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Zara Opens Flagship Store in China’s Nanjing with Cafe and Content Creation Studio 

People walk outside a newly opened Zara flagship store in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China March 20, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk outside a newly opened Zara flagship store in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China March 20, 2025. (Reuters)
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Zara Opens Flagship Store in China’s Nanjing with Cafe and Content Creation Studio 

People walk outside a newly opened Zara flagship store in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China March 20, 2025. (Reuters)
People walk outside a newly opened Zara flagship store in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China March 20, 2025. (Reuters)

Inditex-owned fast-fashion retailer Zara opened what it dubbed a new-style Asia flagship store in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing on Friday as part of its global push to cut underperforming shops and double down on larger retail formats.

The Spanish company has put in place more digital integration and spaces designed to encourage shoppers to spend more time in-store, with the new features to be trialed in China before it decides whether to expand them to other markets.

The need to revitalize Zara's retail network has been particularly apparent in China. Multinational brands targeting the country's middle-class consumers have been squeezed by a broader spending slowdown as well as increased competition from local brands with nimble domestic supply chains and strong digital presences.

At 2,500 sq m (26,909 sq ft) spanning two floors, the Zara store in Nanjing's central business district of Xinjiekou includes a salon for private shopping experiences, complete with a lounge area and personal change rooms.

It also has a "fit check" studio with multiple cameras and lighting settings where customers can shoot their own video content and download it directly to their phones. Both are available to book via popular social messaging app WeChat.

The downstairs area also features the first Zacaffe coffee shop concept outside of Spain.

It is not the first time Zara has experimented with new concepts in China before exporting them to other markets. Its popular series of livestreamed shopping shows on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, last year led the brand to experiment with similar livestreams in Europe and the US.

Inditex has been shrinking its store footprint globally over the past few years, seeking to optimize its selling space by focusing on flagship outlets in prime locations and ramping up online sales.

As recently as 2019 Inditex had 570 stores in China, its biggest physical footprint after Spain. That number had fallen to 132 as of January 31 this year.

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Fashion

Designer Olivier Rousteing Leaves Balmain After 14 Years Fusing Couture Craft With Pop-Era Bravado

French fashion designer Olivier Rousteing acknowledges the audience at the end of the Balmain show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024, in Paris on September 27, 2023. (AFP)
French fashion designer Olivier Rousteing acknowledges the audience at the end of the Balmain show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024, in Paris on September 27, 2023. (AFP)
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Designer Olivier Rousteing Leaves Balmain After 14 Years Fusing Couture Craft With Pop-Era Bravado

French fashion designer Olivier Rousteing acknowledges the audience at the end of the Balmain show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024, in Paris on September 27, 2023. (AFP)
French fashion designer Olivier Rousteing acknowledges the audience at the end of the Balmain show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024, in Paris on September 27, 2023. (AFP)

Designer Olivier Rousteing is stepping down as creative director of the Balmain fashion house after 14 hugely visible years in which he fused the rigor of Parisian tailoring with a digital-age sense of celebrity, he announced Wednesday.

“Today marks the end of my Balmain era,” Rousteing, 40, wrote on Instagram. “What an extraordinary story it has been — a love story, a life story ... I will always hold this treasured time close to my heart."

Balmain confirmed Rousteing's departure and said in a statement that a new creative direction would be announced “in due course.”

“Throughout his remarkable 14-year tenure, Olivier’s visionary approach and creative brilliance propelled Balmain to unprecedented heights," the label said.

Rousteing, who became creative director in 2011 at age 25 after two years at the label, spent his tenure reviving a once-sleepy fashion house with a mix of couture craft and pop-era bravado.

He transformed Balmain into a headline-generating brand with a vision built on sequins, power shoulders and social media muscle, reframing French luxury for a generation raised on Instagram.

Under Rousteing, Balmain became as much about community as clothing. He cultivated what he called the “Balmain Army" — a loyal circle of models and stars including Rihanna, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian — which embodied the glamour and visibility he championed.

Runway shows became pop events, blurring the line between fashion show and stadium concert. The designer’s inclusive casting and celebration of diversity helped redefine the image of a Paris house often associated with old-world exclusivity.

Born in Bordeaux and adopted as an infant, Rousteing later learned that his biological parents were of Somali and Ethiopian origin — a revelation that he said deepened his sense of identity and creative mission. His collections often wove references to heritage, resilience and belonging, offering a modern counterpoint to the Eurocentric codes that once dominated French couture.

That personal resilience was tested again in 2020, when a fireplace explosion in his Paris home left him with severe burns across much of his body. Rousteing kept the accident private for nearly a year, designing in bandages while concealing his injuries from the public eye. When he revealed the ordeal on Instagram, posting an image of his scarred torso, the gesture was both raw and defiant — a reminder that vulnerability could coexist with glamour.

The designer’s candor about his trauma and recovery further humanized a figure once seen as fashion’s ultimate showman. In interviews, Rousteing said the experience stripped away fear and reinforced his belief in honesty and transparency. His subsequent collections, notably the Spring 2022 show marking Balmain’s 10th anniversary under his direction, were suffused with themes of healing, strength and rebirth, with corseted silhouettes and bandage motifs doubling as symbols of survival.

“Like every story, this one also has an ending,” Rousteing wrote on Instagram Wednesday. He thanked his team and colleagues, but did not say what his next step will be.

“Today, I leave the House of Balmain with my eyes still wide open — open to the future and to the beautiful adventures ahead, adventures in which all of you will have a place. A new era, a new beginning, a new story. THANK YOU.”

Fashion

Jewellery Maker Pandora Cuts Sales Growth Forecast 

The charm bracelet maker said comparable sales grew 4% in October, a stronger start to the crucial holiday shopping season. (Getty Images for Pandora Jewellery)
The charm bracelet maker said comparable sales grew 4% in October, a stronger start to the crucial holiday shopping season. (Getty Images for Pandora Jewellery)
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Jewellery Maker Pandora Cuts Sales Growth Forecast 

The charm bracelet maker said comparable sales grew 4% in October, a stronger start to the crucial holiday shopping season. (Getty Images for Pandora Jewellery)
The charm bracelet maker said comparable sales grew 4% in October, a stronger start to the crucial holiday shopping season. (Getty Images for Pandora Jewellery)

Danish jewellery brand Pandora on Wednesday cut its comparable sales growth forecast for the full year and reported weaker than expected sales growth for the third quarter as they declined in Europe.

Operating profit was 880 million Danish crowns ($137.4 million), down from 980 million in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts had on average forecast an operating profit of 873 million, according to a poll provided by Pandora.

Comparable sales growth of 2% was slower than the expected 3%. In Europe, comparable sales fell 1% as they slowed in Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

Pandora shares are down 38% since the start of this year as US tariffs on imports and the surging price of silver, a key material in its jewellery, add to its costs, while shoppers have grown more cautious about spending on non-essentials.

Pandora cut its comparable sales growth guidance for this year to 3-4%, from 4-5% previously, but stuck to an organic growth forecast of 7-8%.

The charm bracelet maker said comparable sales grew 4% in October, a stronger start to the crucial holiday shopping season.

Fashion

Hugo Boss Expects Sales, Profit at Lower End of Annual Guidance

FILE PHOTO: A window display is seen at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30,2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A window display is seen at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30,2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo
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Hugo Boss Expects Sales, Profit at Lower End of Annual Guidance

FILE PHOTO: A window display is seen at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30,2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A window display is seen at the Boss store in London, Britain, May 30,2024. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo

German fashion group Hugo Boss on Tuesday said sales and operating profit in the current year would be at the lower end of its guidance, in line with analysts' expectations, as it reported lower-than-expected third quarter sales.

The group's sales fell 1% in currency-adjusted terms to 989 million euros in the third quarter, from 1.03 billion a year earlier. That was a touch below analysts' forecast of 1.01 billion euros in a company-provided poll, Reuters reported.