LVMH SALES RISE 12%/2 MARTHAS NEW PROJECT/4

Womens Wear Daily The Retailers Daily Newspaper October 19, 2005 $2.00

WWDWEDNESDAY
Sportswear

Thats Fresh
NEW YORK Banana Republic is mining its heritage. Spring brings us back to the essence of Banana Republic totally modern with hints of our past, said Deborah Lloyd after Monday nights show. The executive vice president of design and product development drew inspiration from the firms safari history, as well as her own collection of Peter Beard photos and books. Here, a cotton blazer, tank and skirt. For more, see page 6.

Targeting Fast Fashion: Discounter to Showcase Global Designer Lines

By Katherine Bowers

BOSTON Target is trying to polish its image in fast fashions heady realm, showcasing limited-edition collections from international designers. The Minneapolis-based discount retailer is launching Go International, which will kick off in February with the young British designer Luella Bartley. Our greatest strength is our trend leadership and our ability to anticipate what our guests want next, Target president Gregg Steinhafel said during a presentation to investment analysts in New York on Tuesday.
See Targets, Page12

PHOTO BY THOMAS IANNACCONE

WWD, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2005

WWD.COM

In the Mainstream

Bristols Department Store Push

By Julee Greenberg
NEW YORK Susan Bristol is ready to expand into a new arena. The 35-year-old Boston-based better knitwear firm is launching a department store-based line called Bristol Inc., for spring selling. The new line features novelty-driven sportswear and activewear for women, targeting 25- to 45year-olds, a younger customer base than the traditional Susan Bristol line, which is currently sold in 1,000 better specialty stores nationwide and targets women 35 and up. A crochet According to Art Henkens, Bristol Inc.s cardigan. vice chairman at the $100 mil- zip-up sweater. lion-plus company, the new line could bring in about $10 million in wholesale volume in its first year at retail. There are too many labels out there as it is, Henkens said. To be successful you have to have a strategy to make the product something that consumers want to buy. With Susan Bristols ability to come up with creative, novelty-driven product, this new line is sure to do well in the better area of department stores. Henkens said the line wholesales at the opening price point in better, from $12 to $30 per item, and will be manufactured in China and India. He said the company will start slowly, hoping to get the product into about 200 doors in its first selling season. Ideally, he said, he would launch the product with one appropriate retailer, whether that be Federated Department Stores, Dillards or Belk, and it would be housed near lines such as Liz Claiborne and Jones New York Signature. We really want to keep a close eye on things at first, be sure we can handle distribution and deliver on A cotton ribbed time, he said. I am so confisweater. dent in that, but keeping things small at first assures that. Bristol Inc. includes an array of novelty pieces such as embellished back pocket denim jeans with lined belt loops for added detail, crochet cardigans and zip-up sweaters. What weve done with this line is try to stay in the same price range as our competition on the better floor, he said. But we offer more novelty than the competition, giving the customer more value.

Lilla P Widens Its Focus for Spring Jones Selects Model Teachers
NEW YORK Lilla P has Lilla Ps A cotton hit its stride. V-neck sleeveless The seven-year- old cotton top. T-shirt firm, offering dress. contemporary style Ts to women looking for a misses fit, is expanding with the spring collection. The company, owned by Pauline Nakios, nearly doubled its wholesale volume to about $5 million this year, allowing Nakios to expand her collection to include skirts and dresses. I had one skirt last spring and it sold out in two weeks, so I decided to add more this spring, Nakios said, and the stores have been just loving the dresses so far. Lilla P, Nakios explained, is for a 28- to 50-year- old seams straight. A lot of times when the woman who wants an updated look in a fabric is this soft, the seams will move T-shirt but has trouble fitting into tra- around on the body. Its not the case ditional contemporary T-shirt with these. lines. Its a niche, she said, Also for spring, Nakios that has proven suchas designed a limitedcessful for her brand edition T-shirt all proand the 550 specialceeds of which will go ty stores she now to SIDS (Sudden sells to. Some key Infant Death items for spring inSyndrome) charities. clude a V-neck cotThe white cotton ton dress, ribbed short-sleeve shirts tanks and sleeveless will hit stores in V-neck tops. The col- Nakios will design shirts with this logo. January and retail for lection wholesales $25. They will have on from $15 to $45. the front the logo of the Alexander She began her company with a sim- Foundation for SIDS Research, which ple cotton ribbed top; the collection Nakios is initiating with this project. now includes pieces made in a variety SIDS, the leading cause of death in of weaves. Nakios said she travels reg- infants one month to one year of age, ularly to find new ways to create the continues to claim the lives of approxishirts, most recently purchasing Pima mately 2,000 babies each year. This is a cotton in Peru. cause close to Nakios heart, as she lost It feels like cashmere, its so soft, her nine-week-old son, Alexander, to she said holding one up. I also have SIDS last year. J.G. the weaves specially made to keep the NEW YORK Jones Apparel Group is out to make teachers look and feel their best. Through the Jones New York in the Classroom program, a nonprofit organization supporting teachers and childrens education, the company turned up at Macys at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., on Saturday to give makeovers and a runway presentation for seven deserving teachers in the area. Jones nonprofit beneficiaries New Teacher Academy, Fund for Teachers, Adopt-a-Classroom and TeachersCount reached out to schools to offer teachers the chance to participate in the show. The seven women chosen were Dorotea Binetti, a sixth-grade teacher at Essex Fells Public School in Essex Fells, N.J.; Josette DAmbrosi, a physical education teacher at M.S. 447 the Upper Carroll School in Brooklyn; Theresa DAmbrosi, a science teacher at P 10 in Brooklyn; Erin Lubick, a science and .S. technology teacher at P 33 Chelsea Prep in Manhattan; Dory McMahon, a .S. 12th-grade teacher at South Orange/Maplewood School District in Maplewood, N.J.; Karen Young, a pre-kindergarten teacher at P 16 Cornelia F. Bradford .S. School in Jersey City, N.J., and Jessica Zampetti, a teacher of gifted and talented students at Roy Bixby School in Bogota, N.J. More than 100 shoppers stopped to check out the teachers decked out in the latest fashions from the Jones New York collection. The show kicked off Shop for Education Week, which runs through Oct. 22, when 10 percent of the selling price (up to a maximum of $500,000) of apparel sold from the Jones New York clothing lines Collection, Signature, Dress, Suit and Outerwear will be donated to Jones New York in the Classroom. Teachers are superstars in the classroom every day, and we made them supermodels to celebrate all that they give to our children, said Stacy Lastrina, senior vice president of creative services at Jones Apparel Group. The Jones New York in the Classroom program aims to improve the quality of education and inspires others to do the same. The organization supports efforts to celebrate teachers since the company believes they are the single most important factor in raising student achievement. Jones New York in the Classrooms efforts have helped teachers who spend their own money to outfit their classrooms (a teacher currently spends an average of $1,200 a year of her own money), offer support for new teachers entering the field, and provide emotional and practical support for teachers and schools nationwide.

J.G.

Josette DAmbrosi, from M.S. 447 the Upper Carroll School in Brooklyn, N.Y., gets prepped to hit the runway.

Karen Young, from P .S. 16 Cornelia F Bradford . School in Jersey City, N.J.

Dorotea Binetti, from Essex Fells Public School in Essex Fells, N.J.