WWDFine WineWho doesn’t love a rich burgundy? It’s a key color for fall, which designers worked into a wide range of fabrics. Here, Alexander Wang’s lacquered hand-knit wool sweater, Yigal Azrouël’s leather pants and Gianvito Rossi’s loafers. For more on the trend, see wwd.com/fashion.

MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

PHOTO BY THOMAS IANNACCONE; STYLED BY CATHERINE PERIDISMOD

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WWD WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

EXCLUSIVE

Li & Fung Eyes Gen-Y With Vena Cava Deal

By MARC KARIMZADEH

NEW YORK — LF USA is building a contempo-rary portfolio and has now turned to Vena Cava, the American label by Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, to lead the way.

The U.S. subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Li & Fung Limited has inked a long-term licensing and design agreement with Vena Cava. Mayock and Buhai, who started their search for a partner last year, will continue to creatively spearhead their eight-year old label with access to Li & Fung’s extensive resources and retail contacts worldwide.

“We have been beginning to build a portfolio of bet-ter and more contemporary designers here,” LF USA president Rick Darling told WWD. “What really attract-ed us to [Mayock and Buhai] is their very specifi c under-standing of a new customer that is emerging, that I think is very important to all of us in the industry right now.”

LF USA is looking to the Los Angeles natives to help tap further into the hot contemporary category and the desirable 18- to 35-year-old demographic.

“We are now pretty regularly looking to attract the right kind of talent that can elevate the company, and take it to the next step, and they are probably posi-tioned to do that with this Millennial customer like no one else,” he added.

Vena Cava will be positioned in LF USA’s women’s apparel group alongside brands like Rachel Zoe, Sofi a Vergara, Daisy Fuentes, Ellen Tracy and Keds Apparel.

Darling didn’t disclose specifi cs of the arrangement, but stressed that it wasn’t an acquisition. Instead, the deal involves a master license and a partnership with the designers, who will work closely with LF USA to ex-pand with more categories and grow the distribution of their brand.

Sitting in their Broome Street showroom last week, Buhai and Mayock said that they had been searching for a suitable partner for over a year after realizing they needed support to maintain and grow the business.

SEE PAGE 4

Phillip Lim’s 2012 Push

SEE PAGE 4

By RACHEL STRUGATZ

NEW YORK — The key word for Phillip Lim in 2012 is expansion, starting with a move last week to a sprawling 23,000-square-foot corporate space here on Hudson Street in TriBeCa, and continuing with a new e-commerce Web site launching today.

That’s not all. The designer and his chief executive offi cer, Wen Zhou, with whom he co-founded the 3.1 Phillip Lim label in 2004 when both were age 31, also have a new retail focus — in China.

Lim and Zhou said the plan by the end of 2016 is to open 15 more stores in the country, where the brand currently has one boutique, in Hong Kong. This means the fashion fi rm — with freestanding stores in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore and Seoul — will grow its store count by three-and-a-half times. Two more freestanding doors are slated to open in Hong Kong by the end of the year, two each in Shanghai and Beijing in 2013 and a total of 11 stores throughout Mainland China in the next fi ve years.

China is the fastest-growing region for the brand, and the third-largest portion of its overall revenues after the U.S. and Japan, according to Zhou, who said that by 2015 China will become the second-largest market in terms of sales and could even potentially surpass the U.S.

“There is a voracious appetite in that market for the product we have — [which is] subtle and elegant — a parallel to the value system of Asian culture,” Lim told WWD, sitting at his custom-made “endless desk,” a 7-foot piece of furniture created by Tyler Hayes at

WWD.COM2 WWD MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012

Schedule Shift for MAGIC Show

Alice + Olivia Expanding in New York

To e-mail reporTers and ediTors aT WWd, The address is firsTname_lasTname@fairchildfashion.com, using The individual’s name. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2012 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 203, NO. 72. MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in May, June, October and December, and two additional issues in February, March, April, August, September and November) by Fairchild Fashion Media, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615 5008. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008, call 800-289-0273, or visit www.subnow.com/wd. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax the request to 212-630-5883. For all request for reprints of articles please contact The YGS Group at condenast@theygsgroup.com, or call 800-501-9571. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Media magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.fairchildpub.com. Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008 or call 800-289-0273. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

on WWD.CoM

the Briefing Boxin Today’s WWd

Alexandra Richards at the Kim Crawford Wines party.

EYE: Miles Aldridge and Kim Crawford Wines got two birds with one stone, celebrating the Australian winery and shooting their ad campaign at the same event. For more, see WWD.com/eye.

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By Sharon EdElSon

nEW YorK — alice + olivia is moving south and west.

The brand, known for its la-dylike styles in colorful shades and floral prints, has outgrown its 12,000-square-foot offices on West 40th Street here. next month, it will relocate south to 27,000-square-foot offices at 450 West 14th Street in the Meatpacking district, as well as open a 2,000-square-foot store in the space formerly occupied by Stella McCartney a few doors away, at 431 West 14th Street. The brand, which is designed by Stacey Bendet, operates seven stores in the U.S., including a recently unveiled 2,400-square-foot unit at 2259 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.

“It was important for us to have a presence,” Bendet said of moving alice + olivia’s head-quarters to the Meatpacking district. “I like 14th Street. There’s a great energy down-town. our brand has so much exposure. We can really make the street come alive again. While there are [retail] spaces available, the traffic’s amazing.”

alice + olivia’s stores are de-signed to blend with their sur-roundings. The San Francisco

unit has a sexy Seventies vibe with gold and brass accents. Bendet said it was designed to reflect the city “at its most iconic moment.” The store doubled its plan in the first week, she said. “I went to a music festival in San Francisco last year and loved Fillmore Street,” Bendet said. “a friend, nevena Borissova, opened a Curve boutique there. She saw this space and said I had to see it.”

With $130 million worth of products shipping to wholesale accounts in 2012, Bendet said the brand is ready for expan-sion. In los angeles, where alice + olivia operates two stores, on robertson Boulevard and in Malibu, Bendet is looking for additional space. Florida is also a priority. “our plan is to open stores in Boston, Miami and all the major cities,” Bendet said. “The company has been re-ally profitable for a long time. My partner for the last nine years has been andrew rosen. This is a really fun time. We’re up about 20 percent. We think there’s a lot of growth.”

alice + olivia’s internation-al business is up 60 percent at lane Crawford, harvey nichols and stores in the Middle East, Bendet said. The brand is eyeing hong Kong, london and Paris for freestanding units.

a large alice + olivia shop-in-shop opened at Bloomingdale’s here, and the brand is unveil-ing a 1,200-square-foot shop at harrods in london.

Bendet wants to build alice + olivia’s shoe business and is introducing a gown collection in September at neiman Marcus, harrods and net-a-porter, among others. “We might do something in the home area because our clothing is a lifestyle brand about the modern-day cool girl,” Bendet said.

BrIEn roWE, Marvin Padilla and Philippe Faraut have joined Intrepid Investment Bankers as managing directors in its con-sumer products group.

Intrepid is a middle market investment banking firm based in los angeles. The three have extensive expertise in the retail, apparel and personal care sectors, having advised on mergers and ac-quisitions transactions such as the sales of Jimmy Choo, dC Shoes, J Brand and Too Faced Cosmetics. They will join Steve davis, partner

and managing director at Intrepid, in the consumer products group. davis will lead the firm’s personal and beauty care effort.

rowe will head up the consumer products group at Intrepid. he was the co-founder and managing director at los angeles-based Sage Group llC, and had co-headed Sage’s life-style brands practice. his areas of expertise include apparel and accessories, action and board sports and personal care.

Padilla previously was a man-

aging director at Sage and ex-ecuted advisory assignments for clients in the area of branded con-sumer market segments. he has a special focus on personal care and the packaging industries.

Faraut was a managing direc-tor at new York-based Financo Inc., leading the firm’s West Coast office. his focus is on ap-parel, accessories and retail. Before joining Financo, he was a director at Sage, where he also focused on apparel and retail.

— Vicki M. YoUNG

Sage, Financo Bankers Join Intrepid

BErGdorF GoodMan last week named three new merchants, all with titles of vice president and divisional merchandise manager.

Mimi Fukuyoshi will handle men’s designer sportswear and shoes. She was a divisional at Gilt Man and Gilt’s Park & Bond Web site, and earlier spent 11 years at Bloomingdale’s as a men’s merchant.

andrew Mandell will handle decorative home and little BG, which is children’s wear. he was pres-ident of The Gift Company, a general merchandise manager of Takashimaya and, most recently, a home merchant at Gilt Group. Fukuyoshi and Mandell re-port to Ginny hershey-lambert, Bergdorf ’s execu-

tive vice president of merchandising.additionally, april henning will handle 5F,

Bergdorf ’s contemporary floor. She succeeds and reports to aja Passero, who was promoted to senior vice president and general merchandise manager for women’s shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, 5F and sixth floor sportswear. henning spent seven years at Saks Fifth avenue, most recently as buyer of advanced contemporary.

Mandell succeeds nicholas Manville, who resigned and is now at ralph lauren. Fukuyoshi succeeds Christopher Spieker, who left the company. — DaViD MoiN

Bergdorf’s Adds Three Merchants

LF USA is building a contemporary portfolio and has now turned to Vena Cava, the American label by Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai, to lead the way. PAGE 1 The key word for Phillip Lim in 2012 is expansion, including a new corporate space, a new e-commerce Web site and a fresh retail focus in China. PAGE 1 The MAGIC trade shows will occur on a new, staggered schedule beginning in August. PAGE 2 Alice + Olivia next month will relocate to a bigger office space, in New York’s Meatpacking District, as well as open a store a few doors away. PAGE 2 Eddie Borgo on his name, his brand and the challenges of making it all work. PAGE 6 Nike’s classic Dunk sneaker has spawned one of the leading accessory trends at retail this spring. PAGE 8 Botkier is launching a luxe handbag collection for fall that will broaden the brand’s price range, and potentially reclaim its high-end consumer. PAGE 8 More than a year after her exit from French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld has a new magazine of her own. PAGE 9 Arianna Huffington and Wendi Murdoch toasted Kathy Freston for her new book “The Lean” Thursday. PAGE 9 Louis Vuitton men’s style director Kim Jones was honored at the Travel Room, an annex to its SoHo store. PAGE 11 Emily Blunt, Dakota Fanning and Analeigh Tipton turned out in honor of Elie Saab’s rare trip to Gotham. PAGE 11 John Malkovich, who launched his fashion brand Technobohemian in 2009, has teamed up with Pirelli P Zero to design a capsule collection of shoes. PAGE 11

advanSTar FaShIon Group’s MaGIC trade shows will occur on a new, staggered schedule be-ginning in august.

The Project, S.l.a.T.E., Street, Menswear and Pool shows will take place aug. 20 to 22 in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. WWdMaGIC and Fn Platform, which showcase women’s wear and footwear, respectively, will start a day later and run from aug. 21 to 23 in the las vegas Convention Center.

The Sourcing at MaGIC show will occur over all four days, from aug. 20 to 23, also in the lvCC.

“We have seen attendance increase 14 percent and exhibitors increase 39 percent in the last three years,” said Thomas Florio, chief executive officer of advanstar Fashion Group, adding that

the most important request from attendees was to provide more days for the las vegas shows.

over the past six months, advanstar has con-ducted research that revealed that 80 percent of attendees were cross-shopping the men’s, wom-en’s and footwear shows. “Buyers wanted more time to interact with all the exhibitors and go to our seminars, which have been getting a lot of at-tendance,” said Florio. “We are broadening our schedule of seminars, which have been drawing 400 to 500 people to some of them, with standing room only.”

a new “Made in america” initiative will be added to the next sourcing show, said Florio, who is traveling to Washington, d.C., this week to ex-plore the issue. — DaViD LiPkE

Inside an Alice + Olivia store.

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ExclusivE

LF USA, Vena Cava Form Partnership

Lim on the Move on Multiple Fronts

“What we loved about Li & Fung when we first met with them is that they felt strongly about giv-ing us total creative control, even with some really far-out branding ideas,” Buhai said. “We do ‘zines, dinner parties, videos and online garage sales, and they loved those kinds of ideas and were willing to let us do what we thought was right for the brand.”

Mayock added, “They un-derstand we have something to offer — not just design, but our perspective as designers as well, the branding and every-where we go from there.”

The two started their line in 2004 with the concept of cre-ating styles that women could pass on to future generations, and inspirations ranging from vintage movies to travel and flea market finds. At its height, Vena Cava was sold in 80 to 100 stores, but, like many of their designer peers, Mayock and Buhai found themselves challenged to pro-ceed without additional support.

The duo designed a spring 2011 collection, but decided not to produce and deliver it to stores, prompting speculation that the label was about to shutter, which Buhai and Mayock denied.

“We just hit a point where we realized that in order to take [Vena Cava] where we wanted to take it in terms of our vision,

we had to get some investment help,” Buhai said. “We were in no way going to shut down Vena Cava, but realized that to keep running things, we needed to get some real support behind us. So we decided to take a little bit of time. We were just regrouping.”

For fall, which the duo qui-etly presented to buyers in their showroom, they were inspired by neo-Noir movies from the Seventies, with strong shoulders and small waists, and dramatic color combinations, including studded tuxedos, soft dresses in original prints and trenchcoats.

Barneys New York will be the main retailer to carry the label for fall, and has picked up the line for its Madison Avenue flag-ship, the Soho And Beverly Hills units, as well as Barneys.com.

With LF USA behind them, there are many new areas the two are planning to explore.

“We now have all the production, sourcing and technical help that we could ever dream about,” Mayock said. “We have so many ideas we tried to execute in the past that just haven’t worked because we didn’t have those kind of resources and couldn’t figure out the best way to make something actually happen.”

Further down the line, Buhai added, “We have ideas for homeware and for men’s wear. We are interested in doing more print publications, little mov-

ies and eventually one day we’d like to have our own stores.”

Darling added that there could also be diffusion possibilities.

Perhaps even more key for Li & Fung is the designers’ input beyond their own label.

“There is great interest on our part, and the industry’s part, on identifying this 18- to 35-year-old customer and really understanding what makes them tick,” he said. “I think Sophie and Lisa are that customer, and of all the people that we have met, they have a clear vision of how to reach their customer, both male and female — how they buy, how they think and how you need to talk to them.

“Our plans with Sophie and Lisa will be to lead LF USA’s charge to go after that customer,” he added. “That will involve prod-uct extensions, footwear, acces-sories, jewelry, cold weather and home product. We think there is an ability to use them to drive that entire process to the customer. We look to Sophie and Lisa as our experts now. They will, of course, concentrate on their own line but we see their role here much broader than the Vena Cava line.”

Vena Cava is just one of sev-eral such contemporary deals in the pipelines. “Across the vari-ous businesses, we are starting to build out the portfolio, and Vena Cava fits right into it,” he said.

handmade furniture company BDDW, which the designer lik-ens to a patchwork quilt because each square foot of it was made by one of seven artisans.

Of his Chinese customer, Lim continued, “They respect and desire design, but the ones that gravitate towards our clothes love a type of elegance and modesty. It’s how they live their lives; they don’t have to shout. It’s a sophisticated and confi-dent way of carrying oneself. Also being of Chinese descent, it’s like they root for you. They are proud.”

Zhou said the company’s rev-enues hit the $60 million mark in 2011, and she is sure this will dou-ble in the next five years. In fact, the two have seen double-digit year-on-year growth since the company’s inception, even during the global recession of 2008.

Even with the growth, there is one thing Lim and Zhou want to make clear: They value their inde-pendence. The company has been entirely self-funded by the two since the beginning. There are no private investors, backers or any third parties with a stake in the brand, and Lim and Zhou aren’t looking for any at the moment.

“Independence means no pressure or timetables. We make whatever is in our means and we feel that people need. It’s as simple as that,” Lim said. “We’re fluid and buoyant — it doesn’t take a month of approvals to OK a move.”

When asked if an initial pub-lic offering looms in the future, Zhou replies, “I love that ques-tion. Independence works for us, and it’s a little too early to take on investors. At this point we’re organically growing, but we would never say never.”

Still, in what’s sure to be a long process of settling into the

new headquarters designed by Leong Leong (the same ar-chitects who worked on Lim’s stores), including the moving of thousands of books to the li-brary portion of the designer’s two-room office, Lim said he and Zhou have been strategic about the brand’s expansion. He favors steady growth where the duo is able to set the pace.

Part of Lim’s growth over the last year has been fueled by his accessories, where rev-enues have expanded expo-nentially. From the fall 2011 season, which saw the brand’s first official standalone foot-wear and handbag collection, to the upcoming fall 2012 season, Zhou said there has been a 275 percent increase in sales. From 2011 to 2012, accessories went from bringing in $3 million in wholesale sales to $7.5 million — which translates to almost $20 million at retail.

Zhou and Lim are keen on the idea that the brand they’ve built embodies the term “modern lux-ury,” after deciding that it was neither high contemporary nor entry designer, and the chicly constructed shoes and handbags Lim designs fits in with this. The Pashli and the 31 Hour bags — both strong performers at retail — range in price from about $795 to $850, while shoes retail from $275 for espadrilles to $795 for an evening shoe, with pumps going from $475 to $575.

“We want to maintain our price point. [Accessories] are still new for us and we don’t want to grow it too aggressively. There al-ways needs to be a sound founda-tion,” Zhou said, adding that the company likes to limit retail dis-tribution to a certain extent.

Today’s launch of Lim’s new digital flagship with e-commerce and social media at 31phil-liplim.com should stimulate further growth. Developed by one-and-a-half-year-old digital agency King & Partners (started by Tony King, co-founder and former chief creative officer of Createthe Group), the site has a minimalist, almost austere look. The sleek white background puts the focus on the product, although there are whimsical extras, such as a virtual dress-ing room curated by Lim that gives customers suggestions of what to purchase and “Phillip’s world,” which will contain a blog the designer will write.

“It’s the hardest-working store we have; it’s 24-7. It seam-lessly merges the brand experi-ence and e-commerce,” Zhou said. “It’s [also] the only store you can get really detailed in-formation about your client. You can be really granular about this data, and learn when they are shopping, where they are from and how old they are.”

Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock with

a model in an ensemble for fall.

Phillip Lim in his new space.

{Continued from page one}

{Continued from page one}

’’’’

Independence means no

pressure or timetables. We make whatever is in our means and we feel that

people need.— PhilliP lim

For more, see

WWD.com/fashion-news.

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6 WWD MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012

By BRIDGET FOLEY

THE YOUNG MAN in the now-signature fedora recalls the day he realized there are two Eddie Borgos. He was in Paris, showing his fall 2011 collec-tion in a beautiful apartment, its grand exteriors and views of the Palais Royal in lovely con-trast to the youthful modernity of the interior renovation. The space made for quite an up-grade from that of his first trip, a scant three years prior. Then, he and his best friend, Jamie Rosenthal, shared a room in the Hotel Louvre Bons Enfants, “the equivalent of an American Holiday Inn, only smaller,” he says. They rose early each day to straighten up and make the bed, spread the jewelry out and then take appointments. Borgo characterizes that trip as “suc-cessful, but stressful.”

The later trip felt far more professional, buoyed by a sense of arrival. “To be there in that apartment, to see editors and buyers from all over the world and to know that there is glob-al recognition on that scale — that’s when it started to feel like a brand,” Borgo pinpoints. “We were selling, expanding the sales, there were stores we thought would never come to see the collection.”

In the brief, whirlwind years between those two Parisian so-journs, Eddie Borgo Collection, while still tiny by industry stan-dards, grew considerably in size, and its profile, along with the designer’s, exponentially. The highly identifiable aes-thetic — edgy elegance, a little tough, with a strong rock ’n’ roll current sprung from childhood immersion in the music of the Seventies (major fans, Mom and Dad Borgo always had something playing) — struck an immediate chord with editors, a handful of forward-thinking retailers and a savvy clientele eager for state-ment costume jewelry that ran counter to the prevalent hyper-girly direction. For his fall col-lection, Borgo took a bold indus-trial turn. Inspired by the work of photographer Steve Duncan, he drew from the ironworks of subterranean New York in all its moody intrigue. He thus riffed on big, audacious designs on the metal tubing, joint systems and nuts and bolts that quite literally hold the city together. The collec-tion is now in 100 doors world-wide. Along with the original four accounts — Barneys New York, Liberty of London, Joyce and Colette — these include Bergdorf Goodman and multiple Neiman Marcus doors as well as Restir in Tokyo, Harvey Nichols in London and Hong Kong, Cocktail Me in Poznan, Poland and Hide&Seek in Singapore. The brand’s largest retail client: Net-a-Porter.

The realization that Eddie Borgo the person now shared his name with Eddie Borgo the brand brought on the in-evitable initial thrill followed by the weight of responsibility. Conversation with the designer reveals a determined mind-set behind the gentle countenance. From the start, he has taken a measured approach to building his business — one that displays some elements of learn-as-you-go. At some point it became ob-vious that serious growth would require outside investment. According to Jessica Kates, in-

coming chief operating officer and chief financial officer, the company is close to finalizing a deal with a small venture capital firm and some angel investors that will, if all goes as expected, transfer between 20 and 25 per-cent of the company’s ownership. Kates has functioned as a consul-tant for Borgo since September and expects to be full-time by the end of this month, which should coincide more or less with the finalization of the investment deal. A search for a chief execu-tive officer is under way.

Borgo maintains that turning profitable as a very young busi-ness made the company attrac-tive. “I think where [we] started to look, for lack of a better word, ‘sexy’ to an investor,” he says, “is the fact that we have multiple revenue streams, and all of those revenue streams are already lucrative.” Some come from a private label division, con-ceived and launched in concert with Randy Britton. Borgo and Britton have been equal partners in the private label part of the business, with Borgo retaining full ownership of his trademark.

Upon completion of the invest-ment deal, Britton will exit the company via an amicable buyout and the investors will assume minority of the entire company, including the trademark.

The Eddie Borgo brand launched, to use an irritating but sometimes accurate word, organically. After studying art foundation and costume theory in Virginia and Atlanta, Borgo moved to New York in 1998. Here he took classes at Hunter and found his way into the kind of jobs typical of the fashion-ob-

sessed, at Barneys, in the visu-als department of Donna Karan and at the accessories firm Noir. Along the way, he dabbled in styl-ing, making his first jewelry when a friend asked him to come up with some runway pieces for a Diesel Style Lab show. Soon after, the editorial requests started coming, and a new future opened up. Then Phillip Lim asked him to do the jewelry for his spring 2009 collection, and soon, Pamela Love, in a collaboration for

Marchesa. Borgo has subsequent-ly worked with Joseph Altuzarra, Jason Wu and Jen Kao. He has only raves for all.

The jobs for Lim and Marchesa provided funds that became the foundation for the Eddie Borgo Collection. At about the same time, Borgo recon-nected with Britton, with whom he’d worked at Noir, and a third partner no longer in the picture. The three came up with the idea for an operation that would de-sign and produce costume jew-elry for private label clients.

Borgo became the face of the company, with the intention that private label would ultimately help fund his collection busi-ness. The partners settled on the name Outhouse to emphasize, Borgo says, the idea of “out-of-house design development and through to production, shipping, carding, ticketing, testing — all of that. ” The division, soon to be renamed, simply, Private Label, has broadened to offer licensing and consulting.

Private label clients, pres-ent and past, include numer-ous major fashion brands and big-name vertical retailers, many of whom Borgo is con-tractually prohibited from re-vealing. Current clients he can confirm are White House|Black Market and Ann Taylor, the lat-ter a consultancy that turned

into a private label situation. Past clients include J. Crew, a relationship forged during the 2010 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund process, and Banana Republic. Borgo maintains he has no dif-ficulty diversifying the projects of multiple clients. “[Our role] is to design special programs that speak to their customer from a designer [perspective]. I think that’s a strength of mine,” he says. “I can move from space to space and get inspired through the language of these different companies.…A lot of private

label businesses aren’t design-driven companies; they aren’t design-focused.”

Borgo approaches the pri-vate label process much as he does his own collection. He be-gins with “platform” pieces that “speak the language of the col-lection, show the inspiration, show the influence. Then we de-lineate down from that. We start by category. We go necklace, bracelet, earring, ring. And then we figure out all the different price points within each catego-ry. There are lots of things that inform that design process.”

One such item is the inevi-table “love-hate relationship between the design divisions of these large companies and the merchants.” Rather than stomp petulantly into a purist’s ivory tower, Borgo understands the necessity of balance, a realiza-tion that took time to develop. “It can’t always be design-driv-en,” he acknowledges. “That’s not the way of the world.” Even with his signature collection, small, upscale and fashion-driv-en as it is, certain business re-alities have taken hold. “It took me a long time to understand and want to understand, to be honest. But I do now. Our buy-ers love and enjoy the editorial things that we do. But there’s also a bottom line.”

Borgo credits Maureen

Building th

It can’t always be design-driven. That’s not the way of the world.

— EDDIE BORGO

Bracelets from Eddie Borgo’s fall collection, inspired by Steve Duncan’s photographs.

Eddie Borgo

WWD.COM7WWD MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012

Chiquet, Chanel’s global ceo and his mentor through the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, with fa-cilitating that epiphany. As last year’s runner-up, he received $100,000; soon thereafter, he se-cured an additional $100,000 as a recipient of the Vogue Tiffany Grant. (He also garnered the 2011 CFDA Swarovski Award for Accessory Design.) Chiquet oversaw an in-depth analysis of every level of the Borgo business. Along the way, the designer says, “we identified pieces that we feel make up the fabric of the Eddie Borgo brand.” These became a formal entity, called Core, which will comprise a constant back-drop to the seasonal fashion-forward collections. Stock will be readily available and never marked down. Core accounts for 70 percent of annual sales with sell-throughs of a whopping 85 percent. Now at about 50 pieces, the range will expand as poten-tial classics emerge from the sea-sonal collections. “The idea is to grow that Core business, invest in it, create more silhouettes, take those ideas that are part of a larger collection, capitalize on them and figure out ways to make one piece an entire grouping of jewelry,” he says. “If we know [a concept] sells as a bracelet, why haven’t we made studs and chan-delier earrings and a necklace and a smaller bracelet and a ring

with that silhouette and with that group? That was Maureen’s idea.”

Chiquet found Borgo “smart and ambitious with a real vision for his business. He has an in-credible curiosity and hunger to learn about everything — from manufacturing to supply chain to sales to finance to manage-ment,” she offers via e-mail. She was impressed with his designs as well as his interest in the managerial side his business model, “the idea of having a high-end brand under his name, Eddie Borgo, funded by his de-sign service, Outhouse.” (Since adopting that model, the Eddie Borgo Collection has become profitable on its own). His great-est challenges, Chiquet says, will lie in “generating enough cash flow to manufacture his products in time to meet grow-ing demand.…It is also a huge challenge to find the right sup-pliers who understand his quali-ty and design specifications. And of course, he has organizational challenges in hiring and groom-ing the right talent to keep up with his business growth.”

Regarding Chiquet’s last point, the hunt is on. The compa-ny currently employs only eight people, including Borgo. Studio Director Beitressa Mandelbaum has become his right hand in the business, involved in all aspects from design to sales and press

strategy. Designer Nathaniel Deverich works with Borgo on the signature line; assistant de-signer Helen Kim, on Private Label. In addition to a new ceo, the company will make several senior hires within the next year, specifically in the areas of sales and production. “There is such strong demand for his de-signs and his business has grown fast, so the future will largely depend on finding the right part-

ners, building the right team, securing his sourcing base,” Chiquet writes.

With profits from Core, Borgo expects to launch a fine jewelry collection, probably in 2014. He envisions an audacity not often found in that market, “taking elements from the street, from New York, things that we con-sider not luxurious and making them luxurious. I would love for everything to be very mechani-

cal, very Industrial Age.” E-commerce is another area

primed for growth. The Eddie Borgo Web site now accounts for about 10 percent of total rev-enue while being all but ignored in-house, according to Kates. “It’s just sort of there. People who are looking to buy Eddie Borgo products online go there on their own,” she says. “Once we make an investment in that, polish it up a little bit and sort of relaunch it in a more profes-sional way, I think it could easily get up to four times the current size in the next two years.”

Yet the brand is not forsaking the ways of old. Also on the agen-da: the opening of the brand’s first brick-and-mortar store — or two — in New York, probably by the end of next year. Borgo loves the West Side between 14th and 20th Streets; Kates cites SoHo as also “in sync with our customer base,” but notes as well the pos-sibility of an uptown counter-point, likely Madison Avenue.

“The nice thing about jewelry,” Borgo offers, “is you don’t need much real estate.”

He knows whereof he speaks. Until recently, the Borgo staff worked in a tiny, 250-square-foot space on West 35th Street, relo-cating in December to what now seems a palatial 2,600 square feet on Elizabeth Street. Borgo de-scribes the building, anchored by the restaurant Public on the first floor, as “very grand and sturdy.”

The decor: stripped down and raw, in homage to its past as an early 1900s electrical plant.

As for marketing, the Eddie Borgo Collection was sprung quite literally from editorial in-terest and remains a favorite resource of the genre. Which makes sense; the line and its designer radiate cool. It’s thus a little surprising that unlike so many other designers, Borgo is not obsessed with social media; his brand has a Twitter account but no Facebook or Tumblr. Its primary marketing efforts center on a viral campaign, the brain-child of house stylist Keegan Singh, who’s also Borgo’s boy-friend, that each season features a woman involved in fashion. Cecilia Dean did the honors for spring, following, among others, Lauren Santo Domingo, Tabitha Simmons and Vanessa Traina. “We print [it] as a poster and send it to our retail and editorial supporters — this is our form of social media,” says Borgo.

Though the Eddie Borgo busi-ness plan that was pitched to investors has changed consider-ably since it was drawn up last year, its five-year projections have not. In 2011, the company hit its target of 33 percent rev-enue increases over 2010; this year’s projection is a 59 percent increase, followed by projected increases no lower than 44 per-cent as Core continues to grow.

Despite his penchant for con-crete projections, Borgo volun-teers that he may never achieve his final goal. “It’s so difficult to get your head around [the con-cept of success], almost an im-possibility,” he says. “Success comes in waves, and it’s never-ending. You have to create short-term and long-term goals, and when you achieve those goals you can’t stop and say, ‘This is it; we’ve achieved this goal.’ You do a little cheer, you keep on mov-ing, and a new goal surfaces.”

e Business

The future will largely depend on finding the right partners,

building the right team, securing [Borgo’s ] sourcing base.— MAUREEN CHIQUET, CHANEL

PORT

RAIT

BY

JOHN

AQU

INO;

JEW

ELRY

BY

THOM

AS IA

NNAC

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Bold geometric bracelets from

Borgo’s Core range.

The designer in his new headquarters.

WWD.COM8 WWD MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012

By ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

NEW YORK — Botkier is looking upward.The contemporary handbag brand is

launching a luxe collection for fall that will broaden the brand’s price range, and potentially reclaim its high-end consumer.

Called “Monica Botkier” after the brand’s owner and designer, the collection nods to the brand’s roots of handbags made from exotic skins. Comprising eight styles, the new line incorporates clutches, shoul-der bags and satchels in shearling and water snake that are all priced under $1,000.

“This has been in the works for a long time,” said Botkier. “I’ve been looking back at my archives and how we were priced higher. We are successful at $495 and below but there’s still room for some collection pieces, and these [new] prices are still attainable for a brand like ours.”

Set to hit stores in September with a second delivery in October, the collec-tion includes the Misha series, which is inspired by Botkier’s bestseller from its 2012 spring and resort collections, as well as the newly created Marlow series.

Retailing for $895, the Misha collec-tion includes black striated water snake shoulder bags that are available in em-erald, burgundy and deep purple.

The Marlow series is a shearling-based collection that includes clutches for $845, crossbody bags for $895 and satchels for $995.

“Our label is evolving and our consum-er has matured,” the designer said. “I feel we can infiltrate a market that consumers are craving. My vision is to sell to the de-partment stores that carried Botkier when I was developing the line years ago, like Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman.”

Before the recession, Botkier’s hand-bags topped out at $900 and included

more exotic skins, calfhair and python. Roughly 70 percent of her offering was more than $595, and the brand was in upscale department stores. Now, half of Botkier’s collection comprises bags under $400, which she dubs “the new sweet spot,” and it has taken on a more classic look, made primarily of leather.

In hopes of expanding her brand, Botkier said in December that she was on the hunt for an investor, but declined to comment as to whether she has been able to secure one.

Either way, the new luxe line is part of the nine-year-old company’s push to not only recapture its upscale following, but also extend its reach. According to the de-signer, there are several projects on tap this year, including one with Swatch to design a watch for the spring.

By RACHEL STRUGATZ

NEW YORK — Nike’s classic Dunk sneaker has spawned one of the leading accessory trends at retail this spring.

While Proenza Schouler’s P.S. 1 and Celine bags in any shape — including the Phantom and varying sizes of the Luggage Tote — have carried over from fall as hot sellers, it’s the high-top, concealed wedge sneaker that’s replacing the smok-ing slipper as the season’s “It” accessory.

The Dunk was popu-larized by Nike in the mid-Eighties, and French designer Isabel Marant re-interpreted it for the first time in her fall 2010 collection — Velcro bands and all — which has since ignited a cult following.

Daniella Vitale, Barneys New York chief merchant and executive vice president, said shoes by Marant — especially the $680 to $760 sneakers and the low, chunky-heeled $580 Dicker bootie — are among the best-selling in the contemporary price range, followed by the in-house Co-op

label, Rag & Bone and Alexander Wang.Marant’s wedges have already sold out

at the Web site Forward by Elyse Walker, which was renamed earlier this year after the retailer partnered with Revolve

Clothing. Creative director Walker, who bought the shoes again for fall, said that while shoes such as Christian Louboutin’s Daffodil pumps in teal and black suede or Jimmy Choo’s orange buckle Letitia platforms are also selling well, she was surprised to see Marant’s sneaker “fly” out

of the store. Compared to this time last year, in-store acces-

sories sales are up 23.5 per-cent and online acces-

sory sales have seen triple-digit growth.

At Net-a-Porter, Marant’s $680 Bobby sneaker — a

high-top silhouette minus the oversize

tongue and Velcro straps — has sold out. “There is huge demand [for these]. We

will absolutely continue to support the sporty wedge shoe trend that clearly the customer is hungry for,” said Net-a-Porter fashion director Holli Rogers.

At Shopbop, Ash’s wedge sneakers hold the top spot for best-selling contemporary

8

Botkier Launches Luxury Line

accessories

footwear. At less than half the price of similar styles by Marant — they range from $225 to $250 — the retailer offers three styles with slight variations that are fast becoming a viable option for consumers who want to embrace the trend without shelling out nearly $700. There are the two-toned Bea and Cool, which have de-tails such as perforated panels, contrasted pebbled leather trim, Velcro bands and a chunky rubber sidewall and sole, and the Bowie, a more streamlined version of the above. The Bea has sold out, and there are just a few pairs left of the Cool and Bowie.

At Saks Fifth Avenue, pastel handbags and footwear from brands like Marc Jacobs, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Marni and Chloé are must-haves for shoppers.

“We reacted quickly to the icy pastels from the spring runways [with colors such as] pale blue, pink, mint. These colors have been editorialized and the customer is asking for them from specific runway-based collections,” said Elizabeth Kanfer, Saks’ fashion and co-branding director of handbags, jewelry and accessories, add-ing that colorblocking and luxe materials such as python, raffia and straw have also been doing well.

With respect to fine jewelry, Kanfer

said the store is seeing demand for gold at all price points — and Vhernier, H.Stern, Pomellato and David Yurman have continued to resonate well with consumers. She highlighted bold gold pieces such as Pomellato’s Nudo rings that range from $2,100 to $2,990, Vhernier’s $11,100 jade earrings and the Copernicus collection from H.Stern.

While pastels are selling well, though, overall best-selling handbags at Saks are Celine, Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney, according to Kanfer, who cited the Celine Mini Luggage tote in neon pink and burnt orange and McQueen’s DeManta clutch as popular with consumers. Manolo Blahnik, Yves Saint Laurent and Tod’s are driving the retailer’s footwear business, but Kanfer has found that customers are “discover-ing” more recent additions like Nicholas Kirkwood and Jerome Rousseau. She also described Phillip Lim’s handbags as an

“exciting launch for the store.”Vitale has also found

that new lines Barneys New York has picked up are garnering a good response from consum-ers, including Maiyet, a women’s apparel, hand-bag and jewelry brand that enlists artisans from impoverished nations to create its product (it just showed its second collection in Paris last

month). Although not new, the relaunch of Mark Cross

late last year stands out because of its “clean design and classic shapes,” and the Grace box bag and Scottie satchel have been “flying off the shelves.”

Other items doing well at Barneys, ac-cording to Vitale, are Oliver Goldsmith’s sunglasses, large cuffs from Jennifer Fisher and Pamela Love, 3.1 Phillip Lim’s 31 Hour bag, Irene Neuwirth gemstone earrings, Nak Armstrong’s mosaic pieces and Celine’s platform sandals, specifical-ly the neon pony Phantom style that has already sold out.

Wedge Sneakers, Pastels Star at Retail for Spring

Isabel Marant’s wedge sneaker.

A Jennifer Fisher bullet cuff.

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Monica Botkier with her new exotics collection.

A Celine bag.

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WWDSTYLEMEMO PADInitial Foray

PARIS — More than a year after her exit from French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld has a new magazine to call her own, and, just for good measure, she’s using her monogram as a title. For an exclusive look at the editor’s conceptual groundwork for CR, see page 10.

PHOTO BY STEPHANE FEUGERE

SHINING BRIGHT: Emily Blunt was among a trio of well-dressed starlets that turned out to fete Elie Saab in New York Thursday night. PAGE 10

LEFT LEANING: Arianna Huffington and Wendi Murdoch packed the house — Huffington’s house to be precise — Thursday night to toast Kathy Freston for her new book “The Lean.” Crowded as the Huffington Post-er’s downtown pad was, the guest of honor stood out in a magenta cashmere sweater and a Barbie-pink sequined column skirt. Commendable as the author’s vegan-minded, healthy-living ways are, Huffington had a few other reasons for a public note of thanks — Freston had given her an iPod with all of Tom Freston’s music — 11,000 songs — and had introduced her to her HuffPo partner, Kenneth Lerer. Murdoch chimed in, telling the room how she and her husband Rupert have been following all of Freston’s pointers and have dropped a few pounds. But while the News Corp. chairman may be feeling lighter, he wasn’t up for any reporter’s questions.

Freston was energetic as ever, hugging guests and signing book after book while standing. She reminded Diane Sawyer, Tina Brown, Martha Stewart, Charlie Rose, Tory Burch, Dr. Oz, Jamie Tisch, Joel Klein, Katie Lee Joel, Lynn Forester and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, Nanette Lepore and the rest of the guests to drink eight cups of water and to have an apple a day. Freston said, “I’m all about everything. I’m not about suffering and a hard-core life. I want to enjoy life.”

Afterwards, Huffington appeared to be enjoying life. Asked how she feels about having more control now that she has taken on several of AOL’s business functions, she said, “I don’t see it that way. Changes are necessary because of the growth of the Huffington Post. Being able to integrate technology and marketing with editorial is going to make it easier for us to grow much stronger.”

With the Huffington Post’s new national editor Kate Palmer (who was peeled away from The Onion) by her side, Huffington said a seventh anniversary party is being cooked up. “We’ve never had an anniversary party. I think it’s time. There will be clowns and face-painting. That’s what you have for a seven-year-old, don’t you?” Huffington said. “We never had one before because we were always working.” — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

Arianna Huffington, Kathy Freston and Wendi Murdoch.

10 WWD MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012

Roitfeld Reboots

MEDIAWWDSTYLE

THE NAME of Carine Roitfeld’s new magazine, closely guarded for months, has been in plain sight for a decade.

“CR,” the handwritten ini-tials that appeared under all her editor’s letters during her 10 years at the helm of French Vogue, will be scrawled across the matte cover of her new bian-nual, with the first issue slated for September.

“The name’s not a big sur-prise, but oh well,” Roitfeld said, disclosing details exclu-sively to WWD, and proudly showing off a mock-up of the slightly oversize publication.

Indeed, Roitfeld stressed it’s what’s inside her new magazine that counts, describing it as a “cel-ebration of fashion and creativity” from a mix of well-known talents and promising upstarts — and that applies to the photographers, writ-ers, models and stylists.

“I’m in the middle of searching for new talents, and it’s so exciting and energizing,” she said.

Fashion Media Group LLC, the New York-based company be-hind Visionaire, V and VMan, will

publish CR Fashion Book, the magazine’s full registered name.

“Carine Roitfeld is one of the most talented editors in our industry. She deserves an edito-rial platform with which to ex-press herself, and I’m happy to provide one,” said Fashion Media founder Stephen Gan. “I hope it will enlighten. I hope it will build bridges not walls. The fashion magazine industry has gotten too political.”

Fashion Media is projecting more than 100 pages of advertis-ing in the first 288-page issue, which will carry a cover price of $9.95.

Roitfeld, who attended meet-ings with potential advertisers for the first time in her career — including Gucci, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Cartier and Louis Vuitton — said she found them “very receptive and eager to participate.”

Some 50,000 copies will be printed, with roughly half the distribution in Europe, and the balance in Asia and the U.S. Reflecting the title’s trendy and freelance spirit, offices will be

based at The Standard hotel in New York’s East Village.

Sipping tea in the bar at the Crillon hotel in Paris and jug-gling two BlackBerries, Roitfeld excitedly discussed what she described as a “personal” proj-ect, and one that reflects both her maturity as a fashion pro-fessional, and her wish to keep innovating. She quoted an Apple Computers slogan from the Nineties — “think different” — as her modus operandi.

Unusual features of CR ex-tend to advertising: It will only carry spreads, echoing the book-like mission of editorial, with no front-of-book section and only longer-format articles. “I hope people will want to keep it —trendy and timeless at the same time,” she said.

CR Fashion Book will also have an online component, which Roitfeld described as “the perfect platform” for front-of-book content across fashion, art and culture. She said the site would be updated frequently, and teasers for upcoming issues will be posted.

Each issue will be construct-ed around a theme, such as music, or “obsession,” which is the case for the mock-up shown to advertisers. Across fashion and beauty spreads, models resembling characters out of William Klein’s 1966 French film “Who are you, Polly Magoo?” are depicted gazing at them-selves obsessively in mirrors.

Although CR is an English publication, Roitfeld said she intends to publish certain ar-ticles in the native language of their author, with transla-tions to be found at the back. For example, if filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar were to pen something for her, it would be in Spanish.

Displaying the mock-up on an iPad, she showed off articles written in Arabic, Japanese and Russian. “C’est jolie, non?” Roitfeld, whose speech flip-flops between English and French, said of those various scripts.

Personal touches include Roitfeld’s initials at the top of pages — with a slash through the letters as on personal statio-nery — and handwritten titles for sections titled Icons, Muses, Skincare and Fitness.

Known for producing pro-vocative and sometimes sexu-ally charged imagery, Roitfeld said she intends to continue styling shoots, and to “find new ways to be irreverent” after some 30 years in the business. “Not necessarily safer, but dif-ferent,” she vowed.

“It will always be edgy. Maybe it will be more mental than physical,” she mused.

The mock-up contains cred-its from both the established and upstarts, including a cover by New York-based Argentinian photographer Sebastian Faena and an opening spread with a never-before-seen Bruce Weber portrait of Patti Smith in a frothy gown.

Roitfeld noted she would not be able to work with certain pho-tographers who have contractual ties to other magazines, Mario Testino being one example.

The editor said she has yet to start work on the September issue, and is keeping its theme,

contributors and confirmed ad-vertisers under wraps.

Since exiting French Vogue in January 2011, Roitfeld has kept herself in fashion’s spotlight via a range of proj-ects, including a stint as guest editor and stylist for Barneys New York, a Rizzoli tome about her career and a book with Karl Lagerfeld about Chanel’s famous black jacket. Foreshadowing tightened ties with Visionaire, she guest edited the spring fashion issue of VMan.

She brushed off suggestions that the launch of CR represents a form of revenge, given that her exit from Condé Nast was cloaked in intrigue.

“Vogue is a very beautiful magazine, an institution, and I learned so much working there,” she said. “You can’t put yourself into competition with a magazine like Vogue; you have to create something new, some-thing different.

“The page has been turned,” she continued. “It’s time to find something new, some-thing fresh — for me and for the readers.”

Fantasy and pleasure are some of the emotions she hopes to evoke with the magazine. “I find that some people in fashion are so blasé. Fashion has to be fun,” she said.

Roitfeld characterized CR as a “project between other proj-ects,” noting she would contin-ue to work as a “sort of muse” to Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci, and style advertising cam-paigns for the likes of Max Mara and Chanel.

She’s also the subject of a feature-length documentary by Fabien Constant slated to hit screens sometime in 2013. Constant has already been tail-ing her at fashion shows, parties and shoots, and will dig into the making of her new magazine.

“It’s like a new baby,” Roitfeld said of CR Fashion Book. And that isn’t the only one: Her daughter Julia Restoin-Roitfeld is expecting shortly. “I will be ba-bushka in six weeks,” she said, flashing a big smile.

— MILES SOCHA

…a mock-up cover featuring Kati Nescher…

A mock-up fashion spread in CR…

…and another mock-up spread, all photographed by Sebastian Faena.

WWD.COM

“I just got in from Patagonia this morning — 24 hours via santiago,” Kim Jones explained on thursday night. “We went down to torres del Paine, which is a mountain range in the center of Chile to do our advertising. In the last two weeks I’ve been to tokyo, Kyoto, santiago, New York and London and Paris. so I guess it’s a lot of traveling.”

the Louis Vuitton men’s style director was standing near a long banquet table in the brand’s travel Room, a recent annex to its soHo store, and an appropriate-enough setting to take stock of his recent treks. the space, heavy on brick and monogrammed steamer trunks, had been made over for the night for a dinner in jones’ honor, where guests included Terence Koh, Chloë Sevigny, and a large contingent of men’s editors.

“I saw a puma,” jones said when asked for his Patagonian highlights. “It was 100 meters away from me. I was walking back from this bar and I was pleased with that because it’s something I always wanted to see.”

Despite the guest of honor’s south American journeys, the room felt more Hemingway-in-Africa. the tablescapes featured ostrich eggs and what appeared to be water buffalo horns, and there was a large mural of high grass plains at the back of the room. sevigny, who got into the spirit of adventure before dinner by mixing her own martini, explained that she herself had just been to thailand for Film on the Rocks, an art and film festival co-curated by Tilda Swinton.

“they brought everyone to this beautiful resort, called the six senses Yao Noi, and we were all there like a hundred tastemakers what have you, and we watched movies and saw art and went to the beach,” she laughed. “I don’t know if they were trying to bring culture to thailand or if they were trying to [give] us this story of how great thailand is. I’m not sure what we were doing there as a matter of fact....It was free.”

� —�MATTHEW�LYNCH

11WWD MONDAY, APRIL 9, 2012

Continental Drift

Fashion scoops

“EVERYoNE LooKs so beautiful,” Elie Saab enthused by the narrow bar at Crown on thursday night before a private dinner being held in honor of his rare trip to New York. the designer was the star of the night, with wife Claudine and their three sons all present and effusive in their support. the candlelit space was intentionally dim, for ambience, but the trio of starlets who came out for saab vibrantly stood out, especially because two of their ensembles being primary colored: Analeigh Tipton wore a lipstick-red pantsuit over a lace bodysuit and Emily Blunt wore a canary-colored cocktail dress, both by the designer. Dakota Fanning wore black.

“oh, I just loved the lace,” Fanning said of the narrow triangular panel cut from her collarbone to navel on the formfitting saab creation.

tipton, who starred in “Crazy stupid Love” last summer and Whit Stillman’s “Damsels in Distress,” which had its premiere this week, is no stranger to the fashion industry.

she placed third on Tyra Banks’ reality television series “America’s Next top Model” in 2008.

“It was years ago,” tipton said of the televised modeling competition. “Reality tV was still pretty new, so I just thought it would be a cool experience, and it was. I loved being on that show.”

the three-course dinner boasted massive portions (a New York strip steak was an impressive slab, the chocolate and caramel tiered dessert no small feat, either) and seating seemed to be divided by profession or avocation. Amanda Ross, Jennifer Creel and Allison Aston were all together near Natalie Leeds Leventhal and Samantha Boardman, while Blunt and Fanning were at a smaller table with saab and his wife. those affiliated with magazines or periodicals filled a nearby banquette.

“It’s sort of ghetto-ized, isn’t it?” one guest remarked, “though we all have Elie in common.”

�—�ALESSANDRA�CODINHA

Primary Colors

For more photos, see

WWD.com/eye.

MALKOVICH’S NEW SOLE: John Malkovich, who launched his fashion brand technobohemian in 2009, has teamed up with Pirelli P Zero to design a shoe capsule collection. the line includes two styles, both featuring Pirelli P Zero’s signature tire-inspired soles and available in denim or in a more sophisticated laser-cut calf version.

the high-top Boholacchino is lined with multicolor fabrics and decorated with rubber details, while Bohosneaker is a sneaker featuring cowhide inserts and an insole with “technobohemian, by john Malkovich” written on it.

the first collaboration between Pirelli P Zero and Malkovich dates back to 2005, when the American actor appeared with Naomi Campbell in “the Call,” the company’s first short film directed by Antoine Fuqua. the capsule will hit Milan’s Pirelli P Zero flagship this week and a number of selected boutiques worldwide in May with prices ranging from 220 euros, or $288 at current exchange, to 490 euros, or $642. — ALESSANDRA TuRRA AT THE ATM: Designer Tony Melillo launched his new apparel brand, AtM, at Barneys New York in Beverly Hills at an event recently. AtM t-shirts, priced from $58 to $82, are available exclusively at Barneys for a year. “they really know how to market you,” said Melillo of the department store. “the most important thing for the first year is to just establish yourself in the right way. I had no interest to do it and sort of just throw it out there everywhere.” AtM has already become a favorite of Melillo’s longtime friends Kevin and Stephen Huvane, who hosted the event. “there’s a very relaxed sensuality to his clothes,” said

stephen Huvane. ten percent of the proceeds from sales of AtM merchandise during the event went to amfAR. — SARAH JONES

RuCCI TO BE HONORED: Ralph Rucci will be the man of the hour May 19 when he is honored by the savannah College of Art and Design with its André Leon Talley lifetime achievement award at its annual fashion show. Rucci follows in the footsteps of Diane von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta, Karl Lagerfeld, Tom Ford, John Galliano and, most recently, Manolo Blahnik. Rucci, whose work has been showcased at three solo museum shows, will also have an exhibition in the gallery named for talley, a member of the school’s board of trustees, at sCAD. the designer is personally selecting items from his Chado Ralph Rucci line for the show.

— ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

ON BROADWAY: swarovski is back in the musical groove. With past partnerships ranging from Broadway musicals “sister Act” to “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” the jewelry brand is now adding “Evita” — the first new production of the show since its debut more than 30 years ago — to its repertoire. the musical, which premiered thursday night, stars Ricky Martin as Ché, Elena Roger as Eva Perón and Michael Cerveris as juan Perón. “We are proud and privileged to have a deep involvement with Broadway,” said Nadja Swarovski.

Costume designer Christopher Oram crafted the wardrobes using more than 340,000 swarovski Elements — including crystal pearls, xilion cut beads, sew-on stones and hot-fix stones — and more than 160,000 crystals alone on Perón’s iconic ball gown. — KRISTI GARCED

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with Chloë Sevigny in Louis Vuitton.

Analeigh Tipton, Emily Blunt and Dakota Fanning in Elie Saab with the designer.

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