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By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - From Union Jack booties to "Born to Rule" sleepwear, the British royal family has joined retailers in offering baby products to mark the arrival of the royal heir. Analysts estimate the baby fever could boost the economy by 240 million pounds ($380 million). A baby sleepsuit modeled on a guardsman's outfit is one of the gifts on sale at palace shops by the Royal Collection Trust, which uses all profits for the upkeep of the royal palaces. ...

By Astrid Wendlandt PARIS (Reuters) - LVMH will throw open the doors of its Louis Vuitton workshops and Hennessy cognac cellars at the weekend in the latest salvo of an advertising war among luxury groups to show off the craftsmanship behind their brands. Starting on Saturday, the world's top luxury group by sales and market value will also offer behind-the-scenes tours of Christian Dior's salons, Guerlain's perfume plant outside Paris and Fendi leather shoe and handbag workshops in Italy. ...

By Neil Maidment LONDON (Reuters) - British luxury fashion group Mulberry defended its plans to move further upmarket, saying it was crucial to expansion plans in Asia, where local shoppers and outbound tourists are still spending heavily on top-end lines. Mulberry, known for its Bayswater and Alexa handbags, makes over 80 percent of its sales in Britain and continental Europe, and has been hit hard recently by weak consumer spending there, as well as cooling demand from Chinese shoppers and tourists. ...

By Victoria Cavaliere WILDWOOD, New Jersey (Reuters) - The bottom line on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey: Pull up your pants. The Jersey Shore city voted on Wednesday to ban saggy pants on its two-mile stretch of boardwalk. Offenders whose pants hang lower than three inches from the waist could be fined up to $200, and the statute also requires shirts to be worn on the boardwalk between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. ...

By Sarah Morris and Anna Ringstrom MADRID/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Cold weather in recession-weary Europe left spring collections on the racks of the world's biggest clothing retailers, Inditex and H&M, while small British rival ASOS beat the seasons with soaring demand for its cost-conscious online offering. Spain's Inditex , which owns the Zara chain, posted its weakest quarterly growth in net profit in four years, and an unusually cold spring and early summer did little for sales of sleeveless minidresses and denim skater skirts going into the second quarter. Its shares slipped 1 percent. ...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Hugo Boss has signed up designer Jason Wu, a favorite of American First Lady Michelle Obama, as the German fashion house seeks to sell more women's dresses and suits in the United States and China. Hugo Boss, mainly known for its suits for men, gets about 11 percent of its 2.4 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in annual sales from womenswear and has been looking to expand this area. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - British handbag maker Mulberry said Emma Hill, the creative director behind its hit Alexa and Del Rey bags, is to leave the firm. Responding to press reports of her departure, Mulberry confirmed on Monday that the highly-regarded Hill had asked to leave the fashion firm, and she was in discussions over the timing of her exit. Shares in the group fell on the news and were down 9 percent to 970 pence at 11:37 a.m. British time (1037 GMT). ...

By John Ruwitch RANCHO MIRAGE, California (Reuters) - China's photogenic "first lady" Peng Liyuan played steel drums in Trinidad, strolled hand-in-hand with a coffee farmer's daughter in Costa Rica and snapped pictures with her iPhone in the shadow of Mayan ruins in Mexico. But the glamorous and popular wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping stepped out of the spotlight for two days in California while her husband held unprecedented informal talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at a lush retreat in the desert on the last leg of a four-country trip. ...

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - German supermodel Heidi Klum, who has strutted from the runway to entrepreneur and reality TV host, will now try her hand as a judge on NBC's television competition show "America's Got Talent." Klum, 40, nicknamed "The Body" for her statuesque figure, has carved a career beyond modeling, as the host of Lifetime's fashion series "Project Runway" and "Germany's Next Top Model." For "America's Got Talent," the model stepped out of her role as fashion expert for the first time, to sit alongside former Spice Girl Mel B. ...

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Models on the runway in Malawi sported dresses with bottle-tops and wearing hats made of chicken feathers, as the southern African country hosted its first-ever Fashion Week.

Vera Wang, arguably the queen of red-carpet dressing, didn't go into the fashion business with stars in her eyes. She knew about its unglamorous side, the hard work and, especially, the risks. And there ...

NEW YORK (AP) — The big winners at the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards on Monday night were Proenza Schouler for womenswear, Thom Browne for menswear and Phillip Lim for accessories, but the crowd seemed to have the most love for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California teen turned heads at his prom when he showed up with a Sports Illustrated model as his date.

LONDON (Reuters) - The wedding dress worn by film star Elizabeth Taylor for her first marriage to hotel heir Conrad Hilton in 1950 will go up for sale next month, auction house Christie's said on Friday. The simple, but elegant garment created by Hollywood costume designer Helen Rose for the then 18-year-old Taylor is an oyster shell-colored, floor-length satin gown with a fine silk gauze off-the-shoulder illusion neckline. The dress, which was a gift from MGM film studios, has a top estimate of 50,000 pounds ($75,300). ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Ralph Lauren Corp. reported a 35 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit as the luxury retailer benefited from lower cotton prices and cost controls.

MIAMI (AP) — The handbag Donna Karan was showing off Friday lacked her signature logo, or any designer's logo. It was made of paper mache and, the fashion designer said, represented Haiti's handmade carnival masks — in wearable form.

Here comes the bride, all dressed in... black!? "90210" star Shenae Grimes - clad in a black wedding gown -- tied the knot with fiance Josh Beech, she revealed on Twitter on Friday.

Style icon Donna Karan is synonymous with American fashion. The mega successful designer has dressed the world's most beautiful women, like Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore and Ashley Greene. Yet, off the runway, Donna's heart belongs to Haiti.

Longtime TV stars Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield have made it official!

Jennifer Aniston is always dressed to the nines and that was no exception on Tuesday night when she stepped out at the premiere of her latest project, "Call Me Crazy."

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Clothes inspired by the Incas and other pre-Hispanic cultures and the distinct patterns of Peru's regions have dominated the runways at Lima's fashion week.

MIAMI (AP) — Lilly Pulitzer hosted parties in her bare feet and wasn't afraid to get a little messy — just as long as she looked good and had fun, too.

Pulitzer Sold Her First Designs at Her Palm Beach Juice Stand

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's Tax Commission has fined fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana 343.4 million euros ($441 million) for tax evasion. The decision confirmed to Reuters by Italy's tax agency on Tuesday relates to payments the agency says should have been made when the designers sold their D&G and Dolce & Gabbana brands to their own Luxembourg-based holding company GADO in 2004. The authorities ruled that the designers engineered the transaction to avoid paying taxes in Italy, where corporate tax rates are among the world's highest. ...

By Melanie Lee SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Vera Wang, the queen of bridal couture, is abolishing the nearly $500 fee she charged Chinese brides-to-be to try on a garment at her new Shanghai bridal boutique after the move, meant to deter counterfeiters, set off a global outcry. Local and global media had criticized the surcharge as being discriminatory because it was applied only in China, at the company's Shanghai store, which staged a "soft opening" in January as the company's first bridal salon in the country, a vast potential market as the numbers of wealthy grow. ...

By Chris Gallagher TOKYO (Reuters) - Given Kate Spade Saturday's bold designs, bright colors and creative flair, it was probably only fitting that the new lifestyle brand opened its first flagship store in fashion-obsessed Tokyo. After all, the sister label of Kate Spade New York began developing the brand with Japanese consumers in mind more than three years ago, envisaging functional designs that would strike a chord with on-the-go urbanites and expand the original brand's DNA into a more casual realm. ...