ascena retail group, inc Stock Repurchase Program

ascena retail group, inc. yesterday announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a $200 million stock repurchase program. Purchases made under this program are authorized to be made by the Company from time to time when market conditions warrant, subject to any approvals required under the Company’s existing loan documents. The program authorizes the purchase of ascena common stock through open market purchases and/or privately negotiated transactions, and is subject to applicable SEC rules. This program replaces the existing stock repurchase program amended in Fiscal 2011, which had a remaining authorization of approximately $90 million. This stock repurchase program does not obligate the Company to acquire any particular amount of common stock, and it may be suspended at any time at the Company’s discretion.

ascena retail group, inc. (NASDAQ:ASNA) is a leading specialty retailer offering clothing, shoes, and accessories for missy and plus-size women under the Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lou & Grey, Lane Bryant, Cacique, maurices, dressbarn, and Catherines brands, and for tween girls under the Justice brand. ascena retail group, inc. operates through its subsidiaries approximately 4,900 stores throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Alessandra Ambrosio in Flats & Scrunchie

Alessandra Ambrosio was photographed wearing BLOCH flats while leaving a yoga class in Brentwood today! The model and mom accessorized her workout ensemble with BLOCH Miriam Flats in Nocciola (Price Available Upon Request; BlochWorld.com) and used a KITSCH Grey Suede Scrunchie to tie up her hair ($9, www.mykitsch.com).

Men's Wearhouse Licnesed Tuxedo Rental Shops

Macy's, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with Men's Wearhouse to open licensed tuxedo rental shops within 300 Macy's stores nationwide.

These Macy's-branded shops will be operated by Men's Wearhouse and staffed by its trained formalwear professionals in dedicated space located in or near the men's department in Macy's stores. They will be fully integrated in Macy's storewide wedding experience, and support Millennial merchandising strategies related to proms and other special occasions.

"Macy's is better able than any other retailer to assist customers with a broad range of needs related to special occasions, and especially wedding couples, their families and friends at this significant milestone period in life. Macy's and Men's Wearhouse will work together to provide additional convenience and simplicity for our customers while offering the latest trends in rental tuxedos, including prestige designer brands and some styles exclusive to Macy's. The customer shopping experience will be enhanced by Men's Wearhouse's specialized and expert service," said Tim Baxter, Macy's chief merchandising officer. "We see weddings and special occasions as strategic growth opportunities for Macy's. We are already well known for our wedding and gift registry, and we continue to build our business in engagement and wedding rings, wedding party suits and dresses, shoes, accessories, fashion jewelry, gifts and other categories. Tuxedo rental is the next element in building Macy's special occasion capability."

Plans call for the first 17 Macy's Tuxedo Shops to open in fall 2015 in the New Jersey, San Francisco and Houston markets, with a rollout to 300 stores by fall 2016. Macy's and Men's Wearhouse also will collaborate to develop a digital tuxedo rental shop on macys.com.

Macy's Tuxedo Shops will be backed by the Men's Wearhouse reservation and group management system that allows customers to easily make and manage reservations and track the status of rentals by others in a wedding party.
Men's Wearhouse will be the exclusive provider of tuxedo rentals to Macy's, although Macy's will continue to sell tuxedos from its own men's assortment.

Hilary Duff Wears Kitsch Ice Blue Hair Tie

Hilary Duff was spotted wearing Kitsch over the weekend! The Younger star, who was warm weather-ready in cutoff shorts and lightweight blouse, intermixed her stacked bracelets with an Ice Blue hair tie from the Tutti Frutti set ($9.00, www.mykitsch.com).

View more fashion blog posts about Hilary Duff on Apparel Search.

Olivia Wilde in Junk Food Basquiat T-shirt

Olivia Wilde was photographed wearing Junk Food yesterday in NYC! The actress sported her Basquiat T-shirt while enjoying the holiday weekend with her family (www.junkfoodclothing.com). 

Cheryl Burke Wearing Suki + Solaine and carrying cinda b

Cheryl Burke was photographed wearing Suki + Solaine and carrying cinda b today in Los Angeles! The I Can Do That star looked polished as she left a meeting in her Reva Midi Dress ($120, www.sukiandsolaine.com) while accessorizing with the Medium London Tote in Mod Tortoise from the b luxe collection ($119, www.cindab.com).

Preia Narendra New USA Senior Director Public Relation Miu Miu

Luxury fashion brand Miu Miu USA has announced the appointment of Preia Narendra as Senior Director Public Relations. She moves from 3.1 Phillip Lim having served as Press Director. 

Fashion Industry Big Data

Information is critical for successful fashion retailers.  So, how do we find the helpful data?  Here are a few big data resources that assist the apparel industry.

EDITD is the market leader in real-time analytics of pricing, assortment and deep product metrics for apparel professionals.

WGSN, launched its own first big-data offering, Instock.  WGSN INstock interprets the e-commerce catalogues of major retailers and brands across the UK, North America and Australia to enable fast, confident trading decisions for commercial teams.  WGSN claims its dataset has more than a million products and 11 million SKUs each day from more than 10,000 global online brands and retailers. Instock, essentially a retail analytics service.   With over 12,000 global brands and retailers, 400 product categories, WGSN INstock’s highly intuitive search filter lets you focus in on the market that matters to you, right now. Product is ranked by newest first, or you can sort alphabetically or by price.

You may find the following resources to also be helpful for your research:

GS1

Fashion Industry Statistics

Fashion Industry Data

If you know additional resources, please let us know.

Bailee Madison Satin Mesh Midi Skirt

Bailee Madison wore Cynthia Rowley the other day in Washington D.C! The young actress looked pretty and polished in her Satin Mesh Midi Skirt in blue as she attended various events surrounding the White House Correspondents Dinner (price available upon request; www.cynthiarowley.com). 

Bailee Madison is an American teen actress. She is known for her role in Bridge to Terabithia in which she plays May Belle Aarons, the younger sister of Jesse Aarons. Madison also starred in the horror film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark as Sallie Hurst, and as Maggie in the Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston film Just Go with It. She also stars as Harper in Parental Guidance as the oldest daughter of a rich couple.

Adriana Stan PR Director at W Magazine

W Magazine has announced the appointment of Adriana Stan as Public Relations Director. She joins from Hearst Magazines having recently served as Public Relations Manager across a number of titles.

W represents the very best in fashion, film, and art, with a consistent eye toward the game changers of tomorrow.

W Magazine is part of Condé Nast. Condé Nast is a premier media company renowned for producing the highest quality content for the world's most influential audiences. 

Learn more about W Magazine.

Fashion Blog for Mobile Devices

New fashion blogs for mobile devices.

Fashion Blog Template - it is new and currently only has a few posts.  However, the site has plans for expansion.

Fashion Blog - this is primary fashion blog of Apparel Search.

Bianca Santos Wears Signature Necklace

Bianca Santos posted a photo on Instagram wearing Brevity this weekend! The DUFF actress snapped a stunning selfie in her custom Bianca Signature Necklace ($195; www.brevityjewelry.com).

Photo courtesy of www.instagram.com/biancaalexasantos

You may also want to see Bianca Santos Wearing a Crescent Moon necklace on the Fashion Blog.  While you are at it, you may as well also review the leaf ring worn by Bianca back in February of this year.

Fashion Blog by Apparel Search: THML Drawstring Printed Pants Worn by Ashley Green...

Fashion Blog by Apparel Search: THML Drawstring Printed Pants Worn by Ashley Green...: Ashley Greene was photographed wearing THML yesterday while in Los Angeles ! The actress looked casual chic in her THML drawstring printe...

Thank you for taking the time to read our fashion blog post. We hope that you have found this news to be informative. If you have comments or questions, please add your thoughts in the discussion area below.

Turkey's Leading Independent Apparel Retailer Invests in Fit

Alvanon, the world’s leading apparel expert, has announced a further major order for its AlvaForm technical fit mannequins from LC Waikiki ,Turkey’s largest independent fashion brand.  The latest order for ladies’, men’s and children’s EU series AlvaForms,  makes LC Waikiki Turkey’s largest user of the world’s leading fit forms and consolidates its commitment to apparel sales growth through its product sizing and fit strategy.

 LC Waikiki ordered its first AlvaForm in 2008 and since that time has ordered and installed some 100 women’s, men’s and children’s AlvaForms across its product development departments at its head office in Istanbul, registered offices in Bangladesh and China, and key garment manufacturing suppliers worldwide.

Simon Fernandes, regional director, UK , Southern Europe and West Asia, Alvanon explained: “LC Waikiki was one of the first major retail brands in Eurasia to commit to a clearly defined and consistent sizing and fit strategy.  By using AlvaForms across its product development disciplines, its design and technical professionals can share their size and fit standard with key suppliers thereby streamlining the product development process and helping them communicate accurate fit knowledge consistently between departments and countries.”

Gülperi Tandar, Technical Director, LCWaikiki Retail Company added:  “We are on track to realize our ambition of being one of the three most successful ready-made clothing retailers in Europe by 2023.  We have achieved this by giving our customers what they want – quality affordable fashion that fits.” She added: “We have to respond quickly to new trends and the AlvaForms enable us to quickly transform trends into garments that consistently fit our young adult and child consumer demographic.  AlvaForms help us implement fit excellence across the group and our customers know they can rely on our fit standard.”

About LC Waikiki

The LC Waikiki affordable fashion brand was founded in France in 1985 and bought in 1996 by the Turkish Taha Group (now the Tema Group) which formed the LC Waikiki Retail Company.  Since 1997, LC Waikiki has become the leading independent apparel retailer in Turkey with nearly 400 stores, a significant online retail business, over 10,000 employees and a huge share of Turkey ’s fashion market. The company has started to expand internationally as well, and is now trading in more than 20 other countries.

About Alvanon

Founded in 2001, the Alvanon Group of companies is the global leader in providing growth, profitability and supply chain solutions to the apparel industry.  In addition to its head office in  New York , European headquarters in  London , Asian office in Hong Kong and manufacturing facilities in Donguan and Shenzhen in  China , Alvanon has a worldwide team of dedicated apparel strategists and specialists. Alvanon has compiled  the world’s largest database of 400,000 body scans and provides customized fit and product development strategies and tools to the world’s leading fashion brands, retailers, lingerie, swimwear, sportswear, mail order and corporate clothing suppliers. 

Read more about Alvanon.

Carol Alt Supermodel New Beauty Expert Website

Actress, supermodel, and beauty and health expert Carol Alt announced today that she launched her new brand and website design. Alt’s new website features the unique aesthetics of her new brand, as well as a smoother user experience throughout the site. The new design incorporates rich content and information from Carol’s personal arsenal of doctors and nutritionists that will make the website the go-to source for health-conscious shoppers, as well as everyday consumers that want to improve their health. A fully functional e-commerce shopping cart will be integrated in the near future so Alt’s fans will be able to purchase products directly from her site.

In addition, the new website incorporates an easy-to-sign-up newsletter, allowing fans of Carol to receive news and product offers as they become available.  Look for the site to be fully integrated with a functional e-commerce shopping cart in the near future, so everyone will be able to find and purchase her suggested products directly from her site.

At 54, Alt is an expert on raw food nutrition and is the best-selling author of “Eating in the Raw,” “The Raw 50” and “Easy Sexy Raw.” She also wrote a book series on modeling called “This Year’s Model” and “Model, Incorporated.”

In May 2015, Alt will be debuting her long-anticipated book “A Healthy You,” in which she shares her tips on everything from homemade natural hair treatments to foods that balance the body, mind and spirit. “A Healthy You” will be available through www.carolalt.com and fine retailers nationwide.

ABOUT CAROL ALT

Carol Alt is the ultimate pioneer and chameleon, constantly on the lookout for new ideas and new frontiers. Since her days as the world’s most renowned supermodel, Carol has gone on to be a multi-award winning actress, bestselling author on raw food nutrition and host of her own show, “A Healthy You”. On “A Healthy You,” now in its second season, Carol shares tips she has learned over her 30 plus year career as an international beauty icon to help her viewers attain beautiful hair, skin and nails and to create an overall healthy body, mind and environment to be the best you! “A Healthy You” airs on Fox News on Saturdays and Sundays at 4 pm EST. http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/a-healthy-you-carol-alt/index.html

You may also want to read the fashion blog post Carol Alt A Healthy You.

Savoir Faire at Tranoï New York

SAVOIR-FAIRE

Covering leather, handbags, jewelry, ready-to-wear and accessories, a handful of designers will cross the pond to present their Fall/ Winter 2015-16 collections to the US market at Tranoï New York next week. These designers represent all genres in womens’ wear, from streetwear to avant-garde outerwear, skins to fine, precious jewelry to bring a ‘French Touch’ to the 80 designers from 20 countries presenting at the Tunnel.  Read more about Savoir Faire at Tranoï.

A Woman’s Guide to Unlimited Abundance

OK, this book is not all about fashion, but it does offer a way to be positive and stylish.

Many of us feel like the universe often holds a far bigger vision for us than we are capable of seeing for ourselves at any particular moment in time.  As we get older, and experience life, we see that getting ahead requires that we embrace change and understand that we need to move toward it in a fluid way, not against it … it’s very much like dancing. 

It’s not all about winning, or having lots of money, and or a fantastic career and wonderful family. Having it all is more about the feeling we carry with us in the privacy of our own hearts and minds.

In the new book The Art of Having It All – A Woman’s Guide to Unlimited Abundance  (due out January 31, 2015), Christy Whitman offers up a modern strategy for women who want to “have it all”. She lays out a path forward that shows people how to feel thankful, hopeful, and healthy all at the same time, all the time. 

The ideas she shares can not only be used to chart a course to greater abundance and success, but to a deeper connection with yourself and an increased ability to enjoy all that you are and all that you have created and have yet to create. Here are some of the steps she recommends women take.

Define Your “It” and Your “All”

The first step is to become profoundly connected to yourself.  No two women have the same life experiences, the same perspectives, the same goals, preferences, beliefs or ideals… and for this reason, no two women define having it all in exactly the same ways.  Each and every one of us is a unique expression of the Divine, and – despite what we may have been socialized to believe – we don’t all want the same things. 

Give yourself permission to envision what having it all means to you in each important area of your life.  Let your imagination expand to create a vision of all that you desire to create – physically, emotionally, socially, financially, and spiritually.  Visualize a reality in which your desires manifest naturally and easily, and in which you experience all the joy, health, success, abundance and fulfillment that you desire. 

Define the things that truly bring you happiness. Identify the conditions or experiences you have always wanted to create. Design your life to be amazing beyond your wildest

Imagination. What would it look like?  How would it feel?  Are you financially abundant and debt free?  Is your body a certain size or weight?  Do you feel more rewarded in your career?  Are your relationships more intimate and satisfying? 

Allow yourself to dream about what having it all means to you. Don’t worry about how it will happen. 

“Having it all simply means having access to all

of yourself, in any moment you choose it, and in every

aspect of life that is important to you.”

Create From the Inside Out

Identify a specific area in your life – your finances, your career, relationships with others, for example – where you feel discontent, frustrated or unfulfilled; an aspect of your life where you

do not yet feel you have it all.  Identify the dominant emotion or vibration that you are emitting

in response to it.  Do you feel resentment?  Disappointment?  Resignation? 

Allow yourself to feel this emotion in your body. Where is the feeling located? How large of an area does it cover?  Connect with this emotion.  Notice if it is familiar to you.  Think back to the past, to relationships or circumstances where you experienced it?  Notice the feelings in your body as you consider this. 

Acknowledge that you – and no one else – are the sole generator of your vibration. Ask yourself if there is anything you have to give up in order to shift your attitude. Do you need to release some old resentment?  Do you have to give up being a victim?  Do you have to let go of being right?  Identify what you have been holding on to, see if you can give it up, and notice what happens to how you feel as you do.  Liberate yourself. Connect with the feeling you want. Allow it to become your new center and your new point of attraction.

“Nothing can happen until you start paying attention to you,

and this means listening to your emotions rather than

trying to resist, suppress, ignore or deny them.”

Be Open to Receiving

Call to mind any area of your life where you are in a state of resistance – some place where you have a chronic complaint or where your viewpoint is one of “It shouldn’t be like this.”  Try to see if you can allow yourself to accept it exactly as it is.  Accepting a situation does not mean that you approve of it, or that you don’t want it to change.  It simply means accepting what is at

this moment.  Give yourself permission to think and feel about it the way that you do, without trying to minimize your feelings or pretend to feel any differently.

Pay closer attention to the way you feel about this situation. Allow yourself to receive whatever information your emotions are trying to convey to you.  What is the message your feelings are giving you about you?  Allow yourself to feel the intensity of your emotions fully and completely, without describing or labeling them.  Simply be with them with all of your attention, and feel the power of their vibration.

Embrace them rather than resist them. And notice that they begin to dissipate and release.  From this new level of awareness, allow yourself to connect with what you really do want to experience in this area of your life. How do you want to feel in relation to this situation?  What is one action you could take – be it an inner action or an outer action – to change your set point about this issue? How can you allow in more of what you are wanting?  Go for it. Bring it on. Make it happen.

“Give yourself permission to have.  Give yourself permission to be.

Give yourself permission to need.  Give yourself permission to let go.”

Clarity + Alignment + Action = Manifestation

Clarity about the exact nature of what you want builds intensity and distinguishes the unique

vibration of your desire. Maintaining a feeling allowing and non-resistance draws it towards us.  The combination of feeling good, excited and content with what is, while at the same time being clear about what more we want, that opens the door for more to come into our lives.  Intending and allowing are equally important in the manifestation equation, but every situation calls for a different degree of each.  The bigger our goal and the clearer our intention, the more we need to allow. 

When you then add physical action into this equation, you summon the power to manifest anything you desire.  Whether you experience this creative process as spontaneous and easy or as slow and difficult depends on how much of a balance you are able to strike between these inner and outer forces. 

“There is a deep place within your system

where there is complete alignment and infinite capacity.”

You Can Have it All

Kristy says “By allowing yourself to swell up with that gratitude, you open up doorways along your path.  Synchronicity comes into play and people show up in your life, that bring you to places that are truly unimaginable to you in the present moment.”

Life really happens. Dreams really can come true. 

The Art of Having It All – A Woman’s Guide to Unlimited Abundance

Christy Whitman

List $14.95

Trade soft cover,  136 pages

ISBN-1- 978-0-9885855-0-8

Published by TV Guestpert Publishing

For more information, visit www.TheArtofHavingItAll.com or www.ChristyWhitman.com

You may also be interested in viewing the books section on Apparel Search for fashion and style relevant books.