WWDSTYLEEYE: Dede Reynolds of the duo Dede calls its musical style “yacht pop.” PAGE 8

Trying to put out the fi re.

By ARTHUR FRIEDMAN and KRISTI ELLIS

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, sweatshops haven’t gone away — they’ve just travelled overseas along with the bulk of apparel manufacturing.

However, experts said the industry is making some progress in curtailing egregious abuses in clothing fac-tories in the new era of corporate social responsibility.

A lot has changed in the way the fashion industry does business since that seminal moment in history, which not only led to a raft of new labor laws but also galvanized the labor movement and the public to de-mand new health and safety, and wage and hour, laws on

behalf of tens of thousands of mostly immigrant workers toiling in factories across the nation in the early days of the 20th century.

The tragedy occurred on March 25, 1911, when a fi re broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, located just east of Washington Square Park in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan. The factory occupied the eighth, ninth and 10th fl oors of the 10-story Asch build-ing. The fi re started in a scrap bin on the eighth fl oor, where employees then notifi ed the 10th fl oor switch-board, but the ninth fl oor never received warning. In minutes, the entire factory was engulfed in fl ames.

On the ninth fl oor, the owners had locked one of the two exit doors to prevent theft. A panicked rush of

workers piled up by the other door, which opened in-ward, and would soon be blocked by a wall of fl ames. Some workers ran to the fl imsy fi re escape, but it col-lapsed. The elevators ran as long as they could, but were made inoperable by the force of the working girls jumping down the shaft to avoid the fi re and by exces-sive heat from the fl ames bending their tracks. The fi re department arrived quickly, but their ladders could only reach the sixth fl oor. People on the street watched in horror as the young garment workers leaped out the windows and through the fi remen’s nets.

In the end, 146 people died, most of them Jewish and Italian immigrant women. The fi re occurred during an

{Continued on page 6}

The LessonsOf History

TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE

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retail2 WWDSTYLE monday, march 21, 2011

By LISA LOCKWOOD

NEW YORK — Marimekko, the Finnish design house, is moving ahead with its U.S. expansion plans, opening a flagship here, launching an e-commerce site, and ex-tending its collaboration with Crate & Barrel.

In addition, the company seeks to enter new retail partnerships for clothing and accessories and increase its presence in home furnishings stores.

The flagship will open this fall in Manhattan’s Flatiron District in the “Toy Building,” at 200 Fifth Avenue. With nearly 4,000 square feet of selling space, the store will mirror the recently opened flagship in Helsinki. Both stores are designed by IMA, the Japanese architectural firm, in cooperation with Marimekko’s own store design team. The world of Marimekko prod-ucts will be displayed, with new merchandise showcased each season. Marimekko’s products range from clothing, bags, jewelry and other accessories to furnishings fab-rics and tableware. The flagship’s merchandise mix will be 50 percent fashion and accessories and 50 percent

home, according to a spokeswoman.“Opening a store of our own in an excellent location

in the heart of Manhattan will support our strategy of building Marimekko’s profile and strengthening the brand image,” said Mika Ihamuotila, president and chief executive officer of Marimekko.

Marimekko’s online shop will go live this summer. The Finnish firm is working in partnership with Method in New York to develop the site. In addition, by the end of 2013, Crate & Barrel plans to open 22 Marimekko shop-in-shops in its stores. This spring, shops will open in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The first Marimekko shop opened in the SoHo Crate & Barrel in October. A Marimekko shop will also be added to the Crate & Barrel e-commerce site.

The e-commerce site and flagship will be managed by Marimekko North America Retail LLC, a subsidiary established in the U.S. last year. The business develop-ment initiatives in North America are headed by Lynn Shanahan. Marimekko already has concept stores in New York and Cambridge, Mass.

L.K. Bennett to Open Chicago, Atlanta Units

Marimekko to Expand in U.S., Online

By SHARON EDELSON

ANNE FONTAINE IS no longer wearing her heart on her white-shirted sleeve — a lot of other products are competing for her attention as she builds her business into a lifestyle brand.

Précieuse, a collection of jackets and dresses made from luxury fibers, which was something of a test when it bowed in Fontaine’s Madison Avenue flagship in 2008, is being distributed to other flagships and will be sold in any new stores that the design-er opens. “We’re now expanding that line to other stores,” said Ari Zlotkin, chief execu-tive officer and Fontaine’s husband. “It’s a big success.”

For spring, Fontaine is introducing the Glam collection. The antithesis of the buttoned-up white shirt, Glam is an overtly sexy line of cor-sets, neck collars and transparent tops, rang-ing in price from $1,600 to $2,500. Glam will be sold at flagships. “Some items may be too racy for certain stores or too provocative for certain customers,” Zlotkin said.

Sunglasses made in France are a new prod-uct category for summer. “There’s a real focus on accessories,” Zlotkin said. For spring-sum-mer, there also are leather handbags with flower appliqués, perforated and woven leather belts, and jewelry with flower and butterfly motifs. A new prototype that was unveiled in Cannes, France, in November displays handbags and ac-cessories more prominently, something Fontaine wants to do throughout the chain.

There’s a push to expand the size of exist-ing stores by about 20 to 25 percent, where pos-sible, to accommodate the entire product range. The Dallas unit is being expanded to 1,000 square feet from 600 square feet and a unit at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., recent-ly moved to a larger space.

With 80 stores worldwide, the $85 million Anne Fontaine will open 10 units this year, Zlotkin said. A flagship in Florence will bow in April, followed by a store at the Bal Harbour Shops in Boca Raton, Fla., in May. Four units are scheduled to open in Asia this year in Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Osaka, Japan.

“We were very focused on the shirt,” Zlotkin said. “By doing Précieuse and Glam we’re not abandoning our core products. We thought it was very important to increase the offer and propose to customers other products with the same design spirit. We’re working to make sure we don’t lose the core product.”

Fontaine had hoped to launch a spa at the Madison Avenue flagship by now. A spa was set to open in Miami and two were planned for Asia. The business is on hold, with the only spa in operation at the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré flagship in Paris. “We slowed work on the spa,” Zlotkin said. “Business hasn’t been as good. In Paris, it’s doing well. The spa business needs a lot of capital investment. Considering the economy, we had to make choices and we chose our core business. The spa is a second business. We’re launching a line of skin care products in our stores, but the spa is something we still want to do.”

By BETH WILSON

CHICAGO — As part of its ongoing international expan-sion, British retailer L.K. Bennett will this spring unveil its first U.S. stores here and in Atlanta, with plans to open 30 to 40 more locations during the next three to five years.

The move comes at a time when the company, which gained prominence in the U.K. for its shoe collection, is growing its wholesale apparel and accessories busi-ness here, planning to increase its 10-door presence at Nordstrom and add to the four shop-within-shops man-aged as concessions at Bloomingdale’s.

“We’re going to go slowly,” said Robert Bensoussan, L.K. Bennett’s executive chairman. Bensoussan, who or-chestrated the successful international retail rollout of Jimmy Choo, said this expansion will be more gradual and less scattered, representing a more focused, deeper approach in targeted markets.

Bensoussan’s Sirius Equity, along with Phoenix Equity Partners, purchased the roughly 20-year-old L.K. Bennett from founder Linda Bennett in 2008 for 75 mil-lion pounds, or $120 million. He expects only four U.S. stores will open by next fall, noting the brand is scouting for sites in New York and Boston as well as cities in New Jersey and Florida. Bensoussan plans to use those early locations as testing grounds to see how the U.S. market responds to the brand and to determine which category — clothing, shoes or accessories — sells the best.

Although executives have talked about introducing a second higher-priced line, Bensoussan said “it’s too premature to discuss today,” noting the company is fo-

cused on developing its handbag and jewelry collections, which account for roughly 20 percent of its global busi-ness. The remaining segment is split equally, with shoes and clothing each at 40 percent, he said.

Since joining L.K. Bennett, Bensoussan has estab-lished a new management team and opened locations in Paris, launched wholesale accounts in Germany and recently signed franchise agreements for some 20 free-standing stores to open in the Middle East during the next five years. Bensoussan is trying to position L.K. Bennett as a design-driven international retail brand with a luxury twist.

In the U.S., the brand’s first store will debut in Chicago on the third floor of the 900 Shops at 900 N. Michigan Avenue. The 1,800-square-foot space is locat-ed near other British retailer Karen Millen and is esti-mated to generate annual sales of $1 million. Predicted bestsellers include a $575 snake print Anna bag, the $375 Davina wool dress and $325 Wilder silk jersey leopard print dress.

Overall, dresses average $275, with footwear ranging from $145 for sandals to $600 for boots and handbags spanning $185 to $595. In Atlanta, a 1,750-square-foot lo-cation is scheduled to open on May 15 at Phipps Plaza next to Vince. Both U.S. stores will reflect the decor of other newer L.K. Bennett locations, which boast mir-rored displays, glass chandeliers, woolen rugs, and a beige and soft powder pink color palette.

Global annual sales are estimated at 100 million pounds, or $160 million, with roughly 86 percent of rev-enues coming from the U.K. The brand operates 66 free-standing stores and 54 concessions.

Anne Fontaine Grows Précieuse, Adds Glam

The Manhattan flagship will be modeled after the Helsinki store, shown here.

The Manhattan flagship will be modeled after the Helsinki store, shown here.

Anne Fontaine’s Cannes flagship opened in November.

innerwear3WWDSTYLE MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011

Yummie Tummie Branches Out By KARYN MONGET

ShE’S dESiGNEd fOR diddy, Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé. Now heather Thomson is expanding her Yummie Tummie shapewear label into a life-style brand.

Thomson, who created her compa-ny Times Three Clothier in 2008 after serving as co-creative director at Sean John, JLO by Jennifer Lopez and house of deréon, will be launching a denim line in June 2011 and a swimwear collection in July 2011. The jeans-wear will be under the Yummie by heather Thomson banner, and the swimwear will be named Yummie Splash by heather Thomson.

This spring, Thomson initiated her foray into additional apparel cate-gories with a soft launch of ready-to-wear sepa-rates by Just Yummie Essentials by heather Thomson. The rtw sepa-rates retail under $200.

Thomson noted that the rtw is “designed to offer everyday versatil-ity and easy pieces to a woman’s wardrobe that can be mixed and matched.”

“You can layer one of the rtw tops under a blazer you already have in your closet, or match one of our tops with a blazer from our new fall collection,” said Thomson.

The denim line will be distributed in

the U.S., Australia and Europe, and will retail from $168 to $178, depending on the dye shade. The denim will be avail-able in four washes and will be ren-dered in three silhouettes — boot cut, skinny and straight fit.

The swimwear, produced in a col-laboration with London-based Seaspray Swimwear, will be expanded into a full collection in 2012. The initial size range will be 4 to 16 with the potential of plus sizes in the future, she said.

“Styling will include chic one-pieces with shaping seam lines and beautifully draped one- and two-pieces with sheer overlays. Everything will give the illusion of a slim-mer silhouette,” said Thomson, who created her Yummie Tummie shapewear label after she couldn’t find post-maternity shapers that were comfortable and fashionable.

Regarding sales growth, Thomson said, “Yummie Tummie as a business grew over 75 percent last year with significant growth in U.S. department

stores, online and overseas markets. Yummie Tummie is currently sold in 1,000 doors domestically and 600 doors internationally, and currently has distribution agreements in the U.K., italy, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and Austria, as well as exten-

sive sales in Benelux and more than 20 other countries. We are looking forward to expanding in the near future into the Asian markets.”

Thomson would not give an annual wholesale sales volume, but estimated sales range from $8 million to the dou-

ble digits, industry experts said. As for her design philosophy,

Thomson said it’s “all about versatility.”“My collections brings a fresh point

of view to the key pieces found in a modern woman’s wardrobe. These are the pieces that she’s always reaching for and enjoys the most when she is getting dressed. i help her to create the silhou-ette she wants while at the same time giving her a passport back into what’s already in her closet. And i mix and match the design of the collection with color, patterns and shapes that women feel confident in,” said Thomson.

dANSKiN WiLL LAUNCh a line of high-tech sports bras and contem-porary daywear, loungewear and sleepwear in July.

This will be the first collection of daywear, loungewear and sleepwear bearing the danskin name.

iconix Brands Group inc., which has owned the danskin name since 2007, entered into a licensing partnership with Saramax Apparel Group inc. in late 2010 to produce the sports bras and innerwear lines.

distribution is aimed at better department stores, sports specialty stores and e-commerce businesses.

Officials declined to give a first-year wholesale sales projection, but sales for the combined lines could exceed $5 million the first full year, accord-ing to industry estimates.

Eddie Betesh, chief execu-tive officer of Saramax, said the danskin collections received “strong” reaction during the in-nerwear market week in february.

“i believe the retailers are fa-vorably responding to the new danskin sports bra collection be-cause danskin has been an original women’s heritage brand from its inception, and the new line of sports bras we are doing differentiates danskin from men’s active brands that try to cater to women,” said Betesh.

The sports bras, which will be sized 34B to 44dd and S to 3X and rendered in medium-to-high impact levels, will retail between $28 and $48; coordinat-ing bottoms will be priced from $12 to $18; loungewear and sleepwear will sell for $22 to $52, and coordinating daywear pieces will retail between $12 and $24. Active-inspired bot-

toms will be sized S to 2X, and select sleepwear and lounge-wear styles in sizes 1X to 3X will be in stores in August and September.

Joy haizen, vice presi-dent of the danskin divi-sion at Saramax, said the sports bras and co-ordinating active inti-mates are designed with feminine functionality in mind to enhance the active lifestyle needs for

today’s woman.”“The collection offers wear-

able sports bra styles in a variety of fabrications that can be worn from yoga and Pilates to cross-

training and fitness. The fresh color palette and design details mixed with wellness

benefits allow for a great fit, high function and adaptable style that

can be worn in and out of the gym,” said haizen.

The wellness as-pect of the sports bras is achieved through branded fabrications, yarns and perforated

foam cups for breathability. in addition, the collec-tion has developed fashionable and functional novelty meshes, which allow for moisture wicking. Performance microfibers include Tactel and Coolmax, while seamless looks are created in yarns by Nilit and Coolmax as well as stretch cotton blends with Lycra spandex.

Colors for the sports bras are black, white, nude, two shades of gray, and saturated pastels of light blue and violet. Special treatments include flexible embossed metallic rubber logos known as the “moji girl” icon, metal brand tags, reflective logos, heat seals, and pip-ing, and icon zipper pulls with a self-locking mecha-nism. There also are logoed soft-seal hooks and eyes for comfort and adjustability, and pockets in sports bras to allow for easy MP3 accessibility and cord management. — K.M.

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Danskin’s support tank and bike shorts.

Danskin’s zip-front sports bra.

Danskin to Introduce Sports Line

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A sports bra and matching bike shorts by Danskin at SaraMax.

Layered tops and control skirt from

Yummie Tummie’s

ready-to-wear line.

Yummie Tummie’s skin-tone strapless control top and briefs.

Heather Thomson

By ALEX WYNNE

PARIS — A dip in visitors failed to dampen spirits at the recent edition of the Premiere Classe accessories trade show here, with exhibitors content with the quality of buyers attending the show.

The four-day event, which ended March 7, saw attendance fi gures slide 17 percent from a year earlier to 11,524 visitors. International visitors, who rep-resented 60 percent of attendance, were down 15 percent, while French visitors decreased 19 percent.

Expressing surprise at the fall in numbers, a spokeswoman for the show said she believes more buyers had opted to attend the fi rst round of Premiere Classe in January, which was buzzing. Wielding budgets up by as much as 20 percent, buyers were look-ing for standout pieces to distinguish their offer from the competition.

The trend focus was on natural ma-terials. Mirroring the European run-ways, fur was everywhere, from scarves to pom-poms on hats and trims on bags. The natural theme carried over to jew-

elry, with brass and tarnished tones key.Gail Rothwell, owner of a namesake

boutique in East Hampton, N.Y., be-moaned the lack of novelty at the show.

“I felt the designers had not moved on,” Rothwell said. “I have found great things at Premiere Classe before, but I cannot keep repeating in my store. We need more energy.”

Others disagreed.“This fair is incredible,” said Christine

Barro, managing director of Christine’s Accessories in Melbourne, Australia. “There’s an explosion of jewelry.”

Barro highlighted chunky items from U.K.-based ST Erasmus as a stand-out among the 450 brands on show. ST Erasmus, distributed in 70 doors, includ-ing Franck & Fils, Harrods and Henri Bendel, has seen a lot of attention since First Lady Michelle Obama was photo-graphed wearing one of its statement necklaces. The brand picked up an order from Harvey Nichols Hong Kong on the fi rst day of the show, founder and design-er Pieter Erasmus said. The company’s trademark is using bronze-colored me-tallic thread to encase acrylic stones and

pearls, shaping them into fl owers.London-based jeweler Adornithology

by Jacey Withers, whose clients include Anthropologie and Maria Luisa in Hong Kong, featured a collection of tarnished silver and gold pieces in animal forms including owls and mice.

“Paul Smith, which stocks the brand in the U.K., will soon be taking it to America,” Withers said.

Asos.com also picked up the brand at the show. Best-selling pieces included a mouse ring and double-skull necklace, priced at 62 pounds and 145 pounds, re-spectively, or about $100 and $235.

“I loved William Sharp’s cashmere throws with baby Swarovski crystals, and matching hats and gloves,” said Diane Firston, owner of three boutiques of the same name in Nantucket, Mass., Palm Beach, Fla. and Cincinnati.

Lin Art Project’s line of graphic se-quined and embroidered scarves and cashmere tops stood out as an exception to the natural theme. Retailers, including Joyce in Hong Kong, picked up the col-lection, according to designer Caroline Beeser. Its top-selling camoufl age scarf wholesales for 198 pounds, or $275 at cur-rent exchange, while a cashmere jumper with an embroidered motif, one of Joyce’s choices, sells for 179 euros, or $249.

In order to encourage young design-ers, Premiere Classe unveiled an online competition, where designers publish their portfolio online, and are voted on by a jury of Premiere Classe execu-tives, a buyer, a journalist and a blogger. Fifteen runners-up in three categories will be given a free stand at the show’s September edition, and three winners will be offered a second showing in January.

accessories4 WWDSTYLE MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011

Natural Key at Premiere Classe

By MARC KARIMZADEH

NEW YORK — Love is quite literally in the air at Gitanjali.

First, there’s a reported flirtation between L Capital, the private equity arm of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — which recently proposed a deal to buy Bulgari for $6 billion — and the $1.8 billion jewelry conglomerate that could result in L Capital taking a minority stake in the publicly traded Mumbai fi rm’s branded division. Gitanjali’s parent, which also has interests in real estate, has been looking to unlock some of its value because it was suffering from con-glomerate discount issues.

“The shareholders did not understand value from all of the different components of our business be-cause they were all lumped together, so our advisers encouraged us to reach out to different groups,” said Nehal Modi, Gitanjali USA’s chief executive offi cer. “We are in talks with some major hedge funds, private equity groups and partners such as L Capital.

“Right now, there is a pending deal for L Capital to acquire a minority in the range of $100 million to $120 million,” he added. LVMH could not be reached for comment.

The possible deal comes as Gitanjali is planning to make a signifi cant push into the branded jewelry sector here with the launch of Love Universe.

The sterling silver collection, which will launch in early June in Las Vegas, is the brain-child of Modi and Jamison Ernest, a Manhattan man-about-town who is also behind the Yellow Fever clothing brand.

The two met last year to discuss the prospect of Gitanjali sponsoring the fashion label’s September show, but the duo hit it off so well that they decided to take this partnership to a new level.

Modi wanted to explore new arenas in jewelry, and so the idea of Love Universe was born, backed up with a multifaceted launch platform for which Gitanjali is budgeting $12 million in the fi rst year.

Gitanjali is vertically integrated, from mining to the manufacturing of generic and branded jewelry and retail stores, and its U.S. division has a total volume of $275 million. It operates several jewelry brands, including the Passion Stone engagement ring collection marked by a special hearts-and-arrows cut, as well as 122 free-standing jewelry specialty stores under the Andrews Jewelers, Rodgers Jewelers, Samuels Jewelers, Samuels Diamonds and Schubach Jewelers names.

The company plans to introduce Love Universe in

the U.S. fi rst before extending it to Japan, India and Europe in 2013. The line is primarily centered around sterling silver jewelry with colored stones, diamond accents and exotic materials such as stingray, as well as a smattering of accessories like stingray iPad cases.

Modi said the time was right to break into this end of the jewelry market here. “Commodities prices are going through the roof,” he said. “Gold is three times what it was four years ago, and diamonds are 80 to 90 percent more than a year and a half ago. All of a sudden, fashion jewelry in gold and diamonds [are] less attainable, so there is a real void in that lifestyle luxury jewelry seg-ment. David Yurman and John Hardy fi lled it, but we started noticing that their customer was slightly older. With Love, we want to start the purchasing life cycle at 22 and 23 years, going up to fortysomething.”

For Ernest, it marks the fi rst foray into jewelry, and over a recent coffee at Soho House, he explained his motivation. “Jewelry is an opportunity to be able to communicate with people in a unique way,” said

Ernest, who is also a musician. “We wanted to make things that people would wear all the

time because it’s affordable, but at the same time, there is design and construc-tion and actual functionality.”

The handmade collection includes a silver mesh bracelet and stingray cuffs with silver details and stones such as white and pink sapphires and white topaz. Modi

particularly prides himself on the combina-tion of different stones and materials in each

piece. One ring, for $235, features six gradients of black Swarovski Elements that match.

Generally, the collection will carry suggested retail price points from $300 to $800 at retail, though limited edi-tion pieces can go anywhere between $1,500 and $2,000.

A key element of the launch will center around sup-porting the arts, and the company plans to sponsor ex-hibits for up-and-coming artists.

A subbrand called Love Incubator will feature jew-elry collaborations with “people who have a voice to be heard but don’t have the necessary tools to be com-municated, like contemporary artists, supermodels, architects or fi lmmakers,” Ernest said. The fi rst col-laboration, “Love Linda Vojtova,” will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the model, Linda Vojtova, who also happens to be Ernest’s girlfriend. That launch will be coupled with a photographic retrospective of im-ages of the Czech model by photographers like Steven Meisel and Terry Richardson.

A third element, Love Haute, is going to tap fashion designers who don’t already have jewelry for collabo-

rations. Ernest said they are currently in negotiations with several designers, but declined to disclose names.

In addition, several pieces in the collection will be earmarked for a special cause, beginning with Operation Smile, which funds surgeries to repair cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities. Each sale will help a child get the surgery he or she needs, and customers will be able to get news of the child they helped.

Love Universe will offi cially launch on June 3 with a party and hospitality suite at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas — timed to coincide with the JCK jewelry show, when key retailers are in town. This summer, the brand also is renting a 12,000-square-foot house on six acres in Southampton, dubbed the Love Hamptons Estate, to stage weekly events, from private dinners to fashion shows and parties tied to jewelry stores launching Love Universe in the area.

For 2012, the fi rst full fi scal year, Modi said the com-pany projects total sales of $32 million, with 150 retail doors in the U.S., 32 luxury cruises featuring shop-in-shops and an e-commerce site at loveuniverse.com scheduled to go live in June.

There are already plans to launch a fragrance for Love Universe and open a freestanding store, preferably around the Meatpacking District. The moves are all part of a plan to brand Love Universe. “The jewelry industry is far behind the fashion industry as far as branding is con-cerned,” Modi noted. “That is quite a phenomenon, be-cause jewelry connotes luxury immediately, but there are very few people who have recognizable consumer brands. That’s where Jamison and his team come in. We are con-vinced that we have a road map that, within a year and a half, we will be one of the top recognized jewelry brands.”

Gitanjali Shows Its Love for Jewelry

Left: A 14-karat gold-plated silver, white topaz, pink and dark brown agate ring. Silver bracelets by Love Universe.

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One of ST Erasmus’ best-selling necklaces.

5WWDSTYLE MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011

By lauren benet stephenson

Knitwear firm Magaschoni has a new bag. the 22-year-old apparel brand is launching handbags for fall in an effort to broaden into a full life-style company.

“it is just time for more of a life-style brand. we have the manufactur-ing capabilities, the sensibility and the customers really recognize the brand.…it obviously was the next thing for us,” said Magaschoni president Monica belag Forman.

the company has dabbled in ac-cessories offerings such as a ruffle wrap — which is the top seller for Magaschoni — as well as gloves and hats, but this is its first full handbag line.

Magaschoni’s bag collection fea-tures 18 silhouettes in exotic skins, such as pebble grain leather, hair

calf, python, crocodile and microfiber, in earth tones, black, white, gray and maroon. the designs are streamlined with no visible logo, and focus on practi-cal details such as room for a laptop, sturdy hardware and a multitude of pockets.

“i don’t think it has to scream logo. i think there’s something great about this that it doesn’t have a logo on the outside…[for] that confident woman who just

wants to buy something truly stunning,” said belag Forman.

Magaschoni handbags were designed with a similar Dna to its apparel sister, with identical leather trims and color palette. the totes were also crafted to accommodate a clutch, as belag Forman explained: “i call it a twinset — just like the knitwear — when i can put a clutch into the market bag.”

the line will be offered at three price tiers, ranging from $327 to $2,000, and will launch in about 75 doors in september. Magaschoni has projected first-year wholesale sales for the bags of about $1 million.

the company also is expand-ing geographically, with a store set to open in los angeles next month, and shop-in-shops in several new european retailers. in north america, Magaschoni has about 45 shop-in-shops, in addition to freestanding bou-

tiques in east hampton and southampton, n.Y., and Greenwich, Conn.

the company also has made three hires in the last six months: Kevin Mogyros was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer; nickole brown, director of e-commerce and creative services, and Deborah schonfeld, director of marketing and public relations.

Magaschoni Launches HandbagsMagaschoni handbags for fall.

’’’’

[Handbags] obviously was the next thing for us.

— MONICA BELAG FORMAN, MAGASCHONI

clockwise from top: Billy reid (near left), the 2010 fashion fund winner, with musicians roBert francis and charlie mars; runner-up eddie Borgo with model lizzy jagger; runner-up praBal gurung with actress diane kruger.

ESTABL I SHED TO PROVIDE F INANCIAL AWARDS AND BUS INESS MENTOR ING TO

EMERGING FASH ION DES IGNERS

> Be a designer of demonstrable talent–i.e., have garnered substantial (and recent) editorial coverage, and have support (orders) from top retailers;

> Be American or have established a primary design business in the United States;

> Be in business for a minimum of two years;

>Have professional staff, paid or volunteer, that can devote the time and effort required to accomplish the stated aims of an applicant’s design career plans;

> Request and submit a Preliminary Application, accompanied by a 350-word biographical statement, which should include a summary of the applicant’s design career, by Wednesday, May 11, 2011.

To Be Eligible, an Applicant Must:

The CFDA/VOGUE FASHION FUND helps emerging American designers pursue their design and business plans. In addition to grants of $300,000 to the winner and $100,000 each to the two runners-up, the awards

include a yearlong mentorship with an industry professional whose business expertise is tailored to

the designers’ needs and future goals.

2011

interested and eligiBle designers should contact sacha Brown via e-mail at s.Brown@ cfda.com to reQuest an application.

The 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund is in partnership with J.Crew, and is generously underwritten by American Express, Appleman Foundation, Barneys New York, Carolina Herrera, Ltd., Coach, Liz Claiborne Inc., Lord & Taylor, L’Oréal Paris, Nordstrom, THECORNER.COM-Yoox Group, Theory, Tiffany & Co., Tommy Hilfiger, and Vogue. pHOTOGrApHED by NOrmAN jEAN rOy

era of rapid industrialization, an exploding immigrant population and emerging unionization. It was a time of intense confl ict on both the social and political fronts.

The tragedy outraged the city and galvanized the labor movement. It instantly became a symbol of the struggle be-tween management and labor that had been percolating for some time and would escalate in its aftermath.

Reviewing the Triangle Fire at a gathering this month at New York University’s Bobst Library, Richard Greenwald, author of “The Triangle Fire, the Protocols of Peace and Industrial Democracy in Progressive Era New York,” noted how the disaster was preceded by a wave of strikes by workers against factory owners. This included two major events: a 1909 strike of New York shirtwaist and dressmakers against sweatshop conditions, dubbed the “Uprising of the 20,000,” and “The Great Revolt,” a strike of 60,000 New York gar-ment workers in 1910 that was settled by the famous “Protocols of Peace,” created at conferences presided over by Boston lawyer Louis D. Brandeis, who would later become a Supreme Court justice. The protocols raised wages, reduced working hours, outlawed home-work, guaranteed preference to union members in hir-ing, prohibited strikes and lockouts, and provided for settling disputes by impartial arbitration.

Greenwald noted that it was then-State Senator Robert F. Wagner who wrote the commission report that led to 36 state labor laws being enacted in three years as a result of the fi re, the worst industrial acci-dent in New York history and the most people killed in a building fi re until Sept. 11, 2001. Somewhat ironically, Greenwald also discussed how Franklin D. Roosevelt, also a state senator at the time, voted against all the measures, but who would then propose similar federal statutes during the New Deal with Wagner, who had be-came a U.S. senator and one of FDR’s key allies.

“The truth is that Wagner wasn’t considered a friend of labor in his early days, and Roosevelt clearly wasn’t,

yet they wrote some of the most important labor laws in history, including the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act,” said Greenwald. “So it’s evident that both men’s views were infl uenced by the fi re and the public outcry that followed.”

Leigh Benin, co-author of the just released book “The New York City Triangle Factory Fire,” noted that FDR’s future labor secretary, Frances Perkins, the fi rst female cabinet member in U.S. history, lived nearby and was quickly on the scene after the fi re broke out. He showed photos that Perkins said impacted her of women jumping from the windows of the factory to their deaths to avoid being burned alive. He also showed photos of the fi re trucks on the scene, which actually put out the fi re in 20 minutes and saved the

structure that still stands today, but couldn’t save the women because their ladders only reached to the sixth fl oor and the factory was located in fl oors eight through 10. The building is now part of New York University.

Perkins later said the incident she witnessed was “seared on my mind as well as my heart, a never-to-be-forgotten reminder of why I had to spend my life fi ghting conditions that could permit such a tragedy.”

Benin also showed photos of the April 5 funeral march in which 100,000 people participated, as 250,000 others watched the procession in silent solidarity.

Perkins became head of the state Factory Investigating Commission formed three months later to study and make recommendations on working con-ditions. The fi ndings of the commission would have a far-reaching impact on protective labor legislation and fi re safety laws in New York and later across the na-tion during Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Throughout the decades that followed, organized labor grew in size and power, and unrest, protests and strikes became part of the ongoing struggle be-tween management and labor over workers’ rights and labor costs, and productivity and profi ts. But for many it seemed the stigma of the sweatshop had gone away, that more responsible owners — combined with a slew of labor laws ranging from safety and fi re codes to wage and hour guidelines and workplace standards — provid-ed stricter accountability and a more mature industry.

But a new dynamic was brought into play in the last quarter of the 20th century: the import era. Apparel companies started shifting production offshore, away from the hubs of New York and Los Angeles to coun-tries such as Mexico, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Honduras in search of cheaper and new supplies of labor to feed the growing appetite of the American middle class. An estimated 95 percent of all apparel purchased in the U.S. now is imported, ac-cording to industry fi gures. In 2010, the U.S. imported $93.2 billion worth of apparel and textiles.

Yet as the wave of imports grew, there were sev-eral scandals in the Nineties that showed sweatshops hadn’t been eradicated either in the U.S. or abroad.

On Aug. 2, 1995, California state labor offi cials found 72 illegal Thai immigrants living in peonage and being paid as little as $1 an hour to sew garments 18 hours a day for brand-name labels at a contractor in El Monte, Calif. The companies collectively paid $2.5 million toward repaying the Thai workers’ back wages.

A string of incidents around the same time involving TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford, who had a signature line sold through Wal-Mart that was found being produced in sweatshops in Honduras and Manhattan, led her to join President Clinton’s White House Task Force to Eliminate Sweatshop Abuses. It helped bring on the advent of cor-porate codes of conduct for apparel production and a new era of corporate social responsibility that stressed the need for U.S.-based fi rms to have higher standards than the countries in which they were manufacturing. Firms hired CSR executives and began regular inspections of their contractors — and even subcontractors — to ensure they were abiding by established codes of conduct in terms of wages, hours and working conditions.

The industry’s action came after the images of several firms, including Nike, were damaged be-cause of the alleged use of sweatshop labor by some of their contractors. And it’s an ongoing problem for the fashion world. Just this past December, a fi re in a

labor6 WWDSTYLE MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011

The Legacy of the Triangle Factory Fire

{Continued from page one}

The Triangle factory before the fi re.

A pro-labor march.

Bangladesh factory that was reportedly making goods for H&M killed 25 people.

But industry executives contend the situation has vastly improved.

“Our industry has progressed greatly in 100 years,” said Kevin Burke, president and chief executive offi cer of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. “No responsible company wants to run or be associated with a sweatshop, but that’s not to say they are not out there.”

Burke said the fire at the garment factory in Bangladesh compels the industry to redouble its ef-forts to not let another tragedy happen.

“Nobody is saying that would not happen again. It could have been an accident or a lot of things,” he said. “The reality is we are making great strides and putting a lot of money and effort into making certain we are not tagged as operating with sweatshops.”

He said the industry “lives and dies” based on con-sumer acceptance of a particular brand and cannot afford to be “tarnished” by an association with illegal practices.

“Just because we export [production] does not mean we are hiding offshore,” Burke said. “We have as much responsibility as we did then, but today we have creat-ed an environment that is much safer than it was fi ve, 10 and 100 years ago.”

Steven Jesseph, president and ceo of the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production organization, which has certifi ed more than 10,000 factories in 72 different countries since its inception in 2000, said most compa-nies want to do business in a socially responsible way.

“The majority of companies I know and work with, from U.S. to European, Australian, Japanese, Latin American and Asian companies, will not do business in facilities until they do a pre-audit and ensure compliance with WRAP or their own codes of conduct,” Jesseph said.

“They will just not work in sweatshops. It is part of their DNA and I am seeing an increasing number of people take that rigid approach for all of the right reasons — not just reputational risks but because it’s the right thing to do.”

Jesseph said he views reform in the apparel industry as a “one gen-eration issue.”

“We are trying to fundamentally change the way people do business and the way people treat other peo-ple,” he said. “Are we going to achieve some utopian level of compliance overnight? No. But are there massive numbers of concerned companies who participate in regular discussions and training and compliance programs because they do care? Yes.”

While the industry believes it is making strides, work-ers’ rights groups, nongovernmental organizations and labor groups argue that progress in reducing or elimi-nating sweatshops in overseas factories has been slow.

Judy Gearhart, executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum, said there are par-allels between the Triangle Shirtwaist fi re 100 years ago and two separate fi res in garment factories in Bangladesh last year that killed a total of 53 workers.

“I have worked on initiatives to improve labor rights in factories abroad for 20 years and my view is that it often feels like we are taking one step forward and two steps back,” Gearhart said. “We have seen over the past 10 to 12 years corporate codes of conduct that all now include the rights of the freedom of association and collective bargaining, and in the main and formal sector production there has been a lot of headway on stopping child labor.”

There has been some progress on the part of fashion

leaders to step up monitoring and weed out unsafe and unethical factories, Gearhart said, but the problem is com-plex because the supply chain is so deep and diversifi ed.

“Frankly, the problem keeps expanding,” she said. “The minute you try to address one place and make progress in one country, you fi nd labor rights abuses ballooning when the production moves to the next cheaper country.”

Asked how far the industry has come since the tragic fi re a century ago, Gearhart said it seems “not to have come very far” because she feels the industry “pushes the responsibility” down the supply chain.

“If you look at garment-producing brands out there, it’s such a small slice that are really taking signifi cant measures and so many of the monitoring initiatives are not suffi ciently connected with local organizations that are able to really provide the kind of information needed from the workers’ side,” she said. “The real question is: How do we pair the top-down approach of corporate social responsibility efforts with the bottom-up approach of trade union organizations?”

One major union leader believes the fashion indus-try has made little progress in eradicating sweatshops.

“First of all, sweatshops have not disappeared from this country,” said Bruce Raynor, president of Workers United and executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union. “The garment indus-try has always produced sweatshops — it did in 1911 with the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and it does again in 2010 with the Bangladesh fi res.”

Raynor called company CSR programs “extremely inadequate and uneven,” but he said some companies are making a real effort, pointing to Levi Strauss & Co., Liz Claiborne Inc., Limited Brands Inc. and Gap Inc.

“If you don’t have trade worker union movements in these countries, workers have no way to protest or bargain and you have to rely on your own inspectors,

which is a big disappointment,” Raynor said. “I think while you might not see anything as egregious as El Monte, the existence of widespread sweatshops in this country and globally is a hallmark of this industry.”

The solution is threefold, he said: Workers must have the right to organize unions and stand up for col-lective bargaining, retailers and apparel brands must take more responsibility down the supply chain for workers, and consumers have to demand it.

Charles Kernaghan, director of the Institute for Global Labor & Human Rights, formerly the National Labor Committee, said sweatshops exist in most coun-tries but there have been some improvements.

“Apparel companies won’t touch child labor any-more,” Kernaghan said for example. “Those are third rails they don’t touch, and sexual harassment and abuse goes on unfortunately, but not like in the past.”

He dismissed CSR programs as “fi g leafs,” saying they are ineffective because workers do not trust the inspec-tors and will not disclose information. He noted that to enact real change it will take legislation essentially re-quiring companies to adhere to local labor laws and ILO standards or banning imports made in sweatshops.

In the end, what it may come down to what former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who was in charge of Clinton’s anti-sweatshop coalition, said falls some-where between the industry’s own self-analysis and that of organized labor and NGOs.

“I would say progress has come at a snail’s pace,” said Reich, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “Certain companies seem to have taken serious-ly their responsibility to police their contractors and sub-contractors to make sure that no workers here or abroad are being mistreated. But I can’t honestly say as a whole the industry has embraced the principle that major retail-ers and manufacturers have such responsibilities.”

Reich said consumers are the key.“If they put pressure on large U.S. retailers and manu-

facturers and demand some evidence that the clothing they buy was not made in sweatshop conditions, the in-dustry will respond,” he said. “But in order for consum-ers to put that kind of pressure on the industry, consumers themselves have to be motivated. It is unfortunate that it often takes a tragedy of such horrible proportion like the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire to wake up the public and political leaders to the necessity of regulations and enforcement.”

7WWDSTYLE MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2011

Picketing after the fi re.

A union march and anti-sweatshop

rally in the Garment Center in 1995.

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Dede Reynolds

Jingle All the Way

Former Models in Need of a MakeoverThese fashion icons of yesteryear could benefi t from a bit of contemporary sartorial advice. Here, a few quick fi xes for their recent looks gone wrong.

FLOP: The folds, pintucks and asymmetric cuts on Claudia Schiffer’s stiff frock make for one jumbled mess.FIX: The ruffl ed mini draping appears effortless on this DKNY jersey number.

FLOP: Carol Alt is more Christmas tree (ornaments and all) than clothes hanger in this body-hugging dress. FIX: Lanvin’s stunner is fl owy, fl attering and in the most chic shades of green.

FASHION REHABFLOP: Janice Dickinson should have layered her cropped trapeze-cut coat over a more ladyfi ed piece. FIX: Chris Benz’s fl oral-printed frock and jacket is short, sweet and sophisticated to boot.

“WE CALL IT YACHT POP,” says 28-year-old Dede Reynolds of Brooklyn duo Dede. Specifi cally, “it’s music for your yacht circa 1967 in the south of France.”

The self-proclaimed Francophile and her partner Tim Kvasnosky, 35, fi nd infl uence in Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot and Françoise Hardy, as well as trip hop and electronica bands such as Portishead and Air. “I really don’t listen to a lot of new music,” she says. When asked if there are any current pop stars she likes just a bit, without hesitation she says, “Is it wrong to say no?”

Asked about her own sound, she explains: “It’s defi nitely indie pop, but from a different sensibility, more like late Sixties Beach Boys mixed with French pop.”

For an artist so particular in her vision, it’s a bit curious to fi nd out Reynolds didn’t even think about becoming a singer until about a year and a half ago. She fi rst met Kvasnosky while she was working in Los Angeles as an art director and was asked to help on a few of the projects he was working on as a record producer. The pair eventually started a long-distance relationship. Before long, Reynolds was bound for New York, where Kvasnosky supplemented his production work with a job as a commercial jingle composer.

“One day he said, ‘I need someone to sing on this spot,’” she recalls, noting he had only heard her sing around the house. “I enjoyed singing but I just wasn’t thinking of pursuing it.” They collaborated again when an offer for an ad for Purina’s Friskies cat food came along a few months later. The result was the psychedelic “Adventureland” campaign, which began airing in early 2010 and was soon a viral sensation. The pair had already toyed around with the idea of doing a project together, so they reworked some of their outtakes and posted them on MySpace. After writing songs in St. Martin with Kvasnosky “over rum punch and sunsets,” they recorded a six-track EP with him on piano and organ, and session musicians on drums and bass. They plan to release the work this summer, either on their own or through one of the record labels that have shown interest.

“Tim is the mad scientist, I’m the face of it all,” Reynolds says. “I carry two hats in this band — I’m the voice, but I also produce all the imagery.”

A former fi lm school student, Reynolds is the unoffi cial art director for the duo’s videos and live performances, for which she’s created an Andy Warhol-inspired projection show. “I don’t want to be known as just another indie band from Williamsburg,” she explains, “I want it to be you’re coming to be entertained.”

Exploration seems to come naturally to Reynolds. Last summer, for example, she delved headlong into the world of pop with a stint as one of Ke$ha’s back-up singers while the be-glittered singer was in town opening for Rihanna at Madison Square Garden. “It’s not my thing, but it was a great experience; it kind of surprised me,” she says. “I was all Ke$ha-ed out in my outfi t!”

For her own shows, Reynolds looks to fashion idols Peggy Moffi tt, Catherine Deneuve, Mary Quant and Jane Birkin. On off-days, she relies on vintage dresses and jumpsuits and says she never wears jeans.

“I would say 60 percent of my wardrobe is vintage,” she says, though she concedes a few contemporary favorites such as Proenza Schouler, Alexander McQueen and The Row. But nothing can take the place of her beloved vintage Italian lambskin fur hat given to her as a gift.

“I love it because the label says, ‘shake it vigorously it will become beautiful,’” she says.

— TARA BONET-BLACK

FLOP: It’s hard for Isabella Rossellini to look frumpy, but her metallic fl oral coat makes for a better curtain than red-carpet look.FIX: Louis Vuitton’s metallic pantsuit is glamorously party ready, but she might want to pair that jacket with a blouse.

A year and a half ago, Dede Reynolds hadn’t given much thought to a career in music. Then a cat food commercial turned

her into a buzzed-about indie singer.

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