Blue Nile Taps Monica Rich Kosann for Exclusive Collection

ON THE NILE: Monica Rich Kosann is getting a new online home. The fine jewelry designer has created a new collection exclusively for online jewelry retailer Blue Nile. “Blue Nile is one of the leading retailers in the digital space and are credited as being one of the first to develop a new model for selling jewelry online,” said Rich Kosann. “As a brand with an omnichannel perspective, we welcomed the opportunity to create an exclusive collection for them.” Inspired by the act of storytelling, the collection consists of classic lockets and unique charms, such as family trees, handprints and wedding bells. The pieces are made of 18-karat gold and sterling silver, with accents of sapphires, mother-of-pearl and blue topaz. “The collection stays true to the locket and charm collections that underpin our business,” explained Rich Kosann. “We had always seen an opportunity to create an opening price, petite 18-karat gold charm collection that would fit the growing merchandising matrix for our brand. We felt Blue Nile was the ideal launch partner for that.” With the collection, Rich Kosann joins Bree Richey, Robert Leser, Lisa Jenks and Sloane Street & Sage as part of the Blue Nile Designer Collective, the

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Fall 2015 Accessories: Milan

WWD scouted the season’s best shoes, handbags, jewelry, eyewear and more — direct from the runways and designers’ showrooms in New York, London, Milan and Paris — to showcase here. Check back as we roll out our accessories selections throughout the week.

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Gap’s Art Peck and Levi’s Chip Bergh Speak Out Against Discrimination

ANTIDISCRIMINATION DUET: The chief executive officers of Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co. have joined forces to make a statement, but it’s got nothing to do with a collaborative capsule collection. Art Peck, ceo of Gap, and Chip Bergh, president and ceo of Levi’s, cited their firms’ “long history of standing up for equal rights and equal opportunity for all” and against discrimination based on “race, se x or sexual orientation” in adding their voices to others in the business community in opposition to Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, scheduled to take effect July 1. “As Indiana, Arkansas and states around the country enact and consider legislation that perpetuates discrimination, we’re urging state legislatures to stand up for equality by repealing and voting against these discriminatory laws,” the two stated. “These new laws and legislation that allow people and businesses to deny service to people based on their sexual orientation turn back the clock on equality and foster a culture of intolerance.” The heads of the two San Francisco-based firms noted such laws “are unquestionably bad for business, but more importantly, they are fundamentally wrong. They must be stopped.”

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Costume Institute’s Andrew Bolton Talks Fashion and Museums

Legions of visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute have seen Andrew Bolton without even knowing it. Working at the Fifth Avenue museum since 2002, the British-born curator has contentedly gone about his days behind-the-scenes. But in the past 12 years, he has put his personal touch on 12 exhibitions that have been gazed upon by thousands, including many with the Costume Institute’s curator in charge, Harold Koda. Now, as this year’s Vilcek Foundation fashion prize winner, Bolton can’t shake the spotlight. The prize — whose jury included Koda, Cecilia Dean, Jimmy Moffat of Art + Commerce and Julie Gilhart among others comes with a $100,000 award. So one wintry morning, Bolton agreed to talk shop in The Costume Institute library, just steps away from his office. With the Barneys-bequeathed Diana Vreeland mannequin looming playfully, the ultraorderly atheneum with a pencils-only policy was a fitting location to learn about his career. Fastidious as the Met is about preserving fashion and its role in history, Bolton, along with Koda and the team, are very much focused on tomorrow. “We want to be on the cusp of predicting what might be interesting to people. But I think fundamentally what we do is

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Dylan Lauren and Havaianas Team for Flip-flops

Dylan Lauren hopes to hit a retail sweet spot with her newest collaboration: flip-flops with Brazilian sandal brand Havaianas. The limited-edition footwear collection hits Dylan’s Candy Bar, Bloomingdale’s, Lester’s, Havaianas and dylanscandybar.com on Friday. “I always knew I wanted to create a lifestyle brand — and watching my dad go from having a tie company to a full lifestyle collection was certainly very inspiring,” said Lauren, founder and chief executive officer of the candy store that bears her name. In addition to her newest partnership, Lauren in the past has partnered with Maclaren for strollers, with LeSportsac for bags and with Claire’s on jewelry, tech accessories, nail polish and lip products. As for the flip-flops, she said, “I seriously could design 1,000 candy patterns if Havaianas wanted to make them all.” At launch, two styles of sandals adorned with Dylan’s Candy Bar’s most well-known signature candies — swirled lollipops and round lollipops — will be on offer. The flip-flops will retail for $30 and are available in tween to adult sizes, from 3/4 to 11/12. Lauren — who noted she looks at candy as an art form that connects the worlds of art, fashion and pop culture — has many seasonal collections. “But unlike

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Tiffany Looks to Boost Watches With CT60

NEW YORK — Tiffany has a long history in the men’s watch business, but for the past several years, the jewelry retailer hasn’t emphasized the category. That’s about to change. On Thursday, Tiffany will launch the Tiffany CT60, a collection of watches inspired by founder Charles Lewis Tiffany. The watches are patterned after a Tiffany & Co. gold watch given to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, but with a modern twist in design as well as marketing. The retailer is planning to launch the collection with a social media campaign. “We wanted to reach out to men and let them know there’s something for them at Tiffany,” said Linda Buckley, vice president of public relations for Tiffany North America. She said the company had started selling men’s watches in 1877, “but it’s a while since we focused on them.” Tiffany’s recent history with watches has been sketchy. In 2013, a Dutch arbitration court ruled that the retailer had to pay $448.79 million in damages to Swatch Group after a partnership formed in 2007 to develop watches under the Tiffany name was unsuccessful. What had been planned as a 20-year deal ended in 2011. This time, Tiffany is taking on the men’s market itself with

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Quidsi Site Becomes E-Tail’s New Incubator

The marketplace site Jet is perhaps the most buzzed about e-commerce company right now — and it hasn’t even launched. Founder and chief executive officer Marc Lore has already raised $220 million for the venture from investors including Bain Capital and Accel Partners — and was in a plum position to do so. He sold Quidsi, the parent company of brands like Diapers.com and Soap.com in which he cofounded with Vinit Bharara, to Amazon in 2010 for more than $500 million. Lore stayed on at the e-commerce giant until summer 2013 before departing to build Jet, a place that he says will maximize order profitability for retailers and provide the most cost-efficient option for consumers. The marketplace will open to the public sometime in “late spring.” While Jet in and of itself has been generating lots of attention, less remarked on is the central role Quidsi has played in spawning a slew of e-tailers, mainly in the children’s wear and kids’ space. This week alone saw the expansion of Bharara’s content platform Some Spider, which acquired the highly trafficked parenting destination Scary Mommy, and the launch of Primary by Galyn Bernard and Christina Carbonell that is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce destination for children’s

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Fall 2015 Trend: Spanish Class

Graceful translations of aristocratic proportions gave a regal elegance to a number of fall collections.

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