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.
Kao Corporation is the latest beauty player to pledge the elimination of words including “whitening” and “lightening” from its products.
In Japan, Kao’s home market, as well as many other Asian countries in which its products are sold, consumers have long sought out cleansers, moisturisers and make-up that claim to lighten and whiten skin. The term commonly used in Japan to describe lightening, bihaku, translates to “beautiful white”, underlining the beauty ideal of white skin in traditional Japanese culture.
Kao said it decided to drop the term as part of a broader commitment to diversity, adding that it was wrong to promote the message that one skin tone is superior to another.
The company will use the word “brightening” from now on. Kao’s move makes it the first J-Beauty giant to follow the lead of international cosmetic giants, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and L’Oréal that have made similar changes to their labelling recently.
People of Indian and Pakistani heritage are critical to the UAE’s fashion sector, leading billion-dollar retail empires, trading textiles and jewellery and stitching garments for Middle Eastern brands.
Influencer Irene Kim and V&A curator Rosalie Kim join Chanel executive Yana Peel to chart South Korea’s rise to global creative juggernaut.
BoF sits down with Zainab Abdulrazzaq, founder of 3oud.com and organiser of the Oud Fashion Talks, to discover the next steps for the event, designed to cement Kuwait’s place on the international fashion map.
The World Economic Forum in Davos, a retail convention in New York and menswear shows in Paris will command the industry’s attention. Plus, what else to watch for this week.