Worldview: Latin American Buyers Descend on Colombiamoda

🇨🇴 Colombiamoda attracts 12,000 fashion buyers to Medellín. The annual fashion week and trade show event attracted buyers from Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Costa Rica and Ecuador as well as markets further afield such as the US, EU and Australia to Colombia’s second-largest city between July 23 and 25. A B2B hub for the Latin American region, the event featured 600 brands including local names Beatriz Camacho, Andrés Otálora and Franklin Ramos across Medellín, a major textile manufacturing centre. Sebastián Díez, CEO at Inexmoda, the organisation behind the event, said: “Colombiamoda has evolved over 35 years… [to become a] platform for the internationalisation of our national fashion industry.” [El Colombiano, La Republica]

🇨🇳 LVMH executive strikes cautious tone about China market outlook. Company CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony has cited uncertainty regarding how China’s policy changes will be implemented and how customers will respond. The central bank recently cut interest rates in a bid to revitalise struggling property markets, which is one key factor dampening consumer confidence in China. But the authorities have also pledged to “properly regulate excessive incomes.” A 14 percent drop in sales in Asia excluding Japan (a territory dominated by China) deepened in LVMH’s second quarter versus a 6 percent drop the previous quarter. The US market grew by a lacklustre 2 percent. [BoF]

🇮🇳 Hindustan Unilever’s profit disappoints on sluggish India demand. The beauty, personal care and household goods major, whose portfolio includes brands like Lakmé, Glow & Lovely, Dove and Pond’s, posted an underwhelming quarterly profit weighed down by muted consumer demand during India’s scorching summer season and rising inflation. The Indian unit of Unilever Plc saw net income rise 2.8 percent year over year to 25.4 billion rupees ($303 million) for the quarter ended June 30, falling short of Bloomberg’s average of analysts’ estimates. [BoF]

🇲🇱 Dior dresses Mali-born French singer Aya Nakamura for Paris Olympics. The French luxury brand provided costumes for Nakamura and other performers including Lady Gaga, Aya Juliette Armanet, Celine Dion and Axelle Saint-Cirel at the opening ceremony. One of most streamed female francophone music artists in the world since launching her debut album in 2017, Nakamura was born Aya Danioko in Bamako, Mali and moved to France as a child later becoming a French citizen. Nakamura, whose stage name was inspired by a character in the US TV drama ‘Heroes’, was named Lancôme brand ambassador last year. [BoF, CNN, Harper’s Bazaar]

🇺🇦 Ukrainian Fashion Week to return to Kyiv from September 1 to 4. The event is planning to return to the nation’s capital for the first time since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, to present shows for around 50 brands including Litkovska, Frolov, Bobkova and Paskal, mostly at the Mystetskyi Arsenal, which has bomb shelters. For the past three seasons, fashion weeks in Berlin, London and Copenhagen have allocated runways for Ukrainian designers who fled. “Despite missile attacks, air raid sirens and daily challenges, our commitment remains to supporting our designers with their creativity and business growth,” said Iryna Danylevska, event founder and CEO. Though if the war intensifies, organisers indicated they are prepared to cancel. [BoF Inbox, CNN]

🇯🇵 Moncler’s operating profit beats expectations, Japan boosts revenues. The Milan-based group, owner of its namesake puffer jacket brand and Stone Island, has reported consolidated revenues of 1.23 billion euros ($1.34 billion) for the first half of the year, in line with a company-provided consensus. Revenues at Moncler, the principal brand which accounts for over 80 percent of group sales, rose 5 percent in the second quarter, driven by strong growth in Japan, supported mostly by tourists, and by a positive performance on the Chinese mainland. [BoF]

🇮🇳 India’s Aditya Birla Group launches jewellery brand Indriya. The conglomerate has entered the jewellery retail market, directly competing with nationwide chains like Tata-owned Titan Company’s Tanishq and Reliance Industries’ Reliance Jewels, Kalyan Jewellers and Joyalukkas. Aditya Birla, whose portfolio includes local joint ventures with international retailers like Reebok and Galeries Lafayette and domestic holdings like Pantaloons, Sabyasachi and The Collective, has reported allocated 5,000 crore rupees ($600 million) to invest in the new brand. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 China slow down weighs on SMCP H1 performance. The French accessible luxury group that owns contemporary brands Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot has reported net losses of 27.7 million euros ($30 million) for the period, with CEO Isabelle Guichot citing “one-off effects related to the restructuring of our store network in China” as one of several contributing factors. [Sourcing Journal]

🇮🇳 Indian beauty giant Nykaa to raise funds to further global expansion. Parent company FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which operates both the brand’s beauty and fashion retail businesses, plans to raise 125 crore rupees ($15 million) in non-convertible debentures from a foreign portfolio investor. In addition to plans for a 20 crore rupee investment in wholly-owned subsidiary FSN International, the company launched its website in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in January and opened its first physical store in Dubai two months later. [Economic Times]

🇿🇦 Shein to open pop-up store in South Africa to woo more shoppers. Ultra-fast-fashion giant Shein will open a pop-up store in Johannesburg, South Africa in August as the online retailer aims to expand its brand recognition in the country. China-founded Shein and Temu both benefitted from the local de minimis tax regime until July 1 when the import ‘loophole’ was closed by the South African authorities. [BoF]

🇮🇳 Indian luggage brand Nasher Miles raises $4 million. The DTC brand founded in 2017 by Abhishek Daga, Lokesh Daga and Shruti Kedia Daga has secured the funding in a bridge round, valuing the company at $30 million, from a consortium of 40 investors including private equity, angel investors and friends and family. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 H&M to collaborate with Chinese brand Garçon by Garçon. The Swedish high-street fashion giant has tapped Garçon by Garçon, the label founded by Tang Dayun, for a co-branded capsule, following earlier collaborations with up-and-coming Chinese brands such as Angel Chen and Pronounce. [Jing Daily]

🇮🇳 Indian jewellers report buying frenzy following gold duty cut. On the back of a government cut of the duty on gold imports from 15 percent to 6 percent, retailers based in Mumbai’s jewellery hub Zaveri Bazaar have reported a surge in demand for heavy gold jewellery and noted heavy customer footfall ahead of the upcoming wedding season. [Economic Times]

🇿🇦 South African milliner Albertus Swanepoel has died. According to the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the designer who relocated to New York early in his career has died at the age of 65. Swanepoel created hats and designs for the likes of Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and Peter Som among others and collaborated with brands like Gap. [CFDA]

🇨🇳 L’Occitane to delist from Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The Luxembourg-based skincare conglomerate has won over enough minority shareholders to succeed in its long campaign to re-privatise. The French-founded firm, which has been listed on the Hong Kong exchange since 2010, owns the brands like Sol de Janiero and Elemis as well as its namesake line. [BoF]

🇮🇳 Indian actor Akshay Kumar invests in Fashion Entrepreneur Fund. The Bollywood actor has teamed up with RJ Corp chairman Ravi Jaipuria to invest in the fund which funds early-stage investments and mentorship for fashion entrepreneurs. With an overall corpus of $3 million, the fund was stablished by entrepreneurs Sanjay Nigam and Vagish Pathak and counts Karan Johar, Gaurav Dalmia and Naveen Jindal as existing investors. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 Prada to open large Hong Kong store after years of downsizing. The Italian brand is reportedly renting a two-floor 8,000-square-foot store in K11 Musea, its first major new store in the city since shuttering its flagship in Causeway Bay in 2020. The brand, which at its peak had nine outlets in the city, now operates six, according to its website. [BoF]

🇯🇵 Japanese fashion imports rise 6.9% in H1 2024. The country’s import of clothing and accessories increased by 6.9 percent to 1,686 billion yen ($11 billion), while the import of textile yarn and fabric fell by 1.3 percent during the first half of the year. Exports of textile yarn and fabric increased by 8.9 percent during the period. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇦🇺 Australia’s Adore Beauty appoints Sacha Laing as its new CEO. The pureplay online retailer selling over 270 beauty brands has hired the former head of youth fashion retailer General Pants Co. Laing, an industry veteran and former David Jones executive, will take over starting Oct. 1 succeeding Tamalin Morton. [Australian Financial Review]

🇮🇳 Indian court restrains local firms from using Adidas trademarks. The Delhi High Court has ruled that India-based firms Adidas Weaving Mills, Adidas Textile Industries and Adidas Merchandise must desist from manufacturing, trading, selling, or dealing in textile goods under “Adidas” or other trademarks deceptively similar to those of Adidas AG, the global German sportswear brand. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 Dolce & Gabbana taps Susan Fang for emerging designer programme. The Italian luxury brand has chosen the Canadian-Chinese designer based between London and Shanghai for its ‘Supported by Dolce & Gabbana’ initiative, which has previously supported Matty Bovan, Miss Sohee and others. [Jing Daily]