Claiming $12 million in sales in 2010, Sternberg took on an undisclosed amount of money from investors in 2013 for “a really important expansion phase.” {WWD} That coincided with the opening of a standalone store in Tokyo the same year.

Rumors of trouble emerged in February when the brand canceled their Fall 2015 show at New York Fashion Week, but a spokeswoman specifically denied that business or financial issues were behind the move.

“According to several people who have worked at, or with, the company, Band of Outsiders has laid off the majority of its staff, and canceled all fall wholesale orders. The brand was low on funds and chose not to produce its next collection.” {Fashionista}

Band of Outsiders has not commented.

Marc Jacobs exits past a black carousel. Photo via Style.com

Though there was no shortage of speculation in prior weeks that the Spring 2014 Louis Vuitton collection would be the last with Marc Jacobs at the helm, the show left no doubts even before the official announcement was made.

The announcement of Jacobs†departure came only moments after the designer presented his Spring/Summer 2014 collection for Louis Vuitton, an all-black, gothic swan song incorporating sets from his most memorable shows for the brand — including a fountain, dual escalators, and a carousel — around which models paraded in dark, funereal clothes and black, tribal headdresses. {Business of Fashion}

Jacobs, who is credited with growing the Louis Vuitton brand beyond its luggage roots, is expected to focus on an IPO for his own eponymous label. LVMH, the parent company of Louis Vuitton owns a 96% stake in the Marc Jacobs brand.

Instagram founder Kevin Systrom at his first fashion week

Instagram‘s nearly $1 billion exit put it among an elite group of tech companies, but it’s future could be tied more closely to high fashion than high tech.

“We never set out thinking of Instagram as a platform for commerce, but in some ways Instagram is becoming that for folks in fashion,” Systrom said. {TechCrunch}

Speaking with model Lily Cole, founder Kevin Systrom noted that he doesn’t see turning Instagram into a full blown “buy now!” experience, but the early success that the fashion flock are finding on the photo network could be an indication of future revenue plans.

Tumblr – which had its own billion dollar payday – and Pinterest, the other two image heavy social networks, have already established their place as part of a well rounded digital marketing play for fashion brands. While Tumblr stumbled with early packages that were light on data to support the prices, Pinterest barely dipped a toe into the waters of commerce with a brief trial of Skimlinks, an affiliate advertising service, before pulling back. While those are the most apt competitors for the crown of Fashion’s Next Top Social Network, it’s also hard to ignore the fashion and commerce driven networks in the space. Wanelo and Fancy are enjoying user growth and massive investment rounds respectively, Polyvore remains one of the top fashion focused community sites on the web.

Facebook commerce never lived up to the early buzz surrounding it, and with the other two photo focused networks mulling over the best approach, Instagram’s future may be in commerce but could find it to be a tough sell.

The Spanx Top This Cami, one of the shaping tanks at the center of a lawsuit with Yummie Tummie

Most court cases start with one side accusing another of wrongdoing. Fashion’s latest legal challenge starts a bit differently. Spanx, the shapewear company founded by Sara Blakely in 2000, received a demand from Yummie Tummie, a shapewear company founded in 2008 by Real Housewives of New York City star Heather Thomson, to stop selling their Total Taming Tank and Top This Cami. Yummie Tummie believed those two products infringed on patents for their signature shapewear.

So it’s a bit of a surprise to hear that Spanx filed the first lawsuit in the matter, asking a judge to decide if there’s any violation of Yummie Tummie’s patents.

“Although it was Spanx that brought the matter to the courts, Thomson is prepared for a fight. She told Womenâ€s Wear Daily: ‘I hope [Spanx] is ready for war because I will not lie down.’ Neither Thomson nor Blakely responded immediately to a request for comment. Spanx did send a statement to WWD that said: ‘ Spanx was making shaping camisoles long before Yummie Tummie.’ ” {BusinessWeek}

Thomson already has one victory under her belt, in the form of a 2011 $6.75 million settlement from Maidenform.

Finally calling it a night

And so it ends. The shopping event whose ROI has been in question for sometime now, is finally drawing to a close in the US, four years after launching.

Fashion’s Night Out started in 2009 as a global event to draw recession weary shoppers into stores amid record-low sales. That year, we attended the Paris version, which focused on a small section of the city known as the Golden Triangle. Home to luxury megabrands like Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton and others who frequently graced the pages of Paris Vogue, then editor Carine Roitfeld declared it a success since it got the cash registers ringing. Indeed, the rather subdued night, which required invitations found in issues of Paris Vogue, Architectural Digest or GQ, brought out a well heeled crowd who from all observations kept sales associates busy making purchases.

The American version, however, with its focus on celebrity and full on event status (DJs! Food! Champagne!) was the largest and most star-studded, and quickly became a victim of its own success. Backed by Vogue, the CFDA and the City of New York, the events of the past two years became so crowded that it was impossible to actually shop. One event comes to mind, where people waiting in line to see celebrity designers were told to have their cameras ready, snap a picture and leave the store. Forget about browsing or actually buying any merchandise. The celeb-less store next door had deafening music amplified by the lack of bodies browsing any products.

This was something not lost on retailers. While everyone from major department stores to boutiques refused to go on the record about the business results of participating in Fashion’s Night Out – Was there a boost in foot traffic immediately after? Did shoppers return after the free champagne? – the few off-record comments we did get only cited the opportunity to work with Vogue as a highlight of the event.

The sponsors of the event — Vogue, the Council of Fashion Designers of America and NYC & Co. — made the joint decision to go on hiatus so retailers and designers can focus their budgets on projects that are more in line with their specific objectives, rather than a big event on one night in September. {WWD}

Notably, the event will continue internationally. As we’ve noted before, this may be a better model for the US to follow. For better or worse, Vogue is a certain type of fashion. Narrowing the target audience and type of event associated with Fashion’s Night Out may not draw the same massive crowds, and may not be all-inclusive, but in the markets that are continuing the festivities that’s not a bad thing.

Refinery29 is one of the largest fashion blogs to go after the content + commerce business model, and now TechCrunch is reporting that Refinery29 recently raised $3.5 million.

We estimated Refinery29’s valuation at $20 million, based on other blog sales and 2011 revenue estimates of $8 million, but in 2012 the estimates were $20 million. Using our previous multiplier of 2.5-4x revenue (what other big blog sales have brought in), that would place Refinery29’s new valuation somewhere between $50 million and $80 million.

Investors in the latest round weren’t disclosed, but from the SEC filing it looks like there’s close to $600,000 still on the table for investors. Most fundraising rounds or comprised of multiple investors, and in this case Refinery29 secured 7 who contributed the combined $3.5 million, but $4.1 million was the size of the offering.

While Refinery29’s e-commerce focus has contributed to the growth, going by recent quotes from co-founder Philippe von Borries the site still makes the lion’s share of revenue (75%) from advertising.  Which probably explains why retailers are so big on becoming content providers these days.

Refinery29 is currently ranked as the 3rd most influential style blog, right behind men’s lifestyle publisher Hypebeast, who also made the leap from content to commerce.

ID Beautyâ€s license agreement required the company to consult DVF for any retail channel less prestigious than the high-end space, according to the complaint. Lawyers for DVF said such consultation never occurred before ID Beauty sold products in Canada and the U.S. to mass market retailers, including TJX Cos. (TJX), the owner of TJ Maxx and Marshalls, without honoring a six-month exclusivity period of sale to specialty and high-end retailers. {Bloomberg}

There’s no love lost between Diane von Furstenberg and the former distributor of her Love Diane perfume

Outside of their domestic markets and established product lines, many brands rely on distributors to manufacture and sell things like fragrances, beauty lines and sometimes even secondary lines. As an example, Just Cavalli by Roberto Cavalli and McQ by Alexander McQueen have both, at one time or another, been designed, produced and sold completely independent of the main line, with the established label simply taking a percentage of sales as a licensing fee. You may be familiar with the recently launched beauty lines from Tom Ford and Dolce & Gabbana. If you missed the first press releases, it may come as a surprise to learn that production of those makeup lines is handled primarily by Estee Lauder and Procter & Gamble Prestige respectively. While all of the aforementioned companies may have a role in advertising and marketing materials, Tom Ford (the company) isn’t actually reaching out to the makeup counters at Sephora, Saks and Neiman Marcus for placement. That, product testing, formulas and many other things are responsibilities handled by the distributor. Outside of brands’ domestic markets, goods can creep back in to discount retailers in their own backyards if a distributor can’t move as much merchandise as they anticipated.

While Diane von Furstenberg likely turned the work of distributing her Love, Diane fragrance over to ID Beauty, it seems there was a contractual obligation for ID to follow a schedule similar to that of the brand when it came to working with discounters. Part of the company’s lawsuuit alleges that in not giving the fragrance a chance to sell at full price retail, the clothing and apparel brand was also damaged. It’s a very rare occurrence for all inventory to sell at full price, and brands realize that. Stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, sites like Gilt, Yoox and the Outnet wouldn’t exist if  that were the case; but timing is everything when it comes to moving that merchandise at any price necessary.

The Cut, extended

The Cut, one of the 99 most influential fashion blogs, will be launching an expanded version next week.

“Readers of New York Magazine’s fashion blog The Cut are in for a treat when they check in on the site Monday morning.

That’s when the the company plans to reveal its all new version of the blog—a standalone website that will move outside its current editorial milieu of style and gossip to take on a wide range of topics that interest women, from sex and relationships to health and media. And it’s putting a whole new emphasis on photos.” {BusinessInsider}

While the emphasis on fashion news and content is still front and center, we do have to wonder about the expansion into other areas. It will undoubtedly give more flexibility in coverage of more loosely related topics like the Kristen Stewart/Rupert Sanders saga which has spawned several stories, plenty of comments with more than a few questioning how it related to fashion (though the overwhelming majority were about the story itself). But will that alienate readers who only visit for style updates?

Not all of the Cut‘s readers are women, so veering too far into the “women’s interest” category might turn some of their audience off. We can’t see the slightly snarky fashion coverage disappearing entirely though, so we’re putting out an early prediction that the expansion won’t sacrifice coverage of the core topics that keep the most loyal visitors returning to the site. And, with 7 new editorial hires (the magazine reports a total of 11 full-time staffers), it’s far more likely that existing writers won’t have to stop covering their usual topics in order to take on new ones.

Macy's website

“Online sales, which include macys.com and bloomingdales.com, rose 31.3 percent. Online sales are included in revenue at stores open at least a year.

The department store chain, which runs Bloomingdale’s and its namesake stores, said that total revenue increased 5.5 percent to $1.86 billion for the four weeks ended Feb. 25.” {CBS}

Revenue from stores open at least a year, known as same store sales, increased by 4.6%

Terry Lundgren, Macy’s Chariman, President and CEO, attributed the sales success to positive consumer response to early deliveries in women’s apparel, accessories, shoes and cosmetics.

Women driving retail sales is nothing new, and that doesn’t make it insignificant, but the huge increase in online spending is worth a second look. On the call, Lundgren said that the growth in online sales has given the 800+ store retail giant reason to reconsider some new store openings.

Online revenue wasn’t broken out, but warehouses are undoubtedly less expensive to maintain than full stores which likely have higher rents, higher employee requirements and less selection. Brick and mortar retail isn’t going to go away anytime soon, but it seems that e-commerce advantages are growing with each sales report.