🇧🇷 São Paulo Style Week recasts seamstresses as designers in Brazil. The 57th version of the nation’s largest trend week occasion befell between Apr. 9 and 14 throughout Iguatemi venues in addition to different areas across the metropolis. The biannual showcase, this season that includes 27 trend exhibits, noticed veterans like Aluf, Amapô, André Lima, Gloria Coelho, João Pimenta and Lilly Sarti, be a part of newcomers Catarina Mina and Reptilia on the runway. “São Paulo Style Week was designed as a long-term mission [almost three decades ago] to work on constructing a trend tradition in Brazil that’s aligned to the shifts out there,” stated Paulo Borges, occasion founder and creative director. Style week’s current social inclusion initiatives just like the Cria Costura mission that includes the designs of greater than 150 trainee seamstresses, together with these from disadvantaged neighbourhoods throughout town, has advanced over 5 editions, serving to to showcase the creativity of hitherto nameless garment staff, recasting them as designers-in-the-making. [FashionNetwork Brazil]
🇯🇵 Uniqlo’s Japanese father or mother posts double-digit revenue development in H1. Quick Retailing has reported a 16.7 p.c rise in working revenue to 257.0 billion yen ($1.6 billion) within the first half of the 2024 fiscal yr, in contrast with the identical interval a yr in the past. Consolidated revenues rose 9 p.c to 1.5989 trillion yen ($10.4 billion). Uniqlo Japan reported a pointy rise in revenue, regardless of a dip in income. The corporate additionally cited sturdy efficiency in its abroad Uniqlo items in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia, in addition to in its Gu model unit. Income and revenue from Hong Kong rose whereas mainland China noticed an increase in income however a slight decline in revenue. [BoF Inbox]
🇨🇮 Ivorian pan-African e-commerce agency Anka reveals new enterprise mannequin. When requested what the best approach is to elucidate what the Côte d’Ivoire-based trend e-commerce startup Afrikrea has grow to be because it rebranded as Anka, founder and CEO Moulaye Tabouré informed Semafor that it’s like “Etsy + PayPal + Shopify + transport = Anka.” The Mali-born entrepreneur stated that “it’s the all-in-one SaaS (software program as a service) for any enterprise that desires to promote African services or products throughout borders [by helping] entrepreneurs promote as simply on WhatsApp or Instagram as they might on their web site.” The most recent funding in Anka in September from the Worldwide Finance Company amounted to $3.4 million, bringing the whole funding raised so far to greater than $15 million. [Semafor]
🇨🇳 China Obligation Free Group’s father or mother posts sturdy 2023 income development. The father or mother of CDFG, China Tourism Group Obligation Free Company (CTG), has confirmed the efficiency it beforehand revealed in January’s preliminary outcomes. Income rose greater than 24 p.c year-on-year to 67,540 million yuan ($9.3 billion), whereas internet revenue elevated greater than 32 p.c to six,790 million yuan ($939.4 million) on the agency, whose holdings embody journey shops nationwide together with a number of in Hainan, China’s home duty-free hub. [The Moodie Davitt Report]
🇰🇷 South Korean attire manufacturing big Sae-A to amass US-based Tegra. The Seoul-based agency, one of many world’s largest vertically built-in clothes producers with over 60,000 staff supplying retailers like Goal, Walmart, Kohl’s and Hole, has signed a deal to amass Tegra, an Atlanta-based producer of performance-based athleticwear and sportswear with amenities in Honduras and El Salvador. The transfer helps Sae-A Buying and selling, whose most important manufacturing base past South Korea is in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar, broaden additional within the Central America and Caribbean area the place it already has a footprint in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Haiti. [Sourcing Journal]
🇧🇷 Asian e-tailers compete for distributors in colossal Brazilian garment district. With 65% of distributors in Brás, the nation’s largest district overlaying a cluster of 5,000 shops throughout 55 streets in São Paulo, not but began promoting on-line, overseas marketplaces like China-founded Shein, Mercado Livre (the Brazilian department of Argentina’s MercadoLibre) and Singapore’s Shopee have been onboarding them aggressively in a bid to seize market share from Brazilian on-line platforms like Journal Luiza and Americanas. [Rest of World]
🇵🇱 Amazon and Temu tackle Poland’s e-commerce chief Allegro. The American and Chinese language giants are pulling out all of the stops within the largest financial system within the Central and Jap Europe area, the place development charges are set to outpace these of extra mature markets. In February, Amazon (which entered in 2021) had virtually 5.9 million customers within the nation, whereas Poznan-based Allegro (based in 1999) had 18.2 million, and Temu (which entered in 2023) counted 13.7 million, in keeping with Mediapanel Gemius Polska. [Reuters]
🇵🇾 Paraguay appears to strengthen its garment manufacturing export trade. The Paraguayan garment trade, which counts producers for international manufacturers like Lacoste and Fila in addition to Latin American labels together with Jazmín Chebar and Renner, has lately attracted extra funding from markets throughout the Mercosur area (the South American commerce bloc comprising members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, suspended member Venezuela and affiliate nations Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname), in keeping with CNIME, the Nationwide Council of Exporter Maquiladora Industries (CNIME). [FashionNetwork]
🇨🇳 Zara denies rumours of exiting the China market amid retailer closures. The quick trend model’s father or mother firm Inditex reportedly stated that it isn’t withdrawing from China, regardless of hypothesis on Chinese language social media platforms about its future after experiences surfaced of a number of shops closing in fast succession across the nation, including that current closures are a part of regular operations to create the optimum community of retailer sizes and areas by way of upgrades, openings and closures. [Global Times]
🇮🇳 India’s Malabar Gold & Diamonds hits $6.1 billion in annual turnover. The Kozhikode-based firm, India’s second largest jeweller by retail gross sales after Titan’s Tanishq in keeping with Euromonitor, has reported annual international turnover of 51,218 crore rupees within the 2024 monetary yr. Working 345 shops throughout 13 nations in Asia, Europe, the Center East and North America, the agency stated it plans to open 100 shops subsequent yr, eyeing new markets like New Zealand. [Economic Times]
🇨🇳 Lacoste wins trademark infringement case towards model in China. The Beijing Greater Individuals’s Courtroom has dominated that the French trend model’s crocodile emblem has been infringed upon by Cartelo, an attire model owned by Nanji E-Commerce which makes use of the same emblem, ordering it to pay Lacoste 14.8 million yuan ($2.28 million) in damages. The authorized dispute between the 2 firms has been ongoing for over a decade however the newest ruling is believed to be the ultimate judgement. [Jing Daily]
🇮🇳 Indian courtroom guidelines towards Hindustan Unilever Ltd in trademark dispute. The Calcutta Excessive Courtroom has issued an order proscribing shopper items big Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) from utilizing the ‘Glow & Good-looking’ mark for its males’s lotions and different merchandise, following a lawsuit filed by competitor Emami Ltd claiming the previous firm’s mark constitutes infringement of the latter’s “deceptively comparable” mark ‘Honest and Good-looking’. [Mint]
🇨🇳 Lululemon companions with Chinese language F1 racing driver Zhou Guanyu. The athleisure model has launched a limited-edition collaborative assortment, co-designed by the athlete to mark the twentieth anniversary of the F1 Shanghai Grand Prix, following its appointment of the Method One driver as model ambassador final yr. [Jing Daily]
🇮🇳 Indian multi-brand magnificence retailer Tira launches non-public label. The retailer owned by conglomerate Reliance Retail, which sells native and worldwide magnificence manufacturers, has launched a line of magnificence equipment known as Tira Instruments together with make-up brushes and sweetness sponges. [BoF Inbox]
🇨🇳 Tmall expands timepieces advertising technique throughout Watches & Wonders honest. The Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform has launched over 70 new merchandise from 13 luxurious manufacturers throughout the Swiss watch honest between 13-15 April. Lots of the latest watches, together with these from Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC and Panerai, had been made obtainable for rapid buy by way of livestreaming. [BoF Inbox]
🇨🇳 L’Oréal names Chinese language actress Tang Yan as model ambassador. The French magnificence conglomerate has tapped the star, also called Tiffany Tang, recognized for herroles in Wong Kar-wai’s hit TV drama Blossoms Shanghai and quite a few different movies. [Jing Daily]
