DAILY EDITION 24 AUGUST 2016 1

Fashion. Beauty. Business.

Glittering GoodsHudson Group to open The Atrium in Las Vegas. PAGE 5

CONTINUED ON PG. 7

Working VacationCynthia Rowley reaches out from Jakarta. PAGE 10

● Leaner stockrooms could help set the stage for a solid fall.

BY EVAN CLARK

Retailers are tightening up — and at just the right time.

In a trend driven out of both need and desire, stores of all shapes and sizes seem to have found inventory religion.

A WWD spot check of 10 major retail-ers found year-over-year inventories

BUSINESS

Inventories Tighten Up In Fashion

Danskin is expanding its offerings and has tapped actress-producer-dancer and social media personality Jenna Dewan Tatum as celebrity ambassador and face of its ad campaigns through 2017.

For more on Dewan Tatum's fashion, family and upcoming web and TV series, see page 4.

Fly Girl

● WWD speaks with the swimwear inventor, who says the burkini "certainly doesn’t symbolize terror."

BY RITU UPADHYAY

DUBAI — Puzzled — and upset.That’s how some women working in the

Islamic fashion industry view the furor in France over burkinis, the body-concealing swimsuit that has been banned in a grow-ing number of seaside towns.

“I am quite upset to say the least. Wear-ing a burkini is not a political statement,

THE MARKETS

Muslim Fashion Industry On France's Burkini Ban

were down 1.2 percent at the end of the second quarter, on average, as sales for the three months fell a lesser 0.7 percent.

The stockroom cuts, which are sig-nificant, come just as hints of optimism surface, with companies from Urban Outfitters Inc. to Macy’s Inc. pointing to signs that apparel is finally finding its footing.

If fashion is indeed on the way back after a long drought (there are still plenty of skeptics), having less inven-tory on hand will help stores sell more at full price and fatten fall profits.

That would be a welcome respite after a long stretch when optimistic plans, unseasonable weather, lackluster fashions and apathetic consumers left retailers with goods overflowing from their warehouses.

That excess inventory led to wild price promotions that have whit-tled away at stores’ credibility with consumers.

rather a choice of dress,” said Rabia Zargarpur, a Dubai-based designer who markets her Rabia Z label of so-called modest fashions online. “For Muslim women, burkinis are a symbol of libera-tion, not repression. Muslim women who were uncomfortable or unable to swim in mixed pools or beaches are now taking part in those activities. And women can wear a wetsuit with a hood for multiple reasons including preserving modesty or sun protection.”

Zargarpur balked at recent declarations by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who insists the burkini is tantamount to “woman’s enslavement” and “not compatible with

CONTINUED ON PG. 8

Thinking BigHillary Clinton outlines plan to help small businesses. PAGE 6

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East Coast Hotspots

Real EstateBoston, Philly, DC, Atlanta + Florida

ISSUE: September 28 · AD CLOSE: September 14 · MATERIALS: September 19

An Advertising Opportunity

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT PAMELA FIRESTONE, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER AT 212 256 8103 OR PFIRESTONE@WWD.COM

24 AUGUST 2016 3

● Nordstrom Inc. remains an investor in the footwear merchant, which was spun out of Haute Look in 2011.

BY EVAN CLARK

Camuto Group’s taken over e-commerce mer-chant Sole Society as part of an effort to sharpen its digital chops and expand its digital operations.

The footwear company also said it would expand Sole Society’s category offerings and

build on its accessories, apparel and other businesses.

The Sole Society brand will also be developed for what Camuto described as “global wholesale opportunities in several categories.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Nordstrom Inc., which together with Insight Venture Partners pumped $8 million into Sole Society in July 2015, remains a minority owner and will continue to carry the brand’s goods. (Sole Society was initially spun off from Haute Look when the digitally acquisitive Nordstrom acquired the flash sales site in 2011.)

Alex Del Cielo, Camuto’s chief executive officer, said: “The team at Sole Society continues to be industry leaders in customer satisfaction and we plan to leverage their expertise to provide today's consumer with the best experience in all channels, both online and in-store. Furthermore, we are looking forward to working closely with Nordstrom to develop the business as part of our joint strategic efforts.”

Blake Nordstrom, copresident of Nordstrom, applauded the deal and said the department

store would continue to carry Sole Society styles.“Our focus is to offer customers highly rele-

vant and differentiated product and our custom-ers continue to respond favorably to the on-trend style Sole Society offers,” Nordstrom said.

The deal could help supercharge Sole Society, which is led by founding member and ceo Andy Solomon.

“We anticipate accelerated growth through enhanced resources and the expansion of distri-bution that will fuel our continued development and evolution,” Solomon said.

Fashion companies — particularly Nordstrom, but also other players such as Under Armour Inc. and Macy’s Inc. — have become more active in the acquisitions game, snatching up smaller companies that can expand their businesses or digital efforts.

And more could be coming from Camuto, which noted: “The partnership marks the first digital acquisition for Camuto Group and under-scores the company's commitment to strategic growth through innovation and progressive partnerships.”

BUSINESS

Camuto Buys Control of Sole Society

NEWSMAKERSTHIS WEEK'S MOST TALKED-ABOUT NAMES IN OUR INDUSTRY

EDWARD LAMPERT

Sears Inc.

RYAN LOCHTE

TOMMY HILFIGER

LAURA BROWN InStyle

● The survey found that 89 percent of retailers have experienced a breach in the past two years.

BY ARTHUR ZACZKIEWICZ

The latest read on consumer sentiment from KPMG reveals the chilling effect that digital secu-rity breaches are having on shopper loyalty as 19 percent of respondents said "they would stop shopping at a retailer that had been a victim of a cybersecurity hack, even if the company took the necessary steps to remediate the issue."

This sentiment surfaces as cyber attacks continue to impact the industry: this past week, Eddie Bauer said its point of sale system was breached in a cyber attack. The 2016 KPMG Consumer Loss Barometer noted that 89 percent of retailers have experienced a security breach in the past two years.

The researchers said that a higher level of cybersecurity "can be used as a key brand

differentiator to secure consumer loyalty.""However, most companies aren’t as trans-

parent or proactive with their end users when it comes to cyber protections," the company said. "Even worse, most companies aren’t seeing the detrimental effects that can happen in the event of a hack."

KPMG said 55 percent of retailers "haven’t invested in information security in the past year" while 42 percent of retailers do not have a dedi-cated executive in charge of information security.

The erosion of consumer loyalty also extends over time. "In addition to those who would aban-don the retailer entirely, 33 percent of the con-sumers indicated that fears of further exposure of their personal information would prevent them from shopping at a breached retailer for at least three months," the authors of the report said.

And when asked about the factors "most likely contribute to a customer not returning — or delaying a return — to the store, consumers surveyed cited a lack of a solid plan to prevent further attacks as a top factor."

Mark Larson, KPMG’s national line of business leader for consumer markets and global and U.S.

sector leader for retail, said “there is a lot at stake here for retailers."

“Consumers are clearly demanding that their information be protected and they’re going to let their wallets do the talking," Larson said. "Retail-ers that don’t make cybersecurity a strategic imperative are taking a big gamble.”

More than 440 consumers were polled in the survey. The company also included a survey of cybersecurity executives from 100 retailers.

The survey revealed that 55 percent of the retailers polled said "they haven’t invested capital funds in cybersecurity protection in the past 12 months — placing the industry third out of the four industries featured in the report."

Tony Buffomante, principal and retail cyber-security leader for KPMG, said many retailers "are not doing enough to protect their businesses from cyber attacks or react to them when they occur, and the effects of their inaction will end up harming them in the long run.”

“If retailers pay more attention to the issue of cybersecurity and are more transparent with their customers on their awareness, it could serve as a key business differentiator,” he added.

RETAIL

KPMG Report: Cyber Attacks Eroding Consumer Loyalty

● Visits by Japanese tourists in the first six months fell 46.2 percent, Russians by 35 percent and Italians by 27.7 percent.

BY MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Another day — and another worrying statistic for Paris: The most visited city on earth stands to lose as much as $1.5 billion in tourist revenues this year.

That dire warning comes from the Paris Regional Tourist Board, which on Tuesday reported a 6.4 percent drop in overnight visitors in the first half of the year.

The tally reflects one million fewer tourists to the French capital, with foreigners accounting for almost two-thirds of the lost revenues.

It blamed a string of deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels and Nice; a spate of strikes, and the wettest spring on record in 150 years.

Europe’s luxury players, which have expanded their presence in the French capital in recent years, are sure to put pressure on government officials to stem the slide.

Exane BNP Paris has estimated that Paris accounts for 74 percent of luxury consumption in France. Only New York generates more spending in personal luxury goods than Paris, with London in third place, according to 2014 data from Alt-agamma and Bain.

Frédéric Valletoux, president of the tourist board, called the “unprecedented” fall in visitors an “industrial catastrophe” and urged Jean-Marc Ayrault, France’s minister of foreign affairs, to gather local tourism professionals to develop an emergency action plan.

Half-a-million jobs in Paris hinge on the tourism sector, with the region receiving about 30 million visitors annually, according to board estimates. France welcomes about 84.5 million foreign visitors a year, ahead of the United States at 75 million and Spain at 68.2 million.

According to the tourism board, visits by Jap-anese tourists in the first six months of the year

plummeted 46.2 percent, Russians 35 percent, Italians 27.7 percent, Chinese 19.6 percent and Americans 5.7 percent.

Even the French shunned the City of Light, with visitor numbers easing 3.5 percent to 8.3 million.

“The whole tourism chain was strongly impacted,” the board warned, listing hotels, museums, monuments, cafes, restaurants, department stores and tour operators.

For example, entries fell 43.9 percent at the Grand Palais, 34.8 percent at the l'Arc de Tri-omphe and 16.3 percent at Versailles.

The only bright spot in the first half were busi-ness travelers, which accounted for 3.1 million nights of accommodation, up 14.4 points and accounting for 53.8 percent of all hotel revenues.

The tallies in the Paris region follow a report earlier this week by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, or INSEE. It concurred that the decline in foreign visitors is accelerating, with overnight stays falling 8.7 percent in the second quarter versus 2.7 percent in the first.

BUSINESS

Paris Stands to Lose $1.5B in Tourism This Year

Farm to Fashion ● Back-to-nature Pretty Resonates

Through Resort Chic.

Altered States ● As retail faces challenges,

executives eye solutions.

European Textile Preview ● An in-depth interview with

Lenzing’s Stefan Doboczky.

PLUS: ● Report Card ● Social Studies ● Think Tank

OUT THIS WEEK IN

“Don’t be afraid to suck at something for a little while. It’s worth the effort to start over and make a life after for yourself.”

— RONDA ROUSEY

4 24 AUGUST 2016

● The actress and dancer will appear as the face — and body — of the brand's fall campaign.

BY MARCY MEDINA

Danskin has decided to step it up by signing actress and dancer Jenna Dewan Tatum as its latest spokeswoman. The 125-year-old dance label, owned by Iconix Brand Group Inc. since 2007, is in the midst of a brand reimagining that couldn’t come at a better time.

Women’s brands account for 40 percent of Iconix’s total revenue (its first quarter revenue was reported at $94.6 million, with 2016 full-year projections of $370-$390 million), and Danskin is its strongest performer.

The current pop culture mania for all things dance — from reality shows to feature films to fash-ion — leaves Danskin poised to capture even more of a market that’s seeing activewear and ath-leisure brands such as Fabletics and Athleta flourish.

Dewan Tatum is also reaching a new peak in her young career. The 35-year-old, who began her professional career as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson, shot to fame as the star of the 2006 dance movie “Step Up,” where she met her husband Channing Tatum. They now each have their own production company, and together are producing a scripted “Step Up” series for YouTube Red and a reality dance competition show for NBC, for which Dewan Tatum will be a judge and mentor.

On a recent scorching day in downtown Los Angeles, she was the star of Danskin’s production. (Its first campaign featuring her image is set to launch in October magazines including Teen Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Self, Glamour and InStyle.) Dewan Tatum is working up an honest sweat on the rooftop of an industrial loft building in the Arts District. Wearing a pair of black Spandex shorts, a hot pink sports bra and a grey off-the-shoulder crop top, she repeatedly jumps up and lands in a cross-legged lunge position as photographer Carlos Serrao tries to capture the moment just so.

“Thank god for the wind machine,” she laughs, as she does it again, making adjustments called out by a fellow dancer/photo coach from the sidelines. Earlier in the day, she bounced four feet in the air

on a giant trampoline wearing pink supplex leggings and a tank top, the city skyline visible through the smog and wildfire smoke behind her.

The last set up, featuring a black two-piece dance outfit, takes place inside a room with exposed brick walls and large windows casting shadows on the wooden floor. Smoke and dust pumped into the sun-filled space gave the set a gritty feel, reminiscent of “Flashdance.” Afer Dewan Tatum performed some seriously slinky moves on the floor, she couldn’t help but break into a grin between takes, and high-fived the crew as the shoot wrapped.

“Most photo shoots are a beautiful dress, a natu-ral location and poses. Because I am a dancer, they were like, ‘We want you to dance and leap and twirl and bring out all your technical dancing from way back in the day.’ I felt really free and had a blast.”

The campaign, the brand’s first big push since

2013, was styled by Dewan Tatum’s friend and long-time stylist Brad Goreski, while Jen Atkin did her tresses. Gone were the black leotards and pink leg warmers. On display was a range of active apparel, dancewear, bodywear, loungewear and sports bras ranging from $20 to $54 retail. (Danskin also makes shapewear, sleepwear and fitness equipment.) Among the key items are motivational graphic text T-shirts; strappy back detail bodysuits that double as streetwear; leggings in fashion colors and prints, and French terry layering items such as asymmetric wraps and cardigans, all of which sell at danskin.com, Urban Outfitters, Lord & Taylor, Amazon and specialty stores. The brand also has a sizable kids business in Wal-Mart.

“Jenna is such a good fit as we reposition the brand. We love that she represents the new mom, with a young daughter, and she’s a dancer with a busy life,” said Carolyn D’Angelo, Iconix’s executive vice president of brand management and marketing services. “Danskin is a heritage brand with huge potential, and we haven’t really maximized it. We decided it was time to put effort behind what it truly represented: first dance and children’s dance — we want to capture the mom and her daughter because we have a very big business for young girls — but also expand on a strong casual, lounge and ath-lei-sure business.”

While many brands are on the hunt for “authen-tic” celebrity spokesmodels and ambassadors, Dewan Tatum is about as real as it gets. “I started dancing at age five. My first leotard was a black Danskin,” she said. “When this call came around, it was the fastest yes I’ve ever given. I always wish I could be dancing more, so I look at this photo

shoot, where I’m able to bring my dance back-ground to it, as more fun. I’m more comfortable and I feel confident. It reminds me of my youth and what I loved to do.”

The timing of this deal and her “Step Up” series was also ideal. If the viral YouTube video she and her husband posted re-creating their rooftop dance

scene from the movie was any indication, it should be a hit. “I’m like, ‘What, that movie was 10 years ago?' We keep saying we are going to force feed “Step Up” to [daughter] Everly. Like, ‘You have to watch. You have to see where you came from.”

Dewan Tatum has 3.1 million followers on Insta-gram, 720,000 on Twitter and 2.1 million likes on her Facebook page.

Dewan Tatum said her three-year-old daughter has started dance class, but she’s not quite ready for the structure yet. “She’s a very free-spirited little kid. She likes to run around and do her own thing. But she loves a tutu and she will put on three or four and go around the house and do little shake moves, so she will be thrilled with these Danskin tutus [gifted by the brand] when I go home,” she said.

But don’t expect to see Everly in print any time soon. “She came to a photo shoot with me and the photographer took a picture of us outside. She let me know that night that she did not like that. She said, ‘Mommy I’ll go to your photo shoot tomor-row, but I do not want my picture taken.’ I’m like, ‘Understood. I hear your words. Got it.’”

Dewan Tatum calls her everyday style “quite boho. I wear a lot of dresses and skirts and more ethereal hippie clothes for the day.” For red carpet, she tends to want to go overboard. “They’re like, ‘A little less eyeliner and sparkle,’ and I’m like, ‘Why? Once a dancer always a dancer.’”

She’ll have more time to dress up once her reality dance show hits the airwaves. “It’s going to be more of a variety entertainment show,” she said. “It’s fun discovering new incredible dance talent, but as well as being one hell of a show every week, it will be super fun. We love dancers and we want to make sure we are shining the light on these fresh talents, and also bringing the element of fun and surprise and celebrity guests and all those things that people love to watch.”

Of producing, she said, “It definitely fell into our laps, but then we started realizing that we could create something and make an impact in the entertainment industry. It became a bit more an empowered feeling rather than the entertainment industry telling us what we should do.”

As for why dance is so popular right now, Dewan Tatum noted, “Dance is a universal language and whether you know how to dance or grew up train-ing in dance, you have a respect for people who love to dance and it’s also visually very entertaining to watch a great dancer. I think it lights you up in a way that is something everyone connects with.”

She said a lot has changed since when she first tried to break into Hollywood. “When I started out in this business dance was not at the height it is now. It was almost like, you’re either a dancer or an actress. Because of shows like 'So You Think You Can Dance' and 'Dancing With the Stars' a lot of artists are embracing dance and the platform has been raised so high that we are able to really bring dance to an elevated place where more eyes are on it and they are expecting it.”

MEDIA

Jenna Dewan Tatum SelectedAs Danskin Ambassador

“I started dancing at age five. My first leotard was a black Danskin.” — JENNA DEWAN TATUM

Jenna Dewan Tatum in a look from Danskin's fall collection.

Dewan Tatum at Danskin's fall ad campaign shoot in Los Angeles.

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● Two new connected accessories are designed to track mind and body performance.

BY MAGHAN MCDOWELL

The options for design-minded wearables continue to expand.

Two new connected accessories, which are designed to be jewelry-inspired ways to track both mind and body performance, become available this week. Each offers a handful of designs, including a white with rose gold and a black option — ostensibly to offer a “his” and “hers” iteration.

Caeden’s Sona Connected Bracelet is a screenless tracker with a focus on meditation and stress relief. It connects to a smartphone app that, in addition to tracking heart rate and activity, also helps the wearer train in mental focus through a program called Resonance. It also vibrates to alert the wearer of calls and texts.

The design options are a white leather with rose gold, gunmetal with black leather or a gold with black leather. The Sona bracelet became available for pre-order in November and is available for $199. The

two-year-old company has to date raised $1.6 million and started with a series of headphones. It counts among its eight-per-son team Soyoung Park, who previously served as chief marketing officer for Donna Karan.

On the other hand, so to speak, is the $79.99 Amazfit, which introduces a ceramic-based activity tracker in which the design is inspired by a traditional Chinese jade pendant. It tracks steps, distance, calories and sleep quality, and provides incoming call alerts with a vibration.

Its two styles are a white shell in a rose gold-plated metal frame with a white leather wristband, and a slimmer option with a minimalistic band in black or rose gold. It is available today on Amazon.com, and can be separately combined with other wristbands and a necklace.

Amazfit is owned by the two-year-old Huami, which provides wearable tech-nology for Chinese electronics company Xiaomi and has raised $35 million.

Huami has sold more than 24 million activity trackers in China through its part-nership with Xiaomi, according to Frederik Hermann, head of U.S. marketing and sales for Amazfit. And, as is one ongoing trend for many connected accessories, he emphasized the company’s health-centric

calling. “We want to encourage people to make healthier decisions on small, everyday activities, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, that contribute to an overall healthy and active lifestyle,” Hermann said.

The market is increasingly saturated with plugged-in accessories that are designed like jewelry and aim to be a link between a user’s smartphone, in that they provide notifications and other alerts through vibrations or lights, and a fitness or health accessory.

In July, Misfit, which was bought by Fossil Group Inc. last year for $260 million, unveiled the latest in its line of accessories called the Misfit Ray. The Ray can be worn as a bracelet or necklace and offers sleep and activity tracking; text and call notifica-tions; a wake-up alarm, and a customizable “smart button.”

Misfit general manager Preston Moxcey said he anticipated that eventually, most accessories would include a version of a digital, or “smart,” functionality, and that

demand had been growing.Fossil Group’s launch of 100 wearables

products, including display and nondisplay watches and trackers, will be available in 40 countries and 20 languages by the holiday season.

Forrester researchers, in a report out this month, predicted that so-called “wear-ables” would reach critical-mass adoption by 2021. Forrester also said the market will grow from $4.2 billion last year to $9.8 billion by 2021, with Millennials leading the charge with a preference for devices that offer convenience and relevant informa-tion. Smartwatches are included in these numbers.

Forrester Data forecast that U.S. con-sumer adoption of wearable devices would reach 29 percent by then, compared to last year’s 18 percent. “Today, the vast majority of consumers who own and use wearables have a health or wellness device (17 per-cent), while monitoring, retail, notifica-tions and travel garner much interest and are expected to grow,” the report stated.

ACCESSORIES

Caeden, Amazfit Blend Tracking With Jewelry

● The travel retail specialist's multibrand luxury store will open at The Palazzo hotel.

BY MARCY MEDINA

Hudson Group is aiming to bring the best of travel retail into North American hotels with a new multibrand luxury retail concept called The Atrium that will bow in October at The Palazzo hotel in Las Vegas. The 16,000-square foot store will offer accessories; fine jewelry and watches; beauty and fragrance, and liquor from brands ranging from Ferragamo to Stephen Webster to Burberry.

Hudson Group is a wholly owned subsid-iary of Dufry AG. The company partnered with Palazzo owner Las Vegas Sands Corp. in 2007 to launch The Atrium in its Macau hotel. After The Palazzo, a second Atrium will bow in late December or early January 2017 at sister hotel The Venetian.

The Atrium will mark the first time that Hudson has combined luxury vendors in a hotel boutique setting. Among the brands within the four categories are MAC, Estée Lauder, Tom Ford and Burberry for beauty; Franck Muller, Carl F. Bucherer, Dior

Watches, John Hardy, Stephen Webster and Marco Bicego for jewelry and watches; Salvatore Ferragamo, Bally, MCM and Tumi for accessories. There will also be a curated selection of designer eyewear and electronics.

“With the Hudson Group’s new proper-ties in Las Vegas, we are forging new ter-ritory by bringing 30 years of travel retail experience to resorts for the first time,”

said Joseph DiDomizio, president and chief executive officer of Hudson Group.

“We’re excited to introduce a new retail destination to our guests,” said George Markantonis, president and chief operating officer of The Venetian, The Palazzo and Sands Expo. “The Atrium will house the luxury brands our guests have come to expect, but in an intriguing new concept, offering a unique shopping experience.”

During an exclusive walk-through of The Palazzo site this month, Hudson’s regional vice president of hotel and specialty retail Ellen Bramble pointed out the undulating walls that formed niches for each brand, leading customers along a curved tile path that also features island vitrines to showcase product. The color scheme is bright white, with a textured gold and black lacquer façade framing floor-to-ceil-ing glass walls that open directly onto the casino floor for maximum foot traffic and visibility.

Bramble told WWD, “We’re excited to offer customers in Las Vegas a new destination to shop. The luxurious store showcases the latest in fashion, beauty and liquor offerings, complemented by the most personalized, high-end service. We want to be competitive with what’s already on offer in the city and keep customers on property.” There are also private VIP rooms, a humidor and ample space for designer P.A.’s and spirit tastings.

The Atrium will be one of more than 330 specialty retail locations operated by Hud-son Group, a leader in airport and travel-re-lated retail. The company operates more than 950 stores in the U.S. and Canada and is in a growth mode that has expanded its portfolio to include specialty retail, duty-free shops, travel essentials and cafés.

The new concept will join the General Growth Properties-owned Grand Canal Shoppes housed on the second floor of the connected Palazzo and Venetian resorts. The Palazzo’s first level retail space is home to Barneys New York, Cartier, Kwiat, Bul-gari and Breguet.

RETAIL

Hudson Group's The Atrium to Bow at Las Vegas’ The Palazzo

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A rendering of The Atrium at The

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Amazfit Moonbeam

6 24 AUGUST 2016

● The push would provide new tax breaks for mom-and-pop shops and tax incentives for state and local governments.

BY KRISTI ELLIS

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton unveiled a new comprehensive plan Tuesday aimed at help-ing small businesses grow and create jobs.

The Democratic presidential candidate released several new proposals in an effort to streamline the process of starting a small busi-ness and make it easier for small businesses to access financing. Among the key components of her plan are the creation of a new standardized tax deduction for small businesses and a move to quadruple the start-up tax deduction for new small businesses.

New business formation has declined 15 percent since 2007, the Clinton campaign said. Between 2010 and 2014, only 20 counties rep-resented half of the new business growth in the U.S., the campaign said.

“We’ll start by cutting the fees and red tape that make starting a business too complicated and too expensive. It shouldn’t be harder to start a business in America than it is in Canada or France,” Clinton said in an op-ed she posted on her LinkedIn account. “Half of Millennials say they’re interested in starting a business and we should be doing everything we can to help more people take that leap — especially Americans traditionally shut out from these opportunities, like women, young people and people of color.”

Clinton’s plan specifically calls for pressing states to clear the red tape on obtaining business and occupational licenses.

According to her campaign, more than 25 percent of working Americans need a license, up from 5 percent in 1950. The average occupa-tional license requires $209 in fees, according to one study cited by the campaign. The aggregate amount of occupational and licensing fees total billions of dollars a year, the campaign said.

She proposed giving federal funding to any state and locality willing to make it cheaper for small businesses to get a start and “meaning-fully” streamlining unnecessary licensing pro-grams. The federal funding would be contingent on proposals to ensure safeguard public health and safety.

The plan also calls for working with states to standardize licensing requirements and reduce barriers for people seeking to work across state borders, particularly military families and spouses employed in licensed occupations.

Under her plan, she will provide incubators, mentoring and training to 50,000 entrepreneurs by forming partnerships with local business lead-ers, community colleges, historically black col-leges and universities and Hispanic institutions.

Her plan places a premium on helping small businesses file taxes. The smallest businesses spend an average of 150 hours and $1,100 per employee to comply with federal taxes, which is 20 times higher than for larger businesses, according to Clinton.

“We’re going to create a new standard deduc-tion for small businesses — like the one currently available to individual filers — to simplify how small business account for overhead costs,” Clinton said. “I’ve also put forward a proposal I’m calling ‘checkbook accounting’ that will make filing taxes for small businesses as simple as keeping a checkbook or printing out a bank statement.”

Creating a new standard deduction will help entrepreneurs ranging from those that have bricks-and-mortar stores to those that sell online through platforms like Etsy and eBay, the campaign said.

It is intended to replace a small business owner’s burden of tracking and filing forms for overhead costs, which can include transporta-tion, computer and phone use and maintaining an office.

The “checkbook accounting” proposal could help 4 million small businesses with gross receipts under $1 million, the campaign said.

She is proposing eliminating all of the paper-work involved in filing taxes and record-keeping requirements, as well as simplifying accounting and tax filing for small businesses with $25 million or less in gross receipts.

Under her plan, small businesses would also be able to immediately expense up to $1 million in new investments, such as expanding factories or buying new equipment to expand and create more jobs. It would also quadruple the start-up tax deduction for small businesses to lower the cost of starting a business.

On the financing front, which often serves as the a “primary inhibitor” to starting or growing a small business, Clinton has proposed expanding access to working capital by expanding the Small Business Administration’s working capital guar-antee programs and lowering working capital fees for businesses in underserved communities.

She is calling for a 100 percent tax exclusion on capital gains for long-term small business investments and streamlining regulations for community banks and credit unions, which are

the backbone of small business lending.The number of small business loans has fallen

dramatically, according to Clinton’s campaign. Small business loans comprised just 29 percent of total bank loans in 2012 compared with 51 percent in 1995, the campaign said.

She has also proposed a reduction of student debt burdens by allowing entrepreneurs to defer student loan payments with no interest while they launch their businesses and expanding the SBA’s Small Business Investment Company program, while supporting new ways to “assess creditworthiness” for small business owners.

Another component of the lending piece of her plan involves giving the SBA administrator the authority to continue providing 7(a) loan guarantees to small businesses “if demand is higher than the yearly cap.”

“We should bring together local, state and federal governments to streamline the regulatory process. And let’s give up-and-coming entrepre-neurs a chance to put their federal student loans into a special status, so you don’t face payments or interest when you’re getting started,” Clinton said. “Anyone with a great idea and the drive to see it through should be able to start a business — no matter who you know, who you are, or how much money you have.”

Clinton said she is making it a priority to expand access to credit for underserved communities.

Her plan also calls for simplifying and expand-ing the health care tax credit for small business in the Affordable Care Act. Small businesses with up to 50 employees would be eligible for the credit under the plan, which would also simplify complex “phase-out and eligibility” rules. More small businesses would be able to pool together to offer retirement plans.

Her plan would increase federal contracting opportunities for women-owned, minori-ty-owned and veteran-owned companies, as well as strengthening the Export-Import Bank.

Taking aim at her challenger Republican can-didate Donald Trump, Clinton said she will make it easier for small businesses to fight back when big businesses like Trump’s “repeatedly stiff the small businesses that do work for them.”

Clinton’s campaign pledged to ensure federal regulatory oversight of “proven bad actors” and stop large companies from using litigation to deny small businesses “their right to a remedy.”

BUSINESS

Hillary Clinton Unveils Sweeping Plan to Help Small Businesses

● The Defense Department's competition is yet another step the Obama administration is taking to collaborate with the fashion and textile industries.

BY KRISTI ELLIS

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is soliciting help from fashion designers and textile experts to assist in redesigning the protective suits soldiers wear against chemical and biological attacks.

The Joint Program Executive Office for Chem-ical and Biological Defense, a division within the U.S. Department of Defense, has launched a com-petition dubbed “Proof-The Chembio Suit Design Challenge” and is offering a total of $250,000 to finalists and semifinalists.

The current chemical biological suits worn by U.S. troops are heavy and bulky, restricting a soldier’s agility, range of motion and maneuver-ability and hindering their duties, according to the military.

To that end, the government is throwing open

the redesign of its vital suit to the public and seek-ing ideas and solutions that will increase mobility, dexterity and tactility. The military is also looking for innovative ideas for “heat management” that reduces the heat burdens and actively cools a soldier, as well as ideas to improve the integration between suit components, such as mask-helmet or glove-boot interface.

A kickoff event will be held on Thursday at the Museum of Science in Boston where the competition will be announced and troops will be attendance to explain how the suit needs to be improved.

Military leaders are seeking ideas from fashion designers, researchers, students and entrepre-neurs in material science, textile design, material design and wearables.

They have also established a panel of judges — experts in design, military and the sciences — for the competition, including two officials from the JPEO-CBD. Three private sector experts will also be on the panel, including: Matthew Trexler, director of technology validation at Under Armour; Mark Sunderland, a professor of textile engineering at Philadelphia University and chief executive officer of Boathouse, and David Strum,

president of Velocity Systems.The program officials have launched a Face-

book page and web site where designs can be submitted at Proofchallenge.com.

Three semifinalists stand to win up to $25,000 each and three finalists will win $50,000 to $150,000. In addition, five small-prize contest winners will be awarded up to $5,000 each.

The Obama administration has placed a big focus on the next wave of advanced technologies and launched initiatives that bring the public and private sector together to innovate and create products with a wide range of applications.

In April, the DOD and Massachusetts Institute of Technology unveiled details of the administra-tion’s sweeping $315 million public-private project aimed at keeping the country at the forefront of fiber and textiles innovation — on the battlefield and on main street.

The institute will be composed of a consortium of 89 manufacturers, universities and nonprofits organized by MIT and DOD. Its primary goal is to innovate and create what could potentially become a new industry of advanced and highly functional fibers and textile manufacturing for military and commercial applications.

Under the banner Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, or AAFOA, the consortium is comprised of firms from several industries and fields, including fashion groups VF Corp., New Balance and Nike and textile manufacturers Milliken & Co., Buhler Quality Yarns and Inman Mills. The project also encompasses 52 companies and 32 universities, colleges and other schools, including the Fashion Institute of Technology.

BUSINESS

U.S. Military Launches Design Competition, Seeks Fashion, Textile Help

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The U.S. military's chemical biological defense suit.

24 AUGUST 2016 7

the values of France and the Republic.”Her retort?“Undoubtedly, there are French

women who buy skimpy bathing suits and tiny bikinis in submission to both male pressure and social pressures. Isn’t that enslavement?” she asked. “The real enemies of freedom are not the burkini wearers, but the politicians who want to ban them.”

France’s burkini controversy is tangled up with tensions over ISIS or ISIS-inspired terror attacks and outward signs of religion in a fiercely secular society.

Yet across the world, the burgeoning Islamic fashion market is projected to be worth $327 million by 2020, according to Thomson Reuters "State of the Islamic Economy" report. With a global population of 1.6 billion, Muslim consumers are one of the fastest growing segments in fashion.

Shelina Janmohamed, author of “Love in a Headscarf” and vice president of Ogilvy

Noor, which is the world's first Islamic branding practice offering advice to clients on how to appeal to Muslim consumers globally, cited a huge shift among female Muslim consumers.

“They are modern and independent and want a sense of belonging in their commu-nities, but also want to be individual and assert their own choices,” she said. This has fueled an entire fashion movement, one that is now being censored in France for its modesty, she lamented. “There’s an entrepreneurial story around Muslim con-sumers growing around the world, one of creating new brands. Women are going out there and saying, ‘We can’t find the kind of products in fashion that we want so we are going to create them,’” she explained.

Zargarpur was living in New York and working in the fashion industry during the 9/11 attacks. She began to cover her hair after that time and said it was the lack of options that led her to establish her brand, which enjoys a wide following among the Muslim diaspora.

She also noted that the original inven-tor of the burkini — Aheda Zanetti — has many non-Muslims clients such as British chef Nigella Lawson, plus women from other religions, lifeguards and skin cancer survivors.

WWD tracked down Zanetti, the Aus-tralian designer and businesswoman who came up with and trademarked Burquini

and Burkini in 2004:WWD: What are your thoughts on

the burkini uproar in France?Aheda Zanetti: I think it’s totally misun-

derstood. I feel so sorry for the people who are going to be affected by it. The burkini was intended to integrate and bring people together. To give them the freedom of choice to wear something modest if they choose to be modest for whatever reason they need to be modest for. It should be happy and positive. It is turning some-thing meant to give women the freedom of participating in health and fitness into a negative thing.

WWD: How did you develop the burkini?

A.Z.: I have two daughters. We wanted them to participate in activities. I wanted them to be able to choose — that includes if they choose to wear a veil or hijab at all. And if they do so, that they would have something to wear without a second thought. It has to fit within our Austra-lian lifestyle — which is surf, water, sun, beaches and bikinis. I wanted to blend in and not be identified as Muslim or non-Muslim. When I was growing up, we didn’t differentiate between Muslim or not, it was never a topic we discussed. I don’t want to be judged about that. I’m proud of being born in Lebanon; proud to be raised in Australia.

WWD: How do you feel that the

brand name you coined is being used so widely in this context?

A.Z.: At the time I was trying to sell a new item and a new industry, a new lifestyle. I had to think of something away from the Islamic symbol, but I also wanted to be recognizable by my market and peo-ple. Then I was reading an article talking about women entering the water with their full burqas on. I looked up the meaning and it was essentially just black jackets, long coats that many Muslim women wear. I thought my swimsuit is like a burqa and it’s also two-piece, like a bikini is. So came the term burkini. But it's just a word. It doesn’t symbolize Islam or a Muslim woman, and it certainly doesn’t symbolize terror. It symbolizes freedom, flexibility, comfort. It symbolizes health and fitness. That’s what it should be judged upon.

WWD: Who is your client base?A.Z.: Sixty percent are Muslim women,

the rest are non-Muslim or other, who want to cover up for many reasons.

WWD: How do your products sell in Europe?

A.Z.: When our Burqini suits first launched, they were endorsed by women in the Western world more than in the Eastern world. Because it was a Western design adapted for women in the Western world. It took a while before the Arab world endorsed it, too. In fact, it wasn’t until it took off in the West that they started buying it.

WWD: Have you ever had any nega-tive reactions to the swimwear at home in Australia?

A.Z.: We have had a few negative reac-tions. But I also have more of a support group now than I’ve ever had. I’ve become a voice of women’s rights now. Women have come together to say no one has a right to dictate what we choose to wear. We are not encouraging violence. I don’t even encourage face covering. I don’t agree with that. I agree with adapting to a lifestyle and culture within your morals. We had to adapt.

I think the French need to understand what a burkini swimsuit is and what it’s there for. They can’t take a lifestyle away from a Muslim woman or any woman for that matter. The cancer patients, for exam-ple. If you are going to take away the right for them to protect their skin from the sun, what are you trying to do? Put them back inside their home?

Muslim Fashion Industry On France's Burkini Ban CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Burkini designer Aheda Zanetti.

The launch of the Burkini.

Aheda Zanetti’s Burkini swimsuits.

Rabia Zargarpur at Istanbul Modest Fashion Week.

8 24 AUGUST 2016

● Exports to Hong Kong dropped 32.7 percent, 27.8 percent to France, 14.7 percent to the United States and 11.9 percent to Japan.

BY MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Deteriorating market conditions in Asia and parts of Europe drove Swiss watch exports down 14.2 percent in July to 1.54 billion Swiss francs, or $1.61 billion.

Exports sank 32.7 percent in Hong Kong, 27.8 percent in France, 23.7 percent in Ger-many, 14.7 percent in the United States and 11.9 percent in Japan, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

Two European markets perked up, with Italy posting a 9.9 percent gain and the United Kingdom 13.4 percent. The federation offered no explanation for the buoyancy, although retail sales have been percolating in the U.K. since the June 23 Brexit referendum drove down the value of the pound, fueling tourist

spending.“No turning point,” Thomas Chauvet, lux-

ury analyst at Citi, wrote in a research note.He noted the dismal numbers reflect “the

cautious mood amongst watch retailers glob-ally given challenging economic conditions in emerging markets, stock market and foreign exchange volatility, travel fears after repeated terrorist events in Europe and depressed oil prices.”

He brushed off the federation’s suggestion that two fewer working days in July penalized the results: “We remain concerned about continued disruption in Hong Kong — the Swiss watch industry's largest and most profitable market — and to a lesser extent mainland China, which has been improving for some players (e.g. Richemont, Swatch, but at the expense of Europe). Swiss watchmakers depend on the health of global tourism, and with tragic terrorist events in Europe and a stronger JPY and USD, tourist-related demand from Chinese has been impacted.”

Barclays estimates that half of Richemont’s sales derive from watches compared to 95

percent for Swatch Group. Swatch is also slightly more exposed to Asia.

Watches made of precious metal watches posted their fifth consecutive month of steeply falling sales, the federation noted, pegging the July drop at 31.1 percent.

Exports of gold and steel timepieces dropped 21.6 percent, steel watches 9.6 percent and other metals 36.3 percent. Each category “lost more than 100,000 units in the space of one month,” the federation said.

Unit sales of all price categories were in negative territory, with watches costing less than 200 francs ($208) dropping 19.7 percent; and those over 3,000 francs ($3,125) falling 14.4 percent.

“The midprice category has been resilient across several ‘masstige’ brands such as TAG Heuer, with many high-end labels such as Piaget launching lower entry-level pieces recently,” Barclays analyst Julian Easthope said in equity research released Tuesday. “It is difficult to determine the impact of the Apple Watch disruption on the Swiss Watch industry — with data inconclusive,” he added.

Dollar amounts are converted from Swiss francs at current exchange rates.

Macquarie Group forecasts a 9 percent decline in Swiss watch demand and exports in 2016.

In a recent report, the Australian invest-ment bank said it anticipates “mild” growth for Swiss watch exports over the next seven years, likening this pace to “what was seen

during the Seventies Quartz crisis,” albeit at a slower pace. That new technology dented sales of mechanical watches and precipitated a slowdown in Swiss timepieces.

“We believe smartwatches are becoming a real competitor to traditional watches as shown by the number of smartwatches overtaking in volume terms (around 30 million units) the number of Swiss watches already in 2015,” the report said.

ACCESSORIES

Swiss Watch Exports Sink 14.2% in July

An Omega watch.

“We should see some markdown pressure go away,” said John Kernan, analyst at Cowen and Co. “People want to turn [inventory] faster, they want less inventory, whether it's the brick-and-mortar channel or the vendors. They can be much more on trend and chase what’s working, versus stacking inventory. It’s retail inventory 101, trying to sell more with less inventory.”

Kernan said retailers were caught with too much inventory as they sought to get the bal-ance right with their omnichannel brick-and-click position, as vendors built out their own stores and shoppers got burnt out.

“It’s almost the over-commercialization of everything now; it’s just constant, in your face, 24/7 retail and interaction with all these different brands and channels, whether its social media or e-mail,” he said. “I think the consumer got overloaded and the supply of product didn’t slow down fast enough.”

It’s an easy line to describe but hard to walk, particularly for the large publicly traded retailers that are under constant pressure from investors to maximize sales and profits.

Paul Erickson, senior vice president of client services at consultancy RMSA Retail Solutions, said women’s apparel has a shelf life of about eight to 10 weeks, meaning that stores ideally should sell through their full stock about five times a year — about what the fast-fashion chains do.

“That would be an absolute minimum amount of turn to really have a healthy store with a good strong inventory that’s going to drive business,” Erickson said. “Once mer-chandise becomes older than three months, it is absolutely tying up your money.”

Erickson, who works with independent

retailers, advises them to not buy more than a 10-week supply of goods and to clear out slow-moving merchandise quickly.

“Once they recognize a mistake, where merchandise is not going to sell, don’t wait four, five months to do it,” he said. “Take it out and kill it, mark it half off.”

Jill Standish, senior managing director of retail at Accenture, which recently invested in analytics firm DynamicAction, said retailers are starting to become more data savvy as they manage inventory.

DynamicAction, which helps retailers in 120 countries optimize their businesses, found that the value of inventory its clients held fell on an average of 5 percent from January through July.

But there are risks in cutting back. Standish said out of stock products were up 8.5 per-cent over the same period.

“It’s not just inventory levels,” she said. “Is it the right inventory? The key is, as these retailers are going into the holiday season…are they starting to look at where they’re put-ting that inventory and allowing for flexibility of fulfillment.”

The trick, she said, is having a way to be able to track inventory so it can be put to the best use, either going to store shoppers or being used to fulfill online orders.

As retail executives met with analysts last week to go over results, inventories came up repeatedly — a timely topic especially since cargo shipments at the port peak in August.

“We're trying to strike the right balance of being tight and lean on inventory but not cutting off the opportunity to positive comp, mostly using better average unit retail, said Sabrina Simmons, Gap Inc.’s chief financial officer.

The company — which logged a 2.7 percent drop in inventory at the end of the second quarter, as sales fell a lesser 1.2 percent — was aggressive in its efforts to clear summer mer-chandise ahead of fall.

Although inventories are in constant flux as retailers zero in on just the right mix, the cutbacks sweeping through stockrooms also speak to broader changes across the industry.

Edward Record, chief financial officer of J.C. Penney Co. Inc., which drove sales gains

with smaller inventories last quarter, said the company is focusing on smaller buys.

“The old days of buying the whole spring set at one shot, or the whole fall delivery comes in September, those days have gone, probably never to return,” Record said. “As we define our new process with product development, I think looking at writing orders in smaller chunks and smaller delivers will help with churn, will help what we might describe about having smaller order quanti-ties and being more right….That is when we get into trouble with private brands is when you're backed up on something that you don't want. So, as we move into the future, we'll be taking things in a more kind of paced way.”

Retailers are also relying more on

technology to manage the back of house issues like inventory, freeing employees to focus on the customer-facing part of the business.

Brett Biggs, chief financial officer of Wal-Mart, noted, “By cleaning up our store back rooms, leveraging technology and changing certain processes, we're improving product availability and enabling associates to be on the sales floor serving customers in a more effective way.”

And that’s what the inventory question boils down to — efficiency. Since inventory is the biggest single expense for retailers, every-one’s trying to get more bang for their buck and drive sales to the max while cutting back the store room.

Inventories Tighten Up In Fashion CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Tightening Up

Retailers are being more careful with inventories and are seen as relatively well positioned for fall.

Q2 2016 Q2 2015 % change in millions in millions

Dillard's Inc. Inventory $1,499 $1,477 1.5% Sales $1,489 $1,551 -4.0%

Gap Inc. Inventory $1,951 $2,005 -2.7% Sales $3,851 $3,898 -1.2%J.C. Penney Inventory $2,981 $3,005 -0.8%Co. Inc Sales $2,918 $2,875 1.5%Kohl's Corp. Inventory $3,928 $4,252 -7.6% Sales $4,182 $4,267 -2.0%Macy's Inc. Inventory $5,322 $5,496 -3.2% Sales $5,866 $6,104 -3.9%Nordstrom Inc. Inventory $2,032 $2,004 1.4% Sales $3,651 $3,701 -1.4%Target Corp. Inventory $8,631 $8,261 4.5% Sales $16,169 $17,427 -7.2%TJX Cos. Inc. Inventory $3,871 $3,750 3.2% Sales $7,882,053 $7,363,731 7.0%Urban Outfitters Inventory $367 $384 -4.5%Inc. Sales $891 $868 2.7%Wal-Mart Inventory $43,453 $45,007 -3.5%Stores Inc. Sales $120,854 $120,229 0.5% Average inventory change -1.2%Source: S&P Capital IQ, company reports Average Sales change -0.7%

24 AUGUST 2016 9

● The lawsuit alleged two forms of deceptive price practices.

BY VICKI M. YOUNG

Zara USA has denied allegations made in a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled shopper in California that the company has engaged in deceptive price practices.

A spokeswoman for Zara USA on Tuesday said, “Zara USA vehemently denies any allegations that the company engages in deceptive pricing practices in the United States. While we have not yet been served the complaint containing these baseless claims, we pride ourselves in our fundamental commitment to transparency and honest, ethical

conduct with our valued customers.”The spokeswoman added, “We remain focused

on providing excellent customer service and high-quality fashion products at great value for our customers. We look forward to presenting our full defense in due course through the legal process.”

Zara USA Inc. was sued on Friday over pricing practices in the U.S. that the plaintiff claims are deceptive and “fraudulent.”

The lawsuit was filed in a Los Angeles federal district court by Devin Rose. It seeks class-action status. Rose seeks damages for negligence, unfair business practices, unjust enrichment and fraud. The suit also said federal court was the appropriate jurisdiction because some members of a prospec-tive class are from different states and because the matter in controversy exceeds $5 million.

Zara is the popular and trendy fast-fashion retailer that is the flagship brand of Inditex, which is based in Spain. It counts many celebrities as customers, as well as Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.

The lawsuit charges that Zara's currency “conversion rate (from euros to dollars) is entirely misapplied — to the extent it is even applied at all — such that U.S. consumers are paying far more than the true prices of the products.” The complaint also claims that Zara “violates state and federal law by luring consumers to the register with perceived lower prices using a foreign currency and surrep-titiously imposing an arbitrary markup without making an appropriate, or any, disclosure to the consumer.”

Rose, the purported class plaintiff representative,

said in the lawsuit that he purchased three shirts from a Zara retail store in California, each bearing a tag that was priced at 9.95 euros. At the register, he was charged $17.90 for each shirt. He said he questioned the price and was given inconsistent information about pricing and the conversion rate. He also said in the lawsuit that the actual euro-dollar exchange rate at the time he purchased the shirts would have been $11.26 for each shirt, instead of the $17.90 he paid, which resulted in a “markup of nearly 60 percent.”

The lawsuit further alleges that “On average, consumers are being charged $5 to $50 more than the lowest tag price in euros.” The complaint con-tends that in the aggregate, Zara has been “unjustly enriched to the tune of billions of dollars.”

The complaint further claims that under Califor-nia law, it is a criminal offense to “charge an amount greater than the lowest price posted on [a product] itself or on a shelf tag that corresponds to the [prod-uct].” Rose seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

BUSINESS

Zara Denies Allegations in Suit on Pricing

● Her company also filed a counterclaim and is seeking attorneys' fees and costs.

BY VICKI M. YOUNG

Ivanka Trump has denied the allegations of Italian footwear firm Aquazzura Italia Srl that her company has knocked off one of its popular shoe styles.

The lawsuit was filed in June in a Manhattan fed-eral court alleging trade dress infringement, unfair

competition and deceptive trade practices over an Aquazurra footwear style. Specifically the lawsuit charged that Trump’s Hettie Shoe is “virtually iden-tical” to Aquazzura’s Wild Thing. Both feature high pencil point heels with a fringe tassel at the heel and fringe covering the toes. The complaint also named as defendants IT Collection, Trump’s company, and M.B. Fisher and Marc Fisher Holdings, the footwear firm that manufactures Ivanka Trump footwear under license.

Trump filed her answer on Friday. Her company IT Collection also denied the allegations of the

Italian footwear firm in a separate filing on Friday.In its court papers, IT Collection also filed a

counterclaim, seeking a declaration by the court that the overall design of a women’s shoe, for which the Italian firm is claiming trade dress protection, is not protectable because the "design lacks secondary meaning and does not function as an indicator of source.” The counterclaim also said that IT Collec-tion is entitled to use similar designs for shoes as Aquazzura’s Wild Thing because the “overall design of the shoe is not protectable trade dress and is in the public domain.” It also is seeking a declaration

that IT Collection has not infringed upon any trademark or trade dress rights that Aquazzura may own in the Wild Thing. IT Collection has asked for attorneys’ fees and costs.

M.B. Fisher filed a similar denial of the allegations as Trump, while Marc Fisher Holdings filed similar counterclaims as IT Collection. Both Marc Fisher Holdings and IT Collection said that the overall design of Wild Thing doesn’t function as trade dress because the design has not acquired a distinctive-ness that would distinguish it from goods sold by other footwear companies.

BUSINESS

Ivanka Trump Responds to Aquazzura Knockoff Allegations

● The beauty brand will roll out to 70 Space NK Doors in the U.K. by the end of 2016.

BY RACHEL STRUGATZ

Luxe beauty brand Le Métier de Beauté is on track to double its business next year, armed with an aggressive global strategy and a series of new products.

The eight-year-old company, which does the vast majority of its business in Neiman Marcus — it's sold in every door with the exception of three — is expected to hit $50 million in sales in 2017, accord-ing to Richard Blanch, founder and chief executive officer of Le Métier de Beauté.

“We went from being a high growth brand to a high volume [brand],” Blanch told WWD last month, noting that Le Métier had a higher sales vol-ume during the third week of July at Neiman Marcus than the entire month of July last year at the retailer.

He predicted sales of $22 million for 2016, and said sales with Neiman Marcus will increase by 100 percent in the next 12 months. The line is also carried in Bergdorf Goodman and Net-a-porter, and come Sept. 1, will enter 26 Space NK Doors in the U.K. By the end of 2016, Le Métier will roll out to the rest of Space NK’s 44 stores — bringing the total door count to 70.

Along with retail expansion, the brand intro-duced four new color products this summer: Afterglow, a hydrating foundation, priced $75, and Anamorphic Lash Mascara, $34, as well as 12 shades of liquid lipstick and 10 shades of full coverage glosses that both retail for $42. A Hydra-Plump Lip

Serum, $95, came out in July and two skin-care serums — Peau Vierge Radiance Serum and The Perfector — will hit counters in September.

Le Métier is taking its best-selling Peau Vierge Antiaging Complexe, the treatment product with a patented delivery system and color benefits that ranges from price points of $125 to $175, and introducing a corresponding serum, Peau Vierge Radiance Serum.

Blanch, who called the Complexe “the first real high-end hybrid product,” explained that while not a BB Cream, the formula – a light foundation or tinted moisturizer with a radiant finish –contains retinol and delivers a host of antiaging ingredients.

The company is building on the success of this hybrid product with the $175 serum, which Blanche created in partnership with Hylton Lea and Monica Gallegos, director of skin care and vice president of sales at the brand, respectively. Intended to be used as a primer that tightens pores, clinical trials have shown that absorption rates of active ingredients are as high as 80 percent, compared to the average absorption rate of 8 percent, according to Blanch.

“We seem to be growing at the 50-50 split [between color and skin care], which is where we would like to be. We might swing a little more skin care at the time,” Blanch said. He’s in talks with retailers in the Middle East and Asia about expand-ing to those regions.

The company had a small bump in the busi-ness in late 2013, a result of an investor dispute, according to Blanch. The company had to declare bankruptcy in early 2014 in order to restructure the company under new ownership, Blanch said, adding that business remained unaffected during this time.

BEAUTY

Le Métier de Beauté GrowsColor, Peau Vierge Range

● Social media and weather patterns are fueling the shift in consumer behavior.

BY NATALIE THEODOSI

As the ongoing conversation about the changing retail landscape continues, the retail research agency Verdict has released a clothing survey which highlights consumers' demand for items they can see now, buy now and wear now.

Among the consumers polled, 85.6 percent stated that they prefer buying clothes which are suitable for the current weather and can be worn straight away, while 51.4 percent said that they do not like buying clothing in advance, for the season ahead. The data renders traditional retail patterns — which see pre-fall and fall collections drop in stores as early as mid-July — no longer relevant or up to date with the way consumers like to shop today.

The report sites social media as one of the main factors driving these changes in the retail land-scape. "Social media has shortened fashion cycles and created a buy-now-wear-now mentality while generating constant desire for new products," it states.

Unpredictable weather patterns are another factor that retailers need to consider as they

redefine their strategies.According to Verdict's report, 75.6 percent of

the survey participants agreed that the majority of retailers do offer a wide variety of product, including trans-seasonal items. But the continued drops in sales are due to the traditional ways of marketing and merchandising product; for example, retailers are currently showcasing fall collections in stores and highlighting heavy pieces such as coats, fur and jumpers as part of the mer-chandising, even though the weather continues to be warm.

To respond to the changed consumer demands, the merchandising should instead focus on reflecting the current weather in store win-dows in order to draw people in, while in-store mannequins, online content and social media can be used to propose suggestions on how the current stock can be adapted to the weather.

Verdict refers to a series of high street retail-ers as having quickly adapted to the shifting demands. Zara in particular, is making the most of its vertical supply chain to be weather-responsive through reactive product drops and frequent changes of the stores' visual merchandizing, while Superdry offers ranges that are mostly trans-sea-sonal and can be adapted to any season.

In addition, British online retailers Asos.com and Boohoo.com have been gaining traction by focusing their offer on the latest sought-after trends, products or events instead of seasons, be it the Nineties, bomber jackets or Coachella.

On the luxury front, Burberry was one of the first brands to eschew the traditional fashion cal-endar in favor of the ses-now-buy-now model. As reported, earlier this month the brand revealed its first straight-to-consumer ad campaign and plans to relaunch burberry.com and unveil a consumer app that will make the checkout process faster.

Other brands that plan to adopt a see-now-buy-now model during the next show season include Mulberry, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi, Tom Ford and Temperley London.

FASHION

Verdict Highlights Consumers' Preference for See-Now-Buy-Now Collections

"It's about eye contact, it's about facial expressions, it's all of those little things. It's about the smile."

Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard was sharing the act-ing tips he'd given Usher, who portrays Leonard onscreen in the biopic "Hands of Stone." The film had its New York premiere on Monday night at SVA Theatre.

"I just told him to separate himself — in other words put

Usher on the shelf to be me," Leonard continued. "I give him an A-plus." The retired boxer also gave reporters a flash of his washboard abs, provoking cheers from the press line.

"At 60 years old, that man is still looking like that," Usher marveled, before demonstrat-ing his side step on the red carpet. "Sugar Ray Leonard taught me the side step. I don't know what it is about that, but it's such a graceful move."

The singer was cast partially because of his dancing ability; Leonard was renowned for the way he moved around the ring. "This is an opportunity to shed light on an amazing man who's an icon for a lot of people," Usher explained. "And although this movie isn't about Sugar Ray Leonard, it's an important moment to celebrate our icons."

"Hands of Stone" recounts the life of Panamanian boxer

Roberto Durán, who faced off against Leonard in 1980 and captured the WBC welter-weight title. The two fighters met again later that year for a rematch, which became famous for Duran's “no más” forfeit. Édgar Ramírez portrays Durán in the film, and Robert De Niro costars as Durán's trainer. Cuban actress Ana de Armas also appears.

The premiere was attended by a mix of young professional fighters eager to meet Leon-ard, as well as friends and fans of De Niro and Usher — most notably Jay Z and Beyoncé, who quietly slipped into the theater.

"It's that contradiction between this fury Durán was able to convey in the ring, mixed with the biggest heart," Ramírez explained of the film's appeal. "I grew up listening to stories that my father would tell me about Roberto Durán, about his fury and how he was a beast and brawler. And then I read the script, I really tapped into his life, and realized this guy was one of the most com-passionate, one of the most tender, and had the biggest heart." — KRISTEN TAUER

Usher Steps Out for 'Hands of Stone' Premiere The biopic's New York showing drew out famed boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.

Cynthia Rowley traveled to Jakarta last week to open a shop that will house her new home collection as well as a selection of ready-to-wear and accessories (but not before taking a pit stop in Qatar and trying her hand at fly-boarding.) Rowley's 160-piece home furnishings collection, which launched last summer, hit stores worldwide in April.

Below, Rowley's postcard from her stay in the Indonesian capital.

***Did you ever see those pictures

of Leonardo DiCaprio hovering above the waters of Ibiza attached to a jet pack? Well, it's not as easy as he makes it look (Google "news anchor jet pack fail" for a more realistic ren-dition). I was on my way to Jakarta to launch a new furniture collection, but wanted to see Qatar along the way. Fly-boarding might not be an obvious layover activity, but why not make the most of it? It was exhilarating to be splashing around the Persian Gulf, but incredibly hard to stay upright, especially in the 110-degree heat. The water was a balmy 90 degrees.

Back onshore, I learned that

their national sport is falconry. I love when countries have unexpected regal sports as their calling card, the way Bhutan is known for its archery. As I was only in Qatar for 10 hours total, I couldn't swing the full desert experience; however, I did manage to quasi-scam a pet store clerk into letting me hold his falcon by asking a million questions: "Exactly how heavy are the birds, sir? Are the gloves peck proof?" I took a taxi to Souq Waqif near downtown Doha for a speed-round of fabric shopping before hopping a plane to Indonesia.

The next day, there was a nice opening party at the store. Later,

I met with the director of Jakarta Fashion Week at the new Four Seasons hotel and then skipped over to Cafe Batavia in the old Dutch colonial section of the city, where the walls are covered with vintage photographs of movie stars and aging dignitaries. It was interesting to see how the locals combine tradi-tional Kebayan style with European influences. In our ever-increasingly homogenized world, it's often at the edges of a culture where you find its true flavor, whether it's the manner in which they adorn a horse's mane or what passes for in-store merchan-dising. — Cynthia

WWD Postcard: Cynthia Rowley in JakartaThe designer traveled to Jakarta to open a shop launching her new home collection and sent WWD a postcard from her travels.

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Édgar Ramírez and Ana de Armas

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Usher, Grace Hightower, and Robert De Niro

“Café Bativia in Jakarta. Every surface is covered with

photographs of old movie stars and world dignitaries.” — Cynthia Rowley

“Lost in a souk in Doha, Qatar.” — Cynthia Rowley

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Custom-Fit For FlotusJonathan Simkhai's signa-ture fit-and-flare macramé lace dresses have gained a new fan. First Lady Michelle Obama, who graces the cover of the Aug. 23 issue of Variety on newsstands today, wore a custom-fit style from Simkhai's pre-fall collection for the maga-zine's cover shoot, photo-graphed by Art Streiber.

"It was a huge honor and brand milestone to work with Michelle Obama's team on a custom dress for the cover of Variety," Sim-khai told WWD. "Michelle represents the definition of a strong, fearless, inspiring and truly elegant First Lady, and seeing her in one of my dresses was a dream come true."

The dress, a T-shirt silhouette with contrast geometric mesh trim and an asymmetrical hemline, is currently available for

purchase on Simkhai's e-commerce site for $695. The cover marks the first time FLOTUS has worn a look by the New York-based designer, who launched his label in 2010 and was named a winner of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund last year.

In the cover story, the First Lady, interviewed by Variety's senior editor Ted Johnson, discusses how she's leveraged the power of pop culture to advocate and raise awareness on the issues that matter most to her, from healthy eating to support for military families. From appearing on Nickelodeon's "iCarly" to "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Obama admitted she's taken some risks with her appear-ances — like the time she participated in a segment of "Billy on the Street," pushing comedian Billy Eichner around a grocery store in a

shopping cart.Of the segment, Obama

tells Johnson: “You know, that’s when I thought, ‘This is crazy.’ But again, it resonat-ed. It was something that was successful. Maybe if I’d done that in my first year, it might have been too much. But I think by the time we did this in the second term, people knew me. They understood the approach. It allows me to take a few more risks than in the first term, when people were just getting to know who I was.” — KRISTI GARCED

Herrerra's Fall PlansCarolina Herrera will play up her fall campaign on digital platforms.

For the first time, the Carolina Herrera New York campaign will be launched on digital platforms. First up is Instagram, with various photographs from the Mario Testino shoot. Other social media channels will follow to be in synch with the designer’s fall deliveries.

For his third global cam-paign for Carolina Herrera, Testino tried to channel the designer herself. Imagining a night out in New York with Herrera — “the wittiest person” he knows — Testino aimed to capture the spirit of her personality in every shot.

Karlie Kloss and Lily Al-dridge appear in one of the Carolina Herrera New York fall ads arm-in-arm. (Aldridge reportedly introduced Kloss to another friend — Taylor Swift.) Kloss and Aldridge bring their own social media might with 5.3 million and 4.2 million Instagram followers.

The mobile-friendly approach also works with Herrera’s plan to launch the CH Carolina Herrera e-commerce site in October. To that end, the CH Carolina Herrera campaign will debut on digital and print plat-forms. The company also seems to be in synch with the viral cat craze, having strategically placed two white kittens in a red Duke bag photographed in one of the CH Carolina Herrera ads. The occasional feline in designer advertising isn’t such a stretch given the interest in cat yoga and the more global trend of cat cafés.

In the CH Carolina Her-rera ad with the kittens, the Duke bag will indubitably be the focal point. Made from Greco leather and Spanish steer hide, the handcrafted bag can be personalized other ways, too. Shoppers have the option to choose different color combina-tions, change the strap and add charms. — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

● The retailer chose a New York-based graffiti artist to enliven some of its exclusive merchandise.

BY SHARON EDELSON

For its 100% Bloomingdale's fall campaign bowing Sept. 1, the retailer has tagged graf-fiti artist Greg Lamarche.

The New York native, who is known for his eye-popping collages combining found materials and commercially printed papers from his vast vintage archive, has lent his bold, graphic style to Bloomingda-le's exclusive merchandise for the season. Lamarche's work borrows from the season's trend of mixing textures, fabrics and colors for and artfully arresting pastiche.

The campaign will launch on Sept. 1 with displays of Lamarche's signature collages in the Lexington Avenue windows of Bloomingdale's 59th Street flagship. The art-ist's signature collages will also be displayed

along side 100% merchandise, including interactive experiences such as a giant cell phone selfie station and a word search wall comprised of jumbled letters such as those Lamarche uses in his work.

A collection of limited-edition prod-ucts featuring Lamarche's graffiti with its profusion of font styles, fractured words and patchwork of layers will be sold in dedicated pop-up shops in all Bloomingda-le's locations through Oct. 31, as well as at bloomingdales.com.

Lamarche products will include a No Tresspassing sweatshirt covered in the artist's lively multicolored letters for $98; a No Tresspassing crew neck T-shirt with a wide strip of the alphabet across the chest, $65; a Right Left longsleeve T-shirt with bands of letters on the arms, $70, and A No Tresspassing zip hoodie with art work on the hood and sleeves, $115.

“Being a native New Yorker, Blooming-dale’s was part of my experience growing up,” said Lamarche, explaining his interest interest in collaborating with the retailer.

“Bloomingdale’s is excited to join forces

with renowned artist Greg Lamarche for our fall 2016 100% Bloomingdale’s campaign,” said Frank Berman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Bloomingda-le’s. "Each season we look to broaden our roster of 100% Bloomingdale’s collaborators — from designers to performers to athletes — in an effort to create exclusive merchandise and experiences that our customers won't find anywhere else. Greg’s dynamic artwork brings a playful energy to our fall campaign and creates the perfect backdrop for the season’s top trends."

Lamarche also designed a Medium Brown Bag logo for Bloomingdale's signature tote, $50 and a Little Brown Bag version, $35. A shaving kit and cosmetics bag read Wash Up and Hey Gorgeous, respectively. There's also a Lamarche coffee mug, plastic tumbler, notebook, money clip mug and pillow.

Bloomingdale's will be offering com-plementary Greg Lamarche letter pins to decorate denim jackets or sweatshirts at the pop-ups, while supplies last.

The retailer has planned a series of events, including on Sept. 17,

Lamarche-designed patches with a purchase of jeans and darned while you wait between 1 and 6 p.m. at all stores. Other planned activations to celebrate 100% Blooming-dale's will include a red lip service, where cosmetics associates choose a customer's best shade on Sept. 10 from 1 to 4 p.m.; at a handbag happy hour also on Sept. 10, time to be announced, shoppers exchange a gently used handbag for 20 percent off the price of a new one. The event will benefit Housing Works, a non-profit organization that combats homelessness and AIDS.

RETAIL

100% Bloomingdale's Items Get Graphic Treatment

Feet FirstIndustry talk is swirling that Paul Andrew could be named as Salvatore Ferragamo’s first creative director for shoes.

If hired, this role would add to Andrew’s already steep roster of daily tasks. He, of course, designs a namesake men’s and women’s brand sold at luxury retailers including Bergdorf Goodman, while also consulting on shoe designs for firms including Via Spiga and Theory.

Andrew honed his talent at Donna Karan, where he worked for nearly a decade — rising to the role of vice president, design, shoes and accessories. Prior to working with Karan, Andrew held design roles at both Calvin Klein and Narciso Rodriguez.

His namesake brand, launched in 2012, is predicated on simple, streamlined feminine silhouettes that are engineered for versatility and comfort. The line expanded into the men's category for fall. In August, this men's assortment was honored with the Brand Launch award at the Accessories Council's annual ACE Awards. Andrew won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2014, as well as the Swarovski Award for emerging accessories design talent at the 2016 CFDA Awards.

Neither Ferragamo nor Andrew replied to requests for comment. When reached by phone, a spokeswoman for Andrew said that she had “no comment.”

If appointed at Ferragamo, Andrew would step into a brand in flux. Earlier this month, chief executive offer Michele Norsa left the label, replaced by Furla ceo Eraldo Poletto.

Ferragamo creative director Massimiliano Giornetti also departed the label in March, after 16 years with the brand. Ferragamo has yet to name a successor, and said it is focusing on strengthening its in-house design team.

In recent months, Ferragamo has released capsule collections designed by up-and-coming accessories talents, including shoes by Aquazzura’s Edgardo Osorio, handbags by Sara Battaglia and jewelry by Daniela Villegas.

When asked at the time if any of these designers were in the running to fill Giornetti’s shoes, a Ferragamo spokesperson said that the collections were merely limited-edition engagements with young designers. — MISTY WHITE SIDELL

Beauty BoostBritish retailer John Lewis infused a sum of 9 billion pounds, or $11.8 billion at current ex-change, into its in-store beauty hall and product range in an effort to “supercharge its beauty business.”

The investment will see sev-eral store refurbishments with the addition of new brands that will join the existing lineup. New

brands include Marc Jacobs Beauty, Tom Ford Beauty, Char-lotte Tilbury, MAC Cosmetics, Chanel, Jo Malone, Urban Decay and La Prairie.

Store shops in Cambridge, Cribbs Causeway and Blue-water will be revamped while Cardiff, Stratford, Peter Jones, and Cheadle will also receive investment. The revamp is scheduled to be completed by end of October.

This investment follows the launch of John Lewis’ own and beauty full-service spa in its Bir-mingham shop, and the Clarins Beauty bar at John Lewis Oxford Street last year. John Lewis will be opening two new shops later this year in Chelmsford in Sep-tember and Leeds in October.

“Beauty is one of the best-per-forming categories at John Lewis and a significant footfall driver, so this investment is a reflection of our ambition in this space," said John Lewis buying director for fashion and beauty Ed Connolly. “We are continuing to bring new and contemporary brands to our customers across both fashion and beauty, and we have one of the widest and best beauty selections of any department store in the world.” — LORELEI MARFIL

Fashion Scoops

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Memo PadA CH Carolina Herrera fall ad.

Michelle Obama wears Jonathan

Simkhai in her cover shoot for Variety.

Paul Andrew

Greg Lamarche's art work on a sweatshirt for the 100% Bloomingdale's collection.