Castore continues to extend its association with cricket. Already kit partner for the England and NewZealand men’s and women’s national teams, the premium sportswear brand has agreed another multi-year partnership at county level with Lancashire CCC.
It joins fellow county sides Yorkshire, Surrey, Worcestershire, Middlesex and Kent.
Under the terms of the new deal, Castore will become the official kit supplier and exclusive retail partner with the kit featuring the Lancashire red rose being worn by the Club from April. The new design will be ready in time for the Lancashire Men’s and Women’s (Lancashire Thunder) first domestic fixtures of the season.
Fans will be able to buy the new kit, which will be worn by England internationals including Jos Buttler, Sophie Ecclestone, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood and Phil Salt as well as all-time cricketing great Jimmy Anderson, via the Lancashire Webshop.
The timely association coincides with Lancashire purchasing a 70% stake in its Hundred team, Manchester Originals, who will also wear a Castore-designed kit.
Lancashire CCC’s home ground, Emirates Old Trafford, will host sides including India and South Africa against England this summer, as well as the County Championship and Vitality Blast fixtures.
Castore founding partner Tom Beahon said: “Lancashire [is] a club that is close to our hearts – especially my brother and co-founder Phil, being his former club. It is also close to our business in Manchester and we both have strong ambitions to continue to promote cricketing excellence at the elite level and through grassroots participation, particularly with Lancashire’s development at Farington due to open in 2026, with the new community cricket oval set to inspire the next generation of cricketers in the county.
“It’s a pleasure to work with Lancashire and develop our relationship with another key part of the cricketing community. We think it’s a brilliant time to be bolstering our presence in cricket, as summer approaches and the UK plays host to some incredible international fixtures before the Ashes Tour later this year.”
Founded in the Wirral in 2016 by brothers and former athletes Tom and Phil Beahon, Castore has grown to become a global brand, working with a range of the world’s most popular sports, including football, rugby and Formula One.
Boohoo Group’s PrettyLittleThing (PLT) business on Monday unveiled a complete rebrand with the company saying this is PLT’s “most ambitious transformation since revolutionising digital fashion in 2012”.
Umar Kamani
Dubbed “A legacy In Progress”, we’re told it “heralds an elevated new era that celebrates the brand’s heritage while boldly reimagining its future”.
The site rebrand includes a complete overhaul of its look and feel, including the logo design, colour palette, typography, and website design, the tone of voice, website user experience, and overall brand positioning.
It also includes the removal of all previous social media content “as part of the brand’s complete renewal”. Its social channels went down at midnight on Sunday and returned at 18:00 GMT on Monday.
And while this is a newly-announced initiative, the company said that the transformation actually began back in September 2024 when founder Umar Kamani returned to the helm “with a passionate commitment to reconnect with customers. Through months of direct customer dialogue and feedback, Kamani has shaped a vision that captures the essence of modern sophistication”.
The new PrettyLittleThing
So what does that mean in practical terms? Well, the “evolution” launches with “two standout collections”. They are PLT Label, “setting a new standard in contemporary elegance”, and New Beginnings, described as a “sophisticated celebration of modern style”.
The company has also reimagined PLT’s visual identity and the distinctive unicorn emblem, “once a playful symbol in bubblegum pink, has matured into a sophisticated, heritage-inspired mark that marries the elegance of a historic coat of arms with modern design”.
Continuing the elevation theme, PLT said the new monochrome emblem “pays homage to the craftsmanship of luxury house emblems while maintaining the unique spirit that has always set PrettyLittleThing apart”.
The company’s new wordmark
There’s also a reimagined wordmark that’s intended to be “a modern take on classic typography, blending timeless heritage with a youthful edge”, and once again, a “confident” shift in the colour palette from that bubblegum pink to “rich tones” of garnet, rose petal, and blush sand.”
Kamani added that this is “more than a rebrand – it’s a movement that celebrates our customers’ evolving style. We’re writing the next chapter of fashion history, and we’re just getting started”.
The new look from PLT
The rebrand also includes “an exclusive gathering” during Paris Fashion Week, “a pivotal moment that marks PrettyLittleThing’s elegant arrival in the world’s fashion capital. This event will showcase the new world of PrettyLittleThing with a ‘quiet luxury’ sensibility – featuring subtle branding, a chic venue, and a refined guest list that embodies our forward-looking identity”.
Despite the region’s generalised consumption slump, Italian luxury footwear brand René Caovilla, which generates 79% of its revenue outside its home country, still firmly believes in the Asian market.
René Caovilla, Fall/Winter 2025-26
René Caovilla recently opened a flagship store in Hong Kong, inside the prestigious Harbour City Mall, and on February 20 opened a pop-up store in Bangkok at the Central Embassy, Thailand’s premier luxury shopping destination, adding to the store already active in the city’s Central Chidlom district. The brand also has set its sights on other South-East Asian countries which have shown an interest in its products, like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
In 2024, René Caovilla performed very positively in the e-tail channel, which posted a 33% revenue growth over 2023 and accounted for 12% of total revenue.
At the recently concluded Milan Fashion Week Women, the brand presented its new collection, ‘The Golden Era’, with golden details centre-stage. The label’s iconic Cleo model features in a version enhanced by a golden pattern inspired by couture ateliers, as do the two new ballet flats, and the mule and slingback models, enriched with a motif made with hand-set crystals, in a nod to exotic destinations.
René Caovilla, Fall/Winter 2025-26
The collection also includes the Full Crystals series, consisting of slingbacks, Mary Janes with a Parisian vibe, boots, ballet flats and kitten-heels models, characterised by cascades of small crystals and featuring mini and split buckles, pointed toes, serpent decorations and directional sparkling details.
The Wave series is inspired by sinuous wave-like elements enveloping the foot and ankle. Slingbacks and stiletto-heeled booties are presented in soft pastel colours and decorated with a row of black crystals, and are available also in dark-brown suede or in black with tone-on-tone crystals.
A novelty for Fall/Winter 2025-26 is Spark, a new serpent element wrapped around the ankle in a spiral of glittering crystals. It is used to embellish sandals in purple, orange and grey metallic fabrics, or in blue, purple and raspberry-coloured velvet, as well as bold knee-high and ankle boots in black stretch Nappa leather.
Two signature René Caovilla models are back in the collection, the Chandelier and Margot sandals, featured in bright hues like raspberry, purple, orange, teal and amber, as well as in classic dark grey. Braid, a model launched in Spring 2025 and characterised by a double braid element, is also included in the collection, in seasonal hues and new silhouettes: two mule versions, pointed-toe models, models with ankle serpents, and flip flops with chunky heels. Finally, the bridal collection introduces the new Dalilah model, featuring a T-shaped cross-over on the front of the foot, an ankle strap and white crystals.
René Caovilla, Fall/Winter 2025-26
For the season, the label is also introducing a capsule collection of mini handbags: The little Bucket Bag with all-over rhinestones in orange and gold, also available in black velvet; the Wave clutch-bag, in light pink satin, or in black with all-over rhinestones, and in a velvet version trimmed with black rhinestones, featuring a Serpent bracelet for attaching it to the wrist; and a black mini-trunk with allover rhinestones and a serpent-shaped handle.
Alpargatas, the Brazilian company behind the iconic flip-flop brand Havaianas, bounced back into the black in 2024, posting a net profit of 107.4 million Brazilian reals (€17.7 million), according to a statement released last Monday.
Havaianas’ parent company returns to profit with €17.7 million in earnings for 2024. – Havaianas
This result sharply contrasts the 1.87 billion Brazilian reals (€309 million) loss recorded by the group in 2023, according to financial statements submitted to the São Paulo Stock Exchange. In the fourth quarter of last year, Alpargatas posted a net profit of 2.1 million Brazilian reals (€350,000).
The company’s annual net revenue reached 4.11 billion Brazilian reals (€679.71 million), a 10% increase from 2023. This double-digit growth was largely driven by the strong commercial performance of Havaianas and the “normalization process of sales volume,” according to the financial report. The group recorded 3.1 billion reals in sales within Brazil. In 2024, Alpargatas sold 226.6 million pairs of Havaianas, a 9.5% increase from 2023. Of these, 204.4 million pairs were sold in Brazil, while 22.2 million were sold internationally, though overseas sales declined by 3.1%.
In the fourth quarter, Havaianas sales rose by 4% compared to the same period in 2023. Alpargatas’ EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) also returned to positive territory, reaching 280 million Brazilian reals (€46 million) in 2024. However, in the final three months of the year (October to December), the company’s EBITDA slipped into the red, posting a 1.8 million reals (€300,000) loss, representing a 99.8% decrease in losses compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Alpargatas owns Havaianas and Ioasys, an innovation and technology company, and holds a 49% stake in Rothy’s, a North American sustainable footwear brand. According to company data, its products are sold in over 130 countries, and the group operates directly in more than 20 markets.