously available. While these
offer promise for future seasons,
they’ve yet to have a significant
impact on retail sales.
The premium denim business has been through a significant transformation in the
changes in the market at both
the higher and lower ends.
“It’s definitely more competitive and I think price has impacted the business in a pretty
significant way with the H&Ms,
Zaras and others offering great
assortments at very low prices,”
he said. “And they’ve been met
by the Abercrombie & Fitches
and teen retailers offering
’’
By ARNOLD J. KARR
said Carlos Alberini, who
joined Lucky as chairman
and chief executive officer as
it was acquired by Leonard
Green & Partners from Fifth
& Pacific Cos. in December. “If
denim’s a bit slower, we have
a pretty substantial business
in other categories that can be
grown in both men’s and women’s. We’ve made substantial
investments in sweaters, jackets, leathers and dresses and
there’ll be more to come.”
While the company’s retail
unit has been battling negative
comparable sales in the denim
category for more than a year,
growth in other categories in
2014 has allowed it to post positive overall comps.
Alberini, a former president
of Guess, had been co-ceo of
Restoration Hardware before
returning to the world of indigo after a four-and-a-half-year
absence. He’s been struck by
VF’s Contemporary Brand
coalition, Steven Rendle, senior vice president of VF’s
Americas region, told analysts during the company’s
third-quarter conference call
this week, “Though we’re not
getting great growth in our
wholesale, we are seeing really good results within our
[direct-to-consumer] channel
and we’re continuing to
open stores and seeing
comp growth as we really
focus on that consumer
experience when they’re
in our store and [we’re]
looking for [units per
transaction] and higher
conversion rates.”
Addressing challenges
confronting Wrangler in
the mass channel, Lee in
the middle tier and Seven
For All Mankind, Eric
Wiseman, VF’s chairman,
president and ceo, told
WWD, “The business
isn’t promotional where
we have new, innovative
products — and these are
selling at full price.”
After a day spent checking on specialty stores in
the Washington market,
Susan Anderson, analyst at
FBR Capital Markets, reported, “Where there was
a promotion, there was a
crowd. Where there wasn’t
a promotion, there wasn’t
one. Retailers are still pretty heavily exposed in their
denim businesses, although
I think it’s been less hard
on Abercrombie, which
planned to be promotional
from the outset and appears to
be pretty clean in the category.”
She expects third-quarter
results from the teen sector to
remain soft, although margin
comparisons might benefit because “teen retailers had it so
tough in the third quarter of
last year that there just might
be some improvement.”
Andreas Kurz, president of
Akari Enterprises LLC, which
advises apparel brands on international expansion, pointed
out that if U.S. companies are
facing difficulties dealing with
retailers in their home market, the idea is “terrifying” for
overseas companies.
“There’s no market as competitive as the U.S.,” he said.
“You have to invest heavily
and it takes a long time — longer than a lot of people are
willing to spend — to turn the
corner. And then, once you do,
the department stores want to
discount your line.”
That dynamic has made the
recent denim downturn more
marked than it might be under
less-competitive conditions,
but Kurz is confident that the
market will bounce back, although probably not at the
lofty price points that made
for a sales and profit bonanza
during premium’s heyday.
“Denim will always be
there, and we’ll work through a
cycle and it will be back,” Kurz
said. “The next cigarette [silhouette] or low-rise or boot cut
could just be a season away.”
It’s a tough time to
have nothing other
than denim.
’’
— CARLOS ALBERINI,
LUCKY BRAND
denim at prices in the range of
$25 to $39. That’s pretty dramatic compared to what I was used
to during my time at Guess.”
Lucky has a 244-unit retail
fleet, with 170 full-price stores,
and resources with well-developed retail businesses have
generally had a hedge against
the difficult market conditions
in the U.S., particularly those
confronting wholesale.
Levi Strauss & Co. registered
a global increase in its women’s
jeans business during the third
quarter as its own retail fleet
and strength outside the U.S.
helped it overcome what few resources have been able to successfully combat — weak wholesale figures within the U.S.
Chip Bergh, Levi’s ceo, attributed the improvement to
“softer, stretchier denim” that
was missing in recent seasons.
“The women’s denim category
continues to be challenged
in the U.S., but we left some
money on the table last year by
being out of stock on the items
that mattered,” he told WWD.
Levi’s third-quarter sales
rose 1.1 percent to $1.15 billion,
but its direct-to-consumer operations, including e-commerce,
were up 11 percent. Sales
were down 1.8 percent in the
Americas to $697 million, on the
weakness at wholesale, but rose
4 percent in Europe to $286 million, and were up 9.6 percent in
Asia Pacific to $171 million.
Discussing the Seven For
All Mankind business in
4
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
Riding Premium’s Third Wave
By KHANH T.L. TRAN
LOS ANGELES — Upscale jeans makers are working hard to rise above the
third wave of premium denim’s 15-year
life cycle — the one defined by its maturity — rather than be swept up by it.
Spurred by the proliferation of
higher-priced fashion jeans, the shift
by customers to ath-leisure influences
like yoga pants and changes in consumers’ lifestyles, jeans firms are shaking
up their organizations and making
tough decisions about where to spend
their money to ensure they remain relevant and competitive.
The search for the elusive “next big
thing” has yet to materialize.
As they attempt to grow into lifestyle
businesses and retail empires outside
of denim, they’re also facing a kind of
identity crisis, forcing themselves to
ponder how far a brand can diverge
from denim and still be called a denim
brand. As a result, brands are adopting
a wide range of strategies.
Many are doing so under the guidance of new ownership from companies who rushed in to take advantage
of the strength of various premium
brands when the higher-end jeans market approached its peak. Fast Retailing
Co. bought J Brand; private equity
firms have acquired control of all
or part of such companies as True
Religion Apparel Inc., Lucky Brand,
NYDJ Apparel LLC and Paige Denim;
Joe’s Jeans Inc. purchased rival
Hudson Jeans; Iconix Brand Group
bought control of Buffalo David Bitton,
and Western Glove Works acquired
Simply Blue, marketers of Jag Jeans
and Christopher Blue denim.
Earlier this month, J Brand announced a trio of hires — Mary Bruno
as head of design, Ellen Ahlbom as
senior vice president of sales and
merchandising for the women’s market and Tony Strippoli as senior vice
president of sales and merchandising
for men’s — to build a lifestyle business bolstered by freestanding stores.
Establishing the newly created positions dovetailed with recent decisions
to lower prices to $68 to $108 from $150
for T-shirts and $958 to $1,195 for a
leather and Neoprene biker jacket.
Firms have had to make decisions
about their priorities. Silver Jeans Co.
abandoned its plans to assemble a fleet
of up to 50 stores over the next decade
and sought Chapter 11 protection for
its retail subsidiary, closing all but one
of its six stores, located in the Mall of
America in Bloomington, Minn. Its dominant wholesale business isn’t affected.
Some designers exited from the
category altogether. Earlier this year,
Daniella Clarke shipped her final collection for Frankie B., the Los Angelesbased brand that helped propel the
premium denim industry in 1999 with
its ultralow-rise jeans, only to jump into
activewear the next spring as a collaborator with Solow, also from Los Angeles.
“The denim landscape has changed
tremendously,” said Lady Fuller, chief
executive officer of the Blue Jeans Bar,
a denim retail chain based in Aspen,
Colo. “In my opinion, it has changed
more in the past year. People are struggling in the landscape.”
Fuller doesn’t need to look far for
examples of financial difficulties. In
the past 12 months, she’s closed 11 of
her own stores stretching from Boston
and New Orleans to Santa Barbara,
Calif., and Denver. At her peak, she
commanded a domain of 18 stores run
by 150 employees. Now, she oversees 50
employees and six locations.
To survive future fluctuations in retail, Fuller is borrowing successful tactics
from other industries. Take the subscription box networks, whereby customers
receive a monthly shipment of products
based on their tastes. She christened
her version as the Blue Jean Box, a free
monthly service for men and women who
receive jeans, sweaters, T-shirts and other
items sold in her stores and end up paying for what they keep. Launched in June,
aftermath of the Great Recession was
eased by a rush of trends, particularly
the proliferation of vivid colors not already represented in women’s wardrobes. While there’s been no lack of
new denim ideas since the drop-off of
color, no single look or combination of
looks has compensated for the decline
and so inspired women to buy multiple
pairs of jeans.
Given the absence of a prevailing
trend and the momentum for athleticinspired clothing, sales for the premium denim sector have fallen faster
Citizens of
Humanity
AG Green
Label
Joe’s Jeans
Blue Jean Box
it has already tallied 500 subscribers.
She’s also trying her hand at sponsoring
gifts for corporate retreats and hosting direct-to-consumer parties in homes, flying
as far as Sydney to give away Ugg shoes to
attendees at one confab.
“It’s easier to sell 900 pairs of Uggs
to a corporate client than to sell one
pair every day to someone walking into
my store,” Fuller said, adding that the
new ventures are “10 times more profitable than the retail stores.”
Like everything else in fashion, the
premium denim industry’s success
is cyclical. The industry’s first wave
began building from 1999 to 2001, with
the founding of brands such as Frankie
B., Seven For All Mankind, AG Adriano
Goldschmied and Joe’s Jeans. The
growing popularity of dresses in 2007
precipitated the crash of the second
wave, only to be followed by the Great
Recession that ended in 2009. Even the
than those for women’s jeans overall. A
more recent figure isn’t available, but
in the 12 months ended in March, women’s jeans that sold for $75 and more
— after markdowns and discounts —
accounted for about 8 percent of the
category’s $8.34 billion total, or about
$665 million, according to data from
The NPD Group Inc. Dollar sales at
$75 and above have continued to drop
faster than the overall market in more
recent months, NPD said.
“It’s constantly evolving,” said Joe
Dahan, the namesake founder and creative director of Joe’s Jeans. He noted
that jeans were rooted in durable
workwear before branching into flattering fits and washes. “It’s going into
a whole different direction,” he said.
“It’s solution-driven. There is so much
science and technology in the mills.”
Dahan integrated cutting-edge technology into his designs. Introduced
this fall, a style named Fahrenheit,
made with insulated yarns, is touted to
keep the wearer warm, while another,
dubbed Cool Off for spring, tries to
keep the legs cool.
“Now I’m working on a jean that is
antibacterial and self-cleaning for fall
2015,” he said. “When the market is
tough, innovation drives product.”
Unlike the knee-jerk reaction during the Great Recession to instantly
slash prices, certain executives view
it worthwhile to target specialty stores
that sell high-end labels and don’t discount as much, even if that’s at the
expense of volume. Emphasizing pricier washes that evoke a vintage vibe,
Citizens of Humanity experienced a
double-digit increase in sales in its
men’s and women’s business this fall. It
managed to pick up tony accounts such
as Club 21 in Singapore and Browns in
the U.K. Its diffusion line, A Gold E, is
shifting to more novelty fashion with
acid washes and destruction for its
sophomore collection this fall.
“Frankly, the same thing the customer has seen in the past three years, those
products are slower [to sell] because everybody has those in their wardrobe,”
said Amy Williams, president of Citizens
of Humanity and A Gold E.
As denim brands aspire to become
lifestyle brands, they also need to think
beyond their usual parameters. “Denim
is not enough,” said Tommaso Brusò, ceo
of Diesel USA. “We are rooted in denim
but we are a lifestyle brand. There’s not
anything in the middle right now. You’re
either premium or fast fashion.”
Some designers enjoy the freedom
to think outside the box. Just five years
ago, Hudson Jeans wouldn’t have been
able to sell fabrics like crushed poplin.
“I personally like the idea of being
more versatile,” said Ben Taverniti, creative director of Hudson Jeans. “To me,
I don’t want Hudson to be that one-trend
type of thing. It’s more of a brand.”
Still, creators must take care not to go
overboard with trends. “It’s important to
reflect trends when they’re appropriate
for the brand, but we need to be true to
who we are,” cautioned Barry Miguel,
president of Seven For All Mankind.
Many brands still see opportunity in
building their own retail networks. As
it hits the reset button on its tops business for the second time in two years,
AG Adriano Goldschmied is gearing up
to open a new full-priced store in Las
Vegas — its 10th — by the holidays. Still
tracking double-digit sales growth, although below the 50 percent gains of
previous years, the South Gate, Calif.based company needs shopping venues
to highlight its design projects slated
for next year, including a men’s golf
line called AG Green Label as well
as a collaboration with “It” girl Alexa
Chung that will extend through next
fall from its launch in the spring.
“The collaborations are a great way
to keep things fresh,” said Sam Ku, AG’s
vice president and creative director.
Besides, retailers — who’ve worked to
reduce their jeans inventories to reflect
weaker demand and promotional conditions — remain hopeful that the market
is approaching an inflection point and
that the third wave will lift sales again.
“We haven’t had a big denim trend
in a while,” said Lauren Yerkes, divisional merchandising manager at
Revolve Clothing, who stocks brands
such as Frame Denim, Current/Elliott,
Mother and Lovers + Friends. “If we
can get something for 2015, I think we
could be in good shape.”
“NYDJ” and its icon logo are registered trademarks of NYDJ Apparel, LLC. All rights reserved. Copyright 2014.
NYDJ.COM
LIVE
IN
SLIM
JEANS
PA N TS
TOPS
DRESSES
Look one size smaller.
Feel amazing.
WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
Color Europe a Shade of Blue
not considered as a noble fabric, to all
product categories including shirts and
dresses,” helping to spread word of “a
total denim look,” she explained.
Tasset noted that while denim has
become “an essential piece of the outfit,
women are really OK to invest in a pair
of jeans: They want tailored denim with
a high-quality fabric, comfort, perfect fit
and wash. Consequently, the offer under
100 euros [or about $127.30 at current
exchange] tends to be disappointing regarding their expectations.”
According to Euromonitor, premium
and superpremium jeans are poised
to be the two fastest-growing denim
categories between 2014 and 2018, up
16 percent and 15 percent in Western
Europe, respectively. The research organization estimates that the denim
industry in the region as a whole will
grow to $20.6 billion in 2018 from $18.4
billion this year. That’s in stark contrast to recent performance in the U.S.,
where jeans in general and premium
and superpremium in particular have
seen sales contract over the last two
years after brisk earlier growth, and,
for European retailers, it is good news.
Tasset said denim sales are driven
by two different types of customers, not
unlike handbags in the U.S.: the luxu-
Le Denim department
at Printemps.
French have a slight resistance paying
over 200 euros [or about $254.60] for a
pair of jeans. You have to look at volume
here. Is it niche or is it mass?”
According to Walter Manfroi, owner
of Blue Men, which handles the distribution of Japanese denim in Europe, there
is growth on both sides of the spectrum.
“Chain players such as H&M and
Zara, who are investing quite heavily in
higher-quality and interesting washes,
are taking the bottom market with prices up to 60 euros,” or about $76.40, he
said. “There is significant activity at the
top, with prices up to 300 euros [or $382],
reflecting brands’ efforts to move up the
ladder to avoid being eaten from below.”
The middle segment offering products
between 70 and 99 euros, or $89 to $126,
shows hardly any sign of growth.
“This is where the majority of big
players are, so it’s really busy and overcrowded,” said Manfroi, adding that it
is crucial in this category to make “the
perfect garment, with the perfect marketing. A single error on quality or style
and the bottom will overtake.
Quality Japanese denim, which
often costs three times as much as the
least expensive denim, sees its sales in
Europe growing at double-digit rates,
according to the executive.
PHOTO BY MANUEL BOUGOT
PHOTO BY OLIVER RUDKIN
UPPER-END RETAILERS in Western
Europe see the best days for the continent’s premium denim market still
ahead, and that’s translating into opportunities for brands on both sides of
the Atlantic as the U.S. struggles with a
contracting market.
The category’s strong status was evidenced at the recent round of fashion
weeks in Europe, where designers went
to great lengths to give jeans and the fabric from which they’re cut a fresh look.
Cue jodhpur pants at Fendi; wide-cut,
low-slung jeans at Gucci, and doublebreasted denim suits at Bottega Veneta,
trumpeting a comeback of designer
denim that retailers are cheering.
“Today, denim is not seen as only a
casual piece, it is completely part of
the daily wardrobe. This is so true in
Paris where girls dress for the whole
day without changing before they go
out,” said Charlotte Tasset, general
manager for women’s fashion at French
department store Printemps.
What helps is that “luxury brands
extend denim, which was previously
Denim at
Harvey Nichols.
“People buy bottom goods to play,
maybe once a month not minding to
spend 30, 40 euros [$38.20 to $51], but that
doesn’t keep them from spending serious
money at least once or twice a year for
something really well-made and top-quality such as Japanese selvage,” he said.
However, much like in European
Union politics, where a so-called “twospeed Europe” has become reality, the
denim industry, too, is developing at a
different pace, depending on which side
of the English Channel one is shopping.
“Premium denim is on the rise in
Europe, but it happens to be stronger
in London than it is in Paris, which is
in part a reflection of the economic environment there,” said Craig Johnson,
president of Customer Growth Partners
in Greenwich, Conn., who explored the
dynamics of the market during a recent
visit to Europe. “Foreign buyers, be it
tourists or part-time residents, contribute most to the luxury market, and
Paris depends a lot on Chinese buyers
who have very little interest in the premium denim category, leaving the sector mostly to domestic buyers, while
London boasts a huge Middle Eastern
and Russian presence, and these are
both heavy premium denim wearers.”
ry and designer shopper, who already
consumes the ready-to-wear of these
brands, and the “fashionista” with
a lower budget for whom the denim
product is the first product she can
afford, viewing that a piece in the coveted fabric goes for 325 euros, or about
$414, at Saint Laurent, while a Stella
McCartney item starts from 290 euros,
or about $369.
“Denim is very much comparable
to the sneaker in that sense,” said
Averyl Oates, fashion commercial director at Galeries Lafayette, adding
that the department store recently
stocked up on Paige and Frame to satisfy growing demand.
But fast-fashion chains such as Zara
are posing a serious challenge to the
top layer, she warned, speaking of a polarization of the market.
“The DNA of Galeries Lafayette is
that we offer a wide price range, [hoping to] democratize fashion, and so we
also have Zara in our mix, which offers a
pair of jeans for 30 euros [about $38.20],
and this absolutely works for the mass,”
Oates said. “On the other hand, premium
is new on the scene and people all want
newness, so it’s doing well, but given the
economic environment, we see that the
By PAULINA SZMYDKE
and LORELEI MARFIL
Hudson and Frame among top sellers.
Innovation, particularly in fabric,
has driven recent sales.
Among the best-performing innovations, King cites Paige’s Transcend line,
featuring a soft fabric that emphasizes
shape retention, and J Brand’s Photo
Ready denim, which lifts and contours
the body to give a slimming effect.
“We launched this season a number
of distressed styles within this fabric,
which have been our top sellers within
the room,” she said.
Retailer initiatives to boost denim
sales include pop-ups, brand collaborations, exclusive denim style offerings
and customer events. “Our customers
have high expectations and like to interact with the space, the product and
the people behind the brands,” said
King, naming a collaboration with
London designer Ashley Williams, who
created exclusive denim pieces to celebrate the first birthday of the store’s
Denim Studio.
Richardson said at Harvey Nichols
many brands are boasting doubledigit increases in comparison to previous years thanks to luxe fabrics engineered to pull the body in and not
“give” as it moves.
PHOTO BY ANDREW MEREDITH
6
The Denim Studio
at Selfridges.
“As a whole, the premium denim
market is growing faster in Europe
than in the U.S.,” Johnson said, singling out J Brand and AG Adriano
Goldschmied as “the two hottest U.S.
brands” on the continent, according to
his retail research.
“Denim has always been an important part of our women’s wear business,” said Olivia Richardson, head
of women’s wear fashion buying at
London-based Harvey Nichols. “But it
is performing exceptionally well at the
moment. The ready-to-wear collections
from denim brands have taken longer
to embed in the European market than
the U.S., but we are now seeing sales in
this area really taking off, adding substantial additional sales and renewing
interest in key denim brands,” pointing
to J brand and Paige as bestsellers.
Lydia King, buying manager for
contemporary and denim at London’s
Selfridges, said, “The Denim Studios in
London, Manchester and Birmingham
are all consistent strong performers
both in terms of sales and footfall. The
Online Denim Studio experience is also
a strong sales driver for us as women
definitely feel more comfortable shopping denim online than in the past,”
she said, citing J Brand, Paige Denim,
“Distressed denim remains the most
important trend; ripped jeans, blownopen knees and patchwork are all key
styles,” she said. “Next season we’ve
seen a real Seventies influence coming
through, so expect to see boot cuts and
flares making a comeback.” Add also
AG’s Contour 360 Jean, which utilizes
a cutting-edge fabric “that has the flexibility of yoga pants,” said Richardson.
Harvey Nichols is hosting a twoweek pop-up for Paige Denim through
Oct. 29 and the retailer will host an
exclusive denim shopping party in its
Knightsbridge unit in conjunction with
Elle magazine featuring Citizens of
Humanity, J Brand, DL 1961 and Rails.
Tasset noted: “For the future, we
should count on the denim premium
brands which are arriving in France,
such as J Brand, Hudson, Mother, AG
Adriano Goldschmied and Frame.
They don’t have the notoriety they have
in U.S. or U.K., so today they have to
capitalize on the quality they offer visà-vis brands that are well established
in France such as Armani Jeans, Levi’s,
Diesel. The main short-term goal is visibility and communication. We have to
keep an eye on them because once they
become well-known by the public, they
will have a huge potential.”
8 WWD thursday, october 23, 2014
SECTION II
What's Next iN deNim
Loving It
Again
Unlike “Love Story” heroine Jenny Cavilleri, the Seventies
just don't die — and no one has to say “I’m sorry.” That’s
because clothes inspired by the decade still look great,
like spring’s flared denim, A-line skirts, sleek trenches
and textured knits. Here, G-Star Raw’s viscose and
elastane turtleneck and Dittos’ cotton denim flared
jeans. The Elder Statesman cashmere beanie;
Cocobelle beaded belt; Cuva leather bag; Ugg clogs.
PHOTOs BY JOHN AQUINO; sTYLED BY ANTONIA sARDONE
MODEL: WANESSA AT MARILYN; HAIR AND MAKEUP BY MARCEL DAGENAIS AT LVA ARTISTS USING ORIBE HAIR CARE; PHOTO ASSISTANT: EMILY TAYLOR; FASHION ASSISTANT: EMILY MERCER
WWD thursday, october 23, 2014 9
WWD.COM
10 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
SECTION II
WHAT'S NEXT IN DENIM
Above: Wildfox’s acrylic, nylon and wool knit cardigan; O’Neil’s cotton
tank and Earnest Sewn’s cotton denim jeans. Cocobelle leather belt;
Ugg clogs; Hat Attack wool hat.
Above: Anna Sui’s cotton denim embroidered jacket.
Below: Sam & Lavi’s cotton stretch poplin top and Level 99’s Tencel,
cotton, rayon and polyester denim pants. The Elder Statesman
cashmere beanie; Closed leather bag; Stuart Weitzman clogs.
Calvin Rucker’s polyester crinkled peasant top and
MiH’s cotton denim skirt. Prima Donna leather fringe bag.
WWD thursday, october 23, 2014 11
WWD.COM
Above: Guess’ polyester crochet lace top and 3x1’s cotton culottes.
Stuart Weitzman leather clogs; Lucchese leather bag.
Below: Autumn Cashmere’s cotton sweater and Hudson’s cotton
denim flare jeans. Coach leather metallic clogs.
See by Chloé’s cotton denim and embroidered dress over cotton and acetate sweater. Coach leather studded bag.
14 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
DISTRESSED DENIM IS SURGING, AS DESIGNERS USE THE TREATMENT
NOT ONLY ON PANTS, BUT ALSO FOR FEMININE SKIRTS AND BAGS.
From left: Jeans from AG Adriano Goldschmied, Genetic’s jacket, Seven For All Mankind’s skirt, Silver Jeans’ jeans,
Big Star’s shorts, Ralph Lauren Denim & Supply’s shirt, Nudie Jeans Co.’s jeans and Ström’s shirt.
Clockwise from left:
Anthropologie’s chair and throw,
Tory Burch’s needlepoint pillows,
Diesel’s bag, Louise et Cie’s shoes
and rug by Madeline Weinrib
at ABC Carpet & Home.
PHOTO BY JOHN AQUINO; STYLED BY ANTONIA SARDONE
PHOTO ASSISTANT: EMILY TAYLOR; FASHION ASSISTANT: EMILY MERCER
Clockwise from left:
Desigual’s shorts,
Rag & Bone’s shorts,
shoes by Cole Haan,
ottoman by Karma
Living at Wayfair.com,
Simone Camille’s bag and
Cheap Monday’s shoes.
16 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
DENIM TAKES A SOFT TURN WHEN DESIGNERS OFFER
CLASSIC JEANS IN A RANGE OF PRETTY PASTELS.
From left: Acne Studios’ dress, Max Jeans’ vest, DKNY’s sweater, J Brand’s pants, NYDJ’s jeans, Tractr’s shorts and Levi’s shirt.
PHOTO BY JOHN AQUINO; STYLED BY ANTONIA SARDONE
Chair by Ethan Allan,
Charlotte Olympia’s bag,
Coach’s shoes and Madeline
Weinrib at ABC Carpet &
Home’s pillow and rug.
PHOTO ASSISTANT: EMILY TAYLOR; FASHION ASSISTANT: EMILY MERCER
Clockwise
from left:
Parker Smith’s
pants, True
Religion’s pants,
Levi’s jacket,
Toms’ shoes
and Guess’ bag.
13hrs
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Jenny Davis @JennyDavis - 13hrs
91 Photos and videos
A Day in the Denim Life. Spring Summer 2016
#stretchdenim #ORTA #riseandshine #bodyscience
#thescienceofstretch #ultraflex #sunsalute #yogajeans
8hrs
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Nothing quite like a morning run on the beach!
#morningrun #ORTA #D-Fine #runnershorts #lightdenim
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A little tennis in the park anyone?
#tennistuesday #ORTA #comfort2 #bistretch #comfortsquared
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Date Night!
#denimlove #denimchic #ORTA #Alizee #jumpsuit
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Beautiful as always baby xoxo
18 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
A Tough Trail
To Asian Acceptance
By ELLEN SHENG
Youth in
Shanghai make
a statement,
here and below,
with their jeans.
STREET PHOTOS BY DAVE TACON
DENIM MAY BE acceptable in nearly
any and all situations in the U.S. these
days, but in Asia jeans are still seen as
utilitarian and casual.
That’s both a challenge and opportunity for premium denim labels that need
to fight harder to gain a foothold in Asia.
Many Asian consumers “don’t get
the necessity of premium.” Cheaperto-midrange brands tend to do better, said Richard Atkins, divisional
manager for denim at Global Design
Workshop, a denim branding and manufacturing consultancy.
Formal social clubs and restaurants across Asia sometimes still ban
jeans, along with flip-flops, tank tops
and shorts. Denim tends to be relegated to casualwear, making consumers
more reluctant to spend large sums on
such items. Japan’s more-developed
consumer economy is the exception
in Asia, with customers more willing
to spend on expensive denim, but the
country only makes up 23 percent of
the Asian market. By contrast, China,
with a developing middle class geared
toward moderate prices, makes up 41
percent of the Asian denim market,
although Chinese consumers are starting to show signs of loosening up their
purchasing standards, at least on certain categories.
“Most of the time the Chinese consumer is more willing to spend on highend handbags, but has not evolved
enough to understand the premium
attached to buying luxury denim,”
said Amy Leverton, head of denim and
youth at WGSN in London.
However, the numbers suggest that
the acceptance of premium denim in
some circles in Asia has begun to take
hold. According to Euromonitor data,
Asia Pacific had the highest proportion of premium or superpremium
jeans last year. Premium and superpremium jeans made up nearly 42
percent of sales revenue. In China,
premium and superpremium brands
make up 32 percent of sales, while in
Japan premium and superpremium
jeans make up 75 percent.
The definition of premium can vary
by country, according to Euromonitor,
but can include a range of brands as
diverse, at least by Western standards,
as Levi’s, Wrangler, G-Star Raw, Diesel
and Jaeger. Superpremium brands include Seven For All Mankind, True
Religion, Rock & Republic and MR
Jeans. Premium and superpremium
numbers look high because expensive
jeans sell at such a high markup, but
the lower end of the market dominates
in units sold.
To compare, sales of premium
and superpremium jeans worldwide
made up 35 percent of total volume.
Across all markets worldwide, denim
is expected to become increasingly
polarized, with superpremium brands
gaining further momentum and midpriced brands being squeezed out, said
Magdalena Kondej, head of apparel
and footwear research at Euromonitor.
While U.S. and European retailers are gaining traction in Asian markets, a number of premium wholesale
brands have had a more difficult time.
Leverton noted that a number of fastfashion retail brands — H&M, Zara,
Forever 21 and Topshop among them
— “are springing up all over and are
challenging equivalent local brands.”
Some Western wholesale brands have
found the going harder, with distributor
and franchise arrangements failing to
produce meaningful sales within a given
time frame. Companies with established
branded identities have a distinct advantage over those just getting started in
the brand-building process.
“You need to be big to actually sell
here,” Atkins said. “If you’re up and
coming, it doesn’t work.”
Since denim is a newer market in
Asia, brand popularity is less concentrated. The largest brand in the region,
Levi’s, has a 3.4 percent market share.
Premium brands also face competition from local, generally lower-priced,
brands. Out of all of the western premium denim brands, only a few have
gained a following, and those that have
tend to have global or at least multiregional recognition, such as Seven For
All Mankind, G-Star Raw or J Brand.
Freda Lee, head of group marketing communications at Fairton
International Group, the exclusive distributor for Seven For All Mankind in
Greater China, says that “it’s relatively
more costly to build premium denim
brands in the Asia market due to consumers’ need for unique retail and
brand experiences.”
Lee noted that Seven For
All Mankind, part of VF Corp.’s
Contemporary Brands coalition, is
ahead of other players in running
stand-alone retail stores, especially in
Greater China. In the U.S. and Europe,
much of the premium denim business
is done in multibrand department
stores, a retail channel not found in
most parts of Asia.
Lee emphasized that “word of
mouth plays a major role in marketing, celebrity endorsement or ‘KOL’
(key opinion leader) influence is vital.
Building a unique total brand experience through special store concepts,
first-rate customer service and complete product knowledge of our sales
team are also key.”
Acne’s new
Hong Kong
store.
Another challenge is marketing.
Western denim brands often rely on
“guerrilla marketing” and a play on a
subculture or counterculture, but you
can’t do it like that in Asia, said Global
Design Workshop’s Atkins. “Guerilla marketing might work in Japan, but in China
and Hong Kong it’s very different.”
Andreas Kurz, president of Akari
Enterprises LLC, which advises apparel companies on opportunities for
international expansion, pointed out,
“The Chinese are still relatively underdeveloped on denim and they appear
to be leaning toward the accessories
brands as they get more involved in the
premium and luxury markets. It takes
a large investment to get into Asia and
you’re dealing with markets that don’t
have a lot of department stores. That
means that to gain traction you have
to make a large financial commitment
and after that you’re pretty much on
your own, having to pursue a monobrand strategy.”
Premium denim labels often focus
on fashion and lifestyle, not only denim.
Mikael Schiller, chairman of
Swedish fashion label Acne Studios,
said denim sales in Asia and elsewhere
have been fairly stable, although denim
has become a smaller portion of total
sales as other categories have grown.
“We had success with jeans early and
decided we didn’t want to be a one-product brand,” he said. Jeans now make up
about 20 percent of total sales, down
from 80 percent a few years ago, so “we
are not so dependent” on the one classification. With a broader line in place,
Acne this month opened its first store in
Hong Kong, a 613-square-foot shop that
houses its ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories along with its jeans.
Schiller noted that competition in
women’s denim is much more fierce
whereas men tend to be very loyal.
At the other end of the market is
Uniqlo, which is grabbing market
share in Asia and elsewhere. Its Tokyobased parent firm, Fast Retailing,
plans to open 100 Uniqlo stores a year
in China, for a total of 1,000 units in
the near future.
“Uniqlo jeans are growing in popularity because we continue to offer a
variety of styles to suit our customers’
needs. Our jeans are made of highquality and innovative fabrics, and
they are a very good money-for-value
purchase,” said a Uniqlo spokesman.
Uniqlo declined to break out denim
sales figures.
Fast recently reported a 28.7 percent decline in profits for the year
ended Aug. 31, with much of the dropoff caused by a loss at premium denim
market leader J Brand, of which Fast
acquired control in November 2012.
But while the hurdles for premium
denim in Asia are high, market watchers say the potential growth is also
good. Denim sales in Asia, including
Japan, totaled $27.5 billion in 2013, up
1.5 percent from the year before. That
compares with worldwide growth of 2.6
percent in 2013.
“The fact that denim doesn’t make
up such a large share of the Asian consumer’s wardrobe could be a positive
for denim growth in Asia,” said Kelly
Tackett, U.S.-based research director
at Planet Retail.
Another positive: aspirational purchasing. Euromonitor’s Kondej sees
opportunities to build higher-price
businesses in several classifications
with premium and luxury segments.
S I L V E R J E A N S . C O M
U S A 6 4 6 . 5 8 9. 672 1 • CA N A DA 4 1 6 . 5 9 8 . 2 5 4 5
I N T E R N AT I O N A L + 49. 7 76 3 .9 2 7 70 6 - 9
20 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
Berlin’s Jeans Footprint Grows
point to the German market
and Rich & Royal opened its
first monobrand store here.
“There’s a lot of energy in
BERLIN — Amsterdam isn’t
the only European city vying Berlin because of the many
for the distinction of European possibilities and the potential
for development,” said Andreas
Denim Capital.
As Berlin gears up for Kogge, national director and
major expansion and upgrad- team leader for retail leasing
ing of shopping malls, denim at Jones Lang LaSalle Retail
brands from both sides of the GmbH. “Being present here is
Atlantic are streaming into an investment for the future
the German capital, anxious because it is a fashionable, libto take advantage of a boom eral urban environment and a
in retail development, its lure lot of people come to the city.
“For denim brands, Berlin
to tourists and fashion-savvy
youth, and the country’s resil- is like an El Dorado,” he
added, referring to the “goldient economy.
The appeal of the city be- en one” of Colombian legend.
came increasingly appar- “The Bread & Butter [trade
ent earlier this year when show] has created a good atmoGöteborg, Sweden-based sphere and a lot of awareness
Nudie Jeans and Amsterdam’s and many brands that have exDenham the Jeanmaker hibited at the fair eventually
opened their first stores at the lease a store in Berlin.”
Karl-Heinz Müller, founder
Blue Yard, in close proximity
to 14 Oz. and key players from of Bread & Butter and 14 Oz.,
the denim segment at Berlin’s has been a staunch advocate of
Hackescher Markt, a hub of Berlin’s denim beat, drawing
worldwide attention to the city
denim activity.
Now, a second blue epicen- and collaborating with Nudie
ter — all under one roof — has on its Berlin store.
The opening of the Mall
emerged at the Mall of Berlin
covering more than 800,000 of Berlin falls into a realm of
square feet of retail space, recent retail development in
making it Germany’s second the German capital that inlargest mall after Gropius- cludes the Bikini Berlin mall,
Passagen and the country’s a myriad of individual stores
most upscale shopping center. and brand expansions like
The opening of the shopping Uniqlo and H&M’s Monki,
center has long been antici- which has opened two Berlin
pated by the local retail in- units in a year.
“We love Berlin as a fashdustry. Located at the former
historic Wertheim department ion city and we believe it’s a
store at Leipziger Platz, it of- great opportunity to open here
fers a broader range of more- because it is important,” said
exclusive brands than normal Lea Rytz Goldman, Monki’s
chief operating officer.
German shopping centers.
Access to tourists and the
The compound houses better and premium labels seen density of denim brands alat Hackescher Markt, such ready in place has added to its
as Seven For All Mankind, ability to attract other brands.
“The German capital is the
G-Star Raw, Mavi, Pepe Jeans
most
international location in
the country,” said
Marco Marchi,
vice president
and head of style
at Liu Jo SpA, on
the brand’s recent opening at
the Mall of Berlin.
“For us it’s important to create
a deep connection with this city,
which is growing
so fast, which is
evolving month
after month, even
in terms of trends
and styles. In such
a scenario, competition between
different brands
can
only be conG-Star Raw’s mall store.
structive. We are
always happy to
and Replay, as well as cloth- take up a new challenge. It’s a
ing brands with a denim focus way to understand how much
like Guess, Bench, Mexx we are worth.”
Emin Cezairli, a director
and Esprit. Hollister, Liu Jo,
Armani Jeans and One Green of Mavi Jeans, said, “While
Elephant, which have been our store at Hackescher Markt
present in higher-income re- is successful in a top ‘A’ locagions of western Germany, tion, the Mall of Berlin offers
have made their Berlin debut. a well-selected mix of denim
Denim & Supply Ralph Lauren brands and, as a premium
chose the capital as an entry mall, is a tourist hot spot.
PHOTO BY FRANZISKA KRUG/GETTY IMAGES
By QUYNH TRAN
The Mall of Berlin.
Mavi at the mall.
With Berlin Fashion Week
and Bread & Butter, it is the
lifestyle and trend center of
the DACH region [Germany,
Austria, Switzerland] and inspires the denim segment.
Berlin is a metropolis; it is a
fashion platform with an international brand environment
and Germany is our most important market in Europe.”
Axel Schukies, international
account manager and country
manager for Germany at G-Star
Raw, said, “The denim market
still holds a lot of expansion
potential and Berlin is important internationally because it
is perceived as innovative and
design-loving, attributes that
also represent our brand.”
Berlin is seen as a magnet for the young and the hip
around the world, the capital of what is, even in light
of recent economic turmoil,
Europe’s most stable economy.
Within Germany’s 60 billion
euro, or $81.14 billion, apparel
market, denim accounts for
10 percent of sales — about 6
billion euros, or $8.11 billion.
The larger category of denimrelated casual clothing accounts for a quarter of apparel
sales, about 15 billion euros,
or $20.28 billion.
In
Euromonitor
International’s recent “Jeans in
Germany” report, denim sales
grew 2 percent last year, and
Messe Frankfurt’s Texworld
report by Jean-François
Limantour, said that Germany’s
jeans imports grew 7.2 percent
between 2007 and 2013 compared to 2.2 percent growth in
overall clothing in Europe during the same time span.
Numbers from the market
research institute GfK and the
Statistical Office for BerlinBrandenburg show Berlin accounting for 42.9 percent of
Germany’s retail sales with
growth rates of 4 percent in
adjusted and 3.6 percent in
real terms.
“London is the traditional
entry point to the European
market, but it is highly competitive, requires key money
and has seen a recession during the past years, as have
cities like Paris and Milan,”
said Achim Berg, partner at
McKinsey & Co. with responsibility for apparel, fashion and
luxury. “Even though Germany
does not have great growth
potential, it is a very economically stable market and the big
German cities offer fewer barriers than some of the more
traditional fashion hot spots
like London, Paris or Milan.
That’s why it has become more
attractive.”
In Germany, denim has had
“an extremely long run through
various price segments,” Berg
said. “It is a megatrend and
naturally apparel companies
want to profit from it.”
Germany is also getting
more attention because of the
more challenged economies to
its south.
Javier Seara, partner and
managing director at the
Boston Consulting Group,
noted, “Even though per-capita consumption in Germany is
lower than in France or Italy, it
is the biggest market in terms
of total volume. So its sheer
size and stability make the
German market attractive. And
Berlin is establishing itself as
a fashion capital. It is internationally perceived as a cool location, as ‘the place to be’ and
is therefore seen as the right
entry to the German market.
Flagship stores are relatively
underrepresented, so what’s
happening at the moment is a
catch-up expansion.”
Add to that Berlin’s vaunted status as a music and art
haven among young people,
the continuing “casualization”
of the workplace wardrobe
and its closeness to the denim
hub of Amsterdam — just over
400 miles — and the city’s interest in denim is easy to understand, said Seara.
Still, overdevelopment is a
concern, especially with percapita consumption of apparel
stalled, growing just 0.8 percent
a year in the decade ending in
2013, according to Euromonitor.
Although it’s unlikely to affect
tourists’ shopping, the growth
of e-tail at the expense of brickand-mortar retail poses a challenge, and the expansion of
the Mall of Berlin next year —
an additional 50 shops on the
boards to go with the 270 already in operation — and new
projects — Upper West, Forum
Museumsinsel and the former
Tacheles — planned for 2016.
Merchants will be keeping a
close eye on store performance,
and hoping that the German
economy doesn’t face any additional headwinds.
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22 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
WWD.COM
SECTION II
WHAT’S NEXT IN DENIM
Top-Tier Brands Staying
Close to Home in L.A.
By KHANH T.L. TRAN
LOS ANGELES — A combination of cost and regulatory
considerations is doing little
to shake the commitment of
premium denim brands to production in Los Angeles and
other California markets.
Despite the challenges of
locating a reliable contractor,
jockeying for priority in a factory, protecting profit margins
against rising wages and fending off lawsuits that uphold a
strict state law defining “Made
in USA” labels, denim companies are convinced that maintaining a manufacturing base
in Southern California gives
them an important edge in the
marketplace.
In some cases, firms such as
Siwy Denim are even expanding their capabilities.
Last month, Siwy Denim
moved into a new building in
Gardena, Calif., that, at 50,000
square feet, is twice the size of
its previous home. In addition
to 50 employees who cut, sew,
embroider and handle other duties, the facility also houses its
design studio, administrative
offices and shipping operations.
“We have 100 percent control of what we’re doing,” said
Alain Lafourcade, chief operating officer of Siwy. “If anything
happens to the sewing, we’re
here to react. In production,
one hour is so crucial. We can
fix our problem right away.”
Jen Neumeister, the brand’s
creative director, added, “I’m
constantly walking through
the factory….There is so little
room for error.”
Even with a recent resurgence in domestic production,
it’s not easy to do business
here. Los Angeles County has
shed more than half its jobs in
apparel manufacturing over
the past 24 years, according
to California’s Employment
Development Department.
Counting businesses in the
cities of L.A., Long Beach and
Glendale, the number of employees that cut, sew and produce clothing plummeted to
41,600 last month from 90,100
in September 1990. More recently, Los Angeles County’s
apparel manufacturing sector
lost 5,100 jobs in September
from a year ago.
Moreover, Los Angeles
Mayor Eric Garcetti recently
launched an ambitious agenda
to increase the hourly minimum wage across the city to
$13.25 by 2017. Earlier this
year, on July 1, the state’s minimum wage rose to $9 from $8
an hour. It will increase again
to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016.
“The cost of everything in
California is going up,” said
Sheila Foreman, owner of
Garment Industry Laundry
Inc. in L.A., which works with
brands such as True Religion,
Diesel, Helmut Lang, Theory,
Red Engine, Frame and J
Brand.
The garment industry must
also contend with the cost of
water amid a historic drought.
Water is one of the primary
ingredients for the denim
industry’s washes and treatments. Laundries are gradually adopting new technologies
like ozone, laser and dry ice to
decrease water use, but these
processes can be more expensive than the old ones.
Denim firms aren’t the only
ones lamenting the cost of doing
business in the Golden State.
“California is a uniquely
difficult place to do business,”
said Alex Bhathal, executive
vice president of Tustin, Calif.based swimwear maker RAJ
helped it to snag a nomination
for Martha Stewart’s American
Made Awards and stand as the
only denim purveyor on the
lifestyle maven’s eBay store.
Not to be outdone, seven-yearold Denimocracy’s domestic
pedigree sparked interest
from a Chinese distributor
who wants to carry the line in
that gigantic emerging market.
In Elie Azran’s eyes, L.A. is
the home of denim innovation.
“On a daily basis, we are
able to work and develop washes that would be impossible
to make anywhere else in the
world,” said Azran, who, along
with David Rimokh, launched
L.A.-based RtA Denim with
a women’s line last fall and
plans to expand into men’s at
Maxfield’s in the spring. “The
The grand opening
of Siwy Denim’s
new facility in
Gardena, Calif.
Manufacturing, which has its
own factories and employs 400
workers. “Costs are significantly higher than all other apparel
manufacturing hubs. The regulatory burden is infamous. We
hear about what other governments, here and abroad, do to
encourage manufacturing jobs,
but in California we sometimes
feel like we are personae non
grata.”
Despite the declining number of workers, sales for the
region’s apparel and textiles
have grown, as tallied by the
California Fashion Association,
a nonprofit trade group in L.A.
Sales and the value of shipments for the apparel and textile industry surged 61 percent
to $36.8 billion in 2013 from
$22.8 billion in 1997, it said.
Aside from controlling
quality and speeding up deliveries to customers, domestic
manufacturing also affords
other benefits to designers.
Mary Ellen Moschetti,
owner of Denimocracy and
Parker Smith, a women’s
brand launched a year ago to
cater to an older customer who
outgrew Denimocracy’s fit and
styles, the Made in USA stamp
Baldwin
Denim
convenience factor, proximity
and overall results are the reasons we make 100 percent of
our denim in L.A.”
The caliber of the denim
laundries
in
Southern
California is one reason why
Joe’s Jeans keeps a third of its
production domestically and
outsources the remainder to
its factory in Mexico.
“Those are the most innovative and advanced treat-
a.c.e.
ments [in California],” said Joe
Dahan, founder and creative
director of Joe’s Jeans, based
in City of Commerce, Calif. “A
lot of the stuff we develop here
and send to Mexico.”
On a conference call earlier this month to discuss
Joe’s second-quarter results,
chief financial officer Hamish
Sandhu told analysts that the
company’s gross margin benefited from having the “greater
percentage of core products”
under the Joe’s brand sourced
outside the U.S. as it boosted
non-U.S. production of that
merchandise by about 9 percent. Hudson Jeans, acquired
by Joe’s last year, has also
shifted production to Mexico
and other non-U.S. sources,
which collectively accounted
for about 35 percent of the
products sold by the brand in
the second quarter.
Diversification is also a
challenge to the L.A. market,
even when production remains in the U.S. When designers are ready to expand
into other categories such as
sportswear, they might need to
look elsewhere for manufacturing know-how. For instance,
Baldwin Denim chose a unionized factory in Chicago for
jackets to pair with its jeans
produced here.
“I have not found a jacket factory like that in Los
Angeles,” said Matt Baldwin,
cofounder and designer
of Kansas City, Mo.-based
Baldwin. “Ts and fleece and
denim categories are what
L.A. specializes in.”
Moreover, designers who
want to experiment beyond
basic five-pocket jeans also
need to do their due diligence. With a.c.e., a contemporary denim and sportswear
brand launching for spring
with high-rise bell-bottoms
and overalls with detachable
bibs, it was crucial to find experienced contractors that not
only could handle details such
as Merrow stitching, but were
also willing to do production
runs of as little as 100 units.
“With us, we’re not doing
traditional five-pocket [jeans],
which makes it harder to produce,” said Chelsey Santry,
creative director and chief
merchandising officer for L.A.based a.c.e. “There literally
have been times when we sit by
a contractor all day long.”
Even if denim brands take
pride in making their jeans in
California, they must be careful about a state law declaring
that companies can’t promote
merchandise as made in this
country if any part “has been
entirely or substantially made,
manufactured or produced
outside of the United States.”
That would cover fabric
sourced from leading denim
mills in Japan, Italy and
Turkey, as well as zippers and
rivets. The state legislation
doesn’t conform with national
standards established by the
Federal Trade Commission,
which requires that a product
marked as being made in the
U.S. be “all or virtually all”
made domestically. Though
passed in 1961, the California
AMERICA
This story is part of an ongoing
series that will appear periodically in WWD.
law has come to the forefront
recently with a spate of classaction lawsuits targeting certain premium denim brands
and retailers. As a result,
brands like Siwy Denim have
changed their labels to read:
“Made in U.S.A. with imported
components.”
“This Made in USA standard that California law has
adopted is just inconsistent
with a lot of other bodies of
law,” said Deborah Greaves,
founder of a law firm called
Label Law, who previously
served as the general counsel
for True Religion. “So much
of the [apparel] industry has
been decimated [in the U.S.]
and trade is global. What does
it really accomplish if you
have a zipper that is, say, from
Japan, but 99.9 percent of the
garment is U.S.-originating?
Under the California law, they
wouldn’t want you to say it’s
made in the U.S.”
No matter what, many players in the denim industry are
staying put in L.A.
As Garment Industr y
Laundry’s Sheila Foreman
noted, “L.A. is unlike any
other as far as the most creative designers and speed to
market and getting the product
out there right away.”
— WITH CONTRIBUTIONS
FROM MARCY MEDINA
JEANS ARE NOT JEANS ANYMORE
I HAT E THE NEW FABRIC T H E
QUALIT Y I S DEC LINING
T H E Y S M E L L R E A L LY B A D
THE MATERIAL WILL STRETCH AND FADE
BRING BACK
THE COTTON
I WOUL D R AT H ER PAY MO R E F O R
SOM E T HING I LOV E YOU CAN REALLY
TELL THE REDUCTION IN QUALITY
THEY ARE VERY HOT AND UNCOMFORTABLE
I SWEAT TERRIBLY IN THEM IT WILL
WEAR OUT SOONER I LIKE THE OLDER
ONES WITH THICKER REAL DENIM
REPLACE COTTON AND YOU MAY HAVE TO REPLACE CUSTOMERS.
Consumers have spoken and they want cotton in their jeans. In fact, more than 98% have stated that they prefer their
jeans be made of cotton. And 66% of these consumers are bothered that retailers and brands would substitute man-made
fibers for cotton. The good news is that the majority are willing to pay a premium to keep cotton from being substituted
in their jeans. So if you’re thinking of replacing cotton to keep your costs down, you may want to think again. After all,
there’s a reason cotton is The Fabric of Our Lives.
cottoninc.com
AMERICA’S COTTON PRODUCERS AND IMPORTERS. Service Marks/Trademarks of Cotton Incorporated. © 2014 Cotton Incorporated.
Sources: Cotton Incorporated Customer Comments Project, 2013 and The Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™ Survey (www.CottonLifestyleMonitor.com), 2013.