Articles by AFP
Zara owner Inditex workers protest after record profits
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Workers at Inditex's Zara and other big name stores protested outside the company shops across Spain on Friday to demand better benefits after the world's biggest fashion retailer reported record profits and raised shareholder payouts. Blowing whistles and waving union flags, around 100 people demonstrated outside the flagship Bershka store on...
Shein in focus as France fights back against fast fashion
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With jaw-droppingly low prices and a seemingly endless selection of trendy clothes, Shein has taken the world by storm -- and found itself in the crosshairs of French lawmakers who want to curb the excesses of fast fashion. Customers love the Chinese-founded firm's massive catalogue of ultra-cheap items, from 8 dollar sundresses to 48-cent...
Holocaust survivor and presidents' tailor Martin Greenfield dies: media
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New York - Martin Greenfield, a Holocaust survivor whose custom-suit empire counted US presidents and celebrities among its clientele, died on Wednesday aged 95, according to the New York Times. Widely considered one of the best tailors in the United States, Greenfield believed clothing had saved his life. Born Maximilian Grunfeld to a Jewish...
Temu owner Pinduoduo nearly doubles annual profit
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Chinese low-price online retailer Pinduoduo, the owner of the Temu app and Alibaba's main competitor, almost doubled its net profit in 2023, the group announced on Wednesday. The Shanghai-based giant, which has made affordable products its speciality since launching in China in 2015, posted a year-on-year net profit jump of 90 percent in 2023 to...
French parliament votes to slow down fast fashion
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France's parliament on Thursday backed a string of measures making low-cost fast fashion, especially from Chinese mass producers, less attractive to buyers. The vote makes France the first country in the world "legislating to limit the excesses of ultra fast fashion", said Christophe Bechu, minister for the ecological transition. Key measures...
Macron decorates world's richest man Arnault as Beyonce, Musk look on
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Paris - France's President Emmanuel Macron decorated the world's richest man Bernard Arnault at a star-studded ceremony that included pop queen Beyonce and tech billionaire Elon Musk, the presidency and a news report said Thursday. Macron awarded Arnault the country's highest honour, the Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur, at the event on...
Clampdown on fast fashion in EU sights
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Strasbourg - EU lawmakers voted Wednesday to toughen rules on textile waste linked to so-called "fast-fashion". The proposal also creates new obligations for the textile sector, with producers required to foot the bill for collecting, sorting and recycling clothing, but also everything from carpets to mattresses, under the responsibility of...
Daniel Bruhl on playing Karl Lagerfeld: 'He walked like a matador'
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Paris - Daniel Bruhl has the role of a lifetime as one of fashion's most iconic designers in "Becoming Karl Lagerfeld". He literally had to walk in the man's shoes to nail it. The show, which comes to Disney+ in June, follows the ponytailed couturier, whose ice-cold wit and groundbreaking designs for the likes of Fendi and Chanel made him a...
Spain's Mango clothing chain ramps up global expansion
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Barcelona - Spanish fashion retailer Mango, founded 40 years ago in Barcelona, is ramping its global expansion despite economic uncertainties that have shaken some other global mass-market apparel giants. After a slowdown sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the family-owned company has in recent months inaugurated several large stores around the...
900 luxury watches 'go missing' in Japan
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Tokyo - Around 900 luxury watches worth almost $13 million are missing in Japan after a site renting them out folded and its owner fled to Dubai, local media reported. The owners of the Rolexes and other pricey timepieces earned monthly deposit fees by loaning them to Osaka-based Toke Match, which would then rent them to customers. Neo Reverse,...