WWD

PHOTO BY STÉPHANE FEUGÈRE

UNIFYING THE LOOK

Barneys Gets FaceliftAt Beverly Hills Unit

Eyewear Makers FaceMajor Market Shifts

SEE PAGE 12

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014 $3.00 WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

By MARCY MEDINA

LAS VEGAS — There’s a sea change coming in the eyewear industry.

At the International Vision Expo & Conference West and Loft trade shows last month, the community was still abuzz over top-level shifts set off by Kering’s sur-prise move of taking its eyewear business in-house. The move directly impacts the industry’s biggest players and the cash-generating licensed fashion sunglasses business, but a trickle-down effect eventually could af-fect the entire category, from mass players to the top-end niche companies. Global eyewear sales, including optics and sunglasses, are expected to hit $95.66 billion by next year, according to Global Industry Analysts Inc.

While Safilo Group SpA — the world’s second-larg-est eyewear-maker, with 2013 net sales totaling 1.12 billion euros, or $1.44 billion at current exchange — declined requests to comment further on the impact of its licensed Gucci business (estimated at $328 mil-lion) going back to newly formed Kering Eyewear at the end of 2016, its Italy-based headquarters insisted via e-mail, “We are at Vision Expo West to talk about our products. No specific interviews on Kering have been released and will not be in the future.”

The company confirmed that, in addition to the ex-piration of the Gucci license, smaller-volume Kering licenses for Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and McQ will expire at the end of 2015, and Bottega Veneta at the end of 2020.

Safilo’s reticence didn’t stop others — market

MUM’S THE WORD

MICHELLE OBAMA IS HOLDING A

CELEBRATION OF DESIGN EVENT

WEDNESDAY — BUT DOESN’T

WANT DESIGNERS TALKING

ABOUT IT BEFOREHAND. PAGE 8

THE YVES AURAROXANNE LOW’S NEW BOOK CAPTURES 24 YEARS OF

PHOTOGRAPHING HER FRIEND, YVES SAINT LAURENT. PAGE 10

Nouveau RucheMiuccia Prada worked a

charming good-girl-gone-bad

theme for her spring Miu Miu

collection. A key element: the

ruffled tuxedo shirt, repurposed

as a sassy cropped top with

Sixties-ish belted pencil skirts

under an array of chic coats.

Shirts — refreshed with novel

tweaks — made

a big showing

for spring.

For more,

see pages

4 and 5.TREND

SPRING 2015

COLLECTIONS

LEVINE ON STYLE

ADAM LEVINE TALKS

ABOUT HIS KMART

COLLECTION — AND

STYLE. PAGE 11

By MARCY MEDINA

BEVERLY HILLS — Barneys New York wants to stay ahead of the competition here.

The retailer has unveiled a revamp of its 125,000-square-foot Beverly Hills flagship, the jewel of its eight-store West Coast collection.

With its Madison Avenue makeover nearing com-pletion, the retailer has turned its eye westward and completed the remodeling of the Beverly Hills store’s main floor and men’s fifth floor, as well as installed the first Freds restaurant on the West Coast — just in time for its 20th anniversary, which the company will celebrate here on Oct. 15.

“This is our second-most-important store, after the maison, and a very significant business for us. It was time to give it some love,” said Mark Lee, chief ex-ecutive officer, adding, “It’s completely refreshed and brought forward in the same spirit of what we tried to do in New York.” SEE PAGE 6

Barneys New York has completed renovations on its main floor and men’s fifth floor.

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WWD.COM2 WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

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 FAIRCHILD PUBLISHING, LLC. COPYRIGHT ©2014 FAIRCHILD PUBLISHING, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. VOLUME 208, NO. 71 MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 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 Media, LLC, which is a division of Penske Business Media, LLC. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 11175 Santa Monica Blvd., 9th Fl, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA, and at additional mailing offices. 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 SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA, 51593, call 866-401-7801, or e-mail 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 request to 212-630-5883. For reprints, please e-mail FFM_Reprints@pmc.com or call Wright’s Media, 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please e-mail FFM_Contentlicensing@pmc.com or call 800-897-8666. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Media, LLC magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.wwd.com/subscriptions. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ARTWORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ARTWORK, 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.

Tracking Cash to Fight L.A. Money Laundering

Ralph Lauren’s Pink Pony PromiseBy RACHEL STRUGATZ

RALPH LAUREN CORP. is launching its lat-est Pink Pony Fund initiative with a social-media campaign — and a hefty donation.

To help fight cancer, the brand will donate $10 every time someone shares their person-al message about wellness, encouragement or prevention, with a picture and the hashtag #PinkPonyPromise, on Instagram, Twitter or ralphlauren.com this month.

The initiative was inspired by this sum-mer’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, as well as the brand’s record social-media performance during fashion week. It is a way for Ralph Lauren to get its social-media fans involved in the fight against cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“We have always used social media to pro-mote good causes,” said David Lauren, ex-ecutive vice president of global advertising, marketing and communications for the company.

The funds will go to the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Lauren’s goal is to reach $1 million in donations in the first few days. And he hopes that by mak-ing the process as simple as possible — partici-pants just need to write their promise on a piece of paper and be photographed holding it — the initiative will go viral. The company Web site has 100 #PinkPonyPromise suggestions, ranging from awareness about living a healthy lifestyle to wear-ing sunscreen.

“In order to stand out, it has to be provocative and feel fresh,” Lauren said in his office at the brand’s Madison Avenue offices. “The size of the donation will call a lot of attention, and, right on the heels of [the] 4-D [show], we feel that we have a lot of momentum with social media.”

Ralph Lauren’s 4-D fashion show, for its women’s Polo collection, became, to date, the brand’s most

successful from a social-media perspective, racking up 2.3 billion global media impressions since the event, on Sept. 8.

The company is encouraging the entire fash-ion industry, influencers in the digital space, ce-lebrities and all others to help spread the word. Ralph Lauren will be following and tracking posts daily and will donate an extra dollar for each friend (up to five friends) tagged in a photo on Instagram or Twitter.

Lauren compared the program to past suc-cessful, money-raising Pink Pony Fund initiatives — such as a benefit at Lincoln Center with Oprah Winfrey or an online auction — but is confident #PinkPonyPromise will surpass both.

“Instagram didn’t exist then,” Lauren said. “Those things, at the time, were so high profile, but we didn’t have the benefit of social media. Now, we decided to just focus on social media. You don’t need an auction and a Lincoln Center event and a dinner. All you need is your mobile phone.”

By KHANH T.L. TRAN

LOS ANGELES — As part of a crackdown on an al-leged money-laundering ring linked to drug cartels in Los Angeles’ fashion district, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ordered certain businesses in the apparel and textile indus-try to report more of their cash transactions.

Effective Oct. 9, the guide-line requires some 2,000 busi-nesses in the fashion district to report any transaction involv-ing more than $3,000 in cash. Failure to comply could lead to a criminal indictment. The

companies affected include stores that sell apparel, tex-tiles, shoes, lingerie and beauty supplies; transportation com-panies, and businesses whose names bear the words “import” or “export.” The order is in ef-fect for 180 days.

Federal agencies are target-ing trade-based money laun-dering in which drug money in the U.S. is converted into goods that are shipped to coun-tries such as Mexico, where the products are sold and money converted into local currency is funneled to the drug-trafficking organizations.

The mandate follows a raid conducted last month by more than 1,000 agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs

Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and Drug Enforcement Administration. Scouring more than 40 locations, including stores in the fashion district and warehouses, agents seized more than $60 million in cash, $19 million in domestic bank depos-its and made multiple arrests. Afterward, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also seized three homes in Pasadena and Alhambra.

“Individuals who laundered money through the fashion in-dustry will now be hard-pressed to continue their criminal ac-tivities,” said Richard Weber, chief of Criminal Investigation at the IRS.

ON WWD.COM

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

Barneys New York has unveiled a revamp of its 125,000-square-foot Beverly Hills flagship, the jewel of its eight-store West Coast collection. PAGE 1 The International Vision Expo & Conference West and Loft trade shows were abuzz over top-level shifts set off after Kering took its eyewear business in-house. PAGE 1 Even as the issue of worker safety remains in the spotlight in Bangladesh, a fire at a Mega Dyeing Ltd. warehouse in Gazipur on Sept. 28 killed one and injured three. PAGE 7 The White House has put a lid on any leaks about First Lady Michelle Obama’s Celebration of Design on Wednesday. PAGE 8 Sixteen designers with stores on Madison Avenue in New York will install exhibits in their windows from Oct. 20 to 26 telling their brands’ histories. PAGE 8 Bloomingdale’s today unveils an electronic look book on its Web site spotlighting seven men it deems “NYC Style Icons.” PAGE 8 For its 25th anniversary, Première Classe Accessories Salon invited 25 designers to create pieces inspired by the Nineties. PAGE 9 Photographer Roxanne Lowit talks about her special relationship with Yves Saint Laurent, as partly revealed in her new book of photos of the late designer. PAGE 10 Karl Lagerfeld is to parade his next Métiers d’art collection for Chanel at the Schloss Leopoldskron, just south of Salzburg. PAGE 11 The Council of Fashion Designers of America has created the Eyewear Designers of the CFDA, which aims to boost the profile of the eyewear sector. PAGE 11

Chord Overstreet and Julianne Hough at the “Young Hollywood” event. For more, see WWD.com.

EYE: Michael Kors, Emmy Rossum, Amber Valletta, Rachel Zoe and Hailee Steinfeld were among those who gathered to toast Claiborne Swanson Frank latest tome, “Young Hollywood.” For more, see WWD.com.

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FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

@ WWD.com/social

Ralph Lauren is tapping into social-media fans for the Pink Pony Fund.

Aéropostale Planning Launches in ChileBy SHARON EDELSON

AÉROPOSTALE, the mall-based specialty re-tailer of casual apparel for young women and men, said on Friday that it plans to launch the Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale brands in Chile through a licensing agreement with Sociedad Comercial Grupo Yes.

“We are excited to bring the Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale brands to Chile as we con-tinue to expand our international presence,” said Julian R. Geiger, chief executive officer. “Chile represents a major step in extending our business into key Latin American markets. Chile’s stable economy, and its consumers’ strong appetite for the Aéropostale brand and our fashions, make Chile an attractive retail market. We’re pleased to be working closely with such an established partner as Grupo Yes as we execute our expansion plans for Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale.”

Aéropostale’s expansion in Chile includes

opening stand-alone stores and selling in de-partment stores and multibrand stores in select locations across Chile beginning in the spring. The first Aéropostale store is scheduled to open in Parque Arauco in Santiago this month. P.S. from Aéropostale units are expected to open in early 2015.

At the end of 2013, Aéropostale operated stores in Latin America, in Mexico, Colombia and Panama. Asked whether Aéropostale was targeting other Latin American countries, a spokeswoman said, “In 2014, Chile is the only announcement re-lated to Latin American openings. That said, we continue to evaluate our real estate portfolio and look into additional geographies where it makes business sense.”

Aéropostale also operates stores in the Philippines, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.

Mexico is the company’s largest foreign market. Aéropostale works with licensing partners ev-

erywhere except in the United States and Canada, where it owns its own stores.

wwd.com/summits/sourcing ATTEND: kim_mancuso@fairchildfashion.com 212.630.4212 SPONSOR: amber_mundinger@fairchildfashion.com 212.630.4824

SPONSORED BY:

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MANUFACTURE NEW YORK

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ALLSAINTS

JEANNETTE FERRAN ASTORGA | ANN INC.

JUANITA DUGGAN | AMERICAN APPAREL & FOOTWEAR ASSOCIATION (AAFA)

NATE HERMAN | AMERICAN APPAREL & FOOTWEAR ASSOCIATION (AAFA)

RACHEAL MEIERS | BSR

RANDY PRICE | VF CORP.

SYLVIA REYES | PROEXPORT COLOMBIA

EUGENE SPIEGLE | RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

THE HONORABLE ELLEN TAUSCHER | ALLIANCE FOR BANGLADESH WORKER SAFETY

M A P P I N G T H E F U T U R E

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NATE HERMAN | AMERICAN APPAREL & FOOTWEAR ASSOCIATION (AAFA)

RACHEAL MEIERS | BSR

RANDY PRICE | VF CORP.

SYLVIA REYES | PROEXPORT COLOMBIA

EUGENE SPIEGLE | RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

THE HONORABLE ELLEN TAUSCHER | ALLIANCE FOR BANGLADESH WORKER SAFETY

4 WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

TRENDSPRING 2015

COLLECTIONS

Haider Ackermann Undercover

Emanuel Ungaro

Roland Mouret

Avelon Akris

A ShirtThingTHE SHIRT BECAME AN UNEXPECTED

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6 WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

Barneys urgently needed to redo the store because all its competitors are doing the same. Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s are investing heavily in their Los Angeles stores, updating their offerings, adding technology and simply giving them a more mod-ern look in an era when online shopping is taking more and more of consumers’ dollars.

But Beverly Hills isn’t Barneys’ only focus. The retailer plans to spend the next five years concen-trating on other large markets, as well: a down-town Manhattan store is set to open in January 2016 and the company is zeroing in on a Miami location, as well as a larger home for its San Francisco store. The balance of Co-op stores will also be converted within that time frame.

Like on Madison Avenue, in Manhattan — an-other city where the competition is ever-more cutthroat — Barneys’ renovations in Beverly Hills are taking place floor by floor. They began last year, with a new beauty department moved to the lower level, freeing up more real estate on the main/ground level for fast-growing categories such as jewelry, accessories, handbags and shoes. The remaining three levels in the six-level store should be overhauled within the next two years.

The Beverly Hills store is unique among Barneys locations for its grand Regency-style marble staircase spanning all six levels, along with a skylight and numerous windows that allow the California sunshine to pour in. Steven Harris Architects, which worked on the Madison Avenue flagship, stayed true to the building’s bones and kept the original gray-and-white marble floor, while adding a dose of quiet luxury with rich marbles and metals, architectural dividers rather than walls, and alcoves to invite browsing, all while keeping product at the forefront. Also singular to Beverly Hills: a fifth-floor terrace at Freds boasting 360-degree vistas and overlooks of nearby Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood sign farther east.

Although Lee declined to comment on how much of the overall business comes from Beverly Hills, he said, “This was one of the first stores that came back from the recession in 2008 and 2009. It came back to 2007 volume by mid-2011 and has been growing at a strong pace since then. Having that kind of momentum before a major renova-tion, we are very confident.”

While the ceo also declined to reveal how much Barneys spent on the overhaul, he expects to see a quick return on his investment.

“I’ve always loved L.A., and since I’ve been at Barneys, we haven’t shined this kind of light on the city. It’s now gaining such stature and has moved far beyond the entertainment industry and now really has a place in art and fashion,” he said.

The retailer’s other Southern California lo-cations — at The Grove, Americana and Santa Monica Place shopping centers — have also been overhauled and placed within the unified Barneys banner and sleek gray, white and metal look. Chief operating officer and senior executive vice presi-dent Daniella Vitale said, “That all needed to hap-pen. Every store has to look like a Barneys, not just ‘Oh, this one’s a bad Barneys. We can do 10,000 square feet, and we can do 250,000 square feet, but now these stores serve each of those area’s needs.”

Los Angeles designers and the city’s impact on fashion worldwide play a big part in Barneys’ retail and merchandise approach, and will be duly high-lighted at the Oct. 15 fete, which is also the store’s third annual Heart of Los Angeles fund-raiser.

Rob Pruitt will be custom-spray-painting J Brand jeans for customers, and designers such as Band of Outsiders, The Elder Statesman, Irene Neuwirth, Jennifer Meyer, Juan Carlos Obando and George Esquivel will also be creating exclusives for the store. “Some of our biggest brands are native to L.A. It used to be everyone thought of L.A. fashion as denim or contemporary. This whole fashion com-munity, who may be not that well-known to others, has always been supported by us. It’s created a cul-ture here that’s very important,” said Vitale.

“That there is California style goes without say-ing,” said Tom Kalenderian, executive vice presi-dent and general merchandise manager of men’s wear, who pointed out the main changes on the fifth floor were a unified shoe department serv-ing a destination for everything from Vans to John Lobb; a tailoring department that suggests more lifestyle and overall ensemble options, and an ex-panded made-to-measure salon.

“When you think about what we just saw on the

Paris runways and at the men’s shows, will those events change what fashion is? I don’t think as much as lifestyle trends will, and L.A. has led that movement for decades,” he said. “The sophistication of the Beverly Hills customer is emblematic of what that means — strong confidence, mixing modernity and luxury, which is the type of business we do today. It’s about trying to meet those customers’ needs.”

As in, trimmer suits by Kiton and Isaia to high-light the workout-happy man’s fit physique, a range of shoe options, and making it an inviting environment to toggle between the fourth and fifth floors for sportswear, suiting and designer clothes.

Beyond the merchandise, local industry types are anticipating the opening of another scene-y eatery, and Freds should fill the void for another power breakfast, lunch, dinner spot in the 90210. The focal point (apart from the clients, of course) will be a four-part, 27-foot-by-26-and-a-half-foot Rob Pruitt gradient mural above the four booths in the narrow entryway leading to the main dining room — spots poised to become the key tables. “Rob is doing amazing work that’s relevant to L.A. and our audience, so it’s exciting he created this piece for us, and was game to get involved with the merchan-dise,” said creative director Dennis Freedman.

The restaurant also boasts two terraces, an al-cove lounge in a tower with second-story windows and an impressive marble bar. The entire space continues the sleek-marble and velvet-chair look of the two new retail floors. The server uniforms are from Boy by Band of Outsiders, and their shoes are from Common Projects.

And this being Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, the entire purpose is to see and be seen. As Harris said, “A lot of this is about a kind of performance of how you arrive, how to get to your table, who you say hello to, where you sit, which is what makes a restaurant successful.”

Barneys Gets a Facelift in Beverly Hills

’’’’

This is our second most important store, after the maison….It was time to

give it some love.— MARK LEE, BARNEYS NEW YORK

{Continued from page one}

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Shoes are now on the ground level.

The Rob Pruitt gradient mural at Freds.

A tailoring department and expanded made-to-measure salon are offered for men.

The renovated Beverly Hills

flagship.

FOR MORE IMAGES, SEE

WWD.com/retail-news.

WWD.COM7WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

By Mayu Saini

BanGLaDESH — Even as the issue of safety remains in the spotlight in the Bangladesh apparel industry, dangerous working conditions remain.

a fire at a warehouse of Mega Dyeing Ltd. in Gazipur on Sept. 28 claimed the life of one worker and injured three fire department workers, according to the fire department.

The accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh had inspected the factory only a month earlier. The accord, a consortium of 180 brands and retailers, has said that it has finished the factory inspections it originally planned to com-plete by September.

“The accord’s initial inspections are completed,” Rob Wayss, executive director of its Bangladesh operations, told WWD. “We expect that the parties (the owner, accord brands in the factory, labor) will receive all three reports at all inspected factories by the middle to later part of this month. Right now, the parties from approximately 900 of the 1,100 in-spected factories have received all three reports from the accord inspections (fire, electric, building),” he said.

But the Mega Dyeing fire indicates that, even as deadlines to complete facto-ry inspections are being met, and factory remediation is under way in many cases, the problem of fire and electrical safety has not entirely been addressed.

The fire at Mega Dyeing broke out at 3:45 a.m. on the third floor of the building and quickly spread to upper floors through an unprotected elevator shaft, according to officials of the fire

department. Officials of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters association initially claimed there were no fatalities from the fire.

The accord’s Web site listed the cause of death of the worker as a heart attack, but fire officials suggested it was more likely to be from smoke inhala-tion. The exact cause of death has not yet been revealed.

The fire itself was brought under con-trol within five hours with 10 units of fire-fighters from surrounding areas.

according to the accord Web site, Mega Dyeing was inspected for fire and electrical safety by teams from the ac-cord a month earlier, on aug. 28. The Web site mentions that “the accord en-gineers have visited the site to investi-gate the situation” and stressed that the “accord strongly advocates that the only priority of all workers and occupants is to immediately exit the building upon being alerted of fire. Workers should not stay back to try to fight a fire or re-enter the building.”

Factory fires have been a recurring concern in Bangladesh, especially after the Tazreen fire in november 2012, where 111 workers died, followed by a

series of other incidents in which work-ers were injured.

Separately, also in Gazipur, on Sunday, the israk Spinning Mill had a gas leak in the generator room that caused a fire that injured two workers.

Over the last year, the accord — a binding agreement between mainly in-ternational brands and retailers includ-ing H&M, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour, Primark and C&a led by industriall Global union and uni Global union — has been working toward ensuring safer

conditions for workers in the apparel sector in Bangladesh.

There is also the alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a consor-tium of more than 26 brands and retail-ers from the u.S. and Canada, which completed inspections of more than 587 factories, keeping to its deadline to com-plete inspections within a year by July.

“There are about 325 or so joint facto-ries that produce for the accord and al-liance. We did not inspect those as part of our effort to avoid duplication,” Wayss noted. “We have been working with the alliance over the past few weeks to try to execute that accord decision. This requires receiving the full inspectors’ re-

ports from the inspections done by the al-liance. Brad [Lowen, safety inspector of the accord] has formally requested these.

“With the findings in those reports, the accord will create reports in the accord re-port format to be sent to our brands, facto-ry owners, and labor colleagues,” he said.

Wayss mentioned that any newly listed factories by signatory brands that were not inspected initially will be “inspected by the accord using the same standard as we used in the initial inspections program.”

The focus now shifts to the 1,700 factories that the national Tripartite Committee — which includes the Bangladesh university of Engineering Technology, the Bangladesh government and the international Labor Organization — is investigating.

The nTC, along with the accord and the alliance, aims to do detailed inspec-tions of all 3,500 garment factories in Bangladesh.

“We have submitted inspections of 245 factory buildings which house 360 facto-ries. Many of these buildings house four or five factories,” said Dr. Mehedi ahmed ansary, coordinator of the teams and a professor at BuET’s Department of Civil Engineering.

“The target is to finish 500 factories by end-October and to finish almost all of them before the yearend,” Srinivas Reddy, country director for the iLO, told WWD.

Most Western brands do not produce in the factories listed under the nTC list.

But as officials of the BGMEa noted, any of these factories could be enlisted by Western brands at another time, and safety standards for these are as crucial as those that are already a part of the al-liance or accord brands.

Fire Keeps Bangladesh Worker Safety at Forefront

’’

’’

The target is to finish 500 factories by end-October and to finish almost all of

them before the yearend.— SrinivaS reddy, international labor organization

w06a007a;4.indd 7 10/5/14 3:04 PM10052014150517

8 WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

By DAVID MOIN

NEW YORK — A bit of education can go a long way, at least in the minds of some designers.

In an unusual collaboration, 16 de-signers with stores on Madison Avenue will install exhibits in their windows telling the histories be-hind their brands. The exhibits, on view from Oct. 20 to 26, comprise the core of Madison Avenue Fashion Heritage Week, a new event being organized by the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District and the par-ticipating brands with the support of The Museum at FIT.

A companion mo-bile app, found at MadisonAveFHW.org, will provide a map and audio-video tour of each brand and its archival works and inspirations, with commentary by de-signers, brand reps and Dr. Valerie Steele, di-rector and chief curator of The Museum at FIT. The mobile-enabled Web site doesn’t require downloading and goes live Oct. 16. For the mo-bile tour, the designers created one- to two-min-ute videos with original content, fashion shows and links to their Web sites.

“There’s no better way to tell the story about the brands, what distin-guishes Madison Avenue and why it attracts visitors from around the block and around the world,” said Matthew Bauer, president of the Madison Avenue BID, which extends from 57th to 86th Streets. “This will create a greater con-nection between clients and brands and the street. We’re telling the story using both bricks and mortar and technology. Fashion Heritage Week is definitely one of our most ambitious projects.”

“The concept of ‘heritage’ has be-come ever more important for fashion and luxury companies, as discerning consumers increasingly seek authen-ticity and quality,” said Steele.

Akris will highlight the work of German artist Thomas Ruff and design-er Albert Kriemler on windows featur-ing their fall runway collection, while

Bally’s exhibit will be an homage to the men’s footwear line Scribe and include in-window shoe shines, videos and artifacts. Brunello Cucinelli will docu-ment the evolution of a garment from wool flake to finished piece and show a video on the company’s headquar-ters and workrooms in Solomeo, Italy. Calvin Klein will feature looks by creative directors Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli. Max Mara will create an in-stallation throughout its store and facade of windows focusing on four signature looks from the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies and Eighties and Ermenegildo Zegna will have large monitors explaining the craftsmanship of the

brand dating back to 1910. Etro, Hermès, Carolina

Herrera, J.Mendel, John Lobb, Longchamp, Missoni and Mulberry are also participating.

Several brands will host private events with board members from the Couture Council of The Museum at FIT and the museum and Missoni will have a launch reception Oct. 20 between Steele and Luca Missoni. Other designers will make appear-ances at their stores and host recep-tions and discussions. The week will benefit the Museum at FIT with do-nations by stores in a variety of meth-ods, such as a percentage of sales during specified periods.

By ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

DESIGN MAY be one of the few industries powered pri-marily by self-expression, but that hasn’t deterred the White House from putting a lid on any leaks about Wednesday’s Celebration of Design.

First Lady Michelle Obama is hosting the workshop-cocktail-party that will be held at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Thom Browne, Narciso Rodriguez, Reed Krakoff, Prabal Gurung, Zac Posen, Maria Cornejo, Bibhu Mohapatra, Nanette Lepore, Wes Gordon and Preen’s Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi are among the designers who will be making the trip to the Beltway. Executives from Ralph Lauren and Talbots have also signed up.

But when asked about the event, several designers de-clined to comment or deferred any questions to FLOTUS’ press office. While a few in the New York crowd said they were keep-

ing mum with respect to the First Lady’s wishes, others said their own inquiries about the event had yet to be answered.

One exception was Mary Alice Stephenson, who posted on her Facebook page that she was excited to be participating in

Michelle Obama’s first Fashion Education Workshop at the White House. “As part of Mrs. Obama’s #REACHHIGHER initiative, this first-ever fashion education workshop will enlighten, educate and mentor the next generation of fashion leaders,” Stephenson gushed. “The First Lady’s goal is to provide a forum for the world’s leading fashion professionals

to share their personal story and insight. I can’t wait to share this inspiring day with so many incredible young people and, thanks to social media, will also be posting special moments from this historic day with all of you! #FashionEdu #GLAM4GOOD.”

In response to an e-mail sent to FLOTUS frontwoman Maria Cristina González asking about the number of designer par-ticipants, the likelihood of any special performances and a few other routine matters, WWD re-ceived the press-pool breakout of the First Lady’s schedule for Oct. 3, 7 and 8. Once back from Boston; Bangor, Maine; Madison,

Wis., and Chicago, Obama will host the workshop with “leading fashion professionals — from designers to magazine editors to fashion technologists — to show young people what it takes to succeed, and how important it is for the next generation to com-mit to their education.”

The designer-loving mom-in-chief plans to visit two of the five student workshops, which will be led by experts in their field. After the First Lady delivers her remarks in the East Room, there will be a live-streamed panel discussion “comprised of design-ers and experts.”

Once the high school and col-lege students exit Wednesday, the designer crowd will no doubt be a lot looser at 6 p.m., when Obama welcomes them to a Celebration of Design cocktail party.

The First Lady, however, will not be winging it to New York for another design extravaganza Thursday night — the 15th an-niversary of the Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Awards. Last week, she hosted another East

Wing affair, welcoming NDA win-ners to a luncheon. Rodriguez will be doing double duty as this year’s Fashion Design honoree

— he has also created the cos-tumes that the Stephen Petronio Company will wear to perform an excerpt from “Locomotor (2014)” for the Pier Sixty crowd.

By JEAN E. PALMIERI

BLOOMINGDALE’S has turned to real New York guys for its reinvented fall look book.

Today, the retailer will unveil an elec-tronic look book on its Web site spotlight-ing seven men it deems “NYC Style Icons.”

The store turned to Michael Williams of the style Web site A Continuous Lean to help it select the guys. Together, they set-tled on Antonio Ciongoli, creative direc-tor of Eidos; Armando Cabral, model and shoe designer; Bruce Bozzi, co-owner of the Palm restaurant; Matt Hitt, model and musician; Michael Chernow, co-owner of the Meatball Shop; Nick Sullivan, fashion director of Esquire, and Stephen Cheuk, owner of S10 fitness in TriBeCa.

Each entry includes a short story about the man and details his style and favorite

New York City hangouts. There’s also a quote about each man from Williams. For example, Williams calls Cabral “the epito-me of good taste and good looks, much like Burberry, which he happens to be wearing

here in spectacular fashion.”The men were photographed in their

homes or at their businesses and the out-fits they’re wearing can be purchased with a click of a “Shop the Look” button.

“It’s a big departure for us,” said Kevin

Harter, vice president for fashion director for men’s. “More and more guys are taking inspi-ration from street style, so we decided to build a campaign around stylish New Yorkers.”

David Fisher, executive vice presi-dent and general merchandise manager of men’s for Bloomingdale’s, challenged the company’s fashion and online teams to come up with a novel approach for the fall selling season, Harter said, and after brainstorming, the icons idea was born.

Harter said while the initiative kicks off with New York, in the future, the re-tailer will use men in other cities “where we have a strong men’s customer base.” He said that while it is not expected to be duplicated for spring, “we’re looking to anniversary it next fall.”

Harter said the men chosen for the inaugural campaign were deliberately selected to provide a “diversity of occupa-tions and age. We want to hit a lot of guys.”

Harter said allowing customers to click and buy the looks in this way is also new. “It’s the first time we’ve done it on real guys,” he said. “We went after their own per-sonal style and what resonated with them.”

The online look book will be featured within select Bloomingdale’s locations where customers in the store can browse the book on iPads in the men’s depart-ment. The company’s 59th Street flagship will devote windows on the Third Avenue side of the store to the initiative this month and a cocktail party in conjunction with T Magazine will be held on Oct. 15.

Bloomingdale’s Sets ‘Style Icons’

Mum’s the Word on White House Design Event

Brands to Tell Tales Along Madison Ave.

’’

’’’’

’’

The First Lady’s goal is to provide a forum for the world’s leading fashion professionals to share their…insight.— MARY ALICE STEPHENSON’S FACEBOOK POST

More and more guys are taking inspiration

from street style, so we decided to build a campaign around

stylish New Yorkers.— KEVIN HARTER, BLOOMINGDALE’S

Armando Cabral in the Bloomingdale’s look book.

The app, which can be found at MadisonAveFHW.org.

First Lady Michelle Obama

WWD.COM9WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

By KATYA FOREMAN

PARIS — Collections conjured sum-mer days at the recent edition of the Première Classe accessories salon, held in the Jardin des Tuileries here.

Items on offer ranged from the beguil-ing silicone seashell creations at Tzuri Gueta, which launched a home accesso-ries line at the event, to Aloha headphones festooned with fake flowers by Hawaii-based jewelry brand RueBelle, with the September sun transforming the fair’s tents into a veritable hothouse.

The four-day event, which, for its 25th an-niversary, in-vited 25 acces-sories designers to design one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by the Nineties, ended its run on Sept. 29. The pieces, which range from a Berlin Wall-inspired graffiti visor by House of Flora to shades by Thierry Lasry in scaly vintage acetate with mother-of-pearl ac-cents, will go on sale from Dec. 1 at on-line concept store Spootnik.com.

Armed with stable budgets, retailers were mainly upbeat, though certain mar-kets, such as Japan, Italy and Spain, con-tinue to show strain. “I’m personally feel-ing very optimistic from what I’m seeing,” said Fabianne Espinola, senior buyer for designer ready-to-wear, shoes and bags at Intermix. “Fringe bags continue to be a big trend, and in jewelry, so far, I’ve seen a lot of interesting chokers and still the trend of one earring,” she added, eyeing a rack of Lurex socks at Maria La Rosa. “We were looking for a very chunky sock to go with the Birkenstock in the win-ter, but I thought something in a kind of sheer, Lurex-y version could be interest-ing with sandals, heels, pumps.”

Referring to the trends spilling over the runway, an “optimistic” Jennifer Cuvillier, style director for Le Bon Marché, said it’s “all about flowers,” with an abundance of “bright pastels that catch the light.”

Joey Wolffer, founder and creative di-rector of mobile accessories boutique StyleLiner, which roams the Hamptons

during the summer and Palm Beach, Fla., during the winter, saw a lot of sorbet shades with pops of brights. “And as much as I hate it, I’m still see-

ing neons,” she said. “Embellishment is everywhere. I’m seeing a

ton of stones. Forest of Chintz’s jewelry collec-

tion looks incredible. They’re doing the whole beaded Masai thing but with a twist — tribal mixed with a shocking-pink stone, say — some-thing a little bit un-expected.”

For Makowski, owner of jewelry store

Birdy, which has two locations in Paris, the

key mood was “organic, nature-inspired.”

Brands cited strong sales on fine creations. “We can’t

keep up with demand,” said Nicky Smith, head of sales at Zoe

& Morgan, of the brand’s constella-tion-inspired Starlight designs. Having

debuted its handmade “squeeze on” ear-rings concept at the fair four seasons ago, Coops London, which counts Colette in Paris and Storm in Copenhagen among stock-ists, plans to incorporate diamonds next season.

For bags, meanwhile, it’s all about texture and turning down the volume. Premium craftsmanship was in hot demand, with, among the heaving booths, Dragon, the Belgium-based woven-leather bag special-ist that produces for a number of luxury brands, including Dior and Bottega Veneta.

“Bags are mini — they just keep on getting smaller,” said Yu-Tin Lin, a buyer for Hong Kong

multibrand store Twist, who was angling for safe

buys as “consumers are not as experimental.”

“We’ve seen a lot of small clutches. There’s a more sophisti-

cated mood,” echoed Amélie Mathurin, a buyer for Eram, who lauded the beaded styles by Philippines-based brand Bea Valdes, which specializes in hand em-broidery using unusual materials and techniques, such as shoe laces, zippers and chains and snakeskin wrapped around beads.

Citing “storming” business, Alex Cousin, a buyer at Asos.com, picked up on a “natu-ral and earthy” direction, with snakeskin, raffia and different weaves in leather. “There’s also lots of humor and playful-ness coming through,” she said, adding that Première Classe is a great barometer.

Out for some laughs, French mon-ey-themed accessories brand Hélène Nepomiatzi presented a limited-edition piggy-bank handbag with a slot for coins at the mouth. “Money is such a taboo topic in France, I thought it would be fun to create a brand around it,” said the label’s namesake designer, who used to work in the leather-goods departments of Céline and Balmain.

Coming off of a “very positive” fall season, an upbeat Ursula Kwok, gen-eral merchandising manager at Harvey Nichols Hong Kong, was taken by one of the fair’s more whimsical acts: Andrés Gallardo, whose collection featured white porcelain rabbits set in leather goods. “It’s simple but eye-catching, with great workmanship, and fits with the fairy-tale trend that’s in the air,” said Kwok.

Meanwhile, British milliner House of Flora’s Flora McLean, whose tongue-in-cheek theme was “a funeral on the beach,” observed a more conservative mood among Japanese buyers. “It’s been really unpredictable. I’m constantly find-ing new Asian stores, but now it’s China that’s buying the weird stuff — they’re much more expressive.”

Provenance remains a key selling point for brands exhibiting at the event. Among the highlights were Borsalino’s made in Italy classic panamas, presented on wooden trolleys; Delphine-Charlotte Parmentier’s made in France, storm-in-spired jewelry collection, with geometric metal, glass and crystal creations evok-ing cumulonimbus clouds, and SuTurno’s hand-stitched silk crepe scarves, pro-duced using Spanish suppliers, with wa-tercolor prints of sailboats telegraphing a vacation mood.

By ALEX WYNNE

PARIS — Change was in the air at the World Retail Congress.

Not only is some new technological innovation unveiled almost daily, mer-chants are now courting an increasingly global consumer who wants more than just product, but also an experience.

“This is a period of the greatest change that any of us have ever seen in our careers in retail,” said Stephen Sadove, former chairman and chief ex-ecutive officer of Saks Inc., at the recent gathering here. “The important question to me is what are we doing as leaders to drive these disrupters into our organiza-tions? How do we make sure we are fresh and young in our thinking?”

He highlighted the importance of being open to new ideas, notably when it comes to integrating tech innovation.

Most retailers are embracing the om-nichannel future and knitting together their online and offline operations. And some, are looking to gain a foothold through acquisitions. Neiman Marcus recently cut a deal to buy Mytheresa.com and Printemps linked with Placedestendances.com.

But that doesn’t mean the whole world has gone digital.

The latest statistics reveal that bricks-and-mortar stores still represent the lion’s share of global sales. According to a sur-vey of 250 retail leaders released by event organizer I2I Events, 68 percent of retail sales still take place in physical outlets, compared with only 16 percent online.

Even so, Ron Frasch, operating part-ner at Castanea Partners and former Saks executive, noted that while only 2 percent of luxury goods are bought online, 20 per-cent of purchases are “induced” over the Internet, illustrating the importance of having strong Web capabilities.

Many retailers are betting on the strength of combining online and offline operations. And some at the Congress noted that, while e-commerce pure play-ers have long been seen as a major threat to traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, many of the biggest online players still don’t make money.

“Nobody talks about the bottom line,” said Li & Fung Limited chairman William Fung at the three-day event, which closed Oct. 1. “Amazon is not profitable.”

Trends like showrooming and click-and-collect services are now showing stronger growth than pure players, Fung said.

There are a slew of startups with tech solutions for the omnichannel world, in-cluding Avenue Imperial. The UK-based firm, which counts Jimmy Choo and The

Corner Berlin among its customers, of-fers a “V-tail” concept that it likens to Google Street View for stores, allowing consumers to browse a virtual store, in-teract with sales staff and link to e-com-merce from anywhere in the world.

And there are plenty of online brands venturing into world of physical retail.

Australia-based Shoes of Prey, for in-stance, was initially an online-only play-er. But the made-to-order brand entered department store David Jones’ Sydney flagship in February 2013.

“The store is by far the strongest cus-tomer-acquisition channel,” said founder Michael Fox, adding that sales there av-erage three to four times those of neigh-boring concessions.

Others, from Rent The Runway to Bonobos, have made a similar move and opened their own outposts for consumers to interact with their brands.

“The opportunity to be omnichannel is paramount today,” said Frasch. “I love the idea of some of the pure players opening brick-and-mortar. It’s very difficult to build a brand if you are only online.”

Not all of the changes sweeping through retail are technology based.

Fung described how policy changes in China, notably wage increases, will im-pact the market in the future, pushing up prices and lowering margins as the coun-

try moves from a manufacturing to a con-sumer economy. That could make it hard-er for retailers to compete on price alone.

Given all these changes and more, at-tendees argued that boosting exclusivity and service will be the best avenues for future growth.

“How [do you] create exclusivity in a world where everything is avail-able everywhere, all the time?” asked Printemps chairman and chief executive officer Paolo de Cesare. “How do you stay relevant?”

Cesare referred to the 14 percent de-cline in French apparel sales over the past six years, and spoke of the impor-tance of changing from a model based just on selling products to one based on creating experiences.

For Printemps, this has involved building stronger relationships with brands to offer exclusive products and services as well training sales associates to offer better service.

Mining big data is seen as an impor-tant way for retailers to understand exactly who their consumers are and refine the shopping experience ac-cordingly, as well as targeting consum-ers before they travel, no matter their country of origin.

“Our research is helping us generate much more cross-border flow,” said Ann Cairns, president of international mar-kets at Mastercard. “[You need to] define where your big catchment audiences are in the future.”

Retailers Navigating an Era of Disruption

Floral and Littoral at Première Classe

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10 WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

“THIS ALMOST feels like another wedding,” Claiborne Swanson Frank giggled, looking around at a room full of family and friends — including the night’s host, Michael Kors — gathered to toast the photographer’s latest tome, “Young Hollywood,” her second for Assouline.

“When I moved to Los Angeles [from San Francisco], I thought, ‘What’s more American than Hollywood?’ I thought there was an amazing opportunity to document this next generation of Hollywood influencers,” the photographer said. She selected the girls based on “instinct, research and vetting,” not having met any of them before. “Every girl was so different.” The party was attended by the women featured and then some. Emmy Rossum, Amber Valletta, Rachel Zoe and Hailee Steinfeld were among the 150 guests at the three-course alfresco dinner party, held at a private Beverly Hills residence on Thursday night. During cocktail hour inside the house, the group circulated through a makeshift gallery that featured images of the book’s subjects: Julianne Hough, Cody Horn, Alison Brie, Abigail Spencer, Tracey

Wigfield, Nathalie Love, Lorenza Izzo, Elizabeth Henstridge, Liz Goldwyn, Aubrey Plaza, Olivia Thirlby and Isabel Lucas — all in attendance.

For his part, Kors said he was happy to play host — on top of providing the book’s foreword and much of its wardrobe. “I said, ‘I’m opening up the vault. You can have all the Michael Kors you want. Grab it,’ ” he said.

Upon arrival, “Magic Mike” costars Horn and Alex Pettyfer took selfies with her Swanson Frank image, prominently featured by the front door. “It’s crazy. I’ve only seen this photo on my phone — never on a wall,” said the actress, who noted her surprise at being selected, especially upon hearing the book’s title. “I can’t believe they still let me be a part of it because I’m 26. I’m right at that borderline age.”

Elsewhere, Spencer and Brie were on a mission to track down their shots. “I haven’t seen my photo yet,” Spencer said as she flipped through the book. “Doing a shoot with Claiborne is a little bit like doing yoga.

It’s very meditative....It’s, literally, just you and her.”

Over dinner, Zoë Kravitz and her band Lolawolf serenaded a crowd that further included Jenni Kayne, Nina Dobrev, Sofia Richie, Vanessa Getty,

Kiernan Shipka, Harley Viera-Newton,and Kravitz’s proud mom, Lisa Bonet.

“Now what?” giggled Kravitz, as the performance came to an end. The night was no longer young.

— LINDZI SCHARF

Striking Poses

THE PHOTOGRAPHER Roxanne Lowit was at a café in Los Angeles recently, reminiscing about Yves Saint Laurent.

“He had an aura that nobody would pierce,” she recalled. In the course of 24 years of taking his portrait and shooting his shows, Lowit got as close to the mercurial couturier as anyone could, outside of his immediate social circle. The petite New Yorker with the immaculate bob and all-black wardrobe would call him by his first name while everyone else addressed him as Monsieur Saint Laurent. She even managed to capture him smiling on several different occasions. He was either in

his atelier — in his white lab coat, of course — or at a soiree surrounded by the kind of colorful women he preferred, models, Diana Vreeland and Nan Kempner. “He felt comfortable around me,” Lowit said.

Hundreds of her pictures are now collected in a new book, “Yves Saint Laurent” (Thames & Hudson), set to hit stores in November, just the latest in a spate of projects channeling the legacy of the late designer. In theaters now are two biopics, “Yves Saint Laurent,” directed by Jalil Lespert with the approval of the designer’s estate, and a more impressionistic and provocative

profile from Bertrand Brunello, “Saint Laurent,” that took its American bow last week at the New York Film Festival.

While this collection of photos, dating from 1978 to Saint Laurent’s finale in 2002, is Lowit’s fourth book, it’s been in the works since the day she first encountered the designer, at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

“Ever since I first met him, I wanted to do something on him because I so admired him. He did everything first, and he changed the way women dressed,” she said.

In contrast to other portrayals of his life, she described hers as intimate. “It’s like you’re walking through backstage with me,” she said. “And it’s very personal, it’s close-up, it’s private. I asked some of his muses to write for the book, and some of his models wrote for the book.”

Grace Jones remembered how Saint Laurent, in the middle of a performance, created an impromptu ensemble for her with his tuxedo cummerbund as a bandeau and Loulou de la Falaise’s scarf as a skirt. “Très chic and a total hoot” was Jerry Hall’s summary of her transition from Texas to couture to becoming the Opium girl. Pat Cleveland, Paloma Picasso, Betty Catroux, Lucie de la Falaise and Catherine Deneuve opened up about their bond with the designer. In one picture, a teenage Kate Moss reenacted

the haute couture version of Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” painting, while in another, Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld — still friendly at that point — locked arms around each other at Le Palace nightclub.

“It was before [fashion] was the big business it is today,” Lowit said. “At the time, I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be together with them, because people were approachable then. They didn’t have entourages and publicists and agents and so on.”

In the foreword, Pierre Bergé, the designer’s partner, described the time Lowit popped out of nowhere on a New York street, handed Saint Laurent a cardboard cutout of the Empire State Building and captured him kissing it moments before he boarded the Concorde back to Paris.

“Roxanne is always there, even when she is not expected,” Bergé writes. “Her sharp eye has been able to capture the most secret situations, the most hidden of mysteries.”

Approaching her fourth decade as a fashion photographer, Lowit, who says she really started out as “a textile designer with a camera,” has no plans to stop. She navigates social media with the help of her daughter and an assistant and counts younger photographers as friends and collectors. And she went to Paris to document the spring fashion shows, personally delivering one of the first books to Bergé.

“After all,” she said, “when there’s a lot going on that’s interesting, like there was at Saint Laurent, then I was perfectly happy just zoning out and taking pictures and being in my fashion heaven.”

— KHANH T.L. TRAN

Headline Here

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WWD.COM11WWD MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

GOING FOR BAROQUE: Come Dec. 2, the hills will be alive with...Chanel jackets. Karl Lagerfeld is to parade his next Métiers d’art collection for Chanel at the Schloss Leopoldskron, just south of Salzburg, WWD has learned. Situated on a lake, the 18th-century Rococo palace is considered one of the finest in Austria — a magnet for artistic and intellectual society over the centuries.

Established in 2002 and sparking the pre-collection craze, the Métiers d’art collection exalts the specialty ateliers Chanel controls through its Paraffection subsidiary. These include the jeweler Desrues, feather maker Lemarié, embroiderers Maison Lesage and Atelier Montex, shoemaker Massaro, milliner Michel and cashmere producer Barrie.

Chanel traveled to Dallas and Edinburgh for recent Métiers d’art shows, which spotlight cities linked to the fashion house’s history.

— MILES SOCHA

FROM MARTHA TO GWYNETH: Goop is going to the next level. The often-ridiculed lifestyle and e-commerce company founded in 2008 by Gwyneth Paltrow on Friday named Lisa Gersh as chief executive officer. Gersh was previously president and ceo of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which is going through its own struggles. Before that, she was president of strategic initiatives at NBC and cofounder, president and chief operating officer of Oxygen Media.

Gersh succeeds Seb Bishop, who left the company in April. Plans for growing Goop’s revenues include additional collaborations with designers such as Stella McCartney and Diane von Furstenberg and, eventually, introducing a Goop label. Gersh is also interested in opening pop-up shops, and a series of live events is being planned.

— SHARON EDELSON

THE EYES HAVE IT: The Council of Fashion Designers of America has created a new group, the Eyewear Designers of the CFDA, which aims to boost the profile of the eyewear sector.

The Eyewear Designers of the

CFDA are: Robert Marc, Selima Optique’s Selima Salaun, L.A. Eyeworks’ Barbara McReynolds and Gai Gherardi, Focus Group West’s Blake Kuwahara, Optical Affairs’ Christian Roth, Illesteva’s Daniel Silverman, Grey Ant’s Natalie Levy and Grant Krajecki, Oliver Peoples’ Larry Leight and Barton Perreira’s Patty Perreira.

Roth, Gherardi, Salaun and Kuwahara will serve on the executive committee with Roth acting as the group’s spokesman.

The Eyewear Designers of the CFDA will focus on runway partnerships or ready-to-wear collaborations and a CFDA press day for eyewear designers that will make its debut next year. Steven Kolb, chief executive officer of the CFDA, said, “The formation of the Eyewear Designers of the CFDA gives credit to the important role that these designers play not only in the accessories space, but in the American fashion industry at large.” — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

FACTS & FIGURES: Days after its spring fashion show, Chanel’s finances were under scrutiny in the French press.

Le Monde in its Saturday edition, citing data uncovered by Challenges magazine, said since the start of this year, the French fashion house has invested 270 million euros, or $337.9

million at current exchange, in real estate, of which 85 percent was in Paris. This was principally to acquire ownership of its stores.

Last year, Chanel posted net profits of 726 million euros, or $964.2 million, versus 1.13 billion euros, or $1.5 billion, in 2012, which included an exceptional capital gain of 496 million euros, or $658.7 million, according to Challenges.

The magazine reported Chanel’s operating profits for 2013 were 1.15 billion euros, or $1.53 billion, up 8.5 percent versus 2012. Meanwhile, company sales also gained 8.5 percent, to 4.98 billion euros, or $6.61 billion, in 2013.

A Chanel spokeswoman had no comment. Dollar figures are converted at average exchange for the period to which they refer. — JENNIFER WEIL

By ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

IN NEW YORK for his band Maroon 5’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” Adam Levine burned an hour Friday morning previewing his signature Kmart collection, shooting a promo or two and detailing his take on style.

Gesturing toward a Modernist couch and coffee tables laden with breakfast options in a Mercer Hotel suite, Levine joked, “Welcome to my office.” Nearby, racks of his men’s collection and “The Adam Shop” display of his women’s holiday options left no question as to the meet-up. Short on time and not one to hold back, “The Voice” judge al-ready had firsthand experience in the fashion business, punching the clock in the warehouse of M. Fredric, his fa-ther’s Los Angeles company. Looking relaxed in jeans, a T-shirt and one of his printed shawl-neck sweaters, Levine chatted casually while finishing off some yogurt and granola.

Extending his Kmart collection — outerwear and shoes will be offered for men and intimate apparel and more accessories are in the works for women — is also not a reach, he said. “As my father called it, the ‘schmatta’ business, is in my DNA. I never knew my connection to it would manifest in this way. Yet here we are — I have a clothing line.”

Levine said, though, his father does not advise him about fashion. “My fa-ther’s nucleus is based around M. Fredric; my career is based around my band. I’m a musician so this feels more like a really fun, new hobby. I’m kind of finding myself as I go.”

Beyond his three-time Grammy-winning band, serving his seventh sea-son as a judge on NBC’s “The Voice” has given the musician a built-in TV following — a good bulk of whom are his targeted 18- to 49-year-old shopper. When Levine wears pieces on NBC’s “The Voice,” the news will be blasted via Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and other social media venues, like when the rocker wore one of his sweat-ers for promos for his appearance on “SNL” last weekend, according to Andy Hilfiger, who stood in the wings Friday.

Levine’s wife of three months, Behati Prinsloo, a Victoria’s Secret model, is no doubt another knowledge-able fashion source who has been in-

strumental in helping him develop the women’s apparel.

Prinsloo earned high marks for “doing an amazing job putting her taste [into the women’s line] which I love,” said Levine. “She has an in-credibly unique style. She’s effort-less, never too much of anything, but basic, elegant, sophisticated and classic, but you never get the feeling that she took too much time trying to figure out what she wanted to put on. That’s always my favorite style — pe-riod. Anyone who looks great in what they’re wearing usually has to do with the casual nature with which they chose their outfit. It’s usually because you have a closet of great s--t, you can kind of not think about it. My thing is to have everything that works,” he said. “You can tell when someone is thinking through what they’re wearing too much. And that can be great, but it can also be a disaster.”

In recent days, Levine has faced a different kind of crisis, as women’s

rights groups have lam-basted his new music video “Animals,” which depicts him stalking his wife. “I’m not going to talk about that right now, sorry,” he said. “It’s too early [referring to the morn-ing interview].”

The 35-year-old budding designer doesn’t think mu-sicians have the impact on fashion that they once did. “Fashion and music used to be much more connected than they are now. In the Sixties and Seventies, the important fashion and the important music were connected. You don’t see it [now] as a part of everyone’s plan,” Levine said. Nondiscriminating when it comes to clothes, Levine said of his style, “Honestly, it can be anything. Brand names don’t matter to me. I’m not a label whore. This isn’t about that. I love certain things that Balenciaga makes and I love certain things that Dickies makes. It’s a case-by-case thing. I can go to an Army Navy store and find something

I love and I can also go to Balenciaga and find something that I love. And usually the two are connected in a weird way. A lot of people are going into surplus stores to get inspiration for their labels.”

While his collection is geared for more everyday consumption, Levine said trendsetters tend to always be “the girl or guy who is wearing the thing that people think is really ugly that is what people will be wearing a year from now.” Noting that it won’t be the person who has been wearing a plaid shirt for five years and is wearing something weirder and cooler, Levine added, “Usually, it’s something that was popular 10 or 20 years ago. The cultur-al feedback loop is constantly bringing things back. It really has to do with who is the least afraid to bring it there.

“There was a time when it was [prac-tically] illegal to wear trucker hats. Now for some reason, I feel that the ban has been lifted. There are things from the Nineties that are starting to become popular again like oversize T-shirts. It just happens. Hawaiian shirts used to be [like] ‘Oh, my uncle wears Tommy Bahama and now they fit well, they’re pretty cool’ and you’ve got guys like Marc Jacobs making them,” Levine said. “Basically, the person who sets the trend is the one who wears what no one would be caught dead wearing.”

Adam Levine Touts Expanded Kmart Line

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leader Luxottica, number-three player Marchon Eyewear Inc. and Italian pow-erhouse Marcolin Group, among them — from weighing in on Kering’s decision.

“A bunch of so-called megabrands may choose the exclusivity route. A Gucci, Chanel, maybe a Prada or a Dior could do it because they have the stores, volume and market presence. Without $200 million-and-above rev-enues, you can’t do it. But they couldn’t do it without diminishing or weakening their optical business,” said Marchon chief executive officer Claudio Gottardi, himself a former Safilo execu-tive, just like Kering Eyewear’s Roberto Vedovotto. “[Kering’s move] creates opportunities for in-house brands

and smaller brands. Turmoil equals a chance to capture market share.”

Gottardi said Marchon’s licens-es for Salvatore Ferragamo, Chloé, Calvin Klein, Lacoste and Diane von Furstenberg have all seen double-digit growth and a 30 percent overall earn-ings bump over last year. The compa-ny’s 2014 sales should reach $1 billion, according to Gottardi, who added that Marchon will soon disclose new deals with an Italian luxury brand, a sport brand and a more accessibly priced one.

At Vision Expo West, which is geared toward the optical business (the fash-ion sunglasses business is addressed at Vision Expo East in the spring, as well as at Paris’ Silmo and Milan’s Mido), Safilo’s focus was on its proprietary collections: Carrera, Polaroid, Smith, Oxydo and Carrera by Jimmy Choo. For its licensed brands, Dior, Fendi, Bobbi Brown, Max Mara, Boss and the recent-ly renewed Tommy Hilfiger were at the forefront of its marketing push.

According to a Safilo spokesperson, “We expect to make further announce-ments regarding new licenses in the coming months as we continue to seek long-term relationships. These could be owners of brands new to the eyewear category as long as they complement our license-brand portfolio. Our particular interest, therefore, lies in the very high-est-end luxury, the fast-growing ‘mass cool’ space and the new outdoor-inspired market led by Smith Optics. Finally, we will reinforce our dedication to our exist-ing licenses through increasing innova-tion, research skills and trend-setting.”

“This is a moment of change and uncertainty but [also] a chance for new competitors to emerge and for us to think about new luxury players in both sun and optical. [Bringing] the sun business into the optical world is one of our top priorities,” said Holly Rush, Luxottica’s president of whole-sale, North America, referring to the vast opportunity for fashion sunglasses to retail more in optical stores and doctors’ offices than in traditional re-tail channels. Rush stuck to the party line about Luxottica’s luxury licenses, which include Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Prada, Polo Ralph Lauren, Versace and Tiffany, being secure, but others speculate about whether a business like Chanel could follow Kering’s route.

In a perhaps ironic twist, Italy’s fi-

nancial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore said on Friday that John Galantic, currently president and chief operating officer of Chanel Inc. in the U.S., might take over as Luxottica’s ceo after Andrea Guerra departs and in light of Luxottica chair-man Leonardo Del Vecchio’s decision to reshape the company’s management structure on a co-ceo model. Newly appointed ceo of corporate functions Enrico Cavatorta, the company’s former general manager and chief financial of-ficer, is filling the role ad interim.

Both Luxottica and Chanel declined comment on Friday.

At Luxottica, whose 2013 sales to-taled $9.7 billion, the show focus was on retailers and offering optical boutiques better selling solutions. Products and

sales desks were absent from its mega-booth (the shift from product to in-store displays was unveiled at Vision Expo East this past spring). “The industry needs more education on how to sell. So we’re sharing the value proposition and the storytelling, which had not been our strength in the past. It’s a labor-inten-sive industry, and we make it look easy, which is probably our fault up to now for not communicating,” said Rush.

Through live craftsman and interac-tive displays, the company emphasized

the high-tech and high-touch processes that go into making eyewear, helping to explain why some frames retail for $400 and up; another section, fashioned like a mini-museum, emphasized storytell-ing —in this case, cash cow Ray-Ban; and a model store, which showed af-fordable and easy fixtures and display ideas that retailers could purchase from the company to increase sales.

At Marcolin, which doubled its presence in the U.S. market by ac-quiring, late last year, mass-brand maker Viva International — maker of licensed brands Guess, Marciano, Skechers and Candies, among others — Fabrizio Gamberini, ceo of Marcolin USA, was bullish. “We’ve pretty much doubled down our revenue in the U.S. with that deal,” he said. “After 2007, the market completely changed. It’s good to be present in different territo-ries, with different categories.”

The company was also one of the few

to have, on hand, 2015 product through May to show select customers: styles from Tom Ford, Balenciaga, Montblanc and Roberto Cavalli at the high end to Swarovski, Dsquared2, Diesel, Guess and Timberland. “We call it the Silmo tour, and we started it four years ago, to the point where we [now] hold 28 events each year, around the country. It’s cool, and it generates business,” he said. Of the industry shifts, he said, “Generally speaking, these are good changes. At the moment, we are focused on the integra-tion of the Viva business into Marcolin.”

Marcolin holds the licenses of Kering brand Balenciaga and LVMH’s Pucci, which recently renewed its agreement.

Despite the business moves, the focus was still on product for the many

companies that showed at Vision Expo, both in the Sands Expo and the suites at The Venetian, plus at the ultraniche Loft show at the Mandarin Oriental. Key trends included a heightened and more tech-driven use of materials, from acetate (crystal, translucent and other-wise marbled, layered or fused) to metal (steel to titanium to gold, much of it ul-trathin, laser-cut, perforated or other-wise textured) to semiprecious stones, crystal, leather, horn and high-tech, flexible substances. Style-wise, colors from blush to blue remained strong, as did color-blocking; mixing materials; round, geometric and shield shapes; and mirrored and polarized lenses. Being unique in a sea of product was key.

“Differentiation is fundamental for premium brands to have a competitive advantage in the market. It is impor-tant that the unique DNA of the brand is communicated in every part of the brand strategy and in a consistent man-ner. The translation of a brand’s icons into the eyewear collection and the presence of common design elements within the ready-to-wear collection are a must. Distribution also plays a key role. Premium designer brands require a quality network and a high-quality presentation in select stores,” said Glenn Rusk, commercial head of Safilo North America.

At Italia Independent, signature velvet flocking on classic frame shapes caused a stir as customers checked out the myriad rainbow and printed offerings (priced from $127 to $1,300 retail, with core styles at $129 to $197) that coincided with the brand’s other initiatives in ap-parel and accessories, such as its Adidas launch in Milan at the same time. Niche brands such as Bevel and Salt Optics, two of 20 selected companies showing at Loft for its second Las Vegas show, empha-sized simplicity and lightness in frames, mostly ranging from $300 and up, retail.

In other news, Los Angeles-based RetroSpecs & Co. will launch a new vintage-inspired, highly crafted line, called Cuthbert & Chen, that will retail from $375 to $1,200 and sell only in its brick-and-mortar stores and select re-tail partners. The move is a reaction to disposable trendy frames and other fast-fashion-style eyewear brands and pure-play e-commerce companies, signaling a perceived need in the market for more high-end, limited-edition product.

LOS ANGELES-based eyewear guru Blake Kuwahara, who has designed frames for John Varvatos, Carolina Herrera, Coach, Behnaz Sarafpour, Jil Sander and Isaac Mizrahi, among others, will finally launch his own line in December. Kuwahara, a former optometrist who has spent more than two de-cades in the eyewear design business, takes his love of architecture and engineered ma-terials to a new level with the nine-piece sun and optical line, which will retail for $599 to $650 in 100 select doors worldwide.

The designs combine a crystal acetate outer frame with colored or patterned ac-etate inner frames to create spatial tension and a frame-within-a-frame effect, while other styles combine acetate and titani-um. Named for architects — the styles are called Wright, Ando, Zaha, Eames, Nouvel and so on — the frames are no small feat of engineering in themselves. The nor-mal scrap rate for high-end, hand-crafted eyewear is 10 percent, whereas for Blake Kuwahara it is 50 percent, due to the exact-ing technical nature of laminating and fit-ting the materials and parts perfectly.

“With eyewear, we have very little real estate to work with, just two temples and a front. Working with engineers has become an important part of what we do. Once you sort out the technical stuff, you can cre-ate a whole new look by using materials in a very different way,” said Kuwahara, who pioneered the concept with his first line, Kata Eyewear (the Japanese word for space and form), in 1990.

His new line allows him to return to his own visionary aesthetic. “The ideal customer is someone who can appreciate the artfulness of the eyewear itself and who’s culturally in the know, ahead of trends but doesn’t want to look too trendy. One client put it perfectly by saying, ‘I don’t want to look like I own an art gal-lery, but I want to look like I visit one.’ ”

Kuwahara likens his craft to fashion — his other company, Focus Group West, is a brand creation and consulting firm, which launched Varvatos and Herrera eyewear and counts men’s suit-makers among its apparel clients. “The runway is where eyewear, as a category, gains much more recognition. As with apparel, where some-thing may start off as runway — it tends to be more exaggerated — now our eyes are trained to look in a different way. It doesn’t look wacky anymore. Think Thom Browne when he first showed the cropped suit. Now it seems almost commonplace. The same goes for eyewear. There’s a smaller gap in what’s shown and what retails.”

As for wearables, Kuwahara calls him-self “low-tech,” but said, “If we can get tech-nology to the point where it’s elegant, then I think it would be something with greater mass appeal. The way it is now, it’s a little

too conspicuous. With the new Google product,

you can take a pic-ture just by blinking. That’s a little too in-vasive.” — M.M.

Kuwahara To Launch Line

Eyewear Market Braces for Shifting Winds {Continued from page one}

’’’’

This a moment of change and

uncertainty, but [also] a chance for

new competitors to emerge and for us to think about new

luxury players in both sun and optical. — HOLLY RUSH, LUXOTTICA

Dior

Tom FordDsquared2

Calvin Klein

Blake Kuwahara

Glasses by Blake Kuwahara.

Balenciaga