Industry movements

Tommy Hilfiger continues to attempt to ramp up its UK presence with the appointment of Carmen Haid, previously at Céline, as their in-house Director of Communications. It's a huge client loss for The Communications Store, (not that I'm weeping on their behalf).

Hilfiger have tried on several occasions to break the UK, but their UK flagship store on New Bond Street which opened to great fanfare in 1998, was forced to shut after high costs & disappointing sales proved insurmountable. The brand is perceived as just that: a brand without any real fashion credibility, so UK fashion magazines tend to only run Hilfiger pieces as bait/reward for a piece of Hilfiger's HUGE ad budget.

Since the brand's takeover in the first half of 2006, Hilfiger have opened anchor stores in Paris, Prague, Florence and, in December 06, on London's Regent Street.

It'll be interesting to see if Carmen can make this work.