Fashion's cost crunch, NewGen winners, H&M soars on Lanvin, Givhan to Newsweek, Pierre Hardy's fun house

Cost, demand pressures face fashion retailers (Reuters)
"The rising cost of cotton and labour and sluggish European demand are set to squeeze fashion retailers, results from world number one Inditex and others in the industry showed on Wednesday."

London's NewGen 2011 Winners Announced (Style.com)
"London is famously supportive of its young designers, and today, the British Fashion Council announced the 18 who will be the beneficiaries of the NewGen sponsorship at London fashion week in February."

H&M sales soar after Lanvin success (Retail Week)
"H&M, the Swedish fast fashion chain, said worldwide like-for-like sales jumped 8% in November, the month in which it launched its sell-out Lanvin collection."

Robin Givhan Leaving The Washington Post (Media Decoder)
"Robin Givhan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who became one of The Washington Post's biggest stars of the last generation, is leaving the paper to join Tina Brown's reconstituted Newsweek."

Critical Shopper | Pierre Hardy: The Fun House Awaits (NY Times)
"Like any Frenchman worth his fleur de sel, the new Pierre Hardy boutique immediately poses challenging questions. Like, where is it?"