Luxury fashion label Vivienne Westwood made its India debut with its first-ever fashion show celebrating the country’s rich textile heritage at the iconic Gateway of India in Mumbai.

The fashion show with a 166-feet-long runway featured a selection of spring/summer 2025 Vivienne Westwood looks and special archive pieces alongside a capsule collection crafted with the hand-woven fabrics from India.

The special capsule collection included fabrics like chanderi silks, khadi cotton, wool and silk sourced from across India by Khadi India and Aaranya from Madhya Pradesh.

The fashion event was attended by Royal families from across India, Bollywood personalities, designers, and industry influencers.

Commenting on the show, Andreas Kronthaler, creative director at Vivienne Westwood in a press release said, “India is such a vast country, so rich with history and culture and we are honoured to be showing here at the monumental Gateway of India. I loved getting to know the Khadi and Chanderi fabrics – there is a lightness, a crispiness, an opulence, and a feeling that there is something behind them- it is the culture of India.”

Carlo D’Amario CEO of Vivienne Westwood added, “We are honoured to present a show in India and to create a collection which celebrates India’s rich textile heritage and traditional hand-woven industries. At Vivienne Westwood we have long championed craftsmanship and heritage and have partnered for decades with local industries and artisans in the UK, as well as in Europe and Africa, and are now proud to partner with the artisanal hand-crafted textile industry of India for this show.”

The show was organised in partnership with the Department of Textiles, Government of Maharashtra and Vivz Fashion School.

Boux Avenue’s relationship with Liverpool One has been so positive, the lingerie brand is upgrading to a permanent new store at the major retail and leisure destination.

The new store is set to open on 17 April on the venue’s Lower South John Street.

Key ranges include signature lace and exclusively embroidered lingerie collections alongside style/comfort ranges for nightwear and swimwear.

With summer next on the agenda, Boux Avenue said it continues to also be the “one-stop destination for holiday essentials. And its bra-fitting service (spanning A-G cup sizes) advises on the best size and style for bust shape, can be either a walk-in or bookable service.

To celebrate the opening day afternoon, Boux Avenue will be offering a goody bag worth £24 for the first 50 shoppers who spend £40-plus, while the store will also be hiding Golden Tickets to win Boux Avenue gift cards worth up to £100. Early evening celebrations will include a live DJ set, drinks and free embroidery to personalise a purchase.

Further celebrations between 18-20 April will include the free embroidery service to personalise purchases.

The news comes after we heard that digital fashion brand Arne is moving into permanent physical retail territory for the first time and has chosen Liverpool One for its debut.

The mall has also enhanced its premium retail watch line-up with the arrival of Breitling making its city debut. 

But it’s not all about openings as Harvey Nichols is also closing its long-established three-storey Beauty Bazaar store there.

Britain’s Frasers Group announced on Wednesday that it had made another strategic investment in German high-end fashion giant Hugo Boss AG through the further sale of ‘put options’ over Hugo Boss’s shares.

A put option is a financial contract in which the holder has the right to sell an asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date (in this case June 2027). 

It means Frasers Group holds over 13.5 million shares of the German firm’s common stock, raising its stake to 19.2% of its total share capital. And the stake could be raised to up to 16.7 million shares of common stock through the sale of put options, or up to 23.7% of the total share capital of Hugo Boss.

The company said its “maximum aggregate exposure in connection with its net acquired interests” in Hugo Boss, at the closing share price on Wednesday is approximately €1.02 billion or around £850 million, covering over 30.2 million shares if the put options were exercised in full.

The company stressed — as it has said before — that it makes “strategic investments in the ordinary course of its business to develop relationships and partnerships with other retailers and to build relationships with key suppliers and brands”. In other words, this isn’t a general move towards a takeover attempt.

It added that it “remains a long-term investor in Hugo Boss and the board of directors of Frasers Group”believes that the HB Strategic Investment will create value for the company’s shareholders, as its strategic investments in Hugo Boss have done in the past”.  

Hugo Boss shares closed Wednesday at €35.43 each. That gave the company a value of €2.56 billion. But the share price — and market value — is down almost 33% in the past year, although it’s up 62% in five years.

Frasers CEO Michael Murray has been nominated for election to the Supervisory Board of Hugo Boss in May.