DIDDY’S CLOSURE/3 PREMIUM DENIM ROLLS ON/8Women’s Wear Daily • The Retailers’ Daily Newspaper • March 23, 2006 • $2.00

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Scout’s HonorLOS ANGELES — Go take a hike. For fall, junior designers are

saluting Boy Scouts founder Robert Baden-Powell, working

military details into shorts, jackets and tops in appropriately

drab earth tones. Here, Roxy’s sweatshirt and bolero, Ogle’s

T-shirt, and Element’s pants, all in cotton. Columbia hat and

Holster belt. For more, see pages 6 and 7.

WWDTHURSDAYSportswear

See Equity, Page 5

The Selling of Jones: TPG, Cerberus SaidJockeying for PositionBy Vicki M. YoungNEW YORK — There’s a fresh “for sale” sign hanging on Jones Apparel Group’s door, and two aggressive private equity firms seem to be the ones knocking the loudest.

Although no bidding has occurred, Texas Pacific Group and Cerberus Capital Management — which own, respectively, Neiman Marcus Group and Mervyns — already are said to be in discussions with Jones, according to several investment bankers and some private equity contacts. Those talks could lead to either firm making a separate offer for Jones, owner of

Inside:Pg. 12

TheWWDList

Most Expensive Retail Areas

WWD.COM

FASHIONGo exploring in fall’s Boy Scout-inspired gear, featuring shorts of all lengths, camo prints, button-down shirts and cropped jackets.

GENERALPrivate equity fi rms Texas Pacifi c Group and Cerberus Capital Management are said to be in sale discussions with Jones Apparel Group.

Gap Inc. said it plans to open 10 Forth & Towne stores in fi ve new areas: Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco/San Jose and Seattle.

U.S. Customs said it made 26 seizures of Chinese apparel and textile imports valued at $6 million that violated an agreement with China.

DENIM: The expected downturn in the premium denim market hasn’t occurred and the jeans pyramid below it has maintained its strength.

BEAT: Shecky’s Shop on Broome Street in SoHo isn’t a typical store — it leases fl oor space and display cases to a variety of vendors.

ACTIVE: Stella McCartney presented her new fall line of Adidas by Stella McCartney on Monday, using scenic Aspen as a backdrop.

EYECate Blanchett was toasted by husband Andrew Upton and friends at a dinner in her honor at the Country restaurant hosted by Gucci.

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WWDTHURSDAYSportswear

● MULBERRY ON BLEECKER: Mulberry has confi rmed its plans to open a store at 387 Bleecker Street in New York, which was fi rst reported in WWD earlier this month. A company spokes-woman said the store, Mulberry’s fi rst in the U.S., would open in August, and carry the full range of accessories for men and women. It will also offer Mulberry’s bespoke bag service, which is currently only available in the U.K. A men’s bespoke service will be available starting in the fall. Customers can choose their own colors and materials, and the bags are engraved with initials.

● VF APPOINTMENTS: Boyd Rogers has assumed responsibil-ity for all of VF Corp.’s global supply chain. Previously, Rogers oversaw supply chain responsibilities for VF’s Americas and Asian operations. Tom Glaser has been promoted to president of the company’s European and Asian supply chain operations. Glaser served as managing director of Asian sourcing, a posi-tion that will be taken over by Tom Nelson. Nelson is a 22-year company veteran and has spent the last three years in Asia.

● LIVING LIKE THE STARS: Like the flirty top Amanda Bynes wore in the last episode of “What I Like About You”? Log into starstyle.com and you’ll find not only the label — Bono’s Edun collection — but also where it’s sold — Saks Fifth Avenue. With the recent launch of starstyle.com, spearheaded by former CBS president Jim Rosenfield, shoppers will be able to buy anything — from candlesticks and couches to candy-striped party frocks — that tempts their fancy from an assortment of TV shows, movies and music videos. The site also includes style tips from Talitha Peters, who once had a walk-on role in J.J. Abrams’ “Felicity,” and Debrae Little, the costume designer behind “Big Momma’s House 2” and “Malibu’s Most Wanted.” For now, the roster of current shows includes Bynes’ vehicle, “As the World Turns,” “American Idol,” “Guiding Light” and “The Young and the Restless.”

In Brief

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WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF FAIRCHILD PUBLICATIONS, INC. COPY-RIGHT ©2006 FAIRCHILD PUBLICATIONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 191, NO. 62. WWD (ISSN # 0149-5380) is published daily except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one ad-

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“You don’t have to be a size two to be a perfectten” was the tagline for Curves, a 2002 documentaryabout the world of plus size modeling. The film putthe spotlight on big beauty, the kind that so captivated Reubens and that is also capturing theattention of popular designers andbrands. Indeed, over the pastdecade, the options for womensize 15 and greater has expanded;with recent entries focusing oncontemporary designs.

This has not always been thecase. Years ago, Oscar de la Rentawas asked why he did not designfor larger women. He replied: “I’ma designer; I don’t upholster sofas.”He has since apologized for theremark, and 15 years ago launchedhis Oscar line for plus sizes.

Such a turn-around in designerthinking is more than a matter of politeness or pity, it is a matter of good business. According toCotton Incorporated LifestyleMonitor™, 20% of the U.S. femalepopulation is a size 15 or greater. More telling is thefact that this figure has remained relatively steady overthe past seven years.

A host of curvaceous celebrities have done theirpart to make the ample woman sexy again. Think ofQueen Latifah at the Oscar’s in that fabulous CarmenMarc Valvo gown; or Kirstie Allie coming out of her“Veronica’s Closet” in the hitseries “Fat Actress.” JenniferLopez is not a plus size, but her much-ballyhooed booty has also contributed to a collectivemindset that full-figured is preferable to empty.

These days, plus-size women are finding more andmore options. Though specialty stores such as LaneBryant and Avenue continue to supply their fashionneeds, today’s plus-size consumer can also choosefrom mainstream brands, popular designers andupscale retailers---all bending over backwards to servewhat had been considered a niche market.

“Liz Claiborne was really a pioneer in the plus-sizemarket, “ says Barry Zelman, Vice-President and General Manager of Elisabeth Retail for Liz Claiborne. “We opened our first Elisabeth boutique in 1990 because Liz Claiborne has alwayspositioned itself as a brand that meets the needs ofwomen---all women---and we realized the retailneeds of women who wear a size 14 and up were notbeing satisfactorily addressed.”

The Elisabeth boutiques present the titular line ofplus-size clothing in shopping environments thatconvey a positive message about size. The success ofElisabeth --prompted Liz Claiborne to launch LizClaiborne Woman, both a brand and departmentstore outpost, in 2001. There, the plus-size consumercan find a full range of styles and price points fromsuch well-known labels as Emma James, DanaBuchman, Sigrid Olsen and Ellen Tracy.

Michelle Weston, executive editor of AmaZEmagazine, an online publication aimed at theplus-size consumer explains, “I think it’s really important to talk about what’s going on with the newplayers in this so-called niche market.” Adds Weston,“It’s very funny to call it a niche market since 62 million women wear a size 12 and up.”

“We saw Salon Z as a great opportunity to offerthis customer more fashionable, high-end clothing

than was being offered at a less luxury-centeredstore,” says Chris Phillips, Vice President, Divisional Merchandise for classic sportswear at Saks Fifth Avenue’s Salon Z, which presents thedepartment store’s plus-size brands. Currently,

Saks has about 50 stores and Salon Z is in 26 of them.”

Phillips elaborates on the range of Salon Z, “We offer primarily bridge selections from Ellen Tracy, Dana Buchman and Layfayette148. We also have agold range, which is our entrypoint into designer collectionswith names like Rinaldo by MaxMara and Steve Fabricant.”Phillips admits, however, that hewould like to do more. “We’re stillseeing a void of designer productsfor plus-size women, but we areworking with our key partners inthe market to offer more of adesigner mix.”

With such high-end entrants asLiz Claiborne Woman, Sak’s Salon

Z and Bloomingdale’s Shop for Women, has the mix and availability for plus-size fashions reallyadvanced over the past decade? Elisabeth’s BarryZelman says yes. “The selection and availability islight years from what it once was. Department storeshave really done a great job and the entire fashionindustry is taking this customer a lot more seriously.”

“What’s important inregards to the growth of thismarket is the shift towardsmore contemporary clothesin the mix,” says Weston.

“While it’s very important to address the BabyBoomers, you also have to address the younger consumer.” This is sage advice considering that thehighest growth in plus-size sportswear was fromwomen aged 20-24. Perhaps that is why more mainstream, youthful brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Gap have tossed their hats into the plus-size ring.

“I want the hip stuff. I don’t want you to sell me something just because it’s made in a plus size,”says Michelle Martinez, a plus-size customer and the founder of the Dulce Showroom in New York. Frustration over a lack of contemporary plus-sizestyles led Martinez to open her showroom and companion website. In both, she presents her personal best-of-the-best in contemporary plus-size fashion.

Among the young designers creating clothes featured at Dulce are Svoboda’s contemporary denimline, as well as the work of Darren Trentacosta.Trentacosta’s career/casual collections feature cleansilhouettes. His pieces are tailored for the plus-sizewoman who is proud of her curves. “Traditionally inplus sizes the whole idea was to cover up,” explainsTrentacosta. “Today, you have a new generation of plus-size women who don’t see their curves as abad thing.”

A weekly update on consumer attitudes and behavior based on ongoing research from Cotton Incorporated

™

SIZE MATTERSPlus Size Women are Finding More and More Options

“I want the hip stuff. I don’t wantyou to sell me something just

because it’s made in a plus size.”— Michelle Martinez,

Dulce Showroom

This story is one in a series of articles based on findingsfrom Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle Monitor™

tracking research. Appearing Thursdays in these pages,each story will focus on a specific topic as it relates to theAmerican consumer and her attitudes and behaviorregarding clothing, appearance, fashion,fiber selection and many other timely,relevant subjects.

Stability of Sizes 15+ Share Over Past Eight Years

Avg. 22.66%

WWD.COMWWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 3

By Julee Greenberg

NEW YORK — Diddy is sending the Sean Combs girl packing.

Sean by Sean Combs, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ highly anticipated contemporary women’s line that launched at retail last holiday, has closed. Market sources said the women’s line shut down last Friday.

“Beginning with the fall 2006 season, we will be suspend-ing the Sean by Sean Combs line,” a spokesman for the brand said. “We are put-ting it on hiatus in order to concentrate on our new business with G-III for the Sean John wom-en’s line. We are not rul-ing out the possibility of this brand coming back in due time.”

According to the spokesman, the fi nal spring and pre-fall collections will ship to stores as planned.

Combs fi rst announced his interest in launching a women’s sportswear busi-ness in 2000. He delayed the line several times, and in February 2001 told WWD, “I’m taking my time with that and don’t want to overextend myself. Our women’s has been delayed to next year because I want to get it right. But it will be incred-ibly sexy, strong, approachable and hot.”

Two years later, he teased the idea of a women’s collection by sending eight looks

down the runway following his men’s pre-sentation. He promised the line would be out that summer but it was again pushed back. At the time of the Sean by Sean Combs launch last June, he said, “I want women to come into my world. I want to show the diversity of this young, fun, sexy, sophisticated woman. This is the woman we aspire to have. This is the woman the

Sean John man wants.”The collection was promi-nently displayed in Bloom-

ingdale’s fl agship windows here last holiday and was selling at high-end retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. But the line only brought in $3.5 million in wholesale

volume during its first six months at retail. While

that isn’t bad for a new con-temporary collection, it isn’t

the high volume that Combs is used to seeing: He does $450 million

at retail with Sean John men’s.“I felt that the Sean John label brought

a modern, sexy edge to the contemporary world,” said Robert Burke, founder of Robert Burke Associates, a consulting fi rm here. Burke picked up the Sean by Sean Combs line when he was working as fash-ion director at Bergdorf Goodman. “Sean’s understanding of the consumer was unique and valid.”

Just two weeks ago, Sean John signed a licensing agreement with G-III Apparel Group to manufacture and distribute a young contemporary women’s sportswear collection called Sean John, set to launch for spring 2007. Within three years, G-III chief executive offi cer Morris Goldfarb said the brand has the potential to grow into a $100 million business at wholesale.

Combs had stressed his two women’s brands could easily coexist and would cater to different customers. He said that while Sean John will mirror the men’s wear in distribution and price point, it will be for a young contemporary customer, while Sean by Sean Combs was for a more high-end contemporary shopper. Combs said at the time, “I thought I’d be launch-ing this [Sean John women’s] earlier, but it took me a bit longer to launch Sean by Sean Combs. I think now is a great time to announce to the world that we’re going into production on this.”

Immediately prior to the agreement with G-III, there were signs of trouble for Sean by Sean Combs when Jenny La Fata, the brand’s vice president of design, left to become fashion director at Le Tigre. La Fata said then that there were no problems with the Sean by Sean Combs collection. She said she had left because “Le Tigre is more my style” and “it was not a great fi t anymore.”

A replacement for La Fata was never named, but just two weeks ago, Combs told WWD that the internal design team was hard at work on the line.

By Emili Vesilind

LOS ANGELES — Forth & Towne, the new Gap Inc. apparel concept geared to women over 35, is in growth mode for fall.

Gap said Wednesday there are plans to open about 10 Forth & Towne stores in fi ve new markets: Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco/San Jose and Seattle. Specifi c locations haven’t been set.

“These new markets represent a high concentration of where our customers re-side,” said Gary Muto, president of Forth & Towne. “We’ve been pleased with the re-action so far. We’re relatively new, and we believe we have something innovative.”

There are now five Forth & Towne stores: The fi rst unit opened in August at Palisades Cen-ter Mall in Nyack, N.Y., and four stores subse-quently opened in the Chicago area.

Asked if Forth & Towne was created to help remedy declining sales of the Gap brand, Muto said, “I think, for us, the concept was re-ally about a market op-portunity and less about Gap Inc.”

Products for the concept are priced be-tween prices at Gap and Banana Republic stores. Pants range from $50 to

$100; blouses, from $48 to $80, and jackets, from $70 to $200. Sizes range from 2 to 20, a generous span that taps into yet another underrepresented market, said Austyn Zung, executive vice president of design and product development for Forth & Towne.

“A team of people here realized that there was such a lack of stylish clothes for more grown-up women at this price point,’’ said Zung. “At the collection level of design, they seem to do it really well — they realize that the money is in this more grown-up age group. But at the mass level, no one is doing a really good job of bringing well-designed fashion to this group of women.”

Forth & Towne stores are about 10,000 square feet and carry four labels spe-cifi cally manufactured for the concept. Zung characterized the Allegory brand as “tailored femininity”; Vocabulary as “eclectic style, with embellishment and embroidery”; Gap Edition as “fresh, casual American style for a more grown-up woman,” and Prize as “trend-conscious.”

Each store features a circular “fi tting salon” in the middle of the space that features three-way mirrors and adjustable lighting. “Style consultants” advise customers on accessories and alterations. “We’re looking at this as more like a store from the 1950s, like an old Chicago department store where customers get an excellent styling experience,” said Robin Carr, director of media relations.

Forth & Towne is the fourth concept from Gap Inc., which operates about 3,000 stores internationally under the Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands. Fiscal 2005 sales were $16 billion, compared with $16.3 billion in 2004.

PARIS — Louis Vuitton North America is about to welcome a new president.

Jean-Marc Gallot, who has held that post since October 2003, is heading to Europe to become Vuitton’s European president. A Vuitton spokeswoman here confi rmed the move, but noted Gallot would not go to Paris until his successor in North America had been named. “This person has not yet been recruited,” she added.

The management shuffle was pre-cipitated earlier this month when Serge Brunschwig, Vuitton’s managing director, was appointed chief executive offi cer at

Celine, another fashion and leather goods house owned by luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Brunschwig was succeeded by Philippe Schaus, who was promoted from Vuitton’s European presi-dent to international director. Gallot suc-ceeds Schaus.

North America is a key market for LVMH. Last year, 22 percent of its sales in fashion and leather goods were generat-ed in the U.S., compared with 30 percent in Japan, 18 percent in the rest of Asia, 17 percent in Europe, excluding France, and 9 percent in France.

— Miles Socha

MILAN — Prada chief Patrizio Bertelli and wife Miuccia Prada launched the new Luna Rossa yacht in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, complete with the designer break-ing the traditional bottle of champagne on its hull. The event was held at the team’s new headquarters, which were designed by Renzo Piano. The next America’s Cup series will be held in Valencia in 2007, with Switzerland defending. This is the third time a Luna Rossa yacht will take part in the America’s Cup.

Sean by Sean Combs Exiting Women’s

Forth & Towne Sets Expansion Vuitton North America Appoints President

Prada’s Cup Hopes Runneth Over

Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli launching the new Luna Rossa yacht.

A look from the Sean by Sean Combs holiday line.

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Forth & Towne at the Palisades Center Mall in Nyack, N.Y.

Prada’s Cup Hopes Runneth Over

Sean “Diddy” Combs

WWD.COM4 WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006

NEW YORK — Fragrance marketer Bond No. 9, which is known for its scents inspired by Man-hattan neighborhoods, is set to launch a unisex fragrance called The Scent of Peace that — much as its name would suggest — is inspired by a state of harmony.

“It’s a message of peace from New York to the world — it’s a symbolic image,” said Laurice Rahme, founder of Bond No. 9. “Hopefully, it’s the place we all want to live in.” She added that The Scent of Peace was one of her more challenging projects, since it’s meant to address a concept that extends beyond neighborhood boundaries and targets a much broader consumer base than previous Bond No. 9 scents.

The Scent of Peace, which was created by Michel Almairac of Robertet, features top notes of grapefruit and black currant, mid-dle notes of lily of the valley and hedione and base notes of cedar-wood and musk. The fragrance is packaged in a lavender frosted version of Bond No. 9’s signa-ture, star-shaped bottle. Its graphics feature a purple dove drawn “in the spirit of Picasso,” said Rahme, to sym-bolize peace.

The fragrance is priced at $195 for a 3.4-oz. bottle and at $120 for a 1.7-oz bottle. An accom-panying candle is priced at $85. The scent will also be available for $45 per oz., either in a 2-oz. spray fl acon that costs an additional $25 or in one of an assortment of Bond No. 9 decorated bottles, which range in price from $40 to $70. Bond No. 9 plans to donate $2 from the sale of each peace-inspired fragrance to UNICEF.

The scent will be launched in May and car-ried at Bond No. 9’s four New York boutiques, in 27 Saks Fifth Avenue doors and at about a dozen boutiques and spas nationwide. International plans call for the scent to be introduced in June at 180 doors including Harvey Nichols in the U.K., Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and Paris Gallery in Dubai.

The Scent of Peace, which is Bond No. 9’s 25th scent, could do up to $1 million in fi rst-year sales, according to Rahme.

Rahme, who keeps a running list of neighbor-hoods that customers request, is not concerned about running out of ideas for New York scents. “People [ask], ‘What about my neighborhood?’” she said. “We have a grassroots movement going on here. We do what the consumer asks us to do.” She said she could do at least another 50 scents,

including two more fragrances planned for this year — Fire Island in June and West Side Story in November.

Rahme is also planning to open two more Bond No. 9 boutiques, in Manhattan’s Harlem and Chelsea neighborhoods by yearend, for a total of six stores. Elsewhere on the

expansion front, Rahme expects to increase the number of international markets that carry Bond No. 9 by yearend to 10: Austria, Russia, Asia, South Africa,

Switzerland, Holland, England, Germany, Italy and the Middle East.

Rahme projects the company will have total revenues of $30 mil-lion, 67 percent of which is ex-pected to be domestic turnover,

by yearend.Next year, Rahme is planning

a Bond No. 9 makeup line, called Talk of the Town. It is to include an assortment of color cosmetics sub-divided into ranges tied to Bond No. 9’s neighborhood fragrances. She also has four fragrances planned for next year: Astor Place, Sutton Place, Union Square and a yet-to-be named Brooklyn fragrance.

— Michelle Edgar

Stila Said Drawing Interest Down UnderNEW YORK — Reports are circulating that the leading contender to acquire the Stila indie cosmetics brand from the Estée Lauder Cos. is an investment group led by Jane McKellar, who was managing director of Elizabeth Arden in Australia. A spokeswoman at Lauder declined comment, saying, “We can’t comment on ru-mors.” A spokeswoman for Arden could not be reached.

Sources stressed that nothing has yet been signed and negotiations are still in progress. In October, Lauder said it had decided to sell Stila, a makeup artist brand it acquired in 1999. While the company would not disclose volume fi gures, industry sources then estimated Stila’s sales at $35 million to $45 million at retail in the U.S.

“Stila has been part of the family for the last seven years,” William Lauder, Lauder president and chief executive offi cer, said in October. “We feel that we’ve given it enough time to make a go of it,” he said then, adding that ultimately, Stila didn’t prove as strategically important as its fellow makeup artist brands MAC Cosmetics and Bobbi Brown.

The Scent of Peace by Bond No. 9.

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Bond No. 9 to Give ‘Peace’ a Chance

By Luisa Zargani

MILAN — Ruffo, the Italian leather goods manufac-turer, is said to be set to shut down its production plant outside Pisa and lay off its 80 employees.

Ruffo’s owner, Giacomo Corsi, declined to com-ment Wednesday beyond saying that he is “cur-rently restructuring” the fi rm and that he is in talks with the unions.

Vincenzo Parrella, general secretary of Filtea Cgil, the Italian association that covers workers in the textile and clothing industries, said he is inves-tigating the reasons behind Corsi’s decision. “We don’t understand how such a structure that catered to the high end of the market, in an ever-expand-ing, global market, needs to be shut down,” said Parrella. “We are trying to save the know-how of 80 skilled artisans who might be able to work di-rectly with fashion houses, for example. We can’t lose these manual skills.”

Parrella said Corsi blamed the closure on “ever-increasing competition, and to whittling or-ders by Italian designers.”

Ruffo, located in Calcinaia, outside Pisa, sup-plies leatherwear to designers such as Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli. The Ruffo brand store in Florence is being closed, following the shutting down of its Milan boutique and showroom. The next meeting between Corsi and the unions is scheduled for next Tuesday.

One source close to the company said Ruffo was hit hard by the designers’ choice to either produce in-house or outsource their leatherwear. “The state-of-the-art structure of the plant had reached costs that were no longer sustainable, in a market where low-cost workers from China are perfectly integrated,” said another source.

One analyst said he did not believe this was “an issue of bad management or of a lesser qual-ity” and said Corsi “may be more focused on other family and real estate businesses. Ruffo may no longer be pivotal for him.”

Joy Yaffe, who launched the fi rm’s experimental line Ruffo Research with Corsi and headhunted de-signers for it, said, “The quality of the leather was amazing, and Corsi is a man of integrity; the tanner-ies always provided him with only the best hides.

“Also, I’ve never seen such a beautiful factory — and it all worked like clockwork,” said Yaffe, who joined the company in 1997 and left in 2003. Ruffo Research was introduced in 1998 and suspended in 2003 because of diffi cult market conditions. The collections were created by different designers every year. The last was Haider Ackermann, who followed Alexander Mathieu, Sophia Kokosalaki, Veronique Branquinho and Raf Simons. In spring 2004, Corsi said he was relaunching Ruffo Research with Riccardo Tisci, but the project fell through two months into the relationship when Corsi suspended the collection.

Ruffo Said Closing Plant, 80 to Lose Jobs

BEAUTY BEAT

BLACK MARKS: Fashion memoirist Emily Davies’ claim that her uncredited use of previously published material was an

accident is seeming less credible. Davies, a former fashion writer for the Times of London, continues to insist she had no intention of passing off another writer’s words as her own in her proposal for “How to Wear Black,” but former colleagues and other journalists in London’s fashion community say the episode fi ts a pattern.

Davies’ supposed status as a fashion insider is the basis for “How to Wear Black,” which reportedly fetched a six-fi gure bid from Simon & Schuster and Random House U.K. in a December auction. In the proposal, Davies offers specifi c examples of that status, including “dining with Donna Karan on sea cucumber in Tokyo” and attending “Jennifer Lopez’s engagement party at Donatella Versace’s Lake Como villa.” Both of those claims seem now to be false, or at least inaccurate. “To the best of my knowledge, Donna was only in Tokyo one time (and I was with her), and she did not have dinner with this person,” said Patti Cohen, executive vice president of marketing and communications for Donna Karan International. As for the party at Versace’s villa (held to celebrate Lopez’s honeymoon, not her engagement), an organizer of the event did not believe Davies had been invited. While he did not have a copy of the guest list on hand, he said only top editors, including Davies’ then-boss, Times fashion editor Lisa Armstrong, were on it.

Armstrong declined to comment, possibly because the Times is involved in ongoing litigation with Davies over her May 2005 dismissal, which followed an investigation into her expenses. But sources in London said Armstrong reprimanded Davies several times for incorporating the words of other writers into her own articles. One such incident occurred in June 2004, when Davies used excerpts from a Financial Times shopping column by Susie Boyt in such a way as to make it appear she had interviewed Boyt, whose editor then complained to Armstrong. A writer for another U.K. daily said she discovered Davies had copied a designer profi le she had written “word for word.” “I never complained — I assumed it was just a one-off,” said the writer, who requested anonymity.

Deborah Brett, who was Davies’ predecessor at the Times and now works for British Harper’s Bazaar, has seen the proposal for “How to Wear Black” and has her own problems with it. According to Davies, Brett said Ben de Lisi’s shows are always “terribly boring [and] terribly bland,” a comment she denies ever making. “It’s sad because I like Ben de Lisi and I’m going to have to make some apologies to him, because it’s rather nasty what she says I said,” said Brett, who also challenged other details of Davies’ recollection.

Davies did not respond to queries, but her agent, Simon Trewin, defended her in an e-mail. “Emily is a highly respected journalist,” he wrote Wednesday. “She most certainly attended the Lopez event and a Karan dinner (the location of this will all be fact-checked for the fi nished book)....There were no accusations of plagiarism while she was at the London Times and her record of employment contains no warnings that would back up your claims.” Ebury Press, the Random House unit that agreed to publish the book in the U.K., did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Sarah McGrath, an editor at Simon & Schuster’s Scribner imprint, said no decision has been made on publishing the book in the U.S.

One person who hopes the book does not make it to press is Charles Scribner 3rd, a grandson of Scribner’s founder who spent 25 years working at the company. “For very selfi sh historical reasons I would be disappointed to see my family’s name on the spine of a book that took such liberties,” said Scribner, who has another connection to the Davies affair: quotes he made to the New York Times in 1998 appear in her proposal, but she credits them to “bald” public relations man Paul Wilmot. “Why should somebody be given hundred of thousands of dollars for doing something you’d be kicked out of college for?” — Jeff Bercovici

PERSONNEL BUSINESS: It could be another year before the general public gets to see it, but mocked-up pages for the new Condé Nast business magazine are likely now circulating at 4 Times Square. Veteran art director Robert Priest was recently brought in to work on the prototype and will stay through the 2007 launch, a spokeswoman for the magazine confi rmed. Priest resigned from his post as design director of O at Home several weeks ago and has been installed at Condé Nast headquarters on a part-time basis ever since. (The rest of the week, he runs his own design fi rm, Priest Media.)

Reached by phone Wednesday, Priest would only say, “It’s a good, serious subject. So I think it’s going to be a great magazine.” Asked about the look of the traditional leaders in the already well-served category, like Fortune, Forbes and Business Week, Priest chuckled and said, “I’m not going to go there. Some of my best friends do those magazines.”

Editor in chief Joanne Lipman also quietly poached two photo editors from within the company a couple months back. Lisa Berman, longtime deputy to Vanity Fair’s photography director Susan White, and Vanity Fair senior associate photo editor Sarah Czeladnicki are now working in the photo department at the business magazine. That makes an editorial team of seven so far, including deputy editor Jim Impoco, managing editor Blaise Zerega and senior writer Dan Roth.

A spokeswoman for Vanity Fair said that Berman’s duties had been divvied up among existing staff; Sasha Erwitt and Jessica Dimson were promoted to senior associate photo editor and assistant photo editor, respectively, and Mark Jacobson came over from Entertainment Weekly as associate photo editor. — Sara James

MEMO PAD

Joanne Lipman

WWD.COMWWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 5

Equity Firms Said in Talks With JonesContinued from page oneBarneys New York, or to a joint bid for the $5 billion apparel firm.

Observers say Jones is looking for at least $40 a share, which would value the group at $4.56 billion, and that a deal could be concluded within six weeks. After soaring 13 percent on Tuesday, shares of Jones Apparel Group closed at $34.59, down 25 cents, in trading Wednesday.

Cerberus, which owns Mervyns, Rafaella Sportswear and Fila, is said to be “seriously in pursuit” of Jones, according to fi nancial sources. An acquisition by TPG, which owns J. Crew as well as Neiman Marcus, might result in the creation of a mega luxury and specialty retailer, one that would redefi ne the high-end channel.

Executives at Jones declined comment, as did a spokeswoman for Texas Pacifi c Group. A spokesman for Cerberus did not return a request for comment by press time.

Industry contacts and investment bankers said VF Corp. was one of the fi rms that turned down a merger proposal fl oated by Jones chief executive offi cer Peter Boneparth. That led Boneparth to seek a buyer in the private eq-uity sector.

Boneparth is said to have also contacted Bain Capital. Blackstone, which some market observers said had been interested, is now said not to be looking at Jones.

Gilbert Harrison, founder and chairman of investment banking fi rm Financo, said, “The merger and acquisition environment is ex-tremely attractive. However, this is a transac-tion that will represent over $5 billion in en-terprise value....There is a likelihood that two or more private equity funds will join together to buy the company with management in place.”

A purchase by TPG, even in a joint bid with Cerberus, would give TPG both Neiman Marcus, which it acquired jointly with Warburg Pincus last year, and Barneys New York.

Neiman Marcus, according to chairman and chief executive Burt Tansky in a con-

ference call to Wall Street earlier this month, when the company announced second-quarter earnings, does not consider Barneys a direct competitor. He told analysts that his company has “a very different mix of customer base than they do, especially out of town in the Neiman stores, and so does Bergdorf [Goodman]. And we’ve been operat-ing very well in California against them in Beverly Hills. So we think we are in a very

good position to face that new rollout.”Still, Barneys is considered an “attractive

business to any of a number of prospective buyers,” noted Jeffrey Edelman, analyst at UBS.

While Jones said it was looking to sell the entire company and not its parts separately, a fi nancial buyer is expected to split up the footwear, apparel and Barneys operations at some point, according to private equity sourc-es and investment bankers.

Brad Stephens, analyst at Morgan Keegan, observed, “In my opinion, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole in a case like this. If you sell the company whole, [the likelihood is] someone comes in and then splits up the company. This is not an easy business to be in right now. You’ve got retail consolidation, proliferation of private label product, direct sourcing and retailers ordering less up front and doing more with niche brands to drive traffi c. For a company to do all three together — footwear, apparel and luxury retail — is not the best way to realize the ultimate value of the company.”

While Jones could still decide against sell-ing, Lizabeth Dunn, analyst at Prudential Equity Group, wrote in a research note, “We

can’t argue that it’s a great time to be a seller. There appears to be signifi cant fi nan-cial buyer interest in the consumer sector currently.”

She noted that there is a “solid operating margin turn opportunity, and we believe taking the company out of the spotlight of the public markets could help manage-ment expedite necessary changes to drive profi tability. Jones has strong free-cash fl ow, which fi nancial buyers typically look for.”

Yuta Powell’s Refi ned Retail ApproachBy Sharon Edelson

NEW YORK — A dress form displaying a tightly fi tted red evening gown stands in the doorway of a third-fl oor suite at the Hotel Plaza Athénée marking the entrance to Yuta Powell’s gen-teel retail venture, a salon modeled after the French haute couture ateliers of the Fifties and Sixties.

Powell, who owned the Givenchy boutique on Madison Avenue and 75th Street, knows how to create a mise-en-scène. As a student in Paris in 1970, she worked as a salesgirl at the House of Givenchy. When the designer saw her walking down the stairs one day, he plucked her from the sales fl oor and promot-ed her to the atelier. She spent the next few years learning everything she could about the fashion house, from how hats and gloves were made to the way tiny flowers were ironed onto bustiers.

Powell got married a few years later and moved to New York with her husband, think-ing she’d left the fashion world behind. In 1984, Givenchy opened a boutique on Madison Avenue and asked Powell to run it. Two years later, she purchased the rights to the store.

Powell operated the Givenchy shop for 14 years, until the designer’s retirement in 1995, when his business was sold to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

In 2000, Carolina Herrera bought the building and gave Powell the franchise to the store. “When I took on [Herrera] it was a house that needed direction and defi ni-tion,” Powell said. “I saw it as a very special product.”

Powell left Herrera in 2005 and began for-mulating her current business.

Her suite at the Plaza Athénée is decorated with plump, gold- and brown-striped sofas and cream- and gold-striped drapes. A bottle of champagne is usually chilling in a bucket in the main room, and arrangements of fresh fl owers can be found throughout the apartment — even in the two spacious bathrooms used for dressing rooms.

Powell, who was born in Sweden, has always emphasized service and quality over the size of a retail operation. “This is sort of a reaction to the mass ways of large retailers,” she said. “I’m sort of going for what I like best. I have the time to do it on terms that are more special.”

Since space is at a premium, only a handful of design-ers are carried, including Loulou de la Falaise, Tomasz Starzewski eveningwear, Bruce Oldenfi eld knitwear and, soon,

Jean-Louis Scherrer. Powell said she expects to do $2 million in sales in the fi rst year.

One reason clients keep returning is that they know Powell has pieces that can be found nowhere else. She asks designers to create special items for her, often describing or sketching what she wants. She was in the habit of doing this with Givenchy and tried to continue with the designer’s succes-sors, but she didn’t fi nd them very willing.

“Alexander McQueen was very talented, but so stubborn,” she said, adding that John Galliano didn’t take kindly to outside suggestions, either.

Luckily, the designers she works with now are more accommodating. A tweed de la Falaise jacket with bold yellow and orange fl owers em-broidered on felt hand-sewn appliqués, which retails for $2,600, is an example of Powell’s col-laborative style.

“I asked Loulou to do something fun with a proper tweed jacket,” Powell said. “I mentioned Frida Kahlo, and off she went. It looks like Frida Kahlo-meets-Heidi. I don’t ask for things that make no sense or can’t be done.”

At Scherrer, a small eques-trian-looking collection gave Powell an idea for a jacket with a long tail and two but-tons in the front. “I was play-ing around with the design team,” she said. “I had them make it in leather.”

Powell’s clients are pro-fessional or socially active women, ranging in age from 30 to 60. “It’s someone who has a good body,” she said. “Someone who is confi dent

and has her own style. I’m not inexpensive, but the quality is there. There is a serious following.”

Customers appreciate the civility of the shopping experi-ence. There are never more than a few customers in the suite at any one time, and more often than not, appointments are private. “We do deliveries, and I stay open late,” said Powell. “You can shop in privacy and total comfort.”

Barneys is considered a valuable piece of the Jones portfolio.

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A dress by Loulou de la Falaise with agate and freshwater pearls, priced at $5,200.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Customs & Border Protection said Wednes day it has made 26 seizures of Chinese apparel and textile imports valued at $6 million that violated a special import restraint agreement be-tween the two nations.

Janet Labuda, director of Cus toms’ Textile Enforcement & Operations divi-sion, said the seized goods were “mis-described” to circumvent the quotas on certain Chinese imports. The products covered a whole range of categories, she said.

“CBP is charged with enforcing trade laws and we continue to be focused on the circumvention of quotas,” Acting Commissioner Deborah J. Spero said in a statement.

The Bush administration, under pres-sure from domestic manufacturers and Congress, signed an agreement with China in November that restricts 34 types of ap-parel and textile imports, valued at more than $6 billion annually, through 2008.

Customs made the seizures over the past three weeks, bringing the value of ap-parel and textile products seized in fi scal year 2006 to more than $20 million.

Early last month, Customs announced it had seized $10 million worth of cot-ton and man-made apparel imports from China over a four-month period that were misclassifi ed as ramie products in what it deemed a “scheme to circumvent the China safeguards by misdescribing cotton merchandise as ramie, which has a much lower rate of duty.”

As a result, Customs began reducing the amount of Chinese cotton and man-made fi ber trousers and cotton knit shirts allowed to enter the country because of the fraudulent classifi cations. Those cat-egories were embargoed because they had reached quota limits in July and August. The U.S. then started allowing a percent-age of the shipments that had been in stor-age to enter on Feb. 1.

— Kristi Ellis

Customs Seizes Chinese Goods

6 WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006

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Convoy’s embroidered bolero, Matix’s T-shirt and 213 Industry’s shorts, all in cotton. Split belt; Dakine backpack.

Body Glove’s cotton shirt; Generic Youth’s cotton fl eece and wool sweatshirt, and Be Bop’s cotton cropped pants. Fox hat.

WWD.COM7WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006

e Great OutdoorsLOS ANGELES — Go exploring in fall’s Boy Scout-inspired gear, featuring shorts of all

lengths, camo prints, button-down shirts and cropped jackets adorned with patches.

Zinc’s jacket, Volcom’s shirt, Hurley’s shorts

and Self Esteem’s T-shirt, all in cotton.

Columbia hat; Leather Island belt.

Rip Curl’s cotton dress; Gallaz’s cotton shirt and shorts. Split belt; DC backpack; Etnies scarf.

Fox’s acrylic jacket with sherpa collar; Unionbay’s shirt; Ezekiel’s cotton T-shirt and shorts and cotton and wool vest. Columbia hat; Convoy belt; Fox bag.

By Ross Tucker

NEW YORK — Don’t count out the premium denim market yet, nor the jeans pyramid below it.

Paper Denim & Cloth announced plans in January to reposition the brand at a lower price, reigniting debate over the future of the premium denim market. As the fi rst quarter of the year nears an end, signs of a shakeout of the crowded premium denim mar-ket have yet to appear and several brands are doing more than just surviving.

“While we have seen a disconnect between fashion and reality in terms of color, we have also seen the pundits who have called for the death of premium denim so far proven wrong in 2006,” Eric Beder, a retail analyst with Brean Murray Carret & Co., said in a research report issued Monday after a mall tour. “We have seen no slowdown in denim, just a shift to less aggressive washes and tearing.”

Doomsday predictions about the denim market reached a peak during the back-to-school season. Beginning in May, retail analysts noted retailers were placing huge denim orders in anticipation of the fall season. Some of those retailers, Express in particular, had missed considerable sales by not stocking enough denim the previous year and seemed to be moving to the other extreme.

As the months passed, the words “denim glut” appeared with increasing frequency in analysts’ research reports and comparable-store sales previews. Most analysts believed the fi rst signs of weakness in the denim market would naturally occur at its highest end.

However, denim proved to be a top seller for the b-t-s season and the rumblings of a glut faded. Even so, denim industry executives acknowledged that the constant fl ow of premium players entering the market would increase pres-sure on the segment and had created some confusion among stores and consumers. Then Paper Denim’s move led some to believe that the fallout was beginning.

“Within a year and a half, the premium denim market will implode,” said Chris Gilbert, president of Paper Denim, when he announced the brand’s repositioning.

Gilbert said he had seen a slowdown in the premium market on a national and international scale during the preceding six to eight months.

The numbers have yet to back this up. Denim sales reached $15.26 billion for the 12 months through January, a 9.3 percent improvement over the $13.97 billion reported in the previous 12-month period and 17.7 percent better than the $12.97 billion in 2004, according to NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y., research fi rm.

Although jeans priced between $20 and $39.99 represented the largest segment of the market, with sales of $6.37 billion, higher-priced jeans posted the largest growth. NPD said jeans at $60 and above generated sales of $1.05 billion for the 12 months through January, or a 6.9 percent market share. During the same 12-month pe-riod a year ago, jeans priced above $60 generated sales of $761.4 million, or 5.4 percent of the denim market.

True Religion Apparel is moving quickly to use its denim offerings as the basis for developing itself into a lifestyle brand. A focus on expanding its product array and developing global business has paid off. On March 15, the Los Angeles company reported earnings of $19.5 million for 2005, a gain of 361.4 percent. Sales for the year ballooned 270.7 percent, to $102.5 million from $27.7 million.

“This was driven by strong sales of our core denim line in men’s and women’s, and an increasing component of nondenim sportswear,” Jeff Lubell, president and chief

executive offi cer, said during the company’s conference call. “We have an opportunity to build an incredible premium sportswear business

on the back of our premium denim business.”The fi rm opened its fi rst freestanding store this year, which Lubell

said had sales of more than $500,000 in its fi rst three months.Premium’s persistence appears buoyed by continued strength in

the broader denim market. Recent walk-throughs conducted by re-tail analysts showed denim to be a key category at retail. Citigroup retail analyst Kimberly Greenberger was the host of a mall walk on March 17 at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. Greenberger brought along merchandising expert Paula Ullmann, who identi-fi ed denim as a primary spring fashion trend.

“Denim continues to drive volume, despite a lack of new directional trend, and is performing above expectations,”

Greenberger said in a report. “The popularity of the denim short has been particularly surprising.”

Analyst Beder said in his report that growth isn’t limited to spe-cialty retailers like American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Express. He pointed to True Religion, Antik and Taverniti as prime examples of premium brands that are thriving.

“For True Religion, we believe the brand has continued to take market share at both Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s,” Beder wrote. “At Nordstrom, the level of women’s offerings is beginning to rival Seven for primacy.”

The biggest inroads at department stores have come from Antik and Taverniti, both manufac-tured by Blue Holdings.

“From virtually no offerings last year, we have already seen reorder for the lower-priced Antik line at both Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s in the fi rst month of sales,” Beder’s report noted. At Bloomingdale’s, Beder said he found more than 30 pairs of Taverniti jeans, “equivalent almost to True Religion and larger than Diesel.”

Brian Hogan, president of Modamood, New York, Replay’s wholesale distributor, said price points have held and demand for Replay’s high-end line, We Are Replay, has grown.

“It’s the last part of the collection that gets shipped, but it’s the fi rst that retails once it hits stores,” Hogan said.

He agreed that premium denim would reach a tipping point where newcomers are swept out of the market. Brands like Seven, True Religion, and Diesel will be able to react and make it through down times, he said, noting that larger premium brands are innovating their styles.

“You’re going to see lateral moves from brands,” Hogan said. “You’re going to see Replay, True

Religion and Seven really clean things up and become a little more tailored.”Steve Opperman, founder of Iron Army Clothing, said the state of the premium

market is a constant subject of conversation. Opperman views the rising competition as a positive, even for smaller brands such as Iron Army.

“It forces me and my partner to think,” Opperman said. “It’s making more people think before they put something out. I think it makes people improve their product and I’m excited about it, even if there’s a lot more brands.”

Opperman also values the fl exibility that being a smaller operation affords him.“We can be really responsive,” he added. “I’m not sitting on top of tons of inventory,

so we can turn on a dime.”

DALLAS — J.C. Penney isn’t known for high-ticket fashion, but it broke into the upper strata Saturday when a jacket created by the chain’s design director, Geoffrey Henning, sold for $35,000 at the annual Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS auction here.

The bidding for the Arizona brand denim jacket, which had been transformed into a fur- and crystal-trimmed full-length coat, was pumped up with extras, in-cluding a private party for 100 at the rooftop bar of the W Hotel opening here in June, along with a hotel stay, spa treatments, dinner and a $500 shopping spree. The entire package was donated by Victory Park, the mixed-use project where the hotel is located.

The 17th annual DIFFA benefi t called on the talents of more than 100 design-ers and creative types to remake an Arizona jacket into a wearable work of art for auction. The results ranged from CeCe Cord’s demure denim and leather handbag to Brian Bunch’s Vegas-style costume festooned with a billowing bustle of purple, pink and green peacock feathers.

The party, which had the theme “Live Laugh Love,” was intended to raise a record-breaking $1 million for AIDS service organizations in north Texas, though organizers said they didn’t know yet if their ambitions were realized.

The soiree attracted 2,000 guests, along with hundreds of volunteers who staged a fashion show on a 450-foot runway. A highlight was a performance by Dallas na-tive Erykah Badu and her band.

Emcee Rene Syler of CBS News’ “The Early Show’’ couldn’t resist stroking the crowd in a ballroom at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel.

“I have been to fashion shows in New York and I’ll tell you what, nothing com-pares to this,” Syler said.

— Holly Haber

WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 20068

Denim Report

Premium Keeping Pace in ’06

Jackets Get Designer Touch at DIFFA Benefi t

WWD.COM

Replay and Seven are moving toward cleaner, more tailored looks.

Erykah Badu

A design by Brian Bunch.

Geoffery Henning’s design drew $35,000 at auction.

Chris Gilbert

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The Beat

Shecky’s Shop: A Rotating Menu of DesignersBy Sharon Edelson

NEW YORK – Shecky’s Shop in SoHo is hardly a typical store.

The assortment isn’t the vision of one per-son, nor is it merchandised by a team. Rather, the store at 489 Broome Street leases fl oor space and display cases to a variety of vendors.

Chris Hoffman, a former derivatives trader who founded Shecky’s Media in 2001, invoked the business model of Fred Segal, the California retail empire built on rented departments, when he described the inspiration for the store.

The concept of leasing space to different resources has met with mixed success here. Emerge NYC took a similar approach when it opened in August on Bleecker Street. It has since regrouped and is now called Edge NY NoHo and offers mainly jewelry.

Shecky’s has a do-it-yourself feel with topaz glass shelves perched on birch branches. A scrim of red fabric divides the store into three sections.

The 10,000-square-foot two-level space feels sparsely populated with only about 40 designers in residence, but it’s easy to imagine how Shecky’s could take on the atmo-sphere of a Middle Eastern bazaar once the store gets fi lled.

That would be fi ne with Claudia Chan, Shecky’s president, who wants consumers to experience a sense of discovery when they come across an unknown designer. Chan looks for “fresh faces in fashion and hard-to-fi nd designers from Los Angeles, London and Brazil,” she said. An example is Jody Singleton, a jewelry designer. “She has a distinct, nonconventional style,” Chan said of the hand-stitched leather jewelry and accessories.

Before renting space, prospective vendors must be approved by Chan, Shecky’s Shop’s style gatekeeper. Although Chan has the fi nal word, the store, by virtue of the number of designers it houses, can seem like a hodgepodge.

“There’s a whole application process,” she said. “At minimum they have to be here for three months. If they’re successful, they can stay longer. Every month or two, we’ll rotate new designers into the store.”

Shecky’s is projecting about $2 million in sales for the main fl oor in the fi rst year, said

Hoffman, who hopes the lifestyle media compa-ny can leverage readers into retail customers.

“We reach hundreds of thousands of read-ers with our guides to New York, our bar guides and our Web site,” he said, noting that Shecky’s Media had total sales of $5 million last year. “Events are another platform. We bring readers the hottest clothing, accessories and bars. We’re a resource in New York.”

After seeing the success of Shecky’s Girl’s Night Out shopping parties, launched in 2001, Hoffman thought a store might be viable. The shopping events at the Puck Building here — similar parties are held in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta — attract about 6,000 women, a raucous bunch that’s been treated to fi ve hours of free cocktails. An event this month at the Puck Building advertised more than 100 designers at as much as 75 percent off, giveaways, goodie bags and beauty services. Admission was $35 paid in advance or $45 at the door.

Chan, who also oversees the selection of designers for Girl’s Night Out, said Shecky’s

Shop has higher standards. “Girl’s Night Out is more liberal in accepting designers,” she explained, noting that there will be about 5 percent overlap between the two venues. Designers pay a fl at fee to be included in Girl’s Night Out. “They do it to get rid of extra inventory and get their name out,” Hoffman said.

“The whole point of the store is that it’s a turn-key store for young designers,” Hoffman said. “They walk in with merchan-dise. We have salespeople and insurance.”

Chan, who pegs Shecky’s customers as trendsetting women between 21 and 45 years old, believes they’ll respond to E.vil T-shirts emblazoned with messages such as “Little Miss Golddigger” and Daveese Couture’s dresses made of linen,

leather and lace ($150 to $400). “Some designers we discovered on the street,” Chan said. “We look for signature

accents.”Hoffman isn’t too worried about the current business model not taking hold.“We might decide we want to operate more like a traditional retailer,” he said.

By Melanie Kletter

NEW YORK — Brooklyn has become a haven for budding designers, and now the borough will have its fi rst fashion weekend, a three-day event to spotlight local talent.

Planned for May 5-7 in a former ware-house in the DUMBO neighborhood, the event was conceived and organized by BK Style Foundation, a two-year-old nonprofi t created to nurture the talent of Brooklyn youths who want careers in fashion.

“There is so much fashion happening now in Brooklyn, and we wanted to do something to showcase all the talent here,” said Rick Davy, co-founder of BK Style Foundation.

Cybele Sandy, the other co-founder, said, “We want to give Brooklyn designers the support and opportunities that designers in Manhattan have.”

About 17 designers have signed on to show their creations, including Zulema Griffi n, who was a contestant on the most re-cent edition of “Project Runway.” The group is still looking at portfolios and may add more designers to the mix, Sandy said.

BK Style Foundation will provide models and hair and makeup services, as well as all production services. It has set up a Web site, at bkfashionwkend.com with information.

The invitation-only shows will be in the evening to take advantage of the scenic surroundings. The venue, Empire Fulton Park’s Tobacco Warehouse, is at New Dock and Water Streets in the area between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

“There is so much undiscovered talent in Brooklyn, and not everything happens on the island of Manhattan,” said Griffi n, who was born in Brooklyn and now lives in Manhattan’s East Village.

Griffi n said she plans to show about 18 looks on the runway, including jackets and ready-to-wear, as well as a few sportswear items such as jeans and T-shirts.

“I am launching a collection and I thought would be a great way to introduce it,” she said. “I am looking for backers.”

Davy said the group is seeking sponsors to defray costs. The New York Water Taxi, a sponsor, will ferry people from Manhattan to the Fulton Ferry Landing in DUMBO. Another sponsor, Two Trees Management, will hold a kickoff cocktail party for participants on May 4. In addition to the runway, there will be performances by local musicians before the shows, which are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Fashion Showcase Set for Brooklyn

Zulema Griffi n of “Project Runway” will show her wares at the BK fashion weekend.

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Claudia Chan and Chris Hoffman

WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 200610WWD.COM

Active Lifestyle

Style Serve for Sharapova NEW YORK — When Maria Sharapova steps out at the Nasdaq Open tennis tournament in Miami on Friday, she will unveil her latest fashion statement: a bold, black-and-white corset top and black skirt taken from Nike’s spring fi tness dance collection.

“Maria asked Nike designers to adapt two key pieces from the collection for her on-court com-petitions, a fi rst for her, as she typically prefers to play in a dress,” said Mindy Grossman, Nike’s global vice president of apparel. “Fitness dance is a category that takes styling from the street and the catwalk. Dancers then individualize and cus-tomize how they want to wear the pieces.”

The look also hits on a key fashion trend for spring, as black-and-white looks are just begin-ning to hit stores.

Sharapova, now fourth in World Tennis Association rankings, beat Elena Dementieva on Saturday to win the Pacifi c Life Open match in Indian Wells, Calif., her fi rst victory since last June, when she took the DFS Classic in Birmingham, England. The 18-year-old fashion maven is known to fl aunt her style on court with bold, colorful and often body-hugging looks.

Consumers who want to mimic her style can pur-chase the outfi t at the Nasdaq retail tent, and simi-lar designs are available at Niketown stores and at the nikewoman.com Web site, Grossman noted.

In the last few years, Nike has been working to elevate its women’s business around the world with a wider selection of products and a dedicated team of designers and merchants. As part of this effort, Nike has also been opening NikeWomen shops, adding women’s-specifi c environments to its Niketown formats and adding catalogues specifi cally for women, as well as a Web site, nikewomen.com.

Nike has also introduced more fashionable pieces, and this season the company introduced shrugs and layered tank tops in performance fabrics.

Grossman said Nike will unveil a new performance technology, MacroReact, in Sharapova’s looks for the U.S. Open in September, although she declined to reveal details. She also said Nike is developing high-tech sports bras and support products that will launch later this year.

— Melanie Kletter

By Sari Anne Tuschman

ASPEN, Colo. — Stella McCartney presented her new fall line of Adidas by Stella McCartney here Monday, merging her signa-ture feminine silhouettes and attention to detail with Adidas’ technology.

Ice-skaters wearing the new looks spun and twirled around a small ice-skating rink as reporters huddled outside the Elk Mountain Lodge in the remote Castle Creek Valley to view McCartney’s fi rst foray into skiwear. Huskies pulled a sled with a young woman in it across the snow, skiers and snowboarders fl ew down a man-made hill and women walked and jogged in the snow. They all wore chic yet functional winter styles that epitomize the collaboration between Adidas and McCartney.

“I’ve been desperate to get some chic-looking skiwear,” said McCartney, who skis and snowboards. “I think it’s been missing. I’ve gone to buy ski clothes, and I’ve found it really diffi cult to fi nd something I wanted to wear. Everything was always badly cut, and the fi t was appalling. I don’t want to look like a man when I’m ski-ing. Something about it was al-ways quite wrong to me.”

McCartney’s solution to that is ski pants and jackets in muted shades of rosewood, dark bone, dark chocolate and dusty rose. Key pieces from the line include a soft-shell jacket, a full-piece ski jumpsuit and a padded ski coat with a removable fl eece vest, all featuring details such as pock-ets for MP3 players, cell phones, goggles and money, as well as ski-pass and lipstick holders.

McCartney also pointed to her version of the moon boot as another signature item. This two-in-one shoe has a booty in-side the water-repellent shell that may be removed and worn by itself for après-ski footwear.

The designer said she chose Aspen for the launch because it “encapsulates the whole winter sports thing. I think of it as a very chic place…a romantic place.”

Skiwear has become more feminine and fashionable, and design houses such as Emilio Pucci and Paul Smith have gotten into the category.

In addition to the new ski looks, the collection also features more styles for the gym, running and tennis. The prices for the fall collection range from about $55 to $800, and it carries more higher-priced items than in the past. Globally, Adidas by Stella McCartney is in about 450 doors, with an estimated 100 of those in the U.S., including Nordstrom and Adidas sport performance stores.

“You see a lot of collaborations in the industry between brands and designers, but I don’t think they have the same vi-sion Stella had for what we wanted to do,” Bill Sweeney, head of Adidas global apparel, said in a fi reside chat after the pre-sentation of the line. “And certainly, I don’t think they had the same commitment in terms of a long-term partnership. This is a serious commitment that takes us right though 2010.”

Sweeney was referring to the company’s contract extension with McCartney announced this week. The collection had fi rst-year sales of about $15 million, industry experts said.

Sweeney said he anticipated that sales of this year’s fall line would double compared with last year.

“It’s really not about hitting the numbers,” he said. “We could probably sell 50 or 60 percent more in 2006 if we really wanted to, but at this point it’s more a case of keeping it in the right place, keeping it under control and keeping it well man-aged. This was never about making as much money as we can. It was about brand image and creating something different.”

The Aspen event also introduced 19-year-old Russian tennis player Maria Kirilenko as the face of the line. She was dressed in head-to-toe Stella McCartney and said she gives McCartney and the design team input on some of the styles and cuts, telling them what she feels most comfortable in when playing.

Maria Sharapova in her new Nike outfi t.

Stella Hits the SlopesIce-skaters model styles from the new Adidas by Stella McCartney collection.

Skiwear is being launched for fall.

WWD.COMWWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 11

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Top off your look this season. Designers are offering an array of

bold blouses and sweaters, mostly cropped in the sleeves and

waist, or with strong accents like pom-poms, bows and

appliqués.

T-shirt Report

A. cheng’s wool and

angora top.

Minx’s rayon, wool and silk top.

Park Vogel’s cashmere sweater.

Joseph A.’s rayon and

Lycra sweater.

Betsey Johnson’s

silk blouse.

Charlotte Ronson’s cashmere sweater.

Wyeth by Todd Magill’s merino wool sweater.

Sarah Feinberg’s nylon and silk mesh top.

Tamsen’s silk blouse.

Cynthia Steffe’s silk chiffon blouse.

Top

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Shopping the Globe

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SYDNEYRent: $435Sydney is in the midst of a retail boom, according to the Australian Property Institute. And in January, WWD profi led it as one of the most well-re-garded cities in the world, stating that its “brand” image was one of the highest, according to a study conducted by Global Market Institute, together with leading brands expert Simon Anholt. One of the most magnifi cent shopping destinations is the historical Strand Arcade (at left), where unique specialty shops, such as Victoria & Albert Antiques and the Rox Gems & Jewellery store, are found. When it opened in 1892, the Strand Arcade was the fi fth and the last one to be built in Victorian Sydney. Today it is the only one remaining in its original form.

VIENNARent: $313According to NAI Global, retail sales in Austria have remained strong despite the country’s overall economic struggles. High-end retail in the center of capital city Vienna focuses around three major streets: the Kohlmarkt, Karntner Strase and Graben (seen at left). Retail demand and rents are very high on these pedestrian streets, mainly due to their prime location in the heart of Vienna. The Kohlmarkt is still considered to be the most upscale shopping street, where Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani and Chanel all have stores.

MOSCOWRent: $418Retail space is in high demand these days in Moscow, according to NAI Global. As wealth continues to grow in Russia, more and more brands are rushing in to open stores in the nation’s capital. Oscar de la Renta sent representatives for a trunk show in Moscow late last year, while Marc Jacobs also traveled to the city in December with one primary goal: “to get acquainted with the local culture, history, religion, traditional crafts, to talk to the most interesting people here, get the feeling and use it in Louis Vuitton clothes and accessories,” he told WWD. Vuitton has two stores in the city. Well-known shopping spots near Red Square include GUM (the state department store) and the Okhotny Ryad shopping center (seen left).

PARISRent: $880With high-end fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel having headquarters in this market, expensive rents for shops and shopping centers are only logical. Galeries Lafayette is the largest department store in France and in Europe. Its beautiful fl agship (seen left), located on Boulevard Haussmann, is crowned by a stained-glass dome. The store carries designer, brand name and private label merchandise. Though the city’s retail market felt the effects of lower levels of tourism in 2005, plans are under way to upgrade or develop a number of shopping centers in the Paris region.

DUBLINRent: $310“Dublin is a classic example of a small, limited market with a downtown setting that is more of a shopping village, really,” said Jeffrey Finn of NAI Global. “The cultural value alone of the downtown region is high.” The real estate market here has long been considered a driving factor of the Irish economy, and 2005 witnessed the completion of Dundrum Shopping Centre, with anchors that include H&M, Tesco and the House of Fraser. Both Omni Park and Blanchardstown Shopping Centres are slated to increase their retail space signifi cantly over the next couple of years. Grafton Street (seen left), is considered to be Dublin’s primary shopping street and boasts some of the most upscale stores, such as Brown Thomas and Jigsaw.

SINGAPORERent: $326WWD said Wednesday that Singapore’s “strong economy and wide exposure to Western brands have made the city-state a shopping hub in Southeast Asia.” Singapore’s Orchard Road will soon become one of the premiere shopping streets in the world, thanks to the Singaporean government, which recently announced plans to spend $40 million on the street’s transformation. Private retailers are sitting up and taking note, and prime retail space is now experiencing increased demand. In 2005, Diane von Furstenberg talked of potential locations for future stores. “I am talking about Munich, I am talking about Shanghai and about Singapore,” she said. In January, Gap Inc. announced expansion plans into the region, as well.

LONDONRent: $885Though Central London is still recovering from the terrorist attacks last year, the retail market is showing a positive outlook for 2006, driven by a return to growth in employment, according to NAI Global. WWD reported Tuesday that London’s Sloane Square is in the midst of a major makeover: “The women and men strolling through the square are an altogether hipper and more international crowd. And they are eager to give their credit cards a fashion workout at nearby Cartier, Hugo Boss, Tiffany & Co. and Zara,” all of which have stores elsewhere in the city as well. London has always been a magnet for retail brands, and it’s just one of the cities that has been cited as a likely target for a new Balenciaga boutique, while Juicy Couture also is seeking a site in the British capital.

HONG KONGHighest quoted rent per square foot: $1,161Hong Kong is undergoing yet another retail boom, so it’s perhaps not surprising that it should rank number one in terms of highest quoted rents. “Hong Kong is the New York of Asia,” Yves Carcelle, chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton, told WWDScoop. Vuitton has six major stores in the city, including a new one in The Landmark, which also includes tenants such as Dior, Harvey Nichols, Gucci and Fendi. NAI Global pointed out in its report that landlords have been favoring smaller fashionable tenants. Consumer demand for fashion is booming: Shoppers in Hong Kong spent 10.3 percent more on apparel in December than they did the previous year, WWD reported in February.

MANHATTANRent: $290Though all eyes remain on the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site, a number of Manhattan’s districts have witnessed retail revitalization, including Harlem, the Lower East Side and Midtown near Columbus Circle. The highest rents are found along Madison and Fifth Avenues, primarily near 57th Street in Midtown. WWD reported in February that Bulgari is redesigning and expanding its 14,000-square-foot, three-story shop on Fifth Avenue. NAI Global made note of some of the larger retail deals in 2005, including Equinox’s purchase of 38,000 square feet in SoHo for its fi rst gym in the neighborhood, and H&M’s rapid store expansion across the city.

SEOULRent: $289This June, Paris-based Hermès plans to open a seven-story Maison Hermès in Seoul, while Prada works to open its second location (its fi rst went up in 2005). NAI Global reported that “there is a concern that Korea may have more retail than the population can reasonably support, as the number of hypermarkets, in particular, exceeded the target level of one store for [every] 150,000 persons.” Stores with much larger formats, such as department stores and discount hypermarkets, currently dominate, with more than 70 percent of total market share. However, NAI Global predicted that some of these stores possibly could close during 2006.

10SOURCE: NAI GLOBAL’S 2006 GLOBAL MARKET REPORT; FOR ADDITIONAL STATISTICAL DATA ON DOMESTIC MARKETS, GO TO WWD.COM

The New World is encroaching on the Old World in terms of the most expensive retail rents. Princeton, N.J.-based NAI Global, a leading network of commercial real estate fi rms, found that only one U.S. area — Manhattan — ranks in the top 10. What’s more important, noted Jeffrey Finn, NAI Global president and chief operating offi cer, is the movement of Asian markets into the top 10. “You’ve got these old world, beautiful downtown streets in Europe that are now being transcended by the newer, rapidly rising Asian markets, such as Hong Kong and Seoul,” he said. “Downtown retail” is defi ned by NAI Global as “any retail space in the downtown area, excluding space in enclosed malls.” — Cecily Hall

The most expensive downtown retail markets worldwide ranked by highest quoted rents per square foot.

12 WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006

14 WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006

10,000 sf Open SpaceMinutes from Lincoln/Holland Tunnels

Jersey City Heights/Quiet bldg/Low priceIdeal for storage, shipping, office, or mfg.

Will subdivide Call: 201-222-1931

5th & 38th st. SUBLET 5,000 ft.High ceilings - Excellent Condition

Prime Manhattan RE Scott 212-268-8043Search www.manhattanrealty.com

For Space in Garment Center

Helmsley-Spear, Inc.212-880-0414

Showrooms & LoftsBWAY 7TH AVE SIDE STREETS

Great ’New’ Office Space AvailADAMS & CO. 212-679-5500

530 7th AVE SHOWROOMCorner showroom facing 7th Ave. full

windows, about 3500 s/f. Contact:917-886-7648 or 212-391-1636.

SHOWROOM & OFFICE AVAILABLEPrime NYC Space. Accessory designerhas a private showroom w/ windowsfor sublet available with compatible fit.

Contact: 212-465-9247

Well established & growing

Bridal/Eveningwear Companylocated in central Florida

Local & International ClientsGrowing 17 to 20 percent ayear see info and pics @

www.floridacapital.comAgent, 941-924-2378

PATTERN/SAMPLESReliable. High quality. Low cost. Fastwork. Small/ Lrg production 212-629-4808

PATTERNS, SAMPLES,PRODUCTIONS

All lines, Any styles. Fine Fast Service.Call Sherry 212-719-0622.

PATTERNS, SAMPLES,PRODUCTIONS

Full service shop to the trade.Fine fast work. 212-869-2699.

PTTNS/SMPLS/PRODHigh qlty, reasonable price. Any de-

sign & fabric. Fast work. 212-714-2186

EDGE*nyNOHOFOR EMERGING DESIGNERS

A STORE LIKE NO OTHERHave your own selling space at 65Bleeker Street. Street Level, primeretail location. (Between Broadway &Lafayette). Sell your designs directlyto your customer from this uniquedepartment store created for emergingdesigners. We are looking for uniquewomenswear & menswear designers,hat designers, beauty product designers,eyewear designers, pet products, andmuch more. For more info please visitour website www.edgeny.com or callAlex or Dede at 212-358-0255.

NJ Based Children’s Stores• Premium Apparel Brands• Growing Private Label• Profitable Concept• $2M Annual Sales

Call: 917-603-1834Email: ChildrensStore@aol.com

ADMIN/SALESASST/FRONT DESK

Accessory Co. seeks reliable, persona-ble, multi-tasked individual to work inquick paced atmosphere. Good com-puter skills in Word, Excel and E-mail.Resp. for phones, corresp. & gen.office duties. Fax resume: 212-302-2753

ART DIR - KIDS LIC PLAYW’R OPEN $Large company seeks experiencedmanager for busy art department

A.D. FORMAN ASSOC.450 7th AVE (AGCY) 268-6123

ARTISTS/DESIGNERSExcellent Opportunity in Central NewJersey. Art Department seeks F/TOutdoor & Humor Artist for trendyMen’s T-shirt lines. Must havePhotoshop/Illustrator & MAC experience.Strong typography skills & apparel exp.a plus. Great creative group environment.New Jersey applicants ONLY! Emailor fax resume with 3 samples to:

lstricchiola@giemail.netFax: 732-280-6190

Assistant Buyers &Visual MerchandisersLong Island based jean stores seeks

Visual Merchandisers with a min. of 2yrs. exp. & Assistant Buyers with a min.of 2 yrs. exp. in the Jr. contemporary mkt.Fax resume & refs. to: (516) 742-4720,

attn. Jimmy or leave a message @(516) 742-2999 ext. 10

ASSISTANT DESIGNERExperienced in eveningwear.

Import experience a plus.Computer literate. Organized, self starter.Please Fax resume to: (212) 302-9325

BOYS DESIGNER $75KBOYS ASST DESIGNER $40K

Sizes 8-20. Activewear/SportswearSusieJessilyn@aol.com or 212-947-3400

Data Entry PositionApparel wholesale company is seekingsomeone to enter orders, process billingand assist in customer service. Shouldbe familiar with AS400 system & EDI.Please fax resume to: (212) 575-2214

** DESIGNER ASSIST - L.A. **Must live in L.A. area $40-45K

Tween/Jr. Denim Illustrator/PhotoshopCall (212) 643-8090 Fax (212) 643-8127(agcy)

DesignerBetter priced womenswear manufacturerseeks sportswear designer with min 2years exp. designing collections fordepartment stores. Background incontemporary market at big plus. Mustbe able to run a sample room and workwith patternmakers. Great opportunityfor growth. Salary commensurate withexperience.

Fax resume to 212-382-0237.

DESIGNEREst’d. Special Occasion Dress Co. seeksinnovative and creative Designer withknowledge of current trends, colors,and fabrics. Must have background inMissy or Jr. Special Occasion. PleaseE-mail resumes in confidence to:

ROFSEE@aol.com

Designer - MerchandisingJr/Contemporary Sweater /OuterwearCo seeks exp’d designer for imports.Must be team player w/ fresh ideas forthe Jr. market. Knowledge of sweat-ers, flat sketching & proto specs req’d.Good benefits. Excellent work envi-ronment. Email resume attn: Doradleggio@yahoo.com / fax 212-398-2087

The highly anticipated launch of this Junior / ContemporarySportswear line requires the exceptional talents of the following:

SENIOR DESIGNERCandidates must be cutting edge, trend savvy, innovative andable to design/direct from initial concept through production.Must have extensive knowledge of wovens, denim, knits andtrim. Minimum 5 years experience in the junior/contemporarymarket. Highly organized and fast paced. Technical skillsinclude CAD, PDM, Illustrator / Photoshop, flat sketching andpresentations.

ASSISTANT DESIGNERHighly organized, self-motivated with good work ethic. Musthave strong sketching and specs, knowledge of garment con-struction. Team player with excellent communication skills.Photoshop / Illustrator. Web PDM a plus.

TECHNICAL DESIGNER (2)DENIM BOTTOMS & WOVEN TOPS /

KNITS - C & S AND SWEATERSKnowledge of pattern, measuring, construction and fit. Illus-trator / Outlook / Excel a must. Daily communication withoverseas vendors. Interaction with design, merchants andproduction teams. Web PDM a plus.

Please fax resume to: (631) 514-3131(Please indicate on cover letter the job you are applying for.)

First PatternmakerFast paced womenswear manufacturerseeks first patternmaker experiencedin both sportswear and dresses. Mustbe able to drape and flat pattern min 2designs a day. Experience in contemp-orary market a big plus.

Fax resume to 212-382-0237.

Fit Model (Size 6)Professional fit model needed for newcontemporary women’s line. Only de-signer size 6, 34x26x34, h:5’7-5’8 needapply. Flexible schedule a must.

Fax info to: 212-564-6651

GARMENT CENTRAL- IMMEDIATE OPENINGS -

1. SENIOR DESIGNER2. SALES EXECUTIVES

Jr. & Plus mfr. of sportswear &dresses. Excellent opportunity tojoin successful growing company.

jack@garmentcentralpdg.comor Fax: (212) 869-1525

Import Coord to $60K. Current exp incompliance with U.S. customs regs.Classify garments under HTSUS.Harmonize tariff scheds of U.S.customs regs. Call 973-564-9236 AGCY

Merchandisier/DesignerSeeking talented individual with 5 yearsminimum experience for Jr. Knit/WovenImporter. Must follow up on samples.CAD ability a plus. Fax: 212-302-7732

Prod’n Coord. / Asst.Forward sportswear co. seeks an ex-tremely organized, hard working indi-vidual used to working in a fast pacedenvironment. Responsibilities includetracking work in progress, schedulingproduction, keeping accurate records,& communicating w/ overseas factories.Attention to detail is a must. 3-5 yearsexp. Position is located in North Bergen,NJ. Excellent growth potential, bene-fits, salary commensurate with exp.

Please email resume to:fashionop69@aol.com

Production AssistantEntry-level position available forladies apparel tops production.Computer literate a must; includingExcel. Fax/Email resume: 212-768-7856

mkaplan@gas-co.com

SENIORSPORTSWEAR

DESIGNERMajor women’s moderateupdated sportswear co. isseeking a talented designerwith 5-7 yrs. exp. Candidatewill be designing for a majorpublic updated co. Musthave a strong background inupdated wovens and knitsfor pants, skirts and jacketswith a strong knowledge ofprints and fabrics. Must beable to shop stores for thenewest trends and have anunderstanding of developmenttime lines. Position based inBoston with frequent travelto New York.Excellent Salary And Benefits

E-Mail or Fax Resumehrresume06@yahoo.com

617-332-3260

Paco JeansWanted: Graphic Artist

Junior’s Jeans/TopsStyle Cads/Artwork

Must Know Mac IllustratorMust show portfolio

Please Email resumes:wanda@pacosport.com

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTHydraulic jeans seeks motivated anddetail oriented person to assist productionmgr. Duties include involvement inall phases of garment production frominitial order to final delivery and com-munication with factories. Strong com-puter skills a must. Great Opportunity!

Fax resume to HR @ 212-719-1521

Production AssistantLeading Apparel Importer seeksexperienced, detail oriented individualfor fast paced NY office. Duties includeassisting pre-production manager,follow-up fabric and garment purchasing,writing PO’s, follow-up with overseasfactories, and color submissions toWal-Mart. Strong communication andcomputer skills a must. Fax resumewith salary requirements to:

Mark Rubin at (212)444-6019

ProductionDesigner collection seeks experiencedtechnical production person to coordinateover seas production. Must be organized,detail oriented, be able to multi task &have knowledge of garment construction.Please, fax resume to: 212 563 6215.

Production ManagerKNIT PRIVATE LABEL

Minimum ten years experience in allphases of knit sportswear production.Work with sales team / factories fromcosting thru shipping. Establish laborprice and follow up shipping. Respon-sible for construction & quality control.Computer literate. Please fax resumeto Karen 212-947-7218.

Production ManagerMen’s Apparel Importer seeks exp’d,detail oriented person to manage pro-duction for several large accounts.Past JCP experience is a plus. Involve-ment in all phases of garment produc-tion from initial order to final delivery.

Fax Resume to Gina: 212-268-0884

Receptionist/Gal/Guy FridayManufacturer of Women’s Sportswearseeks energetic self motivated personwho wants to learn the business fromthe inside. Person should possess goodinterpersonal skills, be organized anddependable. Besides answering phonesand greeting people, person will helpwith sales and design dept’s as well.

Please fax Resume to 212-239-7332

SALES ASSISTANTEstablished sportswear company seeksSales Asst. that is friendly, organized,motivated & a team player. Must havean excellent communication & followup skills, computer literate. Familiarwith AIMS a plus. Friendly environment.Competitive salary & benefits.

Please fax resume to: (212) 221-3622

SALES ASSISTANTGrowing Junior/Missy Denim co seekssales asst who is highly organized,detailed oriented & computer literate.Wal-Mart exp preferred but willing totrain. Opportunity for growth. Excel-lent benefits. Send resume to :

appareljobs@eurekamail.net

SEWERSWoman’s couture company seeks highly

skilled exp’d individual. Knowledge of alltypes of fabrics emphasis on evening.

Cutting a plus . Call 212-869-2296

SEWINGINSTRUCTION WRITERSimplicity Patterns seeks sewinginstruction writer w/ education / back-ground in garment, craft and home decsewing. Must be able to write technicalstep by step instructions for patterns onsite in our NYC office. Home Econom-ics Degree or comparable exp desirable.Knowledge of sewing req’d & computerknowledge helpful. Excellent benefits.Send resume to: Simplicity Pattern Co.,2 Park Ave, 12th Fl, NY, NY 10016, Attn:HR or email: cploschke@simplicity.com

SPECH TECH Major NY based better dress & suitmanufacturer seeks exp’d technicianto support its pattern making &production teams. Responsibilitiesinclude attend fittings, take accuratefit notes, work w/ pattern makers, prepareconstruction details specs & communicatew/ overseas factories on various technicalissues. Must be a team player, computerliterate on e-mail & excel, and abilityto work in a fast paced environment.Dress exp a plus. Excellent opportunity.Benefits/401K. Fax in confidence withsalary requirements to HR: (201)964 5892

Sweater Tech Designer Branded womenswear manufacturerseeks sweater tech designer with min2 yrs import exp. Must be able to flatsketch, have technical knowledge ofsweater yarns, stitches, and graphing.Background in contemporary market abig plus.

Fax resume to 212-382-0237.

WWD.COM15WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006

By Stephanie Epiro

MILAN — An earlier date did not boost visitor numbers at MilanoVendeModa as its organizers had hoped, though most executives exhibiting reported increased sales.

The event at the Milan fairgrounds, which ran Feb. 10-13 — two weeks earlier than usually scheduled so it would be at the start of the European trade fair season — attracted 252 exhibitors, down slightly from last edi-tion’s 274. Visitor numbers also fell to 8,000, down from 9,149 at the February 2005 edition.

Despite the drop in buyer numbers, most vendors were enthusiastic about orders garnered at the fair.

“I was skeptical about the new dates and had little faith that we’d get buyers coming, but I have to say we haven’t en-joyed a fair as good as this in 10 years,” said Riccardo Collina, marketing di-rector of Italian ready-to-wear pro-ducer Ensemble by Camalgori, set up in the so-called Light section of the fair. Collina said more Japanese and Korean buyers visited his stand during MVM, many armed with increased budgets to buy fall-winter 2007 collections.

Emanuela Forlin, manager of MVM for organizer ExpoCTS, said the earlier dates would be reexamined for the next edition.

“We will see if this anticipation works well for our clients, but so far we’ve had positive reactions,” Forlin said. She added there was also a pos-sibility MVM would join with other Milanese rtw fairs White and Neozone. “Together, it could be a strong, comple-mentary fair and a good thing for the market, but nothing is confi rmed.”

Sabrina Nespoli, European sales manager for French brand Irene Van Ryb, said she hoped MVM would join with White as MVM sales had been slow for her company in the past few seasons. She said Van Ryb had started to explore other, newer European fairs in an effort to acquire new clients. Van Ryb’s collection features natural yarns and fabrics — includ-ing printed graphic silk blouses, a wool and metal mix check jacket and angora in petrol and mustard for knitwear.

In the Trend section, Tricot Chic wooed many Italian cli-

ents with its mix of styles that included oversized wool cardigans in cream trimmed with fox collars, embroidered and ribbon-decorated folk-inspired long skirts and red fox-trimmed bolero jackets to go over silk dresses. Flavio Nava, Tricot Chic’s general manager, said though the stand received many Italian visitors and lots of orders, he wasn’t completely satisfi ed with the quality of the shops the visitors represented.

“It’s a shame, but we do get a lot more international visitors of higher quality in other European fairs, like Bread and Butter in Barcelona. It could be re-ally interesting for Milan to combine all of the rtw fairs, just as the Italian textile fairs have been combined,” said Nava.

A newcomers to MVM, Danish rtw brand Jackpot decided to come to the fair for the fi rst time to continue building in the Western European market. A division of Copenhagen-based IC Companys, the 32-year-old brand has already established its presence in 23 coun-tries, amassing sales of 70 million euros, or $84 million at current exchange, last year. Export manager Heidi Svarre said after Jackpot en-tered the Canadian market last year, it was contemplating opening doors in the U.S.

Svarre said the brand had attracted many buyers at MVM because of its bright mix of garments — including a mustard crocheted an-gora shawl, striped pom-pom trimmed scarves and violet fl uted corduroy skirts. “People are stopping because the trends here are predomi-nately black and white,” said Svarre.

Over in the Luxury section, Puglia, Italy-based ICA showed a line of ultrasophisticated outerwear from silver fox-collared cashmere coats to bright yellow woolen jackets with matching yellow-dyed raccoon scarves. Sales director Santino Nucci said the company had welcomed more Russian buyers at MVM.

Also in Luxury, Musani presented a line of eveningwear utilizing printed silk chiffons and embroidery. Director Jack Musani said fash-ion’s new obsession with sophistication had helped sales for the brand. He cited an ivory dress with a full skirt trimmed with black lace and ribbons as a bestseller.

One retailer, Caterina Nordstrum, an owner of QC, a luxury boutique located in Sweden, said, “We’ve been going to MilanoVendeModa

for the past couple of years to fi nd niche, interesting brands that aren’t sold already in Sweden. We sourced some great fur and leath-er coats there as well as eveningwear — which is becoming an im-portant division of our boutique.”

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WWD, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006WWD.COM

16

LOS ANGELES — Oh, the struggles of a starlet. “It’s challenging to fi nd the right thing,” says Nora Zehetner, 25. “I hear a lot of ‘Oh, sorry, Scarlett is doing that’ or ‘Natalie Portman got that part.’ It’s not usually up to me.” That doesn’t mean she isn’t working hard. Fans who are used to watching the doe-eyed waif play the good girl on The WB drama “Everwood” will fi nally get to see her bad-girl side as she takes on the role of Laura, the femme fatale, in the thriller “Brick,” out Friday and also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emilie de Ravin. Zehetner recently dished to WWD on the perils and the perks of being on the verge.

WWD: Where are you from?Nora Zehetner: Dallas. I don’t have an accent anymore. WWD: What’s up next?N.Z.: I play the young Helena Bonham Carter [character] in “Conversations With Other Women.” It’s about a couple, played by she and Aaron Eckhart, who remeet at a wedding. You end up learning their history in the course of one night. After that, I’m in the MTV Films horror movie “Beneath.” WWD: Film or TV?N.Z.: Television can be amazing, but I love to create new characters and shed that skin and move on to something else. WWD: How did you break into Hollywood?N.Z.: I had planned on going to college here, but the plan was to see if I could try the acting thing fi rst. After one month in Los Angeles, I did a commercial for AT&T, then got cast in my fi rst fi lm, “Tart.”

WWD: So you’ve had it easy?N.Z.: You think that everything is going to be easy and then you don’t work for six months. WWD: What do you do between jobs?N.Z.: Right now I’m taking an art history class at Otis and a French class at the Beverly Hills Lingual Institute. I’m trying to be somewhat productive with my time. WWD: Do you have anyone to keep you company?N.Z.: I have a Chihuahua named Sophie and a 55-pound mutt named Duke. They are kind of an odd pair. WWD: What about fashion?N.Z.: I really love everything, but I’m bordering on classic and not things you are going to look back at and go, “Oh that is soooo 2006!” If I buy something expensive, it has to be so timeless that I know I can get a lot of use out of it. WWD: What would you buy if you had Reese Witherspoon’s salary? N.Z.: I loved the spring collection that Francisco Costa did for Calvin Klein — all those pretty, fl irty dresses that were just classic and young and fun. And I’d buy Phoebe Philo and a little Burberry swing coat.

— Marcy Medina

Birds of a Feather“Do you like the bread? I baked it myself,” joked Cate Blanchett at a dinner Gucci hosted in her honor Monday at Country restaurant in New York. The Australian actress, who’s coming to the end of her run in the title role of “Hedda Gabler” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, nearly lost her way

among the maze of tables of googly eyed BAM fans and almost headed into Country’s open kitchen. “I’m just going to check on the desserts,” she quipped.

Blanchett was toasted by husband Andrew Upton, who adapted the play for his wife, and was joined by the likes of Amanda and Chris Brooks and Kim Heirston. Next up for the busy star is a return to London, although she’s been enjoying her New York life. “We’ve been living in Park Slope,” she said. “I love it. It’s New York as it used to be, with all the artists and writers around.”

Blanchett and the other members of the Sydney Theatre Company were making full use of their one night offstage — after the four-course dinner, they all headed downtown to watch fellow cast member Justine Clark sing at the Living Room.

The following night in L.A., American-in-Paris designer Erin Fetherston’s fall 2006 show in Chateau Marmont’s sixth-fl oor penthouse got so crowded that chairs had to be set up in the hallway. The San Francisco-born, doll-like designer was reprising her Paris presentation of 22 Little Red Riding Hood-inspired dresses plus “Wendybird,” the Ellen von Unwerth-directed short starring her friend Kirsten Dunst. Although Dunst got stuck on the set of “Spiderman 3” and couldn’t be there to play hostess, Fetherston pressed on with help from pals China Chow, Winona Ryder, Ariana Lambert Smeraldo, Amanda Goldberg and curious fashion-phile Kate Bosworth, who came with her stylist, Jessica Paster.

“Since we made the fi lm here, I thought it was only appropriate to show it here, too,” said Fetherston. Despite a technical glitch that had the crowd sitting silently in the dark for a minute, the show was a hit. “I may not be a 6-foot blonde Amazon like Erin, but I am in love with the clothes,” said Chow, who wore one of Fetherston’s samples with aplomb, noting, “It hits my knee, where it hits her mid-thigh!”

AlmostFamous

Editor’s Note: New York society fi xture Helen Schifter is traveling with her family out West — fi rst Aspen, then L.A.

Spring break! We’re in Aspen — land of nonstop skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing

and that other Olympic sport, shopping. Where else are the trapper hats white mink (J.Mendel) and

the snow boots sable (Dennis Basso)? Friends are plentiful as pine trees: Day one on

Ajax, Tim cruised in knee-deep powder right into uber-art director Doug Lloyd and photographer Kelly Klein; William

Lauder waving howdy overhead from the Silver Queen gondola; Valesca Guerrand-Hermès après-ski outdoors at The Little Nell — our home base. Yup, whole clans from New York are here — de Guardiolas, Gwathmeys, Hovnanians — and this group recognizes each other even disguised in Bolle goggles and Cloudveil parkas.

Eating is also a test of endurance. Toasted our wedding anniversary “on top of the world” with a cozy lunch at the Aspen Mountain Club hosted by Dana Hammond, who’s building a home nearby. The club’s buffet staggers — delicious king crab legs, bison, an insane cheese plate and home-baked cookies and pies. This led us right into dinner at a little blue farmhouse, i.e. the local Matsuhisa. Last night we began at the Hotel Jerome’s funky, Victorian J-Bar with burgers and pitchers of Fat Tire beer and continued en masse to a club called Belly Up for Grateful Dead tunes via the Dark Star Orchestra.

Mornings are bright and early. Storey, 10, already a wicked skier, won a bronze and a silver medal on the kids’ NASTAR slalom

course. Her instructor throws “pooper trooper” parachute dolls from the lift and they ski-race down to fi nd them. Capture someone else’s trooper? Bite off an arm or leg, then leave it in the snow.

Today a temple of dark wood and river rocks beckons — the Remède Spa at the St. Regis. Post-massage, I’ll curl up fi reside on a leather chaise lounge and peacefully inhale a 30-minute oxygen treatment. And if that doesn’t prepare me for L.A., our next stop, then nothing will!

xo,

2006

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Cate Blanchett

in custom-made Gucci.

Amanda Brooks in a Gucci dress and Tuleh jacket.

Models dance, in their own clothes and Erin Fetherston hats, after the show.

Erin Fetherston in her own design.

China Chow in Erin

Fetherston.