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24-02-2012
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: far east
Gender: femme
Posts: 335
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Quote:
Today the company has estimated annual sales of $120 million, a figure that doesn’t reflect the brand’s full retail power with licenses. And McCartney is expanding: in 2010, after a successful children’s-wear line for Gap, she started Stella McCartney Kids. And at this summer’s Olympics in London, British athletes will be wearing uniforms her company designed for Adidas, the team sponsor. This year, the company, which does most of its business in Europe and the United States, plans to open its first stores in China. McCartney has hinted in the past that she might not want to stay in fashion forever, but Lukoff dismisses the idea that she would ever sell. “That’s not the McCartney way,” the C.E.O. said, adding: “She’s building an asset. She looks at the figures with keen interest.”

Those figures have not been much affected by the recession. Her clothing is as expensive as other designer labels — a minidress from her summer line sells for about $2,200 — but because she offers a full wardrobe rather than primarily evening wear, there is a larger price range than in a lot of her competitors’ lines. (On the low end, for instance, is a T-shirt dress for $395.)

The sweater fitting on the day of the concert took place in a narrow, high-ceilinged studio at the rear of the building, with a view of a parking lot. Around 4 p.m., Brodasca told McCartney that she needed to look at some sunglasses designs before she left for her daughter’s ballet recital.

“The folder is big, so I might have it sent to your house, and you can look through it this week,” Brodasca said.

McCartney frowned. “They always do this,” she said to me. “They give me folders. ‘Take it home with you.’ When I go home, I don’t have time to do that.”

Brodasca continued, “We’re going to use them for the next two collections, so whatever you mark. . . .”

“I’ll do it now, then,” McCartney said.

She glanced at her BlackBerry. Each night, her longtime assistant, Samantha Merry, sends her an updated text of her appointments. That week, Beckett’s preschool was holding its Christmas pageant and Miller was in a concert. McCartney’s life is highly scheduled — as a matter of salvation, her sister Mary suggested. “I think Stella would crack up if she felt that she wasn’t organized and was missing things with the kids; that would make her unhappy.” She added, “And it’s not the way we grew up.”

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