This was particularly impressive...especially given American Eagle's heavy Northeast and Midwest exposure, given the mid-February blizzard.

They've always had a distinctive look accented by a strong use of color, but also by innovative fabrics, use of design that always made it very popular with parents of small children. I think they just got away from some of the innovative parts of it. They got stuck on color, and the use of color just got to be something that passed its peak.

Clearly they have gone back to their heritage. It displays the strength of this season, which is the denim business. Much is made of a denim glut, but the fact is ... khaki was king. After three years of it, who needs another pair of tan pants?

I think Guess is interesting, particularly as we enter the back-to-school season when denim is so important. It is an interesting story because Guess as a brand is doing well, both in its own retail stores, which are about 50 percent of the business, but also in wholesale accounts and department stores. It is really the one hot brand that department stores have today. Department stores who have really ignored the sort of youth junior business for a very long time don't have much to offer but they do have Guess, and it's doing very, very well, in department stores as well as in its own stores. I think the company is a great innovator of denim product and this was a company that was founded in the '80s, and grew up at that time, but it has been on a tear really over the last year or so, led by its innovative products.

I think what we are seeing in retailing are certain sectors doing better than others. In general, the department stores have not been performing well.

...They did draw the customers in despite all the false starts. The fact that they ended up so high in the rankings is testimony to the strength of the brand.