WEDNESDay, May 25, 2011 ■ WoMEN’S WEar Daily ■ $3.00

WWD

PHOTO BY GIOVANNI GIANNONI

IN WWD TODAY

ON THE BLOCK?

Kellwood Said In TalksTo Acquire Malandrino

Color CodedAs Gucci celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, Frida Giannini decided to pay homage to the chic and glamorous jet set who over the years helped make the company a success. “This season I was inspired by images of Gucci-clad iconic women from the Fifties and Sixties, who interpreted Gucci during those years, but have now reinterpreted their style through a Nineties lens,” said Giannini. Her polished and ubersophisticated lineup includes lots of color-blocking and pleated skirts, such as this silk crepe de chine and micro tec faille tricolor dress. For more on resort, see page 4.

For more GUCCI reSorT CoVerAGe

See WWD.com/fashion-news.

RESORT 2012

By Vicki M. youNg

NEW york — catherine Malandrino’s quest for an investor could lead it to become part of the growing contemporary port-folio at kellwood co.

Financial sources said that while Malandrino has ap-proached a number of strategic prospective buyers, kellwood is in the lead. one source described the discussions between the two parties as “deepening.”

Malandrino hired los angeles-based Sage llc in December to find an investor, financial and market sources said. instead, it now looks like the firm will be bought.

officials at Sage and Malandrino didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday. a kellwood spokeswoman said, “We can’t comment at this time.”

Sources said Malandrino ran into financial pressures after a poorly timed retail expansion in 2008 that included two boutiques, one in las Vegas and the other on Melrose Place in los angeles. The las Vegas store has since closed and the Melrose Place site, catherine Malandrino Maison, remains open as the firm’s new concept store featuring a cafe, library and outdoor terrace.

The company closed another los angeles store, a freestand-ing unit at Sunset Plaza, a few weeks ago, but not before it had converted it into a temporary outlet site. The Sunset Plaza store was opened before 2008.

The company continues to operate stores in Manhasset, N.y., on Broome Street in SoHo, on Hudson Street in New york’s Meatpacking District and in Paris. There are Malandrino boutiques around the world, including shops with-in intermix and Neiman Marcus in the u.S., Holt renfrew in canada and Seibu in Hong kong.

investment bankers described the catherine Malandrino name as well-known and highly regarded in the industry. a cred-it source said that both the contemporary collection, catherine Malandrino, and runway line, Malandrino, have loyal client bases.

Malandrino, born in grenoble, France, worked at louis Féraud and Emanuel ungaro before striking out on her own. Her first collection was presented in New york in 1998.

SEE PagE 12

PLUS: FASHION SCOOP: Michelle

Obama dons Tom Ford at Buckingham

Palace. PAGE 4

CHANEL’S NEW HOME

RETAIL: Chanel has opened a homier shop-in-shop in Bergdorf Goodman, one of

its largest wholesale accounts. PAGE 5

Joie Opens First U.S. Store PAGe 5 sRETAIL: The French brand owned by Serge Azria will today unveil a flagship on Madison Avenue as part of its slow but steady expansion. Editors Switch Sides STYLe, PAGe 9MEDIA: E-commerce sites like Gilt and Net-a-porter are generating more editorial content — opening up a whole new job market for fashion magazine types. Japan Denim Mills Battle Back PAGe 6DENIM: Denim manufacturers in Japan are slowly assessing the damage from the devastating earthquake in March despite ongoing problems with communication, infrastructure and power.

■ EYESCOOP: See They Are Wearing: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and more images from the Volkswagen and MoMA party at WWD.com/eyescoop.■ BUSINESS: More fi nancial news and daily stock movements at WWD.com/business-news.■ PLUS: All the celebrity-designed Ts from the Uniqlo-Condé Nast Japan partnership at WWD.com/eyescoop.■ GLOBAL BREAKING NEWS

By ARNOLD J. KARR

PAUL AND MAURICE MARCIANO, the brothers who serve respectively as chief executive offi cer and chairman of Guess Inc., saw their collective compensation rise 70 percent last year, to more than $26 million, as their fi rm registered double-digit increases in sales and profi ts.

Paul Marciano, the Los Angeles-based company’s top earn-er, netted $15.4 million in total compensation, 57.4 percent above the $9.8 million reported for 2009, with his $1 million salary unchanged and his nonequity incentive plan compensa-tion down 1.7 percent to $4.75 million from $4.84 million. His stock and option awards totaled $2 million, 39.7 percent above the $1.4 million reported for 2009.

Nearly all of the increase in Paul’s pay package was linked to a $5 million increase in pension value and nonqualifi ed de-ferred compensation earnings, which grew 208 percent to $7.6

million from $2.5 million in the prior year. The company attrib-uted the jump in the pension column to new guidelines affect-ing actuarial calculations tied to the company’s supplemental executive retirement program, or SERP.

Maurice Marciano earned a total of $10.8 million last year, 91.9 percent above the 2009 level of $5.6 million. His $1 million salary came against just $49,000 in 2009 pay as he voluntarily waived his base salary during the recession. Although the other component of his cash payments, nonequity incentive plan compensation, fell 15.6 percent to $1.9 million from $2.3 mil-lion in the prior year, his stock and option awards more than doubled, to $3.4 million from $1.6 million, and the change in pension value and nonqualifi ed deferred compensation earn-ings more than tripled, to $4.1 million from $1.3 million, also as a result of a SERP adjustment.

Stock and option awards aren’t necessarily realized be-cause of fl uctuating stock prices and vesting schedules, but companies are required to report them at fair market value.

In the fi scal year ended in January, Guess’ net income in-creased 19.3 percent, to $289.5 million, as revenues grew 16.9 percent to $2.49 billion.

Eliminating overlapping stock holdings, the Marciano brothers own 30.1 percent of Guess’s outstanding common stock, according to their most recent Securities and Exchange Commission fi lings.

WWD WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 20112WWD.COM

TO E-MAIL REPORTERS AND EDITORS AT WWD, THE ADDRESS IS FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME@FAIRCHILDPUB.COM, USING THE INDIVIDUAL’S NAME. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2011 FAIRCHILD FASHION GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 201, NO. 108. Wednesday, May 25, 2011. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in May, June, November and December, two additional issues in February, March, April and August and three additional issues in September and October) by Fairchild Fashion Group, 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 Offi cer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Offi cer & Chief Financial Offi cer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Offi cer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offi ces. 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 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615 5008. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008, call 800-289-0273, or visit www.subnow.com/wd. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. Subscribers: If the Post Offi ce 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 dissatisfi ed 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 of articles, please contact Scoop ReprintSource at 800-767-3263 or via e-mail at sales@scoopreprintsource.com. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Group magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.fairchildpub.com. 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 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008 or call 800-289-0273. 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.

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I love the world of magazines but I really feel like this is the next spin of the wheel.

This is the future. — RUTH REICHL, ON EDITORIAL CONTENT ON E-COMMERCE SITES. PAGE 9.

TODAY ON WWD.COM

On the concert grounds in New Orleans.

FINANCIAL 1,2,12BEAUTY 8DENIM 6

FASHION 4,12RETAIL 2,5,7,8MEDIA 9,10

SECTORS IN THIS ISSUE

MUSIC AND FASHION have offi cially tied the knot.Bravado, a global music merchandising company

and division of Universal Music Group, and Music Entertainment Sports Holdings, a division of LF USA, have launched a venture to create contempo-rary lifestyle brands inspired by music and fashion. This confi rms a WWD report on Jan. 10 that a deal was in the works.

The venture will develop, market and distribute diversified collections from musical artists rang-ing from Lady Gaga, whose latest album “Born This Way” was released Monday to much hype; Justin Bieber; Katy Perry and the Rolling Stones to The Doors, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses and The Who, all of whom are represented by Bravado. The announcement was made by Lucian Grainge, chairman and chief executive offi cer of UMG; Tom Bennett, ceo of Bravado, and MESH partners Tommy Hilfi ger, Joe Lamastra, Andy Hilfi ger and Bernt Ullmann.

As part of the agreement, Bravado will partner with MESH on the design, marketing and distribu-tion of exclusive collections and better merchan-dise, which are expected to launch later this year at specialty and department stores worldwide. The deal seeks to combine LF USA’s global sourcing network and distribution resources, MESH’s ex-pertise in creative design and Bravado’s licensing expertise and world-class roster of artists.

According to sources, the merchandise is expect-ed to range from capsule collections and licensing

deals to collaborations and exclusives. WWD has learned that a number of stars will be launched ex-clusively at Macy’s.

“Bravado’s clients are among the most iconic mu-sical artists in pop culture,” said Grainge. “Bringing them together with MESH’s creative ability and glob-al distribution resources will be transformative for Bravado in terms of its scale, the unique opportuni-ties it provides our artists and the diversifi cation it brings to our portfolio of global brands. This is a new approach that takes the current notion of artist mer-

chandise and propels it into those places which have, until now, been reserved for major designers and major brands.”

“I am incredibly excited to be a part of this historic fu-sion of fashion, music and re-tail,” added Tommy Hilfi ger, part owner of Star Branding, which is a partner in MESH. “Between the unrivaled roster of artists under the Universal-Bravado umbrella and the un-paralleled ability to produce

quality product that LF USA brings to our partner-ship with MESH, fi nally, the marriage between music and fashion is offi cial.”

Last July, LF USA, a division of Li & Fung Ltd., along with the Hilfi ger partners, formed MESH with Star Branding to create lifestyle concepts inspired by the worlds of music, entertainment and sports. The fi rst deal signed by MESH was the new Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony lifestyle fashion venture with Kohl’s, which will launch at retail this fall.

— LISA LOCKWOOD

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PARIS — Carrefour SA has reached out to Brazilian retail group Companhia Brasileira de Distribuiçao (CBD) to discuss merging their activities in the South American country, the head of rival French supermarket operator Groupe Casino confirmed in a letter made public in the French media Tuesday.

Jean-Charles Naouri, chief executive officer of Groupe Casino, complained in the letter that Casino, which holds 33.7 percent of CBD’s capital and 50 percent of voting rights, had not been in-formed of the negotiations.

A spokesman for Groupe Casino confi rmed the existence of the letter, addressed to Carrefour chief executive offi cer Lars Olofsson and Amaury de Seze, chairman of the board of directors. However, he de-

clined to provide a copy of the missive, excerpts of which were leaked to daily Le Figaro.

Officials at Carrefour declined comment. The world’s second-largest retailer behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. last year reported writedowns at its Brazilian unit of 550 million euros, or $729.8 million, after the discovery of irregularities prompted it to re-place its management team and order an audit.

According to Le Figaro, Naouri said Abílio Diniz, co-owner of CBD, which operates the popular Pão de Açucar supermarket chain, had informed him of the negotiations. Naouri said that under the terms of their agreement, all important decisions had to be taken in consultation with Casino.

— JOELLE DIDERICH

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

Marcianos’ Pay Up 70%

MESH Creates Music, Fashion Mashup

$49,000Maurice Marciano’s reported salary in 2009,

when he waived his base pay due to the economy.

Paul Marciano

The Rolling Stones are part of the new music-fashion partnership.

MARVIN TRAUB ASSOCIATES has found a new fi x-it man in Geoffrey Lurie, former chief executive offi cer of The North Face, who will cater to fi rms in transition as head of the consultancy’s newly formed special situations unit.

In his new role, Lurie will help companies with turnarounds, restructurings, interim management, merger integration and operations improvements.

Lurie negotiated the sale of North Face to VF Corp. in 2007 and was chief restructuring offi cer at Rock & Republic Enterprises, which was acquired

by VF in March. He also founded GDL Management, which was merged into Mahoney Cohen & Co., and was a partner at Touche Ross & Co.

“Geoff is a natural problem solver with a no-nonsense, result-driven approach to business,” said Mortimer Singer, president of the consultancy. “He will be a tremendous asset to our fi rm.”

Founded in 1992 by Marvin Traub, former chair-man and ceo of Bloomingdale’s, the advisory fi rm has 25 clients in 11 countries.

— EVAN CLARK

Marvin Traub Taps North Face’s Lurie

Carrefour Said Eyeing Deal With Brazilian Retail Firm

REACH EVERYBODY WHO’S ANYBODY IN FASHION

WILLIAM FUNG AND VERA WANG // INDUSTRY LEADERS AND LOYAL READERS

You talking to me?

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4 WWD WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

Roberto Cavalli, Moschino Cheap and Chic

ResoRt 2012

For the resort season, Roberto Cavalli delivered a collection that perfectly reflects the house’s iconic free-spirit mood. Sixties-inspired draped and pleated minidresses were worked in colorful florals and animal patchworks. Meanwhile, at Moschino Cheap and Chic, creative director Rossella Jardini

took inspiration from Italian neorealism and Fellini’s Dolce Vita style, delivering the ultimate wardrobe for a contemporary diva. The daywear consists of sexy draped pencil dresses that contrast with taffeta puffy skirts and striped cardigans embroidered with pearls for an easy yet chic look.

Moschino Cheap and Chic

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Roberto Cavalli

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GoING FoR A FoRD: Michelle obama chose Tom Ford to wear to perhaps one of the fanciest occasion she’ll ever attend as First Lady: a state dinner at Buckingham Palace. The guest list drew on prime ministers to film directors and the hosts, Queen elizabeth II and the Duke of edinburgh, were joined by fellow royals including the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Other guests included tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, who were invited on behalf of the U.S. State Embassy, Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife samantha, tony and Cherie Blair and Gordon and sarah Brown, along with tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter and Kevin spacey.

During the banquet, Queen Elizabeth, who was wearing a Stewart Parvin white evening gown, said the guests were “here to celebrate the tried, tested and — yes — special relationship between our two countries.” In turn, Obama said that he is “grateful for the solidarity that the United Kingdom has shown to America over the past decade.”

Earlier, the Obamas took London at a relatively easy pace on Tuesday, swapping gifts with the queen, laying a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, and posing for a photo op at 10 Downing Street with the Camerons. For the visits to Westminster Abbey and Downing Street, Michelle Obama waved the flag for British fashion, donning a plum Roksanda Ilincic dress and long, bright blue jacket. Cameron, meanwhile, wore a Peter Pilotto printed dress with cap sleeves. During the day, the Obamas also took part in a great gift-swapping session in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. They gave Queen Elizabeth a leather-bound album containing rare memorabilia and photographs from her parents’ — King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother — visit to the U.S. in 1939. The queen gave Michelle a rose-shaped antique brooch made from gold and red coral. She also gave the president copies of letters to and from American presidents to Queen Victoria that are now housed in the Royal Archives.

CoMMeNCeMeNt tRIFeCtA: Members of the 2011 graduating class of the Fashion Institute of Technology were treated to wise words from a trifecta of successful role models on Tuesday. Aerin Lauder, creative director and chairman of Aerin LLC, and tony Hsieh, chief executive officer of Zappos.com, shared with the audience the things that have inspired them during their careers, such as Lauder’s five life lessons that draw upon focusing on the details and believing in yourself. Also on Tuesday, simon Doonan, creative ambassador-at-large for Barneys

New York, accepted The Lifetime Achievement Award, an honor that

has been bestowed upon Calvin Klein, Anna Wintour and oscar de la Renta. He likened his cap and gown ensemble to something fashion icon Daphne Guinness might wear.

A GIFt FRoM tIFFANY: Tiffany & Co. just made a $1 million gift to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund for a three-year partnership that includes a one-time, $250,000 business development grant for one of the nine jewelry designers who are CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund alumna since its 2004 launch. They have each received an application for the grant, and can submit them before July 8.

The winner will be named this summer. “As a leader in the jewelry industry, it is important to us that the next generation of talented jewelry designers is able to succeed in the face of the many business challenges they face,” said Tiffany chairman and chief executive officer Michael J. Kowalski. “Partnering

with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, this grant is intended to continue to develop jewelry as an important field of design.”

oN tRACK: Moncler SpA, which filed documents to list on the Italian Stock Exchange last month, is expected to fix its price range during the week starting June 6, according to sources. Moncler’s filing did not disclose the amount of shares it plans to list, although sources have said it was looking at floating up to 50 percent of the company. They estimated the float would value the group at about 1.1 billion euros, or $1.5 billion at current exchange.

PICtURe tHIs: Mike Mills’ third feature film “Beginners” hit theaters June 3 but the ambidextrous director will be at Opening Ceremony tonight signing copies of a book of drawings featured in the film. ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent and Christopher Plummer bring his drawings to life in the flick, but McGregor’s character is most like Mills’ own life. Both are graphic designers, own dogs, have fathers who came out of the closet very late in life and designed record covers for a very real band called “The Sads.” In the Damiani-published “Drawings from the Film Beginners,” Mills sketches detail what he considers to be all the important things in life — love, sexual freedom, history and Neanderthals.

But Mills, who has done textile design for Marc Jacobs and who created the identity for X-Girl Clothing, didn’t dress his cast for The Stone Ages. Band of Outsiders’ scott sternberg suited up McGregor in the movie. Through The Directors

Bureau, a 15-year-old production company he founded with Roman Coppola, Mills has directed a galaxy of films and music videos for Yoko ono, Air and others. But he’s not the only creative force on the home front — his wife is the artist and author Miranda July.

Fashion scoops

Aerin Lauder

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WWD.COM

NEW YORK — When Burt Tansky retired as chairman and chief executive officer of the Neiman Marcus Group, the industry was concerned how “Mr. Luxury” would adapt to his new lifestyle after 50 years in retailing. “I’m keeping busy doing nothing,” Tansky said Tuesday.

He retired from Neiman’s last October but resurfaced Tuesday at a breakfast at the Harmonie Club on 60th Street, spon-sored by the World Retail Congress. This year’s WRC will be held in Berlin, Sept. 25 to 28. According to Ian McGarrigle, WRC’s director, the event will focus on the digital revolution, multichannel retailing, mobile technology, inflation and consumer insights.

It’s also where Tansky will be inducted into WRC’s Retail Hall of Fame, joining a group of past and present ceo’s: J. Crew’s Mickey Drexler; Bloomingdale’s Michael Gould and his predecessor, Marvin Traub; Gordon Segal of Crate & Barrel, and Brad Anderson of Best Buy.

After just a touch of levity, Tansky played it straight addressing the crowd, many of whom were of an age nearing retirement. “It’s not that bad, not bad at all,” Tansky said of life after re-tailing. “I never thought it would be nice to do what you want to do,” Tansky said, noting he’s on a few boards, is NMG’s non-executive chair-man and has a gig working part-time as a se-nior adviser at Marvin Traub Associates.

“With Burt, you’ve got to learn to be right on time,” said Antony Karabus, retail ad-viser with PwC, formerly referred to as PricewaterhouseCoopers, who has done con-sulting for Neiman’s. “If you’re two minutes late, Burt would ask why. If you are two minutes early, he’d asked ‘Don’t you have any other ac-counts?’.…He would always push us and ask if you dug deep enough. He has passion for prod-ucts and was fiercely protective of the brand.”

� —�D.M.

By SHARON EDELSON

NEW YORK — When Serge Azria acquired Joie in 2007, he restructured the company, set up new divisions and expanded the denim-focussed brand to en-compass dresses, leather, knits, Joie Soft, Joie la Plage, shoes, and soon, Les Follies de Joie, casual denim. Azria is now tak-ing another important step in the life of the brand — opening its first U.S. freestanding store.

Joie’s 1,100-square-foot flag-ship bows today at 1196 Madison Avenue between 87th and 88th Streets. It’s expected to do $1.5 million in first-year sales.

“We’re much more focused on the brand,” said Azria, who is the older brother of BCBG’s Max Azria. “Stores are showing the complete Joie collection in one place. The prices are more friendly. As a result, we will be getting more shop-in-shops. We started with Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s.”

Azria said Joie has slowly grown its distribution from 120 doors to more than 1,000 doors worldwide.

“The growth has come from two different places,” Azria said. “In addition to increasing our business with existing stores, a year ago, we began to offer distribution in Europe and other countries. A year later, we’re in 20 different countries.”

Joie’s only other store is a small boutique in Paris in the Palais Royale. “It’s like a window for the European market,” Azria said.

In department and specialty stores, Joie sits next to brands such as Theory, Vince and Marc by Marc Jacobs. “We have 20 percent to 30 percent average sell-throughs in stores,” said Azria, who doubled the business from 2008 to 2009.

“We know that the Upper East Side customer is consis-tent with the brand,” Azria said, explaining why he gave the new Joie flagship the look of a Parisian pied-à-terre. Azria claims the Joie shopper is between 16 and 60 years old. The design of the store features light herringbone wood floors, Lucite cases for accessories and jewelry, a table surrounded by four low stools and subtle murals de-picting vines and birds. A pair of Louis XV Bergere chairs frames the fireplace, which is filled with pots of white orchids. On the mantel is a pure white taxidermy bird. Armoires displaying shoes have whimsical bird carvings.

Azria said he’ll do jewelry, sunglasses and handbags for the Madison Avenue store, as well as collaborate with other designers and artists.

“The company is very strongly financed,” Azria said. “There’s no investors and no debt.”

While growth is clearly on his mind, Azria is aware of

the capricious nature of consumers. “I don’t think you can be successful everywhere for a long time,” he said. “I have to keep the image of the brand authentic. Everything is per-ceived by consumers. In contemporary, when a brand gets over a certain amount of volume, the brand isn’t attractive anymore. No brand should do over $150 million.”

Azria, who declined to divulge the company’s sales vol-ume, said there’s still room for growth. He’s seeking space in Century City, Calif., and SoHo and 59th Street, here, and talking to potential overseas retail partners such as Printemps in France and Itochu in Japan.

5WWD wednesday, may 25, 2011

By DAVID MOIN

NEW YORK — With its antique marble fireplace, Art Deco Coromandel screens and tweed carpeting, the new Chanel boutique inside Bergdorf Goodman plays like a luxuriously appointed residence mirroring the brand’s styles and fabrics.

The 2,000-square-foot shop (includ-ing selling space, fitting rooms, work sta-tions for associates and storage) is posi-tioned in prime Bergdorf real estate by the elevators on the second floor housing European designers, has its own foyer, and windows with pearl-embroidered suede curtains over-looking the Pulitzer Fountain by The Plaza and Central Park.

It’s no coincidence the Chanel boutique is adjacent to the 400-square-foot per-sonal shopping com-plex, where the store’s best designer clients receive the pamper-ing they expect, par-ticularly when con-sidering Chanel’s intricate ready-to-wear, perhaps the $10,400 laser-cut leather jacket interwoven with silk and backed by tulle netting, or a $7,965 jacket-dress en-semble with metal sequins embedded in tulle. Jackets range from $3,000 to $6,000, with special woven jackets up to $8,000; dresses are in the $4,000 range, though knit dresses start at $1,500.

“We are the most important point of wholesale distribution for Chanel,” said Ginny Hershey-Lambert, executive vice president of merchandising at Bergdorf ’s. So it’s logical the two companies, which

have been in business together since 1978, would collaborate on creating a unique, Peter Marino-designed en-vironment. According to Chanel and Bergdorf ’s, it won’t be replicated any-where else, at least anytime soon, and has a richness more akin to a freestand-ing Chanel flagship than a shop-in-shop.

The merchandising takes “an inte-grated approach,” Hershey-Lambert ex-plained, meaning there’s a better balance of ready-to-wear, footwear and hand-bags in an environment that lets it all ‘‘breathe.” The previous shop, relatively tucked away on the same floor, “did not give the customer experience we want-

ed,” she added. And in the new setting, products are grouped by delivery and trend, whether it’s runway or some other aspect of the collection, and the buying is strategic. “Each division goes together into the mar-ket to buy specifically for clients in mind,” Hershey -Lambert said, resulting in a

higher rate of outfitting and multiple sales.“It was time to move. The business had

outgrown the space,” said Barbara Cirkva, president of the fashion division of Chanel Inc. “In wholesaling, Bergdorf ’s is our top point of sale. Saks Fifth Avenue in New York would be number two, followed by Neiman Marcus in San Francisco.” Cirkva said the shop’s “spacious, residential qual-ity make people feel very comfortable.”

Typically in a department store, it’s difficult to create a compelling setting. But Bergdorf ’s provided “enough space to showcase every piece and still have a

very special shopping experience.…Now we can expose the knitwear, the more casual aspects, the knit dresses, sweat-ers and layering pieces. Very often, they never made it to the selling floor before.”

The Chanel boutique is 50 percent larger than its predecessor, with fitting rooms twice as large.

Unveiled earlier this month, the shop not only reflects the label’s strong track record at the store, but is another sign the luxury market is rebounding. Bergdorf ’s will capitalize on the momen-tum by this year renovating 80 percent of the 25,000-square-foot European designer floor, including adding a Tom Ford wom-en’s shop — which will be the first inside any New York store other than the Tom Ford boutique on Madison Avenue. Also, the shoe salon will be expanded to ac-commodate 2,400 stockkeeping units from the current 1,700, and three key designer shops will be renovated: Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani and Gucci. But it was the renovation of Chanel that “wagged” the other changes, Hershey-Lambert said.

luxury

A New Chanel at Bergdorf’s

Chanel accessories.

The luxurious Chanel shop inside Bergdorf Goodman.

World Retail Congress To Honor Burt Tansky

Expanding Joie Opens on Madison

Inside Joie on Madison Avenue.

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Looks from Chanel.

WWD wednesday, may 25, 20116

Japanese Denim Industry Dealing With the Aftermath

denim

By Kelly Wetherille

tOKyO — Fashion companies working with factories in the region devastated by the March earthquake and tsunami have slowly been trying to assess the damage, despite ongoing problems related to inter-ruptions in communications, infrastructure and the power supply.

For the country’s influential denim in-dustry, there’s good and bad news. On the positive side, the majority of the denim fabric production is centered in western Japan, which was largely unaffected by the natural disaster, according to tim Calore, managing director for rivet Japan, a com-pany that connects international brands with local manufacturers, handling pro-duction and export logistics. the firm is located in one of Japan’s denim centers — Kojima city in Okayama prefecture — and works with about 10 firms in the area, from fabric houses to sewing factories and trim manufacturers.

“Some of our eU [european Union] customers planning to travel to Japan for spring and autumn 2012 development have postponed or canceled their trips,” Calore said. “But they will be here in the summer, for sure. Maybe the really cautious ones will fly the long way around instead of into tokyo.”

Calore added that, at this point, rivet has not had any cancellations or lost any sales due to the disaster.

Japan produces about 80 million to 90 million denim garments, worth about 500 bil-lion yen, or $6.15 billion at current exchange, annually, mostly for domestic consumption, according to the Japan Jeans Association. Denim fabric, however, has long been a key export, but the impact of the disaster has sig-nificantly curtailed shipments.

imports of blue denim fabric from Japan to the U.S. fell 16.6 percent to $12.4 million for the year ending March 31, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Office of textiles & Apparel. On a volume basis, blue denim fab-ric imports from Japan for the 12 months were down 23 percent to 2 million square meter equivalents. Comparing the first quarter of this year with the first quarter of 2010, blue denim fabric imports declined 46 percent on a dollar basis and 44.6 percent in volume.

the situation in eastern Japan, howev-er, where some companies rely on sewing plants to make finished denim garments, shows why exports have been curtailed. the town of Kesennuma in that region was al-most completely wiped out by the tsunami.

Kazuhiro yamazaki, managing director of lock Stock, another company that acts as a middleman between domestic brands and manufacturers, said, “the factory we use in Kesennuma is on high ground, so there was no tsunami damage. But the inside of the factory was a complete mess because of the earthquake. there was damage to equip-ment, and since the interior of the factory was damaged, all of the items that were

being made at the time were ruined. Some workers’ houses were washed away in the tsunami, but all of the factory workers were safe, so there was no loss of personnel.

“the factory still hasn’t been able to resume operation,” yamazaki continued. “When i spoke with [a factory representa-tive] in early April, i was told that as far as resuming work goes, they won’t be able to do anything until lifelines, phones and distribu-tion lines have been restored, but the sense was that they want to begin slowly resuming work around the end of May. i personally feel it will take a little longer than this.”

But even if the factory is able to resume normal operations, yamazaki believes this won’t be the end of its problems.

“this area is not just denim sewing, there are other kinds of sewing plants, as well,” he said. “Because it looks like it will take some time for most businesses in that area to reopen and because some [produc-tion] will be changed to other areas, i think

this will have an effect on the production and delivery of this autumn [season’s] items.”

Another factory with which lock Stock works is located further south in Souma, a city in Fukushima prefecture.

“the tsunami reached a place [about two miles] from the factory, and a factory worker whose home is near the coast had her parents go missing because they were sleeping when the tsunami hit. even now they are unaccounted for,” yamazaki said. “Chinese factory workers returned to their country, so now, even though the factory has slowly resumed work, it is with only a little over 10 workers, all Japanese. this is only about a third of the usual rate of operation. the next subject of worry is the radioactiv-ity, and they don’t know how long they’ll be able to continue work in this location, or when the Chinese workers will return.”

A spokesman for one of Japan’s major domestic denim brands, edwin, said the company uses some factories in Akita and Aomori prefectures, north of the disaster zone, to make its finished garments. While these areas did not suffer much in the way of damage from the March 11 earthquake, they were affected in other ways.

“there were transportation and access problems [in that part of the country], so the factories had to close because they weren’t able to receive shipments of ma-terials for about five days,” the spokesman said. “But [since] March 23, they were oper-ating again as usual.”

edwin and rivet said at this point, radi-ation fears from international buyers have not posed a problem for them.

“No one we work with has expressed any concerns about it,” said Calore, although he acknowledged that this could turn out to be an issue in the future. “Before manufactur-ing, there may be some brands that will look for some kind of assurance that the fabric is all radiation-free, for example.”

� —�With�contributions�fromKristi�Ellis,�Washington

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NeW yOrK — Acne Studios AB is strengthening its focus in the North American market.

the Stockholm denim-based com-pany formed a venture with the New york and Montreal distributor and showroom Want Agency inc. to create Acne USA. the new entity will focus on developing wholesale, retail and e-tail for the brand in North America. As part of the renewed emphasis on the U.S. market, Acne will unveil its women’s resort line with a show in New york on June 9. Want Agency pre-viously served as the distributor for the line here.

“We decided to form a mutual com-pany where we employ people just focusing on Acne,” Mikael Schiller, executive chairman of Acne Studios, said. “this new company will work with three things: servicing high-end specialty stores, opening our own

retail stores starting with New york City and making sure we have a well-functioning e-tail business in North America.”

Acne is distributed to just under 100 doors in the U.S., including Opening Ceremony and Barneys New york. Schiller said the company aims to work deeper with existing retail ac-counts, helping them with merchan-dising and educating sales staff on the brand and its product.

“the Want Agency, with Byron [Peart, its president], has a lot of local expertise, which is very impor-tant,” Schiller said. “Our business is so much about product, but it’s also about the supply chain, getting the product into stores early in the sea-son, making sure the product is sell-ing well and giving stores an ability to reorder.”

—�marc�KarimzadEh

A Slight SAMe-StOre sales in-crease wasn’t enough to prevent Pacific Sunwear of California inc. from recording a wider first-quarter loss, as it continued to struggle with merchan-dising and marketing obstacles.

the Anaheim, Calif.-based firm also issued second-quarter guidance that fell below Wall Street’s expecta-tions tuesday.

For the three months ended April 30, PacSun’s net loss grew to $31.5 mil-lion, or 48 cents a diluted share, com-pared with a loss of $31 million, or 47 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. excluding the impact of a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets, the loss was 30 cents, 3 cents better than the 33-cent loss expected by ana-lysts surveyed by yahoo Finance.

Net sales slid 2.4 percent, to $185.8 million from $190.3 million, a year ear-lier. Comparable-store sales rose 1 per-cent after declining 8 percent during fiscal 2010. gross margin for the quar-ter declined to 19.1 percent of sales versus year-ago margin of 22.3 percent.

Comps in the once-ailing women’s business rose 4 percent, while in the

men’s division, quarterly comps fell 3 percent, due partially to weakness in boardshorts.

“i think in many cases two of the toughest parts of any turnaround have to do with talent and culture and reversing what’s by definition a systemic decline in sales,” said presi-dent and chief executive officer gary Schoenfeld on the company call, ex-plaining that the firm has “completely transformed” its women’s merchan-dising and design business. “We have closed nearly 100 stores, rebuilt criti-cal brand relationships and, perhaps most importantly, we are creating a new culture within PacSun based upon creativity, collaboration, trust and a huge desire to win.”

Despite its optimism about its women’s business, the retailer said it expects a second-quarter loss, exclud-ing special items, of between 22 cents and 29 cents a share, steeper than analysts’ prediction of an 18-cent loss.

Shares closed at $3.16, down 7 cents, or 2.2 percent, tuesday. results were disclosed after the trading day ended.

� —�alEXandra�stEigrad

PacSun 1Q Loss Widens

exPreSS iNC. tUeSDAy posted better-than-expected first-quarter results but delivered second-quarter guidance that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.

For the three months ended April 30, net income rose 14.6 percent to $35 million, or 39 cents a diluted share, from $30.6 million, also 39 cents, in the year-ago quarter. excluding special items, ePS in the most recent quarter was 42 cents, 2 cents better than analysts’ consensus estimates.

Sales gained 9.6 percent, to $467.4 million from $426.5 million, and rose 8 percent on a comparable-store basis. gross margin rose 130 basis points to 38.2 percent of sales from 36.9 percent a year ago.

in an earnings report issued after the close of the markets, the company projected second-quarter net income in the range of $11 million to $13 million, or between 12 cents and 15 cents a diluted share, below analysts’ estimates for ePS of 16 cents. For the full year, the company raised guidance for adjusted earnings to between $1.52 and $1.61 a share. its previous projection was be-tween $1.48 and $1.60 a diluted share.

express shares were up 53 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $22.87 tuesday. however, they fell 6 percent in early after-hours trading.

“Customers are responding favorably to our assortments across our end uses,” said Michael Weiss, president and chief executive officer. “Our store ex-pansion remains on track, including the scheduled opening of our first loca-tions in Canada in September 2011.”

he told Wall Street analysts during a conference call that the women’s busi-ness was driven by growth in dresses, pants, knit tops, sweaters and jewelry. highlights in the men’s business included jackets, shorts and accessories.

According to Weiss, the company raised prices in certain areas, such as the Adidas pants in women’s, with “no significant push-back from our customers.”

—�VicKi�m.�Young

Express Guidance Disappoints

Acne in Deal to Aid U.S. Positioning

A fishing vessel on land in Kesennuma, Japan, on April 28.

80-90 MillionNumber of denim garments produced in Japan annually.

DALLAS — A few years ago, the June show at FashionCenterDallas was considered a holiday market that retailers cherry-picked for fancy dress clothing and gifts. Not anymore. Now, with buy-ers — like consumers — shop-ping much closer to season, this period, June 3 to 6, at the Dallas Market Center, has become a full-blown fall frenzy.

“This is really where we are planning on writing the bulk of our fall business,” said Jamie Garrott, whose Colletta showroom represents Voom by Joy Han and other contemporary labels. “In March, we were still writing a lot of spring II and summer business, so everybody is writing so much closer to season to stay on top of trends.”

“Many lines didn’t even have fall to show in March,” noted Vicki Kutner, refer-ring to the novelty misses’ labels in her namesake show-room. “Over 50 percent of my orders are immediate. It shocks me.”

The desire for immedi-ates is helping American manufacturers.

“Prices are going up so tremendously in Asia that it’s making the costs of domestic manufactur-ing more feasible with the need for faster turn-around,” said Rosanne Saginaw, who represents accessories at her namesake showroom. “The folks who are responsive in Asia are flying the goods in and that’s extremely expensive, so it makes the U.S. more competitive.”

Marty Leon, who shows Mavi Jeans, Fluxus and other con-temporary labels at Leon & Associates, isn’t even going to hang looks for holiday and resort.

“Some of my manufacturers asked if I wanted November

and December deliver-ies, and I said, ‘No, let me focus on fall and get those orders,’” he noted. “Normally it would have been a holiday market.”

Upscale stores are still ordering months in advance of delivery, noted Brad Hughes, who represents 45 la-bels including Nicole Miller and

Lafayette 148.“We had the best market

we had in about three years in March — we’re back to ’08 [lev-els] because the quality of stores was great,” he said. “They came, and they bought fall. Many re-tailers coming in June did not travel in March and will buy fall and holiday.”

Leon and other reps have turned to the Internet to meet the growing demand for imme-diate shipments and replenish-ment between markets.

Margo Bryan, owner of Margo’s Collectibles accessories showroom, sends a weekly e-mail informing retail accounts of fashion accessories that can be shipped that day, and she’s trying to convince all 15 of the labels she represents to participate.

“The ones that do it have no-ticed that it works,” Bryan said, citing Mary Frances handbags. “It doesn’t replace market — it’s an expansion of it. The buyer still likes to see the product in per-son, but it’s for the quick-access, immediate fill-in. The Web was coming anyway, but the recession has really kicked it into a 100-yard dash to streamline budgets.”

Spring business has been spotty among the independent retailers that are the bedrock of this market, according to sales reps. Though bookings this year have generally exceeded 2010’s, they are not sure what to expect at the upcoming show. Some are concerned about price increas-es generated by jumps in cotton, petroleum and labor.

“We’ve warned everybody to expect up to a 25 percent increase in prices,” said Sue Ritzman, sales manager at Rita Harris, which features pajamas, loungewear and lingerie, in-cluding Claire Pettibone. “They can get a mark-up, just not as much as they did before.”

She’s also concerned about this month’s disastrous Mississippi River flooding that displaced thousands in Mississippi and Arkansas and submerged 3,900 square miles of corn, soybean, rice and cotton fields.

Some of the best-performing merchants are in communities lacking upscale chains, reps pointed out.

“Retailers in smaller and mid-size cities like Lubbock seem to be faring better,” observed Brad Ritz, owner of Ritz Group. “If you go to Oklahoma City, what big chain will be there? There’s no Saks, no Neiman’s and no major mall like you have in Dallas, Houston or Atlanta.” — Holly Haber

WWD.COM

dallas preview

■ Western-inspired contemporary fashion dominates Scott Neighbors’ showroom in room 15810 featuring Barn Fly Trading shirts, Jack Flash T-shirts and hats, Let’er Buck Cologne, Liberty embellished western boots and Tumbleweed Ranch clothing.■ Chasensully, a moderately priced contemporary vendor, has taken 15016 as a corporate showroom to present its clothing, accessories and jewelry. Tiffany Foster, who owns Goosefeathers boutique in Corpus Christi, Texas, co-founded the brand in 2007 with her friend Kelly Cortese. The pair plan to unveil a new label at the show called Scout.■ Big Buddha, a division of Steve Madden built on trendy handbags, has expanded into belts, shoes and sunglasses that all will be shown at Rosanne Saginaw & Associates. In addition, Saginaw will introduce Patricia Nash Lione leather handbags influenced by Forties styling and belts by Lodis, which represent an extension of the small leathergoods brand.■ Vizcaino, a new line of premium denim with contemporary styling and

rises suited to middle-aged figures, bows at Brad Hughes & Associates. Vizcaino is made by Carrera Apparel, a Los Angeles company that formerly manufactured David Kahn jeans. Hughes also will present men’s and women’s detailed tailored shirts by Georg Roth Los Angeles.■ Margo’s Collectibles will introduce Alma/Soul, a colorful collection of embroidered clothing and accessories with South American flair. A share of Alma/Soul’s profits supports needy children in Peru.■ Colletta showroom will unveil Lumiere, a casual contemporary sportswear line highlighted by novelty knits.■ Freebird, a tops-driven contemporary line, and Tresix, a “trendy basics” group of tops, are two collections by Damo Textile of Los Angeles that will show for the first time in Dallas at Leon & Associates.■ The Scene juried contemporary show will feature several newcomers: Adam by Adam Lippes, Ava Gray New York, Blue Tassel, Colorfast Apparel, Drue Dun, Karen Zambos Vintage Couture and Zia Couture Jewelry. Plus, Betsey Johnson will be back.

FIG Names CEO, DirectorFASHION INDUSTRy Gallery has named Matt Roth chief executive offi-cer and promoted Emma Greathouse to director.

Roth, a FIG investor, has worked with the venue’s strat-egy for several years in his former position of vice presi-dent and chief financial offi-cer of Brook Partners, which owns and operates the venue. Roth is now based at FIG.

Greathouse was sales man-ager and will continue attract-ing new designers to the venue with added responsibilities for tenant relations. She succeed-ed Shelli Mers, who left FIG after five years to move back to Seattle to be closer to her fam-ily, the company said.

John Sughrue, co-owner of Brook Partners and a founder of FIG, previously supervised the business but wasn’t based on site. He is now FIG chairman.— H.H.

For MorE on FIG, SEE

WWD.com/markets-news.

New Lines at FashionCenterDallasTwo showrooms and a number of labels will show in Dallas for the first time at the June market. — H.H.

It’s a Fall WorldFreebird at Leon & Associates.

Vizcaino at Brad Hughes.

June 2-5, 2011

“I look good in Red.”

8 WWD wednesday, may 25, 2011

beauty beat

The Scent of Diane By Sharon EdElSon

Graphic dESiGn student Markus Freitag couldn’t find a messenger bag to carry his sketches in all of Zurich. Then one night, while looking out his kitchen window at the freeway below, he saw trucks, their payloads cov-ered with colorful tarpaulins. it was one of those aha moments, with Freitag trying to turn the sturdy, weath-er-treated and recycled tarps into bags. That was 1993. Today, Freitag sells 300,000 bags a year. The company has grown an average of 20 to 30 percent annually, Freitag said, declining to discuss sales volume.

Success didn’t come easy at first, however. Freitag and his brother daniel, also a designer, cleaned the tarp in their bathtub and sewed the bags by hand, hawking the finished product on the hardbrücke in Zurich.

Freitag bags are cut by hand from tarps that have seen thousands of miles of highway action. The com-pany employs four “truckspotters” with keen eyes for spotting interesting tarp and strong negotiating

skills, since the truck-ing companies are paid for the material. all of the washing, cutting and sewing is done in a Zurich manufacturing facility not far from the cross-city highway that inspired the bags.

Freitag on Thursday opened its first U.S. store, at 1 prince Street and Bowery in Manhattan, directly opposite the new Museum. “i like the neighborhood,” Freitag said. “it’s very fun and there’s art collections. The people buying

Freitag are creative people, artists.”The prince Street store, like other Freitag units

in Berlin, hamburg and cologne in Germany, and

Zurich and davos in Switzerland, is outfitted with a prize-winning storage system that lines the walls. aside from a display table holding five messenger bags, all of the inventory is kept in 1,000 bins. on the front of each bin is an illustration of the bag it holds. The tarpaulins resemble leather when weathered. There are dozens of designs, but no two are the same exact color.

The Freitags in 2006 worked with recycled materials again when they built their store in Zurich entirely from rusty freight containers. The store consists of a nine-story tower of containers — gutted, cleaned and piled high.

The Freitags have developed more than 70 styles, divided into two collections, that sell in 300 shops around the world and at freitag.com. The Fundamental collection is the basic series of mes-senger bags with car seat belts for straps and Velcro closures. The reference collection features bags named after famous journalists, writers and poets. For example, the r504 clemens is a tribute to Samuel clemens and the r105 Becker is named for lydia Becker, a 19th-century English journalist.

From utilitarian messenger bags such as the F13 Top cat for $296 and the compact F48 hazzard, $432, Freitag is moving closer toward fashion. r106 hind, $802, one in a series of handbags that look like snakeskin, is made from small punched-out pieces of tarp that are woven together.

an iconic Freitag messenger bag is in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern art. “i was visiting my bag yesterday,” Markus Freitag said. “it’s been in the collection since 2001.” Freitag’s first proto-type is on display at the design Museum of Zurich.

pariS — “i wanted to put the power of women in a bottle,” said diane von Furstenberg, describing her new women’s fragrance, called diane, which is due out in october.

“i wanted a perfume that reflected womanhood — what i know, what i feel about being a woman — and the power that we all have that we can be the woman we want to be,” she continued at an event here Tuesday night to preview the fragrance. “i feel like in the past 10 years, people have forgotten the magic that a perfume can have, and the

power that it has. and there-fore, i definitely wanted to do something powerful and seductive, without being ag-gressive.”

diane, created with von Furstenberg’s beauty li-censee id Beauty, will first be introduced in october in Europe, north america and the Middle East. at launch in the U.S., the scent is to be carried exclusively at Bloomingdale’s, nordstrom and Sephora.

Givaudan perfumer aurélian Guichard created diane’s floral woody fra-grance. Von Furstenberg said there were two main elements she sought in the juice: frangipani and violet.

“it’s the ying and the yang,” she said, adding the con-trasts of the two flowers “are the way i see women.”

in France, the diane product lineup will include 100- and 50-ml. eau de parfum sprays, which will retail for 98 euros and 69 euros, respectively, or $138.20 and $97.30 at current exchange. The 100-ml. eau de toilette spray is to be 85 euros, or $119.90, while the 50-ml. edt spray will be 59 euros, or $83.20. There’s also a 200-ml. body lotion for 40 euros, or $56.40.

� —�Jennifer�Weil

Freitag Bags: From Trucks to Luxe

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The Diane bottle.

Handbags that look like snakeskin made from tarp.

Markus Freitag

swank mourns the loss of our dear friend

ray joined swank on october 1, 1938and remained an active and invaluable member

of our board of directors until his recent death.

his contributions to our company for the last 73 yearsare too numerous to list.

he was truly a great man. he will be sorely missed.

Ray Vise

By ZEKE TURNER

LAST WEEK, RUTH Reichl got herself into a sticky situation.

It was Wednesday night on West 26th

Street and the former Gourmet editor in chief and New York Times food critic was being introduced by her new boss, Gilt Groupe chairman Susan Lyne, at the launch of their on-line e-commerce–slash-editorial venture for foodies, Gilt Taste. “If this was just a catalogue of products — no matter how wonderful — I wouldn’t want to be in-volved,” Reichl wrote in her fi rst editor’s letter on the site earlier that day. “What makes Gilt Taste unique is that it’s a new kind of magazine, one that has no ads and is supported solely by sales.”

The two women were standing in front of a wall with the words “Gilt Taste” spelled out in a 15-foot-wide matrix of ochre-shaded lollipops, which were melt-ing onto the fl oor. As Lyne talked about the opportunities of “merging content and commerce,” Reichl pulled her long black hair up and back into a banana clip and a few strands got caught in the candy on the wall. She ran her hands through her hair and then she rubbed them to-gether to try to get rid of the slimy goo.

“It’s great products and really great content,” Reichl told the room of over a hundred people milling about the enor-mous party space eating prosciutto, oys-ters and grass-fed beef. “I couldn’t be prouder of what we’re doing here.”

A new kind of magazine has indeed arrived online and its bringing editors into the sales business. For the last year, fast-growing online retail companies like Gilt and Net-a-porter in the U.K. have been scooping up orphans from the magazine world with the idea that edito-rial content can help them drive sales. To date, Gilt has hired more than 20 employees from publishing companies, according to Jen Miller, a spokeswoman for the company who herself came from Condé Nast. She said “about fi ve” of those employees are in editorial roles.

“I thought about it long and hard,” ad-mitted Reichl, explaining her decision to sign on with the e-commerce venture. “I said ‘If you don’t want to do real journal-ism, I don’t want to be a part of this.’ And they said, ‘No, no, no, we really want to do real journalism.’”

This week on the site, Reichl pub-lished an environmental impact essay by Gourmet alumnus Barry Estabrook about hydro-fracking’s impact on food. One click away, the reader-consumer can browse the Meat section of the site for different cuts of wagyu beef (Four 10-ounce New York strip steaks, $199). Elsewhere content and commerce are side by side: recipes by New York Times dining columnist Melissa Clark appear with some of the ingredients for sale in a sidebar (Le Sanctuaire Mini Salt Set, $42.).

“Content and commerce, the mingling of it, really makes sense to me,” Reichl explained. “You have a normal magazine

HIRED GUNS

Editors for Sale: Content & CommerceGet Cozy Online

WWDSTYLE

Always a BridesmaidRose Byrne fi t the setting in an Impressionist-fl oral print Peter Pilotto silk dress for the MoMA and MoMA PS1 Dinner Monday night, in honor of the museums’ recent partnership with Volkswagen. And she certainly had something to be happy about: her movie “Bridesmaids” has taken in more than $60 million at the box offi ce so far. For full coverage of the party, see page 11.

WWD

PHOTO BY STEVE EICHNER

MEDIAWWDSTYLE

{Continued on page 10}

Erin Wasson designs for Zadig & Voltaire. Page 12.

WWD WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 201110

and you create editorial, and then it gets surrounded by ads for a lot of things you don’t like. Here we have to be involved in what we’re selling as well.”

She said that if she were offered the chance to edit another magazine, her decision would “depend on the circumstances.”

“I love the world of magazines but I really feel like this is the next spin of the wheel,” she said. “This is the future.”

Later in the party, a DJ played Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” (“Oh, baby, I like it raw!”) and Clark and Reichl stood by the oyster bar, Champagne fl utes and empty shells in hand. Clark, who continues to write her column for the Times’ Dining section while contributing recipes to Gilt Taste, explained that she actually prefers the commerce-supported model: “There’s no advertising for Coke. There’s no crappy s--t on the site.” And how does Gilt pay? “Better than the Times,” she said.

“It’s what I call the new C word — content,” said Monocle editor Tyler Brûlé, over the phone from the garden at his offi ces in London on Friday afternoon (“Leave the wine on the table,” he said to somebody nearby). “Everyone just talks about, ‘Oh we’re doing an e-commerce site, we need content.’ But what kind of content do you want?.…And is it sustainable as part of your business model?”

Daniella Vitale, Barneys New York’s chief merchant and executive vice president who oversees barneys.com, said that featuring merchandise on the store’s new blog, The Window, “unequivocally” boosts sales over the fol-lowing week. The site also features content that isn’t directly commercial: Simon Doonan ambassador-ing and a review of “L’amour fou,” Pierre Thoretton’s docu-mentary about Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. “People do read this and they do respond,” Vitale said.

“Everyone has a blog now. Every retailer — everyone from Opening Ceremony to Ralph Lauren to Bergdorf Goodman,” said Andy Comer, who left his job as GQ’s fi rst online editor to take an executive editor job with Gilt’s content site for men, Gilt Manual. His title has since changed to director of merchandising content. “Gilt Manual is, in a way, ‘Let’s try this out; we kind of need to do this; people expect this from us,’” he said.

The Gilts, Net-a-porters and Vente-Privées of the world especially need editors to help cook up an aesthetic and a brand identity online. Gilt now has a men’s style blog with a full-price retail site on the way at the end of the summer; a New York City guide site, City Unlisted, pegged to a deals site, Gilt City; a vacation sales site Jetsetter, with a compan-ion blog; and Reichl’s site which has recipes, stories and merchandise for sale. Net-a-porter boasts an online magazine, print and iPad edi-tions and a Web video chan-nel, where viewers can shop while they watch runway videos. Last fall, the company spun off a men’s full-price shop online with integrated editorial under the watch of former British Esquire editor in chief Jeremy Langmead.

The comingling of com-merce and editorial seems like a violation of the fash-ion magazine world central tenet: that editorial and business concerns should remain separate. Hogwash, say e-commerce executives.

Kevin Ryan, the chief executive offi cer of Gilt, attrib-uted the publishing world’s obsession with the separa-tion between church and state to its own self-importance. “If I asked 100 consumers why they buy a magazine, it would never come up,” he said. “Yet if I go to an editorial meeting at any big magazine, they take it and themselves very seriously on this issue and get no credit for it and don’t even completely do it. It’s the worst of all worlds.”

Gilt’s Lyne, who carried the title editor in chief when she launched Premiere magazine, echoed Ryan’s idea that editorial integrity at advertising-supported pub-lications really had nothing to do with their own con-tent. “I think when you talk about blurring the line be-

tween church and state for commerce companies, it’s a very different animal in that there is no advertiser there to protect against,” Lyne said. “There is nobody at our com-pany who is pressuring our content people to cover X or Y product because there’s no incentive for us to do that.”

One Gilt editorial staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, cut to the chase: “In a weird way it’s really lib-erating that the raison d’être is really just to sell s--t.”

Earlier this month, Gilt hired Ben Widdicombe, who made his name in the New York tabloids, to run its urban

deal site. “It’s an evolved media beast,” he said at a party in his honor thrown by Gilt at the Cooper Square Hotel last Tuesday. “I’m aware that it’s not an independent media company but they’re very good about letting me act like it is.” And does he feel uneasy at all that his work as an editor is helping sell discount spa packages? “I think it’s wonderful that you would ask someone who’s been a career gossip columnist if going to Gilt Groupe is what’s giving them trouble sleeping at night,” he said.

Last Thursday, Gilt threw its third party in as many nights. Editors from Gilt Man raised a glass to GQ and Italian Vogue columnist Glenn O’Brien in the private dinning room at the back of the The Waverly Inn in honor of his new book “How to Be a Man,” which is for

sale on the site. O’Brien, who for the last year has been editing Bergdorf Goodman’s quarterly and has danced the line of editorial and commerce since he got his start with Andy Warhol, also didn’t see the point in a

church-versus-state debate. “Everybody who works in fashion magazines works on the other side,

too,” O’Brien said. “It’s just an interchange-able talent pool.”

Many fashion editors work on ad cam-paigns to make extra money. Every edito-rial employee interviewed at Gilt and Net-a-porter for this story said their salaries

weren’t any better than in the publishing busi-ness. But there is the chance to have stock op-

tions in a company like Gilt that, according to inves-tors including Goldman Sachs and the Softbank Group participating in the company’s latest round of venture capital, is valued at one billion dollars.

“One misconception is that it’s just a place to kick up your heels until the media business sorts itself out,” said former men.style.com editor Tyler Thoreson, who landed at Gilt as editorial director last fall after a short-lived stint at the New York Observer. He said he didn’t miss working in the publishing world, where online work isn’t taken very seriously. “I come from Condé Nast Digital where, let’s just say, any car service usage was highly scrutinized. The gulf on Sixth Avenue was pretty wide between 4 Times Square and 1166 [Avenue of the Americas]. There is a certain kind of prestige factor that everyone at Condé ends up buying into and it’s a well-deserved thing,” Thoreson said, “but there’s nothing that compares to being part of a growing business.”

Comer came to join Thoreson at Gilt from GQ to work on the company’s men’s editorial for similar rea-sons. “This seems like it might be where people with my skill set could fi nd a new life or explore the future of the medium,” Comer said. “I approached this very much as I’m not going to work for an editorial property, I’m going to work for a retailer. And I don’t have any il-lusions that it’s anything other than that.”

Net-a-porter, which cel-ebrated its 10th anniversa-ry last fall with the launch of a new site for men, Mr. Porter, has taken a differ-ent tack and embraced that illusion. “We’re a fashion magazine you can shop from,” said Claudia Plant, editorial director at Net-a-porter, who left Tatler with Natalie Massenet to start the company. Plant and Massanet both prof-ited handsomely — the lat-ter the tune of 50 million British pounds, report-edly — after Compagnie Financière Richemont SA bought a majority share of the company last spring.

“Working here versus working in print you have to be more octopuslike,” said Mr. Porter editor in chief Langmead. “You’ve got to have more hands reaching into more places at a much faster pace. You’re dealing with content, with sales fi gures, with marketing, with e-mails, with social media, buying appointments, tech issues, all on a global scale. Your days are longer.” He said that having additional retail-oriented tasks on his plate didn’t distract from his work as an editor in chief, and said that when he was running Esquire he spent 70 percent working on the business side of the ball anyway.

“In magazines you build up the fashion story, you tell the guys how to wear it, what to buy, where to go and then you wave them goodbye,” Langmead said. “That genuinely was what frustrated me: you leave the jour-ney halfway through.” He said that being an editor in chief of a retail site he gets to “complete the story.”

The magazine companies are by and large watching the e-retail companies and their valuations grow from the sidelines. So far, the most practical way for Condé Nast and Hearst to get into the commerce space online seems to be through partnerships between different magazine titles and the e-retailers: Vogue and Gilt Groupe arranged a “shop the issue” sale last January and Harper’s Bazaar hatched a similar deal with Net-a-porter last fall. Veranda and Esquire have entered similar deals with Gilt. But there’s very little in these partnerships for the magazine titles. “There’s a business relationship there, but it’s very modest,” said Hearst publishing director Michael Clinton. “It’s not like it’s going to fl oat the boat, if you will.”

And will magazines be aggressively moving into the e-commerce business? “I don’t think we’re interested in holding inventory,” Clinton said, “but we’re interested in sending readers to a place where they can buy it.”

E-commerce Luring Top Talent{Continued from page 9} Jeremy Langmead and Natalie Massenet

Susan Lyne, Ruth Reichl and Kevin Ryan.

The Web pages of Mr. Porter and Gilt’s Taste.

MEDIAWWDSTYLE

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It’s what I call the new C word — content.

— TYLER BRULE, MONOCLE

11WWD.COM

WWD WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011

Modern SpinHAHN-BIN, MUSICAL prodigy and violinist extraordinaire, was astride the black lacquered grand piano on the second fl oor of MoMA on Wednesday night, swaying and trembling with dramatic fervor. Turban-topped with a bright red lip and mascara-laden eyes, the frayed strings from his bow licked at the loosely tied loops of his draped hooded sleeveless top. He paused, smirking at the seated audience who were circled around large, square, lit-from-within dining tables topped with glass-cube encased greenery.

The occasion was a celebratory dinner in honor of the new partnership between Volkswagen, MoMA and MoMA PS1, which will support exhibitions and education programs. Earlier in the evening, cocktails were held in the sculpture garden, where a royal blue carpet threaded through the ground fl oor and around the shallow water-features, fi lled with pennies dropped by previous guests. James Franco, Kim Cattrall, Cecilia Dean and Penn Badgley arrived, while Lucy Liu pulled up in a new Volkswagen vehicle to great fanfare.

“This looks like an OK party,” Badgley grinned, casually attired in a worn leather jacket and jeans, popping open a tube of Chap Stick, “Not bad at all.” It wasn’t: Yoko Ono and Daphne Guinness were both on hand, the latter picking carefully through the out-of-doors in her signature heel-less platforms, while Cindy Sherman was chatting with Marco Brambilla, Zani Gugelmann and Olivia Chantecaille in the lobby by the bar. As drinks ended and guests like Eric Villency, Helen Lee Schifter, Jennifer Creel and Elise Overland trickled upstairs into the dining area, Franco slunk over to Patti Smith and Lou Reed’s table for a brief greeting pre-meal. Humberto Leon sat with Chloë Sevigny, a few feet from Rose Byrne and Lissy Trullie. Rachel Weisz listened to the speeches during the fi rst course attentively, applauding enthusiastically at

appropriate moments.Madonna, though not

particularly inclined to speak with press, was present at the dinner, sitting with Guy Oseary. “This is wonderful, just wonderful,” Weisz smiled, to which Kelly Rutherford agreed, “It’s a very good cause. And everyone likes VW’s, don’t they?” Leelee Sobieski laughed with Bryanboy, and Lauren Remington Platt was there to celebrate with her sister Ashley, who had cleverly repurposed a Christian Cota fl oor-length skirt into a strapless dress, “It’s not a secret,” Ashley laughed, “you can see

the safety pin when I turn around.” Remington Platt chatted with

Eddie Borgo, whose jewelry she wore on both wrists, while Ann Dexter-Jones warmly embraced Andrej Pejic, whose sequined

high-waisted trousers and shock of long platinum blonde hair did

not discourage the comparisons he often receives to Karolina Kurkova. Padma Lakshmi turned heads in a formfi tting black ensemble, provoking some guests to ask her how she stays so svelte juggling judging a show like ‘Top Chef ’ with the recent birth of her child — “Small bites?” she laughed. “Exercise? Having a baby? Chasing that baby around? I don’t know!” During the latter half of the dinner, some guests snuck back out to the sculpture garden (now illuminated, and slowly fi lling with guests for the after party) for palmed cigarettes. Back upstairs, Terence Koh snuggled up to Marina Abramovic as Martha Wainwright belted out a handful of melodies. LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang DJ’d after the dinner, with guests bopping and shimmying around the art, and the VW insignias, intermittently.

— ALESSANDRA CODINHA

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WWD.COMWWD WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 201112

Kellwood Buyer Of Malandrino?

By Joelle DiDerich

PAriS — Zadig & Voltaire, the French luxury lifestyle brand known its artfully distressed aesthetic, has enlisted ultimate rock chick erin Wasson to design a capsule clothing collection.

The erin Meets Zadig line will be launched in September exclusively on Net-a-porter be-fore going on sale in 80 of the brand’s lead-ing points of sale worldwide, founder Thierry Gillier said.

“erin’s capsule is really different from what we are doing today. it allows us to offer an even more distinctive product,” he said. “We are rock ’n’ roll, but erin is even more rock ’n’ roll.”

The collection consists of 15 references in-cluding a studded suede jacket, leather pants, a cashmere jumpsuit and a python bag and boots. Prices range from 90 euros, or $120 at current exchange, for a cotton tank top, to 1,050 euros, or $1,400, for a foal skin coat.

Wasson said her inspiration was “life, classic cars and rod Stewart.”

The line will be launched during Paris couture Week in July at an event, said Gillier, adding there would be a strong musical element to the presentation.

in March, Zadig feted its jewelry collaboration with fine jeweler Gaia repossi with a live performance by Sean lennon, charlotte Kemp Muhl, irina lazareanu and French rock star Mathieu chedid, who goes by the name M.

Wasson, who appears in the brand’s spring-summer adver-tising campaign, will also fea-ture in fall ads for the main Zadig & Voltaire line and in look book visuals for the erin meets Zadig collection, shot by Fred Meylan in the hamptons.

The model-turned-actress said the collabora-tion was different from her previous gig as women’s wear designer for rvca, which she described as a West coast lifestyle brand rooted in action sports.

“Zadig & Voltaire is a sophisticated French brand. i was aware of this difference when we started developing the collection. We worked with more luxurious fabrics and materials,” she explained.

“The collection feels almost sensual. i wanted it to be about basic shapes with subtle texture,” added Wasson, who also designs a jewelry line called low luv.

Though initially intended as a one-off, the

capsule collection could well evolve into another type of proj-ect in coming seasons, according to Gillier. “We are already explor-ing different ideas to do some-thing new next season with her and with other people,” he said.

The collaboration comes at a time of rapid expansion for Zadig & Voltaire, which has plans to enter russia, Brazil and Australia this year and has struck a deal with Nordstrom to open corners in five of the U.S. department store chain’s locations for fall.

Gillier said he expected to end the year with 180 points of sale worldwide, versus 120 at the end of 2010. he declined to provide a projection for sales, but said they were up roughly 30 percent in 2010 to 145 million euros, or $192.4 million at average exchange rates for the period.

Notable openings in the pipeline include a cor-ner within Moscow department store GUM; a flag-ship in rome on Bocca di leone; a london store on Brompton road, and corners at Nordstrom stores in Seattle, chicago, and california locations in costa Mesa, Topanga and San Diego.

OBITUARY

Raymond H. Vise, Swank Executive

in addition to apparel, Malandrino has an accesso-ries collection that includes footwear and handbags. She launched her first costume jew-elry line with the fall/winter 2008 collection.

Kellwood has experience in building brands that have po-tential for a sizeable retail pres-ence and has demonstrated a particular fondness for the con-temporary segment of the busi-ness, making it a logical partner for Malandrino.

earlier this year, it ac-quired rebecca Taylor, having bought contemporary brand Adam and women’s outdoor performance and casual ap-parel label isis in 2010.

its first foray into the con-temporary sector was via its ac-quisition of Vince in September 2006. Kellwood has grown Vince’s volume from $45 million at the time of the transaction to more than $150 million annu-ally as of 2010, in part through retail expansion.

Kellwood’s chief execu-tive officer, Michael Kramer, hasn’t been shy about the firm’s focus on doing more deals. And with good reason. Sun capital Partners, a private equity firm, acquired then-public Kellwood in February 2008 for $762 million.

Kramer told WWD last year, “They bought us as an invest-ment and they believe in our strategy,” he said. “Normally, the hold time is five years. They have an enormous amount of capital. We will reach a certain point where we will go public” or sell to a financial or strategic investor.

having a strong operat-ing platform, as well as a top-notch portfolio of brands under its umbrella, would enhance Kellwood’s valuation, whether Sun capital chooses to go the

initial public offering route or sell to another investor.

in the meantime, its plan for rebecca Taylor is to add retail doors to its wholesale business, as well as update its Web pres-ence with improved fulfillment functionality. And like catherine Malandrino, the rebecca Taylor brand has an international pres-ence via its wholesale business.

Should a deal come to frui-tion, Kellwood would acquire catherine Malandrino through financial assistance from Sun capital. The acquisitions are structured so that Sun provides the funding, but it’s booked on Kellwood’s balance sheet.

in past deals, existing man-agement teams have stayed on as Kellwood employees. The big change for the acquired firm is that it now has access to Kellwood’s core operating ex-pertise, as well as financial sup-port, to grow the brand.

Five months after Sun capital acquired Kellwood, it installed Michael Kramer as its ceo. Shortly after Kramer’s arrival, Sun capital plucked two non-fashion divisions, American recreation Products inc. and Gerber childrenswear inc., out of the Kellwood stable. Both remain part of the Sun portfolio today.

Kramer had been executive vice president and chief finan-cial officer of Abercrombie & Fitch co.

Sources didn’t provide esti-mates of Malandrino’s volume. Kramer has said that his acqui-sition landscape covers firms with annual volume between $200 million and $300 million, as well as smaller firms that have strong prospects for growth in the $100 million-plus range. he’s also said he is eyeing firms in the juniors’, women’s and teen-plus categories, in both apparel and accessories.

rAyMoND h. ViSe, who died on Thursday at 89, was a long-time Swank executive. he joined the company in october, 1938, as a sales trainee in Buffalo.

Vise left the company to serve in World War ii, flying c-47 cargo planes in the Pacific from 1942 until the end of the war. he then returned to Swank as a full-fledged salesman, and rose through the ranks from regional manager in the New york city area to national sales manager. When he retired in 1987 and moved to irvine, calif., he was the equivalent of a se-nior vice president, the num-ber-two person in the company, noted Swank inc. chief execu-tive officer John Tulin, whose father, Marshall, was also a top executive with the company.

“he very much felt that he didn’t want to be Willy loman, he wanted to retire at the peak of his game,” Tulin said. “he didn’t want to have anybody say, ‘it’s too bad what happened

to ray.’ What he didn’t realize was that he would be at the top of his game until 2011.

“The thing about ray that always struck me the most was that, as he got older, he never stopped thinking young,” Tulin added. “he never got nostalgic about the good old days; he was always excited about what was coming next. he was creative and intellectually curious. Although [he was] a man in his 80s, he never changed.”

Vise was elected a director of the company in 1963, and he remained on the board until his death. “he was as sharp as they come,” Tulin said. “he was on the phone constantly. he was a thoughtful, caring director. he was a very strong-willed, tough guy and had no problem tell-ing you exactly what was on his mind. he specialized in con-structive criticism.”

While it can be difficult for executives to accept criticism, Tulin acknowledged, they would

always listen to Vise because of the stature he had. “everybody misses him,” he said. “i had great love for the man; he was not a run-of-the-mill guy. Very much self-made, self-taught and tem-pered by the war experience.”

Tulin recalled a story that Vise had told him about the war. it seems that pilots were forbidden to apply the brakes on a plane at any time during takeoff. At one point, however, Vise was accused of doing ex-actly that and was called before a panel. “ray told them it was impossible for him to reach the brakes because he was only five five or five six, and he couldn’t reach them without a cushion behind his back, and he only put a cushion behind his back when he was landing,” Tulin said. “So he couldn’t have applied the brakes during takeoff.”

Vise is survived by his four children, ronald, Bonnie, Jeremy and Deidre.

— Lorna KosKi

Wasson to Design Zadig & Voltaire Line

{Continued from page one}

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Fall looks from Malandrino.

Erin Wasson models the Erin Meets Zadig collection.

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