ALL ABOARD

Louis Vuitton ArrivesOn Shanghai Express

By AMANDA KAISER

SHANGHAI — Louis Vuitton brought a major dose of Belle Epoque glamour to this city Thursday night, reprising its extravagant fall train-themed show from Paris down to the last detail.

True to the invitation’s indication of a 9 p.m. sharp start time, the same vintage locomotive that awed the industry audience in Paris pulled into a massive set erected on the waterfront of the historic Bund. Postshow, attendees clamored to have their pictures taken in front of the vehicle. They also raced to cap-ture snaps of celebrities such as Laetitia Casta, Fan Bingbing, Alexa Chung and Gong Li, who climbed aboard the train and waved to their enthusiastic fans.

Lana Del Rey performed, decked out in a white party dress and heels. She took to the stage and crooned numbers including “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans” to the crowd, assembled in a part of the venue resembling a giant train car overlooking a futuristic cityscape of neon lights and the city’s emblematic Pearl Tower.

The show, undoubtedly one of the most theatrical fashion events ever here, capped off a two-day pub-licity extravaganza. On Wednesday, Louis Vuitton cel-ebrated the reopening of its enlarged and refurbished fl agship in the Plaza 66 mall with a cocktail and gala dinner that featured a performance of two Chopin nocturnes by classical pianist Li Yundi. At one point, a cat briefl y interrupted proceedings by scampering across the room before making a swift exit.

Before Wednesday’s dinner, VIP guests assembled on the terrace where nonlocals nursed their jet lag and chatted about their impressions — however brief — of the city. “It’s great so far. I’ve only seen cars and my hotel room, but the cars are nice and the hotel is even better,” said Chung. Clémence Poésy said she

SEE PAGE 4PHOTO BY THOMAS IANNACCONE; STYLED BY AMY LOMACCHIO

BEAUTY’S EVOLUTION

BlackoutTom Ford and the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. have concocted Tom Ford Noir, his fi rst

signature men’s scent since 2009. The fragrance, which hits counters in October and retails for $90 for a 1.7-oz. eau de parfum and $125 for a 3.4-oz. edp, could do

$15 million at retail globally in its fi rst year. For more, see page 7.

For an interview with Marc Jacobs on the designer’s fi rst trip

to Mainland China, see page 6.

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY ■ $3.00

WWD

A view from above.

VANESSA WILLIAMS CALLS ON A LIFETIME OF BEAUTY SECRETS FOR HER NEW SKIN-CARE LINE WITH QVC.

PAGE 8

WILLIAMS’ WAY

COSMETICS FIRMS LEARN HOW BEST TO CATER TO THE CHANGING CONSUMER.

PAGE 12

2 WWD FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012

VF Net Gains 20% in Quarter

on WWD.CoM

the Briefing Boxin Today’s WWd

Harry Brant, Kimberley Ntsimi and Peter Brant

Jr. at “The Queen of Versailles” premiere.

EYE: Lauren Greenfield’s award winning documentary about time-share titan David Siegel and his wife Jackie, “The Queen of Versailles,” premiered in New York this week. For more photos, see WWD.com/eye.

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To e-mail reporTers and ediTors aT WWd, The address is firsTname_lasTname@fairchildfashion.com, using The individual’s name. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2012 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 204, NO. 14. FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in May, June, October and December, and two additional issues in February, March, April, August, September and November) by Fairchild Fashion Media, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 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. For New York Hand Delivery Service address changes or inquiries, please contact Mitchell’s NY at 1-800-662-2275, option 7. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax the request to 212-630-5883. For all request for reprints of articles please contact The YGS Group at condenast@theygsgroup.com, or call 800-501-9571. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Media 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.

Louis Vuitton brought a major dose of Belle Epoque glamour to Shanghai Thursday, reprising its fall train-themed show from Paris down to the last detail. PAGE 1 Jonathan Greller, the top women’s merchant at Hudson’s Bay Co., has left the Toronto-based retailer to join The Doneger Group as chief operating officer. PAGE 3 The memory of Marvin Traub hung thick at Four Seasons Grill Room in New York on Wednesday at the launch of the “Pin Down Bladder Cancer” initiative. PAGE 3 Five Below on Thursday saw strong investor support in its first day of trading as a public company. PAGE 3 WWD caught up with Marc Jacobs, who was making his first visit to Mainland China, the night before the Louis Vuitton show. PAGE 6 Estée Lauder’s John Demsey discusses growth opportunities and launches for Tom Ford Beauty. PAGE 7 Actress and new author Vanessa Williams will share her skin care regimen, beginning Aug. 3 on QVC when she launches ReVitalistic Skincare. PAGE 8 Luxhair is setting out to make consumers think of hair add-ons as everyday accessories and is poised to generate $200 million in its first year at retail. PAGE 8 The Duchess of Cambridge got in the Olympic spirit Thursday when she took in a photo exhibit of personalities from the one-week-off London games. PAGE 9 American Apparel made some news when it was reported that Russia was considering making its 2014 Olympic uniforms in its factory in California. PAGE 9 Opening Ceremony is planting its multihued, animal-print flag in London this week with the opening of its first European outpost, in Covent Garden. PAGE 10 As the ethnic makeup of the U.S. consumer continues to become more multiracial, cosmetics companies are looking to address a more nuanced audience. PAGE 12

By Miles socha

PaRis — like the mythical post-al carrier inured to challenging weather, hermès international has yet to be held back by the dark clouds of economic uncertainty.

“We haven’t noticed any ero-sion of consumer demand,” chief executive officer Patrick Thomas told WWD Thursday as hermès reported that sales in the second-quarter advanced 21.9 percent, matching its performance in the first three months of the year.

stripping out the impact of cur-rency fluctuations, sales in the pe-riod rose 13.4 percent to 814.5 mil-lion euros, or $1.05 billion. That’s under the 17.6 percent gain at con-stant rates in the first quarter.

But Thomas said the apparent slowdown was mainly due to ex-traordinary events in 2011, when hermès acquired its concession in Russia and launched the fra-grance Un Jardin sur le Toit.

he said trends in July remain “more or less the same” as the first half. “i am moderately optimistic.”

The executive acknowledged there are potholes down the road for the luxury sector. hermès faces a less-favorable-currency environ-ment ahead and rising raw mate-rial costs, notably for silver, gold, textiles and certain leathers.

Thomas also cautioned that domestic demand is withering in France, where the new socialist government of François hollande has vowed to extract more tax revenues from the rich, a client strata upon which hermès relies.

in the second quarter, sales at constant exchange grew 6.8 per-cent in France, trailing a gain of 8.2 percent in the americas, 16.4

percent in the rest of europe and 26.9 percent in asia-Pacific. sales in Japan retreated 1.1 percent.

Despite headlines warn-ing of slowing growth in china, Thomas said hermès has detect-ed no change in surging demand from chinese clients, particular-ly in europe.

encouraged by its sales perfor-mance in the first half, the com-pany said it stands by its target for consolidated revenue growth of 10 percent for the full year.

“For the moment, there’s no sign of any decrease in the growth rate, so we may be slightly above our target,” Thomas said.

hermès reported revenues only and will publish profits on aug. 31. The company expects recurring operating income to in-crease in line with revenues, and the underlying operating margin to fall between 2010 levels and the record high achieved last year.

all product categories logged

gains in the second quarter. at constant exchange rates, sales advanced 3.6 percent for table-ware, 5.4 percent for perfumes, 7.4 percent for leather goods and saddlery, 15.8 percent for silk and textiles, 19.3 percent for watches and 22 percent for ready-to-wear and fashion accessories.

Thomas noted that demand for leather goods continues to out-strip the output of its workrooms, and the increase “reflects only our growth in production capacity.”

hermès plans to open one new boutique in the second half, in Wuhan, china, while renovating and expanding 11 existing units to better display its full product lines, including an expanded range of home wares such as wallpaper.

Revenues in the first half rose 21.9 percent to 1.59 billion euros, or $2.07 billion. all dollar rates are calculated at average exchange for the periods to which they refer.

in the first half, hermès ben-efited from a favorable currency environment, which had a posi-tive impact of 85 million euros, or $110.3 million, the company noted.

a troubled economic outlook and anemic consumer demand, particularly in europe, looms over the first-half reporting sea-son — and threatens to put a dent in luxury’s long, strong run.

Puma issued a profit warn-ing on Wednesday, and earlier this month, Burberry Group plc blamed a “more challenging exter-nal environment” for a slowdown in sales growth. it reported an 11.2 percent gain the second quarter.

europe’s two biggest luxu-ry conglomerates, lVMh Moët hennessy louis Vuitton and PPR, Puma’s parent, are slated to re-port first-half results on July 26.

A spring look from Hermès.

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By aRNolD J. KaRR

VF coRP. sTaRTeD the sec-ond-quarter earnings season for U.s.-based apparel firms with a flourish, exceeding profit expec-tations and raising its full-year earnings guidance.

setting a high standard for companies like PVh corp. and Ralph lauren corp., scheduled to report next month, VF overcame softness in europe and in the mid-tier channel of the U.s. to post a 20 percent increase in net income.

“The challenge out there is the trajectory of the global econ-omy,” eric Wiseman, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Greensboro, N.c.-based apparel giant, told WWD Thursday. “That will be the head-wind for us, but you can make progress in a headwind.”

and progress was certainly made in the second quarter. in the three months ended June 30, net income rose to $155.3 million, or $1.40 a diluted share, from $129.4 million, or $1.17 a share. adjusted earn-ings per share, excluding a gain from the sale earlier this year of John Varvatos and expenses related to the acquisition of Timberland, was $1.11, 17 cents above the analysts’ consensus estimate of 94 cents.

Revenues came up slightly short of estimates, rising 16.4 percent to $2.14 billion versus $1.84 billion in last year’s quar-

ter and the $2.18 billion median analyst estimate. excluding Timberland’s $239 million con-tribution, organic revenues rose 3 percent and were up 6 percent at constant currency.

Gross margin, under pres-sure from higher input costs, improved to 46.1 percent of sales over the year-ago quarter’s level of 45.9 percent, which was enhanced by a facility closure. Robert shearer, chief financial officer, said the improvements came principally from U.s. jeans-wear, which he described as VF’s “most challenged” business, and the outdoor and action sports group, which includes The North Face, Vans and Timberland.

investors indicated their ap-proval of the numbers by sending shares of VF up $10.61, or 7.5 per-cent, to $152.42 in New York stock exchange trading Thursday.

Wiseman said that Timberland’s 2011 performance exceeded expec-tations and that it’s currently ahead of plans for 2012.

“overall, Timberland is a little ahead of schedule, but the truth will be told about that acquisition and whether it delivered what we paid for it probably in 2015,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do on our apparel launch for fall 2013. sixty percent of its business is outside the U.s. and it’s got a very successful apparel business in asia, where footwear and ap-parel are about even.”

on track to generate about $1.5 billion in sales this year,

Wiseman believes Timberland apparel could grow “another $300 million.”

he remains bullish about the potential for VF’s direct-to-con-sumer business, which, helped by Timberland’s contribution, expanded to 21 percent of rev-enues, or about $450 million, from 18 percent a year ago. VF plans to add about 130 stores to its 1,050-unit footprint at the end of 2011. “That’s still a big oppor-tunity for us,” he said.

similarly, he noted that VF brands are generally underpene-trated in china, where sales rose 34 percent in the second quarter, led by a 50 percent increase in jeans.

“We’ve got about 2,200 points of sales in china across four brands, and some of the big foot-wear players there have 10,000,” he noted. “a lot of runway? Yes. We have plenty.”

While lee remains VF’s big-gest brand in china, it’s struggled against weakness in the midtier channel in the U.s., where its revenues fell during the quarter.

Without direct reference to J.c. Penney co. inc. or Kohl’s corp., Wiseman commented, “The midtier in general is hav-ing a difficult time right now and one of the issues is foot traf-fic. What we look at is whether we’re a headwind or a tail-wind for [those stores]. With lee, we’re outperforming total store numbers and those for the denim category. The answer is that you have to take share.”

Hermès Sales Increase Despite Headwinds

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WWD.COM3WWD FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012 3

INVESTOR RESPONSE to William Ackman revealing his stake in Procter & Gamble Co. was rather tepid.

Shares of P&G closed up 0.15 percent to $64.92 on Thursday, following news on Wednesday that Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management took a $1.8 billion stake in the consumer products giant. Pershing’s interest in P&G was revealed last week when the Federal Trade Commission gave Pershing, the $10.5 billion hedge fund, clearance to take a large stake in the company.

That prompted many Wall Street

analysts to speculate that the activist investor could push to replace P&G’s chief executive officer Bob McDonald as the company continues to lose share and traction in developed mar-kets. P&G responded to chatter about a leadership change on Wednesday by declaring in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it was standing by McDonald and his plan for the company. The statement also said the board was “monitoring” the plan’s effectiveness.

— MOLLY PRIOR

By VICKI M. YOUNG

TEEN AND PRETEEN discount retailer Five Below on Thursday saw strong inves-tor support in its first day of trading as a public company that sent its shares up as high as 73.1 percent from where it priced the night before.

The Philadelphia-based firm priced its shares at $17 each Wednesday night, which was at the top end of its pricing range. The shares opened at $26.10, and ended the trading session up 55.9 percent to close at $26.50 after rising as high as $29.43 in in-traday trading.

The firm is the second teen-focused retailer to go public this year. Surf-and-skate chain Tilly’s Inc. had its initial pub-lic offering in May.

Five Below, which targets aspirational teens even though it sells its offerings at $5 or less, sold 9.6 million shares and raised $163.5 million. Five Below said Thursday it expects to receive $72 mil-lion after deducting underwriting com-missions and offering costs. Part of the

proceeds will be used to repay at least $50 million of outstand-ing debt under its new term loan facility, and the balance for general corporate purposes.

The company was founded by David Schlessinger and Tom Vellios in 2002. Schlessinger founded educational-focused

toy chain Zany Brainy, while Vellios was that firm’s former chief executive officer.

There were 199 stores across 17 states as of April 28. The company posted $16 million in net income on $297 million in net sales for fiscal 2011.

Ackman Reveals P&G Stake

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — Gains in all geographic markets ex-cept for Italy, and a 52 percent jump in Greater China, helped newly pub-lic Brunello Cucinelli SpA post 16.1 percent growth in revenues in the first six months of the year. In the period ended June 30, the Italian lux-ury fashion house regis-tered preliminary sales of 135.2 million euros, or $174.4 million, compared with 116.5 million euros, or $163.1 million, in the first half of last year.

Dollar amounts have been converted at aver-age exchange for the pe-riods to which they refer.

“We are more than satisfied with how things are going for our busi-ness,” said Cucinelli, who on April 27 listed the company he founded in 1978 on the Italian Stock Exchange. “We are espe-cially pleased with the figures which, being sus-tained by the sales qual-ity, point to a very inter-esting six months ahead in terms of profits.”

The entrepreneur, known for his high-end cashmere, said “there is a great deal of inter-est at the international level for this impressive-ly crafted Italian luxury,

casual-chic style of cloth-ing, which illustrates our belief in the importance of beauty, literature and science, the hallmarks of our culture.”

In the first six months, exports accounted for 73 percent of sales, com-pared with 68 percent in the same period last year. All international markets posted double-digit growth. Sales in the U.S. rose 23 percent, showing significant in-creases in its retail and wholesale channels.

European markets were up 17 percent, boosted by Russia and the former Soviet Union countries.

The performance in Greater China and in the rest of the world was es-pecially noteworthy. Sales in Greater China, which rose 52 percent and still represent just 5 percent of the group’s total rev-enues, were led by the opening of stores in cit-ies including Shanghai, Macau and a second unit in Hong Kong. Revenues in the rest of the world grew 53 percent, with significant increases in Japan and Korea.

Italy suffered, with sales declining 3 per-cent. Tourists helped the performance in Brunello Cucinelli stores, while the multibrand channel

lagged behind, particu-larly in smaller towns.

Globally, results in the monobrand channel ben-efited from the opening of direct retail stores and franchised venues. The retail channel showed a 49 percent growth, reach-ing sales of 30.4 million euros, or $39.2 million. The franchised chan-nel’s performance was equally solid, climbing 47 percent and totaling 21.8 million euros, or $28.1 million.

Sales at the multi-brand division were up 2 percent to 83 million euros, or $107 million, led by a positive perfor-mance at top internation-al department stores.

Store expansion is in line with the company’s plans. Through the open-ing of 15 stores, six fran-chised, the total number of banners has reached 70 units, of which 40 fran-chised, compared with 55 at the end of June last year.

Among the openings were venues in Hong Kong, Moscow, Shanghai, in Azerbaijan’s Baku, Mexico City, Chicago, Amsterdam, Madrid, Geneva and Florence, and in exclusive resorts St. Moritz and Spain’s Puerto Banus.

Net profit and detailed first-half results will be available on Aug. 28.

Cucinelli Sales Rise 16.1%

By DAVID LIPKE

THE MEMORY of the late Marvin Traub hung thick in the lofty environs of the Four Seasons Grill Room in New York on Wednesday evening at the launch of the “Pin Down Bladder Cancer” initiative. The fund-raising and public awareness campaign was created earlier this year by Marvin Traub Associates, the consult-ing firm headed by Traub until his death from bladder cancer last week.

“We thought about maybe canceling this event out of respect. But we all fig-ured that’s the last thing Marvin would have wanted,” said Mortimer Singer, pres-ident of Marvin Traub Associates. “This is what he loved. He loved charity and he was a big philanthropist in his own right.”

The campaign enlisted accessories maker hook + Albert to create a purple, black and yellow pin that raises money for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Bladder Cancer Research Fund. The pins sell for $22.50 and are available at Gilt.com, hookandalbert.com, Bonobos.com and Pindownbladdercancer.org. They are also available in-store at Billy Reid and overseas at Aishti in Lebanon and Bloomingdale’s Dubai. (Traub was chief executive officer of Bloomingdale’s for 13 years.)

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a pit stop at the event with girlfriend Diana Taylor. “This tells you what New York is all about. We don’t just sit around and complain about things. We try to do something about it,” he declared dur-ing a brief address. “Marvin Traub is some-one we are going to remember, who made a big difference. This is a good cause.”

Bloomberg was lured to the Four Seasons by Margie Kestner, who runs the pro shop at the Deepdale Golf Club in Manhasset, Long Island, where the mayor is tutored in his swing by Kestner’s hus-band, Darrell. “At first, I thought I’d just hit him up for some dough, because he has plenty of it. But then I decided to ask him to come and shake a few hands and kiss a few babies,” quipped Kestner, who said Bloomberg favors Ralph Lauren’s RLX golf pants and Peter Millar shirts.

“He’s a little short and they fit him well.”A group of more than 50 stylish New

Yorkers have been recruited to act as official ambassadors for Pin Down Bladder Cancer, many of whom were at the event, including Ivanka Trump, Andrés and Lauren Santo Domingo, Lauren Remington Platt, Christina Floyd Di Donna, Alex Kramer and designers Carlos Campos and Waris Ahluwalia. Also on hand to support the campaign were Theory’s Andrew Rosen, Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini, Fern Mallis, Hayley Bloomingdale, Zani Gugelmann, Jonathan and Somers Farkas, Sophie Elgort, Hansel Elgort, Scott Lipps, Alex Tisch and singer Diego Garcia, who per-formed for the crowd.

Many attendees remembered Traub as a networker and connector par excellence. “I’ve known him from when I first joined the family business. He brought us one of the first deals that I looked at,” recalled Trump, who added that a friend’s mother is currently battling bladder cancer. “He was always traveling and he knew everyone.”

Lauren Santo Domingo said she met her business partner in luxury e-tailer Moda Operandi, Aslaug Magnúsdottir, through Traub. “He made the introduction, which was the first step,” she noted. Magnúsdottir previously cofounded investment vehicle TSM Capital with Traub and Singer.

Lisa Anastos, the founder of Arthood.com, knew Traub from her days as a partner in the Christian Francis Roth business in the Nineties. “Marvin was an incredible champion of young design-ers and he was extremely supportive of Christian…and was extraordinarily gen-erous with his time and advice,” she said.

While mourning the death of its com-pany’s founder, the team at Marvin Traub is “already back in the trenches and back in the saddle,” working on projects, noted Singer. Among those are the opening of a new luxury retailer in Johannesburg, which is being advised by former Neiman Marcus chairman and ceo Burt Tansky, a senior adviser at Marvin Traub Associates.

“It’s emotional but the company is set to continue. Marvin had the presence of mind and the ability to think into the future, as usual, to set the company up to be able to continue and flourish,” said Singer. “It’s my privilege and honor to take that legacy and build on it with the rest of the team.”

Five Below Surges in Public Debut

$26.50

CLOSING PRICE FOR FIVE BELOW AT THE END OF ITS FIRST DAY

OF TRADING.

Initiative Takes On Bladder Cancer

Left: Julian Niccolini and Ivanka Trump. Above: Diana Taylor and Mayor Michael Bloomberg

JONATHAN GRELLER, the top women’s merchant at Hudson’s Bay Co., has left the Toronto-based retailer to join The Doneger Group as chief operating officer, a new position at the company.

The move was surprising considering, just last February, Greller, a senior vice president and general merchandise manag-er, was put in charge of all women’s apparel at The Bay and Lord & Taylor divisions of HBC. It was a far bigger assignment from his prior role overseeing men’s, children’s and intimate apparel at Lord & Taylor. HBC earlier this year consolidated down to one team of general merchandise managers for Lord & Taylor and The Bay, instead of two.

However, by joining Doneger, the 41-year-old Greller becomes a poten-tial successor down the road to Abbey Doneger, the president and chief execu-tive officer of The Doneger Group, a long-

standing consulting firm that assists retail and fashion clients with market research, fashion forecasting, global trends, mer-chandising and product development strategies. Doneger is 61 but is not expect-ed to leave the business anytime soon.

The move triggered a realignment of the women’s team at HBC. MaryAnne Morin, senior vice president and general merchan-dise manager for center core and intimates at The Bay and Lord & Taylor, now also has responsibilities for dresses, suits, swim and coats at both department stores. Connie Hoza has been promoted to senior vice president and general merchandise man-ager for women’s contemporary, modern and classic sportswear at Lord & Taylor and The Bay. Hoza was vice president and divi-sional merchandise manager of contempo-rary and modern sportswear at both stores.

— DAVID MOIN

Greller Exits HBC for Doneger

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was gearing up for an “architecture tour” the following day, while Casta said she hoped to take her five-year-old son to the aquarium or a museum.

Although executives would not confirm square foot-age, the Plaza 66 store, which opens to the public on Saturday, is considered one of Vuitton’s biggest, on par with the Champs-Elysées flagship. The Peter Marino-engineered overhaul, which upgrades the store to “Maison” status, took nearly two years to complete. The facade features an interlocking mesh of white metal over mirrored glass, echoing the brand’s monogram. Interior elements include Italian marble floors, a striking circu-lar staircase, a private fourth-floor receiving area for VIP guests and a series of outdoor terraces planted with fern pine trees. True to Maison form, the store features a selection of artwork, including a hanging installation of pyrite by Teresita Fernández above the jewelry area and a trio of abstract steel sculptures by Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie. At the opening cock-tail Wednesday night, LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault said he considers the store “one of the most beautiful we ever did with Peter [Marino].”

There are four levels, with an emphasis on some of the house’s most exclusive prod-ucts such as crocodile hand-bags, customizable leather goods, fine jewelry and made-to-order, hand-stitched men’s shoes. While the brand’s famed, logoed canvas items are clearly present, they appear to have taken on a support-ing role in the mix.

Yves Carcelle, who will conclude his tenure as Vuitton’s chief executive officer at the end of this year, said the revamped store represents a subtle, sophisti-cated approach to consumers in a fast-growing market. While careful not to downgrade the perception of the revered canvas, Carcelle acknowledged that the Chinese consumer is evolving fast and is eager for original, luxu-rious products. “This trend to sophistication exists ev-erywhere in the world,” he said during an interview on Tuesday. “The thing that happens in China is that every-thing grows faster, much faster. So what takes 20 years in another country can take five years here, including the personal journey…the world has a tendency to become richer and people who have experienced luxury for some time, well, want to sophisticate their experience.”

Carcelle declined to discuss Vuitton’s business outlook for China ahead of LVMH’s release of first-half figures next week, but he downplayed any evidence of a slow-

down. “No country can survive at 10 to 15 percent [sales growth] every year but still, at a rate of 7.6 [percent], even if it’s a slowdown, it’s still something that we would love to have in France,” he said. At a press conference the next day, Christopher Zanardi-Landi, executive vice president of Louis Vuitton, said the house is “still seeing very, very strong double-digit growth with the Chinese.”

LVMH’s most recent figures indicate that its first-quarter revenue in Asia grew 17 percent, compared with growth of 27 percent for all of 2011, reflecting in part the macroeconomic situation that has seen the Chinese econ-omy cool in recent months. LVMH does not break out sales for Vuitton, which opened its first store in Beijing in 1992 and has about 40 stores in the country.

Carcelle seemed unfazed by a recent development in the country that some observers claim could dent luxury sales. Last week, the Chinese government un-veiled new rules barring government agencies from purchasing luxury items, goods or commodities “above

certain standards,” a move that could put a damper on China’s ingrained practice of gift-giving and exchanging in business and government cir-cles. Carcelle said a period of uncertainty is to be expected as China heads toward a lead-ership change later this year.

“In every country, when you have a change of government, you have a little bit of a period of uncertainty before,” he said. “I am quite convinced after

[the leadership change] things will become more normal. “This is a very specific period and I would not jump into

drawing conclusions too quickly.”To coincide with the reopening of the store, Vuitton

has staged an exhibition in the atrium of the Plaza 66 mall showcasing the brand’s history and long-standing connection with the world of travel. The exhibit, which runs through Aug. 12, features a collection of archive items, from a 1930 logoed desk trunk to the nurse out-fits that were part of Jacobs’ collaboration with Richard Prince. There are also plenty of high-tech touches, like an iPad preview of an upcoming book of Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s vintage hotel labels.

Carcelle said the brand plans to open a few more stores in the near future, including a Maison in Beijing’s China World mall next year, but its primary focus is on expanding and renovating its current network. “Some of our colleagues have decided to go much more deeply into the Chinese landscape. Basically, we are staying in provincial capitals. We don’t plan to go further,” he said. “We are not available everywhere in China.”

4 WWD FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012

Louis Vuitton’s Shanghai Express

Alexa Chung

Fan Bingbing

The exterior of the Louis Vuitton Shanghai flagship.

The staircase, anchored by Qiu Zhijie’s steel sculpture.

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Louis Vuitton’s Shanghai Express

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PHOTOS BY:STEPHANE FEUGEREJACKSON LOWENDAVE TACON

Huo Si Yan and Wang Luodan

Poppy Delevingne

Gong Li and Bernard Arnault

Du JuanLaetitia Casta

The Vuitton train stops in Shanghai.

The Vuitton exhibit in the Plaza 66 atrium features the nurses uniforms Marc Jacobs designed during his collaboration with Richard Prince.

The packed house at the cocktail party.

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SHANGHAI — “When we first arrived it was dark, and seeing all the lights, I just thought, ‘Wow, it’s so futuristic-look-ing,’” Marc Jacobs said of his arrival in Shanghai. Though he has visited Hong Kong several times, this marks his first time to Mainland China. “The little time I’ve been here so far, I’ve enjoyed, and it looks cool.”

Jacobs made the trip for the major initiative celebrating the reopening on Wednesday of Louis Vuitton’s newly reno-vated, massive Maison store in the Plaza 66 shopping mall. Two days of festivities concluded Thursday night with a com-plete restaging of the brand’s fall travel-themed ready-to-wear show, for which the now-famous, specially commissioned train was shipped in.

WWD caught up with the designer the night before the show. Sporting a black kilt and red-and-black platform shoes (and a Band-Aid on his forehead, covering a cut sustained in a fall earlier in the week) he sat for an interview in an 85th-floor suite of the Park Hyatt, its windows overlooking the hazy skyline, a seemingly endless stretch of high-rise buildings. “It’s not like I’ve gone out late at night,” he said, explaining his limited impressions of the city. “I haven’t been too adventurous. I’ve not walked around the shops or done anything like that.” He did manage a visit to one antiques mar-ket and a dinner with Vogue China editor in chief Angelica Cheung.

The idea of restaging Vuitton’s train extravaganza in Shanghai came out of a conversation between the designer and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault after the original show in Paris in March. “He, of course, is very keen on us doing more things in Asia…and the next thing you knew, the train was being boated over to Shanghai,” Jacobs said.

He noted a key difference between doing the show here and executing the original one in Paris: having a complete collection. “It was so funny to see every-thing ready and made and finished, be-cause the frenzy to put on this show in

Paris was so different. [There] we were holding up one sleeve of an ostrich jack-et and looking for a bolt of fabric that wasn’t in the right color but would even-tually arrive in the right color later that evening.…The atmosphere downstairs [here] was so calm.”

Between puffs on Marlboro Golds, Jacobs noted that it’s “a good public re-lations practice” to take fashion shows on the road, bringing them closer to the actual consumers in various global mar-

kets. Yet he cautioned it’s important to keep such productions occasional, rath-er than routine, events. “You have to be a little bit careful. I think there’s some-thing very special about doing something like this, if it isn’t something you do all the time,” he said. “It all sounds very ex-citing, but then when you read too often of the same thing, it sort of feels like, ‘Well, that is what everyone is doing’.…it doesn’t have the rarity or special, you know, feeling.”

Jacobs, who will be in Shanghai until this evening, is looking forward to checking out a few antique places and art galleries. A fan and collector of con-temporary art, he is open to the pos-sibility of collaborating with a Chinese artist at some point should the right op-portunity present itself. Vuitton has fa-mously collaborated with three Japanese creatives — Takashi Murakami, Comme des Garçons’ Rei Kawakubo and, most recently, Yayoi Kusama. Jacobs said it is

mere coincidence that all three hail from the same country, and that he reacts to art instinctively rather than by national-ity. “Any of the collaborations we’ve had or that I’ve participated in, it’s been very instinctive,” he said. “It was because of a particular artist or person whose work re-ally affected me at that moment. If I had that experience with an artist anywhere in the world, you know, then I would cer-tainly extend the same invitation.”

Similarly, Jacobs maintained the luxury

sector’s fascination with China has not af-fected his creative process; rather, it is up to the merchandisers to adapt the product assortment to local tastes. “You kind of need to be free of working by demograph-ics or anything like that,” he explained. “You just need to have a free, creative mind in order to really produce something that has the integrity of design.”

That said, marketing to the global landscape clearly presents its challenges. Just a few weeks ago, Jacobs’ name was trending on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, as Chinese Internet users com-plained about Marc Jacobs’ Free Tibet range of products. Some went so far as to propose a boycott. The chatter appears to have died down, and Jacobs seems eager to keep it that way. He added that the Free Tibet range of products was “short-lived” and no longer in produc-tion. He drew a parallel with how some people at LVMH reacted negatively to his own brand’s pro-Obama stance and anti-George W. Bush store windows four years ago, and said he’s learned a lesson.

“I guess politics and fashion, you’ve always got to be a bit careful because somebody’s going to get offended or somebody’s going to feel it isn’t right,” he offered. “I don’t want to sound stupid or ignorant or anything, but I spend my time in the studio choosing fabric and colors and trying to figure out what we’re going to make.…If you want to avoid controversy, you just don’t do [political] things like that.”

While he also hesitates to categorize global markets superficially, he acknowl-edges that even in his limited exposure to life in Shanghai, this trip has proved an eye-opener. “I hate to talk about plac-es as if they are new markets or some-thing like that. I mean, it’s not the way I think,” he said. “But to be in a particular place that I’ve never been before and, you know, to hear about how enthusiastic people are about fashion here…to bring [the train show] to somewhere to show people outside Paris. I think that is a nice thing if you afford to do it. This is going to be my big Shanghai moment.”

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Marc Jacobs at Vuitton’s Shanghai show.

The Shanghai skyline.

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Tom Ford: Back in Blackbeauty

By Pete Born andJulie naughton

in the last seven years, tom Ford Beauty has steadily evolved from an array of FiFi-winning niche fragrances to a major player on the global luxury stage, with estimated retail sales of $200 million worldwide.

“What started off as a collaboration in the estée lauder brand [with Youth Dew amber nude] and then an initial brand building of a fragrance with Black orchid — and what at the time seemed more of a novelty public-relations act with the Private Blend — has grown into a global fragrance and beauty business, both in men’s and in women’s, and in our collective mind a redefinition of what luxury’s all about,” said John Demsey, group president of the estée lauder Cos. inc. and a driving force behind the beauty brand since Ford signed his li-censing deal with the company in 2005.

Demsey and other executives re-fused to break out numbers, but indus-try sources estimate that the Ford brand could ultimately reach a retail volume plateau of $500 million within five years.

“this brand sits at the pinnacle of true luxury in beauty and has huge ap-peal to the high-end consumers around the world,” said Fabrizio Freda, presi-dent and chief executive officer of the lauder company. asked what hurdles the brand has to leap to fulfill his as-pirations for it, Freda replied, “First of all, the brand in the area of beauty would need to continue developing at the high-end retailers of the world the makeup line. tom Ford Beauty represents a true shift in the business model for fragrances as well, because it’s really focusing on the high-quality, high-touch service kind of fragrance.” Discussing the momentum the brand is riding in the u.s., europe and the Middle east, Freda added, “i am look-ing forward to expanding to asia, where the consumers are focused on this true luxury even more. the u.K. and the Middle east are already strongholds.”

he noted that the Ford brand fits his earlier comments about reimagining and reviving the fragrance category in general. “We see tom Ford as a brand that can really help us shift the business model in fragrance toward the high end and toward great fragrance that includes high quality and high service,” he said.

the strength of the Ford business is now mostly in europe, with 55 percent of the volume, and in the u.s., at 27 per-cent, and a big 15 percent chunk in travel retail. as part of the development drive, lauder is laying the groundwork to go east by planting the tom Ford banner in hong Kong, tokyo, osaka and singapore in the next fiscal year, with plans for an asia rollout in fiscal 2015.

the geographic concentration of the business makes sense considering that for most of its seven-year history — since signing a licensing deal with lauder — tom Ford Beauty was a fragrance-driven business. But that dynamic began to shift in 2010, when Ford dipped his toe into the color-cosmetics business with a line of lipsticks. that was a prelude to last september, when the Ford brand emerged as a complete beauty house with the intro-duction of a 132-stockkeeping-unit color collection — including skin care — and joined forces with the popular high-pig-ment lipstick line. the color collection’s $30 nail lacquers — of the 16 shades, top sku’s are Bordeaux lust and Coral Blame

— are said to be particularly strong sell-ers. of color, Caroline geerlings, president of tom Ford Beauty and new Business at lauder, noted, “With cosmetics, we re-ally accomplished what we set out to do, and going forward we see even more ac-celerated growth.” the color line is in 40 top specialty-store doors globally, includ-ing neiman Marcus, Bergdorf goodman, selfridges and harvey nichols. By year-end, Demsey and geerlings expect the color distribution to expand to 60 doors globally, with another 40 doors added next year for a total of 100.

While executives refused to quantify that with a number, industry sources esti-mated that the color line has done about $40 million at retail globally in its first year on counter. the lipsticks are also distrib-

uted in upper-tier Private Blend doors, and industry sources estimate the 40 beauty doors generated the remaining $35 mil-lion in the past year. this october, the de-signer will launch his first signature men’s fragrance since 2009, tom Ford noir, and it could produce global retail sales of $15 million in its first year. it will retail for $90 for a 1.7-oz. eau de parfum and $125 for a 3.4-oz. edp. that launch will be preceded in september by the introduction of a Private Blend quartet of scents under the Jardin noir banner of four midnight-blooming scents — narcissus, hyacinth, rose and lily. industry sources estimate that the four Jardin noir fragrances could generate a combined $17 million at retail globally in their first year on counter.

“tom Ford is a luxury brand, and our signature fragrances are prestige. rarely do you see an edit in a lineup where price point is not the first consideration,” Demsey continued, pointing out that the touchstone of the Ford brand was not price point but “what’s being sold and the quality and what it looks like.” the results bear that out. Despite charging a rarefied $48 for a lipstick, that category leads the brand’s color cosmetics assortment with 30 percent of the color business. eye makeup

is second, with 25 percent, even with a $75 price tag for an eye-shadow quad.

in the development of the brand, Ford began with scents, launching fall 2005’s Youth Dew amber nude and spring 2006’s azurée under the estée lauder brand banner before unveiling Black orchid under his own name in september 2006. according to industry sources, Black orchid is Ford’s biggest fragrance, with sales of $35 million at retail per year in a distribution of only 2,500 doors globally.

the Ford beauty business is struc-tured like a rectangular triple-layer cake. the top layer is comprised of the color-cosmetics collection, which was launched last fall and already claims 20 percent of the total business. the bot-

tom two strata are fragrance: tom Ford Private Blend, which initially launched with 12 unisex fragrances in March 2007, has grown to be a pow-erhouse for the brand. it is the more higher-priced, artisanal portion of the fragrance assortment, with prices to match: $205 for a 50-ml. edp, or 167 euros at current exchange. tom Ford for Men launched in september 2007.

What executives refer to as the “aspirational” side of the business is the series of lower-priced signature fragrances, including Black orchid, Violet Blonde, grey Vetiver, extreme and tom Ford for Men, which begin at $70 for a 30-ml. edp and reach $150 for a 100-ml. edp. Private Blend has grown to 16 scents, including neroli Portofino, italian Cypress and tuscan leather; the Jardin scents launch-ing this fall will bring that total to 20. neroli Portofino has even spawned its own bath-and-body line — the scent and its new ancillaries were repack-aged in Mediterranean-inspired blue packaging and began selling last spring. Demsey noted that the differ-ent scents have their own audience in individual markets — “tuscan leather in russia is like the Czar’s second Coming.” he added, “these are the shoppers of the world.”

lauder capitalized on Ford’s incli-nation to become a pioneer in the now-common practice of assembling a suite of artisanal, high-quality fragrances and creating a commercial platform to build the business. “You haven’t seen

this type of diversity of fragrance since the seventies,” Demsey said.

according to Demsey, the original con-cept of the brand was that beauty would be at the top of the aspirational pyramid, and that the lion’s share of the business would be done in the more aspirational reaches of the signature line. however, he noted, it has proven to be more of an even split. “the aspirational nature of the business — though successful — is not disproportion-ately bigger than the luxury piece,” said Demsey. “that’s very unusual, because usually what you see on brands that de-velop a hierarchy in terms of price-point architecture is you’ll see a very tiny luxury position, and you’ll see a very broad reach on the bottom in terms of what would be considered prêt-à-porter or diffusion.”

speaking of the u.s. market, he ob-served, “We’re not playing in the broader fragrance market. We’re playing in the specialty-fragrance arena.”

this pioneering effort put a luxury spark back into the fragrance business, which had become commoditized, he said. “if you really look at where this was all going in the beginning of [this] century, the fragrance business had traded down so dramatically in terms of price points, and

the migration in terms of celebrity, that it took tom Ford to put the designer back in the bottle. this shock to the fragrance hierarchy appears to be replicating itself all over the world now, with almost every major designer brand, many of whom have been in business for 50 or 60 or 75 years. so there’s clearly something in this high-end collection approach from a connois-seur’s perspective, which is more focused on ingredient-unique fragrances and per-haps inherently less commercial individu-ally that struck the nerve of the business, which i think put the aspiration back in the fragrance business.”

While acknowledging the contribu-tions of competitors, like Chanel and Dior, Demsey added, “there’s clearly a direction in the general fragrance mar-ket right now that’s less promotional, more aspirational and focused more on service and old-school point-of-sale ex-perience, which built the fine fragrance business to begin with.”

one store where Ford fragrances do well is saks Fifth avenue, where the brand sits in a very respectable ranking. Deborah Walters, saks’ senior vice presi-dent and general merchandise manager for cosmetics, fragrance and intimates, said the Private Blend approach does well in her store. “the whole artisanal type of fragrance just resonates with our customer,” she said.

“[tom Ford Beauty is] a great entry-point brand to a very high-end luxury brand,” said Mark tranter, fragrance and beauty buyer at selfridges. “in terms of beauty, the product is a higher price point, but in terms of fashion, it’s very accessible. it has one of the biggest foot-prints in [selfridges’] beauty hall [and] it is one of our top brands there. it is huge-ly popular. i think the brand has been really instrumental in bringing luxury niche fragrances to the fore. even in this time of austerity, niche fragrances are really coming into their own. it was with the creation of Private Blend that tom Ford really paved the way.”

“it’s true luxury,” said annalise Quest, general merchandise manager of beauty at harrods, of the tom Ford Beauty line. “[tom Ford Beauty] definitely appeals to everyone from our jet-set, affluent clients to an aspirational harrods consumer. it appeals to everyone from women who will purchase a whole [tom Ford] look to an aspirational customer who will purchase a lipstick or a lip lacquer. [the beauty brand] is doing exceptionally well, and we’ve seen continual growth since its launch last year. i think many of the prod-ucts really have cult status. it was led by the lipsticks that came first, and then the nail lacquers and eye quads. We’ve just launched the bronzing powder that comes in oversize tortoiseshell packaging — it’s very luxurious. [the appeal of the pack-aging] for me goes back to women being proud to get their makeup out of their makeup bag and apply it. You would have no qualms about sitting at dinner and tak-ing out tom Ford makeup; there’s a nos-talgic elegance about the packaging.”

one thing that definitely works for the brand is a creative freedom: “We like to say that they were developed for the most discerning customers in the world: us,” said Demsey, pointing to geerlings, whom he has publicly credited with help-ing him develop MaC Cosmetics from a niche brand to a cosmetics powerhouse. “so not everybody has to love everything, and not everything has to be loved abso-lutely everywhere.”

— With contributions from nina Jones

The Jardin Noir lineup.

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Williams to Offer Skin Care on QVCbeautyNEW YORK — It’s difficult to believe by looking at her high-definition-TV-ready complexion, but Vanessa Williams said she’s battled skin problems her entire life.

Her celebrity status gave her access to some of the best doctors, dermatologists and aestheticians in the world, resulting in solutions she wants to make available to as many women as she can.

“I’ve decided to share my secrets,” said Williams, who has made her mark in virtually every facet of entertainment — acting, singing, dancing, producing and now publishing with the release of a book coauthored with her mom called, “You Have No Idea.”

She’s constantly asked by fans to share her skin care regimen, and begin-ning Aug. 3 she’ll do so on QVC when she launches ReVitalistic Skincare.

Industry sources said the five-stock-keeping-unit collection could produce first year retail sales of $10 million and open the door for an expansion into color cos-metics and a possible fragrance launch.

Williams selected QVC because of its broad reach and the convenience of reach-ing women in their living rooms. Following the TV launch, plans call for a brick-and-mortar rollout on a national basis, but Williams would not specify what stores.

For now, she’s squeezing in appear-ances on QVC with a busy shooting schedule for ABC’s new series “666 Park Avenue.” In addition to the launch on Aug. 3, she will appear on another seg-ment on Aug. 18. “Hopefully, they will let me come back for more,” said Williams.

QVC shares in the enthusiasm for Williams’ skin care launch. “We are very excited to be working with Vanessa Williams on her debut skin care collection at QVC. In beauty, we are very selective with our celebrity concepts and products. We were drawn to Vanessa’s project be-cause her passion and dedication are quite impressive,” said Claudia Lucas, QVC’s di-rector of beauty merchandising. She added that Williams’ understanding of skin care and ingredients and her “personal journey in creating her own skin care line” will resonate with QVC customers.

Williams, who is a mother of three, said she has a hectic schedule, which made it more important for her to cre-ate a line that is easy, not time intensive, and suitable for all skin tones and ages. “Living in the moment is something I al-ways strive to do, hectic schedule or not. So, when the parts were put in motion

to launch this skin care line, I knew it was something I want-ed to accomplish, wholeheart-edly, no matter what else I had going on,” she said.

Williams said she was very hands on, compiling ingredi-ents from her own skin care regimen formulated by many of the world’s best skin care ex-perts. “These are the greatest hits that have worked for me as I’ve aged,” she said comparing formulas to hit songs. “I’ve taken proven skin care concepts and improved them. I am involved in every as-pect of it, from the name, the color palette of the packing, the logo and the ingredi-ents. It has been a labor of love and I have loved working on it for years until I knew it was perfect,” she said.

ReVitalistic consists of five products: Re-Start Skin Serum — expected to be the star seller — Re-Contour Neck & Décolleté Cream, Re-Focus Firming Eye Serum, Re-Quench Anti Age Defense Intensive Moisture Treatment and Perfexture Triple Enzyme Skin Perfecting Peel. Prices range from $48 to $68.

The main ingredient is a patented an-tiaging oligopeptide complex that was selected for its wrinkle-fighting proper-ties. The technology also includes hyal-uronic-filling spheres designed to attract moisture, thus smoothing the appearance of the skin. The products can be worn as primers and under foundations. A spe-cial touch is a ginger scent and a quick-absorbing formula. “Texture matters to

me whenever I put a product on my face, so

I’ve created rich, luxuri-ous blends with a smooth

complex giving a weightless feeling,” said Williams.

QVC offers other skin care brands — including Philosophy, Kate Somerville, Perricone MD, Erno Laszlo, Josie Maran and StriVectin — but Williams believes hers will appeal to shoppers in the “same boat” as she was years ago, searching for a “magic potion.”

She’s no stranger to putting her celeb-rity power to work for brands, including Proactiv, a skin care line she represent-ed on infomercials, as well as Allergan’s Botox. She credits Proactiv with getting her “skin on track,” but acknowledged that as she’s aged her skin has changed.

“I’ve tried to age gracefully in front of the camera. The gradual upgrade to high-definition video became brutal for beauty, thus exposing all my flaws. I tried every-thing from attention to lighting to precise makeup, but despite all the tricks, my skin had to endure intense scrutiny by millions. I needed products that were effective in reversing the signs of aging, sun damage and years of travel and makeup. I couldn’t find anything that worked for me,” she said. “So I decided to create my own.”

By BELISA SILVA

Hoping to strike an “extension” chord with women around the world, a new wig and hair-extension company called Luxhair is poised to generate $200 mil-lion in its first year at retail, according to industry insiders.

Fronted by three famous faces — Sherri Shepherd, Daisy Fuentes and Tabatha Coffey — the brand is setting out to make consumers think of hair add-ons as everyday accessories.

“Our goal is creating a social net-work of hair wearers,” said brand ar-chitect Michael Kleinman, who spent 10 years on the concept. “We want wigs, extensions and hairpieces to be part of everyday fashion and beauty.”

Kleinman said that although each Luxhair brand — Luxhair Now by Sherri Shepherd, Luxhair Wow by Daisy Fuentes and Luxhair How by Tabatha Coffey — will be an indepen-dent entity, there will be some market-ing crossover online and in-store. Each of the celebrities, who serve as spokes-women for their respective collections, also collaborated on their lines.

“For me, wigs and hairpieces are an everyday part of my life,” said Shepherd.“One day I can wear what I like to call my ‘Back to you, Barbara’ look — professional and full of layers — and the next day you may see me in my ‘Bubblin’ Brown Sugar’ look — curly, fun and bubbly.”

Shephard’s line is a 12-piece collec-tion of wig and extension pieces. Priced from $69 to $99, color options include 18 shades that range from onyx to silver.

For her line, Fuentes set out “to cre-ate a full wardrobe that incorporated classic looks, gorgeous and flattering

cuts and trendy styles that mimic those on the red carpet,” she said.

Luxhair Wow is a collection of 16 pieces, priced from $9 to $199, includ-ing wigs, hairpieces and extensions, as well as bands and pony falls.

“Being a Latina woman and having such a loyal fan base in the Latina com-

munity, I’m always aware of what my fans are looking for and I am [pleased] my fans now have Luxhair as a go-to op-tion,” said Fuentes. “We will be execut-ing a number of national and regional activities, especially in Latino commu-

nities across the country.”Coffey’s line includes nine pieces

of top extensions and full piece wigs, priced from $79 to $299 and available in 20 shades — from platinum blonde to black. Each look was cut and styled by Coffey and designed to address a host of women’s hair needs.

“Whether it’s difficult to style or naturally thinning hair that can use a little boost, female pattern baldness or illness-related hair-loss issues, there is a large community of women looking for effective and fashionable hair solu-tions,” said the Australian hairstylist and TV personalty. “I wanted to help them love their hair again.”

Across the Luxhair portfolio, all items are woven and treated with a proprietary “texturized style-able keralon,” designed to mimic natural European hair, the most covetable of hair textures, according to Kleinman, and to ensure heat-safe styling.

Luxhair — which will make its debut in September — will be sold across 12,000 doors in the U.S. and abroad.

When it comes to an in-store pres-ence, Kleinman said plans are in place to offer consumers interchangeable displays with mirrors and instructions. Each box will be color-coded: purple for Shepherd, pink for Fuentes and black-and-white for Coffey.

In addition to online distribution, primarily through wigs.com, beauty.com and drugstore.com, Luxhair will also be sold through similar channels in countries like Germany, Italy and the U.K. Plans are also in place to roll out to Japanese, Korean and Chinese markets. The line will be sold on QVC in 2013.

“We know it’s the right time,” he said. “Hair is a woman’s biggest acces-sory. Great hair is more powerful than red lipstick.”

Celebs to Launch Wigs and Extensions

criticalmassFaye Brookman

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By JULIE NAUGHTON

Dr. Dennis Gross is looking to brighten up QVC viewers’ faces with a sneak peek of his newest product, Ferulic Acid + Retinol Brightening Solution.

The product will appear today on QVC’s “Friday Night Beauty” show before its October move into brick-and-mortar distri-bution.

“Having a clinical practice is a fertile op-portunity for me to create products, because I hear what patients are asking for,” said Gross. “One of the top requests is brightening.”

The formula, which he sees as an alter-native to hydroquinone, combines ferulic acid, a natural antioxidant said to fight free radicals, and retinol, intended to im-prove the texture of the skin and give it a smoother, softer, more even appearance. “Together, they form the perfect hybrid to help visibly reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles,” said Gross, noting that they also help address the enzymes respon-sible for melasma and sun spots, and acne discoloration. “With this product, you are getting benefits that neither ingredient can provide on its own. Benefits are visible im-mediately upon application — skin will appear radiant, luminous and firmer.” The formula, which also includes glycolic acid and hyaluronic acid, absorbs quickly with-out residue, he noted, and can be used as a spot treatment or applied all over the face.

The product retails for $85 for 1 oz. In addition to QVC, it will be available at about 1,000 department and specialty store doors, including Nordstrom and Sephora.

While Gross declined to give sales tar-gets, industry sources estimated that the product would do about $5 million at retail in its first year on counter.

Brightening Ahead For Dennis Gross

ReVitalistic Skincare items.

Vanessa Williams

Luxhair collaborators Daisy Fuentes, Sherri Shepherd and Tabatha Coffey.

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MEMO PAD

Royal PortraitThe Duchess of Cambridge got into the Olympic spirit early Thursday when she visited London’s National Portrait Gallery to take in a photo exhibit of personalities from the

one-week-off London games. Naturally, the Duchess chose a dress by Stella McCartney, designer of Great Britain’s Olympic uniforms, for the day. For more, see page 11.

{Continued on page 11}

JUST SAY NYET: Russian dressing in the USA? Not exactly.

As Ralph Lauren licked its public relations wounds this past week after it was revealed that its offi cial U.S. Olympics uniforms were made in China, Dov Charney managed to ride the jingoistic hubbub into some positive press via a story in the New York Post that reported Russia was considering making its 2014 Olympic uniforms in Charney’s American Apparel factory in sunny California. The rich irony was easy to grasp and the story spread as quickly as cheap offshore outsourcing in the Nineties. Diane Sawyer’s “World News Tonight” program on ABC — which fi rst sparked the Ralph Lauren brouhaha on its July 11 newscast — obliquely invoked the Post story during a follow-up segment on July 16. “In a twist, we learned today that Team Russia also wants to wear Made in America in 2014. The Russians say they prefer American-made clothes,” Sawyer told her millions of viewers.

But do they really? ABC did not source that apocryphal sentiment to any actual Russians. WWD reached the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee to check on the group’s sourcing proclivities as they plan for the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. “The Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee is not in negotiations with American Apparel for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. The offi cial outfi tter of the Russian team up to 2016 is the company Bosco Sport,” relayed the organization.

Moscow-based Bosco Sport manufactured uniforms for the upcoming London games in Asia and Europe, according to a spokesman. “Bosco is the offi cial and exclusive outfi tter to the Russian Olympic Committee. Our contract with the ROC means Bosco will be dressing Russia’s Olympians and Paralympians through to Rio 2016, in the same bold and beautiful designs we have been creating for the team since Salt Lake 2002. There is no reason for that to change in the foreseeable future,” the company told WWD.

It was unclear at press time whether Bosco had engaged in any discussions with American Apparel about potentially sourcing future uniforms from its Los Angeles facility. Charney declined to comment on whether American Apparel has had any talks with Bosco.

“I had contact from an organization that is connected to the government. Nothing has been signed but we were in dialogue,” insisted Charney. “I invited them to come to our London store and buy samples at our expense and see what interests them.”

Asked about the denials from the Russian Olympic Committee that there have been any negotiations with American Apparel, Charney responded: “I don’t know that every senior person there knows everything that’s going on with an inquiry about product.”

Besides ABC’s misleading inference, both Forbes.com and Perezhilton.com incorrectly reported on their sites that American Apparel had a done deal for Russian Olympic uniforms — something neither Charney nor the Post had actually stated.

— DAVID LIPKE AND CATHERINE BLANCHARD

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JEWELS AS MUSE: Chanel Joaillerie baubles helped Keira Knightley capture Anna Karenina. PAGE 11

10 WWD friday, july 20, 2012

The Palace of Versailles, one of France’s national treasures, nearly bankrupted the French government under louis XIV. at the New York premiere of “The Queen of Versailles” on Tuesday night — Lauren Greenfield’s documentary about time-share titan David Siegel, his buxom trophy wife Jackie and their own “Versailles” — history tops itself.

“You can now own ‘america’s Versailles’ for $100 million dollars,” a realtor beams during the documentary, producing an illustrated pamphlet of an unfinished 90,000-square-foot single-family home, pronouncing the French with a hard “s.” The film, which won Greenfield a best documentary director award at the Sundance Film Festival and an ensuing lawsuit from David Siegel for defamation, follows the Siegels as they attempt to build the largest house in america in Orlando, Fla. They are inspired both by the Palace of Versailles and the Paris las Vegas hotel. The couple explains during the film that they sketched their dream house on cocktail napkins from a suite at Siegel’s ill-fated Ph Towers Westgate on the las Vegas Strip. The resulting architectural style might be described as “Disney-French.”

“This is a movie about dreams, both individual and collective, and what happens when life doesn’t go as planned;

what is lost and what is found along the way,” Greenfield said, noting that she met Jackie Siegel while photographing Donatella Versace for a project about “wealth and consumerism and the american Dream.”

a photograph Greenfield took of Siegel’s “gold, blingy” Versace purse was published by Time magazine to illustrate what the publication called “The New Gilded age” in 2007.

“She told me about building the biggest house in america and I was hooked,” Greenfield continued. “I had long been interested in this connection between the american dream and home ownership and the way that the home had become this expression of self and identity and success…they were kind of building the ultimate dream.”

Greenfield has previously published photographic collections about growing up female in america with “Girl culture,” eating disorders in “Thin” and teenagers in los angeles with “Fast Forward.”

about a year into filming, the structure is half-finished when the housing bubble bursts, leaving a $100 million folly of gigantic proportions. The Siegels are forced to list the unfinished property for $75 million, and the film closes with the banks circling, as Jackie Siegel puts it, “like vultures around a dying animal.”

“In the end, it wasn’t even about rich people, it was an allegory about the overreaching of america,” Greenfield noted to an audience that included Harry and Peter Brant Jr., Nicole Miller and Dennis Basso.

Still, the film is very much about “rich people.” The Siegels’ somewhat blind attempts to make sense of life as no-longer-billionaires see Jackie blithely asking her youngest children what it felt like to fly commercial, or asking a hertz representative at the airport what her driver’s name is. David Siegel is mostly depicted barking at his family from his retreat in a dimly lit room covered in paperwork, where, he tells the cameras, he intends to “find the money.”

“In the beginning this was a ‘rags-to-riches’ story,” the self-made Siegel tells the cameras, “now it may be a riches-to-rags story.”

Their eight children (including a niece they are raising) might have to go to college now, Jackie notes. There are stretch limousine rides to McDonalds; shopping sprees at Wal-Mart; overextended household staff (one of whom happily lives in the children’s playhouse), and a variety of taxidermied lapdogs and oil-painted portraits of the Siegels (as a gladiator and Roman empress, among other poses) that had an audience

— including those famous for their refined tastes (Mario Buatta, Muriel Brandolini and Todd Oldham were all seated within the same two rows) — stifling horrified laughter. Upon the film’s finish, one voice rang out in the still-dark theater: “Well! I feel like I just got hit by a bus.”

Despite the aforementioned lawsuit, Jackie Siegel herself was on hand at both the screening and the after party at the Royalton. She was accompanied by Kathy Hilton, who noted, “It’s a very moving film to watch.”

Siegel demurred from speaking to press at the party, saying only that “it was a very difficult time in our lives.”

Greenfield surveyed the Royalton from a table toward the entryway, waving lightly at Siegel and hilton, who posed

for photographers. “I have a lot of affection for Jackie and the family,” the director said, “that made me want to tell their story in a way that created empathy, and that’s the biggest reaction that I’ve gotten to this film — that people go in thinking that they might never relate, and they come out thinking that [the Siegels] are surprisingly likeable. I think Jackie and David have a unique quality where their virtues and flaws allow us to see our own.”

and the litigation? “[David Siegel’s] upset now,

but he wasn’t during the making of the film,” Greenfield stiffened slightly. “he just doesn’t like the ending. he wanted it to end with him coming back triumphantly. and for me it was like, it started on the dream and it ended.”

— ALESSANDRA CODINHA

Move Over, Marie Antoinette For more photos, see

WWD.com/eye.

OPeNING ceReMONY is plant-ing its multihued, animal-print flag in london this week with the opening of its first european outpost, in covent Garden. The 3,000-square-foot pop-up store at 31-32 King Street — in a former hackett site — will operate until October, when a larger, perma-nent unit is set to open a few doors away. The move to london marks the 10-year anniversary of Opening ceremony, which al-ready has outposts in New York, los angeles and Tokyo.

The pop-up, which spans two levels, is packed with exclusive 2012 Olympic-themed ready-to-wear and accessories, such as the Proenza Schouler PS1 bag re-worked in shiny gold, and Barton Perreira sunglasses in gold, silver or bronze. It also stocks the store’s best-selling capsule collections from days past, including colorful graphic Vans by Kenzo, animal-print ponyskin Keds and Opening ceremony own-label cat sweaters, which have been reissued in new colors and in men’s sizes.

“We’ve wanted to open in europe for quite some time — we’ve got a good wholesale busi-ness here already, and a really big British customer base online,” said Carol Lim, who cofounded the store with Humberto Leon, during a walk-through this week.

leon added that the store is very much about the american and international roots of Opening ceremony — there are myriad new and updated archive pieces by Norma Kamali, revers-ible dresses by Kenzo, Reyn Spooner aloha shirts, Pendleton blankets and bags.

leon and lim said they are eager to support emerging British talent as well, such as Christopher Shannon, Lou Dalton and Henry Holland, who’s done a red,

white and blue Olympic-inspired capsule collection for Opening ceremony. “I want this to be a home for them, too,” he said.

On Thursday, a rare warm evening in london brought out guests including Delfina Delettrez, holland, Peter Jensen, Dalton and Perez Hilton to celebrate the temporary digs. For her own Olympic-themed collection, jeweler Delettrez had fash-ioned earrings and rings in the shapes of pointy fingers, their nails painted with the U.S. or U.K. flags. “I imagined during the Olympics these girls draw-ing on their nails the flags of their preferred teams,” said Delettrez, who was part of the crowd who had spilled out onto the street. The designer herself will be rooting for “Italy or France,” although she doesn’t have much Olympics viewing in mind. “I’m going on holiday. I’m going to islands in Italy, near Sicily — I just close myself in my island and that’s it,” she said with a grin.

Danish designer Jensen will be embracing the games whole-heartedly — he’ll be serving as a commentator on the events for a breakfast show on Denmark’s TV2 channel. “I’ll be talking about the [athletes’] uniforms and about london as a city,” said Jensen. “It should be good fun.” and ap-propriately enough, given their store’s moniker, leon and lim will be attending the Olympics’ opening ceremony July 27. “It’s kind of full circle for us,” said leon, though he noted he hasn’t been privy to the ceremony’s closely guarded content. “all I know is it’s Danny Boyle [director Boyle is the ceremony’s artistic director] and I’m super excited.”

— SAMANTHA CONTI AND NINA JONES

The Ceremony Before That Ceremony

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WWD.COM11WWD friday, july 20, 2012

Fashion scoops PICTURE THIS: The Duchess of Cambridge sported a vibrant blue Stella McCartney crepe dress Thursday when she visited London’s National Portrait Gallery to see a photo exhibi-tion of athletes and individuals in-volved with the London Olympics.

Her fashion choice was an appropri-ate one, given that McCartney has cre-ated the uniforms for Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic teams. The duchess is both a patron of the National Portrait Gallery and an ambassador for Team GB and Paralympics GB.

The show, titled “Road to 2012: Aiming High,” showcases images of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, in-cluding tae kwon do athlete Jade Jones and sprint swimmer Fran Halsall, to shots of London Mayor Boris Johnson and chefs who will work in the athletes’ village dining hall at the Olympics. The exhibi-tion runs through Sept. 23. — NINa JoNES

SoM MoVING oN: After five successful seasons consulting on Tommy Hilfiger’s women’s runway collection and acces-sories, Peter Som is giving up the gig. He won’t be consulting on the spring 2013 women’s runway collections. Som was brought in as a creative consultant in 2009 to refresh the label’s image in the U.S., especially among luxury custom-ers, and to bring a modern interpreta-tion to many of Hilfiger’s signature styles. Both camps confirmed that the decision was mutual and amicable and reserved the possibility that Som would work with the brand in the future.

“It was a pleasure getting to know Tommy personally, and an honor to work with him — he has been a won-derful mentor. I look forward to focus-ing on my own business and the other opportunities I have ahead of me,” said Som Thursday. Going forward, the company’s in-house team will work directly with Hilfiger on the women’s runway collections.

Simon Spurr, who has consulted on the men’s collection for three seasons, will continue in his current role as a consul-tant for the spring 2013 collections.

— LISa LoCkwooD

MY PRECIoUS: There’s been a lot of buzz about the costumes for the soon-to-be-released Joe wright-helmed adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy classic, “Anna Karenina,” which were made by Oscar-nominated designer Jacqueline Durran. But what about the impressive baubles? For the film’s female lead, keira knightley, the jewelry — created by Chanel Joaillerie — proved just as important as the frocks for getting into character. “Seeing as vanity is one of [Karenina’s] main personality traits, the symbolic opulence of the pieces nour-ished that,” stated the actress, who in the film got to parade a number of precious stunners by the house, including a pearl sautoir and a diamond necklace with a camellia motif.

As with the costumes, Wright liked the idea of using anachronistic jewelry from another era, helping set the charac-ter apart from her entourage. Other films that have featured Chanel Joaillerie pieces include “Gosford Park” and “Vanity Fair.” — kaTYa FoREMaN

DRESSING SaN MaRINo: Salvatore Ferragamo has entered the Olympic arena, designing uniforms for the ath-letes of the Republic of San Marino, Italy’s independent microstate.

The lineup, which covers everything from leisure time to gala events, mixes sporty functionality with the brand’s sig-nature sartorial allure.

For official ceremonies, Ferragamo creative director Massimiliano Giornetti paired a blue linen blazer, worn over a crepe de chine shirt, with white cotton pants for women, while for men, the de-signer created a faintly pin-striped suit.

A trench, lightweight down jacket, cashmere sweater, cotton beige pants and poplin button-down shirts, along with a white silk crepe dress with a draped neckline, complete the women’s wardrobe.

Giornetti’s Olympic men’s wear is equally sophisticated, including a knit-ted bomber with a detachable nylon vest, a trench matched with a cashmere turtleneck and blue chinos, and a blue blazer paired with beige cotton pants. — aLESSaNDRa TURRa

EVERYTHING’S BIGGER IN…: H&M contin-ues to colonize Texas. The latest loca-tion, scheduled to open in the fall, is a 24,000-square-foot flagship in Austin at The Domain, a mixed-use center with high-end retail and residences.

The new H&M unit at The Domain will offer collections for men, young women and young men, with separate “store within the store” sections for accessories, maternity and lingerie. H&M at The Domain will also carry the Swedish retailer’s children’s collection, which features clothing for newborns up to kids age eight.

The Austin address will be H&M’s seventh location in Texas; H&M oper-ates units not only in the largest cit-ies but also in Mesquite, Plano and Friendswood. A 19,400-square-foot store at the Baybrook Mall in the Greater Houston area opened in May, followed by a 25,600-square-foot unit at the Willowbrook Mall. H&M entered the Dallas market last August with a store at the NorthPark Mall, while a unit at the Galleria Dallas opened in March. H&M’s largest U.S. store remains a three-level, 55,000-square-foot flagship that opened in New York in 2010.

— SHaRoN EDELSoN

keira knightley in a scene from Joe wright’s “anna karenina.”

olympic wear

designed by Ferragamo.

HaVE SToRY, wILL TRaVEL: The New Republic is just now seeing the fruits of its initial hiring spree earlier this year. It’s sitting on a runaway hit of a piece in a personal essay from walter kirn, “Confessions of an Ex-Mormon.”

The item, in this week’s issue, has been plastered in all the usual fan sites — Longreads, Longform.org, Byliner — and many an ardently followed journalists’ twitter feeds. Beyond the online reaction, Kirn told WWD he’s never experienced such “overwhelming response to anything.”

It’s an affirmation of the magazine’s new guard, and voice. A piece as memoirish in tone would not have appeared in the old, wonkish New Republic.

It almost didn’t appear in editor Frank Foer’s TNR either. The piece was originally intended for GQ, Kirn’s old employer. For GQ, there’s a sense of déjà vu in missing out on another talked-about story — Michael Hastings pitched his explosive profile of General Stanley McChrystal to the magazine, but it had already had a similar assignment out.

But the magazine intended to publish Kirn’s piece until he jumped to TNR in May. Kirn has been contributing to GQ since 2001, mostly extensive personal essays and short items on film. In February, he was hired as a regular political blogger at gq.com.

He and his editor, Mark Lotto, conceived the Mormonism piece early in the year and Kirn started writing it in April.

By the time Foer reached out to Kirn in May about joining his magazine, the piece had been pushed out of the July issue because of space, and neither Kirn nor Lotto wanted to cut.

Kirn understood that to mean the status of the piece was uncertain. And when TNR came calling, he took the piece with him. He says he wasn’t sure if the piece legally belonged to GQ, and didn’t ask.

“I just wasn’t sure of its fate at GQ. It was a judgment call. It was a piece I had to do right by, and the version I wanted to publish was more appropriate for TNR,” he said.

He was gratified the editors made it the magazine’s cover story, which would not have happened at GQ.

While Kirn says GQ brass was unenthusiastic about the piece, sources at 4 Times Square say the magazine

had every intention to publish it in the August issue. The photo department spent months digging up archival images and a layout had already been produced. Editors at the magazine were surprised when Kirn jumped, but even more so that he had taken the piece with him.

GQ editor Jim Nelson confirmed as much. “We were disappointed Walter chose

to take the story with him, since the story originated with us; we had worked on it, had high hopes for it and had every intention of running it,” he wrote via e-mail. “Frankly, it didn’t seem right to me, but Walter made the unilateral decision, and that was that. I still think Walter is a wonderful writer, and I expect great things from him at The New Republic.”

Kirn seems to have been replaced in the August issue by a wells Tower feature on Mitt Romney.

Kirn clarified that he enjoyed his time as a contributor — four months in all. “GQ was really nice to me in letting me write a really eccentric political column for their Web site,” he said. “There’s no bitterness on my part.” But he relished the chance to join a magazine that was “going for its ninth life.”

At The New Republic, he’ll be writing a print column for the duration of the campaign, as well as blogging occasionally.

“I have a take on the campaign as an event in culture. What campaigns do is throw open the doors in a way that allows us to see ourselves,” he said. — ERIk MaZa

MeMo pad{Continued from page 9}

The New Republic cover.

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By BELISA SILVA

TALK ABOUT SHADES OF GRAY.As the ethnic makeup of the

U.S. consumer continues to be-come more multiracial, cosmetics companies are looking to address a more nuanced audience. This past year, brands like Dior, L’Oréal Paris and Burberry Beauty have expanded their shade offerings to meet increasing demand for a spectrum of skin tones. In addi-tion, retailers like Target Corp. have risen to the challenge, stock-ing their shelves with ethnically oriented indie brands once rel-egated to the salon channel.

“The world today is not a black-and-white one,” said The NPD Group’s vice president and global beauty industry analyst, Karen Grant. “[It is critical to] allow for women to embrace brands without thinking they are making an ethnic choice.”

The new multicultural land-scape reflects a growing num-ber of women in the U.S. who associate themselves with multiple ethnic back-grounds, thus making it difficult for them to find brands that speak to them — or work for them — com-pletely. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans who are made up of two or more races increased by 32 percent between 2000 and 2010. The Census Bureau even concedes that number actually underestimates the total number of multiethnic people in the U.S. Clearly, the days of checking one eth-nicity box to address diver-sity are numbered.

“Brands that have done well have recognized the po-tential in their portfolios,” said Grant, who added that the number of foreign-born individuals who have immi-grated to the U.S. in the last 20 years is 38.5 million, which surpasses the populations of almost 200 countries around the world. Grant also estimated that almost one-third of the popula-tion swell is caused by net im-migration. Looking into the fu-ture, she predicted that about 86 percent of population growth by the year 2050 may be attributed to the immigrant flow since 1992. “The ethnic complexion in the U.S. is constantly changing,” said Grant, who named some of the fastest-growing demographics in the U.S. as Indians, Pakistanis, Middle Easterners, Brazilians

and Hispanics, both as residents and visiting beauty buyers alike. “Even the suburbs of Middle America are so full of culture.”

This new multiethnic con-sumer, Grant said, is typically under age 45, beauty-oriented and underserved when it comes to her beauty needs.

The other side of the U.S. multicultural beauty-buying population derives from afflu-ent tourists from countries like Brazil, who travel to the U.S. to procure their beauty products because of inflated prices in their homelands.

“One of the things [beauty] brands are seeing is that it is not only the homegrown American they are appealing to,” said Grant. “This is a hugely viable market.”

As beauty companies contin-ue their quest to address these new demographics, a noteworthy paradox becomes the danger of alienating mixed-race consumers who do not identify with the sin-gle demographic being targeted.

“Consumers don’t mind hav-ing a brand with a heritage, but at the end of the day, it’s about what works for them,” said Grant, who also warned, “Black models and darker shades does not mean a brand is going to be relevant.”

The point of the complexity of

ethnic labeling was also under-scored by beauty entrepreneur Iman at WWD’s recent Beauty CEO Summit in Palm Beach, Fla.

“I know for a fact that Filipinos look exactly like my skin tone, and they are Asians,” said Somalia-born Iman, who launched Iman Cosmetics in 1994 for all “women of color. Latinas come as dark as I am or blonde [with] blue eyes. I [was never] talking about creating something for black women. At the time, I was talking about a whole global

thing, and it was just at the begin-ning of the multicultural talk we had been hearing.”

Iman set out on her mission to offer products that would work on every skin tone after years ago being made over to look “gray” during her first day working as a model for

American Vogue in New York. “The makeup artist asked me if I brought my own founda-tion,” she said. After she said no, Iman said the result was an unnatural-looking complexion. “You have to understand what foundation means. It is really a self-esteem booster, especially for women with skin of color. It becomes like the holy grail of a product. It is the one that makes you look as beautiful as you can be, as flawless as you can be.”

To that end, in January, L’Oréal Paris revisited its True Match foundation franchise, launched in 1994, to incorporate 14 additional shades for multi-ethnic skin.

“We reevaluated the perfor-mance of the shades on darker tones, [which] had to be rebal-anced with warmth to address the growing Hispanic and African-American [demograph-ics],” said Nathalie Kristo, se-nior vice president of marketing for L’Oréal Paris.

The initiative was accompa-nied with a campaign called The Story Behind My Skin, fronted by brand spokeswomen like Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Amy Mullins, meant to celebrate the cultural heritage of every woman.

For its part, Dior has also set out to be more inclusive in its shade offerings for complexion products by adding to its Diorskin Nude and AirFlash lines.

“Any cosmetics company has to appeal to a broad range of skin tones,” said Terry Darland, president of Dior Parfums North America, who added that part of the Dior model is hiring multilingual beauty consultants. Darland said since the brand entered Sephora stores, it has been able also to reach younger demographics, including multi-cultural shoppers.

Other brands extending their reach include Chanel, which launched its comprehensive and globally oriented Perfection Lumière line of foundations in September 2011, and Burberry Beauty, which tucked in an addi-tional four darker tones into its Luminosity Collection in March. This summer, British color brand Illamasqua also added seven new “.5” shades — each with a

yellow or yellow-and-pink under-tone — to its lineup to address Asian skin tones. In September, Laura Mercier will add two shades to her best-selling Tinted Moisturizer designed for olive and warmer pale complexions.

“The Asian pool, we often group together,” noted Grant, who added that “the range is so diverse culturally” when it comes to foundation tones.

In addition to cosmetics, hair care is another notable beauty category for the multicultural consumer. To that end, retailers like Target have been offering consumers more breadth when it comes to ethnic needs by bring-ing in independent salon brands like Mixed Chicks, Kinky Curly Hair Rules and Shea Moisture.

“We have tripled the space dedicated to multiethnic brands for the past few years,” said Christina Hennington, divi-sional merchandising manager for Target’s beauty division. “This consumer has always had

places to buy beauty prod-ucts, but the mass channel hasn’t been the channel of choice.” Hennington added that many multiethnic con-sumers had traditionally shopped for their hair care products through beauty supply stores and salons.

“Our consumer’s hair is not just relaxed or natu-ral — the style can fall any-where on the spectrum,” agreed Donna Barker, senior director for Unilever, which owns multicultural-orient-ed Motions hair care. “We strive to provide products and resources to help her maintain her signature style, no matter what texture.”

H a i r d r e s s e r Ke n Paves, who calls himself a “Filipino, Portuguese, Romanian Jew,” said ad-dressing multiethnic hair textures — something he has done since his early days in the industry — is in-

creasingly relevant. Paves’ collection, Hairdo,

which is constantly being up-dated to address multiethnic textures and tones, includes crimped kinky waves to smooth straight styles, and everything in-between.

“Beauty should not ever be a problem,” said Paves, whose work has been featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “The X Factor.” “It’s not about fixing anything. It’s about enhancing what women already have.”

Similarly, for Bésame Cosmetics founder Gabriela Hernandez, who was born in Buenos Aires to an Italian mother and a Basque (Spanish and French) father, culture com-plements, but does not define, her brand.

“Bésame started like an eth-nic brand,” said Hernandez. “The fact that I’m Hispanic obviously changed my design aesthetic.”

According to Hernandez, her line of vintage-inspired cos-metics is designed to appeal to women of any race because of its saturation levels and clas-sic packaging. “Larger compa-nies have to segregate people into groups, but I don’t work that way,” said Hernandez,

who counts among her client base Armenians, Indians and Hispanics. “I think of a woman as a whole woman.”

As a multiethnic-beauty shopper herself, Hernandez has found common ground with other demographics when it comes to her beauty needs.

“My hair is very curly, so I buy the heavier serums made for [African-Americans],” she said. “We are so worldly now as

a culture, everything is shared.” As the lines of ethnicity con-

tinue to blur, Grant says beauty brands can take a cue from MAC Cosmetics, which was an early player in the inclusivity game.

“MAC keeps its cool yet strives to never be out of reach,” said Grant, who added that the brand overindexes in Hispanic and African-American markets. “It is surprisingly affordable, and women of all races can wear it.”

Built from the philosophy of “all ages, all races, all sexes,” MAC Cosmetics — from its in-ception — set out to include for-merly omitted beauty consum-ers, like men and women with darker skin.

To that end, the MAC product lineup — which offers more than 200 lipsticks and 160 eye-shadow shades — has always been de-signed to address a broad range of skin tones and provide colors that work on all of them.

“It is a priority that everyone has a shade,” said Karen Buglisi, global brand president of MAC Cosmetics, who said the brand’s best-selling Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation has 46 shades to cover every demographic. To keep its product assortment fresh and relevant, she said, MAC holds biannual “color team” meetings with makeup artists and trainers from around the world, to learn the dynamics of each market-place and share product formu-las, shades and ideas.

“If there are gaps, something that is shifting, product devel-opment, marketing, creative [teams] are all getting this in-formation,” said Buglisi. “The world is a big place, and every market has a nuance.”

For Buglisi, MAC’s concen-tration on the local market en-sures it will continue to address women’s beauty needs.

“We pay attention to what the needs are of consumers all around the world, adapt to that and fold it into the brand.” Buglisi added that MAC’s price point — typically between $14.50 for a lipstick and $30 for a foun-dation — also makes the brand cross-appealing among ethnic groups and income levels.

“We are a brand that lives in communities,” said Buglisi. “We can be on Fifth Avenue and the Champs-Elysées. We can also be in Harlem.”

WWD.COM12 WWD FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012

A collection visual for MAC’s upcoming Styleseeker range.

BEAUTY

Multiethnic Beauty Consumers On the Rise

32%THE INCREASE OF MULTIETHNIC PEOPLE IN THE U.S. BETWEEN

2000 AND 2010

38.5MTHE NUMBER OF FOREIGN-BORN INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE IMMIGRATED TO THE U.S. IN THE PAST TWENTY YEARS.