The Christmas Divide: Luxury Soars While Mass Still Struggles

This year saw the blossoming of stories that had their seeds in 2003. The Gucci transition finally took place, with design teams filling in for Tom Ford and executive shuffling, departures and appointments occurring throughout the entire year. The…

This Christmas, luxury retailers are generating gains twice as high as mainstream retailers.

Thomas Coughlin, vice chairman of Wal-Mart, will retire next month and his duties will be divvied up.

PARIS — France’s Carrefour, the world’s second-largest retailer after Wal-Mart, on Monday said it planned to spend $254 million over the next two years to open and renovate stores in South Korea.

Carrefour chief executive…

CRACKDOWN: The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement shut down 10 factories in Southern California last week and issued $617,800 in fines for violations of state and federal workplace rules. The companies either didn’t produce…

Editor’s Note: Delivery of the Monday edition of Women’s Wear Daily was delayed because of a malfunction at the newspaper’s printing plant. The edition may be delivered up to one day late in some regions.

Just when you think being fabulous isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, you realize that, indeed, it is…especially in Miami.

Karl Lagerfeld was treated like a rock star when he made an unexpected stop at the new Chanel flagship in Ginza.

LONDON — Browns, the iconic London retailer that has built a reputation on spotting designers and trends on the distant horizon, has opened an alternative bridal boutique in Mayfair here.

Browns Bride stocks outfits for brides who could…

NEW YORK — In time for the brisk holiday shopping season, several designers are giving their fans another retail option by opening signature stores.

Aside from being a place to show off all the designer has to offer, signature stores are…

What to Watch: Legal challenge to quota safeguards, importers prepare for quota-free trade and China’s textile manufacturers gear up for increased production.

SOFIA STYLE: If Sofia Coppola ever tires of filmmaking, she has a second career waiting in the wings. At least that’s French Vogue editor in chief Carine Roitfeld’s assessment after working with the Oscar-winning…

BIG FOOTPRINT: Candie’s Inc. sure is keeping busy. A little more than a month after buying Badgley Mischka, the company is about to sign a deal with Kohl’s Department Stores for the chain to exclusively carry Candie’s junior…

NEW YORK — As they look ahead to the first year of quota-free apparel and textile trade, importer executives are preparing for changes and for a few minor hiccups.

“The phaseout of quotas brings with it a degree of change unlike…

BEIJING — China’s textile manufacturers are busy preparing for an expected major increase in production after the Jan. 1 end of the quota regime.

A report issued last month by Global Strategies found that 91 percent of summer…

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Senate overrode Gov. George E. Pataki’s veto of an increase in the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, said Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno (R.-Troy) Monday. The override was passed with a vote of 50 to…

WASHINGTON — The Chinese government has sternly warned the Bush administration about the possibility of imposing safeguard limits on imports of cotton trousers and other products from China, calling such moves an effort “to extend the…

NEW YORK — For textile suppliers, the coming year will bring the biggest change to their competitive model that most living executives have ever seen.

The looming end of the three-decades-old quota system is the cause of great…

NEW YORK — Fiber producers don’t need a crystal ball to see what issues are going to be paramount to the industry next year.

Producers are keeping a wary eye on the costs of raw materials, especially oil, and the Jan. 1 elimination…

GENEVA — Chinese envoys at the World Trade Organization successfully blocked four seminars on how textile and apparel exporters could handle the dissolution of the 30-year-old quota system.

That raised the ire of officials from smaller…

Discounters, accustomed to ringing up merry numbers, have their work cut out for them this season.

Miguel Adrover has closed up shop and will move back to Majorca and reopen there.

Jan. 27: It’s Charlize Theron’s turn to get emotional when she wins the Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role in “Monster,” based on serial killer Aileen Wuornos. More importantly, she shows up in her…

NEW YORK — With spring right around the corner, outerwear makers are gearing up for balmier dressing.

And as more designers and brand names offer spring coats, traditional outerwear firms are retaliating with more options….

You’re nobody unless you’re famous.

Only a few years ago, the realm of celebrity-endorsed apparel brands was viewed by true fashion connoisseurs as a kitschy sideshow, the habitat of Greg Norman golfing polos and Jaclyn Smith…

NEW YORK — Dennis Basso will be moving into the Windy City next fall.

The fur designer has signed a 15-year lease for a new store in downtown Chicago that is slated to open in the “One Magnificent Mile” building in September….

The consumer products industry is hitching its wagon to the stars — and in no category is this more evident than in beauty.

While actresses and models have long starred in TV and print campaigns touting the latest makeup or scent, the…

NEW YORK — A white flowing dress designed by Jaclyn Kelly and on display in Philadelphia looks nice enough, but a closer look shows it is made from coffee filters.

Two other Philadelphia University students were equally inventive with…

In a year punctuated with high-profile arrivals and departures in the rarefied designer realm — Michael Kors leaving Celine, Julien Macdonald exiting Givenchy, Jil Sander saying goodbye to Prada again, and Perry Ellis losing Patrick Robinson…

GRIN AND BEAR IT: Teddy bears wearing red-carpet attire designed by Oscar de la Renta, Narciso Rodriguez, Reem Acra, Elie Saab, Eileen Fisher, Dana Buchman and other designers were auctioned Monday night to benefit HeartShare, a New York-based…

The final year of the quota regime was filled with sound and fury, as executives in many of the 148 nations of the World Trade Organization realized the expiration of the three-decades-old system could pose an enormous challenge to their economies as…

Can you say earthquake?

The retail landscape shook mightily this year, with a number of deals cracking the billion-dollar mark. But the biggest was a deal shrouded in mystery. In a surprise move, Kmart Holding Co. said it would pay $11 billion…

NEW YORK — With its neighborhood-friendly stores and tongue-in-cheek advertising, Brooklyn Industries is counting on its loyal following to support its two new stores.

Founded in 2001 by Lexy and Vahap Funk, who met in an upstate New York…

When it comes to retailing trends in beauty, there’s something to be said when the world’s largest beauty marketer embarks upon a multibranded, multistore campaign.

But that’s just what $15.5 billion L’Oréal Group…

NEW YORK — Private equity firm Cinven on Monday completed its acquisition of German fashion group CBR Holding GmbH & Co. KG for an undisclosed sum.

The deal, which was completed via a syndication agreement with Apax Partners, is…

DUTCH TAKEOVER: We International, the Dutch specialty chain with 237 stores in six countries, has acquired the beleaguered Dutch fashion company Vilenzo and its stable of brands, including Van Gils, Jaguar, Salty Dog and Bad Boys. Terms were…

A host of luxury and fashion brands looked east in 2004. Labels such as JLo and Giorgio Armani opened stores in emerging markets like Russia and China, while other fashion names, such as Pucci and Coach, inaugurated flagships in Japan.

“I…

The 2004 presidential race can be remembered as much for the candidates’ political fisticuffs — and starkly different views on the economy’s health and progress in the Iraq war — as the conservative voter turnout that pushed…

PARIS — Marie-Antoinette is in the air.

Not only is France’s last queen the subject of a highly anticipated film by Sophia Coppola, her fragrance has been brought back to life, as well.

Called Le Sillage de la Reine —…

Someone actually said “no” to the world’s largest company.

In a year of tumult, Wal-Mart managed to increase its considerable revenue and got aggressive about growth in China, but it wasn’t all roses. The retail giant…

February marked the end of what became known as the most fashion-savvy show in television history.

It was goodbye to Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte and all of those fabulous, yet unconventional, designer ensembles. Over its six-year…

Fashion trends always trickle down, starting with high-end

designers and ending up at the mall. But whereas most take the journey at a babbling brook’s pace, the popularity of the brooch rode something more akin to a whitewater rapid….

“I don’t wear striped bathing suits because the way the stripe flashes in the water might lure sharks, and you don’t want to get eaten. I don’t wear black in the water, either, because I wouldn’t want a killer whale or a…

One era ended and another began this year for the Estée Lauder Cos., one of the most venerable American beauty firms.

The company’s matriarch — and beauty’s grandest dame — Estée Lauder, died April 24 at her…

This year, cosmetics companies helped

make trips to the dermatologist’s office few and far between with the proliferation of the at-home kit. L’Oréal blazed a trail in July with Refinish Micro-Dermabrasion Kit, the mass…

As if things weren’t bumpy enough in 2004 for Tommy Hilfiger Corp., the situation got dicier in September, when the company disclosed that its commission policies were under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan….

This is the year of the deja vu fragrance.

To the tune of $200 million in estimated retail sales, the fragrance industry increasingly has been marketing what often are referred to as “flankers,” whether they fit the classic…

Procter & Gamble, known as much for Tide detergent as it is for cosmetics, boosted its beauty stature this year by aligning itself with two powerful forces in the industry. The consumer-products giant recruited star makeup artist Pat McGrath and…

The following people from the worlds of fashion, retail, beauty, media and society were among those who died in 2004.

Richard Abes

Ray Allington

Richard Avedon

Merwin Bayer

Geoffrey Beene

Lenore Benson…

LF Brands abruptly shut down Christmas Eve 2003 without notice, and after the new year, the company totally dissolved. Workers came in and removed all their belongings Jan. 9, and the Leslie Fay brand was sold at auction to Value City Department…

High fashion hit new lows in 2004, with stalwarts Emanuel Ungaro, Versace and Hanae Mori all bidding farewell to the couture runway. Despite their shrinking brethren, Christian Dior and Chanel vowed to soldier on, insisting couture is too vital for…

Seven years into its sales slump, Levi Strauss & Co. turned its focus in 2004 from looking for revenue growth to simply stabilizing the bottom line. In December 2003, the San Francisco-based jeansmaker hired turnaround experts Alvarez & Marsal…

Aside from the Kmart/Sears and Jones Apparel Group/Barneys New York deals grabbing headlines, this year was a busy one. Excluding the $11 billion Kmart/Sears merger, the apparel sector had $6.9 billion worth of pacts, according to data from a…