FIRST FAMILY’S INAUGURAL WARDROBE/6 Global Edition WWDWomen’s Wear Daily • The Retailers’TUESDAY Daily Newspaper • January 11, 2005 • $2.00 ▲ Jenna Bush’s Inaugural Ready-to-Wear/Textiles gown by Badgley Mischka. Forward Observer LOS ANGELES — Ready for a night out on MELISSA MAGSAYSAY the town? Sexy strapless cuts get a touch of Fifties flounce this season, perfect for posing along the boardwalk. Here, for example, Lazaro’s silk charmeuse dress. ANT: JENNIFER BELLI; STYLED BY ANT: Fallout From Tsunami: I LIVELY/NOUS; FASHION ASSIST FASHION I LIVELY/NOUS; Sri Lanka to Ask U.S. For Breaks on Tariffs By Scott Malone and John Zarocostas acing a steep climb to rebuild its Y ALEXIS BENVENISTE/CELESTINE; MODEL: NIKK economy, Sri Lanka — where more than 30,000 people were F killed by the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami — plans to petition the U.S. government for apparel trade breaks. The physical and economic disruption came at a critical moment for the Indian Ocean island nation’s economy, which was T BEACH, BY JEREMY GOLDBERG; HAIR AND MAKEUP B T BEACH, BY already at risk of losing its position in the garment industry as a result of the Jan. 1 lifting of quotas by the 148 nations of the World Trade Organization. Apparel exports account for more than 60 percent See Sri Lanka, Page16 PHOTOGRAPHED AT BALBOA FUN ZONE, NEWPOR AT PHOTOGRAPHED 2 WWD/GLOBAL, JANUARY 2005 WWDTUESDAY Ready-to-Wear/Textiles California Deluge Tests Retailers GENERAL By Michelle Dalton Tyree Looking to rebuild its economy, Sri Lanka, where 30,000 people were killed and Nola Sarkisian-Miller 1 by the Dec. 26 tsunami, plans to petition the U.S. for trade breaks. EYE: Author Liz Jensen discusses “The Ninth Life of Louis Drax”…Talking LOS ANGELES — Retailers in 4 shop with sculptor Will Ryman…Sipping bubbly with Mireille Guiliano. Southern California, after five days of pounding rains and FASHION: First Lady Laura Bush and daughters Jenna and Barbara are snow in higher elevations that 6 upping the fashion wattage at this year’s inaugural and surrounding bashes. have caused at least nine RTW: Glamour in all its shapes and forms will be on display at exhibits at deaths, said that the severe 8 the Museum at the FIT and the Museum of the City of New York. weather deterred some shop- pers, though other stores report- Classified Advertisements ..................................................................26-27 ed normal activity. To e-mail reporters and editors at WWD, the address is While there was no definitive [email protected], using the individual’s name. assessment on retailing and ap- parel manufacturing as of late WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF FAIRCHILD PUBLICATIONS, INC. COPYRIGHT ©2005 FAIRCHILD PUBLICATIONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Monday, the weather was affect- VOLUME 189, NO. 7. WWD (ISSN # 0149-5380) is published daily except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional ing millions of lives from Horton issue in June; two additional issues in April, May, August, October, November and December, and three additional issues in Plaza in San Diego to Union February, March and September, by Fairchild Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Advance Publications, Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 7 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10001. Shared Services provided by Advance Magazine Publishers Inc.: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Square in San Francisco. Steven T. Florio, Vice Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, C.O.O.; John W. Bellando, Executive Vice-President and C.F.O.; Jill Bright, Some dedicated consumers Executive Vice-President_Human Resources; John Buese, Executive Vice-President_ Chief Information Officer; David Orlin, Senior defied the elements even as Vice-President_Strategic Sourcing; Robert Bennis, Senior Vice-President_Real Estate; David B. Chemidlin, Senior Vice- President_General Manager, Advance Magazine Group Shared Services Center. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at conditions closed some roads additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40032712. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration and schools, forced evacuations No. 88654-9096-RM0001. Canada post return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: 4960-2 Walker Road, Windsor, ON N9A 6J3. and triggered scores of traffic POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WOMEN’S WEAR accidents. DAILY, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008; Call 800-289-0273; or visit www.subnow.com/wd . Four weeks is “We were impacted very no- required for change of address. Please give both new and old address as printed on most recent label. First copy of new ticeably on Saturday,” said Fred subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production Levine, owner of the contempo- AP PHOTO/ NICK UT PHOTO BY correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 7 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10001. For permissions and reprint requests, Relentless rains in California have caused mud slides and flooding. please call 212-221-9595 or fax requests to 212-221-9195. Visit us online: www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild rary boutique chain M. Fredric, magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.fairchildpub.com. Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully which operates 19 locations screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008 or call 800-289-0273. around Southern California. At the Lola Rouge boutique ticularly strong weekend, and WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOSS, DAMAGE, OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO UNSOLICITED “But surprisingly, on Sunday, at the Fashion Island Mall in attributed it to glitzy customers MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND when the rains were worse, Newport Beach, “we got a lot of coming in for fittings for events TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED business was as good as a nor- die-hard shoppers who come to related to Sunday’s Golden TO DO SO BY WWD IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE mal Sunday.” us as a destination, but the cen- Globe Awards. Even a leak in ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED OVERNIGHT-DELIVERY RETURN ENVELOPE, POSTAGE PREPAID. the back of the store didn’t dis- rupt business, said Webb. No If they make it in the door, they’re gowns were damaged. “If they make it in the door, buying.“ they’re buying,” said Wendy In Brief Freedman-Borsuk, owner of ” ● — Wendy Freedman-Borsuk, Polkadots & Moonbeams Polkadots & Moonbeams, a vin- VERSACE GETS VERTICAL: Versace is getting an early start on tage shop here. spring cleaning. The company is planning to split its operations He attributed the brisk busi- ter isn’t as busy when it rains,” The deluge on Sunday after- and assets into two distinct subsidiaries controlled by a holding ness to customers’ cabin fever. said co-owner Sandy Johnson. noon didn’t keep cars from lin- company as part of ongoing restructuring efforts, a spokesman “I think they had waited long Johnson said the weekend ing up along two blocks to enter confirmed. But he declined to comment on a press report in enough and just wanted to get was not as bad as it could have the car park at the new Target weekly magazine Il Mondo that Donatella Versace and Santo out.” been. “It rains so little that it re- complex in West Hollywood. Versace have agreed to stay off both subsidiaries’ boards, thus The stores only had minor ally isn’t going to affect our over- A number of apparel firms granting more independence to chief executive officer water damage with a “few drips all business,’’ she said. “This said they had employee ab- Giancarlo Di Risio’s management team. Both Donatella and here and there,” he said. week is a blip in the year.” sences because of road closures, Santo would retain their boardroom seats at the main share- A record 2.58 inches of rain Even some of Rodeo Drive’s including John Paul Richard holding company. Il Mondo said that one of the new companies was recorded Sunday in down- usually fastidious well-heeled Inc., a misses’-focused firm will control the brands, licenses, production assets and about 20 town Los Angeles, and as much shoppers braved the winds and based in Calabasas, about 40 stores, while the other subsidiary will manage real estate like as 7 inches of rain fell in parts rain as they fled from shop to miles north of downtown L.A. the palazzo in Milan’s Via Gesú worth 40.6 million euros, or $53.5 of Southern California from salon to restaurant, many of which and south of the 101 Freeway. million. The magazine said the house on Lake Como will stay a Friday to Sunday. appeared to be surprisingly busy. Some weren’t able to come part of the umbrella company, Givi Holding, through which The weekend was normal, “The rain is not going to stop a into work on Monday because of Allegra Beck and Santo and Donatella Versace hold their stakes and gift card spending was Hollywood woman,” said mud slides that closed a 10-mile in the fashion house. brisk, said Jennifer Halloway, Michelle Webb, owner of Catwalk, stretch of the 101 Freeway be- spokeswoman for the Simon a mostly vintage store in the tween Ventura and Santa ● CHANGES AFOOT: Foot Locker Inc.