Daily LInks
1. Metaverse fashion show held in Korea: The Ministry on Trade, Industry and Energy expects the digital fashion for metaverse, or so-called meta fashion, to be the next big thing for the textile industry. – Read More on Korea Joongang
2. NFTs, on the Decline Elsewhere, Are Embraced by Some Museums: ICA Miami owns a few, and M.F.A. Boston and others are selling them to reach new audiences “in a world where Instagram and Siri are prevalent.” – Read More on the New York Times
3. $10M bust of luxury knock-offs in Lower Manhattan: Police said they filled three trucks with thousands of items that were fake Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Gucci, Balenciaga, Prada, Dior, Rolex, and Yves Saint Laurent. Among the seized items were purses, backpacks, shoes, sunglasses, and watches. – Read More on Fox5
4. How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare? “Too much of a thing and it becomes a commodity, too little of a thing and it becomes something that’s not even recognized when you walk down the street.” – Read More on HBS
5. H&M to Lay Off 1,500 Staff to Stem Rising Costs: H&M, like other retailers, is grappling with a period of uncertain consumer demand in many big markets at a time when its profit margin is coming under pressure from higher raw-material and freight costs. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Rolling Stones end deal with fast-fashion giant over sweatshop criticisms: The Rolling Stones have reportedly terminated their deal with fast fashion company Shein after the band was made aware of alleged labor abuse by the company. – Read More on the Washington Times
2. Chinese Startups Try to Make It Big in the U.S.—but Without the Backlash: Some are also renaming themselves and dropping references to their China roots, or developing separate products for the Chinese and international markets to underscore a separation of data or product management. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Putting Chips in Hoodies and Clogs to Unlock Value for Buyers and Sellers: The fledgling LNQ brand includes a hoodie, sweater and clogs embedded with chip technology, which could also be used to open up new digital services. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. The cost of Shein’s fast fashion disruption: Zara and H&M offer about 25,000 or 20,000 different styles of products to market in a year. Shein can launch as many as 1.3 million. – Read More on Al Jazeera
5. Prada turns to ex-Luxottica CEO Guerra to ease succession: After overseeing a successful turnaround since 2017 to reverse a slide in sales, Prada CEO Patrizio Bertelli, 76, said a year ago he planned to hand over the reins of the group he leads with wife Miuccia to their 34-year-old son Lorenzo. – Read More on Reuters
1. US retailers prep for weaker online sales, holiday spending demand: While major retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. benefited from a strong uptick in online sales during the pandemic, they are all forecasting a weaker fourth quarter, citing inflation. – Read More on S&P Global
2. Fast-fashion brands claim they’re cleaning up their act for the planet, but their premise might be inherently flawed: In many cases, fast fashion brands’ “sustainability” initiatives are meaningful but not significant enough to compensate for the overall impact of the industry. – Read More on Fortune
3. Cyber Monday sales to touch up to $11.6 bln as shoppers go discount hunting: The Adobe Analytics report is predicting Cyber Monday spending of $11.2 billion to $11.6 billion, an increase of up to 8.5% from a year earlier, as inflation-weary consumers have been putting off holiday shopping for weeks in the hopes of deep post-Thanksgiving markdowns. – Read More on Reuters
4. Vinted thrives as shoppers turn to second-hand fashion: In the midst of the cost of living crisis, the company’s mantra of making “second-hand fashion the first choice” seems to resonate. While hundreds of other start-ups are slashing jobs, Vinted is one of the few still hiring. – Read More on the FT
5. Products Made with Captured Greenhouse Gas Are Reaching Commercial Scale: Locking up greenhouse gas in ingredients that go into products can be costly compared with petroleum-based options and presents hurdles to building out enough infrastructure to capture emissions. – Read More on the WSJ
1. This Is the Reality of America’s Fast-Fashion Addiction: When we buy fast fashion from the comfort of our couches, we support a system in which low-wage workers (most of them people of color) make the clothes at one end of the world, and other low-wage workers (many of them also people of color) process the returns, unseen in the concrete suburbs of American cities. – Read More on the NY Times
2. Luxury goods boom in Britain as super-rich youngsters buck the recession: The other side of the boom – the rise of the luxury reseller. Buying a watch, a handbag or a pair of trainers has become a new type of investment, although nobody refers to these resold investments as “second hand.” – Read More on the Guardian
3, How retailers are reshaping the advertising industry: More sophisticated customer profiling has invited scrutiny from data privacy campaigners. And while the ability to reach a wide audience through advertising is helping Amazon and co. withstand pressure on sales during the cost of living squeeze, the expense and logistics required to build digital media businesses risk leaving smaller chains even further behind. – Read More on the FT
4. Don’t bank on free returns: 60% of retailers roll out stricter policies. On average, retailers expect about 18%, or $158 billion, of merchandise sold during the holiday shopping season to be returned – up from 16.6% in 2021. – Read More on CNBC
5. Louis Vuitton picks Shanghai for first furniture and homewares store: Louis Vuitton on Friday announced plans to open a dedicated furniture and homewares store in Shanghai, a world first for the French luxury brand as it aims to expand further into lifestyle offerings to affluent Chinese clients. – Read More on Reuters
1. Italy’s Cucinelli and EssilorLuxottica sign eyewear license accord: The new ten-year agreement will be effective from next January, while the first collection of glasses will be launched in the first quarter of 2024. – Read More on Reuters
2. Clothing piles up at Bangladesh warehouses as west cuts imports: The south Asian country exported garments worth $42.6bn and textiles worth $2.6bn in the 12 months to the end of June, accounting for about 85 per cent of total exports, according to the BGMEA exporters association. – Read More on the FT
3. When did customers of luxury brands get so young? In 2019, millennials and Gen Z accounted for 40% of luxury shoppers in N. America, and 44% for the industry globally. They are expected to account for as much as 70% of the global luxury market by 2025. – Read More on Quartz
4. You can thank The Sims for the rise of luxury fashion in gaming: “The direct-to-avatar economy isn’t necessarily new. What’s new now is that people are more aware that this is an opportunity, whereas in the past, it was very much a niche experience for people who are already gamers.” – Read More on CNN
5. A Big Winner from Qatar’s World Cup: Dubai: While Qatar grapples with an epic culture clash and the logistics of running the event, the relatively more liberal Dubai is awash with supporters wanting easy access to a beer, cheaper accommodation and a setting more accustomed to Western tourism. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Shein’s Cotton Tied to Xinjiang—Where China Is Accused of Forced Labor: Tests conducted for Bloomberg showed Shein had used cotton from the Xinjiang region of China in some of its clothing, which is banned in the US. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Comparing trademark issues in very different industries: Trademarks are widely used by fashion brands to protect themselves from knockoffs and other infringing products. Companies can use trademark law (in the form of trade dress) to protect visual characteristics of their products, such as color or patterns. – Read More on Reuters
3. It’s Time to Focus on the “G” in ESG: For all the debate surrounding the use of ESG for investing, virtually no attention has been paid to a core tension in the ESG policies of major investors and rating agencies — the discordance of the “G” from the “E” and “S.” – Read More on HBR
4. Shaking Off the World’s Worries, Jewelry Focuses on Growth: Among luxury jewelry brands, optimism has never been higher. How else to explain why Bulgari and Cartier are expanding jewelry factories and opening new ones, Tiffany & Company is on a retail renovation spree and Prada just introduced its first fine jewelry collection? – Read More on the New York Times
5. Women Are Key Metaverse Users, But Men Dominate Jobs Shaping It: Women are spending more time in the early iterations of the metaverse and are more likely to spearhead initiatives in the new and developing next generation of the internet, but men still hold 90% of executive positions at organizations shaping this emerging economy. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. What’s next for luxury brands in China after the 20th Party Congress? Luxury brands have had to slash forecasts for their 2022 China sales after a rocky year. Now, China’s middle class has seen its willingness to spend diminished by the zero-Covid policy, and the congress showed no sign of easing its strictness. – Read More on SCMP
2. Banksy says fashion retailer Guess ‘helped themselves’ to his work: Renowned graffiti artist Banksy on Friday criticized fashion retailer Guess, saying it had used his work without permission, and invited shoplifters to pay the London shop a visit. – Read More on Reuters
3. Fashion brands grapple with greenwashing: There is a broad greenwashing crackdown across the fashion industry, as regulators around the world try to figure out how to address misleading environmental product claims. For example, describing polyester products as “recycled” when the material cannot be reused again at end of life. – Read More on the Guardian
4. China’s fashion industry struts its stuff for sustainability: A collaboration between Budweiser and Vegatex is just one example of how China is catching up to its Western peers as a laboratory for creating a greener and cleaner fashion value chain. – Read More on SCMP
5. Sam Bankman-Fried Becomes an ESG Truth-Teller: Mr. Bankman-Fried virtue-signaled by committing to make FTX “carbon neutral” and donating generously to fashionable progressive causes such as a foundation working to provide solar energy in the Amazon River basin. – Read More on the WSJ
1. New York’s Fashion Act Gets a Makeover—Is It Enough? The updates to the bill include stronger requirements for chemical use and climate targets, more specific due diligence criteria and expanded enforcement provisions. The amended bill also now provides for joint and several liability between fashion sellers and garment workers. – Read More on Vogue
2. Aditya Birla’s fashion unit to open Galeries Lafayette stores in India: The Indian firm said it would open two flagship stores – one in Mumbai by 2024 and another in New Delhi a year later – housing over 200 luxury and designer brands. It added it will also launch an e-commerce platform. – Read More on Reuters
3. Metaverse could pump $1.4 trillion a year into Asia’s GDP, report says: The metaverse’s contribution to gross domestic product in Asia could be between $800 billion and $1.4 trillion per year by 2035, according to Deloitte. – Read More on CNBC
4. EU Trademark Appeals board rules in favour of challenged Banksy trademark: A board of appeal has reversed a decision which attempted to render the trademark for the British street artist Banksy’s famous monkey sign image “invalid.” – Read More on the Art Newspaper
5. Macy’s profits from wealthy shoppers, Kohl’s feels inflation pinch: Upscale U.S. retail chain Macy’s Inc raised its annual profit forecast on Thursday on resilient demand for high-end clothes and beauty products, while the inflation squeeze on lower-income shoppers forced rival Kohl’s Corp to scrap its forecast. – Read More on Reuters
1. Would Twitter get online publisher immunity in fake ‘blue check’ suits? Anyone who sues will be testing novel theories. And to prevail, plaintiffs will have to show why Twitter is not entitled to immunity under a law that grants it broadly to online publishers for content posted by their users. – Read More on Reuters
2. eBay Opens Store in NYC that Accepts Pre-Owned Luxury as Currency: “The Luxury Exchange gives shoppers an opportunity to appraise and sell their valuable goods, and add something new to their personal collections.” – Read More on Yahoo
3. RELATED READ: What is Driving Luxury Resale’s Push into Physical Retail? Using stores to increase revenue is also at the heart of a growing push into brick-and-mortar – but there is a trust-building twist for the resale companies. – Read More on TFL
4. Becoming indispensable: Moving past e-commerce to NeXT commerce. E-commerce needs a big upgrade grounded in a commitment to become indispensable to the customer through an exponentially deeper level of engagement online and offline. – Read More on McKinsey
5. Chinese brands outnumber foreign names among Singles Day best-sellers: Chinese consumers clutched their wallets tight in this year’s Singles Day and continued seeking relatively economical home brands over pricier expensive labels, as strict COVID-19 curbs and economic uncertainty weighed on the shopping extravaganza. – Read More on Reuters
1. Net-zero in fashion, but clothing giants struggle to cut emissions: Clothing brands and manufacturers discussed global warming — but some admitted that their pledge to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by mid-century may be a stretch. – Read More on Yahoo
2. Europe’s Luxury-Goods Sale Might Last a While: Luxury brands could raise prices in Europe to rebalance things, but they need to tread carefully. Three years ago, they probably wouldn’t have hesitated, but the pandemic has changed their business. – Read More on the WSJ
3. thredUP Hits Headwinds as Apparel Oversupply Dresses Down Resale: The confluence of record industrywide apparel overstocks and a hyper-promotional environment strained the resale marketplace, as did high returns and a slowing in its core resale as a service (RaaS) offering. – Read More on PYMNTS
4. Bain will buy Japanese apparel maker Mash Holdings for $1.44 bln: The Tokyo-based company will use Bain’s expertise to expand in overseas markets and is aiming on going public in the next three to five years, the spokesperson said. – Read More on Reuters
5. Wealthy are drinking us dry, says luxury goods firm LVMH: The company behind Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Krug and Dom Pérignon has said it is “running out of stock on our best champagnes” as the wealthy spend big on luxury goods in a new “roaring 20s” age of decadence. – Read More on the Guardian