Batiste - A soft, fine, plain-woven fabric traditionaly of flax but made in other fibers.*

Quiz answer – One common use of a saturator is in textile bleaching.#

Quiz question – What is Defender M?

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

#(Choudhury, Asim Kumar Roy. Textile Preparation and Dyeing. Science Publishers, 2006)

Mr. Fisher's aggressive push for store growth, as well as international expansion, was a particular point of contention.

[...] she invited architect Rem Koolhaas to her show last season, creating no headlines whatsoever, but she declines to dress movie stars for the Oscars, which could sell a truckload of handbags. Yet family-owned Prada SpA has been hit by the economic downturn, which followed years of expansion in which the company amassed 537.5 million euros ($790 million) in debt while opening new stores in emerging luxury markets.

The retail chain's new chief executive, Karl-Johan Persson, said H&M, which is based in Sweden, is seeing more opportunities to expand around the world, including in the U.S. and Japan, as other retailers hit worse by the slowdown are forced to give up attractive store locations.

Learning to Ride When Chanel moves onto the estate of wealthy playboy Etienne Balsan, she decides to learn to ride a horse.

Ms. Li's company got a major boost after Mr. Buffett, chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., recently appeared in a Dayang promotional video, posted on the company's Web site. [...] unlike in the U.S., where leaders' clothing labels are major fashion news, details of the president's private life are off-limits to the Chinese media.

At Burberry, creative director Christopher Bailey took the label's classic trench coats, as well as a collection of dresses, skirts and tops, and pulled, knotted and looped the fabric into swirling layers that oozed luxury. A three-year, $6.9 million funding package from the London Development Agency has helped fund the British Fashion Council's efforts to raise the city's profile, which include a showroom in Paris and programs to support emerging designers.

The youth unemployment rate, which tracks 16- to 24-year-olds, reached 18.5% in July, the highest level for that month on record for the series, which began six decades ago, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

The survey results deal another blow to the retail job market, which has been hurting in the weak economy. Since the recession began officially in November 2007, the retail sector has lost 850,000 jobs, or about 6% of its workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Brent I. Kugman of Lake Forest, Ill.,-based Kugman Partners has been charged with winding down the Bellevue, Wash., company's bankruptcy proceedings, according to an order signed Monday by Judge Mary F. Walrath of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. He will help the the company, now known as EBHI Holdings Inc., engineer and implement a plan of liquidation and "assist in coordination of all activities necessary for the expeditious and efficient resolution of the debtors' bankruptcy cases," Eddie Bauer said in court papers.

Abbott's Xience stent leads the domestic market behind solid study data, and Medtronic has been working to improve modest sales for its Endeavor stent by highlighting the device's long-term safety profile.

Saturator – A machine for thoroughly wetting fabrics with an aqueous solution, or allowing interchange of liquor in wet-on-wet processing.*

Quiz answer – Spiral yarn.

Quiz question – What are some applications that would require the use a saturator?

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

After a mass exodus of high-profile design talent starting in the late 1990s, London is reaffirming its profile as the capital of young fashion creativity with a fresh crop of designers, who are taking advantage of the new support platforms. IMG, the entertainment company, and writer Colin McDowell launched Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden, a talent search and awards program.

Mr. Jacobs wore a white dress shirt, dark shorts falling below the knee, strappy sandals. Mr. de la Renta wore a dark suit, light-blue dress shirt with white collar and a tie of silver with a maroon tinge.

During the boom time, it was considered somewhat shameful to create a "commercial" collection that had practical elements (sleeves, for instance) that made them widely wearable. Now, many designers are creating more casual clothing known in the industry as "contemporary" with an emphasis on luxury-quality sportswear.

There sat Zac Posen, a designer known for youth and derring-do and starlet clients, in the front row of Oscar de la Renta's Park Avenue runway show on Wednesday in a dark suit and lavender cravat. Most men shy away from obvious attempts at trendy fashion, so the spattered ink-spot suits, which looked fabulous in women's wear, looked a little scary in a man's look.

Ms. Garcia usually starts her day wearing several layers of clothing: A typical outfit might be a beaded top, a leather jacket, a skirt and opaque tights.

Rodarte's Tattoo Theatrics From the theatrical smoke on the runways to the mud-painting tattoos drawn on the models' arms, and the ragged, gauzy, vegetable-toned cheesecloth that draped the models' bodies, Kate and Laura Mulleavy's world is tribal and apocalyptic. Dresses were made from cheesecloth, silk linen and ruched leather, some covered with cobwebs of wool, which also wrapped the models' hair.

The growth of celebrity lines has also been fueled by department stores' demand for unique products amid growing competition from specialty stores and cheap-chic chains like Zara and H&M. Star lines have been a fast way for retailers to generate buzz. In 2006, Mr. Timberlake and Mr. Ayala unveiled a full lifestyle collection at Los Angeles Fashion Week, with 45 looks -- a relatively large number -- including leather vests for men and sweater dresses for women, followed by a performance by Mr. Timberlake.

Neutral colors, rich textures, embroidery,and braided and tied belts, worn with a variety of outfits, were also standouts Monday.

Mr. Wu says he doesn't leave a lot of work up to design assistants. "[...] the piece goes on the runway, it's got my hands on it," he says.

After Clayton Evans, designer for Complexgeometries in Montreal, saw 16-year-old Camille Rushanaedy's blog postings of photos of a shredded T-shirt she had made, he was inspired to add distressed details to some of the line's androgynous casual clothing, he says. Fashion designers have long turned to women for style inspiration -- often actors, models, stylists or prominent socialites whom they refer to as muses in a nod to the Greek mythology inspiration for artistic endeavors.

Yoox SpA, the Italian e-commerce fashion company, Wednesday took the first step toward listing on the Milan stock market -- a rare success in an Italian fashion industry littered with bankrupt and cash-drained victims of the economic crisis.

Excluding items, such as restructuring charges and asset write-downs, the company's loss from continuing operations widened to 33 cents, from 17 cents.

New York Fashion Week, which kicks off Thursday, isn't a huge sales generator -- runway clothes generally account for only 10% to 20% of designer sales. The designers include the well-established, such as Mr. Mendel and Ms. Lepore, as well as some highly rated emerging newcomers like Brookelynn Starnes, the designer behind Cloak & Dagger, and Frank Tell, a youngster whose intricate constructions we're likely to see more of. --

Saks, left with too much unsold merchandise, last year had to resort to steep discounting to clear inventory. [...] the luxury retailer has worked to hold down inventories to avoid drastic markdowns.

The retailer and its luxury-goods rivals have scrambled this year to cut inventories, reduce capital spending and shrink their work forces as demand for high-end goods collapsed.

Corkscrew yarn - 1. A plied yarn displaying a characteristic smooth spiraling of one component around the other. 2. A term which, when applied to conventional folded yarns, indicates that the yarn is faulty due to spiraling of one or more of the component ends. This may be caused by a different in linear density, twist direction, twist level, or tension between the ends.*

Quiz answer – Twill weave is distinguished by diagonal lines. The simplest twill is that created by the weft crossing over two warp yarns, then under one, the sequence being repeated in each succeeding shot (pick), but stepped over, one warp either to the left or right. Twills with more warps than wefts floating on the fabric’s face are called warp faced; those with wefts predominating, weft faced. The angle of the twill can also vary.#

Quiz question – what is another term for the type of corkscrew yarn described in part one of the definition above?


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

#http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/589392/textile/60776/Basic-weaves#ref=ref359432

Basic pattern skills for fashion design
Zamkoff, Bernard.

This easy to understand text provides illustrated lessons that demonstrate the various patternmaking methods and how they are used to develop design variations. Each of the Second Edition's four units address one major segment of a garment the bodice, the collar, the skirt, and the sleeve with a series of pictorial examples that progress from the most basic dart manipulations to advanced design variations. Students will master the slash and pivot methods of flat pattern design and understand how garment design variations are derived from each other. Simple illustrations demystify the patternmaking process for the beginner student, showing how a few basic techniques can lead to endless design possibilities.

-Amazon.com

How to have style
Mizrahi, Isaac.

A twenty-year veteran of the fashion industry, Isaac Mizrahi has become a unique icon in the world of style. He doesn’t do “makeovers” or take pleasure in berating the way a woman dresses. Instead, he is a problem solver—and a titan of trendsetting who believes that fashion should be seriously fun. Showcasing his singular approach to looking great, How to Have Style begins with the premise that all women should wear what inspires them. Using twelve real women facing real wardrobe dilemmas, Mizrahi walks readers through the fundamentals of finding a personal style that reflects their authentic selves. Other features include:

• A personal fashion questionnaire and how to create an inspiration board that unlocks the secrets to individual style
• Hundreds of fashion tips on everything from clothes and accessories to expert advice on skin care and makeup to mixing patterns and wearing color
• How to become a collector instead of just a shopper

Dubbed a “one-man brand” by BusinessWeek, Mizrahi shares his style rules on everything from boots to bags, from skirt length to the right undergarments. With more than 400 dazzling photographs as well as Mizrahi’s own sketches, How to Have Style makes it simple to look your best.

-Amazon.com

Clothing designer Tory Burch for the first time next week is joining other big labels to unveil her new spring looks in the tents at Bryant Park, the official venue of New York Fashion Week. The past year has been among the most turbulent for the fashion industry, which has been hit by plunging consumer demand and tight credit. Ms. Burch, who operates 20 boutiques and sells to 450 retail locations, such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, tries to keep prices in the low- to mid-tier of the designer range.

While analysts began raising earnings forecasts around the same time, stocks ran faster, causing price-to-earnings multiples to expand.

At BJ's Wholesale Club Inc., customer traffic rose 4% from the year before but the average receipt fell 2%, as groceries sold well but apparel, electronics, jewelry and sporting goods were weaker. [...] spending, along with improvements in the housing market and business investment, are helping the U.S. economy overall swing back to growth after four straight quarterly declines, and ending the deep recession that began in December 2007.

Hip clothing maker American Apparel Inc. will lay off more than a quarter of its factory work force in Los Angeles amid a probe by U.S. immigration authorities -- an early indication of how the Obama administration crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants could play out.

Though the debit cards save companies money by reducing payroll costs, consumer advocates have criticized some card programs, noting that workers are often charged fees to access their money or even check balances.

Avoiding large purges, she weeds through her wardrobe every season, getting rid of items such as shoes with worn-out toes or chipped heels (shoemakers can't do their magic on them), sweaters that can't be rewoven, cotton shirts worn down by starch and trousers that have been dry-cleaned so much they shine or can't be adjusted to the right length.

When the economy is booming, "We experiment a little more" with complicated looks and extravagant makeup and hairstyles, says Ivan Bart, senior vice president at IMG Models, one of the world's largest modeling agencies. Since the supermodel era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the fashion landscape has become sosegmented that few models can carry both high-end fashion brands and mainstream campaigns.

Gucci featured racing-driver looks inspired by Mr. McQueen in its spring 2008 runway show, A.P.C. sells a bomber called "the old-school jacket" that looks like the Harrington jacket Mr. McQueen wore, and Hermes and Michael Kors have recently based clothing and bags on the man once dubbed the "King of Cool." [...] classic American sportswear has been all the rage in menswear recently, with designers like Michael Bastian and Band of Outsiders spinning updated interpretations of khakis, button-downs, cardigans and corduroys.

Gap Inc., one of largest apparel retailers by revenue, said its inventory for the third quarter would be down in the "high single digits" while luxury-goods retailer Saks Inc. said inventory levels would be down in the "low to mid-teen" percentage range for the second half of the year.

Early participants in Wal-Mart's online mall include CSN Stores LLC, an online retailer that sells through websites such as Cookware.com, and Dreams Inc., which sells sports apparel through StarStruck.com.