Worldview | India Seizes Its Couture Moment in Paris

🇮🇳 India makes its presence felt at Paris Couture Week. Rahul Mishra showed his latest collection on the opening day of Paris Couture Week, pairing his designs with statement pieces from Indian jeweller Tanishq. Chinese actress Fan Bingbing walked the runway as American rapper Cardi B watched from the star-studded front row. Mishra, who debuted at the event in 2020, has been a mainstay on the calendar, paving the way for other Indian brands to follow. Bollywood favourite Manish Malhotra will also enter the Paris stage this week, after showcasing at Dubai Fashion Week for the last two seasons. Both designers are backed by Reliance Brands Limited (RBL), which forms part of the Reliance Retail empire led by Isha Ambani, who is attending both shows. Missing from this season’s line-up was Gaurav Gupta, who has been a fixture of the January couture calendar since 2023. Another Indian couturier, Vaishali S, has shown this week too, albeit off-schedule.

The growing Indian runway presence is being matched by closer institutional ties. As part of the India-France Year of Innovation, RBL’s R-Elan Circular Design Challenge collaborated with the Embassy of France in India and the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to assess the latest applicants on the eve of Paris Couture Week, with designer Anamika Khanna on the jury alongside leading international names. Another sign of India’s emerging creative voice in Europe is a newly signed agreement between the official French luxury body Comité Colbert and the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry Luxury Committee, intended to establish a long-term framework for collaboration between the two countries across luxury, craftsmanship, culture and design. [Praachi Raniwala for BoF]

🇨🇳 Louis Vuitton prevails in trademark battle with Chinese chain Molly Tea. The Shenzhen-based tea chain has been ordered to pay 10.3 million yuan ($1.5 million) after a court found that its four-petal flower logo infringed seven of Louis Vuitton’s registered trademarks. The Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court ruled the chain must stop using the design, publish corrective statements and compensate the French luxury house for economic losses and legal costs. Founded in 2021, Molly Tea has expanded to more than 2,300 stores across 68 Chinese cities and over 50 overseas locations including the US, Canada and Australia. Although the company said it will appeal, the first-instance ruling signalled Chinese courts’ growing willingness to enforce international brands’ intellectual property rights against fast-growing domestic companies. [Yical Global]

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s Cenomi Centers is building malls in Jeddah and Al-Khobar. The Riyadh-based shopping mall developer and operator has revealed that LVMH, Kering, Richemont, Prada Group and Chalhoub Group brands will be among the anchor tenants at the group’s new Westfield Jeddah mall, which is set to open later this year in the kingdom’s second-largest city. It has also recently awarded a contract to build the Al-Khobar Downtown Mall and Boulevard in the kingdom’s Eastern Province, which is expected to be completed within three years. The firm currently operates around 20 shopping centres across nine cities in the kingdom including Jubail, Dammam, Buraidah, Al-Ahsa, Makkah, Madinah, Taif, as well as at least a half-dozen locations each in the country’s two largest cities, Riyadh and Jeddah. Cenomi Centers (previously Arabian Centres) is one of the companies that emerged from the Alhokair business empire and is now listed on the Tadawul stock exchange. [BoF Inbox, AGBI]

🇨🇳 China’s Xiaohongshu bets on male users to fuel growth ahead of IPO. The social media app known internationally as RedNote has decided to target men in less affluent cities for its next growth stage, rather than increasing its core female audience in more affluent cities, where growth is approaching its limits. With shopping and livestream commerce features that have attracted major fashion and beauty brands, Xiaohongshu is sometimes dubbed ‘China’s Instagram’. Founded in 2013 by Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao, the company is also backed by Chinese internet giants Tencent and Alibaba, reaching profitability in 2023. Xiaohongshu currently has 350 million monthly active users, with 60 percent living in first-tier and ‘new’ first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. The move is seen as a way to help the company accelerate plans for a Hong Kong listing, subject to approval from Beijing’s regulator. [Financial Times, BoF]

🇹🇷 Turkish manufacturer to invest $6.5 million in Egyptian textile facilities. Istanbul-based Atesan Tekstil has entered an agreement with the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) to establish a textile manufacturing facility in the Qantara West Industrial Zone. The move follows recent commitments from other Istanbul companies including Ela Textile, Dinamik Raus Tekstil and Yiltem Apparel, to build factories in the zone. The deal is the latest in a wave of investment by Turkish, Chinese and other companies into Egypt’s sourcing sector. According to SCZONE authorities, the number of active projects in Qantara has reached 52, spanning industrial, service and logistics projects with total investments of approximately $1.53 billion across an area exceeding 3.54 million square metres, generating around 72,000 direct job opportunities. [Kohan Textile Journal, Zawya, BoF Inbox]

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s textile import ban proposal may backfire, says local NGO. The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), a Lagos-based private enterprise advocacy group, has expressed strong reservations about the Nigerian Senate’s resolution calling for a ban on fabric imports to resuscitate the country’s once-thriving textile industry. “The proposed measure is unlikely to achieve its intended objectives and could have significant adverse consequences for the Nigerian economy. While the objective of reviving Nigeria’s textile industry is legitimate and commendable, an outright import prohibition is unlikely to achieve that objective,” CPPE chief executive Muda Yusuf said. “Rather than revitalising the textile industry, the proposed ban could impose substantial collateral costs on downstream industries, disrupt critical supply chains and jeopardise millions of jobs and livelihoods.” [Kohan Textile Journal, BoF Inbox]

🌍 Prada faces backlash after appointing Saint Levant as brand ambassador. The Italian luxury brand has been urged by individuals who support Israel and organisations that campaign against antisemitism to sever ties with its recently appointed brand ambassador, Marwan Abdelhamid, the Jerusalem-born Palestinian musician better known by his stage name Saint Levant. The calls followed Prada’s release of images from the brand’s Spring/Summer 2027 menswear show featuring Abdelhamid wearing a pendant depicting an outline that appears to correspond roughly to the boundaries of the historic territory of Mandatory Palestine, which existed before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and renewed scrutiny of comments he made following attacks on supporters of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football team and others in Amsterdam in 2024. Neither Abdelhamid nor Prada had publicly commented on the controversy at the time of publication. [Al Jazeera, Ynet, BoF Inbox]

🇹🇷 Turkey’s apparel exports fall 4.6%, accelerating diversification push. Exports declined to $7.59 billion in the Jan-May period, as weak global demand, especially from European Union buyers, and rising cost pressures continued to weigh on performance. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and the Ministry of Trade, weak EU demand is being partly offset by growth in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Americas, but diversification efforts can only go so far, as it will likely be more challenging for exporters to secure the same margins they get from EU buyers. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇹🇭 Thailand cements its ‘world-class’ reputation in fine jewellery production. The country’s jewellers and manufacturers — ranging from generational family businesses such as Beauty Gems, Pranda Group and Gianna to international players including KS Jewelry, Amanda Jewellery and Jewelarc — have become renowned for their combination of craftsmanship and technical expertise. One of the industry’s most well-known patrons, Princess Sirivannavari (the daughter of the King of Thailand), says she is now on a mission to “preserve and advance Thailand’s rich jewellery-making heritage for future generations”. [Financial Times]

🌎 Alan Meyer resigns from Latin American e-tailer Mercado Libre. The company’s vice president of the Andean region, who was responsible for Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela, is leaving the company after more than 12 years. Meyer joined in 2014 as the company’s first employee in Chile taking responsibility for the broader Andean region. The Argentina-founded, Uruguay-based e-commerce giant sells everything from fashion and beauty products to electronics and cars to customers across 18 Latin American countries. [Fashion Network]

🇮🇳 Indian sports retail startup PlayBlue raises $2.7 million. The company founded in 2025 by Satyam Trivedi and Jayam Vora has secured the funding in a seed round co-led by Centre Court Capital and MIXI Global, with participation from WEH Ventures. The retailer, which intends to sell 100 Indian and international brands across performance wear, athleisure, footwear and sports equipment, will use the capital to open a flagship store in Bengaluru, followed by Mumbai and the Delhi National Capital Region. [Economic Times]

🇦🇺 Australian footwear retailer Betts closes 20 stores amid restructure. The company, which was founded in 1892 by Fanny Breckler in Perth and operated more than 200 shoe stores nationwide at its peak, will close 20 of its remaining 35 outlets following years of decline. Betts is still owned and managed by the same family, with Michael Breckler leading as CEO and Danny Breckler as chairman. [Ragtrader]

🇮🇳 India’s Limelight Lab Grown Diamonds raises $28.8 million. The Mumbai-based jewellery company founded in 2019 by Pooja Madhavan has secured 275 crore rupees (around $28.8 million) in a round led by existing investor Bhathwari Group. The company, which operates more than 75 standalone outlets across 45 cities, is expected to use the capital to expand its manufacturing facilities and retail network. [Economic Times]

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka’s garment and textile exports decline 4.8% in Jan-May. The South Asian country’s export earnings declined during the first five months of the year to $2,033.39 million, down from $2,136.74 million in the corresponding period last year, according to the Export Development Board. However, the sector saw a 6.66 percent year-on-year uptick in May, raising hopes of a recovery. [Daily News Sri Lanka]