Daily LInks
1. Luxury fashion and law firms among U.S. bailout recipients: From Mayhoola for Investments-owned Valentino and Oscar de la Renta to billionaire Kanye West’s Yeezy and Rag + Bone, fashion brands/retailers received aid from the $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which is aimed at bolstering cash-strapped small- to mid-sized firms amid the COVID-19 pandemic. – Read More on the Financial Times
2. Five ways the pandemic is changing fashion and beauty trends: “One of the first things we’ve seen in the pandemic is a shift to skin care.” Meanwhile, sales of “high heels are way down,” and Crocs are up, a trend that is likely to continue even as Americans return to work. – Read More on the Washington Post
3. In a COVID-19 world, Artificial Intelligence is tailoring a perfect fit for the fashion industry: Fashion retailers work with limited data to predict what products to make, in what quantity and when to discount them for clearance. Data brought together from disparate sources can help brands to align supply with demand. – Read More on Business Insider
4. Boohoo Plunges After Reports of Labor Abuses at Suppliers: The Sunday Times said an undercover reporter worked at the factory, where social-distancing measures weren’t being observed and employees were paid 3.50 pounds ($4.40) an hour, less than half the minimum wage. The newspaper said the reporter was helping pack boxes of Boohoo’s Nasty Gal line. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. RETRO READ: Dark factories … Labor exploitation in Britain’s garment industry. Part of Leicester’s garment industry has become detached from UK employment law, “a country within a country”, as one factory owner puts it, where “£5 an hour is considered the top wage”, even though that is illegal. – Read More on the FT
6. As Black buying power grows, racial profiling by retailers remains persistent problem: Retail environments are one of the places where Black Americans say discrimination is prevalent. Nearly 30 percent of Black Americans said they were treated unfairly because of their race when shopping in the past 30 days, according to the 2018 Gallup poll, the most recent data available. – Read More on CNBC