Income taxes (Details) (USD $)	12 Months Ended
	Jan. 28, 2012	Jan. 29, 2011	Jan. 30, 2010
Federal:
Current	$ 84,994,000	$ 59,720,000	$ 60,106,000
Deferred	(3,136,000)	11,484,000	(18,000)
State:
Current	11,607,000	7,953,000	10,820,000
Deferred	(193,000)	3,548,000	(500,000)
Foreign:
Current	32,975,000	47,353,000	49,351,000
Deferred	2,444,000	(3,184,000)	(4,160,000)
Total	128,691,000	126,874,000	115,599,000
Accumulated undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries	631,000,000	514,000,000
Difference of actual income tax expense and expected income tax expense
Computed "expected" tax expense	139,769,000	147,482,000	126,675,000
State taxes, net of federal benefit	7,419,000	7,475,000	6,708,000
Incremental foreign taxes in excess of/(less than) federal statutory tax rate	(19,457,000)	(27,822,000)	(16,434,000)
Other	960,000	(261,000)	(1,350,000)
Total	128,691,000	126,874,000	115,599,000
Allocation of total income tax expense (benefit)
Operations	128,691,000	126,874,000	115,599,000
Stockholders' equity	(208,000)	(8,234,000)	(8,899,000)
Total income taxes	128,483,000	118,640,000	106,700,000
Tax effects of the components of other comprehensive income
Unrealized net gain (loss) on hedges	1,170,000	(399,000)	(2,690,000)
Unrealized (loss) gain on investments or reclassification of loss to income	(24,000)	72,000	58,000
SERP	(2,057,000)	(251,000)	(1,435,000)
Total income tax (income) expense	(911,000)	(578,000)	(4,067,000)
Total earnings before income tax expense and noncontrolling interests
Domestic operations	245,554,000	215,689,000	201,081,000
Foreign operations	153,787,000	205,688,000	160,848,000
Earnings before income tax expense	399,341,000	421,377,000	361,929,000
Deferred tax assets:
SERP	23,255,000	18,514,000
Rent expense	13,829,000	13,394,000
Deferred compensation	11,748,000	11,498,000
Deferred income	9,386,000	10,944,000
Bad debt reserve	8,332,000	7,744,000
Fixed assets bases difference	7,903,000	6,694,000
Uniform capitalization	2,042,000	1,910,000
Accrued bonus	1,783,000	3,802,000
Net operating losses	1,675,000	5,098,000
Inventory valuation	690,000	1,546,000
Other	7,712,000	6,423,000
Total deferred assets	88,355,000	87,567,000
Deferred tax liabilities:
Goodwill amortization	(3,666,000)	(3,265,000)
Other	(9,090,000)	(5,703,000)
Valuation allowance	(1,984,000)	(5,023,000)
Net deferred tax assets	73,615,000	73,576,000
Current deferred tax assets	21,002,000	18,121,000
Non-current deferred tax assets	$ 52,613,000	$ 55,455,000