Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
🇭🇹 Haiti’s garment industry is in jeopardy after US trade scheme expiry. The US government’s failure on Sep. 30 to renew the HOPE/HELP acts could result in the shutdown of around 75 percent of Haiti’s garment sector, warned Telemarque Pierre. The union leader of Haitian workers’ rights group Batay Ouvriye May First Union Federation (ESPM-BO) said a shutdown on that scale would cause mass unemployment in the crisis-ridden Caribbean nation. The Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement act and the Haiti Economic Lift Program act (HOPE/HELP) support around 50,000 jobs for Haitian workers, including those manufacturing products for American companies like Gap, Hanes and PVH. The lapse of the programme is “jeopardising the apparel supply chain that relies on US cotton and textile exports to Haiti, where garments are manufactured and subsequently returned to the US market duty-free,” said the American Apparel & Footwear Association in a letter to Congress on Thursday, signed jointly by five other US trade bodies – the FDRA, NRF, OIA, RILA and USFIA. “Haiti is facing economic instability, gang violence, and rapidly declining employment levels in all sectors – factors that contribute to migration pressures in the region. We urge Congress to help ensure a pathway to stabilization and certainty to the Haitian people and American businesses by passing the Haiti Economic Lift Program Extension Act of 2025,” the signatories wrote. [Sourcing Journal, BoF Inbox]
🌍 American apparel body AAFA is “frustrated” by AGOA’s expiry in Africa. The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) expressed “deep disappointment” over last week’s expiry of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the duty-free trade programme granting 32 African countries from Kenya to Madagascar access to the US market. AAFA’s vice president of trade and customs, Beth Hughes, called on Congress and the Trump administration to take steps to extend both AGOA and the HOPE/HELP programmes retrospectively. “We are frustrated by the failure to act on these long-standing, bipartisan trade preference programmes that clearly benefit local garment industries abroad as well as Made-in-America cotton and textile exporters, American brands, and the 3.6 million American workers directly supported by the fashion industry,” she said, describing the US government’s inaction as tantamount to “surrendering further strength to China’s manufacturing influence by placing unnecessary obstacles in the way of viable sourcing alternatives.” Last month, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the International Trade Centre said AGOA’s expiry would amount to a “debilitating” blow for some of Africa’s most successful manufacturing industries. [BoF Inbox]
🇨🇳 Chinese clothing and textiles exports to the EU surge by 20 percent in H1. Exports increased by a fifth year over year in the first half of 2025, according to data from Euratex, the European Apparel and Textile Confederation. The bulk of the value increase was down to an approximately €2 billion ($2.3 billion) increase in the cheap clothing category. Mario Jorge Machado, president of Euratex, attributed the surge to China exporting less to the US following the tariff war between the two countries. “The Chinese companies, because they cannot sell in the United States, are behaving in a very aggressive way to sell in Europe,” he said. The European Commission has proposed changing its €150 de-minimis threshold to a flat fee, like the US has, in a bid to reduce the number of packages entering the bloc duty-free from e-tailers like Temu and Shein. [Financial Times]
🇧🇩 Two major Bangladeshi garment manufacturers shutter indefinitely. Gazipur-based Giant Textiles has suddenly and indefinitely shuttered over the weekend, days after the closure of 16 factories under the Nassa Group umbrella, in Dhaka, Gazipur, Chattogram, and Cumilla, leaving tens of thousands of workers demanding compensation. The closures are part of a wave that has been gaining momentum since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power last August, as factory owners with political ties to her party have either vanished, moved overseas or faced arrest. [Sourcing Journal]
ADVERTISEMENT
🇮🇳 India-UK trade deal is expected to be “game-changer” for Indian jewellers. The removal of tariffs on jewellery and gemstones imported into the UK from India after the two countries signed a trade deal in July could see the value of Indian exports in the category grow from $941 million to at least $2.5bn over the next three years, predicts Kirit Bhansali, chair of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). Indian jewellers that expanded to the US right before the Trump administration introduced punishing tariffs on India are focusing more on the UK where some have already opened stores in major cities, he suggests. [Financial Times]
🇦🇪 Dubai watch retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons expands to Riyadh. Founded in 1950 and now operating around 50 stores selling everything from Rolex and Graff to Chopard and Patek Philippe across the United Arab Emirates in both multi-brand and mono-brand formats, the retailer has opened a flagship in Saudi Arabia’s capital. Chief executive Mohammed Abdulmagied Seddiqi, grandson of the late founder Ahmed Qassim Seddiqi, recently told local media he hopes to expand globally by 2027. [BoF Inbox]
🇮🇳 Indian retail chain PC Jeweller’s Q2 revenues increase 63 percent. The New Delhi-based company operating over 50 stores nationwide cut its outstanding debt by 23 percent during the quarter ended Sep. “This debt reduction is in line with the company’s goal of becoming debt-free by the end of 2025-26,” the firm said. [Economic Times]
🇯🇵 Chanel’s métiers d’art hub Le 19M opens major Tokyo exhibition. Held from Sep. 30 – Oct. 20 in Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, La Galerie du 19M Tokyo features 30 Japanese and French artisans, curated by a panel including Casa Brutus chief editor Yoichi Nishio and writer Momoko Ando. It also features a retrospective on the centenary of Chanel-owned embroidery house Lesage. [BoF Inbox]
🇮🇳 India’s Arvind Fashions names Amisha Jain CEO and MD. The listed Bengaluru-based retailer, which sells international brands like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger nationwide, has appointed the former Levi Strauss & Co. executive as its new leader. Jain, who previously worked with Zivame.com, Nike India and McKinsey & Company, succeeds Shailesh Chaturvedi. [Economic Times]
🇮🇩 TikTok’s Indonesia licence is restored after data-sharing deal. The video-sharing platform has agreed to comply with government demands to share data on livestreaming of recent protests in what is its second-largest market after the US, with around 150 million users. Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto had suspended TikTok’s licence a day earlier. [Financial Times]
🇮🇳 Ralph Lauren Fragrances taps Indian cricketer Jasprit Bumrah as ambassador. Charles-Alexandre Boczmak, L’Oréal International Distribution’s GM for the South Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa regions said Bumrah was chosen for Polo 67 for his “journey of perseverance and discipline and his role as an inspiration to millions.” The Indian Premier League player has over 21 million followers on Instagram. [BoF Inbox]
🇨🇳 Loewe taps actresses Chen Duling and Kara Wai as brand ambassadors. The Spanish luxury brand Loewe has entered into endorsement agreements with mainland Chinese actress Chen Duling, who has 10 million followers on Weibo, and Hong Kong’s award-winning star of wuxia films, Kara Wai. [Jing Daily]
🇮🇳 Charlotte Tilbury taps actress Sobhita Dhulipala as its first Indian ‘muse’. The British beauty brand has hired the versatile star of the Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi cinema industries to front its first beauty campaign, joining the likes of fellow ‘muses’ Bella Hadid, Kate Moss and Jourdan Dunn who have also appeared in the brand’s adverts. [Advertising Reporter]
