🇳🇿 Cancellation of New Zealand Fashion Week leaves future uncertain. Just a month after announcing the cancellation of the 2024 edition, Yasmin Farley, general manager of the annual event, suggested plans for the 2025 edition were still to be confirmed. “Without enough New Zealand designers to exhibit, it simply wasn’t viable, without a compelling program worthy of a world-class event like Fashion Week,” she said, despite the move to a biennial event. “Brands and retailers in New Zealand are facing some pretty tough headwinds right now. The cost of living crisis has reduced consumer spending across most retailers, smaller brands are closing, and one of New Zealand’s iconic department stores (Smith & Corgis in Auckland) is closing its doors after 144 years. It’s a pretty tough situation.” According to Australian industry outlet Rugtrader, local brands that have recently closed or are planning to close include Carly Harris Designs, Kate Sylvester, Maaike and Hei Hei. Founded in 2001 by Peter Stewart, New Zealand Fashion Week was acquired by Feroz Ali’s Ali Group Ltd in 2021, with the event set to return in 2023 after a three-year hiatus during the pandemic. [Ragtrader, 1News]
🇮🇳 Indian beauty giant Good Glam Group appoints international president. The Mumbai-based group has appointed Lauren Bloomer, a US-based industry veteran who has held executive roles at Becca Cosmetics, Estée Lauder and Clinique, to head international growth and expansion efforts. The content-to-commerce unicorn, which began as DTC makeup brand MyGlam before acquiring beauty, personal care and media brands, formed a joint venture with tennis star Serena Williams in April to launch her cosmetics brand Win Beauty in the US. [Economic Times]
🇨🇳 Diesel seizes a large amount of counterfeit goods in China. The Italian denim brand, part of the OTB Group, seized more than 40,000 handbags in Wuqiao, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, under the supervision of Chinese customs. In January, Diesel revealed that a total of 80,000 counterfeit goods had been seized since the beginning of 2023, mainly from China, Turkey and Kosovo. [Sourcing Journal]
🇲🇽 TJX Companies signs joint venture with Mexico’s Grupo Axo. The American off-price fashion retailer with more than 4,900 stores across nine countries, including chains such as TJ Maxx, Marshalls and TK Maxx, has teamed up with Axo, a leading multi-brand and multi-channel retailer that distributes its brands through more than 6,900 points of sale in Latin American markets such as Mexico, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. The deal, which will result in a joint venture consisting of Axo’s existing off-price network in Mexico, including its Promoda, Reduced and Urban Store banners, is expected to close later this year. [BusinessWire]
🇹🇲 Turkmenistan is looking into ways to reduce forced labor in the cotton harvest. The Central Asian country is said to be considering the International Labor Organization’s recommendation to adopt a roadmap of “priority actions” aimed at preventing civil servants from being forced to work in local cotton fields. If adopted, the new system would allow employed workers to file complaints about coercion or extortion and set minimum wages. Over 100 brands and retailers have already signed the Cotton Campaign Coalition’s pledge to boycott cotton from the world’s 10th largest cotton-producing country as long as forced labor is used. [Fibre2Fashion, BoF]
🇨🇳 European clothing manufacturers are diversifying away from China. A large percentage of clothing production is going to India, Bangladesh and Vietnam despite longer lead times and rising costs, according to Naveen Jha, who runs The Sourcing Place in China. But China’s total exports across many categories have not been hit as hard, as Chinese exporters find new markets outside Europe and the US, and more Chinese-made factories are being set up in overseas manufacturing hubs such as Vietnam and Mexico. “The number of shoes produced in China is pretty much the same as it was a few years ago. [in this] “It’s a musical chairs scenario,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clarke said. [Financial Times]
🇹🇷 Turkey’s apparel exports fell by 11.1% in January-April 2024. Total exports reached $5.6 billion in the period. The knitted and crocheted garment category fell by 8.9%, while the non-knitted apparel category fell by 13.7%. [Fibre2Fashion]
🇮🇳 Indian skincare startup Chosen raises $1.2 million in seed funding. The round, which secured investment from anonymous friends and family, follows a $100,000 grant from Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA). “Our target is to secure pre-series funding of $10-20 million later this year,” said Dr Renita Rajan, founder of the Chennai-based brand focused on formulations and IoT solutions.
🇦🇺 Australia Institute recommends guilt tax-like penalties on fast fashion: The Canberra-based think tank has proposed several measures it believes the Australian government should pursue, including a fast fashion tax on unsustainable “problematic” products, similar to a bill currently under consideration in the French parliament. [Sourcing Journal]
🇱🇷 TLG Capital invests in Liberian-Burkina Faso brand Liberty & Justice. The London-based, Africa-focused alternative asset manager founded by Zain Latif has injected an undisclosed amount into the swimwear brand founded by Burkina Faso-born George Badiel Liberty and his Liberian-born husband, Kid Liberty. Liberty also said it is “open to potential acquisitions to source products from Liberia, which we hope to close.” Liberty currently produces in Morocco and sells in over 250 Target stores in the US. [Semafor, BoF Inbox]
🇨🇳 Zara is expanding its Chinese live-commerce model to the US and Europe. The Spanish high street brand has been adapting digital catwalks, fitting room tours and “behind the scenes” content to livestream e-commerce sessions on local TikTok counterpart Douyin since November, and is using a Shanghai-based team of around 70 people for the China broadcasts. [Jing Daily]
🇦🇺 Australian jewellery retailer Lovisa has appointed John Cheston as its chief executive officer. The Sydney-based, Australian-listed company, which was founded in 2010 by billionaire Brett Blandy and now operates 854 stores in more than 40 countries and regions, has appointed him as president of local stationery and accessories chain Smiggle to replace Victor Herrero, who is leaving the company in May next year. [Australian Financial Review]
🇮🇳 India’s Hindustan Unilever Limited has promoted Arun Neelakantan. The Mumbai-based beauty and personal care major, whose portfolio includes brands like Lakmé, Glow & Lovely, Dove and Pond’s, has appointed the former chief digital officer as executive director of customer development, replacing Kedar Lele. [Economic Times]
🇯🇵 Japan’s Kose opens standalone store in the U.S. Kose Corporation, one of Japan’s largest beauty conglomerates, which sells 37 brands including Décolleté, Sekkisei, Addiction, and Tarte in 68 countries and regions, has opened a Maison Kose store in Los Angeles. Until now, the company’s Japanese brands have only been sold in the U.S. through department stores and other multi-brand channels. [Morningstar]
🇺🇾 Brazil’s O Boticário has expanded into Uruguay with partner Grupo AJ Vierch. The Brazilian cosmetics and skincare giant has opened two stores in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo in partnership with a Paraguay-based regional company. The brand’s parent company, Curitiba-based Grupo Boticário, has more than 4,000 stores in Brazil, including monobrand outlets and multibrand chain Beauty Box, and operates in more than 15 countries. [FashionNetwork]
🇨🇳 Anta has appointed China’s Fan Zhendong as a brand ambassador. The Chinese activewear brand has added the Olympic table tennis champion to its sponsorship roster that also includes Zhang Jike and Ma Long. [Jing Daily]
