Under Armour withdraws outlook, announces temporary layoffs

Under Armour, Inc. has announced actions it is taking to address the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the company said in a statement that the company’s board of directors has approved a previously planned restructuring initiative designed to rebalance its cost base to further improve future profitability and cash flow generation. The company has decided to extend current store closures until further notice. Beginning April 12th, the company added, it will temporarily lay off the teammates that work in its U.S. brand full price and Factory House outlet stores, and approximately 600 teammates that work at its U.S.-based distribution centres.

“In these unprecedented and challenging times, the majority of stores where Under Armour is available remain closed, contributing to a significant decline in revenue,” said Under Armour President and Chief Executive Officer Patrik Frisk, adding, “This unanticipated shock to our business has been acute, forcing us to make difficult decisions to ensure that Under Armour is positioned to participate in the eventual recovery of demand.”

Under Armour announces cost cutting measures, withdraws forecast The company further said that effective immediately, the company’s board of directors will be reducing its compensation by 25 percent and all of the company’s executive vice presidents and above will be taking a 25 percent salary cut through the duration of the crisis. The company has decided to cover full health benefits for benefit-eligible teammates for approximately two months during this temporary layoff period. Additionally, the company will begin paying premium bonuses to its distribution centre teammates continuing to work during the crisis. The company will have provided up to four weeks of full pay for these retail store and distribution centre teammates since this crisis started.

The company had earlier announced that it expected revenue to be down at a low single-digit percent compared to 2019 results, reflecting a mid to high-single-digit percentage decline in North America, while the company expected the international business to grow at a low double-digit percentage rate. The company anticipated gross margin to be up approximately 30 to 50 basis points versus the prior year due to ongoing supply chain initiatives and regional mix benefits, while diluted earnings per share were expected to be in the range of 10 cents to 13 cents, inclusive of an estimated 1 cent to 2 cents negative impact from the company’s equity interest in its Japan licensee..

Picture:Under Armour newsroom

* This article was originally published here

NEW LAUNCH DATE - Casablanca x New Balance - 18th April 2020

--Casablanca and New Balance team up to debut the new 327 silhouette on April 18th, 2020—

For Immediate Release, April 3rd 2020 - Due to the current global climate the launch of Casablanca x New Balance 327 has been postponed to a new, online only date of April 18th, to ensure the safest and most responsible delivery.

About the Collaboration

New Balance Athletics, Inc. is excited to join forces with luxury mens apres-sport fashion house, Casablanca. Casablanca will be the first to collaborate on New Balance’s brand-new silhouette, the 327. Casablanca brings its luxury-meets-sport design philosophy to the model, which was inspired by New Balance’s archive of 70’s runners. The Casablanca x New Balance 327 first debuted at Paris Fashion Week and will be available in two colorways globally beginning 4 April for a suggested retail price 150.00 USD.

The Casablanca x New Balance 327 pulls inspiration from Casablanca founder and creative director, Charaf Tajer’s rich duel French and Moroccan heritage. The collection’s vibrant white and orange and green pops evoke the nostalgic hues of Moroccan oranges and crisp tennis uniforms. At once refined and relaxed, the Casablanca x New Balance 327 is the perfect balance of luxury and sport heritage.

The New Balance 327 is a streamlined, stripped-back model that is a reimagining of heritage product, with a modern twist. The Casablanca X New Balance iteration offers a white 70’s Italian sports automobile-inspired perforated leather upper for a sporty, yet luxurious design with suede vamp fangs and an enlarged leather ‘N’ logo done in classic Casablanca colorways. The sculpted sole unit and heel wrap offer a contemporary design element.

Please contact Purple London with any enquiries.
Kind Regards,

MICHAEL DALE
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR – FASHION
PURPLE
27-29 Glasshouse Street |London | W1B 5DF
M: +44 7984471749 D: 02074347031
IG: @PurplePR
www.purplepr.com
LONDON / NEW YORK / LOS ANGELES

* This article was originally published here

Techtextil North America and Texprocess Americas postponement rescheduled for October 2020

Earlier last month, organizers of Techtextil North America and Texprocess Americas announced that the co-located events, initially scheduled for May 12 to 14, 2020 would be postponed to December 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On Monday, the organizers announced that the postponement has been rescheduled. The co-located events will now take place from October 1 to October 3, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Show Director Kristy Meade stated in an announcement that was relayed first to exhibiting companies, “Although not ideal, the [December] dates provided were the only viable option at the time of our postponement inquiry to the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC). However, we shared the concerns of many of our exhibiting and visiting companies regarding the holidays and year-end processes, and after tireless communication between our team and those at the GWCC, we have been able to secure the new dates of October 1-3, 2020 for Techtextil North America and Texprocess Americas. The new dates are more suitable for both local and international exhibitors.”

More information and the most recent program updates, deadlines, pricing information can be found on Techtextil and Texprocess Americas’ websites. Registration will remain open, with the Advanced Pricing deadline extended through September 1, 2020. All event registrations will remain intact and will be transferred to the new dates.

Messe Frankfurt and Messe Frankfurt North America

Messe Frankfurt is the world’s largest trade fair, congress and event organizer with its own exhibition grounds. With more than 2,400 employees at 30 locations, the company generates annual sales of around 669 million euros. With its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, the company is 60 percent owned by the City of Frankfurt and 40 percent owned by the State of Hesse. More information about Messe Frankfurt's online and onsite services including renting exhibition grounds, trade fair construction and marketing can be found on the company's website.

Messe Frankfurt North America is a subsidiary of Messe Frankfurt and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Messe Frankfurt North America produces nine shows within the United States, Canada and Mexico. In addition to Techtextil North America and Texprocess Americas, the North American portfolio of events includes Texworld USA, Apparel Sourcing USA, Home Textiles Sourcing Expo, INA PAACE Automechanika Mexico City, Waste & Recycling Expo Canada, The Clean Show, and Festival of Motoring USA.

* This article was originally published here

LEVI'S Made In The USA 505 Original Fit Stretch Men's Jeans

It has been 53 Year Since Levis Tailor Shop is Established - It is Still In in Men's Fashion Original Fit Stretch Men's Jeans

Introduced in 1967 as Levi’s® first preshrunk zippered jean. The men's Levi's® 505™ was our first denim style rooted in teenaged revolution instead of cowboys and rodeos that was used in marketing at the time. The Levi's® 505™ was born in the Summer of Love – 1967; it was only natural that the 505™ would form a deep connection with music. Rebels, outcasts, and misfits the world over embraced the jeans with the rise of punk rock in the late ’70s and early ’80s and were seen adorned on underground garage bands to commercially successful big-stage acts.

Original Fit Stretch Men's Jeans

Beloved for the classic straight leg style, the men's Levi's® 505™ is cut to sit at the waist with extra room in the thigh. It falls straight down to the ankle and has a 16.5" leg opening. The versatility of the straight leg is great for all body types with a few options crafted with elastane giving the 505™ a nice range of motion and comfort. It's perfect for those who aren't a fan of the button-fly, nor jeans that fit skinny or baggy.

Here is Some of the Best of 2o2o-

View it on Website - To See If your Size is Available

Design Museum launches Digital Design Calendar to bring the museum into homes around the globe

From 1 April 2020, the Design Museum will launch a new calendar of online content to bring design into the homes of over 5 million of its digital followers across the globe

Its new digital calendar includes lesson plans and activities for children at home with the Young Design Museum programme, a series of ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions for adults in new Learn with the Design Museum series and a roster of Instagram Lives with leading designers called #DesignDispatches

Partners include BBC Studios, Royal College of Art and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; and collaborators include designer Ron Arad, fashion designers Christopher Raeburn, Amanda Wakeley and Bella Freud, designer Morag Myerscough and interior designers 2LG Studio

The programme will deliver the museum’s mission to make the impact of design visible by connecting design with people’s lives and passions online during the temporary closure of its landmark building

Starting from 1 April 2020, the Design Museum will be launching a new calendar of online activities, from brushing up on your design history and virtually visiting the studios of leading designers to learning sessions for all ages.

Divided into four key strands – Young Design Museum, Into the Archive, Learn with the Design Museum and #DesignDispatches – the Design Museum will inspire home learners, from schoolchildren to adults.

Tim Marlow, Chief Executive and Director said: “We feel that it is more important than ever to connect to people’s lives and passions at a time when much of the population is in isolation and seeking meaningful engagement. This is a moment to reach out, to be responsive and to ask questions. We hope that our new Digital Design Calendar will connect with those at home looking for inspiration.”

Josephine Chanter, Director of Audiences said: "The Digital Design Calendar builds on the regularity of our weekly #FontSunday activity (which has been regularly trending on Twitter for almost a decade). The temporary closure of our building means that we can turn the museum 'inside out' and scale up our digital output to offer new daily content from across our learning, curatorial and collection teams. During this crisis we want to share with our audiences a time of experimentation, reflection and understanding and hopefully offer some solace in the optimism of design."

#DesignDispatches kicked off last week with a live studio tour from Christopher Raeburn, which organically generated over 21,000 views. The series will continue with the Design Museum’s Director, Tim Marlow, in conversation with a wide range of leading designers and architects. Every Saturday, viewers can enjoy a snapshot into the lives and work of familiar faces from the world of design, fashion and architecture.

Whether you’ve found yourself in charge of your children’s school day, or are simply after some creative fun to fill an afternoon, check out the museum’s family and school resources brought together online under Young Design Museum. These activities will bring the world of design to life through everyday materials and household objects, including a collaboration with BBC Studios Hey Duggee.

Get behind the scenes of the museum’s exhibitions, past, present and future, as well as insights into what’s going on across the design world with the Design Museum’s new Into the Archive series or why not use this time to upskill with the new free Learn with the Design Museum programme – which kicks off with top tips and reads from responsible fashion designer Christopher Raeburn.

Recognising the difference good design can make to inclusivity, access remains at the heart of the Design Museum's ethos and therefore its online programme. Over the next few weeks, the museum will be partnering with designers and organisations who share this value and promote design for all.

Each week the full programme will be updated on the Design Museum’s new Digital Design Calendar page here.

Digital Design Calendar for Week 1 starting 1 April includes -

Thursday – Into the Archive #ThrowbackThursday, Fred the Ferrari Visits the Museum (video)

Friday – #Architecture Friday with Camille Walala

Saturday – #DesignDispatches with Morag Myerscough

Sunday – Young Design Museum Create + Make, Build Your Own Rocking Horse and Font Sunday

Monday – Young Design Museum, Crowd Sourced Wall Lesson Plan (video + primary and secondary school worksheets)

Tuesday – Learn with the Design Museum, Raeburn Responsible Fashion Design Starter Pack

Wednesday – Learn with the Design Museum – Lunch and Learn to be announced shortly

* This article was originally published here

Podcast: a history lesson from Melissa Leventon on the clothing of the Thai Queen Sirikit

Hosts April Calahan and Cassidy Zachary discuss in this episode Dressed "The History of Fashion" the tailor past Queen Sirikit of Thailand with Melissa Leverton, historian, lecturer and specialist in European and American fashion and textiles. What happens if French haute couture and the Thai glamor intersect?

This 65-minute podcast is in English.

Source: Dressed: The History of Fashion, iHeart Radio

* This article was originally published here

Wolford transforms production to fight Covid-19

Austrian skinwear and hosiery specialist Wolford has successfully changed its entire production in its headquarters in Bregenz and factory in Slovenia from tights and bodies to face masks to support global efforts in fighting Covid-19.
Since the beginning of March, Wolford’s production facilities have been working on “full speed” to produce face masks for its employees and consumers in critical regions.
The masks are made of a double-layered high-quality breathable fabric to ensure easy breathing when they are worn and are also have a water-repellent finish to provide full coverage even against minimal moisture.
The brand has used its high-quality material and knitting techniques to create the non-medical masks, which also feature individually adaptable aluminium nose-wires and highly elastic, extra-thin bands to keep the masks in place. The masks are also washable, so are able to be reused.
The main quantity of the masks will be handed out for free to employees in highly affected areas such as Italy and Austria, explained the brand, with a limited number to be sold through the brand’s e-commerce to customers worldwide. The income achieved will be used to cover production costs and logistics and for donations to healthcare-related activities to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wolford producing face masks and joins Fosun’s global anti-pandemic campaign

Wolford has also joined a taskforce featuring different textile companies in Vorarlberg, federal state of Austria, which is producing 200,000 face masks for the use in hospitals and medical practices.
The skinwear brand is providing knitted, highly elastic tubes for the production of 8,000 masks a day and taking care of the moulding process. In addition, the Vorarlberg consortium will also produce medical FFP2 and FFP3 face masks with the support of the medical institute in Vienna.
Wolford is also joining Fosun’s global anti-pandemic campaign to support the worldwide fight against the new virus. Fosun, one of Wolford’s major shareholders, is a Shanghai-based technology-driven consumer group and they have been mobilising resources worldwide to deploy and donate medical supplies to many countries, such as Italy, Japan, South Korea, India, UK and France.
Wolford’s chief commercial officer, Silvia Azzali and chief operating officer, Andrew Thorndike, said in a statement: “This is just a small contribution that we, as a privileged company, can give back to our environment. Together with our main shareholder Fosun, we are very happy to support medical institutions in Italy and Austria. Both regions are close to our hearts as they are home to our headquarters and our sales office and main showroom; the places, where the majority of our employees live.”
On March 23, the fifth batch of medical protection supplies from the ‘Global Anti-virus Relief Scheme’ featuring 25,000 items arrived in Milan and were transported directly to 8 hospitals in Italy’s most affected areas.
Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun International added: “As a global enterprise, we want to do our part to help the world win the battle against novel coronavirus as soon as possible. We are deeply concerned about the health and safety of our overseas employees and customers, and we will stand firmly with the global public. I believe that with the wisdom of all mankind, as long as we unite, support and help each other, we can overcome the difficulties and overcome the virus.”
Image: courtesy of Wolford


* This article was originally published here

Paris Men's and Haute Couture Week cancelled

The board of directors of the Fédération de la haute couture et de la Mode have cancelled Paris Men's Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week as coronavirus continues to ground international travel and plague France. Just today, the country's prime minister warned of an extremely high surge in coronavirus cases.

Paris upcoming shows cancelled due to coronavirus

Paris Men's was originally scheduled to take place from June 23 to June 28, and Haute Couture was originally scheduled for July 5 to July 9. Designers are currently looking for alternative ways to showcase their collections.
"Strong decisions are required to ensure the safety and health of fashion houses, their employees and everyone working in our industry," FHCM said in a statement."
The statement goes on: "However, the Federation is actively working with its members on possible alternatives," without giving further details.
There is always the possibility of going digital, as Shanghai Fashion Week is doing via Alibaba. Coronavirus has practically cancelled resort season, now it looks like it's aiming to cancel men's spring/summer 2021 and couture too.
Photos credit: Alain Jocard / AFP


* This article was originally published here