Orange Hermes Birkin | Source: Hermes From shoes to handbags to ready-to-wear, the price of designer fashion has increased precipitously over the last decade. What's driving the rising prices? And how high can they go? It's easy to find a nice-looking pair of shoes for $40 these days, and even easier to find a trendy $40 dress. But while "fast fashion" prices are so light on the wallet they almost feel as though they’re going to disappear altogether, the cost of luxury goods continues to r

American Apparel has announced its first acquisition: New York City based Oak. Oak will operate as a separate division under the guidance of its founders and current top executives. The independent fashion boutique’s total sales are currently at circa 5 million dollars. “I’m excited by this because I saw an opportunity to build Oak without a lot of extra costs. They can leverage our manufacturing capabilities, our POS [point-of-sale] and RFID [radio frequency identification] systems, our warehou

In the month of July 2013, Uniqlo Japan same-store sales increased by 5.5 percent year-on-year while sales at company's own stores increased by 10.1 percent. Total sales including online sales increased by 10 percent. Same-store sales proved strong in July because of favourable seasonal weather and buoyant sales of summer garments.For the full year, Uniqlo opened 46 stores in Japan and closed 38. It has a total number of 834 stores at present. During the month of July, Uniqlo closed one store in

First e-commerce, now Zara Home. The ever-popular Spanish megabrand is certainly showing Canadians a lot of love as of late. Once the store we’d only ogle while on vacation in Europe, Zara’s home décor spinoff is now launching in North America with two Canadian locations. The first location, at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre will open on August 22 to coincide with an e-commerce launch on the same day at zarahome.com. The second, in Quebec’s Carrefour Laval, will open a week later on August 2

Beyonce for H&M | Source: H&M Budget fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz launched an e-commerce operation in the United States on Thursday, taking on rivals in the world's biggest online market. The launch is highly anticipated and follows successive delays. But retail experts say H&M may struggle to make the kind of profits from U.S. e-commerce enjoyed by pricier rivals. H&M has prospered in the United States without a big online presence and is mindful of the likely

For the second quarter of 2013 Steve Madden net sales increased 3.1 percent compared to the same period in 2012. Retail comparable store sales increased 2.5 percent. Gross margin expanded 110 basis points to 37.2 percent compared to 36.1 percent in the same period last year. Operating income was 15.3 percent of net sales compared with operating income which was 13 percent of net sales in the same period of 2012. Retail gross margin increased to 64.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013 compare

A new report by Mintel has revealed the UK's online retail boom is slowing down.While the growth rate is very much healthy, it has slowed down annually since 2008, when online sales grew exponentially by 50 percent, compared to 15 percent in 2012. Online retail sales growth in the UK slowed for the fourth year running, leaving retailers with a tougher fight to gain market share. Mintel, an online consumer and market insight group, said the UK's retail sector is still growing up to 14 percent a

Hugo Boss Spring/Summer 2013 Campaign | Source: Hugo Boss Hugo Boss AG reported second-quarter earnings that beat estimates, with the gross margin improving, after the German luxury-clothing maker opened more stores. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and one-time items rose to 101.8 million euros ($135 million) from 77.9 million euros a year earlier, the Metzingen-based company said in a statement today. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg wa

Rihanna | Source: Reuters Barbadian singer Rihanna on Wednesday won a legal case against British fashion chain Topshop over the use of her image on T-shirts it sold without her approval. High Court Judge Birss ruled in Rihanna’s favor following a four-day hearing earlier this month. In March last year Topshop, which is owned by billionaire Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, started selling a T-shirt with an image of Rihanna on it. The image was a photograph taken by an independent photogr

As online fashion sales expand, more large firms are committing investment to both websites and back-end logistics, while pure play e-tailers are launching new brands specifically for the online channel. JapanConsuming reports. Embellish | Source: Embellish.jp Online fashion sales in Japan are growing fast — so fast that it’s becoming hard to measure. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says total online apparel sales hit ?144 billion (about $1.5 billion at current exchange r