Popular Fashion News - Industry News

The husband-and-wife retail team of Andrea and Marzia Rossetto made a career of selling Italian fashion in California. Yet for a new venture, they shifted gears.

The Italian-born retailers made it a point to sell California fashion designers at their Code C boutique, which debuted in August at 8641 Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles’ exclusive Sunset Plaza retail district.

Billabong International Limited has announced a conditional agreement to acquire San Clemente, Calif.–based online boardsports catalog and online retailer Swell.com. Financial details of the deal have yet to be disclosed. Paul Naude, president of the Billabong USA division, said in a statement that the acquisition would allow Billabong to manage its brands in the growing online market. “We look forward to growing the Swell business and further developing it as a showcase online platform for the U.S. boardsports industry,” he said. “The internet plays a significant role in the recreational habits of the youth market so it is important for our group to ensure we provide them with a premium brand experience when shopping online.”

After years of deflation, prices on the high street are creeping up as the financial crisis bites

Over the past decade one of the most enduring trends on the high street has been price deflation. Fast and inexpensive fashion has become a fact of life for consumers used to being able to grab the latest looks at throwaway prices.

The rise of value fashion has seen some of the biggest success stories of recent years with the likes of Primark, New Look and the supermarkets establishing cut-price clothing offers.

We feared Lauren Conrad would never disappear. That after The Hills ended she'd embark on a Paris Hilton–esque career path of making clothes and fragrances, posing for FHM bikini spreads, and launching the latest alcoholic energy drinks in nightclubs overseas. And that we'd read about it in the gossip pages until the end of time. But today we have hope that she will one day go away — at least temporarily — when the last season of The Hills ends. Her fashion-design career has been put on hiatus, the New York Post reports. She won't produce any more seasons of her Lauren Conrad Collection line, and spring and summer deliveries have been canceled. See, good things can happen in a bad economy!

Congratulations. Your business is surviving the recession. You made the necessary adjustments, weeded out under-performing distributors, shed unprofitable or unreliable customers, deleted poor-selling products from your portfolio, and concentrated your marketing dollars on media and channels that you could prove delivered a strong return on investment. You may have downsized, voluntarily or involuntarily, since the recession began; but at least you're still in business.

To eke out an existence in the wholesale apparel trade these days means doing more work for less money. That’s frustrating for Los Angeles’ base of manufacturer sales representatives, but they said it beats the alternative—going out of business.

Reps are working harder than ever. They’re making more phone calls, taking more road trips, sending e-mail blasts and re-evaluating their product mixes with utmost scrutiny.

Ah, the 60's. A time for free love and radical new thoughts, underarm hairs, and burning bras...and so the nostalgia continues. Sophie Theallet's take on hippy chic Native American in spirit (another big trend,) Anna Sui, as always, goes for the hippy rocker aesthetic, with feathers, paisleys, and black velvet everywhere. Also present is a bit of a 70's Brady Bunch vibe with the plaid sleeveless dresses with floral blouses underneath.

As chairman and majority owner of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, which includes high-end brands Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Tag Heuer watches, Donna Karan, Fendi and Moët & Chandon champagne, and of Dior and other companies, Bernard Arnault is required on a daily basis to balance the business needs of his sprawling empire with the exquisite good taste those brands must convey. What Arnault thinks matters globally. His is a $22 billion company in a $200 billion business. “They say God is in the detail,” says Sidney Toledano, CEO of Dior and a longtime Arnault buddy. “Here, the boss is in the detail.”