Fashion news

Bain-Altagamma says personal luxury goods fell 2 per cent to €358 billion ($410 billion) in 2025, before a 2026 rebound.
LVMH's H1 2026 revenue reached €38.6 billion ($44.28 billion), with Q2 organic growth at 3 per cent.
Europe tourist spending fell around 20 per cent in February 2026, Middle East mall traffic weakened, and L'Oréal briefly overtook LVMH.

BoE held the Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent in September, with a 6–3 MPC vote, as higher energy prices lifted UK inflation risks.
CPI rose to 3.1 per cent in August and may rise further, keeping cost, wage and demand pressures in focus for UK apparel retail and sourcing.
The MPC said it was ready to act to return inflation to 2 per cent, while annual £20 billion gilt sales will run to 2034.

Vietnam’s outbound investment rose 4.7-fold in the first eight months of 2026, while registered FDI reached $40.63 billion, up 55.4 per cent year on year.Trade turnover rose 28.7 per cent to $770.14 billion, and manufacturing PMI hit 53.3 in August, signalling continued expansion in production, trade and investment activity.
Business formation also strengthened during the period.

Vietnam is projected to record the fastest economic growth among Southeast Asia’s six largest economies, with average annual GDP growth of 6.2 per cent through 2035, according to a report by Bain & Company, DBS Bank and Vriens & Partners.The outlook is supported by manufacturing exports, foreign investment and Vietnam’s role in regional supply chains.

AI agents are entering apparel product development, costing and sourcing through launches from PTC, Aptean and Centric.
Research warns up to 90 per cent of AI initiatives fail to scale beyond pilots, blocked by governance, data quality and fragmented tools.
Despite 92 per cent planning more AI investment, only 1 per cent report mature deployment; brands must fix product data.

US final-demand producer prices rose 5.4 per cent in the 12 months ended August 2026, with goods up 7.7 per cent and services up 4.5 per cent.Energy led goods inflation at 24.4 per cent, while foods were nearly unchanged at 0.1 per cent.Transportation and warehousing services rose 13.0 per cent, signalling cost pressure for sourcing and logistics teams.

South Korea’s apparel imports rose 2.82 per cent to $7.901 billion in January-August 2026, with August shipments up 10.98 per cent to $1,283.819 million.
Knitted apparel imports grew 4.64 per cent and non-knitted apparel imports rose 1.47 per cent in the first eight months.
Exports of man-made filaments fell 4.32 per cent, while knitted or crocheted fabrics gained 8.56 per cent.

Industrial production fell 0.1 per cent month on month in the euro area and 0.3 per cent in the EU in July 2026, according to the Eurostat.
Non-durable consumer goods output declined 1.6 per cent in the euro area and 1.3 per cent in the EU as other main groupings mostly rose.
Annual output was stable in the euro area and up 0.3 per cent in the EU, giving sourcing teams a mixed signal.

European hourly labour costs rose 3.1 per cent year on year in the euro area and 3.2 per cent in the EU in Q2 2026, according to the Eurostat.
Construction recorded the strongest increase among business activities at 3.9 per cent in both regions.Bulgaria, Lithuania and Croatia posted the highest wage-cost growth, while Luxembourg and Romania recorded the lowest.

Bangladesh’s gas supply rose to 2,610 mmcfd on Tuesday, supported by 990 mmcfd of imported regasified LNG and 1,620 mmcfd from domestic gas fields.The improved supply is expected to ease pressure on industries, power plants and other gas-dependent consumers that have faced supply constraints, while helping meet the country’s overall demand.