DAILY EDITION OCTOBER 31, 2016 1

Fashion. Beauty. Business.

Slow BotsRetailers are moving slowly in adopting chat bots for social commerce.

Page 8

Sealing HolidayThe Wet Seal sets a slate of pop-up shops for holiday to gauge where to open stores.

Page 4

Miss Piggy In SpadesThe porcine icon talks fashion and being the face of Kate Spade’s holiday campaign.

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● The designer died at his home in West Hollywood.

BY WWD STAFF

James Galanos died Sunday morning of natural causes at his house in West Holly-wood, Calif., according to his friend, the designer Ralph Rucci. He was 92.

Galanos was among the West Coast contingent of designers — along with Adolfo — who dressed the Ladies Who Lunch in California, from Los Angeles to San Fran-cisco, but who suddenly shot to fame when one of their clients, Nancy Reagan, became first lady. Reagan was a loyal supporter of Galanos, often wearing his gowns to state dinners. But shortly after the Reagans left the White House, Galanos left fashion. He spent the last decade or more focusing on art and photography, only occasionally min-gling with the fashion world.

“I had my career. I never looked back. I only look at tomorrow,” he told WWD in 2008.

Rucci said Sunday, “He’s a touchstone, like [Cristòbal] Balenciaga. He really didn’t like to give interviews. He believed the clothes spoke. He worked. He had integrity, he had great humility. Sometimes that was misinterpreted as snobbism. No — there was

● Clinton is seen as a president the fashion industry can work with, while Trump is considered more unpredictable, which generates uncertainty for businesses.

BY KRISTI ELLIS

WASHINGTON — Team Hillary — despite all her problems.

That could be the fashion and retail industry’s nickname this election season as a slew of designers and retail industry executives not only have held fund-rais-ing events for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over the last six months, but have made contributions of their own as well.

OBITUARY

James Galanos, Nancy Reagan Designer, 92

BUSINESS

IndustryFundingFavors Clinton

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The photographers were clicking away frantically as Nicki Minaj arrived at the Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars on the arm of Riccardo Tisci. Wearing a black lace Givenchy dress, the singer-songwriter held court at the

head table. Here, with Joan Smalls, a double dose of rap and runway. For more from the FGI gala, see page 9.

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A celebration of the leading innovators and outstanding product launches that made for an unforgettable year in beauty

Ad Close: 11.18 / Materials Due: 11.25

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AWA R D S I S S U E

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT LOUISE COOLICK, BEAUTY DIRECTOR AT 646 356 4705 OR LCOOLICK@WWD.COM

An Advertising Opportunity

OCTOBER 31, 2016 3

Study: Ivanka Trump Brand Avoids Boycott by Consumers ● Majority of Millennial consumers said they would still buy the brand.

● Jack O’Connell to Play Lee Alexander McQueen In Film

● Kelly Cutrone Films Pro-Clinton Spot With Daughter Ava in the Run-Up to the Election

● Fashion’s Busiest Photographers

● Liberty Says Farewell To Burstell, but Who Will Replace Him?

TOP 5TRENDINGON WWD.COM

NEWSMAKERSThis Week’s Most Talked About Names In Our Industry

Riccardo Tisci

Joan Smalls

Nicki Minaj

Miss Piggy

● ”Sequential improvements” in Asia-Pacific are among encouraging signs as companies report third-quarter revenues.

BY MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Investors are gaining confidence concerning the luxury sector as sluggish-ness yields to “sequential improvement in Asia-Pacific and the all-important Chinese cluster,” says a new research report by RBC Capital Markets.

Megabrands Gucci and Louis Vuitton surprised with strong like-for-like sales gains in the third quarter, “implying significant market share gains,” analyst Rogerio Fujimori wrote, also noting that these two luxury handbag brands were the most preferred in its recent survey of Millennial consumers in the U.S.

He noted that “easier comparatives in key markets like Greater China, Korea and the U.S.” are helping companies post pos-itive revenue growth in Q3 and leading to “positive share price action.”

The latter has been the case even when results were mixed, as was the case for Luxottica and Tod’s Group.

Despite weak wholesale guidance, Burberry shares also spiked on “unsub-stantiated” speculation of a merger with Coach. “Never say never, but the prob-ability of a deal seems low to us. This is due to Burberry’s size, brand life cycle stage, very different brand strategies and limited cost synergies, in our view,” the report says.

Pandora, Hermès International, Com-pagnie Financière Richemont and Jimmy

Choo are due to report Q3 revenues in the coming weeks.

RBC expects Hermès to report another quarter of double-digit growth in leather goods.

“We also flag positive read-across from Dior Couture’s material sequential improvement in Q3,” the report read.

Revenues at the French fashion house rose 7 percent to 502 million euros, or $557.8 million, in the three months ended Sept. 30, as reported.

This marked “a decidedly positive shift with respect to the previous quarters,” the company said.

In tandem with its report, RBC raised its earnings per share guidance by 4 percent for Gucci parent Kering, and increased sales and EBIT forecasts for Luxottica.

“Comments in the conference calls on current trading have been so far broadly encouraging as we approach the key festive season,” Fujimori added.

● The group comes after the integration of Italy’s biggest trade show organizers, Rimini Fiera SpA and Fiera di Vicenza SpA.

BY LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — The integration of two of Italy’s biggest trade show organizers, Rimini Fiera SpA and Fiera di Vicenza SpA, was made official on Oct. 28, with the announcement of the name of the new entity: Italian Exhibition Group. The new group aims to publicly list in 2018 and to further aggregate other trade shows. Two additional shows in the food category are expected to join Italian Exhibition Group on Nov. 3, but president Lorenzo Cagnoni and vice president Matteo Marzotto declined to provide details. Cagnoni and Marzotto were speaking from Rimini, flanked by the mayors of Rimini and Vicenza and general director Claudio Facco, in a vid-eoconference with journalists in Milan at the city’s Stock Exchange.

“Either you increase in size and you become one of the first or you are des-tined to succumb,” Cagnoni said. Rimini Fiera and Fiera di Vicenza, he added, “are economically solid and complemen-tary, and they share prospects, strategies and vision.”

Marzotto, who has been revitalizing VicenzaOro since his appointment as president of Fiera di Vicenza at the end of

December 2013, saidthe advantage of joining from other

industries was that he had been allowed to see the organization with the eyes of an entrepreneur, look at the balance sheet, the budgets and management. “There was no alternative but to merge. It was logical to become bigger,” he said.

This is the first example of integration of trade shows in the country and it has created a leading pole, the first in Italy in terms of the number of fairs it directly organizes, listing 61 exhibitions including food and beverage, green, technology, entertainment, tourism, jewelry and fashion, wellness, transport, lifestyle and innovation, as well as 160 events, for a total of 2.5 million visitors last year.

The new company is expected to close 2016 with combined sales of around 119 million euros, or $130 million at current exchange rates. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are seen totaling 22.1 million euros, or $24.1 million, with operating profit reaching 13.6 million euros, or $14.8 million, and a net capital of 100 million euros, or $109 million.

The names Rimini Fiera and Fiera di Vicenza will remain to indicate the operating locations and its respective fairgrounds.

Marzotto and Cagnoni emphasized that it remained key to be an international organization. The group already relies on a joint venture in the United Arab Emir-ates and presence in the U.S., China and India, with projects in South America.

Italian Exhibition Group is in line with the government’s efforts to further develop the Made in Italy label inter-nationally through the support of the trade shows and main exhibitions in the world. In October, a memorandum of understanding meant to promote and develop the Italian fashion system around the world was signed in Rome during a meeting of the Fashion Committee, held at the Ministry of Economic Develop-ment and presided over by Ivan Scal-farotto, the deputy minister of economic development, and attended by, among others, representatives of ICE and the Italian Trade Commission as well as by Carlo Capasa, president of the Camera Nazionale della Moda and several other high-profile fashion industry members. As per the agreement, starting next Septem-ber all fashion trade fairs will take place during Milan Fashion Week and the city will organize cultural initiatives, concerts and exhibitions to emphasize the event, in a sort of international Expo. VicenzaOro will move its date to coincide with Milan Fashion Week, running Sept. 23-27 next year, as reported.

The Italian trade show system rep-resents 50 percent of exports and has sales of 60 billion euros, or $65.4 billion, Cagnoni said.

Additionally, organizers said Rimini Fiera plans to invest 23 million euros, or $25 million, to expand its show space to reach 216,000 square feet. Fiera di Vicenza is earmarking an investment of 20 to 25 million euros, or $21.8 to $27.2 million, which follows expenditures of 40 million euros, or $43.6 million, for a new pavilion and parking lots, which have already been completed.

BUSINESS

Investors Bullish on Luxury Sector, RBC Says

BUSINESS

Italian Exhibition Group Eyes IPO

Louis Vuitton’s resort show in Rio de Janeiro in May.

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OCTOBER 31, 2016 4

● The retailer will dip its toe back into some markets it exited during the bankruptcy and sees giftable items, sweaters and accessories as its strong suits.

BY KARI HAMANAKA

The Wet Seal LLC is feeling pretty good about holiday.

The Irvine, Calif.-based retailer, which moved into new headquarters from Foot-hill Ranch earlier this year, is preparing for the selling season with a multipronged strategy. First, it’s capitalizing on the period with 13 pop-up shops that will bring it back to markets, such as Atlanta, which it had exited during its bankruptcy last year.

“We’ve had customers come to us from markets where we exited,” explained chief financial officer Judd Tirnauer. “We wanted to capitalize on that demand.”

The productivity of those temporary shops will serve as litmus tests for the viabil-ity of potentially re-entering those markets on a permanent basis, Tirnauer said.

The stores will open Nov. 3 and are expected to close at the end of January.

The pop-ups, all of which will carry the same assortment as existing Wet Seal stores, are slated for Arizona, Florida, Illi-nois, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, two in Oklahoma and four in Georgia. All doors are in General Growth

Properties Inc. malls.The doors range in size from 3,000 to

5,000 square feet, compared with the average Wet Seal store that’s around 3,000 to 3,500 square feet.

Wet Seal, which totals more than 160 stores, emerged from bankruptcy about a year ago after winning court approval for a sale to an affiliate of Versa Capital Manage-ment LLC. It named Melanie Cox ceo in August of last year. Cox has so far looked

to position the brand as a place for casual, Southern California styles, thereby tapping on the chain’s roots dating back to 1962 in Newport Beach, Calif.

“It used to be that Wet Seal was all things to all customers,” Tirnauer said.

The company’s seen successes in denim with its Blue Asphalt label, along with fash-ion basics and dresses, the latter of which Tirnauer said has seen “growth exponen-tially over the past year to record highs.”

“For us, it’s about the core fashion departments and then the rest is the gravy on the top,” he said.

The performance has the company investing in giftable and cold-weather items, such as sweaters, along with acces-sories for holiday, said vice president of brand marketing Angelo D’Agostino.

“The merchant team has really worked on a reboot of what the customer wants for gift-giving,” D’Agostino said.

“We had a very nice back-to-school season. We’re seeing very good reception of our cold-weather merchandise as the weather starts to turn, especially in the East and across the West, and we’re cau-tiously optimistic. I think it’s only getting better with the holiday,” Tirnauer said

The company’s also being diligent about inventory and pricing to avoid heavy promotions.

“I think traffic is a challenge to every-one,” Tirnauer said of the broader retail landscape. “I don’t think that’s a secret mall traffic is down, but as retailers adjust their inventory levels, they can refine their promotional strategies.”

Wet Seal’s management team thinks it can get its base of 18- to 24-year-olds in stores for the holidays with the right mix of offerings and assortment paired with the right marketing.

“We do have a philosophy of first price right price,” D’Agostino said. “We have really quality goods that are going to be coming in at a great value, so we’re going to promote that.”

BUSINESS

Wet Seal Sees Upside in Holiday Season

An image from the Wet Seal holiday campaign.

● The 2,000-square-foot flagship is home to exclusive makeup master classes.

BY ELLEN THOMAS

NYX Cosmetics has landed in Manhattan.The L’Oréal-owned makeup darling of

the Instagram and YouTube vlogger set opened on Oct. 28 its first brick-and-mor-tar store in New York. The 2,000-square-foot space is located at 41 Union Square West, the long and narrow home of a former Starbucks. It is a time of rapid expansion for NYX, which was acquired by L’Oréal in 2014. In the past year, it has opened 20 brick-and-mortar stores, fol-lowing its first in 2015, but NYX is calling this particular space its flagship.

Chief executive officer Scott Friedman declined to talk specific financial figures, but noted the store, which stocks some 2,000 stockkeeping units, is expected to produce the most sales volume of any other NYX brick-and-mortar location. Industry sources project retail sales vol-ume of $2 million within opening year.

“There’s no better place…this is the heart, it’s the center of so much activity, it’s a makeup mecca,” said Friedman, decked out for the flagship’s opening night party with a theatrical, red, white and blue lightening bolt makeup design. “It’s the perfect place for our He certainly has good company. Blue Mercury has a store on the west side of the square, MAC Cosmetics is on the south side and

Sephora has a store on the north.Exclusive to NYX’s Union Square

location is a series of 30-minute master

classes, held every month in the store. Priced at $30, classes focus on different features of the face, such as lips, brows,

lashes and eyes.Known for its innovative integration of

digital and social media into brick-and-mortar stores, NYX’s Union Square store is home to what the brand calls an “inter-active color-cast sculpture,” a menagerie of iPads and iPhones that pick up on the color one is wearing and generate images aggregated from social media of other people wearing makeup in that color. It also generates product suggestions based on the color a customer is wearing.

As in other NYX stores, tablets are strategically placed throughout the merchandise, so customers can scan a product bar code to interact with screens that aggregate posts from people who have used that certain product, according to the hashtag. At the Beauty Bar, a testing station in the center of the store, custom-ers can watch more interactive screens that play 90-second reels created by beauty vloggers, so they can follow along with the tutorial in real time.

“We want the people that go online, who are familiar with influencers, to feel at home here,” said Friedman. “That’s how they learn, that’s they look at and talk about beauty. This is a mixture of the online world and the brick-and-mortar world.”

Friedman noted that NYX will expand its brick-and-mortar presence at a similar rate in 2017, with a location in Orange County opening next week and Palm Beach, Fla., later in the year.

Friedman noted NYX’s retail expansion has exceeded expectations. “We’re doing double what we thought we would,” he divulged. But retail partners haven’t com-plained, according to Friedman. “These stores help define and differentiate our brand,” said Friedman. “It’s the best way to express it and the more people under-stand it, the more people shop at Ulta and other partners.”

BEAUTY

NYX Opens Union Square Store, First Manhattan Location

The Beauty Bar at the NYX store in Union Square.

OCTOBER 31, 2016 5

● Kate Spade New York’s holiday campaign and collection features “The Muppets” star.

BY LISA LOCKWOOD

Kate Spade has found a new muse in Miss Piggy.

Miss Piggy is featured in Kate Spade New York’s holiday ad campaign touting the brand’s new personalization program and has landed herself a collection as well. Kate Spade will introduce a Disney Miss Piggy Collection by Kate Spade New York for the holiday selling season only.

The collection is comprised of a wrist-let, clutch, tote, wallet, necklace, key chain, sweater, stud earrings and iPhone cases, with prices ranging from $48 to $378, created in Miss Piggy’s signature pink tones with pops of sparkle. The collection features Miss Piggy’s notable quotes and phrases such as “Who Moi?” The Miss Piggy collection hits stores Dec. 1, and will be available on katespade.com, Kate Spade specialty stores and Nordstrom.

In addition to appearing in the holiday ad campaign along with Jourdan Dunn and Catherine Baba, which breaks digitally today, Miss Piggy is also the face of the brand’s “Miss Adventure” film, which will be released online in December. The film also has Zosia Mamet (second time) and Leandra Medine of Man Repeller.

The holiday campaign highlights the new “give it a twist” collection that encourages the Kate Spade New York girl to express her individuality with product combinations and customizations. It’s a major initiative for the brand whereby the customer can personalize their acces-sories with initials, stickers, phrases, patches and tassels in-store and online, as well as at wholesale partners such as Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Lord & Taylor (and their web sites), nei-manmarcus.com, Shopbop and Zappos. People can test it out on templates in-store before they do it.

Acknowledging the tongue-in-cheek nature of choosing Miss Piggy, Deborah Lloyd, president and chief creative officer of Kate Spade New York, said, “I feel that Miss Piggy is perfect for us. She really represents the definition of an interest-ing, strong, independent, mesmerizing, tantalizing, fabulous woman. She was the perfect girl to represent us for holiday, and her favorite color is pink. She’s the quint-essential fashionista.” Lloyd believes that the Kate Spade customer will be into her. “She has such an amazing voice. That’s something we really played with in the products — her voice in the personaliza-tion. ‘Who Moi?’ How would she person-alize something? I think our customers will really respond to that and the sense of humor as well,” Lloyd said.

Asked what it was like having Miss Piggy on set, Lloyd said, “It’s quite a fabulous performance. It’s really like being on ‘The Muppets’ when you have to perform with her. She is quite the diva.”

Miss Piggy herself agreed to an inter-view about the collaboration and the ad campaign, and why she wanted to be a part of it.

WWD: Why did you want to collabo-rate with Kate Spade?

Miss Piggy: Moi was already a big fan of Kate Spade New York’s Miss Adventure’s series. I mean you see all these fabulous and incredibly strong and wonderful

women like Anna Kendrick and Zosia Mamet having fun. So, I thought: I’m fab-ulous, incredibly strong and wonderful, I need to be part of this. When I discovered they wanted to create product inspired by moi: Well, it was a done deal.

WWD: How much input did they give you in the collection’s design?

M.P.: I worked very closely with Deb-orah Lloyd, Kate Spade New York’s chief creative officer. We had lots of midnight chats. (Hey, how did I know she was in a different time zone?) We both worked hard, but I did the inspiring and Deborah did the designing. (Strictly between us, inspiring is a lot easier than designing. Much better hours.)

WWD: Who is the customer for your Disney Miss Piggy Collection by Kate Spade?

M.P.: She is quick, curious, playful and strong…she is interesting and interested — just like moi!

WWD: What was it like on the set for the ad campaign?

M.P.: It was so much fun! I adore Zosia — you know, I kept calling her Zsa Zsa, because I thought that was her name. She kept trying to correct me, but I thought she was sneezing. Hah! The fun we have on set! Or maybe you had to be there.

WWD: What are your favorite acces-sories and do you match them with your outfits?

M.P.: Everything in the collection is fabulous, but anything with “Moi” on it is a personal favorite. I’m sure you feel exactly the same way. Don’t you? Of course, you do. I match my “Who Moi?!” Hallie tote with my fabulous “Who Moi?!” sweater. With a wristlet, a clutch, a key chain, a necklace, a sweater and stud ear-rings — all part of the Disney Miss Piggy Collection by Kate Spade New York. N’est ce pas?

WWD: How important is fashion to your life, and do you feel it’s an

important aspect of women’s lives today?

M.P.: My style is more moi-centric. In the beginning, I used to seek approval from others about my fashion choices. Now, I trust myself. If I wear it, you better like it. Attitude is everything. Your clothes should always make a statement. I like mine to say: “Yoo-hoo, everybody, look at me! I’m fabulous! Don’t you wish you were moi?” I also believe every young women needs to know that though you may have to struggle and strive to achieve your dreams, you can have oodles of fun along the way. Be curious. Be daring. Be different. Be yourself. And, if that doesn’t work, be moi!

WWD: What special features did you insist on in your accessories?

M.P.: Moi! Moi! Moi!

WWD: What’s your favorite must-have accessory?M.P.: Oh, everything in the collection is fabulous, but if I have to choose I’d say that all of the pieces with “Moi” on them are my favorite. If it’s got anything to do with moi, I don’t leave the house without it.

WWD: Do you feel accessories make the woman?M.P.: Oh, attitude makes the woman, darling! But naturally I have to mention moi’s incredible collection as an absolute must. What do you think: this is my first rodeo? Hah!

ACCESSORIES

For Miss Piggy, It’s All About MoiAn ad campaign image from the Kate

Spade New York Holiday Collection starring Miss Piggy.

Holiday items from the Disney Miss Piggy collection

and Kate Spade New York.

OCTOBER 31, 2016 6

They have stayed with her through a wave of controversies, from her speeches to Wall Street to questions over the Clinton Foundation to the scandal over her private e-mail server. That scandal again reared its head on Friday when the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating further emails of Clinton’s that had recently been discovered. FBI Director James Comey said he did not know how long the new review would take or whether the emails are “significant.”

But throughout all the controversies, the fashion and retail worlds have stuck with the Democratic presidential candi-date. It’s perhaps not surprising the fash-ion world is a strong Clinton backer since the same group lined up firmly behind Barack Obama when he was running for president in 2008 and 2012. The indus-try — at least its designers — are generally liberal in their politics.

But as the election clock ticks down to seven days to go — and Clinton having a substantial lead in numerous polls — what has been possibly the most contentious, and perhaps low-brow presidential race in U.S. history, has had both candidates scur-rying to raise as much cash as they can.

All told, Clinton’s campaign has raised about $445 million, while outside groups, such as Super PACs, have raised an additional $171.2 million for her coffers in this two-year election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Her Republican rival Donald Trump’s campaign has raised $218 million – $50 million of which came from his own money — and outside groups have raised about $214.5 million. The fund-raising gap has been seen as one of Trump’s many weaknesses in the campaign, along with the lack of grassroots organization that goes along with that.

Fashion industry executives and employ-ees are helping build the coffers of the two candidates, with their contributions to Clinton significantly outpacing their dona-tions to Trump, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records done for WWD by the Center for Responsive Politics in this election cycle that began in January 2015.

There were 29 retailers and brands included in the analysis. According to the data from January 2015 through Sept. 30, department store, mass retail, specialty store and apparel brand executives and employees gave a combined $628,305 to Clinton, almost 200 times more than the $38,077 they contributed to Trump. Con-tributions from executives and employees in the analysis included such companies as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Nike Inc., Macy’s Inc., the Estée Lauder Cos., Under Armour, L Brands and VF Corp.

Both the Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart and Macy’s have interesting stakes in the race, given that Clinton lived in Arkan-sas when her husband Bill was the state’s governor (and constantly reminds middle American voters of that fact), while Macy’s has had a war of words (and wallets) with Trump after dropping the tumultuous tycoon’s suits and ties after his comments on immigration during the primaries.

By category, donations also heavily favored Clinton. In the apparel and accessories store group, the Democratic candidate received 94 percent of the con-tributions. She also received 94 percent of the contributions in the miscellaneous retail store category. From employees and executives at department, variety and convenience stores, Clinton received 91 percent of the contributions, and from

catalogue and mail-order houses, she received 64 percent.

Designers and industry executives who have given personally to Clinton so far include Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Prabal Gurung, Vera Wang, Leon-ard Lauder, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Diane von Furstenberg and Ralph Lauren, whose suits the candidate wore during at least two of the three presidential debates (putting him in pole position perhaps to design her inaugural gown should she win).

Some also contributed greater amounts to Clinton’s “Victory Fund,” a joint fund-raising committee that has much higher caps on giving and is used to dis-burse funds to the candidate and several committees, including the Democratic National Committee and state commit-tees. Burch, Wang and Lauder each gave $33,400 to the Victory Fund, while Klein gave $43,400 to the fund, according to FEC records.

The fashion world’s fund-raising for Clinton even stretched to New York Fash-ion Week last month, when the campaign held a fashion show and fund-raiser for her at Spring Studios. Anna Wintour, Conde Nast’s artistic director, pitched in to help orchestrate the event which was attended not by Clinton but by her daughter, Chel-sea. Designers such as Thakoon, Jason Wu, Georgina Chapman, von Fursten-berg, Burch and Brett Heyman have also designed campaign merchandise for Clin-ton, following similar efforts many made for her first presidential bid in 2008.

The surprising thing about the FEC records is the contribution gap between Clinton and Trump. The New York real estate mogul is a fixture on the Manhattan business and social scene and one would assume that top executives — who typically lean conservative — would line up behind Trump. But his views on trade, immigra-tion and the latest scandal involving his comments on women have alienated many in the business community.

He has been criticized for reportedly having his signature suit collection made abroad while railing against companies that outsource U.S. jobs. Trump has

also threatened to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, pull out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and impose tariffs on imports from China and Mexico.

Clinton has also been criticized for her antitrade rhetoric on the hustings and her opposition to TPP, but the business com-munity appears more hopeful that she will support at least some pro-trade policies should she reach office.

Several chief executive officers who have directly donated to the GOP presidential candidate in the past did not give directly to Trump in this election cycle, although they may have given to Super PACs sup-porting Trump.

Four years ago, the industry’s individual contributions were more evenly divided between Obama’s reelection bid and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, with the edge going to Obama.

An analysis of the retailer and brand con-tributions from employees and executives showed Obama netting 53.9 percent and Romney with 45.9 percent in April 2012.

Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, said it was not surprising to see a shift in the industry’s contributions in this election cycle.

“Trump is a wild card. For business peo-ple, he represents uncertainty,” Krumholz said. “I don’t think that Trump as with other business has developed long-stand-ing relationships like Clinton obviously has. I don’t think he has aggressively sought their support. My sense is that like others in the business community there is a sense of anxiety about the uncertainty attendant with a Trump presidency.”

Krumholz said Clinton has represented New York as a senator and can build off of those relationships as well as a fund-raising framework that she has built over the past 30 years in public office.

“So it is not at all surprising to me that there is a pretty substantial gap between the amount she’s raised and that Trump has raised so far,” she said. “These donors, maybe because they are excited to have the first female nominee run for the White House or maybe because she has worked

these relationships over many years,” are giving to Clinton.

On the point that Trump does not appear to be receiving individual dona-tions from some retail executives who have supported GOP candidates in past elections, Krumholz chalked it up to his unconventional style of campaigning.

“It’s not surprising to me that the retail end of things would be more conservative generally in their donations,” Krumholz said. “It’s like Hollywood. It’s the studios versus the creative. Here, too, you have designers who tilt liberal and the business side of things tilting more conservative. But they do hedge their bets, typically giving to those in power and those who have the ability to deliver their legislative agenda, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, even though they are perhaps more ideologically aligned with the GOP.”

Julia Hughes, president at the U.S. Fash-ion Industry Association, also pointed to the uncertainty of a Trump presidency.

“One of the most interesting things about the 2016 elections is that basically there is no traditional Republican in the race,” Hughes said.

She said many in the fashion industry have supported past GOP candidates because they represent a party that is trade and business-friendly.

“But obviously what we are seeing for brands and retailers in this campaign is that no one is supporting trade,” Hughes said. “Trump absolutely has been contra-dictory in many of his messages, so uncer-tainty both at the business level and I think at a personal level undoubtedly is reflected in campaign contributions.”

She said upheaval in politics is bad for consumer confidence.

“Trump is very unpredictable,” Hughes added. “People may or may not support Clinton’s policies, but you know what her policies are, whereas Trump is just too erratic to attract a lot of support from business professionals.”

Phillip Swagel, a professor of interna-tional economic policy at the University of Maryland and former Treasury Depart-ment official under President George W. Bush, said Trump is “such a profoundly flawed candidate, particularly on eco-nomic policy, that it seems reasonable that even Republican-leaning industry figures are supporting Clinton.

“Trump is especially poor on economic policies relating to international trade and other types of global engagement that matter so much to the industry,” Swagel added. “And then, of course, there are the issues of temperament and judgment. Secretary Clinton is far from a perfect candidate, but to these executives it must seem that Trump is much worse.”

Industry FundingFavors Clinton CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“It’s like Hollywood. It’s the studios versus the creative. Here, too, you have designers who tilt liberal and the business side of things tilting more conservative. But they do hedge their bets, typically giving to those in power and those who have the ability to deliver their legislative agenda, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.”

— Sheila Krumholz, Center for Responsive Politics

The fashion industry’s contributions favor Hillary Clinton, seen here with rival Donald Trump at the last presidential debate, in Las Vegas.

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a great intensity to his craft. He could see in three dimension.”

Unlike today in large design houses where designers often don’t know to what degree their original samples may be altered, Galanos knew precisely what was his. Harold Koda, former curator-in-charge at the Met’s Costume Institute likened Galanos’ tailoring to architecture, the kind of designer who piped the edges of his chiffon designs. During a walk-through of a rack of pieces donated by the widower of Rosalind Russell at the Museum at FIT when Harold Koda was an associate curator, Galanos could recognize his original designs “without even pulling out a sleeve.” “I have never seen a designer who knew immedi-ately what was his. He ran his studio with the same level of instinctiveness, certitude and authority.”

Koda continued, “It was apt that he moved to Los Angeles because he had a sense of glamour that was different from the Fracophile kind that East Coast designers would tend to cleave to.” Recalling a pair of multicolored silk brocade palazzo pajamas that Veruschka once wore for Vogue shoot that are now part of The Costume Institute’s collection, Koda said, “On one hand he was known for refined and subtle things, and on the other hand there was this boldness and this love of opulence that came through.”

Denise Hale, reached at her cattle ranch in Northern California, said for one of her birthdays, “[Galanos] gave me a very glam-orous one-shouldered, long-sleeved gown in leopard print silk chiffon. It’s so beautiful, and over the years I’ve lent it to so many retrospective exhibits on his designs,” she said. “I always felt he was the perfect gentleman, understated and quiet, a rare person and not into self-promotion. He let the clothes speak for themselves. They were glamorous, perfection.’

Attuned to providing white glove service to his well-heeled clients, Galanos traveled with 15 to 20 11-foot-high wheeled trunks, all of which he personally packed with black tissue paper between each hanging look so that nothing was crushed in transit. Reading incessantly, Galanos could find inspiration for his designs in books about Tibetan culture or Chinese furniture. Travel was another well for creativity with the designer joining Rucci, Carl and Iris Apfel, Glenda Bailey and her husband Stephen Sumner, hairstylist Paul Podlucky, and Tatiana and Serge Sorokko for European jaunts over Thanksgiving.

New York clients may not have known of his post-fashion career as an art photogra-pher. Galanos once explained his abstract work was made by taking construction paper and making color boxes, because “he would like to capture line and space,” Rucci said.

Unfailingly polite, Galanos would not openly disparage designers who fell short of his exacting standards. “He would never say anything negative. He might say, ‘I don’t understand how clothes get on the runway,’” Rucci said.

Rucci first met Galanos in 1989, while taking a break at Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills during a trunk show. “I took my jacket off, rolled up my sleeves and had taken a seat when I heard the voice. Jimmy said he wanted to meet this young designer he’d read so much about.

I thought, ‘Oh my God — it’s Galanos.’ We went upstairs to the restaurant to have lunch with [Gustave] Tassell and he became one of my closest mentors for the rest of my life.”

Galanos was born on Sept. 20, 1924 in a

Philadelphia, the only son of Greek-born parents. His mother, Helen Gorgoliatos, and his father, Gregory Galanos, ran a restaurant in southern New Jersey, where Galanos first witnessed “ladies who lunch” before it became a term.

Galanos, once recalled that he was “a loner, surrounded by three sisters. I never sewed; I just sketched. It was simply instinctive. As a young boy I had no fashion influences around me, but all the while I was dreaming of Paris and New York.”

Upon graduating from high school, he moved to New York with the inten-tion of enrolling in a fashion school led by Barbara Karinska, the Russian stage designer and costumer. When the school failed to open in the autumn, he enrolled at the Traphagen School of Fashion, but left after eight months to pursue more hands-on experience.

He took an assistant position at the 49th Street emporium of Hattie Carnegie, but that, too, failed to offer direct design expe-rience, so he began selling his sketches to Seventh Avenue manufacturers directly.

In 1945, a former Traphagen instructor showed him a help-wanted ad from The New York Times placed by textile magnate Lawrence Lesavoy. “His beautiful wife, Joan, was hoping to launch a ready-to-wear dress business in California, and they were looking for a designer,” recalled Galanos. The Lesavoys employed him for $75 a week and dispatched him to Los Angeles, but they soon divorced and Galanos lost his job.

“Out of pity,” Galanos said, Jean Louis, head costume designer at Columbia Pictures, hired him as a part-time assistant sketch artist. Soon afterwards, Lesavoy agreed to send the 24-year-old Galanos to Paris, where couturier Robert Piguet hired him as an assistant among Pierre Balmain, Hubert de Givenchy and Marc Bohan.

There, Galanos got the experience he yearned for, meeting with fabric and trimming suppliers to choose materials, sketching and draping up designs under the eye of Piguet, who oversaw his work on a daily basis.

In 1948, Galanos decided to return to the U.S and accepted a job with Davidow, a dressmaking firm in New York. That gig was also short-lived, and Galanos returned to Los Angeles three years later to set up his own workshop, from which he designed the line Galanos Originals, which he founded in 1952. Saks Fifth Avenue Beverly Hills placed an order, followed by Neiman Marcus, and the rest, as they say, was history. Diana Vreeland, Eleanor Lambert and Eugenia Sheppard were among the edi-tors who championed his elegant evening confections, particularly his hand-rolled chiffon gowns.

He also began designing movie cos-tumes for Rosalind Russell and Marlene Dietrich, Dorothy Lamour, Judy Garland and Diana Ross, and his studio became a magnet for young designers from around the world. His skillful use of fabrics also included furs, and the luxury of his clothes became his calling card as he began to dress a Who’s Who of political, entertainment and social figures.

Galanos retired in 1998 and began pur-suing photography. Galanos bemoaned the lack of propriety in current fashions. “Once everyone started wearing blue jeans, I knew it was time to get out of the business,’’ he said. “What happened to the days when a woman could turn heads in a restaurant by the way she was dressed?”

He remained in the mix at Los Angeles fashion events, and in 2007, he became the 11th recipient of the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award. Nancy Reagan and Betsy Bloomingdale chaired the daytime induc-tion ceremony on Rodeo Drive, where a plaque on the storied street commemorates his achievements.

At the following luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons, Connie Wald, Peggy Moffitt, Cameron Silver and Ralph Rucci were also present. “If we were in Japan, we’d have an expression and call him our national living treasure,” said Rucci, speaking to the crowd about Galanos. “The standard that the man upheld could only be surpassed by the man’s behavior.”

Galanos responded jokingly, “I don’t know why I’m here in the first place, but I like it.” Floating Island desserts, reportedly Reagan’s favorite, topped off the event.

Doris Raymond, owner of Los Ange-les vintage resource The Way We Wore, pointed out the designer still has a following among today’s actresses. Maria Bello wore a blue Galanos dress to the Critics’ Choice Awards in January 2007, and Jessica Alba has picked up Galanos’ cocktail wear from Raymond. “His silhouettes transcend time,” Raymond said.

In 2008, Galanos spoke to WWD after another event in his honor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where philanthro-pist Doug Simms had given the school 18 Galanos-designed pieces that belonged to his mother, Marie.

Dressed in his signature navy pin-striped suit and white-collared shirt, the designer said, “It’s always nice to be remembered. I’m out of fashion now, but I keep in touch.”

But the designer was not wallowing in the past. “When I retired, I didn’t know what to do with my retirement. It wasn’t as won-derful as I thought it would be. Travel the world? Well, I’d done that all those years of working,” he said. “I was really quite depressed for a while until I decided what to do with myself.”

He decided to try his hand at photog-raphy, something he had tinkered with and enjoyed as a boy. After seeing some of his artistically inclined photos, fellow Palm Springs resident Michael Childers, who has shot scores of Hollywood players like Clint Eastwood, George Cukor and Catherine Deneuve, encouraged Galanos to keep at it. He shot black-and-white landscapes, but prefers color abstracts and to “invent things.”

When asked about the plethora of ancil-lary merchandise that seems to go hand-in-hand with being a designer today, Galanos said, “You can’t do all of these things and expect to be good. They’re failing as far as I’m concerned. That’s why the stores have too much merchandise and have too much that looks the same. They have their couture lines and secondary lines and third lines. Make up your mind. What do you want to be?”

Young designers didn’t earn his praise either, but Nicolas Ghesquière passed muster, as does John Galliano. “There are some wild things being done by designers with their shows and what have you,” said Galanos, singling out Galliano as a prime example. “They’re magical in terms of their quality of making clothes. Of course, they’re not wearable. No woman of style would wear those clothes. It’s fashion, yes. But it’s not elegance,” he said more matter-of-factly than critically. “They are creating these things for publicity purposes. To me, it’s a waste of time and money. It’s harder to make a great black dress without having all those other things hanging down.”

And today’s screen sirens don’t exactly floor him with their red-carpet looks. “Most of the time these gals can’t carry their trains. They don’t know how to walk in those dresses. There was a time when women did.”

All in all, Galanos said he was disap-pointed with the general appearance of American women. “There’s a lack of elegance in the world, unfortunately. My career was in the late Forties, Fifties and Sixties, when women were women. They dressed to kill. It was a pleasure to go out with them dining and what have you. Today you go into a fancy restaurant and everyone looks boring. It’s very rare that you see someone and say, ‘Wow, they look terrific.”

He ended by saying, “I had big ambitions to do what I wanted to do, and I accom-plished that in 50 years in business. But I decided my time was up. Life changes, new things happen. I felt I had had the best time and I wanted to go out on top. Life is life. You grow old.”

James Galanos and Nancy Reagan

James Galanos honored on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, with Nancy Reagan,

in Los Angeles, October 2007.

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James Galanos

Ronald Reagan with Nancy Reagan wearing a James Galanos dress at the 1981 inaugural ball.

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● Artificial intelligence representatives can help answer customer queries, but many experts said they’re still not ready to sell online.

BY MAGHAN MCDOWELL

SAN FRANCISCO — The robots have arrived, but they’re not ready for prime-time.

“Conversational commerce,” where bots sell brands on chat-based platforms, is get-ting much of the buzz in Silicon Valley these days, draining away some of the excitement from the still under-realized social media buy button. But experts said chatbots are still better at answering customer service queries than racking up sales.

That could change, as the bots and anything using artificial intelligence get serious attention from the tippy top of the tech world.

Mark Zuckerberg opened up Facebook’s Messenger platform to chatbot developers in April, demonstrating the potential of chatbots on the app, which has a billion users, by ordering flowers. The interaction mimicked standard customer service chat, but there was a robot on the 1-800-Flowers end of the conversation.

Since then, developers have built an esti-mated 18,000 chatbots for Messenger. They join the legions of chatbots and artificial intelligence-powered tools interacting with users on platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, WeChat and Slack.

Tommy Hilfiger introduced a chatbot on Messenger to promote the Tommy x Gigi collection in September. Burberry’s Messenger chatbot took users “behind the scenes” of its recent collection and let users shop three items from the runway show. (It also lets users chat with a person.) E-commerce app Spring in May introduced an experimental feature that guided users,

helping them discover brands through Messenger while combining both auto-mated responses and the ability to connect directly with a Spring “concierge.”

And PayPal recently started to slowly link with Messenger to add PayPal as a payment option within Messenger, which means that merchants that use PayPal can accept payments directly in their bots.

Bots use scripting software to automate tasks, such as answering basic customer service questions and searching through product listings. A brand’s chatbot on Messenger can, for example, incorporate features such as images and multiple choice questions and it can also use artificial intel-ligence, which makes them “smarter” over time based on a user’s behavior.

When flummoxed, they can punt the conversation to a person.

Conversational commerce, though, is still in its early stages and is benefiting from at least some of the online dreams that have fallen flat along with buy buttons, which allows social media users to buy

right from their Twitter, Facebook or Insta-gram feeds, and have largely failed to live up to expectations.

With more than 1.7 billion active users, Facebook is growing into more of a com-mercial driver given the sheer size of its audience. Much of that comes not from buy button directly on the site, but referrals or ads that tout products and point users to an e-commerce site or a brand’s app.

Forrester analyst Jessica Liu said the excitement around buy buttons have sagged some because people generally don’t turn to social media to make purchases.

“Social networks and brands have a long hill to climb before users become accus-tomed to transacting on social media,” Liu said. “They’ll need to train users to consider social networks as a point of purchase by making the transition from discover to explore to buy stages seamless and consistent.”

So can chatbots pick up where buy but-tons left off? Not just yet. Most say it’s too soon to expect much more than experimen-tal, limited offerings.

Spring, for example, is tweaking its initial approach. “We’re currently work-ing to build an even better experience,” said Spring cofounder and chief executive officer Alan Tisch. “We strongly believe in the platform, and are very excited to launch our improved bot soon.”

Burberry’s bot redirects users to the brand’s mobile web site if they want to actually buy something.

Everlane was one of the first fashion brands to try corresponding with custom-ers on Messenger. The e-tailer lets cus-tomers opt-in to receive automated order and shipping confirmations and tracking updates, while the company’s human customer experience team uses Messenger to help customers with orders and answer product questions.

Jon Epstein, chief marketing officer at artificial intelligence software company

Sentient Technologies, said there is still a lot of work to be done.

“Chatbots face the same ‘uncanny valley’ problem that 3-D animation did — who can forget the creepy Tom Hanks in ‘Polar Express?’ It’s almost, but not quite, real, which is unsettling. Many chatbots don’t really use AI, but are more rule-based, like voice response systems.”

He expects companies will overcome this problem as more and better AI comes into play. So far, chatbots have proven better at customer service and shipping than actually selling, he said.

The bot shop on the Kik messaging plat-form has a Victoria’s Secret Pink bot that helps users “find your perfect bra by chat-ting” while the Sephora bot will teach users about makeup and help them find products used in tutorials and the H&M bot will build an outfit around an item via chat.

Omar Pera, cofounder of Reply.ai, a start-up that helps businesses build and manage chatbots, argued that bots are better than calling a customer service hotline because they’re more convenient and because phone calls are no longer as common.

Pera and cofounder Clara de Soto said that bots on Messenger can help customer satisfaction jump from 10 percent to 90 per-cent. They advise against bots that pretend to be human.

“People like to trick the user, but a bot should act like a bot,” Pera said.

He added that ultimately, the bot could absorb today’s buy button, meaning, for example, that if a Facebook user clicks on a product ad on his or his News Feed, the user will be redirected to a chatbot that reveals more details and incorporates the “buy” option within the chat.

But for now, de Soto added, stick with the low-hanging fruit of customer support. “There’s a lot of commerce potential, but you can’t just dive right in — that’s more like, the seventh date,” she said.

BUSINESS

Chatbots Moving In, but Not Taking Over

Spring was one of the first retailers to pilot a Messenger chatbot.

● The real estate developer expects its growth to outpace rivals over the next few years.

BY IVAN CASTANO

SÃO PAULO — Brazilian luxury mall operator Grupo Iguatemi expects its rev-enues will outpace rivals this year and is analyzing acquisitions in the beleaguered retail sector, said chief executive officer Carlos Jereissati.

“We have been very resilient, even with the downturn of the Brazilian economy,” Jereissati said during São Paulo Fashion Week’s 42nd edition, which closed Friday. “This is mainly because of two things: Brazilians are buying more in Brazil and a lot of brands have committed to reducing some of their margins to stay competitive. They have a long-term commitment.”

Those companies include the likes of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry and Chanel which the developer, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has brought to Brazil to cater to its growing millionaire base, at least before the economy slipped into recession in 2014.

Jereissati, who leads the family-owned company, which also owns some

skyscrapers in Brazil’s largest city, said Iguatemi has met its target to grow turnover in the past two years above competitors such as Multiplan, BR Malls and Aliansce. In 2016, the company expects business to fare similarly, though the 43-year-old entrepreneur declined to provide a specific revenue forecast.

Iguatemi Empresa de Shopping Cen-ters, as the entity operating 17 high-end malls in Brazil is called, is also hunting for opportunistic acquisitions in the retail sector, clobbered by a stinging recession that will see Gross Domestic Product shrink 3 percent this year, on top of a 3.2 percent decline for 2015, according to the latest statistics.

“We are going to do less greenfield. We are more focused on analyzing acquisi-tions than on refurbishings or new proj-ects,” Jereissati said, without disclosing potential targets.

That said, the firm is on track to open three new outlet malls by 2020, with one set to bow in Santa Catarina in Flori-anópolis by late 2017, said an investor relations executive, adding that the facilities will carry the same mall fashion brands but at discount prices. The other outlets will open in São José dos Pinhais and Novo Lima in Parana and Minas

Gerais states, respectively.The facilities will each measure about

130,000 square feet and cost around 350 million reals, or $109.2 million at current exchange, to build, said Gustavo Cam-bauva, an analyst with BTG Pactual.

He forecast the group will deliver oper-ating profits — on an earnings before inter-est and taxes level — of 380 million reals, or $121 million, up 5 percent from last year when they grew 8 percent. Revenues will rise 7 percent to 682 million reals, or $216 million, versus an 8 percent hike in 2015.

That said, he noted the company is

outperforming most other mall operators except for Mutiplan, which is performing similarly. BR Malls and Aliansce have done more poorly, he added.

“It has been quite a difficult year for Brazil, but at the end of the day, Iguatemi is more focused on higher-income con-sumers who are not suffering that much,” Cambauva said. “Management is pretty good and their locations are better as they are located in south and southeast Brazil and not in the north and northeast where the economy is weaker.

“We only have A and B class malls and these consumers are more elastic and super-leveraged, much more than the aver-age Brazilian,” said the investor relations executive, adding that well-heeled Brazil-ians also hoarded cash during the country’s decadelong boom ending two years ago.

“We are performing pretty well consid-ering the economic scenario,” the exec-utive added. “Last quarter, our revenues grew 3 percent, well over our rivals which were negative in some cases.”

There are some reasons to hold the Champagne away.

Major tenant Daslu — the embattled women’s wear retailer — will shutter its large JK Iguatemi store after missing nearly $1 million in rent payments.

And Brazil’s economy remains wobbly, despite a new government with a hopeful agenda. GDP was recently revised to gain 1.3 percent in 2017, down from a previous estimate of 1.5 percent.

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Grupo Iguatemi Eyes Growth, AcquisitionsIguatemi has 17

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● Nicki Minaj said Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci connects with people who don’t fit in — right in line with the event’s Non-Conformists theme.

BY ROSEMARY FEITELBERG

NEW YORK — Like everything else in the fashion universe, the idea of being a non-conformist is open to interpretation.

In a business blanketed with labels, designer ones and otherwise, Thursday night’s Fashion Group International’s Night of Stars celebrated “The Non-Con-formists,” giving honorees a different kind of branding. With a firestorm of outside factors — the presidential election, Brexit and buy-now among them — several of this year’s winners admitted they hadn’t paid much mind to their nonconformist status. Superstar award winner Riccardo Tisci took it in stride, as did his date for the night, Nicki Minaj, who said that’s part of the reason why they can relate.

However you define Tisci, he said he is fueled by the freedom of his work, and the fact that he is not only selling bags and shoes. “This is a dream because I come from a very simple family. In a small way, certain designers became the leaders. I’m not saying you can change the world, but you can influence a lot of young genera-tions. Next to selling bags and shoes, you can give a very social message of love and a message of hope.”

Minaj was on board with that message, saying later, “Fashion has always played such a huge role for me, whether or not I’m switching up my look. Sometimes it’s more conservative or outlandish. Fashion has always been a way I express myself and find my individuality. It has always been a part of my life and I always use it as an inspira-tion with my music — with everything.”

She and Tisci “absolutely, absolutely” connect as nonconformists. “He connects to people who didn’t feel they fit in. It’s a great story to see where he’s gotten — a person who was supershy and a Gothic teenager. I think it’s really inspirational that he has taken that and become every-thing that he is.”

In on the joke that she might not look like a conformist, Tory Burch recalled how she was told that no one would ever shop online while launching e-commerce 13 years ago. Lord & Taylor Fashion Oracle winner Andrew Bolton said, “I’m probably a quiet one. The designers who interest me the most are probably nonconformists, Rei [Kawakubo], obviously [so much so that she’s the focus of the next Costume Institute exhibition]; John [Galliano]; Karl [Lagerfeld]; Miuccia [Prada] — the ones who take risks, really, and make you think differently about things. I think I’m an armchair nonconformist.”

His partner, Thom Browne, suited up guests at their table including Baz Luhr-mann and Catherine Martin. The film-maker said, “Andrew’s just an incredible adventurer to be around. He’s a beautiful person. But he’s also a genre all in his own. I think it’s his fascination with the human condition without getting too existential about it — funny, preposterous, beautiful, moving — it always oscillates a lot.”

Levi’s James Curleigh locked up the night’s most-original-acceptance-speech title by singing a few lines from Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin.” Accepting the Brand Heritage award, Curleigh reminded the crowd that 100 years before ripped jeans were a fashion trend, Levi’s were created to be a purpose-ful work pant for coal miners. “It’s times like this when you remind yourself that

heritage really does matter. And if we don’t make it matter, who will?” he said.

Curleigh may have hinted at a political undercurrent, as did this year’s Media winner Joe Zee, who joined his presenter and former boss Polly Mellen on stage with,”I’m with her.” British actress Ruth Wilson left nothing to wonder, punching a fist overhead with “Go Hillary,” before presenting a Fashion Star award to Erdem Moralioglu. Eleven years into his career, the London-based designer hasn’t only made inroads with the Duchess of Cam-bridge, but will open his first concept shop with Saks Fifth Avenue in May.

Before Tommy Hilfiger and his wife Dee Ocleppo accepted the Humanitarian award from Hailey Baldwin, the designer said the nonconformist label applies to him at times, but more in a marketing sense than anything else. The Night of Stars moniker was also in question. He said, “But I don’t think of myself as a star. I think of Holly-wood stars, or music stars or some of the models are stars.”

Before “Girls” actress Zosia Mamet gave H&M’s Daniel Kulle the Sustainability award, she said, “I think of myself as some-one who just does what she likes. I guess if you want to call that nonconformity, sure. But I don’t do it to be a nonconformist.” At work on an Amazon series about Zelda Fitzgerald, Christina Ricci said, “I think of myself as a contrarian, which is probably less fun. The terminology is more irritating and less rock ‘n’ roll.”

Other winners included Pamela Baxter for Beauty, The Real Real’s Julie Wain-wright for Innovation in Retail e-commerce and Bunny Williams for Interior Design.

During the cocktails, Fashion Provoca-teur Pat Cleveland winner offered model-ing advice for other girls — Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid: “Listen to your mothers. They know what they’re talking about.”

Auteur of Style winner Iris Apfel said of her own ascent in fashion, “It seems to me in these 11 years, I am living in a parallel universe. It’s all been so surreal. How many 95-year-old cover girls do you know?” she said. “I’ve done so many won-derful things because of the generosity and kindness of all you wonderful people here. From doing a documentary to knocking out Tom Brady the other night with my boxing gloves [at a Tag Heuer event.] You

should have seen me getting out of the ring. That was something. I can’t walk,” Apfel said.

Marina Abramović had a different view of the well-dressed crowd looking happy with drinks in hand. “There is so much solitude, so much loneliness, so much pain right in this room. Look at the life we live. We’re completely disconnected from nature. We are using our technology. We do not have peace of mind. We are not our-selves any more,” she said. “We wake up in the morning and it’s stress, stress, stress. We’re living in a country that’s living on the brink of who knows what’s going to happen. It’s a very difficult moment.”

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Fashion’s Brightest Honored at FGI’s Night of Stars

Nicki Minaj and Riccardo Tisci

Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo

Zosia Mamet and Christina Ricci

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Iris Apfel

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Edward Enninful Fetes OBE With London PartyKate Moss, Madonna and Naomi Campbell were there to help the party along — not that any assistance was needed.

HONORABLE EDWARD: Madon-na, Kate Moss, Sarah Burton, Kim Jones, Jonathan Anderson — and others — flocked to Mark's Club to congratulate their pal Edward Enninful on his OBE, or Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.

Enninful, the fashion and style director of W Magazine, was handed the royal honor by Princess Anne for his services to diversify the fashion industry. The accolade was announced earlier this year as part of Queen Elizabeth's annual Birthday Honors List.

"I am very proud, but especially proud for my family and my dad, who left his country to make a better life for us in England," said Enninful, whose father was born in Ghana. "I took six people with me, including my dad, my sister and Naomi [Campbell.] That's the max you can take with you to receive your OBE — I pushed it to the max."

He described Princess Anne, the Queen's only daughter, as, "very forward and very straight-up. And funny, too." His choice of outfit, a dark suit and white shire, was a no-brainer. "I always thought I would wear McQueen for all my special days because he was such a good friend of mine," said Enninful, gesturing to his McQueen suit. "Sarah [Burton] tailored a suit for me."

Before everyone sat down for the dinner at the private Mayfair club, the Veuve flowed freely among guests including Irina Shayk, Lara Stone, Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Mert Alas, Marcus

Piggott, Kristen McMenamy, Adwoa Aboah, Anais Gallagher and Tinie Tempah.

Madonna, one of the last guests to arrive, showed off a leather jacket with loops of pearls attached to the epaulettes. She wore a matching cap, and pouted and posed happily for photographers. "Downstairs everyone!" barked Campbell to get people moving down to the dinner. "Downstairs! Oh, Lara, good, you're here, you can help get everyone down."

Campbell later praised her friend: "Back in the day when there were no budgets, (Edward) was the one person all of us girls would come running for, fly anywhere to, would drop everything for, and still do," she said. "Watching you now in the second phase of your life with your partner and hus-

band-to-be Alec and little son Roo, watching your star shine so bright, you are not aware what lies ahead of you."

Erin O'Connor also remem-bered the good old days: "The first time I worked with Edward was in the i-D days, and it was at least two decades ago," recalled the model.

"My favorite shoot was for i-D with all the Brit girls. We were all being celebrated for our inclu-sion in the British-ness stakes, and he was very selective and sure about who he wanted and why he wanted them. The best thing about working with him is the giggle before the visual. You hear him before you see him, and when he walks into the room you know it's going to be alright and, better than that, it's going to be beautiful." — JULIA NEEL

Irina Shayk, Edward Enninful and Naomi Campbell. Madonna

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OCTOBER 31, 2016 11

Burberry, Vanity Fair Toast Felicity JonesThe actress was the guest of honor at the pre-Britannia Awards bash, which drew Sarah Hyland and Michelle Monaghan.

amfAR Gala Honors Charlize Theron, Jeffrey KatzenbergThe 2016 amfAR Inspiration Gala drew Jon Hamm, Dita Von Teese, Lea Michele, Heidi Klum and more.

It would have been a feat for anyone to pull a crowd on Thursday night in Hollywood, as the event-heavy month of October comes to its peak, but as usual Chateau Marmont drew the lion’s share of happenings. Chief among them was Burberry and Vanity Fair’s pre-Britannia Awards celebration in the penthouse that honored Felicity Jones, this year’s recipient of “The Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year Presented by Burberry.”

The Oscar-nominated ingénue is no stranger to the fashion brand, having appeared in its fall 2011 campaign, and attending the same event two years ago in support of her costar Eddie Redmayne, who took home the

Best Actor Oscar that year.“They’ve been very good to me

over the years,” she said. “Tonight I feel like a giant diamond,” she said of her foulard-patterned jacquard suit.

This year, Jones’ “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” costar Alan Tudyk was the first actor to arrive at the party to support her, with new wife, actress Charissa Barton, in tow.

“I wonder how many people they’ve fit in here at once? I bet they’ve had people climbing up the sides,” he mused as he rode the tiny, cagelike lift to the sixth floor.

He was soon joined by Brits Ben Robson and Camilla Lud-dington and Americans Michelle Monaghan, Sarah Hyland, Emily

Robinson, Cameron Dallas, Lydia Hearst-Shaw, Sasha Lane and Gia Coppola – mostly clad in Burberry.

Coppola and her mother Jac-qui Getty came prepared for the rumored rain with trenchcoats, but they quickly shed them once inside the warm apartment.

Downstairs in the garden, there were more designer happenings, as Agent Provocateur creative director Sarah Shotton hosted a dinner and Alessandro Michele and Jonathan Simkhai also dined with colleagues. Michele was in town prepping for Saturday’s Art + Film gala, the star-studded LACMA benefit that caps off the month-long party marathon. — MARCY MEDINA

Felicity Jones in Burberry.

Emily Robinson in Disaya and Sarah Hyland in Burberry.

Dylan Brosnan and Avery Wheless

Kacy Hill in Burberry.

At its seventh annual Inspiration Gala Los Angeles, held at Milk Studios in Hollywood, amfAR honored Charlize Theron and studio mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. Theron, typically known for her acting chops, philanthropy work and svelte frame, is this year sporting an extra 30 pounds for an upcoming role in a film which is still under wraps. “I want to support her, but I have a bad back,” said her friend and award presenter Chelsea Handler.

Barry Diller presented Katzen-berg’s award, recalling the time when, as Diller's then-assistant, he sourced 29 uncut diamonds

for Diane von Furstenberg’s 29th birthday. But given that the pres-idential election is two weeks away, Katzenberg’s acceptance speech quickly turned political. “If intolerance wins, amfAR and all it stands for loses,” he said.

When it comes to her own organization, the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Program, the ac-tress apparently plies deep-pock-eted friends with liquor before soliciting $100,000 donations to aid her cause. Of Theron’s meth-ods, Handler joked, “She’s like the Bill Cosby of philanthropy.”

Theron spoke of the impor-tance of helping the most stig-

matized AIDS patients, including sex workers. “We have to ask, ‘Who are we missing when we talk about AIDS?’” she said.

Jason Derulo then took the stage, bringing the honorees and attendees like Courtney Love, Cheyenne Jackson, Kenneth Cole, Lea Michele, Dita Von Teese and Heidi Klum to their feet to take in his performance. As his hit “Talk Dirty,” ended, the heat became too much — Derulo lost his blazer, and his shirt’s buttons were next to go. As for the crowd, those requiring a cooling drink post-show were met just outside with a nightcap. — ALYSSA SHAPIRO

Charlize Theron in Dior.

Courtney Love and Nicholas Jarecki

Jon Hamm

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Memo PadDigital DuoA+E Networks and Hearst Magazines Digital Media have formed a partnership, with plans to roll out a series of Hearst-produced video content through a number of A+E’s channels including Lifetime, History, FYI and Viceland.

“This partnership allows

us to amplify an advertiser’s narrative beyond our own distribution network,” said Todd Haskell, senior vice president, chief revenue officer, Hearst Magazines Digital Media. “These videos will bring the authority and credibility of our editorial brands, along with an organic advertiser integra-tion, into a perfectly aligned

block of A+E programming.”Co-branded videos will

be aired alongside com-mercial television slots on topics such as adventure, auto, beauty, fashion, food, home, lifestyle, leadership and outdoor.

In addition, “product messaging” will be promot-ed across advertising units, articles and social media

on Hearst’s network, which includes cosmopolitan.com, elle.com, goodhousekeep-ing.com and delish.com.

Peter Olsen, executive vice president, national ad sales at A+E Networks, said the partnership will be a “huge distribution opportu-nity across our combined linear and digital properties.” — LORELEI MARFIL

Fashion ScoopsNew York State Of MindValentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli plans to show the brand’s pre-fall collection in New York on Jan. 11.

The designer told WWD he plans to hold a runway show in the city, although the location has not been defined yet.

“I am thinking of New York for June, too,” he said of the pre-spring season. “New York seems to me the ideal location for the pre-collections, it’s international and has such charm.” He said he wasn’t thinking in terms of grand, “spectacular events,” but emphasized how “pre-collections are becoming superimportant, where style if fundamental. These collections really repre-sent the company.”

Piccioli showed his first solo collection for the Rome-based brand in October in Paris with the spring season. — LUISA ZARGANI

Special BootsFor André Saraiva, the quest to save a prized pair of vintage Bally boots wound up with a collabora-tion between the artist and Bally creative director, Pablo Coppola, which was toasted Thursday evening from the penthouse of the Standard East Village.

“I have this pair of boots — my favorite pair of boots — that I found in a flea market like 20 years ago and I still wear them,” Saraiva said. “But they were fall-ing apart. When I met Pablo, I was like ‘I have this pair of boots, can you redo them for me?’ And that’s how everything started. I had them redone a couple of times — they were literally patches of leather. They were falling apart. And now I have one pair in Paris, one pair in New York, and one pair in my house in Lisbon.”

“We are celebrating...how do you call it — chance encounters?” said Coppola, before guests Margherita Missoni, Harvey Weinstein and Swizz Beatz sat down to dinner. “I knew about his work for a very long time, since I moved to Paris in the early 2000s. And he asked me to replicate a boot from Bally that he used to wear in the Seventies, and it all got started from there — an organic collaboration. I’m in Disneyland — to do projects with people that you like, who you

admire from afar, it’s really good.”Coppola, who is based in Lon-

don, is staying in New York through Halloween — requiring him to pre-pare a costume, once his hosting duties had wrapped. “I’ve been told that the theme is ‘Purple Rain’ meets something else, so some-thing about Prince,” he said of his party plans. “Tomorrow that’s what I’ve got to do in the afternoon.”

But before any costume shop-ping could commence, he was back to working the room, talking shoes. As Saraiva said, “you know, when you find a perfect pair of boots…” — LEIGH NORDSTROM

Singing Michele’s PraisesSaturday might have been Los Angeles County Museum of Arts’ big night with its sixth annual Art + Film gala honoring Robert Irwin and Kathryn Bigelow, but Alessandro Michele’s talents were on full display at the Gu-cci-sponsored affair. From the mossy green carpet to the riotous flower arrangements, the creative director put his full stamp on an event that originated with his predecessor, Frida Giannini. Gone were the fitted sequined sheaths on glamour queens like Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Lopez, Amy Adams and Kate Hudson, who were regulars at the event in Gi-annini’s day. Now the star-studded guest list includes new guard style stars such as Brie Larson, A$AP

Rocky, Jaden Smith and veterans like Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore, who’ve eagerly embraced Michele’s edgy style.

It didn’t go unnoticed by Michele’s boss, Kering chief François-Henri Pinault, who at-tended the event with wife Salma Hayek. “It’s very joyful and it’s very pleasant to look at all the dresses here tonight,” he said. “Gucci is doing a great turnaround. Let’s put it this way: when Alessandro arrived a year-and-a-half ago, he completely transformed the brand and the world of Gucci.”

Pinault continued, “It’s his world, his way of expression. It’s not mimicking anything. He’s just like this. He has his own person-ality, which he brought to another environment, which is Gucci, and it works so well. It’s still Gucci, but Gucci, the new world.”

He hinted that there would be more explosive fashion moments in the future. “It’s just the begin-ning, let me tell you. [Michele] has so many good ideas. There are more good things to come.” Pinault noted that he was also pleased with his other newly-in-stalled creative directors, Balen-ciaga’s Denma Gvasalia, whom he said “is doing an amazing job,” and Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vac-carello, who is “doing great.”

“They have talent, all of them. What is difficult is to match their talent with the right brand,” said Pinault. “My responsibility is to make sure that those amazing personalities make sense together, the brand and the designer. When you have the

perfect fit like Gucci and Ales-sandro, it’s a firework.”

For his part, Michele said he was soaking up inspiration from the streets of Los Angeles. “What I love is just looking at the people in the street,” he said. “They wear the craziest things.” — MARCY MEDINA

Who’s That Girl?A man with an artfully bloodied eye slipped into the revolving door at the Waldorf Astoria on Friday evening, a pair of suit-case-toting tourists looking on in confusion. Just past a group of Uber-requesting hotel guests, two men in Crayon suits waved a pack of witches into an elevator. In other words, it was Bette Midler’s annual Hulaween party — and if the tourists thought fake wounds were gawk-worthy, they were thoroughly unprepared for Marc Jacobs in drag — down to his size 41 Christian Louboutin heels.

The benefit for the New York Restoration Project drew costume contest judge Jacobs; Midler’s daughter Sophie von Haselberg; Sandra Bernhard, who used a Marc Jacobs dress as the basis for a witch costume, and the evening’s host, Kathy Griffin, dressed as a Snapchat filter.

“I chose this filter because a lot of the filters you have to stick your tongue out, or you have to wear the nose,” Griffin said of her chosen costume — which doubled as promotion for her Snapchat handle. “And this is a filter that is really extreme, and I can host in it — believe it or not, as a comic you think about things like ‘will I be comfortable? Can I tell jokes in it?’”

“I literally made it up in the

last two hours,” von Haselberg said of her costume. “I’m actually dressed with two of my best friends — we’re the witches from Macbeth. We were going for a Scottish-y, witchy vibe. I had the boots, Zara apparently has this very weird tartan collection going on, so I grabbed [this shirt], and I had this ancient Vivienne Westwood corset of my mom’s — and I bought some fake spiders for my hair.”

Midler came dressed as her “Hocus Pocus” character Winifred Sanderson, a creation she said only took an hour and a half. After posing for photos with Jacobs, she raved about her costume judge.

“He is so divine, I worked with him last year and did his cam-paign,” she said. “Look, I think he’s going to win the costume contest. Except that he’s judging the costume contest! So how can he win? Michael Kors is on my board, and he is usually our costume judge, but he was unavailable this year because he was going to a wedding. I called Marc and he said ‘yes’ and I was so shocked — and look how he turned up. He really turned it out.”

As for what the man of the hour was looking for in a win-ner? “You know, just creativity, somebody who put everything into their outfit,” Jacobs said, weaving his way through the ball-room before dinner. “I don’t know, I’ve never done this before — and I’m a terrible judge.”

While he might’ve been tasked with judging the costume contest, other guests seemed to deem him the winner. Watching him teeter down the hallway into dinner, one woman remarked, “he walks better in heels than I do.”

— LEIGH NORDSTROM

Pharrell Pops ByJapanese artist Takashi Murakami feted his collaboration with Shu Uemura Friday night, and he even hosted a surprise guest: Pharrell Williams.

The decision by Williams to at-tend the event, held at the upscale Omotesando Hills shopping mall in Tokyo, was a last-minute one, and he stayed only long enough to pose for a few photos with Murakami. Still, it was enough to get the crowd excited and the ven-ue was buzzing about his appear-ance long after he was gone.

For his part, Murakami seemed to be enjoying the festive atmo-sphere, posing with the event models and his Jack Russell terri-er at various locations throughout the venue. Dressed in a shiny purple suit and bright pink tie accented with his signature daisy flowers, he smiled and waved to both the cameras and the cus-tomers who attended the party.

The event also included a live “makeup show,” in which four artists put the finishing touches on models’ looks. Guests also could win prizes by trying their hand at mini golf and carnival-style games.

Murakami’s daisies appear on the packaging for Shu Uemura’s holiday collection, which includes eyeshadow and blush palettes, cushion foundation, lipstick, eyelin-er, cleansing oil and more. In Japan, the products have been combined and are sold as various sets, each of which includes a Murakami-de-signed bag or pouch. They will be launched in two rounds, with the first available exclusively at the brand’s Omotesando Hills flagship from Friday, and rolling out to other stores from Tuesday. The second series of products will hit stores Nov. 16. — KELLY WETHERILLE

Hearst headquarters in New York.

Takashi Murakami and Pharrell Williams with models.

Marc Jacobs, Bette Midler and Charlie DeFrancesco.

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