Fashion Zone

In Depth: 2009's Most Powerful Fashion Magazine Editors

2009-09-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

To compile our list of the America's most influential fashion editors, we considered the top editor of every monthly U.S.-based magazine that features a significant amount of fashion editorial, including teen magazines. Monthly unique user numbers for each Web site, provided by comScore, told us how well each editor's title is transitioning from print to the online format. We also looked at advertising revenue from the first half of 2009 and compared it with revenue from the first half of 2008; both were culled from the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB), a division of the Magazine Publishers of America. The number of advertising pages for the first half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2008, also from PIB, was another factor. We also considered the year-over-year change in circulation for the first half of 2009, provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. These measurements told us how many people are sure to read magazine each month and how much advertisers are willing to pay to capture the attention of those readers. Finally, we calculated the number of times each editor's name was found in Factiva and on Google Blog Search over the year ending on Aug. 31, 2009. All factors were ranked and then averaged for a final ranking.

Across-the-Pond Accessories

2009-09-07T18:47:00.000-07:00

…plus a taste of Versace and a chance to save big
BFF: Long before there was a tally of Facebook friends to show off your pal power, there were friendship bracelets you and your besties braided together. Links of London offers the grown-up version so you can stroll down memory lane with something a little more sophisticated than colorful string knotted around your wrist. The Pewter and White Friendship Bracelet is a sterling silver white and pewter number your guy and gal pals would gladly wear to show they accepted your buddy request. $180, Links of London

VERY VERSACE: Miami has a history steeped in Versace. And tonight Neiman Marcus is offering a viewing of its future. The fall line lands at Bal Harbour Shops tonight for a preview of black, blue and bold all over. 9700 Collins Ave., Bal Harbour; 305.865.6161

SIXTY GOING ON 75: Miss Sixty is offering up to 75 percent off its spring/summer merchandise. Seventy-five percent off, that’s like free—if free were paying 25 percent of the original price. Score looks like this three-quarter-length dress for just $85 (50 percent off its original price) or this large leather bag for just $87 (75 percent off its original $349). Plus, you can find on-sale shoes and accessories to match. Paying full price for stuff is so last season.

‘September Issue’ is an insider’s look at Vogue

2009-08-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

You still may not understand what motivates Anna Wintour by film’s end

LOS ANGELES - Anna Wintour’s eyes are green, we learn from the documentary “The September Issue,” in which she actually takes off her trademark, oversized sunglasses and even lets a smile slip loose from time to time.

But that doesn’t mean the notoriously icy editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine ever truly puts down her guard.

Director R.J. Cutler and his crew spent eight months roaming the halls of the Conde Nast publication and accompanying Wintour to meetings, fashion shows and glamorous events with designers and stars. We also ride along in the back of her chauffeured car on the way to the office and see her at home interacting with her daughter, Bee Shaffer — who, amusingly, says she wants nothing to do with this business, despite being as thin and stylish as her mother.

While that kind of intimate access provides a glimpse at some quiet moments and juicy showdowns, it never really allows us to understand what inspires this enormously influential figure. Wintour is quickly decisive but seems to operate on the whim of her preferences in dictating what’s in style and what isn’t; if that process is maddening for us during a brief time, imagine what it must be like to work for her every day. (To her credit, though, she acknowledges her businesslike nature — and she doesn’t seem as withering as the fashion magazine editor in “The Devil Wears Prada,” a character supposedly modeled after her.)

What we do come away with is an appreciation for clothing and photography as art forms and the kind of work and emotion that go into each issue, especially the September issue, the largest each year for its fall fashion features. Cutler follows the creation of the September 2007 Vogue, the title’s most voluminous edition ever — which makes the film seem like a quaint time capsule now that magazines are struggling financially.

Wintour comes off as the brains and muscle of the operation (and, arguably, the entire $300 billion fashion industry) but longtime creative director Grace Coddington is clearly its heart and soul. She and Wintour started at Vogue on the same day in 1988, and have worked side by side ever since. Each acknowledges the other’s strengths, but they’re also not shy about challenging each other, a privilege Coddington alone seems to enjoy among Vogue staffers. “I think I know when to stop pushing her,” she says. “She doesn’t know when to stop pushing me.”

With her wild red hair and simple black wardrobe, Coddington is the opposite of the meticulous Wintour in every way. She is the heroine of “The September Issue,” a champion of art over commerce, talent over celebrity. She’s not thrilled about having Sienna Miller as the September issue’s cover model, for example — which turns out to be prophetic — and she’s generally resistant to the trend of featuring actresses as models, which Wintour pioneered.

Having said that, Cutler’s documentary itself is mercifully free of the kind of dazzling flash and quick editing that accompany so much coverage of fashion and celebrities. Yes, “The September Issue” offers plenty of eye candy, with its racks upon racks of clothes, stacks upon stacks of shoes and handbags and behind-the-scenes footage of photo shoots. But Cutler seems more interested in the creative process, in documenting the way the machinery works — even though it’s expensive, elite machinery.

World ends in silly, sensual fashion in "Monde"

2009-08-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

By Bernard Besserglik

PARIS (Hollywood Reporter) - Some things will never change, not even during the apocalypse. Lovers of France can rest reassured that when the final trumpet sounds, our Gallic cousins will have their minds on sex, a bottle of fine wine in their kit bag as they attempt to escape, and time to take in a visit to the opera even as the bodies are piling up in the street. In the movies, at least.

In "Les Derniers Jours du Monde," as the world is falling apart for reasons that are never made quite clear -- there are references to a killer virus, earthquakes, nuclear bombs over Moscow and missile attacks on Paris -- Robinson Laborde (Mathieu Amalric) takes off in pursuit of the exotic Laetitia (Omahyra Mota), for whom he has already dumped his wife, Chloe (Karin Viard). His odyssey takes him from Biarritz on the Atlantic coast to Pamplona in northern Spain, back to Toulouse, which has meanwhile become the French capital, and eventually to a deserted Paris.

Along the way there are innumerable opportunities for Robinson to take off his clothes, not just with his lover and former spouse but also with Ombeline (Catherine Frot), his father's former mistress, and the mysterious Iris (Clotilde Hesme), not to mention, in a sexually ambiguous moment, his best friend of many years, the opera singer Theo (Sergi Lopez).

Sex-comedy elements mixed in with end-of-the-world scenes and a road-movie structure mean that writer-directors Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu's Happy End is distinctly messy and really rather silly, though perhaps not much more so than your average disaster movie. It's also frequently tongue-in-cheek -- or at least it's to be hoped that that's what is intended. Audiences will find much to laugh (or titter) at, notably Theo's amorous advances on Robinson and the orgiastic gathering in a remote chateau where the guests are as intent on consulting their emails as they are on taking part in the carnal proceedings.

The Larrieu brothers ("To Paint or Make Love") have a track record of bold, offbeat storytelling, and here, basing their scenario on the novel by Dominique Noguez, they have broadened their canvas, though perhaps with some loss of focus. The idea of Robinson having a prosthetic hand is a distraction, and 20 minutes, in particular the Hong Kong and Canada flashbacks, could usefully have been shaved from the running time. But the directors display a keen sense of spectacle, and the movie, which recently opened in France, should please audiences on condition that they don't take it too seriously.

Fashion Industry Shakeup

2009-08-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

Apparel Businesses Grapple With Recession And Find a Harder Time Getting Loans
by Anna Scott

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Downtown Los Angeles has long been a fashion industry hub. The area is home to thousands of businesses at every level of the apparel food chain, from fabric suppliers to designers to wholesalers. According to a Fashion District Business Improvement District study, the area in 2006 supported 66,000 jobs and did an estimated $5.76 billion in volume.

Despite these powerful figures, business models that have driven the industry for decades are being challenged by the recession, local business leaders say. The forces at hand, specifically a nationwide dip in consumer spending and troubles at the New York-based fashion industry-financing giant the CIT Group, Inc., extend well beyond Downtown. But the fallout is having a big impact at the local level.

“This has woken everybody up,” said Kent Smith, executive director of the Fashion District Business Improvement District, which operates in a 115-block area of Downtown. “The crystal ball has become a lot cloudier. In the fashion industry in particular, it is very murky out there in terms of trying to fathom what is going on inside the head of the consumer.”

The Los Angeles region’s apparel industry generated approximately $24 billion last year in sales and shipments and employed 122,240 workers, according to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. About 70% of that industry is based in Downtown, said California Fashion Association President Ilse Metchek.

An unusual and intricate financing system underlies much of the industry.

Unlike most other goods-based businesses, clothing manufacturers and wholesalers often fill orders for retailers without seeing a dime upfront. Small- to medium-sized clothing companies without a lot of capital often rely on financing firms called “factors” for short-term loans to cover the upfront costs of creating shipments. Then, when the order is delivered, the retailer pays back the factor and the manufacturer or wholesaler gets paid as well.

With consumer spending down, that system has been unraveling, experts say. As retailers have faltered, factor financing is harder to come by.

“When we’re seeing some fairly large retailers going into Chapter 11, then factors get really nervous,” said Smith. “As credit has tightened up, it becomes more challenging for the wholesalers and manufacturers to get those loans in advance of delivering the goods to a retailer.”

The crunch has forced many Downtown fashion companies to find alternate ways of doing business.

Liza Stewart runs one of the more than 1,000 showrooms at the Fashion District’s California Market Center. She sells contemporary women’s sportswear and dresses from various fashion lines to retailers including Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom and several small boutiques. In recent months, Stewart said, she and other showroom owners have gone from being neutral middlemen to active negotiators between clothing suppliers and stores.

“We’ve had to get involved a lot more to make sure we work out alternate forms of payment if they’re not factor-approved, or even contact stores directly for a payment,” said Stewart. “We’re relying on credit card payments, wire transfers and upfront deposits more and more.”

CIT Fallout

The situation has been exacerbated by troubles at one of the nation’s biggest factors for small and midsize apparel businesses, CIT. The company was on the brink of bankruptcy until it received a $3 billion rescue loan from bondholders last month, and still faces about $7 billion in debt over the next fiscal year, according to published reports. CIT’s problems have rippled throughout the fashion industry, because the lender not only functions as a factor but also has a research arm that vets retailers for many other, smaller factors.

“They affect the whole supply chain,” said Donald Nunnari, president of the Downtown-based factor Merchant Factors Corp., which represents many local apparel companies and relies mostly on CIT and Wells Fargo Trade Capital to run credit checks on retailers. While CIT seems to be back to business as usual following the infusion, Nunnari said, the uncertainty in the credit market has driven some businesses away from factor financing altogether.

“More and more specialty stores don’t seek credit and don’t have credit,” said Nunnari. “They have to pay for shipments by credit card or COD. That doesn’t help me as a factor.”

Some of the small clothing designers and manufacturers that deal with those specialty stores are in an even more precarious position.

Jünker Designs, a two-person, Downtown-based team that creates one-of-a-kind pieces for rock star clients and local boutiques, is too small to attract factors. The company has suffered consequences recently from dealing with small retailers in a down economy.

“We’ve had about $20,000 in returns” since last fall, said Jünker co-creator Giuliana Mayo. “It’s gotten really difficult for us. We take deposits now. Because so many people are canceling orders, that’s the only way we can do business.”

In the short-term, Metchek said, she is concerned that the upheaval in the industry could stop new, small operations like Jünker from starting up.

“Retailers will not buy from a newbie because they need to be guaranteed delivery,” she said. “These new, little companies are going to have a very tough time, and my concern is that creativity will be stymied.”

Despite those worries, Metchek and Smith also say there are signs that, in the long-term, the uncertainty could be a positive thing, shaking up the old way of doing things to make room for local entrepreneurs.

In that spirit, Metchek recently started an initiative that she hopes will usher in a new business model. The effort, dubbed Business Innovation Strategies, aims to bring together small, burgeoning fashion businesses that have generated interest from retailers but might not qualify for factor financing with potential investors. The effort will unfold as a series of roundtable presentations, said Metchek.

The first meeting, to include Downtown-based banks, fashion industry venture capitalists, accounting firms and other potential local investors, is scheduled for November, she said.

“The mission is access to capital, providing the platform for that access and helping potentially great companies take flight,” said Metchek. “The turnaround in terms of new capital, new growth, it just won’t happen until 2010, but you’ve got to get ahead of the curve.”

Cool design turns a basic condo into a home as chic as it is fully accessible

2009-08-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

THERE'S NO shortage of joie de vivre at Randy Earle and Leslie Haynes' house. You can see that right off when Haynes opens the door to their Pioneer Square condo on a sunny Friday afternoon dressed in an off-white evening gown and chocolate UGG boots.

Inside, Earle is roasting vegetables and setting out appetizers. The table is set, the wine ready.

Geez, what's the occasion?

"Oh, please. We do this all the time," Haynes says. "We cook.

"We eat to live and live to eat. We like to feed people, because they feed us. It's all about nourishment.

"By the way, Randy makes the most amazing stock. It's an elixir."

And sure enough, there's a pot cheerfully bubbling away on the stove.

Earle hands his wife a long-stemmed glass and says, "The simple act of being able to bring her a glass of wine is an earth-shattering thing. Being in a wheelchair is uniquely frustrating. But here, I feel this place is on my side. It's working with me. I have a sense of ease.

"People take ease for granted."

But Earle and Haynes cannot. Earle was diagnosed with adrenomyeloneuropathy, a rare, inherited metabolic disorder, in his late 20s and has been using a wheelchair for the past five years. Their corgi, Vippy, has the canine equivalent of multiple sclerosis. He's got wheels, too.

"I was so excited to show Randy the apartment I found downtown," Haynes says, recalling their move from Boston in 2006. Earle is a mental-health counselor, and Haynes works for an education-reform policy shop. "I thought I had done all my homework. I showed it to Randy and I saw his face fall. He said, 'Where's the ramp?' There was this mechanical device, a cage, to lift the chair to the elevator. That wouldn't work for him.

"So there we were, and the moving truck was 12 hours behind us."

In a flurry of pre-meet e-mails Haynes wrote, "It was amazingly hard to find wheelchair-friendly space, either as rentals or on the open market. Finally, we said, %$%^&* it, let's do our own. I typed 'wheelchair,' 'architects' and 'Seattle' into Google, and up popped Karen's name. She connected us with Carol who connected us with Thomas, and we were off to the races."

Accessibility consultant Karen Braitmayer of Studio Pacifica, architect Carol Sundstrom of röm architecture studio and general contractor Thomas Jacobson of Thomas Jacobson Construction. This is the team that crafted for the hip, urban couple a hip, urban loft, completely remade in six months in 2007 on a budget ($130,000) and as green as possible.

The beauty of their 1-bedroom, 1-bath home in 986 square feet is that, functionally, it is accessible first, cool second. But, in appearance, it is cool first, accessible second. Haynes calls it brilliant.

"I have nothing against retirement homes, but I don't want to live in one yet," she says.

With that, Haynes shows off a roomy, contemporary bathroom. The slim sink from Italy leaves ample room beneath. The shower nozzle is hand held. In the kitchen, a blackened-steel rod along the 9-foot-long island is both grab bar and towel holder. Sundstrom designed the kitchen sink, again for clearance beneath. Earle transports hot dishes from cooktop to table with a custom rolling trolley.

"This is the first house where Randy can do everything," Haynes says.

Now they are proud products of Pioneer Square, a neighborhood chosen by Earle."Randy found for us Seattle's inglorious and tattered soul," Haynes says.

"Café Umbria, that's our breakfast room. Megan Mary Olander is our garden. Stonington Gallery, it's our museum. Tina's (Synapse 206) is my closet."

Earle adds, "And it's very flat. I'll tell you that."

From seattletimes
By Rebecca Teagarden

Heidi Klum's jewelery line ends with lawsuit

2009-08-12T01:36:00.000-07:00

Supermodel Heidi Klum has shut down her jewelery business after she was taken to court by exclusive gem firm Van Cleef & Arpels.

The runway beauty launched a collection of designs for Mouawad five years ago and the range was a success, selling out within moments of going on sale on TV shopping channels like QVC.

But Klum reveals a lack of business experience, coupled with a lawsuit by Van Cleef & Arpels over one particular design, put an end to her jewellery dreams once and for all.

She tells the Los Angeles Times, "I don't do the jewelery anymore, which I loved doing.
"Unfortunately, I did have a partner who... maybe wasn't as knowledgeable in terms of setting up a business. I worked five years very hard on that. But we stopped because we had a lawsuit with Van Cleef & Arpels - they wanted to have the clover, even though our designs had never matched, I don't know how may designs I had done in five years, maybe 800 different designs - but they just wanted to own the clover motif.

"So they went after everyone who does that (and) they said, 'We own the clover.' I think when you're a small company, which we are, we're not a Van Cleef - they have a thousand lawyers. I'm a small fry next to that. That’s a sad lesson to learn.

"That’s how life is. You have to set yourself up from the very beginning properly."

Andrew Marshall: brushing the dust off Links of London

2009-07-31T01:30:00.004-07:00

Links of London's Andrew Marshall tells how he has made the high-end jewellery chain sparkle again in his two years as chief executive.
When I interviewed John Ayton, the then-chairman of Links of London, in June 2004 prior to the opening of the jewellery chain's Sloane Square store, he outlined plans to either float the business on the stock market the following year or sell a portion of it to an outside investor. He had big growth ambitions and wanted to take the business to the next level.
In the event, Mr Ayton ended up doing neither. In 2006 Links was sold to the Greek Folli Follie watches and fashion accessories group Hellenic Duty Free Shops in a £45m deal.
One year after that, former Gucci and Dunhill executive Andrew Marshall was appointed as chief executive of the chain. And then things went quiet.
The coupling of a London-based luxury goods chain with a Greek duty free operator always appeared odd. Ouzo and opals are unlikely bedfellows. But in his first interview since taking the job, Mr Marshall is eager to explain what he has been doing at the chain for the last two years.
It turns out that things have been going rather well at Links, which mainly sells ladies' jewellery but also sells watches, cufflinks and gifts.
Last year, sales at the chain increased to £62.2m from £45.8m the previous year. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation rose from £10.3m to £14.3m. Over the first quarter of the current financial year, sales rose by 44pc.
Mr Marshall outlines what he has been up to. He has opened stores in the UK and overseas (there are now 87 stores and concessions globally, up from 53 two years ago), sharpened up the retailer's focus and implemented "big business" disciplines to what he refers to as a "kitchen table" operation.
He is keen not to appear critical of the previous management (Mr Ayton and his wife Annoushka Ducas have moved on to new ventures), but he says that the chain had in many ways drifted into its comfort zone.
"They [the previous owners] took their eye off the ball and were focusing more on the sale. When I arrived I found a sleeping brand. The essence was there but it was a bit dormant and dusty," he said.
Mr Marshall took a long, hard look at what the brand stood for and concentrated on product development. Since Ms Ducas was the creative mind behind Links' products, Mr Marshall's immediate priority was to find a new designer.
This he did in the shape of Liz Galton, a jewellery designer who had graduated from the Royal College of Art and gone on to secure investment from the assorted entrepreneurs on the first series of the BBC's Dragons' Den. He also appointed a new finance director, promoted the head of retail to oversee European expansion and beefed-up the HR department.
Ms Galton has been the driving force behind Links' new products. Her first range came out earlier this year and has been met with great approval by customers. Mr Marshall explains what the designer brings to the (non-kitchen) table. "When I met her I noticed immediately the chemistry between her and where the brand was going," he says, deploying language picked up over a career in the European luxury goods sector.
He says that when he joined the company, it was positioned wrongly. He says that Links was in the process of being "elevated" as a brand to compete with Bulgari and Cartier – high-end luxury brands – when it should have been "affordable luxury". By affordable luxury he means the kind of shop that sells high-end goods with nice packaging and fancy boxes (the average spend in Links is £150) but not the kind of shop that is restricted to streets such as Bond Street.
So he nudged the brand down a bit. Now, Links products are the type of treats given as office leaving presents in the way that Cartier products would never be. Similarly positioned "white-collar luxury" retailers in the UK would include Jo Malone, The White Company and Molton Brown. The target customer is the 28-year-old female.
The fact that Links' best performing store is in Glasgow – rather than, say, London's Sloane Square – suggests that this subtle repositioning has succeeded.
"We are about to take over the unit next door [in Glasgow]. There is an insatiable appetite for brands up there," he says, adding that when the store opened a day late the shop's staff had to sell products through the letter box to keep Glaswegian customers happy.
Mr Marshall has also cut costs since he joined Links. Store fitting-out costs have fallen by 27pc and courier costs have been cut by 36pc. By sharing resources with its parent company, Links has been able to cut its media buying and real estate overheads. It also shares sourcing, design and production resources with Folli Follie, which has 250 stores globally. Since the takeover, Links has increased its international presence, opening stores in places such as Honolulu. The company will open in Beijing and Shanghai in September.
Mr Marshall works closely with Dimitri Koutsolioutsos, who founded Folli Follie. Indeed, the minute our interview ends he heads to Heathrow to fly to Hong Kong for a meeting on "various structural issues" with Mr Koutsolioutsos.
"I don't know if you've had experience of working with Greeks. It is enjoyable. The family is very much involved and I feel lucky to be a part of it," says Mr Marshall.
He has been given punchy growth targets. Sales this year are expected to be £80m. Next year, £100m.
"They are aggressive [targets]. But given the formula I have we can do it. I have a very good management team in North America and there is enormous opportunity there," he says. Store numbers in the UK are "going to start to plateau" soon and the game here is all about "depth not breadth". However, the sky appears to be the limit with regards to overseas growth.
Mr Marshall has impeccable luxury credentials. He started his career at Dunhill, then went to luxury goods behemoth Richemont to work at its Montblanc brand. He was part of a team that diversified Montblanc away from pens and into new areas such as watches and leather goods. He then ran Gucci's luxury watch business in Asia, then returned to the UK to work at Oliver Sweeney, the footwear and fashion brand. From there he went to Links.
So what does the future hold? Mr Marshall says the retailer's journey as part of Hellenic Duty Free has just begun.
He loves his job. "I don't want to come across as arrogant or complacent. We are preparing ourselves as any business does in tough times – focusing on cost benefit synergies. We are always questioning ourselves. The company culture is young and the management style is to let people take risks and make mistakes," he says.
However, he adds – somewhat enigmatically – that the company is already considering its medium-term options. "There is nothing concrete but we are looking at options. Whether we need to restructure, bring in new investment or maybe a listing. They are just strategic discussions," he says.
Andrew Marshall's CV
Age 47
Family married, two daughters and a son
Lives Fulham, London
Hobbies drawing and painting, "badly"
Favourite jewellery designer Solange Azagury-Partridge always manages to impress me
Education Engineering degree

Now, contact lenses to sharpen aging eyes

2009-07-31T01:30:00.003-07:00

Optometrists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have come up with a new breed of contact lenses that can treat presbyopia, a gradual loss of the ability to focus on nearby objects.
gradual loss of the ability to
According to Adam Gordon, O.D., M.P.H., an associate professor in the School of Optometry, bifocal glasses can prove handy, but for those who wear contacts, presbyopia has been an annoying part of aging.

“There’s a huge number of people who don’t want to give up contacts due to presbyopia, or don’t want to wear reading glasses over their contact lenses,” said Gordon, who directs the Cornea and Contact Lens Clinic at UAB Eye Care, the clinical and retail operation of the School of Optometry.

The new multifocal lenses are made with silicone hydrogel polymer, a more breathable and safer material than older soft-lens polymers, Gordon said.

Cutting-edge laser technology is used to manufacture each lens’ complex optical designs, which improve focus on nearby objects.

A comprehensive eye exam can spot the early signs of presbyopia. In addition to treating the condition with eyeglass prescriptions, optometrists traditionally have relied on a corrective technique called monovision – that is, prescribing one contact lens for distance vision and another contact lens for reading in the same patient. Monovision is essentially using non-matched lenses to improve sight.

“Before multifocals, monovision worked very well for 50 years or more, but it created compromises in vision that some people could never get used to,” Gordon said.

“In monovision, the two eyes are always doing something different: one eye is always blurry and the brain has to figure out which eye it should pay the most attention to,” the expert added.

The new multifocal lenses require fewer brain-sight adjustments and appear to improve vision for a large number of contact wearers.

“They are a closer simulation of the way natural vision works and the way eyes are designed to focus,” Gordon said.

Links of London founders launch fine jewellery business
The husband and wife team behind jewellery chain Links of London have launched a new business in 11 department stores.
Annoushka Ducas and John Ayton launched a flagship 700 square foot Annoushka fine jewellery boutique in Harvey Nichols in Knightsbride in London yesterday.
The duo will open other spaces in Harrods, Selfridges in London’s Oxford Street, Liberty and House of Fraser in Westfield London.
They hope the business will generate more than £10m in the first year. In 2006, they sold Links of London for £50m to jewellery manufacturer Folli Follie.
Co-founder John Ayton said: ‘’This is a wonderful opportunity. We started in the jewellery industry in 1990 so we understand recessions and the opportunities they bring. We are extremely excited about this launch and see the great possibilities with the collection. We are committed to combining interesting design with very strong commercial principles and taking this concept into fine jewellery.”

Not driven to text in a car

2009-07-31T01:30:00.001-07:00

It will be a cold day in hell before I text while driving.
TWD is risky -- probably as dangerous as DWI -- but that's not why I refrain from the practice.
The real reason is that my texting skills are terrible.
Even TWC -- texting while couch-bound -- lies far outside my comfort zone.
Example: Just now, I tried to punch in the words "texting sucks" from my numerical cell-phone keypad. What came out was "Ugh pptvpp."
It might as well have said "U R doofus," because the truth is I'd forgotten to press the magic (i.e., unmarked) button that turns off the "T9 predictive text input mode."
In T9 mode my phone is supposed to divine -- from one or two keystrokes -- what I want to say, sparing me the slow and fumbling process of turning numbers into text. But in the heady presence of my ineptitude, the phone's "internal dictionary" acts like a demented "Wheel of Fortune" contestant. One letter and it's off to the races, spewing wildly illogical word combinations. This turns each message into a delete-and-start-over mess.
T9 does have an uncanny ability to recognize catch phrases from "Star Trek." Press 54 (for Li) and it quickly yields, "Live long and prosper" -- Spock's classic motto.
This must mean that Korean phone programmers watch the same sci-fi re-runs I do -- a charming coincidence, but little consolation for my aggravation.
Manual labor
If I had memorized the 139-page user manual, of course, there would be fewer hurdles standing between me and texting.
Or, I could trade up to a wireless device with a typewriter-style keyboard. But that would involve studying another user manual, a chore so brain-depleting that it's best reserved for more essential goals -- such as learning how to hook up the new cable converter box forced upon me by Comcast's channel shifting.
Put another way, texting is just not useful or necessary enough for me to bother with. Thus, I am not tempted to try it while hurtling down the highway, darting in and out of traffic as I juggle cell phone and reading glasses.
That apparently is not the case, however, for more coordinated people. To them, texting is as easy as blinking, and so they do it all the time, including -- or even especially -- while driving.
I'm tempted to call them young and foolish, but evidence -- including the following quote from a 50-year-old man -- suggests a broader demographic.
"Sometimes I text and drive," Dave St. Bernard told the New York Post in a July 17 article about the New York legislature's move to ban the practice. "I'm sure it is dangerous, but you get complacent sometimes as a driver. You think you can handle anything on the roads that comes your way."
At least the guy understands the truth, even if he's not conscientious enough to heed it.
Texting while driving is risky business. Proof of this is piling up like accident debris on the roadside.
A Virginia Tech study, publicized this week, concluded that truck drivers multiply their risk of a "crash or near-crash event" by a factor of 23 when they text behind the wheel. No other cell-phone-related distraction even comes close.
A big-rig driver with his eyes on the phone instead of the road is your basic nightmare scenario. Can't these good buddies just go back to the old-school, we're-in-a-great-big-convoy days of CB radio?
Financial disincentive
I haven't done a scientific study, but given sufficient grant money I could probably prove that texting while driving is only slightly more productive than shooting up heroin -- and twice as addictive. It needs to be stopped in all 50 states, not just the 14 where it has been outlawed.
The U.S. Senate took a step in the right direction this week, introducing a bill that would force states to either enact a TWD ban or forfeit a quarter of their federal highway funding.
Nothing communicates like money, eh? This extortion -- er, legislation -- should be approved.
Then, when the time comes for state lawmakers to decide whether to acquiesce, they should do the sensible thing: Pull over, whip out their Blackberries and text, in unison:
"OK."
Even my T9 can figure out that one.

Jeffrey Katzenberg: Don't ever take off those 3-D glasses!

2009-07-31T01:29:00.001-07:00

01:09 PM PT, Jul 28 2009
I guess it's too early for Jeffrey Katzenberg to be touting the aesthetic glories of "Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom," since it doesn't actually come out for almost two more years. (That's the real title -- we couldn't possibly make these things up.) So the indefatigable huckster is back out on the tech circuit, beating the drums for his 3-D crusade -- only this time he's promoting the idea of having us wear our 3-D glasses all day long, hoping we'll put some more cash on the barrelhead so we can be the first on our block to have a fancy new TV set that will allow us to spend all our waking hours watching 3-D movies, sporting events and ESPN poker matches.
As the Hollywood Reporter explained, Katzenberg was at Fortune magazine's Brainstorm: Tech conference hailing new 3-D technology that is "so far beyond" what it was just nine months ago, which is exactly when he last bought a new TV set. In the beginning, according to the DreamWorks Animation chief, consumers will need special glasses to watch every wonderful 3-D event, but he predicted that new "autostereo displays" will negate that need in "a handful of years."
Katzenberg also found time to tout the troubled Blue-ray DVD format, which consumers have been ignoring in droves, claiming that it will also be a big force behind the 3-D revolution, saying "Blu-ray is a fantastic platform for 3-D." I guess once you get Katzenberg wound up, he'll sing the praises of practically any product, since the Reporter actually quotes him as extolling the virtues of "Up," the film made by Pixar -- DreamWorks' much-loathed arch-rival -- which Katzenberg called a film he "loved."
I hate seeing all this persuasive power wasted on a gimmick like 3-D. Since Katzenberg has been such a big donor to the Democratic Party, maybe the Obama administration should bring him to Washington to help it sell its healthcare legislation. If Katzenberg can get millions of American to spend an extra 3 bucks to watch "Monsters vs. Aliens" in 3-D, then surely he could find a way to finagle 15 or 20 Republican congressmen to vote for a healthcare bill.

Chicago man charged with stealing $45,000 worth of designer glasses

2009-07-31T01:28:00.000-07:00

John Dillinger robbed banks. Bernie Madoff filched his clients' life savings. And Jerry Lowery has his own crime niche -- stealing designer eyeglasses.

Lowery, 38, of Chicago told Wisconsin officials last weekend that he snatched $45,000 worth of high-end eyeglasses from suburban Milwaukee stores because "he really likes to be around glasses," according to a news report.

He was charged with three counts of armed robbery and one count of fleeing an officer, court records show.

But there might be more here than meets the eye.
In 1996, Chicago police arrested Lowery for stealing designer eyeglass frames from seven stores over four months. He served prison time after pleading guilty to six counts of aggravated robbery. After his release, he was arrested yet again after grabbing more fancy frames, according to court records.

In each case, Lowery brandished a toy gun and ordered an employee to fill a bag with eyewear.

Lowery sold the glasses to a Highland Park man for $30 apiece, who then resold them in his Chicago shop for hundreds more, the Tribune reported at the time.

According to The Associated Press, Lowery told officials that -- though he stole the glasses -- he simply likes to try on Prada and Gucci-made pairs in front of a mirror, then toss them away.
Lisa Black