Qatari royal family buys Italian fashion house Valentino

Iconic Italian fashion house Valentino has been snapped up by the Qatari royal family for 700 million euros , marking one of the most prominent purchases of a European top designer brand by an emerging market investor.

Valentino said Mayhoola for Investments S.P.C, which is backed by a leading Quatari investor, had acquired full ownership of Valentino Fashion Group SpA from London-based private equity fund Permira and Italian textile entrepreneurs Marzotto.

Valentino did not disclose financial details of the sale nor name the investor. But two sources close to the deal told Reuters the Quatari royal family had acquired Valentino in a deal that values it about 700 million euros.

Valentino is the latest Italian luxury brand to be bought by a foreign investor, a sign of the resilience of the sector even as Italy sinks into a deep recession.

reference: reuters

Dolce & Gabbana Invades Brasil

Dolce & Gabbana in Brasil

Dolce & Gabbana invades Saỡ Paulo with its boutique featuring: mirrors, black walnut wood, red and plum velvet, baroque lamps.

The first Dolce & Gabbana store in Brazil is within JK Iguatemi shopping mall and covers an area of 670 square metres on one floor hosting menswear, womenswear as well as more exclusive areas such as the Vanity Room and the Black Tie Room which is dedicated to the brand new Dolce & Gabbana Jewellery collection.

China's Economic Slowdown

China Experiencing an economic decline | gettyimages

Shoppers visiting mainland China have cut back on purchases of luxury goods   dragging Hong Kong’s retail-sales growth to the weakest pace since 2009.

The slowdown of Asia’s biggest economy is felt throughout Hong Kong, which had record retail-sales gains as recently as last year. In  Macau, the center for Chinese gamblers, a report this week showed that casino revenue was below estimates in June, clouding the outlook for companies including Sands China Ltd.

“The consumption appetite of mainland visitors has dropped compared with last year because of the economic slowdown,” said Raymond Yeung, a Hong Kong-based economist at Australia Banking Group Ltd. "The data is a “warning sign for Hong Kong retailers.”

 “It’s just simple logic that if you have less tourists coming in to buy gold, to buy diamonds, then you would see quite a significantly bad retail-sales figure,” said Lily Lo, a Hong Kong-based economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd.

reference:bloomberg.com

Schiaparelli's Rebirth

Diego Della Valle of Tod’s | luxuryinsider

“I am not a reincarnation of Elsa Schiaparelli, but I am very proud to be an ambassador of this house,” said Farida Khelfa as she opened the gilded doors to the vivid interior of the apartment on the Place Vendôme — the very place where the original designer, known as “Schiap,” showed surreal collections in the 1930s.

Diego Della Valle of Tod’s is behind the rebirth of the house of Schiaparelli and is still searching for the right designer to give new life into the brand and ultimately create goods to sell.

Farida, as the cinéaste, stresses the importance of Schiap’s legacy. “I see her as a very strong woman for her time — and so in advance that she worked in fashion with artists nearly a century ago,” she says.

Nobody is thinking that the brand will be a new couture house but rather a home for special pieces, made to order and one of a kind.

“We need a house like this today,” Farida says. “Couture is changing. We need a touch of luxury and really interesting work.”

reference:nytimes

Dolce and Gabanna Couture

D and G's couture "test run" | huffingtonpost

Dolce & Gabbana will be showing its first ever couture collection to a group of clients in Taormina, Sicily on July 9th.

The unveiling will take place far from the fashion media. The choice is strategic, for a number of reasons:

1. It maintains the very exclusive, private allure of the couture;

2. It allows Dolce & Gabbana to avoid the stringent requirements the French couture world imposes on any brand that wants to call itself a full-fledged couture house;

3.  It gives them a chance to launch their first collection free of critics.

Apparently select few — three— media outlets are being invited to the unveiling.A source at the brand simply says the designers have been interested in exploring this area for awhile — the old “artistic challenge” line. 

Axel Dumas to Head Hermes

Axel Dumas the next boss of Hermes|nytimes.com

PARIS— Cementing its grip from larger foe LVMH, the founding family of luxury-goods maker Hermès International SCA named a member of its sixth generation to become chief executive next year,.

Hermès, the 175-year-old maker of equestrian-themed silk scarves, horse saddles and Kelly bags, said Axel Dumas, the 42-year-old chief operating officer, will take over from Chief Executive Patrick Thomas, who will be 65 in a few weeks.

The change in administration returns the pedals of the company to the family, which in 2010 had a backseat position before the unfolding drama with LVMH.

The first nonfamily member to run Hermès, Mr. Thomas, who was boss since 2006, steered the company through its standoff with LVMH. Yet the avuncular boss was seen the family as a surrogate member of the clan.

The younger Mr. Dumas emerged as the most likely successor to Mr. Thomas over the past year, since he was named chief operating officer. The dark-haired manager, who started his career as a banker in New York and China, entered the family business in 2003, working in various divisions, such as jewelry and leather goods.

"I am glad a member of the Hermès family has been brought in to succeed me," Mr. Thomas said in a prepared statement.

Hermes Counterfeit Ring

At least a dozen people were arrested by French police as part of the dismantling of an international crime ring which produced fake Hermès bags while Two Hermès employees have been released as a result of the probe; however the luxury goods company considers that present members of staff could also be concerned.

Police discovered a workshop filled with precious leather skins and estimated that one branch operated by the crime ring contained sales worth around €18 million.

The bags were found to be manufactured in France and apparently disseminated through distribution channels in the US, Europe and Asia, with one branch of the ring’s sales estimated to be worth $22 million alone. 

"This operation concludes a one-year investigation following an Hermès complaint based on clues and abnormal behaviour identified through the house's internal monitoring systems," Hermès said in a statement.

Hermès chief executive officer Patrick Thomas recently estimated that eighty per cent of objects sold on the internet under the Hermès name are fakes, a statistic he branded "an absolute disgrace".

reference: WWD

Yves Saint Laurent to be Rebranded

Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent Paris

Yves Saint Laurent has confirmed they will drop the 'Yves' from their name

The fashion house will be rebranded Saint Laurent Paris, though the iconic YSL logo will still be the same. This shift is not completely new, majority of luxury fashion houses go by a singular surname - Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Prada and many more.

Newly-appointed creative director Hedi Slimane is eager to "thrust Saint Laurent into a new era modern", and feels taking out the founder of the brand's first name from the famous moniker is the way forward.

Slimane, when he was appointed - the former creative director of Dior Homme - was given "total creative responsibility for the brand image and all its collections" and is said to be "recapturing the impulses that inspired the founder to launch the Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line in 1966 - among them youth, freedom and modernity."

Ethical Fashion

webun.tv

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil —“Good Business Models for a Sustainable Future” by the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative took place June 17th 2012 as part of the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum, hosted by the United Nations Global Compact.


 Just before presidents, prime ministers and other world leaders meet in Rio de Janeiro to agree on a way forward for sustainable development, the United Nations Global Compact will host the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum. Within more than 60 sessions focused on key sustainability issues, there is one that, perhaps, you would not normally expect: “Good Business Models for a Sustainable Future” organized by the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative.

Speakers at this fashion session incuded Brazilian theologian, Leonardo Boff and a Fendi with an obsession for plastic carrier bags — or, more accurately, an obsession with how to reduce the mountains of them leaching carcinogenic dioxins into hotchpotch neighbourhoods of the world’s poorest people.

The session aims to demonstrate that it is, indeed, very possible to do good while making profits. Joining Boff and Ilaria Venturini Fendi will be Aminata Traore, who hails from Mali, dresses to turn heads and advocates for making the global use of cotton more fair, alongside Auret van Heerden, president of non-profit group Fair Labor Association, whose political consciousness was forged in opposition to apartheid in his native South Africa. Then there’s the American, Willa Shalit, who, by treading softly, continues to lead some of fashion’s biggest names through the complex challenges of working in Haiti.

But the purpose of all this goes beyond letting some people with good accessories vent for an afternoon. The stated aim of the session is to produce a “roadmap” — free to use — to help big global fashion business become more fair, more green, more inclusive yet never less chic. The panel will be led by Simone Cipriani, who helms the Ethical Fashion Initiative of the International Trade Centre (ITC), a United Nations agency.

Nike Unveils Suit for USA Track and Field Team

trackfocus.com

Nike unveiled its Turbospeed suit, the official apparel for the USA Track and Field team for the London Summer Olympics alongside ex-Oympic champions Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis, and Michael Johnson.

Designed for the London Olympics, Nike’s new Rocket Red track uniforms and trio of medal stand jackets seem as fit for action movie heroes as for athletes. The brand claims these uniforms are its “swiftest track apparel to date”. Nike says the suits could shave up to 0.023 seconds off 100-meter sprint times.

“It felt like the right time to go red,” explained innovation creative director for Nike, Scott Williams. “It’s very bold, and that inspiration came from talking to our athletes about what they were feeling in competition.”

Wang Files Official Denial of Sweatshop Allegations

fashionista

Alexander Wang Inc. officially filed a denial in court. The denial rebuts the statement of former employees Wenyu Lu and Flo Durante, who filed class-action lawsuits against Wang alleging that they had to work up to 16-hours a day in an unventilated room.

In March, the former employees filed a lawsuit against Wang’s company to the tune of $450 million,alleging that they were forced to work under sweatshop-like conditions and put in overtime hours without compensation.

Wang’s official statement said that his company “complied with all applicable wage and hour and leave laws, and there is no basis whatsoever for plaintiffs’ frivolous and entirely unsupportable accusations that defendants have harassed them or discriminated against them on the basis of their race, or on any other protected basis.” 


Court documents filed by Wang’s camp go on to state that the defendants are “two disgruntled former employees with axes to grind” whose goal is to “exact a substantial settlement from the defendants, and that the two have misjudged their former workplace as a hovel, while attempting to portray defendants as ‘sweatshop owners.’” Wang claims that the studio is large and brightly lit, and that the two defendants were paid $22 and $25 per hour respectively, and were given breaks, paid vacation, paid sick days, insurance, and benefits.

reference: WWD

Gucci Employees "Tortured"

reuters.com

Employees of luxury brand, Gucci were subjected to "torture", standing for 14 hours a day, paying for stolen goods and forced to asking for toilet breaks.

Allegations of questionable management at a Gucci outlet within Shenzhen, has led to two managers’ replacement.

"It was a kind of torture for us to stand for more than 14 hours a day," the letter detailed. "No short rest, water or food was allowed even for a pregnant employee.” claimed in the open letter by workers at the Gucci outlet.

Severity of the ill-treatment led to claim of some workers experiencing miscarriages as a result.

Accusations against Gucci having overtime pay withdrawn are also ongoing. Five signatories claimed their managers, whom left the company, refused to give the thousands of dollars in unpaid wages of overtime, in spite of holding them in the outlet up until 2am, several nights to make stock controls. When luxury goods were stolen the staff had to cover for their replacement despite thefts being enclosed by insurance, the letter said.

A Gucci representative said: "Gucci has proactively engaged external consultants to conduct a comprehensive review to support ongoing actions that can enhance our organizational structure, the welfare and training of our people, talent recruitment and retention and other business practices in China."

The claims against Gucci come at a background of workplace abuse and poor working conditions. Foxconn, the group that creates components for Apple's iPhone, suffered a chain of suicides amongst employees thought to be related to poor working conditions.

reference: telegraph.uk

Luxury Brand Revival

belstaff.com

Paris,France — A new business trend phenomenon in the fashion industry: major luxury groups appear to prefer reviving fashion houses that has placed its roots, rather than setting up new brands.

LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault obtained the rights to Moynat known for its leather bags  and began to rouse the fashion label from its extensive hibernation, for the past three decades the brand was dormant.

Berluti, a French men’s shoe company established in 1895 by an Italian cobbler. LVMH acquired the luxury brand in 1993. But formerly this year, at men’s fashion week, while shoes were still at the heart of the collection, latest designer Alessandro Sartori, previously for Zegna, expanded the brand into a completely foreign area to the Berluti heritage, including tailored garments and leather coats and suits.

Harry Slatkin, Reinhard Mieck,
and Tommy Hilfiger

Then there’s the case of Belstaff, which was acquired by Labelux, in copperation with Tommy Hilfiger and Harry Slatkin. Founded in 1924 in Longton and known for its tied at the waist water repellent fabrics and signature four-pocket jacket, the label has all the right ingredients to threaten established British heritage brands like Burberry. At London Fashion Week, Belstaff relaunched with an Autumn/Winter 2012 collection by Martin Cooper, former design director for Burberry, where he worked for more than 16 years.

The reopening of the Elsa Schiaparelli, the fashion house founded by the designer with the same name, who was born in Rome and who later moved to Paris, ceasing activity in 1954. The brand, purchased in 2007 by Diego Della Valle, will be opened during the famous party organized by Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue.

Courrèges significant influence in fashion history was in 1961, with innovative and forward minded designs that were later known as the fashion cosmic or atomic era, due to the space-age style. With a profitable performance of the brand of €20 million last year, plus expanding its distribution in London, New York and Milan, and opening an e-commerce site. In addition they will relaunch the fragrance Empreinte and Eau de Courrèges as an advertising strategy, followed by a new line of shoes, bags and sunglasses.

With the recent moves, that gave fresh personalities to aged luxury goods labels, prompts a critical question: given that obtaining the rights and getting top design talent come with major costs, why not launch new fashion brands? Why not invest in a young designer? About a decade ago, Gucci did just that, launching Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney. But at present, these cases are tremendously rare and financial support is more likely to pour towards fashion brands with a history. Why?

The answer lies with: authenticity. In an age of rapid globalization and fast paced fashion, when street vendors sell instant copies of the latest runway trends and designer collaborations abound with cheap-chic chains, consumers hunger after what is authentic. And an authentic history cannot be faked.

“As reality is qualified, altered and commercialized, consumers respond to what is engaging, personal, memorable — and above all, authentic.” argued James Gilmore and Joseph Pine.

And when the key item that distinguishes one luxury brand from another, is the narrative behind it, buying a prosperous history that’s ripe for revival is much easier than building a new one. It’s authenticity that’s hardest to capture.

references: fashion.walla.co.il, d.repubblica.it

New Paradigm Shift in the Luxury Brand Domain

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Europe

Today’s customer spending pattern has changed. Seeing that high-end clients worldwide have abruptly suppressed their craving for luxury goods, what was once considered a recession-proof industry had been struck hard. Whilst Chanel recently declared the layoff of 200 temporary employees — only more than 1 percent of its 16,000-employees, the daily newspaper “Le Parisien” called the news a bombshell.

No category in the luxury brand domain has been spared a significant drop in sales including fine spirits, watches, clothing, jewelry and yachts. Suddenly, the perception on the street is that luxury goods are considered a sign of immorality, superficial and ostentatious. Restraint and modesty are in. A French trend expert described the changes as nothing less than “a revolution in values.”

Alain Némarq, the chairman of Mauboussin, the prestige jewelry firm, said in an interview that saving the luxury industry should be a national priority since it employs 200,000 citizens in France and has become part of the French heritage.

Rather than demanding to keep the machine going by pumping out high-price hand bags, shoes and other goods, he proposed the impossible: the entire luxury industry should slash prices. “We need a return to reason, decency, discretion, beauty and creativity — in other words, to true values,” Mr. Némarq said.

“This whole crisis is like a big spring housecleaning — both moral and physical,” Karl Lagerfeld, from Chanel, said in an interview. “There is no creative evolution if you don’t have dramatic moments like this. Bling is over. Red carpety covered with rhinestones is out. I call it ‘the new modesty.’ ”

In keeping with the new national mood — and in respect to the hard economic reality, designer Nathalie Rykiel will show the new Sonia Rykiel collection not with a grand spectacle for 1,500 people in a gigantic rented room, but with two small 200-guest mini-shows in her boutique on the Boulevard St.-Germain.

“It’s a desire for intimacy, to go back to values. We need to return to a smaller scale, one that touches people. We will be saying, ‘Come to my house. Look at and feel the clothes. ” she said over lunch at the Café de Flore.

reference: nytimes.com, jdrazure.wordpress.com

Global Economy Ousts Luxury Goods Executives

Spring cleaning in boardrooms and ateliers are ongoing for European Luxury-goods makers.New Presidents, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers and Creative Directors started at European companies, including Mulberry Group, and PPR, in the first quarter alone.

“Companie sare reorganizing for the next growth cycle,” said Giovanna Brambilla, a partner at Value Search in Milan. “If they’re not convinced of having the best leaders, they’re changing generals.”

Luxury companies are looking for new talent and ideas as they compete with a slowing economy in China and a cut in high-end spending by Europeans.

LVMH Moet Hennessy, Louis Vuitton, the world’s major luxury-goods maker, selected Sebastian Suhl, credited with motivating competitor Prada Group’s expansion in the Asia Pacific region, as CEO of Givenchy fashion and leather goods brand.

A good number of appointments come from within the same company. Mulberry, the Somerset, England-based maker of Cookie Lily leather handbags,poached Bruno Guillon from Hermes to be CEO, while Louis Vuitton shuffled at least four executives, including Michael Burke from Fendi  to head up Bulgari.

Industry experience hasn’t proved necessary. Gucci, hired Jean-Marc Duplaix as Chief Financial Officer in January. Louis Vuitton raided Danone,for the future CEO of its Vuitton fashion and accessories brand: Jordi Constans tied in September and will succeed present CEO, Yves Carcelle in 2013.

“Theonly criterion that guided us was of course to find the best possible manager for the job,” Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said on February.

No radical step is on the prospect when it comes to designing the clothes and accessories.The world of creative directors “is often a bit of a club,” said Brambilla.

Jil Sander’s artistic director position for Christian Dior Couture was replaced by Raf Simons, by the fashion label’s namesake founder in February.

Major brands aren’t ready to take risks with unproven designers given the finances concerned and the impact collections have on a brand’s image, said Patricia Lindo,managing director of London-based recruiter Style Incorporated.

“They’re too big a beast to bring in someone fresh and young unless they’ve worked with the creative before and grown up through the ranks,” she said, citing Sarah Burton, creative director at Alexander McQueen, as an instance of in-house talent that has been advanced to the top of the fashion line. “It’s such a risk to bring in someone who hasn’t had that track record.”

references:businessweek.com,bloomberg.com