U.S. Retailers Look to Chinese/Brazilian Tourists for Salvation: “Bloomingdale’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Gould is a fan of President Barack Obama’s efforts to speed up tourist visas for Chinese and Brazilian shoppers. Doing so would create an ‘immediate’ surge in retail sales as foreign shoppers clamor for Marc Jacobs and Kate Spade designs, Gould said in a telephone interview . . . ‘We have the kind of brands that are highly respected by these visitors, and the faster they can get here the better.’”

*blink*

I hardly know what to say to that, except maybe it’s a sad day when retailers have to pull out the pom-poms and cheer for tourist dollars — because that means domestic spending has hit a brick wall, no matter what the latest headlines blare.

*NOTE 1: The authors at Zero Hedge refute the claim that U.S. employment has seen a recent surge: “If jobs were really being added to the economy, tax withholdings would be rising. Instead, they just turned negative.”

*Note on Note: Mike Shedlock of Mish’s Global Economic Trends writes, “In January, those (classified as) “Not in Labor Force” rose by an amazing 1,177,000. If you are “not in the labor force”, you are not counted as unemployed . . . Were it not for people “dropping out” of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%.”

Hence, the cheerleading for the speedier granting of tourist Visas so that U.S. retailers have someone to unload their shelves of merchandise on. And with the value of the dollar continuing to plunge, foreign tourists feel like they’re getting more bang for their buck when shopping in the United States.

It also doesn’t hurt that prices for globally recognized brands are significantly lower in other countries than they are in China due to high sales and luxury taxes in the Chinese mainland: “Chinese shoppers have become a fixture of the luxury retail scene in the US and Europe, drawn by prices that can be up to 50% lower than tax-elevated levels at home . . . Chinese took 70 million overseas trips in 2011 and spent a total of $69 billion dollars, an increase of 25% from the previous year.”

The renowned Harrods department store in London has been particularly pleased with the number of Chinese tourists it welcomes, with spending at an average of $4,000 per Chinese tourist. The average British shopper spent only 10% of that.

Chinese outbound tourism expert Pierre Gervois explained that “rich Chinese tourists were rejecting group tours and wanted to shop, visit casinos, play golf and drink wine . . . The first thing they want to do is go to a big shopping mall and buy gifts for all their family. After that, if they have one day left, maybe they will be interested to discover the nature and wildlife.’”

We already have the landscapes, so we’ll take the shopping, please!

China already boasts some of the most dramatic and beautiful natural scenery in the world (it’s part of what makes Chinese cinema such a joy to watch), so when Chinese citizens travel to other countries, they’re more interested in what they can’t readily find in their own backyard (i.e., low prices on brand name goods, affordable foreign wines and legal gambling).

Case in point: Las Vegas has been struggling ever since the recession hit in 2008 and U.S. & Euro travelers cut back on shopping and gambling, but “Big-time gamblers, primarily from Asia, are (now) flocking to Las Vegas to play baccarat and providing a big lift to the overall bottom line of the city’s casinos . . . As Americans struggled during the Great Recession, Las Vegas casinos have worked harder to increase tourism from wealthy international visitors, especially Asians.”

So, yeah, those speedy Visas for tourists. Retailers crave ‘em, Casinos need ‘em, and the US government has a vested interest in painting the domestic economic news a nice shade of rosy, even if it means coaxing tourists in from other, more prosperous countries to make it happen.

The Toyota Highlander advertisement below was spotted last year in a Guangzhou domestic terminal by blogger Tricia Wang — it overtly references (and recognizes) the economic paradigm shift from the once wealthy West to the newly wealthy China:

Toyota depicts the world as playground for China’s new wealth class

More here — The Next Economic Powers: The Paradigm Shift: “The paradigm shift toward a new power group is also a by-product of collapse of the US hegemony on economic power, weakening euro zone economies, mounting uncertainties over mountains of debt and tax payer animosity toward bailouts of the sick governments within the EU, and a crippling contraction of GDP growth across most of the Western world.”

Chanel Paris-Bombay Métiers d’Art — yet another hail-mary pass to Asia’s shoppers

*RELATED: Abercrombie & Fitch opened up a major Singapore flagship store in December of 2011, exporting their shirtless-beefcake doormen concept to the much more conservative Asian city, which attracted a great deal of curiosity from onlookers — this is at the same time that the company is closing stores and laying off employees in the US:

Abercrombie & Fitch Singapore – one size fits all

Singapore is an attractive location for Western brands looking to expand to Asia, as the country presently reports a mere 2% unemployment rate, lots of tourism (especially to the brand-name heavy Orchard Road) and a per-capita income ranked third in the world.

*More Related: The Business Standard reports that Abercrombie & Fitch and the GAP are exploring possible locations for retail shops in India — GAP reported a 4% decline in sales for January of 2012, while Abercrombie & Fitch reported weaker than expected sales in the U.S. and a poor performance from their European locations.

*Related Related Related: The Business of Fashion writes that Australia is also experiencing a flurry of store openings due in part to its proximity to Asia’s coveted tourists: “Australia is not only a comparatively vibrant, ‘Western’ economy. It’s also part of the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region, making it doubly attractive to international brands who stand to benefit from the country’s healthy flow of Asian tourists, especially from China . . . Indeed, much of the country’s economy — not just tourism — is dependent on China’s growth, which has driven astounding demand for Australian commodity exports over the last decade.”

Which is great for Australia as long as the Chinese economy continues to hold out, but with China’s factory activity shrinking for the third straight month in January as demand from other countries sinks to a near three-year low, some analysts fear that China is in for a hard economic landing.

*SPEAKING OF HARD LANDINGS: Why Are the Chinese Buying Record Quantities of Gold? — “People inside China seem to be losing faith in the Chinese growth story that we’ve been hearing so much about for the past few years . . . (but) Not every Chinese citizen is in the position to export cash, so the next best tactic for the nervous is to buy gold, a refuge from plunging property prices and declining stock markets as well as an anticipated depreciation of their currency.”

*OTHER RETAIL NEWS: A.) Amazon misses sales estimates and its profit drops; B.) Beauty, home and personal-care giant Procter & Gamble announces plans to lay off up to 1600 workers as it slashes marketing and development budgets for efficiency; C.) Troubled luxury brand Emanuel Ungaro won’t be able to deliver on its Spring 2012 orders, and has canceled its upcoming Fall 2012 presentation as it reorganizes.

The Ungaro Spring 2012 collection that you won’t be seeing in stores

*Of Particular Note to Fragrance Fiends: A group of perfume giants, including Chanel, Christian Dior, Guerlain, Hermes and L’Oreal, have been ordered by a French court to pay a $40 million dollar penalty for price fixing: “Le Monde reports today that a group of some of the biggest and best-known perfume houses and labels in France have been condemned for price fixing, an unfair and in fact illegal practice which attempts to curb competition by harmonizing prices to maintain them at their highest levels possible . . . Their supplier departments have been accused of strong-arming and intimidating distributors with potential commercial punitive measures if prices were not aligned.”

Not much of a sweet, sexy smell about that news, that’s for certain.

*SPEAKING OF SWEET SMELLS: The winner of the first ever FiFi Indie Fragrance Award was announced, with Odin New York taking home the trophy for their “06 Amanu” fragrance. The Odin company also received a winning check for $10,000 from award sponsor and Flavor & Fragrance giant Givaudan.

In order to be considered for the Indie Fragrance Award, nominees could not be owned or distributed by a large company, and could be sold in a maximum location of only 50 stores. The other four finalists were from Bois 1920 (a brand I personally enjoy), Miller Harris (another yes on my list), D.S. & Durga and Carner Barcelona.

The FiFi organization has historically honored only the big power players of the fragrance industry (think celebrity perfumes and designer brands), so it was good news to my ears when they announced the formation of their Indie Fragrance Award, and I’m happy to see some high-quality small brands that are doing good work get the kind of recognition they need and deserve.

*As long as we’re on the subject of perfume and honors: The French Ministry of Culture officially recognizes its historically rich fragrance industry by bestowing the order of “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” on five of the industry’s top perfumers: Daniela Andrier (Givaudan), Françoise Caron (Takasago), Olivier Cresp (Firmenich), Dominique Ropion (IFF) and Maurice Roucel (Symrise).

Paris-based fragrance writer Denyse Beaulieu was there to cover the event, and you can read her take on it at her website: The French Ministry of Culture acknowledges perfumery as an art.

*Relevant aside: Ms. Beaulieu has a book of her own coming out in March, The Perfume Lover. The book follows the creation of a perfume for L’Artisan Parfumeur with the noted Bertrand Duchaufour, weaving together stories from Beaulieu’s personal history with the broader history of the perfume industry as a whole.

I was not a fan of store bought apple sauce when I was a kid. I thought it was bland, and the pureed texture was a total turn-off, reminding me more of Gerber baby food than something to be enjoyed post-infancy.

Because of that, I never bothered to make my own apple sauce until this past year, when my partner stated that he loved the apple sauce his grandmother used to make, so I thought to myself, “Huh. Maybe there’s something to this homemade apple sauce thing . . . and maybe I’m missing out by not trying my hand at it.”

It’s taken me a few attempts, but I think I have it down to where I like it (and where my partner now exclaims, “YUM! This tastes just like my grandmother’s!”).

Grandma’s chunky apple sauce

Secret weapons: plenty of pears (close to a 60/40 mix), Aftelier cinnamon essence (seriously, is there anything Aftelier chef’s essences can’t make better?) and healthy splashes of orange liqueur.

*NOTE 1: I guess Granny was a boozer?

But the one thing that I really enjoy about making my own apple sauce is that I can leave it rustically chunky instead of thoroughly pureed and smooth, giving it a Made for Adults quality that I appreciate. And I leave the skins on the apples and pears because #1) the skins are where most of the nutrients reside, and #2) fruit skins provide additional texture and flavor.

In surfing the net for tips and ideas on making the best apple sauce at home, I stumbled across this post from Heavenly Homemakers: Leaving the Skins on (the fruit for) Homemade Applesauce and Apple Pies — where the author writes about having to puree the cooked fruit before serving to her family, otherwise they’d complain about the skins and wouldn’t eat it. Which I thought was a shame.

*NOTE 2: The Heavenly Homemakers author also wonders aloud about whether to just throw all the wormy bits of the apples into the mix and cook it anyway, straining any particles out later — which made me feel kind of ill when I read that. I carefully cut and trim my fruit before cooking.

No worm-flavoring for me!

My Chunky Apple Sauce ingredients: Royal Gala apples, Granny Smith apples, Clapp pears, grated peel of one orange, grated peel of one lemon, the juice of one orange, the juice of one-half lemon, orange liqueur, unrefined sugar, a few drops of Aftelier cinnamon essence and one cinnamon stick.

The Clapp pear is a little harder and woodier than other pear varieties, so it takes far longer to cook than the apples, resulting in a wonderfully chunky pear texture swimming in very sauced-out apples, and if I accidentally over-sweeten the mix, extra fresh lemon juice can help tart it back up (and vice versa).

I simmer the mix with the lid on until the fruit is mostly tender, then finish cooking uncovered until the majority (but not all) of the excess liquid has evaporated. This leaves enough liquid to keep the sauce “juicy” as it sits in the refrigerator (and also makes it ideal as a topping for ice cream).

But now I’m wondering — is a chunky-style apple sauce an acquired taste? My partner says his grandmother served hers chunky, but I always had smoothly pureed apple sauce when I was growing up. So which is more common: pureed and strained apple sauce, or serving it as a kind of rustic, chunky stew?

1.) Dior Haute Couture Satisfies the Critics, But Just Barely:
“The technical wizardry that was the foundation of this couture collection was an affirmation of Dior’s history . . . (but) Dior’s heritage isn’t just about the artistry of craft but also about that kind of life-changing fashion — fashion so directional that it conveyed yearnings for beauty and liberation from the mundane trappings of everyday life. Craft is all well and good, but some direction is needed now, too.”

Fall 2011′s haute couture show, the first after the dismissal of Galliano and a seeming “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!” moment for the Dior atelier workers as they sent out a collection heavy on 80′s nostalgia and architectural motifs, was near universally savaged by fashion journalists suffering from sudden and severe Galliano-withdrawal and who wanted nothing to do with the kitschy, art-school flourishes of in-house replacement Bill Gaytten.

Dior Haute Couture Fall 2011 received a critical drubbing

Fast forward six months to the haute couture Spring 2012 shows, where Gaytten and company evidently learned their lesson, which was to shelve their own personal excitement at being let loose like kids in a candy store and, instead, produce a show that was respectful of the stylistic heritage of the House of Dior.

Though there can be such a thing as too respectful.

Dior Haute Couture Spring 2012 clings to the tried and true

The differences between the two shows couldn’t be more stark — craftsmanship was front and center, along with traditionally Dior-infused ideas of beauty and form, but the energy was very low-key in comparison to Fall’s collection, with Spring’s collection styled with natural-looking makeup, dark and muted nail polish, somber heels and very little embellishment in the way of jewelry and other accessories.

Which is surprising for a global brand like Dior, where makeup, perfume and accessories do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to generating revenue.

While last Fall’s haute couture collection was met with critical derision, it did offer bold, high-street cues for the rest of the brand to follow through on: bright strappy heels, neon nail polish, graphically inspired chunky necklaces and bracelets in bright Miami-beach hues, overdone eye shadows and a glitzy, gleaming overall theme that was at once aspirational and yet oddly disheveled, as if a cadre of coke-snorting club kids took their parents’ credit cards on a high-flying haute couture binge and invaded the nearest Denny’s in the spoils.

*NOTE 1: The rumor of industrial design student turned fashion enthusiast Raf Simons to take over the head-designer job for Dior is intriguing in that Simons is known for both his architectural flair and his use of high-voltage color choices to set his sleek Jil Sander designs apart from the competition — two things Gaytten attempted in the Dior Fall 2011 haute couture collection.

*Related: Robin Givhan had this to say about Simons and his color choices back in September of 2011: “If you have wondered why J.Crew is zealously cheerleading for teal-blue and sunshine-yellow trousers, why your trendiest friend has been wearing fluorescent orange and retina-searing pink skirts, or why gumdrop colors seem to have abruptly appeared at every price point, you must look to Simons and his work at Jil Sander in the last year. He has been the most exuberant champion of bold colors, the likes of which have not been seen since the Day-Glo days of raves.”

Raf Simons for Jil Sander, Fall 2011

The Dior execs have been making the rounds lately, commenting as to how the absence of Galliano hasn’t hurt their bottom line and that sales numbers for the brand are still good (revenue was actually up 21%), suggesting that either #1) Dior is a big enough brand to absorb a few stylistic misses and keep on ticking, or #2) Bill Gaytten’s risky, color-loaded romp in the haute couture playground six months ago may have been commercially on point even if it was a critical flop.

Fabio Ciquera wrote back in March of 2011 that “we are too oblivious of the recent history of luxury; the shift that happened more than a decade ago, from prestige to masstige . . . and Dior was one of the first brands that went through a major repositioning, shifting its business interests from couture to fast fashion with a vast range of accessories.”

*Like, Totally Related: As if to superglue the new relationship of luxury to fast fashion, Karl Lagerfeld debuted his mass-produced Karl line of clothing in pop-up shops and on Net-a-Porter only days after his Chanel Haute Couture show tripped down the runway in Paris — and customers ate it up.

Karl Lagerfeld’s ‘cut-price’ collection sells out online as hundreds of shoppers queue outside pop-up shops: “Riding on a high after his acclaimed Chanel Paris Couture Week show, Lagerfeld launched his rock-inspired range of leather collars, sparkly dresses, silver shoes and crisp white shirts at a pop-up store in Paris.”

The Karl collection was also launched in pop-up shops in New York, London, Berlin and Sydney, featuring hooded sweatshirts, capri pants, fingerless gloves and t-shirt dresses. The video teaser for Lagerfeld’s foray into self-titled fast fashion is below:

An old dog and his new mix

Compare that to the brand new Chanel Haute Couture collection for Spring 2012:

Comfort couture for the casual travel crowd

Can you spot any similarities — like the boyish silhouettes and a focus on stylish wearability, but still with plenty of sparkle and shine?

I find it kind of fascinating how Lagerfeld can use the global pulpit of Chanel to steer haute couture tastes in a direction that complements and flatters (and likely will make much more profitable) his own forays into street fashion.

*Relevant aside: This release of Lagerfeld’s new cut-rate Karl collection (dirt cheap by Chanel standards, though still highly expensive when compared to the usual mainstream suspects) comes hot on the heels of news that Swedish fast-fashion chain H&M reported a fifth consecutive drop in quarterly profits: “H&M, which sells dresses for less than $12.95, said the macroeconomic climate will remain “tough” in many markets during 2012 . . . Profitability was affected by record cotton prices in the first half of last year and increased discounting . . . The number of markdowns in the first quarter of this year will be higher than a year earlier because of an increase in inventory, the retailer said.”

The drop in profit occurred despite H&M’s massively hyped collaboration with Versace, a collection that sold out almost instantly but was plagued by high returns amid complaints of poor fit and quality.

So could this signify that luxury brands and designers are taking the lessons learned from fast-fashion collaborations and launching out on their own — bypassing the middleman, so to speak? After all, Lagerfeld arguably ignited the cheap chic craze with his partnership with H&M in 2004, and now he’s taking matters into his own fingerless-gloved hands, partnering up with Net-a-Porter to sell his collection exclusively online and at a higher-quality level of marketing hype.

If Lagerfeld is always a little ahead of the curve (at least in terms of incorporating street trends and exploiting commercial opportunities within the luxury realm), then I wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of other once rarified luxury brands give in to mainstream temptations and start pandering directly to the cut-rate consumer.

Because, really, why lend their reputations and affluent glow to someone else’s brand when they can keep it all to themselves? Gaytten may have stumbled out of the gate with his own take on the “Street Meets Luxe” concept back in July, but if the Raf Simons for Dior rumors are true, it seems the Dior execs might be particularly keen on the idea themselves.

*NOTE 2: Marc Jacobs was similarly rumored to be in talks for the head Dior design job, and Jacobs is nothing if not heavily into street and pop-culture influences (remember his infamous 1992 Grunge Collection for Perry Ellis?).

*Speaking of Cashing In: The Chinese are celebrating the arrival of a new Year of the Dragon, with Western luxury brands only too eager to chip in and do their part, offering up dragon etched watches (Piaget), dragon moniker cars (Rolls Royce), dragon painted handbags (Versace) and more.

Luxury looks to cash in on the Dragon: “The Western brands’ focus on dragons and Chinese culture is a result of the rapidly growing market for luxury goods in China, especially as consumption in the West declines, according to experts. Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, predicts that China will overtake Japan as the world’s top consumer of luxury goods in the Year of the Dragon.”

Chinese customers have rapidly become the biggest purchaser of the Rolls Royce brand, making up 30% of its global market: “‘China has emerged so quickly. We are very pleased,’ said Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Rolls-Royce’s chief executive, in an interview in Hong Kong. He pointed out that sales in Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, grew almost 60% last year. The top-selling Rolls-Royce dealerships are now in Beijing and Shanghai, both of which now outsell the historic leading showrooms in Beverly Hills and London.”

The article notes that Hong Kong now has the highest concentration of Rolls-Royces in the world, which lends support to the Hey Big Spender model that luxury brands employ in Asia.

*As long as we’re on the subject of China, the New Year and Spending: Chinese Pawnshops Set To Benefit After Luxury Gift-Giving Glut — “As Jing Daily noted in 2010, luxury watches started to show up in pawnshops in Beijing in the mid-’90s, with pawning activity increasing dramatically since around 2000 and creating big business in the Chinese capital and some of the country’s wealthier cities . . . more ultra-wealthy Chinese looking to sell their high-end goods for quick cash means that the second-hand luxury market should be a segment that enjoys huge industry growth this year.”

China is a culture that places an emphasis on gift-giving as a way of getting things done, and Western luxury brands have been only too happy to rush in where others have feared to tread: In China, luxury goods become the currency of bribes — “The Swiss watches, Chanel perfume and Louis Vuitton handbags bring great pleasure to the buyers – but they have a less healthy role: they are one of the main currencies of China’s rampant corruption, given to officials of the government and the Communist party, their wives, their families and their mistresses.”

Luxury brands ignore their role in China’s corruption scandals at their own risk.

Case in point: Dolce & Gabbana recently found itself the target of protestors in Hong Kong over the brand’s insistence that Hong Kong citizens not take pictures of the store from the sidewalk, a request that was allegedly designed to protect a mainland Chinese government official who shopped at the Hong Kong boutique and didn’t want pictures of him in the high-priced store showing up on the internet.

But despite the recent uptick of spending by Chinese consumers, overall economic conditions around the globe are in a slowdown, which is likely to have a cooling affect on the growth of the Chinese economy due to decreased exports, resulting in decreased manufacturing, fewer factories and rising unemployment.

Which could see a dampening of luxury spending across the board, whether it’s in Hong Kong, Paris, London, Shanghai or New York.

2.) INDUSTRY QUICK HITS:

A.) Soon after luxury conglomerate PPR purchased high-end Italian menswear brand Brioni, LVMH announced that it was expanding its small footwear company Berluti into a major menswear force with a full range of wardrobe and accessory items designed by Alessandro Sartori, formerly of Ermenegildo Zegna.

Below is the video clip of Berluti’s first menswear presentation in Paris a week ago, a relatively low-key affair in comparison to the runway shows of its larger menswear rivals:

The house that shoes built

Berluti hopes to cash in on the rising demand for high-end menswear in China, where the majority of luxury purchases are by and for men: “China is the world’s biggest luxury goods market in terms of growth, with sales rising on average about 20-25 percent a year, and men make up three-quarters of that market, estimated to be worth about 23 billion euros overall.”

NOTE 3: And within the menswear sector, it’s the bespoke and custom options that are witness to a surprising surge in demand: “Increasingly, luxury goods companies are catering to men who want accessories and leather goods that, basically, no other man has. They are buying premium items where the price is not an issue. For men, it’s becoming more and more about exclusivity, having something made just for them.”

The new Berluti expansion is headed by Antoine Arnault, the son of LVMH Chief Executive Bernard Arnault, who made waves last week by announcing that the era of bling for LVMH is done and over: “We are going to enter an era in which logo and ostentation is going to be less successful. It will be about real quality.’”

*Things that beg to be said: Which only tends to make one think, “Uhm, so, all that blinged-out logo-covered stuff you were pushing for years before this? Not so much about quality, then . . . ?”

Yet while the Berluti collection is undeniably nice, I’m personally partial to Ami by Alexandre Mattiussi, a fairly recent arrival on the designer luxury scene, and with a more rustic (yet very trendy) countryside influence:

Because we all want a weekend home in the country, am I right?

About Mattiussi’s Ami brand, Esquire wrote: “While department stores rely on people to refresh their wardrobe each season, right now they also need people to buy stuff. Period. Looking at the two AMI collections last year, it’s obvious why Barneys wanted AMI for themselves — because they thought timeless, masculine clothes would sell (and they did).”

B.) Victoria’s Secret Direct online & catalogue business is twice as big Neiman Marcus direct, and eight times the size of online luxury retailer Net-a-Porter. Analysts attribute the success of Victoria’s Secret to the fact that when it shows product on the runway, it’s already available in the stores.

“”The obvious difference is that we’re showing fashion in real-time, during the season, things that are accessible in the stores now,” said Ed Razek, Chief Marketing Officer of creative services of Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret. “They (the other fashion and luxury brands) are showing Fall in Spring,and Spring in Fall. How does the end customer connect with that, particularly with all of the live-streaming?”

A video clip below of the 2011 Victoria’s Secret runway show, a $13 million dollar extravaganza that’s perfectly timed to coincide with holiday gift purchasing:

Showing only what they’ve got

The article linked above makes very valid points about the outdated model of the present fashion cycle, which shows product lines up to six months in advance of when they’re available to purchase in the stores — meaning that most brands are losing valuable sales opportunities by continuing to follow the present system.

When runway shows were mainly newspaper and magazine editor affairs, the sixth month wait between showing the product and then making it available to the consumer didn’t matter, as this gave magazines plenty of lead time to shoot editorials and get next season’s issues ready for publication, but now that runway shows are directly and immediately available to the consumer via video clips and online websites, the old system seems irrelevant, if not detrimental.

Mr. Razek states that orders for Victoria Secret products skyrocket directly after their runway shows are aired. Wouldn’t most brands benefit from the same approach?

For example, Burberry is a major global brand that’s begun offering a limited range of its items for pre-order directly after their runways shows, and the company just recently reported a 22% increase in revenue for the 3rd quarter of 2011.

Not all of that is due to the adoption of the pre-order approach, of course, but it’s certainly bound to help. The same article notes that “Prada is down 12%, PPR, which owns Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, is down 1% and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton remains flat for the same 52-week period.”

None of those brands offer pre-order sales after their runway shows.

*NOTE 4: It might be worth mentioning that Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Yves St. Laurent are French companies, yet there seems to be a strong British style revival right now, which could be yet another factor in favor of Burberry.

1.) Menswear Designers Mine the Past to Save Their Future:
“Looking around Milan this week, it became apparent that Italy’s fashion emperors – and the other powerful designers that come here to tout their wares – are looking to the past. City gents, Seventies playboys, Sixties rockstars, old-school sporting heroes, 19th-century army officers and fin-de-siècle fops were among the most richly referenced masculine paradigms of the week. There were even capes . . . if you’re looking for something new from the men’s shows, it appears that its top-of-the-tree exponents … are suffering from an unfortunate attack of creative constipation.”

Though that’s the harshest of the criticisms that I read of the latest round of menswear shows that are previewing what will be available in stores for Fall of 2012, because not everyone is upset that tailored suits, double breasted overcoats, dark velvet blazers and substantial (though highly polished) brogues are back in style.

Some of the more talked about shows of the season took their cues from functional military garments (upon which the majority of menswear is based) and then upped the luxury ante with brocades, cashmeres, rare silks, jewelry embellishments, exotic furs & skins, and even all-out head to toe leather.

Below is the Prada Fall 2012 show from Milan, which was as noted for the celebrity models as the distinctly classic tailoring and heavy reliance on the long double-breasted overcoat:

“A way to present quite traditional clothing on a proper man”

SAWF News: “The collection smacked of the military, not in look as much in attitude; somber and constrained with a high degree of simplicity. There were stripes and double breasted coats, complete with pocket ornaments and familiar silhouettes. Velvet collars and fur trimmed lapels set the mood, while large round glasses reinforced endurance.”

But Prada was just one piece of today’s menswear puzzle. Raf Simons (rumored to be in talks with Dior for its head designer role) sent a moody, black leather filled collection down the runway for Jil Sander that was simultaneously 21st century sleek and film-noir sinister — sharply tailored suits and overcoats for the millionaire contract killer.

Black leather dreams and muffled screams

Cathy Horyn: “What’s interesting to me is that a young fashion customer might actually prefer the leaner visual drama of a gentleman who is at heart a murderer . . . Obviously no old-school gentleman would wear head-to-toe leather, but that’s my point: What if there’s a new class of gentlemen out there? It’s up to designers to imagine how such a person might interpret things like impeccable tailoring and good taste.”

In Paris (where the menswear shows are just kicking off), the vibe skewed a bit less killer-elite but still focused on traditional wardrobe elements like the suit, long coat, bomber jacket and tapered trouser.

Global fashion giant Louis Vuitton rolled out a Tokyo Meets Paris collection in cashmere, fur, velvet, silk and leather that was certainly luxe and appealing (favorite bit: replacing the Western waistcoat with a silk kimono shirt), but it was Belgian designer Dries Van Noten who aspired for more than golf claps from the fashion press with his psychedelic tinged Oscar Wilde + Frank Zappa show:

Business casual takes a ride on the Hunter S. Thompson train

Blackbook Magazine: “To match the out-of-the-box muses, models walked to a narration of Wilde’s The Happy Prince while artists painted a mural in the background that was a fusion of the Irish poet’s phrases in retro font and the inside of Zappa’s mind on an acid trip . . . Silhouettes were rather conservative and, save for the printed pants, men will easily be able to incorporate these style into their looks.”

So the jury’s still out on whether Van Noten’s attempt to shake-up his usually rather staid menswear presentation was a success, though it was nice to see him try.

But it’s not all suits and ties and belted overcoats. Gucci, Versace and Roberto Cavalli offered up their usual buffet of jet-setting rock-n-roller chic, Umit Benan explored the idea of the 1970′s celebrity womanizer for Trussardi to exacting detail, and DSquared2 toned down the camp just enough to offer up what one critic described as “a tightly focused, expertly realized collection of contemporary sportswear”:

Graduating from bad-boy camp to the urban tough-guy vamp

Vain Style: “The urban sophisticate schoolboy themed show in Milan featured a retro classroom set, which complimented (the DSquared2) traditional aesthetics of tailored biker jackets, distressed low rise denim and collegiate sweatshirts, along with an eclectic mix of eccentric sweaters, fitted suits and debonair men’s coats.”

And turning the East Meets West theme of Louis Vuitton on its head, Japanese designer Junya Watanabe dove even deeper into his love affair with Americana workwear, debuting a collection that was perfect for the likes of Jethro Bodine — if Bodine shopped and played in the Aoyama neighborhood of Tokyo, that is.

The Tokyo Hillbillies of Junya Watanabe – click photo to enlarge

High Snobiety: “Marking yet another strong season from the Japanese designer, we see a dose of heavy workwear inspiration, yet done in Junya Watanabe’s exciting and progressive manner. Moving forward while thinking of the past, yet not clinging to either too strongly. We’re fans.”

So while DSquared2 and Watanabe may not be clinging desperately to the Men In Suits and Leather model, they’re still heavily cribbing from the past for iconography they can sell today. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it has left some journalists wondering if #1) designers have run out of new ideas, or #2) they’re all scared stiff of the recession and have decided to keep things familiar for nervous consumers.

From Brand Packaging: Solving The Mystery Of Shelf Impact — “Associations derived from symbols become imprinted in consumers’ minds through repeated exposure, and shoppers intuitively gravitate to familiar symbols to help them navigate the shelf.”

And what is fashion but the ultimate packaging, and designer brand stores but the ultimate glamor shelf?

If you’ve ever wondered why fashions look more and more the same, or why already heavily-travelled themes are again taking front and center, it’s because CEO’s the world over are well aware that yes, familiarity sells.

*NOTE 1: The Milan and Paris menswear shows will be quickly followed by the Paris women’s haute couture collections for Spring of 2012, which are then tailgated by the women’s Autumn season Ready to Wear schedule starting in February. London menswear is tacked on to the last day of the London Fashion Week calendar, while a number of New York menswear designers typically shown in Milan, with other New York designers trotting out both their mens and womens collections together during New York Fashion Week.

*Speaking of New York and London and fashion week: London and New York finally backed away from a showdown with Milan and Paris over what was turning into a contentious fashion week scheduling war — “The news comes following more than three months of back and forth between the four fashion capitals after Milan set their September show dates to conflict directly with New York and London and then couldn’t be reasoned with, digging its heels further into the ground as the months wore on . . . ‘We need to begin to look at the fashion season not as individual fashion weeks, but very much as a global business,’ (said CFDA president Steven Kolb).”

Conde Nast publications (such as the Vogue family of magazines) were originally set to support London and New York in the scheduling conflict, but Milan and Paris have traditionally garnered the better coverage because of their more globally recognized brand names. While any lack of coverage of the Milan and Paris shows might have been detrimental to the respective brands, it likely would have harmed the circulation numbers and advertising revenue of the fashion magazines even more.

Because, really, the internet affords instant access to fashion shows anyway, so it would have been an unforced error on the part of magazine editors to sacrifice what little voice of authority they have left by siding with the upstarts. Something tells me that’s why New York and London eventually caved in.

2.) INDUSTRY QUICK HITS:

A.) Dolce & Gabbana apologizes for ban on Hong Kong residents photographing outside its stores: “Two weeks ago, Hongkongers were reportedly told by the store’s security guards — at the company’s request — that only mainland (China) tourists and foreigners could freely take pictures of the shop, citing copyright protection as the reason. That angered the public, and the Tsim Sha Tsui shop became the target of a series of protests organised via Facebook. On January 8th, over 1,000 protesters gathered in Canton Road to demonstrate their rage by taking photos of the shop. Similar protests were held at the weekend. The shop had to be closed for business during the protests.”

The D&G headquarters initially refused to apologize, but with the Chinese New Year fast approaching, which is one of the busiest shopping seasons for Hong Kong stores, the company posted a letter of apology to its shop doors in the hope of defusing what was by then turning into a public relations fiasco.

Speculation for the photo ban outside the Hong Kong shop was that mainland Chinese customers (with government connections, natch) were nervous about having their pictures unwittingly snapped and then published on the internet, which could then spark outrage that they were shopping at designer boutiques on supposedly limited government salaries.

Hong Kong residents, for their part, are claiming that they’re now treated like second-class citizens in comparison to the mainland Chinese shopper, as mainland Chinese represent the greater part of luxury spending in Hong Kong.

D&Go Home — protest over alleged discrimination at D&G Hong Kong store

The delayed response of D&G headquarters to the anger of Hong Kong residents is being cited as the perfect example of how NOT to do business in Asia.

*As long as we’re on the subject of Hong Kong: The once white-hot fine wine market in Asia is cooling down: “According to the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index, which tracks the prices of the world’s most collected wines and is almost entirely composed of top bottles from Bordeaux, prices have fallen 22% since their peak in June of last year . . . Sales from (three January 2012) auctions generated US$18.7 million, a 45% decline from the same three sales in 2011.”

B.) Tween shoppers are the new hope for fashion labels: “Fashion for little people is big business. The Young Versace campaign follows reports that supermodel Kate Moss and her nine-year-old daughter Lila Grace are designing a tweenage range of clothing for the British retailer Debenhams, and luxury brands Gucci, Dior and Burberry already have separate children’s ranges.”

*In other WTF news: Dallas bouillon trading company hires Jean Paul Gaultier to design a once-once gold bar: “‘Never before has a fashion icon designed a gold ingot. The Gaultier bar is a one-of-a-kind, limited-quantity collector’s piece that not only is a great investment but it will also become a piece of history,’ gushes Dillon Gage Metals’ president Terry Hanlon.”

But you can’t wear it, or spend it, or slip it onto your keychain, so I’m wondering how in the world they expect JPG fans to flaunt it? Because, seriously, if you’re a JPG fan, then flaunting is second nature. By not designing a hole into the bar somewhere, I think they missed a (golden!) opportunity.

And yes, you’ll be charged 10% above the spot-price of gold per ounce because the thing is designed by Gaultier.

C.) The scariest news for internet retailers to come out of the 2011 holiday shopping season? Consumers now expect free shipping: “Fifty-five percent of consumers expect free shipping on all orders . . . Deep discounts, deals and free shipping are now a cost of doing business.”

But retailers are also finding out that social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr are not as influential as they’d been led to believe. It’s more important for e-tailers to streamline their websites for efficient web shopping while also optimizing the experience for the solidly growing number of mobile shoppers.

*NOTE 2: Mobile shopping doubled in December of 2011 over December of 2010, with Tablet/iPad users spending 54% more, and three times more likely to make a purchase, than their smartphone using counterparts.

D.) Louise Vuitton is not amused when celebrities appear in public sporting LV knock-offs: “This week, Justin Bieber wore a jacket to the Consumer Electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas that caught the eye of fashionistas who thought the jacket was custom made by the iconic brand. But a rep in the LV corporate office told us exclusively: ‘The jacket Bieber is wearing is a cheap knockoff of the Louis Vuitton brand.’ The rep pointed out the red LEVI’s tag on the jacket pocket as proof that the jacket is a counterfeit … the LV rep said, ‘Anything unauthentic, whether worn by a famous individual or not, is seriously frowned upon.’”

You can see The Beebs below in his fake Louis Vuitton jacket:

All the money in the world won’t stop the knock-offs

*Related, and just to let you know that LV is *really* not amused by knock-offs: Louis Vuitton is suing Warner Brothers over fake LV bags used in the movie, The Hangover 2 — “According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, an airport scene in the film makes use of a counterfeit bag made by a company named Diophy, which is currently being sued by Louis Vuitton for trademark infringement . . . the French company is asking that the court permanently enjoin Warners from using its marks in any way, and order the company to surrender all copies of the film containing the marks. It is also asking for triple damages on all profits that Warner Bros. may have amassed from using Vuitton’s marks, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.”

You can see the clip below featuring the fake Louis Vuitton bag:

“Careful, that’s a Louis Vuitton!”

The LV brand initially complained to Warner Brothers after the film was first released, but Warner Brothers went ahead and subsequently released the DVD and digital versions without any alteration to the scene, which is why LV is taking such a hard stance on the issue right now.

And honestly? Why didn’t the movie studio just use the real thing? There isn’t much of an argument in their defense.

Yes, it’s absolutely true to the movie character that he would buy a fake and think it’s the real thing, but after all the yelling and hollering from entertainment companies over their dire problems with movie and music piracy (SOPA/PIPA legislation, anyone?) — and especially considering the recent strong-arm of the law tactics employed against founders of the file-sharing site MegaUpload — you’d think a big movie studio would be just a smidge more respectful of the copyrights and trademarks of other companies, right?

I mean, you’d think.

*NOTE 3: It just adds insult to injury that they actually sought out and paid a known counterfeiting company to produce the bag.

My friend Louise sent me these pics of the present snow-induced chaos in the Seattle area.

Wait, wha? Isn’t it supposed to be raining?!!

She says the power is out in her neighborhood and won’t be restored until Saturday, at the earliest.

From the Daily Mail: Worst blizzard in nearly 30 years heads for Seattle as city faces DOUBLE its annual snowfall in just two days

It reminds me of the Seattle blizzard from 1998, which quickly turned into a heavy freeze. Cars and buses were abandoned in the middle of the streets, flights in and out of the airport were canceled and nearly the entire city shut down.

Seattle drivers are notoriously bad at dealing with snow

I trudged to the coffee shop where I worked at the time through knee-high snow and slush because, of course, Seattleites have to have their coffee, post-apocalypse or not. And even though everything around the shop was closed, we were open and serving customers from the surrounding neighborhood.

Water was pouring through the ceiling, but the espresso machine was on and that was all that mattered.

1.) China Loves Western Brands

Wealthy Chinese Prefer to Gift Major Western Luxury Brands: “The top gifts favored by Chinese luxury consumers in 2012 according to a survey of 503 Chinese millionaires by the Hurun Report is not terribly surprising. They consist mostly of global name brands, particularly French brands . . . ‘What I want is a brand that is widely recognized. Domestic brands are still not well-known enough for my friends,’ said Guan Hongsheng, who owns a trading company in Wenzhou . . . (a well-known) luxury brand makes it easier for the recipient to understand a gift’s value.”

Out of the top ten brands that are most prized as gifts, five are French (Hermes, Chanel, Dior, Cartier and Louis Vuitton) and two are Italian (Armani and Prada), with Switzerland (Rolex), the United States (Apple) and China (Moutai) rounding out the list with one entry each.

Which appears to prove the value of a globally recognizable logo, no matter how gauche the concept seems now to fatigued Western luxury consumers.

Even Hermes, which has often been touted as “stealth luxury” for its seeming lack of reliance on the splashy logo, offers up plenty of visually branded merchandise that can then be publicly flaunted for all to see (and hopefully admire/covet, or so the story goes): H-printed scarves and ties, H-shaped belt buckles, H-emblazoned key fobs and watches, and H-buckled bracelets.

*NOTE 1: A family-run, high-reputation luxury company still has to pay the bills, and if that means slapping a logo on some of the products, so be it. Though they prefer not to talk about it in polite company.

But with China’s growing economic power, why is there only one Chinese brand in the top ten? And a liquor brand, at that. Is there a reason why China’s big spenders focus mostly on Western luxury brands instead of encouraging home-grown fashion and jewelry?

Forbes writer Blue Carreon explains: “For the Chinese consumer, especially those from the Mainland, it is still about the allure and the glamour of owning the latest Gucci or Rolex. It’s a way of showing the world that they are wealthy, that they have arrived and can spend lavishly. And buying a piece from label that is not instantly recognized by others is the opposite of that.”

Below is a video clip of the Fall 2011 Men’s collection for Shanghai Tang, a Chinese fashion brand that was acquired by Swiss luxury conglomerate Richemont in 1998:

The upside to Made in China

Though fourteen years later, even with the backing of Richemont, Shanghai Tang still has yet to crack the global mainstream markets.

*NOTE 2: When you’re offering a “lifestyle” that’s no different from already established brands like Ralph Lauren, Etro and Armani, there’s little incentive for consumers to migrate in your direction.

What could change this reliance on Western luxury brands when it comes time for wealthy Chinese consumers to purchase gift items? Perhaps a forced sharp turn from the top down, or what David Kotok describes as ‘An Alarming Development In China That Everyone Has Missed’:

“A January 3rd (2012) official news release from China by Xinhua News Service described changes that will take place in Chinese television programming . . . A recently implemented rule has effectively curbed the ‘excessive entertainment’ trend as two-thirds of the entertainment programs on China’s 34 satellite channels have been cut, according to the country’s top broadcasting watchdog … The restricted programs on the SARFT list include dating shows, talent contests and talk shows, as well as emotional stories that were deemed ‘excessive entertainment’ and of ‘low taste’ . . . (analysis suggests that) China is concerned with intrusions from Western culture and how the strength of those intrusions has reached a point where Chinese leaders must rein them back.”

For example, if a brand like Shanghai Tang is nearly indistinguishable from its Western counterparts, then what does that say about Chinese designers and the value they place on their own cultural heritage?

A brand like Etro succeeds for the way it borrows liberally from other cultures and eras and filters them through its own contemporary Italian prism. I’d rather see Shanghai Tang put Western wear influences through a Chinese sensibility wringer rather than watch yet another Armani-lite trip down the runway.

Etro — borrowing liberally for the prism

Vogue Italia published an article in March of 2011 noting the difference between the way Japanese designers broke onto the Western fashion scene in the 79′s, 80′s & 80′s and the comparative cultural reticence of Chinese designers today: “(Chinese designers) are all totally fascinated by the West and look to our designers, and not within themselves, for a new source of inspiration . . . it’s nice to see many young Chinese studying fashion around the world, attending top level specialized schools: they have the chance to explore and learn. They carry with them their history and traditions, so it would be a shame to mimic the West, already full of trends that look all the same everywhere.”

I say amen to that. It would be fascinating to see Chinese designers access their rich cultural heritage to rattle the global fashion world free from its stifling sameness in much the same way that Middle Eastern money and influence pushed the world of global perfumes and jewelry in much more interesting directions.

*NOTE 3: Because, really, who needs more designer copycats and creative ripoffs?

French street artist claims Lady Gaga stole her look, style and thunder

*From the “Say What?” department: It isn’t going to help Chinese designers if they continue to insist that obvious global archetypes are innately Chinese and so incomprehensible to Westerners — “”The Literary Girl (Wenyi Gingnian) is the Chinese ‘girl next door’ — quiet and obedient on the outside but dreamy and sensual inside. ‘It’s not a concept Westerners can understand,’ says Uma. ‘The Literary Girl only exists in Chinese culture.’”

Right. Because a girl next door figure who’s quiet, bookish and shy yet brimming with a passionate inner life is a wildly foreign concept and utterly incomprehensible to Westerners (*insert eye roll here*) — and this is from an article in Women’s Wear Daily (considered the News Bible of the fashion world), which hired the writer to report exclusively on Chinese fashion trends and developments.

Maybe WWD should consider hiring an analyst who leaves his/her house more than once every two thousand years?

*Moving along to the Indian subcontinent: Something that’s not incomprehensible to Indian consumers is the celebrity perfume trend, with Bollywood star Arjun Rampal launching (and hyping) his first signature fragrance, ‘Alive’ — “Alive will be unveiled next week and distributed by Baccarose that has earlier marketed the signature fragrances of Hollywood stars Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Taylor and Britney Spears and also has top brands like Prada, D&G, Kenzo and Azzaro on its client list.”

A video clip below of Rampal modeling for a menswear brand in-between gigs on big budget Bollywood extravaganzas:

“More than just a model, he’s a celebrity!”

The fragrance is set to go worldwide a month after its initial launch, though NewKerala.com mentions a “poor success ratio of Bollywood’s denizens in the field of fragrance”.

Shahrukh Khan Tiger Eyes, anyone?

Rampal was signed in 2011 as a spokesmodel for Gillette India, which could potentially give him a needed frontrunner boost in the celebrity perfume market, at least in his own home country.

*Speaking of India: “According to a new study, the number of billionaires in India dropped by more than 30% in 2011. Press reports blamed the drop on the country’s stock market, which fell by 40% last year . . . Virtually all of the top 10 richest Indians saw their fortunes shrink last year. The combined wealth of the top 10 dropped by nearly half, to $19.15 billion from $34.8 billion.”

The question being, will this kind of wealth volatility spread to the other emerging economies, like China, Russia and Brazil, and if so, what kind of effect will that have on luxury brands hoping to expand their consumer base beyond the tapped-out Western markets?

2.) Retailers Embrace the Guy Aisle

Men’s grooming product sales have seen such a massive increase over the past several years that large chain stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens are now reorganizing their layouts to create “guy aisles” where male shoppers can comfortably and quickly find the products they’re looking for without rooting among shelves of female toiletries:

“The reason for all the new focus on male shoppers has been attributed to the rising number of men in the U.S. taking responsibility for the weekly grocery shop. A report commissioned by ESPN found that 31% of the primary household grocery shoppers were men in 2011, up from 14% in 1985.”

The article mentions that not only are stores experimenting with “guy aisles”, but that they’re also reorganizing product placement to cater to the more impulsive male shopper; for example, stationing a display of cream sauce next to the chicken, which resulted in an immediate 20% sales spike of the featured sauce.

Could this explain why online shopping continues to increase its share of retail sales in general? During the 2011 holiday season, overall retail sales for December increased only marginally from 2010, yet online and mobile purchases exploded, with department store online sales up 18% over December 2010 and the UK reporting a 186% increase in purchases from mobile devices.

So if men are the larger share of online shoppers, and are also now responsible for an increasing share of the in-store shopping duties, it probably wouldn’t hurt for some stores to organize their aisles to better reflect the “Man on a Mission” online shopping experience.

*Translated: Impulse friendly shopping, with items organized by grouping (ice cream and toppings in the same aisle) rather than by category (ice cream in dairy aisle, butterscotch sauce in condiments).

I don’t know about you, but I’d love a store layout that had all the hotdog and hamburger related products grouped in one shopper-friendly, grab and dash location: meat, buns, condiments, pickles, potato chips, cans of baked beans, paper napkins, bags of charcoal for the grill, matches.

Welcome to our new 21st century supermarket.

*Other retail shuffling: Target ditches its present designer-collaboration model and will start offering stand-alone shops within their stores. Stand-alone, but still temporary — kind of like full-on pop-up shops, but which will feature far more than simply clothing and accessories: “This new partnership model will allow Target to broaden their collaborations to new product categories beyond fashion (like food, cosmetics, pet products, and goodness knows what else). It’ll also allow them to offer more stuff, period . . . The stores will stay at Target for six weeks before they’re replaced by new ones.”

I think the surprising success of the Target+Missoni collaboration, complete with bicycles and household furnishings, made someone at the top do some serious rethinking.

Bloomberg Businessweek states that Target’s exec team saw that consumers were increasingly willing to go off the beaten path to find specialty and artisanal items, and they wanted in on that: “Target’s five new partners include Boston-based Polka Dog Bakery, which sells a five-pound can of treats made with peanut butter and Parmesan cheese for $66, Privet House, a Greenwich, Connecticut home goods store, and The Candy Store in San Francisco, which markets sweets like fine wine.”

Though they may be missing the point that most specialty and artisanal items are desirable to consumers precisely *because* they’re not available at chain stores like Target. But hey, I’m all for low-cost chains being willing to offer their customers a better class of merchandise. You can only shovel so much cheap-chic into the trash before you begin to question the viability of the model.

*Retail news to make any self-respecting adult weep: Paris Hilton Fragrances Have Made $1.3 Billion Since 2005

I just . . . I have no response for that.

UPDATE: Wait! I almost forgot the even more mind-boggling news!

Axe now makes perfume for women: “The new scent, Anarchy, is being marketed in different versions for men and women . . . said David Kolbusz, a creative director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London, ‘Before, an Axe commercial was always about a guy spraying himself and a girl being attracted, and Axe giving him an edge in the mating game, whereas now women also have something to spray on themselves, and consequently there’s more of an equilibrium between the sexes.’”

The Axe may be different, but the advertising is still the same

Be afraid.

Interesting analyst comment from the article, though, about how the Axe brand could be making a mistake by pitching a product for women: ““When you start talking to someone who’s not your core audience, you lose credibility with your core audience,” said David Vinjamuri, author of “Accidental Branding” and an adjunct professor of marketing at New York University. “The moment you start talking to girls, you lose credibility with teenage boys.”

But young women reliably purchase more fragrance products than young men do, so I can see how Unilever would be tempted to give it a shot anyway.

I love my smoked salt — I use it in everything, from cookies, breads and muffins to sauces, meat rubs and marinades. I love the hint of earthy depth it adds to . . . well, everything!

So imagine my delight when I discovered this:

There’s nothing new under the sun . . . until there is!

Uncle Roy’s Old Fashioned Gravy Salt, a mix of course sea salt and a deep brown caramel coloring that imparts a hint of bitter and burnt.

The smoked sea salt functions similarly, but the coloring is not as rich a brown and the flavoring is more smoke than char, though the coloring of the smoked salt is a natural by-product of the smoking process, where the color in the Gravy Salt is an added ammonia chemical.

The European Food Safety Authority recently re-examined the safety of caramel coloring in foods, and you can read the results here: EFSA reviews safety of caramel colors

*NOTE: Some additional chemical info on Caramel E150c.

I don’t consume much (if anything) that’s colored with an additive in my diet (no colas, commercial sweets or factory breads and beers), so I’m not too concerned over the small amount I’ll encounter when using Gravy Salt, but I figured I’d put the info out there so you can make up your own mind.

*Last but not least: I also picked up some Whiskey Salt and Heather Salt:

More newishness under my sun

I used the Smokey Scotch Whisky Salt in a batch of cherry muffins I made last week. It added a very welcome boozy tone to the muffins without interfering with the wet to dry ratio of the rest of the ingredients.

Big fan of boozy, right here.

The Scottish Heather Salt I picked up simply because it was so pretty. I have no idea yet what I’ll use it in, but I have faith in my ability to improvise. If nothing else, it’ll look great served up in a small white dish on the table.

I think this is what’s known as form over substance.

1.) Holiday Sales are Strong, but Profits are Questionable:
“Retailers posted strong sales numbers in December, but at-times extreme discounts tapered good feelings, profits and earnings outlooks for the full year. Stores used discounts to entice shoppers during the vital holiday shopping season, which led to record-setting days. But those deep discounts also led to missed expectations and left analysts wondering if such discounts will continue to be needed to get shoppers to stores.”

Stores like Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and Costco posted “impressive” sales gains for the season, while other retailers, like Gap, JC Penney and Sears were down, with Gap posting a 4% loss.

*NOTE 1: Sears announced that it will be closing as many as 120 stores as sales have declined much more drastically than expected.

*NOTE 2: Saks may have reported increased sales, but at what cost? Utter Chaos Ensued at the Saks 60% Off Shoe Sale Yesterday — “There were too many people. They were pushing and shoving. It was a zoo . . . security guards came in to ‘put a lid on the shoppers’ rage.’”

Other news sources confirm the worrying Discount Or Die reality for many retailers:

CNN Money: “A holiday season that kicked off with record-setting shopping days on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and ended with a stampede for post-Christmas sales made one thing clear — many Americans needed those discounts and promotions to salvage the season.”

The Wall Street Journal: “Even though consumers are willing to spend, they will only spend when there is huge discounting . . . A number of retailers couldn’t bring in enough dollars in that environment.”

Bloomberg Businessweek: “Many retailers sacrificed their bottom lines by pushing heavy discounts to shoppers bent on getting a good deal in a challenging economy. That created a sharp divide between stores that won the battle for wallets, and those that didn’t . . . Consumers have limited time, money and attention, and they’re investing in a smaller subset of retailers.”

Boston Globe: “Many merchants rang up strong sales in December, but the deep price cuts that lured shoppers took a toll on profits during the holiday season . . . There are too many retailers chasing after frugal and fatigued shoppers.”

Just Style (subscription required): “While many retailers seem to have benefited from the highly promotional landscape, the reported sales growth may come at a cost to the bottom line. Indeed, its full impact will become more apparent in February, when companies report their earnings results for the period.”

In other words, retailers earnings matter more than their sales. A lot of companies hyping positive year-end sales numbers may very well be singing a more mournful tune come February. And if it took aggressive discounting to get consumers to buy for the holiday season, then that could spell trouble for all of 2012. Like Dan Burrows wrote in the linked article, “Consumers have been trained (to expect) — and now demand — sales and specials.”

*Related news: Business is booming for British pawnbrokers — “The financial crisis is starting to squeeze the rich as wealthier families hock classics cars, yachts, jewelry and works of art at Britain’s booming pawnbrokers. Borro, a ‘personal asset’ lender, said one customer took out a £1m loan against a collection of fine art, while others pawned bullion and fine wine.”

The reason that the wealthier banking class may be relying on pawnbrokers for cash and loans is because, even in the world of finance, the ground is getting a little shifty. Year-end bonuses for London’s bankers were the lowest in a decade, with global financial firms laying off over 200,000 workers in 2011.

New York banks and investment firms are also laying off workers, with BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole “looking to axe around 1,000 jobs overall in the US, mostly in investment banking” and Morgan Stanley announcing that “580 of the 1,600 job cuts announced earlier this month (December, 2011) may come from New York City.”

So keep all that in mind when you read the next round of “Luxury Brands are doing great!” in the news. With slowing economic growth across the board, even in once white-hot markets like Brazil and China, it’s going to take more than a well-known name to coax nervous consumers to splash out on pricey goods.

And if customer service continues to suffer at the expense of rapid growth, even the once reliable Chinese consumer may say enough is enough: “In recent years, questions regarding the quality of highly sought-after goods and the customer service provided by some well-known brands have marred the image of some of the world’s biggest names in luxury goods . . . For these leading brands, fulfilling the rights of Chinese consumers comes long after emptying their wallets.”

With big brand attitudes like that, it might not be long before China experiences its own artisan revival. Cuz, you know, Luxury is Dead, Long Live Excellence!

2.) More News on the Dior Head-Designer Front:
“Women’s Wear Daily reported that Dior is closing in on a deal with the Belgian designer Raf Simons, who designs for Jil Sander, as well as for his own menswear label . . . Simon’s tailoring skills, sophisticated designs and knowledge of couture techniques and shapes make him a perfect candidate for the job … and he’s the opposite of the uber-romantic Galliano, which is what the house needs: a clean slate, a new direction.”

Raf Simons is reputedly the fifth choice on the list of designers to replace the disgraced Galliano, with Marc Jacobs having recently exited the picture of likely candidates over differences in salary and staff requirements (he reportedly wanted to take his entire Louis Vuitton design team with him if he made the move).

There’s some question as to whether Raf Simons is up for such a big job (two haute couture collections, four ready to wear collections and scads of accessories), and if his crisp lines and tailored, minimalist aesthetic can successfully translate to the more feminine and traditionally romantic Dior, especially after the outsized capes, furs and organza-fueled drama of the Galliano years.

A video clip of Simons’ Fall 2011 collection for Jil Sander below:

Jil Sander Fall 2011 — a study in sleek sportswear modernism

Compare that to Galliano’s Fall 2011 collection for Dior, his last collection before he was fired:

Dior Fall 2011 — because nothing exceeds like excess

There’s no question that Raf Simons would be a decisive turn in a new direction for the global brand, whose design team still relies heavily on the Galliano archives as they await the appointment of a new leader. But personally, I like the rumor of Raf Simons for Dior far better than I ever liked the idea of Marc Jacobs.

*Other juicy brand news: The YSL vs. Christian Louboutin legal tussle is still in motion, with a group of eleven law professors recently filing a brief in support of YSL — “The law professors’ filing argued that if the 2nd Circuit permitted trademarks on colors that serve an aesthetic function, it would be muddling the distinction between trademark and patent law. Trademarks aren’t supposed to confer the same sort of monopoly power as design patents, and Louboutin’s broad assertion of its trademark right on the color red was anticompetitive, the brief said. The professors, like YSL’s lawyers, distinguished between Louboutin’s red soles and Tiffany’s blue boxes, which don’t impinge (on the) design choices of other jewelers.”

*Speaking of designer lawsuits: Rolex sues Brooklyn deli over name and logo — “Shawqu Ali, a father of seven, said he named his business Rolex Deli because ‘it’s a name that’s associated with quality and prestige’ — adding he was proud to be wearing what he described as a ‘Rolex’ on his wrist. ‘Of course, it’s real,’ said Ali, who had clearly swallowed the baloney dished out by a street vendor. ‘I paid $200 for it.’”

I hardly know what to say. I didn’t think that people honestly believed they were buying the genuine article off of street merchants.

*Even more designer lawsuits: Cartier sues watchmaker Raymond Weil — “A German judge approved an injunction taken out by Cartier against fellow watchmaking company Raymond Weil. Cartier argues that Raymond Weil’s line of “Jasmine” watches are “illegal imitations” of their “Ballon Bleu” design.”

Speaking of watches, I ran across this unique watch company out of New York (and Kyoto), Dedegumo. They hand make all the watch cases and bands, though the watch interiors are pre-fab Seiko quartz movements.

Nonetheless, I think they’re really cool, and like this terrific article about indie fragrance brands in Antenna Magazine says (an article that features the stellar Soivohle brand by artisan perfumer Liz Zorn, so, win-win!), it’s a valid point that if you shop at indie producers, you’re unlikely to run into the kind of Cartier vs. Raymond Weil copycat issues cited above.

Dedegumo — a steampunk’s dream come true

Besides, I like Antenna Mag’s motto for independent brands — “Never worn by Aunt Irene or your ex-therapist.”

*Strange, but maybe true: Luxury brand retailers will miss Kim Jong Il — “During his nearly 18-year reign, Kim’s fondness for Mercedes-Benz cars was reported widely. It’s always been a bit [disconcerting] that he was able to flaunt the country’s treasure in such a fashion, considering UN sanctions have long banned the sale of luxury goods to the country.”

*Stranger and truer: How The House Of Chanel Quietly Made A Fortune In A U.S. Chain Store — “The House of Chanel, the French fashion company specializing in luxury goods, is sitting on a $750 million asset stemming from an investment in a U.S. chain store that it may have tried to keep quiet.”

Though, considering Karl Lagerfeld’s latest penchant for churning out budget clothing lines, the above news shouldn’t surprise anyone.

3.) INDUSTRY QUICK HITS:

A.) Joe Jackson’s tribute perfume gets new launch date: “Joe Jackson, who was left out of the “Thriller” singer’s will on his 2009 death, first promoted the “Jackson’s Tribute” and “Jackson’s Legend” fragrance line at the Cannes film festival in May.
But the launch was scrapped when the company that owns the commercial rights to sell products under Michael Jackson’s name filed a lawsuit seeking to ban sales and asking for damages.”

If you visit Avery Gilbert’s blog, you can read all you need to know about Joe Jackson and his ill-fated Michael Jackson fragrance. Which is probably way more than you ever really wanted to know in the first place. But entertaining!

I think that’s my new catch-phrase for 2012: It’s a new year, same as the old year . . . but entertaining!

B.) Jewelers have one of the least stressful jobs of all, or so says Career Cast.

Daniel Ford, editor of JCK online, a web magazine for the Jewelry industry, begs to differ.

You mean, a jeweler’s daily routine isn’t filled with glamorous, sexy women? Say it aint so!

Running away (with a bag full of Solange Azagury-Partridge)

*Speaking of sparklies: Elizabeth Taylor Jewelry Auction Shatters Records, Fetches Nearly $116 Million — ” The sale of some of Elizabeth Taylor’s most precious jewels took in nearly $116 million, a world record for a private collection of jewels . . . The auction broke six other world records, including the price achieved for a pearl jewel, the per carat price for a colorless diamond, the price for an Indian jewel, and a ruby per carat.”

But, you know, there’s a big difference between placing a record-breaking bid on an auction item and actually *paying* when the bill comes due. Turns out those high-flying bidders seem to get carried away with the excitement, but suffer bidder’s remorse later:

Art Dealers get tough as auction items go unpaid — “The difficulties of dealing with Asian clients are summed up by an anonymous poem currently circulating in the trade: The Chinese bid with verve and skill / And hence rack up a mighty bill / “The money’s coming soon” they cry / But oh, my friend, they lie, they lie.”

I’m sure this isn’t limited to just their Asian clients, but it’s the recent explosion of high-bidding Chinese that have exacerbated an already underlying problem in the high-end auction world. What I didn’t realize, though, is that you could just walk away from a multi-million dollar bid without, seemingly, too much of a problem.

Seems like the lessons to be learned here are: #1) The auction industry is overdue for reform, and #2) One should never trust headlines with exclamation points, especially when those headlines are trumpeting record-breaking auction prices.

I’m not much good with the whole shaped and decorated cookie thing, but I still get into the holiday spirit in a roundabout way.

My concession to Christmas cookies this year was to make Chocolate Cherry cookies from a recipe by “Mr. Chocolate” himself (Jacques Torres) that I found in the book, ‘One Sweet Cookie‘ — a compilation of cookie recipes by some of the best commercial chefs and kitchens in the world.

“One Sweet Cookie” compiled by Tracey Zabar

I’ve been testing out a lot of different cookie recipes, especially chocolate chip cookies, and this particular recipe is a near fool-proof basic chocolate chip cookie blueprint that results in one of the most satisfying taste and texture combinations I’ve yet run across. David Lebovitz’s chocolate chip cookie recipe may be great, but this Jacques Torres recipe is Great +1!

Since we’re nearing our summer solstice here in the Southern Hemisphere while y’all are snowed-in up North, I have access to beautiful fresh cherries that are beginning to hit the shelves, so I thought to myself, “I think that a chocolate cherry cookie would say Merry Christmas very nicely.”

But I also knew that using fresh cherries instead of the dried/candied variety had the potential to wreak havoc, so I gently roasted them in the oven, leaving just enough of the excess juices to liven up the joint when combined with the chocolatey, nutty dough. I’m happy (and relieved!) to report that the Torres recipe is solid enough to withstand the addition of the moist cherries (plus a healthy dose of Thai-spiced roasted cashews) without collapsing under the pressure.

The cook in the kitchen, however, is a bit more fragile. Intermittent vodka shots help.

Chocolate cherry cookies with Thai-spiced cashews

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a proper Nathan-baked cookie if it didn’t include some Aftelier chef’s essences, which are, like, my secret weapon when it comes to blasting a recipe out of the ballpark.

In this instance, I incorporated Mandy’s clove and cocoa essences — the clove because the Aftelier clove oil is so much more vibrant and complex than the ground clove powders found on store shelves (also cherry + clove is a fascinating combo), and the cocoa essence because it never fails to enrich anything it touches, from cookies and cakes to roasted meats and stews.

*NOTE 1: I guess I’d consider the Aftelier cocoa to be the Midas essence, turning every recipe into gold.

The only downside (if it can truly be considered a downside) to the Torres recipe is that it makes about 36 large cookies, and there are only two of us. Needless to say, my freezer is filled with chocolate cherry cookies, and we’ll be eating them for a while.

Right, I know — poor us.

Ingredients: plain white flour, smoked sea salt, baking powder, baking soda, unsalted butter, light muscovado sugar, vanilla sugar, rapadura sugar, free range eggs, Edmond Briottet chocolate liqueur, Thai-spice cashews, fresh cherries, finely ground coffee beans, Aftelier clove essence, Aftelier cocoa essence and a mixture of commercial and artisan chocolates from makers like White Rabbit Cacao, Green & Black, Rapunzel, Vivani and more.

I’m taking a break from writing about luxury and fashion for the rest of the year, and planning out how I’m going to approach reporting for 2012. I’m being encouraged (from many directions) to write a book, and I think I will. But I’d like to make it as much a visual art project as something informative about the commercial luxury business, so I have a lot to hammer out in my brain before I can get started.

But an idea is taking shape:

A picture says a thousand words

*NOTE 2: Whether it’s a good or a bad idea is presently being debated by the many voices inside my head.

So Merry Christmas and a happy new year, and here’s hoping that 2012 brings much happiness and success to you all.

Instead of working on a Luxury & Fashion News post today, I instead took some time away from the news front to sample some New Zealand artisan bean to bar chocolate, bake some muffins, and read the Saul Bass book I bought myself for Christmas.

1.) White Rabbit Cacao: One thing I miss about not being in the United States is the ready and easy access to all kinds of artisan food products, from cheeses and meats to baked goods and chocolates.

While New Zealand’s food production is some of the best you’ll find, the smaller consumer audience here (and the sheer distance from most of the rest of the world) makes specialized production not quite as attractive an option for making a living as, say, setting up a business in the U.S.

So after wistfully reading Joey Alycia’s first-person account of her tour of the Mast Brothers chocolate factory in Brooklyn, New York, I hopped online to see if I could find any artisan bean to bar chocolate makers here in New Zealand — and what do you know, I found one!

White Rabbit Cacao — bean to bar chocolate, and made in New Zealand

Located deep in the Southern Island of New Zealand, about 1530 kilometers from Auckland (or around 950 miles), it’s not exactly an afternoon jaunt, but the next time we’re in Queenstown, I’m bugging the BF to take an extra day so we can drive out to Cromwell and meet the people behind White Rabbit Cacao — cuz this stuff is *good*!

They make four different varietals from single bean estates: Dominican Republic 70% cacao dark chocolate (my favorite — it has a fruity complexity that absolutely took me by surprise); Costa Rica 70% cacao dark chocolate; Venezuela Mantuano 72% cacao dark chocolate; and Madagascar 75% cacao dark chocolate (my second favorite — a deep, earthy bitterness that’s wild and rich).

2.) Banana Nut Muffins — I had some bananas ripening on the counter and it was definitely time to do something with (about?) them. One of the best, practically fail-safe muffin recipes I’ve found is the one out of the River Cottage Everyday book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The recipe is actually for Lemon Curd muffins, but it’s easily adaptable to substituting jams, fresh fruits, berries and nuts. And it gives me the opportunity to play around with my collection of Aftelier chef’s essences, to boot.

Banana Nut Muffins with yoghurt and spices

I think one of the best tips from the River Cottage Everyday recipe is to substitute 125 grams of almond meal for 100 grams of the plain flour (the recipe calls for 225 grams of plain flour total). This gives the muffins a beautifully nutty flavor foundation while contributing to a particularly crispy exterior.

*NOTE 1: I always add additional nuts for extra crunch on the inside, too.

Ingredients: plain flour, almond meal, baking powder, vanilla sugar, rapadura sugar, vanilla herb salt, allspice powder, cinnamon powder, ground vanilla beans, unsalted butter, whole milk, plain yoghurt, eggs, mashed bananas, roasted Brazil nuts, roasted almonds, rolled oats and Aftelier cinnamon essence, with Demerara sugar to top.

I also made an apricot and plum fruit sauce to serve with the muffins (or to spoon over ice cream, whichever we prefer!). I have a pic — it may not look like much, though it tastes terrifically tart and fresh.

Fruits for the saucy

I was bizzy!

3.) Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design — And to wrap up my day and reward myself for baking and stewing so assiduously, because, you know, it’s such hard work (yeah, right, I couldn’t keep a straight face saying that, either), I sat down with the Saul Bass book I bought myself for Christmas.

*NOTE 2: I say “For Christmas”, you say “Just Because”, tomato, tomahto, etc. etc.

Maria Popova (at her excellent website Brain Pickings) states that Saul Bass is “possibly the most famous graphic designer of all time” and that the recently published book that looks back at his influence on 20th and 21st century design is “truly, one of the most beautiful, inspirational, important design books you’ll ever lay eyes and hands on.”

The best design book of 2011

And while that may sound like hyper-exaggeration for its own sake, it’s not. The book is indeed an astonishing endeavor, with a respectful and loving examination of the man’s life work, made even more immediate and personal because it was designed by his daughter, who obviously (and deeply) respects her father’s prodigious talent.

But if nothing else, the book will introduce you to my new all-time favorite B-movie, Phase IV:

Efficiency trumps spontaneity every time

The minute I read about it, I had to download it from iTunes and watch it (while eating banana nut muffins smothered in fruit sauce).

Do you now understand why I didn’t get any writing done today?