Zara Commits to Taking the Toxic Chemicals Out of Its Clothes — By 2020

In the wake of a Greenpeace report that found potentially dangerous levels of toxic chemicals in garments for sale at retailers including Levi’s, Victoria’s Secret, and Zara, the Spanish fast-fashion chain has committed to “eliminating all releases of hazardous chemicals throughout its entire supply chain and products by 2020.” Toxic substances used in apparel production are found in such things as solvents and dyes used in textile manufacturing and leather tanning; these can pose significant dangers to the workers who are exposed to them (and to others nearby if they contaminate the water table in factory zones), but they can also persist in finished garments when they reach stores. [Fashionista]

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Scarlett Johansson is the face of a new Dolce & Gabbana women’s perfume called The One Desire. It will hit stores starting in January and retail for $79-$119 (which is more expensive than any other Dolce & Gabbana fragrance). [WWD]

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Here is Martha Stewart in a Clairol ad in 1966. [WWD]

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• Women’s Wear Daily, quoting anonymous “market sources,” is reporting that Alexander Wang will indeed be taking the reins at Balenciaga after Nicolas Ghesquière‘s resignation. Yesterday, the rumor was broken by the Nouvel Observateur and by Cathy Horyn of the New York Times. Neither Balenciaga nor Wang has commented publicly so far. [WWD]
• Cindi Leive is beefing up Glamour‘s Web presence. Glamour.com already gets 5.5 million unique readers per month, making it the most-read Condé Nast title online. But Leive wants to prioritize the Web. “We have a young tech obsessed reader in her early 20s and 30s,” says the editor. “There’s no way you can thrive today as a brand aimed at young women if you have a print-first mentality and I think you can’t survive if you have a print versus digital mentality.” Leive has made three new hires and renamed the “Slaves to Fashion” blog “Dressed.” [Fashionista]
• Demonstrations in Bangladesh over unsafe working conditions have entered their fourth day. A fire at a garment factory this weekend claimed the lives of 111 workers, including some who were allegedly forced by their managers to remain at their stations even as the blaze spread throughout the building’s lower floors, trapping them. Legal aid and workers’ rights non-profits are demanding that the Bangladeshi government enact new legislation to protect safety in the workplace. The factory reportedly lacked fire escapes and sprinklers. Garment workers are so scared of the risk of fire — more than 700 workers have burned to death in factories in Bangladesh since 2005 — that rumors of fires at two factories caused stampedes that injured 60 people. [WWD]
• H&M is not honoring its stated return policy for its slow-selling Maison Martin Margiela collaboration. Although receipts say that customers have 30 days to return merchandise for a full refund of the purchase price, the store has only been offering refunds on Margiela gear that is returned within seven days of the sale. After that, it will only offer a store credit or a refund for the current selling price of the item — which is significant because many pieces from the collaboration are already significantly reduced. H&M says the return policy is stated on the collection’s Web site. [Racked]
• Model Cara Delevingne turned down a role in the forthcoming London Spice Girls musical Viva Forever because the producers wanted to cast her as Posh. “They said I looked like her and I said, ‘That’s not cool, that’s really mean.’” You know what’s mean? Implying Victoria Beckham is ugly. [Telegraph]
• Target and Neiman Marcus launched their joint holiday designer collaboration with a party in Manhattan. [WWD]
• Bergdorf‘s top women’s shoe salesman, Antonio Amato, says he gets some unusual requests from his wealthiest clients:
• “One of my customers, whose name I can’t reveal, once called me and said, ‘Can you send shoes to the island?’ I said, ‘Yes, we can deliver to anyplace in the island [meaning Long Island], or down to the shore.’ She replied, ‘No, my island, my island in the Caribbean.’ At that time, [she requested] about 15 pairs of shoes.”
• [Fashionista]
• The Elite agency says it has faced delays in getting its new Chinese division up to operational speed. Chinese brands are apparently increasingly interested in hiring Chinese models to sell their products, but Elite has faced difficulties in attracting experienced staff in the emerging market and in scouting. [WWD]
• Suzy Menkes has another woe-is-designer lament in the International Herald Tribune. [IHT]
• Oscar-winning Hollywood special-effects makeup artist Rick Baker — responsible for such films as An American Werewolf in London, The Nutty Professor, and the “Thriller” video — is collaborating on a collection for M.A.C. [WWD]
• Net-A-Porter plans to launch a print magazine (so that’s what we’re calling catalogs now?) next year. [Wired]
• Prada is opening a Miami store, its 33rd in the U.S., next week (to coincide with Art Basel Miami). [WWD]
• Fashionista has a post about the proper care and keeping of box braids, which are back in a big way (Beyoncé and Solange are among the celebrities who’ve been rocking the style as of late). [Fashionista]
• Four words: One Direction fragrance set. Three more words: Watch out, Bieber. [WWD]
• Lacoste got Amy Adams to be the face of its latest women’s perfume. [WWD]
• And in yet more news of sweet-smelling things, Christian Siriano has signed a deal for his first fragrance, which will launch in the fall of 2013. [WWD]
• Fast Retailing, which owns Uniqlo and Theory, has just acquired an 80% stake in J Brand for around $300 million. [MarketWatch]
• And Rent the Runway successfully raised another $20 million in capital funding. [WWD]