Guess Jeans announced on Monday a new creative partnership with Japanese multi-hyphenate artist Verdy.
Guess Jeans and Nicolai Marciano announce a new creative partnership with Japanese multi-hyphenated artist Verdy. – Guess Jeans
Recognized as a creative pioneer in Japan, Verdy is set to reimagine and enhance the Guess Jeans global universe, bringing a new energy into the brand’s expansion in Japan.
“I’ve had the pleasure to know and be friends with Verdy over the years. I’ve always admired his kindness and ability to bring a fun and playful element to everything he touches,” said chief new business development officer Nicolai Marciano.
“Pursuing a major shift in our strategy in Japan, which is now focused through a Guess Jeans lens, I felt strongly about bringing Verdy in for this exciting new chapter.”
Since 2023, Guess Jeans has cultivated an ongoing relationship with Verdy through a series of activations across Paris and Osaka.
His portfolio includes projects such as Girls Don’t Cry and Wasted Youth, along with his beloved characters Vick and Visty. He has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Human Made, Kenzo, Beats by Dre, McDonald’s, Instagram, and Dover Street Market. Verdy has also held prominent roles as the artistic director for ComplexCon Long Beach 2022, ComplexCon Hong Kong 2024, and Blackpink’s Born Pink tour.
“I’m excited to be working with Guess Jeans and my good friend, Nicolai. I’ve always respected how much passion he and his family have put into the brand. Guess has so much history and culture and I’m happy to be a part of it,” added Verdy.
Most recently, Marciano, who has been instrumental in Guess Jeans’ global expansion, curated key brand activations in 2024, launched flagship stores in Amsterdam and Berlin, and led the brand’s entry into India through a partnership with Tata Unistore.
Looking ahead, Guess Jeans is set to open flagship stores in Tokyo and Los Angeles.
Prada SpA is nearing final approval to acquire struggling luxury brand Versace for around €1.25 billion ($1.4 billion) from Capri Holdings Ltd. despite the tariff-induced volatility, according to people familiar with the matter.
The board of the Milanese company, controlled by billionaire designer Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli, is meeting Wednesday to sign off on the transaction, said the people, who asked not to be identified because talks are private.
Prada and Capri have been discussing a small reduction in the original price of nearly €1.5 billion due to Versace’s turnaround needs and tariffs, said the people, noting that they are on track to reach an agreement this week. The two companies are finalizing a few remaining technicalities and the formal approval is still outstanding, the people said.
Representatives for Prada and Capri declined to comment.
Prada has negotiated for months to buy the fashion house founded by Gianni Versace in the 1970s and known for its flashy, ready-to-wear designs. The Financial Times reported earlier Wednesday that Prada is closing in on the purchase after negotiating a discount of more than $200 million due to the impact of the trade war. The Wall Street Journal reported separately that talks to acquire Versace are at risk of collapsing at the eleventh hour with financial markets in historic turmoil.
Capri paid about €1.8 billion for the Versace brand in 2018. The purchase would return Versace to Italian ownership and put Prada in a better position to compete with bigger global luxury rivals such as LVMH and Kering SA.
The operator of Uniqlo, Japan’s Fast Retailing, is expected to post another quarter of strong earnings on Thursday, but the focus will be on how the global clothing chain navigates a trade environment thrown into disarray by new U.S. tariffs.
Reuters
Fast Retailing is expected to post a 14% rise in operating profit to 125.9 billion yen ($866 million) in the three months through February from a year earlier, based on the LSEG consensus forecast drawn from six analysts.
That would be a record for the second quarter and a near doubling of the 7.4% profit growth of the first quarter.
From one store in Hiroshima, western Japan, 40 years ago, Uniqlo has grown to more than 2,500 locations across the world, selling inexpensive fleeces and cotton shirts made primarily in China and other Asian manufacturing hubs.
But that business model has been upended by widespread tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, along with retaliation by some of America’s trading partners.
The company has recently looked to North America and Europe for growth due to a slowing economy in China, its largest overseas consumer market with more than 900 Uniqlo stores on the mainland. The tariffs will certainly be a negative for Fast Retailing, said independent analyst Mark Chadwick, but the measures will have the same impact on its retail peers and have a worse effect on other industries.
“Textile supply chains are probably more flexible than, say auto supply chains,” said Chadwick, who writes on the Smartkarma platform. “In short, U.S. tariffs will have a negative impact on Fast earnings looking out over the next 12 months, but less so than other global firms like Nintendo, Toyota.”
Fast Retailing shares have fallen more than 4% this month, as Trump laid out his tariffs plan. They are down 19% in 2025, after surging nearly 50% last year.
Its founder Tadashi Yanai, Japan’s richest man, aims to make his company the world’s No. 1 clothing brand. Yanai, due to speak at Thursday’s earnings briefing, has long been an advocate of free trade and has defended the company’s business dealings in China when human rights concerns there have sprung up.
Trump said Japan would be hit with a 24% reciprocal tariff on non-auto products, while duties on Chinese goods will rise to 104%.
UBS analysts said that Uniqlo goods shipped to North America are procured from sources outside China, and Fast Retailing’s tariff costs would be an estimated 34.3 billion yen next fiscal year, curbing business profit by about 6%.
“We will be watching closely whether a heightened price consciousness among consumers leads them to re-rate the balance between value and pricing at Uniqlo, potentially translating into business opportunities over the medium term,” UBS’s Takahiro Kazahaya wrote in a report this week.
Fast Retailing expects operating profit to reach 530 billion yen in the fiscal year ending in August, which would be a fourth straight year of record earnings.
Domestic sales have recently gotten a boost from a surge in duty-free shopping amid a tourism boom in Japan fuelled by a weak yen.
Imports into the U.S. could be down at least 20% year-over-year in the second half of 2025 due to U.S. President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariffs on several trade partners, a forecast by the National Retail Federation showed on Wednesday.
Reuters
With Trump’s reciprocal tariffs coming into effect on Wednesday, along with additional tariffs on China, imports are expected to drop dramatically beginning next month, according to the forecast based on data collated by research firm Hackett Associates for the U.S. trade body.
“Retailers have been bringing merchandise into the country for months in attempts to mitigate against rising tariffs, but that opportunity has come to an end with the imposition of the ‘reciprocal’ tariffs,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy.
The current forecast would bring the first half of 2025 to 11.73 million 20-foot container units (TEU), down 2.9% year over year. The trade body had previously forecast imports to rise 5.7% in the first half prior to the April tariff announcement.
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs included a new baseline 10% U.S. tariff on goods from all countries and higher reciprocal tariff rates for countries that his administration says have high barriers to U.S. imports.
As a result, retailers from Nike to Best Buy are likely to be forced to raise prices as Trump’s eye-watering tariffs hit key manufacturing hubs including China, Vietnam and Indonesia.
The tariffs, including Trump 104% tariffs on China as well as a retaliatory 84% duty on U.S. imports from Beijing, rattled global markets on Wednesday, unleashing a selloff in U.S. assets amid fears of a global recession.
Based on expectations for a dramatic decline in the second half of the year, total 2025 cargo volume could post a net decline of 15% or more unless the situation changes, the report added.
“At this point, retailers are expected to pull back and rely on built-up inventories, at least long enough to see what will happen next,” Gold said.
Entertainment8 years ago