Eco-concerns upturn moral battle over fur as quiet luxury gives way to ‘boom boom’ looks at Paris fashion week
Gabriela Hearst is an ethical fashion designer, with sustainability at the heart of her brand. And she wants to sell you a mink coat.
Hearst’s Paris fashion week show included a coat, jacket and stole made from vintage real fur. “We bought all these old mink coats in Italy, and pieced them together,” she said after her show.
Continue reading...End of ‘de minimis’ policy for Chinese goods also expected to hit bigger fashion retailers such as Asos and Boohoo
Many UK-based independent sellers on marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon could suffer a significant hit to US sales from planned changes to import rules under Donald Trump, with experts comparing the impact to a second Brexit.
The new rules, which mean all parcels originating or made in China and being sold into the US must pay import duty – of as much as 15% on fashion items – and an additional 10% tariff, are also expected to impact bigger online clothing retailers such as Asos and Boohoo.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Independent investigation in 2023 upheld five allegations against Carlo D’Amario, the Guardian understands
From her 1975 “gay cowboys” T-shirt to pioneering catwalk collections that challenged gender norms, the late Vivienne Westwood has long been heralded as an LGBT+ icon.
But the fashion house she built over five decades faces serious questions about whether the late designer’s values have endured, after allegations about homophobic bullying by its chief executive, Carlo D’Amario, were upheld by an independent investigation, the Guardian understands.
Continue reading...Watchdog upholds complaint about advert that digitally altered clothing and used low angle to accentuate long legs
The UK advertising watchdog has banned an advert from high street retailer Next for featuring an “unhealthily thin” model in digitally altered clothing.
The advertisement, which ran on its website, featured a model marketing Next’s “power stretch denim leggings”.
Continue reading...Lab-grown diamonds sell for one-quarter of the price of traditional ones and an Australian wholesale broker says he can’t tell the difference
When Steve Richards, a gemologist trained to identify grades of precious jewels, was considering a Christmas present for his wife, he settled on a pair of diamond earrings.
These diamonds, however, were not formed deep in the Earth over millions or billions of years and brought to the surface through volcanic eruptions. They were grown in a lab over a matter of weeks and bought for a fraction of the price.
Continue reading...German maker of fashionable cork-based footwear files three lawsuits alleging copyright infringement
Once sneered at as the preserve of muesli-loving, Guardian-reading hippies, Birkenstocks have more recently been promoted to the status of fashion item, not least since they took a starring role in the Barbie movie. But now cork-soled sandals are facing their day in court as their German makers call for them to be protected in perpetuity – and to be recognised as nothing less than a unique work of art.
Germany’s federal court of justice is to decide on the future of the ergonomic sandal after three lawsuits against alleged copycat competitors were lodged on Thursday by the footwear manufacturer.
Continue reading...Thousands of traders face ruin after blaze razes two-thirds of Accra’s Kantamanto, which receives an estimated 15m used clothes from global north each week
A huge cleanup operation is taking place after a fire devastated one of the world’s biggest secondhand clothes markets.
Thousands of traders’ stalls were destroyed in the blaze that started at about 10pm on 1 January and consumed large sections of Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
Continue reading...Shares in LVMH, which also owns Dior, Tiffany and Moët & Chandon, fell by as much as 7%, briefly hitting two-year low
Shares in luxury goods brands slumped after Louis Vuitton’s LVMH reported an unexpected fall in third-quarter sales amid China’s economic slowdown.
Shares in LVMH, which also owns Dior, Tiffany and Moët & Chandon, fell by as much as 7% in early trading, briefly hitting a two-year low, before regaining slightly, after it warned of an “uncertain economic and geopolitical environment”,with falling sales in Asia.
Continue reading...Majority owner, Challice, says it has no interest in selling shares to group that already owns 37% of luxury brand
The owner of the Mulberry fashion brand has rejected an increased £111m bid from Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group to buy the British luxury handbag maker, saying it has “no interest” in selling its shares.
Challice, a group controlled by Singaporean entrepreneur Christina Ong and her husband, Ong Beng Seng, which owns 56% of Mulberry – giving it the power to block any bid – called on Frasers to ditch plans to take over, saying it came at an “inopportune time” for the struggling brand.
Continue reading...South Korean skincare brands expected to follow country’s music, film and TV exports in becoming blockbusters
We’ve had South Korean pop, film, fashion and food, and now the latest trend is K-beauty, with sales of Korean skincare brands taking off in the UK as consumers are seduced by products that promise to conjure a radiant complexion.
Britons are cutting back in other areas, but they are still chasing what the beauty industry describes as the “glass skin” look, with retailers reporting a rise in spending on high-end skincare.
Continue reading...Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada celebrate idiosyncrasy, while Ian Griffiths foregrounds mathematical tailoring
A Prada show is never a straightforward beauty pageant, so when the co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons go out of their way to be contrary and challenging, the result is, frankly, pretty weird.
Thick woollen tights with belt loops. A boob tube with snap pockets on the nipples. Shoes that peel back at the heels like curls of butter. In the cavernous concrete of Prada’s Milanese headquarters, the catwalk was twisted into hairpin bends, so that the audience couldn’t see what was coming next. Each outfit was crazier than the last. A strapless lemon ballgown with sunglasses the size of a gas mask was followed by black jeans tucked into dirty white cowboy boots.
Continue reading...Trade committee head Liam Byrne wants checks on firm’s possible supply chain links to forced labour
A former minister has called on the government to closely scrutinise Shein for possible links to forced working as the China-founded fast-fashion retailer prepares for a stock market listing in London.
Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who heads parliament’s business and trade committee, said the UK should introduce new legislation to increase scrutiny of supply chains that may include products made in the Xinjiang region of north-western China.
Continue reading...‘Ugly’ footwear trend boosts German company’s results but shares fall on bigger-than-expected drop in margins
Strong sales of clogs – which have been adopted by the American models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner as part of this summer’s trend for “ugly” shoes – have helped Birkenstock to the highest quarterly sales in its history.
The German shoemaker, which listed on the US stock market in October last year valued at $7.5bn, said sales of “closed-toe silhouettes”, which include its clunky clogs, rose by more than twice the average for its products.
Continue reading...Campaigners allege Uyghur people used as forced labour at some of fast-fashion retailer’s cotton suppliers in China
A human rights group has urged Britain’s financial regulator to block the Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein’s planned blockbuster flotation on the London Stock Exchange.
Stop Uyghur Genocide, a UK-based human rights charity that alleges minority Uyghur people are being used as forced labour at some of Shein’s cotton suppliers in China’s north-western Xinjiang region, has begun a legal campaign against the planned stock market listing.
Continue reading...Luxury brand’s studio team turn to timeless tweeds and neat silhouettes in first show since Virginie Viard’s sudden exit
There were 12 boucle-tweed suits, in colours from pistachio to raspberry. There were endless swishy blond ponytails tied with black silk bows, and a clatter of satin Mary Jane shoes with pearled heels. There were Hollywood faces – Keira Knightley and Michelle Williams – in the front row of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, countless quilted-flap 2.55 handbags in the front row and a finale bridal gown with a sweeping ivory silk train.
But one crucial thing was missing from this season’s Chanel haute couture show: a designer to take a bow. Since the sudden exit this month of the designer Virginie Viard, who had led Chanel since the death of Karl Lagerfeld five years ago, this mighty luxury brand, worth an estimated £15.5bn ($19.7bn), is headless. The vacancy for fashion’s top job is the talk of Paris fashion week.
Continue reading...Sources say Singapore-based online fashion retailer founded in China prefers a float in New York but faces tougher scrutiny than expected
The fast-fashion company Shein is stepping up preparations for a London listing after its attempt to float in New York faced regulatory hurdles and pushback from US lawmakers, sources have told Reuters.
The online clothing retailer plans to update China’s securities regulator on the change of the initial public offering (IPO) venue and file with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) as soon as this month, said one source.
Continue reading...British bootmaker says it does not expect to increase prices this year as it reports poor US sales
Shares in Dr Martens plummeted to a new low as the UK bootmaker warned on profits and poor performance in the US, and announced the departure of its chief executive.
The brand, known for its yellow-stitched thick-soled boots, warned sales would fall by a single-digit percentage in the year to the end of March 2025, compared with a year earlier. Profit before tax could be just a third of last year’s £159m in a worst-case scenario.
Continue reading...Company founded in China and promoted on social media is thought to be considering London listing
Shein, the online fast fashion retailer founded in China, has more than doubled its profits to more than $2bn (£1.6bn) as it awaits approval for a stock market listing in New York or London.
The company, which is growing rapidly around the world by using social media to promote its goods, recorded sales of about $45bn last year, according to a report in the Financial Times based on information from sources close to the company.
Continue reading...Authentic Brands announces move for brand’s Europe retail and online arm after ‘damage done’ during tie-up with Dutch company
Ted Baker’s European retail and online arm is to appoint administrators, putting almost 1,000 jobs at risk at the British brand.
The fashion brand, which has 46 stores in the UK and Europe, has been struggling for several years as it faced increasing competition and the fallout from the exit of its founder, Ray Kelvin, who stepped down in 2019 after allegations of “forced hugging”.
Continue reading...New owner Frasers Group decides it is unwilling to fund turnaround
The luxury clothing retailer Matchesfashion is to enter administration after its new owner, Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, said it was not willing to fund a turnaround.
Matches was acquired by Frasers just three months ago for £52m in cash from private equity firm Apax Partners but the business has “consistently missed its business plan targets” and made losses, Frasers said.
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