Croton Watch

A group of luxury goods makers sued Alibaba Group Holding on Friday, contending the Chinese online shopping giant had knowingly made it possible for counterfeiters to sell their products throughout the world.

The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court by Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and other brands owned by Paris-based Kering SA seeking damages and an injunction for alleged violations of trademark and racketeering laws.

The lawsuit alleged that Alibaba had conspired to manufacture, offer for sale and traffic in counterfeit products bearing their trademarks without their permission.

A spokesman for Alibaba declined to comment.

New York City grocery shoppers may soon face a 10-cent fee on all plastic and paper bags, enlisting the nation's largest city in a growing green movement.

The City Council introduced a bill Wednesday that would impose the fee in an effort to spur customers to bring their own reusable bags. Supporters of the bill say it would benefit the city's economy as well as its environment.

"The bags get stuck in storms drains, they cause flooding and they litter our beaches," Councilwoman Margaret Chin of Manhattan, one of the co-sponsors of the legislation, said at a news conference.

"We coulda been a Lego! We coulda been a Rubik's Cube!"

Instead, Craig Zucker is in a shared workspace in Brooklyn, N.Y., hanging on. It's like a bad dream: He's no longer selling Buckyballs—the tiny magnetic desk toys that did $40 million in sales in just four years. Instead, the 34-year-old is selling Liberty Balls, chestnut-size magnets that are weaker, lamer and much less lucrative. His trendy Manhattan office is gone, and so are all his employees, save one. The two of them rent this cube inside a former warehouse.

Brite Promotions has hired Jason Blake, formerly vice president of marketing and client partnerships at Shecky's Media, as vice president of business development. He will work out of the agency's Manhattan and New Jersey offices, reporting to senior vice president Pete D'Andrea.

Perry Ellis International announced the election of Eduardo Sardiña as a new independent member to the company’s board of directors, bringing the total number of directors to seven and the number of independent directors to five.

"HOME IS WHERE the heart is," may be perfectly cute and philosophical as far as generic cultural idioms go, but ?information-laden it is not. After all, the home is a big place, so where exactly in the house might the "heart" be? The kitchen?

Schmatta: Rags To Riches To Rags brings to life the vibrant, unexpected history of the Garment District which for many years was the heart and soul of Midtown Manhattan, but is now in danger of disappearing. For thousands of immigrants the garment industry was a path to their American Dream, but today most of those jobs are gone.
Click here to read the entire story from HBO.

It’s early, but Spring 2010 is shaping up to be a season of storied fabrics. Yesterday we told you about David Hart’s new line of ties, made out of Thomas Mason cotton shirt fabric; and today we got a look at a new collection of khakis, shorts and work shirts that’s cut from the same material Filson uses for those briefcases you see guys carrying around (here in Manhattan, at least).
Click here to read the entire story from GQ.com.

Millions of Americans are about to feel like the Griswalds in National Lampoon’s Family Vacation (Moose out front should have told you). Desperate for their next venti latte, they will (or, depending on when you read this, they have) approached the local java brewery only to find the doors locked and themselves coffee blocked. That’s right, Starbucks is having an unprecedented three-hour-universe-wide shut down in an attempt to re-energize the barista population (They do know they work all day with caffeine, right?). I can only imagine how the meeting will go. Hopped up managers extolling company pride, talking brightly about the

SOME SAY IT was sheer coincidence when presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s poll numbers soared in Iowa and New Hampshire a mere few weeks after Chuck Norris-endorsed, “Huck and Chuck” campaign gear was released on his Web site. Others will say it was inevitable and simply demonstrates the power of a quality promotional product. What can’t be argued, though, is the fact that promotional products go with politics like peas go with carrots. Fittingly, the first political product actually coincided with the first President of the United States, George Washington, who wore a political button during his inauguration on April 30, 1789 in Manhattan. His