MERVYNS IN CHAPTER 11/2 LVMH NET CLIMBS 7 PERCENT/5Women’s Wear Daily • The Retailers’ Daily Newspaper • July 30, 2008 • $2.00

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The OfficeNovelty jackets have always been key at Armani

Collezioni, but for spring, Giorgio Armani returns to

that working-woman classic, the pantsuit, but takes

the formality down a notch with a delicate eyelet

blouse. For more on spring, see page 4.

WWDWEDNESDAYSportswear

See Tory, Page 6

Fashion’s Latest Tale:Tory Burch Said LookingTo Sell Minority StakeBy Whitney Beckett

Tory Burch is looking for an investor.The hot apparel and accessories

firm, which is estimated to generate as much as $200 million in wholesale volume annually, is shopping around a 30 percent stake in the New York-based business, according to sources.

The steep asking price — a $935 million to $1 billion self-valuation for the whole company and about $300 million for the 30 percent stake — has narrowed the field of investors down to two main bidders, TSG Consumer Partners and Bear Stearns Merchant Bank, said industry sources.

WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 20082

WWDWEDNESDAYSportswear

FASHIONGiorgio Armani features suits and printed dresses for spring, while Escada’s Damiano Biella employs vaguely exotic prints and bold colors.

GENERALTory Burch is said to be shopping around a 30 percent stake in its business, with a steep asking price of about $300 million for the portion.

Ending weeks of speculation, Mervyns fi led for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection and said it plans to restructure its operations.

Consumers are exercising caution, but that isn’t keeping Coach Inc. from boosting its bottom line and planning a new, higher-end concept.

LVMH reported a 7 percent net profi t gain to $1.36 billion in the fi rst half, as its Louis Vuitton brand delivered strong sales in most regions.

Efforts to reach a deal in the Doha trade liberalization talks fell apart over differences between the U.S., India and China on farm issues.

Macy’s said an internal investigation found that goods confi scated at a sweatshop raid last week were counterfeits of its private labels.

Under Armour Inc.’s second-quarter earnings took a smaller-than-expected hit, and the active brand raised its outlook for the year.

MAINSTREAMMiami’s SwimShow 2009 and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim offered a fi rst look at cruise swimwear from more than 400 lines.

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● POLO’S HOME HIRE: Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. tapped Frank Guzzetta as president of Ralph Lauren Home Collection, ef-fective Aug. 11. Guzzetta most recently was chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s North. He succeeds Barbara Deichman, who retired last December. At Polo, Guzzetta will be in charge of the strategic and day-to-day management of the home collection business, which includes such areas as sales, marketing, product management licensing, sourcing and manu-facturing. He will also work closely with the design and devel-opment divisions. Guzzetta will report to Roger Farah, Polo’s president and chief operating officer.

● STEVE & BARRY’S AUCTION: The assets of Steve & Barry’s Inc., the bankrupt sportswear and footwear retailer, will be auc-tioned on Aug. 12 at the law offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Manhattan. The date and location were set at a court hearing in New York on Tuesday.

● GOTCHA RELAUNCH IN EUROPE: Perry Ellis International has made a licensing agreement with TV Mania GMBH and Must International Trading PTE Ltd. to relaunch the Gotcha brand in Europe for spring. The snow and surf apparel for women, men and children will be sold through department and specialty stores in the European Union, as well as in Switzerland, Turkey and Norway. In 2006, Perry Ellis acquired the trademark for Gotcha, a 30-year-old brand that started as a swim trunk line.

In Brief

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WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2008 FAIRCHILD FASHION GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

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Mervyns Files Ch. 11The fi ling further dramatizes the treacherous

nature of the current retail climate, and its close links to the health of the housing market and the price of gas. The 59-year-old Mervyns was once a star of the booming California market, and for years dominated the retail scene in many of the areas in which it operated. Mervyns currently has 177 stores in seven Southwestern states.

The California-based midtier department store chain said it will reorganize its business and con-tinue to operate as the company moves through the restructuring process. Mervyns follows the likes of Steve & Barry’s, Goody’s Family Clothing Inc., Fortunoff, Linens-N-Things and Sharper Image into bankruptcy, although many industry executives predict there will be more retailers fi l-ing for Chapter 11 in the months ahead unless the economy makes an unexpected turnaround.

The Hayward, Calif.-based Mervyns said it has secured a $465 million debtor-in-possession fi nanc-ing facility from a lender group led by Wachovia Capital Finance Corp. The DIP ensures vendors that ship goods during the post-petition period will get paid. Those with outstanding balances with the retailer will have no such assurances.

“We have reached out to Mervyns’ manage-ment in an attempt to restore communications,” said Bob Carbonell, executive vice president and chief credit offi cer of Bernard Sands Credit Consultants, the credit-checking company. “When the court approves the DIP fi nancing and we have adequate fi nancial information, we will consider a change in our credit opinion.”

John Goodman, chief executive officer of Mervyns, said, “Mervyns needs to reorganize its fi nances and operations due to the state of the economy and diffi cult operating environment for our industry.

“After careful consideration of available alter-natives, the company’s management board deter-mined that a Chapter 11 fi ling was a necessary and prudent step that allows us to operate our busi-ness without interruption as we seek to restruc-ture our debt and other obligations in a controlled, court-supervised environment. We are committed to serving our customers and maintaining regular operations as we undertake this reorganization.”

Mervyns said it will ask the court for permis-sion to honor its current customer policies re-garding merchandise returns and outstanding gift cards and customer loyalty programs.

Sun Capital Partners Inc., part of the consor-tium that acquired the retailer from Target Corp. for $1.65 billion in 2004, issued a statement noting that, at the time of the acquisition, “it was under-stood that it was a high-risk turnaround, which would involve a considerable amount of effort and signifi cant merchandising initiatives to rees-tablish its brand identity. Prior to the acquisition, same-store comp sales had been negative for fi ve consecutive years, and more than 25 percent of the 257-store portfolio was unprofi table (negative four-wall profi t).

“The sponsor group worked collaboratively with management to develop and execute a focused strategic plan and road map,” Sun Capital contin-ued. “Despite efforts to address Mervyns’ fi nancial challenges, it was impossible to complete the turn-around outside of Chapter 11 due to, among other things, the impact of a sustained economic down-turn in California, Mervyns’ key market.

“Under these circumstances, a bankruptcy fi l-ing was a diffi cult but necessary decision made by the board of directors,” Sun concluded.

The retailer’s bankruptcy court fi ling estimat-ed assets and liabilities each between $10 million and $50 million.

Although questions about the company’s fi s-cal health have been circulating for some time, vendors, lenders and credit analysts earlier this month began feeling especially jittery about the future of the $2.5 billion regional chain when word seeped into the credit community that factors had pulled their support. As Mervyns has grown in-creasingly isolated and unwilling to communicate in recent weeks, industry speculation had begun to focus on the possibility of a bankruptcy fi ling.

Mervyns has been hurt by the housing implo-sion, worst in the very states that mean the most to

the retailer, and its core working-class customers are being squeezed by rising gas and food prices, job cuts and tight credit.

The factoring arm of GMAC Commercial Finance earlier this month stopped approving orders of goods to the chain. In May, the factor-ing division of CIT stopped its approval of orders for Mervyns.

Buyers are said to be having a diffi cult time get-ting goods to the stores since factors stopped ap-proving orders. Some vendors, especially larger ones who carry their own paper, are still waiting to get paid for shipments, having undertaken the risk themselves after the factors withdrew, sources said.

A reorganization of Mervyns will further com-plicate an already murky retail real estate picture. With several major retailers having fi led Chapter 11 and solvent ones reluctant to expand, the in-ventory of vacant space could continue to climb.

Many have thought that the retailer might get some badly needed breathing room, or at least a cushion for the important back-to-school season, when Mervyns said in May that it planned to sell off fi ve to 10 high-end store sites. However, the sale of those stores has yet to materialize.

The Mervyns stores that are up for sale are in desirable sites that are rapidly becoming upscale and more affl uent than the retailer’s typical cus-tomer profi le, credit and real estate sources said.

Mervyns hired DJM Realty LLC to sell the stores, and said the transactions were expected to generate “$25 million to $50 million in cash to fund operations and new growth initiatives.”

The chain, which takes pride in being a family-friendly department store, named former Levi Strauss & Co. executive Goodman as president and ceo in March. Goodman had been president and general manager of the Dockers brand. He re-placed Rick Leto, who resigned in December after three years as ceo.

Among its top unsecured creditors, Goodman’s alma mater, Levi’s, is fi rst with an owed claim of $12.8 million. Others holding trade debt claims in-clude: Wicked Fashions in Fort Lee, N.J., $6.1 mil-lion; Nike USA Inc., Beaverton, Ore., $4.7 million; Vans Inc., Larkspur, Calif., $2.9 million; Fashion Resource, Los Angeles, $2.7 million; Hanes Brand-Hanes UW, Winston-Salem, N.C., $2.6 million; Lolly Togs, New York, $2.6 million; VF Jeanswear Inc., Greensboro, N.C., $2 million, and Jansport Inc.-VF Outerwear, San Leandro, Calif., $1.7 million.

The chain, founded early in the postwar West Coast boom by Mervin Morris as a single store in San Lorenzo, Calif., in 1949, went public in 1971 and was sold to Dayton Hudson Corp., later Target Corp., in 1978. In September 2004, the con-sortium including Sun Capital, Cerberus Capital Management LP and Lubert-Adler-Klaff acquired the chain. Cerberus since has sold its stake in the retail operation, although it still retains an inter-est in the retailer’s real estate holdings.

Mervyns fi led its petition along with two affi li-ated fi rms.

“I want to thank our customers and vendors for their continued support during this process,” Goodman said Tuesday. “We are pleased that, as we seek to restructure, we can continue to satis-fy our customers’ expectations by offering style, quality and excellent service, all at great prices. In addition, we are grateful to all of our associ-ates for their hard work, loyalty and dedication. Our management team is committed to making this fi nancial restructuring successful and leading Mervyns toward a bright future.”

The economy claimed another large retail victim Tuesday when the $2.5 billion Mervyns fi led a voluntary Chapter 11 petition for bankruptcy court protection in Delaware. — Vicki M. Young

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GET AHEAD OF THE CURVE: SHOWCASE YOUR BRAND IN WWD’S COTERIE PREVIEW ISSUE

WWDCoterie Preview – Section IIIssue date: September 10 Close: August 22Bonus distribution: Coterie Show and New York Fashion Week

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For more information on advertising, contact Christine Guilfoyle, publisher, at 212-630-4737, or your WWD sales representative.

SECTION II

WWD.COM4 WWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008

Spring FeverReady or not, spring is here. First stop:

Armani Collezioni and Escada. At the former, Giorgio Armani offers an alternative to

tailoring with plenty of languid shapes, evening separates and print dresses. Meanwhile,

at Escada, creative director Damiano Biella goes for lean, waist-centric lines.

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WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008 5

LVMH Income Rises 7 Percent

Coach’s Fourth-Quarter Net Leaps 32.9%

By Robert Murphy

PARIS — The economy hasn’t dulled the luster of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

The French luxury conglomerate on Tuesday reported better-than-expected fi rst-half profi t growth of 7 percent as its star Louis Vuitton brand delivered strong double-digit increases in most geographic zones, excluding Japan.

Group share of net profi t in the six months reached 891 million euros, or $1.36 billion, from 834 million euros, or $1.11 billion, last year on revenue growth of 5 percent to 7.79 billion euros, or $11.92 billion, from 7.41 billion euros, or $9.85 billion, in the comparable period.

Adverse currency conditions, which LVMH said reached “record” propor-tions, weighed heavily on the numbers, shaving 7 percent off of revenues and eating 12 percent into profi t.

LVMH chief Bernard Arnault told a meeting of analysts and press that he remained confi dent for the rest of the year and that sales in July proceeded at the same pace as in the fi rst half. He said Vuitton continued to deliver dou-ble-digit sales growth.

“I’m pretty confi dent for an excel-lent second half,” he said, confi rming LVMH’s objective for a “tangible in-crease in results for 2008.”

“The economy and monetary situation are uncertain, but it was already tough in the fi rst six months,” said Arnault.

LVMH’s numbers underscored health among Europe’s key players in a tempestuous economy beset by infl a-tion and eroding consumer sentiment.

Burberry, Hermès and Compagnie Financière Richemont all reported strong numbers this month, driven by demand from emerging markets where

newly rich clients continue to spend. LVMH’s sales in Asia jumped 25

percent in local currencies and 13 per-cent in euros, led by China. “The region is in great shape,” said Jean-Jacques Guinony, LVMH’s chief fi nancial offi cer.

Overall LVMH sales in the U.S. grew 9 percent in dollar terms, while Europe advanced 10 percent in local curren-cies. Sales in Japan retreated 6 percent as business on the island nation contin-ued tough.

LVMH said profi ts in fashion and leather goods gained 5 percent to 858 million euros, or $1.31 billion, on sales of 2.76 billion euros, or $4.22 bil-lion, up 6 percent, driven by demand for Vuitton bags like the Mahina and Galliera models. This compares with profi ts of 814 million euros, or $1.08 billion, on sales of 2.6 billion euros, or $3.46 billion, in the previous year. All currency exchanges were made at av-erage rates for the respective periods.

Sales in the division, LVMH’s biggest, would have grown 14 percent without the impact of currency exchange rates.

Yves Carcelle, who heads the divi-sion, said demand for Vuitton hasn’t been hurt by the economy.

“We have seen no slowdown in the U.S. or Europe or China,” he said. “Every year we fi nd a new pocket of riches around the world,” he added, explaining that new Vuitton stores in Qatar, Finland and Romania have seen signifi cant success.

Carcelle underscored strong per-formances from Fendi, Marc by Marc Jacobs and the improvement of profi t-ability at Donna Karan.

Perfumes and cosmetic sales rose 8 percent to 1.26 billion euros, or $1.93 billion, thanks to new fragrances in-cluding Dior’s Escale a Portofino. Profi ts rose 22 percent to 132 million

euros, or $201.9 million, from 108 mil-lion euros, or $143.6 million.

Beauty chain Sephora logged “re-markable growth,” chief operating of-ficer Antonio Belloni said, pushing ahead sales in the selective retailing division 6 percent to 1.99 billion euros, or $3.04 billion, from 1.88 billion euros, or $2.49 billion. Profi ts rose 5 percent to 151 million euros, or $231 million, from 144 million euros, or $191.4 million.

Watch and jewelry sales grew 7 per-cent to 417 million euros, or $638 mil-lion, thanks to demand for Tag Heuer watches and Chaumet jewelry. The di-vision’s profi t gained 30 percent to 74 million euros, or $113.2 million.

Profi ts in the wines and spirits divi-sion rose 4 percent to 409 million euros, or $625.8 million, from 393 million euros, or $522.3 million. Sales retreated 2 percent to 1.31 billion euros, or $2 bil-lion, hurt by stock issues and adverse currency exchange conditions.

The numbers were released after the market closed. LVMH shares fell 0.4 per-cent to 68.03 euros, or $107.09 at current ex-change, in trading on the Paris Bourse.

By Vicki M. Young

Consumers are exercising caution but that isn’t keeping Coach Inc. from boosting its bottom line and planning a

new, higher-end concept.The company said Tuesday that fourth-quarter profi ts

jumped 32.9 percent and sales gained almost 20 percent. Although Coach expects the consumer to be squeezed well into next year, the accessories producer is exploring a more upscale business concept for 2010 that may operate inde-pendent of the Coach name.

“With the initiative, which we internally called Collection, we created a dedicated designer merchandising group,” Lew Frankfort, chairman and chief executive offi cer, told WWD. “We can develop this Collection outside of the Coach machine.”

He said the concept would launch in “its own freestand-ing stores,” probably in spring 2010, and would include women’s accessories, footwear and jewelry. It would provide a “halo effect” for the broader Coach brand, Frankfort said.

The ceo declined to be more specifi c about its brand identity: “It could have the Coach name,” he said. “It could also have separate branding. Maybe.”

What is certain is that the product offering will generally be at higher price points than those at Coach, but “markedly lower than European luxury brands,” Frankfort said.

In addition, Frankfort said he hasn’t seen any improve-ment in the economic slowdown and anticipates that it will

last “way into 2009.”Shoppers in focus groups told executives “it will get worse

before it gets better and that they intend to spend less over the next 12 months at retail,” Frankfort said. “This requires Coach to offer great product at very compelling price points.”

During the three months ended June 28, the company posted net income of $213.5 million, or 62 cents a diluted share, compared with $160.6 million, or 42 cents, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding one-time items, the improvement in net income was 7.4 percent and earnings were 50 cents a diluted share, meeting Wall Street’s expectations. Sales rose 19.8 percent to $781.5 million from $652.1 million. North American same-store sales rose 6.7 percent.

Direct-to-consumer sales were up 22 percent to $659 mil-lion while indirect sales, encompassing wholesale activity, rose 11 percent to $123 million.

For the year, income rose 18 percent to $783.1 million, or $2.17 a diluted share, from $663.7 million, or $1.76, from the prior year. Excluding one-time items, the increase was 11.8 percent to $2.06 a diluted share.

Sales rose 21.7 percent to $3.18 billion from $2.61 billion. Direct-to-consumer volume was up 21 percent to $2.54 billion and indirect sales moved ahead 25 percent to $637 million.

Frankfort said the company achieved its results through “full-price sales, despite lower levels of traffi c” because the fi rm, in part, was able to get consumers to spend more. In addition, there was more traffi c at factory stores, which “of-fered deeper discounts to drive overall sales.”

One of the company’s goals in the new fi scal year is to in-crease its footprint in China, where it will open at least fi ve company-owned Coach stores.

On the product side, Coach in September will introduce Zoe, a softer, more feminine version of its Carly line. It will launch another new line, Madison, in October for holiday, as well as a Coach Op Art logo line.

Also new for fall will be a softer leather line, featured in the Madison and Bleecker collections. But the lighter-weight leathers won’t mean lower price points for consum-ers or higher margins for Coach. They will, in fact, be more expensive with tighter margins.

The company’s initial guidance for the new fi scal year is for sales of about $3.61 billion, a 13 percent increase, and earnings, excluding nonrecurring items, of at least $2.25 a diluted share, about a 10 percent increase.

Coach shares ended the New York Stock Exchange trad-ing session at $25.99, down 39 cents or 1.5 percent.

By John Zarocostas

GENEVA — The Doha Round of trade liber-alization talks fell apart Tuesday because of bitter differences among the U.S., India and China over farm trade issues.

The collapse came after nine days of round-the-clock negotiations in which ministers from about 35 key nations took part.

“It is clear that, despite our best efforts, we will not be able to reach a breakthrough at this time,” said U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab. “Regrettably, our negotia-tions deadlocked on the scope of a safeguard mechanism to remedy surges in imported ag-ricultural products.”

Pascal Lamy, World Trade Organization director general, who took a hands-on ap-proach in a bid to broker an agreement that would reduce farm subsidies and strengthen global trading, was blunt in his assessment: “It is no use beating around the bush. This meeting has collapsed. Members have not been able to bridge their differences. What members have let slip through their fi ngers is a package worth more than $130 billion in tariff savings annually.”

Similar efforts to secure a deal to lower subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products and industrial goods, including textiles and apparel, were derailed the previous two sum-mers over the inability to bridge the political divide between Western powers and emerg-ing nations over protecting industries and opening markets.

“The failure to reach agreement is a pro-found disappointment,” said European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. “This is a setback for the international trading sys-tem, greater than just the lost trading opportu-nities. We would all have been winners from a Doha deal.”

China’s alliance with India over shielding their farm sectors from surges in imports, and protecting commodities such as cotton, sugar and rice from new tariff cuts, were said to be a main trigger for the collapse.

The Indian government that last week sur-vived a vote of confi dence was in no mood to give in on the farm demands of the U.S., which feared that an agreement would not open new markets for American growers. The Bush ad-ministration was under bipartisan pressure from Congress to deliver new market access for farmers, industry and service providers.

India and China both rejected the U.S. de-mands and said Washington’s track record was poor when it came to lowering farm-support mea-sures and sheltering problematic commodities, such as cotton. Advocacy groups such as Oxfam International that have championed the cause of poor nations, especially African cotton produc-ers, blamed the U.S. and the EU for the failure.

“If the EU and U.S. had made meaning-ful offers that lived up to their promises, we might have seen progress,” said Oxfam direc-tor Jeremy Hobbs. “Instead, they demanded harsh concessions from developing countries in exchange for largely illusory reforms and limited fl exibilities.”

But trade envoys said back-tracking by China also soured the chances of crafting an agreement. China had signaled in the G-7 (the Group of Seven major economic powers) talks chaired by Lamy, which included the U.S., EU, India, Brazil, Japan and Australia, that it might be prepared to make deeper tariff cuts in some industrial sectors.

John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said, “WTO members declined to agree on terms that could have provided greater opportunities for trade of manufactured goods. Time and again at the Geneva meetings, China and India reiterated how they could not lower their barriers, but in-sisted we must lower ours.”

Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, said, “Politically, there has been a seismic shift in attitudes toward trade in the U.S. since the round was inaugurated seven years ago. It is no longer politically possible for the United States to sign a trade pact where there is all pain and almost no gain. India and China never got that message.”

Doha Talks End Without Accord

The Sabrina bag, from the Madison Collection, retails at $698.

Bernard Arnault

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EMPEROR VAL: Soon even common mortals will become more intimate with Valentino through the documentary, “Valentino: The Last Emperor,” which premieres Aug. 28 in Venice. A crowd of 600 is expected to attend the screening in Venice’s landmark theater, La Fenice, followed by a dinner for the designer hosted by Italian Vogue’s Franca Sozzani and Luca Dini, editor in chief of Italian Vanity Fair. Guests expected to glide down the canals to dine at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, home to the Peggy Guggenheim collection, include George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tilda Swinton, Claudia Schiffer and Alessandra Facchinetti, who is now creative director at Valentino.

THE HOMECOMING: It looks like there will be two Calvin Klein shows come New York Fashion Week. On Tuesday, Calvin Klein Inc. said it was bringing its fall 2009 men’s collection show to New York in February. This will mark the fi rst full runway show for men’s wear here — the company has been presenting its men’s wear collections in Milan since 1998. The fall show is slated to take place on the ground-fl oor event space at CKI’s headquarters at 205 West 39th Street, where the company also has been presenting its women’s collections. CKI, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, recently brought the Collection business back in-house — a move that triggered the decision to show men’s wear, which is designed by Collection’s men’s creative director Italo Zucchelli, in New York. It’s not arrivederci, Milano for good, though. The company plans to hold market appointments for retailers during Milan’s men’s fashion week next January. It also plans to return to the Milan’s men’s wear shows in the future.

GIORGIO, OLE!: Giorgio Armani’s designs now span from the runway and the living room to the oldest bullfi ghting ring in Spain. Armani has conceived a costume for famed bullfi ghter Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez on the occasion of the Corrida Goyesca. The yearly event will take place on Sept. 6 in Ronda, close to Málaga and Seville. Ordóñez will wear a specially designed bullfi ghting costume, or goyesco: a techno satin jacket, trousers and cloak in Armani’s iconic greige. The three pieces are embroidered with sequins and small glitter stones. Armani follows none other than Pablo Picasso, who once designed the same kind of costume for the bullfi ghter’s grandfather, Antonio Ordóñez. Armani’s collaboration with Rivera Ordóñez dates back to last year,

when the designer tapped him for a Giorgio Armani Hand Made-to-Measure ad campaign.

Meanwhile, Dutch electro mixer DJ Tiësto is set to take Armani Exchange’s Regent Street store in London from retail to rave. DJ Tiësto will play a live set in the brand’s Regent Street store on Aug. 8, which fans can attend by purchasing a limited edition DJ Tiësto pack, which contains an Armani Exchange T-shirt, a DJ Tiësto CD and a pass to the private set, and is priced at 40 pounds, or about $80 at current exchange.

Following his spin in the store, DJ Tiësto will perform at London’s 02 Arena as part of his “In Search of Sunshine” world tour, of which Armani has sponsored the London and North American dates.

PUNK PUZZLE: Vintage clothing dealer Simon Easton has hit back at claims by Malcolm McLaren that he sold fake vintage pieces under the Seditionaries label to Damien Hirst. “I don’t believe that Damien bought anything fake from me,” said Easton. “I have been buying these clothes for 30 years.”

Easton added that his management had taken Hirst to court last year, but that any legal matters between them have been settled. According to British press reports last year, Easton took legal action after Hirst failed to return a collection of vintage Seditionaries clothing that Easton had sent for him to consider buying. Hirst is alleged to have asked for a refund for pieces that he previously had bought from Easton, which he alleged were fake, before he returned

the collection, worth 80,000 pounds, or about $158,000 at current exchange. A spokeswoman for Hirst said that she was unable to comment on the matter for legal reasons.

Easton also rejected claims made by McLaren that he and Vivienne Westwood had only made a handful of Seditionaries pieces, saying the label was sold at Westwood and McLaren’s shops, Sex and Seditionaries, from 1975 to 1980, and later under license at Boy London from 1980 to 1986. “If you grew up in the punk era, you will know that Malcolm McLaren rewrites history on a daily basis — that’s how he gets through life,” said Easton. “I’m very amused to be part of his fanciful fantasy stories, however it can also be hurtful and damaging.”

BLACK GOLD: Mohamed Al Fayed is known for sourcing all manner of luxury goods to line the shelves of his famed department store, Harrods, but now it seems he’s rustling up another highly prized asset — oil.

Last Thursday, London’s High Court awarded Al Fayed a 9 percent share of the future proceeds of an oil fi eld that’s located underneath his estate in Surrey, just outside of London. Al Fayed had sued Star Energy, the U.K. oil producer that owns the oil fi eld, for trespassing, after Star Energy had been producing oil from land under Al Fayed’s estate without his knowledge since 1994. Al Fayed was also awarded a 9 percent share of the 7 million pounds, or $13.9 million, worth of oil the

oil fi eld has produced since 2000. “I am satisfi ed with the decision. Justice has been done,” said Al Fayed.

FASHION SENSE: Critical Cathy, the three-year-old fi lly named after The New York Times’ fashion critic Cathy

Horyn, won an allowance race Sunday at Saratoga Race Course. Owned by Barry Schwartz, former chairman of Calvin Klein Inc., Critical Cathy won

by six and a quarter lengths. “She’s a big, pretty gray fi lly,” said Schwartz, noting he’s received

compliments on the way his silks look on her. “They really look sharp on a light gray horse,” said Schwartz, who was reached in Saratoga. The purse was

$61,000, and Critical Cathy paid $11 to win, topping a $74 exacta. Horyn, who owned horses growing up, said

she’s thrilled to have a horse named after her, although she hasn’t placed any bets on her yet. “I’ve never actually seen her race,” said Horyn. “I’ve met her [at Schwartz’s] farm before she was old enough to run. She’s gorgeous.”

However, calling the asking price too high, particularly given the current lending environment, sources esti-mated the stake’s price would come in closer to $250 million.

Tory Burch and a spokesman for TSG declined comment, and Richard Perkal, senior managing director and partner of Bear Stearns Merchant Bank in charge of its retail and apparel side, did not return calls.

Although Tory Burch has been courted by strategic and private equity investors for more than a year, the de-signer told WWD in April that she wasn’t planning anytime soon to sell the business that she and Christopher Burch, her soon-to-be ex-husband, founded four years ago, but that she also wasn’t against the idea in the long-term.

“I’ve taken a lot of meetings, and met with many people about this,” Tory Burch said in April. “I never turn down a meeting, but I just don’t feel that it’s the right thing to do right now.”

Although it is not known whether the 30 percent stake comes from the designer’s or her ex-husband’s share, sources have speculated an outside investor would provide a solution to the estranged couple working together as co-owners, which they have done since their separation two years ago.

The designer and management team likely would stay at the helm, using the money invested to fuel the company’s ambitious goals of expanding internationally, rolling out a scheduled fi ve stores a year, adding product categories and expanding its wholesale business into more doors.

A rare success story in this economy, Tory Burch’s business is booming. Beginning as a retailer, Tory Burch has 14 of its own stores. With apparel wholesaling mostly from $119 to $166 and accessories from $95 to $272, the brand is sold in contem-porary and updated bridge departments, reaching everyone from teenagers to Baby Boomers, in stores including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Scoop, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols. Half the busi-ness is accessories, which more than tripled in sales last year, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America in May gave Burch the Accessories Designer of the

Year award.San Francisco-based TSG, which opened offi ces on Fifth Avenue last year, has a

portfolio of luxury beauty brands, including Smashbox Cosmetics, N.V. Perricone M.D., Alterna Professional Hair Care and PureOlogy, and seeks to expand its reach to

apparel, footwear and accessories. TSG looks for fi rms with sales between $50 million and $300 million, “high margins, great entrepreneurs and categories that welcome new products, which offer luxury and functionality,” managing director Alexander Panos told WWD last year. Private equity fi rms tend to fl ip fi rms after three to fi ve years, and so far, TSG has held on to its investments from one year to, in the case of Voss water, more than fi ve years.

“Retailers have been great partners in sharing which brands they love and which brands they can get behind…they are excited to have us involved because we bring

wherewithal to companies they do business with,” Panos added. “A new company will some-times have a lot of initial success, but then come the realities of how to provide a couple hundred retail doors with education and training and logistics. We can provide those resources immediately.”

Bear Stearns Merchant Bank, a private equity arm that remains after the shuttering of the bank, has a portfolio that includes mainstream retailer New York & Company Inc. and

Stuart Weitzman Holdings LLC, and that once included Seven For All Mankind LLC.

Fashion Scoops

Tory Burch Said Shopping 30 Percent Stake in BrandTory Burch

Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez and Giorgio Armani

Armani has conceived

an outfi t for Ordóñez.

A best-selling Reva ballet fl at.

A fall Tory Burch

look.

Continued from page one

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WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008 7

By Ross Tucker

NEW YORK — The New York State Department of Labor might have been a bit hasty when it included Macy’s Inc. as one of the retailers alleged to be utilizing a Queens sweatshop to produce its goods.

On July 23, state DOL offi-cials revealed an investigation had uncovered signifi cant labor violations at two factories alleg-edly manufacturing garments for Macy’s, Gap, Banana Republic, Express, Victoria’s Secret, Limited and Coldwater Creek.

But Macy’s said Tuesday that an internal investigation found the garment factory identifi ed by the DOL was not manufacturing goods for the retailer. However, one of the factories was produc-ing counterfeits of Macy’s pri-vate label brands, the store said.

“There is no place in Macy’s stores for goods that are manu-factured by workers who are un-derage, underpaid or forced to work in conditions that are ille-gal,” said Janet Grove, vice chair of Macy’s Inc. and chairman of Macy’s merchandising group. “We have cooperated fully with the Department of Labor and applaud the department for its vigorous enforcement.”

Jin Shun Inc., a garment con-tractor operating out of Long Island City in Queens, is alleged to have underpaid more than 100 mostly immigrant workers by nearly $3 million in mini-mum wage and overtime pay since 2005. The investigation found that prior to 2005, Jin Shun Inc. operated under the name Venture 47 and allegedly withheld nearly $2.5 million in minimum and overtime wages. Offi cials are seeking repayment of the more than $5 million total owed to workers since be-fore 2005. Both companies are owned by Jikai Lin and Zhang Yun Chen.

When offi cials raided two fa-cilities last Wednesday morning, they tagged more than 10,000 garments with a label stating the garments were unlawfully manufactured. The garments included items for Express and the Macy’s private label brands Ultra Flirt and INC.

Macy’s said the second raided factory, operating under the name Zheng Da Inc. and also in Long Island City, was manufacturing counterfeit private label merchan-dise from previous seasons. The retailer also found that third-par-ty monitors hired by Macy’s had inspected the Jin Shun factory twice in 2007 and rejected using the facility due to incomplete em-ployment record keeping.

“This case reinforces the importance of our process for monitoring the suppliers and factories that make products sold at Macy’s,” Grove said. “The Jin Shun factory did not meet our requirements and thus was pro-hibited from manufacturing for our stores. Yet the experience with these Long Island City fac-tories reminds us that we need to remain vigilant because some po-tential suppliers clearly are not up to the high standards we set.”

A call for comment to the NYDOL was not returned by press time.

By Matthew Lynch

In a sign that it might have reached its bottom, consumer

confidence made a slight re-bound in July, its first increase of the year after six consecutive months of declines.

According to preliminary es-timates released Tuesday, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose to 51.9, compared with a revised 51 in June. Last month’s Consumer Confi dence Index level was the lowest in 16 years, refl ecting per-sistent fears about the weakening economy. Wall Street had expect-ed the index to fall further toward the 50 range in July and its small

bounce helped spark a 266-point rally in the stock market.

“We do think we’ve hit a bot-tom and things will probably improve from here,” said Scott Hoyt, senior director of con-sumer economics at Moody’s Economy.com. Hoyt said energy prices are still the foremost con-cern on consumers’ minds and the recent falloff in oil prices steadied the index.

The two key components of the index moved in different di-rections in July as the Present Situation Index fell incrementally to 65.3, compared with 65.4 in June. The Expectations Index rose to 43, compared with 41.4 last month.

“While consumers remain

extremely grim about short-term prospects, the modest improve-ment in expectations, often a harbinger of economic times to come, bears careful watching over the next few months,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

The poll, which samples 5,000 American households monthly, showed a consumer base pes-simistic about the recent land-scape. Though 13.1 percent of respondents described current business conditions as “good,” up from 11.5 percent in June, the number of respondents de-scribing business conditions as “bad” also rose, to 32.8 percent

from 31.9 percent.Respondents’ expectations for

the next six months were margin-ally brighter. The percentage of those expecting business condi-tions to be “better” in the next six months rose to 9.3 from 8.5 in June, while 32.4 percent of households polled expected con-ditions to be “worse,” compared with 33.5 percent last month.

The unexpected rise in con-sumer confi dence and another drop in oil prices made for a big day on Wall Street Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s Retail Index rose 4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 266.48 points and The Standard & Poor’s 500 climbed 28.82 points.

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By Georgia Lee

MIAMI — Miami Beach has become a tale of two swim cities — all-business trade show by day and glitzy blow-out by night, for media, partyers and occasional celebri-ties, and any buyer with the stamina for round-the-clock swimwear.

Both shows, SwimShow 2009 at the Miami Convention Center from July 19 to 22 and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim, in tents at the Raleigh Hotel from July 18 to 21, offered a fi rst look at cruise 2009 swimwear from over 400 lines.

This year, the action spilled over, as luxury brands such as LaPerla, Zimmerman and Eres held private shows in suites or poolside parties and fashion events at South Beach hotels and nightclubs.

Offi cials for Swimwear Association of Florida, sponsor of the conven-tion center show, said 2,500 buyers attended, while IMG Fashion, spon-sor of Fashion Week Swim, reported 12,000 attendees — 500 registered media and celebrities that included Anna Kournikova at Red Carter’s show, Billy Zane at Pistol Panties and others as diverse as Carson Kressley and Dennis Rodman.

Retailers got down to business, buying proven lines and bestsell-ers, demanding good fi t and the “wow factor” to loosen consumers’ tight wallets. Concerned over the economy and rising prices due to increases in raw materials, labor costs and the weak dollar, they de-manded bang for their bucks.

Manufacturers were bullish on swim, launching new lines and divi-sions and expanding into sportswear, dresses and accessories, for multiple sales. (See sidebar, this page.)

“Though the economy is tough, swimwear has dodged the bullet,” said Howie Greller, president of Blue Water Design Group, a division of Apparel Ventures. “The weather has been good, and a swimsuit, even for a backyard pool, is a relatively inexpensive form of escape.”

Invista global marketing director Ninabeth Sowell echoed the posi-tive swimwear spin. “Swimwear is surprisingly upbeat, perhaps be-cause it’s one of the simple pleasures consumers can af-ford in a diffi cult economy,” she said at the closing show July 21 that was sponsored by Xtra Life LYCRA.

Sowell stressed fabric advancements, like more yarn sizes that give glow to light colors and richness to jewel or black tones. She noted consumers’ emerging aware-ness of eco-friendly, sun protection and fair trade factors, but said fi t was their top priority. In a move to cope with rising oil prices, Invista is restructuring supply chain routes in general, with attention to Europe and Asia.

“Now that form-fi tting shapes like high waists and mo-nokinis are trendy, we need to educate retailers more than ever about this fi ber’s money-making benefi ts,” she said.

Designers gave it their all, in bold, glamorous state-ments of color, print and details to distinguish product from basics and justify wholesale price hikes of 5 to 10 percent on average.

Among the key trends:● World of color: After last season’s earth tones

bombed, manufacturers delivered brilliant hues — rich jewel tones of aqua and turquoise and a range of pinks and yellows.

● Tribal prints: New takes on African-inspired pat-terns in unexpected colors, with hardware, beading, wood and natural details.

● Modern art: Abstract art inspirations, from bold

splatters to wavy stripes and unexpected pairings of color and pattern.

● Pinup girls: Think Betty Grable and Norma Jean Baker’s publicity shots — ruching, ruffl es, lace, high waists and more emphasis on the bust, with molded cups and sweetheart necklines.

● Mix, but don’t match: Taking cues from the junior market, contemporary and misses’ lines offered sepa-rates that pair mismatched plaids, dots, fl orals and other patterns for individual expression.

Buyer Ann Evans, owner of Nani Nalu, a Minneapolis swimwear specialty store, sat front row at a late night show July 18, after a day of buying at the convention center.

“The [nightly shows] are fun, but I’d like to see more industry people here, not just media and celeb-rities,” she said. “I come to see what’s on the runway, but there’s not much that I can buy, because every-thing’s too bare and tiny for my conservative, country club customer.”

Most of her dollars at the show went to three lines — Carmen Marc Valvo, Robin Piccone and Huit.

“I’m looking for chic, sophisticated, classic swim-wear, in sizes 0 to 16, with an emphasis on the 10 to 14 sizes,” she said.

Mark Sidle, owner of Swim ’n Sport, a Miami-based chain with 36 stores in 14 states, bought with a bigger budget, for four new stores opening this year and for ex-isting stores that had strong comp sales this year.

“I’m buying happy, bright, pretty colors, because that’s what works,” he said. “I’m dropping some nonper-forming labels. I’m open to new replacements, but I’m selective, buying only the best,” he said.

He bought Trina Turk, Gottex, Body Glove, 2 Bamboo, LaBlanca, Profi le and Skye, concentrating on romantic looks with lace, ruching, ruffl es and details including hardware, buckles, chains and rings.

Junior business has been challenging, but contempo-rary is “where the action is,” he said. With prices rising, he implored manufacturers to offer perceived value to consumers. “If you charge $110 for a swimsuit, it should be worth $120, not $50,” he said.

With business slightly down this year, Gabi Amato-Heap, buyer for Absolutely Suitable, a specialty store in the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., bought cau-tiously, focusing on tried-and-true resources, and leav-ing money for reorders as the season unfolds.

Among her favorites were Manuel Canovas’ bright colors and prints; Eres’ multiple colors and proven sil-houettes; Karla Colletto’s solids with trims, piping and embellishment, and a broad array of product from Shan.

She previewed very few new resources, among them Papillon Bleu, Echo Designs, Rhona Sutton and Sundek, a men’s line.

Despite a high-end clientele, and more European tourists taking advantage of the weak dollar, even luxury customers have become more skittish in the past six months, shopping

less frequently, buying less and showing price resistance, said Amato-Heap.

“Our biggest concern is price, especially from European labels. We consider $200 to $300 a good retail range, but above that it’s diffi cult. We don’t want to inhibit consumers or give them one more reason not to buy.”

— With contributions from Rebecca Kleinman

8

“Swimwear is surprisingly upbeat, perhaps because it’s one of the simple pleasures consumers can afford in a diffi cult economy. ”

— Ninabeth Sowell, Invista

WWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008

In the Mainstream

● A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz: Inspired by A.B.S. dresses and sportswear, in brightly colored solids, graphic and modern art prints, made by Blue Water Design Group.● Custo Barcelona: A 60-piece collection, with 30 bikinis and 15 one-piece suits, and 19 cover-ups, including tunics and beach dresses “in the same [design] language as the sportswear,” said Custo Dalmau, designer.● La Perla Mare: A new 18-piece collection, inspired by iconic New York scenes and modern art, to wholesale from $250 to $400 and launched at a July 18 event at the Gansevoort South hotel. ● Red Carter Glam: A 30-piece collection of “aspirational” embellished bikinis targeting high-end stores such as Barneys New York and Saks Fifth Avenue. In black, embellished with pearls, fringe and hardware details.● Relax by Tommy Bahama: A 40-piece collection of swimwear, with 15 related cover-ups such as shorts in Hawaiian and vintage prints for men and women, aimed at the younger customer. ● Pistol Panties: Based in the U.K., Colombian designer Deborah Fleming is inspired by Bond girls, with a collection that includes cabochon bib collars, ruffl ed, one-shoulder one-pieces, novelty prints like oversize houndstooth, pineapples and Tiffany glass-inspired fl orals, and suits covered in Swarovski crystals.

New for Cruise

Swim Hot at Miami Show

A black-and-white tuxedo-inpired strapless one-piece by Red Carter.

An abstract tribal-print bikini by Zimmerman.

A high-waisted, two-piece black-and-blue swimsuit by Eres.

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WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008 9

PARIS — Flavors and fragrance maker Symrise reported Tuesday its sales for the first half of this year rose 2.3 percent, versus the first half 2007, to 676 million euros, or $1.03 billion at average exchange, thanks to high growth rates in emerging markets.

In local currencies, the rev-enue gain was 6.7 percent for the German fi rm, which is based in both Holzminden and Frankfurt.

Symrise’s earnings before in-terest, tax and amortization in the period were fl at at 123.6 mil-lion euros, or $189.2 million. On a local currency basis, they in-creased 6 percent.

Net profi ts for the fi rm rose 16 percent to 60.8 million euros, or $93.1 million.

Symrise’s scent and care divi-sion posted moderate sales gains of 2.5 percent in local currencies to 342.7 million euros, or $524.5

million. The firm said “luxury segments,” such as fi ne fragrance and parts of personal care, had to contend with lower demand.

“In order to compensate for the increased raw material and energy costs and in order to pro-tect our margins going forward, the division announced selec-tive price increases of 10 percent and more in early July,” stated Symrise.

The company expects a full-year 2008 sales increase of 6 to 7 percent and EBITA gains of 6 per-cent, both in local currencies.

— Jennifer Weil

Zotos Names Krassin CEONEW YORK — Hair care mar-keter Zotos International Inc. has named Ron Krassin president and chief executive officer.

Krassin joined Zotos, owned by Tokyo-based Shiseido Co. Ltd., in 2004 as chief operating offi cer. Four months later, he was pro-moted to president.

Prior to joining Zotos, Krassin spent seven years at Remington Products Co. and five years at Procter & Gamble Co.

Zotos noted that last year, Krassin “spearheaded the suc-cessful restaging of Zotos’ 22-year-old Bain de Terre brand.” Additionally, Joico, a hair care brand marketed by Zotos, has experienced growth of 60 per-cent in the last two years and launched earlier this year a line called Renu, which is billed as

antiaging hair care and is carried in more than 500 salons.

Jurlique Marks Biodynamic LaunchLOS ANGELES — Sunscreen was a popular Jurlique item at a balmy barbecue hosted by the Australian brand Saturday, but chief ex-ecutive officer Eli Halliwell as-serted it’s the recently released Biodynamic Beauty range and

a repackaging last year that are helping Jurlique heat up.

“Our intent was to build a plat-form for growth with the packag-ing and the line, so now we are full guns blazing,” he said. “The U.S. is going to be huge for us.”

Halliwell added that Jurlique’s “near-term benchmark” is $100 million in sales, and he proj-ects double-digit growth next year. Jurlique plans to bulk up a U.S. distribution network that currently includes roughly 300 spas, eight branded stores and retailers such as Whole Foods, Space NK, Barneys New York, Pharmaca and Bluemercury.

The Biodynamic Beauty prod-ucts, which hit shelves in June, include a 1-oz. serum for $75, a 0.05-oz. eye cream for $45, a 1.3-oz. night lotion for $55 and a 1.4-oz. refi ning treatment for $35. A facial moisturizer with Ectoin, a natural UV damage protector, will join the Biodynamic Beauty collection in Australia this winter and arrive in the U.S. in the spring.

As evidenced by the barbe-cue Saturday, which was held at the Beverly Hills home of direc-tor Brett Ratner — who drew the likes of Stevie Wonder, Salma Hayek, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppola and Rosanna Arquette — Jurlique is also aiming to solidify its entertainment industry ties.

“We are trying to make it more clear [that Hollywood] people love it,” said Halliwell. “They wear it on their skin and nobody knows.”

— Rachel Brown

Symrise Sales See Slight Uptick

BEAUTY BEAT

By Sharon Edelson

Façonnable, the French men’s and women’s ap-

parel and accessories brand, filled its top executive post on Tuesday.

Kenzo chief executive officer Alberto Lavia was named Façonnable ceo by M-1 Fashion, the Beirut, Lebanon-based investment house that acquired the company for $210 million from Nordstrom last year. He succeeds Mark Brashear, who resigned in March after six years.

Lavia, who will report to Façonnable’s board, will be re-sponsible for restructuring the company’s worldwide organiza-tion, including refi ning its sup-ply chain and charting an ag-gressive global growth strategy.

Before being named Kenzo ceo in September 2006, Lavia was chairman of Gruppo La Perla. For more than 10 years before that, he held a variety of executive positions in Europe. At PRL Fashions of Europe, a licensee of Polo Ralph Lauren, Lavia was acting chief oper-ating offi cer, ceo and fi nally chairman. He remained with the company for four years after its acquisition by the Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. Prior to his tenure at Ralph Lauren, Lavia worked at Les Copains, Basile and Ferrero.

Maher Mikati, ceo of M-1 Fashion and an executive di-

rector of the M-1 Group, re-placed Brashear temporarily as Façonnable’s ceo while the search for a successor was conducted.

M-1 hired Interbrand, a London-based brand consul-tancy to “refresh” Façonnable, which had sales of $220 mil-lion last year. Mikati said M-1 is not shifting Façonnable’s strategy, but will build on its heritage of sport chic and the French Riviera lifestyle.

“This is not a brand that’s in distress,” Simon Stacey, the Interbrand executive leading the project, said at the time of Brashear’s departure. “The store environments are clearly tired. They’re dark and quite traditional and represent a moment in time.” M-1 will take Façonnable to “new markets and to new customers,” he said. “There is quite an ambitious ex-pansion program. It’s clear that M-1 acquired the brand because it saw great potential in what was an underinvested brand.”

Lavia’s “extensive experi-ence in the luxury fashion sec-tor makes him a unique asset as we restructure the brand and company for strategic global growth,” Mikati said.

“Façonnable offers tremen-dous growth opportunities, both through diversifi cation and ex-pansion into new channels and markets,” Lavia said. “I believe this brand has the potential to become a fashion giant.”

Lavia Tapped to Head Façonnable

WAL-MART STORES INC. IS OVERHAULING ITS IN-STORE digital TV network.

The retailer’s existing Wal-Mart Television Network is operated by PRN, a division of the French company Thomson, and generates ad sales revenue estimated at $100 million annually, according to Media Week.

Wal-Mart’s second generation Wal-Mart Smart Network is expect-ed to be a more powerful vehicle with a three-pronged purpose: aiding in decision-making at the point of sale, generating revenue by selling ads on the network and forging closer relationships with key suppliers such as Procter & Gamble.

Smart Network’s innovations are said to include installing TV screens closer to eye level and building screens into endcaps, fi x-tures and shelving. With the existing network, fl at screens are hung all over the store and, in many cases, in locations that are diffi cult for customers to see.

The audio also needs work so the soundtracks of the new net-work please shoppers and employees.

Mike Hiatt, director of internal media networks at Wal-Mart, said a new in-store media network was rolled out to be tested at 40 Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. Industry analysts expect the Smart Network to be unveiled during presentations to marketers and advertising and media agencies on Sept. 4 in New York and at Wal-Mart head-quarters in Bentonville, Ark.

“Wal-Mart is constantly testing new ways to deliver a better shopping experience for our customers,” a spokeswoman said. “We’re listening to customer feedback and looking for smart ways to meet their needs and exceed their expectations. We have no details [about Smart Network] to share at this time, but stay tuned.”

With advertising in newspapers declining and digital recorders and TiVo allowing viewers to bypass commercials when they watch their favorite TV shows, marketers are looking for new ways to reach an audience that’s no longer captive. Advertising dollars are shifting to digital screens in elevators and to the Internet. Wal-Mart Smart Network can help consumers pull the purchasing trigger and earn advertising revenue. The retailer can reach consumers where they’re primed to buy. Wal-Mart estimates that 130 million people visit the chain every week.

Wal-Mart introduced its fi rst in-store media network to adver-tisers and marketers at a summit in October 2006 in Bentonville. Signaling the retailer’s commitment to in-store media, John Fleming, Wal-Mart’s chief merchandising offi cer, said at the event, “The store is our number one media channel. The network of the future will allow us to take full advantage of it.”

— S.E.

Wal-Mart Takes New Direction With In-Store Television Network

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WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 200810

Talbots Retools Its Classics in Rebound BidBy David Moin

The Talbots Inc. has dug deep into its past to create a better future.

And it all begins Aug. 10, when a reinvent-ed collection — which arrives after a year of corporate restaffi ng, widespread streamlining and rethinking the business — begins fl owing into the company’s stores.

The classic looks the 61-year-old Hingham, Mass.-based chain has been known for are still present, but everything has been updated or, as offi cials prefer to say, “reinvigorated,” and in very apparent ways. The houndstooth pat-terns are blown up, jackets are more fi tted and pants fi t lower for a younger, sexier ap-peal. The twinsets are redefi ned with wraps. The fl ats have been jazzed up with prints and suedes, and the accessories have a richer look, with jewel tones, bigger brooches and bangles and a wealth of scarves.

Overall, it’s a more sophisticated look, re-plete with color, particularly the signature red that covers roughly 15 percent of the fall product.

Even the logo has been mod-ernized to refl ect the transfor-mation.

“This really is a re-launch of a venerable brand,” said Trudy F. Sullivan, Talbots chief executive officer and president, during an in-terview at the retailer’s New York creative stu-dio on Tuesday. “Dowdy is done. It’s wiped out.”

Sullivan explained that the brand DNA remains in-tact. “It’s not like we are try-ing to change what we’ve been. It’s about being reinvigorated. We are thrilled to be a Boomer brand. We’re not trying to go contemporary.”

“The most important thing to say about the brand is that it’s ageless and timeless,” added Michael Smaldone, chief creative offi cer. “That is the true platform we are working on.”

As far as the logo, it’s bolder, spelled out in capital-ized letters, with a graceful, scripted “Established 1947” written right underneath for contrast. Previously, the logo was a scripted signature inside an oval.

This fall-holiday season is pivotal for Talbots, and a crucial test for the management team. At the $2.2 bil-lion chain, modernizing the classics involved creating a “war room” stuffed with catalogues going back as far as 1957. The team used the archive to examine the re-tailer’s “iconics,” such as tweeds, houndstooths, duffl e coats, ballet fl ats, stadium coats, plaids and jackets.

The better-priced misses’ chain has been struggling for several years, lacking fashion pizzazz and misread-ing the trends. In September, as the company was sink-ing, Sullivan, formerly a top executive at Liz Claiborne, became ceo, and triggered an upheaval by changing practically the entire senior staff, closing weak stores, cutting costs and eliminating the U.K., kids’ and men’s businesses.

A three-year turnaround plan was devised, with conservative fi nancial objectives, given the diffi cult economy and the company’s own issues. Talbots fore-casts top-line growth of approximately 3 percent, with

the Talbots brand’s comparable-store sales seen decreasing 1 percent and the J. Jill division increasing 1 percent. Consolidated direct marketing sales are planned up in the

midsingle-digit range.“We have moved very quickly, but prudent-

ly,” Sullivan said.The upcoming collection is the fi rst real vis-

ible sign of the direction in which Sullivan and her team are taking the company.

“We’ve put the fi t back, but the clothes aren’t tight. They’re shaped,” said Basha Cohen, executive vice pres-ident and chief merchant. “They were very boxy before, and not so fl attering.”

She also described the color palette as having a point of view, and narrower. Before, for example, a turtleneck would come in 12 to 18 colors, now there are eight to 12.

“We want it to be trend right, not trendy,” added Cohen.

The executives highlighted other key changes that will be obvious to customers, among them:

● A faster fl ow of goods to monthly shipments, from four times a year previously, so stores are fresher with new fashion more frequently.

● Greater emphasis on wear-now merchandise. ● A redesign of Talbots store to refl ect the overhauled

collection for 2009. “We’re incubating ideas,” Sullivan said.

● A dressier holiday set, including organza tops with crystal buttons in varying shapes and sizes, “reimag-ined” satin trenchcoats that almost look like dresses and long “hostess” skirts, paired with three-quarter-sleeve turtlenecks.

● The fi rst-ever full holiday gift assortment that’s weighted to colorful tops and accessories.

● Prospecting for new clients after a six-year hiatus, while diminishing television advertising. Talbots’ has a catalogue circulation of about 5 million.

In a sign that the overhauled collection has been well

received, at least by Wall Street at this point, Talbots shares rose 10 percent last week after an analysts’ preview.

“The fabrics exuded quality,” analyst Jennifer Black of Jennifer Black & Associates wrote in a research report. “The colors radiated the classic Talbots styling, the lines were clean and simple, and the styling was timeless. The fall-holiday collection fl ows well together. The fl oor sets should move from one to another with ease, which we believe will help reduce broken assortments.”

Some questions regarding liquidity were resolved last week, when Talbots, which is majority owned by the Japan-based Aeon Inc., closed on a $50 million credit facility with a subsidiary of Aeon Inc. The new facility supplements the retailer’s existing working capital lines of credit of $165 million and brings the total borrowing capacity to $215 million.

On Tuesday, stock jumped 9.9 percent to $14.70. The Talbots Inc. operates 592 Talbots stores and 277 J. Jill stores.

By Alexandra Steigrad

Maternity apparel retailer Mothers Work Inc. report-ed Tuesday that it quadrupled its profi ts for the

third quarter, but forecast a fourth-quarter loss aggra-vated by restructuring costs and a new $7 million stock repurchasing plan.

Effective through July 2010, the repurchase pro-gram will give the company “excellent fl exibility” at a time when it is also trying to reduce its debt, according to chief operating offi cer Edward M. Krell. In June, the company prepaid $8 million of its senior secured term loan, bringing to $13 million the amount prepaid since March.

For the three months ended July 29, the Philadelphia-based retailer posted net income of $4.1 million, or 68 cents a diluted share, versus year-ago profi ts of $1 mil-lion, or 17 cents. Sales declined 0.7 percent to $152.2 million from $153.2 million. After a 0.8 percent increase

in June, same-store sales increased 2.4 percent. The company cited lower sales in Sears’ leased departments and the closure of underperforming stores as among the reasons for the decline in net sales.

Eliminating debt repurchase charges of 1 cent in the most recent quarter and 69 cents in the 2007 pe-riod, earnings per share declined to 69 cents from 90 cents. The company had projected EPS of between 66 and 70 cents for the most recent quarter.

“We are pleased with our strong sales performance for June and for the third quarter, despite the contin-ued weak overall economic and retail environment, as we continue to anniversary weaker sales results from a year ago and defi ne our merchandise assortments and our in-store merchandise presentation,” president and chief creative offi cer Rebecca Matthias said.

For the nine months, net income dropped 31.9 per-cent to $3.4 million, or 56 cents a diluted share, from $5 million, or 81 cents, in last year’s period. Excluding spe-

cial charges for debt extinguishment, EPS dropped to 57 cents from $1.74. Sales dropped 2.6 percent to $434.1 million from $445.6 million. Same-store sales decreased 0.6 percent.

The company projected a net loss in the range of 30 to 46 cents a share for its fourth quarter, translating to a loss of 23 to 39 cents before debt repurchase and re-structuring charges. The fi rm lost 92 cents a share in the fourth quarter of 2007. Net sales are expected to come in at between $130.5 million and $134.4 million.

Gross margin for fi scal 2008 is projected at approx-imately 50.3 percent of net sales, a decrease from the company’s 51.6 percent gross margin in fi scal 2007.

At the end of the quarter, the company operated 761 stores and 294 leased departments, down from 787 stores and 812 leased departments in the prior year. The company earlier this month decided to eliminate its Mimi Maternity store brand in favor of its Pea in the Pod and Destination Maternity nameplates.

Mothers Work Third-Quarter Profi t Up, Sales Slip

Talbots has reinvigorated its

classics.

Trudy F. Sullivan

Accessories take a bigger

role in the collection.

Michael Smaldone in Talbots creative studio.

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WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008 11

By Evan Clark

Lower restructuring costs and cost-reduction initiatives

helped Hanesbrands Inc. more than double second-quarter prof-its as weak consumer spending slowed sales.

Earnings gained 125.5 percent to $57.3 million, or 60 cents a di-luted share, from $25.4 million, or 26 cents, a year ago. Restructuring costs sank to $1.4 million from $26.2 million a year earlier.

Sales for the three months ended June 28 dipped 4.4 percent to $1.07 billion from $1.12 billion. The sales declines came primarily in the fi rm’s intimate apparel business.

“We are focused on our im-provement strategies to sell more, spend less and generate cash,” said Richard Noll, chief executive offi cer, explaining the fi rm’s strat-

egy. “We are executing our cost-reduction, debt-management and globalization strategies to increase profi t while we continue to focus on improving sales performance.”

Hanesbrands added two compa-ny-owned sewing plants in Vietnam and one in Thailand during the quarter and construction is continu-ing in Nanjing, China, where the company’s fi rst Asian textile plant is to begin production next year.

Marketers of the Hanes, Champion, Playtex, Bali, Just My Size, Barely There and Wonderbra brands, the fi rm also has beefed up its operations in Central America.

For the fi rst half, Hanesbrands’ earnings jumped 149.4 percent to $93.4 million, or 97 cents a diluted share, from $37.4 million, or 39 cents, during the fi rst six months of 2007. Sales slid 4.7 percent to $2.06 billion from $2.16 billion.

By Whitney Beckett

Under Armour Inc.’s second-quarter earn-ings took a smaller-than-expected hit, and

the active brand raised its outlook for the year after posting higher revenues thanks to its per-formance footwear launch.

For the three months ended June 30, net in-come declined 76 percent to $1.4 million, or 3 cents per diluted share, from $5.7 million, or 11 cents.

Under Armour had previously warned that earnings would shift to the second half of the year because of seasonality and the timing of marketing and other spending. Tuesday’s an-nouncement beat earnings per share expecta-tions from the company by 3 cents and analysts’ consensus by 2 cents.

Revenues for the quarter rose 30 percent to $156.7 million from $120.5 million, thanks to the May 3 introduction of performance training footwear, the brand’s fi rst noncleat-ed offering.

“The response to our performance trainer launch has been tremendous from both a con-sumer acceptance and retail sell-through per-

spective,” said Kevin Plank, Under Armour chairman and chief executive offi cer. “It is that success that gives us the confi dence to enter the running footwear business in the fi rst half of 2009.”

Thanks to the launch, footwear sales more than doubled to $46 million from $20.1 million. Apparel revenues climbed 10 percent to $96.2 million for the quarter, and Under Armour in-dicated it is still confi dent it will achieve more than 20 percent growth in apparel for the year.

For the fi rst half, earnings fell 73 percent to $4.2 million, or 9 cents per diluted share, from $15.7 million, or 31 cents. Sales for the period grew 28 percent to $314 million from $244.9 million.

The Baltimore-based fi rm maintained its annual revenue projection, but raised its out-look for income from operations for the year to $104.5 million to $105.5 million, after reducing its forecast after the fi rst quarter to a range of $103.5 million to $104.5 million from $108.5 mil-lion to $110.5 million.

Under Armour’s stock closed up $1.77, or 7 percent, to $28.40 on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday.

MARTHA’S SURPRISE: Martha Stewart Living

Omnimedia on Tuesday reported that advertising revenue in publishing was up 6 percent (excluding Blueprint) in the second quarter versus last year, but guidance for the third quarter isn’t as rosy. Wenda Harris Millard, president of media and co-chief executive offi cer, said during the company’s quarterly earnings call that publishing revenue is expected to be down in the midteens during the third quarter, compared with the same period 12 months ago. Overall revenue for the publishing segment was down 2.5 percent in the second quarter, to $46.3 million, because of an increase at Martha Stewart Living offset by the loss of Blueprint. The division also includes its book operations. Categories that helped increase ad growth at

the company during the second quarter included apparel and fi nancial services, which is surprising, given that those are two sectors being squeezed at other titles.

Newly appointed executive chairman Charles Koppelman said the company just started rolling out magazines overseas, beginning with international editions of Martha Stewart Living and Everyday Food, but he declined to provide more details. Living had a drop in ad pages, although ad revenues were up 8 percent, and circulation was down about 10 percent. Internet revenues were $3.2 million for the quarter, compared with $2.5 million during the same period last year. Total group revenues for the quarter rose 5 percent to $77.1 million. Net income was $328,000 compared with a net loss of $6.7 million last year. — Amy Wicks

COULDN’T HE JUST MAIL IT?: Relatedly, the heroine of “Emma’s Table,” a novel by New York Times etiquette columnist Philip Galanes to be published this week, is a

sixtysomething who “parlayed a small career as an interior decorator into an enormous one as a media darling….Her allure had always been easy to see: she was just like you, only better — which was somewhat at odds with the latest feather in her cap, a conviction for tax evasion and lying under oath, complete with a stay in the federal pen.”

Don’t worry, it’s not line-for-line Martha — Emma is described as “a regal brunette.”

The novel is not to be confused with the crop of “assistant lit” of recent years: Galanes doesn’t know Stewart, hasn’t worked for her and didn’t do any research on her. He did, however, have an epiphany watching Stewart on TV at the height of the legal troubles that led to her serving fi ve months in prison. Galanes’ fi rst novel had just been published, and it felt anticlimatic. “I was having a loser-to-loser identifi cation with her,” Galanes told WWD. “She mentioned Nelson Mandela. I thought, has she just compared her shifty stock deal to Nelson Mandela? That’s exactly right. We have to do whatever we have to do when we get the huge hit in the stomach or the bash in the head.”

Inspired by “a character who was so high and so low,” Galanes (also an entertainment lawyer who dabbles in interior design) started writing. These days, he said, “we’re desperate to get the book into her hands. All I want to do is take her out to lunch to see the book. I would just want to thank her, because I think she helped me work through one of my own issues by imagining an interior life for her that is entirely a fabrication.” The dream site would be The Four Seasons — “Probably the one time I could get a good table” — but Galanes may not want to hold his breath for Stewart’s company. A spokeswoman for her declined comment. — Irin Carmon

ROCKING ON: You know fashion week is just around the corner when Condé Nast’s annual Fashion Rocks supplement begins to arrive in mailboxes. This year marks the fi fth anniversary of the Condé Nast Media Group program that includes the annual magazine, concert and television special. The magazine, helmed by editorial director Anna Wintour and editor in chief Jonathan Van Meter, today begins its rollout with subscriber copies of Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Glamour, Details and 11 other Condé Nast titles. Justin Timberlake is this year’s cover model. The pop star, actor and fashion designer wore a tuxedo jacket from his own line, William Rast, in the photo by Craig McDean. Other musicians profi led and photographed in the issue include Beyoncé Knowles, shot by Jean-Baptiste Mondino; Mariah Carey and Dhani Harrison by Steven Meisel; Usher and the Black Eyed Peas by Norman Jean Roy; Steve Coogan by Anton Corbijn; Mark Ronson by Terry Richardson, and London rock band The Kills by Annie Leibovitz. Martin Schoeller snapped Keith Urban and Zooey Deschanel, and André 3000 discusses his new clothing line, Benjamin Bixby, in a four-page spread shot by David

Vasiljevic. While Citi, Cover Girl, Chevrolet, Nivea, Kohl’s and Verizon all packed multiple pages of advertising in the issue, Richard Beckman, president of Condé Nast Media Group, said ad pages were fl at with last year’s edition. The 170-page magazine is a precursor to the Fashion Rocks concert Sept. 5 at Radio City Music Hall, which airs on CBS four days later. — Stephanie D. Smith

MAD FOR THE SHOW: Break out those girdles and high heels — that fashion trendsetting show “Mad Men” appears to be a bigger hit so far in its second season. Approximately $8 million was spent this summer promoting the show’s second season, an investment that led to a record number of viewers for its season two premiere on Sunday. The Emmy-nominated drama raked in an average of 2.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, which is more than double the 915,000 viewers the show averaged during its fi rst season. “Mad Men” had only one sponsor on Sunday, BMW, and the automaker is also the sole sponsor of its Web site, although Target is also an advertiser on the program.

On the fashion front, AMC worked with Bloomingdale’s in June to present the iconic fashions from the show in store windows, in advance of the premiere. The marketing hype is undoubtedly helping along sales of the perfectly timed release of the fi rst-season DVD, which is a number-four bestseller on Amazon.com and number three on the Barnes & Noble Web site. And the buzz is spilling into the pages of countless magazines, including the cover of Entertainment Weekly and Best Life, which has lead actor Jon Hamm on its September cover wearing Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers. — A.W.

MEMO PAD

Hanesbrands Profi ts Swell Under Armour Net Falls Less Than Expected

Martha Stewart

Justin Timberlake on the cover of this year’s Fashion Rocks.

Jon Hamm from “Mad Men” on the cover of Best Life.

WWD.COM12 WWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008

WWD West

Industry Shakes Off California Quake

By Rachel Brown

Negotiators for West Coast shippers and the longshore-men’s union reached a preliminary, six-year agree-

ment to replace a contract that expired July 1 and ensure that operations at the region’s 29 ports aren’t disrupted.

Details of the new accord for about 26,000 International Warehouse and Longshore Union work-ers at the California, Oregon and Washington State ports were not released pending a vote on the contract. Barring unforeseen developments, the membership is expected to go along with their leaders.

ILWU president Bob McEllrath and Jim McKenna, president of the Pacifi c Maritime Association, which represents 71 cargo carriers, terminal operators and ste-vedores, sealed the tentative contract with a handshake Monday after marathon weekend talks in San Francisco.

PMA members also must approve the contract.“The proposed agreement meets the needs of

both workers and the industry,” said McEllrath and McKenna. “It allows West Coast ports to be competi-tive and provides the good jobs that workers and com-munities need.”

Given the turbulent economy, there was pressure on both sides to settle their differences on key contractual issues, including wages, benefi ts packages, technologi-cal advances and conditions of employment.

As talks dragged on after starting March 17, fears mounted that there would be a prolonged stalemate, with the worst-case scenario being a repeat of the 10-day lockout in 2002 that caused an estimated $15 billion loss to the domestic economy.

“Everyone sees this as a dramatic departure from the 2002 experience,” said Craig Merrilees, an ILWU

spokesman. “These negotiations have been marked by slow, steady deliberate progress that ultimately resulted in the fi nal agreement.”

Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach, which combined with the Port of Los Angeles handles about 40 percent of U.S. imports, indicated that some cargo was diverted to avoid any disruption sparked by potential labor-management disputes. “That is typical of the negotiation years,” he said.

The diversion, coupled with the sour economic con-ditions, has caused volume at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to drop 8 percent this year, Wong said.

“Earlier in the year, we were hearing forecasts for things to pick up in the second half of the year, but there has been no sign of that,” he said. “In fact, we had the sharpest drop in June for the two ports that we have had in many, many months.”

By Anne Riley-Katz

The earthquake that rattled Southern California Tuesday caused just a ripple of industry disruptions

and a few anxious moments. Damage and injuries were reported to be minor.

The magnitude 5.4 quake, reduced from an initial estimate of 5.8, struck at 11:42 a.m. and was centered about 30 miles east of Los Angeles in Chino Hills, San Bernardino County. However, the jolt was felt as far south as San Diego and as far east as Las Vegas.

Businesses said they were operating normally shortly after the temblor, which forced the evacuation of some buildings and stores.

Designer Monique Lhuillier was in her offi ce on the third fl oor of her downtown Los Angeles factory when the quake hit.

“All 140 of us ran downstairs in a panic,” she said of her employes. “As soon as we got to the street the post lady handed us the mail and said, ‘Did you feel that earthquake? It was a 5.8.’ “It’s just part of living in L.A….I called our store and we had a mother of the bride [while watching her daughter try on her wedding dress], say ‘Is this a good omen or a bad omen?’”

Fraser Ross, owner of Kitson on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles, said the store was evacuated but noth-ing was damaged and there were no phone or Web site disruptions.

“Our Web servers are in Canada, thank God, so our e-commerce wasn’t affected at all,” he said.

Macy’s in Topanga Plaza was closed after minor fl ooding from the sprinkler system.

A few retailers at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, about 30 miles from the quake’s center, reported minor damages, such as broken bowls at Villeroy & Boch and shattered crystal at Baccarat, but the center wasn’t evacuated and shoppers remained indoors.

“People didn’t even leave,” said center spokeswoman Debra Gunn Downing.

Most retailers said the occasional earthquake is just part of doing business in the Golden State.

At the Balenciaga store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, manager Carrie Smoljanovich said, “Everything is structurally sound and there were no disruptions to business.” She surmised that the customers in the store were California natives because “natives just sort of roll with it.”

One non-native employee who works on the second fl oor reported that the building swayed and shook and she kneeled under her desk.

Intuition owner Jaye Hersh, whose store is in West Los Angeles, said, “There were a lot of tourists in our store and there was a lot of excitement, but there was no harm done.”

Winston Hewett, national communications direc-tor for Opus, which owns The Shoppes at Chino Hills, said the Trader Joe’s grocery store had about 30 broken

cases of wine and most of the open-air center’s shops were closed for less than two hours.

“We have a business disruption plan,” Hewett said. “As with any act of Mother Nature, we have to try to be prepared; it’s part of doing business” in California.

“We had a couple products fall.…We ran outside,” said Charlene Robrigabo, an employee at Tessie’s Serenity Spa in the Gateway Village shopping center in Chino Hills. “Everybody in the center evacuated their

buildings, and it doesn’t seem like any of the busi-nesses have closed.”

Verizon Communications said the quake briefl y disrupted local landline service, and other carri-ers such as AT&T reported system congestion from a high volume of calls. There were also reports of short Internet server interruptions,

The quake hit a state battered over the past 12 months by harsh winter storms and fl ooding, wildfi res, drought, a housing market collapse, skyrocketing gas and food prices and widespread economic downturn.

The impact was in contrast with the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which registered a 6.7 mag-nitude and caused an estimated $25 billion in dam-age, killed 72 people and injured more than 9,000.

The Southern California region is among the most seismically active in the world, and the state’s building codes were updated in 2001.

“Some of our displays have fallen down, some of the stuff from the rooftop came down, so we had to sweep,” said Sharon Catedriloa, an employee at Active Ride Shop in The Shoppes at Chino Hills. “I haven’t felt a big one like this in a while.”

— With contributions fromMarcy Medina and R.B.

West Coast Ports, Union Reach Tentative Agreement

Workmen repair a water main in Los Angeles.

Caption goes here for this.The earthquake created some debris and evacuations in Los Angeles.

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13WWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008

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Please email resumes to: ny@fourthfloorfashion.com For freelance opportunities: aermel@fourthfloorfashion.com

visit us on the web at: www.fourthfloorfashion.com

Designers (kids, juniors, footwear, graphics, sweaters, mens)

Acct.Execs. (luxury) P.R. Acct. Execs E-Commerce Mgr.

PR/Mktg (Acct Execs)

Sr. Buyers (luxury)Auto-CAD Planner

$60K -$100K$ 6 5 K - $ 8 5 K$ 6 5 - $ 1 0 0 K

Recruiting Assistant...................................$30K-$35K

$80K -$105K$90K -$150K$ 5 0 K - $ 6 0 K

ADMIN ASSISTANT Junior Apparel Company seeks moti-vated dependable assistant to supportexecutive. Duties will include wordprocessing, faxing, fielding telephonecalls, filing, as well as scheduling andmaintaining calendar, handling travelarrangements, and other administrativeduties. Must be flexible, have strongorganizational skills and strong commu-nication skills, and be experienced inMicrosoft Office. Email resume to:

rrosenfeld@poofapparel.com

Scout the Talent. Recruit the Best. Reach more industry talent than ever – in person, online and in print. Fill open positions in everything from textiles to design to retail. Interview hundreds of experienced industry professionals in one afternoon. Participate in the most comprehensive recruiting solution for the fashion, retail and beauty industries. WWD drives the most qualifi ed talent in the industry to the WWD Fashion Career Expo! Multi-platform opportunities will promote your company as an amazing place to work. Reach more than 300,000 monthly unique users on fashioncareers.com with an online display ad, exhibitor profi le and job posting package.

Reserve your booth now!Contact Melissa Gentile at 212-655-4505, x262 or MYoblon@FashionCareerExpo.com. Visit fashioncareers.com for new package options and sponsorship opportunities.

presented by

The Apparel World’s Premier Hiring Event!September 10, 2008 | Metropolitan Pavilion | New York

Associate DesignerIntimate Apparel Company seeks anAssociate Designer with 3-5 yrs’ experi-ence. We are looking for a team playerwho is well organized and can multi-task. Must have good communicationand follow-up skills. Experience in thejunior category is preferred. Proficien-cy in Illustrator and Photo Shop is aMUST! E-mail resumes tohrcoord5252@yahoo.com. EOE

CAD ARTISTRobe/Sleepwear company seeks a tal-ented Cad Artist Designer who is profi-cient in both Photoshop and Illustratorw/a great sense of color. Responsibilitieswill include designing allover prints inaddition to scanning, cleaning up, re-coloring & creating repeats for prints.Must color match, generate, and up-date digital color palettes for each sea-son. Must be self motivated and skil-led at handling multiple projects at thesame time. Must be a team player.Please email resume & samples of yourwork. robesandsleepwear@yahoo.com

CAD JEWELRYMODELMAKER/DESIGNER

Women’s specialty catalog seeks anenergetic indiv. to join our NYC JewelryDesign Team. Must have a BA or ASDegree in Product Design or relatedfield. CAD-Rhino. 3 yrs. exp. in thejewelry/accessories industry. Bilingual(English/Spanish). Ability to supportDesign team with CAD drawings andinterface with R&D Modelmakers.Int’l travel opportunities. Strongorg. & comm. skills req’d. Pls fax/ resumeattn: HR to: 954-798-4515 or e-mail to:Jessica.Backer@cosmo-fragrances.com

Designer- Full time/FreelanceJunior mass and mid tier company isseeking a graphic designer with a greatsense of fashion and color with 7 yrs exp.Only those with samples of their previouswork & salary reqs will be considered. Plse-mail resumes to: hr10018@gmail.com

DESIGNERHot 7 to 16 Girls Sportswear Co look-ing for an experienced designer whosestrength is tops & bottoms& must beable to make first pattern. Fax resume to212-268-4920 email: turk1812@aol.com

Designer/MerchandiserWe are seeking a WomenswearDesigner/Merchandiser who has 10-15years experience with concentratedsportswear, wovens & knits and overseasexperience. Must have good presentationand computer skills. Please e-mailresumes to: MaryBeth@tigerj.net

DESIGNERRobe/Sleepwear company seeks ahighly creative designer with a strongeye for color.Responsibilities includeall aspects of developing the line fromconcept inspiration to concept designto product development. Must be ableto direct and work with drapers,patternmakers and sewers. Photoshop& Illustrator skills are reqd. Team play-ers only. Please send resume/samples ofwork to: robesandsleepwear@yahoo.com

DESIGNER Well known established SportswearCompany doing Junior, Plus & missyDresses, Tops, Skirts, Jackets andShorts seeks talented focused drivendesigners with 4+ years working expe-rience. Ideal person should have vastknowledge of upcoming trends & havethe ability to manage the collectionfrom conception to production. Mustbe organized, computer friendly &have excellent follow-up. Experiencewith factories in India & china is aPlus. Travel to Europe. Please e-mailresume to lambinainc@gmail.com orfax it @ 212-398-2579

EDI COORDINATORWholesale Apparel distributor inTeterboro, NJ seeks experienced EDIcoordinator with minimum 3yrs of ex-perience. Must have Knowledge of Re-tailer requirements, Routing & EDItransactions using INOVIS, QRS &SPS COMMERCE. Pls send resume &salary req to: hr@reviseclothing.com

FASHION CAREER OPPORTUNITIESIleen Raskin, Apparel 212-213-6381Nancy Bottali, Accessories 212-213-6386Ed Kret, Textiles/Apparel 212-213-6384

raskin718@msn.comwww.raskinexecsearch.com

Freelance Sweater Designer $50-75/hrRunway Collection. Must be Technical.

Kwan@Jessilyn.net 212-947-3400

Ellen Tracy, LLC, is seeking a Director of Fabric Researchand Development who wants to be a key member of theteam that is working to modernize and re-vitalize the EllenTracy Brand. The person we are seeking will be responsiblefor researching color trends and fabrics, conduct all fabric re-search, manage vendor relations and negotiate prices. Thesuccessful candidate will have 6-8 yrs direct exp in fabric r&d.

We are also seeking a Design Assistant. The person we areseeking will prepare design presentation boards, prepareCAD’s using Illustrator or Photoshop, assist our colorist on labdip approvals, and will assist design on embellishment layouts.The successful candidate will have 1-3 yrs of direct experience.

Qualified candidates should forward their resumes and salary history to dvega@ellentracy.com

IMPORT/DOMESTICDress co. seeks motivated Admin Asstmulti-task person. Must have exp inship/cargo docs. Excellent computerskills incl. AS400 rmajteles@gmail.com

* JOBS *JOBS *JOBS *Art Director - Missy Apparel - NED GraphicsArtist - Legwear/HosieryArtist Girls- Boys-Jrs. - Mens- $HIArtist Prints/Embroiders-Missy-NED GraphicsDesigner Assistant - ApprovalsDesigner-Assist-Assoc Boy-Girl-Jr.Designer Boys N-I-T 4/7 GenericDesigner Dresses - HI End EveningProduct Manager or Coord - Apparel ExpProduction Coord or Asst - Bi-ling ChineseProduction Mgr-Assist-Coordinators Technical Designer & AssistantsTechnical Designer N-I-TCall B. Murphy(212)643-8090; fax 643-8127

MAXX NEW YORK is celebrating 20years of success in the designer handbagmarket. As we prepare for the future,we are expanding our team to grow ourportfolio of brands, categories andproducts. We are looking for motivat-ed individuals with experience inhandbags / accessories to fill the rolesof VP of Design and Merchandisingand VP of Sales. The VP of D&M musthave the unique combination of crea-tive talent and brand merchandisingmanagement skills. The Sales managermust possess a resume that demonstratesindustry relationships, leadership,communication, retail management,computer and strong presentationskills. If you have at least 5 years ofrelevant experience email a resumewith cover letter to:

jwagstaff@maxxnewyork.com

MERCHANDISECOORDINATOR

La Perla seeks talented MerchandiseCoordinator w/ min. 2 yrs exp in retailsales environment to support businessin major NY department stores. Resp.for merchandise/maintain sales floor,train sales staff on La Perla salesstandards & techniques, maximizebusiness by hands-on selling, partnerw/ store mgmt & PR to maximizeevents, provide analysis of trends &sales performance. Fit specialist back-ground pref. Must be self starter w/ability to work independently. Salary,commission & benefits.

Email resume to:damon@laperlafashions.comFax resume to: (212) 299-0425

Operations/Cust ServiceLadies Apparel Co in North Bergen, NJseeks a detail orientated Operations /Customer service manager to coordinateshipping, allocations, logistics, charge-backs. All areas relating to wholesale& shipping & inventory management.UPC’s, Price tickets, EDI , customer serv-ice, data entry, ASW knowledge A+,but will train right candidate .Send resume to: fashion2456@aol.com

Package Development MgrsGlobal packaging company looking fora PD Manager to develop and executeset up boxes, vac trays, and or anyspecialty items and a PD Manager todevelop primary packaging and turnkeyitems. 3+ years experience required.Please fax resume to: 212-867-4313 oremail: LaurenIglesias@cosfibelinc.com

Patternmaker AssistantMovie Star, Inc. is seeking a pattern-maker or spec. tech with good technicalskills. Job responsibilities include:evaluating fits and follow through tofit approval, evaluating patterns andproviding clear corrections via sketches/photographs and evaluating markers,trim and piece goods requirements.Good communication skills are neededto communicate with various depts.and countries. Comp. skills required:Gerber, Excel, MS Word. Please faxresume to: HR@moviestarinc.com

PATTERNMAKER HEAD TO $85Supervise five. Thorough knowledgeof construction of garment QC. Junior& Missy Sportswear Knits and wovens.JARALINC@comcast.net 973-564-9236

PATTERNMAKER Seeking experienced patternmakerspecializing in women’s sportswear,which includes dresses, jackets, pantsand skirts. Complete understanding ofconstruction, fit, & draping. Knowledgeof grading. Email or fax resumes to:212-768-8811 / lennie@un-thinkable.com

Prod’n Coord $45-50KAcccessory Market Exp Pref

Call Laurie 212-947-3399or e-mail laurie@karlyn.com

KARLYN FASHION RECRUITERS

PRODUCTION ASST. Better Knitwear co. seeking organized,detail oriented p.asst. Responsible foroverseas production, order input, andtraffic. 2 yr, experience required, emailresume and salary requirements to:

aknits11@yahoo.com

Production CoordinatorNYC based Buying Agency dealing inCut and Sew wovens offers entry levelposition for a well organized individualwith exp and/or degree to deal w/buyers& interact with factories. Fax resume:212-764-4097 or kevin@santushti.com

R&D Fabric $100-135KRunway. Must come from Designer

Mkt. Int’l Mkts & mills a must!ToddWayne1@aol.com or 212-947-3400

Sales ExecutiveEuropean RTW company seeks NYbased Acct Exec with 3+ years of salesexp; must have existing relationshipsw/contemporary buyers at key specialtyand dept. stores. Please send resumeto: ssulichin@custo-barcelona.com

SALES MANAGERAPPLE BOTTOMS Accessories,Handbags, Belts, Hosiery, Headwear,Cold Weather. Experience & travel req’d.Work with one of the hottest brands inmore than one product category! E-mailresume to: Ljemal@icerbrands.com

Spec Technician/CadSportswear Company doing Junior,Plus & missy - Dresses, Tops, Skirts,Jackets & Shorts seeks Fit technicianto handle private label accounts & InHouse Fits. Ideal person should havegood computer skills & have experiencein specking. Responsibilities includespec, fit & fit approvals. Have to coordi-nate with factories & accounts.

Please e-mail/fax resume to:lambinainc@gmail.com or fax it @

212-398-2579

WAREHOUSE SHIPPINGCOMPLIANCE MGR $70-80K

Current exp. in vender compliancestandards. Shipping garments tostores like K-Mart, Sears, Walmart etc.Hands on. NJ growing company.JARALINC@comcast.net 973-564-9236

15WWD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008

OFF PRICE BUYER, WOMEN’S Are you a talented negotiator? Are you networked into thewomen’swholesale marketplace? We have an exciting oppor-tunity available for an Off Price Buyer in Women’s. We arelooking for a highly motivated individual who will buildstrong working relationships with our retail clients by findingthe right merchandise at the right price. This position re-quires extensive industry knowledge, direct contacts withinthe wholesale marketplace and outstanding negotiationskills. Minimum 5 years related off price experience.

To learn about our company and Price Point Buying, visit www.doneger.com

Submit resume to: hr@doneger.com

EOE WWW.GENESCO.COM

VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT A key part of the Genesco Branded Group, this entrepreneurial position will be responsible for international strategy and growth of our footwear brands through a variety of partnership arrangements. In this role, you will be expected to work with existing distributors to help grow our brands and identify potential new partners that could represent our brands from a wholesale and retail perspective. Duties also include the development, management and implementation of global expansion strategies that could include franchising, licensing, joint ventures, distributorship or our own stores around the world.

The ideal candidate will possess at least 5 years experience in a senior international role with an established retail brand. The ability to articulate all global objectives/strategies clearly and build consensus and support for these initiatives is required. International travel required.

For details on this opportunity please visit our website or e-mail your resume to careers@genesco.com.

Account ExecutiveContemp Multi-Line Women’s ApparelShowroom seeks Acct Exec. Must have1-3+ yrs of women’s contemp. wholesaleexp. and a track record of exceptionalsales. Must be self-motivated w/abilityto cold-call and have a desire to travel w/avalid driver’s license. Pls send resumesto: fashion@prophetshowroom.com

RADCLIFFERadcliffe, Is looking for an accountexecutive to join our corporate show-room in NYC. Candidate must have atleast 3-5 years experience in the ladiesContemporary Denim market andhave strong specialty store following.Must be energetic, organized and havea passion for sales with strong workethic and computer skills. We offercompetitive salary and great benefitpackage. Please send your resumes at-tention to HR east coast at:fashions1@verizon.net

ROAD REPS WANTEDWomen’s Clothing, Better - Bridge, Multi-Line NY showroom seeks experiencedsub-rep to join our team. 5% commis-sion: Mid-West, Southern States, Mid-Atlantic and North East. Email resumeto: roadrepsales@gmail.com

SALES EXECUTIVEEstablished Girls Jeanswear Co. isseeking an exp. sales pro to add toteam. Must have relationships withmajor chains and private label exp.

Please email resume w/salary require-ments to: hrmaxex@hotmail.com

SALES EXECUTIVEEstablished Importer of Novelty

Sweaters/ Knits & Outerwear seeksa Sales Executive with strong Dept/Specialty Chain contacts to cultivatenew & maintain existing accounts.

Must have at least 5 years exp. Positiveenergy & strong follow-up a must.

Call or fax resume to: LisaTel: 212-302-3744/ Fax: 212-302-5184

Email: lisaemin@aol.com

SALES

Missy Knits & Sweater MUST have exisiting contacts with

JC PENNY, SEARS or K-MARTSALARY BOE

E-mail: Kerri@Karlyn.comKARLYN FASHION RECRUITERS

SALESPERSONEstablished Missy

Importer/Wholesaler seekingsales person for sweaters/cut &

sew knits all moderatemajors, 10 years experience

required, good salary and bene-fits. E-mail resume to:

trendds@aol.com

THE LIRIC GROUPAcrobat, Bailey 44, Hanky Panky,

Rebecca Beeson and Rich & SkinnyBusy multi line showroom seeksenergetic, detail oriented sales assistant

to join our team. Please emailresume to: lisa@liricgroup.com

VIE LUXESALES EXECUTIVE

Luxury home fragrance company seeksexceptional Sales Executive. Musthave established contacts with high-endretailers & specialty stores. Competitivesalary & benefits offered.

Please e-mail resume:amandamelnick@vieluxenyc.com

Y E O H L E EACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Position offers growth opportunity in acreative and challenging environment.Candidate must be organized, detailoriented, a team player with establish-ed designer-level store contacts. Travelrequired. Email letter and resume to:

hrsales@yeohlee.com

GANTSeeking candidates to fill the followingpositions in our 5th Ave. Flagship Store:

Store ManagerWe are seeking a highly motivated andenergetic individual with 5+ yrs exp.in high-end clothing retail mgmt. Thesuccessful candidate will be responsible& accountable for all operational aspectsof their store and committed to ensuringoutstanding service. Must be a self-starter & possess superior organizational,communication and leadership skills.

Sales Associates/Key HoldersSeeking FT/PT candidates w/exp. inbetter men’s & women’s retail. Must beextremely motivated w/a desire to learn,evolve, & grow along w/a historic brandthat is looking towards a modern future.

Please e-mail your resume to:hr.us@gant.com

Visit us at: www.gant.com

RETAIL SALESWestchester and Fairfield Counties

Great OpportunityWe are a high energy, five store,contemporary boutique looking forself-starters who are well organized,mercahndise savvy, & computer literate.No evening hours. Competitive salary.Avail. benefits, 401K, Medical Insurance,and Incentives. Pls e-mail your resumeto: loristuff@aol.com

SALES ASSOCIATELuxury Women’s Wear

Established luxury boutique of women’sready-to-wear is currently seeking ex-perienced, polished, self motivatedSales Associates. Min. 3 year retailselling experience req’d - women’sclothing. Experience in high-end retailpreferred.

Please forward your resume in MSWord, PDF, or Text file to:

openmhrr@yahoo.com

SALES ASSOCIATERosie Pope Maternity seeks dynamite

sales associates for our Soho store.Please submit resumes to:

resume@rosiepopematernity.com

SALES SUPERVISORFrette, the worldwide leading providerof luxury linens, seeks a Sales Super-visor for its Americana Manhasset, NYstore. Min. 3-5 yrs selling exp. in luxu-ry environment. Resp. for drivingsales, merchandising selling floor,developing sales assoc. Must be selfstarter w/ ability to work independent-ly, achieve indiv. sales goals, &perform oper. duties in absence ofStore Mgr. Salary + comm + benefits.

Email resume to:Frette-Manhasset_mgt@frette.com

Fax resume to: (516) 627-2715