In celebration of its beta launch, Lustr is teaming up with Independent Retail Week: New York to bring its users and shoppers unprecedented access to fabulous boutiques.

Under the terms of the partnership, participating Independent Retail Week: New York stores, special promotions, and events will be listed in Lustr and searchable via GPS through the application’s clean, easy-to-use interface. The partnership reinforces and expands the companies’ shared audience of upscale NYC shoppers and retailers. It also offers a new tool for shoppers who have an iPhone and want to search for stores by geographic location, product categories, brands carried, and merchandise price points.

“We are delighted to be launching Lustr as part of this exciting event,” says Gary Ragusa, CEO of GRGMobile Solutions, Inc.”Nolcha shares GRG’s mission of expanding retailers’ marketing reach and effectiveness through best practices in marketing services and technology. We chose to work with Nolcha because of its strong reputation in the fashion industry and its special relationships with independent retailers that are consistent with the Lustr brand.”

Independent Retail Week NYC is a week-long initiative-from Nov.14 through Nov. 20 this year-that drives business and increases revenue for small retail businesses in fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Nolcha, the platform behind Independent Retail Week: New York, is a leading operator of educational, event and business-to-business services devoted to independent fashion entrepreneurs and related retail businesses.

Roman Originals are having an exciting end to 2009. They have announced the launch of their new trendy accessories range, with a wonderful array of colourful clutch handbags and elegant ladies hats, perfect for the holiday season.

Like Roman Originals clothing ranges, their new range of womens handbags and womens hats have undergone the same rigorous testing to ensure that they meet the desired high quality standards expected. The range consists of vibrant beautifully made clutch bags made from fantastic fabrics and designs. Nevertheless, the handbag and hat ranges are not the only exciting new developments for affordable retailer Roman Originals.

Customers will be pleased to know none of their orders will be affected by the postal strikes. As of the 16th of November, Roman Originals will be offering Next day delivery within the UK, and will also commence international shipping.

Traditionally all Roman Originals ladies clothing and accessories were available in over 150 outlets across the United Kingdom. However, due to increasing demand for their well made garments, all Roman originals clothing and accessories are available internationally. Customers outside the UK will now be able to order online from Roman Originals just in time for the holiday season. On top of that, the company now offers free standard delivery for UK customers who spend as little as GBP45 on an order.

Customers visiting the site can also sign up to receive the Roman Originals catalogue. The catalogue is available on request to keep customers up-to-date with all the seasons’ trends and latest garments from Roman Originals. For those who like to keep a close eye on fashion, there is also an email list to with the latest fashion news and details of their special offers.

For many women, a $1,000 dress is something they admire in the pages of a glossy magazine or see draped on the frame of a celebrity — not an item hanging in their closet.

But a nascent Web site called Rent the Runway is hoping to make high-end fashions much more accessible and almost as easy as renting a movie from Netflix.

The mail-order service, which finishes the testing phase on Monday, allows women to rent dresses from notable fashion designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Proenza Schouler for roughly one-tenth of what they would cost to buy in a retail store.

The rentals run $50 to $200 for a four-night loan and are shipped directly to the customer’s doorstep. After wearing the dress, she puts it into a prepaid envelope and drops it in the mail. Dry cleaning is included in the price, but damage insurance costs $5, and in the case of outright destruction of the dress, the renter is responsible for the full retail price.

Rent the Runway is a recession-era twist on the Internet rent-by-mail model, which has been used for things like textbooks and video games in addition to movies. Unlike those utilitarian items, however, the dresses offer a touch of Cinderella — on a budget.

Julia Harris, a 27-year-old graduate student living in New York, turned to Rent the Runway when she needed something chic for a fall wedding. For $50, she got a fuchsia Catherine Malandrino number with an elaborately ruffled bust that would have cost $495 to buy.

“It was so easy. You just wear it and drop it back in the mail to them,” Ms. Harris said. “I don’t spend $2,000 on a dress regularly, so it’s nice to be able to wear some of the more expensive brands I wouldn’t be able to buy otherwise. And instead of just buying one or two dresses for this season, I can still have a lot of things to wear.”

Rent the Runway was founded by two recent Harvard Business School graduates, Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Carter Fleiss. Ms. Hyman said she got the idea for the service last year after watching her younger sister agonize over whether to buy an expensive new outfit to wear to a wedding.

“Here was this young girl who loves fashion and was willing to spend a good portion of her salary on a dress that she’s only going to wear once or twice, and I thought, there has to be a solution for this,” said Ms. Hyman.

The founders say that more than 20,000 women have signed up for the service, which has been shipping dresses for only a week. Bain Capital Ventures provided seed financing, which the company used to build its inventory of 160 styles.

Rent the Runway declined to discuss its business strategy, but it is clear the company faces several risks. Unlike DVDs, fashion changes quickly, and there is no guarantee that the company will be able to rent each dress enough times to cover its costs.

In addition, retail stores in major cities have offered dresses for rent for years. Rent the Runway is betting that its shop-by-Web convenience and the appeal of its top-quality fashions will persuade women across the country to rent a dress for a special occasion without trying it on beforehand.

The company has also chosen to make the service invitation-only, which gives it an air of exclusivity but may limit its audience.

Jeff Roster, an analyst with Gartner, said that execution would be critical. “If my movie doesn’t come on time, I might be mad, but life goes on,” he said. “But if my fancy dress for a big important event doesn’t arrive, that’s a customer service problem like you’ve never had before.”

Ms. Hyman and Ms. Carter Fleiss said they had taken several steps to guard against service fiascos. For starters, they use a reservation system to ensure that a customer can get a specific dress for the night she needs it.

To assist with fitting, they have on-call stylists who can advise customers on how certain materials feel and how a particular dress might hang on various body types. In addition, the site offers returns within 24 hours for any reason and will include an extra size of a first dress at no additional cost.

Customers who want to be extra-safe can choose a second style as a backup, for an additional $25. And all dresses come with a custom garment bag and a “fit kit,” which includes double-sided tape, bra strap adjusters and deodorant stain removers.

For fashion designers, the service is a creative marketing strategy and a way to reach a new generation of customers, said Ms. Hyman. “If someone wears a dress and absolutely loves it, she will go out and buy it,” she said.

Although most designers are selling their dresses directly to the service, some are providing exclusive runway pieces that are not commercially sold in exchange for a cut of the revenue.

Christian Siriano, a New York designer who was the winner in the fourth season of the “Project Runway” reality TV show, said Rent the Runway was a way to introduce his collection to a broader audience.

“Even though most people probably know who I am, they don’t know the brand yet,” he said. At a boutique, Mr. Siriano’s pieces can cost as much as $3,000. On Rent the Runway, his styles are offered for $150 to $200.

Those prices are especially appealing in a tough economy, said Karen Scheck, president of Lela Rose, a label whose fans include celebrities like Anne Hathaway.

“In challenging economic times, it’s important for brands to reach a larger audience and age demographic that you wouldn’t normally because of the price,” she said. “This is a great way to do it without jeopardizing the brand.”

The real test of the service will be the quality of its collection, said Samantha Durbin, editor of FabSugar.com, a fashion blog. “The key is to have really great products that are on trend,” she said. “No one wants to rent last season’s dress.”

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. announced the launch of its Christmas gift program, bringing the “Joy of Giving” to life for its customers across America whether they shop JCPenney in store, or via catalog. The Company’s gift assortment this season reflects the enormous strides JCPenney has made to step up its style, while maintaining its signature quality and prices that make sense for today’s budgets.

“Consumers are focused on making smart spending decisions this season without sacrificing style or quality,” said Myron E. Ullman, III, chairman and chief executive officer for JCPenney. “This plays right to our strengths as we have a meaningful gift assortment that will make it fun, festive and affordable to select gifts for family and friends. Bringing the ‘joy of giving’ to America’s families with our best gift assortment offered through aggressive promotions and delivered with superior customer service and a convenient, easy shopping experience solidifies JCPenney as the one-stop destination this Christmas.”

JCPenney Helps America’s Families Give Joy This Season:
Along with the Company’s vast assortment of must-have brands and convenient gift card selection, JCPenney is once again taking its gift selection to a higher level with its “red box gifts” collection.

JCPenney knows that more people will be entertaining at home this year, which is why customers can find a variety of entertaining and decorating items to assist them in creating a memorable Christmas experience at home.

JCPenney is also assisting customers to give and receive “joy” this season by making it easy for them to help those in need. Through a joint initiative with JCPenney, the Salvation Army Angel Giving Tree program will be available online, allowing customers to purchase a needed gift for a child or senior citizen in their local communities directly from jcp.com.

This season Giorgio Armani creates a collection of pieces empowered by their cut and construction, essentially disciplined but at the same time possessing that special equilibrium achieved through perfectly balanced contrasts – exuberant, head turning, sumptuous. These styles are rich in colour and reference, texture of fabric (satin, taffeta, silk with stiffeners clad in double chiffon to support the structure) and elegant embroidery.

It is this perfectly judged fusion, where the dress has been taken apart and reconfigured without sloppiness or fluttery detail, which brings to mind an eccentric purity derived directly from the Bauhaus. With its pared down look, the geometric formula of the skirt creates movement and emphasizes the three-dimensional form of the body, the shoulders slightly prominent or, for a more defined shape, precisely cut at an oblique angle. To underline the prevalence of short compact shapes, shorts are occasionally worn under svelte tunics.

In fact everything is short and ends above the knee, even the evening dress. This staple has never before delivered such a total vision of lightness and geometric modernity, and is perfectly set off by flat shoes. Linear jackets with over stitched trim explore cool graphic design, combining sophisticated neutrals, gray, blue, green, a novel shade of iris, and low voltage red.

Wedding is a new chapter of everyone’s life; Tanishq, India’s most desired jewellery brand understands this. Known for its product innovation and design expertise -Tanishq, launched it’s exquisite ‘‘Classic Diamond Collection’’ especially designed for this wedding season.

A bridal trousseau is incomplete without the perfect jewellery.In line with the changing consumer preferences, the emerging fashion trends and the varied requirements of the diverse cultural fabric of India, this new collection from Tanishq unveils a complete range of jewellery that brings alive the traditional and contemporary ideals of the modern & classic Indian woman.

This new collection represents an unusual blend of geometric forms, floral motifs, pave and prong set of diamonds to offer a wedding that is truly made in heaven.

Ms. Sangeeta Dewan–Head Design Studio, Tanishq said, “Classic Diamond Collection from Tanishq is designed keeping in mind the demand for variations in diamond jewellery. This bridal collection is also an experiment to bring a new trend of ‘Diamond Bride’ in India”, she added about the collection

At 8:30 pm of Nov. 2nd, 2009, global fashion circles’ attention will be focused on the Golden Hall of Beijing Hotel, where NE.TIGER, China’s leading luxury brand, will raise the curtain on China Fashion Week for the eighth successive year as the opening show.

As the vein of Chinese fashion trend, China Fashion Week draws most of the attention of global fashion circles. China Fashion Week has gone through a brilliant journey of 12 years, and the thirteenth China Fashion Week, suffused with the creativity of Chinese and foreign designers alike, will welcome fashion elites with its broad scope, presenting the new fashion design concepts and trends of both ancient and modern Beijing.

NE.TIGER will display its innovative skills in this Hua Fu Collection Fashion Show. This collection, in line with the philosophy of blending the ancient and modern, Chinese and Western, and after the style of the Yun Brocade entitled, “An inch of brocade, an inch of gold,” and the extremely delicate Four Main Embroideries, was inspired by Kesi, the Chinese patron saint of weaving.

Austin Reed’s Spring/Summer collection takes you on a city escape; from boating in the Hamptons to desert storms and safari adventures, you can expect nothing less than expertly cut suiting in lightweight fabrics and fresh summer colour palettes for a modern yet classic working wardrobe.Menswear

Men’s Tailoring is groomed and clean-cut with refined textures and monochrome finishes. Tonic suiting is key in multiple tones of grey and charcoal. Striped shirting offers highlights of cherry red, vibrant yellows and cobalt blues to give a boost of intense colour. Formal linen jackets and trousers create a relaxed summer look.The classic 3-button gabardine, refined puppy tooth and silver/grey pinstripe suits all play pivotal roles this season. The classic shirt is reinvented in slim line blocks with luxurious fabrics.

Casualwear is presented in a palette of classic red, white and blue with highlights of rugged stone, putty and grey and features the Austin Reed crest. Checks, micro ginghams and refined stripes reinforce this classic look. Pique polo’s are worn under lighter weight cardigans, zip through and half zip knitwear pieces and paired with multi pocket cargo shorts. Half lined cotton jackets with taped seams give a cool contemporary appearance.