A self-described “war” between Chinese ultra-fast fashion brands Shein and Temu has escalated, with a new lawsuit from Temu against its competitor claiming it is trying to squeeze its rival out of the US. In a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts court, Temu accused Shein of creating exclusive contracts with independent manufacturers in China that bars them from working with Temu. The company claims Shein made the agreements in an attempt to edge out Temu in US markets. “The US market is the primary theatre of this war,” Temu said in…
Tag: Fashion
London losing out to Paris and Milan over tourist shopping, says Burberry
Burberry has reported a sales surge of almost a fifth thanks to a bounceback in China, but the luxury British fashion brand has warned that London is losing out to rivals such as Paris and Milan, which are enjoying a stronger tourist shopping boom. The British fashion brand, best known for its signature check bags and raincoats, said that global sales grew 18% year on year to £589m in the quarter to 1 July – its fastest growth rate in two years. The company pointed to a strong sales recovery…
‘We keep pets and eat livestock, why not this?’: China’s defiant fur farmers
“Now it’s a bad time to get into the fur business,” says a farm worker in Hebei province, northern China. The worker, who has been farming foxes for more than 30 years, says they have stopped after operating at a loss for several years in a row. China is the world’s biggest producer of animal fur, but here in Suning county, its “capital of fur”, business appears quiet. “The whole industry chain – raw fur and garment production – is struggling,” says the farm worker. An average of more than…
Rush for bags and scarves helps Burberry offset China Covid slump
Burberry offset a plunge in Chinese sales of more than a fifth amid Covid disruption, thanks to the return of tourists to Europe who snapped up bags, scarves and trenchcoats in the run-up to Christmas. The British luxury goods firm reported a 1% increase in global sales in the three months to the end of December, below its 2% target and sharply down compared with the 11% growth reported in the previous quarter. Burberry sales plunged 23% year on year in mainland China because of Covid lockdowns followed by a…
Xinjiang cotton found in Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss tops, researchers say
Researchers say they have found traces of Xinjiang cotton in shirts and T-shirts made by Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss, appearing to contradict the German clothing companies’ promises to revise their supply chains after allegations of widespread forced labour in the Chinese region. Recent reports have suggested more than half a million people from minority ethnic groups such as the Uyghurs have been coerced into picking cotton in Xinjiang, which provides more than 80% of China’s and a fifth of the global production of cotton. The US banned cotton imports…
‘They took my world’: fashion giant Shein accused of art theft
Vanessa Bowman paints the world around her: the 19th-century village church, her back garden, the leaves on the trees in the fields where she walks her dog. Once she has chosen a scene from her rural Dorset idyll, she puts brush to canvas, sometimes poring over the details for days in her studio. Over three decades she has honed a unique style and earned a loyal fanbase, with 20,000 followers on Instagram and commissions from House & Garden, Prince Charles’s Highgrove shop and Farrow & Ball. But when she received…