News

Nordstrom has unveiled its new retail concept, Nordstrom Local.     Located in West Hollywood, Calif., the 3,000-sq.-ft. store offers all sorts of services, including on-site tailoring, personal stylists, buy-online-pickup-in-store, manicures — but has no dedicated inventory. Eight fitting rooms (associates can transfer requested merchandise from Nordstrom stores or its website to Nordstrom Local for try on) surround a central meeting space.  

Commercial real estate developers and investors surveyed this summer by the DLA Piper law firm concurred that reports of the demise of brick-and-mortar are greatly exaggerated.   Only 8% of the 222 respondents to the survey, most of them C-level executives, agreed with the statement that brick-and-mortar is “doomed.” That said, just 3% were of the opinion that traditional retail was here to say.  

Fiorucci is back — and it hasn't lost its cheeky, irreverent attitude.   The brand, which acquired cult status and flourished throughout the 1970s and 1980s before going into a slow decline, was relaunched earlier this year with a new website, new fashions and pop-ups in Barneys New York and Selfridges (London). Capping off its comeback, Fiorucci has opened a 5,000-sq-ft. flagship in London's SoHo neighborhood. A New York City location is planned for 2018.   

A home furnishings brand is in rapid expansion mode — something that wasn’t possible five years ago.

A New England-based retailer that has the distinction of being the first curtain catalog company is closing up shop.    Shareholders of The Fitzpatrick Companies, whose subsidiaries include Country Curtains, voted Wednesday to liquidate the 61-year-old business. Country Curtains will begin liquidating operations immediately, and a going-out-of-business sale will be launched in its 19 retail stores (and website) starting on Oct. 5. The stores will close by the end of the year.  

The European Union has hit Amazon with a tax bill.    The online giant was ordered to pay 250 million euros ($294 million) plus interest in back taxes to Luxembourg on Wednesday after the European Commission said the retailer had received illegal tax benefits.   "Luxembourg gave illegal tax benefits to Amazon. As a result, almost three quarters of Amazon's profits were not taxed," Margrethe Vestager, the EU's commissioner for competition, said in a statement.  

Amazon’s newest acquisition could give a boost to the company’s fashion category — including its growing private-label apparel business.    The online giant has acquired Body Labs, a 3D scanning platform that uses artificial intelligence, computer vision, and body modeling to accurately create an avatar-like image of a customer’s dimensions. The 3D platform provider announced the news on its website.  

A new women's apparel store has made its debut in Chicago.    Marcus Lemonis Fashion Group, which is owned by Marcus Lemonis, star of CNBC hit reality series “The Profit,” CEO of Camping World and all-around retail entrepreneur, has opened Marcus, on Chicago's Gold Coast. Additional locations are expected to open within the next six months in Aspen, Col.; Hinsdale, Ill., and New York City.