Wal-Mart’s Weak Link: Sam’s Club Refocuses To Close Costco Gap

NEW YORK — Gottschalks Inc. hopes that proprietary products will help it work its way back from a restructuring-impaired fourth-quarter loss.

Net losses for the quarter ended Feb. 1 reached $4.2 million, or 33 cents a share. This compared…

LUXURY LOVERS: A study by Saison Research Institute of Japan has found that 94.3 percent of Japanese women in their 20s have Louis Vuitton goods and 92.2 percent of them own a Gucci product. Among other brands, 57.5 percent of women in their 20s own…

Bergdorf Goodman is banking on some of the season’s clear stars with an accelerated trunk show schedule, such as Narciso Rodriguez on April 2.

Harold Tillman, the British clothing and textile entrepreneur, has purchased Jaeger for an undisclosed sum, confirming a report in WWD on Monday.

BERGDORF’S ITALIAN WINDOWS: Bergdorf Goodman and the Italian Trade Commission have collaborated on the retailer’s latest windows. In a tribute to Italy’s culture and design, beginning last Friday, the women’s and men’s…

The Fashion Center BID is recommending that the city lift a zoning rule that side street buildings set aside half their space for manufacturing.

BURTON REDUCES STAFF: For the second time within a year, Burton has cut its global workforce by about 9 percent, with most of the layoffs in its Burlington, Vt.-based corporate office. Pink slips were handed out in various areas of the company, a…

SHOPPING BY ANOTHER NAME: Lucky for Men is official — now stop calling it that. “I rather feel that ‘Lucky’ has a feminine resonance to it,” James Truman said. “I think we’ll probably come up with a new title.”

And…

NEW YORK — Lands’ End is taking up more acreage at Sears, Roebuck & Co.

The Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retailer continued its rollout of Lands’ End merchandise this month, including the line in another 218 stores, or 23 new…

Swiss silk king Gustav Zumsteg reflects on the closing of Abraham, which he built into one of the 20th century’s greatest couture mills.

NEW YORK — Silk prints continue to make their mark for spring 2004. At last month’s Première Vision in Paris, luxury fabric mills were showing a variety of lush and colorful silks that featured large- and small-scale floral motifs, as…

Material World exhibitors expressed concern that war fears will further dampen consumer confidence, inhibit spending and reduce demand.

MILAN — Despite a turbulent 2002 for the textile industry, there was no sign of the Italian fabric manufacturers slowing down at this month’s Moda In. Mills continued to churn out new technological and fashion ideas in an effort to…

NEW YORK — A judge is expected to approve Malden Mills Industries’ reorganization plan in the coming days and sources within the company said the firm will exit bankruptcy by late May.

Malden filed its plan late Friday in U.S….

NEW YORK — Get ready for the squeeze play.

At a time when a weak economy and low consumer confidence is keeping up deflationary pressure on retail apparel prices, rising oil prices are creating inflationary pressure at the base of the…

In Paris, the runways were awash with color, but one of the splashiest fashion shows of all wasn’t staged there but on the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night in L.A. Since when did the SAGs — known for their casual,…

Who wore what to the Screen Actors Guild Awards; Canadian twin rockers Tegan and Sara get set to break through.

PERSONALITY PROFILE: Details are leaking about Stella McCartney’s new fragrance, due out in September. Sources said that the advertising campaign will feature an image of the designer herself, in profile, taken by Craig…

BODY LANGUAGE: Sure the steamy, boudoir clothes at Yves Saint Laurent on Monday night grabbed attention. But all eyes also were trained on François Pinault, majority shareholder of Gucci Group, to see how he might react to Tom Ford’s…

PARIS — Talk about steam heat. Tom Ford’s fall Yves Saint Laurent collection, inspired by Diana Ross, whose greatest hits played on the soundtrack, was full of sexy style. In this, his second stellar collection of the season, he…

Sam’s Club is strategizing to stay in the race with such rivals as Costco and its own sibling, Wal-Mart Supercenters.

NEW YORK — Quiksilver Inc. shredded the slopes in the first quarter as earnings more than doubled on impressive sales and margin gains.

For the three months ended Jan. 31, the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based activewear and sportswear…