Worldview | Egypt Flexes Its Design Muscle

🇪🇬 Egypt Fashion Week makes a comeback following a brief hiatus. More than 40 designers presented their collections from Nov. 27-30 at historic locations in downtown Cairo for the second edition of fashion week. The schedule included well-known Egyptian fashion brands such as Mix and Match, Paz Cairo and Vivian Moawad as well as accessory labels Boadk and Reem Jano alongside up-and-coming names like Kemet and Ghazala. Students from the fashion faculties of eight universities took part in the event, which also included talks from luxury industry veterans like the head designer of jewellery giant Azza Fahmy. “The timing and context of Egypt Fashion Week couldn’t have been more appropriate with all eyes on Egypt at the recent opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, closely followed by Art d’Egypte, putting the global spotlight on the country’s cultural heritage, art and design,” said fashion week spokesperson and media veteran Susan Sabet. Industry leaders from Dubai, Jordan and Italy were among those attending from overseas, and a showcase in Riyadh is planned for next year to give Egyptian designers access to the Saudi market. Launched in 2023 by the Egyptian Fashion & Design Council, an organisation co-founded by Sabet, Egypt Fashion Week took a year-long hiatus to secure funding for this edition. Sabet conceded that “continuity is a must” to cement the event on the increasingly crowded Middle East fashion calendar and said it is committed to an annual cadence going forward. [BoF Inbox]

🇧🇩 Bangladeshi manufacturing giant Beximco is in jeopardy. A deal to save the troubled garment producer has broken down following Dhaka-based Janata Bank’s move to auction off Beximco factories. A tripartite agreement between the bank, Beximco and Japan’s Revival Project was meant to restore the jobs of nearly 25,000 workers who lost their jobs following the closure of around a dozen apparel factories earlier this year by the Bangladeshi government. It now appears to have broken down. Founded in 1972, banking-to-pharmaceuticals conglomerate Beximco became severely indebted in recent years and underwent a fraud investigation that rendered it unable to fulfil export orders. The firm’s textiles and garment manufacturing division Bextex was once one of the country’s largest vertically integrated textile and garment manufacturers, listing Target, PVH and Zara among its clients. [Sourcing Journal, BoF]

🇨🇳 Chinese q-commerce giant Meituan swings into loss. The Beijing-based, Hong Kong-listed instant retail app reported an adjusted net loss of 16 billion yuan ($2.26 billion) for the third quarter ended Sep. 30, compared with 12.8 billion yuan in adjusted net profit a year earlier. Wang Xing, CEO of the company, blamed the poor earnings on a price war with competitors in the food delivery sector which he described as “bad money driving out good money”. Meituan, which partners with food outlets and retailers selling beauty, fashion and other items to deliver in under an hour across hundreds of Chinese cities, has expanded overseas through its Keeta app in the Middle East and Brazil. In China, the company has invested heavily in defending its leading position in the food delivery market against competitors including Alibaba and JD.com. The company said it expected “the operating loss trend to persist in the fourth quarter” due to “overheated” market competition. [Reuters, South China Morning Post]

🌏 Fashion benefits from worker repression in South Asia, says Amnesty. The human-rights organisation has accused major fashion brands of profiting from a supply chain where workers who attempt to unionise are routinely threatened, dismissed or violently repressed. In two reports, it states that the denial of “freedom of association,” denoting workers’ ability to form and join organisations of choice, remains entrenched in the global apparel sector’s business model. In Bangladesh’s special economic zones unions are largely banned. Meanwhile, in India millions of garment workers are excluded from labour laws and thus union rights. In Pakistan and Sri Lanka, workers attempting to organise face legal barriers, intimidation by supervisors or reprisals that include dismissals and threats. [BoF]

🇹🇳 Tunisia attracts investment from Turkish textile manufacturer YKM Textile. The terms of the deal, which followed a meeting with FIPA-Tunisia’s director general Jalel Tebib, have not been disclosed but YKM’s CEO Ugur Yildiz said that Tunisia’s efficient access to European markets was one deciding factor. The commitment to the North African nation comes as foreign direct investment in the local textile industry surged more than 41 percent in the first half of 2025. The announcement follows government sources stating that Tunisia’s textile and apparel sector exports are set to exceed 9 billion dinars ($3 billion) in 2025, with jeans being a key category. [Kohan Textile Journal]

🇰🇷 South Korean e-tailer Coupang apologises over massive data breach. The Seoul-founded, New York-listed e-commerce giant has apologised for the recent breach that exposed data of nearly 34 million customers, a number which amounts to more than half of South Korea’s population. Customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses alongside some order histories have been exposed. Korean media outlets reported that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the leak and a police investigation is underway. Dubbed ‘the Amazon of Korea,’ the e-commerce firm acquired British fashion e-tailer Farfetch in 2024. [MK, BBC]

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabian Fashion Commission launches seaweed textile.The organisation has partnered with Kaust Beacon Development and Pyratex to develop a fibre made from seaweed biomass harvested in the Red Sea off the Saudi coast. A product development studio led by the commission called The Lab then collaborated with the Saudi research consultancy and the Spanish fabric giant to create a ‘bio-textile’ from the fibre. “By transforming a local natural resource into a fully traceable, sustainable textile, we are demonstrating the power of science, creativity and industry working together,” said commission CEO Burak Cakmak. [Global Textile Times]

🇦🇺 Australian textile recycler Upparel opens a new facility in Victoria. The plant is capable of processing over 10,000 tonnes of material per year, one of the largest single-site facilities in the country. All recycled items can be processed into Uptex materials for construction signage and packaging. Co-founder and CEO Michael Elias contends that the company has “the capacity to manage all stages of textile recovery to sustainable manufacturing [and is] underpinned by the most advanced management system monitoring every step of the way.” [Ragtrader]

🇲🇱 Mali’s dispute with Barrick Gold to be settled by $430 million payout. The deal will see the mining giant pay the amount to regain operational control over two mines and withdraw its arbitration claims. The Toronto-based company and the West African nation have been tangled in a dispute over Mali’s new mining code since 2023. Barrick suspended mining operations after the military-led government blocked shipments, seized several tonnes of gold, detained the company’s employees and issued an arrest warrant for its CEO. [Bloomberg, Semafor]

🌎 Latin American department stores’ sales rise 16% through September. Five of the region’s largest groups — Chile-based Cencosud, Falabella and Ripley and Mexico-based Liverpool and El Palacio de Hierro — have accumulated collective sales of $35.244 billion through September. The combined revenue of the five firms during the first nine months of the year reached $35.244 billion, up 15.7 percent from a year earlier. However, the two Mexican groups have seen their year-on-year profit shrink during the period. [Modaes]

🇮🇳 Decathlon launches 2-hour q-commerce service in India’s major cities. The French sporting goods retailer is set to handle the express deliveries through its own app and logistics network which currently serves the company’s nationwide network of 136 physical stores. The move is notable as India’s beauty and personal care products are increasingly available through dedicated q-commerce apps such as Blinkit and Zepto. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 China and US vie for dominance in Guatemala’s apparel sector. The Central American country’s overall apparel imports rose 34.78 percent in Jan–Aug driven by nearshoring and recovering demand. While China continued to be the top supplier, it lost market share. The US expanded its share, supported by CAFTA-DR free trade agreement and shorter lead times. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇮🇳 Puma appoints Ramprasad Sridharan managing director for India. The footwear and apparel industry veteran most recently served as chief executive at the United Colors of Benetton India, previously holding senior leadership roles at Reebok India and Clarks. Sridharan will succeed Karthik Balagopalan in December. [Economic Times]