Victoria Beckham to launch e-commerce site

Former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham will launch a brand new website in spring 2013 which has been "in the making for a very long time".

Victoria Beckham after one of her catwalk shows Photo: Getty

Not one to be outdone, even by her own flesh and blood , Victoria Beckham has today announced that she is set to launch a fully transactional e-commerce website next spring.

Victoriabeckham.com promises to offer "unprecedented access to the designer's ideas and creative process", as well as personal edits by Beckham and unrivalled customer service.

The site will sell the former Spice Girl's accessories, eyewear, denim and her main collection's sister label Victoria, Victoria Beckham.

Dolce & Gabbana in Trouble

An Italian judge has refused a plea by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's lawyer to dismiss the €420 million tax evasion case against the designers.

A judge has rejected a plea by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's lawyer to throw out the tax evasion trial against the designers and several of their business associates. Instead, judge Antonella Brambilla ruled that the trial will go ahead, starting on January 30, with two further hearings scheduled for February, reports WWD .

The Italian design duo are accused of evading €420 million in tax when they sold their two brands, Dolce & Gabbana and D&G, to their own Luxembourg-based company, Gado Srl.

BURBERRY falling Down!!

Indeed... The market is changing, and so are the market players!

Luxury goods maker Burberry shocked the markets on Wednesday with a warning that sales had stalled in the clearest sign yet that slowing demand from China is having an impact on the booming sector.

The profit warning wiped £1bn off Burberry's market value, sending shares in the 156-year-old fashion house down nearly 21% to £10.87. Following disappointment from Coach and Ralph Lauren in recent weeks, this is the first major disappointment for European luxury brands, analysts said. The shine has also come off sales at New York-based jeweller Tiffany, with Europeans and Asians buying fewer $65,000 (£40,000) diamond necklaces and $10,000 amethyst earrings.

Experts predict the global slowdown will prompt the rise of more affordable luxury lines and lead to Chinese shoppers becoming more discerning in what they buy.

Burberry, known for its trademark camel, red and black check, said like-for-like sales ground to a halt in the 10 weeks to 8 September and have started to fall in recent weeks. Total sales including new space were up 6%. It warned that profits before tax for the year to March 2013 would be at the lower end of City expectations, which ranged from £407m to £455m.

Burberry's chief executive Angela Ahrendts said: "As we stated in July, the external environment is becoming more challenging."

Sales of luxury goods in China tripled in value in the last five years, according to Euromonitor International. Its burgeoning middle classes have become key clientele for Burberry and other international luxury brands including France's LVMH, Hermes and Gucci owner PPR, splurging on western designer fashion and handbags.

Marks & Spencer need to be more stylish!

Lisa Armstrong: 'Marks & Spencer's clothes don't need to get more fashionable - or less fashionable. They just need to be more stylish.'

Poor Marks & Spencer. As if a seven per cent slump in womenswear sales weren't bad enough, it has to endure endless journalists telling it where it went wrong. Too much fashion, not enough editing, is one theory I've read this week. Not enough fashion, is another.

M&S clothes don't need to get more fashionable - or less fashionable. They just need to be more stylish. That starts with the cut. Because it comes to something when your 71-year-old mother says she finds M&S frumpy. And she's not looking for a pair of this summer's hot-pants or crop-tops. At least my 71-year-old mother isn't. She wants well-cut trousers and tops that flatter and fit, in good-quality fabrics. She's a trim size 12 - she's not asking for radical surgical enhancement. And she's not so naïve she expects M&S to compete on price with Primark. If she wants Primark, she'll go to Primark. But she doesn't want Primark.

Can it really be that hard? Remember when M&S's underwear was truly grizzly: cheap-looking lace and satins and ludicrously over-embellished pointy cup-shapes? After years of criticism and slipping sales, the lingerie team finally got its act together and combined its undeniably innovative fabric technology and scale of economy to deliver some excellent bra shapes.

YSL to change its Name, dropping the 'Yves'

Yves Saint Laurent's new creative director Hedi Slimane will rebrand the iconic fashion house as Saint Laurent Paris.

Yves Saint Laurent will drop the 'Yves' from their name, the brand has confirmed.

Newly-appointed creative director Hedi Slimane is keen to "thrust Saint Laurent into a new era modern", reports WWD , and thinks removing the founder of the brand's first name from the famous moniker is the way forward.

The house will be rebranded Saint Laurent Paris, although the iconic YSL logo will remain the same. The move is not be an entirely new one, the majority of the major fashion houses go by a singular surname - Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Prada.

When appointed, Slimane - the former creative director of Dior Homme - was given "total creative responsibility for the brand image and all its collections" and is said to be focusing on "recapturing the impulses that inspired the founder to launch the Saint Laurent Rive Gauche ready-to-wear line in 1966 - among them youth, freedom and modernity."

Slimane, who is also working on a new store concept for the brand, will show his debut womenswear collection during Paris Fashion Week this September, and the new branding is reportedly set to be unveiled shortly beforehand.

As yet, Yves Saint Laurent have not released an official statement regarding the change, while Pierre Berge, Saint Lauren't lover and business partner of 50 years, is yet to comment.

Despite the change we think it's unlikely that fashion's most famous acronym will ever disappear.