onlineshopping

All of us understood that Tiffany Jewellery is one of the most famous luxury in the world, follw the economic depression, fashion trends have changed, let’s see what happened to the Tiffany.

Haute couture designer Christian Lacroix's fortunes have gone pouf, just like his signature 1980s silhouette. The House of Lacroix's opulent matador jackets and gumballbright skirts made him a favourite of conspicuous consumers like Ivana Trump, and Helen Mirren famously wore his custom gown when she won the Best Actress Academy Award two years ago. Yet even as the upcoming fall fashions shown recently on important runways like Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton paid homage to Lacroix's flamboyant use of colour, print and trend-setting "le pouf" skirts, the long-time French couturier filed for bankruptcy protection against his creditors in a Paris court this week.

The iconic designer is not alone: the seemingly bulletproof brand Chanel let go of 200 French employees earlier this year and monogram brand Louis Vuitton wisely shelved plans to open a new Tokyo megastore.

For many such international brands, however, the clothes themselves are often loss-leaders for building brand prestige, which in turn sends aspirational consumers scurrying to where they really make their money -- accessories and licensed goods, such as must-have handbags, sunglasses and perfume.

Lacroix, for example, has a lucrative global licensing collaboration with Avon on premium perfumes. And Chanel, of course can still claim that its No. 5 is the No. 1-selling perfume in the world. Burberry just opened a New York flagship, no small thanks to its distinctive nova check motif and several best-selling perfumes.

So as consumers shop their own closets instead of department store aisles, it is the smaller niche and independent labels that are suffering the most.

On Thursday, the fashion world had a sharp intake of breath when news broke that beloved avant-garde Belgian designer Veronique Branquinho is liquidating her company, shuttering both her fashion operations and standalone Antwerp retail location. According to industry trade magazine WWD.com,Ms. Branquinho attributes her defeat to a major drop in fall orders, on top of cancelled orders and non-payments for the current season. She, at least, has a second career to fall back on, as a professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, but other designers aren't so lucky. Those whose business relies on wholesale accounts, from independent boutiques to department stores, are particularly feeling the pinch. The upscale American department store chain Saks posted a first-quarter loss of US$5.1-million (their profit for the same period last year was US$17.3-million). The company flagship on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue accounts for approximately 20% of business and it was among their poorest performers. The result? Fall orders are cut back or cancelled altogether, not to mention the current arrears and charge-backs on spring deliveries as languishing merchandise goes on sale to make room for ever-earlier arrival of pre-fall orders next month.

Eric Gaskins, an African-American designer whose dresses were worn by Hollywood stars like Salma Hayek and who was carried by Saks Fifth Avenue, recently filed for Chapter 11, just one more casualty of the grim reality of the economic downtown.

Canadian designer Jeremy Laing, who sells to numerous boutiques and department stores in the United States, says he picked up new stores, which made up for his smaller orders.

High-end isn't the only retail sector feeling low. Last fall, Sixty UK, the British subsidiary of popular Italian fashion brand Miss Sixty, went into administration, the British term for bankruptcy protection.

For U. S. retailer J. Crew, even the First Lady's love of their embellished cardigans and floral skirts hasn't been enough to lift the ailing company, whose profits slid 33% in the first quarter of the year. Mrs. Obama saves her high-end for state dinners and galas, favouring accessible classics from everyday American brands such as Gap, Liz Claiborne and J. Crew most days, a fine example in these beleaguered times.

But in these beleaguered times, even being able to boast that the President himself is a faithful customer isn't enough: Hartmarx, the parent company of Mr. Obama's Chicago tailor Hart Schaffner Marx, is bankrupt and awaiting approval for its latest white-knight buyer.

In the past six months, Melrose Place, stomping ground for the L. A. celebs who grace the tabloids, shopping bags in hand, has also seen several upscale closures. There are "For Rent" signs in the gleaming storefronts where British brand Mulberry, killer shoe haven Sergio Rossi, and Lambertson Truex used to perch. The 10-year-old luxury accessories brand filed for bankruptcy protection in March, but was purchased by Tiffany & Co. earlier this month, so we haven't seen the last of Lambertson's $3,000 handbags.

But maybe we should.

Cannes jury president Isabelle Huppert set the tone when she wore crisp jeans instead of a designer frock on the festival's opening day. Even Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is keeping her magazine (relatively) in step with the mood of the times; she recently told a New York Q&A audience that, "up until a year ago, we've been very free about the prices of clothes, and I probably didn't delve as deeply as I should have into what things cost." She may be on to something. Consumers are beginning to clue in that high-tone brands' high prices are not necessarily high-value propositions.

Maybe it's time to slow down and take our cues from the Slow Food movement. Imagine: A slow fashion movement of considered, quality product instead of a fashion diet consisting solely of high-street Big Macs and buckets of KFC?