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 sacking of Turkey’s central bank head, Naci Ağbal, by president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the weekend, once again puts the country’s economy under pressure. On Monday, the Turkish lira lost 15 percent of its value, before recovering slightly to finish trading 8 percent lower against the US dollar.
Turkey’s instability puts fashion and beauty retailers in a tough spot. Many international brands have long eyed the country’s large population of 83 million people as an opportunity and, with the youngest population in Europe, it’s a particularly appealing proposition for mass market fashion and beauty brands. But continuing economic and political instability (Ağbal was the third central bank head Erdoğan has sacked in two years) makes it more likely that brands will also continue to put any expansion plans on hold.
In Turkish retail sales figures released for the month of January (the most recent figures available) sales of textile, clothing, and footwear declined 21.4 percent, year-on-year.
Though e-commerce reshaped retailing in the US and Europe even before the pandemic, a confluence of economic, financial and logistical circumstance kept the South American nation insulated from the trend until later.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Korean shopping app Ably, Kenya’s second-hand clothing trade and the EU’s bid to curb forced labour in Chinese cotton.
From Viviano Sue to Soshi Otsuki, a new generation of Tokyo-based designers are preparing to make their international breakthrough.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Latin American mall giants, Nigerian craft entrepreneurs and the mixed picture of China’s luxury market.