Fashion Bug goes out of business across the metro-east

The women’s clothing retailer already closed its Granite City store last Saturday and will go out of business at its Belleville store, located at 656 Carlyle Ave., after today.

The store at 1112 Collinsville Crossing in Collinsville expects to close after business on Wednesday, and the location at 2637 N. Illinois St. in Swansea will close after business this Saturday.

Last June, Suffern, N.Y.-based Ascena Retail Group announced a $890 million acquisition of Fashion Bug owner Charming Shoppes, which is headquartered in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, Pa. The move includes shuttering all 300 Fashion Bug stores, which had reportedly been struggling for business.

A Belleville restaurant and bar is changing its name and making a few other changes. By Thursday, the owners of the seafood restaurant known as Catch 22 Gastrolounge at 22 Mascoutah Ave. will officially change their name to Taps N Corks. Also new will be an expanded lounge, expanded spirits and 75 draft beer lines. The new business will serve dinner and be open from 4-10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call 233-8822 for more information.

A new gym opened in Belleville. Trainer Josh Nimmo opened CrossFit Metro-East at 1925 S. Illinois St., Suite B. The gym was initially established in 2010 and is the first metro-east locale for the chain. Nimmo moved the business and opened during the fall. He has been a CrossFit trainer for more than four years and an established personal trainer in the area for the past decade. You can reach him at 978-6665.

An new store in Collinsville sells name brand and mostly used office furniture. Absolute Commercial Interiors at 9500 Collinsville Road sells new, re-manufactured, and pre-owned desks, chairs, filing cabinets and more. Call the store at 344-9811 to find out more.

A new pediatrician practice opened in Shiloh. Dr. Daniel Mora is seeing patients at Right From the Start Pediatrics in the Prudential building at 1941 Frank Scott Parkway, Suite A. The practice has another location at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Breese. Call 526-8850 or visit www.drmorra  .com   to learn more.

And finally, a Swansea veterinarian and kennel service has joined other area animal welfare groups that list homeless pets online via Petfinder. Best Friends Animal Hospital and Pet Resort has tapped into Petfinder, www.petfinder.com  , the oldest and largest database where pet lovers can find animals to adopt. The site currently has more than 375,000 pets available and is constantly updated.

Fashion, not films, on show

Awards season is the Olympics of the fashion world. Being named best dressed at the Academy Awards is the style equivalent of winning gold. Months of preparation and years of networking combine to create the perfect Oscars look.

''The Oscars are very serious. The reality is the bigger the star the more power you have. It used to be an actress went into a store with a friend and bought a dress, now it's all about the relationships,'' co-host of E!'s Fashion Police and stylist George Kotsiopoulos told Fairfax.

''There are enough dresses, shoes and bags to go around but designers want exclusives and actresses don't want to see anyone else wearing something even remotely resembling their outfit on awards night.''

Stylist Jeanann Williams' photos of Australian actress Naomi Watts in her Zac Posen gown heading out the door to last weekend's Golden Globes.

The red carpet at an awards ceremony is one of the most important fashion shows in the world, not only for the guests and designers but also for the stylists and beauty therapists behind them. One person sashaying down the 152-metre red carpet into the Kodak Theatre in the right gown with the right hair, make-up and accessories can make or break careers.

Kotsiopoulos, who was named as one of the Top 25 stylists of 2012 by The Hollywood Reporter, encouraged Australian brands, like Australian actors, to make US connections in order to get noticed on the red carpet.

''It's all about relationships and reaching out to the stylists. You have to be present here in LA for at least a week before the ceremonies. It's tough and it's not cheap, especially for designers, as you have to have a seamstress on call at all times,'' he said.

Rather than enter the ring of the Hollywood fashion 'Fight Club' several Australian fashion and jewellery houses have, in previous years, preferred to tailor specific looks for specific celebrities.

For her 2011 Oscars debut, Jacki Weaver accessorised her Collette Dinnigan princess gown with Paspaley pearls. She visited the Sydney boutique and personally chose what she would wear on advice from in-house consultants and Australian fashion editors.

More recently, expat actress Teresa Palmer and her Camilla and Marc dress were a red-carpet highlight at the G'Day USA gala - a promising sign of things to come from Camilla Freeman-Topper and her brother Marc's awards season capsule collections that they have been producing.

The several million people who will tune in to watch the Oscars around the world next month will encounter the most diverse fashion plate the awards show has served up in its 85-year history.

The best actress category will showcase everything from children's wear to senior citizen's style thanks to nine-year-old nominee Quvenzhane Wallis and 85-year-old Amour star Emmanuelle Riva.

Fellow contenders Naomi Watts, Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence will all be vying for style gold stars as well as golden statues on the night.

While competition among stylists has intensified over the years as they try to secure never-before-seen and custom gowns for their clients, Kotsiopoulos said the playing field levels out as some stars have connections and lucrative deals with designers.

In 2012 Valentino came out of retirement especially to design Hathaway's wedding gown. She has previously worn gowns from his private vintage archive to Academy Awards ceremonies and recently travelled to Switzerland to attend his exclusive New Year's Eve party. ''Anne is like a daughter to him,'' a Valentino representative said.

A Dior-clad Lawrence didn't know the meaning of the words ''haute couture'' during an interview with Ryan Seacrest at the Golden Globes. The 22-year-old best actress nominee is the new face of the Miss Dior handbag campaign and is tipped to wear another one-off Christian Dior creation by Raf Simons to the Oscars.
Watts, a regular recipient of the Academy's critical attention, has been lauded with best-dressed accolades thanks to her new experimental looks. The 44-year-old's style evolution has been attributed to her role as Australia's Pantene Beautiful Lengths ambassador and her new stylist Jeanann Williams.

The pair have been working together since August and for most of that time Williams, who is married to Watts' brother Ben, has spent hours, sometimes even entire nights, sourcing inspiration for the dress The Impossible star will wear for less than six hours.

''The day the nominations came out the major fashion houses were all calling, sending sketches and colour options through because the designers love her,'' the fashion publicist turned stylist told Fairfax.
''She wears a dress beautifully and she has great relationships - as do I - with a lot of designers so we are now slowly trying to narrow it down, but we're not quite there yet. There will be two or three fittings then we will go back and forth with the atelier to ensure the fit is just perfect.''

She hinted historical photographs of Grace Kelly have provided her and Watts with ''options''. ''In my mind I'm imagining her going up to that podium so I'm envisioning a dress, a hairstyle and the accessories that will all stand the test of time.''

John Galliano invited to return to fashion

John Galliano has been invited by Oscar de la Renta to return to fashion for the first time since the designer's anti-Semitic rant at a Paris cafe was captured on video.

De la Renta invited Galliano to spend time in his studio over the next three weeks, according to a statement released Friday by de la Renta's company.

Galliano was dismissed as creative director of Christian Dior and left his own label two years ago after his rant went viral. A French court also convicted him on two other complaints of anti-Semitic behavior.
In a statement, Galliano said he is an alcoholic and has been in recovery for the past two years.

"Several years prior to my sobriety, I descended into the madness of the disease. I said and did things which hurt others, especially members of the Jewish community. I have expressed my sorrow privately and publicly for the pain which I have caused and I continue to do so," he said. "I remain committed to making amends to those I have hurt."

De la Renta said he has known Galliano for years and is "a great admirer of his talent."

"He has worked long and hard on his recovery and I'm happy to give him the opportunity to reimmerse himself in the world of fashion and reacclimate in an environment where he has been so creative," de la Renta said in a statement.

The statement did not elaborate on what role if any Galliano might play in de la Renta's business.
The saga of Galliano's undoing began with run-ins at a Paris watering hole where fellow diners contended the designer showered them with a litany of racist and anti-Semitic insults. Video posted online showed an inebriated Galliano slurring "I love Hitler," among other incendiary remarks.

The Anti-Defamation League said Friday that it welcomed Galliano's return to fashion.

"We believe that individuals can change their hearts and minds as long as they demonstrate true contrition," National Director Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement. He said Galliano met with the group on several occasions and "dedicated a significant amount of time to researching, reading, and learning about the evils of anti-Semitism and bigotry."

Foxman added that he hoped to work with Gallinao as a spokesman against anti-Semitism and intolerance.
Galliano's extravagant, theatrical collections drew inspiration from far-flung cultures like Kenya's Massai people and the geishas of Japan and his proud rooster-like post-fashion show strut had long been a thing of legend.

Although Galliano's remarks would not be punishable in the U.S., France has strict laws aimed at curbing anti-Semitic and racist language. The laws were enacted in the decades following the Holocaust.

Galliano's own namesake label, now designed by Bill Gaytten, was presenting its menswear collection in Paris on Friday.

Fashion Week, World Boutique Open for Business

Four-Day Hong Kong Fashion Fairs Attract more than 1,800 Exhibitors
Hong Kong, Jan 14, 2013 - (ACN Newswire) - More than 1,800 exhibitors from 30 countries and regions are taking part in the 44th HKTDC Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/Winter and the 11th HKTDC World Boutique, Hong Kong. The twin fashion fairs opened this morning and continue through 17 January at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Together, the two fairs welcome 115 buying missions from 43 countries and regions, representing more than 5,400 buyers from over 3,900 companies.

Product Spotlights
Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/Winter, the largest event of its kind in Asia, and the world's second largest fashion fair, features two new product zones: Fashion Jewellery Feast, and Men in Style. Returning to the fair are Fashion Gallery, focused on high fashion from Hong Kong and overseas, Emporium de Mode, presenting distinctive garments in an elegant setting, the Garment Mart, offering mass merchandise, and such special product zones as Denim Arcade and Intimate & Swim Wear.

Five group pavilions - from the Chinese mainland, India, Macau, Pakistan (new this year) and Taiwan - are participating. The Hong Kong Fur Federation's "Designers Love Fur Collection 2013" is on display at the Hall 1C Concourse, and the Hong Kong Apparel Society is featuring fashion by Hong Kong fabric suppliers at the Fashion Fabrics Hub Display, Hall 1B Concourse.

Hot Picks Showcase
Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall/Winter also offers a Small-Order Zone, featuring more than 1,000 products from some 200 suppliers. A "Hot Picks" showcase will allow buyers to try out products. The zone is located at the Expo Drive Entrance.

Global Fashion
The 11th edition of World Boutique, Hong Kong, is showcasing a record-high 559 brands, including Ashworth, b+ab, bread n butter, IKA BUTONI, Che Che New York, Episode, Jessica, KATIE JUDITH, Language, MARCCAIN, Mini Cream, Moiselle, Pashma, tout a coup and Ztampz. Peruvian designer Sumy Kujon is spotlighting her latest collection of baby alpaca blended with silk.

Industry associations with pavilions include the Hong Kong Fashion Designers Association, Japan's Kokusai Fashion Centre, the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association, the Carpi Italia, the Taiwan Textile Federation and the Los Angeles Regional Export Council.

Fashion Extravaganza
World Boutique, Hong Kong, once again includes Hong Kong Fashion Extravaganza. Tonight's event spotlights the latest collections of Paris' Nana Aganovich and Brooke Taylor designer duo, Beijing's Chi Zhang, London's Holly Fulton and Hong Kong's Johanna Ho. The gala presentation will also be broadcast live at Causeway Bay's Times Square, as part of "Hong Kong in Fashion." (The HKTDC will broadcast the show live as well, via the Google+ Hangouts On Air online.) The promotion, showcasing Hong Kong's role as a fashion hub and lifestyle trendsetter, continues through 23 January. The city-wide campaign includes the participation of local fashion retailers, restaurants, shopping malls and coffee shops.

Spotlight on Design
The Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers Contest gala evening, 15 January, will present four awards: Contemporary Day-wear, Party & Evening-Wear and Best Innovation, as well as an overall winner. The judging panel includes French creative consultant Marc Ascoli, this year's VIP Judge, as well as Kyoko Mashiko, Director of the Harajuku Project Showroom, HP France Inc, and Hong Kong fashion designer Hidy Ng. Winning designs will be on display at the Hall 1D Concourse during the fair.

The fairs offer a variety of seminars on fashion and design trends. Speakers include representatives of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, Fashion Snoops, the Hong Kong Apparel Society, Li & Fung Ltd, Peclers Paris, Stylesight and WGSN. Fashion Extravaganza designers Johanna Ho and Nana Aganovich and her partner Brooke Taylor will also be speaking about their work during the fair.

Fashion and home: Seventies style is stayin’ alive

From home decor to fashion and food, the styles and trends of the 1970s have slowly been creeping back into the mainstream, and this year they’re out in full force. Don’t be alarmed when you see the vibrant colors, bold patterns and relaxed entertaining of the decade taking over in today’s world. There are many ways to embrace the retro style while staying thoroughly modern with some simple expert tips.

Beauty and lifestyle expert Alexis Wolfer of TheBeautyBean.com has some simple suggestions for bringing the best of the ’70s to the current day.

“Fashion is always one of the earliest indicators of style re-emergence,” says Wolfer.
The popularity of mixed prints and varying textures is straight ’70s, and aspiring fashionistas shouldn’t be afraid to take risks.

“Keep all prints in the same color family and you can wear those striped pants with a polka dotted top,” Wolfer recommends. “Tweed, velvet and suede take boring basics to trendy new heights. Swap out your go-to little black dress for a velvet one to entertain in ’70s -inspired style.”

It’s not just personal fashion that is getting the ’70s treatment — this trend is popping up in home decor as well. Forty years ago, colorful appliances were must-haves to match shag carpets and paneled walls. Today the color is back, but dull green refrigerators are being replaced by brighter, more playful colors, like a tangerine orange KitchenAid stand mixer, a purple Keurig coffee machine or a bright red washer/dryer.

Appliances aren’t the only place in the kitchen where trends are re-emerging. Back in the ’70s, the Swiss tradition of fondue, shared around a table, was all the rage at dinner parties and social gatherings throughout the decade. Today, inspired by fondue restaurants, like The Melting Pot, and easy-to-prepare at-home options, people are breaking out their fondue pots more than ever for easy entertaining and a fun, social meal to enjoy.

“Fondue pots, either electric or candlelight-powered, are inexpensive and easy to find at retail chains or online,” says Wolfer. “Emmi Roth USA has a fantastic line of ready-made fondues that are simple and really delicious. Just open the package, pour into the pot and stir!”

Entertaining in the ’70s also meant playing games. “The ’70s brought game night into the spotlight and it’s making a comeback,” says Wolfer. “With family or friends, plan your own game night with classics like Twister or modern ones like Cranium. It’s inexpensive and fun for all ages.”

The ’70s was a complex decade but there was no shortage of fun, and embracing the tastes and trends of those days gone by can bring newfound vibrancy and enjoyment into the present.

Amid Tax Scandal, Italy's Bad Boys Of Fashion Dolce And Gabbana Become Billionaires

As Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana ready their latest collections for this spring’s slew of international catwalk shows, their lawyers will be working behind the scenes to ensure two of Italy’s most successful designers won’t be spending the next few Fashion Weeks behind bars.

In December, the design duo went on trial for alleged tax evasion after more than four years of investigations, hearings, and finally an acquittal that was then overturned by Italy’s Supreme Court.

On three separate days this January and February, a Milan judge will hear from Italian tax officials and other witnesses who’ll claim the two evaded over $500 million in taxes on well over $1 billion in royalties when they sold their Dolce & Gabbana and D&G brands to their own Luxembourg-based holding company in 2004. If convicted, they could face five years in jail and a hefty fine.

Dolce, 54, and Gabbana, 50, have denied any wrongdoing. “Our conscience is clear,” Gabbana told Women’s Wear Daily when their acquittal was overturned in 2011. “The decision is in God’s hands…We pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s not in our thoughts on a daily basis.”

“Tomorrow is another day,” said Dolce, adding: “We never did this for money…please write it down.”

They may not have had money on their minds when they went into business together 28 years ago, but ever since, the bad boys of Italian fashion have amassed a fortune that has propelled them into the billionaires’ club.

In 2011, Dolce & Gabbana’s parent company reported revenues of just under $1.5 billion. Using our own calculations and price-to-revenue ratios for similar public companies, Forbes estimates that the one-time romantic partners, who own 50% of the private company apiece according to Italian legal filings, are worth well over $1 billion each.

The designers — fixtures on the party and yacht circuits — made their fortune selling their decadent, sexy lifestyle to the masses, who snapped up the Dolce & Gabbana aesthetic not just in clothing but in perfume, purses and accessories.

The two made the decision to shutter lower-priced diffusion brand D&G (think $80 slogan t-shirts) in 2011 to focus on their bread and butter, Dolce & Gabbana. This allowed the duo to debut their first couture collection in September 2012, to a rapturous reception from the fashion press (Vogue deemed the gowns “stunning”, and they don’t mince their words).

They claim to have no interest in taking the company public — at least, not for the foreseeable future. Nor will they sell out to one of the all-powerful fashion conglomerates like LVMH. In an interview with the Financial Times last year, Dolce explained that they “don’t want the money.”

Dolce and Gabbana will likely debut on Forbes’ next World’s Billionaires List in March. They’ll join American designer Tory Burch, the most recent inductee to the 10-figure fashion club, just behind Diesel founder Renzo Rosso who made his fortune with designer denim and made it into the billionaires’ club in December.

SDL and Specialty Fashion Group Create Winning Project

 SDL (SDL.L) today announced that its client, Specialty Fashion Group (SFG), has won the Customer Engagement Award from Retail TouchPoints in the category of Cross-Channel Analytics, powered by the SDL Intelligent Marketing Suite.

SFG is Australia''s largest women''s apparel group, delivering mass personalization to over 7 million loyalty members across 6 brands in 893 stores and 7 transactional websites. By implementing the SDL Intelligent Marketing Suite, SFG was able to drastically reduce production times for electronic direct marketing from 24 hours to less than two hours. The company then leveraged this improved efficiency to interact with data captured through customer interactions in new ways. For the first time SFG was able to gain a single-view of their customers and deliver personalized, targeted communications based on the behavior of individual customers. Since implementing the SDL solution, SFG has seen an ROI of 2,200 percent on its most recent electronic direct marketing campaigns.

"We are thrilled to congratulate SFG for their foresight and vision in creating what can only be described as an ''omni-channel'' approach," said Bob Hale, CEO of SDL Campaign Management and Analytics Division. "SFG''s results are impressive and show how retailers can optimize individual customer experiences and drive engagement by looking at a single view of customers across the multiple channels."

"SFG is honored to be recognized by Retail TouchPoints," said Alison Henriksen, CFO of SFG. "Data is a critical component of our business, but too much data or the wrong data can be detrimental to our relationships with our customers. Working with SDL, we are able to better understand our customer data and as a result deliver promotions and information through the right channel at the right time."

The Retail TouchPoints awards recognize retailers for their unique customer engagement strategies and analytics. Winners include large, national retailers as well as smaller, regional companies.

"We are proud to honor retail companies that have embraced customer engagement and implemented solutions and services that are delighting customers and improving the bottom line," said Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief of Retail TouchPoints. "The award winners are ahead of the curve and are achieving business success in this increasingly competitive and challenging marketplace."