Barneys New York's women's fashion merchandise manager, Connie Darrow, resigned to join Prada in Milan.

Gap Inc. said yesterday that its third-quarter income rose 27.3 percent because of leaner inventories, fewer markdowns and the addition of fashion merchandise for women.

It is also home to FashionCenterDallas, an apparel and accessories marketplace for men's, women's, and children's fashion merchandise.

The intriguing thing is how poorly fashion merchandise with the numbers has fared.

It wants to reach girls worldwide who do not have access to similar fashion merchandise, plus those who frequent its stores in Commack and Dix Hills.

These results reflect what analysts have predicted - that sluggish consumer spending would primarily hurt specialty retailers that depend on fashion merchandise.

Such an increase, he concluded, would indicate that "the customer is interested in buying fashion merchandise and the stock market adjustment has not affected that to the degree people feared."

For example, Clothestime Inc., a specialty store chain that sells trendy fashion merchandise, posted a 12 percent gain in same-store sales.

"This is absolutely competitive," said LaVelle Olexa, senior vice president of fashion merchandise at Lord & Taylor.

A showroom can also be a space for wholesale buyers to view fashion merchandise for sale in their retail stores.