1.) Beckham beats expectations:
While established brands are taking a hit left and right, Victoria Beckham's new clothing line, DVB, is selling out: "So far she's staged a presentation during NY Fashion week and her recent collection of dresses were a sell out in Selfridges. Bearing in mind that many are counting their pennies, this is definitely an achievement of which I'm sure the folks at Selfridges are rubbing their hands with glee. Furthermore, according to the Guardian Vogue UK editor Alexandra Shulman is a fan of the capsule collection. A sign perhaps that Victoria has succeeded in her bid for fashion credibility?"
NY Mag wonders if Posh Will Save the Economy: "Bergdorf Goodman sold out of nearly half the stock in just a week, and Selfridges sold out within minutes. And now Neiman Marcus is getting in on the action, having snapped up the collection, to be sold there in February."
Video clip below of DVB Spring 2009 collection:
Speaking of established brands taking a hit: Thinning the Herd at New York Fashion Week: "Sometimes we all need a push, and a gloomy economy is a heck of a way to incite changes at New York Fashion Week, which begins next month . . . (Vera) Wang was the first to drop out this season, saving about $50,000 in rental fees alone for the largest tent, which seats about 1,000. She will show her fall 2009 collection in her downtown Mercer Street boutique instead. Carmen Marc Valvo, Betsey Johnson, Naeem Khan, Monique Lhuillier and Peter Som also pulled out of Bryant Park and will show elsewhere."
2.) LVMH eLuxury website will stop selling merchandise:
"'Starting in mid 2009, eLuxury's new mission will be to create an 'e-window' into the world of luxury, by serving as an information reference for luxury in fashion, art de vivre, leather goods, wines and spirits, watches and jewelry, gastronomy, cars, yachts and services,' a LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton spokeswoman told WWD . . . The company plans to close the retail portion of its business completely by June this year, which would be exactly nine years after eLuxury.com lauched (June 2000)."
It may not be just the bad economy, however, as many of LVMH's brands have websites of their own through which they sell their their merchandise, so a conglomerate site was becoming more and more a redundancy. They were also competing with online retail giants such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue, and I'm sure the chain retailers were irritated that LVMH was using them as a distribution channel while directly competing with them at the same time.
When the money was flowing, it wasn't such a big deal, but the fighting for the crumbs is more intense now that the consumer spending pie has grown smaller.
In related news: Luxury apparel lines suffer in India -- "Traditionally, close to 60 per cent of all international luxury brands sales in India have been accessories: bags, wallets and belts. Stores such as Armani, Just Cavalli and Dior opened at the 320,000-square feet Emporio Mall in October at Vasant Kunj with their apparel lines that simply haven't found buyers . . . 'Indians who entered luxury retail in partnership with these brands overestimated the size of the market,' says Pradeep Hirani, proprietor, Kimaya Store. Indians, he says, are brand conscious. 'They will buy bags with a showy label -- the Dior sensibility in clothing does not appeal to the Indian buyer. The stores have huge pressure to liquidate stock and update collections, so they have no option but to go on sale.'"
So it's all about the bags and shoes. I wouldn't be surprised to see a good number of fashion lines embrace this fact completely in the next few years, ditching their poor-selling Ready To Wear apparel lines to focus exclusively on accessories for the mass market.
3.) Slowing Economy forces designers to compete for celebrities:
"As sales of designer goods have plummeted over the past several months . . . The competition to dress celebrities is fiercer than ever also because fashion labels feel they are less able to count on getting their message to shoppers via their traditional mode of print marketing, as sales of fashion and other magazines have dropped within the past year . . . As a result, the competition to dress the stars has become even more fierce than usual this year. Designers, who typically loan or give the clothing and accessories to celebrities, say they see the red carpet as a chance to get the attention of consumers, who have been shunning the notion of spending on new fashions."
They're going to make you want their products, no matter how much you try to ignore them. Resistance is futile! Note the last paragraph of the article: Angelina Jolie gets two free pairs of custom made Stuart Weitzman pumps, just in case she decides she might want to wear them with a dress she still hasn't committed to . . . nice work, if you can get it.
4.) Macy's announces it will be shutting down 11 stores:
"Department-store operator Macy's Inc. said Thursday it will close eleven underperforming stores in nine states -- affecting 960 employees -- and lowered its forecast for the fourth quarter after one of the weakest holiday seasons in years. Stores slated to close include locations in Los Angeles, West Palm Beach, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis, among others."
I would have thought that a place like Macy's would benefit from consumers looking to trade down from higher priced chains like Saks, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.
5.) You can never be too thin in Lagerfeld's world:
"In an interview on the Radio 4 Today programme, (Karl) Lagerfeld ... said the issue of size zero models was insignificant compared to the "zillions" of fat people . . . 'In France there are, I think, less than one per cent of people who are too skinny. There are nearly 30 per cent of young people who are too fat. So let's take care of the zillions of the too fat before we talk about the percentage that's left.'
Which, actually, makes a lot of sense when you think of the hue and cry that's continuously raised about the problem of obesity in the Western nations, and especially the United States. It's, like, make up your mind already. If 30% of the U.S. population is considered obese, with an additional 30% tagged as overweight, shouldn't skinny fashion models be considered a good thing?
Of course, thin can always be taken a little too far: Anorexic models inspire German photographer
"Does this outfit make me look fat? Be honest!"
Lagerfeld also dismissed PETA and their continuing anti-fur campaigns as "childish" in a world where we eat meat and wear leather. Designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Giorgio Armani have also come out with recent statements supporting the use of fur in the fashion industry: "The French designer Jean Paul Gaultier last night refused to stop using fur. 'He has always used fur for his creations and he will continue to do so,' a spokesman said. 'We do not use fur from animals killed in the wild, only those that are farmed' . . . Armani has responded by attacking the protesters' tactics. 'We must stress that Peta is exploiting our name to stir up public opinion without acknowledging that we include very few fur items in our collections, while certain competitors of ours base much of their business on furs.'"
Video clip below of Gaultier's Fall/Winter 2008/2008 show, featuring fur:
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