THE TEXTILE SHOWS IN NEW YORK REINFORCED THE ...THE ANNUAL BENEFIT AT WATERMILL CENTER HAD THE USUAL SLEW OF PERFORMANCE ARTISTS AND CAPPED WWD OFF A BUSY PARTY WEEKEND IN THE HAMPTONS.

IN THE CLOUDTHE ANNUAL BENEFIT AT WATERMILL CENTER HAD

THE USUAL SLEW OF PERFORMANCE ARTISTS AND CAPPED OFF A BUSY PARTY WEEKEND IN THE HAMPTONS. PAGE 10

WWDTUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

PHOTO BY KYLE ERICKSEN; STYLED BY ANDREW SHANG

Shirting the IssueChic yet relaxed, shirtdresses are resort’s answer to no-fuss dressing. Here,

Prabal Gurung’s graphic cotton take on the look. For more, see pages 4 and 5.

By CASEY HALL

SHANGHAI — Alibaba, preparing for its multibillion-dollar initial public offering later this year, is the undisputed e-commerce lead-er in China — but it’s not the only player in the market.

There are a number of fast-growing competitors populating the country’s vast e-commerce land-scape. China has an estimated 242 million online shoppers, giving it the world’s largest population of e-consumers in the world, according to Boston Consulting Group. The

consultancy predicts that, by next year, each of those consumers will be spending $1,000 a year online, meaning e-commerce would ac-count for $242 billion, or more than 8 percent of all retail sales in China.

McKinsey data indicate this trend is far from peaking. As China’s consuming class continues to ex-pand, the e-commerce market may reach sales of 2.7 trillion yuan to 4.2 trillion yuan, or $420 billion to $650 billion at current exchange, by 2020.

This potential has attracted glob-al retailing giants from Wal-Mart to Amazon to China, though it’s

SALES CLIMB 13.4%

Upscaling Push DrivesChristian Dior’s Growth

By JOELLE DIDERICH

PARIS — Christian Dior Couture’s upscaling drive is bearing dividends.

Strong growth in all product categories and geographical sec-tors helped propel a double-digit rise in revenues at the company in the six months ended June 30, Dior chief executive offi cer Sidney Toledano said.

Revenues totaled 747 million euros, or $1.02 billion at average exchange for the period, during the company’s fi scal second half, up 13.4 percent versus the period between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2013. At constant exchange rates, sales were up 17 percent during the pe-riod, Toledano said.

“The positioning of the brand at a very high level is bearing fruit

in a market with strong demand for very high-quality products and very high-quality service to match. This quality-based strategy is pay-ing off today. Even at a more diffi -cult time for the industry, it has al-lowed Dior to gain market share,” Toledano commented.

The French fashion house said profi ts from recurring operations jumped 47 percent during the six-month period to 84 million euros, or $115.2 million. Dior last year changed the closing date of its fi scal year to June 30 from April 30 previously.

“The productivity of the store network and the great success of the products allowed us to strongly improve our profi tability despite important investments in retail and communication,” the ceo said.

SEE PAGE 6

China’s Evolving Web

SEE PAGE 7

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3-D PRINTING SITE FOR SHOPPERS

TO CREATE THEIR OWN PRODUCTS.

PAGE 2

3-D EFFECT GLOBAL VISIONTHE TEXTILE SHOWS IN NEW YORK REINFORCED THE INCREASING DIVERSITY OF PRODUCTION – AND THE GROWTH OF MADE IN USA.

PAGE 8

WWD.COMWWD TUESDAY, JULY 29, 20142

TO E-MAIL REPORTERS AND EDITORS AT WWD, THE ADDRESS IS [email protected], USING THE INDIVIDUAL’S NAME. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2014 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 208, NO. 20. TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in March, April, May, June, August, October, November and December, and two additional issues in February and September) by Fairchild Fashion Media, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593. FOR SUBSCRIPTION, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593, call 866-401-7801, or email customer service at [email protected]. Please include both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. For New York Hand Delivery Service address changes or inquiries, please contact Mitchell’s NY at 1-800-662-2275, option 7. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax the request to 212-630-5883. For reprints, please e-mail [email protected] or call Wright’s Media 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please e-mail [email protected] or call 800-897-8666. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Media magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.wwd.com/subscriptions. Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to carefully 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 6356, Harlan, IA 51593 or call 866-401-7801. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

Swatch to Produce Smartwatches

Amazon Adds 3-D MarketplaceBy EVAN CLARK

AMAZON.COM INC. is moving in to try to get an early piece of the action with a 3-D printing mar-ketplace that launched Monday with more than 200 print-on-demand products, some of which are highly customizable.

3-D printers function like normal printers, but instead of ink on paper, they use plastic, metal or some other material to construct a simple three-di-mensional object. That places the emphasis on the design of the product rather than its manufacture. And while there are some printers available for home use, the goods on the Amazon marketplace are ordered online, printed out by the seller and shipped like other goods.

Petra Schindler-Carter, director for Amazon Marketplace sales, said it’s still “early days” for 3-D printing. Amazon.com carries 3-D printers and sup-plies and the interest in the category was part of what convinced the company to dig in deeper.

“This is the first time on Amazon that we’ve built such an experience that allows users to leave their own mark on a product,” Schindler-Carter said.

Among the offerings is a $45 knotty ring from Mixee Labs, which is 3-D printed in bronze-infused stainless steel. Users can choose the color of the metal, the size and knottiness of the topper, the thickness and size of the band.

There are also bracelets with customized mes-sages in braille and pendants and earrings, the de-signs of which can be tweaked in a variety of ways.

3-D printing could lead businesses to a new mind-set since it eliminates the burden of inventory.

“You get some of these independent jewelry de-signers who are awesome at their craft, but it is an investment to produce these products,” Schindler-Carter said. “3-D printing is a great way for them to…iterate fast and find a success fast.”

So merchants can let users design their own products, see what’s popular and take it from there.

By JOELLE DIDERICH

PARIS — Swatch is dipping a toe into the smart-watch market.

The world’s biggest watchmaker, whose brands range from affordable Swatch watches to high-end Blancpain timepieces, has revealed it will incorpo-rate electronic functions to measure personal fit-ness into its Swatch Touch line of plastic watches starting in 2015.

Swatch Group chief executive officer Nick Hayek unveiled the plan in an interview with Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag, published on Sunday. “Beginning in 2015, we will integrate fitness func-tions into Swatch Touch,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Swatch Group confirmed the report on Monday. The news comes days after Hayek denied reports that Swatch Group was work-ing with Apple on a smartwatch project.

Industry observers are closely watching both companies for signs that they will enter the smart-watch category, which some analysts predict could be as successful as Apple’s iPhone. BI Intelligence, for instance, forecasts 91.6 million smartwatch units will be sold globally in 2018.

Hayek earlier this year confirmed he had been approached by technology firms includ-ing Google regarding a smartwatch collabora-tion, but added that Swatch Group was in no

rush to enter the category, following the failure of Swatch’s Paparazzi watch, launched in 2004 with MSN Direct, a division of Microsoft. The watch promised wearers personalized informa-tion including news, sports, weather and stock quotes via the MSN Direct service, but failed to catch on.

“We have the technology and the know-how in-house so, of course, we are always getting visits from all those companies,” Hayek said at the group’s an-nual media conference in March. “We are not look-ing to do a collaboration with another U.S. company and we don’t need to. We are pioneers.”

In an early indication of the direction that Swatch Group would take, he said the group al-ready provided the technology behind one of the world’s leading fitness bands, one of the hottest categories in wearable technology. “The whole dis-play, plus chip and everything, is from us. We de-liver to this American company,” he said, without naming the company involved.

Hayek has expressed skepticism about the potential of smartwatches on the grounds that they have weak battery power, allow the user’s whereabouts to be tracked and require third-party software.

Launched in 2011, the Swatch Touch is a touch-screen wristwatch with functions including time, alarm, chronograph and date. Existing versions re-tail for $140.

0w

ON WWD.COM

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

Strong growth in all product categories and geographical sectors helped propel a double-digit rise in revenues at Christian Dior. PAGE 1 There are a number of fast-growing competitors to Alibaba populating the country’s vast e-commerce landscape. PAGE 1 Amazon launched a 3-D printing marketplace Monday with more than 200 print-on-demand products. PAGE 2 A strategic reorganization helped drive Aeffe SpA into the black in the first half. PAGE 6 Mark Sebba will retire as chief executive officer of Net-a-porter Group later this week. PAGE 6 Dollar Tree Inc. is set to acquire its competitor Family Dollar Stores Inc. in a transaction valued at $8.5 billion. PAGE 7 Coverage of the recent textile trade shows in New York, including Texworld USA, Apparel Sourcing, Première Vision New York and Spinexpo. PAGE 8 Sabine Le Chatelier, deputy fashion director of Première Vision, highlighted key fabrics trends for fall 2015 in a seminar at the PV New York show. PAGE 9 The Watermill Center benefit and the Super Saturday garage sale were among the events taking place on Long Island’s East End this past weekend. PAGE 10 Miami street artist David Anasagasti filed a lawsuit against American Eagle Outfitters for copyright infringement. PAGE 11 Kevin Martinez has looted his former employer, Condé Nast, of eight employees, who will join him at Maxim. PAGE 11

Delfina Blaquier at the Baby Buggy dinner. For more, see WWD.com.

EYE: Jessica Seinfeld hosted the annual Baby Buggy Summer Dinner on Saturday at her home in East Hampton, N.Y. For more, see WWD.com.

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@ WWD.com/socialBy LORELEI MARFIL

LONDON — Designer resale site Vestiaire Collective has under-taken a study highlighting coun-terfeit purchases in the online marketplace that lays bare the numbers of women who have been duped into purchasing fake items thinking they were buying genuine ones.

According to the report, 61 percent of female online-mar-ketplace shoppers have been misled into purchasing coun-terfeit designer goods, or knew at least one person who had accidentally bought a fake de-signer item through the Internet. Furthermore, 66 percent of women admitted they did not possess the knowledge to tell the difference between a counterfeit product and a genuine item.

The report shows that in 2013 more than 39 million people

shopped online in Britain. The study reveals that about 35 per-cent of female online shoppers who purchased items from re-sale Web sites said they were unaware they had purchased at least one counterfeit designer item, while 18 percent of re-spondents were not sure of the validity of some of the items they bought. Some 21 percent assumed they did not make any counterfeit purchases.

“We noticed the rise in the popularity of online market-places five years ago, and at the same time we spotted a gap in the market for a trusted site, where customers could be sure that the items they pur-chased are genuine,” said Fanny Moizant, Vestiaire Collective’s cofounder. “So we launched Vestiairecollective.com in 2009, putting authenticity and quality control at the center of the business.

“The material can tell you a

lot about the quality of an item; if it’s leather it should feel and smell like leather. If the item you’re inspecting is a bag, make sure you take a good look at the stitching: Uneven or slanted stitching is a sign of a poorly made item and therefore a coun-terfeit. Check the logo, which is often a slip-up area for many copies; every brand includes unique details to ensure they can identify a genuine piece. Finally, look for a serial number and color variations in the material.”

Vestiairecollective.com was founded in Paris and has more than 2.4 million members in 40 countries and offices located in Paris, London, New York and Germany. Vestiaire Collective is a part of the Fight Against Online Counterfeiting Charter, an initiative by the French gov-ernment that focuses on pro-tecting shoppers against coun-terfeit practices.

Vestiaire Collective Unveils Fakes Study

Users can customize products using Amazon’s design tool.

For more information, contact Pamela Firestone, Associate Publisher, WWD, at 212.630.3935 or [email protected]

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The Dior results were published late Friday as part of the results of Christian Dior SA, the parent company of the Dior fashion house and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Due to a miscalculation by WWD, the percentage chang-es were incorrect in the print edition of the paper Monday.

Toledano noted that sales in directly operated stores, which represent the bulk of the brand’s revenues, rose 19 percent at constant exchange rates compared with the same period in 2013.

“This reflects strong double-digit growth everywhere,” he said, noting the brand reg-istered strong growth in the U.S., Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and Mainland China. Sales in Japan were up double-digits at constant ex-change rates, he added.

Toledano noted customers were responding positively not only to the women’s ready-to-wear collections designed by Raf Simons, but also to the men’s rtw line created by Kris Van Assche and the high-jewelry creations of Victoire de Castellane.

Women’s rtw, men’s rtw and leather goods all posted double-digit growth in the fiscal sec-ond half, with standouts including new versions of the Lady Dior and Diorissimo handbags. Watches were stable during the period, reflect-ing a sharp slowdown in demand in key markets such as Hong Kong and China.

In the fiscal year ended June 30, Christian Dior Couture recorded sales of 1.5 billion euros,

or $2.04 billion, up 14 percent in reported terms and 19 percent at constant exchange rates. Dollar figures are calculated at average ex-change rates for the period to which they refer.

Profit from recurring operations rose 38 per-cent in the 2013-14 fiscal year, while the operat-ing margin increased to 12.7 percent from 10.5 percent in the prior-year period, Toledano said.

In the last year, Dior has opened stores in loca-tions ranging from Venice to Chengdu, China, and it is in the process of renovating and expanding scores of boutiques worldwide. Among the open-ings planned for the next few months are stores in New York’s SoHo and Melbourne, Australia.

To coincide with the store opening in Chengdu in late May, Dior staged “Le Petit Théâtre Dior,” a traveling exhibition of minia-ture reproductions of haute couture creations, which drew close to 100,000 visitors between May 31 and June 20 at the Chengdu IFS mall, according to Toledano.

A separate exhibit on the Miss Dior fra-grance in Shanghai drew more than 80,000 visi-tors between June 20 and July 20, he noted, adding that earlier in the year, Dior staged its first haute couture show in Hong Kong and presented the men’s collection in Shanghai.

The Dior results come on the heels of what analysts described as a disappointing first half for LVMH, which reported that revenues rose 1.3 percent but net profits fell 4.3 percent.

The luxury goods sector faces a relatively tough period as organic growth slows in regions stretching from Europe to Japan, analysts say.

Barclays Capital forecast in a recent re-port that luxury goods companies’ operat-ing margins would

fall between 40 and 280 basis points in the first half due to slower like-for-like sales and the impact of foreign-ex-change variations.

Companies including Hermès International, Burberry and Swatch Group have warned that negative currency impacts could dent their results for the full year.

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — A strategic reorganization helped drive Aeffe SpA into the black in the first half.

In the six months ended June 30, the Italian fashion group post-ed a net profit of 150,000 euros, or $205,500, compared with a loss of 3.7 million euros, or $4.84 million, in the same period last year.

Dented by the end of the Jean Paul Gaultier and Cacharel licens-es, and a reorganization of the company’s Japanese distribution net-work, now managed exclusively through the wholesale channel, rev-enues declined 1.5 percent to 121.1 million euros, or $166 million, compared with 122.9 million euros, or $161 million, in the first half of 2013. The company noted that, net of these effects, sales would have grown 7.1 percent at constant exchange rates.

The ready-to-wear division showed a 3 percent drop in sales to 94.8 million euros, or $130 million, while sales of the footwear and leather goods division increased by 12 percent to 37.7 million euros, or $51.6 million.

Executive chairman Massimo Ferretti touted the “effectiveness of the strategic actions implemented, both with regard to style and to distribution.” He said he felt “confident of the potential of the business development,” also in the light of the orders backlog for fall 2014, which registered a 10 percent increase compared with last year.

Aeffe controls the Alberta Ferretti, Moschino and Pollini brands, and produces and distributes collections for labels including Emanuel Ungaro, designed by Fausto Puglisi, and Cédric Charlier.

Managing director and chief financial officer Marcello Tassinari told WWD that 2014 is a year of “transition,” and that a “concrete change” will be evident in 2015. He cited Alberta Ferretti’s renewed focus on her own line and the positive performance of Moschino and Emanuel Ungaro revitalized by Jeremy Scott and Puglisi, respective-ly. These are indicators of the fulfillment of the group’s ambitious projects between 2014 and 2016, he said.

Asked if a design team will continue to design the Philosophy brand following creative director Natalie Ratabesi’s departure in June, Tassinari said “there will be changes” after the spring show in September in Milan. “We strongly believe in Philosophy and we are looking for a designer with a strong identity that will be able to share the brand’s views,” he said. A decision will be made in the short-term. The executive said Milan is “an excellent platform” for the label, after several seasons of shows in New York, which was closer to Ratabesi’s identity, he explained.

Questioned about a possible expansion of the group’s portfolio of licensed brands, Tassinari said the goal now is to consolidate the existing ones, as there are “no interesting dossiers” on his table now and that the group is focusing on its own labels.

Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed 71 percent to 12.5 million euros, or $17.1 mil-lion, compared with 7.3 million euros, or $9.5 million, last year.

In the first half, operating profit jumped to 6.2 million euros, or $8.5 million, from 1 million euros, or $1.3 million, in the same period last year.

Tassinari underscored that the process of rationalization began in 2009 and was “methodically and assiduously” advanced.

Dollar amounts are converted at average exchange for the peri-ods to which they refer.

As of June 30, net debt stood at 89.9 million euros, or $123.1 million, com-pared with 97 million euros, or $127 million, at the end of June last year.

Capital expenditure in the first half totaled 5.3 million euros, or $7.2 million, mainly related to the maintenance and refurbishment of stores and to key money paid for new shops.

Aeffe Posts First-Half ProfitUpscaling Efforts Drive Dior Growth

Sebba to Exit Net-a-porter Post

’’’’

The positioning of the brand at a very high level is bearing fruit in a market with strong demand for very high-

quality products and very high-quality service to match. — SIDNEY TOLEDANO, CHRISTIAN DIOR

By SAMANTHA CONTI

LONDON — Mark Sebba will retire as chief executive officer of Net-a-porter Group later this week, the company confirmed on Sunday.

Sebba joined Net-a-porter in 2003 and focused his efforts on build-ing and enhancing the global infrastructure, the company said. While his last day is Thursday, the company said he will remain as a non-executive director.

He will also continue to provide strategic counsel as the group ex-pands internationally, and will ensure a smooth handover. A process to identify his successor has already begun, the company confirmed.

“I am stepping down at a time with the company is stronger than ever,” Sebba said. “We reach an audience globally of over nine million customers across multiple channels: Web, mobile and app platforms.

“We have built a team of world-class writers, communicators, buy-ers, innovators, digital pioneers, distribution experts and more who form the foundations and DNA of this company.”

Natalie Massenet, the group’s founder and chairman called Sebba her “greatest ally” and a “true partner.”

She said at the company’s heart has been “a man of incredible integ-rity, wisdom and strength. Not only has he grown our business exponen-tially and healthily and guided us through our sale to Richemont — he has also brought calm and confidence to the core of our group.”

Compagnie Financière Richemont, a longtime shareholder, took control of the online luxury retailer in 2010.

During Sebba’s tenure, Net-a-porter launched businesses including TheOutnet.com, MrPorter.com and its own clothing label Iris & Ink. It acquired Shouke to take Net-a-porter Group into Asia and China, and launched the first retailing app for the iPhone in 2009, and the first fashion magazine for tablets, accord-ing to the company.

{Continued from page one}Sidney

Toledano

Here and below: A look at the Dior Homme show in Shanghai.

The Diorissimo bag.

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WWD.COM7WWD TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014

homegrown Chinese companies that have been leading the way in the world’s second largest business-to-consumer e-com-merce market.

According to iResearch fig-ures from 2013, Alibaba’s Tmall is the largest B2C marketplace in China, with a 50.7 percent share of sales, followed by JD.com (17.1 percent), Tencent (5.6 percent), Suning (5 percent), Amazon China (2.2 percent), Vipshop (2 percent), Gome (1.9 percent), Dangdang (1.8 percent), Yihaodian (1.4 percent) and Vancl (0.7 percent).

China’s second-largest e-com-merce company by transaction volume is JD.com, also known as Jingdong and previously called 360Buy.com. Initially specializing in consumer electronics, JD.com has expanded in recent years to sell everything from shoes to motor oil to books, leading some to describe it as China’s version of Amazon, though 85 percent of the company’s revenues come from selling consumer electronics.

In something of a precursor to Alibaba’s IPO, JD.com went public in May. Its Nasdaq listing raised $1.78 billion and the company has a current market capitalization of about $27.45 billion. Just a few months before the IPO, Internet behemoth Tencent — the compa-ny many people believe poses the biggest threat to Alibaba’s reign as China’s e-commerce king — in-vested $210 million for a 15 per-cent stake in JD.com.

The move was seen as mutu-ally beneficial, with JD.com taking control of Tencent’s B2C platform, QQ Wanggou, and consumer-to-consumer marketplace, Paipai. One of Tencent’s hottest proper-ties is mobile chat service WeChat, considered a major competitor to Sina Corp.’s microblogging ser-vice Weibo and a key component of Tencent’s e-commerce strategy.

According to iResearch data, m-commerce accounted for 9.2

percent of all e-commerce trans-actions in China in 2013, a pro-portion expected to double by 2016. In comparison, U.S. mobile business last year accounted for about 3 percent, and in 2016 is expected to reach 7 percent.

L2 researcher Emma Li be-lieves Tencent’s WeChat app, which is often compared to WhatsApp and already boasts 355 million active users, will be the “player to watch” in 2014.

“Tencent’s Weigouwu [an on-line-to-off-line service that allows customers to scan product codes to find additional information, save products to their shopping list and purchase via WeChat] is going to be a game changer for many retailers in China,” Li said.

“As user activity on Sina Weibo has plummeted in the last year, and with around 37 percent of Weibo users moving to WeChat, Tencent is doing ev-erything it can to compete with e-commerce giant Alibaba in mobile commerce — and their timing couldn’t be better.”

Alibaba is making its own moves in terms of m-commerce. In June, the company completed its buyout of mobile browser op-erator UCWeb Inc., which oper-ates one of the country’s most popular mobile Internet brows-ers, UC Browser.

According to Alibaba, the ac-quisition will “enable deep syn-ergies between the companies by marrying Alibaba’s strengths in e-commerce, cloud comput-ing and big data technology, and UCWeb’s leading market posi-tion and technology in mobile.”

Analysts who had seen Alibaba struggling against up-and-comer Tencent in the mobile space described the UCWeb ac-quisition as a positive move for Alibaba. “China has more smart-phones than any other coun-try plus a higher propensity to consume via mobile than other countries, including the U.S.,”

Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based tech-nology consultancy, said at the time of the UCWeb deal.

“Tencent’s home run with WeChat has raised the stakes for all incumbent Internet players, and the acquisition by Tencent of a 20 percent stake in e-commerce provider JD.com illustrates the increasingly competitive stance of the two companies towards each other,” he added. “Anything that can drive mobile users or traffic to Alibaba will be seen as accretive in this context.”

Looking at e-commerce in China more broadly, some ana-lysts warn that it is a difficult business in terms of the numbers.

“One of the things that is very challenging is that there are very few companies that have made the e-commerce econom-ics work here,” said Jeff Walters, partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group. “Alibaba makes a ton of money from advertising, whereas JD.com is trying to make money selling products, which is a challeng-ing proposition whether you are JD.com, or anyone else, frankly.”

For fiscal 2013, JD.com posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of $410.54 mil-lion on sales of $11.07 billion. In comparison, Alibaba’s prof-its for the year ended March 31 jumped 175 percent to $3.71 bil-lion on revenue of $8.44 billion.

Traditionally, e-commerce in China has been driven by C2C business, particularly Alibaba’s most famous offspring, Taobao, the dominant player with 95 percent of C2C business (which still accounts for around 65 per-cent of China’s e-commerce, ac-cording to estimates from L2) flowing through its eight mil-lion vendors. In short, Taobao is

more than just China’s version of eBay; it’s also used as Google is in the West as a starting point for researching products.

“The reason Alibaba can drive so much ad revenue is because when consumers start looking for a product online, they don’t go to a search en-gine, they don’t go to their fa-vorite brand site, they start on Taobao,” Walters added.

And profits will continue to be hard to come by for those trail-ing Alibaba. Experts see the al-ready concentrated mainstream market further consolidating in years to come, with opportuni-ties opening up for specialist retailers with a unique aesthetic and careful curation.

“Increasingly, the market is becoming less cluttered. From the recent decision for Tencent to minimize its e-commerce op-eration and take control of a per-centage of JD, you can see the big players will become bigger. There will continue to be strategic sell-out from the middle-sized com-panies, which are really being squeezed,” Kantar World Panel general manager Jason Yu said. “Over the next few years, we will have a few big players, probably less than five, dominating the marketplace. They can probably control 80 to 90 percent of the total revenue, then there will be thousands of smaller shops — they will be closer to customers, and will offer things that aren’t sold through the big players.”

There has been much talk of online-to-off-line strategies, particularly following Alibaba’s $692 million investment in de-partment store operator Intime Retail in April.

But for Yu, the real untapped opportunity in terms of China’s e-commerce is for established brick-

and-mortar retailers to take their good reputations online, particu-larly in sectors that have already proven conducive to the online experience, such as beauty.

“I think there is a big oppor-tunity for off-line retailers who are strong on beauty — such as Watson’s and Sephora — to come into this market. They are starting to do e-commerce but the momentum is not really there yet. This highlights an op-portunity,” he said.

Walters sees opportunity lying with Pinterest-type clones, such as Mogujie and Meilishuo, where trusted style arbiters are followed by consumers who click on prod-ucts they like and are redirected to third-party sites to purchase.

“I think the general ap-proach to merchandising, the blandness that we’ve seen with Alibaba, is one of the reasons why other sites have been rising up in the past couple of years. Particularly Pinterest-style, very commercial sites, that’s the kind of thing I think will continue to develop in China,” he said.

The main problems for any brand coming into China and wishing to forgo the existing dominant marketplaces are the challenges of generating enough traffic and the high costs of building infrastructure for a country as vast as China.

While many luxury brands are likely to open their own di-rectly controlled e-commerce sites in China, Burberry took a different route: It became the first major luxury brand to open a virtual storefront on Alibaba’s Tmall in April.

Some of the more success-ful luxury e-commerce enter-prises in China have followed the flash-sales model, with platforms such as Vipshop and Glamour Sales catering to con-sumers with both a thirst for luxury goods, and an eye for a bargain. Glamour Sales is tar-geting 2014 sales of $155 million, compared to $82 million last year. The company has posted an annual growth rate of 92 per-cent over the past four years.

Glamour Sales chief executive officer Thibault Villet sees a shift currently underway as China’s “post-Nineties” generation, now in their 20s, display different mo-tivations for shopping online for luxury goods than their elders.

“The people who are 30, 40, or 50, those people are still citing value as the number-one driver for purchasing. Younger people are citing newness, uniqueness as key purchasing drivers, so we foresee this market is step-by-step going into the full price and we are positive about the full-price opportunity,” he said.

By VICKI M. YOUNG

DOLLAR TREE INC. is set to acquire its competitor Family Dollar Stores Inc. in a transaction valued at $8.5 billion.

The deal is a cash-and-stock transac-tion valued at $74.50 a share. Family Dollar shareholders will receive $59.60 in cash and $14.90 in Dollar Tree stock for each share that they own. The deal, which is expect-ed to close early next year, valued Family Dollar at an enterprise value of $9.2 billion.

Dollar Tree will finance the acquisition through cash on hand, bank debt and bonds.

The respective boards of both chains have already approved the merger. The transaction is still subject to certain cus-tomary closing conditions, such as the

approval of Family Dollar stockholders.Certain activist investors, such as Nelson

Peltz’s Trian Fund Management and Carl Icahn’s Icahn Associates, have been push-ing for a sale of Family Dollar. Peltz has already said he would vote his shares in favor of the merger. Icahn said that while he hoped another buyer might surface — and pay a higher price — the transaction “is a big win for all shareholders of Family Dollar and yet another validation of the ac-tivist investment philosophy in general.”

Anyone who might consider making a higher offer also would have to factor in a break-up fee of more than $300 mil-lion that Family Dollar is obliged to pay Dollar Tree should the current agree-ment fail to close due to a better offer.

Synergies from the combined merger,

such as in sourcing and logistics, are ex-pected to save at least $300 million a year.

Dollar Tree said it will continue to operate the Family Dollar nameplate in addition to those of its own: Dollar Tree, Deals and Dollar Tree Canada. Each chain is a national discount variety store selling merchandise for $1 or less.

Bob Sasser, the chief executive officer of Dollar Tree, called the merger a “trans-formational opportunity.” He said the ac-quisition of Family Dollar will give Dollar Tree over 13,000 stores in 48 states and five Canadian provinces, with sales of $18 billion.

According to Sasser, “The acquisition of Family Dollar is consistent with our vi-sion to be the leader in value retailing.”

Sasser said that Howard Levine, the ceo of Family Dollar, will remain with the

company and become a Dollar Tree board member upon the closing of the deal.

Levine said, “Today’s announcement represents the successful culmination of a comprehensive strategic review pro-cess that our board of directors, work-ing with its financial and legal advisors, began this past winter.”

According to the retail chains, benefits connected with the merger include: cre-ation of a leading discount retailer in North America; complementary business model across fixed- and multi-price point and a broader target range of customers and geog-raphies, given Dollar Tree’s Middle America customers in suburban areas and Family Dollar’s low- and lower-middle income households in urban and rural locations.

Shares of Dollar Tree rose 1.2 percent to $54.87 in Nasdaq trading, while shares of Family Dollar jumped 24.9 percent to $75.74 in Big Board trading.

A Merger of Dollars Leads to $8.5B Deal

China’s Evolving E-tail Landscape

Alibaba’s Tmall is the largest business-to-consumer marketplace in China.

{Continued from page one}

JD.com has been described as China’s version of Amazon.

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8 WWD TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014

By ARTHUR FRIEDMAN

NEW YORK — A more democratic era has emerged in global sourcing.

The playing field has been made more even by a confluence of events, from rising labor prices in China and factory disasters and labor crises in Southeast Asia to investments in manufactur-ing in the U.S. and shifting purchasing strategies by retailers and brands. The revival of Made in America is real and Western Hemisphere pro-duction is more important, but China is far from fading away and Vietnam and other Asian na-tions are growing their markets, as well. The de-sire for natural fibers and fabrics is strong, but a new generation of performance synthetics is also making headway.

These points were pervasive at several major trade shows here this month — the Texworld USA and Apparel Sourcing shows at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Première Vision New York at Pier 92 and Spinexpo at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

While some of these sourcing trends had a divergent nature, two areas had a clear path — the need for sustainability from farm to store shelf and the necessity of corporate social responsibility in every step along the supply chain.

Karine Van Tassel, founder and organizer of Spinexpo, said part of the growth of the show’s New York edition has been the resurgence of manufacturing in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere.

“I think Made in America is com-ing back,” Van Tassel said. “The world in its globalization is also en-tering an equilibrium. The leveling is everywhere.”

She said for mass production, China is still the go-to place, but in Europe and the U.S., the structure is geared toward more niche products and smaller runs.

“What is important is the quality of what is made, and the ability to make it no matter where it is,” she added.

Spinexpo is being more selec-tive in its exhibitors and attend-ees. The New York edition, staged once a year versus its larger venue in Shanghai held semiannually, featured primarily yarn firms and knitters from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“We are pushing our exhibitors to exhibit in a better way, to show themselves with a little bit more fashion,” Van Tassel said. “What I want is to deliver the same message, that the industry is global, that quality is what matters no matter where it comes from, and that has not been easy in New York, but this year I think it’s finally happening. We have bet-ter exhibitors, better buyers and the feedback has been very positive. We’re certainly going to have a bigger show next time, but not without continuing to be selective.”

Many of the 10 U.S. mills and suppliers at Texworld said their businesses had become more dynamic in the past few years as the revival of the once-counted-for-dead textile industry took hold.

David Sasso, vice president of international sales at Buhler Quality Yarns, said, “For us, do-mestic sales are growing a little, mainly because the L.A. market is flat, but our export business continues to be strong, notably in South America and the CAFTA [Central American Free-Trade Agreement] countries.”

Sasso said Buhler’s exports to China have grown in the past year, and the company is also seeing growth in shipments to Vietnam. He said that’s one reason Buhler is not concerned about the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement being negotiated. The domestic textile industry has been lobbying for a yarn-forward rule of origin, but Sasso, who also favors that stipulation, said, “You have to find out who the players are in that country and how you can develop a business with them, no matter what the country is. If you can offer something different that they can’t get in their own market, then you can take advantage of the opportunity.”

He said Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s commitment

to invest $250 billion cumulatively in Made in America products over 10 years has definitely been spurring business and Buhler is prepared to be part of it.

“Their commitment is real and they’re doing a great service to the industry and their custom-ers,” he added. “It’s also going to create U.S. jobs, which is a great thing.”

There have also been major investments from companies such as Gildan Activewear, Richelieu Group and Unifi Inc. to expand or build facilities in the South.

David Roshan, president of Laguna Fabrics in Los Angeles, said, “Our business is great and has been for the past year. We sell mostly to the con-temporary market in Los Angeles, but also a lot to Mexico and Central America. We get a lot of inqui-ries from brands and retailers who say, ‘We want Made in America.’ It’s a great time right now.”

Laguna, which focuses on Lenzing’s Tencel and Modal fibers, has been seeing strong business in sweater knits and French terry, as well as indigo

knits that resemble denim.Matthew Burnett, cofounder of Maker’s Row,

which connects small businesses and U.S.-based manufacturers through a database and network-ing opportunities, speaking on a panel discussion of “Made in the Americas,” said the New York company has 5,000 American manufacturers and suppliers registered in apparel and textiles and furniture and home decor, and 40,000 brands con-nected to Maker’s Row trying to manufacture in the U.S.

“Not everybody is shifting everything back here,” Burnett said. “It’s not going to be that quick. A lot of them are just testing the waters, but we’re more then happy to try to facilitate these opportunities for both the American manufactur-ers and these brands, because they both have an incredibly difficult time finding each other.”

He said a lot of young entrepreneurs looking to start their own lines and companies turn to Maker’s Row to connect them to factories that are willing to work with them.

“Once these people start to develop their busi-nesses, they find that the cost of labor is balanced by the cost of shipping and the shipping time, and the overall cost of importing,” he said. “The turn-around time is the main reason they’re looking for domestic manufacturing and they’re able to pro-duce a lot smaller quantities at a time, so it’s a lot safer for them, as well.”

Burnett said Maker’s Row is “growing deep and wide, going into more industries and indus-try hubs.” For instance, it recently helped orga-nize factories and entrepreneurs from Newark to join in, and is building a database for the furni-ture industry.

TEXTILES

Production Playing Field Leveling

Looks from Solstiss Lace.

Michelle Lora and Crystal Doherty of Liberty Art Fabrics wearing prints from the line.

Philippe Pasquet

9.10.11 SEPTEMBER 2014portello fieramilanocity

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Top-end Textiles and Accessories for Women’s wear and Men’s wear

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Lineapelle: September 10.11.12 Fieramilano Rho. MU-Lineapelle-MU shuttle links are provided

Japan Observatory: September 9.10.11, Hall 2 Portello, Fieramilanocity, adjacent to Milano Unica

Denim Italiano: Italian Denim Makers: in collaboration with Pitti Immagine Filati. September 9.10.11 at Milano Unica

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WWD.COM9WWD TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014

research has shown that sales of clothing at re-tail from June 2010 to June 2014 increased 21 percent in the U.S.

“We are attracting more buyers from the West Coast and Canada, which PV has market-ed toward, as well as Latin American buyers, notably Colombia and Brazil,” he added.

Liberty Art Fabrics was showing its signa-ture prints in silk and cotton in fresh ranges for fall 2015 at PV, but is also looking to build a more customized business in the U.S. with specific customers, said account executive Michelle Lora. A key inspiration this season came from Florence and from a selection that dipped into its London archives.

“We know in the U.S. market we need to become more contemporary and more customized,” Lora said. “In London, we’re more well known and can rely more on our more standard lines. But here, we have to be more innovative.”

Sandrine Bernard, executive vice president at Solstiss USA, said she was pleased with the venue, with its high ceilings and large windows allowing for natural light from the openness on the Hudson River. Bernard said, “We’ve seen a lot of people, especially from the West Coast, Chicago and Dallas, as well as Mexico and Canada.”

Key looks for Solstiss lace included black on blue effects, spider web designs in red and fuchsia, abstract and floral mixes, and printed lace.

Sabine Le Chatelier, deputy fashion director of PV, said activewear was a category getting more attention with in-novative materials. While natural fibers continue to be important, she said there is a “new generation of synthetics” that don’t resemble the polyesters and nylons of the past and are serving as the foun-dation for fabrics made with specific performance characteristics.

At Spinexpo, a section was devoted to denim knits as a new way of dressing and showing the fabric. Van Tassel also cited activewear as an important trend that was evident at the show because, she said, it’s “more and more the way

people like to dress…that is why we see Spinexpo expanding into more circular knits and knitwear.”

Meadowbrook Inventions, a Benardsville, N.J.-based maker of lumi-nescent staple fibers, has seen its export business increase in the last year, with Italy and China its two largest markets. Representative Roberta Ruschmann said environmental consciousness is a focus of its fibers that are made of 90 percent recycled polyester and contain no harmful formaldehyde or metals. Its Angelina yarns, which are blended with a range of materials such as wool, cot-ton, polyester and nonwovens, featured a new crimped fiber being shown for leg-wear and knit sportswear.

Among other key trends at Spinexpo were a focus on technological effects, such as laser cutting, molded dimensions, sculpted stitches and coatings. Texture was also key, from multilayered twists, brushed bouclés, feather effects and soft blended marled yarns. Attention to sus-tainability and environmental aware-ness was evident, from Novetex’s Global Organic Textile Standard and Organic Exchange-certified wools and cottons to Gostwyck Merino’s promise of “mules-free” sheep and “time-controlled grazing.”

These issues were also a topic of a seminar at Texworld.

Avedis Seferian, president and ceo of Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production, or WRAP, said, “You have a

fragmented supply chain and companies want to know how they can make sense and figure out how their product can be manufactured responsibly.…I look for whether a company is approaching so-cial compliance in a systemic way. Do they have management systems in place that address these issues on a daily basis? You want to anticipate problems and catch them before they happen or mitigate them in a timely manner.”

Seferian said this often starts at the top — “Does the manager or owner of the factory consider safety and compli-ance a priority? Most importantly, is this centered around the worker?”

Anne Gillespie, director of integrity at Textile Exchange, said the organiza-tion has grown from developing a stan-dard for the supply chain for organic cot-ton to include all sustainable materials. The latest is to create a responsible stan-dard for down, which she said includes putting together a balanced approach from all sides of the issue, from animal rights groups to farmers to retailers.

Sandra Marquadt, U.S. representative for Global Organic Textile Standard, or GOTS, a voluntary standard for the $7 billion global textile organic products market, said the group has expanded its certification requirements to include social criteria, and fire and workplace safety training. She said there are 3,100 companies certified with GOTS in India, Europe, Asia and the U.S.

Julie Reiser, vice president of market-ing and business development for Made in the USA Foundation, said the organization aims to promote products manufactured and assembled in the U.S. It pursues litiga-tion and legislative activity to strengthen and uphold labeling laws and standards, and is involved in “raising the bar con-cerning minimum wages, environmental standards, labor rights and human rights, including eliminating child labor.”

Reiser said, “Most importantly, we work to create good-paying jobs in the USA and a sustainable, environmentally sound and healthy economy.”

Reiser noted that the group also sup-ports international environmental stan-dards for power plants, steel mills and fac-tories, which she said will “reduce global warming and make competition fair for U.S. manufacturers.” Reiser cited statistics from a Harris Poll the organization com-missioned last year that showed 75 percent of respondents would pay up to 10 percent more for made in U.S. products, and 55 percent would pay up to 20 percent more.

A major source of income for many U.S. yarn and fabric firms comes from Latin American countries. Through trade pacts such as CAFTA and the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement, materials can be shipped to these countries to be made into finished goods and then sent back to the U.S. duty free.

Sylvia Reyes, apparel and textiles di-rector for the U.S. for Proexport Colombia, and Lucia de Sander, marketing and pro-motion coordinator for the Guatemala Apparel & Textile Association, both ex-tolled the two-way benefits of the trade deals and the relationships they have helped to build.

Reyes noted the sourcing trend for “nearshoring,” that has helped Colombia build business with the U.S. and within Latin America. She said the short lead times of as little as two to four weeks com-pared to what can be months sourcing in Asia allows retailers and brands to jump on trends and have replenishment capabilities.

Colombia is also committed to social re-sponsibility, she said, adding that with the country’s history in illegal drug activity, it had to work with U.S. Customs to improve its record and programs in that area prior to joining CAFTA.

De Sander noted that Guatemala, which has the largest economy and population in Central America, has 150 apparel fac-tories and 39 textile mills, with the sector providing about 90,000 jobs. She said, “The industry has evolved over the years from cut-and-sew operations and is now moving forward with full package and fast fashion. The advantage of our country is that we are close to the United States and can export from the East and West Coasts. We have small and large factories and have produc-tion flexibility.”

Première Vision New York saw a 7 per-cent increase in attendance over July 2013, including a 46 percent increase in visitors from foreign countries, with a high per-centage from Canada, at its new home at Pier 92. The show also drew 25.7 percent more visitors from California.

Philippe Pasquet, chief executive officer of PV, said, “We were at the Metropolitan Pavilion for 14 years, but we wanted to have everybody on the same floor and be able to expand. It be-came urgent because of the recovery of the U.S. market that we began to expe-rience between 2011 and 2012, and now it’s building up quite a bit.…The main appraisal is that people are discovering that we’re not a workshop anymore…that this is a really different experience. For the first time they are seeing 300 exhibi-tors on one floor and you have the feeling of a full exhibition. We expect to stay at Pier 92 for some time.”

Pasquet said business in the U.S. is good, “sometimes it’s excellent for our ven-dors,” which are primarily better to luxury fabric and material suppliers. He said his

NEW YORK — Sabine Le Chatelier, deputy fashion director of Première Vision, highlighted key fabrics trends for fall 2015 in a seminar at the PV New York show. She said shape and volume are essential for weavers, who are learning to sort and select a wider range of materials.

Among the highlights in women’s wear were:

Expanded volume: Hairy fabrics such as fake and real fur, as well as alpaca and mohair in outerwear. Double-faced fabrics often combining wools and syn-thetics, and bonded tweeds for ready-to-wear and sportswear.

3-D: Fabrics and yarns that create density and folded effects, such as bonded wool on jersey, silky pleated fabrics, embossed textures, layering and geometric lace patterns.

Ultramatte: Fluid, doughy and mal-leable fabrics with subtle texture for jackets and sweatshirts.

Bold fantasy: Fancy wools, jac-quards, printed felts and tweeds, and simplified decorations in coats and rtw.

In men’s wear:

Outdoor: Half-tone flannels, hybrid weights and refined lumber jackets.

Everyday fantasy: Graphic patterns, indigo jacquards and printed shirts.

Dressed-down comfort: Soft woolens

and knits with a woven feel. Sporty fluidity: Microfibers, fast dry

and moisture transfer materials, along with pale colors, bleached denim and performance wools. — A.F.

Key Trends at Première Vision New York

Out Worldwide

The trend area at PV.

Buhler Quality Yarn’s display.David Roshan

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eye

Where the Wild Things AreAROUND 6 P.M. on Saturday, a long line of people in exuberant costumes snaked down Water Mill Towd Road. It was a few minutes before the doors opened on the annual Watermill Center benefit and the crowd bobbed and craned their necks to try to make out what lay behind a wall of trees.

They have learned from 21 years of coming here to expect a wild spectacle from Robert Wilson, a showman who uses every trick at his disposal year after year to conjure up his version of the Ziegfeld Follies, only instead of chorus girls there are performance artists. Wilson set a high bar for himself last year by inviting an at-her-apex Lady Gaga for an appearance.

She was there this year, too, if only in spirit — the singer was the subject of a series of video portraits by Wilson, though perhaps because her stock has dropped, she didn’t quite pack the punch she might have had once. Instead, she was upstaged by the gang of performance artists Wilson enlisted for the occasion.

“There’s nothing like it,” Lisa Perry said. “Everyone always says, ‘Isn’t this the greatest event in the Hamptons?’ You don’t see anything like this in the world.”

Perry, and husband Richard, were making their way through an eclectic path in the center’s backwoods that featured more than 30 performers — a couple, Gintare Minelgaite and Baboo Liao, in nothing but tighty whities and Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald masks; an opera singer, Joëlle Beli-Titi, performing from a hole in the ground; two guys fighting through what seemed like a foam wall, a segment from a new piece by Greek artist Dimitris Papaioannou. Jim Jarmusch and composer Phil Kline improvised what the filmmaker called “some kind of drone music” inside the Watermill building.

All the artists performed for about two hours before dinner for an equally diverse crowd that included Kim Cattrall, Philip Glass, Isabelle Huppert, artist Daniel Arsham, Constance Jablonski, Kelly Rutherford, Kuwaiti art collector Sheikha Paula Al Sabah and the Whitney Contemporaries founder Lisa Anastos.

In the Hamptons, some events never change, and perhaps that’s part of the appeal. Earlier in the day, Super Saturday, the massive garage sale for cancer research, unfolded uninterrupted just like it has for the past 17 years, despite a robbery earlier in the week of its storage facility. A stampede of shoppers — Kelly Ripa, Katie Lee, Ali Wentworth and Alec and Hilaria Baldwin among them — descended on Nova’s Ark Project in Water Mill inhaling every bargain in sight.

“I come here every year,” Gayle King said. “I don’t need another shoe or dress, but you get caught up in the art of the deal and I like a good sale. I got three pairs of shoes for $250!”

A town over in East Hampton later that night, Jessica Seinfeld as she does every year coaxed to her home those celebrity parents who frequent the South Fork of Long Island — the Baldwins, Seinfeld besties Wentworth and George Stephanopoulos, Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick, Nacho Figueras and Delfina Blaquier, Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman — for the Baby Buggy Summer Dinner, this year sponsored by Giorgio Armani.

“It’s especially important right now because the world is so chaotic and people want to feel like they can help somehow,” Seinfeld said of the nonprofit, which she established in 2001. It provides diapers, cribs and the like to families in need. “It’s microcosmic. If you help a baby, you help a family. When you help a family, you help a community. When you help a community, you affect change in a real way.”

“Ahem!” Wentworth breathed into the mic as guests shuffled around their tables finding their place cards. “We’d like dessert to come out before 3 a.m., so let’s start this evening. Thank you for being here. Cystic Fibrosis is incredibly…” she cracked to nervous laughter. “Pardon me! Wrong dinner.”

At Watermill, some traditions are observed every year — for instance, Wilson’s habit of uncomfortably long pauses before he starts the live auction. But mainly, he keeps everyone guessing — some years are provocative, others tame. “It was very childlike and fairytale-like. It was much more soft and gentle this year,” Cattrall said. Paul Williams, the legendary singer-songwriter, was a first-timer. “It’s an amazing amalgamation of San Francisco in the Sixties and Andy Warhol’s Factory,” he said.

Wilson was off in the woods for most of the afternoon giving personalized tours of the performances until it was time for dinner. He arrived to the dinner with some flair, looking knightly in a robe with a gold trim — or was it a caftan? — that recalled Obi-Wan Kenobi.

How does he top the gala every year? “I don’t know if it’s to top it. It’s just bringing in another wave of young artists. That’s what exciting to see,” the Jedi Master of performance art said. Some of the artists write him letters, others are recommended. “I always feel like when you’re collecting art, the artwork finds you and you don’t have to look for it.”

— ERIK MAZA AND TAYLOR HARRIS

FOR MORE PHOTOS, SEE

WWD.com/eye.

The Watermill Center

Alec and Hilaria Baldwin at the Baby Buggy dinner.

Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld in Giorgio Armani.

Lisa Perry

Constance Jablonski

Isabelle Huppert and Jörn Weisbrodt

Robert Wilson

Kelly Ripa

WWD.COM11WWD TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014

Long before he made his way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Brown mastered his image. “He did everything from top to bottom. He designed his own clothes and all of the band’s costumes. He got the idea for the cape for ‘Please, Please, Please’ from Gorgeous George, the pro wrestler. He saw him flaming the cape when he stepped into the ring and said, ‘Man, I can do that in my place,’” Daryl Brown told WWD.

The author, who spent part of his childhood and eight years touring on the road with his father until his death in 2006, said the idea of a legacy never crossed his father’s mind. “With civil rights and a lot of the other stuff he did, there was no big TV interview or meeting,” Brown said. “He was just involved with it. He did everything from the heart. He knew he had to go to see the people to help the people.”

While driving through the Bowery in its more rough-and-tumble days, the “Godfather of Soul” wasn’t above stopping the car to talk to a couple of guys drinking wine on a corner “to tell them their life could be a whole lot better. He would say, ‘Look at me. I had nothing. I came from nothing.’”

Although the younger Brown has only seen trailers for the new flick, his two daughters have seen the film and the older one fell asleep. “She’s 24 — a grown woman — so it couldn’t be that great. The movie shows him in one light and my book shows him in the true light,” he claimed.

A trailer featuring Brown (as played by Chadwick Boseman) firing a gun is inaccurate, according to his son. “The gun he had didn’t fire. You could have used it as a walking stick,” he said, claiming the film crew did not consult with Brown’s family or his longtime emcee, Danny Ray. “In this media, what sells is negativity.

They don’t know what a giving man he was,” Brown said. “He took care of people’s mortgages. When Sammy Davis Jr. died broke, he helped his wife.”

One of 12 children fathered by Brown (by his own estimate), Daryl Brown said, “Five came out of the woodwork after he passed.” His book also alleges that the eldest son, Teddy, did not die in a car accident in 1973 as reported, but was shot execution style.

Violence was something that James Brown disdained about rap, according to his son. But he was a fan of Snoop Dogg, whose request to name his 2002 album, “Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Boss,” was allowed with one caveat — “just don’t cuss in my music.” MC Hammer was another big admirer, giving him $300,000 when he was released from jail in 1990. Daryl Brown said, “He did it because he just loved James Brown. He has said if

it wasn’t for James Brown, he wouldn’t be here — the music, the dancing everything.”

— ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

ITALIAN STINT: While renovation work continues at the Ritz

Paris, Colin Peter Field, the famed head barman of the hotel’s Bar Hemingway, will be mixing drinks this summer at the Il Pellicano resort in Tuscany’s Porto Ercole. To start his one-week stay at the Italian hotel, on Aug. 18 Field will serve his new Il Pellicano Pimm’s cocktail. Over the following days, the British bartender will hold cocktail-making classes and drink tastings. On Aug. 22, he will mark his last night at Il Pellicano by preparing concoctions inspired by the Eighties, the theme of the poolside event planned for that night.

During the week, Il Pellicano will also offer a special “Colin Field Menu” — five courses prepared by Italian chef Antonio Guida — matched with drinks created by Field. — ALESSANDRA TURRA

FOR MORE SCOOPS, SEE

WWD.com.

MEMO PAD

FASHION SCOOPS

HELP WANTED: Details magazine has more than one job to fill since its publisher Kevin Martinez jumped ship two weeks ago to join rival Maxim in the same role. According to sources, Martinez has looted his former employer Condé Nast of eight employees — six from Details and two from sister titles Lucky and Wired. Most of those staffers were on the advertising side.

The mass exodus from Condé is a rare occurrence, and one insider speculated that it could be linked to the fact that Details has yet to name a publisher. Insiders said they were surprised that the role remains vacant.

According to the rumor mill, however, potential replacements for Martinez include Teen Vogue vice president and publisher Jason Wagenheim and ex-Condé Naster Patrick Connors, who serves as Men’s Fitness’ senior vice president and publisher. Wagenheim denied he was heading to Details, adding for extra heft: “It’s not happening.”

Connors told WWD that he was promoted “recently” to senior vice president from vice president, but declined to elaborate further on the timing of that promotion in relation to Details’ publisher search.

An insider noted that the magazine could promote its associate publisher, Christopher Cormier, but also floated a buzzed-about second scenario, which could include the promotion of GQ vice president and publisher Chris Mitchell to a men’s group publisher. In that scenario, Mitchell, who served as Details’ publisher from 2004 to 2008, would oversee both Details and GQ. He declined to comment on that speculation.

The formation of such a position would be out of character for Condé Nast, though, which, unlike rival Hearst, keeps its titles as singular entities. Hearst has classified several of its magazines under group publishers. For instance, senior vice president and publishing director Jack Essig oversees its men’s group, which includes Esquire, Popular Mechanics, Road & Track and Car and Driver.

— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE: On the eve of the 40th anniversary of becoming the first African-American woman to land a Vogue cover, Beverly Johnson remembers it like it was yesterday. After Eileen Ford told her she would never get a Vogue cover, Johnson exited the agency on good terms to give Wilhelmina Models a try. Having posed for a Vogue beauty shoot, Johnson received a call from Wilhelmina Cooper telling her she was actually the August 1974 cover girl.

“I was in my first New York apartment on the East Side — mattress on the floor, candles. I threw on my jeans and ran to the newsstand. All these people were rushing to work trying to buy their papers

so I had to wait. Of course, I didn’t have any money on me. I told the guy that it was me on the cover and he kind of rolled his eyes like, ‘Oh lady please, if you were on the cover you would have enough money to buy the magazine,’” she laughed. “I had to go to the phone booth — a phone booth? The girls [in my office] are looking at me like, ‘What’s that?’ — to call my mother collect in Buffalo. We were both screaming [with excitement], but I’m not sure my mother knew what I was talking about.”

Fast-forward to 2014 and Johnson said there aren’t as many African-American models, hair stylists and makeup artists working to the degree they once were and there is a lack of women of color on certain runways during fashion week. “Sometimes we live in this very elitist bubble called the fashion industry” and despite Fortune 500 companies having diversity programs “we have become really oblivious to what’s going on in the world,” Johnson said. “I like to think that is the reason.”

She, along with Bethann Hardison, Iman and Naomi Campbell, will be paying close attention to the number of models of color on the runways in New York this fall. In the meantime, she is working on a biography for Simon & Schuster, shopping around a docu-series, “Beverly Inc.,” selling her signature hair extensions online, branching out into handbags and mineral-based makeup and planning for her wedding next year to investment banker Brian Maillian. A 10 handicap golfer, Johnson was honored with the True Original Golf award at the Original Tee Golf Classic this weekend.

— ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

STREET ARTIST SUES AMERICAN EAGLE: Miami street artist David Anasagasti filed a lawsuit against American Eagle Outfitters Inc. for copyright infringement. Also known as AholSniffsGlue, the artist is recognized for his signature eyeballs as a backdrop motif for his art. He alleged in the complaint, filed in a Manhattan federal court last week, that his work appeared on the teen retailer’s Web site, social media advertising, on billboards and in in-store displays as part of the chain’s spring marketing campaign. He charged in court papers that the unauthorized infringement is not limited to the U.S. He cited in court documents a street-facing window display at an American Eagle store in Tokyo, as well as on a wall outside its store in Medellín, Colombia. That’s in addition to a billboard advertisement on Houston Street and Broadway in Manhattan. He claimed that the chain failed to credit him or compensate him for its use of the alleged infringing works.

Anasagasti is seeking actual damages, infringement-related profits and an injunction barring further use of the alleged infringed works of art. An American Eagle spokeswoman declined comment on the litigation. — VICKI M. YOUNG

GOOD CHEER: Day five of the Commonwealth Games taking place in Glasgow saw a royal turnout, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry cheering on athletes participating in boxing, gymnastics, swimming and women’s field hockey. The duchess donned a navy Zara blazer, skinny jeans and Stuart Weitzman wedges. The three royals were also ambassadors at the London 2012 games.

The Commonwealth Games take place every four years, with participants from across the Commonwealth nations engaging in a variety of sports.

— LORELEI MARFIL

THE ULTIMATE CROWD-PLEASER: Unlike Tate Taylor’s unflinching new biopic about James Brown, “Get On Up,” one of Brown’s sons, Daryl, portrays the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business” with more compassion in his book, “Inside the Godfather of Soul: Never Before Told Stories by James Brown.” Due out Thursday, the tome details the musician’s workaholic ways, running on three to five hours of sleep as needed. The elder Brown “came from past zero,” often reminding others that he grew up barefoot in a shack with a dirt floor, his son said.

Beverly Johnson

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IN PRINT AND ONLINE: SEPTEMBER 10 CLOSE DATE: AUGUST 27

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Source: The Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™ (www.CottonLifestyleMonitor.com)

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