A Sea Change in Luxe: Tough Market Favors Buyers Over Sellers

PARIS — Helmut Lang has returned to the fashion forefront in a big way, and he demonstrated that with a sensational fall collection. The looks were a blend of practicality and chic, often featuring straps, ties or harnesses, along with plenty of…

When sales of luxury products were riding high, it seemed just about any designer was ripe for acquisition. But now it’s a buyers’ market.

WASHINGTON — The apparel and textile union UNITE is out and U.S. furniture manufacturers are in under membership changes at a nascent domestic textile lobbying group spearheaded by textile magnate Roger Milliken and determined to change American…

Under Tom Wyatt, president of the Warnaco Intimate Apparel Group, the company is repositioning its core brands. Here’s how.

NAOMI DOES BALI: The Bali Co., a unit of Sara Lee Intimate Apparel, will be launching a multimillion dollar ad campaign this summer for Bali foundations, featuring supermodel Naomi Campbell.

The dramatic black-and-white photography by Richard…

THE FEMMYS: Over 800 executives of the intimate apparel, textile and retail fields turned out for the 2003 Femmy Awards gala cocktail and dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last week. The event was hosted by the Underfashion Club.

Three…

NEW YORK — The tough economic times and continuing difficulties in legwear are leading many makers to take bold steps to get and retain business.

Levante, for example, just started a new program guaranteeing 70 percent margins for…

NEW YORK — Spiegel Inc. on Friday entered into a consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission that, among other conditions, requires the appointment of an independent auditor to review the firm’s financial records going back…

MOSSIMO TAX BREAK: Santa Monica, Calif.-based Mossimo Inc.’s fourth-quarter net income, which included a $6.4 million income tax benefit, climbed 50.7 percent to $5.4 million, or 34 cents a diluted share, from $3.6 million, or 23 cents, a year…

Anyone who ever suspected Kylie Minogue of digitally enhancing her la-la-las should have been at Café Flore on Thursday night when the pint-sized pop star climbed onto a tiny stage and trilled cabaret standards like an old-fashioned…

Do blondes have more fun? Two exhibitions in London might have some answers…A perfume party in Venice Beach, Calif.

Surprisingly, an equal number of men and women turned out in Venice Beach Thursday night to toast Alexandra Balhoutis’ new boutique, Strange Invisible Perfumes. The fact that her parents, power couple Linda and Jerry Bruckheimer, invited several…

ATLANTA — One look at Pazo — the plasma video wall with sexy models in low-rise jeans, the hip minimalist interior showcasing the trendiest looks — would never invite comparisons to Chico’s and its baby-boomer…

NEW YORK — Harry Jenkins, former gray goods editor of DNR, WWD’s sister publication, died March 5 of a stroke at his home in Bear, Del. He was 88.

Jenkins’ byline appeared in DNR and sometimes other Fairchild publications for…

Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll detail their plans for Michael Kors, including the fact that Kors will quit as Celine’s creative director next year.

LONDON — For a brand in the doldrums, Jaeger is certainly getting a lot of attention. In late January, Coats PLC quietly sold its Jaeger and Viyella businesses to Richard Thompson of Riverhawk Investments — and now it looks as if Thompson…

The apparel and textile industries mirrored the overall employment declines last month, but department stores posted a big job gain.

ROSS KLEIN EXITING JONES: Ross Klein said he plans to step down as senior vice president of corporate marketing at Jones Apparel Group Inc., where he oversaw marketing for the Polo Jeans Co. His last day with the company will be Friday. He said he…

Monday: Paris Collections continue (through Thursday).

Tuesday: International Fashion Fabric Exhibition, New York (through Thursday).

Ann Taylor Stores reports fourth-quarter results.

Wednesday: Talbots, Coldwater…

MILAN — Fila has a new owner — finally.

Holding di Partecipazioni Industriali SpA, which has been trying to sell the struggling sport brand since June 2001, has sold the operating businesses of the company Fila to Sport Brands…

CHRISTIAN ROCK: If fashion were music, what would it sound like? The world will find out in September when Malcolm McLaren releases his next album, “Diorama,” musically detailing the history of the house of Christian Dior. “It’s a wonderful way…

JAILHOUSE BLUES: Stylist Derek Khan has landed behind bars for borrowing expensive jewelry and watches and selling the merchandise off to local pawnbrokers for cash. Sources told WWD that the well-known celebrity dresser in the last few months took…

FOREIGN INTRIGUE: As her husband, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, prepared for a vital Security Council meeting on Iraq at the United Nations on Friday, Marie Laure de Villepin sat down at Emanuel Ungaro for a dose of fashion…

Loewe: With a light touch, Enrique Ona Selfa worked up his second Loewe collection, combining the ease of jogging gear with simplified luxury. Now, that’s a smooth move. He worked almost exclusively in leather, suede and fur, ranging from basic…

PARIS — With designers making fur a major statement at the fall collections, the anti-fur agents from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have responded in a renewed wave of fashion sabotage, this time aimed at the Paris shows….