Charles Grom's upgrade for Macy's Inc. Friday held a glimmer of hope for the New York City retailing scene as well.


The J.P. Morgan analyst switched his recommendation on the stock to "overweight" from "neutral" Friday and pinned part of the change on an improvement in Manhattan's shopping backdrop.

Emma Willis is London's first lady of men's shirts. Make that the only lady of men's shirts.

My back was literally up against the wall.


It was Friday, and the grand opening of the J.C. Penney flagship in the Manhattan Mall. If things seemed a little cramped it was because the ceremony was supposed to be across the street, at Greeley Square Park, but early morning rains put a damper on those arrangements. Only a soggy stage and Kimora Lee Simmons' luxury trailer parked along the curb gave any hint of the original plans. The festivities were quickly moved to the lobby of the mall, where male and female and child models walked down a red runway, stopping long enough to pose for the photographers standing cheek-by-jowl on risers. It was hard to see what was going on, but I knew the "oohs" and "aahs" were for the children. "Woo hoo, woo whoo," some women in front of me hollered when a hunky guy in a beige pin-striped suit sauntered out, as if this were Chippendales.

 

I bought my first iPhone last week and within days used it to make my inaugural foray into mobile commerce -- purchasing a pair of shoes from Urban Outfitters. I logged onto the retail site at home after dinner and, with the shoes in my shopping cart, all I had to do was enter a credit-card number. Consumers can skip that step, too, if they want the site to store the number. The shoes arrived within days.

WEST NYACK, N.Y. — Anyone who has been to the Palisades Center will understand why it annoys me on a number of levels. (No pun intended.)

After sitting down with Jennifer Lopez back in January 2007, I was optimistic that after several years of ups and downs, this time she was going to make it in the apparel business.

At the time, she was introducing justsweet, a young contemporary replacement line for her JLO by Jennifer Lopez brand, which was being pulled from the U.S. market to, the company said, focus on global expansion. The samples were well done and Macy's buyers were psyched about launching it. And, after six years in business and with her JLO label, Lopez was finally completely involved in the design of her own line -- something she was consistently criticized for.

"Five years ago, I had a lot to learn about this business," she admitted in 2007. "And as I learned, I became more involved in the day-to-day. Now I am in the office all the time, and I have been since we did the fashion show [in February 2005]. I was there every single day, going over every tiny detail. As I got through the learning curve, I became more involved and will continue to be."

Well, that involvement didn't seem to help after all.

Those Wal-Mart folks are a hearty bunch. If nothing else, "Mr. Sam," instilled in his employees an appreciation of the early-to-bed, early-to-rise adage and a serious work ethic, leading by his own 16-hour-day example. I was reminded of this when I attended the company's media day and annual shareholders meeting last week in Fayetteville, Ark.


The drive from Northwest Arkansas Airport to Bentonville is pleasant enough, passing green pastures dotted with horses, cows and charming ramshackle barns, a scene that is occasionally broken by gated McMansion communities, followed by more bucolic scenery.


I checked into my hotel on Wednesday evening, ordered a tostada chicken salad from the all-Mexican-food restaurant menu and watched "The Devil Wears Prada" (twice). Watching the machinations and ridiculous striving of aggressive New Yorkers made me feel more at home while in the hinterlands.

When WWD's editors met in mid-April to start brainstorming ideas for this year's Denim in Depth section, we thought one of our biggest challenges would be making sure every article wasn't about the recession. We've heard from more than a few readers over the past year who have had enough of the constant barrage of bad news in the media. While we report on and don't make the news, we can empathize.

As someone who has spent much of my career figuring out or writing about how to make clothes, it was encouraging to see the stiff-upper-lip attitude from a theater full of more than 130 manufacturing executives at the WWD Sourcing & Supply Chain Forum.

Certainly the speakers were brutally honest about how difficult it is out there. It's tough to find a stable place to manufacture their merchandise, given the political instability around the world. It's hard to negotiate the right price, given the volatility of labor conditions in places like China and Pakistan and the global economic turmoil that affects currency rates, shipping costs and credit availability. It's also risky to employ factories in countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where poverty and climatic conditions threaten production on a regular basis.

The paparazzi may have to look for another hunting ground.

Retailing in Los Angeles and environs is being slammed in the recession and even celebrity-friendly shopping streets like Robertson Boulevard are feeling it. Dozens of specialty retailers have closed across the metro area and others are shrinking.