Economy & good pants

This article in Vogue this morning.

WITH Burberry having announced a rise 14 per cent jump in sales for the six months to September 30 earlier in the week, it's little wonder that the fashion house's ceo, Angela Ahrendts, is feeling confident that the label has what it takes to weather the economic storm.

"We could turn off everything right now, but we're not going to," she declares. "This is the sort of time when leaders are born and made, and we will micromanage this business to stay on top. We are absolutely going to stay the course."

That's not to say, of course, the meltdown of the world's markets is something that can be ignored.

"When the Russian stock market shut down, we sure felt it in our stores. When five typhoons hit Hong Kong, it was the same thing," she admits. "There are a lot of unique market dynamics right now. In this environment, we need to focus on what we can control."

So how exactly does Burberry intend to buck the doom-and-gloom trend? By keeping a solid focus on US - where, Ahrendts asserts in today's WWD, customers "are still buying" - and ploughing ahead with expansion in India, China and the Middle East.

"Emerging markets are some of the fastest-growing - and the least volatile - for us," Ahrendts adds.

I had to post this because it is a reflection of my own theory. Yesterday I had an email from a colleague in arms that they are closing down the shop. And I have seen some of the big sellers on eBay cloing out too. In my other business endeavors, people are starting to fall as well, and you can smell the panic. I am staying the course. You cannot expect to fail. If you run your own business, or are running your household finances - stay the course. Think outside the box, but think rationally. Stay the course, is your new mantra.

On a more frivolous note and because the article is on Burberry, whom I love as a line, I have to tell you that I was so disappointed this year to find out that Holt Renfrew dropped the Prorsum line as of this season, which means I cannot buy these pants in black


I am obsessed with them. They are the perfect pant - long lean, they look to be in a fabric that I can travel to multiple cities with and put in and out of a suitcase and they won't wrinkle. With the Canadian dollar dropping once again, and that part of the Burberry line dropped here in Canada, I would have to now pay a premium when it came to the exchange to buy them.
And so the perfect pant continues to allude.

Hopefully a good economy does not allude us forever as well