Victoria's Secret To Close 53 Stores in 2019 As Global Auto Sales Also Drop In Major Spending Shifts

PHOTO BY IHTESHAM ISMAIL ON UNSPLASH

Victoria's Secret To Close 53 Stores in 2019 As Global Auto Sales Also Drop In Major Spending Shifts

American teenagers no longer hang out at the mall like generations past. Their lives are far more complex and demanding; then add in the high priority of digital culture and online shopping in their lives. Their fashion fav brands often aren’t even sold in America’s shopping malls.

Last week was a brutal one for American retailers. L Brands made the decision to close 53 Victoria’s Secret stores in North America. Gap Inc. announced that it will close 230 stores in the next two years. J.C. Penney weighed in with 18 new department store closures. Earlier in February Payless announced the closure of 2,500 in America.

It’s not all bad news. Planet Fitness Chief Executive officer Chris Rondeau said his business is immune to e-commerce’s effects on brick-and-mortar, making it a good mall tenant, writes Business of Fashion.

“Our business can’t be Amazoned. We’re un-Amazonable,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We do about 5,000 workouts per gym per week, about 8 million workouts a week in the U.S., so look at how much traffic we drive to these centers every day. And the majority of those visits are Monday through Wednesday; most retailers are busy on the weekends, so we’re a great co-tenant for these retailers to drive that traffic.”

Eye: Tiffany & Co Opens The Blue Box Café At Fifth Ave Flagship On Friday As Twitter Derides $1000 Tin Can From New 'Everyday Objects'

Eye: Tiffany & Co Opens The Blue Box Café At Fifth Ave Flagship On Friday As Twitter Derides $1000 Tin Can From New 'Everyday Objects'

Channeling its 'Breakfast at Tiffany's heritage made famous by Audrey Hepburn, Tiffany & Co opens its first Blue Box Café overlooking the entry to Central Park and Bergdorf Goodman. The cafe shares space with Tiffany's wholly-renovated fourth floor housing its luxury home and accessories collection and represents the first major project from Reed Krakoff, who assumed his position as chief artistic officer in January. 

Vanity Fair describes the effect as one of dining inside one of Tiffany’s famed blue boxes, like some Tiffany-crazed genie who prefers crisp right angles to a bottle’s curves. That is very much the point. “Design of the space began from the idea of immersion in Tiffany—not only the feeling of being inside a blue box, but surrounded by Tiffany hospitality,” Richard Moore,   the vice president creative director overseeing all things store and window design, explained. Guests will first lock eyes with the view of the park, he hopes, and then they’ll see the sea of Tiffany blue, which they’ve “embraced throughout.”

Is Maison Martin Margiela's H&M Collaboration Subversive in Nature?

Is Maison Martin Margiela’s H&M Collaboration Subversive in Nature?

The LVMH Challenge of Branding Christian Dior For the Future

The LVMH Challenge of Branding Christian Dior For the Future AOC Anne Talks Business

Women aren’t little soldiers who need to get our marching orders from imperious personalities telling us who and what to be as women. It’s Tom Ford who told Interview Magazine that many fashionistas are truly insecure in their identities, and I agree with him. But I also see shifting sands ahead as women wise up to what’s going on around us.

Will Queen Rania Carry a Sarah's Bag to Today's 'The Big Read' Speech at the National Press Club?

QUEEN RANIA'S SPEECH AT THE LAUNCH OF GLOBAL ACTION WEEK 2009 - WASHINGTON DC, USA

Will Queen Rania Carry a Sarah's Bag to Today's 'The Big Read' Speech at the National Press Club?

Queen Rania is in Washington D.C. with her husband King Abdullah, presently meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, and preparing to meet with President Obama at 10am.

No word on whether Michelle and Queen Rania will meet. A Google search is nada. I am crushed if these two women don’t at least share a cup of coffee.

I want these two Smart Sensuality women to ‘hook up’ now. Putting Queen Rania and First Lady Michelle Obama together is total Smart Sensuality combustion.

The Big Read

Queen Rania is speaking this morning at the National Press Club, as part of a global action week calling for quality basic education for all children.

The press conference will launch ‘The Big Read’, a collection of short stories written by education advocates around the world including Queen Rania, Nelson Mandela, Natalie Portman, Alice Walker, Ishmael Baeh and many more. ‘The Big Read’ is part of GCE’s global action week with the goal of bringing attention to literacy and the millions of children around the world not able to go to school.

To learn more, go to The Big Read at Global Campaign for Education.

One of the goals in writing about Smart Sensuality women is not only to get the concept of the sensual, intelligent, socially committed women front and center in our minds, but to help business, advertisers and media understand the Smart Sensuality woman as a consumer.

Meet Sarah’s Bag

This BBC News story Lebanon’prison chic’ goes global is an excellent example of the relationship between the Cultural Creative women and shopping.