Apple Fans Queue at Colette for Smartwatch

PASSING THE TIME: Around 70 people queued outside Paris concept store Colette on Friday morning hoping to snag one of the first Apple watches. The first in line had been waiting since 3 p.m. the previous day, while others had joined the queue on Thursday evening, spending a chilly spring night outdoors without any certainty that the product would be available once the store opened its doors. “We read a lot of things on the Internet, approximately 1,000 watches, but with the preorders, it’s impossible to say actually how many watches they have. I’m crossing my fingers, of course,” said Lucas Dufossez, 26, a sales manager for a communications company in Belgium. Dufossez was determined to lay his hands on a stainless steel model with a Milanese Loop bracelet costing 799 euros in Europe and $699 in the United States. He decided to wait in line after being told by Apple that the product would not be available for several weeks if he ordered it online. “To be the first, that’s the most important. Personally, my order is scheduled for May 12 and I can’t wait until May 12,” he explained, adding that he had spotted the watch on celebrities in magazines. “Of course

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Lancel Celebrates Pop Range

BON VOYAGE: “Bubble gum: That’s the scent that pops to my head when I look at the bags,” exclaimed Francis Kurkdjian. The perfumer was talking about Pop – Lancel’s new line of ultra-light travel leather goods done in perky, sweet hues ranging from tourmaline yellow to cinnabar red. Before going for sale online on May 7 — a first for Lancel — the collection was presented at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo on Thursday night with Mélanie Thierry, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance and Dolores Doll among the guests. “That’s what I do,” said Marianne Romestain, Lancel’s chief executive officer. “Everywhere I go, I have to launch an e-business,” said the former Comptoir des Cotonniers and Gerard Darel executive. “The start of the actual e-commerce is slated for September,” she revealed. Romestain said she would favor a 48-hour weekender for her frequent trips to Shanghai. “I’m a good packer. One black dress, a black pair of pants, a few tops, and I’m done,” she said. Vahina Giocante already sported a tourmaline 12-hour item strapped across her shoulder. “Yellow like the sun. That’s my color. I just came back from L.A.,” said the actress, who is shooting a TV series in Portugal. “I play Mata Hari. It’s a challenging role because she

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Europe’s Stock Markets on the Rise

LONDON — Europe’s stock markets all gained ground in trading Friday morning. The FTSE MIB in Milan rose 1.5 percent to 23,545.08, followed by the DAX in Frankfurt and the CAC 40 in Paris, both up 0.6 percent to 11,797.91 and to 5,207.77 respectively. The FTSE 100 in London gained 0.4 percent to 7,081.67. Fashion, luxury and retail stocks had more of an uneven start. French Connection saw a 17 percent slump in its share price Friday, to 0.44 pounds, on the back of a profit warning. The British retailer said that its first-half retail sales performance is forecast “to be materially lower than expected,” citing “challenging conditions” during the period. While the firm reported that its wholesale performance is in line with expectations, and its licensing continues to perform strongly, it said that its financial performance for the year to January 2016 is now forecast to be “below the current market expectations.” Other fallers included MySale Group, 1.4 percent to 0.54 pounds; Aeffe, 1.7 percent to 2.38 euros; and Koovs, 2.5 percent to 0.74 pounds. Stocks that rose numbered Asos, 1.6 percent to 39.93 pounds; Brunello Cucinelli, 1.4 percent to 17.11 euros; Pandora, 3.2 percent to 717.50 Danish kronor; and Italia Independent, 2.3 percent to

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Inter Parfums SA Sales Rise 3.1% in Q1

PARIS – Inter Parfums SA reported first-quarter sales rose 3.1 percent to 77.2 million euros, or $87.1 million. At constant currency, revenues declined 6.4 percent, which the Paris-based subsidiary of Inter Parfums Inc. of New York blamed on tough comps owing to the launch of Karl Lagerfeld fragrances in the year-ago quarter, and a dramatic decline in the value of the euro this year. By brand, sales rose 72 percent for Repetto, 52 percent for Jimmy Choo, 19 percent for Montblanc and 13 percent for Boucheron. Brands in negative territory included Karl Lagerfeld, down 77 percent; Balmain 52 percent; and Paul Smith 22 percent, while Lanvin, Van Cleef & Arpels and St. Dupont registered low single-digit declines. By region, North American improved 29 percent, while European sales declined, also linked to tough comps, the company said. The French company confirmed its sales forecast for the full year of 310 million to 320 million euros. RELATED CONTENT: WWD Earnings Tracker >>

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Karl Lagerfeld To Give Master Class in Hyères

MASTER TALK: Karl Lagerfeld is to give a master class at the Villa Noailles in Hyères, France today at 5 p.m. local time. The master class will be one of the highlights of the 30th edition of the International Festival of Fashion and Photography, that runs Monday, April 27. Other highlights include a round-table on Instagram. Speakers include Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Simon Porte Jacquemus and Felipe Oliveira Baptista, who presided over the fashion jury in 2013 and is also a past Hyères winner. The awards ceremony is to take place Sunday. Lagerfeld is the festival’s artistic director this year; Virginie Viard, Chanel’s creative studio director, president of the fashion jury, and Eric Pfrunder, image director at Chanel fashion, president of the photography jury.

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Editor’s Letter: Welcome to the New Top 100 List

This list, our annual ranking of the world’s biggest beauty companies, has become a staple of the industry. Longtime devotees of the Top 100 will notice a change this year, however. In addition to the sales-based rankings and company goings-on that you have come to rely on, we’ve added a new dimension to the Top 100, providing in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis to give you a more nuanced picture of the global competitive landscape in beauty today. Our editors spent countless hours combing through the available financial data for the publicly traded companies on Beauty’s top 100, 50 in all, to compare and contrast everything from operating profit to R&D spending to shareholder equity. We also tapped outside experts, like L2, for insights into beauty’s top digital thinkers, and assessed metrics such as the number of women on the board of directors. While the numbers one, two and three companies on the list—L’Oréal, Unilever and Procter & Gamble respectively—probably won’t come as a big surprise, hopefully our Top 100 makeover will. E-mail me at jenny_fine@fairchildfashion.com and let me know what you think, and in the meantime, check out the other features in this issue, including a tour of the coolest new

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Inter Parfums Sales Down in First Quarter

Inter Parfums Inc. reported a first-quarter net sales decline of more than 10 percent, due in part to the negative impact from the strong dollar. For the three months ended March 31, company net sales decreased 10.3 percent to $109.2 million, compared with $121.7 million in the year-ago period. The company said that at comparable foreign currency exchange rates, consolidated first quarter net sales were $118.4 million. By division, its European-based product sales declined 15.2 percent to $86.7 million, while its U.S.-based product sales gained 16 percent to $22.5 million, driven by two new launches, namely Extraordinary by Oscar de la Renta and Icon by Dunhill. Jean Madar, chairman and chief executive officer of Inter Parfums, cited difficult year-over-year comparisons and the foreign exchange for the sales decline in European operations. He stated, “The decline in sales is also due in large part to the difficult comparison for the Karl Lagerfeld brand. The launch of Karl Lagerfeld’s signature scents for both men and women yielded more than $13 million in sales in 2014, as compared to brand sales of $2.5 million in 2015. With a new Karl Lagerfeld product launch scheduled for later this year, we expect to see more robust brand sales.

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