🇰🇷 Korean designers experiment with AI for Seoul Fashion Week shows. Local brands used artificial intelligence for various aspects of their runway shows at the event held from Feb. 5-9 in the South Korean capital. Designer Hannah Shin “collaborated with KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology) [to deploy] … a team of wearable AI robots delivering a hybrid design,” while Ulkin’s Lee Seongdong paid homage to the late pioneering Korean designer Andre Kim by “reproducing [his] appearance and voice with AI technology,” said Ko Kyoung-in, director of the beauty and fashion industry department at Seoul Metropolitan Government, the municipality organising the B2B event. Around 20 of the 130 participating brands presented catwalk shows including celebrity favourite Jisoo Baik, Daily Mirror, Doucan, Greedilous and Ajobyajo at the 25th anniversary edition of the biannual event. [BoF Inbox]
🇨🇳 US pauses de minimis repeal amid customs logjam from China.US President Donald Trump has decided to pause his earlier repeal of duty-free treatment of the more than 1 billion small-value e-commerce packages from China that arrive annually in the US via online retailers like Shein, Temu and Amazon.com’s Haul service. Trump’s sudden cancellation of the de minimis exemption this month created a logjam of over a million packages New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport alone as more time and information was needed to process a new logistics and customs entry process for packages. The chaos and confusion caused disruptions for customs inspectors, postal and delivery services nationwide. [Reuters]
🇻🇳 Shein asks some Chinese suppliers to diversify to Vietnam. The China-founded, Singapore-based ultra-fast fashion e-tailer is asking some of its top apparel suppliers in China to set up new production capacity in Vietnam with reported incentives including higher procurement prices of as much as 30 percent. The efforts have been in the works for the past few months and have accelerated in recent weeks. Adding supply outside of China would allow Shein to avoid US President Trump’s punitive policies on goods coming from the country. This includes the removal of the longstanding duty-free exception for low-value packages called the de minimus rule, which poses an existential problem for Shein and rival Temu. [BoF]
🇮🇳 Aditya Birla heiress Ananya Birla to enter the beauty market. The daughter of the firm’s billionaire chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has not yet revealed the name of the new venture but said that it will include makeup and fragrances. The 30-year-old company board member dabbled in music and microlending platform Svatantra Microfin before turning her focus to the family business. Aditya Birla Group is a Mumbai-based mining-to-chemicals conglomerate whose fashion portfolio includes yarn and textile production, local joint ventures with international retailers like Reebok and Galeries Lafayette and domestic holdings like Pantaloons, Sabyasachi and The Collective. [Economic Times]
🇯🇵 Chanel to bring Lesage to Tokyo after Dior’s pre-fall show in Kyoto. Christian Dior is preparing to show in the ancient city of Kyoto on April 15 at the To-ji Temple. Months later, Chanel’s métiers d’art hub Le 19M will present a cultural programme dubbed La Galerie du 19M Tokyo (its second international project after Dakar, Senegal) in Tokyo in Oct., focussed on Japanese craftsmanship and the centenary of Lesage, the luxury embroidery house that Chanel owns as part of its artisanal supplier subsidiary Paraffection. [BoF Inbox]
🇨🇳 L’Oréal sales miss estimates as China demand remains weak. The French beauty group’s fourth-quarter sales fell short of analysts’ estimates after demand in the US failed to make up for a continued downturn in China. Sales overall rose 2.5 percent on a comparable basis in the period. Analysts had expected a 3.8 percent gain. Revenue in North America only grew 1.4 percent, while the region including China continued to experience a drop. [BoF]
🇮🇳 Indian watch and jewellery giant Titan’s profit dips slightly in Q3. The Tata Group-owned firm, whose portfolio includes its namesake brand alongside Tanishq, Zoya, Mia and CaratLane, posted 1047 crore rupees ($119 million) of consolidated net profit in the quarter ended December 2024, a marginal decline from 1053 crore rupees a year earlier. Year-over-year sales rose more than 25 percent to 17,550 crore rupees ($2.0 billion) during the period. [Economic Times]
🇯🇵 Christian Dior taps Japanese actress Anna Sawai as brand ambassador. The French luxury brand has appointed Sawai to the role following the entertainer’s award-winning performance in the series Shogun. Born in New Zealand to parents of Japanese heritage, Sawai moved to Japan as a child. Joining the band Faky before resuming her acting career as an adult, she starred in series like Giri/Haji and Pachinko. Last year, she was named Cartier’s brand ambassador. [BoF Inbox]
🇮🇳 Footwear giant Bata India reports marginal Q3 profit increase. The Gurugram-based company manufacturing and retailing namesake Bata and brands Power and North Star has posted 58.7 crore rupees ($6.7 million) in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 2024, up 1.2 percent year over year. The India unit is part of Bata Corporation, a Swiss-based multinational group founded in 1894 in Czechia, which today sells 150 million pairs of shoes annually across 70 countries. [Economic Times]
🇨🇳 Canada Goose trims annual profit forecast on dipping China demand. The Toronto-based outerwear company missed quarterly revenue estimates on Thursday due to choppy sales in key luxury goods market China, sending its US-listed shares down 6 percent in premarket trading. The firm saw revenues in Greater China drop by 4.7 percent, compared to the previous quarter’s 5.7 percent jump. [BoF]
🇮🇳 Indian fine jewellery chain PC Jeweller swings back into profit in Q3. The New Delhi-based company with around 57 stores nationwide has posted a consolidated net profit of 1.48 billion rupees ($17 million) for the quarter ended Dec. 2024, compared to a net loss of 1.98 billion rupees in the corresponding period a year earlier and a profit of 1.79 billion in the preceding quarter. The firm cited strong demand for jewellery during the festival and wedding season. [Economic Times]
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka’s annual garment exports increase 4.9 percent. The South Asian nation recorded exports worth $4,660.1 million in 2024. Textile exports were valued at $294.5 million, a decline of by 12.9 percent year over year. [Fibre2Fashion]
🇹🇷 Turkey’s annual apparel exports decline 4.47 percent. Turkish apparel exports were valued at $17.494 billion in 2024, with the knitted category falling by 1.6 percent and non-knitted by 8.1 percent year over year. [Fibre2Fashion]
