The Swedish executive said the group spent 353 million euros of its budget in the first half, and saw its market share rise by 0.3%.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings fell 52% on weak sales and discounting, and the Pittsburgh, Pa., teen apparel retailer offered a disappointing forecast.

Fashionistas offered the coveted label of "favorite jean" to a series of smaller denim design brands, such as True Religion and Citizens of Humanity, and midmarket clothing stores, with their one-shape-fits-all patterns, lost hold. The design team at Gap, a 40-year-old brand founded on denim, spent the past 18 months overhauling its lineup, according to Patrick Robinson, executive vice president of design for Gap adult and Gap body.

The company operates about 500 mall-based stores in a crowded "fast fashion" segment, selling inexpensive trendy teenage girl's clothing and competing with the likes of Forever 21 and H&M. The chain has struggled and in November installed new management to help turn it around.

[...] -- "after several hours of frantic research," Ms. Kerr says -- someone found a small item on a British online Web site that said Ms. Moss was a fan of a designer named Clare Tough. The duo also produces how-to-get-that-look videos called WhoWhatWear TV which air on their site and on iTunes. (iTunes selected the videos for its Best Videos of 2008 list, placing Ms. Kerr and Ms. Power among 23 other Web video producers including Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey.) Their first book, Who What Wear:

AnnTaylor Stores Corp. swung to a fiscal second-quarter loss from a year-earlier profit on sharp sales declines at its namesake brand, as the company pinned hopes for a recovery on new fall fashions.

Sears shares tumbled 12%, or $8.76, to $65 in 4 p.m. trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market as analysts surmised that the previous quarter's $26 million profit, achieved largely due to aggressive cost cuts, may have been an anomaly.

Among other clothiers reporting earnings Thursday, teen retailer Buckle said its fiscal second-quarter profit rose 12% on continued revenue and margin growth, though sales momentum is slowing.

The advertising and public relations firm had a business-casual dress code, but now for networking meetings, Mr. Guarini says he generally wears business suits, even with people with whom he is long acquainted. Amy Friedman, chief executive of Partners in Human Resources International, got an emergency call to help a recently fired senior marketing executive at a big media company.

More than 90% of respondents, including 88% of women and 93% of men, said they wait for clothes to wear out before they throw them out. [...] 59% of respondents said they were holding on to clothes longer now that the economy is hurting. Why in the world would people throw clothes away before they wear out? I talked to some marketing professors, and they said it could be linked to the same reasons some people are early adapters of fashion or new technology or new car models. "Clothes don't have that much meaning for them," says Ronald Goldsmith of Florida State University.

Saks Inc.'s fiscal second-quarter loss widened on lower margins as markdowns continued to take a toll, but the luxury retailer's loss was much better than expected, aided by strong expense management, while sales slid.

Major retailers reported that American consumers are continuing to hunker down, casting a cloud over the durability of the U.S. recovery and underscoring the importance of overseas demand in restoring the world economy to health. Discounter Target Corp. reported that sales at stores open at least a year were down 6.2% from a year earlier in the quarter ended Aug. 1, while luxury purveyor Saks Inc. reported a 15.5% drop in same-store sales over the past quarter as shoppers stuck to buying basics.

Target has cut costs by reducing staff, suspending salary increases for senior management, tightening credit-card underwriting and reducing planned store openings.

The decline, which also strips out currency fluctuations, compares with year-over-year drops of 5% and 9% for June and May, respectively, said H&M, the world's third-largest fashion chain by revenue behind U.S.-based Gap Inc. and Spain's Inditex SA. Total sales, which include sales in new stores, rose 7%, compared with a 4% increase in June and flat sales in May.

High-end fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Emporio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada are still buying ads in the glossy pages of Conde Nast's Vogue and W, Hachette Filipacchi's Elle, Time Warner's InStyle and Hearst's Harper's Bazaar. [...] that there are bigger screens on desks, hi-def, beautiful video in real time, iPhone apps that look beautiful, the aesthetics have gotten to a place they are interested in, says Drew Schutte, senior vice president and chief revenue officer for Conde Nast Digital, which is trying to boost the number of ad packages it sells that include both print ads and digital ads.

[...] moves, coupled with the company's high penetration of private-label merchandise, helped boost gross profit margins by a full percentage point, to 38.5% of sales.

"Consumer spending patterns domestically continue to be dictated by cost and value propositions, and this is clearly a headwind for our premium brands," Chief Executive Michael Jeffries said during a conference call.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offset sliding store sales with a tight squeeze on costs, enabling the giant discounter to keep profit for its fiscal second quarter essentially flat with a year earlier.

The New Albany, Ohio, company, which is expected Friday to report a quarterly loss of seven cents a share excluding charges, has refused to offer deep discounts, allowing lower-priced rivals such as Aeropostale Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. to build sales and finance attacks on Abercrombie's children's and young adults' sales.

Gross profit margins fell slightly, by 0.26 percentage point, on increased markdowns to clear seasonal items, the company said.

It has estimated it will spend up to $5.3 billion on foreign expansion projects in the fiscal year that began Feb. 1. [...] that figure doesn't include its splashiest new move, the acquisition of a controlling stake in Chile's largest grocery chain, Distribucion y Servicio D&S SA. Wal-Mart's international division already includes some 3,700 stores and provides nearly a quarter of the company's $401 billion in annual sales.

Macy's said it is seeing signs of strength in moderately-priced apparel, cosmetics and children's clothing, while sales of mattresses, furniture and handbags remained relatively weak.

The goal is to revive the now-comatose basic human urge to snap up lipstick, socks, neckties, designer gowns, jewelry, handbags and all the other goodies that people cut -- with a certain pride -- from their household budgets after the financial markets crashed last fall and the recession set in. Ten Judith Ripka stores around the U.S. will offer a free change of nail polish infused with diamond dust, and serve food and champagne while raffling off rings worth $700.

Recession Puts a Kink in Operation That Uses Locks to Soak Up Oil Spills --- Ms. Gautier's 'Hair Mats' Hit Production Snag; Donated Manes Languish in the Dining Room Mrs. Gautier, who founded Matter of Trust in 1998, began collecting donated hair in 2000 after she saw news reports about how the Galapagos Islands were having trouble cleaning up an oil spill.

Paul Fowler, Ben Sherman's group finance director, says discontinuing the manufacturing of its kidswear allows the brand to focus on its men's and women's lines.

[...] the recently divorced mother of two daughters (Leila, 5, and Molly, 6) is embarking on several new-media ventures, which include a weekly digital style magazine called VeronicaWebbStyle.com and work as spokeswoman for Voyage.tv, an online and television-on-demand luxury travel channel.

Target Corp., beset by declining sales in stores and online, said it plans to build its own retail Web site in time for the 2011 holiday season and will then end its relationship with e-commerce powerhouse Amazon.com Inc. Since 2001, Target has outsourced nearly all of its online operations to Amazon.

"Based on July data we would anticipate a rocky next few months for retailer performance," said Bryan Gildenberg, chief knowledge officer at retail consultants Management Ventures Inc. ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which measures traffic at shopping malls, on Thursday forecast a 5.9% decline in sales for August, the prime month for school-related purchases. Looking forward, some analysts fear the government's "cash for clunkers" rebate program, which is driving buyers to auto dealers with up to $4,500 trade-in allowances on new-car purchases, may siphon retail dollars.

Allenberg Cotton Co., the world's largest cotton trading company by volume and revenue, is in merger talks with rival Dunavant Enterprises Inc. amid a volatile global cotton market and tumultuous economic conditions.

Famed for its meticulous grading of wools, Loro Piana sells its fabric to high-end manufacturers, tailors and couturiers such as Brioni, Brooks Brothers and Maggie Norris -- makers who sell suits for $10,000 and are permitted to sew Loro Piana's scripted label onto their garments. At a time when virtually all Italian textile manufacturers are struggling with a global recession that has exacerbated competition, Loro Piana is trying to differentiate itself by playing up its image of quality and luxury.

The company is expanding operations in Asia, betting that the growing market in China will offset a slowdown in the U.S. Polo's sales at stores open at least a year, a key measure of retail health, fell 9% in the quarter, with a deeper decline at its full-priced boutiques.

A combination of healthy order levels for the collection and cost savings "allow reasonable optimism for the end of 2009 in respect of sales, profit and net indebtedness," said Chief Executive Gerolamo Caccia Dominioni.

Adidas -- one of the world's biggest sportswear companies and the maker of Adidas and Reebok shoes and TaylorMade golf equipment -- has been hit hard by the recession, as well as rising input costs and lower revenue from Russia as the ruble has fallen in value against the euro.

"Unless landlords start to realize the supply and demand balances, as our customers all around the world realize, we're not going to accelerate store openings because we don't want to work for the landlords," J. Crew Chief Executive Millard Drexler said on the company's most recent earnings conference call.

When Terry J. Lundgren became chief executive of Macy's Inc. five years ago, he set out to revitalize the 151-year-old retailer, and further reshape an industry that had undergone two decades of consolidation. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the 57-year-old retail executive said he is using the recession to remake Macy's again. What I was enthusiastic about was this whole term of "shovels in the ground," getting this in the hands of people who can work on infrastructure, build those things that need to be built anyway -- highways, transportation and the like, get people working.

Silesia - A lining fabric with a smooth face. Originally it was a plain-weave fabric but now 2/1 or 2/2 twill weaves are chiefly used. The fabric may be piece-dyed, color woven in stripes, or printed.

Quiz Answer – eccentric yarn

Quiz Question - What is a twill weave?

*(Daniels, PN and Denton, MJ, eds. Textile Terms and Definitions, 11th ed. Manchester, UK: The Textile Institute, 2002.)

"Perhaps I shouldn't have been influenced by the idea that my name could be spread across the entire world," the designer said, running his hand through his closely cropped hair before aiming a taut smile at his client. Christian Lacroix was to be the first and last time powerhouse LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A. would attempt to create a fashion house from scratch.

J.C. Penney Co. unveiled its first Manhattan store on Friday, marking a milestone in chief executive Myron E. Ullman III's five-year attempt to turn his company into a stylish alternative to the giant down the road, Macy's Inc. That giant also happens to be his old employer, where a takeover battle robbed him of the CEO job more than a decade ago. Specialty shops like Gap Inc., discount chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and traditional department stores are now all descending from different parts of the industry to lure the same shoppers.