—Matthew Schneier

Retailer/designer collaborations are a dime a dozen, but Asos sets its apart by allowing designers the opportunity to create categories that aren’t already part of their lines. Its first Asos Inc. designer, Thomas Tait,wholesale Tiffany jewelry, created his first bags; Gray used the chance to launch jewelry, which will also be styled into her upcoming show. Her pieces are all smiles—not to mention googly eyes.

“The jewelry I wanted to make was fun pieces that could be layered up or worn alone,” Gray told Style.com. “They have a carnival feel to them, like the duck whistle earrings, the large scale packets of fries, and the sun earring wearing sunglasses. They’re definitely for enjoying.”

The Gray pieces, which include pendants, earrings, studs, and even a working bell, are plated in 22-karat gold. They retail for between $60 and $295 on www.asos.com.
—Matthew Schneier

Photo: Courtesy of Asos

Click here for our slideshow.

Photo: Stefano Guindani / SGP

But its results fell short of Wall Street expectations, and its shares fell more than 5 percent Tuesday.

The biggest U.S. tire maker also cautioned that global tire industry growth will be at a slower pace near term than previously predicted due to economic difficulties in several markets.

For the period ended Dec. 31, Goodyear reported net income of $18 million, or 7 cents per share. That compares with a net loss of $177 million, or 73 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items in the latest period, Goodyear said that its earnings were 3 cents per share. Analysts expected earnings of 20 cents per share, according to a FactSet survey.

The prior-year period included a $160 million charge tied to its plans to close a plant in Union City, Tenn.

Quarterly revenue increased 12 percent to $5.68 billion from $5.07 billion partly on higher tire prices, but tire unit volumes dropped 5 percent on difficulties in Latin America,Discount Adidas shoes, flooding in Thailand and declining replacement industry volumes in mature markets.

The revenue performance missed Wall Street’s estimate of $5.86 billion.

Goodyear said that revenue per tire rose 19 percent for the quarter, taking out the effects of foreign currency translation.

A focus on high-end tires helped Goodyear increase revenue per tire by 17 percent for 2011.

“Our price-mix strategy was critical to our ability to offset record high raw material costs and the success of that strategy continued through the end of the year,” chairman and CEO Richard Kramer told analysts in a conference call.

Its shares fell 72 cents, or 5.2 percent, to close at $13.25 Tuesday. Its shares are still up 55 percent from their 52-week low of $8.53 in early October. They peaked for the year at $18.83 in early May.

For the year, Goodyear reported net income of $321 million, or $1.26 per share. In the previous year it lost $216 million, or 89 cents per share.

The Akron, Ohio company’s annual revenue rose 21 percent to $22.77 billion from $18.83 billion.

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Gisele Bündchen closes the Alexander Wang show at New York Fashion Week autumn/winter 2012. Photo: Vladimir Potop
New York Fashion Week: Money talks on the catwalk
BY Luke Leitch | 15 February 2012

The Dr-Seuss-meets-the-Brothers-Grimm extravagance of Marc Jacobs show was as barkingly fantastic as Battersea Dogs Home in full cry. So backstage, in search of an entrée that would hold his sleep-deprived attention for a moment, we congratulated him on Rachel Feinstein’s sinister fairytale “fantasy set”. The Jacobs eyebrows arched (no Botox there, but possibly some shaping): “Fantasy? This is what I do for a living, it’s not fantasy. It’s a real show.”

New York Fashion Week is rich in atmosphere: pin-legged junior editors leap from yellow cabs across subway grilles belching steam; the eavesdropping is hilarious (at Tory Burch two minutes ago, I heard “I like a nose job. Same as anybody. But her nose job? Euuwwgh”); the clipboard fascists are spectacularly humourless; and there is always the same, slightly mournful, pink-haired transvestite lurking outside the shows.

Lacking, however, is what Jacobs was getting at: barkingly fantastic, ” real ” shows. The European editors won’t say this to their hosts’ faces (too polite and advertising fixated), but Jacobs is really the only show any of them are properly excited to see: “It’s New York’s only Prada moment,” said one.

Milan apart, this city markets commercial fashion better than any other. This week, Women’s Wear Daily estimated that to hit the holy grail of becoming a corporate entity, a designer needs to generate sales of $25 million (almost £16 million) a year. So in this cash-is-king culture, fashion is divided into haves and have nots: the aspirant unestablished who have to try and present something creative yet mass-marketable enough to catch the attention of the buyers and hedge-funders, and the big beasts - Hilfiger, Burch, Lauren - who use the collections as (often excellent) image building exercises for the rest of their empires. That’s why, excluding Jacobs, you so rarely see quite the same gloriously loopy theatre here that you get in Milan, Paris, and just occasionally London, too.

Marc Jacobs

“It was hysterical yet historical, and a little bit twisted,” said Marc Jacobs. Backed by the financial might of LVMH, Jacobs provides New York Fashion Week with its only full-tilt fashion moment. Yet again he’s pulled that rabbit from his hat, courtesy of some mega millinery in multi-coloured fur, puritan clothes in Technicolour, zingy paisley and an enormous origami creepy-castle set by the artist Rachel Feinstein. Analysing whether anyone fancies wearing some diamante-buckled, high-heeled pilgrim shoes or a tiger-print Jamiroquai-ish hat is not the point: this was an exercise in considered craziness, Cat in The Hat meets Kurt Cobain (said Jacobs), a spectacle for the sheer what-the-hell sake of it.
4/5

In pictures: Marc Jacobs autumn/winter 2012

Alexander Wang

When tweed met fishnet? Sounds like a nightmare fashion-fusion of Downton Abbey and Belle de Jour. But in the hands of Alexander Wang, it worked, despite the stupid decision to pull the models’ polo necks up to under their noses, so that they resembled gags.
Tweed was bonded with vinyl into sinister raincoats, and worn over waxed leather jerkins, skirts and tunics, plus dominatrix boots to create a don’t-mess-with-me uniform. The leather trousers with a belt that looped under the wearer’s rump were impractical, but attention-grabbing. Wang is revered for elevating sportswear into the fashion vernacular, but, happily, he appears to be trying to move on from that tired formula, one puffer gilet apart. The supermodel Gisele came on at the end. They didn’t gag her.
3.5/5

In pictures: Alexander Wang autumn/winter 2012

Tommy Hilfiger

The gravel that lined Hilfiger’s faux-terracotta catwalk sparked havoc for the high-heeled guest list that included Uma Thurman. Once settled, equilibrium was restored with a collection that combined military, equestrian, English country, biker and rock ‘n’ roll references in one multiple-personality melange. It almost entirely succeeded: motorcycle trousers looked fine against tartan-print jackets; cable knit on silk dresses or neoprene coats were clever; the Mary Quant-y Sixties laser-cut shift dresses, Emma Peel-appealing; and a green or burgundy quilted suede biker jacket with a touch of Chanel about it rightly got plenty of air. Hilfiger said: “She’s not going to wear a Purdey hunting jacket, or pure motorcycle, or pure equestrian. So to make something that combines all those elements made sense to us.”
3.5/5

In pictures: Tommy Hilfiger autumn/winter 2012

Diane von Furstenberg

Tina Turner’s Let’s Stay Together shuddered from the sound system as Diane von Furstenberg and her dashing French designer Yvan Mispelaere promenaded down the catwalk at the end. They looked very much a (creative) couple.
They rustled up a straight-to-the-point collection of sinuously twisting wrap dresses, complementarily toned separates and jumpsuits, and some devastating LBDs with shiny, sheer, or velvet panels to catch the eye. To kookify things, there were also plenty of arty references, including Pollock spatters on trouser suits, and telephone dial and clock-motif handbags bags à la Dada.
“The idea is to glorify the woman, and make her sexy and proud of her body,” said von Furstenberg backstage.
3/5

In pictures: Diane von Furstenberg autumn/winter 2012

DKNY

When it’s freezing, how can a woman stay warm without looking like she’s been mugged by a duvet? This has been a pressing question in New York this week, but Donna Karan kicked it to the kerb. Her answer: snug down-filled jackets rescued from shapelessness by waist-hugging belts.
To underline their qualifications as insulation, models hit the catwalk direct from the kerb outside - and looked convincingly un-traumatised by the sub-zero winds that were flying in off the Hudson river.
The un-parka’d models were less fortunate. They looked great, but deserved danger-money for braving the gales in a collection that started with no-nonsense city-wear - slim-fit trouser suits in black and kick-skirt dresses - then played, as last season, with florals and zingy-coloured eveningwear.
3/5

In pictures: DKNY autumn/winter 2012

Carolina Herrera

Renée Zellweger and a charity gala’s worth of big-haired, certain-vintage uptown socialites thronged to see Carolina Herrera, a three decades-strong stalwart of polite-society chic.
For next season, she presented a selection of navy-blue and black separates - high jackets, slim, tailored trousers and chic dresses - topped off with hair so comprehensively pushed back it looked as if the models had been caught in a wind tunnel. This day-wear was sometimes lovely - and never anything but utterly polite - yet the eveningwear did occasionally veer perilously close to meringue territory, particularly a finale dress that was a riot of peachy layers and sported a train whose ostentation rivalled the Orient Express in its pomp.
2.5/5

Jenny Packham and Carolina Herrera’s new take on old-fashioned glamour

Preen

It started with a pretty, gold-buttoned white dress with blocks of orange and black at the sleeves, and a white lace sheer top above a pretty butterfly-print skirt. Then came a butterfly effect of ever-more complicated combinations of print, sludge-toned blocky panels, floral embroidery, and irregular hems. There was the odd hit, as with a mossy-green drawstring skirt against an elegantly cut botanical-print blouse. But the misses - such as a dress that was sheer below the thigh, silver-beaded just above, with white flowers at the back, black lace on the arms, and green florals on the chest (phew) - came equally as frequently.
2/5

In pictures: Preen autumn/winter 2012

Prabal Gurung

The room was awash with goodwill: people here really want Gurung to succeed. But what about the clothes? Well, they are dizzyingly complicated. One bomber jacket had a Mary Katrantzou-ish digital skull and petal-print panel with sleeves of blue tinsel - a hard ask to wear. The finale dresses seemed to incorporate every weapon in fashion’s eveningwear arsenal: organza, lamé, sequins, sheer panels, feathers. These maximalist extravagances are in-your-face bewitching at first, yet quickly become exhausting. When Gurung reined in that kitchen-sink compulsion, his clothes became classier. From a black trouser suit with a jacket featuring last-collection Christopher Kane-ish diagonal slashes, to an opening section of caped, black outfits, there were some delicately ravishing whispers hidden amongst the tinsel noisiness.
2/5

In pictures: Prabal Gurung autumn/winter 2012

3.1 Phillip Lim

“Stop the smoke!” came the shouted plea from the photographers’ pit. But no, the thick fumes kept squirting down from pipes above. Along with the sound of mobile phone feedback that nerve-gratingly crackled over the sound system, it was either a piece of bravado from the producers - just how much torture will the audience tolerate to worship at the cult of Lim? - or it was a drunken dare gone wrong. The clothes were OK,Replica G-star, but not really worth the assault. White at the back, black at the front trousers beneath fluff-panelled jackets, busily detailed wool bikers, and chunky knits with complicated necks - it was wearable day-wear fitted out to look quirky. This sells brilliantly for Lim, so why not?
2/5

In pictures: 3.1 Phillip Lim autumn/winter 2012

ALL PHOTOS BY VLADIMIR POTOP

Nor was Ingelmo’s simple really all that simple. He showed towering leather platform sandals and sharply angled ankle boots in black, nude, silver, and gold—not exactly hop-on-the-subway fare. But he’s conscious of comfort; he’s a runner himself and often spotted in New Balances when he’s not wearing his own leather high-tops—so he’s done thick-strap flat sandals, too.

You’ll have to wait for spring to snatch up the new version of his best-selling Thriller, a gravity-defying platform that’s a blend of sexy straps and futuristic metallic leather. If you need to get your Ingelmo fix now, you can check out the Helmut Lang and Chris Benz Spring shows, both of which feature AI collabs. Or you can just head down to his recently opened boutique on Wooster in Soho.
—Laurie Trott

Photo: Courtesy of Alejandro Ingelmo

—Maggie McVeigh

Photos: Clint Spaulding/Patrick McMullan

The two actors play a married couple in the movie, which follows an aspiring writer who gains fame when he finds an old manuscript and passes it off as his own.

The pair avoided any appearance of their reported off-screen romance by staying apart from one another while posing for photos and giving interviews to support the film. Saldana did affectionately touch Cooper as they passed in a hallway, though.

Both had been to Sundance before, where snow fell throughout the festival and the weather dipped into the teens. Still, Saldana maintained her fashionista edge.

“I did bring warm stuff but I also brought fashion-y stuff. Come on. You’ve got to pay the price, even if it’s too cold,” she said.

The 33-year-old actress wore green suede shoes with spiked stiletto heels despite the slushy conditions.

“They’re kind of fabulous. They’re also lethal. So I have to be really careful, and somebody has to be careful not to piss me off,” she said with a smile. “Yeah right. I’m just trying not to fall. It’s like `Please don’t fall. Please don’t fall,’ if I’m walking.”

Cooper’s first time at the festival was 12 years earlier with the eventual cult comedy hit “Wet Hot American Summer.”

“I wasn’t even able to get into the screening,” he recalled.

Saldana said playing Cooper’s wife in “The Words” made her think about how she approaches relationships and the concept of unconditional love.

“Like how unconditional am I when I’m in love. Do you bypass certain things? Would I be able to be with a man or with someone that feels incomplete, doesn’t matter what we do?” she said. “If we change this, if we get married, if we have a baby just someone that feels incomplete. Would I be able to deal with that for so many years and accept them as who they are and go, `Come as you are. This is who I fell in love with and I don’t want to change you?’

“I’m not like that, which is why I wanted to play her, because it was a challenge, you know. Look at me, I totally said I’m not unconditional at all. So awful.”

Cooper’s part as author-plagiarist Rory Jansen is his second writerly role after playing a novelist in last year’s “Limitless.” But that’s just coincidence, he said. Despite having a degree in English, the 37-year-old actor says he typically only writes in his “girlnal.”

“Journal, sorry,” he said. “That’s a `Wet Hot’ reference. Paul Rudd says that.”

Saldana,Replica Adidas, meanwhile, is in the midst of shooting the “Star Trek” sequel in Los Angeles with director J.J. Abrams and much of the original’s cast.

“It’s wonderful because I’ve been dying to work with the cast again, to work with JJ,” she said. “I love him so much. He’s such an amazing human being and such an amazing storyteller and a great director, so what more can I ask for? I start the year and I’m literally going back to a very familiar environment and being a part of a great story.”

“The Words,” which also stars Dennis Quaid, Jeremy Irons, Ben Barnes and Olivia Wilde, premiered Friday. It was acquired early in the festival by CBS Films, which plans to release it theatrically in the fall. Sundance continues through Sunday.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report.

___

Online:

www.sundance.org/festival

Her collection will make its official debut tomorrow afternoon at Eyebeam, but Style.com got a sneak preview of the designer’s sketching process. In the video (above), she is sketching the first look she ever created for her Spring collection. “I was thinking of a single piece of fabric that was anchored by the belt,” she tells Style.com. “I wanted to create a soft yet tailored look by adding the pleats to the draping.”
—Kristin Studeman