THEATER REVIEW: 'Intimate Apparel' weaves tale of loneliness and longing

THEATER REVIEW: 'Intimate Apparel' weaves tale of loneliness and longing - Tuscaloosa News

THEATER REVIEW: 'Intimate Apparel' weaves tale of loneliness and longing - Tuscaloosa News
G-III Apparel (GIII) Up 3% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Continue? - Yahoo Finance
RYU Apparel to Expand Store Offering With Guesst - WWD
Kevon Looney becomes third Warrior to represent Anta shoes and apparel - NBCSports.com

THEATER REVIEW: 'Intimate Apparel' weaves tale of loneliness and longing - Tuscaloosa News

Posted: 05 Oct 2019 07:00 PM PDT

"Intimate Apparel" reveals itself quietly, in a hush of linen, a susurration of silk, an exchange of increasingly intimate letters, a shifting of connections from latent to blatant.

In the production from the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance, director Matt Davis' steady hand on Lynn Nottage's drama, inspired by the playwright's great-grandmother, works so craftily, unwinds so generously, that a late reveal — no spoilers — that was well telegraphed still brought audible gasps from the audience.

That's a sure sign you've sold your story, when even a change you can see coming, that you sense rolling up from the tone and tenor of the work, still punches in the gut.

Nottage, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner for drama, wrote "Intimate Apparel" as a meditation on loneliness and longing, centered on Esther (Kyra Davis), a mid-30s seamstress in 1905 New York City, stuffing hard-earned dollars into a quilt, hoping to one day open a beauty shop where black women can be treated like royalty ... like white customers. She's accomplished, well thought of, and though she feels love unlikely in her circumstances, yearns to weave marriage and family into the dream.

She crafts for a range of clients, from starched and wealthy white patron Mrs. Van Buren (Lily DiSilverio) to fun-loving, gin-drinking prostitute Mayme (Alexa Nunn), adorning corsets and other undergarments with rosy hues, exaggerated curves, lacy embellishments. She lives and works out of a boarding house owned by older and somewhat wiser Mrs. Dickson (Raven Jeannette Cotton), and carries on a professional verging on friendly relationship with Hasidic merchant Mr. Marks (Osama Ashour), who sets aside his finest fabrics for Esther. Letters of courtship begin to fill Esther's heart, from a Caribbean man struggling on the Panama Canal project, George Armstrong (Jeremiah Packer), who gets Esther's name and address from a mutual friend.

Complications intertwine. The devout Mr. Marks cannot express his feelings to Esther, who likewise recognizes the impossibility of their tenderness growing beyond. Mrs. Dickson suffered a troubled marriage, but still touts the virtues of settled life to Esther. Mayme seems the most uninhibited and joyous of Esther's connections, but beneath her facade is a lust for a life more settled, more like Esther's. Mrs. Van Buren's jokes about the shortcomings of her life turn out to be not so whimsical. And Esther, illiterate, can neither read George's letters, nor write, to respond, and thus must depend on others, building expectations from falsehood before they even meet.

In a near-parallel to across-town's Theatre Tuscaloosa production of "Steel Magnolias," "Intimate Apparel" unveils largely in women's provinces, sewing rooms and boudoirs, with men registering mainly as absent, or temporary annoyances, with obvious exceptions here in the form of driven George, and reticent but smitten Mr. Marks. Where "Steel Magnolias" unrolls entirely within one beauty shop, "Intimate Apparel" moves around a bit more. But to emphasize Esther's centrality, Valentine Callais brightly constructed this world as one smart set, connected yet clearly distinct pieces representing the boarding room/bedroom/workshop, placing Mrs. Van Buren's and Mayme's to either side, and on the upper rails, George in Panama, and Mr. Marks in his modest store. The only character shifting between domains is Esther, at least until George disrupts all their lives.

For this mature telling, Davis pulled a mix of undergrad and master's-level actors who blend smartly, even though some are playing decades beyond their years and experiences. Davis embodies the plaintive soul of Esther, and ably carries the bulk of this narrative with grace. Ashour's work is astounding for the amount of emotion generated, tales told, from a very enclosed — physically and metaphorically — space. Packer's lithe energy threatens to move the play into another realm, though Davis and company ultimately trust the voice. Nunn and Cotton nimbly embody a sort of mismatched set of bookends to Esther, on one side the wild unconstrained sensibility; on the other a buttoned-down sense. Together they deliver a lot of the laughs, and the hurts. DiSilverio leans toward her character's quiet — again not entirely unseen, but still effective on arrival — emotional revelation with a tempered strength.

One downside of this quiet approach is that it emphasizes the Marian Gallaway Theatre's sometimes poor acoustics, especially the dreary spots mid-stage where even solid voices go to die. Perhaps due to having stage voices drilled in them for longer, the more mature actors rarely suffered from unintelligibility.

"Intimate Apparel" frames a portrait of lives that don't often make history books. As a couple of flashes of photography suggest, with titles to the effect of "unknown Negro couple," there's an intriguing, gentle mystery to lives lived in quiet search, ones where surfaces only suggest what underlying bones may reveal.

The closing performance will be 2 p.m. Sunday, in the Gallaway, Rowand-Johnson Building on the UA campus. Tickets are $20 general, $17 for seniors and UA faculty and staff, and $14 for students. For more, see www.theatre.ua.edu.

G-III Apparel (GIII) Up 3% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Continue? - Yahoo Finance

Posted: 05 Oct 2019 06:30 AM PDT

G-III Apparel (GIII) Up 3% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Continue?

A month has gone by since the last earnings report for G-III Apparel Group (GIII). Shares have added about 3% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500.

Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is G-III Apparel due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at its most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important catalysts.

G-III Apparel Posts Q2 Earnings Beat, Updates View

G-III Apparel posted second-quarter fiscal 2020 results, wherein adjusted earnings improved 4.5% year over year to 23 cents per share and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 22 cents. Quarterly earnings benefited from top-line growth and higher operating margin.

Net sales of $643.9 million rose 3.1% year over year. However, the top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $655 million, marking fourth straight quarter of sales miss. The figure mainly benefited from stellar results in wholesale operations on impressive brand performances. This was partly offset by persistent challenges in the company's retail operations.

Moreover, gross profit dipped 0.1% year over year to $231.8 million. Meanwhile, gross margin of 36% contracted 110 basis points (bps), thanks to lower gross margins in the retail and wholesale segments.

Furthermore, SG&A expenses inched down 1.3% year over year to $196.4 million. Operating profit increased 15.9% to $26.9 million in the fiscal second quarter, with operating margin expansion of 50 bps to 4.2%.

Segmental Performance

Net sales in the Wholesale segment were $588.6 million, up almost 8.1% year over year. Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and DKNY brands were primary growth drivers.

Net sales for the company's Retail segment were $84 million, down nearly 22% from the prior-year quarter's reported figure. The segment witnessed sales decline across Wilsons and G.H. Bass, somewhat offset by growth at DKNY. Notably, same-store sales declined nearly 21% at Wilsons and 16% at G.H. Bass, while it improved 3% at DKNY stores. A decline in the number of stores operated by the company also exerted pressure on the segment's performance.

Other Financial Details

GIII-Apparel ended second-quarter fiscal 2020 with cash and cash equivalents of $39.6 million, and long-term debt of $553.8 million. Total stockholders' equity was $1,167.8 million.

On a year-to-date basis, the company spent nearly $18 million as capital expenditures in fiscal 2020. Further, it repurchased about 1.3 million shares for $35 million, following which it had roughly 2.9 million shares available for buybacks under its authorized share repurchase plan.

Guidance

Management updated its view for fiscal 2020 to reflect the anticipated impacts of additional and potential tariffs. The company anticipates costs of roughly $12 million for this fiscal, thanks to impacts of the fourth tranche of tariffs.

The company now estimates net sales of nearly $3.30 billion in fiscal 2020 compared with the earlier projection of $3.28 billion, and $3.08 billion generated in fiscal 2019.

Moreover, the company now foresees adjusted EBITDA in the range of $295-$300 million compared with the prior anticipation of $307-$313 million. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are now expected in the band of $3.15-$3.25, down from $3.25-$3.35 guided earlier. In fiscal 2019, it recorded adjusted earnings of $2.86 per share.

Furthermore, management estimates adjusted losses in the company's Retail segment to be around $5 million higher than the loss reported in fiscal 2019. This incorporates high-single-digit decline in comps at Wilsons and Bass. DKNY's retail sales are expected to remain flat compared with the year-ago period's figure due to fall in the average comp store count. For DKNY's Wholesale and Licensing operations, top line is estimated to improve by roughly 25%.

For third-quarter fiscal 2020, G-III Apparel anticipates net sales of around $1.17 billion and adjusted EPS in the band of $1.87-$1.97. In the year-ago quarter, the company recorded sales of $1.07 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.88. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is currently pegged at $2.11, which is likely to witness downward revisions in the upcoming days. Moreover, the company assumes a high-single-digit decrease in comps at its retail operations.

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?

Estimates review followed a downward path over the past two months. The consensus estimate has shifted -8.11% due to these changes.

VGM Scores

Currently, G-III Apparel has a poor Growth Score of F, however its Momentum Score is doing a lot better with a C. Charting a somewhat similar path, the stock was allocated a grade of B on the value side, putting it in the top 40% for this investment strategy.

Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of D. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.

Outlook

G-III Apparel has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months.

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RYU Apparel to Expand Store Offering With Guesst - WWD

Posted: 02 Oct 2019 02:22 PM PDT

French artist @JR gave WWD an inside look at his work – including the project that some said would get him killed.⁣ ⁣ JR is at the Brooklyn Museum in the days ahead of a major show, "Chronicles," which surveys his complete body of work for the first time in North America. ⁣ JR challenged stereotypes by highlighting humanity through specificity.⁣ ⁣ For "Face to Face" he and artist friend Marco photographed Israelis and Palestinians who worked in the same professions — two actors, two sculptors, two security guards, two teachers — again with each posing how they imagined the other would see them. The artists pasted the dual images on the wall. JR struck up conversations with people passing by as a cameraman documented; the viewers had trouble figuring out who was from where.⁣ ⁣ "Only art can bring you to that complexity and paradox of things," he says. "That made me realize that the people become the best spokesperson about the work because they're from there. It really made me realize the power of the community and how they take the project forward," he adds.⁣ ⁣ Tap the link in bio for more. ⁣ ⁣ Report: @ktauer⁣ 📸: @benjamintayl0r .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ #wwdeye⁣ #jr⁣ #brooklynmuseum

Kevon Looney becomes third Warrior to represent Anta shoes and apparel - NBCSports.com

Posted: 04 Oct 2019 05:03 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Draymond Green warned us this would happen.

In the Warriors' first game at Chase Center, the team made good on all the concerns NBA observers had entering the season, losing 123-101 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night. Golden State's thin frontline was outworked by Anthony Davis -- who finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes -- while guard D'Angelo Russell struggled from the field.

On Thursday, Green hinted the Warriors had a long way to go to find cohesion. Less than 24 hours later, his team proved his words true.

Here are the takeaways from Golden State's first preseason game.

Steph scores, D'Angelo doesn't

Stephen Curry looked to christen the new building in perhaps the only way he knows how: attempting a long 3-pointer near midcourt 22 seconds into the contest. The shot didn't hit the rim -- it air-balled -- but Curry found a rhythm, finishing with 18 points, three rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes of duty. Curry's offense was needed as the Lakers jumped to an 11-0 advantage.

While Curry played well, newcomer D'Angelo Russell struggled, finishing 2-of-9 from the field and a team-worst minus-24 in the contest.

With Klay Thompson out until at least the All-Star break, the Curry-Russell tandem will have to work for the Warriors to stay in contention. Russell has All-Star talent, so it would be easy to chalk this one up as a one-off performance.

Little size, big problems

Entering the season, Golden State's frontcourt was expected to be thin. With Willie Cauley-Stein, Kevon Looney and rookie Alan Smailagic out, struggles came as expected. Through the first 24 minutes, the Warriors were outrebounded 34-26.

Anthony Davis -- Los Angeles' prized summer acquisition -- bullied Golden State's frontline on most possessions.

With Looney, Cauley Stein and Smailagic out, Omari Spellman mustered just six points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field.

Without Kevin Durant, the Warriors' margin for error is thin and there's no bigger sign of that than the team's frontcourt. For the Warriors to remain in contention for an eighth straight postseason berth, they'll need more from their unproven frontcourt and performances like Saturday cannot happen.

Rookies

With Smailagic out, Eric Paschall and Jordan Poole were the only rookies to suit up Saturday evening. Poole showed flashes, scoring eight of his 17 points in the second quarter, including a 3-pointer.

Meanwhile, Paschall played solid, finishing with 11 points and three rebounds on 3-of-7 from the field.

In the small sample size, there wasn't much to take from either player's performance that we didn't already know. Paschall put in yeoman's work similar to his college career, and Poole isn't afraid to shoot under any circumstance -- a refreshing sight and one we haven't been accustomed to seeing from recent Warriors draft picks.