A NEW STUDY FINDS MILLENNIALS LOVE TO SHOP – THEY’RE JUST RELUCTANT TO BUY.

PAGE 2

CHASING THE MILLENNIALSCOTTON CULTIVATION AND

PRODUCTION ARE HELPING APPAREL FIRMS’ PUSH

TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY. PAGE 9

GREEN PUSH

WWDTUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014 ■ $3.00 ■ WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

PHOTO BY GEORGE CHINSEE; STYLED BY KIM FRIDAY

HAKA, Bangladesh — Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan is a courageous man.

His fi re service uniform is deco-rated with the medals and colors befi tting his rank, but yet his eyes glisten as he recalls the horrifi c days of the rescue mission among the rubble of Rana Plaza, the eight-story garment manufacturing building here that collapsed just a little over a year ago, killing 1,133 people and stirring a global outcry that has put working conditions in the nation’s apparel industry per-manently in the spotlight.

“We were this close,” Khan told WWD, using his hands to show the distance. “Shahina was struck under a beam and she was calling to us to save her. It appeared that we could pull her out. My team had the horrible task of having to save people by cutting [off] their arms or legs and we were prepared to do whatever it took. But we lost her.

“My men are tough; it is their job to rescue people but at that point they broke down and cried. ‘We could not save her’ some of

BERKSHIRE PARTNERS’ STAKE

Opening Ceremony Gets New Minority Investor

By JESSICA IREDALE

NEW YORK — Opening Ceremony is implementing a major growth strategy, fueled by recent invest-ment from Berkshire Partners.

The Boston-based private eq-uity firm has taken a minority stake in Opening Ceremony, with plans to enhance e-commerce, develop the company’s women’s and men’s ready-to-wear and ac-cessories collections, and acceler-ate retail expansion through ad-ditional locations of the retailer’s current multibrand platform, as well as new stores devoted to the Opening Ceremony brand. In tan-dem with the investment, Opening Ceremony founders and co-owners Humberto Leon and Carol Lim have established a board, naming

Glen Senk, who recently partnered with Berkshire Partners, as non-executive chairman.

Lim and Leon initiated the talks with Berkshire through the investment bank Financo, which represented Opening Ceremony in the transaction. “Since starting Opening Ceremony, Humberto and I have worked together to create a company with a strong point of view that offers our customers a fresh shopping experience in our stores, collections and Web site,” said Lim. “Our growth over the years has been organic, but also strategic, and the relationship with Berkshire pro-vides Opening Ceremony with broad resources to grow to the next level.”

Added Leon: “We go by our instincts — it’s the way Opening Ceremony has gotten to where it

SEE PAGE 10

The Bangladesh Industry:A Year After Rana Plaza

SEE PAGE 6

Pale FirePretty pastels lend a touch of femininity to the contemporary market’s soft and unfussy shapes. Here, Calvin Klein’s wool

sweater and fake leather skirt, shown here with a Swarovski ring and Acne Studio brogues. For more, see pages 4 and 5.

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COTTON CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION ARE HELPING

GREEN PUSH TENANT TIMEGIORGIO ARMANI, TIFFANY & CO. AND TOM FORD ARE SAID

TO BE IN TALKS WITH WESTFIELD TO TAKE SPACE IN ITS RETAIL DEVELOPMENT IN DOWNTOWN NEW YORK. PAGE 2

WWD.COM2 WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

TO E-MAIL REPORTERS AND EDITORS AT WWD, THE ADDRESS IS FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME@FAIRCHILDFASHION.COM, USING THE INDIVIDUAL’S NAME. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2014 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 207, NO. 81. TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in March, April, May, June, August, October, November and December, and two additional issues in February and September) by Fairchild Fashion Media, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593. FOR SUBSCRIPTION, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593, call 866-401-7801, or email customer service at wwdPrint@cdsfulfillment.com. Please include both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. For New York Hand Delivery Service address changes or inquiries, please contact Mitchell’s NY at 1-800-662-2275, option 7. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax the request to 212-630-5883. For reprints, please e-mail reprints@condenast.com or call Wright’s Media 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please e-mail contentlicensing@condenast.com or call 800-897-8666. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Media magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.wwd.com/subscriptions. Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593 or call 866-401-7801. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

Millennials Eager to Shop, Reluctant to Buy

Westfield WTC Nears Tenant SigningsBy SHARON EDELSON

NEW YORK — Australian shopping mall developer Westfield has been building a 440,000-square-foot retail downtown mecca with soaring ceilings and a $1.4 billion price tag at full build out. The only thing that’s been missing has been retail tenants.

While neighbor Brookfield Place, which has a luxury focus, has announced a parade of tenants — including Michael Kors, Burberry, Ferragamo, Diane von Furstenberg and Calypso — during the course of its construction, Westfield has remained mum. Now, after months of speculation, it appears that Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford and Tiffany & Co. are in late-stage negotiations with Westfield, which declined comment. Ford reportedly has secured a street-level location fronting Church Street in lower Manhattan.

Westfield paid the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey $612.5 million for its 50 percent stake. The en-tire campus of 16 acres has a $20 billion price tag.

The center is expected to do $700 million to $1 billion in annual retail sales and $2,000 to $3,000 in sales per square foot. “It will be one of the top retail facilities in the world,” Greg Miles, chief op-erating officer of Westfield Group, said in October.

With 350,000 square feet available now — 90,000

square feet will be delivered when tower two is built — Miles in October said the company had started seeing “intense demand for retail space.” Westfield has said it is looking for a diverse range of high-street and luxury brands.

Westfield World Trade Center, as the retail com-ponent of the enormous office complex is called, will cater to 454,000 office workers plus 60,000 residents and an indeterminate number of tour-ists, who arrive by busload to visit the National 9/11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center. There will be nearly 5,600 hotel rooms available downtown, including the Ritz-Carlton, the new W Hotel and the future Four Seasons Hotel. Westfield believes the project is the largest commercial real estate development in the U.S.

Other brands said to be interested in Westfield World Trade Center include Apple, Hugo Boss, Zadig & Voltaire and J.Lindeberg.

According to sources, Westfield has signed about 50 percent of leases issued for the center, which is slated to open in 2015. The leases are said to be complicated due to the Port Authority’s involvement. Even though the Port Authority sold its stake to Westfield, it still has to approve the leases. “It’s a very convoluted struc-ture,” a source said of the documents. “That’s what’s taking so long. But there’s slow and steady progress.”

By ARNOLD J. KARR

A GROWING WEB of digitally connected Millennials is putting engagement with products, brands and ser-vices ahead of their actual purchasing, creating oppor-tunities for creative marketers while complicating the challenge of converting young browsers into buyers.

The Intelligence Group, a division of Creative Artists Agency, used online polling to reach 1,300 Millennials, aged 18 to 34, and a subset of Gen Z’ers between the ages of 14 and 17 and found what Intelligence Group president Joe Kessler termed “tectonic shifts in purchasing patterns.” The survey found that Millennials employ all the tools of brick-and-mortar shopping, e-commerce, m-commerce and social media to engage in almost nonstop shop-ping that isn’t necessarily aimed at — and doesn’t necessarily result in — purchasing merchandise.

Jamie Gutfreund, chief strategy officer of TIG, noted, “It’s not doom and gloom, it’s a shift away from the legacy ways of doing business to a consumer that’s in transition. After the recession, these customers got used to being more careful about spending money. A lot of things have popped up to fill the gap.”

Appealing to this group is crucial as they repre-sent 90 million of the nearly 318 million people in the U.S. and about two billion of the world’s more than 7.1 billion inhabitants. Their spending, about $200 billion a year today, is expected to double by 2020.

And in its entirety, Gen Z, while less acquisitive, directly influences about $600 million in U.S. consum-er spending every year. “They’re frequently the ones doing the re-search,” Gutfreund said.

More than a third of the respon-dents — 36 percent — said they only buy things they deem necessary. In a clear threat to the passive practic-es of window shopping and strolling through malls, 72 percent said they research their options online be-fore buying in a store. Forty percent of them have wish lists for the products they want to own.

“There’s a broader landscape of where they’re getting their purchase information,” Gutfreund said. “It goes well beyond just paid advertising. And once they’re in the store, you have to give them more ways to be inspired.”

Young consumers are showered with offers on their phones, tablets and computers and they exchange product information and pictures through their phones, various social media sites, on marketers’ sites and pages and increasingly through a new generation of social shopping applications like Kickscout.

The study refers to this generation’s preference for shopping over buying as “fauxsumerism” and its devotees as “NOwners.” They view e-commerce and m-commerce as being as much about entertainment as acquisition and are increasingly open to renting merchandise, trading, bartering and using online marketplaces like eBay and apps like Airbnb as they turn more often to what TIG called “a whole new sharing economy.” Many are inclined to use

the democratic nature of selling online to become entrepreneurs themselves.

The research found that more than a third — 35 percent — would pay full price to have access to an item when they need it as opposed to own-ing it themselves.

“These so-called NOowners….prize access over ownership and prefer renting, sharing and barter-ing above buying things,” the report said.

And, with GPS and near-field communication technology well developed and their commercial implementations for retailers gaining momentum, Millennials’ phones aren’t just being used for re-search but also for direction while they’re in the midst of shopping.

“These customers sleep with their phones,” Gutfreund said. “They can get the best deal, some-times an extraordinary deal, in a second. Their reasoning is that they can get something at a great price that also happens to be fabulous.”

She conceded that, as in the world of brick and mortar, merchandise at the high end and the low end of the price scale has an advantage online over items in the middle, citing the idea of “value in scarcity” on one hand and “just great value” on the other.

While TIG’s study offers an explanation for some of the softness that has beset a number of teen re-tailers in the past year, some of the findings align

with fashion trends that have been difficult to ignore.

“If you’ve noticed over the last 18 months to two years, customers have shied away from significantly branded items with limited utility,” she said of the trend referred to in-ternally as “de-branding.” “In the denim category, for instance, cus-tomers want dark or plain jeans, and not a lot of heavy logo visibility. This gives the customer more options for accessories and other add-on items.”

Gutfreund noted that savvy mar-keters at all price levels are picking up on the new Millennial modus ope-

randi and incorporating technology in ways that sim-plify and elevate the shopping experience. She cited Karl Lagerfeld’s new store in London, which integrates iPads into display racks, allows for online viewing of the collection while in store, “registers” guests digi-tally and even provides for communication with the designer and selfies of the shopper clad in Lagerfeld. Eliminating the annoyance of getting to a store only to find one’s size not in stock, Gap Inc. has now logged 500,000 transactions through its Reserve in Store pro-gram as it looks to dissolve the barriers between its brick-and-mortar and e-commerce activities.

While not overwhelming, there’s a hint of youthful idealism in the shopping habits of the Millennial customers, too. Just under one-third — 32 percent — said they’ve stopped buying from companies when they’ve become aware of social practices they deem unacceptable.

Creative Artists Agency represents a large number of individuals in the fashion field and, through joint ventures, has had investments in firms including J Brand. It acquired The Intelligence Group in 2003.

ON WWD.COM

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

Opening Ceremony is implementing a major growth strategy, fueled by recent investment from Berkshire Partners. PAGE 1 As the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy nears, there are a host of reminders of the lost lives, but also of some lessons learned. PAGE 1 Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford and Tiffany & Co. are in late-stage negotiations with Westfield Group to become tenants at Westfield World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan. PAGE 2 A growing web of digitally connected Millennials is putting engagement ahead of their actual purchasing, according to a study by The Intelligence Group. PAGE 2 Shahidullah Azim, Rob Wayss and Srinivas B. Reddy discuss the effort to improve Bangladesh worker safety. PAGES 7 AND 8 The Cotton Leads program, launched in October, is growing as a key global supply chain program committed to responsibly produced cotton. PAGE 9 Lou & Grey, borne out of the former Loft Lounge line of parent company Ann Inc., has opened its first freestanding store, in Westport, Conn. PAGE 10 Theodora & Callum is expanding its business with the T+C Theodora & Callum line of fashion accessories. PAGE 10 Kate Moss was among the mourners at Peaches Geldof’s private funeral on Monday in Kent, England. PAGE 11 Time Warner chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes earned a 25.5 percent increase in total compensation in 2013, which amounted to $32.5 million. PAGE 11

Issa Lish is the subject of “Model Call” on WWD.com.

EYE: Issa Lish, the half-Mexican, half-Japanese Muse-repped model, graces the cover of the much-buzzed-about April issue of Vogue Italia. For more, see WWD.com.

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32%SHARE OF MILLENNIAL

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UNACCEPTABLE.

For more information, contact Carly Gresh at 212.630.3812 or carly_gresh@fairchildfashion.com

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THE RETAIL MECCASISSUE

YOURFINAL DESTINATION THE HOTTEST SPOTS IN RETAIL REAL ESTATE

4 WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

Ambali’s polyester top and Acne

Studios’ leather skirt and brogues. Lika

Mimika clutch.

Kaelen’s wool, cotton and elastane dress and fox fur scarf.

Lika Mimika clutch; Bass loafers.

pastel, present, futurePHOTOS BY GEORGE CHINSEE; STYLED BY KIM FRIDAY

w22a004a(5);14.indd 1 4/21/14 6:01 PM04212014180202

WWD.COM5WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

COMING THIS FALL: SCULPTURAL SHAPES DONE IN A LOVELY PALETTE OF CHALKY HUES.

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Creatures of Comfort’s wool and polyester

coat and silk and wool skirt and Whit’s leather T-shirt. Robert

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Raoul’s wool jacket and wool and nylon shawl worn

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Maison Scotch’s polyester and wool coat and Nonoo’s

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pastel, present, futurew22a004a(5);14.indd 2 4/21/14 6:01 PM

04212014180220

6 WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

them sobbed over it. ‘She was calling to us and we could not save her.’ It was my job to remind them that they had to get back to work,” Khan said.

His emotion is overpowering, even a year later.

Khan told his team what has been a recurring motif in the country’s garment industry since then: “You cannot give up hope. You have to keep fighting for every little thing that you can save.”

That ode to hope brought in some extraordinary results: as Khan’s team continued to pull out bodies of the dead 18 days after the building collapsed and there was no longer hope of finding workers alive, they spotted Reshma. The 19-year-old worker had managed to stay alive. It was almost an impossible feat.

Another round of frantic rescue began. This time their efforts defied the weakness of the equipment that they worked with, with a team of volunteers who sometimes used their bare hands. As Reshma was hoisted onto a stretcher, weak but breathing, the firemen and res-cue workers began their celebration.

If death has a message, they told each other, it would be that great tragedy can foster compassion, foresight, and, in some cases, incredible opportunity.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Dhaka.

As a week of prayer and remembrance begins here, another way of marking the one-year anniversary of Rana Plaza is the numerous multistakeholder dia-logues that have been happening. It has been almost a year of intense, and some-times vicious, dialogue in which “mul-tistakeholders” has become a word in-tegral to the garment industry, one that is meant to include employers, workers, government, nongovernmental organiza-tions and international bodies such as the International Labor Organization.

In some cases action has preceded dialogue — as in the calls for the shut-down of factories and violent attacks on factories in Ashulia and Savar as work-ers called for higher wages, improved safety and the indictment of the owner of Rana Plaza.

At other times, action has followed dialogue, as in the case of the brands and retailers coming together to form the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Governments, too, have stepped up pressure on Bangladesh to improve working conditions.

Obama administration officials, in a conference call press briefing Monday, said they continue to engage the govern-ment of Bangladesh in two main areas — improving fire and safety conditions in its factories and labor-law reform — and that high-level meetings were set to take place in Dhaka next week to discuss the progress and shortfallings.

U.S. officials said significant progress has been made in both areas, but more needed to be done. They noted that sev-eral organizations have been conduct-ing inspections of Bangladesh garment factories, with many still to be complet-ed, and that the administration was fol-lowing that process closely. In addition, while some labor-law reform has been enacted, “there is still a lot that needs to be done” in the areas of “giving workers a voice and collective bargaining.” This is especially true in the country’s export processing zones, where labor laws differ and reforms are behind the country’s ef-forts to improve workers’ rights in main-stream factories, and will be a key point of discussion at next week’s meetings.

They noted that the U.S. revoked Bangladesh’s preferred trade status under the general system of preferences in July and did not renew it in January because officials did not feel enough progress had been made. The next re-

view will be conducted in May and June and a decision to renew or not would come then. However, they also noted that renewal of the GSP program itself is still pending in Congress, so a decision could be impacted if Congress does not act be-fore then.

On Sunday, at the BRAC auditori-um, a multistakeholder dialogue titled “Remembering the Toiling Workers of Rana Plaza” brought together the heads of different organizations, workers and employers, and compensation fund and trade union leaders. At the meeting, it ap-peared there was a real will to listen to each others’ points of view and to make note of how they could help each other.

“Has anything changed after Rana Plaza?” asked Srinivas B. Reddy, Bangladesh country director for the ILO. “Each of us is trying to reflect how the four million workers can have better and safer work conditions.”

The question in Dhaka is whether, after the colossal upheaval the industry has gone through over the last 12 months and unprecedented fear on all sides, the country has collectively passed through the worst and is making its first steps on the other side.

Export figures that came in last week appear to show it has. Figures for the nine months to March showed total ex-ports of $22.24 billion, with $18.05 bil-lion of that garment exports. Knitwear exports totaled $8.83 billion, up 16.4 per-cent, while woven shipments rose 14 per-cent to $9.22 billion.

This week, another important visitor who helped bring the multistakeholders together, Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, the ILO’s deputy director general for field operations and partnerships, is expected in Dhaka. Last May, as the country and the world watched in shock while bod-ies were being pulled out of the debris of Rana Plaza, Houngbo visited Dhaka to express solidarity and engage with officials from government, labor and industry to help identify the immediate next steps to be taken. These included a labor-law reform package, which was subsequently introduced in parliament.

On Sunday, Action Aid Bangladesh brought out the results of a survey that took stock of data on survivors of the tragedy, which noted that even a year later, 73.7 percent of the 1,436 respon-dents had not returned to work. The reasons cited included physical ailment, trauma and employers’ unwillingness to hire them.

The report also brought up the issue that is foremost on the agenda in Dhaka this week: compensation and the dif-ference between charity and compen-sation. The 222.10 million taka, or $2.9 million at current exchange, that has been distributed from the prime min-ister’s emergency fund is being dis-missed as charity, while the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association has spent the equivalent of $1.85 million in treatment expenses, sal-ary and other allowances. International brands have paid $17 million, compared with the extrapolated requirement of $40 million called for by Thursday, toward which Primark has made a key contribu-tion, giving short-term support of nearly nine months’ salary to all 3,639 victims of Rana Plaza: 45,000 taka, or $580, each. The British retailer will also make long-

term payment to the 580 workers of the New Wave Bottoms factory in the build-ing that used to supply it.

Thursday’s deadline for the $40 mil-lion payment is now the main concern, as is the frenetic activity at the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee in Savar. Since it was set up Sept. 13, the committee has been working toward finding a final solu-tion to the losses and needs of the victims of Rana Plaza.

“This is the first time that money is being divided among family members, with accounts opened for each member of the family,” Dr. Mojtaba Kazazi, ex-ecutive commissioner of the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee, told WWD.

The BGMEA this week is organizing initiatives to detail the changes within the industry — including factory inspec-tions; higher wages that were agreed upon in October and implemented from Dec. 1, and a change of law in June that allowed the formation of trade unions by workers. The BGMEA building will be draped in black and a prayer meeting at factories across Bangladesh at 12.01 p.m. Thursday will commemorate the dead and the injured.

Perhaps the biggest change over the last year has been the unification of brands and retailers from around the

RANA PLAZA: A YEAR LATER

Bangladesh Marks Anniversary of Tragedy{Continued from page one}

A week of prayer and remembrance is set to honor those lost.

Seventeen-month-old Rihan lost both his parents at Rana Plaza.

’’’’

You cannot give up hope. You have to keep fighting for every little

thing that you can save.— BRIG. GEN. ALI AHMED KHAN

WWD.COM7WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

world — the accord from Europe and the alliance from the U.S. — to invest in improving working conditions in the Bangladesh industry, a binding agreement in the case of the accord and a nonbinding one by the alliance.

“All I can say is that the accord is an unprecedented initiative on an enormous scale in a fairly short period of time — the accord was signed in May 2013, the in-terim team issued their report in July,” said Rob Wayss, executive director of Bangladesh operations for the Accord on Fire and Building Safety. “There was a lot of governance and structural issues that took place over the summer and fall and it has very quickly got on the ground and in operation.”

The accord, with its 160 members, and the alliance with its 26 members, have both set up offices and teams in Dhaka in the past months and there is a flurry of activity of inspectors and changing ways of doing things — as well as heartache among Bangladesh apparel firms about how they will meet the costs of all the changes.

After the Jan. 5 election, the political situation has stabilized somewhat, giving employers relief and one less thing to be up against. “We’re sandwiched between the different elements,” said Fazlul Hoque, former president of the Bangladesh Employers Federation. “The workers want us to do things differently, as do the brands and the government. Meanwhile, we are faced with rising costs, higher wages, and the prospect of our factories being shut down on charges of imperfect conditions.”

As the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy nears, there are a host of reminders of the lost lives, but also of some lessons learned.

Although doubts have since been cast about the au-thenticity of Reshma’s story, the lone survivor 17 days later, the hope finding her gave the fire teams remains indicative of the industry’s attitude. At the site of Rana Plaza, which stands vacant in Savar, Abdul Kuddus start-ed a tea shop to cater to the many media people and pro-testers who arrive. Families still throng outside the cor-rugated tin wall and the barbed wire designed to keep people out. They stand despite the burning sun, clutching passport-size photos of sisters, daughters and mothers who lost their lives in the disaster.

What makes them stand on at this place?“Just the hope that they may return, an association

with the last place that she stepped upon,” said Rahima Begum as she talked about her daughter, Reena Akhtar.

Not far, within the small byways of Savar, other sur-vivors try to remake their lives, besieged as they are by journalists who visit several times a day.

Impervious to all of this, 17-month-old Rihan plays with every object that comes his way, drawn equally by the glitter of a mobile phone and the stones around his house. Both his parents died at Rana Plaza — the body of 25-year-old Rehana Begum, his mother, was found the day the building collapsed, and that of his father, Mansur Sheikh, 30, was pulled out nine days later.

Held dear by his grandparents, who pore over old pho-tographs of his parents, and by his aunts, Rihan, with his bright eyes and mischievous smile, appears symbolic: Despite the loss of his entire world, he looks brightly out into the future. — WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, NEW YORK

THE OFFICES of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association has a continual flow of people and Shahidullah Azim, its vice president, has six or seven chairs in his room, almost always all occupied. Yet he manages to get through everyone’s agendas, makes quick decisions and never minces words.

Right now he says that, “It’s moving along positively.”

Over the last year, the BGMEA has played the role of mediator, funds giver and been at the forefront of almost all the exchanges that have taken place throughout the country’s apparel industry. It is now setting the plan for the coming months, and it’s obvious that, like the factory owners who are its members, the organization is learning to live with the more open and changing environment.

Here, Azim talks about the changes that have taken place in the Bangladesh industry since the Rana Plaza disaster.

— MAYU SAINI

WWD: Factory owners have been called upon to accept many new things this year.Shahidullah Azim: Yes, we struggled a lot and things have come out very, very positively. There have been so many initiatives taken for the Rana Plaza issue — the Accord and the Alliance have come in and everybody has been working hard. [So far] 675 factories have been inspected by the Accord and Alliance and out of these they have found only four buildings are vulnerable. There were 11 factories in four buildings and that’s not bad in percentage terms.

WWD: Yet, it takes a lot to change the mind-set of employers. How has this changed over the last year?S.A.: The main thing is that manufacturers have changed their mind-set. They understand that they have to make changes in the way they function and are moving accordingly. Right now the compliance issue is being taken very seriously by everyone, so much so that new memberships are only issued if we find everything is OK in the buildings, make sure the construction is sound. If they are not, we deny membership and nonmembers are not allowed to export. Older members also are having to work with the same issues.

WWD: How are the factory inspections going so far?S.A.: Right now the inspectors are checking all the factories with a lot of attention to detail. Of the 3,600 garment factories, 2,400 factories belong to the Accord and the Alliance and the remaining 1,200 are a part of the National Action Plan, which is inspected by BUET [Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology] and under supervision of the International Labor Organization [ILO].

WWD: Over the last year, the BGMEA has been stretched to its limit, hasn’t it?S.A.: The thing is that BGMEA takes a lot of in-house initiatives. We have recently appointed about 12 engineers and 35 trainers. So these are all new guys, after Rana Plaza. That’s why I say things are moving positively — the employers have been very sporting about the way they have taken this — and they know that we don’t have any other choice: We have to go for it and hold inspections and make changes in the factories, etc. Earlier it was a different mind-set.

WWD: What are the other main issues that are hard to resolve at this time?S.A.: I believe that at this time the employers need some help. Now the Alliance is helping us — especially if the factory needs to shut down for repair; they will pay one month of salaries.

The issue of remediation continues to be worrying. There was a term in the accord agreement — article 22 of the agreement of the Accord — that the brands or retailers would pay us during remediation, but in fact we’re not getting their help.

WWD: What has been the main highlight of this year from your perspective?S.A.: First of all, the labor bill was amended in parliament, wages increased and in terms of trade unions, there were only 38 [factories that had them] in the last decade and now over the last year, 150 factories have trade unions. There’s a lot that has been moving along very positively.

WWD: What about the government role in all of this. Was it lost during the elections?S.A.: The government has taken it all very seriously. We are also working with the government for safety equipment as well as prefabricated materials to be brought in and more accessible in July. These are both important because 40 percent of our factories are in shared buildings and they have to go for relocation sooner or later. They cannot do it overnight, but they have to do it, so it should be taken as an important thing to consider before this budget is drawn.

WWD: Are you pleased by the way brands and retailers have been handling the situation?S.A.: Well, if our factories are going to be shut down, they have to come forward and help us out. The brands and retailers — they are also gaining from this; they’re not doing charity. So if they’re our partners, we want to

know they are partners all along. In this they must come forward. They’re not going to pull out their business from Bangladesh. In the long run, if they don’t support the factories, they will lose too. If brands don’t support the factory owners, the factory owners will also find other clients.

WWD: What would you have the retailers and brands do differently?S.A.: In fact, we’re not satisfied. Because BGMEA works independently it doesn’t get that kind of support from the brands. Even after the wage increase, it’s not like the brands or retailers are increasing the product prices — there are very few who would do that. Very few. Meanwhile, we continue to be under pressure from brands across the world.

In the last four years, we have increased workers’ salaries 229 percent, yet it is doubtful that we would get that kind of support from them [brands and retailers].

WWD: Do you think it is realistic for them to increase prices when they want to stay competitive?S.A.: When we ask them to increase the product prices, they say it is a free market economy market and that the buyers’ principal is that they will buy wherever they find it cheaper.

On the one hand, they tell us we would share our profit with our people, but on the other hand we are being forced to [do] certain things — they should not impose upon us. The workers are our people; we can share with them but we should not be forced.

Fostering Change From the BGMEA

Families of lost loved ones still gather at the site of the building collapse.

Shahidullah Azim

’’’’

The issue of remediation continues to be

worrying.— SHAHIDULLAH AZIM, BGMEA

WWD.COM8 WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

ROB WAYSS, executive director of Bangladesh operations for the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, has been the best-known outsider among labor and employers in the country for years. The temporary office of the accord is an open and spacious apartment, and as Wayss sits in his room at the corner, he discusses the situation in the country today.

— MAYU SAINI

WWD: Do you feel the first anniversary of Rana Plaza is being overly marked out in Dhaka?Rob Wayss: Well, it is a major thing to mark. More than a year ago, an eight-story building collapsed and more than 1,100 workers died. The accord does not have any particular activities that we’ve planned for the 24th, though; I think one of the best tributes we can make to the workers that have perished and those that were injured or affected is to earnestly and purposefully go about our work in inspecting factories and identifying things that need to be fixed, and working with the brands and the worker representatives and the owners to fix them. And we will during the course of the day on the 24th be participating in some of the activities that are being organized by other organizations.

WWD: How is the team and the office for the accord settling in?R.W.: We moved into this office [in Gulshan] Dec. 1. Our permanent office lease took effect April 1 but is still being set up.

As for the team, Brad [Loewen, chief safety inspector] started in the early part of November but moved permanently in the first week of December.

It is a growing team. We have seven full-time people that are working on inspection and post-inspection case management. Brad has five engineers who he’s made officers and they have accepted. One started on Sunday, and the others will be starting over the next few weeks. We have a few support people on board and we will bring on two more case handlers

over the next week or so. So our team is probably approaching about 15 now, but when all is said and done, we’ll have the better part of a 100 [person] full-time staff probably toward the end of the year.

We envision that the main office we have here will have 40 staff, and we envision an office in Chittagong and an office in Savar or Ashulia will have 20 or so and two additional worker centers will have probably three or so staff. Then you have to add support staff.

WWD: You’ve been working with the industry in Bangladesh for a while. Do you get the sense that a lot of progress has actually been made over the last year?R.W.: Oh yes. A lot has happened. The agreement has been signed. Initially, there were 17 signatories, it quickly went up to 27, and now there are more than 160 brands and retailers that have signed on. That’s an enormous response. You’ve got an operation on the ground that is functioning, we’ve got 110 engineers and technical advisers who have been in the field the last couple of months doing inspections on fire safety and electrical safety and building structural safety. They’ve done more than 300 fire and electrical inspections and 250 or so building and structural inspections, and the first series of reports have been published on our Web site. The first large-scale inspection reports are being uploaded and shared with factory owners and the brands and workers’ representatives so they can start finalizing the corrective plans — those will be uploaded to our Web site.

The additional factories where findings were found are starting to fix these things.

WWD: Do employers consider the accord and its decisive actions as cultural imperialism in some sense?R.W.: I don’t think they take it as imperialism. They’re difficult situations.

Nobody wants to make that decision and it’s not taken lightly. It’s taken very, very seriously and our engineers look at every possible alternative or measure short of possibly doing evacuation or shutdown. But we’ve had eight cases where the numbers and the data just haven’t been able to match. They’ve reached the determination that these buildings are unsafe in the conditions that they are in now. But they can be made safe. So the review panel that has been established under the National Plan of Action, in eight cases we’ve had to request that that be convened, and in some of those cases we were able to figure out some massive load management and load removal where you manage storage and some water tanks, etc., where they were able to continue all production. At others we were able to do interventions and allow partial occupancy and partial production where the building would be safe while they do the structural strengthening where it’s needed.

I think we’ve had one case now where it was determined that there was no way occupancy could take place unless [there were] remediation measures and there’s one that was inspected on Sunday where it is possible that [there will be] no occupancy

at all until certain remediation is taken. But you know there is a certain reason for this: these buildings are not safe.

The purpose of the accord being here is that a factory collapsed and we’re all looking at ways to make it safer, and everyone has committed in order

to make sure that this will never happen again. These tough decisions

have to be made and have to be executed.

WWD: Are you on line for your deadline to finish all inspections by September?R.W.: Oh yes, all inspections will be completed by September. There will be 110 inspectors in the field.

WWD: It’s been going slowly so far though.R.W.: No, it hasn’t been going slowly. We

started in February and we’ve done almost 300 since February. That’s seven weeks. These are the highest qualified engineers in the world. They know the code here and they know international building and safety standards and they have a tremendous amount of experience including in Bangladesh in the garment industry. These are the best people in the world. And it’s a mix of internationals and Bangladeshis — these guys are the best — and I shouldn’t say these guys, there are women, too.

WWD: What is the biggest challenge for you on the ground? R.W.: Oh my goodness, what’s the biggest challenge? That’s a hard question to answer. The scale of the accord and the number of factories and the number of components as you’re staffing up, the challenge of making sure the inspections are logistically well coordinated and that the support that’s needed for the post-inspection period is adequate and of good quality, and making sure that we’re doing adequate outreach to brand representatives in-country and the supplier factories and the worker representatives of the 14 IndustriALL structures that we work with. I am attending to all these moving parts. Staffing up has been one of the hard parts as well.

WWD: For you, is it a personal nightmare?R.W.: Oh no — for someone like me, with my background? It’s the best job in the world. It is exhausting — it is an incredible amount of work but I’m not complaining. I sincerely believe I have the best job in the world.

WHEN SRINIVAS B. REDDY took over his new assignment, Bangladesh was already in the throes of the tragic aftermath of both the Tazreen fire that killed 111 workers and Rana Plaza, from which bodies were still being brought out. Here, the country director for the International Labor Organization, Bangladesh, looks back at the last year and what lies ahead.

— M.S.

WWD: Joining in your new post in Dhaka just a week after Rana Plaza must have been critical timing.Srinivas B. Reddy: Well, it took some time for me to realize the enormity of the issue and then right away came the high-level visit of the assistant secretary general, Gilbert Houngbo.

I had been with ILO for more than 12 years, so I know the level of operations. But within a few days, when we had the initial interactions with the prime minister and a meeting with a number of high-profile visitors, when we entered into the negotiations phase of bringing about a level of commitment from all the national stakeholders, I realized the enormity of the issue, which has ramifications across many countries, including Bangladesh.

At that time the sector employees were in a state of bewilderment, not knowing how to react to this.

WWD: Did the solutions seem easier, looking at it from the outside?S.B.R.: The issue was very genuine and no one knew what would happen. There

was a sense that there could be so much of loss, that orders could be pulled out. And the concern on that was: What will happen to millions of workers to the economy, to the businesses, you know, billions of dollars.

There were so many questions going through our minds and not so many answers. People were worried in Bangladesh. These investments are so critical that they cannot afford to go wrong by even 5 percent. I realized that this is a

major issue, which requires multipronged and several layers of interventions and that ILO could play a very significant role. This was true not just for Bangladesh, but globally. Our director general himself had prioritized Bangladesh and we all knew that this was an issue that requires attention at the highest level.

We received tremendous support from the senior management. They told me: “What do you need for us to respond to the aspirations and needs of the constituents?”

WWD: Were you prepared to handle something this complicated?S.B.R.: I thought to myself that this is overwhelming, this is very challenging, but it’s a great opportunity to really provide services to the country, particularly the employers, workers and the government — when they need it the most. So that’s how I have taken it: as an important challenge, but also a great opportunity for the organization as a whole to really work with the constituents.

WWD: What a lot of people have been asking is: How come these types of tragedies are not happening in India or other countries so frequently?S.B.R.: It’s certainly not specific or peculiar to Bangladesh; we’ve seen accidents happen everywhere. But what is specific to Bangladesh is that this industry has seen exponential growth in the past 30 years. The monitoring mechanism has failed to catch up with the momentum both in the government and the private sector. Therefore, while monitoring is an important element, continuing the momentum of growth and attracting more jobs and creating conditions for continuous growth have overridden the monitoring mechanisms.

WWD: Has the Rana Plaza tragedy been a wake-up call — much more than it has been in any other country?S.B.R.: Absolutely, no doubt about that and it is a chance to set the right monitoring mechanisms in place. So that the two issues we are talking about —

workplace safety, workers’ safety — are addressed in a way that the industry is sustainable; that it takes care of the workers and also ensures guarantees to international investors that this is a safe place to invest in, that they do not have to compromise their brand value and that they are assured of safety and their brand is not at risk because of working with the suppliers.

WWD: What do you see as some of the biggest changes over this year?S.B.R.: I am hoping that the workers have started realizing that there needs to be a collective voice being heard. That was one of the major issues in Rana Plaza — if collective bargaining and representation was allowed, probably groups of representatives could have gone to the owners and told them. Workers are beginning to realize this themselves and the legislative changes that the government brought in were backed by administrative changes. The government made it possible for transparent and speedy process of registration [of unions].

What is also important is that we see the beginning of a change of attitude among employers. You can feel that. The BGMEA [Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association] leadership is calling from open platforms that it is not against trade unions. We see the beginning of the change of attitude, among leadership and industry captains.

These are the three changes I see: legislative changes with administrative backup, the workers themselves feeling the need for a collective voice and the change of attitude among employers.

The Big Picture From the ILO Perspective

RANA PLAZA: A YEAR LATER

The Accord Staffs Up for Task at HandRob Wayss

’’

’’

I am hoping that the workers have started realizing that there

needs to be a collective voice being heard. — SRINIVAS B. REDDY, ILO

FOR MORE IMAGES AND A TALK WITH

THE ALLIANCE FOR BANGLADESH

WORKER SAFETY, SEE

WWD.com.

ALL

PHOT

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Y M

AYU

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WWD.COM9WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

Cotton Programs Get Green Thumbtextiles

By ARTHUR FRIEDMAN

COTTON CULTIVATING and man-ufacturing is helping to lead the charge toward sustainability in ap-parel manufacturing.

The Cotton Leads program, launched in October, is growing as a key global supply chain program committed to responsibly produced cotton. The program emphasizes national capabilities of the cotton industries in Australia and the U.S., along with their commitment to con-tinual improvement, research and best practices. Combined cotton pro-duction in these countries accounts for about 17 percent of global output of the plant. The Cotton Leads program continues to gain interest among textile and apparel companies committed to re-sponsible sourcing.

“The founding members of Cotton Leads program, including Cotton Australia, the National Cotton Council, Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated, are gratified that so many businesses around the world recognize the ongoing environmental gains made by cotton growers in Australia and the United States,” said Mark Messura, senior vice president of global supply chain marketing at Cotton Inc.

More than 100 retailers, brands and manufacturers have joined the Cotton Leads program, including the newest partner, Brooks Brothers. The partners commit to the principles of the program and acknowledge that Cotton Leads cot-ton, grown under the regulatory environ-ments of Australia and the U.S., helps to meet their company’s objectives for re-sponsible sourcing criteria.

In explaining how the Cotton Leads program fits into Brooks Bros.’ sourc-ing needs, Joe Dixon, the company’s senior vice president of produc-tion and technical services, said, “Brooks Brothers is enthusiasti-cally committed to sustainable sourcing. Because cotton contin-ues to be a mainstay of Brooks Brothers’ product offerings, we require significant amounts of high quality, responsibly pro-duced cotton fiber. We look to a range of opportunities that, like the Cotton Leads pro-gram, can demonstrate best practices, reduced environ-mental impact, and make a commitment to ongoing im-provement and traceability.”

At this month’s Australian Fashion Week, Brooke Summers, communications manager at Cotton Australia, spoke to about 100 indus-try insiders about the story of Cotton Leads and what it hopes to achieve in lifting the standards of cotton produc-tion around the world.

“Cotton Leads is about recognizing that cotton growers in the U.S. and Australia are the best in the world at producing respon-sible, high-quality crops for the world’s textile market,” Summers said. “Over the last 20 years, our growers have been quietly working away at developing their sustainability credentials, to the point now where Australia’s cotton growers are recognized amongst the most sustainable in the world. We are the most water ef-ficient, we produce three times as much cotton for the same amount of land com-pared to the rest of the world, we’re using 95 percent less pesticides than we did 15 years ago, we look after our workers and

we’re constantly looking for ways to re-duce the resources that go into producing bales of cotton that eventually end up as yarn and finished products.”

Germany’s Gerhard Rösch GmbH is launching a new sleepwear collection made from 100 percent Cotton Made in Africa cotton that can be traced back to the African cotton growing region. The com-pany is certified according to the newly adopted Hard Identity Preserved standard of the Aid by Trade Foundation that calls for seamless traceability along the textile chain of Cotton Made in Africa cotton, with Rösch’s sleepwear line the first to be pro-duced under the new program.

“This is a great achievement for us to be the first company to offer its cus-tomers products that can be traced back to the growing area of CmiA cotton in Africa,” said Andreas Söffker, managing director of Gerhard Rösch.

Christian Barthel, supply chain man-ager of the Aid by Trade Foundation, said, “These requirements follow our demand for transparency and simultane-ously pragmatic feasibility and can thus

be used by a wide range of customers.”The requirements of the HIP

standard include separate storage of cotton throughout all produc-tion stages of the value chain. Additional requirements for the entire textile value chain have been summarized by the Aid by Trade Foundation in its Chain of Custody Guideline and published online. The founda-tion provides its partners with additional support in moni-toring the processing of CmiA cotton in the textile value chain through workshops and

analysis of commodity flows. Consumers can recognize CmiA HIP products by the corre-sponding CmiA label.

Social and environmental responsibility in the company and its supply chain is part of the corporate philosophy of Gerhard Rösch. Since 2013, the firm, based in Tübingen, has been a partner of the CmiA initiative and sup-

ports improving the living conditions of an estimated 435,000 sub-Saharan Africa farmers and their fam-ily members, encompass-

ing more than 3.2 million people. The initiative trains cotton farmers in modern, efficient and environmentally friendly cultivation methods that will help them improve the quality of their cotton, yield higher crops and earn a better income. An alliance composed of international textile companies established by the foundation purchases the CmiA cotton and pays a li-censing fee to the foundation, which is re-invested in the crop regions.

Pact, an ethical and organic apparel brand, has launched a line of organic cot-

ton apparel manufactured in a Fair Trade Certified facility. The line will include 19 styles featuring 78 differ-ent items. Featuring custom-designed women’s T-shirts at $14.99, the collec-tion launched last month exclusively at select Whole Foods Markets.

On July 1, the Fair Trade Certified collection will be expand-ed to include underwear, leggings, camisoles, men’s T-shirts, long johns and baby products. The expanded line will be available at retailers across the U.S. and on wearpact.com. This is the first Fair Trade Certified line for Pact, which fol-lows every step of the manufactur-ing process in a supply chain that is certified using third-party audi-

tors by Global Organic Textile Standards and Fair Trade USA. All of the cotton for Pact’s Fair Trade Certified line is sourced from Chetna Organic, a coopera-tive of 15,000 organic cotton farmers in India who practice organic agriculture. Chetna works to improve livelihood op-tions of smallholder farmers by making their farm systems more sustainable and profitable, and by creating access to ethi-cal markets in cotton.

“Having visited the cotton farms in India myself, I’ve witnessed the authentic-ity of the supply chain and the remarkable impact that Chetna has on community development,” said Joe Dickson, senior global quality standards coordinator for Whole Foods Market, noting that it is the

first time the company has sold Fair Trade Certified apparel.

The Fair Trade Certified line is pro-duced in a certified factory in India that is committed to ethical and sustainable production of garments. Factory workers are permanent employees as opposed to migrant laborers, their families are cov-ered by factory-provided health insur-ance and the children of workers receive free education through high school.

“By focusing on the people who make our products, from the farmers who grow the organic cotton to the workers who stitch the garments, Pact is fulfilling its mission to use apparel production as a means of making the world a better place,” said Jeff Denby, founder of Pact. “We really can create beautiful, high-quality apparel at a great price while investing in sustain-ability — economic, environmental and so-cial — within our supply chain.”

J. Berrye Worsham, president and chief executive officer of Cotton Inc., and Adam Kay, president of Cotton Australia, at the Cotton Leads launch.

A look from Pact’s Fair Trade collection.

A look from Gerhard Rösch’s Cotton Made in Africa line.

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10 WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

is today. Carol and I want to con-tinue the special path of Opening Ceremony because we’ve felt such a strong desire for it from our customers. We’ve got a lot of ideas for more Opening Ceremony stores and we want to build our online platform to be even more dynamic.”

Senk did not return requests for comment.

Friends since their under-graduate days at the University of California at Berkeley, Leon and Lim opened Opening Ceremony in 2002 on Howard Street here, then an obscure corner of SoHo, conceptualizing the store as a re-tail version of the Olympics wherein they featured vir-tually unheard-of designers from different coun-tries beginning with Hong Kong — Belgium is currently in the spotlight — inter-spersed with more well-known labels, such as Proenza Schouler, Rodarte and Alexander

Wang. Opening Ceremony opened in Los Angeles in 2007; in Tokyo, through a partnership with Onward Holdings Co. Ltd. that in-cludes three stores, in 2009; and in London in 2012.

Leon and Lim’s eye for un-derground fashion earned them serious street credit among fashion’s downtown cool crowd — Terence Koh, Spike Jonze and Ryan McGinley are all part of the inner circle — and the store’s signature limited-edition collaborations quickly developed a cult following. Perhaps none more so than the ongoing Chloë Sevigny for Opening Ceremony collection,

launched in 2007 after Leon read an interview with the ac-tress in which she said if she was ever to design a fashion line, it would be for Opening Ceremony. He called her and proposed the collaboration. Additionally, Opening Ceremony has a publishing division and a wholesale showroom for other designers, as well as its own col-lection that’s carried in more than 400 stores globally, includ-

ing Barneys New York, Lane Crawford, Harvey Nichols and Neiman Marcus.

Leon and Lim’s reputation for experimental concepts caught the attention of some industry heavy-weights — Opening Ceremony was the sole U.S. retailer of Topshop until it opened its own New York flagship; in 2007, the Howard Street store was turned into a pop-up shop for Target’s Proenza Schouler for Target collection.

And in June 2011, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton came calling, hiring Leon and Lim to reinvigorate the sleepy house of Kenzo, where they are co-creative directors. The duo is also on the jury for the LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize.

For his part, Senk was most recently chief executive offi-cer of David Yurman from 2012 until February, yet he’s known primarily for his retail experi-ence, most notably at Urban Outfitters Inc. He joined the company in 1994 as president of Anthropologie, building a single-store model into a billion-dollar-plus business, which earned him the top position in 2007, when he was named ceo of the entire group, which includes not only Urban Outfitters but also Free People. Senk has also held a seat on the Tory Burch board. Earlier this month, he disclosed his partnership with Berkshire Partners to form Front Row Partners, which plans to build a portfolio of companies in the retail and consumer sectors. Berkshire committed an initial investment of $350 million with additional capital from Senk, who serves as chairman and ceo.

By DAVID MOIN

LOU & GREY is a case of the apple falling far from the tree.

Though borne out of the former Loft Lounge line, “Lou & Grey is its own brand,” states Kay Krill, president and chief executive officer of Ann Inc., parent of Ann Taylor, Loft and now Lou & Grey.

During a preview of the first and only free-standing Lou & Grey store, which is located in Westport, Conn., Krill described what she considers the essence of the brand: “Everything is about comfort — that’s the fil-ter.” It’s a fusion of streetwear and loungewear, with a fashion component, not a performance component, she added.

The store has a soothing feel-ing — small, not cluttered. It’s neutral in palette, and that goes for both the collection and the interior decor. There’s a pre-dominance of gray, oatmeal and indigo across the collection and there’s lots of texture, rather than color. The fit is loose but not floppy with items typically cinched for some definition.

Prices are easy to take too, ranging from $30 to $100, includ-ing textured terry and knit lace dresses, $59; unconstructed blazers with mélange jersey lin-ings, $89; textured popovers, $59; nubby knit sweatshirts, $39.50; densely knit T-shirt dresses with zippers in the back, $59.50; knit pants with zipper pockets and wide elastic waistbands, $59.50; lace shorts, $49.50, and T-shirts with woven backs and knit fronts, $39.50.

“The clothes are versatile. A knit pant can be dressed up with a blouse and heels. It’s still relaxed and easy and not casual any-more,” said Austyn Zung, creative director for Loft/Lou & Grey.

There’s a lifestyle approach to the mer-chandising, meaning there’s more than just the sportswear. Culled from third-party artisans, candles, ceramic tabletop and vases, fragranc-es, organic beauty products, books and tie-dyed, down-filled pillows round out the assortment. There are also cotton canvas makeup bags and pouches as well as jewelry, including necklaces with ceramic teardrop charms, priced $69.50, and precious metal bracelets, $39.50.

The environment is clean with a nod to na-ture, with painted oak floors, clothing racks sus-pended by natural rope, a large concrete island doubling as a cash wrap and for merchandise display, and hanging copper lamps. With the fit-ting area, there’s a big backlit screen projecting visuals from the ad campaign.

The 1,200-square-foot space was carved out of an existing Loft store, though future units are seen at 2,000 to 3,000 square feet. Four addi-tional freestanding Lou & Grey shops will open this year, though no further locations have been

announced. While the brand targets “a broad demographic” and can work in malls, downtown urban areas and suburbia, as Krill said, there’s no rush to spawn a national chain. There are al-ready Lou & Grey shops-in-shop across the Loft chain. “We want to be smart and disciplined about it,” Krill said, regarding a rollout. There’s also no urgency to put up an e-commerce Lou & Grey Web site. “That’s down the road,” Krill said, hesitant to specify any timing.

Despite the caution, Lou & Grey is past the testing phase. “There’s a business here,” said Gary Muto, president of Ann Inc. Brands. “We’re not starting this from scratch,” he added, noting Lou & Grey is an evolution of the Loft Lounge label, which was launched in 2009. In December, Loft Lounge was recast as Lou & Grey and in January the new label was intro-duced on the Loft selling floors and on loft.com with an elevated assortment extending beyond loungewear. “We’ve made it larger and we think about it as a lifestyle brand that will work ev-erywhere,” said Muto.

Lou & Grey Gets First Home

A New Investor for Opening Ceremony

By LAUREN MCCARTHY

NEW YORK — Theodora & Callum is expanding its busi-ness with the introduction of T+C Theodora & Callum, a line of fashion accessories produced under a licensing deal with Collection 18.

The T+C Theodora & Callum collection will launch for resort 2014 with hats, cover-ups and the brand’s signature scarves. Retail price points will range from $38 to $68 for scarves, $38 to $58 for hats and up to $148 for jew-elry. With lower price points (scarves from the main collection start at $175), cofound-ers Stefani Greenfield and Desiree Gruber saw an opportunity to reach a wider custom-er base while main-taining brand identity. “It’s not about diffu-sion, it’s not about a secondary line — it’s how do we take the energy [of Theodora & Callum] to T+C Theodora & Callum and offer it to a broad-er audience,” said Greenfield. “Scarves are the ultimate out-fit completer. Process is process. Creativity is creativity. It’s not de-termined by price point.”

Greenfield and Gruber have been working with Collection 18, which also produces scarves for Anne Klein, BCBG Max Azria, Nine West and Vince Camuto, for five months in preparation for a May market debut. “Before we started, I said, ‘I need to under-stand your capabilities and your workmanship,’ said Greenfield. “I

could not believe the value and quality that they were able to pro-duce while still conveying a mes-sage that was on brand. They are masterful in design and putting groups together. They know their consumers very well.”

When it came to designing the collection, Greenfield and Gruber looked to the Theodora & Callum archives. “A lot of it is inspira-tion within our scarves that have become symbolic for the brand,” said Greenfield. “We went back through all of our designs and

found elements, [such as] evil eyes, shells, leaves.”

T+C Theodora & Callum also marks the first full-fledged jewelry offering for the brand. Previously, the main line has done select, one-of-a-kind pieces for in-store promotion and ad campaigns. “I’m a jewelry freak,” said Greenfield. “To me, jewelry is such a statement of who you want to be, as soon as you get dressed.” Jewelry will be the priciest offering of the collection.

While the new col-lection aims to hit a

larger customer base, Greenfield believes that T+C Theodora & Callum will still appeal to their current clientele. “We live in a world now where you could wear Zara and Chloé, J. Crew and Azzedine Alaïa,” she said. “There are no rules. So anyone that loves color and globally inspired prints, and goes nowhere without a scarf on their body or in their handbag, they can wear T+C or Theodora and Callum.”

Theodora & Callum Inks Licensing Deal

Scarves from T+C Theodora & Callum.

The Lou & Grey store in Westport, Conn.

Humberto Leon and Carol Lim

{Continued from page one}

Inside Opening Ceremony’s store at 35 Howard Street in Manhattan.

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WWD.COM11WWD TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2014

PAY DAY FOR BEWKES: Time Warner, parent company of Time Inc., cut its top executive Jeffrey Bewkes a big check in 2013.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the cable and television company said chairman and chief executive officer Bewkes earned a 25.5 percent increase in total compensation, which amounted to $32.5 million.

Broken down, Bewkes’ salary remained the same at $2 million, but his combined stock and options awards rose 61.8 percent to $16 million. The ceo’s non-equity incentive plan increased 5.5 percent to $14.4 million, as his other compensation slid 24.4 percent to $126,889. The lion’s share of Bewkes’ other compensation — 69.8 percent to be exact — went to his personal use of the company’s aircraft, as well as to his use of a car and driver.

Time Warner also revealed that publishing division Time Inc., which is slated to be spun off from the company in the second quarter of 2014, accounted for 11 percent of its business, or roughly $3.3 billion. In 2013, Time Warner’s total revenues totaled $29.8 billion, according to its 10-K filing.

Revenues of its other divisions — Turner, Home Box Office and Warner Bros. — accounted for 33 percent, 17 and 39 percent, respectively.

— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

VOGUE.COM’S MAGIC MOMENT: Vogue is in the process of expanding its Web site,

WWD has learned. The magazine, which redesigned its

site in 2010, is amassing a bigger staff comprised of a mix of new hires and existing employees who will move over to the dot-com. The shift and addition of staff to vogue.com from the print publication has been in the works over the past six months. It will culminate in the unveiling of a new version of the site in the fall — to be precise, in September during New York Fashion Week.

Staffers who have already made the transition from print to online include beauty writer Catherine Piercy, who became beauty director of the Web site earlier this year. Fashion writer Chioma Nnadi also moved to vogue.com to cover fashion features, and Alessandra Codinha was hired in March to write for the site. Earlier this year, Edward Barsamian left T: The New York Times Style Magazine and recently joined Vogue as a contributing style editor, working on both the Web site and the magazine. Emily Holt, the magazine’s fashion news editor, also frequently contributes to the site.

It has been rumored that two other employees have been hired in the last six weeks, and that when all is said and done, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour is looking for a rather large staff to work specifically for the Web site —something in the neighborhood of 20 people in total.

A spokeswoman for Vogue declined to comment. According to ComScore, the number of unique visitors to vogue.com rose to 1.2 million in February from 633,000 in February 2013, although they hit a high of 3 million in December. — A.S.

LAST GOODBYE: Kate Moss was among the mourners at Peaches Geldof ’s private funeral on Monday at St. Mary Magdalene and St. Lawrence Church in Davington, in Kent, England, according to the BBC. Other guests included Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman and Geldof ’s family.

Geldof, who died earlier this month at age 25, was married at the church in 2012, and had grown up at her father Bob Geldof’s estate nearby. The cause of death is still not known, and the results of toxicology tests have not yet been released. — SAMANTHA CONTI

KELLY RETROSPECTIVE: In five years during the Eighties, Patrick Kelly made a fashion name for himself, still largely remembered to this day for his whimsical button dresses. Now, Kelly, who died of AIDS in 1990, is the subject of a significant retrospective at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art. “Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love,” opening Sunday and running through Nov. 30, will feature archival garments alongside fashion show videos, works by such photographers as Horst P. Horst and Pierre et Gilles, as well as pieces from Kelly’s collection of black memorabilia.

Pieces on show range from his dressed covered with big plastic buttons sewn in a heart shape, as well as

items that riffed on Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Madame Grès. (In 1988, Kelly was the first American and African-American to be elected to the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode.)

“While the many barriers he faced remain, Kelly was always positive,” noted Dilys Blum, the Museum’s Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland senior curator of costume and textiles and organizer of the exhibition. “His branding and self-marketing were unique at the time, but now, in an age of fast fashion and brand-driven sales, it is a perfect time to reexamine Kelly’s contribution to fashion history.”

The show is complemented by an exhibition of Gerlan Jeans streetwear which reinterprets many of Kelly’s signatures. As Blum put it, “What Kelly achieved during the 1980s has continuing resonance today.”

— MARC KARIMZADEH

LUCKY THIRTEEN: A 13th anniversary gift is traditionally signified with lace, but for its celebration with the CFDA Awards, Swarovski is opting for something with a little more sparkle. In honor of the brand’s 13th year of partnering with the awards, Swarovski has collaborated with all nine of this year’s nominees for the Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent categories on one-of-a-kind crystal objets d’art.

Nominees participating include Wes Gordon, Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters of Creatures of the Wind, Rosie Assoulin, Irene Neuwirth, Marc Alary, Jennifer Fisher, Tim Coppens, Todd Snyder and Shayne Oliver of Hood by Air.

Based on the theme “Lucky 13,” each designer has chosen an item with personal meaning to customize with Swarovski crystal while incorporating the number 13. The designs will be at the Kirna Zabête boutique in New York’s SoHo neighborhood from May 13 until June 2, when they will be sold through the online charity auction Gavel & Grind. All proceeds from the collection will benefit Free Arts NYC, a nonprofit that provides underserved

MEMO PAD

FASHION SCOOPS

EDITOR’S NOTE: In a page one story in WWD Monday, Sidney Kimmel, for-mer chairman and founder of Jones Group, recalled his days working with designer Norma Kamali. Here, Kamali responds to Kimmel’s comments:

April 21, 2014To the Editors:Sidney Kimmel is one of the most cre-ative and successful entrepreneurs in the fashion industry, and I’m sorry he chose to remember our experience to-

gether the way he did.I learned a great deal from every-

one at Jones but decided to terminate our relationship when it became clear to me that Sidney’s many other per-sonal and professional commitments made it impossible for him to focus on my collections.

The decision to terminate was a reluctant one but made in the best in-terest of my business and in the end it worked out very well.

— NORMA KAMALI

FOR MORE SCOOPS, SEE

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children and families with educational arts and mentoring programs.

— LAUREN MCCARTHY

WARHOL’S MOST WANTED: The Andy Warhol scandal at the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens, N.Y., is being revisited. An exhibit entitled “13 Most Wanted Men: Andy Warhol and the 1964 World’s Fair” opens Saturday at the Queens Museum, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World’s Fair. When Warhol was commissioned to do a mural for the Philip Johnson-designed New York State Pavilion at the fair, he chose to enlarge mug shots from a New York City Police booklet of the state’s most wanted criminals of 1962. It was like a big chessboard of front and profile views, installed April 22, 1964. Three days later, just before the fair opened, the mural was painted over in silver so all that was visible to crowds was a 20-by-20-foot silver square.

“Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and Robert Moses thought it was inappropriate to have images of criminals in a public setting,” said Tom Finkelpearl, executive director

of the Queens Museum. “These were America’s most wanted men, and another worry was that the majority were Italian and it could have been seen as anti-Italian. It was a big brouhaha.” After his mural was painted over, a tongue-in-cheek Warhol suggested replacing it with 25 Robert Moses portraits. The idea was nixed.

The exhibit runs through Sept. 7 before traveling to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, which collaborated on the show. It includes a set of paintings of the same criminals that Warhol did in the summer of 1964 with the screens he used to make the

mural, as well as portraits of Jacqueline Kennedy and Rockefeller, some of Warhol’s film portraits, photos of Warhol’s Factory, items from the Warhol Museum and archival materials detailing Warhol’s World’s Fair project and scandal. “Andy Warhol’s only public art project ended up a complete fiasco,” Finkelpearl said.

The Queens Museum, which was expanded last year, is located in the New York City Building, next to the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

— DAVID MOIN

Patrick Kelly looks to be shown at

the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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