Fashion. Beauty. Business.

DAILY EDITION 13 APRIL 2016 1

BIG YEARBottega Veneta is marking its 50th anniversary, 15 years of Tomas Maier as creative director and a decade of its furniture line. PAGE 6

FIXING THE DOCKLevi Strauss & Co. delivers a strong quarter and reveals plans to reposition its Dockers brand. PAGE 3

● The fashion division was hit by the closure of DKNY Jeans and Marc by Marc.

BY MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Discontinued lines at Donna Karan International and Marc Jacobs Inter-national contributed to stalled first-quar-ter sales at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s core fashion and leather goods division.

During a conference call Tuesday to discuss results released the evening prior, analysts were told that the division would have posted a gain of 2 percent without the elimination of the DKNY Jeans and DKNYC ranges, plus certain Jacobs products.

Both American firms are restructuring, with Jacobs shelving his Marc by Marc Jacobs contemporary brand and unifying various col-lections and price segments under one label.

Jean-Jacques Guiony, LVMH’s chief finan-cial officer, acknowledged that the nixed American lines would weigh on the division’s tallies for the balance of the year – and that turnarounds for both companies are not yet in view.

“I don’t think we’ll see a marked improve-ment until 2017 anyways,” he said, confirming the discontinued lines would wipe 250 million euros, or $284.6 million at current exchange rates, from 2016 tallies.

The executive also warned that steep

BUSINESS

LVMH Sales Dented by Nixed Lines

CONTINUED ON PG. 8

LAURA’S SONGLaura Mercier has signed Song of Style’s Aimee Song as its brand ambassador in what is believed to be one of the biggest deals between a beauty brand and a blogger. PAGE 5

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● Facebook’s Messenger platform to allow brands to correspond directly with customers.

BY MAGHAN MCDOWELL

SAN FRANCISCO — The robot sales associ-ates are coming — at least to Facebook.

Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday the social media giant is open-ing up its Messenger service to developers wanting to create “bots” to assist shoppers via chat.

This creates new possibilities for brands that connect with customers using Facebook and could have a major commercial impact, potentially bringing chat-based commerce

RETAIL

Chat-Based CommerceComes OneStep Closer

CONTINUED ON PG. 8

Sarah Hyland of “Modern Family” is the latest face of the Candie’s brand — and its first-ever creative director. The actress will appear in the brand’s fall ads, while her

first design efforts will be visible in spring 2017. “I love to try new things and put myself in a situation that’s uncomfortable,” Hyland told WWD on the set of the ad

shoot in L.A. “Learning something new is scary and fun and challenging.” For more, see page 4.

THE MARKETS

A New Family

http://www.mcmworldwide.com/en/home

13 APRIL 2016 3

● Lower first-quarter losses related to the impact of foreign exchange translations also bolstered results.

BY ARTHUR ZACZKIEWICZ

Despite macroeconomic challenges — from a shift in consumer shopping behav-ior to the ongoing impact of a strong U.S. dollar — Levi Strauss & Co. delivered strong growth in net income on a small increase in revenues.

Lower losses related to the impact of for-eign exchange translations as well as higher international and direct-to-consumer sales buoyed results.

Net revenues rose slightly to $1.057 billion for the period ended Feb. 28 from $1.055 billion in the prior year, while net income jumped 71 percent to $66 million from $38 million. Excluding the impact of “unfavorable currency” translations, the top line gained 5 percent.

Chip Bergh, president and chief execu-tive officer, told WWD that the company’s men’s, women’s, tops and bottoms were all up, globally. “Currency is still having an impact, but the sales growth was fairly broad-based,” he said. “We are off to a good start for the year.”

Still, Bergh acknowledged soft spots in the company’s business: notably wholesale in the U.S. and Dockers. With the latter, Bergh said, “We have a plan in place and will be resetting Dockers this summer, which also includes simplifying the shop-ping experience for the consumer.” On a call with investors, the ceo added that the “Dockers turnaround is well under way.” He said the repositioning includes rolling out “a Dockers Signature Khaki in stretch.”

Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes rose 4 percent in the quarter to $124 million from $120 million last year. The company said the gross profit margin jumped to 53 percent in the quarter from

50.9 percent in the prior year. Higher gross margins were “primarily due to lower negotiated product costs and streamlined supply chain operations,” the company said, adding that international and “direct-to-consumer sales growth benefited gross margin.” On the top line, the company said there was “$46 million in unfavorable currency translation effects.”

Levi’s noted that the net income gain primarily “reflected lower foreign currency transaction losses as well as higher adjusted EBIT and lower interest expense.”

“Adjusted EBIT grew 4 percent on a reported basis and 12 percent on a con-stant-currency basis, primarily reflecting an improvement in gross margin and higher constant-currency revenues, partially offset by increased investment in the company’s direct-to-consumer channel and advertis-ing,” the company said.

“Our direct-to-consumer and interna-tional businesses continued to fuel our growth, and our Levi’s women’s business grew again this quarter on a global basis,”

Bergh said in the quarterly statement. “Looking forward, we anticipate the second quarter will be a difficult comparison to the prior year, given our planned retail and advertising investments, and as the U.S. wholesale channel continues to face traffic challenges and ongoing softness in consumer spending at retail.”

By region, net revenues dropped 1 percent to $571 million in the Americas while Europe was flat at $276 million and Asia was up 3 percent to $209 million. Operating income in the Americas declined 20 percent to $82 million while rising in Europe 6 percent to $62 million. In Asia, operating income was flat at $47 million.

The Dockers reset includes re-examin-ing the product assortment, which Bergh said has grown and become complex over time. He also said that in the casual market, “stretch is a more important focus for consumers.”

Areas of strength have been the compa-ny’s women’s business, which — for a third quarter in a row since the relaunch last year — delivered double-digit growth.

Despite the solid first quarter, Bergh said headwinds remain, which include currency issues. “And it’s tough out there, globally, as traffic is down across the board,” he said, also noting a difficult tourism market. In the U.S., the ceo expects the wholesale business to decline in the current quarter.

Also impacting the overall retail market is a seemingly permanent shift in consumer behavior. “Millennial consumers in particu-lar are spending and shopping differently,” the ceo noted. “And Baby Boomers as well. They are spending more on dining out and having experiences, and on nesting instead of buying apparel.”

The shrinking share of apparel from a consumer’s wallet coupled with the currency issues are likely to continue, Bergh said. But he remains optimistic. “It’s important to note that at the moment there aren’t any tailwinds,” Bergh said. “Even so, we were able to post solid results.”

BUSINESS

Direct-to-Consumer Aids Levi’s

The 21 Best Low-Heeled Booties For Fall 2016 ● WWD’s picks for the best low-heeled booties for fall 2016 from the New York, London, Milan and Paris collections.

● Victoria Beckham’s Leg in Vogue China Shoot Sparks Controversy

● They Are Wearing: New York Fashion Week, Spring 2016

● Azzedine Alaïa RTW, Fall 2016

● ”Game of Thrones” Season Six Premiere: Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner

Global Stock TrackerAs of close April 12, 2016

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The Men’s Wearhouse Inc. +4.34%

Sears Holdings Corp. +3.53%

Avon Products Inc. +3.30%

Safilo Group SpA -2.79%

Youngor Group Co. Ltd. -2.56%

Anta Sports Products Ltd. -2.17%

Seven & I Holdings Co. -1.79%

Pandora AS -1.70%

TOP 5TRENDINGON WWD.COM

● The past two weeks have seen three top chief marketing officers abruptly leave their posts.

BY DAVID MOIN

The chief marketing slot has become retail’s hot seat.

In the past two weeks, three leading chief marketing officers vacated their jobs suddenly — Martine Reardon at Macy’s, Will Setliff at Kohl’s and Wanda Gierhart at the Neiman Marcus Group. Reardon and Setliff also were executive vice presidents and Gierhart held the senior vice president title. Last January, Michael Crotty, exec-utive vice president and chief marketing officer for the Hudson’s Bay Co., left the retailer.

Executives have been under pressure due to slumping results, though sales and traffic trends have been weak across the retail landscape recently. Experts said Tuesday that retail marketing positions turn over rapidly in periods of weak traffic, with performance sometimes tied to the success or lack of success of seasonal campaigns and the ability to woo new

customers.“Retail operations are always relentless

about attracting, retaining and servicing their customers and that’s putting pressure on marketing departments,” said Jaimee Marshall, executive vice president of Kirk Palmer Associates. “Companies are looking for modern skill sets in their chief market-ing officers. In an omnichannel business, the digital experience becomes that much more important and the historic skill set in advertising on TV and in print is not as relevant.”

Macy’s and Neiman’s said their top mar-keting executives left on their own accord. Kohl’s said Setliff, who was executive vice president of marketing for just two years, resigned this week. Kohl’s did make a splash this year by becoming a retail spon-sor of the Oscars, replacing J.C. Penney. Before Kohl’s, Setliff worked at Darden Restaurants and Target. Crotty’s departure is believed to have stemmed from consoli-dations at HBC.

The three retailers have not yet found successors for their marketing executives.

Macy’s Reardon was instrumental in transitioning a traditional brick-and-mortar retail business into social media and the digital world. She officially leaves Macy’s

on May 13, after 32 years of service.“I will miss my Macy’s family terribly,

but I am looking forward to taking time for me now,” Reardon said Tuesday. “The marketing organization at Macy’s is incred-ibly deep and talented, and I am excited for my colleagues to carry on the work we began together.”

Reardon early on foresaw the rise of mobile shopping, and was involved in a wide range of activities, from getting Macy’s involved with location-based services like Shopkick to designer collabo-rations and major merchandise campaigns, be it a Karl Lagerfeld capsule collection or an America promotion. She led macys.com, Macy’s advertising, creative develop-ment, brand public relations, cause and tourism marketing, media planning and consumer insight efforts and data analysis, in addition to special events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.

Reardon began her career in special events at Abraham & Straus, which was converted to Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s in 1995. Her ascendancy in the marketing ranks came despite periods of consol-idations, management and ownership changes.

“It is with deep sadness that we accept Martine’s resignation from Macy’s,” said Terry J. Lundgren, Macy’s Inc. chairman and chief executive officer. “Martine’s leadership, insight, creativity and exper-tise have enabled Macy’s to compete in physical stores and digitally as customer shopping preferences have evolved. Our entire organization will miss Martine.”

RETAIL

Chief Marketers Depart From the Retail Ranks

One of Levi Strauss & Co.’s latest launches is an MLB-branded line under The Levi’s Brand.

4 13 APRIL 2016

● The “Modern Family” star will be its first creative director and the face of its fall and spring campaigns.

BY MARCY MEDINA

LOS ANGELES — The Candie’s girl is growing up. The company, which was founded in 1981 with the now famous high-heeled wood bottom slide, has since become a juniors staple known for choosing of-the-moment young actors and singers — from Destiny’s Child to Britney Spears to Lea Michele — for its ads over the years.

Now Candie’s has tapped “Modern Family” starlet Sarah Hyland not only as the face of its fall 2016 and spring 2017 campaigns but also as its first-ever cre-ative director. It’s a move that will bolster the company’s efforts to re-brand itself from a juniors basics resource to a brand for young women entering the workforce and looking for pieces to round out their wardrobes, from office to evening to weekend.

Hyland, 25, came on board just in time to help style the look of the fall ads — WWD recently sat down with the actress on the set of her first shoot — and she’s already begun lending her creative direction to the still-in-progress spring 2017 collection.

“We’ve normally just had a face for the brand, but we’ve evolved Sarah’s role into a more integrated one because she’s a fashion authority in her own right and we’re excited that she can lend that to Candie’s,” said Katie Reeves,

vice president of brand management for the women’s division at Iconix Brands Group, which holds the Candie’s license. The brand is sold exclusively at Kohl’s stores nationwide and kohls.com and comprises juniors apparel, intimates, accessories, eyewear and footwear rang-ing from $30 to $60 retail.

Hyland, who had just completed a photo setup depicting her in creative director mode — cue the glossy white desk, artfully arranged bookshelves and colorful mood boards — changed out of a burgundy keyhole top and black A-line skirt and booties and into her own skinny jeans and worn-in T-shirt to chat about her newest role.

“The creative director part is what drew me to this the most because Can-die’s has never done it and I’ve never done it, so we’re both new to this type of game,” she said as she tucked her sock-clad feet underneath her in a director’s chair. “The fall line was already done, but it’s really cool to be able to have say in the styling and concept for the shoot we’re doing today. Everything is gearing toward more of a sophisticated career woman. It’s really fun, but more mature.”

Hyland’s ads will debut an update of the logo from the brand’s signature hot pink to a more dusty shade accented with rose gold foil elements. Meanwhile, she’s done her homework with the product. Of her favorite pieces, she said, “They have a great anorak jacket with embellishments [rhinestones, lace insets and zipper details are key for the season] so it’s not as tomboy and it still brings that girly element to it, and it’s paired with this breezy sleeveless button down.

I normally would never have pictured it in the Candie’s line, but it’s really good for work and for college.”

She continued, “There’s a lot of fun skirt and top mixes where you have the lace-up top and a laser-cut skirt, or a printed blue top and a fun zip toggle skirt. A lot of pieces you can mix and match.”

While Candie’s age demographic is ages 13 to 34, Hyland will help focus on the 18-to-24, recent high school or college graduate segment entering the workforce. In addition to the brand’s core tops and regular- and curvy-fit pants, which Hyland will help update with trendy colors and prints, she will influence “outfit completer” pieces such as a lace bomber jacket. Fall 2016 will also mark the debut of a Candie’s denim collection, which will include embel-lished rhinestone details and specialty fabrications, such as floral jacquard.

Hyland, who the press normally encounters on awards show red carpets (“Modern Family” has been a perpetual Emmy Awards nominee and sometime winner for its past six seasons) wearing gowns by designers such as Zac Posen and Monique Lhuillier, said her jeans and T-shirts “are more me.” Which is

partly why she likes Candie’s. “It’s a very everyday clothing line, just heightened a bit so you’re not just walking out in jeans and a T-shirt, you’re walking out in an ensemble,” she noted. “And it’s all priced to where you can actually can get everything and have fun mixing and matching.”

Being a celebrity can make getting dressed harder, she admitted. “The only reason it’s harder is you have so many opinions and views of fashion. I’ve always been a…I don’t want to say ‘fashionista’ because I don’t even like the word, it feels conceited. But I’ve always had very classic takes on fashion. But it all depends on my mood. Everyone goes through this: it depends on how skinny you feel that day, how tired you are, if you want to look good for someone, if you want to look good for yourself. That’s why I love fashion, because you can express your emotions through your outfit.”

For Hyland, seeing the Britney Spears Candie’s ads as a teenager was “every-thing.” “The Candie’s girls one after another have been amazing women not only in what they do but in their lives. Some of my friends have been Candie’s girls, Vanessa [Hudgens] and the Fifth Harmony girls. It’s exciting to be part of a long line of young women who are able to express their fashion through Candie’s.”

Working on the spring 2017 collection was the first time she felt like she’s had a 9-to-5 job, which was a welcome change from playing Haley Dunphy, a character she now knows inside out. “I love to try new things and put myself in a situation that’s uncomfortable,” she said. “Learn-ing something new is scary and fun and challenging.”

As for spring 2017, Hyland said, “Expect color, expect prints, little fun details that will heighten a simple outfit because a lot of the time less is more. Nothing crazy busy and it has to be the right print.”

Because she’s on a “Modern Family” hiatus having just wrapped season seven, she’s headed to North Carolina for six weeks to play Lisa, Baby’s sister in the “Dirty Dancing” remake. “I’m not sure if they will send me stuff or we’ll have phone calls, but I will definitely have to bring my computer to do work outside of the movie,” she said of her new Candie’s gig.

Said Reeves, “The consumer now is looking for a fashion authority — whether actor, musician or influencer — to help guide them through the season. Sarah’s extremely approachable and also a [well-known] actor and she resonates with our customer and will also bring new ones.”

THE MARKETS

Candie’s Taps Sarah Hyland

Here and above: Behind-the-scenes looks

at the Candie’s campaign featuring Sarah Hyland.

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13 APRIL 2016 5

● Song of Style’s Aimee Song is Laura Mercier’s newest brand ambassador, reportedly inking one of the largest beauty deals for a blogger to date.

BY RACHEL STRUGATZ

Song of Style’s Aimee Song is singing — all the way to the bank.

Song just signed up to be Laura Mercier’s newest brand ambassador and its first digital influencer, inking a deal that’s believed to be one of the largest to date between a beauty brand and a blogger.

“It’s the biggest deal ever — and it’s not just [the money]. It’s the deepest relationship I’ve ever had with a brand. Even though I continue to work with [many] of the same brands — it’s never been, ‘I’ll work with you for a year.’ That’s never happened to me,” Song told WWD. She declined to say how much she’s getting paid but a source close to the brand confirmed that the deal is worth more than $500,000.

The yearlong partnership has her creating content for her blog at songofstyle.com, posting Instagram images and making appearances at fashion and beauty events on behalf of the brand. She’ll also create video content for laur-amercier.com and incorporate it onto her own social channels to elicit maximum engagement from her 3.4 million Instagram followers.

Song, who has worked with SK-II and Dolce & Gabbana fragrances previously, said she has a lot of creative control and plans to keep her content “as organic as possible.” She started using Laura Mercier long before the deal and will continue to use the other beauty brands that are part of her daily routine.

“There are very few brands that I just can’t work with,” Song said of the terms of her agreement.

“She’s not exclusive [to us]. We want her to be able to work with other brands,” Nancy Bernardini, general manager and chief executive officer of Gurwitch Products, parent

company of Laura Mercier said, calling Song a “great example” of the Laura Mercier con-sumer. “We want it to be organic as well — and one of the reasons we chose her was because we knew she organically uses the brand already and is a brand loyalist.”

Song can create content that features other beauty brands and is allowed to contractually work with other brands during the course of the yearlong partnership, with the exception of a handful of competitive names.

“There is the most opportunity in beauty, and even if you pore through the pages of a magazine you see a large percentage of ads being beauty,” said Karen Robinovitz, cofounder of influencer management firm Dig-ital Brand Architects, which represents Song, Chriselle Lim of The Chriselle Factor, Rachel Parcell of Pink Peonies and Julia Engel of Gal Meets Glam.

“When you look at digital advertising, you’ll definitely see more beauty [ads] than you do fashion. The beauty brands really like to speak to the fashion influencer because they are creating such a high level of editorial content and really motivating their audience to follow everything they do,” Robinovitz continued, noting that when a fashion influencer posts about beauty it quickly becomes one of their most engaged posts because of the accessibility of the category.

Laura Mercier is just the latest beauty brand to start thinking big when it comes to bloggers.

“All of the major beauty brands are starting to think about the large-scale deals and putting a digital influencer in advertising the way they would an A-list actress,” a beauty source said. “Everything they do needs to have a large-scale holistic integration for it to be successful.”

L’Oréal has already gotten comfortable with big-time blogger deals.

Kristina Bazan, who has 2.3 million Insta-gram followers, reportedly signed an exclusive one-year contract with L’Oréal in October that’s worth at least $1 million. The 22-year-old blogger’s ambassadorship reaches beyond the digital space.

“She’s a traditional ambassador,” said Jenni-fer Powell, head of Next Model Management’s influencer division, which orchestrated Bazan’s deal with L’Oréal. “Whenever you’re consider-ing doing something at that magnitude it has to be exclusive. The brand must have depth of dif-ferent products that they have so you’re able to produce a variety of content. But it also affords you more opportunity to do content.”

Bazan, for instance, is attending the Cannes Film Festival with L’Oréal, which presents a prime opportunity to produce content for her blog, Kayture, and her social channels.

While others are catching up, Bazan’s is still believed to be the largest beauty deal that a

blogger has signed to date.Chiara Ferragni of The Blonde Salad has

beauty partnerships that span YSL beauty, SK-II, Eyeko, Ormana, Chanel, Dior, Kenzo and Pantene. The latter, inked at the end of last year, is the biggest deal of the group and rumored to be in the midsix figures.

Arielle Nachmani of Something Navy is reportedly earning between $200,000 and $300,000 for her work with TRESemmé, which now includes national TV commercials.

But these megadeals are still few and far between.

Similar to celebrities, yearlong ambassa-dorships are the holy grail of beauty deals for influencers — with one-off and short-term partnerships being the ticket to getting there.

A beauty insider said smaller deals sur-rounding a single product launch could equal a payout of just $5,000, but it’s common for “short-term” deals with top bloggers to fetch six figures if content features influencers with a substantial reach, several blog and social posts and a “decent level of production.”

For instance, Chriselle Lim of the Chriselle Factor worked with Dior surrounding the launch of Dior Prestige La Crème in November of 2015 and has also produced sponsored con-tent around the brand’s Dior Addict lip colors. Like Song and Ferragni, Lim has worked with SK-II since last year, and in 2014 worked with Estée Lauder to create a series of videos.

Similarly, Danielle Bernstein of We Wore What had a contract with Maybelline during New York Fashion Week in February and Julie Sarinana worked with La Mer in a similar capacity earlier this year.

“I’m careful when girls start engaging with beauty brands because it could create conflicts,” Next’s Powell said. “A girl lost a hair deal because of something she did six months earlier in an advertorial with a conflict brand. The conflicts are real.”

Powell said a lot of the work she’s doing in the beauty space is about developing a relation-ship: “It’s like dating. It has to make sense and resonate with the brand and talent.”

Once the relationship has been established though, she cautioned that she never lets brands have approval of content produced by her talent. While she does “respect and wants to make sure the brand’s objective is repre-sented,” Powell said the preservation of the content and the voice of the influencer always comes first.

BEAUTY

Bloggers Win Big With Beauty

Aimee Song is Laura Mercier’s first influencer ambassador.

Chriselle Lim partnered with Dior for the launch of their Dior Prestige La Crème.

Kristina Bazan became a L’Oréal

ambassador at the end of last year.

● Grey Jason Wu will launch for spring 2016 and be available at select retailers in June.

BY JESSICA IREDALE

On Tuesday morning, Jason Wu revealed via Instagram that he’s been working on a new label, Grey Jason Wu, for the past 12 months. The company confirmed that the “sister” label — read: less expensive — to his main collection will launch for spring 2016, available in June at select retailers and through the collection’s Web site greyjasonwu.com. It’s named after his favorite color.

Wu posted a photo of several tags bearing the line’s new logo with the caption “Intro-ducing #GreyJasonWu, a new sister label I’ve created that has been under wraps for the last 12 months. Very excited to finally share it with everyone — more to come soon” to the 314,000 followers of his official account, who were encouraged to follow @greyjasonwu for updates. The new line’s Instagram feed had 471 followers at press time and featured photos of sketches of looks from the Grey collection.

Two-dimensional drawings are tough to parse, but there appeared to be printed shirtdresses, a shift or two, a pair of wide-leg cropped white pants. Wu gave more detail via captions, stating that the collection was “born from his desire to dress his friends, inspired by their dynamic personal styles.” Another quoted Wu: “As the Jason Wu collection evolved over the last few years, I felt that there was room for a sister collection that very much addressed the needs of women who look for a beautiful, seasonless wardrobe that is neither too edgy or sweet.” Apparently

bunnies are neither edgy nor sweet, as yet another caption revealed that Wu worked with artist Hunt Slonem on bunny-printed chiffon, a multicolored jacquard and embroidered knits featuring bunny motifs.

The collection is made from Italian and Jap-anese fabrics and features whimsical details, such as trompe l’oeil pockets and contrast top stitching. Prices range from $295 to $1,395.

Grey is not Wu’s first flirtation with a

secondary collection. In 2012, he launched a contemporary collection called Miss Wu, which retailed exclusively at Nordstrom, with prices ranging from roughly $200 to $800. Miss Wu is no longer in production. Earlier that year Wu also did a Target collaboration. Grey Jason Wu will be the third fashion col-lection under Wu’s purview. He is also Hugo Boss’s artistic director of women’s design, a position he’s held since 2013.

FASHION

Jason Wu Launching New Sister Label

Here and left: Looks from Grey Jason Wu.

6 13 APRIL 2016

● The new collection of the Italian group was presented during the Salone del Mobile.

BY LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — It’s triple milestones for Bottega Veneta this year. The Italian luxury fashion firm marks its 50th anni-versary in 2016, creative director Tomas Maier has been head of design for 15 years, and the brand’s home collection was launched a decade ago.

Maier was here this week to present the company’s latest home pieces at its sprawling flagship dedicated to the line, timed to coincide with the international furniture and design trade show Salone del Mobile. On Thursday, a new family of scents will be unveiled in Vicenza, Italy, the fifth year since the launch of the first fragrance.

While any kind of celebration is still tentative, and the designer was mulling different ideas to possibly take shape in the fall, Maier told WWD these anni-versaries “could be a nice opportunity to open up to a broader audience, my peers and to people in the company. That would be nice. Let’s see.”

The soft-spoken designer said he “really likes the idea of a genderless, neutral or unisex scent,” which segued

into the current discussion of showing both women’s and men’s collections at the same time, as is being done by brands including Bottega’s stablemate in Kering, Gucci.

“I could consider it,” said Maier, also with the larger show in the fall in mind.

He’s shown some pre-collection looks on the brand’s men’s runway in the past. “It’s an interesting topic. We have to find a new way, a solution and the experience should be enjoyable,” he added, pointing to both the expense and the number of shows the industry attends.

But he’s firmly against the idea of a see-now-buy-now show for Bottega Veneta. “Our products need time to be made and our client doesn’t expect them right away. There is the pleasure of having to wait for something.”

Maier also said he doesn’t believe in shows open to consumers, who “don’t want to go to shows for housewives, they want the real experience, the real sizzle, editors sitting in the front row, their reaction and excitement. If not, they would get bored after the first time.”

Taking a tour of the rooms furnished with the latest Bottega Veneta home line, Maier expressed how “especially proud” he was “that it is produced in-house. It’s a real atelier [in Vicenza],” where the company researches and develops different materials, solutions and functions. Craftsmanship but also technology are priorities, as the designer showed how a lamp’s light changed intensity depending on the touch.

Functionality is a key for Maier, who pointed out that every piece should be practical. Take the collection’s oak and sterling silver boxes with semiprecious stones, from amber to opal, named after different planets. “I like the idea of the planets and I like beautiful boxes. You can store letters, pictures of lost rela-tives inside them. They are special and nobody that comes to your home would think of opening a box, would they?”

A family of sofas and armchairs in an ash hue and made with Poltrona Frau is called “Rudi” and Maier pointed out that with this item he wanted “no ref-erence to any specific [design] period.” They are available in mohair velvet, linen, suede or leather. Arch tables combine bronze structures and hon-ey-veined travertine or matte oak.

Maier expressed his preference for round tables, which allow “easier con-versation.” A chest of drawers entirely covered in suede or leather featured bronze handles combined with marble or a wooden top.

The collection also includes an exclusive collaboration between Maier and Osanna Visconti di Modrone: a set of bronze tables featuring a surface reminiscent of Bottega Veneta’s staple intrecciato leather motif. “Each table is unique, as a sculpture, as each piece’s mold is broken [to produce the table],” explained Maier. “We’ve been friends for years,” he added, explaining the tie-up with Visconti di Modrone, who is also a jewelry designer. The intrecciato motif is also present on new made-to-or-der rugs. “We are growing the line with new product families, expanding them depending on the need. We didn’t have martini glasses before, for example,” Maier said.

The designer said an entire floor will be dedicated to the home line in the new flagship in New York set to be unveiled by the end of 2017 on Madison Avenue.

BUSINESS

Bottega Veneta Marks Anniversaries

Here and below: The Bottega Veneta Home Collection.

13 APRIL 2016 7

● The move follows the appointment of Fabian Garcia as ceo.

BY ALLISON COLLINS

Shortly after appointing a new chief executive officer, Revlon Inc. has hired Juan R. Figuereo as chief financial officer and executive vice president, effective immediately.

The move could indicate that a sale of the company is not coming any time soon, financial sources said. “I’m not sure if [Revlon chairman Ronald Perelman] wants to build things up or pack it up and unload it, but he’s got the guys who could

do either,” said industry consultant Allan Mottus. In January, Perelman’s MacAn-drews & Forbes Inc., which owns almost 78 percent of Revlon, said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Com-mission that it would consider strategic alternatives for the business.

Figuereo’s hire also provides further indication that Revlon plans to grow its international business, sources said. Revlon chairman Ronald Perelman confirmed the possibility of global growth when ceo Fabian Garcia was appointed in late March. “Fabian’s deep experience and expertise in global consumer product sales will not only help enhance the growth in sales that Revlon has seen over

the past year but also drive expansion into new markets across the globe,” Perelman told WWD.

For 2015, 45 percent of Revlon’s net sales came from international markets, accounting for $870.6 million of the 1.91 billion Revlon had in net sales.

“They’re pretty penetrated in North America,” Mottus said. “Revlon’s never been a strong international brand.”

Figuereo previously worked as execu-tive vice president and cfo of NII Holdings Inc., which provides telecommunica-tions services in Brazil, until October 2015. Before that, he was executive vice president and cfo of Newell Rubbermaid Inc. from 2009 to 2012, and held the same positions at Cott Corp. from 2007 to 2009. He’s also worked at Wal-Mart International as vice president of mergers and acquisi-tions and in various international, finance and general management positions at Pepsi Co. between 1988 and 2003.

Garcia, who was appointed in late March, starts April 15. He succeeds former ceo Lorenzo Delpani, who resigned for “personal reasons” effective March 1.

BEAUTY

Revlon Names Juan Figuereo CFO

BEAUTY

Leslie Blodgett Exits Bare Escentuals● She will serve as a member

of the Shiseido Americas Creative Center.

BY ALLISON COLLINS

Leslie Blodgett, the former chief exec-utive officer and creator of bareMiner-als, is stepping down from her current advisory role with Bare Escentuals.

Going forward, Blodgett will serve as a member of the Shiseido Americas Cre-ative Center, which is led by Marc Rey, president and ceo of Shiseido Americas. Blodgett started bareMinerals in 1995, serving as the company’s ceo for 16 years. She took the company public in 2006. In 2010, after it was acquired by Shiseido, Blodgett transitioned from ceo to executive chairman.

“Leslie not only transformed the way women think about makeup by pioneering the use of mineral cosmet-ics, she created an entirely new busi-ness model,” said Simon Cowell, Bare Escentuals ceo. “Leslie’s innate passion for the customer has resulted in a true community brand, at the heart of which is an authentic intimate connection. We are grateful for the guidance and motivation she has continued to provide over the past few years as a strategic adviser, and we remain dedicated to building on her original vision.”

“Bare Escentuals is much more than a business to me and it represents much more than a brand to our customers,” Blodgett said. “Over the past 22 years, I have made some of my best friends — both with colleagues and customers — through the bareMinerals and Buxom brands and I want to thank everyone who was part of this amazing journey with me. I am incredibly grateful for these relationships and for these two iconic brands we built together.

“While I look forward to embarking on my next chapter, I leave with an incredible sense of pride around what the company has achieved — including the community we have built — and at the same time an amazing sense of purpose,” she continued. “I will remain connected to Bare Escentuals through my role as an adviser to Shiseido Americas, and I look forward to seeing the new ways in which the brand will continue to inspire and connect women around the world.”

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● For its first digital initiative with the model-actress, the brand will host a global Snapchat conference on April 15.

BY LORELEI MARFIL

LONDON — Rimmel London has named Cara Delevingne the face of the beauty brand, WWD has learned. An announce-ment is expected today.

The British model-actress will act as an ambassador and will appear in the advertising campaign, according to Johanna Businelli, Coty’s chief market-ing officer of color cosmetics. Delev-ingne’s first campaign will appear later this year and details will be released in due course.

“I think it’s so rare for a beauty brand to find such a natural face as an ambas-sador,” Businelli told WWD. “We are very fortunate to have Kate Moss but Cara is also a fantastic fit. We pick peo-ple who don’t need any customization and I think that is one of the key points. Cara Delevingne is a true British woman and she has true British style — a classic beauty and she also has this imitable attitude. She has had a very fast rise to stardom, it’s been meteoric and she is extremely compelling and loved by the younger generation, which is a key, core target for the brand.”

Businelli added that Delevingne embodies the values of Rimmel as a “modern British beauty.”

“She has this quite unique look because it’s always bold, very trendset-ting and very personal,” she said. “It’s her style so she is inspired from within and she has that individual beauty and her individual way of self-expression, which for us is very important. If you look at the way the Rimmel brand translates, it’s really about empower-ing women to create their look. It’s not about having a stereotypical look. She has become a true inspiration for

a generation of young women and for Rimmel.”

Businelli noted that future projects will be Delevingne-driven. “We’ll be focusing on bringing new products because innovation is the lifeblood of color cosmetics and we have a fast pace of innovation, so bringing to market the innovation, that fits also the Cara personality and the Cara look,” added Businelli. “It’s amazing, the following she has and it’s probably only going to continue to grow. I think over 28 million followers on Instagram alone, so that is an area that we really want to bring to life together with Cara. I think the key point here is authenticity and things being relevant and authentic.”

For its first digital initiative with Delevingne, the brand will host a global Snapchat conference on April 15. Starting on Wednesday, users can send questions using the hashtag #Rimmelx-Cara and the British model will select her favorite questions and will answer

them live on Snapchat.“Her personality and attitude are the

key factors and that is what we want to bring with this ambassadorial role for Rimmel,” Montserrat Passolas said. “She will be starring in campaigns for new launches, for new innovation, for every-thing that encompasses being a full front ambassador – TV, print, online, etc. Things that lead us to showcasing the Rimmel, ‘get the London look’ beauty, personality and attitude. She complements our ambassadors; we have as you know Kate Moss, Georgia May Jagger and Rita Ora. We will continue with them because they bring different backgrounds, different achievements of women. They are all strong, self-made women and they have outstanding personalities that complement perfectly each other.”

“My first memory of Rimmel, was watching the adverts with Kate [Moss],” Cara Delevingne told WWD. “I was very much a tomboy growing up so I never really wore makeup but I was always fascinated by how edgy and captivating the brand and its ambassadors were. It’s such an iconic cosmetic brand that rep-resents the London girl. It was a natural partnership. The brand philosophy and core brand identity is in line with my own style and attitude. I am proud to be English and jumped at the opportu-nity to collaborate with such an iconic English brand.”

Delevingne is the face of the latest Saint Laurent campaign, for La Col-lection de Paris. She will also star in “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” set to be released in July 2017 alongside Rihanna, Clive Owen and Ethan Hawke. Last year she starred in films including “Paper Towns,” and “Pan.” She’ll be seen in “Absolutely Fab-ulous: The Movie” and “Suicide Squad” this summer.

Former faces of Coty Inc.-owned brand’s roster include Coco Rocha, Solange Knowles, Zooey Deschanel, Lily Cole and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

BEAUTY

Cara Delevingne is The Face of Rimmel

Cara Delevingne

declines in tourist flows to Europe in the wake of the Brussels and Paris terror attacks would not ease anytime soon.

“I see no improvement as of today,” he said. “We know it’s going to take a few additional months to normalize.”

Vuitton, which operates four freestand-ing stores in the French capital, plus shop-in-shops at Galeries Lafayette, Printemps and Le Bon Marché, posted double-digit declines in Paris in the first quarter.

“It’s an important place to do busi-ness for Vuitton,” Guiony said, noting that tourists account for roughly 35 to 37 percent of the brand’s sales, with some countries in Europe above the 50 percent threshold, but some areas in the U.S. and Japan dependent on tourists for less than 10 percent of sales.

Analysts pelted Guiony with questions about Vuitton’s performance, given that the flagship brand accounts for an esti-mated 50 percent of group profits, and is considered a bellwether for the industry.

Shares in many luxury goods firms sank in early trading on Tuesday, with LVMH ending the day up 1.5 percent to close

at 148.30 euros, or $169.06 at current exchange, on the Paris Bourse.

Guiony trumpeted the “consistent outperformance of small leather goods” at Vuitton, which offers a “range of affordable products with high attractiveness.”

He hastened to add that affordability is relative: “Keep in mind, the price of a wallet at Vuitton can get you a handbag at some other brands.”

Céline’s “good momentum” was also bolstered by small leather goods and shoes, two segments “driven by success-ful development,” according to Chris Hollis, LVMH’s director of financial communications.

Reflecting a volatile backdrop, with Hong Kong and Macau mired in weak demand, and a rising yen tempering Chinese tourist flows, LVMH said organic growth sank 2 percent in Asia in the first quarter, while the U.S. and Japan each reported a 6 percent gain and Europe logged a 7 percent uptick.

Group sales rose 3.6 percent in the three months ended March 31 to 8.62 billion euros, or $9.51 billion at average exchange rates. Stripping out the impact of currency fluctuations, the gain stood at 4 percent, as reported.

The numbers missed consensus expecta-tions and reinforced that the luxury sector is lodged in a period of muted growth.

Separately on Tuesday, Christian Dior SA, the holding company for LVMH and Christian Dior Couture, released results for its fiscal third quarter and the nine-month period.

Revenues at Christian Dior Couture declined 1 percent in its fiscal third quarter but remained stable on an organic basis, despite lower tourist footfall in Paris and some Asian countries, the company said.

Sales at the French fashion house tallied

429 million euros, or $473.2 million, in the three months ended March 31.

For the first nine months of its current fiscal year, revenues at Christian Dior Cou-ture climbed 8 percent at actual exchange rates and 3 percent at constant group structure and exchange rates to 1.39 billion euros, or $1.53 billion.

Results for the Dior fashion house, known as Christian Dior Couture, were published Tuesday after the Paris Bourse closed as part of a financial release from Christian Dior SA, parent of luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

As reported, Christian Dior Couture closed out 2015 with revenues of 1.87 billion euros, or $2.08 billion, reflecting a gain of 17.1 percent at actual exchange rates and 7 percent at constant rates.

Dior had signaled consumer enthusiasm for the modernist women’s wear of Raf Simons, who exited as Dior’s couturier last October. The spring 2016 collection was his last, and Dior is relying on an in-house team while it plots the appointment of a new creative director for its women’s collections.

Dior’s team, headed by studio directors Serge Ruffieux and Lucie Meier, designed the spring 2016 couture, pre-fall and fall 2016 collections and are on deck to design the cruise collections, scheduled for a May 31 showing at Blenheim Palace outside London.

8 13 APRIL 2016

LVMH Sales Dented by Nixed Lines CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The closure of DKNY Jeans and other lines is expected to impact 2016 sales as well.

into the mainstream.

“I have never met anyone who likes calling a business,” Zuckerberg said. “You should be able to message a business the same way you would message a friend. To order from 1-800-flowers, you never have to call 1-800-flowers again.”

Fashion brands have long included chat features on their own Web sites while companies such as Everlane, Uber and Zulilly have experimented with chat-based functions on their Facebook pages before. But Zuckerberg’s statement Tuesday supercharges the model with bots and brings it onto a bigger stage, giving more brands chat access to the 900 million people on the social media platform.

Like a virtual assistant, a bot can recognize and respond to messages that are made up of text, image and audio. Everything that a shopper could do on an app or a Web site can be done with messaging. So a shopper could corre-spond with a brand using Messenger and say, “Show me a red dress,” or something more vague, like, “I need a gift for my wife,” and then be offered choices and the means to place an order.

In a departure from the catalogue-like approach favored by e-commerce sites, in which the shopper has to sort through options, the bot can aid in the discovery process by inferring meaning and taking cues given by the customer to refine the selection — just like a store associate.

Chat-based commerce can use a com-bination of automated bots and human interaction, so when the technology can’t fulfill a request, it can be transferred to a store associate who can.

Robin Chan, cofounder and ceo of Operator, which worked with Facebook on this initiative, said the move takes

commerce from the catalogue-based format of surfing the Web back to human conversation. “We are getting back to basics; for 20 years with e-commerce, there was no interaction,” Chan said. “This goes full circle because messaging is about communication.”

Chan considers chat-based commerce, or “c-commerce,” to be the third way of shopping, after a physical store and a Web site.

The opportunity for retailers, he said, is greater than ever, especially for retailers with a large physical presence, because the messaging app can integrate with a location-based delivery service like Uber to deliver merchandise to the customer immediately.

“The last 20 years have not been fun for retailers,” Chan said. “It’s been all about forcing them to invest in a capability that they were unfamiliar with. This is playing to their strengths, which are strong sales associates and having products closer to the consumer.”

The mobile commerce app Operator was introduced five months ago and treats shopping like texting, using a combination of bots and humans to help customers discover, view and purchase products. Its integration with Facebook offers a simpli-fied version of Operator inside Messenger that will evolve over time, Chan said. He observed the “early days” of chat com-merce two years ago in China, where, he said, commerce is woven into WeChat in a hybrid of messaging and Web.

Shopify, which powers many small- and mid-sized e-commerce sites, also was one of the first to integrate services for busi-nesses into Messenger. Shopify Merchants can use Messenger for customer support, order confirmations, shipping updates, push notifications and more.

Zuckerberg echoed the sentiment of experts who think that messaging could replace apps since mobile users don’t have to download stand-alone apps from brands but rather can have access to goods through a single Messenger platform.

“My perspective is that this is bigger than social media,” Chan said. “There are more users [of chat-based services] than people on social networks; it’s the biggest

thing on the Internet right now.”Not everyone was quite so bullish. In

a post on the topic, Forrester analysts Michael Facemire and Julie Ask were hesitant. Bot services, they said, needed to be convenient, with “zero friction for the consumer to get what he or she wants immediately in context.” They added, “customers don’t want to chat with machines that ask them dumb questions,” and included a finding that only one-in-four enterprises surveyed by Forrester used location data to make mobile ser-vices more relevant.

They did say bots will be a tool in a retailer’s toolbox. “Bots — and the chat platforms they run on — provide an amazing opportunity for brands to deliver contextual experiences on borrowed mobile moments.”

Futurist Erica Orange of The Future Hunters said that brands have to make it worthwhile.

“For a lot of consumers, there are so many tools at their disposal, so retailers are scrambling for ways to interact more

seamlessly or provide a more customized experience,” Orange said. “For a younger generation, it has to speak to them in a way that is authentic and doesn’t add to the noise.”

The Forrester analysts conceded that chat-based commerce did potentially provide a solution to an “apped out” consumer. Messenger vice president of messaging products Davis Marcus empha-sized this when he introduced the details of the Messenger Platform, which begins beta testing today

“Before the Internet era, everything was conversational,” Marcus said. “Then came the Web, and we traded personal-ization for interactions at a larger scale.”

Then in the mobile era, he said, “We download fewer and fewer apps and we don’t turn on push notifications.”

Messenger brings the best of these previous methods of interactions into one place, he said.

Facebook has tried to build a selling component before and came up some-what short. Brands such as Oscar de la Renta launched so-called “F-Commerce” pages in 2011 only to find that the social media giant’s feed — at least at that time — was better suited to diversions other than shopping. To that end, Facebook on Tuesday also shared that it would begin selling Newsfeed Ads that, when clicked, can immediately launch a chat with the brand.

Teamchat founder Beerud Sheth said, “You probably don’t have 50 fashion apps on your phone. It’s really painful to download all these apps and maintain and upgrade.” This is convenient for Face-book, as research consistently suggests that people are spending time in only five apps — one of them, ostensibly, Facebook, which shared on its blog that it’s the sec-ond most-popular app on iOS and was the fastest-growing app in the U.S. in 2015.

“Facebook Messenger and their 900 million users just entered the brave new bot world where they never have to call, download an app our use a Web site again to reach a business,” Sheth said. “Every business is now right at your fingertips — just a few taps away.”

Or, as, Marcus said hopefully, “Maybe today is the first day of a new era.”

Chat-Based CommerceComes OneStep Closer CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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● Brands, incubators and trade groups gave a sneak peek at development in smart textiles and wearables.

BY KRISTI ELLIS

WASHINGTON — Brands, incubators and trade groups gave a preview of some of the latest innovations under development in smart textiles and wearables, a space in which they are investing heavily, at a major summit in the nation’s capital.

The U.S. Commerce Department cohosted the first “Smart Fabrics Summit,” conven-ing a forum that public and private sector officials hope will lead to more collaboration among textiles, apparel brands, high-tech and the government, and bolster the nascent industry.

A series of panel discussions featuring brands such as Ralph Lauren and Adidas, innovation hubs such as Manufacture New York, patent attorneys, academics and sev-eral Obama administration officials outlined the scope of the industry and the potential it has to revolutionize the way smart fabrics protect firefighters and soldiers, provide physiological data to health-care provid-ers and athletes, and spur innovations in fashion.

Joshua Teitelbaum, deputy assistant secre-tary for textiles, consumer goods and mate-rials at the Commerce Department, who is spearheading the agency’s initiative, said his team spent close to a year researching the apparel and textile industries, looking for ways to help it expand and develop.

“We came to a few conclusions. One was that the applications for and potential growth for smart fabrics was very real,” Teitelbaum said. “Second, there were some hurdles that needed to be overcome in order to realize that opportunity. Recognizing that need and the unique ability of the Depart-ment of Commerce to convene the public and private sectors, the smart fabric summit was born.”

He said the summit was focused on “talking about some of the most important policy issues facing this emerging industry, the manufacturing challenge of building a textile product with integrated electron-ics, the federal research investment that is now ongoing to help develop some of the enabling technologies for smart fabrics, the importance of protecting intellectual property and consumer data from the very beginning of product design and the need for standards to set the foundation for growth.”

On a panel titled “Manufacturing Smart Garments — Surprises, Challenges and Lessons Learned — executives gave a broad overview of the evolution of smart textiles and wearables, charting where they’ve come from and giving a glimpse of what is in store for the future of the market.

J.J. Raynor, the White House special assistant to the president for economic policy at the National Economic Council, put the question to executives this way: “How do we take U.S. leadership in technology

— particularly in this case of many of those digital technologies — and take them out of the lab and actually into full-scale produc-tion, which involves answering many chal-lenging questions: How do we connect many diverse communities? How do we connect the steel toed boots and the stilettos?”

Amanda Parkes, chief of technology and research at Manufacture New York, said the innovation hub for emerging designers is focused on the next wave of wearable innovation.

“When I think about the kind of start-ups we have in our fashion-tech incubator, we are trying to go after a segment of the market that is not the plastic bracelet market, [but instead] the things that are not necessarily the sexy investments for venture capital,” Parkes said.

She pointed to one prototype recently developed by Thesis Couture, part of Manu-facture New York’s accelerator program, that involves “re-architecturing the stiletto with new ballistic grade polymers — literally using rocket science to make high heels.”

“These companies need to exist in the world of New York City fashion and have that kind of brand presence, but they also need to have the background and infrastructure, the intellectual property, the technology and engineering of being a tech company,” Parkes said.

Qaizar Hassonjee, vice president of inno-vation at Adidas Wearable Sports Electron-ics, who has been developing cutting-edge fibers and yarns for years, from his time at DuPont to his current position at Adi-das, said he believes the U.S. can develop the capacity to bring textile and high-tech together and make it in the U.S.

“My perspective is there is a lot of oppor-tunity for it to be done here. Even with the product we [Adidas] made for the German national soccer team, the electronics were made here in New Hampshire,” Hassonjee said.

He said he helped develop one of the first hybrid, heart-monitoring sports bras for Textronics, a spin-off of DuPont’s textile

business, and did the first lot of production in a facility in North Carolina.

“The benefit of doing something close to home is tremendous,” he said.

A significant challenge associated with the evolving industry has been finding the right resources and simplifying the process for small start-ups and larger corporations.

The Obama administration has stepped in to provide funding for cutting-edge textiles and apparel with the launch of a $317 million public-private project aimed at boosting the beleaguered textile industry and keeping the U.S. at the forefront of fiber and textile innovation in the military, health care and commercial fields.

To that end, the U.S. Department of Defense and Massachusetts Institute for Technology unveiled details of the Revolu-tionary Fibers and Textiles Manufacturing Innovation Institute at the end of March, comprised of 89 manufacturers, universities and nonprofits and organized by MIT and the DOD. It is all under the banner of the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America.

“Two weeks ago, we announced the [insti-tute],” Raynor said at the summit. “They are very focused on how to identify not only technology gaps that need to be solved, but also how to regrow that industrial capability in the U.S.”

Stephen Luckowski, program manager for the institute at the Defense Department who led the effort to establish it, gave a few more details about the long-term plan and structure.

“We have a schedule. It’s a five-year program plus six months of stand up,” he said. “These institutes are member-based organizations….Everyone has the opportu-nity to become a member. We expect within the near term, I hope within the next two to three months, to have a prospective member meetings.”

While the AFFOA consortium was awarded the overall contract, the institute will also be open to a broader membership base.

“There are a lot of folks here who want to participate,” Luckowski said. “This is a unique membership model. It has something called the fiber innovation network, which is actually based entirely on cost share. We’re looking to build a collaborative infrastruc-ture in both prototyping and pilot facilities for fiber and textiles. So if you are a small company and don’t have a lot of cash, that’s not the basis for membership in this institute model.”

BUSINESS

Smart Fabrics Summit NotesOpportunities, Challenges

● In May, it will become first multibrand Web site to sell Cartier watches online.

BY SAMANTHA CONTI

LONDON — The watch business may be in flux — with factors including the strong Swiss franc, China’s waning appetite for hard luxury, and tourists’ fears of terrorist attacks eroding demand — but that hasn’t stopped British omnichannel retailer The Watch Gal-lery from continuing to notch double-digit sales increases, with revenue this year hitting 63 million pounds, or $96 million.

Founded in 2006 as a concession-only business — it still operates the watch area at Selfridges London and two of the largest Rolex boutiques in Europe — TWG saw underlying sales grow 13 percent in the year to Jan. 31. The privately owned company is now looking for fresh investment to build scale and market share as it grows online

and internationally.WWD has learned TWG has hired Stone-

hage Fleming Advisory Ltd. to conduct a strategic review, and seek trade partners with retail and Internet expertise. Annual revenue growth has averaged 18 percent a year for the past nine years, and the com-pany has about 140 employees.

Concessions still generate about half of all sales. (TWG also manages the online luxury and designer watch categories for U.K. retail-ers such as John Lewis and Topshop.) Owned online and brick-and-mortar shops make up the remaining 50 percent. Online sales grew 41 percent last year, with the Web now accounting for 26 percent of turnover.

The company sells a broad range of brands, and in May will become the first online retailer to sell Cartier watches with the exception of Cartier.com. TheWatch-Gallery.com is seen by more than 300,000 unique visitors every month with 1.8 million page views, according to the company.

TWG is operating in a retail sweet spot,

with an average online transaction value of 2,000 pounds, or $2,840, and an offer that allows customers to sort watches by price, shape, style and materials. There’s also an online concierge and live-chat service no matter the price point. There are about 3,500 watches from 45 brands on offer, ranging from Tissot, to Gucci and Chanel, Longines and Tag Heuer, and limited-edition models from Hublot, Roger Dubuis and Panerai.

The online channel is proving a money spinner, although it wasn’t always this way. “Nine years ago the Web did not exist in the watch industry, and as recently as three to four years ago it was heresy to say you were even selling on the Internet,” said David Coleridge, the company’s chairman, who spent much of his career working for the Swiss luxury giant Compagnie Financière Richemont, parent of brands including Cart-ier, IWC and Montblanc.

He said that four years ago, TWG would

perhaps sell an average of one watch a week online. That channel is now generating millions of pounds a year in business, with watches sold every single day.

“People were afraid of the parallel mar-ket, discounting and fakes, but consumer perception and trust about buying watches online has moved and moved. We made a decision to listen to our customers, most of whom are doing their research online before buying,” said Coleridge, adding that customers not only trust the online channel but have become used to the convenience of home delivery and click-and-collect.

The high-end watch brands, many of which had a history with The Watch Gallery via its four brick-and-mortar shops across the U.K., are also getting accustomed to the idea of selling online, which they once feared as uncharted territory.

TWG has stand-alone stores at places including Westfield London and at Selfridges Manchester, while a concept store will open near the Royal Opera House in Covent Gar-den in late summer. The company is hoping the new unit will also serve as a showroom for online customers, as a central London hub for its click-and-collect service, and as an emblem of its efforts to fuse the online and off-line customer experiences.

“If the customer falls in love with a certain brand, we see ourselves as the oil that makes the purchase happen,” said Coleridge.

RETAIL

The Watch Gallery Seeks Fresh Funding

Joshua Teitelbaum at the Smart Fabrics Summit.

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“It’s kind of like an early Twenties crisis,” Phoebe Ryan says. The 25-year-old indie musician, sitting down for a chat a few hours after arriving in New York from Boston’s Brighton Music Hall, is discussing her now-signature mermaid green locks. “I was like, ‘I need to do something different, I need to do some-thing crazy that will make my parents freak out.’”

Ryan is a pop sing-er-songwriter with, yes, a head full of green hair and, to match, a passion for Shakespeare and the opera, a Twitter shout-out from one Taylor Swift under her belt, and a casual Columbia record deal. She’s set out to make pop music that is distinctly her own. “I’m kind of a tomboy but I can also be very sensitive,” she says. “I just like to get everything about me into these songs.”

Ryan was raised “straight up on the Jersey shore,” and was first drawn to acting but became hooked on music by seventh grade. “My older brother started playing guitar and I was superjeal-ous of him,” she says. “So I started teaching myself guitar, and I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan, and I started doing a lot of Bob Dylan covers in coffee shops — like the most typical things maybe.”

She left the Shore to attend New York University, where she studied audio production, engineering and business, “and even-tually I just kind of fell into songwriting,” she says. Ryan has no formal vocal training — aside from a bit of opera singing in her high school days. “When I was studying the engineering aspects of music I was superinterested in it but I

realized my friends would call me in to start writing songs for projects and I was like, ‘OK, maybe that’s my strong suit.’ I don’t need to be hiding in the studio behind the desk necessari-ly, I can be crazy and have a different outlet.”

Her songwriting knack was put to work when she moved to Los Angeles upon graduating. She soon found herself penning tracks

for a range of musicians, including rapper Skizzy Mars, folk band Oh Honey and fellow pop darling Bea Miller, for her sensation “Young Blood,” which went on to draw over 12 million views on YouTube. When it comes to crafting her own sound, Ryan’s is a natural mix of it all. “The heart of my sound is pop music, but I think it’s a little bit more left of center,” she says. “At the

end of the day I just need to have my personality shine through in a song. I think it makes the music different from other artists because I’m just weird.”

Another artist that hap-pened to find this “weird” sound appealing? Taylor Swift, queen of the social media plug, who posted about Ryan’s single “Mine” last year. “It’s so funny because actually, literally today, when we were driving from Boston, I pulled up the picture and I was like, that’s her handwriting and that’s my name — that still hap-pened,” Ryan says of the post, a photograph Swift posted where she hand-wrote a list of her favorite new songs by unknown artists. “I just went back and reflected on it today. Coming up on the end of the tour I was just trying to get myself energized and I was like, ‘OK my songs can affect people.’ And, I mean, Taylor Swift is a human at the end of the day. She’s so successful so it’s like I look up to her so much so if I can inspire someone who inspires me so much, eventually that will spread to other people.”

For her current tour, she headed out on the road with a familiar face, the young pop singer Charlie Puth, who coincidentally is from her same hometown in Jersey. “My piano teacher

used to take me to Charlie’s performances when I was in fourth and fifth grade and would be, like, ‘See, if you practice you can play piano as good as Charlie’,” she says.

After playing Webster Hall in New York, she ended her tour with Puth on Friday at the Court Basie Theater in Red Bank, N.J., where she saw many a concert

growing up. “My mom saw Ray Charles there, and so [playing there] is a big deal to me personally,” she says.

Having wrapped the tour, some rest is on the horizon. “I Airbnb’ed an RV in Venice on the beach so I’m going to be living in a camper,” she says. “Who knows why — I just needed to do some-thing weird.” — LEIGH NORDSTROM

Phoebe Ryan on Green Hair, Taylor Swift and the Jersey ShoreSinger/songwriter counts Swift as a fan and just wrapped touring with Charlie Puth.

What’s better than “It” girls doing good? Stuart Weitzman campaign girls Gigi Hadid and Joan Smalls, as well as Solange Knowles, Bella Hadid, Emmy Rossum, Olivia Culpo, Olivia Palermo, Devon Windsor, and Julia Restoin Roitfeld came out to Sadelle’s, home of Man-hattan’s current hardest brunch reservation, for an intimate dinner to celebrate the launch of the brand’s partnership with charity Pencils of Promise.

“We really believe philo-sophically that doing good is good business for us too be-cause we want to give back and we want to make a dif-ference,” Stuart Weitzman chief merchandising officer Susan Duffy explained of the event. “Stuart designed a limited-edition [shoe] in the ‘nearly nude’ yellow, which is [Pencils of Promise’s] color.

One-hundred percent of the profits of that shoe go to them as well. So you can make a stylish statement and feel good about doing it.”

“Through Stuart Weitz-man we’re able to build three schools, one in each country,” Natalie Ebel from Pencils of Promise said. The schools will be built in Laos, Ghana, and Guatemala, with a Weitzman team headed to Guatemala this June to start

work on the school there. “Not only are they creating a product that helps to do good and enable our work, but also they’re hosting an event like this and getting our supporters together.”

Rossum might be heading on one of the school-building trips — though that was news to her. “I didn’t know that until tonight!” she said, adding that she’d been planning to travel to Nepal in May to build a school, but due to filming she’s had to cancel. “They’re going the first week of June,” she said of Pencils of Promise,“and it seemed

like something to do with building a school was a bit in the zeitgeist for me, so when this event tonight came up I wanted a chance to meet some of the people.”

Smalls, Knowles, Rossum, Hadid, and Culpo all sported the signature “nearly nude” style in the limited-edition dandelion suede. “I love yellow,” Knowles said of the pair she was sporting. “You can Google ‘Solange yellow’ and a thousand things pop up.” She was also, perhaps the most so, interested in hearing about Pencils of Promise’s work in Africa. “I do a lot of education and out-reach on Africa,” she said. “Most recently I just helped to build a school in Zambia. Pencils of Promise has built 300 schools, and I’ve spent time in Ghana, so it was an automatic connection.”

Over the passing of shrimp cocktail, endive sal-ad, and plates of steak and salmon, the Hadids, Culpo, Windsor, etc. swapped names of makeup artists and made plans for Pilates dates the following morning. And before dessert was served, they headed past a rush of paparazzi into shared Ubers, party favors of sticky buns in hand. The night, it seemed, was still young. — L.N.

Gigi and Bella Toast Stuart WeitzmanSolange, Joan Smalls and more came out to support the shoe designer’s partnership with Pencils of Promise on Monday night.

10 13 APRIL 2016

Phoebe Ryan

Joan Smalls in Ellery and Gigi Hadid.

Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid and Joan Smalls.

Olivia Culpo and Devon Windsor

Solange Knowles

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Condé’s Media Plan Seen in ‘First Monday’When Condé Nast’s top brass formed its entertainment unit in 2011, it may have had this moment in mind: The division will premiere its first feature film, “The First Monday in May” at the TriBeCa Film Festival on Wednesday. The documentary chronicles the behind-the-scenes work of Condé artistic director and Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and Andrew Bolton, curator of The Metropol-itan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, as they conceptualized and planned The Met Gala last year for the exhibition “China Through the Looking Glass.”

The film’s release is fortu-itous on a few levels, the most obvious being timing. It makes its just two weeks before this year’s Met ball takes place. Perhaps more important is what the film embodies for Condé Nast, which has been working to develop the company to be less reliant on revenues derived from its print magazine busi-ness and more from the digital realm.

“The original reason why [Condé Nast chief executive officer and president] Bob [Sauerberg] wanted to start this division is because we needed to look at the company as a media company, not just

as a publishing company,” said Condé Nast Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff.

Since she joined the compa-ny four years ago, Ostroff has been closely watched by the media world — both inside and outside the Condé bubble. In CNE’s early days, many inside and outside the company were vocal about how editors in chiefs and their staffs rolled their eyes when the entertain-ment unit came knocking to create a video series “inspired” by their magazines. The New Yorker editor in chief David Remnick was one of the more vocal examples, but he has since warmed — and even embraced — CNE’s series “The New Yorker Presents,” which is produced for Amazon Prime.

“It’s about trust,” said Ostroff, acknowledging initial difficulties. “It’s about having some suc-cesses together and learning about what didn’t work and growing our businesses.”

Wintour offered: “I think for a lot of people, the Costume Insti-tute has always been about the night of the gala. Yet the reality is that it is the curtain-raiser to a show that has been months and months in the making. Thanks to Condé Nast Entertainment, and the director Andrew Rossi, everyone can see for the first time just how much creativity and hard work Andrew Bolton

and his team put into making a show happen, that they do far more than simply put clothes on mannequins.”

But part of the intrigue of the film — and growth of Condé’s business has centered on Vogue and, more specifically, Wintour. In “The First Monday in May,” director Rossi ad-dresses her persona as she makes cutting remarks and

swift decisions when she’s asked for input on the Met’s Chinese-themed decorations. She’s shown a mock-up of The Temple of Dendur, which is decked out in jade and red-toned objects. She remarks that it “looks like a Chinese restau-rant,” which draws knowing smirks.

Rossi, who directed The New York Times’ documentary “Front

Page,” later draws a parallel between how the West portrays Chinese women in films as cartoonish “dragon ladies,” then cuts to Wintour with some of her best dry lines.

But there are moments when Wintour’s passion for the artistry of fashion comes out, and it’s more apparent why the film is being made.

During the film, Baz Lurh-mann, who calls Wintour’s manner her “work armor,” offers that “Anna’s gift is bringing culture, both high and low, to cross-fertilize.”

Rossi juxtaposes Bolton’s artistic view of fashion with the nuts-and-bolts operations of fashion that concern wran-gling celebrities and big egos, which Wintour and her Vogue colleagues spend much of the film doing.

“In the world that we work in, you need the mixture of art and commerce,” Wintour noted. “You need both. Too much of one or the other would not work. They have to exist hand in hand.”

That sensibility is yet another layer to this project, according to Andrew Siegel, who runs AVP, the investment arm of Advance Publications, Condé Nast parent firm.

Three years ago, Advance took an 8 percent stake in Far-fetch, which is the sponsor of the film’s TriBeCa debut, Siegel said. Farfetch learned about the film through its chief marketing officer, who used to work on Vogue’s business side.

“One of the nice things with AVP, with Advance and Condé

and the others…is leveraging their intellectual capital,” Siegel offered.

Siegel, who said his group looks to invest $50 million in four to six new projects this year, said the partnership with Farfetch melds “technology and culture.”

Farfetch chief executive offi-cer José Neves maintained that his brand operates independent of Condé.

“It’s a pure financial in-vestment,” the ceo said, who addressed whether Farfetch is beholden to Condé. “But there’s the formal side and the informal side of things. We admire them and we like the people. When-ever things come up, maybe Farfetch is a little more top of mind…and vice versa.”

“Advance is strictly an inves-tor. We do things with Hearst, Time Inc. and newspapers. This just happened to be Vogue,” said Farfetch chief marketing officer Stephanie Horton, who used to work at Vogue as its executive director of communi-cations on the publishing side.

“For us it was an opportunity to do something new and dif-ferent,” she continued. “Rather than throw an amazing dinner in London, we were able to offer a screening.”

Horton noted that the screening allowed the brand to bring in VIPs, influencers and celebrities — and “people we didn’t know.”

“It reached beyond putting a logo on the step and repeat,” she said.. — ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

Memo Pad

Leonard’s Big NightLeonard Lauder, the chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Cos., hosted his closest friends, family and colleagues, plus a handful of beauty editors, in sipping Champagne after hours in the foyer of the Met Breuer on New York’s Upper East Side on Monday. The crowd was celebrating the museum’s reopening as a new part of the Met (as well as William Lauder’s 56th birthday).

“You are standing now in a time capsule, because this is exactly the way this room looked when it was opened in 1966 — everything — the lighting, the walls,” Leonard Lauder told guests. “You will see that all of the original names of the donors are still on the

wall…including mine.”The revamping process started in 2010

when the Whitney’s move left the Breuer building’s future up in the air. “I got very tense, because this is my place,” Lauder said. So he worked to fix the building up with a new facade and started talks to house part of the Metropolitan Museum’s contemporary collection during Met renovations, he said.

After cocktails, guests meandered through the building’s two exhibits: one showcases the art of India’s Nasreen Mohamedi through June 5, and another — “Unfinished” — presents 197 works that call into question the point at which a piece of art is complete. The presentation aims to leave visitors with insight into the creative

processes of a wide range of artists, not just contemporary ones, through viewing pieces that either were not finished, or were left to look incomplete. Works from Leonardo Da Vinci, Picasso, Andy Warhol, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Manet, James Drummond, Jackson Pollock, George Brecht, Jasper Johns, Piet Mondrian, Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly and lots of others are on display through Sept. 4. — ALLISON COLLINS

On the TableGiorgio Armani on Monday presented his new Armani Casa collection, which was on show in the new 14,040-square-foot space — formerly occupied by Milanese design firm De Padova — that will host the brand’s new flagship. The store, opening next fall, will be dedicated to furniture and interior design.

“Every time I was passing in front of the store, I used to think about the first time I met Maddalena De Padova in the garden of my house on Via Borgonuovo,” Armani said. “She was an incredible person and she always wanted to do something with me but then I lost sight of her and I’m really sorry we never worked together.”

Armani, who described the installation as “a defilé of pieces, which are inde-pendent of each other,” introduced a full tableware collection crafted from Limoges porcelain. This included plates decorated with gold and platinum motifs inspired by fabric patterns.

“We also focused on decor pieces and gifts,” Armani said. “I hope that on Christ-mas people will think about coming in this store to buy their gifts.”

In addition, Armani Casa continues to expand its contract business by develop-ing real estate projects, including one in Mi-ami and one in Mumbai, to be unveiled this year. A luxury project will be completed in Beijing next year. — ALESSANDRA TURRA

Exhibition AheadDecked out in Moschino, wealthy muse-um patrons and youthful fans alike turned out for the brand’s creative director Jeremy Scott at two events in Dallas last week.

The designer’s visit will surely lead to more: Scott has agreed to mount a retrospective of his fashions at the Dallas Contemporary museum in 2017.

“It’s going to be my 20th anniversary next year, so to have the Contemporary do an exhibition of my work is a very ex-citing and thrilling moment,” he said over lunch at Forty Five Ten. “It’ll have things from my entire career. We’re still figuring out exactly how we want to use the space. Right now I have the opportunity [to use all 26,000 square feet], but I’m not sure.”

As colorfully clad Millennials queued for him to sign his “Jeremy Scott” coffee table book, the designer explained that Dallas Contemporary executive director Peter Doroshenko approached him last year about doing the show.

“Suddenly Dallas has become a big part of my life, and now I feel like I’m part of the fabric of the community here,” Scott said. “There is a lot of glamor and fun, and that is nice because sometimes things can be too staid and boring. People really give a little gusto and I like that.”

The night before, the designer was guest of honor at a rooftop party at the Joule hotel for high-dollar donors to the Dallas Museum of Art. The perch affords a clear view of the new Forty Five Ten rising across the street. The four-story store with a tea room is due to open by Nov. 1, noted Brian Bolke, president.

“The theme of the Art Ball is ‘Art+Archi-tecture,’ and the theme of this [Moschino] collection was construction, so we wanted to do it overlooking the construction site of the new store,” Bolke said. “It was kind of a great tie-in.”

Forty Five Ten has long carried Moschi-no and also offers Scott’s label.

“I think [Moschino] is one of the only brands that makes people smile,” Bolke reflected. “There are not enough things in fashion that don’t take themselves so seriously. The other side of that coin is that they are some of the most beautifully

made clothes, and I really do think that every piece has the potential to be a collector’s item. They always speak to that time and moment.”

The brand is growing rapidly, said Michelle Stein, president of Aeffe USA, Moschino’s parent.

“Our Moschino [fall] season was 36 percent ahead including ready-to-wear — a huge jump,” she said. “We’re just getting started on Jeremy Scott collection — it’s our second season with it.”

Scott was next headed to the Kansas City Film Festival for a screening of “Jere-my Scott: The People’s Designer.”

“I’m going to go home and make my mom proud and do all the local news there,” he said. “Then to L.A. and Palm Springs for my annual party at Coachella and then on to New York to shoot the ad campaign with Steven Meisel and then on to Milan to start doing fittings.”

More Moschino Barbie dolls are undoubtedly ahead, too.

“I am Barbie Boy, right?” Scott said coyly. “So they say.” — HOLLY HABER

Fashion Scoops

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The Met Breuer.

Nancy Rogers, Pablo Olea, Jeremy Scott and

Michael Flores at The Joule hotel.

Movie poster of “The First Monday in May.”