Apparel

Virginia Beach, Va. -- Francesca’s will open a new store at the Town Center of Virginia Beach.

According to Divaris Real Estate, the 1,830-sq.-ft. store will be located on Main Street in the first-floor retail space of the Armada Hoffler office tower block. The grand opening is slated for first quarter 2015.

New York -- Fast-fashion giant H&M on Thursday celebrated the opening of its flagship on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. At 57,000 sq. ft., it is the retailer’s largest store in the world and 13th location in Manhattan. It also is the first H&M in the United States to offer a full concierge service, and to carry the full H&M Home collection.

Los Angeles – New York-based investment firm Standard General, which owns a roughly 44% stake in troubled apparel retailer American Apparel Inc, is reportedly preparing recovery plans that both include and do not include controversial former CEO and founder Dov Charney. According to Reuters, Standard General is leaving the decision of whether to allow Charney to return to the company up to the American Apparel board, following a third-party investigation by FTI Consulting.

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Dress for Less will open two new stores in the Kansas City area on July 19. The stores include The Shoppes at Liberty Triangle in Liberty, Missouri, and Quivira 95 Shopping Center in Overland Park, Kansas.  

These new openings are part of the retailer’s 2014 expansion program, totaling approximately 75 new locations during the year.

Washington, D.C. - Families this summer will spend slightly more on back-to-school items than they did in 2013. According to NRF’s 2014 Back-to-School Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, the average family with children in grades K-12 will spend $669.28 on apparel, shoes, supplies and electronics, up 5% from $634.78 in 2013.

J.C. Penney’s back-to-school marketing campaign aims to celebrate self-expression the way it’s done nowadays: with selfies.

Customers are invited to visit the retailer’s back-to-school online hub, jcpenney.com/bts, where they can create a personalized emoji that resembles them. Users can customize their emoji with accessories and hairstyles and post it side-by-side with their selfie, to share with friends as well as on J.C. Penny’s "Express Yourselfie" online gallery.

Burlington Stores has updated its comparable store sales guidance for the second quarter ending Aug. 2 and launched a debt refinancing transaction.

Based on the company’s results quarter to date and its estimates for the remainder of July, comparable store sales for the quarter are expected to increase between 3% and 4% — not as much as last year’s second quarter comparable-stores sales increase of 7.8%, but better than its previous estimates of 2% to 3%.

Families this summer will spend slightly more on back-to-school items than they did in 2013. According to NRF’s 2014 Back-to-School Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, the average family with children in grades K-12 will spend $669.28 on apparel, shoes, supplies and electronics, up 5% from $634.78 in 2013.

New York -- Fred Segal will unveil its first “international lifestyle center” concept in spring 2015, in Tokyo. The format will feature a collection of stores in three buildings in a converted railway site at 13 Daikanyama-cho Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. It will be Fred Segal’s first location outside the United States.