WWD Jan 6 - Westwood Regional School District

DAILY EDITION 6 JANUARY 2016 1
Sole Owner
Beth Buccini has bought
the stake of partner Sarah
Easley in fashion retailer
Kirna Zabête. PAGE 4
Big Bet
Ahead of the CES Show,
Fossil Group revealed it
will release 100 wearables
products this year. PAGE 13
Fashion. Beauty. Business.
Quadruple Play
Suki Waterhouse, Amber
Le Bon, Soo Joo Park and
Lea T talk beauty and
being a Redken
ambassador. PAGE 10
BUSINESS
Arnault, Catterton
Creating Consumer
Investment Giant
● L Catterton is expected to
ultimately have more than
$12 billion in funds under
management.
BY EVAN CLARK
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MILES SOCHA
Bernard Arnault and Catterton are
betting big that global reach will win the
day in the investment game.
The luxury titan and the private equity
player have agreed to join forces and
form L Catterton, which the partners say
will be the world’s largest consumer-focused investment firm with more than
$12 billion under management.
The deal is subject to certain investor
approvals and is expected to close early
this year. It will create a giant headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., and London,
with more than 120 investment and
operating experts in 17 offices across five
continents.
Partners at Catterton will have a 60
percent stake in the combined business, with the balance owned jointly by
Arnault’s LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis
Vuitton and his family holding company
Groupe Arnault.
Leading the charge on the ground will
be global co-chief executive officers J.
FASHION
Lanvin in
Transition
Photograph by Dominique Maître
And we don’t mean the season. As the house searches for a
creative director to take over the role Alber Elbaz filled so
brilliantly for 14 years, women’s design director Chemena
Kamali made a bold play for the job. Rather that turn out a
low-key collection, she crossed Elbaz-created signatures with
her own often flamboyant ideas. The result, though imperfect,
indicated a confident designer unafraid to take a risk. Here,
the shiny, black-coated cotton trench, ruffled blouse and
velvet pants with a bag by Lucio Finale, creative director for
bags and shoes. For more on pre-fall, see pages 5 and 6.
BUSINESS
Mike Ashley’s
Sports Direct
Buying In
At Iconix
● The U.K. sports retailer
placed bets tied to 4.3 million
shares of Iconix, or 9 percent
of the company.
BY EVAN CLARK
The troubled Iconix Brand Group has
drawn the interest of Mike Ashley’s
Sports Direct International, a U.K. sports
retailer known for its rough and tumble
in the market — and a long-standing interest in Iconix’s Umbro brand.
Sports Direct has acquired an indirect
economic interest in 4.3 million Iconix
shares, or 9 percent of the company,
according to a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. The interest
was acquired through “contracts for
differences” entered into with Monecor
(London) Ltd., trading as ETX Capital.
The stake was built up over seven
Michael Chu and Scott A. Dahnke, the
current managing partners at Catterton.
Catterton’s North American and
Latin American private equity units will
complement LVMH and Groupe Arnault’s
European and Asian private equity and
real estate operations, L Capital and L
Real Estate.
All together that’s a potent combination: intimate knowledge of the global
luxury market, a vast Rolodex and piles
of money that need to be put to work.
A person familiar with the thinking
behind the deal said it was propelled
by the drumbeat of globalization and
the desire of most businesses to get
more than just a financial injection. The
expertise and muscle of the combined
company could, for instance, help a
luxury brand build a global presence in a
targeted way without having to saturate
any one market.
“Capital is sort of a commodity,” the
source said. “Business owners and entrepreneurs want solutions and support that
go beyond just the money.”
Arnault, who is chairman and ceo
of LVMH and Groupe Arnault — and,
according to Forbes, the world’s
13th-richest man — said the deal would
bring “together our global network
and industry expertise with Catterton’s
CONTINUED ON PG.9
weeks at the end of last year and while,
according to the filing, Sports Direct
“does not have the power to vote or
direct the vote, or power to dispose
or direct the disposition, of any of the
shares,” the move puts Ashley firmly into
orbit around Iconix.
Shares of Iconix plummeted nearly 80
percent last year amid the departure of
founder, chairman and chief executive
officer Neil Cole, and an active investigation by the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The stock closed off 6.7
percent to $6.40 Tuesday, but jumped
5.6 percent in after-hours trading.
Ashley, who owns Newcastle United
Football Club, is very familiar with Iconix’s Umbro athletic brand.
In 2007, he nearly doubled his stake in
Umbro to 29.9 percent from 15 percent —
enough to temporarily block Nike’s $582
million all-cash deal to buy the company,
which required approval from shareholders owning 75 percent of the company.
Nike and Ashley ultimately came to an
agreement that let the deal go through.
Analysts speculated at the time that the
move against Nike’s bid could damage
Sports Direct’s business with Nike, a
major vendor for the retailer.
But the playing field reset when Nike
off-loaded Umbro to Iconix for $225 million in 2012. Umbro is a major resource
for Sports Direct given its heritage in
English soccer.
Intellectual property specialist Iconix
CONTINUED ON PG.8
3
6 JANUARY 2016 BUSINESS
U.S. Retail Stocks Drop After
Seesaw Trading Day
● After an intense selloff Monday,
global stocks finished Tuesday
with varied results as Wall
Street pondered the impact of
an economic slump in China.
Shoppers inside
Shanghai’s IAPM mall.
BY ARTHUR ZACZKIEWICZ
At the closing bell. U.S. stocks finished with
mixed results after a tumultuous but comparatively less volatile session that took major indices on a roller-coaster ride throughout the day.
Trading volume was higher, and out of the gate
the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose. But later
in the day it dropped nearly 100 points before
closing up 9 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,158.
The S&P 500 squeaked by with a 0.2 percent
gain to 2,016 while the Nasdaq fell 0.2 percent
to 4,891. The S&P 500 Retailing Industry Group
Index fell 0.1 percent to close at 1,254.
Some of the decliners included Aéropostale
Inc. with a 7 percent drop to 26 cents and Avon
Products Inc. with a 9.9 percent decline to
$3.66. Elizabeth Arden Inc. lost 3.9 percent to
close at $9.32. Gainers included New York & Co.
Inc. with a 7.8 percent increase to $2.50 and
Chico’s FAS Inc. with a 3 percent gain to $10.91.
Earlier in the day, European indices ended
squarely in the green with the FTSE 100 in
London adding 0.7 percent to close at 6,137
while the Frankfurt DAX gained 0.3 percent to
finish at 10,310. The CAC 40 in Paris also rose
0.3 percent to end the day at 4,538.
European stocks in the retail and fashion
apparel segment tried to regain Monday’s
losses, but it was a struggle. After losing nearly 4
percent during the previous day’s selloff, shares
of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton closed
Tuesday with a 0.2 percent gain to 139.45 euros,
or $129.68. But Yoox Net-a-porter Group closed
down 1.4 percent on Tuesday to 31.66 euros, or
$29.44, after shedding 6.8 percent on Monday.
Kering closed down 0.6 percent to 150.90
euros, or $140.34, after losing 3.9 percent the
previous day.
In Europe, the economy is well-positioned —
at least for consumers. Following a euro zone
consumer-price report that showed inflation at
0.2 percent, IHS Global Insight chief European
and U.K. economist Howard Archer said it was
good news for consumers in the euro zone,
“But a headache for the [European Central
Bank] as consumer price inflation remained
down at 0.2 percent in December, thereby
defying expectations of a small uptick.”
Archer noted that the “failure of euro zone
inflation to pick up in December is good news
for consumers’ purchasing power; but it will
maintain ECB concern that prolonged very low
inflation could lead to a renewed weakening in
inflation expectations thereby making it harder
still to get euro zone consumer price inflation
up to its target rate of close to 2 percent.”
Archer noted that low crude oil prices will likely
keep inflation in check until 2018.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.4 percent to 18,374 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong
dropped 0.7 percent to 21,189. The Shanghai
Composite Index in China closed the day with a
0.3 percent decline to 3,288. Stocks in Asia on
Tuesday had initially showed gains following an
announcement from China’s central bank that
it could inject nearly $20 billion in funds to the
financial market. But investors reversed course
with the thinking it was not enough to boost the
economy.
As the market opened in the U.S., investors
weighed a report from Robert Buckland, a
Citigroup Inc. managing director and head of
global equity strategy, who said that the U.S.
Federal Reserve’s recent rate hike and expected
softness in corporate earnings lead his team to
downgrade U.S. equities to “underweight.” A
better bet, Buckland said, was European stocks
— except for those in the U.K. — as well as those
in Japan.
For the U.S., one bright spot was the credit
outlook and credit availability for small
BUSINESS
IPO Activity Strong
In Asia, Europe
● China could see some of the
largest IPO deals in 2016.
New York Stock Exchange phtoograph by Robert Mitra; They Are Wearing by Melodie Jeng
BY VICKI M. YOUNG
Last year was an OK one for initial public
offerings worldwide, but it was far from the
blockbuster of 2014.
According to two research reports from
IPO tracking firm Renaissance Capital — one
measuring global IPOs and the other those
in the U.S. — global IPOs raised only $156.5
billion last year, down 35 percent from 2014’s
seven-year high of $241.5 billion. Last year
was still decent when compared with the
$139.3 billion raised in 2013, the $99.0 billion
raised in 2012 and the $137.9 billion raised
in 2011. The Asia-Pacific region was again
dominant in 2015, with a 44.7 percent share
of all proceeds raised, mostly from financial
services firms. Europe ran a close second,
representing 35.3 percent of global proceeds
raised. The Hong Kong Exchange led IPO
proceeds across all global exchanges, with 33
IPOs raising $28.7 billion.
In comparison, U.S. IPO market activity
was a disappointment in 2015, with 170 IPOs
to market raising just $30 billion and representing a six-year low. That’s in contrast to
2014 when 272 IPOs raised $85.3 billion and
In 2015, U.S. IPO market activity
raised just $30 billion.
to 2013 when 222 IPOs raised $54.9 billion.
For the first eight months, the IPO market
was on target to reach more than 200 IPOs,
but issuance slowed in August and September
and stalled at year’s end. Renaissance said
there wasn’t any one explanation for the
decline in U.S. activity, noting instead several
factors driving the slowdown: Uncertainties about Federal Reserve and European
monetary policies; concerns over the Chinese
economy; poor IPO performance; declining
energy prices, and increases in M&A and
private market transactions.
While the health-care IPO reached a record
46 percent of deal flow due to biotechs, tech
deal count dropped 56 percent last year.
Renaissance attributed the lack of tech IPOs
to the availability of pre-IPO funding from the
private sector, as well as to valuation disconnects between private and public investors.
Even though A-share issuance in China was
open for only seven months last year, China’s
IPO market still accounted for nine of the 10
businesses, the Citi analysts said. For U.S. consumer spending, there are looming concerns.
The Atlanta Federal Reserve downwardly
revised its gross domestic product estimate for
the fourth quarter of 2015 from 2 percent to 0.7
percent. Deutsche Bank economists followed
suit with their own similar downward revision,
which was based on slowed manufacturing
activity and weaker construction spending.
This follows Monday’s report of slowed manufacturing activity from the U.S. Institute for
Supply Management. Manufacturing activity is
critical since employment in the sector tends to
pay higher wages. And it is also interconnected
to other sectors such as transportation and
energy. So, even as manufacturing represents a
smaller portion of the economy, a contraction
could negatively impact consumer spending on
goods and services, which drives nearly twothirds of the American economy.
Then there’s the weather. Retail Economist-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales
Index for the week ended January 2 showed a
2.4 percent decline. Year-over-year, sales gained
2.8 percent. Michael P. Niemira, chief economist
of The Retail Economist LLC, said weather was
a drag on sales, and “affected the consumers’
ability to shop in parts of the Midwest, but giftcard redemptions, returns and bargain-hunting
all helped to drive business more generally.”
In a separate report from Goldman Sachs,
retail analysts at the firm said “expectations
are muted” for many companies “as a holiday
season with decelerating retail store traffic
trends and unseasonably warm weather follows
weak [third-quarter same-store sales] results
with elevated inventories entering the holiday
quarter.”
Ike Boruchow, senior analyst at Wells Fargo
Securities, told clients Tuesday that he too was
concerned about traffic declines and warm
weather in December on gross margins across
retail.
By way of outlook, higher minimum wages
could help bolster the consumer discretionary
sector. Cowen & Co. analyst Vivien Azer said
while “unemployment has been falling steadily
— and gas prices too, more recently — the multiple minimum wage increases in 2014 and 2015
have been underappreciated, but meaningful,
given that 24 percent of U.S. households earn
less than $25,000 per year.”
Azer noted that for this year, 23 states will
boost the minimum wage by an average of 5.5
percent. “States in the West and the Northeast
lead the increase and are regions that already
boast the highest minimum wages in the country, which should fuel continued robust growth
for consumer categories that over-index to
lower-income consumers,” Azer explained.
best-performing IPOs of 2015. Top performers
included movie theater chain operator Wanda
Cinema Line, e-commerce Web site Happigo
Home Shopping and steel products manufacturer Shanghai Baosteel Packaging. Excluding
China’s A-Share market, best-performing IPOs
globally came from the consumer and healthcare sectors and include Swedish online
casino operator Evolution Gaming Group,
Chinese lingerie retailer Regina Miracle and
three U.S.-listed biotechs: Spark Therapeutics,
Seres Therapeutics and Penumbra.
Renaissance said issuance in Asia and
Europe remained strong at the end of 2015,
and “we expect this momentum to carry
through to 2016.” It also expects a number
of Chinese firms looking to list in Hong Kong
to represent some of the largest deals for
2016: Postal Savings Bank of China, expecting
to raise $10 billion; online lending platform
Lufax, raising $5 billion, and Bank of Beijing,
raising $4 billion.
On the U.S. front, the IPO tracking firm
said a pickup in tech issuance could occur. It
also noted several LBOs that had prepared to
go public last year, only to get deferred. One
example is Neiman Marcus, and the other is
supermarket chain Albertsons. Indoor cycling
chain SoulCycle has been on file since the
third quarter and could go at any time. At
the end of 2015, the U.S. IPO pipeline had 118
companies looking to raise $27 billion.
Renaissance said the pace of U.S. IPO activity in 2016 will start slowly as both issuers and
investors reset expectations and test investor
appetite. “We suspect that the 2016 U.S. IPO
market may be driven by factors not yet on
the table,” the report said.
TOP 5
TRENDING
ON WWD.COM
They Are
Wearing:
Taipei, Taiwan
● Residents in Taiwan’s
capital city displayed looks
that were quirky, cool and
sporty over the Christmas
holiday weekend.
●British GQ’s 50 Best
Dressed Men in Britain
● Pre-Fall 2016 Trend:
Neckties
●Spring 2016 Accessories:
Paris Collections
● Vuitton’s Spring Ads: From
‘Final Fantasy’ to Jaden
Smith
Global Stock Tracker
As of close Jan. 5, 2016
ADVANCERS
Ascena Retail Group Inc.
+3.43%
Vince Holding Corp.
+3.35%
Macy’s Inc.
+3.27%
Shinsegae Co. Ltd.
+3.17%
Chico’s FAS Inc.
+3.02%
DECLINERS
Avon Products Inc.
-9.85%
Iconix Brand Group Inc.
-6.71%
Next plc
-4.54%
Elizabeth Arden Inc.
-3.92%
Shanghai Metersbonwe
-3.31%
4
6 JANUARY 2016
Georg Jensen
Taps Sjöstedt
As CEO
● The Swedish executive was
most recently ceo of Karstadt.
BY LAURE GUILBAULT
PARIS — A new year, a new chief
executive officer at Georg Jensen. The
Danish fine jewelry brand has appointed
Eva-Lotta Sjöstedt as its new ceo. She
succeeds David Chu who will become
chairman alongside his existing role of
chief creative director.
The move comes after Marcus Teo, a
veteran stylist and fashion editor, who
had been hired in May 2014 by Chu to be
Georg Jensen vice president and creative
director, stepped down from his role in
late 2015.
Swedish-born, Copenhagen-based
Sjöstedt, a seasoned executive in the retail
sector, was most recently ceo of German
department store Karstadt, until July 2014
when she resigned after just six months.
Before that, Sjöstedt was deputy global
vice president of the Ikea Group.
The Investcorp-owned Danish
fine-jewelry brand lauded Sjöstedt’s
“proven track record” of “implementing
omnichannel strategies to market.”
“Chu’s three-year contract was
running to an end at the end of 2015,” a
spokeswoman for Investcorp explained.
“He will continue to play an integral role
at Georg Jensen becoming chairman and
continuing to act as chief creative director,
principally focused on design and forging
further innovative partnerships. Now is
the right time for Eva-Lotta to come on
board as ceo and lead Georg Jensen in the
next phase of its development,” she said.
The private equity fund bought Georg
Jensen from Denmark’s Axcel Capital
Partners for $140 million in November
2012.
On the retail front, the focus has been
on building up the brand in Europe and
Mainland China. (The company employs
1,500 and counts over 100 directly
operated stores, principally based across
the Europe and Asia-Pacific.) Under
Chu’s aegis, Georg Jensen has expanded
its global retail presence, including with
new stores in Munich and in London
plus a design center in Beijing as part of
its growth strategy in Asia — all in 2015.
Also last year, the brand also returned to
Baselworld after a five-year hiatus last year
with an expanded fine jewelry and watch
offer and launched collaborations with
designers such as Marc Newson and Zaha
Hadid.
In an interview last March, Chu said
revenue growth was in the double digits
and he was looking to double revenues
over the medium term.
RETAIL
Buccini Becomes Sole
Owner of Kirna Zabête
● After 17 years of running the
BY SHARON EDELSON
NEW YORK — Kirna Zabête now has a sole
owner.
Sarah Easley, who launched the Manhattan
fashion retailer with Beth Buccini in 1999,
has sold her equity interest in the business to
Buccini.
“What a fantastic adventure it has been to
create such a lasting retail experience and
brand as Kirna Zabête,” Easley said. “I am so
proud of what we have accomplished. Now I
am ready for new challenges.”
“Sarah has been my best friend since we
were 17 years old and my business partner
for the last 17 years,” Buccini said. “We’ve
had a great run. We’re both ready for a new
chapter, and I’m very excited about Kirna
Zabête’s future.
“Kirna Zabête has been successful because
we’ve remained true to our founding
mission, which is to offer the best edit of
the most important designers of today and
tomorrow in a warm and welcoming environment,” Buccini added. “That will never
change. The potential for the brand, both
through future retail stores and our Web site,
is significant.”
Buccini said she’s not ready to reveal anything with regard to stores yet.
Easley, who worked at Christian Dior in
the wholesale division before starting Kirna
Zabête, said she will “absolutely continue
to work in the fashion industry. I’m just
stepping away from Kirna Zabête,” she said.
“I have always wanted to take the joy I get
from styling clients in the store and scale it to
a broader audience. There is so much creativity and even comedy in this process. I would
love to share my decades of tips and tricks.
“As for working with brands, I’ll always
love merchandising collections,” Easley
added. “Also, I miss being a CFDA mentor. I
plan to get more involved in the CFDA again
and work with emerging designers. I will
announce my specific projects in the near
future.”
Kirna Zabête was an ambitious undertaking from the start. Buccini and Easley, who
attended the University of Virginia together,
hatched the idea for the store over a series of
lunches at Burger Heaven. They mailed their
60-page business plan to potential investors
and received 10 replies. At the time, Buccini
declined to identify their backers, saying
only, “It’s not our fathers.”
The name Kirna Zabête is a combination
of their nicknames. Easley was dubbed Kirna
“by a silly boyfriend in college,” and “Zabête
is the nickname for Elizabeth in French,”
Buccini said.
Kirna Zabête sells Fendi, Givenchy, Saint
Laurent and Valentino alongside rising
talents like Rosie Assoulin and Delpozo, with
witty finds such as Charlotte Simone tail
scarves thrown into the mix. In addition to
apparel, handbags, jewelry, shoes and accessories, there is a selection of tech products,
books and Mua Mua Anna Wintour dolls.
The original 5,000-square-foot Kirna
Zabête store opened in 1999 on Greene Street
with lavender floors, a cherry red staircase
and yellow jewelry cases.
The retailer outgrew that location and in
2013 moved to a 10,000-square-foot space
on Broome Street. Just prior to the opening,
Buccini said sales in the new store, which is
twice as large as the original Greene Street
unit and with three to four times the selling
space, would “easily double by the end of
2014.” Sales in subsequent years would rise
between five- and eightfold, she predicted,
adding that the original store did more than
$1,000 in sales per square foot.
Buccini declined to discuss the store’s
current performance or sales volume.
The Broome Street store’s black-and-white
hardwood floors, fuchsia Corinthian columns
and oversize black lacquer chandeliers set off
the products without overpowering them.
“We mix so many vendors and moods into
one store — whimsy, glamour, femme fatale
— we let the merchandise be the star of the
show,” Buccini said.
Neon sayings on the store’s walls read,
“Life is short, buy the shoes,” and “Always be
yourself, unless you can be a unicorn. Then
always be a unicorn.” The aphorisms are
typical of Easley and Buccini, who’ve never
taken themselves or fashion too seriously,
thumbing their noses at conventions such
as the all-black uniform for fashion folk by
opting to sell bright colors, and highlighting
witty faux furs by Shrimps.
The two women collaborated on projects
beyond Kirna Zabête. Buccini and Easley in
September 2012 were part of The Shops at
Target, where store owners were tapped by
the mass retailer to design products. “The
most shocking thing about the Target collaboration is that we found our inner designer,”
Buccini said at the time. Easley and Buccini
also collaborated with Nine West.
Asked if they often disagreed on the virtues of collections, Buccini said, “We’ve been
attending shows together since February
1999. Actually, we generally agreed on shows
and what to buy. We have a fantastic buying
team in place. If there was a disagreement,
we love a healthy debate, so we’d banter
back-and-forth until someone wins, or
we vote.”
BUSINESS
Givenchy Names U.S. President
● Laura Dubin-Wander has
joined the French house from
Christian Dior Couture.
BY MILES SOCHA
Eva-Lotta Sjöstedt
Kirna Zabête
on Broome
Street in
SoHo.
business they founded in 1999,
Sarah Easley is selling her
stake to partner Beth Buccini.
PARIS — Givenchy has named Laura DubinWander president of its U.S. business,
WWD has learned.
She started this week and reports to
Paris-based chief executive officer Philippe
Fortunato, who is spearheading the French
brand’s expansion drive.
Dubin-Wander joins Givenchy Corp. from
Christian Dior Couture, where she has been
vice president since 2012. Dior has yet to
communicate its succession plan.
Both Givenchy and Dior are controlled
by luxury titan Bernard Arnault, chairman
and ceo of family controlled LVMH Moët
Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Dubin-Wander’s résumé also includes
stints as director of merchandising at
Victoria’s Secret and she has been president
of Dana Buchman and Laundry by Shelli
Segal as well as president of Martin + Osa, a
division of American Eagle Outfitters.
She arrives at Givenchy at a heady
time for the brand in America. Last fall,
Givenchy opened a boutique at 747 Madison
Avenue in Manhattan, returning the brand
to the famed shopping street it vacated after
closing its original store nearby in 2006.
The brand’s buzzy couturier Riccardo
Tisci also ignited New York Fashion
Week with a one-off showing on Sept. 11
of Givenchy’s spring 2016 collection — a
poetic open-air spectacle choreographed by
performance artist Marina Abramović.
The Manhattan double-header
telegraphed that Givenchy has strong
ambitions for the U.S., which represents
about 20 percent of the total business.
“We think that the U.S. market is very
dynamic,” Fortunato said at the time.
At present, Givenchy operates two other
freestanding boutiques in America — in the
Miami Design District and Wynn Las Vegas
— and plans to expand in Florida next year
with a unit in the Aventura Mall.
Givenchy has also said it is looking to
open in California — likely Orange County
first, followed by Beverly Hills — and to
leverage distribution with key wholesale
partners in America, which include Neiman
Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth
Avenue.
Dubin-Wander is charged with managing
and leveraging the strategy of Givenchy and
will be in charge of developing its activities
in the U.S., according to the company.
She succeeds Devon Pike, who moved to
Gap Inc. as general manager, international,
according to her LinkedIn profile.
Sjöstedt photograph by Frantzesco Kangaris
BUSINESS
5
6 JANUARY 2016 Thom Browne
THOM BROWNE
It’s no secret that Thom Browne loves a uniform.
For pre-fall he declared that he wants to become a
destination for a uniform for women, much in the way
he’s known for short suits for men. What he has in mind
for the fairer sex was the basis of his eerily fantastic,
Asian-inspired spring collection: impeccably tailored
jackets and pleated skirts. Here, the pieces were
stripped a bit more bare and classically schoolish,
though nothing was ever plain.
Tailored jackets came in versions of his registered
tartan; varsity jackets, in patent leather and astrakhan.
And a longer, more sophisticated coat version of a varsity jacket was shown in a military cashmere that was
pretty soft but gets softer over time. “The snob appeal
of it is that you won’t appreciate it, your children won’t
appreciate but your grandchildren will,” said Browne of
the cashmere’s better-with-age value. Browne knows
the tension between novel/intriguingly weird and
tradition. The best examples were jackets with a light
down fill — he has experience from Moncler — and skirts
with charmingly odd denim patch pockets inspired
by Sears’ Toughskins. Not without a sense of whimsy,
Browne paid homage to his long-haired dachshund
puppy Hector, who was immortalized in prints as well
as dog-shaped handbags.
— JESSICA IREDALE
LANVIN
Chemena Kamali and Lucio Finale have very big
shoes to fill at Lanvin, heading a new team of designers
to temporarily replace Alber Elbaz, ousted in October
after a stellar 14-year tenure. The company’s chief
executive Michèle Huiban introduced Kamali, women’s
wear designer, and Finale, in charge of bags and shoes,
at a preview in Paris of the pre-fall collection. The pair
will also design the fall 2016 runway while the company
searches for a new creative director.
Kamali showed immediate confidence and polish,
delivering a flamboyant, risky collection. Though she
joined Lanvin from Chloé just a few weeks before Elbaz’s exit, she echoed his parlance about the customer.
“She is about fun and likes to express herself — she is
a real woman,” Kamali said, pointing out a few iconic
Lanvin items including a sculpted mustard satin tunic
constructed with graphic darts and worn over fluid
black pants and stretch lace T-shirt.
Yet this was hardly a purely reverential collection,
as the designer also cited recent retro subcultures as
influences, specifically the New Romantics, who, in the
early Eighties New Wave period in London, dressed
in various historical and romantic themes. To that
end, Kamali went soft with frills, which she sometimes
Photographs by Thomas Iannaccone and Dominique Maître
Sonia Rykiel
paired with voluminous tailoring for an offbeat slouchy
attitude. She worked with ample velvet and lace — familiar elements from her Chloé days — as well as an eyelet
embroidery for a white cotton shirt with frilled collar
and cuffs that peeked out from a rubberized black
cotton trench. Patchwork was another motif, rendered
variously in men’s necktie fabrics worked into appealing blouses and dresses, and furs, including a quirky fox
in spray-dyed in hues of yellow, blue and pink.
Accessories, meanwhile, were opulent. Finale
invoked the house iconography, employing the Lanvin
mother-and-daughter logo medallion on some handbags and using Lanvin’s signature blue for bag linings
and shoes soles. He also continued bag designs he
sees developing into house icons. One example: the
Gigi, shown in various sizes and finishes, including a
patchwork of python. He went new as well, with daringly
mixed metallic finishes and new hobo style bag with
bronze studs and a dyed agate stone charm dangling
in front.
It all made for an interesting debut pulsing with
bravado, particularly for pre-fall. On the upside, the
designers displayed an impressive fearlessness while
delivering some very appealing clothes and accessories. But there were some awkward moments of
proportion and cut. And Kamali in particular charted
too many different directions — some of them foreign to
the Lanvin aesthetic Elbaz defined. Come March, it will
be her challenge to make a clearer statement about
keeping some legacy — or just turning a new page.
— LAURENT FOLCHER
SONIA RYKIEL
Julie de Libran compared pre-fall to a grid in which
the needs and feedback of her clients, the house
signatures and creative fashion need to fit together.
That doesn’t mean she thought within the proverbial
box. Shown during a small presentation at Milk Studios
in New York, the lineup was full of variety, with a range
of outfits that exuded a distinct sense of youth and fun
but won’t alienate adult women.
Rykiel stripes were well played on a tweed knit
cardigan and skirt and an easy long dress worn with a
shorter, sharply tailored coat. If those were on the more
classic end of the Rykiel spectrum, de Libran introduced feisty novelty with coats with cutouts around
the lower back and glam-rockabilly tailoring, including
a super-cropped jacket and boyish pants. Novelty
patckwork denim was a highlight, as were the fluffy luxe
accents of fur hats and collars. De Libran noted that
the heart of Rykiel will always be in Saint Germain des
Prés, where, she said, “the girls are very free.”
— J.I.
Lanvin
6
6 JANUARY 2016
Tibi
TIBI
Amy Smilovic and her team had a collective craving
for ruffles for pre-fall even though “none of us are ruffle
people,” Smilovic said. “When we like something outside
of our comfort zone, it’s interesting to play with it and
get it to a place where we all want to wear it.”
Deconstructed and applied asymmetrically to the
hems of dresses or peplum blouses, subtle ruffled
accents looked cool, never precious. The frills drew a
Spanish association, as Smilovic developed a colorful
floral print featuring bullfighters, showing it on black
pajama-style separates, a sheer chiffon dress and
ankle boots. She tempered the soft, distinctly feminine
pieces with a few boyish looks, chic examples of which
included a light brown suit done in a fine houndstooth
pattern and a matching overcoat.
YEOHLEE
Yeohlee Teng infused subtle twists into her easy prefall lineup, softening her signature architectural shapes
with deceptively fluid fabrics such as crepe and silk
cupro. Her continued attention to form and construction could be seen in jackets that stood away from the
body, worked in mixed patterns that delivered surface
punch. Case in point: a version in a clean collage of
jacquards — plaid, houndstooth, tropical floral — paired
to a matching skirt. Teng also showed looks with more
obvious movement, including a group of charming, generously fringed dresses and skirts inspired, surprisingly,
by Marilyn Monroe in “Some Like It Hot.”
— K.G.
— KRISTI GARCED
TALBOT RUNHOF
Veronique Branquinho’s pre-fall could have doubled
as the wardrobe for a hipster reboot of “Snow White”
or “Sleeping Beauty.” The designer imaged chaste
damsels clad in Victorian-inspired high-neck, pintucked
lace blouses and dramatic floor-length skirts — some
cable-knit, some denim — walking in a dark winter forest.
Presumably it was cold out there, so she gave the girls
thick, blanketlike outerwear in blown-up men’s wear
patterns and a tree motif to cover up. The pieces alone
had a sense of individualistic, romantic appeal, but the
mix felt less than modern, especially an ivory cotton
dress with a lace collar that looked like a period-piece
nightshirt. Seemingly out of nowhere, there was also a
group featuring a cutesy Siamese cat print, because
Branquinho — along with Internet and fashion people
— loves cats.
After the most recent CFDA Awards in June, Johnny
Talbot and Adrian Runhof found themselves people-watching at Lincoln Center. “Everyone was checking themselves out and taking selfies,” said Talbot. “We
started thinking about girls going out, getting dressed
up together.” So began the idea for their super-meta
pre-fall look book, which captured a pair of models
playfully shooting photos of themselves with iPhones
and selfie sticks.
A youthful spirit was similarly reflected in the
clothes, which took a more modern turn this season.
Expanding on the sparkling gowns for which they’re
known, Talbot and Runhof explored elegant, relaxed
suiting — a gold-and-black metallic pleated tunic over
matching trousers — and jumpsuits in silk and lace. A
navy silk and jacquard bomber with pink metallic floral
embroidery paired with matching, wide-legged trousers
also offered a fresh, sporty take on evening.
— JESSICA IREDALE
— K.G.
Yeohlee
Talbot Runhof
Veronique Branquinho
Photographs by Thomas Iannaccone and George Chinsee
VERONIQUE BRANQUINHO
7
6 JANUARY 2016 RETAIL
Harvey Nichols
Profits Fall 55%
● The retailer eyes revamping
Knightsbridge store and
growing internationally.
BY SAMANTHA CONTI
LONDON — Harvey Nichols is spiffing
up its retail spaces with plans to unveil
two refurbished men’s wear floors at the
Knightsbridge flagship in April, and a
new beauty and accessories area before
the 2016 Christmas season.
The store sketched out some of its
plans as it released its results for the
2014-15 fiscal year. Sales in the 12 months
to March 28 were broadly flat, while profits were down 55 percent due to higher
costs, investments and administration
expenses.
Sales were 193.2 million pounds, or
$311.1 million, while profits fell to 5.1
million pounds, or $8.2 million, in the
period. All figures have been converted
at average exchange rates for the relevant period.
The year under review was the first
under the new leadership team with
Stacey Cartwright, group chief executive
officer, at the helm.
Cartwright said she was pleased that
the business had “maintained its top-line
financial performance for 2014-15 against
a backdrop of an increasingly challenging
external environment.”
“We are well advanced now on our
exciting journey to revitalize the Harvey
Nichols brand with a significant investment program in technology, our physical stores, our digital channel, and in
our people, to create a differentiated and
compelling customer offer,” she said.
Looking ahead, the company said it
anticipates the trading climate for luxury
retail “will continue to be uncertain” and
that retailers need to work even harder
to stand out.
Gross margins remained constant at 56
percent; operating profit before exceptional items was 13.9 million pounds, or
$22.4 million, 30 percent lower than last
year, “reflecting the preliminary investments that have been made in Harvey
Nichols people, the store environment,
marketing and technology during the
year,” the company said.
The retailer called the 2015-16 refurbishment of the Knightsbridge flagship
“aggressive” and said the ground floor
beauty and accessories space will
undergo a major overhaul before the end
of the year.
A new Birmingham store opened in
July 2015, and was recognized in November at the Retail Week Interior Awards
as Britain’s Best Department Store of the
Year.
The store said significant investment
was made in the launch of the store’s
first loyalty program, Rewards by Harvey Nichols, when a Rewards App was
launched in May.
The store also relaunched the Harvey
Nichols Web site with improvements
to the customer experience. Last fall
it launched its Hong Kong site, which
complements its two physical stores in
the territory.
In the spring, Harvey Nichols plans to
extend shipping destinations to other
international territories where there is
already strong awareness of the brand.
An exterior view of the Harvey
Nichols store in London.
Sales were 193.2
million pounds
while profits fell to
5.1 million pounds
during the 2014-15
fiscal year.
FASHION
Bally Shifts Gear With New Stores
● Brand to open 15 stores
worldwide and hires Billy
Daley as chief marketing
officer.
BY SAMANTHA CONTI
Bally is rapidly building up its store
network, and turning up the volume on
communications with the appointment of
its first chief marketing officer.
Chief executive officer Frédéric de Narp
told WWD the brand plans to open 15 stores
over the next 12 months, with a concentration on America and Japan.
The first, a 6,631-square-foot store, will
open in Los Angeles in February, with a
launch party planned for May. A second will
open in Ginza, Tokyo, in April. That store
will span 8,640 square feet.
De Narp said the past 24 months have
been all about crafting the prototype of the
new Bally and making key hires. This year,
he said, will be about the second chapter
of the brand’s development under its latest
owners, JAB Holdings, whose portfolio also
includes Jimmy Choo and Belstaff.
“After having created the new platform
for one of the oldest brands, it’s now
time to roll out the whole story. We have
so much to tell the world. It’s an exciting
moment,” said de Narp.
He added that the chief marketing officer’s position is a new one. William “Billy”
Daley has been appointed to the role and
will report directly to de Narp. He began
work this week.
“Billy’s appointment is a big step forward
for Bally because he brings with him a
wealth of skills and experience in luxury
brand-building and global communications” de Narp said. “His sophistication
and depth of knowledge about the luxury
market and how to move the needle in all
“We have so much to
tell the world. It’s an
exciting moment.”
— Frédéric de Narp,
Bally
aspects of brand marketing and communications are a huge asset, and the latest step
in the turnaround we began 24 months
ago.”
Daley was most recently at Marc Jacobs
International, where he held the position
of senior vice president of global communications. Prior to that, he was at Bottega
Veneta, where he held a variety of roles,
finishing his tenure there as worldwide
communications director. Prior to Bottega,
Daley was vice president of global communications at Michael Kors.
He has held key positions at KCD Inc.,
Dolce & Gabbana, Gap and Isaac Mizrahi,
where he began his career.
“Given its long, rich heritage and unique
positioning, Bally has enormous potential
for the future,” Daley said.
8
6 JANUARY 2016
THE MARKETS
Minkoff Outlines Plans for
Consumer-facing Show
expanded show of the spring
collection, along with a
sprinkling of pre-fall, will be
offered.
BY LISA LOCKWOOD
NEW YORK — Rebecca Minkoff, the
guinea pig in staging a consumer-facing
fashion show during New York Fashion
Week featuring in-season spring merchandise, is mapping out logistics for the
February show.
According to Uri Minkoff, chief executive officer, the company will present
a revised, edited and expanded show
of the spring collection, along with a
sprinkling of pre-fall. He acknowledged
that retailers have seen some of the looks
before, but the company will add its
ath-leisure collection, and some summer
items that no one has really seen. The
show, which will feature a live band, will
take place on Saturday, Feb. 13, at noon,
most likely at Skylight Clarkson Sq. The
venue is expected to seat around 500
people, one-third of whom will be everyday consumers.
Starting Feb. 11, Minkoff will host
appointments at its showroom to present
the fall collection to buyers so they can
make purchases. The fall line will be
shown to the media in March after the
European shows, said Minkoff.
Whether consumer-facing shows
will become a reality is currently a hot
topic under discussion. Last month, the
Council of Fashion Designers of America
said it has retained the Boston Consulting Group to evaluate a possible move
to more intimate presentations to the
trade, and larger production shows that
are consumer-facing and more closely
aligned with retail deliveries. The move
is part of an effort to improve full-price
selling at retail. The results of the BCG
survey are slated to be revealed in about
seven weeks. Minkoff is expected to be
Umbro
among those surveyed by the BCG.
The study will take an in-depth look
at the way fashion shows operate today,
with the aim of fixing what many industry experts consider a broken system
that confuses consumers. Collections are
hyped on social media months before
they’re actually in the stores and by the
time the consumer sees them at retail,
she is often bored by them.
Minkoff, who revealed his consumer-facing show a day before the CFDA’s
announcement last month, said he’s
received a lot of support from retailers.
“The reaction has been fabulous,” said
Minkoff, who said that he’s heard from
buyers who want to make sure their
spring buys are correct and have asked
whether the designer will be showing
things on the runway that they might
have missed in their order. He said he
doesn’t feel that the company is doing
double the work since they would normally have a fashion show and simultaneous showroom appointments, although
normally both efforts would be for the
same collection.
For Minkoff ’s fashion show, the audience comprises some of its top customers from their stores and Web site, social
fans who are enthusiastic about the
brand, and a certain number of customers selected by department and specialty
stores. “They’ll pick their customers
of choice,” said Minkoff, adding that
they could offer a sweepstakes or some
sort of contest. Bloggers and magazine
editors will also be invited. Minkoff is
still figuring out whether the consumers will sit with their respective store
representatives or not. He said it hasn’t
been decided who would foot the bill
for out-of-town customers attending the
fashion show. Consumers may pay for a
unique experience themselves or a store
could perhaps fly two or three winners
into town.
Minkoff likes the time and date the
company has selected since it allows the
consumers to fly in. “Noon on a Saturday
is very friendly to a consumer,” he said.
Designers have been bucking the
system to make their fashion shows more
closely aligned with their needs. Last
month Tom Ford canceled his runway
presentation in favor of one-on-one
appointments with press and buyers. He
revealed plans to host “intimate” presentations during New York Fashion Week
Rebecca and Uri Minkoff
Mike Ashley’s
Sports Direct
Buying In
At Iconix
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
rode high for a time, snapping up loads
of tired brands in the fashion world and
building them out with licensees and ventures in China.
The accounting surrounding the formation of some of the company’s joint
ventures has come under scrutiny. In
November, Iconix said it would restate its
results for fiscal 2013 through the first half
of fiscal 2015. Last month, the company
said it “intends to fully cooperate with
the SEC” after the agency issued a formal
notice of investigation. While the target is
not known, the process allows the security
watchdog’s Division of Enforcement to
issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to
testify.
All of that leaves Iconix in a very
vulnerable state. Clearly Ashley — who also
moved to block Sanpower of China’s deal
to buy House of Fraser in 2014 and still
has a stake in the U.K. department store
retailer — senses some sort of opportunity
at Iconix.
He’s also familiar with some of the
recent players and has long ties throughout
the industry. Seth Horowitz, for instance,
joined Iconix in 2012 and rose to be chief
operating officer before leaving last year.
Before that, he was ceo of Everlast Worldwide — and supported the company’s
acquisition by Ashley’s Sports Direct.
In general, Iconix could be called a
target-rich opportunity for a retailer or
investor: beaten down, but with lots of
brands that might interest a willing or
strategic investor.
The company owns or has ties to 35
brands including Ocean Pacific, Danskin,
Joe Boxer, Candie’s, Badgley Mischka,
Rampage, Mossimo, Rocawear, Lee Cooper, London Fog, Ed Hardy, Strawberry
Shortcake and Peanuts.
Sports Direct has 661 stores and sells
goods under its own brands, including
Dunlop, Slazenger and Everlast, and from
third parties including Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Under Armour and Puma, according
to S&P Capital IQ.
Umbro photograph by Davide Maestri
● A revised, edited and
on Feb. 18. Proenza Schouler took a firm
stand in December when the designers
said they would not release any pre-fall
imagery or sanction outside photography
and short-lead reviews of their collection
until the clothes, shoes and bags begin to
hit the stores around April. Silas Chou’s
daughter Vivian took a majority stake
in Thakoon Panichgul’s company last
month, with plans to turn it into a shownow, see-now, buy-now, wear-now brand.
Last season, both Givenchy and Rag &
Bone offered opportunities for consumers to attend their spring 2016 shows.
And Jeremy Scott has been making looks
from his Moschino shows immediately
available in the Italian brand’s stores
after the show.
9
6 JANUARY 2016 Arnault, Catterton
Creating Consumer
Investment Giant
Bernard Arnault
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
longstanding operational approach to
building value in consumer investments.”
Arnault has an association with Catterton since 1998, when he started investing
in the company’s funds.
Dahnke said: “The globalization of
media and technology, combined with
increasingly permeable geographic borders, is driving rapid consumer growth on
an unprecedented global scale. Together,
Catterton and L Capital will create a
global consumer investing franchise with
unmatched access to resources in the
industry. We expect this combination to
further our mission of investing in high
growth opportunities in categories with
attractive consumer economics.”
Chu added: “The breadth of our collective expertise will be second to none in the
consumer industry, and we look forward
to benefiting from the strength and global
reach of the team at L Capital and L Real
Estate as we continue to seek out investment opportunities with significant growth
potential.”
L Capital has operated as a development fund, investing mainly in jewelry
chains, affordable luxury, retail and
Arnault photograph by Dominique Maître; Goode by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for GREY GOOSE Vodka; Marithé + François Girbaud by Shawn Brackbill
ON THE ROAD
IT’S ALL GOODE
Marithé and François Girbaud are rolling
out with their new distribution channel — direct
selling. After holding three private sales in late
2015, the couple behind the namesake brand
has scheduled a flurry of private sales across
France and Belgium for 2016, starting with one
from Tuesday to Jan. 17 at the Galerie Joseph, on
123 rue de Turenne, in Paris’ Marais district.
They invited guest artist Stephanie Langard
to participate to the Paris event. For the occasion, Langard will display exclusive creations:
paintings on Girbaud denim.
“When the record industry felt the blow of
digital, artists started to go on the road again,
looking for their fans. We’ve always been a bit
rock ’n’ roll. We want to create proximity [to the
customers again],” Marithé Girbaud explained
to WWD in October before resurrecting the
namesake brand under a new operating company, Mad Lane.
The executive explained that they didn’t want
to work with stores anymore. Instead, they would
arrive in pop-up locations with their merchandising, dressing rooms and environment.
Other dates include Brussels from Feb. 4 to
6 and Bordeaux from Feb. 10 to 13, followed by
Nantes, Lyon and Strasbourg in March; Paris,
Aix-en-Provence and Toulouse in April; Nice,
Montpellier and Lille in May, and Paris, Bordeaux
and Lyon in June.
— LAURE GUILBAULT
Marithé +
François
Girbaud’s
cashmere
sweater and
cotton spandex
jeans, Qiyada
earring cuff,
Erickson
Beamon
bracelets,
Michelle
Campbell cuff
and rings, Dr.
Martens boots.
Diadora is set to ride “Downton Abbey” mania
through a new alliance with British actor Matthew
Goode.
Goode will join Diadora’s president and chief
executive officer Enrico Moretti Polegato at Pitti
Uomo in Florence on Jan. 12 to discuss the tie-up.
Described by a company spokeswoman as Diadora’s “ideal man of style,” Goode’s alliance is meant
to relay the company’s global expansion plans.
Founded in Italy in 1948 by Marcello Danieli,
Diadora is the only Italian athletic footwear and
apparel manufacturer to still make products in
Italy.
Diadora Sport’s senior public relations and
marketing specialist Elena Burighel said of Goode,
“We believe him to be perfectly on target with
[Diadora] Heritage. While not mass market, he is
classy, European, and good at what he does. He
perfectly represents the brand values. We chose
him also because he is an international actor
and we wanted to stress the point that Diadora
Heritage, as well as all Diadora lines, are always
becoming more and more international. In the last
couple of years, Diadora has strongly increased
its presence in the international markets.”
After his “Henry Talbot” character literally
raced away in a roadster from Michelle Dockery’s
“Lady Mary” at the end of season five, viewers
were left to wonder what Julian Fellowes has in
store for the pair this season. The former regular
on “The Good Wife,” who also appeared with
entertainment. It bought the Sandro, Maje
and Claudie Pierlot fashion chains in 2010,
leveraging its expertise with real estate to
expand the French brands and flip them to
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. three years
later, with market sources estimating L
Capital tripled its investment.
getting some critical reviews. The film also stars
Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.
Mangano has been a fixture on HSN, selling her
products there for more than 15 years. She holds
more than 100 patents and trademarks, and is the
founder of Ingenious Designs LLC, a subsidiary
of HSN.
Mangano said she was pleased to be part of
shopping “magic” at Macy’s. According to a Macy’s spokeswoman, “We definitely felt there was
a white space opportunity with this category of
products though there are some things we carry,
i.e. the memory foam pillow. So this offers a great
brand to fill a niche in our home assortment.” —
his pal Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Imitation
Game” and in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man,” is now a
brand ambassador for Diadora Heritage. He also
will be part of A+E Networks’ adaptation of Alex
Haley’s 1976 novel “Roots” and a remake of ABC’s
1977 miniseries. — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG
JOY TO THE WORLD
L Capital Real Estate specializes in the
luxury sector. Among its high-profile developments are L’Avenue in Shanghai and the
Miami Design District, owned by Miami
Design District Associates, a partnership
between Dacra and L Real Estate.
Catterton invests in all the major
consumer segments, including retail and
restaurants, consumer products and services, food and beverage, consumer health
and media and marketing services. Its
investments include Intercos, Pure Barre,
the Worth fashion brand, John Hardy, Restoration Hardware, Sweaty Betty, Frédéric
Fekkai, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Peloton
and more.
According to the company, it has made
more than 100 investments in consumer
brands since 1989. Catterton says it is the
largest consumer-focused private equity
group in North America with $5.5 billion in
capital “dedicated to growing middle market companies and emerging, high-growth
enterprises.” It was cofounded as Catterton-Simon Partners by Chu, Frank Vest and
former U.S. Treasury Secretary William
Simon and has raised seven private equity
funds and two growth equity funds since
its inception.
DAVID MOIN
BOLD EXPERIMENTS
Macy’s is bringing “Joy” to the world. Not the
movie, but the Joy Mangano brand, the inspiration
behind Jennifer Lawrence’s new movie “Joy.”
On Saturday, Mangano will appear at Macy’s
Herald Square to introduce her line, which is anchored by her famous self-wringing “Miracle Mop.”
She’ll also be selling her Huggable Hangers, My
Little Steamer, Better Beauty Case, MemoryCloud
Pillow, and Forever Fragrant Vase and Sticks at
Macy’s. Prices range from $29.99 for the mop to
$100 for the pillow.
Like Martha Stewart, Mangano is a doyenne
of home products. They’re both into organizers,
but Stewart’s collection at Macy’s revolves more
around bed, bath, cookware and utensils.
“Joy’s innovative products have helped make
home tasks easier for three decades, making
her a true leader in the industry,” said Martine
Reardon, Macy’s chief marketing officer.
Mangano’s first product, the Miracle Mop,
fueled her career. Mangano inspired the film
“Joy” by 20th Century Fox, which was released
on Christmas Day and is widely popular despite
Bottega Veneta tapped Viviane Sassen to shoot
its spring 2016 advertising campaign.
The Dutch photographer lensed models Mica
Arganaraz and Sven de Vries as they lounged on
Jean Dubuffet’s Jardin d’émail resin and concrete
installation with polyurethane paints, located
inside the garden of the Kröller-Müller Museum in
Amsterdam. The background’s black-and-white
surface creates a captivating contrast with the
vivid colors of the outfits sported by the two
models.
“Viviane’s work is both beautiful and enigmatic,” said Bottega Veneta creative director
Tomas Maier. “You can’t help but be drawn to her
images, her atmospheres and the distinct sense
of mystery she creates. I admire her bold experimentation and how she breaks the rules yet never
loses her balance.”
Sassen is the latest photographer to collaborate with Bottega Veneta, which previously
teamed up with the likes of Nobuyoshi Araki, Nan
Goldin, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Pieter Hugo, Peter
Lindbergh and Juergen Teller.
— ALESSSANDRA TURRA
Matthew Goode
An image from Bottega Veneta’s spring ad campaign.
10 6 JANUARY 2016
Redken Brand Ambassadors
Dish on Beauty, Fashion and Life
Suki Waterhouse, Soo Joo Park, Amber Le Bon and Leandra
Medeiros Cerezo, aka, Lea T sat down with WWD to talk
music, inspiration and their most-loved products.
PARIS — One brand, four very different faces.
Redken ambassadors Suki Waterhouse, Soo Joo
Park, Amber Le Bon and Leandra Medeiros Cerezo
aka Lea T sat down individually with WWD to discuss
their ambassadorships at the L’Oréal-owned haircare label, beauty secrets and life.
British actress and model Suki Waterhouse
fronted the launch of Redken Diamond Oil Glow
Dry.
WWD: What is your beauty ritual?
Suki Waterhouse: I try to use a retinol cream
twice a week, to keep away acne and scars and
resurface the skin — maybe a glycolic peel patch —
and vitamin C serum is my ultimate favorite. The best
thing I use every night is something called Healgel,
which is kind of like my secret weapon.
WWD: How do you exercise?
S.W.: I really like to do yoga and Pilates, and use
a bicycle a lot, instead of being in the car. I think any
time I can travel somewhere by myself on foot or on
a bike I’m much happier. I’m much more rooted to the
earth, and completing a journey by yourself, getting
there yourself, I think makes humans happy.
WWD: Do you have any beauty icons?
S.W.: Angelina Jolie, Kate Moss, Brigitte Bardot,
Audrey Hepburn and Jane Birkin.
WWD: Who are some of your fashion icons?
S.W.: Diane Keaton, people like Pattie Boyd or
Marianne Faithfull. More recently people like Marion
Cotillard or Lou Doillon, Jane Birkin’s daughter. She’s
a big icon.
WWD: How would you describe your fashion
style?
S.W.: I guess at heart I’m a tomboy, but I think
being so exposed to fashion has made me curious. I
really enjoy those moments where I get to dress up.
WWD: What’s your favorite item of clothing?
S.W.: I have a huge, massive knit jumper by J
Brand that I always go back to.
WWD: Do you have a most-loved movie?
S.W.: “Girl, Interrupted” or “Léon: The Professional.”
ago I started going to Dhaniel Doud.
WWD: What’s your beauty ritual?
S.J.P.: I have a very intensive hair ritual. I wash
my hair, like, once every three to four days, and in
between I just use the [Redken] Pillow Proof Blow
Dry shampoo. It builds texture as well as lessens the
greasy look. When I wash my hair, I start with a shampoo, then I prime with the [Extreme Length Primer
that] has biotin, rinse it and use conditioner. And then
I do a hair mask with [Extreme Strength Builder Plus]. I
put [Extreme Length Sealer] in.
As far as my skin care goes, I use Age Perfect
from L’Oréal. I have the Cell Renewal oil and cream,
and that helps with redness and puffiness, which is
key when you are traveling and flying so much.
WWD: Do you have an exercise regimen?
S.J.P.: No. I should, though.
WWD: Outside of the ambassadorship are you
working on any projects that you can discuss?
S.J.P.: I have been collaborating as a design
consultant for a wearable technology line called
Caeden, and besides that, modeling is a full-time job.
I love music, so I’ve been kind of trying to focus more
on that side, as well.
WWD: What groups do you adore?
S.J.P.: I listen to all kinds of music. At the moment
I am listening to a lot of pop, but I have a pretty wide
range of things [I like, such as] Tangerine Dream,
Velvet Underground, David Bowie. I love post-punk.
At the moment it’s a lot of hip-hop and pop music.
I also love Serge Gainsbourg, some jazz like Chet
Baker. It just kind of goes all over. That would be how I
describe my style.
WWD: What inspires your style?
S.J.P.: I take inspirations from things I like. Sartorially or beauty-wise it’s not so much about what’s on
trend. It is more about references that I find inspiring
– from old magazines, old films, old bands, musicians.
Just like that.
WWD: Who are some of your icons?
S.J.P.: I love Charlotte Rampling. I admire David
Suki Waterhouse
WWD: Music group?
S.W.: Suzi Quatro.
WWD: Restaurant?
S.W.: In London I love going to E&O because it’s
just full of sugar and rice.
WWD: Are you involved in any other projects
outside of the ambassadorship?
S.W.: I am working on a movie set in the Sixties in
London. I am going to play a famous pop star of the
time.
WWD: What message would you like to give as
a Redken ambassador?
S.W.: I think less is more. Stress less about the
way you look and concentrate more on filling yourself
up reading and watching things and meeting people,
having experiences so you feel full-up as a human.
[Figure out] what you stand for and who you are. You
always have to focus on that. The other stuff is just
for fun, extra.
Model Soo Joo Park was born in Seoul, moved to
southern California at age 10 and New York fourand-a-half years ago. She is the face of the Redken
Extreme Length line.
WWD: When did you start bleaching your hair?
Soo Joo Park: Three-and-a-half years ago. It
wasn’t that big of a deal because I had been wanting
to bleach it for a long time. It was just a little bit of
worry whether it could be done or not because back
then it was rare to see an Asian with bleached hair.
Initially, I went to Aura Friedman, and about two years
Bowie, Debbie Harry. I also like Tina Chow; she’s
supercool.
WWD: Do you have a favorite item of clothing?
S.J.P.: Not just one. It’s hard. I usually like comfortable stuff, like cashmere. Lately, it’s not about
anything else but texture and [if I] like the quality of
the textile. So it’s [about] nice silks and nice linens in
summer.
WWD: To where would you like to travel?
S.J.P.: Bali.
WWD: As a Redken ambassador is there a
message you’d like to impart?
S.J.P.: Beauty doesn’t have to be the dictionary
definition. It could be something very unconventional,
but with your confidence and power it can convey
different ideals.
English model Amber Le Bon was the face of the
Redken Sombre color story, which was released in
September.
WWD: Outside of Redken, what’s your favorite
beauty product?
Amber Le Bon: A MAC lip conditioner. I put it on
superthick at night, and my lips are baby-soft when
I wake up.
WWD: What’s your beauty ritual?
A.L.B.: I am very low-maintenance with my skin
care, and I probably should be a bit more high-maintenance, especially since I am getting older now. In the
morning I actually switched from using face creams
to an oil. I use an Argan oil that I ship from Canada.
It’s called Saadia Organics, and it’s cold-pressed by
hand. It’s fantastic.
In the daytime I only wear a little bit of makeup. I
use the Charlotte Tilbury retouch pens on top of the
oil, so it kind of gives a really light coverage, and then
Tom Ford’s contouring palette. I use the paler of the
darker [shade] as a blusher and then bits of mascara.
WWD: What sort of exercise do you do?
A.L.B.: BalleCore, which is a mix of ballet, Pilates
and yoga. By the end of it you are sweating, out of
breath. It’s fantastic for toning and lengthening.
WWD: Who are some of your beauty and
fashion icons?
A.L.B.: I get inspired by an era rather than any particular person. I love the old silver-screen stars, the
Katharine Hepburns and Grace Kellys, and that kind
of era in film, [with] the styling and the makeup, and
just that sense of glamor. Like chilled out, laid-back
but real subtle — an effortless glamour about everything. If it was a slouch, it was a beautiful slouch. And
that inspires me indirectly. So I’m not walking around
in Fifties dresses, but I love that sense of being and
that sense of knowing yourself, I guess.
WWD: How would you describe your style?
A.L.B.: It is schizophrenic. That is the best way I
can describe it. It changes from day-to-day. I’ll have
days when I want to wear long dresses and almost
be like a Victorian. I’ll wear high necks and have my
hair all up. And then I’ll go through the rock-chic days
with smoky dark eyes in the daytime, like too much
makeup, but I want to wear grungy hair and it changes so much. It’s hysterical. It means my wardrobe is a
nightmare because nothing goes [together].
WWD: What’s your number-one item of clothing?
A.L.B.: A Chanel bag, which I am lucky enough
to have. I once actually lost it, and I was more upset
about losing the bag than anything in it. But I was so
lucky it got returned to me.
WWD: What’s your favorite book?
A.L.B.: “Lord of the Rings.” I’m a science-fiction
fantasy geek, so I like magic worlds and escaping into
different eras and times.
WWD: What’s your favorite band?
A.L.B.: This is hard. There is an English band called
The Staves. They are three sisters who are folk singers, which kind of resonates with me because I have
two sisters and we all sing.
WWD: What’s a dream travel destination?
A.L.B.: I’d love to go to Tokyo. I’m obsessed with
Japanese culture and all things Japanese. I watch
Japanese TV series with subtitles.
WWD: Outside of the Redken ambassadorship
what are you working on?
A.L.B.: I am actually ambassador for Cîroc Vodka.
I am like the Ibitha girl; they picked four places and
they have an ambassador for each. [I raced] in India
this November for the charity that I support, which
is the Elephant Family, and so my mom [and I were]
CONTINUED ON PG.11
Photograph by Leslie Kirchhoff for Redken
“Beauty doesn’t have to be the dictionary
definition. It could be something very
unconventional, but with your confidence
and power it can convey different ideals.”
— Soo Joo Park
11
6 JANUARY 2016 Redken Brand Ambassadors
Dish on Beauty, Fashion and Life
“I think the most
important is to
live in this world
with respect and
love. It’s the only
thing we can do,
to try to do it in
the best possible
way.” — Lea T
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
in a rickshaw for three days, [over] 500 kilometers.
We are both petrolheads, so this is fantastic for both
of us.
WWD: Might you want to launch your own
beauty project?
A.L.B.: Maybe one day. I love beauty products. I
love makeup. At one point I wanted to be a makeup
artist. You never know what might happen. Maybe
[sometime] a beauty company will say: Hey, do you
want to do a capsule line with us? Yeah, actually I
would love to do that. And then it could take me on to
something else.
WWD: What message would you like to share
as a Redken brand ambassador?
A.L.B.: We look the best when we are confident
and happy, so the more optimistic you are, the more
confident you are — in what you’re wearing and how
you are looking — the more you can be comfortable
and not care what people think. The more we can do
that, the more we glow. The more self-confident we
are, it rubs off on other people, which is a beautiful
thing, as well. It’s the nicest feeling to affect someone
else in a positive way.
Lea T is a Brazilian-born transgender model who
fronted the launch of the Redken Frizz Dismiss
collection and the brand’s Ultra Rich Professional
hair-color shades.
WWD: What does this ambassadorship mean
to you?
Lea T.: I’m really blessed with everything that is
happening to me professionally and personally. I was
like wow, someone believes in me — even if I’m that
different.
WWD: Who are your beauty icons?
L.T.: I really like Patti Smith. I think she’s really
beautiful. I really like Iman. She has an elegant beauty.
Frida Kahlo, Yma Sumac and Marina Abramović.
These are people who come to my mind right now. I
think everybody is beautiful.
WWD: Whose fashion sense do you really
admire?
L.T.: Anna Piaggi. I think she was really, really
original in what she used to do. Ann Demeulemeester
— for me, she’s so beautiful. Vivienne Westwood, she
is the most beautiful, number-one. I would like to be
like her when I am older.
WWD: How would you describe your fashion
style?
L.T.: I used to wear a lot of Ann Demeulemeester
and Vivienne [Westwood], too. I used to love Margiela,
all the conceptual designers. Now I am much more
organic. I try to use everything organic. Indigenous
clothes I love are from Latin America, with long skirts
and flat shoes.
WWD: What’s your favorite piece of clothing?
L.T.: A necklace from the Kaxinawa tribe in the
Amazon, close to Peru. [It is for bringing] out all of
your femininity. I use it for special moments, like when
I’m praying or in a spiritual [time].
WWD: What’s your favorite band?
L.T.: I’ve changed a lot. Now I like much more
shamanic music.
WWD: Where would you like to travel?
L.T.: I’m going to Machu Picchu, and I want to go to
the Atacama Desert and the desert of Mexico. The
world has many places I want to [visit].
WWD: Are you working on any other projects
that you can discuss?
L.T.: No. I am a little bit out of the fashion business
right now. I’m living in a really special place in the
jungle in Brazil [called Alto Paraíso de Goiás]. It’s
amazing — nature, animals, monkeys. I was feeling like
I need to discover myself, my soul. I arrived there and
after three days I was like, this is where I want to live.
And I left my house in Milan.
WWD: What message would you like to impart
as a Redken brand ambassador?
L.T.: I think the most important is to live in this
world with respect and love. It’s the only thing we can
do, to try to do it in the best possible way.
— JENNIFER WEIL
Lea T, Amber Le Bon and Soo Joo Park
12 6 JANUARY 2016
CALL THE KARDASHIANS?
MAYBE NOT
The ubiquitous Kardashians continued their media
reign last year with dozens of magazine covers, a set of
new apps, more television airtime and more attention
from the fashion industry. Yet despite their popularity,
the Kardashians haven’t exactly been able to translate
their enigmatic brand into newsstand gold for magazines.
While the newsstand is quickly deteriorating — MagNet characterized annual declines in the double-digits
and said last year that it estimated newsstand magazine sales in 2015 to be $2.5 billion, which is just about
half of what was generated in 2007 — editors continue
to search for cover stars to stem the losses.
So who better than the Kardashians? The clan and
its equally everywhere siblings the Jenners appeared
on numerous magazine covers in 2015, including
Cosmopolitan, Allure, Glamour, GQ, Rolling Stone, Teen
Vogue, Women’s Health, Complex, Interview, Paper and
Redbook. WWD tracked available newsstand sales
data from the Alliance for Audited media and found that
many magazines saw a decline in copies sold when
they featured the family members.
Cosmopolitan, the largest U.S. women’s magazine,
turned to the Kardashians twice last year in hopes that
the family’s elusive charm could give it a much-needed
sales bump. For the first half of 2015, Cosmo’s total single-copy sales hovered at 531,086, and weren’t helped
by its February cover star, Kylie Jenner. Although Jenner
has emerged as one of the most popular members of
clan Kardashian, the issue delivered 495,423 in sales.
Still, that was better than Cosmo’s November issue,
featuring all the Kardashian/Jenner daughters plus matriarch Kris. That cover, which dubbed the reality stars
“America’s First Family,” ruffled a few feathers on social
media — not to mention in the corridors of Hearst Tower.
At a recent luncheon, editor in chief Joanna Coles
defended the cover and its provocative tagline, explaining: “People accused me of putting them on the cover
to ‘sell a few magazines.’ Are you out of your mind? It
sold f--k millions!”
Not so much. The issue garnered 436,500 in total
copy sales, as well as almost 8,000 comments on
Instagram, many of which were critical of the cover and
tagline. (Nonetheless, the image of the cover nabbed
about 35,500 likes).
During the lunch, Gayle King, editor at large of Cosmo sibling O, The Oprah Magazine, shared her disdain,
interrupting Coles and adding: “I said I didn’t like them
being called the first family.”
WWD reached out to Coles for further comment
Tuesday, but the editor was unavailable. It should be
noted that while the issue was one of Cosmo’s worst
sellers of the year, it still sold more copies than Vanity
Fair’s big July Caitlyn Jenner cover, which sold 432,923
copies — although it ignited a flood of traffic to the VF
Web site as well as a whirlwind of coverage online, on
TV and across other media.
But back to Cosmo, which jumped at the chance
to get the six family members on its cover, in part for
social media pull and advertising dollars. Cosmo, which
feted its 50th birthday with the Kardashian family, is
said to have garnered 9 billion impressions on a live story that it partnered on with Covergirl for Snapchat. The
live story of the Oct. 13 party was shared on Snapchat’s
main landing page. It is believed that Cosmo’s Snapchat
Discover channel grabs about 3 to 4 million views a day,
and is one of the platform’s best performers.
As for other titles, Condé Nast’s Allure sold 81,385
copies with its March Kendall Jenner cover, which is
on par with its first half average of 85,249 copies sold.
The model also appeared on the cover of big brother
GQ in May, and sold 83,202 copies, which was off about
10,000 copies from its first-half average.
Glamour registered newsstand sales of 164,918 for
its July Kim Kardashian cover, which was 14.6 percent
off its first half average of 193,108 copies. Teen Vogue
outpaced its first half average by about 1,000 copies
with its May Kylie Jenner cover that sold 48,237 copies
on the newsstand. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone got a
lift from its racy cover of Kim Kardashian with 89,100
copies sold, as did Women’s Health, which sold 265,965
copies for its Khloé Kardashian cover, depicting the reality star in an unbuttoned chambray shirt that revealed
what she called her “revenge body.”
— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD
MEDIA
Memorial Planned for
Woody Hochswender
● The former New York Times
fashion writer died Dec. 31 of a
brain tumor.
BY LISA LOCKWOOD
A memorial service for Woody Hochswender, former fashion reporter for The
New York Times, is planned for Jan. 17
at 1 p.m. at the Grove building on Lake
Wononscopomuc in Lakeville, Conn.
Hochswender, 64, died Dec. 31 of
a brain tumor at his home in Sharon,
Conn.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in
Sea Cliff, L.I., Hochswender graduated
from Colgate University. After college,
he held a number of odd jobs, such as
working at UPS, selling yo-yos on the
steps of Lincoln Center, and running a
bicycle rental concession in Central Park,
according to his former wife, Cynthia
Hochswender. He became a model for
Kezia Keeble, a former Vogue editor and
public relations executive, who pushed
him to pursue his dream of being a professional writer and introduced him to
Buddhism.
Hochswender worked for Avon Books,
a division of the Hearst Corp., The Los
Angeles Herald Examiner and Harper’s
Bazaar before joining the Times as a
fashion writer in 1988. He wrote the Patterns column about the fashion business
until 1992, making it a must-read every
Tuesday for its inside look at Seventh
Avenue. He succeeded Michael Gross,
who inaugurated Patterns in 1987, after
Notes on Fashion, started by John Duka,
ended. After Hochswender left, the
Patterns column was penned by the late
Amy Spindler, a former Fairchild staffer.
Hochwender became known for his
sharp wit and keen observations of
fashion. In a year-end Patterns column
devoted to predictions, he wrote that
in the future everyone would belong to
tribes. “At the time, it seemed a bit mysterious, but in the years that followed,
the marketplace did, indeed become
tribal in so many ways,” wrote Claudia
Payne, a former Times editor on a tribute
wall to Hochswender.
Ed Filipowski, copresident and chief
strategist at KCD Worldwide, said, “He
was a good friend back at the time. His
perspective was interesting because
he was not necessarily an insider and
looked at fashion in his own way. He was
such an interesting, smart gentleman
who lived up to his unique name. Tall
and thin with that shock of red hair and
that toothy grin. You could always see
through his writing his mind working, his
eyes darting and penetrating a subject at
the same time, obviously a great listener
with a quick but dry humor. Behind that
there was a great childlike coy soul, and
Kezia saw through him and helped him
bring that out. He really had a nice light
around him.”
Fern Mallis, an industry consultant,
said she dealt with Hochswender when
she was just starting at the Council of
Fashion Designers of America, and he
was at the Times. “I found him to be
really smart and very fair, and he had his
Cosmopolitan’s November 2015 cover.
own take on everything. He had a sense
of humor and was an excellent reporter.
He was on the fashion beat [but] not long
enough.”
After leaving the Times, Hochswender
became an editor at Esquire magazine,
later being tapped as editor in chief of
Esquire Gentleman and writing a column
for Harper’s Bazaar called Pins and
Needles and articles for such publications as the Chicago Tribune and Sports
Illustrated’s Golf Magazine. He was also
the author of two books: “The Buddha in
Woody Hochswender
Your Mirror: Practical Buddhism and the
Search for Self,” with Greg Martin and
Ted Morino, and “The Buddha in Your
Rearview Mirror: A Guide to Practicing
Buddhism in Modern Life.”
Hochswender is survived by his daughter, Katharine; his sister, Pat Leri, and
girlfriend Kirsten Jensen.
Memorial donations may be made
to the Nichiren Buddhist organization,
SGI-USA, the Salisbury Visiting Nurse
Association and the Sharon Fire Department Ambulance Squad.
13
6 JANUARY 2016 Fossil’s Q54 Pilot.
Fossil to Roll Out
100 Wearables
ACCESSORIES
● The company will roll out a
slew of connected devices this
year.
Photographs by Stacey Jemison
BY RACHEL STRUGATZ
Fossil Group Inc. is betting big on wearables and looking to make a splash at the
Consumer Electronics Show.
The company plans to roll out more
than 100 connected devices this year —
the most ambitious launch schedule for
any brand to date. The offering will span
the multiple owned and license brands
that fall under Fossil’s roster, with the
entire range of styles available for purchase by holiday 2016.
While the lineup has yet to be
revealed, Michael Kors, Burberry, Emporio Armani, DKNY, Tory Burch, Skagen
and Adidas have deals with Fossil. The
company declined to reveal which
brands will launch connected watches
in 2016, but contended that all products will be in line with each respective
brand.
“Bringing Fossil Q to market helped
us identify additional opportunity,
and based on the positive consumer
response, we are going big this year,”
said Greg McKelvey, chief strategy and
digital officer at Fossil Group Inc. “Our
retail partners will see the power of Fossil Group’s scale and consumers will see
the variety of functionality, style, colors
and brands they desire.”
Sonny Vu, president and chief technology officer of connected devices at
Fossil Group, told WWD that this year
would be pivotal for wearables to reach a
mainstream audience. Vu will partake in
several presentations at CES, which runs
from Wednesday through Saturday in
several locations across Las Vegas.
Fossil introduced its first connected
device in October, the Fossil Q, shortly
before acquiring wearable technology company Misfit in November. The
connected accessory, which ranges from
$125 to $295 in price, includes a display and nondisplay style for men and
women, as well as two activity trackers:
the Q Reveler and the Q Dreamer. The
Q Founder style, which hit the market
in late November, was the first display
model of the selection. All devices
contain Intel Innovation and work with
Android and iOs operating systems.
“To do a legitimate fashion tech play,
you need to really have the fashion part
down, and a large part of fashion is the
brand story. There’s a reason why people
pay $300 for True Religion jeans and $50
for Levi’s. It’s the brand story that people
relate to,” Vu said.
He added of the 2016 launch plan:
“It’s going to be at least 100 different
sku’s [stockkeeping units]. Some of them
will be variations on a theme, but this
is across a number of different brands.
There will be quite a few distinct pieces.”
Beyond branding, wearables as a
category will hit critical mass when they
become more useful. Vu is sure the category will evolve into much more than
just activity and sleep trackers.
He believes controls are the next phase
of wearables — which will ultimately
make these devices more “life relevant.”
He cited last year’s launch of Misfit’s
wearable control, Link, which doubles as
a music remote, presentation clicker and
selfie button, as an early adopter.
“We’re looking at the possibilities
of embedding this platform into Fossil
products,” he said.
Wearables are driven by a trifecta
of trackers, display smartwatches and
watches that are being made smart,
according to Vu. Going forward, he said
consumers can expect a mix of products
that span these three categories.
Fossil said its foray into wearables
has already pushed the company to add
20,000 points of distribution early this
year — double that of 2015. The company
will soon have 50,000 points of global
distribution overall.
On Tuesday, the company also
released the Fossil Q54 Pilot, the latest
addition to the Fossil brand’s connected
lineup to date, and a slew of new colors
and app updates to better the connected
experience for users. The Q54, inspired
by the brand’s original Pilot 54 casing and chronograph movement, was
developed with Intel Innovation and
works with Android and iOS operating
systems. Of the bunch, this device most
closely resembles a traditional timepiece,
allowing the wearer to receive select
notifications via colored light or buzz
and track steps and calories. The Q54,
available in stainless steel and leather
strap versions, will go on sale in early
spring and retail from $175 to $215.
Jill Elliott-Sones, chief creative officer
at Fossil, said the brand’s entrance into
wearables has allowed the team to get
more direct feedback from customers —
and has also fostered a new consumer.
Elliott-Sones contended that this new
Fossil wearer is “not someone who is
traditionally wearing a watch or [never
owned a] watch from Fossil before.”
“They get why we’re in this space and
they definitely appreciate the fashion
angle. They also really like to change
the strap out. That’s very Fossil DNA
to change your strap and style,” she
added. “We like bringing new eyes to the
brand.”
The Q Dreamer activity tracker will see
two additional $145 styles that roll out in
late spring (a tortoise and shimmer horn
acetate). At the end of the month, straps
in sea glass and blush will go on sale for
women’s Fossil Q devices, with grey and
navy striped silicone straps for men.
But Fossil won’t be alone in the wearables space at CES. A slew of companies
are expected to introduce devices in the
sector during the mega-electronics show,
including Under Armour.
The activewear giant said Tuesday
it would launch a series of connected
fitness-centric products at CES. The
portfolio of connected fitness products
includes UA Healthbox, a $400 connected fitness system that comes with
band, scale and heart-rate monitor; UA
Speedform Gemini 2 Record Equipped,
a $150 smart shoe that tracks data from
time to distance, and two wireless headphones that retail for $180 and $250. All
of the above are compatible with the UA
Record app, a digital destination created
by Under Armour that’s designed to
provide data about users’ sleep, fitness,
activity and nutrition.
“For 20 years, Under Armour has
changed the way athletes dress and now
we will change the way athletes live,”
said Kevin Plank, founder and chief executive officer of Under Armour. “Athletes
will be empowered with the information
to make better decisions and ultimately
enrich their lives in a way that’s never
been done before.”
Fossil’s Q54 Pilot.