Italian fashion group Aeffe SpA owns Alberta Ferretti, Moschino, and Pollini brands and produces collections for Jean Paul Gaultier among others. They're pretty broke these days, since they just lost $389,781 in the three months ended March 31. That doesn't sound like a lot, but in the same period in 2008 they enjoyed net profits of $9 million. So they're reacting "in a prompt and determined way" — with price cuts. They're also reducing the size of the collections and laying some people off. All this should save them about $13.6 million in 2010. But! Have they considered riding the Michelle Obama wave? The woman wears Moschino. If the stuff is getting cheaper on top of that, marketing that brand should be cake.

Aeffe Plots Lower Prices [WWD]