Karl Lagerfeld and Net-a-Porter Launch | Source: International Business Times

Internet channel: Digital use may have boosted sales by surprising amounts (FT)
“The luxury goods industry has a reputation for being timid about using the internet. However, a seminal report…finds that widespread use of the internet by browsing consumers, for example for research and price comparison, means that about 15 per cent – or €25bn – of total sales in the luxury goods industry are “directly generated” by digital media.”

Tourist buyers pose sales conundrum (FT)
“Thomas Mesmin, an analyst at Cheuvreux, the consultancy, reckons up to a third of mainland Chinese consumers may have chosen to make purchases while away from home, with at least 75 per cent of these choosing to shop in Europe.”

Detached From His Label (NY Times)
“On March 16, just two days after Simon Spurr received a nomination for best men’s wear designer from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, he stunned the fashion industry by resigning from his own label, which is only six years old.”

Sidney Toledano: Designers still give companies the cutting edge (FT)
“How important is a creative director? Sidney Toledano, president and chief executive of Christian Dior Couture, says: “The role of artistic director for a lifestyle brand – one that implies all the aspects of life such as vacation, sports, and so on – is different from the role of artistic director in a luxury brand.””

Taking Her Leave (NY Times)
“It was a little more than a year ago that the New York City socialite Amanda Brooks was appointed fashion director of Barneys New York, to some cluck-clucking in the industry. But in March, Ms. Brooks pulled off yet another surprise. She announced that she was not just quitting the Barneys position, but leaving Manhattan itself.”

Westgate Mall, Nairobi | Photo: kamalkaur.net

NAIROBI, Kenya — In recent weeks, the media hype around Africa has been remarkable, with several articles in major publications proclaiming the continent “the next Asia.” In fashion, Franca Sozzani even dedicated the entire May issue of L’Uomo Vogue to “rebranding Africa,” while this year’s IHT Luxury conference will discuss “the potential of Africa, both as a producer and ultimately consumer of luxury goods.” But to what extent is there a real business opportunity for international fashion retailers on the African continent?

While Africa often serves as inspiration for fashion collections, it’s China, India and Brazil that currently present the greatest growth opportunities as emerging consumer markets. But with large international fashion retailers like Mango, Zara, Levi’s and Gap already active in Africa, and ASOS offering free deliveries to the continent, perhaps it’s time to ask the question: could Africa be fashion’s next frontier?

Growth Drivers

According to a recent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report entitled “Africa: Open for Business,” real GDP growth for Sub-Saharan countries Angola, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa was forecasted at nearly 4 percent for 2012, with average growth expected to hit 5 percent a year from 2013 to 2016. While these numbers are behind similar estimates for China and India, they are remarkable compared to anemic growth projections in Europe and on par with Brazil and Russia.

Indeed, seven of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies are currently in Africa, with 70 percent of the continent’s population living in countries which have enjoyed average economic growth rates in excess of 4 percent over the past decade. This steady progress has given rise to a growing middle class. In fact, approximately 310 million people on the continent are now deemed middle class (defined as those spending between $2 and $20 a day at 2005 prices) according to a 2011 report by the African Development Bank, driving demand for products like mobile phones, televisions and fashion.

To be clear, while poverty in Africa is declining, only a small slice of the continent’s population can afford consumer goods, with most purchases coming from the very low end of the price spectrum. But consumption is steadily rising. According to the EIU report, by 2030, Africa’s top 18 countries could have a combined spending power of $1.3 trillion.

Youth culture is also a critical driver of opportunity for fashion retailers in Africa, the youngest of the world’s continents, where the number of 15 to 25 year olds is still growing at an astounding rate. “Western fashion is very popular with this younger generation,” said Joanna Maiden, managing director of SOKO Kenya, an ethical clothing production workshop who manufacturers for clients including ASOS Africa and New York-based label SUNO. “The middle class is moving away from more traditional clothing and going for more contemporary styles.”

“African consumers are no longer satisfied with a third or even second rate offering of products,” added a spokesperson for sportswear giant Adidas. “Their brand awareness is strongly driven by international media exposure through TV, but also through accelerated advancements in internet penetration and accessibility.”

“One of the things that [has] amazed us is that [Africa] is a very brand-conscious market; particularly in our West African markets, in Ghana and Nigeria,” said Mark Turner, Africa director at Mass Discounters (a Walmart subsidiary) at a conference held in Cape Town earlier this year. “It is a market that travels extensively and has access to [the] internet. It is amazing how sophisticated that customer is.”

South Africa First

But it’s clear that not all African countries have developed equally and, thus far, international fashion retailers have largely focused their efforts on South Africa, by far Sub-Saharan Africa’s most developed economy.

Levi’s, long considered a leader in new market expansion, introduced their jeans to South Africa following democratic elections back in 1994 and have since built a trusted status brand that has been highly successful amongst the country’s growing middle class. “Emerging markets tend to be defined by a booming middle class of brand conscious and aspirational consumers who show their status through an outward expression of their wealth through the brands that they consume,” commented Lauren Kulhmey, Levi’s brand manager in South Africa.

Other fashion and apparel retailers, though intially slow to follow, have accelarated their South Africa activities in the last year. Zara opened it’s first store in Johannesburg in 2011, followed by a second store in Durban’s Gateway Shopping Mall in March 2012. Meanwhile, Gap has opened two stores in South Africa, both in the past year. “The country represents the largest retail market in Africa and one of the most stable economies on the continent,” commented a spokesperson for Gap. “This combined with a high rate of tourism and a rapidly growing demand for international retail brands makes South Africa an ideal environment in which to bring our store experience.”

Beyond South Africa

Beyond South Africa, countries with the highest potential include Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer which recently scrapped its textile import ban, driving renewed interest from international fashion and apparel retailers, is currently home to brands including Levi’s, Mango, Nike and Swatch, which have set up stores in the Palms Shopping Mall in Lagos.

“Just because bad stuff is happening in places like Zimbabwe, it doesn’t mean there aren’t good things happening in places like Ghana,” said Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society. Indeed, in Ghana, the discovery of a sizeable oilfield in 2010 has stimulated substantial GDP growth and increased incoming migration flows. International brands such as Mango, Nike, Puma and Swatch operate stores in Ghana’s capital Accra, with the Accra Mall becoming a significant destination for fashion.

Kenya, a regional business and tourist hub with East Africa’s largest economy, is also a potential destination for international retailers. Oil was discovered in March 2012 in the country’s northwestern Turkana region and footwear brands including Adidas, Converse and Nike are already selling from Nairobi’s Westgate Premiere Shopping Mall.

Exploiting the Opportunity

Retailers who act early and target the emerging middle class in fast-growing countries stand to benefit from long-term gains. But that’s not to say that doing business in Africa comes without challenges and companies contemplating expansion on the continent would do well to consider the following recommendations:

Springboard Cities Consider first opening stores in cities such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos and Accra where there is a strong emerging middle class, strong infrastructure and political and currency stability. South Africa is the recognised gateway for international brands and retailers who are looking to gauge the potential of future Africa openings.

Other Stores Before Yours For brands who prefer to avoid the capital investment and risk associated with opening their own stores, distributing with established local stores, as Gap initially did with Stuttafords in South Africa, is a good first move that enables companies to gauge consumer response to their brands and products and gather real market data to support any future ambitions.

Franchising Opportunities Retailers looking to make a big splash into Africa may want to study Mango’s strategy. The brand currently has shops in 9 Sub-Saharan countries — Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa — a rapid expansion that was made possible through its franchise model.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All Understand your target consumers. Africa is a continent of 56 countries, each with distinct cultures, histories and brand preferences. East Africans tend to find Asian brands more appealing than those in the West. “They drive a Toyota, holiday in Dubai, buy Japanese and Korean gadgetry,” reported market intelligence agency WARC. “West Africans on the other hand have an outlook more closely aligned to the US. They aspire to drive big cars and are more likely to be ostentatious.”

Build Local Partnerships Many successful businesses in Africa are driven by tremendous entrepreneurial spirit and international retailers stand to benefit immensely from local partnerships, not least in the form of culturally accepted introductions into the market.

Embrace African Pride Africans are generally very proud of their heritage and though many are drawn to Western styles, they respond to an African twist. Retailers should consider tailoring colours, prints, accessories and styling to suit the African audience.

Sponsorship Opportunities
Local fashion weeks, designers and support organizations are fostering increased interest in fashion among young Africans and those involved in these efforts know the market and the local consumer far better than someone coming in from the outside. International fashion businesses entering the market may benefit from seeking collaborations with these local industry beacons who welcome funding and can offer local knowledge and contacts in return.

Go Online and Go Mobile
Creating an Africa-facing instance of your website is another low-risk method of gauging consumer demand for products. ASOS already provides free shipping to Africa in six to 12 days and could become the trendy e-tailer of choice on the continent. Due to lack of physical infrastructure, Africa is also the world’s most advanced market in terms of mobile financial services, making mobile commerce a highly relevant strategy, especially in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, where mobile payments are increasingly becoming the norm.

Jaana Jätyri is the founder of trend forecasting agency Trendstop.com

Le Carré Hermès Spring/Summer 2012 Campaign | Source: Hermès

Hermès Family Back in Saddle (WSJ)
“The founding family of French luxury-goods maker Hermès International Tuesday named a member of its sixth generation to become chief executive next year, cementing its grip as the threat lingers from larger rival LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.”

Neiman Marcus 3Q profit rises 35 pct (Businessweek)
“Upscale retailer Neiman Marcus Inc. said Tuesday its fiscal third-quarter profit grew 35 percent, as stronger consumer demand allowed it to cut back on discounts.”

Consumer confidence in the economy plunged in May (Businessweek)
“Americans feel worse about the economy in May than they have in eight months as worries about the weak jobs, housing and stock markets continue to rattle them.”

Made in Britain’s new wave (Telegraph)
“‘Made in Britain, created in Britain, designed in Britain, invented in Britain,’ trumpeted George Osborne at the last Budget. Unlike his flaky pasty calamity, this time it turns out that the Chancellor’s sound bite had substance: British fashion’s workshops are – albeit slowly – on the rise.”

Dolce & Gabbana: watch this space (Guardian)
“The real secret of Dolce & Gabbana is the backstory: a sense of Italian culture, the importance of family and food and ritual, which lends integrity to the aesthetic and a commercial backbone to the glamour.”

Drew Henry Graduate Collection | Photo: Max Oppenheim

LONDON, United Kingdom — For several decades now, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design has developed a global reputation for pushing the boundaries of fashion. For the lucky few who pass through its doors, a degree from CSM culminates in the highly-anticipated press show, which is a platform for CSM’s brightest stars to shine.

And so, in what has become a CSM rite of passage, today students from the college’s BA Fashion program will take their collections to the catwalk in an event attended by the industry’s leading press and buyers, and as in previous years, a select few will capture the attention of its discerning audience.

One of the top new names to watch is South African born Drew Henry, whose graphic minimalist collection had CSM insiders and students buzzing even before today’s big show.

Henry was raised in coal-mining towns before settling in Johannesburg at the age of 17, when he studied at a technical fashion school specialising in commercial pattern cutting and sewing. There, he excelled and quickly rose to the top of his class, setting his long-term sights on London. “I remember reading old issues of i-D and Dazed & Confused and seeing all these designers that had studied at CSM,” Henry told BoF. So in 2009, after completing his diploma, he left South Africa and enrolled in CSM’s Fashion Design with Marketing program.

“The first year, I struggled,” says Henry of his early days at St. Martins. “All these people had design foundations and I was from a different school altogether. I could sew and I could make patterns, but the research, the development, that wasn’t there. It was a good knock for me because I’d had this attitude that I was a big gun. At CSM, it’s an environment where people are incredibly talented and you have to work that much harder to stand out”.

For his final collection, Henry spent hours in the CSM library looking for inspiration from his home country. “I was finding South African references that I had never even seen before: books from 1965 that had been forgotten on the shelves.” And it was there, amongst the old, long-forgotten books, that he stumbled upon the works of photographers, David Goldblatt, Jurgen Schadeberg and Roger Ballen. Their social documentaries of South Africa’s working class became the jumping-off point for Henry’s graduate collection entitled, Intersections.

The collection references the tradesmen and domestic workers of the 60s and 70s-era photos and the “characters” Henry encountered growing up. It also takes inspiration from the indigenous Ndebele and Shangaan people — and these nods are all evident in the menswear-inspired suiting, utilitarian cuts, animal skins and beading. Wide-legged pants and boxy tops are constructed from heavyweight canvas and brightly dyed springbok hides, also indigenous to South Africa. Geometric patchwork pieces based on Ndebele handicrafts are paired with “bibs” in the style of work clothes worn by miners. Overall, it’s a cohesive collection of separates that Henry developed with a “complete wardrobe”, a refined professional woman and the luxury market in mind. I’m striving for “really beautiful and carefully considered clothes,” he explains.

Now that Henry has been accepted to CSM’s MA Fashion program, under the tutelage of the esteemed and feared Louise Wilson, he is looking to develop his craft further and zero in on his clientele.

“It’s difficult to design for a woman I don’t even know,” he says. “That’s one thing that I learned from this collection: that women need to wear these things.”

Indeed, but based on his outstanding debut collection, we’re not worried that he’ll find his target customer soon enough. Bravo!

A market for the newly wealthy (FT)
“Luxury is a relative concept. In Poland just over two decades ago, it was the height of luxury to have a steady supply of toilet paper, a washing machine and a few US dollars to buy some stick deodorant at a Peweks hard currency shop.”

Gap Channels Best Quarter With Banana Republic’s Mad Men (Bloomberg)
“Clothing based on the 1960s ‘Mad Men’ styles of Don Draper and Peggy Olson helped Banana Republic post its best first-quarter sales ever this year. Now the Gap Inc. brand is teaming up with a name designer – California’s Trina Turk – in an attempt to keep the nascent turnaround going.”

H&M seeks to source more clothes from Bangladesh (Market Watch)
“Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB, the world’s second-largest clothing retailer, wants to source more products from Bangladesh to take advantage of cheap labor, but unrest and violent strikes present a big hurdle to expansion in the troubled country.”

Social retailing: breathing life back into the high street (Guardian)
“By creating an exhilarating shopping experience, retailers have a chance to entice people back to the high street. However, becoming more profitable will depend on how successful they are in harnessing the mountains of market intelligence that’s out there waiting to be decoded and put to work.”

Fresh From Kolkata, ‘Bengali Style’ Emerges  (IHT)
“Since the 19th century, the Bengali capital, Kolkata, has been known for some of India’s greatest artists. Now, with the rise of fashion designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Anamika Khanna, Kolkata has become home to the fashion industry’s modern-day revivalists of traditional styles.”

Hiut Denim Company | Source: hiutdenim.co.uk

CARDIGAN, United Kingdom — Few people immediately think of Wales as having been impacted by the tide of outsourcing that has forced factories across the United States and Europe to shutter. But in the small community of Cardigan, in Mid Wales, the growth of outsourcing and offshoring has been devastating.

Once upon a time, Cardigan bustled with Britain’s biggest jeans factory, which produced upwards of 35,000 pairs of jeans per week for over 30 years, supplying large retailers like Marks & Spencer and Gap. But in 2001, when its biggest customer, Dewhirst Group, moved production to Morocco, the plant — by then, the last factory left in the area — was closed, leaving 400 craftsmen without employment. For years afterwards, Cardigan suffered the fate of so many former manufacturing towns: crumbling factories, overgrown fields, unemployment and a general loss of pride within the community.

Now, entrepreneur and Cardigan native David Hieatt and his wife and business partner Clare — who together built ethical clothing label Howies, which the couple sold to Timberland in 2006 — are stirring things up. In 2011, with the goal of bringing jeans-manufacturing back to the town, Hieatt, a former copywriter at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, founded the Hiut Denim Company, selling men’s denim proudly manufactured in the first jeans factory that the UK has seen in a decade. “It wasn’t about starting another jeans brand. The world had enough of them,” said Hieatt. “This jeans company was about getting a town that used to make jeans to make them again.”

Hieatt’s manifesto for the company, which he refers to as a “user manual,” is simple and straight-forward. He firmly believes that to build and maintain momentum, companies must have a purpose; they must be clear about, not just what they do and how they do it, but why they are in business.

For Hiut, the purpose is two-fold. Firstly, the company aims to bring manufacturing back home to Cardigan. And secondly, Hiut is focused on craftsmanship, doing only one thing and doing it well: making jeans. No t-shirts, no sweatshirts — just jeans. “There are forty-one stages to making our jeans. We only have to be great at forty-one of them,” joked Hieatt.

In order to remain true to his purpose and “keep making jeans in this town when there will always be cheaper places to make them,” Hieatt has built an ownership structure that protects the company’s vision from dilution. Indeed, the company aims to operate without bank loans and has raised money for working capital by selling only non-voting shares, while the company’s founding manifesto refers to a “silent shareholder called planet earth.”

Hieatt has also embraced a modern sales tool that Cardigan’s businesses of yesteryear did not have: the Internet. Launched in February 2012, Hiut’s website allows customers to purchase the company’s jeans online. But current sales have outpaced production by such a degree that Hiut has temporarily stopped taking orders, so that the company’s artisans can work through the backlog.

Hiut’s use of technology doesn’t stop with e-commerce. Each pair of Hiut jeans also comes with what the company calls a “History Tag,” a unique code that customers can enter into a website to retrieve photos of their specific pair of jeans being made. Customers can also upload photos of themselves in the jeans to further add to their garment’s virtual history, which can be accessed by new owners should the jeans be passed down or end up in second-hand shops. “The more we can make a product that lasts, the more stories it will have to tell,” said Hieatt. “As humans, we have a deep-rooted desire to know the history of things. And objects have stories to tell. With the History Tag, [we] will be able to tell those stories.”

Although, currently, Hiut only produces around 10 pairs of jeans per day with a team of three skilled artisans — who Hieatt refers to as “grand masters” — one part-time cutter and one part-time mechanic to keep the company’s 24 sewing machines up and running, Hieatt aims to grow Hiut into a £30 million global denim brand that can produce 20,000 pairs of jeans per month and, ultimately, employ all 400 craftsmen who originally worked at Cardigan’s jeans factory.

“The real important thing is to go and prove that those philosophies can build a successful business. One that is committed to quality, to skill, to ideas. And to this town,” he said. “The customer will tell us if we are good enough to succeed,” he continued.

“I believe in quality. I believe in skill. I believe in ideas. And I believe in my town.”

Shelby Catino is an independent journalist and researcher based in Boston and Milan.

Yoox screen shot | Source: Yoox.com

PPR Signs Letter of Intent With Yoox for Online Luxury Venture (Bloomberg)
“PPR signed a non-binding letter of intent with Yoox SpA, an Italian online fashion retailer, to set up an e-commerce venture for PPR’s luxury brands. PPR plans to have more than 1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) of sales online by 2020.”

Fashion house Versace may seek outside investors (Reuters)
“Italian family-owned fashion house Versace may seek outside investors and could consider an initial public offering to fund growth and help it better compete in the global luxury industry, its chief executive said on Friday.”

For Tech Start-Ups, New York Has Increasing Allure (NY Times)
“The recent burgeoning of New York’s Internet industry has forced some entrepreneurs — who, just a few years ago, might have felt they had little choice but to head west to pursue their dreams — to make a difficult choice. New York is now enough of an attractive alternative that a few West Coast-born start-ups are even packing up and moving east.”

Fine and dandy: London’s men’s fashion shows (Guardian)
“The menswear industry may never rival that of womenswear, but it’s growing up mightily quick. So quickly, in fact, that the British Fashion Council has finally deemed it necessary for menswear to have its very own fashion week.”

Cultural Revolution: Phillip Lim’s cool classics (Independent)
“In an age when fashion designers can achieve a level of celebrity quite beyond their work, Phillip Lim is as understated and easy to get along with as the clothes that bear his name.”

The Week in Review, May 21 - 25, 2012

Edward Enninful (The Creative Class)
“What we all aim for is to make it more approachable, but that doesn’t mean low end,” said Edward Enninful, who, as style and fashion director of W, is a critical part of the international A-team that’s been tasked with transforming the iconic Condé Nast magazine.”

Stylitics (Elevator Pitch)
“The fashion technology scene continues to explode, and one of the epicentres of activity is New York City. Following in the footsteps of Gilt Groupe, Moda Operandi and Warby Parker, Stylitics is a New York-based fashion technology start-up founded by Rohan Deuskar and Zach Davis.”

Are We Failing to Fulfill the Potential of Fashion Film? (Op-Ed)
“There are so many missed opportunities in the way fashion, as an industry, is currently approaching video content, from planning to production to distribution. Is it really a surprise that the results are often less than spectacular?”

What the Chinese Want (WSJ)
“The rise of microbloggers, the popularity of rock bands with names like Hutong Fist and Catcher in the Rye, and even the newfound popularity of Christmas all seem to point toward a growing Westernization… Consumers in China aren’t becoming ‘Western.’ They are increasingly modern and international, but they remain distinctly Chinese.”

Spain’s got talent (Telegraph)
“Stuart Vevers and Lisa Montague, the British duo who set Mulberry on the road to global superstardom, have taken their recipe to Loewe, the luxury heritage brand based in Madrid. Will it taste as sweet?”

The Future of Armani (WSJ Magazine)
“Few people in the fashion world are as entwined with their brands. In most companies, a creative director designs and an executive manages. Armani does both. Many important designers, including Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs, work under contract for brands that aren’t their own. Armani hasn’t designed for anyone else in more than 30 years.”

Prada to Add 260 Shops in 3 Years on Demand From BRICs (BusinessWeek)
“Prada, the Italian fashion company that owns the Miu Miu and Church’s brands, plans to add 260 stores in the next three years to tap demand in emerging markets including Brazil, China and Persian Gulf countries.”

Asos fashion retailer’s top managers reap £66m payout (Guardian)
“Seven top managers of online fashion retailer Asos are being handed £66m in shares after hitting all the targets in a three-year incentive plan. Chief executive and founder Nick Robertson is receiving almost 1.5m shares worth nearly £25m while his three fellow directors are sharing more than £35m, and a further £6m is being handed to three senior colleagues.”

Nordstrom Intensifies its Internet Presence (Forbes)
“Nordstrom management has committed to invest this year $140 million or about 30% of total capital expenditures for IT infrastructure this should give customers the same high quality of service on the Internet as they have in the store. Nordstrom added that today’s customer demands both speed and service.”

Q&A Andrew Rosen (Style.com)
“As the CEO of Theory and Helmut Lang and an investor in on-the-rise New York labels like Rag & Bone, Alice + Olivia, Gryphon, and now Proenza Schouler, Andrew Rosen occupies a unique and uniquely powerful perch in American fashion.”

i-N Conversation: Proenza Schouler (i-D)
“For autumn/winter 12 Jack and Lazaro reached out to Bhutan and Japan for inspiration but, as they reminded us, not without their secret ingredient, New York. Having already won four awards at the CFDA, the pair were recently and rightly nominated for the Womenswear Designer of the Year Award.”

Giorgio Armani | Source: Telegraph

The Future of Armani (WSJ Magazine)
“Few people in the fashion world are as entwined with their brands. In most companies, a creative director designs and an executive manages. Armani does both. Many important designers, including Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs, work under contract for brands that aren’t their own. Armani hasn’t designed for anyone else in more than 30 years.”

ASOS profit jumps on overseas growth (Reuters)
“British online fashion retailer ASOS met forecasts with a 43-percent rise in year profit as stellar growth overseas offset a weaker home market.”

Trying to Click Online (NY Times)
“As fashion companies explore new ways to engage consumers online, some designers are embracing experiments that might sound strange on paper but are having unexpected results.”

China’s Taobao Says High-End Online Sales Jump (Investors)
“China’s biggest e-commerce website, Taobao, is gaining ground selling to middle class buyers of luxury goods. China Daily Online cites Taobao saying it was getting 1.8 million visitors a day at the end of April at global.taobao.com, its luxury goods site. Global.taobao sells discounted luxury goods to Chinese consumers from around the world.”

The New Masters of Parsons (NY Times)
“Last week, those students were among the first to complete a new M.F.A. program in fashion design that has drawn enormous interest from the industry…who have traditionally viewed Parsons as the premier design school for fashion in the United States yet somehow inferior to its counterparts in Europe, especially Central Saint Martins in London.”