September 6, 2012

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A Legacy of LevityA f u n n y t h i n g ’ s h a p p e n i n g i n t h e l a n d o f o p p o r t u n i t y . F i xe d i s f l u i d . S o l i d i s s h i f t i n g . A n d s u d d e n l y t h e

f u t u r e b e l o n g s to t h e g u y s t h a t s ta y i n t h e m o m e n t . Lo o s e , f l e x i b l e , a n d a b l e to f i n d t h e l ev i t y . A n d

l ev i t y , a s i t h a p p e n s , i s o u r l e g a c y . A s a d e s i g n e r , P e r r y E l l i s p l a y e d w i t h f a s h i o n c o n v e n t i o n s i m p l y b y

n o t ta k i n g i t s o s e r i o u s l y . F o l l o w i n g o n l y w h a t f e l t r i g h t . A n d i n d o i n g s o , r e d e f i n e d a n i n d u s t r y . N o w a s

a n e w g e n e r a t i o n o f e a s y g o i n g t r a i l b l a z e r s ta k e s t h e r e i g n s , t h e r e’ s n ev e r b e e n a b e t te r m o m e n t to b e . . .

September 6, 2012

From early Eighties GQ

at Michael Bastian to

“The English Patient”

at Todd Snyder, the

men’s mood boards in

designer ateliers are

about to come to life at

New York Fashion Week.

The inspirations can be

as broad as “California

Dreaming” at Michael

Kors or as distinct as

the Op Art paintings

of Victor Vasarely at J.

Crew. For more on the

origins of the fall ‘12

collections, see pages

MW4 and MW5.

Vision Quest

POLS OF THE WEEK

Right-Hand MenCurrent Vice President Joe Biden and Republican

hopeful Paul Ryan leave themselves plenty of room

for improvement on the style front. Page MW6

PLUS: Moods of Norway comes to the East Coast. Page MW6

“American optimism.”

— TOMMY HILFIGER

“The bold color-blocked paintings of

Ellsworth Kelly and the geometrical

Op Art paintings of Victor Vasarely.”

— FRANK MUYTJENS, J. CREW

“TRANSPARENT.” — RICHARD CHAI

Men’s Week

Dems State Case for Another Termby KRISTI ELLIS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrats are sending a message from their national convention here that President Obama’s record and stance on issues such as health care and Wall Street reform, the bailout of the auto industry and social and women’s issues are strong reasons for him to be reelected.

Speakers and party loyalists have

framed their message as a choice be-tween the Democratic party of the peo-ple versus the Republican party of the elite, as they championed and defended Obama’s accomplishments over the last four years and outlined his vision for a possible second term.

Two Democratic Capitol Hill lawmak-ers, who cochair the Fashion Caucus, told WWD that Obama’s policies will continue to help the fashion industry if he is reelected.

“I think [four more years] would im-prove the strength and economic stabil-ity of the country and grow the amount of money people have, so that’s good for the fashion industry,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.). “So when you help the country, you help the fashion indus-try.…Because of the policies he put in place — saving the auto industry when his opponent said he would vote against it — it saved [millions] of jobs. He has stabilized the financial industry and helped restructure and put more safety and soundness into our financial indus-try, which has helped everyone, and he invested in our infrastructure.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) said Obama will create jobs in the next four

years by investing in infrastructure, scientific research and education, and helping state governments with funding to avoid laying off teachers, firefighters and policemen.

“That’s how you create jobs,” he added. “The fashion industry is one in-dustry that benefits when people have money to spend.”

The carefully orchestrated conven-tion was forced to improvise as Mother

Nature once again foiled the best-laid plans of organizers. The Democratic National Convention Committee said Wednesday that Obama’s prime-time ac-ceptance speech was being moved from the Bank of American Stadium, which holds 73,000, to the much smaller Time Warner Cable Arena, the site of the first two days of the convention, due to fore-casts of severe weather.

Delegates did not let the weather forecasts dampen their enthusiasm for Obama or their resolve to get him reelected.

“The President inherited an im-mense debt, immense military com-mitments that you don’t walk away from,” said Choco Gonzalez Meza, a delegate from San Antonio and former Clinton appointee to the Department of Housing & Urban Development. “To me, he’s done an extraordinarily good job given the challenge he was handed. These are issues that are time-consuming, financially demanding, and in spite of all that, he can point to many suc-cesses.”

Meza said immigration reform is vital for Texas, but Republicans

have blocked Obama’s efforts.Anita Lovely, a committeewoman for

Lumberton, N.J., highlighted a long list of successes in Obama’s first term, in-cluding “bringing the troops home, get-ting Bin Laden, health care.

“What he did in Detroit with the car business kept us from going into a Depression, not just a recession,” she said. “He worked with the schools on Pell grants. He has been working hard to

get Medicare stabilized. He could have had more success if the Republican Party was not holding him back and voting against him, trying to make him a one-term president. That gets my dander up.”

Gregory Cendana, a Washington, D.C., del-egate and labor activist, said a Republican ma-jority in Congress in the last two years has blunt-ed the extent of Obama’s accomplishments. But he pointed to the pass-ing of landmark legis-lation — the stimulus package, the health care bill — as proof that the President has delivered on campaign promises.

“There’s a lot more I wish he’d done, but I know he’s done his best,” said Cendana, adding that Obama’s bond with young

voters is still strong.“People see their story in him, and

that’s powerful,” said Cendana, executive director at Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, noting that the administration has supported issues like gay marriage and low interest rates on Stafford loans that resonate with young people.

— WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ERIK MAZA

MW2 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

by EVAN CLARKNEW YORK — Just blocks away from the final fashion week prep at Lincoln Center, re-tail and fashion’s top executives gathered at The Plaza for The Goldman Sachs Nineteenth Annual Global Retailing Conference.

Fashion’s bigwigs tried to woo investors with a variety of statistics and growth plans, but after formal presentations, they all faced some form of the same question from Goldman analysts: What are your second-half expectations relative to first-half per-formance?

Here’s what they had to say:

Bill Simon, president and chief executive officer, Wal-Mart U.S.:“We’re optimistic about the fourth quarter. We do expect it to be challenging. The retail environment is getting very aggressive. We have [competitors] that are struggling. We have people that are growing, so that, ones

that are doing well, they are fighting us in doing well….We expect a very aggressive fourth quarter — and by the way, we like that because that’s when we do our best.”

Ken Hannah, chief financial officer, J.C. Penney Co. Inc.: “We’re assuming that the back-half is con-sistent with what we experienced in the first half….Our [comparable-store] sales were down 20 percent in the first half. We saw some very encouraging results [during] the first couple of weeks of August.”

Emanuel Chirico, chairman and ceo, PVH Corp.:“There continues to be volatility out there, but given the strength of the business, par-ticularly the Calvin [Klein] and the Tommy [Hilfiger] businesses, we’re pretty bull-ish about how we see the year laying out. Back-to-school season in North America has gotten off to a very strong start. [We]

continue to believe we can grow earnings per share with the assets that we own today, somewhere in the 15 percent to 17 percent range.”

John Idol, chairman and ceo, Michael Kors Holdings Ltd.:“The economic environment for the acces-sories business, in particular for the second half of the year on a macro basis, still looks very healthy. And we believe that this ac-cessories trend is a global trend….The con-sumer who is shopping in our stores, and we think in other luxury stores, she wants a new handbag for fall season and she is not going to let much stand in the way.”

Stephen I. Sadove, chairman and ceo, Saks Inc.:“Barring any kind of an unforeseen event, our expectations are that you’re going to see a fall season that’s about the same as what you saw in the spring season. The stock market in the 13,000 range is pretty healthy for the luxury consumer….We don’t expect to see Europe to-tally blowing up in the next few months. So our

expectation is for [the second half] to be rela-tively the same as what you’re seeing out there right now.”

Blake Nordstrom, president, Nordstrom Inc.:“In spite of some real serious fundamental issues with the economy…the customer is responding to newness….There is not a lot of price resistance if that newness is there. [If while planning inventory] we get a little safe, the customer has so many choices today that it impacts our business. So as we look forward, we’re going to continue to be pru-dent with our planning and be in the low-single-digit range, but that’s not our goal.”

Brendan Hoffman, president and ceo, The Bon-Ton Stores Inc.:“The thing that we are most excited about is hopefully getting some real cold weather — 2011, while we hate to blame the weather, I saw the effect of the warm weather on two department stores now and how much it in-fluences not just your cold-weather items, but just a trip to the store.”

Execs Discuss Second Half

Harmont & Blaine Eyes IPO, Partnerby LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — Investing in retailing around the world and seeking a partner that will help triple its sales in three years and help it go public are top priori-ties for Italian company Harmont & Blaine SpA, which opened its 100th boutique here this week.

The store is located on central Corso Matteotti, a street that is home to brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch and which is quickly developing as a trendy shopping venue, with Versace Collection and Just Cavalli units slated to open soon.

The Harmont & Blaine store covers three floors and 5,680 square feet and carries the men’s, women’s, children’s, footwear and accessories collections. Men’s wear is the core business of the label, which is recognizable for its trademark dachshund logo, and its informal elegance and stylish preppy looks.

Chief executive officer Domenico Menniti said he believed in investing in such a venture and in Milan “even in the most difficult moment of the country’s economic history because we don’t want to let for-eign sportswear brands take control of the main capital in international fashion.” The company also plans to open a 10,800-square-foot showroom in the trendy Via Tortona area of the city in November.

The store features Mediterranean design and colors, with a white and azure color palette, and is peppered with vintage armchairs and tables, jux-taposed with the new white wood shelves. Menniti described it as showing touches of “your grand-mother’s house.”

The company’s recent retail expansion includes openings in Casablanca; Macau; Hong Kong; Santa Fe and Villahermosa, Mexico; Malta; at the Dubai Mall and the Mall of Emirates, and at the airports in Milan Linate and Naples. Coming up next are boutiques in Russia’s Ekaterinburg, Rostov on Don and Krasnodar, and Panama. Menniti said there are also plans to ex-pand in the U.K. and France in the first half of next year, and in the U.S. — where there are already two stores, in Miami and Southampton, N.Y. — in the sec-ond half, followed by South America in 2014. “We are committed to being an international company, and not merely focused on exports,” he said.

In the U.S., plans call for stores in New York and Los Angeles as well as the opening of an American subsidiary. “There is no alternative, we must un-derstand and meet local needs with local compa-nies,” he said. Over the past four years, exports rose to account for 50 percent of sales, up from 20 percent.

In the first half, Harmont & Blaine reported sales of 28.4 million euros, or $36.6 million at av-erage exchange, up 10 percent compared with the same period last year. It expects to close the year with revenues of around 67 million euros, or $84.3 million at current exchange. The private, family-run company is looking for a partner in Asia and South America as Menniti said he would like the group to reach sales of around 200 million euros, or $251.8 million, by 2015 or 2016. “The goal is to go public once we’ve reached that size,” he added.

Harmont & Blaine is based in Caivano, on the outskirts of Naples. Fifty of the 100 stores are in Italy and the brand is carried in more than 600 points of sale around the world.

Democrats are pointing to health care and Wall Street reform to make the case for President Obama.

angelogalasso.com

New York The Plaza, Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, New York, NY 10019London 8/10 Hans Road, London, SW3 1RXMoscow Bolshaya Dmitrovka 20/1, Moscow, 107031Milan Via Montenapoleone 21/A, Milan, 20121Forte Village Resort S. Margherita di Pula (Cagliari) Sardinia - Italy, 09010

“DUCKIE PLEASURES.” — STEVEN COX AND

DANIEL SILVER, DUCKIE BROWN

“Structure.” — DAO-YI CHOW AND MAXWELL OSBORNE,

PUBLIC SCHOOL

Men’s Week

DESIGNER INSPIRATIONS Ready or not, here we go again — another season of collections. And with it, designers offer a glimpse into what to expect from spring’s New York shows. — LUIS CAMPUZANO

“Early Eighties GQ.”

— MICHAEL BASTIAN

“Loosely inspired by the gear worn by the Sahara-mapping cartographer in ‘The English Patient.’

The collection plays with subtle sartorial tensions by mixing desert neutrals with

sun-faded reds, oranges and aquas while fusing military basics with classic prep school styling.”

— TODD SNYDER

“Their lives

begin at 140 mph.

The edge...There is

no honest way to

explain it, because

the only people who

really know where it

is are the ones who

have gone over it.

The others — the

living — are those

who pushed luck as

far as they feel they

can handle it, when

it comes the time

to choose between

now and later.”

— STEFAN MILJANIC, GILDED AGE

“I was inspired by Sarah Moon, and her series of dark and moody beaches. They feel like they

were taken at sunrise, my favorite part of the day. There is a blend of light and dark that presents

a moodier side of the beach.”— ROBERT GELLER

MW4 WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

“RUM

BLE

FISH

,” 1

983

ON T

HE C

OVER

: RIC

HARD

CHA

I: HE

RB R

ITTS

“TO

NY IN

WHI

TE,”

HOL

LYW

OOD

1988

“A tailoring and fashion collection

that reflects colors, shapes,

lines and textures of the poetic Swedish

landscape.” — JESSY HEUVELINK,

J. LINDEBERG DESIGN DIRECTOR

“We had a vision of bringing the brand up to date with great, fresh clothing while still keeping with the company’s rich history and traditions, and we believe that the spring 2013 collection of York Street has accomplished just that.”

— SHIMON AND

ARIEL OVADIA, J. PRESS YORK STREET

“California Dreaming.”

— MICHAEL KORS

“An inspiring movement: ‘The Men’s Dress Reform

Party in London,’ 1937. Time to organize ‘The New Reform

Party of New York,’ 2013.”

— ANTONIO AZZUOLO

“We are inspired by the graphic designs, bold colors

and maritime tradition of nautical signal flags.”

— CHRIS COX, NAUTICA

“This season I wanted to fill my pockets

with cold, hard cash while having fun. And what’s more fun than combining the circus

and rock ’n’ roll?”

— MARK MCNAIRY, MARK MCNAIRY

NEW AMSTERDAM

“Civil right born from destruction.” — DAISUKE OBANA, N.HOOLYWOOD

Men’s Week MW5WWD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

@ M

ARIA

CON

STAN

TINO

, 199

7

FROM

“SW

EDEN

FRO

M A

BOVE

”

FROM

“JUL

IUS

SHUL

MAN

: PAL

M S

PRIN

GS”

JOE BIDEN: C+ // PAUL RYAN: C+Pols of

THE WEEK

The casual Friday/separated-at-birth style aesthetic of the Vice President and the wannabe VP is not working for either one. The high-waisted beige slacks paired with blue shirts scream of suburbia, but in a sad way. Please leave the drapy summer wool pants behind and wear better-fitting dress khakis. J Brand has a great selection.

by JEAN E. PALMIERIPink tractors have been crop-ping up on billboards around Manhattan for the past few weeks. It’s a tease for the first Moods of Norway store on the East Coast.

The quirky Norwegian brand founded by Stefan Dahlkvist, Simen Staalnacke and Peder Børresen 10 years ago, today will open a 2,300-square-foot store at 75 Greene Street in the heart of the SoHo shopping district. The store has sent out blonde wigs as the invitations for the Really Really Blonde Party it will host at the store for Fashion’s Night Out, where it will serve waffles, pres-ent a performance by the band Poolside and bring in a few live sheep to help celebrate the mile-stone. “We’re going to have the running of the sheep on Greene Street,” said Dahlkvist.

Moods of Norway was founded in the town of Stryn, Norway (pop-ulation 6,750), and has built a rep-utation for its irreverent fashion sensibility and whimsical sense of humor. Its slogans include “Happy Clothes for Happy People,” and the tags inside its jackets read: “Made in Europe by really, re-ally, pretty blonde girls.” The goal of the company is to “make our grandmas proud.” The outside of its suit jackets are embroi-dered with the figure 234,243 — the number of registered tractors in Norway.

Despite the never-ending jokes, Moods of Norway’s business is quite serious. The brand is expected to have sales of $60 mil-lion this year and it has a 92 percent recogni-tion rate in its home country among its tar-get audience of young adults between 20 and 30 years old. The com-

pany designed the 2012 Summer Olympics uniforms for Norway and it has been nominated for a Rising Star men’s award in the U.S. It recently brought industry veteran George Santacroce on board to serve as chief executive officer for the U.S. market and the plan is to have between 12 and 15 stores in America as well as a strong e-commerce component and wholesale distribution target-ing specialty stores and select de-partment stores. “Our growth strat-egy is very strategic,” Santacroce said. “We know the best way to build brand awareness and loyalty is by having our own stores.”

So step one is the SoHo unit. “This has been a dream of ours

for 10 years,” said Dahlkvist. “Norwegian fashion has four

seasons and we think that will fit well in New York.” Børresen added: “And now we’re bicoastal.” Three years ago, the company en-tered the U.S. retail market with a store on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles. It operates 15 stores around the world.

The Greene Street store, with neighbors that include Nicole Miller, John Varvatos, Onassis and J. Lindeberg, was designed by Foundation Design in nearly

30 days. The theme for this fall is “cocktail mountaineering” and displays include brightly painted scaffolding surrounded by stacks of wood, pick axes and vintage toy tractors. Three gold chairlifts are suspended from the ceiling and the interior is a colorful or-ange, white and gold. In addition to the men’s and women’s ap-parel, the store also sells Freia candy bars, bags of Vafler (tradi-tional Norwegian waffle mix) and King Oscar sardines. Two large video screens show films of the fjords of Norway.

The men’s collection ranges from tailored clothing and cock-tail suits to jeans and T-shirts, or

“different clothes for different moods,” said Børresen. The found-ers expect the knit woven shirts and knitwear to be the most popu-lar items here. Prices range from $119 to $149 for shirts; $399 to $599 for jackets; $49 to $69 for T-shirts and knitwear, and $179 for denim.

Women’s wear was introduced three years ago and currently ac-counts for around one-third of the company’s volume. Categories in-clude dresses, knitwear, blouses, jeans and jackets.

“We’re truly a lifestyle brand now,” said Santacroce. “They’ve created a cult following among the youth in Norway and I believe it fills a void here. There are many

casual and high-end brands, and Moods of Norway plays with Etro and Ted Baker but is more afford-able and has a genuine point of view and heritage.”

The company does no tradi-tional advertising and relies in-stead on event-based and guerrilla marketing to help get its name out.

Beyond the U.S., the plan is to expand internationally with a new distributorship agreement in Germany and exploration of the U.K. and French markets.

“We know Stryn is not the fashion capital of the world, but that’s what makes it cool,” said Børresen. “We’re doing things we’re not supposed to do.”

Men’s Week

Moods of Norway Storms SoHo MW6 WWD THIRSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

PHOT

OS B

Y KY

LE E

RICK

SEN

Stay out of the tanning

booth and moisturize

heavily. There’s only one

George Hamilton.

He has no shoulders. Wear

a jacket or roll up the

sleeves for extra volume.

The cowboy belt makes no

sense with the ensemble

and is too reminiscent of

a previous president. It’s

also too tight, creating a

muffin-top effect.

They’re too high and wide,

but the break is right.

The beat-up loafers are

the only saving grace of

this outfit and channels

his preppy heritage.

The Tom Cruise in “Top Gun”

haircut suits him to perfection. It

will definitely please the ladies and

some men also.

He might have lost some weight

running all those sub-three-hour

marathons, but the polo is too boxy

around the waist. A Polo slim-fit

would suit him better.

The shiny black belt clashes with

the aged brown shoe.

Another unflattering high-waisted,

baggy slack. He should call Biden

and they should visit Barneys New

York together.

Go a little lower and he’s in the

harem pants neighborhood. Not the

look he’s going for.

He needs to buy big-boy shoes.

BIDE

N PH

OTO

BY L

ESLI

E E.

KOS

SOFF

-POO

L/GE

TTY

IMAG

ES; R

YAN

BY J

OE B

URBA

NK/O

RLAN

DO S

ENTI

NEL/

MCT

Items on display at the new SoHo outpost.

ON NEWSSTANDS: 9/24ORDER ONLINE: WWW.CLASSOFMAN.COMADVERTISING INQUIRIES: Marc Berger, Vice President & Publisher | 212.630.4831 | marc_berger@fairchildfashion.com

THE NEW CLASS OF MAN

Never be afraid to take risks,

and never take the clothes

you wear too seriously.

- Perry Ellis

P E R R Y E L L I S C O M