November 15,  2002                                 Issue #85




         Mcpete -Sez, 
     The Lingerie Newsletter 
                & 
       Women's Wear Journal
         
                 
Sleepwear-Daywear-Foundations-Loungewear-Hosiery-
       Swimwear-Dancewear-Clubwear-Funwear 
                              Ready to-wear.

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  Frederick's of Arabia
This kingdom is a thicket of unfathomable extremes. Frederick's of Hollywood-style lingerie shops abound, even though female sexuality is considered so threatening that the mere sight of a woman's ankle will cause civilization to crumble. As one cleric put it, women can become "the most dangerous weapon of destruction" for Islamic nations.
Saudi Arabia has some remarkable women, but you won't find them helping to run the country; the toilet seats at the Foreign Ministry are routinely left up.
There is a "women only" lingerie section in Harvey Nichols. (The first wife of Muhammad, who did not seem to mind high-achieving women, was a merchant; during Ramadan, trade is encouraged and stores stay open past midnight.)
 For more on this story Click here

45/48
 Retail Sales Increase in October 
NEW YORK - The return of cold weather in October brought consumers back to stores and malls to buy warmer clothes, brightening retailers' prospects for the holiday shopping season. Business was good even at struggling Gap Inc., which reported its best sales performance in almost three years. 
As the nation's retailers reported sales results Thursday, discounters and some moderate-price stores remained strong. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kohl's Corp. had figures that exceeded Wall Street expectations. 
But Gap and other mall-based apparel stores did well too, halting at least temporarily a prolonged slump. Gap reported its first gain in sales at stores open at least a year since April 2000. The 11 percent gain surpassed by far the 0.6 percent increase analysts forecast. 
Sales at stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales, are considered the best gauge of a retailer's health. 
There were still some pockets of weakness, including department stores and warehouse clubs, particularly Costco Wholesale Corp. The exceptions included J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Nordstrom Inc., both of which reported results that pleased Wall Street. 
"Is the retail industry finally on the mend? It appears that tentatively the answer could be yes," said Michael P. Niemira, vice president of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd., whose same-store sales tally was up 3.1 percent for the month. Niemira had expected a 2 percent gain. 
"You are starting to see some life in the industry," he said. 
Niemira now believes merchants could have same-store sales for the holidays at the high end of his forecast of a 2 percent to 3.75 percent gain. Previously, he expected results at the low end of that range. 
The better-than-expected results caused a slew of retailers, including Penney, Kohl's Corp., Gap, AnnTaylor Corp., Talbots Inc. and Federated Department Stores Inc., to upgrade their earnings projections for the third quarter, after many had downgraded their forecasts only a month ago. 

                      
Ladies show off their fashion outfits in the members area during 
the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia.


                         
                          5/6

 MALAYSIA: Warisan, Wacoal Agrees to Apparel Joint Venture.  Malaysian garment manufacturer Warisan TC Holdings Berhad on Monday revealed it has agreed a deal with Wacoal Corp for a joint venture to produce women’s lingerie, sportswear and apparel. 

IN recent months the United States has issued patents covering an inflatable push-up bra, an instant-release bra clasp, a bra with a built-in breast pump, a bra with detachable straps that can be removed without first removing a blouse, and an electromagnetic bra that is said to perk up droopy breasts

                          
Models display swimsuit by Portuguese designer Fatima Lopes during the Moda Lisboa fashion show, in Lisbon, Portugal, Saturday Oct.26, 2002.

  Amazon Opens Apparel Store's E-Doors
Amazon's new Apparel & Accessories Store passed last week's testing period with flying colors, and the e-tailing behemoth has now made it official - just in time for holiday shopping. 
Last Thursday, Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos introduced the new store, dubbed "Ruby" internally, to a select group of customers, inviting them to "try it first (warts and all) and give us feedback." Bezos revealed at the time that the company had been working on the project for almost a year. 
Until today, the store was accessible only through www.amazon.com/ruby . Now, it's prominently featured on Amazon's home page - along with a little extra incentive for shoppers to turn to Amazon for their apparel needs: $30 gift certificates to those who spend $50 or more at the new store.
That incentive certainly worked for the "best customers" that have been trying out the offerings for the last seven days. During the preview, shoppers ordered 14,487 shirts; 9,408 pairs of pants; 3,287 pairs of underwear; 3,254 pairs of shoes; 2,712 sweaters; and 1,843 jackets. 
Over 400 brands (from adidas to TAG Heuer) are represented on the site, through major retailers like Nordstrom, Gap, Old Navy, Eddie Bauer, Foot Locker, eLuxury and Lands' End. Offerings are broken down into women, men, shoes, accessories, kids and baby, and maternity. Even beauty brands (included under accessories), like T. LeClerc and Trish McEvoy, are represented, mostly through eLuxury.



A man laughs as he walks past a line of over 500 hanging bras called 'Bras Across the Bridge' in front of the city skyline on National Breast Cancer Awareness Day in Sydney October 28, 2002. The bras, hanging from a line that stretched the entire length of the Pyrmont Bridge, were on display to raise awareness of breast cancer and were previously owned by many celebrities including supermodel Elle Macpherson. They will be auctioned 
off later to raise money for ongoing research.
   

21/24

   DKNY on the war path:  Fashion Net News
We hear that Donna Karan got a bit rambunctious the other night at a gala dinner at the New York Stock Exchange for some of fashion's finest.
Apparently, the irrepressible Ms. Karan interrupted the guest of honor's speech to hold a 45 minute monologue about how absurdly early delivery deadlines (i.e. fall collections arrive in stores in June) are destroying the fashion system. Although it's never very polite to steal someone else's thunder, we give Donna props for telling it like it is.



Cathy and Victor Moseley stand in their lingerie store, Cathy's Little Secret, in Elizabethtown, Ky. The Moseley's have owned the store for five years and have been in litigation the whole time with retailer Victoria's Secret. The U.S. Supreme Court  will hear a trademark case pitting the giant Victoria's Secret lingerie chain against the adult novelty store Victor Moseley named for himself: Victor's Little Secret. Moseley ended up changing the name of the store to Cathy's Little Secret, after his wife, pending the outcome of the case.

                   M&S Posts Profits Way Up
Marks & Spencer is reveling in its fourth consecutive quarter of positive growth, but Chairman Luc Vandevelde still warns of "challenging year-on-year comparisons" and a market that may become "less buoyant."
Perhaps it was such cautionary comments in the high street retailer's interim results announcement Tuesday morning that led its stock to fall almost seven percent on the London Stock Exchange this afternoon, to 353 pence. The results themselves beat market forecasts, with profits up almost 30 percent, to $449 million, and turnover up almost eight percent, to about $5.8 billion. 
According to Vandevelde, these numbers are "further indication that we have moved from securing, to sustaining the recovery."
 


Retail Sales on Track, Holidays Murky
NEW YORK - Retailers, headed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., say November sales are on track, but the outlook for the holiday season is still murky and the battered sector is not out of danger yet.   Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, on Monday said sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store-sales, were on plan in the first week of November and it was on track to meet its target of 2 percent to 4 percent growth for the full month. 
Last week, retailers reported mostly higher October same-store sales, temporarily easing fears of a punishing holiday selling season. But with shoppers concerned about economic instability and a possible war with Iraq, a stellar Christmas is far from certain. 
"It's too early to tell. When consumers are scared, the first thing they do is pull back on spending," said Jordan Kaplan, a professor of managerial science at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York. "The jury's still out ... the glass is half empty until proven otherwise.

                   Sign on a plumber's truck: 
           "We repair what your husband fixed."

                     Gap Sales Finally Rise
After 30 straight months of declining same-store sales, Gap has finally seen growth. The San Francisco-based retailer Thursday revealed October sales in stores open at least a year up 11 percent. Overall sales for the period were $1.2 billion, up 17 percent from $1 billion in the same period last year. 
The good news prompted the company - which operates its namesake Gap outlets as well as Old Navy and Banana Republic stores - to raise its third-quarter earnings forecast to 12 to 14 cents a share, a significant leap from analysts' current six cents forecast. For the full third-quarter, sales rose nine percent, to $3.6 billion, with comparable store sales up two percent.
Old Navy was the real feather in Gap's fleece hat last month. The chain's low prices attracted slews of spending-conscious customers, and it saw same-store sales up 24 percent.

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