An Italian subsidiary of French luxury giant LVMH, Dior Manufactures SRL, on Monday became the third fashion company to be put under administration by a Milan court this year.

Prior to appointing special commissioners to oversee the Milan-based maker of Dior-branded handbags, the court had imposed the same terms on a unit of Italy’s Giorgio Armani group and on leather goods maker Alviero Martini, famous for its geographical map prints.

What Does the Court Administration Entail?

The decision to place a brand’s subsidiaries under court administration aims to give the companies time to reorganise their system of checks on external suppliers to ensure future compliance with existing labour laws.

What Does the Commissioner Do?

While the companies operate normally, the commissioner provides regular updates to the court on progress made in the setting up of checks, before magistrates decide to end the special administration.

What Are Magistrates in Milan Probing?

Milan prosecutors have for the past decade been investigating manpower supply companies that illegally employ workers, evading taxes and welfare and pension contributions to slash the cost of the services they supplied.

The probes traditionally targeted sectors such as logistics, transportation and cleaning services, where workers were supplied by firms that were opened and wound down every couple of years.

The focus has now shifted onto the fashion sector, where probes have highlighted similar problems this year as suppliers break employment rules to slash the cost of the goods they manufacture.

What Kind of Measure Is the Court Administration?

The prosecutors have been able to make use of a provision in the law that was originally designed to deal with companies infiltrated by the mob.

These companies would be placed under court, or judicial, administration through the appointment of special commissioners to oversee them.

By widening the scope of the provision to also tackle crimes relating to the illegal use of manpower, Milan prosecutors and police have been able to widen the scheme to include companies contracting goods or services supplied by third parties.

By Emilio Parodi and Valentina Za; Editors: Matt Scuffham and Jan Harvey

NAPA, CALIFORNIA – In launching Fara Homidi Beauty, celebrity makeup artist and founder Fara Homidi wanted to create products that are as efficacious to use as they are beautiful to look at.

“As a makeup artist, I have access to everything … I noticed that a lot of the industry standard best products out there weren’t clean,” she said, adding that those that did perform on clean standards were often lacking in shade range.

Fara Homidi Beauty, which was announced as the winner of the Creative Execution Award at the inaugural Business of Beauty Global Awards on Jun. 4 in Napa, California, brings a creative approach to designing professional-grade clean cosmetics. With products housed in sleek sky blue and deep orange packaging, featuring ergonomic shapes and luxurious touches, Fara Homidi Beauty also offers a makeup pochette made from vegan leather that looks more like a designer purse than a wash bag.

Beauty as Art

The idea of the beauty product as an objet d’art is commonplace, with no shortage of stylishly designed compacts, lipsticks and other cosmetics available for shoppers. However, many choose form over function, something that Homidi wanted to change.

“There’s a lot of great products out there…but I [am] maniacal about making sure the textures and ingredients were best in class,” said Homidi.

In her work as a makeup artist, Homidi has painted the faces of Hailey Bieber, Paloma Elsesser and Alexa Demie. Yet she was unable to find products that combined the long wear, colour payoff, shade diversity and superior textures she desired, alongside the clean credentials, such as being paraben, talc and sulphate-free, that she found important.

It took Homidi some years to find formulators and laboratories who could deliver to her exacting standards, while also being able to sustain the volume she needed. Saying she had to “push” to get the textures she wanted, Homidi said many of her requests seemed paradoxical.

“[I would hear] ‘you can’t have something that has glide and bounce that’s also velvety and powdery’. Those two things don’t make sense,” said Homidi. Her persistence paid off. The range, which includes lip liner, a complexion compact and a lip compact, is stocked in cult global retailers like Violet Grey in Los Angeles and Dover Street Parfums Market in Paris, whilst also being available in Mexico and Italy, and in Goop stores.

What’s Next

Fara Homidi Beauty may have begun its retail rollout with insider-favourite shops, but this month, it’s taking a major step into mass retail. On June 1, the brand became available to shop on Sephora’s e-commerce site, with a brick-and-mortar launch slated for 2025.

It’s a natural next step for Homidi, who was also accepted into Sephora’s Accelerate programme in 2022, which she described as “a six month crash course in all things business beauty.” The brand founder, who came to the U.S as an Afghani refugee as a child, believes that the time is right as the beauty world — and its customers — are ready for higher standards.

“I just felt like the time was now,” she said. “I’m someone who really follows my gut instinct.”

Next on her agenda is wider global expansion, including Australia, Canada and the UK once the brand is ready. New products that blend skincare and makeup are also in development.

The brand is open to all, says Homidi.

“That could be men or women … however you see your gender,” she said. “It’s for anyone who wants something that feels special that they can still use every day.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Fashion Week’s future in doubt after cancellation. Just one month after announcing the cancellation of the 2024 edition, the annual event’s general manager Yasmin Farry has indicated that she cannot yet confirm plans for a 2025 edition. “Without a good number of New Zealand designers able to show, it simply wasn’t viable as we didn’t have a compelling programme, befitting of the world-class event that fashion week is,” she said, despite moving to a biennial cadence. “Brands and retailers are facing some pretty tough headwinds right now in New Zealand. The cost-of-living crisis has meant a decrease in consumer spending across most retail, smaller brands are closing down and one of our iconic department stores is closing its doors after 144 years (Auckland’s Smith and Caughey’s). Pretty sobering stuff.” According to Australian trade media Ragtrader, local brands that have recently shuttered or plan to do so include Carly Harris Design, Kate Sylvester, Maaike and Hej Hej. Founded in 2001 by Pieter Stewart, New Zealand Fashion Week was acquired by Feroz Ali’s Aligroup Ltd. in 2021 as it embarked on a three-year hiatus during the pandemic before making a return in 2023. [Ragtrader, 1News]

🇮🇳 Indian beauty major Good Glamm Group appoints international president. The Mumbai-based group has appointed Lauren Bloomer, a US-based industry veteran who served in executive roles at Becca Cosmetics, Estée Lauder and Clinique, to lead its international growth and expansion efforts. The content-to-commerce unicorn that began as DTC makeup brand MyGlamm before acquiring a stable of beauty, personal care and media brands struck a joint venture in April with Serena Williams to launch the tennis star’s cosmetics brand Wyn Beauty in the US. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 Diesel seizes large haul of counterfeits in China. The OTB Group-owned Italian denim brand has confiscated over 40,000 handbags in Wuqia, Xinjiang province, under the supervision of Chinese customs. In January, Diesel revealed that a total of 80,000 counterfeit goods has been seized since the beginning of 2023, mainly from China, Turkey and Kosovo. [Sourcing Journal]

🇲🇽 TJX Companies to ink joint venture with Mexico’s Grupo Axo. The American off-price fashion retailer with over 4,900 stores across nine countries, including chains TJ Maxx, Marshalls and TK Maxx has partnered with Axo, a major multi-brand and multi-channel retailer of brands sold through more than 6,900 points of sale in Latin American markets such as Mexico, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. The transaction, which would see the joint business comprising Axo’s existing off-price network in Mexico including Promoda, Reduced and Urban Store banners, is expected to close later this year. [BusinessWire]

🇹🇲 Turkmenistan considers ways to reduce forced labour in cotton harvest. The Central Asian nation is said to be reviewing recommendations by the International Labour Organization that would see it adopt a roadmap of “priority actions” aimed at preventing state employees from being compelled into local cotton fields. If adopted, the new system would allow for hired labourers to lodge complaints about coercion and extortion and set a minimum wage. Over 100 brands and retailers previously signed a Cotton Campaign coalition pledge to boycott cotton from the world’s 10th-largest producer of the fibre while forced labour is in use. [Fibre2Fashion, BoF]

🇨🇳 More European clothing companies diversify away from China. Despite longer lead times and higher costs, a larger share of garment production is going to India, Bangladesh and Vietnam, according to Naveen Jha, who runs The Sourcing Place in China. However, China’s overall export volume across many categories is not being impacted too severely as Chinese exporters find new markets beyond Europe and the US and more Chinese-built factories crop up in overseas manufacturing hubs like Vietnam and Mexico. “How many shoes are produced in China is still pretty much the same as it was a couple of years ago [in this] musical chair type scenario,” said Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc. [Financial Times]

🇹🇷 Turkey’s apparel exports decline 11.1% in Jan-Apr 2024. The total value of exports during the period reached $5.6 billion. The knitted and crocheted clothing category fell by 8.9 percent, and non-knitted apparel category fell by 13.7 percent. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇮🇳 Indian skincare start-up Chosen raises $1.2 million in seed funding. The round, which secured investment from undisclosed friends and family members, follows an equity-free grant of $100,000 from Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA). “Our goal is to secure pre-series funding of $10 to $20 million later this year,” said Dr. Renita Rajan, founder of the Chennai-based formulations- and IoT solutions-focused brand.

🇦🇺 Australia Institute recommends sin tax-style penalty on fast fashion. The Canberra-based think tank has proposed several measures that it believes the Australian government should pursue, including a fast fashion tax on unsustainable, “problematic” products similar to the bill currently going through the French parliament. [Sourcing Journal]

🇱🇷 TLG Capital invests in Liberian-Burkinabe brand Liberty & Justice. The London- based Africa-focused alternative asset management firm founded by Zain Latif has injected an undisclosed amount in the swimsuit brand founded by Burkina Faso native Georgie Badiel Liberty and her husband, Liberia-born Chid Liberty. Also, “our factory in Liberia is getting an injection from a potential acquisition that we hope to close which will source product from Liberia,” said Liberty, who currently produces in Morocco and sells in over 250 Target stores in the US. [Semafor, BoF Inbox]

🇨🇳 Zara is expanding its Chinese live commerce model to the US and Europe. The Spanish high street brand has employed digital catwalks, fitting room tours, and “behind-the-scenes” content for its livestream e-commerce sessions on local TikTok counterpart Douyin since November, using a Shanghai-based team of around 70 people for the China-based broadcasts. [Jing Daily]

🇦🇺 Australian jeweller Lovisa names John Cheston as chief executive. The Sydney-based Australian listed company founded by billionaire Brett Blundy in 2010 that currently has a retail footprint of 854 stores across more than 40 countries and territories has appointed the boss of local stationery and accessories chain Smiggle, to replace Victor Herrero who will leave the company in May next year. [Australian Financial Review]

🇮🇳 India’s Hindustan Unilever Limited promotes Arun Neelakantan. The Mumbai-based beauty and personal care giant, whose portfolio includes brands like Lakmé, Glow & Lovely, Dove and Pond’s, has named its former chief digital officer as executive director, customer development, replacing Kedar Lele. [Economic Times]

🇯🇵 Japan’s Kosé opens a standalone store in the US. Kosé Corporation, one of the country’s largest beauty conglomerates with a portfolio of 37 brands such as Decorté, Sekkisei, Addiction and Tarte sold across 68 countries and regions, has opened a Maison Kosé store in Los Angeles. Until now the company’s Japanese brands have only been available in the US through department stores and other multi-brand channels. [Morningstar]

🇺🇾 Brazil’s O Boticario enters Uruguay with partner Grupo AJ Vierci. The Brazilian cosmetics and skincare giant has opened two stores in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo through a partnership with the Paraguay-based regional firm. The brand’s Curitiba-based parent company Grupo Boticario has over 4,000 stores in Brazil, including mono-brand outlets and multi-brand chain Beauty Box, and operations in more than 15 countries. [FashionNetwork]

🇨🇳 Anta names China’s Fan Zhendong as brand ambassador. The Chinese activewear brand has added the Olympic table tennis champion to its endorsement roster, which includes Zhang Jike and Ma Long. [Jing Daily]

India’s fashion retailers were in a fluster earlier this year when local media suggested that one of the country’s largest conglomerates was about to bring a game-changing new competitor to the market. The alleged deal between Reliance Industries and Primark has since been denied by both companies but it is only a matter of time before lower-priced chains turn their focus to the country. Just last month, Reliance’s retail unit secured a local partnership with Asos, another mass market player popular in the UK.

Indian consumers have had a decade or more to get acquainted with global fast fashion and high street giants like Zara and H&M, though Uniqlo and others touched down more recently. Now, most big names in this price bracket are in expansion mode across the country. In April, Inditex confirmed it will bring Bershka to India “in the coming months.” The Spanish group’s flagship brand Zara has been in the market since 2010, through a partnership with Trent Limited, part of the Tata Group.

Zara’s early entry served as a litmus test for the feasibility of the Indian market, and the brand now has a footprint of 23 stores. Its main rival H&M followed in 2015 but has demonstrated a more rapid pace of expansion. The Swedish brand counts 62 stores across 29 Indian cities today.

“India is a priority market for us, and we’re focused on expanding both physically and digitally here in a big way. We’ve already opened four new stores this year, with more to come,” said Amit Kothari, head of customer activation and marketing at H&M India.

With India’s luxury and accessible luxury markets in the spotlight, it only follows that the country’s mass fashion sector is poised for substantial growth, presenting ample opportunities to both overseas and local companies.

India’s mass fashion segment was worth €16 billion ($17 billion) in 2023, according to Bain & Company.

“The Indian [mass] market proved to be very dynamic in recent years, solidly rebounding post-Covid,” said the consultancy’s senior partner Federica Levato, noting a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent between 2020 and 2023, twice that of the global market. “The market is expected to keep its dynamism going forward and post a low-double-digit growth rate to 2028 versus the mid-single digit expected for the global market.”

Future growth will be fuelled by India’s economic development, its swelling middle class population with growing purchasing power, and a ‘youth bulge’ that will become a demographic dividend in the years to come. Around 66 percent of India’s total population — more than 808 million people — is below the age of 35, according to the International Labour Organization.

However, the mass market is increasingly competitive. India is already home to several international players, such as Mango, Bestseller Group’s Vero Moda, Forever21 and Gap to name a few. These players have domestic counterparts in popular local brands such as Westside, Fabindia, Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons and Reliance Trends alongside e-commerce offerings from the likes of Myntra, Nykaa Fashion, Ajio and Amazon India.

This organised cohort of local and international brands sits alongside a fragmented group of homegrown direct-to-consumer labels, Instagram-only shops, shopping arcade sellers, informal street markets, mom-and-pop-shops, and export surplus stores (stores which sell branded stock sourced from garment manufacturers that are rejected for not passing final quality checks).

But what makes Indian consumers choose one fashion item over another in this unique and rapidly changing segment of the market?

Into the psyche of the Indian consumer

Homegrown online fashion e-tailer Myntra, a key player with 2.3 million styles to choose from, has been able to track the evolution of Indian consumers by studying the company’s more than 55 million active monthly users.

Jayanti Ganguly, VP of business at Myntra (whose parent Flipkart Group was acquired by Walmart in 2018), explains that “Indian consumers [in the age bracket of 18 to 42] used to be largely brand-driven, but in the last few years we’ve seen a shift towards a trend-first approach. The Indian high-street consumer is seeking trends before anything else now.”

Umashan Naidoo, head of customer and beauty at Westside (also part of Tata Group’s Trent Limited), one of India’s leading homegrown fashion and lifestyle retailers going back to 1998, emphasises the importance of agility and speed to draw in the trend-conscious Indian consumer.

“It’s really about, ‘What’s new? How fast can we get it? And what’s after that?’ So, we have over a hundred new SKUs every Friday. And over 500 new SKUs every fourth Friday,” he said. Westside sells 25 in-house brands across categories of western wear, lingerie, loungewear, traditional Indian wear, beauty and more.

Ganguly echoes the importance of speed. “It’s all very real-time. If Kim Kardashian is wearing a dress, there will be instant searches on that style,” she said, noting that many trends are now global. Last year, for example, Myntra saw a 550 percent increase in keyword searches such as ‘hot pink’ and ‘barbie-core’ around the release of the movie “Barbie.”

But it is often local superstars and influencers who have sway over many trends and consumption patterns. Myntra, for example, saw demand surge for their Bollywood-inspired looks during the latest festive season, with saris being a favourite.

And while there is a case to be made for luxury brands going beyond predictable celebrity marketing tactics, in the case of high street brands, Bollywood promises desired eyeballs among the masses. Many famous faces have been roped in to do just that: Katrina Kaif for Uniqlo, Kiara Advani for Mango, Ananya Panday for Only and Amazon Fashion, Shanaya Kapoor for Madame, and Athiya Shetty for H&M’s 2023 Diwali campaign to name a few.

Some celebrities have also launched their own high street brands, Salman Khan’s Being Human was an early example. Virat Kohli has menswear brand Wrogn, Hrithik Roshan’s HRX is focused on activewear, and Saif Ali Khan’s House of Pataudi does Indian wear drawing on the actor’s royal lineage. Alia Bhatt’s kids and maternity wear brand Ed-a-Mamma got the backing of Reliance last year.

“Partnering with a celebrity helps with the top of the funnel, that is awareness. But it cannot guarantee success. Actual conversions boil down to so many other attributes, including your actual product,” said Preeta Sukhtankar, who founded direct-to-consumer label The Label Life back in 2015, with celebrities Malaika Arora, Bipasha Basu and Sussanne Khan as ‘style editors’ for its various verticals.

“The associations need to run deeper, and brands need to think beyond lazy marketing,” added Sukhtankar, who exited the company in 2022 when Goat Brand Labs bought a 90 percent stake.

Brands must also ensure that new launches do not lag behind those in other markets. H&M, for example, releases collections in India aligned with their global calendar, and this includes designer collaborations such as those with Rabanne, Giambattista Valli and Simone Rocha. “The Indian customer doesn’t want to go like, ‘Oh I saw this during my vacation in Paris a few months ago and it’s only come to Indian stores now’,” conceded H&M’s Kothari.

Pricing is a key consideration for the local mass market. Levato says that Indian fast fashion consumers are “typically more price-sensitive compared to other nationalities.”

Aparna Rajagopalan, design research director at Bengaluru-based consultancy Icarus Design, agrees. “In most cases, consumers are likely to go for the cheaper option, but one that still suits their style.”

Sukhtankar likens it to the mindset showcased in Amazon’s previous ‘Aur Dikhao’ (meaning ‘show me more’ in Hindi) campaign. “The consumer, especially the younger ones, can just keep going, and going, and flirt with every brand, until they find the best thing for the best price.”

Naidoo thinks that the consumer psychology is more nuanced, though. He labels Indian consumers, no matter the income group they belong to, as value seekers. “So yes, they are very price sensitive, but brands don’t need to throw it in their face by having a big board saying ‘now 399 rupees’. Let them be inspired by the garment, and then wowed by the price too.”

“At Westside, if something doesn’t work, we take it off the shop floor, but don’t discount it. The first price is always the right price for us,” Naidoo added.

And then there is the case of the ‘non-metro’ consumers, which is a very important market to tap. Myntra says 65 percent of its new customers came from these smaller cities last year. One of H&M’s most recent store openings was in tier-two city Siliguri, and stores are available in many others including Dehradun, Aurangabad, Bhopal and Mangaluru. Of Westside’s 233 stores across 86 cities, 78 are in tier-two and tier-three cities.

Even so, Sukhtankar feels there is a large gap in communication with this segment. “You can divide the consumer into India and Bharat — urban and non-urban — but brands are only speaking to the former.” Most brands, whether Indian or international, are stuck in the loop of speaking to the limited cohort living in posh districts of Mumbai and Delhi, not actively thinking of shoppers in cities like Hyderabad or Indore, despite their spending power, suggests Sukhtankar.

Challenged by the ‘India only’ wardrobe

Unlike other global markets, traditional wear is still an integral part of business in India, with numerous domestic brands dedicated to selling kurtas, churidars and saris for daily wear.

“The so-called ‘staples’ many brands are trying to sell in India are all wrong. They are often chosen by looking at what’s happening abroad. Take a white shirt, for example. It’s not as relevant in India as it is in western markets,” said Sukhtankar. “Because the truth is most of India is still shopping for co-ord sets and Lucknowi kurtas,” she adds.

This is the sweet spot where brands like Zudio, Style Union and Westside manage to find success, suggests Sukhtankar, as they offer both categories, and at attractive prices. Other brands have found their niche in uniquely Indian womenswear staples — like GoColors’s focus on coloured leggings and churidars.

To compete against smaller local players, deep-pocketed international brands have the option of scaling their offering to provide variety but in a market like India localisation is key.

International brands do try to localise their offerings around key festivities, especially Diwali and the wedding season but in most cases these are curations from within existing collections. H&M’s collaboration with Sabyasachi in 2021 iss a rare example of a customised collection that featured a sari and kurta sets.

To further contextualise their collections for a local audience, mass market brands can work with guest curators such as tastemakers, celebrities or even local designers. Indian companies have pursued such pairings for some time but recent examples include Dhruv Kapoor for Ajio Luxe, and more recently, Jodi Life for Nykd by Nykaa.

In India, sizing is another pain point in mass produced collections from international brands which follow standardised metrics more suited to European and American body types. This is where the hack-loving Indian consumer uses easy and cost-effective access to neighbourhood tailors to their benefit. Either they alter mass market pieces that don’t fit well or have the designs replicated at a cheaper price.

“They also get innovative to tweak styles they’ve already purchased to fit within the framework of socio-cultural restrictions and their definitions of modesty,” said Rajagopalan, adding that they may “add sleeves to a strappy outfit, take a plunging neckline higher or lower a slit when the styles are considered inappropriate or too revealing.”

Another segment of the mass market where international brands struggle to compete is the ‘Indo-western’ or ‘fusion’ aesthetic. Brands like Fabindia and Anokhi are emblematic of this style intersection. “It’s very unique to our culture where you could have western silhouettes with Indian fabrics, style a crop top with a sari or wear a western outfit with Indian jewellery. And this kind of mashup is not going anywhere,” said Rajagopalan.

“[Western] fast fashion brands don’t have deep enough insights into Indian culture and can benefit from a more nuanced understanding of the diversity of this market,” she added.

Local brands like Zudio, however, serve this segment naturally, suggests Naidoo. “We’re saying: listen, you want to wear a kurta with jeans? I have it for you. You want to wear a flippy dress or wide-leg jeans? I have that too for you. There is a certain elasticity in the offering.”

To cater to a country like India — which has “many Indias within India,” as industry insiders often like to say — there is no one-size-fits-all formula to success. But deeper penetration is possible for international brands through India-exclusive collections, collaborations with local designers, targeted strategies for different regions, and a greater understanding of local retail culture.