January 27th, 2012

Luxury goods retailers invest in premium retail sites

Competition for key central London stores reached a new level following the decision by Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of French luxury goods group LVMH (pictured) to purchase three stores on Bond Street for £300 million as reported in Reuters and Yahoo.
 
Fashionista understands that the shops include LVMH’s Louis Vuitton flagship store at 17-20 New Bond Street and two other stores let to US leather goods fashion retailer, Coach and luxury stationer, Smythson. Fashionista has noticed the trend on the capital’s most exclusive streets of luxury retailers using surplus funds to purchase freehold premises. In 2009, Hermes acquired the store currently let to Asprey for £75 million and, particularly relevant to LVMH, the freehold interest in its DKNY store at 26 Old Bond Street was acquired by rival brand (and occupier of 27 Old Bond Street) Chanel in 2010.  

Aside from the benefit of strong projected rental and capital growth, this investment is also a long term measure to protect LMVH’s presence in a key market.  As the list of international retailers looking to establish flagship stores in central London continues to grow, the purchase of a shop in this location will also provide a safeguard against the increasing level of rent, which Cushman & Wakefield has predicted for prime Bond Street Zone A premises could reach £1,500 per square foot by 2013.

Fashionista expects the trend of retailers’ becoming property owners to continue in high profile markets where demand is outstripping supply and, in turn, an increasing number of cases of a retailer becoming the landlord of a competitor tenant - what Fashionista would give to be a fly on the wall during discussions when these leases are due for renewal!

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We reported a while back on leaked drafts of the new European data protection Regulation. Yesterday, the official version was published and Fashionista’s colleagues at Olswang spent a busy day analysing the practical implications of the proposal. Their more detailed analysis for in house counsel can be found here. The highlights Fashionista says you must know [...]

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Many UK fashion businesses have  recently been looking to increase margins by switching to paying their Chinese suppliers in Yuan. According to ChinaDaily.com, by making the switch Chinese suppliers have less of a need to build in a buffer in costs to guard against currency fluctuations – particularly in longer term contracts. This means suppliers are more [...]

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After the optimism of strong footfall figures on Boxing Day, high street retailers were reminded of the current challenging trading conditions following a fall in the number of shoppers during the January sales period as reported in the Telegraph on Monday. During December 2011, clothing retailer D2 Jeans and Barratts Priceless entered into administration and it is expected that they [...]

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Data has become an increasingly important commodity for those working in the fashion industry. Knowing who your customers are, their spending habits, likes and dislikes is invaluable. But alongside enjoying such an asset comes responsibility. Most will know that such responsibility is legally based on our data protection regime and legislation which has been in [...]

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Fashion houses have long provided internships to young hopefuls looking to break into the industry. But this practice is under increasing scrutiny from the UK taxman – Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – amid concern that interns are in fact carrying out the work of employees, and should be rewarded for doing so. As reported [...]

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December 5th, 2011

Career Story: Catherine Palmer

Fashionista attended a wonderful event last Thursday organised by the networking group Women in Law. The evening was hosted by the inspiring Catherine Palmer, General Counsel of luxury fashion brand Joseph at Joe’s Cafe established by the label’s founder Joseph Ettedgui because he needed somewhere to go for lunch which was close to his shop! From his favourite table in the [...]

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November 30th, 2011

Fashionista heads East…

As the nights draw in and the fog settles in London, Fashionista thought it was high time to set up a base out in Asia and has done just that so readers can expect to see news and commentary on fashion happenings in the region from here onwards. There are certainly many signs that Asia [...]

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Fashionista is always on the look out for new and exciting emerging designers, both through her work with the Centre for Fashion Enterprise and in the wider fashion world. Fashionista was therefore excited to meet Sally Hartfield, ex-City lawyer and the founder of Matilda & Quinn , a new brand focused on filling the gap [...]

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November 10th, 2011

Fashion joins Google+

Search engine giant Google has just launched Google+ Pages, a new service available on Google+ which means that companies as well as individuals can create their own interactive pages. As reported in the Telegraph, fashion is taking a lead in the new venture – some of the first companies to join since the new service [...]

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