Top European fashion houses louis vuitton outlet and Hugo Boss on Thursday said Christmas trading proved robust, sending a comforting message as the retail industry is hit by the worst downturn in decades.
Louis Vuitton, the fashion and leather goods maker which contributes nearly half of profits at the world's biggest luxury group LVMH, said business remained solid in the period running up to the end of the year.
"On the whole, Christmas trading went rather well. There were no surprises," Louis Vuitton Chief Executive Yves Carcelle told Reuters in an interview after the fashion house's menswear show in Paris.
"In the United States, things held up well."
Meanwhile, German fashion house Hugo Boss, known for its sharply cut black suits, Mao necklines and luxury accessories, said Christmas trading proved surprisingly good.
"Christmas was better than expected, especially in key cities like New York and in Europe," Hugo Boss Chief Executive Claus-Dietrich Lahrs said after a menswear show in Paris.
"We feel comfortable with the (2008 sales growth) outlook we gave in October," Lahrs told Reuters. "All this, taken together, is making me cautiously optimistic."
LVMH shares closed up 1 percent at 41.92 euros while preferred shares in Hugo Boss rose 2.9 percent to 11.03 euros.
Carcelle said Louis Vuitton did well partly because the maker of leather hand bags and fashion apparel stood out from the current avalanche of promotions by never doing sales, not even private ones for selected customers.
"Customers are tired to see the sign 'sales' everywhere," Carcelle said.
Louis Vuitton's menswear collection for next winter included sober dark blue and light brown suits that marked a clear departure from the flashy mood of some previous years.
"The collection focused on elegance and discretion and used materials that were noble but not too visibly noble," Antoine Arnault, head of communications at Louis Vuitton and son of LVMH Chief Executive Bernard Arnault, told Reuters.
The Hugo Boss show on Thursday presented a collection of black jackets and pants, inspired by geometric and architectural lines with some models wearing a pencil-thin straight tie.
EXPAND WORLDWIDE
Having gone through a reorganisation, Lahrs said Hugo Boss was not planning to look for acquisitions and would focus on expanding outside Europe, especially in America and Asia.
Lahrs said he aimed to lift the ratio of sales made outside Europe to 50 percent from its current level of 30 percent.
"The Hugo Boss brand is still so untapped," he said.
Metzingen-based Hugo Boss is controlled by the private equity firm Permira, which has more than 80 percent of the voting rights.
Lahrs said it was too early to establish whether Hugo Boss would meet it target of earnings before interest and tax of between 210-220 million euros ($272.5 million) for 2008.
He would only say: "We are very positive after what we saw at the end of the year."
Hugo Boss Belgian-born designer Bruno Pieters said he was not too worried about the current consumer spending downturn.
"People still need to invest in new suits," Pieters said.
BUYERS ARE CAUTIOUS
However, many buyers at the shows said they planned to rein in spending this year to avoid being left with unsold stock.
Representatives of upmarket U.S. department stores Bloomingdale's and Saks Fith Avenue and the famous Harrods store in London said they also planned to keep their purse strings tight and consider carefully what they would be purchasing.
"We going to buy a bit less this year," said Christopher Frye, Bloomingdale's Fashion Director for Men's and Young World.
Eric Jennings, Saks Fifth Avenue Vice President and Fashion Director for menswear, said he would be looking for items that had a heritage behind them and gave customers added value.
As many customers aimed to spend less, he was keen to find items that were multi-functional or reversible.
"I think some designers are going more for discrete luxury like Bottega Veneta, Ermenegildo Zegna and Bruno Cuccinelli," Louis vuitton Jennings said.
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Louis vuitton outlet Fashion house Dior, favored by France's first lady, Carla Bruni, and Hollywood actresses, is doing much better business in London than in New York, helped by tourists drawn by the weak pound.
Chief executive Sydney Toledano said on Monday the couture company was enjoying double-digit sales growth in Britain, buoyed by shops such as Harrods which, unlike U.S. department stores, had steered clear of brand-damaging sales.
"With the weak pound, all the tourists of the world are in London, the shops are full," Toledano told Reuters on the fringes of the Dior haute couture 2009-10 winter show, held this year in own its showrooms on Avenue Montaigne, Paris.
However, Dior was not seeing signs of recovery in the United States where it makes about 15-18 percent of total sales, Toledano said, noting that mark-downs at U.S. department stores last autumn had "killed luxury".
He declined to give the sales breakdown for Britain or Europe.
The trend was different for sister fashion house Louis Vuitton, which like Dior is part of luxury group LVMH, as it enjoyed resilient trading in the United States, LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault said on Monday.
"Louis Vuitton's trading remains resilient (in the United States)," Arnault told Reuters on the sidelines of the Dior fashion show, adding the brand benefited from the fact that it never did sales.
Asked about prospect of economic recovery, Arnault said he "never expected the pick-up to be strong or rapid."
Meanwhile, Toledano said Dior's business remained solid in France and strong in China, the luxury industry's biggest growth market this year.
The fashion house's winter 2009-10 haute couture show by star designer John Galliano featured tulle skirts with corsets and puffed out jackets worn over thinly veiled garter belts.
Front-row guests included Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, former French first lady Bernadette Chirac, and evening television news anchor Claire Chazal louis vuitton outlet.
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The biggest difference between a luxury brand and an ordinary one is pride of louis vuitton outlet," said Edward Lu at the CEIBS meet. Lu is managing director of Montblanc China, which once rented Beijing's Olympic "Bird's Nest" stadium for its mainland coming out party.
Lu, who claimed he created the statistically unlikely record of selling enough Maybelline lipstick to paint the lips of fully half the women in China while he worked at L'Oréal China, said he relied on market research for that campaign.
He's since moved professionally uptown to Montblanc where he said the German-based "writing instrument," fragrance, watch, jewelry, leather and eyewear company's exclusive image sells itself. "We choose our customers based on their pride and elegance," he said. "A luxury brand doesn't easily change itself to cater to its customers."
But while it may be currently beneath the likes of Montblanc, mass marketing snob appeal isn't beneath LV, Gucci, Hermes, Versace, Dolce & Gabana, Hugo Boss and other high-end brands in their efforts at localization in the vast Chinese market. But it's also to the inevitable piracy problem and a flood of small companies and others on Taobao boasting they can create handbags and glad rags identical to the real deal at a fraction of the cost.
"People who buy fake products are not the real customers we want," retorted Montblanc's Lu. But the thirst to at least look as if you can afford a Prada, Gucci or LV bag is strong and drives the piracy market, to the dismay of people such as Dan.
"Like my LV bag, I bought it two years ago when few people owned one, but now it can be found almost everywhere. It's so popular, just like something from a supermarket," Dan said with a shrug.
Under such mass production, quality has also become a major focus. The Zhejiang Administration for Industry& Commerce released a report March 14, stating that nearly 60 percent of the foreign clothing brands they had inspected had quality problems, including Hermes, Versace, Dolce & Gabana and Hugo Boss.
"The bottom line of a luxury good is that it has to be good quality, rare and shines with glamour. If a luxury brand wants to survive, it has to stick to the bottom line," said Wang Depei, vice chairman of China's Economic System Reform Research louis vuitton.
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The first time a Shanghai public relations woman, Dan Ping, 26, was about to enter a posh louis vuitton outlet (LV) store on Nanjing Road, she said a saleswoman's "disdainful" look at her kept her from crossing the threshold.
But Dan said she got her revenge after she received her first annual bonus. After doing some online research, she saw the perfect LV handbag, walked into the same store and plopped down nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,465) for the purse.
What a difference 10,000 yuan makes. "You know, they had totally different attitude towards me," Dan said. While men may judge a woman by her appearance, in Dan's world a woman judges another woman by the purse she carries. "What's the point of me buying something extremely expensive and no one even recognizes the value of it?" she asked rhetorically.
Dan's snob appeal makes her an ideal consumer as far as the companies that gathered March 27 at the Second Prestige Brands Forum held at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) were concerned.
Eighty percent of the world's top luxury brands are now cashing in on China's growing noveau riche and several of them were at the CEIBS gathering, along with up and coming Chinese brands hoping to establish the same "exclusive" image with status conscious mainland shoppers.
Michele Norsa, CEO of Salvatore Ferragamo, the legendary designer Italian shoe empire, was there. "Greater China will probably be our number one market within three years," he said. "This market is bigger than we ever expected on louis vuitton."
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A slate of acclaimed international louis vuitton outlet designers will participate in a workshop and fashion show as part of the Arts of Fashion MasterClass series set for Oct. 25–29 in San Francisco.
Designers Sandra Backlund, Aurora de la Morinerie, Fabienne Jouvin, Natalia Brilli, Tony DelCampe, Laurent Edmond, Thierry Rondenet and Herve Yvrenogeau will headline this year's event, open to fashion students and young professionals for $875 per student or $1,150 for professionals.
The designers will present their work in fashion shows as well as teach new techniques and design approaches. Students will create garments on the spot during the workshops and be part of a competition.
Workshops will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 25–28 and will conclude with an Oct. 29 fashion show featuring work by the designers as well as finalists from participants.
The featured designers have a range of backgrounds with European fashion houses.
British designer Backlund has collaborated with Louis Vuitton for its 2007 knitwear collection and was the winner of the 2007 Hyeres International Fashion Competition. De La Morinerie and Jouvin are fashion artists who graduated from the Duperre Applied Arts School and have worked with Hermès and Agnes B., among others. French designer Brilli is known for her sculpted-leather pieces, which are sold in 30 countries. DelCampe is director of fashion at the La Cambre in Brussels, while Edmond is from the Maison Martin Margiela in Paris. Rondenet and Yvrenogeau own Brussels menswear boutique Own, which has collaborated on projects with Cacharel and louis vuitton sale.
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In fashion, louis vuitton outlet cut is vital, but Marie Dupuis has found that it can also apply to price. Thanks to a little bargaining, she recently bought a Jean-Paul Gaultier dress at a 40 percent discount for New Year's Eve.
Dupuis, 32-year-old Parisian, expressed surprise at paying 310, or about $400.
"I have never seen that," she said. "It must be because of the crisis everybody is talking about."
The high-fashion bargain is usually reserved for the superrich or celebrities who obtain designer clothing free from fashion houses seeking the publicity. But in the current economic downturn, less-expensive luxury items are becoming attainable to more ordinary, though still relatively well-off, shoppers.
With margins at mainstream retailers under pressure as they fight for a share of smaller customer budgets, the couture house created by Jean-Paul Gaultier is among the high-end brands that are jumping on the promotional bandwagon.
From Paris to Milan and New York to London, a strong increase in promotional sales in recent weeks has come to include luxury brands. In retail generally, the year-end holiday season can account for about 40 percent of annual sales, so the stakes are high.
But the high-end sales offerings are subtle. Instead of advertising discounts in shop windows - which can damage the brand by undermining the notion that quality comes at a price - they lure buyers with discreet "private sales," some of them earlier this year than last.
For example, Sonia Rykiel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Jimmy Choo, Prada, Armani, Gucci, Tod's, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Gianfranco Ferré and Alberta Ferretti have been offering discounts or holding private sales, but not at every store or in every country.
Tolerated by European regulators outside the traditional January and July discount seasons, private sales are usually exclusively reserved for loyal customers who receive an invitation by mail. The discounts typically apply to small selection of items.
This year, Reuters reporters found that one could buy a wide range of discounted products without an invitation at Jean-Paul Gaultier and Jimmy Choo in Paris and Prada in Milan.
"Some may say they don't hold them, but they do," said an assistant at a top designer boutique in Milan. "They just don't want everyone to know about them."
A spokeswoman for Jean-Paul Gaultier said: "We do not have any comment to make about private sales. It's down to individual shops to decide them."
Other representatives for brands including Gucci and Armani declined comment. A spokesman for Prada said private sales were usual held at this time of year but declined to provide further details.
A spokeswoman for Gucci Group, which also includes Bottega Veneta and Yves Saint Laurent, said, "Our policy is that we do not give information about our commercial activities."
Altagamma, the Italian fashion industry association, said that it had noted an increase in the number of private sales this year because of the financial crisis but that they were a longstanding tradition for many fashion houses.
On Old Bond Street in London, Avenue Montaigne in Paris and in the Quadrilatero d'Oro in Milan, not many customers could be seen at the end of November and early December.
"I am more careful this year with my money," said Jean-Michel Fouquet, 55, a French aerospace executive buying a 290 Hermès leather bracelet as a gift in Paris. "We are all worried about the economy and our job."
In this downturn, when bonuses are expected to disappear for many highly paid executives, and fortunes are shrinking among the superwealthy from Russia to India, luxury customers' behavior has changed.
The ostentatious, ephemeral or frivolous has been replaced by an urge for quality and strong brands, according to industry specialists.
As the collapse of financial markets has narrowed investment options, this is not all about consumption. Demand persists for custom-made goods, from tailored suits to specially commissioned fine jewels.
"There is a drive towards timeless, very high-end brands," said Pierre Mallevays, a partner at Savigny Partners, an investment banking boutique in London. "If you buy a Louis Vuitton bag, you know that it will not lose much value. But if you buy weaker brand, you are not so sure."
Louis Vuitton and Hermès said they never conducted private sales, and business looked brisk on recent visits to their shops.
Analysts predict that luxury-goods revenue will drop in 2009 for the first time in over a decade at constant exchange rates. Consultants at Bain say global luxury sales could drop as much as 7 percent in next year, while analysts at Bernstein are projecting a decline of 5 percent.
Channel checks and industry interviews highlight an increasingly promotional environment," Bernstein said in a note, "a clear sign of soft consumer demand."
From Paris to Milan and New York to London, a strong increase in promotional sales in recent weeks has come to include luxury brands. In retail generally, the year-end holiday season can account for about 40 percent of annual sales, so the stakes are high.
But the high-end sales offerings are subtle. Instead of advertising discounts in shop windows - which can damage the brand by undermining the notion that quality comes at a price - they lure buyers with discreet "private sales," some of them earlier this year than last.
For example, Sonia Rykiel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Jimmy Choo, Prada, Armani, Gucci, Tod's, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Gianfranco Ferré and Alberta Ferretti have been offering discounts or holding private sales, but not at every store or in every country.
Tolerated by European regulators outside the traditional January and July discount seasons, private sales are usually exclusively reserved for loyal customers who receive an invitation by mail. The discounts typically apply to small selection of items.
This year, Reuters reporters found that one could buy a wide range of discounted products without an invitation at Jean-Paul Gaultier and Jimmy Choo in Paris and Prada in Milan.
"Some may say they don't hold them, but they do," said an assistant at a top designer boutique in Milan. "They just don't want everyone to know about them."
A spokeswoman for Jean-Paul Gaultier said: "We do not have any comment to make about private sales. It's down to individual shops to decide them."
Other representatives for brands including Gucci and Armani declined comment. A spokesman for Prada said private sales were usual held at this time of year but declined to provide further details.
A spokeswoman for Gucci Group, which also includes Bottega Veneta and Yves Saint Laurent, said, "Our policy is that we do not give information about our commercial activities."
Altagamma, the Italian fashion industry association, said that it had noted an increase in the number of private sales this year because of the financial crisis but that they were a longstanding tradition for many fashion houses.
On Old Bond Street in London, Avenue Montaigne in Paris and in the Quadrilatero d'Oro in Milan, not many customers could be seen at the end of November and early December.
"I am more careful this year with my money," said Jean-Michel Fouquet, 55, a French aerospace executive buying a €290 Hermès leather bracelet as a gift in Paris. "We are all worried about the economy and our job."
In this downturn, when bonuses are expected to disappear for many highly paid executives, and fortunes are shrinking among the superwealthy from Russia to India, luxury customers' behavior has changed.
The ostentatious, ephemeral or frivolous has been replaced by an urge for quality and strong brands, according to industry specialists.
As the collapse of financial markets has narrowed investment options, this is not all about consumption. Demand persists for custom-made goods, from tailored suits to specially commissioned fine jewels.
"There is a drive towards timeless, very high-end brands," said Pierre Mallevays, a partner at Savigny Partners, an investment banking boutique in London. "If you buy a Louis Vuitton bag, you know that it will not lose much value. But if you buy weaker brand, you are not so sure."
Louis Vuitton and Hermès said they never conducted private sales, and business looked brisk on recent visits to their shops.
Analysts predict that luxury-goods revenue will drop in 2009 for the first time in over a decade at constant exchange rates. Consultants at Bain say global luxury sales could drop as much as 7 percent in next year, while analysts at Bernstein are projecting a decline of 5 percent.
"Channel checks and industry interviews highlight an increasingly promotional environment," Bernstein said in a note, "a clear sign of soft consumer demand louis vuitton sale handbags."
Source from: http://www.louisvuittonoutletoe.com/new.php?id=126