The designers will also be able to attract attention from people of several other nations, as the Summer Olympics are expected to draw over 4 billion viewers worldwide, the largest audience ever to watch the Games. And about 3 million domestic and overseas visitors are expected to be traveling to Beijing. This creates an enormous global outlet for designers to showcase their work.

“This is a different kind of Olympics,” says Tony Alcindor, vice president of public relations and marketing at Ports 1961, which is outfitting four of NBC’s Olympic commentators. “It has become a global mission for sports and fashion to come together to do something good, despite the political drama surrounding the games.”

New Event, Same Relationship

The Olympics merely present the best opportunity for visibility. The collaboration between fashion and sports, with joint ventures between athletes and labels other than Nike and Adidas, is nothing new.

Dolce & Gabbana partnered with Italy’s Milano Beach Soccer league in the 2006-2007 season, and Cavalli’s June 2008 campaign featured five players from the Italian rugby team. Collaborations, such as Stella McCartney and Adidas and Alexander McQueen and Puma, John McCarkle and Rolex are making sportswear fashionable as well as performance-friendly.

This relationship between contemporary fashion and global sportswear is even the subject of a new exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London beginning Aug. 5. There will be about 60 outfits–including performance sportswear–on display to show the influence of sportswear on high fashion.

“Fashion and sports have a lot to give to each other,” says Ligaya Salazar, the show’s curator. “Fashion has the freedom of creativity, while sportswear has the knowledge of the best fabrics to make items functional.”

One Giant Fashion Show

With so many people watching, all at once, the Olympics present an unparalleled opportunity for designers to connect with the sports world and build brand recognition. Ralph Lauren in particular is raising its presence in the sports arena as the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams.

“Polo wants to maintain its association with the elite, and the Olympics is one of the most austere sporting events,” says Milton Pedraza, CEO of The Luxury Institute, a market research organization that focuses on high-net-worth consumers.

For the Olympics, Ralph Lauren’s collection includes apparel for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as pieces for the U.S. teams to wear around the Olympic village when they aren’t competing. The opening-ceremony outfits are a return to the classics that reflect the heritage and sensibility of the 1920s and ’30s, while the closing ceremony outfits have a sportier edge.

“As our athletes take to this world stage they are representing the best of America, and we are proud to be a part of that,” says David Lauren, senior vice president of advertising, marketing and corporate communications.

Apparel from the entire collection is currently available in Polo Ralph Lauren U.S. retail stores, select department stores and online.

Luxury Lines

Gucci and Prada have also embarked on limited-edition collections in celebration of the Olympics.

Gucci’s 8-8-2008 Limited Edition features eight accessories, splashed in bold red, that epitomize luxury. An I-Gucci digital watch, bicycle, Mah Jong set, leather panda, two-piece luggage set and men’s and women’s sports shoes all make up the collection.

“Not only does red evoke happiness and celebration–two emotions that couldn’t be more appropriate to describe the excitement in the world of sports–but it also happens to be a very fashionable color for 2008,” says Frida Giannini, creative director for Gucci. “I also designed just eight products for this collection, which mirror the lucky number 8 in Chinese culture.”

Though the I-Gucci watch will be offered worldwide for US$1,415, all other designs will be sold exclusively in Hong Kong and mainland China.

And some designers are getting in on the Olympics in the name of charity rather than profit. Lane Crawford, a high-end specialty store with locations throughout Hong Kong and China, invited 12 world-renowned designers, including 3.1 Phillip Lim, Burberry Prorsum, Givenchy, Stella McCartney and Yves Saint Laurent, to create one-of-a-kind outfits inspired by Olympic events. “The Collective: Synergy in Fashion” is on display at Today’s Museum in Beijing throughout August.

The garments will be auctioned, with 100 per cent of the proceeds benefiting the Special Relief Funds for Children affected by the Sichuan earthquake.

Whatever the goal, however, be it profit or philanthropy, the opportunity is unprecedented for designers, since the Olympics is an event that everyone, in some way, can identify with.

“Competition, failure, achievement, these are all things entrepreneurs and people on Wall Street deal with on a daily basis,” says Pedraza. “We all understand the feeling of being only as good as your last achievement.”

It’s that feeling designers are counting on to capitalize on for two weeks in August.

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While it may feel a little premature to consider coats and cardigans when we’re rotating between sundresses and shorts, fashion followers know that the best pick of fall clothes is now when they’ve just hit the store floors.

Those attending Nordstrom’s 2008 Designer Preview recently got an early peek at autumn trends during a fashion show that featured such looks as cocoon coats, woolen jackets and cardigans layered over tweedy wrap skirts. The ensembles were a taste of what retailers will be offering in a few weeks as fall merchandise moves into stores.

Guests at the event, held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, had the chance to try on the runway samples (oh, to be model size!) and peruse the racks of designer clothes and preorder their favorite labels, all while sipping cocktails and munching on hors d’oeuvres and one-bite chocolates.

The runway show featured 10 to 15 outfits from each of the fall collections of Donna Karan, Stella McCartney, Derek Lam, Missoni, Valentino, Michael Kors, Bill Blass, Peter Som, Burberry Prorsum, Vera Wang and Versace.

Even as some high-end goods remain immune to the economic downturn, retailers are carefully selecting their fashions with a tad more frugality.

Just after the American designers showed their fall collections in February, for example, June Rau, Nordstrom’s fashion director for the western region, observed that “women will take certain pieces they’re familiar with and work it into their wardrobe” as a way to economize their clothing dollars by spending on classics and tried-and-true staples.

Events such as this give customers a chance to see designer pieces they might not see in the Nordstrom stores they shop in. The retailer has held the designer preview event every year for 30 years, rotating among several cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago and San Diego, and benefiting a local charity.

This year’s proceeds went to Raphael House, San Francisco’s first homeless shelter.

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Paris designers showing their spring-summer collections on Saturday banished the tie and introduced a gentler take on masculinity, leaving the Gordon Gekko look in the dust.

With thousands of revelers pouring into the streets for the annual gay pride parade, French designer Franck Boclet proudly flew the pink flag at Emanuel Ungaro — but there was no message intended.

“I didn’t even know it was gay pride day today!” he said. “It just so happens that fuchsia has always been Ungaro’s signature color.”

Boclet celebrated the house heritage with a shocking pink backdrop, but used the color sparingly in his collection.

After all, he made his name at Francesco Smalto cutting suits with a defiant swagger. Here, they were rendered in checked patterns with pants that stretched suggestively across the thigh.

As a result, a pink linen blazer seemed slightly adrift, though a purple cardigan top with a loose matching parka was a plausible option.

French actor Samuel Le Bihan, known for his tough guy image, said he had worn a pink T-shirt last summer but would not be repeating the experience.

“I tried, but I just can’t do it,” he said.

The Smalto image has loosened up since Swiss-Korean designer Youn Chong Bak took over the design reins three seasons ago.

Models lounged around an Italianate fountain in a chic mansion in her crisp cotton jackets paired with tailored cream bermudas, conjuring images of the spoiled millionaire Dickie Greenleaf in “The Talented Mr. Ripley”.

Best of all were the waistcoats cut away in the front in the style of morning coats. These came in white linen with a tone-on-tone satin trim, or in a denim version slung over an unbuttoned white shirt.

“I think it’s always more pleasant to see men who have attitude but nonetheless have a slightly soft side, because people are sick of machos,” Chong Bak said.

That mood carried over to the Hermes catwalk, where the focus was on bare necklines with sailor-style sweaters that framed the collarbone.

This might seem like a bad move for a company famed for its luxurious silk ties, but French designer Veronique Nichanian provided plenty of alternatives.

They ranged from plain shawls worn loose over the chest to brightly patterned silk squares jauntily tied around the neck. The signature Hermes scarf even doubled as a cummerbund, worn simply over a white linen shirt and dark pants.

Alongside the catwalk shows, dozens of designers show their collections to buyers and editors in showrooms.

At the headquarters of Japanese label Issey Miyake, a video showed designer Dai Fujiwara and his team checking color swatches against plants in the Amazon rainforest.

Those colors ended up on outfits including a silk suit featuring dark stripes melting into olive green, thanks to a computerized weaving process. Casual options included a camouflage-patterned denim jacket with matching cut-off pants.

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The items at the July 2 auction include a 1958 cocktail dress for Dior and a 1970s Rive Gauche camel cable-knit sweater trimmed in fox fur similar to one Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore.

“What’s exciting about the collection is that you see the progression of his career. He was a real style-setter,” said Christie’s couture specialist Laura Leyfer.

Saint Laurent died on June 1 at age 71. Considered one of the most influential designers of the 20th century, his creations — from pop-art print mini-dresses to peasant skirts and elegant pantsuits — endure to this day.

The cable-knit sweater — with a pre-sale estimate of $250 to $400 — is a version of one Onassis was often photographed wearing, a style she owned in several colors, according to Christie’s auction catalog.

All of the items are in excellent condition and are relatively inexpensive because they aren’t new designs and have been worn, Leyfer said Friday. “That’s part of the appeal and it’s what makes it a collectible,” she said.

Another item for sale is a dusty pink layered tulle evening dress with metallic pink and silver embroidery, which Saint Laurent designed for Dior in 1958. It’s could fetch $1,000 to $1,500.

The costume jewelry includes a floral gold-tone metal and crystal stone necklace from 1990, estimated to sell for $1,000 to $1,500, and a hammered gilt-metal “ethnic” necklace from the 1970s that could bring $600 to $800.

The sale also includes pieces from other designers including Christian Lacroix, Thierry Mugler, Balenciaga and Gianni Versace.

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Tori Spelling and her 13-month-old son, Liam, will be the first mother-and-child models in Skechers new ad campaign called “Nothing Compares to Family.”

She joins past Sktchers celebs, such as Ashlee Simpson, Carrie Underwood, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears.

Skechers plans to rotate a variety of famous families throughout the campaign, featuring mothers and small children and adult celebrities with their sisters, brothers, parents and grandparents.

Wow. This is rife with celebrity family drama possibilities. Off the top of my head, I’d suggest Alec Baldwin and his daughter, Ireland, talking on the cell phone. David Hasselhoff and his daughter, Hayley, filming him with her camcorder.

And the expanding Spears family would make a great ad! Say what you will, but if there was ever a family who’s really pulled together this year, it’s the Spears clan. Momma Lynne Spears helping her preggers teenage daughter, Jamie Lynn, prepare for the birth of her first out-of-wedlock baby. Daddy Jamie Spears helping straighten out the life (and finances) of his troubled older daughter, Britney, who seems to have made quite a comeback, thanks to Pop. I’d give the Spears family a call, Skechers ad peeps. You’ve already got their number, right?

Each Sketchers ad will be tagged with a family-related charity of the celebrity’s choice, such as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International or Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for families.

Awwww.

Skechers is an award-winning global leader in the lifestyle footwear industry. We design, develop and market lifestyle footwear that appeals to trend-savvy men, women and children. A billion dollar company, Skechers’ success stems from its high-quality, varied product offering, diversified domestic and international distribution channels, and cutting-edge print and television advertising.

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 The item, “Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit — And You Should Too,” written by William C. Taylor, applauded Zappos for what he called its unmatched customer service and for its insistence on thinking beyond the current fiscal quarter.

“There are plenty of companies with a hot product, a hip style or a fast-rising stock price that are, essentially, one-trick ponies — they deliver great short-term results, but they don’t stand for anything big or important for the long term,” Mr. Taylor wrote.

Not so at Zappos, which Mr. Taylor says will record $1 billion in sales this year, up from $70 million five years ago. Zappos delivers shoes, handbags and other products ordered over the Internet. Delivery is free and fast, and customers can return unwanted products at no charge.

“This company is fanatical about great service,” Mr. Taylor wrote, “not just satisfying customers, but amazing them.”

In an age of clueless, surly or impossible-to-reach customer service personnel, Zappos’s fanaticism helps it stand out. It is all in the hiring. After a few weeks of intensive training, new call-center employees are offered $1,000 on top of what they have earned to that point if they want to quit.

The theory, according to Mr. Taylor, is that the people who take the money “obviously don’t have the sense of commitment” Zappos requires from its employees. The company says about 10 percent of its trainees take the offer.

Zappos’s reputation preceded the Harvard Business item, of course. “Honestly, I’m getting to the point of burnout on hearing about Zappos in marketing circles,” Robert John Ed wrotewrote on his blog (redmarketer.com). But he still felt compelled to note this week that “the secret to Zappos’s success is real commitment that permeates through every customer and every transaction, every time.”

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