
In news that will surprise absolutely nobody who has ever tried to buy anything anywhere in Paris, a survey of shoppers found that the Champs-Elysées rates 22nd out of 30 great world shopping streets for customer service. Many people reported that sales assistants at the luxury stores that line the boulevard showed irritation at being asked to serve customers. Imagine! New York's Fifth Avenue, however, did even worse: it came 26th. The best place to shop in the world, if you've got the money? In news that will surprise absolutely nobody who's ever bought anything in Singapore, it's Orchard Road. [WWD]
Demi Moore


- There is some moderately good news on the unemployment front, especially in the retail sector, according to new figures from the Labor Department. Overall, unemployment fell to 8.5% in December as the economy added 200,000 jobs. This continues a four-month postivie trend, and is the lowest unemployment rate in nearly three years. Of that total, apparel and accessories stores added a seasonally adjusted 11,100 jobs during the month, and department stores added 3700. Together, the sector now employs 2.98 million. [WWD]
- "Michele Bachmann lost the Iowa caucus — but won the fashion race. Yes, we are going there." You may be, Washington Post. The rest of us are...just not. Oh, God, this entire story exists to support a slideshow, doesn't it? What are you, the Huffington Post? Nope, not even going to link. [WaPo] [Ed: I'm not going to make you guys Google for it. Not worth your effort if, in fact, you do want to see this nonsense. Here's the article.]
- Simon Le Bon has some flattering words for Yasmin, his supermodel wife of 26 years. "I'd say my hedonistic lifestyle has got worse as time's gone on. But then I married an absolutely crazy woman. She's more rock and roll than Keith Richards, Keith Moon and all the other Keiths put together. She's amazing, a total party girl." [Vogue UK]
- Anya Hindmarch's professed "love" for Margaret Thatcher — the handbag designer currently has Thatcher-themed windows — is cast in curiously apolitical terms by British Vogue. OMG the handbags! Handbag designers just lurves the politician who lurves handbags! But why soft-pedal it? Hindmarch is open about her conservative leanings. She's a close friend of David Cameron, a prominent Conservative Party fund-raiser, and an avowed Tory. It's hardly a coincidence that Hindmarch digs the "style" of the most famous Tory leader since Churchill.[Vogue UK]
- American Apparel sold about 100,000 Groupon deals at $25 and $50 apiece during the month of December, which customers could redeem for $50 or $100 worth of merchandise. It turns out that giving people 50% off your clothes is a nice way to fill your tills: overall sales at the troubled hipster t-shirt chain rose by 15% during the month, and same-store sales rose by a healthy 11%. American Apparel's main problem, as always, is its ballooning debt, which is currently over $160 million. [WWD]

