I’m happy to present another article from Joseph C. Gioconda, a fellow Fashion Lawyer. His bio appears at the end of the article.
“Ten years ago, at the dawn of the millennium, fashionistas would have looked to couture designers and the runways of New York, Paris and Milan to anticipate how fashion trends would unfold during […]

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Remember the days when, after a nice Thanksgiving meal, you would sit down and think about all the gifts you planned to buy the next day during Black Friday sales at the major retailers?   Yes, I’m talking about last year.

Kmart has other ideas than lay-away to combat tough economic times this year.  Namely, the […]

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I knew it was only a matter of time before other big box retailers hopped on Wal-Mart’s back in an attempt to lure in early Christmas shoppers and fight off economic doldrums.  Well, I saw the first evidence of this new trend last night on a television commercial.

Retail giant, Kmart, has a new 30-second spot […]

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Leave it to Wal-Mart to try to make the best of a bad situation.  The world’s biggest retailer just announced that they have a plan to drive holiday sales.  Their plan?  The early bird gets the shoppers.

According to this week’s Advertising Age, Wal-Mart plans to start advertising holiday sale items now.  Normally retailers wait until […]

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The $700 billion bailout bill finally passed the House of Representatives today, albeit, with some changes and additions to the bill’s original form.  While the day did see a slight bump upward for retail stocks, the S&P Retail Index closed lower than it did yesterday, and overall the index is down 11.7% from a week […]

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Just like the greater economy as a whole, retail is suffering from the current financial crisis.  After yesterday’s record drop, the S&P Retail index improved slightly, gaining 12 points.  Monday, the index dropped 6.7% after the House of Representatives failed to pass the bailout bill. (WWD, subscription required).

It’s going to continue to be a sticky […]

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Here’s a big shocker- retail sales fell short of projected expectations in July.  Ahem, poor economy, ahem.  Sorry; had to clear my throat.

Even retail super giant, Wal-Mart, came in with numbers lower than analysts had hoped.   Mass market retailers like Old Navy, Gap and Buckle suffered steep dips in same-store sales, with drops in the double […]

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Steve & Barry’s, the mass-market, low-priced big box has been having some financial troubles recently.  Since debt options for distressed companies are limited in the current economic climate, the retailer was shopping around a liquidation package last week, reports today’s WWD.

Steve & Barry’s received $197 million in asset-backed lending from GE Commercial Finance Corporate Lending in March of […]

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Back in May, Fashion Lawyer covered the frenzy over Steve & Barry’s $10 dress.  In that piece, I wondered how S&B could stay in business while making clothing to sell at such low price points.  Thanks to a linkback to my article, I was tipped off to trouble on the horizon for the mass-market retailer.

Steve & Barry’s […]

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While reading Inc. magazine yesterday, I noticed a feature on The Sharper Image- a reatiler which has declined tremendously in the market over the past few years.  The article also mentioned a scale-back for Ann Taylor stores.  What gives?  Is the recession to blame, or is it just overly-aggressive and ill-planned growth?

J.C. Penney also announced a plan today to decrease […]

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