Worldview: How Accessories Brands Tap China’s Qixi Festival

🇨🇳 Accessories brands refine marketing strategies for China’s Qixi Festival. This year’s Qixi Festival, a traditional holiday celebrating romantic love which fell on Aug. 10, saw jewellery brands like Tiffany & Co. and Chow Tai Fook invest in special product lines, advertisements, endorsements and other marketing campaigns. The festival, which follows western Valentine’s Day and the 520 holiday earlier in the holiday calendar, also provided luxury brands with an opportunity promote dedicated accessories like a handbag from Alexander McQueen, Bally shoes, Michael Kors sunglasses and beauty products with themed packaging from the likes of Givenchy, Gucci and Valentino. [Tatler Asia, Jing Daily]

🇧🇩 Factories reopen after Yunus leads Bangladesh’s interim government. The decision to tap the Nobel Prize-winning, development banker was announced by the office of President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who had earlier met with the country’s armed forces and protest leaders, who called for Yunus to take the role following former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ousting. Factories in the world’s second-largest garment exporting country reopened on Wednesday hoping to swiftly resume full operations after production was disrupted by violent protests. [BoF]

🇵🇰 Pakistan denim giant Artistic Milliners acquires VF’s Mexico facility. The Karachi-based vertically integrated denim manufacturer has bought the Dickies de Parras S. de RL de CV facility from US fashion conglomerate VF Corp. in its latest nearshoring move to be closer to the US market, following its acquisition of what is now the SFI factory in the Los Angeles area of the US and the opening of an SFI sourcing office in Guatemala. [Sourcing Journal]

🇦🇺 Simone Arnol wins at Australia’s National Indigenous Fashion Awards. The Gunggandji woman won fashion designer of the year at last week’s award ceremony in Darwin, following the Country to Couture runway showcase, supported by Indigenous Fashion Projects. Jay Jurrupula Rostron prevailed in the textile category; Philomena Yeatman in traditional adornments; and Denni Francisco of Ngali in business achievement. [Vogue Australia, Guardian]

🇮🇳 Losses widen at India’s Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd. The group has reported consolidated net loss of 214.92 crore rupees ($25.6 million) for the first quarter ended June 2024, compared to a loss of 161.62 crore rupees for the same period last year. ABFRL’s holdings include Pantaloons, Sabyasachi, Tasva, multi-brand retailer The Collective and Galeries Lafayette India whereas a demerged listed entity called Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands Limited (ABLBL) includes brands and partnerships such as Louis Phillippe, Van Heusen, American Eagle, Forever 21 and Reebok. [Economic Times]

🇳🇬 Nigeria-founded pan-African e-tailer Jumia sees revenue fall in Q2. The company operating in Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia and Uganda has reported a decline of 17 percent year over year to $36.5 million. The New York-listed firm, which sells everything from fashion and beauty to electronics and food, blamed currency devaluation in the markets where it operates. [Semafor]

🇨🇳 Ralph Lauren beats profit estimates on stable demand in China, Europe. The US firm reported a 1 percent increase in Q1 revenue to $1.51 billion, beating profit estimates as steady demand for its products in Europe and China offset slower sales in the US. Steady appetite from wealthier consumers has also driven demand at companies such as Canada Goose and Miu Miu-owner Prada, even as their rivals signalled cooling luxury demand due to challenges in China and a pullback in spending by aspirational shoppers. [BoF]

🇮🇳 Indian beauty group Honasa Consumer sees profit surge in Q1. The beauty and personal care group whose portfolio includes brands offering products with natural, organic, ayurvedic and vegan ingredients, such as Mamaearth, Aqualogica, Aqualogica, The Derma Co, Ayuga and Bblunt, has posted 63 percent year over year growth in consolidated net profit to 40 crore rupees ($4.7 million) for the quarter ended June 2024. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 VF posts smaller revenue drop than expected on better China demand. VF Corp reported a smaller-than-expected drop in first-quarter revenue, helped by improvement in its China business as well as leaner inventory levels, sending its shares up about 7 percent in extended trading. Sales in the American company’s Greater China business were up 4% on a constant currency basis, as the company benefited from a better product assortment and newer styles. [BoF]

🇮🇳 Footwear giant Bata India reports 62% quarterly profit surge. The Gurugram-based company manufacturing and retailing namesake Bata and brands like Power and North Star has posted 174.36 crore rupees ($20.7 million) in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 2024. The India unit is part of Bata Corporation, a Swiss-based multinational group selling 150 million pairs of shoes annually across 70 countries, manufacturing in 21 factories across 18 countries. [Economic Times, BoF]

🇱🇰 Sri Lankan textile manufacturer Teejay reports 10% revenue growth in Q1. The company, which supplies to Nike, Uniqlo, PVH and Decathlon among other brands, has posted revenue of 15.4 billion Sri Lankan rupees (approximately $51.11 million) for the first quarter and gross profit of 1.3 billion Sri Lankan rupees. Chairman Ajit Gunewardene credited “several initiatives… to broaden the group’s synthetic footprint [to develop] new product lines.” [Fibre2Fashion]

🇨🇳 Coupang posts first loss since 2022 as Farfetch deal saps profit. The New York-listed e-commerce giant founded in South Korea has posted a net loss of $77 million for the June quarter, versus an average estimate for a loss of $11.7 million. Excluding Farfetch and a fine from the Korean authorities, Coupang’s second-quarter net income came to about $124 million. However, the losses overshadowed resilient top-line growth. [BoF]

🇮🇳 Traditional wear brand Shobitam acquires Indian sari brand Isadoralife. The direct-to-consumer brand co-founded by Aparna and Ambika Thyagarajan in the US in 2019 and based between Seattle and Bengaluru has bought the sari brand founded by Neha Tandon Sharma for an undisclosed amount. [Economic Times]

🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund to acquire a minority stake in Sotheby’s. ADQ, a sovereign wealth fund for the emirate formally known as Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company PJSC, will acquire an undisclosed minority interest in the UK-based auction house, which operates luxury jewellery and art auctions as well as other categories like cars and real estate. [BoF]

🇨🇳 Shiseido Company’s Q2 sales drop 4% as US business slumps. The Japanese beauty conglomerate which owns brands such as Drunk Elephant and Nars, its namesake brand and fragrances licences like Narciso Rodriguez and Zadig & Voltaire, reported a net sales decline of 4 percent to $1.7 billion in the second quarter. Shares in the company fell sharply in morning trading in Tokyo on Thursday. [BoF]

🇮🇳 India’s IPO-bound Baazar Style Retail mobilises funds. The Kolkata-based value fashion retailer with over 150 stores said it has secured 37 crore rupees ($4.4 million) from Volrado Ventures Partners Fund II for a pre-IPO round, effectively reducing the issue size from 185 crore rupees to Rs 148 crore rupees. [Economic Times]

🇵🇰 Pakistan’s annual textile & apparel exports rise to $16.6 billion. The country’s fashion exports rose by 0.93 percent in the 2024 financial year. The knitwear category fell slightly, while the non-knit garment and cotton yarn categories were up during the period. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇦🇺 Tessa Ogle is named editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan Australia. The former digital managing editor of fashion and beauty at Elle Australia and Marie Claire Australia has taken on the lead editorial role at the relaunched title, a venture between Katarina Kroslakova’s local publishing house KK Press and Hearst Magazines International. [Diary Directory, Ad News Australia]

🇮🇳 Indian menswear brand Halden raises 5 crore rupees in funding. The Mumbai-based luxury brand founded in 2019 by Mukund Singhal and Anuj Beriwal has secured the investment worth approximately $600,000 in a seed funding round led by Prajay Advisors, a Mumbai-based private wealth management family office. [Economic Times]

🇰🇷 Gucci taps South Korean musician Jin as its ambassador. The Italian luxury brand has partnered with Kim Seok-jin, better known as Jin, a member of K-pop band BTS, which has been on hiatus while the band members complete mandatory military service. [Economic Times]

🇮🇳 Amazon’s India country manager Manish Tiwary resigns. The e-commerce major has announced that the executive who had been with the company for eight years will leave after October. In the meantime, “Amit Agarwal, SVP India and emerging markets, will remain closely involved the Amazon.in team,” the company said in a statement. [Economic Times]

🇳🇬 Talent incubator Qasimi Rising partners with Lagos Fashion Week. The initiative founded in 2022 by Emirati Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, head of the London-based fashion brand Qasimi which was founded by her late brother Khalid Al Qasimi, has named Lagos Fashion Week founder Omoyemi Akerele as its regional ambassador in a bid to extend its reach to more African designers. [The National]