Week in Review | Graphite's social commerce model, Luxury Index slides in May, Ethical fashion, Moda money

Is Graphite the Answer to F-Commerce Woes? (The Bottom Line)
"8th Bridge has launched a new social commerce product that turns the traditional F-commerce model on its head. Rather than bringing the cash register to the watercooler, the platform, called Graphite, puts the watercooler next to the cash register, bringing a Facebook-powered social layer to existing commerce channels."

Clouds on the Horizon? (Market Pulse)
"The Savigny Luxury Index slid 5.2 percent in May, underperforming the benchmark MSCI World Index by almost 2 percentage points. Strong results mixed with an increasingly glum outlook for Europe and indications of a slowdown in China resulted in some profit taking as investors exited the sector."

Can Ethical Fashion Really Be Fashionable? (Op-Ed)
"Fashion is driven by desire. But ethical fashion has been driven by — well, what exactly? A wish to semaphore that one is a caring kind of person while walking through life in pleather shoes?"

Moda Operandi Raises $36 Million, Expands from Pre-Commerce to E-Commerce (Intelligence)
""Pre-tail" fashion start-up Moda Operandi, which enables women to pre-order designer pieces straight off the runway via limited-time online trunk sales, announced that it has raised $36 million in a Series C round of funding led by RRE Ventures, with the participation of existing investors New Enterprise Associates, New Atlantic Ventures and Condé Nast, as well as strategic investors IMG and LVMH."

Burberry's Angela Ahrendts: High tech's fashion model (Fortune)
"Ahrendts has been boldly reinventing Burberry's image and operations since she arrived at the British company six years ago. Her moves have paid off handsomely: Annual sales of some $3 billion are more than double 2007 levels, and the stock has returned nearly 300% since Ahrendts' arrival."

Kenneth Cole to take company private (FT)
"Fashion designer Kenneth Cole is taking the publicly traded company that bears his name private in a deal that values it at $279m… Mr Cole drew on a number of sources to finance the deal, according to people familiar with the company."

Fashion Awards, on Speed Dial (NY Times)
"The CFDA show, at Lincoln Center, may have been the fastest in memory, helped by the fact that John Waters, the director and writer, gave awards to both the actor Johnny Depp and Rei Kawakubo, the designer of Comme des Garcons, who were missing in action."