September 2009 Archives

I received a press release from the Bond No. 9 people a few days ago about the upcoming debut of a signature oud-based scent they're calling Bond No. 9 Perfume. Buried within the standard boilerplate prose about artistry and precious ingredients was the statement below:

"Bond No. 9 Perfume contains four superbly harmonious East/West ingredients--the fewest of any Bond No. 9 fragrance (but no more were needed). Representing the Eastern world is earthy, sultry oud. Playing up against it is the rose, that epitome of refined sweetness, treasured in both the Middle East and the New World. Tonka beans from South America add to the heat with its caramel-almond flavor, while musk, from the Asian musk deer, further underscores oud's carnal nature."

My brain balked at the "while musk, from the Asian musk deer" bit. My immediate thought was, "Bond No. 9 is using natural musk harvested from live Asian musk deer?" The reason behind the brain-balk is that #1) live harvested musk from Asian musk deer is exceptionally rare (musk deer are usually killed to obtain the musk), and #2) Asian deer musk is considered one of the most expensive natural animal ingredients available on the market, which makes it a highly unlikely candidate for inclusion in a commercially produced, mass-market fragrance.

Not to mention that "musk, from Asian musk deer" conjures bad PR associations with poachers:

"Though laws exist to conserve the deer in much of its range, recent studies suggest that the illegal trade in musk glands (or musk pods) is dangerously threatening populations of the deer in Russia and Mongolia. According to ongoing surveys by TRAFFIC, an international wildlife trade monitoring network, and WWF, a conservation organization, 17,000 to 20,000 musk deer stags could be killed in Russia each year to supply the trade . . . That figure is perhaps five times the number of musk deer hunted and traded legally within Russia."

Ouch. Not necessarily the image a company wants consumers to associate with a brand new, about to be released, signature luxury fragrance product.

I emailed the Bond No. 9 people, questioning them about their musk -- is it really genuine Asian deer musk, and if it is, can they state with certainty that it was harvested legally, that the musk deer was not harmed in the process, from which farms did they obtain their deer musk, etc. I quickly received a reply which glossed over almost every single one of my questions, essentially treating my email as if it emerged from the mind of a man who was just one small step away from raving lunacy. But the PR woman tipped me off that something was amiss when she wrote the following sentence:

"All major fragrance houses use white musk oil in the creation of fragrances, but do not kill animals for the production of perfumes."

Ah, "white musk" . . . !

Neither the PR release, or the subsequent PR email, included the word "white" in the phrase "while musk, from the Asian musk deer" . . . so when I sent an email back questioning this point, I received a reply that the PR release was indeed in error and should have included the word "white" ("white musk" is industry code for a type of synthetic musk).

From Wikipedia: "Synthetic musks, known as white musks in the perfume industry, are a class of synthetic aromachemicals created by chemist and fragrance companies to emulate the scent of natural musk. Synthetic musks have a clean, smooth and sweet scent lacking the fecal/"animalic" notes of natural musks and are sometimes attributed as having notes of blackberry, ambrette or ambergris . . . Most, if not all musk fragrance used in perfumery today is synthetic."

Now, I still don't like the phrasing, even when including the word "white", since it continues to imply that the musk is obtained directly from the Asian musk deer. For example: "while white musk, from the Asian musk deer . . . " breezily gives the impression that the musk is a naturally harvested material when it's actually synthesized in a flavor and fragrance production facility. So it's misleading, even though it could possibly be passed off as just overly ambiguous rather than deceptive.

I don't understand why Bond No. 9 couldn't have just stated: "while white musk, a specialized oil inspired by the prized natural musk harvested from the Asian musk deer" . . . or something like that. It would have avoided any and all unnecessary confusion.

But really, it's the 21st century, right? So why are PR employees still roping in a gaggle of unsuspecting Asian musk deer to give their synthetic white musk a sheen of natural respectability, anyway?

If the synthetic "white musk" isn't good enough to warrant its own high puffery, then for god's sake, don't use it in a fragrance formula -- but if it *is* a quality oil that can more than hold its own, then be loud and proud about it. Behaving any other way makes it seem as if there's something about the fragrance that a company's owners/employees might possibly be ashamed of.

And that's not very good PR.

A bonus video clip below of a musk deer in the wild:

And finally, a link to a 2001 reference paper about musk deer farming in China that mentions the problems with lax enforcement of musk deer farming regulations and the difficulty of obtaining live harvests of any significant volume: Musk Deer Farming as a Conservation Tool in China

UPDATE (09/30/09):

I received the following email from Bond No. 9 this morning:

"Hi Nathan -- All musk used in US perfumery is synthetic. The musk used in the Bond No. 9 perfume smells like Asian deer musk, but it is no longer harvested from the animal. The press release is being corrected."

As a consumer, I want to know that companies are being honest with me and representing their products accurately. I appreciate that Bond No. 9 has come to the conclusion that portraying the musk in Bond No. 9 Perfume as some kind of exotic, rare and exorbitantly expensive natural animal musk may have sounded like a good idea in a marketing meeting, but is (in the harsh light of reality) genuinely confusing for consumers who are trying to make the best decisions they can about what products they want to purchase and which companies they wish to support.

Granted, I don't yet have the corrected PR material in hand, and it will be interesting to see if the company openly/publicly acknowledges the correction and/or sends it out to all parties who received the original press release; nonetheless, an admission of the need for greater transparency from company to consumer is a good first step.

UPDATE (10/08/09):

It's been 10 days, and no correction has yet been offered from Bond No. 9. If they were at all serious about disseminating the proper information to consumers, they would have issued an immediate correction.

It really doesn't take ten days to write: "We were mistaken when we stated that the musk in our Bond No. 9 perfume came from the Asian musk deer. The musk we use in our fragrance is synthetic rather than natural, and we apologize for implying otherwise."

There, see how easy that was? It took three minutes, tops.

UPDATE (03/28/10):

It's been over five months, the release for their Bond No. 9 signature fragrance came and went, and there wasn't a single correction issued by Bond, or any public explanation as to why their original PR material was so misleading.

From what I understand, this type of unaccountable behavior is typical of the Bond No. 9 perfume company (their "Contest to Design a Brooklyn Bottle", for instance, in which the deadline for announcing a winner came and went and no design was ever selected and no winner was ever announced), which is why I won't be purchasing any of their products again. There are plenty of honest and worthwhile fragrance companies that are far more deserving of financial support.

I've been testing/wearing Wazamba for weeks. Other fragrances come and go and I can usually get a handle on them, or at least find a path that leads from testing to appreciating to describing without too much of a struggle, but the elegant simplicity of perfumer Marc Antoine Corticchiato's composition for Parfum d'Empire comes across as not so much another work of commercial fluff but a statement piece with art on its mind.

Did I say art? I mean, it's about 30% aromatic Balsam Fir, 60% exotic incense resins and 10% crisp tart fruit -- that should be easy enough to just jot down and summarize without going all museum quality on its a**, right? And while I could end the review right there ("Woo-hoo! Thumbs up!"), I wouldn't really be doing justice to the obvious effort that went into producing Wazamba if that's all I wrote.

Because we all know what a healthy dose of pine can smell like in an enclosed space -- and while the Balsam Fir is best known as the preferred Christmas tree of North America (with all those holiday scents, memories and emotions bundled up in its one prickly package), the smell of pine is also deeply associated in the American mindset with the sharp, approaching medicinal smell of home cleaning solutions (i.e. Pine Sol).

So to introduce the scent of Balsam Fir into a personal fragrance without #1) stomping all over the holidays or #2) reminding everyone within a twenty foot radius of a newly mopped floor is, in my mind, a real and definite achievement, and any perfumer who has the ability to tame the beautiful but bucking bronco of the coniferous beast into such a sweet and contemplative submission as Corticchiato has managed in Wazamba scores high points on my chart of 'People I Like to Write Nice Things About'.

Admittedly, I'm not the only one writing nice things about Corticchiato and Wazamba. Some quotes from other enthusiastic reviewers below:

Denyse at Grain de Musc: "Wazamba doesn't really feel like a perfume, or rather, it feels like perfume drawn back to its primary meaning, per-fumare: precious resins and woods burnt in offering to the gods."

Abigail at I Smell Therefore I Am: "I absolutely love Wazamba and find it incredibly wearable . . . fresh, resinous yet soft and enveloping. It does not take center stage but instead provides a back drop for peaceful activities."

Marin at AntiM and the Rickety Blog: "Mmmmm... fresh-cut pine backed by a dollop of sweet-but-not-too, round, smoky, resiny incense ... this is one of the best smokes I've sniffed . . . It is to be noted that Aaron (the filing clerk) walked into my office and went all dreamy and forgot what he was going to say: 'Wow. It smells *really* good in here.'"

Kevin at Now Smell This: "Wazamba combines what I liked about (Parum d'Empire's) Yuzu Fou and Aziyadé (resins, fruit and incense) into one bottle."

The Perfume of Life (POL) forum even features a recent thread dedicated solely to Wazamba, filling up with posts from various members in states of bubbling delight: "My knees are getting weak!" and so on.

The scent notes that are offered as a guide through Wazamba's halls are: Somalian incense, Kenyan myrrh, Ethiopian opoponax, Indian sandalwood, Moroccan cypress, labdanum, apple and fir balsam. The fir balsam is especially notable for how realistic and yet gently it comes across. I really like the Annick Goutal take on Balsam Fir (Encens Flamboyant), but am sometimes a little bowled over by how powerful a punch it packs of smoke and pine needles -- Wazamba's Fir trees are warmer, softer, like dozing in the back seat of a car as you're being driven through a northern forest on a sunny October afternoon, the windows rolled down just an inch, wood smoke curling from the occasional farmhouse chimney as you glide past.

The incense trio of frankincense, myrrh/opoponax (opoponax is another type of sweet myrrh) and labdanum wrap themselves around the spikier tones of fir balsam, cushioning its sharper edges, and the sweet, tart tang of apple hanging about in the background is a genuine surprise, though it makes a sort of nostalgic sense to this Michigan native who grew up associating the combined aromas of pine trees, apple orchards and burning wood & leaves as the welcome transition from hot, muggy summer to cool, crisp autumn.

Sometimes I think I'm also getting a whiff of candied orange or sugared lemon, then at turns it's tart and green and I think, "Okay, yes, there's the apple" -- but the fruit notes are subtle and the overall scent can be confidently placed within the smoky, woodsy category (with a smattering of fruit plate!) -- a category of which I heartily approve.

The packaging for the Parfum d'Empire brand is clean and somewhat minimal, but with warm colors that prevent it from seeming stark or utilitarian. The bottle for Wazamba is tall, slender and rounded, the glass is thick without being overly heavy, the cap is curved and etched, and the exterior packaging is a colored & printed carboard tube that visually presages the shape of the enclosed bottle.

The atomizer is a decent one, too, which is an important part of the puzzle as a beautiful presentation can be marred by perfume dripping down my hands from a leaky atomizer. The spray isn't as fine as what you'll get from a Chanel Les Exclusifs (I just went back to using my Chanel Sycomore last week and the mist from the atomizer was so delicate and airy as to be almost surreal), so you'll need to hold the bottle a bit further away from the body for better coverage.

I've read a few comments about how powerful and in your face Wazamba is, yet other reviewers (including myself) have found it to be soft and meditative, instead. Perhaps this is a personal reaction to the scent of the Balsam Fir? Not everyone experiences a scent in exactly the same way, and there may be a number of fragrance consumers who find the use of Balsam Fir, no matter how deftly blended, to be just one pine over the line (sweet jesus).

Wazamba's longevity is excellent, lasting 8+ hours on the skin (especially when applied generously), and as an experiment, I wore it to the bustling Neiman Marcus pre-opening night gala without a ripple from the people around me, so it plays nicely with crowds (and yes, even when applied generously -- 8-12 sprays).

1.) Luxury Goods Lose Their Recession-Proof Luster:
"A freefall in luxury spending late last year among the rich led to unprecedented discounting on even premium brands like Chanel and Prada. And while sales of high-priced items have stabilized in recent months, business is still weak and is faring even worse than overall U.S. apparel sales . . . Shoppers will see more merchandise focusing on the low- to mid-tier luxury prices. That means more dresses from $400 to $600, and fewer priced over $1,000. The average prices for European luxury handbags are now anywhere from $1,600 to $1,700, lower than the $2,000 average seen more than a year ago . . . "

Hmmmm, perhaps some of that dropoff in spending among the rich has something to do with this: Survey Finds Wealthy Less Keen on Luxe Category -- "According to a recent survey by the Luxury Institute, 48 percent said luxury products are too accessible and are no longer exclusive; 40 percent believed luxury brands are becoming a commodity, and 52 percent said luxury brands that also sell products for mass consumers are no longer luxury brands."

So in the aquisitions and expansions frenzy that luxury brands and conglomerates (LVMH, Richemont, PPR) engaged in for the past ten to fifteen years, they didn't appear to consider that what wealthy consumers once considered attractive about brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chloe was their small size, which allowed for a cohesive vision and focused craftsmanship but also made for limited distribution and a subsequent difficulty for just anyone to find and purchase.

But now that the luxury conglomerates have planted flagships into just about every country on Earth, a canvas Louis Vuitton bag, striped Gucci kicks or Chloe branded accessories are about as difficult to find as a pair of jeans at the Gap. Adding insult to injury are the deep discounts that the once "We're Too Good For You" luxury brands are offering on a seasonal basis -- I mean, once you see Armani dresses and Alexander McQueen handbags at 50% to 70% off, it becomes a willing suspension of disbelief to continue perceiving the brands as anything but over-priced, over-hyped mass merchandise.

Even the Japanese, once the most voracious consumers of luxury brands and the engine that drove the global expansion of nearly the entire luxury industry (but especially for Louis Vuitton), have turned sour on the over-exposed and ubiquitous parade of once highly coveted designer names: Once Slave to Luxury, Japan Catches Thrift Bug -- "A new generation of Japanese fashionistas does not even aspire to luxury brands; they are happy to mix and match treasures found in a flurry of secondhand clothing stores that have sprung up across Japan. 'I'm not drawn to Louis Vuitton at all,' said Izumi Hiranuma, 19. 'People used to feel they needed a Louis Vuitton to fit in,' she said. 'But younger girls don't think like that anymore.'"

Bernard Arnault is likey weeping into his coffee as he reads those words, and Hermes, which has always done well in Japan, is offering up tepid remarks over the prospect of improving sales over the next year or two: Hermes CEO Sees No Light in 'Tunnel' on Japan Slump -- "'I'm not expecting to see the light of the tunnel before 2010,' Thomas said in a telephone interview yesterday from Milan, where he reopened a flagship store for the Paris-based company. The global financial crisis has a 'good year to go, maybe more,' and he was 'not optimistic at all' about the world economy, he added. 'The Japanese economy is not good and we all feel it.'"

When Hermes bleeds, the luxury industry listens.

Addressing the issue of dissatisfaction with the contemporary luxury brands is this quote from Dr. Michel Phan, director of MasterCard-ESSEC Luxury Brand Management Executive Program and LVMH chaired professor at the ESSEC Business School in Paris: "'Today, without the logo, you can't tell what brand it is. They all look the same,' he said." Dr. Phan argues that luxury brands need to offer personalized goods and work diligently at not copying successful items from competing brands -- that the "me, too" approach of brands dog piling onto trends has hurt the luxury industry as a whole.

And Dr. Phan has a point -- I walk through a handbag section at a department store like Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus and it's mostly impossible to tell one brand from the other unless they're splattered with logos. There's no singular vision to a brand any longer -- it's like what Octavian Coifan writes of the frangrance industry at his blog 1000 Frangrances: "On the shelves, modern perfumes are very close in design and color schemes and very few would attract you in the ocean of products . . . They are abstract entities that (have) lost power and magic and worse, the product itself is not able to fill the gap."

Speaking of luxury design houses that go mass market at their own risk:

2.) Narciso Rodriguez Will Be Slumming It On eBay:
"Smack dab in the middle of Fashion Week, the cheap-chic sector has come out with a curveball. Narciso Rodriguez, couturier to Michelle Obama, Sarah Jessica Parker and Rachel Weisz, is producing a line of clothing that will top out at $350 (his pieces usually run $1,000 and up). His partner in this scheme? eBay . . . in the search for that elusive, last-season, sold-out item, (eBay) can be a handy tool, but the clothing segment of the site spans an enormous range of products, from secondhand sweatpants to pristine couture gowns. There is also -- and this has long been the sticking point in the relationship between fashion and eBay -- an inundation of fakes. It's the Canal Street of cyberspace. Rodriguez is wading into seriously untested, wild waters."

Wading into seriously untested waters, sure, and also seriously in danger of losing any and all current customers who won't be keen on sporting the same types of designs that are to be manufactured out of cheaper grade materials and hawked on the Internet site that's most famous for hosting ripoffs of famous brands.

Below is a video clip of Narciso Rodriguez's Spring/Summer 2010 collection that he just recently showed in New York:

"Romantic and poetic without losing its hardcore streetness"

Rodriguez had a recent fallout with the Liz Claiborne Group after they purchased a 50% stake in his brand and likely wanted to slap his name on a line of handbags, sunglasses and other accessories: "The partnership marked Liz's entry into the luxury designer segment, and Liz, whose brands include Juicy Couture and Kate Spade, was hoping to license the Narciso Rodriguez brand and extend it into accessories."

The partnership ended in October of 2008 when he purchased back the rights to his name, but it's not even a year later and Mr. Artistic Integrity is already in the process of peddling a low-rent version of his designs on eBay. Anything the Claiborne company offered couldn't have been any worse than this.

Though Claiborne is having problems of its own: Liz Claiborne working with turnaround firm -- "The company said Thursday that it has hired the turnaround firm on a short-term basis to review its operations with the goal of improving its cash flow in the U.S. and Europe . . . But sales of its key brands have suffered as consumers cut their discretionary spending, and the company expects its sales to continue falling."

Speaking of low-rent knockoffs: H&M Sales Drop Worsens in August -- "Revenue at stores open at least a year fell 11 percent last month, the fourth consecutive drop and worse than July's 3 percent decrease, Stockholm-based H&M said today . . . H&M said sales in Spain, the U.S. and France were "weak" in the third quarter because it had too little inventory to keep pace with discounting by competitors."

It's a race to the bottom of the discount barrel -- last one there is fresh out of business!

And yet the parade marches on:

3.) London's 25th Anniversary Fashion Week Kicks Off with Christopher Kane:
"Kane's latest collection ... suggests 2010 could be the year he hits the big time. The Kane look - hip, art-school style spliced with serious sex appeal - now looks sufficiently polished to charm a heavy-hitting front row which included Anna Wintour, Sir Philip Green, designer Donatella Versace and supermodel Natalia Vodianova . . . He namechecked the 1970s American sitcom The Brady Bunch, the novel Lolita, cult religion and 'Nancy Reagan on the lawn of the White House' as references for a collection he cheerfully tagged as 'a bit pervy'."

New kid on the London block Kane's "pervy" Spring 2010 collection below:

"Looser and with more leg"

And old London standby Burberry closed the party down:

"A classic collection in front of an A-list crowd"

Burberry is the very model of the over-exposed modern luxury brand. They manufacture several women's and men's clothing lines across the pricing spectrum, including handbags, shoes, jewelry, sunglasses, hats, umbrellas, wallets, keychains, you name it. If there's something to sell, then Burberry has it on a shelf, with at least one in its signature plaid check.

They were also one of the most recognized names featured in the massive and demoralizing luxury goods sales that kicked off throughout high-end department stores last fall: "In May, Angela Ahrendts, chief executive officer at fashion house Burberry, admitted 2008 to 2009 was one of the "most challenging years" the luxury sector has ever faced."

But enough of business, what's a London fashion week without at least one minor scandal? Up and coming designer Mark Fast made last minute additions of several larger, curvier models in his catwalk lineup, causing several of his staff to quit before the show: "The daring move, which placed ladies with US sizes 8-10 on the catwalk, led to a near meltdown among the young designer's staff. Both his stylist and creative director walked out just three days before Saturday's show at Westminster."

The Mark Fast collection is below, with one of the curvier models as the first one down the runway:

Said one staff member: "The decision to use fuller girls is something we have been talking about. There's an idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark's dresses and he wanted to combat that. We wanted women to know they didn't have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress -- curvier women can look even better in them."

And when you're a young designer who's not yet established, it's a savvy move to pitch your brand's image directly to your target market (via a runway clip on YouTube, of course) instead of waiting for a potentially failing fashion magazine to do it for you.

4.) Are New Allergen Rules Destroying Classic Perfumery?:
"Perfume makers, sniffers and vendors are upset over the International Fragrance Association's (IFRA) latest rules governing what can go into a scent's formula. With the association aggressively seeking to reduce or eliminate allergens, some insiders say Chanel's iconic No 5 perfume may be in danger . . . 'There seems to be a steady build-up of regulatory rules,' said Luca Turin, a scientist and perfume expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'All the legacy fragrances, these works of art, are being steadily destroyed,' Turin said. 'You aren't obliged to put airbags on a vintage car. Why do you with perfumes?'"

I can appreciate the point that Turin's trying to make, but a vintage car isn't the best example to use -- a vintage car doesn't get used up and then replaced with a quick trip to the local department store fifty years later. The formulae for vintage fragrances may have been crafted before the new allergen regulations, but the fragrances themselves are in continuous production.

Perfumer Isabelle Doyen expresses the frustration that perfumers feel when informed of yet more allergen restrictions on perfumery ingredients: "'Even water, if you investigated enough, would become something dangerous,' said Isabelle Doyen, head perfumer of the French fragrance house Annick Goutal. 'What's terrible is that you put in place the formula and within one or two years you have to rework it.'"

A fragrance often takes two to three years (if not more) of testing and tweaking to become market ready. Finding out only two years after release that you have to go back to the drawing board would be slightly headache inducing (to say the least).

5.) Industry Quick Hits:

A.) Successful GWM Seeks International SugarDaddy for Next Big Step: "Tom Ford International, the luxury line from the former creative head of Gucci, is seeking funding to expand into women's apparel . . . Citing unnamed sources, peHUB reported that the design house, based in New York, was looking for an investment of $50 million or more. Representatives for Tom Ford and Credit Suisse could not be reached for comment."

Is Ford genuinely looking to expand into womenswear just as the entire luxury market is braced for a massive collision with the brick wall of reality? Though, to be fair, wealthy clients are tired of the already over-exposed brands that presently underwhelm them, and Ford's name isn't emblazoned on a one of them . . . yet. Should the likes of Valentino, Versace and Gucci get kicked to the curb, that could leave plenty of room at the table for a hungry, and experienced, entrepreneur like Ford.

Bonus points: his line of Private Collection fragrances smartly positioned his brand name in the up-market section, where it doesn't sully its good taste and breeding among the less exclusive likes of a bottle of Marc Jacobs or Hugo Boss.

A video clip below of a conversation between Tom Ford and International Herald Tribune fashion critic Suzy Menkes:

B.) Now that everyone's sick and tired of our old stuff: "Editors aren't the only ones watching the studied evolution of Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy. LVMH North America chairman Renauld Dutreil was given a prime front-row seat at the Mulleavy's show on Tuesday, prompting a renewed round of speculation that LVMH may be looking to invest in the company."

In with the new! Handbags and perfume undoubtedly coming soon.

C.) Mothers, Don't Let Your Sons Grow Up To Be Metrosexuals: "Demand among male shoppers for pantyhose has apparently been soaring over the past five years. Selfridges in London has now responded with a range designed exclusively for guysized legs. The tights, dubbed mantyhose ... come in black, beige and charcoal . . . According to those in the know, mantyhose are usually worn under suits to keep the legs warm and to give the hips and thighs a nice smooth line . . . There has been a trend in recent years towards 'metrosexual' dressing, with male handbags dubbed 'manbags', leggings for men known as 'meggings' and eyeliner for men described as ' guyliner' all proving popular."

The photos that accompany the article are just about the crappiest examples of a "soaring" trend I've ever seen. Make it stop!

D.) Google Wins, eBay Loses: French court rules against eBay for counterfeiting while the European Court ruled that Google can continue to sell trademarked brand name keywords for advertising -- "Just a day after Ebay was ordered to pay 80,000 euros ($119,000) in damages to LVMH, an advisor to Europe's top court handed a small victory to Google . . . Google hasn't violated LVMH's trademarks by selling adverts based on key word searches for the luxury goods makers brands, said Luis Miguel Poiares Maduro, advocate general at the European Court of Justice wrote in a statement on Tuesday."

E.) Gucci, diamonds and criminals: Arrest Made in Gucci Store Heist after thieves drove three cars through the store window to get at the merchandise, while an estimated $200,000.00 jewelry store heist in Greenwich, Connecticut leaves owner in shock -- "'Your business gets hit because of the economy and then you get robbed of what you do have,' she said, staring at the broken glass littering the once-pristine store. 'This is just a shock.'"

6.) Milan Fashion Week to Open Under Economic Cloud:
"Milan Fashion Week kicks off Wednesday under an economic cloud as a sharp drop in exports of Italian ready-to-wear women's apparel has put tens of thousands of jobs on the line . . . A study published last week by fashion trade federation Sistema Moda Italia said Italian exports of women's ready-to-wear shrank by 25.3 percent to Russia, 26.8 percent to the United States, 12 percent to Switzerland and 18 percent to Japan in the first five months of 2009."

But hey, "Crisis -- what crisis?", right? Somebody has to fiddle while Rome burns, and it may as well be the fashion designers!

A brief glimpse of the Prada Spring/Summer 2010 collection that made its debut yesterday:

"When things are bad, you have to come out from that. Optimism," Miuccia Prada declared, "is a choice."

I start off my morning errands with the purchase of a loaf of fresh bread at Le Panier Bakery in Pike Place Market, plus a short latte. I'll sit at the window counter (if there's a space available -- the place is really busy during the tourist season) and drink my coffee while I people watch and catch up on text messages and email:

Le Panier French Bakery

One of my other regular stops is the Bavarian Meat Market, tucked away inside a corridor. It's not easily accessible by tourists, so it's not as frantically busy in the summer time, and it has a fairly regular clientel who come for the very German cheeses, sausages, deli meats and condiments. I make sure I buy some of their fresh potato salad every week -- it makes the German blood in my veins sing:

Bavarian Meat Market

At the main entrance of Pike Place Market, there's a brick paved road to the left side that heads down and then curves sharply left. This takes you to the grimier section of Post Alley. The street itself is fine, but the walls are some of the most graffiti strewn you'll find in Seattle.

Part of a graffiti covered wall in Post Alley

The "Gum Wall" in Post Alley started small, but over the years has turned into a mass of chewed gum spreading like an alien virus across the brick walls. I always feel a little queasy just walking past it:

Detail from the Gum Wall in Post Alley

And this is a sight I get to see regularly out our windows -- Colman Dock in Elliott Bay, where the transporation ferries come and go. It's strikingly beautiful in the early mornings as well as when the daylight starts to fade:

Colman Dock in Elliott Bay

Yes, I fully admit it -- I've been on an oud kick lately, but that may reflect more the quality of the oud fragrances now becoming available to the Western consumer than any kind of innate desire to plunge my nose into smoky, wood-grained goodness.

Christopher Voigt sums it up nicely when he writes at his blog, Vetivresse: "Of late my love affair with oud has taken a new turn. Or, let me rephrase: My love affair with oud's influence on a select set of Western perfumers -- including Christopher Chong's latest incarnation of Amouage -- has just kicked into warp."

And maybe that's a better way of phrasing it: "oud's influence on a select set of Western perfumers." Well, I received a sample this past weekend of independent perfumer Liz Zorn's all-natural take on the oud genre, Oudh Lacquer, and it has to be said, at least for me, that Zorn has joined this particular select set of Western perfumers that are busily stoking my desire for all things oud.

Despite that I was just receiving a small sample in the mail, her presentation was, as always, impeccable. Ms. Zorn clearly understands the importance of the first impression:

I immediately dove into the Oudh Lacquer sample with all the gusto of a formerly misdiagnosed diabetic set loose at a pastry convention -- and once you experience Oudh Lacquer for yourself, you'll understand how "oud" and "pastry convention" can comfortably reside in the same sentence.

Zorn mentions on her blog that she waited a year before she felt relaxed and ready enough to release Oudh Lacquer onto the market, which probably gave her plenty of time to live with the formula, tweak it, ponder it and then finally decide the baby was ready to fly.

There's a sumptuous quality to Oudh Lacquer, and while I rarely use the word "sumptuous" to describe anything, it spontaneously cropped up in my brain in response to the way the scent gets my thought pistons firing and response gears grinding to the tune of all my favorite things: wood, smoke, leather, honey, a smooth whiff of polished florals . . . and chocolate? Yes, chocolate -- a really fine, dark, bittersweet cocoa with a hello as sure as silk and an appealingly raspy afterglow that comes trailing behind.

Okay, so -- what does any of that even mean? Here's what it means: 1.) take a toasted oak barrel, fill it with champaca flowers, orange blossoms, cinnamon bark, patchouli leaves, clove spice, tupelo honey, genuine agarwood oils and the best Belgian cocoa money can buy; 2.) shellac the florals in the honey and soak the patchouli leaves in the agarwood oil, stir until thick; 3.) slather the thickened mix in a paste of cinnamon and clove spices, powder with a liberal dusting of dark, bittersweet cocoa, then seal in a cast iron pot and simmer over low embers all night until the first light of daybreak -- voila!

Oudh Lacquer.

But you know, even that doesn't seem to do it justice because I've only had such a short "getting to know you" period with this particular piece. A couple of days just doesn't seem enough to get at the truth of a fragrance anymore -- I mean, we've developed a glancing acquaintance and all that, but I'm ordering a bottle tonight and will report back in a few weeks after I've had the opportunity to take it out to dinner, watch some movies, go shopping together, drink a couple of bottles of great wine and maybe watch a few sunsets, sharing a bench on the rooftop deck.

But perhaps it says enough right there that I'm already contemplating a future with a fragrance I only just met.

***Note: Oudh Lacquer lasts all freakin' day! It's over ten hours after application and it's still going strong. Which is a terrific thing, because the best part of it is its sweet incense smoke + deep cocoa drydown.

Ms. Zorn creates some of the more interesting fragrances you'll never find in a department store, but you can find Oudh Lacquer online: Oudh Lacquer

1.) It's the End of New York Fashion Week, and I Feel Fine:
"I lost count of the number of times I heard the words 'uncertainty' or 'caution' from a fashion designer this week and what this really meant was, 'I have no idea if anyone will be buying clothes next season, or if I'll be around to sell them' . . . Anyway, what is the point of all of these journalists and retailers slogging around the world, seeing the same shows, in often the same order, every year, like some ridiculous Groundhog Day, sponsored by Gucci. Yes, we know the arguments about needing to see the clothes in person, but the depleted audience suggested that this is just no longer economically viable for many straitened publications, to say nothing of the designers who can spend $100,000 on a show, only to see all their designs ripped off by copyists before they even get theirs in stores."

The article goes on to mention that the best show of the week was a show that wasn't a runway show, but instead, a static presentation (a gaggle of models standing on a low platform while assorted buyers and fashion writers examined the outfits from all angles) that shed some light on how irrelevant the runway show is in the Internet age -- and it was Tory Burch: "Burch ... is building a mini empire selling simple, beautiful clothes (70s Gucci by way of Hamptons WASP) that rarely go for more than $400 . . . If I could have, I'd have pumped some money into the American economy and bought the whole collection."

The L.A. Times questions the relevance of the traditional runway show, as well: "Runway looks, traditionally shown to buyers and the media six to eight months before they land in stores, can be seen online minutes after a designer shows them, worn by celebrities days later, and knocked off soon after that. Which means that sharp-shoulder silhouette that came down the Balmain runway in Paris in March was available at the mall long before the designer original arrived, and at a fraction of the price."

Has the internet made the runway show irrelevant? And now that the print magazines have lost clout, will we start to see designers presenting fall and spring collections in, like, you know, the fall and spring, when people might actually want to wear them?

Crazy, I know.

A video clip of Tory Burch's sensible Spring/Summer 2010 static presentation below:

A new direction

Laird Borrelli-Persson wrote high praise for the Burch collection at Style.com: "Might Tory Burch be capable of saving the economy single-handedly? Editors were acting like kids in a candy store at her Spring presentation: They didn't just like what they saw, they wanted to buy it . . . Burch's designs are always familiar; her DNA, after all, is the American staple. What she does is reimagine it, sprinkle it with some fashion dust and a pinch of fun."

But speaking of design dinosaurs that still party like it's 1999, the opposite of Tory Burch's simple, wearable and absolutely accessible sportwear is the excessive and often overly fussy approach of Marc Jacobs. His Spring show was widely praised, but in an auto-pilot kind of way that revealed hairline cracks in the fashion press' infatuation with all things Marc: "The scary part was that it seemed to actually take on a strange beauty as the show went on and the ruffles migrated to shrunken Hong Kong businessmen's suits and the Harlequin patterns and pearls became breezy summer dresses. Still, it was pretty out there -- and we're a little bit afraid to follow."

And this from USA Today: "Marc Jacobs is known for his thrilling masterpieces not only in his eponymous line, but also for Marc by Marc Jacobs ... and for major fashion house Louis Vuitton. Nonetheless, we found his Marc Jacobs line fantastical, but a little bit tedious inside a sweltering New York Armory Monday night."

Video clip below:

"Exhilarating pell-mell madness" -- or maybe just a lot of Lady GaGa?

Quite a bit of about-town chatter, however, focused on a group of new designers becoming more influential with each season, with the most prominent of them being part of what's called the Asian New Wave: "At New York Fashion Week, which begins today, 25 Asian-American fashion designers plan to hold shows or presentations, nearly double the number five years ago, according to the Fashion Calendar, an industry newsletter that lists fashion shows and events."

The new Asian designers include the likes of Thakoon Panichgul, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu, Doo.Ri and Phillip Lim. Lim's collection was also praised at Style.com as "a collection to sell, sell, sell, no matter what the prevailing wisdom," while the L.A. Times stated: "You could almost hear the cash register going ka-ching as Phillip Lim's models walked down the runway." That beats "exhilarating pell-mell madness" any day.

Video clip of Lim's American sportswear meets European chic Spring/Summer 2010 collection below:

Shake that moneymaker, Mr. Lim!

Now that New York's fashion week is officially over, London's Fashion Week is just beginning, and it's their 25th anniversary Fashion Week, which means . . . oh, nothing really, except maybe an excuse for a headline or two in the fashion press: London Fashion Week turns 25! -- "London Fashion Week started out as a small gathering of dedicated fashion designers and trend makers in a car park in west London. Now, the event has grown into an extravaganza that channels 28-million US Dollars bi-annually into the British capital's economy. In terms of direct spending, it generates orders in the region of over 140-million US Dollars."

But with all this talk of fashion and hype and luxury, how do market analysts view the luxury industry at this point? -- "As analysts scan the landscape they see a virtual Who's Who of battered luxury chains. 'Saks and Neiman's sales are horrendous. Tiffany was down 27% in U.S. same-store sales last quarter, Bulgari was down 21%, Harry Winston sales were down 49%, and [LVMH Moet Hennessy] Louis Vuitton down 23%," says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting and investment banking services firm. "If you look at Madison Avenue, it's a ghost town in terms of store closings. It's an absolute disaster.'"

I think I like the phrase "Now, the event has grown into an extravaganza" much better than the phrase "It's an absolute disaster" . . .

2.) How the Fragrance Industry Can Adapt to the Economic Climate:
"The ever-growing pace of launches simply cannot continue. 'Certainly, we and others are going to continue to launch smart line extensions of our brands and fill consumer segments,' says Steve Hicks, P&G's director of flavor and fragrance development. 'But we're going to put more and more emphasis on big blockbuster fragrances that have real staying power and things that we can view as classics in time, as opposed to fragrances that just come and go. I think the consumers are going to want that in a world where they're looking for more simplicity. We've all built businesses giving them more and more, and now I think they want better and better.'"

Excuse me while I pick myself up from off the floor. I must have fainted when I read that the fragrance industry is possibly thinking the consumer might be interested in quality over quantity. No -- it can't be! How avant-garde!

*rolls eyes*

But isn't that kind of like bolting the barn door shut after all the animals have fled? A faster and faster pace of releases that were increasingly lower and lower in quality managed to ruin the reputations of once respected perfume house, and turned a big chunk of consumers off to fragrances entirely. I mean, why would anyone bother to spend their money on a bottle of perfume that doesn't smell much better than the hand soap at a rest stop or a jug of concentrated laundry detergent?

Along the same train of thought, Italian perfumer AbdesSalaam Attar posted in a recent blog entry that he talked to scientist and perfume critic Luca Turin as to why he and partner Tania Sanchez ceased publishing their quarterly updates to Perfumes: The Guide: "He told me that I could not imagine how boring and deluding it was to smell 2000 perfumes a year, 1500 of which were totally inept . . . he became tired of always having to find new "vacheries" (nastinesses) for products of fine perfumery barely worthy of being shampoo fragrances. 'At least shampoo producers do not pretend to make fine perfumery, this is making a joke of the customers' he said . . . 'The industry cannot go ahead like this, something will happen.'"

Hmmm, maybe that "something" he's referring to is unprofitable brands/labels getting the axe: Estée Lauder Cos. to Shutter Prescriptives Brand -- "Estée Lauder ... said Thursday it will shut down wholesale distribution of its 30-year-old Prescriptives brand by Jan. 31 (2010). Products will continue to be available through the brand's Web site for consumers needing replenishment, until supplies run out . . . Wall Street analysts have speculated for some time that Prescriptives' anemic profitability has made it a candidate for divestiture."

If you're a Calyx prefume fan, then I would say that now is the time to stock up.

In other perfume news, the Marc Jacobs people demonstrated a canny awareness of the importance of fragrance sales to the bottom line by leaving a bottle of Jacob's latest fragrance release, 'Lola', on every chair in the venue where they were holding their Spring runway show (a pusher always gives you the first hit for free, you see). The L.A. Times mused aloud, while reviewing the Rodarte show, about whether a brand can survive without accessories to offer, such as fragrance: "Though there is certainly a place in fashion for collections that are about fantasy and hype, the question is: How long can (Rodarte) last -- especially in this climate -- if there are no fragrance or accessories sales to support them?"

Clip of Rodarte's fantasy&hype-heavy S/S 2010 collection below:

"From Star Wars Sci-Fi to Snuffaluffagus and the Cookie Monster -- it's all there."

3.) DSquared2 embraces the Internet -- they've got an online shop, y'all! Of course, they also have a near embarrassingly bad video clip to promote it, too. Here I thought they were a proudly boutique designer brand with a focus on high style, superior materials and quality craftsmanship, but it turns out they're just into strippers. Ah well, they're gay Canadian designer twins -- that has to count for something, right?

Velveeta-flavored marketing aside, the online shop is a smart move, and just in time, too. DSquared2 needed to make their small line more widely available if they were going to stay in business. While they presently sell some of their merchandise in upscale department stores, not everyone who shops at Saks or Neiman Marcus is interested in spending $695.00 on a pair of their jeans, which means the brand's reach needed to get a whole lot more . . . uhm . . . well, just a whole lot more!

While behemoth brands like Louis Vuitton and Chanel are still arguing that the luxury shopping experience needs to be more restrictive in order to keep it desirable, it's good to see younger labels get on board with taking their merchandise to wherever the consumer might be . . . credit card transactions are just as easily processed in an online shop as they are in a brick and mortar store, you know. Hello, are you listening, Uncle Lagerfeld?

Meanwhile, Saks Fifth Avenue is taking matters into its own hands and figuring out new ways to cope with plunging sales -- Saks Has New Approach To Cope With Recession, Retain Cache: "The luxury retailer is doing more with private-label brands, signing exclusive deals with suppliers and having 'more unique product made for us,' said Chief Executive Stephen Sadove. 'That, I think, is changing the nature of what we're selling' . . . . Saks, which has long lead times for making purchases, making it harder to order against anticipated demand, is taking as few chances as it can and buying about 20% less inventory than it did a year ago. The retailer is also offering lower-cost items among the brands it carries."

I like the private-labeling and exclusive deals approach. By offering merchandise or products that a consumer simply can't surf on over to Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom to find, they're positioning themselves as a destination. Smaller shops and boutiques that are feeling the pinch of competition from the large chains regularly slashing prices to bring in consumers can also benefit from the "We have what no one else has!" approach.

Just for use as an example: there's a shop in Bellevue, Washington called Posh on Main. For years, they offered high-end designer bags and shoes that Bellevue area women couldn't find anywhere else in Seattle -- but now that Neiman Marcus has moved in just down the street, a little boutique like Posh is going to have a really hard time keeping afloat, especially as Neiman Marcus carries all the brands that Posh carries, plus more.

A way in which the owner of Posh could fight back would be to take a page from the Saks Fifth Avenue playbook and start offering products and brands that Neiman Marcus doesn't -- handmade jewelry from local designers; a perfume created just for Posh by either a local perfumer, or a perfumer working in the United States; an exotic handbag line, such as Czechoslavakia's Bambas (#1 gorgeous, #2 hand painted, #3 next to impossible to find anywhere else, and #4 priced well below the likes of the more common Valentinos, Jimmy Choos and Chloes), etc.

If a retail shop or chain can't adapt, or won't make the effort to scout out specialized items for its clients and/or offer specialized services, it runs the risk of becoming obsolete in the eyes of a much more selective consumer.

Now, about those luxury behemoths arguing to keep their brands exclusive:

4.) eBay Calls on the EU to Break the Brand Monopoly on Luxury Distribution:
"The law allows luxury goods manufacturers to choose who (they'll allow to) sell their products on the web, but eBay says these distribution deals 'unjustly block the online sale of legitimate products across Europe'. It says consumers are being forced to pay higher prices and they want the law changed . . . EBay has handed a petition to the European Parliament signed by 750,000 people urging reform. The petition says manufacturers should not be able to 'insist that Internet retailers must have an offline retail store before they can sell online'."

Okay, let's be frank -- while I do agree that luxury brands could benefit from opening up their attitudes regarding Internet distribution, I don't agree that they should be forced to do so by the big stick of the law. Does it really hurt consumers that Chanel or Louis Vuitton strictly control their distribution channels and won't allow retailers to offer certain products on the net, or just won't allow certain retailers to offer their products at all?

Consumers have other fashion options, and designer handbags, shoes and jewelry are not even close to being necessities like food or medication (where the consumer is genuinely harmed by a lack of distribution options). I'm thrilled that DSquared2 has seen the light and now has its own online shop, but this is a decision a brand needs to make on its own, and I certainly don't see a problem with a luxury brand controlling who can sell their products and where.

Contemporary "luxury" is pretty much all about the exclusivity, and in an age of globalization, exclusivity can only be maintained through strict standards and controls, otherwise the merchandise is everywhere, offered at whatever price the merchant sees fit and then the brand's image is quickly in tatters. Brands have enough problems maintaining a positive image as it is (Hennessey and Kanye West, anyone?) without having to deal with Internet pop-up shops shoveling out the season's latest "IT" bag at cost plus 10%.

I don't have eBay's back on this one.

5.) State of the Industry:

A.) Singapore retail sales drop 10 percent in July: "Singaporeans are shying away from purchasing big-ticket items, instead pouring money into stock markets . . . 'Real buying of things like Chanel bags and watches hasn't improved much and is lagging speculative sentiment,' said Adrian Foster, head of financial markets research Asia for Rabobank."

B.) IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances) CEO Resigns as Other IFF Plants Likely to Close: "IFF is continuing to balance capacity and demand. Other Flavor & Fragrance companies such as Givaudan and Symrise are using similar strategies to identify and reduce redundancy . . . Additionally, Flavor and Fragrance demand is growing slower in Europe and North America than in the emerging markets ... F&F's will continue to expand capacity in Asia and South America to the detriment of Europe and North America."

C.) LVMH-Richemont Merger Would Be 'Master Stroke,' Bernstein Says: "A merger between LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA and Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, the two biggest luxury-goods makers, would be a "strategic master stroke," according to Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Luca Solca . . . LVMH and Richemont could save about 500 million euros ($714 million) by merging, mostly through combining their distribution and gaining clout in negotiations to buy advertising and rent store space . . . LVMH's watch brands would benefit from Richemont's research and manufacturing capabilities, while Richemont's leather brands, such as Dunhill and Lancel, would benefit from LVMH's expertise, the analyst added."

As if LVMH isn't big enough as it is, but I can't say I'd be surprised by such a move. In a time of crumbling fortunes (even for the big guys), teaming up with the former competition might be the smartest (the only?) way to survive. And maybe the above article was initiated by this:

D.) Richemont Cautious On Outlook As Sales Drop: "Swiss Jeweler and watchmaker Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA Wednesday said it was too early to say whether the worst was over for its markets after sales in the five months to end-August fell 16%."

E.) Barney's Exploits the Obamas in Desperate Ploy to Drive Sales:

F.) Talbots Q2 Loss Narrows: "Talbots, Inc. said its second-quarter net loss narrowed slightly from a year ago, as costs decreased from the previous year (but) Both net sales and comparable store sales for the second quarter declined from the previous year, as the uncertain economy continues to discourage non-discretionary spending."

G.) Ad Shift Throws Blogs a Business Lifeline: "Though they do not command nearly the same ad rates that glossy magazines do, (blogs) are attracting ad dollars while magazines are losing them . . . advertising revenue for magazines dropped 21 percent in the first half, and the number of ad pages sold dropped 28 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau."

The article goes on to note how difficult it is to create blogs that generate ad traffic and ad revenue, as the focus has to be narrow, on point, breezy and pretty much sarcasm free. Advertisers are looking for new avenues, but blogs can often be too personal and opinionated for the comfort of large scale advertisers.

As a result, blog networks are more comfortable targets for ad revenue than single blogs: "Blogs, with their unpredictable and sometimes edgy content, can be frightening to advertisers, but blog networks are less risky, said Shenan Reed, a founder of Morpheus Media, a digital marketing agency that represents brands like Louis Vuitton and L'Oréal . . . 'When you're dealing with a company where the editorial control is living under one roof, you feel like there's a consistency in the message, which is what makes Sugar, Gawker and Curbed fantastically interesting to us,' Ms. Reed said."

H.) Bravo to announce 'Real Housewives' apparel line: "Bravo Media ... is set to announce its latest apparel adventure later today: a line of clothing and accessories inspired by the fashion and style of 'The Real Housewives' reality franchise. Bravo has struck a licensing deal with a company called Royal Plush to develop a co-branded the Real Housewives-Royal Plush line, which will consist of premium denim, loungewear, activewear, handbags and accessories."

Because reality show branding is just what we've all been panting for, apparently.

"Laaah la la laaaaaah . . . that's just a sample to whet your appetite."

6.) Tom Ford Makes the Leap from Fashion Designer to Film Director:
"Even before the formal reviews, the impromptu audience reaction proved impressive. 'I was incredibly nervous, and, well, I could feel the room,' Ford said. 'I could feel that people were breathing and living and laughing and crying at the right moments, so that was a great feeling. But the reaction at the end [a lengthy standing ovation] was something I hadn't anticipated, although we had had a precursor of it.'"

'A Single Man', Ford's directorial debut, has been drawing a number of high-profile rave reviews, surprising a lot of film and fashion industry people who thought he was likely biting off way more than he could chew. And it's not even a raunch-fest (unlike his ad campaigns for the Gucci and Tom Ford brands).

Below is the trailer for the film:

And below is a Q&A with Mr. Ford at the Toronto Film Festival:

I have to admit that I do find it a bit jarring when he goes on about how awful it is that we've become such a materialistic society and have lost sight of what life is really about. Sure, okay Tom -- whatever.

So, I made a batch of chili yesterday and thought I'd include a dash of hot sauce, just for a little effect. Unfortunately, this is the hot sauce I chose to use:

From the label: "This sauce is the hottest on Earth! Pure habanero pepper enhanced wtih habanero infused flavor creates a sauce measured at 234,000 Scoville units. Wicked beyond belief."

For some reason, I decided not to investigate what a Scoville Unit was before shaking some of the sauce into the chili -- big mistake.

A Scoville Unit is a heat unit developed by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912 to measure the heat sensation we get from eating red peppers due to the presence of the capsaicin chemical (the capsaicin chemical is responsible for the pepper's heat). The test has been tweaked and modified since Scoville first developed it, but it's still called a Scoville Unit in honor of the pharmacist.

The Jalapeno pepper typically ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville Units, while the more fiery Habanero pepper ranges from 100,000 to 300,000 -- Da Bomb Ground Zero hot sauce is ranked at 230,000 Scoville Units, so . . . ouch! That's a lot of hot!

But after doing some research, Da Bomb's claims to be the hottest sauce on Earth are highly exaggerated. There are hot sauces that chart up into the millions of Scoville Heat Units, which seems like a recipe for spontaneous combustion to me, but maniacal hot-sauce devotees think nothing of cranking up the furnace to temperatures that would roast the devil on his own pitchfork.

For example, some of the hottest sauces on the market are Blaire's Death Sauces, which consistently rank in the millions on the Scoville Heat Unit scale, with a couple of them clocking up past the ten million mark.

*shudder*

Video clip below of a serious hot sauce fan testing a heaping tablespoon of Blaire's Jersey Death Sauce, which ranks at 1,100,000 Scovilles. He only seems the slightest bit phased at first (where it would have knocked me flat on the floor), but as time goes on, he becomes red-faced and uncomfortable while exhibiting some difficulty speaking and swallowing:

"Oops!"

Kids, don't try this at home!

I don't usually do PR releases, but I was sent the information for an upcoming arts and architecture conference that will take place here in Seattle, Washington from September 23rd through September 27th, and it well deserves any additional pre-event chatter it can get.

The event is titled - Enduring Legacies: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Seattle and Environs, and will feature numerous lectures from experts in the Arts and Crafts field, tours of architecturally significant private homes and gardens, trips to area museums, lunches, receptions at area gallerys, and more.

Architects Charles and Henry Greene are some of the most famous (or notable) of the Arts and Crafts movement (Frank Lloyd Wright is another); unfortunately, there are no examples of Greene and Greene homes in the Seattle area (they worked mostly in California and the Northeast), but if you're wondering what people mean when they talk about the Arts and Crafts movement, Greene and Greene is a great place to start.

A video clip below of a tour of Falling Water, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most well-regarded and well-known designs:

While the Gamble House in Pasadena would likely be considered the best existing example of the work of Greene and Greene. Here's a link to a Flickr slideshow of the house: Gamble House on Flickr

The Enduring Legacies conference is sponsored by the Art Initiative out of New York, and admission is $475.00 for the full five days of the conference. Other attendance options are available. Here's a link to the PDF file that details the full schedule as well as the roster of experts that will be lecturing: Enduring Legacies PDF

Thought I'd post some additional photos from the Neiman Marcus charity gala (I have mixed feelings about the word "gala" . . . it sounds like a regular old party putting on airs) that we attended on Thursday, September 10th -- which just so happened to coincide with the Fashion's Night Out project that Anna Wintour flogged to the media as a way of getting consumers to the stores to rescue the cratering fortunes of the once high-flying high-fashion industry.

Louise is delighted at the presence of Jil Sander.

There were mixed reports on the success of Fashion's Night Out, with the least breathless of the bunch being this Huffington Post, er, "post" from fashion writer Alex Geana:

Retailers Learn that Open Bar Does Not Equal Sales: Fashion's Night Out is a Bust: "I popped into a cab and got an amicable driver. I asked him about the night. At the beginning he picked up an excited retailer. Then he proceeded to pick up people excited about free food . . . I asked if he picked up people full of shopping bags at any time during the night -- enough bags to cover the copious amounts of free booze, food and celebrity appearances. He said no."

I got the same impression from the corporate office and commercial real-estate crowd at the gala party.

A sales assistant attempts to interest skeptical party goers in a fur coat.

Nonetheless, Julie, Louise and I did the best we could to shore up Neiman Marcus' presently flagging fortunes at our far flung Bellevue, Washington location, even if no one else was joining in.

Julie hams it up in Valentino, St. John and Roberto Cavalli.

There were no celebrity appearances at the Bellevue party, either (well, unless you count Magic Johnson as a celebrity; I mean -- if I were to do a random sampling of people on the street, would half the respondents even know who he is anymore?), but the booze was generous, the food was good, the live salsa music fun (though there was a DJ on the third floor in the men's department, spinning some fun 70's funk) and the sales people very helpful.

"More wine, sir?"

Really, the only departments that saw much action were the women's shoe and maybe the cosmetics departments. Pretty much every clothing sales assistant we saw was drumming his/her fingers on the countertops, waiting for someone (anyone!) to pull out a credit card and buy something (anything!).

A Cinderella moment, replete with live saxophonist.

The shopping bags that Louise and Julie walked out with (after excitedly conquering the shoes) were some of the few shopping bags I saw all night. Plenty of talking, drinking and eating going on, but not a whole lot else.

It's a smorgasbord of lookie-loos at the Creed counter.

But the event was likely a success in that it introduced a hopefully spendy crowd to the Neiman Marcus merchandise -- much of which has been previously unavailable in Seattle area stores. You could order it on the net, yes, but actually going and trying on brands like Jil Sander and Chanel in-store was a luxury that Bellevue shoppers have had to forego . . . until today.

The downtown Nordstrom and Barneys (and probably Mario's and Butch Blum, too) have carried high-end names all along -- but not all gathered together like this under one roof. That's the appeal of Neiman Marcus.

Louise critically appraises herself in Pringle of Scotland.

But we'll have to wait and see if there's the client base here in the Pacific Northwest to keep all of these ventures afloat. Mario's, Butch Blum, Nordstrom and Barney's have been struggling lately as it is, with 50%-70% off sales sometimes not even enough to draw in the shoppers needed -- now that Neiman Marcus has crash-landed into the vicinity, the mad scramble for the luxury client's dollars has grown just that much more intense.

See Friday's Part 1 entry at the following link: Neiman Marcus Pre-Grand Opening Party in Bellevue, Washington: Part 1

Okay, so maybe I had a few martinis . . . but it was an open bar, there was live music, some excellent bite-sized eats for uninterrupted shopping and conversation, and (if you're Julie and Louise) there was even dancing!

You're likely already aware of the separate components to Julie's outfit, but here you get to see the full deal in action -- and Louise is sporting a dress from Marios Schwab, a British designer I greatly admire.

Schwab has a reputation for structural detail, and this particular dress featured nearly invisible darts and special seaming details that enhanced its fit in subtle yet exceptionally form-flattering ways.

All the world's a dance floor

One thing that Louise and I noted the whole time we were at the party is how fashion forward a lot of the attendees were dressed -- and that's unusual for the Pacific Northwest. It's not that Seattleites aren't stylish, but they're less concerned with pushing boundaries than they are with practicalities. Living in a consistently rainy climate will have that effect -- one has to make purchases with the general state of drizzly weather in mind (suede boots and satin bags are ill-advised), plus a dress needs to comfortably slip underneath a raincoat, just in case.

What we saw last night was very non-Seattle in those respects: silk gowns that trailed on the floor, huge decorative bows on shoulders, suede platform pumps, satin jackets. We were surprised and amazed until we started overhearing snippets of conversations that included the likes of: "When does your flight leave?" and "What hotel are you staying at?"

Obviously, corporate headquarters flew in quite a bit of their own crowd for the event.

"Red is so very IN this season, dahling!"

But the group seemed relaxed and sociable, and when we departed at around 11 p.m., there were still a good number of people wandering about the several floors of merchandise, browsing and shopping . . . because once the booze kicked in, the sales assistants found themselves very busy.

Speaking of busy: Louise snagged her very first pair of Christian Louboutin pumps -- in a deep and sequined navy blue.

Sparklies!

She was beyond thrilled, as every single time she's tried on a Louboutin shoe in the past, the fit has been painfully narrow. This time, it was like Cinderella sliding her foot into the magic glass slipper.

Happiness is a pair of Louboutins that fit.

Julie found a pair of Chloe calf-high leather boots that were stylin' yet with a sturdy heel and chunky hardware that makes them just practical enough to wear in bad weather throughout the winter while still passing for high-fashion.

The women were presented with gift bags upon exiting the party (I didn't get one -- *hmph*) that contained a Neiman Marcus coffee table pop-up book, a $25.00 "perk" card and some Anthousa incense and home ambiance fragrance.

A detail shot from the Pop-Up Book below:

"Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi . . . "

Julie was kind enough to give me her copy of the book, but she wasn't about to hand over the Anthousa home ambiance fragrance. Drat it all!

UPDATE:

And what's a party without someone sh***ing in the punch bowl? Behold, I give you Susanne Bartsch, wife/partner of gym chain owner David Barton (who's opening his first Pacific Northwest gym in the Bravern development):

"Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?"

She's a fifty-something party hopper, burlesque aficionado, club promoter and general all-around New York downtown scenester. Apparently, she likes to let it all hang out.

The seventy year old women we took a table next to (as we wolfed down our slices of duck before staging a second blitz assault on the handbags, not to mention the open bar), quietly informed us that she was a prostitute: "Men bring women like that to these kinds of parties, you know."

We about fell over laughing.

After yesterday's post detailing what Julie was going to wear to tonight's Neiman Marcus charity party, Sharil asked me in the comments section why there were no photos of what I was going to wear . . . uhm, okay. You asked for it.

So in Sharil's honor, I'm posting the first ever edition of WWNW ("What Would Nathan Wear?") -- and try not to fall asleep y'all! There isn't anything nearly so grand as the previous entry's Prada booties or Fallon spiked cuff, but you can at least feign the scintillation.

First things first: the shirt and trousers are your basic black Prada, because Prada makes really good clothing items for men that are functional, classic and attractive without going over the top about it . . . well, Miuccia Prada actually does go over the top with a number of items in her men's collections, but when you ignore her more experimental (i.e. godawful) designs and stick to her basic offerings, she's hard to beat.

But rather than go with a black blazer or suit jacket, I opted for a midnight blue Dolce & Gabbana blazer that I found on sale for 70% off at Mario's (god bless the slowing economy, just this once!), then snagged a skinny black Dries Van Noten tie from Barney's:

There's just the one singular design at the center of the tie, so it speaks quite softly while still ensuring the tiniest bit of a double take (should anyone be looking my way, which is highly unlikely considering the two women I'll be with).

And I'm debating about whether to do a quiet, classic belt, or turn up the volume a notch with this belt buckle from Virgins Saints & Angels:

I'll undoubtedly go quiet and classic, but if the mood hits me just before I walk out the door, the VSA belt buckle is coming with!

The shoes are not the usual black dress shoe, but rather a dressed-up casual boot-style loafer from John Varvatos -- with a kind of blue-grey wash over black leather, the better to accent the color of the blazer, of course (what? you thought that might not have been intentional?):

Men's shoes really do lack the grace and flow of the beautiful heels that women have available. Granted, I have less than zero desire to wear the skyscrapers that Louise and Julie regularly strap to their feet, but their shoes certainly make for a much more dramatic focal point than my virtually flat Kansas landscape of a shoe-boot.

My nod to the sparkle and shine part of the program (beyond the belt buckle) will be the titanium and steel TB Buti watch the BF gave me as a gift about four years ago:

I also have a thick, silver Bill Wall U-Joint bracelet I picked up the year we lived in Santa Monica, and I love it for its heavy, over-the-top masculine attitude, but it's fairly beat up from years of regular wear and I'm thinking it might not suit the occasion, or even the rest of what I'm wearing.

It's a toss up, but I kind of like the idea of bringing Bill Wall along with me to a Black Tie party.

And there you go, Sharil . . . a short tour through the land of WWNW. I wish I could provide a few more visual fireworks of my own, but I'll have the fireworks of Julie and Louise hanging off my arms to keep things bright, and maybe the happy company of the women I love is all the accessorizing a man could ever ask for.

Because I haven't shown any photos of shoes in a while, and because Julie and I just went shopping and she picked up these awesome black leather ankle boots to wear to the Neiman Marcus pre-opening charity party we're going to tomorrow night, I present the following:

Neiman Marcus is opening its first location in Washington state on September 11th of this year -- and that's just a few days away. Despite the flattening economy (Neiman Marcus reported a 27% drop in revenue for the last quarter), they're putting on a brave face, setting their best foot forward and carrying on with the show.

I was planning on going casual, until Louise decided to inform me last minute that the tickets state: "Black Tie Attire" -- gulp! I don't even own an ordinary everyday tie, much less anything formal. Louise is already a regular passenger on her own social whirl and so has plenty of appropriate wardrobe choices at her disposal, but Julie and I have been scrambling over the last several days to spiff up what's ordinarily our very casual approach to going out (Seattle is famous -- or infamous, depending on your point of view -- for its relaxed dress codes).

It's fairly easy for men to dress things up: a nice pair of slacks, a somber silk tie, a well-cut blazer and voila! "That'll do, pig -- that'll do." Taking it up a notch up for the females, however, is an infinitely more involved proposition and requires serious time, thought and effort (I had no idea how much effort), but after several days of hitting the retail beat (and many hours of soaking my tired, sore feet later), I think Julie and I managed to come up with an ensemble that just might comfortably slide her right through the evening.

First off, the dress. After several hours of combing through racks and exhausting the poor sales assistant with all the running back and forth between the dressing room and the sales floor, we settled on a classic black sheath with cap sleeves, a scoop neck and a skirt length that ends just below the knee. It was the most flattering of the cuts and offered a blank (albeit well tailored) slate upon which we could accessorize for the final, finishing touches.

Because the dress is fairly sleek and fitted, we opted to soften its somewhat severe silhouette with the pictured pair of ruched Prada booties.

Now, I'm not always the biggest fan of Miuccia Prada's designs, but she admittedly has a way of mixing feminine flourishes into utilitarian forms that can result in surprisingly wearable items. The ankle boots are a perfect example of that -- tidy lines, a heel that's not too spiky and not too tall (well, not too Gucci tall, at least), and with that unexpected touch of leather ruffling at the ankle.

So the basics were covered -- but what about those embellishments . . . additions of color and/or sparkle that can steer a somewhat generic look in a more personal direction?

Okay, well, she already has a great clutch that her boyfriend gave her for Christmas, and that certainly satisfied the color requirement, but we were still short of sparkle -- that's where Barney's came into the picture.

When you walk through the huge glass doors of Seattle's Barney's, you're first greeted by cases of high-end designer jewelry, luxe handbags, exclusive cosmetic brands and niche perfumes. We eyed the pearl and ribbon necklaces from Lanvin, the bakelite bangles from Mark Davis, the precious gem encrusted pendants that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars, but no. They're all beautiful (understatement of the year) but way (way!) too spendy, especially when all we really needed was a great piece of costume jewelry.

Then I remembered that our local Barneys has a case of contemporary costume pieces in their trendier (and thankfully much less expensive) upstairs section, so we trundled up the stairs and found ourselves oooohing and aaaaahing over several pieces from Italian design firm Iosselliani.

Faced with such loveliness, it didn't take long before we decided to forgo the necklace idea and settle instead on a pair of slinky chandelier earrings that would complement the vertical flow of the sheath while adding some interest to the neckline -- then we figured that, since we were heading in such a dominantly feminine direction with the shoes, the bag and earrings, maybe it might be nice to toughen it up a little. You know, just to throw off the wolves a little.

That's when we spied this little beauté from a company named Fallon:

Now, seriously, who could resist? I know, I know -- there are probably about a million of you out there vociferously resisting and in no uncertain terms, but for our purposes, this punk flavored + vintage influenced crystal embellished cuff was just about made to order. A little bit girly, a lot bit rock and roll -- maybe even a tad bit self-defense, should the occasion merit.

So now we're ready for drinks, food and an advance peak at the new Neiman Marcus opening up at the very ambitious (especially for the times) Braven development in Bellevue. I'm smuggling in my camera. I mean, I kind of need to get at least a few pictures of the ensemble in action . . . am I right?

***Note: a heartfelt "Thank You!" to Leslie Castanha in the designer boutique at the downtown location of Nordstrom. She ran her a** off trying to help us find the right dress for Julie, plus other items to potentially go along with it. I don't know what we would have done without her.

Back in February, I took a bite from the M. Micallef Aoud Gourmet buffet, and I liked what I found:

"This is exactly what aoud needed -- a spoonful of gourmand to help the medicine go down. The somewhat sharp and prickly initial phase of the complex aoud scent is both rounded and warmed by a layer of creamy, nutty frosting that downplays the negatives while still allowing the best part of the aoud (the resinous, smoky drydown) to shine . . . if you're the woodsy & foodie type, this particular combination of sinus-wrenching aoud and rich, buttery sweetness hits a terrific balance, with nary a wobble on the highwire -- though keep in mind that it's not a total, full-on gourmand. Aoud as the featured scent note keeps the fragrance firmly anchored in the land of incense."

Note the somewhat Arabic looking script on the package, as well as the symbolic "M" on the box and bottle. The M. Micallef brand was founded in 1996 by Martine Micallef and her husband, Geoffrey Newman, and though self-branded as a Paris perfumery, a significant retail (as well as fragrance development and packaging) focus of the brand appears to be the Middle East.

Out of the six boutiques listed on their website, two are located in Dubai and two in Abu Dhabi. The fragrance selection boasts several oud based scents, as well as a men's seasonal line that includes the likes of Black Sea (named after a body of water bordering Turkey) and Red Sea (named after a sea that borders the Egyptian desert). The Micallef promotional material even states that they've developed exclusive fragrance collections for royal houses in the region, so I would say they've got a head start on the recent "Let's Go to Dubai!" trend among Western perfumers and retailers.

Aoud Gourmet was introduced to the U.S. marketplace only this year, and is still not listed as an available product on the Micallef website (Perfume Intelligence states that it was first released in 2000, though I'm not certain that's correct). When I took it for a test drive in February, Lucky Scent only had samples available, but the full bottle is now up and running and ready for purchase on their website.

While Pure Oud By Kilian ranks as my favorite of the oud-based scents I've tried so far, the Micallef Aoud Gourmet is a welcome addition to the oud genre. The sharp, almost medicinal "Hello!" that often turns Westerners away from oud as a fragrance choice is tempered by toasted, creamy notes that bring the composition into a pleasurable balance.

There's still a whiff of medicine for the first hour, but the inclusion of sugary, vanillic essences (not to mention a very nice sandalwood) buffs its overtly ragged edges into a much more smooth and polished surface.

A reviewer at Makeup Alley writes that Aoud Gourmet, while eventually "warm and seductive" is simply too bold at the intro for her feminine tastes: "I love gourmands, but even the sugar, honey, etc. in this arent enough to make me want to buy or wear it. The aoud is very pronounced and overbearing at the start, it obviously softens over time and the honey and spices come and peek their head out. But I still dont think I can wear this. In fact I cant even imagine what type of woman could wear this."

In other words, Aoud Gourmet is that new marketing beast known as a unisex fragrance, straddling the middle ground between feminine and masculine -- which means that if you like warm, smoke and wood based fragrances, then you'll stand a fairly good chance of liking Aoud Gourmet. If you're looking for something flowery, sugary and/or girly, however, you'll likely be disappointed.

Listed scent notes for Aoud Gourmet: sugar, marzipan, honey, spice, patchouli, cedar, cypriol, amber, sandalwood, cashmeran and musks. Despite the presence of sugar, marzipan, honey and amber in this list, Aoud Gourmet is really about the woods and creamy musks.

Something to think about: Cashmeran is a registered IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances) trade name for the synthetic compound 1,2,3,5,6,7-hexahydro-1,2,3,3-pentamethyl-4h-inden-4-one, and on the Aoud Gourmet box itself, the ingredients list includes Cinnamal (aka cinnamaldehyde, which is listed as a synthetic flavoring substance on the FDR website), Geraniol (aka 3,7-dimethyl-2,6 and 3,6-octadien-1-ol, another listed synthetic), D-Limonene (another listed synthetic), Linalol (another listed synthetic) and more -- which kind of deflates the following Micallef statement included in their printed PR material: "Today, most aromatic substances can be manufactured in larger quantities and therefore more cheaply if done so synthetically . . . Micallef's unwavering philosophy guarantees the refusal of these synthetically produced substances and uses purely essential oils only."

If you parse the language used, Micallef doesn't come right out and explicitly state that they use only all-natural oils (the phrase "purely essential oils" doesn't mean "natural" or "organic" -- in fact, it can be argued to mean whatever the writer wants it to mean), but I disagree with what appears to be an attempt to lead the consumer into assuming the brand operates under a "No Synthetics Allowed" philosophy, when that's clearly not the case.

But minor language quibbles aside, the longevity for Aoud Gourmet is excellent -- the scent lasts on the skin practically all freakin' day, and its drydown (end phase) is wonderfully low-toned and barrel toasted. I've been wearing it every day for a couple of weeks, applying liberally (from six to ten sprays at a time), and while it's a rich, deep fragrance, it never comes across as too strong . . . except for maybe the somewhat medicinal (camphorous?) opening. This settles down rather quickly, but I'd recommend spraying it on at least twenty minutes before leaving the house, just as a precaution against potentially overpowering any toy dogs and small children in your vicinity.

To clarify: Aoud Gourmet is not harsh, but it is strong in its introductory phase as the above Makeup Alley reviewer noted.

The box for Aoud Gourmet is nothing special (thin, printed & textured cardboard), but the bottle is made of thick, hefty glass that displays a variance of rich color hues, and the Micallef symbol placed at the center of the bottle front is surrounded with appealingly colored crystals that seemingly light up from within. If you're looking for a perfume package that makes for a dazzling gift, an M. Micallef bottle (once the cardboard box is torn open and thrown away) has a good chance of eliciting some appreciative ooohs and aaaaahs.

Another plus: the atomizer is excellent -- the spray that emerges is fine and light, and there was zero problem with any of the liquid leaking down my hands. I've become so accustomed to leaky atomizers, even from higher-priced brands (hello, Nasomatto!), that I was genuinely surprised when this one functioned perfectly and I didn't have to wash a rivulet of fragrance from my hands after applying.

Wrapping it up: 1.) pleasantly balanced oud with a lightly sweetened, toasted-smoke undertone; 2.) hefty, dazzlingly embellished, colored glass bottle; 3.) high quality, leak-free atomizer!

Fans of loud, "in your face" ouds might not find the subtly sweetened woods & smoke approach of Aoud Gourmet to their liking, but it's a worthy oud to explore if you're interested in the more densely layered examples of the genre.

UPDATE:

Confession: I gave a gift of M. Micallef Note Ambree to a good friend last Christmas, and 50% of the reason was the bottle. I know, I know -- it's what's *in* the bottle that counts, but I knew that she would like a soft, feminine amber fragrance (she's a girly-girl), and M. Micallef does have a reputation for quality work, but what sealed the deal was that gilded, painted, bedazzled glass bottle. It's guaranteed to elicit a squeal of Christmas morning delight.

Marian Bendeth, a global fragrance expert and consultant, recently gave an interview to CTV about fragrance, how to wear it, the different genres -- a straight-forward how-to. What struck me the most is when the television interviewer looked at the sampling of perfume bottles spread across the table to her right and said: "Half the time it's not what's in the bottle -- I look at the packaging of it and think, 'Oh it's a gorgeous bottle and then, you know, this becomes my next signature scent.'"

Got that? I know it may send shivers down any self-respecting perfumer's spine, but perfume needs to be beautiful in every aspect, not just in the way it smells but also in the way it's presented. An unfortunate number of niche perfumers and/or independent fragrance companies don't really understand that concept (or simply ignore it to their own detriment), but Micallef both understands and delivers.

UPDATE 2:

Brian at I Smell Therefore I Am, has a terrific blog post up addressing the lack of imagination in the marketing of contemporary perfume, including several spot-on observations about packaging. He also says some very nice things about this blog, but let's just pretend that's not why I'm linking his post . . . *ahem*

It's definitely worth the read: An Open Letter to the Brilliant Men and Women in the Marketing Department

1.) Jimmy Choo Gears Up for the Downturn:
"Better known for its elegant stilettos, Jimmy Choo has been stretching its footwear mix in the past couple of years to include $175 plastic "jelly" sandals and $375 espadrilles . . . By the end of this year, the company ... plans to bring out a range of Jimmy Choo scarves; add to its handbag line, introduced in 2003; and expand its eyewear line, begun last year. A Jimmy Choo perfume is under development and the company is exploring branded accessories like jewelry, watches and even swimwear . . . By the end of the year, the brand expects to have 105 boutiques worldwide, a near doubling of the number of stores since (2007)."

The CEO for Jimmy Choo is a former executive with Kenneth Cole (as well as Gucci, YSL and GAP), and it's easy to see the Kenneth Cole influence in the way the Jimmy Choo brand is rapidly expanding its reach to include a full range of accessory items, not just shoes and bags. After all, once the customer is in the store, you're missing out on potential revenue if you're not tempting him/her with more than just shoes and bags: "Need a bottle of perfume, a scarf and a watch to go with that handbag? Don't mind if I do!"

But there's a downside to the "We can sell that, too!" mentality, says Milton Pedraza, chief executive of market research firm Luxury Institute: "Luxury consumers have new and different standards for parting with their money these days. Slapping a label on a me-too product, as many so-called lifestyle luxury brands have done, will not work anymore. Consumers are no longer willing to reward jacks-of-all-trades with premium pricing in the luxury world."

In other words, just because Jimmy Choo has a reputation for good shoes and bags doesn't mean customers will be dying to buy their perfume or time pieces, especially when other premium (and similarly priced) brands have a much more established reputation in those areas.

For an example of the appeal of Jimmy Choo (and why their CEO is keen on expanding the range of available accessories), take a look at this video clip below of a seemingly never-ending line of bargain-hunting consumers waiting to get into a Jimmy Choo sample sale in New York:

Back of the line, beeeyatch!

Speaking of downsides -- Tiffany Posts 30% Drop In 2Q Profit: "The company's sales have slowed considerably in the past year as cautious consumers keep away from major purchases and Tiffany resisted moving downscale. Luxury brands - typically resilient in economic downturns - have been hit hard by the current recession, in which the richest Americans have lost net worth at a sharp rate. And in the most recent period, international sales provided little support, though they were less weak than those in North America . . . Sales in the Americas region dropped 23%, with U.S. same-store sales down 27% and the New York flagship store down 30%."

2.) NPD Group Report Shows Hard Times for Department Store Perfumes:
"Prestige (department store) fragrances in the U.S. posted the steepest loss in the first half 2009, declining -10 percent in dollars versus the first half 2008. Women's and men's prestige fragrances both posted 10 percent declines from a year ago . . . New fragrance launch sales ... dropped -17 percent from the prior year, due to the decline in women's new launch activity (-31%) when compared to the performance of 2008 launches. On the other hand, men's new launch activity was up 23 percent."

Though I find it humorous how the report notes as a positive the new launch activity for men's fragrances, even though sales declined just as much as the female aisle. It seems like it would be even worse news for men's fragrances to have more new fragrance launches (percentage wise) but with the same level of sales decline.

The report also notes that while Prestige fragrance sales are down in general, sales for "premium price" Prestige fragrance (scents that are priced at $100.00 and above) increased by 6% in total units sold, while fragrances priced at $75 to $99 increased by 1% in units sold -- it's the lower priced fumes that saw the biggest drop in sales and revenue; unfortunately (for the industry), the under $75.00 fragrances account for 70% of the overall market.

No wonder Jimmy Choo is chomping at the bit to launch a premium priced perfume.

3.) American Apparel Dismisses 1500 Illegal Factory Workers:
"The terminations come two months after the Los Angeles manufacturer and retailer announced that a government inspection had found that about 1,600 of its workers didn't appear to be authorized to work in the U.S. ... All of the affected workers are based at the company's manufacturing facility in downtown Los Angeles . . . the dismissals amount to more than 10% of American Apparel's roughly 10,000-employee workforce."

Okay, a global garment production company that has maybe fifty to one hundred illegal workers in its workforce can be forgiven as perhaps just being fooled by forged paperwork, or maybe not quite so thorough with its document checks, but when 10% of a company's entire workforce is illegal, it comes across as a deliberate policy choice.

But at least they paid their illegal employees well, and threw in benefits, to boot: "(CEO and company founder) Dov Charney promotes his business as "sweatshop-free," and to back that up he pays his mostly Latino factory workers nearly twice the minimum wage, throwing in health insurance, subsidized lunches, and paid time off to take English classes on the premises."

The article goes on to note that American Apparel's run-in with the Immigration department is just the latest of its woes -- sales are down, inventory is backed up, they recently had to settle a lawsuit with Woody Allen over unauthorized use of his image on a billboard ad, and the British Standards Authority deemed one of their latest ad campaigns too overtly sexual (and too potentially offensive) to be shown in the U.K.

But the article forgets to mention the string of sexual harassment lawsuits against Mr. Charney (and yes, that's lawsuits, as in plural).

For an example of American Apparel advertising, see the video clip below:

Edgy and hip, or sexist and tacky?

4.) BRAND & MERCHANT UPDATES:

A.) As an example of fashion's "Show Me The Money!" focus shifting to the Middle East, perfume brand Miller Harris and jewelry brand David Yurman have recently established perfumery footprints in Dubai -- Miller Harris launches in Dubai at Harvey Nichols, and David Yurman announces the Middle East launch of David Yurman Perfumery.

B.) While most brands are downsizing, the rumor is that Oscar de la Renta might be preparing to aim for the even spendier clients of the couture market: "My sources tell me that Oscar de la Renta is stacking the deck of his design studio. It seems he has hired away a pivotal player from the couture studio of John Galliano for Christian Dior. John Galliano is NOT amused . . . Bringing in a couture designer must mean that Oscar has decided to go the other direction and take his design status to another level."

A video clip of de la Renta's Fall/Winter 2009/2010 Ready to Wear collection below:

C.) The Mariella Burani Fashion Group could be the next to go under as auditors refuse to sign off on Burani's books: "The Italian apparel manufacturer, which has sealed licensing deals with A-list designers such as Giambattista Valli and upscale brands like John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood, is working on a debt restructuring that is crucial to its survival . . . The company said its board will meet as soon as possible to approve a plan to cover its losses and is looking for a strategic partner, adding that its creditor banks are currently assessing its request for a debt moratorium to the end of October."

Burani designs, produces and distributes luxury apparel, shoes, accessories and jewelry under its own in-house brands, while also producing collections under license for more well known names such as the previously mentioned Valli, Galliano and Westwood, but also La Perla, Dirk Bikkembergs and Yohji Yamamoto.

D.) French fashion and leather house Hermes reports a 7% drop in profits for the first half of 2009: "Sales in the (first half of 2009) eased 0.4 percent, reflecting declines in orders for watches, perfume and tableware and ongoing sluggishness in Japan."

All in all, for the tumult in the financial markets and the global economy, a mere 0.4% drop in sales is actually pretty good. It's not optimal (I'm sure they would have loved to report a sales increase, if just to rub it in LVMH's nose), but it seems to showcase a resiliency to recessionary forces that only Hermes presently exhibits within the luxury industry as a whole.

Still, I wonder at how long this might hold . . .

E.) Timberland announces a partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue: "Starting this month, Timberland will be offering a line of hand-sewn boat shoes exclusive to Saks stores in New York, Boston and Chicago ... The company also will offer other styles from the Timberland Boot Company and Abington collections . . . Timberland reported a second-quarter net loss of $19.2 million, or 34 cents a share, compared with a second-quarter 2008 net loss of $18.9 million in the same quarter the previous year, according to its last quarterly filing, released on Aug. 8."

And Saks isn't doing much better, so both companies have been casting about for opportunities to appeal to a wider consumer demographic than in previous years. This partnership meets that criterion for both companies.

F.) Limited Brands Inc. Reports Slumping Profits: "Limited Brands Inc., which operates Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works, said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit fell 27 percent as sales slipped . . . As reported earlier this month, Limited Brands' July same-store sales fell 10 percent to $2.07 billion from $2.28 billion a year ago . . . Same-store sales are sales in stores open at least one year and considered a key retail metric. They fell 9 percent for the quarter."

Who knew the economy would affect the sale of cheese?

5.) Wal-Mart Gives Priority to Green Label Technology:
"Wal-Mart is apparently on a mission to determine the social and environmental impact of every item it puts on its shelves, and it has recruited scholars, suppliers, and environmental groups to help it create an electronic indexing system to do that. Their goal is to create a universal rating system over the next five years that scores products based on how environmentally and socially sustainable they are -- and down the road, they hope that other retailers will adopt their green labeling system as well."

For all that people moan and complain about Wal-Mart, if anyone can pull off a refocusing of the entire retail industry into providing consumers with information on where their products come from and how they were produced, it'll be Wal-Mart. They're just about the only ones with enough clout to force manufacturers to cough up the details.

6.) Tech is the New Black:
"A new breed of style-conscious shoppers are opting for technology over clothing for their overall fashion image . . . (the) Microsoft Tech To Impress Report found that nearly half of 1,000 UK respondents said being able to show off the latest gadget is as important to their overall fashion image as an item of clothing . . . Six out of 10 people admitted to leaving their new gadget on the table for envious friends to admire."

I think that's hilarious -- the "leaving their new gadget on the table for envious friends to admire" bit. It's not any different from a woman who plunks her new designer python clutch on the table after she breathlessly arrives for a lunch date with the girls. But gadgets and handbags have a lot in common in that they both can offer clues and signals into the wealth, status and trend consciousness of the person sporting either.

Or how much debt they owe on their credit cards . . . something like that.

7.) Don't Wear Your Stinkin' Patchouli On My Bus!:
"The (Honolulu) City Council is considering a bill that will make it illegal to 'bring onto transit property odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system, whether such odors arise from one's person, clothes, articles, accompanying animal or any other source' . . . Under the bill, a person found in violation may be ordered to leave transit property and issued a summons or citation by a police officer. If convicted, a person could be fined up to $500, spend up to six months in jail, or be both fined and jailed."

The bill is only in up for proposal at this point, and co-sponsor (and Honolulu City Councilman) Rod Tam realizes it's a long shot for anything like this to get passed, but he says he thought it was important to at least get a public discussion going on proper behavior for people who are riding public transport on the island: "There are existing city laws and rules covering passenger behavior on city buses. But council members Tam and Nestor Garcia, the introducers of the bill, thought it was important for the city to consider passenger behavior as Honolulu prepares to build its first commuter rail line."

The main offenders in the councilmen's eyes appear to be hippie tourists who don't take a bath and then clamber aboard the city's buses, but the language can cover all types of situations, from offensive smelling food, dogs that need a bath and/or perfume that's too strong. Councilman Charles Djou said "the bill raises constitutionality issues. 'We would like everybody to be polite on city mass transit and I think that's a good idea ... but we're not a police state.'"

The morning fog came rolling in:

So it seemed like a good time to hit the Pike Place Market for an early coffee -- cool weather, not a lot of people, maybe some interesting photos.

You can see how densely the fog blanketed the downtown skyline:

The fog did a pretty good job of obscuring the details above, resulting in a focus on what was at street level (if not on the dark, wet bricks of the street itself).

Note the guy sitting down by the side of the street, taking his smoke break -- he's not pleased that I'm snapping photos. He's probably thinking to himself, "F***ing tourist!":

The dim, cloud-shrouded morning made ordinary objects, such as this refrigerated beer truck, seem much more beautiful and richly colored, while the overhead lights offered a more golden than usual glow:

That's our friend Jim walking down the sidewalk in the photo above. He's visiting for a couple of days and had no idea that visitors are required to make appearances on my blog. It's the rules.

A Jim-Free photo of the beer truck below. Amstel Light never looked so appealing:

I'd read on another photographer's blog that dim, cloudy days make for excellent photography moments -- that colors really pop since they're not getting washed out by bright sunlight.

For example, a produce stand:

Colorful crates, stickers and a very orange jacket:

And men working above:

While the over-arching purpose of the walk was coffee and a chocolate croissant at the French bakery in the market, the opportunity for picture taking was a bonus. It's good to have a purpose in life, but it's the bonuses that make the world go 'round.