Rapha has made a major step forward with its international ambitions, unveiling its debut collection for the USA Cycling team. The high-profile London-based performance wear specialist said the association “ushers in a new era for American cycling”. It’s also a timely move, given the US will be staging the next summer Olympic Games in 2028.
Rapha
Rapha said it will be outfitting the USA’s “most talented athletes” through to the end of 2029, “bringing its signature style and panache to the ultimate stage for the sport”.
It also sees the team partnership taking Rapha into new disciplines such as Track, BMX Racing, and BMX Freestyle.
The debut collection draws inspiration from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, “a watershed moment for American cycling” when the home nation took nine medals.
Blending elements from the Stars and Stripes with a ‘Lightspeed’ pattern (on the front and back of the jerseys) is central to the designs with the latter “adding to a long tradition of using patterns to express motion and speed in sportswear”. Stripes are also an integral part of both Rapha’s design heritage and the history of cycling apparel, the brand noted. The kit’s lighter colouring ensures suitability to hot conditions.
The designs also incorporate a collegiate-style typeface, characteristic of American sports, accented with a stripe.
The jersey’s sleeves also feature star and stripe detailing, with the left arm showcasing the navy Rapha armband and script logo. The bib shorts contrast white striped stars and USA graphics with a navy base, designed to contour to the body and enhance the feeling of speed.
With story labels a long-standing Rapha tradition, such details are also inscribed inside of the garments with the collection featuring five unique story labels “celebrating the full range of USA Cycling disciplines”.
Of course, seeing as American interest in cycling “is at an all-time high”, with 112 million people there riding bikes in 2024, according to PeopleForBikes, replica kit and a range of merchandise will be available next month.
Rapha CEO Fran Millar, said: “This kit represents over a decade of world-class competition and innovation. We’ve left no stone unturned so that when USA Cycling athletes show up for their country, they can stand on the start line with total confidence.
“The starting pistol for LA has been fired and there is nothing more powerful for a sport than a home Games. The energy, the expectation, the history – Rapha will support American cycling to seize the opportunity with both hands.”
In November, Rapha also “marked a major milestone” by opening its first ‘Clubhouse’ in mainland China. Located on Donghu Road in the heart of Shanghai’s historic Hengshan-Fuxing Road Cultural Area, it said the new space becomes a “purposeful commitment to one of the fastest-growing cycling communities in the world”.
Milan Fashion Week’s menswear season kicked off Friday afternoon with a grand show and ground-breaking collection from a powerhouse brand- Zegna. Presented inside Palazzo del Ghiaccio, a giant, all-white ice-skating rink in east Milan, redesigned like a giant gentleman’s dressing room, where the cast walked out of huge closet doors.
Creative director Alessandro Sartori’s take on Zegna’s brand heritage – FashionNetwork.com
Creative director Alessandro Sartori played with the house’s codes of refined elegance, even as he subverted them- with tailoring innovations and novel materials. Like his brilliant new Horizontal Three jacket, a snug double-breasted blazer, with a hidden third button that can be used to expand the garment into a far looser silhouette.
In terms of fabrics, Alessandro dreamed up a new blend of cashmere and paper- seen in check cardigan jackets. Devoid of interior pockets and with an unexpected hand, they hung perfectly.
The show invitation was a playing card, revealing the collection’s title- Memorie. A riff on the deep history of the brand, which has just named brothers from its fourth generation– Edoardo and Angelo– as new co-CEOs, 115 years after the label was founded in Trivero, Italy. This also referenced Alessandro Sartori’s own memories of his father, who died when he was a young boy.
Monochrome layers at Zegna – FashionNetwork.com
“One of my strongest emotions was my dad putting on a suit or jacket. When I later found photos of him, I rediscovered my father through his clothes,” explained a wistful Sartori.
The show was also the latest example of smart storytelling by this designer, who presented an early 1930s suit made for founder Ermenegildo Zegna in an Australian wool fabric woven at his own mill. Encased in a museum glass box at the entrance to the show, with a sign that read: Abito 1– or ‘First Suit.’
Staged on a classically cloudy January in Lombardy when a chill humidity seeps down from the nearby Alps, the collection looked ideal for the conditions. Notably, a beautiful series of Donegal tweed style speckled beige and brown suits. Worn with fine wool shirts finished with leather buttons.
No other major Italian tailoring brand has been as courageous as Zegna in pivoting an historically business suits-driven business into the new era of casual luxury. A key reason it could do so is the talent of its creative director Alessandro Sartori.
Zegna’s latest suits – FashionNetwork.com
That said, he produced multiple modernist suits in wide yet subtle stripes, cut with large, notched lapels. And showed multiple great coats with forgivingly softer shoulders. Natty yet always noble and worn on a cast of multiple generations, parading around the carpeted floor.
Backed up by a soundtrack that blended Nick Cave’s Into My Arms with Max Richter’s In The Garden, this was as polished a fashion statement as one could imagine. As Sartori kept stretching the Zegna DNA without ever snapping it.
“I am the custodian of the Zegna family wardrobe,” smiled Alessandro post-show. Before- for his next trick- trying on a Horizontal Three to show how the technique worked to much applause.
Italian menswear label Mulish is thriving. Owned by the eponymous company and based in Campania, Mulish staged an event during the Pitti Uomo 109 show in Piazza degli Strozzi in Florence, to assert its premier role in the contemporary menswear scene.
Mulish, Fall/Winter 2026-27
“We’re a company that has been in business for nearly 30 years, we’re well established in Italy, and we have a know-how deriving from years of experience in garment-making and men’s tailoring. We grew significantly in 2025, in Italy and especially abroad,” said Diego Di Flora, speaking to FashionNetwork.com at the Florentine event.
Di Flora is the creative director of Mulish and now also of the company’s other label, Bharnaba. “We’re very well-known on several foreign markets, thanks also to campaigns featuring VIP brand ambassadors like [football manager] Luciano Spalletti and [actor] Raul Bova. Retail-wise, we don’t operate monobrand stores, working instead with wholesale distributors. Mulish currently has over 100 wholesale clients, in Italy and abroad. We recorded double-digit revenue growth in 2025, and we’d managed to grow even during the Covid period. At that time, we launched a women’s line for a season, an experiment that was a great success,” said Di Flora.
Mulish now produces menswear only, and the hero product of its Fall/Winter 2026-27 collection is the Field Jacket. “We began with men’s outerwear, our main expertise is in that category. Womenswear requires a more varied, extensive range of garments, so we decided to refocus on our primary know-how,” said Di Flora.
Mulish, Fall/Winter 2026-27
Mulish still generates 70% of its revenue in Italy (“40% in Northern Italy, where, weirdly, we’re selling more than in the South,” said Di Flora). The company, whose labels are positioned in the ‘affordable quiet luxury’ segment, is now keen to export a larger volume of its Italy-produced, Neapolitan-style men’s tailoring collections overseas. “We’re already present throughout Europe, and we’re considering entering South Korea within a couple of years,” said Di Flora.
Mulish has expanded its occasionwear range, a segment “that is selling very well, especially [outfits] for bridegrooms,” according to Di Flora.
Bharnaba, Fall/Winter 2026-27
Mulish has 30 direct employees and a network of 400 collaborators. The company runs another label, Bharnaba, which exhibited at Pitti Uomo for the first time in the show’s January 2026 edition.
“It’s a Mulish-style label, but with a younger vibe,” said Di Flora. “Prominent in [Bharnaba’s] Fall/Winter 2026-27 collection are deconstructed jackets, tailored coats and double-breasted jackets. At the show, we launched the Bharnaba safari jacket, while the trousers, previously styled with a classic drainpipe cut, now feature darts and softer, more generous lines,” he added.
Bharnaba, Fall/Winter 2026-27
“[Bharnaba] was created in 2021, and is growing much faster than Mulish, thanks to a young audience that appreciates its style. The label’s signature garments are constantly reinterpreted with well-balanced volumes, new sartorial constructions and painstaking attention to detail. For example, we lightened up the structure of double-breasted jackets, giving them a more fluid fit, while Bharnaba coats are distinctive for their clean lines, refined materials and a perfect balance between meticulous design and a contemporary mood,” concluded Di Flora.
UK sustainable fashion footwear brand Heavenly Feet has taken a major step forward in expanding its retail network via deals with fashion retailer Joe Browns and digital giant Amazon’s retail platform.
Heavenly Feet
The brand said the new women’s footwear tie-ups will take its total independent and national retail partners to more than 400 across the country.
It said the expansion “represents a key step in Heavenly Feet’s growth strategy and its mission to offer stylish, comfortable and affordable footwear for women”.
Ken Gray, director at Heavenly Feet, told the businessdesk.com: “Since its launch more than 20 years ago, building a diverse and resilient stockist network has been central to Heavenly Feet’s long-term strategy. Working closely with trusted retail partners has allowed the brand to grow sustainably while reaching customers in the places they already love to shop.”
He added: “The partnerships with our new retailers follows a period of strong momentum for the business, including the opening of our first bricks-and-mortar store last year and the launch of our exclusive wide and curvy fit range [last] summer.
“[As these] new partnerships form part of the brand’s ongoing strategy to strengthen its presence both online and through independent retailers nationwide, we [plan to] continue to… work alongside even more retailers in 2026 and beyond.”