WWD Feb 3 - Wwrsd.org

SPECIAL EDITION
Unsure Ground
LVMH grew last quarter,
but Bernard Arnault sees
uncertainty ahead. Page 3
Surviving
New York
Sneaking In
What to do between shows
in the city. Page 11
Riccardo Tisci and Nike
join forces for second
sneaker collaboration.
Page 12
Fall
Collections
Photograph by MARK MANN
2016
Thoroughly
Modern
Michael
The designer today will show a collection at
New York Fashion Week: Men’s that works as
well on the city streets as on the ski slopes.
For more, see pages 8 and 9.
3 FEBRUARY 2016
Fashion. Beauty. Business.
3
3 FEBRUARY 2016
BUSINESS
LVMH’s Arnault Sees
More Uncertainty Ahead
●
The luxury conglomerate
registered its slowest
quarterly sales growth on a
constant basis in the three
months ended Dec. 31 since
first-quarter 2015.
Arnault photograph by Dominique Maître
BY JOELLE DIDERICH
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JENNIFER WEIL
PARIS — Bernard Arnault is bracing for
more bad news.
Though LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis
Vuitton ended 2015 on another quarter
of revenue growth, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer predicted that 2016 would be filled again
with uncertainty, with the continued
prospect of currency turmoil, falling oil
prices and terrorist attacks that could
further dent the luxury sector.
“You have to be optimistic in the
long term and pessimistic in the short
term. That allows you to prepare for the
worst,” Arnault told a news conference
at the luxury conglomerate’s headquarters in Paris. “The economy will be
subject to the same phenomena as it
was in 2015.”
In results reported after the market
close on Tuesday, LVMH said revenues
for the fourth quarter totaled 10.38
billion euros, or $11.35 billion, a 5
percent increase in organic terms. This
compared with a rise of 7 percent in the
third quarter of 2015 and an increase of
5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
In reported terms, revenues were up
12 percent in the fourth quarter, reflecting a gradual decline in the positive
contribution of the weak euro to the
group’s results.
Arnault noted that footfall in Paris is 4
to 5 percent below average levels for the
period due to the lingering effects of the
terrorist attacks in November, which has
discouraged locals from spending and
kept tourists at bay.
“The impact on our business as a
whole is not huge,” he said, adding that
the main challenge was shoring up staff
morale.
While touting record revenue and
operating profit for the year, the
executive said he preferred to make
forecasts for the next 20 years. On that
basis, he predicted the company would
post a good performance 80 percent
of the time, with the United States and
China remaining formidable motors for
growth.
“What is probably certain is that
there will be another crisis,” Arnault
cautioned, highlighting warnings by
some economists that the global economy could be headed for another crash
due to excess liquidity.
Flashing a wolfish grin, the executive
appeared undaunted by the challenges
ahead, noting that LVMH had a track
record of weathering crises better than
most. “We do best when the economic
outlook is more difficult. It’s quite surprising,” he said.
Among the headline projects he
flagged for 2016 were the launch of
Louis Vuitton’s first fragrance and the
opening of a new retail concept by DFS
Group on the Grand Canal in Venice,
Italy, in the second half.
Bernard Arnault
LVMH recorded sales of 35.66 billion
euros, or $39.62 billion, in 2015, up 16
percent in reported terms and up 6 percent on an organic basis. Dollar figures
are calculated at average exchange for
the period to which they refer.
Arnault said the company benefited
from the weakness of the euro, but was
hit by turmoil in the BRIC economies,
with a slowdown in China, weak oil
prices sapping Russian demand and
sharp devaluations in the Argentine
peso and the Brazilian real.
Sales in Asia, excluding Japan, fell
5 percent, mainly due to declines in
tourism in Hong Kong and Macao, but
Japan saw a 13 percent jump as Chinese
tourists switched to shopping there
instead. Sales in Europe were up 10
percent, while the United States posted
a 9 percent increase.
However, Arnault excluded the prospect of closing stores in Hong Kong and
said on the contrary, Vuitton planned
to renovate its two largest stores there
this year.
In addition, LVMH is taking advantage
of a glut of new malls in China to drop
leases in areas that have become less
profitable and in some cases, securing
“up to two or three years’ free rent”
from developers keen to have Vuitton as
an anchor.
For the year as a whole, net profits
totaled 3.57 billion euros, or $3.97
billion, down 37 percent versus the
previous year. However, excluding the
exceptional gain from the distribution
of LVMH’s stake in Hermès International
in 2014, net profit was up 20 percent
year-over-year.
Profit from recurring operations
totaled 6.61 billion euros, or $7.34 billion, up 16 percent versus 2014.
By division, sales for LVMH’s key
fashion and leather goods division
advanced 4 percent in 2015 as a whole.
Meanwhile, wines and spirits gained 6
percent; perfumes and cosmetics, 7 percent; watches and jewelry, 8 percent,
and selective retailing, 5 percent.
The group’s cash-cow brand, Louis
Vuitton, had a record year, with double-digit sales growth and an absolute
record in the month of December,
Arnault said. Meanwhile, Fendi scored
“remarkable” growth in 2015 with
revenues increasing by more than 20
percent, he added.
Jean-Jacques Guiony, LVMH’s chief
financial officer, said currency fluctuations made it impossible for Vuitton to
pass on any price increases to customers last year, except for a 3 percent
price hike in Europe in June.
Vuitton’s margin over the period was
stable and its operating result was in
line with the fashion and leather goods
division as a whole, which posted a 10
percent rise in profit from recurring
operations, Guiony added.
The performance of the fashion and
leather-goods division was weighed
down by the ongoing restructuring at
its two North American brands, Marc
Jacobs and DKNY. Pierre-Yves Roussel,
chairman and ceo of LVMH Fashion
Group, said the effects of the turnaround should be partially felt this year,
but the impact would be more significant in 2017.
Standing in front of a large image of
Johnny Depp in the ad campaign for the
Dior men’s fragrance Sauvage, Arnault
said the scent has achieved number-one
ranking in most countries where it is
distributed. Smaller cosmetics brands
also did well, with revenues at Benefit
up by more than 30 percent, he noted.
On the watch and jewelry front, Bulgari enjoyed strong momentum, thanks
to its women’s lines Diva and Lucea,
while Tag Heuer started to reap the
benefits of a repositioning under JeanClaude Biver, who is ceo of the brand as
well as president of the watches division
at LVMH.
Flashing his wrist to show off his Tag
Heuer Connected smartwatch, launched
in November, Arnault said demand
was sufficiently high for the group
to sell between 90,000 and 110,000
units of the watch per year, but it was
constrained by insufficient production
capacity.
Selective retailing didn’t fare as well,
as travel retailer DFS was hit by the
downturn in Hong Kong and Macau,
making it the only business unit with
falling sales.
This was compensated by organic
double-digit growth at Sephora and a 20
percent revenue rise at Le Bon Marché,
which, thanks to its current exhibition
by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is enjoying
visitor numbers comparable to the holiday period, Arnault said.
LVMH ended the year with free cash
flow of 3.68 billion euros, or $4.08 billion, but Arnault remained non-committal regarding potential acquisitions.
“We don’t need them. If the opportunity arises, we’ll see. What the group is
mainly interested in at the moment is
start-ups,” he said.
“First of all, there is less risk involved,
and in addition, it can be more fun and
it allows us to motivate our teams. In
fact, we also try to run our businesses
a little bit like start-ups, even the big
ones. Even a business like Vuitton, you
have to avoid at all costs running it in a
way that is too autocratic,” he said.
TOP 5
TRENDING
ON WWD.COM
Pre-Fall 2016
Accessories:
Part 2
● WWD compiled the top
accessories from the recent
pre-fall 2016 collections.
● Pre-Fall 2016 Accessories:
Part 1
● They Are Wearing: New
York Men’s Fashion Week
Fall 2016
● Chanel Names Kristen
Stewart Its New Face of
Makeup
● They Are Wearing: Paris
Couture Spring 2016
Global Stock Tracker
As of close February 2, 2016
ADVANCERS
Michael Kors Holdings Ltd.
+23.91%
Isetan Mitsukoshi
Holdings Ltd.
+4.96%
Dickson Concepts
(International)
+4.20%
G-III Apparel Group Ltd.
+3.25%
Youngor Group Co.
+3.12%
DECLINERS
Safilo Group SpA
-8.72%
Shanghai Metersbonwe
-7.33%
Iconix Brand Group Inc.
-6.18%
Avon Products Inc.
-5.94%
The Bon-Ton Stores Inc.
-5.81%
4
3 FEBRUARY 2016
THE MARKETS
PVH to Buy Control of Hilfiger China
●
The transaction enables the
Hilfiger business to directly
operate its fastest growing
market, while leveraging PVH’s
infrastructure.
BY LISA LOCKWOOD
PVH Corp. is taking full control of the
Tommy Hilfiger business in China.
The company already owns 45 percent
of TH Asia Ltd., a joint venture to sell
Tommy Hilfiger goods in the gigantic
consumer market.
The purchase price weighs in at
approximately $172 million, net of about
$100 million in cash, and the closing is
slated for the second quarter. The deal is
expected to be slightly accretive to PVH’s
2016 adjusted earnings.
Exiting their investment in Hilfiger’s
Chinese business are Apax Partners, the
limited partners which include members
of Hilfiger’s management team at the time
its 2010 acquisition by PVH. The group
includes Tommy Hilfiger; Fred Gehring,
vice chairman of PVH; Daniel Grieder,
ceo of Tommy Hilfiger, and a company
controlled by Silas Chou.
Since 2012, the first full year of operations after the joint venture acquired
Emanuel Chirico
Hilfiger’s China business from the former
licensee (Dickson Concepts International
Ltd.), the Hilfiger business in China has
doubled from about $70 million in revenues to a projected $140 million in revenue
in 2015. The business has more than 350
stores, including 65 directly operated
stores and the remainder franchised doors.
“This transaction enables the Tommy
Hilfiger business to directly operate its
fastest growing market, while leveraging
our well-established infrastructure in
Asia, our regional leadership expertise
and strong brand momentum across both
our Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein
businesses in the region,” said Emanuel
Chirico, chairman and ceo of PVH.
“[China] is probably our most profitable market as well,” he added, noting
THE MARKETS
Kors Shares Soar
On Earnings Beat
●
The company exceeded
earnings-per-share and
revenue estimates.
BY VICKI M. YOUNG
Investors thought Michael Kors Holdings Ltd.’s third quarter was more than
good enough, sending shares of the
company up 22.7 percent in midafternoon trading Tuesday.
Net income for the quarter fell 3 percent to $294.6 million, or $1.59 a diluted
share, from $303.7 million, or $1.48, a
year ago. But that put the company’s
earnings per share 13 cents ahead of the
$1.46 analysts projected and drove the
stock up $9.23 to $49.67 in midafternoon trading.
Total revenues for the quarter ended
Dec. 26 rose 6.3 percent to $1.40 billion
from $1.31 billion.
The company said its retail sales rose
11.1 percent to $766.2 million, driven by
e-commerce sales from its digital flagships in the U.S. and Canada and 114 net
new store openings. Comparable-store
sales, however, slipped 0.9 percent.
On a constant currency basis, retail net
sales rose 15.7 percent, while comps
rose 2 percent.
During the conference call to Wall
Street analysts, John Idol, chairman and
chief executive officer, said “while mall
traffic in North America declined, we
saw a significant increase in conversion
rates in our own retail stores.”
The ceo added that the watch
category remained challenged in the
quarter, but the company saw demand
for “smaller-size bags, cross-bodies and
small leather goods.” He said while
sales in terms of dollars might have
been flat, smaller-size bags have lower
price points and actual unit sales have
gone up since smaller bags also require
purchases of different-sized accessories,
such as smaller wallets.
Footwear remains one of the company’s “highest growing areas,” he said,
although the warm weather hurt boot
sales in the quarter.
Idol said the company is capturing
the denim trend in its accessories and
apparel assortments and that the men’s
business is on track to open 75 men’s
shops-in-shop globally. On the accessories side, Kors — in a nod to changing
fashion tastes — will exit most of the
fashion jewelry line in spring 2017 in
its own stores and introduce more fine
jewelry.
Kors also plans to add digital platforms in six European countries this fall.
As for new stores, most will be overseas
as the company is close to its targeted
400-unit base for the Americas.
The company has been working to
manage its North American wholesale
inventory. Jefferies analyst Randal J.
Konik said he expects the “decision to
pull back on wholesale distribution to
benefit [Kors’] ability to control promotions within their stores.” Konik raised
his price target for shares of Kors to $75
from $70.
For the fourth quarter, the company
said it expects diluted EPS in the range
of 93 cents to 97 cents, on revenues
$1.13 billion to $1.15 billion. The outlook
for the full year remained unchanged,
with diluted EPS between $4.38 to $4.42
on revenues of $4.65 billion.
that Hilfiger’s Chinese business has been
growing at a double-digit pace the last five
years. Increases have come from double-digit comparable-store growth. The
stores average 1,500 square feet and come
in different formats, some with men’s and
women’s, and some larger with men’s,
women’s and children’s.
Chirico said Hilfiger’s men’s sportswear
represents 75 percent of the Chinese business, and that there’s significant opportunity to increase the women’s denim,
accessories and footwear businesses. He
said the men’s sportswear business could
also double in size.
The ceo noted that PVH’s Calvin Klein
brand in China is two-and-a-half to three
times the size of Hilfiger’s Asian business,
and they have a very similar dynamic.
Over time, they expect to be able to take
advantage of the synergies in managing
both businesses. Calvin Klein and Tommy
Hilfiger are both wholly owned subsidiaries of PVH.
As a result of this transaction, Chirico expects “almost no head count
reduction.”
Hilfiger’s brand awareness has more
than doubled over the last four years in
China, and the plan calls for an increased
marketing spend in digital, outdoor and
some print, Chirico said.
Steve Shen will continue in his current
BUSINESS
Factory Fire
Prompts Safety
Concerns
●
Labor and worker rights groups
call on retailers and brands
to step up safety repairs in
Bangladesh.
BY KRISTI ELLIS
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MAYU SAINI
WASHINGTON — A major fire broke out on the
seventh floor of a sweater factory in Bangladesh
early Tuesday morning, reportedly injuring
some people and triggering an outcry from
labor and human rights groups that claimed the
facility was inspected two years ago but had not
made the mandated fire and safety repairs.
The Clean Clothes Campaign, the International Labor Rights Forum, the Maquila
Solidarity Network and the Worker Rights
Consortium, along with local news reports said
the fire erupted at the Matrix Sweater factory,
a supplier to H&M and J.C. Penney, based on
research of public information. The groups
called on retailers and brands to step up their
assistance in making repairs at Bangladesh
factories.
“It has been confirmed to us that there has
been a fire at one factory that produces for
H&M,” said an H&M spokeswoman. “Our team
in Dhaka is closely monitoring the situation.”
A spokeswoman for J.C. Penney said, “We
were just made aware of the factory fire in
Gazipur early this morning and our local Bangladesh office has been working in cooperation
with Matrix and local officials to determine the
cause. We are relieved to learn that there was
no loss of life and any injuries sustained are
non-life-threatening. It is our understanding
that Matrix received prior fire safety training by
representatives of the Alliance for Bangladesh
Worker Safety.”
management role with the existing
Tommy Hilfiger China leadership team.
The Tommy Hilfiger China business will
become a part of PVH Asia operations
reporting to Frank Cancelloni, president
of PVH Asia. Cancelloni will continue to
report to Grieder and Steve Shiffman,
ceo of Calvin Klein for the Calvin Klein
business.
Grieder added, “We are looking forward to executing a more fully integrated
strategy for China that takes advantage
of our current momentum in the region.
This will allow us to further realize the
growth opportunities that exist for the
brand by offering consumers a greater
breadth of Tommy Hilfiger product lines
and a more elevated brand presentation.”
The company plans to accelerate the
growth of Hilfiger’s business by increasing
brand marketing in China and capitalizing
of the strong market positioning, price
and value proposition. “We plan to invest
further in driving the expansion of the
brand through new store openings [both
company-operated and franchised stores]
and improved productivity in existing
stores, while rapidly expanding our traditional and digital marketing initiatives to
further reinforce the brand in this exciting
market,” Grieder said.
The sale to PVH completes Apax’s exit
from Hilfiger, which it bought in 2006.
Matrix Sweaters is located in the Gazipur suburb of Dhaka and a local news video provided
by the groups showed injured people being
carried out of the burning building.
According to fire department officials, more
than two dozen fire units from nearby areas
were quickly brought to the spot. It took more
than five hours to put out the blaze, the cause
of which could not immediately be ascertained.
The fire rapidly spread to lower floors, damaging finished goods ready for export, as well as
the main working areas of the factory.
An inquiry committee has been set up to
report on the cause of the fire within a week.
The fire has reportedly caused extensive damage to the factory, estimated to be more than
$12 million.
Matrix employs about 6,000 workers,
according to the coalition, but it appeared the
majority of workers had not yet started a new
day shift.
“We are extremely relieved that this fire
hasn’t resulted in another tragedy on the scale
of the Tazreen factory fire of 2012,”said Sam
Maher, a worker safety program officer at the
Clean Clothes Campaign. “However, this is
more down to luck than anything else — had the
fire broken out just a few hours later, it is more
than possible that workers would have found
themselves trapped. We urge all buyers from
Bangladesh, including those who signed up to
the Accord or the Alliance, to do more to get
these vital repairs done without delay.”
The fire at Matrix comes nearly three years
after the Rana Plaza building collapse that
claimed more than 1,133 people in April 2013
and a fire a few months earlier at Tazreen
Fashion fire that killed 112 garment workers.
Those tragedies sparked a global outcry and led
to the launch of two major industry consortiums — the Accord on Fire and Building Safety
in Bangladesh and The Alliance for Bangladesh
Worker Safety — and a five-year plan to inspect
and remediate thousands of garment factories
companies use in Bangladesh.
“This is indeed a shared Accord-Alliance
factory,” an Accord spokesman said. “We sent a
team of engineers to the site today to investigate
the situation and we will issue a statement following our engineers’ report from their visit.”
5
3 FEBRUARY 2016
Michael Kors
Gets Modern
Michael Kors has
taken lessons
learned over his
35-year career
to heart.
6
3 FEBRUARY 2016
The fall collection
is focused on
urban outerwear.
“This is a great time
to design men’s wear.
Guys in their 20s
are sophisticated and
guys in their 50s
want to look modern.”
— Michael Kors
●
The designer is targeting
a globe-trotting gentleman
with his fall collection.
BY JEAN E. PALMIERI
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK MANN
Michael Kors’ first stab at men’s wear
was an unconventional success.
“We teased with men’s at my very first
runway show in the fall of 1984,” the
designer told WWD during a preview of
his fall line on Monday afternoon at his
Midtown office.
“We had a few guys in the show and Barbra Streisand bought all the men’s pieces
for herself at Maxfield’s in Los Angeles,” he
said with a hearty laugh.
That was followed by the “insane bodysuit moment in the Nineties,” Kors recalled
with a shake of his head. “In my youth,
I thought I was being practical — that it
helped guys keep their shirts tucked in.
But no man should wear a bodysuit.”
As he marks 35 years in the business,
Kors has taken those lessons to heart. The
collection the designer will show today is
much more practical. It’s intended to take
a man “from the city to the slopes,” he
said. “Leaving L.A. and going to Aspen.”
The collection is centered around outerwear — “If you’re an urban man, outerwear
is your calling card,” he said — but the
definition of that key piece is fluid.
“Is it a peacoat or an anorak?” Kors
asked, pointing to a buffalo plaid jacket
with a fur hood. A longer version along the
same lines was designed to be “half-Chesterfield, half-bathrobe.”
The coats were paired with two-way
stretch flannel pants and cashmere track
sweats. And the looks were accessorized
with a leather pouch that hung around the
neck. “I’m sick of everybody losing their
phones,” Kors said.
The collection includes “much more
streamlined backpacks,” he said, that work
as well in the great outdoors as in the city.
Accessories, a calling card for the
designer, is also a key category in men’s.
“The day of the one ugly bag is gone,”
he said. “Guys today know the right
accessory sets him apart and makes him
relevant and modern.”
Kors is targeting his collection to a guy
who follows no rules.
“He has no time of day and no season,”
he said, noting that the looks should
appeal to men of all ages and walks of life.
“I’m not necessarily designing for me as
a person,” he said. “But as busy as I am,
I’m constantly packing and unpacking,
changing time zones and climates.”
So the line’s high-performance, waterproof and breathable suit, its Wall Street
utility wind pant and the cashmere interlock shirt that can take the place of a traditional T-shirt all speak to this globe-trotting
gentleman.
Ditto for the mohair-blend cardigan
and the curly Spanish shearling coat that
can be layered in colder climates or worn
alone in more temperate regions.
This lack of rules is very freeing to Kors.
“This is a great time to design men’s
wear,” he said. “Guys in their 20s are
sophisticated and guys in their 50s want to
look modern.”
He singled out actor Dennis Quaid
who he said is the “new 60 — he doesn’t
dress like a kid, but he’s sophisticated and
youthful.
“Men were very stratified before,” he
said. “But the rules are gone. Once we
said you can be polished on the weekends
and more modern at work, it changed
everything.”
8
3 FEBRUARY 2016
TOP: Alden Ehrenreich in “Hail, Caesar!”; BOTTOM: Ehrenreich and Ralph Fiennes.
“But once you’re in the
scene and doing the
work, you’re kind of
all in the same boat.
We’re all in front
of the same firing
squad.”
— Alden Ehrenreich
that it ‘twere so simple” without his clunky
cowboy twang getting in the way. “It was
written into the dialogue,” Alden says of
Hobie’s accent, a hybrid of an old-timey,
clipped cadence and a slow drawl.
“Meaning Joel and Ethan deliberately misspelled words in the script to reflect his
sort of lumbering way of speaking.”
The film has a meta aspect to it, in that
it’s a film within a film. “That scene in
particular with Ralph was pretty bizarre.
A clapper would come out and say, ‘Hail,
Caesar; Take 1; Scene 5’ and clap. Then
Joel would say, ‘Action,’ and then the actor
who played the clapper boy in my scene
would say, ‘Merrily We Dance, Scene 1,
Take 1,’ then clap and then Ralph Fiennes
would say, ‘Action’. And I start that scene
behind a door so I’m hearing two different
claps and two different ‘Actions’. It was a
little trippy, and the other thing is I’m playing Hobie playing someone else. So as an
actor you’re trying to figure out doing the
scene as the actor, as Hobie, would do the
scene. It’s all very trippy.”
The company kept on set was also a
bit of a trip for Ehrenreich. The kidnapped
actor is played by George Clooney;
Channing Tatum plays a tap-dancing Gene
Kelly-type; Scarlett Johansson is an Esther
Williams-esqe aqua musical player. “It’s
almost like the fog has to burn off when
you’re around someone as famous as
George Clooney. It takes a little while for
you to stop thinking of them as their name
if that makes sense. But once you’re in the
scene and doing the work, you’re kind of
all in the same boat. We’re all in front of the
same firing squad.” — TAYLOR HARRIS
Ehrenreich photograph by Dan Doperalski; Film stills courtesy of Universal Pictures; Grooming by Barbara Guillame at Art Department
Alden Ehrenreich
Talks ‘Hail, Caesar!’
The actor costars with
George Clooney and
Channing Tatum in the
Coen Brothers-helmed
film, out Friday.
“I mean, it was pretty nuts,” Alden
Ehrenreich says. “I pick up and I hear, ‘Hi.
This is Joel Coen.’”
It was two summers ago and the actor
was on the edge of king-sized bed in a
quiet bedroom at a family party, a litter
of loud nieces and nephews outside.
The 26-year-old was anticipating a call
from someone else entirely — from Ellen
Chenoweth, the casting director of “Hail,
Caesar!” — who he thought would tell him
they decided to go in another direction in
casting one of the film’s central characters, Hobie Doyle.
“I thought, ‘Ellen’s going to call and personally tell me that I didn’t get the part.
That’s really considerate of them,” he says.
“Then I hear Joel be like, ‘Did you not talk
to your agent?’ and I paused, and he’s like,
‘You don’t even know yet, do you?’”
The latest from four-time Oscar-winning
duo Joel and Ethan Coen, “Hail, Caesar!”
is a comedy set in early Fifties Tinseltown
and is imbued with the Coen brand of
highly entertaining devolvement, in which
ordinary, usually dim-witted, characters
get unknowingly embroiled in some form
of criminal high jinks. In “Caesar,” we follow
Brolin, who plays a studio fixer enlisted by
the fictional Capital Studios when the studio’s mega-movie star (George Clooney)
goes missing.
Alden plays Hobie, a B-cowboy star
modeled after a Gene Autry or a Roy
Rogers. “These guys would be doing like
three movies a week — they were constantly pumping out these B-Westerns,
which were really popular. So Hobie’s a
big movie star and what happens is they
loose an actor from a drawing-room film,
this sort of upscale, very sophisticated
film called ‘Merrily We Dance’ and they
need a star to slot in so the studio puts
Hobie in the film.”
The slotting in is far from seamless.
Hobie, accustomed to brazenly formulaic
Westerns where there’s some gun-slinging, some lassoing and the guy saves the
girl, has difficulty navigating the complexity of the drawing-room film. In a teaser for
“Hail, Caesar!”, Ralph Fiennes, who plays
the effete director of the drawing-room
picture, grows increasingly frustrated
when Hobie fails to deliver the line “Would
9
3 FEBRUARY 2016
‘Tumbledown’ Premiere Brings the Romance
The Starz Digital film’s Los Angeles showing drew Joe Manganiello, Sofia Vergara and Marcia Gay Harden, among others.
Sofia Vergara
and Joe
Manganiello
The quiet beachside city of
Santa Monica isn’t often the
site of movie premieres, but on
Monday night, the American
Cinemateque’s tiny vintage Aero
Theatre hosted the premiere of
Starz Digital’s “Tumbledown,”
a romantic dramedy starring
Rebecca Hall and Jason
Sudeikis. In case the theme
of the film (or the timing, with
Valentine’s Day) wasn’t clear,
the theater itself was decorated
to look like a giant Cupid’s Bow.
But the film, directed and written
by husband-and-wife team Sean
Mewshaw and Desiree Van Til,
wasn’t all laughs. Van Til’s script
follows a Maine widow who
finds love again after hiring a
brash professor to help write a
biography of her late husband.
While the two leads skipped
interviews — Hall was battling
a chest infection and Sudeikis
arrived late due to L.A. traffic
— Joe Manganiello, who plays
Sudeikis’ nemesis, provided the
red carpet sizzle arriving with
Sofia Veragra on his arm. “I’d like
you to meet my wife,” he said
to the crowd, before explaining
what drew him to the role, which
also provided much of the film’s
comic relief.
“He’s got a dialect which is
very similar to the one that I
grew up hearing with my par-
ents,” Manganiello said of his
character. “My whole family is
from New England and I spent
every summer on an island in
Maine. I heard a lot of people
talk like the people were supposed to talk in this movie. I
was talking to all of those family
members and working with a
dialect coach I met on ‘True
Blood,’ Liz Himelstein.”
As for the filmmakers, they
consider “Tumbledown” their
first child. “It’s funny because
the project spans the entirety
of our relationship,” said Van
Til. “When I started writing, we
were just dating and then we
got engaged, moved in together,
got married and now we have
two children. It’s finally coming
into the world now. It’s amazing
how much there is in common
with nurturing [children] and
believing in something and feeling a lot of love for the creation
you’ve put yourself into.”
After the credits rolled, Van
Til, Mewshaw, producers Kristin
Hahn and Margot Hand and
guests Marcia Gay Harden,
Judy Greer and Zuleikha
Robinson joined Manganiello
and Vergara for an after-party
at a newly opened Obicà restaurant nearby for wine and its
famous mozzarella, salami and
prosciutto. — MARCY MEDINA
Jason Sudeikis
NYFW Men’s Kicks Off
With Dockers Party
The New York Jets’ Eric Decker, New York Mets’ Matt Harvey
and New York Giants’ Victor Cruz helped the fashion brand
turn 30 with a party to start New York Fashion Week: Men’s.
Tumbledown photographs by Chelsea Lauren; Dockers party by Lexie Moreland
Devon Windsor
Dockers went with the
crowd-pleasing theme of #tbt
for its 30th-anniversary bash
held Monday night. Nostalgic
Eighties candies (remember
Charleston Chews?) and snacks
were served to guests at the
party, which also served as the
start to the second incarnation
of New York Fashion Week:
Men’s.
“Thirty years, that’s hard
to believe,” said Lisa Collier,
Dockers brand president. “We
want to take a moment and
celebrate what the brand has
stood for and its path forward.”
Dockers is also a sponsor
of the men’s shows, hosting a
showcase for emerging designers. “We love supporting new-
Phillip Lim
bies,” Collier said. “The fashion
industry needs to evolve and
it’s important to be involved and
engaged.”
The party also drew a number of ambassadors who will be
sitting front-row at the shows
this week, including New York
Jets’ Eric Decker, New York
Mets’ Matt Harvey and New
York Giants’ Victor Cruz in addition to model Tyson Beckford,
influencer Dr. Mike Varshavski
and a slew of men’s designers.
Harvey said he prefers to
overdress rather than underdress, but opted to go with the
theme, donning a pair of gray
Dockers and a black leather
jacket.
The Mets star hurler adPrabal Gurung
Ariel and
N¤¦·½¸ Ovadia
Johannes Huebl
mitted he was a fashion show
novice and hadn’t attended any
shows yet, but picked a few that
fit into his off-season schedule.
“It should be fun, but I can’t let it
interfere with my work,” he said.
Harvey said pitchers and
catchers report to spring training on Feb. 18, but he expects to
head down a few days early.
“I can’t believe it’s February
already,” he said. “But we’re all
ready and excited to get started.” He said the team, which
came up short last season,
expects to get the World Series
ring this October.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence and we’re on a mission,”
he said.
— JEAN E. PALMIERI
10
3 FEBRUARY 2016
MEDIA
Upheaval Hits Men’s Mags
● Closures, editor changes, redesigns
— men’s magazines are in turmoil
as they adapt to the new media
landscape.
BY ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ARIA HUGHES
Are men still reading magazines?
Tectonic shifts in media have become
almost a daily occurrence as print and
digital properties alike try to grab consumers’ attention and dollars. But arguably no
other sector has been as pressured as the
men’s market in recent months.
Last year, Details magazine closed,
Complex shuttered its men’s wear site
Four Pins and Maxim endured yet another
shake-up under owner (and self-annointed
editor in chief ) Sardar Biglari, after the
magazine broke from its babe-in-bikini
roots to try a more high-end approach
under then-editor in chief Kate Lanphear
and publisher Kevin Martinez.
Even the big players in the men’s market
— GQ, Esquire and Men’s Health — felt
squeezed by the changing environment.
Last week, Hearst pushed out longtime
editor in chief David Granger, who had
headed the title for 19 years, and replaced
him with Town & Country editor in chief
Jay Fielden. Granger’s impending exit at
the end of March was made even more
poignant on Monday when the magazine
won an ASME for general excellence in
essays and criticism and the editor in chief
received a standing ovation.
Last year, GQ laid off a handful of editors
to meet the needs of the digital landscape, and Rodale, which is amid job cuts,
brought back Michael Lafavore as editorial
director to oversee Men’s Health, among
other titles.
Even the old adage that “sex sells” has
been tested. Lad mags FHM UK and Zoo
magazines put up the “out of business
sign” and Playboy declared it would stop
featuring naked women in its pages. Meanwhile, Pirelli shifted course with its racy
calendar this year, and debuted a portrait
series by Annie Leibovitz of women of
substance — most of whom were (gasp)
clothed. Rumors continue to abound that
Playboy’s raunchier rival Penthouse may
stop printing its magazine altogether.
The volatility begs the question of
whether the male reader is as interested in
male-targeted media, or if advertisers are
scaling back.
“I get a sense of déjà vu,” GQ editor in
chief Jim Nelson said of the upheaval in
the market. “When I started there was the
historic war between Esquire and GQ.”
Nelson trumpeted GQ’s status in the
men’s market, noting the importance of its
mission as a differentiator.
“It is hard for some magazines and some
Web sites to talk to men. Voice and point
of view don’t get enough attention. Have a
point of view,” he said.
Even with point of view, print magazines battle declining newsstand sales and
stagnant circulations. Layer on top of that
the need for print magazines to carve out
a digital identity on the crowded Web,
a world where voices tend to be “samesame,” according to Nelson, and it’s a
no-brainer why media brands are rapidly
shifting strategy.
Maxim may be one of the more obvious
examples of a title implementing drastic
shifts to stand out from the crowd.
“You can’t keep changing your stripes
and some magazines do that,” Nelson
offered. “It just confuses the reader and
the advertisers.”
In its third major redesign since last year,
Maxim kicked off 2015 under Lanphear and
a new direction that included less sex and
more storytelling. But that was tossed out
months later. Under Biglari, and a team that
includes Glenn O’Brien, Gilles Bensimon
and Guillaume Bruneau, Maxim is pumping
up the sex appeal, paper stock, size and
photography. Its relaunch issue featured a
paparazzi-style cover of a nearly-nude Alessandra Ambrosio sunbathing in Monaco.
“It is really qualitative,” said art and
design director Bruneau, referring to the
redesign. “We really aren’t looking to make
a supermarket magazine. We try to appeal
to a group of men who love life and beautiful things.”
Although he wouldn’t speak to what
went awry under Lanphear, Bruneau
noted that Condé Nast-owned men’s magazines such as Details and Men’s Vogue,
which folded in 2008, were “completely
unattainable.”
“Luxury can be more attainable. Those
magazines failed,” he said. “We don’t.”
That point remains to be seen, but
when asked what he meant by “luxury,”
he explained that he wasn’t talking simply
about product but about cover star and
“relatability.”
While Ambrosio’s relatability may be
questionable, he did note that the model is
a businesswoman — something that Maxim
highlighted in its cover story. It helped that
she looks good barely clothed.
“Luxury is in the context of the story
we are telling,” he said, before turning to
the glossy’s roots. “It’s all about seduction. Women are beautiful and men are
interested in women — the ones who read
Maxim.”
While many in the market lamented the
closure of Details, very few agreed with
Bruneau’s assessment of why it closed.
“I think there were clients who were
upset about Details folding, but I think
there were fewer consumers,” said Howard Mittman, vice president and publisher
of GQ. “High-mindedness and depth of
connection with trade is one thing…and
the consumer is another.”
One of the ironies of the shuttering of
Details is that the title seemed to be transforming into what its owner Condé Nast
wanted: a digital success that had a print
element. While the print side had been
struggling, editor in chief Dan Peres had
grown its Web traffic substantially. Sources
said its site, which had about one million
unique views in September 2014, grew
traffic to 2.1 million in a year.
That wasn’t enough to save it, even
Patrik Sandberg, the editor of V and
VMan, doesn’t believe the turbulence
within men’s publications is any different
from changes in the general media landscape, but he did assert that the e-commerce and editorial play can raise issues.
“I can’t help noticing that the more mass
market a magazine tries to be and the
more the focus turns to merging editorial
and e-commerce, the more it becomes a
catalogue and readers can discern that
inauthenticity,” said Sandberg.
VMan was introduced in 2003 as the
quarterly men’s companion to V Magazine,
which operates a separate retail store and
e-commerce site, VFiles.
Sandberg said that newsstand sales
continue to be VMan’s biggest source of
revenue and print advertising rates still
trump those of digital.
“From a print advertising perspective,
there has been a lot of volatility in the
men’s market,” said Men’s Health publisher Ronan Gardiner, who noted that
even though there’s a “migration” from
print to digital, there has been a shift in
“It is hard for some magazines and some Web
sites to talk to men. Voice and point of view don’t
get enough attention. Have a point of view"”
Jim Nelson, GQ
though Mittman, who also serves as publisher of GQ Style, the quarterly publication that hopes to grab the advertising
dollars that used to go to Details, noted
that the bigger issue in the men’s market
is the obvious shift of ad dollars from print
to digital.
“Consumption habits have changed,”
he said, pointing to new competitors in
video and digital such as Vice, Thrillist and
Complex. “But also, look at the landscape.
The dollar is strong tight now. Russia,
Brazil and China are challenged to spend
ad dollars.”
GQ Style editor in chief Will Welch
offered: “There are so many options out
there. When I think about making a magazine in the time of the Internet, I realize I
need a very articulated point of view.”
Distinctiveness of voice was a hallmark
for Four Pins, Complex’s men’s wear blog,
yet that wasn’t enough to save it. Part of
the problem was that with its irreverent
and playful take on the industry, Four Pins
spoke to a very specific audience, a strategy that ran counter to Complex’s mantra
of openness.
Complex editor in chief Noah Callahan-Bever offered his own assessment of the
market: “I think that the rigid definition
of being a men’s product is an anachronism of the past. The way that people are
searching out information on the Internet is much more based on interest than
gender. We want to create a platform that’s
inviting and not alienating anyone.”
Four Pins spoke to a clothing-obsessed,
male audience and received around
200,000 unique views a month. Callahan-Bever told WWD the decision to shut
down the site was based on “prioritizing
resources.” Now visitors to the blog are
rerouted to Complex’s style vertical, but its
Twitter account, which has about 65,000
followers, remains active. Complex will also
continue to sell Four Pins merchandise,
which is its highest-selling brand, but he
also sees opportunities for Four-Pins sponsored content, which he added was one of
Complex’s biggest revenue drivers last year.
how marketers perceive print.
“When new platforms emerge, marketers tend to flock towards them. It’s the
shiny-toy syndrome,” he said, noting that
advertisers are returning to top-tier publications to advertise in print.
Gardiner said that the magazine’s
March issue was up in ad pages, and that
circulation had hit a high for the publication. According to the Alliance for Audited
Media, Men’s Health’s total paid and verified circulation totaled 1.6 million, trending about 100,000 ahead of the first half
of 2015. The publisher said more recent
numbers had circulation hitting nearly
1.7 million, which makes Men’s Health
the largest men’s magazine in the U.S. He
noted that Millennials are also more interested in the health and wellness connection, and are renewing their subscriptions
at the same rate as readers in the 34 to 55
age demographic.
Editor in chief Bill Phillips credited the
magazine’s “laser-sharp focus” on the
reader.
“Every sentence, page and caption
needs to be about the reader,” he said,
noting challenges of getting the attention
of a consumer bombarded by media. “It’s
a matter of getting the product in front of
the customers. If we do that we’re more
relevant than ever.”
That sentiment was shared across the
board. At Esquire, publisher Jack Essig
and Granger noted that diversification
of platform is key to remaining relevant.
Esquire digitized its vast archive, launched
a podcast and has a television network via
a partnership with NBC.
Although Granger noted that fashion and
lifestyle has become more “democratic”
across the Web, he said there’s still brand
equity and strength in the top three men’s
titles — Men’s Health, GQ and Esquire.
“There has been apparent change and
transition in the men’s market, but there
has also been some stability,” Granger
said. “We are constantly finding new ways
to add to our mission. It’s key to what
we’re doing here.”
11
3 FEBRUARY 2016
NYFW: Men’s
Survival Kit
●
Some cool, new things to
check out in the off-hours
during the shows.
Michele’s exuberant
design sensibility is on
display at the new Gucci
shops-in-shop, which is
also permanent.
160 Lexington Avenue,
New York, NY 10016, (646)
837-7750
T H E N E W L U X U R Y S TO R E :
1 Totokaelo
Totokaelo is only a few
months old, but the
Seattle-based retailer
has already renovated
its two-level men’s
section. It’s now a
brighter space stocked
with designers including
Dries Van Noten, Rick
Owens and Maison
Margiela.
54 Crosby Street, New York,
NY, 10013, (206) 623-3582
Totokaelo photograph by George Chinsee; Kiki’s by Thomas Iannaccone; Jackson Pollock, “Untitled” (1945), courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, 1958 © 2015 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
THE NEW FOOD HALL:
2 The Pennsy
Founded by Mary
Giuliani — the celebrity
caterer calls Stella
McCartney and Bradley
Cooper her clients —
this new Penn Station
food hall is lined with
stalls from popular
chefs including Marc
Forgione, Franklin
Becker and Mario Batali,
who collaborated with
Giuliani on a sandwich
shop. Another big draw?
The Cinnamon Snail,
a popular New York
City vegan truck that
opened its first physical
store within the space.
engravings, screenprints and lithographs
are also on view.
THE NEW EXHIBIT:
11 West 53rd Street, New York,
NY 10019, (212) 708-9400
7 Jackson Pollock at
MoMA
Sculptures from Pablo
Picasso replaced Jackson Pollock’s works at
the Museum of Modern
Art earlier last year,
but now the collection
is back and bigger.
MoMa’s newest exhibit,
“Jackson Pollock: A
Collection Survey,
1934–1954,” highlights
about 50 works from
the artist and not just
his signature drip
paintings. His small
BY ARIA HUGHES
It’s hard to keep up
with what’s new in
New York, so here are
things to do, eat and
see as the men’s wear
circuit makes its way to
Manhattan.
130 Division Street, New
York, NY 10002, (646)
882-7052
THE NEW
S N E A K E R S TO R E :
4 Stadium Goods
Much like other sneaker
consignment shops,
Stadium Goods is lined
with rare, plasticwrapped styles from
Jordan, Nike and Adidas.
But this recently opened
SoHo shop also sells a
small collection of hardto-find apparel from
Supreme. In December
the retailer acquired
and sold a $50,000
Supreme x Rolex
Submariner watch.
THE NEW BOUTIQUE
GY M :
8 The Mile High Run
Club
This recently opened
gym takes the monotony out of running on a
treadmill with a variety
of running classes for all
fitness levels. Its most
popular workout, the
Dash 28, mixes interval
runs with kettle bell
training.
28 East 4th Street, New York,
NY 10003, (212) 466-6472
4
6
47 Howard Street, New York,
NY 10013, (646) 779-8410
THE NEW FLASHY
R E S TA U R A N T :
2 Pennsylvania Plaza, New
York, NY 10121, (917) 475-1830
5 Vandal
The team behind Tao
and Lavo has opened
a new restaurant,
bar and lounge that’s
decorated with artwork
commissioned by seven
street artists including
Shepard Fairey, Tristan
Eaton and Vhils. The
menu is a mishmash
of international fare
ranging from sticky rice
dumplings to blackened
shrimp arepas.
THE NEW DOVER STREET
199 Bowery, New York, NY
10002, (212) 400-0199
1
8
MARKET SHOPS:
3 Vetements and
Gucci
Leave it to Dover Street
Market to land in-store
shops for two of-themoment designers:
Demna Gvasalia
of Vetements, who
recently succeeded
Alexander Wang
at Balenciaga and
Alessandro Michele of
Gucci. Vetements has
opened its first-ever
shop within the store —
Dover Street launched
with its rain jacket
but now carries the
spring collection — and
THE NEW
NEIGHBORHOOD JOINT:
6 Kiki’s
Its Division Street
location means patrons
can expect a hip, Lower
East Side crowd, but
Kiki’s menu is rooted in
tradition. The restaurant,
which was founded
by the team behind
Forgetmenot, serves
no-frills Greek dishes
including grilled lamb
chops presented atop
a bed of fries and
oven-roasted chicken
complemented with
lemon potatoes.
3
2
7
12
3 FEBRUARY 2016
FASHION
Tisci Just Does It
The Givenchy designer joins
with Nike again to reinterpret
the NikeLab Dunk shoe.
BY MILES SOCHA
Practically every major fashion designer
dabbles in sneakers these days. But few
can match Riccardo Tisci in terms of
credibility.
How credible?
Started playing basketball at age seven
credible.
Wears sneakers every day credible.
Lost count of his sneaker collection
credible. (He figures he’s surpassed 1,000
pairs, most of them bearing the famous
Swoosh.)
So his second collaboration with Nike
— with the first shoes arriving at NikeLab
retailers in North America and at nike.com
on Feb. 11 — is bound to be greeted enthusiastically by sneaker heads, who snapped
up Tisci’s colorful, tribal-tinged interpretation of the Air Force 1 in 2014.
The complex moniker of his second
project — NikeLab Dunk Lux High x RT — is
a foil to its slyly minimalist design.
“I live my life in Nike trainers,” Tisci
told WWD in an exclusive interview about
their latest collaboration. “It’s interesting
because I come from a couture background and I’m the first couturier who is
doing a project with them, bringing my
way of thinking about couture and about
fashion.
“It’s so easy for me to do couture and
at the same time, it’s easy for me to be
urban and to be street. I bring my fashion
approach and a couture touch to trainers,
which is interesting.”
Having logged his first decade as
Givenchy’s creative director, Tisci has
earned a reputation for being able to straddle ultrasophisticated fashions as well as
cool T-shirts and backpacks.
Asked by Nike to reinterpret the Dunk,
which marked its 30th anniversary last
year, the designer proposed a reduced
version based more on precise proportions than surface decoration. “A symbol
of couture in a way — strong, but clean
and simple,” Tisci said. “They were very
excited with what I proposed to them.”
The designer stretched the height of the
sneaker — “somewhere between boxer
shoes and high-tops,” he noted — and
enlarged the foxing (the rubber sidewall),
eyestay (the leather strip with the lace
holes) and the belly of the Swoosh, which
culminates at the Achilles heel with an
upside-down leather tab just above an
“RT” logo.
“They’re still related to basketball,
street, skateboard culture and all that, but
much more pure, much more minimal,
and with very strong details,” he said.
“This can be used by everybody and it
can be worn every day, not only
for sport.”
While embodying Tisci’s vision was
essential, the shoe “also needed to perform,” noted Nate Jobe, senior design
director of NikeLab Footwear Innovation.
To wit: The design team incorporated a
host of performance and comfort features,
including full-grain leather for uppers, an
ultrasoft Lunarlon insole, and memory
foam in the quilted leather collar and
tongue.
Tisci’s understated design is sure to
be influential, and is very much in the
minimalist vein of the hit Yeezys done by
his great friend Kanye West. (Although the
rapper collaborates with Nike’s rival Adidas for his footwear and fashion line.)
First out is a black Dunk with a white
Swoosh, followed by a white version
with a black or red Swoosh.
“The goal we wanted to achieve
was to create a Dunk that was
lighter, very recognizable and, very
iconic, but very pure,” Tisci said.
To be sure, the designer knows
the legacy of the Dunk by heart.
Growing up poor in Italy amid
a craze in Europe for American
basketball, he witnessed the
shoe, created in 1985 only a few
months after the Air Jordan I,
becoming popular for off-court
wearing before being embraced
wholeheartedly by the skateboard community.
Tisci was only able to afford
his first pair of Nikes around
age 12 or 13 — they were
either Dunks or Air Force
1s — having contented
himself with a Nike
sticker before
that. That first
purchase
ignited
what would become a lifelong passion for
collecting sneakers, along with polos and
T-shirts — other wardrobe mainstays of
Tisci’s, who still dresses like a college kid
at age 41.
“I would say I’m a trainers freak.
They’re the only shoes I’ve worn my whole
life,” he said. “I have a lot of boxes in
Como where my family lives, and a lot in
Paris and in New York.”
While his fall 2016 collection for
Givenchy put a big emphasis on cowboy-style boots, Tisci remains a passionate
proponent of sneakers, which his collaborations with Nike reflect.
“Men today are more open-minded
about how to dress. It’s not like you have
to wear a loafer or classic shoes with a
suit,” he said. “On the weekend, you can
be more relaxed and cool, and very chic
trainers can make a man look chic without
being formal.”
Tisci confesses he was surprised by the
success of his first Nike collaboration in
2014. Sneaker enthusiasts queued up to
nab a pair — dubbed Nike + R.T. AF1 — and
some went to town customizing them, sharing their interpretations on social media.
Now he’s gearing up for his second collaboration with Nike that’s due out before
September. He describes it as “bigger” and
“more articulated” but won’t say anything
more than it comes to him naturally.
“I always loved Nike as a child,” he said.
“It belongs to my history.”
The NikeLab Dunk
Lux High x RT.
Courtesy of Nike
●
14
3 FEBRUARY 2016
THE MARKETS
ThirdLove
Closes $8M
Funding Round
●
The intimate apparel start-up
plans to expand its collection
and add retail partners.
BY LORRAINE SANDERS
Intimate apparel start-up ThirdLove has
closed an $8 million Series A round of funding
that includes Laurie Ann Goldman, former chief
executive officer of Spanx, and former Victoria’s
Secret Stores ceo Lori Greeley.
The round, revealed today, was led by
existing investors New Enterprise Associates
and also includes REI chairman John Hamlin,
Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht and
Claire Bennett, an executive vice president and
general manager at American Express and Tumi
board member. The round follows a $5.6 million
seed round raised in 2013, bringing the company’s total current funding to $13.5 million.
The new funding makes it possible for the San
Francisco e-tailer, whose companion mobile
app relies on computer vision technology to
fit women in the appropriate bra using whole
and half cup sizes, to focus in 2016 on growing
its team, introducing new products, adopting
new paid marketing strategies and investing
in the company’s retail expansion following a
partnership with Bloomingdale’s that brought
an exclusive 10-piece capsule collection to select
stores and the retailer’s Web site starting in
September.
Along with expanding that collection to
include new styles and additional Bloomingdale’s stores this year, ThirdLove plans to add
additional retail partners.
“Based on the success of that partnership,
we’re in discussion with other retailers. Part of
our financing will go toward making happen,” said cofounder Heidi Zak, an ex-Google
employee who started the company with husband Dave Spector in 2012.
For retail partners, half-sizes appeal as a new
option to offer customers.
“ThirdLove has complemented our total
assortment by offering our shoppers half sizes
in bras for the first time….The brand caters to
customers who have truly been in between sizes
their whole life,” Bloomingdale’s fashion director of accessories and beauty Erica Russo said.
With global growth of the intimate apparel
market projected at 3.7 percent through 2019,
according to recent TechNavio findings, the
tech-driven lingerie brand is reporting 400 percent year-over-year revenue growth for 2014-15,
a significant uptick Zak attributes primarily to
media coverage, sharing via word-of-mouth and
the company’s referral program.
Additional plans for the year ahead include
“doubling-down,” according to Zak, on the
brand’s best-selling 24/7 collection and phasing
out some product lines in the process. With
multiple years’ worth of user data from the
mobile app at the ready, the company says it
can deliver a consistent fit across the product
line, which includes T-shirt, lace, full-coverage
and push-up styles.
“Once you have that size, every other product
in our 24/7 collection has that exact same fit,”
Zak said.
As evidence for the company’s fit accuracy,
Zak pointed to a return rate currently in the
single digits, as well as a repeat purchase cycle
that sees its average customer buying a second
bra within 45 days, compared with a reported
12-month industry standard.
With its data-based design model, ThirdLove expects its precision in sizing, which the
company says currently performs better than a
human with a tape measure, only to continue.
Said Zak, “All of the inputs to the bra are
based on data of real women versus a fit model,
so the more data we have, the easier it is.”
Frye introduces its
modernized image with
its spring campaign.
BUSINESS
Frye Refreshes Image,
Expects Lifestyle Push
●
The American footwear
brand is updating its look
with a new logo, packaging,
campaign and product.
BY JESSICA IREDALE
The Frye Company is proud of its
152-year-old heritage. So much so that
during an interview with Adrienne
Lazarus, the company’s relatively new
chief executive officer (she joined in
May, and prior to that was president
of Intermix from 2009-13) and Dow
Famulak, president and ceo of Frye’s
parent company Global Brands Group,
hardly a point could be made without
invoking the words “heritage,” “authenticity” and “legacy.” Those are power
BUSINESS
Fitbit Gets
Elevated
●
The company is unveiling
the Alta wristband, its most
fashion-forward wearable
to date.
BY RACHEL STRUGATZ
Fitbit is taking a cue from its peers
and unveiling a more fashion-forward
activity tracker.
The Fitbit Alta is slimmer and sleeker
than previous models, with a stainless
steel body and satin finish. It is available
for pre-order today at fibit.com and
will ship on March 1. The $129.95 Alta
comes in silver-plated stainless steel
to start and will soon be released in
gold-plated stainless steel. Additionally,
a series of interchangeable bands are
compatible with the tracker for the
first time, including a traditional fitness
wristband, a leather bracelet and a
silver bangle. The Alta will replace Fitbit’s current Charge model, the $129.95
wristband that came with just one
elastomer strap. A single charge can last
up to five days.
Similar to Fitbit’s other products,
the Alta tracks the wearer’s activity,
exercise and sleep, said Melanie Chase,
senior product marketing manager
terms in the marketing lexicon and Frye
intends to leverage them as it refreshes
its image over the course of 2016. As
important as history is, a brand can’t
live in the past.
“What does every great heritage
brand do to stay relevant and modern?” asked Lazarus, during a meeting
in Frye’s New York showroom. “When
you’re 150 years old, there has to be a
constant iteration. This is the appropriate time to take the next step forward
and ask what is that fresh feeling
today?”
To help answer that question,
Lazarus hired creative agency Wednesday Group to redesign the company’s
logo with a new tag line, “The Original
Craftsmen of American Footwear,”
which launched this week, as well as
at Fitbit. But it’s the interchangeable
bands that the company is hoping will
really push the Alta into everyday,
mainstream territory.
“When we talk to our users the
number-one thing they want is to take it
everywhere with them — when they’re
going to work, working out or going to
a wedding. They want their activity to
be captured and making the devices
accessorizable and personalized really
enables them to do that,” Chase said.
Tory Burch will join in on the fun,
too, releasing a series of bands for the
Alta that will come out later this year.
This is a continuation of an ongoing
partnership that kicked off in July 2014
when Tory Burch’s accessories bands
for the Flex sold out within three hours.
Last year, offerings expanded to include
leather wrap and metallic bracelets.
Chase added that a new Reminders
to Move feature was implemented into
this version to encourage users to stay
active throughout the day (it can easily
be put on “Do Not Disturb” mode
during a long meeting). And unlike the
Charge that came before it, Alta’s full-visual display can be synced to one’s
smartphone to give calendar, text and
phone call notifications (the Charge is
only able to give call notifications).
Automatic exercise recognition
software SmartTrack will be embedded within the Alta as well. Originally
launched at the end of last year with
the Charge HR and the Surge, this will
be the first time the software will be
available in one of Fitbit’s “Everyday”
styles. The Fitbit Blaze, the $199 fitness
new packaging set for fall. The spring
campaign was shot by Lachlan Bailey
and styled by Melanie Ward.
The updated branding comes on the
heels of a retail expansion last year
with three new stores opening in 2015
in Washington, D.C.; Roosevelt Field in
Long Island, N.Y., and Atlanta, Ga., for a
total of eight free-standing stores. There
are three more potential stores planned
for 2016 in Austin, Texas; San Francisco, Calif., and Nashville, Tenn.
Frye’s Midtown Manhattan showroom
is decorated with pictures of the ultrafamous wearing some of the brand’s
most well-known styles — John Lennon
in the Harness boot; Jackie Onassis in
a riding boot. An anecdote from the
company history: In 1938, the grandson
and namesake of founder John A. Frye’s
made a pair of custom boots for a U.S.
Navy Rear Admiral — the Jet boot —
which was subsequently purchased by
thousands of American servicemen.
Similar styles have always been part
of the collection and for fall, Frye is
updating and packaging them as the
Modern Icon collection. It includes
six women’s and six men’s styles that
have been mildly redesigned to reflect
current aesthetics.
Going forward, Frye is looking
beyond footwear, hoping to build on
its handbag offer, as well as belts and
potentially get into other categories.
“We’ve spoken to a lot of consumers
over the last several months,” said
Famulak. “They’re aggressively saying
to us, ‘You have quality craftsmanship
and an amazing history as a footwear
business. We’d really like to see Frye
as a lifestyle brand.’ That’s what we’re
working on.”
Lazarus noted that focus groups also
yielded support for expansion into
leather outerwear and possibly denim,
though there are no concrete plans for
either yet.
“It’s really important to pace the
business,” said Lazarus.
Fitbit’s new Alta
activity tracker.
smartwatch hybrid unveiled at the
Consumer Electronics Show, or CES,
last month, can also track workouts
automatically.
Despite a crop of new products, Fitbit
has not been without its struggles this
year.
Following a flurry of favorable press
coverage and stock market gains after
going public in June, Fitbit’s shares
continue to lose ground as competitors
like Jawbone, Fossil and Apple make
headlines and release new products.
The stock closed down 3.7 percent to
$16.09 Tuesday and is hovering near its
52-week low of $15.52.
Chase isn’t too worried about stock
prices, though, noting that the company’s exceeded sales expectations for the
past two quarters and that its app was
the number one downloaded free app
on Christmas Day and Dec. 26.
15
3 FEBRUARY 2016
The Reviews
Public School
Fashion belongs to the people. And Public School is getting ever closer to its fans.
A large group of followers and fashion students lined the street outside the
glass-enclosed backstage area and were
the first ones to see the looks. The models
exited from the rear and marched around
the block before entering the official venue.
“The show will happen for them first,”
said Dao-Yi Chow, Public School cofounder.
Ironically, he said the collection was
inspired by David Bowie before his death,
especially the film, “The Man Who Fell
From Earth.”
This “loner from the outskirts” was
dressed in a way that would allow him to
“navigate the new land,” Chow said. “For
us, it’s a reflection of what’s going on.”
That spirit of survival was apparent in the
use of camouflage in T-shirts, zip-up blazers
and bomber jackets.
Utility aspects such as Velcro closures on
an oversize anorak, and an abundance of
quilting reinforced the protectionist spirit.
The heritage streetwear influence and
athletic references still resonated in the
tailored pieces, which Chow said had a
more-sporty silhouette, as well as the elegant layering effects.
The balance between the innovation of
the collection and the trendsetting show
format reinforced Public School’s ability
to lead the way in fashion and keep an
ongoing connection with the street culture.
— Alex Badia
Public School
Photographs by George Chinsee, Giovanni Giannoni and Andrew H. Walker/WWD/REX/Shutterstock
Joseph Abboud
Joseph Abboud paid homage to his vision
of America with a tailored, clothing-driven
show bursting with a multitude of textured fabrics, prints and playful layering
techniques.
All manufactured in the company’s New
Bedford, Mass., factory, the line was an
“ode to American craftsmanship and tailoring,” the designer said backstage before
the show that opened New York Fashion
M[[a: Men’s.
He used his traditional gray and brown
palette in a wide range of traditional men’s
wear patterns, ranging from pinstripes and
tweeds to embellished paisleys.
His love for layering scarves added
another element of depth. Although at
times overwhelming, a shawl-like gray
American flag brought home the message of
his U.S. roots.
Abboud said he was most proud of
the “whole rugged dandyism” and the
“texture and pattern together — that’s our
signature.”
The show marked Abboud’s return to the
runway after more than a decade, but the
designer felt no pressure. “It’s nostalgic,
but it’s a continuation of my work,” he said,
“and I love my work.”
And while that work may not set any new
fashion trends, it felt true to his heritage.
— Jean E. Palmieri
Robert Geller
Robert Geller looked back to a story that
resonated with him from his childhood
in Germany for the backdrop of his fall
collection. The story had a dark beginning
but a happy ending, and although its origin
may not have translated well in the
Joseph Abboud
Fall
Collections
2016
16
3 FEBRUARY 2016
Opening Ceremony
Duckie Brown
a storm proof cotton blazer with a reflective
stripe on the back.
Although some pieces fell short — a
transparent rubber fireman jacket — the
majority of the collection was definitely
wearable and will undoubtedly sell well at
retail. — J.P.
Nautica
Duckie Brown
retelling, it certainly had a positive effect on
the line.
It started off with a “very dark,
business-y” flavor, as shown in the doublebreasted jacket with no lapels and a dark,
short-sleeve trench embellished with
zippers.
The mood lightened with a brown and
beige color palette where texture was the
highlight on pieces including a mohair suit
and a jumpsuit with a subtle sheen.
Pants were more roomy this season with
cropped wide-leg models, some tapered
at the bottom. “I think this will replace the
jean,” he said. “A dress pant that is not a
dress pant.”
The show ended with deep green,
burgundy and mustard looks that were
accentuated with cummerbunds and
included long, quilted coats.
With this strong showing, Geller clearly
cemented his position as one of the frontrunners of the New York men’s designers.
— J.P.
Nautica
The stage was set before the show started
with an opening video of the sea that morphed into a collage of buildings and bridges.
This juxtaposition of the water and the
city was the inspiration for Nautica’s fall
collection, whose new marching order is:
“Inspired by the sea, designed in the city.”
Designer Steve McSween said he sought
to “make an elegant mark with nautical
references fused throughout.”
That translated into signature cable-knit
sweaters in luxurious twisted cashmere, and
pea coats, duffles and utility jackets in wool.
One particular standout was a winter
white wool admiral coat paired with a
mohair and merino turtleneck and a twill
officer pant.
Athletic references were scattered
throughout, with gabardine pants with elastic waists, joggers in stretch gabardine and
Opening Ceremony
Opening Ceremony turned to Syd Mead,
a neo-futuristic concept artist known for
his designs for science fiction films such as
“Blade Runner” and “Aliens,” as inspiration
for its men’s line.
“What he drew in the Sixties and
Seventies is where we are today,” said
Humberto Leon, cofounder. “I don’t like to
use the word futuristic because his work is
grounded in reality. At this time and place,
it’s about living in the moment that they
were thinking about then.”
Mead’s prints were used on mock-neck
sweaters and T-shirts. The vintage aesthetic
also translated into updates of classics items
such as a coach’s jacket that was reinvented
in velour with contrasting colored panels,
a cable knit sweater bisected by a fleece
stripe, a track jacket offered up in a suiting
fabric and a silk bomber that reversed to a
cotton hoodie.
“We’re focused on familiar things like
outerwear done in a knitwear piece,” he
said, “and hybrid shoes.” A short desert
boot, for example, is offered with a sport
sole. He said Opening Ceremony has
teamed with an athletic footwear brand
for the first time this season, essentially
relaunching the category.
Leon said the idea of hybrids also showed
through in the apparel assortment that was
designed to take a man from his early-morning workout to his 9-to-5 job and then his
weekend activities by fusing elements of
athletic wear with classic tailoring in gymfriendly silhouettes in luxe fabrics such as
silk and mélange felted wool or tailored
dress shirts with rugby stripes.
“Everything has a nice ease and great
drape,” Leon said. — J.P.
Photographs by George Chinsee, Giovanni Giannoni and Andrew H. Walker/WWD/REX/Shutterstock
RoberÓ Geller
In a world full of sensory overdrive,
Duckie Brown took the opposite tact, presenting the most edited collection in recent
memory.
Showing a mere six looks, the design duo
of Steven Cox and Daniel Silver said the root
of the fall line was centered around a black
suit and a white shirt.
The one suit came in a double-breasted
model in a relaxed, boxy silhouette, as did
the two tailored topcoats. The shirt fabric
took different forms, ranging from a traditional dress shirt to a bomber and a hooded
utility jacket.
There were no dresses, no chiffon and
no women’s wear — the collection was pure
men’s with a tailored sensibility.
“Space is a luxury,” Cox said of the
uncluttered, minimalistic lineup. But there’s
always room for directional and beautiful
clothes. Unfortunately this small taste was
not enough to create a lasting impression.
— A.B.
17
3 FEBRUARY 2016
Krammer
& Stoudt
Deveaux
CWST
Plac
Carlos Campos
David Hart
General Idea
Photographs by Thomas Iannaccone, Giovanni Giannoni, Rodin Banica and George Chinsee
Carlos Campos
The coffee farms of Honduras played an
important role in designer Carlos Campos’
debut runway collection.
The lineup focused on a utilitarian
uniform and maintained a sharp attention
to detail in the tailoring — especially evident
in the long robe coats, cropped trousers
with a tailored fit, and oversize cargo
pockets on capes and trucker jackets.
“I am very proud of my Latino heritage,”
said Campos backstage before paying
homage to the elegance of the coffee
foremen of Honduras where he journeyed
last year.
A tame palette was seen throughout and
it was mainly reminiscent of the coloration
stages of coffee beans — beiges, soft whites
and the designer’s signature color, blue, in
various iterations.
Textures were conveyed in plush,
brushed wools and cotton velveteens,
which provided a rich feel.
It’s clear that Campos has turned a
page with this collection, which elevated
his signature tailored aesthetic with a
consistent luxurious offering that made
this his strongest effort to date. — Luis
Campuzano
General Idea
Designer Bumsuk Choi presented a
lineup that managed to remain playful
while still maintaining the minimal tone
that is a hallmark of the brand.
The collection included modern elements
such as oversize coats with exaggerated
patch pockets in monochromatic tones,
color-blocking on outerwear in bomber
and leather moto jacket styles and various
zipper treatments on sleeves.
depicted a male dandy in his paintings.
That dandy came to life at Rubin’s debut
presentation at New York Men’s Day, but
with a Western tilt. He sauntered around
the room in a maroon suit and white headpiece with a diverse set of models — real
people and actual models — who wore tailored suits styled with plaid shirts; bomber
Jackets; shirt jackets with matching pants;
striped T-shirts, and cropped, cuffed denim.
These looks were accentuated with bowler
hats and wallet chains.
This unique take on Americana, while
not groundbreaking, was well executed. —
Aria Hughes
Edmund Ooi
David Hart
While Choi likes to experiment from season
to season and this is his most modern effort
to date, it nevertheless lacked cohesiveness
as he moved from a dark collegiate look to
an elegant dandy. — L.C.
Deveaux
In its debut collection, Deveaux, a new
brand from the founders of Carson Street
Clothiers, presented a lineup full of retailfriendly pieces that hit some of the key
trends of the season.
An elongated cardigan in cashmere
worn with a wool/silk T-shirt and gray wool
herringbone pants was a standout, and the
monochrome color palette lent a luxe feel
to the collection.
Numerous statement outerwear items
such as bomber jackets in pebble shearling
and raglan belted car coats in suede gave
the lineup an upscale and romantic feel.
This first effort is definitely a move in the
right direction. — L.C.
Krammer & Stoudt
Mike Rubin, a Southern California native
who launched his line in 2012, consistently
draws from the surf, skate and punk culture
of the Seventies and Eighties, but for his fall
2016 collection he also pulled from German
artist Markus Lüpertz, who regularly
David Hart loves a theme. Last season he
referenced the bright Bauhaus movement
and before that he looked to spaghetti Westerns from the late Sixties.
This season he played within the same
decade but trawled for ideas closer to
home. Hart, whose father is a jazz musician, drew from photographer Francis
Wolff, who documented artists from Blue
Note Records, and album covers designed
by Reid Miles. An all-black cast of models
stood in various vignettes holding musical
instruments or lounging at a deli table.
They wore short-sleeve knits, plaid blazers
and cropped trousers along with leather
bombers and suede denim jackets — Hart
said he produced more sportswear than
usual this season.
On the other end of the spectrum, Hart
amped up his more formal assortment
with tuxedos and suits made from coated
fabrics. While the collection was referential
to the past, which is customary for Hart,
the overall effect felt modern and more
palatable for a wider swath of men’s wear
customers. — A.H.
CWST
Designers Derek Buse and Joe Sadler
of CWST might be nomads, but they’re
nomads on the beach.
Inspired by the San Juan islands in the
Pacific Northwest, the fall lineup fused a
carefree beach vibe with rock ’n’ roll culture — and a touch of grunge.
“It was our first venture outside of California,” said Buse. “We instantly fell in love
with the relaxed spirit and counter culture,”
added Sadler.
The lineup offered multilayered pieces,
double-washed wool linens and fabrics
imported from Japan and Italy. Highlights
include an army overcoat in an Italian wool
blend, a Japanese technical puffer and a
tribal totem print scarf and jacket.
— Frederick Marfil
Max ’N Chester
Peter Trainor, designer of Max ’N Chester,
made his debut at New York Fashion Week:
Men’s, and continued with his signature
comfortable aesthetic of day-to-night wear.
The collection was inspired by the sophistication of Twenties pre-war Italy and
featured an array of deconstructed suits,
quilted blazers, frayed shirts and sweatshirts in terry knit.
While there were no new silhouettes,
some of the fabrications, such as boiled
wools, cashmere and french-terry knit
separates, achieved textures that alluded to
a modern and sophisticated interpretation
of a peasant. — L.C.
18
3 FEBRUARY 2016
Fall
Collections
2016
Max ’N Chester
Matiere
Lucio Castro
Uri Minkoff
Hvrminn
Chapter
Garciavelez
Plac designer Jae Wan Park continued
to show his dark side for fall. The lineup,
which was inspired by the late Eighties and
Nineties, consisted of layered outerwear
in gray and charcoal paired with cropped
carrot pants and Dr. Marten boots.
“I wanted to revamp the collection I did
in my third season and introduce the spectrum design from the late Eighties,” Park
said. Started as a denim brand six years
ago, Plac is now a full-fledged collection.
Highlights of this season include a gray wool
bomber over a cable-knit sweater paired
with cropped pants, and an oversize scarf
with a spectrum design that resembled a
hybrid of speckled gradation and houndstooth. — Frederick Marfil
Edmund Ooi
The Edmund Ooi fall collection aimed to
blend collegiate prep with club kids.
Inspired by the class of 2525, the designer
offered up a futuristic take on the schoolboy
uniform, complete with turtlenecks, leather
perfecto jackets and duffel coats, all styled
with cuffed denim jeans.
“I’m thinking about the student of
the future and played on the idea of the
uniform,” said Ooi. Highlights included
a leather moto perfecto jacket over a
dinosaur digital graphic and jacquard knit
vest, technical polyester trenchcoat and an
anorak shirt with elastic inner waistbands.
Although a little tricked-out, the collection held its own. — F.M.
Uri Minkoff
Uri Minkoff, who introduced men’s handbags in 2011 under the Ben Minkoff label,
has now moved into men’s apparel. Minkoff
said he’s positioning his line as a stepping
stone for customers who are interested in
luxury Japanese and Scandinavian brands,
but can only afford a contemporary price
point.
He envisions the Uri Minkoff man wearing tapered trousers with electric blue tuxedo stripes and latex ankle cuffs, or shoes
that could second as elevated slippers. They
are new ideas for sure, and they might take
some getting used to. The highlight of the
line was the outerwear assortment that
included a fur-lined parka, a tailored gray
overcoat and a zip-up moto jacket, which
will probably all do well at retail.
The bags — specifically the olive green
deerskin backpack and the duffel bag decorated with multiple metallic straps — were
another high note. The metallic cross-body
bags and leather tassels, which hung from
the models waist, felt less relatable for the
male market.
Minkoff clearly wants to add something
different to the men’s wear category, which
is an admirable pursuit, but from the look
of his first apparel collection, it seems
like he’s still trying to figure out who his
customer is and what they will actually buy.
— Aria Hughes
Lucio Castro
Lucio Castro’s fall collection made the
eye wander. If one wasn’t taking in the rich
color palette, which was made up of earth
tones complemented by acid green and
Hvrminn
Hvrminn designer Minn Hur’s appreciation for World War II was prevalent
throughout his fall collection. The lineup,
which emphasized soft traditional tailoring,
offered pieces inspired by the era’s military
garb and interpreted in sartorial clothing.
“My specialty is about finding the perfect
balance between tailored clothes and
military uniforms,” Hur said. Highlights
included a fur trapper hat and peacoat,
a cropped camel suede jacket over a
two-piece plaid suit, and an olive double-breasted cinched waisted suit.
While the military references may have
been a bit overstated, the fine tailoring was
unmistakable. — F.M.
Chapter
“I wanted to take the next direction
because I feel like a lot of men’s wear is getting stale,” said Devin Carlson, the designer
behind Chapter. Carlson didn’t fully define
“stale,” but from the look of his fall collection and his previous lineups, the designer
has severed ties with ath-leisure.
Instead, he’s pushing an aesthetic influenced by the movie “Swingers,” and the
neo-swing movement from the Nineties that
includes high waist, drop-crotch trousers, boxy denim pants and turtlenecks.
Outerwear, which consisted of leather
moto jackets, elongated satin bombers and
tailored coats, topped off each look. It was
a focused effort and a step forward for the
California-based designer. — A.H.
Garciavelez
Carlos Garciavelez took a turn to a
more relaxed and youthful look. Drawing
inspiration from a thermal spa holiday in
the Swiss Alps, the collection offered an
array of loose layered silhouettes. Some
of the key pieces included a shawl-collar
camel coat with rounded shoulders, baggy
trousers and a peacoat with leather insets.
While the amount of athletic layering was a
bit of a visual overdose, the collection still
maintained elements that evoked a youthful
tone. — Luis Campuzano
Matiere
This season, Matiere presented a collection
inspired by the modern traveler.
While keeping true to their loungewear
and ath-leisure aesthetic, the designers
were able to use various textures such as
crinkled jerseys and design details including
sealed zippers, covered plackets and adjustable cuff straps. Most notable was a new
coat silhouette and a kid mohair hooded
sweater. — L.C.
Photographs by Thomas Iannaccone, Giovanni Giannoni, Rodin Banica and George Chinsee
Plac
burgundy, one was inspecting the fabrics
and custom prints, which ranged from
a foil-printed plaid knit to handpainted
stripes.
Photographs of Stonehenge hippies
from the Nineties helped create this psych
rock-inflected offering, which featured
models wearing turtlenecks layered under
button-up shirts and cardigans with roomy
trousers and culottes that looked like skirts.
Highlights included the puffer cardigan,
the double cashmere coat and the hefty
wallet chains, which were created by Haze,
who also provided the eyewear. It was a
collection of special pieces that looked great
together, but could also stand out on their
own. — A.H.
20
3 FEBRUARY 2016
Paul Blum
Kristen Stewart
The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles Feb.
24. The opening comes as Zoe is set to present
her fall collection during New York Fashion
Week, which will be revealed alongside the
rollout of a Web site dedicated to the line.
The Grove store is Zoe’s first attempt at retail
for her namesake line and will carry the spring
collection of apparel, jewelry and shoes with
prices ranging from $75 to $1,795. “In addition
to seeing my designs firsthand, I am so excited
for guests to have an interactive, 360-degree
experience that is truly Rachel Zoe from top to
bottom,” Zoe said.
The store totals more than 1,500 square feet
and is sandwiched between Crate & Barrel and
MAC Cosmetics. Its doors are scheduled to
remain open through March 31.
Rachel Zoe joins a number of buzzy brands
that have taken up temporary space at the
Grove. The shopping center, in more recent
times, has inked pop-up deals with brands
such as Revolve and Cuyana along with Nicole
Richie’s House of Harlow and Lauren Conrad’s
Paper Crown apparel line. — KARI HAMANAKA
A Balmain look
available on Kim
Kardashian’s
mobile game
“Hollywood.”
CROWN JEWELS
Paul Blum has joined Henri Bendel as chief
executive officer. He succeeds Chris Fiore who
left the company.
Most recently, Blum was ceo of Fred Segal,
owned by Sandow. He joined Sandow in 2014
with the goal of moving the California retailer
to a directly owned model from a licensing one.
Earlier, Blum was ceo of Juicy Couture, David
Yurman and Kenneth Cole Productions.
A spokeswoman for L Brands, which owns
Henri Bendel, confirmed that Blum joined
Bendel’s as ceo on Jan. 25. Blum reports to Les
Wexner, founder, chairman and ceo of L Brands.
Bendel’s has 29 stores, including the Fifth Avenue flagship as well as henribendel.com, where
it focuses on accessories, handbags, wallets,
jewelry, candles, gifts and travel items.
Adam Sandow, ceo of Sandow, was unavailable for comment Tuesday on Blum’s successor.
— LISA LOCKWOOD
FACE FORWARD
Chanel has named Kristen Stewart the face of
its makeup collection.
The actress will appear in a campaign called
Collection Eyes 2016, which was photographed
by Mario Testino and is to break in March.
Stewart posed for a series of portraits that
incarnate the different facets of a contemporary woman, according to Chanel.
Stewart is no stranger to the house. In 2013,
she fronted the advertising for the Métiers d’Art
Paris-Dallas collection. She also starred in the
short film “Once and Forever,” lensed by Karl
ON THE MEDIA
More magazine editor in chief Lesley Jane
Seymour talked “media with a purpose” on
Tuesday with an all-star panel of speakers, which
included Michelle Obama, Julianne Moore and
Lena Dunham.
The panel, which took place at the American
Magazine Media conference at The Grand Hyatt,
kicked off with the news that Condé Nast, Hearst
and Meredith joined forces to give $9 million
worth of free public service announcements in
their various magazines for the First Lady’s Let
Girls Learn initiative with the Peace Corps.
Obama, who guest-edited More last year,
spoke about the importance of education for
girls around the world, as each panelist underscored how their own education impacted their
lives.
Seymour then turned the conversation to
Lagerfeld for the Métiers d’Art fashion show in
Rome last December.
The actress’ screen credits include “Panic
Room,” “Into the Wild,” the “Twilight” series and
“On the Road.” Upcoming for Stewart are “Personal Shopper,” directed by Olivier Assayas, and
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” directed by Ang
Lee. — JENNIFER WEIL
GAME ON
games for players on the go, logged adjusted
revenues of $132.4 million as of the end of September. — RACHEL STRUGATZ
ALL IN THE TIMING
Designer and stylist Rachel Zoe was strategic
with her dive into retail.
The stylist and designer expects to open a
pop-up shop at developer Caruso Affiliated’s
Olivier Rousteing, creative director of Balmain, has really taken to gaming. The designer
will boost Balmain’s presence within Kim Kardashian West’s mobile game, “Kim Kardashian:
Hollywood,” after a successful launch in early
December. He will become the first designer
to create pieces expressly for the game, which
include a fringed handbag and pair of earrings
that, bundled together, retail for $14.99 or 105
K-stars (the game’s currency).
“The pieces are composed of opulent fabrics
like velvet and fringe that recall design elements from the fall 2015 rtw Balmain collection,”
Rousteing said. While these products don’t
current exist IRL, or in real life, it’s a possibility
down the line.
Balmain’s integration in Kardashian West’s
game – complete with women’s and men’s looks
from Balmain’s fall 2015 collection and a cameo
by Rousteing, naturally – saw 200,000 players
owning at least one piece from the brand during
its first month live. Additionally, the 2.2 million
players who clicked through to balmain.com
show the marketing potential that gaming holds
for brands.
“Hollywood,” part of Glu Mobile’s portfolio of
media — specifically magazines.
Calling magazines, the “best vehicle” to tell
¸Ö¸Œ”’ stories, Obama explained her media
strategy, which includes partnering with You-Tube
star Michelle Phan, working with magazine editors
and appearing on Snapchat, Vine and on TV
shows like Sesame Street.
“We really think about the audience we’re trying to reach. It’s simple,” said Obama, who noted
that her two Generation Z daughters are on their
mobile phones “swiping” and taking Vines.
“They are not watching the evening news,” she
said. “They are not reading The New York Times.
No offense, but they’re not. We have to talk to
them where they are.”
Seymour turned to Dunham, who started
Lenny Letter, which inked a distribution deal with
Hearst in the fall. The editor wondered why Dunham chose an old school media platform.
“It’s a great question, and one that I ask myself
— KELLY WETHERILLE
Rachel Zoe
An item from Sacai’s
jewelry collection.
every day,” deadpanned Dunham. “There are
certain things that you can’t express in the character limitations within Twitter.”
The “Girls” cocreator said she’s “approaching
30” and wanted to create an informative product
that would help educate and inform young women about issues such as reproductive rights and
the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dunham’s insight was stopped short by snickering nearby.
“She’s not 30!” said Moore, who smiled at
Obama.
For her part, Moore spoke about her personal
connection with an audience through her own
work as an actress and advocate for gun safety.
“The audience doesn’t come to see you,”
Moore said about her acting work. “They come to
see themselves and their dreams and to reflect.”
The conversation then moved to social media.
“It’s a sign of the times,” the First Lady said.
“You have to be nimble because things are so
different today.”
As if to hammer home that point, Obama
concluded: “If Eleanor Roosevelt was alive today,
she would have a Twitter account in addition to
her radio show.”
— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD
Michelle Obama at
the American
Magazine Media
conference.
Blum photograph by John Aquino; Zoe by Katie Jones/WWD; Sacai by Frederik Lindstrøm; Obama by Getty Images for Time Inc.
BLUM AT BENDEL
Sacai has tapped Danish jewelry designer
Sophie Bille Brahe for a capsule collection of
fine jewelry for the Japanese fashion brand.
The collection encompasses ten pieces crafted
from 14- and 18-karat yellow gold, diamonds and
pearls.
The pieces feature curved lines and round
stones, with rows of diamonds climbing up
the ear and gold fringe dangling toward the
shoulders. They are crafted using centuries-old
goldsmith techniques, but have a very modern
look. Prices range from $495 to $4,650.
The collection launched Tuesday at Dover
Street Market, and will hit other retailers such as
Barneys New York, Net-a-porter, Max-field in Los
Angeles, and Archives in Toronto, on March 2. On
Friday, Bille Brahe will join Sacai designer
Chitose Abe for a cocktail party to launch the
collection at Dover Street Market Ginza in Tokyo.