By Pascale Denis PARIS, Dec 9 (Reuters Life!) - Champagne makers are hoping to hear the sound of corks popping this festive season to drown the gloom of a year that has seen sales volumes drop as a global economic downturn bites.
Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell in October, while chain store sales for the first week of December declined as the economic outlook continued to deteriorate, data showed on Tuesday.
Playboy Enterprises Inc plans to continue "aggressive cost cutting" across the company in 2009 but outlined growth prospects for products such as Playboy underwear and new products such as fragrances, according to Chief Financial Officer Linda Havard.
Apparel maker Oxford Industries Inc posted a 65 percent drop in quarterly profit, hurt by restructuring and other charges, and forecast fourth-quarter results below market estimates.
Take a load of empty plastic water bottles to manufacture jeans, or turn waste denim into paper: as eco-consciousness spreads, makers of the planet's most popular item of clothing are increasingly resorting to recycling.
Apparel retailer Talbots Inc said on Monday its chief financial officer is retiring and will be replaced by its newly appointed chief operating officer, who will hold both roles.
Greece's weekend riots destroyed about 130 shops in Athens's commercial center and owners of surviving businesses say a Christmas season already overshadowed by global economic crisis may be lost to them altogether.
Swiss auto parts and textile company Rieter Holding AG said full-year sales and profits will be well below forecasts because the economic crisis had a severe effect on textile and auto markets.
If you have to ask, you can't afford it, and the well-heeled still go for hand-crafted Italian shoes, whatever the price, even in dire economic times.
Music doesn't account for a large portion of Hot Topic's overall business. In fact Betsy McLaughlin, the CEO of the teen apparel and lifestyle retailer, says music CDs and DVDs are only "a single-digit part of what we sell."
Japan's top trading firm Mitsubishi Corp plans to buy a roughly 5 percent stake in retailer Aeon for more than $325 million, and the two will work together on foreign buying amid the economic downturn, two company sources said on Saturday.
IT Holding , the Italian company behind fashion brands including Malo and Gianfranco Ferre, mandated its chairman to continue exclusive talks with Chinese businessman Billy Ngok until the end of the year.
Slowing purchases of clothing and accessories may spur consolidation in the fashion industry, Liz Claiborne Inc's chief executive said on Friday, but the owner of the Juicy Couture and Kate Spade brands is not looking to make acquisitions right now.
Strolling the production lines of his toy factory in southern China, Peter Lin barks orders as hundreds of workers in green overalls snap wheels onto toy cars and affix tiny batteries into die-cast replica jets. Twelve months ago Lin could rest easy.
Sarah Brown, the wife of the British prime minister, seemed to have taken some style tips from Carla Bruni-Sarkozy when she stepped out in a purple beret and grey suit.
