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PHOTO BY THOMAS IANNACCONE

By DAVID YI

“WHERE WAS MARC ECKO?” the new advertisement series for Marc Ecko’s Cut & Sew line asks.

It’s a valid question. After more than two decades of building his Ecko Unltd. empire (which at its peak generated over $1 billion in global sales), then sell-ing his shares to Iconix Brand Group Inc. in 2009, the 41-year-old has been living the ultimate retiree’s dream: traveling the world from South America to China, spending time with his family in New Jersey, and participating in the mundane, like watching “American Idol.”

But for a man who built a spray-painted apparel line into a bona fi de business, the simple life was never in the picture.

“I needed to get my hands wet again,” he said in-side his offi ces at Complex Media in New York. “I just felt like there was this unfi nished business in me. It’s a little bit of pride, hubris and vanity that motivated me coming back. The thing that was the worst for me in the six years or so when I was operationally out was that creativity for me.”

So in 2013, Ecko decided to take back the reins of his men’s contemporary line, Cut & Sew, which will unveil its second season at the Liberty trade show in August in Las Vegas. Though the “It” boy of the Nineties, Ecko is now facing a market that offers com-petition on multiple fronts.

“It’s a new game now and I realize that,” he said. “I’m not going to lie. Getting back on that bike ain’t easy. Your knees ain’t right. You got sciatica. You’re grinding through and you’re like, ‘I need some oil.’”

By JOELLE DIDERICH

PARIS — Kering hopes its transition out of retail and into a luxury and lifestyle group will help it weather a tougher-than-expected economic environ-ment this year.

The French conglomerate said Wednesday that net profi t fell 4.7 percent to 555 million euros, or $761 mil-lion, in the fi rst six months of 2014, during which it closed the sale of struggling mail-order retailer La Redoute.

At the same time, Kering revealed it is reinforcing its recently created watches and jewelry division with the acquisition of Swiss luxury watch brand Ulysse Nardin.

The profi t decline at Kering is further evidence of the headwinds facing the luxury sector as it struggles against a slowdown in demand in China and Russia, and continuing volatility in global currencies. The drop comes on the heels of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton reporting last week that its profi ts fell 4.3 percent in the fi rst half.

Kering said that despite the diffi cult economic and currency environment, it saw signs of improvement going forward. Revenue growth accelerated in the second quarter, fueled by the strong performance of luxury brands like Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta, which compensated for continued weakness at its cash cow brand Gucci.

Kering said sales rose 1.8 percent in the three months to June 30 to 2.35 billion euros, or $3.22 bil-lion, compared with a 1.2 percent increase in the fi rst quarter. At constant exchange rates, group revenues gained 4 percent in the second quarter versus a 4.1 percent increase in the fi rst three months of the year.

Dollar fi gures are converted from euros at average exchange rates for the period in question.

François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief execu-tive offi cer of Kering, said growth in the group’s luxu-ry activities in the fi rst half of the year was driven by a “solid performance” from directly operated stores, while sport and lifestyle activities posted higher

SEE PAGE 5

SAINT LAURENT, BOTTEGA STAR

Kering Net Dips 4.7%As Luxe’s Woes Grow

Marc Ecko’s Next Act

SEE PAGE MW8

NEW YORK — On Friday, Valentino lands on Fifth Avenue with its largest store to date in the former Takashimaya space. Designed by David Chipperfi eld with Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, the fl agship makes a statement for the brand’s continued evolution, with women’s and men’s ready-to-wear and

accessories, and rich interior details, such as this sculptural palladiana marble staircase that adds a graphic element. For more on the store, see page 3.

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

STREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF. STREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF. STREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF. CATTERTON BUYS A MAJORITY OF BALI-

INSPIRED JEWELRY BRAND JOHN HARDY, AS ROBERT HANSON JOINS AS CHIEF

EXECUTIVE OFFICER. PAGE 2

BALI HIGHSTREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF. STREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF.

INSPIRED JEWELRY BRAND JOHN HARDY, AS ROBERT HANSON JOINS AS CHIEF

EXECUTIVE OFFICER. PAGE 2

STREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF. STREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF. STREETWEAR HEATS UP WHILE MEN’S ACCESSORIES TAKE OFF.

WWD.COMWWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 20142

TO E-MAIL REPORTERS AND EDITORS AT WWD, THE ADDRESS IS FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME@FAIRCHILDFASHION.COM, USING THE INDIVIDUAL’S NAME. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2014 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 208, NO. 22. THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in March, April, May, June, August, October, November and December, and two additional issues in February and September) by Fairchild Fashion Media, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593. FOR SUBSCRIPTION, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593, call 866-401-7801, or email customer service at wwdPrint@cdsfulfillment.com. Please include both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. For New York Hand Delivery Service address changes or inquiries, please contact Mitchell’s NY at 1-800-662-2275, option 7. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax the request to 212-630-5883. For reprints, please e-mail reprints@condenast.com or call Wright’s Media 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please e-mail contentlicensing@condenast.com or call 800-897-8666. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Media magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.wwd.com/subscriptions. Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593 or call 866-401-7801. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

Catterton Buys John Hardy BrandBy DAVID MOIN

JOHN HARDY, the luxury jewelry brand known for handcrafted designs utilizing sustainable materials, has been acquired by the Catterton private equity firm, WWD has learned.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. WWD has also learned that Robert Hanson, for-

merly chief executive officer of American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and, earlier, global president of Levi Strauss & Co., has been named John Hardy’s ceo. The company was purchased from another private equity firm, 3i.

Hanson succeeds Damien Dernoncourt, who will retain an equity stake in the company and becomes non-executive chairman. Hanson has also become a part-ner with a stake in the business. Catterton will own what was de-scribed as “a significant majority” of the company.

Guy Bedarida continues as creative director and head de-signer and Miles Graham con-tinues as president and chief operating officer.

Asked about the strategy going forward, Hanson told WWD: “The priority is absolutely enhanc-ing the productivity at our current customers,” which include Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Harrods and Lane Crawford, inde-pendent jewelers and the handful of John Hardy stand-alone stores in Hong Kong, Jakarta and Bali. The brand is sold in 27 countries and more than 600 retail doors, as well as online.

Hanson, explaining “the levers” behind boost-ing productivity, cited enhancing product develop-ment and extending the product architecture, ag-gressive marketing to sharpen the brand identity, a stronger emphasis to build up the strongest-trend-ing categories and “really supporting” the core business. He mentioned bringing innovation and opportunities in gold, diamonds, precious stones and color, and optimizing John Hardy’s four main collections: Classic Chain, Dot, Naga and Bamboo, which could be “built out.” John Hardy recently signed model Cara Delevingne to be the face of its new jewelry campaign.

John Hardy stores could be another growth op-portunity. “It’s not a significant part of our business. It’s something we will take a look at,” Hanson said.

“I was very thoughtful in looking at my next project,” said Hanson, who left American Eagle in January. John Hardy, he said, seemed exceptional given its “narrative, artisanship and sustainability.”

The John Hardy jewelry collection, founded by Canadian designer and artist John Hardy in 1975, after he visited Bali, witnessed how jew-elry is made there and began collaborating with

the island’s artisans. Originating from Bali, the inspiration for John Hardy’s collections comes from nature and the tradition of hand-crafted artisanship and jewelry making. The company has a com-pound in Bali where much of the jewelry is created and uses 100 percent reclaimed gold and sil-ver. The headquarters is in Hong Kong, and there are also offices in New York, where Hanson will be based. Most of John Hardy’s reve-nues are generated from business

in North America. Officials declined to disclose the annual revenues.

“The most appealing aspect is it really is hand-crafted luxury,” Hanson noted. “Every single piece is made by hand. Each piece is quite distinctive.” The creative process is a collaboration between de-signers and hundreds of local craftsmen — illustra-tors, wax carvers and metalsmiths, and the jewelry has an East Asian, timeless aura.

“Our consumer is really focused on seeking out unique and meaningful beautiful jewelry,” Hanson said. “That’s what attracted me to this brand.”

He also cited the opportunity to work with Catterton, which he said brings operational exper-tise to the brand, as well as supporting growth strat-egies. Hanson said he will go through a transition period with Dernoncourt.

“With Catterton, John Hardy will have a ro-bust platform to enhance its already exceptional brand and accelerate its growth trajectory. We are confident that John Hardy offers substantial up-side through multiple paths for expansion,” said Michael Chu, managing partner at Catterton.

Added Dernoncourt: “Catterton will provide the support and resources to continue building our brand and accelerate our growth on an inter-national scale.”

Catterton focuses on small to middle-market consumer companies and has partnered with luxury brands including Restoration Hardware, Baccarat, Pirch and Frédéric Fekkai, though it in-vests in all major consumer sectors. It plays active operational roles in the companies it invests in.

By VICKI M. YOUNG

REVLON INC. said second-quar-ter profits fell, although company revenues saw gains.

For the three months ended June 30, net income dropped 26.7 percent to $18.1 million, or 34 cents a diluted share, compared with $24.7 million, or 47 cents, a year ago. On an adjusted basis excluding certain one-time charg-es, income from continuing op-erations declined 25.4 percent to $32.9 million from $44.1 million.

The company acquired The Colomer Group in October 2013. On a non-GAAP adjusted basis as if Revlon and Colomer were a combined entity for the full year in 2013, and including financ-ing for the acquisition as well as excluding one-time charges, the decline would have been 23.5 per-cent, with the 2013 second quar-ter showing $43 million in income from continuing operations.

Total company sales for the quarter rose 44.4 percent to $497.9 million from $344.7 mil-

lion. Net sales for the consumer category increased 6.6 percent to $367.3 million from $344.7 mil-lion. On a non-GAAP adjusted basis as if Revlon and Colomer were a combined entity for the full year in 2013, net sales for the consumer category rose 1.2 percent to $367.3 million from $363.1 million.

Lorenzo Delpani, president and chief executive officer, told Wall Street analysts in a confer-ence call that the company has “continued strong momentum” in net sales growth in its professional division. He cited American Crew, Revlon Professional hair color and Crème of Nature brands as contributors to higher sales in the quarter compared with a year ago.

Revlon’s consumer division also saw gains, but at a lower rate. The brands that did well were Revlon Color Cosmetics and Revlon ColorSilk, offset by lack-luster performance by the Almay brand.

Delpani noted that a “signifi-cant part of our business is in the U.S. mass color cosmetic cat-egory, which is declining year-to-date in 2014 versus 2013.”

Looking ahead, Delpani said, “While the color cosmetic category in the U.S. continues to be softer, we remain focused on supporting our brands with the intent to grow market share and develop our business. To that end, we have increased our advertising spend by $11.7 million in the second quarter versus last year, which was pri-marily in support of our con-sumer brands. Year-to-date, we have spent $20 million more than last year, which is a 16 percent increase.”

Shares of Revlon Inc. rose 3.2 percent to close at $30.71 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

ON WWD.COM

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

Kering’s net profit fell 4.7 percent to 555 million euros, or $761 million, in the first six months of 2014. PAGE 1 Mark Ecko discusses his past accomplishments and the current state of streetwear, among other topics. PAGE 1 Valentino on Friday will open its biggest location in the world, a flagship on Fifth Avenue in New York. PAGE 3 Yoox SpA posted a 15.9 percent gain in net profit to 2.6 million euros, or $3.5 million, in the first half. PAGE 4 Hollister’s new apparel collaboration with “Pretty Little Liars” star Lucy Hale will have two installments. PAGE 4 Serge Cajfinger, who served as Paule Ka’s creative director and chairman since 1987, is leaving the French brand. PAGE 5 Harrods plans to deck the halls with designer creations for the Christmas season, creating a “Land of Make-Believe.” PAGE 6 Carine Roitfeld’s biggest project for Harper’s Bazaar will be unveiled on Aug. 19. PAGE 6 From Stüssy and Fila to En Noir, streetwear labels are keyed in to youth culture. PAGE MW1 Dior Homme on Wednesday opened its first freestanding boutique in Hawaii at the T Galleria by DFS Waikiki. PAGE MW2 Gieves & Hawkes will begin selling at Bergdorf Goodman in mid-August and Isetan in Tokyo in September. PAGE MW2 J.M. Weston is launching a new, sportier line for fall called Country Gents. PAGE MW9

Brit Marling in a graphic striped dress from Thakoon’s resort collection. For more celebrity fashion, see WWD.com.

CELEBRITY FASHION: From florals and lace to color blocks, celebs like Brit Marling, Emma Roberts and Zoe Saldana prove that there’s nothing boring about classic black and white. For more, see WWD.com

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Revlon Posts Q2 Profit Decline

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INCOME AT REVLON INC.

Jewelry from John Hardy.

WWD.COM3WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014

By MARC KARIMZADEH

NEW YORK — To executives at Valentino, the brand’s new Fifth Avenue flagship, which opens Friday, is more than just its biggest location in the world. To them, it also signals the end of a chapter of strate-gic brand revitalization and growth, and the start of the next phase of global expansion.

The three-story store at 693 Fifth Avenue, in the iconic John Burgee and Philip Johnson-designed building that once housed Takashimaya, makes a definite statement for the brand’s trajectory, starting with the new fa-cade: a sleek black steel and aluminum design that spans eight floors of the tower and nods to Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building.

Valentino chief executive officer Stefano Sassi said the flagship “means a lot” since it is the culmination of “so many years of activity, working with [creative di-rectors] Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli to fix and modernize the percep-tion of the brand, to grow our customer base, to revamp this unbelievable brand.”

Sassi flew in late on Wednesday to check out the space, though official celebrations with the designers are in the works for December.

Grazia Chiuri and Piccioli worked with David Chipperfield Architects to configure the global Valentino retail concept across 20,000 square feet.

“It’s a perfect retail space because there are no columns inside,” Sassi noted. “Every single floor is a box with very high ceilings, so from an architectural and retail point of view, it’s perfect. We had the full opportu-nity to personalize it according to the vision of our architect David Chipperfield, and not have any constraints in terms of the space.”

The lease for the space was only signed a little over a year ago, and once Chipperfield’s design was complete, con-struction on the store began nine months ago, two of which were used solely to de-molish the elaborate Takashimaya layout.

That’s most evident with the imposing main floor with a 27-foot-high atrium and a graphic palladiana marble staircase that has a sculptural feel and connects the three stories.

“For every single store that we do, we ask David and ourselves and our creative directors to evolve and do something bet-ter in terms of providing a strong experi-ence to our customers,” Sassi noted.

Each floor is considered a store concept unto itself, starting with accessories on the main level anchored by a wall of handbags. The flagship has the world’s largest presen-tation of Valentino Garavani accessories, and offers, for example, new Camubutterfly pieces and zodiac finger clutches that are exclusive to the store. “This store is the first one in which we are representing Valentino also as a real accessories brand,” Sassi said.

Timed with New York Fashion Week, Valentino will launch a Rock Runner white-

on-white camouflage sneaker featuring a heart symbol just for the New York store.

On the second floor, customers will find a sequence of rooms that play on the house’s palazzo concept and focus on women’s ready-to-wear, with flexible brass wall fixtures and new LED-lit oak and glass display tables.

The third floor offers a full assortment of men’s wear, from camouflage looks — i.e. sneakers, scarves, cases — that are becom-ing a house signature to a table devoted to custom jeans, and the runway rtw. Fifth Avenue is the second store in the U.S. to sell the category after San Francisco.

Sassi didn’t disclose the size of the in-vestment and the projections for the Fifth Avenue unit.

He called the opening a “turning point, the end of the process that started more than six years ago, and thanks to the new shareholders who support us in this long-term view of Valentino and in the develop-ment or deployment of the potential of the brand, this is definitely a benchmark to us.”

In 2012, Mayhoola for Investments, a group controlled by the cash-rich royal family of Qatar, acquired the Valentino Fashion Group SpA.

There are 116 freestanding Valentino stores around the world, 12 of which are in the U.S. The company recently opened a unit in Aspen, Colo., and will open one in Miami’s Design District later this year. Globally, it will add two more major stores within the next six months: on Canton Road in Hong Kong and on Piazza di Spagna in Rome, within steps of the company’s headquarters.

“We are quite ambitious about develop-ing the brand worldwide,” Sassi said. “The U.S. is one of the most, if not the most, im-portant markets in the world. We have a long heritage here and within that, some major communication activity should al-ways start from the U.S. and especially from New York. We are very happy to start from here and deploy our strategy worldwide.”

The U.S. accounts for about 25 percent of Valentino’s total revenue.

In 2013, Valentino SpA almost doubled earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to 65 million euros, or $85.8 million, compared with 34 million euros, or $43.5 million, in the previous year. Operating profit rose to 36 million euros, or $47.5 million, compared with 15 million euros, or $19.2 mil-lion, in 2012. Net profits were not revealed.

“Valentino today is growing across the regions,” Sassi said. “Asia is growing very fast, Japan is recovering, even Europe, which is not the best market in the world today, is growing at high double digits.

“It’s a brand that is developing very fast, a brand that is very solid in its course,” Sassi added. “We want that people recog-nize what we are who we are today — a major brand with a major opportunity to be successful anywhere in the world, and, in a way, New York is the center of the world.”

Valentino’s Fifth Dimension

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’’We are quite ambitious about

developing the brand worldwide. The U.S. is one of the most, if not the

most, important markets in the world.— STEFANO SASSI, VALENTINO

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The Valentino store on Fifth Avenue.

FOR MORE IMAGES, SEE

WWD.com/retail-news.

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4 WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — Lifted by growth in all key markets and business channels, Yoox SpA continued its upward trajectory in the first half.

In the six months ended June 30, the Italian e-tailer posted a 15.9 percent gain in net profit to 2.6 million euros, or $3.5 million, compared with 2.2 million euros, or $2.8 million, in the same period last year. In the three months ended June 30, earnings rose 42.9 percent to 1.6 million euros, or $2.2 million, compared with 1.1 million euros, or $1.4 million, in the same period last year.

Despite the increase in profits, Yoox shares posted the worst performance in the 100-issue WWD Global Stock Tracker and fell 2.3 per-cent to 20.20 euros, or $27.15.

In the first half, revenues climbed 14.7 per-cent to 238 million euros, or $326 million, com-pared with 207.4 million euros, or $271.7 mil-lion, last year.

Touting the group’s “solid results” in the sec-ond quarter, Federico Marchetti, founder and chief executive officer, said Yoox “once again proves to be one of the few e-commerce busi-ness models able to generate margins and solid growth at the same time. We are ready to face the second half of the year full steam ahead.”

The company said that, in light of the results achieved in the first half, the “proven effec-tiveness of the Yoox business model worldwide and the posi-tive outlook for the online retail market,” it was “reasonable to expect” that the group would “continue to see growth in sales and profits in 2014,” lifted by both business lines and all key markets.

The multibrand business line, which includes Yoox.com, Thecorner.com and Shoescribe.com, saw revenues rise 16.9 per-cent to 173.9 million euros, or $238.2 million, accounting for 73.1 percent of total sales.

This performance reflected strong growth in the number of orders and a lower average order value mainly due to the depreciation of the main foreign currencies against the euro. This sum-mer, Yoox.com introduced the sunglass category and will launch sportswear in September. During a conference call with analysts, Marchetti noted how sportswear has shifted “from functional to fashionable,” and how sunglasses “still have a limited online distribution.”

Yoox also sets up and manages 38 on-line stores for leading global fashion and luxury goods brands from Giorgio Armani to Ermenegildo Zegna, and this monobrand chan-nel posted a 9.3 percent increase in sales to 64.1 million euros, or $87.8 million, represent-ing 26.9 percent of total revenues.

Kartell.com, operated by Yoox, launched in Europe in May, with a creative concept designed and developed by the group’s creative agency, while the Sergio Rossi online store was extend-

ed to the Chinese market at the end of June. On Tuesday, Jeanne Lanvin SA and Yoox

signed a non-binding letter of intent to final-ize a global partnership for the setting up and management of the Lanvin online store. In June, Yoox signed an agreement with Alexander Wang Inc. for the management of the online flagship of the Alexander Wang and T by Alexander Wang brands in the U.S. Underscoring his ex-pectations for this project, Marchetti noted how relevant the American market is for a designer such as Wang. The existing partnership between Yoox and the brand in Europe and Asia, which has thus become global, was also extended until the end of December 2017.

In July, Yoox renewed its partnership with Jil Sander for another five years, while agreements with Coccinelle, Vicini and Bally, together ac-counting for 1 percent of total sales, will not be re-newed after they expire this year. Yoox’s creative Web agency will develop the graphic concept of the new release of fendi.com, scheduled to go live in 2015. The agency will also develop the creative concept for the new release of marni.com follow-ing an agreement signed this month.

Asked about best performing brands, Silvia Scagnelli, corporate development and finan-cial communications director, said that labels

that are “less selective are more impacted and that those with a high positioning are showing a very brilliant per-formance.” Marchetti noted that “brands are still learn-ing,” and that, since “the Internet is so strategic now, and decisions are more cen-tralized,” many brands are

“reassessing their distribution online.”Geographically, Italy gained 22.9 percent in the

fist half reaching sales of 38.7 million euros, or $53 million, continuing to benefit from the rising con-tribution of smartphones and tablets. The rest of Europe was up 14.8 percent to 113.7 million euros, or $155.7 million, and North America grew 8.8 per-cent, or 13.5 percent at constant exchange rates, to 50.1 million euros, or $68.6 million.

Japan rose 5.8 percent but would have gained 18.4 percent at constant exchange rates, to 18.4 million euros, or $25.2 million. Other countries gained 21.4 percent to 12.1 million euros, or $16.5 million, driven by China, which grew strongly in the first half of the year. This performance benefited from the introduction on Yoox.com of a new logistics setup, complementary to that locally available, which since mid-February allows Chinese cus-tomers to access not only the local offering available in the Shanghai logistics center, but also the global range of brands based in Italy.

In the first half, capital expenditure totaled 17.2 million euros, or $23.5 million, compared with 20.3 million euros, or $26.6 million, in the same period last year.

Dollar figures were converted from the euro at average exchange rates for the periods to which they refer.

By ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

NEW YORK — “Is corporate America killing what’s great about New York?”

Filmmaker Paul Haggis’ question trig-gered just one of many only-in-New-York debates during Tuesday night’s panel about New York City’s influence on fash-ion, music and design hosted by the W Times Square and Liberatum.

To add some perspective to the depth of change, Karen Elson recalled how early in her career she had only enough money to buy two subway to-kens to meet Steven Meisel downtown, while moderator Joe Zee described hearing gunshots from his “15th and Seventh” apartment in 1990, when “Chelsea wasn’t even Chelsea.”

Haggis, Elson and Zee debated the city’s perks and hindrances on the cre-ative class with Prabal Gurung, Karim Rashid and Stacy Engman. Haggis,

who lived in Manhattan full-time in the Seventies and Eighties, said, “Here you get into great conversations with people who are in professions you’ve never even heard of. If you’re curious, you can have a great life just talking to and meeting people. But what I truly love about New York is that it’s so f--king dirty.…I mean has anyone ever been to Switzerland? It’s the scariest place in the world. It’s so clean.”

But Rashid, a New Yorker since 1992, argued that in this digital age the city is no longer the be-all, end-all for creativ-ity. “There was a time in history where you had to be in a certain place if you were creative…but now if you’re creative and you have something to contribute in the world, you don’t need to be any-where, you can be everywhere. I could name 20 cities that are more progressive than New York — number one is Berlin. The point is not who is at the bottom but that we as creative individuals can do

our work anywhere in the world.”After Haggis asked whether a Marc

Jacobs store on every corner in SoHo and the West Village or Disney in Times Square is improving citizens’ lives, Gurung said, “In the 13, 14 years that I’ve been here, I’ve seen the landscape chang-ing. When I go to Brooklyn, the energy is still incredible. It’s still crazy and insane.”

Not quite, according to Rashid, who piped up, “OK, I’m in Brooklyn and on every corner it’s the same — Capital One bank, CVS, Starbucks — it’s all bulls--t. And it’s certainly destroyed not only New York — but the world. I’m working —and I don’t mean this in a braggy way — in 42 countries and when I travel I am just shocked how gentrified and homogenized the entire world is.”

While Engman said the pace of change is undeniable — “Three years is a decade now” — creative-minded resi-dents have the advantage of being an arm’s length away from each other. “We

can collaborate in a lot of ways that you can’t do in other cities,” she said.

A little later, Rashid said, “The dif-ference is it’s not as much about place any more as it is about the empower-ment of the individual. And that’s the digital age, that’s the big shift. I’m not saying the world is becoming a dull place by any means.”

Zee questioned whether New York has become less of a hub of creativity and more a hub of ambition, drive and power, “because we’re talking about making money and we’re talking about artists and directors that film Dior commercials.”

“I think [for] a lot of creative peo-ple that is not their first agenda by any means. In fact, most creative people have such a creative passion to do what they want to do that money is the last things on their minds,” Rashid said. “I moved to New York with zero. I wanted to do well with my profession. It had nothing to do with making money.”

By VICKI M. YOUNG

HOLLISTER has its first celeb-rity deal.

The new apparel collabora-tion with “Pretty Little Liars” star Lucy Hale will have two in-stallments. Each reflects some el-ement of the Southern California lifestyle, the central vibe that the Hollister brand was built upon.

The first is set for Aug. 8, and is inspired by Hale’s lifestyle — easy-to-layer pieces in colors that take the guesswork out of mixing and matching. The second is set for Aug. 29, and focuses on su-persoft separates with relaxed silhouettes inspired by Southern California’s laid-back beach days.

The collection, available for a lim-ited time, will include soft dresses, leggings, skirts and tops. The price points for items in the collection range from $19.95 to $44.95.

Hale , who helped with the design of the col-lection, said, “I definitely lean more towards a laid-back look, which makes my style a great match for Hollister. I want-ed to create carefree outfits that effortless-ly transition from a coffee run to going out.”

Michael Scheiner, senior di-rector of marketing and public re-lations for Abercrombie & Fitch, owner of the Hollister brand, said Hale’s “easygoing personal-ity goes hand in hand with our Hollister lifestyle.”

According to Scheiner, the col-laboration is part of the brand’s ongoing strategy to connect with its consumers, as well as provide apparel and content they find rel-evant. To that end, the brand will provide updates on the Lucy Hale

collection at Twitter@HollisterCo. Hale will also

take over Hollister’s Twitter feed to host a live question-and-an-swer session, the date of which has yet to be determined. Hale, who is also a musi-cian, will launch the marketing campaign with a performance at the Hollister House on Sunday in Santa Monica, Calif. She’ll also make a live appearance at a Hollister store at the Westfield Century City Mall in Los Angeles on Aug. 9.

Hollister has been

working on its merchandising to

be more relevant to teens. In March, it of-

fered an exclusive male footwear line from SeaVees featuring sig-nature Hollister colors, available only at hollisterco.com. That was a move that is helping it transi-tion its business model from re-tail to retail and wholesale.

Abercrombie is still in the middle of its search process for candidates to fill the Hollister brand president role.

At the end of the first quar-ter, Hollister operated 456 stores in the U.S. and 129 stores across Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Elson, Zee Debate Creativity and New York

Yoox Profits Rise 15.9% in First HalfHollister, Hale Team On Two Collections

Lucy Hale in an ad for the collection.

A dress from the line.

14.7%RISE IN YOOX REVENUES IN

THE FIRST HALF.

comparable sales, which he deemed an “encouraging” trend.

“Our overall performance during the period confirms the strength, appeal and strategic coherence of our brands. In an unsettled operating environ-ment, we are pursuing the im-plementation of our strategy, all the while keeping tight control over costs and safeguarding our gross margins,” he said.

“This enables us to antici-pate an improvement in our operating performance in the second half of the year,” Pinault added.

Sales from Kering’s luxury activities were up 4.8 percent in the second quarter, while its sport and lifestyle companies posted a 4.7 percent drop. Gucci recorded a 5.7 percent decrease in sales, while strug-gling German active-wear firm Puma slipped 5.2 percent, as reported in a separate results statement on Tuesday.

Gucci, which accounts for more than half the group’s total business, continued to pay the price for its ongoing luxury upgrade. Wholesale revenues were down 12 percent in the second quarter as the brand continued to shift its business toward directly op-erated stores.

Retail sales were flat in Japan in the second quarter and trends in Mainland China were un-changed, though North America posted a 10 percent rise after a first quarter dampened by bad weather, Kering chief financial officer Jean-Marc Duplaix said in a conference call with ana-lysts late Wednesday after the close of the Paris Bourse.

Western Europe was “soft” with mixed local spending and

some pressure on tourism flows from Russia and China, while Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan were hit by the combina-tion of falling spending and the brand elevation efforts, he added.

Duplaix said Gucci should return to positive comparable growth in the second half, but it was “realistic” to expect a “low-single-digit” increase, with most of the improvement concen-trated in the fourth quarter. The

brand should benefit from the imminent ap-pointment of a new ceo in China, he added.

The executive said Gucci was satisfied with its product mix in leather goods, noting that entry-price handbags now represent just 2 per-cent of the category

revenue worldwide, down from 32 percent five years ago.

“Handbags consti-tute the category in which we have made the most progress across all markets and where we are closest to where we want to drive the brand. The

results are probing, especially in Japan, where the brand is fully in sync with its clientele, and in North America, where the brand ramp-up is solidly on track,” Duplaix said.

He singled out the positive reaction to Gucci’s Swing and Bright Diamante bags.

“The new series have been very well received and we ex-pect them to become significant contributors to revenue growth. Combined with our ongoing ef-forts to further enhance our retail excellence across the net-work, these new handbags will definitely strengthen Gucci’s competitive position when end demand and traffic — notably in

Asia — pick up strength again,” he predicted.

Sales at Saint Laurent jumped 26.9 percent in the sec-ond quarter, with all regions posting high-double-digit growth. All product categories were up, with a strong reception for the Monogram and Sac de Jour bags. Retail sales of ready-to-wear soared 42 percent in the first half, boosted by strong growth in the men’s line.

Revenues at Bottega Veneta rose 16.1 percent in the quarter, with leather goods and men’s lines driving growth.

Among other brands in the group’s portfolio, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney boasted “outstanding” perfor-mances during the period, ac-cording to Duplaix. Balenciaga recorded double-digit trends at retail, accelerating in the sec-ond quarter.

The picture was mixed else-where. Brioni’s performance was deemed “satisfactory,” though it was impacted by a de-cline in spending by Russians. The Russian market for luxury has been hit by a soft economy

as well as the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine. Boucheron was hit by a sharp drop in sales in Japan in the second quarter, while Girard-Perregaux felt the impact of a change in distribu-tion in the Asia-Pacific region.

Revenues and profit at Sergio Rossi again fell below expectations, but Duplaix said Kering’s more recent acquisi-tions — Christopher Kane and Qeelin — were still in the in-vestment phase.

Regarding the purchase of Ulysse Nardin, Pinault noted that the watchmaker, founded in 1846, benefits from a rich heri-

tage, high profitability and solid growth prospects.

“Independent high-end watch-making manufactures are rare. This is an opportunity that we had to seize, particularly because this structural acquisition will

enable us to take advantage of numerous synergies with our existing brands,” he said.

Jean-François Palus, group general manager at Kering, said the acquisition price repre-

sented 13 times Ulysse Nardin’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the most recent fiscal year, a level he considered “fair.”

Though he would not pro-vide figures, he described as “reasonable” market estimates that the group has an annual turnover of around 250 million euros, or around $340 million at current exchange, and produces some 27,000 units a year.

The deal is subject to regula-tory approval and is expected to be finalized in the second half of the year.

Duplaix said Kering had booked a loss of 348 million euros, or $477 million, stem-ming from discontinued opera-tions in the first half, which in-cluded the balance of the cost relating to the disposal of La Redoute and anticipated costs linked to the sale of the last two small remaining assets in its Redcats division.

“After this, you should not expect any more material im-pact from this line,” he said.

By DAVID MOIN and SHARON EDELSON

INTERMIX, owned by Gap Inc., has named Jyothi Rao president and general manager, WWD has learned.

Rao will start her new job on Sept. 2 and will re-port to Art Peck, president of Gap Inc.’s growth, in-novation and digital division. Rao will closely work with Peck and Khajak Keledjian, founder and chief executive of Intermix, according to Gap. Athleta and Piperlime, also owned by Gap, report to Peck as well.

Jyothi joins Intermix from Gilt Groupe, where, as executive vice president and general manager, she was instrumental in growing Gilt into a luxury e-commerce business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Intermix specialty chain offers fash-ions from emerging and established designers.

According to Gap, Rao, Peck and Keledjian will “drive growth plans, nurture vendors and custom-ers, and preserve the quality of client services at their favorite local stores.”

“Jyothi Rao is one of the best in the industry, and we are confident her e-commerce, designer and premium luxury experience will be a great addition to Intermix,” Peck said.

Rao was not available to comment on her new job and plans for the business.

In a recent interview, Keledjian discussed some of the store growth, noting that Intermix on Sept. 8 is opening its third Miami location, a 2,640-square-foot store at 1005 Lincoln Road. In November, it will reopen a 2,400-square-foot renovated and expanded boutique at 9700 Collins Avenue in Bal Harbour, Fla. There is also a store at 643 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.

“Our Lincoln Road client is chill,” said Keledjian, explaining the differences between shop-

pers of the three Miami stores. “She has a down-town edge but she’s on the go, so she’s in ripped jeans and Valentino flats to match her busy day. The Collins Avenue client is less casual but still reflects an edgy, curated style — she’s layering Iro jackets with A.L.C. shorts to create unique looks. Our Bal Harbour client likes designer pieces with a refined, chic vibe; she’s shopping for occasions such as a lunch, a night out or a charity event.”

Intermix partnered with typographical artist Pieter Ceizer, who created limited-edition sweat-shirts for ElevenParis for the Lincoln Road store and other openings. The sweatshirts were in-spired by cities with upcoming Intermix launches and will be sold online and at their correspond-ing stores upon opening. The Miami sweatshirt features a custom “Magic City” graphic and will retail for $98. The Lincoln Road store will bring the brand to 40 units across North America.

Units are planned in November for Aspen, Colo., and Westlake, Calif. Intermix this year opened in Palo Alto, Calif., in June and Scottsdale, Ariz., on July 14.

Italian-born artist Francesco LoCastro, who is based in Miami, will paint four custom wall murals in the Lincoln Road store using solid geometric shapes such as squares, diamonds and rhombuses. The store will have woven curtains, suede uphol-stery, jute carpets and white-washed oak floors contrasting with metallic accents and marble and onyx cash wraps. Intermix’s Bal Harbour unit, which will gain about 500 square feet, is being ren-ovated for an international clientele with washed oak and marble flooring, Italian textured wall cov-erings, bronze and gold hanging fixtures and tables, and custom lighting by Tobias Grau. Mannequins with marble finishes will be unique to the store.

Cajfinger to Exit Paule Ka Intermix Taps Rao as President and GM

{Continued from page one}

By PAULINA SZMYDKE

PARIS — Serge Cajfinger is leaving Paule Ka.

Cajfinger, the French fashion brand’s founder, who served as its creative director and chair-man since 1987, is said to be pursuing “personal projects,” the company said Wednesday.

Paule Ka is owned by Change Capital Partners, which took a 70 percent stake in the company in 2011, spur-ring growth and driving inter-national expansion, which, ac-cording to the firm, is calling for new managerial talent.

Cajfinger and his family re-main the minority shareholders.

“I’m leaving Paule Ka with the feeling of a job well done. I’m confident that the teams in place will continue to write the beautiful history of Paule Ka with just as much suc-cess,” said Cajfinger, adding he is leaving behind a full col-lection for spring, while fall 2015 will be designed by an in-house team.

According to a spokeswom-an for Paule Ka, the appoint-ment of a new creative direc-tor is expected by the end of the year.

Also parting ways with the French ready-to-wear brand is Antoine Bing, Paule Ka’s chief executive director since 2002. Bing will stay on board until a replacement has been found to ensure a smooth transition.

Paule Ka is currently pres-ent in 56 countries via 475 points of sale, including 60 monobrand doors. In 2013, the brand reported sales of 50 mil-lion euros, or $66.4 million at average exchange.

Serge Cajfinger

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Kering Profits Slide 4.7% in First HalfA Gucci handbag.

A Ulysse Nardin watch.

A spring men’s look from Saint

Laurent.

’’’’

Handbags constitute the category in which we have made the most

progress across all markets.— JEAN-MARC DUPLAIX, KERING

5 WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014

WWD.COM6WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014

CARINE’S BAZAAR COUP: Carine Roitfeld’s biggest project for Harper’s Bazaar will be unveiled on Aug. 19. It’s an important moment, Roitfeld noted from a table at Manhattan’s TriBeCa eatery Locanda Verde, as her assistant flipped through her latest portfolio of 19 images of well-known women.

“This is a portfolio I’ve been dreaming of wanting to do even over my 30 years in the business,” said Roitfeld, who noted that she began the project in March and finished in May. “You need a magazine that has big shoulders for such a project.”

Shot by Sebastian Faena, with creative direction by Stephen Gan, the portfolio, which will appear in all 30 editions of Harper’s Bazaar, includes Lady Gaga, Penélope Cruz, Linda Evangelista, Lara Stone, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Mariacarla Boscono, Joan Smalls, Stephanie Seymour, Isabeli Fontana, Laetitia Casta, Carolyn Murphy, Monica Bellucci, Gigi Hadid, Brooke Shields, Eva Herzigova, Iman, Stacy Martin and Lauren Hutton.

“It’s a huge amount of power they gave to me,” Roitfeld said, referring to the magazine’s parent company, Hearst Magazines.

She explained that her role as Bazaar’s global fashion director has allowed her to create fashion portfolios that the editors of all 30 Harper’s Bazaar editions can use. Since she started the role two years ago, about 10 to 15 of the 30 editions

have been using her covers on a regular basis, although none of the editions are obligated to do so.

September’s issue in particular, which she refers to as “Icons,” marks the first time Roitfeld’s shoot has been featured on the newsstand cover of Bazaar U.S. (Images from her past portfolios were featured on the U.S. flip covers in November 2013 and May 2014, however).

When she was offered the role by Hearst Magazines International president and chief executive officer Duncan Edwards and Hearst Magazines president David Carey in 2012, Roitfeld had been in the papers for stepping down from her gig of 10 years as editor in chief of Condé Nast’s French Vogue. When she was called to a lunch meeting at the Hearst Tower in New York, Roitfeld had just unveiled plans to launch her biannual CR Fashion Book, and given her career at rival Condé Nast, she admitted that Carey’s “surprising” offer to “start something new” appealed to her.

“I think it’s a genius idea to give one editor the ability to do one story — exactly 17 pages — total freedom for the choice of the photographer, the models, the choice of the clothes. And, the same story, we give to 30 countries at the same time,” she said. “It’s the

reason why I accepted. It’s not because I wanted to do more stories or it’s not like I wanted any revenge against Condé Nast. It was just something very interesting that I had

never seen before.”Fast forward two years later and

Roitfeld is showing off her latest work. That includes three newsstand covers for the U.S. market of a fresh-

faced Lady Gaga in a pink tweed Chanel jacket, hat and skirt, which Roitfeld herself cut shorter — with Karl Lagerfeld’s blessing; a Dior-clad Penélope Cruz, and Linda Evangelista

wrapped in a twisted bundle of muted Comme des Garçons knits.

“For all the icons, I used fishnets. Fishnets are like my link,” she said, noting that in the portfolio they can be seen as tights, gloves or as part of dresses, for example.

Although that flourish isn’t exactly racy or the boundary-pushing stuff Roitfeld is known for, it’s part of her vision for Harper’s Bazaar, which includes introducing its international readers from less fashion-savvy countries such as Poland, Ukraine and Romania to her perspective on fashion.

“To have Karl Lagerfeld or Gaga in Poland is genius for them, no?” she said.

The fact that she can introduce new photographers, designers and models without oversight from the editors of Bazaar’s editions is an added bonus.

Still, she realizes that she must reel it in a bit for Bazaar’s readership — even in the U.S. market.

“I know it’s not CR Fashion Book,” Roitfeld said, of Bazaar U.S. “I know I have to be more easy to understand. The models have to be more understandable for everyone. You are talking to a lot of women who maybe don’t know as much about fashion. It’s a different conversation.”

— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

MEMO PAD FASHION SCOOPS SANTA LUXE: Harrods plans to deck the halls with designer creations for the Christmas season, WWD has learned. The Knightsbridge, London, store will create a “Land of Make-Believe” featuring oversize classic toys dreamed up and dressed by designers. A Stella McCartney snow queen will perform pirouettes in a snow globe, while a dapper jack-in-the-box will don a Matthew Williamson jacket. A music box by furniture designer Amy Somerville will incorporate marching toy soldiers dressed in Thom Browne.

“This year, we wanted to re-create that sense of wonder and excitement that you remember from your childhood, when your eyes got tired from gazing too hard,” Deborah Bee, Harrods’ director of creative marketing, said. “This is the first time we have had this amount of movement within the Christmas scheme — and there will be lots of surprises.”

Each of the store’s Brompton Road windows will showcase a Scandinavian landscape of silver birch trees, ice blue skies and drifting snow decorated with giant old-fashioned toys that have been reimagined for the 21st century. There will also be an army of mechanical mice in the mix, while Harrods helpers dressed as mice will offer their services on the shop floor.

The windows will launch on Nov. 7, as will Santa’s grotto, which will be decorated with a forest of trees and mirrors. On the same day, a film produced by TBWA about a little mouse named Peter Pumpernickel will make its premiere. — LORELEI MARFIL

KNOT PARTY: Bottega Veneta is holding an event today at its boutique in Saint-Tropez to celebrate one of the brand’s iconic designs — the small, rounded box clutch with a closure in the shape of a knot. The two-story boutique will be transformed into a museum through the exhibition called “When Your Own Initials Are Enough: The Knot.” The retrospective was launched in Saint Moritz in February, and will also travel to Barcelona and Bahrain in October, but the Saint-Tropez leg is the

most expansive so far, displaying 300 archival and contemporary models, and, for the first time, including a special digital experience. The exhibit will be open to the public from Friday to Sunday. — LUISA ZARGANI

AUTHENTIC BRANDS DEAL: Authentic Brands Group has acquired four sports-inspired athletic footwear brands from Payless Holdings for an undisclosed amount. The brands are Airwalk, Hind, Vision Street Wear and Above the Rim.

The purchase of certain assets of Collective Licensing International, Lifestyle Brands Corp. and Collective Brands Cooperatief include the intellectual property assets connected to the footwear brands. Under the terms of the agreement, Payless will retain the right to market and sell Airwalk-branded products in its company-owned and franchise stores, and through e-commerce.

Payless is jointly owned by private equity firms Golden Gate Capital and Blum Capital Partners. It was originally owned by Collective Brands, until it was split in two in 2012, with Wolverine Worldwide acquiring Collective’s Performance + Lifestyle Group and the two private equity firms acquiring Payless ShoeSource and Collective Licensing International. — VICKI M. YOUNG

FOR MORE SCOOPS, SEE

WWD.com.

A sketch of a Harrods mouse.

The portfolio includes Lady Gaga…

…Linda Evangelista…

…and Penélope Cruz.

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SPRING into ACTIONYOU CAN NEVER BE TOO EARLY—A PREVIEW OF SPRING/SUMMERTRENDS FOR 2015

IN PRINT & ONLINE: 9/22AD CLOSE: 8/8

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A NEW ERAAn expanded shoe wardrobe and a

multitude of jewelry options are part of what’s turning men’s accessories from a

sleepy category into the ultimate fashion statement. Pages MW4 and MW5

Pratt-Matic“Guardians of the Galaxy” star Chris Pratt has little problem navigating the fashion world. Page MW9

MAN OF THE WEEK

BACK TO THE STREET

July 31, 2014

Streetwear SeesMajor Comeback

by DAVID YI

BACKPACKS. Bomber jackets. Bucket hats. It’s apparent that the Nineties have made a strong comeback — and with it, a wave of streetwear nostalgia.

Streetwear is in its fifth iteration with everyone from megabrands such as Nike, Adidas and Timberland, to traditional labels such as Brooks Brothers and up-and-coming design-ers like Off-White tapping into its aes-thetic. Its resurgence, both in terms of fashion influence and revenue, stems from a variety of factors, including the growing importance of Generation Z consumers; the boom in activewear as everyday apparel, and the expo-nential increase in online shopping, which enables even the smallest of labels to gain worldwide distribution.

The current market is saturated with hundreds, if not thousands, of streetwear brands, which is what sep-arates today’s movement from what it was two decades ago. So big is its potential that industry sources now estimate the category to have annual sales of $2 billion to $2.5 billion.

There also is increasing segmen-tation. No longer is there one look; instead, streetwear ranges from urban Goths to the skate and surfer market to new-era grunge and punk and, finally, hip-hop. Because of so-cial media and the Web, all of these underground subcultures are now accessible to the public.

“True independent streetwear was always a secret club,” said Bobby “Hundreds” Kim of Los Angeles-based brand The Hundreds. “But the Web cracked the mystery wide open. The biggest reason why the culture and style have become so

prevalent today is because of desktop publishing, the facility to print T-shirts and manufac-ture apparel, and the low-ered barrier to entry for a newcomer to participate in the market. Just a decade or so ago, kids wanted to grow up to be rappers, baseball players or movie stars. Today, the youth as-pire to own a brand and have a streetwear label. Even musicians and ath-letes and celebrities want in. With two clicks of a mouse, you can have a silk-screened T-shirt and a snap-back cap to stand behind and position your place in the world.”

The influence is being seen in the designer mar-ket as well, where trend-setting labels such as En Noir, Off-White by Virgil Abloh and others are show-casing streetwear influenc-es in their collections.

“These days I believe that you can judge a de-signer by a graphic T-shirt they make,” said Abloh, who also moonlights as Kanye West’s creative director. Abloh’s brand, rooted in street culture but influenced by de-signers like Riccardo Tisci and Raf Simons, is now sold at retail-ers such as Barneys New York.

“My clothes are created out of an atelier in Milan and the produc-tion is mainly in Europe,” he said. “It’s sold on a designer floor at Barneys but [has] streetwear sensibilities.”

From mass to designer, brands are keying into the youth sector.

{Continued on page MW6}

Pigalle’s polyester jacket, cotton hoodie,

cotton T-shirt and silk pants. Pigalle hat;

Stampd necklace.

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by SAMANTHA CONTI

LONDON — Gieves & Hawkes has its eye on international wholesale expansion, and will begin selling exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman in mid-August and Isetan in Tokyo in September. Earlier this week, the brand, which is located at No. 1 Savile Row, opened a shop-in-shop on the ground floor of Harrods.

“Harrods, Isetan, Bergdorf Goodman — these stores represent modern luxury for us, and what we are selling is extremely reflective of No. 1 Savile Row,” said Jason Basmajian, who was formerly the brand’s creative director and is now its chief cre-ative officer. He added that, going forward, wholesale rollout would be very controlled.

The deal with Bergdorf ’s marks the first time that Gieves is wholesaling its top collec-tion in the U.S., although at one time it did

have a licensing agreement in the market. The brand, which will be located on the

second floor at Bergdorf ’s, near Berluti, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren Black Label and Giorgio Armani, will also offer made-to-measure. Gieves will be taking part in a storewide made-to-measure event that will run during the second half of September. Ready-to-wear suit prices will start at around $3,000, while made-to-measure will be around $4,000. Bergdorf ’s has a one-year exclusive with Gieves, and will stock most of the range, excluding shoes and bags. Later this year, Gieves also plans to introduce its bespoke service to Bergdorf ’s, and its tailors will travel from London to fulfill the orders.

“Gieves and Hawkes is a storied Savile Row brand with a rich, royal heritage and when I heard Jason Basmajian was brought on as creative director, I was immediately intrigued,” said Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman. “He has prov-en throughout his career to have an innate understanding of how to blend history with modernity in an incredibly luxurious way in both tailored clothing and sportswear. I pre-viewed the line when he was next in New York, and subsequently at their presentations during London Collections: Men, where he made it immediately clear that this brand has resonance today as an aspirational, wearable wardrobe perfect for the Goodman’s very af-fluent, discerning customer.”

In September, Gieves will break into the Japanese market with a space at Isetan in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood, and will also begin selling on Matchesfashion.com, and in Harvey Nichols in Baku, Azerbaijan. Come November, Mr Porter.com and Brown Thomas in Ireland will be stocking the pre-spring collection.

Harrods is home to Gieves’ first fully furnished shop that mirrors the interiors of its Savile Row flagship, the refurbishment of which will be complete in September. Basmajian worked with the interior de-

signer Teresa Hastings on the store’s new look that features smoked oak, bronze and brass details, gray stone, gray flannel fabric and navy rugs.

The designer said he is also at work on a bespoke scented candle for the brand, be-cause “the sensory experience is important as part of the total package” of the brand experience.

The shop-in-shop on Harrods’ ground floor is near Kiton, Brioni and Canali. It spans 370 square feet and sells the full life-style collection, including tailoring, outer-wear, weekend wear and accessories. It of-fers made-to-measure, but not bespoke. It has been fitted with a hand-woven carpet, gray flannel fabrics, bespoke iron rails with brass and bronze details and smoked oak

A digital window near the store’s Basil Street entrance will launch on Aug. 1.

Gieves has been up to more than whole-sale expansion. Basmajian said there is a

retail rollout plan for the medium term, but declined to give further details. The brand has 10 stores in the U.K., including the Savile Row flagship, 113 retail stores in Mainland China and one store in Hong Kong.

In late October, Gieves plans to pub-lish a book with Flammarion called “One Savile Row: The Invention of the English Gentleman,” that looks at the history of Gieves and its famous home. A year in the making, the book will feature a mix of archi-val and contemporary images, and underline the brand’s past and present work for the British military and royal court. The fore-word is by Harold Koda, curator-in-charge of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Basmajian said he sees history repeating itself all the time on Savile Row. “We see the son as well as the father coming in — and customers asking us to recut their grandfa-thers’ suits,” he said.

Men’s WeekMW2 WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014

Harmont & Blaine Brand Gets Minority Partner

Gieves & Hawkes Expands Wholesale

Dior Homme Opens Hawaii Unit by JEAN E. PALMIERI

ALOHA, DIOR HOMME.After years of sharing space

with women’s wear in a nearby center, the Dior men’s collection has finally gotten its own home in Honolulu.

On Wednesday, Dior Homme opened its first freestanding boutique in Hawaii at the T Galleria by DFS Waikiki. The store is adjacent to a women’s boutique that opened in the center in January. There is also a dual-gender Christian Dior and Dior Homme store at the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu.

Pamela Baxter, chief execu-tive officer of Christian Dior North America, said that while the men’s store is next door to women’s, it has its own distinct design and a separate entrance inside the Galleria. “We have a lot of shared clients,” she said.

The shop sells all catego-ries of merchandise including ready-to-wear, footwear, eye-wear, leather goods, watches, jewelry and fragrance. The made-to-measure “demi-mesure” service will be avail-able upon request.

This marks the sixth stand-alone men’s store in the U.S. for the luxury Paris-based brand. There are two in New York City, one on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, one in Union Square in San Francisco and one in the Design District in Miami.

“They do well,” Baxter said, and appeal to both a “fashion-

forward” and more-traditional customer. “More and more, we’re attracting a sartorial cli-ent with our demi-mesure ser-vice,” she said.

Baxter said the popularity of the tailored business — particu-larly suits and formalwear — has made that a larger percentage of overall sales in the last few years. “We see a lot of tuxedos during award season. They seem to be a favored look and cut” for male celebrities, Baxter noted.

In Hawaii, the mix will skew more toward casualwear. “Because it’s a vacation spot, we’re going to sell more buy-now, wear-now merchandise,” she said. “The store will be more ca-sual- and sportswear-driven.”

And she expects that a large percentage of the shoppers there will be from the Far East.

“The Waikiki market is very tourist-driven,” she said. “And very Japanese-based. But over the past three to four years, the Chinese client has also discov-ered Dior Homme. The brand is very big in Asia.” She estimated that about 65 percent of the tourists in Hawaii are of Asian descent, but there are also a lot of tourists from Australia, Canada and the U.S. mainland.

Looking ahead, Baxter said the company is still on target to open its first Canadian unit in Vancouver next year. The dual-gender store is expected to open in January, she said.

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The Savile Row flagship, here and left.

The Waikiki store is adjacent to a women’s unit.

by LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — Italian private equity firm Clessidra SGR has inked an agree-ment to take a 35 percent stake in Harmont & Blaine SpA through a capital increase, with the goal of sup-porting the Italian fashion brand’s international growth. The two com-panies had entered into exclusive ne-gotiations in March.

Harmont & Blaine president Domenico Menniti said that, in accor-dance with his partners Enzo Menniti and Paolo and Massimo Montefusco, he believed Clessidra shared “a com-mon strategy to develop the company. With this agreement, we set the foun-dations for the start of an internation-al growth that will consolidate the Harmont & Blaine brand globally.”

The Menniti family intends to maintain control of the privately held fashion company. With the help of a partner, the plan is to invest about 80 million euros, or $111.2 million at current exchange, over the next three years, and reach sales of about 200 million euros, or $278.1 million, prior to an initial public offering in the first half of 2017.

Counting 69 stores in Italy and 70 monobrand boutiques outside Italy, Harmont & Blaine is available in 54 countries, with a strong foothold in the Middle East, Russia, Central America and Mediterranean Europe. The brand is carried in more than 1,500 stores worldwide. With the help of Clessidra, the goal is to grow in Asia, in continental Europe and in

North, Central and South America. In April, Clessidra tapped

Francesco Trapani as executive vice chairman; he also became a shareholder and operating partner. Previously he was chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s watch-es and jewelry division. Last year, Clessidra bought a 70 percent stake in Milanese jewelry firm Buccellati.

Harmont & Blaine’s strategy mirrors that of Versace, which in February sold a 20 percent stake to Blackstone Group with the goal to fully develop the brand around the world and publicly list the Milan-based firm in three to five years.

In 2013, Harmont & Blaine’s net profits more than doubled, reaching 4.9 million euros, or $6.4 million, up 157.8 percent from 1.9 million euros, or $2.4 million, in the previous year.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 24.7 percent to 13.1 million euros, or $17.3 million.

Revenues climbed 17.7 percent to 71 million euros, or $93.7 million, compared with 60.3 million euros, or $77.2 million, in 2012.

Dollar amounts have been con-verted at average exchange for the periods to which they refer.

Men’s wear is the core business of the label, which is recognizable for its trademark dachshund logo and its stylish preppy looks.

Harmont & Blaine, which is based in Caivano, on the outskirts of Naples, has more than 500 direct employees and more than 1,000 indirect ones.

Men’s WeekWWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014MW4

An expanded shoe wardrobe; playful, brightly colored belts and bags, and a multitude of male jewelry options are some of the elements that are turning men’s accessories from a sleepy, classic category into the ultimate fashion statement. Here are some highlights of the spring season. — ALEX BADIA

FOR MORE IMAGES, SEE

WWD.com/menswear-news.

A New Era

Dior Homme Balmain Gucci

Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci

Giuseppe Zanotti

Fendi

Berluti

Z Zegna

Bally

Duchamp London

Men’s Week WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014 MW5

Alexander Wang

Michael Kors Loewe

Kenzo

Valentino

Etro

Superdry

Solange Azagury-Partridge

Nicholas Kirkwood

#BeenTrill# x Linda Farrow

Louis Vuitton

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Even as streetwear makes a comeback, traditional teen re-tailers such as American Eagle Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch and Aéropostale have been struggling, as have traditional surf brands like Quiksilver and Billabong. Analysts believe there are a myriad of rea-sons as to why, but one thing is cer-tain: The Generation Z consumers (ages 12 to 17) have become highly informed shoppers, with 91 percent plugged into the Internet and social media. According to a study made by The Intelligence Group, a divi-sion of Creative Artists Agency, Gen-Zers are as discriminating as older consumers when shopping for the best products and deals.

“They’re on every platform now and they are constantly being fed new information — what’s cool, where to get it,” said Jamie Gutfreund, chief strategy officer at TIG.

Among the brands that are at-tracting these younger customers on social media are established streetwear labels such as Stüssy and Supreme; West Coast brands like The Hundreds, Black Scale,

Undefeated, Huf, Diamond Supply Co., and Crooks and Castles, and East Coast firms like 10.Deep, SSUR and Been Trill — many of which have their own freestand-ing stores and e-commerce capa-bilities. Diamond Supply Co., for instance, opened its second free-standing store in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in June. The brand plans to open a third store in New York City later this year at 268 Lafayette Street across from Supreme.

Nick Diamond, founder and designer, said he plans to open other stores internationally in Asia, Canada and Europe in the next few years in addition to ex-panding Stateside. “I like to think of our flagship stores as more of a great marketing tool and a retail showroom for our fans to experi-ence what the Diamond life is all about,” he said.

Despite its growing retail foot-print, Diamond Supply Co., along with other brands, maintains its “cool” factor by keeping a low pro-file and steering clear of produc-ing apparel in mass quantities.

To excel, they sell the notion that their items are not only exclusive, but difficult to find. While brands such as Stüssy and Been Trill sell at chains such as Urban Outfitters and Pacific Sunwear, it’s a controlled strategy to reach consumers in mar-kets where streetwear specialty stores are few and far between.

“All of our streetwear brands perform very well,” said Gary Schoenfeld, president and chief executive officer of Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., which also has seen its share of struggles in the past few years.

The retailer, Schoenfeld said, now views streetwear as integral to its survival. “PacSun works hard — whether [it’s because our] em-ployees are skating on the street, we’re getting feedback from social media or we’re at events — to keep up with the latest trends,” he said. “Some of this is knowing who the authentic players are and keeping a pulse on what they’re currently doing. We’re seeing new brands and trends every day. In the end, we evaluate who’s behind the brand and see if they are viable in

the streetwear industry.”Nor are only youth-oriented

chains tapping into the trend. Harvey Nichols partnered with Been Trill to create an exclusive collection that was unveiled in June. The collection included col-laborations with designers such as Kim Jones, Gareth Pugh, Linda Farrow and others.

As the style makes a comeback yet again — and more retailers and brands jump onto the bandwagon — the very term “streetwear” stirs more confusion than ever over what it exactly defines.

Take, for instance, men’s wear (and now women’s wear as well) label Public School, which recently won the CFDA’s Menswear Designer of the Year award. Started by Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, the line is New York-inspired with its oversize shapes and expensive fab-rics, but the designers decidedly do not consider it streetwear.

“People incorrectly refer to us as streetwear, but the brand isn’t streetwear at all,” Chow, who began his career at Sean Jean, said. “We aren’t chasing trends or

commenting on what’s going on in culture. Our DNA is in mixing high and low, mixing different worlds, referencing and creating fabric combinations, but making it with a versatility and practicality to it.”

Shayne Oliver of Hood by Air said that his collection, though in-spired by skaters, is not traditional streetwear either.

“Many people have their defini-tions of what we are, but I wouldn’t call it streetwear,” he said.

So what is streetwear? “You know it when you see it,”

said Aaron Levant, founder of the streetwear show Agenda. “It’s all about the independent spirit and an emulation of street culture. It’s about the design aesthetic, a mix of New York, skate culture, fashion, music, graphic design, art. It’s a re-flection of how the youth is today.”

Kim, who started his brand The Hundreds in 2003, said that streetwear to him is a mélange of youth culture.

“[My definition] sits somewhere between urban culture, skateboard-ing and high fashion,” he said. “The vital ingredient — what makes

Streetwear Brands Stay Small

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Off-White’s jacket, Rascals’

turtleneck and shirt, and

10.Deep’s pants, all in cotton.

SSUR’s leather vest and cotton denim jacket,

KNYEW’s cotton shirt, Off-White’s wool shirt

worn on waist and Entrée’s cotton pants.

Dr. Martens boots; Black Scale hat.

Staple Design’s nylon jacket and cotton pants,

and Mighty Healthy’s cotton T-shirt. Jordan

sneakers.

Stüssy’s nylon jacket, HUF’s cotton

shirt and Crooks & Castles’ cotton

denim jeans. Reason hat; HUF shoes.

Men’s Week WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014 MW7

“It was tough for all of us and we didn’t know if we’d even make it through,” Sasso recalled.

As a result, according to Levant, the market has become fragmented.

“Many small brands control big amounts of dollars,” he said. “Not any one brand is controlling the market or becoming very huge in value or market share. There are around 50 to 100 brands now mak-ing significant brand value as op-posed to a handful in other years.”

Today, street-style blogs, Instagram and Tumblr are avail-able to everyone worldwide, which is fueling the democratization and globalization of the market.

“Kids who were in New York could see what kids in Paris were wearing and vice versa,” said Darryl “Curtains” Jackson, brand director of En Noir, who considers himself a product of streetwear. “You would see kids in Japan wearing super high fashion clothes but they were wearing only a T-shirt, they weren’t wearing the typical Gucci outfit. You could see it in Japanese streetwear and how Supreme and Bape were infiltrating high fashion. Japanese culture was a big influence with Neighborhood, Visvim and Wtaps — all what I consider high fashion streetwear.”

“The Japanese market is where streetwear traditionally went to be-come cool and gain its status — just look at Stüssy in the Nineties,” said Iveet Shiau, head of international con-tent at the Web site Hypebeast. “Now, foreign brands or American brands go there to incubate, then gain status, and expand. Then there are the Japanese brands like Neighborhood and Wtaps that have always been cool and are always influencing streetwear and where it’s headed.”

Shiau believes the next streetwear surge will come from Europe.

“It was America that led the way, then Japan, then America again, but now I see that Europe is where we will see the next wave,” he said.

Or back to American brands from yesteryear. This is the current goal for hot Nineties-era brands such as Ecko Unltd., Rocawear and even Fila, which are all re-brand-ing to become new players in the lucrative youth apparel business. According to a study conducted by TIG, Gen-Zers directly influence around $600 million in consumer spending every year.

“Every moment is a shopping moment,” said Gutfreund.

As they reinvent themselves, these Nineties-era brands face in-creasing challenges in appealing to the new digitally savvy customer.

“The consumer is more global than in the Nineties when these brands were very relevant,” said Elena Romero, adjunct assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology and a hip-hop apparel historian. “Today, kids who listen to hip-hop aren’t defined head-to-toe by the music they listen to. The consumer is transcultural and blurs lines of cultures as well. To make themselves relevant again they need to ask what their customers’ needs are, what are their concerns?”

To tackle this question, the foot-wear brand Fila is taking a “back to the basics” approach for its re-launch. The company, which was at the height of the streetwear move-ment in the Nineties through col-laborations with NBA stars such as Grant Hill, lost its hold on its core customer after being sold to Gene Yoon, who raised $450 mil-lion to purchase the company in 2007. Under its new ownership, the company became more focused on casual footwear with lower price points and was sold at midmarket retailers such as Kohl’s.

streetwear streetwear — is the lim-ited distribution, the specialty fac-tor and the response to a blown-out, corporatized industry. Streetwear is the underground to mainstream fashion. Music has garage bands. In every generation, the counter-cul-ture rises against the hegemony and then becomes it. Rinse and repeat.”

Arguably, the top-selling and old-est brand in the business is Stüssy.

The surf-based line has been privately owned since its inception in 1980 by surfer-turned-designer Shawn Stussy. The company oper-ates 16 stores — or “chapters,” as it likes to call them — across the world, and wholesales to around 250 accounts, ranging from Urban Outfitters and Active to Zumiez.

Its current owner, Frank Sinatra Jr. (no relation to the other Frank Sinatra), said the brand was sold at Macy’s and Nordstrom in the Eighties. But today, Sinatra said selling to department stores isn’t appealing to him mainly because “Macy’s customer isn’t necessarily as individual or fashionable.

“Where you sell and what you sell is key,” he said. “We are very

selective in where we sell and we are trying to be practically selec-tive about what we make.”

Sinatra said that, in streetwear, a controlled distribution model is essential to survival. Unlike tradi-tional business models, where more distribution equates to more rev-enue and is therefore considered “better,” streetwear brands take an opposite approach to guard against oversaturation that could impact their “cool factor.” Sinatra said that, today, Stüssy’s sweet spot is around $50 million in total revenues.

“We don’t try to hit it and we’ll take less, but [it’s a number] we want to control,” he said. “If the or-ders are too large, we’ll cut it back and we’ll take less.”

Sinatra said that in the Nineties, Stüssy was approached by some major mass-market retailers to carry the line but declined all offers.

“We could have sold $100 mil-lion but that would mean we were not in control,” he said.

Scott Sasso, founder and owner of the New York-based label 10.Deep, agreed that the limited-distribution business model is

what allows him to stay afloat.“I don’t want to see every other

person wearing my brand,” he said. “That would be my nightmare.”

Sasso, who developed his com-pany in the mid-Nineties, said he actually scales back production any time he needs to grow his brand.

“We’ve always produced appar-el in small quantities, not only be-cause we wanted to target a specif-ic customer, but because then the items are more sought out. Limited quantities equate to more people vying for it,” he said.

The Hundreds, which was founded by Kim and his law school classmate Ben Shenassafar, was built on the Web, which was in its infancy then.

“This was over 10 years ago, so the idea of interlacing fashion with the Internet was foreign — not how it is today where every designer has an Instagram following,” said Kim. “After a few years, some people knew us for our streetwear brand, others knew us for the blog and media platform. The Web site evolved into a morning newspaper for many in the industry and that trickled down to the consumers.”

In 2007, the company opened its first flagship in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, two years before the economy crashed, bringing many streetwear brands down with it.

Today, the company has given its American division the lead on brand strategy to once again grab a piece of the market.

“Fila is still around and is a 103-year-old brand,” said Louis Colon, director of heritage and life-style product at Fila. “We want to share with the consumers that we haven’t gone anywhere. At the same time, today’s focus is to reeducate and target our customers and the new Millennial kid who is looking for a product to differentiate themselves.”

For the past two years, Colon has been leading the re-branding strategy to focus on creating limit-ed-edition shoes and collaborating with specific brands, retailers and personalities.

“We understand that there’s a lot of competition in this space and we understand there are other brands people love,” he said. “There’s a guy’s closet filled with Jordans, Nike, Adidas, but we want to have the guy make room for Filas, too. You can’t take Fila out of the history of streetwear or footwear.”

Fila is beginning to heavily mar-ket its new direction. One campaign will launch later in August with the upcoming film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” which Fila partnered with as the official shoe sponsor.

“It’s a long game, it’s not a short one,” Colon said. “There was no one specific way to tell a story. We want to be authentic to who we are and know that kids are interested in rediscovering the past.”

Colon said that later in the year Fila will collaborate with the popular L.A.-based brand Joy Rich with a capsule collection.

Then there is the once-mega streetwear label Ecko Unltd., which was created by Marc Ecko, Seth Gerszberg and Marci Tapper and was fully acquired by Iconix Brand Group Inc. in May 2013. Ecko Unltd. is banking on the new fall collection to resonate with the Gen-Z market; it just released its fall campaign with hip-hop artist B.o.B., and is aggressively pushing a new, more streamlined image.

“We understand that there isn’t just one kind of guy anymore,” said James Ling, vice president of the men’s division at Iconix. “He likes hip-hop but watches action sports, likes to skate, he’s into a variety of things.”

Gone are the brand’s heavily emblazoned rhinoceros logo and XXL-size shirts so popular in the Nineties. Instead, the new fall col-lection — including button-ups, jog-ger pants and printed shirts — will hit J.C. Penney shelves this fall.

“It’s about tapping into what the new generation wants and under-standing that we can’t box them into one single demographic,” Ling said.

Rocawear is following suit and shedding its long-standing image of being heavily hip-hop focused in hopes of reaching a new demo-graphic. The brand — which was sold to Iconix in 2007 by Jay Z — tapped MTV star Nev Schulman to be the face of the fall ad campaign. Iconix declined to comment when asked about its long-term strategy with the brand.

“There’s definitely potential in reinventing these past brands,” said FIT’s Romero. “The brands just have to approach young peo-ple differently.”

Successful or not, streetwear — new and/or old — is a market that isn’t seen diminishing anytime soon.

“Because of social media, streetwear will never go away,” Levant said. “There’s an audience that never waivers and that are loyal consumers. And now with so much information out there [with the Web], the interest will never falter.”

to Stay Cool

Raised by Wolves’ nylon jacket, Aimé Leon Dore’s nylon

vest and cotton shirt, and Rascals’ wool pants. Aimé

Leon Dore hat; Amb Ambassadors

of minimalism sneakers.

En Noir’s leather T-shirt and Black

Scale’s cotton and polyester pants.

Amb Ambassadors of minimalism

sneakers.

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Men’s WeekWWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014MW8

WWD met with Ecko to talk about his past accomplishments, the cur-rent state of streetwear as the sec-tor sees a major revival, his strategy in tackling the designer market, and the future of Marc Ecko Cut & Sew.

WWD: What motivated you to start a streetwear brand like Ecko Unltd.?Marc Ecko: I remember in college in 1990 going to retail and seeing Stüssy. I was like, “Who the f--k is Stüssy? He’s not real.” I just wanted to torch them because they were commercially successful. I had my own competitive motivation. When I was starting, I was naïvely like, I’m trying to make it for myself, and said it like a mental patient. I started when I was 20 years old. I was try-ing to satisfy something that hadn’t been in the marketplace prior.

WWD: You grew up in New Jersey in the Eighties. Where did your in-terest in streetwear come about?M.E.: There was this genre being born in L.A. and organized in the Northeast around people inter-ested in hip-hop. That first wave of “urban” was productized to be clothing for African-Americans. My first exposure was all the success Karl Kani was having and all these articles in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal that my mother gave to me. She was like, “Son, you can do this.” My interest was a blend between wanting to build a real lifestyle brand like those guys were doing, and doing it in a way that positioned hip-hop and this convergence culture with graffiti art that I came up with in the Eighties from my lens and my vantage point.

WWD: You started your company with your twin sister, Marci, and friend Seth Gerszberg, who is now incubating a few streetwear brands under The Collective. Do you still talk to him?M.E.: No, not really. Marci speaks to him probably more than I do. We don’t have a professional connection. If we run into each other it’s nice and cordial. There’s no need to. Our dots aren’t connected any more. He’s doing his thing, I’m doing mine.

WWD: Has the definition of streetwear changed through the years?M.E.: [Initially,] it was a term for just black people or ghetto. I al-ways found that funny. Because from Day One of launching the

business and speaking to cross-over buyers or buyers with scale, they were always struggling with it. I wrote a whole book about it. People want these labeling taxono-mies to organize us so that you be-long in aisle four, you in aisle six, you in aisle nine, you in the fro-zen [food section]. But sometimes things have more nuance than that. I think that there was somewhat of a loaded conversation.

It’s interesting that we packaged streetwear in a cleaner veneer that it describes something different than it was 10 years ago. Now we see “contemporary streetwear” or “progressive streetwear,” but what the f--k does that mean?

WWD: So are these new “high end” streetwear labels any more unique than they were years ago?M.E.: I don’t think so. I look at brands now and 10 years ago — some brands are here, some not. There still are brands that are heavily graphic, fundamentally very strong provocative graphic design, printables and different prints.

When I was coming up there were a lot of high-end street brands. They were just selling to Japan at the time. There were plenty of Japanese imports. There wasn’t this fashion CNN that hip-hop has been in the past four years. Why is it that? Because it took a designer to take their streetwear labels to a higher price point — which, by the way, is hard-er to work as a successful business — to make streetwear OK? So sud-denly streetwear and men’s wear can play nice. And suddenly the CFDA and the traditional design institutions can see streetwear through a lens of more validity.

WWD: Today’s streetwear market is saturated with hundreds, if not thousands, of brands. How difficult is it for a new label to survive?M.E.: It’s hard. This industry is so ripe for massive structural overhaul. We’re still an industry dominated by paper and Excel spreadsheets. This creates mas-sive amounts of opportunities and also massive challenges. If you’re not thinking about some unfair advantage at the supply side of it, you’re going to have a really tough time winning on just the brand side alone. Too often people think that a brand is just the woven label or the business card — the kind of ge-stalt or framework that you’re in my booth, you’re in my brand. But real brand differentiation comes from the needle up. What can you do to create a technological advantage or a resource that would expedite your brand in the marketplace and how it’s positioned in the market-place? I think about “just in time” manufacturing and what’s going on there, and agile manufacturing. At scale, the import industry is ripe for a revolution. It’s going to come.

WWD: We’re seeing brands like the footwear brand The Greats suc-cessfully cut out retailers and go into a direct-to-consumer model. Is wholesaling necessary? M.E.: I think it’s a blend. I don’t

think there’s a one size fits all. And it’s way too early to determine the future. I think Warby Parker has created a lot of enthusiasm. I love the guys at Greats, they’re great guys, literally. Retail is like TV. If you want to talk about the power of branding, there’s still something about being in a duty-free shop and being in an array of brands around you, or a retail of choice, or an all-glass department store. There’s still that entertainment value of all the lights and space, wanting the recreational time of going to the movie and food court and going shopping. That’s what real people do in America. I think increasingly, you’re smart

and launching your brand, you’re thinking what is your core com-petency and thinking who’s the lead actor in your play. How do you really own that in a narrow and deep fashion and serve that to the consumer? From launch you should think that. From launch you should have an e-commerce solution, even if it’s just half of it at launch. That’s respectable.

WWD: What do you think went awry with the Ecko Unltd. business?M.E.: You want more demand than supply. There was more supply than there was demand. There was too much inventory. The inventory cycles were too frequent. It was too much. Period. It just wasn’t gov-erned in a way that took advantage of the diversity of distribution. I’ll also say that I wasn’t as opera-tionally involved. I would sit on the periphery, but you know, that had the greatest impact on the business, more so than trends or perception. What’s more material

is the lack of governance vis-a-vis making sure that if you’re my cli-ent or my partner that I was re-ally optimizing the business for you. It became, you know, every-thing for everyone and nothing for anyone. My grandma used to say “10 pounds of s--t in a five-pound bag.” Too much stuff and not enough space.

It was not governed properly. Period. End of story. It was schizo-phrenic. We were trying to take cues from how big retailers were doing their business. We got so big and we stopped looking at our heritage. Your top dollar is as big as Aéropostale so let’s see what Aéropostale is doing versus look-ing culturally at your roots and your feet. We should have done the latter. We didn’t do that. We started at the top line and looked at other people at our level.

WWD: In your opinion, did the brand sell out? M.E.: I don’t know. I think that you could build things that are really big at scale and have a massive business but not “sell out” from a cultural point of view. I don’t think the sell-out was the scale of the revenue but it was losing sight of its roots. It wasn’t being nourished to the point that it’s what got you out of the pickle. When it started to operationally, it was too late. To answer your question, I think

that it’s not about being the cool-est new brand but it’s about being Ecko Unltd. It’s a 20-plus-year-old brand that has a history. Will it be the next you know, hot s--t brand XYZ that’s crowded at Agenda? It needn’t be that. Vans doesn’t try to be that, neither does Levi’s.

WWD: What do you think it will take for Ecko Unltd. to make a comeback?M.E.: I think Neil Cole at Iconix wanted to clean house and have new people with fresh ideas. That’s a start. They were like, “We tried this long enough,” and want-ed to create new energy from an operational business. I do think it’s a function of new energy and new perspective on distribution and being confident. The brand could be marketable again.

WWD: Tell me about Marc Ecko Cut & Sew. Why did you want to re-launch it in a serious way?M.E.: I got involved with Marc Ecko Cut & Sew only because I always

felt like it was a failure to launch. It’s unfinished business for me creatively. The thing that was the worst for me in the six years or so was not being able to wake up when you get an idea, go in, get a sketch out, put it on the sample floor and get a prototype. That feedback was gone. I felt like it was just missing for me. It’s funny once you get your groove. It’s in-teresting. It’s good to connect to the community and industry, too.

WWD: You’re a nontraditional fash-ion designer. Is there any pressure to prove yourself?M.E.: Listen, I didn’t go to FIT. I didn’t go to traditional design school. It doesn’t make me any less valid. I didn’t need that to pass through rubrics to be deemed quali-fied of those skill sets. It doesn’t work that way in film, animation, code or programming, so why must it work that way in fashion? It needn’t.

I’m such the outsider guy from that cohort. It’s like me having to prove to myself. I’m not an exter-nally motivated guy like that. I have a thorny relationship with the fashion design industry. But that being said, I am learning and relearning. I’m speaking to people. Asking self-effacing questions. Asking buyers to vomit on my stuff. Be real. Meeting with multiline showrooms, sellers, other brands, editors, glean whatever I can.

WWD: What position will Marc Ecko Cut & Sew fill in the market?M.E.: Our brand will have the dress component, but a youthfulness to it. If you graduated from streetwear, here is what you wore on your first day. There will be more of an em-phasis in a denim collection. It will be back to the roots of being more simplified and less overly designed. I’ll be doing some things that are trendy now but not trend-driven. Our biggest partner is Dillard’s right now. I’m very, very grateful to them. We have a small team of about seven or eight of us. It’s a small start-up mentality and environment. We’re just trying to do our best.

WWD: What are the challenges you are now facing? M.E.: Where do we start? It’s re-learning the industry. There’s a new community of stylists, editors, designers, a new community of re-tailers and less of them. For one, I would say that some folks on the buy side have maybe selection bias

and a preconceived notion of what the brand is supposed to be. Me saying, “Marc is back” can be per-ceived as some optics thing like, “Where was he?” I need to restore a trust with the buy side and be like, “Do you see the difference? Do you see the evolution of this as-sortment in that? Wow, he is back?”

WWD: Is there a designer whose business you want to emulate?M.E.: There are so many designers I respect that are doing really good and important stuff. I look at the excitement of John Varvatos. I see that he serves a much older demo-graphic. He traffics in a very specif-ic period of rock ’n’ roll. I think I can build an American fashion brand that philosophically draws its influ-ence from a different period as well.

WWD: What would you want the industry to know about the Marc Ecko of today? M.E.: I’ve only been back in this less than a year and this is my second trade show. I’ll physically be on the floor meeting with and walking the trade show, selling my product. I don’t know anyone. If you’re read-ing this, hit me up. I’m down. I’m in the cut. I’m trying to be in this busi-ness. Put me in coach, that’s the vibe. I just want to constantly be learning and relearning and con-necting and reconnecting. And I’m humbled by it all.

LISTEN, I DIDN’T GO TO FIT. I DIDN’T GO TO TRADITIONAL DESIGN SCHOOL. IT DOESN’T MAKE ME ANY LESS VALID.” — MARC ECKO

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Marc Ecko

Marc Ecko on Streetwear and Culture{Continued from page one}

Men’s Week MW9WWD THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014

by PAULINA SZMYDKE

PARIS — J.M. Weston is going back to its roots.

The French luxury cobbler is launching a new, sportier line for fall called Country Gents based on de-signs from the Thirties and Forties by Eugène Blanchard, whose father Edouard founded the house in 1891.

“The idea was to revisit those styles, which are inspired by golf, hunting and horseback riding, all es-sentially aristocratic sports, but make them more outdoorsy,” explained the brand’s artistic director Michel Perry.

Perry reworked the traditional hunting derby in grained calf ’s leath-

er with six eyelets, and enforced the wing-tip golf shoe with double stitch-ing and artfully woven threads along the perforation lines. The latter also comes in a more robust ankle-boot version equipped with the house’s extra-resistant ridgeway sole.

Perry said he wanted “to stay in the aristo-chic theme, in keeping with the heaviness of the silhouette,” which was especially true for a hiking shoe with its oiled calf leather surface.

The five styles, retailing for be-tween 590 euros and 790 euros, or $796 and $1,066 at current exchange, are done in various shades of brown ranging from chocolate to camel, black and two shades of deep green. All

are available in customized versions through the brand’s special-order de-partment which, according to Perry, has experienced strong growth in 2013 and continues to grow this year.

J.M. Weston, which last fall launched a women’s line and opened its sixth Paris store on Rue Saint-Honoré with a new interior concept influenced by chic Parisian apart-ments, is in the midst of renovating other existing boutiques, with its Boulevard de la Madeleine location in Paris and Geneva to be completed this year, as well as its store on the Champs-Élysées in 2015.

The brand currently operates 40 points of sale, mostly in Europe and Asia.

by LORELEI MARFIL

LONDON — German accessories brand MCM is looking to Europe for growth, with stores planned for Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich in the fall, and recently opened units at Printemps and Galeries Lafayette in Paris and at Jelmoli in Zurich.

The accessories firm, which currently counts Asia as its strongest market, has also opened a shop-in-shop in Harrods here. The 1,130-square-foot space is located on the lower ground floor of Hall 1, and features natural wood and gold metal details. MCM has a flagship in London and is also stocked at Selfridges.

“Europe has always been a key market for MCM, and we continue to grow with a strong foundation [here],” said Sung-Joo Kim, chair-man and chief executive officer of the brand’s South Korean parent Sungjoo Group.

He told WWD the brand plans to develop its long-term partnerships with additional department stores, and invest further in European expansion.

“Asia overall is still the strongest mar-

ket for the brand, but Europe is catching up quickly with more than double-digit growth, especially in the more fashion-conscious urban areas such as London, Paris, Berlin and, of course, Munich,” he said.

Kim added that MCM is built on four pil-lars: “Quality and craftsmanship; design,

which allows mobility, and the German ori-gin, especially Munich, which is the birth-place of MCM.” MCM has two stand-alone stores in Germany, and 26 points of sale in department stores.

Kim said MCM’s backpack is a bestseller globally. “Our customers are global nomads,

and they appreciate stylish items that are comfortable to wear and practical.”

He said the company would be setting its sights on the U.S. later this year.

“In 2016, we will celebrate 40 years of MCM. Leading up to the 40th anniversary of MCM, we will assure a great presence of the brand globally,” he said.

Sungjoo Group acquired MCM Holding AG in 2005. The brand was founded in 1979 and is present in 35 countries with 300 retail units.

Man of THE WEEK

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CHRIS PRATT: A-

The star of “Guardians of the Galaxy” is not only an invincible Space Age pilot, but a sharp dresser with a newly chiseled body as well.

The gold watch with the black leather strap adds another element of sophistication and elegance.

It’s not made-to-measure, but it’s been altered to his body specs, and it shows.

The understated Prince of Wales pattern proves he really cares about style and what he’s wearing. Good choice.

The trim beard adds to his new action-hero,

sex-symbol status.

The soft wave and volume make him look

like he just got off the beach. But it still works

with the tailored look.

by JEAN E. PALMIERI

MICHAEL BASTIAN is getting into the wearable technology game.

The men’s wear designer has teamed with Hewlett-Packard and Gilt to create a luxury watch with smart technology. The Michael Bastian Smartwatch looks like a sleek, gentleman’s timepiece but it also can perform a range of functions. These include providing weather, stock updates and sports results; remote con-trol of music; calendar and appoint-ment reminders; e-mail and social media notifications, and texts.

It features a 44-mm. stainless steel case, inlaid button controls and three interchangeable watchbands: black rub-ber, perforated brown leather and olive green nylon. It has crown bezel bolts and a lighted chronograph, and was in-spired by the dashboards and trim de-tails of luxury cars. The watch is water-resistant and has a power reserve of up to seven days. It is compatible with both Android and iOS devices and syncs with an app that allows users to interact with the watch and customize its features.

Bastian has also designed a limited-edition version of the watch, which fea-tures an all-black design.

Bastian said the wearable technology pieces currently available in the market are geared more toward function than fashion. “We’re at the beginning of the wave, but the smart part comes before the visual part,” he said. “We felt there was a need for something that feels like a watch first.”

Rob Le Bras-Brown, senior vice pres-

ident of marketing, printing and per-sonal systems for HP, agrees. “Fashion has always been a fascinating area to explore,” he said. “And we’re revisiting how fashion and technology can come together.” He called the smart wear-ables market an “interesting platform to explore that idea,” and turned to Gilt to find a designer that would be amenable to the process. “We challenged them to find a designer to work with us as an en-gineer, not just the brand on the watch.”

The result was the Michael Bastian Smartwatch. “We’re the technology en-gine to enable the vision of the design-er,” Le Bras-Brown said.

The watch has yet to be priced, but will be launched on Gilt exclusively this fall. Tracey Weber, chief operating officer of Gilt, said the watch affords the online retailer “the perfect opportunity” to offer its customers “a gorgeous watch that em-bodies the ultimate in style and function.”

Le Bras-Brown said he hopes that the watch will be the first of several products offered by HP in partnership with Bastian or other fashion brands. “I think we’ve found a wonderful symbiosis to work with someone who has an eye for fashion,” he said. “We’ll be exploring further opportu-nities with other partners as well.”

MCM Focuses on European Growth

J.M. Weston double-sole toe-cap oxford

and laced ankle boot in smooth calf leather.

The MCM store in Printemps.

The MCM store in Zurich.

Bastian Creates Stylish Smartwatch

The watch will be sold on Gilt this fall.

The slim cut of the trouser hints at a European

designer and the clean break is just short enough

to be modern and chic.

The light blue shirt complements his eyes and the subtle print of

the suit. And even though it’s pulling a bit across

his buff pecs — we’ve seen the selfies on Instagram

— opening another button would be cheesy.

The cap-toe lace-up with a thin sole is the ideal summer shoe for an evening affair.

J.M. Weston Adds New Sporty Line