Warning Signes: Confidence Fall Clouds Second-Half Outlook

Antitheft robots, smart signs, digital jewelry.

Surprise — more than 80 percent of online retailers are profitable.

Point-of-sale systems go beyond checkout, improve comp-store performance.

The nightmares of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley.

The Online Retailer’s Secret Weapon: Fashion Webzines that mix advice and shopping.

Talking Point: Dilbert and the Web as fashion barometers.

The swinging London girl of the Sixties or Andy Warhol’s film, “Chelsea Girls,” returns with layered jackets, offbeat print dresses and lean denim.

Oscar de la Renta has finally found a home for his first freestanding store, a 3,000-square-foot unit at 772 Madison Avenue set to open in November.

Romeo Gigli has filed suit against clothing group IT Holding, Prandina SpA, Gigli’s licensee, and its ceo, Pierluigi Mancinelli, seeking $54 million.

WTO HITS U.S. IMPORTS: A World Trade Organization arbitration panel said Tuesday that it has given authorization to eight members, including Japan and the European Union, to impose tariffs of more than $150 million a year on U.S. imports. In…

NEW YORK — LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton scored a victory against 29 Chinatown retailers selling counterfeit goods as a federal judge upheld the company’s claims of trademark infringement, ordering each to pay $16 million in…

OPRAH’S VALENTINO FIX: Can Oprah Winfrey do for couture what she did for books? The talk-show queen, who attended her first Valentino couture show in July, is filming an episode with the designer about his couture and ready-to-wear…

Commerce undersecretary Grant Aldonas will meet with Chinese officials next week, as textile groups pressure the administration to restrain imports.

Department stores such as Bloomingdale’s might be akin to Switzerland this week when it comes to politics, but not all retailers are claiming neutrality.

NEW YORK — Fashion designers and their beauty counterparts are doing more than just creating appealing clothes and products these days. Some are getting involved in politics, with fund-raisers, special design projects and other volunteer…

KISSINGER vs. FRANKEN: Henry Kissinger ran into his doppelgänger Monday night — in the shape of comedian and outspoken progressive firebrand Al Franken. “I do you a lot on the show,” the Air America Radio host told…

Wednesday: 7-11:15 p.m.
Theme of the Day: A Land of Opportunity

Speakers and Agenda:

• Vice President Dick Cheney, Lynne Cheney and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
• Keynote address by Sen. Zell Miller…
  

Bob Mackie is continuing his effort to democratize fashion with the expansion of Bob Mackie Studio into misses’ and petites.

NEW YORK — Marshall Gobuty International USA Inc., the maker of Handcuffs Sweatshirts, has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Nike Inc. alleging patent infringement.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Southern New York on…

NEW YORK — South Korea’s STC Biotech Group, a Seoul-based cosmeceutical and biological research company, is aiming for a fivefold expansion of its U.S. business by 2006. The firm’s strategy includes organic expansion via its CelGen…

ATLANTA — Fashion Cares, a benefit for AIDS and breast cancer charities launched 12 years ago, has grown from a small affair to become Atlanta’s official fall fashion kickoff.

The event, presented by the ultrachic retailer Jeffrey…

NEW YORK — As the second night of the Republican National Convention was set to begin, hundreds of protesters brought Herald Square to a halt.

The crowd that had been rallying outside the New York Public Library headed to Herald Square….

NEW YORK — Zale Corp. said Tuesday fourth-quarter profits more than doubled, matching the Wall Street consensus, on a 3 percent increase in sales.

The company, however, noted on a subsequent conference call that it is “cautiously…

WASHINGTON — Virginia Gov. Mark Warner declared a state of emergency Tuesday in the aftermath of a swift-moving tropical storm Monday that dumped a foot of rain on portions of the state and killed at least five people.

City officials in…

NEW YORK — Although economists, bankers and analysts rely on a variety of economic indicators to gauge the climate at retail, in the end it’s their own powers of observation that may prove the most useful.

Industry experts say…

SAN FRANCISCO — This city’s first fashion week came and went, leaving participants tired but exhilarated amid questions about whether California’s apparel industry, which has a fledgling fashion week in Los Angeles, needed the same…

GUESS WHAT?: Anna Nicole Smith caused a near riot at WWDMAGIC in Las Vegas Monday morning when she personally presented her new clothing line, called Anna Nicole. The newly svelte bombshell tossed T-shirts into the crowd of buyers and fans…

After spending with abandon in the first half of the year, high fuel costs and weak job growth have consumers facing the second half with trepidation.