Daily EDition december 29, 2016 1

Fashion. Beauty. Business.

Fourth PillarShenzhen emerges as a design hub of the fashion world.

Page 7

Easing CongestionNew York Mayor Bill de Blasio will reopen streets near Trump Tower.

Page 6

Sound DesignVivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler create suits for the Vienna Philharmonic.

Page 13

● For the retailer, it’s another reset, this time plotted at Sunset and La Cienega, but will it stick?

by Kari HamanaKa

LOS ANGELES — Prime West Hollywood real estate. Famed brand. Experiential retail.

Fred Segal’s ambitious plans to reboot yet again checks a bunch of buzz-word-filled boxes, with an announcement on the incoming flagship teeming with descriptors such as “highly curated mix of luxury products,” “iconic features” and “curated experiential retail.”

What any of this looks like is up to the imagination, but come fall 2017, a roughly 40,000-square-foot box at the corner of Sunset and La Cienega Boulevards will be the new home of a 55-year-old brand that at one time defined California casual.

The boutique mall, of which 22,000 square feet are leased by the company, has the remainder — while still operating under the Fred Segal flag — as separate deals with the building’s landlord. The mix — the specifics of which are forthcoming — will include temporary and permanent

● Boohoo bids $20 million for the brand, as the parsing off of IP assets may become the norm in retail bankruptcies.

by Kari HamanaKa

LOS ANGELES — It’s rough out there. And if there’s any lesson to be learned from Nasty Gal, it may be that brand recognition always has a value.

Boohoo.com plc’s $20 million go at Nasty Gal Inc.’s intellectual property was confirmed Wednesday and takes the company far from its height just a handful of years ago, when its valuation swelled to $200 million. Nasty Gal had appeared on an upward trajectory, pulling all the levers when it came to branding — playing up its

business

Fred Segal’sBoutique In a Box

business

Nasty GalIP ProvesGreatestAsset

continued on page 8

continued on page 11

Cut-up jeans set a tone of crafty vintage cool and modern comfort that’s reverberating up and down the denim food chain. Here, Public School’s slashed and shredded pair from pre-fall are already broken in for you. For more denim, see pages 4 and 5.

Denim Redone

photograph by rodin Banica

Europe Men’s FashionISSUE: January 11CLOSE: 12/28 · MATERIALS: 01/02

Paris/New York Men’s FashionISSUE: January 25CLOSE: 01/11 · MATERIALS: 01/16

Men’s Fashion Weeks

An Advertising Opportunity

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT PAMELA FIRESTONE, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER AT

212 256 8103 OR PFIRESTONE@WWD.COM

december 29, 2016 3

Dennis Basso Speaks Out About Christmas Eve Robbery At Madison Avenue Store● The NYPD is in search of three burglars who stole more than 20 sable and chinchilla coats from the store.

● Can Urban Streetwear Brands Make A Resurgence?

● Peter Lindbergh Unveils Pirelli 2017 Calendar

● Pantone Picks Color of the Year 2017

● Pinterest Predicts: The Top Style Trends of 2017

TOp 5TREnDingon WWD.CoM

nEWSMAKERSThis Week’s Most Talked About names In our Industry

Scarlett Johansson

Deborah Lloyd

Cindi Leive

Kendall Jenner

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Tumi’s JeromeGriffith Gains Support As Lands’ End CEO

● Caerus Investors sent a letter in November pushing for a purchase of the firm.

by VicKi m. Young

Shares of Kate Spade & Co. on Wednes-day jumped 23.1 percent on rumblings that it is exploring the idea of a sale of the company amid pressure from an activist investor.

A spokeswoman for the company said, “As a company policy, we do not com-ment on industry rumors or speculation.”

The news that the company was con-sidering putting itself up for sale isn’t a surprise. New York-based hedge fund and activist investor Caerus Investors on Nov. 14 sent the company’s chairman a letter pushing for a sale of the firm. The letter urged the divestiture under the rubric of creating shareholder value. The fund, managed by Ward Davis and Brian Agnew, expressed concern in their letter that the women’s handbag and accessories firm has been underperforming its peers, which in turn has led to a decline in the stock price.

Shares of Kate closed at $17.86 in Big Board trading. Over 22.4 million shares changed hands compared with a three-month average trading volume of nearly 2.9 million shares. Kate’s shares have dropped about 21 percent in the past 12 months. The rise in Kate’s shares came on a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 0.6 percent, or 111.4 points, to 19,833.68.

The Caerus letter also said, “We think Kate Spade would make a great acquisi-tion candidate for a strategic company in the lifestyle accessories category.” The letter went on to say that the fund “strongly believe[s] that a strategic, industry player would be willing to pay a substantial premium to add this growth business to their portfolio.”

The hedge fund said it first invested in Kate Spade in 2009, when it was a brand under the umbrella of Liz Claiborne. It argued back then for a break-up of the company, which later occurred in 2013.

When it was disclosed in November that Caerus sent its letter to Kate Spade chairman Nancy Karch, shares of Coach rose 2.7 percent as market speculation pegged Coach Inc. as a possible acquirer. Coach’s chief executive officer Victor Luis has openly disclosed to Wall Street that his company is on the prowl for an acqui-sition for which it can leverage its back office and sourcing capabilities.

Mizuho Securities USA Inc. analyst Betty Chen said Spade could be valued

as high as two times enterprise value/sales or 14 times enterprise value/earn-ings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, implying a share price at $21 to $23. She considered relevant transactions as comparables the 2 times EV/Sales Coach paid for Stuart Weitz-man, and the 14x EV/EBITDA Samsonite paid for Tumi.

“We believe the growth profile coupled with the brand’s unique appeal to Mil-lennials and broad-based success across categories ranging from handbags to apparel and jewelry could be attractive to many buyers, including Coach, which was rumored to be evaluating the company in recent weeks,” Chen said.

Chen also noted favorable holiday checks, with discount levels between 5 to 10 percent higher year-over-year, outlet promotions average 60 to 70 percent off and retail stores offering 30 percent off the entire collection. She said the promo-tions are “likely consistent with manage-ment’s plan to gain market share amidst a highly promotional environment.” Chen also said, “We are encourage the strategy appears to be resonating as we observed shoppers purchasing tech accessories, totes, cross-body bags and jewelry.”

She also noted: “We had been pleased to see Google Trends rise dramatically during the key Thanksgiving time frame to match last year’s peak levels. Since then, Google Trends suggest increased search interest post-Dec. 25, which may be reflective of self-purchases and more indicative of brand resonance.” Chen added that e-com-merce represents about one-third of the company’s same-store sales calculation, and she expects “strong online conversion to contribute to our total comp forecast of

plus-8 percent in [the] fourth quarter.”The Wall Street Journal reported that

the company is working with an invest-ment banker, which has already reached out to possible buyers.

There are other firms that could also be interested, both in the U.S. and abroad. Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. has been said to be on the prowl for an acquisition. And G-III Apparel Group Ltd., which just acquired Donna Karan and DKNY, is also continuously looking to add to its brand portfolio. With about a $2.3 billion market capitalization currently, Kate is still a growing business, one that can provide foreign buyers with another entry point in the U.S., and they in turn can provide Spade with some know-how for its inter-national expansion. And there are still the financial sponsors, many of which still have money that they need to put to work.

Wells Fargo analyst Ike Boruchow said the news that the company is considering a sale comes at a time when brands such as VF Corp., PVH Corp., Hanesbrands Inc., Kors and Coach have all said they are looking to acquire a brand, and he concluded that “Kate could be one of the strongest candidates.” He said the brand is “relatively healthy,” and that it continues to have opportunity to expand its wholesale distribution.

In the most recent quarter, Kate Spade posted results for the third quarter ended Oct. 1 that beat Wall Street’s consensus estimates. Net income grew to $29.6 million, or 23 cents a diluted share, from $2.3 million, or 2 cents, a year ago. Diluted EPS from continuing operations was 13 cents. The company a year ago was in the midst of winding down certain businesses. Net sales rose 14.1 percent to $316.5 million from $277.3 million, while direct to-con-sumer comparable sales growth was up 6.7 percent. Wall Street was expecting EPS of 9 cents on sales of $310.9 million.

Be segment, Kate Spade North America net sales were up 13.7 percent to $260 million. Kate Spade International net sales rose 18.9 percent to $51 million. The company’s Adelington Design Group saw sales slip 2.2 percent to $6 million.

Craig A. Leavitt, Kate’s chief executive officer, has said that the company is com-mitted to “become a $4 billion business at retail.”

At the end of the third quarter, the company had 175 company-owned stores in North America — 108 specialty stores and 67 outlet stores — and 93 overseas, which included 25 specialty stores, 14 out-lets and 54 concessions. There were also 92 partner-operated stores and 42 Greater China joint venture stores.

business

Kate Spade Shares Spike on Sale TalkA pre-fall look

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4 december 29, 2016

TrendsDenim

UpTrace it back to Vetements’ cult

reconstructed high-waisted jeans. Redone denim is all over the contemporary

and denim markets for pre-fall.

photographS by THomas iannaccone

by andrew sHang

AllCut

Seven For All Mankind’s jeans and Gary Graham’s top.

december 29, 2016 5

TrendsDenim

Moussy’s jeans, Frame’s jacket and Claudia Li’s shorts.

Veda’s jeans, 6397’s dress and

G-Star Raw’s skirt.

Nicopanda’s top, Joe’s jeans and Veda’s jacket.

prop StyLing by JennY wicHman aT B&a

6 december 29, 2016

● The New York Police Department aims to maintain an enhanced security perimeter protecting the president-elect, while allowing limited vehicle access.

by arTHur Friedman

NEW YORK — Stores and businesses in and around Trump Tower received some relief on Wednesday.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the reopening of West 56th Street between Sixth and Fifth Avenues to crosstown traffic, following several weeks of closure as a security measure.

In addition, the New York City Police Department will relocate its mobile com-mand post from the southwest corner of 56th Street to the northwest corner. This will allow for the opening of the south side of 56th Street to one-lane through traffic, while still allowing the mobile command post to act as a traffic deterrent to keep

vehicular threats at bay.These changes — implemented in coor-

dination with the Department of Small Business Services, Department of Trans-portation, NYPD and Secret Service — will improve congestion and allow for easier access to deliveries for businesses within the security perimeter, all while maintain-ing the safety and security of Trump Tower and the surrounding area. The changes took effect immediately.

“The safety of New Yorkers and of the President-Elect are our top concern,” de Blasio said. “The changes we are imple-menting will maintain that security, while allowing for more movement in the area and addressing concerns raised by surrounding businesses. We will continue to examine and carefully confront the challenges presented by this unprecedented responsibility.”

“Protecting the president-elect while minimizing the impact to nearby busi-nesses has required constant dialog from everyone involved,” said Police Commis-sioner James P. O’Neill. “We welcome the reopening of 56th Street to increase pedes-trian and vehicular movements in the area

while still maintaining the security of the next President of the United States.”

Stores such as Gucci, Coach, Tiffany, Prada, Bulgari and Bergdorf Goodman have all been negatively impacted by the high security measures around Trump Tower since Donald Trump won the pres-idential election. Trump has been living and working with his transition team most of the time at Trump Tower.

“The traffic and situation around that part of Fifth Avenue have become quite congested,” Karen Katz, NMG’s presi-dent and chief executive officer, said this month. “We are working through the situation between the NYPD and the Secret Service to make sure customers have easy access to get into Bergdorf Goodman.”

Gregg Bishop, commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services, said Wednesday, “Our department heard the concerns of small business owners near Trump Tower and we took swift action. By working with Mayor de Blasio, the NYPD and other colleagues in govern-ment, I am pleased that 56th Street will be reopened and that this big security

challenge can be met without harming area small businesses.”

The Department of Small Business Services recently canvassed businesses around Trump Tower with the NYPD regarding challenges they faced, and SBS commissioner Gregg Bishop, joined by City Council member Dan Garodnick, met with small business owners within the security perimeter. That outreach helped inform changes that will alleviate some constraints on customer traffic and deliveries.

Manhattan Borough president Gale A. Brewer said, “West 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth is home to a diverse group of merchants and professionals, the kind of small businesses our city needs to thrive. I’ve met with some of these business own-ers, and they’ve told me that since their street was dead-ended, deliveries have become nearly impossible and customers have stayed away, costing them anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of their business.”

Brewer said she urged the Secret Service to keep working with NYPD “to do every-thing they can to avoid unnecessary harm to Midtown Manhattan’s businesses.”

business

NYC Eases Traffic Congestion Around Trump Tower

● Procrastinators and a late Hanukkah fueled better mall traffic in the past several days.

by daVid moin

Evidence that stores are pulling off a decent holiday season keeps coming in.

“It looks like a solid selling season for brick and mortar,” Scott Wolstein, chief executive officer of Starwood Retail Partners, told WWD on Wednesday.

He characterized the season as “con-sistent” with forecasts for sales gains in the 3 to 4 percent range and said it’s been fueled by last-minute shopping, Hanukkah starting late and the extra two days between Thanksgiving and Christmas compared to last year.

“One positive surprise is that department stores did a little better than expected,” Wolstein said. Restau-rants, cosmetics, women’s and chil-dren’s clothing, and athletic footwear were strong, though jewelry wasn’t and theater sales were flat, he said.

Regarding traffic Monday and Tuesday this week, “Anecdotally, it continues to be solid,” Wolstein said. “With most shoppers given the day off, Dec. 26 also saw some of the strongest traffic of the season, especially for restaurants.”

Starwood’s holiday report was con-sistent with disclosures over the last few days from other retailers and retail analysts of a late surge in gift shopping. though that happens year after year, this time it appeared more robust.

Analysts at the Telsey Advisory Group said in a research note Wednesday that last week, “Malls were busy and traffic seemed average to above average as most consum-ers shopped for last-minute items for Christmas and Hanukkah. In addition, the traffic momentum

continued post-Christmas as consum-ers redeemed gift cards, returned products and shopped clearance merchandise.”

However, Cowen and Co. had a dif-ferent perspective, stating Wednesday in a report that mall traffic is still chal-lenged and remains negative, though its not as bad as expected, declining 8.18 percent in the week ending Dec. 24, above the negative 10 to 12 percent projected. Retailers in malls, while see-ing less shoppers this year, have found conversion rates to be better, meaning those entering stores are buying and not just browsing.

Starwood, founded in 2012 and owned by Starwood Capital Group, owns a total of 30 malls, open-air and lifestyle centers around the country. Among the firm’s larg-est are the 1,650,000-square-foot Southpark Mall in Strongsville, Ohio; the 1,400,000-square-foot Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, Mich.; the 1,360,000-square-foot South-lake Mall in Merrillville, Ind.; the 1,270,000-square-foot Mall at Wel-lington Green in Wellington, Fla., and the 1,200,000-square-foot Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Tex.

“Shoppers want the greatest value for their hard-earned dollars, and many will wait until the last possible moment to find that perfect gift at the best possible price. This year proved that, as Friday, Dece. 23 proved to be the second-busiest day of the season, our retailers tell us,” said Wolstein.

To compile the report, Starwood Retail’s mall staff requests year-over-year sales from approximately 28 cen-ter specialty tenants and department stores. Traffic figures are obtained through in-center Wi-Fi technology, retailers’ reports of best-selling items and mall staff at seven centers inter-viewing guests through the season for anecdotal evidence of their shopping plans and patterns.

● Luxury brands have pioneered Snap-friendly filters, electroluminescent designs and smart fabrics for the most avid spenders. What does that mean for mass retailers?

by elizaBeTH doupniK

The relationship between the fashion and technology industries might have gotten off to a rocky start, but fast-forward to present day and luxury houses are injecting innovation into almost every seam. Karl Lagerfeld hosted Chanel’s spring fashion show amidst a data center, releasing tweed-clad robots down the runway to kick off the show. Zac Posen’s gown worn by Claire Danes at the Met Gala delighted as it boasted custom LED-lighting sewn into the lining of the dress.

As these innovations present enviable tech-nology, mass and commercial retailers and brands are challenged to keep in step with innovation that features a hefty price tag. Sandra Lopez, vice president and general manager of the New Devices Group at Intel, discusses how brands can integrate newness rooted in accessibility.

WWD: As luxury brands integrate technology into ready-to-wear collections and red carpet looks, what will be key for mass brands to consider as they look to incorporate this?

Sandra Lopez: Any brand, whether luxury or mass, needs to understand the consumer value they are seeking to deliver first and foremost. Whether it’s the creation of smart and connected accessories, smart fabrics, or an immersive retail experience, brands need to work collaboratively with their tech partners to ensure the technology is invisible.

I believe Intel has done an excellent job of showcasing that a brand can deliver on both design and functionality at both the luxury and mass level. From our collaboration with Hussein Chalayan at Paris Fashion Week and the release of TAG’s first smartwatch to the

recent release of Oakley’s Rader Pace — a real-time voice-activated coaching system — brands should be empowered by technology to create new, innovative products based on their customers’ needs.

WWD: How will made-to-order produc-tion affect current supply chains? How can brands begin to look at both options as consumer demands change?

S.L.: Made-to-order is really about deliv-ering a personalized experience. The rise of individuality has given rise to mass person-alization. The world of mass retailing may eventually end as made-to-order rises in popularity. Digitization of the apparel industry will make it possible to take accurate mea-surements; analytics and machine learning will help perfect styling; and 3-D printing and other new capabilities will enable cost-effec-tive manufacturing.

WWD: As consumer attention spans shorten to prefer more “glanceable” con-tent, what will be crucial for marketers to implement in upcoming strategies?

S.L.: As new formats usher in a new era of content consumption, marketers cannot deploy a copy-and-paste strategy. Marketers need to spend time understanding the user cases and the inherent value they would like to deliver. Basically marketers need to inject a user experience philosophy into their mar-keting strategies.[…] Technology should be a natural enhancement rather than a roadblock.

WWD: We’ve seen that wearables have a high abandonment rate and the high cost of designer brands can actually deter a large group of shoppers from purchasing a wearable. How can this be adjusted?

S.L.: Wearables are an extremely personal purchase. The avid athlete who wants to live a healthier and better life is still using their wearable. The avid golfer who wants to improve their game is still using their wearable. The avid socializer is still using their wearable. The opportunity for brands is to deliver on variation and differentiation to address the needs of myriad consumer types. Similar to fashion – one size does not fit all.

business

Starwood’s Retail Properties Lifted by Late Shopping

business

The Courtship of Fashion And Tech: Not Just a Fling

december 29, 2016 7

● The southern Chinese city bordering Hong Kong is shedding its image as a soulless manufacturing hub.

by TiFFanY ap

HONG KONG — It may have been her hometown, but when Charlex Lin came back to Shenzhen four years ago, she felt out of place. Freshly graduated with a degree in fashion design from the U.K., she’d wound up back in the southern Chinese city — a place known for being the factory floor of the world, not a launching pad for young designers.

“At first, I thought the city is too com-mercial, and I was lost for a while because I couldn’t find anyone who was creative with a similar background,” Lin said.

Fast forward two years, however, and Lin had launched her own women’s wear brand Alias, and she was organizing a series of underground fashion events called Carpe Diem. At one of them, she took out a floor in a vacant building, bringing 32 local designers together to stage a fashion show. The after party in the industrial park could’ve been mistaken for something out of Peckham in London or Berlin’s Kreuzberg, and it was followed by a pop-up market that ran for several days.

“Actually Shenzhen has some very cool kids here,” Lin said. “After meeting them, I tried to get myself to get out more. It

happened not long ago, just in these two years. Now we’re creating a small group for these local creatives, the scene is get-ting bigger and bigger.”

A number of fashion creatives have had similar overtures to the city: drawn to the place for lower costs of living and proxim-ity to manufacturing, then discovering its small but burgeoning cultural class. The growing wealth of Shenzhen’s 10 million population — thanks to its financial and technology sectors — and a confluence of supersized infrastructure projects increas-ingly see it as the fourth city mentioned in the same breath after Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. What Shenzhen lacks in glamour, it makes up for in speed and an “any-thing-goes” mentality, its residents say.

There were several milestones this year. First, Alibaba opted to hold the countdown to its Singles Day extravaganza, the world’s biggest shopping holiday, in Shenzhen for the first time. The Hangzhou-headquar-tered company said that the city, with its pioneering free-trade zone, was the best place to roll out the company’s most

globalized event and state-of-the-art inno-vations such as virtual reality shopping.

“Shenzhen has a special place in China,” Chris Tung, Alibaba Group’s chief marketing officer, said at the time. “This southern coastal city bordering Hong Kong has always been at the forefront of China’s opening up to the world and represents the spirit of forward looking and innovation.”

That same month, the Italian fashion school Istituto Marangoni opened a cam-pus there, its seventh globally. The Victoria and Albert Museum in the city’s Shekou district is due to open next October, too, and is an additional oft-cited piece of evi-dence for the city’s rising cultural clout.

But the most obvious marker of Shenzhen’s arrival is the Ping An Finance Center. The fourth-tallest skyscraper in the world, it’s an impossible-to-miss landmark that rises 115 floors and encompasses a large mall, scheduled to open in the sec-ond quarter of next year.

Richard Lin, manager for research, Shenzhen at Jones Lang Lasalle, which

has signed on to provide property management for the new tower, said that while there were many shopping com-plexes around town, they were mostly built by local developers and not on par with what luxury retail brands wanted. Projects like the Ping An Finance Center will add in world-class retail space, and over the next two years, prime retailing floor space in Futian CBD and Houhai will increase by about 4.3 million square feet and 3.2 million square feet, respectively, according to JLL.

There are more megaprojects under-way. Five metro lines are being built, as is a high-speed rail route connecting it to Guangzhou, the provincial capital, and Hong Kong.

“I’m very bullish on Shenzhen,” said Adrian Cheng, executive director of New World Development. His company just plunked down 9.1 billion yuan, or about $1.2 billion, this month to develop a range of commercial and residential projects in Shenzhen. The city has domestic wealth and foreign talent drawn in by its reputa-tion as the Silicon Valley of China going for it, he said, but Cheng also admires Shenzhen’s scrappy feeling.

Across the border in Hong Kong, he finds the human talent veers toward staid and established industries.“They don’t want to question. They don’t want to fail,” he said.

Shenzhen has actually already made some fashion fortunes. Husband-and-wife duo Xia Guoxin and Hu Yongmei became billionaires after listing Shenzhen Ellas-say Fashion Co. on the Shanghai stock exchange last year. Its flagship brand Ellassay creates upmarket women’s wear and the company purchased Laurèl in 2015 and Ed Hardy this year with the ambition to become a global fashion group.

In 2014, Krizia, one of Italy’s first ready-to-wear brands, was bought out by Shenzhen Marisfrolg, the fashion label founded by Zhu Chongyun. Although vir-tually unknown in the West, Marisfrolg has hundreds of stores across the country, also expanding to Singapore and South Korea.

Designer Victor Chu of V Major, the 2014 winner of the Woolmark Asia prize, said local multibrand boutique Dark Moss is becoming well-known for its ability to scout emerging design talent. Although he must make frequent trips to Shanghai in order to see buyers, he’s enabled creative space by being away from a more estab-lished scene.

“If it’s empty here, we can make every-thing here. I think that way,” Chu said.

Kain Picken, who co-designs the line Ffixxed Studios with Fiona Lau, admits “there’s still a little bit of stigma” to being based there. Also the recipient of the Woolmark Asia prize, the Hong Kong com-pany keeps a studio at the base of Shen-zhen’s Wutong mountain. “When we’re in Shanghai, people say ‘How can you live in Shenzhen?’ People have this idea of what it was like 10 years ago.”

“We’ve been here five years and originally the main kind of benefit in the beginning was just access to manufactur-ing,” he continued. “The thing we didn’t expect or think about was the last few years that Shenzhen itself has developed creatively and it’s undergone quite signif-icant change. Specifically the area we’re in now, change from what was small- to medium-size manufacturing to kind of an artist hub.”

While the stage is set for the city’s rise, Picken said its fashion ecosystem still needs some time to grow organically.

“You can bring money and people and ideas but organic growth takes a few years for things to connect and for people to navigate it. Shenzhen is at that place where there’s now putting a lot of things into place. We’re just waiting for that organic growth to develop a life of its own.”

fashion

Shenzhen Fashion Scene Emerges From Factory Capital

Designer Charlex Lin (left) and friends, at a Carpe Diem event. The Shenzhen native began organizing pop-up fashion shows and markets to grow the city’s cultural community.

Kain Picken and Fiona Lau of Ffixxed Studios.

A mock-up of what the new Shenzhen skyline will look like when the Ping An Financial Tower is completed.

8 december 29, 2016

shop-in-shop concepts that will consist of multibrand retailers and individual brands, according to Fred Segal president John Frierson. A glance at the company’s site could portend the direction of the merchandising mix with the Schott NYC, Clare V., Stephen Kenn and Retrosuper-future brands played up there. The store will also see a bakery-café concept, Tartine coffee bar, gym, salon, wine shop, florist and restaurant.

News of a third flagship in Japan was also disclosed in a separate release, although Frierson said expansion in Asia is not at the forefront of the company’s strategy.

“First and foremost, we want to be strong in L.A.,” he said. “So that’s really our primary goal in the next couple of years…but we have already started build-ing a business in Asia and we certainly intend to keep doing that.”

Fred Segal has tried its hand at a few tactics in recent years but it hasn’t won over everyone.

“They’re throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks versus taking an ongoing name with respect for the heritage, having around the people who actually pioneered it and are still catering to those customers,” said Ron Robinson, who began working for Fred Segal as a salesman in 1968 before working his way up to vice president and later operated his own namesake store within the Mel-rose and later Santa Monica locations. “It’s just baffling.”

Robinson, along with Ron Herman and the late Ron Ross, helped founder Fred Segal develop the shop-in-shop concept

that became synonymous with the Fred Segal boutiques. Robinson initially handled men’s sportswear and later brought in kids and cosmetics, Herman did the buys for women and Ross did men’s wear. Over the years, all three built personal brands in their own right as did so many after.

The story of the Fred Segal brand and business is a bit of a tricky one to navigate.

The Segal family sold the rights to the brand to Sandow Media in the spring of 2012, during which time an ambitious plan was outlined to develop a global business via Fred Segal-branded apparel and other products. In 2014 a partnership was struck with investor Evolution Media Partners — a joint venture between the bank Evolution Media Capital along with Creative Artists Agency, TPG Growth and Participant Media.

It’s been a bit touch-and-go since. The company went into the SLS Las Vegas hotel in 2014, exiting the property the following year. Last February it was confirmed a flagship would be planted in Playa Vista in a deal that dissolved with the switch to West Hollywood. Frierson confirmed, “We love Playa Vista and that’s an interesting place, but we needed to build a flagship.”

The need for one is certainly pressing given the sole representation of the brand in the U.S. is the store at Los Angeles International Airport. That’s not counting the former Melrose Avenue location if the company has its way in court to force the building’s new owner to remove the Fred Segal signage. The Santa Monica out-post shuttered earlier this year with that building’s owner looking to redevelop the property.

Then there is the Fred by Fred Segal apparel line — denim, cashmere crewnecks and bodysuits ranging from $50 to $425 — unveiled to the market in August, with a launch party held in November. Frierson,

when asked about the branded apparel’s performance since its launch called it a private label endeavor.

Perhaps key to the retailer’s reinven-tion is former Ron Herman operations executive Allison Samek, who joined the company about a month ago as chief executive officer.

“We’re just so excited to have her because she really has specific knowledge having worked in the Fred Segal building and world for years,” Frierson said, refer-encing Samek’s time at Ron Herman.

He pointed out Samek’s strong “under-standing of what Fred Segal is and what

it isn’t.”What it is has certainly changed over

the years. Fraser Ross, who founded the popular Kitson chain in 2000, recalled being told by a showroom operator when he came to Los Angeles to start his busi-ness he wouldn’t make it if he competed in the same space as Fred Segal, seen then as the purveyor of Los Angeles cool. Even as Ross still views it as competition against his new concept Kitross, the power of the Fred Segal brand within the marketplace is not what it once was, he said, pointing out it’s not enough to assemble a bunch of popular brands under one roof.

“You’ve got to adhere to the market you’re in and you can’t be hoity-toity and have the best Frame denim collection out and think that’s it,” Ross said. “You’ve got to make the store be that L.A. vibe and they didn’t do that in Vegas. I think the brands [going in as shop-in-shops] are going to have a hard time....It’s all changed because we have the internet. I don’t want to downplay the brand. I think it’s gone in a transition and Ron Robinson and Ron Herman are owners and hands-on busi-nesses and that’s what you need today. You’ve got to pound the pavement.”

Some, such as Jeannine Braden — fash-ion director and buyer at Santa Moni-ca-based boho retailer Planet Blue and the former operator of the Fred Segal Flair store at the Santa Monica location for 17 years — views the move to West Hollywood as a potential positive for the brand and a better real estate choice over Playa Vista, although admitted “It’s been kind of con-fusing what they’ve been doing.”

Still, she’s optimistic about the brand’s prospects.

“It looks superglamorous,” she said of the new locale. “It looks, of course, not as grassroots as Fred Segal was. Fred Segal, the magic was the authenticity and

continued on page 9

Fred Segal’s Boutique in a Box CoNTiNueD FRoM PAGe 1

A rendering of the Fred Segal Sunset flagship at La Cienega and Sunset Boulevards in West Hollywood.

A look from the Fred by Fred Segal apparel line, which made its debut at market in August 2016.

december 29, 2016 9

you can’t just buy authenticity so either you need to talk to people at a more grassroots level and bring some of that back in or maybe it’s [about] the new Millennial perception.”

Braden recalled being approached by executives at Sandow early on after the acquisition as they researched the brand’s heritage but hadn’t been in touch since on anything related to offers of coming back for either Playa or West Hollywood.

Robinson was approached to join the Playa store to do children’s.

“I looked at the deal and it said, ‘Here’s the space you’ll have. It will be smaller than what you have now,’ and I questioned that, ‘and here’s the bag you’ll use.’ And it was all packaged as something that wasn’t me and I had to pay money for that,” he said. “That was on top of it all. I figured if you wanted me to do all that, give me some money. I’m not being totally face-tious; I’m being a little bit.”

Robinson said he inquired about cosmetics, a category he helped bring initially to Fred Segal, and was told a different brand would handle that at Playa Vista. He said he respectfully declined the offer and said he has not been approached about West Hollywood.

What happens to Fred Segal is of interest personally to Robinson — from the standpoint of someone who was there from nearly the beginning of what the retail concept is known for today — but also professionally as someone whose own brand was incubated and cultivated

under the Fred Segal umbrella like so many others. However, as his own brand grew, the confines of requirements to use Fred Segal-branded bags or even just operating with the Fred Segal signage out front became more of a hindrance to individual brand growth than it was a platform for expansion.

And that’s where much of the confusion in the marketplace now exists. Is Ron Robinson or Ron Herman — two of the stalwart retailers under the Fred Segal umbrella — part of or the same as Fred Segal? Even American Apparel founder Dov Charney, who operated a business for decades in Los Angeles, admitted recently he was always confused by the relationship between the brands, wondering aloud if Ron Herman is part of Fred Segal.

“It’s important that there’s respect for [brands’] heritage,” said Charney, who should know considering his own battles throughout the last year to reinsert himself back into the company he founded and was fired from. “It’s not just one person always. It’s about a team. I think that’s critically important.”

And there’s the rub for business owners such as Robinson, who is now more focused on his own brand and building out the flagship, named Ron Robinson, that he opened in Santa Monica in late 2014, if the roots of the Fred Segal business are not going to be respected as he asserts.

Robinson, originally from El Paso, met Fred Segal in 1967 through a friend and a year later ended up getting a job at the Fred Segal Men’s Shop on Santa Monica Boule-vard, the precursor to the Melrose store.

“I learned a great deal from him,” Robinson said of Segal. “I made it a point to learn a great deal from him. I looked at him as a thoughtful inventive, creative individual — and he is.”

The tricks of the trade are something Robinson is himself now proficient at, hav-ing cultivated an oasis of cool curiosities—ranging from apparel and fine jewelry to gifts and tech gadgets — at his stand-alone Santa Monica store on Fifth Street, which has hosted yoga on Saturdays and served as a gallery at times for launches such as this past summer’s debut of a collection of mixed-media photographs of Andy Warhol

and Jean-Michel Basquiat.“Running a fashion business, it’s not

like an octopus where this tentacle does dot.com and this tentacle over here does retail leasing and this one over here does some jeans and then we’re going to call it all Fred Segal and it’s just going to be cohesive,” Robinson said. “This comes from myself getting up in the middle of the night going, ‘Sh-t, this is what we should do. This would be really cool. Why don’t we do that?’ And then convincing three other people in my group that this would be cool to do....It’s coming from the soul and coming from the core rather than trying to put it all together and sewn together. That’s the difference and that’s the disappointment and that’s the hurt.”

It was never about renting out space or creating a formula with stuff on a shelf that motivated that initial group, Robinson said.

“The ideas for the things we would do were all communicated between this group — myself, Ron Ross, Ron Herman and Fred,” he said. “Where are we going with this [retail concept]? What’s new and different? Walking around shows, talking, going out to dinners, going out to have a drink, whatever — all of this time spent just thinking about how to make this thing uniquely different.

“It was a wonderful time and it was a wonderful idea....Over the years, the work that I did became much more valu-able to the [Fred Segal] umbrella than it did to myself. I’ve switched and changed that now.”

That melting pot of creativity is what some like Robinson believe is missing. Frierson sees it differently.

“I think if you look back at Fred Segal over the years it was constantly changing and constantly reinventing and constantly bringing new things to life so that’s part of our story,” he said. “What we’re going to be two years from now is not what we were two years ago. It’s an ever-changing and fresh attitude that Fred had so I’m just really excited that we’re going to have a home where we can do that again. Where we can really create some excitement.”

When asked if the characterization that the brand is in need of a reboot was accu-rate, Frierson stuck to the same sentiment: “I think that we are more excited than we have ever been about Fred Segal and the opportunity to do unique programming, expose new brands, have new partners — all in a new location on Sunset. So I think we have a very excited team right now. I think that’s how we feel.”

Fred Segal’s Boutique in a Box CoNTiNueD FRoM PAGe 8

Rob Robinson pictured with the hero product at the Melrose store in the mid-Seventies.

The Fred Segal Melrose Avenue location in the late Sixties.

The former Fred Segal Santa Monica location.

10 december 29, 2016

● Reports show a challenging holiday period in terms of sales and traffic.

by iVan casTano

MEXICO CITY — President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-Mexico threats have spooked Mexicans to the point that retailers reported Christmas sales came in well below targets and trade could decline sharply next year.

“People are nervous and traffic has definitely declined,” said a salesperson at luxury department-store chain El Palacio de Hierro’s oldest store in Mexico City’s historic district.

To get people into the Christmas spirit, window displays were redressed to show-case retro-glamour styles evoking the 126-year-old building’s heyday.

That, however, didn’t seem to prop up sales as Mexican consumers fret about a possible recession next year, soaring inflation and the specter of rising unem-ployment. Wells Fargo said recently Latin America’s once high-flying number two economy could eke a 1.1 percent gain in real terms next year. Its projection followed the government’s own admission that gross domestic product could gain 1.7 percent from a loftier 2.5 percent earlier target, while ratings agencies have downgraded the country’s sovereign debt, sending the peso into a tailspin. All this comes from the “Trump effect” — the idea that the next U.S. president will make good on threats

to upend the North American Free Trade Agreement, impose a 35 percent tariff on Mexican goods, expel three million immigrants (wiping out crucial remittance income flows) and ban U.S. companies from outsourcing operations to Mexico.

While some analysts say it’s too soon to tell, retailers are already suffering, at least according to sales staff working in different Mexico City stores.

The El Palacio sales clerk, for example, said holiday sales have fallen 10 to 20 percent below expectations, at least in the capital’s downtown store, one of 13 the luxury networks operated across Mexico.

El Palacio, known for offering

“ludicrously generous” store-credit terms with up to 24-month installments, has also been curtailing them, said the sales-man, amid reports that nervous banks could start trimming loans next year.

Another sales assistant in the Spanish Cor-tefiel brand corner agreed, adding that dis-counts are steeper than last year, as viewed by the ubiquitous 30, 40 and 50-percent sale signs hanging across the store.

Downstairs, in the beauty department, the mood was similarly grim, with one manager reporting sluggish turnover for the Buen Fin [Mexico’s Black Friday] and the run-up to Christmas.

“Usually we have to grow our sales by at least 40 percent over the previous year, but so far, they are only up 10 percent,” she said.

Meanwhile, stores at Mexico City’s new Madero shopping promenade, which has seen dozens of international brands like Zara, Forever 21 and most recently Old Navy open shop, were also offering large discounts with Forever 21 cutting winter coats by 80 percent.

At Old Navy, which in October opened a four-story flagship in the growing strip, one manager insisted trade is going well at the Gap Inc.-owned discounter’s 14th Mexican outlet.

“We met our 6-million peso Buen Fin target and we are 3 million short of our 11-million Christmas target,” she said, as customers scrambled to snap up the latest half-off items.

Analysts were mixed about next year’s outlook, saying things will become clearer when Trump, who has become Mexico’s most hated gringo, sweeps into the White House.

Carlos Hermosillo of securities firm Actinver predicted apparel and footwear sales could gain 6 to 7 percent from 9 percent last year, as Mexicans shun more expensive durable items like appliances and electronics.

“Sales will stay at good rhythm,” he said. “Salaries are up 4.5 percent and some chains, like Sears de Mexico, have remod-eled stores that will draw more customers. Six to 7 percent sales growth with 1.5 percent GDP expansion is still feasible,” he said, especially as Mexico’s working and middle-class population continues to grow.

Veronica Uribe of Ve Por Mas brokerage said Hermosillo’s forecasts seemed high, predicting apparel sales could rise 4 to 5 percent or less depending on the severity of Trump’s policies.

One thing is for certain, however. The slumping peso (now worth half its 2013 value) will dent retailer’s bottom line because import costs will rise.

While some analysts hesitate to spell bad omens, retailers seem to already be bracing — and preparing — for a tougher 2017 with Trump in The White House.

And given Bank of Mexico’s outgoing Gov. Agustin Carstens’ latest warning that “Trump could be like a horror movie for Mexico,” it seems they could be right.

business

Mexican Retailers Bracing for Tough 2017

● The founder of the L.A.-based media nonprofit gave a talk at Levi’s and plans to hold more events during New York Fashion Week.

by KHanH T.l. Tran

President-elect Donald Trump’s inau-guration is less than a month away but Jose Antonio Vargas is already working to engage fashion companies in one of the most important issues facing the industry in 2017: immigration.

Vargas, the founder and chief executive officer of a Los Angeles-based media and cultural organization called Define Amer-ican that aspires to highlight immigration issues, is scoping New York Fashion Week as a venue to reach designers, several of whom are immigrants or employ immi-grants in jobs ranging from models to sewers at their companies.

“It’s the first fashion week of the Trump administration,” said Vargas, an undoc-umented immigrant who was a staff writer on The Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. “Immigration is the least-understood issue in America. People don’t know how it works. Raising awareness and starting conversations is one way to start. We want to do that in the fashion industry.”

Vargas took the first step on Dec. 16, speaking at Levi Strauss & Co.’s San

Francisco headquarters through an invi-tation from the denim company’s founda-tion. While a couple of employees ques-tioned why an undocumented immigrant who broke the law should be allowed to have a platform there, Vargas recognized the significance of speaking to a crowd of some 100 people, including Levi’s former ceo and current chairman emeritus Bob Haas. In addition to creating a globally recognized American fashion brand, Levi’s pioneered a staple of the American uniform and evolved into a progressive corporation.

“It’s like Coke and M&Ms,” Vargas said. “You know they are American.”

Levi’s acknowledged that a topic like immigration, which stirs a mix of reactions and emotions, fits within its brand. “If we

are an American icon, what we say about America matters,” said Daniel Lee, exec-utive director of the Levi Strauss Founda-tion, who moderated the Q&A with Vargas. “A hallmark of our 164-year-old history is our legacy of standing at the forefront of championing basic human rights issues like HIV-AIDS, LGBTQ equality and immi-gration. Living our values, time and again, we’ve seen company leaders, employees and family shareholders put the company and its voice, reputation and influence on the line to stand up for what’s right.”

Define American has received a $50,000 grant from Levi’s foundation. Elise Haas, Bob Haas’ daughter, sits on Define American’s board of trustees. Vargas’ talk at Levi’s provoked attendees to delve into the issue.

“Given that LS & Co. is a values-driven organization, Jose’s challenging remarks were well-received and prompted a great deal of reflection,” Bob Haas said. “I doubt that many other companies would have convened a session like this.”

Added Mary Jo Nash, Levi’s human resources director: “A proud moment at LS & Co.”

The fashion industry is one of the high-profile sectors that Define American aims to influence. Founded five years ago, it opened its office in L.A.’s Fashion Dis-trict. Still, it’s made more progress within Hollywood, having invested in a depart-ment that focuses on entertainment companies’ portrayal of immigrants. Chris Weitz, the Oscar-nominated producer and director who has made movies such as “About a Boy,” “A Single Man” and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” is a member of its advisory board.

“In some way, this industry has been relatively quiet about this issue,” Vargas said in reference to apparel companies’ reluctance to take a public stand on immi-gration. “There is certainly a lot of visibil-ity about LGBTQ issues and to a certain extent the Black Lives Matter movement and definitely climate change.”

Even though Vargas conceded that he, like millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., is at the mercy of Trump and the uncertainty of his administration’s stance on deportations, he plans to continue raising awareness about immigration across the country. Over the past five years, he’s held more than 800 events in all of the 50 states except Alaska and Mississippi and visited 370 college campuses.

“Creating bridges of empathy is more important than ever,” he said. “That not only happens in our schools and churches and community centers, it also happens at work.”

business

Define American Seeks to Engage Fashion Industry on Immigration

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Seeking to engage more apparel companies on immigration issues, Jose Antonio Vargas gave Define

American’s first industry-related talk at Levi’s on Dec. 16.

To get people into the Christmas spirit, luxury department store el Palacio de Hierro dressed up its holiday window displays.

december 29, 2016 11

Fashion ScoopsDesigner Delivery

Oscar de la Renta will be part of the lineup for the U.S. Postal Service’s series of stamps for 2017.

Mary-Anne Penner, director for stamp services at the U.S. Postal Service, said, “The new year is shaping up to be excep-tional as the postal service con-tinues to produce stamps that celebrate the people, events and cultural milestones that are unique to the history of our great nation.” She described the stamps as part of a showcase of “miniature works of art to help continue telling America’s story.”

De la Renta is widely known for dressing America’s first la-dies and celebrities. He passed away in 2014 and was one of the world’s leading fashion design-ers for more than 50 years.

For the postal series, the pane of 11 stamps features a black-and-white portrait of the design-er — by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin — and 10 details from several of his fa-mous gowns. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamps, the U.S. Postal Service said. — Vicki M. Young

edgy voice, its founder’s path in building something from nothing, a female-fronted business, the allure of a digital company, former Apple Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. executive Ron Johnson as an investor and $65 million in funding — but it proved not enough to ward off a bankruptcy.

Index Ventures, which invested in Nasty Gal, calls founder Sophia Amoruso an “e-tail trailblazer” on its site, saying the company has been “turbo-charged by social media buzz” and a business that has grown more than 500 percent annually since its start.

“It was all about the potential and I think that at that time, online retailers were getting a lot of attention,” said Brien Rowe, managing director at investment banking firm D.A. Davidson & Co. “Venture capitalists were putting a lot of money into online retailers. There was a lot of excitement around it and ultimately they needed to execute and they had execution and management and personality chal-lenges. And that was at the heart of the fall of the business. Also, it started out as a very edgy, cool brand and as you grow, you start to lose that and suddenly they’re opening brick-and-mortar in Santa Monica on the Promenade and it just didn’t feel as cool as it did in its first years of existence.”

Today, the operating component of the business — which would include leases at its 2,500-square-foot store at Melrose Avenue and 6,500-square-foot door at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, along with sales from vintage and third-party apparel and accessories — appears of little value for the future. At least not to the company’s prospective suitor, whose purchase agreement snaps up only the intellectual property.

The parsing off of the business places Nasty Gal in a boat similar to that of Los Angeles-based American Apparel LLC, which filed for its second bankruptcy last month and has also attracted a potential buyer of its intellectual property in Gildan Activewear Inc. The breaking out of the IP assets could be an emerging trend in retail bankruptcies, said Michael Malter of the law firm Binder & Malter LLP.

“I think that there is a reason for real concern here,” Malter said. “We’ve known that online purchasing was going to have an impact on retail, but it seems with these bankruptcies that the greater value to the purchasers are the customer lists and there just is not a real desire to keep the

brick-and-mortar….Merchants are singing the blues about escalating rents and if you can get away from the overhead from the rents and a greatly diminished payroll, there’s a much greater opportunity to do just online sales and jettison the heavy overhead of continuing to run brick-and-mortar stores.”

Both Boohoo and Nasty Gal declined to comment beyond their respective press releases Wednesday.

Nasty Gal president and chief restruc-turing officer Joe Scirocco said of the deal: “We believe this path will generate the highest value for the company and ensure the continued success of the Nasty Gal brand that has served its consumers as

a leading style destination over the last decade.”

A judge is expected to rule on bid proce-dures around Jan. 5 with a possible auction to be had by early February and a deal closing by the end of that month.

Nasty Gal’s own successes and rapid growth proved its greatest hurdle from an operational perspective, according to Scirocco’s declaration filed in court last month. He valued the going-concern business at $25 million based on pro-forma earnings before interest, taxes, deprecia-tion and amortization of between $3 mil-lion and $5 million, which could be broken down to a valuation on the intellectual property of at least $5 million to $10 mil-lion and a value pegged to the company’s inventory of between $15 million and $20 million, the declaration said.

Nasty Gal had net revenue of about $77.1 million for the 12 months through January of this year, down about 9 percent from the year-ago period. The company reported negative EBITDA of $6.3 million for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2015, and negative EBITDA of $15.4 million the following year.

Scirocco said in the declaration Nasty Gal expects to cap its fiscal year ending Jan. 27 with negative EBITDA of $1.4 mil-lion and net revenue of $77 million, aided in part by the rebound of the U.S. business.

Buzz about Boohoo’s interest in the IP was set off last month with its registration of the business Nasty Gal Ltd. in the U.K. less than two weeks after Nasty Gal filed for bankruptcy in the U.S.

Boohoo, if successful in its purchase, would nab a toehold in the U.S. with the deal. Co-chief executive officers Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane of the Manches-ter-England based company said in a state-ment, “[It’s] a fantastic opportunity to add such a well-established, global brand to the Boohoo family” and would “represent an ideal next step in inspiring an ever-growing range of young customers internationally.”

“It could be a great strategic acquisition for Boohoo,” Rowe said. “It accelerates their position in the U.S. They are doing everything that Nasty Gal really could have done, which is executing well on their growth plan and they’re profitable. They have some great infrastructure. If you look at their planned investments, they plan to spend significantly on IT and warehousing….It could be a great outcome for Boohoo and for the people that remain with Nasty Gal.”

Nasty Gal IP ProvesGreatest Asset CoNTiNueD FRoM PAGe 1

inside the Nasty Gal store on Melrose Avenue.

The pane of 11 u.S. postal stamps featuring oscar de la Renta.

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december 29, 2016 13

Double Design ConcertoVivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler have created new outfits for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

For the Vienna Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary, Dame Vivi-enne Westwood and Andreas Knonthaler — her designer partner, creative director and husband — have designed a new stage outfit, the Philharmonic Suit, for the musicians.

The orchestra will present their look for the first time during their Vienna New Year's Concert on Jan. 1, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

Previously, the Philharmonic musicians have performed in the Stresemann — otherwise known as the stroller — for daytime con-certs and tailcoats for evening performances. Westwood and Kronthaler have redesigned the Philharmonic Suit for both day and evening performances. Both the women and men will be fitted with a tailor-made bespoke suit from Westwood, each designed with the functional requirements

of the individual musician in mind.The men’s suits are tai-

lored in the traditional cut of Savile Row bespoke and have been designed in lightweight, high-quality English sustain-able fabrics. The black mohair and wool cut-away jacket has been designed and modified in a modern interpretation of a traditional tailcoat, with a raised back line to support the musi-cians’ movement. The jacket is paired with traditional black-and-white stripe fine wool trousers and a classic Westwood double-breasted waistcoat, all woven by British mills.

For day concerts, the male musicians will wear the suit with a spun wool double-breasted classic Westwood waistcoat with peak finishing in a soft gray silver sand color, complemented by a silk silver sand tie embroidered with the Vienna Philharmonic

logo in a Champagne color.For evening, the men will

wear the suit with a white dou-ble-breasted pique waistcoat, inspired by a classic white-tie suit, complemented with a white pique bow tie.

The women’s suit was inspired by the “Dangerous Liai-son” jacket, which first appeared in Westwood’s Gold Label fall 1993 Anglomania collection. The jacket was inspired by an 18th-century men’s frock coat and was redone in black wool and adjusted to fit the female silhouette with a curved line and back pleating. The collar has been removed to assist in the handling of the musical instruments and to give ease of movement. The jacket is paired with a slim-cut classic trouser.

The suit is paired with a draped soft silver sand-colored silk satin wrap top, to comple-

ment the men’s day suits. For evening concerts, the female musicians will wear the wrap top in black silk.

Each musician’s name will be embroidered within their suit.

Both Westwood and Tyro-lean-born Kronthaler share a love of classical music, and Kronthaler has been an enthu-siastic follower of Philharmonic concerts since his childhood. They formally met at the Philhar-monic in 2009.

“In the age of video streaming and HD broadcasts, the visual aspect increases in importance. In Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler, we have found a designer duo which suits the high standards of the Vienna Philharmonic brand,” said An-dreas Grossbauer, chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, which is considered one of the finest in the world. — Lisa Lockwood

Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler designs for Vienna Philharmonic.