1.) Ungaro Kicks Its Hot Young Designer to the Curb:
“Emanuael Ungaro really is parting ways with its head of design, Esteban Cortazar …. Following a lengthy period of less than emphatic denials and weak shows of unity between Ungaro and the label’s ceo, Mounir Moufarrige, the decision has been taken to dissolve the relationship . . . Cortazar, who was just 23 when he arrived at Ungaro, received mixed reviews for his three collections for the label.”
Below is a video clip from the Ungaro Fall/Winter 2009/2010 runway show:
Apparently, the orders didn’t come flowing in as hoped, though it’s not difficult to see why — the collection is lovely, yes, but impossible to distinguish from the pack. There aren’t any ideas that 1.) haven’t been seen before, and 2.) aren’t being already offered by less expensive and trendier competitors.
Cathy Horyn, fashion writer for the NY Times, published a short interview with Louise Wilson, the course director of the M.A. program at Central Saint Martins (which has produced top designers such as Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane and Marios Schwab) in which Ms. Wilson lamented this sameness, this lack of individual style among young designers: “Did the industry plan that everyone would travel to the same countries, that everyone would have disposable means of income, that everybody would be quite bland? … I feel huge vortexes of them are sucked into this mediocre world where nobody criticizes and it’s all terribly politically correct … It’s got no individuality at all.”
2.) Amy Winehouse Wants You To Smell (Like Her):
“The Rehab singer, 25, has often been snapped smeared in blood, make-up and dirt after going on benders, but she still reckons fans will still dig deep to smell like her . . . But some leading perfume houses are already getting sniffy about her . . . One industry insider said: ‘Amy is a big name but … she doesn’t look like she smells that nice, so doing some positive publicity to prove it doesn’t just smell of stale booze and fags would be vital.’”
What more can one add to that perfectly lobbed piece of snark? Winehouse’s waning stardom is no competition for the likes of Justin Timberlake fronting for Givenchy, and her time as fashion muse came and went so quickly that I’m surprised she didn’t get whiplash.
The smell of misdirected rage
In other ‘Fragrances the World Does Not Need’ news, I give to you, 24 The Fragrance! I wish I were kidding . . .
3.) New Jersey Politicians Swept Up in Fake Designer Bag Bust:
“An investigation into the sale of black-market kidneys and fake Gucci handbags evolved into a probe of New Jersey political corruption that produced mass arrests yesterday (July 23, 2009) . . . Among the 44 arrests were the mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, Jersey City’s deputy mayor, and two state assemblymen. A member of the governor’s cabinet resigned after agents searched his home . . . Also, five rabbis from New York and New Jersey were accused of laundering millions of dollars, some of it from the sale of counterfeit goods and bankruptcy fraud.”
Good old New Jersey, where you can still buy a black market kidney and a fake Gucci handbag in one fell swoop — that’s what I call customer service! My favorite quote from the article: “Even for a state with a rich history of graft, the scale of alleged wrongdoing was breathtaking.”
More on this story here: Community Shocked By Brooklyn Rabbi’s Arrest
Speaking of corruption and fakes, did you know that Paris has a counterfeiting museum? The Musée de la Contrefaçon (Museum of Counterfeiting): “The museum was opened in 1951 by a French trade group known as the Union des Fabricants or Unifab to help educate the general public about the scope and costs of the problem . . . One display points out that genuine Lacoste polo shirts are sized numerically, so a label indicating “M” or “XL” is a dead giveaway. Another notes that on Ray-Ban sunglasses, the lensmaker’s mark (a B&L for Bausch & Lomb, for example) should be visible on the lens.”
Real on the left, Fake on the right (from anewdesigns)
4.) Diamond Sales Are in the Rough:
“De Beers SA, the world’s top diamond producer, posted a 57% decline in sales of rough diamonds in the first half (of 2009) . . . Earlier this year, De Beers temporarily ceased production at many of its mines, resulting in a 73% drop in first-half output. It anticipates that output this year will be half of last year’s 48.1 million total carats . . . In the U.S. retail market, which accounts for about half of all jewelry sales, the rate of the sales decline is slowing, said (Stephen Lussier, De Beers’s executive director), while in the Far East, ‘we’re back into growth.’”
Mr. Lussier also noted that sales for diamonds $100,000.00 and over dropped considerably in the first quarter, but that they’ve lately begun to see a renewed uptick in demand for the pricier stones. De Beers has a retail partnership with LVMH, with 42 jewelry stores worldwide: “Mr. Lussier said that venture is ‘in the same difficult environment as Cartier and Tiffany and others,’ but it has seen strong growth in unit sales, particularly in engagement rings and other bridal jewelry.”
5.) Can Christian LaCroix Come Back from the Brink?:
“In 2005, the company was sold to the Falic Group, a Miami firm that specializes in duty-free shops. The three Falic brothers who own it had hoped to make the company profitable, but that never panned out. If a buyer doesn’t come forward, they reportedly plan to gut the company and reorganize it as a licensing agency — basically slapping the Lacroix name on products made by others . . . according to Women’s Wear Daily, a buyer might come through. Bernard Krief Consultants plans to bid, citing the label’s importance to France’s cultural heritage.”
The article cites the importance of fashion icons to French culture — that the passing away last year of Yves St. Laurent instigated a period of national mourning. It’s hard to tell if Lacroix holds a similar place in the hearts of the French people, considering that the House of Lacroix has never turned a profit or seen even close to the worldwide reverence accorded to Yves St. Laurent.
A video clip below of the Lacroix Fall 2009 RTW collection that was critically praised and has seen orders from stores (Lacroix notes a significant Barneys order), but is so far going unproduced due to financial constraints:
Perhaps the focus is all wrong and the timing is too late? — Focus from labels to essentials for urban youth: “For young people from low-income backgrounds, often faced with paying their own way and helping support their families, interest in designer labels is waning as the economic downturn strains wallets and helps boost the appeal of frugality . . . While people with lower incomes have disproportionately sought out high-end brands for at least the last 18 years, they’ve recently been turning away from them … Spending on designer wear by families earning between $15,000 and $25,000 a year fell by 29 percent in 2008 from the year before, according to NPD.”
And it isn’t just the bling — top lingerie makers are feeling the pinch, as well: “Wolford AG, the Austrian maker of high-end hosiery, lingerie and swimwear, reported full-year losses and declining sales and forecast difficult markets throughout the current fiscal year . . . For the year ended Apr. 30, 2009, Wolford reported a net loss of 1.2 million euros compared with a net profit of 7.17 million euros a year earlier.”
Sales of those polka-dot silk tights just aint what they used to be
Hermes, however, seems to be weathering the storm with some dignity, which isn’t surprising, considering it was one of the few luxury brands that didn’t grow too big, too fast: “French luxury goods group Hermes saw a better-than-expected improvement in trading in the second quarter, helped by consumers’ crisis-proof appetite for its elegant handbags and stronger perfumes sales . . . Hermes is opening its first shop in Brazil in September, highlighting the extent to which the luxury group has not yet penetrated many emerging markets. It is also opening another shop in Istanbul in September.”
Note the reference to “stronger perfume sales” — Jean Claude Ellena is certainly earning his keep as in-house perfumer for Hermes.
The ability for Hermes to keep demand for its products stable during a time of greatly reduced consumer spending gives market analysts some hope: “Credit Suisse analyst Rogerio Fujimori said the strong second-quarter report from Hermes was ‘obviously positive’ for LVMH’s Vuitton brand, adding: ‘This supports our current preference for soft luxury stocks in our coverage’ . . . So-called ‘hard luxury,’ which refers to goods like watches or jewelry, is not doing so well.”
Though I never considered Hermes and Louis Vuitton as appealing to the same consumer market, so I don’t know how accurate the idea is that the success of Hermes bodes well for Louis Vuitton. For example, take a look at the below video clip where a heavily tattoed Marc Jacobs talks about the Louis Vuitton ad campaign starring a blatantly sexual, blingy Madonna:
Louis Vuitton is to Hermes what a Corvette is to a Bentley
Starting at 3:37, I found this comment by Jacobs particularly telling: “The results of this were just something beautiful that one aspires to — glamor, the Romance of Paris . . . “
Louis Vuitton is still operating on the aspirational consumer model (you know, the model that got all the luxury companies into their present over-extended, over-expanded mess), attempting to appeal to consumers who want to buy into a dream of borrowed glamor and romance, while Hermes sticks to simply appealing to the consumers who have money and want a high-quality product.
These two groups don’t strike me as following similar curves on the recessionary spending graph.
