Aslaug Magnusdottir

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Rumor has it the producers of the UK talent show X Factor will ask Kate Moss to serve as the program's style consultant. [The Mirror]
  

• In March, Louis Vuitton will release an anthology of short stories inspired by its legendary luggage entitled The Trunk. [WWD]
  

• Designer Tanya Taylor offers a tour of her light-filled New York studio. [Refinery29]
  

• Asked to describe 2012 in just one word, Moda Operandi cofounder Áslaug Magnúsdóttir simply replied, "Prints." [Racked]
  

• Bar Refaeli, Hilary Rhoda, Molly Sims, and other models shared pictures of how they spent the holidays. [Modelinia]
  

• Barneys's best-kept secret may be the vintage boutique at its Madison Avenue flagship store. [Style.com]
  

• For Club Monaco's head men's designer Aaron Levine, the most important style rule is to "dress comfortably and in a way that's honest to who I am as a person." [The Daily Telegraph]

Photo courtesy of Louis Vuitton.

>> Moda Operandi, the online trunk show site cofounded by Lauren Santo Domingo and Aslaug Magnusdottir, has added two new directors. Roopal Patel, a longtime executive at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, will join the site this month as fashion director overseeing merchandising, and Taylor Tomasi Hill, former style and accessories director at Marie Claire, will become artistic director focusing on the site's editorial. The site has been growing rapidly, according to Magnusdottir, and more so since September, when Conde Nast invested in the company. [NY Times]
Photo by Phil Oh

>> Launched in February during New York Fashion Week, Lauren Santo Domingo's online trunk show site, Moda Operandi, is now raising its second round of venture capital funding, co-founder and CEO Aslaug Magnusdottir confirmed yesterday. Magnusdottir declined to say how much was being raised, but noted that she had been approached by several investors as interest in online luxury retailers grows. "The recent successes of Gilt [Groupe], Rue La La, and Net-a-Porter being sold has really made this a much more interesting sector for a lot of investors," Magnusdottir said, referring to recent deals. MO received its first round of funding last year from Boston-based venture capital firm New Atlantic Ventures, and is expected to be profitable by the end of 2012, Magnusdottir said. She hopes that the site's membership will hit 100,000 by the end of this year, up from 15,000 now. [Reuters]

>> Print editors are starting to invest in online ventures — literally, like Nina Garcia, who recently sunk money into Fashism, and in the case of Lauren Santo Domingo, whose online trunk show venture was first reported in August.

Details of Santo Domingo's site have finally emerged: it's called Moda Operandi, or modaoperandi.com, and will launch during New York Fashion Week in February as members-only (although members can invite friends). The idea, which was conceived a year ago by founder Aslaug Magnusdottir, who used to head up merchandising for Gilt Noir, the private website for top spenders at Gilt Groupe, is to enable members to place orders from design houses in New York, London, Milan and Paris (including Thakoon, Proenza Schouler, Prabal Gurung, Narciso Rodriguez, Vera Wang, Alexander Wang, and Giambattista Valli) within 48 hours of their runway show.

Shoppers will put down a 50 percent deposit on their orders, which they will receive in roughly four months, versus the six month lag it usually takes for designer goods to hit retail. Clothes that don't fit can be returned.

For starters, Moda Operandi will be offering four women's collections a year — for Spring, Resort, Fall, and Pre-Fall — from about 50 designers, and in the downtime between collections, it will sell jewelry and accessories. There will also be editorial content like backstage interviews and stylist recommendations.

>> Lauren Santo Domingo has cofounded a startup company, Trunk Show Inc., which aims to put the trunk show process online. The company, which has already raised $1.15 million in venture capital from New Atlantic Ventures, is still in stealth mode, but a few details could be learned about what they have planned.

The idea is to stream video of fashion shows, after which customers and store buyers could both order from the collection they just saw — direct from the manufacturer. This would effectively cut out the lag time between when the pieces are shown on the catwalk and when they hit store racks. A similar tactic was first tried by Net-a-Porter back in 2008 in conjunction with Roland Mouret's show, but Trunk Show Inc. likely wants to encompass a wide number of brands at once. Fashionista suggests that the clothes sold in this way may also be at "a 10 to 30 percent discount, given that most designers offer a small discount at their trunk shows."

When's the expected launch? »