Archives for: October 2009Thursday Oct 29, 2009
Eric Jennings, Saks Fifth Avenue men's fashion director, suggests that men keep their executive jeans "dark and straight." [...] never dress as if the jeans had been switched out from formal suit pants at the last minute: [...] getting power jeans right involves lots of no's.
Beleaguered high-end retailer Saks Inc. is testing online "private event" sales of discounted designer goods, in a bid to compete with "flash" Web discounters that are gaining popularity in the U.S. Saks on Tuesday launched a 36-hour sale, dubbed Fashion Fix, open only to those who received emails from Saks directing them to the site.
Newly announced job cuts at Gianni Versace SpA show how the economic downturn is forcing independent fashion labels to cut costs and stem losses in order to survive in an industry dominated by conglomerates that can better absorb downturns in demand.
Wednesday Oct 28, 2009
The push for better online service comes as big Web retailers forecast a relatively rosy holiday season following a 3% sales drop last year, according to market researcher comScore Inc. That's the first drop since Americans began shopping online.
Monday Oct 26, 2009
Textile Term of the Week & Pop Quiz 10/26/09
Size - A gelatinous film-forming substance, in solution or dispersion, applied normally to warps but sometimes to wefts, generally before weaving, to protect the yarns from abrasion in healds and reeds and against each other; to strengthen them; and, by the addition of oils and fats, to lubricate them.*
Quiz Answer - Dr. David Hinks and Dr. Keith Beck#
Quiz Question - What is another definition for "size."
*(Daniels, PN and Denton, MJ, eds. Textile Terms and Definitions, 11th ed. Manchester, UK: The Textile Institute, 2002)
#http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/csivirtual/
New Books
Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, this handsome volume presents fashions by noted designer Sonia Rykiel who celebrated her 40th anniversary in fashion in October 2008 and was famously anointed the fashion world's “Queen of knitwear” by Women's Wear Daily.
This sumptuous book is a celebration of the iconic designer's lifetime in fashion. Included are photographs from 80 seasonal collections spanning 40 years and interlaced with remarkable personal anecdotes and reminiscences alongside candid photos of the designer by acclaimed photographers Dominique Issermann and Sarah Moon. Also included are images from the official campaigns that originally appeared in such leading fashion publications as Vogure, Elle, Marie-Claire, and many others.
Though designing since 1962, Sonia Rykiel achieved instant acclaim when she founded her own label in 1968. She is celebrated for creating several transformative decorative features that transformed knitwear into fashion. These include inside-out stitching, no-hem and “unlined” pieces, bold stripes, lace, rhinestones and sweaters with written messages. She is also known for several signature looks including long clinging sweaters, small cropped pullovers, large rolled-back cuffs, and long shawls usually in a spectrum of key colors (beige, grey, dark blue and charcoal). These looks all reflected her philosophy of la démode, or “un-fashion” which abolished total-look diktats in favor of a wardrobe adapted to expressing a woman's individual personality
-Amazon.com
This book is designed to walk the reader through the ASQ Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB) Body of Knowledge (BoK) at a medium level of detail. It follows the nine sections of the BoK exactly, from enterprise-wide deployment, organizational process management and measures, and team management, to detailed coverage of each stage of the DMAIC process. With more than 25 tables and 80 figures, the various concepts can not only be read about but seen. The appendices include all the statistical tables that test-takers and also those in the field will need. New to this edition is material that shows the Black Belt candidate how to work through some standard statistical tests just the kind he or she might expect to see on the certification exam. The author has used this material for several years, continually refining it based on students questions and also his own experiences at an electronics manufacturing plant. This is truly the guidebook for the new millennium of lean and Six Sigma!
-Amazon.com
Implementing the requirements of ISO 9001 can be a daunting task for many organizations. In an attempt to develop a system that will pass the registration audit, we are tempted to establish processes with the primary purpose of conforming to the requirements of ISO 9001. In doing so, however, it is easy to lose sight of the original intent of the standard to continually improve the effectiveness of the quality management system implemented at our organization. This book is intended to help managers, management representatives, internal audit coordinators, and internal auditors implement a practical internal audit process that meets the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 while also adding significant, measurable value to the organization s bottom line. The tools, techniques, and step-by-step guidelines provided in this book can also be used by those organizations that have a well-established internal audit process but are looking for easy ways to make that process more effective. The tools in the appendices of this book have also been provided on the enclosed CD to facilitate your customizing them to fit the specific needs of your organization.
-Amazon.com
Failure of a quality initiative, either in part or in whole, can happen to any organization. What differentiates successful organizations is that they learn from their failures and do it right the second time. Author Peter Merrill takes you sequentially through the activities required to lead a lasting change, from vision to final realization. More importantly, he stresses the balance between process improvement and people improvement. Throughout the book are checklists, tables, questionnaires, and other helpful tools to support your quality implementation. In addition, Merrill supplies examples showing you what went wrong with other organizations and the successful course of corrections they made. Merrill captures many of the developments of the intervening years since the first edition of this book, particularly Six Sigma and lean. Three completely new chapters on ISO 9000 will draw the reader into systems thinking, discourage overdocumentation, and encourage the use of measurement to drive improvement. The new Chapter 23 shows the linkages between ISO 9000, Six Sigma, and excellence awards. This book embraces the essentials of quality management, presents them in a simple format, and gives you a sense of flow as you implement.
-Amazon.com
Focused on the needs of business and management students, this text provides a comprehensive introduction to informatics and its application in organizations. Assuming no prior knowledge, it builds concepts incrementally, using a strong theoretical base supported by practical examples to develop a coherent, integrated understanding of the subject.
-Amazon.com
Polymer thin films is an emerging area driven by their enormous technological potential and the intellectually challenging academic problems associated with them. This book contains a collection of review articles on the current topics of polymer films written by leading experts in the field. To reflect the interdisciplinary nature of this field, the contributors hail from a wide range of disciplines, including chemists, chemical engineers, materials scientists, engineers, and physicists. The goal of this book is to provide readers, whether involved in or outside of the field of polymer films, with an encompassing and informative reference.
-Amazon.com
Boost factory performance and transform your company into a world-class competitor
You can dramatically improve factory performance, decrease cycle time, increase capacity, and cut costs, while expanding your profits and market share. You won’t need to invest in new equipment and technologies, make sweeping personnel cuts, or relocate your facilities to far-flung locales around the globe. Best of all, these improvements will be sustainable.
Sound too good to be true? You won’t think so once you’ve read Optimizing Factory Performance.
Unlike TQM, Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, and similar “remedies,” which offer only partial solutions to the problem of manufacturing inefficiency, the methodology outlined in this book is firmly rooted in the real world of manufacturing and based on sound science. Dr. James Ignizio offers a balanced, three-dimensional approach to understanding, measuring, and conquering the three enemies of manufacturing: complexity, variability, and poor leadership. Armed with simple, easy-to-use metrics, interactive factory simulation models, and other original tools, you will
Cut cycle times
Increase capacity
Reduce variability in outs and lead times
Decluster starts and maintenance events
Root out performance-killing company politics and turf battles
Create a culture of continual performance improvement
-Amazon.com
How could nanotechnology not perk the interest of any designer, engineer or architect? Exploring the intriguing new approaches to design that nanotechnologies offer, Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design is set against the sometimes fantastic sounding potential of this technology. Nanotechnology offers product engineers, designers, architects and consumers a vastly enhanced palette of materials and properties, ranging from the profound to the superficial. It is for engineering and design students and professionals who need to understand enough about the subject to apply it with real meaning to their own work.
* World-renowned author team address the hot-topic of nanotechnology
* The first book to address and explore the impacts and opportunities of nanotech for mainstream designers, engineers and architects
* Full colour production and excellent design: guaranteed to appeal to everyone concerned with good design and the use of new materials
-Amazon.com
At The Danaher Corporation, George Koenigsaecker led the lean transformations of both the automotive and tool groups. He also led The Hon Company’s successful lean conversion, which doubled productivity and tripled revenues, leading Industry Week to recognize HON on their list of the World’s 100 Best Managed Firms. Written to help executives in determining right from wrong during a lean initiative, Leading the Lean Enterprise Transformation shows that lean is more about an approach than it is about tools. It presents the successful strategies and case histories of several key American leaders who have been instrumental in bringing lean to the forefront of various industries.
Organized in the chronological sequence that a leader embarking on a lean journey would experience, this lively work:
Describes the simple, yet powerful, True North metrics used by Toyota and describes how they drive every line item in the good direction
Explains the use of value stream analysis at the leadership level
Shows how to structure successful kaizen events that improve the value stream
Presents tactical organizational steps necessary to sustain double-digit improvements
Explores the development of a corporate assessment and review structure in support of a lean transformation
Introduces leadership tools such as strategy deployment, transformation value stream analysis, and transformation plan of care
Lastly, the book discusses what may well be the least understood and most critical aspect of a lean transformation: the building of a lean culture. That ability is what separates the tactician from the technician. While many books exist that detail all the tools needed for a lean implementation, this book explains those tools needed at the enterprise level by executives, but more importantly it provides potential change agents with the skills to define, develop, and communicate a vision. It helps cultivate the willingness to innovate and learn by doing. Such a course is not for everyone, just leaders.
-Amazon.com
Whether you are establishing a quality management system for the first time or improving your existing system, this best-selling guide to effective quality management using the ISO 9000 family of standards as a framework for business improvement is an essential addition to your quality bookshelf.
-Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Designers say the economic downturn and resulting implosion of the luxury market has resurrected the Grecian dress, which in the last few decades has emerged as the go-to look at times of financial or social turmoil. The look ended with the French Revolution and remained dormant until the early part of the 20th century, when artists like dancer Isadora Duncan and writer Gertrude Stein adopted robe-like garments more as a freedom than as a fashion statement.
Friday Oct 23, 2009
Wal-Mart's U.S. stores by the end of October will offer installation and support services for television, home-entertainment and personal-computer systems through third-party services provider N.E.W. Customer Service Companies Inc. The privately held company, based in Sterling, Va., recently began providing similar services at Wal-Mart's Sam's Club stores this year and has supplied Wal-Mart, Best Buy and dozens of other retailers with warranty programs for several years.
Thursday Oct 22, 2009
Right now, guilt is the single biggest problem in the way of getting people to shop again, said one executive of a European luxury powerhouse -- although he declined to be identified for fear of sounding too negative about his outlook. [...] some luxury brands are emphasizing marketing tactics that they hope will push away the guilt and reboot consumers' desire to spend.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to reduce prices heading into the holiday season in what CEO Mike Duke promised would be an aggressive return to the high-volume discount retailing formula pioneered by company founder Sam Walton.
Wednesday Oct 21, 2009
[...] a May survey by eBay Inc.'s Paypal found that 46% of shoppers claimed high shipping charges -- more than any other reason -- was why they ditched potential purchases in online shopping carts. Mark Pierce, chief executive of MarketLive Inc., which develops and hosts e-commerce sites for 100 retailers, says free shipping is an important driver of e-commerce transactions because the offer "liquefies consumers' largest objection to shopping online."
Emerging markets will account for at least 80% of growth in the luxury-goods sector, averaging around 9% a year, compared with 2% in the developed world, according to Francesca Di Pasquantonio at Deutsche Bank.
Target Corp. joined the online book price wars, disclosing Monday it is slashing the prices of seven highly anticipated hardcover books available for preordering on its Web site.
Claudia D'Arpizio, a Bain retail consultant based in Milan, said she expects the industry's heavyweights -- a group that's generally defined to include companies like LVMH, Cartier owner Compagnie Financiere Richemont, and Gucci Group, part of France's PPR SA -- to hold up better than smaller players.
How bad was the collection Lindsay Lohan and Estrella Archs designed for Ungaro? The show—held in Paris last week—has been the talk of the town and the blogosphere. It was called a "hot mess," "disastrous," "cheesy and dated."
Tuesday Oct 20, 2009
Coach, which reports earnings for the September quarter Tuesday, has seen its stock rise more than 60% this year with some investors banking on better holiday sales.
Signs of the battle between Amazon and Wal-Mart have grown over the last year, as Amazon extended its expansion into a general store by acquiring shoe and apparel retailer Zappos.com and adding private label electronic accessories like blank DVDs to its virtual shelves.
Haute couture was born in the high fashion houses of Paris and London in the 19th century, when wealthy women sought a season's wardrobe from a designer like Charles Worth or, later, Madeleine Vionnet. Buying couture also meant Mrs. Bloomingdale had the privilege of wearing clothes at the same time that they were featured in the fashion magazines, says Mr. Jones, who has included some of these photos in the exhibition.
Book publishers worried they and retail chains could be caught in the cross fire as Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ratchet up their price war over online book sales.
Friday Oct 16, 2009
Wal-Mart's move, and similarly low prices for electronic books, may ultimately condition consumers to expect new titles to cost $10, a price that would force the publishing industry to re-scale its entire business, including the advances paid to writers. "Ten dollars for a hardcover book is a slashing of margins to the bone," said Richard Curtis, a New York literary agent and e-book publisher.
U.S. online sales reached $1 billion last year. Since joining the company in 2007 from Canadian chain Shoppers Drug Mart, Mr. Murphy has focused on tightening operations, including shrinking inventory and closing stores.
The company is hoping to fuel autumn sales with the help of two designer brands, Jimmy Choo and Sonia Rykiel, which will both design special lines for H&M. "September sales were a little bit disappointing but now the weather has turned cooler, so one might expect that consumers will start shopping," said Soeren Loentoft Hansen, an equity analyst with Sydbank in the Danish town of Aabenraa.
Carrefour's change in strategy on Russia, only a month after it opened its second hypermarket in the country, comes on the heels of a series of news reports that the company is under pressure from key shareholders, U.S. private-equity firm Colony Capital LLC and French investor Bernard Arnault, to quickly sell off assets in emerging markets.
Thursday Oct 15, 2009
Menswear designer Michael Bastian's spring collection will include three-piece glen plaid suits, sweater vests and a variety of trim tuxedos. Oxford-cloth shirts -- which are hot again for both men and women -- originated in 19th-century Britain and were worn by polo players until Rene Lacoste introduced collared, knitted polo shirts in the 1930s.
Tuesday Oct 13, 2009
During the 2008 holiday shopping season, gift-card sales dropped 5%, the first decrease after nearly a decade of strong growth, according to the 2009 Gift Card Trend Report from Archstone Consulting, a Connecticut-based management consulting firm.
Monday Oct 12, 2009
Textile Term of the Week & Pop Quiz 10/12/09
Papering – The insertion of cold or heated board elements (papers) into folds of fabric prior to pressing in a hydraulic press.
Quiz Answer – Real twisting involves either rotation of the yarn end, as in uptwisting or in downtwisting, or the repeated passage of a thread loop around an end, as in two-for-one-twisting.
Quiz Question – Which two COT professors are involved in writing a grant that will facilitate the creation of a virtual environment that will aid in crime scene investigations?
*(Daniels, PN and Denton, MJ, eds. Textile Terms and Definitions, 11th ed. Manchester, UK: The Textile Institute, 2002)
New Books
A Closer Look is the new series title for the updated and refreshed National Gallery Pocket Guide range. The series has been enhanced with a stronger format, attractive design, new photography, and additional information.
It is self-evident that colour is fundamental to painting, but it is not always obvious from looking at pictures what kinds of materials may be used by an artist to make colour. This Pocket Guide explains how coloured pigments are combined with a medium to form a paint layer, and how this affects our perception of the appearance of colour. It not only describes the materials of colour but also explains colour theories and examines writings about colour, including painters’ treatises.
Through a selection of superb pictures from the National Gallery, London, including works by Piero della Francesca, Leonardo, Titian, Caravaggio, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Monet, and Seurat, the authors demonstrate how painters through the centuries have exploited the characteristics of colour in paint.
-Amazon.com
The supercenter format Carrefour pioneered nearly 50 years ago, selling goods ranging from food to clothes to bikes under one roof, is threatened as shoppers pick specialized stores. Mr. Olofsson spent hundreds of millions of euros in the first half of the year to reposition Carrefour, driving its bottom line into the red for the first time since the 1998 merger that created the grocery giant.
Clothing rods installed from the doorway and along every wall are stuffed with icons of their eras, like Paco Rabanne's 1960s metal minidress, a tweedy fringed suit designed by Coco Chanel, a Balenciaga suit by Cristobal Balenciaga and an original Diane von Furstenberg wrap in size 14 -- back when a 14 was more like today's size eight. "Every time I step foot into that store I feel like I'm getting a private tour in a museum," says Andy Liu, former creative director of menswear for Christian Lacroix.
Friday Oct 9, 2009
Apparel maker Liz Claiborne Inc. agreed to license its Liz Claiborne brand exclusively to J.C. Penney Co. starting next fall, removing it from mainstream department stores such as Macy's Inc. for the first time in more than 20 years.
The walls are covered with antiqued mirrored glass while side tables resembling silver tree stumps sit amongst miniature lollipop topiaries. The pair was dressed in identical outfits: starched white button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up, dark blue jeans and black leather loafers.
The regional declines were attributed to the weak economic environments, while promotions and continued store expansion, particularly in India and China, helped sales in Asia Pacific.
[...] retailers and analysts greeted the positive news with an abundance of caution about what the results mean for the holiday season and the fourth quarter, when chain stores book the bulk of their profits.
Stocks rallied Thursday, building upon gains made earlier in the week, but some options traders saw limited upside in clothing retailer Aeropostale Inc. and paper-products maker Kimberly-Clark Corp. Aeropostale beat Wall Street's same-store sales estimates and raised its third-quarter earnings view, but options traders sold call options in the company, said Jud Pyle, a market analyst with PEAK6 Investments, signaling skepticism over the stock's ability to climb above a certain price.
Thursday Oct 8, 2009
Japan has long been one of the fashion world's most important luxury markets, but the economic crisis combined with the younger generation's increased interest in less expensive "fast fashion" has severely sapped spending on big-ticket items, such as status handbags.
Seeing action was Talbots, a clothing retailer whose options sprang to life after analysts raised their target on the company's stock price.
There have been plenty of beautiful clothes at Paris fashion week, but the trendy looks reveal how hard the industry is struggling to grab shoppers' attention: micro miniskirts, transparent blouses, pointy "Mad Men" bras, and panties worn as shorts. At Chanel this week, designer Karl Lagerfeld sought a careful balance; he used theatrics to promote the brand while delivering a cocksure collection of suits, dresses and wide-legged pants with all the Chanel cues, like fringe-y edges, that clients expect.
Monday Oct 5, 2009
Textile Term of the Week & Pop Quiz 10/05/09
False-twisting – a twisting operation applied at an intermediate position on a yarn or other continuous assembly of fibers, so that no net twist can be inserted, as distinct from twisting at the end of a yearn where real twist is inserted.
Quiz Answer – a fabric made by the TenCate company which is favored by the military for its fire-resistant and breathable properties.#
Quiz Question – What is real twisting?
*(Daniels, PN and Denton, MJ, eds. Textile Terms and Definitions, 11th ed. Manchester, UK: The Textile Institute, 2002)
#http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/06/military.uniform.contract/index.html?iref=newssearch, retrieved September 28, 2009
[...] the recession has been a break for the world's biggest retailer, directing more traffic to its stores at the expense of pricier rivals. [...] while many retailers reduced spending and slashed prices, Wal-Mart Stores has actually spent more and avoided aggressive price cuts.
Tesco's clothing chief executive Terry Green said the company aims to generate 10% of clothing sales online in the future, although he declined to give a specific timeframe.
[...] it's where the world's trend analysts seek visions of the future of style, not just for clothing, but for housewares, furniture and all manner of art and consumer goods. The feline's likeness -- a long, languid version -- was embroidered in silver thread and crystal beads on several white silk mini dresses.
Mr. Duke, the former head of Wal-Mart's international business, must spur growth in an increasingly saturated U.S. retail landscape while seeking opportunities abroad. [...] he is diving into Washington politics as the company weighs in on such controversial issues as health care and the deferral of international taxes.
With Janet Jackson, Rupert Everett and Roger Federer (guest of Vogue's Anna Wintour) in the front row on Friday in Milan, Ms. Versace paraded a collection of micro minis, go-go boots, see-through plastic outfits, baby-doll dresses, metallics and other mod patterns that screamed 1964.
Whether traveling to the Paris runway shows or doing business back home in New York, Khajak Keledjian, CEO of the Intermix boutique chain, has to dress the part of a corporate professional who's in touch with the latest fashion trends.
At the D&G runway show in Milan last week, the chief executives of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman were relegated to second-row and third-row seats. Etro, for instance, hasn't yet pursued blogging or social-media outlets, preferring to dress celebrities and sell its vividly colorful designs in bricks-and-mortar stores, according to a person familiar with the brand's strategy.
Marks & Spencer, a bellwether for British consumer sentiment, joins a growing list of retailers, including John Lewis Partnership PLC, Next PLC and Debenhams PLC to warn of difficult conditions ahead due to rising joblessness and likely higher taxes in the U.K. Second-quarter group sales rose 2.7%, largely thanks to a 9.6% rise in international sales and a 30% jump in online sales.
Giorgio Armani, after recovering from a months-long bout of hepatitis, slightly loosened his grip on his fashion empire Wednesday, naming one of his most-loyal executives as deputy chairman, as part of a management reorganization.
"With our inventory more controlled, we won't have to be overly promotional," Lorna Nagler, president and chief executive of women's clothing retailer Christopher & Banks Corp., said last week during the company's quarterly conference call.
The settlement, announced Tuesday, resolves most of Boston Scientific's legal liability to J&J after 12 years of lawsuits over stents, popular medical devices that prop open clogged arteries to relieve chest pains.
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