The paparazzi may have to look for another hunting ground.
Retailing in Los Angeles and environs is being slammed in the recession and even celebrity-friendly shopping streets like Robertson Boulevard are feeling it. Dozens of specialty retailers have closed across the metro area and others are shrinking.
As a veteran of H&M designer collection launches, I've been pushed, shoved, elbowed, prodded, mauled, stepped on and bear-hugged by none other than Roberto Cavalli, who enveloped me in his arms during the November 2007 debut of his line at the retailer's Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan.
That particular event stands out for the level of frenzy and sheer absurdity of celebrity worship Cavalli fans displayed. Shoppers climbed on top of displays and stripped mannequins of their clothing, picked racks clean of gold lame gowns and zebra print dresses, and grabbed merchandise indiscriminately out of the hands of sales associates who were trying to restock the floor.
When Cavalli pulled up to the store in a black Town Car and dropped his cigar on the ground, a woman on line wasted no time in picking it up and tossing it into a Ziploc bag -- she said she planned to sell it on eBay.
One of the most unsettling things about economic booms is the knowledge, bitterly reinforced in the past year, that one day the bubble is going to burst. Similarly, it's one of the few consolations in an economic decline that it, too, will end one day and that recovery will at some point become unstoppable and undeniable.
WWD recently asked a lot of very smart people when the recovery would begin and what would precipitate it. Not surprisingly, few were able to predict the "when" and "what" with much certainty or commitment, and a few even had the candor to admit they had no idea. One source, who politely opted out when asked for an on-the-record comment, said, "The patient will get better when he stops being so sick."
LOS ANGELES -- Guess Inc. co-founder Georges Marciano...for governor of California?
Well, stranger things have happened in Golden State politics. Remember, California is the state that elected as governor a former B-movie actor and General Electric TV pitchman -- as well as Screen Actors Guild president -- named Ronald Reagan.
It's show-and-tell time for executive paychecks.
And with profits and shareholder value falling in the recession, those pay stubs are coming under intense scrutiny.
As someone who has spent much of my career figuring out or writing about how to make clothes, it was encouraging to see the stiff-upper-lip attitude from a theater full of more than 130 manufacturing executives at the WWD Sourcing & Supply Chain Forum.
