UK's ASOS Sinks to First-half Loss

A model presents the latest creations from the Dior pre-fall 2024 women’s collection at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, New York, US, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
A model presents the latest creations from the Dior pre-fall 2024 women’s collection at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, New York, US, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
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UK's ASOS Sinks to First-half Loss

A model presents the latest creations from the Dior pre-fall 2024 women’s collection at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, New York, US, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
A model presents the latest creations from the Dior pre-fall 2024 women’s collection at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, New York, US, April 15, 2024. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

British online fashion retailer ASOS sunk to a first-half loss, as it battles competition from Chinese giant Shein and self-inflicted problems from excess stock, but it said it still expected an improvement over the year.
ASOS also named former Sainsburys and Amazon executive Dave Murray as its new chief financial officer on Wednesday, saying that his retail and e-commerce experience would help return the group to profitability, Reuters reported.
The company has struggled to grow since the pandemic and has cast its current financial year as a transition period, when it will speed up new collection launches and shed a build up of excess stock which has dragged on profits.
For the 26 weeks to March 3, ASOS posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of 16.3 million pounds ($20.3 million), compared to the 4.6 million pounds it made in the period last year.
Over the full-year period, it is sticking to a forecast for positive adjusted EBITDA on sales that are expected to be 5 to 15% lower.
"ASOS is becoming a faster and more agile business, and we are reiterating our guidance for the full year as we lay the foundations for sustainably profitable growth in full-year 2025 and beyond," CEO José Antonio Ramos Calamonte said.
ASOS is facing growing competition from fast-fashion giant Shein, which is expanding rapidly in Europe, offering low prices and benefiting from its speedy response to changing trends.



Pharrell Bigs Up Brown Denim as Paris Fashion Week Starts

Pharrell Williams at a Louis Vuitton Paris show last year. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File
Pharrell Williams at a Louis Vuitton Paris show last year. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File
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Pharrell Bigs Up Brown Denim as Paris Fashion Week Starts

Pharrell Williams at a Louis Vuitton Paris show last year. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File
Pharrell Williams at a Louis Vuitton Paris show last year. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File

Paris Men's Fashion Week kicks off Tuesday with shows by big hitters Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton, with American singer-turned-designer Pharrell Williams teasing his latest creation -- "coffee bean brown" denims.

The man who got the world dancing to his catchy hit "Happy" predicted the new Louis Vuitton jeans he will unveil at his Paris show will become a "future staple" in fashionable wardrobes, reported AFP.

Williams posted a rear-end photo of the roomy medium-brown jeans on Instagram, saying they are "woven -- not dyed", and are finished with an untreated leather belt loop echoing Vuitton's monogram and the fashion house's trunk-making roots.

He also posted pictures of a matching denim jacket, finished with brassy buttons, over a white shirt and brown and beige striped T-shirt.

The singer and producer usually draws a galaxy of music, film and sports stars to his Paris shows, the locations often as glamorous as his guest list.

This time Williams is putting his Vuitton bags down in front of the Pompidou Center modern art museum just before the architectural icon closes for a major overhaul.

US basketball legend LeBron James and French San Antonio Spurs star Victor "Wemby" Wembanyama are likely to be there as ambassadors for the brand, as well as Olympic swimming sensation Leon Marchand.

The invitation sent to guests, a set of dice in a leather keyring case, hints that the designer may be taking something of a gamble.

Saint Laurent back

Saint Laurent also returns to the fashion week fold Tuesday after a two-and-a-half-year absence from the Paris men's shows.

Heads have been rolling across much of the luxury industry as bumper profits have plunged.

Saint Laurent's parent group Kering is no exception, with a drop in sales last year wiping 28 percent off its share price since the turn of the year.

But shares shot back up 12 percent last week after former Renault boss Luca de Meo was named as Kering's new chief executive.

Fashion buyer Alice Feillard of Galeries Lafayette, Europe's biggest department store chain, said the return of Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello to the men's fashion week was "rather a good thing", and would help reinforce the label's men's line.

Vaccarello teased his summer 2026 collection with a picture of a bronzed young Adonis stretched out on a bed on a beach.

The packed six days of Paris shows are in stark contrast to London -- which cancelled its men's shows completely -- and the rather thinned-out line-up in Milan last week.

Anderson's Dior debut

Instead the French capital will see a "rather dense program with big headliners including Jonathan Anderson", who will be making his highly anticipated debut at Dior, said Adrien Communier of French GQ magazine.

The Northern Irish designer is the first to oversee both the men's, women's and haute couture lines at the fabled French house since its founder Christian Dior.

In all, some 70 brands will unveil their latest looks across 40 runway shows and 30 presentations that end late Sunday with the French label Jacquemus.

Anderson, the son of former Irish rugby captain Willie Anderson, who had previously turned around the rather fusty Spanish house Loewe, was named as the head of Dior's women's collection earlier this month, replacing the Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Belgian Julian Klausner, 33, who took over at Dries Van Noten in December, will also show his first men's collection for the label on Wednesday.

Communier predicted the trend for stripes "which we saw a lot in Milan is going to continue".

But with men's fashion becoming a "little bit dull" in recent years, he said we "really need to be surprised".