MAN OF THE WEEK

Crazy Stupid FashionRyan Gosling might be the fi rst on the block with his spring 2012 Gucci suit, but maybe he was a little ahead of himself. Page MW4

PLUS:Agnès b creates capsule collection for Barneys New York. Page MW2

August 4, 2011

Twin brothers Shimon and Ariel Ovadia’s polished take on the classics has built a growing buzz around their Ovadia & Sons label. Bloomingdale’s will launch the line this fall and Barneys New York will add it next spring. For more looks from the spring 2012 collection, see page MW3.

FreshStart

{Continued on page MW4}PHOT

O BY

ROB

ERT

MIT

RA

NEW LOOK

Van Heusen Puts Muscle Behind Slim-Fit ShirtsTrimmer styles now represent 20 percent of the sales at Van Heusen

by JEAN E. PALMIERI

THE WORLD’S LARGEST DRESS SHIRT manufacturer is slimming down.

After a successful test earlier this year with double-digit sell-throughs, Phillips-Van Heusen is preparing for a full market launch of a slimmer, more youthful collection of dress shirts under the Van Heusen Studio name for spring.

“The dress shirt business in general across the country is good,” said Mitchell Lechner, president of the PVH dress shirt group. “AURs [average unit retails] are up in all channels of distribution. It’s a good time for dress shirts.”

What’s driving the business, Lechner said, is consumer interest in a more modern silhou-ette, which fi ts tighter to the body and avoids the excess fabric that had become a hallmark of the dress shirt market over the years.

Slim-fit dress shirts at PVH now ac-count for 30 percent of the overall business, Lechner revealed, up from the single digits two years ago. Fitted shirts are 15 percent of sales and regular fi t is 55 percent.

At the Van Heusen division, slim currently accounts for 20 percent, fi tted is 15 percent and regular fi t is 65 percent. Lechner pro-jected that with the national launch of Van Heusen Studio, the percentage of slim fi t at the Van Heusen division will double.

The dress shirt market has experienced strong growth as young men have embraced a more dressed-up sensibility. According to the most recent fi gures from The NPD Group, for the fi rst fi ve months of this year, sales of men’s dress shirts rose 8 percent to $755 mil-lion. This goes hand-in-hand with the increase of 8.4 percent in tailored clothing in the same period. The dress shirt market is being driven by a slimmer silhouette and hybrid patterns that can be worn with or without a tie.

But while the fashion trend among young men is undeniable, Lechner said slimmer fi ts appeal to customers of all ages. “The catego-ry has become more youthful,” he said. “It’s not an age, it’s a lifestyle. You can be 50 and still be youthful.”

He added: “Men are more comfortable than ever before with less fabric and a slim-mer look, not just in dress shirts but in suit-ings as well. Dress shirts fi t better than other woven shirts and as men become more body- and fashion-conscious they want their shirt to fi t properly. Men see their appearance as a key to social and professional success. This is illustrated by the numerous fi tness maga-zines and grooming products geared toward

MW00 WWD XXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX XX, 2011

Clad Set for Mid-August LaunchE-commerce site will focus on high-end contemporary brands such as Hugo Boss, John Varvatos and Billy Reid.by JEAN E. PALMIERI

CLAd hAs fouNd its niche in contemporary luxury.The new men’s e-commerce and style site, owned by J.C.

Penney Co.’s Growth Brands division, is slated for a mid-Au-gust launch and will offer brands ranging from hugo Boss and John Varvatos to Billy Reid and Calvin Klein.

What sets the site apart is its collaboration with Esquire, which is producing a promotional “mini-magazine,” called the Clad Report, four times a year which will be inserted into the magazine and will also be available on both Esquire and Clad’s Web sites.

“Early this year we hired seth howard to act as a liaison between the Esquire editorial department and Clad,” said david Granger, editor in chief of Esquire. howard “familiar-ized himself” with the most important fashion trends of the season, took that “intelligence and embedded himself into the Clad inventory” to interpret the trends for fall.

Esquire also helped create the editorial offerings on the Clad Web site in sections entitled “damn Good Advice” as well as through the “Esquire’s Picks” sprinkled throughout.

Will swillie, president of Clad, said the site will offer 40 percent sportswear, 10 percent tailored clothing and 16 per-cent shoes. The remainder will be furnishings and accessories such as shirts, ties, cuff links, watches and jewelry.

other brands that will be featured at the launch include Michael Kors, Jack spade, Rag & Bone, Cole haan, Redwing, Vince, seven for All Mankind, Citizens of humanity, Joe’s Jeans, hickey freeman, Ben sherman, Levi’s, Tumi, Malin +

Goetz, Billy Jealousy and Kale Naturals. The site will be full price except for traditional clearance

periods, swillie said. he explained that when Growth Brands was formed last

year and the decision was made to enter the e-commerce space, the company hired Bain & Co. to “see where the white space was.” The consultants said there was a void for a men’s-only, full-price e-commerce site — one that would appeal to men aged 24 to 54 who did not follow runway trends but still cared about how they looked. “he’s a guy’s guy,” swillie added. “he’s watching EsPN and he thinks dressing is impor-tant, but he needs a little help.”

As a result, Clad will offer a proprietary fit technology, the Tapeless Tailor, that allows men to input what clothes they already own that they like and the site will offer suggestions for future purchases. Clad will also use Esquire’s recommen-dations to help customers coordinate outfits. “We’re building a virtual dressing room,” swillie said. “Most other engines are based on what others have bought. But this is the equivalent of having a salesman in the room with you.”

swillie said that in addition to promoting the site in Esquire, the company is planning a digital marketing strategy including banner ads and keyword searches on sites such as facebook and LinkedIn.

“Magazines create desire and make recommendations, but then what do people do with it?” Granger asked. “We believe the next stage is for magazines to allow people to make purchases.”

Esquire tinkered with e-commerce before, but it was not especially successful. Last March, the company created the

Esquire Collection of 25 essential items. But Granger said that because each item had its own bar code and directed the user to a different Web site, it was “unwieldy.” With Clad, readers will be directed to one site to make all their purchases.

he said Esquire and its parent company, hearst Corp., will profit from the sales they drive to Clad. “If things go well, it will help Esquire’s bottom line,” he said without providing further details. “We are true partners.”

Growth Brand division has a similar collaboration with hearst’s Good housekeeping and Redbook magazines for a Web site called Gifting Grace, an online giftware site.

J. Crew to Open Men’s Store In the Shops at Columbus Circle J. CREW WILL oPEN a men’s-only store in the shops at Columbus Circle this fall, bring-ing the number of its men’s stores to six.

At the same time, the retailer is in the midst of an aggressive remodeling plan of several of its existing dual-gender units designed to “maximize their efficiency and growth potential,” according to the company.

The 3,240-square-foot men’s store in Columbus Circle will be on the second floor in a former Benetton/sisley space. It will be located near the company’s existing store in the center, which will be remodeled and converted to all women’s and Crew-cuts, the company’s children’s con-cept. The men’s store is expected to open at the beginning of November and the mix will be similar to the other J. Crew men’s stores in soho and on Madison Avenue, with a suit department, shirt shop, shoes and third-party goods.

“We loved the space being so close and on the same floor as our current space, so that our customers would be able to easily locate both,” according to frank Muytjens, vice president of men’s design. “This new men’s location has a great cor-ner presence with great traffic and expo-sure. We find that in certain locations and cities, we are really able to cater to our men’s shoppers and tweak each of those locations to the specific customer. our men’s customers are savvy, and know what they like, and enjoy having their own en-vironments where they feel comfortable shopping. We are always looking for just the right space, and opportunity for more as they come open. When it feels right, we will open more.”

The store will be a mix of reclaimed raw oak millwork, dark slate floors, black-ened steel and oak fixtures, according to Muytjens. “It will feel warm, and curated.”

The company is planning a similar move for its san francisco Center store. J. Crew has obtained the space next door and will convert the existing store in that mall to a

men’s shop. Women’s will relocate into the newly acquired space and a Crewcuts shop will be installed in the rear. There will be a connection between the two stores to allow easy access for customers.

The women’s design will feature a mix of raw white oak and white lacquer,

with touches of blackened steel and black lacquer, while the men’s store will retain cherry finishes, “will be gentlemanly and slightly moody,” the company said. The men’s space will have a designated suit and shoe area. The project is expected to be completed in mid-october.

on Wednesday, the company reopened its Rockefeller Center store after a cos-metic upgrade. It now includes a suit shop in men’s and a shoe, bag and accessory area in women’s.

other remodels on tap for this year include dedham, Mass., reopening Tues-day; Westport, Conn., which will reopen on Wednesday; Phoenix, slated for Aug. 16; Murray, utah, on Aug. 30, and fort Worth, Trumbull, Conn. and Little Rock, Ark. in september.

“our plan is to remodel stores as the leases come up for renewal, or when we are outgrowing the current space,” a spokesperson said. “We do this all in con-junction with building new stores, and ex-panding the fleet.”

— J.E.P.

Agnès b. Creates Line for Barneysby RosEMARY fEITELBERG

AGNès TRouBLé (better known as agnès b.) has had a fondness for Barneys New York for decades, and that only made her deci-sion to design an exclusive men’s wear col-lection for the upscale New York retailer all the easier.

This week’s debut of the agnès b. homme capsule collection is a homecoming of sorts for the Paris-based designer, who used to sell her label to the Madison Avenue flagship years ago. shortly after she opened a signa-ture Prince street boutique, Troublé was invited by Phyllis and fred Pressman, Bar-neys’ former owners, to have dinner at their Manhattan apartment. In what was then the high-flying Eighties, they whisked her over in a chauffeured limousine and that memory has yet to fade. The trio became fast friends and the designer started selling her clothing at the store. Now with 10 subsidiaries, 282 freestanding stores and 2,000 employees, Troublé finds herself selling again to Bar-neys after a long absence.

Granted, the retailer’s management and point of view have evolved considerably, but Troublé still sees the human element first and foremost. Asked what she found most gratifying about this venture, she said, “They are very nice people to work with. It is very harmonious working together.”

her exclusive men’s wear — slim suits, a motorcycle jacket, sweaters, shirts and outerwear — is be-ing sold in Barneys’ Madison Avenue flag-ship, as well as its Bev-erly hills and Chicago stores. The pieces, which are meant to be essentials for a well-dressed man’s fall wardrobe, are on the fourth floor in Manhat-tan near Burberry and Paul smith. The line, which retails from $165 for a long-sleeve striped T-shirt to $850 for a wool overcoat, is also sold on barneys.com. A women’s offer-

ing may follow, according to Troublé, who said, “This may be the beginning of some-thing.”

Barneys was on the hunt for “pure and modern clothes” that would appeal to clients who were squared away with weekend wear but needed “something more sleek for the city,” according to Tom Kalenderian, general merchandise manager and executive vice president of men’s and the Chelsea Passage. “Agnès b kept coming up as a reference to this minimalist mood, referencing timeless classics like the perfect white shirt, skinny black jacket and trouser — what better solu-tion than to go to the source,” he said.

While Troublé has not dealt personally with Mark Lee, the leader of Barneys’ new regime, she said the change in direction may attract some younger customers. Art is such an integral piece of Troublé’s work that her howard street store has a gallery space for artist exhibitions.

Barneys’ artistic viewpoint is evident in the agnès b. styles, which include a T-shirt imprinted with photographs taken by the late actor dennis hopper. his son henry, who stars is Gus Van sant’s “fearless,” due out in october, wore one of the Ts in the de-signer’s runway show in Paris in June.

Even though Troublé was reached Wednesday vacationing in Italy, she spoke of another important pursuit — championing

french-made goods. “I am quite optimistic about that. But we need to work on that. That is one of my fights,” she said. “I am very loyal to the people who make my clothes. We need to provide work for them so it’s more expensive, but it is high quality and people appreciate the Made in france la-bel. It’s starting to be a value, even Made in the u.s.A. is, too. It’s very interesting to peo-ple in other parts of the world. some are not so happy to be [manufac-turing] in China.”

The revamped Rockefeller Center store.

A look from the capsule collection.

MW2 WWD thursday, august 4, 2011 Men’s Week

The Clad homepage.

by DaviD Lipke

in the summer of 2009, twin brothers shimon and ariel ovadia ducked into the Double rL store in east hampton, n.Y. to es-cape a thunderstorm. inside, the duo encoun-tered their longtime hero, ralph Lauren, who was there with his wife, ricky, and brother, Jerry. the chance meeting, which led to an al-most hour-long chat with the designer, would be a pivotal moment in the brothers’ lives.

“some kids grow up idolizing movie stars or athletes. We grew up idolizing ralph Lauren,” remembered shimon ovadia, who is seven minutes older than his brother. “the idea of launching our own line had been brewing for a while, but it was meeting ralph that really put the match to the fire. We told him our whole life story and he said, ‘if you want one piece of advice, do what you love and do what you believe in.’”

the ovadia brothers, 28, took that advice to heart and this past spring introduced their first col-lection under the ovadia & sons label. the ex-tensive lineup launched ambitiously with a wide range of categories, including suits, outer-wear, shirting, sportswear, neckwear, acces-sories, formalwear and even shoes. the label is a modern take on the classic english and american wardrobe, with a whiff of italian flair thrown in. the overall effect is rather understated when looking at a particular gar-ment but dashingly sophisticated and luxe when pulled together into a complete look.

“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. We focus on a few things: the quality of fabrics, the quality of make and a slimmer silhou-ette, although nothing drastic,” explained ariel ovadia.

for the first season, the ovadia brothers limited distribution to their own e-commerce site and their by-appointment showroom near union square at 37 W. 15th street. this fall, the line will be wholesaled for the first time to the directional ChCm boutique on Bond street in new York, in addition to an ovadia corner, which will open at Bloomingdale’s in new York at the end of this month.

“it will have a prominent wall in the de-signer area, right across from marc Jacobs and around the corner from ralph Lauren,” noted kevin harter, vice-president of men’s fashion direction at Bloomingdale’s. “i in-stantly fell in love with the collection when i saw it. they know their craft. it’s got great fabrics and it’s modern but still goes back to a heritage feel.”

for next spring, Barneys new York has picked up the line as well. “it’s wonderful how natty and debonair their taste is for two young guys,” said tom kalenderian, execu-tive vice president and general merchandise manager for men’s at Barneys new York.

“they represent the essence of what is exciting about the men’s business today.”

for spring 2012, the ovadia & sons collection includes a water-resistant motorcycle jacket in yellow nylon for $1,095 and a sleek, black calf-skin flight jacket for $985. suits come in timeless styles with trim fits, such as navy wool windowpane, navy wool chalk stripe, beige gabardine or tropical-weight wool double-breasted in pearl gray. prices range from $1,950 to $2,695 for a double-breasted,

shawl collar tuxedo in mohair.shirts come with english

cutaway or club collars, ranging from $185 to $285, with a tuxedo shirt with bib collar priced at $345. sporty cotton sweat-ers with red or white nauti-cal stripes are $230, while a cashmere pullover in a camel and brown hound-stooth pattern is $645.

ties in solids, stripes and underknots come in silk knits, wool gabardine or crisp cotton and are priced from $95 to $125.

the brothers searched extensively for best-in-class factories to produce each cat-egory. the suits are manufac-tured by martin Greenfield in Brooklyn, the shoes are made in northampton, england, the

shirts in new Jersey and knitwear in scotland and madagascar.

the ovadia brothers grew up in the rag trade — but from about as far away from their own personal aesthetic as you can get. the twins — along with an older brother, avi, who helps with the business end of ovadia & sons but stays behind the scenes — worked as teenagers for their father’s business, a children’s wear distribu-

tion company that dealt in closeout merchandise.

it wasn’t glamorous but today that company, magic kids

inc., does more than $10 million a year in sales and operates four warehouses in new York, new Jersey and California. the company, based in manhattan, distributes its own line of toddler’s apparel, called Cotton Candy, to mass retail-ers like Wal-mart, J.C. penney and

Burlington Coat factory, as well as distribut-ing children’s apparel with licensed insignia from the nfL, nBa and college teams.

“our father immigrated from israel and started the company from the living room of our home in Brooklyn, eventually moving it into the garage,” recalled ariel ovadia. “We really saw our father grow the company from the ground up.”

even as youngsters, the ovadia brothers were drawn to classic men’s style and spent their work earnings on ralph Lauren, vintage clothes and iconic designs like Levi’s jeans. “We had a little group of friends and we would dress up and talk about clothing and shoes,” recalled shimon ovadia. “even then we loved the classic things. some people spent money on video games, we spent it on clothes. But we were lucky — we both wore the same size and could share things. although some things were strictly off-limits to each of us.”

neither of the ovadia brothers attended college or design school, choosing instead to go into the family business right out of high school. “We went to the school of life. and you can’t pay for that kind of education,” said shimon ovadia.

Ovadia & Sons Builds on the ClassicsShimon and Ariel Ovadia turn a family legacy in children’s wear into a sophisticated new men’s line.

Men’s Week MW3WWD thursday, august 4, 2011

by BamBina Wise

maniLa — When entrepreneur mark Gonzalez opened the groundbreaking homme & femme store 16 years ago in manila’s upmarket shangri-La plaza shop-ping center, directional designers were con-sidered a risky undertaking for the country’s largely play-it-safe fashion sensibilities. the choices in men’s wear were particularly con-servative and predictable: during the week, business suits or the barong, the local formal dress shirt made from pineapple silk; on the weekends, it was the preppy look very much inspired by polo ralph Lauren. thus, the likes of martin margiela, Dries van noten, Y-3 and Comme des Garçons were labels un-known to all but a very select clientele.

Gonzalez persevered with his vision and built up the homme & femme brand. “it took a while for us to build our niche, to be understood,” he explained. “not only to be understood, but to have a recognizable man-ner of running our retail operations.”

his latest venture, univers d’homme & femme, can perhaps be regarded as a cul-mination of this vision. a 4,500-square-foot

concept store that was four years in the mak-ing, univers is more a lifestyle gallery than fashion boutique. top philippine architect ed Calma was tapped to transform a ground-floor space in the exclusive rockwell Center development into a modern, free-flowing, light-filled, glass-walled emporium sur-rounded by a Zen garden.

“it’s homme & femme all grown up,” Gonzalez said. “With univers, we are extend-ing our influence beyond fashion through fra-grances, home decor, publications and furni-ture, strategically repositioning the brand, in step with our creed of having a modern point of view.” he likes to think of the store as of-fering “classics for our generation.”

among the modern classics comprising the men’s offer are Jil sander, rick owens, pierre hardy, Comme des Garçons homme, Black and Y-3. interspersed throughout the store are displays of vintage midcentury modern furniture, some perched on elevated planks, giving customers the feeling of walk-ing into an exhibition. shoes and fragrances occupy another section, with their own dra-matic displays featuring curved white walls and shelves.

the univers man, according to Gonzalez, is “confident, self-assured and successful, a man who has made it on his own merits. thus, he is not encumbered by norms that are often present in societies. he dresses to please himself more than others, and is typi-cally a leader in his industry.”

as a key player in the luxury market in the philippines who has been influential in shaping local appetite for directional fashion, Gonzalez noticed that traditionally, customers used to shop abroad, primarily in nearby asian cities like hong kong and singapore. “now they shop locally, mainly because of availability, immediacy and con-venience. Luxury here is now more competi-tive in terms of range and pricing, and atten-tive to a very loyal clientele.”

Looking at demographics, he added that “our market is mostly in their 30s onwards. shopping abroad is less of an option for them as they would normally travel overseas with their families.”

expanding from a purely fashion bou-tique to a lifestyle concept store was or-ganic as well as practical. Gonzalez cited the worsening traffic situation in metro-politan manila as a significant factor in establishing the store. But apart from the traffic, he believed that “over the past 16 years we have carved up quite a niche, a niche resulting from a ‘taste’ level. We felt it was the right time to evolve into a life-style store. We felt that now we want to be a part of our client’s everyday life — be it the decor that surrounds them, the maga-zines they read, the art they see or the items they collect, smell and feel.”

Master of the Univers

Inside Univers d’Homme & Femme.

Ariel and Shimon Ovadia

Phot

os b

y Ro

beRt

mit

Ra

Looks from the spring 2012 collection.

Men’s WeekMW4 WWD thursday, august 4, 2011

men that have launched in the past few years.”And the dress shirt market is reaping the benefits. In addition

to PVH, other manufacturers have experienced similar success. In a recent check of the market, vendors ranging from Individualized Shirts and Gitman to Perry Ellis and Gant all pointed to slim-fit models as the current cash cow. “It’s not about skinny. It’s about cleaning up the volume and looking neater,” said one major retailer.

To capitalize further on the trend, PVH will offer four col-lections a year of Van Heusen Studio shirts: spring, summer, fall and holiday. In addition to the slim fit, the shirts will also feature smaller collars, more contemporary details and the pat-terns will be edgier. “There will be more casual, exploded pat-

terns,” Lechner said, “that can work with or without neckwear.”

He continued: “Dress shirts as a category has been so successful because it has become younger in both age and life-style. Today’s fashion offers smaller collars and plackets, as well as patterns, which enable a consumer to wear a dress shirt for many different occa-sions with or without a tie. This has reso-nated more than ever with younger custom-ers in all channels of distribution. If you pick up any fashion magazine these days,

you will see a younger consumer in a shirt and tie and he may be wearing them with jeans or a suit.”

The collection, which will retail at $45, the same price as the regular Van Heusen line, is expected to help department stores keep up with the influx of fashion dress shirts among its specialty store competitors. “The department stores still own the dress shirt business, but if you look at the middle of the mall now — J. Crew, Express — they’re really push-ing dress shirts. That’s what’s moving the men’s category.” Lechner said he’s not threatened by the new competition. In fact, he welcomes it. “The more people who wear dress shirts and neckwear in different ways, the more terrific it is for the category.”

Lechner urged department stores to capitalize on the new product offering by enhancing the in-store presentation. “There’s a challenge to the department store in how to dis-play it,” he said. “If they keep it horizontal on tables, they’re not showing the excitement and there’s so much opportunity in this category. We’re doing a good job getting the younger guy, but they have to show it properly.”

The collection also includes a selection of matching shirts and ties, which will retail for $60. Many of the shirts offer stretch features and are wrinkle-free.

The marketing plan for the new collection is still being formulated, Lechner said, but it is expected that it will be a key component of the company’s advertising efforts with the NFL and ESPN.

MeMo pad

Man of THE WEEK

Phot

o by

Jim

SPe

llm

an/W

irei

mag

e

Gosling plays a fashion guru to Steve Carell in the romantic comedy “Crazy Stupid Love” but needs a little style advice himself. Instead of wearing the Gucci sample fresh off its spring 2012 runway (look #38 on the run-of-show), he perhaps should wait for the suit to be produced in his size.

A bit too narrow for the

Seventies lapel.

Should be slicked back to match the

evening mood of the suit.

The cuff is the perfect length.

His buff guns give a sausage

effect.

3-D effect may be a trend for

spring, but it’s too modern for

his boy-next-door image.

Ditto for the thighs. Looks like he’s

wearing jeggings.

RyAn GoSLinG: B-

Van Heusen studioto roll out in Spring

{Continued from page MW1}

BRANDED BFF’S: A little more than two years after establishing a presence on Facebook, Levi Strauss & Co. has left behind the notion of “a small circle of friends.”

Levi’s concluded July with more than 6.2 million Facebook “likes,” more than five times the number-two denim brand (Guess, with 1.2 million) and identical to the sum of the 90 other denim brands monitored, according to figures compiled by Stylophane Inc., the social media and Internet marketing firm that maintains daily records of Facebook and Twitter activity. The consolidation of numerous Levi’s branded sites, coupled with organic growth, gave Levi’s a 1.6 million, or 35 percent, increase over the 4.6 million likes garnered by the San Francisco-based firm’s flagship brand in June. The July 2010 figure stood at 517,000.

A Levi’s spokeswoman noted that the firm has focused on “giving our fans engaging content and applications that strike a chord with their passion for change,” including the Water<Less initiative designed to cut water consumption.

Alex Mendoza, a partner at Stylophane, pointed out that while Levi’s rapid growth has put it in uncharted territory among denim brands, it is far from the top of Facebook’s fashion phenomena. Five other fashion brands — led by Converse, followed by Adidas, Nike Football, Burberry and Lacoste — are “liked” by more Facebook users, with their end-of-the-month likes ranging from Converse’s 20.3 million to Lacoste’s 6.24 million.

“There are only nine brands with more than 5 million ‘likes’ in fashion and footwear,” Mendoza noted, “and the majority are footwear firms. There are none in the beauty or jewelry-watch categories at all.”

However, at the end of last month there were seven fashion brands in retailing over the 5 million mark — from Victoria’s Secret (at 14.7 million) to American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (at 5 million), with Aéropostale Inc. just beneath it. — ARNOLD J. KARR

TALKING THE WALK: “I’m a fast walker. A very fast walker I’d say,” Kevin O’Malley, the new publisher of Elle, said on Tuesday night. He was poolside on the roof of The James hotel in SoHo at a party thrown in his honor by his new partner, Elle editor in chief Robbie Myers. He was talking about walking the walk from his old office in the Hearst Tower to Elle’s outpost on Avenue of the Americas — “about eight blocks.”

O’Malley, late of Esquire, was Hearst magazine president David Carey’s choice to run the empire’s new star. Was selling ad pages at a men’s magazine easier for the publisher? “I don’t think it’s easier,” O’Malley said. “The biggest difference is there’s a lot more women on my staff at Elle.”

Carey, standing against the railing of the deck with the sun setting to his back, said there would be “no more significant personnel moves” at the company following the acquisition, now that he’s shifted the company’s publishers around. But the magazines still have to move. Elle and it’s formerly Hachette-owned brothers and sisters will begin moving to the Hearst mothership on Eighth Avenue after Labor Day.

“The real estate people are hard at work putting the puzzle together,” Carey said, insisting that floor selection won’t be political, with sexier titles on higher floors. “It may have been in the past when they had a brand new building,” he said. “In this case the floors get based on the least dislocation to the building. Now we’re thinking in terms of the path of least resistance because we don’t want to touch all 44 floors.”

Forget internal competition. With a Jay Fielden-driven September issue of Town & Country coming out and Elle in the building, Hearst now has more obvious muscle to go after Condé Nast ad pages. “The publishers, even within Condé Nast, compete ferociously as you well know,” Carey said. “And our publishers go head to head against them.

“I don’t get involved with it,” he continued. “It’s up to the publishers to steal market share — that’s what we pay them for and want them to focus on.”

And what did Myers have to say about increased head-on competition with Vogue? “I think all of us in the same space are competitors with one another. How politically correct was that?” — ZeKe TuRNeR

Looks from the Van Heusen

Studio collection.

(on A cuRVe)

The break of the pant

is clean and sleek.