January 2010 Archives

1.) Lagerfeld Still Knows How to Wow the Critics:
"Chanel was the best show of the spring haute couture collections, in a class by itself. Those ethereal cloud colors--pale pink, blue and violet, a sudden vinegary yellow. Those subtle wool boucle dresses and jackets at the beginning with the seams magically erased by flat, random stitches. Karl Lagerfeld said he had been thinking for awhile about how to do a seamless dress and only recently found a method that satisfied him. He said he thought this collection might be his most interesting in terms of technique. 'It took me 54 collections to get there,' he said."

An unfortunately very brief video clip below of the Chanel Haute Couture show, but it's in Hi-Def, which allows us to get a better look at the technical wizardry of the garments.

Practice makes perfect

If you pause the video at 00:13 and look carefully at the shoulders on the pale blue jacket, do you see any seams? I don't think I do! That blows my mind. Well, not in a "Wow, a gene therapy that cures cancer!" sort of way, but it doesn't take a big rock to make a splash when the pool is so shallow . . . oh, you know what I mean!

This kind of creative and technical progress in garment making is what keeps Haute Couture, despite its often maligned reputation for over-indulgence and irrelevance, genuinely and completely relevant to the fashion industry as a whole. Without the enormous time and resources poured into these collections, we would never witness these types of creative leaps.

And as politically toxic as the phrase "trickle down" has become, the advances propogated by Haute Couture do eventually find their way to the street. The end result isn't nearly so glorious -- and minus the heart-shaped candy-box hairdos, do we even dare? -- but the female CEO's and those wives of billionaire oligarchs sitting in the front rows (well, give or take the occasional thirteen year old) can be thought of as the fashion world's version of hi-tech early-adopters, dropping $70K on a breakthrough, hand-sewn seamless jacket so that the peasants can splurge on a significantly more affordable, mass-produced version . . . someday.

Speaking of a thirteen year old sharing front row privileges at haute couture shows with the fashion press and Hollywood actresses (who unashamedly request dresses for free), Dave McGinn at The Globe and Mail published an article that examines the fashion industry's latest (sort of creepy?) obsession with the opinions of teenagers: "Our idea of expertise has undergone a massive change in the Internet era. Until recently, an expert was someone who had spent a few years undergoing training in a field and then even more time sharpening his or her critical skills. Now, though, wisdom and experience appear to have been supplanted by a thirst for novelty and newness . . . Making celebrities out of 11-year-olds makes one wonder if the industry's cult of youth has any limit, Matthews David adds. 'Fashion has always fetishized youth, but how far can this go?'"

But while McGinn assumes that the issue is general "youth obsession", the story is more specific than that. Teenage style bloggers are the Internet's Lolita story -- high-school girls parading about in mommy's sexy stilettos, role playing with an arsenal of beauty products, writing reviews of couture shows peppered with ass and fart jokes, and otherwise bending an industry that's allegedly for and about the mature woman into yet another tender fantasy pretzel for daddy.

It's not surprising that teen style blogs are embraced by the industry. What's surprising is that anyone would even question why.

In other news, Gucci has announced plans to enter the rarified world of haute couture, positioning head designer Frida Giannini as one of the few women to break the chiffon ceiling and direct a couture line: "Sources claim that Gucci's couture collections will not be showcased at Paris Couture Week alongside those from Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, and others, but will be available on an appointment-only basis for celebrities and big red carpet occasions. Versace's 'Atelier Versace' line works on a similar basis."

Meanwhile, industry insiders are crowing over the "recovering" economy because wholesale menswear orders saw a 15% uptick during the latest round of shows, but, really, the 15% increase is in comparison to January of 2009, which immediately followed one of the most abysmal holiday seasons ever for retail -- meaning that orders in January of 2009 were cut severely, suddeny and drastically. So it's not like the industry had anywhere to go but up: "'Let's say that it can only get better after coming from a not very enthusiastic 2009,' Mario Boselli, head of Italy's National Chamber of Fashion, said."

Exactly. In more pop-culture friendly words, "Great, kid, don't get cocky!"

Related: a video roundup of the Fall/Winter menswear collections in Milan and Paris:

2.) Men are the New Market for Fashion and Beauty Products:
"Japanese college students are more interested in moisturizer, cleansing scrubs and beauty salons than they are in cars, according to a survey of 1,600 men and women by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association last year . . . 'We aim to lure the middle-aged men who aren't used to skincare products,' said Tadashi Kirai, a spokesman. 'There is more potential for the men's skincare market because more than two-thirds of men have never done any care.'"

And with growth predictions flat to declining for the industries overall, catering to the men in the club seems as good a direction as any if companies wish to replace lost consumers with new ones.

Newsweek reported on the growing man-trend in their article, "It's a Man's World", detailing how many companies are redoing their interiors to make men feel more comfortable shopping, with some brands dividing the sexes into separate boutiques altogether: "Just as some educators believe that single-sex classrooms are better for learning, some luxury brands are finding that single-sex boutiques boost the bottom line. While it's not exactly a man's world on Main Street, luxury brands are increasingly offering greater exclusivity in men-only shops."

Tom Ford famously opted to target the underserved world of men's high-end fashion after departing from his role as head designer for Gucci women's wear in 2004, opening a men's only boutique in Manhattan in 2007, followed by boutiques in Zurich and Toronto. Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood have recently opened men's only stores in Japan, Hermes is scheduled to open its first men's boutique in New York this coming February, and Ralph Lauren has announced plans to convert one of its landmark Manhattan stores into a men's only shop. In China, where men are still the major purchasers, men's only stores are expected to flourish.

The main reason for dividing the sexes when shopping is that men are believed to engage in much different shopping behavior than women -- targeted hunting rather than casual browsing -- so a one-size-fits-all environment that skews female is turning the average male shopper away. You know those men you see standing impatiently outside of stores while their wives shop? Right, well, the brand managers have seen them, too, and decided that now it might be time to do something about that.

Speaking of catering to men, the Yves St Laurent company hired famed video director and fashion photographer Bruce Weber to film their Fall 2010 menswear collection:

Personally, I'm not a fan. Weber's style is oh-so 90's (think Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game"), which makes the campaign feel out of date already, despite the fact that it was just released.

And black and white slo-mo shots of young, skinny models jumping up and down in various states of shirtlessness, not to mention various states of pantslessness, seems a tad too been-there, done-that, freshman year art school project for a global luxury brand with a history of cutting-edge innovation.

In fact, the YSL film views like a classic example of what Cathy Horyn may have been referring to when she wrote: "Some efforts by luxury houses to engage fans through social media feel awkward, though -- like watching your grandfather attempt the twist in the 1960s."

3.) Anna Wintour Asks French Govt to Stimulate the French Fashion Industry:
"Anna Wintour, the influential editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, told French officials that the country doesn't do enough to support its fashion sector . . . Fearing that France's preeminence in fashion may be dwindling, the government was already taking steps to protect the industry, which employs 125,000 people in France. Mr. Estrosi said state-owned banks and investment funds will soon offer streamlined financing for start-up fashion businesses."

One of the ways in which Wintour stressed that the government could help the fashion industry is by relaxing France's strict 35-hour work week policy in order to allow French fashion industry employees to work longer hours in the run-ups to the major shows held in Paris several times a year. The government is considering a work-week exemption aimed at fashion industry employees only.

Speculation has been that Wintour was hit particularly hard by the collapse of the House of Lacroix (she and the designer were/are allegedly friends), and is determined that other French icons of fashion not suffer the same fate.

Speaking of Anna Wintour, Vogue ad pages are flat to down while competing magazines are showing increases. And GQ magazine has embraced its new Internet overlords, selling 12,000 issues of its January edition over the iPhone for $2.99 a pop. Smart.

4.) Pricey Balmain Raises Hopes for Diffusion Line, Then Dashes Them:
"Rumors abounded on fashion websites and blogs earlier in the week that Balmain was set to launch a new affordable diffusion line . . . Much as we would love to confirm this for you (and ourselves) ... sadly we are the bearer of bad tidings. 'There is no Balmain lower priced line,' a spokesperson told Vogue.Com today. 'What I think you might be referring to is a capsule collection that was prepared for some Parisian retailers. Christophe Decarnin wasn't involved in that project. The brand has decided to not repeat the experience, preferring to concentrate all its efforts on the mainline.'"

Anticipation was especially keen for a Balmain diffusion line as Balmain items typically start expensive (offensively so, says Cathy Horyn), then keep climbing from there. A Balmain cotton t-shirt is $1500.00, while jackets and dresses run into the tens of thousands.

But Balmain is the it, hip and cool label right now, and its stratospheric pricing has guaranteed it a cult following among young celebrities, supermodels and trust fund kids. Everyone else is relegated to sad wannabe status. A video clip below of the so trendy it hurts Balmain Spring/Summer 2010 collection, a kicky look at the modern military machine:

Another designer that took the millitary look and (over)ran with it is haute couture man Josephus Thimister. Mixing pop-culture politics with fashion is a trend that will never die, but creating an entire collection around the violent, blood-soaked side of human nature is something else altogether, and I wonder who his customers will be:

"I'll take the blood spattered trousers and matching knife slashed tee, please!"

But hey, if you can't find your way into either of the above, you can always get JWOWWed: "Jersey Shore alumnae Jwoww is embarking into the world of fashion designer. That's right, the reality tv star with a penchant for plunging necklines and crotch-grazing skirts is soon-to-be stocking her very own styles in a store near you."

I know, I'm sorry, you were right in the middle of lunch and now you're not feeling so well . . .

5.) Worlds Collide - Victoria Beckham and Karl Lagerfeld to Design a Hotel:
"Fashionista Victoria Beckham has been offered a staggering $40 million to design a new luxury hotel in Dubai. The future hotel, which has also enlisted the help of designer Karl Lagerfeld, will be on Dubai's Isla Moda - a fashion-themed island."

As if the JWOWWing of the fashion world wasn't enough, now we have our lord Lagerfeld sharing marquee space with a lowly WAG. Beckham's probably getting paid the same as he is, too -- if not more.

You see, kids? This is why it's important to go to school, toil away for years at a painstaking craft, pay your dues as a subordinate, and work like a freakin' dog for decades to earn respect for your talent and the accolades of your peers . . . or you can just become a surgically enhanced pop-star, marry well and pose for underwear ads.

Either way, you're a smashing success, with your own international high-end clothing line and Dubai investors hounding your waking moments.

Beckham shows what it takes to be the next emperor of haute couture

21st century life is bafflingly grand, aint it?

6.) INDUSTRY QUICK HITS:

A. Where Barbie went wrong in China: "Like Apple when it launched the iPhone in China, Barbie made the mistake of paying too little attention to local consumer tastes. Chinese women tend to like cutesy, girlish pink clothes (think Hello Kitty), not the sexy and skimpy kind Fields designed. Odd as it sounds, Snoopy-branded clothes, cartoon logos and all, are hot sellers for women entering the white-collar workforce."

This is a common criticism I'm hearing of Western brands who set up shop in China -- they continue using marketing strategies developed for Western consumers instead of creating an entirely new look and feel for the Chinese market. Taking a product and simply plonking it down in China, without consideration for local tastes, is an invitation to disaster.

As much as I find the idea of an Hermes diffusion line created just for China to be kind of horrifying, I can also see the wisdom in such a move.

In other Barbie news, Barbie gets her high-fashion spotlight: "12 of the CFDA's top designers have used their iconic accessories to create one-of-a-kind Barbie Basics dolls . . . The dolls will be auctioned off on Ebay.com starting January 28th at 10pm EST and will run through February 7th. Proceeds from the sales will benefit the CFDA Foundation and the organization's scholarship and educational programs."

B. Sample sales are a dying breed: "Word is that the Alexander Wang Gilt Groupe sale that kicked off yesterday will replace the designer's much-anticipated bi-annual sample sale."

Wang, instead, opted to unload his sample merchandise online only, which completely democratizes the sample sale phenomenon. In the past, denizons of major metropolitan centers (mostly NYC) were the only beneficiaries of the sample sale, where designers unloaded merchandise that was created for runway shows, photography shoots and magazine editorials, if not just plain excess that they couldn't sell in their stores.

But with the rise of sites like Gilt, Haute Look, Rue La La, Beyond the Rack and more, designers can ship the merchandise off to a website and wash their hands of it. No scouting for a location, no rental fees, employee wages, no lugging merchandise around the city. As the author of the article noted, the prices are higher online than they were in the old physical locations, but that's because there's now so much more competition -- instead of just a few thousand that might hit the sale in New York, there's the potential for millions of interested purchasers online.

And nothing gets ripped, torn or yanked into oblivion in the process.

C. Inter Parfums sees 13% growth for the latest quarter: "Inter Parfums Inc. announced that net sales for the fourth quarter were about $113.6 million, a 13% increase from $100.4 million in the prior year quarter."

Inter Pafums creates fragrance products for brands such as Burberry, Lanvin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Banana Republic and The Gap, as well as the upcoming Jimmy Choo launch. Inter Parfums has also announced a 10 year deal with Montblanc to sell and market perfumes under the Montblanc name, so the company has obviously been busy behind the scenes.

Philippe Benacin, CEO of Inter Parfums, revealed several new projects on Inter Parfums' plate for 2010: a line of Burberry Sport fragrances in February; the launch of Oriens, a female fragrance line, by Van Cleef & Arpels in March; a full Burberry cosmetics line in June to accompany the extensive line of Burberry fragrances; new Lanvin and ST Dupont fragrances in July; and a line of men's fragrances under the Van Cleef & Arpels banner in September.

And the Valentino company has officially announced its move to Spanish fragrance licensor Puig, leaving Proctor & Gamble as P&G lost faith in the brand and expressed little desire to spend further resources in support of present and future Valentino launches.

No heat between P&G and Valentino

D. Financial tidbits and company shakeups: 1.) LVMH appoints a new creative director to eco-conscious fashion brand Edun; Chanel is raising its handbag prices 15% to 20%; Italian luxury brand Tod's reported disappointing sales for 2009; Bulgari sees 4Quarter sales slide 5%; Estee Lauder sees sales climb 11% for the quarter; Swedish fast fashion retailer H&M reports a sharp increase in December and January sales; Billionaire Ronald Burkle is hot for a big chunk of Barneys; online luxury retailer Net-A-Porter expands into the lucrative bridal business; and Neiman Marcus appoints a new men's fashion director.

Can anyone tell me what happened to perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour? Did he go on some spontaneous spiritual junket to Tibet that blew his mind, or did he maybe slip and hit his head on a marble topped table in his foyer and suffer a near-death experience that made him question everything he's been doing for the past twenty years?

Because the Duchaufour I'm encountering in his latest creations -- L'Artisan Al Oudh, L'Artisan Havana Vanille and Penhaligon's Amaranthine -- is not the same tame, restrained, and what I had assumed was utterly predictable, Duchaufour of old.

Proof positive that Duchaufour is a new man

Okay, let me rephrase that: Al Oudh, Havana Vanille and Amaranthine are still tame and restrained -- the kind of fragrances that wouldn't feel out of place, like, anywhere -- but there's a recent tension to the compositions, a slight undertone of threat that makes me think I might need to double check the fastenings on the family dog's leash and collar.

You know, because it *is* an animal, after all -- sometimes I forget that.

While I could appreciate the artistry of previous Duchaufour works like L'Artisan Timbuktu, Comme des Garcons Kyoto and Eau d'Italie Sienne l'Hiver, they left me as cold as a series of color photographs that skew too blue. Lovely, but frozen. They didn't so much interact with the wearer (me) as hang at a remove -- finished pieces of art on a museum wall that I was meant to admire but never (ever) touch.

But this new Duchaufour? Crumble my crumpets! These latest releases are all about the touch, the feel, the reciprocating placement of warm hands on skin. Still light and easy to wear, but with a humming, even human, current of thrill running through the base of them.

Havana Vanille, which I'm sporting the second day in a row as I type this, is the best vanilla fragrance I've encountered, period. Now, if you're a fan of sweet, cupcake vanillas, then you'll likely loathe Havana Vanille for its defiantly non-food-like sweetness -- the thing is freighted with the butched-up scent of dried tobacco leaves amid a lingering ambience of smoke (hence, the "Havana" in the title). This creates the sense of tension I mentioned earlier, a tug-of-war between masculine and feminine elements resulting in the perfect stalemate (or, from a different perspective, the perfect stasis).

It makes me want to just sit here, quietly, and breathe it in (mountain-top view and big brass gong optional).

The intro is quite sweet and rhum-boozy, almost surprisingly so considering the professional balancing act that comes after it, while the run-up to the finish line recalls the sweet, boozy opening, but like an ever fading echo. The main attraction to Havana Vanille, however, is the tobacco and vanilla glow in the body, and it glows for hours, revealing facets of wood, dry tobacco leaf and sugar in various combinations.

In short: Duchaufour's Havana Vanille is what Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille wants to be when it grows up.

Penhaligon's Amaranthine is just as surprising (and pleasing). The composition as a whole skews decidedly feminine, but wow, what a feminine. In the mention on Monday of Vero Kern's upcoming EDP releases, I quoted Luca Turin as he wrote about the duality inherent in the scent of tropical fruits: "The proximity of beauty to ugliness is never clearer than in tropical fruit. Perhaps because they have to compete with powerful smells of decay for the attention of birds, tropical fruit have decided to play dirty."

And just as Ms. Kern employed the Passionfruit note to achieve a fresh sparkle layered over a subtle eroticism, Mr. Duchaufour blends the ripeness of tropical banana leaves, orange blossoms and other white florals with earthy, exotic spices (clove, coriander, cardamom) and musks to achieve what the marketing materials call a "corrupted floral" effect. All I can say is, if this is corruption, no wonder we have so many people scrambling for every available political office!

The fleshy, sweaty tones of Amaranthine are expertly and near realistically composed, to such a degree that I want to recommend Amaranthine for everyone, male and female, but there's a powdery veil of sweetness in the first hour or two that's just girly as all get out (and I mean that in the best of ways), and the dry-down is a creamy, dreamy sandalwood/tonka bean mix, frosted in vanilla, that hovers just this side of unisex, but only if you're willing to stretch the definition of unisex a bit.

Having said that, Amaranthine is such a striking piece of perfumery that I wouldn't begrudge a guy for wearing it, yet I can't help but feel that its true glory is reserved for the female of the species. If you're looking for a real unisex fragrance that'll rock the stuffing out of your world, you might want to go for the L'Artisan Havana Vanille, or maybe wait for the release of the Vero Profumo Onda EDP (in March of 2010). Mmmm, a spray bottle full of fresh, sunny, musky goodness, that's what that is.

But really, if any of you out there have any idea how hard the Duchaufour hit his head, please give him my condolences, but also congratulate the hell out of him. His one small step of aesthetic change is a seriously giant step towards my own olfactory happiness. I'm now tempted to go home and bang my own head against a wall for five minutes straight just to see if I might achieve even a fraction of such a transformational plus.

To wrap it up: Dear Mr. Duchaufour, I'm delighted to inform you that you've been promoted to the rank of perfume hero. Much love -- Nathan.

There's no question as to the artistry involved when encountering a Vero Profumo fragrance, but because independent Swiss perfumer Vero Kern is basically a one-woman show, everything is done by hand (the selecting of ingredients, the formulating, blending and bottling) and in very limited quantities, which keeps the quality level consistently superior yet has the unfortunate side-effect of adding quite a bit to the final cost -- just the way that, say, a hand-painted silk dress carefully measured, cut and sewn by hand in a Paris atelier is going to be more singular and lovely, yet also cost considerably more, than a machine-printed viscose shift spit by the thousands off a factory conveyor belt in Bangladesh.

In summary: the very characteristics that make Vero Profumo fragrances so desirable are what have kept them out of reach for the mainstream consumer (over $300.00 for half an ounce). But change is in the air, and change, in this respect, is good!

Vero Kern and her fragrance samples: Onda, Rubj and Kiki

In November of 2009, I wrote about Ms. Kern's "Rubj", an opulent composition that single-handedly changed my opinion (for the better!) regarding the fruity-floral genre. Tucked away within that review, I passed on the rumor that Ms. Kern was set to release EDP versions of her three fragrances in the Spring of 2010.

Ms. Kern contacted me shortly after I posted the review of Rubj, and confirmed that she was, indeed, near completion of the EDP versions for her fragrances (at 12% concentration), a project she's been toiling at for several years. She stressed that her EDP formulae wouldn't be just watered-down versions of the extraits, but that she was, instead, following the traditional French style of perfumery by rearranging the fragrance notes to suit the lighter EDP concentration.

In her own words (with some slight editing): "The less concentrated Eaux requires a different structure, so I emphasized the top-notes over the base. The compositions are simplified, replacing the heavy animal notes with the unique scent of Passionfruit, which I love very much and which gives the creations a certain erotic readiness. The Passionfruit is a common thread that connects the three scents while still respecting the original style of the Extraits."

A link to a Luca Turin article on the Passionfruit essence in perfumery can be found here, titled Duftnote -- Passionfruit. About the Passionfruit specifically, Turin writes: "The proximity of beauty to ugliness is never clearer than in tropical fruit. Perhaps because they have to compete with powerful smells of decay for the attention of birds, tropical fruit have decided to play dirty. Adding tiny amounts of rot on an otherwise conventional fruity smell is as invigorating as finding out that a theoretical physicist colleague was once a stripper."

Fast forward to last Friday: I received a package from Switzerland, and it was the newly completed EDP formulations in small spray vials for testing. I immediately (and excitedly) dove into them.

Long story short, everything that Ms. Kern stated is true -- the scents are lighter, fresher, yet still true to their original intent. The utilization of the Passionfruit note doesn't transform them all into bottles of fruit punch; but rather, injects a sense of levity and everyday wearability into the mix. Ms. Kern was about duality in her fragrances to begin with, so the simultaneous sparkle and decay of Passionfruit suits her style, offering a sense of depth while veering the compositions away from their originally pervasive, and sometimes challenging, "animal" characteristics.

1.) The Onda extrait, a sharply rutting, roll-in-the-hay fragrance that I've tried (and failed) to enjoy numerous times in the past, is here a sunny, approachable skin musk that wears like an easy, casual glove; 2.) The EDP Rubj is a spruced-up plummy jasmine, still warm, wooded and musky, but with its perhaps overtly mature character brightened up with a shot of youthful fizz.; 3.) The Kiki EDP is cool lavender and warm caramel, with the buttery rich, decadent tendencies of the extrait lightened from killer dessert cart into frothy confection.

Longevity is good to excellent for all three (6-8+ hours), though the finish is less base-notes intensive, and the overall development is, as Ms. Kern stated, "simplified" due to the reduced concentration of fragrance oils.

Some Vero fans might find this disappointing, of course, but not to fear -- the extraits will still be available for purchase. Ms. Kern assured me that the EDP's were not created to replace the extraits, but to lend an accessible, contemporary zing to the Vero Profumo brand. The best part? Since the formulae are less concentrated and the bottling less labor intensive (they'll be produced in a small factory that Ms. Kern selected for its artisan-friendly reputation), the price point will be significantly lower, which should make the brand a lot more attractive to the general consumer.

And anything that brings Vero Profumo fragrances even one-step closer to world domination is all right by me.

***Note: The Vero Profumo perfumes are presently all parfum/extrait formulations, which is defined as containing 15%-30% fragrance oils vs. carrier base; EDP's are said to contain 8%-15% fragrance oils, while the EDT, the version of choice for most mainstream brands, contains a mere 4%-8% fragrance oil concentration. This is often why consumers complain that mainstream EDT perfumes don't last very long, as there isn't much "there" there.

So when I posted the "DIY for the New Year" bit a few weeks ago, one link I neglected to include was the Custom Keds page at the Keds website. Not that a pair of "custom" Keds is fully custom (as in "made to measure"), but they do offer the ability to upload your own photos and/or designs to create a shoe unlike anything else you'll find on the market.

And that got me thinking: How does this process work? Do the shoes look good, or do the color photos get washed-out in the transition from digital media to canvas fabric? So I ordered a pair to find out (I had to order them for my college-age niece, as women's and children's sizes are the only sizes offered in the custom range at present -- goshdarnit!).

Below are a couple of my own photographs that I uploaded for use as designs, taken during a visit to Las Vegas while the CityCenter project was still under construction:

Yeah, I know, not particularly girly, but my niece is that peculiar brand of roll-out-of-bed, throw on some sweats and stumble to class sloppy, so photos of pretty flowers just weren't going to cut it.

Note: I saved the flower photos for the shoes I ordered in kid's sizes for Louise's children -- they haven't been shipped yet, but I'll show photos of those when they arrive.

The shoes took a few weeks between the ordering and receiving, since they're manufactured in China and were shipped directly from the Chinese factory to my doorstep, but I was genuinely impressed with the color quality when I finally got them in my hands:

For a quickie photo transfer onto plain canvas fabric, the brights are still bright, and the images decently crisp and clean:

Because this is a low-cost, Made In China product, you're not going to be unduly impressed by the materials and workmanship (I certainly wasn't), but that's not the reason to order them; instead, the Custom Keds option offers a relatively affordable method for consumers to inject their own creative sensibility into the mass-market process.

Not to mention that it's really kind of fun selecting images, then attempting to find trim colors, lace colors and insoles to match. I may have pulled a cop-out by choosing black, but the images have so much going on already that I was afraid selecting bright trim colors might have sent the end result into eye-screaming overdrive.

I wanted to design a pair of shoes my niece would love, not run from.

The Keds website uses the Zazzle platform for the uploading and designing, so while you may be setting the shoes up on the Keds website, you have to go through Zazzle to actually order them.

The shoes themselves are just the typical canvas Keds that you can find on any other shoe website, uncustomized, for about thirty-five to forty dollars (adult sizes -- children's sizes cost less), but there's an additional twenty dollars (or so) tacked on to the Custom Keds price for the privilege of creating your own personal works of shoe art.

And if you set up a Zazzle account, they'll let you waste an inordinate amount of time coming up with extra custom-designed Keds that you can allow the general public to view and order, if they wish.

See what I mean? I was obsessed for days, hunched over my laptop, furiously uploading and editing photos. It's a siren call, I tell you! Just try and resist . . .

1.) Menswear Designers Respond to an Uncertain Market:
The menswear runway shows just recently wrapped up in Milan and are presently showing in Paris (London and New York will follow). The shows were diverse, but there appeared to be a subtle, underlying theme nonetheless: Give the people what they want! -- which translated into collections where each brand focused on its core strengths.

Dolce & Gabbana reached back to their Sicilian "Sex and the Working Man" roots (which is what made them a household name to begin with); Versace eschewed the brights and went for a tough-boy mood with plenty of palazzo flash; Prada trotted out a collection of well-constructed workwear basics interspersed with 1970's retro flourishes; Burberry put the spotlight back on its outerwear; Gucci celebrated its 70's jetset playboy image; while Armani kept to sharp, tailored lines in urban hues of asphalt, cement, slate and steel. Below is a video of the Dolce & Gabbana show, which nearly every fashion critic praised for its easy masculinity and retail friendly vibe:

Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the skinny, androgynous male model?

Another collection that won a lot of breathless acclaim was designer Thomas Maier's penthouse rockabilly look for Bottega Veneta:

Ease of wear and strong, masculine lines were common elements throughout many of the collections.

WWD reports that Italian designers "smartened up" and played to their strengths, with Tom Kalendarian, executive VP and general merchandise manager for menswear at Barneys New York, saying: "Standouts were Prada, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana. They offered very salable, handsome, easy-to-understand fashion that was obviously not futuristic, but for a time like this, it has the perception of great value . . . When you step back and look at the total offering, I think there will be a nice balance of the classic luxury approach and a contemporary, modernistic approach. We have a lot of ammunition to do well at retail."

The Paris menswear shows kicked off with a dramatic flourish as Jean Paul Gaultier sent models down the runway in bloodied and bruised boxer-thug fashion -- another nod to retro-masculine ideals informing the fabrics, cuts and tailoring. Says GQ: "Take your boxing-gym basics: sweat pants and shorts, tank tops, hoodies, boxing shoes, and corner-man cardigans and then let Gaultier, um, punch them up by adding cashmere, velvet, and thick knits."

Gaultier's gonna knock you out

Meanwhile, I talked to a bespoke/custom tailor here in Seattle earlier this week. He's 65 and has been in the business for over 40 years, starting off his training in Hong Kong at the height of the Hong Kong dominance of the bespoke market. When I mentioned that perhaps custom tailors might see a resurgence in business soon due to a flight from the commodification of luxury brands, he shook his head and said no, that it's too late -- that the garment industry destroyed itself by outsourcing everything to cheap Asian labor and now there are very few people in this country that know how to sew to bespoke levels anymore.

"It takes a long time to become a good tailor," he said. "You have to apprentice for years before you're good enough to do the work on your own, and young Americans aren't able to wait -- they need their rewards right away. Toiling away for a decade or more at skilled labor before you can open your own shop just isn't on anyone's agenda."

I asked him what his children do for a living: "I told them to stay away from this business, that working with their hands was not going to get them any appreciation, so one is a doctor and the other is an engineer/lawyer, and they both do very well for themselves." But he said his present customers despair of the day he retires and closes up shop -- there's nowhere else for them to go that can do the work he does.

***Note: Major luxury brands Prada, Armani and Burberry took the rare step of live-streaming their runway shows for their internet viewers.

2.) Teen Retailers Scale Back On Secondary Urban Lines:
"Time could be running out for American Eagle Outfitters's contemporary concept, Martin + Osa, according to analysts . . . Launched in 2006, M+O, which targets 28- to 40-year-old customers, has weighed down the teen retailer since 2007, when the unit lost $50 million, or 15 cents a share . . . A closure of M+O would parallel the experience of other teen retailers that struggled to launch secondary concepts. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is shuttering its Ruehl division, and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. closed its more urban-oriented D.e.m.o. division in 2008."

While high-end brands are launching diffusion lines as a (futile?) means of retaining their newly maxed-out client base (see: Hermes, Versace, Zac Posen -- though there are rumors that the Posen plans are kaput), the mass market teen-trendy retailers are throwing in the towel on their attempts to seduce a similar target audience.

The quality and price point of a Versace Versus shirt or pair of Armani Exchange jeans is going to be on par to a similar American Eagle M+O item, since they'll both drop off the same Bangladesh, Vietnamese, Chinese, Haitan, Croatian, etc. factory line, so who do you think is going to win out in that particular status war? Exactly.

With the market getting more and more crowded (Forever 21, Kohl's and Nordstrom Rack are continuing to expand, snapping up retail space abandoned by big chains like Mervyns, Circuit City and Sears), brands have to assess what they're best at, and then stick with it. The likes of American Eagle and Abercrombie & Fitch succeeding in the urban, status market was an iffy prospect, at best.

And about those struggling retailers, the point is hitting home in even my own backyard: longtime downtown tenant Coldwater Creek has just closed up shop, following Seattle downtown store closures by Cartier, Adidas, Rite Aid and J.Jill. The article mentions that retailers are simply letting the leases run out on their underperforming locations, packing up and moving out. Not to mention that new retail space completed within the last year is still sitting empty -- the buiding where I live is one of those new "mixed-space" concepts, with condos built over what is meant to be a series of retail shops and restaurants, yet over a year after opening the building, every single retail-ready space sits unoccupied, the plate-glass windows covered over with advertising banners.

But speaking of moving and shaking in the harshly competitive world of retail, Macy's is planning to take its Bloomingdale's brand and use its name brand recognition to establish a presence in the outlet market: "Macy's Inc. said Thursday it will open its first Bloomingdale's bargain-priced outlet stores this summer and fall in a bid to attract the style conscious on a budget."

As long as the subject is Macy's and Bloomingdales, the big retail chain holds a cattle call to court established designers and fashion brands not already featured on its racks and shelves: "Department store Macy's is taking a fashion cue from its upscale sister Bloomingdale's. Next month, the famous department store will host its first Open Call event, where fashion houses not currently selling at Macy's can showcase their wares for a possible slot on the selling floor . . . During this financial uncertainty, many stores are looking for tried and tested designers who already have their merchandising, marketing and production strategies in place."

High-fashion retailer Intermix reads the writing on the wall and gets busy: "The 23-unit national specialty store retailer ... has entered 2010 with a new buying and merchandising strategy and several other developments. These moves -- including everything from shutting several under-performing units (Charlotte, N.C., closed this week and Orlando, Fla., shuttered a few months ago) to launching a redesigned, more sophisticated logo and new store environment -- come after a rough few years in the retail arena."

And Target is reevaluating its strategy for growth and expansion: "Target, the nation's second-largest discounter after Wal-Mart, is navigating turbulent economic times by polishing old stores rather than opening many new ones, opening smaller urban stores and looking outside the U.S. for growth . . . Key in the renovations will be the enhanced grocery sections, which the chain hopes will bring shoppers in more often . . . stores with the new food format that have been open at least a year have seen an immediate 6 percent increase in traffic and sales."

3.) Coach Reports a Better Holiday Quarter:
"Coach's fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 11%, with a boost from holiday sales that improved over 2008's weak holiday season . . . However ... wholesale revenue declined 8% amid reduced shipments to U.S. department stores . . . Coach has been cutting handbag prices and introducing new styles in an effort to improve sales of shoes and accessories as consumers continue to cut spending on luxury goods."

Coach stated that sales rose 14% overall in its retails stores, and that it improved profit margins by nearly half a percent at its outlet locations. Sales grew 3.2% in North America (its most troubled market at present), while sales in Japan were 7% stronger this quarter due to the increased value of the yen against the dollar, yet shares in Coach dropped in value on the stock market regarding continuing concern over the Chinese economy and Coach's dependence on the Chinese consumer for continued growth.

Says Just-Style: The brand is clearly taking hold with Chinese consumers, whose 94% repurchase intent beats anything it has seen in the US or Japan - despite still very low levels of brand awareness. That suggests enormous growth potential in a country scheduled to hit double-digit economic growth during 2010, so it's no wonder that Coach is accelerating its growth plans as a result." Yet financial analysts aren't as convinced about China's continuing "double-digit" growth prospects.

4.) Doing the Yohji Yamamoto Shuffle:
First, they went bankrupt, then they were saved by outside investors, then they were supposedly broke and shutting down, now they've been saved again: "Following a difficult week, which saw media speculation that the brand may close, Yohji Yamamoto unveiled a new management team today - along with a new strategy for consolidation . . . A spokesperson for the label revealed that, going forward, the brand - which closed both its New York stores last week - will continue to trade from standalone stores in Paris and London and will retain 200 points of sale across Europe and the US. The brand is currently re-evaluating its presence in Antwerp and may close that store."

Yamamoto is still heading up the design end of the bargain -- it's the business, corporate side of things that are seeing a drastic change in the executive scenery, but at least they're alive and kicking, with French soccer star Zinedine Zidane recently signed to promote the Adidas-Yamamoto collaboration brand Y-3 in the period leading up to the 2010 World Cup.

Video clip below of Zidane in action:

5.) Christian Louboutin Doesn't Trust Jessica Simpson:
"Jessica Simpson isn't going to appear in any photos sporting Christian Louboutin shoes any time soon: Us Weekly says that the designer wouldn't send shoes to an upcoming photo shoot with Simpson. 'They worried she would knock them off,' said the magazine. Explains a Louboutin rep, 'When Jessica began her own shoe line, two-thirds of them seemed like knockoffs. We haven't worked with her for a long time.'"

The Simpson people could always buy Louboutin shoes in order to knock them off, but at least they would have been forced to pay for them. There would be nothing worse than sending complimentary shoes for a photo shoot, only to find your designs later ripped-off for some fast-fashion celebrity shoe collection. While Louboutin's action in this respect is unlikely to stop the knock-off fever, it sends a very clear message to the Simpson company that they're being watched.

Louboutin has not been shy about lawsuits in the past.

In other Louboutin news: "The Chalhoub Group, leading distributor and retailer of luxury brands in the Middle East region, signed an agreement with French luxury footwear company Christian Louboutin . . . The new Joint-Venture agreement covers the brand's retail development throughout the Middle East region ... and will take effect from early 2010, with the opening of a Louboutin boutique ... in Al Khayyat Mall in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia."

Louboutin and the Middle East seems like a perfect fit to me. I'm just surprised it hasn't happened before now.

6.) INDUSTRY QUICK HITS:

A. British brand Burberry beat expectations and reported a 15% surge in sales for their latest quarter: "U.K. luxury goods retailer Burberry reported a 15% rise in sales for its fiscal third quarter, sailing past analyst estimates, and the company said it now expects pretax profit for the year will reach the top end of market expectations."

Video clip below of Burberry's latest menswear collection for Fall/Winter 2010-2011:

From Dose.ca: "Burberry stuck to their legendary, upscale roots and showcased their classic, must have piece -- the trench coat. The line also incorporated a military theme with parkas worn over slim pants tucked into boots."

B. Armani teams up with Reebok: "Reebok has teamed with Emporio Armani to create a collection for EA7, the Italian fashion house's line of activewear . . . The EA7 Runner is a white leather sneaker with a silver logo, contrasting black sole and black leather around the laces. The black Mega Chic looks like a dress shoe, but has a blue shock-absorber rubber heel."

Adidas has its partnership with Yamamoto, and Puma has produced collaborations with so many designers in the PPR roster (Puma is owned by luxury conglomerate PPR) that it's difficult to keep them all straight, so it's not surprising to see Armani hooking up with retro player Reebok -- if you're going to store the stilettos in the tote and take a Manhattan powerwalk to work in the morning, you want to make sure you're sporting the latest in designer names (knowwaddimean?).

A first look below at the marketing campaign for the Armani EA7 collab with Reebok:

C. Joseph Abboud, blocked from designing under his own name (he sold the rights to his name to JA Apparel back in 2000), accepts appointment as President and Chief Creative Officer at HMX group: "The first collections overseen by Mr. Abboud will be introduced in July 2010, and will be in stores by Spring 2011."

HMX's most prominent brands are listed as: Hickey Freeman, Coppley, Monarchy, Christopher Blue, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Austin Reed, Sansabelt and Hart Schaffner Marx, all of which Abboud will oversee in his new position.

Below is a video clip of the Joseph Abboud line opening in China, that Joseph Abboud is no longer designing for . . . :

I have to admit that it gets confusing. I mean, Raf Simons is presently designing for Jil Sander when Jil Sander is still alive, well and designing for Uniqlo. WTF? Stop that!

D. Halle Berry set to launch a new perfume -- in budget friendly bottle sizes: "Berry and her business partners Coty Incorporated, are capitalizing on the massive success of her previous fragrance Halle, released in 2009. They will be launching a new limited edition fragrance named Halle Pure Orchid . . . The fragrance will be available in 1oz and 0.5o eau de parfum."

I wrote an article about bottle downsizing in the perfume industry back in October of 2009 -- Flying Under the Radar: Why Sizing Down Might Be the Next Big Thing.

In other fragrance/beauty related news: Inter Parfums signs licensing deal with Montblanc; Japan's Shiseido buys Bare Escentuals cosmetics for $1.7 billion -- they want to establish a stronger international presence, and believe that natural cosmetics are a successful trend; Guerlain updates fragrance classics with new editions -- hilariously, Habit Rouge Gentleman Driver is described as "a reworked version of the original Habit Rouge Sport" . . . as opposed to another reworking of the original Habit Rouge, I guess?

E. New Yves St. Laurent biography exposes the designer as 'a drunken tyrant': "Saint Laurent: Bad Boy, to be published this week, throws an unflattering light on his private life, detailing homosexual relationships, the apparently tyrannical way in which he treated his entourage, and bouts of drunkenness during which he would throw ashtrays at his closest friends."

Author Marie-Dominique Lelièvre writes that "Yves was an athlete as far as ashtray throwing is concerned." The male Naomi Campbell, apparently. The French aren't taking too kindly to the purported bad news about their beloved icon.

F. Woolrich takes advantage of its trendy new status and goes high-style for fall of 2010: "Influenced by both the stark colors from late 1970's and early 80's designer labels like Comme des Garcons ... as well as his passion for Americana and Woolrich hunting plaids, (designer) Daiki Suzuki searched for a common ground and created a wholly new style that could be called 'Dark Hunting' or 'Hunting Noir.'"

Video clip below detailing the origins of the Woolrich company:

Thank god for copy-and-paste, because I could never get my keyboard to do all those fancy French-Canadian accents all on its own. Never mind that there's probably an easy enough solution, a keyboard is only as language-literate as the person pounding away on it (and the less said about the grades I received in university level French, the better).

But any copy-and-paste, failing-grade-French angst on my part is only in service of one of independent Montreal perfumer Claude-André Hébert's new releases, Bûcheron (translated: "lumberjack"), a curious leather-gourmand hybrid that performs with gusto and wears as comfortably as an old flannel shirt (with even the familiar red and black buffalo plaid printed across the back of the bottle itself).

Hébert's own inspiration for the Bûcheron fragrance is as follows: "My dad once told me that when he was young, to make money quickly, he left all winter to go logging in the woods. This was not the high life! The winters were cold and hard, and the loggers lived together in a cabin where they slept on bunk beds stacked one upon the other. They were far from civilization surrounded by fir, birch, pine and especially a lot of maple trees. It was very difficult for him and all the other men who practiced the profession of woodchopping, but they all had a sense of freedom within the lush forest. To comfort them, the Cook made pies with maple syrup."

The above goes a long way toward describing the Bûcheron fragrance: masculine, full of the scent of various woods, plus layers of smoke, leather and a surprising, sweet maple note that edges the composition into a more rounded, pleasing take on the traditional rough and ready genre than words like wood, smoke, loggers and leather might imply.

Official notes are: Canadian balsam fir needles, Silver fir needles, maple-syrup pie aroma, Amyris/Rosewood (for a smoky, woodland note), Indian sandalwood (for a slightly urinous, animalic note intended to evoke the olfactory image of horses and hard labor), Tonka bean, pine candy and Birch (a traditional, smoky leather note).

The pine needles create a citrusy sharp intro that's at once tamed by the smooth maple and rosewood notes. The scent of sharp pine needles segues beautifully into the leather and woodland forest aspects of Bûcheron, with the whole thing progressing, hour by hour, into a casual, wearable, smoky maple-sugar gourmand that, at times, reminds me of the richly layered heart of M. Micallef Aoud Gourmet.

I got the impression that both the Micallef and Hébert fragrances are attempting the same thing -- to wrap a sweet, mellow, toasted sugar note around a dry, more challenging wood and leather accord, and both succeed marvelously, with Hébert's Bûcheron edging slightly out in front as far as ease of wear is concerned (the comparably buzzy oud intro of the M. Micallef requires more than a passing familiarity with the ways of oud).

As far as the leathery, horse and sweat part is concerned, I do get a sense of leather and flesh, but these are incorporated with great precision, and always accompanied by smoother, pleasing notes that prevent the fragrance from tilting into a range that's too experimental for the average consumer.

During my several week test run of Bûcheron, I actually had someone ask me if I were wearing Chanel for Men (aka: Pour Monsieur), but I couldn't answer properly as I've never worn Chanel Pour Monsieur. Yet Thomas at PereDePierre writes that Chanel Pour Monsieur is a work of restraint, a classic ideal of masculinity with no single detail standing out but, rather, all the pieces working together to create a pleasing whole.

This would describe Bûcheron, as well, almost to the letter, which leads me to believe that the warmly sugared elements to Bûcheron push this independent fragrance into mainstream-friendly territory, and that's nothing but good news for Hébert, as his little Montreal shop is deserving of wider attention.

The fragrance arrives in a reusable, black cloth pouch instead a cardboard box, as Hébert is very conscious of reusable materials. The bottle is a splash bottle (i.e. no spray mechanism), even though the fragrance is an EDP formulation, which, again, is about lessening consumer-packaging waste as the bottle can be easily refilled from Hébert's shop when needed. The red and black plaid print on the back of the bottle is kitschy in a friendly, humorous way that yet keeps the idea of what the fragrance is meant to be about (lumberjacks, naturally) front and center.

The longevity of Bûcheron is excellent, lasting a good 8+ hours. The first half is more wood, maple and leather, while the latter half is where the smoke and gourmand richness fully comes to bear.

I like Bûcheron quite a bit, and experienced one of those rare and involuntary goose-bumpy moments when I first opened the bottle and took a sniff, so I can confidently say that its pine needles, smoke and leather, toasted maple sugar mix is pretty much my idea of a modern masculine fragrance.

And any reference to lumberjacks has to, of course, include the Monty Python video below:

"He's a lumberjack and he's okay, he wears suspenders and a bra!"

***Note: Bûcheron can be ordered from the Claude-André Hébert website. It's available in only the 100ml size, at present.

1.) Just When You Started to Believe in All That "Recovery" Talk:
"Retail sales drop 0.3% in December as sales for all of 2009 plunge by a record amount . . . The December drop in sales was a surprise given that the nation's big retailers had reported better-than-expected results last week, reflecting a surge of last-minute holiday shopping. But even with the rebound reported by the nation's biggest chains, these retailers suffered their worst annual performance in more than four decades in 2008, according to data from the International Council of Shopping Centers."

The fall in retail sales is, of course, unexpected. Again.

The 0.3% decline in December sales alone is a bitter pill for everyone in the retail industry to swallow, but sales for the entire year of 2009 dropped 6.2% in comparison to 2008's drop of 0.5%. Sales for every single sector were either flat or declining: specialty clothing, general merchandise, autos, electronics, department stores. There wasn't a ray of sunshine in the lot, especially as economists are predicting a worsening employment situtation for 2010.

Re. the initial flurry of excitement over the holiday season's supposedly exciting sales numbers, Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, called it a 'false dawn' and stated that 2010 will be a tough slog for retailers: "Robertson ... predicted no growth in consumer spending over 2010 and indicated the recent glut of positive updates from the festive season may represent a "false dawn" . . . Robertson said consumers' concerns over higher taxes and the end of many fixed-rate mortgage deals would squeeze spending."

UPDATE: WWD is reporting that a wave of retail store closures is expected to hit this year. Macy's announced that it's shuttering 5 underperforming stores, and Foot Locker just announced that it will be closing 117 locations. Now that retailers have downsized staff and slimmed down inventory throughout 2009, the only thing left to do is start shedding shops that can't hold their own in this much less buoyant environment.

And while all the breathless anticipation among the luxury industry insiders is now focused on the Chinese economy's spectacular growth, it might be a good idea to get a closer look at just where some of this exciting GDP growth that all the fashion groups are fighting to service comes from.

Example #1 is the ghost city, an entire city built with stimulus money that sits empty, a project whose massive spending scale registers as part of that 8% GDP growth, but offers hints that such economic growth is unsustainable:

The city that stimulus money built

Example #2 is the South China Mall, the (once and former) biggest mall in the world, located outside the factory city of Dongguan. Opened in 2003, it remains 99% empty, a monument to government graft, corruption and ego over the reality of the situation on the ground. After the mall opened, the NYTimes proclaimed that China was catching up to the consumer habits of the West, but the large middle class population that's necessary to support such a wonderland of retail is simply not there, and the mall is falling into decay and disrepair:

The empty mall casts doubt on claims of China's exploding middle class

More and more financial analysts are murmuring questions about China's "bubble" economy, speculating that the majority of (if not all of) the growth is government stimulus, with nothing substantial to hold it together should that money pump run out of printed Yuan to chug.

Add to the above the bizarre piece of information that China's pig farmers and other rural business owners are borrowing from the banks and using the low-to-no interest rate funds to stockpile metals in their backyards as a hedge against inflation (rather than, you know, spend the money on home improvements or expanding their businesses) and you have a picture that should frighten the bejeebus out of any luxury CEO that's planning on the Chinese consumer to rescue their failing fortunes.

Yeah, business for designer brand merchandise is bang-up in Beijing, but the further you travel from the major city centers, the less need there is to buy Louis Vuitton luggage, Zegna suits and Tag Hauer watches as bribes for govenment officals: "Executives of luxury goods companies say that lavishing government officials with such products is a year-round practice that reflects China's culture of gift-giving and tradition of basing business decisions on personal relationships. They admit to having special accounts for government officials, their relatives and even their mistresses, often with code names like Dr. No and Miss K."

A culture of "gift-giving" plus a tradition of basing business decisions on "personal relationships". I like that. It rolls off the tongue with the loveliest of fake platinum lilts. Here in the U.S., we just purchase boring old dinner plates for our elected officials, but somehow, that makes the patronage and cronyism easier to swallow (pun intended).

Note: the luxury companies are trying to get whatever they can out of China before the whole thing pops like an overstretched balloon, but is this really the way to run a "luxury" brand? If luxury is about exceptional materials and superior craftsmanship rather than the scurrying, bottom-line chasing of the mass market companies, then wouldn't it be a better idea for luxury brands to relax, take a breather and perfect their product line before all rushing out onto that one particular (though admittedly quite large and attractive) patch of thin ice?

But everyone is consumed with the need to "establish a presence" -- they want to be there at that exact moment when the alleged Chinese middle class rises up to start spending, because who wants to be the last one to the party, right? Yet China might very well turn out to be like Brazil in this respect, great in economic theory but less reliable in economic reality: "Brazil is the land of the future, and always will be."

Force to be reckoned with NYTimes fashion critic/analyst Cathy Horyn writes: "the industry has been pulled sideways--and will continue to be--by two enormous forces, China and digital technology . . . The absolute authority that luxury brands--and fashion magazines--enjoyed for the past decade or so has eroded. As a consequence, we're probably going to see some stupid decisions made in the coming year, because panicky executives can't get their minds around what's going on and feel they must join the nearest pack."

Horyn is one of the smartest writers in the luxury biz, and if she sees the slapdash race to beat China at its own game (and the even more slapdash race into WTF digital media projects) as a potential reputation killer, then people should start paying attention. As she later states: "there will only be so many companies with the capability to produce high-quality (and let's hope exciting) products. Why start going astray now?"

Related: Dubai, a former Next Big Scene, isn't doing a whole lot better than next great hope China: "The Palazzo Versace Dubai, only the second such hotel after the first was opened on the Gold Coast, was so luxurious it would even have the world's only refrigerated beach, the investors were told. Now, following one of history's greatest property collapses, Sunland is battling scores of investors attempting to flee the desert city. Analysts are no longer asking how much money the listed Sunland can make from Dubai, or even how much invested money the group stands to lose, but how much extra the group will have to pay to get out of the Middle East."

An Armani hotel & residences project is scheduled to open in Dubai in mid-March of this year. It's likely to meet the same fate.

2.) Technology Shrunk Your Handbag:
"The rise of smartphones such as the iPhone and miniature MP3 players has taken a huge weight off the shoulders of the nation's ladies . . . smartphones have rendered (bulky mobile phones, electronic organisers, device chargers, MP3 players and laptops) largely obsolete as they can access email, surf the internet, play music and be used as an address book and organiser . . . high street stores believe the trend will herald a return to smaller clutch bags rather than the huge, bottomless creations from the likes of Chanel and Louis Vuitton. The average bag now weighs 3lb 5oz ... that's 57 per cent less than the average just two years ago."

Angelina Jolie early 2008 bag vs. Angelina Jolie late 2009 bag

I remember reading stories back in late 2006 and early 2007 about the rising incidence of shoulder, neck and back injuries from women carrying huge totes stuffed completely full: laptops, water bottle, extra pair of shoes, paperback novel, datebook, organizer, sunglasses, mobile phone, etc. Now that Blackberries and iPhones have become increasingly easier to use and available to the average consumer, lugging all those extra pounds is thankfully no longer necessary.

I still lug my laptop around in my shoulder bag, but that's because they still haven't created a smartphone that can take the place of performing extensive research and writing on a laptop computer, but if all I needed was access to email, instant messaging an organizing calendar program and iTunes, I'd gladly ditch the laptop. My shoulder and neck would thank me for it.

i guess I'm still waiting for that mythical, lightweight, fully-functional, mobile folding keyboard" . . . that'll come before the flying car, right?

3.) Yohji Yamamoto Brand Shuts Its Doors in NYC:
"After filing for protection from its creditors last October, it seemed that Yohji Yamamoto had found a saviour in private equity fund Integral Corp - which had agreed to finance the company's restructuring - but it seems the jubilation may have been short-lived as the brand has closed both its New York stores."

The Yamamoto-Adidas partnership of Y-3 will still plug along, as Adidas appears to own the trademark and rights rather than the Yamamoto company (which has filed for bankruptcy in Japan), but will the Yohji Yamamoto brand become another Christian Lacroix, surviving only as a licensing operation? The rumor is that Yamamoto still plans on a runway show in Paris this Spring, yet shutting both the Yamamoto New York locations isn't a confidence builder in that regard (Yamamoto boutiques have also shut their doors in Antwerp and Paris).

Yamamoto's Spring/Summer 2010 collection below. Sometimes I think the man is brilliant, then other times I watch his runway shows and completely, thoroughly understand why his company went belly up:

And then, of course, there's the lack of a hot selling fragrance line. It seems like the only brands that have filed for bankruptcy (or closed up shop) so far are brands that either don't offer a fragrance line (Luella, Phi) or brands that don't have a hot selling, blockbuster fragrance line (Christian Lacroix, Yohji Yamamoto, Escada).

As if to underscore my point, the Washington Times reports that fragrances priced over $100.00 were one of the few movers and shakers in the retail scene during 2009: "Beauty-industry watchers noticed large growth in sales of expensive perfumes -- those priced above $100 -- this year. Meanwhile, lipstick sales were down 11 percent, perhaps disproving the lipstick-indicator theory . . . The perfume industry accounts for about $25 billion to $30 billion in annual sales."

Yikes! $25-30 billion is a lot of coin. No wonder every D-List celebrity is scrambling to climb aboard that particular gravy train:

When everyone's doing it, it's not special anymore

In other struggling luxury brand news, the Karl Lagerfeld brand is running into trouble, cutting staff and axing its K Karl Lagerfeld diffusion line: "The Tommy Hilfiger-owned Karl Lagerfeld business ... has eliminated four positions in its Amsterdam office and two marketing-p.r. positions in New York, according to an e-mail from the company. In addition, the more casual K Karl Lagerfeld line of denim and sportswear will be discontinued with this spring's men's and women's collections."

While newly revived yet critically and commercially buffeted Halston is rumored to be courting "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker as a creative advisor -- arguably, a much better publicity move than Ungaro's hiring of drugs-and-rehab star Lindsay Lohan. It would certainly get Halston some much needed spark with the fashion press, and Parker's mainstream influence could potentially help liven-up the perhaps too retro collections that have emerged under the Halston name since the Weinsteins and Jimmy Choo's Tamara Mellon got involved.

Hot young designer Marios Schwab is presently at the helm as Halston's head designer, and his first collection for Halston will debut at the Fall/Winter 2010 shows. Video clip below of a very artsy, stylish promo film for the Fall/Winter 2009 Halston collection. There was no such fanfare for Spring 2010, as the brand produced only a minimal Spring collection during much dramatic name exiting and designer swapping:

Note: and the Sarah Jessica Parker rumor is now a confirmed fact -- Parker has been signed by Halston as a creative advisor/director, quite possibly as head designer for a newly formed Heritage Halston line. But you just knew that Lady Gaga was somehow going to get mentioned in the same breath as Halston and Sarah Jessica Parker . . . right? I mean, she's everywhere!: "One source close to the situation likened the deal between Parker and Halston to the one unveiled last week between Polaroid and Lady Gaga, who was named creative director for a special line of Polaroid Imaging products. Hilco Consumer Capital LLC, which owns a stake in Halston, also owns Polaroid in a joint venture with Gordon Brothers Brands LLC. "

And there you have it. The Gaga-ification of Halston. I'm intrigued!

4.) Former UK PM Tony Blair Takes a Consulting Position with LVMH:
"A source close to Mr Blair has confirmed that he in the final stages of negotiating a deal with LVMH, which he is expected to begin working for later this year . . . 'There is an agreement in principle but nothing has been signed yet,' said the source. 'Mr Blair won't be joining the board but he will be acting in an advisory role ... his job is likely to involve attracting new clients' . . . Mr Blair is expected to be paid a six-figure sum by the firm for his part-time role . . . In total, he is estimated to have earned at least £15 million since leaving office two and a half years ago."

There's a ruckus presently being raised in the UK over their former Prime Minister (for the labor party) taking a lucrative position with a major luxury corporation. Past ties to Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, during the time that Blair was in office are receiving renewed scrutiny, and parliament officials are decrying the impropriety that such a move appears to entail, questioning how much influence Arnault (and therefore LVMH) may have had with Mr. Blair while Blair was still Prime Minister.

On the other hand, it only seems logical that a powerfully connected former political figure would agree to do advisory and consulting work with an intensely high-profile luxury conglomerate. I mean, who else is Tony Blair going to work for? I would guess it's the dichotomy of his professed politics (socialistic, for the people) with the reality of his money-hustling and influence-peddling life after politics (almost $25 million U.S. accrued in just two and a half years) that's causing the uproar -- but Arnault must be gleeful at such a coup, and having such a globally recognized figure as an advisor can only help LVMH in the long-run, especially when negotiating the tricky waters of new international markets such as China and India.

After all, Blair is already accustomed to navigating the political power structures around the world, and likely still knows all the right people by name and rank. If I were PPR or Richemont, I'd be nervous.

5.) The Question on Every Luxury Retailer's Mind:
"Chinese millionaires favor Cartier, Patek Philippe watches, holidays in the U.S. and Bentleys according to a survey by Hurun magazine. (Yet) when it comes to first-class flights and cigarettes, they prefer local brands."

Well, that ought to make a few people at Cartier happy. Other brand preferences stated were: Fashion Label - Giorgio Armani; Sports watch - Rolex; Fashion watch - Louis Vuitton; Fashion accessory - Hermes; and Skincare - Chanel. Pretty much a Who's-Who of the major luxury brands, which has been the report all along from China -- that established luxury brand names are deeply valued for their history and reputation as much as for the actual products themselves.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Hermes actually makes great accessories, or that Chanel skincare, while highly expensive, is genuinely good stuff. I am a little surprised about the Giorgio Armani placement as favorite fashion label, however (I thought his star had dimmed since the 80's) -- but because of the high purchase to government bribery rate, the majority of luxury purchases in China today are by and for men, and a nice Armani suit is an impression that's hard to beat.

Besides, when someone asks you what suit you're wearing and you say, "Burberry Prorsum" or "Paul Smith", it lacks that fine Italian sizzle. Video clip below of the menswear line that bureaucrats adore:

Last month, I ordered a Giorgio Armani shirt in an extra large, but it was so tight I had to send it back (and I'm ordinarily a Large/XLarge tweener), but just maybe if I stopped eating (entirely) for the next six months, I could fit into one of those coveted suits!

6.) INDUSTRY QUICK HITS:

A.) Proctor & Gamble to bid adieu to Valentino:"Procter & Gamble plans to end its fragrance licensing agreement with Valentino Fashion Group, according to a person familiar with the matter. Puig Beauty & Fashion Group SL, the Spanish fashion and fragrance company, is expected to take over the license from P&G in February 2011."

The brief article later mentions that P&G is whittling down the "underperformers" in its brand lineup, which is so obviously a slap in the face to the Valentino group that I wonder just how testy those high-level meetings became when attempting to hammer out a new agreement. But Puig is an excellent fine fragrance company, and quite possibly a much better fit for the ruffles and glamor of Valentino than Proctor & Gamble ever could be.

Related: The Oscar de la Renta company recently wrested back control of its fragrance line from L'Oreal after an 18 month legal struggle. A de la Renta spokesperson stated that they would keep their present fragrances in development, but with the lack of a current popular seller, I can only imagine that their focus is going to be on the production of something new and more suited to the luxury brand's image and clientele.

With the mass-market fragrance industry in a current slump, it's way past time for luxury houses to take a more interested, if not active, role in the development of fragrances that bear their famous names.

Tangential point: the celebrity scents industry had a near-death experience last year (with sales plunging by a reported 20%), but Beyonce's upcoming "Heat" perfume is expected to rake in $100 million in its first year.

One hundred million dollar hit? They hope so!

One of the central players in the celebrity fragrance scene is Parlux, which reported a 3% increase in sales for the latest quarter. Parlux holds licenses for Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Nicole Miller, Josie Natori, Queen Latifah, Marc Ecko, Rihanna, Kanye West and more.

B.) Haiti's garment exports crushed by the earthquake: "The impact the earthquake has had on the region means it is likely to have lasting economic impact - not least for the clothing industry which is the single largest sector in the Haitian economy . . . Before the disaster, Haiti was the seventeenth largest supplier by volume of apparel products sold in the United States, with imports valued at $412m in 2008."

C.) Martin Scorcese is filming a new Chanel ad in Brooklyn: "Chanel has a tradition of pairing directors with their muses for ad campaigns; Nicole Kidman and Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) worked together for Chanel No. 5, as did Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) with Audrey Tautou for the latest Chanel No. 5 ads."

With David Lynch signed on to film a campaign for Dior, and now news of Scorcese for Chanel, the high-concept imagery wars are heating up.

Giorgio Armani has responded to the battle for consumer attention by hiring global (and much younger) soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to replace David Beckham as the Emporio Armani billboard model. The photo images are already flooding fashion, celebrity and sports sites, so the choice to strip the man down to his skivvies was obviously a smart one.

D.) A marriage between beauty and the beast: "We've made no secret of the deep existential nausea caused by looking at the mysteriously long line in front of the Ugg store in Soho. But the latest news related to the Australian-born trend that would not die has sent a shiver that runs from our eyes to our very soul -- Jimmy Choo is collaborating with Ugg."

What's going on over at Jimmy Choo, anyway? First H&M and now Ugg. Are they completely determined to run their own good name into the ground? Or do they know something we don't, and so are scrambling to grab any bits of cash they can from whatever consumer market possible before the entire thing comes crashing down?

You know, now that I think about it, Christian Louboutin *has* replaced Jimmy Choo in the pop-culture lexicon as the "it" shoe to have and wear (the "Sex and the City" sequel is reportedly stuffed full of Louboutins, where the original series was once all about the Manolos and the Choos), so, knocked off their lofty perch, what does Choo have left, then, but the less glamorous worlds of fast fashion and Ugg?

When life gives you designer lemons . . .

E.) 11 clear signs that the U.S. Economy is headed into the toilet: "A massive "second wave" of mortgage defaults is getting ready to hit the U.S. economy starting in 2010. In fact, this "second wave" is so frightening that even 60 Minutes is reporting on it."

Retailers will be reading analysis like the above and weeping, because if the first mortgage meltdown wave sent the country's consumers rocking back on their heels, the second wave could potentially knock us all down. People can't spend money they don't have. Below is the 60 Minutes clip that the article referenced:

"Nearly $2 trillion has been shoveled into the hole that Wall Street dug."

F.) Luxury brands turn to DNA to fight back against counterfeiting: "A New York state-based company has announced it will be adding genetic material to some high-end products . . . 'Proof of authenticity is a central tenet of brand integrity, and there is no better proof than DNA,' Applied DNA president and chief executive James Hayward said in a release. Applied DNA uses botanic DNA, which cannot be copied. The processed DNA solution can be incorporated into fabrics, dyes or glues to create a unique genetic identity for the product."

This particular solution is so wonderfully 21st century geeky-tech that I'm in awe. Now all I need is my Cartier branded portable DNA reader and I'm good to go!

In December of 2008, I made my first acquaintance with Teo Cabanel's Alahine, and walked away unimpressed: "On the one hand, Alahine reminds me a little of the uber-sultry Roja Dove Enslaved, but on the other hand, the reminder is only in the way that, say, Robby the Robot stomping about the house in pumps and pearls approximates a flesh and blood woman."

I wish to take this moment to apologize to both Robby the Robot and Alahine -- the metaphor wasn't flattering to either one of them, and Alahine has grown on me since then. Like, seriously grown on me. For that, I blame Abigail and Brian at I Smell Therefore I Am.

Moral of the story: if you wish to hold fast, inflexible opinions of fragrances, never read perfume blogs.

I mean, I could have easily dismissed the regular, euphoric whoops going on over at ISTIA ("Can the hollering, ya gosh darn whippersnappers -- I'm trying to work over here!!") if it had been just Abigail . . . or just Brian . . . but loud, bright laser-beams of ecstacy over Cabanel's Alahine breaking forth from *both* Abigail and Brian? It's a rare enough occurrence to occasion double-taking, revisiting and rethinking.

And since Abigail is, like, the kindest, gentlest pusher you'll ever bring home to meet your mother, I soon found myself in possession of a rather too-lovely-for-my-bathroom-counter bottle of Alahine pure parfum. I unwrapped, unstoppered, dabbed and took an exploratory sniff. "Hmmmm, really? Is this what all the fuss is about?" I thought, as I placed the glass stopper back on the adorably etched bottle and nudged it off to the side.

I was wondering if maybe my newfound pusher had been wrong, after all; that maybe she was a little addled by all those fumes she sells and so couldn't tell good from bad, right from wrong anymore.

It happens to the best of us, yet I was confident that it was (tragically) happening to her and (thank god!) not to me.

But all those superlatives kept nagging at me.

From Brian: "The florals are hazed, one of those gorgeous old soft-focus photos, the light flaring in star shapes, the flowers amorphous arrangements of color . . . Gradually, things go even softer ... humid, muskier ... The later stages of development are where I get the vanilla, the benzoin, the patchouli ... sometimes murmuring, sometimes getting a little more excited, projecting what they have to say. Between this and the opening come rolling impressions of rose, jasmine, and (particularly, for me) orange blossom."

From Abigail: "Alahine opens with a burst of ever-so-slight citrus & floral notes . . . Very quickly it turns into a velvety amber that is the most sophisticated and deluxe amber I have ever smelled. Alahine is oriental amber extreme with the most wondrous complexity that seems to include hints of pepper, musk, benzoin, sandalwood and patchouli . . . It never screams, appears overdone or is even too soft or subtle. It has perfect lasting power and sillage."

How can any sane person interested in ambered fragrances not find the one-two punch of these reviews irresistable?

The official notes list includes: ylang ylang, bergamot, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, neroli, pepper, iris, cistus, patchouli, benzoin, vanilla, sandalwood and musk, pretty much the template for a reference floral amber if ever there were such a thing as a reference floral amber.

At first, nothing struck me as extraordinary. The pieces all functioned properly, the mix was good, the scent pleasant, but I didn't get a particularly noteworthy vibe. I've learned, however, that first impressions can be deceiving, which was the case with Alahine. What seemed initially a little lazy or derivative of its betters became much more than that with repeated wearings.

The opening haze of ylang-ylang (with a slight kerosene edge) and citrus (crisp and light) progresses quickly and seamlessly into a phase of fresh gound pepper and cool iris-root that then pulls up the curtain on the main, and hours long, attraction: a warm, wooded atmosphere frosted with toasted vanilla and suffused with the benevolent, breathy exhalations of a velvety rose and buttery jasmine bouquet.

Yowza! How did I miss all this? A fragrance that I once had to force myself to apply, I now began looking forward to, enjoying every lush, generous facet as it trotted through its paces day after day, a beautifully muscled thoroughbred that turns and leaps with such grace and precision that it's criminally possible to take its easy performance for granted.

The coup de grâce? I was brushing my teeth after having applied a decent helping of Alahine when the BF walked into the bathroom and gave me a hug. "Mmmm, you smell nice," he said.

Between Vero Profumo's Rubj and now Alahine, I suspect he has a soft spot for the scent of warm, fleshy jasmine.

The packaging is beautiful in a traditionally old-school perfume way: gilded box and glass bottle, metallic gold accents, ornate etching, softly rounded corners, a colorful twisted-fabric rope around the bottle's neck. It suits the scent, and makes for an excellent, gifting-friendly presentation. Unlike, say, the cost-conscious packaging for Monocle Scent Two: Laurel, I'd feel no hesitation or embarrassment in presenting the Alahine parfum as a gift.

And the recipient would undoubtedly be thrilled.

But it's not just Abigail, Brian and myself that are smitten by Alahine's charms. March at Perfume Posse appears to be in thrall, as well: "Alahine only gets better as the pepper, iris and the naughty bits start to bloom, but it's sexy in a subtle way, the woman in the corner of the room who catches your eye, and suddenly, compared to her quiet chic, everyone else looks a bit overdone."

Exactly.

The sillage (or scent trail) isn't overpowering, though it's definitely present, and the parfum formulation has excellent longevity -- I put it on at 9 this morning, and at 3:30 p.m., it's still kicking: a wooded, buttery-soft amber with that velvety floral overlay.

***Note: my overall experience with Alahine as been a consistent 8-10 hours of rich longevity, with the very latter hours a decidedly attractive smoked vanilla against a backdrop of blurred florals.

So don't blame me if you rush out to find the nearest bottle of Alahine and then fall truly, madly, deeply for its gently opulent charms. It's not my fault -- blame Abigail! and Brian!

1.) Hell Freezes Over - Hermes Launches Diffusion Line in China:
"The new brand will be called Shang Xia (meaning "topsy-turvy" in Mandarin), will be based in Shanghai and is scheduled to launch in Spring 2010. Shang Xia's creative director is Qiong-Er Jiang, daughter of a noted Chinese architect. Shang Xia will include ready-to-wear and decorative arts inspired by Chinese culture and traditions of craftsmanship. According to Thomas, the new brand will be tailored for the Chinese market where Hermes lags behind its competitors."

Okay, so it's not "officially" a diffusion line, but if it quacks like a diffusion duck and sort of walks like a diffusion duck . . . ?

*Note: A diffusion line is the name for an accessible, mainstream affordable, mass-market collection produced by a global luxury player that's ordinarily prohibitively expensive and exclusive. For example, Giorgio Armani has Emporio Armani + Armani Exchange; Versace has Versace Jeans + Versace Versus; Chloe has See by Chloe; Marc Jacobs has Marc by Marc Jacobs + Jacobs by Marc by Marc Jacobs; Alexander McQueen has McQ; Valentino has Valentino Roma + Valentino Red; Dolce & Gabbana has D&G; Michael Kors has Michael by Michael Kors + Kors by Michael Kors; and so on.

I'm sure the argument will be that this is regional positioning, but why not instead make Hermes items that directly appeal to Chinese consumers and sell them exclusively in their China boutiques (if not worldwide)? I think the answer is that the Shang Xia brand really will be a type of Hermes diffusion brand, claiming superior craftsmanship yet made entirely in China so that the products are more immediately accessible and affordable for the average Chinese customer.

You know, just like all the other Italian, French and American luxury brands do with their own diffusion lines.

It's a smart business move but certainly not one that I saw coming, and I think it speaks volumes about the kind of future that Hermes sees for itself in the new retail order (while speaking volumes about the new retail order in general) -- especially as Hermes has been consistently touted as one of the few luxury brands able to survive the global economic contraction whole and intact.

I'm thinking we may have just seen Hermes blink.

US Fashion Mag states: "The objective of this move is to offer cheaper products in China, as well as capitalising on the growth of the luxury market in the country in 2010" -- so yeah. Diffusion line.

Other points of interest: as with all Western ventures in China, there must be a Chinese contact (with sufficient government/party ties) as a partner, and Shang Xia is partnered with Qiong-Er Jiang, the daughter of a noted Chinese architect. Jiang's job is to steer business to local and regional manufacturers, suppliers and distributors (i.e. friends and family). Hermes cleverly defines this type of nepotism as "ensuring that only local raw materials are used to create items under the brand."

2.) Argentina Gets Its Day in the Lagerfeld Sun:
After drinking from the creative wells of Russia and China, Lagerfeld headed to Argentina for the Chanel Spring 2010 campaign: "Tango, elegance, antiques, and good sunlight. They're amazed about the size of Buenos Aires, the beauty, the cuisine, the great cultural offer and especially the buildings and architecture."

The campaign was shot back in October of last year, and all I can say is, it must be a drag to have to chase down those dollars in every exotic location imaginable (as if!). Since Brazil is supposed to be the next China as far as economic growth and consumer spending (or so say the analysts), shooting an ad campaign in South America, while incorporating distinctly latin flourishes in the collection, is a gorgeous way to play it safe while looking like you're taking very stylish chances.

A brief video clip below of the set used for the ad campaign:

*Note 2: Chanel is one of the few major luxury brands that does not offer a diffusion line.

But as long as we're nattering on about Chanel -- 1.) Hell freezes over (again!) as Chanel offers temporary tattoos for Spring; 2.) Chanel workers demonstrate over raises that weren't as high as they might have liked; and 3.) Chanel plays hardball by hiring a former Louis Vuitton executive for help in developing new market and branding strategies -- if you can't outsell them, then outmanoeuvre them, right?

Oh, hey, on the subject of angry unions, remember when we mentioned a few weeks ago that Saks Fifth Avenue was cutting 116 beauty and cosmetics jobs at its flagship location in NYC? Well, that news (unsurprisingly) didn't set too well with the people whose jobs were getting cut: Saks' Midtown firing draws labor lawsuit -- "The National Labor Relations Board, Local 1102 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union charged that Saks fired the employees in retaliation for voting two weeks earlier to unionize . . . Saks has denied that the firings were related to union activity, noting that it began restructuring its cosmetics and fragrance departments elsewhere in the chain last summer. Saks has cited a new strategy to let vendors like Chanel, Lancome and Clinique fully staff the counters themselves."

At least the union activity here involves people who are losing their jobs as opposed to workers who just didn't get as large a raise as they wanted. But still, Saks has been steadily losing business and cash by the quarter (after quarter) -- it would be unreasonable to believe that they *aren't* restructuring deals with major brands in an effort to clamp down on labor costs.

Julia Bentley, a spokeswoman for Saks, stated that "vendors already employ nearly 70% of the personnel in the New York store's cosmetics and fragrance department, (while) other New York City department stores use a fully vendor-staffed model" already.

3.) Prada May (Not?) Be So Deep in Debt That It Needs Investor Cash:
"Prada SpA, the luxury company which has called off four attempts at an initial public offering in the last 10 years, denied a New York Post report that it is in talks to sell a (minority) stake to Cie. Financiere Richemont SA . . . Prada, which has cited adverse market conditions for its unsuccessful IPO attempts, said last year it had been approached more than once by potential investors about selling a stake, adding that any interest was unsolicited."

The article goes on to note that Prada is presently operating under a debt of nearly $1.5 billion dollars, and Richemont, the third largest luxury conglomerate in the world, with brands like Chloé, Cartier, Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpel under its umbrella, could certainly be a friendly source of rescue. Richemont could possibly absorb seasonal losses of the Prada brand while using Prada's design reputation to seriously reposition itself as competition to both LVMH and PPR/Gucci Group.

Grazia Daily reports that "with new financial backing, the luxury label could be unstoppable", though it's difficult to see how $1.5 billion in debt could possibly be an attractive feature should Richemont go shopping for a major luxury brand to add to its roster.

A look at Prada's upcoming Spring 2010 collection, which Miuccia Prada admitted that she designed with the recession fully in mind:

Rgarding Ms. Prada designing with a more commercial outlook, there's an excellent article in the Washington Post about the tension between runway shows and what actually ends up in retail stores: Ready for the Runway, but Not for Retail? -- "There are times when women look at runway images and turn away convinced that designers hate them or are out to make a mockery of their busy, complicated lives . . . but the truth is that if you walk into a designer's own shop, particularly in Europe where working the sales floor is a career rather than a sideline until the big acting break or the B-school acceptance letter arrives, you would find that most designers are willing to sublimate their desires for the customers."

In other Prada news, "Vita Prada", an unauthorized biography of Miuccia Prada written by Italian journalist Gian Luigi Paracchini and released in Italy just before Christmas, is a popular bestseller and the talk of the Italian fashion scene.

Collezioni Online writes: "The Prada phenomenon is recounted with skill by Gianluca Paracchini. The term 'phenomenon' is used because Prada, given its turnover that runs into several figures, can no longer be regarded as a mere group or fashion brand; it has become something of a symbol of a conceptual style that has overturned aesthetic canons to create trends and establish fashions."

Oh, so maybe Richemont might be wise to overlook all that debt, after all.

4.) Your Stylish Black Wardrobe Has Turned Against You:
"Black clothing can highlight dark lines under the chin, shadows around the eyes and wrinkles on the face, colour consultants say . . . Dark scarves, hats, polo neck jumpers and high-collared coats are apparently particularly likely to emphasise ageing features of the face . . . Just one in five of us apparently have the correct skin tone to wear black well . . . The one in five ... who suit black close to their faces have 'winter' complexions consisting of pale, cool and dramatic colouring."

And here I've been assuming that I'm ever so jet-setting and sophisticated as I step out into the day in my black on black ensemble, but now they tell me that what I'm really looking like is tired, drained and old . . . as if I needed the confirmation.

But you know, the spring collections are due soon, so these "color consultants" could just be, you know, shills for the fashion industry (you think?) telling us we look all old and tired-out in an attempt to get us off our duffs and into Nordstrom (or Neiman Marcus, or Macy's, or Target, or Bloomingdales, or you name it) to buy some more stuff -- albeit very brightly colored, Cortez and the fountain of youth stuff.

Because that's just what we all need right now, I guess -- a bright scarf that instantly makes us look ten years younger. A video clip below of the Diane Von Furstenberg 2010 Spring/Summer collection that's a veritable tour through the entire color wheel:

Nicole Fischelis, Fashion Director for Macy's, stated in a piece for Pantone: "While (consumers) may be more selective in their purchases right now, people still want to be excited and inspired by fashion. Color is arguably one of the most essential elements each season as it triggers the emotional 'buy me' reaction!"

5.) Maybe Fashion Isn't the Most Fabulous Game in Town Anymore:
"Despite the collective sigh of relief that the holiday season wasn't as bad as last year, recent sales trends are still a sobering reminder for retailers. The hottest items this holiday weren't apparel related but instead were iPhones and other smart phones, BluRay DVD players -- even toy hamsters."

Designers, models and luxury brands enjoy a rarified type of notoriety within the pages of fashion magazines and among the rounds of fashion and beauty blogs, but in the wider sector, "style" is losing out to lifestyle. While technology like the iPhone is continuously tweaked and adjusted to meet the daily needs of its user, luxury fashion brands are too often aloof from their buyers, prefering to *decide* for the consumer what he/she should want rather than reaching out to design and manufacture specifically for the consumer's lifestyle needs.

This results in nervous retailers stuck with racks of unsold merchandise and the inevitable flurry of 50%-70% off sales when the designer misgauges shifts in public mood.

Brands such as Prada, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana collaborate with cell phone companies on designer phones, but these are just cosmetically enhanced devices that operate no differently than the same cheaper, unbranded model. As long as the luxury brand concept of "lifestyle" remains stuck in a surface-looks only mindset, they'll continue to lag behind technology companies like Apple that have learned to produce products that are aesthetically pleasing while genuinely (and positively) impacting the lifestyle of the consumer.

I mean, I love a great overcoat or terrific pair of shoes as much as the next person, but neither increases connectivity, brings information to my fingertips or radically alters the way I interact with a fast-paced world.

If luxury brands wish to stay relevant, it would certainly help if we could stop having this same discussion over and over: "Go to the sites of the most innovative labels -- Prada and Balenciaga, to name two -- and you find almost no appreciation for the potential of digital technology. No special films that might illuminate the creative process, no animation, no design gestures that are consistent with the contemporary spirit of these brands. Instead, what you chiefly get is a video of the last collection, some still images from an advertising campaign and, in Prada's case, an update about its art-world projects."

Case in point, the L.A. Times ran an article forecasting fashion trends for 2010. Two of them dealt with the marriage of style and up-to-the-minute media, with #1) styles driven by popular culture more than the proclaimed vision of any name brand designer, and #2) the increasing influence of home shopping networks as more and more people abandon the idea of going to a mall or boutique and instead shop from the convenience of their own homes, using their computers and televisions.

The best recent example of lifestyle choices proceeding apart from the dictates of the luxury brands is the wild popularity of the Twilight movies and the significant impact they've had on the fashion industry. Major brands scrambled to play catch-up, and are attempting to steer the game back in their direction by hyping connections to Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland film.

The big difference between Twilight and Alice in Wonderland is, of course, genuine consumer interest. The influence of Twilight spontaneously exploded once the films were released, a result of a best-selling fiction series from a no-name author turned into low-budget movie hit that any smart executive worth his/her trend-awareness salt should have ridden into a golden sunset. But it just wasn't glamorous enough -- hence, Burton's Alice in Wonderland: huge budget, big name director and oodles of breathless, marketing hype regarding the fashion world's designs based on characters from the film.

But this is, again, luxury brands telling the consumers what they think they *should* want ("thigh-length, Alice-appropriate dresses in mad, mad plaids" says Zac Posen, a designer whose brand appears to be in financial trouble), the equivalent of brands signing on to Facebook and Twitter as yet another means of manufacturing excitement for their products rather than bothering to actually follow the continuous discussions of what their customers might genuinely like and want (never mind directly soliciting feedback).

6.) INDUSTRY QUICK HITS:

A.) Another one bites the dust as edgy luxury label Phi closes up shop: "The collection developed a cult following in the New York fashion scene. But the pre-spring delivery, which was shipped to stores this month, will be Phi's last. The Phi boutique at 71 Greene Street in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood is to close at the end of next month."

Phi was founded by Susan Dell, wife of billionaire Dell computer magnate, Michael Dell. It's indeed tough times for the fashion industry when the wife of a billionaire senses that funding a luxury brand is no longer a worthwhile investment. Video clip below of the Phi Spring/Summer 2010 runway show -- their last gasp:

In similar news, Hugo Boss announced that it's closing a Cleveland plant and laying off 300 workers; Prada has been quietly laying off workers while insisting the action is "temporary"; last year, Versace was adamant that they would not participate in the dramatic discount wars, but this year is a whole different story; and a stretch of New York's Fifth Avenue has been quietly shifting from high-end shops to store fronts that peddle used (i.e. "vintage") clothing and accessories.

Japanese fast-fashion retailer Uniqlo is doing all right, though: "Excluding new store openings, sales across Uniqlo's 770 outlets in Japan grew by 21%." I guess that Jil Sander partnership is really paying off: "Hit products such as the +J line overseen by German designer Jil Sander led to a 40 percent surge in first-quarter sales, defying a slump in Japanese household spending amid job losses and falling wages."

Other quick retail news: overall holiday sales were up 1.8% from last year, though the 2008 holiday season was one of the worst ever, so a slight uptick, while encouraging, isn't the great news it could have been: "Americans are still constrained by economic factors that prevented Christmas spending from reaching pre-recession levels. And the gains were helped by a miserable December 2008 that was easy to beat."

Abercrombie & Fitch is still doing badly, however, despite the New York Post reporting that Giorgio Armani was caught gazing in bafflement out his New York flagship store windows at the crowd lining up to get into A&F. A&F reports a continued 19% plunge in sales, and the overall job situation in the U.S. is looking grim, which led to a corresponding drop in stock prices for retail companies once the U.S. December jobs report was announced.

B.) The global fashion glut has an upside: "Don't hate décor and fashion magazines for presenting what's in, what's out and buy-keep-toss trend pages. It's their job to sell us stuff. They sold us green eyeshadow last month so this month, it's gotta be purple so that their advertisers - the good folks who underwrite the magazine - can move some units and pay for those retouched ads . . . There's so much to choose from that pretty much anything goes. Really. No trend can rule. Wide tie or Cusack skinny, slim flat-front trousers or pleated harem pants . . . Pause for a minute to think about what you buy and why. Then wear whatever the h*ll you want."

By erasing the boundaries between seasons, cultures and genders in order to produce collections that can sell simultaneously in Moscow, Chicago, Singapore and Brasilia, brands have tossed previously established style rules into the shredder. Fashion has reached such a stage of democratization that we're now even encouraged to design our own (see: DIY for the New Year).

With global luxury brands continuing to shed their original identities in the attempt to be all things to all people (or, all things to all currencies, as the announced Hermes diffusion line proves), then really, as the above author stated, anything goes.

C.) The lawsuits just keep on a coming: Sigourney Weaver caught in a $5-million lawsuit between Vincent Longo cosmetic executives; trendy retailer Chick Downtown is in a heap of financial trouble; Balenciaga sues Steve Madden for allegedly ripping off its shoe design.

D.) Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds is still the best-selling celebrity fragrance in the U.S.: "Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds fragrance is the best-selling celebrity perfume of all time, according to a research company . . . The fragrance recorded US sales of $67 million in 2008, followed by Unforgivable, a scent endorsed by Sean Diddy Combs, which racked up $48.5 million."

White Diamonds was first released in 1991, which means that a nearly twenty year old mainstream celebrity fragrance is knocking the socks off of even splashy new releases. What makes the story even more extraordinary, however, is that nine celebrity fragrances pulled in over $245 million in the U.S. alone . . . in one year! Imagine how large that makes the overall global market for all fragrances and fragrance related products (scented body creams, soaps, shampoos and home diffusers).

The ad that launched an empire:

As long as we're talking celebrities, the worlds of presidential politics and celebrity endorsements have (un)officially merged: "While reading the Wall Street Journal, Weatherproof President Freddie Stollmack spotted a photograph of the president in (one of their) coat(s). He bought the rights to use the original Associated Press image, in which the president looks a bit like a gentleman lumberjack awaiting his Land Rover, and enlarged it into a mammoth billboard with the tagline: 'A Leader in Style.'"

Photo of the Times Square billboard below:

visit the site Randomly Noted for more info

The White House has objected to the use of the president as a seeming spokesmodel for the Weatherproof brand, and the billboard is scheduled to be removed . . . in 2 weeks.

On the topic of celebrities and the fashion industry, in particular, the idea of celebrities as artistic consultants a la Lindsay Lohan and Ungaro, the L.A. Times weighs in with their opinion: Celebs as artistic advisors? We think not. Yet Lady Gaga might just prove everybody wrong. I mean, she even has her own unofficial Barbie doll -- can Victoria Beckham rival that?

E.) Luxury Brand Logos resonate with Asian consumers: "Given that many wealthy Chinese only earned their riches in the previous decade or so, consumers there are eager to show their peers that they've ascended to a higher class, Ms. Telford said. A widely recognized logo serves as the clearest symbol of the wearer's success. 'If they don't recognize the brand, they don't walk through the door,' agreed Linda Switzer, head of retail at Wynn Macau, a gambling resort on the island city-state."

The article notes a Hong Kong study that showed that 68% of the Asian respondents stated that a brand name logo on an item was an important means of communicating that they were wearing/carrying the real deal and not a knock-off. Residents in the U.S. and the U.K. were only 36% and 33% (respectively) more likely to choose merchandise branded with a luxury logo.

To illustrate the popularity of established luxury brands with the Asian consumer, the author states that while Armani has 25 free-standing boutiques in the United States (its largest Western market), covering all its brands from Aramni Exchange to Giorgio Armani, they already have 45 free-standing stores in China. Undoubtedly, more are in the planning stage.

F.) Luxury brand Versace participated in a charity event by auctioning off an unpaid intern position to the highest bidder.

But the gothmaist notes that it's difficult to consider it a particularly charitable move on Versace's part when they're getting free labor in return for their "donation".

I was all set to give the fat thumbs-down on Monocle Scent Two: Laurel. After my recent encounters with the lush complexities of L'Artisan Al Oudh, Le Labo Poivre 23, Keiko Mecheri Cuir Cordoba and Vero Profumo Rubj, Monocle Scent Two: Laurel seemed at first to fall a little flat. And thin. And disappointingly wan.

But I also recognized that I was leaping from the moving merry-go-round of plush orientals into a still, hushed world of severe angles and sparse aesthetics, so it was obviously going to take some time for my senses to adjust.

Monocle Scent Two: Laurel was created by Antoine Maisondieu, Senior Perfumer at flavor & fragrance conglomerate Givaudan, for Monocle Magazine, a lifestyle glossie that, according to Wikipedia, "purports to provide a globalist perspective on international affairs, culture and design to wealthy, cosmopolitan readers" -- in other words, investment bankers and government workers.

*Note: In an interview with Anatomy of the Self, Monocle founder & editor Tyler Brûlé states that the magazine's readership is "over 30 ... predominantly male (70 percent) and work in finance, public policy, assorted academic fields, media, and assorted travel sectors" -- which makes me just about 70 percent correct in my assumption.

The magazine was launched in only February of 2007, and since then, Monocle's expectations for exponential readership growth have likely been shrinking like a wet vicuña sweater in a hot dryer, so it's no wonder, then, that they've come out with a new fragrance to hawk on the niche market. With fragrances above the $100.00 mark being about the only category of fragrance that saw sales increases in 2009, a contemporary culture and design magazine with its finger on the pulse would have to be staffed with complete dunderheads to pass over such a high profit-margin opportunity.

*Note 2: Tyler Brûlé is the original founder of the very successful Wallpaper Magazine, a design-travel-media oriented publication that was snapped up by Time Warner a scant one year after its debut, so his hiring "a staff of dunderheads" for Monocle is improbable (though nothing is impossible).

Octavian at 1000 Fragrances posted surprisingly high praise for the Scent Two fragrance: "Monocle Scent Two Laurel is a perfect fragrance if you are tired of conventional fougere mainstream perfumes or even by the sweet Orientals. It is daring (almost savory) and special by the unusual dosage of laurel and peppery notes. This time the overdose is welcome because it brings a very original note and long-lasting freshness."

And I say "surprisingly high praise" because day after day I sprayed it on, and day after day I found myself gritting my teeth as the chemical-fume approximation of peppery, camphorish spices blasted out from the bottle. I was certain there was little to no complexity to the formula, with the synthetically "fresh" herbal-soap nature of Scent Two: Laurel playing dead on my skin, curled up and inert until fading out about five to six hours later. And unlike my experience with more concentrated EDP formulae, climbing aboard a treadmill later in the day did nothing to revive the Laurel fragrance on my skin, or bring about any kind of epiphany as to its deeper nature (a la Al Oudh).

But as one of my far more fragrance experienced friends has told me time and again, scents sometimes change if we stick with them, revealing facets that were previously hidden, or that we may have simply missed in the blur as we blow our way through the daisy-chain of (just add caffeine and stir) modern day life -- and this was the case with Monocle Scent Two: Laurel.

The listed scent notes for Laurel are: Laurel (aka Bay Laurel), pepper, cedar, patchouli, incense and amber, and at first I got none of the above -- just a kind of rubbing alcohol + camphorish patchouli vibe. Yet once my brain jumped the oriental genre track and began appreciating Laurel for what it *is* instead of raging against everything it *wasn't*, all the pieces clicked into place and I suddenly got it, the dusty laurel (like crushed bay leaves), the ground pepper, the split cedar, the smoke of burning incense wood -- sculptural elements placed in a wide open space.

My primary impression from Laurel is how arid it is, so dry it almost cracks on the skin. MDCI Invasion Barbare exhibits a similar dry, herbal nature that progresses into a masculine woods and amber finish, but where Invasion Barbare wraps the wearer in a note-perfect snapshot from "Bonfire of the Vanities", Scent Two: Laurel is more minimalist, though still exotic, in its aim: the 1940's expat madly dashing for the only afternoon plane out of Beirut, just one battered brown leather suitcase in hand as the twin props kick clouds of dust and grit through the air.

Ok, fine -- I may have watched too many movies, but the sensation of hot, dry air infused with the scent of brittle bay leaves and sun-baked wood is most certainly there (the 1940's expat image is a case of sound and fury signifying nothing).

My one complaint with Scent Two: Laurel, however, is the packaging. At $135.00 for 50ml (1.7 ounces), Laurel plonks itself firmly into the "above $100.00 premium fragrance" camp, yet you'd never know it to look at it: the box is just black & white printed cardboard; the bottle is standard issue drugstore and of such low quality glass that it was barely able to catch and hold light; the atomizer leaks every time I spray it; the printing on the bottle is, again, black & white, and looks so much like an ugly round sticker that I almost tried to peel it off; and the plain aluminum-thin cap is the grim cherry atop a cheerless packaging sundae.

At the price that's being charged, I expect at least a semblance of effort when it comes to the box and bottle, especially when it's a fragrance issued by a self-professed design-travel magazine that claims a readership of wealthy, discerning professionals. Despite the fact that the fragrance itself is an excellent example of a modern niche masculine, the packaging is so dreary that I would hesitate to recommend Scent Two: Laurel as a purchase, and would never (ever) purchase it as a gift for someone else.

Yes, the packaging is nearly identical to their Scent One: Hinoki, yet if you put the two side by side, Hinoki was obviously given a few nips and tucks to lift it above the rabble. The packaging for Laurel, on the other hand, looks like Monocle declared defeat in the face of a recession and decided not to even try.

If you can see past the ugly duckling exterior, there is a bit of a swan hiding inside, and if sparse, herbal fragrances with a very light wood and smoke base are your thing, then Monocle Scent Two: Laurel could sit very comfortably on your dresser top (or on the counter next to your sink, etc.). I wouldn't say that I'm wowed by the stuff, but there's a discernible intelligence behind the composition, a distinct vision in mind as opposed to the dictates of market trends.

That's certainly to be applauded, but I wish someone had seen fit to extend the same intelligence and vision to the whole shebang (and not to just what's inside the bottle).

*Note 3: Because it's an EDT formulation, Laurel requires generous application. My initial tests using 5-6 sprays were not sufficient. When I increased application to 8-10 sprays, the real soul of Laurel came shining through, and longevity increased from about 5 hours to a good 8+ hours. But beware the leaky atomizer!