Just like fashion, beauty brands want to have their Olympic moment.

This year has seen an influx of fashion brands advertising around the Paris games, either as official sponsors, like LVMH, one of the event’s premium partners; as team outfitters, as in the case of Skims with Team USA; or through Olympic-adjacent activations, such as J.Crew’s collaboration with USA Swimming.

And beauty brands want a piece of the action, too. LVMH-owned retailer Sephora is the official sponsor of the torch relays and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty is also an official partner. Other brands engaging in Olympic-adjacent marketing including the always-buzzy beauty label Glossier, which inked a long-term deal to be the US women’s basketball team’s official beauty partner; hair care seller K18, which tapped gymnast Simone Biles as an ambassador; and minimal makeup brand Merit Beauty, which cast retired track star Allyson Felix in a video to show her “five-minute makeup” routine for Merit’s social media.

A confluence of factors have made these Games more appealing to beauty brands: Over 5,000 female athletes will be participating in this year’s games; 2024 marks the first time the Olympics reached gender parity since the organisation’s founding in 1896. That means there are more potential partners for beauty brands, who by and large cater to female consumers. Plus, there’s more interest in women’s sports at large, with the category projected to generate over $1.28 billion dollars in revenue in 2024, a 300 percent increase from 2021.

“There is a lot of opportunity for beauty brands to really make noise,” said Alexandra Gachet, Caudalie’s global communications director. “But there is an opportunity to get it wrong as well and miss the moment.”

But it’s trickier to market beauty during the Olympics than it is fashion. A sportswear brand’s logo is front-and-centre on an athlete’s kit, but it’s less obvious where an athlete got their colourful eyeliner (like the yellow cat eye seen on silver medal-winning gymnast Rebeca Andrade during the all-around final) or a bold red lip (like the kind rugby player Ilona Maher sports on and off the field). This reality poses a challenge to brands who mainly rely on a strategy of seeding products to athletes, said Gachet.

Beauty brands that have cut through the marketing noise at this year’s games have been creative in getting their brand messaging and product offering in front of viewers. Brands under the Olympics tent have leveraged their official sponsor status in ways they hope will reverberate beyond the Olympic Village, while other labels are highlighting the performance of their products, dominating Olympics social chatter on TikTok and targeting unconventional beauty categories in an effort to stand out.

“It’s all about agility, creativity and speed, in beauty campaigns just as in sport,” said Gachet.

Leveraging Official Status

Only official Olympic sponsors are allowed to use Olympics branding in their marketing. In beauty, that means that privilege is restricted to labels owned by official partners LVMH and Procter & Gamble, like Fenty Beauty (owned by LVMH) and hair-care label Mielle Organics (a part of P&G). Though they have that advantage, these brands aren’t content to just rely on the official connection to showcase their names to viewers at home.

Fenty Beauty, for example, is gifting beauty kits to the 600 volunteers — all aged 18 to 21 — who are presenting the medals to the winning athletes. The medal bearers will also have access to Fenty’s suite of makeup artists in order to get their faces camera ready for their time on screen for the victory ceremonies. The brand was also at the centre of a much-talked-about moment when gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles was spotted using Fenty’s setting powder on the sidelines of the team final.

P&G-owned Mielle Organics, meanwhile, wanted to use its association with the Olympics brand to bring more visibility to the textured-hair expertise gap in women’s sports. The brand is the only textured hair brand servicing coily, curly and wavy hair types in P&G’s beauty and grooming salon at the Olympic Village. Its aim is to have athletes with textured hair “look their best by having stylists that know how to do their hair,” said Omar Goff, Mielle’s president. At the salon, athletes at the Olympic Village will be able to request looks ranging from braids and blowouts to trims and curly cuts.

“A number Black women say that they avoid physical activity because of fear of what will happen to their hair in the process,” said Goff, referring to a 2017 study on the sociocultural barriers to physical activity faced by Black women. “We want to show that we are a product that you can trust and rely on to go after your athletic aspirations.”

Goff said having a presence in the salon will communicate to viewers that “whenever they see an afro or braids on screen, they will know Mielle was behind it.”

Capturing Momentum Beyond the Tent

Like in fashion, the brands benefitting from Olympics-centric marketing go far beyond official partners. But because they aren’t permitted to use Olympic branding in their ads, they are forced to find workarounds.

French skincare label Caudalie found a path to virality with an Instagram video that showed an enlarged version of the brand’s Vinoperfect Serum cruising along the Seine River — a drop of the product falls into the river, causing it to turn from a murky brown to a sky-blue hue. The video, a nod to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo taking a much-publicised dip in the river to prove it was clean enough for the triathlon competition, earned over 8 million views.

“We knew that we couldn’t directly reference the Olympics because we are not a partner and we couldn’t afford to be. But we wanted to be a part of the conversation,” said Gachet. “Everyone was talking about the Seine and how it’s always so dirty and the mayor’s swim, so we had to jump on the opportunity as soon as possible.”

Caudalie’s Olympics strategy relied on anticipating viral moments before they occur, so the team combed the internet to find trending moments and then determined how to translate them to fit their brand.

Product efficacy is also at the centre of beauty brands’ Olympic dialogue. L’Oréal Paris tapped rugby player Maher while makeup label Milani hired basketball star Sabrina Ionescu and gymnast Jordan Chiles to promote their brands’ respective setting sprays. Both claim their products resist sweat and makeup transference, which would be helpful for athletes in contact sports as well as consumers handling sweltering heat.

For those further away from the Olympic action, finding “authentic channels for storytelling” has been the biggest challenge, said Julia Ramanadhan, global vice president of marketing at Los Angeles-based skincare brand Dermalogica.

In the weeks leading up to the Olympics, the brand gave away its Dynamic Skin Recovery SPF 50 sunscreen to members of the Venice Run Club, a runner’s community in Los Angeles, hoping to convert them to paying customers as well as put Dermologica in conversation with the sport. It also launched a campaign starring track and field athlete Dalilah Muhammad to promote the same product ahead of the Olympics.

“For the indie brands, which wouldn’t have the budgets for the major sponsorship opportunities, the opportunity lies in how they can be engaged in the conversation and communities peripheral to the official festivities,” said Ramanadhan.

Tattoo-aftercare brand Mad Rabbit, meanwhile, is offering tattoo-aftercare kits (a soothing gel, a tattoo balm, exfoliating lotions and soap) to current and former Olympians, a nod to the tradition of athletes getting tattoos of the Olympic rings after competing. It will also host a post-Olympic event in its Los Angeles studio for athletes who wish to get the famed tattoo themselves.

These sort of activations are a bit more untested than an official team-up, but Oliver Zak, Mad Rabbit’s co-founder and chief executive, feels it’s worth the risk.

“This is somewhat of a blind investment in that we can’t really guarantee that the athletes will post or mention us,” said Zak. “But we hope that by targeting tattoos we are differentiated enough from the traditional beauty brands to be memorable.”

The rapid proliferation of e-commerce in South Korea — thanks in part to the high distribution rate of smartphones — is directly impacting shopping behaviour. South Koreans spent a total of more than $171.1 billion through e-commerce platforms in 2023, according to a report by South Korean newspaper Aju Business Daily.

Adjacent to this shift is a significant uptick in the consumption of luxury goods. South Korean consumers spend $325 per capita on luxury goods a year, according to Morgan Stanley — the highest spending globally, outpacing their counterparts in key markets such as the US and China.

As appetite for both frictionless e-commerce experiences and access to luxury goods continue to shape and define consumer behaviour in the country, the secondary peer-to-peer market continues to gain traction. Indeed, Korea’s resale market is expected to double its market share by 2025, as reported by online re-commerce business Bunjang.

Opens in new window

A leading platform in Korea’s resale market, Bunjang saw the transaction volume of fashion goods sold exceed $833 million — ten times that of 2021. Responsible for more than 21 million transactions in 2023, Bunjang has leveraged its proprietary insights and surveyed 800 Korean consumers between the ages of 20 and 59 for its inaugural ‘Korean Luxury Resale Report’ to determine the key category insights, defining consumer trends and the scale of opportunity within the country’s secondary market.

“Our strategies have centred around those key consumer shifts we have been seeing — the growing importance of immediate accessibility, reasonable prices and, crucially, sustainability. We view this as a new culture that we need to not only be a part of, but also work proactively to build this culture and drive widespread adoption,” Bunjang CEO Jaewha Choi previously told BoF.

Below, BoF shares extracts from Bunjang’s report, distilling five distinct themes that will define the success of luxury resale in the region.

Online Channels Dominate Resale Shopping

BoF: The growth of the global secondhand apparel market outpaced the firsthand sector 15-fold in 2023, with online resale experiencing accelerated growth at 23 percent year-over-year, according to research from ThredUp. In BoF Insights’ “Future of Resale” report, consumers surveyed from the US, UK, France and Germany citied “value,” “affordability” and “sustainability” as key motivators for shopping secondhand.

Bunjang Report: The Korean resale market saw accelerated growth in the last decade. Sales skyrocketed from 4 trillion Korean won (US$2.9 billion) in 2008 to 24 trillion won (US$17.4 billion) in 2021, with the resale market expected to reach US$31 billion by 2025, largely driven by online resales.

Indeed, shoppers gravitate toward buying secondhand goods online —more than 56 percent of Korean consumers who bought secondhand items in 2023 made their purchase online. South Korea is ranked first for having the highest penetration of online engagement in resale. While online resale has a reputation for usage by Gen-Z, online secondhand shopping in Korea transcends all generations, from people in their 20s through to those in their 50s. Online resale services receive more than 656,000 downloads per mont, and consumers spend an average of just under 79 hours per month on the top five re-commerce platforms.

Generations with purchasing power are expected to account for nearly half of the secondhand market as resale becomes a new cultural phenomenon. Consumers trade secondhand clothing the most through resale, followed by electronics and appliances, then sports goods.

The Luxury Category Boosts Strongest Growth in Resale

BoF: Globally, the market for secondhand luxury goods continues to boom: approximately US$49.3 billion worth of secondhand luxury goods were sold worldwide in 2023, according to Bain & Co. Indeed, the resale market has doubled in size in just four years, with the consultancy expecting secondhand luxury sales to increase at around 15 percent annually over the next five years — double the rate of the primary market.

Some 71 percent of shoppers bought or sold used goods in the past year globally — with 63 percent of these shoppers marking a purchase at least once a month, according to new research by MPB and Retail Economics.

Bunjang Report: Despite global economic recession, the Korean luxury resale market demonstrates significant signs of growth. Indeed, the purchasing of pre-owned luxury goods is rising as inflation persists: 61.5 percent of Korean consumers shopped for secondhand luxury goods in 2023, while 20.2 percent of consumers filled nearly half of their luxury wardrobes with secondhand items. Ultimately, current economic challenges have led people to turn to luxury resale instead of the primary firsthand market: rising prices accounted for 76.9 percent of consumers purchasing luxury goods secondhand in 2023.

This motivation behind sales in secondhand luxury goods was followed by scarcity and sustainability, the latter of which is increasingly a priority for consumers today. In fact, due to a growing preference for sustainable consumption, consumers plan to spend more of their luxury budget on secondhand goods in 2024.

Classic Luxury Goods Win Out in Womenswear

BoF: Quiet luxury, a term used to describe logo-free, understated but expensive garments from the likes of brands like Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli and The Row, has emerged as one of the fashion industry’s most significant trends and as a rejection of the logomania that typified the late 2010s.

While not a new concept, popular culture phenomena such as the HBO show “Succession” propelled this aesthetic into the mainstream. In 2023, Google searches for the term “quiet luxury’” grew by 614 percent, according to research from The Drum. At its peak in July 2023, terms like “old-money outfit” garnered 50,000 searches per month, while “old-money aesthetic” gathered more than 74,000.

Bunjang Report: Across the womenswear category, shopping behaviour shows an unchanging love for legacy brands, with the rise of the “old money” aesthetic. 2023 was the year of timeless classic bags, shoes and accessories; shoppers discovered forgotten legacy brands and quiet luxury brands. This mature and minimalistic trend elevated the essentials, such as logoless bags and plain white T-shirts, among fashion enthusiasts.

In August 2023, when the “old money” aesthetic emerged as a new cultural trend, searches on the platform increased 387 percent month-on-month. Meanwhile, tried-and-true luxury bags continue to garner popularity. Love for rare and exclusive high-end bags showed varying popularity according to each generation.

Searches for The Row were up more than 120 percent. Its Margaux bag has cemented itself as a signature of quiet luxury. Searches for Loro Piana were up 44 percent. While younger generations on the platform desire Prada for its affordable price point and sustainable options, such as its Re-Nylon bags, women above 45 identified the Louis Vuitton Alma bag as a key item, citing its heritage and craftsmanship. Classic styles from Chanel and Dior’s iconic Lady Dior bag proved to be the most coveted accessories brand among surveyed women.

Authentication Services Resonate With Menswear Shoppers

BoF: The total value of counterfeit and pirated goods will hit $3 trillion this year, triple the amount in 2013, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sophisticated authentication measures are a critical component for many consumers to embrace the secondary market and place trust in peer-to-peer transactions.

Bunjang Report: While Gen-Z and Millennials remain the most prominent generations within the luxury resale market, 2023 was the year of welcoming a new, specific cohort: Gen-X men. Indeed, emerging luxury spenders who are male and aged 35 to 44 gravitated toward luxury resale — Balenciaga was the most searched fashion brand by this cohort, with Cartier and Bulgari the most searched accessory brands.

As resale logistics undergo technological improvements, this consumer cohort has embraced luxury resale, as authenticity of product is easier to guarantee. The number of men aged 35 to 44 using Bunjang’s authentication service “Bungae Care” increased by more than 27 percent, year-on-year. Meanwhile, luxury sneakers remain a popular category — Millennials and Gen-Z traded 16,000 pairs of luxury sneakers last year, with the Balenciaga 3XLs, the Gucci Rhytons and the Maison Margiela Replica sneakers the most sought-after styles on the platform.

Parents Show Preferences for Secondhand Luxury Childrenswear

BoF: Despite the region’s notoriously low birth-rate, the childrenswear market in Korea shows no signs of slowing. Korea’s childrenswear came to around $1.76 billion in 2023, up 33 percent from 2020, according to Euromonitor. Luxury brands in particular have seen the most noticeable growth.

Bunjang Report: Generation Alpha is anticipated to be the highest spender due to their status — better known in the region as “very important babies” (VIBs). Generation Alpha are pampered by Millennial parents — those spending $325 per capita on luxury goods a year — who provide early familiarisation with luxury brands. Baby Dior searches were up 33.82 percent on the platform, while Burberry Kids searches were up 6.46 percent.

Discover further insights in the report, including the Korean fashion brands gaining traction within the region’s resale market.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by Bunjang as part of a BoF partnership.

Bangladesh tightened a nationwide curfew and ordered a shutdown of mobile Internet services for the second time in three weeks as renewed protests over the weekend led to more than 70 deaths.

The curfew, starting at 6 PM local time, will continue until further notice, according to the home ministry. The nation is also shutting government and private offices, including banks, for three days starting on Monday as it grapples with restoring order.

The measures are being imposed after a new wave of violence on Sunday, where protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina clashed with pro-government supporters. The deaths included 13 law enforcement officials who were beaten to death after a mob attacked a police station in the city of Sirajganj.

On Sunday, a group set vehicles on fire at a government-run medical university and hospital near Shahbag square, a popular demonstration site in the capital of Dhaka. Most shops are shut and public transport disappeared from the capital’s streets as the violence spread.

The protesters also launched a disobedience movement, urging citizens to withhold tax or utility bills and asked overseas workers to stop sending remittances home, as part of the nationwide campaign to pressure Hasina and her cabinet to step down.

The ruling Awami League and its supporters held marches across the country on Sunday, seeking to maintain their position against the protesters, according to the party’s General Secretary Obaidul Quader.

Hasina’s office urged students and parents to return home, saying “militant attacks” took place in parts of Bangladesh. “The authorities will take tough action against the attackers,” Hasina’s office said in a message to the media.

The unrest stemmed from a controversial government jobs quota system, and demonstrations forced authorities to impose a curfew as well as a near-complete blackout of the mobile Internet for 11 straight days in July. Those protests left some 200 people dead.

Curfews and the Internet shutdown is estimated to have a $10 billion impact on the economy with costs expected to climb further, Zaved Akhtar, president of the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said late last month. The FCCI represents investors from 35 countries.

Hasina has offered to meet protest coordinators and ordered the release of detained students as crowds swarmed streets across Dhaka on Saturday. “My doors are open. I want to sit with protesters and listen to them. I don’t want any conflict,” she said.

By Arun Devnath

Learn more:

Bangladesh Eases Curfew to Keep Economy Going After Protests

Student anger over job quotas has roiled the world’s second-largest garment exporter.

VF Corp. shocked the streetwear world when it announced last month that it would sell Supreme to eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica for $1.5 billion. It was more the buyer than the seller that came as a surprise; VF had struggled to implement its plan to scale Supreme after acquiring it in 2020, and badly needed the cash to pay down about $1 billion in loans coming due at the end of the year. Now, the company can focus on turning around Vans, its biggest brand, where sales have declined sharply.

VF hired former Lululemon chief product officer Sun Choe to head Vans in May. The company has talked more about trimming its portfolio than how it will revive its brands (The North Face and Timberland have also struggled to grow). It’s probably too soon to expect specifics on Choe’s impact at Vans, but even further guidance on the timing of a turnaround would be welcome news after so many bleak quarters.

Revolve’s acquisition of couture house Alexandre Vauthier, announced at the end of June, is almost as odd a pairing as EssilorLuxottica and Supreme. True, the online retailer has a high-end offshoot, FWRD. But it’s best known for accessibly priced dresses that photograph well for Instagram. As The Business of Fashion’s Robert Williams reported at the time of the deal, ties between FWRD and Vauthier run deep, and the couture label had entered into administration in February after struggling for years.

Revolve, too, is always looking ahead to its next act, a strategy that’s taken on new urgency as social media-centric brands have lost some of their sheen. As CEO Michael Mente put it to BoF, “influencer marketing is just one arrow in our quiver.” Another potential pivot: physical retail. Revolve converted its Aspen pop-up into a permanent outpost in June. Could more stores follow?

The Week Ahead wants to hear from you! Send tips, suggestions, complaints and compliments to brian.baskin@businessoffashion.com.

What’s the dollar value of being a premium sponsor of the Olympics?

LVMH deemed the answer to be €150 million ($163 million), according to Reuters, shelling out the hefty sum in a deal that looks to have been worth every cent so far.

NBCUniversal reported that viewership of the first four days of the Paris games was up 77 percent compared to the Tokyo Olympics, as an average of 33.8 million viewers tuned in across the live broadcast and later US primetime showings on NBCUniversal’s platforms. The opening ceremony alone was the most-watched since 2012, the network said earlier in the week.

There’s no doubt the luxury conglomerate is hellbent on getting its money’s worth in exposure. The work of LVMH brands has been plastered all over our TV screens and Instagram feeds this week, from the Dior haute couture ensemble worn by Aya Nakamura for her opening ceremony performance to the record-breaking gold medal that adorned Simone Biles’ neck on Tuesday, which was created by LVMH-owned high jewellery label Chaumet, and presented — you guessed it — on a Louis Vuitton-designed tray.

Some of the biggest splashes have come from smaller players. Team Liberia’s opening-ceremony outfits, by Telfar — with necklines which referenced the shape of the African continent — provided some iconic imagery during last Friday’s rainy broadcast. So did the outfits of South Sudan, whose sleek suiting was provided by Rwandan label Moshions.

The Olympics has unquestionably been the crowning moment of the much-discussed marriage of the sports and fashion industries.

In years gone by, fashion’s involvement in sport was limited to brands co-opting the aesthetic of “safer” more affluent sports, like tennis or golf, and staying well clear of sports like football. Now, just about every sport presents an opportunity, as even competitions like Formula 1, which previously had little relevance to fashion, now represent marketing moments for luxury and beauty brands.

The shift is no accident. It’s been a long time coming, as a number of factors in recent years have joined forces to make sport into fashion’s most exciting new arena.

Sport is one of the last vestiges of monoculture

For decades, the media landscape has grown increasingly fragmented, as more channels have appeared to serve different audiences with different interests. The rise of the internet only accelerated the trend. Streaming now commands a greater share of viewers than cable television, allowing viewers to choose what they want to watch and when they want to watch it.

Sporting competitions, however, have remained one of the few types of broadcast to control a huge live audience.

“Sport is now the only by-appointment thing to watch on TV or tune into live at that point in time — everything else is on demand,” said Clive Reeves, PwC’s UK sports leader, in BoF’s case study on fashion’s new rules for sports marketing. “To be in the conversation, you need to watch sport at that point in time, which makes it the only thing left in society that really drives a huge volume of people at specific moments, which for brands is very special and valuable.”

Digital platforms are starting to change sports viewership, too, but countless fans are also attending live sporting events, with stadium attendance for several leagues breaking records in 2023.

Athletes are eclipsing the world’s biggest celebrities

Athletes have always controlled attention, but today they’re some of the biggest stars in the world. The two most-followed people on Instagram are footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, ranking ahead of entertainers and influencers like Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé.

Increasingly athletes are brands in and of themselves, at times more influential and recognisable than the teams they play for. Fashion has become a critical component of how they brand themselves and show off their personalities in this context, while their visibility and cultural clout make them great channels for brands looking to bolster their own images and reach new audiences.

Young sports stars and fans are growing up online

Today’s young sports fans do not simply support their favourite team or player in isolation — they track their daily lives around the clock on social media, follow dedicated fan accounts, listen to podcasts featuring or hosted by them and emulate their careers in video games. People want to see who they’re dating, what they’re wearing to dinner, their skincare routine or their pre-game dance routines.

WNBA Tunnel, an Instagram account founded in May by LA-based PR and marketing specialist Velissa Vaughn, has already amassed over 50,000 followers who tune in for daily content of basketball players-turned-pre-game models arriving for their games in designer clothing.

Apps like Instagram and TikTok have also allowed young athletes to monetise their personal brands and have closer relationships with their fans in ways previous generations couldn’t. Now, sports stars are amassing millions of followers — while earning millions from brand deals — before they’ve even left college.

The rise of women’s sports

The past year has seen a groundswell in support and investment into women’s sporting competitions. The rising appreciation for superstar female athletes is enticing luxury womenswear and beauty brands to invest their marketing budgets in new opportunities.

Women’s basketball has led the way. Luxury brands from Balmain to Versace now clamour to dress players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Kelsey Plum, getting their products on the pre-game WNBA tunnel walk, as the league’s viewership has soared this season. Brands like Skims, Glossier and New Balance have announced partnerships with the WNBA and USA Basketball.

“Women’s sport continues to see a surge in interest and shows significant growth potential,” PwC analysts wrote in the company’s 2024 global sports report. “With unprecedented attendance and viewership of women’s events, 2023/24 was a record-breaking year that suggests a positive change in consciousness.”

A summer of sport like no other

From Wimbledon to the European Football Championships to Copa America to the Olympics, this summer has been a non-stop sporting festival. Brands and retailers have accordingly sought to cash in on heightened interest in these events. London’s Selfridges department store, for example, has hosted a summer-long “Sportopia” activation, including events such as a Nike x Jacquemus pop-up featuring a jumbo-sized Swoosh bag.

Brands also announced an unprecedented flurry of partnerships and collaborations ahead of the summer. Kith released a collection with Team USA Basketball, modelled by All-Star Kevin Durant in the accompanying campaign; P&G-owned Mielle Organics was named as the official textured hair product of the 2024 Olympics, building on its previous partnerships in sport with Angel Reese and the WNBA.

Traditional sportswear brands are enjoying the benefits of fashion consumers flooding into sport. On Wednesday, Adidas chief executive Bjørn Gulden told analysts that the brand’s better-than-expected second-quarter earnings were in part thanks to fashion’s newfound obsession with football jerseys (popularised by the “blokecore” trend, which has amassed 20 million posts on TikTok). In the US, Google searches for football kits reached an all-time high in July, according to a report published by the platform.

“This summer, the rise of football within pop culture has introduced a new audience of Gen Z influencers and celebrities to the art of the sport,” wrote Sagal Mohammed, editorial and creative lead at Google.

Fashion brands will go where the eyeballs are when searching for tastemakers to work with. Whether that’s Louis Vuitton tapping Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, or brands dressing young college basketball stars like Paige Bueckers to access their millions of TikTok fans, it’s clear that athletes — and sports in general — are now at the top of fashion brands’ priority lists.

THE NEWS IN BRIEF

FASHION, BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY

Armani posts a slight sales drop in the first half of 2024. The weakening in sales reflects “an adjustment within the luxury market, especially in the Asia ex-Japan region and the more accessible segment of the offer,” Armani said in a statement Monday. Operating profit at the Milanese group totalled €215 million.

Ferragamo’s operating profit dropped 41 percent in the first half. Earnings before interest and tax came in at €28 million ($30.2 million), beating analyst expectations of €20 million. Revenues at the leather group fell 6 percent at constant exchange rates in the second quarter.

Hugo Boss confirms 42 percent drop in second-quarter operating profit. Hugo Boss said its earnings before interest and tax fell to €70 million ($75.8 million) in the second quarter from €121 million a year earlier, as reported last month. Its quarterly net income slumped 50 percent year-on-year to €39 million.

Chanel raises €700 million from high-grade private debt market. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA arranged the debt for Chanel, according to people familiar with the matter. This form of private debt enables borrowers to bypass volatility in public credit markets.

Prada to open 8,000-square-foot Hong Kong store after years of downsizing. Construction work for the two-floor store, which will be Prada’s first major new store in Hong Kong in years, will begin soon. The outpost is expected to open early next year. Rent is likely to be partly based on store sales, people familiar with the matter said.

Hugo Boss may push back 2025 targets as the luxury sector falters. Shares in the company fell as much as 10 percent in July as it cut its full-year sales and earnings forecasts, citing weakening global consumer demand, especially in China and Britain.

Tiffany & Co. and CFDA launch award for jewellery designers. Select participants, to be announced in the fall, will be invited to take part in “an immersive learning experience” with the LVMH-owned jewellery house, the company said. One designer will be chosen for a year-long fellowship with Tiffany’s design department and receive a $50,000 prize.

Adidas regains momentum with retailers on the Samba boom. The German sportswear company posted currency-neutral revenue growth of 17 percent in its wholesale business last quarter, a sign that retail partners are again embracing Adidas products. Adidas shares were little changed in early trading, and are up almost 30 percent this year. Industry leader Nike Inc., by contrast, is down more than 30 percent in 2024.

Canada Goose boosts sales on Asia strength. The company reported better-than-expected revenue of C$88.1 million ($63.5 million) for the fiscal first quarter, driven by strong sales in Asia, despite a 3 percent drop in North American sales.

Amazon shares tumble on slowing online sales growth. The retailer’s shares dropped more than 8 percent after the company reported only 5 percent growth in online store sales for the second quarter, compared to 7 percent growth in the first quarter. The company’s quarterly profit and cloud computing sales, however, beat analysts’ estimates.

Next raises guidance as British retailer’s sales soar abroad. The retailer said full-year pretax profit is now expected to reach £980 million ($1.3 billion), up from previous guidance of £960 million. Next also reported full price sales rose 3.2 percent in the 13 weeks to July 27, having previously told investors to anticipate a fall in sales after warm weather last summer.

Fred Segal shutters in Los Angeles. Two of its local stores and the Fred Segal website shut down this week, though the Fred Segal furniture store in LA’s Culver City neighbourhood will remain open, as will its shop-in-shop concept at Resorts World Las Vegas. Owner Jeff Lotman cited lingering challenges from the pandemic as reasons for the closure.

THE BUSINESS OF BEAUTY

L’Oréal second-quarter sales rise but depressed China market weighs. The Paris-based company said sales in the quarter reached €10.88 billion ($11.75 billion), up 5.3 percent from a year earlier, but below the 5.9 percent growth projected by analysts.

P&G posts surprise sales drop as demand slows despite price controls. Fourth-quarter net sales slipped to $20.53 billion and missed Wall Street expectations of $20.74 billion. Weak spending in China and a continued sales hit for its beauty brand SK-II due to consumer boycotts on environmental matters have also been issues of concern for P&G.

Blake Lively launches hair care line. On Aug. 4, the “Gossip Girl” star will launch her debut hair care line, Blake Brown, at Target stores. The eight-product assortment includes two shampoo and conditioner sets, as well as a range of hair masks.

PEOPLE

Balmain appoints Bruna Scognamiglio chief marketing officer. She succeeds Txampi Diz, who departed the Mayhoola-owned French house after nearly two decades in March. Scognamiglio will report to Balmain’s newly-appointed chief executive Matteo Sgarbossa.

Selfridges CEO Andre Keith to exit amid luxury upheaval. Keith, who previously revitalised Hong Kong’s Lane Crawford department store, joined Selfridges in early 2021 as managing director during the lead-up to a blockbuster sale to Thailand’s Central Group and Austria’s Signa Holding. He took the reins as CEO in June 2023.

Blumarine hires David Koma as creative director. Koma will become the brand’s third creative director in two years, after former Tod’s designer Walter Chiapponi left the brand after just one season in the role. Koma’s first collection for the brand will be Pre-Fall 2025.

Shiseido names Kentaro Fujiwara as CEO, effective Jan 2025. The incumbent CEO, Masahiko Uotani, will retire at the end of this year, but remain an advisor to the company. Fujiwara’s appointment has been carefully orchestrated in a five-year succession plan.

Adidas has extended its contract with basketball star Anthony Edwards. Edwards’ signature shoe with Adidas, the AE 1, is its most in-demand basketball sneaker since launching at the end of last year. Edwards is central to Adidas’s plan to scale its basketball category, which in turn is a key element of the brand’s expansion plans in North America.

Compiled by Yola Mzizi.