For the June issue of Portfolio magazine, Willow Duttge writes a piece described as …

A back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much the luxury company everyone would love to buy may actually be worth. — (Via Portfolio)

The Chanel empire comprises a network of different companies, each privately held by the ever-discrete Wertheimer family, so an accurate evaluation is notoriously difficult. In many ways the secrecy that surrounds the brand also increases its mystique.

$5.6B - $7.7B: Fashion business
$3.1B - $4.1B: Perfume business
$2.2B - $3B: Additional Chanel equity
Total… $10.3B - $14.8B

At a time when Prada and Ferregamo hover between confidence and nervousness around going public, and where Prada, according to fund managers “faces a credibility problem if it doesn’t go ahead” (Via Forbes), it’s a good time to be private, and a good time to be Chanel.

Anyone who saw the excellent BBC series Savile Row will remember that the world of English bespoke tailoring is a marvellous clash of ego, confusion, exquisite quality, narrow-mindedness, English blustering, confidence and fear of the future…

For example… Meet Colonel Blasher

A particularly memorable scene is the ‘war cabinet’ meeting of bespoke tailors to discuss the news that Abercrombie & Fitch, which manages to qualify as a tailoring company, has the right to operate in the restricted Savile Row zone. It’s end-of-an-era stuff… But also one with opportunities.

We have been working with clients in the London bespoke industry for some time, to help retain the best of the heritage while repositioning the category for the future, updating business models, rethinking communications etc.

While Savile Row is an iconic centre for bespoke tailoring, the trend is growing globally.

Tom Ford, Thom Browne, and others are evolving the tradition of bespoke, and Paul Smith recently exported a bespoke initiative in New York…

Select fans of Paul Smith’s particular brand of Carnaby Street–via–Savile Row English flash have been stopping in to the second-floor showroom at the designer’s Greene Street boutique for a limited series of fittings with his crack “bespoke team.” — (Via NY Mag)

Meanwhile, the world of bespoke has rather shockingly collided with the world of blogging, in the form of English Cut, from Thomas Mahon, bespoke Savile Row tailor (but actually operating in the North of England).

Unlike many bespoke tailors who take the names of their clients to the grave, Thomas is cut from a newer cloth, his “Shameless Namedropping” section breezily mentions that he has dressed Prince Charles and Bryan Ferry.

And the “Why buy a suit from me” section sets out his stall with an eagerness that borders on the ungentlemanly…

1. Mobility and Economics.
2. Credentials.
3. Temperament.
4. My Age.

Read the EnglishCut blog

Thomas is part of the new revolution. As women’s couture stumbles, men’s bespoke is going from strength to strength…

The photographic collaboration between Juergen Teller and Marc Jacobs has lasted 11 years; with Teller shooting each of Jacobs’ campaigns; including the most recent highly-publised Posh-Spice-In-A-Bag campaign…

To celebrate the relationship between Teller and Jacobs, Steidl Publishing is to publish a retrospective look… But not until September…

Preview book on amazon.com

The aesthetic created between Teller and Jacobs has reached such a level of familiarity that when New York agency spoofed the look in an initiative called The New Enthusiasm people were surprisingly easily fooled…

One of the strategic issues around the weakening economy is that luxury brands have become increasingly aggressive at defending their trademarks, copyrights, and positioning against competitors.

The most unfortunate recent example is the case of Louis Vuitton vs. Nadia Plesner, a student trying to draw attention to the situation in Darfur…

Louis Vuitton has filed charges against a 26 year old student artist for selling posters and t-shirts of a Darfur victim, holding a designer bag inspired by a Louis Vuitton design. All of the profits had been going to charity but Louis Vuitton is still demanding massive damages. — (Via TorrentFreak)

It’s particularly ironic after the recent Louis Vuitton Brooklyn exhibition where the brand paid a knowing tribute to the brand’s famous street hawkers (See Louis Vuitton’s street hawkers)

But Louis Vuitton is not alone…

Gucci has recetly moved aggressively on Chinese counterfeits — (Via Reuters)

Juicy Couture has just challenged Victoria’s Secret on derriere-based logo activity — (Via Yahoo!)

And it can’t be long before Nokia’s Vertu brand takes on Veptu