Fashion News Alert: Lilly Pulitzer Crashes the Internet, Chinese Tourists’ Luxury Spending Explodes, and Andreja Pejic’s Beauty Contract

Talk about shutting down the Internet!! Well, that is what Lilly Pulitzer’s debut collection for Target did on Sunday morning.

There was much hype of the Target/Lilly Pulitzer collaboration with press releases in January, a Target app to promote the collection, and New Yorkers given early access to collection at a “Lilly Resort” pop up store in Bryant Park last week. Shoppers in NYC lined up as early as 5am to shop at the pop up store in Bryant Park.

“We realize there is an extreme amount of excitement around this collaboration, and we apologize for any disappointment this may have caused,” said Target on April 19 about the crash and slowness of the website. Most of the Target/Lilly Pulitzer collection is being resold on Ebay.

Beauty has no boundaries

Not much has been heard of top model Andrej Pejic since he transitioned to Andreja Pejic. Known for having as many female modeling assignments as male modeling assignments since he burst on the scene in 2009, the ambisexual appeal of Pejic is now centered on one side of the fence, so to speak, since he has had gender reassignment surgery.

Beautiful as both a man and a woman, the newly transitioned Pejic has recently signed a beauty contract as the face of Make Up For Ever. This makes the 23-year old Bosnian one of the first transgender models to have a beauty contract.

Chinese deep pockets

Most fashion insiders are aware of the fact that Chinese tourists are the biggest of luxury goods worldwide. That said; astonishingly, the sale of luxury goods to Chinese tourist went up 122 percent in March after a 52 percent rise in February, bringing the increase for the first quarter to 67 percent, according to a report by VAT refund company Global Blue, as reported in fashionmag.com.

Chinese tourists tend to spend more money in Europe than in Hong Kong where recently many luxury stores have popped up. This is partially due to exchange rates where some luxury items are 50 percent less expensive in Europe than in major Chinese cities.

“This continues to reflect the redirection of Chinese spending from Hong Kong towards Europe in particular, given the widening of the price differentials, which is a much-discussed theme during the ongoing reporting season,” broker Barclays said in a note about the Global Blue figures.

According to Reuters, Global Blue reports that watches and jewelry performed best, with sales up 67 percent in March against 32 percent the previous month, it said. Leather goods sales rose 50 percent, versus 24 percent in February.

—William S. Gooch