Dior Unveils New `House` In Seoul

DAILY EDITION JUNE 18, 2015 Levine’s New Gig
Fashion. Beauty. Business.
Aaron Levine of Club
Monaco heads to
Abercrombie & Fitch to
head men’s design. PAGE 2
Clutch Player
Lela Rose enters
accessories with
a line of clutches.
PAGE 3
Miley’s People
AmfAR gave awards to
Miley Cyrus and Andy Cohen
at its gala in Manhattan.
PAGE 12
RETAIL
Dior Unveils
New ‘House’
In Seoul
● The six-story store is the brand’s
largest in Asia to date.
BY CRYSTAL TAI
Star
Power
FASHION
SEOUL — Dior is going for a lot of firsts in South Korea.
The brand will open its first freestanding House of
Dior store here this weekend, which will also be its
largest flagship in Asia to date. The official launch of
the six-story boutique located in Cheongdam, Seoul’s
luxury shopping mecca, will take place alongside the
company’s first “Esprit Dior” exhibition at Dongdaemun Design Plaza on Saturday. “Esprit Dior” marks
the brand’s third international event in this series, and
will showcase original Dior designs, as well as collaborations with local Korean artists.
In spite of mounting concerns over the spread of the
MERS virus in South Korea, Dior went ahead with its
plans to host a preview of the new store on Wednesday. The event featured visits by LVMH Moët Hennessy
Louis Vuitton chairman Bernard Arnault; Dior chief
executive Sidney Toledano, and boutique designer and
architect Christian de Portzamparc.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
The exterior of the new store.
● Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci put a
celestial spin on a simple silhouette
for resort by connecting sequined
stars into a sexy mosaic. For more
from resort, see pages 4 to 6.
BY JESSICA IREDALE
DIGITAL
Tech Start-ups:
The Right Time
To Seek Funds?
●
The question of who’s next to seal a deal
with investors is less exact science and
more a roll of the dice.
Photograph by Thomas Iannaccone; Dior by Justin Shin
BY KARI HAMANAKA
LOS ANGELES — The Next Big Thing.
Most fashion tech start-ups want to be that, while
investors are eager to get a piece of it. But a frothy
funding environment that’s seen ballooning valuations
and the implosion or stalls of once buzzed-about brands
aces the new wave of upstarts looking to raise capital
and become the next Gilt Groupe or Net-a-porter.
The question of who’s next to seal a deal with
investors is less exact science and more a roll of the dice
in an industry that’s still relatively young and figuring
out what business models bear out in the most dollars.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
2
JUNE 18, 2015
RETAIL
Aaron Levine Joins A&F
● The designer is joining
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. as
head of men’s design at its
namesake division.
TOP 5
TRENDING
ON WWD.COM
Aaron Levine
BY VICKI M. YOUNG
The designer is credited with helping
Club Monaco significantly raise the profile of
its men’s wear offerings. Abercrombie now
hopes he will bring some of that magic to
its men’s assortment.
While results were impacted in part
by logo product that was pulled back
more than necessary, that wasn’t the
A&F brand’s only problem. It’s been
trying to inject more fashion product
to the mix. Bottoms have been performing consistently well for both its
women’s and men’s assortment in the
first quarter, but results have been
weak for fashion tops for both women
and men.
Since last year, the company has made
a series of moves to shake up the firm and
bolster retail talent as the specialty chain
completes its long-term strategic restructuring. On the design and merchandising
side, the retailer hired Christos Angelides,
who joined the company in October 2014,
as brand president for A&F and abercrombie kids. Since then, the company
also has been adding new staffers for
oversight on design and merchandising.
ACCESSORIES
Emma Hill to Launch
Own Accessories Line
●
Hill & Friends will launch
during London Fashion Week
in September.
BY SAMANTHA CONTI
LONDON — Designer Emma Hill is back
with her own accessories line, Hill &
Friends, which will launch during London Fashion Week in September, WWD
has learned.
Hill, who left Mulberry as creative
director in 2013, has cofounded the
company with Georgia Fendley, the
London-based creative consultant and
former brand director at Mulberry.
Hill & Friends’ spring 2016 collection
will be unveiled in London, together with a
“see-now-buy-now” capsule collection that
has been pre-sold to Net-a-porter.com.
The capsule collection will go on sale
the day after the brand’s presentation
on Net and on the brand’s site
Hillandfriends.com.
All of the accessories are made in
England, and the plan is to add ready-towear in the future. Hill and Fendley, who
are majority owners of the company, are
also looking for two retail sites, in New
York and London.
During her six years at Mulberry, Hill
brought a fresh energy to the brand,
The capsule collection will go on sale the day
after the brand’s presentation on Net-a-porter
and on the brand’s site Hillandfriends.com.
The new brand is Hill’s first major
creative project since she parted ways with
Mulberry. Hill, a veteran of Gap, Marc Jacobs
and Chloé’s accessories divisions, had
worked at Mulberry since 2008, when she
succeeded Stuart Vevers after he departed
to go to Loewe. He now is at Coach.
building up its rtw, outerwear, footwear,
jewelry and accessories businesses, and
channeling its British heritage — and
inborn irreverence. She also helped to
oversee its rapid growth and expansion
into new markets. Shares in Mulberry fell
nearly 9 percent on the London Stock
They Are Wearing:
London Men’s
Fashion Week
● WWD went off the
runways and onto the
streets and sidewalks for
the best looks from London
Men’s Fashion Week.
● Justin Bieber on
Calvin Klein, Fashion
and Music
● McQ Resort 2016
● Topshop Unique
Resort 2016
● Alison Mosshart Talks
Debut Solo Art Show
Global Stock Tracker
As of close June 18, 2015
ADVANCERS
Quiksilver Inc.
+10.76%
Luen Thai Holdings Ltd.
+3.77%
Isetan Mitsukoshi
Holdings Ltd.
+3.20%
Esprit Holdings Ltd.
+2.41%
Nordstrom Inc.
+1.59%
DECLINERS
Carrefour SA
-4.85%
Emma Hill
Exchange the day Hill’s departure was
announced.
Mulberry has been operating without
a creative director until now. Last
November, the company named Johnny
Coca to the role, and he will officially join
the company in July.
Samsonite International SA
-2.57%
American Apparel Inc.
-2.35%
Puma
-2.28%
Li Ning Co. Ltd.
-1.94%
Photograph by Kuba Dabrowski; Hill by KSW
Aaron Levine is joining Abercrombie &
Fitch Co. as head of men’s design at its
namesake division.
As reported by WWD, the wellrespected designer recently left Club
Monaco, where he was vice president of
men’s design.
Levine joined Club Monaco in June 2011
after serving as designer for Jack Spade
and creative director of Rogues Gallery.
Before that he was design director of
the Hickey label for Hickey Freeman. He
began his career at Joseph Abboud.
The designer is credited with helping
Club Monaco significantly raise the profile
of its men’s wear offerings. Abercrombie
now hopes he will bring some of that
magic to its men’s assortment.
Levine is one of a string of appointments the company has been making..
Lisa Lowman has been named head of
design for Hollister Girls, joining from
Lucky Brand, where she was senior vice
president of design. Katie Kuethe has
been appointed creative director of marketing for the A&F and Hollister brands.
She previously was creative director of
Lucky magazine.
The trio are joining the retailer at a
challenging time. In the first quarter
ended May 2, the company posted a net
loss of $63.2 million on net sales of $709.4
million, compared with year-ago results
of a net loss of $23.7 million on net sales
of $822.4 million. Comparable-store sales
slipped 9 percent at the core Abercrombie brand for the quarter.
3
JUNE 18, 2015 RETAIL
Report Alleges Wal-Mart Using Tax Havens
●
A new report accuses the
retailer of using a vast network
of subsidiaries as tax havens
to minimize paying foreign
taxes and avoid paying U.S.
taxes on foreign earnings.
BY SHARON EDELSON
Wal-Mart is using a network of undisclosed
operations in overseas tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes, alleges a report by the Americans
for Tax Fairness and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
The report, “The Wal-Mart Web: How the
world’s biggest corporation secretly uses
tax havens to dodge taxes,” claims that the
retailer has built a network of 78 subsidiaries and branches in 15 overseas tax havens
to minimize foreign taxes where it has
operations and avoid U.S. taxes on those
foreign earnings. The report, published
Wednesday, said 90 percent of Wal-Mart’s
overseas assets are owned by subsidiaries
in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
“The Wal-Mart Web” was researched
by the Americans for Tax Fairness and
the union, which supports the Organization for Respect at Wal-Mart, a group that
campaigns for wage increases and more
predictable schedules for sales associates.
“This is the same union-supported group
that regularly issues similar, flawed reports
on Wal-Mart to promote their agenda rather
than the facts,” the retailer said. “This latest report includes incomplete, erroneous
information designed to mislead readers.”
According to Americans for Tax Fairness,
the Wal-Mart subsidiaries have remained
invisible because the company doesn’t list
them in its annual 10-K filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission.
A Wal-Mart spokesman disagreed, saying,
“We disclose the significant subsidiaries
of the corporation in the company’s 10-K,
which is compliant with SEC regulations.”
According to the report, Wal-Mart has
22 shell companies in Luxembourg and
transferred ownership of more than $45
billion in assets to subsidiaries there in
2011. Wal-Mart reported paying less than 1
percent in taxes to Luxembourg on profits
of $1.3 billion from 2010 to 2103.
Wal-Mart generates $1.5 billion worth of
tax deductions in Luxembourg each year
by making “phantom interest payments
to its global parent, using a hybrid loan
that makes the income disappear for tax
purposes in the U.S. and in Luxembourg,”
the report said.
taxes such as intercompany debt, which
lets it avoid taxes overseas by stripping
earnings out of higher-tax countries. WalMart allegedly does this by taking out intercompany loans and paying interest to itself
in tax havens where the interest income is
taxed lightly or not at all.
The Wal-Mart spokesman defended the
retailer’s tax payment record. “Wal-Mart
paid $6.2 billion in U.S. federal corporate
income tax last year, nearly 2 percent of
all corporate income tax collected by the
U.S. Treasury,” he said. “Wal-Mart also
pays over $10 billion in payroll taxes for
its 1.3 million U.S. associates. In addition,
Wal-Mart paid $3.3 billion in property tax,
state income tax, franchise tax and other
state taxes.
The Wal-Mart subsidiaries have remained
invisible because the company doesn’t list
them in its annual 10-K filings with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
according to Americans for Tax Fairness.
While Luxembourg has long been the tax
haven of choice for many multinational corporations, under pressure from the G-20,
Luxembourg in January ended its practice
of bank secrecy and there’s a European
Union effort afoot to close loopholes that
have driven corporate tax rates down.
According to the report, Wal-Mart’s
tax-haven subsidiaries in 2014 gave U.S.
affiliates access to $2.4 billion in foreign
earnings through low-interest and shortterm loans.
The report claims that Wal-Mart is using
well-known strategies to avoid international
MEDIA
“Wal-Mart also collected and remitted
over $14 billion in state and local sales taxes,
helping fund education, public safety, and
infrastructure improvements in the communities where we operate. Wal-Mart has
processes in place to comply with applicable
SEC and IRS rules, as well as the tax laws
of each country where we operate and we
maintain transparency with the IRS via realtime disclosure of our business transactions
and corporate structure,” he continued.
The report urges the SEC and IRS to
take action, asking the former to require
Wal-Mart to make public a complete list
of its business entities, and the latter to
audit Wal-Mart’s use of subsidiaries in tax
havens. It also said the IRS should analyze
Wal-Mart’s use of short-term offshore loans
to fund some of its U.S. operations without
paying repatriation taxes and its deposit of
offshore cash in U.S. financial institutions
to determine whether Wal-Mart has been
improperly avoiding U.S. tax.
The European Commission should
investigate whether Luxembourg has been
providing Wal-Mart with sweetheart tax
deals equivalent to illegal state aid,” the
report said.
“The report insinuates that the company
would benefit from a ‘deemed repatriation’
proposal under consideration by some
in Washington,” the Wal-Mart spokesman said. “In fact, because much of the
company’s unremitted earnings overseas
have been invested into physical assets like
stores, distribution centers and equipment
in other markets around the world, the
company would unlikely benefit from such
a proposal. More likely, it would represent
a tax increase as the company would have
tax due without the benefit of repatriating
funds to the U.S. due to our investments in
physical assets that are not liquid.
“Just as the company uses funds generated from the U.S. market to continue to
invest in stores, wages and growth in the
U.S., we keep a large portion of foreign
earnings in international markets where
they are reinvested for growth,” the WalMart spokesman said. “Regardless of where
the foreign earnings are held, under the
current law, they are not subject to U.S.
tax until they are repatriated. Even so, and
even with non-U.S. operations comprising
nearly 30 percent of Wal-Mart’s revenue,
Wal-Mart had an effective tax rate of
approximately 32 percent over the past
three years.”
ACCESSORIES
Nike Leads Instagram Gains Lela Rose Launches Handbags
The resort collection includes
Among Fashion Brands
four styles done in multiple
The collection features intricate details,
such as citrine lining and geometric
closures. Several styles include a welded
color ways, each named
metal rose in lieu of a traditional clasp, an
obvious nod to the designer’s name. “We
after a popular cocktail.
do so many florals, but we don’t really use
BY LAUREN MCCARTHY
the rose to its maximum,” she said. “This
felt like the perfect place to do it.”
“Can I offer you a cocktail?”
Many of the clutches share Rose’s penAt about 2 p.m. on a Tuesday afterchant for floral print, but are not exact
noon, Lela Rose is not offering up a stiff
matches to any of the ready-to-wear patdrink — though, as a consummate hostterns, by design. “Our customer is someess, one trusts she could if truly desired
one who likes to dress head-to-toe in a
— but rather, a first look at her new line
full look, but we wanted to have a bit of a
of evening clutches. “We’ve styled them
twist,” said Rose. “They really merchanand done them as bags that will go out
dise with the collection, but we didn’t
to cocktails with you,” said Rose. “Our
want to it to be super matchy-matchy.”
woman is someone with a calendar
Rose describes the collection as a natufilled with social events.”
ral progression for the brand,
The resort collecwhich does much of its
tion, which marks the
designs on the “day-todesigner’s first foray
night” model. “These
into the accessories
bags are great pieces to
market, includes four
dress you up and make it
styles done in mullook like it’s a complete
tiple color ways, each
look,” she said.
named after a popular
Stockists have yet to
A handbag from Lela Rose.
cocktail: the Julep, a
be confirmed, but Rose
rounded minaudière;
notes that retail response
the Shandy, a soft envelope clutch; the
has been positive. For spring, she’ll have
Paloma, a rectangle minaudière, and the
an even larger assortment of bags, which
Collins, a top-handle frame bag. Materiwill be featured on her runway, though
als include Plexiglas with lace inlay,
the emphasis will remain on clutches.
python, stingray, and satin. Prices for the
“This season was about creating the
bags, which are all made in Italy, range
shapes that we’re going to be married to
from $895 to $1,695. “I didn’t want to
for several seasons,” she said. “I think
come out and have the wrong quality,”
we’re really going to live in this clutch
said Rose. “With clutches, you really care mentality for quite some time. Bags are
about quality. That was really important
an overly saturated market and we’ve
to me. We also tested each piece to make
always found it best to stay true to who
sure there was enough function with all
our customer is and what she uses and
of them.”
what she’s looking for.”
●
●
Victoria Beckham came in
close behind in terms of new
followers, followed by Dior,
Louis Vuitton and Adidas.
Lela Rose photographs by Thomas Iannaccone
BY EVAN CLARK
Nike is leading on Instagram, which continues to be fashion’s favorite social outlet,
with 36 brands adding 100,000-plus new
followers last month.
Instagram outpaced Facebook, where
16 brands saw 100,000 or more new likes,
and Twitter, where only five brands hit
that mark with new followers, according
to the latest rankings by Stylophane. On
Pinterest, where followings are generally
smaller, the brand picking up the most followers was Lulu Guinness, with 86,847.
Fashion has shown a consistent affinity for Instagram and its picture-heavy
format that’s ready for the latest look
or inspiration.
Nike was the fastest growing brand on
Instagram, with 1.4 million new followers last month. Victoria Beckham came
in close behind with 1.2 million new
followers. Rounding out the top five, Dior
had 510,176 new followers, while Louis
Vuitton brought in 487,382 and Adidas
snagged 431,012.
Although a steady stream of posts has
long been seen as important to keeping
followers’ attention, volume does not necessarily equal success. Despite the clear
thirst for content from followers, Nike
posted just five new photos on Instagram
for the month. The sports brand also sent
A post from Nike’s Instagram.
out just three tweets and one Facebook
post, but saw strong growth on both of
those outlets.
Nike favors bold shots of athletes
wearing its gear on Instagram, product
shots on Twitter and a mixture of both
on Facebook.
While Facebook has scale, with more
than 1.4 billion monthly active users, the
social network has never really connected commercially.
Both Pinterest and Instagram are taking
their shot at commerce, in their own ways.
Pinterest is installing a “buy” button while
the Facebook-owned Instagram is expanding its ad offerings to brands.
4
JUNE 18, 2015
Kenzo
Givenchy
Collections
RESORT
2016
“This collection reflects an intrepid spirit
and sense of exploration,” said Carol Lim
about the Kenzo resort collection, explaining
that she and her design partner, Humberto
Leon, are gaining a better understanding of
what the woman buying Kenzo really wants.
By the looks of this lineup it seems that she’s
not only buying prints and colors — as the
duo traveled from the busy forest inspiration
of fall to a desert storm of sun-bleached
fabrics in a palette of white, mineral and
military tones. Not that they didn’t work a
few prints into the collection, most directly
inspired by all things desert: A cactus
motif served as cartoonlike dots on nylon
Windbreakers, pants and robe dresses or
as oversize prints on fluid, filmy dresses;
a magnified lunar map print looked like an
esoteric version of a camouflage print, and
an abstract image of colored grains of sand
created a pointillist ombré effect.
The lineup was mainly infused with
military and utilitarian shapes and details,
with beige sanded satin and soft washed
silk versions of safari jackets, tunics, cargo
pants and long dresses or skirts finished
with industrial metallic snaps and D-ring
straps and belts. The freshest were the
pristine white cotton and airy mesh pieces,
especially the A-line maxidress with snaps
and the drop-waist pleated skirt dress worn
with strappy flat sandals, some decorated
with metallic plastic fringes, and Kenzo’s
new “Canyon” bag in supple suede.
— LAURENT FOLCHER
Givenchy
Wardrobe — the word is very much part
of the current LVMH vocabulary, popping
up in Riccardo Tisci’s Givenchy resort
press notes. His collection revisited the
items and shapes established during
his 10-year tenure at Givenchy, such
as bomber jackets and the contrast
of structured tailoring with romantic
blouses. The exception was the color
black, which he benched for the season.
Color and patterns spanned a muted
green, white, pink, engineer stripes and
a leopard print inspired by a Robert
Mapplethorpe photo. There was also
an emphasis on denim, a relatively new
addition to the Givenchy closet.
Stripped of the elaborate trappings of
Tisci’s runway, the silhouettes exuded
a simplified sensuality that balanced
edge and femininity, but tipped in favor
of the latter. Familiar yet refreshed, the
hourglass lines of a green tailored vest
with a structured peplum and a single
large button at the waist over the new
skirt shape — midi with a mermaid ruffle
and peekaboo cutouts on the thighs —
felt like something you will see on Kim
Kardashian. A slinky pink leopard print
slip dress demonstrated the bodyconscious side of the new ruffled skirt.
A long-sleeved straight gown that looked
like a mesh of sequined stars managed
to be covered up and overexposed at the
same time. — JESSICA IREDALE
Givenchy photograph by Thomas Iannaccone
Kenzo
5
JUNE 18, 2015 Emilio Pucci
Collections
RESORT
2016
Trina Turk
Roksanda Ilincic
Turk photograph by George Chinsee
Emilio Pucci
Call it a revolution. Massimo Giorgetti marked his debut as
creative director of Emilio Pucci with a capsule collection
inaugurating a new era for the Florentine fashion label.
Presented in the brand’s native city to coincide with the
Pitti Uomo men’s wear trade show, the lineup — which will
hit stores next January — reflected the fresh, ironic aesthetic
that enabled Giorgetti to put his MSGM contemporary label
on the fashion map.
“It’s an homage to Florence — past, present and future
coexist in the collection,” said Giorgetti, who reworked a
range of archival prints with a modern filter. Only one pattern
featuring paint brushes was directly reused. Setting aside
the classic Pucci motifs, he focused on more graphic prints,
including a multicolor arty checkered pattern used on a slim
skirt. The designer also reinterpreted the images on a postcard
of Capri owned by the late Emilio Pucci to create a playful
print showcasing sketched silhouettes of tourists in Florence.
This was used, for example, on a foulard-inspired asymmetric
top paired with slouchy Prince of Wales pants, or on a dress
worn under a yellow nylon coat with a high-tech vibe.
In addition, Giorgetti revamped the Emilio Pucci logo,
which appeared embroidered on skirts and applied on bags
and shoes as well as laser-cut on a coated nylon and cotton
coat. Even as he infused the lineup with his signature sense
of lightness, a certain cool factor and an overall effortless
attitude, Giorgetti demonstrated he’s able to introduce
exquisite details and sophisticated elements that strongly
differentiate his first effort for Pucci from his MSGM collection.
Trina Turk
— ALESSANDRA TURRA
Trina Turk’s always colorful and upbeat collection was
inspired by Baja California as the designer said she wanted
to “explore a fiesta kind of color palette.” The result:
caftans in vibrant combinations with bead detailing and
a fun woven jacquard that brought a dose of texture to
jackets, shorts and dresses.
Most festive was a graphic, all-over sequined minidress, but
Turk also gave a more discreet aspect to the collection via a
chic solid navy jumpsuit with a fringed scarf, as well as a group
of green army jackets and cropped pants. — MAYTE ALLENDE
Roksanda Ilincic
A passionate art lover and collector, Roksanda Ilincic
looked to Cubism and to everyday shapes — such as
guitars, violins and houses — for this vibrant collection
that was filled with bold color and dramatic silhouettes.
Her dresses and skirts, whether shin-skimming, A-line or
floor-sweeping, were covered in bright, abstract shapes in
a color palette of hot bougainvillea, tangerine, lavender
and a blue as intense as the sunlit sea off the island of
Capri. “I really went for it with the colors I thought would
be perfect for resort,” said the designer.
Ilincic focused on texture, too, as in a curve-hugging
dress with swirls of sand-colored linen meant to resemble
an artist’s canvas as well as crinkly, PVC-laminated circles
of black silk, pops of primary color and pink piping.
Necklines on dresses were often sheer and asymmetrical,
made to blend into the skin, while collars on tops and
knits came in three overlapping layers of color, such as
red, lavender and tangerine.
Silk organza was shredded into “square roses” for
floor-length skirts, or pleated into a subtle herringbone
pattern for dramatic calf-length dresses. Some dresses
and coats were done in a lightweight tapestry of
multiple textures and colors, while other strapless ones
were fashioned from fluttery pastel seersucker. Ilincic
also tried her hand at leather, aiming to treat it like
fabric. The result was a soft, whisper-thin red dress with
a thick aqua ruffle spilling down the front — enough to
brighten the darkest of spring days. — SAMANTHA CONTI
6
JUNE 18, 2015
Vince
Raoul
Collections
RESORT
2016
Vince
At Vince, resort was divided into multiple
deliveries, each with its own spin on the brand’s
easy, clean and modern take on contemporary
sportswear. The first shipment — which featured
plenty of wear-now cashmere sweaters and
ponchos in neutral tones, some updated with
mixed-media silk underlays and leather fringe —
drew from the style of Sofia Coppola and other
devotees of classic American fashion. Trousers
were styled loose and languid for the season, and
blouses and dresses were updated with intricate
embroidery and brush stroke prints.
The second, delivered a bit closer to spring, had
a Parisian girl in the Seventies vibe: There were
camel suede dresses, jackets and leggings mixed
with chambray separates and embroidered tops,
all channeling another of the collection’s muses:
Françoise Hardy. — KRISTI GARCED
Raoul
Nature was a natural inspiration for Odile Benjamin
when creating her resort collection for Raoul. She
channeled the “mash-up of spring colors” and
meadow and other floral prints in silhouettes that
moved more away from the body than in past
seasons. A-line below-the-knee skirts — best in green
leather — or meadow-print silk dirndls paired with
geometric silk tanks were the prettiest separates.
Benjamin showed a sure hand with her dresses:
a shift in gray silk with cutout bird-detailing on the
leather neckline and charming little full-skirted
black cotton sundresses. Of course, there was the
requisite jumpsuit (here in force, again, for yet
another season) which the designer showed cut full
in a floral-printed rayon with baby-doll sleeves. — BOBBI QUEEN
Mantù
Flowers were the protagonists of Mantù’s
resort collection, blossoming all over jacquard
and cotton dresses, suiting and coats in a few
different patterns, occasionally mixed into the
same garment for a playful, eclectic vibe. A finely
detailed sunflower motif, seen on shirtdresses and
maxiskirts, proved a feminine counterpart to the
lineup’s chic camel safari trench. Elsewhere, a pink
tweed suit — a cropped jacket with dolman sleeves
paired with culottes — made an effortlessly feminine
statement, as did a pale pink tuxedo. — K.G.
Vince and Raol photographs by George Chinsee; Mantu by Thomas Iannaccone
Mantù
7
JUNE 18, 2015 The Dior flagship in Seoul,
comprised of six floors, features
an exterior of white petal-like
curved walls leading to a
rectangular building.
Dior Unveils New
‘House’ In Seoul
Photograph by Justin Shin
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Still, because of the MERS scare, the
event was kept low-key for safety reasons.
International media and guests were
absent, while local media and VIPs toured
the shop in small groups.
Toledano was in town after attending
the Tokyo leg of the Dior tour. The wellseasoned ceo said that despite the circumstances, the show must go on.
“We evaluated the situation and we
decided that we had to open the store as
well as the exhibition. Many people on my
team have been working hard. We had to
[come to] be with them,” He said.
Even with the worries regarding MERS,
Toledano, who has been a regular visitor to
Korea in recent years, said that the atmosphere is surprisingly normal. “Sometimes
from outside [Korea], it’s a bit exaggerated.
I understand people aren’t traveling right
now, but I found the situation very normal.”
And not even Dior’s VIP clients could be
deterred by the concerns. “They all came,
nobody cancelled the visit,” he said.
Korea represents an increasingly
important, growing market for the brand,
he said. “The first time I came here was
over 30 years ago. The luxury market was
small. Koreans were working…more in
building, engineering, textiles. And they
have been successful. [Now,] the market
is developing. This is why we believe
that the future has even bigger potential
and this is why we decided to [open this
stand-alone shop],” he said.
“We do very well with the department
stores [but] they only have limited space.
We wanted to show all the products of
Dior. …And we needed space also to
sell to the clients. VIP rooms and space
where you could even do presentations,”
the ceo added.
Toledano said the boutique caters
especially to busy VIP clients who need to
shop and take a break at the same time.
“They need a place to shop but they need
a place to be entertained also. …At the top
of luxury is time. …Fast fashion wants to
[help you] save time, but we think taking
[your] time is [something] for busy people.
…With dedication, at the right pace, that is
what we do here.”
He also mentioned Dior’s growing focus
on China, despite the slowdown in luxury
spending there. “We have been expanding
in China. …We will create this [same] level
of service [as in Seoul], VIP rooms, more
rooms for categories for ready-to-wear
and shoes. This will be exactly the same
strategy in China. And also expansion in
existing stores, we’re looking to increase
the space by at least 50 percent [or] even
doubling [it].”
He stressed that diversification was key
to catering to the growing number of clients
in Asia. “It’s not that I want to open new
stores, but we need to expand the size
of our stores because we want to better
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
8
JUNE 18, 2015
A spiral staircase leads shoppers through the six-story boutique.
Here and above: The curator of the Dior
exhibition said the objective of the exhibition
was to showcase Dior’s history alongside
interpretations by different Korean artists.
A large chandelier hangs in the
entryway of the Seoul flagship.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
service the clients. [We are]
not looking for traffic, but
[to enhance] the quality of
sales and services.”
The flagship, designed by
French architect de Portzamparc, features six floors
including the basement,
Sidney Toledano
each dedicated to specific
Dior chief executive
product categories such
as bags and accessories,
jewelry and watches, ready-to-wear and shoes
and men’s. The shop even boasts a Versaillesinspired VIP lounge and gallery on the fourth
floor. The boutique exterior flaunts smooth,
stark white petal-like curved walls in front of a
rectangular building decorated in the fashion
house’s iconic grid-like pattern.
The fifth floor caters to pastry lovers, with a
café by France’s own “Picasso of Pastry” Pierre
Herme. The café serves Herme’s well-known
macarons in an array of unorthodox flavors as
well as a variety of French pastries and desserts.
Herme gave his own assessment of the MERS
situation. “I’m very uncomfortable with the way
that we assume things are bad. ...Me, I don’t pay
much attention. If it were truly dangerous [to be
here in Korea], we would know it,” he said.
Dresses are on display in the Esprit Dior exhibition.
In addition to the store’s opening, Dior will
continue with its plans to host the “Esprit Dior”
exhibition launch event Thursday night at the
Zaha Hadid-designed DDP.
“We wanted them to happen at the same
time,” said Toledano, who cited that the exhibition will serve as a cultural accompaniment to
the boutique opening, creating “different levels
of conversation” going beyond just products and
into culture and history.
The exhibition’s curator, Florence Muller,
who has also collaborated with several Yves
Saint Laurent projects, said the objective of the
exhibition was to showcase Dior’s history alongside interpretations by different Korean artists.
“I think [Korean art is now] more autonomous, and they have their own language, and
perhaps it’s because they are going back to
their roots and to their techniques and their
tradition. …It’s more specific in fact.”
Pieces on display include a hanging walk-in
fixture by Lee Bul, who also designed a glittering, chandelier-like sculpture in the brand’s
other Korean boutique. Other featured artists
include Kiwon Park, who designed “Du Rose au
Rouge,” an expansive array of flowing curtains
ranging from pink to red. He was inspired by
Christian Dior’s work with the colors pink and
red, said Muller.
The highlight of the exhibition is a surreal
“rose garden” of floral gowns from Dior’s most
famous haute couture collections, including
designs by Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano,
Raf Simons and Christian Dior himself.
Photographs by Justin Shin
Dior Unveils New
‘House’ In Seoul
9
JUNE 18, 2015 BUSINESS
Fashion Production Poised to
Grow in U.S., Key Asian Nations
● The U.S. fashion industry is
planning to source more from
Vietnam, India, Bangladesh
and Indonesia, as well as the
U.S., a new survey shows.
BY KRISTI ELLIS
WASHINGTON — The U.S. fashion industry is planning to source more from Asian
strongholds Vietnam, India, Bangladesh
and Indonesia, as well as a resurgent U.S.
in the next two years, according to a new
U.S. Fashion Industry Association survey.
The survey included 30 of the largest U.S.
retailers, apparel brands, importers and
wholesalers, encompassing fashion firms,
department stores and lifestyle brands selling a range of products from apparel and
accessories to footwear and home goods.
Forty-three percent ranked rising
production and sourcing costs as their
“greatest or second-greatest business challenge” this year, compared with 81 percent
in last year’s survey. Overall cost pressures
appeared to ease this year, with 62 percent
expecting either a modest or slight cost
increase, down from 78 percent last year.
Vietnam received the highest score for
expected sourcing growth in the period,
according to the survey prepared by Sheng
Lu, assistant professor in the department
of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and
Design at the University of Rhode Island, in
collaboration with USFIA.
Some 96 percent of respondents said
they plan to maintain, or slightly or
strongly increase sourcing from Vietnam.
“Vietnam is the obvious success story
for sourcing,” said Julia Hughes, president
of USFIA. “It has been successful and is a
growing sourcing destination today based
on the opportunities that are available, but
clearly it is on everyone’s minds that there
is future potential for duty-free access.”
Vietnam, already the second-largest
supplier of apparel to the U.S., is one
of 11 countries involved with the U.S. in
the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact
negotiations and U.S. companies are
closely watching the negotiations, which
have been slowed by political wrangling
over trade legislation in the U.S. during
the past week. Seventy-two percent of
respondents said they expect to source
more textiles and apparel from the TPP
countries, while 48 percent expect to
“strategically adjust or redesign their
supply chain based on TPP, implying TPP
could be a game changer and has the
potential to shape new patterns of textile
and apparel trade in the Asia-Pacific
region in the long term,” the survey said.
U.S. sourcing has been on the rise the
past few years and the study suggested
it is continuing to gain momentum. The
U.S. ranked fifth among the respondents’
sourcing destinations, with 53 percent
sourcing from home. Nearly 39 percent
of the respondents said they plan to
increase sourcing by value or volume
in the U.S. in the next two years, and
80 percent of the companies said they
already source in the U.S.
Lu said in an interview that the data do
not suggest the respondents are planning
to open more manufacturing facilities in
the U.S., but rather that they are planning
to purchase more Made in America products. He said the majority of respondents
engage in the retail business.
China is expected to remain the dominant
supplier to the U.S. for years and the survey
found that companies are not moving away
from the country, although more respondents said they plan to slightly decrease
sourcing there than those who said they
would increase their sourcing there.
The survey found that 47 percent of the
companies said they plan to decrease the
value or volume of their sourcing from
China in the next two years. As many as
43 percent said they expect no change or
a slight increase from the country, and
another 7 percent said they expect to significantly decrease sourcing from China.
Bangladesh, which has taken strides to
implement safety and structural reforms
in its garment industry in the wake of
two factory tragedies there that claimed
more than 1,240 people two years ago, is
MARKETS
Seven For All Mankind to
Introduce Tailorless Jeans
●
The brand will roll out the
Tailorless program for fall
to better accommodate
average-size women.
BY ARNOLD J. KARR
Seven For All Mankind is looking to add
fuel to the fire of the flared jeans trend
with the introduction of its Tailorless line
for fall and holiday.
The line is designed to allow women of
average height to reduce or eliminate the
need to have their flares hemmed.
The Los Angeles-based premium jeans
marketer, part of VF Corp.’s Contemporary
Brands coalition, believes it has a solution
to one of the anomalies of the flared fit. The
industry standard for inseams for a flare is
35 inches, but that specification is meant
for a woman who is 5 feet, 9 inches.
With the average American woman
standing between 5 foot, 4 inches and
5 foot, 5 inches, and “petite” jeans
designed for women 5 foot, 3 inches and
below, the majority of women in the
U.S. — about 90 percent — are currently
unable to buy flared jeans that don’t
require substantial tailoring.
And that tailoring can often take a bountiful Seventies retro-style flare and turn it
into something far less stylish and roomy.
Seven’s Tailorless flares come with a
32- or 33-inch inseam, either eliminating
the need for tailoring altogether (“Tailorless,” in Seven’s parlance) or, for those in
the 5-foot, 2-inch to 5-foot, 4-inch height
range, reducing the need for hemming
that could deflate the flare and allowing its
integrity to be preserved (“Tailor Less”).
Flared jeans from Seven For All Mankind’s
Tailorless jean line, with a shorter inseam for
women of average height (left) and a model with
the standard 35-inch inseam.
“We’ve been seeing a change in silhouette since last year,” Barry Miguel, who’s
been president of Seven For All Mankind
since 2011, told WWD. “It started with the
boyfriend’s return and the relaxed skinny
and the vintage high-waist look, and that
led into the boot cut among the early
adopters and the flare this spring. That
took us back to our roots as a brand and
we’re continuing to see the flare develop.
“But the wider leg trend has been
showing up more and more,” he said.
“We offered culottes. There are multiple
signs of the wider leg being accepted.”
He estimated that the flare accounted
for about 5 percent of Seven’s bottoms
business last year, a figure he expects to
reach about 15 percent this fall. “And we
fully expect the Tailorless range to make
up about 30 percent of flare sales during
the second half of the year,” he said.
Fall offerings of the new line will hit
retail in August and holiday items at the
start of October. Retail prices are to range
from $189 to $215.
The fall Tailorless assortment consists
of three styles — A-Pocket in Slim Illusion
Tried and True Blue, Dojo in Lake Blue
and Ginger in Royal Broken Twill. Four
pieces will be added to the line for holiday — Ginger with Released Hem in Bright
Light Broken Twill, Dojo in Pretty Light
Vintage, Pintuck Trouser in Sweet Light
Indigo and True Rinsed.
One of the advantages of a lessmodified flare, Miguel noted, was that it
would help keep the purchaser’s footwear
options open, whether she be inclined
towards a boot, a wedge or a low heel.
“This doesn’t mean the whole industry
is going flared,” he said. “The industry is
moving on silhouettes again. This is about
the woman feeling comfortable with new
silhouettes. We’re simply trying to make
the trend accessible for more women.”
expected to continue to grow as a sourcing destination. But a smaller percentage
of respondents, about 42 percent, said
they would increase sourcing in Bangladesh in the time period, “a sharp decline”
from 65 percent of the respondents in last
year’s survey.
It also found mixed results for the
utilization of U.S. free-trade agreements,
under which companies that meet the
rules of origin can receive duty-free benefits. The top free-trade agreements and
preference programs among respondents
were the Central American Free Trade
Agreement, utilized by 70 percent of the
respondents; the North American Free
Trade Agreement, used by 67 percent;
and the United States-Jordan Free Trade
Agreement, utilized by 52 percent. The
fourth-ranked program — the African
Growth and Opportunity Act — is used by
37 percent of respondents, but all other
trade agreements and programs have
utilization rates of 30 percent or lower,
the study found.
The survey, taken in March and April,
was confidential and included USFIA members and nonmembers. About 80 percent of
the respondents are retailers, while 57 percent are brands and 57 percent are engaged
in the import and wholesale business, while
11 percent represent manufacturers and
suppliers. About 90 percent of the respondents employ more than 100 employees.
OBITUARY
Marc A. Seldin,
Miss Elaine Inc.
Chairman, 86
● The company’s chairman of
the board died on June 5 at his
home in St. Louis.
BY ARIA HUGHES
Marc A. Seldin, chairman of the board at
Miss Elaine Inc., died June 5 at his home in
St. Louis. He was 86 years old.
Seldin joined Miss Elaine, his family’s business that was previously named Sel-Mor Garment Co., in 1953. Seldin described himself as
head of product development for the women’s
sleepwear and loungewear manufacturer,
which is headquartered in St. Louis.
According to a spokeswoman, he was
responsible for introducing some of the
innerwear industry’s most innovative styles
and fabrics and built Miss Elaine into a
top-selling brand. The Underfashion Club,
an intimate apparel nonprofit organization, honored Seldin in 1981 with a Femmy
Award for his achievements in the industry.
Seldin graduated from Princeton University in 1951 with a degree in architecture,
then served as a Coast Guard captain during the Korean War.
Miss Elaine, now a 90-year-old business, is run by his son, James Seldin, but
a spokeswoman said Seldin remained
actively involved in the company’s creative
process throughout his life.
In later years, Seldin contributed to a variety of charitable organizations, including the
City Academy, a private school in St. Louis,
the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the Jewish
Federation and Washington University.
Along with James, Seldin is survived by
his wife, Marjorie; two other children, Jeffrey and Sally; a stepson, Keith Fleischer,
and four grandchildren. His former wife,
Suzy Seldin, also survives him.
10 JUNE 18, 2015
Tech Start-ups:
The Right Time
To Seek Funds?
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“It’s an interesting time for fashion
tech from an investment standpoint,”
said Matthew Wong, a research analyst
with New York-based angel and venture
capital research firm CB Insights. “There
have been companies that have raised
quite a bit of money in the space…and yet
there’s pressure to have a big hit. We saw
companies like Fab disintegrate recently.
That creates pressure for some of these
companies, especially the ones that are well
funded, to figure out their models faster.”
That’s one reason Lawrence Wisne,
founder of the recently launched online
shop Lyon + Post, chose to wait before
raising more capital after an initial friendsand-family round that went to pay for the
store’s first wave of inventory.
“One of the big benefits with e-commerce
is that you can be making money early on in
the process, so our challenge is to essentially
bootstrap the company and then show the
money that we have [to investors],” Wisne
said. “With our business model, we could
have raised early and said ‘Hey, we’ll figure
out these big question marks as we go,’ but
you pay for that in the longer term.”
Wisne’s San Francisco start-up sells
apparel from contemporary lines such as
Joie and Bec & Bridge, and carries inventory
— unlike some e-commerce players that sell
product held by the vendors themselves. The
former is a model that gave some investors
pause in the past, but the ones who missed
out on getting in early with something like
a Trunk Club, which Nordstrom bought
for $350 million last year, or Stitch Fix,
projected to see revenue of around $200
million this year, have a second chance with
the endless crop of start-ups entering the
fray. Wisne sees that as an opportunity for
Lyon + Post, which intends to begin raising
for its Series A round of financing this year.
“The e-commerce sector, in general, kind
of goes through a lot of cycles, and I’d say
in the last couple of years it’s been a little
out of favor with the venture community,”
said Dana Settle, cofounder and partner of
Greycroft Partners, which has invested in
Trunk Club, The Real Real and BaubleBar,
among others. “It’s come back in a little bit
in the last six months, partially driven by
an IPO of Zulily. The venture market tends
to be sort of finicky and when they see a
company like [Zulily] that was able to grow
quickly [and] go public, then all of a sudden
it makes people see it as viable.”
Two-year-old Carbon38, an e-tailer
selling high-end activewear lines such
as Michi and Duskii, intends to raise a
Series A round this year and both of the
company’s founders are optimistic about
the prospects. The Los Angeles-based firm
has raised about $2 million to date.
“We have the data to prove that this
concept is going to be huge, not just because
Fashion
Scoops
MOSCHINO IN FLORENCE: Jeremy Scott is about
to put Florence on fire. Katy Perry and A$AP Rocky
will attend the Moschino show on Thursday at
Palazzo Corsini.
Perry is not only a longtime friend of Scott’s but
also appears in the Italian brand’s fall advertising
campaign.
The Florentine show marks Scott’s men’s wear
debut for Moschino in Italy. The designer presented his first two collections for the brand in London.
— ALESSANDRA TURRA
SEALED WITH A KISS: The Women in Film’s Crystal
+ Lucy Awards in L.A. Tuesday night certainly had
their shock value. Commenting on all the women
in the room, Sandra Bullock said, “We are all going
to be on the same menstrual cycle after tonight,”
Bullock deadpanned, before getting serious about
gender inequality in the film industry.
of the concept, but based on conversion rate
and based on the customers acquired and
that helps us to be optimistic about [venture
capitalists] or other institutional investors,”
said Caroline Gogolak, Carbon38 cofounder,
president and head buyer.
What investors want from young fashion
tech companies varies though, pointed out
Nava Brief-Fried, the founder of Israelbased ModLi, an online shop that aims to
sell modest fashions.
“Not all investors see the value of an
e-commerce company, which was hard,” she
said of her own experience raising money.
“They’d say ‘Oh, you’re not a tech company,’
but we’re just like eBay. We had to show a lot
more sales to make it seem more worthwhile
than a tech company. We really had to dig
deep into our data and find stuff to impress.
Sometimes the sales were what impressed.
Sometimes it was who I am.”
ModLi is in the process of opening
offices in New York following a $200,000
seed round raised in February, a process
Brief-Fried said wasn’t as easy as she
quick return on their investment.
Aella recently opened a showroom in
downtown Los Angeles that doubles as a
meeting space and place for customers
to shop by appointment. It also added a
skirt and two tops to its offering as it tests
expansion into new categories.
“Most investors are familiar now with the
[e-commerce] territory that the proof point
has definitely increased,” Cho said. “You
can’t wave money on just an idea online.
People want to see actual product. People
want to see that you have a marketing plan.
That just comes down to branding.”
Strong identities may be the one
commonality running through the
fashion tech companies that have
managed to nab funding.
“In general, the venture community,
I think, has been a little more leery of
e-commerce companies largely because at
the end of the day, they’re not a business
you can scale in the same way you can
[brick-and-mortar],” Greycroft’s Settle said.
“You have to really invest in building a
“If you go in [to investors] trying to be like
an Etsy, Fab or any of the other Web sites,
it’s not going to work. You can’t be just
another e-commerce platform.”
— Michael Zerah, The Daily Brands
expected. In another six months she plans
to look for Series A investors.
ModLi has already undergone a number
of transformations in a bid to create
a global business, including the site’s
rebrand earlier this year to LeeLach, which
previously sold a mix of products made by
Israeli designers.
“Staying small wasn’t going to help it,”
Brief-Fried said of the name change.
The companies that successfully raise
funding are flexible and they know how to
pivot, said Eunice Cho, founder of e-tailer
Aella, which launched in October to sell
the “ultimate women’s pants.”
“You have a start-up and you’re constantly
pivoting something about the business,” Cho
said, “whether that’s product offering, price
point, sales channel or the way that you’re
reaching your customer.”
Aella, to stand out from the competition,
lets customers try on two pant sizes and
then send one back for free. The store also
sells a few blazer styles, with the end goal
of offering a whole system of professional
pieces for women.
The company is part of South Gate,
Calif.-based Nextrade Inc., a company
owned by Cho’s parents. Her original
plan was to spin off into an independent
operation at which time she would begin
looking for seed funding. But she said
she’s no longer looking to as aggressively
raise money and is instead focused on a
measured approach to growth without
the pressure of outside investors seeking a
brand and ultimately acquire customers and
continue to acquire customers all the time.”
Competition is fierce in e-commerce, said
Michael Zerah, whose company The Daily
Brands makes the accessories shopping app
Daily Vice. The app, which counts about
5,000 users and features one accessory
to buy daily, has been meeting with angel
investors as it looks to raise seed funding.
“The more innovative you can be and
the more you can appease and attract the
Millennial demographic — that’s where it’s
at,” Zerah said. “If you go in [to investors]
trying to be like an Etsy, Fab or any of the
other Web sites, it’s not going to work. You
can’t be just another e-commerce platform.”
That’s why he, along with others, see
mobile as the future.
“Mobile is where it’s going and that’s
what we’re betting on,” Zerah said. “The
consumer attention span is milliseconds.
The days of Amazon and Gilt shopping,
taking time to browse, are kind of archaic
ways of shopping. The more curation we
can provide to the user and [say] ‘This is
what I’ve got for you, at this price point.
Do you want it, yes or no?’ And that’s how
we pitch it [to investors].”
Daily Vice hopes to add a swipe feature
similar to dating app Tinder sometime in
the summer.
The company, like many start-ups, isn’t
disclosing revenue projections for the year,
with Zerah saying, “We’re going to stay
pretty private and keep it close to the chest.”
After all, no company wants to be the
Honorees included Nicole Kidman, Kate Mara,
Sue Kroll of Warner Bros., “Transparent” creator
Jill Soloway, director Ava DuVernay and agent Toni
Howard. But it was Kidman who stole the show after
being presented with her award by longtime friend
Naomi Watts. Closing out the night, Kidman hit the
stage and recalled that she was once too insecure to
do a student film because it would have required her
to wear a shower cap and kiss another girl. “Today
I know that…I’m ready to don this cap and kiss any
woman in the room,” she joked, before throwing on
the unexpected accessory. With that, Watts promptly
joined her and the two dramatically kissed — giving
new meaning to the term nightcap. — LINDZI SCHARF
“Study of Pose: 1,000 Poses by Coco Rocha,” in 2014.
Rocha has positioned herself as a digitally
savvy model with a social media presence of over
16 million followers. — LISA LOCKWOOD
TADASHI REOPENS AT SOUTH COAST PLAZA:
COCO’S NEW CLAN: IMG Models has signed Coco
Rocha for worldwide representation. In signing
with IMG Models, Rocha has extended her relationship with WME/IMG, since WME has represented Rocha in TV, commercials, books and speaking
engagements since 2013.
The 26-year-old Canadian-born model was
previously represented by Wilhelmina Models.
Rocha has walked the runways for such
designers as Marc Jacobs, Versace, Prada, Louis
Vuitton, Anna Sui, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and
one that explodes out of the gate with
mega-venture capital rounds and then
trips over false starts.
The industry’s “littered with the
carcasses of companies that have raised
$20 million” and then gone away, pointed
out Karn Saroya, cofounder of the Canadabased app Stylekick. The app showcases
street style fashion one outfit at a time.
The company’s recently closed angel
round totaled $1 million and that money’s
since been funneled into improving the
app’s shopping capabilities, with the recent
debut of an update that landed the app
on the homepage of Apple App Store. The
company will gear up for its seed round in
about six months, according to Saroya.
“The story up until now has been to
release this quietly, get feedback and
then iterate,” Saroya said. “The very first
iteration of Stylekick was built in three
days. All it did was it showed three outfits
at a time. All you could do was double tap
on any part of an outfit. We saw incredibly
high levels of engagement. So we took a
step back and built out the app for real and
spent five or six months building out the
shopping functionality. So when we did that
and we started to show traction, we were
getting millions of impressions a month.”
To ensure buzzy brands don’t get ahead
of themselves and grow too quickly or
only focus on top line growth, the business
strategy for some has shifted to a focus on
profitability right out of the gate. That’s
particularly the case with e-commerce.
“E-commerce businesses are just lower
margin businesses fundamentally, so I think
for a while a lot of investors were thinking
about that difference and thinking, like all startups, it was just about scale and that’s when
we ran into those things like Fab that actually
never had a business model that worked,”
Settle said. “So we at Trunk Club did focus
on profit over growth mostly because you
really do want to understand the levers in the
business.…At the end of the day, businesses
have to run a profit at some point.”
That’s what all companies should be
thinking about, said Carbon38 cofounder
and chief executive officer Katie Warner
Johnson. “I think that should be the strategy
for any business, whether you’re getting
institutional capital or not,” she said.
With a steady stream of funding
announcements and swelling valuations
— and few IPOs to show for it — there
have been cries of another tech bubble.
But industry watchers say the hysteria is
overplayed and somewhat misguided.
“It’s definitely frothy right now for
start-ups. I wouldn’t go as far as calling
it a bubble,” CB Insight’s Wong said.
“Adding nine figures of funding over just
six months, it’s definitely worrying for
some companies. There’s a worry that if
companies are going to stay private this
long and not even test the public markets,
then there will be more companies like Fab
— or at least some sort of normalization
where there’s a disconnect in what they
can raise in private and what they can
raise from an IPO.”
Coco Rocha
Balenciaga. She has done commercial work for
brands including CK One, Christian Dior, Chanel,
YSL Beauté, Jean Paul Gaultier, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Dolce & Gabbana and Diesel among others.
Featured on Oxygen’s reality competition series
“The Face,” Rocha also published her first book,
Los Angeles-based eveningwear designer Tadashi
Shoji will open his redesigned boutique at South
Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Saturday. Shoji
enlisted architecture firm (M)Arch. to transform the
1,175-square-foot space, as well as Shoji’s newest
store in Doha, Qatar, which is slated to open later
this year. The exterior façade features a backlit,
textured glass cube. Inspired by the ambiance of
Shoji’s runway shows, the contemporary space
suggests a catwalk with a giant plasma screen in
the entryway showcasing footage from the shows,
while light and dark ceramic floor tiles are positioned in a strip resembling a runway. Behind the
video content wall, a rear-facing mirror reflects the
cream and pink interior. In the center of the store is
a custom-made cube composed of large textured,
translucent, operational vertical glass louvers on
steel framing. This architectural component can be
moved to create private and semiprivate shopping
experiences and fitting rooms. — MARCY MEDINA
11
JUNE 18, 2015 MARKETS
David Jones Joins Iconix as CFO
Here and below:
Looks from Omsignal.
● Jones Succeeds Jeff
Lupinacci, who left the brand
management firm in March.
BY ARNOLD J. KARR
David Jones has joined Iconix Brand Group
Inc. as executive vice president and chief
financial officer. He succeeds Jeff Lupinacci,
who left the firm in March and this month
rejoined IPG Mediabrands as global cfo.
Jones will report to Neil Cole, chief executive officer of Iconix, and lead the company’s finance and technology functions.
For the past 12 years, Jones has been
with Penske Automotive Group, a global
transportation services company, where he
served as executive vice president and cfo
as well as cfo of European operations. Prior
to Penske, Jones, a certified public accountant, spent 11 years with Andersen LLP.
Cole said Jones “has proven experience
RETAIL
as the cfo of a multibillion-dollar public
company and has the technical, financial
and strategic skills required to successfully
lead Iconix as our chief financial officer.”
Jones characterized Iconix as a
“dynamic, highly profitable and strong
cash-generating company. Neil and the
entire Iconix team have built a very successful business and I look forward to
working with them to continue to grow the
company’s global platform.”
Iconix owns, licenses and markets a large
number of consumer brands, including Candie’s, Badgley Mischka, Rampage, London
Fog, Umbro and Marc Ecko. It also holds
interests in brands such as Material Girl, Peanuts, Ed Hardy, Buffalo and Nick Graham.
Since Lupinacci’s departure, the duties
of the cfo had been handled by David
Blumberg, executive vice president and
head of strategic development, on an
interim basis.
Omsignal Powers Up Apparel
●
The brand has seen the
future of wearable
technology, and it’s apparel.
BY SHARON EDELSON
Omsignal, the Canadian company that
created the technology for Ralph Lauren’s
Polo Tech smart shirt, is developing its
own brand of compression shirts and
opened a pop-up shop at Westfield San
Francisco Centre’s Bespoke retail innovation tech hub.
Omsignal this week named Shaz
Kahng, the former president of Lucy
Activewear, to its board of directors.
Kahng told WWD that she’ll be taking an
active role in the company. “Omsignal is
strong on the technology side, but hasn’t
had as much exposure and experience
on the retail and apparel side,” she said.
“I’m helping them refine their business
strategy and approach. I’m giving them
entrée to companies they’re interested
in talking with and I’m helping them
learn the lingo and the business of retail
and apparel.”
Omsignal, whose core business is
gathering and interpreting biological
signals, powers brands like Lauren with
data usage. The platform is built to send
biometrics to medical partners with full
consumer consent, of course.”
Joanna Berzowska, head of electronic
textiles at Omsignal, created fibers
imbued with electronic properties that
“disappear into the background,” she
said. “It’s a trade-off between fit, style
and the biometric possibilities. A lot of
consumers want to monitor their heart
rate, so our shirts give ECG. I think
Memo
Pad
STREET OF DREAMS: Charting
Wenner photograph by Chance Yeh/Getty Images
“With smart textiles you can wear signals
anywhere on the body. Right now, with our
shirt we can capture deep biometrics and data
usage. The platform is built to send biometrics to
medical partners with full consumer consent.”
— Stephane Marceau, Omsignal
technology that reads signals via sensors
knitted into products. “We’re an ingredient brand,” said Stephane Marceau,
cofounder and chief executive officer
of Omsignal. “Our focus is to work with
major brands and help them seize this
moment of disruption.”
The company aims to cause some
disruption of its own. A collection of OM
compression shirts sold with little black
boxes that transmit data from the smart
shirt to an iOS device is available for $249
on Omsignal’s Web site. The shirts are
currently available for men only.
“We’re planning on doing women’s
products,” Kahng said. “With women’s,
we’re looking at sports, fitness and
overall wellness. What’s been driving the
growth of apparel is active wear.”
“Clothes have advantages over other
wearables,” said Marceau said. “With
smart textiles you can wear signals anywhere on the body. Right now, with our
shirt we can capture deep biometrics and
breathing is most important. There’s
so much we can gain by learning to
breathe better. The idea is to make garments and not have to strap all kinds of
gear on our bodies.”
Smart apparel has historically
appealed to elite athletes and sports
enthusiasts, but Omsignal hopes to
broaden the market. “Omsignal wants to
expand to general wellness so the average person can monitor their biometrics,” said Kahng, who was Nike’s global
director of women’s training and prior to
that, one of three product leaders for the
launch of Nike +.
The company’s small design team
has been approaching apparel from the
standpoint of fit and function, but Kahng
said it’s time to bring in designers. “As
they evolve the design aesthetic, the
appeal of the products will broaden,” she
said. “Smart apparel is really the next
step, where you use apparel as a dashboard for your own body.”
a new direction for her Miu Miu
fashion house, Miuccia Prada took
a more photojournalistic approach
with the fall campaign, slated to
break in The New York Times this
week followed by the August issues of monthlies including W, I-D,
Love and American, French and
Italian Vogue.
Steven Meisel trained his
camera on young actresses Maddison Brown,
Hailey Gates, Mia Goth and Stacy Martin in the
outer boroughs of New York — with passersby
seemingly from various other eras heightening
the retro-tinged designs and hairstyles.
“The street photograph represents a more immediate, engaged, lived art,” according to Miu Miu,
which titled the campaign “Subjective Reality.”
The photos are also captioned, albeit cryptically, to heighten the mystery around these scenes
as the young women find themselves on a busy
sidewalk, or approaching a car. — MILES SOCHA
Jann
Wenner
WENNER CUTS: Wenner Media is taking a magni-
fying glass and a scalpel to its business.
WWD has learned that US Weekly is the latest
of the company’s publications to experience cuts,
with a handful of layoffs on the editorial side.
Sources indicated that fashion director Sasha
Charnin Morrison and about four other editorial
staffers were let go Tuesday.
A spokeswoman from Wenner confirmed
the departure of Morrison, who worked at the
company for just over nine years, but declined
to comment on additional layoffs. The fashion
director role has been eliminated, US Weekly said,
but it added that fashion coverage will continue in
the magazine.
The cuts are part of an internal consolidation and reallocation of resources at US
Weekly on both the editorial and business
sides. Insiders noted that the realignment
reflects a companywide move to become more
digitally savvy. This includes making changes
at Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal, an insider
noted, and pointed to cofounder and publisher
Jann Wenner’s penchant for “cleaning up
costs” every so often, despite the fact that the
company is run “very lean.”
There has already been some indication of
change at Rolling Stone — on the business side
at least – following its University of Virginia Rape
story. In April executive director of integrated
marketing Artie Athas quietly left the company,
yet sources told WWD that the magazine is now
in hiring mode, focusing — unsurprisingly — on
bringing in staff with digital experience.
— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD
12 JUNE 18, 2015
West Village’s Caffé Dante Reopens
The new Dante will keep much of the same DNA as the original.
When it was revealed that Caffé Dante — the West
Village coffee shop that’s been serving up cannoli
and cappuccinos for 100 years — would be closing, the Internet let out a collective cry. The weeps
quickly turned into grumblings of betrayal when
news came that an Australian team led by Linden
Pride would be reopening the Italian institution under
the same name. Would espresso and pastries be replaced with Vegemite and wallaby? Pride maintains
that this takeover isn’t of the hostile type.
“I think that really the appeal was working in a
space that transcended food and beverage — somewhere that had a presence of hospitality,” he says.
“Even in the last five years it’s just incredible to see the
way that the shops have become these mass chains.
Especially with Starbucks appearing on Bleecker
Street and a lot of the old places just disappearing.”
As such, the new Dante will keep much of the
same DNA, in part because it has to — the area
surrounding MacDougal Street is landmarked and
certain things couldn’t be changed — but mostly because Pride believes in what it stands for. “There’s a
responsibility with taking this over. There have been
a lot of locals coming to the front door who initially
showed their disappointment when they thought
Dante was closing,” he says. “There’s almost this
relief that Caffé Dante is going to stay here, and I
Linden
Pride
Miley Cyrus in Moschino.
AmfAR Honors
Cyrus, Cohen
The gay rights advocates received awards at the gala in New York,
where Mary J. Blige also serenaded the crowd.
Andy Cohen in Ralph Lauren Black
Label with LuAnn de Lesseps.
Mary J. Blige
Alexander Wang, Abbey Lee Kershaw and Tinashe.
On Tuesday night, amfAR staged one of its galas
in New York City. It was the organization’s fifth major event this year, following similarly extravagant
fundraisers in Cannes, São Paulo, Hong Kong and
New York, again, in February. Milan is coming up in
September. If you miss one amfAR gala, that’s OK.
There’s always another one just around the corner.
In fact, you may only need to attend one of its
boozy auction-cum-concert powwows to get a
handle on them. De rigueur is the appearance
of at least one diva, two if you can help it: Shirley
Bassey belted out some hits in New York just
before fashion week; Cher was honored and Kylie
Minogue performed in Brazil, and on Tuesday night
Miley Cyrus received an award and Mary J. Blige,
who has through no fault of her own become the
de facto performer at do-gooder galas everywhere, serenaded the audience at Spring Studios
with “Family Affair.” Again. (She was also due to
perform on Wednesday night, though granted for a
less charitable cause, a fine jewelry launch.)
AmfAR — which it should be noted, raised $1.5
million for AIDS research on Tuesday — grades on
a scale when choosing the award recipients at its
black-tie benefits. For instance, Harry Belafonte
was the subject of a tribute in New York earlier this
year, a choice that raised no eyebrows given the
actor’s longtime civil rights activism.
But what have Cyrus and Andy Cohen, the man
often credited with ushering in the era of Bravo’s
“Real Housewives,” done for the cause?
Cohen, as it turns out, has been involved with
amfAR for some 10 years, according to the organization, chairing multiple of its benefits and serving
once as the host of this same event in Los Angeles
a few years ago. “If people need him to show up,
he shows up,” said Sandra Bernhard, and if there’s
one thing you can say for Cohen, it is certainly that.
think the challenge really is that there has to be a
balance, we have to maintain the integrity but we
have to continue to evolve.”
The biggest change he’s implementing is making
the café a place where patrons can come for a full
meal. Chef Noriyuki Sugie, a Charlie Trotter alum, will
serve up spuntini (“snacks”), such as pesto pasta
salad with snap peas, cherries, artichokes and pine
nuts and flatbreads, including one with sardines and
romesco. The share-plate-style menu will also feature main courses for the first time: vongole spaghetti-soup with littleneck clams and garlic, hanger
steak with broccolini, and a roasted half-chicken.
“We really wanted to offer a menu that was
healthier and lighter and really focused on deliciousness,” says Pride. “So that when you have a full
meal you don’t feel down or heavy. We’re still paying
tribute to the Italian heritage of the space, but we’ve
added a lot more international flavors and influences there, using some Middle Eastern spices and
some more developed cooking techniques.”
The cocktail menu, too, will focus on light, fresh
offerings. There’s the classic Salty Dog, made
with Absolut and “fluffy grapefruit juice,” and
the Garibaldi, with Campari and “immediately
squeezed orange juice.” “We won’t serve anything
that can’t be juiced on the premises,” says Pride.
“We wanted the drinks to be the kind that you
could drink at any time of day — that wouldn’t
necessarily knock you over. The kind of drink that
you can just enjoy and maybe have two or three
of and not feel overly intoxicated.”
The updated bright and airy decor fits the theme.
Pride’s team reinstalled the pressed tin ceiling that was
there in the Thirties, and reupholstered the restaurant’s
original banquettes in a creamy color. One back bar
is set up to look like an Italian grocer with pickles and
oils, while the other features a vintage-style juicer and
bowls of fresh pomegranates. Instead of the vintage
photos of Venice that dotted the old space, black-andwhite images of patrons through the years — including
Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino — will hang on the walls.
It’s easy to feel like you’re being transported to Southern Italy — and it’s a far cry from the college bars and
pizza joints that have landed up the street in recent
years. Which is, of course, the point.
“I think the most important thing to us at the
moment is community,” says Pride. “We want
somewhere where you can come every day and
have an oasis or sanctuary in what can be a really
chaotic city. We just wanted that place to really
call our home in New York.”
— ALLY BETKER
Heidi
Klum
Many of his creations — LuAnn de Lesseps, Nene
Leakes and several cast members of the show
“Million Dollar Listing” were on hand to witness his
moment in the spotlight.
Cyrus, on the other hand, has become — in
recent years — a very prominent supporter of a
spectrum of causes and personalities in the gay
and lesbian community. And, let’s not forget, she
even turned up for the season finale of the show
“Rupaul’s Drag Race.”
“That alone qualifies you for an award here,”
said the comedian Billy Eichner.
The singer would make headlines the following
day as one of several pop stars in the new video,
“B---- I’m Madonna.” “I just did it literally somewhere
at one of my shows behind the scenes,” she said.
But on Tuesday, she was entirely in good Samaritan mode.
Trailed by her parents, Billy Ray and Tish, Cyrus
was in the arms of Tyler Ford, a transgender
teenager she met through Ariana Grande, and she
talked up the advocacy social media campaign
Ford launched earlier in the day for her own foundation, Happy Hippy.
It was not lost on her that at 22, her efforts
for this and other charitable causes are in their
infancy. “I don’t feel deserving,” she said of the
award she was about to receive. “That’s my whole
speech. I think it’s about setting a standard for myself. I think it takes a lot to get it, but I will hopefully
feel worth it one day.”
One tangible contribution the singer made to
amfAR were three framed Vanity Fair covers of
Caitlyn Jenner that she bedazzled herself to be
auctioned. They reached a high bid of $65,000
until Cyrus offered, presumably in jest, to show off
one of her breasts. The bid then went up $4,000.
— ERIK MAZA
AmfAR photographs by Steve Eichner; Dante by George Chinsee
From left: Summer cocktail with lillet rosé, elyx vodka, strawberry, watermelon, rhubarb and pink champagne; Cold angel hair pasta
salad with snap peas, cherries, artichoke, pine nuts, green tea pesto; Scallop, octopus and fluke crudos.