In news that seems right out of 2004, Sarah Jessica Parker is launching a namesake shoe line. The actress's partner in the venture is a former C.E.O. of Manolo Blahnik, and she plans for the shoes to retail for $200-$300. The line will be exclusive to Nordstrom, and the shoes will be made in Europe and New York City. SJP also has handbags and coats underway. [Vogue]
One Direction has launched its first perfume, called Our Moment. The band humbly requests that fans not throw it at them during concerts. "I hope it’s not one of those things they throw on stage, because those are going to hurt,” says Liam Payne. “Someone threw a box at me once and it hit me [on the arm], and I was thinking, 'What if that just hit me in the face?'" Or, you know, the balls. [WWD]
• Yesterday, a lawyer representing the interests of Gap Inc. and Wal-Mart testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about those companies' refusal to sign an international safety accord that would improve working conditions in Bangladesh. Wal-Mart is the second-biggest producer of clothing in Bangladesh, and Wal-Mart clothes were produced at both of the sites that have been made notorious by recent deadly, preventable industrial disasters: the Tazreen factory, which burned to the ground and took 112 workers' lives in November, and the Rana Plaza factory building, which collapsed and killed 1,129 people in April. Forty-three companies worldwide have signed the safety accord, but Wal-Mart, Gap, and a handful of other U.S. companies have refused, citing vague "liability concerns." Wal-Mart and Gap say they hope to come up with their own safety plan. The Senate committee, to its credit, expressed great skepticism about this — here are the words of committee head, Senator Robert Menendez:
“At the end of the day, I get concerned when I hear about the industry’s unwillingness to join a more global standard. Regardless of whether it is Bangladesh today or some other place tomorrow, we have to have a global standard so that we don’t have a race to the bottom. I think Rana Plaza shows the limits of individual corporate responsibility campaigns.”
An Assistant Secretary of State testified that, in the State Department's view, "three key reforms are particularly important to improve workers’ lives in the near term — guaranteeing workers’ rights to organize, guaranteeing fire safety, and ensuring structural soundness of factories and other facilities." The international accord that Wal-Mart and Gap Inc. have spurned includes provisions for all three things. [WWD]
• The stylist Annabel Tollman has died in her sleep in New York City. She was 39. Tollman, who in addition to her styling for top magazines also worked with celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, had a warm personality and a gift for cracking wise. She will be missed. [NYDN]
• Fashion designer James Daugherty has died. In the 1970s, Daugherty, along with Stephen Burrows and Scott Barrie, was a pioneering black designer. Breaking into the industry was hard, he told the Daily News in 1976. Despite the fact that he would arrange interviews over the phone, "when prospective employers saw me, their faces would drop and they’d utter some silly excuse why I wasn’t qualified,” he said. “I was determined not to let my color be my downfall." His designs for his own label went on to be featured in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Ebony. In his later years, he was an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Daugherty was 85. [WWD]
• New York state Senators Jeffrey Klein and Diane Savino have introduced legislation that would extend the legal provisions that currently protect child actors, child singers, child dancers, and other child performers to models aged under 18. [Model Alliance]
• Roberto Cavalli says someone once took his cigarette butt and sold it on eBay:
"At the Cavalli for H&M launch in 2007, I stepped out of the car smoking and dropped my cigarette on the pavement — a disgusting, dirty Italian habit — and I found out not long afterwards that it was sold on eBay for £250. My children said to me, 'You are not allowed to throw your butts away ever again, we'll have them.'"
[Vogue UK]
• Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy vs. Hermès, round MCMVIII: after Hermès C.E.O. Patrick Thomas called LVMH's actions in acquiring a stake in the company "fraudulent," LVMH has sued Hermès. Again. Hermès, which considers LVMH's stealthily acquired 22.6% stake an attempt at a hostile takeover, previously filed a criminal complaint of insider trading and manipulation against LVMH, and LVMH retaliated with a lawsuit alleging slander, blackmail and unfair competition. The whole mess is the subject of an inquiry by the French equivalent of the S.E.C. [WWD]
• Linda Evangelista and Peter Morton, the billionaire owner of the Hard Rock Café chain, have reportedly split after six years together. Evangelista was pregnant when she and Morton began dating, but she kept her son's paternity a secret until last year, when she sued François-Henri Pinault for child support after he wouldn't work out a settlement privately. Pinault, the billionaire head of Kering, is rumored to be paying Evangelista child support of $50,000 per month. [P6]
• American Apparel C.E.O. Dov Charney says today's Chinese consumers are label-obsessed, like the Jews of the 1950s. "You see that with the Jews in the 1950s. At first, they want to show they got the money," says Charney, but "over time people reject brands." Over time, perhaps the Chinese, too, will come to appreciate the subtle, unbranded beauty of a metallic leopard print bike short. [QZ]
• Last night, the London Selfridges flagship was the target of an apparently unsuccessful smash-and-grab robbery. The thieves hit at 8:30 PM, while it was still open. Nobody was injured, and police made two arrests. [WWD]
• Chanel lost its U.K. trademark application for the word "Jersey," the name of one of its perfumes, after government officials from the island of Jersey opposed it. [HuffPo]
• Rumor has it Rita Ora and Cara Delevingne are working on a clothing line. [Telegraph]
• French brand Paule Ka expects to open its first U.S. store in New York City this November. [WWD]
• And now, a moment with Martha Stewart. Martha, what's the best way to apologize when you've done something wrong?
"The best way to apologize is by saying I am sorry! That's how I would apologize, if I ever did something wrong. Which is debatable."
[Racked]