NEWS
Week In Review
Galeries Lafayette will open a new Paris department store, according to a statement from the retailer. On Nov. 12, it is scheduled to debut an 8,000-square-foot shop in the Panoramic building at Beaugrenelle, a shopping center in the French capital. The department store will offer styles for women, men and children. The merchandising mix will include established, premium and emerging brands. Nicolas Houzé, Galeries Lafayette’s chief executive officer, said that 2019 was a busy year.” This new location in Paris, the third this year after we opened Galeries Lafayette Champs Elysées and Eataly Paris Marais, will enable us to better serve our clients in the west of the city in a setting that perfectly reflects the premium positioning of the Galeries Lafayette brand,” he said in a statement.
Bangladesh’s High Court recently imposed a six-month ban on Nirapon, an alliance of brands that oversees the monitoring of apparel factories in that South Asian nation. It’s the latest story in a struggle on the direction of Bangladesh’s giant apparel industry. Recently, the American Apparel & Footwear Association delivered a request to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed to support Nirapon and protect the safety of workers. In the letter, Rick Helfenbein, the president and chief executive officer of AAFA, urged the prime minister to recognize AAFA’s position that Nirapon’s work does not conflict with government objectives and stakeholder interests. In 2013, 1,134 Bangladeshi garment workers died in unsafe factories in the Rana Plaza fire.
Zac Posen, a wunderkind New York designer and “Project Runway” judge, closed his House of Z and Z Spoke brands, according to Posen’s Instagram and media reports. The fashion brands’ backers, including Ron Burkle of the Yucaipa Companies, had been trying to share their stake of the company for a while and found no takers. Posen’s 60 employees are now out of jobs. Posen has received accolades for his red-carpet designs for stars such as Natalie Portman, Rihanna, Sofia Vergara, Princess Eugenie and Beyoncé. Posen still works as a creative director for the Brooks Brothers Women’s Collection.
Gert Boyle, the public face and former chief executive officer of Columbia Sportswear, passed away Nov. 2 at the age of 95. Boyle gained notoriety for turning Columbia from an outfit that had sales of $800,000 a year to one with revenues of $2.8 billion in 2018, according to the New York Times. She not only possessed business smarts but, in 1984, was the star of a Columbia Sportswear advertising campaign in which she played the role of a “Tough Mother.” She would talk about how Columbia’s products were as tough and as durable as she is.
The Women in Retail Leadership Circle announced a re-branding campaign that includes a new logo and a redesigned website that it hopes will increase its membership. The Philadelphia-headquartered organization produces the Women in Retail Leadership Summit. The 7th annual summit is scheduled to run April 27–29, 2020, in Miami. More than 400 attendees are expected.
