CHANEL’S TOKYO TOWER/2 CALVIN INKS HILARY SWANK/3 WWDWomen’s Wear DailyWEDNESDAY • The Retailers’ Daily Newspaper • March 24, 2004 • $2.00 Sportswear Ralph’s World NEW YORK — Ralph Lauren is branching out. After he bought back the Lauren label, sales soared — thanks to an upgrade in fabrics and styling. Now the designer wants to expand the label by licensing products from accessories to fragrance. For fall, he dug deep into his archives and pulled out some of his best pieces — cozy cable knits, shrunken jackets and plenty of tweeds and herringbones. Here, a cotton corduroy trench, and a silk and cashmere shell and skirt. For more on the collection, see pages 6 and 7. Fossil Goes High-End: Buys Michele Watches And Digs a New Niche By Ross Tucker NEW YORK — Fossil wants a little of the luxury action. The $780 million watch behemoth on Tuesday said it would acquire Tempus International Corp., which operates under the Michele Watches moniker, for $50 million in cash. The move gives Fossil immediate entree into the booming market for high- end fashion watches, as well as access to the upscale jewelers channel. For Miami-based Michele Watches, the company will be able to capitalize on its rapid growth by exploiting Fossil’s See Fossil, Page11 PHOTO BY JOHN AQUINO PHOTO BY 2 WWD, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2004 WWDWEDNESDAY Sportswear Barneys Profits Up 13.7% GENERAL NEW YORK — Improved full-price selling boosted for both the fourth quarter and fiscal year,” he Fossil Inc. is acquiring the maker of Michele Watches, giving it entree to the Barneys New York’s fourth-quarter results. added. 1 lucrative high-end fashion watch market. The high-end retailer on Tuesday posted double- The chairman said significant remodeling and On track to hit $400 million at wholesale in its first year, Lauren by Ralph digit gains in income and sales for expansion projects will be com- 6 Lauren seeks to expand its scope with new and upgraded licensed products. the three months ended Jan. 31, pleted this year at its Madison with income up 13.7 percent to Avenue and Beverly Hills flag- It’s been a tumultuous time for Kohl’s, but after a slew of executive and $6.3 million, or 44 cents a diluted ships, while its contemporary co- 2 merchandise changes, observers are again bullish on the retailer’s future. share, from $5.6 million, or 40 op business expansion in exist- Stephen Burrows, one of the original architects of Seventies style, is cents, a year ago, while sales ing and new stores is broadening 11 launching a line of separates on the Home Shopping Network on April 6. gained 10.9 percent to $117.5 mil- the retailer’s reach as it enters lion from $106 million. new markets. MARKETING: Retail anthropologist Paco Underhill dissects the dynamics Howard Socol, chairman, “The company is committed to 9 of malls in his new book, “Call of the Mall,” and shares a few thoughts. president and chief executive of- maximizing productivity in its ex- Jones Apparel Group on Tuesday launched a hostile $297 million takeover ficer, said in a statement, that isting stores, expanding in a dis- bid for Maxwell Shoe Co., setting the stage for a possible bidding war. “strong sales in the last three ciplined manner, providing ex- 10 quarters of fiscal year 2003 were ceptional customer service and WEST: Three designers are set to introduce handbags at next week’s Los the cornerstone of our successful executing key merchandising ini- 14 Angeles fashion week; Joie adds a higher-priced denim line. year.” tiatives. Our strategic focus The chairman noted that im- should enable us to capitalize on proved full-price selling in the the current momentum in luxury SUZY fourth quarter helped increase retailing and on the company’s The tycoons gathered to celebrate Brian Mulroney’s 65th birthday at Club total sales and sustain the retail- future growth prospects,” he said. 4 Colette in Palm Beach over the weekend. er’s gross margin. For the year, net income fell “Our solid top-line growth, 15.7 percent to $7.1 million, or 50 Classified Advertisements ..................................................................15-19 coupled with disciplined expense cents, due to refinancing, from $8.5 To e-mail reporters and editors at WWD, the address is controls, contributed to the company’s double-digit million, or 61 cents, last year, while sales increased [email protected], using the individual’s name. increases in operating income and [earnings be- 6.8 percent to $409.5 million from $383.4 million. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF FAIRCHILD PUBLICATIONS, INC. COPYRIGHT ©2004 fore interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] —Vicki M. Young FAIRCHILD PUBLICATIONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. VOLUME 187, NO. 61. WWD (ISSN # 0149-5380) is published daily except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in January, May, June and November; two additional issues in February, April, September, October and December; and three additional issues in March and August, 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; Steven T. Florio, Vice Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, C.O.O.; John W. Bellando, Executive Vice-President and C.F.O.; Jill Bright, Executive Vice-President_Human Resources; John Buese, Executive Vice-President_ Chief Information Officer; David Orlin, Senior After Sluggish ’03 Vice-President_Strategic Sourcing; Robert Bennis, Senior Vice-President_Real Estate; David B. Chemidlin, Senior Vice- Chanel on the Ginza: President_General Manager, Advance Magazine Group Shared Services Center. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40032712. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration Kohl’s Takes Steps No. 88654-9096-RM0001. Canada post return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: P.O. Box 1632, Station A, Windsor, ON N9A7C9. 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 A Towering Project DAILY, P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008; Call 800-289-0273; or visit www.subnow.com/wd . Four weeks is Toward Rebound required for change of address. Please give both new and old address as printed on most recent label. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production By David Moin nies. Salvatore Ferragamo, for correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 7 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10001. For permissions and reprint requests, example, is constructing smaller please call 212-221-9595 or fax requests to 212-221-9195. Visit us online: www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild By Dan Burrows magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.fairchildpub.com. Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully NEW YORK — Chanel has a tall stores. Calvin Klein, with owner and Evan Clark screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive order for Tokyo. Phillips-Van Heusen, is pushing these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 15008, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5008 or call 800-289-0273. On Tuesday, the Paris-based, its better, jeans and innerwear NEW YORK — After growing at WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOSS, DAMAGE, OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND privately owned design house will lines more so than the higher- breakneck speed for more than TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART stage a press conference in Tokyo priced collection, and scouting a decade, Kohl’s Corp. seemed WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED to cover all the details of its flag- sites for Calvin Klein Jeans to suffer a case of exhaustion TO DO SO BY WWD IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ship project in the city’s Ginza stores. And Prada is selling off last year. ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED OVERNIGHT-DELIVERY RETURN ENVELOPE, POSTAGE PREPAID. district, which the company has real estate to cut debt. The com- Since the company went pub- designated “The Chanel Tower.” pany is selling an 80 percent lic in 1992, it pushed itself like a Based on some information stake in its 28,000-square-foot sprinter running a marathon, pur- that Chanel and master store ar- “Epicenter” store in Tokyo’s suing a torrid pace of store ex- In Brief chitect Peter Marino of Peter Aoyama district, which is Prada’s pansion and promising investors Marino + Assoc. Architects dis- biggest location. Prada will con- annual earnings growth of an eye- closed to WWD this week, it trol the balance of the store and popping 20 percent. Kohl’s was ● GILLETTE ACQUIRES REMBRANDT: Placing itself squarely in seems Chanel wants to rival the pay rent on the unit, which long the darling of Wall Street — the fast-growing whitening category, Gillette Co. said Tuesday it other big name design houses opened last summer. At the time, but then it stumbled. acquired the teeth-whitening products of the Rembrandt brand that have already constructed the space was touted by Prada as Weakness in women’s moder- from privately held Den-Mat Corp. The financial terms of the giant flagships in Tokyo, includ- the largest single investment by ate apparel contributed to com- deal, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter, ing Christian Dior and Prada.