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Madewell Gets a Revamp with a New Designer at the Helm

Madewell has hired a new designer, Somsack Sikhounmuong (a J.Crew alum) to orchestrate a slight revamp. (Sikhounmuong replaces Kin Ying Lee.) They're calling it Madewell 2.0. We met with Sikhounmuong for coffee and croissants at new hot spot Lafayette (near J.Crew's NYC headquarters but more importantly, a Jenna Lyons pick) to discuss his vision for Madewell.

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DKNY Brings Back Its Iconic SoHo Billboard With New Art Project

For 16 years the brick wall on the corner of Broadway and Houston in SoHo was emblazoned with a several-stories-high DKNY logo through which you could see the Statue of Liberty and the NYC skyline. The billboard was an iconic New York symbol--until it came down in 2008 when the building was sold and DKNY was forced to remove it. "We've literally been in mourning since 2008 with that SoHo wall. A lot of people have. We constantly hear, 'I can't believe it's not there,'" Aliza Licht, aka @DKNYPRGirl, the brand's Senior Vice President of Communications, told us. "It's made an impact more than just an advertising campaign would have made. It was there for 16 years. People associate it with the city, the framework of the city." So DKNY is bringing it back, via an international art project spanning 10 cities across the globe.

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Lululemon Devotees Say See-Through Pants Problem Is Nothing New

This week Lululemon issued a recall of about 17% of its yoga pants because they were too sheer and you could see, erm, women's chakras through them. Not a very zen-like situation for anyone involved. The workout wear retailer said in a press release that "certain shipments of product received from factories and available in stores from March 1, 2013 do not meet our technical specifications." So ostensibly they got pulled because of this one isolated quality control problem. But longtime Lululemon devotees are calling bull. They claim that the issues have been going on for months, even years and that the only reason Lulu is disclosing the issue has to do with pleasing investors--not customers. Read on.

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Tory and Chris Burch's Trial Judge Calls Case a 'Drunken WASP Fest'

Here's another reason to watch as the nasty legal battle between Tory Burch and ex-husband/business partner Chris continues to unfold: The judge on the case sounds like he's going to be hilarious. WWD caught up with Judge Leo Strine, of the Delaware Chancery Court, who is assigned to the Burch case, and, well, let's just say Strine may have a future career as a standup comedian. Read on to hear what zingers Strine had to say on duck boots, preppy clothing and drunken WASPs.

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Prada Harrassment Suit Dropped

Back in 2012, a Prada store manager in Tokyo filed a suit against the luxury label for harrassment. The manager, Rina Bovrisse, claimed superiors harrassed and discriminated against her because of her appearance, and even made her fire other employees who mangagement deemed were "unattractive or overweight." Well, a Tokyo court has now tossed out the case, according to WWD.

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Still No Designer at Schiaparelli

A few weeks ago Diego Della Valle, the Italian businessman who's relaunching the Schiaparelli label, annoucned that he'd name a designer "soon." Well, it looks like "soon" just turned to "later," according to WWD. Farida Khelfa, who's a spokeswoman for the label, told editors at a luncheon in Paris that the first Schiaparelli show will be in "June or July." The first show had been tentatively planned for January, so that's a pretty significant delay. The reason?

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Sidney Toledano Was Surprised That Dior's Sales Didn't Falter After John Galliano Was Fired

Fashion houses have been struggling lately with the notion of whether or not a label needs a marquee designer to be the face/DNA/personality of a brand. (See: The Simon Spurr fiasco). When Galliano was fired from Dior for his now-notorious anti-Semitic rant, many wondered what would become of the house in the wake of the loss of its charismatic artistic director. What happened is that Dior's sales increased. With Galliano's right-hand man Bill Gaytten standing in until a successor was named, Dior's revenues hit $1 billion in 2011 for the first time ever, according to the Financial Times. Sidney Toledano, the president and chief executive of Christian Dior was surprised.

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Manish Arora Is Out at Paco Rabanne

Another fashion house creative director job is up for grabs, in case you know anyone who's interested. Manish Arora, Paco Rabanne's artistic director for the past two seasons, has left the label, WWD is reporting. This is sort of a surprising development, because while Arora's first space-aged, Mugler-inspired collection for the label in spring 2012 received mixed reviews, his fall 2012 collection was more favorably received and much more wearable. Lady Gaga famously wore his out-there spring designs shortly after Arora's first show (which is obviously a different scenario than if say, Kate Middleton wears your clothes) and J. Lo just sported a top from the spring collection on American Idol. This doesn't necessarily mean that the clothes are moving at retail, but celeb buzz for a label is nothing to sneeze at. So why is he leaving?