SpanishClass

WWD

PHOTO BY RODOLFO MARTINEZ; STYLED BY MAYTE ALLENDE

By RACHEL STRUGATZ

THE MARKETPLACE SITE Jet is perhaps the most buzzed-about e-commerce company right now — and it hasn’t even launched.

Founder and chief executive offi cer Marc Lore has already raised $220 million for the venture from inves-tors including Bain Capital and Accel Partners — and was in a plum position to do so. He sold Quidsi, the par-ent company of brands like Diapers.com and Soap.com in which he cofounded with Vinit Bharara, to Amazon in 2010 for more than $500 million. Lore stayed on at the e-commerce giant until summer 2013 before departing to build Jet, a place that he says will maximize order prof-itability for retailers and provide the most cost-effi cient option for consumers. The marketplace will open to the public sometime in “late spring.”

While Jet in and of itself has been generating lots of attention, less remarked on is the central role Quidsi has played in spawning a slew of e-tailers, mainly in the children’s wear and kids’ space. This week alone saw the expansion of Bharara’s content platform Some Spider, which acquired the highly traf-fi cked parenting destination Scary Mommy, and the launch of Primary by Galyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell that is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce destination for children’s clothing.

Scott Friend, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures, said Quidsi — like DoubleClick and Rent the Runway, which are also Bain investments like Jet — has incubated so many start-ups because it “cre-ated a unique culture of high-performance people

By SAMANTHA CONTI and LUISA ZARGANI

LONDON — They flirted with each other for years, and now Yoox Group and Net-a-porter are about to be married at last.

The two e-tailers — which both debuted in June 2000 — believe their moment has come to raise the bar on luxury fashion e-commerce in an underexploited mar-ket where size, scale and speed count for everything.

“Established business models are being increas-ingly disrupted by the technological giants,” said Johann Rupert, chairman of Net-a-porter’s parent Compagnie Financière Richemont, who brokered the all-share deal to create a new fashion e-commerce group, with Yoox founder Federico Marchetti. “We believe it is important to increase leadership and size to protect the uniqueness of the luxury industry. The merger of the two leaders will further enhance an independent, neutral platform for a sophisticated clientele looking for luxury brands.”

On Tuesday, Richemont and Yoox Group revealed the merger of the latter with Net-a-porter in a trans-action that will see the creation of a new retail brand, Yoox Net-a-porter. Built on three pillars — in-season and off-season fashion and the management of on-line, monobrand stores — the new group will have combined net revenues of 1.3 billion euros, or $1.41 billion at current exchange.

The deal immediately ramps up the scale of both Net-a-porter and Yoox to be able to better com-pete with mega players like Amazon and Alibaba as well as smaller but fast-growing e-tailers including Mytheresa.com and Matchesfashion.com. The merg-er also solves what was clearly a thorny issue for Richemont: How to grow Net-a-porter into a consis-tently profi table operation among its more hard-luxu-ry focused other brands, which include Cartier, IWC, Van Cleef & Arpels and Montblanc, as well as Chloé and Dunhill. SEE PAGE 9

$1.4B IN REVENUES

Yoox, Net-a-porterDeal Aims at Scale

Quidsi Site BecomesE-Tail’s New Incubator

SEE PAGE 12

The Iberian Peninsula’s rich fashion heritage — high waistlines, decorative ruffl es and lacework and jackets with swagger — inspired fall collections layered with Old World romance and modern attitude. Here, Simone Rocha’s silk-velvet jacket, silk slip and viscose and lace skirt. For more, see pages 4 and 5.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

TOWERBROOK CAPITAL PARTNERS AGREES TO

BUY RETAILER J. JILL FOR AN UNDISCLOSED SUM.

PAGE 6

CHANGING HANDS

WWDWEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

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CHANEL REVEALS PLANS TO LAUNCH

E-COMMERCE FOR THREE OF ITS MÉTIERS D’ART

COMPANIES BY THE END OF THE YEAR. PAGE 2

JOINING THE CROWD

RUDES’ RETURN

JEFF RUDES IS BACK, THIS TIME WITH A LUXURY

MEN’S WEAR BRAND. PAGE 2

WWD.COM2

By ARNOLD J. KARR

IN WHAT HE expects to be the final brand-building exercise in a career as a serial entrepre-neur, Jeffrey Rudes is plotting his comeback.

But unlike the pace-setting premium women’s jeans line J Brand he introduced almost 10 years ago, he’s following a differ-ent roadmap with the new ven-ture, a luxury men’s wear brand called Jeffrey Rüdes with head-quarters in Los Angeles and a design and production studio in Bologna, Italy.

Rudes is fi nancing the busi-ness entirely by himself, al-though he could bring in other investors if the pace of expansion warrants it. “I knew going in that it would be a costly venture and I wasn’t afraid of it,” he said.

While J Brand focused on a wholesale model, the roots of Jeffrey Rüdes will be at re-tail. A two-story, 5,800-square-foot store, located at 57 Greene Street in New York’s SoHo, will open July 1, coinciding with the launch of the brand’s Web site, at jeffreyrudes.com, and what Rudes said will be a vig-orous social media presence.

“I believe in the area and I believe in the space,” he told WWD. “And I believe that any brand that’s looking to grow and be relevant today needs social media.”

He described the duration of the lease as long-term but didn’t specify its length.

While Rudes earned his repu-tation primarily through wom-en’s wear and juniors ventures, culminating in J Brand’s break-through success in premium denim, he’s long aspired to move into the men’s business.

“I knew five years ago that I would fi nish my career doing

luxury men’s wear, and my vi-sion for this goes back 10 years,” said 57-year-old Rudes, who re-signed as chief executive offi cer of J Brand last May following its sale, and the sale of his remain-ing stake, to Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. Fast acquired control of 80.1 percent of J Brand for $300 mil-lion in December 2012.

The jeans selection will be small — three styles in two dif-ferent fi nishes — and at least to

start there will be no other bot-toms in the collection.

Instead, the line will be high-lighted by a wide assortment of blazers and shearling and black leather outerwear.

“Women get emotional about their jeans,” he noted. “I feel the one article in a man’s ward-robe that’s like that is the jacket, where the man’s personality re-ally comes out.”

Blazers so far include peak and notch lapels in both single-

and double-breasted models as well as a shawl-collar silhouette.

While providing variations on previous seasons’ fashion themes, he will stress continuity, noting that just a handful of designers and designer companies — in-cluding Prada, Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent and his favorite de-signer and fashion brand-builder, Ralph Lauren — do a “very good job of repeating the essentials.”

He’s planning on adding what he called “one-of-a-kind suits” in the spring, is contemplating footwear and has plans to ex-pand on his shirting selection.

“You never know,” he mused. “At this point, I’m not saying no to anything.”

He’s working with mills in England, Italy and Japan. “It all starts with fabric in men’s, and the fabric is, in a word, modern,” he said.

Rudes noted that the compa-ny will offer same-day delivery in the borough of Manhattan and have a tailor on the prem-ises on the weekends.

Pressed on possible av-enues for expansion, Rudes noted that, between local cus-tomers and tourists, New York provides “the highest spend in luxury” and that he could see another unit or two in Manhattan before expanding to another strong luxury mar-

ket, such as London. He views a move into wholesale as a natural step, but only after establishing the collection and what he deems to be its proper presentation.

The umlaut in the brand is an acknowledgement of the German town from which his family emigrated, Rüdesheim am Rhein, about 40 miles west of Frankfurt. “And it might help get people to pronounce my name correctly, as two syllables instead of one,” he said.

WWD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

On Tuesday, Richemont and Yoox Group revealed the merger of the latter with Net-a-porter in a transaction that will see the creation of a new retail brand, Yoox Net-a-porter. PAGE 1

Jet is perhaps the most buzzed about e-commerce site right now — and it hasn’t even launched yet, according to founder and chief executive offi cer Marc Lore. PAGE 1

Tiffany has a long history in the men’s watch business, but for the past several years, the jewelry retailer hasn’t emphasized the category. That’s about to change. PAGE 6

For Madewell, volume growth doesn’t imply a change in fashion strategy. In terms of image, “It actually means staying the course,” Somsack Sikhounmuong said. PAGE 6

TowerBrook Capital Partners has signed an agreement to acquire the J.Jill business from Arcapita and Golden Gate Capital. PAGE 6

Facing online competition and the withering spending power of French consumers, Galeries Lafayette said it plans to shutter its money-losing stores in a number of locations. PAGE 8

It was Monday at 7:30 p.m. and as one partygoer so eloquently mused, the vibe at Opening Ceremony for the M$$ x WT launch party was “turnt up.” PAGE 10

The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was the dramatic setting Friday night for the Christian Dior-sponsored Mid-Winter Gala. PAGE 11

Monica Rich Kosann is getting a new online home. The fi ne jewelry designer has created a new collection exclusively for online jewelry retailer Blue Nile. PAGE 11

No matter how hard she tried, Joanna Coles wasn’t getting her big scoop on whether U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) will plan for a presidential bid in 2016. PAGE 11

ON WWD.COM

MILAN ACCESSORIES: WWD scouted the season’s best shoes, handbags, jewelry, eyewear and more from Milan. For more, see WWD.com.

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Kering, H&M to Test Textiles Recycling Technology

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Rudes Returns With Men’s Wear Collection

Chanel Set to Launch E-commerceBy BRIDGET FOLEY

CHANEL, LONG A holdout in the rush to offer shopping by device, will soon launch e-commerce. The move could come as early as fourth-quarter 2016, accord-ing to Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president of fashion. In addition, three of the Métiers d’Art com-panies, owned by Chanel under its Paraffection subsidiary, will launch e-commerce by the end of this year.

In New York for last night’s Métiers d’Art show at the Park Avenue Armory, a redo of the one presented in Salzburg in December, Pavlovsky declined to elaborate on plans for the Chanel brand’s foray into e-commerce.

Asked if the house will start with a single-category or a tight prod-uct offering across multiple cat-egories, he said “we are testing the approach,” but that it’s “much too early” to discuss specifi cs. The move should come, “probably the end of next year, September. But everything that we are doing has to be linked with some brick-and-mortar boutiques.”

Chanel is looking to develop the businesses of the Métiers d’Art companies, all of which are profi table, Pavlovsky said. To that end, separate e-commerce sites are in the works for glove-maker Causse, milliner Maison Michel and cashmere house Barrie Knitwear. “Because we don’t have a lot of point of sales, we will be able to offer the collections, the

range of product, to people who are interested by these product categories,” Pavlovsky said. “So step by step, we are doing that with links to brick-and-mortars.” Michel and Barrie have boutiques in Paris and London; Causse has one shop, in Paris.

“It’s a multichannel approach,” Pavlovsky said, arguing that it does not indicate a change in strategy. “It’s not so much a shift. It’s an evolution to better serve our cus-tomers. Some of the customers are able to come into the boutique. Sometimes they don’t want to be-cause they want to go faster and they know exactly what they want, so it should be able to better re-spond to the customers’ requests. So it’s more e-service than a pure e-commerce approach.”

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

A Prada shoe from the Milan accessories roundup. For more, see WWD.com.

PARIS — Kering and H&M said they are to test a new recycling technology that separates and ex-tracts polyester and cotton from used garments in order to create new textiles.

The idea behind the technolo-gy — put in place by Worn Again, a U.K.-based textile up-cycling start-up — is to reduce fashion’s dependency on polyester, which is derived from petroleum.

According to estimates, the global production of polyester

fi lament and cotton fi ber stood at around 65 million tons in 2014. In 2020, the global demand for these fi bers is expected to rise to 90 million tons.

“Innovation is what we need to solve our global environmen-tal challenges. Our collaboration with H&M and Worn Again is a great example of this, demon-strating how we can design and deliver a solution that will be fundamental in eradicating tex-tile waste while simultaneously

offering a new type of sustain-able raw material for our sport and lifestyle brands,” said Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability offi cer and head of international institutional affairs at Kering.

The French group said its sport brand Puma would run pilot projects before embark-ing on full-scale production. If the tests are successful, the fi rst products could be made avail-able before the end of the year. — PAULINA SZMYDKE

Jeffrey Rudes

in pa rtnership with

4 WWD Wednesday, april 1, 2015

spanishclass

photos by rodolfo martinez; styled by mayte allende

Thom Browne’s cotton organdy top with inserts of rubberized cotton tweed and silk organza; Marc Jacobs’ nylon skirt;

Givenchy earrings; Robert Lee Morris and Maniamania rings.

GRacefuL TRansLaTions of aRisTocRaTic pRopoRTions Gave a ReGaL eLeGance To a nuMBeR of faLL coLLecTions.

4 WWD Wednesday, april 1, 2015

spanishclass

photos by rodolfo martinez; styled by mayte allende

Thom Browne’s cotton organdy top with inserts of rubberized cotton tweed and silk organza; Marc Jacobs’ nylon skirt;

Givenchy earrings; Robert Lee Morris and Maniamania rings.

GRacefuL TRansLaTions of aRisTocRaTic pRopoRTions Gave a ReGaL eLeGance To a nuMBeR of faLL coLLecTions.

WWD.COM5WWD Wednesday, april 1, 2015

PHOTO BY RODOLFO MARTINEZ; STYLED BY MAYTE ALLENDE MODEL: CONSTANZA/NEXT MODELS; HAIR BY KATSUMI/ARTMIX BEAUTY; MAKEUP BY GITTE/TOMORROW MANAGEMENT; FASHION ASSISTANT: MILTON DIXON

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Marni’s silk plongé and fur blouse, wool-cotton

blend tweed herringbone skirt, and cotton collar;

Marni earrings.

Thom Browne’s cotton organdy top with inserts of rubberized cotton tweed and silk organza; Marc Jacobs’ nylon skirt;

Givenchy earrings; Robert Lee Morris and Maniamania rings.

Giles’ wool cape with grosgrain detail; Sharon Wauchob’s silk lace top; Erickson Beamon ear cuffs.

Givenchy’s silk-chiffon blouse and

silk-jersey skirt; Givenchy necklace

and earrings.

No. 21’s embroidered-cotton coat and organza collar; Isabel Marant’s silk-organza top; Yael Sonia earrings.

WWD.COMWWD wednesday, april 1, 2015

By JEAN E. PALMIERI

NEW YORK — Tiffany has a long history in the men’s watch business, but for the past several years, the jewelry retailer hasn’t emphasized the category. That’s about to change.

On Thursday, Tiffany will launch the Tiffany CT60, a collection of watches inspired by founder Charles Lewis Tiffany. The watches are patterned after a Tiffany & Co. gold watch given to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, but with a modern twist in de-sign as well as marketing. The retailer is planning to launch the collection with a social media campaign.

“We wanted to reach out to men and let them know there’s some-thing for them at Tiffany,” said Linda Buckley, vice president of public rela-tions for Tiffany North America. She said the company had started sell-ing men’s watches in 1877, “but it’s a while since we focused on them.”

Tiffany’s recent history with watches has been sketchy. In 2013, a Dutch arbitration court ruled that the retailer had to pay $448.79 mil-lion in damages to Swatch Group after a partnership formed in 2007 to develop watches under the Tiffany name was unsuccessful. What had been planned as a 20-year deal ended in 2011.

This time, Tiffany is taking on the men’s market itself with CT60. To promote the new collection, it has turned to four influencers — Victor Cruz, wide receiver for the New York Giants; Alexander Gilkes, cofounder of auc-tion house Paddle8; Marcus Samuelsson, chef and owner of the Red Rooster and Streetbird Harlem restau-rants, and Nick Wooster, former fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman. The men were shot by Ann Street Studio for a digital look book and a video docuseries, where in 15 seconds they speak on the im-portance of time and what it means to them.

The concept came from Charles Lewis Tiffany’s catchphrase of a New York Minute, which he coined in 1853 when he erected the nine-foot Atlas clock above

his store in New York City. The clock is still ticking above the

store on 57th Street today.Cruz said his relation-

ship with Tiffany dates back to 2012 when the Giants

won the Super Bowl. “At the ring ceremo-ny, I found out that not only did Tiffany make our champion-ship rings, but also the Lombardi tro-

phy,” he said. “I re-mained in contact and

when they reached out to me about the release of a men’s watch, it was a no-brainer.” He added that he’s

bought Super Bowl memora-bilia at the store in the past, as well as a piggy bank and neck-

lace for his daughter Kennedy’s first birthday.

Cruz said the Tiffany CT60 collection is similar to his own

personal style, which he described as “very sleek and stylish. It has a very clean aesthetic, which is what I love the most.”

With the watch, he added, he’ll be able to make sure he sticks to a schedule. “I am an extreme stick-ler for time,” he said. “Playing for a head coach like Tom Coughlin has made this more apparent for me, as every clock in our facility is five min-utes ahead. Working hard every day has truly given me a sense of how time is so precious and you can’t get any seconds, minutes or hours back. Therefore, you have to make every moment count.”

Wooster said watches are one way men can “make a mark. It’s a style thing and a functional thing. And in this age of smartwatches, this is the best time to launch something beau-tiful. I’ll never give up my watch, I’m

naked without it.”Unlike Cruz, Wooster said

he’s a “loosey-goosey guy forced to conform to a sched-

ule, and the only way I can do it is by looking at my wrist. I’m busier than ever these

days and time is the ul-timate luxury — I don’t have enough of it.”

The Tiffany CT60 will include 23 styles ranging in price from $4,250 to $19,000. The

top-of-the-line model is an 18-karat rose gold calendar watch

with a 42-hour power reserve, shock-absorption system and sapphire crystal

display back; it’s available in a limited edition of 60 that is numbered on the case.

By VICKI M. YOUNG

TOWERBROOK CAPITAL Partners has signed an agree-ment to acquire the J.Jill busi-ness from Arcapita and Golden Gate Capital.

Financial terms of the trans-action were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. TowerBrook said it has committed financing from Jefferies and Macquarie Group.

J.Jill president and chief ex-ecutive officer Paula Bennett will remain with the company.

“Their investment in J.Jill provides support for future de-velopment and the ability to max-

imize our potential as a brand and business,” Bennett said. “We have a shared vision to capitalize on our understanding of our cus-tomer and the strength of our om-nichannel business.” She noted the company “just completed the best sales year in history and 12 quarters of consecutive growth.”

TowerBrook is a private eq-uity firm based in New York and London.

TowerBrook said it will work with the team at J.Jill to build its omnichannel foundation, as well as pursue additional growth opportunities.

An individual familiar with TowerBrook’s strategy said the private equity firm was attracted

to the business in part because of its consumer-centric landscape. “J.Jill has a very intense focus on its customer base. The company knows exactly who she is and how she shops.” This individual also noted the brand’s “DNA founda-tion is truly in an omnichannel setup. It has always had a very powerful direct-to-consumer, da-ta-driven omnichannel history.”

Given the private equity firm’s experience in consumer brands — True Religion and Kaporal Jeans are current in-vestments in its portfolio, while it counts Jimmy Choo and Phase Eight as past investments that it has exited — the individual said the J.Jill brand is within the

“sweet spot” of TowerBrook’s in-terests and investment criteria.

The J.Jill business, which in-cludes women’s apparel, acces-sories and footwear, has more than 250 stores, plus its cata-logue and Web site operations.

The brand targets Baby Boomers. The key looks that de-fine the brand include kimono sweaters, ponte knit pants, re-laxed leggings, sweater toppers and quilted vests. The brand’s focus is easy, relaxed and mod-ern, all without being too trendy.

At least 60 percent of the vol-ume is generated by the stores, about 30 percent through the Web site and the balance ordered directly from the catalogue. The catalogues — at last count 48 million were distributed in 2013 through 23 editions — remain the firm’s main marketing vehicle.

So far the business is focused on full-priced sales, although there is a regular markdown cadence and period sales events.

According to J.Jill’s research, more than 70 percent of its cli-ent base works outside the home, have college educations, and are married or have a part-ner. The average household in-come is more than $155,000.

Bennett last year projected a store base growth to up to 300 stores by 2016.

The brand was founded in 1959 by Carl and Mary Ann Lipsky. They sold the business to DM Management in 1987, which in turn sold the busi-ness in 2006 to The Talbots Inc. Golden Gate acquired J.Jill from The Talbots Inc. in 2009 and sold a majority stake in the com-pany to Arcapita in 2011.

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Tiffany Looks to Boost Watches With CT60

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TowerBrook to Acquire J. Jill Business

By DAVID MOIN

FOR MADEWELL, volume growth doesn’t imply a change in fashion strategy.

In terms of image, “It actually means staying the course,” Somsack Sikhounmuong, the brand’s head designer, told WWD. “There’s great momentum at Madewell, but we are being consistent and sticking with our message.”

Denim; leather accessories and boots; chambray shirts; layering; easy, casual classics, and tomboy-ish appeal are con-stants, though there’s always tweaking for greater variety.

In a preview of the fall collection, Sikhounmuong cited a “huge push to rei-magine jeans” and showed off the flared denim overalls and longer-length jeans that represent an evolution from Madewell’s “Perfect” summer jean and maintain the high rise and vintage character. Flared jeans are outselling skinny styles, noted Sikhounmuong. “We start with denim and then determine what do we want to layer in.” He also highlighted knit dresses in French marine stripes shown with a shearling coat and Lafayette bucket bag, as well as two-piece sweater dress and tradi-tional blazers that have been elongated. To sustain the tomboy overtone, the collection features men’s checks and tweeds, boyfriend jeans, fedoras and traditional army boots

with a zipper in back to slip them off easily.In late February, Madewell began dis-

tributing via Nordstrom’s Web site and the Net-a-porter Web site, and last month, the brand arrived in 15 Nordstrom stores. The 85-unit chain started becoming profitable two years ago and is expected to open its 100th store this year. Its big sister, J. Crew, struggled in 2014, as did other chains. But Madewell’s sales rose 35.2 percent to $245.3 million, with comps ahead 14.1 percent. Sales per square foot rose to $747 from $709 the year before.

“We have persevered and invested in the business and it’s paying dividends,” Millard “Mickey” Drexler, J. Crew Group’s chairman and chief executive officer, said recently.

Madewell, a former workwear company in New Bedford, Mass., dates back to 1937. Drexler started reinventing the label in 2007 after he purchased the trademark and sold it to J. Crew.

Madewell Unveils Fall Collection

Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom Set Conn. UnitsBy DAVID MOIN

BLOOMINGDALE’S AND Nordstrom will open stores in the fall of 2018 in a 700,000-square-foot enclosed shopping center being developed by General Growth Properties Inc. in Norwalk, Conn.

Both retailers indicated they will create three-level, 150,000 square-foot units.

“Our goal is to provide a unique shop-ping destination that serves as a gathering place for great retail, dining and enter-tainment,” said Sandeep Mathrani, chief executive officer of GGP, who added that the shopping center would complement existing merchants in South Norwalk and attract new customers.

“This is our only brand-new, ground-up development,” said Kevin Berry, GGP’s vice president of investor relations. GGP does have several expansion projects hap-pening, including adding 660,000 square feet to the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu and 200,000 square feet to the Baybrook Mall south of Houston.

Asked about competition in the Norwalk area, Berry said, “There is none. It’s a com-plete hole in the marketplace. The near-est retailing is in Greenwich, seven miles away and there are some small shops in South Norwalk. In terms of shopping malls, there are none in the area.” The nearest

would be the Stamford Town Center eight miles away, and after that, the Westfield Trumbull, 13 miles away, Berry said.

The Norwalk mall, which has yet to be named, will also include 250,000 to 300,000 square feet for specialty stores.

Norwalk will be the 41st Bloomingdale’s location. Currently there are 37, but new Bloomingdale’s are scheduled to open in fall 2015 in Ala Moana in Honolulu; in fall 2016 in the Mall at Miami Worldcenter in Miami, and in fall 2017 in Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in San Jose, Calif.

In Norwalk, Bloomingdale’s will employ approximately 200 associates and sell wom-en’s apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty, men’s, kids and home.

“This spectacular new shopping center will be a distinctive and upscale destina-tion for Fairfield County and surrounding areas, prominently positioned at I-95 and Highway 7,” said Tony Spring, chairman and ceo of Bloomingdale’s.

Norwalk will be Nordstrom’s second full-line store in Connecticut. The first opened in 1997 near Hartford at Westfarms Mall in Farmington. “We’re glad we have an opportunity to serve our existing Fairfield County customers closer to home as well as customers new to Nordstrom in a compelling, new retail destination,” said Jamie Nordstrom, president of stores for Nordstrom Inc.

Looks from Madewell’s fall lineup.

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April 30, 2015

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8

By JOELLE DIDERICH

PARIS — Chopard has taken the next step on its road to sustainability by en-listing Marion Cotillard to design its first jewels using ethically sourced col-ored gemstones.

The Geneva-based watch and jewelry firm presented the initiative at a lunch in Paris where Cotillard joined Chopard copresident Caroline Scheufele and Livia Firth, creative direc-tor of brand consultancy Eco-Age, who has partnered with Chopard since 2013 in the framework of her Green Carpet Challenge.

Cotillard was the first actress to wear items from the Green Carpet Collection on the red car-pet at the Cannes Film Festival two years ago.

The Oscar winner, who is due to unveil the bracelet and necklace she created at the next edition of the film festival in May, said it was the first time she had turned her hand to jewelry design, a process she en-joyed all the more because she got to use opal stones sourced from a family-owned mine in Australia.

“You design while think-ing of the people who work on extracting the stones, so it’s a totally different ener-gy,” she told WWD.

“Why should the creation of dreams and luxury turn into a nightmare for the people who are providing the raw material?” asked Cotillard, a longtime campaigner for green causes who re-cently joined French President François Hollande on a trip to the Philippines to highlight climate issues.

Firth said the collaboration with Cotillard was significant, as Chopard

is heading into the thorny area of guar-anteeing some of its colored gemstones are also ethically sourced. “It’s the first step in the new direction of the journey, which will take us into colored gem-stones, and the opals are the first baby step. Because in the colored gem in-

dustry, there is no standard,” she said, noting stones are usually extracted, pol-ished, cut and sold by different agents, making it hard to trace them.

Firth, a staunch opponent of fast fash-ion, has executive produced a documenta-ry about the impact of high street clothing called “The True Cost.” The trailer of the film, directed by Andrew Morgan, will be released on April 24, the two-year anni-

versary of the Rana Plaza disaster, and it will screen in Cannes ahead of its world-wide release on May 29.

“It’s really a journey into fast fashion and, I’m not sure how to say it politely, but basically how f---ed up this whole thing is. Things are complicated and murky

and totally unjust and wrong, so it’s a big call to reform, a big call to con-sumers to try to take a step back and start con-suming maybe a bit more consciously,” she said.

“If fast fashion didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be talking about ethical fashion and ecological fashion,” Firth added.

The event was also an opportunity for Chopard to showcase a Green Carpet capsule collec-tion of diamond jewels inspired by the Palme d’Or award, which cel-ebrates its 60th anni-versary this year. Since last year, Chopard — an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival since 1988 — has manu-factured the award from Fairmined gold.

Chopard recently re-vealed its support for a second gold mine in South America, which will allow it to expand its jewelry and watch offerings made from Fairmined gold, and has created a segregation pro-

cess at its workshops in Geneva to guaran-tee the traceability of the precious material.

Underscoring its long-term links with the film industry, the jeweler is also supporting “Lumière! The Invention of Cinema,” an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris that runs until June 14. It hosted an open-ing cocktail last Thursday that drew the likes of Monica Bellucci, Clotilde Courau, Claudia Cardinale and Gaspard Ulliel.

’’’’

WWD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

By KRISTI ELLIS

WASHINGTON — President Obama ve-toed a measure Tuesday that would have blocked a controversial National Labor Relations Board rule shortening the time frame for union elections.

The NLRB rule, which is set to take effect in mid-April, will eliminate a 25-day waiting period between when an election is ordered and when it is held. It also requires employers to give employee e-mail addresses and phone numbers to union organizers.

“A while back, the National Labor Relations Board put forward some com-mon sense, modest changes to streamline

the voting process for folks who wanted to join a union,” Obama said. “And un-fortunately, the Republican Senate and House decided to put forward a proposal to reverse those changes. I think that’s a bad idea.”

Obama said unions have historically been at the forefront of measures like the 40-hour work week, the weekend, and the establishment of benefits and decent wages.

“And one of the freedoms of folks here in the United States is that if they choose to join a union, they should be able to do so, and we shouldn’t be making it impos-sible for that to happen,” Obama said.

Obama also announced the White House will host a summit this fall on worker rights.

Unions back the rule, saying lengthy and unnecessary litigation often delays the union election process and pre-vents workers from forming a union. Business groups oppose the NLRB rule, dubbing it the “ambush election” rule because it would speed up the time be-tween a petition for a union election and when it is held.

“We are disappointed in the President’s decision to issue a veto of this resolution, which passed both cham-bers of Congress earlier this month,” said Kelly Kolb, vice president for gov-ernment affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “The ambush elec-tion rule limits employees’ ability to make informed decisions and could ulti-mately have a significant negative impact on staffing and workforce development in the retail sector.”

By MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Facing fierce online competi-tion and the withering spending power of French consumers, Galeries Lafayette said it plans to shutter its money-losing stores in Béziers in the south of France and in Thiais, near Paris.

A question mark also hangs over the Lille location, unprofitable since it opened in 2007 and slated to shutter unless the French retailer succeeds in renegotiating a more favorable lease. The outcome of talks is to be an-nounced in the coming weeks.

The department store operator un-veiled the reorganization project to its employees this week, characterizing it as part of its transformation plan titled “Ambitions 2020.”

Sources peg the total number of affected employees in Béziers and Thiais at less than 300. About 130 jobs hang in the balance in Lille.

The retailer said it must also re-duce heavy fixed costs at its head of-fice, also in consultation with works councils as is required in France. It is understood Galeries Lafayette aims to reduce the head count at its head-quarters by 90, out of a total of 1,100 employees, via a voluntary redundan-cy program.

Nicolas Houzé, chief executive of-ficer of Groupe Galeries Lafayette’s department store division, blamed a morose economic context for the clo-sures, saying the retailer must “ac-celerate its reinvention” to guarantee the sustainability of the business and to finance more fruitful expansion avenues. It aims to become France’s omnichannel reference for fashion, and a banner of style in international capitals, with Milan among the next key openings, he added.

Galeries Lafayette continues to in-vest in France, and has taken over the lease of the former Virgin Megastore at 52 Avenue des Champs-Élysées here. Other projects include new locations in mall developments in Marseille and Lieusaint, southeast of Paris.

At present, Galeries Lafayette operates 59 stores in France and five internationally — in Marrakech, Dubai, Berlin, Beijing and Jakarta, Indonesia. Locations in Istanbul and Doha, Qatar, are slated to open in 2017, with Milan, Marseille and Champs-Élysées coming on stream in 2018.

The family-controlled retailer does not disclose full financial results. All of its retail banners — which also in-clude department store BHV Marais, and watch and jewelry chains Louis Pion, Royal Quartz and Didier Guérin — generated revenues last year of 3.8 billion euros, or $5.05 billion at aver-age exchange rates.

By VICKI M. YOUNG

JD.COM INC. is getting further entrenched in the equity crowdfunding business.

China’s online direct sales company on Tuesday disclosed its new JD Equity Crowdfunding platform to create an eco-system to help finance, develop and pro-mote the creation of start-ups in China.

The new venture expands the offer-ings from JD Crowdfunding, which was established in July 2014 and became China’s first crowdfunding platform. The latest equity platform not only introduces entrepreneurs to a broad set of possible early-stage investors, it also provides

training and support options, making it more of an incubator in operation. The companies that are selected to partici-pate are also able to sell their products through JD.com’s e-commerce platform.

There are 11 firms that have raised funding through the new platform. Among them are Thunderobot, Fastwheel and WeBuzz, which focus on gaming lap-tops, personal transportation devices and social media, respectively.

Richard Liu, founder and chief ex-ecutive officer of JD.com, said, “As the leader in Chinese e-commerce, JD.com is ideally positioned to create a premi-um platform to give China’s early-stage companies access to resources and seed

capital from a broad range of investors. With the advantages of JD.com’s nation-al brand, resources and commitment to supporting early-stage companies, we are confident that JD.com will become the leading platform for equity crowdfund-ing in China. We look forward to creating innovation and value for investors, con-sumers and start-ups.”

The equity crowdfunding model pro-vides for each investment project to be led by an investment manager who is from a venture capital firm or a com-pany with similar experience. The in-dividual works with the firms to ensure “transparent” communications with in-vestors, JD.com said. VCs who are part

of JD’s ecosystem include Capital Today, ZhenFund and Sequoia Capital. JD does take a small equity stake in the firms that successfully raise funding through JD Equity.

Galeries Lafayette To Shutter TwoStores in France

Obama Vetoes Union Vote Block

JD.com Expands Equity Crowdfunding Business

Cotillard Designs ‘Green’ Jewels for Chopard

The new venture expands the offerings from JD Crowdfunding, which was established in 2014.

Why should the creation of dreams and luxury turn into a nightmare for the people

who are providing the raw material?— MARION COTILLARD

Marion Cotillard and Caroline Scheufele

WWD.COMWWD wednesday, april 1, 2015

“This is an industry-shaping deal, with an expanded platform that will reach two million customers and more geographic markets,” said Marchetti, who will serve as chief executive of-ficer of the new company. “This is the right time to bring the companies to-gether. We changed the fashion indus-try somehow — and now we’ll do it even more,” he said.

Marchetti, who holds a 7 percent stake in Yoox, called the deal “the big-gest professional achievement in my career” and vowed during a conference call to expand the business steadily, and bring value to shareholders. Going for-ward, he said, the storefront will stay the same, “but with better technology and logistics that better serve custom-ers. We are better together than apart.”

Marchetti said Tuesday’s deal is the culmination of talks with Net-a-porter that began in February 2009, before Yoox went public. “That’s when Natalie and I first spoke about this idea,” he said. Sources say talks about a poten-tial tie-up go back even farther than that — but the timing was never right. Eighteen months ago, WWD reported that talks were back on between Yoox and Net-a-porter, but Richemont firmly denied that Net-a-porter was for sale.

Over the years, the two companies developed very different cultures — Yoox a profit-driven, no-frills retail machine based outside Bologna, Italy, and Net-a-porter a shop-able, glossy on-line magazine with strong sales, yet not nearly as profitable as Yoox.

As the years passed, Yoox focused on its off-season business; the small in-sea-son site Thecorner.com, and creating sites for brands ranging from Giorgio Armani and Valentino to Diesel and Alexander Wang. Net-a-porter, mean-while, polished its multibrand retail credentials, unveiled a men’s wear site, and published online editorial content as well as a print magazine.

Natalie Massenet, the founder of Net-a-porter Group and its interim ceo, will become executive chairman and hold shares in the new compa-ny. She will manage and oversee the image, marketing, social media, edi-torial content and long-term strategy of Yoox Net-a-porter Group, among other responsibilities.

“Today, we open the doors to the world’s biggest luxury fashion store,” she said in a statement revealing the deal. “Together, with our world-class teams in technology, logistics, content and commerce, we are redefining the fashion media and retail landscape.”

Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, both Yoox and Net-a-porter have come to the table with valuations of more than a billion euros each. Barclays in London be-lieves the two companies are similar in value, at 1.44 billion euros, or $1.56 bil-lion, apiece, while Exane BNP Paribas said the merger values Net-a-porter at 1.5 billion euros, or $1.63 billion. Vontobel pitched Net-a-porter’s valua-tion higher, at 1.7 billion euros, or $1.84 billion. On Monday, the eve of the an-nouncement, Yoox’s market capitaliza-tion was 1.44 billion euros.

Like Yoox, the newly merged com-pany will be based in Italy and quoted on the Italian bourse. It will have an adjusted EBITDA, or earnings be-fore interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, of 108 million euros, or $117 million.

Marchetti said he expects there to be 60 million euros, or $65.1 million, worth of annual EBITDA and capital expenditure savings by the third year. Half of those savings will come from revenues and the remainder from cost and capital expenditure savings. Synergies are expected to be a net posi-tive as soon as 2017.

Richemont will hold 50 percent of the new company’s share capital, but only 25 percent of the voting rights to ensure that Yoox Net-a-porter remains an independent entity. Richemont has also committed to a lock-up period of three years in respect of shares equiva-lent to 25 percent of the total share cap-ital of the combined entity.

The agreement is conditional upon the approval of Yoox shareholders at a meeting to be held in June, with the new company officially coming together in September.

Following completion, the new group is expected to launch a capital increase of up to 200 million euros, or $217 million at current exchange, to fund future growth and allow for the entry of “strategic investors,” Richemont said.

Asked about these potential inves-tors, Marchetti told WWD they could be luxury brands. “This is a fantastic plat-form for luxury. We are the largest in the pure luxury sector,” he said, adding that proceeds from the capital increase will be used “to fund future growth and investments.”

The new company will boast six storefronts, including Net-a-porter.com, Mr Porter and Thecorner.com, and trade in some 180 countries. Some 28 percent of combined net revenues will be from North America, the single largest sales region, followed by Europe, the U.K., Asia Pacific and the rest of the world.

According to Marchetti, the average order value — as a combined entity — is the highest in the luxury industry, at 300 euros, or $326.

In a report for Bernstein Research, Mario Ortelli and Haemi Shin gave the merger the green light, saying it provid-ed critical mass and scale, e-tailing ex-pertise and a platform for e-commerce growth for all of the Richemont brands.

The report added that Yoox gains the benefit of a partnership with Richemont. “Net-a-porter is considered ‘the Bergdorf Goodman of online’ and has good relationships with brands; the combined company has an expanded platform for building stronger partner-ships with brands.

“Yoox was looking to gain share and full-price business, and Net-a-porter has a fantastic online business,” it said. The Bernstein report also noted that the combined entity has access to funding from a cash-rich Richemont. Bernstein compared Tuesday’s merger with Neiman Marcus buying e-tailer Mytheresa last year.

Thomas Chauvet of Citigroup also touted the benefits of the deal to Net-a-porter and to Richemont. “We believe The Outnet [Net-a-porter’s off-price business] could be merged into Yoox.

9

Yoox, Net-a-porter Collaborate on Online Force{Continued from page one}

By SAMANTHA CONTI and LUISA ZARGANI

LONDON — They flirted with each other for years, and now Yoox Group and Net-a-porter are about to be married at last.

The two e-tailers — which both debuted in June 2000 — believe their moment has come to raise the bar on luxury fashion e-commerce in an underexploited mar-ket where size, scale and speed count for everything.

“Established business models are being increas-ingly disrupted by the technological giants,” said Johann Rupert, chairman of Net-a-porter’s parent Compagnie Financière Richemont, who brokered the all-share deal to create a new fashion e-commerce group, with Yoox founder Federico Marchetti. “We believe it is important to increase leadership and size to protect the uniqueness of the luxury industry. The merger of the two leaders will further enhance an independent, neutral platform for a sophisticated clientele looking for luxury brands.”

On Tuesday, Richemont and Yoox Group revealed the merger of the latter with Net-a-porter in a trans-action that will see the creation of a new retail brand, Yoox Net-a-porter. Built on three pillars — in-season and off-season fashion and the management of on-line, monobrand stores — the new group will have combined net revenues of 1.3 billion euros, or $1.41 billion at current exchange.

The deal immediately ramps up the scale of both Net-a-porter and Yoox to be able to better com-pete with mega players like Amazon and Alibaba as well as smaller but fast-growing e-tailers includ-ing Mytheresa.com and Matchesfashion.com. The merger also solves what was clearly a thorny issue for Richemont: How to grow Net-a-porter into a con-sistently profitable operation among its more hard-luxury focused other brands, which include Cartier, IWC, Van Cleef & Arpels and Montblanc, as well as Chloé and Dunhill.

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com,” he said, “and that Richemont’s under-performing fashion brands — in particular Dunhill, Chloé, Lancel and Shanghai Tang — could be strengthened through the roll-out of monobrand stores” on the new site.

There is certainly room for growth in the online luxury space. “It probably goes without saying that brick and mortar is still the preferred channel for today’s lux-ury consumer, with just under 94 percent of all global luxury sales still taking place in-store,” said Fflur Roberts, head of lux-ury goods at Euromonitor International. “Online sales of luxury goods currently

stand at just under 6 percent of all value sales for 2014. This is up from around 3 percent 10 years ago, but is set to increase by 40 percent by 2019. This growth will open up huge opportunities to drive in-vestment in digital technology with retail-ers such as Net-a-porter and Yoox able to benefit from new innovation across all on-line platforms,” Roberts added.

Not all industry observers were keen on the deal. Luca Solca, managing director at Exane BNP Paribas, said Tuesday the overlap of Net-a-porter and Yoox is “rela-tively modest, considering one is a full-price retailer and the other is an off-price retailer.” He also said Yoox’s expertise as a monobrand e-commerce site operator for third parties could be under threat.

Solca called that business proposition “structurally challenged, as luxury brands realize digital is strategic and decide therefore to internalize it.”

That said, Solca conceded the combined entity is stronger and more competitive, with more scale, supply chain synergies and value creation. He called it “a big positive for Yoox,” and noted that, down the road, the increased value of the company will allow Richemont to “disengage” from the business with a healthy profit in its pocket.

Richemont said the transaction would generate a one-off, non-cash, accounting gain in its financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2016, of about 317 million euros, or $344 million, at both the pre- and post- tax levels.

Excluding the one-off, non-cash ac-counting gain, the transaction is otherwise expected to be broadly earnings neutral in terms of Richemont’s net income for the fi-nancial year ending March 31, 2016, based on available information.

Analysts say the merger valued Net-a-porter at between $1.56 billion and $1.84 billion.

On April 29th, the print edition of WWD will re-launch in a

weekly glossy format. The final edition of the daily newspaper

in its current format will be on April 24, 2015.

Beginning with the April 27th issue, we’ll produce a curated

Daily Digital edition of WWD that will reflect the top stories

of the day. It will be emailed to you before you wake up each

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WWD.COM10 WWD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

LEGIONS OF VISITORS to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute have seen Andrew Bolton without even knowing it.

Working at the Fifth Avenue museum since 2002, the British-born curator has contentedly gone about his days behind-the-scenes. But in the past 12 years, he has put his personal touch on 12 exhibitions that have been gazed upon by thousands, including many with the Costume Institute’s curator in charge, Harold Koda. Now, as this year’s Vilcek Foundation fashion prize winner, Bolton can’t shake the spotlight. The prize — whose jury included Koda, Cecilia Dean, Jimmy Moffat of Art + Commerce and Julie Gilhart among others comes with a $100,000 award.

So one wintry morning, Bolton agreed to talk shop in The Costume Institute library, just steps away from

his offi ce. With the Barneys-bequeathed Diana Vreeland mannequin looming playfully, the ultraorderly atheneum with a pencils-only policy was a fi tting location to learn about his career. Fastidious as the Met is about preserving fashion and its role in history, Bolton, along with Koda and the team, are very much focused on tomorrow. “We want to be on the cusp of predicting what might be interesting to people. But I think fundamentally what we do is to make people think differently about fashion,” Bolton said. “I fi rmly believe that fashion is an art form, although not all fashion is art. Our role is to enhance the appreciation of the artistry of fashion.”

Inclined to speaking in the plural, Bolton is engaging and quick to laugh. Described by one friend as “the perfect combination of charming and intelligent,” Bolton said of his

low profi le, “Putting shows together and coming up with ideas for exhibitions is what I love the most. It’s becoming harder and harder to come up with ideas that one thinks will engage an audience because people’s understanding is becoming more sophisticated and enhanced.”

To that end, one of the more intriguing guests at the preview for his next project “China: Through The Looking Glass” was renowned fi lmmaker Wong Kar Wai, the exhibition’s artistic director. Bolton screened a few of his

fi lm clips that will be featured, and spoke of a show that will have visitors wending their way through three areas of the museum. The idea of movement and technology appeals to Bolton, who would love to do a show about the sound of fashion, perhaps in the Met’s American galleries. Inspired by how the writers Edith Wharton and Henry James described style and fashion through such sounds as a crinoline petticoat brushing against a piece of furniture, Bolton said, “It would be lovely to have your eyes closed as well, so that you could fully appreciate it.”

Having introduced Bolton to Koda over lunch at Bottino

in 2000, Yeohlee said Bolton’s talent stems from “his imagination. When you have imagination and you’re scholarly and you do your homework, the results can be staggering.”

The son of a newspaper man and a stay-at-home mother, Bolton and two siblings grew up in Lancashire, north of London. Attending “a quite traditional Catholic school,” he ditched the doctor-lawyer-anything-professional job track, after two anthropologists paid a visit to his high school classroom. Bolton was enthralled by the romance of other cultures

and the idea of travel. “At 16, my access to Africa and Asia was very much through books, fi lms and paintings so it was a very romanticized and probably exoticized idea of what other cultures were like, their customs and their dress. I always felt their cultures were different because they seemed so completely different in terms of their clothing in particular. When I heard the two anthropologists talk, what struck me was how similar we are in terms of human beings.”

So it was off to the University of East Anglia to study anthropology, followed by a master’s degree in non-Western art, bookended by

extensive travel in the Far East and Australia. He then joined the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where he spent nine years before relocating to New York for The Met.

Bolton, encyclopedic about fashion designers, singled out during the course of conversation the names of Chanel, Poiret, Azzedine Alaïa, Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yves Saint Laurent, Craig Green, Simone Rocha, Christopher Kane, Nicolas Ghesquière, Hussein Chalayan, Viktor & Rolf and John Galliano. He said of Miuccia Prada, “Sometimes it’s easier to send a dress down the runway made out of razor clam shells because the obvious artistry of it is immediate. But to send a dress down the runway, which is a dress, but one that has layers of meaning is sometimes more complicated.”

He knows his partner Thom Browne like no other. Both are “absolute creatures of habit,” who relish a night in or dinner at Waverly Inn or Morandi. Regarding work, Bolton said, “Thom is much more lighthearted, but he’s also darker. But there’s always a lightness to the dark stories he tells, whether it’s about death or religion. There’s a real innocence to Thom’s approach to fashion and the stories that he tells. I use the left side of the brain a little more, the analytical and referenced. Thom deliberately doesn’t go to exhibitions or read about them, because he doesn’t want to be infl uenced by outside forces. He wants it to be coming from himself. I love being stimulated by images, fi lms, art shows, books.

“We don’t tend to talk about work that much,” he continued. “It’s not a deliberate thing. When your jobs are both creative, when you leave your job you want to watch the Kardashians on TV,” he said with a laugh. “We watch a lot of appalling television. And it really is just a way of switching off.”

— ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

Resident Romantic

Bad Girls ClubCaption go here for this

eye“THIS PARTY IS a little too turnt up for a weekday.” It was Monday at 7:30 p.m. and as one partygoer so eloquently mused, the vibe at Opening Ceremony was “turnt up.” The occasion? A launch party for M$$ x WT, Melissa Forde’s new line of bucket hats, a one-off capsule collection for rapper Wale’s Wrkng Title hat line. As Rihanna’s resident bestie-sidekick, Forde has learned to party with the best of them, and for her own debut, she decided to show those skills off — Monday night be damned.

Revelers packed into the space, popping into a makeshift photobooth and bopping to the DJ’s playlist, a stream of Jay Z and Kanye West hits played several decibels too loud.

Forde rode solo for the majority of the evening, fl itting around the SoHo store in a hat of her own design and sipping out of a plastic cup fi lled with D’ussé, a cognac favored by rappers and the party’s only alcoholic option. “I really love Opening Ceremony, not to be biased,” Forde said. “I just really like the store.” The feeling was seemingly mutual, as designer Humberto Leon arrived early in the evening to show his support — or maybe just to make sure no D’ussé was spilled on the Dries van Noten.

The real question of the night was whether RiRi herself was going to stop by. All signs pointed to yes — she had appeared at Jay Z’s press conference for Tidal, his new music streaming service, in the city earlier

that afternoon, and hey, what kind of BFF doesn’t show up? Around 8:30 p.m., a round of paparazzi fl ash bulbs erupted outside the store, cueing a crush of iPhone cameras to be raised in anticipation. Alas, it was just Kevin Durant. The towering basketballer lumbered over to Forde and posed for a few pictures before heading out.

The clock ticked closer to 9, the party’s slated end time. But moments later the DJ queued up the singer’s 2011 hit “You Da One,” and in glided the bad girl herself. Clad in a graffi ti print Raf Simons coat, bra top, jean shorts and pineapple-printed bucket hat, she made a beeline for Forde. The two hammed it up for the cameras, before Rihanna made her way to the bar. “I love them,” she told WWD of the hat line, sipping on her cognac on the rocks. “This pineapple one is my favorite….I thought the Rastafarian print one would be my favorite, but this pineapple print is just epic. It makes me want summer to be here right now.” Drink secured, she made her way back toward Forde. Once the pair were reunited, the DJ played his second RiRi tune of the night, the singer’s new single, “B---- Better Have My Money.” Rihanna didn’t so much as fl inch, instinctively diving into a full-on lip synch, complete with hip shimmies and emphatic hand gestures — a true diva-worthy performance. Someone give that girl her M$$. — LAUREN MCCARTHY

WWD.COM

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FOR MORE PHOTOS, SEE

WWD.com/eye.

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A preview of “China: Through the Looking Glass” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Melissa Forde and Rihanna

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WWD.COMWWD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 11

MEMO PADCOLES’ PRESIDENTIAL RUNAROUND: No matter how hard she tried, Joanna Coles wasn’t getting her big scoop on whether U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) is planning a presidential bid in 2016.

The editor in chief of Cosmopolitan permitted Warren to give what sounded like a well-rehearsed stump speech, with Clinton-esque gesticulations (Bill’s, not Hillary’s) on financial reform, the state of the economy and why “Washington is broken” — a familiar talking point among politicians of both parties (and pretty much every person of voting age in America).

The interview, which took place Tuesday morning at Hearst Tower in Manhattan, gave Warren the chance to promote her new book “A Fighting Chance,” but let’s face it, the real

reason why the small auditorium was standing-room only was to get a glimpse of the potential presidential candidate — and, Coles, a former newspaper reporter, knew that.

“You’ve come straight here, flying from the ‘Today Show’ studios where you denied fervently that you’re going to run for president,” Coles said. “We’ll come back to that.”

And she would, but first, the editor sat patiently — squirming only minimally — for about 30 minutes while Warren talked policy and her personal travails. Those included her mother’s struggles raising her family on a minimum wage salary and her own unexpected road to D.C., which included difficulties, such as a teen pregnancy and an early divorce from her childhood sweetheart.

With 20 minutes left in front of Warren, Coles leaned in a bit, starting with a somewhat provocative question about lobbyists.

“What does it say about Congress that they are so easily bought by lobbyists? I mean, this is an argument that we hear all the time. What is it that lobbyists do to magic their point of view that Congressmen are so weak that they roll over?” she asked.

“One is obviously money,” Warren said. “It takes money to run political campaigns. This is a cancer growing on the soul of our democracy. But the second part is also important to pay attention to — lobbyists are just always there to shape the conversation. Here’s the problem: There’s no counter to come back at them.”

The senator, with a quavering voice, went on a tangent about families that were hurt by the financial crisis who didn’t have their voices heard during the housing crisis and bank bailout.

Coles kept trying to interrupt, and finally broke through: “So how do you plan to change that, and that leads me to the obvious question: When you read this [she gestured to Warren’s book], it’s hard to read ‘A Fighting Chance’ and

not believe that you would like to be president.”

“This is a book of great optimism,” Warren said after a bout of thoughts on the book and her love for the country. “I am not running for president. Can I tell a very short story?”

“You can, but I didn’t ask you if you were running,” Coles said. “I asked you would you like to be president?”

“This is really important. This isn’t about me,” the senator said, before going into a not-so-short story about the financial crash and her idea for a consumer watchdog agency in D.C.

Coles had her arms folded, wheels turning on how to get Warren to give her something juicy.

“So, Hillary Clinton. Do you think she’s going to run?” she asked.

“I don’t know, that’s up to her,” Warren said, in perfect political pitch.

“Would you like her to run?” Coles said, slowly advancing.

“I signed a letter two years ago encouraging her to run. One [letter] was in the Senate,” she replied.

“Would you run against her?” Coles said.

“I am not running for president,” Warren replied. “I’m not going to run for president.”

Bothered, Coles resorted to blurting out: “Why wouldn’t you run? Even if you didn’t think you were going to be president. Why wouldn’t you take this message, which you’ve presented out on the road and around the country? Why wouldn’t you use this platform?”

Coolly, Warren offered: “I am taking it out and around this country.”

Coles gave it one last stab in a flurry of questions that mimicked a ping-pong match: “Do you think Hillary’s e-mails — that seems like a problem for her — were you surprised that she didn’t use the official e-mail address?”

“So, I was surprised. I think they should be made public,” Warren said. “I think that’s what is going to happen.”

Coles asked: “Were you surprised she deleted as many as she did?”

A political reply from Warren: “I don’t know the details. I think the e-mails should be made public and I think that’s what she’s going to do.”

A more pointed attempt from Coles: “So, you’re waiting like the rest of us to see if she’s going to run? If she doesn’t run, do you think the Democratic Party has dug itself into a bit of a hole?”

“Come on, look, we know what we need to do,” Warren said, going a bit off script before finding her way again, wrapping the interview with a reply that sounded a bit like President Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech about a divided America.

“We know what the core issues are. Here’s the part that is so obvious — the things we need to fight for,” she said. “This isn’t Democrat versus Republican.”

Game, set, match: Warren.— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

Joanna Coles interviews Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

ANTIDISCRIMINATION DUET: The chief executive officers of Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co. have joined forces to make a statement, but it’s got nothing to do with a collaborative capsule collection. Art Peck, ceo of Gap, and Chip Bergh, president and ceo of Levi’s, cited their firms’ “long history of standing up for equal rights and equal opportunity for all” and against discrimination based on “race, sex or sexual orientation” in adding their voices to others in the business community in opposition to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, scheduled to take effect July 1. “As Indiana, Arkansas and states around the country enact and consider legislation that perpetuates discrimination, we’re urging state legislatures to stand up for equality by repealing and voting against these discriminatory laws,” the two stated. “These new laws and legislation that allow people and businesses to deny service to people based on their sexual orientation turn back the clock on equality and foster a culture of intolerance.”

The heads of the two San Francisco-based firms noted such laws “are unquestionably bad for business, but more importantly, they are fundamentally wrong. They must be stopped.” — ARNOLD J. KARR

DIOR IN SAN FRANCISCO: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was the dramatic setting Friday night for the Christian Dior-sponsored Mid-Winter Gala. Kate Bosworth, Kate Mara, Jordana Brewster, Suki Waterhouse and model Anne Vyalitsyna, all in Dior, natch, provided the eye candy while Alexandra Richards played the part of DJ. “This is my big debut party in San Francisco,” Vyalitsyna said. “I just moved to the city and I’m so happy to be here.” Brewster used the opportunity to plug her latest movie, “Furious 7.”

“I love the action of this film, and I adore Vin Diesel,” she said. The event, a fund-raiser for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, was founded over

a decade ago by honorary cochairs Vanessa and Trevor Traina, Kathryn Lasater and Allison Speer. Pamela Baxter, Ken Fulk, and Jenny and Roman Coppola were among the others nibbling on lobster salad on Dior-engraved plates. Some time after midnight, as Richards played “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” cowritten by dad Keith, guests headed for the exits. It was time to call it a night. “Adored,” was how Fulk summed up the evening.

— DIANE DORRANS SAEKS

ON THE NILE: Monica Rich Kosann is getting a new online home. The fine jewelry designer has created a new collection exclusively for online jewelry retailer Blue Nile. “Blue Nile is one of the leading retailers in the digital space and are credited as being one of the first to develop a new model for selling jewelry

online,” said Rich Kosann. “As a brand with an omnichannel perspective, we welcomed the opportunity to create an exclusive collection for them.”

Inspired by the act of storytelling, the collection consists of classic lockets and unique charms, such as family trees, handprints and wedding bells. The pieces are made of 18-karat gold and sterling silver, with accents of sapphires, mother-of-pearl and blue topaz. “The collection stays true to the locket and charm collections that underpin our business,” explained Rich Kosann. “We had always seen an opportunity to create an opening price, petite 18-karat gold charm collection that would fit the growing merchandising matrix for our brand. We felt Blue Nile was the ideal launch partner for that.” With the collection, Rich Kosann joins Bree Richey, Robert Leser, Lisa Jenks and Sloane Street & Sage as part of the Blue Nile Designer Collective, the site’s curated section of exclusive pieces to highlight both new and established designers. The jewelry will be available on the site beginning today, with prices ranging from $225 to $2,950. — LAUREN MCCARTHY

STOP HERESTOP HERESTOP HERE

RUFFIAN’S L.A. DEBUT: Designers Brian Wolk and Claude Morais are still in the honeymoon phase of their Los Angeles love affair. Inspired by their recent move from New York, the Ruffian designers will launch a new line called Wolk Morais on April 13, which marks the one-year anniversary of their arrival in Hollywood. Focused on the pre-seasons rather than spring and fall, the line will offer a dressier take that Wolk calls “luxury sportswear with evening elements” that is meant to be worn year-round and will show in October and April annually. All pieces are sourced and produced in Los Angeles and will retail between $795 and $4,995. “When we moved here there was a dramatic climate change in our native New York and it gave us a new perspective on the way women dress. The pre-seasons make the most sense because they have the longest shelf life and been most financially successful for our retailers,” said Wolk.

They’ll debut Wolk Morais at Koñ Gallery. Unlike many of their contemporaries, the designers are inspired less by street and activewear and more by Old Hollywood designers like Adrian and Norman Norell. “We saw a need for luxury sportswear and what better place to flex a new muscle? Women here aren’t afraid of color so you’ll see that as well,” said Wolk. “We’re also starting to dressing a whole new world of celebrity that we’ve never explored before.” The designers worked with stylist Elizabeth Stewart on the collection, and count Stewart’s daughter Ivy Bragin as one of their muses. They also just dressed one of Stewart’s star clients, Jessica Chastain. “We live in a world of Instagram where news comes out quickly, and we wanted to ensure we were 100 percent ready with this line,” said Wolk of the short-lead announcement, “But we’re still about two weeks ahead of resort season.”

As for Ruffian, the designers said they haven’t yet decided where to show the spring 2016 collection come September. — Marcy Medina

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WWD.COM12 WWD Wednesday, april 1, 2015

By Julie NaughtoN

DYlaN lauReN hopes to hit a retail sweet spot with her newest collabora-tion: flip-flops with Brazilian sandal brand havaianas.

the limited-edition footwear col-lection hits Dylan’s Candy Bar, Bloomingdale’s, lester’s, havaianas and dylanscandybar.com on Friday.

“i always knew i wanted to create a lifestyle brand — and watching my dad go from having a tie company to a full lifestyle collection was certainly very inspiring,” said lauren, founder and chief executive officer of the candy store that bears her name. in addition to her newest partnership, lauren in the past has partnered with Maclaren for stroll-ers, with leSportsac for bags and with

Claire’s on jewelry, tech accessories, nail polish and lip products.

as for the flip-flops, she said, “i seri-ously could design 1,000 candy patterns if havaianas wanted to make them all.” at launch, two styles of sandals adorned with Dylan’s Candy Bar’s most well-known signature candies — swirled lol-lipops and round lollipops — will be on offer. the flip-flops will retail for $30 and are available in tween to adult sizes, from 3/4 to 11/12.

lauren — who noted she looks at candy as an art form that connects the worlds of art, fashion and pop culture — has many seasonal collections. “But unlike fashion, where there are two sea-sons, with candy there are endless sea-sons,” she said. “We can do red, white and blue for the Fourth of July, orange and black for halloween, red and pink

for Valentine’s Day, etc. it’s con-stantly being switched up.”

there are nine Dylan’s Candy Bar stores, soon to be 10. three are in New York — her upper east Side flagship, a seasonal shop in east hampton and an out-post at JFK international airport — and a fourth, in union Square, is nearly ready to open. Chicago, los angeles and Miami have stores, and lauren also has stores at the grand traverse Resort and Spa in Williamsburg, Mich., Mohegan Sun in uncasville, Conn., and the Detroit Metro airport.

She isn’t even close to being finished with collaborations. in fact, she has a long wish list that includes floating water toys such as rafts, sneakers and candy-

making machines that allow consumers to recreate the Dylan’s experience at home.

home furnish-ings are another category being con-sidered. “our con-ference-room table

is a giant glass table filled with gumballs,

and people have asked if they can buy anything

similar,” she said. “i think there’s an opportu-

nity to do home furnish-ings that could be taken

to an adult level, but still cel-ebrate the kid in all of us.”

as for lauren’s own favorite sweets? “i love the swirly pops on the flip-flops, but to eat? Right now, i’m re-ally into red Swedish fish, licorice and everything marshmallowy.”

with that rare blend of superstrong inter-personal skills and hyper-focused ana-lytical skills, as a result of its founders. lore is the ultimate entrepreneur — he has an intuitive feel for the customer, a playbook for a business model that oth-ers might say can’t possibly exist, and an ability to go from inspirational vi-sion to highly specific detail in no heart-beat. and he, like Jenn hyman at Rent the Runway and David Rosenblatt at DoubleClick, attracted a team of young and hungry professionals who mirrored those qualities. it’s not surprising that many of them subsequently go on to be great entrepreneurs themselves.”

Bernard, Primary’s ceo, and Carbonell, the site’s chief operating officer, were early members of Quidsi (the latter was the third employee), and led retail and marketing for Diapers.com, helping drive the company from $11 million in revenue to more than $500 million.

From there, Bernard launched and ran three kid-centric brands and Carbonell started nine more e-commerce sites in the toys, home, children’s and clothing verti-cals. the two stayed on at amazon post-acquisition of Quidsi for two years before venturing out on their own.

With Primary, Bernard and Carbonell are taking what they learned and filling a hole in what’s considered to be a very frag-

mented market. the two raised $2.5 mil-lion from homebrew and harrison Metal, as well as another $750,000 in venture debt from Western technology investment to build a destination for “busy parents who need to buy essentials.”

Consumers can think of Primary.com as an everlane for babies and kids up to size 10 — a site that sells basics for children. everything retails for under $25, which is 25 to 50 percent less than similar options from gap or J. Crew’s Crewcuts, according to Bernard and Carbonell. there are 32 styles that each come in several color options, with an opening price point of $10 for baby one-sies and boys’ and girls’ t-shirts.

“We are marketing Primary as a true solution, not unlike marketing Diapers.com,” Carbonell said, adding it seems harder than it should be for parents to replenish core items in their children’s wardrobes — whether this means adding more colors or sizing up.

unlike many of Primary’s vertical on-line peers that have popped up over the

past few years and are quickly establishing physical retail footprints — Warby Parker and Bonobos among them — Primary has no plans to put down brick-and-mortar roots. the company will remain an online-only player that sells evergreen styles with higher stock levels than their more trend-driven counterparts. the idea is that a parent shouldn’t be inconvenienced, espe-cially if all they need to do is pick up some fresh white ts for their kids.

Because there will be no off-line pres-ence, Bernard and Carbonell — mar-keters by background — have devised a strategy to acquire customers that starts with a network of family friends that have early access to the site. Primary will use paid search, retargeting and af-filiate marketing online, and will start to test with direct mail, mini catalogues and insert programs with partners off-line. additionally, they will couple social media outreach and partner with influ-encers to spread the word.

then there’s Some Spider. Bharara might be moving away from the commerce world (he’s still an early investor in Jet), but he’s focusing on the same demograph-ic as Primary and Diapers.com. he estab-lished media company Some Spider last fall, which operates multibranded sites that produce content intended for a very targeted audience, such as the Mid and the recently acquired Scarymommy.com.

Calling it a “replication of what we did in commerce at Quidsi,” Bharara is starting out in a sector he knows well: the parenting world. Scary Mommy al-ready has 10 million unique visitors a month and caters to parents with young children, and the Mid is a lifestyle par-enting space for people whose kids are out of diapers. a third site, Cafe.com, will launch in the fall, but Bharara is vague on what demographic it will target (he clarified that the Mid originally was named Cafe, but the name was changed a few months in).

Bharara has personally financed the project to date and plans to start fund-raising in May or June. in addition to revealing the Scary Mommy acquisition on March 30, he named Paul Smurl, pre-viously head of digital at the New York times, chief operating officer and presi-dent of Some Spider.

Bharara confirmed that advertising will be part of the revenue model but is elusive when it comes to other ways his media entity will make money. he said

relationships and loyal engagement will eventually drive revenue, but again, won’t divulge more on how this will help generate profitability.

“if you have a relationship you can do a lot to monetize that, and it’s not just ads that are in the future. it [advertising] is not enough but it’s important,” Bharara said. “even amazon — as a commerce player — has a large chunk of its bottom line revenue that comes from advertis-ing. But if you want to really optimize, you need to look to other sources of revenue. You can’t focus on page views exclusively; you have to focus on these relationships.”

he contended that a blurring between content and commerce is taking place. Commerce companies are increasingly producing content, and sites like Some Spider, Primary and Jet are all trying to do similar things.

“What is the cost to acquire an en-gaged relationship and how will you monetize that? We all come at that at dif-ferent angles, even amazon,” Bharara said. at Some Spider, it’s about engaged readers, at Primary it’s gaining repeat customers who keep shopping with the site, and at Jet, it’s growing a subscrip-tion base with loyal members, he said.

lore told WWD last week that the site has more than 400,000 people who have requested to become trial members of Jet.com, which is being painted as an anti-amazon by the industry thus far. instead of amazon’s price-fixed model, Jet’s prices drop if a consumer opts to combine orders or choose to buy from a local retailer.

the site’s revenue model hinges on the $49.99 yearly fee members will pay to access Jet’s real-time trading sys-

tem, which already counts 400 retailers large and small as partners, including Babyage, FragranceNet, PureFormulas and eBags. after spending a decade in the e-commerce space, lore wanted to do something about the fixed-pricing model that existed online. he explained that regardless of the underlying economics, there is one price for a product.

“i remember looking at a chart that showed profitability on a customer. the same product was sometimes very prof-itable and sometimes not profitable. the range is so huge,” lore said, noting that variables like articles of clothing ship-ping separately (versus in the same box) or an item coming from far away cause profitability to dip.

he wants to solve this problem and show consumers in real time so they can hopefully “steer themselves towards eco-nomically efficient options because pric-es were lower.”

on the back end, he said, the site looks more like a trading system than an e-com-merce site. the reason for this is that Jet is repricing every product as the consumer is shopping — based on location, what they are buying and more — all the while being as transparent as possible about what the true costs are. For example, a consumer shopping for a particular fragrance in Chicago might get it cheaper from a retail-er that is around the corner than if it has to be shipped across the country.

although reluctant to discuss amazon, his views on profit seem to mirror those of Jeff Bezos: he hopes that Jet doesn’t make a profit anytime soon.

“i think people and investors fixate so much on profitability, but it’s the profit-ability at the unit level [that matters],” lore said. “if i can acquire one custom-er for $50, and make $250 profits [from them] over the next five years then you would want to do that.”

lore said he can’t make a profit until he flattens marketing costs, which hope-fully won’t be for a long time. When it starts costing $100 in customer acquisi-tion costs to make $250 and eventually $200 to make $250, he will stop.

“i’ll be penetrating the market to such an extent that i won’t be able to keep buying customers forever. the goal is dif-ferent. it’s not when is it profitable, it’s how do you get the unit economics profit-able and go as long as possible with those unit economics,” lore said.

For him, if an organization’s econom-ics are positive, overall profitability in the short term doesn’t matter. the team is already at 150 and hiring at a rate of about 30 new employees a month.

“if you’re just an investor and you’re seeing that you can buy a customer for $50 and they generate $250 in profits, wouldn’t you tell the company, ‘i’ll keep giving you money if they can keep doing this,’” lore said. “Whenever you want to flatten it, the profits are going to come.”

Dylan Lauren Links With Havaianas

Brains Behind Quidsi Boost E-tail Sites

’’’’

What is the cost to acquire an engaged relationship and how will you monetize that? We all come at that at different angles, even Amazon.

— Vinit Bharara

{Continued from page one}

Flip-flops from the collection.

By RaChel StRugatz

the MaRKetPlaCe Site Jet is perhaps the most buzzed about e-commerce company right now — and it hasn’t even launched.

Founder and chief executive officer Marc lore has already raised $220 million for the venture from inves-tors including Bain Capital and accel Partners — and was in a plum position to do so. he sold Quidsi, the par-ent company of brands like Diapers.com and Soap.com in which he cofounded with Vinit Bharara, to amazon in 2010 for more than $500 million. lore stayed on at the e-commerce giant until summer 2013 before departing to build Jet, a place that he says will maximize order prof-itability for retailers and provide the most cost-efficient option for consumers. the marketplace will open to the public sometime in “late spring.”

While Jet in and of itself has been generating lots of attention, less remarked on is the central role Quidsi has played in spawning a slew of e-tailers, mainly in the children’s wear and kids’ space. this week alone saw the expansion of Bharara’s content platform Some Spider, which acquired the highly traf-ficked parenting destination Scary Mommy, and the launch of Primary by galyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell that is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce destination for children’s clothing.

Scott Friend, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures, said Quidsi — like DoubleClick and Rent the Runway, which are also Bain investments like Jet — has incubated so many start-ups because it “cre-ated a unique culture of high performance people

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A girls “cardi” that retails for $24 on Primary.com.