Global Vibes
Roll out continues
FRANCE: Jeans apparel brand Abercrombie & Fitch is going ahead with plans to open flagship stores around the world despite posting a 46 per cent drop in earnings in its third quarter. The retailer has told investors it has recently received final approval to open a flagship store on Paris' Champs Elysees in 2011. It opened its first overseas store in London last year and opened its first European mall-based store in London last month. The company said it is on track to open flagship locations around the world in 2009, including its namesake stores in Copenhagen and Tokyo along with Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie stores in Milan. It said it would continue to pursue lease arrangements for additional store locations in Europe and Asia.
Snug fit
UNITED STATES: San Francisco-based jeans maker Levi's has introduced a new figure-enhancing jean for women. Using a special combination of fit technology, fabric and design, the jeans are designed to give the wearer's butt a lift. Dubbed Ultimate Lift, the jeans work by contouring the traditional shape of a jean's pattern, a cup shape is constructed. The jeans are designed to lift the wearer's rear into this cup shape of the seat, resulting in a firmly-lifted "derriere". The jeans are the latest in a trio of figure enhancing styles the brand has introduced specifically for women with the first two styles launched in 2007 - one with a built-in panel to flatten the tummy and the other to enhance a woman's curves and eliminate rear waistband gaping.
Obama pledges support
UNITED STATES: President-elect Obama Barack has offered a six-point pledge to textile and apparel manufacturers in the US that includes monitoring the influx of Chinese imports. Other promises offered by Barack included that would preserve the yarn forward rule in free trade agreements; would support the "buy America" Berry Amendment; would increase funding and enforcement efforts regarding unfair trade practices, and would use all diplomatic means to end Chinese currency manipulation. Aside from being the third largest exporter of textile products in the world, the US textile industry is also one of the largest manufacturing employers in the country employing more than 700,000 workers in 2007.
Adidas branches out
PARIS: Sportswear fashion group Adidas is set to launch a new line in February 2009. Dubbed Adidas SLVR, the lifestyle range will feature a T-shirt cut and stitched once and a shoe that reduces the traditional 25-piece, glued sneaker design into a seven-piece stitched solution. The full collection will features men's and women's monochrome basics with a colour palette of maroon, orange, blue and gunmetal grey. Fabrications include sustainable organic cotton, soybean fabric, water-resistant nylon and coated natural canvas. Price points range from €35 ($A68) for polo shirts to €150 ($A292) for jackets. Its retail store will open in New York during Fashion Week, with stores in Paris, Los Angeles and Miami to follow.