How Memory Maps Fashion Future

Each costume is paired with an alternative work that reveals fashion’s relationship to time. Left, an Iris van Herpen dress, from 2012, with Alien-like appendages, alongside a cream 1951 gown from Charles James with tentacle-like protrusions.Credit...Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times
Each costume is paired with an alternative work that reveals fashion’s relationship to time. Left, an Iris van Herpen dress, from 2012, with Alien-like appendages, alongside a cream 1951 gown from Charles James with tentacle-like protrusions.Credit...Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times
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How Memory Maps Fashion Future

Each costume is paired with an alternative work that reveals fashion’s relationship to time. Left, an Iris van Herpen dress, from 2012, with Alien-like appendages, alongside a cream 1951 gown from Charles James with tentacle-like protrusions.Credit...Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times
Each costume is paired with an alternative work that reveals fashion’s relationship to time. Left, an Iris van Herpen dress, from 2012, with Alien-like appendages, alongside a cream 1951 gown from Charles James with tentacle-like protrusions.Credit...Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times

Can you cast your mind back for a moment to spring 2019?

The stock market was still on its overall climb. “The Avengers: Endgame” was breaking box office records. The consumption cycle was evermore frenetic. Fashion designers were complaining about the impossibility of being creative on an accelerated schedule even as they produced greater and greater mountains of stuff. Social media had put the news cycle on fast-forward and Trump had flooded the zone. Time itself was suddenly a precious commodity.

Little wonder it gave Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum, who had been mulling over what to do for his next big fashion show, a celebration of the museum’s 150th anniversary, the spark of an idea.

One that sent Mr. Bolton not just into his own storage room but down a conceptual wormhole: through Charles Baudelaire and the early-20th-century philosopher Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein and Walter Benjamin, Proust and Virginia Woolf.

He emerged with a theme: two parallel chronologies, one running forward from 1870, the founding of the museum, through today; one curving around the other like the double helix, using fashion — which constantly doubles back on itself for reference and inspiration, the better to reflect the forward evolution of the culture around it — to demonstrate the ways in which our past informs our present, and history gives form and meaning to what’s next.

One that was suitably serious for such a serious anniversary, and would act as a counterpoint to the Technicolor pop culture crowd-pleasers of fashion exhibitions like last year’s “Camp” and the earlier “China Through the Looking Glass.” One that would be, as Mr. Bolton said, “very object-based” and about connoisseurship rather than showmanship.

One that had enough high-culture credibility for the museum nabobs, and enough potential glamour for the fashion party cum fund-raiser that is the Met Gala, the source of the Costume Institute’s budget. Louis Vuitton agreed to underwrite the exhibition. Emma Stone and Lin-Manuel Miranda signed on as party co-hosts.

And then everything stopped. The novel coronavirus closed the museum from March until late August. The show was put on hold. The gala was canceled. The economy dived. The Black Lives Matter movement of the summer forced a new reckoning at cultural institutions and within the fashion industry.

This week the exhibition, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” opened, shorn of its usual celebratory bells and whistles.

The — well, timing turned out to be perfect.

Not just because the extra almost seven months allowed Mr. Bolton to re-curate the show, looking at his own choices through the lens of social justice and updating the display to include more designers of color as well as the most up-to-date pieces. (Nearly 25 percent of the exhibition changed, and the new work — by Shayne Oliver of Hood by Air, Stephen Burrows, and Xuly.Bët, among other designers — can be identified by comparing the physical exhibition to the catalog, an elegant, matte black-and-white tome that was printed in February.)

But because Mr. Bolton could not have designed a better show for this strange, complicated moment if he had planned it.

Time, after all, has become something of an abstract concept for us all; we exist in the discomfiting netherworld of the present, in which actions past are picked over and re-examined and what happens next seems impossible to parse. The political reality of the election has given rise to a broad conversation that harks back to the founding principles of the country even as it debates its future.

The concerns the show addresses have taken on a new, acutely personal, dimension. Its relatively restrained dimensions are soothing in an age of bombast. And the socially distanced, quieter museum visitation rules dictated by safety protocols, rather than diminishing the experience, actually enhance it.

Unlike the expanse of 2018’s “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” which escaped the bounds of a gallery to sprawl throughout the museum (and up to the Cloisters), “About Time” is contained within the bounds of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor rooms. You enter a darkened cocoon of a hallway to the soft, droning tones of Nicole Kidman reading from Woolf’s saga of time travel, “Orlando,” only to emerge into an equally somber clock of a room, a bronze pendulum swinging at the center (Es Devlin did the otherworldly exhibition design) synced to Philip Glass’s “The Poet Acts” from the film “The Hours,” itself based on the Woolf novel “Mrs. Dalloway,” tinkling on the soundtrack.

The atmosphere is heavy with suspended animation. Instead of written placards on the walls by each piece, which might have encouraged visitors to congregate too closely, the exhibition texts for each pair of garments — forerunner and successor — which place each look in its collection and social context, must be downloaded by visitors on their smartphones. This further underscores the sense of private communion between the eye and what it beholds, which are the “minutes” of the show: 60 duets of dresses or suits or coats or confections from different periods and designers that echo each other across the decades in silhouette, motif, or material. They are almost entirely black, with the rare shade of white for punctuation.

The mirroring technique was also employed to powerful effect, albeit on a smaller scale, in a section of last year’s “Camp” show that compared certain classic looks to their exaggerated counterparts, but here it is the guiding principle, and it is highly effective.

So the explosive bustle of a silk velvet Worth-inspired walking dress of 1885 is juxtaposed against the similar lines of a Yohji Yamamoto wool coat from 1986/87 spilling a fountain of white tulle out the back. The jutting silver-framed panniers of a 1927 taffeta robe de style by Jeanne Lanvin are echoed in the sheer lace-panniers of a 2020 dress from Loewe by Jonathan Anderson (which themselves hark back to the panniers of court dress). And Chanel’s little black sequined party slip with flowers on one strap from 1925 and a Norman Norell little black sequined dress with flowers on one strap from 1965 explicitly graph the connection between the freedoms of the 1920s and those of the 1960s. They are so close that it is a good thing Diet Prada, the Instagram watchdog currently known for calling out copying, was not around.

The visitor then proceeds from the dark into the light via more “Orlando” narration, courtesy of Meryl Streep, more Glass, and a second room mirrored to the ceiling, refracting iterations of iterations: Issey Miyake’s accordion-pleated slinky-style “flying saucer’ dress of 1994 and Mariano Fortuny’s slinky pleated “Delphos” dress of 1930, both of them technical marvels of weightless formation; a skinny knit T-shirt dress from Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis, 1993, elongated sleeves shirred in a permanent crush, and a skinny knit T-shirt dress by Rudi Gernreich, 1965-66, same sleeves and line, same conscious grungy rebellion. An Iris van Herpen PVC strapless gown from 2012 with Alien-like appendages curving around the hips and thighs stands beside a cream satin 1951 ball gown from Charles James with the same tentacle-like protrusions on the hips and skirt.

The final look of the show, however, stands alone. An angelic white dress by Viktor & Rolf, it is made of lace remnants from old collections patchworked together into something new and worn by a mannequin suspended in the air; the past and future united in the present. It brings the exhibition to a graceful, optimistic close.

The New York Times



UK Fashion Retailers ASOS, Boohoo to Clarify Green Credentials Claims, Says Regulator 

New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. (Reuters)
New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. (Reuters)
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UK Fashion Retailers ASOS, Boohoo to Clarify Green Credentials Claims, Says Regulator 

New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. (Reuters)
New employees wait in the lobby on their first day of work at the ASOS headquarters in London April 1, 2014. (Reuters)

Top fashion retailers ASOS, Boohoo and George at Asda have signed undertakings to clarify the way they display, describe and promote their environmental credentials, Britain's competition watchdog said on Wednesday.

The announcement follows a 2022 investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) amid heightened scrutiny of companies exaggerating their green credentials in an attempt to woo climate-conscious consumers as well as billions of dollars from environmentally focused investor funds.

Some of the undertakings include making clear statements about materials used in green ranges such as "organic" or "recycled" instead of "eco" or "sustainable" and setting out clear criteria to decide which products are part of the environmental collections, the CMA said.

The three brands together make over 4.4 billion pounds ($5.56 billion) annually from UK fashion sales alone, according to the regulator.


Godzilla Claw Shoes on Oscars Red Carpet Are Just One of Hazama’s ‘Dark Fantasy’ Creations 

The various Godzilla-themes shoes by Japanese fashion designer Ryosuke Matsui, on a table also designed by Matsui, are shown during an interview with The Associated Press at his company office on the outskirts of Tokyo, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP)
The various Godzilla-themes shoes by Japanese fashion designer Ryosuke Matsui, on a table also designed by Matsui, are shown during an interview with The Associated Press at his company office on the outskirts of Tokyo, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP)
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Godzilla Claw Shoes on Oscars Red Carpet Are Just One of Hazama’s ‘Dark Fantasy’ Creations 

The various Godzilla-themes shoes by Japanese fashion designer Ryosuke Matsui, on a table also designed by Matsui, are shown during an interview with The Associated Press at his company office on the outskirts of Tokyo, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP)
The various Godzilla-themes shoes by Japanese fashion designer Ryosuke Matsui, on a table also designed by Matsui, are shown during an interview with The Associated Press at his company office on the outskirts of Tokyo, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP)

One Japanese creation grabbing attention on the Oscars red carpet wasn't a movie: the kitsch shoes that seemed to be clenched in Godzilla's claw.

They were the work of Ryosuke Matsui, who recently described his joy at seeing “Godzilla Minus One” director Takashi Yamazaki and his Shirogumi special-effects team walk the red carpet and win the visual effects Oscar, all while wearing his shoes.

“The director loves my shoes. He calls them his uniform,” Matsui told The Associated Press in an interview.

At 35 with a fashion career that's barely a decade old, Matsui heads his own brand called Hazama, which means “the space-in-between” in Japanese.

A small business with just six employees, Hazama offers girlie outfits with fluffy skirts, as well as Gothic themes, kimono and sweaters in gradient colors, jackets with repetitive motifs evocative of Andy Warhol, sofas and coffee tables, and, of course, the shoes with the crazy heels.

One pair has a pistol trigger you can really pull though without any bullets, while another looks like it’s stuck in an alien’s blood-red teeth.

“Dark fantasy” is what Matsui calls his motifs. His imaginary world is filled with odd creatures like witches, scary penguins and iridescent polar bears, where objects suddenly melt, a face might get replaced by a giant rose, or a horrific hand grabs your heel from underground.

His brand’s spaces in-between are the filters through which Matsui sees and expresses his mesmerizing stories of the beginnings of time, inhabited by “the people” he’s concocted. He would love to have his own café or work on an animation project.

“Of course, cool people look great, no matter what they wear, but clothes can change the way you think, how you relate to people around you, work as that doorway into building your confidence,” he said.

Matsui's no-nonsense friendly attitude defies his demure first impression. Sitting amid mounds of boxes and packages of clothing at his office on the outskirts of Tokyo, he was wearing a Hazama-designed hoodie with rainbow-tinged fangs of an “aurora shark” for studs, with torn Yves Saint Laurent jeans and Nike sneakers. He said he wasn't wearing his Godzilla shoes because he was working.

The Godzilla shoes originated as a special order from the film’s producer for the Japan premiere in October last year. Their stealing the show at the recent Academy Awards ceremony wasn’t even in the script then.

It took Matsui about a year to finish the initial three designs, the 75,000 yen (about $500) red pumps for actress Minami Hamabe, the 88,000 yen ($600) shoes for Yamazaki, and boots decorated with jagged scales, priced at 105,500 yen ($700), for Ryunosuke Kamiki, the movie’s co-star alongside Godzilla.

The entire first batch of several hundred already sold out. Plans are underway to produce more, perhaps in different colors, like gold in homage of the Oscar statue.

Interest has been huge, according to Matsui. But, in theory, everyone who’s got their hearts set on a Godzilla shoe should be able to get one, eventually.

Growing up in a loving family that sent him to piano and swimming lessons and “juku” cram schools, Matsui is a graduate of the prestigious Keio University and could have easily become a successful “salaryman” like other young Japanese men.

But he didn’t want to part with his then-blond hair.

Although he has always respected Yohji Yamamoto, he purposely pursued color and fabric texture, instead of Yamamoto’s focus on black and stark lines.

When asked about his global ambitions, Matsui acknowledged he is quite happy working in Japan. His dream is surprisingly local: to create the fashion for Bump of Chicken, a Japanese rock band.

Besides, he’s afraid of flying.


Fashion Retailer H&M’s Q1 Operating Profit Rises More Than Expected 

The logo of H&M is on display outside a store on the day it closes, as the fashion retailer exits the Russian market, in Moscow, Russia November 30, 2022. (Reuters)
The logo of H&M is on display outside a store on the day it closes, as the fashion retailer exits the Russian market, in Moscow, Russia November 30, 2022. (Reuters)
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Fashion Retailer H&M’s Q1 Operating Profit Rises More Than Expected 

The logo of H&M is on display outside a store on the day it closes, as the fashion retailer exits the Russian market, in Moscow, Russia November 30, 2022. (Reuters)
The logo of H&M is on display outside a store on the day it closes, as the fashion retailer exits the Russian market, in Moscow, Russia November 30, 2022. (Reuters)

H&M, the world's second-biggest listed fashion retailer, reported on Wednesday a larger-than-expected operating profit for the December-February period.

Operating profit in the Swedish group's fiscal first quarter was 2.08 billion crowns ($196.3 million), up from 725 million a year earlier, against a mean forecast of 1.43 billion in an LSEG poll of analysts.

H&M has said it aims to reach a 10% operating profit over the course of this year.

Measured in local currencies, H&M's sales from March 1 to 25 increased by 2%, the retailer said.

The Swedish fashion retailer, known for $19.99 jeans and dresses under $15, also sells leather trousers for more than $300 and, under its Cos brand, coats for as much as $1,190.


UK's ASOS Posts 18% Drop in First-half Sales

Smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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UK's ASOS Posts 18% Drop in First-half Sales

Smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Online fashion retailer ASOS posted an 18% drop in sales in its first half, but said it was on track to meet guidance for sales to decline by 5-15% over the full-year, as its plan to revive the business takes shape.

Since the pandemic, the British company has struggled to grow and cast 2024 as a transition year, with the focus on speeding up processes, launching new collections and getting rid of a build up of excess stock.

For the 26 weeks to March 3, ASOS said sales declined by 18%, broadly in line with its expectations. It stuck to guidance for the sales decline to improve over the 12 month period, Reuters reported.
It also repeated guidance that it would post positive adjusted core earnings (EBITDA), positive cash generation and would return inventory to pre-COVID levels.
"I'm excited by the performance of our new collections, while we have also made great progress in monetizing inventory that built up over the pandemic and in improving the core profitability of our operations," CEO José Antonio Ramos Calamonte said in a statement on Tuesday.
Shares in ASOS have lost over half their value during the last year. The company has a market capitalization of 413 million pounds ($522 million).


Valentino Cancels June Fashion Shows Following Piccioli’s Exit

A model presents a creation by designer Pierpaolo Piccioli as part of his Spring/Summer 2024 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco
A model presents a creation by designer Pierpaolo Piccioli as part of his Spring/Summer 2024 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco
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Valentino Cancels June Fashion Shows Following Piccioli’s Exit

A model presents a creation by designer Pierpaolo Piccioli as part of his Spring/Summer 2024 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco
A model presents a creation by designer Pierpaolo Piccioli as part of his Spring/Summer 2024 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Italian fashion house Valentino said on Monday that it would not present its Men's and Haute Couture fashion shows in June, following the departure of its creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli.

The group said on Friday it had agreed with Piccioli to end their collaboration, adding that a new "creative organization" would be announced soon.

"Following the latest organizational announcement regarding the Maison's Creative Direction, Valentino confirms that it will not present its upcoming Men’s and Haute Couture fashion shows in June 2024," the group said in a statement on Monday.

"Creativity will continue to lead the company as a key pillar, shaping new future collections ...", it added

Earlier on Monday fashion trade publication WWD reported that Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele was negotiating with Valentino to take the role left by Piccioli, citing market sources.

Italian newspaper La Repubblica said on Monday that the contract with Michele had already been signed during the weekend, cited sources close to him.

Valentino declined to comment, while Michele could not immediately be reached for comment.

French luxury group Kering, which owns Gucci, bought a 30% stake in Valentino last year from Qatari investment fund Mayhoola with an option to buy the rest in five years.


H&M's New Boss Erver Faces Battle to Reboot Sales

H&M logo is seen on one of the Swedish retailer's shops January 30, 2020. (Reuters)
H&M logo is seen on one of the Swedish retailer's shops January 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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H&M's New Boss Erver Faces Battle to Reboot Sales

H&M logo is seen on one of the Swedish retailer's shops January 30, 2020. (Reuters)
H&M logo is seen on one of the Swedish retailer's shops January 30, 2020. (Reuters)

Investors will be looking for reassurances from new H&M CEO Daniel Erver that he has the right plan to reboot revenue growth when the fast fashion retailer reports its first quarterly earnings under his leadership on Wednesday.
Erver took the helm in January after his predecessor Helena Helmersson stepped down unexpectedly on the day of H&M's annual results, unsettling investors, Reuters reported.
H&M shares are still down 10% from where they stood before that.
The retailer has struggled to keep pace with bigger rivals such as Zara owner Inditex, whose shares hit a record high last week, while China-founded fast-fashion firm Shein is also expanding rapidly in Europe.
"The consumer space remains very polarized," said Dora Buckulcikova, lead portfolio manager of Dutch asset manager Robeco's fashion equity strategy.
"We have been quite surprised by just how strong demand for certain brands has been, but others in the middle market are getting squeezed."
H&M, which sells dresses for $9.99 and jeans for as little as $17.99, but is also stretching into higher price points with its brands Cos and Arket, is expected to report its weakest quarterly sales in two years on Wednesday.
Revenue is expected to drop to 53.4 billion Swedish crowns ($5 billion) from 54.9 billion a year earlier, LSEG analyst estimates show. Operating profit is expected to double to 1.422 billion crowns.
H&M says it is prioritizing profitability over sales volumes as it aims to reach a 10% operating margin this year.
Still, the retailer is stepping up investment in its stores and logistics, announcing in January that capital expenditure would increase by up to 30% this year to 11-12 billion crowns.
H&M needs to follow Inditex's lead and invest in improving its store network and logistics, even if that weighs on its profit margin short-term, said Nick Clay, portfolio manager at Redwheel in London. Clay previously held H&M in his fund, but switched to Inditex in May 2022.
SQUEEZED MIDDLE
Improving the look and feel of stores is one way H&M can attract more aspirational shoppers, experts say. In a store H&M opened last week on the King's Road in London, the layout is more spacious, the range more curated and the changing rooms more comfortable than a typical H&M.
Investors will also be looking for Erver to detail plans to "near shore" and improve H&M's logistics.
The speed with which companies in the sector respond to consumer behavior is a key differentiator, said Olivier van Hirtum, head of developed market equities at APG Asset Management in Amsterdam.
"Companies that have shorter supply chains – both physically, and in time – can respond faster to fashion trends, and we've seen them take share from companies that take longer," he said.
H&M is taking measures to improve collections, time to market, and inventory geographic allocations, which should drive improvements in its top-line growth and, by extension, profitability, said Magnus Raman, analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Stockholm.
H&M has also been closing stores in recent years. At the end of its 2023 financial year it had 700 fewer stores than in 2019, a decline of 14%.
H&M's cash position of 26.398 billion crowns, or around $2.5 billion, was up 22% from a year earlier, though still small compared to Inditex's 11.4 billion euro ($12.34 billion) cash pile.


Valentino’s Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli Leaves after 25 Years

Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli appears at the end of his Menswear ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Paris, France, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli appears at the end of his Menswear ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Paris, France, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Valentino’s Creative Director Pierpaolo Piccioli Leaves after 25 Years

Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli appears at the end of his Menswear ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Paris, France, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli appears at the end of his Menswear ready-to-wear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 collection show for fashion house Valentino during Men's Fashion Week in Paris, France, January 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Italian fashion house Valentino said on Friday it had agreed with its creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli to end their collaboration, adding that a new "creative organization" would be announced soon.

Piccioli started working at Valentino in 1999 and took on the role of sole creative director in 2016.

"We extend our deepest gratitude to Pierpaolo for writing an important chapter in the history of the Maison Valentino. His contribution over the past 25 years will leave an indelible mark," Valentino's chairman Rachid Mohamed Rachid said.

Piccioli said in the same statement: "I've been in this company for 25 years, and for 25 years I've existed and I've lived with the people who have woven the weaves of this beautiful story that is mine and ours."

French luxury group Kering bought a 30% stake in Valentino last year from Qatari investment fund Mayhoola for 1.7 billion euros ($1.84 billion).

The agreement includes an option for Kering to purchase the whole of Valentino's share capital no later than 2028.


Nike, Lululemon Sink as Annual Forecasts Disappoint

The Nike swoosh logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York, New York, US, March 19, 2019. (Reuters)
The Nike swoosh logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York, New York, US, March 19, 2019. (Reuters)
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Nike, Lululemon Sink as Annual Forecasts Disappoint

The Nike swoosh logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York, New York, US, March 19, 2019. (Reuters)
The Nike swoosh logo is seen outside the store on 5th Ave in New York, New York, US, March 19, 2019. (Reuters)

Nike shares tumbled 8% on Friday after the Air Jordan maker warned of lower sales in its first half as it replaces older styles with trendier sneakers, while Lululemon Athletica sank 17% as demand waned for its premium athleisure.

While Lululemon's gloomy forecast spotlights the challenges for retailers as customers reduce discretionary spending due to sticky inflation, Nike's projection signals its efforts to battle newer brands for market share.

"One of the things that both Lululemon and Nike have enjoyed over the last few years is premium prices on their premium products and that seems to be in doubt at this point in time," said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, which has a stake in Nike.

Nike plans to trim supplies of classic shoes such as its Air Force 1 and Pegasus, financial chief Matt Friend said on Thursday, to focus on reviving its running shoe category, as well as upcoming launches including its Air Max Dn.

Meanwhile, Lululemon reported a 9% growth in North American sales for the fourth quarter, a far cry from the 29% jump a year earlier and a 12% gain in the prior quarter.

"This level of deceleration (in sales growth) in the US does raise some concerns on market share opportunity," Piper Sandler analyst Abbie Zvejnieks said in a note. The brokerage trimmed its PT to $525 from $560.

Lululemon was set for its worst day in more than four years, while Nike shares touched a six-month low on Friday. Peer Under Armour fell 3%.

At least 12 brokerages cut their PTs on Nike following the results, pulling down the median target to $116 from $126 in December. Nike's shares were last trading at $93.50.

"Until the market sees evidence that new products can grow and scale sufficiently, we think this will remain a hotly-debated stock that will remain stuck in the mud," said Wedbush analyst Tom Nikic.

Nike's forward price-to-earnings multiple, a common benchmark for valuing stocks, is 24.84, compared to 52.08 and 15.31 for Adidas and Puma, respectively.

At least 17 brokerages cut their PTs on Lululemon.


Clothing Giant Shein in Focus as France Targets Fast Fashion 

Signage of cross-border fast fashion e-commerce company SHEIN is seen at a garment factory in Guangzhou, in China's southern Guangdong province on July 18, 2022. (AFP)
Signage of cross-border fast fashion e-commerce company SHEIN is seen at a garment factory in Guangzhou, in China's southern Guangdong province on July 18, 2022. (AFP)
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Clothing Giant Shein in Focus as France Targets Fast Fashion 

Signage of cross-border fast fashion e-commerce company SHEIN is seen at a garment factory in Guangzhou, in China's southern Guangdong province on July 18, 2022. (AFP)
Signage of cross-border fast fashion e-commerce company SHEIN is seen at a garment factory in Guangzhou, in China's southern Guangdong province on July 18, 2022. (AFP)

With jaw-droppingly low prices and a seemingly endless selection of trendy clothes, Shein has taken the world by storm -- and found itself in the crosshairs of French lawmakers who want to curb the excesses of fast fashion.

Customers love the Chinese-founded firm's massive catalogue of ultra-cheap items, from $8 sundresses to 48-cent bracelets, at a time when inflation has shrunk purchasing power around the world.

Like H&M and Zara, Shein has been accused of using factories staffed by underpaid and overworked garment makers, and of causing widespread harm to the environment.

Critics also accuse the company of promoting hyper-consumerism and selling clothes designed to be discarded after a few wears -- a charge also levelled at its rivals.

But what sets Shein apart, analysts say, is a hyper-efficient supply chain and product development process.

"In theory, Bangladesh could probably sell garments for cheaper than Shein. However there's no ecosystem there to market it, to brand it, to sell it overseas, to ship it," Allison Malmsten, China market analyst at Beijing-based Daxue Consulting, told AFP.

"China has all of these elements."

Shein moved its headquarters to Singapore between 2021 and 2022 to dodge increasing global scrutiny of Chinese firms, according to analysts.

Still, it benefits from China's unique combination of a massive low-cost textile manufacturing industry with highly developed e-commerce technology and logistics networks.

That ecosystem has also spawned the online shopping app Temu -- while it is frequently compared to Shein, it acts as more of a discounted Amazon-like marketplace offering third-party home goods, tools and gadgets.

'Extremely agile'

Shein offered an astounding 1.5 million different apparel items for sale last year, according to research by University of Delaware fashion expert Sheng Lu -- far surpassing pioneering Spanish fast-fashion brand Zara, which stocked 40,000 styles.

While such a large variety usually comes with huge risk and production costs, Shein reported $23 billion in revenue and $800 million in net profit in 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"The only reason Shein is able to get away with this is because they're extremely agile and they have very little waste in their warehouse," Rui Ma, China business expert and founder of the Tech Buzz China newsletter, told AFP.

"By testing and producing new products in small initial batches of 100 to 200 items, we gather and evaluate customer feedback in real time, and restock only the products that our consumers truly want," Shein told AFP in a statement, adding that this avoided "the pitfalls of overproduction".

This on-demand strategy depends heavily on a tightly engineered supply chain of more than 5,000 third-party manufacturers, largely in China, where local media reports describe Shein as dominating entire districts of small workshops.

The company ranks suppliers by their flexibility and ability to deliver urgent orders, and regularly eliminates the poorest performers, according to a 2021 Zhongtai Securities report.

At the same time, it tracks users' search data and social media trends to generate designs that are almost guaranteed to sell -- often appearing to simply copy from other brands.

A recent lawsuit filed by Japanese retail giant Uniqlo over an alleged copycat bag design is one of a slew of intellectual property disputes involving Shein.

"You can imagine their design team more as data people, and less as design people," Malmsten said. "They're not sitting there with sketchbooks, they're sitting there with computers and data."

'Micro-influencers'

The world's biggest fast fashion brands, including Shein, have come under fire in recent years for alleged labor exploitation and its contribution to environmental pollution and waste.

The French parliament last week approved measures to make low-cost fast fashion less attractive to customers, especially because of sustainability concerns.

Shein says it conducts regular third-party audits to ensure fair wages, and it says its on-demand model avoids overproduction and thus "dramatically reduces waste".

Even as it fights these allegations, it has developed an army of fans who praise it for making fashion accessible to those on tight budgets, especially in plus-size styles.

This inclusive image has been carefully cultivated by Shein, which enlists small-time video bloggers and social media users to represent the brand in exchange for free products and cash.

Unlike luxury brands that use celebrity ambassadors, Shein has sought out "micro-influencers" in the form of "everyday people", according to Malmsten.

The company uses the tactic to "bombard consumers, so everywhere that you look online you'll see Shein products", she said.

But the strategy has occasionally backfired, with a sponsored factory tour for a group of Western influencers last year sparking a strong backlash for glossing over alleged labor violations.

Ma cautioned against giving social media too much credit for Shein's success.

"It's not like there weren't plenty of companies trying to mimic Shein (on social media)," she told AFP.

"The marketing aspect is the easiest to copy and also the most useless as it's not their foundational competitive advantage."


LVMH’s Stephane Bianchi Promoted in Top Management Reshuffle

FILE PHOTO: Stephane Bianchi, CEO of Watches and Jewellery of LVMH, is seen during the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva, Switzerland March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Stephane Bianchi, CEO of Watches and Jewellery of LVMH, is seen during the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva, Switzerland March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
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LVMH’s Stephane Bianchi Promoted in Top Management Reshuffle

FILE PHOTO: Stephane Bianchi, CEO of Watches and Jewellery of LVMH, is seen during the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva, Switzerland March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Stephane Bianchi, CEO of Watches and Jewellery of LVMH, is seen during the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva, Switzerland March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

LVMH's group managing director Toni Belloni will step down, the company said on Thursday, with Stephane Bianchi taking over his operational functions as a younger generation moves up the ranks of the world's biggest luxury group.
The move is a rare top management reshuffle at Europe's second-largest listed company, worth 425 billion euros ($461 billion).
Bianchi, 59, will chair the group's executive committee, and, alongside LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, take up strategic and operational supervision of its labels, LVMH said.
Long-time retail executive Bianchi joined LVMH in 2018 and has moved up quickly through the ranks. He started out as chief executive of watch label Tag Heuer and the watchmaking division of the company. Two years later, his division was enlarged to encompass jewelry, and now includes Tiffany & Co.
In his current role, Bianchi oversees Bernard Arnault's sons Frederic Arnault, CEO of LVMH watches, and Alexandre Arnault, executive vice president in charge of product and communications at Tiffany.
All five of Bernard Arnault's children hold key management positions in the group, Reuters reported.
Arnault, who turned 75 this month, has not shown any signs of stepping back. Two years ago, LVMH changed its bylaws to raise the maximum age of its CEO to 80 from 75.
LVMH also said on Thursday that it would nominate Wei Sun Christianson, a former Morgan Stanley executive with extensive experience in China, to the board of directors at its annual general meeting on April 18.
Belloni, 70, will remain at the group, in charge of strategic missions for Bernard Arnault and president of LVMH Italy.