Daily EDition december 8, 2016 1

Fashion. Beauty. Business.

Crew Search?J. Crew is said to be devising a succession plan involving Mickey Drexler.

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Carolina’s NightCarolina Herrera was honored at Lincoln Center for her 35 years in business.

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Rodeo RidersDior feted its pop-up store on Rodeo Drive for the Dior Lady Art project.

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● The Austin, Tex.-based jeweler could be valued at $1 billion or higher in the Jefferies-run process.

by Evan Clark

Kendra Scott might just be fashion’s next billion-dollar baby.

The Austin, Tex.-based fashion jewelry brand is in the late stages of an auction to sell off a minority stake — a process that could value the rapidly growing company at $1 billion, sources estimated.

Given the size of the check that would be required to buy the 30 to 40 percent of the company said to be in play, the buyer is expected to be one of the larger private equity players. Advent International, which has stakes in Lululemon Athletica Inc., Charlotte Russe and many others, is said to be one of the bidders in the auction.

It’s a big price tag that would be sup-ported by the company’s swift growth, its potential to continue expanding and a deal structure that might allow the buyer to receive some kind of a dividend for its involvement.

One financial source said Kendra Scott has annual earnings before interest, taxes,

● As U.S. retailers consolidate, the coffee brand forecasts adding 12,000 stores worldwide through 2021.

by DaviD Moin and Evan Clark with contributions from allison Collins

There’s a Starbucks on every corner and more on the way, but coffee guru Howard Schultz, apparently with no irony intended, said the U.S. has way too many stores. And fashion gave a hearty amen.

Experts contacted by WWD agreed that there are too many stores that fail to turn the act of buying into a true experience.

“We’re going to see a very major down-turn in the fact that the country is over retailed in lots of categories,” said Schultz,

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Kendra Scott Minority StakeOn the Block

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StarbucksCEO SeesLess RetailIn Future

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Perfection — it’s got nothing on personality. That’s the premise behind “Imperfectly Perfect,”

Rebecca Moses’ joyful exhibition opening broadly tonight at Ralph Pucci International after

a benefit event for Jazz House Kids on Tuesday night. It showcases Moses’ art and fashion — and

the collection of personality-rich mannequins she designed for Pucci.

For more, see pages 6 and 7.

Perfect?Who, Me?

Photograph by Thomas iannaccone

Learn More >

ARRIVING SOON

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december 8, 2016 3

Iris Apfel to Sell Personal Jewelry Collection on One Kings Lane● The style star will continue to offer items from her own closet for purchase.

● Supreme Court Decision Blow to Fashion Designers

● Aerie Opens Concept Store in New York

● Farfetch Takes to the Stage With Retail Innovation Event in London

● Japanese Mountaineer Becomes Uniqlo’s First Female Ambassador

TOP 5TrendIngON WWD.COM

NEWSMAKERSThis Week’s Most Talked About Names In Our Industry

Howard Schultz

Carolina Herrera

Benjamin Millepied

Rebecca Moses

● The company is working to improve its business and moving to create a succession plan.

by DaviD Moin

NEW YORK — Millard “Mickey” Drex-ler is busy fixing J. Crew, improving the assortment, narrowing the losses, ratio-nalizing the store base and growing the Madewell division. But sources tell WWD he’s also thinking further into the future and seeking a seasoned executive to work with him and learn the business.

Though no list of candidates has sur-faced, internal and external candidates are being considered, sources said. The chosen individual would likely succeed Drexler as chief executive officer, with Drexler remaining as executive chairman, working with the new ceo. In any case, it’s expected to be an orderly transition. Drexler, who has a 10 percent personal stake in the business and also holds the title of chairman, isn’t about to leave anytime soon.

Another source said succession has

been on Drexler’s mind for some time, though there’s speculation he’s stepped up search efforts recently. The 72-year-old Drexler is considered one of the industry’s greatest retailers, “a merchant prince” often credited with creating “casual chic” by catapulting Gap Inc. into a household brand name in the Eighties and Nineties and generating billions of dollars in revenues. He also launched Old Navy from scratch and elevated J. Crew from a sleepy, preppy catalogue into a popular multichannel brand with quirky colorful styles, quality fabrics and a hip attitude. First Lady Michelle Obama has been a fan of J. Crew.

But the company has hit hard times, like other fashion retailers, hurt by the rise of fast-fashion and discounting as well as some of its own internal fashion misfires.

“Succession planning has been an ongo-ing and important consideration for our company — as with most companies — and it will be a thoughtful plan for the future growth of J. Crew. But at this time, there is no new news to report,” a spokeswoman told WWD.

Among the steps taken by Drexler to right the assortment: J. Crew has exited

the bridal business, linked with New Balance for a women’s active line, and begun wholesaling J. Crew and Madewell to Nordstrom.

Private equity firms TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners took J. Crew private in a $3 billion deal in 2011, but that transaction came with a heavy debt load, which as of the end of the quarter amounted to $1.5 billion.

Succession is a hot topic in the retail industry, with Jeff Gennette set to succeed Terry J. Lundgren as Macy’s Inc. ceo in February, while Lundgren shifts to the title of executive chairman. In July, Tim Belk resigned as ceo of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk chain, which since its founding 129 years ago has been family run. Lisa Harper, a Durham native and UNC Chapel Hill graduate who previously served as ceo of Hot Topic, succeeded Belk. Months before, Belk was purchased by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in December 2015 for $3 billion. Sycamore also owns Hot Topic.

At Abercrombie & Fitch, Fran Horowitz could soon step up to ceo, succeeding Arthur Martinez, who serves as executive chairman. Horowitz is currently president and chief merchandising officer.

Among the seasoned executives who could be tapped for top retail jobs are Maureen Chiquet, former ceo of Chanel who worked at Gap Inc. earlier with Drex-ler, including helping to launch Old Navy, and Glen Senk, formerly ceo of Urban Outfitters Inc. and David Yurman.

● China is the top apparel supplier to the U.S. but has been in the crosshairs of the president-elect’s antitrade rhetoric.

by krisTi Ellis

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump might just be looking for some détente with China based on his pick for U.S. Ambassador to China — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.

Trump said Wednesday he intends to nominate Branstad for the important diplomatic position.

Branstad, whose relationship with President Xi Jinping dates back to the Eighties, according to Trump’s commu-nications office, will take over the helm at an increasingly tense time in U.S.-China relations.

China’s relationship with Trump, who does not take office until next month, has already shown apparent signs of strain in the wake of the president elect’s antitrade rhetoric that has been leveled at the country.

“Gov. Branstad’s decades of experi-ence in public service and long-time relationship with President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders make him the ideal choice to serve as America’s Ambassador to China,” Trump’s office said. “He successfully developed close trade ties with China while serving as chief executive of the Hawkeye State. That experience will serve him well as he represents America’s interests and further develops a mutually beneficial relationship with Chinese leadership.”

Branstad said, “I have known Pres-ident Xi Jinping for many years and

consider him an old friend. I look for-ward to building on our long friendship to cultivate and strengthen the relation-ship between our two countries and to benefit our economy.”

Trump’s team touted the goodwill Branstad has generated with Chinese officials over the years. Branstad has led seven trade missions to China, the first being to Hebei Province in 1984.

He is also considered an “old friend,” which is a culturally significant title, by Xi and has a long-standing relationship with the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai, according to Trump’s team.

They said Branstad collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture for China, including meetings with Minister Han Changfu, and has worked closely with Madam Li Xiaolin of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries to further relationships between states in America and Chinese provinces.

“Gov. Branstad supports Presi-dent-elect Trump’s mission to negotiate trade deals that put America’s interests first,” Trump’s team said. “He will work with President-elect Trump’s economic team to negotiate fair trade deals that create American jobs, increase American wages and reduce America’s trade deficit. He will also work with President-elect Trump’s national security team to imple-ment an America First foreign policy that will advance America’s core national interests and promote regional stability.”

Trump railed against China throughout the campaign and as President-elect he said he will label China a currency manip-ulator in his first 100 days in office. He has also repeatedly vowed to impose tariffs as high as 45 percent on imports from China, which has many in the fashion industry worried.

China is the top supplier of apparel and textiles to the U.S. In 2015, those com-bined imports totaled $43.2 billion.

Many major retailers and brands make clothing and footwear in China and import it back to the U.S. As a result, many com-panies would be potentially hurt if tariffs were imposed on their imports and con-sumers could face higher prices on goods.

Julia K. Hughes, president at the U.S. Fashion Industry Association, said: “It is very positive for Trump to nominate Gov. Branstad, who comes from a state that is a major exporter of agricultural products to the world and especially to China.”

She said he “sees the positive side of trade.”

“When we look across the board, business with China, the relationship with China is very important, not to mention the importance of Chinese consumers for sales of American brands which is a growing business,” she added.

Hughes said if Trump does carry out some of his pledges like imposing a 45 percent tariff on imports from China there would be a chilling effect on trade.

But she said she is hopeful that “it doesn’t come to that.”

“Part of the rhetoric [as Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, suggested] is to get China to the negotiating table and talk about these issues and changes of policy, more than actually jumping right to retaliation,” Hughes said.

Hun Quach, vice president for interna-tional trade at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said the position is “one of America’s most important relationships.”

“We know Gov. Branstad will bring his deep knowledge of trade and innovation to the job as he works to advocate on behalf of America’s interests,” Quach said.

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J. Crew’s Drexler Said Eyeing Successor

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Trump’s Ambassadorial Pick for China Could Help Smooth Relations

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www.westfield.com/holiday

december 8, 2016 5

● The senior vice president of home had been with the company since 1999.

by lisa loCkwooD

NEW YORK — Another top creative execu-tive is exiting Calvin Klein Inc.: Amy Mellen is leaving her role as senior vice president of home at CKI.

“After over 17 years of dedicated service to Calvin Klein, Amy Mellen, senior vice president, home, will be leaving the com-pany at the end of December. An announce-ment regarding future developments will be made in due course,” the company said.

She was unavailable for comment on her plans.

Mellen has been at Calvin Klein since September 1999, where her creative role encompasses furniture, fabric, bedding, bath, down, table top, gifts, table linens and rugs. Earlier, she was design director of Adrienne Vittadini.

Mellen’s departure is part of the remak-ing of the Calvin Klein brand under chief creative officer Raf Simons, who joined the company in August.

CKI had previously operated with five creative directors (including Mellen), who each oversaw different parts of the brand. In April, Francisco Costa, creative director of women’s Collection, and Italo Zucchelli, creative director of men’s, were let go. In August, Kevin Carrigan, global creative director of Calvin Klein Inc., left his post. Carrigan was responsible for ck Calvin Klein, Calvin Klein Jeans and Calvin Klein White Label, which represents the lion’s share of Klein’s apparel business. Ulrich Grimm, who oversees men’s and women’s shoes and accessories, remains at the company.

In appointing Simons in August, CKI sought to unify all Calvin Klein brands under one creative vision. At the same time, CKI also hired Pieter Mulier as creative director, reporting to Simons. Mulier is responsible for executing Simons’ creative and design vision for women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, as well as the bridge and better apparel lines and accessories. He also manages all men’s and women’s design teams within the Calvin Klein brand, under Simons’ leadership. Mulier has long been Simons’ right-hand man, serving as head designer of women’s and men’s accessories at Jil Sander when Simons was creative director there and as a designer at Simons’ men’s wear business. Simons’ namesake men’s wear business continues to be based in Antwerp, Belgium, where that brand’s designers are based.

“Raf Simons’ business is independent from Calvin Klein, so are the design teams. The only crossover is Raf Simons himself,” said a spokesman for Simons.

The Belgian designer is joining the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s official schedule and will show his men’s collection on Feb. 1 in New York for the first time. In the past, he has shown his signature collection in Paris.

Simons plans to show his women’s and men’s Calvin Klein collections together on Feb. 10 at 10 a.m. in New York.

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Amy Mellen Exiting Calvin Klein

● The space, which was previously Dior’s temporary location, is located on Conduit Street.

by naTaliE ThEoDosi

LONDON — MCM is continuing its European expansion plans with the opening of a new flagship here, located on Mayfair’s Conduit Street.

The new space, which was previously used by Dior as a temporary location during the renovation of its Bond Street boutique, is located near the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Dsquared, Moschino and the recently opened Guiseppe Zanotti.

Sebastian Klever, the brand’s European managing director, said the mix of the street’s hip brands and its central location made Conduit Street the right fit.

“The street is directly linked to the luxury of Bond Street but also to Regent Street where you have more traffic; it’s

exactly in the middle of the two. The surrounding brands are young, hip brands which is a good match for us and taking over the store from Dior was also an attractive factor. It makes it a very known location,” he said.

Klever added that the closure of the brand’s Sloane Street store was only coincidental due to redevelopments in the building the company was renting. The area, alongside Mayfair, contin-ues to be a key location for the luxury brand. It now targets Sloane Street through its shops-in-shop in Harrods, launched earlier this year.

“Our strategy is to be present in the Sloane and Bond Street areas, both areas are where we need to be. We have a very strong presence in Harrods with a shops-in-shop that’s over 1,000 square feet, so currently we have both areas covered,” said Klever. “I don’t want to exclude that one day we will return to Sloane Street with a stand-alone store, but it’s not an immediate plan; we are now focusing on those two points of sales.”

The Conduit Street boutique which spans 2,045 square feet over two floors, has a warm feel with oak wood flooring and furniture featured throughout the space, alongside bronze mirrored walls and sofas covered in the brand’s heritage cognac Visetos leather. It stocks the brand’s full ready-to-wear and accessories collections, as well as a London-themed key ring that is exclu-sive to the store.

“We are a global brand with a global collection so we aim to display every-thing in the store, particularly because this is a flagship and big enough to carry the full collection,” said Klever, highlighting that the brand sees a lot of potential in developing its footwear, alongside its backpacks which are the strongest selling pieces.

The brand is also planning the global launch of its first perfume in the first quarter of 2017.

“Our customer is a global nomad, so the sneakers, which are unisex in many ways, fit that look and match the backpacks,” said Klever.

Bag charms and logo backpacks, a

trend the brand was among the first to jump on, have made MCM popular with Millennials, particularly in Asia, which is currently MCM’s strongest market.

Klever believes the same young cus-tomer base will continue to be a focus in MCM’s European business. But Europe can offer a customer base that’s likely to be broader and target a wider age range.

“One of the main differences between our client base in Europe and in Asia, is that the people that are desiring luxury in Asia are the younger generation, the Millennials. Due to their education and the economic boom in Asia, they have the necessary financial means to afford luxury,” said Klever. “London is a very international market and the luxury customer is spread across different groups, from the younger, trendy customer to the more traditional one. So we developed a col-lection that can appeal to all different types of people.”

A handbag range made of mono-chrome Italian leather, stripped from the logos of the signature Visetos can-vas has been developed specifically for the European market.

In 2016, Klever has also spearheaded three store openings in Germany, as well as the launches of shops-in-shops in Paris’ Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, as part of the company’s focus on grow-ing across Europe. He sees potential for further openings of stand-alone stores in Paris, as well as Italy, where the brand already has strong distribution channels in big department stores, such as Luisa via Roma and La Rinascente.

The launch of the brand’s punk-themed spring collection, as well as its collaboration with London-based designer Christopher Raeburn — drop-ping in stores in January — are also among the company’s plans in the coming year.

“We call it new school luxury, we want to offer a high-quality product but at the same time be seen as a modern brand, so all our events and visual merchandizing for the next season will be focused around the ‘Punk Ethos’ collection.”

Inside MCM’s new London flagship on Conduit Street.

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MCM Opens London Flagship in Mayfair

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by BriDgET FolEy

Consider the gauntlet thrown. It’s as chic and provocative as an 11-button glove, and plenty joyful. It comes via “Imperfectly Perfect,” an exhibition by Rebecca Moses opening tonight at Ralph Pucci Interna-tional, a cross-disciplinary wonder of illustration, one-off fashion and accesso-ries and a glam contingent of mannequins who shatter current norms with their outrageous style. Just as the real-life mod-els of the social media generation — Karlie, Gigi, Kendall — have, by force of their own powerful personalities, shoved aside the blandly pretty girls who walked (but never ruled) the runways in the Aughts, these fiberglass fashion girls make today’s standard minimalist genre look more store dummy than dynamic presence.

“It’s Rebecca’s world,” said Pucci last week over a lunch at local haunt, Basta Pasta, following a walk-through of the almost fully installed show, an afternoon’s pleasure that included Moses, stylist Fred-die Leiba and publicist Lou Iacovelli. “She

proposed it to me. I just felt the timing was right. Everyone in retail is saying you have to be different, you have to step away from what everyone else is doing, but no one’s doing it.”

Moses approached the show as a cele-bration of women and the visual idiosyn-crasies — both genetic and cultivated via personal style — that make us who we are. Hence the show’s title; these ladies are fab-ulous but flawed, perhaps with a crooked nose, off-center chin, or neck too this or that. Moses’ original plan was to use her artwork as a backdrop for the undressed mannequins, which she designed in col-laboration with Pucci’s longtime sculptor, Michael Evert. But almost immediately, that felt wrong. “These girls aren’t naked kind of girls; these are fashionistas,” she determined. “They’re about their hair and their makeup and the accouterments.” They had to be dressed.

Moses quickly rethought the show as a gallery opening in itself, her vibrant illustrations of women covering the walls

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Rebecca Moses:Artfully Imperfect

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The “Imperfectly Perfect” exhibition by Rebecca Moses at Ralph Pucci International.

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● A benefit and a major Rebecca Moses installation made for a special evening.

by DaviD Moin

Ralph Pucci was once asked, “’You’re always playing jazz in your showroom, why don’t you do a jazz club?’ I told him all I do is work, eat at Italian restaurants and listen to jazz.”

That was Pucci speaking Tuesday night, at his benefit for Jazz House Kids staged at the Ralph Pucci International showroom at 44 West 18th Street. Pucci’s world revolves around spotlighting creativity and mixing home furnishings, fashion, mannequins, art and photography in a single setting for an elevated experience. At the private benefit, he took it up several notches. His showroom was filled with paintings, man-nequins and fashion all by Rebecca Moses.

It was the backdrop Tuesday night for “Pucci’s Jazz Club” where jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli, and bassist and band

leader Christian McBride performed stan-dards from the Great American Songbook, such as “The More I See You” and “Our

Love Is Here to Stay.” Between songs, they talked about how their careers developed, the great “sidemen” they played with, and changing chord progressions on classic tunes to make them their own.

“I felt it would really be a visual wow for John and Christian to play right in the middle of Rebecca’s installation, with all the chairs placed around the mannequins, the mural, the clothing,” Pucci said. “It all complemented each other and became a big presentation. We will do the Pucci Jazz Club again — maybe test it in my L.A. show-room, or make it an annual event here.”

The finale came when teens from the Jazz House Kids played and sang along with Pizzarelli and McBride. Jazz House Kids, in Montclair, N.J., helps students gain “an artistic edge” through music, mentor-ing, education and apprenticeships. “I was so happy to see all these young students. They killed it, in front of all these people,” said comic Tracy Morgan, among the 160 who attended the benefit.

The Rebecca Moses exhibit opens this evening with an invitation-only event for the fashion, retail and visual merchandis-ing industries.

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Jazz Night at Ralph Pucci International

John Pizzarelli and Christian McBride perform at Ralph Pucci.

in small-scale portraits; floor-to-ceiling fashion illustration and a vast mural. Coming off the elevator, guests are greeted by a series depicting imaginary women for whom Moses has created back stories. “Rose — born in Liverpool. Came from a working-class family. Grew up in flea mar-kets, second-hand shops. She was going to make it all work for her.” “Crystal — part African-American, part Irish. She’s got her beautiful ‘fro and light skin, and people always wonder what she is. She hates when people asks. She says, ‘I’m me.’”

That, Moses said, is the ultimate mes-sage behind the show, a manifestation of a message all woman should embrace: “I am undefinable. Undefinable and indescribable.”

Arriving at the main gallery requires walking past an unrelated installation of work by some of the furniture design-ers Pucci represents. Once there, the open, pristine white space allows Moses’ colorful creations to pop. Twenty-nine mannequins populate the fete, some standing alone in appreciation of a can-vas, others, in conversational clusters. One wears a column in a burlaplike fabric from Pucci’s upholstery collection, its elaborately hand-painted train detachable at the shoulders for pragmatic purposes. Another “girl” works a longer train dotted with multicolor blossoms reflective of a subtle theme of “snowing flowers” that runs throughout. Another wears a lavishly appliquéd black coat. Moses made all of the clothes and jewelry and most of the handbags, save for some vintage pieces. Either way, she turned each into a one-off

hand-painted gem.But then, differentiation is the point.

With mutual friend Nicole Fischelis playing matchmaker, about a year ago Moses approached Pucci with an idea for a show that would feature unusual mannequins. They would look individual, with “perfectly imperfect” beauty. She reasoned that the fake people positioned around stores whose “job” it is to entice women to shop should look, if not like real women (we should all be so lucky), then at least reflect real-life diversity. The mannequins come in several poses, with various skin tones and hair styles, some painted on, some wigs, as well as very different facial features. Moses chose not to carve the eyes, but to paint them on, allowing latitude for various shapes; one of the heads has an off-kilter chin.

“I had to figure a way to find a voice for fashion. I want to bring art to fashion right now,” Moses said. “If people want [a fully dressed mannequin] for their home, if they want to wear the clothes, there are no rules anymore. We’re in an unknown territory now.”

For his part, while Pucci will sell a dressed mannequin to an eccentric collec-tive, that’s not his primary objective. He’s looking for major retailers to sign on in a new way, breaking away from the status quo of store forms that are “all flat white or flat black, including mine. Very chic, but I’ve been doing that for 10 years.”

Might these girls have too much person-ality to work as the clothes change from season to season? “Am I anticipating some stores to say, wow, this is fabulous but it’s a little too much?” he mused. “Yes, because they’re so used to doing the same thing over and over and over. What we need is one store to do it, one store to do a ‘wow’ with it. We’ll see others want to do it.”

Moses maintained that retail embrace of her concept requires a shift in perception, from seeing mannequins as neutral clothes hangers to representatives of the real women who will buy and wear fashion. Within each one’s distinctive look, she noted the flexibility to repaint eyes and change wigs. “If retailers don’t differentiate themselves, they will not have a story to tell,” she said. “If they don’t have a story to tell, they will not be retailers [for long].”

Enter the prudent publicist with per-spective. “Especially if they’re going to bring in the selfie generation,” Iacovelli offered. “It’s all about who they follow, and they follow themselves. So they need to walk in [to a store] and say, ‘hey, that’s my

coloring,’ and ‘she’s got freckles like me.’ They’re about themselves. It’s not about how it was before — you’ve got to look like Twiggy or Cheryl Tiegs or whatever. Those days are long gone.”

Not gone (thank God): fashion’s ability to

telegraph joy. Whether or not you’re in the market for mannequins, drop by the Pucci Gallery by Dec. 13 to experience Moses’ imperfectly perfect world. You’ll leave smiling. And maybe, a little more forgiving of your off-kilter chin.

Rebecca Moses:Artfully Imperfect ConTInued fRoM Page 6

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Monse Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim used their first pre-fall collection to “reiterate what we think our brand DNA is: stripes, the unfurling of clothes, scarves, easy-to-wear and more color.” This was the right approach. For all the positive momentum Monse has worked up in a very short time, it is a very young brand — and establishing a consistent message is crucial. The striped and polka dot blouses, scarf dressing and twisted takes on men’s tailoring sensualized with undone, off-shoulder cuts that Monse rode in on were well-represented in new, tweaked editions. Some highlights were a red-and-white striped georgette blouse with exaggerated sleeves and a twisted wrap con-struction, and a stretchy striped knit turtleneck worn with dotted pajama pants.

Garcia and Kim took some risks, too. They introduced their first pair of jeans — the “dad jean” — slightly deconstructed with a high waist, cuffed carrot leg and back pockets gently branded with an M. It looked very cool with the red-and-white striped top. They continued to lay out their concept for modern evening with a rumpled red satin suit made with a touch of metal for structure and shine, and draped tops and pants in bold color com-binations, such as pink and bottle green and pink and red. “We don’t necessarily gravitate toward gowns,” Garcia said.

It’s a busy, exciting time for the designers. Monse doubled its distribution for spring after taking the collection to Paris to sell there for the first time. “Europe was filled

with boutiques all over the world that were just dying to get here, but can’t because it’s not in their budget to come to New York,” Garcia said. The duo is also readying for their new residence at Oscar de la Renta, where they’ll show their first collec-tion for fall. — Jessica Iredale

escada Hitchcock women, perpetually polished and pulled together, provided Daniel Wingate with fine material to mine for his Escada pre-fall collection. The brand stands for timeless poise, nothing too trendy or fussy, which Wingate served with a focus on clean shapes and a bounty of color — pink, purple, black, white and navy. Black-based floral prints inspired by “Vertigo” channeled approachable daytime summer drama on cotton voile dresses and tops, while a serene black-and-white jumpsuit offered modern evening elegance. There was a classic shift in red, white and blue minimalist patchwork and nifty tailored pieces — a trench, pants and a jumpsuit — with lacing details that felt surprisingly edgy yet appropriate for Escada. — J.I.

elie Saab Queen of Hearts — as in the fictional monarch from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” — meets Eighties excess? So declared the press notes for Elie Saab’s latest pre-fall lineup, which demonstrated the label’s continued emphasis on day-wear and cocktail looks. The refer-ences came through, thankfully, with subtlety: Heart motifs were worked into a few pieces in the collection

via sweetheart necklines and golden heart charms, the latter adding texture to a Victorian-style sheer lace blouse. Exaggerated power shoulders nodded to the decade on a few of the collection’s embellished jackets and dresses; ditto: a black leather miniskirt decorated with heart-shaped velvet embroidery. Saab’s take on street included an oversize velvet hoodie decorated with crystal embroidery and a nylon parka accented with lush fox fur.

This being Saab, there were plenty of glamorous evening gowns on tap. One highlight was a transparent lace high-neck number covered in 3-D floral leather appliqués — Victorian prim but not all the way proper. For party girls, Saab’s decadent, festive dresses covered in allover confetti beads and sequins should fit the bill. — Kristi Garced

See by Chloé Mountain villages on the Russian Steppes and Georgia O’Keeffe’s New Mexico desert served as the starting points at See by Chloé’s thoughtful pre-fall lineup. In the well-made col-lection, Clare Waight Keller and her team used the former most memo-rably in a Russian ribbon print on matching shirt and skirt set, patch-work jeans, crochet shift dresses and floral embroidered clogs. The latter came through in a desert palette of mustard, brick red and dusty blues found in oversize knits, ultrasoft sweatpants and shirts; striped cotton capes, and a leather peplum jacket. “These inspirations evoke a See by Chloé girl with a strong, independent attitude and an innate love of nature,” according to the collection notes. — Mayte Allende

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● Jaime King, Ahna O’Reilly, Zoey Deutch and more attended the event in Beverly Hills.

by MarCy MEDina

LOS ANGELES — Dior embraced tradition and modernity with its Dior Lady Art collab-oration, and the same could be said for the opening night festivities at its pop-up shop on Rodeo Drive. On Tuesday night, a crowd of Generation Z actresses including Olivia Holt, Britt Robertson and Zoey Deutch packed into the gallery-like space to ogle the limited-edition Lady bags that had been reinterpreted by contemporary artists.

Neither was hard to spot — the starlets donned bright red, pink and white frocks and the colorfully painted accessories were propped up on pedestals, shelves or an army of bar jacket-wearing manne-quins. There was even an artful splattering of paint on the concrete floor, along with a gold Walk of Fame-style star. The house chose Los Angeles for its first pop-up effort, both for its art-loving client base and its visibility via said actresses.

“I decided it wasn’t a bad thing to stand out,” said Gillian Jacobs of her flame red dress, which she paired with violet eye shadow and a silver bag. “And I love the pink suit that she’s wearing,” Jacobs said, nodding in the direction of Kathryn New-ton, who soon came over and explained that the suit was actually from a collection 10 years before. “I guess they had been saving it,” she said. “I was thinking it would make a great Halloween costume — I could go as Elle Woods from ‘Legally Blonde.’ I think Reese Witherspoon would approve.”

Newton just finished filming the HBO series “Little Big Lies” with Witherspoon, who plays her mother in the drama. She also just wrapped “Lady Bird,” a film directed by Greta Gerwig, starring Saoirse Ronan and fellow party guest Odeya Rush.

It seemed even among the very young crowd, everyone went way back. Also reuniting were Deutch and Glen Powell, who co-starred in “Everybody Wants Some” earlier this year. “Nobody told me you were coming,” Powell said as he embraced her.

Dior’s North American president Renaud

de Lesquen looked pleased with the turn-out, but he also had business matters on his mind. “The store is supposed to remain open through February, but we may run out of product before then because the response has been so strong. Still, we’d consider doing another project like this next year,” he said.

After the cocktail party, many recon-vened a few blocks away at Spago for a candle-lit dinner of caviar and filet mignon. A few more recognizable faces joined the mix, including Robbie Rogers and his design partner Warren Alfie Baker, Shameik Moore and Halston Sage. Robert-son slipped by almost unnoticed because she had cut her long blonde hair and dyed it brown. “I get a lot of people reintroduc-ing themselves to me because they don’t recognize me,” she said.

Situated at the corner of Wilshire Boule-vard, one block south of Dior’s permanent Rodeo Drive store and in the same building that once housed Bulgari’s flagship and Louis Vuitton’s temporary digs, the first-floor space makes good use of the build-ing’s massive limestone facade and four-story glass tower as branding billboards.

As reported, for the Dior Lady Art col-laboration the house commissioned seven

American and British contemporary artists — Mat Collishaw, Ian Davenport, Daniel Gordon, Chris Martin, Jason Martin, Mat-thew Porter and Marc Quinn — to express their own visions onto limited editions of the Lady Dior bag and other accessories.

Only 700 bags will be sold among six locations worldwide. In addition to the pop-up, which is the sole North American retail outlet, the collection is available in Dior’s London and Paris boutiques, and will launch in Dubai on Thursday, followed by China and Korea on Dec. 10.

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Olivia Holt, Britt Robertson Party at Dior Lady Art Pop-up Opening

The exterior of the dior Lady art Los angeles pop-up

boutique on Rodeo drive.

Inside the shop.

olivia Holt in dior.

Britt Robertson in dior.

glen Powell with gillian Jacobs and ahna o’Reilly, both in dior.

odeya Rush in dior. Brianne Howey

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● The yoga apparel company also raised its fiscal-year EPS guidance range.

by viCki M. young

Shares of Lululemon Athletica Inc. rose in after-market trading following the company’s posting of third-quarter results that easily beat Wall Street’s consensus estimates.

Net income for the period ended Oct. 30 jumped 28.5 percent to $68.3 million, or 50 cents a diluted share, from $53.2 million, or 38 cents, a year ago. Net rev-enue rose 13.5 percent to $544.4 million from $479.7 million, while total compa-rable-store sales including direct-to-con-sumer rose 7 percent. Comps at stores rose 4 percent.

Wall Street was expecting EPS of 43 cents on revenues of $540.2 million.

The company said gross profit in the quarter rose 24 percent to $278.4 million, and as a percentage of net revenue was 51.1 percent compared with 46.9 percent in the year-ago quarter.

For the nine months, net income rose 12.5 percent to $167.2 million on a net reve-nue gain of 14.6 percent to $1.55 billion.

Laurent Potdevin, Lululemon’s chief

executive officer, said, “Our third-quarter results demonstrated strong execution across all areas of our business as we deliv-ered continued top-line momentum, out-performed in gross margin and inflected meaningfully in EPS.”

He said the company entered the fourth quarter experiencing “mixed sales results that have since improved.”

In a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Potdevin said the company con-tinues to be “on track with our five-year plan of doubling our revenue and more than doubling our earnings as we continue to execute against our long-term growth strategies — from product innovation,

expanding our international footprint, building a $1 billion dollar men’s cate-gory and connecting our global collective through our digital ecosystem.”

Looking ahead, he said that the com-pany will be “coming up with a fantastic innovation in the bra category in 2017.” The ceo said the firm’s bra revenue grew more than 20 percent, and noted that its performance in tops and tanks was due to the “success of layered combinations,” such as its lightweight tank top paired with the brand’s energy bra.

The company this month will open its first store in China in Shanghai, with a sec-ond site in the city after that. Two to three

more stores in Shanghai are slated for next year. Potdevin also said the company plans to open its first store in Beijing in a few weeks. In mid-2017, the company will open its international flagship store on Regent Street in London.

The company updated its fourth-quar-ter fiscal 2016 outlook, and now expects diluted EPS in the range of 96 cents to $1.01, with net revenues between $765 million to $785 million.

For fiscal year 2016, diluted EPS is expected at $2.18 to $2.23 on a revenue range of $2.32 billion to $2.34 billion. That compares with its guidance of diluted EPS between $2.11 and $2.19 on estimated net revenues of $2.33 billion to $2.35 billion in July when the company reported sec-ond-quarter results.

Shares of Lululemon closed up 4.5 percent to $59.84 in Nasdaq trading, but then spiked up 12.6 percent to $67.40 after it posted its earnings report and updated guidance following the market close.

Separately the company’s board approved a stock repurchase program for up to $100 million of its common shares. “The stock repurchase program is intended to create shareholder value by making opportunistic repurchases during periods of favorable market conditions,” the company said.

business

Lululemon Shares Jump in After-Market Trading

● Big data firm Edited analyzed more than 520 million products online to determine trends for 2017.

by arThur ZaCZkiEwiCZ

Artificial intelligence. Sustainability. “Lifestyle” brands.

Those are expected to be among the lead-ing trends for retail and fashion brands in 2017, according to a study conducted by big data firm Edited, which conducted an anal-ysis of more than 520 million global online products to create several key predictions.

Emily Bezzant, head analyst at Edited, which counts Ralph Lauren, eBay and Asos as among its clients, said leveraging AI will be to offer consumers greater personal-ization. “The savviest retailers are taking advantage of advancements in machine learning, deep analytics and AI for a more targeted and personalized shopping expe-rience,” Bezzant noted. “Customers now have longer digital footprints — shopping histories, social media profiles and inter-ests — giving retailers easy access to offer a tailored selection of products.”

Companies such as The North Face and 1-800-Flowers.com “are already using AI to provide personalized recommenda-tions. On a product level, retailers are also offering monogrammed accessories or handbags to meet the consumer’s individ-ual style preferences,” she said.

Regarding positioning of brands as a lifestyle, the analyst said driving this is the “explosion of subcategories such as ath-lei-sure,” which Bezzant noted will garner $83 billion in global sales by 2020. “[This] highlights how retailers are evolving into

lifestyle brands,” she said. “Many brands have launched activewear/ath-leisure lines [including Kate Spade, Zara] or collabo-rated with celebrities [Adidas/Kanye West, Ivy Park/Beyoncé].

“In 2017, retailers will push further into niche and smaller markets to cater to con-sumers’ lifestyles,” Bezzant said. “Retailers will also expand into premium services in brick-and-mortar stores — think sipping prosecco or going to a grooming bar — to keep consumers in store longer and offer greater differentiation.”

On the sustainability front, Bezzant said with the growth of the consumer move-ment “for more sustainably produced items, in 2017 retailers will look at how they can provide better quality products that last longer to align with consumers’ personal values.”

Retailers such as H&M and Zara “have already started to make progress — Edit-ed’s data has found that the median price of their sustainable collections are $17.99 and $9.90 respectively,” she said.

Lastly, the analyst said retailers “will use the latest mobile innovations to capture consumer attention” in 2017. As consum-ers choose mobile devices over desktops for all of their online tasks, Bezzant said retailers will shift efforts to mobile.

“As the smartphone becomes the dominant platform, retailers are relying on social media and the latest applications in virtual reality to promote their wares,” Bezzant noted. “Whether it’s delivering a 360-degree viewing experience so that a person feels like they are live at fashion week or using virtual reality to see how a product fits on a person’s body, mobile innovations will provide a unique immer-sion experience to the consumer.”

● Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s 2017 outlook said retail to also benefit from increased wage growth.

by viCki M. young

Caution is the watchword for the first few months of 2017 as the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump transi-tions into power but then expect fiscal growth stimulus to kick in later in the year.

That was the overall conclusion from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch presenta-tion in Manhattan at company headquar-ters Wednesday morning.

Ethan Harris, head of global econom-ics, said the U.S. dollar has stabilized, adding that “we’ve probably hit full employment, [although] inflation is creeping higher.” He noted the U.S. econ-omy is near the end of a maturing stage, typically reflecting the final healing stage of the economy.

As for the future, he said that depends on “Which Trump do we get?” In the short run, he expects more deregulation and tax cuts, but one key factor is the president-elect’s plan to rip up free trade agreements. “That’s very disturbing to the economy in the short run,” Harris said, explaining that free trade agree-ments typically have deep links between the signatories and their economies. “Ripping up the agreements hurts growth,” the economist said.

Globally, Harris was optimistic about Japan, noting that for the first time in its 20-year economic malaise the country finally has a tight labor market and easy fiscal policy. As for its neighbor China, Harris expects growth to settle in the 6 percent range. He expects the govern-ment will continue to try to move the

country from a manufacturing base to a trade and service economy.

Harris projected global growth to be 3 percent, which he calls the “new normal.” He attributed that to weakening demographic patterns and how the new technology is not generating the level of productivity that was expected.

Michael Harnett, chief investment strategist, expects the shift from mon-etary to fiscal policy under Trump will lead to some volatility in the markets. One bright spot is the expectation that wages will go up. “If wages go up, con-sumer spending will go up,” he said. He told WWD that compared with five years ago, consumers have increased their savings and now have a better balance sheet, and increased spending on their part would be good for retailers.

“In the immediate future, I’m not too worried about inflation. A little bit of inflation can be good. So long as wages go up, that will help with consumption,” Harnett said.

Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. econom-ics, said she doesn’t expect runaway inflation and projected first quarter GDP growth at 1.5 percent. She expects 2 per-cent consumer spending growth for the first quarter, but pegs that higher at 2.7 percent for the third and fourth quarters once the fiscal stimulus picks up speed.

Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy, expects investors to move out from fixed income and into equities. One of the sectors that would benefit from corporate tax cuts is consumer discretionary companies, which includes retail. Personal income tax cuts would also fuel consumption growth, making retailers beneficiaries of the tax change. “The domestic market benefits from strong consumer trends,” she said.

business

Retailers, Fashion Brands Expand ‘Lifestyle’ Positioning

business

Tax Cuts Under Donald Trump Could Bode Well for Retailers

Lululemon store front at garden State Plaza.

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depreciation and amortization of more than $70 million and that the company is “growing like a weed.”

The company has about 53 doors with revenues estimated above $200 million, up from 17 of its own stores and sales of $50 million in 2014.

In addition to online and at its own stores, Kendra Scott is sold at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and specialty boutiques around the world.

The source said a $1 billion valuation was something of a stretch but not unre-alistic, while others said the firm’s price tag could be even higher given the brand EBITDA margins above 30 percent.

The sellers in the auction are said to be Norwest Venture Partners, which bought into the company in 2014, and Kendra Scott, who serves as chief executive officer and founded the firm in 2002.

Norwest general partner Sonya Brown, who made the deal, declined to com-ment. Representatives for Scott, Jefferies and Advent did not respond to queries Wednesday afternoon.

Kendra Scott’s core is in Texas and Oklahoma and the company is said to be looking for additional funds to help it

expand toward the coasts and to get into other categories.

That puts the brand in a sweet spot for growth investors, who are looking for concepts that have built up a big enough presence to prove they have real consumer traction but still have enough readily identifiable expansion paths that a buyer can easily take the business to the next level.

Importantly, Kendra Scott also has traction on social media, with 464,000

followers on Instagram.While the brand has become a favorite

of the financial set that’s always eager for the next big name, it hasn’t played as extensively in the fashion mainstream of New York or Los Angeles. Ironically, that has perhaps helped it connect with a durable and lucrative base in the center of the country that is sometimes missed by brands — and left-leaning politicians.

Scott sketched out her story at a WWD forum last year.

“Farmers and coal miners are my family in Kenosha, Wis. At seven years of age in a blue-collar community, I saw the magic of fashion,” she said, noting her aunt was a buyer at a local department store. “I went to school for business and marketing, but I had the fashion bug.”

At 19, she opened a shop called The Hat Box. The store closed, but stoked her retail fire.

Scott has a talent for looking on the bright side.

“The recession was a wonderful gift,” she said. “Stores we worked with for years were shuttering. All my eggs were in one basket. I realized I needed to talk to my customer and opened retail again in 2010. The com-pany by year-end will operate 39 stores, with 15 to 20 slated to open in 2016.”

The brand hits a number of price points, with its web site carrying rose gold pendant necklaces at $65, pavé diamond and yellow gold earnings at $750 and a cuff bracelet in pavé diamond and yellow gold for $1,500.

It also has home goods, nail polish and a program called Color Bar that helps engage consumers in stores and online by letting them craft personalized jewelry.

The Kendra Scott brand is infused with philanthropy and supports various causes through events at its shops and online. Last month, the brand celebrated its first home collection by donating 20 percent of the purchases made online and at the company’s three Austin stores to the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate.

Kendra Scott Minority Stake on the Block ConTInued fRoM Page 1

Kendra Scott, right, celebrates the 2015 launch of her brand

in Bloomingdale’s in new York.

chairman and outgoing chief executive officer of Starbucks, while unveiling the coffee chain’s five-year strategic plan to open 12,000 new stores by 2021.

“We are going to see significant, major brands as we’ve seen already, not open as many stores as they have in the past,” he said. “And you’re beginning to see the beginning of lots of companies announce store closures because they’re fixed assets in terms of their infrastructure and their investment just can’t justify the return.”

Many retailers have laid out plans for significant store closings, including Macy’s, Gap, J. Crew and Sears, and more are expected as the industry copes with the increase in e-commerce, the slow-down in footfall at malls and a general apathy around style in a world filled with digital gadgets.

The numbers also paint stark picture. The U.S. has 7.5 million square feet of gross leasable area in shopping centers alone, according to a General Growth Properties Inc. report, citing data from the Interna-tional Council of Shopping Centers last year.

That boils down to 24 square feet of shopping center space per capita in the U.S., compared with 15 square feet in Canada, five square feet in the U.K., four square feet in France and three square feet in Italy.

America is known as the land of big cars and big houses, but even so, that’s a lot of retail space and all the more so given the rise of online and mobile shopping.

Schultz, for one, is undaunted and tap-ping the power of technology. Starbuck’s five-year plan calls for 10 percent revenue growth, mid-single digit comp expansion and an earnings per share increase of 15 to 20 percent.

As far as the overstored U.S. landscape, Schultz said: “Every company in the last three years has faced this, but very few

have been able to kind of navigate through this. And when you consider that over these last three years as this was going on Starbucks identified it very early and began to invest significantly ahead of that curve in all things mobile. And there’s no doubt that we created a leadership position in the flywheel of Starbucks, which was driven by the mobile ecosystem — the loyalty pro-gram, and we were well ahead of the curve.

“Every company regardless of their busi-ness in terms of what they’re selling, every bricks-and-mortar retailer is going to have establish a leading position in being able to integrate technology and how they’re going to be able to avoid the fact that they can no longer rely on intercepting traffic, they’re going to have to become a destination.”

When Schultz talks, the industry perks up.

“Howard is dead right on,” said Michael Gould, the former chairman and ceo of Bloomingdale’s. “I do think there will be an enormous amount of shakeout among department and specialty stores. Absolutely. We [the U.S.] are overstored. Howard is really smart and strategic. It’s not just about buying a cup of coffee. He has a model that creates excitement. He’s created a place where people socialize,

where there is energy, interaction. There’s an experience there. I don’t think it’s just about buying the product. When I go to a restaurant, food is not my number-one thing. It’s whether I feel comfortable. Do I know the people? Is it quiet enough to talk yet? Is there still a sense of energy? Howard is in a business where someone can walk in several times a day. It’s very, very different from being in the apparel business and selling a blouse.”

Gould doesn’t think brick-and-mortar stores are all dinosaurs. “People have been going to the marketplace since the time of the Greeks. We will continue to do that, as long as we see new environments, like Nike in SoHo and Adidas on Fifth Avenue, where they have created environments with activity, energy. People want that. To quote Lyndon Johnson, you have to walk and chew gum at the same time — create exciting energetic stores and develop the online. The customer who shops [both] online and in the stores spends three and a half to four times as much.”

“It’s not about just selling goods any-more,” said Glen Senk, ceo of investment firm Front Row Partners and former ceo of David Yurman and Urban Outfitters Inc. “Brands have to be more than just prod-ucts; they have to have meaning.”

Stores need to keep evolving.“I don’t think retailers are changing as

much as they need to,” Senk said. “I don’t think there’s enough customer centricity. What technology does is give you tremen-dous insight into people’s behaviors. Some people use technology to their advantage to gain access to that [insight] and some people don’t.”

Senk also agreed with Schultz that retail-ers would be shuttering more doors.

“You will see more closures, but you’re also going to see more openings, but differ-ent kinds of openings,” he said.

Barry Beck, cofounder and chief operat-ing officer at the Macy Inc.-owned Bluemer-cury, said: “The smart retailers are going to realize that the physical stores are actually their most powerful asset. There’s an opportunity to have more stores than ever.”

“The Bluemercury customer in New York City, 75 percent are coming from a

four-block radius…densification leads to localization,” he said. “We’re experts, we give an experience in store, we solve your beauty problems…you’re not getting that online. Fifty percent of customers who come in are coming in for solutions to a problem….I don’t believe you’re just going to go online and buy your concealer, mas-cara, without trying it.”

“People want their product now. They want you to be in their neighborhood,” Beck said.

The idea that retailers need to become a destination for growth and stability is exactly right, and the model we have continued to grow at Ulta Beauty,” said Mary Dillon, ceo of Ulta Beauty. “We have created an atmosphere that allows our guests to experience products across all beauty categories in a way that mirrors her makeup bag. And, because services such as hair, skin and brow are an integral part of our in-store experience, it underscores our destination strategy which is all things beauty, all in one place.”

Starbucks president and chief operating officer Kevin Johnson, who will succeed Schultz as ceo next April, said, “The customer experience created in our stores by partners who proudly wear the green apron is what makes Starbucks a destina-tion for 80 to 90 million customers a week. We are today executing against an ambi-tious, carefully curated, multiyear strategy to further elevate the entire Starbucks brand and customer experience around the world, and further extending Starbucks leadership around all things coffee, retail and mobile. The power of our brand, the strength and momentum in our business, and the world-class management talent we have assembled give me great confidence in our ability to capture the enormous global growth opportunities ahead.”

Starbucks is innovating by adding pre-mium coffee products, expanding its food menu and payment options. The company will also unveil a conversational ordering system, My Starbucks Barista, powered by artificial intelligence for the Starbucks Mobile App, and continues to evolve personalized e-mail rewards and expand consumer packaged goods offerings.

Starbucks CEO SeesLess Retail In Future ConTInued fRoM Page 1

Starbucks ceo Howard Schultz speaking to investors in new York Wednesday.

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● The new N.Y. flagship’s location targets an array of pocketbooks, from young couples to collectors.

by sharon EDElson

NEW YORK — De Beers’ new 2,158-square-foot flagship at 716 Madison Avenue between 63rd and 64th Streets here, on the first two floors of a town house, rep-resents the company’s unique approach, which involves “solely and purely selling only diamonds,” said Francois Delage, chief executive officer of De Beers.

The retailer wants to demystify dia-monds while keeping their transcendent qualities intact. It’s a delicate dance, but one De Beers believes it can achieve with the new flagship. The Madison Avenue store replaces De Beers’ flagship on Fifth Avenue, which it opened in 2005.

“Fifth Avenue became less and less a reflection of the brand,” Delage said. “Madison is more in line with what we want to offer our customer and what our customer wants.”

In Delage’s view, Fifth Avenue has become more about mass premium brands — even though it is home to Tiffany, Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels, H. Stern and the recently redone Cartier flagship. “We’ll have less traffic on Madison Avenue but more qualified traffic. Our conversion rate will be higher.”

The retailer left no stone unturned in its search for a flagship. “Every facet had to count,” Delage said, adding that he wanted a location on the block of Madison Avenue where the store is located and waited 18 months to get it. “It had to be on the west side of the street. We believe the west side of Madison Avenue has a better energy,” he said. “Barneys is there. There’s more expo-sure from the sun, which lifts you up.”

Delage said clients are looking for a more intimate experience, hence the consultation room on the main floor. “Acquiring a piece of diamond jewelry is an emotional experience,” he added. “This has salons for more intimate experiences.”

A display of diamond solitaires in the front room is followed by high jewelry. On the wall are photos of exceptional diamonds once owned by De Beers. The Millennium Star has 205.05 carats and “is with a very happy client in Europe,” Delage said. The Oppenheimer blue diamond, which was sold a few months ago, weighs 14.62 carats and is owned by an Asian client. The Centenary, a 273-carat yellow emerald-cut diamond sold for $55 million to a client in Taiwan.

De Beers specializes in high-quality colored diamonds. “The marvelous beauty of the diamond universe includes fancy colored diamonds,” Delage said. “The colors go from white D to Z. Other houses will say that there’s no beauty beyond the F designation. We completely disagree.”

For example, an 8-carat oval U color diamond has a warm yellow tint. Delage said De Beers seeks perfection in each colored diamond. Colored diamonds are priced lower than the same grade of white diamond. The 8-carat oval U color ring is

$239,500, while a white diamond of that size would be priced much higher.

“Fancy colored diamonds have a wide and diverse universe,” Delage said, pointing out a 50-carat fancy yellow diamond ring for $5.9 million, and a gray emerald-cut diamond ring, $16 million. There’s also a striking necklace made with 119.72-carats of yellow diamonds, $1.5 million.

Talisman, a collection launched in 2005, mixes rough diamonds with polished ones for highly tactile pieces. The jewelry is made using a technique whereby artisans push the metal over the stones. A 3.03-carat Talisman medallion necklace is $16,000.

In a subsequent case, a “Wow” display features a rough 109-carat Type IIA dia-mond, which customers are encouraged to touch. “There’s practically no nitrogen in the stone,” Delage said, explaining its clarity. “It has few inclusions in the skin. It will be polished and eventually mounted.”

Bespoke is becoming increasingly import-ant for De Beers. Clients first select a stone and then are shown 3-D images and mounts.

“It’s becoming a significant part of the business,” Delage said. “In this day and age, the client is looking for something made for them.”

But Delage wants customers to know that De Beers does not sell only high jewelry. “We wanted to have jewelry priced like a pair of those shoes with the red soles,” he said, referring to Christian Louboutin. “Around $800. The You & Me Talisman yel-low gold bands contain a single diamond in the rough for $950 and $1,500.”

Enchanted Lotus, a collection inspired by the flower, which is a symbol of eternity and purity, features a band with the lotus motif in white gold with round brilliant dia-monds and fancy-colored diamonds in the center, $5,500. The range has been updated with a black open work ceramic band and diamonds, or white ceramic band with pink gold and diamonds, $4,150 each.

“We’re using natural materials in the store because our DNA is the natural beauty of the diamond,” Delage said.

Environmentally friendly wood from sustainably managed forests was used for the parquet floors. Walls in the high jewelry ground floor salon are covered with a silver silk fabric shot with metallic threads. An artisan manipulated the fabric to give it tex-ture. Elsewhere, plaster walls were finished by artisans with sponges to create nuances.

On the second floor is the range of engagement rings, shown by setting, stone shape and stone size. Delage — who advises “never choose a diamond on paper but with your eye — said the De Beers Iris tech-nology helps consumers make educated decisions. “We expose a diamond to a source of light to show how the facets illu-minate,” he said, adding that the facets will only light up if they are perfectly aligned.

“We’re introducing the experience where a customer can touch and feel rough diamonds,” Delage said, pulling from his pocket a small paper parcel containing eight rough diamonds, some untreated but polished in different shades of white, yellow, brown. “We want to give you an understanding of what a rough diamond is,” he said. “A diamond is fire, life and brilliance.”

business

De Beers Sees Increased Productivity

The de Beers flagship on Madison avenue.

● The skin-care direct-seller has also appointed Ritch Wood as ceo as Truman Hunt departs for a religious project in 2017.

by allison Collins

Nu Skin Enterprises has robust growth ambitions.

The company said it aims to scale the skin-care business to $10 billion opera-tion by 2025, a goal that would require about 300,000 sales representatives, executives said at their investor day in New York on Thursday.

Before the meeting started, Nu Skin said Ritch Wood, chief financial officer, would step into the chief executive officer position while Truman Hunt embarks on a three-year mission on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in mid-2017. Ryan Napierski will be pro-moted to president.

Nu Skin executives identified five key goals for the year during the meeting, including maximizing market penetra-tion, launching the new Lumi Spa device, sustaining growth in China (which is up 15 percent), deploying social-selling platform Me Commerce and rebrand and repackag-ing its products.

The company provided more details for the first time on its Lumi Spa device, set to launch next year and clean and treat skin at the same time. The waterproof and drop-proof device will include three interchangeable heads and the option of five different cleansing gels. The device and one gel will retail for about $155.

Nu Skin also plans to roll out Me Commerce in about five core markets next year as it works to ramp up social selling, a tactic that executives said is working well in the U.K. Napierski also identified the masstige segment as one where the company “need[s] to be more competitive.”

Nu Skin reported net income of $56.9

million in the third quarter, with net sales up 6 percent to $604.2 million. The gains were driven by the company’s AgeLoc antiaging products. Nu Skin also makes a product called AgeLoc Me, a customizable system that the company has said fits with larger personalization trends in the beauty space.

In addition to the executive shifts unveiled Thursday, Nu Skin said it was expecting fourth-quarter earnings per share to be at the high end of its previous guidance of $2.40 to $2.60 per share. The company expects revenue to be closer to the low end of its $2.23 billion guidance because of the strength of the dollar.

For 2017, Nu Skin is projecting revenue of $2.26 billion to $2.3 billion, or local currency growth of 4 to 6 percent. EPS is projected to be $3.10 to $3.25.

Both Wood and Napierski have been with the company for more than two decades. Wood joined in 1993 and became cfo in 2002, and Napierski joined in 1995. He serves as president of global sales and

operations, and sales will remain his focus. “My love is in driving revenue, I’ll continue to be very focused on that,” Napierski said.

“It has been a privilege to service and be chief executive officer for such an extraor-dinary company and to work with some of the finest people in the world,” Hunt said. “My association with our remarkable sales leaders and fellow employees has been the highlight of my career. Together, we have been able to carry out the Nu Skin mission of being a force for good in the world. I have worked closely with Ritch and Ryan for a number of years and have the utmost confidence in their ability to lead Nu Skin going forward.”

“Ritch and Ryan have been key leaders at Nu Skin for many years and have been deeply involved in establishing our stra-tegic vision for the future,” said chairman Steven J. Lund. “We are pleased to enjoy significant experience in our management team and are confident that Ritch and Ryan are well prepared to lead our next wave of growth.”

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december 8, 2016 14

Benjamin Millepied on L.A. Dance Project’s Next ActNatalie Portman’s husband shares the company’s next act with its newest member, former New York City Ballet principal Janie Taylor.

Fangirl-ing Over HerreraEmmy Rossum, Christina Ricci, Julianna Margulies, Seth Meyers and more attended the Lincoln Center and Harper’s Bazaar fashion gala benefit to honor Carolina Herrera.

Since founding L.A. Dance Proj-ect in 2012, Benjamin Millepied has taken the company around the world but this weekend the 10-member troupe will finally return to Los Angeles for a two-night run at their home base of The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA.

The performance starting Friday is notable for another reason: The four-piece program includes the world premiere of “Homecoming,” choreographed and danced by Millepied with music composed and performed live by Rufus Wainwright.

Millepied’s partner will be Janie Taylor, the former New York City Ballet principal who was also his partner there and who joined LADP in January, along with her husband, ballet master Sébastien Marcovici.

“I fell in love with Rufus’ songs years ago and I wanted to make a much longer work with these songs,” says Millepied, who performed a one-night-only pas de deux with Taylor at last year’s LADP benefit that offered a taste of what’s to come. “Janie is one of my favorite partners. To me she

is more than a dancer; she and Sébastien are like true partners and now we are creating the company that we dream of.”

Says Taylor, “At the time Benjamin made this ballet we had both ‘retired’ from the stage. But I think it’s always hard for a dancer to stop dancing. I miss being lifted up all the time.”

Of joining LADP, she notes, “I’ve watched this company for a few years now, and the dancers here are amazing movers and very in-dividual and work together really well. I’m looking forward to putting down roots here.” Taylor has also taken up costume design, and her work appears in “II Acts for the Blind.”

Millepied says his goal, now that he’s back in Los Angeles full-time (he exited his post as direc-tor of dance for the Paris Opera Ballet earlier this year, allowing him to spend more time in L.A. with his company and wife Natalie Portman), is to “be present for the community and spend more time creating performances.”

Sadly for fans of his dancing, he says this weekend will likely

mark the last time he performs. “I’m OK with that; there’s much more work to do,” he says.

That includes presenting more classical works in addition to his own dances and those by Roy Assaf, who choreographed ‘”II Acts for the Blind” and Christopher Wheeldon, whose “After the Rain” pas de deux will be performed this weekend by former Pacific North-west Ballet principal and LADP associate director Carla Körbes.

The fourth ballet in the program is Millepied’s “On the Other Side,” set to a suite of piano etudes by Philip Glass; with costumes by Alessandro Sartori, Berluti’s former creative director who now is creative director at Er-menegildo Zegna, and art by Los Angeles-based Mark Bradford.

“That ballet is an ode to a generation of friends of mine who have all grown up with me. When I founded LADP, people complained I didn’t hire dancers who were only from L.A., but three years later we all now have identities as people living in this specific urban community,” Millepied says.

The company still performs with the LUMA Foundation in Arles, France for five weeks each summer, and recently signed a yearly two-week partnership with the Joyce Theater in New York.

Millepied says that LADP will launch its own digital platform next spring that will include a dance-focused magazine and virtual workouts and classes.

“It’s a significant project for us. The magazine will be a platform for dance films, photography archives and writing, and the application we are developing for classes will allow people to interact with the dancers personally,” he reveals.

The platform is a joint venture with BETC agency, and Millepied says it was inspired by the digital initiative he launched at Paris Opera. “We are committed to projects that are outside the box. That’s why we go big,” he says.

There is one area where he’d like to go small, though. “I’d love to one day have a more intimate home venue where people can interact and you can perform with the audience surrounding the stage,” he says. — Marcy Medina

Benjamin Millepied and Janie Taylor rehearse L.a. dance Project’s “Homecoming.”

the lincoln Center fashion gala, helmed by Harper’s Bazaar, pre-sented a more low-key version of its now annual benefit, in recogni-tion of Carolina Herrera and her 35 years of business.

Now in its fourth year, the benefit has honored Karl Lager-feld (perhaps a tough act to ever follow, at least on the celebrity front), along with Stella McCartney and Valentino. This year, fans of Herrera including Emmy Rossum, Christina Ricci, Julianna Margulies, Emily Robinson, Olivia Palermo, Hilary Rhoda, Nicky Hilton, Seth Meyers and more came out in the rain for a performance by Diana Ross and a dinner, in an evening that appealed to both ends of the Herrera brand fan base.

Eighteen-year-old “Transpar-ent” actress Emily Robinson was milling about inside with her stylist, having arrived promptly, “That’s my thing,” she said of her timing. In perhaps a comment on the evening’s crowd, she ob-served that “people of any age can feel beautiful and powerful when wearing [Herrera’s] cre-ations.” And indeed they were.

Not far from Robinson was Disney channel actress Peyton List, also 18. “It was just one fashion week ago that I was introduced to Carolina, and I was completely fangirl-ing because she is such a fashion icon,” List said, with fervency. “She really works the female body perfectly and she really know the shape — there’s an art to it.”

Fashion week with Carolina Herrera is an impressive feat for a Disney darling. “I just finished season two of the Disney show that I was on, ‘Bunk'd,’ and right now I have a movie out on You-Tube called ‘The Thinning,’” she said. “It’s a dystopian thriller.”

Oh? “It takes place in the year 2039, and resources are depleted, and they have to find a way to cut five percent of the population, and they do that by administering this test from first grade through grade twelve, and the kids with the lowest score get eliminated. It’s kind of intense and it’s kind of scary because it doesn’t really seem...that far off. I was doing this thing last night with Al Gore, and it was ‘24

hours of reality,’ and it’s scary, the climate crisis, and people don’t want to acknowledge it, but it’s such a real thing. So this movie was also sort of just showing that, how real it is.”

The lady of the hour was swarmed with kisses from friends and requests for selfies from ad-mirers. “I come to Lincoln Center for all the concerts, the opera, the ballet, all of it,” she said. “Lincoln Center is the cultural place in New York. I’m glad to be part of it.”

During a preview of her pre-fall collection a few days before the gala, Herrera mentioned how she and Ross go way back to Studio 54 days. “I met her with Steve Rubell who used to own Studio 54,” said Herrera.

For Rossum, the night of Ross’ music was a bright spot in an oth-erwise challenging time. “I was in the front row, and I had to restrain from capturing it on social media in order to stay in the moment,” she said before dinner. “It was truly the first time in a few weeks that I really felt joy.” — Leigh nordstroM and Jessica iredaLe

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december 8, 2016 16

Fashion Scoops

Memo Pad

Plenty Of runwayit’s been a big year for Rent the Run-way; just this week, the company feted seven years in business by opening physical retail locations in both New York and San Francisco.

At a Tuesday night party to celebrate the fashion rental company’s shop in Neiman Marcus, chief executive officer Jennifer Hyman took a minute to reflect on the company’s recent projects. This year saw a number of new updates to the ser-vice, including an Unlimited subscription service, an expansion into physical retail, app updates that help customers place and receive local orders within hours and the first shops-in-shop in a luxury retailer.

The move, said Neiman Marcus chief executive officer Karen Katz, was an endorsement of the direction that fashion and retail is going. Rather than running from changes to the model, such as the sharing economy that RTR has largely in-troduced, Katz said Neiman Marcus hopes to embrace changes to the way people think about shopping.

“The way women are shopping is changing — it’s fundamentally different,” Katz said. She said that the new Rent the Runway space was both a learning expe-rience and a chance to court the fashion flock and early adopters — many of them in the tech industry — that might be visiting Neiman Marcus for the first time due to the RTR store.

San Francisco is one of RTR’s top five markets, and the space is on the fifth floor of the Neiman Marcus outpost, so the customer gets a full tour of the store by the time they’ve arrived there. The space also includes for-purchase accessories such as shoes and bags, so it encourage impulse purchases to complete a look that might have begun with an aspirational rental gown.

Attendees included Rocksbox founder Meaghan Rose, designer Bruce Hoeksema, Getaround founder Jessica Scorpio, angel investor Frederique Dame, Joyus editor Mikaela South, Sherpa Foundry founder Lisa Barnett and Little Spoon Organic cofounder An-gela Vranich. Additionally, fashion-tech influencers and RTR fans who toasted to the new store included as Sarah Spurr, Stephanie Yang, Kathleen Ensign,

Whitney Powell and Kim Stokes. — Maghan MacdoWeLL

Cool CustomerJeff Koons collaborated with Burton to create a limited-edition snowboard called “The Philosopher.” Only 50 of the exclusive boards will be available, at $5,000 each, and Burton will donate all proceeds to its not-for-profit organization, Chill, which provides opportunities for underserved youth to build self-esteem and life skills through board sports. The board will be un-veiled Thursday at an event at the Burton flagship in Manhattan’s SoHo. — Mayte aLLende

Creative Collaborationsyoox has teamed with Disney on a digital fashion and lifestyle store on the e-retail-er’s web site.

The store will carry a host of designer collaborations influenced by Disney, Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel productions which include clothing, accessories, footwear and homewares. Over the years, Disney has partnered with a range of designers and brands such as Coach, Kenzo, Marc Jacobs, Olympia Le Tan, Christopher Raeburn, Robert Clergerie and Vans. Items include Alice in Wonderland-inspired clutches by Olympia Le Tan, Kenzo sweat-ers that took their cue from “The Jungle Book,” as well as Nixon’s “Star Wars” watches. The price range is 14 pounds, or $17, for a Moleskine planner or notebook to 1,075 pounds, or $1,354, for an Olympia Le Tan bag.

Alongside its product offering, the web site will feature editorial content with coverage highlighting the world of Disney, Marvel and Star Wars. The store will be up-dated with new Disney ranges and items including designer capsule collaborations tied to movie debuts.— LoreLei MarFiL

Forest for The TreesChristopher Kane and Mytheresa.com were feeling particularly jolly as they host-ed a party at The Lanesborough in London, complete with a forest of all-natural,

unadorned Christmas trees and traditional Scottish dancing.

“What a wonderful smell,” said Michael Kliger, Mytheresa’s president, inhaling the pine scent as the room filled with guests including Tammy Kane, Michael Kliger, Camille Charrière, Erdem Moralioglu, Patrick Grant, Mimi Xu, Tina Leung, Laura Burlington, William Banks Blaney, Stephen Jones and Delfina Delettrez.

“It’s my first time in a kilt — but it’s not the Kane tartan. I didn’t have time to get one,” admitted the Scottish designer, who was clad in black, right down to his knee socks and tone-on-tone kilt.

The designer, who hails from North Lanarkshire, not far from Glasgow, said it felt strange to be in traditional dress: “The waist is high, so it feels a little like you’re wearing armor.”

He didn’t dance — although other guests, led by Laura Carmichael — did, skip-ping, whirling and changing partners as the traditional Scottish dance band, Licence to Ceilidh, played.

Neither Kane nor his sister Tammy danced — although they both know the routines. “You learn it in school — for the discos,” said Kane, who’s opting to spend-ing his holiday in the New World.

He’s headed to Las Vegas to hear Elton John perform, and then for a visit to Death Valley — where he’s bringing snake-proof trousers — and the less stressful Palm Springs.

Jones, meanwhile, is headed to Japan, back to England and then straight off to Paris ahead of the couture shows. “It’s Maria Grazia’s first couture collection,” said Jones who’s doing the hats.

It’s been a seemingly endless stream of celebrations in London, with Kane, Rok-sanda, Simone Rocha, Nicholas Kirkwood, Paul Smith and Smythson hosting in-store cocktails to usher in the holidays while on Wednesday night Stella McCartney is due to flip on the Christmas lights at her store on Bruton Street, with a surprise perfor-mance. — saMantha conti

Shining BrightWhite tables with succulents and sky blue menus stood perpendicular to one another in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum. Francis Farewell Starlite took his place at the piano on a nearby platform. Dev Hynes was originally scheduled to perform but had to cancel due to a family emergency. Starlite stepped in at the midnight hour, offering soothing piano-led covers of Chance the Rapper while guests strolled in spiral fashion to view the muse-um’s Agnes Martin exhibition.

“We’ve looked toward Agnes Martin’s work many times for inspiration,” said Karin Gustafsson, creative director of Cos. “We saw the exhibition in London at the Tate Modern and when we heard it was gonna travel here, we were obviously keen to be involved.”

Cos sponsored the Agnes Martin presentation currently on display at the Guggenheim. The European cult brand created a 12-piece capsule collection in-spired by the artist and hosted a dinner on Tuesday night to celebrate its partnership with both the Guggenheim and the Agnes Martin Foundation.

“I think it’s just an aesthetic that [Cos] finds very synergistic with their own as a fashion design brand,” said Scott McDon-ald, director of corporate, institutional and global partners at the Guggenheim. “This is totally their event. This is not a Guggen-heim-hosted event. It’s all down to them. I’m a guest.”

It’s hard not to feel inspired by Martin, whose influence on Cos is apparent in the brand’s architecturally inspired, minimalist designs. It’s especially hard not to feel a cleansing effect while viewing Martin’s paintings. Guests at Cos’ dinner were overheard remarking how consuming the art felt like a meditation.

“I’ve been really dying to see the Agnes Martin show and I love the collaboration, this incredibly organic-seeming collab-oration between a fashion brand being

inspired by an artist’s work,” said Casey Fremont Crowe. “I think it’s really success-ful and interesting and I was happy to come here and support.”

Though she opted for velvet Armani pants that night, Crowe did share one Cos accessory that she’s “obsessed” with: “They make a great cashmere hat that I wear all winter. I hope it’s still around because I’ve lost my black one, but I have black and gray and I love it. My favorite Cos.” — aLeXa tietJen

Williams gets Set for HolidayWendy Williams, host of “The Wendy Williams Show,” is heading back to HSN to showcase her holiday collection. The apparel includes a two-piece jogging outfit, signature pointed-toe lace-up suede sneakers, scarves and faux fur outerwear. Retail prices range from $39.90 for a lofty scarf up to $179.90 for a sheared faux mink fur coat with bottom stripe.

Williams will appear on HSN on Friday at midnight, with various appearances throughout the day, with her final show at 9 p.m. on Friday.

“As with my entire HSN collection, I designed the winter line with the intent of creating sophisticated and flattering piec-es, while maintaining authentic products that are receptive to women’s fashion needs,” Williams said.

Williams started her collaboration with HSN in March 2015. — Lisa LocKWood

Shape exitBeauty editors appear to be an endan-gered species in the world of magazine media these days as advertising dollars have shifted from print to digital, video and social media via beauty influencers. Media companies operating magazines that cov-er beauty and wellness but are perhaps not beauty-centric have taken a scalpel to their mastheads and are looking to cut or combine beauty staff.

At Meredith Corp., WWD has learned that this has taken the form of the depar-ture of Shape’s veteran executive beauty director Cheryl Kramer Kaye. A Shape spokeswoman said the health magazine is “committed to continuing beauty cover-age,” and it promoted Kate Sandoval Box to beauty director.

The departure at Shape follows the exit at Condé Nast of W’s longtime executive beauty director Jane Larkworthy after a 16-year run there. W said it would continue to cover beauty via contributors.

Meanwhile, at Hearst, Cosmopolitan and Seventeen consolidated their beauty teams — and many others — last year as

neither glossy fits the bill as a fashion or beauty destination. Currently, beauty cov-erage for those titles is run by executive beauty director Leah Wyar and fashion is overseen by Aya Kanai, executive fashion director.

At Hearst’s newly formed lifestyle group, which includes Good Housekeeping, Redbook and Woman’s Day, it is believed that there will be further consolidations among a few editorial departments, includ-ing beauty. There are rumors at Hearst that the fashion, entertainment and beauty departments of Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, Redbook and Wom-an’s Day will fold into one larger group.

A Hearst spokesperson did not address the speculation directly, but said, “We believe that collaboration is the key to creativity and innovation, and groups of tal-ented, versatile editors can touch multiple brands. It’s been a tremendous success in our Design Group, and we now have a sizable beauty group to work on multiple brands, creating content that is specific to each of those brands.”

In order to pick up some beauty cred and ad dollars, Hearst tapped Linda Wells,

Allure’s founding editor in chief, who was succeeded last year by Michelle Lee. For Hearst, Wells creates a beauty insert that is backed by advertising, although not sponsored content, which runs in the company’s select fashion-centric titles including Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire and Town & Country. — aLeXandra steigrad

Tighter Tiesturner, the media company whose portfolio includes CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and NBA.com, is expanding its existing partnership with Snapchat in a bid to appeal to the lucrative Millennial demographic, the two companies revealed Wednesday.

“This deal marks the latest strategic move for Turner to innovate within the digital arena and provide complemen-tary viewing experiences for a younger, mobile-centric audience,” Turner president David Levy said. “Snapchat is a powerful outlet to directly connect with the Millen-nial generation and perfectly aligns with our portfolio-wide strategy to engage with

audiences at every touch point.”The deal, which includes content,

distribution and advertising, will increase Turner’s brands on Snapchat’s Discover platform, and the companies will work together to develop original shows for Snapchat based on brands that young people like such as TBS, Adult Swim and truTV. The deal will also expand on Turner’s current live sports coverage such as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship and the PGA Championship. Additionally, the Bleacher Report, a sports network aimed at Millennials that Turner bought in 2012, will launch a Discover channel in the U.S. (it already had one internationally). The CNN Discover Channel will beef up its daily coverage and focus on news stories

“hand-curated” for Snapchat users.“Millions of Snapchatters value the au-

thoritative and credible reporting by CNN and Bleacher Report every day and we are excited about offering more frequent news updates and expanding Bleacher Report’s Discover coverage to the U.S.,” said Nick Bell, vice president of content at Snap Inc. “We’re also thrilled to be building on two years of our Live Story coverage of March Madness with expanded sports content.”

The companies will join forces on ad sales to create “exclusive and immersive ad experiences that provide brands the space to connect with Millennials in a dynamic mobile environment,” according to the companies.

— Kara BLooMgarden-sMoKe

Turner is expanding its partnership with Snapchat.

Wendy Williams in a look from her holiday collection for HSn.

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