It's Shoemania!

For those who missed Channel 4 News last night, Fashionista was very interested to hear that she was not alone in having a shoe addiction. The C4 report referred to data from Bain and Company which showed that in 2009 the overall luxury market shrank by 8 per cent, but that sales of luxury shoes only fell by 0.5 %. In addition, for this year, Bain predicts that luxury shoe sales will bounce back by around 5 %, above other categories of goods in the luxury market.  There could be a number of reasons for this: many women prefer to invest in shoes since, although your weight may fluctuate over the seasons, your shoe size is fairly reliable to remain the same. Also, since most women can't afford to dress themselves head to toe in a their favourite label, by teaming a pair of designer heels with a high street dress, they can achieve the glamorous look for less.

The resilient nature of shoes sale perhaps explains the rationale for Selfridges' decision to expand their shoe department, due to open on 16 September. The new retail space covers 35,000 square foot and will display 4,000 shoes from over 150 brands. A dangerous prospect for the Imelda Marcos inside all of us!

Not such a fairy tale ending for Miss Sixty

Fashionista followers will know that regardless of how beautiful she finds a pair of Jimmy Choos, Fashionista is all too aware that it's unwise to skip paying the rent to pay for that classic kitten heel as the landlord always has the final word.

This point will no doubt be ringing in the ears of the Miss Sixty and Energie fashion chain owners. Indeed the landlord Mourant, which owns the 135,300 sq ft Metquarter shopping centre in Liverpool where Miss Sixty occupied a 3,300 sq ft unit and Energie had a 3,089 sq ft store, of which both were on 10-year leases and guaranteed by Sixty UK's Italian parent company, Sixty SPA, has successfully challenged the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) entered into by the retail owners. Mourant has claimed that the retail group and its Italian parent adopted a "cynical approach" to the CVA. During his submissions, counsel for Mourant said that Sixty SPA and Sixty UK were "perfectly aware" that the CVA would not work but proceeded with it because they knew that it would take the landlord around 18 months to challenge the CVA, and would take even longer in Italy.

However, lawyers for Vantis plc accountants attempted to put forward some revisions to the CVA which were refused by the High Court. Vantis argued that the claim by Mourant that the CVA "unfairly prejudices" its interests as a creditor of the UK retail group and that there were "material irregularities" in relation to the creditors' meeting would no longer be an issue if the CVA was amended. The judge refused the adjournment application and ruled that he had seen no evidence of the proposed amendments and was being asked to "to proceed on a wholly speculative and uncertain footing". Further, the judge ruled, the application was made at the "59th minute of the eleventh hour" which was far too late for there to be any prospect of the court agreeing to it.

This demonstrates once again that for retailers, getting landlords (usually the most significant unsecured creditor) on side can either make or break a CVA proposal. By way of a brief re-cap, a CVA is an agreement between a debtor and its creditors which, once it has been agreed by the requisite majorities of unsecured creditors (75% in value of those present and voting) and shareholders (a simple majority in value), becomes binding on all unsecured creditors who were entitled to vote at the creditors' meeting to approve it – even if those creditors voted against the proposal, or did not attend the meeting.

Under the CVA proposed by Sixty UK, the landlord did not have the benefit of a guarantor. Had the company gone into liquidation, the guarantor's obligations under the lease would have continued but under the CVA Sixty SPA can simply walk away.

So when Mourant's counsel roared "Fee Fi Fo Fum! I smell the blood of an unfairly prejudicial company voluntary agreement," during his submissions to the judge this week, the owners of Miss Sixty and Energie may have found themselves quaking in their kitten heels…

Football's fashionable side

Fashionista doesn't often have cause to write about football but, with World Cup fever at its height as we reach the closing stages of the competition, Fashionista has considered with interest the opportunity for mass exposure which the world's biggest, most viewed sporting event lends to fashion brands.

Sportswear brand exposure is a given through official association: Adidas is the official event sponsor, producing the team kits for many including Germany, France and the hosts South Africa; Puma has Italy; Umbro has England; to name but a few. Understandable. Nothing extraodinary there.

Of much greater note is the publicity and widespread advertising reach which association with the FIFA World Cup bestows to less obviously "sporty" brands. Enter high street and luxury retail giants M&S and Louis Vuitton.

Fashionista thought the England squad looked oh-so-smart in their 3 piece suit by M&S. 4 years ago, our boys wore Armani. In a bid to be slightly more recessionista and to fly the flag of how great it is to be British, the England squad has partnered with one of our favourite national brands. What no doubt first appeared as a a great way to drive footfall and attract online sales is likely to have been derailed, first when key team members featured in the ad - Theo Walcott - failed to be selected to travel to South Africa, and then, as a result of England's dismal performance against Germany on Sunday.

Louis Vuitton may have escaped M&S's fate, since their World Cup product was only ever going to be associated with the winning team. LVMH were asked by FIFA to design a custom built trunk to encase the 18 carat gold FIFA World Cup trophy so that it could travel in style. The LV monogram is instantly recognisable, and viewers will not be able to avoid clocking the logo as the trophy - in its LV trunk - is carried onto the pitch for the final. The perfect example of a winning brand collaboration.

Whilst Fashionista is a fan of the beautiful game, she suspects that her eye may be on the customised trunk rather than what is inside it come the 11th of July...

New Collections? The Emergency Budget 22 June

It is amazing how fashions can change through the seasons. Fashionista recalls that only a few months ago red was the "in" colour.

One new collection/general election later and it seems that "blue" and "yellow" are now the "in" colours - but which of the two colours will dominate?

Darling is no longer the designer du jour; George & Vince are the new designers on the block.

Everyone expects the cuts in the George & Vince collection/emergency budget to be quite extreme, but just how extreme?

Will they help out their fellow designers and entrepreneurs by granting the "generous reliefs" from the increase in CGT rates that were previewed in the Coalition Agreement? Will retailers be hit by an increase in VAT rates?

As with any collection/budget, there is always a lot of speculation about what will be revealed on the catwalk/in the budget speech, but the level of speculation this year has been unprecedented.

Fashionista, however, knows the best place to enjoy the collection/budget on the day - the Olswang Budget Blog .

Fashionista hopes to see you in the front row!

From "Screen to Door" to "Screen to Store"

The FT report yesterday that ASOS are seeking partnerships with high street retailers as pick-up points has got our friends at eNova smiling. Fellow fashionista, Sophie Albizua, a multichannel advocate, has contributed this post to share her excitement with us. Sophie writes:

"The fact that home delivery can be a barrier to some consumers is no news and solutions such as physical drop boxes or collection store networks have been talked about for years. But no one has taken the click to brick plunge yet in any meaningful way. This might be the catalyst.

Pure online retail, in spite of all the hype surrounding it, possesses one fundamental barrier to growth; the fact that, as those of you who've been waiting around for hours for a parcel or had to rush to the post office before 5pm to get it know, home delivery is not convenient for many people working or leading busy lives. What still amazes us is the number of high street retailers who have an e-commerce arm that acts as a pure play, thus falling in to the same trap. Not that we believe you can’t have a successful on-line pure play, as ASOS has demonstrated.

Let's remember online retail only represents 7% of total UK retail sales and its growth is slowing down to mid teens and soon single digit numbers. We believe that the growth is in multichannel, where the purchase goes through the website but doesn't end there, which we and other market observers estimate will grow at over 20% p.a. over the next 5 years to represent 40% of total retail sales in the UK by 2013.

Fashion retail has ignored this for too long. Will the one that led the fashion innovation on-line, stir the debate once again? We hope that this will act as a call to action to other fashion retailers who have been shying away from click and collect models for too long. If ASOS feels the need for stores, those who already have them and are not linking them to their websites should reflect upon the missed opportunity that this might represent. Here's a crack at the answer for you: in our experience, properly executed click & collect should double your website takings within a year as a starting point.

Having created several of the leading order on-line, collect in store services, including Argos, Halfords and Boots, we suspect there are still a number of bumps that will need to be ironed out when trying to mould a home delivery set up with a store pick up as to not reduce margin. To this end, store based fashion retailers may still have an advantage if they get to grips with the opportunity sooner rather than later. Most importantly, let’s remember customers are the ones driving these developments, which will be the fastest growing part of retail for the next 5 years."

Is "click and collect" going to be the next growth area? Fashionista would love to know your views, so join the debate!

To be or not to be organic cotton

Calls for a definition of what organic cotton products are may have success! At least in Japan.

According to numerous sources on the internet, the Japanese government has issued a series of guidelines covering the labelling of organic cotton products distributed and sold across the country.

Fashionista has not yet seen the guidelines but it seems that they allow for the labelling of full organic content as well as partial organic content. Sources are divided as to whether the use of chemicals at the processing stage is also being considered with some sources claiming that the guidelines provide a fibre only standard while other sources claim that the guidelines do address processing input. Fashionista will be looking out for the guidelines and will report again.

See 'A new dictionary for green fashion?'

Who owns your brand - you or your customers?

Any retailer that has survived the last 18 months has done very well and will be now looking at ways to attract more customers through their doors (both physical and virtual). With online sales continuing to rise, including social media elements into your online store is now seen as a "must-have". This may be a forum to allow shoppers to discuss their latest purchases or including an ability for consumers to leave reviews for particular products or stores.

Mary Portas has recently thrown her hat into the ring with the launch of a new website which enables the public to promote their favourite shops by leaving a review for them. While the terms & conditions make it clear that Mary's team will not pre-screen any reviews, they expressly reserve the right to remove material, no doubt to deal with unlawful content (e.g. libellous, defamatory or revealing confidential information) which may be reported to them using their "Report this Review" button.

While there can be no doubt that social media is is a powerful tool enabling brand owners to enlist the help of their fan base to do their marketing for them, giving your customers free rein with your brand is a risky business. Any brandowner contemplating the introduction of a social media element into their website should ensure they are aware of the potential risks, and have put in place strategies to deal with any issues as soon as they arise. In the virtual world, things move a lot faster and brand owners must be ready and prepared to tackle issues before they spiral into a legal and PR catastrophe...