THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

WWD

RICHEMONT EYEING SALE?

Net-a-porter Is SaidTo Be on the Block

Bangladesh Blaze Kills 9

NEW YORK — Bergdorf Goodman has unveiled the latest phase in its update of

its three-fl oor men’s store on Fifth Avenue here as it aims to up the luxury quotient.

For more, see page MW1.

New Man In Town

BERGDORF GOODMAN

HEARING AN ECKO

Marc Ecko returns to run

Marc Ecko Cut & Sew. Page MW3

PRESSING ITS SUIT

JOS. A. BANK PUSHES ITS BID FOR MEN’S WEARHOUSE DESPITE REJECTION.

PAGE 7

By SAMANTHA CONTI andLUISA ZARGANI

LONDON — Could Net-a-porter Group be on the block once again, a little more than three years after Compagnie Financière Richemont purchased it?

On Wednesday, Yoox.com denied it was in talks with Richemont about a merger with, or acquisition of, Net-a-porter. It was seeking to quash reports in the Italian press that a deal was in the works.

However, earlier this year, Yoox was indeed in talks to acquire Net-a-porter as part of its efforts to expand the busi-ness, according to industry sources.

Federico Marchetti, the founder and chief executive offi cer of Yoox, which is quoted on the Milan Stock Exchange and has a market capitaliza-tion of 1.43 billion euros, or $1.94 bil-lion at current exchange, reiterated

later in the day that no talks were cur-rently taking place.

He told WWD on Wednesday: “Yoox is a global brand and as such it obvious-ly grows not only through internal lines, but it often examines dossiers about possible acquisitions. As I have already said, at the moment there are no nego-tiations taking place with Richemont.”

Although Yoox has a full-price busi-ness and operates e-commerce sites for a slew of brands including Emporio Armani, Valentino and Jil Sander, its core offer is past seasons’ designer goods. Net-a-porter, with its full-price luxury merchandise for women as well as its Mr Porter site for men, would have rounded out the Yoox picture.

Talks between the two companies broke down — industry sources said Net-a-porter’s founder and executive chairman Natalie Massenet didn’t want to sell to Yoox — although speculation

SEE PAGE 6

By MAYU SAINI

ANOTHER TRAGEDY hit the Bangladesh apparel industry Tuesday when a blaze at the Aswad Composite Mills on the outskirts of Dhaka killed nine people and injured more than 46.

This is the fourth major fi re in a garment factory in Bangladesh, which has been under intense pressure from workers’ rights groups and Western re-tailers to improve safety standards in its textile and apparel sector.

Police offi cials said that the fi re started on the ground fl oor at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, when about 170 eve-

ning-shift workers were on duty, far less than the total workforce of 3,000 in the daytime.

Among the dead was the factory’s general manager Rashed Uzzaman Mandal. Others included workers from the ground fl oor and a fi refi ghter. The bodies were charred beyond recogni-tion by the fire, which workers told WWD was caused by a faulty machine. However, police offi cials said they were still investigating, adding that the fi re spread so quickly that it took more than seven hours to bring under control.

The factory covers 250,000 square feet. Aswad Composite Mills has been

SEE PAGE 5

PHOTO BY GEORGE CHINSEE

WWD.COM2 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

TO E-MAIL REPORTERS AND EDITORS AT WWD, THE ADDRESS IS FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME@FAIRCHILDFASHION.COM, USING THE INDIVIDUAL’S NAME. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2013 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 206, NO. 74. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in March, May, June, August, October and December, and two additional issues in February, April, September and November) by Fairchild Fashion Media, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615 5008. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008, call 800-289-0273, or visit www.subnow.com/wd. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. For New York Hand Delivery Service address changes or inquiries, please contact Mitchell’s NY at 1-800-662-2275, option 7. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax the request to 212-630-5883. For all request for reprints of articles please contact The YGS Group at condenast@theygsgroup.com, or call 800-501-9571. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Media magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.fairchildpub.com. Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008 or call 800-289-0273. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

ON WWD.COM

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

Yoox.com on Wednesday denied it was in talks with Richemont about a merger with, or acquisition of, Net-a-porter. Page 1 A blaze at the Aswad Composite Mills in Bangladesh on Tuesday killed nine people and injured more than 46. Page 1 Lane Crawford on Thursday will open its largest store to date, in Shanghai. Page 4 Louis Vuitton is teaming with Taobao.com to stamp out counterfeits online. Page 4 Google unveiled the second edition of its Mobile Playbook, its guide to winning with mobile, Wednesday. Page 5 Carven opened in its first store dedicated to men’s wear in Paris’ Marais district. Page 6 André Leon Talley discussed his career at length with Fern Mallis Tuesday night at Manhattan’s 92Y. Page 6 Jos. A. Bank proposed a cash offer of $48 a share to acquire Men’s Wearhouse, which the latter rejected. Page 7 Tory Burch’s 4,700-square-foot Beverly Hills flagship is going to be ready in time for holiday shopping. Page 7 Rafaella is launching denim and activewear collections for later this year and this spring, respectively. Page 8 René Caovilla is gearing up to celebrate its 80th anniversary with plans to expand globally. Page 8 Bergdorf Goodman has completed major renovations to its three-floor men’s store. Page MW1 Marc Ecko is returning to helm the Marc Ecko Cut & Sew label after years of absence. Page MW3 Dockers, Haggar and J.C. Penney have joined forces to build lifestyle shops in 297 of the chain’s top doors. Page MW4

Kate Upton takes Paris in a form-fitting Chanel lace dress. For more celebrity fashion, see WWD.com.

EYE: As the chill of autumn begins to set in, the celebrity set is swapping out those colorful summer hues for dark and moody florals. For more, see WWD.com.

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By VICKI M. YOUNG

STEPHEN I. SADOVE, chairman and chief execu-tive officer of Saks Inc., is set to join the board of J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

Sadove is leaving the company following Hudson’s Bay Co.’s $3 billion takeover of Saks Inc. Following his exit from Saks, Sadove will then be-come a member of Penney’s board.

Sadove is also on the boards of Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Ruby Tuesday.

Thomas Engibous, Penney’s chairman, said, “Steve Sadove is admired and respected across the retail in-dustry. Under his leadership, Steve built luxury retail chain Saks Fifth Avenue into one of the world’s most prominent fashion retailers today. He also boasts a distinguished marketing and consumer-products ca-reer spanning over 25 years. Steve is an outstanding addition to our board and we look forward to lever-aging his expertise as we focus on guiding the turn-around at J.C. Penney.”

Sadove, who joined Saks as vice chairman in 2002 and later took on the additional position of chief operating officer in 2004, became ceo in 2006. Continuing in his role as ceo, Sadove added the re-sponsibilities of chairman in 2007.

Given Sadove’s initiatives at Saks — moderniz-ing the brand and its service levels, differentiating the merchandise assortment, expanding the Off 5th business and moving toward an omnichannel strat-

egy — it’s no surprise some believe he’s the likely candidate to take over the ceo post after Penney’s ceo Myron “Mike” Ullman 3rd leaves. Ullman, who was former ceo Ron Johnson’s predecessor, is said to have stepped back into the position on an inter-im basis to spearhead a turnaround.

Brian Sozzi, former retail analyst and now ceo and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, said, “Theoretically, Sadove was able to see the com-pany’s internal plans before coming on the board as a director. That [Penney’s] was able to attract an indus-try veteran is a positive for the company.”

Sozzi also believes “Sadove will be Penney’s next ceo. He’s a young guy, a department store veteran. You don’t bring in someone like him to sit on the board and attend meetings every month.”

Sozzi added that Sadove’s network of industry ex-ecutives could also help attract the “next wave of execu-tives” who can help lead Penney’s as it works through the turnaround process.

Some industry sources dismissed the idea that Sadove would transition into the ceo role. Their be-lief is “that’s not the plan” and that Sadove “wouldn’t want it” even if the job was offered.

Shares of Penney’s on Wednesday rose 1.5 per-cent to close at $7.89 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Separately, Penney’s board member Geraldine B. Laybourne is stepping down so she, as chairman of Kandu, can focus more time on the consumer tech startup for kids.

Sadove to Join Penney’s Board

By EVAN CLARK

NIKE INC. has set the performance bar high.Mark Parker, president and chief executive of-

ficer, said the company could add nearly $11 billion in sales by 2017, raising its revenues to $36 billion.

A big part of that will come from apparel, which is expected to expand to $10 billion in annual sales in three years, up from $7.5 billion for the fiscal year ended May 31.

This is on pace with the recent trend, which has seen Nike-branded apparel sales expand by nearly 40 percent over the past three years.

“We’ve been growing our women’s [apparel] business faster than we have our men’s business,” Parker said at a meeting with investors Wednesday. Nike’s overall women’s business is expected to hit $7 billion in 2017, up from $4 billion in 2013.

The ceo and other executives were pitching the athletic giant, which already has over $25 billion in sales, as a growth company. Shares of the firm rose 0.9 percent to $70.89 — giving it a market capitaliza-tion of $63.05 billion.

Parker said Nike’s sales this year would hit $30 billion, the upper end of its previous projection calling for sales of $28 billion to $30 billion.

“There is more opportunity for Nike today than at any point in our history,” Parker said. “Over the next de-cade, we will see the world’s middle class grow by over one billion consumers.” Much of this growth will come

from countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.Trevor Edwards, president of the Nike brand,

said the brand’s strength flowed from its focus on sports, which provides both excitement and techni-cal inspiration as the company seeks to meet the performance needs of top athletes.

The brand also has its sights on the digital world. Edwards projected that sales on nike.com would

nearly quadruple to $2 billion by 2017, up from sales of $540 million last year.

“The consumer landscape continues to see tectonic shifts created by the impact of digital,” Edwards said. “The young consumer lives in a digi-tal world. Digital is like oxygen. It’s omnipresent and indispensable. It’s everywhere and it’s always on.”

Nike executives also hammered hard on the com-pany’s efforts to innovate — from the Flyknit sneak-er to the FuelBand digital tracker to Dri-fit apparel.

This itch to innovate extends to its manufactur-ing efforts as well, where Nike is using more sus-tainable techniques that are less labor intensive and produce less waste.

Eric Sprunk, chief operating officer, said Nike was working on a “manufacturing revolution.”

While not getting too specific, Sprunk asked inves-tors to imagine if a broad base of customers could buy a highly customized pair of shoes — tailored individu-ally to one’s right foot and one’s left foot — that was manufactured locally and delivered within hours.

“We don’t just imagine it,” he said. “We’re plan-ning for it.”

Nike Targets $10B in Apparel Sales

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — Versace may be looking at plan B.Industry sources say turning to the banks may

be an alternative to finance future growth for the Milan-based fashion group, as talks to secure a mi-nority shareholder may be taking longer than ex-pected. “Potential investors want to have a say in the decision making, so they are vying for either a greater stake in the company or for more power, but the Versace family is loath to relinquish either one,” said a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

As reported, the Milan-based firm is looking at sell-ing a 15 to 20 percent holding by the end of the year.

When rumors about a possible sale first emerged last year, Versace chief executive officer Gian Giacomo Ferraris told WWD in May that there are “many ways to identify financial resources. We have banks close to us that can help us and we have credibility. We speak to banks as a normal proce-dure. We are defining the processes.” Ferraris has since then always said that the owners — siblings Santo and Donatella Versace, who hold a 30 and 20 percent stake, respectively, and Donatella’s daugh-ter, Allegra Versace Beck, who owns 50 percent,

want control over the company. Another source said the delay in the negotiations

“is just a stumbling block, and a solution will be found — it is unlikely the Versaces will sell more shares, but they will let the investors in on the decision making.”

Sources say the IQ Made in Italy joint venture, created last year to invest in Italian brands, and a separate fund from Qatar continues to be in pole position to invest in Versace.

The joint venture was formed by Qatar Holding LLC, a global investment firm founded by the Qatar Investment Authority in 2006, and Italy’s Fondo Strategico Italiano, the holding company controlled by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, or CDP, a financial com-pany controlled by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, which has a 70 percent stake.

IQ Made has no relation to the Mayhoola for Investments fund from Qatar that owns Valentino.

Meanwhile, New York-based fund Blackstone Group has also emerged as a possible suitor.

Almost a year ago, Versace tapped Goldman Sachs and Banca IMI to evaluate growth opportunities.

Last spring, Ferraris set a target for a possible initial public offering: when the company hits sales of 500 million to 600 million euros, or $676 million to $811.2 million at current exchange.

Versace Considering Funding Options

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: Paul Jowdy,�Vice President, Group Publisher | 212.630.2434 | paul—jowdy@fairchildfashion.comON NEWSSTANDS NOW WWD.COM/M @MTHEMAG

FOR THE INSIDE MAN

6258_M mag_M Cover Campaign_HAD_final.indd 1 10/9/13 11:54 AM

By CASEY HALL

SHANGHAI — Lane Crawford on Thursday will open its larg-est store to date, in Shanghai.

The Hong Kong-based retail-er’s Shanghai flagship weighs in at 150,000 square feet and is a major step in Lane Crawford’s plans for omnichannel success in China.

The four-story department store in downtown Huaihai Lu, one of Shanghai’s premier shop-ping streets, will feature more than 500 international brands across women’s fashion, men’s wear, beauty, home and lifestyle.

Three local Chinese brands — Helen Lee, Chictopia and Ms Min — will also be offered.

Speaking with WWD ahead of the opening, Andrew Keith, presi-dent of Lane Crawford and Joyce Boutique, was positive about the brand’s reentry into Shanghai. A franchised Lane Crawford store previously operated in the city, before closing in 2006.

“I think the fundamental les-son that we learnt [from the expe-rience] was more about our brand and the management of our brand than it was about China. That is, to be successful as Lane Crawford in China, we needed to have control,” Keith said.

“China takes a lot of time, patience and flexibility, you’ve got to have a very close under-standing of the market and close connection with your customer, you’ve got to be able to under-stand the nuances of how busi-ness works here and to do that you have to be on the ground, you have to invest directly and build the capability,” he added.

Lane Crawford isn’t the only luxury multibrand retailer that has decided 2013 is the right time to make some sig-nificant moves in the Mainland China market. Last month, 10 Corso Como opened its doors in Shanghai and Galeries Lafayette is returning to Beijing after a 15-year hiatus.

Although careful not to spec-ulate about the motives of other retailers, Keith said that, for

Lane Crawford, it’s obvious that Chinese consumers are more evolved than they were even a few years ago, a plus for luxury multibrand retailers.

“I think you’ve got an in-creasing sophistication in the market and that’s a con-sequence of people traveling more, being able to access more brands online and generally discovering fashion. So I think the appetite for multibrand has grown,” he said.

According to Keith, “con-nected commerce” is the name of Lane Crawford’s game in the Chinese market, with strate-gically-placed flagships giving consumers a taste of the luxury retailer’s product offerings and service, and then giving them the confidence to purchase those products online as well.

In a country where fake lux-ury goods are ubiquitous, con-sumer perception of an online retailer’s legitimacy is particu-larly important.

“We were the first multi-brand, full-price omnichannel retailer in this market, our po-sitioning has always being about our product and our service, we are not using price as part of our online strategy and the trust element is very important,” Keith told WWD.

He estimates that almost 100 percent of the retailer’s product offering will be available online within the next three months, and identifies online and the Mainland China market more generally as two key drivers in Lane Crawford’s “double-digit” growth this year. He declined to give sales projection for the new

store, saying Lane Crawford is in it for the long haul and isn’t going to set any goals or have specific targets. The company’s revenues topped $700 million last year.

The next move in terms of phys-ical expansion for Lane Crawford is a 100,000-square-foot store in the heart of Chengdu, a city of 14 million people in China’s west.

“We’re excited by the pos-sibility of Chengdu because it’s the fastest-growing economy in China, has a relatively young de-mographic, they have a relative-ly high disposable income and it’s a city that’s seeing a lot of investment, both from retail and business, but also from govern-ment because it’s strategically very important,” Keith said.

“We also see it as strategically a very important part of our net-work in China because we are building our strategy based on a connected commerce strategy, connecting our online business with our physical store business, and obviously in a country as physically huge as China, we’re not in a position to open stores in every major city, but what we can do is position ourselves with great, anchor, flagship positions, then from there build our e-com-merce business from that.”

In terms of marketing to Chinese consumers, brand heri-tage is often touted as a plus, and with 160 years in Greater China, Lane Crawford is well-known to Chinese shoppers flocking to Hong Kong to spend their new-found yuan. It’s this long-term relationship the retailer is hop-ing to leverage as it expands its reach into the Mainland.

“We are really building a con-nected commerce, luxury life-style retailer that is about taking retail in China to the next level. We feel as though we are in a great position to do that, our knowledge of the market and our loyal customer base means we’re in a prime position to do that,” Keith said.

4 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

Vuitton Takes on Fakes in China

Lane Crawford Returns to Shanghai

By MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Louis Vuitton is teaming with one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms to stamp out counterfeits online.

Vuitton said it and Taobao.com, billed among the Web’s 20 most visited sites, have signed a memorandum of under-standing whose recommendations include a “notice and takedown system.”

Citing their mutual interest in “efficient brand protection,” the French leather goods giant and the online marketplace said they hope their collaboration would contribute to a “fairer e-business environment for consumers on Internet auction sites.”

Taobao, part of Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, said the proactive and preventative measures are “the first of their kind to be implemented by Taobao in direct coop-eration with a brand owner.”

Vuitton, a flagship brand of luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to counterfeits.

“Such collaboration is invaluable to us, in order to prevent the manufacture, transport and sales of counterfeit goods, online as well as offline,” said Valerie Sonnier, Vuitton’s global intellec-tual property director.

“With the continuous support from Chinese authorities, we have been able to decrease the number of counterfeits in this market,” she added.

Vuitton signed a similar agreement with Rakuten, a Japanese online site, in 2010.

Founded 10 years ago, Taobao is a consumer-to-consumer marketplace selling mainly new, but also used merchandise, boasting about 760 million product listings as of last March.

The agreement comes as Taobao’s parent Alibaba is said to be looking at an initial public offering in New York in the near future that could value the group at a minimum of $120 billion.

By MARC KARIMZADEH

NEW YORK — Fabric care is a key consider-ation for clothing. Too often, however, it takes a backseat in the fashion conversation, par-ticularly when so many designer garments are handwash-only.

That could change if Procter & Gamble Co. has its way. Its Fabric Care division, which includes such brands as Tide, Downy, Gain and Bounce under its umbrella, is entering into several stra-tegic global partnerships as it is looking to rede-fine what fabric care and cleaning mean. “We see a space to bring together things that may seem disparate — high fashion and washable fashion,” noted P&G Fabric Care North America vice presi-dent and general manager Alex Keith.

The launch partners are London design-er Giles Deacon, France’s fabric trade show Première Vision and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Gaining direct insights into the industry and its needs through them, the aim is to amp up the exploration of fabrics and sci-ence behind the care of clothes.

Deacon serves as P&G Fabric Care’s first global fashion consultant with the mandate to guide the brand’s fashion approach, and share his industry knowledge to help P&G develop new fiber care technologies.

“I’m interested in designs that work on the catwalk but also beyond the catwalk,” Deacon said. “They must be able to last and maintain their best.”

As Keith put it, “Giles is ultimately going to help us with his experience and industry insights as we think about our innovation program and where we want to place our bets on new fabrics, new fibers and the ability to clean some of the smart fabrics. We will use him as a consultant to better understand the industry.”

The company will work with Première Vision to understand technology advances in fibers and fabrics, which will prove useful as it develops and evolves cleaning products.

In the U.S., the CFDA serves a partner in the specific Washable Fashion Initiative with P&G’s Tide Pods product. It started with a survey con-ducted by the CFDA and Tide that showed 84.9 percent of the CFDA designers surveyed said they would be more inclined to use machine-washable fabrics if they knew for certain their customers had access to washing detergents that would pre-serve the garments.

“There was strong data that suggested design-ers are interested in machine-washable clothes and fabric care that keeps the integrity of the fab-ric as it is washed over and over,” said CFDA chief executive officer Steven Kolb.

The Washable Fashion Initiative is a part of the CFDA’s Business Service Network.

“Fashion accessibility is not just about price but also care,” P&G’s Keith said. “We think there is an innovative partnership between our technol-ogy development, the industry and fashion consul-tants, by providing high-tech care for garments, new fabrics and some of the great new things that happen in fabrics.”

P&G Turns Up Its Fashion Focus

Outside Lane Crawford in Shanghai.

Andrew Keith

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linked to the George brand owned by the Asda unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; Loblaws of Canada, and Hudson’s Bay Co., according to the Clean Clothes Campaign. Factory managers told WWD that other retailers that have sourced from the company include H&M and Primark. However, they were not clear about the date of the orders or the ship-ments, which may not have been under immediate production.

“Our first thought goes out to the in-dividuals who were injured in this fire, and to those who lost their lives. Loblaw Companies is confident we have not placed any product orders from the Aswad Composite Mills Ltd. Co., where the fire took place. And we have a ‘no tol-erance’ policy with all our vendors when it comes to unauthorized outsourcing. We have seen documents that suggest there may have been such unauthorized pro-duction and we are investigating,” the Canadian retailer said.

Loblaw’s subsidiary Joe Fresh sourced from one of the other factories where tragedy struck, the Rana Plaza site where the collapse of an apparel fac-tory killed 1,129 people.

Even as government agencies and non-governmental organizations in Dhaka have stepped up inspections and the protocol to ensure safety of workers in the $21 billion garment industry in Bangladesh, the fire in Gazipur has raised a fresh round of concerns and protest.

Nafiz Shikdar, managing director of the company, reacted quickly, revealing com-pensation of 500,000 takas, or $6,500 at cur-rent exchange, to each family of the dead.

Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, or BGMEA, said on Wednesday evening that the organi-zation would compensate the families of dead workers with 200,000 takas, or $2,600, each and that costs for medical care of the injured would be borne by Aswad Composite Mills.

The government has responded by set-ting up a seven-member panel to probe the fire headed by Shahnewaz Dilruba

Khan, assistant deputy commissioner general of Gazipur. The group is expect-ed to submit its report within a week.

The situation facing the industry has been grim since the collapse of the nine-story Rana Plaza in Savar, another suburb of Dhaka on April 24, with fire of-ficials searching through the rubble for weeks to retrieve the bodies of the dead.

Deadly fires have also caused worker deaths and injuries over the last year, in-cluding Tazreen Fashions Ltd. on Nov. 21 in which 112 workers lost their lives.

Global outrage over the incidents has led to action plans and support for the garment industry and despite threats to pull out of the country by international re-tailers, garment exports have gone up by 15 percent — from $19.1 billion to $21.51 billion in the financial year 2012-13.

Exports in September rose by 36.26 percent over the same month last year.

“This is an indication that the industry

is still able to sustain itself,” Mohammed Hassan, a factory owner, told WWD.

The activity both domestically and at international levels has been intense over the last five months, after the col-lapse of Rana Plaza. More than 90 brands joined the legally binding Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, which aims to tackle the root causes of factory collapses and fires. More than 20 North American Retailers and brands formed the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and also created a binding agreement aimed at improving factories in Bangladesh.

As international retailers look for ways to contribute to and improve work-er safety, many factory owners claim that they have changed their safety standards to check exit routes for fire as well as electrical points that cause fires to erupt. Yet, disasters continue to happen.

“This is a truly shocking tragedy. It

underlines the need for urgent action to make the safety improvements that are so badly needed in Bangladesh’s ready-made garment factories. Through the Bangladesh Accord, we will be doing our utmost to make progress as quickly as possible, so that we can avoid tragedies like this in the future,” said Jyrki Raina, general secretary of the IndustriALL Global Union.

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “The Bangladesh Accord, by bringing together industry and trade unions, will help to ensure that long-overdue safety improvements are made. We know the size of the task ahead, sadly emphasized by the Gazipur fire. We must deliver collectively for the sake of the Bangladeshi garment workers and their families.”

“This latest tragedy highlights how much still needs to be done to make the Bangladesh garment industry safe,” said Ineke Zeldenrust of the Clean Clothes Campaign. “The signing of the accord was a huge step forward, but this tragedy underlines the need for inspections and renovations to get underway as a matter of urgency. We urge all those connected to the factory to work together to provide compensation, lost wages and medical treatment to those families and individu-als affected by this fire.”

The Clean Clothes Campaign said that more brands were expected to be found sourcing at the factory and the organiza-tion “urged all those with production at Aswad to acknowledge responsibility and to take immediate steps to ensure com-pensation and medical treatment is pro-vided to those who need it.”

The garment industry in Bangladesh has been under additional turmoil over the last four weeks with workers demand-ing higher salaries. Protests were backed by violence and calls by union leaders to change the minimum wage from the exist-ing $38 per month to $104 per month.

An acceptance by the BGMEA of the need for change has brought a tempo-rary lull in the protests. The group’s president commented that employers were “ready to implement a rational wage for the workers, to be announced by the government, and upgrade safety standards with the cooperation of inter-national buyers.”

By RACHEL STRUGATZ

RETAILERS need to sharpen their online skills and pay as much attention to mer-chandising online as they do in their stores.

“They need to actively manage their digital shelf space and what they offer in the same way that they manage, or ar-guably obsess, over their shelves in the store,” Jason Spero, Google’s director of global performance solutions, told WWD. Google unveiled the second edition of its Mobile Playbook, at themobileplaybook.com, Wednesday morning. Billed as “the busy executive’s guide to winning with mobile,” this is the first significant up-date to The Mobile Playbook since it was originally released in April 2012.

“They have to give the same level of attention from a digital perspective to engaging the consumer when they’re on a smartphone. This envelops every-thing,” said Spero of the importance of merchandising e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores. “Retailers need to have a holistic view [and that’s knowing] how that consumer engages with them in-store and how that’s complemented by how they engage in the digital world, spe-cifically the mobile world.”

He cited Home Depot, Delta Airlines, Chase, HBO, State Farm and Mercedes-Benz as brands that have “thought deep-ly” about what their consumers want from mobile and have excelled in the space. Within the retail world, Spero

highlighted Target, which offers free in-store Wi-Fi, price match and QR codes that can be scanned by smartphones, as well as Macy’s, which is carrying more exclusive goods.

“That isn’t something that you can price compare,” Spero said. “In the era of show-rooming, it’s about having key products to get them into stores, but you also want to sell them the products that won’t drive you to the absolute smallest margin.”

According to Spero, who wrote the Playbook, Google’s research shows that 17 percent more shoppers plan to turn to their mobile devices this year when it comes to holiday shopping. Since 2011, smartphone penetration went from 31 percent to 56 percent, and 80 percent of smartphone shoppers use their devices to research prior to going into the store. Similarly, four out of five customers are expected to use their devices in-store. But possibly even more telling are the actions consumers are taking after conducting a search online. More than half end up in the actual store, 48 percent make a phone call and 29 percent end up making a pur-chase in the store — with 75 percent to 80 percent of these visits happening within five hours of the initial search.

“What’s coming into focus is a picture of a consumer making an informed decision based on devices. The first part is [that they’re] taking action, the second part is that they’re taking action quickly and the third part is the way that they’re taking ac-tion is in new modes,” Spero said.

That’s data many companies aren’t used to having access to.

For retailers to win at mobile, Spero maintains that two models must be ad-dressed: one that understands the consumer when she’s planning and re-searching and one that is more transac-tional, catering to the shopper while they are in the store and looking up customer reviews or additional colorways.

Another likely scenario: A person searches for an item on their smart-phone in the afternoon, continues the search that evening on their tablet and ends up buying said product the follow-ing night via their desktop computer. As an industry, Spero explained that these instances were viewed as three separate users until recently — and Google’s intro-duction of cross-device conversions last week addresses this. Now technology can tell marketers the number of people who searched and then come back again using a different device.

Spero is also keen on retailers making the most of technologies that allow them to target by location — like local product listing ads, ads with pictures that turn up in top search results and bidding by proximity. Starting Oct. 7, when a con-sumer searched for an item on Google, PLAs, or product listing ads, for local retailers popped up, and upon clicking on an ad, users were directed to a local storefront on Google. Proximity-based bidding launched in March — which en-ables marketers to bid more to reach a

consumer when they’re within a certain distance of the store.

“Proximity plays a key role in conver-sion. If someone is closer it’s more likely that they’ll transact,” Spero said.

5WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

Another Garment Factory Blaze Hits Bangladesh

Google Update Targets Mobile Consumer20% of searches on Google.com, Google Maps, Google+ or Zagat have local intent

94% of smartphone users search for location information

80% of mobile search-triggered store visits happen within five hours of initial search

40% of users have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience

68% of mobile searches occur at home, according to a Nielsen study

90% of consumers move between devices to complete a task

40% of smartphone users watch TV while browsing their smartphone

SOURCE: GOOGlE’S MObilE PlaybOOk

The Mobile Playbook

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{Continued from page one}

The remnants of the latest Bangladesh factory fire, which killed nine.

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ALL ANDRÉ: After an exhaustive, rapid-fire recap of his career Tuesday night at 92Y, André Leon Talley was only surprised by one thing — that the crowd stayed interested for two hours.

His fast-marching conversation with Fern Mallis was laced with laughs, thanks to his off-the-cuff commentary on a career working with Diana Vreeland, Andy Warhol, John Fairchild and Anna Wintour. Talley’s chapter on Vreeland was among the most entertaining: “How she talked about marabou — it was literature,” and, “We used to have the most compelling conversations for four hours about French espadrilles.”

The audience also enjoyed declarations such as “I decided if Marc Jacobs can wear a lace dress, I can wear a caftan or anything I want”; “I am only on Twitter because Diane von Furstenberg told me that I had to be — no Instagram, no Facebook, no sending naked pictures,” and, “I don’t garden — I just point.”

The North Carolina-born editor recalled his early days in New York, living at the 23rd Street YMCA “with the human cockroaches and the real cockroaches” (in a room furnished with antiques from Halston). Now editor at large at Numero magazine, Talley spoke of his weakness for $3,000 sheets and how his “America’s Next Top Model” gig covered the cost of a new roof and a paint job for his house. Friends like Carolina Herrera and Michael Kors were there for every last laugh. When another friend, Bethann Hardison, tried to make an early exit, Talley flat-out called her out. Stopping midsentence, he asked “Where are you going Bethann? You sit back down.”

Talley, who turns 64 Wednesday, left the audience with little to wonder about, at times answering follow-up questions before they were even asked. Mentioning how Karl Lagerfeld gave him

$50,000 for his 50th birthday, Talley said, “And I never slept with him.”

He said Wintour is “not a cold person” but a guarded one. Talley was just as frank about his weight, telling the crowd he swore off eating anything with sugar starting in July, after a friend insisted he was going to die if he didn’t change his eating habits.

He also spoke up about young editors. “I cannot stand the way that people today think they know everything just because they are in your presence. They know nothing and they think they have nothing to learn.”

What really grabbed the crowd’s attention and led to an ovation was Talley’s view on racism, “You have to make people aware that they may not be racist but they are doing racist acts.”

— ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

‘IT’ GIRLS: Alexa Chung talked up her new book, either presumptuously or facetiously titled “It,” at a dinner hosted by Nylon magazine on Tuesday to celebrate her October cover. Part memoir and part girly advice manual, the tome is already out in the U.K. but hits U.S. bookstores Oct. 29 from Penguin.

Christian Siriano, Leigh Lezark, Harley Viera-Newton, Scott Lipps, Cory Kennedy and Dani Stahl were among the guests in a private dining room of La Cenita, the newest Mexican spot in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District for the event, hosted by the shoe brand Sanuk. Chung toasted the Nylon team, editor in chief Marvin Scott Jarrett and publisher Jaclynn Jarrett.

The Daily Mail of London panned Chung’s literary foray as “a collection of talent-free doodles” and “insubstantial musings on style and life,” but The Telegraph called it “surprisingly funny” with a “dry wit” that makes it “surprisingly readable.” — DAVID LIPKE

By JOeLLe DIDerICH

PArIS — Carven has opened its first store dedicated to men’s wear in Paris.

Like its two women’s stores in the French capital, the 860-square-foot boutique at 30 rue de Sévigné in the Marais district was designed by eric Chevallier, with input from Carven cre-ative director Guillaume Henry.

The two-story unit has been con-ceived like a walk-in closet, with wardrobe modules on white walls, a Brazilian green slate floor and a back wall of translucent glass tiles. The simple and elegant materials and natu-ral colors were chosen to underline a “masculine and athletic” spirit, the company said.

The store sells the main men’s ready-to-wear collection alongside Carven Office, a line of work-friendly suits, shirts, jackets and pants. Henry has also created a capsule collection

inspired by the work of photographer Michael Wolf to mark the store’s offi-cial opening today.

Carven opened its second women’s store on the Left Bank earlier this year. The French fashion brand, founded by Carmen de Tommaso — aka Madame Carven — as a couture house in 1944, has undergone a revival since Henry joined in 2009. It is now carried in 450 doors in 60 countries.

persists that the London-based e-tailer is for sale.

Spokesmen for richemont and Net-a-porter declined to com-ment Wednesday.

As reported last month, richemont has quietly put Lancel up for sale, and hired Nomura to find a buyer. earlier this year, richemont founder and chairman Johann rupert, who is currently on a year’s sabbatical, told analysts that the company needed to “cull” its bad investments quicker, al-though he did not give any specifics.

In the spring of 2010, richemont acquired the shares that it did not already own in Net-a-porter in a deal valuing the luxury retailer at 350 million pounds, or $532 million at current exchange.

While Net-a-porter was by no means a bad investment — in-dustry observers speculate that richemont could flip the Web site today for three times that figure — it is a rapidly growing com-

pany, and e-commerce is far from richemont’s core business.

It is also rapidly expanding into new businesses in the edito-rial and social media space: Last month, Net-a-porter revealed the

launch of The Netbook, a new mobile app to create a social net-work of users sharing their favor-ite products on the site.

In February, the site will launch

Porter, a consumer title to be pub-lished six times a year, and have a global distribution at newsstands and via subscription. Its pages will be transactional via mobile phone and via an app, built in-house. Content is being produced by a dedicated team, with contributions from Net-a-porter’s free, weekly on-line magazine, The edit.

richemont does not break out Net-a-porter’s sales, but in its latest five-month trading update, the luxury group said the e-tailer notched double-digit growth in the first five months of the cur-rent fiscal year.

According to the latest figures filed at Companies House, the official register of businesses in the U.K., in the year to March 31, 2012, Net-a-porter Group posted turnover of 368.1 million, or $589 million at average exchange for the 12 months, and losses of 15.8 million, or $25.3 million.

— WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JULIA NEEL

6 WWD thursday, october 10, 2013

Is Richemont Looking to Sell Net-a-porter?

MeMo padCarven Opens Men’s Wear Unit

{Continued from page one}

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At the moment there are no negotiations

taking place with Richemont.

— Federico Marchetti, Yoox.coM

Inside the Paris men’s wear store.

André Leon Talley

Richemont said Net-a-porter notched double-digit growth in the first five months of the current fiscal year.

Harley Viera-Newton, Alexa Chung and Leigh Lezark.

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WWD.COM7WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

TORY OUT WEST: Tory Burch’s three-story, 4,700-square-foot Beverly Hills flagship is going to be ready in time for holiday shopping. The store will open at 366 North Rodeo Drive on Nov. 5 and become Burch’s fourth store in the Los Angeles area and 13th in California.

Burch and architect Daniel Romualdez, with whom she has collaborated on all the Tory Burch boutiques globally since the brand’s inception, set out to create a store with a residential ambiance. In the interior, there is gold leaf peony wallpaper with white coral sconces, a Madeleine Castaing carpet in an oak-paneled room, a velvet seating nook with an antique Moroccan tile mirror, abaca rugs, brown lacquer walls, cane tables and seafoam drapes. The exterior brass facade has fretwork inspired by Chinese Chippendale sets. Tory Burch’s full range of merchandise will be available at the flagship, including ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes, jewelry, small leather goods, swimwear, accessories and fragrance. — RACHEL BROWN

HAT THIEF: The extraordinary hat collection of the late fashion editor Anna Piaggi has been deprived of one of its most iconic gems.

On Wednesday, Piaggi’s nephew Stefano Piaggi said that in the last weekend of September the stiletto shoe-hat designed by photographer Bill Cunningham in the Seventies was stolen from the “Hat-Ology” exhibition, inaugurated at Milan’s Palazzo Morando during fashion week last month.

“We tried to keep this unpleasant event secret until the end of the exhibition, but it’s leaking out,” Piaggi said. “We reported the theft but we didn’t get any news yet.”

Curated by London milliner Stephen Jones, the exhibition, open until Nov. 30, showcases part of Piaggi’s large collection in a homelike setting. — ALESSANDRA TURRA

GOLDEN TICKET: David Neville and Marcus Wainwright are in Tokyo to celebrate the opening of a Rag & Bone pop-up shop at Isetan’s Shinjuku flagship and the design duo has taken a page out of Willy Wonka’s playbook to promote it.

Open for just one week, the shop sells a selection of the brand’s best-selling merchandise, as well as several collaboration items, including a series of chocolate bars from Mast Brothers. Inside 50 of the chocolate bars are golden tickets, earning one of five handbags or 45 Smythson notebooks. The pop-up also carries bottles of whiskey from Kings County Distillery and backpacks by Japanese brand Porter as well as rain boots by Hunter.

“The idea when we were discussing the concept [of the pop-up] was to try and show Isetan customers what Rag & Bone stands for,” Neville said. “There’s a lot of references to our English past and our New York present, so a lot of the collaborations are either English or from New York or Brooklyn.”

Wainwright said it was important for the brand to present its range beyond fashion. “It’s a company that has a lot of history and a lot of authenticity. And I think this is a good representation of the things that we think are cool and some of the other brands that we love and really admire,” he said. — KELLY WETHERILLE

WURST LONDON: Dorothee Schumacher was in London on Tuesday night to host a party at her new London shop. With a wurst stand out front dishing up traditional curry wurst, a stand of apfelstrudel and Crémant d’Alsace flowing inside, the evening had a thoroughly Teutonic flavor. “We’ve been open for three weeks and we had a sales figure in mind that we wanted to reach but we’ve completely exceeded it,” said the German designer. “It’s been a great surprise. Notting Hill has really welcomed us.”

Schumacher said that she chose the West London location for her first shop in the city because “it’s not a high street; while it is authentic in its diversity, it’s still a sophisticated and luxurious neighborhood, where people live their lives. It’s beautiful and feels like home.”

There are plans in the pipeline for a second London location, most likely on the south end of Sloane Street. — JULIA NEEL

FINE FOOTWORK: Brioni has launched a limited-edition men’s footwear collection currently available at the company’s flagship stores. The capsule includes three handmade calf styles — an oxford, a derby and a loafer, — available in three color variations, including ebony, brown and burgundy.

The shoes, featuring a vintagelike finishing, are made extremely flexible through the use of an antishock membrane combined with a memory shape material.

The shoes, all numbered by hand, are sold with shoe care accessories, including wooden molds. — A.T.

STORE SHOW: New York & Company Inc. is getting ready to strut its stuff with a new store design that has a runway as its centerpiece. The first example will be installed at the retailer’s Lexington Avenue and 58th Street store in Manhattan.

The runway is used to divide the store into Uptown and Downtown sections that represent both sides of New York & Co.’s style. Gregory

J. Scott, New York & Co.’s chief executive officer, said that for the first time, the retailer’s two personalities are clearly defined. The new prototype gives subbrands their due. “We

haven’t been able to clearly present the subbrands and their personalities with a sense of discovery,” Scott said. “We’ll have a shop for Seventh Avenue suiting, our Love NYC lounge collection and our new Eva Mendes collection. We’ll have a place for accessories. Each room will have its own personality under the New York & Co. umbrella. The goal is for the store is to be more productive. When we have true shops, it makes every part of the store more productive.” — SHARON EDELSON

By VICKI M. YOUNG

EVEN THOUGH The Men’s Wearhouse Inc. has rejected Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc.’s $2.4 billion offer, don’t expect the men’s vertical retailer to walk away anytime soon.

Robert N. Wildrick, chairman of Jos. A. Bank, said in a telephone interview, “I am disappointed in their formulated response. In the interests of shareholders, and more importantly in the interests of customers, this is an opportunity to put together a couple of very good companies and come out with an extraordinarily good company with better product that’s cheaper to compete against the big guys, such as Macy’s. That’s a plus in my point of view. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Wildrick emphasized: “Their obligation is to sit down with us, rather than put us down.…We have no plans at this time to go away.”

Jos. A. Bank reached out to Men’s Wearhouse on Sept. 18 regarding an ac-quisition proposal that would give Men’s Wearhouse’s shareholders a cash offer of $48 a share. The transaction would be funded from cash on hand, financing and $250 mil-lion in new equity capital from private equity firm Golden Gate Capital.

Although Men’s Wearhouse received the proposal on Sept. 18, it didn’t reject the offer until Wednesday, when Jos. A. Bank publicly disclosed it.

Bill Sechrest, Men’s Wearhouse’s lead direc-tor, said the proposal “significantly undervalued

Men’s Wearhouse” and called it “opportunistic.”Doug Ewert, Men’s Wearhouse’s chief ex-

ecutive officer, said, “Men’s Wearhouse has undertaken a number of strategic initiatives to accelerate growth and profitability, includ-ing our recent acquisition of JA Holding Inc. and the Joseph Abboud brand. We believe we are well positioned to deliver compelling value to our shareholders.”

The offer on the table represents a 42 per-cent premium to the closing price of Men’s Wearhouse’s stock of $33.71 on Sept. 17, and a 17.8 percent premium to the 52-week high and five-year high of $40.75, according to an investor presentation from Goldman Sachs and Financo Inc. that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The presentation said the benefits from combining the two retailers include: comple-mentary business strengths and market po-sitioning; operational synergies; impressive offerings of men’s apparel and sportswear at various price points; a platform to optimize and expand the global real estate footprint, and an increased scale with more than 1,700 stores across North America and revenue in excess of $3.5 billion. It also indicated that a combined company will have a “largely un-drawn asset-based revolving facility of up to $600 million and cash on the balance sheet.”

Gilbert Harrison, Financo’s chairman, said, “Over 40 percent of the shareholders of Jos. A. Bank and Men’s Wearhouse overlap. This deal allows those shareholders to keep the cash from their Men’s Wearhouse shares and keep their Jos. A. Bank shares to get the upside.”

The investor presentation also noted that the transaction, if completed at the current offer price, would be immediately accretive, at a 50 percent accretion rate, before any rev-enue or cost synergies.

Stifel’s Richard Jaffe said the offer is at a slight discount when compared with re-cent transactions, where offers are in the 9x enterprise value range. At that range, Jaffe thinks Men’s Wearhouse should be acquired at $52 a share.

Brian Sozzi, a former retail analyst and now ceo and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, said, “This is a well-thought-out deal. Not sure why Men’s Wearhouse is balking. When I look at the [Goldman Sachs-Financo] investor presenta-tion, one glaring omission is a guarantee for jobs, particularly for [Ewert]. Perhaps the board is looking for some form of a role in the company for him.”

The investor presentation said the com-bined firm will be led by Wildrick as chair-man, and that management will “consist of the most qualified individuals from both organiza-tions who are best suited to integrate the two companies and drive long-term growth.”

Sozzi added that he sees the deal get-ting done, but maybe not until early 2014. “I think a sweeter deal will get this done,” Sozzi concluded.

Whether that’s a possibility, Wildrick didn’t know. “I have not talked to a soul about that yet. We’re offering a premium [now],” the chairman said.

Wildrick said of the offer-ing price: “The advice from our advisers was that if we’re serious, we should go in with a very fair price…at a respect-able level. We don’t buy a lot of companies. This has a nice premium, and if we [went with it], the [expectation was the] directors [at Men’s Wearhouse] would exercise their fiduciary responsibility and engage in a discussion.”

Wildrick said Jos. A. Bank never approached former Men’s Wearhouse chairman George Zimmer, a move he said would be the equivalent of a hostile deal when there were first rumblings of dissen-sion within Men’s Wearhouse.

“We wanted this to be a friendly deal,” Wildrick said. To

that end, Jos. A. Bank’s chairman emphasized that as for staffing in a post-merger world, the company isn’t looking to fire people to get syn-ergies. “We need good management,” he said.

And while he is reported to be open to an acquisition by Men’s Wearhouse at the same premium, Wildrick noted what he said was that if one came, he would have to take it to the board for consideration given his “fidu-ciary responsibility.”

Wildrick joined Jos. A. Bank as ceo from November 1999 to December 2008 before tak-ing on the chairmanship.

According to Wildrick, “If you bought $2 million worth of stock in Jos. A. Bank in 1999, it would now be worth $120 million.”

Sources familiar with Jos. A. Bank’s plan said if it did pull back its offer, it would do so before the holiday season and then consider another play post-holiday. That would be risky for Men’s Wearhouse, said one contact who noted that a lackluster holiday selling season would translate into a lower bid than the one on offer now.

Shares of Jos. A. Bank rose 6.4 percent to $44.33 in trading on the Nasdaq, while Men’s Wearhouse shares jumped 27.8 percent to $45.03 in Big Board trading.

After the markets closed, Men’s Wearhouse said its board has adopted a “lim-ited duration shareholder rights plan” that has a dividend of one right on each share of the firm’s common stock. While the plans typically are considered “poison pills” to discourage a takeover, they do not prevent a board from accepting an offer they deem in the best interests of its shareholders.

FASHION SCOOPS

FOR MORE SCOOPS, SEE

WWD.com.

Jos. A. Bank Persists in Bid To Buy Men’s Wearhouse

Men’s Wearhouse turned down Jos. A. Bank’s $2.4 billion offer.

A rendering of the Tory Burch Beverly Hills flagship.

WWD.COMWWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 20138

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — The René Caovilla brand will turn 80 next year and is gearing up to celebrate with the third generation in place at the head of the company and plans to expand globally.

Events to mark the anniversary are slated to take place in Venice, where the brand is manufactured, and in New York, in addition to other cities in Europe early next year. There also will be two capsule collections for depart-ment stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus.

Introducing his first solo collection in Milan during fashion week for spring, chief executive officer Edoardo Caovilla said the pieces have a more youthful and contemporary edge. For ex-ample, sneakers and espadrilles with crystals were displayed alongside the feminine jewel sandals the brand is known for.

“It’s more about additional pieces, rather than drastic changes, and it’s in response to our customers’ requests,” said Caovilla, who joined the company as chief operating of-

ficer in 2009 and was ap-pointed cre-ative director this year. His father, René Fernando, will continue to hold the title of president.

With about 3 0 d o o r s , the U.S. is Caovilla’s larg-est wholesale market, ac-counting for about 35 per-cent of whole-sale business. In the U.S., wholesale rev-enues climbed 53 percent with the spring

collection compared to the previous year. There are also boutiques in New York, Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles.

René Caovilla is leveraging strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region over the past 18 months and has plans to open 10 stores in the next two years in key locations, including Hong Kong, Macau, Chongqing, Chengdu and Xi’an. In June, a store opened in Shanghai at new luxury mall L’Avenue and the company counts three franchised units in Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei.

Sales in 2012 rose 24 percent to 15 mil-lion euros, or $19.8 million at average ex-change. In the first half of 2013, revenues climbed 32 percent.

Caovilla said he is looking at tripling sales in six or seven years through global expansion and future projects that include the launch of jewelry in spring 2015, followed by eyewear and perfumes.

8

René Caovilla Brand To Mark 80th Year

Fendi Casa Opens on Madison Avenue

By LISA LOCKWOOD

NEW YORK — In the year since Denise Miller has been president of Rafaella, a division of Perry Ellis International Inc., the compa-ny has updated its better sportswear line, further developed the replenishment program and is now launching denim and activewear collections.

The activewear collection — called Rafaella Sport — will be introduced at retail this spring, while the denim will hit stores in the fourth quarter of this year.

Rafaella Sport, a first for the classic sportswear brand, will include draw-string bottoms, T-shirts, jackets, hood-ies and anoraks. Wholesale prices range from $20 to $35. The collection will be manufactured in China and Vietnam. Rafaella Sport will launch in 280 doors for spring with the goal to expand distri-bution to 950 doors over time. It will be targeted to Rafaella’s key accounts, such as Lord & Taylor, Belk and Bon-Ton.

“Rafaella Sport will be what the Rafaella customer wears on the weekend, vacation or whenever she wants to dress down but still look put together,” said Miller.

Core fabrics are denim, in a variety of washes and lengths; French terry; poplin; cotton Modal, and Spa Stretch, which is a soft polyester-spandex that travels well, she said. The color palette for Rafaella Sport will complement the main line as it’s a life-style extension of the brand. The palette will be anchored with core neutrals of black and navy, and for spring, a soft khaki and white, accented with stripes and florals, will be added.

In the jeans category, five-pocket denim bodies in white, dark indigo, medium wash and black are being offered both in its Curvy and Classic fits. They are available in full and capri lengths. There is also a classic five-pocket denim skirt and jacket that’s part of the mix in all colors and washes. Jeans will wholesale from $23 to $35.

The company plans to ship a small cap-sule of denim in the fourth quarter under the main Rafaella label to get the denim

on the retail floor during January and February, when the category historical-ly does well, said Miller. The plan is to fully launch denim with the Rafaella Sport label in the spring. First-year projections weren’t disclosed.

Known for the fit of its pants (classic, curvy and slimming) and its emphasis on dressing the mod-

ern woman, Rafaella has made im-provements to its better-price sports-

wear line as well.“Our business is very good. We

worked very hard in turning the ship around. We had walked away from our

core customer,” said Miller.The line had gone off in a trendy di-

rection, which wasn’t appropriate for the Rafaella customer. “For this woman, fit is

important to her, and approachable fashion is important to her,” said Miller.

Rafaella is the largest women’s brand with-in the Perry Ellis International portfolio, and

the second-biggest brand overall after Perry Ellis. Rafaella represents more than 10 per-cent of the total business of PEI, which has just under $1 billion in revenues. Rafaella is distrib-uted in more than 2,100 doors across the U.S.

For spring, Rafaella will also update its brand identity. It worked with an outside cre-ative firm to develop a new brand mark, pack-aging and trims to communicate the Rafaella

fit options. The weight of the hangtag is more substantial and is attached to the garment with

a waxed cotton locking looper with its new “R” icon. It also designed a new joker tag that is affixed to the back of the waistband. This tag explains the benefits of the fit. It includes photography that shows the fit in front, side and back views.

In other news, Rafaella added styles this fall to its core replenishment program in misses’, petite and plus sizes. In addition to its new pant silhouettes, it added a pencil skirt, jacket and a camisole in black and white.

By DAVID MOIN

“WE SELL TO wealthy people — the very wealthy,” says Mariagrazia Catelli, manager of New York’s first Fendi Casa store, at 153 Madison Avenue on the corner of 32nd Street.

Fendi’s leather sofas, priced $25,000 to $30,000, can be had with such signatures as the brand’s horse emblem embroidered in the cushions, or the “selleria” fine stitching. While sofas represent the core of the collection, customizing products, with a selection of more than 400 fabrics and 100 leathers, and presenting a balance between clas-sic and contemporary styles, are also central.

“All of our leathers and fabrics come from high-end suppliers. We get very specific with the cows and the pieces of skin that we select,” Catelli said.

The offering covers products for the living

room, dining room, kitchen and bedrooms, in-cluding tables, chandeliers, countertops and fur throws, and draws a design connection to Fendi ready-to-wear and furs. The Madison Avenue site had a soft opening on Sept. 21, and official-ly opens Oct. 23. There are only five other Fendi Casa stores — two in Milan, and one each in Paris, Miami and Los Angeles, though a location is being planned for London, according to Catelli.

Signs on the storefront read Fendi Casa as well as Luxury Living, which is the exclusive retail umbrella for selling Fendi Casa, as well as the Bentley and Heritage home lines. Fendi Casa, however, dominates the space, occupying 60 percent of the two-level, 11,000-square-foot store. Heritage is Luxury Living’s private brand. Bentley, Heritage, Fendi Casa and Luxury Living are part of Club House Italia, the furniture com-pany in Forli, Italy.

NEW YORK — Consumers got their first exposure to COS, a sister brand to H&M, through a pop-up shop at Opening Ceremony’s Howard Street store here and openingceremony.us, beginning Friday. The shop will be in place for one month.

COS, whose prices start where H&M’s leave off, will break into the U.S. in the spring with a store at 129 Spring Street in SoHo.

A brand for men and women, COS of-fers modern, stylish and timeless collec-tions produced from materials includ-ing leather, fine suiting and cashmere.

COS’ wide product range is divided into different concepts such as fash-ion essentials, reinvented classics and latest trends.

Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, cofounders of Opening Ceremony, explained the decision to do the pop-up as a chance to offer something not seen in the U.S.

“We see COS as a completely sepa-rate brand from H&M,” Lim and Leon said. “COS is a fashion-industry fa-vorite for those who often travel to London and Paris and haven’t been able to get the collection in the U.S. until now. We’re excited to share our love of this brand with our New York customers for the first time.”

Lim and Leon pointed out that they had similar success when Opening Ceremony sold Topshop in 2006 be-fore the retailer established a flagship in the U.S.

COS is not creating special prod-ucts for the Opening Ceremony pop-up, but Lim said, “It’s definitely some-thing to consider for the future.”

Opening Ceremony has another H&M connection, albeit unrelated to the COS pop-up. Minju Kim, the win-ner of H&M’s annual design competi-tion, will have her collection sold at Opening Ceremony stores in New York

and Los Angeles. “We discovered Minju Kim among recent Royal Academy graduates this past January when we visited the Academy,” Lim said. “She subsequently won the H&M award.”

During New York Fashion Week, Opening Ceremony held a pop-up market at Pier 57, future home of the SuperPier, on Hudson River Park. Dubbed Opening Ceremony BTW (By the Water), the pop-ups were staged in shipping containers. DKNY Exclusively for Opening Ceremony and Rihanna for River Island were among the brands represented.

“Creating pop-up shops allows us to explore other kinds of retail formats,” said Lim. Opening Ceremony has com-mitted to opening an anchor store at the SuperPier in 2015. “We have many ideas on what retail can be and we like to create memorable experiences for our customers and community.”

— SHARON EDELSON

Rafaella to Launch Sportswear, Denim Lines

COS Shop to Pop Up at Opening Ceremony

Some looks from the new Rafaella Sport collection.

Edoardo Caovilla

The Fendi Casa store in New York officially opens Oct. 23.

Out of This World “Gravity” actor George Clooney is a fashion star in Giorgio Armani. Page MW3

MAN OF THE WEEK

October 10, 2013

PHOT

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Bergdorf Goodman Unveils New Look

FIFTH AVENUE MAKEOVER

New shops for Brioni, Zegna and Goyard in renovations to main floor and tailored clothing areas.

{Continued on page MW4}

Fresh Crop

A new class of young designers is laying down

roots and establishing labels in the men’s

market. Among the more promising newcomers is

Fingers Crossed, founded and designed by Ryu

Hayama, with a spring look shown here. Born and raised in Tokyo, he studied

mechanical engineering at prestigious Waseda

University, but then moved to New York to learn men’s

fashion design at FIT. He launched his label this year,

targeting men who appreciate fit, details and workmanship

with an American heritage aesthetic. For more new

designers, see page MW2.

by JEAN E. PALMIERI

NEW YORK — Bergdorf Goodman has the only freestanding men’s luxury store in Manhattan, and it’s ready to crow about it.

For the past two years, the upscale re-tailer has been investing in the remodel-ing of the three-floor, 41,500-square-foot Bergdorf Goodman Men, the first compre-hensive revamp since the store opened in 1990. Last September, the third-floor contemporary designer department got a facelift and a shoe library was created on the main floor. This fall, it’s the front of the main floor and the tailored clothing depart-ment that got a dose of love.

“Admittedly, when the men’s store opened in 1990, it was to free up space for the more-productive women’s merchandise,” said Joshua Schulman, president. “But over its 23-year history, it has developed a dis-tinct identity as a stand-alone business with a heritage of innovation. From Tom Ford to Thom Browne, Bergdorf Goodman Men was the first store to introduce designers like that. The very talented merchant team at that time developed small businesses like Brunello Cucinelli, that at the time was only a sweater resource, and they grew alongside Bergdorf Goodman Men.”

He said that most of the store’s com-petitors have moved to “homogenize” their men’s departments “to a more unisex con-cept. But we see having a separate and dis-tinct location as an advantage.”

Barneys New York, Bergdorf ’s key rival in the luxury arena in New York City, has also been investing in updating its men’s store, but has been breaking down the barriers and walls between its adjacent women’s store.

When Schulman joined Bergdorf ’s two years ago, he brainstormed with the team “on what the next generation of men’s store should be. We have some of the most power-ful retail real estate in the world, on Fifth Avenue between Apple and Louis Vuitton. So we looked at the mix of product and worked to keep the extraordinary taste level that has defined Bergdorf Goodman but make it more relevant to a younger customer.”

The challenge, he said, was to “harness the power of our sartorial heritage and blend it to meet the changing needs of to-day’s modern consumer.”

Schulman declined to provide a dollar fig-ure for the cost of the renovation but noted, “There’s a lot of growth within these four walls. We have a very powerful stand-alone business and, by investing in capital, people and mar-keting, we have a significant opportunity.”

Industry sources estimate that the men’s store does volume approaching $100 million.

PLUSMarc Ecko, cofounder and namesake of the Ecko brands, who sold his stake in them to Iconix Brand Group in 2009, is retaking the helm of Marc Ecko Cut & Sew. Page MW3

Men’s WeekMW2 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

New School A new generation of emerging designers is injecting a sporty, youthful energy into the American fashion arena. — Alex BadiaLONGJOURNEY

n Location: Los Angelesn Name of the designers: Alonzo Ester and Alex Carapetiann Personal and professional background: Carapetian and Ester are originally from Los Angeles, where they worked as buyers, stylists and consultants in the retail industry.n Year established: 2012n Market niche: Artisanal sportswear blended with luxury vintage.n Retailers: Maxfield (Los Angeles), Bergdorf Goodman (New York), Louis Boston (Boston), Alchemist (Miami), Barneys Japan (Japan), Restir (Japan).n Price points: Jersey, $255; bottoms, $230 to $850; outerwear, $1,000 to $1,500; footwear, $500 to $600.n Target customer: Someone that embraces their perfect imperfections and uniqueness, and appreciates those qualities in LongJourney.

PROPER GANG

n Location: New Yorkn Name of the designer: Max Vanderwoude Grossn Personal and professional background: From Bucks County, Pa., he attended Parsons The New School for Design and graduated with a degree in the Design and Management program. Previously he worked at Opening Ceremony and Acne.n Year established: 2012n Retailers: Dover Street Market (London and Japan), Opening Ceremonyn Price points: $200 to $3,000n Target customer: The insiders; men, women and transgendered ages 18 to 88.

PYER MOSS

n Location: New Yorkn Name of the designer: Kerby Jean-Raymondn Personal and professional background: From Brooklyn, N.Y., he graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor of business administration degree in entrepreneurship and business law. Previously he worked at Marchesa.n Year established: 2013n Retailers: Brown’s, Ssensen Price points: Knit shirts, $85 to $500; woven tops and sweaters, $200 to $800; pants, $200 to $1,500; jackets, $650 to $2,500. n Existing brand role model: Phillip Lim in regards to wearability and price.n Aesthetic: Luxury sportswear.n Target customer: 22- to 38-year-old men, or the older man who just feels 22. A guy who likes to be different but not outrageous and is searching the hashtags #nyfw, #madefw or #menswear in hopes that something new and cool will come up on their phone screen for discovery.

JAKE OLIVER

n Location: New Yorkn Name of the designer: Jake Olivern Personal and professional background: Originally from Arkansas, Oliver studied men’s wear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Previously he worked at Betsey Johnson, Costello Tagliapietra and Barneys New York. n Year established: 2013n Market niche: Progressive, integrative men’s wear, filling a void in the men’s market that reaches the clientele that visits both sides of the store.n Price points: Wholesale is $350 to $1,500.n Existing brand role models: Thom Browne, The Row, Nike.n Aesthetic: Hints of classic Americana and traditional sportswear.n Target customer: The modern, confident, on-trend man with a taste for luxury and a contrarian inclination.

Photos by GeorGe Chinsee

w10b002a;9.indd 2 10/9/13 6:58 PM10092013185937

Men’s Week MW3WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

by DAVID LIPKE

MARC ECKO is back in the game.The cofounder of the Ecko

brands, who sold his stake in them to Iconix Brand Group in 2009, is retaking the helm of Marc Ecko Cut & Sew, the upscale contem-porary label that is an offshoot of the core Ecko Unltd. young men’s brand. Ecko’s first season design-ing and producing the line will be summer 2014, which he plans to unveil to buyers next week at the Ace Hotel in New York.

“I’m dusting off the old kicks and getting back into the grind,” said Ecko, who over the past few years has been focused on building his Complex Media business and largely divorced from the Ecko brands, serving only a negli-gible advisory role.

Ecko has formed a new company called Unlabel.ME, which has licensed the Cut & Sew brand from Iconix and will be responsible for design, product de-velopment and sales. Ecko’s partner in the venture is his twin sister, Marci Tapper, who was a cofounder of the former Marc Ecko Enterprises.

“Marc Ecko and Marci Tapper bring with them a deep passion for this brand, a creative vision and a vast experience in product and design,” said Neil Cole, presi-dent and chief executive officer of Iconix. “With Marc and Marci’s know-how coupled with Iconix’s expertise in brand management and our global retail partnerships, we are confident we will be able to

grow this brand exponentially.”The Cut & Sew label was pre-

viously handled by the operating company owned by Seth Gerszberg, the third cofounder of the Ecko brands. Gerszberg’s company still retains the license to produce and distribute the primary Ecko Unltd. young men’s brand, which is a larg-er business than Cut & Sew.

When Iconix acquired a 51 per-cent stake in Ecko in 2009 for an effective purchase price of $109 million, including debt, from Marc Ecko, Gerszberg retained his 49

percent share of the brand. (Tapper had previously sold her stake in the com-pany.) The brands were licensed back to Gerszberg’s op-erating company, which produced and distributed the Ecko lines. In an inter-view, Ecko said his role in that company dwindled and dimin-ished as he was effec-tively sidelined under the new management structure, despite holding the title of

chief creative officer.“I really felt quite amputated,”

said Ecko. “The environment was not conducive to being creative.”

Without an ownership stake, Ecko found himself removed from the levers of power, in practice if not in title. “Listen, I’m not the first guy to sell his trademark or brand and then have to reconcile being divorced from what I invented,” said Ecko philosophically.

Ecko did have a financial incen-tive to help the brand succeed on a marketing level. As part of the sale

to Iconix, Ecko was guaranteed a royalty payment of 0.5 percent of net sales of Ecko products under the core license agreement with Gerszberg’s company and 5 per-cent of net revenues under third-party license agreements.

Ecko’s new deal for Cut & Sew comes on the heels of Iconix buy-ing out Gerszberg’s minority own-ership of the brands for $45 million in cash in May, bringing full own-ership of Ecko under its umbrella. Last month, Iconix also made a $25 million investment in Marc Ecko’s Complex Media.

Cole has joined the board of Complex Media, which already in-cludes representatives of investors

Accel Partners and Austin Ventures, which jointly provided $12.8 million to the company in 2009. Complex Media encompasses its flagship magazine and Web site, along with more than 110 sites targeting men in the style, music, gaming and sports silos, such as highsnobiety.com, se-lectism.com and solecollector.com.

Ecko’s deal for Cut & Sew sepa-rates the two distinct labels operat-ing under the Ecko banner. “It gives everybody the opportunity to do what they do best. It allows for seg-mentation of the brand, with Marc Ecko Cut & Sew capturing a slightly older, more sophisticated con-sumer and Ecko Unltd. serving the youth culture consumer,” said Seth Horowitz, president of the men’s di-vision at Iconix. “We feel that Marc Ecko Cut & Sew will thrive under Marc’s creativity and leadership.”

Gerszberg’s company currently operates more than 80 Ecko Unltd. stores in the U.S. Overseas, local partners operate more than 40 stores in Europe and Brazil, along with another 26 stores in Canada. The Ecko Unltd. stores do not carry the Cut & Sew line.

The biggest retail partner for

Ecko Unltd. is Dillard’s, along with specialty store accounts. Key retail partners for Cut & Sew are Dillard’s and Nordstrom.

Marc Ecko said the Ecko brand has declined under Gerszberg’s stewardship, an assertion Horowitz did not dispute. Gerszberg did not respond to requests for comment.

“There has been consolidation in the marketplace and increased com-petition [in the young men’s catego-ry] with a lot of new brands,” said Horowitz. “All brands in this space are fighting for market share.”

Some of those greener play-ers might learn some lessons from a book that Ecko just authored, called “Unlabel: Selling You Without Selling Out,” published earlier this month by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. It’s the first de-finitive retelling of the founding of Ecko in 1993 as a T-shirt company and it’s roller-coaster ride to be-coming a global brand.

Ecko — who is almost aggres-sively erudite, peppering his con-versation with words like “gestalt” and phrases like “taxonomies of product development” and “think-ing through the design process in a tai-chi fashion” — has plenty of ad-vice, both high-concept and practi-cal, for entrepreneurs. He doesn’t hold back on the inside details of his company’s many ups and downs over the years, which makes for an eye-opening read.

“I’m not operating from an ivory tower of pure fashion. I don’t fancy myself as a pure fashion designer like Ralph or Calvin. The world doesn’t need another guy to orga-nize another fashion conversation around lapel widths or the role of leather sweatpants, like Kanye would say,” said Ecko. “I want our brand to be about inspiring people. I want people to say, ‘If I’m going to wear that shirt, I can tell my boss to f--k off.’ That’s the spirit of where I want to reposition the brand.”

Man ofTHE WEEK GEORGE CLOONEY: A

Salt-and-pepper hair doesn’t

get much more immaculate

than this.The small knot flares out elegantly into a wide tie — chic.

Gravity isn’t taking hold on that million-dollar face. He looks rested, with just the right amount of wrinkles.

A two-button suit’s perfect fit makes simplicity a virtue.

The sheen of the fabric lends the suit a polished, evening look.

Sunglasses instead of

a pocket square. He’d

rather be in Lake Como

— take us with you!

The only quibble is that the sleeves are a tad too long.

The strong crease in

the pants is masculine and sophisticated.

A smooth lace-up

is usually preferable at

night, but these wingtips are

refined enough to anchor this

near-perfect ensemble.

George Clooney hit the New York premiere of “Gravity” in classic Giorgio Armani. The lost-in-space flick hit number one at the box office and its impeccably turned-out star is tops in the style department, as well.

PHOT

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HAEL

LOC

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NO/G

ETTY

IMAG

ES

The Return of Marc Ecko

Ecko’s new book.

A look from Cut & Sew.

Marc Ecko

For more career opportunities log on to WWDCareers.com.

(800) 423-3314, or email classified@fairchildfashion.com

Account ExecutiveMajor Dress and Sportswear companyseeks a sales person to organize and

grow our online retailers. The correctcandidate must be detail oriented andanalytical. Must also be creative andan excellent communicator, both ver-

bal and written. Resumes tosocialmediasales080713@gmail.com

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVEIsaac Mizrahi New York seeks a highly

motivated and goal oriented SeniorAccount Executive to drive company’swholesale dress division. Must have 3-

5 years’ experience in better or con-temporary wholesale dresses sellingmajor department stores as well as aproven ability to open and maintain

accounts. Travel Required -Please send resumes to:

position7787sales@gmail.com

Upcoming Junior SptwrCA corp looking for a

Salesperson, min. 3 yrs exp& existing customer base &

willing relocate to LA. com+salary sales@westcoapparel.com

Men’s WeekMW4 WWD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2013

by HOLLY HABER

PLANO, Tex. — Dockers, Haggar and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. have joined forces to build lifestyle shops in 297 of the chain’s top doors with an eye on ramping up sales, especially of shirts and sweaters.

The adjoined Haggar and Dockers shops were codesigned by the brands and the re-tailer with custom fixtures to display com-plete looks on mannequins and posters, the better to encourage men to buy coordinat-ing pieces instead of only pants. Installation should be complete by Friday, according to John Tighe, Penney’s senior vice president

and general merchandise manager.“Both the brands are doing quite well

so their presence is growing in the store,” Tighe said. “It’ll outpace our total men’s business and we’re expecting it to really be a win for us and the manufacturers.”

An additional 225 stores are getting an updated presentation of the brands with fresh graphics.

Dockers and Haggar have about the same or slightly more space as before — an aver-age of 1,000 square feet combined — but the shops pack in more merchandise via back-wall shelves and more efficient fixtures, Tighe noted. The retailer rarely carried

Haggar shirts before and has increased its stock of Dockers’ shirts and sweaters.

Dockers began presenting complete looks in a less concentrated way last spring at Penney’s, noted company spokeswoman Kris Marubio.

“We know from the work we’ve done with Penney as well as other select wholesale customers that when we show men how to shop with a head-to-toe look it helps drive sales,” Marubio said. “We know it’s contrib-uted in both the second and third quarter of this year….While it’s early days for these new Dockers areas, we are looking forward to seeing how it engages consumers.”

Inspiration came from the Levi’s denim bars that Penney’s installed last year, which “continue to perform well,” Marubio noted. Levi Strauss & Co. is Dockers’ parent company.

Sales have exceeded expectations at the first Haggar and Dockers lifestyle shop that opene