Recession

Condé Nast takes novel approach in new markets

September 23, 2011 4:14 pm by Vanessa Friedman

After the Versace/Missoni condos, and Fendi yachts comes this exciting titbit: Condé Nast International is likewise embracing the lifestyle concept, and opening a Vogue café in Kiev, and a GQ bar in Istanbul. Well, if the companies they cover can do it, why shouldn’t the publishers? Isn’t Vogue as much a brand as the brands in their pages?
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Posted in Fashion, Marketing, Recession |

Contents for nothing and your pics for free

September 10, 2011 1:01 am by Vanessa Friedman

I’ve been perusing a new magazine named “Astonish” that claims to be “the answer to an industry starved for smart, unique and visually-stimulating Fashion & Art content.” I have to say, I wasn’t actually that astonished by the photographs, nor did the contents, leave my mouth agape. But the business strategy is intriguing.

See, “While other publications work with the same pool of talent year after year,

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Posted in Fashion, Recession, Shows, Womenswear |

The surprising big names behind an anti-suit crusade

July 27, 2011 4:00 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Fashion can make allies of the most seemingly apposite of pairs. Last week, ex-US Secretary of the Treasury, current Harvard Prof and FT columnist Larry Summers announced that: “One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an asshole.” Then, yesterday, Peter Bingle, chairman of PR company Bell Pottinger, revealed in a blog that he had received “a letter informing me that my membership of Soho House and Shoreditch House was being revoked ‘effective immediately… because I have disregarded Soho House’s ‘casual dress code.’ I have been banned for wearing a suit!”

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Posted in Menswear, Recession |

The truth about depressed consumers, according to BCG

June 23, 2011 1:14 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The Boston Consulting Group has released an exciting new report: “Navigating the New Consumer Realities,” which involves spending movements and approaches they have been tracking across the globe over the last three-five years, plus a survey of over 24,000 consumers. Guess what? Consumers are not so optimistic about their financial future and spending after all!
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Posted in Luxury goods, Recession |

Remaking Manhattan as a fashion mecca?

June 17, 2011 4:37 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The first thing I thought when I heard the news a few weeks ago that Conde Nast had signed a 25-year, $2 billion lease for a million feet in the new One World Trade Center building was: but where will they shop? Where will they eat? What will they do with their free time? Today the question was answered: they will shop at the new mall in the World Financial Centre!  Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Politics, Recession |

Luxury’s new balancing act, according to Bain

May 3, 2011 5:45 pm by Vanessa Friedman

The Bain luxury goods “worldwide markets study” spring update is out and – wow, things are looking good. Market growth for 2010 was 12% — 2% more than the most optimistic predictions! But wait: don’t be fooled into thinking all you have to do is ride the coming gold-plated wave.
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Posted in China, Luxury goods, Recession |

Japan quake’s retail after-shock

March 15, 2011 3:41 pm by Vanessa Friedman

I just got a surprising email from Lucien Pellat-Finet, the French luxury cashmere czar, noting he has had a significant uptick in sales in Japan over the last few days.  Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Recession |

Prada’s Hong Kong IPO: the consumer implications

January 28, 2011 5:37 pm by Vanessa Friedman

I’m interested in the news that Prada has decided to hold its long-postponed IPO in Hong Kong, though not only for the reason everyone else seems to be (namely that it marks the beginning of what will become a flood of western brands listing in HK). Personally, I’m more interested in what this suggests about the Chinese consumer. Read more

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Posted in China, Finance, Recession |

Mark Lee smashes more of Barneys’ china

January 11, 2011 11:51 am by Vanessa Friedman

Barneys, the department store currently owned by Dubai-based Istithmar that was as close to synonymous with a way of life as any department store ever came, is getting a new creative identity: out with the old, ironic, insider, kitsch-meets-cool force of Simon Doonan, who has been “promoted” from creative director and the man behind the store’s windows (effectively its primary interface with the outside world) to “creative ambassador-at-large” (a minister without portfolio title if I ever heard one) and in with the new vision – whatever that may be – of Dennis Freedman. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Finance, Recession |

Harvey Weinstein accessorises Project Runway

December 13, 2010 4:36 pm by Vanessa Friedman

Harvey Weinstein is accessorising his production slate.

The Project Runway kingpin realised before everyone that fashion was both visual enough and competitive enough to make great reality employment TV. Now, according to Nikki Finke’s Deadline,  he has created a spin-off series along the lines of Project Handbag (and shoes, and jewellery, and… hats?) that will feature accessory designers, and has sold it to Lifetime.

Harvey Weinstein watches Heidi Klum at the Project Runway Finalists Fashion Show in 2008

Harvey Weinstein watches Heidi Klum at the Project Runway Finalists Fashion Show in 2008 — Getty Images

I can’t quite decide if what is officially, and super-creatively, titled Project Runway: Accessories, will work.

Certainly, no one can argue with the success of the parent show.

On the upside, accessories are famously easier to sell than ready-to-wear: they’re priced more accessibly; independent of sizing and thus simpler to manufacture and more broadly appealing; and widely touted, these days, as recession-friendly, the way to change an outfit without breaking your budget by buying, say, a whole new coat. Accessories are having a moment, and TV might as well exploit that. Read more

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Posted in Fashion, Hollywood, Ready-to-wear, Recession, Travel, Womenswear |
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