Apparel

Levi Strauss & Co. has named former Walmart executive Marc Rosen as EVP and president of global e-commerce, effective May 5. Rosen will report to president and CEO Chip Bergh.

Banana Republic has teamed up with designer Roland Mouret to launch the Roland Mouret for Banana Republic Collection — a limited-edition collection that uses Banana Republic's signature Sloan contour stretch fabric.

Mouret is best known for his feminine, hourglass fitted dresses.

Columbus, Ohio -- DSW Inc. is bringing women’s footwear brand Yellow Box into the retail arena. DSW’s Affiliated Business Group (ABG) division has entered into an agreement with Yellow Box Corp. to operate stores under the Yellow Box banner. The company plans to open Yellow Box stores throughout the United States, starting off with three to five store openings in 2014.

Sandpoint, Idaho -- Coldwater Creek Inc. on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with plans to close its stores and wind down operations by early summer.

Tokyo – Uniqlo opens new stores in Berlin, and in three U.S. locations on Friday, April 11. The 2,700-sq.-ft., three-story Berlin store is located on the Tauentzienstrasse shopping boulevard and is Uniqlo’s first German store.

The Berlin store is also the largest Uniqlo store in Europe and features revolving mannequins wearing origami headdresses and LED ticker-tapes listing all the cities where Uniqlo has stores around the world.

Columbus, Ohio – Lane Bryant opens two new stores Friday, April 11. The stores are located at Burnsville Center in Burnsville, Minn., and Alliance Town Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

Lane Bryant operates 775 stores nationwide and an e-commerce site.

New York -- Patrick B. Dorsey, general counsel and secretary of Tiffany and Co. since 1985, has decided to retire from the company effective May 22. On that date, Leigh M. Harlan will be promoted to the position of senior VP, secretary and general counsel with responsibility for the company’s worldwide legal affairs.

Harlan will report to Michael J. Kowalski, Tiffany’s chairman and CEO. Harlan, 37, came to Tiffany in 2012 from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a New York City law firm, where she practiced corporate, transactional and finance law.

Because the Easter holiday is in April this year rather than in March as it was last year, Gap already expected March to be a challenging month performance-wise.  

The retailer reported net sales of $1.5 billion for the five-week period ended April 5. Comparable sales for March were down 6% versus a 1 % decrease last year.

“While March performance has been challenging, we remain confident in the opportunities ahead,” said chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy. “We are pleased to reaffirm our full-year EPS guidance range.”

River's End Trading Company, a supplier of apparel and accessories to the promotional products and ad specialty industries as well as the imprinted sportswear and uniform markets, has appointed former Lands’ End executive John Maher as CEO.

The company also announced a capital investment from GCI, a leading private equity firm. Financial terms were not released.

Teen retailer Hot Topic is using the appeal of the pre-order and a Disney film tailor made for its core customers to encourage full margin sales and drive traffic to HotTopic.com.

The retailer is featuring a limited edition collection of apparel inspired by Disney’s dark anti-hero “Maleficent,” on its Web site for pre-order beginning April 15. Merchandise will be available in stores and online in May with prices ranging from $29.50 to $54.50.