Nike's latest shoes have Rory McIlroy's footprints all over them

 Nike worked with Rory McIlroy in the development of its newest version of its Lunar Control shoe during the past 18 months, there was a common request to his feedback.

Stability, stability, stability.

That's the theme of Nike's Lunar Control 4, which McIlroy will debut this week at the European Tour's DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

The former world No. 1's influence on the new design is clear. McIlroy was one of the last of the young tour pros to switch to plastic spikes, so he seeks even more stability than most—especially given his aggressive driver swing.

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Early sketches of the Lunar Control 4
This shoe is designed to stay tight to the ground through the swing. At just 376 grams (320 grams in the women's shoe), the Lunar Control 4 uses a cabling system—Nike's self-labeled Flywire technology—in the shoe's body to increase control and lateral support.

A huge graphic change in this shoe is an enormous Nike swoosh on the front.

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The shoes ($170) will be offered in three colors and available on Nike's website Nov. 27 and in stores in December

Google Marks and Spencer mix up sees family inundated with phone calls

A family were flooded with phone calls with people trying to ring a new Marks & Spencer store in a Google mix-up.

The Richards family were inundated with calls from shoppers trying to reach the recently-opened superstore - because dad Martin runs a small firm called M&S Security.

People searching on Google for M&S in Merthyr Tydfil , South Wales, are getting his number instead of the new Marks and Spencer store.

The family were hounded with calls about store opening times, job possibilities, and whether or not it will be stocking Christmas trees.

Wales News ServiceScores of people queue up for the official opening of Marks and Spencer in Merthyr Tydfil on Thursday, October 29Retail giant: The new Marks and Spencer in Merthyr Tydfil
Martin’s wife Karen, 50, said: “We’ve had constant phone calls wanting to know when they’re opening, can we put them through to the children’s department, are they selling Christmas trees, what times it opens, and how do they go about getting a credit card.”

The name mix-up has seen his home phone ringing off at all hours around the clock since the store opened two weeks ago.

Mum-of-two Karen added: “I’ve phoned the head office of M&S and they said they can only go by what is on their web page.

“We’re getting a bit irate now. Weekends are worst. The phone is going on until 10pm. I must admit that half the time I don’t answer it.”

Marks & Spencer apologised for the error but say they have no control over other websites or search engines.

A spokesman for Google investigated and “resolved the problem”.

Rare COMEX Rolex, Patek Philippe And Cartier Watches Sparkle In Luxury Online Auction

On November 21st 2015 specialists Watches of Knightsbridge will be auctioning exquisite and rare timepieces from such prestigious watchmakers such as Rolex, Cartier and Patek Philippe, to name just a few. The auction is powered online by Proxibid, the world’s most trusted online Marketplace for buying and selling highly valued items.

The auction includes several extremely rare watches, such as the Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises (COMEX) Oyster Rolex, which was produced for COMEX Divers in the 1980s and is expected to go for at least £40,000. Consigned by the original owner, the watch comes complete with box, papers, tags and diver’s logbook, which details dives made in Abu Dhabi. Other highlights include the Rolex Tudor Oyster Prince Submariner Watch, produced circa 1959, with "meters first" dial, Mercedes hands and a "lollipop" seconds hand. There is also a fine 18K solid white gold Patek Philippe Gondolo, with annual calendar and a moon phase indicator for collectors to bid on.

For horophiles unable to make the luxury auction in person, you can now bid online via www.proxibid.com, the world’s most trusted online Marketplace for buying and selling highly valued items.

Proxibid uses state-of-the-art fraud protection technology, which monitors the Marketplace for fraud 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means both buyers and sellers are protected by the most robust fraud prevention system in the industry, ensuring all purchases in the Marketplace are safe and secure. It all adds up to more convenience and peace of mind for online buyers and collectors. 

Dior dips a timid toe into the waters of e-commerce

On Monday, Christian Dior shoes went on sale online for the first time, thanks to a partnership between the French fashion house and high-end department store Bergdorf Goodman. The digital pop-up shop, featuring 14 styles, including bejeweled sneakers and laser-cut pumps, will close up on Dec. 31.

The online store is a timid, 4-inch-heeled step into e-commerce for the luxury brand. Beyond entry-level makeup, skincare and fragrance products, Dior doesn’t offer e-commerce in its online store. Other retailers, like Neiman Marcus, sell limited Dior collections, like sunglasses and beauty products.

For Dior, the Bergdorf partnership doesn’t mean it’s diving into e-commerce. Dior Couture president Pamela Baxter told Women’s Wear Daily that there are no concrete plans for the company to expand its online offerings following the pop-up.

Baxter said, “The retail experience and relationship building between our expert sales associates and our clients is really important to us. To be quite frank, we don’t know how that relationship would build online. I have got people in the stores who know exactly who their client is.”

Dior isn’t alone in its hesitation to sell luxury online, but most legacy brands have warmed up to digital sales, one by one. Chanel changed course earlier this year, when it announced its e-commerce store would open in 2016; Fendi and Tom Ford also moved online this year. In addition to Dior, Céline is one of the last luxury names to remain offline.

According to Baxter, the client relationship is the brand’s top strategic priority.

“When we find that experiential relationship connection and how to do that online, we’ll jump in with both feet.”

A major problem facing any retailer, whether it’s Christian Dior or long-standing department stores, is recognizing the customer as the same person whether she’s shopping in-store or online. Baxter said that at Dior’s price points, the need to build a lasting relationship with a consumer outweighs the need to sell goods online — at least for now.

“A lot of the luxury brands have held back on online sales because they weren’t chasing dollars. Luxury is about scarcity of product,” said Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali, senior analyst at Forrester Research. “There are ways to have a very high-class experience online — very wealthy people purchase online. I don’t think that it degenerates a brand now; it’s so ubiquitous now that the online experience reinforces the physical experience.”

Bergdorf Goodman’s president Joshua Schulman said that online is going to have to become a “happy fact of life” for luxury retailers. He has also helped coordinate Bergdorf online pop-up stores with Christian Louboutin and Alexander Wang.

“The customer for these luxury brands leads a very busy active life and is used to getting the convenience of being able to shop both online and in-store. The brands realize that one doesn’t negate the other — one plus one equals something additive from a customer-experience point of view.”

For the Bergdorf’s pop-up shoe shop, Dior is trusting the luxury department store’s customer service to handle the online experience. The two companies also recruited It-girls Eva Chen, who runs fashion for Instagram, Leandra Medine of Manrepeller, Shiona Turini, a contributing editor at The Cut, and Aimee Song, the blogger behind Song of Style, to model the shoes.

And if any pearl-clutchers can’t fathom buying Christian Dior online, the collection will be on sale in Bergdorf’s Manhattan flagship store until the end of the year.

You Can Finally Buy Dior, Vintage Chanel and Louis Vuitton Online

For high-end shoppers seeking goods from Dior and Chanel, acquiring the latest must-have bag or flashy pumps requires either heading into a store or having someone else go in for you. And while yes, the service at these two boutiques is amazing, it’s not purely by choice that you peruse the wares IRL; for the most part, they won’t allow you to do it online. That is until this holiday season.

While Chanel hasn’t sanctioned any e-commerce ventures beyond beauty since their flash site with Net-a-Porter earlier this year, the team at Nasty Gal has uploaded 160 archival pieces from the brand to their site, ripe for the picking. The perfect little black quilted handbags, classic bouclé jackets and chunky gold jewelry all makes into the range, which is the first of the LA-based business’s Vintage Mine series. Come next month, expect loads of Louis Vuitton to be uploaded, so pray to the fashion gods that there will be at least one piece from Marc Jacobs‘ old Stephen Sprouse collaboration available.


This effort all goes to underscore Nasty Gal’s beginnings in the business of vintage reselling. There’s no word on how long it will last or what brands they will do in the new year (Azzedine Alaïa, please!) but it’s among the best shopping news we’ve received in weeks.

Beginning today though, lovers of Dior will also be able to indulge in the e-commerce fun. In partnership with Bergdorf Goodman, the fashion company (which still remains without a creative director since Raf Simons’ departure) has uploaded a selection of pumps, slip on loafers and sneakers from the Dior Shoe Collection just in time for holiday buying. Not sure how to style it? The pair have tapped influencers like blogger siblings Aimee and Dani Song, consultant Shiona Turini and Instagram’s Eva Chen to offer a slew of inspiration through a photo series.

Eva Chen shows off how to style those Dior sneakers
Eva Chen shows off how to style those Dior sneakers (Photo: BergdorfGoodman.com).

The online pop-up shop will stay live through the end of the year, but we’d suggest checking it out sooner rather than later. Actually, you should probably get shopping now.

Louis Vuitton Closes Stores In China As Boom Fades

Louis Vuitton,  whose growth in China came to symbolize the country’s rise in importance to the global luxury industry in the past decade, is closing stores in three cities in the country, the China Daily reported on Tuesday.

LV, whose parent LVHM Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton is the world’s largest luxury group in terms of revenue, has closed one of two flagship stores in Guangzhou amid slow sales, the newspaper said. It already shut discount stores in Harbin, Guangzhou and Urumqi, the China Daily added, citing the Financial Times.

Consultancy Bain & Co. said earlier this year said China’s long-expanding luxury good market fell last year, hurt by easing economic growth,  a government bid to curb gift-giving involving officials, and changes in distribution.

Retailers Giorgio Armani, Hermes and Versace have also been closing stores in the country since 2013, the China Daily said.  LV will have about 50 stores in China after its closures.

Apple Watch Hermes Bands

Price starts from $1100
Watch Hermès represents a unique collection of handmade leather straps designed to enhance the overall beauty of your Apple Watch. Uncompromising craftsmanship by the Hermès artisans in France and a Hermès watch face reinterpreted by Apple designers in California goes behind the making of this spectacular innovation. You will admire it for its simplicity as well as for its elegance. The straps are available in three beautiful versions – Double Tour, Single Tour and Cuff. The extra long band of the Double Tour wraps twice around your wrist while the Single Tour straps have a buckle inspired from those of a horse’s girth. Even the Cuff is inspired by equestrian fixtures which looks artistic because of the use of Hermès’ signature leather. Choose any of the three and take your Apple Watch experience to a stylish

Swatch collection fetches $1.8m

ZURICH• • A collection of almost 1,000 Swatch timepieces fetched 1.3 million Swiss francs (S$1.8 million) at a Sotheby's sale in Geneva on Tuesday, the second seven-figure auction of watches this year by the inexpensive Swiss brand.

The lot, which includes almost 380 prototypes, sketches, cases and dials, was offered by Marlyse Schmid and Bernard Muller, who were early designers for Swatch in the 1980s, the auction house said.

Sotheby's estimated that the lot would fetch more than 1 million francs.

The success of Swatch Group's namesake brand, a mass-market plastic watch that kept factories running, helped revive the Swiss watch industry after it faced a loss of 60,000 jobs in the 1970s and 1980s.

The industry had underestimated the threat of quartz watches, which were cheaper and more exact.

In April, a collection of more than 5,800 Swatch watches went under the hammer for HK$46.7 million (S$8.6 million) in a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong. That lot included pieces of Swatch-related artwork by Keith Haring.

How James Bond Made the Submariner Rolex's Coolest, Most Recognized Watch

Let's just dispense with the model numbers, shall we? All you really need to say is Submariner to win that instant look of recognition and envy that's half the reason people drop $8,550 on a wristwatch anyway. Not that that's such a jaw-dropping price. In this age of status watches, it's easy to find timepieces that cost more than a house. But dollar for dollar, those in search of status, style, form and function simply cannot do better than a Submariner. As its name suggests, it's a diver's watch, guaranteed waterproof to 330 meters (1,000 feet). But as its long list of celebrity fans suggest, the watch is just as famous on dry land.
"The Rolex Submariner has taken on an interesting life," said writer, author and luxury brand consultant Ariel Adams. "Because it's not just a steel dive watch, it's a Rolex steel dive watch, and everyone from politicians to actors to soldiers wear it."
Here's how that happened. In 1953, French Navy diver Jacques Cousteau wrote The Silent World, a book that chronicled his undersea explorations. The book, and the Academy Award-winning documentary film that followed, captured the world's imagination and created a generation of recreational divers. Rolex responded with the Submariner.
The wristwatch might never have left the lockers of naval cadets were it not for the Bond franchise. The first four films all featured a Submariner on the wrist of our hero. And, as with so much else, an official anointing by Hollywood was all it took for the brand to hit the big time. From early fans like Steve McQueen and Robert Redford, the Submariner's following has grown to include Adam Levine, Sharon Stone and plenty of ordinary mortals.
But it's more than the culture of imitation that's brought the Submariner this far. As a purely functional device, the watch has an industrial chic that supersedes all trends: It's always in style. "You can get away with wearing a Submariner with a suit or shorts," Adams said. "It's very versatile from a stylistic standpoint, and that's one reason it's remained so popular."
That and James Bond. And just for the record, Daniel Craig wears a Submariner, too.

LOUIS VUITTON LAUNCHES CITY GUIDE APPS

Louis Vuitton's chic, anti-tourist City Guides are getting a mobile upgrade. Starting tomorrow, you can download app versions of each of the 25 cities in their guidebook series, ranging from Beijing, to Istanbul, to Los Angeles. The upscale travel guides are also adding four new cities to their list: Bangkok, Chicago, Prague and Rome.

Like the books, the apps provide useful info and addresses for hotels, restaurants, cultural districts and night life.  They'll even be accessible offline too, so lacking data or wi-fi won't get in the way of your adventures. To get more in touch with the cities, each app features a notable guest contributor sharing his or her personal experiences and recommendations in the city, like interior designer Faye Toogood for London, or actor/director Guillaume Gallienne and his wife for Paris.

Louis Vuitton is also releasing a 15-city box set for the books, and monogram leather phone cases in four different colors to accompany the digital release.

The City Guides apps is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad for $9.99 .

Dior brings bespoke approach to eyewear with customization platform

French couture house Christian Dior is giving consumers the opportunity to view the world through a unique lens with the launch of a customization platform for its eyewear.

#MyDiorSoReal lets consumers build a pair of sunglasses to their specifications, selecting the type of lens and color of various parts of the frame. Choosing eyewear for this customization effort will enable Dior to introduce its bespoke capabilities to an entry-level audience.

Frame of mind
Dior introduced its customizable sunglasses via a short social video. Throughout the film, pairs of varying colors tick by, showing the many possibilities accessible beyond the click-through.

When consumers follow the link shared, they are taken to a microsite to start their personalization.

For this platform, Dior has kept the style option streamlined, offering the capability for a single futuristic model of frame.

They can first select whether they want their lenses to be mirrored, followed by the choice of eyebrow, temple and nosepiece colors. They can also pick a hue for the metal detailing across the top of the frame.

Up to 18 characters can be engraved in tone-on-tone, included in the $708 purchase price.



Dior, much like many of its peers, only offers ecommerce for select items, choosing to keep its online store limited to entry-level items.

French atelier Chanel has unveiled its first ecommerce Web site for the fashion division in the United States to sell its sunglasses collection.

Instead of a category-wide launch of ecommerce, Chanel has taken a slower path to brand-operated commerce by offering first skincare and beauty products, and now entry-level sunglasses to test the waters. Launched on Nov. 4, Chanel takes a holistic approach by creating an omnichannel ecommerce experience to complement its bricks-and-mortar boutiques to better serve consumers through enrichment and customization

Tommy Hilfiger Throws Back to Fashion’s Favorite Era With a New Capsule Collection

There’s still something just so eternally cool about the red, white, and blue logomania of Tommy Hilfiger during the 1990s—a look that now, as fashion remains in the thrall of the era, is as relevant as ever. There was Aaliyah, the campaign face of Tommy Jeans in 1997, now synonymous with a pair of baggy patchworked jeans that she wore slung low, to reveal a branded boxer waist-band stamped with—you guessed it—“Tommy Hilfiger.” That same year, Snoop Dogg was the very picture of hip nonchalance as he performed on Saturday Night Live in an oversize thick-striped polo with “Tommy” in bold-font print smack dab in the middle. And of course, there was the Spring/Summer 1997 Tommy Hilfiger show in which Kate Moss, clad in a red, white, and blue top and red short shorts strutted down the runway to a live performance by Naughty by Nature’s Treach, who was also wearing a T-shirt that read “Tommy Hilfiger” in no fewer than three places.

Now, over 20 years later, the flag-stamped duds  still maintain a place in our hearts—But as for our wardrobes? That’s more difficult. Buying a flag-emblazoned sweatshirt is no longer a simple stroll through the mall: It’s more like an entire-day-consuming trawl through the racks of thrift shops or pages of Etsy. But not for long— no longer does the beloved throwback aesthetic exist only in a universe of all-things consigned. The sportswear pieces have now received an elevated revamp in a capsule collection between Tommy Hilfiger and Mytheresa.com. Modeled by sisters Suki and Immy Waterhouse, the collection offers eight pieces priced from $198 to $654. There are navel-baring favorites like the cropped iconic flag sweatshirt, now in velvet, and satin boxer shorts with the label’s classic logo. The varsity jacket has also been updated in velvet and satin versions, adorned with a simple “H” appliqué. But one nostalgic staple that has been virtually unchanged? The flag bandeaux crop top—a piece that almost 20 years later we’ll still pledge allegiance to.

Hermes Sales in Asia Decelerate as Hong Kong, China Take Toll

Not even Hermes International SCA is immune from slowing luxury demand.
Asian sales of the French maker of Birkin handbags slowed to 1.5 percent in the third quarter excluding Japan from 6 percent in the second quarter as anti-extravagance measures in China weighed on spending in the region. Sales in the Americas grew just 2 percent at constant exchange as stock market volatility and a strong dollar curb spending by locals and tourists.
Yet, Paris-based Hermes still delivered revenue growth that matched analysts’ estimates, with total sales climbing 15 percent to 1.14 billion euros ($1.2 billion). Analysts predicted 1.15 billion euros, according to the median of 13 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Excluding currency swings, sales climbed 7.9 percent, in line with the 8 percent estimate.
The results were “a reassuring performance from Hermes against a more difficult backdrop in Asia and Americas,” said Rogerio Fujimori, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “When things get tough, the best business models and most exclusive brands stand out.”
By keeping the supply of $9,400 Birkin bags limited, Hermes is weathering slowing luxury demand better than lower-priced competitors such as Burberry Group Plc, which has forecast profit to decline a second year. Having more than 40 stores in Japan also helps as the yuan was higher against the yen during the quarter, attracting Chinese shoppers. Sales in Japan rose 17 percent at constant exchange.
The stock traded 0.3 percent lower at 349.45 euros as of 9 a.m. in Paris.
Hermes reiterated its mid-term target of 8 percent annual revenue growth excluding currency swings and repeated that the operating margin will narrow from last year’s 31.5 percent because of foreign exchange moves. The forecast decline in profitability shows that Hermes didn’t raise prices enough in Japan to offset the weaker yen, according to Exane BNP Paribas.