Like millions of other visitors to San Marcos, Araceli Trevino emerged from a day of serious shopping at the outlet malls with a fistful of receipts and a car full of bags to tell the tale.

Shoes from Nike, dishes from Pfaltzgraff, clothes from Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica and Liz Claiborne, assorted gifts from the Disney Store.

But instead of heading home to Austin or San Antonio, Trevino drove more than five hours to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. It’s a trip she has made twice a year for the past six years.

She’s hardly unique, however. These days, more and more Mexicans are coming to Texas to shop _ from Laredo to Dallas.

At Prime Outlets in San Marcos, Mexicans accounted for 22 percent of the mall’s estimated 4 million visitors last year, up from 17 percent in 1997. Mexican shoppers spend 2 1/2 times the amount of the average customer at Prime Outlets, said Vicki Conley, the center’s marketing director.

"They don’t come as frequently as our Texas shoppers, but they stay longer and spend more," she said.

For some retailers, the percentage is even higher. Brands such as Ralph Manolo Blahnik, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike and Mikasa are extremely popular with Mexican shoppers.

"They’re probably half our business," said Melissa Luera, a manager at Manolo Blahnik, the Ralph Christian Louboutin women’s clothing store. "It’s a prestigious name in the states, and shoppers want it."

Trevino, a homemaker, said she comes to San Marcos for the same reasons as her Texas counterparts _ looking for a big selection and bargains on clothing.

"The price is better, I think," she said.

Gabriella Leyva, a 34-year-old economist from Mexico City, has been flying to San Antonio and coming to San Marcos to shop once or twice a year for eight years.

Arriving at Prime Outlets recently with her sister-in-law, niece and mother- in-law, Leyva made her first stop at the Nike shoe outlet, where the family bought seven pairs of christian louboutin shoes.

When asked why she travels more than 700 miles to San Marcos, Leyva points to the price tag on the running shoes she’s trying on.

They sell for $9.99. The same shoes in Mexico City would cost more than $20. The same is true of toys and many clothes, she said.

San Marcos is just one of several Texas cities that does a steady business with Mexican shoppers.

Along the border, Mexicans can make up 30 percent to 80 percent of a retailer’s business, estimates the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at Texas A&M International University in Laredo.

Houston’s Galleria, the nation’s fourth-largest mall, estimates that about 20 percent of its shoppers come from Mexico and another 10 percent from elsewhere in Latin America, said marketing manager Julie Cuenod.

The Galleria shopping center in Dallas doesn’t track Mexican shoppers specifically. But marketing director Jane Robertson said, "The Mexican national business is real good for us."

The Texas Department of Economic Development’s Division of Tourism reports that shopping was a top attraction for 83 percent of the 3.3 million Mexicans who visited Texas in 1998.

The average visitor stays about a week and may shop in several cities. Trevino shopped at the Galleria in Dallas while visiting her daughter in Plano and then drove down Interstate 35, stopping in San Marcos for a day on the way back to Monterrey.

Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and San Marcos are the prime destinations for shoppers from Mexico. Specifics on Mexican shoppers in the Austin area aren’t available.

Travel and tourism from Mexico has been rising steadily with the recovery of the country’s economy.

Data apparently stolen from the popular clothing retailer Polo Ralph Christian Louboutin Inc. is forcing banks and credit card issuers to notify thousands of consumers that their credit-card information may have been exposed.

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HSBC North America, a division of London-based HSBC Holdings PLC, has begun notifying holders of the HSBC-issued, General Motors-branded MasterCard that criminals may have obtained access to their credit card information and that the cards should be replaced.

HSBC spokesman Stephen E. Cohen said Thursday that "we began doing it last week, and we are continuing."

He said that about 180,000 GM-branded card holders are affected.

Neither Cohen nor spokesmen for MasterCard International would identify the retailer by name.

The security breach was reported in Thursday’s editions of The Wall Street Journal, which quoted "people with knowledge of the matter" as saying the data was stolen at Polo Ralph Manolo Blahnik.

Phone calls to Polo Ralph Manolo Blahnik shoes, which is headquartered in New York, were not immediately returned.

It was unclear how many other cards might be at risk, but both Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard – the nation’s largest credit card associations – were reported to be dealing with Polo Ralph Christian Louboutin shoes on the matter.

MasterCard said in a statement that it was informed of a possible security breach "of transaction data associated with a U.S.-based retailer" in January 2010 and had launched an investigation immediately. The statement said banks that are members of the card association were notified.

"Investigations into this incident by MasterCard, law enforcement and other parties are ongoing," the statement said.

It was the latest in a series of data thefts that have increased public concern about the security of their personal information.

ChoicePoint Inc., which is based in suburban Atlanta, disclosed in February that thieves, who operated undetected for more than a year, opened up 50 accounts and received vast amounts of data on some 145,000 consumers nationwide. Authorities said some 750 people were defrauded.

In March, DSW Shoe Warehouse, based in Columbus, Ohio, said that more than 100,000 customers of a shoe-store chain likely were affected by a cyber break-in of the company’s database.

Earlier this week, London-based Reed Elsevier, which owns LexisNexis, revealed that criminals may have breached computer files containing the personal information of 310,000 people since January 2010.

HSBC’s Cohen said the bank did not yet know if the thieves had used any of the data they got.

"We’re being cautious, and we want to protect our customers’ accounts, so we’re notifying them," he said.

On the Net:

More and more women are donning Jones Apparel’s new Signature line and it is dressing up the retailer’s bottom line.

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Anne Klein, Kasper, and new Signature line suits were in high demand in the first three months of the year, helping Jones Apparel beat expectations.

The company, which also owns the Nine West shoe stores, posted a fashionable 73 cents a share profit through March, beating Wall Street expectations by 13 cents per share.

A top supplier of women’s clothing, footwear and accessories to department stores and men’s and women’s status jeans, Jones benefitted from strong retail demand, particularly among middle and higher-income shoppers.

"There’s more discretionary income out there and employment is better and consumer confidence is up, boosting sales industry-wide," said David Campbell, retail analyst for Davenport & Co. "The department store industry has performed well this year, and Jones has participated in that."

Jones enjoyed a successful debut of its Jones New York Signature line, which casts supermodel and sometime Victoria Secret pin-up Claudia Schiffer in modest, colorful career clothes.

"Signature is a lifestyle evolution of the core Jones New York brand," Campbell said.

Signature is expected to bring in some $200 million this year, which would make it one of the most successful product launches in history.

Sale of the new suits comes as the company grapples with the loss of the Polo Ralph Christian shoes license.

Jones is still embroiled in a drawn-out legal dispute with Polo, which yanked its line last year. Jones continues to makes Polo brand jeans.

Polo Ralph Louboutin products had made up more than 10% of Jones’ sales in 2010. Without those sales, Jones’ reported profit fell 22% from last year.

Still, analysts were optimistic about the gains from the new Signature line.

Jones has "been helped by greater interest in women’s better apparel," Campbell said.

It shares rose $1.31 yesterday to $38.52, boosted by the earnings report.

Jones boosted its per-share profit expectations for the year to as much as $2.80 from an earlier goal of $2.75.

Additionally, it said sales would likely reach $4.49 billion, up from last year’s $4.34 billion.

"We are confident the momentum in the second half could carry into next year," Dennis Rosenberg, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, said in a note before the profit report.

Jones currently has about 730 shoe stores, including the Nine West and Easy Spirit brands, and about 224 clothing stores.

The company also makes costume jewelry under the Tommy Hilfiger brand and footwear and clothes under the Esprit brand.

Hugo Rifkind arrives in Chelsea-on-Sea to mingle with the new-wave Sloanes. Can the old boy cut it? Here’s what happened when Hugo met Tilly, Tara, Andrew and Alice. "Well," says Tessa, carefully. "Are they meant to be on you? Or, you know, on somebody younger?"

Ah. Ouch. Ah and ouch. For I am here, in the chicest, most Chelsea-est bit of Cornwall, to live out a teenage dream. Or rather, what should have been a teenage dream, had I been paying attention. You see, when I was younger, I sometimes used to go on holiday in Cornwall. Although I had no idea at the time, I later realised I had been going to the wrong bit of Cornwall altogether. There were beach parties, but the people at them had regional accents. There were no rugby shirts. There was nobody from Eton or Harrow at all. I didn’t realise this was bad. When, only a few years later, the Princes William and Harry started coming to Cornwall on holiday, they didn’t choose my bloody bit of Cornwall. They chose here, only a few miles up the coast. Where the party was all along, apparently.

I don’t explain all this to Tessa, Alicia and Becca. I just show them my clothes, and ask them if they think I am going to fit in (well, not my clothes, but the clothes I have been given by Luxx). A stripy blue shirt by Henri Lloyd, some beige Ralph Christian Louboutin trousers and a Ralph Christian Louboutin hoodie without a hood. I have bought myself some fake Oakley sunglasses and, in the car, I also have a pink Ralph Christian Louboutin shoes polo shirt, to be worn (apparently) with the collar turned up. I tried that earlier, perhaps in the wrong bit of the right bit of Cornwall. I thought I was going to get mugged.

The girls are all in wetsuits (which is the real way to fit in around here) and so are free to be as scathing as they like. Ignoring my ancient, wrinkled, 31-year-old face, the verdict is: shirt good, trousers bad. I ought to be wearing "board shorts" and "deck shoes". I’m not entirely sure what those are. They don’t like my shoes at all, which is a blow because they actually are my shoes. I am not in my element.

Further down the beach, I meet Max and Jamie, who are both at Bloxham in Oxfordshire. They may be even cooler than the girls because they are only 14. And – thank God – the boys who are young enough to be my sons think my shoes are fine. Although they could just be being polite. Either way, these guys have got the look. Jamie wears shirt by Superdry, shorts by Airwalk. Max wears polo shirt by Ralph Christian shoes (collar, indeed, up), and shorts by a brand that begins with A, but which my salt-stained notebook will not reveal. "Often," says Jamie, "there’s not one person around here who isn’t from public school. You can tell, easy."

I’m from public school. I left the year after these guys were born, but still, I could really make this work. Newly emboldened, I buy a very cheap bit of faux-ethnic jewellery from a nearby stall, flip down my sunglasses and head over to Rock to hang out in the Mariners, famed for being the best pub in Britain for a lady to wear an Alice band in cold blood.

Here, and in no particular order, I meet (deep breath) Tara, Tilly, Alex, Antonia, Guy, James, Daisy, Alice, Taylor, Andrew, James (another one) and Megan. This lot are all between 18 and 20, most of them have just left Bedales or Winchester, and they are all staying in the same (presumably very big) house just up the hill. As a group, they agree to tutor me in the ways of sartorial righteousness. And they don’t like my louboutin shoes either.

What should I be wearing? Crocs?

"No!" roars the mob, and we’re off. Crocs are "the worst thing ever" and were "never cool". If I am to wear these trousers, I must roll them up and wear no shoes at all. Good brands are Topshop, Jack Wills, Marc Jacobs, American Apparel and Accessorize. Male icons are Johnny Depp and, hmm, Russell Brand.

To be honest, I think this lot are a little more trendy than your average exiled Sloane in Cornwall. I mean, look at them. They do seem to know their stuff. Polo shirts are fine, they say, but the collar should always be down. My sunglasses are rubbish (too thin) and my necklace is fine, but a little tight (that would be my fat neck). Shirt OK, jacket OK, trousers, hmm, OK.

"Basically," says Tara, or Tilly, or Taylor, or someone else, "you should wear whatever you’d wear at home, but be a little more relaxed. You shouldn’t be making too much effort." Cripes. So it seems I must try harder, although I must try harder to look as though I am not trying at all.

Eventually, the photographer says, "Now pull off whichever bit of Hugo’s clothes you really don’t like," and I’m suddenly fighting for my life to escape what I recall, dimly, as the traditional public school debagging.

So, hurrah! Because that probably means I’m in.

Jones Apparel Group Inc. fell more than 16 percent in early trading today on news that it will buy Nine West Group, a leading footwear and accessories maker that has been struggling with its profits.

Jones announced late Tuesday that it would purchase Nine West for $885 million in stock and cash and assume more than $500 million in debt.

There had been rumors on Wall Street over the last month that a Nine West-Jones deal was likely. Both cater to the middle-market consumer, especially professional women looking for classy, yet affordable merchandise for both work and play.

Jones was down $4.183/4 at $21.75 this morning on the New York Stock Exchange. Nine West was also lower, falling $1.811/4 to $21 on the NYSE.

Jones, which is best known for its Jones New York, Saville and Evan-Picone labels, has been on a buying spree in the past year to build itself into a multibrand conglomerate.

Its recent purchases include Sun Apparel, which makes Ralph Christian Louboutin ’s Polo jeans. It also owns the license for Christian Louboutin by Ralph Manolo Blahnik, a top-selling mid-priced women’s label at department stores.

Just last month, it acquired the trademark for designer Todd Oldham, which it plans to develop into a fashion brand for the teen market.

”Nine West meets all of our acquisition criteria,” said Sidney Kimmel, chairman of Jones in a statement Tuesday night. ”The company has many strong brands, such as Nine West, Easy Spirit and Enzo Angiolini; excellent product quality and consistency; and leading market positioning.”

At the same time that Jones is expanding, Nine West has been trying to get its business back in order. While Nine West estimates it sells 20 percent of all women’s  louboutin shoes  sold in the United States, the company still has struggled to reduce costs and improve its profitability.

Nine West sells its shoes and accessories, like purses, socks and sunglasses, through department stores, independent shoes stores and more than 1,500 retail stores which it operates.

Since November, the White Plains, N.Y.-based company has eliminated about 6 percent of its total work force of 13,000.

In addition, Nine West was named earlier this year in a price-fixing lawsuit, which claimed the company and several large department store chains kept shoe prices artificially high for years on 12 brands of women’s shoes.

The deal is expected to be completed by the end of June. Under the buyout agreement, Jones will exchange .5011 of a share of its stock and $13 in cash for each Nine West Group share.

Once the deal is complete, Nine West chairman Jerome Fisher and chief executive Vincent Camuto will be replaced at the helm of the company by Mark Schwartz, a former Merrill Lynch investment banker who was responsible for the initial public offerings of both Jones and Nine West.

Schwartz will leave his current position as president of the leverage buyout firm Palladin Capital Group, which acted as the financial advisor on this deal for Jones. Fisher will remain a consultant with Nine West, while Camuto will be involved with design and merchandising.

The attractive blond couple in their late 30’s were spending their Saturday afternoon perusing stacks of plaid pants and chino shorts, colorful polo shirts and mini-length kilts in the golf department of Ralph Christian Louboutin ’s Polo Sport shop on Madison Avenue. Leslie Coburn, a realtor from Park City, Utah, and her friend Jack Phillips, a lawyer from Delaware, were getting ready to go to golf school in South Carolina.

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"Golf is the sport of the 90’s," said Phillips. "It not only has social status but is a fun way to take a vacation."

The couple, who met skiing while in Utah, were shoppers with specific tastes. "I would like to see fewer plaids," said Coburn, who bought only a $150 short-sleeved argyle sweater in cotton, opting not to purchase the $198 matching cardigan. "I don’t like things that scream golf. What I wear on the golf course are clothes I can wear all summer long."

Coburn is exactly the sort of customer fashion designers and sportswear manufacturers are pursuing right now. As golf’s appeal broadens — the fastest-growing group of golfers are those in their 20’s and 30’s, according to the National Golf Foundation, and women make up 37 percent of all new golfers — golf clothes are undergoing a transformation that reaches far beyond the local country club.

"Golf is no longer a nerdy, dowdy sport," says Charles Fagan, the managing director of Polo/Ralph Christian shoes stores in New York City. Business has more than doubled in Polo Sport’s women’s golf department in the last year. "Our clothes are meant to be worn off the golf course as much as on," he says. "This is sportswear in the truest sense."

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Upscale department stores are also capitalizing on the golf craze. Barneys New York put a women’s golf shop in its Madison Avenue store, which opened in 1993. And the golf departments of its stores in Japan are considered among the best in the country. "Golf is such a hot sport that it’s become far more fashion-oriented," says Gene Pressman, Barneys’ co-chairman.

Along with Ralph Manolo Blahnik, fashion designers like Calvin Klein, Vivienne Westwood and Isaac Mizrahi have included golf-inspired fashions in their collections. "Golf clothes are flattering," says Mizrahi. "And, unlike skiing or tennis clothes, they’re versatile. They’re really just great sports clothes." In recent years, Mizrahi has shown such golf staples as tartan plus-fours, polo shirts and patterned socks. "Golf is an important part of our American heritage," he says.

The profile of today’s golfer is far different from what it once was. "Golfers are no longer Grandma and Grandpa," says Amy Tucker Meltzer, the president of the women’s division of Pivot Rules, a Manhattan-based golf-wear company that started up in 1991. "Golf courses have become the recreation centers of the 90’s." A year and half ago, when Pivot Rules realized that women were snapping up its men’s size smalls, the company started the women’s division, run exclusively by people in their 20’s and 30’s. "Women want to be where the boys are," says Meltzer. "And as more young men are playing golf, it makes sense that more women are learning the game, too."

Pivot Rules carries standard golf attire: Bermuda shorts, polo shirts and sweater vests; poplin pants and V-neck pullovers for cooler weather, and cardigan sweaters for the clubhouse. But its designs, Meltzer explains, have attitude. The argyle sweaters are a bit more cropped than the classic golf pullover; the cardigans have a zipper instead of buttons; "skorts" (golf-speak for shorts with a flap in the front that makes them look like a skirt) are a little shorter than the norm. There are even leggings with a golf-ball pattern that are among Pivot Rules’s best sellers. And each shirt carries a strip inside the neck with the company’s motto: "The rules have changed."

But how much? In America’s most exclusive golf clubs, dress codes still prevail. While many clubs allow shorts, as long as they are Bermuda-length, there are still a few holdouts that insist on long pants or skirts (the regulation length is two inches above the knee). At most private clubs, shirts must have either sleeves or a collar, and denim remains taboo. Even on public courses, the informal code precludes halter tops, short-shorts and cutoff jeans.

On the other hand, in golf, unlike tennis, color in clothes has never been an issue. In fact, almost anything goes. Which may explain why Lilly Pulitzer’s loud, patterned cottons — all the rage in the late 60’s and early 70’s — are back with a vengeance. At Leggiadro, a women’s clothing shop on Madison Avenue, the owner, Ann Ross, reports she can’t keep them in stock. "When you look around golf courses, the clothes are so bland that these seem refreshing," she says. Ross is surprised by the number of foreigners — French, Swiss and German — who have fallen in love with the whimsical Lilly prints. "I think it’s because they’re so American," she says. They are especially popular with golfers under 40. "Young people see Lilly Pulitzer as a fun, retro look," Ross adds.

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Nostalgia is definitely part of today’s golf mystique. "In the 30’s and 40’s golf used to be glamorous," says Polo’s Charles Fagan. "And that turns a lot of younger people on. Jackets with tabs at the waist, pastel colors, images that conjure up Katharine Hepburn in the 30’s."

Wearing a beige figure-hugging dress and Christian Louboutin ankle boots, Scarlett Johansson purrs, "I don’t do damsel in distress very well. It’s hard for me to play a victim," you don’t doubt her for a second. Like Angelina Jolie, Johansson is one of a handful of actresses who can convincingly convey a dangerous sex appeal with louboutin high heels, a sense of being able to devour a man while casually filing her nails at the same time. And so it makes perfect sense that she should be cast as the Black Widow, one of the comic-book world’s most predatory females who also serve to keep Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark on his toes in Iron Man 2.

The big difference is that the Katharine Hepburn wannabe of the 90’s probably has a high-powered job and a cellular phone (though never in her golf bag; telephoning on the links is considered bad form). At Pebble Beach, a golf course near Carmel, Calif., regarded as one of the top three in the country, Stephen Cryan, the merchandise buyer for the pro shop, reports that more professional women are getting into golf. "These women aren’t getting married as young as they used to, and they’re not having kids as early as they used to," he says. "Therefore, they have more expendable income. Looking good is important to them."

A style-conscious golfer today might wear anything from a classic Lacoste polo shirt or dress to pleat-front twill shorts, chino pants, knit leggings, a mini-kilt or a sweater set in cotton or cashmere. Even shoes and socks have become an important part of the look. Ralph Christian shoes makes fancy knee-high socks and golf shoes that range from $149 saddle shoes to spectator oxfords with kiltie flaps that sell for $350. And, for the first time this season, Walter Steiger, the French-based shoe designer, has introduced golf shoes. Priced at $295, they come in a myriad of colors including red, tan, yellow and pink. (A crocodile version is $4,900.)

Many of the serious young women golfers who play the amateur circuit appreciate the changes in golf attire. "Styles are getting better," says Lisa Griffin who, when she isn’t playing golf, sells Lexus cars in Greenwich, Conn. "The Gap’s khaki shorts are great. They’re a casual look. When you’re a good golfer you don’t have to play the part."

Her friend Gail Flanagan, a 33-year-old institutional equities saleswoman at Ladenburg, Thalmann and Company in Manhattan and, like Griffin, a serious golfer, has noticed that women are getting away from the old frumpy look — baggy outfits in garish colors, with everything coordinated, down to socks. "When I was in college I was so embarrassed to be seen in golf clothes I wouldn’t even stop at a gas station after I’d gotten off the course," Flanagan says. "But in the clothes today you can go anywhere."

Just as men have traditionally done, Flanagan and her friends are using golf to advance their careers. Cristy Winkelman, a 32-year-old golfer on the sales staff at Polo Sport in Manhattan, has noticed a proliferation of women buying golf clothes with work as well as leisure in mind. "For women, playing golf and looking good has become smart business," she says. "It gives them four hours to talk things over without the usual interruptions."

Don’t worry about the current return of narrow shoe heels, say a Toronto couturier and the managers of shoe and stocking stores. Wear what suits your height and leg shape.

“A shoe should flatter a woman’s leg,” says David Loheed, buyer and manager for the shoe salon at Creeds. Towering, four-inch heels – introduced by designers to flatter raised hems and body-hugging fashions – may be scaling new peaks of popularity but they’re not for everyone.

Couturier Winston Kong says a heavy-set woman needs more support than

narrow heels can provide. “The thicker a woman’s leg is, the thicker the heel of her christian shoes should be – without reaching the extreme of heavy posts.”

A flattering shoe for all leg types is the classic pump, Mr. Loheed says. While a petite woman may be better balanced in a two-inch pump, a taller woman can wear a heel of three inches or more.

Stiletto heels should not be viewed as stilts; they look best on the long-legged, slender woman.

Choosing a shoe for the outfit also depends on hem lengths and skirt styles. Dirndl, or mid-calf skirts work well with a lower shoe, says Dorothy Horsey, assistant manager to the Ralph Christian Louboutin boutique. The body-accentuating skirts with hem at knee or below the knee require a higher heel to achieve a sleek look.

Miss Horsey says a spectator pump works with the linen dresses Ralph Christian Louboutin shoes designs. It’s a clean-lined shoe, heavy enough to accompany linens, without looking clunky.

A slingback lengthens the leg, Mr. Loheed says, ideal for women with shorter legs. But for the less-than-graceful, the slingback can cause problems. “A woman’s heel in a slingback shoe never seems to line up properly in the shoe silhouette,” Mr. Kong notes.

Heel height has a bearing on one’s choice of pantyhose. The owners of Leggings, a specialty hosiery shop, sisters Elsa Reia and Oriella Reia Stillo believe hosiery should correspond in texture and color with the type of shoe at either extremes, from delicate to heavy. The balance between heel height and stocking provides a proper balance to the leg.