As expected, Shein‘s representatives failed to appear. On Tuesday the e-commerce platform refused to attend a hearing before a committee of the French National Assembly. The company, whose global headquarters is based in Singapore, had said it would not appear until the court had ruled on its suspension, and will consequently be referred to the public prosecutor.
Shein display at the BHV Marais – STEPHANE OUZOUNOFF / HANS LUCAS / AFP
The potential penalty is minimal: a €7,500 fine. But it is “symbolic” in light of the fast-fashion brand’s “disrespectful” attitude, says Renaissance MP Sandrine Le Feur, chair of the National Assembly’s Committee on Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning, before which the company had been summoned.
Shein has already been fined three times in France this year, totalling €191 million, notably for false promotions and misleading information.
Last week, the Asian group requested a further postponement of the hearing, arguing that it wished first to await the Paris Judicial Court’s decision on its suspension, sought by the state because of the banned products it had been selling.
Following the discovery at the end of October of child-like sex dolls and Category A weapons on sale, Shein was summoned for the first time on November 18 to appear before the Assembly’s fact-finding mission on checks of products imported into France.
The Sustainable Development Committee then took over, summoning Shein on November 26 and again on December 2. Each time, Shein requested a postponement due to the legal proceedings initiated by the government.
No excuse
“MPs respect ongoing investigations and the separation of powers, and so this inquiry is absolutely no excuse,” said Sandrine Le Feur. “Shocked” by Shein’s “three refusals,” she explained that referring the matter to the public prosecutor was “a first” for a standing committee of the Assembly. The referral is due to be made on Tuesday evening, Ms Le Feur’s office told AFP.
In her view, Shein’s behaviour is “not acceptable.” She is particularly outraged by the Asian group’s request for a “preliminary interview(…) to ensure that the hearing takes place properly.”
Shein has taken “note” of the referral, and “reaffirms its willingness to participate in the work” of the committee, the company said in a statement sent to AFP. “We consider that any contribution must be made with due respect for the ongoing legal proceedings and once the expected decision of the judicial court has been handed down,” Shein reiterated.
A cross-party motion for a European resolution will also be submitted to the Assembly’s European Affairs Committee on Wednesday, to alert Brussels and call for the suspension of the platform at EU level. On Wednesday December 10, the excesses of e-commerce platforms will again be on the parliamentary agenda, with the presentation of the report by the fact-finding mission on checks on imported products.
Before that, Shein will be in court on Friday. The state will request a three-month suspension of the site and a reopening subject to conditions, under the supervision of Arcom, the digital regulator. The Paris public prosecutor’s office indicated last week that a three-month blocking order could be considered disproportionate in light of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Faced with a first attempt at suspension in early November, the group withdrew the offending products and suspended all sales made on its French site by third-party sellers, its “marketplace,” as well as all non-clothing sales.
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The world’s largest fashion retailer staged a stock-market comeback this week as Inditex SA’s push to differentiate itself from fierce ultra-low-price competition shows signs of bearing fruit.
Inside a Zara store – Zara
The owner of Zara, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti has seen its shares jump 14%, putting them on track for their best week in five years. Strong third-quarter results, coupled with accelerating November sales, were seen as evidence of the company’s resilience against weaker consumer sentiment.
This week’s surge put the stock on course for an annual gain, after what had previously looked like a lacklustre 2025. Inditex- whose second-largest market is the US- had been punished for its exposure to tariffs and a weaker greenback, amid concerns about softening consumer demand and intensifying competition from Chinese fast-fashion firms.
While its 10% rise this year trails the 50% jump for UK retailer Next Plc and the 19% gain at Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz AB, Inditex is now outperforming the broader European retail sector. Analysts have welcomed the firm’s push to steer its Zara and Massimo Dutti brands further into the premium segment as it seeks to outmuscle competitors such as Shein and Temu. “The strategy is not to chase ultra-low prices, but to deliver premium-looking products at a good-value price point,” Alphavalue analyst Jie Zhang wrote in a note.
After this week’s rally, Inditex is trading at a substantially higher valuation than peers at 26 times forward earnings- on par with luxury behemoth LVMH. The firm’s strong third-quarter earnings reinforce “the quality of the business and will make investors question whether the right peer group for this company is luxury rather than retail in our view,” said Deutsche Bank AG analyst Adam Cochrane.
Inditex’s latest trading update spurred upward earnings revisions and price target upgrades, with more bullishness among brokers likely to follow, as the current consensus 12-month forward price target doesn’t leave any room for further upside. “These growth levels should provide reassurance of the continued opportunity for outperformance, including into 2026,” said JPMorgan & Chase Co. analyst Georgina Johanan.
A partnership between Agromethod Labs and CITEVE is advancing hydroponic cotton cultivation, a project that could make Portugal the only country in Europe to host the entire cotton value chain, from fibre to clothing.
Agromethod Labs was founded earlier this year with the mission of developing more sustainable, future-oriented agricultural solutions. Its founder, Raquel Maria, a chemist by training with a long track record in academic research, explains that the impetus to create thestart-upstemmed from a personal concern.
“Academia allows us to change the world on a small scale. I felt it was time to bring that knowledge into the real world and have a greater impact on future generations,” she told Portugal Têxtil.
Although Agromethod Labs works across several fields, cotton quickly stood out, building on previous research, notably by researcher Filipe Natálio, currently at the Applied Biomolecular Sciences Unit (UCIBIO) of the School of Science and Technology at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA FCT). “But we want to continue working on other types of crops and other seeds. Agromethod Labs is bigger than cotton,” she says.
Approaching CITEVE marked a turning point. According to the founder, the hydroponic cotton project “was very much on paper” and required initial investment and a solid technological partner. “CITEVE was decisive. It came along at the right time and finally gave us the opportunity to get started with something that we had already thought about extensively, but which was not yet in a position to move forward,” she says.
The collaboration has made it possible to implement a functional mini pilot, already with measurable results, and to prepare the next phase: a larger-scale pilot that will incorporate vertical farming to maximise the production area.
Advantages and challenges
Hydroponic cultivation offers significant advantages, notes Raquel Maria. “We can grow anywhere in the world, without reliance on sunlight and without geographical limitations,” she explains. It also enables continuous production. “We are no longer limited to a single annual harvest. We can get three or four harvests a year,” she says.
Early results also show improvements in the fibre. “We have obtained cotton with better mechanical properties and greater whiteness, which can reduce some stages in textile processing,” says Raquel Maria.
Even so, the founder of Agromethod Labs recognises that there are challenges, particularly in terms of costs, since this cultivation technique is more expensive. However, incorporating vertical farming in the new pilot could help. “If we double the production area, we can get closer to the economic viability we want,” she believes. Considering the higher costs and added value of the fibre, the raw material produced “in the initial phase will be directed to specialised markets,” she says.
The small-scale production carried out in a room at CITEVE has already made it possible to produce yarn from hydroponic cotton. The next symbolic goal will be “to make a T-shirt and be able to say that it was made with cotton produced in Portugal would be wonderful,” confesses Raquel Maria.
With expansion planned for the next six months, the aim will be to significantly increase production and take an important step closer to the market. According to the founder of Agromethod Labs, the Portuguese textile industry has already started to show enthusiasm. “There have been several expressions of interest. We are completely open to collaborating with Portuguese companies,” she says.
However, the ambition goes beyond fibre production. “Portugal could be the only country in Europe to have the entire value chain- from raw material to end product- in a single territory. That would be a milestone for the country,” concludes Raquel Maria.
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Dancing in the Clouds: the 2026 colour designated by the Pantone Color Institute is Pantone 11-4201 Cloud Dancer: “A neutral shade of white that fosters calm, clarity, and a creative breathing space in a world full of noise.”
Pantone 2026
Pantone’s website crashed as the countdown ended, while the announcement on social media showed a woman dressed in white, gazing dreamily at a cloud-filled sky.
Since 1999, beginning with Cerulean Blue, Pantone’s global experts have been naming the Color of the Year, the shade they believe will become prevalent across fashion, food, design, and entertainment; in 2026, that mantle falls to Cloud Dancer.
Cloud Dancer is a blank canvas on which to begin anew, explained Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute: “An invitation to open new paths and new ways of thinking.”
The mood is clearly one of serenity and an invitation to open new chapters; the election in New York of the young mayor Zohran Mamdani could be an example of this new philosophy. And yet, given the recent political climate in the US under Donald Trump, some, such as New York Times fashion editor Vanessa Friedman, have raised the possibility of MAGA and anti-DEI instrumentalisation, since the white of 2026 has ‘wiped out’ the 2025 colour, Mocha Mousse, a light brown between cappuccino and chocolate.
“Skin tones did not influence this at all,” Laurie Pressman, president of the Pantone Institute, was quick to point out, noting that Pantone has already received similar questions about other recent choices. “With Peach Fuzz in 2024 and then with Mocha Mousse 2025, we were asked whether the choice had anything to do with race or ethnicity. That’s not how it works. We try to understand what people are looking for and which colour can hopefully provide an answer.” And so Pressman invites us to look beyond metaphors: “It’s a softer white,” she said, describing the hue. “It isn’t a pure white, it isn’t a technical white, it isn’t that optically very bright white that, if we think back to the post-Covid period, people were seeking. This is deliberately an unbleached white, a very natural-looking white.”
Meanwhile, the launch of Cloud Dancer has attracted a host of brands eager to keep pace: Hasbro’s Play-Doh has created a tub of Play-Doh in this hue, while Post-it has released pads in the same shade as part of its Neutrality Collection; and the Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel chain will centre its afternoon tea and spa experiences on this minimalist colour. Spotify has also come on board, in its first collaboration with Pantone, creating a multisensory experience that translates “the emotion of colour” into sound through personalised playlists.
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Politics8 years ago