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Elegant Moments Lingerie

Delicate Illusions

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Articles Of Interest

U.S. Congress
 to End Antidumping Law
Page 1

U.S. Trade Deficit Breaks Record
Page 1

Racy Bra 
Ads Banned
Page 1

La Senza Sued
Page 1

Miami International Lingerie Show
Page 2

L.L Bean's
Big Mistake
Page 2

Buyers' Best Sellers
Page 2

Ask Andy
Page 2

McPete Sez
Mailbag
Page 2

Miami International Lingerie Show Continued
Page 3

Spellbound Gets More Attention
Page 3

Ask Kevin
Page 3

Miami International Lingerie Show Continued
Page 4

Gap Opens 2 New Banana Republic Stores In Japan
Page 4

Sara Lee Spins Off Branded Apparel
Page 4

Miami International Lingerie Show Continued
Page 5

The Buzz
Page 5

Reps Corner
Page 5

Shows & Events
Page 5

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                                      Page 3
Sears Continues With Acquisition
Retail group Sears Holdings said it is continuing the buying process for the Sears Canada business, and also said it had waived the conditions on the US$730m offer.
Shares in the Canadian business have recently been trading above the bid price, and the company has reported an increased fourth-quarter profit.
Sears said it will mail out its offer for the business this week and added that it will waive the minimum share tender condition of the offer. The offer had been subject to receipt of a majority of Sears Canada shares not already owned by the company.
Sears Holdings vice chairman Alan Lacy said: "We feel it is important to communicate to shareholders that we intend to purchase all validly tendered shares and, while we would prefer to own 100% of Sears Canada, we are committed to increasing our ownership through this offer in any case."
Sears is the third-largest broad line retailer in North America, with about $5bn in annual revenues, and about 3,900 full-line and specialty retail stores in the US and Canada. 
         
      
8/12
Spellbound's Knack for Getting
             Attention
Felicia Stockford, the Water Street lingerie shop owner who attracted international publicity with her live window girls modeling skimpy bedroom wear, is creating even more controversy.
On Jan. 20, Stockford had photographs taken at her store, Spellbound, of five young women in topless poses. She then mentioned the topless photos on her Internet blog site.
Six days later, one of the topless photos showed up on the blog site. It showed four smiling, kneeling young women wearing nothing but panties. Their arms covered up most of their bare breasts.
Michael Hein, the conservative former legislative candidate who has announced he's going to make another run for the Maine House this year, was outraged when he learned that Stockford was shooting topless photos at her store.
Hein filed a criminal complaint with the Augusta Police Department.
By Wednesday, nothing had come of it, but police said they were still investigating.
Two detectives interviewed Stockford and several young women at Spellbound. Police wanted to know if there was any way that any member of the public could have seen the topless girls as they were being photographed.
Stockford assured the detectives that the store was closed and the windows were blocked off and that no member of the public could peek in. She said the photos were taken for the girls' personal use.
Hein has been a steadfast critic of Stockford since she put live young women in her window modeling racy lingerie last fall.
“It's a festering boil with our city,” Hein said. “I and quite a number of other people have registered complaints with the city about her creative advertising. The models have no place in the city.”
“In her blogs she mentions topless photos,” Hein said. “That raised my suspicions that state laws may have been violated. I felt it appropriate to make city leaders and the police department aware of what was going on. This was different. I thought it would be prudent to suggest that the police conduct a criminal investigation.”
Hein noted that Stockford said later that the doors to Spellbound were locked when the photos were taken and nobody could see in.
“Probably the police determined that nothing illegal happened,” Hein conceded. “But people will continue to monitor her. She continues to make a mockery of community standards.”
Hein serves on the board of directors of the Christian Civic League of Maine, but notes that he acted on his own behalf in calling for a criminal investigation of the topless photos.
At the same time, the Christian Civic League was mounting an e-mail campaign calling on Stockford to take the models out of her window.
“We really want to let her know that this type of activity will not be condoned,” Hein said. “Having go-go dancers in the window while we're walking with our children downtown to get a greeting card is not acceptable.”
Stockford said the topless photos were taken for several girls' portfolios. One of the girls has a boyfriend who is being deployed to Afghanistan with the military and she wanted to give him a photo. Spellbound also is planning a calendar in the future, Stockford said.
She said the ages of the young women in the photos were 20 to 25.
She said she doesn't employ any girls younger than 18 and no girl who is still in high school.
She started with just one model in October, after opening the lingerie business in the spring. “Now I have quite a few girls I rotate through,” she said.
City officials have said the window models don't break any laws so long as they simply model lingerie and don't simulate sex acts or solicit prostitution.


12/24
What Religion is Your Bra?
A man walked into the ladies department of a Macy's and shyly said to the woman behind the counter, "I'd like to buy a bra for my wife.
What type of bra?" asked the clerk.
Type?" inquires the man, "There's more than one type?
Look around," said the saleslady, as she showed a sea of bras in every shape, size, color and material imaginable.
Actually, even with all of this variety, there are really only four types of bras to choose from.
Relieved, the man asked about the types. The saleslady replied:
There are the Catholic, the Salvation Army, the Presbyterian, and the Baptist types. Which one would you prefer?
Now totally befuddled, the man asked about the differences between them.
The Saleslady responded, "It is all really quite simple...
The Catholic type supports the masses.
The Salvation Army type lifts up the fallen,
The Presbyterian type keeps them staunch and upright, and
The Baptist type makes mountains out of mole hills.
The Miami International 
Lingerie Show Continued..

In the Sexy Mannequin booth, owner Bill Robb, stands
next to his "models"  These are not your everyday mannequins!
                sexymannequin@pacbell.net


In the Entrenue booth, Kris Lynch, owner of Ruff Doggie
stands with Harry Gilmartin, president of Entrenue.
                       harry@entrenue.com


Model, Jewel wearing Pastease, stands with owners, Todd
and Sarah Pratter.  pastease@pastease.com


Shereen Loth, owner of Delicate Illusions, stands among 
her lines of exotic dancewear wear, costumes and plus sizes,
100% made in the USA. info@delicateillusions.com


Karen Saegusa is helping a buyer see all the hosiery and 
costumes by Music Legs.  sales@musiclegs.com


In the Elegant Moments booth, Susan Newton, Melissa
Wright, and Gene Newton take a quick break to smile for
the camera.  elegantmoments1@aol.com


Larry and Chris Rolling are busy showing garments from
   the bridal line by Fantasy Lingerie to a buyer.  
                  fantasy@fantasylingerie.net


In the Cheryl Creations booth, Ed De La Torre is working 
with buyers from Lace to Lust Boutique and Use Your
Imagination.  Ph: 212-947-4141 Fax: 212-967-1233

The Miami International Lingerie Show
              continued on page 4
       Wacoal's Thermal
          Underwear
Japanese lingerie company Wacoal Corporation has come up with a line of thermal underwear that utilizes special crystals and the user's own body heat to keep the wearer warm. 
The rayon and cotton material used in Wacoal's Kaiteki Navi line is coated with crystals that melt when your body is warm, and absorb the heat. When your body cools, the crystals solidify and release the warmth. 
When the temperature drops below 25 degrees, the polymer developed by textile maker Omikenshi Co becomes solid and gives heat, but when temperature rises above 25 degrees it turns to liquid or gel, and absorbs heat.
The company is targeting sales of 700,000 units by the end of February.
The line includes T-shirts, camisoles, bras, pants and girdles – all undergarments that can be worn underneath any type of clothing.


5/24
  "Ask Kevin"
           For all of your website questions...
Kevin and his wife have been retailing lingerie and adult products since 1988. They believe that a large portion of their business success came from the  addition of their websites to their retail store and that in today's fast paced market, internet marketing goes hand in hand with any business.
Kevin's personal site design experiences include all levels of internet marketing and design including secure server ordering processes, merchant account integration, HTML editing, photo editing, graphic design and banner advertisements. All of which are needed on a business style website.
Kevin also designs websites and consults clients who want to do more business online.
Kevin welcomes your questions and comments regarding website design, internet marketing, photo editing, domain registrations hosting and more. For serious website entrepreneurs, he recommends this course for complete Internet marketing training. Internet Marketing & Site Optimization Tips: http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/848190
You can ask Kevin your questions at Kevin@mcpetesez.com

hi kevin
if i really don't have a budget to "advertise" our small website do you have any suggestions on how we can increase our visibility to draw more hits??
we are a manufacturer - so our core focus is selling to our wholesale customers - in volume - we recently put up a site with the hopes of receiving a few consumer orders now and again, but have not received any you may visit our site at www.ruffdoggiestyles.com 
any words of advise ???
kris 

Kris,
You have an interesting "niche" market regarding your website. After taking a look at your site, I have a couple recommendations for it that should help increase your site visits which will eventually get you some orders. Keep in mind that it does take time to "evolve" on the internet and future sales from it may be slow at first.
In order for a page to be properly listed and found by a search engine, you should always have your title, keywords and description at or near the top of each page. On your home page, you have these html code items but they are too far down on the page. You need to place them just below your code named: <head>. Because you have script in the beginning of your code, you should enter the title, keywords and description just below the script.
Add an "ALT" tag to all your photos, especially the main ones on the front of your home page. This increases keywords and search engine listings. Make sure you have titles, keywords and descriptions on all of your pages. Currently you do not have a title on your "main.html" page. The main thing you are trying to do is to get the major search engines to locate your site and give you a better listing on their indexes. This will increase your visitor counts. 
Consider also, renaming some of your pages. Instead of having your domain name and then the page title, rename a page first by its primary function or selling point. For example, your wholesalers page would get more recognition with the engines by naming it something like: "Wholesale Ruff Toys by Ruff Doggie Styles" rather than ruffdoggiestyles.com/wholesaler.html
Contact similar themed, but not competitor website retailers and request to trade links with them. Having other sites link to yours will increase site popularity ratings with all search engines.
Consider adding an "Affiliate" link if you'd like to increase your bottom line and site awareness. I am very pleased with an adult toy affiliate link I use which pays a great commission on sales at 30%. This gives you a free link to your site from theirs. 
Check them out at: http://www.sextoysex.com/sex/start/affiliates.html?a=fun269
Sign up on "guest registers" of other sites. Enter only information that will bring the curious back to your site. Advertise your site and its contents in local "Nickel Saver" type papers. The cost is very reasonable and does bring in many sales to my sites.
The idea is to get your site noticed/placed in as many places and other websites as you can. These are just some ways to build site awareness and increase visitor/customer counts. 
Good luck with your online marketing.

The "Ask Kevin" Column is an opinion Column and may not necessarily  reflect the views of  McPete Sez.          

Liz Claiborne's Restructuring
                  Plan
Apparel retailer Liz Claiborne is set to axe around 500 jobs, approximately 4% of its global work force, as part of a money-saving restructuring plan. The company also said it is shaking up the grouping of its brands and organizations, and announced new operating responsibilities.
The company will make significant staff reductions at senior levels, and close or re-purpose approximately 20 retail stores.
Claiborne said streamlining of operations and redeployment of resources are initially expected to generate US$60-65m of gross annual savings. The company also said the cuts will be made to better manage its multi-brand and multi-channel portfolio, align its business with consumer needs, and capitalize on growth across its brands.
President Trudy Sullivan stated: "We are confident this strategic initiative will enable us to better leverage the best opportunities within our expansive collection of brands, while recognizing the different role each brand plays within our portfolio. 
"A more centralized sales approach will allow us to better serve our wholesale customers and be even more responsive to the rapidly changing needs of consumers. We expect that this leaner operating platform will also increase margins and facilitate smooth integration of future acquisitions." 
The company also said that brands and operations will be grouped according to consumer offerings and channels, with brands having their own brand-specific functions, such as design, merchandising and marketing, while benefiting from shared functions within each grouping such as planning, sales, sourcing and consumer research. Previously, these shared functions were organized by brand. 
           

      
Hey Sales Reps !!!
Would you like to write an article for this newsletter? we are looking for information for our readers and if you have anything to contribute  please e-mail me.  
            




                                                                       
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