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Russia’s Wildberries Selling Zara Clothes Online despite Inditex Halting Operations

An employee of Wildberries online retailer scans a code on a package at a pickup point in Moscow, Russia December 16, 2021. Picture taken December 16, 2021. (Reuters)
An employee of Wildberries online retailer scans a code on a package at a pickup point in Moscow, Russia December 16, 2021. Picture taken December 16, 2021. (Reuters)
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Russia’s Wildberries Selling Zara Clothes Online despite Inditex Halting Operations

An employee of Wildberries online retailer scans a code on a package at a pickup point in Moscow, Russia December 16, 2021. Picture taken December 16, 2021. (Reuters)
An employee of Wildberries online retailer scans a code on a package at a pickup point in Moscow, Russia December 16, 2021. Picture taken December 16, 2021. (Reuters)

Russian e-commerce leader Wildberries is still selling clothes from Inditex brands that have suspended operations in the country, including the Spanish group's main Zara label.

The TASS news agency reported on Tuesday that Zara items were being sold on Wildberries, which the Russian company confirmed.

Inditex is one of many Western brands to shutter stores and suspend operations in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine, but the continued sale of some of its products highlights the difficulties companies face in keeping control of their brands.

Other Inditex brands, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear, were also available on Wildberries, which said it would continue offering such goods to Russian consumers.

"We are buying goods that we sell from Wildberries without intermediaries, only directly from producers or official distributors," Wildberries said in a statement on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear which distributors Wildberries was referring to.

A source close to Inditex said the items being sold by Wildberries were clearance stocks that were already in Russia when it suspended activities there. Inditex has stopped sending products to Russia since the suspension, the source added.

Products from many other Western brands are also still available on Wildberries.

The company started out as an online platform reselling clothes from the likes of German mail order group Otto and now supplies everything from electronics to kitchenware, its success turning founder Tatyana Bakalchuk into Russia's richest woman.

Hit by sanctions and supply chain issues, Russia has legalized so-called parallel imports, which allow retailers to import products from abroad without the trademark owner's permission.

Bakalchuk in March described the scheme as an effective support measure, highlighting its importance for small and medium-sized businesses and for the import of socially-significant products.

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Fashion

Saint Laurent Says Designer Anthony Vaccarello to Leave

(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
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Saint Laurent Says Designer Anthony Vaccarello to Leave

(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

Belgian fashion designer Anthony Vaccarello will leave his post as chief designer at Saint Laurent after a decade in charge, the French house's parent company Kering announced Friday.

"Anthony Vaccarello has played a key role in Saint Laurent's development, helping to strengthen its identity and influence across the worlds of fashion and culture," Kering said in a statement, without giving any reason for Vaccarello's departure.

The designer had hinted at his potential exit at his final show for Saint Laurent on September 29.

Saint Laurent is the last major Kering brand to switch creative director as a ⁠luxury ⁠industry slowdown prompted designer changes last year at Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta.

"The focus of the new designer will be in currently under-represented product categories, such as women's daywear and menswear, in high-end leather goods, and less penetrated regions such as China/Asia," Barclays analysts said in a note.

Industry speculation points to Chemena Kamali, currently creative director at Chloe and previously womenswear design director at Saint Laurent, as Vaccarello's likely successor.
Saint Laurent's gross revenues fell by 9% and 6% in 2024 and 2025, before largely stabilizing this year, according to Kering.

Fashion

Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa Watch Chanel’s Creative Revival at Paris Fashion Week

Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
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Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa Watch Chanel’s Creative Revival at Paris Fashion Week

Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

Chanel’s artistic director Matthieu Blazy sent the fashion house's suits stretching towards sportswear and evening dresses drifting through clouds, with Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa and Pedro Pascal in the audience as he unveiled his spring-summer 2027 collection.

The Monday night show underscored that a year into his creative revival, Blazy has made the house feel newly unpredictable.

The former Bottega Veneta designer succeeded Virginie Viard, who took over after Karl Lagerfeld ’s death in 2019. Viard’s tenure brought record sales but Blazy’s contribution has been to restore a sense that Chanel’s familiar ingredients can produce something unexpected.

That renewal is visible in his treatment of the house’s symbols: tweed can stretch; formal jackets sit against bare skin; quilted bags turn slouchy.

The appeal lies in giving established clients something recognizable, and newer ones something to reinterpret.

Beneath illuminated birds at the Grand Palais, Blazy's collection traced Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s passage from Edwardian constraint towards the freedom she sought in dress.

“It’s about the women within a woman,” Blazy wrote in his notes.

Across 83 looks, that meant expanding the possibilities of a Chanel wardrobe: knits that skimmed the body, masculine tailoring, airy eveningwear and sharply abbreviated skirts.

Raw-edged waistcoats and narrow skirt suits reworked men’s formal clothes. A pearl-embroidered corset top paired with black trousers brought the tension between restriction and ease into focus.

Older fashions lingered in ruffled collars, peplums and traces of corset boning.

The strongest development was Chanel’s new “smocked tweed,” designed to stretch and move with something of athleticwear’s ease. It was a useful proposition for an expensive, familiar garment: preserve its character while improving its possibilities.

Competing patterns and frothy tutus sometimes tipped towards costume. Dres

ses made from layered, printed silk were more persuasive, turning cloud formations and changing light into shifting color, The Associated Press reported.

Model Dyanira Hurbuscher opened and closed the collection — carrying Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 handbag, borrowed from the famed archives.

That element neatly framed the collection’s ambition: continuity with room for change — a balance Blazy’s revitalization of Chanel rests on.

He has made Chanel's heritage feel available for play, backed by serious work in the ateliers.

Lipa wore a sleeveless skirt suit with pink heels. Kidman attended with her daughter Faith Margaret.

Fashion

Chanel Unveils Tiger-Print Tweed and Sheer Skirt Suits in Spring/Summer Paris Show

Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)
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Chanel Unveils Tiger-Print Tweed and Sheer Skirt Suits in Spring/Summer Paris Show

Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)

Chanel showed see-through skirts and tiger-print tweed in creative director Matthieu Blazy's spring/summer 2027 collection on Monday as the Parisian fashion house rides a wave of enthusiasm that has helped drive sales even as other luxury brands struggle.

Since his first collection a year ago, Blazy's designs — injecting youthful glitter and loud color combinations into the Parisian label's traditional tweed suits — have attracted new customers to the brand and kept Chanel stores ‌buzzing with activity.

Front-row ‌guests including Dua Lipa, Nicole Kidman, ‌and Pedro ⁠Pascal arrived to throngs ⁠of cameras in the vast expanse of the Grand Palais. The glass dome roof was hung with a giant moon and a flock of luminescent seagulls, while the floor was laid in a Martian orange-and-green pattern in reflective resin.

Models emerged wearing skirt suits in sheer cream ⁠or black fabric embroidered with flowers and beads, ‌and in tweed loosened into a ‌wide windowpane print with mesh panels, or reworked in ‌an eye-catching red-and-white tiger print.

“Chanel felt as alive as ever,” ‌said Angélique Liautaud, womenswear buying and merchandising director at French department store Printemps. “The masculine wardrobe, the fluid dresses, the lingerie, the liberated body, brought a new sensuality to the house.”

Some skirts were sliced ‌into swinging panels, others were shortened into pleated mini-skirts paired with cropped jackets showing the ⁠midriff. Hems ⁠were frayed or finished with metallic beading.

Models sported new versions of the brand's two-tone pumps — in leopard print or tiger print with a cream toe, or baby blue and silver, while sandals were chunky with a large interlocking C logo in gold across the front. Quilted handbags came in black, burgundy, and white with a couple of wild variations in zebra print layered with clashing primary colors.

Blazy, known for soundtracking his shows to anthems from the 2000s, ran out to greet the crowd after the finale to the heavy synths of "Gimme More" by Britney Spears.