January 12, 2012

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All That JazzDesigner Paul Surridge is inspired by the silhouettes of the Roaring Twenties

for his first collection for Z Zegna which wil be shown in Milan on Monday.

For more Milan inspirations, see pages MW6 to MW8.

PLUS:Hart Schaffner Marx

turns 125 this year and

marks the milestone

with a tightly edited

capsule collection.

Page MW14

MAN OF THE WEEK

Championship StyleAlabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban proves to be

a winner when it comes to fashion as well. Page MW2

Two looks from

Z Zegna’s fall

collection.

REPORT FROM FLORENCE

Men’s Wear Goes Soft at Pitti UomoCozy sportswear and soft

tailored pieces ruled the show.

by KATYA FOREMAN and SOFIA CELESTE

FLORENCE — Men’s wear’s modern ro-mance with the luxe casual trend is still going strong for fall-winter, with elegant and detailed sportswear/tailoring fusions the prevailing theme at the Pitti Immagine Uomo trade fair here.

Beautifully constructed evolutions on soft tailoring in natural and warm winter shades such as burgundy, burnt orange and olive

green figure among the season’s head-lines from the show, which ends its four-day run on Friday.

“I’m loving what they’re calling jersey tailoring, or knit tailoring, a continuation of the soft de-c o n s t r u c t e d jacket. It’s got the right fit that is flatter-ing and looks

sophisticated and tailored but

feels as comfortable as a sweater,” said Eric Jennings, vice president and men’s fashion director for Saks Fifth Avenue. “Even when there’s a constructed shoulder, you’ll see a roped effect on the shoulder, but there’s re-ally nothing except for a soft canvas piece, so it’s very soft even though it has the ap-pearance of a tailored piece.”

Jennings said he’ll be stocking up on dress trousers this fall, which were one of the store’s strongest sellers this past fall season.

Jason Broderick, men’s wear general merchandise man-ager at Harrods, observed a strong presence of premi-um denim brands at the event — a bit of a sur-prise considering its sartorial roots. He pointed to the collabo-ration be-t w e e n Edwin and

Gitman

Grenson

Men’s WeekMW2 WWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

by DAVID LIPKE

THE DESIGNERS & Agents trade show will launch a new men’s edition called D&A Man in New York this July. The first show is expected to draw about 40 vendors at the Cedar Lake venue in West Chelsea.

The new show will join a crowded competitive set in New York that in-cludes ENK NYC, Project, MRket, Capsule and Agenda.

D&A currently operates 10 wom-en’s shows a year. Its annual sched-ule includes four shows in New York, four in Los Angeles and two in Paris. For D&A Man, the company plans two shows each year, during the men’s markets in January and July.

“The show will include sports-wear, denim and accessories, with

brands at a high taste level,” said Ed Mandelbaum, who co-founded Designers & Agents with partner Barbara Kramer in 1998. “Men’s wear has been developing in incredibly in-teresting ways in the past few years. This really felt like the right, pivotal moment for D&A to bring its signature curatorial approach to the market.”

Through a partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America, D&A Man will offer two men’s wear designers complementary booths each season. The designers will be chosen in consultation with the CFDA.

D&A is waiting to see how the show dates shake out for July among all the men’s shows and will stage its show concurrently with them, said Mandelbaum.

by LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — The rejuvenated Swiss brand Jet Set will bow with a presentation here on Sunday during men’s fashion week. Spearheaded by chief executive officer Massimo Suppancig, who has worked at firms such as Hugo Boss, Escada and Valextra, Jet Set blends luxury fash-ion with athletic functionality. “It was founded as a lifestyle brand and it takes a fashionable approach to leisure time,” said Suppancig during a preview at the sprawling 5,400-square-foot showroom lo-cated in a Giò Ponti-designed building in the center of Milan.

Jet Set was founded in 1969 and is owned by Swiss investment company Gaydoul Group, headed by Philippe Gaydoul. The group also controls hosiery and knitwear firm Fogal and watch brand Hanhart, among others.

Suppancig was tapped in August to revamp the brand, which broke ground in the luxury sportswear segment and was favored by the likes of Gianni Agnelli and Grace Kelly. Jet Set’s popularity peaked in the Eighties, and had been dormant under recent owners. “It was like Sleeping Beauty,” quipped Suppancig. Hailing from Saint Moritz, Jet Set is developed in Bologna, a pivotal hub for the production of sportswear in Italy, and manu-factured at production laboratories near Bologna and in the Veneto region. The financial base remains in Zurich.

“Over the last 20 years, it was basically a line devoted to skiing. We still

have that category, but with a fashion edge,” said Suppancig, showing a comprehensive men’s and women’s collection, designed by a team, that includes cozy cashmere sweaters em-bellished with fur stitches; oversize jackets made with fabrics employed for parachutes, at times adorned with slim ropes; checkered flan-nel shirts that are quilted and can work as jackets, and down jackets in a color palette that is hard to miss on the slopes, ranging from orange and aqua green to purple and red — sometimes tie-dyed. Geographic embroideries, a star logo, the “over” fit and the ropes are some of the archival elements that define the brand, said Suppancig.

Materials are sometimes treated, such as a technical cotton with resin, and there is some nylon, but the collection also revolves heavily around nat-ural fabrics. “There aren’t enough brands in this category that offer naturals,” said Suppancig.

The executive is not deterred by the challenging economy. “Leisure is the category of the future,” he said. “Jet Set offers modernity in leisure and it works at home, to dress down, at a spa. It’s a joyful brand, comfortable and practical, yet luxurious.” Indeed, most pieces can be worn for daily use in the city.

Jackets retail between 600 and 1,100 euros, or $767 and $1,405 at

current exchange. Jet Set sales currently total about 30 million euros, or $38.3 million. While there are existing stores in Aspen, Colo.; Davos, Cran

Montana, Zermatt, Arosa and Saint Moritz, Switzerland; in the lux-urious German island of Sylt, near Denmark, and in Kitzbühel, Austria, Suppancig is not focused on investing in brand bou-tiques. “This weekend, we’ll start selling to specialty stores. It helps creativity if there is a [dialogue] with specialty stores,” he explained.

Jet Set to Soar Back Into Men’s Market

Man of THE WEEK NICK SABAN:B

The Alabama coach who led his Crimson Tide to victory in the Bowl Championship Series title game Monday night may not be as flamboyant as his famous predecessor Bear Bryant, but he’s able to find a healthy balance between a youthful attitude and athletic aesthetic while making his own mark by pairing it with an out-of-context Western belt.

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NEIMAN MARCUS INC. has poached its next men’s fashion director from Bloomingdale’s.

Matthew Singer, who was associate men’s fashion director for the upscale division of Macy’s Inc., has joined the Dallas-based retailer to oversee the fashion direction of Neiman Marcus Stores, Neiman Marcus Direct and Bergdorf Goodman. He succeeds Nick Wooster, who left the company in May. He will be based in New York and will be responsible for covering men’s de-signer collections, sportswear, tailored

clothing, contemporary collections, furnishings, accessories and shoes. He will direct the company’s men’s merchants on trends and what to buy each season and will provide creative direction to the marketing and adver-tising team at both store groups and online.

Singer was formerly men’s fash-ion director for Bloomingdale’s and has also worked at Scoop and A.B.S. Bloomingdale’s said no successor has been named.

— JEAN E. PALMIERI

Singer to Take Fashion Post at Neiman’s

The distinguished salt-and-pepper

sexiness of his hair, together with the

rugged forehead lines, make him the

George Clooney of college football.

The form-fitting polo showcases the

perfect balance between minimal logo

branding and athletic appeal.

He could lose the British-teacup pose.

Athletic black rubber band is

perfect for the occasion.

Very well-fitting dress pants are the

right color but the wrong fabric. Go for a

cotton khaki. Also, the single pleat is OK,

but a flat-front would be more on trend.

His white sneakers with red

accents perfectly match the polo.

Designers & Agents To Launch New Show PARIS — French retail-to-luxury group PPR

said Wednesday it had completed its acquisition of 100 percent of Italian tailor Brioni, which is due to present its fall men’s collection at Milan Fashion Week on Jan. 16.

The purchase was finalized in accordance with the terms initially revealed Nov. 8, having received clearance from antitrust authorities, PPR stated. The group did not disclose the value of the transaction.

PPR chairman and chief executive officer

François-Henri Pinault stated at the time that a push into accessories and expansion in the bur-geoning Asian market were key avenues for growth at Brioni, which posted 2010 sales of 170 million euros, or $225.7 million at average exchange rates.

Based in Penne, Italy, Brioni is famous for dressing fictional character James Bond in the film franchise. Its handmade men’s suits have been worn by such famous men as John Wayne, Clark Gable and — more recently — Barack Obama and Matt Damon. — JOELLE DIDERICH

PPR Finalizes Brioni Purchase

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Here and right: Looks from Jet Set.Massimo

Suppancig

Yohji Yamamoto as among the highlights. “It was very modern, with Japanese inspira-tion, monochromatic with great detailing,” he said.

Commenting on how packed and upbeat the show was, Tancrède de Lalun, general merchandise manager of men’s and wom-en’s apparel at Printemps, said the mood was all about cocooning, coziness and com-fort, with an abundance of rich fabrics and chunky knits.

With an array of modern interpretations on classic tailoring, the season’s he-roes ranged from Aristotle Onassis to Jay Gatsby. The Baz Luhrmann-helmed adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic “The Great Gatsby,” which is due for release at the end of the year, is sure to make a big impact on men’s wardrobes.

Nick Wooster, men’s fashion adviser at Park & Bond and Gilt Groupe, singled out luxe casual pioneer Brunello Cucinelli’s tailoring line as hitting the “per-fect sweet spot” between beautiful tailoring and luxury sportswear. In terms of silhouettes, this season’s jackets contin-ue to be slim and either short or long, he said, adding: “Thom Browne and Tom Ford made their marks in the sand.” Still, for Wooster, the “overwhelm-ing item” of the show was outerwear, split-ting into two camps — either in great Harris tweeds or technical materials. “It’s the per-fect story of old and new.…Men love things with a history and provenance, but there was also this amazing lightweight engineered out-erwear,” he said, citing Nanamica’s technical offerings in “beautiful shades of navy.”

Harrods’ Broderick noted an influx of quilting across collections.

Tailoring continues to wield its influence over the sportswear category, with brands using luxury fabrics and sartorial details

to elevate utilitarian and sportswear items. Take Boss Selection, whose lineup included a puffer jacket in buttery chocolate leather and a safari jacket which, when opened, re-vealed a skeleton of traditional suiting de-tails, such as a besom pocket with half moon stitching reinforcements.

Belvest had Mao and safari jackets. “We’re fusing the two universes because people want more comfort, pieces that are easy to wear, that you can wear out to the

movies, or whatever. That’s where these items come in,” said Roberta

Cocco, the brand’s president.Engineered Garments dis-

played coats in soft washed tweed with shawl collars and

fastened with tailoring tech-niques to prevent pre-mature wear. Woolrich John Rich & Bros. pre-sented its Byrd cloth parka in a range of dusty bright hues, in-cluding royal blue.

With consumers demanding value and comfort, it’s all about a soft, light, luxurious

hand this season. The rich array of

materials at play in-cluded overdyed cash-

mere, camel hair, fur trims, peached cotton, flannel and Zegna’s Cashco cotton-cashmere corduroy. “There were interesting fabrics, everyone’s trying to trick

the eye,” said Harrods’ Broderick, giving a “flan-

nel look-alike” moleskin at Cucinelli as an example.

“What I’m liking right now is this whole kind of Donegal [tweed effect]. Where ev-erything was kind of marled and marbled last season, there’s a lot more of these kind of colored Donegal flecks and speckles in knitwear,” said Saks’ Jennings, adding that he also liked the evolution of the printed wo-vens trend, particularly soft, washed Liberty of London-esque micro prints.

“Colorrrr,” he enthused when prodded for other key trends. “The purples of a few seasons ago have evolved into these amazing reds in shades of merlot and oxblood.” Gilt Groupe’s Wooster added: “I saw this amaz-

ing petrol green at Zanone — a kind of black, blue and green color. Such amazing colors are especially good for online retailers, with customers going for items that pop out.”

Other trends included double-faced and reversible outerwear, mixed-media outer-wear, shawl-collared knits and turtlenecks.

Business was bubbling for a num-ber of accessories brands, such as the trendy British foot-wear brand Grenson. Printemps’ de Lalun said thick-soled shoes will be big for fall, inspired by Prada.

Saks’ Jennings mentioned the for-mal dress slipper in casual fabrications and the hiking boot among key trends, as well as a prevalence of kilties and tassles.

Nigel Cabourn punctuated his collection with a camera bag trimmed with leather straps and a fishing net pocket.

“There’s a huge opportunity with men’s accessories as there’s almost this renais-sance going on in men’s wear right now where the young generation is really look-ing for the nuances of dressing — the small details, the lapel accents, the tie bars, the interesting socks, the way the jacket’s fitting

and bags, are selling very well right now, “ said Saks’ Jennings.

Several brands had rounded out their collections with new categories. Tailored resortwear specialist Orlebar Brown, for instance, introduced its first dress shirt and jacket, which was fitted but easy and light

and comes in five colorways. The brand also unveiled

an Olympics-themed bathing suit range with prints of a gymnast, swimmer and other sports figures.

Jack Spade present-ed an expanded tailor-ing element, which was well received by retail-ers, according to Micah Grossman, director of global sales. “The idea is to offer a full wardrobe,”

he said, adding that, with a London store opening

in the cards, a few Olympics-themed proj-ects could be in the pipeline. “Our ambition is to become a true global brand through partnerships in Asia and stores in key cities in Europe,” he said. The brand owns seven stand-alone stores.

U.S.-based Gitman Bros. unfurled a range of neckties made with Portuguese flannel and duck and reindeer-motif printed silk.

TAILORING ELEMENTS TAKE CEN

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Modern interpretations of classic tailoring draw retailer attention at Florence show.

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Woolrich Rich & Bros.

Nigel Cabourn

Black Fleece Henry Cotton’s

Victorinox Hugo Boss

HernoBelvest

Men’s Week WWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012 MW5

“It’s our first time making silk ties,” said Ryan Metauro, sales manager. “We are filling a void that the custom-

er is looking for.”Jeff Rudes, chief executive of-

ficer of J Brand, which launched men’s wear in 2008, said that by 2013 the label will have a full ready-to-wear men’s line com-plete with jeans, shirts, slacks and jackets. The brand’s col-lection of jeans and cotton stretch pants were crafted with detailed stitching and dressy men’s wear patterns such as houndstooth, and rich shades like red desert,

evergreen, autumn sun and union blue. In 2011, men’s

wear made up less than 10 per-cent of total sales for the company. J Brand generated around $150 million in total sales in 2011 ver-sus about $110 million in 2010. With a strong presence in the U.S., and

distribution in a number of top retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s, the

brand is eyeing ex-pansion abroad. “We have a full steam en-

gine ready to take on Europe like we did in the U.S.,” Rudes said.

Shifting away from shiny ny-lons into traditional men’s wear fabrics and sporting leaner proportions, reinterpretations of the puffer jacket were ev-erywhere. Isaia presented a vicunha version, retailing at a cool $15,000.

Cucinelli, meanwhile, showcased a down-filled cardigan. “The nylon down jacket has become boring somehow, there’s a lot of it in the market so I wanted to show something else to the consumer,” said Brunello Cucinelli, slipping on one of the cardigans over a slim suit jacket.

In terms of newsy tidbits, Barbour has collaborated with Paul Smith on a range of outer-wear, knits and shirts that will be dis-tributed by the Paul Smith sales force,

according to a spokesman for Barbour. The collection includes a Seafarer jacket inspired by an old canvas sail, with cross-stitching on the outside, he said.

Nigel Cabourn said that he hopes to open a mono-brand store in New York and another in London by the end of the year. The influential British designer gave visitors to his stand a preview of his latest limited edi-tion tome, “Scott’s Last Expedition, 1912-2012,” which will launch on Jan. 18 at the Bread & Butter trade fair in Berlin, marking the 100th anniversary of British ex-plorer Robert F. Scott reaching the South Pole. “We’re going to build a replica of Scott’s hut,” said Cabourn, who has designed 12 authentic garments, each named after an explorer involved in Scott’s expedition.

British cycling attire worn at the Thirties-inspired Tweed Run charity ride in London in 2009 influenced the waxed cotton-nylon trenches and needle-cord trousers at Henry Cotton’s.

Victorinox, makers of the original Swiss Army knife, teamed up with Christopher

Raeburn for another capsule collection, which included seven multifunctional pieces inspired by a Seventies Swiss army field jacket and made with sus-tainable and recycled materials.

Like the Swiss Army knife Victorinox is famous for, Raeburn’s

designs include nifty foldable, compact pieces like a packable

vest, which can be packed up in eight steps, and a raincoat that features a stowaway hood, a flash-light and a key latch.

Raeburn, who was re-cently named the winner of the British Fashion Awards for Emerging Talent, Men’s Wear, has helped Victorinox ap-parel garner exposure.

In 2011, apparel made up about 6 per-cent of Victorinox’s total sales. “I want to double this over the next five years,” said Joachim Beer, presi-dent of Victorinox Global Fashion & Retail. Beer added that Victorinox has signed a contract with Raeburn for all of 2012, to continue consulting with the brand’s internal de-

sign team, as well as to conceive fresh cap-sule collections.

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Olebar Brown

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Valentino: “We wanted to balance the frescoes and traditional art of Florence with something modern,” said Valentino creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli of the setting for the house’s hotly anticipated men’s wear catwalk debut here on Wednesday night, as guests of honor at Pitti Uomo. The show was staged in the transporting Baroque rooms of the city’s 16th-century Palazzo Corsini.

Providing a jolt back into the modern world, giant floor-to-ceiling screens were installed in the site for the occasion, flashing crackly black-and-white footage of the models moving through the sections.

It made a fitting set for the collection, which, offering a new take on the Valentino man, focused on sharply tailored modernist takes on men’s wear classics, straddling the sartorial tradition and new technology. Piccioli in an interview prior to the show said: “We wanted to [honor] the culture of couture, it’s very close to our world, to the world of Valentino, but also to the sartorial world.” Outerwear carried exaggerated rounded proportions echoing Fifties couture shapes. However, while evoking the weighty classic gentleman’s overcoats of yore, these fellows were ultralight and minimalist, with thermo-stitching replacing seams, or internal networks of heat-bonded tape in a shade of Valentino red. Slim cropped pants worn with shoes but no socks finished off the ensembles, giving a Mod spin, while sporty options included a rusty-hued safari jacket in nylon, bonded with cashmere. The full wardrobe ran from knits to a navy tuxedo in wool drill, as well as accessories, such as cool studded leather iPad clutches. While the smooth bonded-leather trench looked a tad secret agent, covetable outerwear options included an unlined duffle coat in crisp wool mixed with radzimir, a double cashmere coat, and a short navy peacoat with chunky knitted panels at the front. Taking his runway bow dressed in pieces from the collection, it was clear the house has already found a customer in Piccioli, and there are surely more behind him.

Hardy Amies: Florence, the world’s renaissance capital, proved a fitting stage for the fabled Savile Row tailor Hardy Amies’ fall collection that had a decidedly indulgent continental feel, with models toting luggage from the brand’s collaboration with Globe-Trotter. Nodding to the style of leading men of the silver screen that the late founder used to dress, such as Cary Grant, the classic gray flannel suit was the main protagonist here, worked in double- and single-breasted versions with peak lapels and strong shoulders. The bold construction was a departure from most collections at Pitti, which homed in on the continuing dressy-casual, soft-tailoring trend. Designer Claire Malcolm’s loose pleated pants and knitwear ensembles had a retro Parisian feel, accessorized with knitwear, including wound and bound oversize scarves fixed with vintage-style brooches. “For me Hardy Amies is all about the modern British gentleman…but a modern glamour that is a global international look and especially for this show, I really thought that the suit was modern-day armor, it makes you stand taller, you feel empowered,” Malcolm said backstage after the show. The fur-trimmed coats and eveningwear segment, which included patterned jacquard and velvet jackets, looked a little costumey.

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Men’s WeekMW6 WWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

MONCLER GAMME BLEU, Thom Browne

“...FORMULA ONE...”

ETRO, Kean Etro “I was born free, free as the eagle

that flies over the great blue sky, a light wind touches its face. I will be free.”

Fall 2012: Milan InspirationsMILAN — As preparations for the upcoming runway shows

enter their final phase, top designers and brands took a

moment to share their inspirations for the upcoming season.

Everything from radical rebels to the modern traveler will be

represented at the men’s shows here, which kick off Friday.

CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION, Italo Zucchelli

“URBAN LIFE.”

MILAN — Paul Surridge is about to take center stage.

After working in the shadow of designers such as Christopher Bailey at Burberry and Raf Simons at Jil Sander, Surridge, a smiling, enthusiastic British gentleman born and raised in Hertfordshire, was tapped to succeed Alessandro Sartori at the design helm of Ermenegildo Zegna’s Z Zegna line, which will make its runway debut here on Jan. 16.

“It’s very different to be the number two, or the number one,” Surridge said. “It’s extremely beau-tiful, but really stressful. You are in the firelight as a creative director.”

Aiming to “increase the Z Zegna business and create a collection that people want to wear, not that just people talk about,” as the de-signer affirmed, for the fall season

Surridge presents a lineup “full of integrity,” grounded on the compa-ny’s established tailoring tradition, which is revisited through new proportions and materials.

“I’m not someone who likes to cookie-cut a man,” he said. “I wanted the collection to really offer a young man a full-time ward-robe from morning to the evening, with everything that encompasses his lifestyle.”

Men’s staples, such as trenches, peacoats and suits, which show elongated silhouettes inspired by the “Jazz Suites” worn by the sophis-ticated gentlemen of the Twenties, are realized in both traditional fab-rics and in their high-tech version.

Case in point is the slim tai-lored suit with deconstructed shoulders, which comes in classic mohair wool or in a techno mohair nylon blend.

Surridge also designed a wide range of outerwear pieces, such as a techno gabardine raincoat with a detachable collar in sateen nylon and a herringbone style in techno nylon blend featuring graphic inserts in tridimensional mesh and calf leather.

The color palette of “dark and rich colors” includes navy blue, bur-gundy, green and brown, with flash-es of electric blue and cardinal red.

— ALESSANDRA TURRA

Z Zegna Blends Sartorial Touches With Techno Influences

Looks from

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DSQUARED2, Dean and Dan Caten“A RADICAL-CHIC DSQUARED2 BOY

REBEL UNIVERSITY STUDENT FROM A GOOD FAMILY BUT WITH A VERY BAD

REP AND ATTITUDE.”

ICEBERG, Iceberg creative team

“CHARLIE CHAPLIN IN MODERN TIMES.”

DIESEL BLACK GOLD, creative team

“The collection we are presenting in Milan repre-sents an evolution of our

roots: It draws inspiration once again from military constructions and vintage biker pieces with added Seventies-style cuts. The rich fabrics, the refined leathers and exquisite

finishings, not to mention special treatments, give a new role to these clothes.

The ‘cleanest’ cuts lend the garments an alternative el-egance. This is our vision of

the contemporary man.”

DIRK BIKKEMBERGS,Dirk Bikkembergs“THE NEW WINTER

COLLECTION SHOWS THE EVOLUTION OF DIRK BIKKEMBERGS DESIGN: FROM PRODUCTS WITH

STRONG REFERENCES TO THE WORLD OF SPORT TO A LIFESTYLE OFFER FOR A CONTEMPORARY MAN WHO LIKES STYLE AND FORMAL ELEGANCE BUT

WHO DOESN’T RENOUNCE COMFORT. THE JERSEY SUIT

IS THE SYMBOL OF THIS EVOLUTION.”

MOSCHINO, Rossella Jardini

“Warmhearted! Chesterfield coat in Prince of Wales check, padded in

goose down.”

PORTS 1961, Ian Hylton“Contemporary sensual-

ity and sense of style...a theorem proved in the for-mal language of an elegant overturned obelisk to focus the upper body of the com-mitted businessman, slen-derized silhouettes with broader peaked, strong shoulders and svelted

waist. It’s the expression of the moral rigor and devo-

tion to his work.”

VERSACE, Donatella Versace“THE VERSACE MAN IS AN ICON OF

MASCULINITY, A LEADER OF THE PACK.”

UMIT BENAN, Umit Benan“THE WAR HAS ENDED. THE BOYS

ARE GOING BACK HOME.”

Men’s WeekMW8 WWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

MISSONI, Angela Missoni

“SHARP ARTISANAL ELEGANCE.”

VIVIENNE WESTWOOD MAN,

Andreas Kronthaler“THE NEXT VIVIENNE

WESTWOOD MAN AUTUMN-WINTER 2012-

13 COLLECTION IS IN SUPPORT OF DAVID ATTENBOROUGH’S

DOCUMENTARY SERIES “THE FROZEN PLANET,” WHICH WILL COME TO AMERICA

BUT UNFORTUNATELY WITHOUT THE FINAL

EPISODE WHERE HE EXPLAINS THAT WE HUMANS ARE

RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ICE MELT. SO WE TOOK THE POLAR EXPLORERS

AS OUR HEROS, AND WE LOVE POLAR

BEARS.”

PRINGLE OF SCOTLAND, Alistair Carr

“THE AUTUMN-WINTER COLLECTION IS NOT

RESTRICTED BY A SPECIFIC THEME OR VISION BUT INSTEAD

INSPIRED BY A REAL MAN’S WARDROBE AND THE PIECES

HE WANTS TO WEAR. THE RANGE INVOKES A CONFIDENT MASCULINITY: SOFT, LUXURIOUS

FABRICS ARE REALIZED IN STRUCTURED SHAPES

AND MIXED WITH TOUGHER ELEMENTS TO ACHIEVE A LOOK THAT IS POLISHED BUT WORN

WITH EASE.”

LES HOMMES, Tom Notte and Bart Vandebosch

“THE COLLECTION IS INSPIRED BY SOUTH AMERICAN TRIBAL

CLOTHES. FASCINATED BY THE USE OF KNITWEAR AND

TRADITIONAL PERUVIAN COLOR SCHEMES, WE REINTERPRETED THIS TRIBAL THEME THROUGH

THE WORK OF MODERNIST ARTIST PETER HALLEY.”

ROBERTO CAVALLI,

Roberto Cavalli“The deter-

mined, self-confident Roberto

Cavalli man heads toward the

future: His re-laxed demeanor is an expression of his elegance.”

ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA, Anna Zegna, image director

“The Ermenegildo Zegna man arrives quietly: His BlackBerry is always connected to global financial uncertainty, but he is de-termined to take a break. He travels in style, with suitcases luxuriously packed for impromptu occasions that certainly don’t include a stay at an isolated ski cabin. His social life remains a pri-ority, both on the slopes and in the most exclusive lodges. The adaptation of his wardrobe to the environment hap-pens by degrees, creating incred-ible combina-tions between formal and sporty pieces, with each gar-ment fashioned from the fin-est materials and precisely infused with sartorial details.”

NICOLE FARHI, Massimo Nicosia

“2012 Grand Tour. West meets East. The collection provides a wardrobe for a modern traveler who loves

to collect pieces all over the globe. It is a contem-porary Grand Tour for a backpacker with a dandy attitude who travels from Heathrow in minus-3 de-gree weather and arrives in Hong Kong ready for 33

degree weather.”

Men’s Week MW10 WWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

by DAVID LIPKE

THE NEW SPRING Original Penguin ad-vertising campaign spotlights a heavily tat-tooed model on Coney Island during sunset, wearing tailored blazers and vests in various images. The ads help accentuate the casual brand’s recent push into suit separates, blaz-ers and tailored waistcoats.

“Two years ago, we didn’t have a tailored clothing program,” said Ann Payne, senior vice president of design and merchandising at the Perry Ellis International-owned brand. “Today, men are wearing suits and sport jack-

ets as an extension of their sportswear, so we can have a little more fun with it.”

Original Penguin is one of many American brands looking to capitalize on a resurgent tailored clothing market in the U.S., which was up more than 11 percent in the first half of 2011, according to NPD Group figures. In contrast to their European brethren, American brands tend to take a sportswear approach to tailored clothing, said designers and executives on this side of the Atlantic — and consumers are respond-ing to the creative approach to suiting.

“Something huge is happening. There’s a whole generation of guys who never had to wear a suit to work, and they are discovering tailored clothing in a whole new way,” said designer Michael Bastian. “It’s no longer a uniform or straitjacket you have to wear to work. It’s more about a fashion choice now. It’s gone from having to wear a suit to want-ing to wear a suit.”

Bastian and his peers, including design-ers like Thom Browne, Simon Spurr and Band of Outsiders, have reimagined the clas-sic gray flannel work suit in inventive ways

— taking it out of the sphere of office drones and into nightclubs and weekend parties.

Bastian is adding more tailored clothing to his assortments for fall. In his upcoming show in February, look for the designer to evolve the slim fit of his suits and jackets and add a bit of Seventies loucheness to the look. “We’re increasing the size of the lapel and playing with the notch. It’s a bit of Halston,” he explained, noting that one-button peak lapels will be a key style for fall.

Texture and tweedy English fabrics have become more important, as designers and trendy consumers look for styles beyond the run-of-the-mill business suit. Bastian noted he avoids Super 120s fabrics at all costs, for example. “That’s the deadly Dad-going-to-work fabric that’s really difficult to turn into something beautiful and sexy,” he explained.

Also on Bastian’s nix list? Those shim-mery, tone-on-tone Bemberg linings. “They look kind of sleazy,” he noted, adding he lines all his jackets with shirt fabrics.

While texture is a key trend, American men tend to prefer lighter fabrics and shy away from heavyweight wools, which can be an issue when creating sporty, rustic looks. However, textiles mills are producing the look of Scottish tweeds and textured wools in lightweight fabrics — which allow design-ers to create suits with lots of surface inter-est but in easy-to-wear weights.

“It’s a drag putting on a heavy jacket. You really want to stay in the 300-grams weight for anything that you want to wear more than one or two months out of the year,” noted Bastian, who is big on casual fabrics like corduroy, moleskin and seersuck-er. “These fabrics aren’t so precious. The more you wear them, the better they fit your body. The elbows break in and the shoulders settle down. It’s a real sportswear approach to tailored.”

At Joseph Abboud, rich, textured fabrics are also a primary trend for fall. “I think as the economy starts to improve gradually, there’s going to be more risk-taking in tailored clothing,” said Anthony Sapienza, presi-dent and chief executive of-ficer of the brand’s owner, JA Apparel Corp.

To that end, the brand has embraced double-faced fabrics, leather trim on pockets, elbow patches and tabs on collars for its fall lineup of suits and sport coats. Beefy fabrics abound, and some jackets even have removable knit collars or detachable fur collars. “It makes the jacket warmer around the neck. Men have really adopted scarves as a fashion item and these

give the jacket that same look,” said Sapienza.The ceo was in Florence for Pitti Uomo

this week, and he noted that many European companies there offered up their own takes on classic American preppy style, includ-ing brands like San Francisco, Hartford, Brooksfield and New England. “Western Europeans have adopted a traditional American collegiate preppy kind of look,” he noted. “But I think we have a more sophisti-cated understanding of it. Our design fuses traditional elements of American design

with European influences. We are synthe-sized in the middle.”

For spring, Joseph Abboud is continu-ing its “Made in the New America” cam-

paign, which is meant to both evoke the brand’s roots — JA Apparel owns a suit manufacturing factory in New Bedford, Mass. — and its interpretation of mod-ern American culture.

“I think there’s a whole new in-terest in ‘Made in America’ because there’s this perception that America is falling behind and that China has taken the lead in many areas. There’s a bit of paranoia that has seized the popular imagination,” said Sapienza. “We don’t want to wrap ourselves in the red, white

and blue of the American flag, it’s more subtle than that. Our

brand doesn’t just represent the old, Waspy, traditional clothing. We have a multieth-nic facet to the brand, and I think that has great appeal to the consumer today.”

The campaign features real men, including R.J., a half-

Lebanese actor; Andrew, an English-born cre-ative director, and Shawn, a denim designer.

At Original Penguin, look for suits with lots of surface interest in the fall, including Donegal wool, coated cotton, heavily washed cotton sateen and cavalry twill. Shawl col-lars, peak lapels and patch-pocket design de-tails add additional variety to the offerings.

Tailored clothing is currently only about 5 to 7 percent of sales for the casual brand, but the category is growing quickly — particu-larly in the company’s own retail stores, said Payne. “We can merchandise it with our dress shirts and ties. Our stores are becoming more of a destination for that,” she noted.

The stores have become popular with grooms looking for a youthful, nontradition-al wedding outfit, such as a blue and black houndstooth tuxedo offered this upcoming holiday season.

A sleeker look is the focus at Calvin Klein, where both one- and two-button blaz-ers with strong, constructed shoulders are the principal direction for fall. Lapels are streamlined, and a narrow welt pocket on the chest was added. Unlike Michael Bastian and Joseph Abboud, tweeds are not part of the look at the PVH Corp.-owned brand.

“A key difference between American and European tailored clothing is the fabrics. In Europe, they are working more with boiled and felted materials, while we are focusing more on modern fabrics with sheen and lus-ter to create sexy, liquid-metal-inspired suits,” said Kevin Carrigan, global creative director of ck Calvin Klein, Calvin Klein white label and Calvin Klein Jeans. “Calvin Klein brings its clean, pared-down American aesthetic to tailored clothing, offering heritage fabrics, minimal stitching and sexy proportions.”

American Tailored Clothing Gets Sporty

by JEAN E. PALMIERI

VAN HEUSEN THREW a welcome-home party for its neckwear business Wednesday night in New York City, a cel-ebration to commemorate the return of the Van Heusen neckwear license to the company’s fold.

For the past 28 years, Van Heusen ties have been licensed to Randa Corp. but that license expired at the end of 2011, allowing the heritage brand to join the others in the PVH Corp. stable. That group includes brands as varied as Calvin Klein, Izod, Tommy Hilfiger, Ted Baker, Claiborne, Nautica, DKNY, Jones New York, Robert Graham and J. Garcia.

PVH is the largest dress shirt and neckwear company in the world and five years ago it purchased Superba Inc., a neckwear manufac-turer with a 40 percent market share, for $180 million. The deal was designed to grow PVH’s business in a new catego-

ry that complemented its existing dress shirt division.

Since that time, PVH has brought all of its neckwear licenses in-house; Van Heusen was the final one.

“By taking Van Heusen neckwear back in-house, we are uniquely suited to merchandise, design, and market both dress shirts and neckwear together,” said David Sirkin, president of the PVH Neckwear Group.

In fact, Van Heusen neckwear is the third largest volume producer in the com-pany after Calvin Klein and Arrow, he said. “We’re very happy to have it back,” he said. “It’s our heritage namesake brand and we’ve been waiting five years.”

For spring, PVH has expanded distri-bution and will now sell Kohl’s in addi-tion to its long-standing retail partners,

J.C. Penney, Belk and Bon-Ton, Sirkin said. The company’s road sales force is also expected to increase business with specialty store accounts, he added.

In addition, the neckwear will now be better segmented to complement the dress shirt offerings, which are broken down into three categories: Van Heusen, Van Heusen Slim and Van Heusen Studio. “We can hit one lifestyle but three generations and demographics,” Sirkin said.

The Van Heusen line is targeted to a more-mature man and the neckwear here offers shaded warps in vibrant col-ors. It measures 3 3/8 inches. The Slim and Studio lines are geared more to a younger customer and will measure 2 3/4 inches and 2 inches, respectively. Both neckwear lines will be based in black with “pops of color,” Sirkin said. All of the ties retail for $40 and there will be four major deliveries a year with new product offered monthly, he said.

Under Randa, there was no neckwear for the Slim seg-ment and a limited amount of product for the Studio line.

Sirkin acknowledged that the neckwear market has been shrinking over the past 15 years, but said PVH is gaining market share. “We’re stimulating the market by giving new-ness,” he said, noting that more seasonal patterns and fabri-cations, as well as updated shapes are helping the company gain traction.

“We had a good year in 2011,” he said, “and that gives me optimism for this year.” In the third-quarter conference call on Dec. 1, the “heritage” dress furnishings business posted a 4 percent increase in sales, the company reported. However, it does not break out neckwear from dress shirts.

Van Heusen Expanding Neckwear Range

The Van Heusen

collection is now being

produced in-house.

The “Made

in the New

America”

campaign from

Joseph Abboud.

A new ad from Original Penguin.

A spring look

from Michael

Bastian.

BAST

IAN

PHOT

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KRI

STEN

SOM

ODY

WHA

LEN

Men’s WeekWWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012MW12

ENK NYC Evolves With the Times ENK NYC HAS THE OLDEST roots of all the men’s trade shows in New York, and it continues to tweak its formula each year.

This season, the upcoming show is ex-perimenting with a small new area inspired by the “S” section of ENK International’s WSA shoe show in Las Vegas. The area will host a group of trendy footwear brands, in-cluding G-Star, Ben Sherman, Levi’s, True Religion, Royal Elastics and Oliberte. “We’re not ready yet to call it an official section, but we’ll see how it works,” said Elyse Kroll, founder and chairman of ENK International. “The ‘S’ stands for sneakers, shoes or street. They all sort of work.”

ENK NYC has sold 225 booths, the same number as last season, said Mike Sampson, director of the ENK shows in New York and Las Vegas.

Apart from “S,” the layout is similar to last year. Designers’ Collective showcases classic men’s wear, classifications and accessories; Blue focuses on denim, contemporary and advanced sportswear; Tomorrow emphasizes progressive and emerging labels, and Clean provides a platform for grooming brands.

For the first time, the show has an offi-cial timekeeper in Tsovet, which has posted a working watch face on the ENK Web site. The company will also raffle off a Tsovet timepiece each day of the show to a retailer.

The Blue Agency showroom is sponsoring a new VIP café with two of its brands, Benson and Parajumpers. Dubbed the Blue Agency Bistro, the canteen will provide complemen-tary lunch to key retailers and media.

The business climate has improved some-what from last year, said Kroll, due to decent holiday sales, but retailers and vendors re-main wary about the economic outlook. “I think everyone is apprehensive. People are positive but not 100 percent sure how busi-ness is going to move forward. But I think they were more nervous before Christmas than they were after,” she explained.

However, Kroll emphasized that it be-hooves retailers to buy optimistically and to offer new and interesting product to shop-pers. “We’re in the fashion business. If re-tailers don’t buy, then they aren’t in the fash-ion business anymore. Product has to move and to change in order to have a relevant

store. That’s the good part of the fashion business — it’s always changing.”

Kroll expressed unhappiness with the split in the men’s market this season, due to Project and Capsule staging their shows a week prior to ENK NYC, MRket and Agenda.

Project is scheduled from Jan. 16 to 18 and Capsule from Jan. 16 to 17. ENK NYC and MRket are both slated for Jan. 22 to 24 and Agenda from Jan. 23 to 24.

“Will we have as good as attendance as we usually do? I can’t imagine anyone will, as the market is split. But I’m confident the important retailers will be at our show,” said Kroll. “We posted our dates first and very early. My concern is for retailers, and to make it convenient for them and to under-stand their travel schedules to all the shows on the calendar.”

Minya Quirk, a co-founder of Capsule, said that show was scheduled in the third week of January to follow Pitti Uomo and precede the Paris trade shows. “We have always sched-uled Capsule that way,” she noted.

Kroll and Sampson pointed out at least one silver lining to the extended New York

market: Retailers will be able to spend more time at each of the shows, as schedules won’t be as jam-packed.

For the next round of shows this summer, ENK NYC has finalized July 22 to 24 as its dates. Project and Capsule have not final-ized their dates yet, according to spokespeo-ple from each organization.

— D.L.

New and Noteworthy at ENK NYCENK NYC will be staged from Jan. 22 to 24 with 225 vendors. Here, a quartet of brands launching new lines and styles for fall.

BILLY JEALOUSYIt’s not every day that a skin care line branches into apparel, but that’s just what is happening at Billy Jealousy for fall.

The upscale men’s grooming and skin care collection inked a licensing deal with Crown & Eagle to produce and distribute a collection of men’s casual sportswear under the Billy Jealousy name, and the line will make its debut at the ENK NYC show.

The initial collection will be focused pri-marily on tops, both knits and wovens, and will also include sweaters. There will be very few bottoms.

Jonathan Whaley, design director, said the line will blend “Italian elegance, English bespoke, Asian bounce and American cool. Put it all in a blender and you come up with what we’re calling it — American sartorial.” He said that men today dress differently every day of the week and the plan for Billy Jealousy is to “try to take all the elements of what a man wears Monday through Sunday and make it in the best yarns and fabrics.”

Woven shirts in 80s and 100s yarns will retail for around $125, pima polos, light-weight hoodies and rugby shirts will be around $100, and T-shirts are $60. Cotton sweaters will sell for $75 to $85, while cash-meres will be up to $200.

Whaley said target distribution will be to the major department and specialty stores that sell the Billy Jealousy skin care line including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and upscale specialty stores.

He said there are no immediate plans to market the apparel and skin care ele-ments of the brand together. “The areas are so separate from each other and it’s a logistical problem more than anything else right now, but we’re thinking about it.” — JEAN E. PALMIERI FACONNABLE TAILORED DENIMOne year ago, Façonnable set its sights on attracting a younger customer by launch-ing a denim-based men’s sportswear line. The initial reaction was strong, prompting the expansion of the collection at both the wholesale and retail level.

In addition to distribution at upscale retailers such as Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s and Galeries Lafayette as well as specialty stores, the brand operates its own store in Nice, France, and will open a second unit in Dubai in July, according to Bruno Pfalzgraf, international commercial director for Façonnable and denim, and head of the denim division.

Pfalzgraf said the moniker of the line is designed to connect the collection to Façonnable’s “tailored heritage. It’s not just jeans. It’s slightly more casual and relaxed and is tailored inspired.” He said it is “based on the archives of the founder, but with a con-temporary twist.” It is targeted to the “25- to 35-year-old who doesn’t wear Façonnable yet.

But this is a good way into the brand for him.”The fall collection will be a celebration of

the visual arts. It was inspired by two iconic Frenchmen: actor Jean-Paul Belmondo and Nicolas de Staël, a celebrated painter who worked from a studio on the beach in Antibes.

Key pieces include coats, vests and long-sleeve polos in french terry and jersey slubs in “Yves Klein blue,” while sun-bleached oranges and yellow give life to terry-cloth hoodies and roll-neck pullovers. Selvage denim will also be a key component. Retail prices for shirts will be $125 to $200, jeans and chinos will be $125 to $200 and sport coats will be $250 to $300.

“It’s washed down and relaxed but with a touch of elegance,” Pfalzgraf said. — J.E.P.

FARAHOriginally founded in El Paso in 1920, Farah is now based in London and is owned by Perry Ellis International, which operates it under its Perry Ellis Europe umbrella. The brand is known for its bottoms, which, true to its roots, are inspired by vintage American styles — updated with an English spin.

Key styles for fall include the Chester chino and the Mills stretch, with the lat-ter in a skinny fit and fash-ioned from stretch hop-sack fabric. Both come in a range of colors.

The brand encompass-es a full collection, with bottoms retailing for $98 to $130, lightweight knits for $88 to $98, heavy knits for $150 to $180, polos for $70 to $90, wovens for $80 to $120, lightweight jackets for $120 to $140 and heavy outerwear for $250 to $350. While bottoms represent about 10 percent of as-sortments, they comprise about 50 percent

of the business, according to Jason Bates, owner of the Derelicte showrooms in New York and Los Angeles, which represent the line in the U.S.

“Building a nondenim bottoms business is really great right now, as so much of the market has been tops driven,” added Bates. “The collection is very wearable with a very nice aesthetic.”

In November, the brand won the Menswear Brand of the Year prize at the an-nual Drapers Awards in London. In the U.S., Farah is currently carried in Bloomingdale’s, select Urban Outfitters doors and about 65 independent specialty stores, including American Rag, LASC and Oak.

— DAVID LIPKE

QUODDYKnown for its hand-sewn moccasins and boat shoes, Maine-based Quoddy has had its share of ups and downs since its found-ing in 1909 by Harry Smith Shorey. The firm changed hands through a trio of companies from the Seventies through the Nineties, in-cluding R.G. Barry, Wolverine World Wide and Dunham Bros. Co.

In 1998, Kevin Shorey, a fourth-gener-ation descendant of the founder, acquired the company and bought the brand back into family hands.

Since then, the company has ridden the heritage Americana trend to newfound pop-ularity in influential specialty retailers like Oak Hall, Kilgore Trout, Leffot, Mrporter.com and Lane Crawford. In total, Quoddy sells to about 50 wholesale accounts world-wide — and its growth rate is highly re-strained by its production capacity, which is currently about 20,000 pairs of shoes a year.

All Quoddy shoes are made by hand in its workshops in Lewiston, Maine. “All our shoes are moccasin construction, which means leather fully surrounds your foot and fits

like a glove,” explained John Andreliunas, president of the company. “It takes a

year of training just to become an ap-prentice hand sewer, so that keeps a pretty good governor on our growth level.”

For fall, Quoddy is introducing its new Sitayik style, which is

a monk-strap boot and an updated take on its best-selling ring boot. It will retail for $325, while the core price range of the en-tire collection is between $250 and $500. “It’s a little more contemporary, with a modern silhouette and low-profile Vibram sole,” said Andreliunas of the Sitayik. — D.L.

Elyse

Kroll

Façonnable

Tailored

Denim

Billy Jealousy

Quoddy

Retail Plays to Wall Street in Miami MW13WWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

By WWD STAFF

RETAIL EXECUTIVES went down to Miami Beach Wednesday to show a bit of leg to Wall Street.

And although the economy leaves much to be desired, the U.S. is seen as over-stored and technology is pushing system-atic change through the industry, the retail chiefs at the 14th annual ICR XChange Conference each had a reason for why the future was theirs.

There was plenty of bragging about the still-growing potential of e-commerce, store expansion in a flat U.S. market and financial wherewithal as executives courted investors.

Here’s a look at what retail leaders from public companies had to say on day two of the three-day conference.

Michael Prince, chief operating officer, Guess Inc.

“Today we have virtually no business in Latin America, and we are working with a short list of candidates to partner with in Brazil. We know that Brazilian customers love Guess, so this is a high priority for us.”

“We are pushing partnerships in other markets — such as Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Peru — as we rebal-ance our supply chain to give us greater price-negotiating power.”

Christine Day, chief executive officer, Lululemon Athletica Inc.

“Our core focus right now is on run and yoga. We want to take all the oxygen out of the space in those areas.”

“There is potential for 350 stores in North America. We’re only a third built out. We launched our e-commerce chan-nel in 2009, it’s now just over 10 percent of sales and we are just planting the seeds for international and we have a new concept called Ivivva.”

“What we anticipate doing in the future is actually launching online concepts first, and then taking them to brick-and-mortar.”

Gary Schoenfeld, president and ceo, Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.

“We’re really narrowing and zeroing in how we communicate to 16- to 24-year-olds, getting in their heads.…PacSun is a lifestyle brand.” Robert Fisch, ceo, Rue21 Inc.

“We have Paris. It’s not in France, so — but it’s Paris, Texas. It looks like a prison, but this store will do — I sometimes stand up here, and I go, ‘Oh, my God, people are going to laugh me off the stage’ — but this store will do over $1.5 million in business in less than 5,000 square feet at low rent. So we’re very proud of that Paris prison.”

William L. McComb, ceo, Liz Claiborne Inc. “Juicy has an enormous consumer

footprint.…I can’t believe how big the busi-ness and brand is around the world. It can be something in China I believe that Ralph Lauren Polo can’t be.”

Andrew T. Hall, president and ceo, Stage Stores Inc.

“Small towns do not have any competi-

tion for us. We are the only ones who are bringing national brands to those towns. Those customers are under-served, and they welcome us with open arms.”

“There is a Wal-Mart in almost every one of our small-market stores. We like

Wal-Mart. We have a symbiotic relation-ship with Wal-Mart. They have a wide draw, and certainly our customer shops Wal-Mart, but she is shopping Wal-Mart for grocery, pharmacy…not buying her apparel at Wal-Mart.”

Chuck Rubin, president and ceo, Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc.

“We’re still only about 45 percent built-out on our 1,000-store objective, and that 1,000 stores are of our current format, which is 10,000 square feet.”

“Ulta.com today is a very small portion of our revenue base. It’s low-single digit as a percentage of our overall business. So, clearly, that’s one opportunity.”

David Jaffe, president and ceo, Ascena Retail Group Inc.

“Since we paid off our mortgage, we now have a debt-free balance sheet and, as of the end of the first quarter, over $400 million in cash. [That] gives us a lot of optionality to return value to shareholders — whether it’s built into a war chest for a potential acqui-sition someday or we continue to do stock buybacks.”

Michael Barnes, ceo, Signet Jewelers Ltd. “Our merchandising strategy is con-

sumer pull rather than retailer push, and therefore it significantly increases our ability to succeed. We’re increasingly fo-cused on the personalization of our inven-tory on Web sites.”

“We see the potential to increase space in the U.S. by about a net 40 percent to a total of about 850 Kay mall stores, about 500 Kay off-mall locations and 300 Jareds over a pe-riod of time. We’re seeing more real estate opportunities this coming year, and we’re targeting to open 40 to 50 stores in fiscal 2013, including six to eight Jared stores, giv-ing us a net increase in U.S. space of about 3 percent.”

We are the only ones who are bringing

national brands to those towns. Those

customers are under-served and they welcome us with open arms.

— ANDREW HALL, STAGE STORES INC.

Sources: 2011 Mendelsohn Affl uent Survey, HHI $100K+; WSJ. Magazine, prototype created by DJG Marketing; Wall Street Journal Europe/Asia Subscriber

Studies; ABC UK, January June 2011; BPA Worldwide January June 2011© 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This April, WSJ. Magazine will reach 2 million affluent men with its Men’s Style Issue.

With access to the most powerful and infl uential

readers around the globe, our readers spend more on men’s fashion than any other audience. April’s

WSJ. Magazine will be their trusted source of style.

MEN’S STYLE

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ISSUE DATEMarch 31

CLOSING DATEFebruary 17

MATERIALS DUEFebruary 24

The World’s Largest Luxury Magazine Anthony Cenname, Publisher

Anthony.Cenname@wsj.com, 212.597.5663

by JEAN E. PALMIERI

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Hart Schaffner Marx.The venerable label turns 125 years old this

year and to mark the milestone, its parent com-pany, HMX Group, is creating a capsule collec-tion for the fall season.

“There are six or seven iconic men’s piec-es that make up this collection,” said Joseph Abboud, president and chief creative officer. These include a black-and-white herringbone jacket, a double-breasted doe-skin blue blazer, a three-piece peak lapel gray flannel suit, a vested cavalry twill suit, a pin-striped double-breasted suit, a classic patch-pocket blazer and dark denim jeans. “We might add a great camel-hair coat, but it’s not going to be a big collec-tion,” Abboud said.

“I looked back at the last 70 to 80 years at what have been the most iconic pieces,” he added. “Things that are antifashion, beautiful, simple and just great style. These are pieces that are found in every guy’s wardrobe,” but updated to be appropriate today. The navy dou-ble-breasted blazer, for example, had roots that “came right out of the Civil War, but Abboud’s interpretation is timeless and contemporary. “It’s the ying and yang of traditional and mod-ern,” he said. “We want to honor our history and celebrate our future, but we don’t want archival, dusty stuff. It needs to be modern.”

The collection, which will be shown to stores next week during New York market week, will sport a special label and the pieces will be framed and hung on the wall to spotlight the collection. “We really want to give it credit,” Abboud said.

The company previewed the line in swatch form to some of its retail partners and the reac-tion has been positive. “We worked with our major

clients already and they’re really interested,” said Brett Schenck, president of Hart Schaffner Marx. The company is planning an advertising and marketing campaign around the anniver-sary in the fall season, he added.

“Hart Schaffner Marx is our single biggest business,” Abboud said. “Over the last 20 years, it became a corporate company not a style company, but the brand has never been tarnished. Now we can rev up the engines.”

The anniversary also allows the company to tout its long-standing Made in America posture. Schenck said the brand produc-es 200,000 units domestically every year, a fact that resonates with today’s consumer.

“If you wave the flag with honesty and integ-rity, it’s OK,” Abboud said. “This is not some fake or trumped-up concept to promote business. We have 1,700 people working in our factories in America,” producing garments with distinct American styling. “If you give the American con-sumer style, they’ll buy it.”

Men’s WeekMW14 WWD THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012

The anniversary collection label.

Looks from the 125th

anniversary collection, and

their designs in sketch form.

HMX Celebrates 125 Years

PHOT

OS B

Y AR

NALD

O AN

AYA-

LUCC

A

F A I R C H I L D F A S H I O N M E D I A

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