Fashion

Saks Fifth Avenue has announced it will "no longer offer products from animals raised for the use of their fur, including but not limited to mink, fox, chinchilla and sable, as well as fur products derived from wild animals, such as coyote and beaver" by 2023, both online and in stores.

"We evaluate a number of factors when making decisions about our assortment, including customer preferences and societal shifts," so Saks Fifth Avenue Chief Merchandising Officer Tracy Margolies on Wednesday. "We recognize that trends constantly evolve, and that the sale of fur remains a significant social issue."

Sporting goods manufacturer Adidas is preparing to divest its US subsidiary Reebok. A formal sale process is to be initiated, the company announced. In the future, Adidas wants to concentrate entirely on its brand with the three stripes. The Group had come to the conclusion "that Reebok and Adidas can significantly better exploit their growth potential independently of each other", explained CEO Kasper Rorsted. The Adidas share price hardly reacted on balance.

Earlier this week, Kering-owned luxury fashion brand Bottega Veneta closed down its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts without warning and with no explanation. It is unclear whether this is a mere marketing stunt or whether Bottega Veneta's decision may be a bellwether for an emerging trend.

Social media doesn’t work to attract the right people to a luxury brand, according to an analysis of a luxury insiders’ survey among some 500 executives working in or supporting the luxury industry.

“We have not found any marketing tool that produces leads qualified for our luxury products and service,” was among the comments in that survey. And another said, “So far nothing is working. Social media is seeing no actual move to act.”

Two possible reasons are currently discussed publically:

• Social media is mass, not class. Luxury does not fit in the hodgepodge of divergent messages that is social media.
• People who can actually afford luxury brands are over-marketed to and not likely to pay attention to the brand's social media posts. Bombarding them with irrelevant posts on social media is not how to be respectful of them and personalize every interaction.

GQ’s Rachel Tashjain speculated: “Perhaps the Bottega deletion is the ultimate act of stealth luxury – it will now be a brand that travels strictly by word of mouth.”

Getting paid 10,000PKR (£47) a month, well below the legal monthly minimum wage for unskilled labour of 17,500PKR, workers in Pakistan in two factories made clothes for the fast fasion rand Boohoo according to an investigative report by the Guardian.

Video material also shows work conditions that pose potential safety issues.

Japanese designer Kenzo Takada, creator of the clothing and perfume brand "Kenzo", died Sunday, aged 81, a victim of the Covid-19. The information was announced by his spokesman.

First Japanese stylist to be successful in Paris, where he developed his entire career and made his name famous, he died at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Kenzo was famous not only for his clothes but went on to create a global brand of perfume and skin products. At the time of his death, he was acting honorary president of the Asian Couture Federation.

In a partnership with the Humane Society of the United States, American department store chain Nordstrom has committed to banning exotic animal skins and real fur from its 355 stores. While other chains have adopted a fur-free policy in the past, Nordstrom will be the first US-based retailer to prohibit clothing and accessories made with skins of exotic animals.

Nordstrom's private labels have been free of fur and exotic animal skin for years, so the company's chief merchandising officer Teri Bariquit, and will encourage brands impacted by their new policy to "re-evaluate their use of fur and exotic animal skins."

Nordstrom will still sell products made out of the skin of cows, calves, sheep, lambs, pigs, goats and water buffalo but will exclude products derived from snakes, alligators, lizards, pythons, crocodiles, sharks, kangaroos, ostriches and stingrays.

Germany's major biannual fashion event will leave Berlin and move to Frankfurt.

Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann said in a statement "This will transform the financial center of Frankfurt into a new hotspot for the international fashion and lifestyle scene and create a new, international fashion metropolis,".

Organised in Berlin since 2007, Fashion Week has taken place twice a year. The last edition in January drew around 70,000 visitors and dozens of designers.