Retailers on a Tightrope: Price Cuts Drive Comps As Darker Clouds Loom

Fearing hurricanes and high gas prices would curtail spending, stores went heavy into promotions, resulting in better-than-expected same-store sales.

Private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus have closed on their $5.1 billion acquisition of The Neiman Marcus Group Inc., the luxury chain said Thursday.

Burberry shares fell 4.83 percent Thursday, closing at 4.04 pounds, or $7.19, on reports that Rose Marie Bravo would step down as ceo in July.

Tommy Hilfiger Corp. continues to clean house.

Goody’s Family Clothing reached an agreement with an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners to be acquired by the investment firm for $264.3 million.

“Nothing is left to chance, but at the same time, Jean Paul is very much creative.”

Wal-Mart is launching a brand of urban apparel for women ages 25 to 45 called Metro 7, which will be bolstered by a marketing campaign.

Federated issued new guidance for the third and fourth quarters, including slightly reduced outlooks on comp-store sales, but profits are holding up.

Pretty is as pretty does and at Olivier Theyskens’ Rochas, it touched a nerve that longs for fashion to first enhance and then evoke emotion.

Soft, billowing shapes have a charming lightness, which is winning in any season, but especially in one that puts simple, quiet looks front and center.

From fine pleats to floral prints, certain houses have specific signatures, which designers developed further this season. But other firms are still looking for one.

Vanessa Seward has breathed life into the sleeping beauty with her sexy, updated reinterpretations of the founder’s greatest hits.

Lingerie maker Agent Provocateur had a few tricks up its sleeve for the inauguration of its corner at Printemps on Wednesday.

Kimora Lee Simmons believes strongly in the brands that bear her name — from her first scent, Baby Phat Goddess, to her underwear.

There’s a new face at Shu Uemura: makeup artist Gina Brooke, who has been named artistic director of the brand.

It’s no secret that the aging process ain’t so sweet, but Prescriptives is out to prove that sugar may actually be part of the problem, with the launch of Anti-AGE Advanced Protection Lotion SPF 25, in April.

Nicole Farhi has turned her nose to fragrance for the first time.

The new vanguard in skin care is less about surface moisturizing and toning and more about antiaging at the cellular level.

Carol Shaw is hoping to give consumers a fat lip this spring.

Del Laboratories’ Sally Hansen unit is bent on building its stable of beauty franchises, one blockbuster product at a time.

Despite a home page featuring a smoldering fall makeup look and the Allure magazine banner, Amazon.com’s Beauty Store doesn’t gush glamour.

Getting into a retailer’s door is never easy for a manufacturer.

QVC proved this week that when it comes to beauty, the television shopping network is brimming with ideas to connect with viewers.

A trip to the spa has never been more popular, thanks to stressed-out consumers who seek solace and renewal for an hour, a day or a week and don’t mind paying for it.

Greg Gutfeld has always been a misfit.

“I’ve never been freaked out or weird about sex” is sort of an odd way to explain your decision to pose naked in a photo spread set in a futuristic factory populated by clones and sex dolls.

A demand floated Tuesday by 97 textile industry groups for textiles and apparel to be treated separately in the Doha global trade talks has drawn fire from China.

British designer Katharine Hamnett, a pioneer in using ethical fabrics in her collections, acknowledges there is still resistance to the concept.

The first U.S. gallery to offer a permanent exhibition of 250 years of fashion and textile history will open Nov. 15 at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology here.

Royal notes from all over … The new man in Gale Hayman’s life, Richard Bockman … Britney auctions items for Katrina victims.