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OUR TALENT, YOUR VALUE

Our staff and leadership team brings to the table over 250 years of combined industry and consulting experience, without a large firm infrastructure and cost model. Efficient, practical, effective advisory.

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Our leadership team represents the officers of the firm and set our partnering, client management, and service offering development strategy across all practice and service areas.

* William Newman  -  Managing Principal & Founder

* Bill Rudiak    -  Senior Principal

PRINCIPALS

Each principal is aligned to one or more practice areas, with a specific area of focus based on service, industry sector, or specialty.  Our staff are assigned to client engagements based on need, fit, availability and timing under the leadership of a principal who is responsible for overall engagement management and client satisfaction.

* Matt DeBenedetti  Principal – Digital Content Strategy, Strategy Management, Technology

* Cindy Jennings  Principal – Sustainability Management, Operations, Strategy Management

* James Munson  Principal – Program Design and Oversight, GRC, EPM, Technology

* Jay Giannantonio  Principal – Technology, EPM, GRC, Program Design and Oversight, Cloud Operations Readiness

* Joseph Stockemer  Principal – Operations, Sustainability Management, Strategy Management, Market Growth & Entry

STAFF

Members of staff work under the direction of one or more principals based on client, industry segment, and service area.  Staff may range from entry-level Business Analysts and Associates, to Managers and Senior Managers responsible for the execution of small to medium-sized assignments or major workstreams as part of more comprehensive engagements.  Our more senior members of staff are provided here.

* Vicki Bible  Senior Manager – Technology, Operations, Program Design and Oversight

* Jenny Zink Senior  Manager – Market Growth & Entry, Strategy Management, Digital Content Strategy

INFLUENCERS

Our firm maintains a number of key industry, media and business relationships some of which have developed through direct work with our principals who then move on to other pursuits. Influencers share an interest in the success of the firm and position our services in one or more areas of subject matter expertise and industry segments.

* Dave Meyer  Influencer – Sustainability Management, Operations, Strategy

WHEN CARA DELEVINGNE stepped onto the runway at Chanel’s fall 2014 show last March, she looked as if she might be heading home from a Pilates session. The British model was dressed in a Pepto-pink, ab-baring top and matching leggings with bright running shoes and a tossed-on, elegant tweed coat as she strolled around a set made to look like a giant supermarket.

Some 70 looks followed – all variations on a sporty-stylish theme, all in the haute-banal environs of Chanel’s mock Supermarché. A master of social commentary, Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld seemed to have dreamed up his own version of something that’s happening right now on the streets and in actual grocery stores. To wit: a merger of two apparel categories – activewear and ready-to-wear – that have often intersected but have rarely been quite so interwoven.

Evidence of the phenomenon is everywhere you look. Nike Frees and Stan Smithsare the footwear of choice for women from London to Los Angeles, who pair sneakers as often with their Lululemons as with more refined pieces in their closets. Collaborations have popped up like beads of sweat in spin class: this spring, Nike teamed up with Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci, and Adidas has recently worked with everyone from London designer Mary Katrantzou to stylish pop stars Rita Ora and Pharrell Williams. Fashion-conscious British active brand Sweaty Betty is in expansion mode with a third U.S. shop in the works. And un-sporty brands, like Tory Burch, have active collections in the works.

One of the biggest developments is next week’s debut of Net-A-Sporter, a new destination on luxury e-commerce site Net-A-Porter that will focus exclusively on all things active. It will launch on July 9 with 16 brands – including traditional ones like Nike and a number of new names – outfitting women for 11 activities, including yoga, tennis, spinning and running. “We found that there was a bit of a gap in our offering for someone who loves fashion and exercise and wants to look great doing it,” said Net-A-Porter President Alison Loehnis. “She shouldn’t be in any way shortchanged when it comes to exercise and looking great.”

Appropriately, the senior buyer charged with curating N-A-S’s mix of merchandise, Candice Fragis, is both a yoga enthusiast and devout fashionista. She’s focused on finding fitness gear made for both sweating and socializing. Lucky for her, a crop of newish labels fit the bill – Laain, Weargrace, Monreal, Bodyism and Lucas Hugh, to name a few – all of which Ms. Fragis snapped up. These brands use Italian fabrics, borrow inspiration from luxury designers and are yet more evidence of fashion and sport’s special new relationship. “The great thing with these labels is you can have a bit of everything: style and performance,” said Ms. Fragis. “We’re all going to the office, going to yoga or running home so our clothing has to fit together a little more now.”

That’s exactly why New York fashion publicist Robyn Berkley, who sees traditional activewear as “outdated,” created her label Live the Process, which launched in February at Barneys and will soon be sold on N-A-S. “It’s more about lifestyle. Activewear is just part of the picture.” she said. “My friends who used to go have drinks, now do Soul Cycle classes together instead. It’s about what to wear during these social engagements.” She describes her label as “Alaïa for activewear,” which translates to body-sculpting pieces in matte spandex like a color-blocked crop top with matching leggings or a dusty pink-and-floral leotard that could tuck nicely into a pair of faded jeans and hit the street.

If there’s a through-line for this new active genre, it’s that most brands are created by women with a professional background in fashion, who launched collections in response to a need in their own lives. Take Karen Joyce, founder of the serenely stylish yoga line Weargrace. Ms. Joyce, who worked first as an art director and later as an image director for Tom Ford at the Gucci Group for 15 years, began her label in 2012 after ditching corporate life to study yoga in India and Bali. “You don’t have to look like a jock to practice yoga, but you also don’t have to look like you’re fresh off the plane from Goa wearing ethnic hippie gear,” she said of Weargrace’s ethos.

Tamara Rothstein and Sheila McKain-Waid, the co-creative directors of London-based label Laain (the name is a combination of both women’s first, middle and last names), met while working in the design department of British brand, Daks. They refer to themselves as “mums on the run,” and have made pieces like denim-style jersey bike shorts (a best-seller) and a sleeveless, double-faced wool hoodie that would layer nicely under a blazer, to make their lives easier. “We built the line around our manic lifestyles,” said Ms. McKain-Waid. “We do school drop-off, we do a yoga class, we go straight to a meeting.” (The fact that both hold other jobs only makes things more manic: Ms. McKain-Waid is creative director for British heritage brand Jaeger and Ms. Rothstein still consults for major fashion brands.)

Pieces like Laain’s hoodie fit into one of N-A-S’s newly coined categories: après-sport. Those are the items you’re not necessarily sweating in but that help your performance gear gracefully make the transition to the world beyond the exercise studio. Ms. Fragis praised Laain, describing it as “if Jil Sander were to do activewear.”

Also to be carried on N-A-S is Adidas by Stella McCartney, a decadelong partnership which is certainly the pioneer of this group. The collaboration is still going strong: Earlier this year, a free-standing Adidas by Stella McCartney store opened in Miami, joining a London outpost which opened in 2012.

Clearly, there’s a need to be met. Then again, this trend isn’t just about need, it’s also about desire. As swimwear designer Lisa Marie Fernandez put it: “No one gets excited to go buy a pair of leggings. It’s not like a new shoe.” Ms. Fernandez hopes to change that with her collection, which launches exclusively on N-A-S in a couple months. The 12-piece offering, made in brushed microfiber, stretch jersey and neoprene, is designed with her favorite workout studios, like Ballet Beautiful, in mind. Each is named after a friend (e.g., a wrap top called “the Dree” after model Dree Hemingway). Added Ms. Fernandez, “The idea is to look like you’re not exercising.”

This project is led by artist Koutaro Ooyama and photographer Joji Shimamoto. Through the project, the two aim to make good use of buildings that are to be demolished and provide opportunities for young artists to present their works to a public audience.

The upcoming event will introduce the works of over fifty artists including DRAGON76, FRANKIE CIHI, RYUICHI OGINO, SHOGO IWAKIRI, SD duet with NUKEME, MICHINORI MARU, KLEPTOMANIAC and Tsuyoshi Nigamushi. The artworks will use all nine floors of the building as forms of expression.

Reservation is required in order to view the exhibit. A link is available on the official website. Further details will be provided upon reservation. A reception is also planned for Aug 31.

Koutaro Ooyama, a graduate of Kyoto City Univ. of Arts, presents live paintings, installations including wall paintings and canvas paintings. Inspired from Native Japanese Ainu and Native American Haida, he creates artworks using ethnic designs and colorful patterns of ancient temples.

Joji Shimamoto is a graduate of Academy of Art Univ. School of Photography. He planned and held a number of photo exhibits while he was in the USA. After coming back to Japan in 2008, he held a photo exhibit at The Artcomplex Center of Tokyo in Shinjuku. In 2009, he was selected as one of “Japanese Photographers 100” that was issued as a separate volume of “STUDIO VOICE.” Recently, he held photo exhibits at Laforet Harajuku and BLUE NOTE TOKYO.

Ae'lkemi showed 25 exquisite outfits as part of a new couture collection created especially for the opening night, International Runway - Beyond Imagination.

"The collection is partly inspired by Venetian Gothic architecture," Fernandez explained after the show, the first to be held at the festival's new Fashion Paramount venue at the Perth Concert Hall.

"I liked the idea of the contrast between structure and fluidity and also having a lot of different textures in an all-white dress, for example."

Many dresses featured intricate hand-finished French beading and experiments with laser-cut leather, a first for the Ae'lkemi brand.

"We still wanted to stay pretty true to our signature, which is elegant, nipped in at the waist, skimming the hips," Fernandez said.

"There's a lot of detail in there, but we also wanted some palate-cleansers, some simpler pieces before you go into the more in-your-face red carpet pieces of the finale."

Fernandez said the presence of delegates from the Asian Couture Federation and Singapore's FIDe Fashion Weeks was a valuable opportunity to showcase his work to a wider international audience.

"This is a valuable market that we really want to tap into," he said.

"For us to show the rest of the world what we can do is always a plus, and being given opening honours was huge for us."

Watching all the glamour from the front row were celebrities Dannii Minogue - flying the flag for WA design in an Aurelio Costarella outfit - Kate Waterhouse, Matthew and Lauren Pavlich, Coterie group member Emma Milner and international fashion blogger Diane Pernet.

Premier Colin Barnett, Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi and Asian Couture Federation chairman Frank Cintamani were among the dignitaries welcoming guests to the week-long festival.

Michael Cinco, who is based in Dubai but was born in the Philippines, has dressed the likes of Sofia Vergara, Beyonce and Rihanna, while Indonesian designer Sebastian Gunawan has built up a loyal fashion following throughout south-east Asia.

Both designers featured detailed beading, embroidery, sequins and lace-work.

Tonight Flannel designer Kristy Lawrence will premiere her summer collection in Perth for the first time, while Morrison and One Fell Swoop will share the runway with cult New Zealand labels Zambesi and Nom*D at the 3300 Miles Apart show.

SMALL IN JAPAN: While all eyes are still on Europe, Japan’s capital is gearing up for its own fashion week, scheduled to take place during the third week of October.

At a press conference on Thursday, organizers released the official show schedule, as well as details on some related events. This season, there will be few newcomers participating in the shows, and even fewer international brands.

The week is to open with Hanae Mori, a Japanese brand steeped in history that will be re-launching with a new designer. As reported, Henry Holland will also be in town to show his spring House of Holland collection.

A handful of brands that are normally on the top of editors’ lists to see are downsizing from a runway show to an installation this season. These include Somarta, Yasutoshi Ezumi and Motonari Ono.

Versus Tokyo, a related event that is open to the public and consists of both fashion shows and music events lasting through the night, will also be returning this season. Brands that will show during Versus include Mr. Gentleman, Facetasm and Toga Virilis, the men’s line of Toga.

Buyers whose trips to Japan Fashion Week will be sponsored by the Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO, include representatives from Galeries Lafayette, Surrender and Front Row in Singapore, Heavy Selection in Thailand, and Brooklyn-based Bird. For the second season in a row, Nick Wooster will also be in town for the week’s festivities.

On a gray spring morning in Paris, behind the facade of an 18th century building on the Place Vendome, a flying insect has somehow made its way through an arched doorway, past a limestone courtyard and into the headquarters of Comme des Garcons International, where it is now buzzing around the head of Chief Executive Officer Adrian Joffe.

Not for long.

As Joffe sits at a glass table in his office, calmly discussing the relationship between artistic integrity and profit, he suddenly raises his right arm and executes a rapid swatting motion reminiscent of an Andy Roddick first serve. In a split second, the fly is gone and Joffe continues speaking, making no acknowledgment of the interruption aside from a barely perceptible grin.

To those who aren’t familiar with Joffe -- a seemingly mild-mannered executive with a background in Zen Buddhism and linguistics -- this matter-of-fact extermination of another living being might seem surprising. But as Bloomberg Pursuits magazine reports in its Autumn 2014 issue, those who know him well would recognize one of his most-marked qualities: not a killer instinct exactly but, rather, a clean efficiency, a knack for swiftly removing distractions so as to focus on what’s important.

Innovative Brand

Comme des Garcons, founded in Tokyo 45 years ago by the reclusive designer Rei Kawakubo -- Joffe’s wife since 1992 -- is perhaps the most enduringly innovative fashionbrand of modern times. From the start, Kawakubo’s goal has been to rise above market forces to freely create new things, be they jackets with three sleeves or androgynous, abstract garments that upend standard notions of clothing, gender and beauty.

Despite its renegade bona fides, Comme, as its devotees call it, is also a business, and it’s up to Joffe to help keep it profitable. At a time when the art-commerce balancing act is a daunting challenge for many creative companies, Joffe, who has no formal training in either art or commerce, has become an unlikely master of juggling both. His ideas often seem uncopyable -- until they’re widely copied. Such was the case with Comme’s guerrilla stores, one-off, limited-run boutiques that served as the prototypes for today’s ubiquitous pop-up shops.

Creativity

Pharrell Williams -- whose new unisex scent with Comme puts him in an esteemed club of fragrance collaborators that includes the design firm Artek and London’s Serpentine Gallery -- says that creativity remains Joffe’s top priority, with commerce running a very close second.

“Money doesn’t make ideas; ideas make money,” Williams observes. He describes Comme des Garcons as a kind of brilliant biosphere, with Joffe as the curator who gives Kawakubo’s creations their essential context. “If Comme is like a snow globe, Adrian is the water,” Williams says.

Joffe certainly doesn’t fit the standard profile of a 61-year-old CEO -- and not just because he dresses in head-to-toe black, often with a pair of graffitied Doc Martens on his feet. The shoes are a limited-edition Comme collaboration adorned with slogans by his wife, including, significantly, “My energy comes from my freedom.”

One of Joffe’s many tasks at the company is to act as interpreter and gatekeeper for the resolutely private Kawakubo, who speaks little English and shows no interest in making herself understood to the outside world.

“That’s the worst part of my job,” Joffe says. “It’s hard to explain her, and I don’t really want to. But I am somewhat of a realist, and for business, you have to try.” Continue reading...

Though it’s up in the 90s out here on the farm, there’s no sign of anyone wilting or complaining. Hanging in the shade of the location truck, they’re behaving true to peer-group form—being sociable, joking, keeping one another going. They’re happy to be here, this hardy crop. They’re the anti-divas, the grounded ones. The children of the crash.

Their background stories could make an economist’s mind boggle. All eight began slap-bang in the carnage of the global financial crisis, sending out their delicious micro-varieties of clothes—colorful, individualistic, well made, and expertly targeted things—into a fashion world that had turned dull and conservative. “What happened with our generation?” Altuzarra is trying to explain how things went right. “We really had to sell those clothes. Because we’ve built these brands during a recession, there is a pragmatic approach to clothing. You have to be unique—be your own brand.”

It’s been less a style movement than a careful infiltration by fresh, creative, business-sensible minds coming from behind the scenes and out of cupboard-size studios in New York, London, Paris, and Rome. Altuzzara vividly remembers starting up in his Manhattan apartment in 2008. “I was at Givenchy, and I thought that if I wasn’t going to do it then, well, when? We opened selling the day after the market crash. Which”—he laughs—“was awesome.”

A fearlessness came into it. Vaccarello says he didn’t feel a moment’s angst when he left Fendi and gambled his livelihood on a tiny collection of five jackets and five swimsuits in Paris in 2009. “It was the perfect time!” he insists. “I’d saved up—I never wanted to borrow from a bank like designers did before—and I knew my customers were waiting.”

What counted vitally was a laser-like instinct for knowing whom you’re speaking to—whether that means Vaccarello and his talent for sexily sliced tailoring or someone like Sherman, his polar opposite, who started her career with Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen as the perfectionist designer of T-shirts at The Row. “Everything I do has to be quite functional and have an integrity and honesty,” she says. A fabric geek, Sherman took a route behind the scenes, where she learned to work closely with local factories, and then to Asia with Alexander Wang. (“I was his twelfth employee!” she boasts.) She’s now quickly upgrading Edun to a polished designer level for New York Fashion Week while building the collection’s ethical production to 85 percent–made in Africa status.

Now aged between 28 (Rocha) and 37 (Pilotto), these crash babies have become adult professionals attracting all kinds of fashion attention amid an upsurge of sponsorship, mentorship, and prizes that arrived to support young designers in the mid-2000s. Altuzarra benefited from winning the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in New York; Peter Pilotto, Anderson, and Rocha from London’s NEWGEN sponsorship; Peter Pilotto, meanwhile, also won the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund in London. In France, Vaccarello took both the Hyères prize and the Paris ANDAM prize, and in Italy, de Vincenzo emerged through Italian Vogue’s Who Is On Next? competition. It’s made them all much more open to building relationships than the designers who went before. As independents, they’ve been meshed into the culture of publicity-generating collaborations—most recently, Anthony Vaccarello x Versus Versace; J Brand x Simone Rocha; Altuzarra for Target. With Instagram and Web video, they’ve moved even faster.

Rocha, with her sweet-but-tomboyish dresses and Lucite-heeled brogues, and Peter Pilotto, with its mesmerically textural colors, have quietly gathered customers from across the globe—a far cry from the fate of London’s lone-wolf indie designers in the nineties. They get out and travel, learning to calibrate their collections for different climates and cultures—and they’ll never boast about just how successful they have been. Pilotto practically has to have his arm twisted before he admits, “Well, we sell to 200 stores on six continents. There’s only one we don’t sell to—Antarctica!”

This serious, savvy generation has even transformed the attitudes of major luxury-fashion conglomerates, which are suddenly in a flurry of competition to sign them up. Altuzarra is in expansion mode, designing in a renovated office after negotiating a minority investment from France’s Kering group. “Having a partner like Kering, who are able to fold you into their manufacturing capabilities, is something that makes a huge difference,” he says. Anderson, with a new minority investment from LVMH, has moved out of the unheated basement in Shacklewell Lane where he and his stylist Benjamin Bruno froze in the winters; now he’s in a three-story building with an e-commerce studio. In Rome, de Vincenzo is turning out his beautifully elaborate, streamlined clothes with a different kind of LVMH backing: He’d worked as a highly rated Fendi bag designer for ten years before telling the company he was desperate to start his own collection of clothes. “Silvia Fendi was brilliant,” de Vincenzo says. “She said I could stay and have my own studio. I think it is a unique arrangement.” LVMH, Fendi’s parent company, smartly got to keep its star bag designer—and to bet on his future in ready-to-wear on the Milan runway.

Now their talent and knowledge are beginning to be almost as highly valued by the fashion establishment as Premier League footballers are in sport. The analogy works for the 30-year-old Anderson: As he shoulders the dual responsibilities of managing his own brand and being creative director of Loewe, he talks about it in sporting terms. “My dad was an Irish national rugby player. He’s always drilling it into me: ‘It’s all about your team!’ ”

What’s really different about this generation, though, are the family, friends, and loyal stylists around them. “I like growing with the people who know me and support me,” says Vaccarello. Rocha’s mother, Odette, is her business partner. Anderson’s brother, Thomas, is his HR director. Altuzarra’s mother, Karen, is chairman of the board, and Altuzarra’s words stand for the whole group: “I believe in creating this like a family—one that has worked together from the beginning. To me, that’s a beautiful thing.” If there is a common denominator among all these disparate talents, the thing that has taken them all past survival to the point of flourishing, it is their normality, their loyalty. They’re rooted.

Suzy Menkes reports on designers proud to portray their national heritage in their clothes, including Huishan Zhang, Rahul Mishra, Leonard and Manish Arora.

Draped Indian saris, silken Mao jackets, and kimono coats used to be the preserve of old-style Parisian couturiers searching for a theme of the season.

But I am inspired by the idea that in this interconnected world, fine designers are emerging from across the globe. They yearn to show in Paris for the consecration of their dreams, but their strength is in the workmanship that they find in their home countries.

I have selected four designers whose influences derive from their homeland and whose design talents are open to the world.

Huishan Zhang

I had two opportunities to see Huishan Zhang’s work – and it only grew in importance the second time around.

I caught the end of the show presented in London as an English tea party. I was late, so I saw only the delicately embellished, after-dark dresses of a designer who has been travelling between his native Qingdao, China and the UK, where he studied at Central Saint Martin’s. He also did a stint working with Dior Haute Couture.

Rahul Mishra

It was the penultimate collection on the final day of the four-week marathon. But fashion can always come up with good karma. And Rahul Mishra’s collection touched me.

Here was what the designer called a “Ferryman’s Tale” as he recounted in streamlined but intensely decorated clothes a design journey to Japan and the inspiration of that country’s traditional artworks,  then back to his native India through multiple villages wherecraftsmen worked on hand embellishment. Then the final clothes winged their way across the world to land in stores from Paris to New York.

Leonard

Leonard is a French company known for flower prints, delicate and majestic. The orchid is its signature.

The house is marking 50 years of creativity with a celebration planned for Tokyo – one of several Asian countries where Leonard has a major following.

Daniel Tribouillard, who heads this family brand, has hired a variety of talents, but recently he decided to take on Yiqing Yin – a Chinese-born but Paris-raised designer who lives and built her fashion business in Paris.

Manish Arora

I have seen magnificent collections from Manish Arora both in his native India and in Paris.

I can conjure up the wild, theatrical, dizzyingly patterned, printed, and decorated creations from a designer for whom too much was never enough.

I also remember some of his India/Europe collaborations. In fact, I think he was the first designer to go crazy with colours and patterns on sneakers. It must have been soon after the turn of the millennium that I saw on a trip to Mumbai his Fish Fry Sportswear collaboration with Reebok, which was way ahead of the great footwear trend of the moment.

With the rise of fast fashion stores like Forever 21 and H&M, clothes and accessories are easier – and cheaper – to come by than ever. And while a pair of $10 jeans and an $8 necklace are hard to pass up, there’s also a dark side to production on such a mass scale – namely, making the fashion industry the third most polluting industry on earth after oil and agriculture.

That’s the likes of why Stella McCartney, G-Star RAW, Loomstate, Bionic Yarn and the manufacturer Saitex have joined forces with the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute to revolutionize the fashion industry through Fashion Positive, a new initiative aimed at accelerating innovation in high-quality materials, products and processes to improve how clothes are made across the industry.

The program helps fashion businesses in five categories of sustainability: material health, material reuse, renewable energy, water stewardship and social fairness.

At the initiative’s star-studded Second Annual Innovation Celebration Friday night, Lewis Perkins, senior vice president of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, said the program is helping industry leaders create the future of fashion.

“It’s really retooling what we’ve been doing for 150 years, since the industrial revolution” Perkins said. “Now we realize that energy is not cheap and water is not indefinite, and we really have to look at different systems.”

The initiative’s first goal is to create Fashion Positive’s Materials Library of ethical materials and suppliers that other companies can then use to create their own products. Perkins defined this ground-up approach as a “continuous improvement roadmap” for sustainability, which also happens to make money for those involved.

“There’s a big shift that’s occurring, the whole industry has awakened to the fact that it’s wasteful, there’s toxicity, low price points are driving human rights issues, wage issues,” Perkins said. “We have to do something, and the whole industry knows it.”

Investors like Schmidt Philanthropies and the DOEN Foundation are funding the initial challenges associated with finding sustainable souring materials, modernizing manufacturing equipment and ensuring worker safety and healthy work conditions. And, naturally, creating products that are appealing — and sellable – to consumers.

While the issues won’t be solved overnight, the program is hoping to have partnering brands and designers reach the Cradle to Cradle Certified GOLD-level standard by 2016. And what’s more fashionable than that?

PARIS — The jewelry designer Sara Beltrán owes part of her success to a Jaipur rickshaw taxi driver she met when on a business trip. From helping her find her house, to production and business contacts, he made the introductions. But a local connection can take you only so far. The Council of Fashion Designers of America is helping Ms. Beltrán develop her jet-set beach-vibe brand Dezso into a profitable global enterprise with its in-house incubator program.

The C.F.D.A., known for its charity fund-raising campaigns — particularly for HIV/AIDS research — and scholarships, introduced the incubator for emerging designers in 2009 as part of the initiatives of the mayor of New York at the time, Michael R. Bloomberg, to develop and retain entrepreneurs there.

The original proposal was to partner with the Fashion Institute of Technology, but Lisa Smilor, the council’s executive director, said she did not want to stake her organization’s reputation on students fresh out of school.

Instead, the C.F.D.A. set admission guidelines strictly to American designers who have established businesses at least two years old, and who have received notable press and orders from top-tier retailers. For its current class, the third generation, the council accepted 10 brands out of 35 applicants.

After starting their business with $8,000 of personal funds and growing 30 percent annually over five years, Farah Malik and Dana Arbib, the designers of the jewelry brand A Peace Treaty, hit a wall. They were looking for an opportunity. The designers, who produce in 10 countries, had organized communities of older artisans to train younger generations in order to revitalize dying craftsmanship techniques, such as camel bone carving in Rajasthan. Ms. Malik said the kind of mentoring they had fostered was missing for their own business.

Before the incubator, the C.F.D.A. already had a designer development program in partnership with Vogue magazine, which has been responsible for launching such designers as Rodarte, Proenza Schouler and Alexander Wang. However the organization’s proprietary incubator is more of a slow cooker for young brands rather than the fast-paced cutthroat competition of the C.F.D.A./Vogue Fashion Fund, which is filmed as a Project Runway-like reality show.

Ms. Smilor describes the incubator program as less marketing for the organization and more “nuts and bolts” of supporting emerging designers. “The concept was to create a space where we can help nurture designers,” she said.

After applying to the C.F.D.A./Vogue Fashion Fund and making it through the first round, the designers of A Peace Treaty ultimately decided it was not right for the brand. Ms. Malik said they decided to focus on a “sure shot that would be more lucrative.” A friend and incubator designer Jonathan Simkhai suggested they apply to the two-year program.

The C.F.D.A. underwrites half the cost of a studio in a collective workspace in the heart of New York’s garment district, which Ms. Malik likens to being on a school campus. Before moving into their studio at the incubator, she said, the designers were “isolated” in their Midtown Manhattan office.

 “The excitement and creativity buzzes with us all there,” Ms. Malik said. “It’s nice to know we’re all struggling with the same business issues. That kind of sharing is really reassuring. We crack a lot of codes together.”

Ms. Smilor said that for 10 brands competing for the same investment dollars and editorial attention, the incubator is more of a community than a competition for the fellows. “They really are all for one and one for all,” she said.

In the first part of the two-year program, designers selected for the incubator get an intensive eight-month business finance and marketing education as part of the C.F.D.A.'s partnership with Stern School of Business at New York University. Because the designers have established businesses, their brands also act as a case study project for the M.B.A. students, who work with the designers to develop business plans that include e-commerce and finance strategies.

Having the tough love of aspiring business sharks pick apart and critique her business was sometimes uncomfortable for Ms. Malik. “We’ve been very proud about building our business ourselves from the ground up,” she said. “Sometimes it felt too big and I had to negotiate my feelings around the program. But it was the best treatment we could have gotten.”

Beyond the textbook education of running a business, Ms. Beltrán said the value of the incubator for her was also the introduction of work discipline. “I was dying to have routine,” she said in Paris during the recent fashion season. “I needed to have a more formal business structure.”

Integrating the M.B.A. students and designers has a marked effect on the designers’ language when they talk about their lines now. Ms. Malik refers to her brand’s “DNA” when discussing A Peace Treaty’s identity, which she describes as “global ethnic modern for the contemporary girl.” Ms. Beltrán also uses the same term when talking about Dezso’s look.

Before joining the incubator, Ms. Beltrán knew her company from every angle, but talking about it in a business pitch was stressful for her. That new business language also prepares the designers to present themselves and their brands to potential investors and executives, such as in a recent presentation to Pierre-Yves Roussel, chief executive of LVMH Fashion Group.

Throughout their residency, industry executives are assigned to incubator fellows as mentors to help them identify personal challenges and guide them in developing their businesses.

Shira Sue Carmi, a fashion business consultant, is acting as a mentor and helping Ms. Beltrán streamline Dezso and transition the brand from a casual summer line, which in early designs used materials like leather and sharks’ teeth cast in rose gold, to the high-end luxury market. Mexican bracelets from her first collection retail starting at about $100, and more recent pieces with semi-precious stones retail for up to $95,000.

The C.F.D.A. not only wants to elevate designers’ business operations while in the incubator, but also foster their creativity to continue developing their lines. Through partnerships, designers are granted allowances for travel and funding for business projects. Ms. Beltrán, for example, will shoot a video lookbook in Puerto Rico. A Peace Treaty will travel to Colombia for inspiration for their coming collections.

As the C.F.D.A. prepares to start taking applications in spring for the next generation, Ms. Smilor said it was exploring the possibility of creating a showroom for the designers.

The business development and skills the designers receive in the incubator are fueling more than just their existing brands.

“The idea is that when I leave the incubator everything is under control so that I can take the next step,” Ms. Beltrán said. “But I cannot do just jewelry. My dream is to design a hotel.”

"As luxury and retail is an extremely competitive space, it’s important for brands to continuously innovate in order to keep their relevancy,” says Dalia Strum, a digital strategist and instructor at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “Online shopping is on the rise and brick and mortar locations need to provide a value-add for potential consumers. These installations have proven to continuously draw attention and traffic due to their quick turnover.”

Merging fashion and art in the department store isn’t an entirely new phenomenon; retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys in New York have historically collaborated with artists on their window displays during the holidays, says Georgie Stout, founding partner and creative director of New York-based design consultancy 2x4. Selfridges is treading lightly into the New Year with its January street window takeover termed “Bright Old Things,” which spotlights an eclectic mix of well-known and under-the-radar artists, from an architect-turned-topiarist, to a punk musician/artist, and a furniture designer, all ranging in age from 40 to 80+.

Luxe retailer Bergdorf Goodman, meanwhile, has taken to elevating fashion as art in its legendary Fifth Avenue store windows all year long, starting this past May with a celebration of the Costume Institute’s Charles James exhibit. Bergdorf’s enlisted contemporary designers such as Ralph Rucci, Mary Katrantzou and Rodarte to put their own spin on James’ structured creations; those one-of-a-kind pieces, surrounded by historical references to the couturier’s work, could be purchased directly from the windows. In September, Bergdorf’s partnered with Sotheby’s to preview the auction house’s Contemporary Art Sale and created gallery-esque windows featuring works by the likes of Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Dan Flavin, serving as a backdrop to showcase the store’s fall fashion. Even Bergdorf’s recent holiday windows highlight art in all its forms, from architecture, to sculpture, painting and dance.

“Department stores have been transforming themselves from a merchandise-driven environment to an experiential setting of lifestyle goods, epicurean offerings and even services,” says Tom Julian, one of the directors of New York-based The Doneger Group, a retail and merchandising consulting firm. “Art can allow a traditional retailer to become more historical, more cultural, an edgy retailer can be more directional, and an emerging retailer can be seen as an innovator, all thanks to the art theme.”

Those experiences are progressively making the leap beyond the window display and inside – or, in the case of Selfridges’ Rick Owens exhibit – outside, the department store environment. In May, London’s Harrod’s department store presented the “Pradasphere,” an in-store exhibit taking up a wide expanse of store real estate on the fourth floor, tracing the Italian design house’s inspirations ranging from art, architecture and film. Iconic looks from the past 100 years were housed in glass cases, and a Prada-inspired café was created in which to ponder the brand’s intellectual approach to fashion. “Creating social spaces inside of retail, where the public can engage with a brand at a more intellectual level, and connect artists and other collaborators work to the fashion brand as well,” says Stout. Continue reading…

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The 7,800-square-foot flagship, located on Chuo Street, is the first free-standing Michael Kors store to carry menswear items.

The store's interior will utilize Kors' classic "jet set glamour" theme, which includes white marble flooring, zebra-skin accents, stainless steel fixtures and Macassar wood.

"Japan is a key market for our continued development in Asia," John Idol, chairman and CEO of the brand, said in a brand statement, according to Luxury Daily.

"The importance of Tokyo to luxury and fashion retailing makes this the right place and time to open our first store showcasing every facet of the Michael Kors brand. We look forward to offering the full breadth of our product assortment, presented with our signature glamour, chic and superlative service, to our Japanese customers and tourists traveling to Tokyo," Idol added.

Michael Kors already has many stores within Tokyo but this new location is in a prime shopping area, which will reach both residents and tourists.

The first floor includes large windows surrounded by Bianco Dolomiti marble and will offer handbags, accessories, watches, jewelry and eyewear; while a lower level will offer men's attire and accessories.

According to Luxury Daily, a video screen covers both the second and third stories.

Both Michael Kors Collection and Michael Michael Kors women's ready-to-wear will be housed on the third floor, along with a large shoe range.

In related news, Kors was named the 2014 Most Searched For Fashion Designer By Bing. The designer placed second on 2013's chart — he was beat by Victoria Beckham. She did not make the list at all this year, according to WWD.