Word: hermann
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...Hermann also built her own team, including a new CFO and a specialist in accessories. YSL stores had almost none of those high-margin items in 1999 but are now filled with shoes, bags and jewelry. Accessories bring in about half of the company's revenue. In addition, there are less expensive clothes, which Hermann insists are not a second line, layered into the stores. The friendlier-priced "capsule" collection includes basic pieces like jersey evening dresses and safari jackets that won't crease in the latest...
...Hermann appears to be spending money to make money. Next year the company plans to begin redesigning its 63 Rive Gauche boutiques, which are deemed too dark. At the same time, she is attempting to raise the company's competitive metabolism by tracking customer reaction. She has experts post-testing YSL advertising campaigns. She frequently calls boutiques herself to check if a YSL spread in the local paper is bringing in shoppers. She also pushes Pilati's latest designs in conversations with fashion journalists...
Marie-Pierre Lannelongue, until recently a senior editor at French Elle, admires Hermann's informal but frank style. "She'll ask, 'Have you seen our new Downtown bag? Could you put the Downtown in Elle? And how are your kids?'" Lannelongue says. "It's part natural and part calculated?and so efficient...
...Hermann's first full year at YSL, revenues rose 19%, to ? 194 million, and operating losses fell 24.9%. In the first quarter of this year, revenues are again up?35%?and stock analysts are predicting profitability sooner than was expected...
...years after Hermann declared to the trade press that she relished the "challenge" of running a wounded YSL, it remains unclear whether she and Pilati have the magic formula to modernize the fashion house and elevate it to its former glory alongside idolized French brands like Chanel, now a multibillion-euro business. The ascension to such heights is a complex mission. It takes believing that Pilati has the talent and range to give women what they need and think they want and that Hermann has the gift to translate his talent into commercial success...