Daily LInks
1. The State of Retail Bankruptcies in 2021: The coronavirus pandemic appeared to be the final straw for a number of retailers that filed for bankruptcy in 2020. More brands, suppliers and landlords may wind up in bankruptcy as the much anticipated “return to normal” depends on vaccine distribution. – Read More on WWD
2. Stock Market Rally in 2020 Easily Outpaced Luxury Goods, Hedge Funds: The S&P 500 index, which tracks the U.S. stock market broadly, rose over 15 percent last year and the tech-heavy Nasdaq index surged over 43 percent. That is significantly better than the performance of many alternative investments. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Next up for retailers: A big wave of gift returns. As shoppers were tucking their final Christmas presents under the tree, U.S. retailers were bracing for a record-setting flood of returns of online gifts bought during the deadly surge in coronavirus cases. Returns are set to swell this year. Shoppers seeking to avoid contagion shifted from stores to online – where return rates are historically higher. – Read More on Reuters
4. COVID-19 upended fashion trends, but will they last? History offers some clues. Part of the reason casualness is likely here to stay is because it’s an extension of an earlier trend. We can see this in what’s deemed appropriate to wear to the office, from suits in the ’90s, to khakis in the 2000s. In recent years, some workers have felt comfortable wearing hoodies and joggers to work. – Read More on Fast Co.
5. Why Fashion Retailing Will Have A Slow Recovery: During our confinement demand for fashion will not return to pre-pandemic levels in the foreseeable future. Unemployment hurts. Retailers must double down on performing categories such as fashion for the home. – Read More on Forbes
1. The 6 wildest ways we shopped in 2020: Achim Berg, who leads McKinsey’s fashion research, says WhatsApp has been a popular platform for luxury brands trying to connect with customers. It’s designed to replicate the luxury experience of the past, where a boutique would call a client directly when a new product came in the store he or she would like. – Read More on Fast Co.
2. Future of luxury: A look at the year ahead. One thing that won’t go away this year? Logos. “In previous crises, logos were a no-no, it was inappropriate. Right now, even with high unemployment, it is the iconic, recognizable products that are outperforming versus pre-Covid. There is no guilt factor — it’s more of a ‘I’ve survived this, it’s ok to reward myself, I’m worth it’.” – Read More on the FT
3. Gorpcore: How Arc’teryx Parkas and Salomon Hiking Boots Became High Fashion: The term “gorpcore”—coined by New York Magazine’s style site the Cut in 2017—has been bubbling up in men’s fashion for a few years. It emerged as an outdoor-specific offshoot of the 2010s’ normcore trend, which recontextualized humble, pragmatic clothes as lust-worthy fashion. – Read More on the WSJ
4. How Did Business’s Role in Society Change in 2020? In addition to spontaneous marches around the world, nearly every organization felt a need to say or do something to support Black Lives Matter and show commitment to justice. Microsoft pledged to buy 500 megawatts of solar energy from and for minority communities and retailer Sephora will dedicate 15% of its shelf space to Black-owned brands. – Read More on HBR
5. How Authentic Brands Group has positioned itself as the 2020 repo man: Nearly 30 retailers have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2020, closing thousands of a stores. But a few of those businesses have been acquired by consortia like Authentic Brands Group. Most recently ABG has purchased Brooks Brothers, Forever 21 and Barneys — all ailing for their own set of reasons. – Read More on Modern Retail
1. The shelter-at-home era poses a fundamental challenge to fashion: That term “discretionary” is key. Clothing may be a basic necessity, but our purchases of it are largely detached from need. The pandemic quickly revealed where it ranks on shoppers’ list of priorities. Clothing sales dropped, while furniture and home improvement products saw sales jump. – Read More on Quartz
2. How 2020 killed the Instagram brand: Pastels and the ubiquitous Sans Serif font have been replaced by bright colors and oversized lettering, while startups are centering their social media centering their social media strategy around busting taboos or reaching customers that have historically been overlooked. – Read More on Modern Retail
3. The 10 biggest retail bankruptcies of 2020: More than three dozen retailers, including the nation’s oldest department store chain, filed for bankruptcy this year, marking an 11-year high. Pre-pandemic, several of these retailers were already teetering on the brink of survival. But the Covid health crisis pummeled the industry. – Read More on CNBC
4. Stars align for luxury circular economy: Before the pandemic, second-hand luxury goods sales were already growing three times faster than the primary market and were expected to double to 41 billion euros between 2018 and 2023, says UBS. But the potential stock of goods is much larger. – Read More on Reuters
5. Rare Small-Business Win in Insurer Lawsuits Keeps Hope Alive for Payouts: In hundreds of lawsuits across the country, mostly small businesses have sued their property-insurance companies for refusing to pay out “business interruption” claims tied to the pandemic. Many insurers say their policies contain clear language excluding virus-related claims, while most claims also haven’t met their policies’ criteria. – Read More on the WSJ
6. German-based Mytheresa joins growing list of e-commerce retailers going public: In fiscal 2020, Mytheresa surpassed 486,000 active users, with €449.5 million in net sales (US$550.7 million) shipped across 133 countries. Average order value in fiscal 2020 was €600 (about $735), down from €614 in 2019 and €632 in 2018. – Read More on Market Watch
1. Behind the LVMH-Tiffany Deal: Insults, Lawsuits and Political Intrigue. Tiffany retains much of the sparkle that drew Mr. Arnault in the first place, in particular a brand name that is one of the most recognizable in the luxury business. Mr. Arnault had been eyeing Tiffany for years before making an offer to buy the company in October 2019 for $120 a share. – Read More on the WSJ
2. RELATED READ: Tiffany & Co. v. LVMH – The Timeline Behind Luxury’s Biggest Deal to Date. In light of the lawsuit that Tiffany & Co. filed against LVMH in a Delaware court, accusing the French titan of reneging on their deal, and LVMH’s subsequent vow to “vigorously” defend itself against Tiffany’s “defamatory” allegations, here is a chronological look at how such a seemingly spectacular deal ended up at the center of an ugly-and-escalating legal battle. – Read More on TFL
3. What Did 2020 Do to Retail? The market has been rocked by the emergence of disruptive business models. You have, on one hand, the “monster ecosystems,” like Amazon and Alibaba, but there are also smaller disruptors in every category. In apparel, for instance, you now have more ability to rent clothing, and there’s been growth in second-hand apparel. – Read More on HBR
4. Fashion industry fears London will lose allure after Brexit transition: New visa requirements to enable British and EU models to work in each other’s countries after the ending of EU free movement on January 1 will reduce the attractiveness of London for models, stylists and photographers working in the industry, according to several leading modelling agencies. – Read More on the FT
5. Could the Covid pandemic make fashion more sustainable? From advances in carbon-sequestering sequins to a boom in second-hand shopping, there have been chinks of light in 2020, despite the grim big picture. For example, Ebay sold 1,211% more preloved items in June than at the same time in 2018, with a dramatic 195,691% rise in purchases for secondhand designer fashion during the same period. – Read More on the Guardian
6. How TikTok Changed Fashion This Year: Sustainable brands are thriving on TikTok, where the hashtags #upcycling and #vintage have a combined 8 billion views, and a scroll through these hashtagged shows that Gen Z is completely obsessed with thrifting or repurposing clothing. – Read More on Vogue
1. How Amazon Wins: By Steamrolling Rivals and Partners. Amazon set its sights on Allbirds Inc., the maker of popular shoes using natural and recycled materials, and last year launched a shoe called Galen that looks nearly identical to Allbirds’ bestseller. An Amazon rep said its shoe didn’t infringe Allbirds’ design. “Offering products inspired by the trends to which customers are responding is a common practice across the retail industry.” – Read More on the WSJ
2. RETRO READ: Allbirds Has Built a $1.4 Billion Brand Out of Wool Trainers, Now Here Come the Copycats. “We have reached peak cloning,” wrote one Twitter user) and no shortage of media attention, all pointing to Amazon’s lookalike shoe and calling … “Copy!” – Read More on TFL
3. How Burger King, Nike, and Patagonia made great advertising for an awful year. Nike was one of the first brands to recognize the new reality of COVID-19, when it posted an ad asking people to stay home and “Play for the World” by social distancing and isolating to minimize the spread of the virus. – Read More on Fast Co.
4. Chinese fashion designers well positioned for boom in domestic market as they sell to globetrotters spending their money in China instead of Paris, London or Milan: The restrictions on entry to China mean overseas designers are prevented from coming to drum up business. In years gone by, large-scale extravaganzas would feature visits by Miuccia Prada, Karl Lagerfeld or John Galliano, generating excitement, coverage and a sales surge. – Read More on SCMP
5. Are You Ready For the Roaring 2020s? For luxury goods brands, a renewed appetite for experiences over things will bring mixed results. They have benefited from Chinese, American and European consumers treating themselves to luxury goods, but this demand will probably fade as a broader array of spending options becomes available. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. Businesses Feared a Flood of Covid-19 Lawsuits. It Hasn’t Happened. Personal-injury claims over infections are either too hard to prove or get funneled into the workers’ compensation system. – Read More on the WSJ
1. The Fate and Fortunes of the Fashion-Adjacent Economy: In the last decade, a booming economy adjacent to the fashion industry has emerged. Largely powered by social media, it is made up of careers such as high-end fashion influencing and street-style photography. As companies increasingly look for new ways to reach customers, a growing coterie of these professionals has come to stand toe-to-toe with the traditional fashion elite, like magazine editors and photographers and stylists. – Read More on the New York Times
2. Holiday Shoppers With Money to Burn Covet Secondhand Luxury: “The adoption of resale by those traditional luxury retail customers has really accelerated. They continue to be extremely active, equal to or more than our typical buyer profile.” – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Supermodel can’t sue Shahs of Sunset over scheming diva portrayal, per 9th Circuit: Former supermodel and reality star Janice Dickinson cannot sue Ryan Seacrest Productions, NBC Universal and fashion designer Erik Rosette over her portrayal as a scheming bully on Bravo’s “Shahs of Sunset,” the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held Monday. – Read More on Reuters
4. A Look Back at Consumer Comfort Trends Through 2020, and What to Expect Next Year: The share of consumers expressing comfort when it comes to retail has been declining slightly or remaining the same in the weeks since Thanksgiving. The trend is concerning for brick-and-mortar retailers, but doesn’t spell the death of the in-person shopping experience. “Folks will come back to stores, but we won’t ever reach pre-COVID levels.” – Read More on Morning Consult
5. The Biggest Star on TV Right Now? Barbour Jackets: Over the past year, demand for the brand’s signature waxed-cotton “Bedale” jackets suddenly surged. Traditional Barbour coats showed up in much-watched TV shows and flashier collaboration jackets sold out in hours after their hyped releases. – Read More on the WSJ
6. RELATED READ: Barbour’s Famous Wax Jacket is a Federally-Registered Trademark. Seemingly persuaded by the evidence and the sales figures that Barbour provided that the company’s wax jacket had acquired the necessarily level of distinctives to function as a trademark, the USPTO registered the jacket configuration on its Principal Register in December 2019. – Read More on TFL
7. Fashion Will Not Disappear. It Will Transform: “Fashion is integral to our existence, not an irrational indulgence. It springs from deeply rooted impulses to adorn the self, to communicate sensuously, to participate in the social collectivity and lend it shape and legibility.” – Read More on the New York Times
1. China’s “unstoppable” global luxury-market share nearly doubles amid pandemic: The global luxury market shrank by 23 percent in 2020, noted the report, titled “China’s Unstoppable 2020 Luxury Market.” However, China’s market share nearly doubled, growing from about 11 percent last year to 20 percent in 2020. – Read More on Market Watch
2. Luxury Brands Will Go Shopping Again: Next year, there might be chances to pick up independent names. After this year’s massive shift toward digital shopping, underperforming listed brands like Tod’s, or those still in founders’ hands such as shoemaker Christian Louboutin, are more likely to ask whether their stand-alone days are numbered. – Read More on the WSJ
3. RELATED READ: Farfetch’s $1.1 Billion Deal with Richemont, Alibaba Exemplifies Some Existing Trends in Luxury. The deal is one of the latest in a line of luxury-level partnerships and potential consolidations, which have seen the industry’s conglomerates amass sizable rosters of brands over the past several decades, thereby, enabling them to benefit from sheer size and scale, while making it more difficult for independently-owned brands to compete. – Read More on TFL
4. Is Amazon About to Disrupt the Fashion Industry? Amazon wants to develop a system that allows it to offer custom-made clothing at the same price as fast fashion. If it can create such a system, knowing Amazon, it will offer it as a platform to brands, which would make the company the hub around which move the big names would revolve. – Read More on Forbes
5. For the Retail Industry, 2020 Was a Wild Ride: Traditional or overleveraged retailers struggled to navigate through the uncertainties. More than 27 retailers declared bankruptcy in the first nine months of the year, from Lord & Taylor and the haplessly positioned J.C. Penney to the inappropriately capitalized luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group and J.Crew Group. – Read More on the WSJ
6. Lockdown comfort-dressing brings velour tracksuits and Uggs back into fashion: “Every nostalgic revival becomes a sanitized version of the past: safe, comfortable and stable. The millennial nostalgic passion of the 1990s and 2000s allows them to return to a time when they felt safe and comfortable, as a child and teenagers, free from adult worries.” – Read More on the Guardian
1. Gucci targets China’s post-Covid luxury surge with Alibaba tie-up: “The inclusion of luxury goods in ecommerce platforms — a destination for bargains — may lead to a drop in brand image. But the huge popularity of Tmall among both rich or poor makes it a powerful channel for Gucci to improve sales.” – Read More on the FT
2. How Luxury Fashion and Lifestyle Brands Can Leverage Technology in 2021: Now more than ever, consumers are demanding an offline experience in addition to the comfort from buying online. Morphing the two together can only be obtained through Artificial Intelligence. And this is where high-end luxury fashion brands are aiming for in the modern age of fashion apparel and accessories. – Read More on Forbes
3. Even Amid Diversity Push, Brands Are Still Failing to Make Consumers Feel Represented in Ads. “When consumers do see themselves represented, they’re more likely to pledge their loyalty to a brand or make a purchase,” Germain said. “They’re using discretionary income and they spend time researching these brands, so the brands owe it to them in turn to represent them in their content.” – Read More on Morning Consult
4. Poshmark’s S-1 highlights: Cutting marketing expenses led to profitability. Though activity on Poshmark fell at the beginning of the pandemic – the company reported that during the month of March the gross merchandise value of the items sold on Poshmark fell 13% year-over-year – shoppers started turning to Poshmark more for their shopping longer the pandemic dragged on. In the quarter ending June 30, year-over-year GMV growth ticked back up to 42%. – Read More on Modern Retail
5. How to reach the new luxury shopper: Aspirational nesters. The challenge lies in meeting the expectations of young, digitally native customers who are accustomed to a high level of convenience when shopping online. Luxury brands – particularly those who have quickly ramped up e-commerce during the pandemic – will have to deliver on more than just the right inventory mix, and are making changes internally to do so. – Read More on Vogue Biz
6. Farewell luxury goods industry, and welcome industry of “rebellion and creativity.” The corona crisis not only knocked down the luxury goods industry, but it commanded a redesign. “Luxury will emerge from this crisis more purposeful and dynamic than ever before,” according to Bain & Co. – Read More on Retail Detail
1. Givenchy accused of stealing leather hat design from New York designer: HardWear Style’s K Tyson Perez alleges that a black bucket hat design recently showed by Givenchy is similar to one of his from 2013. “This type of appropriation and creative colonization done by a major European brand to small black designers/brands is nothing new, but this shit needs to end.” – Read More on the Guardian
2. Back From the Brink: Buyers Snatch Up Moribund Brands for a Second Life Online. After paying to acquire the intellectual-property rights of the brands, these investors are using a combination of social-media savvy, targeted-brand promotion and direct-to-consumer marketing to reach shoppers. – Read More on the WSJ
3. RELATED READ: Forget Real Estate and Inventory, IP and Data Continue to Be The Draw for Bankruptcy Bidders. The placement of value on intangible assets like intellectual property is proving to be increasingly significant in recent years in light of a larger-scale retail shift: companies are moving away from all-but-unchecked brick-and-mortar expansion and instead, placing greater focus on their e-commerce capabilities. – Read More on TFL
4. Walmart is bringing livestream shopping to TikTok on Friday: The retailer announced it will host a one-hour livestream Friday on TikTok, where users can can shop for Walmart fashion items featured by TikTok creators without having to leave the app. Once the event is over, users will still be able to shop the items featured by visiting Walmart’s TikTok page to shop. – Read More on CNBC
5. Fashion in 2021: What Needs to Stay, Change, and Stop? “That mentality that you need to become a mass-fashion brand or sell a million units to be deemed successful needs to change. It’s a farce. You can have an audience that’s the size you feel comfortable with, make your living, have your art, be seen by people, without contributing unnecessarily to waste.” – Read More on Highsnobiety
6. Fashion Shows Are Dead, Long Live Fashion Shows! “When you’re talking about fashion that is a bit more millennial and Gen-Z, you have to keep them stimulated all the time.” In the end, the solution seems to be a perennial fashion calendar hubbed around key Fashion Weeks, but offering content all year round. That certainly puts a lot of responsibility on brands to keep things interesting for followers and fans. – Read More on Vogue
7. Patagonia’s New CEO Plots a Post-Trump Future for the Activist Brand: Patagonia remains a resistance brand. By taking actions most companies wouldn’t even consider, it’s proved to shoppers that its environmentally friendly branding isn’t just bluster. That makes people who align with those views happy to don the Patagonia logo. – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Boohoo says fast-fashion retailer was victim of own rapid growth: Its executives defended a recent Black Friday “99 per cent off” promotion that saw clothing and accessories sold for literally pennies, describing it as “a marketing tactic.” – Read More on the FT
2. For H&M, the future of fashion is both ‘circular’ and digital: “I see three main parts making up a circular ecosystem within the fashion industry: circular supply chains, circular products, and circular customer journeys. There are exciting innovations within each of those parts.” – Read More on McKinsey
3. The Coronavirus-Era Shopping Response to a Downturn: Trade Up. “Since Covid hit, you’ve had a tendency from consumers to buy less, but buy better. Unlike after 9/11, which made spending on luxury seem vulgar and inappropriate, today there is no stigma.” – Read More on the WSJ
4. Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard arrested on federal sex trafficking charges: Federal authorities alleged Tuesday that a Canadian fashion designer used his company to prey on girls and young women that they say he sexually assaulted and used to serve friends and business associates. – Read More on NBC
5. Boutique fashion retailer Mon Purse collapses: Leather accessories brand Mon Purse has collapsed after it encountered supply issues amid the Covid-19 pandemic that left customers waiting weeks for their items. The brand has raised more than $9 million from funding rounds and has been backed by heavyweights. – Read More on Yahoo