FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011 WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY $3.00

WWD

PHOTO BY THOMAS IANNACCONE; STYLED BY AMY LOMACCHIO AND TYLER RESTY

IN WWD TODAY

A QUESTION OF STRATEGY

Red Ink MountsAt Lampert’s Sears

A FRANCO FIRSTIN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, MULTIHYPHENATE JAMES FRANCO TALKS ABOUT DIRECTING HIS FIRST AD CAMPAIGN, FOR SEVEN FOR ALL MANKIND. PAGE 16

Bombs AwayViktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren are

ready to attack the men’s fragrance

market with Spicebomb, a men’s

counterpart to their popular women’s

scent, Flowerbomb. The scent, which

the duo created with their fragrance

licensee L’Oréal, will be on counter at

the end of January at Harrods in the

U.K. and Bijenkorf in the Netherlands,

mid-February in France and March 1

in the U.S. For more, see page 6.

By SHARON EDELSON

NEW YORK — Edward Lampert’s grand experiment in retailing keeps getting more wobbly.

Sears Holdings Corp. on Thursday turned in an-other dismal quarter, fueling speculation about the long-term viability of the company as it exists today. The group that owns Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Kmart saw losses increase as a result of declines in Sears Canada, consumer electronics and Kmart apparel, as well as charges for pension expense. Net losses for the quarter ended Oct. 29 were $421 million, or $3.95 a diluted share, compared with $218 million, or $1.98 a diluted share, in 2010.

The results were substantially worse than Wall Street expectations — and the company’s shares fell sharply in a generally down day for global stock mar-kets. Analysts expected a smaller net loss of $2.14 a share. Excluding the pension expense and other items, Sears’ net loss was $2.57 a share.

Sears Holdings’ stock on Thursday lost 4.55 percent of its value, closing at $65.19, down $3.11 on Nasdaq.

“They haven’t shown any indication that they’re going to turn this big ship around,” said Matt McGinley, a retail analyst at ISI Group. “The plan for them seems to be not to invest materially in stores and invest money online, where they have a decent business that’s growing.”

Since Lampert, the company’s chairman, took over Sears and combined it with Kmart, there have been few indications of a long-term strategy at the group. Some experts believe that Sears will eventually be-come an e-commerce retailer with fewer, smaller stores that will in essence be product showrooms.

Further increasing pressure on the chain is that Sears’ cash is decreasing and its debt is rising. The company had cash balances of $632 million on Oct. 29, down from $806 million a year earlier. Total debt on Oct. 29 was $4.6 billion.

SEE PAGE 14

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PLUS:

RIHANNA’S

LATEST

SCENT.

PAGE 9

Tina’s Troubles Mount PAGE 15MEDIA: Tina Brown battles staff defections, bad morale and poor ad sales as she struggles to reinvent Newsweek.

▲ Versace Mania PAGE 4RETAIL: The Versace for H&M collection bowed in China and Europe — and hordes snapped up the pieces.

Gap Expects Margin Pressure PAGE 2RETAIL: After profits fall by almost a third, Gap Inc. said it expects further pressure on margins in the fourth quarter as it struggles to get its fashions right.

THE BREWING DEBT troubles in Italy and Spain and the looming threat of a European recession continued to pressure stocks from Milan to New York Thursday and companies weighing in on third-quarter results got ham-mered whether or not they had bad news for investors.

Even Limited Brands Inc., which reported a 54 percent gain in profits late Wednesday, saw its stock drop 3.2 percent to $41.60 on Thursday. The compa-ny’s Victoria’s Secret division saw comparable-store sales shoot up 13 percent.

Sharen Turney, president and chief executive offi-cer of Victoria’s Secret, told analysts on a conference call that about 80 percent of the time the chain saw bet-ter traffic than the mall at large. She attributed that to “us being able to deliver compelling emotional stories, really staying focused on our core …the higher selling staff and training…the surprise and delight strategy that is tied back into our powerful bra launches.”

Shares of Ross Stores Inc. slipped 1.1 percent to $86.95 even as third-quarter earnings rose 18.6 per-

cent to $144 million, or $1.26 a diluted share, and comps gained 5 percent.

But some of the retailers weighing in on the third quarter did little to help their case with investors.

Shares of Casual Male Retail Group Inc. took a big hit, falling 13.1 percent to $3.26, after the big and tall chain reported an unexpected loss of $1.6 million, or 3 cents a diluted share, in the third quarter.

And The Bon-Ton Stores Inc.’s stock fell 1.3 percent to $3.10 as the department store’s third-quarter losses widened to $22 million, or $1.21 a share, and comp sales slipped 5.9 percent. “Performance in our mod-erate traditional assortments was soft and customers were not accepting of price increases in these catego-ries, which further pressured sales results,” said Bud Bergren, president and ceo.

On the broader market, the S&P Retail Index fell 1.8 percent, or 9.71 points, to 528.89. Paris’ CAC 40 tumbled 1.8 percent to 3,010.29, and Milan’s FTSE MIB retreated 1.4 percent to 15,198.31 — WWD STAFF

EYE: See extra images from Coach’s 70th anniversary event in Beijing, the “Breaking Dawn” N.Y. screening, Chanel’s MoMA party and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s fall party at WWD.com/eye.

FASHION: See more looks from Etro & M Missoni’s pre-fall collections and more images of the Versace for H&M launch in Hong Kong, Shanghai, London and Milan, as well as Spring 2012 Trend: Patches at WWD.com/fashion-news.

BUSINESS: More business news and daily markets coverage at WWD.com/business-news.

ONLINE THIS WEEKEND: Story of the Week

Investors Unforgiving After Third-Quarter Results

WWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 20112WWD.COM

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 ©2011 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 202, NO. 106. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011. 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 reprints of articles, please contact Scoop ReprintSource at 800-767-3263 or via e-mail at sales@scoopreprintsource.com. 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.

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Being in movies for 15 years has taught me how to collaborate and how to make these different creative types coalesce.

— JAMES FRANCO. PAGE 16

TODAY ON WWD.COM

Jonathan Seliger and Fan Bingbing

FINANCIAL 1,2,12RETAIL 2,10FASHION 4,13BEAUTY 6,8,9

TEXTILES 10ACCESSORIES 13PEOPLE 13,16,18MEDIA 14,15,17

SECTORS IN THIS ISSUE

By JOYCE MAN

HONG KONG — Giorgio Armani said Hong Kong’s vi-tality and energy led him to feel a need to inject “new impetus” into his multibrand concept store in Chater House here as his group celebrated the space’s re-vamp Thursday evening with cocktails and a special performance by Kelis.

The store, which opened in 2002 in a building in the city’s central business district, has undergone a total facelift including a fresh facade with a bamboo motif and the debut of both a restaurant and a lounge.

Grammy Award nominee Kelis, clad in Emporio Armani, belted out a mash-up of her well-known “Milkshake” song, and also performed “22nd Century,” “Acapella,” “Bounce” and other tunes at the celebra-tion at Chater House.

Taiwanese actress Shu Qi, Emporio Armani’s ambas-sador for greater China, and worldwide director of public relations and entertainment Roberta Armani also attend-ed the event, as did Hong Kong actress Rosamund Kwan, Taiwanese actress Kwai Lun-mei, Chinese ac-tress Zhang Jingchu and Chinese actor and singer Chen Kun and a host of other stars who donned either Giorgio Armani or Emporio Armani.

Hundreds of guests filled Chater House’s first-floor atrium and spilled into Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and the restaurant and lounge on the levels above and below.

“I have always looked to the Orient, and especially to countries and cultures that provide me with pre-cious inspiration,” the designer said. “Although I have had a presence in Hong Kong since 1992 — and this has been expanded and consolidated by my success there — the vitality and energy of this city are such that I feel the need to inject a new impetus into the Armani/Chater House space.

“Hong Kong is a fabulous place with a culture that

brings together East and West. It is one of the most cosmopolitan and vital cities in the world, with a vi-brant, seductive and hospitable atmosphere that has fostered a unique urban idiom, a distinctive taste and a lifestyle without parallel,” Armani said.

Armani Hong Kong said the brand has 40 stores here, counting all clothing and lifestyle collections.

The Chater House space, a stone’s throw from Chanel, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana and Yves Saint Laurent, houses the Giorgio Armani boutique, Armani Exchange and Armani Junior, as well as stores for choc-olates, flowers and cosmetics. While the flower, cosmet-ics and chocolate stores have not changed, Emporio Armani and Armani Junior were renovated last year, and Giorgio Armani was redone earlier this year. The Armani/Privé lounge and Armani/Aqua restaurant are

new additions formed in collaboration with Aqua Restaurant Group, which opened in August.

Gone is the all-beige outer wall, which has been re-placed by the bamboo-motif facade. That motif runs subtly throughout, from the signage to the displays. The Giorgio Armani boutique has been fit-ted with black granite floors and Marmorino plaster walls, and given the look of what the group calls “a shiny, mod-

ern bamboo jungle.” Emporio Armani has Marmorino ceilings and counters and displays of black glass.

The event comes at a time of buoyant consumer spending here. In September, the value of retail sales rose 24 percent to 31 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $4 billion, compared to the same month last year, accord-ing to the city’s census and statistics department. That was partly thanks to spending by tourists, many who come from Mainland China.

The Chater House location is not Armani’s only multibrand concept store. The group opened its first such store on Via Manzoni in Milan in 2000, where the designer last week opened a hotel. There are cur-rently other concept stores in Ginza in Tokyo, on The Bund in Shanghai, and on Fifth Avenue in New York.

By DAVID MOIN

GAP INC. SAID THURSDAY that third-quarter net in-come dropped by almost a third to $193 million from $303 million in the year-ago period, and warned that margins will be under pressure in the fourth quarter.

Diluted earnings per share in the third quarter ended Oct. 29 were 38 cents, down 21 percent from last year. Comparable-store sales fell 5 percent, while total sales decreased 2 percent to $3.59 billion, compared with $3.65 billion for the third quarter last year.

Margins at the $14.7 billion specialty chain were squeezed by rising cotton prices and markdowns, and there were some price miscalculations at Old Navy, where Gap chairman and chief executive officer Glenn Murphy said the “value proposition was not strong enough.”

But Murphy underscored what seems to be the root of Gap’s ongoing poor sales performance. “The shortcoming of our team in 2011 is hitting the sweet spot of optimistic American casual style,” Murphy said during a conference call. “When we go after the optimistic American casual style, customers resonate with the brand. There is an as-sociation and definitely a demand.…The company has not executed this year the way I would have liked.”

Murphy also said the company “may face our greatest merchandise margin pressure in the fourth quarter.…We all believe it’s going to be a very aggressive fourth quarter.”

While the company again ran negative domestic comp-store sales, Murphy did mention some positives, including a strong performance at the stores in China, though it will be awhile before they start making money due to startup costs and heavy marketing. He noted the company is ramping up the pace of openings to 30 next year. There will be 15 stores operating in China by the end of this year. “China is definitely our longest term investment, dilutive this year and likely dilutive next year, but we are pleased with our store performance,” Murphy said.

He also said he was “encouraged” by some progress at Banana Republic though the division still showed negative comps, and was most pleased by e-commerce, which soared ahead 21.3 percent, while North American stores were neg-ative 7 percent on average. “Finding the balance between online and store business is critical,” Murphy said.

He said he saw opportunities in continuing to roll out active merchandise and the GapBodyFit line and on ac-cessories, “It’s not anything we would say is the strength of the business, but there will be some greater emphasis in the assortment in the spring. It’s a huge opportunity for Gap brand. We are looking for certain key catego-ries under accessories that we don’t deliver now. There may be an opportunity for third-party brands,” which are being tested in some stores. “That may be part of the overall shift in our merchandising model, they got to pace it in. We see a little in the fourth quarter and more in 2012.”

Gap officials also said that underlying cotton prices are down from the holiday peak but still up in spring 2012 versus 2011.

Gap said it’s continuing to invest in long-term growth opportunities, such as overseas stores and new divisions such as Athleta, and also maintaining “strong expense discipline” and returning cash to shareholders.

The company also revealed a new $500 million share repurchase program, effective immediately. Year-to-date, the company has repurchased about 107 million shares for $2 billion.

Armani Hong Kong Flagship Gets Facelift

Armani in Hong Kong.

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Gap Warns on Margins As Income Takes Dive

4 WWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011

LONDON — Hennes & Mauritz rolled out the hot pink carpet for Donatella Versace, who paid a last-minute visit to the Swedish company’s Regent Street store here Thursday morning to meet shoppers eager to buy a slice of the Versace fantasy.

Poured into a studded silk dress priced at 129.99 pounds, or $205.38 at current exchange, and a studded black leather trench costing 199.99 pounds, or $315.98, the designer arrived to a loud chorus of hoots and whis-tles from hundreds of young men and women snapping pictures, and filming with their cell phones.

Some of them had spent the night on the pavement so they could be among the first to buy the collection, which is rolling out worldwide this week.

“I feel very emotional,” Versace told WWD. “I really want to see how they are going to mix and pair the clothes, how they will wear them.”

Versace said she was wowed by the freedom she had at H&M. “Do you see these studs?” she asked, pointing to her figure-hugging pink dress. “Usually, with low-cost cloth-ing, they’re pressed on, but these are real. And I only worked with pure materials — 100 percent silks and real leather.”

By 8:30 a.m., when Versace ar-rived, the line outside H&M had curled around the block to Argyll Street.

Nor was the hubbub restricted to London. In Milan, a crippling transportation strike and cold temperatures did not deter shoppers from lining up at dawn outside the H&M store in Piazza San Babila.

Giacomo Cavallanti, a stylist from Milan, said he had arrived at midnight so he could secure a men’s bomber jacket, among other things. “You need personality” to wear Versace, he noted.

Students were among the first in line, including visit-ing ones. Isabel Grillado and Auxi Pozuelo, from Cordoba, Spain, arrived at 6 a.m. Several shoppers came prepared, holding printouts of specific items from the H&M Web site.

By the cash register, Claudia Riva, a banker from Milan who arrived shortly after 1 a.m. and was 10th in line, was paying for a black studded skirt, a bag and T-shirt.

Over in Paris, the first person in line at the Boulevard

Haussmann store was Berry Fall, 24, a sales associate for H&M, who explained it was the only way she could snag her favorite pieces: a studded leather jacket and short pleated skirt. She arrived at midnight, equipped with fur jacket, gloves, covers, a laptop computer and drinks.

“At first, it’s hard, especially when you visualize the time, but it gets better,” she laughed. “When you are with your friends, it’s OK.”

Stéphane Tayar, 38, had ducked out of work in hopes of snagging a pair of black men’s brogues.

“I got here 10 minutes ago. I tried to slip to the front of the line but it didn’t work,” he said, pointing to the col-ored bracelet he had been handed by shop staffers. “My wife told me there wouldn’t be a lot of people. I figured

she would know, since she spends her time on Twitter.”

Top of the wish list for many of those waiting in line were the stud-ded leather pieces like the biker jacket and sleeveless dress, which were seen as especially good value in light of Versace’s usual price tags.

High school student Fallonne Matundu, 17, said she had worked over the summer to save up the cash for the biker jacket. “Versace is col-orful and glamorous, but also rock ’n’ roll,” she said. “I thought it looked

good on Lady Gaga, and it looks like [Donatella Versace] designed pieces similar to those she has been wearing.”

On Wednesday evening, French Vogue editor in chief Emmanuelle Alt hosted a preview shopping party for 1,000 winners of a competition organized by the maga-zine. As Misshapes DJ Leigh Lezark spun tunes and wait-ers served Champagne, the shoppers mingled with local celebrities including actresses Emma de Caunes, Zoé Félix and Aïssa Maïga. Within 15 minutes, the rails had been picked clean of all black dresses, but the French crowd seemed less keen on the more colorful items.

In Berlin, customers started lining up at 4 a.m. in front of the Friedrichstrasse location, with leather jack-ets among the most sought-after items. The event was orderly, with H&M staff almost as numerous customers, good door security and a system of timed entries.

In Shanghai, hundreds of people waited — or paid others to wait for them — outside the H&M store on the

glitzy shopping street of Huaihai Lu. A fight broke out just before the store opened amongst a group of men hired to wait on behalf of shoppers who did not want to stand in the line: The queue began to form outside the store early in the afternoon the day before.

The professional queuers, a common phenomenon in Shanghai, as well as a mix of migrant workers also paid to be placeholders, were mixed in with a predominantly male group of customers. Some said they were there to grab up as much of the Versace collection as they could and then resell it on Taobao, China’s largest e-commerce site.

“There are so many Chinese guys,” marveled Chiara Salmeri, an Italian who arrived at 5:45 a.m. “In Italy, there would be no men queuing. I am so surprised.”

Martin Choo, a 22-year-old college student, said Versace was the first brand that got him interested in fashion. He said he planned to purchase a dress for his mother and maybe a couple of shirts for himself.

In Hong Kong’s Central district, about 300 people awaited the 8 a.m. opening. Close to the front of the line were Kyle Wu and Chris Yip, two students from the Hong Kong Design Institute, who had been outside the store starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday night.

“It’s OK because it’s our day off today,” said Wu, who was hoping to get his hands on a geometric print shirt that was displayed in the window.

Rodrigo Nishihara, a Hong Kong-based men’s wear de-signer, said he had plans to spend more than $7,000 Hong Kong dollars, or nearly $1,000, on various items including scarves, men’s shirts, shoes and underwear. — WWD STAFF

I really want to see how they are going to mix and pair the clothes.

— DONATELLA VERSACE

WWD.COM

FOR MORE H&M COVERAGE, SEE

WWD.com/fashion-news.

Donatella Versace in the London store.

Full bags in Shanghai.The queue in Shanghai.

A shopper’s haul in Hong Kong.

Versace arrives in London.

Versace’s H&M Invasion

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IT IS RARE TO FIND A PERSON

WHO POSSESSES GRACE, BEAUTY

AND AN UNWAVERING DEDICATION

TO HELPING THE LIVES OF OTHERS.

WE WILL ALL MISS YOU, EVELYN,

AND ENSURE THAT

YOUR LEGACY LIVES ON.

WWD.COMWWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 20116

Fragrance Sales SeenGaining 5 to 7 Percent

Viktor & Rolf’s Explosive Launch

beautyPARIS — Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren are not the types to do things by half measure or without a surprising twist, having designed ruffled collars a foot deep and bul-bous silhouettes inspired by nuclear explosions. So for their newest fragrance, the duo went for a Spicebomb, a spicy masculine counterpart to their women’s floral fra-grance hit Flowerbomb, introduced in 2005.

Spicebomb, created with the Viktor & Rolf fragrance licensee L’Oréal, will come out toward the end of January. It is the second men’s scent the brand has launched.

“We were jealous of all the women who had Flowerbomb, and we wanted to have our own bomb,” said Horsting.

“We felt that if flowers were a very typical feminine scent, spices were the masculine opposite,” continued Snoeren.

Therein the name Spicebomb was born.The Dutch designers asked International Flavors &

Fragrances perfumer Olivier Polge to marry spicy with “something very sensual,” as Snoeren put it.

“Viktor and Rolf wanted an extroverted, outspoken fragrance,” said Polge. So he helped conceive the juice with two main diametrically opposed olfactive accords. The “addictive,” a “firey” one includes notes of chili, saffron, leather, tobacco and vetiver. The other is “ex-plosive” and icier, with notes of bergamot, grapefruit, elemi and pink pepper (the latter being key).

No market testing was done on the fragrance.Spicebomb’s bottle, created with Fabien Baron, is

shaped like a grenade whose pin has attached to it the signature Viktor & Rolf seal.

The scent’s single- and double-page advertising, photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh

Matadin, features model Sean O’Pry. “Here the guy is playing with the bottle, like for

Flowerbomb the woman is playing with the bottle,” said Horsting. “You really don’t know what’s going to hap-pen, so there’s a certain tension. We wanted a certain classicism — that’s why it’s black and white. That’s why he has a classically beautiful body. But at the same time there is an action that is suggestive.”

As with Flowerbomb, there will be an important mar-keting push at points of sale.

“We will have what we call the exploding shelves,” said Richard Pinabel, international general manager of Viktor & Rolf Parfums, referring to merchandising units that make the scents look like they’ve been rocked by an explosion. On the outer packing of some bottles will be a sleeve with a hologram making the Spicebomb flacon look as if it has blown up.

Sampling will be extensive and creative, too, includ-ing blotters resembling matches.

“It’s very core, very important in the DNA of the brand to do things in a different and little bit spectacular way,” continued Pinabel, adding the idea is also to be whimsical.

“We want to make sure that it is an event every time Spicebomb is in store,” said Marc Rey, president of in-ternational designer collections at L’Oréal USA.

The scent will first be launched on Jan. 23 exclu-sively in Harrods in the U.K. and in Bijenkorf in the Netherlands. Then it is to be introduced elsewhere, in-cluding a mid-February debut in France and a March 1 kickoff in the U.S.

The fragrance will be carried in specialty stores in the U.S., including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. It is to be in about 250

doors countrywide. (Flowerbomb, meanwhile, is in wider distribution there.)

Flowerbomb ranks ninth in women’s fragrance year-to-date and was eighth in September in the U.S. “It’s al-most growing 20 percent this year,” said Rey.

The 90- and 50-ml. eau de toilette Spicebomb sprays will retail for $95 and $75, respectively. The 200-ml. show-er gel is to be $28, and the 100-ml. aftershave balm, $48.

L’Oréal executives would not discuss sales projec-tions, but industry sources estimate Spicebomb will generate 40 million euros, or $53.9 million at current exchange, in first-year retail sales worldwide.

FOR FRAGRANCE COMPANIES, it could be a merry Christmas indeed: the market could be up 5 to 7 percent for the year when factoring in holiday sales, noted Carrie M. Mellage, director of consumer products for Kline Group, the consulting and research firm.

Mellage was speaking at the Fragrance Foundation’s annual State of the Industry lunch, held Thursday at the Harvard Club in Manhattan. “In 2011, fragrance growth exceeded the industry average for the first time in a de-cade,” she added, noting that fragrance comprises about 9 percent of the overall personal care market, estimated to be about $56 billion for 2011. However, “the U.S. over-all beauty market has surpassed prerecession levels, but the fragrance market has not — yet,” she said. Overall U.S. fragrance sales peaked in 2007 at $5.9 billion and dipped to $5.2 billion in 2008, staying flat until this year. Retail fragrance sales are expected to hit $5.5 billion this year in the U.S. Kline attributes the growth to a number of factors, including “frugal fatigue,” interesting new launches and a boom in foreign tourism.

There have also been an avalanche of launches of late. Michael Edwards of Fragrancesoftheworld.info, a database of the fragrance world, noted that, year-to-date, 1,200 new fragrances have been launched in 2011, with 80 percent of them sold in the U.S. That was com-pared to 1,180 launched in 2010; 372 in 2001, and just 76 in 1991. Of the fragrances launched in 2011, 766 of them were women’s scents, 305 were men’s and 129 were uni-sex. While there were no limited edition scents and just three flankers launched in 1991, in 2001 there were 32 limited edition scents launched and 52 flankers. Those numbers skyrocketed to 144 limited edition scents and 188 flankers in 2011.

And while many observers are fond of taking pot-shots at the celebrity fragrance genre, Edwards said that its popularity showed no signs of abating, with 73 celebrity scents launched this year. Also speaking at the lunch were Wendy Liebmann, chief executive officer of WSL Strategic Retail, who noted that the economy has forced women to be smarter shoppers and employ fru-gal tactics, and Lynn Franco of the Conference Board, who noted that market trends such as weak job growth and cautious spending do not bode well for a major re-covery of the market in the near future. The affluent and shoppers between the ages of 35 and 54 are ex-pected to be the biggest beauty spenders for the holiday season, she said.

— J.N.

By JULIE NAUGHTON

ERNO LASZLO IS BEING BORN again this spring.Nearly a year after the February 2011 acquisition

of Erno Laszlo by Charles Denton, former chief exec-utive officer and deputy chairman of Molton Brown, Denton is repackaging and relaunching the brand in the spring.

“A lot of people tried to put their own thumbprint on Erno Laszlo,” said Denton, ceo of Erno Laszlo. “Every time that happened, the brand moved farther away from what it originally was. This brand has an extraordinary heritage of 85 years. What I am trying to do is honor the heritage in a modern way.”

Denton began by slashing the 127 stockkeep-ing units he inherited to a mere 47. That included completely eliminating color cosmetics — “we’re in the skin care business, not color,” he said — as well as “any-thing trendy.” What was kept: nearly all of the brand’s founder’s original products. “Erno Laszlo was one of the first skin care brands to use SPF, to talk about collagen and talk about an-tibacterial properties. Our position is that we have a solution for every skin condition.” Next, Denton rejiggered the packaging. Currently the products have opaque, marble-patterned white pack-aging with black printing, with many of the products in plastic. The new pack-aging is for the most part glass, in black and bronze and will be phased in start-ing with the Hollywood Collection. Denton has also separated the products into different ranges addressing spe-cific skin concerns. Prevention is the regular every-day maintenance line, and three Correction lines have been cre-ated: Firmarine for elasticity and firming, TranspHuse for lines and wrinkles and Luminous for brightening.

To honor some of the founder’s muses — in-cluding Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Greta Garbo — the brand will launch the Hollywood Collection in January at Nordstrom and February in the balance of its 150 U.S. department and specialty store doors. Each muse’s favorite product of yesteryear has been refor-mulated with the latest technology, said Denton. For Gardner, that is Instant Eye Repair, $85 for 0.5 oz.; for Monroe, Morning Beauty Rescue, $95 for 1.7 oz.; for Hepburn, Intensive Porcelain Veil, $140 for 1.7 oz.; for Kelly, Refresh Moisture Infusion, $125 for 1.7 oz., and for Garbo, Velvet Night Cream, $175 for 1.7 oz. A $125 limited edition collection with miniatures of the entire lineup will also be sold.

Erno Laszlo’s international doors include Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hong Kong

and Italy, and will add the U.K. to that list in April. “We’re launching Erno

Laszlo exclusively in April because it is a brand with heritage, provenance and rep-utation for effective and visible results,” said Marigay McKee, fashion and beauty director at Harrods. “It has an enormously loyal following. We have customers who are loyal Laszlo fol-lowers who have been unable to buy the product in the U.K. for some time, and the desirability fac-tor is definitely there and it’s high. The

Laszlo products them-selves are great, the tex-ture is quite unique and the application much sim-plified. We believe Laszlo

will do well in this market.”While Denton declined to

discuss projected sales, industry sources estimated that Erno Laszlo

currently does about $30 million glob-ally in retail sales per year.

Erno Laszlo Gets a Makeover

The Erno Laszlo Hollywood Collection.

A visual for the scent.

By AndreA nAgel

PhilosoPhy is out to double its business in the u.s. over the next five years — with a big focus on ex-panding internationally — but with the goal of keep-ing domestic sales at 50 percent of overall revenue. Coty inc. acquired the company for an undisclosed amount in november 2010, when Philosophy report-edly had $200 million in sales.

liz garrett, who formerly oversaw Coty’s u.K. busi-ness, was named president of Philosophy in March, and her first order of business is to take aim at Asia.

With that, Philosophy will enter Korea, the third-biggest skin care market in the world, in April, as well as singapore. the brand plans to enter Japan in the fall and China, the “holy grail” of Asia, in 2013 due to Chinese regulations. Philosophy will be Coty’s entry into China’s prestige market. t-Joy,

which Coty acquired around the same time as Philosophy, will serve as a distribution opportunity for Coty’s Adidas and rimmel brands into China’s mass market.

More than 50 percent of Philosophy’s business is skin care; the balance is made up of fra-grance, bath and body, gifting and color cosmetics.

QVC is Philosophy’s biggest “retailer,” followed by sephora and ulta. it is also sold in nordstrom and Macy’s and on the brand’s Web site for a total of about 1,400 doors overall in the u.s. About 20 percent of sales are made through the Philosophy Web site, which has auto delivery. the brand also has more than 145,000 fans on Facebook.

Within skin care, Philosophy’s main pillars are antiaging, which is represented by the Miracle Worker franchise and its star product, retinol Pads; cleansing, which is dominated by Purity, the multitask-

ing, all-in-one cleanser, and moisturizing, with hope in a Jar. the company was founded in 1996 by Cristina

Carlino. Prior to Coty inc., Philosophy was owned by the Carlyle group.

one-third of Philosophy’s fragrance business is from bath and body shower gels, another third from body lotion and another third from juice. Philosophy also has a min-eral powder foundation called super natural Airbrushed Canvas, as well as a focused cosmetics line called divine Color, which is sold exclusively on QVC.

in 2012, the brand plans to offer additional product inno-vation within their core franchises to reinforce its strength, as well as a new franchise within the antiaging category. new items include the microdelivery triple-acid brightening peel — which launches on QVC and qvc.com and at sephora and on sephora.com at the end of december, on philosophy.com in February and to all other retailers in April. there will also be an oxygen Boost daily energizing oxygen elixir.

Also next year, Philosophy will push new advertising. there is currently a 37 percent awareness in the u.s., garrett said. so in April, the company is launching an info-mercial touting Miracle Worker. there will also be a print campaign featuring its core franchises.

WWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 20118

officiis rest ant id es

NYX Hires CEO, Launches Ad Campaign

Philosophy Lays Out Global Growth

beauty

By rAChel BroWn

tWelVe yeArs Ago, toni Ko created nyX Cosmetics to give women looking for the latest cosmetics colors an af-fordable alternative to prestige brands and battled it out with larger mass beauty players to win shelf space for the los Angeles-based indie upstart.

More than 10,000 doors later, Ko has stepped aside as chief executive officer to become chief creative director and has brought in scott Friedman, formerly president of Conair Corp.-owned cosmetic bag maker Allegro, as ceo. Friedman is charged with converting nyX from a relatively small success story into a serious global contender. “As a company grows, the opportunities are so great that you want someone who has been through the transition of small- to medium-sized com-pany before,” said Friedman.

Already, Friedman has been shoring up management,

tapping Jeffrey ten as vice president of business develop-ment and Brandyn stugart as vice president of sales.

nyX has also launched a new ad campaign to raise its profile. the campaign, which broke last month in style.com/Print (a division of Fairchild Fashion Media), is expected to be in more magazines and on billboards in the first quar-ter of next year. tag lines include “Be free, be fierce,” “Be bold, be glamorous” and “Be you, be daring” to spotlight the many dimensions of nyX customers. “We’ve never done a campaign even remotely like this. it is 20 times as much [money] as we’ve done previously,” said Friedman, who di-vulged that nyX’s ad budget is in the seven figures.

in 2009, ulta was the first retailer with a national pres-ence to pick up nyX, which had two feet of space in the re-tailer that year. it has steadily expanded and could reach 10 feet next year, according to Friedman. other retailers have taken notice of nyX: nordstrom is putting the brand into around 20 doors in its Brass Plum juniors area, and Bed, Bath & Beyond has plans to test nyX in some 15 stores with its in-store harmon Face Values concept.

in 2013, Friedman predicts nyX will accomplish “a num-ber of major rollouts.” With its price points largely under $15 and its emphasis on color, nyX is attractive to retailers because it draws young consumers — its sweet spot is shop-pers aged 18 to 30 — and women of color with 16 percent of nyX customers Asian, 30 percent hispanic and 14 percent African-American. “if the brand becomes well-known enough, you will start seeing it in a Walgreens or CVs at some point as well,” said Friedman, who also mentioned shoppers drug Mart, duane reade and target as possibilities for nyX.

nyX, which has 2,000 stockkeeping units, sells to 40 coun-tries worldwide and has tripled international sales in the last year. As a whole, it is on pace to increase sales 50 percent this year, after registering 50 percent growth last year and 30 per-cent the year before that. industry sources estimate nyX will exceed $50 million in sales next year.

neW yorK — Pop star, “dancing With the stars” winner and “X-Factor” judge nicole scherzinger has been named the first spokes-woman for Kiss Product inc. scherzinger will represent impress Press-on Manicure, the latest technology hitting the sharply growing nail care category.

scherzinger will appear in the full mar-keting campaign, which includes television advertising, print, digital media and in-store displays for the launch, which is under Kiss’ Broadway logo. impress is a collection of press-on, peel-off nails that provide the look and longevity of a gel manicure.

Kiss executives think impress will have the “x” factor with shoppers. Calling it the “big-gest launch ever for Kiss,” senior vice presi-dent of marketing grace tallon said the tech-nology has been in the works for six years.

do-it-yourself nail care has been on fire in mass market doors with innovation after in-novation, including bold color launches from oPi and essie to at-home gel and Minx-style applications. the nail category in food, drug and mass merchants has been averaging dol-lar sales gains exceeding 11 percent over last year, according to industry data.

Kiss, best known for artificial nails, fuses gel technology and press-on, peel-off nails in the line, which is packaged in a creative bottle to hammer home the point it is an alternative to nail color. “We position it as clothes for your nail,” said tallon. “it is a revolutionary way to apply polish. there’s no drying time. you peel on and peel off. it doesn’t chip and it gives the look of a gel manicure — but you don’t need an appointment.”

tallon explained that the press-on nails cover imperfections like ridges — a distinc-tion that separates it from polish strips, which can’t hide nail problems.

retailers who have seen the line also said they like the fact that since there is no glue, the nails are easy to remove and don’t require acetone. “We are having some feedback from shoppers on the difficulty in removing other products,” said a buyer for a large chain.

impress is available in 18 colors and 18 patterns. each package has 24 nail covers in 12 sizes to accommodate the full range of nail bed sizes. suggested pricing is $5.99 for the colors, $7.99 for patterns. the products will debut in chains such as CVs, Walgreens and Wal-Mart in december.

Aimed at women 18 to 24 years old, impress will be merchandised by most re-tailers with color instead of with artificial nails — a move that nets Kiss new real estate in stores and exposes shoppers to the idea of press-on nails. “We don’t really expect impress to take away from our nails since this will be a different customer. it could even increase the purchasing frequency be-cause you can get so many easy-to-change looks,” said tallon, of the patterns, which include zebra stripes, dots and other stripe motifs. tallon believes the reach will also extend to women in their 20s and 30s. “this really is the next step in excitement for nail,” concluded tallon.

criticalmassFaye Brookman

by

Kiss Product Inc.Taps Scherzinger

New items include a brightening peel pad and dark spot corrector.

A new NYX ad.

Nicole Scherzinger

for Press-On nail line.

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WWD.COM9WWD friday, november 18, 2011

By Pete Born

When rihanna launched her first fragrance, reb’l Fleur, she asked her fans in a Web video if they considered themselves to be a rebel or a flower. a resound-ing 68 percent voted for the rebellious persona, and that became the name of her sec-ond women’s scent, rebelle by rihanna.

the star ’s licensee, Parlux Fragrances inc., will launch the fragrance in early december at Macy’s with high hopes that it following in the lucrative footsteps of its suc-cessor. distribution will then be expanded to europe and latin america.

the first scent, which was launched in late January, is expected to haul in $80 mil-lion at retail for the full cal-endar year. industry sources expect the new fragrance, which is a packaged in a variation of the original bot-tle, is expected to generate sales equalling 70 percent of reb’l Fleur. Fred Purches, chairman and chief execu-tive officer of Parlux, said the company is planning on even-tually launching a rihanna men’s scent.

the scent is classified as a gourmand chypre, created by caroline Sabas and Marypierre Julien at Givaudan. it has top notes of strawberry, ginger and plum and a heart consisting of cacao absolute, vanilla orchid and heliotrope. the base contains coffee, patchouli, musk and amber. reb’l

Fleur was considered a darker scent. the new one is a sassier sister, or as the perfumers say, it is “built off the sexy back of reb’l Fleur.”

the price points are $49 for a 1.7-oz. eau de par-fum spray, $59 for 3.4-oz. version and $30 for a 6.7-oz.

body lotion.the Macy’s launch will

be promoted with a special holiday packaging, consist-ing of rihanna’s new cd, which will drop Monday, a 3.4-oz. rebelle and a 3.4-oz. reb’l Fleur — all for $118. the ad campaign was shot by anthony Mandler, rihanna’s music video di-rector. according to indus-try sources, Parlux spent $9 million in the first quar-ter promoting the first fra-grance and an estimated $7 million will be put behind the new scent.

the company’s optimism is reflected in its financial result. Parlux took a hit in the first quarter, posting losses as it invested in ad-vertising to support the ex-panded rihanna launch.

But the Fort lauderdale, Fla.-based firm came roar-ing back in the second quarter, when net income increased threefold to $3.3 million, or 16 cents a share, from $1.1 million, or 5 cents, a year earlier. Sales

for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose 19.3 percent to $46 million from $38.6 million. Gross margins rose to 55 percent from 50 percent as sales to u.S. depart-ment stores increased.

� —�With�contributions�from�Evan�clark

The Rebelle ad.

Rihanna Expands Scent Offerings With RebelleFuSion BrandS aMerica inc. slapped its former chief executive officer caroline Pieper-Vogt with a law-suit Wednesday, alleging that she violated her employ-ment contract by disclosing confidential financial infor-mation and used the company’s funds for personal use.

Filed in new York Supreme court, the complaint accused the former ceo of “mismanaging” the cosmetics company’s assets, “misusing” corporate funds for her personal benefit and “performing services” for companies not affiliated with Fusion, among other things. Pieper-Vogt, who resigned “un-expectedly” from Fusion on oct. 28, claimed that she was entitled to “substantial severance pay,” according to Fusion, which said there was “no basis” for such an assertion.

Following her resignation, the former executive was allegedly on a mission to disrupt Fusion’s business and interfere with its relationship with its customers and other business partners.

the plaintiff said this was achieved by improperly dis-closing the company’s confidential financials and spread-ing false rumors to key players in the market that Fusion is “insolvent and unable to meet its contractual obligations.”

Furthermore, said the suit, Pieper-Vogt, who started at Fusion on June 22, 2009, secretly misappropriated corpo-rate opportunities belonging to the cosmetics company in connection with id Beauty international distribution llc, a Fusion client.

the two firms entered into an exclusive sales agree-ment, which stipulated that Pieper-Vogt would personally own an equity stake in Fusion’s share of the joint venture. But Fusion said that Pieper-Vogt kept that quiet, omitting that critical detail to Fusion’s chairman, eugene Melnyk.

the lawsuit called the act a “conscious act of impropri-ety, deliberately designed to remove an important asset from her employer and direct it to herself for the personal benefit,” which was “in essence nothing short of theft.”

Fusion seeks punitive damages of at least $10 million, as well as compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees. the plaintiff also seeks an injunction barring Pieper-Vogt from violating the nonsolicitation clause in her contract, from disclosing the company’s financial information and from trying to interfere with Fusion’s interactions and contracts with its customers.

the defendant was not available for comment thursday.� —�alEXanDra�stEiGraD

Fusion Sues Former CEO

w18a009a;8.indd 9 11/17/11 7:22 PM11172011192312

EVELYN H. LAUDER LEADER, MENTOR, FRIEND

We remember and celebrate her life that she so generously shared.

We will miss her vision, inner beauty and compassion.

©2011 International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. All rights reserved.

10 WWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Study: Millions Exposed to ToxinsBy Rachel StRugatz

NeW YORK — calypso St. Barth will on Saturday un-veil a new concept: an accessories-only boutique in the heart of NolIta.

the retailer will open the doors to its first boutique dedicated to the category on Mott Street between houston and Prince — including a cu-rated selection of in-house designs and accesso-ries from Nada Sawaya, lena Skadegard, Wayuu taya, glamourpuss, coralia leets and cleobella.

Formerly a speakeasy, the original façade and secret door are still intact at the land-marked building, which has been transformed into the firm’s 32nd freestanding retail location.

“We want it to be accessible and not intimi-dating. You can play with all of the product. I wanted it to have that intimate feeling,” said calypso St. Barth creative director elisa Miller, who was intent on creating a “dream closet” for the customer in the 500-square-foot store, where nothing is behind glass.

calypso’s own hats retail from $65 for knit beanies with rabbit fur pom poms to $95 for a wide brim felt hat with metallic accents. lena Skadegard’s one-of-a-kind baroque jewelry starts at $75 and goes up to $1,800 and exotic snakeskin clutches and larger handbags from Nada Sawaya range from $850 to $3,650. Multicolored glitter and lace styles of anniel’s ballet flats — which Miller calls “the best ballerinas around” — retail for $195. there is also a selection of giftable items, including hand-embellished sequined boxes from Bali and stationery from Russell+hazel.

Décor-wise, there’s a vintage-inspired armoire com-prised of faux stingray skin, as well as an armchair cov-ered in ivory Mongolian lamb. the store is filled with vintage mirrors and a vanity made of solid brass serves as a jewelry display case and the point of checkout.

“everything is in shades of ivory and ecru, but very opulent. We’re really letting the product shine here,” said Miller of the store’s color palette.

But the floating ottoman, or “pouf,” with a five-foot circumference suspended from the ceiling like a swing might attract the most attention. Made of rosy, ecru tuft-ed velvet, the piece —accessorized with a selection of pillows and throws ranging from $175 to $1,275 — is also

a signature design from the retailer’s line of home goods. “It sort of looks like it’s floating, but it’s supported

so it’s not dangerous,” Miller promised. “We want it to be inviting; you can kick off your shoes and sit on the pouf. the romantic part of it is that it’s floating.”

calypso has tapped blogger leandra Medine of the Man Repeller to host the store’s launch party on Nov. 20 — the first blogger collaboration for the brand. Medine coined the term “arm party” in the blogosphere, and is known for styling her own mix-and-match wrists, which can sometimes contain up to 10 bracelets — on each arm.

“I’ve wanted to a host a literal party for the arm party for a while, and I’ve been approached by sev-eral vendors but none of them seemed the proper fit. When calypso asked I was on it like bracelet on wrist,” Medine told WWD.

By DavID MOIN

NeW YORK — another historic building has gone the way of retail: ReI, which specializes in outdoor gear and apparel, opens its first Manhattan store inside the land-marked Puck Building in Soho on tuesday.

With three levels and 36,000 square feet, the Manhattan store is about a third the size of the ReI flagship in Seattle, where the company is based. Yet it could qualify as a flag-ship, given its grand 17-foot ceiling and cast-iron columns, and the formidable staircase created by carving out a 600-square-foot section of the main floor which displays ski, snowboard, camp-ing and travel equipment, and bicycles. While precious selling space was sacri-ficed, the staircase is the focal point, pro-viding extended vistas to draw traffic down to the cellar housing men’s, women’s, kids apparel and footwear, and to the subcel-lar, which has a rental shop for skis, snow-boards and camping gear, and a repair shop for bicycles, skis and snowboards. unlike many gas stations, ReI offers free

air to pump up your bi-cycle tires, and there’s a “quick repair” shop on the street level as well.

also in the subcellar is a community room for classes and work-shops on such topics as snowshoeing and bicycle maintenance. conrad anker, the fa-mous american climb-er who was part of the search team that found the remains of legend-ary British climber george Mallory on Mount everest, is on the speaker list.

to get New Yorkers in the mind-set for breaking away, there’s a 6-by-15-foot photograph of constitution Marsh, a sanctuary in cold Spring, N.Y., and topographic maps adorning the stair-case barriers. there are also two walls of photos of customers and employees on their outdoor adventures, and a kiosk to sign up for ReI-organized adventure trips.

there’s a natural feel to the store, with decades of paint stripped down to expose the original brick. Furnishings, from the feature walls to the lit canopies above the cash wrap, are constructed of restored pine wood that had been removed from

the ceilings, reflecting the conservation-ist corporate culture. ReI, which is short for the Recreational equipment Inc., regularly dispatches employees to help build trails, clean up beaches and en-hance local habitats on a volunteer basis. “the natural materials we used to create the store tie into the ReI aesthetic and represent the brand much better than you could with a logo,” observed alex Shapleigh, design principle for callison, the architectural firm that created the store and which is also based in Seattle.

top-selling apparel brands at ReI include the North Face, Keen, Merrell/Wolverine, Marmot, Patagonia, Mountain hardwear, SmartWool, columbia Sportswear, vibram and cascade Designs, and in shoes, Merrell, Keen, vibram, teva and vasque.

the $1.6 billion company operates 122 stores, including Soho, and was founded in 1938 by lloyd and Mary anderson, and other Pacific Northwest mountaineers. It’s a co-op, with $20 memberships required. there are 4.4 million members who get dividends each year amounting to 10 per-cent of their ReI purchases. Mary is 102 and living in Seattle. lloyd died in 2000.

Instances of retailers taking historic sites for their stores are hardly unusual. In the eighties, Ralph lauren set the trend by converting the Rhinelander Mansion on Madison avenue, and, to the chagrin of rocksters, John varvatos took over the former cBgB’s site on the Bowery in 2008. target is moving into the former galleria building in Portland, Ore., listed on the National Register of historic Places, to create a smaller format, and into one of chicago’s most famous sites, the Sullivan center, formerly known as the carson Pirie Scott & co. Building.

the Puck Building, on the corner of lafayette avenue and houston Street, was constructed in two parts, in a Romanesque Revival style, from 1885 to 1893. It’s been used at different times as a printing and publishing facility, by New York university and Pratt Institute and as an event hall. the name Puck comes from two gilded statues adorning the facade, represent-

ing the character from Shakespeare’s “a Midsummer’s Night Dream.” the build-ing is owned by charles Kushner, and his son Jared Kushner, the owner of the New York Observer.

While some may be disappointed by the conversion of iconic structures into a retail setting, those involved in the ReI project say they worked diligently to res-urrect the original design and character of the Puck Building and convey the story behind it. “We took great care to really respect this building and really bring it back to its original state,” said Shapleigh.

Remnants of its past are exhibited on the selling floor, such as the 9-ton cast iron flywheels of the steam engine that once powered a printing press. the stan-chions that protected people from fall-ing into the pit housing the steam engine now serve as ornate merchandise racks. also displayed are stone printing plates from the early 1900s, and two silvered glass chandeliers were salvaged.

elizabeth Dowd, the project manager and ReI’s director of visual merchandis-ing, also mentioned that transforming Puck into retail space is consistent with its past. “It was always for commercial use,” she said.

geNeva — Millions of people, particularly workers in poor nations, face serious health risks from exposure to toxic pollutants used in industrial processes such as tannery op-erations and textile dyeing, according to a new study.

toxic exposure associated with mining and industrial processes all over the world “is a major health risk for the affected population,” said David hanrahan, head of the global program at the u.S.-based Blacksmith Institute, which prepared the study jointly with the nonprofit green cross Switzerland.

“the World’s Worst toxic Pollution Problems Report, 2011,” which draws on data collected from over 2,000 toxic hot spots in the last three years, estimates that the sites stud-ied cause, on average, 12.7 years of life lost to death or dis-ability per person affected.

although there are thousands of tanneries worldwide, the report said about 1.9 million people are impacted by chromium pollution from 62 tannery operations sites evalu-ated in South asia, 11 in South america, nine in africa, and three in central america. tanning involves the processing of raw leather to make it more resilient and stronger for use in a variety of products, including shoes and accessories.

the report highlights the two types of tanning are chrome tanning and vegetable tanning, and points out that chrome tan-ning accounts for a large majority of the industry. But it also reveals that as the process creates a lot of waste water, chromi-um contamination is a common problem associated with tan-nery effluents, and can pose a serious threat to human health and the environment.

Ingestion of hexavalent chromium (chromium vI), a toxic human carcinogen used in the tanning industry, can cause or increase the rates of certain cancers and can lead to eye damage, ulcers and bronchitis, and damage kidney and liver functions, it notes.

In hazaribagh, a major tanning region of Bangladesh that has some 300 separate tanneries, the report estimates that 7.7 million liters of waste water and 88 million tons of solid waste are disposed annually, and are responsible for the contamination of surface and groundwater systems.

the report also cites about 400 small tannery opera-tions located in Northern India along the banks of the ganges river that are contaminating the area due to inad-equate waste treatment facilities.� —�John�Zarocostas

REI to Open in Manhattan’s Puck Building

Calypso to Open NoLIta Accessories Boutique

Calypso St. Barth’s

accessories store.

WWD.COM

The Puck Building.

Apparel is sold in the cellar.

REI Soho store manager Les Hatton in front of a mural of founders Mary and Lloyd Anderson.

PHOT

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REACH EVERYBODY WHO’S ANYBODY IN FASHION

TREY LAIRD // INDUSTRY LEADER AND LOYAL READER

You talking to me?

PH

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BY

PATR

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WWD friday, november 18, 201112

By EllEn ShEng

hOng KOng — luxury goods compa-nies are lining up to list on this city’s stock exchange and raise capital for ex-pansion in the region, even amid escalat-ing concerns that China is headed for a slowdown.

london-based jeweler graff Diamonds is planning to raise as much as $1 billion in a listing next year, most likely in hong Kong, according to a source close to the company. Also, Chow Tai Fook, a major jewelry player in greater China, is plan-ning a $3 billion initial public offering here before the end of the year. Coach is planning a secondary listing of its shares in hong Kong; Italian motorcycle maker Ducati is reportedly eyeing an IPO here, as is Sitoy group, a hong Kong handbag company that supplies to Prada.

Prada, which raised nearly $2.5 bil-lion in its hong Kong IPO earlier this year, is looking at buying up to 20 percent of Sitoy’s share offer and would ultimate-ly hold about 5 percent of the company as a “financial” investment, according to a person familiar with the situation. he stressed that Prada does not consider this a strategic acquisition.

Sitoy was established in 1968 and spe-cializes in manufacturing handbags and other leather goods. The company has about 10,000 employees in hong Kong plus factories in Dongguan and Yingde, according to the company.

The rush to do IPOs comes as compa-nies look to expand their operations in China and elsewhere in Asia. By going public, companies not only raise capital

for acquisitions and expansion but also increase their profiles in the region.

The timing of these listings isn’t ideal, given concerns about slowing growth in China. Factories in China’s Pearl River Delta have been seeing a slowdown thanks to uncertain outlooks in north America and Europe. The Federation of hong Kong Industries last week warned that possible wage raises could put more than 20,000 hong Kong-owned factories in the region at risk of closing or down-sizing. hong Kong’s economy grew by just 0.1 percent during the third quarter, only narrowly dodging recession.

Despite these concerns, market watchers say investor demand for IPOs could still be strong — if the price is right. China’s burgeoning luxury market is still doing well. Indeed, hong Kong’s economy has been bolstered by Mainland Chinese shoppers, who show no signs of pinching pennies.

“I’m always astounded by demand for the luxury goods themselves; they’ve been a relentless outperformer and highlight the disposable income of new money in China,” said Ben Collett at louis Capital Markets in hong Kong.

To be sure, a slowdown would have some impact on China’s luxury spending. ClSA Asia-Pacific Markets analyst Aaron Fischer estimates that China’s demand for luxury goods could slow to 20 to 30 percent a year, down from 50 to 100 per-cent, mostly because of the larger base.

Still, investor appetite for luxury stocks appears fairly healthy.

“luxury is doing quite well,” said Philip Mok, analyst at Phillips Securities in hong Kong. Valuations in China’s retail

sector are quite high at the moment, at around 28 to 40 times earnings, Mok said. Chow Tai Fook, as a leader in the jewelry market, is likely to price on the high end of valuations, above other local jewelers such as Chow Sang Sang, Empire Jewelry or luk Fook. And while performance of the IPO market has been mixed as of late, luxury companies have fared relatively well. Prada shares performed better than expected while hong Kong-based appar-el maker Fornton group, which listed in October, showed some gains in the first

two days of trading. Collett, for one, sees continued in-

vestor demand for both global and local luxury brand IPOs. “At the right price, local brands will probably be even more popular than global brands because of their familiarity,” he added.

Chow Tai Fook may not be a house-hold name in the West, but in China the company is ubiquitous. According to a recent consumer survey by ClSA, Chow Tai Fook was the number-one jewelry brand in China in terms of name recognition. Swarovski and Chow Sang Sang came in a distant second and third, while Tiffany, hermès and Cartier were at the bottom of the list.

The company, which is controlled by billionaire Cheng Yu-Tung, has a retail network of more than 1,500 points of sale in more than 250 cities in Mainland China, hong Kong, Macau and elsewhere in Asia. Chow Tai Fook is the dominant jeweler in greater

China, with a 57 percent market share on the mainland, according to people famil-iar with the company.

Sales for the fiscal year ended in March totaled $35 billion hong Kong dol-lars, or $4.5 billion, up 52 percent from the year before. Sales are expected to reach $58 billion hong Kong dollars this year, or $7.45 billion, up nearly 66 per-cent, according to people familiar with the company.

Chow Tai Fook plans to greatly expand its network — penetrating second-, third- and fourth-tier Chinese cities, averaging 200 new points of sale a year to reach 2,000 by 2016, according to the jeweler.

Chow Tai Fook, which translates roughly as “good fortune” in Cantonese, is controlled by one of Asia’s wealthiest families. Cheng’s son, henry Cheng, over-sees new World Development ltd., a real estate and transportation conglomerate. The family’s businesses also include ho-tels, department stores, ports and others.

like Chow Tai Fook, graff is looking to expand in the region; the ultra-high-end jeweler is planning to open stores in Macau and hangzhou, China, next year.

luxury companies are banking more and more on Asian growth. ClSA fore-casts that China will become a $101.4 billion market by 2020, making up 44 per-cent of the global market. For companies eyeing that growth, now is as good a time as any to make that move.

“It’s better sooner rather than later,” said louis Capital’s Collett.

Hong Kong IPO Market Heating Up

Penney’s Reveals Kramer Pay PackageJ.C. PEnnEY CO. InC. is paying Michael Kramer, its incoming chief operating officer, a $4 million signing bonus to make up for the equity grants he would have received as chief execu-tive officer of Kellwood Co.

Kramer, who starts Dec. 5, will also get a base salary of $1 million, 750,000 restricted stock units and other incen-tives. The pay package was revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.

Penney’s also said Thomas nealon, a group executive vice president and a key technology executive, is leaving on Dec. 1 to pay full attention to a seriously ill family member.

nealon’s responsibilities included information technology, corporate strategy, customer insights, digital ventures and jcp.com. These areas will report to Kramer.

Myron E. “Mike” Ullman 3rd, execu-tive chairman, said, “Tom is among the most talented information technology

executives in America today, and he has made exceptional contributions to J.C. Penney over the past five years. On be-half of the board of directors and all of J.C. Penney’s associates, our thoughts are with Tom and his family.”

Ron Johnson, ceo, said, “Tom is one of the truly outstanding people I have met during my short tenure at J.C. Penney. he has added tremendous value to our company by putting in place a state-of-the-art technology infrastruc-ture, which will serve as a strong foun-dation for our future growth plans.”

Penney’s has seen several top ex-ecutive changes in recent months, including Johnson becoming ceo on nov. 1 and eventually chairman in February, succeeding Ullman. There was also the recent appointment of Michael Francis as president and, last summer, Michael Boylson, executive vice president and chief marketing of-ficer, departed.

� —�DaviD�Moin�anD�Evan�Clark

Graff Diamonds is planning to raise as much as $1 billion in a listing next year, most likely in Hong Kong.

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WHEN IT COMES TO WOMEN advancing in retail, “there’s been progress, but not enough,” said Marvin Traub, president of Marvin Traub Associates and the former Bloomingdale’s chairman.

Traub discussed the discrimination issue after receiving the Etta Froio Equal Opportunity Award at the Legal Momentum fund-raiser Wednesday at the Grand Hyatt. A crowd of 250 raised $300,000 for the cause, and recognized Traub’s support for tal-ent, regardless of gender, during his long career. Next year, Mark Lee, chief executive officer of Barneys New York, and Diane von Furstenberg will receive the Etta Froio Equal Opportunity Award.

“I’m really proud of my father,” said Traub’s son Andrew, who came with a large contingent of the family. “He was ahead of his time support-ing women. He has always hired people based on their abilities.”

“Women have made major progress moving beyond the buyer level to more senior levels,” the elder Traub said. “Yet when I look at women who are ceo’s, there are none at the major department stores. There is Angela Ahrendts, ceo at Burberry, and Trudy Sullivan at Talbots and Rose Marie Bravo was once president of Saks and Sue Kronick was vice chairman of Macy’s. But there are very few women who are ceo’s. That’s an opportunity.”

Similarly, Elizabeth Grayer, president of Legal Momentum, sees the progress and wants more. “Women in this country are visibly succeeding,” Grayer said, adding that the courts and police are more sensitive to domestic violence, an increasing number of women are holding senior positions and laws against discrimination are on the books. “But beyond all the successes, the work is just not fin-ished. There is still enormous gender segregation in this country. Poverty is a women’s issue in this country. More women [than men] are likely to be

living below the poverty line. Women still make up less than 18 percent of those elected to the House of Representatives and only six governors are women.”

“Sexual violence is at epidemic proportions. Once every two minutes, a woman is sexually as-saulted in this country,” said Rikki Klieman, au-thor and former anchor of Court TV, who served as emcee for the event.

Beyond battling to get the legal system to com-bat violence against women, “it is a much larger battle to change attitudes,” observed Linda Fairstein, the former sex crimes prosecutor and a best-selling author. Fairstein, along with Linda Addison, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP partner in charge, and Lauren Anderson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Douglas R. Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup Co., also received Equal Opportunity Awards. — DAVID MOIN

BY RACHEL STRUGATZ

NEW YORK — Girard-Perregaux’s worldwide traveling exhibition — created in honor of its 220th anniversary — makes its final stop at the brand’s Madison Avenue boutique today and runs through Nov. 26.

This marks the first time that many of the company’s masterpieces, some dating back to the late 18th and 19th centuries (it was founded in 1791), will ever be seen by the U.S. public. Before reaching New York, the exhibit was in Singapore and Shanghai, and other pieces from Girard-Perregaux’s museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (which will reopen next year), were displayed at Printemps in Paris.

“The exhibition [showcases the most] impor-tant stages of Gerard-Perregaux’s history, and we try to emphasize the technical and design aspects of the watches,” said Stefano Macaluso, general manager of Girard-Perregaux parent Sowind Group, the haute horology firm that owns the brand known for creating all of its compli-cated movements in-house. “We show the history, as well as a larger point of view, so we make the association between big historical events and trends — like Art Nouveau and Art Deco.”

Girard-Perregaux’s presi-dent of North America, Frederic Leys, added, “It’s the first time that we will bring the most beautiful mu-seum pieces to New York — but it’s not only that. We want to show the tradition of the company and also the evolu-tion of watchmaking from the old pocket watch to modern wristwatches.”

Macaluso said that the fa-mous “La Esmeralda” pock-et watch — the tourbillon with three distinct gold bridges that won a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889 — was the basis for the brand’s iconic Tourbillon watch, which is showcased at the exhibit. Additionally, a special edition was reimagined for the anniversary, the 1966 Tourbillon With Gold Bridge, complete with a refined face, 224 components and a patented

self-winding system. He revealed that the brand is working

on a new generation of minute repeaters that will be an important initiative for the company in the coming year. Additionally, a new patent based around the concept of “constant escapement” — which Macaluso refers to as “the most ambi-tious” movement the brand has created to date — will enter the market in 2012 as well. The watch will retail for around

$100,000, and uses a new concept in mechanics that promises the most accurate timekeeping.

Leys said the brand has big plans for the com-pany in the U.S., specifically. It is looking to raise brand awareness here, as well as introduce a more aggressive marketing strategy — a result of its acquisition by PPR, which became the major-ity shareholder last July.

WWD.COM13WWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Legal Momentum Honors TraubEtro: For her pre-fall collection, Veronica Etro revamped the house’s iconic paisley prints by adding either dots or a tweed pattern to the motif. They were shown on an asymmetric foulard silk dress, a deconstructed silk jacket and a longer coat version. There were also a few bold jungle prints, as in a micro-camouflage one shown on a delicate bow blouse.

M Missoni: A young, nonconformist Brigitte Bardot was the woman Angela Missoni had in mind for M Missoni’s lineup. Infusing it with a late Fifties-early Sixties beat mood, she delivered hourglass silhouettes in geometric motifs inspired by Swedish graphics from that period. She also showed cropped jackets with matching flared skirts in heavy wool for a bouclé effect, and introduced new stretch fabrics that combined wool with nylon inserts.

PHOT

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Etro

M Missoni

Girard-Perregaux Exhibit Hits New York

A look at the exhibit.

A classic Girard-Perregaux timepiece.

Marvin Traub, with his wife, Lee, and granddaughter Rebecca. PH

OTO

BY D

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’ERR

ICO

WWD.COMWWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 201114

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — The outcry over Benetton’s latest ad cam-paign continued to grow Thursday, with both politi-cians and religious leaders objecting to the images.

Benetton has upset everyone from the Vatican to the White House with its montage of close-up kisses be-tween world leaders — President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao or Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The im-ages are meant to promote its newly formed Unhate Foundation in a new ad campaign of the same name.

On Thursday, a White House spokesman said, “The White House has a long-standing policy disap-proving of the use of the president’s name and like-ness for commercial purposes.”

An image of the Pope kissing the Imam Al Azhar unveiled Wednesday prompted protests from the Vatican, which said Thursday it would take legal ac-tion to stop the distribution of the photo.

The image was quickly pulled by Benetton on Wednesday night, and the Italian clothing manufactur-er stated, “We reiterate that the meaning of this cam-paign is exclusively to combat the culture of hatred in all its forms. We are therefore sorry that the use of the image of the Pope and the Imam has so offended the sentiments of the faithful. In corroboration of our in-tentions, we have decided, with immediate effect, to withdraw this image from every publication.”

But the power of the Internet makes it almost impossible to stop images from spreading world-wide, which caused the Vatican to urge its lawyers in Italy and around the world to “take the proper legal measures” to stop the use of the photo, even in the media, according to a statement. It was not clear if the Vatican intended to sue Benetton directly for damages. The statement said the ad was “damaging to not only to dignity of the Pope and the Catholic Church but also to the feelings of believers.”

The Unhate Project, unveiled in Paris Wednesday evening, includes a series of initiatives and events, starting in major newspapers, magazines and Web sites globally.

“While global love is still a utopia, albeit a worthy one, the invitation ‘not to hate,’ to combat the ‘cul-ture of hatred,’ is an ambitious but realistic objec-tive,” stated Alessandro Benetton, executive deputy chairman of Benetton Group. “At this moment in history, so full of major upheavals and equally large hopes, we have decided, through this campaign, to give widespread visibility to an ideal notion of toler-ance and invite the citizens of every country to re-flect on how hatred arises particularly from fear of ‘the other’ and of what is unfamiliar to us.”

The executive said the campaign, which he de-scribed as a call to action, is in line with the his-tory of the Italian brand, “which chooses social issues and actively promotes humanitarian causes that could not otherwise have been communicated on a global scale.”

The furor is déjà vu for Benetton, which stirred controversy in the Eighties and Nineties as it mixed political messages with selling clothes. Working with photographer Oliviero Toscani, Benetton broke ground in the Eighties and Nineties with ad cam-paigns showing a man dying of AIDS or real people sentenced to death, among others.

As to whether such controversial images will work again today, marketing whiz Elio Fiorucci, whose revolutionary images in the Seventies and Eighties contributed to shape the way Italian fash-ion houses communicated, was cautious and ex-pressed his opinion based on aesthetic guidelines.

“It’s a somewhat shocking campaign, and we are used to Benetton providing such imagery — the reaction was to be expected. It’s always cor-rect to provoke a little, but I don’t know if pictures are that well made. I remember Toscani’s photos for Benetton of [a black] woman nursing a white child, for example. It looked like a painting,” said Fiorucci. However, he also conceded that “times were different” when Toscani worked with the Italian firm back in the Eighties and Nineties. “It made more sense then,” he said.

Alberto Fusignani, ceo and founder with Lapo Elkann of creative agency Independent Ideas, said the campaign was “a gratuitous speculation” on the part of Benetton and its think-tank Fabrica and that they “crossed the limit, so much so that the campaign becomes banal. They touched a predictable element in a calculated way to create buzz, but it lacks sponta-neity. They knew the effect these photos would have and this is not correct, it’s an abuse of power some-how. To be provocative for the sake of it is not reward-ing, even if you and I are talking about this right now.”

Fusignani, whose agency has developed ads for Italia Independent, the Fiat 500 by Diesel and the Fiat 500 by Gucci, was reluctant to pass judgment on Benetton and Fabrica, but added that this kind of communication “makes no sense at this moment and it’s not contemporary, nor is it creative. These are merely montages, Oliviero Toscani’s photos, for example, were at a different level, more artistic.”

Backlash Mounts for Benetton Campaign

Operating loss for the third quarter was $459 million, compared with $292 million in 2010, and gross margin de-clined $110 million to $2.4 billion in the 12-week period. In the second quarter, the company’s loss widened to $146 million, or $1.37 a share, from a loss of $39 million, or 35 cents, a year earlier, missing analysts’ expectations.

Revenue in the third quarter declined 1 percent to $9.57 billion from $9.68 billion, missing Wall Street’s estimate of $9.63 billion. The decline in total revenue for the quarter was mainly due to a 0.8 percent de-crease in domestic comp-store sales and the effect of having fewer Kmart and Sears full-line stores in op-eration. The domestic same-store sales decrease in-cluded a comp decline of 0.7 percent at Sears stores and a drop of 0.9 percent at Kmart. Sears Canada’s same-store sales fell 7.8 percent versus last year’s third quarter. Retail analysts noted that competition in Canada will only get stiffer with Target’s entrance into the market in 2013.

Revenue at Sears Holdings has fallen in the past four quarters. Revenue declined 1.2 percent in the sec-ond quarter compared with the quarter ended July 31, 2010. In the first quarter, revenue fell 3.4 percent from the previous year’s first quarter, and declined 0.8 per-cent in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year from the prior-year quarter. The third quarter of the last fiscal year saw revenue fall 5 percent.

Lou D’Ambrosio, Sears Holdings’ president and chief executive officer, said, “While we are not satisfied with our performance, we saw improvement in some core areas. Sears’ full-line stores saw improvement, as Sears apparel achieved both comparable-store sales and mar-gin rate increases in the quarter. We also saw nearly 20 percent growth in our domestic online business. Despite improvements in these areas, our overall re-

sults were down, led by declines in Sears Canada, con-sumer electronics and Kmart apparel. Despite heavy promoting, sales of appliances were down.”

Sears is giving iPad and iPod Touch devices to sales associates in 450 stores so that they can check inventory and help customers order products online. D’Ambrosio

said Sears will further align its online, mobile and store-based services. Online sales increased 19 percent in the third quarter.

No matter how promising, Sears’ online business can’t fix the problems at the stores. “When you look at the big picture, this is an extremely large and un-productive asset base,” McGinley said. “There are about 200 good stores, 1,000 stores that are average or below average and a few hundred stores that need to be closed. Whenever you see Sears close a store, it’s said to free cash flow. Closing stores is never a cash-generative event. There’s lease severance costs and inventory liquidation costs. Sears waits until a lease expires. Unfortunately, Sears has very long leases and it doesn’t have enough money to break the leas-es. This probably could have been addressed several years ago when Sears was generating cash. They don’t generate cash now.”

In a memo to employees obtained by WWD, D’Ambrosio focused more on digital than on the store base. “We’re in the midst of an exciting transformation of our company,” he wrote, adding that Sears is using disruptive technologies such as digital, social media and mobile to reinvent itself. “We are positioned to be the first major retailer to move beyond multichannel to truly integrated retail. Our challenges are dwarfed by our assets: our dedicated people, our leading prod-ucts and services and, most of all, our loyal members and customers. We can exceed the expectations of our customers because we know so much more about them through our Shop Your Way Rewards program. Let’s use our assets to delight our customers — every single day — in the fourth quarter and always.”

Sears’ Financial Struggles Mount

’’

’’

They haven’t shown any indication that they’re going to turn this big ship around.

— Matt McGinley, iSi GROUP

JINT

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An image of President

Obama and Hu Jintao

kissing.

Images from the controversial campaign.

{Continued from page one}

w18a014a;5.indd 1 11/17/11 8:11 PM11172011201232

By JOHN KOBLIN

ON NOV. 7, a memo was handed out to Newsweek re-porters and editors. The note detailed a new process in how to pitch stories. It only existed in hard copy, so it wouldn’t be e-mailed or leaked.

“Stories are generated in a variety of ways, from chance conversations with Tina or other senior edi-tors…” the memo began.

It read like something one might find in Journalism

101 — not at a legendary weekly magazine. The memo firmly spelled out how to bring an idea to an editor and get it into the magazine. It was elementary.

There was a warning, written in all caps: “A STORY WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED ASSIGNED AND WILL NOT BE [SCHEDULED] UNTIL A PROPOSAL IS WRITTEN AND APPROVED, NO MATTER HOW IT WAS INITIALLY COOKED UP.”

The next direction: Reporters should only send sto-ries to “their editors and no one else. Not Tina, Edward or Tom…”

After the memo was handed out, it wasn’t hard for staffers to read between the lines: This was an attempt to bring order to Tina Brown’s Newsweek. It was de-signed to curb Brown’s impulsiveness; a way to create a pipeline of stories that would make their way to the magazine, a process that had been previously something of a mess; a system that might make it a little easier to work there.

But it didn’t matter. One week later, managing editor Tom Weber, one of the authors of the memo, quit (the second managing editor to do so in six months). Later that day, Edward Felsenthal, Brown’s number two for three years, revealed he was leaving. On a particular-ly nutty Monday, the publisher of the magazine, Ray Chelstowski, also departed.

GROWING PAINS

PHOTO BY CHI YIN

WWDSTYLE

Sing a SongCoach headed to Beijing to celebrate its

70th anniversary this week and brought

brand ambassador Gwyneth Paltrow (who

chose a Stella McCartney dress for the

occasion) to serenade the birthday party.

For more, see page 19.

THE FRANCO FILE:

Seven for All

Mankind has

tapped actor

James Franco

to direct and

photograph the

jeans brand’s

spring campaign.

PAGE 16

Tough Times at Newsweek

{Continued on page 17}

16 WWD friday, november 18, 2011

By DaviD Lipke

You can aDD aD man to James Franco’s rap-idly expanding résumé.

Seven For all mankind and its advertising agency, Lipman, have tapped the actor to direct and photograph the jeans brand’s upcoming multimedia spring campaign. This is the first time Franco will helm an advertising shoot, with the print results set to break in march magazines and filmed segments to go up online around the same time.

“For me, it’s an excuse to be creative. They’re giving me a lot of freedom,” said Franco on the phone from Detroit, where he is filming the title role of Disney’s “oz: The Great and powerful,” a big-budget prequel to “The Wizard of oz.” “it’s about having the opportunity to be creative in a new way and they are going to provide all the toys and the cast and everything else.”

Franco, 33, is slated to shoot the campaign on Dec. 11 in Los angeles and a second date in January. The as-yet-unannounced cast will in-clude celebrities and models.

“i’m not supposed to say too much, but we don’t want to do something that feels very fash-ion-heavy,” explained Franco. “it’s a more natural kind of approach. it’s not a heavy-handed fashion world sell-job. it’s really about bringing the natu-ral essence out of the performers and models.”

The campaign, whose creative details are being kept under wraps until filming is com-plete, will emphasize a narrative approach, using a large cast portraying a free-spirited and glamorous california lifestyle.

“We want to tell our story about our california roots and James Franco so embodies the ideals of california,” said Barry miguel, president of Seven For all mankind, which is owned by vF corp. “He was born and raised in california and he encap-sulates that idea of freedom of expression and being modern in california.”

While this is Franco’s first foray into ad-vertising, this past summer he photographed agyness Deyn for a “Rebel Without a cause”-inspired editorial spread in elle, and more re-cently lensed a shoot for W, which has not yet been published.

“This is not the usual fashion campaign. There’s a lot of storytelling involved and i think that was part of the attraction for James,” said David Lipman, chairman and chief cre-ative officer of new York-based Lipman, who created the current Hudson Jeans cam-paign with Georgia may Jagger and patrick Schwarzenegger before switching to the Seven For all mankind account this fall. “We have treatments in place, but we’re being very open-minded in where this is going to go.”

as a nascent director, Franco had few qualms about taking on an advertising client. “You might think, ‘oh, it’s selling a product.’

“But that’s what basically one does when you make a movie or do a television show — you’re really selling a product anyway,” noted the Golden Globe winner. “it’s not like i’m doing a car commercial and they’re telling me i have to get this many shots of the car. Strangely enough, there’s so much freedom in fashion advertising.

it can be a place to be more creative than i’m able to be in other areas, like movies or television.”

Franco has been the face of the Gucci by Gucci pour Homme fragrance since 2008 and last month added a new role as ambassador for Gucci’s made to measure line of bespoke suits, with ads shot by nathaniel Goldberg at the legendary cinecittà film studio in Rome.

“When i started doing the Gucci campaigns, i real-ized that the shoots for the Gucci fragrance were ac-tually exactly the same as doing a photo shoot for a magazine like vanity Fair or interview,” he noted of his

rationale for taking on commercial projects. “as an actor, i had to go do these shoots anyway and there were brands working with the magazine that wanted to see me in their clothes — and that’s how the shoot and the issue were going to be financed. So i had to wear certain kinds of things. it wasn’t a campaign but i wasn’t doing anything different — whether it was a Gucci campaign or just a shoot in a magazine with me promoting a movie.”

Franco’s film career has included star turns in the “Spider-man” trilogy, “pineapple express,” “milk,” “127 Hours” and “Rise of the planet of the apes.” However, he’s become noted for his wide-ranging, catholic interests outside of acting — with this advertising cam-paign the latest addition to a panoply of cre-ative endeavors.

To name just a few, Franco has appeared on the soap opera “General Hospital,” which he later turned into an art project at the museum of contemporary art in Los angeles in 2010; he’s directed a number of short films and documentaries which have screened at festi-vals, including “Saturday night,” “The clerk’s Tale” and “The Broken Tower,” the latter a docudrama about the poet Hart crane; writ-ten a collection of short fiction titled “palo alto: Stories,” published by Scribner in 2010; exhibited his own paintings at galleries in Los angeles and Berlin; directed and narrated a dance work at new York’s Stella adler Studio, and earlier this week attempted to contact the late Tennessee Williams via ouija board for a performance piece during the performa 11 art festival in new York.

Franco is pursuing a ph.D. in english from Yale, to add to a c.v. that includes an under-graduate degree from ucLa and an m.F.a. in writing from columbia university.

The Seven For all mankind campaign partly piqued his interest as it’s a form of filmmak-ing that isn’t constrained by many of the pre-cepts of a traditional movie, noted Franco. “people are used to movies being told in a cer-tain way. it has an emotional arc and there’s a beginning, middle and end. But in a fashion campaign like this, you have some of those ele-ments — actors and performers and a set and wardrobe — but you don’t have the burden of telling a story in the same way or attracting au-diences in the same way. So you can use all the elements from a film but explore it in a new way,” he explained.

Franco admitted he wasn’t a die-hard Seven For all mankind wearer prior to getting the di-recting gig — “i wouldn’t say i was a guy that wore Seven jeans all the time,” he said with a

small laugh — but he does maintain a healthy interest in fashion.

“i don’t know how to design clothes — nor do i re-ally want to — but i’m fascinated by the designers i’ve worked with, like Frida [Giannini] at Gucci,” said Franco. “i’m interested in all kinds of design and creativity. on films, you work with artists and craftsmen and designers and wardrobe and hairstylists and other actors and di-rectors and writers and musicians. Being in movies for 15 years has taught me how to collaborate and how to make these different creative types coalesce.”

PLANTING FERN: after last month’s rousing interview with Calvin Klein at 92Y, Fern Mallis has four more fashion forces ready to hit the hot seat, and a new radio show, too. Donna Karan will join her Jan. 12 for a tête-à-tête, as part of the upper east Side Y’s “Fashion icons With Fern mallis” series. Tommy Hilfiger is teed up for march 8, as are Tom Ford on may 8 and Michael Kors on June 6. each chat will be open to the public and will be taped to air on “Fashion insiders With Fern mallis,” a new show on Sirius Xm. (For those who missed klein’s two-hour tell-all, it will be broadcast nov. 23 at 11 a.m., nov. 26 at 7 p.m. and nov. 27 at 8 a.m.)

“it’s not my intention to be controversial or an investigative reporter. i want to talk to people about their lives and their careers,” she said. “i see this as an extension of what i’ve always done in my job, which is to try to explain the fashion industry, how it works and give it the respect it deserves — and that it is not entirely about silly, frivolous people.”

mallis’ guests on Sirius Xm will extend beyond new York’s ateliers to include Mickey Drexler, Jenna Lyons, Ken Downing, Jay Alexander, Hal Rubenstein and Cindy Leive, among others. “There is a lot of interest in fashion right now but many people really don’t understand how it works. They might not know somebody has to teach a model how to walk on a runway. So this will. manufacturers have to make the clothes. editors write the reviews. i always thought

that my job was about celebrating that.”as for whether these two gigs are steps

toward a Tv show, mallis said, “There is lots of interest in Tv and i’m talking to a lot of people trying to figure it out.” — ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

VALENTINO’S NEW HIRE: valentino has tapped Rory Hermelee as its new director of communications for north and Latin america, following the exit of Grace Cha, now at Diane von Furstenberg. Hermelee will oversee all public relations, event and marketing activities and will report to Wendy Kahn, chief executive officer of valentino uSa, and Francesca Leoni, vice president of worldwide communications. previously, she held the title of director of communications, north and Latin america, at Bulgari, where she spent five years, and prior to that worked at Hermès. — RACHEL STRUGATZ

MMC TO OMNICOM: omnicom Group inc. has acquired marina maher communications. mmc, founded in 1983

by its current chief executive officer, Marina Maher, will become an operating unit of its Diversified agency Services division and will continue to function as an independent business with headquarters in new York, according to the company. “marina and her team understand the importance of integration, and are equal partners with advertising, relationship marketing and all of the disciplines,” stated John Wren, president and ceo of omnicom Group inc. “mmc’s experience crafting brand strategy and positioning from the earliest stages of product introduction and deep understanding of consumers make them an integral part of the process.” Wren noted that the acquisition of mmc will “allow the agency to leverage its deep knowledge of female consumers to drive brand growth on global assignments and provide clients with access to 360-degree marketing expertise.” mmc represents a number of consumer products brands, including procter & Gamble’s mass beauty holdings. — JULIE NAUGHTON

’’’’

Franco’s Take on Seven For All Mankind

pho

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MeMo pad

For me, it’s an excuse to be creative. They’re giving me a lot of freedom.

— James Franco

phot

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Lex

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and

Fern Mallis

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WWD.COMWWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011 17

It wasn’t exactly the easiest way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of a merger between Newsweek and The Daily Beast. But then again, nothing has come easy. Some on staff have blamed Brown for Newsweek’s struggles, saying she’s lost her fastball and the one thing that has long guided her — her gut, her knack at spotting the zeitgeist — has faded. Others said it was simply the insane pressure of trying to bring a dead magazine back to life and it would be tough on anyone, and, despite the odds and the growing pains, a few re-main optimistic that this will still all come together.

Resuscitating a battered newsweekly in 2011 is a tough bit of business. Last year, The Daily Beast and Newsweek lost a combined $30 million. Ad page numbers tell how difficult it is, too: Newsweek’s ad page perfor-mance between April to September was down 18 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau quarterly report. This is easy to dis-miss (what isn’t down these days!) — but Time is up 4 percent for the year, The Economist is flat and Newsweek is competing, year-over-year, against a version of itself that had an owner-ship change, a lame duck editor and a very uncertain future.

The turnaround has been hard to come by, but there are also signs of progress: In October, the maga-zine was up 10 percent in ad pages, a spokesman said. And since Brown relaunched Newsweek, it is up 6 percent on the newsstand, year-over-year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Subscription renewals are up 2.6 percent, the first time there hasn’t been a decline in five years, a spokesman said.

“I’m a turnaround veteran at this point,” Brown told WWD. “It’s always hard. Each of them has their own unique problems.”

She later added in an e-mail: “I know a thing or two about turnarounds and they are not for the faint of heart. Luckily there are plenty of people at Newsweek and The Beast who find the journey as exciting as I do.”

And then there are the people who are, well, a little broken.

“You’re exposed relentlessly to the truth that we’re not putting out a good magazine,” said one staffer. “I mean, Regis Philbin is our cover this week.”

“People are completely exhausted,” said another Newsweek source. “I don’t think you’ll find anyone who thinks the magazine is great.”

“It can be a miserable place to work,” said yet an-other.

It’s certainly been a tough couple of weeks for Brown. Last week, Brown — who, as anyone would at-test, works incredibly hard — lost her assistant Lena Jensen, who went to work for a start-up. By the end of the week, she was caught up in a small bit of drama. One of her stars, former New Yorker writer Peter Boyer, thought his article on Congress was going to be the cover story. Right before close, he called her and wasn’t thrilled that his piece was on the inside (and the aforementioned Philbin got the cover instead). Brown, in turn, called managing editor Tom Weber and chewed him out for failing to get this communicated to Boyer. By Monday morning, Weber, fed up after dealing with epi-sodes like this on a weekly basis, said he was leaving, according to several people familiar with the incident. By the time she was in a newsroom-wide meeting on Monday, staffers described her as looking and sounding completely wiped.

Acknowledging that her staff was wiped, too — let alone having lost confidence — she said in the meeting “that in six months, we can all get our lives back to nor-mal.” She unveiled her new leadership team: Longtime Newsweek editor Mark Miller was coming back into the fold as editorial operations director and Justine Rosenthal would be the new executive editor.

Rosenthal, who in her short time there is already well liked, struck some as a curious decision since she came from a publication few ever heard of. For a while, foreign policy wonk Leslie Gelb — who one person de-scribed as having a “talismanic effect” on Brown — had been recommending that Brown bring in Rosenthal, the

editor of The National Interest, a bimonthly for-eign policy journal (she had no prior magazine experience). The two women eventually met at Union Station in Washington and after a half-hour of riotous fun, she was hired on the spot. Three months later, she rose from a senior editor

to Brown’s number two. It was a classic tale of impulsiveness for Brown,

who has and always will run things in her way (Example: Several times this year, Brown has

deputized her husband, Harry Evans, to come into the office and help close an issue if she happens to be away).

“We see a lot of weeks where the lineup is mostly set and then she suddenly wants to move everything around — a story that’s eight pages goes down to four, and then goes back up to six,” said one staffer. “None of that is catastrophic, but it’s very time con-suming. The art is suddenly different and the caption has to be changed. And, wait, now it’s four pages! And, wait, there’s a dif-

ferent picture.”“Cover stories become briefs and briefs be-

come cover stories,” said another. It’s not anything that hasn’t been said about

editors before — but staffers said Brown’s sec-ond-guessing of stuff happens all week, every week. It leads to, say, office-wide memos ex-plaining the proper ways to get a story into a magazine. (Brown said that memo was about the departing man-agement team “trying to figure out their process of managing. It didn’t have anything to do with my process.”) One staff-er said it was a “rookie mistake” to ever get a story in on a Monday or Tuesday — everyone

knows that it’s best to file later in the week, so Brown has little chance to fuss over it.

One night in August, a story fell out of the magazine’s Omnivore section, and there was

a last-minute scramble to replace it. Brown,

who wasn’t in the office, had more than a dozen staff-ers assemble in an editor’s office and

went on conference call with them. “Jane Fonda! She’s speaking at the 92nd Street Y tonight. Let’s get her,” Brown said. Staffers couldn’t help but scratch their heads a bit since Fonda had all but completed her publicity tour and had been offered up to Newsweek a few weeks earlier. Brown had no interest then. This was followed by a slightly mortifying episode in which Brown brought writer Nancy Hass in on the con-ference call and essentially bullied her into attending the event — something all staffers standing in the conference room had to listen to.

Episodes like this inevitably lead to bigger questions. “There was never a discussion at any point about

what Newsweek was going to be after she took it over,” said a Newsweek source. “Was it going to be Tina’s New Yorker? Was it going to be Mark Whitaker’s Newsweek? Was it going to be The Week? That discussion never hap-pened. It never even happened at the micro-level.”

But for all the skeptics and critics of the magazine, there are still believers.

“I don’t think it’s fair or true that this is an unhappy place to work,” said senior writer Jacob Bernstein. “I work with people I love interacting with on a daily basis, doing the kind of long-form journalism that is only pos-sible today at about seven or eight other institutions.”

“There are always going to be some moaners out there,” said Brown.

“Yes, there are disgruntled people, but there are many, many, many more who are not disgruntled,” said Newsweek International editor Tunku Varadarajan, who tweeted earlier this week that Newsweek is “still the best American weekly newsmag.”

“What does it tell you that Dan Klaidman and Mark Miller have elected to come back to the magazine in the last three months?” said Brown. “What does it tell me? It tells me this: Dan Klaidman is one of our premiere jour-nalists, was the editor himself of Newsweek and elected to come back and he had many offers. Miller was living

in Texas, editing the Texas Tribune and what does it tell you that he’s coming back? He doesn’t want to be a part of some turbu-lent situation. He wants to be part of a winning situation. And that’s why they’re coming back.”

And whatever cur-rent of discontent ex-ists at Newsweek, everyone there is rooting for it. On Oct. 31, editors gathered on the ninth floor of the IAC Building to talk about a po-tential redesign. Brown was in at-tendance, though the meeting was run by former

Hallmark magazine edi-tor Lisa Benenson (Brown brought

her on as a consultant, another move that con-fused people). People were engaged. They were excit-ed. There was talk that a redesign would mean that the story well could be reduced to a far more manageable three stories instead of the usual four or five.

And then all of a sudden everyone got a glimpse at the part of Brown’s life they don’t know too much about: Barry Diller walked into the room.

“Tina, I was looking for you and your assistant said that you were on the ninth floor,” Diller said.

He decided to take a seat and listen in. Staffers looked to one another: What was he doing there? There goes that. Any chance to spitball freely suddenly went out the window.

Then Diller chimed in.“Why even have a front of the book?” he said. “Why

not just start with the well? And why even have a table of contents?”

Brown politely moved the topic along, and it was an awkward moment for the staff: she loved the table of contents. She is known for spending hours obsessing over it. The meeting wrapped up in the next few min-utes. It continued the next day, but it became known in the office as largely a waste of time.

“I think people at the off-site were hungry to hear a vision articulated and people felt that didn’t happen,” said one source.

In a phone interview, Brown, who was sitting in the Quiet Car on the Acela, was asked about that vision, and if she could talk a bit about her Newsweek. It was about 12 minutes into the conversation,

“I’d love to talk to you for 20 minutes but I really can’t do that anymore,” she said. “I’ve got a conference call.”

Her assistant suddenly came on the line and ex-plained she really needed to get to her next call.

Rocky Days for Tina Brown{Continued from page 15}

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Barry Diller Below: The latest Newsweek cover.

Tina Brown

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18 WWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Midweek ManiaChanel and the Museum of Modern art honored Pedro Almodóvar on Tuesday night at the museum’s annual film benefit in new York, where an appropriate showing of red-carpet regulars turned out for the dinner and presentation. The museum’s 54th Street entrance was choked with onlookers who clamored for glimpses of bold-faced names like Miranda Kerr, Blake Lively, Sarah Jessica Parker and Drew Barrymore.

“everyone loves Pedro almodóvar,” Karl Lagerfeld said of the impressive guest list. “he is a genius.”

almodóvar, for his part, was moved: “I remember when the MoMa first screened one of my movies, everything happened from that. For me, the cinema is the most important experience of my life. I’ve tried to recover the bright colors of the first movie that I saw as a child, and those first feelings I had. I bought my first camera, a Super-8, with my first salary from the telephone company where I worked as an office assistant, back in Madrid, and I just started shooting…but to have so many people here who inspire me so much, I don’t know what to say.”

Elena Anaya looked ladylike in a pale pink Chanel shift, and was happy to be there for almodóvar, who directed her in “The Skin I live In.”

“Working with Pedro is like a dream, but it’s better…because it’s a reality,” she said. “I grew up with his films, admiring him so much.”

Bruce Weber, who was tasked with toasting almodóvar, beckoned a behatted guitarist to the stage, who, he explained, was “Ian, from Cincinnati.”

“OK, so when you go out to dinner with Pedro everyone is handing him a note, the hat-check girl, the maître d’, the waiter, everyone wants to be in one of his movies, so tonight, I’m auditioning,” Weber said, before reading Jimmy dorsey’s “I’m Glad There Is You” as the guitarist whistled and strummed along.

leaving the theater for dinner, Lara Stone was moved. “That was cute,” the model said. “Very sweet.”

•••On Wednesday, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center held its fall party at new York’s Four Seasons, where a mob of well-heeled socials turned out to show their support. Revelers

including Charlotte Ronson, Lauren Remington Platt, Tinsley Mortimer, Maggie Betts, Allison Aston and Patricia Lansing spent cocktail hour at the restaurant’s front room navigating a packed house. as guests moved to the pool room for dinner, Angie Harmon surveyed the Indian-themed decor, which included cardboard scabbards and jewels care of the evening’s presenting sponsor, Munnu/The Gem Palace and its jeweler, Siddharth Kasliwal.

The actress has been known to wear her political conservatism on her sleeve, so with election season in full swing, had she picked a horse in the Republican race yet?

“no, not yet,” she said. “I can’t read about things in our country anymore because we’ve become so intolerant of

each other. Why am I going to read another story of

intolerance, of anger? People are mad. Great. People are mad all the time. nobody seems to

want to try to work towards a common goal. I mean, all

that our Congress seems to do is agree to disagree…I don’t want to give up. I don’t want to say that I’m doing that, but I am taking a break.”

•••downtown, in the penthouse of the Mondrian Soho, the Young Friends of aCRIa dinner was held across two long banquet tables set for about 20 people each. The panoramic city view was not hindered by the grisly weather. Guests shared plates from the hotel’s restaurant, Imperial no. 9, and, in the case of Waris Ahluwalia, occasionally tossed large orange gerber daisies torn from the centerpieces across the table.

Prabal Gurung was only moderately put out when the nearby Chris Benz won a week-long stay at an aspen resort (donated by Kiwi Collection, which co-sponsored the evening). Rogan Gregory was specterlike at a far table by the window where he kept his rabbinical flat-brim black hat on throughout the evening pulled low over his eyes.

The real interest as the night progressed was on the floor below, where rumor had it that Justin Bieber had crashed for the night. after dinner, with plots of luring the young singer out for a performance thwarted, the dinner party headed back down to Mister h for the after party, to shimmy along as Jen Brill dJed.

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Blake Lively and Chloë Moretz in Chanel.

Karl Lagerfeld and Giancarlo Giammetti

Drew Barrymore in Chanel.

Elizabeth Olsen in Chanel.

Tilda Swinton and Pedro Almodóvar

Tabitha Simmons in

Alexander McQueen

with Patricia Lansing.

Siddharth Kasliwal with Angie Harmon in Lanvin.

Lauren Remington Platt in Max Mara.

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KELLWOOD SEARCH: Russell Reynolds Associates has been retained by Kellwood to find a new chief executive officer to succeed Michael Kramer, who’s headed to J.C. Penney as chief operating officer on Dec. 5. Bobbie Lenga, managing director, global consumer sector leader at Russell Reynolds in Chicago, said, “We just opened it. We want to do it really quickly.” Lenga said she expects to present a slate of candidates shortly to private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, which acquired Kellwood in February 2008 for $762 million and took it private. Having undergone a transformation in the past few years, Kellwood’s brands include Vince, Rebecca Taylor, Scotch & Soda, Adam, Zobha, BLK DNM, Baby Phat, Phat Farm and David Meister.

WEDDING BELLS: Love is in the air at Missoni, as the tightly knit family gears up to celebrate the wedding of Margherita Maccapani Missoni next spring. The 28-year-old designer will tie the knot with her fiancé, 26-year-old racing driver Eugenio Amos, next May or June. Missoni recently unveiled her first solo effort, a ready-to-wear and accessories capsule collection for the M Missoni brand to benefit nonprofit association OrphanAid. According to a company spokeswoman, the wedding will be a private affair with no press coverage and will probably be celebrated near the Italian town of Sumirago, which houses the company’s headquarters.

CHAZEN’S LITERARY TURN: Want to look back at those glory days of the Liz Claiborne brand? Jerome Chazen, a founder and former chairman of Liz Claiborne Inc., has written a book entitled “My Life at Liz Claiborne,” a business memoir. The book will be published by Author House ($24.95 hardcover, $7.99 e-book) and released in January.

Chazen spearheaded the sales, marketing, distribution and licensing programs that were a significant part of Claiborne’s success. He joined the firm in 1977, a year after it was founded,

and the company grew in size from $7 million to more than $2 billion during his tenure. “Like Fox News, I try to be fair and balanced,” said Chazen, who served in various senior executive positions and then succeeded Liz Claiborne as chairman from 1989 to 1996. He was succeeded by Paul Charron.

Chazen said he really enjoyed the writing process. “It’s my first book, and my grandchildren talked me into it,” said Chazen, who today is chairman of Chazen Capital Partners and is involved in several business and philanthropic organizations. He also serves on a few corporate and charitable boards, including the Liz Claiborne Foundation.

DAWN TIME: The cross-country rollout of the penultimate “Twilight” movie made its way to New York on Wednesday night, when the Cinema Society and DKNY hosted a screening of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1” at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema. After the showing, the crowd moved to new Lower East Side restaurant Sons of Essex, where a phalanx of ear piece-sporting security guards patrolled the entrance of the saloonlike space, despite the fact that none of the film’s more-freak-out-inducing stars had made it. Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed and Ashley Greene dutifully filled in for Robert Pattinson, et al.

“It’s been a crazy week, but it’s been exciting,” said Greene, who by then had changed out of her Donna Karan red-carpet gown for a pair of black pants and a leopard-print Giambattista Valli shirt. “I went to the premiere in L.A. and I saw half of the movie because I had to fly from L.A. to New York to get off the red eye and to go right to the ‘Pan-Am’ set — because I took the ‘Pan-Am’ gig right in the middle of the press tour. Then tonight, I walked the carpet, left, then changed and watched the rest of the movie in comfortable clothing.

“I’ve seen the whole film, yeah,” she assured with a laugh.

HO HO HO: Tommy Hilfiger will be honored for his commitment to increasing

awareness and support of the autism community at “A Funny Affair for Autism,” that takes place Dec. 5 at The Plaza hotel. The evening, which includes a cocktail reception and dinner, will feature the comedic talents of “Saturday Night Live” stars Seth Myers and Bill Hader. There will also be an auction of one-of-a-kind menorahs designed and autographed by such celebrities as Adam Sandler and Jonathan Adler, and Christmas trees decorated by Martha Stewart, Hilfiger, “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and Godiva. Dee Hilfiger is the evening’s honorary chairwoman and all proceeds benefit Autism Speaks, whose co-founders are Suzanne and Bob Wright, and the New York Center for Autism, co-founded by Laura and Harry Slatkin.

BULKING UP: California has the highest concentration of Michael Kors stores — and it is just getting more concentrated. The brand opened its 24th store in the state and its 10th in the Los Angeles area at 108 North Robertson Boulevard, less than two miles from the Michael Kors store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The 2,000-square-foot Robertson store is in the brand’s lifestyle format selling a mix of Michael Kors accessories and Michael Michael Kors collections, while the Rodeo Drive store is in the collection format carrying a wide range of Michael Kors ready-to-wear and accessories. “I can see both stores benefitting from the proximity of the other,” said Kors, who noted the Robertson store will have a “younger, hipper vibe” than the Rodeo store and be a bit more “fashion-forward” than his mall locations. On Wednesday night, the store officially launched with a party hosted by Petra Flannery and attended by Zoe Saldana, Alexandra Richards, Minka Kelly and Kate Mara.

Although Kors couldn’t make it to the party, he’s been a frequent visitor to Robertson and has had his share of celebrity run-ins on the street. Harkening back to one such run-in with Janice Dickinson outside The Ivy restaurant, he recounted, “While we waited for our cars and caught up, she offered me cookies that she was taking home after lunch and fed them to me whilst the paparazzi captured the whole moment. Only on Robertson.”

RUST BELT AT THE WHITNEY: On Tuesday night at a party to celebrate the publication of “Detroit: 138 Square Miles,” at The Whitney Museum of American Art, Julia Reyes Taubman took a quick detour from thanking her supporters to name check the 1990 Megadeth album “Rust in Peace.” “That may be the message of the book.…It was their fourth studio album, and it’s the greatest cover anybody’s ever seen,” Taubman told a crowd of well-wishers assembled in the museum’s subsidewalk lobby. The nearly 500-page book features Taubman’s photographs of post-industrial Detroit. “So [the album] really has nothing to do with Detroit, but if it encouraged somebody to look at that Megadeth cover and think about it, that would be cool.”

An eclectic mix turned out to greet the new author including Paula Zahn, Nicole Miller and Allison Sarofim. Taubman, who thanked nearly all on hand for their support, seemed genuinely shocked at the reception. “It’s not about me,” she said. “It’s about these buildings that people haven’t seen.” Taubman’s friend and fellow Detroiter Elmore Leonard, who wrote the book’s foreword, proved a particularly ardent supporter. “I think it’s great,” the novelist said as he leafed through a copy.

“I’ve read the whole thing at least twice or three times.”

ASIA MAJOR: Karl Lagerfeld plans to take the fashion flock on an imaginary trip to India with his next Métiers d’Art collection for Chanel. Kicking off the pre-fall collection season on a luxurious note, Lagerfeld plans to parade the Paris-Bombay line — embellished with the couture ateliers Chanel owns — on Dec. 6 at the Galerie Courbe in the Grand Palais. Two shows are scheduled for the expansive, curved space.

WWD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011 19

FASHION SCOOPS

THE BEIJING party in the city’s hip 798 art zone may have been in honor of Coach’s 70th anniversary, but the real star of the show was Gwyneth Paltrow’s ability to belt out hits.

Taking the stage midway through a lavish dinner, Paltrow sang three songs accompanied by a three-piece band, ending with Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You.”

The party, which featured an Italian feast for several hundred guests, was held at the Iberia Center for Contemporary Arts, part of the city’s rapidly growing region for artists, designer boutiques and cafes.

Paltrow wore a one-shoulder, skintight minidress designed by Stella McCartney, and sat near one of China’s well-known celebrities, Bao Bao Wan, the jewelry designer and granddaughter of Wan Li, one of the country’s former vice premiers. Guests included several of

the artists who created photographic displays for the Coach exhibit, including filmmaker Steven Sebring, best known for his documentary on rocker Patti Smith, “The Dream of Life.” For the Coach exhibit, Sebring said he shot his film of a young woman running through the streets of New York City with a large Coach bag flung over her shoulder on a 16-mm. camera in just three hours.

Sebring commented on the “energy” of Beijing but admitted he was put off by the air pollution. When he landed at the airport, he asked a woman accompanying him,

“What is that smell?” The dinner, created by chef and

Paltrow friend Mario Batali — who was not in Beijing — included fried zucchini blossoms, butternut squash tortellini, short ribs in barolo, and a ricotta pudding cake.

— DEBRA BRUNO

Coach Gets Arty in Beijing

Jonathan Seliger and Fan Bingbing at the Coach event.

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