Thursday. 2 October. 2008. 9:55 am
Time magazine spotlights the Women in Luxury
We love success stories featuring powerful women at Butterboom. The latest issue of Time Style & Design focused out in early September, features 11 women who are changing the world…in style.
The Time supplement featured women who are shaking up the business of luxury and taking charge. Read about the CEO of giant cosmetic empire Lancome, to the talent agency boss that signs the likes of Scarlet Johansson for Louis Vuitton and Russia’s most successful homegrown high street retail fashion sensation founded by a 16 year old who’s still in high school. There’s also profiles on more well known names like Stella McCartney and Anya Hindmarch.
Read more
Monday. 8 September. 2008. 9:15 am
A new season absolutely demands a new look, darlings!
We’ve been hinting at it for awhile and now finally it’s here. We’ve done the unthinkable: taking perfection to the next level. But just as the retail outlets all over Hong Kong prepare all new merchandise, so too must the premiere shopping blog that covers them.
We’ll be adding all new features as well like: buying guides, videos, more photos, your photos, a trading forum to sell your unused handbags and shoes and a few other tasty secrets we’ve got planned for the rest of the year.
We’ve seen our readership grow by leaps and bounds over the last few months, so we want to say ‘Thanks’ for all your support and for you to continue helping us ’spread the butter’ by telling your friends about Butterboom.com through SMS, MMS, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds and even in person.
We’d love to hear what you think of the new design, so drop a comment below:
Read more
Thursday. 14 August. 2008. 9:12 am
Spanish chain takes the lead over former #1 The Gap.
Zara has just surpassed The Gap, to become the biggest fashion retailer in the world. To put that in perspective The Gap has 3,100 stores and 150,000 employees around the world, but the US economic downturn has allowed the Spanish firm to take the lead.
Read more
Wednesday. 13 August. 2008. 9:41 am
New survey reveals HK women are the most financially independent in the region.
Not that this is anything new to Butterboom.com readers, but Synovate has released some new findings from a survey of 2,000 women they did across Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Malaysia from the ages of 15 to 64 across all income levels:
Eighty one percent of Hong Kong women can afford to pay for what they want without asking for money from their partner and 87% have at least an equal say on big ticket items, such as property and cars, according to recent survey by global market research company Synovate.
The Synovate survey revealed that while Hong Kong women were the most financially independent (81%), their mainland counterparts are not far behind (75%), followed by Singaporeans at 74%. Malaysian women are the least independent with only 42% confirming that they can afford to pay for what they want without asking for money from their partners or husbands.
While Hong Kong women only spend 11% of their monthly personal income on shopping, preferring to allocate a bigger proportion to savings and investments, mainland women spend over half of their income on shopping.
Read more
Thursday. 31 July. 2008. 9:31 am
Rich people need their LV, no matter what kind of market we’re in.
It’s interesting to see that the luxury brand market isn’t all that touched by the global economy slowdown, oil prices, mortgage problems, the pollution from China. LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA group announced an actual increase in sales in their interim reports, and its rising in part thanks to us in Hong Kong and in China:
Net income climbed 7 percent to 891 million euros ($1.4 billion) from 834 million euros a year earlier, the Paris-based company said today. That surpassed the 857 million-euro median estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Chairman Bernard Arnault confirmed the company’s forecast for a “tangible increase in results this year” and said he would increase prices further in the U.S. and Japan.
Revenue is rising between 20 percent and 30 percent in Asia outside Japan, according to Armando Branchini of Milan-based consultancy Interbrand, making LVMH less vulnerable to slowing U.S. and European economies and gains by the euro. Bags co- designed for Louis Vuitton, LVMH’s top-earning brand, by designer Marc Jacobs and U.S. artist Richard Price fueled demand.
So, we guess even with our markets down this week, it still hasn’t and probably won’t affect our shopping habits. Read more of the story from Bloomberg here.
Tuesday. 8 July. 2008. 1:34 pm
Ready or not, like it or not, here it comes.
Time sure flies by, it seemed like only last week the Torch Relay was happening, and now the official countdown clock tells us the Beijing 2008 Olympics is only 30 days away.
Butterboom has questions: Will the streets be rife with tourists? How come we haven’t seen any crazy Olympics stuff in the city and only at the Hong Kong Airport? Will there be more security in public spaces? Will tourists be ripped off on their shopping? We’ll be following how this event affects the Hong Kong shopping scene as we head towards what will probably be a more crazy time than the 1997 handover for the people of our fair city!
In the meantime, links are here:
The Official Beijing 2008 Site
The Hong Kong Tourism Board
Hong Kong International Airport
Wednesday. 2 July. 2008. 9:11 am
Apparently, all those fake LV bags have added up over the years.
As we’re sure many of you are aware, there are lots of fake bags and accessories sold on auction sites in Hong Kong and around the world. Well now, Louis Vuitton has won a big lawsuit against the auction giant eBay:
A Paris court on Monday ordered Internet auctioneer eBay to pay $63 million in damages to Louis Vuitton for selling fake luxury goods online, according to reports.
“This decision is not based on combating counterfeit material. It is based on LVMH’s desire to protect its commercial practices and exclude competition,” a spokeswoman for eBay in Paris told AFP.
eBay was ordered to pay $30.40 million to LVMH and $25.7 to its sister company Christian Dior Couture for damage to their brand images and causing moral harm.
More on the story here and here. But you can still find alot of Louis Vuitton products on the eBay Hong Kong website here, so even if you are selling a real LV handbags you’ll be under alot more scrutiny than ever before.
Friday. 30 May. 2008. 9:07 am
Coach buys up retail business from ImagineX.
On the day of the new Coach flagship store opening in Hong Kong, news has come in that Coach is buying out the retail business from current Hong Kong licensee/distributor ImagineX for Hong Kong, Macau and China.
“Over the next 5 years, we expect to open over 50 new locations, aggressively growing our sales and market share in this rapidly expanding region. Our market research indicates that by 2013 the China, Hong Kong and Macau premium handbag and accessories market will likely exceed $2.5 billion, more than double its current size of $1.2 billion. Our goal is to be one of the top three imported handbag and accessory brands, with sales of over $250 million and a market share of at least 10% by fiscal 2013, up from only about $30 million and 3% today.
This acquisition is in line with the company’s objective to take control of brand building and distribution at this critical juncture and will lay the foundation for a substantial contribution of these businesses in the future.
There are currently 24 Coach domestic retail locations in these three geographies, including our new Queen’s Road Central flagship and seven other stores in Hong Kong, one in Macau and 15 in mainland China. In addition, there are five travel retail locations in the region, which will continue to be managed by third-party operators and are not part of this agreement.
Read the rest of the details here. ImagineX also manages retail outlets for BCBG, Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabbana, Diesel, DKNY, Marc Jacobs, Tumi, Ferragamo.
