Christian Louboutin & Yves Saint Laurent; Fight OVER!

A Manhattan federal district court entered a final order Thursday confirming that Christian Louboutin has no further claims against Yves Saint Laurent over red monochrome shoes and dismissing the lawsuit.

After 18 months of wrangling, a New York federal appeals court in September backed the validity of Louboutin’s red-sole trademark but said the French shoemaker would only be able to protect its mark when it comes to red-soled shoes with contrasting uppers. That decision gave YSL the right to continue selling its monochrome red pump. Louboutin first sued YSL in April 2011. As the case moved back to a New York federal district court for further evaluation of YSL’s counterclaims, YSL a month later dropped its claims against Louboutin. Thursday’s court order merely confirms closure of the litigation between the parties.
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J. Crew's CEO Responds to New York Times' Op-ed

Listen; I agree with Mickey...There is so much going on in the world that NY Times felt it was "fit to print" a customer complaint.
 J. Crew Group chairman and chief executive officer Millard “Mickey” Drexler wasted little time in responding to Delia Ephron’s Dec. 23 op-ed piece in The New York Times that castigated J. Crew for a botched online gift order (wrong merchandise sent to the wrong people and places, no gift-wrapping, cards “buried deep in the packaging”), and asserted the shift to holiday e-commerce has made seasonal gift-giving “as mundane and problematic as all our Web purchases, which in my family include paper towels and toilet paper.”
Bemoaning “intimacy replaced by expedience,” Ephron has resolved to never order Christmas presents online again.


M. Drexler - CEO J.Crew















Drexler’s response, published Thursday, expressed surprise “that a customer complaint was elevated to an indictment of online retailing,” which, he argued, “offers convenience, saves time, adds value and provides access to goods and services that might otherwise be difficult to obtain.”
J. Crew has shipped more than a million packages worldwide since Thanksgiving, the ceo noted, and Ephron’s experience, however unfortunate, “is hardly the norm.
“We certainly acknowledge that what is warranted in this situation is a sincere apology, but not a generalized defamation of an efficient and valuable way of shopping today,” Drexler concluded.
GO MIKEY!!!!

source: WWD

Luxury: Too Much Of A Good Thing?

For the past few years, we’ve been hearing lots about the burgeoning luxury market and how strong sales have been for luxury brands, despite the recession ($40,000 backpacks, anyone?). Only now, according to analysts, have those numbers begun to wane for certain labels.
Brands like Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Burberry all reported slow growth this quarter compared with years passed, in addition to seeing stocks fall this year.
But, why? According to a new report in the Financial Times, it’s because of an increasingly important factor in a luxury brand’s success: ubiquity.
Ubiquity is “the new buzzword for luxury” and, having too much of it is now “a major concern” for luxury brands, according to an HSBC analyst.

Perhaps the strongest example of a luxury brand that may be suffering from too much ubiquity is Burberry–a brand that has been heralded for its strong, clear brand message; outstanding social media presence; and success in attracting customers overseas.
But could those same characteristics now be hurting the British heritage brand? Burberry issued a profit warning in September after years of record-breaking sales.
Like most luxury brands, Burberry has been focusing on growing its Chinese customer base by opening stores and staging events, potentially at the cost of other, more discerning customers. “The need to reach new consumers is beginning to conflict with the perception among those consumers of what constitutes luxury,” writes Scheherazade Daneshkhu.



Other qualities contributing to ubiquity: retail availability, number of diffusion lines, and exclusivity by cost and product assortment.
Don’t pull out your investments just yet. Some brands are still doing fine. Hermes, for instance, remains the most exclusive of exclusive luxury brands and their sales and profitability targets have increased this year.
So what can brands do now to curb their ubiquity? According to the Financial Times, Vuitton is already making an effort by slowing Chinese expansion in favor of making their existing stores even more luxurious with VIP rooms and personalization. “You need the very unique pieces, not just logo,” said PPR CEO Francois-Henri Pinault, who may soon be investing in a new luxury brand.
It seems safe to say that in coming seasons, luxury consumers can expect more personal attention and expensive, limited-edition items. It will also be interesting to see if and how much these companies will be willing to slow down Chinese expansion, when the Chinese have just recently officially become the largest consumers of luxury goods in the world.
In addition to customers becoming increasingly discerning, perhaps this all goes back to the age-old idiom that we all just want what we can’t have.