Apparel

Sherman Oaks, Calif. -- Brand management company Cherokee Inc. said Thursday that it has acquired the Liz Lange Maternity and Completely Me brands from LLM Management Co., an affiliate of Bluestar Alliance, for about $14 million, effective Sept. 4.

New York -- Gap Inc.’s Piperlime banner has opened its first full-scale retail location -- at 121 Wooster St. in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.

"We are thrilled to be celebrating the opening of our first Piperlime store today in SoHo," said Jennifer Gosselin, senior VP and general manager of Piperlime. "

The new 4,000-sq.-ft. store is styled as a boutique and features trend vignettes, as well as in-store kiosks that provide shoppers access to piperlime.com products.

Back-to-school shopping, the second-largest shopping season in the United States, helped make this August a strong month for retailers. Shoppers took advantage of back-to-school promotions to outfit students for the new school year. ShopperTrak, the world’s largest counter and analyzer of retail foot traffic, found that August’s retail foot traffic increased 6.3% compared with the previous month and increased 12.3% compared with the same month last year. 
   

New York -- Saks Inc. said Thursday that it will close its Highland Park, Ill., store, located in Renaissance Place, and its Austin, Texas, store, located in the Arboretum Market.

Both stores are slated to close on Dec. 31.

Little Rock, Ark. -- Dillard’s said Thursday that it has appointed Chris Johnson as its VP real estate. He succeeds James Cherry, Jr., who retired in December.

Johnson, a CPA, was previously VP of accounting for the department store retailer.
 

Houston -- The Men's Wearhouse Inc. reported Wednesday that net income for the quarter ended July 28 rose to $59.4 million, from $57.1 million in the year-ago period.

Sales edged up 1% to $662.3 million, narrowly missing Wall Street’s expected $662.9 million in revenue. Same-store sales grew 4.4% at namesake stores, but fell 3.3% at K&G stores.

The company has raised its guidance for full-year 2012.
 

Walmart this week modified a layaway program that had yet to begin after Toys "R" Us said it wouldn’t charge a service fee and lifted minimum purchase requirements for its program.

The layaway saga began in late August when Walmart said the start date of its layaway program would begin on September 16, a month earlier than the prior year. Curiously, Walmart also said at that time the fee to open a layaway account would increase to $15 from $5 the prior year.

Pittsburgh -- American Eagle Outfitters said Thursday it has struck a deal with Suyen Corp. that will see the AEO banner open throughout the Philippines.
 
American Eagle signed a multiyear retail license agreement with Suyen, which operates more than 700 stores under various banners in the Philippines, along with 126 franchised stores in the country. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The first stores in the country, which will consist of standalone and in-store shops, are slated to open spring 2013.