Week in Review | Second-Hand Clothes, i-D and Dazed, Asian Talent, China Flux, Ben Gorham, Felipe Oliveira Baptista

LONDON, United Kingdom — BoF readers were engaged in a lively debate this week, following an op-ed from Tansy E Hoskins exploring the business of second-hand clothing. Ms Hoskins argued that because many second-hand clothing donations end up being sold for significant sums in international markets, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a "hidden business" that is not always apparent to donors.

The business, in turn, undermines local textile and clothing industries in receiving markets, as they are forced to compete with these imports, she continued. What's more, donating second-hand clothing helps consumers in the West maintain the false belief that constantly consuming fashion (of lower and lower quality) is perfectly sustainable — and acceptable. With more than 2,500 shares on social media, the conversation spilled far beyond our comments section. What do you think?

This week also saw the debut of a brand new i-D. After several years of financial trouble, which forced the magazine to reduce its output to six issues per year, i-D has been re-incarnated as a digital first media company, with video at its heart, following an acquisition by Vice Media, currently a booming darling of the media world. This, alongside next week's launch of a new online video proposition by Dazed Group, will pit two of fashion's most respected youth-focused media companies against each other in a battle for the Internet.

There is also a burgeoning youth fashion culture in Asia, where talented young labels are starting to emerge. China alone is set to be the world's largest apparel market by 2017, observed Joseph Quartana, former buyer for Seven New York, who argued that the global fashion industry should be paying more attention to promising, creative young designers from the region. Could the next wave of global talent come from Asia? Let's see.

What's clear is that the Chinese luxury and fashion market is developing at a rapid clip, not just in terms of growth, but also in terms of the sophistication and maturity levels of consumers. Indeed, on my recent trip to China, which took me from Beijing to Hong Kong to Shanghai, the pace of change I observed was staggering — and the implications for global fashion brands couldn't be more clear: a one-size-fits-all approach, with identical products in identical stores with identical experiences is not going to work. Advanced luxury consumers in China now expect much more than that, giving rise to sophisticated, new multi-brand environments catering to the whims and desires of an ever-demanding clientele.

And as always, this week we also profiled some of the creative talents who are shaping fashion, including the basketball player-turned-perfumer Ben Gorham of Byredo and Felipe Oliveira Baptista, whose slow and steady approach to fashion has won him legions of fans and the creative directorship at one of the world's most important apparel brands, Lacoste.

Happy reading and see you next week.