Mass-market fashion retailer New Look has announced that it will “supercharge digital growth” on the back of a £30 million investment from its shareholders.

The money will be spent on its data, AI and e-commerce platforms “to enhance [the] seamless, personalised shopping experience for its 10 million customers” and it aims to double digital orders from £500 million to £1 billion by 2030, targeting a 10% online market share by FY28

The company, which is already one of the UK’s biggest names in UK womenswear for the 18-44 age range, said the “opportunity is clear. The UK has an online womenswear market of £4.3 billion. New Look already has market-leading positions in several key categories1: #1 in dresses, #1 in outerwear, #1 in footwear and #1 in denim, and over 10 million engaged customers”.

It’s understandable that the business wants to leverage this into a much bigger digital business, although it must be said that it hasn’t exactly neglected the online market thus far.

Over the past five years it has invested “significantly” to elevate its digital capabilities, upgrading its website and app, building a social media community of 7 million followers, and creating a proprietary Enterprise Data Platform with a leading tech stack. 

Using data and AI it said it will be able to provide its customers with “hyper-personalised marketing and a tailored shopping experience, leading to higher satisfaction and lower return rates”.

So there’s obviously more to do and the new investment should take it to the next stage. The funding will be strategically deployed across four key growth areas.

The first is data-driven innovation – enhancing insights, decision-making, and customer personalisation; expanding the proprietary Enterprise Data Platform to deliver even more hyper-personalised shopping experiences; and leveraging real-time analytics to improve supply chain speed and efficiency, and anticipate customer trends. 

Next is technology investments such as optimising the app and online shopping journey; improving search and product discovery to make it easier for customers to find what they want; and streamlining the checkout experience, improving the customer journey and driving sales growth.  

The third growth area is loyalty and engagement – “cementing New Look’s market dominance and fashion authority”. It aims to achieve this by leveraging its “strong brand and sustainability credentials, using AI-driven insights to refine product development” to create collections that are “trend-led, great value and [with] high-quality design”. It also aims to consistently deliver in its best-selling categories to reinforce its market-leading position; and introduce new digital initiatives for its loyalty programme, Club New Look, to offer members exclusive rewards, products and promotions to enhance engagement and loyalty.  

The final growth area is ‘customer migration’, streamlining and elevating the customer journey. It also includes optimising the store network to underpin digital initiatives in selected retail locations, strengthening in-store digital engagement; and drawing on learnings from recent upgrades to flagship stores in Manchester and Bluewater “where digital enhancements have delivered double digit like-for-like sales growth”.

CEO Helen Connolly said: “Our goal is to be the number one online destination for feel-good fashion, powered by our loyal customer base and proven digital model. This new capital injection means we can ramp up our digital operations, enhance customer service, and drive growth and achieve our goal of £1bn online demand by 2030.”

Temperley London makes the kind of clothes that have staying power, so it’s no surprise that they’re popular pieces on resale sites. It’s even less of a surprise that the company itself has now launched into the UK resale market with Temperley Vintage.

It said the dedicated resale platform offers “a simple and authenticated way to buy and sell original Temperley London pieces. Rooted in the brand’s philosophy that garments should be cherished, repaired, and passed on, this initiative provides customers with the opportunity to give their treasured items a second life while ensuring quality, authenticity, and a seamless experience”.

The company has come up with a “streamlined process [that] ensures a seamless experience, backed by the brand’s guarantee”. 

Sellers can request an immediate quote, send items in free of charge, and receive a credit payout within days and with the promise of no hidden costs or fees. 

It added that every item undergoes “rigorous checks, repairs, and cleaning to ensure it meets Temperley London’s exacting standards” and there’s also a 14-day return policy.

Alice Temperley, founder and creative director, said the launch “feels like a natural extension of the brand, allowing the Temperley London community to give their items a second life, and for others to find that archive piece they have always been looking for”.

On March 25, Chinese national fashion brand EP YAYING presented a fashion show-themed “Elegance” (Ya), kicking off this season’s Shanghai Fashion Week. With the concept of “Shaping New Dimensions, Building the Unseen,” the Shanghai Autumn/Winter Fashion Week 2025 showcased nearly a hundred new product debuts, a thousand brand-first exhibitions, and dozens of high-profile international collaborative launch events.

On the opening day, EP YAYING showcased an opening show at the Xintiandi venue, themed around three narrative dimensions: “Elegant Realm” (Ya Realm), “Elegant Melody” (Ya Melody), and “Elegant Motion” (Ya Motion). Featured were cross-disciplinary collaborations with Yang Jinqiu, an inheritor of Miao paper-cutting, and Zou Yingzi, a national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor (Suzhou embroidery), deconstructing the urban fabric of Shanghai and the cultural genes of the Jiangnan region with contemporary artistic techniques.

Beyond the runway, EP YAYING also launched several initiatives at the 2025 Shanghai Autumn/Winter Fashion Week. One notable initiative is the Shanghai EP YAYING House, a key venue in the brand’s commercial strategic layout. This cultural lounge, housed in a century-old mansion, was co-created with architectural designer Lv Yongzhong and reconstructed under the concept of “home culture,” reviving the essence of “home.”

Additionally, EP YAYING collaborated with renowned costume designer Huang Wei to present the fashion art exhibition “Time-Woven Brocade: Peony Dream.” This exhibition, centered around the brand’s signature elements—peonies and jade—recreates millennia of fashion evolution through installation art, showcasing the dialogue between traditional patterns and modern silhouettes.

EP YAYING not only brought its fashion show to Shanghai Fashion Week but also deeply participated in Shanghai’s fashion “infrastructure” construction, co-creating and prospering in multiple dimensions such as creative design, intangible cultural heritage inheritance, spatial art, and channel construction. This opening of Shanghai Fashion Week also foreshadowed the brand’s focus on the global market, with Shanghai as its pivot.

Chairman Zhang Huaming emphasized in his speech: “The beauty of great elegance, inherited in a single garment. With its long history, the 36-year development journey of Chinese culture has nurtured EP YAYING’s growth. In this new era of national rejuvenation and cultural confidence, EP YAYING is guided by outstanding traditional Chinese culture, striving to cultivate this beautiful career, focusing on creating beauty, and serving customers’ beautiful lives with heart.”

The ecology of Shanghai Fashion Week has continuously supported more young Chinese design brands from the creative level to the commercial level. The two official show venues of Xintiandi and Labelhood are based on such positioning settings. 

This season, established designer brands Comme Moi, Xuzhi, Short Sentence, Shushu/Tong, Yirantian, Oude Waag, WMWM, Private Policy, Ruiruirul, and Youwei insisted on connecting with their buyers and key consumers through runways. In contrast, emerging brands such as Zita Tan, Guest House, Tongwang, and Papi Lav debuted during fashion week. To commemorate its 88th anniversary, Three Gun, the prestigious national brand, hosted a fashion show at Xintiandi and concurrently held the “Three Gun 88th Anniversary Brand Exhibition” on Huaihai Road.

In the trade sector, the total area of the 2025 Autumn/Winter Fashion Week Mode exhibition reached 15,000 m², attracting over 200 brands from 34 countries, with overseas brands accounting for 57%, demonstrating the strong magnetic effect of the Chinese market. The number of visitors on the first day of the Mode exhibition increased by 29% compared to the previous season (October 2024), and the number of buyers and agents visiting the exhibition also increased during the five-day event.

The international elements of this season’s trade exhibition were also fully displayed. Driven by the “Africa Reimagined China Market Program,” 22 top African brands—highlighting handmade weaving, natural dyeing, and environmentally friendly processes—were able to showcase the global potential of African fashion at Mode.

MIK Fashion from South Korea brought 12 local Korean brands, presenting the innovative momentum of the Korean fashion industry with cutting-edge technology, experimental design, and sustainable concepts. The Royal Thai Embassy Shanghai Office (DITP) and the Commercial Office of the Royal Thai Consulate General in Shanghai joined hands with Ontimeshow to bring 16 Thai fashion and lifestyle brands this season.

The “Bangkok Showroom” series of events made its China debut in Shanghai. It presented the unique charm of Thai design to Chinese consumers and industry professionals and promoted in-depth cooperation between the Chinese and Thai fashion industries. In addition, brands from more than 30 countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, Vietnam, and India, gathered at this season’s fashion week to explore the diverse opportunities in the Chinese market.

Notably, in the broader context of global fashion integration and in-depth exchanges, Deary Raphael, a senior buyer from Paris Printemps‘ menswear department, and Ash Ghazali, creative director of Singapore’s luxury multi-brand retailer Club 21 under the COMO Group, were in attendance. Their participation underscores the growing collaboration between the global fashion industry and China.

“The Chinese market presents significant potential. As a vast and rapidly evolving fashion landscape, it is undergoing increasing maturation. Consumers are becoming more discerning, recognizing the distinctions between the international fashion industry and its domestic counterpart. Chinese designers aiming to compete globally must be acutely aware of these nuances. Nevertheless, this market offers an exceptional launchpad for many designers within China,” commented Raphael.

In the events schedule, two special projects initiated by the Shanghai Fashion Designer Association (SFDA) were presented during the week. In collaboration with Yehyehyeh, the Sustasia Fashion Prize 2025 exhibited eight finalists from across Asia with their unique design pieces based on sustainable materials and creative craftsmanship, redefining the intersection of fashion, cultural heritage, and global sustainability, and announced Chinese designer Ruohan as the winner of the prize.

In partnership with SFDA and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI), the “Supported by Dolce & Gabbana” program collaborated for the first time with the Chinese designer brand Susan Fang. Following the Milan Fashion Week showcase, a special exhibition and forum were organized, aiming to explore how international brands can empower and accelerate global and Chinese creative talent from a global perspective.

As Angelo Flaccavento, an international independent fashion critic, commented, “The last time I came was six years ago. Everything was very pop, very booming, and very bold. Instead, I find everything in Shanghai now—I mean, of course, the market is having a downturn, and it’s a little bit smaller, but I also find the proposal very interesting because many designers are working around their Chinese roots in the crafts or the colors or the shapes. And it gives a very strong identity to what I’ve seen. I really like the shows and showrooms here because I found them very well-defined as an aesthetic, very personal, and very well made.”

Today, the significance of Fashion Week to a city has far surpassed that of a mere fashion event; it is a pinnacle showcase of the city’s capabilities. From the global debut of Chinese designs to the first exhibitions of international brands, Shanghai Fashion Week is redefining fashion discourse with its “premiere power.” As global creativity converges here, the world’s fashion trends are set in motion.

Written by SHEN Yin
Edited and translated by Sissi CHU