The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
THE CHEAT SHEET
Red Carpet Wild Cards
Billy Porter in Christian Siriano | Source: Getty Images
Sustainability, rarely a top priority amid the decadence, is also increasingly part of the conversation. And the #MeToo movement, never far from minds at any Hollywood event, will be particularly salient at the Golden Globes, with Harvey Weinstein's rape trial scheduled to start the next day in New York.
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Milan's Resurgent Men's Fashion Week
Gucci Spring/ Summer 2020 | Source: INDIGITAL.TV
The Bottom Line: The men's runway renaissance is largely confined to Milan and Paris; menswear designers in London and New York have struggled to draw attention, and those that can draw an international audience, like Craig Green and, now, Telfar, head for France and Italy at the first opportunity.
Retailers Had a Good Holiday Season. Now Comes the Hangover.
Amazon packages | Source: Shutterstock
Consumers really got into the spirit of giving this holiday season, but judging from the millions of packages flowing back to warehouses and stores, the recipients weren't always grateful. The return surge is a boon for resale sites, which can see a spike in traffic as users attempt to earn some cash from their unwanted gifts. However, most of Santa's rejects wind up back with the retailers that sold them. Processing the annual wave of returns is a massive undertaking that has only grown more complicated as online sales have spiked, and customers have come to expect free and convenient returns. UPS says it expects to process 1 million returned packages every day for much of December and early January, and the logistics of reselling or disposing of returns are expensive. The situation is happier in stores, where retailers welcome the additional foot traffic and find clever ways to convince customers returning gifts to make new purchases. Those efforts extend even to accepting returns from rivals, the theory being that increased foot traffic will make up for the extra labour.
The Bottom Line: Free returns have hidden costs for consumers too, namely in the environmental toll that comes from landfill waste and emissions generated by delivery vans.
SUNDAY READING
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The group’s flagship Prada brand grew more slowly but remained resilient in the face of a sector-wide slowdown, with retail sales up 7 percent.
The guidance was issued as the French group released first-quarter sales that confirmed forecasts for a slowdown. Weak demand in China and poor performance at flagship Gucci are weighing on the group.
Consumers face less, not more, choice if handbag brands can't scale up to compete with LVMH, argues Andrea Felsted.
As the French luxury group attempts to get back on track, investors, former insiders and industry observers say the group needs a far more drastic overhaul than it has planned, reports Bloomberg.