又加了2张。。。
先上些周五照得照片。观后感后交: )

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This year is gonna be another year but hopefully I will be there to witness at least part of the highest human artifices in person.
This year is gonna be different from all others because Gianfrance Ferre' passed away.
Daria W. may or may not be running.
And it may be Valentino's last year too. He celebrated the house's 45th anniversary in Rome a few weeks ago.
Rochas was closed by P&G last year.
And last time I was touched by Balenciaga was two years ago.

How is it going to be this year??

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared to an all-time high Tuesday on declining oil prices, retail shares went along for the ride. The sector was also strengthened by a robust sales report from Kohl's Corp.

But for retail shares, the day was a clear winner. The S&P Retail Index closed up 1.8 percent to 480.43. In August and early September, the index hovered between 430 and 440. And in July, as gas prices soared at the pump to near $4 a gallon, the index bottomed out at 420.

In the retail sector, some of the top gainers included Limited Brands (up 3.3 percent to $27.65), Nordstrom Inc. (up 2.8 percent to $44.03) and Aeropostale (up 3.1 percent to $30.25). The advances in retail stocks were on top of prior gains made over the past two weeks.

Kohl's, meanwhile, said its September same-store sales rose 16.3 percent, which is far beyond the retailer's planned comps gain of 2 to 4 percent. The stock finished the day up 3.1 percent.

As a result, Goldman Sachs raised its third-quarter earnings-per-share guidance on the retailer to 63 cents from 56 cents. Today, Kohl's is holding an analyst meeting, and Goldman Sachs said it expects "management to highlight its new prototype, an evolution of its current box with more customer-friendly initiatives."

On Thursday, most of the retail sector releases same-store sales. Eric Beder, senior vice president at Brean Murray, Carret & Co., said Tuesday's rally was in anticipation of improved results. "It is going to be a good September due to lower gas prices, colder weather and stronger fashion trends," Beder said. "All these pieces put together will result in good numbers."

Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, said the rally in retail "was clearly affected by Kohl's numbers."

"Their results were really very strong, but we do need to put it into perspective a little bit in regards to the surge in stock prices," Johnson explained. "Stock prices have had an up and down year. They are back up again. A major reason they are back up is the decline in gas prices, which began around mid-august or so. Obviously there are some merchants who have done a great job in bringing in new merchandise, but the major reason seems to be declining gas prices, which have been matched only by last fall, when Katrina ran up prices and then they quickly declined."

Johnson said for discretionary items, such as apparel, "consumers feel like they can hold back and see what's going on in the economy. Once the pedal goes off and the needle runs back down, people can start spending again."

PARIS - Fashion's biggest names no longer are having second thoughts about their second lines.

In a flurry of activity not seen since the "diffusion" heydays of the Eighties, a spate of new European second lines are arriving on the market, while established brands are being given a fresh spin and higher profiles with tactics such as attention-getting runway shows.

All the activity suggests designer firms, recently focused on ultraexpensive, exclusive products in a booming luxury climate, are now keen to tap into aspirational customers, as well.

Among the latest arrivals is Alexander McQueen's McQ collection, delivered last month to some 400 doors worldwide, and forthcoming for spring 2007 is John Galliano's Galliano, which is gunning for wholesale volume in excess of 100 million euros, or $125 million, in three to five years (for more on the Galliano collection, see opposite page).

Meanwhile, Prada, Versace, Chlo and Giorgio Armani are among firms putting their second brands under the management microscope, fine-tuning or repositioning them - and seeking to kick-start growth. Emporio Armani, for example, plans to move its show from Milan to London for a fashion week splash there. The move follows Prada's decision last season to shift its Miu Miu show to Paris from Milan.

And Chlo recently introduced a cruise collection for See by Chlo, emblematic of big ambitions for the brand, first launched in 2001 and manufactured under license by Neo Res SpA, a Carre, Italy-based company.

"I really intend to grow this business," Chlo chairman and chief executive officer Ralph Toledano said. "Our turnover is far below what it should be. Instead of making less than half the sales [of our top collection], we should be doing twice that amount."

To that end, Toledano has been beefing up staffing for See by Chlo, bumping up the fashion quotient and taking tighter control of distribution. Prices also have been made more competitive, he added. For example, the suggested retail price for high-waist jeans from the cruise line is $460, while T-shirts run at $230. At present, See by Chlo is sold in some 750 doors, including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom and Holt Renfrew.

Jonathan Akeroyd, ceo of McQueen, said independent consumer research in London confirmed high brand awareness and a strong desire to purchase McQueen products, but many consumers considered price a barrier.

The average age of a McQueen customer now is about 35, whereas the new line is targeted at people in their 20s, he noted.

In recent years, it was fashionable for designers to mix different concepts and price points under the same label, said Sidney Toledano, ceo of Christian Dior and acting president of Galliano. "It was a creative approach, but today you have to be more clear in your proposition."

Designers like Galliano travel extensively and have a broad understanding "of market needs and segmentation borders," Toledano said. "We need a real separation into two lines."

Galliano's licensing partner is Italy's IT Holding, and the designer praised the company, in which design and production teams are completely separated, preventing ideas from migrating from one brand to another or sameness creeping into all of them.

And he confirmed the full involvement of his Paris-based Galliano design team and himself: "I was present at every fitting."

Galliano's partner, IT Holding's Ittierre unit, was a pioneer in launching designer jeans and younger lines in the late Eighties and early Nineties, including Versus and D&G. Although Ittierre has stopped producing those lines, the company still has a large portfolio of licenses including Just Cavalli, Versace Jeans Couture and Costume National C'N'C.

"You need to have specific capabilities in terms of manufacturing and distributionthat's not easy to create," said Maurizio Negro, Ittierre's ceo. IT Holding has built up a client network of 4,500 retailers, mostly in Europe and the U.S., and the company is laying the groundwork to expand its presence in Asia, especially China.

Whereas designers' top collections focus on cut, fit and high-quality materials, diffusion lines need to offer innovation in terms of fabric treatments, washes, embroideries and prints to make pieces stand out, Negro said.

Many observers lamented what they described as outmoded nomenclature for their new lines, insisting that descriptors such as "younger," "cheaper" or "denim-based" do not tell the whole story.

"How we define it to the media is really a challenge," said Alexander McQueen's Akeroyd, who, before joining the designer company, part of Gucci Group, was merchandise director at Harrods. He said the term "diffusion line" often conjures up missteps of the past, when cheaper fabrics, excessive use of logos and a basic approach to fashion were commonplace in the segment.

Today, he said, a second line must have a strong dose of fashion and a distinct identity, and should not make too many compromises because of price, especially as the collections must compete with formidable fast-fashion players such as Topshop, H&M and Zara.

"We have to do a line that's edgy, that's got a point of view," he said. "You don't want to make too many compromises because of price. The most important thing is the styling and the image."

Over the past year, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace and Prada all have made significant decisions regarding the future of their diffusion lines.

Dolce & Gabbana terminated its 12-year relationship with IT Holding, taking operations in-house for D&G. The first D&G collection produced and distributed entirely by Dolce & Gabbana will be introduced for spring 2007, and the company is in the process of setting up a new headquarters and ramping up production for a brand that does upwards of 150 million euros, or $189 million, a year in revenue.

Versace also is rethinking the category, focusing on its main collection and disassociating the brand from lower-end products. The company took over U.S. distribution of the Versace Jeans Couture line and halted Versus.

Versace has declined to discuss the future of Versus other than to say that it's gearing up to relaunch the line later this year.

Prada, meanwhile, is repositioning Miu Miu to give the brand its own identity and disassociate from the world of secondary and diffusion lines. Prada moved the Miu Miu runway show to Paris last season, staging it in historic restaurant Laperouse. The house also used the restaurant as a backdrop for its fall advertising campaign starring Chinese actresses Dong Jie and Zhou Xun and Japanese model Lina Ohta. Prada also has inflated price tags at Miu Miu to boost the brand's exclusive allure, but the company declined to quantify the increase. Last year, sales at Miu Miu grew about 18 percent to 129 million euros, or $161.3 million at average rates for the year.

Meanwhile, retailers said they are newly bullish on select second lines, which have rebounded from errors of the past.

Sarah Rutson, fashion director at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong, allowed that many secondary lines were "franchised out too early," saturated many markets and had inconsistent and often "low-end" positioning across different countries.

Today, however, she said consumers are transfixed by luxury branding and eager to buy into designer names. "You can attract a larger, wider audience, and a younger customer," she said, adding that "a main line customer also will often buy from secondary lines. It's an add-on sale as opposed to trading down."

Rutson said Lane Crawford has built strong business with Prada's Linea Rossa (or Red Line), D&G and See by Chlo, and it plans to add McQ for fall-winter. "[McQueen] is certainly a designer that has an especially large following with a fashion-forward, younger crowd who would otherwise never be able to afford his main collection," she said.

"Diffusion collections are receiving management attention because of the business opportunities that exist within the contemporary market," agreed Ken Downing, fashion director at Neiman Marcus, which carries such European brands as Just Cavalli, D&G and Valentino Red. "Our customer is interested in great fashion product in every category. We are excited about the new McQ collection by Alexander McQueenand equally excited to view the new collection from John Galliano."

Michael Fink, vice president and fashion director of women's at Saks Fifth Avenue, said secondary lines are particularly appealing as designer prices have been creeping ever higher. "It's broadening your customer base. There's only so many people who can afford a dress over $4,000," he said. "It's a way to really get in and pump up some volume."

Fink said diffusion lines have "absolutely evolved" and identified their niche customers with sharp styling and the latest trends, mentioning the likes of M Missoni, D&G, Just Cavalli and Valentino Roma. "They're not watered-down main line versions," he said. "They treat a second line like a main line. It's a real business."

Fink allowed that Miu Miu's shift to Paris Fashion Week from Milan was a "smart move" to give it a stronger identity away from Prada. However, "for the most part, secondary lines don't really need to be on the runway unless they have an extremely strong personality," he added.

Averyl Oates, buying director at Harvey Nichols in London, said second lines such as Marc by Marc Jacobs can even set fashion trends and inspire high street retailers.

"You will get the customer that buys the main line buying the second line for more relaxed pieces, and also a customer new to the designer who is maybe looking for more accessible pieces and less-serious fashion pieces," she said. "Rather than it being a cheaper version of a main line collection, as diffusion lines initially were, second lines now carry their own identity and are thought of as an individual label."

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Full Text :COPYRIGHT 2006 Fairchild Publications, Inc.

Byline: Cate T. Corcoran, Denise Power

NEW YORK - Getting product to market faster, understanding the customer and switching to new software and systems gracefully were the main themes of a one-day WWD Technology Leadership Forum held here June 22. Other topics included merchandising, outsourcing and the collaborative Internet. One big issue that emerged was the difficulty of switching to new software and processes - especially at the same time. Another challenge discussed was that, like it or not, technology is always evolving, so change is constant.

Here's what the speakers said:

Victoria Cantrell, senior vice president and chief information officer, Giorgio Armani Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Giorgio Armani SpA.

Giorgio Armani Corp. will test this month an advanced selling system that may loosen sales associates' firm grips on their so-called "black books," while boosting sales and shopper loyalty.

Victoria Cantrell said staff at the test stores will access customer-specific data typically recorded in notebooks - such as purchase history, style preferences and size - through wireless handheld computers. The devices will also serve as a gateway to other resources designed to help personalize and enhance the overall shopping experience.

Sales associates are deeply attached to their traditional black books, Cantrell said, and getting them to surrender the proprietary selling tool could prove difficult. However, wireless technology can take the black book concept to the next level and support what she called "pervasive interaction" with the customer.

Staff will be able to access inventory information via the handhelds anywhere on the sales floor or in a fitting room, for example, rather than having to abandon a customer to retrieve that data from a central computer. Through the units, staff will be issued specific instructions on how to solidify a relationship with a customer, based on that individual's history. The handhelds will also serve as a link to the finer points of all things Armani and provide extensive details about an item in a new collection.

"It's important for sales associates to understand the fabrications, the styling and Mr. Armani's idea of how it should be worn," Cantrell said. "It's very important to have that product knowledge."

The three-month pilot will involve three test stores and three control stores. The handheld computers are Pocket PCs from Symbol Technologies of Holtsville, N.Y., and software is from Atlanta-based Retaligent.

New York-based Giorgio Armani Corp. has been working to enhance its relationship with customers for several years now to improve loyalty, conversion rates and increase the dollar value and number of units in an average transaction, said Cantrell.

Customer data was analyzed "and we learned some scary information," she said. A very small segment of Armani's total customer base in the U.S. - the top 5 percent - is responsible for a disproportionately large amount, 47 percent, of total sales. That data underscored a mandate, she said: Protect that top-spending tier of customers and grow the next 30 percent tier through up-selling, cross-selling and greater loyalty.

The wireless test falls into the company's broader strategy for customer relationship management, a discipline Cantrell has worked on for eight years at both Armani and Gucci. Though there are challenges, she remains passionate: "Some days I say I push the rock uphill," she said. "But to me, it's the most important rock in the business."

Jason Epstein, chief technology officer, Elie Tahari Ltd.

Employees at Elie Tahari used to spend half their day answering questions from other departments. Now product life cycle management software from Business Management Systems gives designers, sourcers of fabrics and trims, sample makers and other employees a window into data relating to product design, development and production - without a phone call or e-mail.

All the information is available in one shared location where anyone can view it. Previously, the data was stored on individual Excel spreadsheets on users' desktop computers.

"PLM is more methodology than technology," said Jason Epstein. "It's about passing info from one part of the supply chain to another and avoiding double entries."

In addition to freeing up employees' time, PLM has allowed the company to purchase its trim in bulk, Epstein said. Also, managers get exception reports at the end of the day, which allows them to better manage the business. For example, they can react quickly if Tahari has bought too much or too little of a trim.

However, for some employees PLM increases the workload. So it's key that everyone understands what the gains are for the overall organization, said Epstein. It's important to get buy-in at all levels. Also, trying to change a process while moving to new software is overwhelming to users and creates more work for them. "This is where we were failing in our own implementation," Epstein said.

Tahari took a step back, mapped out its requirements and made sure the system addressed all user needs so it could ultimately eliminate manual processes.

If existing processes work, companies should create an interface to the new system, then change its process later after users are familiar with the new software. For example, in the first phase of its PLM rollout, Tahari continued to do its actual costing in its existing accounting software. Later, it switched to PLM.

Partnering with users creates momentum. Users liked being able to generate line sheets from the software, and they started using it for other purposes, such as to plan gross margins. The end-of-day exception reports were also popular with managers, since they helped them be more successful. And if information was missing, it helped motivate users to enter it into the system.

The company has also offered an incentive for overseas suppliers to connect to the system: a free day of consulting on networks and other infrastructure to support PLM.

Tahari also realized it didn't have a strong enough support team in place. Every department needed help, so the company brought on a few more IT people to focus on details in just one or two departments.

The PLM rollout, which includes Tahari's overseas suppliers, has been going on for three years and will be ongoing. In addition, the company recently put in a data warehouse with Cognos business intelligence software on top for quick analysis. As a result of the reports, Tahari's overhead per style has decreased. In the future, the company will choose two or three metrics to watch per department to increase profitability. For example, if the design department can reduce the number of samples it produces per style, it could mean significant savings for Tahari, which has 20 people on its IT staff.

Michelle Garvey, global chief information officer, Warnaco

Traditionally, Warnaco was a portfolio of brands that were intentionally kept separate. Now the $1.5 billion company is moving to a single suite of products with integrated enterprise resource planning software from SAP as its centerpiece.

The goal is to increase nimbleness and reduce lead times without sacrificing quality.

When Michelle Garvey joined as Warnaco's global chief information officer, the company had nine ERP systems, five general ledgers and 10 data warehouses. The company didn't have consistent key performance indicators, each brand had different tech packs and even brands that used the same ERP system had different purchase order formats. Each season the company reinvented the wheel.

"We believe a single integrated PLM [program] is the right answer, but we're not there yet," she said.

The company's approach to developing a solution is not rocket science, Garvey said. Committees of users compare processes, determine best practices and identify priorities. The company has developed a standard purchase order form, a standard line sheet and custom software that calculates costing as changes occur.

Warnaco started with swimwear, which is vertically integrated. All other operations are sourced externally. The company started rolling out PLM software but had to stop for lack of resources.

"We are not a technology company," said Garvey. "We are an apparel company facilitated by technology." Warnaco cannot afford to put all its capital into technology all the time, although its list of needs is long.

So the company is taking a staged approach, and rolling out new processes and software one brand at a time. Near-term goals include standard tech packs and fit guidelines, integrating costing and calendar and improving forecasting accuracy.

One of the company's challenges is the differences between operations. When Warnaco moved to a standard purchase order form, some divisions gave up functionality they didn't know they had until it was gone, said Garvey. Different divisions have slightly different processes for a reason, and they cling to them. "Managing the psychology of this is a big piece."

Jamie Pallot, editorial director, CondNet

Consumers are taking over the Internet, said Jamie Pallot, editorial director of CondNet at Cond Nast Publications (which owns WWD). They are creating their own media content and that's where the action is - not at the top-down sites of traditional media outlets.

Blogging and tagging are two important aspects of this trend. Blogs are journals, usually on a narrow topic, that are self-published by one individual. Tagging is an emerging method of organizing material on the Web such as photos. For example, users who publish photos on Flickr can tag them with descriptive words such as "streetwear," "vacation" and "South of France" so other users can find them by searching the site.

"Tagging has implications for merchandise on the Web," Pallot said. The Web is a huge filing system where you can find anything you want on any topic. "It's a way to find other people who like the same stuff you do and you can form communities with other people with the same interest," he said.

Important sites include MySpace, Flickr and Digg. Social networking site MySpace, where people can hook up with other people, is the fastest-growing site on the Web because it's complete anarchy and there are no design or editorial guidelines, said Pallot. Digg is a technology news site where the readers post links to the stories they like and vote on their ranking. "It's real-time feedback on what the community finds interesting," said Pallot.

Similarly collaborative sites in the fashion space include MyStyleDiary and Kaboodle. At MyStyleDiary, anyone can create a profile and post photos of what they wear each day and all the items in their closets. At Kaboodle, users can bookmark and tag products to create ongoing shopping lists, which can be shared with friends.

Companies such as Nike are using the Internet to collaborate with consumers on product design, custom-designed products and ad campaigns. Consumers want to be part of the creative process, he said.

John Thompson, senior vice president and general manager, Bestbuy.com, the Internet subsidiary of Best Buy

Best Buy, the $31 billion consumer electronics retailer with ambitions to grow $10 billion bigger in five years, continues to focus on the customer. But exactly how the company does it continues to evolve.

"We don't have the map for how to get this done," said John Thompson. "We are still holding the compass. We are learning as we go."

Launched in 2003, Best Buy's "customer centricity" strategy called for stores to cater to sharply defined customer profiles such as suburban soccer moms and gadget gurus. There was even a targeted customer persona named "Carrie," modeled after HBO's "Sex and the City" character.

"That was a little bit too surgical," Thompson said of the highly granular customer segmentation approach. While customer profiles remain important to the retailer's evolving strategy, market and regional demographics - such as whether a store is located in an urban or suburban setting, or which area of the country it's in - will play an increasing role.

Best Buy's centricity strategy is augmented with merchandise assortment that's tailored to specific markets and price optimization.

Best Buy continues to mine its database of 80 million customers to gain insights into shopper behavior and brand choice. More recently, Thompson said, the company's been tapping employees for ideas about ways to meet unique customer needs.

"We have a goal of growing the company by an incremental $10 billion in the next five years," he said. "The traditional approach that worked in the first 40 years will not be sustainable. We are going to run out of footprint in terms of opening stores in North America."

As a result, Best Buy is expanding internationally. Last month, the Richfield, Minn., company bought a majority interest in China's fourth-largest consumer electronics retailer, the 136-store Jiangsu Five Star Appliance. "And we are evaluating other markets at the same time," Thompson added. Best Buy operates under two banners, Best Buy and Future Shop, in Canada.

To distinguish itself in a market where product commoditization puts pressure on margins, Best Buy is ramping up its services business, such as Geek Squad computer technicians and home theater installation professionals.

It all ties back to the customer centricity initiative and the drive to meet shoppers' end-to-end needs for product and services, he said.

Paul McFarren, senior vice president and chief information officer, United Retail Group

Converging forces in the technology sector and retailers' losing battle to keep pace with the latest advancements mean one thing: "Outsourcing is not an option," said Paul McFarren. "It's a mandate."

But that's not bad, he said. When approached in a strategic fashion, outsourcing to a third party allows small and midsize retailers to innovate faster because they can tap skills and computing power of a much larger organization without the inherent burdens. The $439 million United Retail Group, which operates 500 Avenue apparel stores, outsources its mainframe operations to IBM.

The speed at which technology is advancing along with vendor consolidation creates complexity and systems integration woes that retailers didn't have to cope with years ago, McFarren added. Tackling these challenges without outside help is getting harder, particularly for retailers with lean IT staffs.

McFarren did not suggest all systems be outsourced, but advised companies to consider the option as they evaluate new investments in technology, including infrastructure upgrades such as faster networks. Think of infrastructure as a kind of utility that all applications need to run. "How many of you generate your own electricity?" he asked. "Nobody does that, right? Because it wouldn't be strategically differentiating for you to do that."

About 75 percent of IT infrastructure will be outsourced by 2015, he noted, citing research from Gartner.

Farming out infrastructure to a third party does not mean relinquishing control, he said, acknowledging that retailers have a tendency to be "control freaks." "By accepting responsibility for infrastructure, you actually lose control because you can't hope to keep up," he said.

"The software evolution is not going to stop. It's going faster and software vendors are being pressured to deliver functionality at a rate that is unheard of," McFarren said. For example, IBM revealed a few weeks ago that it's testing a 500 gigahertz microchip, which is more than 100 times faster than today's processors. "This means all the software vendors are going to have to figure out how to take advantage of all this processor speed and capability," McFarren said.

The solutions they develop could undermine the massive investments companies have already made in enterprise resource planning systems, he said. "For those of you who have just implemented an ERP solution, I'm sorry," McFarren said, "because you're going to have to do it again. This is the 'technology-forced march.'"

Further complicating the situation, he said, is the rate at which technology vendors are acquiring other technology companies. "They will spend a lot less time creating an end-to-end software solution that makes it easy for you and a lot more time worrying about how they are going to get their money out of the acquisitions they have made," he said.

As a result, retailers will contend with more systems integration challenges than ever.

McFarren said these forces will push more companies toward outsourcing, but such arrangements should be entered thoughtfully.

"Be careful. Outsourcing does not mean you can abdicate the management of the solution. Outsourcing is best suited toward removing the operational aspects of the solution, but not the management," McFarren said.

Chuck Kramer, senior vice president, general manager, Retail Industry Group, i2 Technologies

The pressure to assort stores according to local demand is mounting. No longer is it acceptable to bulk up on inventory just to hedge against out-of-stocks on style, size and colors. "Wall Street is not very favorable of that approach anymore," said Chuck Kramer, who joined the Retail Industry Group at i2 Technologies this year after a 19-year stint at Payless ShoeSource.

Disjointed internal processes and inflexible technology are the saboteurs preventing retailers from tailoring their merchandise mix to local markets, he said. Still, some are making progress on this front.

Payless is one of them. The tailoring is such that the retailer develops one footwear product mix for its store on Chicago's Michigan Avenue and another assortment for a store located just three blocks away, off Michigan Avenue and near public transportation, he said. The company recognizes that tourists shopping the Magnificent Mile are looking for different offerings than commuters.

The strategy is easy enough to understand, but difficult to execute because assortment planning at most retailers is not a cohesive process, he said. Typically, a merchandise financial plan that establishes top-level targets such as sales and margin goals is developed by one group of people. That plan is handed off to another group responsible for buying and assortment planning. A third group carries out the plan by managing allocation and replenishment, but there may be little or no dialogue among the three groups and no coordination of workflow.

Because no two companies plan in exactly the same manner, technology is usually customized to support unique practices. However, that leads to inflexible systems producing conflicting data that's tough to reconcile across divisions.

"Many companies have legacy systems that have been built over many years by different people with good intentions but it was [adequate only for] a moment in time," he said. "And so systems in this space often do not support a process flow."

Replacing numerous systems that operate in a silo fashion with one big enterprise resource planning system solves the integration problem, but they lack advanced capabilities for tailored assortment planning, Kramer said.

WE International BV, an apparel retailer in Utrecht, Netherlands, with 220 stores in six countries, is among those reaping benefits from better merchandise planning practices, he said. The company, which sells women's, men's and children's apparel, reduced inventory 20 percent and reduced markdowns by up to 10 percent after implementing merchandise planning software from i2 Technologies, he said. WE is also beginning to use assortment planning software from i2.

The traditional push of retailing is shifting to the pull of consumer demand. "We [retailers] don't want to be selling things that our company buys," he said. "We want to be buying things our stores sell."

Kathryn Cullen, vice president, Kurt Salmon Associates

Traditional companies can boost profitability by "acting vertical" and adopting the collaborative practices, technology and customer focus of vertically integrated companies, said Kathryn Cullen at Kurt Salmon Associates, an Atlanta consulting firm.

"Vertical organizations have 50 percent better earnings than some of the traditional models," she said, citing KSA research that compared earnings before interest and tax for both types of companies. Apparel companies should take cues from the vertical sector and develop what she called an intelligent supply network.

"This is a supply network that is more parallel, rather than sequential" in how processes such as design, sourcing, procurement and product flow are carried out. Such a network links multiple channels of distribution and includes not only suppliers, but other partners such as those providing transportation and logistics.

One way to get started, Cullen said, is through collaborative product development processes and software that allow retailers and suppliers to share information and streamline workflow. Companies that have swapped out spreadsheet-based systems with integrated product development management systems report improved cycle times, reduced costs and margin increases of 5 to 10 percent, she said.

"The bottom line is by acting vertical across the whole supply network, time is measured in days and you start to gain speed and visibility, and if you can do that, you will be more profitable."

Robert McKee, industry strategy director for Lawson fashion, Lawson

In the fashion supply chain of the future, shoppers will drag and drop images of the styles they want from sites such as MyStyleDiary to MyDesign and then MySource and Lectra will develop the underlying technology to make them, quipped Robert McKee of Lawson That would be a truly intimate supply chain, he said.

But until then, fashion companies need to have one version of the truth so they can work more closely with suppliers and give customers what they want, rather than trying to sell what the vendors happen to have. The industry's focus should be on pull, not push, he said. McKee has held senior-level sourcing and operations positions with a variety of apparel companies, including Warnaco. Lawson makes enterprise resource planning software.

ERP is a single software solution that potentially touches all parts of a company. ERP consists of modules of software that cover functions such as forecasting and demand management, resource planning, operational management such as customer and supplier relations, inventory control and warehouse management. ERP's advantage is that each module is linked to every other module so that it offers one source of truth, so everyone is playing from the same sheet of music. Data must only be entered once, and it is visible to everyone.

ERP eliminates islands of information and is a critical enabler for working with supply chain partners, McKee said. Another benefit: It enables the transition to "lean" principles because it removes wasted motions and dollars from the process, he said.

Following certain rules will help ease the move to ERP. First, define business issues and processes. Then apparel companies should define where they want to be. Only then should they select a software provider. And after that step, they can choose supply chain partners.

Neco Can, chief technology officer, International RFID Business Association

A problem that plagues apparel companies is inaccurate data, said Neco Can, formerly with J. Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap. Apparel companies need correct data so they can share it internally and manage their processes better, he said.

Companies such as Wal-Mart are turning to Master Data Management, or MDM, an effort to reconcile inconsistent data and formats within a company. Wal-Mart is one of the best companies in this regard, with data accuracy of 85 to 90 percent. Specialty retailers typically have data accuracy rates of 60 to 70 percent, he said.

Old Navy, Banana Republic and Gap have the same customer, but the company is decentralized so it doesn't have a single view, said Can. Each customer appears in multiple databases.

Common issues that all retailers have include contradictory spreadsheets, the struggle to get global sales data and the difficulty of calculating margin across an organization.

The solution is a data hub so everyone has the same view. Better data will lead to better planning, allocation and customer management. This in turn will increase service levels, Can said.

He admitted improving data accuracy is costly, and said it's important to know why you want to do it.

Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is one tool that can help manufacturers get a better grip on what merchandise is in their stores. But it comes at a price, he said. Wal-Mart will probably never put RFID tags on most of the stockkeeping units it sells because tag prices will never reach an affordable 2 cents or 3 cents, he said.

But right now, data accuracy is, on average, at 67 percent, and Can said he wants to take it to 95 percent. "It's not just data," he said. "It's how you can know your customer."

David Rode, North American president, Lectra

Product life cycle management can help companies be more competitive by synchronizing activities from design to shipping, said David Rode. It helps unite design staff, accounting and suppliers - three groups that traditionally don't always mix well.

A changing world means apparel companies need to make better garments faster and more cheaply. Consumers want innovation, yet are sensitive to price. There are fewer players and more competition.

Although companies have moved production offshore to lower costs, they also spend more than in the past to manage that global process and for shipping, said Rode.

Today the biggest barrier to PLM adoption is the difficulty of adopting new business processes, not technical problems such as integrating software.

Companies can now choose between PLM programs designed to work in a variety of industries, such as aerospace, or PLM programs that are apparel-specific. Apparel-oriented PLM software includes design tools such as sketching, color management, prototyping and pattern design.

In the future, PLM might include 3-D virtual prototyping, he said. Such programs already exist, but they are not yet tied into PLM systems.

Dreaming of fashion in Voghera, the 17-year-old Valentino perfected his French at the local Berlitz center and convinced his parents to let him move to the French capital, where he took drawing and design courses at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne in 1950. "My parents were very courageous to let a boy of 17 go to France," he says. "It's like today if your child asked to go to Shanghai." The gamble paid off. After nine months of training, he landed a job at Jean Desss, where he worked for several years before defecting to Guy Laroche.

In those days, Valentino lived something of la vie boheme in two tiny, connected chambres de bonne on the top floor of a beautiful old building on Rue de Rennes. "One room was oval because it was under the domed roof, and I had a little view," he recalls. "I did all my decoration at the marche aux puces, where I found a Napoleon III table. It was very charming."

But Valentino didn't indulge in Paris' post-war nightlife. After putting in a day's work at the couture house, Valentino would head to the movies. "I was crazy for the cinema," he says. "When I was a kid, I had to chaperone my sister when she went out with her fianc. I used to go to the cinema with them to see those beautiful stars, and this made me start to think about design and fashion." Gene Tierney and Rita Hayworth were favorites. "Later on, of course, I met these people, but they were not as they were on the screen."

Yet in those days Paris held just as much allure as Hollywood for the aspiring designer. "I felt at home in Paris, going around with the subway and buses, going to see exhibitions at the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais and the Louvre, and taking inspiration with me into the fashion world," he says. "I felt it was my city." He spent summers in Saint-Tropez, where he still takes in the sun for a few days every May.

But after eight years in Paris, Valentino set out for Rome, where he started his own house, with help from his father, who owned an electrical-supply store and who sold his country house to back the fledgling business. He showed his first collection in Florence in 1959, and his French training showed. "They used to call me 'Francesino,'" Valentino says with a laugh. Little Frenchie.

The next year Giancarlo Giammetti signed on, and the business began to grow. Starting in a tiny apartment on the top floor of a palazzo on Via Gregoriana, the company eventually took over the entire building as its Rome headquarters. Meanwhile, stars flocked to the house, with Liz Taylor, Rita Hayworth and Audrey Hepburn leading the way. The world's best-dressed socialites, including Marella Agnelli, Babe Paley and Jackie Kennedy, weren't far behind. And after 1968, the year when Valentino showed his pivotal all-white collection and the year he designed Jackie Kennedy's ivory georgette dress for her wedding to Aristotle Onassis, he became an international star.

In that same year, WWD ran a photo of Valentino dressed in a groovy haute hippie ensemble (by Yves Saint Laurent) topped off with a pair of granny glasses. It was an iconic photograph, showing that he'd cultivated a new personal look, taking on a polished, jetsetting sheen. And his fascination with an ultra-luxe lifestyle - houses, cars, yachts and a coterie of wealthy friends - also grew. So did his sales volume.

Valentino's couture shows in Rome were must-see events, and in 1973 one buyer told WWD that, "Even if he would present his collection in Siberia I would go there." When Valentino debuted his ready-to-wear collection several years later, he showed it in Paris instead, finally moving his couture shows there in 1989.

When he comes to France for the collections, Valentino stays in his celebrated country place near Versailles - Domaine de Wideville, a 17th-century chateau in the Louis XIII style that he bought 11 years ago. "One day I was walking on Madison Avenue in front of Sotheby's, and I saw in the window a beautiful home," he says. The multi-million dollar chateau was as good as sold. Yet it is only one of the many places - from London to New York to Gstaad - Valentino calls home. "I feel well anywhere and I feel at home everywhere," he says. "If I had to say which one I love the most, I'd have to say London, because London is such a masculine city. But I love New York. The first time I went to New York was in 1962, and I know it better than my pocket."

Rome, however, is a city Valentino doesn't have a chance to enjoy. "Rome for me is about work, working on the collections morning through evening, collection after collection," he says. Not that he minds putting in long hours at the atelier. "After so many collections, thank God I still have my enthusiasm," he muses.

And after so many years, both his love of fashion and of Paris are still burning strong. "The atmosphere here is right for fashion," Valentino sighs. "France has something magic."

LONDON - Burberry is poised to ramp up its retail presence in the U.S., boost its accessories business and leverage its brand name worldwide, Angela Ahrendts said in her debut presentation Thursday as the company's chief executive officer.

Ahrendts, who joined Burberry in January and officially took up her post this week, said she wasn't looking to make major changes but to take the business to the next level.

"This is chapter 151 of the Burberry brand," said Ahrendts, referring to the company's 150th anniversary celebrations this year.

"I'm not writing a new novel, and I'm not repositioning the brand," she told a handful of reporters in the slick accessories showroom at Burberry's headquarters here. "In fact, I love the positioning of the brand. I love being the opening price point on a high-end street, there alongside Gucci and Louis Vuitton."

Ahrendts was flanked by Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey and chief financial officer Stacey Cartwright. The three sat side by side while shots of the fall ad campaign flickered on a screen above their heads.

Ahrendts said the company will focus on growing its retail operations; building the accessories business, which accounts for 25 percent of sales, and consolidating its internal operations and brand image worldwide.

The U.S. is one of Burberry's fastest-growing markets, generating 24 percent of overall sales, but it still offers enormous potential, she said.

In the 2005-2006 fiscal year, Burberry's global turnover rose 3.8 percent to $1.4 billion from $1.3 billion.

"We plan to invest aggressively in our underpenetrated markets, and we are underpenetrated in the U.S.," said Ahrendts. "While we've opened up a whole southern belt of retail stores - in Florida, Southern California, Dallas and Houston - there's still the center of the country, and the Northeast. And we don't even play in Canada - there are no stores there."

Ahrendts added her team was exploring the use of different retail formats in growing markets. She said there could be casualwear stores in Kansas City or Columbus, Ohio; a men's wear-only store on Wall Street, and nonapparel stores in airports.

Cartwright said capital expenditure in the current fiscal year would be 50 million pounds, or $92 million at current exchange, up from 35 million pounds, or $64 million, in the previous year. Much of that, she said, would be funneled into store openings in the U.S.

"Our brand recognition there is huge, and the economics work for us. If we go into a mall, for example, the landlord offers to pay for 50 percent of our fit-out costs," she said.

There are 36 Burberry retail units in the U.S., and Cartwright said that number easily could jump to 50 in the short term and "quite a lot higher" in the future.

Burberry plans to pump up retail space this year by at least 10 percent, mostly in the U.S. and Asia, which Ahrendts has identified as another high-growth market. She pointed to China, where there are already 35 Burberry stores, and said there was still potential there.

Ahrendts said Burberry increasingly would be "acting like a retailer," rejiggering the flow of goods into its stores to suit consumers' needs and thinking like a final customer rather than a wholesaler. To wit, the Prorsum line, which shows on the Milan runway, now will have eight in-store drops a year rather than three.

Ahrendts was quick to add, however, that wholesale sales remained a "critical and vital" part of the business.

Cartwright said that, thanks to Project Atlas, the $94 million IT overhaul program, Burberry within the next six months will have up-to-the-minute data on global sales and stock metrics. "We will be able to measure sales performance on a global basis," she said.

Accessories are another major source of growth. They currently generate 25 percent of sales, and the plan is to take them to 35 to 40 percent in the short term.

"We will aggressively invest to build our nonapparel business. There is a tremendous opportunity for handbags and small leather goods," said Ahrendts. Bailey added that Burberry has only scratched the surface in accessories. "We'll be increasingly experimenting and using the Prorsum runway as our laboratory," he said.

For spring 2007, espadrilles come with five different heels, there are five new sneaker styles and a variety of unisex bags.

"We found that half of all our men's bags are being sold to women," Ahrendts said, adding that Burberry recently created its first "all accessories" mailer, which will go out to customers later this summer.

Another priority is for Burberry to speak, internally and externally, with one voice.

Retail store managers soon will begin tours of duty in different countries so they can learn about various markets; the design and merchandising teams have begun to meet weekly here to discuss the minutiae of collections; Bailey will be talking regularly to salespeople worldwide, and the company will work to create more synergies among the three apparel collections - Prorsum, London and Thomas Burberry - and the nonapparel offer.

In other news, the company will launch the men's version of the Burberry London fragrance next month. Ioan Gruffudd, star of the British TV series "Hornblower," will appear in the campaign.

The company also will be the sole sponsor of the upcoming David Hockney exhibition at London's National Portrait Gallery, which opens in October. Bailey, a huge fan of Hockney's work, said the sponsorship would be yet another event marking Burberry's 150th anniversary.

Other aspects of the anniversary celebration include an "icons" collection of branded accessories, inspired by the archives, and Burberry's hosting of the "AngloMania" event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ahrendts said she's been enjoying London. "I'm from Indianapolis, Ind., and I never thought I'd be here! It feels exotic," she said. She added that she took the job for a variety of reasons, one of which was Bailey.

"I love him as a person. There's a natural trust and respect there, and I know we'll be writing the Burberry chapters together," said Ahrendts. "In fact, the whole team that Rose Marie [Bravo] built felt right, as well. I feel we have a platform in place to really grow."

NEW YORK - Help Wanted: College graduates with a passion for retail and fashion. Must be team players. Long hours, low pay. Potential for rapid advancement.

Bolstered by more aggressive recruiting, the potential for creativity and a glamorous aura, the retail and fashion industries are attracting talent that might otherwise have been enticed by Wall Street or Madison Avenue.

"This crop of graduates is very competitive," said Lee Roever, vice president of human resources for Neiman Marcus. "In general, the students are more realistic today than they have been. The work ethic is a little stronger than it has been."

Abercrombie & Fitch recruits at Ivy League institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth, as well as design schools, bringing in about 40 trainees annually. Job candidates take aptitude tests, and an appreciation and curiosity about the business is more important than a specific major.

They hear lectures from A&F experts in sourcing, planning, allocation, merchandising and technical design, and learn about what A&F and its brands represent. The trainees are schooled in planning a business and how to assess its health. They are drilled in the disciplines involved in fashion retailing and work on teams usually comprising a planner, allocator and merchant, all interacting with the sourcing function.

The trainees have responsibility to help implement the merchandising plan, and typically start as an assistant merchant shadowing a senior merchant. The philosophy is to get young people managing businesses in a season or two.

Neiman Marcus will hire about 120 graduates, which is more than in previous years. "We have a new retail concept, Cusp, which has put demand on those buying offices," Roever said. In addition, the planning division is growing, creating more career opportunities.

Although a student's major is less critical for some retail organizations, Neiman's prizes finance, marketing, accounting and management concentrations. "Our buying positions are significantly larger today than they were three or four years ago," Roever said. "It's more important that we find business majors. We can't just have a merchandise selector....We're competing for graduates on the management and marketing side with a lot of the accounting firms."

Graduates of fashion programs with an emphasis on design tend not to fare well at Neiman's. "We need students who can do basic retail math," Roever said. "They must be time-sensitive and able to process information pretty quickly."

Dallas-based Neiman's visits Boston College, Cornell University, Penn State, Wellesley College, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt University, Florida A&M, Texas A&M, the University of Texas, UCLA and Santa Clara University.

When Neiman's interviews on a campus it looks for a specific behavior set and competencies, Roever said. If prospective hires pass those hurdles, they go to headquarters for a week and a half of group and individual projects. Students are rated on their performance and those at the top of the list may get job offers.

Gap Inc. generates a lot of interest among students. In the 2006 Universum Undergraduate Survey, which polled 37,000 college students about the corporations where they would most want to work, Gap ranked first among retailers, and 30th overall. Target ranked 32nd, Best Buy, 73rd; Wal-Mart, 90th; Limited Brands, 93rd; Walgreens, 111th; Federated, 140th, and Home Depot, 148th.

Gap starts recruiting in the fall, for hiring in the following spring. "Probably the most important criterion is to have a passion for the business," said Kate Aiken, senior director of college recruiting. "We look for students really interested in retail or fashion. A sense of social responsibility tends to really attract them to our business.

"Beyond that, we look for strong leadership experience such as with clubs or in sports and for strong communications and analytical skills," Aiken said. "We look at students from any major, but we do tend to see undergraduates with majors in business, liberal arts and fashion merchandising."

Gap puts trainees on different career tracks through management training programs on the merchandising, planning and production side, and also on the stores side. The company has seen a 64 percent increase in college hires in the past two years.

"It's not due to turnover, it's due to the expansion of business," Aiken said. "Old Navy continues to grow its stores' organization." She also cited two start-ups in the past year, the Forth & Towne division and more recently, the online shoe division.

"We continue to move people up and need entry-level talent," she said. "We definitely have a list of schools that we target," including Indiana University, the University of Arizona, Cornell and Northwestern.

"We have developed [training] programs to expose them to different parts of the business, whether in headquarters or in stores," Aiken said. "There is quite a bit of structure, on-the-job experience and training....They have regular checkpoints where they receive feedback and coaching."

After training, the individuals typically become associate merchandisers or planners, or assistant production managers at headquarters. In stores, they are often placed as supervisors managing a team in customer service or logistics.

Several human resources executives said that students become interested in retailing when it is performance-oriented. When Gap recruits, students get most turned on when the company shows up with an alumnus from that campus who may be leading a multimillion dollar business. "Students really like to hear how retailing is such a high performance-driven culture," Aiken said.

At Gap, there is not one typical career path. An associate merchandiser at Old Navy in a year or two could transfer to Banana Republic or be promoted to the outlet division, or may try planning instead of merchandising.

However, without anything more than an outsider's awareness of the industry, "Retail is not the first thing people gravitate to when they consider careers after college," said Tim Plunkett, divisional vice president for recruitment and placement for Federated Department Stores. "It's incumbent to educate students about what the job is all about, the scope of responsibility, the ability to have an impact on the business and to see the results quickly. It's also important to stress that retailing is an industry where you can move up very quickly. "

Federated's recruitment efforts tend to focus on schools such as the University of Pennsylvania, Emory University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Virginia and Syracuse University, among others. "The major is not as important as the motivation, the attitude, the passion and commitment they bring to the business," Plunkett said. The level of recruiting this year will be about the same as last year, Plunkett said, with Federated absorbing much talent from May Department Stores, which it bought last year.

"You can really change the caliber of the organization when you have a commitment to college recruiting," Plunkett said.

Larry McClure, senior vice president of human resources at Liz Claiborne, said that unless a graduate is specifically looking for a career in design, merchandising, IT or finance, there is not a degree requirement. "Our interns come from over 30 colleges and universities from as far away as the University of Missouri to as close as FIT and have diverse educational and work backgrounds.

"We convert roughly 2 percent of our interns to full-time associates," McClure said. "Obviously, we look for design and merchandising talent from FIT, Parsons and the Rhode Island School of Design, but cast a wider net for positions in sales and other front-end positions. An MBA is not essential, but certainly helpful when looking for candidates in finance and strategic planning."

At Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the benefit of recruiting "is that we have such unmatched career opportunities with our operations business, real estate division, aviation, merchandising, logistics, information systems and finance areas, just to name a few," said Michelle Whitehead, senior director of professional recruitment. "So you can imagine, when we go to a college campus, we really can be open to numerous majors and be able to speak to those who are still undecided."

Wal-Mart will hire more college graduates this year in the information systems division, which has hundreds of entry-level jobs. "We also had a record number of MBA interns here this summer," she added. "For certain positions in the company an MBA can be extremely beneficial. "

For American Eagle Outfitters, as well, the major matters less than the candidate's personality and interests. "We've had liberal arts majors who have gravitated toward design," said Tom DiDonato, executive vice president of human resources.

More important is a graduate's willingness and ability to work in a group. "We have an unbelievably collaborative environment," he said. "Somebody that puts the spotlight on themselves and is not used to working in a team may have a hard time."

The company, which recruits from schools such as the University of Michigan and Indiana University, will hire 20 to 25 people this year from campuses.

American Eagle works its employees "very hard," DiDonato said. But he added that company surveys indicate individuals are happy because the work is engaging. "Everybody contributes to our company's results," he said. "People that come right out of school feel they're making an impact."